Players:
Summary: Alex's A.I. decides he needs some training. It picks Laura, and she's more then a little hesitant.
Date: August 5, 2010
Log Title: "I've Seen Karate Kid.."
Rating: PG=13
NYC - Central Park Lake
Bethesda fountain sits at the edge of the lake with a large terrace for people to hang out and relax. Benches sit under the trees creating a peaceful atmosphere. A dock stretches out into the lake for people to rent row boats to enjoy the entire lake. In the distance Bow Bridge can be scene crossing the man make lake.
On a relatively empty morning, there's only a few people near Central Park Lake at this time of the day. Most people are going to work, asleep, or just plain don't wanna be near a lake in the morning. Go figure. Alex in particular just wanted to stay in bed as usual, but his A.I had different ideas.
«Searching…»
«Objective: Ensure that host upholds the laws. Problem: Host is highly inept, despite apparent willingness to uphold laws. Barnes Academy not progressing quickly enough with the host. Solution: Find the most critical trainer that I am capable of locating within the city.»
"Huh?" is all he has to say when he wakes up, and he's flying across the city. "What the hell? Stop flying! Where the hell are we going?" he asks, but gets no response until he crashes right in front of X-23's feet, laying on his back with a groan. His eyes are momentarily read, a robotic voice saying, «Train the host. Deadpool is problematic.» before his eyes go back to their normal color. "That
X had been wandering the streets of New York since she'd left Jakob and the movie theatre. All in all it had been a very confusing evening, and as she walked slowly around the lake, her brow furrowed over heavily in thought. Having found - or maybe having gone back to Xavier to change - new clothes, the young mutant was in light blue denim cutoffs and a charcoal gray tank. Very much in her own thoughts, she'd barely noticed the sound coming from somewhere above her until it was right on top of her. She jump back and away as Alex landed at her feet, both sets of Adamantium coated claws pushing from her knuckles as she crouched down low, not in any sort of human voice she'd ever heard before. "Excuse me?" she asked, more perplexed then anything else. Slowly she straightened, though claws remained out and at the ready.
"That wasn't me, screw this!" Alex carefully stands up from the ground, brushes himself off, then starts walking away… at least until his body suddenly freezes up, and his eyes turn red again. «Mission: You will be trained to stop Deadpool.» before he's promptly turned around to face Laura again, his eyes returning to their brown color.
"Goddamnit, it's not gonna let me leave." He looks down at her, raising an eyebrow. "As if I'm gonna be trained by a… hot… hopefully legal… alright maybe I can get trained a little."
A dark brow arch as she watches the odd display. Morning light gleams off the Adamantium coated claws as she takes a step back as the robotic voice issues from the man again. Alright, so he was crazy. There were tons of nut jobs in New York, and by this point she'd gotten used to most of the eccentricities that people had. "Trained?…" she echoed, stepping to one side as emerald green eyes, shifted over Alex. A frown pulled at the corners of her mouth, her brow furrowing slightly. "And what exactly makes you think I have the time to waste to train you?" she finally snaps out, not really enjoying the man's commentary. "Who are you, anyway?"
"Alex Heckler, and I don't really care about being trained, it's just this stupid A.I in my head is all pissed because Spider-Man kept shooting me and throwing explosives." Alex pauses a moment, as if something's saying something to him. "Fine, Deadpool. Spider-Man, Deadpool, same thing." He shrugs, then focuses on the girl. "How the hell's a little girl supposed to train me? And, hey, didn't I see you at that school with all those mutants?" She didn't see him, but he caught a glimpse of her training.
Laura snorts derisively, her chin inclining slightly at the comment, a little miffed at the 'little' comment. "I'd be surprised if -anyone- could train you." she snapped, closing the distance between her and Alex in a few sure steps, one hand coming up in the process and extending out so that the points of claws were mere inches from his face when she stopped. "I think it would be in your best interest to leave now."
With that said, X dropped her hand, taking a few steps backwards before finally turning and starting to walk in the direction she came. Pfft… -little- girl? She knew more ways to kills someone then most trained black op's soldiers. Her nostrils flared, as claws finally slid home and disappeared into her forearms. "Idiot." she muttered over her shoulder, with a single shake of her head that had waist length noir hair flying.
"I'd love to go home, but my legs are sort of moving." Alex says as he looks down at his currently walking legs, his body trailing behind her. He's also rubbing his neck, there's something unsettling about claws at one's neck. "And hey, I could totally be trained, I just don't know how you could train me. I don't know what's up with my A.I, it could have dropped me off at Captain America's house or something. And fuck I wish it'd stop walking… that doesn't mean cut my legs off, by the way."
Laura grunted, ignoring him mostly as she continued to tromp back the way she had come. Briefly she contemplated just gutting him and being done with the entire ridiculous situation. It was the most appealing idea that had passed through her mind so far, and a strange muscle in each of her forearms flex at the process. "Well then, if you want to be trained by someone else, go follow them." she all but snarled over her shoulder in his direction. "What the hell are you anyway? Some kind of robot?" a pause, "Doesn't matter, don't answer. Just get control over your limbs and leave." she amended as small hands balled up into fists at her side.
"I can't do anything about it! And I'm a cyborg not a robot. I can't control what this crazy A.I decides to do. I don't even want to be trained, but it's kind of insisting right now." He slips his hands into his pockets, just sort of going along for the ride. "Didn't mean to insult you or anything earlier, I just get annoyed with this piece of shit making me do things. It forces me to fight crime, I'm supposed to become some sort of superhero I guess."
X stops abruptly, turning in one graceful movement to face Alex. "Well, perhaps you should learn to control the A.I. instead of the other way around." she replied, her head tilting to one side as her weight shifted and arms came up to cross over her chest. "I am not a trainer. I am a student. So tell your A.I. to find someone else." It was mostly true. Laura was technically a student, even though she hardly ever spent time at Xavier's these days, and considered what they had as training somewhat weak.
"Why did it pick me? I don't even know you." she asked, curiosity getting somewhat the better of her agitation at the continued insults. Over-bright green eyes shifted up towards Alex's face as a brow inched up slightly with the question.
"Uh, A.I?" Alex knocks on his head a few times, waiting for an answer. It doesn't seem to be answering through him, for whatever reason, but he tells her what it says. "It says it scanned through its… databases or whatever. It calculated the most skilled person we'd actually have access to who's based on New York. So basically you're tough and it had an idea of how to find you. Says I saw you in Xavier's and that's how it figured out how good you are."
"And if I refused to train you?" he asked, her frown returning, though she had slowly started pacing around Alex, looking him over with an appraising eye. She moved with a silent grace, even in heavy combat boots she barely made a noise as she moved except for her voice. "And how idiotic are you to get into a fight with Deadpool? You clearly must have a death wish."
"I have a bounty on my head. My father's a mob boss, that's how I got into this cyborg situation. My father had me doing work for him, and when I went to collect on some antique shop owner's debt, he turned me into this. After that, the A.I completely fucked my father's organization and he was thrown in jail. Only, I got blamed for it, so I've got criminals and bounty hunters coming after me." Alex doesn't move, he seems to be appraising her, in his own not-so-professional way. "I go to Barnes Academy, but I guess the A.I wants me trained… harsher? Says if you don't train me, it has to run new calculations or some robot crap."
Laura stopped in front of him once more, still frowning though this time up at his face. She was clearly torn. On the one hand she really didn't have any love for Deadpool, so helping someone else try and take a whack at him was ideal. On the other she was technically working with him on a mission, and she didn't want any more grief then she already got from him. She chewed on her lower lip as her gaze drifted just past Alex, watching as a couple walked towards the lake.
This may be something that could benefit her, and that fact did weigh heavy on her mind. With a sigh, Laura refocused on Alex once more. "Fine but there are terms, that you must agree to, and something I want in return. If you disagree with anything I will not assist you." she stated quickly, her head tilting to one side sending a curtain of unruly noir locks over one shoulder. "Do you agree?"
"I don't even get to hear the terms?" Alex asks, but sighs, since he doesn't have much of a choice in the matter anyway. "Alright, I'll agree. I just hope this isn't anything weird. I've seen the Karate Kid… the original." he's quick to point out, but otherwise crosses his arms and watches her. "What's with the claws?"
Laura's brow furrowed at the movie reference, clearly it wasn't something she had ever heard of before. "You will hear them when it is time to hear them." came her reply with one thin shoulder lifting up in a half shrug. Her eyes dropped down to her hands as both sets of tandem claws resprouted from her knuckles again. "My mutation." she replied, and with another soft *shhkt* sound a Adamantium coated claws pushed out from each foot, letting him see her full set of metal coated bone claws. "You may as well get used to seeing them. If I am to train you, I will not hold back."
Whether his A.I. had a death wish for Alex or not, Laura didn't really know, nor did she care. It was going to be learn fast or die, just as it had been for her. "You will not question anything that I tell you to do. If you talk back, I will not train you. You will tell no one of this. Especially not Deadpool, if for some foolish reason you run into him again. I can't promise I will help you beat him. His regeneration far supersedes my own."
"He regenerates? You regenerate? Great." Alex doesn't sound all that enthusiastic, he knows when he's going to get his ass kicked, so he just slowly nods in agreement to her terms. "I regenerate, but it takes an entire day for my wounds to heal. I don't know what all of my powers are, the A.I won't tell me. So far I shoot lasers, which I can't figure out how to use, I fly, which I also can't figure out how to use. I run super fast, but I'm terrible at turning so I usually don't bother. And sometimes I have super strength in a fight, but sometimes I don't."
Laura waves a dismissive hand as he lists of the abilities he does and doesn't have any control over. "Powers are not important. You will learn to fight without any of that first. You A.I. is subject to my terms as well, or I will not train you. Does it understand?" she asked, taking a step closer towards him as all of her claws retract back into her body. "We will start tomorrow. You will meet me here at dawn."
"Yeah it understands." Alex crosses his arms, looking her up and down, then he can't help but ask, "Hey, how old are you?" He just likes to be safe on these things. "God, dawn, alright, guess I've gotta buy an alarm clock." he agrees, already sounding very lazy. Robot body or not, her training just might break him within an hour.
Laura's head tilts to one side slightly as she has to think for a moment about her age. "I turned nineteen on the third." came her reply finally, sounding a bit surprised herself. She'd forgotten her birthday. Not that she ever celebrated it, it was just one more day. "Where is Barnes?" came her question soon after, her steady, unblinking stare remaining on Alex. "I will wake you if you feel you can't even manage that small task."
"Non-students are allowed in. I'll wake up, I'm a man y'know, I've gotta be tough in the presence of a hot chick that can probably kick my ass." Alex stares at her knuckles, still kind of fascinated by the whole claw thing. Does he have claws? He can't help but raise his hands and squeeze his fists tightly. Nothing's coming out. "You're gonna kick my ass, aren't you?"
Still standing close to Alex she just shrugs. "Just because I am not allowed in, doesn't mean I cannot find my way in." came her reply, and with it, she dropped down into a low crouch, her right leg shooting out, in an attempt to hook around his feet and pull him off balance. Her movements, faster then that of any human, and sure and deadly accurate.
She was confident the sweep would catch him off guard. "Yes. And that is the last time you get to call me 'hot chick'. You may call me Laura, or X." she'd murmur a slight smirk pulling at the corners of her lips, whether the sweep succeeded or not, she would straighten and turn away from him. "See you tomorrow."
Alex doesn't know the first thing about dodging sweeps from highly trained fighters. He goes flipping over and slams on his back, staring up at the sky with a groan. "Yeah, whatever you want, Laura. Fuck…"
