| Moment of Awesome - Marius Laverne/Emplate: A planned Danger Room session with Madin turns into a teaching experience.
"Hey, telepathy! I didn't know you can do that," Madin said, choking down their inherent 'stay out of my brain' response. "Yeah, I can't come in but Marius reckons he can."
"Correct," Marius said with considerable aplomb for a man responding to what was by far his least favourite mode of communication, "I am a veritable sponge for offensive mutations such as your own. This was, in fact, the pretext for the training session upon which Madin and I were about to embark."
”It’s new.” Jono replied to Madin, just as uncomfortable with the mutation as they were. ”I’m not trying to be offensive. Just trying to get used to it.”
"Ah, no worries. That is, after all, the point of this place. Helped me adjust to my particular issues in times long past. Not so obvious these days, but . . ." Marius raised a hand to the window and peeled back his glove to display the tooth-ringed orifice in the centre of his palm long enough for the younger man to get a good look. It was impulsively done; as a rule Marius found it easier to hold a conversation when the opposite party wasn't wondering whether a handshake was going to draw blood. In this case, however, he felt compelled to make an exception. Jono and Madin were visible mutants, and Marius hadn't always been able to pass with only a set of gloves.
Madin grunted at the sight of his hands. Huh. Bet he chomped his way through a lot of gloves. "He's - I think. It was. um. a lot of words. But he's right and was going to help me work on some powers stuff without, like, just melting everything." They grinned. "Which, there's nothing wrong with setting everything on fire. I did a lot of that when I was younger, but like, it's not always the best option, you know?"
”As long as you’re sure you won’t die. Come in.” Jono felt like he was probably going to regret that decision. But the older man seemed awfully sure about this.
"Quite sure," Marius said confidently, already keying in one of the most basic training pre-sets. As he opened the door he leaned over to Madin and muttered, out of the corner of his mouth, "Just remember: in case of emergencies, I may be used as a human shield."
As the other two mutants strode in to join Jono the Danger Room shimmered to generate a variety of targets. There were a few straw targets for the satisfaction of, as Madin had remarked, watching stuff burn, but there was a wide variety from which to choose. Marius particularly appreciated the carnival-style duck shoot for precision.
"Advanced to target practice yet, or just generally getting the feel of things?" asked the X-Man as he stretched one arm across his body, then the other. In anticipation of his session with Madin, Marius was wearing only a form-fitting tank top that both left his arms bare and covered most of Akkaba's brand. No need to waste perfectly good body armour.
"The feel of things. Haven't been too keen to even let it out since I've been here. Showering has been awful." Jono replied. His telepathic speech was still clunky, but he'd have to brag to Quentin about having actually successfully done it later.
Marius nodded. "Acclimation is a significant first step of any manifestation. Happily, you find yourself in an environment where you may do so both safely and discreetly. Madin, if you would care to demonstrate for our friend -- one to my centre mass, and one to a target?"
"He made me do this to him last time, to convince me I couldn't hurt him," Madin said. "I wasn't sure about it but I did it anyway and he was fine." Energy crackled around their firsts and lit up their arms. Madin shaped it, drawing on half remembered images of Sailor Moon's transformations, bringing the plasma into a wide arc before shooting it at one of the targets. Were they showing off? Shut up. The target was obliterated, ash falling to the ground. They brought up a second one, equally showy and punched it at Marius' mid section.
The blast scorched a hole in the sacrificial shirt, but Marius took it without even a flinch. Aiming a toothy grin at Jono, he tugged the glove from his dominant hand and tucked it into his waistband. No need to waste a perfectly good glove, either.
"I'm a bit of a thief," the X-Man explained as the same streaks of light that had run across Madin's arm began to flow across his own. He squared his feet like a pitcher and let the plasma gather in the palm of his hand -- not the blade-like projections Madin formed, but a ball of light.
"Mutant powers used directly upon my person are absorbed, neutralized, and redirected. I return what I take, like so."
The throw flowed almost like a single motion: a small step back, a longer stride forward, and a pivot from the hips that leant power to the arm and shoulder. An athlete's throw -- specifically a baseball pitch, which, although less practical in combat than fielding, made for quite an effective demonstration.
Among the targets were a row of humanoid mannequins. In an instant one of them had ceased to have a head.
|
