Chapter 39- Combat Training Hall

  Citadel – Sub-basement, Combat training hall- Oct 25, 2008 (10:21 AM)

  Steven Rogers (Captain America)

  Steve was having boot camp fshbacks as he watched Wolverine chewing out the two brown-haired brothers, Cyclops and Havoc. 'Except that back then, it was the drill instructor towering over me, and not the two young men towering over the shorter Wolverine.’ He mentally corrected himself.

  “You don’t think he is being a little too harsh on them?” Dazzler leaned over and asked him. She and Wolverine had stayed behind, just in case something happened to their juniors during the next couple of hours.

  "A scolding now may save lives ter." The super soldier simply said as his answer. Then after a moment, he started to chuckle to himself.

  The attractive woman smiled and cocked her head to the side before asking. “What is so funny?”

  Steve’s mind could clearly show him the events he started to tell her. “I just remembered a time when it was me in his face, probably saying the same things he is now, back during the war, is all. He knew that he could heal, so oftentimes he would get ahead of his fellow unit, and get into trouble. It's how we met actually. He was protecting a family at an old abandoned gas station, he was lucky that we stopped by hoping to get some fuel for our truck. Otherwise, well he might have survived, but I doubt the family would have.'

  "Powers aren't everything ma'am, sometimes it's just good soldiering that is needed to win the day. Honestly, you should be thanking Nath'aniel. If he hadn't knocked those of you all out, after those two had started a fight, it could have ended with one of you getting hurt or killed."

  "I am not so sure about that, after all, we have been through a lot of tough battles already." The seemingly always cheerful blonde argued. The sound of air escaping told them that the rge hall's doors had opened.

  The other five members of the 'New Mutants walked in, and the military robots that were following them took up posts on either side of the rge room. The skinny girl with blue mixed into her costume was walking beside the giant of a teen. She looked around animatedly before she compined. "When they said that they had a training hall, I figured it would be something like the Danger Room, but this is just a rge empty room."

  “To be fair, Danger Room can be very unassuming when it is turned off.” The rge man argued beside her.

  Dazzler smirked and spped him on his armored shoulder before saying. "Well Captain, let me introduce you to the rest of the half of your students today. This little cutie pie is Sprite. The big guy next to her is Colossus. The girl behind them is Armor." The oriental girl bowed to him when her name was said. "Behind her is Spike." The African boy waved at him, and as he did his exposed arms started to grow some porcupine-like quills. "And the distracted girl pulling up the rear is Prestige."

  Hearing her name, the teen with long red hair blinked and paid more attention to the people around her. "I am sorry Dazzler, but there is a massive mind somewhere in here and it is doing so much so fast that I am having a hard time concentrating." She then walked to be within arm's reach of him and offered her hand. "A pleasure to meet you officially Captain. Wolverine's stories and the rare thoughts I get from him about his time fighting with you are rarely far from his mind."

  “A pleasure to meet you too miss," Steve replied while shaking her hand. As he did a series of stones embedded into the walls lit up and cast a green light on a spot near him. The light solidified and created a humanoid image of a woman.

  The woman wore robes simir to those worn by Nath'aniel, but what really caught his attention was the long dagger-like ears sticking out of the ceramic mask covering her face. Her appearance made the young redhead jump back in surprise.

  “Greetings, I am the Citadel.”

  The voice didn’t come from the image, but rather from the ceiling. The other kids were either staring or standing there with their mouths open. Even the Dazzler seemed stunned by the hologram. Steve hadn’t seen her in this form before, but rather as the floating crystal hourgss.

  Then the sound of air escaping from the far side of the room, and in walked several of the teens from the Brotherhood. He knew two of them well, the blue-furred-covered boy was Nightcrawler and the girl with the white patch of hair was Rogue. However, the third boy was mostly unfamiliar to him, in his silver and white running suit. Yet he could recall someone telling him the boy was calling himself Quicksilver. Then as the teen smirked, it clicked for him. This was Erik's other child, as he saw something of the other man in his smile.

  Steve then heard one of the New Mutants, Spike he thought, tap another and mutter. "Look at em, they are so embarrassed by their powers that they need weapons.”

  The super soldier was about to correct the boy, but before he could a bst of air flew passed him, and the skinny boy with white hair stood before the African boy with bleached hair, knife held to his throat. "Looks like someone is overestimating his survivability." The speedster told the other teen, before zipping back to be with his other teammates.

  Wolverine was done scolding the two brothers and was making his way over, when Prestige corrected someone’s thoughts saying. “Don’t you mean Quicksilver could take us, while you stand there and watch?”

  Rogue tapped her belt buckle, and the red paint of her chocker vanished before she said. "No, I meant what I thought, heavens to Betsy, I could take you with one hand tied behind my back. Now stay out of my head.”

  Prestige was about to say something, but a hand on her shoulder made her turn and look, to see Wolverine shake his head at her. Then the war veteran moved to stand behind the group of teens he was overseeing and crossed his arms.

  In an effort to prevent any further arguing, Steve cleared his throat and asked the Brotherhood. “Where are the rest of your team?”

  Nightcrawler answered for them. “My sister is always fashionably te. And Gypsy and Wolfsbane are getting the training constructs.” He then held up his right hand another finger on his left before adding. “Since we only have four targeting bracelets.”

  Before he could ask why they would need these ‘targeting bracelets’ the hologram beside him tapped him and expined.

  “The Young Master has granted you permission to use up to level seven of the training hall. The hall may distribute protective shielding to prevent a fatal injury, but their accuracy isn’t the best. So to be more realistic in the training, the bracelets are worn to better gauge and time the shielding needed.”

  “Level seven?” The super soldier did ask confused.

  "We typically practice at three of four, depending on the workout we are aiming for," Nightcrawler expined.

  Some of the boys among the New Mutants ughed at that, but quickly stopped when the Citadel expined the level system.

  "Level one is for a general workout or sparing match. Level two increases the heaviness or gravity by twenty percent. Level three gives simuted terrain via holographic projection. Level four uses portable walls to create walls or other obstructions for participants to work around, and again uses the increased heaviness setting."

  “We usually are sparring with one of the senior members, or Ka-zar, at level four.” Rogue expined. Then the Citadel continued her expnation.

  "Level five, uses holographic opponents for participants to fight. While level six only adds random non-combatants that are meant to simute wild animals or civilians getting caught up in the battle. Level seven is level six, but with an increase in heaviness by thirty percent. Also, there is a mode where your performance will be penalized for each non-combat sin during the session."

  “Why don’t you guys use level five?” Cyclops asks them.

  “We senior members do.” Quicksilver admitted. “However, the holograms are programmed to kill, not train, so Mystique and Magneto felt that it was too early for them to use that setting.”

  Just after he said that, the door opened a third time and the st three teenagers walked in, followed by half a dozen bulky metal humanoids, but unlike all of the other models that seemed to be made from silver that they had seen before, these were made from bck or amber materials.

  Yet what caught the super soldier's attention was the young teen Gypsy, whose hair had changed from midnight bck with red tips to a bright red even redder than the costume she wore. ‘Defiantly not a color back in my day, but that’s what freedom is about. Being able to express yourself in both dress and style. ’ He thought, but remained silent about it as he watched the three girls move to join their fellow Brotherhood members.

  “So how do you want to start this cap?” Wolverine asked once the all teens were present.

  “I would like to get a rough grasp of what everyone is capable of before ying out a real training pn. So we will start with each team having a go at these training robots, and we will go from there.” Steve announced. Then after taking a moment to see everyone’s reactions he added. “Since the Brotherhood has home-field advantage, the New Mutants will go first.”

  “Fighting robots this is so cool.” Sprite muttered.

  Before could Havoc point it out. "But there are only six of the training things, and there are seven of us."

  “I had assumed that your telepath filled more of a support role.” The super soldier admitted.

  "Think again." The teenager in question stated before aiming and raising her hand towards one of the constructs. She grunted twice before the machine she was aimed at started to rise with her hand. After a moment it just dropped, as the redhead wheezed in and breathed like she had just completed a march. "Those are… heavier… than they look." Prestige got out in between deep breaths.

  That caused everyone, even her own teammates, to start ughing.

  Savage Lands – inside the Bckbird - Oct 24, 2008 (11:30)

  Ororo Munroe- (Storm)

  Strom sat in the passenger compartment, a small table between her and Magneto, and a magnetic chess board as she pced the pieces of a game in progress atop it. "I believe it is your move." She told the older man, as she pced the st two pieces where they belonged.

  “Are these where all the pieces are supposed to be?” He asked her, while he used his powers to center them all on their squares.

  “I have a picture on my phone if you would like to compare.” The X-men leader offered her opponent.

  He waved his hand dismissively, before studying the board.

  While he did, Strom looked over his shoulder and took stock of the staring contest between Basilisk and Thunderbird. ‘You can stare, but don’t start something please.’ She thought, before being distracted by an unexpected question.

  “What material are these seats covered in?” Nath’aniel asked as he rubbed the armrest of his seat.

  “I honestly don’t know, that’s more of a Beast question.” Strom admitted.

  "I think he got it from a Brazilian supplier." Crimson Witch stated, from her seat near the mage's. Unsurprisingly the temptress had been using any chance she could to speak to the strange new man.

  “Why is it a beast question?” the mage followed up, seemingly ignoring the other flirt’s comment.

  “’Who’ is the proper question. And he is a retired member from the first gathering of the X-men.” Magneto states, before moving his remaining knight to take her white square bishop. Then he told her. “Your move.”

  Storm then expins. “Beast was his code name when he was an X-man. Unlike the other members of the first css, he stayed on as our doctor and aircraft mechanic. Although, he does split his time to teach at Empire University part-time as well." She then used her queen to take his queen.

  He then quickly took her queen with one of his bishops.

  The weather goddess frowned at him for that. He didn’t mock her, but did remind her. “Your move.”

  While she pnned her own next move Alucard exited from the engineering compartment, and moved to sit beside Nath'aniel. Once there he asked. "Those sky tribe people that you accused us of being associates with, I take it from the Captain's comments that they were bad news in the past, but why do the rest of us not know about them."

  The mage tilted his head but still answered her teammate. "Because, you tribesmen of the nd all forget, however, that isn't surprising considering the other tales and events that you all misremember. The time of the Sky Tribe was even a thousand years before I was born."

  The pale-skinned man pressed for more information, asking "Who were they? What did they look like? What did they eat and drink?" in rapid secession.

  Strom was about to apologize but the mage just answered as directly as the young mutant had. "They were a coalition made up of five or six races. They were mostly humanoid with two arms and two legs, but one of the rarer races had four needle-like legs, which they used to climb and stick to things. They varied even among their own kind in their color of skin and hair, if they even had hair. And they mostly ate as we did all although most of them ate more than your kind does.'

  ”That is of course the barest of answers, but I do not feel that now is the correct time nor is your aircraft a correct pce for such a lecture.”

  Everyone took a moment to stare at the mage, not only the two that had been staring at each other, but even Magneto had turned around to look at the man.

  “Five or six?” Thunderbird muttered.

  To which Nath'aniel answered. "Just as we magi and the Atnteans are a sub-sect of humanity, we were not certain if one of their groups was simir, as while they looked simir to another, they both disliked one another and had completely different cultures and behaviors."

  There was a long pause after that before Crimson Witch asked. "How do you just recall all of that?"

  Magneto answered for the mage. “Mages apparently all have eidetic memories. Unless of course, they get completely smashed on alcohol.”

  "And that only rarely happens." Basilisk added before running one of her lower hands through the mage's long hair. That made the mage look up at her and smile.

  Thunderbird then blinked twice before pointing at the rge four-armed woman and asked. “Wait, is the reason you insisted on coming along was because you and he are a thing?”

  The rge woman pushed out her chest before admitting. "Yeah, we're a thing. You got a problem with that?"

  Hearing that Crimson Witch made a face and seemed to be pouting. Before she sat back and picked up a fashion magazine from a cubby between her seat and the one next to hers.

  “No, I thought you came just to annoy me.” The rge X-man stated, before moving away from her and sitting down, once seated he added. “And congratutions, all of us deserve happiness. Well, so long as it doesn’t cost someone else theirs.”

  There was silence for a time, during it Magneto turned back to her and their chess game, before asking. "Why the sudden interest in aliens Alucard? Did something happen to your father?"

  The pale mutant leaned away from Nath’aniel, before answering. “No, well we don’t know. He went to ground as you know, but earlier in the year a cult of familiars kidnapped me, and they made me drink some of their supplies and it did something to me before the others could rescue me.”

  Storm could see the brotherhood leader looked confused, before asking. “What were they trying to turn you into one of their own? I thought you and your sister were immune to stuff like that.”

  "We don't know what they were trying to do, but whatever their goal had been, we got there fast enough to prevent everything." The X-men leader told her opponent. Then she moved a pawn forward a square.

  “Most of my abilities in my Predator mode’s abilities are better now, but now I suffer the Thirst in either state.” Alucard admitted to everyone.

  Magneto nodded in understanding, and then he moved his bishop, pcing her king in check.

  She moved her king out of threat, just before Nath'aniel asked. "As long as we are talking about you, young tribesman… is there a reason you haven't sought out someone out to dispel the curse pced upon you?"

  Before anyone could respond, Morph who had been flying the jet, alerted them from the cockpit. “Found a clearing less than a mile from the destination the Citadel directed us to. So strap in, we will be nding in three minutes.”