X-Men: Halo and Shawn
Following Tory's suggestion that Shawn get to know more of the students at the academy, Shawn and Halo were conspired to meet. This was also a plan of Tory's to help Halo try and socialise.
After what started as an uncomfortable meeting between the two students, they, each with their own motives, eventually agreed to rendezvous in the Danger Room for a sparring session.
January 20th
X-Men: Halo and Shawn- History
After agreeing to meet Shawn in the underground technological phenomenon known as the Danger Room,
Halo stood by the entrance, dressed in what appeared to be a sports bra, low-rise, mid-thigh length bike shorts and a pair knee sox, or maybe they were boots-- it was hard to tell. The clothes she'd been wearing earlier were folded neatly and sitting on the floor alongside her combat boots. Everything she was wearing had the same, dull, dark grey, rubbery look; each garment was seamless and looked like they were so snug as to be painted onto her body, although they didn't look restrictive. She had a rather nondescript physique, as it was neither toned or flabby, although it was much more apparent out of her masculine garb that she was female. The rest of her visible skin was weirdly iridescent like her face and hands underneath the harsh fluorescent light of the room. She stood with her back to the wall with the flesh of a mostly-uneaten red apple clenched precariously between her straight, white teeth and her phone in her hands. It looked like she was playing a game or texting someone.
The first thing that struck
Shawn when he walked in was the look of the room - it practically shrieked no expense spared. Hell, even the floor looked like it cost a small fortune. He was dressed in a tank top and shorts, with his newest pair of sneakers on. His mutant growths on his forearms was in full display, as well as some recent acquisitions on his knees. He lay a long leather case down beside the door, and when he straightened he suddenly spotted Halo. She looked, for lack of a better word, impressive. Her looks said she was ready for combat, despite the nonchalant pose she was holding; indeed, it increased the effect as though she was saying to the world, 'I'm ready no matter what you throw at me.' "Hey," Shawn said, raising a hand. "You all set? How do we set this place up? Is equipment stored in hidden cupboards?"
Palming her phone in one hand and grabbing the apple the other,
Halo bit completely into the shiny piece of fruit, creating a loud, crisp sound in the dead air of the room. She finished chewing as Shawn greeted her then asked a series of questions. She stared at him, chewing thoroughly as he spoke, and then waited a couple of seconds afterwards to make sure that he was through. Quirking an eyebrow, she stated, 'The Danger Room creates holographic scenarios.' With that, she glanced around the entirety of the high-tech tin box, its high ceiling, the buttons and control pads that meant nothing to her. 'As I understand it, there isn't any equipment here to speak of, and you need pass codes to run the scenarios.' Her old, experienced roommate had at least explained some of the ins and outs of the mansion before she left the school. 'I don't have any pass codes,' she finished as if that weren't any sort of issue, then took another noisy bite of her apple.
Shawn looked a little deflated after Halo's explanation. "Huh. That sucks." So they simply had an empty room to train in? He'd made a poor choice. The words of Shade from a few weeks ago came back to him. "Wait," he said quickly as he went to a control panel near the door. "There must be basic training programs open to all - some guy mentioned something about it."
BASIC MELEE TRAINING rolled into view and he selected it. Immediately the room shimmered and took on the appearance of a martial arts dojo. "Better," he said with a relaxed breath. He moved into the centre of the floor and faced Halo.
Halo shrugged a little bit and continued to calmly eat her apple, even as Shawn sought a workable program and as the room suddenly changed around her. Once more, her eyes traveled the span of the room, up its newly-transfor
med walls and ceiling as she took one more sizable bite, looking as if nothing remotely interesting had happened. She moseyed over to her tidy pile of clothes, set her phone and the half-eaten apple down, apparently in no big rush, then brushed her hands off on the sides of her thighs. Finally, she approached Shawn, coming within what might be considered and uncomfortable distance of only a few inches if he allowed it, and she tilted her chin down slightly to peer at him. Halo wasn't really accustomed to play-fighting, which was probably evident when, with one inky eyebrow quirked, she asked, 'Now what?'
Halo was so close that Shawn could smell her, could even feel the warmth from her body. With a nervous cough, he took a few large paces backwards. "We fight. But I think we should have some rules: no hitting the face or groin, a round ends when one of us calls out they've had enough. Sound fair?" He took a stance he'd seen in kung fu movies, one foot forward with the knee bent so that he had a lower center of gravity, and the left arm forward with the palm flat towards Halo, his other hand balled in a fist near his chest. "Ready when you are," he said quietly, a smile playing across his face, fuelled by the adrenaline starting to pulse through him.
Standing impassively in place, Halo crossed her arms over the bare skin of her midsection, covering-up the couple of small waxy-looking circular keloids on her stomach, the raised scars whitish against her tan skin, only to reveal a couple more on the inside of her forearms that had previously been covered by her shirtsleeves. Her head tilted gently to one side as she listened, her attentive stare bore down on Shawn as he spoke. 'But it make sense to want to kick you in the groin or hit you in the face if I were really fighting you. Or vice-versa. If you were able to reach my face,' she said, although it was unclear whether or not she understood why he was laying the ground rules, or that she was not so politely remarking about his height. Even as her opponent prepared his stance, Halo made no further move, either taking a more psychological rather than physical approach to the match, although it was more than likely that she didn't understand how to proceed.
With a laugh, Shawn had to admit that Halo had a point. "Fine. No holds barred. Faces and groins acceptable." He readied himself again. "When you're ready, start attacking." It felt odd to utter those words aloud, especially to a girl he barely knew - he was inviting her to inflict pain on him, and it was likely that he would have to do the same back to her. The question came up as to whether he would be able to properly hit a girl. Would he pull back. The misgivings were increasing as he watched Halo, waiting for her first move.
She didn't outright grimace, but there was a faintly-perceptible movement in the young woman's face, like she'd smelled something bad and her nose wrinkled ever-so-slightly as Halo listened to the addendum to Shawn's initial ruleset. Uncrossing her arms and stepping forward, no sooner than the boy had even finished speaking, Halo reached for Shawn's shoulders, hoping to either hold him in place or push him down slightly, as she bought her right knee up, aiming for his stomach.
Shawn hadn't expected Halo to come at him so soon, and he only just managed to throw himself to the side as the girl's knee scraped across his gut. The pain burned but he knew he had no time to worry about it. Lying on his side he swung his freer forearm out at Halo's legs, trying to knock them from under her.
With her height and medium build, Halo had a bit more weight to her advantage than Shawn did, so her legs weren't so easily knocked out from under her, but she certainly wasn't expecting him to do that, so she did lose her balance. She started to crash quite inelegantly down toward the ground. Maybe it would be easier to pin her chitinous opponent to the floor, instead, so, in an attempt to exploit her new position, she tried to turn woard Shawn in time to grab at his wrists, arms, shoulders, anything she could get a hold of, really so that she could bear down on the boy.
Before Shawn could congratulate himself on a good hit, Halo's hands were on him - his upper left arm and gripping the fabric on his chest. She had the weight benefit against him and he found his upper half pinned. He threw his legs up in an attempt to hook his feet round her neck, but they couldn't reach. He resorted to punching at her gut with his free arm.
Halo had Shawn where she wanted him, although it really gave her no time to react to the stomach punch, to which she reacted with by grunting painfully as a rather queasy look graced her features dark features. Still, she persevered as this attack only steeled her resolve to get him to stop moving, so she slide her left arm from his chest, toward his shoulder on its way, hopefully, to pin his right arm. With the exception of getting punched in the stomach, when her eyes were squeezed shut in pain, she stared at him, directly into his eyes if they were open. With a shimmer as her flesh suddenly vibrated, a jolt down traveled down the length of her arms, and through her hands as they gripped at the other student. It was a little earthquake of warning, totally lacking in harm but most likely startling (as Halo hoped) if the recipient wasn't expecting it.
Shawn's blood was rising to his face as he found himself properly pinned. He began to thrash himself about when he felt the tremors run through him. Immediately, his eyes went wide and he bucked about as hard as he could, trying to break free.
Holding Shawn a moment longer, at least until he really started struggling, Halo suddenly let him go, springing back and away from his writhing body, then stood carefully, her arms curling around her still-smarting midsection. 'I win,' she stated assuredly but a little breathlessly, although she didn't seem to be gloating, and she didn't even look happy about it. However, Halo also didn't offer any explanation as to what she meant, she just stood there staring down at Shawn without blinking.
As Shawn stood he rubbed at his own midriff, feeling the skin where Halo's knee had caught him. His shirt had caused a friction burn there - he could feel his flesh raised under his hands. "You could have done worse to me. I appreciate that." His eyes were drawn to where he'd hurt her. "Do you want a break and then we go again?" he asked as he sat on the floor cross-legged.
Halo knew she could have done much worse, but her stoic expression didn't express that, of course, and she certainly didn't feel the need to share that at this moment. She did quirk an eyebrow in dry curiosity when he asked about going another round. Saying nothing at first, she turned away from Shawn and went to her small pile of belongings to pick her apple up. Its white, exposed flesh had started to oxidize, but she seemed unconcerned with that as she took a bite. Turning to face him, she stated after swallowing, 'I'm going to win every time,' as if it were an irrefutable fact. 'I'm bigger than you are, and my power isn't passive like yours.'
Shawn shrugged mid-stretch. "Every second I can keep up with you is a victory in itself." She certainly was confident about her abilities. "You may have the advantage but that doesn't mean I should give up. If it was easy, it wouldn't be worth my time." He gave a short chuckle. "I'm glad you're on our side." He got up from his place on the floor. "I'm ready whenever you are."
After taking a deep breath, Halo exhaled what sounded like a long but very quiet sigh, as she stared at the other student the entire time. He was... persistent. She took another bite of apple, bent down to pick the bottle of water she brought with her from the Cafeteria before she had come down to the Danger Room, uncapped it and took a swig. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, set the water and what was left of the apple back onto her clothes, then turned to face Shawn again, allowing several moments of silence to pass before she spoke. There was no way for him to know it, but to have gotten Halo to participate in any extracurricular activity that wasn't required was frankly amazing in and of itself, since she usually didn't put forth more effort than necessary in most instances. She didn't consider herself lazy, however, just exceedingly practical. Having grown-up in many an environment where conflict reigned, she also usually sought to avoid it, so another round of sparring didn't exactly appeal to her. Instead, she cryptically offered, 'The moment I got ahold of you, I won. I could have incapacitated you, but I didn't. Your sister wouldn't be happy with me, to say the least.' It was also quite apparent at that moment that she didn't quite grasp the concept of sparring.
"What good am I if I don't at least try to win," Shawn asked quietly. He felt unready to take on the girl again. The more she talked about how easy she was winning, the less he wanted to get into combat with her again. "If defeat was certain, wouldn't you still do what you could to win?" He threw his hands up above his head. "And how will I learn without practice?" He let out a frustrated sigh. "When trouble comes, I don't want to be useless."
Standing quietly by as Shawn talked and seemed to become increasingly discouraged, Halo eventually shrugged as her initial response, her bare shoulders pushing up then falling ever-so-slightly, but she otherwise looked totally unaffected by his words. She honestly didn't know, and she wasn't accustomed to talking to people like this. Crossing her arms over her chest, the vibrationally-gifted mutant shifted her weight from one foot to the other, looking more awkward than she actually felt. 'You could keep practicing your shooting. Or if you want to fight face-to-face, maybe try lifting some weights, or something,' she monotonously suggested, offering probably some of the least helpful advice ever.
Shawn smirked without humour. "Weights, yeah." He went to his leather case by the door and unzipped it, pulling out his .22 rifle. "Perhaps I can at least teach you how you to use one of these." He went to the panel he'd previously accessed and selected the basic firearms scenario. The dojo melted away, replaced by a militaristic looking shooting range, with Halo stood near a booth, its table blocking the aisle which led to a humanoid silhouette. "Ever shot a gun before?" he asked the girl as he looked down the scope at the floor, checking its calibration.
'Yes, weights. If you want to do better with actual fighting, it looks like you could stand to lift some weights,' Halo iterated, neither picking up on his sarcasm, nor genteel enough to try and find a more polite way of putting it. She remained where she was, but her eyes followed Shawn as he retrieved his gun, looking away long enough to take a sweeping glance of their new surroundings. 'No,' she responded to his question, watching him for a moment as he inspected his firearm. Her attention strayed toward the target, and her brow furrowed slightly as she focused on the silhouette in the distance before she looked again upon he other student.
"Then you could do with learning how to use one," Shawn replied in turn, coming up to where Halo was standing, bringing the leather case as well as the rifle. He placed the case on the floor in the booth, kneeling down, and pulled a few rounds from inside it. Holding one of the rounds out towards Halo he started explaining. "This is a .22 rifle, it uses this calibre of bullet. As you can see, it's quite small. Mainly used for hunting small game, but still dangerous." He placed the round on the table behind him with the others. "Important rules with guns. 1. You only point it at something you're willing to kill. Otherwise point it at the floor, wall, whatever. 2. Only put your finger on the trigger when you're ready to fire. You see people running round in Hollywood films with their fingers constantly on the trigger. Wrong." He held up the rifle and pointed out a small catch near the trigger. "This is the safety. It's always on until you're ready to shoot. And finally, never look down the barrel, not even if it's disassembled." He hadn't smiled once during his instructions - he knew that guns needed to be treated with a lot of respect.
Watching closely but saying nothing, Halo nodded after Shawn was through with giving the rules of firearm handling-- it all seemed logical enough. If Halo had gone an entire lifetime, however, without touching a gun, that would have been fine by her. Quirking an eyebrow as if to say Anything else?, Halo cocked her head slightly to one side and remained silent.
Picking up a bullet, Shawn slid back the breach and loaded the rifle. He locked the breach back into place and pointed it down range. "Hold it like this, with the butt up against your shoulder. Look down the sight at your target but don't have your eye against the scope - when you shoot it'll buck and you don't want to get a black eye from it. When you're ready to fire, squeeze the trigger." He held the rifle out to Halo. "Go ahead."
Inclining her head slightly, Halo looked down her nose as she scrutinized the way Shawn held the rifle. When he offered it to her, she remained standing with her arms over her chest but ran her gaze along the length of the weapon before looking the boy back in the eye. 'I want to watch you do it first,' she finally stated.
It wasn't an unreasonable request - after all, she would be able to mimic his stance and actions. Standing with one foot out front and the other braced behind in-line with his shoulder, Shawn raised the rifle. After closing one eye, he aimed down sight and nearly immediately after fired. The bullet hit the target in the throat. "I rushed," he chided himself as he slid back the bolt on the breach, the empty casing popping out. Again, he held the rifle out to Halo. "Don't worry, remember what I told you and take your time."
Watching Shawn closely, Halo stood perfectly still-- that is until the sharp sound of the bullet firing assaulted her ears. Her shoulders jumped slightly and she blinked suddenly, reflexive behavior more than anything, so it wasn't an overwhelming reaction, but her face looked even more dour than before. 'Unless you have chitin on your eardrums, too, you're going to lose your hearing if you don't use ear protection,' she dryly remarked, glancing from Shawn's face to the proffered gun. Instead of accepting the rifle, she headed over to her pile of belongings and found her trousers. In one of the back pockets was a mass of neatly-folded tissues, one of which she took and tore into a couple of strips before working them into little elongated wads, which she then started to gently work into her ear canals.
Shawn was too proud to admit to the ringing in his right ear - far too used to shooting outdoors, firing the rifle in the Danger Room had been unexpectedly loud. "Sorry," was all he could think to say. He picked up a fresh bullet and held it out along with the rifle. "Come on, it's only the two of us. Don't worry if you don't start out well."
'I'm not worried about anything, except maybe going deaf at an early age,' Halo stated succinctly as she stood up, then checked each of the makeshift earplugs one more time for good measure by gently sticking the tip of her left and right forefingers into the respective ears. After making her way back over to Shawn, she paused then carefully took the rifle. It was lighter than she imagined, although she had no basis for comparison, of course. After running her eyes along the entirety of the gun, from stock end to barrel, she precisely mimicked Shawn's demonstration, although she took her good old time doing so. The young woman took even more time after she was through carefully loading the ammunition by pointing the gun cautiously toward the target as she was shown, bringing the butt up to her shoulder, looking through the scope, then lowering it slightly to look down toward the target. She did this several times, without indication that she was remotely ready to fire, yet.
"Try to breathe out as you squeeze the trigger," Shawn said quietly beside her. "Relax. Don't let your muscles tense." He looked at her stance and had to admire that she had it pretty much perfect. He tried to avoid his eyes lingering on her body - she'd shown no interest in him physically and was sure she wouldn't appreciate being ogled by a sixteen year old. He forced his eyes back to the target down range.
Wondering what exactly breathing had to do with shooting a gun, Halo did what she thought Shawn was suggesting, and took a deep breath in through her nose and exhaled it in an exaggerated puff between her lips. Still, she didn't shoot. On the second similarly heavy breath, however, her finger finally moved onto the trigger from the guard, and on the forceful exhale, she pulled the trigger. Predictably, Halo hit neither the target nor the negative space surrounding the silhouette-- she would greatly benefit from a rest to steady her aim-- and the bullet was sent high and slightly to the right, landing somewhere in the end of the holographic booth. Her brow wrinkled in discomposure and her mouth pursed ever-so-slightly as it took her a moment to realize that she didn't remotely hit the mark. Holding the rifle safely down, Halo next leveled a somewhat accusatory glance at Shawn. 'Where'd it go?' she forcibly asked.
Shawn held his hands up in front of him. "That was my fault - I should have got you to breathe deeply and slowly." He took in a slow breath before letting it out over 10 seconds as an example. He picked up another bullet. "No worries, give it another go," he said as he held the round out to Halo.
It wasn't that Halo seemed angry, necessarily, just slightly less calm and detached than her usual self. She was probably frustrated or annoyed that things didn't go the way they were supposed to, even though she thought she followed Shawn's directions to a T. Her expression relaxed to its usual coolness as the girl watched him breathe. She then cleared the spent casing and loaded the fresh bullet after plucking it from Shawn's hand, being just as careful. 'They only go in one at a time?' she inquired as she took her grand old time as before, finding the process a little inefficient.
"There are rifles that you can load with more than one round. This isn't one of them," Shawn said simply. Yes, the rifle was rather simplistic, but it was a gift from his sister and a wonderful piece of engineering. He watched Halo again as she prepared to fire.
'It'll be difficult to defend the school if you can only load one bullet at a time,' Halo said. She wasn't trying to be difficult, this just seemed to be her personality. She spoke as she raised the rifle, and the moment she was through speaking, she breathed a little more gently this time, although she did still huff a bit on the exhale again, and fired. Again, her aim drifted upward, but the bullet managed to tear through the paper of the target, this time, albeit not in the silhouette, but up by the top edge.
"Getting better," Shawn said before moving to Halo and pressing on the back of her shoulder while pushing the rifle back into her shoulder. He hadn't said he was going to touch her, he'd just moved instinctively, and hadn't even thought how Halo might take it. "Really get the rifle in your shoulder, hold it there." He picked up another bullet. "And remember, slow breathing."
Out of reflex, Halo pushed back into Shawn's slightly palm before rolling her shoulder upward, like she was trying to shrug his helping hand off. The past several years, she was rather used to be sterilely poked and prodded at in the name of research, but as far as otherwise helpful or well-intended human contact, she was apparently lacking in experience and how to properly react to it. 'This is the last one,' she coolly stated as if it were a fact, tilted the rifle down, glanced sidelong at Shawn to make brief eye contact, then silently reached for the bullet without any thanks or acknowledgement of his advice.
"Take your time, breathe slowly, and remember what I told you," Shawn said quietly as he stood back and watched the girl. He'd felt her try to shake him off and made a mental note to try and avoid physical contact with her again - she didn't seem to appreciate it. Still, he was enjoying the feeling of being a tutor to someone. He hoped that she would do him proud with this last shot.
Well, while her final attempt wasn't remotely a kill shot, after Halo proceeded with her somewhat painfully slow method of making sure she prepared the rifle and aimed it properly, she did finally hit the silhouette itself. In its right shoulder. Even though Shawn had shot the target in its neck, Halo wasn't sure she would have wanted to do that, anyway-- why would she want to even pretend to kill someone? She stood there for several prolonged moments, still poised with the gun aimed down the booth as she considered this, her eyes softening their focus and her brow furrowing a little bit. Then, as if someone turned a switch, she suddenly went-through the motions of clearing the casing, engaging the safety then handing the rifle carefully back to Shawn. It didn't seem like she was going to say anything, but after a couple of seconds, and more out of her feeling obligated to say something, she flatly inquired, 'Are you going to practice now?'
"Good hit, much better. Yeah, I might as well while I'm here," Shawn said as he lay the rifle on the table in the booth. "What about you? What are your plans?" he asked. The fact of the matter was he'd enjoyed spending time with Halo. She wasn't the most talkative of people, but she'd shared with him, and he wouldn't forget it.
Turning from Shawn to take a look at the small hole torn-through the target's shoulder, Halo didn't look back to the other student until a couple seconds after he was through speaking. 'This meeting was my only plan today,' she crisply said before heading over to her belongings. Without pause, she bent down and plucked her white undershirt up from the floor, shook it out and started to pull it over her head.
Following, Shawn stood to one side. "Well, this was good. I enjoyed it." He hesitated before continuing. "I had a good time getting to know you a bit. If you're free and bored any time soon, feel free to get hold of me and we can hang out." You sound like an idiot, he chided himself. He hoped she would take him up on the offer, but was prepared to have it shot down - he was getting used to her.
Conversation like this was where Halo particularly excelled in being awkward. Not that she felt embarrassed, herself, but she didn't exactly have the social graces to make others feel comfortable. As Shawn spoke, Halo remained silent and continued to get dressed, slipping first into her slacks, then her button-down shirt. She was well into buttoning her top from with bottom up before she simply said, 'If you want to.' She finished buttoning her shirt, picked her phone up, and, otherwise staying away from anything any more personal than, 'Put your number in,' before handing him her phone, she said nothing more, like it was more of a business transaction than the beginning of a friendship.
Shawn nodded as he took her phone. It was what he wanted. He entered his name and cell number in her contact list before handing it back. He hadn't expected much from her and was pleased he'd made this much of an impact on her walls. "I guess I'll see you around," he said with a small but genuine smile. He didn't say 'soon' as that implied a time, and he wanted her to make her own mind up regarding when they'd next see each other.
'Yeah,' Halo simply replied as she finished tying her boots and standing. She glanced down at her phone, accepted it back, then pocketed the device. Unlike Shawn, her blank mask of an expression gave no indication as to whether or not she'd enjoyed herself or not, although it was doubtful that she'd know what hit her if an enjoyable time came up and smacked her in the face. After regarding Shawn for a silent moment, she finally added, 'Thanks,' having fallen into her usual verbal catatonia once more. As she made her way to the exit, she could be seen carefully picking her makeshift earplugs out one at a time before disappearing into the hallway.
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