Morgan was led in with Joss by Del. "How exciting. Can we wear the uniforms?"
Arthur scuttles in after them, holding Crys' hand as he did and not noticing "You lot weren't going to start without us were you?" he asked, grinning widely.
"Yeah, they came in from Richards yesturday."
DElaney sid as Arthur and Crys walked in. "Morgan and Joss where here first but if it's ok with them I can run a Simulation for all four of you."
"I don't really want to partake. I just wanna watch. Is that ok, Mrs. Smith?"
Crys asked her, looking at Arthur's hand and blushing a deep red.
"I havent had a go yet"
Arthur said, for some reason growing red himself. "Can I join you guys?" he asked Joss and Morgan.
"Course."
Morgan smiled and winked at Arthur. She rubbed her hands together, as if plotting. "Now about those uniforms."
"Follow me."
delaney said and led them to
The X-Lockers
Arthur followed Delaney, he'd never seen his uniform before. He knew that most of them were rather skin tight and suddenly became very aware that he was holding Crys' hand.
Crys didn't have much choice but to follow them down to
the x-lockers
Morgan strut it with her arm latched with Joss's. They stopped and waited for Del.
Arthur followed shyly, blushing brightly and pulling at his costume constantly. It wasn't that it was ill fitting it jut embarresed him.
"I'll run the initation program."
DElaney said. "All students get the same program on their first run threw."
joss kept tretching his wings as he followed Delaney and morgan
"This is so exciting."
Morgan feet were vibrating rabidly, however she kept her stance.
Crys gave Arthur a quick hug. "Good luck Artie." She winked and made her way up tot he control room
Arthur closed his eyes and somehow managed to blush brighter, even Locks was clinging tight to his head as if embarresed. "Im gonna mess up, Im gonna mess up" he mumbled over and over again.
Morgan overheard Arthur and leaned over, "Relax dude. We'll push ya back up if ya fall."
"Thanks"
Arthur muttered, staring at his feet as the blush retreated slowly.
"Alright!"
Morgan punched Arthur's arm. "Let's get this started!" Her feet vibrated with excitement once more.
"Alright, I'll be in the control room."
delaney said "Don't worry about anyone messing up. No one beats it the first time around. Not even me." She turend to leave tfor the control room and looked back with a smile "Though, I do still hold the high score." She vanished behind the door and a few moments later appeared in the control room. She began ascessing the programs. "The object of the simulation is to stay alive. You'll be flashed with a red beam if teh computer senses you would receve a hit too severe to continue. Ready? OnetwothreeGO!
" She hit the activation button too quickly for them to resopond. Immediatly they found themselves inside what appeared to be an apocyliptic New York. Explosions and gun fire could be heard all around them. Visibility was hard due to thick black smoke. Delaney sat back in the chair with a smile. She loved watching new students on their first runs in the danger room.
"What the F--?!" Morgan jumped and stopped herself. She held a hand over her forehead to try and see through the smoke, but it was impossible. "Hold on, It's gonna get a little windy." She straightened her perpendicular above her and spun them in circles to clear the smoke.
A vortex ot smoke appeared as Morgan rn around the group clearing their view. It wasn't much better. The flashes of gun fire sparleked like fierflies all around them.
"I'll see if I can;t find out what we're up against." Joss said and took flight above the group. Sice it was now night in the danger room He could relie on his black fur and suit to help camoflage himself in the darkness. He Paused, his arms a black blur as he flapped to stay aloft. He sent out an echolocative chirp and waited for the sonic image of the landscape to tell him what was out there. He flew back down to the group "It's... I think they are called robots. About sixty feet tall... There are about a dozen of them." He looked back over his shoulder "What is it you say Morgan? We're screwed?"
"Umm....speed + bat + hair...yea...pretty much." Morgan blinked.
Just then a green laser flash passed between Morgan's legs and between Joss' ears.
Morgan jumped, "MOVE IT!" she demanded. She grabbed both Joss and Arthur's arms and yanked them quickly behind a building. "Plan--we need one. NOW!"
Crys sat at the end of her seat. "This is so cool!!! Are they up against Sentinels, Mrs. Smith? Isn't that a bit severe???"
Arthur let out a small whimper, frozen to the spot as he looked around at the waste land of new york "Ok, up against huge sixty foot tall robots? With massive laser cannons?" He couched down and clutched at his head, thinking of all the videogames and books he's ever used in his free time. He got up, a small glint in his eyes "Ok, Morgan, your job is to get down their numbers. You dash out there and get one to aim at you, run up a second one and leap off before it shoots. This'll make them kill each other."
"OOoooo...I like. What about you two?" Morgan asked.
"Joss... he's got to be your back up. I know it's not real" Arthur looked around and stared at the wrecked surroundings "But still I want us to play this like it is. If you slip Morgan, Joss has got to catch you. I'm not sure what Im going to do though."
"Hunnie...I DON'T slip." Morgan said with a cocky tone.
Just then another laser shot at the building, causing bricks and debris to scatter. The robots grew very close.
Morgan lowered her purple-tinted visor over her eyes and knelt down before darting off. She was like a blurry flash of black and violet. Using her momentum, she ran up one of the robot's leg and body, stoping for a moment on it's shoulder. "Hello." she said before running quickly off his shoulder, jumping and landing on a different one. "Over here!" she waved to the original robot that she ran up.
Arthur peeked out and then up, staring at the Sentinal he let out a groan. He darted forward quickly, Locks extending down to his feet so he ran forward like a spider.
Since Atrhur's order seemed empty with Morgan;s obvious skill level joss flew into the sky. He could use his echos to divert the blasts by the robots. He could keep them from hitting morgan and try to make them hit eachother.
DElaney leaned back in her seat as she spoke to Crys. "That's sort of teh point." She said "The chool founders learned early on that if someone wins their first simulation they have a tendenct to get big headed about it. This keeps the students grounded and less cocky. There will be much easier simulations in the future but you always remember your first one."
Arthur scuttled threw the sea of massive legs, heading for one that was in the middle. Locks wrapped his tendrils around the Sentinal's leg and began to climb vertically.
The one robot shot at Morgan who luckily ran out of the way in time. The laser shot down the one that she had been standing on. "Whoo! All right! High score baby!" she hollered on the ground at the fallen robot.
Arthur gave Morgan a thumbs up, half way up a robot's leg. He stared at it and squinted, he could almost see the vital bits light up. He quickly began to try and haul it to pieces, Locks joining him once he realsied he was useless. Bolts started to pop out of the Sentinal's leg like corks, the many tentacles attacking randomly now.
Green beams began fiering at Morgan's stationary position.
Joss sent a sonic scream toward the beams inorder to deflect them.
The sentinel which Arthur was attempting to disrepair locked onto arthur and fired a singel shot. A buzzer sounded and Arther loked to be glowing red.
Arthur looked down at himself and sighed, pulling himself off the sentinel's knee and sliding down to it's foot. He hit the ground and shook his head, then blinked as he heard as deep creaking noise. He looked round and watched as the knee gave way, the leg entirely coming off. He cocked his head slightly, watching the Sentinel fall sideways onto the ground with a loud grinding noise. It's head rolled towards him slowly, settling right infront of him. "O.. K.." he said, backing towards the door.
"Thanks!" Morgan called up to Joss. She ran around the robot in circles, making it go off balance, "JOSS!" she called, hoping that he knew that she meant for him to screech at the robot, knocking it down to the ground.
In a strange waving your arms madly infront of you fasion addopted by the recently blind Arthur found the door and went threw it. He went up slowly and into the booth with Crys and Del, sitting down beside Crys and blushing brightly at his failure.
Joss took morgan's hint and sent a sonic chirm toward the sentinel.
The sentinel began to toppel over but as MOrgan was stationary it allowed another sentinel time to target her. The red luight flashed over her body and the buzzer sounded again meaning she too had sustained a major hit.
"DAMNIT!" Morgan shouted as the buzzer went off. She jogged to the exit that led to the control room. "Go getem Joss!" she shouted, before walking into the room. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and leaned in to watch Joss go.
"Sop screwed." Joss said reflecting the phrase he'd stolen from Morgan. There where three sentinels left and all of them where aiming to fire at him. He saw the green glow of their lasers ignight nd he darted upward, perhaps he could loose them in the sky.
What the young utant didn't know was that sentinels are built with the capability to fly. Flames ignighted from their feet and sent them airborn toward Joss
"The way to survive against sentinels is obviously to keep moving" Arthur muttered to himself in the box above, watching the last sentinels go after Joss. "Me and Morgan died because we stopped in one place long enough for them to get a lock on. Kinda a problem for me" he shrugged "but Im sure me and Locks can work around it."
Morgan flipped her visor up and kept her gaze on Joss. He was very attractive in action. "He is so screwed..."
"Oh no..." Joss said seeing the remaining sentinels following him. He looked around, there was no where to hide and he couldn't keep flying forever. And they where gaining on him. He diverted his course and flew straight for them. He screamed, sending a sonic wave at one of them.
The sentinel took the shok in the chest and began to fall from his flight path. Another Sentinel targeted Joss but his bean missed by inches, hitting another.
joss looked behind him and smiled to see that he'd taken out two sentinels by himself. He however didn;t notice that he was headded straight for one. It w3as too late to divert course and he slammed full force into the robot.
A red light flashed across him and teh buzzer sounded. The hologram flickered out signaling teh defeat of the three mutants.
joss had exected the force of the impact to knock him out but he hardly felt anything. he rationalized that the program was designed to keep from hurting any one too badly. He picked himself up off the ground and joined the others in the control room.
"Not bad Joss." Delabney told him "But you need to keep an eye out for where your flying."
"I guessed that." Jopss said sitting down in one of the chairs. He felt very foolish.
Crys turned to Joss and gave him a thumbs up. "That was pretty cool though, Joss. You took down two of them all by yourself!" She smiled, hoping to cheer him up.
Morgan stood behind his chair and grabbed his ears gently, knowing that they are sensitive. She moved them out and in, mirrored of each other. "It did look kinda funny...slamming into that robot. Good thing it was a fake. But I think we all need some work."
Joss' foot started to shake gently as Morgan played with his ears.
"We'll you all aren't expected to beat it on the first try." Delney said "That's why your here. To learn to use your powers more effectively."
Arthur blushed brightly and shrugged, he kinda felt that he had been killed before he had managed to figure out much about his powers. He wandered if he was going to be useful in a battle.
Morgan smiled when she saw Joss twitch his foot. She hoped it was a good thing...like a dog moving their leg when scratched. "But I've heard that giant robots, and that sort of thing is like....all the time in this city. I wonder if this place is ensured..."
"Actualy the Friends of Humanity, the ones responcible for the Sentinal program where whiped out several years ago." Delaney explained "The O.N.E. program utilize teh same technoligy to protect mutants now. But instead of computer programming they are manned by soldiers. It's pretty rare for a sentinal to run loose in the city now-a-days. But it's tradition to run the Level 5 Sentinal Simulation on new students."
"so you train your new students against psycho robots that havent been around for ages?" Arthur said, trying to keep his voice level and free of sarcasm.
"Even so, we lost to them." "Morgan turned to Arthur, in defense of Del. She let go of Joss's ears and leaned her butt on the back of his chair, crossing her arms.
Arthur nodded and sighed, flicking Locks discretely. Locks was surprisingly limp on his head, hanging there as if depressed "Well, we've just got to keep moving."
"Don't wprry Artur." Delaney said "You'll probably be suprised how quickly you can acclimate to your powers.
Hope I can survive long enough to use it properly next time Arthur thought.
Just then the security alarm sounded threw the entire school. A telepathic mesasge from Emma followed All teachers report to the The War Room Immediatly Scott's voice sounded over the intercom "All students report to the recreation room and wait for instruction."
"What the hell?" delaney asked getting up from her seat "Promis me you four will go to the rec room."
Without thinking Joss answered for everyone "We will."
"And stay there." Delaney told them "Someone will be with you shortly." She lit from the danger room headded for The War Room
Arthur blinked, looking up and around at the danger room "Ummmm... ah hell. Im dead." He rubbed his head slowly, soothing Locks who had suddenly jumped up and scittering about nervously. He turned to the door and started to walk out quickly, heading towards The recreation Room.
Joss looked at Morgan and followed Arthur.
Crys hurried after them. She wasn't big on being the last in line, but Arthur had left rather quickly.
"Let's go." Morgan grabbed Joss's hand as they headed to the rec room.
Stumble!