6951/Stretching Out The New Wings

Stretching Out The New Wings
Date of Scene:	18 March 2019
Location:	Danger Room - X-men Base
Synopsis:	Rogue takes Pixie, Blink and Andrea through a flying obstacle course
Cast of Characters:	Blink, Rogue, Rage, Pixie

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Blink has posed:
Scott had suggested to Clarice about practicing in the Danger Room. And so she's here, her first time in the secret training facility. The program is set up for flying mostly. An aerial obstacle course, so Pixie can try out her regrown wings. And maybe a few surprises at the end to keep everyone sharp.

Blink looks around as she stands just inside the doorway that leads back out to the hall. "So this is not real, then? But it feels real?" she asks curiously. The mutant's green irises look all about her at the various obstacles set up for flying through and around. Some of them not just things to avoid, but outright traps. It's not the Danger Room for nothing. "And... how bad would it be, like if I fell from the ceiling? Would I die?" she asks, looking a little uncomfortable at the thought. "I've only tried this over water."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is walking toward the danger room with her leather jacket hanging down in her left hand at her side and her right is pulling the zipper on her gold and green suit up to the top of her neck where its hidden away inside the collar of her suit.

"Training tiiiime." She quietly sings for no real reason other than its directly on her mind. "Flyin' training is the best. Though I still don't understand how the Danger Room can pretend t'be a lot bigger than it actually is. That kinda Star Trek stuff blows my mind and I'm rightly sick'a the various brainy types around here tryin' t'explain it to me and gettin' all underwear crinkled if I don't get it. Sorry nerds, the space tech excuse doesn't make any of it make any more sense!"

Rogue is putting her jacket on while talking and she steps on thigh-high booted legs on into the room in question. A grin is given to Blink as Rogue adjusts her jacket over her torso with her gloved hands on the leather lapels.

"There are safety levels you can turn on and off. You can basically turn this place inta a bouncy room, or a death trap."

Rage has posed:
Zipping up the front of her black and gold New Mutants uniform, Andrea steps inside along with the others, giving a curious glance about with an amused grin. "I can't fly by the way, so .. maybe you guys can just throw me around in the air and try not to drop me." She jokes as she gives a few taps of her boots to make sure they fit proper. Swinging her arms about, she looks to get her blood pumping and the joints stretched out.

"You are gonna have so much fun in here, Clarice. It's like the old Star Trek shows on TV with the Holodeck. You can customize the heck out of it." She bumps her shoulder against Rogue's playfully, blowing away some of her brown hair.

Pixie has posed:
Following the other ladies into the room, Pixie narrows her dark eyes in thought. "I wonder if I shouldn't have done some warm up outside first." She murmurs. Tying back her long pink hair, a helmet dangles on one arm and she wears the standard X-Men training uniform for the time being. Fluttering her regrown wings she sucks in a breath. "I think I could carry someone if it comes to it. But I might take a lap to be sure. I haven't worked these muscles in a while."
    The Welsh mutant keeping her distance a little from the other women as she starts to put on her helmet carefully and adjusting the straps to the right length. "Maybe it's more like the Tardis, bigger on the inside?"

Blink has posed:
Blink seems intrigued by what Rogue says about it being a bouncy room. She taps her foot down on the ground. "Feels kind of solid to me," she comments. Though Clarice seems willing to put her trust in the others. She smiles as Andrea comes in, Blink raising a hand to wave over to her.

"I don't really fly either. I mean if I want to go somewhere I would just go straight there. But just in case I'm ever falling, I figured out how to... ah... well, fall in different directions. So I might as well practice that," Clarice says. She doesn't have any X-men gear obviously. Wearing her clothes she arrived at the school in. Black tights and a tight fitting black jacket with some brown trip on it. She also has a quiver though, filled with thin magenta... things. They might be javelins.

Rogue has posed:
Bumping shoulders with Rogue is like bumping shoulders with a steel support pylon. That being said, she still feels it and looks over to Andrea with a sly grin on her red hued lips. "You can get a fake jetpack or wings or somethin'. Hell, this thing can probably generate you a Tony Stark Iron Guy suit if ya'll ask the computer t'do it."

She says this to all three of them really, Pixie included, since she's showcasing some hesitation toward her flying skills. "Ya still recoverin' from losin' them in that Evil Bobby fight?" She has to ask, having not seen Pixie for a little while...

She strides further into the danger room then, toward its center and turns around to place her hands down onto her hips atop the utility belt that is strapped around them and she looks to the other three. "I fly fast and agile though, so ya'll gotta keep up with me. Jetpacks, iron suits, or tag teamin' it somehow. Fair warnin' is all." She tells them with a teasing grin as she's just goofing around some.

Rage has posed:
"Jet pack here for me, at least I'm familiar with those. All of the one time I ran it here.. it's like riding a bike." Andrea says as she gives another stomp of her boot to make sure it's in place. "Jet pack wolves though will be a trend I'm sure." As she steps into the middle of the Danger Room, she gives Clarice an encouraging grin. "Or, yes, like a Tardis. I've never seen a single episode of Doctor Who. I bet Erika has the collection though. I should ask her and see about catching a few seasons."

Pixie has posed:
Nodding, Pixie reaches behind her to run her fingers over the tips of her wings. Long and narrow like dragon fly wings they shimmer a little blue. "They're long enough to take my weight to fly proper, I think they might get a little longer but it's the bare minimum for proper flight finally." She tells Rogue and draws in a slow breath.
    "Soo...it's follow the leader then? That sounds like it's do-able." She nods and stretches out her wings leaning side to side a little to loosen up her back. "Anything to be mindful of? Can we bounce off obstacles or anything like that?" She wondes curiously. Pixie starts fluttering her wings to get a little lift experimentally.

Blink has posed:
Blink glances over at the jetpack thoughtfully, but doesn't ask for one. She wants to try this on her own it seems. "Bouncing off obstacles. Or... landing on them," she adds with a sheepish grin. "I won't truly be flying, so, will just try to keep up though," she tells them.

Clarice looks over at Pixie, eyes going to her wings. "Your wings are beautiful," the Asian mutant tells Pixie. "And I don't think I've met you yet. I'm Clarice. I'm here to help keep Princess Lorna safe when she travels," she says. She doesn't seem to be a student, including in the college classes though Blink looks about twenty.

After introductions, she'll look back to Rogue, ready to start.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue silently lifts up off of the danger room floor and hovers tehre with her right leg bent at the knee a little and her left extended down with her boot's tip aimed toward the floor. She adjusts her gloves with little tugs to the wrists and just grins at the others.

"The original flight training program that _I_ wanted--and pitched at Hank--was a take on Mario Kart. Where you'd fly through rings and collect power ups that you could then throw at other fliers with you." She sighs softly then. "But he said--" Mocking Hank McCoy voice. "This is the Danger Room, Anna-Marie! This is not some child's toy for you to play silly little games with!"

Rogue softly shakes her head back and forth. "Then he leaned back in his chair and popped a twinkie in his mouth. Sometimes... people lack perspective on themselves." She grins to the other three and nods once to Pixie. "Those wings are the livin' definition of gorgeousness."

Then the southern belle starts to fly up into the air with her arms spread wide and her head leaned back while spinning in a slow circle like a ballerina dancer, only flying. "I'm ready for the fuuuuun!" She announces in a cheerful voice with a big smile on her lips.

Rage has posed:
"I'm ready when you guys are. We can run jet pack scenario beta twelve and it should give us open air, jet packs and pretty clouds on a sunny day. Just gotta adjust for the weight drop. It makes you dizzy if you look down too quickly." Andrea watches Rogue fly upwards into the sky, then gives a grin over to Pixie. "You natural fliers are so lucky. I bet it's the best feeling in the world to soar about." With one last stretch, she prepares for the simulation to kick in.

Pixie has posed:
Looking at Clarice, Pixie smiles. "Megan. I go by Pixie too though." She offers and rubs the back of her neck. "I'm still sort of figuring out things. I'm sort of a cheap second for when they can't find Illy." She explains and looks over to Andrea. "It's...nice to fly, but not so nice to have two big, vulnerable targets of mutant hate on my back." She offers and pushes up in the air after Rogue leaving a glimmer of pixie dust in her wake.

Blink has posed:
Blink taps the ground beneath her. "So, this is going to not hurt if I fall on it, right?" she asks. "I'll just... do a little warm up one, if so." Assuming she gets a confirmation she's standing in a fall-friendly space, Blink pulls out one of the magenta javelins from her quiver. She tosses it down by her feet.

A portal opens on the ground, and one up at the ceiling. Clarice steps in and falls out the portal at the top. She wasn't kidding. There's no flying here. Just falling. The first pair of portals close.

Clarice plummets towards the ground, hurling a second javelin at the ground. This time a portal opens where it hits, and a second opens right beside it. Clarice falls into the first portal and comes back out of the one besides it, her motion redirected straight up. Again the portals close.

She flies upwards, gravity slowing her until she's just about stopped in the air. She opens a portal in the air right below her, the exit appearing about 6 feet off the ground back where she's started. Blink falls into the portal and out the one near the ground, easily landing from what amounts to a six feet fall. "Whew. Much easier up and down, than sideways, though," she says.

Rogue has posed:
Once she's about fifteen or so feet up, Rogue stops and looks down at the other. She grins at Andrea. "There are better feelin's. But its one'a the best." She replies in a cheeky sort've way, which is pretty standard for her when it comes to responses from Rogue.

She watches Pixie float up after her and she has to clap her gloved hands together at the sight of it. "Love it." She says to her. "A force to be reckoned with... and look, I like Illyana, but she gives me the creeps mosta the time. With all her little hellish creation's and taking two years t'get that tongue flower outta the school? That chick is a bit off, if ya ask me. But please don't tell her I said that!"

Rogue's attention is pulled away by Blink's impressive display of her portaling power and it just makes Rogue reach her right hand up and run it through her hair over her right shoulder, she then points to Clarice. "Ya just gave me a headache with that, sugah." She says, then shows a hint of a grin.

Rage has posed:
"Okay, I officially got the worst powers here in the room." Andrea says as she watches the three of them show off a bit in the air. She calls out to the Danger Room to initiate a command, then feels the jetpack wrap about her body and around one of her arms in the way of a control panel. She taps a few buttons on the wrist as the pack takes off with a rumble, shooting her upwards into the sky. Sucking in a breath, she grins at Rogue. "Okay .. ready as I can be."

Pixie has posed:
"She's better at magic than I am-I'll give her that. But at a cost." Pixie shrugs at Rogue and watches the other two. Blink's portals get a low whistle. "You can open those anywhere? I'll keep an eye out for you." She notes and watches Andrea jetpack up. "I mean, if it's flying, sure. Brightside? You aren't Wolverine." She offers and flutters in place for a bit. "I'm ready."

Blink has posed:
Blink nods to Pixie and says, "Much easier if I can see the destination. If not, I need to know it well or else my accuracy can be way off. Especially if it's the other side of the planet or something like that."

She smiles and gives them a wave. "Go ahead and start without me. I'll bring up the rear so I don't snag one of you with a portal," she says. "I may end up kind of leaping from obstacle to obstacle too, will see."

Clarice smiles to Rogue then, giving her a nod as she moves over beneath the others, waiting to go.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue just grins at Andrea as she joins her up in the sky and she has to shake her head at the other's words. "Thats just... ya know, situational. You can shred inta folks." She motions to Pixie. "Just like she says, like Logan... except you're a lot more enjoyable t'be around than him and his ever present stank of cigars and cheap beer." She's grinning now and hoping that somehow, someway, Logan will have heard her say that.

"Blink's portals are pretty damn amazin', that much is true. I can think of about a gatrillion ways I could use those t'get places that I just frank need t'be at. All'a which are adult rated and I'll be wise t'keep t'myself!"

When Clarice joins them though, Rogue starts off, she's moving at a casual clip at first, flying upward and gaining more altitude before she shifts suddenly and changes directions, now heading 'east' inside the Danger room's scenario.

Rage has posed:
"Sure, turning into a werewolf is cool when we're in the middle of a fight, it's just not a family friendly power." Andrea says as she gives a wide grin to the three of them, hovering in the sky and moving about as they do. She is clumsy with the controls, stuttering and jerking about as she flies.

"But it's nice to know that you guys like being around me. Means a lot to hear." Even a popstar requires companionship that is genuine. Too many times, the 'fans' always look to take advantage.

Pixie has posed:
"Wolverine's nice enough, he's just a reverse suit of armor, that has to suck." Pixie notes and banks to fly off after Rogue with a look back at Andrea and Blink to make sure they're following too. "Try not to get dusted, it should be fine in this small a trail but it's sort of a hallucinogen!" She calls back and dips low to avoid hitting either girl in a constant stream of dust.

Blink has posed:
Clarice calls out to Rogue in a guilty voice, "Not that I've ever used them to get to places I shouldn't." She gives Rogue a soft smile and a wink. She waits for the rest to get a good lead on her. Then she forms a portal to drop her from ceiling. Picking up speed from the fall, the next one shoots her at an angle, like a thrown object arcing the way they went.

Clarice is able to change directions easily, it just takes a portal to instantly turn. But speed control is much more difficult, depending on gravity. But she's keeping up for the moment.

As Clarice flies through the air in a ballistic arc, she hears Pixie's admonition about her dust. "Eep!" she squeaks, opening a portal to re-emerge a little higher to avoid it. "Thank you for the warning!" she calls back as she follows them.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue doesn't hesitate to start laying the pedal to the metal, so to speak, and she starts picking up a pretty decent clip of speed to her flight pattern. The danger room keeps them all from running into any walls and lets them all fly seemingly forever in any direction that they wanna go in.

She looks back over her shoulder at the others, Pixie specifically and flashes a big smile at her. "Don't say stuff like that! I'll have ya bottle it up for me and leave it for me t'keep in my room!" An endless supply of hallucinogenic pixie dust? "Sounds like the makin' of a good weekend t'me!"

And with that said, Rogue turns harsh to the north, not shaking a ounce of speed as she zips back around in a long arc to look back at Blink and make sure she's keeping up since she's the one flying in the most untraditional way. "You lose control, you call out t'me!" Rogue shouts back to the other before she now looks to Andrea. "How you keepin' up with that Jetpack, Popstar?"

Rage has posed:
"I'm hanging ... on!" Andrea says as she swoops left to right in jerky manners, though won't be able to keep up with the more speedier fliers. It seems that she is going to take her time so not to flip upside or run into a wall or one of her friends. She rarely gets to fly, so she may as well enjoy it and savor the moment.

Pixie has posed:
Rolling her eyes at Rogue, Pixie rolls and beats her wings a little harder to keep up with the other flier. "I don't know how well it works if it's not fresh-admittedly. It probably doesn't considering I shed it everywhere." She notes and frowns as she works her wings to keep up. Glancing back at Andrea Pixie winces a little. A quick look at Blink and she shakes her head. "You both need helmets!" She calls back and taps her own.

Blink has posed:
The purple-haired mutant does start to fall behind, in large part for just not wanting to get going faster than she thinks she has control of. Though that doesn't last for long. Instead of just having a portal redirect her, she uses one to jump back up ahead to where they are.

Another portal is aimed to arc Blink towards one of the obstacles. She lands on it deftly before leaping off, jumping into another portal that jumps her up to ceiling level so she can pick up speed again. "This is good practice for me..."

*BLINK!*

"... but I probably wouldn't ever really travel..."

*BLINK!*

"... like this!" she calls to them.

Rogue has posed:
The danger room is smart. Its very smart. It knows that they're training flight and it knows that Rogue is here for instance. So its going to tailor the system to work for them as it has for her in the past, for this very reason.

As such, the obstacles that start appearing are things designed for Rogue to dodge, but its doing it in a smart way that is tracking the others and their skill levels. So where Rogue has to dodge a falling building, that building will conveniently demolish itself in strategic ways to help Andrea--a novice rocketeer--to avoid simulated catastrophe!

Same goes for the others, it will push them to their limits, but its not trying to break them right now either.

Rogue just keeps on flying, staying ahead of her group and guiding their way in and around the crumbling city structures that are falling all around them! "Ya'll got this! You're doing great!" She shouts back at them as she zips through a building's side and bursts out the other side like a green/gold Kool-ade woman!

Pixie has posed:
As the flight path becomes filled with more obstacles to avoid Pixie starts to vary her path a little more. Banking up over some crumbling wall, the Welsh mutant tucks her feet up to push off a surprise bit of debris and arcs wide losing Rogue for a moment and looking around. "Whoa! This got intense!" She notes and looks back for the portal jumper to ensure she's not impeding her path and missing the obstacle quickly falling towards her.

Blink has posed:
The young Asian woman disappears through a portal, purple and magenta hair streaming in her wake to suddenly appear ahead on the other side of a falling building. She immediately makes another porta to pop herself up in a slower arc forward, bleeding of speed as she drifts upwards, and giving her a chance to look ahead.

Seeing tumbling debris heading towards Pixie, one of those javelins is whipped out of her quiver, hitting the debris and causing it to teleport down to the ground. Another portal is thrown by hand this time, opening above Pixie to let other debris fall into it and again appear below her.

Blink looks back to her own situation then. Going through another portal, she ends up on the debris itself, jumping from one piece to another in a way reminiscent of Nightcrawler, if with just a little less grace perhaps.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is up and up into the air where she helps intercept an airplane and keep it from crashing down toward her friends and team mates on this mission! She holds the plane up as best as she can until it flies over head of them all and then she lets it soar above her and disappear off into the simulated horizon.

She looks down to PIxie and Blink. She can see Andrea pulling back and heading back toward the safezone... that jetpack was likely a lot to deal with in a scenario like this. She doesn't really blame the Popstar for needing to bail out on this for now.

Rogue talks, her voice carries to the other two still in the training simulation. "Blink." She says to her while watching her off in the distance. "We're gonna steal ya from Lorna's crew." She grins then, leans forward and shoots off to catch up with them and sweep past them as Sentinels start marching around and firing laser beams at them!

Pixie has posed:
"Nice catch!" Pixie calls to Blink as she recovers. Rolling to curl well out of the way of portals, she drops back and offers Blink a hand to haul her up for a little momentum boost so she can resume her portal hopping again. "Here! Take my hand a minute." Dark eyes fix on Blink for a second before tracking Rogue and the airplane. "Let's get that falling between us and the sentinels before you start portaling again!"

Blink has posed:
"I imagine she'd be fine with me helping you," Clarice calls to Rogue, smiling towards the other woman. As she hears Pixie, Clarice just lifts her hand without even looking, totally trusting Pixie to grab hold as the two are passing near to each other. Trust.

"I'll try to get them to hit each other," Blink says as Pixie gets them past the airplane and the giant robots start to close in.

A combination of pre-made javelins, and hand spun portals start springing into being as the Sentinel's open fire. Blink is relying on Pixie for flying at this point, and just fighting. Portals open before Sentinels as they shoot, the exit portal appearing to the side and aiming at them so they are blowing each other up. Blowing themselves up in some cases.

Rogue has posed:
This is bordering on a combat scenario now with the Sentinels at play, but Rogue isn't letting it delve into that entirely. No, she's making the other evil robots fight each other as well as she flies between them and tries to strategically get them to hit one another in the process, just as Blink and Pixie attempt the same in their own ways!

But, this is Rogue, and these Sentinels are a button issue right now... the X-Men may not have all the details on how they're built and what they can't do... but they're performing as recorded and observed in the field so far!

All the same, a robot arm here, a robot head there... Rogue's tearing them apart and flying between them, around them... and in one case, right through one!

"Ya'll wanna dance with this devil, you're all gonna need t'learn some new moves!" She taunts the simulated monstrosities of metal and mechanization!

Pixie has posed:
"Hang tight!" Pixie grunts as she holds tight to Blink and takes over the flight for both of them. Straining a little, her face goes red as she cuts a dicey path between Blink's two targets so she can work her portals. Looking ahead, she watches Rogue tear them apart. "Just don't let them dust me Clarice!" She calls out mindful of the video that was circulating of the Russian mutant with wings who got zapped not too long ago.

Blink has posed:
"We're in it together!" Clarice calls back to Pixie. BLINK! A portal opens to redirect a Sentinel beams back through his own chest. As Pixie banks, Clarice gives a cheer. Another javelin is thrown, this time hitting one of the Sentinels right at the joint of its head. The portal opens, cutting right through its neck and the head falls through, only to appear above another Sentinel, clanging off it and knocking him off course.

Blink looks over, watching Rogue rip apart the metal monstrosities left and right. As two of them close in, working together to corner Rogue, Blink throws a portal in front of Rogue that lets out right behind the backs of the pair of attackers.

"Alright, ready if you want to let me go and do your thing," Clarice tells Pixie. She's ready to open a portal beneath her to reposition her for a speed-gaining fall, freeing the X-woman up to do her own damage to the robots.

Rogue has posed:
An opportunistic Portal allows Rogue to fly right through it and come up right behind the big metal men. "How about a massage?" Rogue says to them as she jams her fists through their backs and into where their robotic spinal columns would be located! She doesn't hesitate to shred them to pieces there after before she rockets up into the air with them on her arms like giant shiny metal puppets.

Once up nice and high, Rogue slams them together repeatedly, making parts of their bodies rain down onto the simulated ground below. Whats left of them on her forearms are dusted off by the southern belle and she then smiles brightly before she free falls in the sky about fifty feet before swooping up and toward where Pixie and Blink are. "Flyin' is fun, see!" She shouts at the other two as she zips by!

Pixie has posed:
Giving Blink a little more altitude, Pixie nods. "Happy travels." She tells Blink cheerfully. Letting the other woman go, she draws her soul dagger and stretches out her wings to bank and dip behind a sentinel to plunge the weaponized portion of her soul into the back of the machine's neck. It's simple, if savage, the half fae mutant crouched on it's shoulder before launching herself to the sky again and getting some air.

Blink has posed:
Blink laughs and teleports about the area. She acts defensively for her teammates as much as she does offensively. Constantly giving them new options to dart through and hit an enemy from behind. Or providing them with a portal covering their back in a moment they might be exposed. With enough experience, they may even begin to predict when they can count on her for support.

Eventually the Sentinels are defeated and the trio land back in the starting area. Clarice lets out a laugh and moves over to give each woman a hug if allowed. Rogue will have time to ward her off if there's a skin issue. "This room is -so- great. I'd really like to train in it some more later, if I'm allowed," she tells them.

The training course defeated, it's time for drinks and snacks in the kitchen. As they leave, the lights of the Danger Room flicker and go out. Darkness falls in the room, but for one last pair of Sentinel eyes that shine longer than the rest from the dark, before also going out.