Players:
Summary: Jono runs a Danger Room Session with an interesting scenario and results.
Date: April 14, 2010
Deaf in the Danger Room
Rating: PG-13
// Xavier Mansion - Danger Room//
A product of Shi'ar technology, the room generates apparently solid, realistic imagery by manipulation high-resolution force fields and holograms. The walls and floor appear as a steel room until a program is turned on. Overhanging the room in the center is a control Room managing the room's mechanisms to oversee the exercise while ensuring the subject's safety.
The dangerroom. Jonothon and Kenta are in the control booth, leaving the team down below. The Brit doesn't say anything as he starts the session. Not that it starts out exciting. The room shifts to become a very normal city street in New York. It's middle of the afternoon, and people are everywhere. Cars pack the street, many stopped while waiting for the light at the intersection to change color. Those pedestrians around the team don't even appear to notice that anything is out of the ordinary. Even though everyone is wearing their power practice costume.
Sounds fill the air, for this is a major city. Cars, their horns, people talking, walking, the occasional bird calling out above you.. a noisy, noisy place, and everyone is stuck in the middle of it. There's even a hotdog stand just feet away, on the corner. The man there calls out to people, selling his wares.
Marshall's there, unable to hear anything. Of course. As the scene sets itself, he looks from teammate to teammate, to see what's being said where he can. Of course, he can't understand JAmes, so that's a moot point in either way you go. He hasn't customized his costume yet, preferring to leave it as it started. For now. He waits to see what's going on, looking from face to face.
Tara's already taken the liberty to modify her uniform to make it more superhero-y. She's taken off the sleeves and has used the material to fashion herself a purple blindfold. The shift in scenery, as always, gives her a little bit of vertigo as it plays havoc with her telekinetic sense until the new 'reality' has a chance to settle down. She tilts her head as she's suddenly awash in new sounds and smells, and it takes her a second to adjust. "New York," she says. "Allright!"
Some time ago, Rashmi had paid a visit to the customizer, without feeling the need to tell anyone. The difference is clear now, however, shown by the white bodysuit and lightweight boots, the Paragons-purple sari tucked into the squad utility belt. As the scene resolves itself, the redhead purses her lips for a moment, considering the possibilities inherent in a New York streetcorner. Looking from teammate to teammate, she takes another moment to consider options, and nods to herself. "Okay… Marshall, keep watch down that way," she says, gesturing toward the street running past the hotdog vendor. Zack, keep an eye out the other way… Tara, keep your other eyes out for stuff around us. If you see anything out of the ordinary, speak up."
Zack is there in his suit as well he hasn't modified the uniform at all really. Nah he's just in the tights and feeling silly wearing it. Cracking his knuckles and moving to pull his hair back behind his ear as the sites and sounds of the city are produced, "Right…" he says and he turns around to face the other way and keeping an eye to the street.
…It's as directions are given that the explosion hits. And close. What had been a busy street erupts. Yes, everyone is caught in the explosion, but at the edges of it. Still, the entire team is thrown around. In fact everyone on the street is thrown around. Cars nearest the building that explodes go flipping off. Car alarms wail. Pedestrians are tossed like toys. Those nearest disappear in a huge dust cloud that rapidly spreads.
Apologies for the powergaming here, but the whole team is stunned by the force of it all. Knocked down, sent flying, those results are left to the player, but everyone is effected in some manner. The most important part is that when the initial shock wears off, no one can hear. This doesn't affect Marshall of course, but no one else can hear anything but the ringing in their pounding heads.
And once people realize what's gone on, the scene is vastly different. A gray haze covers everything. It's difficult to see, but so very obvious what's just happened. The dying and wounded lay everywhere. That car over there has its lights flashing through the dust, even though it lays on its side.
Despite the darkness and decreased visibility, Marshall can still see some. Maybe not an exceptional amount, but some. He's got greater vision than the standard person, perhaps due to his lack of hearing. He snaps up and begins looking around for the others after he gets off the ground. He calls names, not that it does any good for any of the others. Along with that, he's doinghis best to keep looking around, so he's not surprised again.
Tara has barely enough time to throw up a telekinetic bubble around herself as she's caught in the edge of the blast, which lifts her up, bubble and all, and tosses her into the side of a building leaving a nice, spherical crater. Again, it takes her a second to get her bearings and she shakes her head, trying to clear the ringing in her ears. The settling dust doesn't affect her sight any (since she's blind) but it does send her coughing as it gets into her lungs. "Is everybody all right?" She shouts at the top of her lungs, hoping to be heard of the ringing of her ears.
Rashmi has little in the way of defense against an explosion, and finds herself picked up and tossed a fair way down the sidewalk, landing hard and rolling to a stop. Shaken, dazed, and unable to clear the ringing from her ears of the moment, her mind works furiously. Locate your team. Determine the cause of the explosion. Help the wounded and dying. It takes all of a moment to work this out, and her spheres fade into view, spinning rapidly above her head, rising and falling like the waypoint marker in a videogame as she scrabbles to put the nearby wreckage of a car between her and the origin of the explosion.
Zack feels the blast wave hit him, big heavy guy thta he is he lifts his arms up and is dug into the pavement! his feet buried into the street as he coughs, little scratchs cut into his flesh will quickly heal up. "What the hell…" he turns to face the cause of the explosion!
Lucas walks out of one of the buildings, having just entered the danger room, late as usual. His paragon uniform has been altered to hide most of his face, leaving just his hair exposed. And he has a cape. His left eye is still bruised, and he moves a little labored as if not fully healed, but he looks much better than previously. Doc's daily superhealing has done well on his ribs and arm. He coughs a few times, trying to see through the thick cloud of shadowy white. He removes his gloves, which illuminates it into a bright cloud of bright white. He smirks, and then charges his hands a bit, the energy growing brighter before he claps them together. Another loud bang explodes as the nuclear reactions on his hands come together in a small explosion of energy, the shockwave blowing a billowy cloud of the dust away from the team, leaving them able to see some. Lucas says, "Sorry Ah'm late.""
An eerie silence settles over the area as shock hits. Not that anyone can hear it. Those who are least wounded begin to pick themselves up. All are badly shaken, and most wounded. Here and there someone is wounded so badly they don't move at all, and in spite of the silence even Tara can tell that people all around are crying. There's fear, shock, and silent attempts to call out for loved ones. It's a horrible scene, complete with even some near death, yet still able to move. A man with a prominent head wound staggers out of the worst of the dust, seeing nothing, and unable to respond.
A few who can move, and begin to drift together. Many start to help others. No one heads towards the source however. It remains cloaked in that dust cloud, and only the occasional badly wounded individual can be seen attempting to escape. So far this is only two. The one with the wounded head, and a bloodied child holding his arm.
And then there's Lucas. Already staggered under one blow, the second takes people down again. Anything with enough energy to move the dust cloud is going to hurt the people here. Those in the immediate area are knocked down, calling out in further fear. It's to such a degree that those able to pick themselves up point at Lucas. Clearly they are calling to one another, and many are looking very angry.
Marshall's first target to find is Tara. He's looking for her, calling out. She and he may not know each other that well, but at least he knows that she's got some kind of protective power. He waves his hand in her direction, running over, "Ok, Tara?" Not knowing that they can't hear.
Tara scowls and concentrates, expanding her personal bubble outwards to clear the air. Even though she has fine control with her powers, she hasn't gotten to the point where she can selectively filter out dust particles in the air, so all she ends up doing is creating a vaccuum, with her as the epicenter. She gives up on this and the bubble bursts with a soft *pop* and the dust filled air rushes back in. Coughing, she wanders about until she feels Marshall's waving about, but still can't hear a thing. <I can't hear> she signs to him. Her ASL is actually pretty good for a blind girl. <Still have noises in ears. Can you see others?>
Rashmi pokes her head up from behind the car, frowning to herself as the dust begins to glow in places, swirl and eddy in others, and the outlines of her teammates can be picked out. Creeping from behind the car, she stars to edge toward Zack, two of her spheres detaching from the circle to drift toward those refugees nearest the blast, the man with the head wound, and the boy with the presumably broken arm. Bobbing in place briefly, they start to drift back toward her, returning to repeat the motion; a very clear gesture of beckoning to safety, as she builds, examines, and discards plans of action in her head, frustrated by her lack of communication and resolving to *find* a book on Army hand signals sometime soon.
Lucas backs against a wall, holding his hands up above his head with a wince from his ribs, keeping them from being run into by innocents as he just waits. There's nothing really to do but wait now, so he does.
The dust cloud is pushed away by Lucas, but as with Tara it creeps right back in. It spreads out as if it were a living then consuming city blocks. Sounds are of course still muted, but people are coughing as they stumble about in the dimness, trying to get away from it. Rashmi's orbs aren't recognized by those two heavily injured people, but that doesn't mean her efforts are in vain. A man, clearly wounded himself, scoops up the child and carries it the way Rashmi has been trying. The wounded man is helped by an elderly couple who managed to escape with only slight injuries.
There are other normal people who are motioning to the costume wearing teens for help. Costumes mean heroes in New York after all. (Well, unless they mean villains.)
seeing Tara signing, MArshall nods and responds in kind. <We need to make sure others learn this. MAkes easier.> He points in a direction so that Tara can feel him. <Others over there. Let's go.> He waits for her before he starts moving, though. Safety in numbers. The others moving for help, he tries to watch their lips to see what he can do.
Tara expands her field of awareness towards the area that Marshall is pointing at and is able to pick out the unique signature of Rashmi's globes. Her telekinetic field is usually invisible to the naked human eye, but the dust within the field shifts about unnaturally, as if gravity had gotten a little heavier, and it tends to stick to surfaces like they were all affected by static cling. She walks alongside him as they meet up with their other teammates.
Rashmi breathes a sigh of relief as the two stumbling out of the worst of the dust cloud find help, her gratitude nearly palpable as Marshall and Tara join her. Motioning to her ear and shaking her head, she reports her own loss of hearing, clearly frustrated. Raising her head, she looks here and there for Lucas, a worried frown on her face, a questioning glance thrown Tara's way. In the meantime, more spheres detach from the cloud, drifting toward other ambulatory wounded, shining dimly in the dust cloud, her own brand of will-o-wisps attempting to guide others to relative safety.
Lucas moves up next to Rashmi. He smirks, then he looks at each of his teammates, before pointing in the direction the blast came from. He speaks, but it's more for Marshall to lip read, "Ah'll scout ahead, y'all help get these folk outta here." He then carefully begins to move from cover to cover, working his way closer to the source of the explosion.
Orbs drift about, and more people begin to follow them. During a situation like this many people will take any help they can get. Still, there are many frantically waving now. Motions for help even in the silence. Someone trapped under a flipped car. People hurt and trapped within the cars themselves, as several went flying. It's too soon for emergency crews, so those who are lightly wounded are attempting to help where they can. Still, it's hard. No tools and many trapped in spots where tools are needed.
Ground zero itself shows no signs of life at all. Unless one counts a sputtering electrical light that sparks and thus lights up where it's at. Water gushes from a spot, but thankfully not near the sparks. Bodies are everywhere, as are the remains of the building front itself. The shop that blew is a gutted ruin, and crumbling in spots. In fact the ground around it trembles on occasion.
Leading the others together, MArshall wishes he had some of Mikhail's other senses, but he'll deal with what he's got. People trapped in cars? He may be able to do something about that. With protection over his hands, he can break windows. After all, he's got a good grip on body focus from Bruce Lee. He looks around before remembering that his costume might be strong enough to help with that. "I get people out." He says, nodding to Lucas.
Tara begins to pick up where people, and manages to catch a glimpse of the one that's trapped under the car. She waves at Rashmi and shouts, "There's a guy under a car! I'm going to try to help him!" all the while gesticulating in what she supposes would be a helpful manner, and then trots off to find the guy in questions. As she gets closer, the situation resolves itself more, so she has a better idea of what's going on.
Rashmi bobs her head in agreement with Marshall, another sphere drifting out to catch Lucas' eye, jerking repeatedly toward another car near Tara, as she moves off to assist Marshall. Her actions speak for themselves; do what you can, but stay together when possible. Again the rest of her spheres drift out to guide the ambulatory back. As the pair approaches the car, Rashmi taps on marshall's shoulder, mouthing (I can break the windows, if you can help them get out?)
Lucas ignores Rashmi's orb, moving to get the look at the source. Once he's done with that, he moves back to the team. He shakes his head a bit, conveying he didn't see anything, and then moves to help Tara.
The streets grow a tad easier to navigate as those who can do move. Vision is still heavily limited, but it's growing easier to see. Car windows can be broken with rocks, or expert martial moves. The costumes are good enough to protect against that. Normal humans help where they can, and people are incredibly grateful for the effort made. Tara finds a man with a leg pinned beneath the hood of a car. Should be easy to shift the weight of the vehicle away so he can be moved. Rashmi and Lucas too will find their powers make for great rescue.
And once everyone is doing just that, you all hear a voice. «Brilliant job, everyone.» Jonothon of course. He sounds pleased too. «You did as I hoped you would.» His words herald the whole scene freezing, and with it sound suddenly returns. With sound the dust cloud fades, taking with it the worst of the horror. It grows much easier to breathe. «Can anyone tell me what the point of this exercise was?» There's humor lurking in there, for he doesn't doubt people know.
"Work together. Save life. Work without sense?" Marshall asks. He knows how to work without one, after all. The telepathic intrusion is odd to him, but not without its merit. It's new, but he knows there's lots of weird around here.
Tara is in the middle of lifting part of the car up with her TK when the scene freezes, nearly causing her to topple over. "To give us lung cancer?" is the snarky reply from the blind girl.
"Hardly, Tara," Rashmi replies, shaking her head and chuckling. "I'd guess Marshall's right, Jono, since it makes it a *lot* harder to coordinate just about anything without some way to make people understand." A shadow passes over her face, briefly, as her eyes flick over the now-empty Danger Room, but it's gone almost as soon as it had appeared. "Something like that?"
Lucas sighs, and pulls his gloves back on his hands, walking over to stand by Rashmi. His thick cape billows behind him, and wraps around him when he stops. "Ah can't do sign language when my powers are on," he simply says.
«Marshall has it.» The Brit confirms. «You all did very well, and reacted in a good amount of time.» Sure seemed long, but really it wasn't. Jonothon gets the whole room shut down, leaving only the costume clad teens within. «Kenta and I are going to be picking up the bill for dinner, and you guys get to pick here. Just.. be reasonable on us?» Nothing outrageous, please. Neither of the men can afford to splurge at somewhere costly.
Tara throws her arms up into the air and cheers, "WOOHOOO! Red Lobster, here we come!" She, then, starts to take a few victory laps around her teammates.
"Um, he said be reasonable, Tara?" Not to be a buzzkill, but Rashmi does feel the need to point that out, not that she offers any suggestions of her own. Patting Lucas' arm, she grins up at the blond, pleased with herself and her teammates. "You did really good, sweetie. How're the ribs? …Oh. Also we should talk to the Doom Twins sometime. You need gloves that can like open up on the palm or something, you know?"
Lucas looks at Rashmi, furrowing his brow, "Doom twins?" He then looks at Tara, then back at Rashmi. "Go to Red Lobster. Ah'll sit this one out, you can use the money y'all save to get the better restaurant." He then leans towards his girlfriend, and says quietly, "They still hurt some, but Ah'll be okay." He winks at her.
Jonothon grins down at everyone, «Oh, I think we could handle that. Just don't get used to it.» Not like the man spends his money on anything but music these days. He can do without a little. «Go get changed. If you don't want to go out tonight, we can manage another time.» The Brit shuts down the room since things are over.
