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Post by Bobby Drake on Aug 15, 2006 22:01:03 GMT
He crouches in the shadow of a decrepit old satellite dish on the roof and "watches" the soldiers patrolling the street. He can probably talk them out of shooting him if they spot him, but that would blow the mission for sure. So he can't let them spot him.
Unfortunately, they've parked themselves in front of the only entrance marked on his map, lounging around so as not to call attention to it. So, either he goes in blind looking for a back way, or he goes through the guards somehow.
Better the devil you know than the devil you don't, he figures. But attacking the guards is risky, too... he can probably take them down before they get a shot off or can trip an alarm, but someone else might spot him, or them, before he's completed his mission. So he needs a distraction.
Well, that part's easy. Across the street, a defunct sign hangs from the side of a long-abandoned storefront. He can't tell what it used to say, but that hardly matters... it looks heavy and the cables suspending it are old and metal. He sucks the heat out of them with a thought, then rushes to the other side of the roof. Concentrates again, and a thin icepole stretches up from the ground to reach him. He slides down it quietly, sneaks around the corner, and waits.
It doesn't take more than a few minutes for the weakened cables to start groaning. The sign crashes down a moment later, and Bobby takes the opportunity to thermal-shock the remaining windows on the building, just to add to the fun. The guards' attention is riveted by the sign and the exploding glass as Bobby moves towards them, carefully keeping his body temperature within 5 degrees of the air's to avoid showing up on their IR-sensors. Which gives him another idea... he thinks about a space about the size and shape of a large vehicle, just out of the guards' line of sight, then drops the temperature of the air around that space by that same all-important 5 degrees. One guard notices and points, further distracting their attention as Bobby slips behind them through the doorway.
OK. That's step 1.
((to be continued))
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Post by Bobby Drake on Aug 16, 2006 3:51:55 GMT
The hallway looks like every other hallway in the building, but Bobby's map says it's lined with IR sensors and motion sensors and pressure detectors, oh my! No problem. He's practiced this part.
The room temperature plunges, and his body temperature plunges along with it. A sheet of ice forms on the walls and ceiling, and as a platform a few inches over the floor braced against the wall. He takes care to do this part slowly enough that the ice doesn't set off the motion detectors. Once they are all sealed away, he skates over the platform to the far door.
It's locked, of course, and the lock is probably alarmed as well, but the metal door isn't particularly heavily armored. Good. He builds up the ice-coating on his right fist, then focuses his attention on a roughly two-foot-diameter circle near the center of the door, bringing its temperature down to near absolute zero. When it's gotten as brittle as he can get it, he punches hard with his built-up first, feeling both the ice and the brittle door segment shatter, and dives through the hole into the next room.
Two guards. Normals. Assault rifles. Ready. Pointed at him. Crap. Took too long with the door. Should've just iced up the lock and taken his chances. Both guns go off, the bullets bouncing off his armor, the impact knocking him off his feet. Logan's combat lessons kick in and he rolls back up quickly, spraying the guards with ice, freezing them where they stand.
"Damn, damn, damn, damn!" So much for stealth. Now it's time for speed. He lets the soles of his 'feet' go slippery as he speedskates down the hall towards his target.
((to be continued))
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Post by Bobby Drake on Aug 17, 2006 19:56:30 GMT
((OOC: Final piece. This was mostly for my own self-indulgence but anyone who wants to join in somehow, that'd be great.))
He reaches the lab door unobstructed... not sure how long they've had to prepare, though. It feels like hours since the gunfire but it's probably more like ten seconds, adrenalin is like that and he doesn't really know how fast he's moving... it's just a question of keeping his feet and not crashing into anything.
He's not doing such a great job with that last part, actually... the ice-armor helps, but between the bullets and the way he's caromming off the walls he'll be black-and-blue over half his body come morning... not to mention the pain in his side that means he maybe cracked a couple of ribs.
Worry about that later. Mission comes first.
He doesn't even slow down as he approaches the far door, just stretches out his arms and forms a battering ram in front of him. The door is stronger than he'd expected, and he really hopes the splintering sound as the butt of the battering ram smashes into his chest is ice, and not more ribs, though he's too high on endorphins to be sure. Anyway, the door crashes open before he reaches it, which is all that matters, and he skids to a halt inside, ready for an attack, which doesn't come.
Typical B-movie set... Bobby isn't sure if whoever programmed the simulation was unimaginative, or if that's really what mad scientists' laboratories look like. Doesn't matter.
Bad-guy bolting through the far door, check, worry about him later.
Three, five, seven - no, eight - people strapped to beds. Alive... or at least still warm. Unconscious. Sedated? Probably. Machinery humming. Blade spinning there... laser torch warming up there... Crap! He can't rescue all of them at once... What's he supposed to do?!?
He's pretty sure he panics, then. Freezes up, if he's allowed to use that phrase. His next move just happens without conscious thought. The room temperature drops.
And drops.
And drops.
Some kind of security devices kick in but never quite activate.
The medical machinery grinds to a halt.
The people on the beds go into cryostasis.
Mission accomplished!
He doesn't notice. Or doesn't care. It's hard to tell which, even for him. Maybe it's the adrenalin rush... maybe it's just his powers getting stronger... maybe it's something else, Bobby isn't sure, but he knows it's never been like this before. He can feel every calorie travelling through his cryokinetic field to... well, to wherever it goes, nobody's ever been able to explain that to him. It's a nice feeling, like eating chocolates in front of the TV, or jerking off in a warm shower, but better. A lot better.
The temperature keeps dropping. The Danger Room holographic subsystems go superconductive, the lab disappears, replaced by an empty grid. Bobby doesn't notice. He's not really seeing the room, anymore, just feeling its remaining dregs of heat, reaching out to lick the space clean of them. It's not even effort anymore, really... he feels like he could keep this up all day. In fact, it might be fun.
Outside the Danger Room, it's not quite so much fun. Control and monitoring systems start shorting out from destructive feedback with the superconducting subsystems. Temperature readouts stop displaying numbers, flash error messages indicating that the signals they are getting make no sense.
Storm's eyes widen, then glow white, as she realizes this has turned from a training exercise to grade into an actual crisis. Usually her concern is to protect the students from the Danger Room, but today it's the other way around. She uses her powers to warm the air in the Danger Room, and the systems stabilize... but it's just a stopgap measure.
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Post by Josh Dalton Worthington on Aug 30, 2006 1:30:30 GMT
Josh taps on the Danger Room Control doors, wishing whoever was in there would hurry it up a bit. They're cutting into his scheduled time.
The doors slide open, and a flustered-looking Storm looms up on Josh. "Ms. Munroe! I didn't know you were in here working on a program. Sorry for the interruption." Josh opens his hands, but hopes that she's going to be on her way soon.
"Josh, if your roommate keeps draining all the heat from the Danger Room, both of us are probably going to die when the equipment explodes." Her eyes are white, a sign she's using her powers. "I need you to get down there and get him to settle down while I keep things from falling apart up here." She turns on a heeled boot, outstretching her hands as she walks back to the viewing window.
Josh scrambles for the entry door and hits it open. The scene appears to be some kind of research station. He's outside it, and sets off running towards the entrance. As he hurtles down an alleyway, he notices a ladder.
Maybe I can cut through some of this if I take the roof. Josh fixes Bobby's position in his head via telepathy, and makes his way across the rooftops.
He's finally on top of the right building, and finds a small roof access. Josh pulls it off with his powers and slides in. A tight fit, especially in his combat suit. At the bottom, he pulls the matching one off without incident.
Well, almost without incident. The noise of him bumping down the shaft seems to have attracted several guards. Caught on his knees, Josh slides a crate across the room into one of them, toppling him to the ground. With a second to breathe, he gets up off the ground and slides around a corner.
<Bobby, you need to stop or you're going to hurt someone.> Josh tries to put as much friendship into his "voice" as possible. Last thing he needs is for crazy sub-zero Bobby to think he doesn't care anymore (which would be ridiculous) and freeze the entire mansion to kingdom come.
He hazards a look around the corner, and whips it back after bullets come bursting past his face. I've got to hurry! He jumps into the open and lifts both enemies into the air, smashing their heads together with a satisfying clunk, and drops them to the ground.
Bobby appears to be right around the corner. Josh arrives at the door, which has been battered open, and ducks quickly inside, looking for other troopers. He finds none.
He does find Bobby, however.
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Post by Bobby Drake on Aug 31, 2006 3:06:14 GMT
Something was weird. Bobby'd already drunk the last few scraps of heat from the room, more than he'd ever let himself take before. But it wasn't cold, not exactly. Not warm, either... or, well, not normally warm, and something itched. Something was heating the room unnaturally. Disrupting his field.
It annoys him, and he goes hunting for it. Which distracts him, and the room warms up even more, and the holograms kick in again, which is even more annoying. And a few minutes later, there's a friendly familiar touch on his mind.
> <Bobby, you need to stop or you're going to hurt someone.>
<Josh?>
For a moment, he's puzzled. Stop what?
Then his brain snaps into gear, and it's like waking up from a dream, or noticing you've been tapping idly on a desktop and now everybody's annoyed at you, except it's not quite that innocuous. Jesus! I could have killed somebody! He knows better than this, one of his first lessons once he learned to target specific temperatures was in the breaking-point of different types of materials and equipment. What the hell was he thinking?
He lets the field go all at once, and Ororo's powers overcompensate for just a second, filling the room with fog. Then she clears it away, and a second later a figure comes around the corner.
Bobby mistakes the figure for another holographic trooper at first, and starts speedskating towards him... then recognizes Josh, and skids to a stop right in front of him.
"Josh... what the hell is going on?"
There's nothing wrong with his memory... he remembers everything he did. But it doesn't feel like it's him that did it. Which, he realizes, has sorta been happening a lot lately. It occurs to him that he might actually be going nuts. It's a scary thought.
He lets the ice-armor fade out, and returns his body to normal temperatures... the mission's over. But there's still a cold pit in the bottom of his stomach, and not in a good way. And a second later his knees go weak, and he starts to slump to the floor.
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Post by Josh Dalton Worthington on Aug 31, 2006 5:13:09 GMT
Josh sees Bobby in the center of the room - and the room is freezing! He's definitely fought with Bobby in the past, but nothing he remembers is quite like the bone-chilling sting of Bobby's powers right now.
Bobby apparently relaxes his icy hold on the room, because Josh's lips regain feeling, and starts skating at him at top speed. Josh realizes he's scared - has something gotten into Bobbs?
He holds up his hands, ready to catch Bobby in a telekinetic grip, when suddenly Bobby falls short and asks:
>"Josh... what the hell is going on?"
And promptly begins to sink to the ground. Josh drops to his knees and tries to support Bobby, but the other boy feels boneless in his arms. <Bobby? It's ok. No one got hurt.>
He tries to slowly lower Bobby to the ground, with the end result of cradling him in his lap. He looks worriedly into his roommates eyes, and seems to catch the stray thought of "going nuts" from Bobby.
<You are not going crazy, Bobby. Focus. Look at me.> He attempts to sound strong, he's too worried. <I care about you too much for you to check out on me, idiot.> He tries to keep fear from his voice.
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Post by Bobby Drake on Aug 31, 2006 16:02:18 GMT
Bobby's pretty sure he's shivering, which is ridiculous because he's never actually cold, at least not in a bad way. And he's certain he's curled up on Josh's lap like a scared puppy dog or something, with cameras and who-knows-what-all kinds of monitoring equipment scanning him twelve ways from Sunday and recording all of it.
(Unless he's broken all of that equipment. For a moment he hopes he has... then he remembers the Institute budget for Danger Room construction and maintenance and begins to suspect he just did more damage than his entire expected lifetime income could afford to hope to repair.)
He tries to pull away, and the room spins. He's pretty sure that isn't Josh's doing, so he settles back down.
Fainting. Fainting would be awfully convenient right now. Pity how it never happens when you want it to. It occurs to him he's probably broadcasting his thoughts now... which maybe isn't such a bad thing. He looks back up at Josh and tries to think carefully: <Get me out of here?>
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Post by Josh Dalton Worthington on Aug 31, 2006 16:56:11 GMT
> <Get me out of here?>
He can feel Bobby's mind pushing against his insistently in a trembly-lip kind of way. He must really want to get out of here, Josh muses. And can I really blame him? If I just made the Danger Room tweak out I'd want to bury my head in the sand, too.
Josh nods once, then gently cradles Bobby in an invisible hand, lifting him up in a TK-assisted fireman's carry. He starts the long walk across the now-empty room.
<Don't worry Bobby. You're gonna be fine.> He smiles.
As the two of them exit the Danger Room, Storm is standing outside with her arms crossed. She opens her mouth as if to say something, then shuts it.
<Storm... I think he just needs to relax for awhile. I'm gonna take him to the locker room.> She nods, then strides away, doubtless to consult with Logan or Prof. Sheppard.
Josh pushes open the locker room doors with his mind, and deposits Bobby down onto the bench. "Do you need to take a shower and clean up, or just get changed?" He unzips his leather suit down to his navel.
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Post by Bobby Drake on Aug 31, 2006 17:58:39 GMT
((OOC: Now in locker room, not Danger Room, but we're preteUnding.))
Bobby manages to get it together enough to stay on the bench. He's already embarassed himself enough for one day. Week. Lifetime.
He tries not to think about the conversation Storm is probably having with the Profes -- no, dammit, not the Professor, he's dead -- with the new headmaster, Sheppard, about him. She's already dropped hints... big, heavy, steel-jacketed hints... about kicking Bobby off the team, and frankly he can't blame her a bit. So far it's been Logan, of all people, who's gone to bat for him, and Bobby has no idea how long that's gonna last.
And he tries not to think about the conversation Sheppard's going to want to have with him after all that dust settles.
And he really tries not to think about Josh stripping out of the training suit like two feet away from him.
In fact, he decides, it's probably easier not to think at all.
"Um... no! No shower, I mean. Advantage of the whole cryohoozity thing, I don't sweat much. Just, um, need to change. Yeah. Um... over there. Where my locker is."
He wonders if he can get up this time, and decides to try. It works. Good.
He walks over to his locker, carefully turning his back to Josh before changing into street clothes.
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Post by Josh Dalton Worthington on Aug 31, 2006 21:58:45 GMT
>"Um... no! No shower, I mean. Advantage of the whole cryohoozity thing, I don't sweat much. Just, um, need to change. Yeah. Um... over there. Where my locker is."
"Okay. Well, I can just take one back at the room." Josh notices that Bobby's acting a little strangely - that is, stranger than normal for Bobby. He shrugs and strips out of the X-training suit, changing into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.
He sneaks a glance or two over at Bobby while doing so. I hope he's back to normal now. What just happened in there?
He deposits his uniform in the ready room and looks over to Bobby. "Ready to go?"
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Post by Josh Dalton Worthington on Sept 1, 2006 5:07:33 GMT
[End of thread.]
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