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Jun 19, 2019 20:51:35 GMT
Post by Sarah Sharpe on Jun 19, 2019 20:51:35 GMT
As they continued along, Sarah could feel the heat and humidity begin burrowing its' way inside her, inside her skin, inside her lungs...the effect was like turning on a blowtorch and pointing it straight at a blast freezer and Sarah could feel the effects of it. Walking up behind her she placed a soft hand on her back. "How you holding up?" She whispered. There was no mistaking the concern on her face as the two of them crouched in the clearing deciding which direction to take.
"I'm holding up, babe," Sarah whispered back, taking hold of Julie's hand and giving the back of her hand a tender kiss, as if to say that she was alright. "Just trying to stay cool, that's all," she added, letting out a cold bit of breath over Julie's hand, playfully sticking her tongue out a moment as she turned back around and faced the paths again. Sarah, despite her discomfort, was actually enjoying the simulation and was doing her part.
"Okay. Set phasers to stun." She reminded her. No killing. It wasn't the X-men way and it would instantly crash the simulatio nwith a failure status. Julie moved and shaped the light and guided it down the left path towards the increasing thunder of the drums ahead. Sarah did in fact take charge and Julie doused her light to provide stealth as the drums stopped.
"Hahaha," Sarah replied; she knew the sim rules and the rules of the X-men. She had an aversion to killing; the only time she'd ever consider it would be to defend herself and her fellow mutants and the circumstances there would have to well and truly be beyond bad for that thought to ever have to be considered. "I know, I know...come on, come on," she said as they continued down the left path, eventually reaching a clearing with a bunker-like door at one end.
"There's the entrance to wherever they're holding the President; we'll get up there and while you watch my rear, Peach, I'll freeze the lock and bust it, then we'll go in and get him. That sound like a plan, love?" Sarah asked as they continued along...
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Jun 26, 2019 21:25:46 GMT
Post by masters on Jun 26, 2019 21:25:46 GMT
The best thing about the weekend is that you got to sleep in. Ever since Eric was a child, he had been sleeping in on Saturday morning, building all the energy he needed for the next week. When he had gotten his powers, though he didn't need to rest as much because of his enhanced endurance, he still stayed in on Saturdays just to keep ritual going.
But this didn't fair well with his schedule once he had joined the x-men. Now, if there wasn't a training session, there was a mission that they all had to go on. And that meant that he had to wake up earlier just to play part of the team. But that didn't mean that he would do it happily. It was common knowledge that he took his time in the morning, which was funny seeing how he could literally get ready in the blink of an eye. But he got ready on his time.
Eric had to admit, he loved this place. It was a nice contrast from the filth he came from. And unlike his days doing crime, he felt at peace about being here. As the ethics teacher and a member of the X- Team, he had been able to make at least a small difference. They were grooming young heroes and he was sure of it. Which made things even harder when they had lost half the team not too long ago. They were up against impossible odds, and even though he did all he could, it wasn't enough.
Julie was a good leader. Yes, sometimes she was a bit too nice for his taste, but she had the position for a reason. He followed her because he believed that. But he could tell that since then, her confidence has been diminished. He understood that she held herself responsible for what happened, but she wasn't the only one out there.
However, the loss didn't take anything from him. Instead it gave him more vigor, and he would be damned if he let it happen again. Today was the first team meeting since that dark day, so he was prepared to make an entrance. Getting dressed quickly, he sped to the Danger Room and pushed the doors open to see, that the stimulation had already begun.
"Rude much?" he thought to himself as he scanned the greenery of the rainforest. He wasn't the most patient man, so it just made him chuckle when others couldn't wait on him. So he guessed he just had to catch up.
It didn't take long for him to find a lead to follow as he ran. Drums began to rumble making, him turn and follow a dark path to the sound that was beckoning him forward. Before long he saw the bended light of none other than Julie as she followed...Sarah through the forest? This was a pleasant surprise. Sarah was a great teacher, but he had never seen her show interest in the team. In fact the only thing he had known her to show interest in other than her job was with Julie.
And speaking of the team, there was no one else around. Maybe they had separated at the split back there.
Speeding up behind the two women, he spoke out of nowhere as if he was always there.
"So what are we doing? Chasing a bad guy? You guys look like you're chasing bad guys."
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Post by julie on Jun 27, 2019 1:01:57 GMT
[googlefont="Griffy"][googlefont="Abel"] SEARCHING IN THE DARKNESS
Julie found the light
RUNNING FROM THE DAY
Watch my rear... Like it was even a question. Ordinarily it was hard enough to take her eyes off the magnificent thing, but under the circumstances; simulation or no she wasn't going to loose anyone else. Julie had something to prove not only to herself but to the whole school. She felt the weight of that annoying monkey on her back. A big hairy ape named guilt. The icy touch of her breath against her skin still lingered. Sarah was an incredibly warm person for such a cold facade.
Julie sighed and nodded. She wasn't used to taking orders rather than giving them. She liked to be in control, and at the same time she couldn't be far enough away from the steering wheel. The worst part about it.... The absolute worst thing was the mutant who killed half the team was still out there. He got away and Julie wasn't even able to take a piece of avenging pride home with her.
She barely escaped herself. New York was a swirling wormhole of chaos and destruction. But if you ask any single New York resident if they remembered the event the answer would be a resounding no. It was all thanks to his terrible, horrible abilities. The ones he dispatched violence and disregard with. And that mask. That horrible mask. There was a smile touching her lips and teetering on the edge of deception. On the surface she was composed. Inwardly she was a ball of livewires and nerves. "Okay." She said quietly. Then the voice spoke up behind them and Julie jumped.
"Cheese and Rice! Masters?!? You scared the daylights out of me!!!" Terrible pun, but you will forgive her under the circumstances. Her heart galloped a pace that would win any Kentucky Derby and bring home the blue ribbon. Julie looked at him softly for a moment. Studying the lines an contures of his face she couldn't believe he showed up. She couldn't believe that a single member of the team even still believed in her. She reached out a hand and pressed it flat against his chest.
His pectorals and firm muscle rested quietly, warmly beneath her fingertips. Her hand began to glow as she searched his heart. Invasive? Probably, but she had to know. More than nightmares had been eating into her sleep lately. She had to confirm it. She could see the soft twinkle of light rippling out from between his chest and her hand. The soft light spilled over the sides and showered down. Bright white. Pure as snow. She smiled at him again, this time a little more convincingly. Julie had the ability to search your heart to see if any darkness had crept into it. This could be in the form of anger, jealousy.... More importantly doubt.
There was none. At least none that she could see. Reaching up she tucked a few loose strands of hair behind her ear. Pulling his spilling light with a swishing wave of her elegant hand; Julie shaped and formed the light into a beacon. One that she pushed foward with an open palm and centered around his shoulder. "Let it guide you..... In case we can't keep up."
The last part she added with a smirk. At least if they got serparated he had a guiding like she had bound to him. It would follow him around until something changed. Some flash of anger that crawled into his mind might flood out his good light and extinguish his torch. "Let's press on." She said taking slight control again. She found new confidence now that a member of the team had showed up. Moving past Sarah Julie took point bouncing and bending her own guiding light in front of her.
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Post by Sarah Sharpe on Jun 27, 2019 4:20:33 GMT
Moving up to the locked entrance, Sarah took a few moments to look at it carefully before leaning down towards it and blowing into it, her icy breath quickly freezing up the lock mechanism in seconds. Here goes nothing, she thought as she blew onto the lock some more before turning around momentarily and slamming her elbow into the lock, shattering it - the lock, that is - into multiple pieces. Brushing out the frozen, busted up lock, she was just about to open the door when both her and Julie heard someone call out to them from behind...
"So what are we doing? Chasing a bad guy? You guys look like you're chasing bad guys."
Then the voice spoke up behind them and Julie jumped. "Cheese and Rice! Masters?!? You scared the daylights out of me!!!"
"Yeah, we're chasing some bad guys, trying to break into a building and rescue some people," Sarah replied, deadpan, as she turned and saw one of the other X-Team members, Eric Masters, standing behind them. "Just another day for the X-Team," she added, smiling as she gave Eric an appreciative, "glad you could make it to the party!" kind of look. She could almost read the thought bubbles going off inside his head and it actually humored her greatly; yes, Sarah hadn't shown a lot of interest in the X-Team but out of wanting to do her part for the X-Men and out of respect for Julie, she'd take a swing at the X-Team. However, she also knew that Eric should be leading the X-Team, not her...but you were here and he wasn't, she grimly mused, so lead, Sarah, lead!
"Anyway, glad you could join us, Eric," Sarah said to him, motioning for him to join her and Julie. "Soon as we get inside, I want Julie to light up the way; I'll back her up and you watch over both of us, alright?" Without waiting for a reply, both her and Julie headed inside - Julie leading the way with a ball of light to light their path inside while Sarah and Eric followed right behind her...
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Post by masters on Jun 27, 2019 5:09:22 GMT
"Cheese and Rice! Masters?!? You scared the daylights out of me!!!"
Eric laughed at the odd statement that came from the woman as she tried to calm her heart once more. You would think that she would be used to it by now, but no. He got her every single time. And each time was funnier. Where in her mind she dug up those random phrases, he didn't think he would ever know.
His smile faded slightly as he gave her a confused look, standing still as she looked at him with joy in her eyes. It was like she hadn't just seen him a few days ago. She placed her hand on his chest, and he stiffened as he felt the heat from her touch. And it was not only radiating from her palm, but from within him. She pulled it from him, and created a beacon, which he looked at in awe each time he saw. Giving him the first, genuine smile he had seen from her in a while, she gave him the tool to find them in case he got separated.
"Let it guide you..... In case we can't keep up."
Nodding, he moved in closer so that he could hear the plan from Sarah, who had fallen into the leadership role quite gracefully. She was being direct, and certain. For someone who wasn't on the team before now, she seemed seasoned. His job was to take the rear and await further instruction
"Got it."
So when Julie led the way with her lights and Sarah walked close behind, Eric followed.
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Jun 27, 2019 19:19:31 GMT
Post by baby on Jun 27, 2019 19:19:31 GMT
| Do you want to play? tagged |
The air was hot. The air was sticky. Noises crept around the canopy above his head. Baby greeted this jungle menace with a slight tilt of his head. Yes, he was in the simulation, but he was not a simulation. Baby was here under the allowance of his own abilities. Wonderful and terrifying he was here for Julie. He was here for anyone who seemed fun to play with.
For weeks after the event that destroyed the team Baby had kept tabs on her. Visiting her nightly in her dreams and leaving her with fresh cuts and bruises to show for it. Though Julie was enough to keep them hidden away. Even from the explorative touch of her girlfriend. Baby had taken a keen interest in her especially, but he was willing to have fun with anyone who wanted to play; weather they wanted to or not.
The jungle was hot and sticky and no place for a man wearing a dusty brown suit, but there he stood. The white long sleeve button up beneath it was already wet and partially see through from sweat. Baby's black tie dangled and swayed in the light breeze that did little to disway the heat. His dirty bloody hand clutched a knife at his side. A black handled kitchen knife used to cut chicken. There was rust on the edge, lightly garnished with specs of old dried blood. Games were fun, but they had rules.
One. Home base was your bed. If you made it out of the nightmare you could find yourself safe in bed and away from his cruel intentions. Two. Cheaters are punished. With swift death. Baby did not like dirty rotten cheaters! Three. The game will not end until there was a winner and a clear looser. Baby liked to take home trophies of his wins. Sometimes a toe. Other times a finger. Maybe a tongue. Whatever was nice and slicable within his reach at the time.
Baby continued to stand rooted to his spot. A monkey jumped from one tree branch to the next. Yelling and screaming monkey howls of the jungle Baby watched with mild interest. Monkeys did not play games. And though violence bubbled just beneath his fingertips, his hand was stayed by the fact that this game already had three players. That was plenty enough. He looked forward. Watching from his place hidden in the treeline.
'It's time to play.' He thought with a wicked smile growing on his lips. Everything. Everything that had happened up until this point had not mattered. Everything up until this moment was for not because everything up until this moment had been a collective dream between the three heroes. Sarah, Eric and Julie herself.... Were all in fact still in bed dreaming. Everything from the slipping out of bed and quietly getting up not to wake her girlfriend; to the slow and methodical, deliberate preparation by the speedster had been a dream. IT was still a dream. Crafted and created with detail by a puppet master dancing his marionettes.
Baby had no control over their actions, but he could plant ideas. Subtle things to bring them where he wanted them to be. The date book in Julie's room that said today was training day. The posted note hanging on Eric's mirror that subtly reminded him not to be late. He may not have even noticed it. The nightmarescape could be hazy and details could go overlooked.
Baby's fingers tightened around the knife as a soft chuckle echoed in his throaty emission of amusement. Stepping through the clearing the grass rustled lightly as he kept pace with the heroes. Following them a bit longer before he allowed the games to truly start for realsies.
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Post by Sarah Sharpe on Jul 2, 2019 2:01:55 GMT
Everything was going smoothly for Sarah and the others as they proceeded into the facility created by the Danger Room's AI simulation; there were a few bugs here and there, Sarah noticed, but nothing that should've concerned her. She knew how the AI simulator worked; she also knew it was prone to the occasional bug...however, something was bugging the hell out of her and it wasn't the simulation.
"Hey, guys, hold up," Sarah called out to Julie and Eric, holding her wrist up in the air to signify that they were stopping for the time being. Looking down a pair of hallways that intersected with the hallway they were in, Sarah held her arm out, feeling the tiny tendrils of ice beginning to form up on her fingertips. As someone skilled in cryokinetic combat, it still bugged her that she had to wait a few seconds for enough cryo energy to build up but once it did...
"Alright, move on up, guys!" she called out to them as she shot bursts of ice down each side hallway, moving her arm in a pattern only she knew. She was creating a set of ice walls that would block off the side hallways, trapping anyone in them for the time being; it also channeled anything they ran into right into their own hallway. As she waited for them to come up to her location, she began to feel a malevolent force inside the simulator with them; it wasn't the simulator's own opponents. No, she could feel it and it was an evil, evil feeling. "Guys, come on up!" she yelled once more, taking time to create one more ice wall in front of them so that they could rally at that intersection without fear of being attacked by anyone....but what the hell's joined us inside the simulator? she started asking herself.
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Post by julie on Jul 3, 2019 21:34:14 GMT
[googlefont="Griffy"][googlefont="Abel"] SEARCHING IN THE DARKNESS
Julie found the light
RUNNING FROM THE DAY
Julie had been having the nightmares. There was no doubt about that. She didn't tell Sarah though. She didn't want to worry her and to Julie, they were just nightmares. She hadn't considered that this was a mutant ability of some stark raving psychopath. Julie believed that she deserved the nightmares. They were her penance for getting half the team killed. Even though it really wasn't her fault.
They had gone up against an incredibly powerful foe. One that none of them truly understood or was even ready for. Baby. And Baby was the trophy taking kind of psycho. He had stolen left over body parts in the carnage. More specifically the body part that dealt with their mutations. For Jennie the psychic it was her brain that Baby kept. Sealed away in a jar with embalming fluid. For Maverick the member of the time that could create smoke from his finger tips it was his hand that Baby kept as a trophy.
It was a game to the psycho. He was building the perfect toy to play with. A best friend with all the best body parts and important powers. Weather or not this was going to work was irrelevant. In his mind by adding all these pieces he could make this work. It was part of the reason he attacked the X-Men the way he did. Julie smiled at the two of her friends standing in the hall. The ice blocked off several pathways and she breathed a sigh of relief. Her sigh came out cold as icy breath. Just being near Sarah.
She loved the girl. But she would definitely have to invest in some more winter time clothes. "We should stick together. I don't like the idea of spllitt'in up. We might could cover more ground that way, but we could also get sloppy." Julie said. Even now, in the calm collected chill of her lover she spoke with a thick Georgia southern accent. Julie's country girl turns of phrase and particular way of speaking had always been almost a calling card. "We should...." "Freeze assholes." Someone called out running up behind the trio.
Julie didn't have to turn around to know that it was just a simulation. Security had been non existant up to this point, but she assumed they would run into a little resistance sooner or later. More guards showed up weilding guns and waving them at the three heroes. "Stand down. You are surrounded." One of them said. They hadn't come down the pathways that were blocked off by the ice but rather right in front of them. Their movements were masked by the darkness of the hallway and the unfamiliarity with the surroundings.
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Post by Sarah Sharpe on Jul 7, 2019 15:43:51 GMT
"We should stick together. I don't like the idea of spllitt'in up. We might could cover more ground that way, but we could also get sloppy," Julie said as the three of them stood at the intersection; blocking off the crossways and the hall in front of them had given them time to rally together but time was a commodity that waited for no one, not even them.
"We're not splitting up, Peach," Sarah replied. "We're going to backtrack, see if we find another hallway to move down--"
Suddenly several guards showed up behind them, guns at the ready. "Freeze assholes."
Whoa, what the hell? Sarah thought, not bothering to turn around. She knew it was a simulation, so in theory any wounds they suffered inside the Danger Room during a sim would be harmless but even with that thought, the same malevolent feelings from before came roaring back inside of her but she let those thoughts stand aside for the moment; they had bigger problems at the moment... "Stand down. You are surrounded." One of them said. They hadn't come down the pathways that were blocked off by the ice but rather right in front of them. Their movements were masked by the darkness of the hallway and the unfamiliarity with the surroundings.
"No, you are surrounded," Sarah replied, holding up her hand and letting them see the tendrils of ice that began to form at her fingertips, "and I would suggest that you put your weapons down," the tendrils beginning to gather and form a blunt bolt of ice - enough to stun, but not to kill - "and stand aside, right now!" Sarah's voice was a mix of power and slowly building anger. "Or I can stun each of one, take your weapons and finish what we came here to do; your choice..." Sarah rarely ever got angry but she wanted to get past these guards so that they could deal with whatever malevolence had entered the simulation with them; to her, that was the problem lying ahead...
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