We find Miya and Daegal on top of the browstone apartment where we left them! But a red convertible ( Shelby Cobra 420 h_h ) pulls up, and from what little can be seen of the guy inside, he has long blue hair. Miya recognizes him, at least. * Miya looks down from her perch on the edge of the building. She points. "There he is." ... I was expecting a helicoper or plane or something. Why are we on the roof again? I dunno. He just told me to wait here. Fair enough. I'll ask him, then. * Miya nods and looks over at Daegal. "Wanna go down now?" Sure. Teleport or jump? Um. It's four floors down. Will you make a jump? Possibly. ... well, if I was glowing, yes. Now, prolly not. ... teleport it is! * Miya grabs Daegal by the arm and they vanish in a white light. Miya appears in a flash of white light next to the car! The guy in the car does, indeed have blue hair. And fur. ( Where does Daegal appear? =P ) ( With Miya. :P ) The blue guy looks over at Daegal and raises an eyebrow. "And who would this be?" Um, he... um. Well, he's Sc- er, hm. * Miya looks over at Daegal for help. * Daegal mimes tipping a cap. "Daegel's the name. Deliverer of street justice in the greater Brooklyn area, and all around charming lad." I also glow from time to time. The blue guy smirks. "That works." He extends a blue, furry, and clawed hand to shake. "Hank. The other Dr. McCoy." * Miya giggles. * Daegal shakes his hand/paw. "Blue fur. Interesting look. I like it." * Daegal hops into the backseat. "Lady gets shotgun." ^_^ * Miya pales. "Shotgun?" Poor Daegal. The Shelby's backseat is hardly large enough to stow a set of golf clubs. He can fit, but it'll hurt after a while. Shotgun. Front passenger seat... and DAMN it's tight back here. Oh. * Miya peers at Daegal. "Maybe you should sit in front." ... upon second thought, chivalry falls in the face of avoiding leg cramps. *slides up into the front seat* * Miya snickers and has a seat in back. So where we headed? A secret cave? Underground bunker in the middle of nowhere? Miya, being tiny, fits easily into the back. Hank looks back to Miya. "You invited him to the school?" * Miya makes herself comfortable. "Um." She blushes. "He wanted to see! It's polite." Hank shrugs. "Fine by me." Hank puts the car in gear and makes it go very very fast. * Miya fidgets. Place sounds like fun. Buncha glowing people learning how to control said glowing. I wanna know if I can roast marshmellows on myself. ( And the car produces a sound that is very, very satisfying to us car nuts. ^_^ ) "Oh, we don't all glow." "Some of us are just adorable and fuzzy, like me." That works too. Hank pushes a button on his car's stereo and the Rolling Stones comes over the speakers. He continues making the car go fast. * Miya looks out the window. She's in trouble. Yup. I'm gonna take a stab in the dark here... either you're strong and quick, or your power is to cuddle people to death. ( The Stones song that comes on, ironically, is 'Gimme Shelter'. ) Which would be a rather insidious power, I must say. Hank grins. "Both, actually. They're making little stuffed critters patterened after me, actually. They're gonna be the next big toy for Christmas, lemme tell you." You get a cut? "Of course. Forty per cent, off the top." * Daegal hrms. "So you fight bad guys, right? I mean, real supervillians? The ones with silly costumes and sillier names that can shoot lasers out of their nostrils?" * Miya giggles. "Yeah, but only on weekends. The rest of the time I play pool and read books." * Daegal grins. "Cooooooool. I've been getting bored with the usual assortment of gun-toting goons, thugs, and hoodlums." "Yeah, those guys get dull after a while. Frankly, I don't know how Spider-man puts up with mooks like that. Although he gets to fight supervillains once in a while, too. That must make up for it." Yeah, but he has to swing around Manhatten in that ridiculous spandex suit. I mean, cripes... I don't want people looking at my ass while I'm fighting crime. * Miya speaks up, "Maybe if they're looking at your ass they can't pay attention to what they're doing." Hank just chuckles. ... that could work. "Foolish whelp! You shall fall before the power of Doctor Terror! ... hey, I can see your butt cra-" *WHAM* * Miya grins. Hank chuckles more at that. Hank drives more! You're headed out towards the suburbs of the city, now. Still going fast, tho. * Daegal goes silent for a second. "Hey, Hank... this school we're going to, it's not one of those 'Once you see it, you can never leave' deals, right? 'caue I got a few people and a coupla police precincts that'll miss me." "Well, it'd be best if you lived there, but we're not going to lock you in a vault or something. You can come out and visit whenever you like. Just like Miya did." * Miya blushes. I just went for a walk. Good to know... are there actual classes at this school? Like, y'know, math and stuff? "'Course! I teach most of them, too." Dang. Was hoping being able to beat up goons got me outta math class. "Nope. Gotta getcher' learnin'." * Daegal shrugs. "Won't be much different. Though I presume this school lacks the drug dealers and armed gangs that make my high school so much fun?" We play tag instead. "Yes, it does lack those things. The closest we have to that is Gambit." * Miya pouts. "I like Gambit." * Daegal chuckles. "That'll be a change. Might even help my grades... won't have to keep ducking outta class to go kick the crap outta some wnnabe mobster." "Sounds like a plan." Hank keeps driving! That was always a blast... "Teacher, may I have a hall pass? Some kid's about to get knifed out in the courtyard." "Not unless you say please, Mr. Redd!" "... please." Hank chuckles. * Daegal takes a look around. "The burbs. Lord help me." I mean, what the heck are those brown things with the green on top? Broccoli. ... so that's where broccoli comes from? Yup! Go figure. ( ...*SNRK*) * Miya giggles. Hank chuckles. "Those are 'trees'. This will be part of your education." ... oh yeah, we learned about those in school. I heard they tried to plant one outside the school back when I was little... it got cut down before they finished putting it into the ground. * Miya blinks in surprise. "Why?" Tough neighborhood. "Hmm. Well, the neighborhood we'll be in isn't quite so tough. By the way, I don't suppose you've cleared this with your parents?" Yeah, but cutting down a tree? * Daegal coughs. "... parental consent won't be an issue." * Miya bites her lip at that. Hank frowns, then nods. "Alright." * Daegal goes silent again, and stares out along the road. * Miya taptaps Daegal on the shoulder and whispers sorry to him. * Daegal nods, still looking out the window. "s'no biggie. Just not my favorite topic of discussion." It's okay. * Daegal chuckles, somewhat bitterly. "Heck, they never even knew about what I could do." Before long, you're out of the suburbs and driving through woodlands. Hank says, "Almost there." * Daegal nods. "Lotta kids at the school?" "Nope! Not anymore, anyway. I was from the first generation. Right now the only minors there will be you and Miya." Small classes, then. I guess this means we can't pass notes. Attendance won't take long, either. "Nope. Aaaaand we're here." Hank pulls up in front of a huge mansion. ... daaaaaaaaaaaamn. * Miya nods in agreement. "Yup. Welcome to the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters." Hank puts the car in park, turns it off, and leaps out. Literally. I don't think we're in Brooklyn anymore, Toto. Who's Toto? * Miya gets out of the car. She musn't run away. "Nope, we're a good ways from Brooklyn, Dorothy. 'S more private here, tho, and that's good, considering." * Miya looks confused. "Why are you calling him Dorothy?" ( Why do I pilor Eva? I should just kick the Angel in the face.) * Daegal hops out of the car as well. "Dog in a movie." *takes a deep breath* "Erk. Air's too clean. No flavor." ("Leave Tokyo-3 alone or I'll kick you in the face! ... Honest!") Hank looks at Miya, frowning, then nods. "Yeah, we're definitely gonna have to make you watch the Wizard of Oz." * Miya looks at Daegal blankly. Maybe because of the dog thing, but probably because of the air comment. s'not real air. Real air should be chewy. Hank chuckles. "Alright. I'm gonna go clear things with Chuck. Miya, show our guest in, hm?" Oh, okay. Come on, Sc- um, Daegal. ( Did she just call him Scum? ) (Not intentionally. ^^) * Daegal follows Miya. "Forget the Scarface thing. Never much cared for whole nickname thing." * Miya walks along. "Oh, good. Me neither." * Miya leads Daegal into... THE HOUSE! Though the kids in school used to call me 'The Brooklyn Brawler'... had a certain ring to it. Hank heads on in, and is soon out of sight. He *is* quick. You got into fights a lot. The inside of the house is about how you'd expect a very big and impressive old mansion owned by a guy who can pay for keeping it looking good to look. The entryway has a large leather sofa on either side, as well as some coat racks and such. Kinda. Lotsa lowlives in my school, and I took it upon myself to do something about it. * Daegal whistles. "Nice digs. Someone around here have the power to turn lead to gold?" I dunno what he does, really. Besides run this place. ( Actually, the only guys who could do that were both villains. ) * Miya walks in a bit and turns to Daegal, taking off her sunglasses as she does so. Don't need to wear those anymore. "So, what do you wanna see first?" Umm... Batcave? * Miya scratches at the back of her head. "Batcave?" ( *drops a Batarang on Jesse* ) Comic book reference... this superhero, Batman, had a secret place. Called it the Batcave. Feels like that's where I am, except for the art and nice furniture. ( Ow. ) * Daegal shrugs. "I dunno. Show me whatever. I'll just follow along and make wisecracks every so often." Oh. * Miya considers, then shrugs and just picks a direction. What's over there? Who cares! ( "You walk into the Shi'ar Power Generator reactor. Save/Load/Restart?" ) (*snicker*) Miya wanders! To the kitchen. Maybe her subconsious is telling her something. The kitchen is big, and has big metal refrigerators and lots and lots of counterspace. ... I reiterate. Daaaaaaaaaaamn. * Miya decides that food is a good idea right about now. * Miya searches! For food! Miya finds food! And lots of it! None of it Japanese, tho. * Daegal decides to follow Miya's lead, and attempts to construct a large, meat- filled sandwich. Need to go shopping. Silly place lacks noodles. Mmm. Meat. *CHOMP* * Miya constructs a sandwich, anyway. It really is all they eat here. Daegal succeeds in his attempt, as there is not only plenty of bread and fixins', but big toothpicks to hold 'em together with. ( Bow before the sandwich. ) * Miya perches on a counter and munches. I saw some noodles... Italian ones, though. Rice noodles. That's what we need. * Miya nods to herself. * Daegal finishes his sentance, and goes back to devouring his sammich. ( Miya's deranged. ) (*thwaps Yu* Actually, I don't worship sandwiches. ^^) ( Aww. ;_; ) *eyes the kitchen between bites* This place could feed a small army. *munch* Hm? Oh, I guess it could. * Miya munches away. "Anyway, um. No caves. I think. We could see the gym." ( Depending on how you look at the X-groups, it *does* feed a small army. ^_~ ) That'd work. 'Kay. * Daegal finishes his sandwich, and chugs down a can of Pepsi from the fridge. "Lead on." * Miya hops down and leads on, finishing her sandwich on the way. Never really spent time in a gym before... mostly just did pushups and beat people up. But didn't you train? Well, yeah. Sparring and stuff. But sensei always said there's no substitute for real-world experience. Oh. I guess he'd be right. * Miya ponders as she walks. "I didn't get in many fights, though." ... 'course, it's hard to find competant goons these days. Miya leads Daegal through many hallways! And then to the Gym. Which is big and, uh, Gymmy. It's a real Gym, it is. Hmm. Big. * Miya shrugs. "We don't have a dojo, so I use here." Kinda a letdown... always figured superheroes had high-tech training rooms and such. ( *cough* ) ( =P ) *shrug* Ain't half bad, though. Oh, um. Well, I dunno... * Miya shrugs. "I found something that might be it while exploring." She pauses. "Maybe." Sounds fine. It's either that or the bathrooms, prolly. * Miya grins. "C'mon." She heads out, probably to wherever this is. I don't think I'm s'posed to know about this place, 'cause nobody showed it to me, but... It's *really* neat. Ooh, a sekrit. Even better * Miya nodnods. Miya leads! And leads. Down an elevator, around a corner, blah blah, and into a room! Lined with computery stuff! It has a window looking out into a very large, completely blank room. * Miya runs to the middle and twirls. "Isn't it neat?" ... what's it do? ... I dunno. * Miya frowns at that. Most of the buttons, knobs, sliders and such that line the room have labels. Most of them are fairly kryptic, but many, such as 'difficulty', 'setting', and such, are pretty obvious. But I think it's the training room. Maybe. * Daegal hrms. "Something tells me accidentally breaking the really expensive training room on my first day would prolly cause some problems." Well, yeah. * Miya goes to look at the buttons, knobs, sliders, and such. ( What, you gonna let that stop you? ) ... of course, it *is* shiny... (All heroes have a sorely misguided sense of adventure.) * Miya nods. "I wonder who cleans it." Someone whose power is to mentally control brooms? ... That's just silly. ( Yes, they do. ^_^_v ) Sillier than a 15 year-old who can punch through walls? Um. Yes. ... point. So... any idea what all the buttons and dohickeys do? * Miya grins and peers at the control thingie some more. "Not... really. I wonder how it works." Watch out for large red buttons marked "DO NOT PUSH". Well, I for one am powerless to resist playing around with this thing. How 'bout you? We really shouldn't. But... um... yeah. * Daegal eyes the controls. "Well, we should probably make sure that one control labeled 'difficulty' isn't set too high... dying ain't high on my to-do list." * Miya nodnods and does that. Other'n that... I dunno. Try somethin'. =P Well, um. * Miya looks at the setting options. There are options for time of day, environment, temperature and weather, and many, many, many more things. Oh, weird. Um. ( Go with semi-random. With difficulty a non-variable. =P ) * Miya fiddles with them somewhat randomly. "Okay. I have no idea what this'll be like." Best kinda trainin'. * Daegal starts down toward the training room proper. A door on the side of the booth opens, and a timer labeled "Simulation will start in:" starts ticking down from 60 seconds. * Miya looks around, then scampers after Daegal. The door closes behind you. A timer handing in mid-air reads 40 seconds remaining. * Daegal gets into the room, and drops into a ready stance. He grins slightly when he remembers the cut on his arm. "That'll make things quicker." * Miya chews on her lower lip and looks around nervously. * Daegal grins back at Miya. "Don't worry. If things get ugly, stay behind me. I'm good at takin' hits." 40 seconds after that, you suddenly find yourself in the rain part of a rain forest. Su- wow. ... now *this* is what I'm talkin' about. *looks around* * Miya stares with wide eyes, then touches one of the trees. The tree feels real. It also feels wet, and after being in the hard rain for a few seconds, so do you. Cool! * Daegal looks up. "This is amazing. I feel like I'm actually getting wet." Yup, you sure feel wet. You also feel hot, 'cause it's awful warm in here. And humid. And full of insects. And goodness, would you look at that giant man-beast thing that's charging at you? Don't see those in the city. * Miya yelps scrambles backwards, pulling her hands up. "What's *that*?" ... that's one ugly sparring partner. What could possibly be described as a weretiger charges forward some more and takes a big wide swipe at Daegal! Daegal dodges! It's initiative time! Miya's turn! Go, Miya! *powerpose*! * Miya blinks, then vanishes in that familiar flash of white light. She reappears near the weretiger and tries to - you guessed it - kick it in the face! Miya succeeds, and the weretiger's head snaps back! It's Daegal's turn! * Daegal eyes the weretiger's head snapping back, and slips in behind it, grabbing it's head under one arm and dropping down in one fluid motion, trying to drive it's head into the ground. Daegal succeeds! * Miya kicks it while it's down. Who said playing fair was important? :P But the weretiger flails wildly, catching Daegal with a backhand! * Daegal starts to glow, and rubs where he got hit. "... now you've gone and made me mad." The tiger pulls itself out of the mud, not really seeming to care about Daegal's state of mind. Miya's turn! * Miya vanishes in a flash, reappearing behind the tiger and aiming a punch to the back of its head. Miya misses! And smacks Daegal instead! They both fall over! Oops. * Miya urks. "I need to work on that." (Can I use my other action to get to my feet?) ( I'm letting get-to-feet be free here. You can use your other action to try attacking. ;) ) * Miya scrambles to her feet and just runs at it this time, trying to sweep the thing. Miya succeeds! The thing falls. Daegal's turn! * Daegal gets up, grabs the fallen weretiger by the feet, and attempts to swing it into a nearby tree. (Quick Attack) Daegal succeeds, and if the tree's trunk weren't eight feet thick, he'd have probably felled it, too. A sign appears in the air. It has a coundown from sixty seconds. An automated voice says, "Level two complete. Automatic Advancement engaged; Advancing to Level Three." * Miya looks up. "Level three? Huh." * Miya shakes her head and runs over to Daegal, checking up on him. I'm okay. Hit just helped the blood get flowin'. *grin* You wanna keep going? The countdown stops. The voice says "Level three engaged." Daegal needs a ranged defense roll. Daegal twitches suddenly, and a blowgun dart embeds itself in a tree right next to him. * Daegal blinks. "Dart? That's a new one..." * Miya springs away and looks for where the dart came from. Mind/vision/awareness, +3 penalty. Daegal spots him from his hiding place in a bush! * Daegal charges. "Over there!" *points* Miya, go! ...Miya? (Sorry. @_@) * Miya runs thataway! Erm, if she knew what to look for, this would be easier. @_@ Now that Daegal has pointed it out, she sees a person, apparently human, doing a very good job of hiding amongst the undergrowth of the jungle. * Miya spots the human! And since she really doesn't want to stop, just runs up to him and tries to smack him out of his hiding spot. Miya succeeds; the guy is smacked! She knocks him out! That was fast. Nice punch! * Miya blinks. He went down in one hit. * Miya looks around. "That's not right. It shouldn't be *easier*, should it?" Maybe the challenge was finding him... though that little computer voice hasn't come up yet... Suddenly, no less than twenty spears (with feathers tied to them) come out of the thick of the jungle! They all miss, but still! ... erm. That's not good. You hear tribal war calls and stuff from the trees around you. Now might be the time to run. But don't quote me on it. No. No, it's not. Come on! * Daegal turns to run, but pauses for a moment. *tentatively* "Computer... end program?" Nothing happens. * Miya just grabs Daegal by the glowing arm and pulls him after her, away from where the spears were thrown from. For a girl so small, she can be surprisingly strong. Damn. Always works on Star Trek. *Runs* You run through the jungle. More spears drop around you, and the shouting and drumming of the tribal folk continues. ... umm... Computer, end simulation? You're no longer in the jungle! You're back in the blank room. But you're still soaking wet. * Miya blinks and... stops... running. "Wha?" Ah. There we go. ... damn. Really am wet. * Miya blinks a few more times, then pushes her plastered bangs out of her eyes. She looks around and up at the observation window. Not wet; *soaking* wet. Get it right. Hank is sitting behind the observation window, along with two people Daegal doesn't recognize. They all seem to be talking about something with great energy. * Daegal wrings out his tank top. "That was fun, but I think I wanna wait until after orientation to take on the heavily armed tribe of natives." * Miya puts her hands on her hips. "Yeah, me too. We've got company." I noticed. Who're the two people with Hank? Hank comes down out of the observation deck with stacks of towels. He's grinning. "Now, why'd you have to go and stop?" * Miya points. "Um. Kurt and Bobby. They're nice, but I dunno if they'll be too happy about this." * Miya sweatdrops. ( Oh, yeah. We all know Bobby's the stern, rule-abiding type. ) (*giggle*) * Daegal takes a towel. "Didn't care for the odds, and I figured it simply wouldn't do to end up in the infirmary my first day here." * Miya takes one of the towels and blushes a little as she wipes off. Hank hands a stack of towels to each of you. "Aww, that's no excuse. The simulation would've ended before either of you were seriously hurt. 'Sides, me and Bobby had bets going on how far you'd make it. I figured you'd actually pass level three." Oh. * Miya considers. "It's not like we really tried." * Daegal nods. "I'll remember that next time. And warn that Bobby guy that betting against me ain't usually gonna be a good idea." *grin* Hank laughs. * Daegal eyes the room. "This thing really kicks ass." "I'll be sure to tell 'im. Anyway, I got the details worked out. You got anything you need transported here? Clothes 'n stuff?" "And yeah, it does." Not really. Don't really own much; street vigilante doesn't pay very well. Just some clothes, mostly. * Miya peers up at the observation booth some more. Hank shrugs. "Well, we can go back for 'em, if you want. Or the ladies can take you shopping when they get back tomorrow." * Daegal shrugs. "Whatever's easier. I pretty much stick to tank tops and loose pants, so I'm not exactly a picky shopper." * Miya sneezes. Gesundheit. "Well... nah, nevermind. Just get dried off. You can borrow some clothes from around here and put those in the drier, if you want." Thanks. Um, do you wanna meet Kurt and Bobby? That's them up there, right Hank? Sounds good on both counts. *waves up at the booth* "Yeah, that's them. C'mon, let's head up." * Miya nodnods and does that. * Daegal heads up, losing his glow as he walks. * Daegal peeks under the bandage on his arm, and chuckles lightly. What? Up in the room are a brown-haired guy and a man with blue fur, blank eyes, and two fingers and a thumb on both hands and feet. He also has a tail with a little arrowhead-point at the end. * Miya waves sheepishly. They wave back. Bobby says, "Well, looks like you picked up a stray, Miya. Who's this?" Daegal. And he's not a stray. Um, not really. Yeah, I've had all my shots, and I'm even housebroken. Bobby cracks up at that, and Kurt shakes his head. * Miya looks mildly embarrassed. "Were you watching us the whole time?" "Not the *whole* time... you started, oh, twenty seconds before we got here." * Miya facepalms. * Miya throws the wet towel at Bobby. "You could've told us!" * Daegal tilts his head towards Miya. "Kid's got a nice right hook, doesn't she?" Kurt shrugs. "We'd been looking for you anyway. Herr Xavier has approved your entry into the school, Daegal. Or did Hank already tell you?" Bobby catches the towel with his face. (Nice catch, Bobby!) ( z_z_v ) Just mentioned it before we came in here. *extends hand for a handshake* He's Bobby, so you're Kurt, right? Two guys with blue fur... you and Hank related? Kurt chuckles and shakes hands. "No, not at all. Our powers aren't even the same." * Miya just sticks her tongue out at Bobby. Bobby sticks his tongue out at Miya. :P [ Session end. Wai. z.z ]