Mutant High Issue 1: The house that Xavier Built

Current Roster of Students:
X-man Trainees:
Drerek - Peter Rasputin (Colosus) - 20 y/o Russian Male (X year)
Milagroso - Julie Power (Lightspeed) - 14 y/o Caucasian female (1st year)
Drothgery - Eric Hassel (Quarterback/Paragon) - 17 y/o Caucasian male (1st year)
Insight - Gwen Distefano - 16 y/o Caucasian female (1st year)
Victim - Temperance Ashley Smith (Temper) - 15 y/o Mixed Female (1st year)
Other Students:
Lobo Lurker - Kenny Degeorge (Wi-Fi) - 15 y/o Caucasian male (7th year)
Caros - Nicolas Asher (Alchemist) - 16 y/o Caucasian male (4th year)
Relique du Madde - Miranda Del Flores (Llorona) - 16 y/o Latina Female (2nd year)
Shayuri - Astrid Moore (Calypso) - 17 y/o Caucasian female (1st/2nd? year)
ShaggySpellsword - Xi'an Chi Xan (Desert Ghost) - 17 y/o Asian male (1st/2nd? year)


Date & Time : 4:00 PM, October 3rd 2007

Scene: The Danger room. (Trainees)
They stood in the danger room, the five of them slightly spread out and waiting for something to happen. They'd all heard of the danger room before, but only Colosus had been there before. As such, he was the only one not caught off guard when the very air around them shimmered, the floor, ceiling, and walls changing as they appeared in a city.
"Good day, Students" Came the voice of Charles Xavier "Welcome to your first scenario. Colosus will be your nominal 'leader' for this one as he's had experience in these situations. Speaking of situations, here's your briefing: The bank up the street has been attacked by a Trio of super-powered criminals. They have allready resisted attempts by police and swat to get them out, have destroyed any police vehicles that come close. They are currently contained, but have 5 hostages. From the accounts, Two of them are the mutants Sabretooth and the Blob. The third is unknown. Your first priority is the safety of the Hostages, with apprehending one or more of the criminals and/or the stolen money as secondary. Good luck."

After he speaks, there is more shimmering and you can see a block away numerous police/swat vehicles.. many destroyed by what appears to be powerful blasts (ruling out either Sabretooth OR the Blob). The remaining policemen have formed a barricade a few hundred feet around the bank, which has only one entrance (blown open).


Scene: X-Mansion Cafeteria (Alchemist, Wi-fi, Desert Ghost)
As students who'd been there for a few years, Kenny Degeorge and Nicolas Asher were lucky. Their last classes of the day were at 3 and, as such, they got to have dinner early. Which is why they were there when Pyro decided that the new asian student Xi'an Chi Xan needed to be taught his place.
"Hey Newbie, that's my table yer sittin at" the red-headed, hot-tempered kid slapped the back of Xi's head as he and his two bully-lackies stood over the vietnameese boy "And don't you know it's impolite to wear gloves to dinner?"

Scene: X-Mansion Chem Lab (Calypso, Llorona)
It wasn't as boring a class as the girls had assumed at first, Beast being actually very good at keeping it entertaining. He'd spent the first month teaching them stuff that was FUN, before he would have to get down to the 'normal' stuff. Miranda and Astrid had been made Lab partners and were in the middle of trying to complete an experiment when Miranda temporarily lost control over her solidity, her hand reverting to its insubstantiality as she dropped the volatile liquid. Upon hitting the countertop, there was a small explosion as it caught fire. Before anybody could react, however, a stream of water flew from the tap across the room to put it out as Astrid quickly excercised her own powers. Once the immediate danger was over, and Beast had flipped across the room to ensure they were both allright, several of their class-mates broke into laughter at Astrid's 'clumsiness', a few making snide remarks, with no effort to hide their comments as Beast returned to talking at the front of the class.

Astrid's cheeks burn at the remarks, most especially at how unfair they were since it hadn't been HER who had dropped the damn flask. This was just what she needed...she was already a relative newcomer here, and older than most first years at that. Now she was getting blamed for other people's mistakes!

She gives Miranda a smoldering look and hisses, "Would you be -careful-? You're lucky nothing blew up this time!"

The water that had washed the volatile chemicals away now collected into a quivering sphere above the counter and whisked over to plunk into the sink, leaving the desktop dry.

Well, I know the first thing I'm going to get into trouble for here. Trying to figure out how to simulate the Rose Bowl in this thing. Eric thought.

He looked over at Julie. Or Lightspeed. The whole dual name thing was still a bit odd as far as he was concerned. "Do you think we could get some arial recon here?" He asked her.

Julie nodded at Eric's request, glad that her first task was to use a power she was quite comfortable with. She flew up into the air with practiced ease, swirling a small bit so she could catch the back end of her rainbow trail. It had been a long while since she used her powers. Just trying anything more then flying caused her to... remember.

She quickly put those thoughts out of her mind, reminding herself that this is a training exercise. No one would get hurt, and besides they were counting on her to be part of the team. She flew closer to the police line, getting an idea for how many police officers were strewn along the edge.

She then zipped across the entrance of the bank, pushing herself at a faster speed while trying to peak into the blast hole in the front. There were quite a few hostages, most of them tied up in a corner, a few lying face down on the floor with the hands across the back of their hands. A large man with sharp teeth and vicious claws darted about the room, like a caged wild animal ready to lash out at his captors.

Julie arced her way back up, getting one last final view of the area and then made a beeline to where her team waited. When she landed, she reported what she saw.

Miranda glanced down to her hands in shame. Although she appeared to be visible, she knew otherwise. She knew that to the world, or to those who relied solely on normal vision, Astrid appeared to be sitting alone. Although this wasn't for the most ideal situation for Astrid, for Miranda, this was the best because it at least concealed her from shame of having the others see her fight back her tears. "I'm Sorry, I didn't mean too..." her voice wavered and shook. "It's just that..." She began to cry.

She knew that those students who were close by could hear her crying; but as she glanced around she realized that everyone, save for a few, was either giving Astrid a concerned look or was beginning to amuse themselves at Astrid's expense. The silent minority of the students in the class noticed the tears which seemed to materialize onto the counter top before joining Astrid's growing sphere.

Unfortunately, Miranda knew that if she did not do something, those who did not know what really happened would have more fun at Astrid's expense. After class they would start a rumor that Calypso dropped some chemicals which nearly burnt down the lab before she put the fire out by crying. Then when they see Astrid pass they would then spontaneously start to sing 'Cry me a river'. Astrid did not deserve that kind of humiliation.

"I'm sorry... I truly am." Miranda closed her eyes,as she tried to focus her attention away from the tears that rolled of her cheek. She trembled, then after a few seconds, she could feel her body's weight being supported by both the stool she sat on, and the counter she propped her elbows against. For a moment she felt comforted by the sensation.

She took in a deep breath, then somberly glanced up at her lab partner."Please, forgive me.." She looked down for a moment before giving a boy who had been laughing since the test tube broke an evil eye, as a warning.

"Well, I don't see many places for tactical brilliance here. Best I can think of is that four of us try to hold off our resident super-villians -- I don't suppose any of you have any experience with Sabertooth or the Blob? -- while our quick-fingered friend here..." He nods in Julie's direction again "... unties the hostages. You guys agree?"

drothgery said:

"Well, I don't see many places for tactical brilliance here. Best I can think of is that four of us try to hold off our resident super-villians -- I don't suppose any of you have any experience with Sabertooth or the Blob? -- while our quick-fingered friend here..." He nods in Julie's direction again "... unties the hostages. You guys agree?"

Click to expand...

Colossus' form shimmers and his skin changes from flesh to silver tinted steel and he turns to Paragon, "I think you should remember friend that the Professor put me in charge before you start giving orders."

Gwen admires Peter's metallic form and sighs.

"Peter," Gwen suggests, "I can do some recon. How 'bout I see what's really going on in there?"



[OOC: Gwen has ESP (visual) with a 1,000ft range.]

Oh, is this super-science? Temper wonders as a city is constructed around them. Holographic projection, or psi induced, shared hallucination (probably not)? What's the maximum size and complexity of the simulated environment? Aww, the objective is protection of the status quo. At least it's not real - although that does diminish the training aspect. Hmm, in retrospect, it may have been a good idea to pay attention to specific mutants and supers in addition to overall trends. Sabretooth (Tiger): Animalistic fighter? Blob: Amorphous entity? Plus an unknown shooting type. But I don't know any of the people nominally on my side either. Colossus is probably the stupidly tall guy though.

"If they can easily destroy vehicles and hold off hundreds of uniforms, then those supers could punched through the early police response even if they were too slow to evade it in the first place. Delays worsen their situation as there'd be more time for law enforcing supers (how sickening) or heavy weapons to arrive. Either the super opposition is particularly stupid, they have some unconventional extraction planned - perhaps the arrival of another super at a certain time, or the present scenario is mostly arbitrary."

In reply to Eric: "We could punch into the bank from below or through any of the exterior walls not covered by windows - preservation of the city's infrastructure wasn't part of the stated objectives. SWAT forces will have flashbangs grenades we could use to disrupt an immediate attack on the hostages. We could attack the police forces to feign an alliance with the supers inside the bank and trick them into releasing the hostages. With that sort of strategic surprise, our task becomes much easier. The simple objectives leave us plenty of room for decision making."

She stretches, "I'm Temper, by the way."

Astrid struggles to maintain her scowl, but Miranda's heartfelt tears are taking a toll on her insulating anger. "Yeah...well...okay. I know you didn't mean it...and no one got hurt," she admits a little sullenly. "Just try to hold on to things, all right? I mean, try harder."

Even with the embarrassment though, she felt a little bad. She'd never had much problem with control. Her power over water was tied to her kinesthetic sense...she felt it like it was a part of her; it moved as she did, as though connected to her body. The idea of having no ability to control one's powers was a foreign one to her, and a bit scary to contemplate.

Not to mention, REALLY inconvenient at times.