Teamwork (Pre-game)

[Ororo Munroe]

Storm stands in the center of the Danger Room, waiting for the rest of the team. It’s astonishing how small it seems when a program’s not running. She shakes her head. The dome itself was surprisingly small, especially when you took into account that it was possible to get lost within a simulation.

Today was the afternoon she’d set aside for the big capture the flag game. Her normal power usage and combat classes had been cancelled in favor of this, and all the sections had been merged for one game.

Ororo smiles. The purpose was, ostensibly, to give some of the younger students a chance to compete against some of the more seasoned members, and to promote teamwork. However, the year had been a hectic one - even terrifying, at times. She hoped that the students and faculty would find the game fun. To that end, she’d given Hank pretty much free license with the end product. Perhaps that had been a bad idea… but whatever the physical form of the game, it would still accomplish her objectives. Right now, she was waiting for everyone to arrive so they could decide on the four teams prior to the start of the game.

While she waits, Storm flicks through a holographic menu, scanning some of Hank's creations. A variety of emotions move across her face, from amusement to horror.

She looks up to the glassed-in control suite, and eyes Hank. "You know how to make things interesting, don't you?"

The only response is a muffled guffaw, and she's virtually certain that Hank has popcorn.

[Laurie Collins]

This was a bad idea. A very bad idea. The thought has practically become a mantra as the morning’s progressed and the clock hands have scooted her ever closer to this ‘game’ she’d somehow found herself involved in. Yet even a very strong, and she things perfectly understandable, reluctance to be locked in some place called ‘the Danger Room’- which, they couldn’t have just called it The Fun and Harmless Practice Room Maybe With Cookies Yay! could they?- she’s still more reluctant to be late for anything even vaguely class-like. As is often the result of the this paranoid punctuality she finds herself now hovering nervously outside the intimidating doors of the intimidating named room earlier than the rest of the students, uncertain and embarrassed and realizing that, no, she needn’t have allotted for twenty minutes to walk here after all. Why did I do this? This is insane. This is a game where I’m supposed to compete against teachers some of whom could toss me right through a wall accidentally without even noticing. Because I don’t mess up ordinary team sports enough, no, I have to go and try Danger Room team sports. But really, she knows why she’s here, at least a little bit. It has something to do with Bob pushing her to control her powers, with her mother absolving her for something it turned out she’d never been blamed for, and maybe, just maybe a little to do with knowing Matthew would be there. Her conversation with Bob and then her mom’s assurances on that discussion’s heels… it was more than enough to wear her down on something she’d wanted to give in to anyway. But he hasn’t tried to talk to me since the music room… which makes sense obviously, idiot, I told him I was staying away from him, I told him no. But still, what if he’s mad? What if he’s moved on? What if- stop it. I can’t get even more riled up unless I want to get out of this by making everyone pass out… which isn’t really that bad an idea is it? She shakes her head quickly and passes from the threshold into the Danger Room before she can consider that desperate course of action any further.

"You know how to make things interesting, don't you?"

What exactly is that supposed to mean? she wonders, swallowing audibly and giving Miss. Munroe a nervous flutter-finger wave before pressing her back against the wall like she’s going to try out phasing.

[Nikkolas Blagetovich]

Nikk sighed, standing a little bit before the entrance of the danger room. He didn't really have a strong sense of direction as it was, especially in the Institute. It was big and confusing, or so thought Nikk. He was happy though, he successfully found his way to the danger room with only getting lost once. I'm way over my head. He was still considered the new kid by many, and that reputation wasn't exactly wrong; he knew hardly anyone.

He took one final breath, and walked into the danger room, which he thought to be very large. "Dhis is vhere it happens?" He mumbled quietly to himself, not noticing Ororo or Laurie. He continued to walk forward, gazing up at the ceiling until he snapped his eyes back to looking forward. He noticed two girls, one he knew to be a teacher and the other he was sure was a student.

He looked to Storm, faintly smiling, bowing his head slightly to her. "Hello." he said timidly, moving near Laurie. He looked to her, again faintly smiling, "Hello." He wasn't a social butterfly, but he was working on it. Saying hello was a big step for him, as well as joining in on this 'game'. He figured he'd meet some new people, maybe making some new friends. It wasn't being the new kid from the Brotherhood with communication difficulties, but hopefully this game would change things a little for him.

[Bobby Drake]

Bobby takes a deep breath near the locker room’s exit, psyching himself up to walk into the Danger Room.

He didn’t used to need this much psyching-up, he remembers… not for years. But he hasn’t done any serious DR work since before the Baxter Building fiasco, and he’s not entirely sure he’s up to it. Sure, his control over his powers has been improving steadily since he came out of his coma, but it’s still nowhere near what it was… and the last time he lost control of his abilities in the Danger Room it had been very, very bad.

But we’re not going to think about that, right, Drake? Positive visualization. All the top athletes use it now. Think about happy shiny pink unicorn puppies, or something like that. He wonders idly how Josh and Warren’s pup – who isn’t really a puppy anymore, and has more or less been adopted by the Institute as a whole, but Bobby still thinks of him that way – would take to being dyed pink and fitted with a horn. Focus, Drake. This is serious.

Or, well, semiserious. The game itself wasn’t important, but getting through it without embarrassing himself was… especially if he ever wanted to convince Storm to put him back on active duty.

Catching his reflection in one of the full-length mirrors, he sighs… there’s something else that isn’t what it was. He’s managed to work off most of the belly he’d picked up during his sedentary cyberpath months, but his physique still isn’t anything exceptional, and wearing nothing but his X-Man shorts is more embarassing than he'd anticipated.

Unfortunately, his last-minute plan to wear his original X-Man uniform instead (since his new ice-form, which still creeps him out enormously, doesn’t seem to shatter clothing like his old ice-armor did) had fallen apart when he discovered, to his chagrin, that it no longer quite fits. He's been trying not to think of that as a bad omen.

Well, here goes nothing…

Walking in turns out not to be as hard as he’d feared, though. He waves jauntily at Ororo, Nikk, and Laurie. "So we finally get to experience Hank’s masterpiece, huh? I bet it’ll knock our socks off!" He looks down with mock-bewilderment at his bare feet and adds "Anyone got spare socks?"

[Toni Craft]

Capture the flag wasn’t exactly the way she’d envisioned her afternoon (she was more warm to the idea of tossing Danger Room created Brotherhood members out the 50th story of the Empire State Building), but the thought of scaring some of the younger students wasn’t at all unappealing either.

Practically skipping down the hall in her issued X-Men uniform Toni aims for the fabled Danger Room. She didn’t know what there was planned for them, but if Hank was organizing the whole scenario, she would not be disappointed.

“What up my raving sexy mutant posse?” Toni yells happily, grinning at the echo her voice creates bouncing off the walls. “So, who’s ready kick some classmate ass? I finally get to get back at all of you that seem to think that skipping my class is okay.” Then, turning to the shirtless Bobby, she winks with an overly wide smile.

[Matthew Craft]

“So, who’s ready kick some classmate ass?” Had he really been that slow getting changed? Hadn’t seemed like that long, and he’s always done before his sister. But then again, he had spent a good ten minutes in the change room holding his head in his hands, wondering what he was going to do about Laurie. Toni had been more than happy to announce that his ‘future bed buddy’ (cue the embarrassed and exasperated sigh) would be attending the exercise, and that, of course, only made him freeze up and contemplate his decision to take part in the glorified capture the flag game.

But after much persuasion (mostly coming from his sister), Matthew is walking down the smooth, steel corridors of the Institute’s secret sub-basement. Despite still being a number of steps away from the intimidating Danger Room, Toni’s enthusiastic and overly loud voice still echoes its way to his ears. A vaguely amused roll of the eyes later, Matthew rounds the corner and ends up stopping dead and almost considering running away, no matter the embarrassing consequences.

He knew he was later than he wanted to be, but he was certain that he would have beaten Laurie there (but then again, this is Laurie). He hadn’t spoken to her since their rather disheartening, yet revealing chat in the music room three weeks prior. If it wasn’t for the fact that Toni would personally torture him if he tried to flee, Matthew would have been gone like a shot ages ago.

Instead, after a few long seconds of his frozen ‘deer-in-the-headlights’ look, Matthew clears his throat and walks in slowly.

“Uh…hi.” He tries to sound enthusiastic by adding a little swat which was supposed to be a wave. Too bad his red face was so obvious in the bright lights of the Danger Room. Great.

[Tempero]

A relatively massive team game of Capture The Flag? How could anyone possibly dare doubt that Danny would pass, hm? So, he spends almost full hour in his room, just trying to decide what would be best to wear. After all, he's not going to just sit by and enjoy the sights- he is definitely going to be using others' powers this time. And some of these mutations would destroy his clothes, he has no doubt. So, he settles on a pair of shorts and a shirt, both of which are quite...well, expendable would be the word, since the boy has absolutely no "old" clothes per se.

He walks quickly down the familiar path to the Danger Room- one he has taken numerous times when mentored by Kurt, and then when he practiced on his own, and perhaps once or twice with Ms. Munroe (because he still cannot think of her as just "Storm" or just "Ororo"). His walk is a quick one, showing that he is very eager to start playing.

He finds himself in the doorway of the room soon enough, and glances at who all is there. Silent as always, Daniel walks up right behind Matthew, whom he does not know personally but has learned of through the casual gossip line of the school. It is clear that Daniel is not attempting to be sneaky or anything- it is just the way he walks up right behind people as if personal space was a thing invented by those afraid of being friends with others, and then simply lets his voice boom out to everyone in the room. "Hey guys!" a simple, cheerful greeting, coming from a face that seems to be forcing anyone looking at it to be happy and demanding them to forget any troubles and distrust related to its owner and unburden themselves to him. It is decorated by snow-white hair, warm green eyes, and the most sincere smile one could ever hope to see on a teenager. A picture of perfect, cherubic innocence, as if Daniel was in a plastic anti-world bubble all his life.

[Laurie Collins]

[]

"Hello."

Laurie looks up with a slight start as she’s addressed, having been lost in her own semi-neurotic thoughts and responds with automatic politeness.

“Hi.”

she says softly before taking in who she’s talking to and upon that realization blinking rapidly, taken aback for a moment. That’s the new kid isn’t it? The one everyone says came from the Brotherhood… he doesn’t look very scary though, just about as nervous as I am really. The thought ends her brief period of consternation and she gives a tentative smile. She’s casting about for something to say when Bob strolls in making some joke about socks that earns him a less restrained smile- more of relief that someone non-terrifying has signed up for this game than of amusement about his sock puns- and Miss. Craft strolls in behind him in her usual…exuberant state.

“What up my raving sexy mutant posse? So, who’s ready kick some classmate ass? I finally get to get back at all of you that seem to think that skipping my class is okay.”

I’ve never missed her class have I? Laurie wonders, obviously taking Toni completely seriously. While she’d made some progress with social interaction among people relatively close to her age she still hasn’t quite managed to shake the idea that a teacher would obviously be serious when they spoke. She’s so occupied in trying to determine whether or not she’s going to get thrown through a wall faster than she’d anticipated that she almost misses the next entry into the room, if it weren’t Matthew’s being so tall and therefore hard to miss she probably wouldn’t have noticed him until he spoke. As is she actually twitches as he comes into her field of vision and whirls around to face him so fast she almost trips over her own feet and has to spend a moment regaining her balance while he greets the group at large.

“Uh…hi.”

You wanted a chance to talk to him, here he is not looking like he hates now might be a good time before the…running about and such… starts. Okay, okayokayokay just…say…something…now! “Hel-“


>>"Hey guys!"

The booming voice from behind Matthew isn’t unfriendly or harsh, quite the opposite, but it’s supremely unexpected and with her nerves already ratcheted up so that it’s all she can do to concentrate on keeping them mostly in check she can’t stop herself from yelping and jumping about half a foot in shock, radiating her surprise out around her in a startled burst of pheromones. “Oops.” she whispers, taking a quick step back and putting a hand over her eyes as if she’s reverted back to believing that if she can’t see them everyone else will cease to exist and therefore not have seen (or felt) that last moment at all.

[Tobias Smith]

Now, even if you don't know Tobias, you can pretty much tell that he is not one for team sports. It might be the anti-social glare, the constant shunning of other people, or possibly that he is a smart-ass son of a bitch that gives it away...or it could be that he just doesn't particate all that much. So, when anyone sees him silently stalk into the room with all of the others, its either a special occasion, or he looks forward to messing with people in the arena.

He pauses once inside, to remove his trenchcoat and several rather weighty chains previously placed on various parts of his outfit. The end result was a skinny, pale, bond punk wearing a black T-shirt, boots, a spiked wristband on his left hand, and black baggy pants ACTUALLY held up by a studded black leather belt.

Tobias glances around at all of his 'peers.' He notes Ms. Munroe, Fuzzy Blue Guy Number Two (Hank), Laurie (Sandwich Girl), Nikkolas (The Russian), Bobby (Frosty the X-Man Formerly Known as CyberBob Formerly Known as Frosty), the Craft siblings (Psychobitch and Nuke), and Daniel (...Who?). The black-clad cynic sighs slightly and rubs his eyes, attempting to envision the all-out brawl that was likely to occur in Fuzzy Blue Guy Number Two's labyrinth. Tobias thinks, Hmm....Fuzzy Blue Guy Number Two's Labyrinth...has more of a ring to in rather than Pan's....What happened to Fuzzy Blue Guy Number One (Kurt)? Whatever...

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Logan makes his way down the subbasement corridor towards the Danger Room.

Lately, he’d been spending a lot of time in Canada. Things just weren’t the same around the Institute with Chuck, Scooter, and Jean all gone. A flash of pain makes its way across Logan’s face as the thought surfaces, invisible to all but the experienced Logan-observer. He nods once. Ororo had been doing a pretty good job running things these days…

Logan smirks. A pretty good job… even with that moron Sheppard along for the ride. He’d certainly caught Ororo’s interest in the other man after being around the two of them a couple times - chemically, it was simple for him to detect. After Storm’s reaction to a comment or two on how he thought she should approach the situation, he’d stopped giving advice. For one, most people didn’t seem to appreciate what he thought of as romance. For another, Storm threw lightning. And a man with a metal skeleton didn’t fuck with that.

He tightens one of the straps on a glove and gives a grunt. He was only back for a couple days, but Ororo had managed to shoehorn him into one of these stupid training sessions. His only consolation was the chance to knock some of the younger X-Men on their little asses. Any maybe one or two of the students. Logan rolls his eyes and glances backwards. How did I pick this one up, again?

“Logan! I’msoexcited! It’sbeenagessincei’vedoneanythingintheDangerRoom withanyoftheotherstudents. Whydoyouthinkthatis? Suzysayspeopleactuallygetphysicallytiredofhearingmetalk, butithinkthateveryonejsutneedstolearntolistenfaster! OhmigoddoyouthinkBobby’sgoingtobethere?” Alice stops talking momentarily at the thought of the older boy. “IalwayslikedhimbutIdon’tthinkhereallyknowswhoIam. Funnybecauseeveryoneseemstoknowme!!!” She knew vaguely that something had gone on with Bobby this fall and spring, but she’d seen him walking in the halls here and there, so nothing too crazy could have happened, right?

When the pair enter the Danger Room, Logan walks over to Ororo, who gives him a slight nod. “Glad you could join us, Logan.” There’s just a touch of amusement, which Wolverine only grunts at. Yup. You know how much I hate these, and you made me show up anyway.

Alice catches sight of Tobias, and remembers him from the Invasion fiasco. “Hey,youweretheboywhowas wearingblackandmakeupandstuff whenallthoseguysattackedusbackbeforeChristmasinthehelicopter. Imeanyou’restillwearingblackandmakeupandstuff butitlooksniceandeverything… whathaveyoubeenupto?” She looks around interestedly at the assembled students and instructors.


(sorry...I couldn't for the life of me remember the NPC password)

[Warren Worthington III]

Warren skids to a stop at the door to the Danger Room, looking more disheveled than he usually appears in public… wet hair, boots not quite on right, still pulling on his jacket. "Sorry we’re late," he mumbles, mostly to Storm, and frowns thoughtfully as the seals around his wing-struts seem to close themselves. At least those TK practice sessions are paying off… much easier than doing that by hand.

A quick headcount reassures him that he and Josh aren’t the only ones missing… good, they aren’t too late. He’s startled to see Logan – their erstwhile “art teacher” has been gone pretty much since Fury’s people invaded the Institute last year – and it’s still a little surprising to see Drake up and around and apparently ready for action, but other than that everything seems normal. "Josh is right behind me, so we’re just waiting for…" he pauses for a moment, comparing the crowd to his recollection of the list Storm had showed him earlier, "Sheppard, Allerdyce, Rogue, and Dr. Storm, right? "

The resulting soap-opera-in-small doesn’t fail to catch Warren’s attention… Drake’s embarrassed inspection of the floor-tiles at the mention of Rogue and Allerdyce, Storm’s exasperated breath of irritation at Sheppard’s lateness, Smith’s ironic eye-roll at the mention of Josh. Some of it is surprising, though… why were both Logan and Drake amused when he mentioned Dr. Storm? Is there something going on with her? He looks around thoughtfully, vaguely aware of something not-quite-right in the space but unable to quite put his finger on it

(( FYI, the NPC username/password is included in the NPC guidelines on the NPC board. The description of Alice is on that board too, for those of you who don't remember her.))

[Bobby Drake]

Bobby leans against one of the walls, taking advantage of the milling-around period to stretch his muscles a bit and watch the group trickling in, trying to decide how to deal with each of them.

Storm was a real threat; his best chance was to stay out of her way and hope for close cramped quarters. Laurie and Nikk were wildcards; it all depended on who or what they could influence… again, best to stay out of their way. Danny doubly so… no way of knowing what he can do. Heh. Yeah, that’s the trick, Drake… hide from everybody. Better yet, you could just stay in bed… way to psych yourself out! He chuckles quietly at himself… he’s been out of the game for too long. Obviously, the thing to do is neutralize them in the no-power zone.

> " What up my raving sexy mutant posse? [..]So, who’s ready kick some classmate ass? I finally get to get back at all of you that seem to think that skipping my class is okay. "

Bobby responds to Toni’s wink with an ironic two-fingered salute. "You’ll get your shot at me next semester, Toni… in your class, I mean." The fact that he isn’t graduating this year isn’t a secret, but he hasn’t been advertising it; he wonders if anyone’s surprised. He still feels pretty bad about having fucked up his class standings, but that’s all behind him now and he’s through apologizing for it.

Last time he’d checked Matt still wasn’t in control of his nuclear thing, which makes him mostly ignorable for this exercise, except maybe in the no-power zone. Even there, Bobby’s pretty sure he can take Matt in a straight fight… No, you could have taken him six months ago, before you let yourself get out of condition. Now, who knows? Best to neutralize him at range. Same goes for Toni, only more so.

He almost bursts out laughing at the Laurie/Matt byplay – not that he’s in any position to mock anyone else’s relationship drama, granted, but watching them dance their way around the inevitable is just too much sometimes – until he’s distracted by the arrival of Toby, Logan, and… um… the fast girl, he can’t remember her name off-hand. Logan was handicapped by the rule that they can’t eliminate each other directly, but the speedsters had to be neutralized early, they’d be too unpredictable in the end-game.

OK, so that makes nine. Just for the exercise of it he closes his eyes and tries to count them by heat-pattern… Logan and Matt are distinctive, but the others just blur. Well, that’s 2, plus 1, 2-3-4, 5, 6, 7, that’s nine… no, wait, plus me is ten? He counts them again, more carefully, and gets the same count… then opens his eyes and counts nine, plus a humanoid heat-pattern against a far wall. Ooo… sneaky. OK, ten it is. But that still leaves us short half a dozen or so… I wonder who – the thought is cut off by Warren’s arrival, and Bobby has to stop himself from bursting out laughing again. Right, of course… the only Institute couple that can out-cute Laurie and Matt. Another interrupted shower, huh guys?

> "Sorry we’re late. Josh is right behind me, so we’re just waiting for… Sheppard, Allerdyce, Rogue, "

… and hearing their names together like that is still a kick in the gut, but he tries not to show it.. Yeah… and all this mocking of the other couples isn’t even a little bit about you being left off the dance card this time, right? Nope, not bitter at all. He’s made that observation before, in sessions with Dr. Garrison, but it’s still embarrassing when he realizes he’s doing it again.

> " and Dr. Storm, right?"

He nearly laughs again at that, but keeps it under wraps… why give away that he can perceive her, if she doesn’t know it already? He’s pretty sure Logan must have sniffed her out by now, too, and is a little surprised that Warren hasn’t picked up on her presence… maybe his enhanced hearing can’t pick her out among so many people?

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Josh runs down the corridor, hard on Warren's heels. Why does it seem like I'm late for everything these days? He shakes his head.

Normally, he was pretty punctual. As of late, he'd run a couple minutes behind for few things. Josh shrugs. He suspected it was trying to juggle so many different balls at the same time - you were bound to fumble one here or there. Fortunately, worrying about college applications was long over. He grins. And classes, exams, and papers were close to over. Thank god the summer's almost here!

The Danger Room entrance is coming up rather quickly, which means he should probably be totally covered. Josh stops fumbling with his gloves and zips up the front of his uniform, which had been open halfway down his chest. There. He rounds the corner and slides to a halt.

> "Josh is right behind me, so we’re just waiting for…"

"Sorry, guys." He catches the slightly admonishing smile on Ororo's face and blushes. "We lost track of time. Everyone here yet?" Looking around, though, tells him otherwise.

"I guess not." Josh makes his way over to the side of the room with Warren, trying to reseat one of his boots. It hadn't gone on quite right and felt funny.

[Jake Sheppard]

Dramatic irony. That’s Jake’s excuse, and he’s sticking to it; tardiness due to dramatic irony. Because speedsters and timelords are always notoriously bad when it comes to punctuality, right?

Yeah, Jake. In the comic books. This is real life…except that it’s really had to give that argument any sort of weight at all when he’s on his way to the Danger Room. Even through the panicked sprint, and the getting lost and having to sprint some more, and the giving up on sprinting and settling for a pained jog and praying that isn’t a sign of how woefully unfit he is and how easily he’ll be slaughtered in whatever-the-hell this is, even through all of that, the insane excitement wins out. Because this, this is what he signed up for! Laser beams and secret technology and holograms and oh-my-god-wow…

… though, really, a strictly observational role would be better…

… staying safely out of the way and geeking out over everything at a distance where it can’t hurt…

… not actually having to face the lasers and holograms and god-only-know-what, just cheering on the people who can actually do that sort of thing…

… oh god. He’s going to die.

Forget the lasers and all, he knows full well that as a student he’d have loved the chance to kick the shit out of his head, and…

Yep, definitely going to die.

He’s going to die and die looking stupid. Die looking stupid and reflect badly on Ororo, who’s brainchild this thing is and who convinced him to sign up for the Capture the Flag session... though seeing her in uniform it’s hard to imagine that she could be made to look bad right now (… okay, shut up Jake) while he’s flustered and flushed and hideously embarrassed, looking like he’s just wandered in from some crummy gym somewhere in his joggers and Club Sandwiches, Not Seals t-shirt (on the bright side, one advantage of this, maybe, is that it’s headmasterly duties he can do without having to *dress* for the job*) sending her a sheepish telepathic Sorry distinct from the broken, breathless ”Whoops… late… important headmaster… stuff.” and vague random handwave the rest of them get.

[Ororo Munroe]

Ororo waves and greets each player as they enter the Danger Room. As the time wears on, she gets slightly annoyed with Jake’s conspicuous absence. She’d hoped that he would be able to help her out with keeping everyone focused - keeping everyone’s attention on the game and its rules could be a challenge.

She can’t help but smile when Bobby enters. Seeing him back to his old self was enormously gratifying. Ororo hadn’t been upset to see ‘Robert’ go. She knew he was still a bit chagrined that his actions had taken him off the field team, but Ororo also knew he’d had to train his abilities back up to their previous level of control. It was probably for the better, at least for the time being.

It was also interesting to watch everyone’s interactions with each other. There was obviously something still between Laurie and Matt. Storm stifles a laugh when Danny enters. Laurie looks like she wants to crawl into a hole and die. Danny’s just too outgoing for her. Perhaps the younger girl could benefit from taking a speech class…

As always, Warren and Josh have become a constant that reassures her. Ororo had been extremely pleased with the evaluations that had come in from Warren’s seminar. She was considering asking him to take a larger class load in the fall. Hopefully he’ll get around to finishing his degree soon… that might give him a broader background in the social sciences. Jake taught a section of psychology, but they were actually somewhat lacking in the other branches of social science. I’ll have to see if he’s interested in taking on some more responsibilities.

> Sorry

Ororo raises an eyebrow at him, as if to say, About time! Jake’s arrival, despite her slight annoyance, sets her at ease. With almost everyone there, she could probably start. Ororo does a quick headcount. 13? Ah, 14. She’d thought the air currents were spiraling oddly around that area of space, and Bobby and Logan’s reactions had confirmed her suspicions. John and Rogue…

She claps her hands together in the air. “Okay, people, not everyone is quite here yet… but I’m going to try to get this thing off the ground. I think everyone got the basic rules I emailed out last week?” She waits until she gets a nod from most of those assembled. “Right. So this is four-way capture the flag, just like the rule sheet said, and so we have four captains. Earlier today, I pulled the their names out of a hat. They are…” Ororo pulls a piece of paper out of her uniform pocket. “Warren, Toni, Josh, and John… and they will be picking teams in that order. Let’s give John and Rogue a couple more minutes…” Around her, the talking picks up again.