9890/Punching Stuff

Punching Stuff
Date of Scene:	03 November 2019
Location:	Danger Room - X-Men Base
Synopsis:	Rogue is smashing Sentinels under Charles's watchful eye. Vi is given her first taste of facing the robots.
Cast of Characters:	Professor X, Rogue, Vi

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Professor X has posed:
Pacifism meets pragmatism in the X-Base, and nowhere more so than the Danger Room. Charles may promote peace and understanding, but there is no better facility to training and honing mutant powers than the holographic suite designed with just that intention in mind.

Charles sits in his chair, the height adjusted to put the controls for the Danger Room at waist height. He makes a few subtle adjustments, raising the force level here, mitigating the artificial intelligence quotient there. Inside, the simulator runs as though it were real - almost indistinguishable from the real thing, in fact.

A straightforward simulation. A war-torn street, smoke rising from ruined cars and burning buildings. Giant machines of some sort - Sentinels, though maybe a smaller, more futuristic cousin - march across shattered pavement as civilians both mutant and human flee before them.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue had been fighting two streets over just a moment ago. But with the sounds of civilian shouts on this street she'd made a dart down an alleyway.

The southern belle, clad in green, gold and a brown leather jacket, emerges from the mouth of the alley to look left and right as people run past her, a few straggling civilians. Her green headband's flowing strands blow in the wind behind her, causing them (along with her white and brown hair) to flow out on either sides of her face.

A second later and Rogue is grabbed onto by a pair of metal claws from behind! They latch onto her shoulders and biceps, while a mechanical voice speaks out. "Mutant: Cease hostilities. You are being detained."

With a frightened / startled look, Rogue peers back over her shoulder at the mutant hunting machine grasping onto her from behind. A smirk forms across her red hued lips and she reaches her gold gloved hands up to grasp onto its metal tentacle-armed wrists holding onto her.

"Touchin' a lady without her permission ain't a, ya know!" Rogue says then before she whips the arms of the Sentinel forward, causing the massive machine to flip over her head and violently smash down ontop of a vehicle where they both crash through the pavement and down into the sewer system below, leaving Rogue to just straighten up after bending over forward to toss the thing.

Her hands go to her hips. "Maybe you'll some manners down there." She quips in her sultry southern tone.

Vi has posed:
The door to the Danger Room opens and Vi steps inside into the simulation. She looks around in a bit of wonder, though she's starting to get a feeling for what the room can do, so she doesn't gape quite as much as she would have just a few days ago.

She walks forward slowly, barefoot as she often is in while inside. Her poorly made pouch is attached to a belt about her waist, but she's otherwise wearing jeans and her sweatshirt with the SHIELD logo on it. The sounds of metal being smashed coming from the hole in the street draws her attention, as does the voice talking about manners.

Probably not the social simulation that Samuel was doing though. That one had more lasagna and dinner conversations, and less mutant-hating robots.

Smoke drifts up from an overturned car lying on its side that Vi is walking past. She sniffs, nose wrinkling at the scent of gasoline. The gas tank has a leak and a steady little stream of the liquid is spraying out, making a puddle.

A sound comes from inside the car. A small voice, sounds of struggling. Vi pauses, looking towards the hole in the street that likely holds the person doing this simulation. She looks back to the car, frowning, and finally moves over to it. "Hello, is someone in there?" she asks. She grabs hold of the side of the car which is now the top, pulling herself to look down in a window at a trapped kid inside the backseat.

Professor X has posed:
<<Rogue - you have a companion. I shall adjust the threat levels to compensate.>>

Although there is no visible change to the environment as the Professor's voice rings inside Rogue's head, the sentinel robots become just a little more cohesive. Two peel off in the direction of Vi when they hear her voice, while the others launch themselves through the air at Rogue to avenge their fallen compatriot.

The kid inside the car reaches out to Vi through the broken window, grasping at her hand. Obviously, the simulation was designed to incorporate all the terrors of a real battlefield, even lost and scared civilians. In the control room, the Professor monitors Vi carefully - there's a teachable moment here, he's certain.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is standing there with one hand on her hip and her other hanging at her side, enjoying her latest quippy triumph when the Professors voice fills her mind. It makes her look right over to where she knows the Danger Room's exit is and she spies the girl in the SHIELD sweater. "Shit." Rogue mutters

<<Professor, thatsa student, not sure she's ready for this kinda carnage.>> Rogue thinks back to the man to whom she owes her whole presence on this team and in this school to, as he'd accepted her here when the others had voted unanimously to not let her join (originally anyway, it was a long time ago now and they were worried she was a villain!).

As the trapped boy's little tender arm is dangerously reaching through a broken back window toward Vi... A yellow gloved hand appears on the crumpled door of the car that the kid is inside of. Rogue shreds the door like its made of butter, just tears the damn thing off of the body of the ruined car and she then reaches inside to help the trapped kid out. "Here." She says to Vi, offering the boy's hand to her. "Go stand over there, by that building. She points Vi toward the exit of the Danger Room, she knows that the Sentinels will stay way from that area more than in the rest of the room (its a design secret that is meant to keep people who might be stepping in through the doorway safer from danger).

There-after, Rogue turns and lifts that car (an SUV) that the boy had been inside of, up off of the ground and holds it out in front of her. She shoots off of the ground and starts to fly right at the Sentinels coming in toward them...

What comes next is a show of pure carnage, Rogue slamming into the various Sentinels with that SUV as a battering ram. Metal and parts and chaos as the battle takes to the air, Belle verses Metal Beasts.

Vi has posed:
Vi gives a little start as Rogue is suddenly there, not having noticed her approach as she was focused on the small boy. She moves as the door is ripped off, making it easy to get into him.

Both women pull the boy out, Vi bringing him to her body, legs going about her side as the petite girl carries him. "Yes," she says simply to Rogue's command. And then her eyes widen a bit as she sees over Rogue's shoulder where the Sentinels are starting to converge on them.

Vi and the boy suddenly fly through the air away from the SUV. They slow in the air and Vi drops lightly to her bare feet, still holding him. "Go ahead outside, you'll be safe there," she tells him. Even if she grasps the concept of what the room is, she has either forgotten, or doesn't realize, that the boy cannot leave the room through the exit without fading out.

As Vi shoos him towards the exit, or tries to, she turns back to watch what Rogue is doing, pinballing through the metal robots.

Professor X has posed:
<<Vi has her own abilities. Let's see how she fairs before I call an end to the simulation, hm?>>

That said, Charles nevertheless reaches for one of the controls and dials the force level back just a little. While they were set at a number that made Rogue unlikely to sustain any injuries, they would play havoc with Vi. So, he lowers them to make sure neither of them will be hurt.

That doesn't make the situation itself seem any less intense, though.

As the boy hurries quickly away from the chaos, the sentinels round on Rogue - the most obvious threat - and attempt to tear her limb from limb. They don't seem to be employing ranged weapons, instead simply using metallic claws to shred and rend as best they can.

<<Vi, this is Charles,>> the Professor's voice rings out in Vi's head, <<Are you alright?>>

Rogue has posed:
Rogue continues to fly through the air smashing the battered SUV into the Sentinels, one after the other, trying to draw them all away from Vi now that she's in-play here in the Danger Room. The SUV is dropped though as Rogue is grabbed by one metal claw hand, then another... and another....

The SUV falls to the ground as the Southern Belle is latched onto with claws grasping onto her arms, legs, around her waist and even around her throat! It looks like a certain and definitive end for the Belle, as her body is grasped and controlled by the Sentinels that start to close in on her, more of them spouting off Robotic commands to her...

But then, the Belle employs a new tactic, and simply starts to spin in mid air, she starts to spin at high speeds which draws the Sentinels inward around her, their tentacle arms whirling around her as she pulls them all in until she has them colliding with one another! Their massive metal bodies start to slam into each other as the mutant within their clawing, shredding, grasps try to take her apart!

Vi has posed:
Vi watches the boy move away, making sure he's ok, before turning back to see how Rogue is faring. She takes a few worried steps forward as she sees Rogue being grabbed by multiple of the strange robots.

It's then that she hears the voice. Vi spins, not having been able to tell where it came from. "Yes, I'm fine," she answers after a moment, but quickly her attention turns back to Rogue. "The woman needs help," she says.

Vi starts to jog forward, not seeming to mind when her bare feet take her across broken glass and bits of metal in the road. But before Vi gets anywhere near Rogue, she makes like the Tasmanian Devil. In that she spins really fast. If she's doing the slobbering and the guttural noises they are lost in the spinning and the screech of metal.

One of the Sentinel's grasping arms tear free and its body goes flying in Vi's direction. Her eyes widen and then and she lifts her hands, and quickly the Sentinel comes to a halt before her and falls to the ground. It rights itself, a new metal tentacle extending for her even as it staggers, the damage it took from Rogue's Tasmanian attack causing it difficulty.

Vi pushes out her hands away from her and the Sentinel flies away at high speed, smashing into a building, making a hole through the brick wall. Vi reaches down to her pocket, pulling out something and bringing it to her lips, looking like she's drinking something.

Professor X has posed:
In a display of impromptu teamwork, several of the sentinels are dispatched. A few remain, however, and they turn their attention on Vi now. Rogue may have been able to simply throw them off, but they have yet to test the newcomer's abilities. One gets between Rogue and Vi, trying to hold the Southern Belle off as the other darts to try and grasp Vi with its metallic claws.

<<Rogue, Vi seems confident in helping you here. I've adjusted the force levels so that she cannot be harmed, and I'd like to see how she reacts. Keep treating this like a live mission, please.>>

He doesn't venture into Vi's head again, simply watching through the monitor to see what she'll do with the sentinel that is now rushing to try and pull her limb from limb.

Rogue has posed:
With a torn right sleeve that hangs off of her wrist, a torn left pantleg that is fluttering in the wind above her knee high boot, Rogue lands on a edge of a building after hearing Charles' voiced words inside her head.

She crouches, on the corner of the building and looks down at Vi and the Sentinel that is between them.

<<This seems pretty heavy for a kid like her t'get involved in, Professah.>> Rogue mentally says back to the man in the booth. <<I ain't even seen her around before. But I'm guessin' based on that shirt she's wearin' that she's the other kid we picked up from SHIELD, beyond that Samuel one.>>

Rogue leaps from the building then and she flies down toward the carnage to land on the street behind the Sentinel. She's trying to stay behind it, waiting to see if Vi can take it down, but if she struggles, Rogue will be there to shoot up and 'choke the damn thing out' if need be.

Vi has posed:
Vi's instinct when the Sentinel, not a broken up one, comes after her is to run. She turns and sprints away down the street, and there's a burst of speed that would have let her catch and pass Usain Bolt if he were in the race. But the Sentinel is faster and as Vi looks back she sees him gaining, the metal arm reaching out for her.

She flares Iron and yanks on a pair of girders high up in buildings on either side of her, the pull on the heavier objects shooting her body up into the air. Almost immediately she pulls on more metal within two other buildings back behind her that she's passed. The result is a vertical U-turn that sends her shooting back overtop of the Sentinel as he rockets underneath.

The robot is fast though, shooting the grasping claw out as she flies overtop and grasping hold of her. Vi's movement the other direction is suddenly arrested with a teeth-rattling tug back towards the Sentinel.

Professor X has posed:
<<Consider it a form of therapy. Vi comes from a very sordid background. There's a great deal of trauma there. This may be an effective means to work that out.>>

As Vi runs, Charles leans forward slightly. His brow furrows, the bridge of his Aquiline nose creasing as he follows her movements. When the Sentinel catches and she uses her powers, he nods his head in silent approval. But then the Sentinel gains on her again, and he lifts two fingers to his temple.

<<Vi,>> his voice echoes in her head once more, <<Keep your mind clear. Rogue is there to help you if you need it, but you can do this yourself. Remember what these machines are made of.>>

Rogue has posed:
Rogue remembers her own training. When she was brought in originally she was afraid to even fly. She was terrified to leave the terrestrial plain that she'd never return to the safety of the earth in the same sense that Charlie and Grandpa Joe were afraid they'd be sucked up into the exhaust fan in Wonka's factory after drinking experimental the fizzy bubble drink!

She's learned enough in the past 3 years to know this is a chance for Vi to get a bit of action and not in the lewd sense, but in the sense that she could learn to believe in herself a little more.

So the Belle leaps forward with the assistance of her flight power, she bounces off of the walls of the buildings until she latches onto one with her left gloved hand and hangs off of it like Spider-man. Rogue looks over to Vi, down to her on street level where she is.

"The civilians have cleared out!" Rogue shouts to the girl. "You're on your own! Blast the thing, don't hold back! Devastate it with everything ya got! Show it what you're capable of!" She tries to encourage the girl from where she hangs on the building's edge.

Vi has posed:
To the Professor's practiced eye, training so many mutants over the years, it's clear Vi is completely untrained in this kind of combat. She lacks instincts and reactions that are built only through practice, having to work out what she does.

There is panic there as the metal claw grasps at her. She burns her Pewter faster to strengthen her body though the Danger Room's safety settings prevent the metal claw from hurting her even if she hadn't. Brown eyes flare wild with fear as she looks around. "Help, please!" she calls out towards Rogue.

The Professor's voice is in her head then, helping her to be calm. And Rogue is offering her advice as well. Vi tries to push down her fear. She flares her Pewter fully, reaching out to the metal claw with her scrawny, petite body and grabbing hold of it. The metal groans and is bent as she applies a tremendous force on them with her hands.

Free of the claw she immediately lashes out as Rogue encouraged. Two buildings that are slightly distant suddenly groan and parts of their exterior walls fall away as the buildings sway. At the same time the Sentinel is suddenly jetted on a direct line away from Vi. It being lower, it angles down into the street, plowing into the concrete and being half buried.

The control room's computers will show both buildings suddenly endured nearly 3 tons of force pushing against them, anchoring Vi in place while the Sentinel faced a full five tons of force in the other direction.

Vi's Steel within her stomach suddenly runs out as she had it flared in as hard of a burn as she'd ever done. She falls, not bothering to arrest her fall, but landing on her bare feet. The ground flexes as the Danger Room makes sure to not hurt her, though she flared her Pewter to strengthen her legs for the landing. A pair of vials are pulled out, the lids popped and contents consumed as Vi looks around her, a bit wild-eyed.

Professor X has posed:
The sentinel destroyed, the simulation simply fades out of view. There are others to fight, certainly, but Charles feels the lesson has been learned. They find themselves in the unmodified Danger Room, all the smoke and fog and chaos disappearing like it was never there. Of course, the tears and damage to clothing still remain.

"Well done, Vi," Charles announces through the loudspeaker, "It will take some time to build up these skills, but you seem to be well on your way. If you'll hold on one moment."

The loudspeaker goes off, and the light in the control room goes out as Charles wheels his way to the elevator that will bring him down and into the room itself.

Rogue has posed:
When the simulation deactivates, Rogue is dropped off of the building that she was hanging off of. She free falls for a moment before she activates her flight power, and like Batman, she glides effortlessly to the ground where she extends her booted feet and lands without much of a sound at all.

They're back in the inactive Danger Room now. Rogue's hands go to her hips. Her left arm is mostly exposed as the tatters of her suit hanging from her wrist. Her left thigh is pretty much the same, exposed all the way up to her thigh like she's in a one-piece swimsuit, the rest of her suit and jacket are just smudged or visible tears and cuts.

Rogue herself? She's fine. Just grinning. "Ya did good. You okay?" She asks Vi then before her eyes go over to Charles who's arriving via the lift from the control room.

Vi has posed:
Vi is panting, but it's less about the physical exertion and more about her heart racing and the rush of the adrenaline that kicked in when the robot had her grabbed. It was definitely a far more real experience for Vi, the nature of the room being forgotten once things started happening that every other sense tells her are real.

She looks over at Rogue as the woman drifts down to land near her. "Yes, I'm ok," she says with a quick nod of her head. She looks around, blinking, taking in the room being back to its very neutral looking appearance now it is shut down.

She lets the metals burning within her stomach go out. All but the faintest burn of Pewter. There's something comforting to her, having it going. "What were those machines?" Vi asks Rogue quietly as Charles is coming down to the room. "Oh. Um. Also? I'm Vi," she offers.

Professor X has posed:
"The machines were an extrapolation on Sentinels," Charles explains, chair wheeling into the Danger Room through the main entrance, "A futuristic version we concocted based on the current models. Although it would seem these machines have fallen largely out of favor as of late, so maybe this is a vision of the future that will never come to pass. We should all hope so, at least."

The chair rolls to a stop, and from it the Professor regards the two women thoughtfully for a moment: "They were only a simulation, though. Nothing that can harm you. We had been running the simulation as training for Rogue, so I must say you did admirably keeping up with her. She's one of our most experienced battlefield operators."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue grins at Vi, then adjusts her gaze as Charles arrives, her left hand going toher hip to place it there while her right dangles at her side and she gently nods her head toward what the man in the wheely chair says.

She raises her right gloved hand and motions at him. "I'm quite the operator." She replies then before smiling all brazenly at Vi. Her right gloved hand extends to the girl, offering a shake if she knows the gesture. "I'm Rogue, though you can call me Marie or... Anna, or even Belle if ya'd like. I'm the resident ass smasher around here. Sorry about thelanguage, I cannot help msyelf." A slight grin is shown then to the Professor before Rogue looks back to Vi.

"Those big bastards are the kinda things I live t'smash t'pieces, in fact. Crunchin' on one'a their Master Molds recently was one'a the highlights'a my life, ya see? Anythin' that helps make sure they ain't around plague'n mutant kind goin' forward? Well... sugah? Sign me up for that!"

Rogue sits down then, on a chair that isn't there, an invisible seat created by her flight power. She even crosses her legs at the knee with the one that still has a pantleg covering the one that doesn't."You did good in this fight though, Missy. I think you got a future ahead'a you, one that involves helpin' folks. Like that kid in that car back there..."

Vi has posed:
Vi turns as Charles rolls in and gives the explanation on what they are. "So those things... there are things like that out there?" Vi asks, really having no context on how likely it is to run into such a thing.

She frowns, her thoughts flashing back hearing about the prejudice against mutants. Rogue distracts those thoughts though, the petite nineteen year old looking over to the woman as she offers her hand.

"You were really amazing," Vi says, shaking the hand. The compliment really seems to mean a lot to her. "Really? I wasn't really sure what to do. I've not really ever tried to do anything like that. The Hydra researchers made me demonstrate my power, but I was never allowed to really use it," she says. "I've been practicing flying about on my own. But I've never had to... well, like I did with the robot," she says, motioning to where she slammed the one down into the pavement.

Vi looks back to Rogue. "So your power, you can fly around? And you seem really strong. Is that what you can do?"