Players:
Summary: Theo tests out his new suit of armor, he and Chloe try to figure out how to beat Mindbender and Upgrade.
Date: Tuesday, June 28, 2011. 3:11pm
Log Title: Trial and Error
Rating: PG
Xavier Mansion - Japanese Gardens
A large area of the grounds is landscaped with a Japanese Garden. A river filled with coi fish runs through the middle with a wooden bridge. There is even a small waterfall splashing on the rocks. Bamboo can be heard clacking on the rocks. A small statue of a Buddha can be found in various places. The trees hang over the area and when the flowers are in bloom, it brings a variety of color to the peaceful landscape.
One of the many perks of taking Bushido classes is they let you play with swords. Admittedly they're wooden swords at the level Chloe is at, but when you're moving at superspeed it doesn't make them that much less lethal. Which could explain why the blonde is taking the time to work on her sword skills. "The movies make this look far easier," she mutters to herself, repeating the same draw and slash motion over and over again.
From the woods behind the garden, suddenly a gray armored figure comes flying "Whoaaaaa!" He launches from the trees, arms flailing, and then throws his wrist out at the mansion. A grapling hook launches, but doesn't have nearly enough length to reach the wall. So what happens? A bunch of crushed flowers, that's what happens. Face first Theo lands in the ground. and that's the end of those flowers. "…Ow."
Chloe spins, sword going up over her head and then the mysterious figure flops into a flowerbed. "Erm… I'd ask who that is, but I'm not sure anyone would overcome the embarrassment enough to reply," she says, raising an eyebrow and lowering her wooden training sword. "I think you also… ahem… had a little misfire there…"
The figure plants a hand on either side of himself, and does a pushup to bring himself into a sitting position. It isn't the most glorious looking armor, but it seems very practical in design. "It was on purpose," the voice emits. It's robotic voice, not unlike Iron Man's voice emitter. "I was just getting you some flowers." The grappling hook remains spent and lying across the garden, having fallen into the water. Theo stands to his feet, holding some partly crushed flowers out to Chloe.
"Is that your Proto armour?" Chloe wonders, giving it a quick glance. "Because if it is I can't imagine you have much padding inside there. So you might want to visit the medbay for a possible concussion." She shrugs. "Thanks for the thought, but I guess now is as good a time as any to confess I don't much care for cut flowers. There's something a little bit depressing about seeing them die."
"Well, I don't know if 'cut' is the best term for them," Theo laughs. "Yeah, there's some padding, but not enough to keep that from hurting. But I'll be okay." He pulls a rooted flower from his arm, "Here, this one still has roots," he laughs. "We can plant it." He shakes the dirt off some, and then the helmet peels back, showing the teen's face. A bruise is forming on his left cheek. "At least it works!" He offers.
"You're presumably still getting the last few bugs sorted out?" Chloe asks, ducking down to scoop a suitable hole in the ground. "Turns out 'magical Connor' is too busy patching the hole in reality our Connor made to help against Heathers parents. Fat lot of good magical might will do us. How did you go getting Tony Stark to help?"
"Um, I'm not really sure. I told him about Proto's upgrades, and he decided to give me a lecture about being wise with my intelligence. I tried to hint at it, but he didn't bite. He talked about knowing when to ask for help, so I figure I'll talk to him again and use his own words against him. At the very least he'll come beat them up for us."
Chloe sighs. "Between Robyn getting himself kidnapped and every possible source of help sucking things aren't looking good are they?" she mutters, motioning for Theo pass her the half squashed flower. "Which leaves me with one crazy back up scheme… And I doubt putting sleeping drugs in the water would do us any good. It'd still leave an entire city to search before her parents woke up."
"Well, Tony will help, I'm sure, I'm just not sure how he will decide to help. Dare I ask what the crazy back up scheme is?" Theo starts to wind up the grappling hook, and it gets caught on something underwater. "Oh shi — " he is suddenly yanked forward, and slides across the ground into the pond. He disappears beneath the water for a moment, and then reappears in the middle of the pond. "I am so very failing at cool points with this thing," he mutters, dripping wet. At least it isn't too deep.
"I just gave the majority of it away," Chloe points out, rolling her eyes. "Sleeping drugs in the…" And then Theo is taking an unscheduled bath in the pond. "Hahahahaha. Oh god I wish I had a camera built into my arm, that would have been youtube gold. So what other features have you installed? Aside from the grappling hook you're in /dire/ need of practise with?"
Theo lets out a sigh. He trudges out of the water. "At least I was proactive enough to waterproof him," he says. Unfortunately, that just counds for the inner workings, and is clear as he comes out, water pouring from the joints. "I thought you were kidding about the sleeping drugs. I don't think that'd work at all." He holds up the wrists, which flick out six inch blades. "I got these, which are always handy," he explains. They fold back, and he holds out the left arm, and there is a blue arc of electricity that sparks from the two points of a taser mounted. "Can't get anything cool without breaking a lot of laws. And Proto can use all this stuff on his own, too."
Chloe cringes. "Theo! Do /not/ ever use the tazer when you're wearing a metal suit and soaking wet," she exclaims, blurting out the rebuke so quickly it only barely has gaps between the words. "I'm not sure having retractable blades is strictly legal, but I won't tell if you don't. I bet him being able to use them solo will come in very handy at some point, especially if you can preprogram him to attack set badguys on sight."
"It's isolated," Theo says. "It's not gonna zap me. I told Emma he had small cutting tools," he says with a smile. Which is technically true, depending on your definition of small. "Yeah, I can do that. We just gotta find them now," he says.
"It's isolated. Right… But I'd bet the water gushing from inside the suit isn't," Chloe points out, shaking her head. "Anyway you're right, which means we need to think about the sort of places they might be hiding. But first I better get my stuff packed up, I have to get ready for an out of school training session right after squad training is done. Need a major calorie hit or I'll probably pass out half way through."
"All right. I'm gonna try to get the hang of using this stuff, and then I'll start working on finding Heather's parents," Theo says. He resets the grappling hook, and turns back to the woods. "Don't worry, we'll find them."
"And when we do they're going to regret breaking out of jail," Chloe states with icy calm. "Anyway try not to break your neck playing around with your new toy. I'll cya later for squad training." And with that she scoops up her sword and heads back to the mansion at top speed.
