History Lesson (Danny, Toni/Matty, anyone!)

[Veronica Devereux]

Veronica watched as the soldiers obeyed every command Laurie shot at them, a feat which caused her mouth to open. Almost forgetting about the ball of wind in her hands, she snapped back to reality, waiting for her next orders. She didn't know what the girl was going to do next, but she hoped she did it fast. She shifted her weight onto one foot, shaking the other one awake.

>“I…um...I don’t know.” She opened her mouth to reply, but she closed as the sentence began to click. She then reopened her mouth, making her look like some frog on crack."You're kidding right?!" she squeaked, looking over at Laurie."Well... I could like, knock them over with the wind...Or something..." she explained, fumbling on her words."OH! I could freeze them... If you're done with your, pheremone thingy.." she tried, hoping they liked that idea."Whatever we're gonna do, we need to do it fast. My arms are killing me, and I've already had my daily excercise." she complained to her self.

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Josh watches in interest as Laurie, Danny, and Veronica work together to come up with a solution. Not too far away, Julian and Dani are working together pretty well to take care of their complement of soldiers. He picks off soldiers that come too close - slamming them into each other or the walls - but tries to allow the students to come up with a solution, for the most part.

The most challenging part of the exercise was probably that Veronica and Julian were the only ones with powers that could directly inflict damage (besides himself, of course). Laurie, Danny, and Danielle all needed to learn to be creative. Perhaps not all of them were interested in working with the X-Men at some point, but it was important to be able to use your abilities effectively, maybe as important as being able to control them in the first place.

He nods, beginning to grin widely as their plan works out. The men drop the weapons and kicked them over to their side of the battlefield, and then stood there, wide-eyed, simply waiting for instructions. Nice job, guys.

Then, their brief shining moment of cooperation dissipates into confusion. Josh resists the urge to wring his face. Almost... almost. For a team to be effective, it either had to have a strong leader, or the members had to be comfortable enough with each other in order to know what roles everyone fit into. This team had neither... but it could. Despite Julian being a little pest, he probably does have the charisma necessary to lead. Ditto to Veronica - he'd only seen her in action for a few minutes, but she had the kind of head-cheerleader mentality that was necessary for good leadership. None of the others fit naturally into a position of authority... but not everyone did. A team full of leaders got nowhere.

Maybe I should handle this, or we could be here all day. Josh summoned his most commanding voice. "Men, the real enemies are on their way! We're no match for them. I suggest that you remove your gear and hide in that storage room." He indicates a pair of metal double doors on their side of the battlefield.

After a moment, Josh purses his lips. The soldiers seemed to be taking his directives a little too far. Across the room, most of the men had their shirts off and some of them had already started pulling their cargo pants off. Awkwardly, he taps his foot, and the crowd of naked men file into the storage area. With a flick of his wrist, the doors sail shut, and heavy bolts clink into place.

"Ah... right. Danger Room, pause simulation." Josh surveys the students assembled. "So, before we continue, what did you do well and what did you mess up?"

[Laurie Collins]

"You're kidding right?!"
Laurie hunches her shoulders and the soldiers begin stirring as her emission changes subtly, her sudden uncertainty weakening its strength and a bit of her own crestfallen embarrassment mingling with the initial obedience until the soldiers start looking more like shamed children than a heavily armed military squadron. Laurie herself manages to keep her face fairly neutral however, turning away and concentrating on keeping her emission up as Veronica goes on about knocking them out with wind or something, not really managing to sound more decisive overall than Laurie herself.

"Men, the real enemies are on their way! We're no match for them. I suggest that you remove your gear and hide in that storage room."

Great, Josh to the rescue, she thinks and is surprised to realize she’s a little bitter rather than relieved, not at Josh who’s just doing his job, but at herself for not thinking of the storage room sooner. That’s how I worked it out at the camps. I should have remembered, I should have looked around and seen the storage room, how am I ever going to change things if I don’t notice something as obvious as that? I have to be better if-

"Ah... right. Danger Room, pause simulation…So, before we continue, what did you do well and what did you mess up?"

It’s only as Josh speaks that Laurie realizes she’s been glaring at the floor the whole time, completely oblivious to even the fact that- judging from the discarded articles of clothing she can see around her- the soldiers had started stripping their pants off right in front of her. She blushes retrospectively now and scuffs a toe against the floor as she answers Josh in a somewhat sullen voice. “Should’ve noticed the storage room… I just concentrated on them and didn’t even really think to look around.”

[Veronica Devereux]

>"Men, the real enemies are on their way! We're no match for them. I suggest that you remove your gear and hide in that storage room." As the site of the gaggle of men removing there clothes, Veronica rose a signle hand to her eyes to cover them."Usually, I'd like this, but, it's a simulation. We might as well be watching porn, or something!" she joked, giving one of her signature two noted laughs. When she was sure they were done getting undressed, she lowered her hand and looked around.


>"Ah... right. Danger Room, pause simulation…So, before we continue, what did you do well and what did you mess up?" As this sentence ran through her head, her brow furrowed with thought. She sighed, and thought some more.“Should’ve noticed the storage room… I just concentrated on them and didn’t even really think to look around.”

Veronica gave a nod at the staement, and turned to face Josh."I agree with her," she said, motioning in the direction of Laurie,"But, I also think it had something to do with that fact that we had no set leader, and that we were all just relying on natural instincts." she explained, using her hand to motion to the rest of the group.

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Josh glances over at Laurie, frowning slightly. If he didn't know better (it was Laurie, after all) he was catching a whiff off hostility off her.

> “Should’ve noticed the storage room… I just concentrated on them and didn’t even really think to look around.”

He nods once. "You're probably right. I think there are probably two different things to consider." He raises an eyebrow over at Danielle. "Not to single you out, but that soldier almost caught you earlier. I think you know what you did..."

Danielle blushes slightly, but talks with confidence. "Yeah, sometimes I can get so locked into creating an illusion that I don't really register what's going on around me." Josh nods enthusiastically. "Right. When I try to do astral projection, it's really easy for me to forget to watch out for my body. A partner can be useful, but it's not very nice to make someone cover their own butt and yours as well."

"Secondly, I think this is a good time to point out that a lot of us have to use the environment to our advantage. X-Men like Storm, Bobby, and Wolverine can clean up in an empty room. With telekinesis, I've got a million more options in a real environment. Those of you with indirect powers need to learn to use your surroundings effectively."

> "But, I also think it had something to do with that fact that we had no set leader, and that we were all just relying on natural instincts."

Josh glances over at Veronica. "Also a good point. A group that's been working together longer knows each other's strengths and weaknesses. I don't usually take point - I'm happy following others' lead. But there are times when I have to- when I'm on my own, or when the leader gets knocked out. At the New York riot last year, I had to take command after Storm was shot. Did I like it? Not really, especially since Warren was on the team... but someone had to do it."

"Let's get going. Danger Room: continue simulation." Off in the distance, short blasts sound, and the group hears the shriek of metal. Josh starts walking quickly down the hall.

[We can do a couple chatty posts before we run into Jean and Ororo...go for it!]

[Tempero]

Danny gets rid of the stupid gun, and just stands there, listening to what the others say. So, of all the things he could have done, just by withholding Julian's mutation, he manged to knock out a couple of the guards. The rest pretty much falls under the useless category, seeing how it consists of dramatically sneaking behind crates, dramatically thinking with Laurie, and then dramatically linking to Veronica. Take the drama out, and the actions become not a notch above stupid.

He mutters something about thinking more about using his powers properly, and then just settles for following. Maybe, next time, he can try to establish a link between a few people, but is painfully aware that Josh is the one with that kind of telepathy-- his is very narrow in area of effect. And copying Josh...well, that's a no go. The whole Josh/Warren thing has been off-limits in his mind for a while.

I could just grab Julian's TK, but he didn't seem too happy with it. Then again, getting a hold of Veronica's power would end up in just distracting everyone, and Danielle is too complicated to even try without practice. I wonder how much of a fiasco I could cause if I took Laurie's pheromones...I wish Bobby were here...he's the only one whose powers I've been exercising...

Somehow, Bobby always seems to come into the picture as the Good Guy. Warren and Josh are the No Nos, and the rest of the institute (aside from John, who is...John) are just People, whose powers he has not the slightest idea how to use properly.

And then he considers hyper-powering some of the teammates. Well, Josh forbid it, Laurie's pheromones would probably end up being very...hard to resist, Veronica would end up overdoing it and breaking everyone's neck in a tornado (or at least that's what he's getting from her at the moment, aside from the Ravage Josh mentality), Julian would either be a jerk and say how he didn't need it, or end up being unbearable in his gloating, and Danielle...well, that might just work.

He keeps following the rest of the team in the back of the group, trying to figure something out. As soon as someone tells him to do anything, he really will, just to get out of the trap of his mind.

((OK...so maybe it's not chatty...at all ))