Players:
Summary: Magneto runs a Sunday night Danger Room Session.
Date: July 31, 2011
Log Title: There Be Dragons!
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.
Magneto strides into the Danger Room, full costume, cloak billowing, and he looks at the group gathered there with interest and perhaps just a trace of skepticism. "Good evening, lady, gentlemen. Thank you for coming. I received this Danger Room scenario from one of my people and I wanted to test it out before giving it to the student body at large. Are you all ready?"
Nigel stands in the danger room, not having changed yet since he doesn't know what they're up against. He blinks a moment seeing magneto and just utters a quiet "Whoa…." before snapping out of it and nodding "Yes Sir, I think.. what's the scenario?"
Sophie is waiting, having already changed into her outfit, though she's retained her cane and blindfold for fairly obvious reasons. She tilts her head as she hears Magneto's voice; unexpected but apparently welcome, as her lips quirk upwards. "I am ready, Professor Lensherr." She bobs her head, and clasps her hands around the top of her cane. "Are we to begin immediately?"
Figuring this was probably his last chance for a Danger Room session Cloud signed up for this pretty quickly, dressed in his squad uniform he was waiting with the others until Magneto enters, huh this sould be an interesting session, "I'm ready", he knows all but the guy with the dreds, wonder what he can do?
Sage is quite nervous about his danger room session. One of the teachers thought it'd be good for him to try it again to help him get over his fear and dislike of the place. He walks into the danger room in a generic training uniform, his hair tied back with one of his dreads. He doesn't know who Magneto is nor does he recognize the teacher. "Good evening, sir. Hello Nigel and Sophie." He greats in his Northern British accent. Cloud gets a nervous nods as he shifts uncomfortably. "I don't think I'll ever be ready for this room."
Magneto nods to each person in turn. "Miss DeCosta. A pleasure to see you. Mr. … Beck, is it? It is. And Mr. Rosen." His eyes narrow. "Yes… you should be."
Then Sage arrives and Magneto grins at his accent. "You must be Mr. Holbrook. A pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Professor Lensherr, as young Miss DeCosta has said… but I am also known as Magneto." He'll let people deal with that as they will. Meanwhile… "My programmer claims this is a simple 'Get there' task. We are on a sailing ship, trying to make dock. There are obstacles. Miss DeCosta, Mr. Rosen — you are passengers. Mr. Holbrook, Mr. Beck — you are crew. I am Captain Lensherr of HMAS Lancer, apparently." He shrugs. "Here we go…"
The room changes. The floor beneath your feet becomes wood, polished to a high gloss, and the air is blowing strongly overhead into the ship's great white sails. Other sailors are at tasks around you, hauling on ropes or climbing rigging or carrying buckets. And beyond the sailors, the ship, and the sails… sky. Vast open reaches of air, pillowy with clouds, and glaring with sun.
"I see Mr. Van Klies has a sense of humor," Magneto murmurs, and he turns to the rest of you. He's in a trim blue uniform with gold braid… and half his face is a steel plate, bearing a monocle-like gizmo instead of an eye. "Ahem. Does everyone have their goggles…?"
Nigel takes a breath and grimaces.. he's not sure how well he can do on this considering how strange things get once he changes. Not looking forward to trying to run a session using no powers. As the room changes he looks around and takes in the new surroundings. "Oh boy…" He then looks over as magneto speaks and begins checking to see if he's got the aforementioned goggles. "Ummm…"
Cloud looks down at himself as everything changes, "huh", he actually kinda like the victorian steampunk look, straightening his hat he finds his goggles, "Yep, got the goggles", he chuckles a little at Magneto as the steampunk phantom of the opera, "We put them on now?"
Sophie abruptly finds herself rather differently clothed. She's in a particularly fine victorian dress; a white skirt chased with red, and a red overbust corset. In this setting she is apparently a rich woman, as she sports several artickles of jewelry, and her blindfold is embroidered with gold thread. She pats at her clothing, and humms softly. "Different," she murmurs. She taps her cane around herself, and then snaps her fingers sharply. "Sailor! Some assistance finding a seat, if you please."
The change is something that throws Sage off a bit. "I've never been on a boat before." He says looking around and then looking at his clothes he's kinda shocked. "Goggles…what do we need goggles for?" He asks as he feels the top of his head to see if they are there. "So what do we do as crew? I've never done boat stuff before. But I guess as long as we aren't shipwrecked like Swiss Family Robinson."
Magneto nods to Cloud. "Yes, Mr. Rosen, you put the goggles on now, and at any time you expect to spend any time on deck. Your eyes will thank you." He straightens his shoulders and clasps his hands behind his back. "If you look to the left and right, you will notice that there are nets extending from both sides of the ship. You are advised to not interfere with these nets, nor damage them, as they are your only hope of survival should you fall overboard."
He smiles all around then, and says to Sage, "Never been to sea, Mr. Holbrook? Well, this shall be a learning experience, yes? For starters, you may assist the lady to a seat." And there are seats in the bow, behind a glass and brass wind screen.
Nigel finds his goggles and slips them on, listening to the explanation and nodding. He tries to bolster his confidence a bit, telling himself it's just like Cosplay at a con. "Yes Sir, so what are your orders?"
Cloud pulls off the top hat to remove the google and put them on before putting the hat back on, "Ok wearing goggles on deck, check, now just gotta remember not to touch the nets", he doesn't follow the other passenger to the seating area, sitting down on boats make his feel kind of seasick, he'd rather stand.
Sage moves his goggles to his head as he nods to Professor Lensherr. "Yes sir." He says as he walks over to Sophie. "Hello Ma'am, I'll take you to your seat." He says taking her arm gently and placing on his so he can walk her to a place to seat. "I'm going to walk you to an aisle seat so it can beat easier for you to get up and not have to worry about the folks around you."
Sophie allows her hand to be placed on Sage's arm, and taps the deck in front of her as she is led to a seat. "Si," she replies. "Thank you, Senor, that is very helpful." She moves a touch more slowly than she might have, owing to the volume of the skirts she is wearing; but at least she doesn't seem completely wobbley on the deck as it rolls upon the ocean. "Are we very far from our destination, yes?"
Magneto turns to Nigel. "Mr. Beck. If you would take a glass up to the crow's nest…" He starts, but then a young sailor comes charging down the deck, shouting, "Captain! Captain Lensherr! It's a sighting! We've got a sighting! Sir! IT'S DRAGONS!"
Magneto's mouth twists. "Well, of course it is. What else would be an obstacle way up here…? Mr. Beck. Man the starboard harpoon cannon, please. Mr. Holbrook, you're to stay with Miss DeCosta and make sure she's all right. Mr. Rosen, if you would be useful, I would suggest that you man the port side harpoon cannon. Or, if you'd rather, you might volunteer for damage detail. If it's dragons… there will be fire." He unclasps his hands and heads up towards the wheel. As he goes, he bellows orders to sailors — buckets! Hoses! Sails! By the time he reaches the stairs to the upper deck, he's running.
Nigel blinks at the call of dragons "Oh bloody hell…" He sprints for the starboard cannon and quickly looks over the weapon to see how it works. "You'd think a lifetime of violent video games and playing spelljammer I'd know how one of these things worked.." He finally manages to swing the weapon around and take aim at one of the approaching targets. Waiting for a call to fire at will.
Sophie has barely sat down, when the shouts go out that things are amiss. Sophie sits up straight, and purses her lips, tiling her head to listen. "What is this? Dragons?" She stands up once more. "Senor, the seats no longer seem to be a sensible choice. If you please, would you lead me to somewhere sith some cover? Not below decks; I would prefer to remain where I can make myself useful."
Cloud sighs, "Hey was me thinking this was something simple, and now dragons", he sprints towars the port side before something occurs to him, "I don't know how to fire a harpoon", and what the hell does Mags mean by damage control, "I dont suppose this thing has any sources of energy?"
Sage isn't scared by the thought of dragons. "Wow, Dragons." He says with amazement. "I've always wanted to see a real dragon." He says as he doesn't believe they're just a mystical creature. "Come on Miss Sophie, let's go over here." He says taking her arm and trying to find somewhere with cover but it is a bit difficult in an open boat. He can't help but look to the sky hoping to glance one of the sky lizards.
Sage is in luck (of sorts): a giant shadow passes by overhead as he looks up, and he can see gleaming scales, sky-blue and silver-trimmed, flowing like a river in the gap between the foremast and midmast. At the bow, a sailor is yelling numbers. "I see three! Blue! Yellow! White! Three…" The cry passes backward along the boat, each man repeating, "Three! Blue, yellow, white!"
The sailor is ahead of Nigel's station, in front of the wind screen and hanging on to the rigging with one hand as he cranes around, looking for dragons. The attack happens very fast: one moment, the sailor is hanging there. Then next, a wall of yellow scales rises up, a wing spread wide beside them. The light shines through the flying membrane, turning the great wing amber and gold.
…And the sailor is gone, that fast. Nigel has a flash of a jaw filled with teeth the length of his forearm, and the sailor falling into it. Then the ship slams sideways as the dragon pushes off into the air, its bulk tearing through the forw
…tearing through the forward nets like they're made of cobwebs.
Nigel hits the deck as the beast surges up the side of the ship. The cannon spins wildly as he ducks and covers. "Oh screw it.. I can't do this. Let the indiestructable nutjob handle it. Badda-Bing, badda-bang, Badda-BOOM!" There's an explosion that obscures his form from view, maniacal laughter drifting from the haze as it clears and Wildcard standing where Nigel was. He looks more clockwork than cartoon, but now wears a large admirals hat with the skull and crossbones on it and his uniform looks like somthing from the Sargeant Pepper fashion line. "Do what you want cause a Pirate is free, you are a pirate! Ahahahahahahahaaaa!" Wildcard grabs the cannon and spins it around, the weapon becoming infected with his unstable energy so what fired the harpoon has a giant boxing glove on the tip.
Sophie collapses her cane into itself, and tucks it neatly up into her sleeve. Her left hand reaches out to touch the bulkhead or railing or whatever happens to be closest, wherever Sage has brought her. She pulls up her skirt with one hand, enough to show the boot she's wearing around her right ankle; along with the holster on the side of it, from which she draws a brass revolver, complete with a small steam generator and vents along the bottom. "Call out targets, if you please," she murmurs to Sage. "According to their position on a clock face, as well as high, or low."
Cloud looks around deciding that the first thing on the agenda is protection, reaching out to touch the nearest piece of metal he can find he absorbs, rather than his hair, clothing and body becoming metalic as usual he finds himself suddenly dressed in steampunk armour, "What?, great dragons flying about and my powers are acting dodgy", he grabs hold of the harpoon and once he's found the trigger mechanism he'll aim at old bluey up there.
Sage actually screams when the dragon eats the sailor and he grabs Sophie to have her duck with him to shield him. "You have a pistol!?" The horror isn't hidden in his voice as all. "Why are you so eager to resort to violence, Dragons like treasure right, why not fight some treasure to offer them?! Maybe they'll leave us alone! What's below deck?" He says as he refuses to tell her where to shoot but his hair does extend and moves around the two of them protectively.
The end of the yellow dragon's tail whips past Nigel, a spade-shaped club edged in spikes. It shears through the lines holding the foresail in place, and heavy canvas sags over the harpoon cannon — and the cartoony Nigel, too.
Overhead, the blue dragon has passed back along the ship. Cloud can hear sailors shouting in fear at the stern — and then the ship lurches, hard, as if a great weight has settled on the port aft quarter. The shouts turn to screams…
Sophie and Sage may be finding it difficult to remain upright. First there's that lurch, and then a sailor cannons past them, knocked off his feet and falling down the slanting deck. Mind your feet!
Nigel looks up on time for the the sail to drop down on him "It's Mutiny I say!" The lump under the sail then vanishes and the form of Wildcard is seen popping up through another hatch on deck. How he managed that is anyone's guess. Watching the yellow dragon he reach into a pocket and pulls out a ridiculasly oversized firearm, it looks like a ship's cannon with a pistol grip. "Heh.. hand cannon.." there's a rimshot from somewhere as he takes aim and fires, the weapon belching smoke and hurling a pair of cannonballs linked by a length of chain at the flying lizard. "Hey Puff, suck chain shot!"
Sophie shrieks as the deck shifts, and her feet slip out from under her. Who's idea was it to give her heels? She lands on her back, and gasps as the wind is knocked out of her; fortunately she has the presence of mind to keep hold of her pistol. "Don't… think they're that sort of dragon!" she replies, amidst the sounds of screams and cannons firing. Thankfully, she doesn't need to be told where the dragons are anymore. She points the pistol down across her body where she is lieing, and then angles it up, away from the deck and well over the heads of anyone between her and the stern. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death," she mumbles, easing her finger on the trigger, "I shall fear no evil… for thou art with me." Upon uttering the last word she pulls the trigger; the gun whooshes loudly and steam rushes out the vents, needles in dials jerk, and there's a sound like nails on a chalkboard as a white beam lances into the air and… hopefully hits something.
As he falls along with Sophie, Sage grabs onto her and some of his hair wraps around her as they start to slide down the slanting deck from the lurch. The rest of his hair flies out and goes to wrap the railing for the stairs that go up to the lower deck so that they two of them don't fall over board. "You're worried about playing the hero and shooting dragons while falling off the side of the boat? Are you crazy?!" He says to Sophie. "You're going to get us bloody killed!"
Well. Hand cannon and steam-powered blast pistol — both are effective. Nigel's target gets the chain across its throat, and the cannonballs whip around the long, slithery neck to wrap around each other. The yellow dragon tries to scream and only emits a high-pitched whistle as its air is abruptly… less.
Sophie's target is the blue dragon, which has landed on the aft of the ship. She's right; she doesn't need to see it to hit it, and the white lance of energy from her pistol slashes through wooden spars and canvas sails with equal ease, unti it slices into the great beast's left wing. It screams, a sound just as surprised and pain-filled as the screams of the sailors, but at least treble the decibels…!
Nigel staggers a bit as the deck is shifting and drops the gun, it vanishs before it hits the ground. Lifting one foot a large suction cup appears on the underside of his boot and he sticks it to the deck, the same happens when he lifts the other foot. With a 'shhhk-pop shhhk-pop' sound he trudges up the deck. "Spider man.. spider man.. doin' the things that a spider can.. whoops wrong genre." Sticking one hand down his pants he produces a twin-barreled bell-end blunderbuss. Taking aim at the gold dragon again he levels the weapon at the wings. "Annnnd say hello to gravity for me!" With twin explosions the gun litterally throws him backwards and causes him to shakes back and forth on the suction cups. "Ack!" a hail of buckshot send towards the gold.
"I am not mad!" declares the blind girl, as she feels for the hammer and pulls it back once she finds it. "We are on a ship, Senor, and dragons are tearing it to pieces. Unless you intend that we are to swim the rest of the way, we need to protect the ship." She sucks in her breath, and remains lieing on the deck as she fumbles with her left hand to find the railing once more. "Just keep us both stable," she adds. She points her pistol off to one side of her previous shot — well, she thinks anyway, the ship's movements make it hard — and fires a second shot, sending a second beam lancing through the air.
"Yes because you always have to take the easy route of everything. It's easy to shoot and ask questions later but it is so impossible for you, for everyone, to see if there is another solution." Sage says as Sophie fires the gun again. "Next time I might as bloody well drop you and see if you can shoot your way out of that dilemma as well."
As the ship shifts Cloud struggles to remain upright before an idea occurs to him, a dragon is still a living thing right?, hopeing that it's pain will keep the dragon distracted, he lets gravity do it's job dropping down towards it, plan?, make contact and absorb.
The shots from the blunderbuss tear through the yellow dragon's right wing. It hisses in pain and falls away beneath the ship, unable to breathe and unable to fly, both. One beast out of the fight… except that Cloud is falling with it, and is within arm's reach…!
The blue dragon shoves off from the ship as Sophie fires again, which means that instead of getting hit at the joint of the wing it gets fried across both front claws. Another high decibel shriek and it curls away beneath the ship, too, using gravity to get it away from this wooden creature with the surprising bite.
And that leaves the white dragon. It doesn't see Cloud, but it does see where the 'white bite' is coming from, and beast though it is, it understands 'get rid of cannon, get rid of bite'. So it breathes on the ship, and now the sails over Sophie's and Sage's heads are full of fire…!
Nigel reachs out to try and snag cloud as he falls past. Though if cloud is still planning to absorb whatever he's touching then it might be interesting when he comes into contact with wildcard's unstable molecules. Seeing the fire errupt near the other two he reachs one hand out, with an aubible *sproing* the hand grows larger and shoots off on a long spring still attached to his arm. Trying to snag the pair and pull them back as well. "What a revoltin developement this is… ah cha cha…"
Sage looks up as the sails as they bust into flames and pushes himself up, using his hair as support. He helps up Sophie and leads her to a railing to hold onto. "Hold onto to this, I don't want you bloody shooting me accidentally." He says as he figures there must be another why to get out of this that doesn't resort to violence. Still using his hair to grapple onto bits of wood and metal that he can he goes to make his way below deck to see what he might be able to find down there to use as a peace offering for the white dragon.
Sophie takes hold of the railing after being helped to her feet, though she goes back down to one knee just as quickly, for stability. "What? Where are you— Come back!" She raises her voice, as her eyebrows rise. "Don't— you can't leave me! I can't see!" The blind girl falls silent once more as she realizes that Sage, indeed, is not coming back. Her grip tightens on her steam-pistol, as her breathing picks up a worried pace. "I shall fear no evil," she murmurs to herself, as she gets back to her feet and starts following the railing, heading towards the bow. "I shall fear no evil, for thou art with me."
The fall is short — too short, because Cloud's fingers are still inches away from the hide of the yellow dragon when he is suddenly grabbed and rubber-band bungied back up to the ship, courtesy of Nigel. Of course, this means that he rises up past the burning sails… and can get a good look at the white dragon.
She's HUGE, at least twice the size of either yellow or blue dragons, and she's ticked OFF. With a snarl, she grabs hold of the bowsprit and all but rips the front end of the ship off… which leaves Sophie dangling at the edge of a very long drop…!
Nigel was reaching for Sophie and Sage, though. Sage went below decks, which means Sophie's the only one in reach. Lucky Sophie!
Nigel has both hands full as he pulls both Cloud and Sophie backs towards him. Though that means his hands are full. "Hey Rocky… watch me pulla rabbit outta my hat.." The top of his overlarge admirals hat flips back and another cannon seemingly rises out of his skull on a scissor lift. It belchs fire and smoke as it fires twice is sucession, sending a pair of black spheres flying towards the white dragon with lit fuses.. cartoon-style bombs. "Catch!"
Bungied away from his intended target Cloud attempts to you it to his advantage, as he goes past the white dragon he reaches out to try and make contact with this one, intending to absorb again, hey if at first you don't succeed…
The blind girl shrieks and flails her arms in the air as the bwo of the ship is torn away, leaving her teetering on the edge, in a position distinctly reminiscent to her of the incident that cost her her vision. She flails her arms in the air and drops the pistol, which thankfully hits the deck and skitters back from the edge; and then Nigel is pulling her back. She flails her arms and legs, unsure of what has grabbed her at first. "Help! Help, it's got me! Something's got me!"
After ransacking what he can down in he galley in rapid fashion, a silver tea set, silver wear, spy glass, pieces of crystal from the chandelier and other things he's finding using his hair to help and to keep him steady, Sage runs back up on deck holding a bundle of things clinking together in a velvet curtain. "Hey Dragon!" He yells up at the white dragon which he now sees have Sophie. "I'll trade you treasure for passage! I have a…a…bundle of silver and bronze and some crystals I found that I can give you if you just let us get through safely!"
Several things happen at once.
First: Sage runs *toward* the dragon, which is something that usually means big hurt, in its experience. It whips its head around to face him and opens its mouth to give him a bad case of burning halitosis. Sorry, Sage: it really *isn't* that kind of dragon.
Second: Cloud, bungie-ing around on the end of Nigel's arm, gets within handshake distance of the dragon. Contact! Power floods into Cloud and out of the dragon (which helps Sage!)
Third: Sophie feels herself dragged to decking that doesn't bend in the ways you don't want decking to bend. She might feel safer… especially since she can hear herself getting further away from the dragon.
And fourth, last, and by no means least: Two cartoon bombs fly down the gullet of the white dragon. When if forgets to breathe on Sage, though, they don't forget to blow up. KABOOM!
And… the Danger Room returns. "I think we do not need to see the result of a large animal eating a bomb, no." Magneto flicks his cloak to
Magneto flicks his cloak to hang straight. "Young Mr. Beck? Interesting. Messy, but interesting."
Nigel looks around as the room returns to normal. He shrugs and lets go of Cloud and the struggling sophie letting them both plop unceremoniously to the ground. There's a another explosions and wildcard turns back into Nigel.. who sways a little bit on his feet and falls over. "Nnggh… that was nuts.."
Sophie oomphs loudly as she hits the danger room floor, getting the wind knocked from her once more for the evening. She lies there for a moment, in her Danger Room uniform once again. Once she recovers her breath, she stands up, and withdraws her cane from her sleeve. She snaps it out to full length, and sweeps it on the floor around her. "It seems I have something interesting to write back home about," she murmurs. "I am sure the Mother Superior will never believe that I have help to fight a dragon, even if it was only a virtual one."
Once the danger room session ends and Sage finds himself back in the plain room he looks around. "You all are bloody mad." He chokes out before turning and running from the room not wanting to have anything to do with the danger room ever again.
Magneto lifts a brow, watching Sage leave. He does not comment, however. "Mr. Rosen, Mr. Beck, Miss DeCosta. Are you all well? It would seem this scenario involves a great deal more physical back-and-forthing than I was told to expect."
Nigel nods and sits up "Yeah I'm good.. just that's the longest I've stayed Wildcard and been that active. Starting to think that nutjob might have some limits after all." He swallows and starts to slowly get back to his feet. "Feels like I just whacked my funny bone.. all over my body."
Sophie brushes herself off, and nods her head once. "Si, Professor Lensherr, I am well." She pauses, and clasps her hands around the top of her cane. "Though… if I may make an observation, as real as the Danger Room can seem, it is certainly much easier to be couragous when you know that your situation isn't real, and you cannot really suffer any serious harm."
Magneto says, "That is the point of practice, Miss DeCosta. You practice defense and offense, so that when the time comes when you have to use the skills, you already know how, without having to, as it were, invent the wheel on the spot."
Nigel takes a breath and steady himself "Hard to stay focused when I change, not fully in control. Just kinda point him in the right direction and see what happens."
Magneto says, "So, Mr. Beck. You are a sort of dual personality? Yourself, and your power?"
Sophie nods quickly. "Si," she replies. "I understand the usefulness of it; I was not trying to suggest otherwise, Professor Lensherr." She sweeps her cane about herself once more, and then walks closer to to where the others are standing, guiding herself with the quiet tap, tap, tap. "I only hope I can hold up in a real situation, should I ever find myself in one again." She tilts her head towards Nigel, and an eyebrow rises. "You have an interesting power it sounds like, Nigel. But… I believe I shall have to speak to Sage, later. he seemed… very upset."
Nigel nods "More or less.. I suppose it's kind of a Jekyl and Hyde thing. Wildcard is me, but then he's not me. It's like I'm trying to steer a car from the passenger seat with somone else controling the gas and brakes. I guess the best way to put it is Wildcard is me in a sense that he's the sum of everything I am.. without the limitations."
Nigel nods to Sophie "Yeah.. Sage doesn't respond to conflict well. I don't think he grasps the idea that the danger room isn't real."
Magneto hmms. "For some people, all conflicts are real." He nods to the young people. "Thank you for helping me test this program. It has its good points, and a few places where I believe it could be improved. If you will excuse me." Time to write up his notes….
Nigel nods "Yeah, I think I need to go lay down. That was just.. wow." He staggers a little but rights himself, heading out of the room.
Sophie bobs her head. "Si, Professor Lensherr, of course." She smiles pleasantly. "It is always a pleasure to be of assistance." She pauses, and waits until Magneto and Nigel start on their way out, before she follows their footsteps. Door is that way. Good to know!
