Post by Bobby Drake on Sept 3, 2006 22:29:12 GMT
"That's more like it, Dalton!" Bobby shouts as he builds up speed on his ice-slick. If anything, Josh is outstripping him once he gets the hang of slip-sliding like this, though Bobby is making up the time on turns.
They barely even slow down as they take out the sentries along the path... troopers, automated weapons, it just doesn't matter. Clearing the way is a bit tedious, but not really a challenge for the two of them together, not at the speed they're moving.
And finally they're at the entry lobby. As the outer door approaches, Bobby takes a deep breath and gets ready to freeze it brittle enough to smash through, when --
> "Bobby, jump!"
Bobby has no idea what Josh has in mind, but that definitely sounds more like confidence than fear, so he goes along. The door is blasted open as he and Josh soar through the air... it doesn't feel quite like jumping, more like he's being carried, which is kinda neat. They land on the door and it goes skidding across the snow-covered courtyard.
"And the Russian gives him an 8.9! Nice move, Josh!" It's almost a pity the Blackbird is so close... if this were an action movie, it would be a mile away and they'd have to snowboard on the door along the hills to get to it, with enemy soldiers on skis and maybe an implausible avalanche. But weird as Storm is about her sims, she does try for realism, Bobby will give her that much... the Blackbird is exactly where it should be, not too far from the entrance.
He can also make out, just barely, a black shape behind a snowdrift further away. Stryker's helicopter, of course. And, of course, there are the cracks in the dam. He knows they're in the final stage of the sim, and seconds count now, and he absolutely has to keep his head in the game... but still he hesitates.
Sure, it's not real. But it feels real, and he can't stand the idea of abandoning John again. He's done it too many times for what always seem like good reasons, and they probably are good reasons, but it keeps turning him into the sort of guy who abandons his friends, and he hates that.
Can he get away with leaving Josh here and snowboarding over to the helicopter? It wouldn't take that long, and he could claim he was saving Stryker from the dam: a good, solid, X-Man type motive that doesn't require any foreknowledge of the scenario.
But hell, would John even be there? Storm might not have bothered programming him in. God knows nobody gave John much thought after they got home... everybody too busy mourning Jean, and Bobby too busy not-talking to his family... so why would they worry about him now?
And even if he was there (and the reasonable part of his mind was insisting that he would be, because while Pyro might not have been Storm's favorite mutant, he was still one of hers and that meant something to her, just like it did to him), Magneto would be there too. And there was no way Bobby was going to win going up against that guy, before the Cure. So even if he made it to the helicopter, what was he going to do?
You could come with us, Iceman. Take your rightful place among the new gods. Remain by the side of your brother-in-arms, where you belong.
Bobby freezes. He recognizes the voice as Magneto's but has no idea where it came from... his own fucked-up head? The Danger Room sonics doing some kind of private-message bone-conduction thing? Sheppard? Hell, for all Bobby knows, Magneto's hired a telepath-conduit and the offer is legit.
Come on, Drake... are you really gonna stay an X-Loser all your life? Even you aren't that naive. It's Pyro's voice, not John's, and Bobby isn't sure how he knows that but there's no mistaking one for the other, and now he just doesn't care where it's coming from, he just wants it to stop.
But it's like a song in his head he can't get rid of. Because he could have gone with them, and he's pretty sure Alcatraz would have gone differently if he had. And... then what?
And he could go with them now. And then what?
Who knew?
The Danger Room isn't a time-machine, he realizes... but it doesn't have to be, when the same choices keep coming around again and again. And it occurs to him that he might have been right the first time... maybe Storm does know, and maybe this scenario is as much for him as it is for Josh.
He could join them. But of course, that would mean leaving Josh here to deal with the catastrophe. He and Jean together could deal with it... but was Jean even going to be there? Or was Josh supposed to sacrifice himself to win this scenario?
He doesn't know how he knows, and maybe he's wrong, but suddenly he's certain that that's exactly what Storm has in mind, and if he leaves Josh on his own, that's exactly what's going to happen. Assuming Josh doesn't follow him, which he was just dumb enough to do, in which case sim-Jean probably would die, and Josh would go on blaming himself for it.
Screw that.
"You hear that?!? NO! NOT then, NOT now, NOT tomorrow, NO!!!" The words are ripped out of his throat, and he knows that's dumb -- if the voices really are just in his head, he's just given Storm another nail to drive into his coffin.
And it doesn't matter, because this is suddenly more than a game.
"Come on, Josh, you're the pilot-wannabe, right? You must know how to start those engines up. Get in there and do your stuff!"
On one level, Bobby knows that's absurd... the engines won't start, getting Josh in the plane will just slow him down, and seconds matter. But if this were real they wouldn't know that, and suddenly it's important that this be real.
The rest of the X-crew comes down the hall, including Bobby-prime himself. The cracks in the dam grow longer.
And Bobby still isn't sure what he can do to prevent it, but the day when the Iceman can't handle a few hundred tons of water (thousand? million? Bobby has no idea and that isn't the point anyway) is the day the Drake family mutant hangs up the black leather trunks.
"Bring it on," he murmurs quietly, and gets ready.
They barely even slow down as they take out the sentries along the path... troopers, automated weapons, it just doesn't matter. Clearing the way is a bit tedious, but not really a challenge for the two of them together, not at the speed they're moving.
And finally they're at the entry lobby. As the outer door approaches, Bobby takes a deep breath and gets ready to freeze it brittle enough to smash through, when --
> "Bobby, jump!"
Bobby has no idea what Josh has in mind, but that definitely sounds more like confidence than fear, so he goes along. The door is blasted open as he and Josh soar through the air... it doesn't feel quite like jumping, more like he's being carried, which is kinda neat. They land on the door and it goes skidding across the snow-covered courtyard.
"And the Russian gives him an 8.9! Nice move, Josh!" It's almost a pity the Blackbird is so close... if this were an action movie, it would be a mile away and they'd have to snowboard on the door along the hills to get to it, with enemy soldiers on skis and maybe an implausible avalanche. But weird as Storm is about her sims, she does try for realism, Bobby will give her that much... the Blackbird is exactly where it should be, not too far from the entrance.
He can also make out, just barely, a black shape behind a snowdrift further away. Stryker's helicopter, of course. And, of course, there are the cracks in the dam. He knows they're in the final stage of the sim, and seconds count now, and he absolutely has to keep his head in the game... but still he hesitates.
Sure, it's not real. But it feels real, and he can't stand the idea of abandoning John again. He's done it too many times for what always seem like good reasons, and they probably are good reasons, but it keeps turning him into the sort of guy who abandons his friends, and he hates that.
Can he get away with leaving Josh here and snowboarding over to the helicopter? It wouldn't take that long, and he could claim he was saving Stryker from the dam: a good, solid, X-Man type motive that doesn't require any foreknowledge of the scenario.
But hell, would John even be there? Storm might not have bothered programming him in. God knows nobody gave John much thought after they got home... everybody too busy mourning Jean, and Bobby too busy not-talking to his family... so why would they worry about him now?
And even if he was there (and the reasonable part of his mind was insisting that he would be, because while Pyro might not have been Storm's favorite mutant, he was still one of hers and that meant something to her, just like it did to him), Magneto would be there too. And there was no way Bobby was going to win going up against that guy, before the Cure. So even if he made it to the helicopter, what was he going to do?
You could come with us, Iceman. Take your rightful place among the new gods. Remain by the side of your brother-in-arms, where you belong.
Bobby freezes. He recognizes the voice as Magneto's but has no idea where it came from... his own fucked-up head? The Danger Room sonics doing some kind of private-message bone-conduction thing? Sheppard? Hell, for all Bobby knows, Magneto's hired a telepath-conduit and the offer is legit.
Come on, Drake... are you really gonna stay an X-Loser all your life? Even you aren't that naive. It's Pyro's voice, not John's, and Bobby isn't sure how he knows that but there's no mistaking one for the other, and now he just doesn't care where it's coming from, he just wants it to stop.
But it's like a song in his head he can't get rid of. Because he could have gone with them, and he's pretty sure Alcatraz would have gone differently if he had. And... then what?
And he could go with them now. And then what?
Who knew?
The Danger Room isn't a time-machine, he realizes... but it doesn't have to be, when the same choices keep coming around again and again. And it occurs to him that he might have been right the first time... maybe Storm does know, and maybe this scenario is as much for him as it is for Josh.
He could join them. But of course, that would mean leaving Josh here to deal with the catastrophe. He and Jean together could deal with it... but was Jean even going to be there? Or was Josh supposed to sacrifice himself to win this scenario?
He doesn't know how he knows, and maybe he's wrong, but suddenly he's certain that that's exactly what Storm has in mind, and if he leaves Josh on his own, that's exactly what's going to happen. Assuming Josh doesn't follow him, which he was just dumb enough to do, in which case sim-Jean probably would die, and Josh would go on blaming himself for it.
Screw that.
"You hear that?!? NO! NOT then, NOT now, NOT tomorrow, NO!!!" The words are ripped out of his throat, and he knows that's dumb -- if the voices really are just in his head, he's just given Storm another nail to drive into his coffin.
And it doesn't matter, because this is suddenly more than a game.
"Come on, Josh, you're the pilot-wannabe, right? You must know how to start those engines up. Get in there and do your stuff!"
On one level, Bobby knows that's absurd... the engines won't start, getting Josh in the plane will just slow him down, and seconds matter. But if this were real they wouldn't know that, and suddenly it's important that this be real.
The rest of the X-crew comes down the hall, including Bobby-prime himself. The cracks in the dam grow longer.
And Bobby still isn't sure what he can do to prevent it, but the day when the Iceman can't handle a few hundred tons of water (thousand? million? Bobby has no idea and that isn't the point anyway) is the day the Drake family mutant hangs up the black leather trunks.
"Bring it on," he murmurs quietly, and gets ready.
