11905/The New-New Mutants

The New-New Mutants
Date of Scene:	04 August 2020
Location:	Gym - X-Men Base
Synopsis:	The New-New Mutants meet up and hang out. Friends forever? Stay tuned reader!
Cast of Characters:	SpyderByte, Nightingale, Ted Gammage, Faraday

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SpyderByte has posed:
Standing in the gym below the school, Jeremy is staring at the piece of cardstock in his hand. The New Mutants. An invitation to a hand picked group of students to take on extra-curricular challenges in mental and physical testing, team building and partnership with the X-Men. (No, this is not a superhero team) was in quotes at the bottom of the letter. He turns it over a few times in his hand, then furrows his brows some.

He sent out a ping to the other four students on the card via text message to come meet him at the gym. Miss Frost suggested they bond as a team and get to know each other better, so, this is what his goal was. As he stands in his over-sized black hoodie, black pants and a dog collar around his throat, his laptop bag is settled at his feet. He sways back and forth, looking nervous and anxious, but in that excited 'first day of school' manner. New friends! At least he's met all of them in one shape or another.

Nightingale has posed:
     While still on the injured list, Shannon was not about to let physical fitness go completely out the window. So when she saw that little blinking green spider icon appear on her phone, she just smiled, changed into her black leggings and t-shirt with the pink sequin heart and some sneakers--with a few colorful metaphors as she moves her left arm the wrong way getting it into the sling--and made her way down to the gym. Rather pointedly, she did -not- carry a letter with her.

     "Hey, Jeremy!" she called out, waving. "Got your message."

Ted Gammage has posed:
Once he gets the text, and probably cracks his screen accidentally, Ted hefts himself up from his studies and heads toward the gym. He knows where the gym is, fortunatly, though this one doesn't really do him a lot of good since it didn't have his powers in mind when created. Still, a bit of treadmilling is nice on occasion when it rains out.

He meanders in as only a southern kid can. He's wearing a t-shirt so faded the logo isn't really recognizable anymore, worn jeans and a good pair of sturdy workboots. He did leave the cowboy hat in his room at least. "What's up, y'all?" he asks the pair.

Faraday has posed:
Through the door rolls Indira in a teal tank top with a bold neon purple zig-zag running from one shoulder to the opposing hip and black jeans ripped at the knees. The rumpled cardstock is shoved in one back pocket and there's the low crack as she pops a bubble in the gum she's chewing.

"Yo." She greets the other faces, "So, we get to be superheroes? ...sorry, "not superheroes", uh..." She fishes out the paper and squints at it. "A 'cooperative exercise in team dynamics and self-growth'. So, D-League, but that's cool."

SpyderByte has posed:
"Hey Shannon!" Jeremy perks up when he sees hers, giving a broad grin. His eyes fall upon her arm in the sling, pauses for a moment as his eyes give a quick flicker, then furrows his brows. He most likely just hijacked the medical file to see what happened to her.

He lifts a hand up to Ted and Indira as they head in as well. He takes a moment to look past them, as if expecting Adam to join them, then leans back a bit. He offers up a bright smile, then holds out his cell phone so that his voice can come through the speakers.

<< Hello! It's so good to see all of us together. Adam may be busy, or sleeping. Bears sleep a lot. You all got the invitation? Miss Frost said that we all will be working together a lot in the Danger Room. >>

There is a bit of a bounce in his ankles, giving them a bright smile. << Shannon, you have been a New Mutant for awhile. What does it mean? What are we going to do? >>

Nightingale has posed:
     "I won't voice my personal feelings on Miss Frost, but yes, I did get the invitation." Shannon can't help but grin right back at Jeremy, though. Who could stay irritated with a smile like that? The flicker of his eyes is not lost on her, and she chuckles lightly, knowing full well what likely just happened.

     She smiles and waves to Indira and Ted as well, canting her head as she peers at each in turn. "Okay, so five of us, then? That'll actually be a pleasant change. There was Pixie most of this year, but she graduated, and made the X-men. It'll be kind of nice not doing quite so much on my own."

     Thinking for a moment, she moves as if to cross her arms. Big mistake. That gesture gets a bit of a yelp from her, and she instead has to keep her other arm at her side. In lieu of the gesture, her wings furl around in front of her, feathers ruffling as she gives her wings a little flick. "The one thing Miss Frost did get right is no, we're not /meant/ to be a superhero team. We're not /meant/ to go looking for trouble." There's a wry smile, and a soft huff of somewhat sardonic laughter. "Trouble will find us soon enough without us helping it along. In practice, you could say we're sort of the B-team, getting some extra training under our belt and helping look after things here at home, while we're learning to harness our respective gifts. What Sam and Mr. McCoy have in store, I don't know yet."

Ted Gammage has posed:
"Uh," Ted starts, "Ah'm a farmer, Don't think I'm much for superheroing," he admits with a shrug of his broad shoulders. "But, if it helps me not hurt anyone, ah guess ah'm good for it." His expression seems skeptical. He's also not met this "Frost" teacher that Shannon mentioned. He makes a curious sound at the rest of it, "Ah, what kinda trouble's gonna find us at a school?" he asks curiously.

Faraday has posed:
"Ain't met her, but I heard those unspoken air quotes in there." Indira remarks as she looks towards Shannon with just a tiny, wicked sort of grin. "I don't mind trouble. It keeps you from going soft and stale." Says the girl who, school rumor claims, was rescued by the X-Men plus 2 from a kidnapper's box.

There's another pop of her gun as she hooks her thumbs in the belt loops of her pants. "So what's everyone's special tricks, anyway? I kinda know Jer's there, and obviously you fly. My shirt kinda gives me away. I can drop a lightning bolt on you, screw up electrical fields, turn a Tesla into a slag heap if I sneeze on it - that kinda stuff."

SpyderByte has posed:
<< I am nervous and excited. I am nervouscited. I decided to take the liberty of looking through the files that they had on us for the New Mutants. We were each picked specifically based upon experience, emotional and physical aptitude and academics. >> One guess which one he landed in. << Adam can turn into a huge grizzly bear. Ted is super strong strong and near invulnerable. His power levels is off the charts. They called him the next Colossus. That is so cool. He is an awesome X-Man. You should be really flattered. >>

It seems that the young Goth-Path is quite over the moon with this. << We're all going to become best friends too! And we'll have each other's back. We can all do homework together! >> He clasps his hands together quickly, almost dropping his phone in the process.

<< I am so happy that Mister McCoy is also involved. He is my favorite teacher. >>

Nightingale has posed:
     Shannon smiles over at Ted, and shakes her head. "More trouble outside the school finding us, than anything happening here on the grounds. I've only ever seen one major incident on the grounds that I can talk about. We're pretty well protected here."

     Glancing over at Indira, she nods, and smiles somewhat, turning to show her arm with the sling. "Not just flying. My healing gifts came in first, the wings were a couple months later. It's... sort of in flux at the moment, and Mr. McCoy's been working with me trying to figure out why sometimes my gifts have been working a little bit differently than usual. But mostly, when I heal someone, it's by touch, and I absorb their injuries as my own. This was not my own injury. So there's that, plus flight, and I've been picking up some hand-to-hand from Logan, and staff fighting from Mr. LeBeau."

     Turning back to Jeremy, Shannon smiles and shrugs. "Guess you'll all get to meet my furry little study buddy at some point, then, if we're going to be doing homework and stuff together."

Ted Gammage has posed:
"Ah, guess that makes 'nuff sense." Ted gives a roll of his shoulder, "Well, ah don't think..." he then gets distracted by Jeremy's somewhat exagerated statements of his abilities, "Ah, don't know if ah'm all that. I just punch things real hard and can take a punch or two." He gets quiet as they discuss a few other things, but during a pause, he wonders, "What are we gonna be doing? Think they mentioned somethin' bout the danger room, which I only been in once and it was to pitch a car around and try t' jump as high as I could t'see what I could do. S'real weird room." The last is added after a moment thought.

Faraday has posed:
"Ooh, a healer. Nifty." Indi says as she stands there, though she can't seem to quite settle. She's shifting leg to leg, or tapping toes or fingers. "Well, not the backlash bit, that's a big old suck. I'm seein' why they picked the group they did, though. We're like an RPG squad. Chaotic good, by the way." She murmurs while freeing a thumb so she can jerk it towards her own chest. "Just putting that out there. Dibs on Sorcerer."

There's a clap of her hands then, which has the reaction of making sparks fly from the impact like smacking metal off the top of a battery. "So! What do we do first?"

SpyderByte has posed:
<< Dibs on being The Rogue. >>

Jeremy puffs up a bit with pride, then runs a hand back through his long thick black hair. He re-dyed it this morning. He ponders Ted's question, then says as he holds up his phone.

<< From what I can tell, we're all going to be learning how to work together as a team. Use our powers together to overcome obstacles. I guess start out with basic working out and testing of our powers to see our level of control, then slowly implement them together in joint efforts. It is very exciting. I will admit I'm nervous because physically I am not the most suited for in the field situations. I guess my role is to use my powers to guide the rest of you around maps and disable external threats that are technology based. The computer hacker in the movie that is on head phones and looking at cameras. >>

He leans over and bumps Indi on the shoulder, giggling as his hair sticks up from the static shock. << I don't know what we do first. I just wanted to see all of you at once and say Hi. >>

Nightingale has posed:
     "Nothing wrong with a little meet and greet," Shannon replies, smiling. "Heh, I usually wind up being 'eyes in the sky' when I get called out into the field. Oh, and Indi? Dibs on being the Cleric. They can heal ya, but train 'em up right, and they can kick some ass too. Nobody wants to mess with a fully armored battle cleric."

     Something Jeremy said has her wondering, though, and she peers a little more closely at Indira. "Speaking of, is there any kind of physical range to your gifts? Do you have to be right up close to something, or how do your gifts work?" She smiles as she looks over at Ted and Jeremy in turn. "I saw a little of yours in the danger room, Ted, and I've seen you work your magic several times already, Jer. Even in the field, and you did well. I have yet to meet Adam, but maybe someday soon."

Ted Gammage has posed:
"Ah met Adam once. He was ah bear at th' time. I don't know if ah met him as a non-bear yet or no," Ted notes about Adam. When Indira mentions her D&D class, Ted does ask "Is that yer superhero codename?" He does half-smile, though, making it difficult to tell if he got the reference or not. He then looks to Jeremy. "Yer th' guy in the chair, right? Basically? Ah guess that means I just...punch things?" Its said a bit distastefully, not liking to be a simple brute, apparently.

Faraday has posed:
"Still testing the limits." Indira says towards Shannon after reaching out sideways to poke Jeremy aside his head, making his hair go full porcupine. "Few miles if I can spot a likely stormcloud and charge it up, though I can't steer it or anything. A bolt of lightning can go pretty far, but I'm a city girl. Kinda hard to really test distance when you can reach out your window and into your neighbor's. Nothing like accidentally electrocuting old Ms. Witherbee to get you labelled as a neighborhood menace, even if her cats do keep leaving dead things on your doorstep and she gives out those dry, nasty peanut candies at Halloween." Boy that was oddly specific.

"OH! Codenames!" Indi says with a point at Ted. "So I was thinking of that soon as I learned to be on a team, because that's the cool thing to do, right? I think I'm going with Faraday. Some nerd who did a lot with electrical studies or something, but it sounds neat."

SpyderByte has posed:
Giggling as his hair sticks upwards, Jeremy takes a picture of himself with his phone and saves it. Maybe he can get some hair gel later and try that out. He can do a Sonic cosplay.

<< Ted, you're the strong guy of the team. Every team needs one. The strong guy is really important. You're the Warrior class. >>

Once his hair falls down, he reaches up to brush it back into place. << I call myself Spyder Byte. Two Y's and not I's. I've had that name for a few years now. It's my online idenity on the dark web. It works for me here. Shannon calls herself Nightengale. You should have one too. >>

He thinks, rubbing a hand along his jaw. << What about Brick? Or Brick House? Super Boy! Wait .. no, that one is taken. Invincible! Oh, that one is taken too. Darn. Give me a second. >> He grows still as he clutches his phone, eyes giving another flicker.

<< Seriously, Strong Guy is taken? Wow. Brick is not taken! >>

Nightingale has posed:
     Nodding to Indira, Shannon smiles. "Faraday's a cool nickname. Like Jeremy said, mine's Nightingale. My folks gave that to me after my healing gifts manifested. You know, like Florence Nightingale."

     Looking over at Ted, Shannon shakes her head. "Strength can be more than just physical. I'm not sure of the exact stats, but look at Captain Rogers as an example. He's considerably stronger than normal, yet one thing you'll hear of even more often--especially if I wind up yammering your ear off about it--is his kindness and strength of heart. And the way you show concern for others and how they may be impacted by your gifts tells me you already have that part down, just the same way. 'Warrior' does not mean 'brute'."

     Glancing down at her left hand, she tries to flex her fingers a little bit and flinches. "Okay, so, has Mr. McCoy or Sam said anything about the sort of exercises they'll be looking to have us do? If they're anything like the one Sam had Bean and I doing some months ago, then we're in for interesting times."

Ted Gammage has posed:
"Uh, let's jus' workshop it ah bit more," Ted suggests, apparently not super keen on Brick. Or maybe he just wants to think of it a little bit. Either way, he shifts his attention a moment, "I'm not so sure 'bout all this," he admits, "But like ah said, be nice not t' tippietoe around, y'know. Prolly also should get better at jumpin'. Man, th' property damage alone with a missed jump an' I just Kool-Aid Man through th' side of a building."