Players:
Summary: Connor starts a new team sport.
Date: August 16, 2012
Log Title: Team Sportball!
Rating: R
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.
Today it looks like the Danger Room has been set up for some kind of more complex exercise. Standing in the middle of the Room is Connor, dressed in his combat uniform, with his hands behind his back. Around the chamber are nine cannon-like protrusions on tracks of varying heights, and below them are large circular targets that look to be able to light up. He waits rather calmly as the doors open and people file in, giving one of those faint little smiles as he says in a tone that carries through the room, "Welcome. Glad someone could make it down today. I hope you're all ready for one of my torture sessions."
Having returned to the school for the summer cloud figured where better than the danger room to work on getting a handle on the new aspect to his mutation. Entering the room dressed in his old squad uniform Cloud is supprised to see Connor, he'd been expecting a teacher. "You torture now? wow things have changed since i left", he crosses over towards his old classmate, "You run danger room sessions? Are you one of the X-Men now Connor?"
Going through some stretches before the session is Nicholas, dressed in his usual Xavier's uniform, the only thing he still needs to acquire is a codename. "Hey Connor, I don't think I'm ever ready for your sessions." He says going through the same stretches he would before a horseback riding competition, leaning over with one arm in the air to stretch out the open side of his body. "Whose this guy?" He asks Connor as Cloud walks in the room.
And then there's Quenton, in his old Paragons uniform, despite the fact the squads were abolished, though he seperates himself from the other two as he steps in, almost immediately. No quirky passive aggressive comments. No witty insults. No calling anyone girls' names, regardless of gender. No. This time he just heads for one of the walls, to be near. A glove has been added to his uniform, for some reason, a single one, covering one of his hands.
Clomping along behind Quenton, Shane looses a quiet sigh, seeing him head for the wall. Shaking her head, she glances at Nick and Connor, giving each a brief upward tilt of the chin in greeting. Cloud gets a raised eyebrow, and a murmured "'Sup. So, sensei. What's the game grid doin' t'day?"
"Quenton, Shane, Nicholas… this is Cloud Rosen. He graduated the same year I did. He's back at the school to handle some personal matters dealing with his powers, and was hoping for a little workout. Since his powers are dependant on the people around him, I was hoping for a nice little group." The small smile continues to play on his lips as he motions around the room, "The name of the game today is what my room mate calls Sport Ball." Pointing up to one of the movable wide-mouthed turrets, he continues on, "Each of those will fire standard dodgeballs at you. The pattern will be random. All the dodgeballs have sensors in them. The goal is to strike a lit target under a turret, to disable it." But then comes a cautionary hand, "But there are three rules to this…"
He holds up One finger, "First… you all must touch the ball only once before it can strike the target." Then a second, "You must use your powers to strike the ball, and…" And the third finger is added, "And you cannot be within ten feet of that lit target."
Cloud gives a waves and a "Hey" to the others in the room, "Like Connor said, graduated by the skin of my teeth when he did and i'm back again for superpowered summer school". He listens to Connor's rules for the session, "Awesome, mutant dodgeball", he backs up a bit to wait for the session to start up.
Switching to another stretch as he listens to Connor, Nicholas is quiet for the most part. He returns the greeting to Shane with a matched reverse nod and gives a look over to Quenton. His entrance pretty much answers any question he might have to how Quenton's holding up so he just gives him a quick wave. "I don't think it's dodge ball Cloud, there's nothing to dodge, it's more, a weird sort of hand ball?"
"So, let me get this straight," Quenton finally speaks, lowly, his eyes drawing over to Cloud and Nicholas, his chin tipping in greeting, though it's half-hearted. "We all have to touch each of the balls at least once before we can hit a target with it, but we can only use our powers to strike 'em? Not an issue for me, and I don't know Cloud's power enough to comment, but Shane and Nick's powers are more uh… they don't really touch stuff often. Well. I mean, they don't have to." His hand rubs at his back ruefully, as if the place where he was grenade-kicked by Shane still hurts, but it's hard to tell if it does, due to the mutant's power set.
"Figure it's the same thing," Shane says, a slight sag in her shoulders all but shouting her relief that Quenton seems to at least feel like participating. "Last time, had Nick'n I playin' powers-only tennis. Was pretty fun, really." Her eyes roam over the turrets, and their targets, and the orange-haired mutant blows out a breath. "…This's gonna be a lil' tricker, though…"
Connor nods as he looks around, "Quenton… you'll have to fly in order to hit a target… since there's no other way for us to gauge active power use." Then the image there flickers a moment before the voice stutters on the word 'And' three times, "And-And-And each time you hit a light, it disables that turret. As a bonus? If you can keep the balls from hitting hologram me at all? I'll treat the four of you to dinner… so long as the budget doesn't break two hundred bucks. I'll even drive you all into New York in style." While Cloud and Quenton don't know it… Nick and Shane are all too familiar with the look on HoloConnor's face. And then from the left uppermost turret…
*WHOOMP!*
Nicholas doesn't have time to say anything to try to figure out a game plan with the others when the WHOOMP sounds he moves into the path of the ball and instantly puts up both hands in front of him and puts up a force field using his telekinesis causing his eyes to start glowing bright blue. As the ball hits his shield so the ball can bounce off of it at an angle towards Shane but Nick miscalculates the angle and it flies towards Quenton.
"Hello, ball," Quenton mutters, as the ball begins to fly at him. "Meet head." With that, he flies at the ball as it flies towards him, tilting his head to the side and pressing the side of his face into it, hitting it, but not with full force, so that when it flies towards Shane she's in no danger of serious damage. "Not that I care much for expensive food and some car ride."
Sucking in a deep breath as Quenton readies his face to meet the ball, Shane cups her hands together, eyes tracking the rubber missile. Once Quenton sends it her way, she crouches low, as though preparing to 'bump' a volleyball, her hands beginning to glow. Just as it seems the ball is going to hit her, there's a sharp, almost earsplitting *CRACK* as Shane imparts her own velocity on the sphere, sending it streaking Cloud's way. "Hey, Q, date's a date. Don't mind sharin' 'f neither of us're payin'."
HoloConnor grins, emulating the actual Connor up in the booth, "Good. I didn't know you were a soccer man, Quenton. Nice headbutt." But to add to the problem, while the first one is lining up for Cloud, a second ball fires off from low right, and behind Shane.
With the other three passing the ball around between the free of them Cloud takes the oppitunity to look for something usefull to absorb from so he can stick to the must use powers rule. Remembering from somewhere that holograms are just solid light energy and that while he's never really used such an energy source decides that nows as good a time as any. Just as he's finished absorbing from the hologram the ball his coming his way, taking a deep breath Cloud tries to focus the light into a blast aiming for one of the targets.
As the first ball strikes close to the mark and begins bouncing off towards the edge of the room, from up in the booth, Connor says, "Cloud… It's light energy in a semi-solid projection… don't just blast… if it can be shaped… you can do that too." As if to demonstrate, HoloConnor becomes Gollum from Lord of the Rings, and begins to caper in place, saying out loud, "MY PRECIOUSES! YESSS! WE LIKES THE BAGGINSES!"
"Shane! Behind you!" Nicholas says to her as he takes a few moments to watch the ball that Cloud has shot towards the target, he makes sure it's going to hit before returning his gaze to Shane. "Are we only allowed to touch the ball once or can we use our powers on it a second time before it hits the target?" These things are important to know!
From up in the booth, the speaker replies, "One touch each, then the goal. Dead balls don't count." The light shifts to the one that just fired, timing out the previous target.
Date's a date, she says. And that's all he needs.
That poor ball behind Shane is just straight elbow dropped towards the ground, so that it ricochets, while he lands on his feet, his back to hers. "Let's win this thing, then," he mutters, fists clenched, eyes tracking the ball's movements.
hane spins as Nicholas calls out his warning, ducking to the ground out of pure relex… and then looks up as Quenton intercepts the ball, rising to her feet with a genuine smile. One hand begins to glow as the ball starts to drop, and the slight young mutant punches it straight out of the air, sending it streaking toward the nearest wall, then careening off to Cloud's general vicinity. "Damn fuckin' skippy," she says.
Grinning from the rush gained from a brand new energy source he looks over at Connor's voice, the guy seems to know him well enough to know he'd never think of that, now just to figure out how. Remembering how he forces electricity into a ball shape he tries the same tactic and after a moment forms a vaugue bat/club shape, he's got enough time to register that Shane must be the girlfriend Quenton was worried about before he has to hope for the best and use his crude construct to smack the ball towards Nick.
With the ball flying at him, Nicholas positions himself, and his arms, so that his shield is hopefully at the right angle. It takes a lot of focus for him to hold up the shield and move it so that it redirects in the right way. The ball bounces off and goes flying towards the turret. "Come on, come on…" He says hoping that it hits it's target.
*DING!* Goes the carnival-style sound in the air, and the turret who's light was on flashes red three times and shuts down with an audible groan. This does not obviate the students from anything however as the room takes revenge by firing TWO balls this time High right, and mid center launchers lighting up… one sent wide towards Quenton and Cloud, the other aimed right at the HoloConnor, which resumes it's normal shape and stance, being polite enough to say "UH oh."
Quenton leaps up and turns in mid air, floating upside down as he attempts to kick the ball heading for him and Cloud towards the ball that's flying to Connor. While his aim isn't perfect, he does at least do it just right so that the ball he's launching wouldn't hit the hologram, though that doesn't neccessarily mean it'll stop the other sphere.
THe 'Uh oh' is all it takes to spur Shane into action. Leaping directly into the ball's path, she seems to decide to forego technique and subtlety, in favor of a good old-fashioned full-body explosion, creating a wave of displaced air that can be felt by most of the Danger Room. The upshot to this, however, is that it's deeply unlikely the ball's trajectory will remain the same.
Cloud starts moving in the direction of the two balls but stops at the wave of displaced air caused by Shane exploding, "Whoa!". Using the crude construct again Cloud swings at the closest of the balls knocking it back towards Nick and keeping an eye out for the other coming his way.
It's always frustrating when Connor starts pushing them like this, at least to Nick, but he's on his guard as he runs forward towards the ball that was just fired off by Shane via her explosion and uses a shield to fire it towards Cloud. "Crap!" He says as he notices the ball coming his way via Cloud and thinks fast. Instead of using his shields this time, he makes a sweeping motion with his hand so that he telekinetically pushes the ball Quenton's way. "He never said I had to use my shields!"
From up in the booth, Connor replies, at the same time the HoloConnor speaks up, "You're right. I didn't." A smile of praise coming as the count is one ball to Cloud for one goal, and one to Quenton for the other, leaving Shane and Nick a moment of respite until two more turrets start shifting position, not having fired yet.
Quenton swings his fist, hard, in an attempt to rap his knuckles against the ball sent his way, trying to send it flying towards Shane as well, as Cloud already hit it, calling over to her, "Blow up again!" He's still upside-down.
"Well'f that's how it's played," Shane mutters, tracking the ball swept Quenton's way. Once it's clear Quenton intends to send the ball at her, she readies… to catch it, it seems. And she does, though the force of the ball's impact has her staggering back a couple steps. Once she recovers, however, she holds the ball in one hand, pointing it at Cloud as only two fingers begin to glow, thumb and pinky… both of which detonate with a sharp *CRACK* that sends the ball spinning toward the older mutant.
Cloud finds himself faced with two balls heading his way with little time between the two, using the bat to smack the ball towards it's target he's not able to position himself again fast enough to hit the next, he fires a ball made of light to try to rebound the ball towards it's target.
One hit and one miss result from the tag team efforts, both lights going dark as another turret shuts down. But the two that were winding up send their shots at a much higher velocity, this time aiming for potential bank shots, leaving anyone to guess where they'll hit or who they're aiming for now. The booth is silent, but as those two fire, the light lights up under one for five seconds before going dark, and then the other one comes on. It seems every success ups the ante just a little.
"Cloud! This one's coming towards you, Quenton, try for the other one!" Nick figures since Quenton can fly it might be easier for him to get to the other one. "Make sure I'm last on the other one!" He can, hopefully, use his telekinesis to also adjust the speed on the ball so it can hit the turret at the right time. He takes a few hurried steps back before forming his shield so that the ball can ricochet of it in Cloud's direction.
"Way ahead of you, buddy," Quenton murmurs, propelling himself towards the ball not flying for Cloud, putting his fists together as if he was playing Volleyball and 'nudging' the ball Shane's way again, mostly due to Nick suggesting he should go last and Cloud having his own ball to deal with. "Cloud, send it for me!"
The ball sent Shane's way is caught, after a brief, panicked scramble to shift position. Once Cloud gets rid of his target, there's another small *CRACK* as Shane's is sent his way. "Gimme the other one last!"
Cloud smacks the incoming ball towards Quenton, "Really should make this a competitive sport", spotting the other coming his way he notes, "Right; Quenton, Shane, me. Ok, this one's yours Nick!", he slams the bat into the ball sending it towards the telekinetic.
As the second ball comes his way, Nicholas uses his telekinesis to catch it and then waits, watching the flashing light as the ball hangs mid-air, his out stretched hand reaching towards it. As soon as the light goes off he counts, "One, two, three, four, five!" And right as he says the word five he sends the ball hurling towards the turret to hit it within the time limit before turning to watch the other ball.
Another carnival ring goes off as one of the turrets shuts down, this time with an audible and slightly forlorn beeping noise. The other ball has gone high from two ricochets, and is coming speeding down now towards the HoloConnor, who is humming part of Ode to Joy slighly off-key, and ignoring the impending disruption.
"Send this one back for Shane," Quenton mutters, just bolting for the ball that's heading for HoloConnor, leaping up into the air and flying for it, feet first, to drop-kick it into Nick's direction, letting out a low breath and peering over to her.
Shane looses a long breath, sagging slightly in place as she watches the final ball, waiting for it to be sent her way. One arm comes up, mopping the sweat away from her forehead, but for all that she looks tired, Shane seems to be enjoying herself more than usual.
As the ball is kicked his way, Nicholas does the same thing he did before, stoping it in midair and the counting down before sending it flying towards the turret. "Crap, I already…" He just goes with it and hopes that it hits the target at the right time.
Because that one was hit twice by Nick, it doesn't trigger a success, despite the good save. For the next twenty minutes, the game goes on, scaling it's difficulty as the team continues their success. As the ninth and final turret powers down, twenty balls in various places around the room, a clapping noise comes over the speaker and down to the group in the room, "Great job, all of you. Quick thinking, initiative, and you slipped into a team role very easily. Not only that, but you saved me eight times from a pummelling I so richly deserve. I'd say shower up, get changed, and you can all let me know the best night to bring up a car to get you all your reward." Side hatches in the floor open as HoloConnor flickers and vanishes, the balls all being sucked back into the room's superstructure.
