May 18th
8:00PM
Danger Room
Tag:Open

”Esme! We’re going to get in trouble!” Celeste hissed as she stood look out for her older sister. The twelve year old telepath kept her eyes firmly on the door down the hall. She was torn between praying that a teacher caught them now before Esme got them in more trouble and praying that they didn’t get caught at all.

Esme turned briefly to glare at her sister. ”Shut up, Six! God you are so whiney. Give me a second and I can get this. We should look at what’s inside.”

”Why? Why do we need to know? I am totally happy not knowing. Why don’t we just ask? We could ask a teacher. Teachers are supposed to tell us stuff right?” That made since to Celeste, but Esme wasn’t having any of it.

”Shut up, Celeste!” She closed the panel in the wall as the door cracked open. ”That was way easier than the electronic vault.” she grinned to herself, then motioned for her sister to help her open the door. Celeste begrudgingly agreed, even though she wasn’t sure what was behind the door that was so important.

The girls stepped in to the empty room. ”Oh good. We broke in to a completely empty room. Thanks Esme. You’re going to get us in trouble. For an Empty room. Its empty. There is nothing in this room!”

”Shut up Six!” Esme hissed at her.

There was a tone and then a cool female voice spoke. “Running program Six.”

Celeste turned to go for the door, but it closed. ”FIVE!” She screeched, the fear setting in. The youngest of the girls was afraid of almost everything. And automated killer death machines was one of them. The evil computer woman was probably filling the room with a deadly neurotoxin as they stood there dumb founded. ”What did you do! Make it stop!”

Emse placed both hands on the door, trying to squeeze her fingers in the crack and pry it open. She wanted to tell Celeste to shut up again, but all she could say was ”Woops.”

The room began changing behind them as they desperately tried to break out the door. The seen changed to a forest with a very rough terrain. Celeste turned around and gasped. Their feet were on the edge of a deep gorge of some kind. She took a step back, leaning against the door. ”Wow… this is so pretty.”

”Yeah but is it safe?”

“Safety off.” The computer voice said back at her.

”Stop breaking it! What did you do in that panel?”

”I don’t know. I might have accidently switched some stuff I didn’t need to.”

Celeste tensed. She heard other thoughts in the room. But they weren’t normal thoughts. They were strangely… computer. Like the machine was simulating peoples thoughts. And they weren’t very friendly thoughts. ”Esme….”

”I know I hear it. Let’s move. This is some sort of training simulation. I’m not really sure what we’re training for.”

”I don’t think we really want to find out.” Celeste said following her sister as they inched along the cliff trying to find a way down.

The people in the woods were getting closer, the girls reached a lower point in the terrain, leading in to the woods. ”Okay Celeste. I want you to run and hide. Hide in a good spot okay. I’ll lead them away.”

Celeste nodded and ran in to the woods. She heard Esme shouting and running the opposite direction. Celeste ran in to the woods, finding a thick pine tree with low hanging branches. She crawled under it and curled up in a little ball against the trunk trying to blend in as much as possible and hoped Esme would figure out how to end this thing before anyone found her. She heard footsteps outside her tree. She buried her face in her hands pretending that made her invisible and hoped the person would just pass by her.

The newest shipment of books had been brought into the school, but apparently whoever had been delivering it decided that it would be perfectly fine to leave the box (clearly marked “Books—For Library”) in the basement. There were a bunch of other unlabeled boxes down there, too, and Nigel didn’t know what they were, nor did he care. He was only down here to pick up his box, and he was none to thrilled about it. There was… dust… and things down here, and he was trying to stay in the very center of the hallway so that no part of him touched anything, when he heard a door slam.

“Hello?” he called. No response. He carefully set down his box in the hallway and went to investigate. It was not his first instinct to check out a mysterious door slamming, and in fact, he would have preferred to evacuate the area as fast as possible. But, students were not allowed in the basement, and as a staff-member, he reluctantly figured it was his job to make sure that students followed the rules. It was probably just a teacher getting supplies or something. And was definitely not likely to be a rat or any sort of small animal… they wouldn’t worry about closing doors, right?

Still, better to be safe than sorry, so he sublimated himself, keeping himself far above the ground, but not against the ceiling or the walls, and he crept down the hallway toward the noise. Most of the doors were open, so Nigel only had to actually check a couple rooms. The first was completely empty, except for a filing cabinet and a stack of textbooks in a corner. The second seemed to have a lock on it, but Nigel tried the handle, and it opened. It seemed to contain a forest of some sort, and Nigel had no doubts that Daisy was to blame for there being a secret room full of nature in the basement. He was going to shut the door and back away quietly (because exploring nature was not in his job description), when he heard voices. Sighing, he resigned himself to the task. It just figured that the room with the people in it would be the room he least wanted to be in, but since he was already this far, he supposed he might as well have a look around to see if they were students or people who might have a right to be there.

Fortunately, as a mist, he did not have to climb down the cliff; he just floated toward the voices he had heard. Until they stopped speaking, that is. After that, he followed a rustling noise that may or may not have been the same people, or even a person at all. It could have been a rabid animal, but as he couldn’t be hurt in mist-form. His logic was sound, but his plan wasn’t. The rustling led him to a large pine tree on a ledge, and the branches were so close together that he could not see what was hiding there and making the shivery rustling noise. Reluctantly, he re-solidified (though he kept on the alert in case he needed to sublimate again in a hurry), and he approached the tree.

Nigel slowly turned the lower branches on the front part of the tree to mist and waved away the mist, letting the branches reform on the path behind him. In the opening, the curled up form of a little girl was revealed to him. She seemed to be rather scared, as she was hiding her eyes, and against his better judgment, Nigel felt bad for her. He crouched in front of her and said, “You’re not supposed to be in here. Come on.” He held his hand out to her and only hoped that her hands wouldn’t be sticky.

Paige had gotten permission to use the Danger Room today, to train. She made it a habit to make it to the danger room at least three days a week. Four, if she had the extra time. She knew most of the limits of her powers at this point, but they were always developing and she couldn't afford to not to keep toned up. So there she was, walking down the hall at a brisk pace till she reached the doors to the Danger room. Stopping in front her brow furrowed at the "in use" light being lit.

"Danger Room, Open." She ordered and the doors slid right open. Stepping inside she surveyed the the simulation. It was number six, and the safety protocol was off. She had run every of the first hundred simulations at least once or twice. Then she had over looked the computer codes and studied every aspect of them, this would be simple. That was, assuming whoever had turned the safety off in the first place had done it purposely. And had it been an accident, they didn't fuck with the system again.

Without wasting another second she ran in, the door opening behind her. Running through the woods she soon heard other footfalls and noticed a younger girl. The simulations warriors weren't far behind either. Might as well question the girl, obviously too young to be nothing but a student, before they arrived. "Hey! What do yah think yer doing down here?" She inquired of Celeste.

Alex walked the halls toward the danger room. If he was going to put a team together and go out into the world, such as it is, he needed to first make sure to knock off the "ring rust." There simply was no better way to get back into fightingg form then a good ole fashioned Danger Room session. The room coould create all manner of obstackles and opponents to combat, making sure that Havok was ready and prepared to step into any battle.

The door slid open and Havok stepped in. Though he was expecting an empty room and not a sprawling forest. He could hear horns blaring. ~The headhunter simulation~ Havok thought with a bewildered look on his face. "Access Panel." Alex said as he tapped a tree with his hand. The access panel shimmered into existance as Alex looked over the simulation, noting where some students were gathered.

"Shit." He said as he took off running, leaving the flashing words of safety off blinking on the tree. "End simulation authorization Havok Delta 6." He said though he had a feeling he was out of luck, and new so when a computerized voice responded, "Unable to comply."

"Havok to Forge, people trapped in danger room, safety off." He said as he ran in the location the gathered students. "Message undeliverable." The automated voice said in a mocking tone. Havok grimaced some more as he picked up the pace, his hands began glowing as he came up to a fallen tree.

With a deft agility Havok scurried to the top of the fallen tree and leapt off, just a a group of three headhunters, complete with bones in the nose, came bursting through the underbrush. Their weapons held high as they rushed forward.

Alex knew the safety was off, and he had to fight like lives depended on it. This was as real as it gets, and he knew it. With a shout, Havok let loose a huge plasma blast from his clenched fist. THe blast striking at the feet of the rushing attacker. A shower of plasma and super heated air obliterated the ground, and incenerating two of the rushing attackers. Burning a third who tumbled toe the ground.

More horns rang out as Alex landed and rushed in front of Paige and the students. "Back the way I came. Quickly they are closing in." Havok said as he ducked a precisely swung club, his fist coming up and tagging hte headhunter in the kidneys as he let go a shot plasma blast, burning a hole in the man's side, before stepping back to leave with the students. His eyes searching around for more attackers.

Esme always got then in to trouble. This wasn't the first time that the younger units had ventured in to a basement and gotten themselves into a mess. They had ventured in to the basements of the training facility once, because Esme just had to know what exactly was being kept down there. Celeste remembered getting in, and she remembered getting in trouble, but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't remember what they had seen in the lower levels. Sophie must have fixed their memories. Now they were in some room of death in a strange basement. When the branches misted, Celeste was sure that her doom had arrived. But it wasn't. It was just a man who was the most friendly thing Celeste could have imagined seeing in this forest. She ignored his hand reaching for her and threw her self against his chest, clutching at his shirt instead.

It was only a moment before Paige (Celeste recognized her from Phoebe's memories) arrived yelling at Celeste and demanding to know what had happened. Celeste's words poured out with very little pause between them "ItsEsme'sfault. Shealwaysgetsusintrouble. tandI'msorry. Shesaysihavetodowhatshesayscauseshe'solderandIdidn'twanttobutshemademeand I'm Sorry!" She buried her face against the man's shirt again. He wasn't nearly as intimidating as the other girl. He was kind of fluffy and nice, something most people in Celeste's life were not.

A moment after she'd run out of breath from explaining to the woman exactly what had happened a second man showed up. He was not fluffy like the first one, but she recognized him as Alex (again from Phoebe's Memories), and he took charge demanding they get out then. Celeste completely believed that Esme got what she deserved in the horrible forest room of death, but she knew Sophie wasn't going to be happy if she just let bad things happen to Esme. Celeste did not want to get in to any more trouble than Esme had already gotten her in to today.

"What about Esme?" If it had been Mindee, Celeste wouldn't have been worried. Mindee was as tough as she thought she was. Esme had some minor delusions of grandeur. Her sisters were all tough to be sure, but Esme thought she was far better than she was. Maybe because they were the youngest, she thought she had something to prove, or maybe because it didn't seem fair to her that her non-telepathic sister was better at everything other than telepathy. Celeste wasn't sure, but she knew that Esme would get herself in to trouble.

And Celeste was right. Esme was running, leading what she assumed to be most of their would be assailants away. She ran through the woods till she came to another edge. She looked for the easiest way to get down, but there didn't seem to be a very good one, not that she cold maneuver fast enough. She turned to face the ones that had been following her. She had expected something not what she saw. Headhunters. Great. Well at least they were a little more primitive people. She held one hand out in front of her. Her eyes glazed over, her breathing leveled out as she tried to focus. Two of the Headhunters turned to attack their own group. She grinned to herself. One threw a spear at her. She dodged it, and turned just briefly to watch it tumble off of the cliff.

She turned back to the attacking force, who had over come one of her friends. She tried again to turn more of them. Esme had always been good at suggestions, but never in an actual combat situation or maybe the levels on this simulation were too high, but she only managed to turn one more against his own. "Fine." She growled a little as she charged back at the head hunters. She had done this a million times. Yeah she usually had her sisters fighting with her, but this was just like any other combat simulation they had been through. Her eyes were still glazed as she tried to make the cannibals turn against each other, but now her focus was divided, making it more difficult.

Nigel was thoroughly unprepared to catch an armful of little girl, and he very nearly tumbled over backwards. However, there was no way he was going to put his hand down on the ground, so he sort of did a little hop-skip on his heels to accommodate her extra momentum. “It’s alright,” he said, trying to be soothing. Soothing, though, wasn’t his best aspect. He attempted to stand and put the little girl down, but she was clinging to him, so he ended up sort of half holding her. He was about to ask her if she could walk, but there was suddenly in front of him a girl from that horridly backwoods clan who seemed to think that interrogating the poor child was a better plan.

However, he didn’t have much time to criticise her tactics, because Alex ran up and joined them, and he also seemed to be in quite a rush. Really, nature was pretty bad, but it wasn’t that dangerous. “Who are—?” began Nigel, but he didn’t need to complete his question as Alex started battling some primitive people who seemed to bear them a great deal of ill will. After that, Nigel didn’t stick around to ask questions. Hiking the little girl up higher on his hip, he turned to flee in the direction Alex indicated. Unfortunately, the way was blocked by a particularly nasty looking brute, equipped with a large club and an ugly snarl. “Excuse us, good sir. Would you be so kind as to—Gah!” Nigel just barely sublimated himself and the little girl in time, but the club passed harmlessly through the mist. “That was extremely rude,” said Nigel, resolidifying.

The brute seemed surprised to find his hand clutching empty air—er, mist—but he was even more surprised when his club suddenly appeared in the air above his head and fell on him. As the man dropped in front of them, Nigel became aware of the little girl’s protesting voice. “There’s someone else in here?” he asked. “Oi, this girl says there’s—iyp!” He managed again to just barely evade a thrown projectile that may or may not have been a rock (he wasn’t checking) and abandoned his attempt to notify the others. “Er… They’ll get her,” he said, and he turned back in what he hoped was the direction of the exit.

You couldn't stay mad at the girl, Paige supposed. Growing up with as many brothers and sisters that she did there was plenty of blame to go around. Paige wasn't telepathic, so she couldn't say for sure who's fault this was but there was no point in worrying about it now. "It's alright sweetheart, ah'm not mad. We were jus' worried about yah." She gave Celeste a little smile. A brute came for her and she grabbed hold of his arms, pushing him off and flipping around his back. A move Sam had taught her.

"Yah got this, Alex? Kid says she has a sister, Ah gotta find her!" Waiting a few seconds for confirmation, Paige took off in another direction looking for Esme.

Paige ran as fast as she could, eventually she heard yells from more of the head hunters the simulation had created and she changed her path slightly. Breaking through a bunch of trees she found Esme about to face off with a group of the head hunters. There was Esme, who didn't look like she knew much about combat and with the safety off just doing this telepathically would be hard for her. "We need tah get yah out of here," Paige announced her presence. "We've already got your sister."

Grabbing at her temple Paige grabbed a handful of skin and tore down in a strong movement. Underneath was Paige made of stone. She grabbed the hunter coming towards her and threw him onto his back. The next one received a knee kick to the groin.

Alex nodded to Husk as she sped away after the other girls sister. His eyes narrowed as more natives charged in. A good ole fashioned fight. Problem was these natives were amped up and were willing and able to kill. They were deadly and precise and had not a bit of conscience.

Alex back peddled and bit and bolted to the left. Drawing the present group away from the direction Husk went as he fired off a blast or two. His blast ctching a couple squarely, the super heated air scorching a few others, angering them more then anything

Drums beat louder as twigs snapped. Spears flew to air, Havok barely ducking for cover as the spears struck ground and tree trunk. Dozens upon dozens of natives poured into the air, charging head long towards Alex. All manner of weapons poised for the attack. More then anyone man could handle.

Unless that man was Alex Summers, who just so happened to be a virtual walking plasma bomb. He could feel his insides warm up as he took a deep breathe. His thoughts thinking hard towards the telepathic sisters. ::I would tell every to take cover now, lots of cover.:: He thought over and over with a sense of urgency as he let the oncoming natives get closer and closer.

Just as one was about to raise the makeshift mace and strike Alex about the face, Havok let go of the concentric blast that radiated out in all directions, decimating the air he stood in. The forest around him in a perfect concentric circle erupted and virtually melted from existence from both the plasma and the super heated air. The sound of super heated air popping and crackle reverberated all around him. With his eyes open Alex looked at the carnage he had caused. The one aspect of his ability was its sheer distructive nature. That distructiveness was the reason he struggled some much to get it under control. One moment of lost focus and up went entire city blocks.

With a sigh, Alex turned and ran in the direction Husk had gone. Hoping that they had gotten out of the way. His blast was large, but as long as they had gotten more then 30 feet away from him they would be fine.