It helped to think of training as P.E. class, only turned up to eleven. Such an idea wasn't really that far from the truth, really, given the fact that most kids used their powers during gym too. It was just that, in most of our gym classes there weren't dangerous holograms trying to kill us all.
You had to compartmentalize when it came to the training, or at least I did, because it was insane.
I flinched hard at the sound of an energy blast coming from a 20 foot purple and blue robot from where I was taking cover alongside Ruth. She wasn't exactly a combatant, and I wasn't trained particularly well yet, so we were meant to watch and wait for an opportunity for the most part.
In other words, I was basically her bodyguard and the last resort, at least for this session. I was working as hard as I could to get up to speed in the two weeks I had been on the squad, but to say that I could carry the lion's share of work at any given moment would have been an expectation that I probably couldn't have met.
We did alright for the little bit we'd been given earlier. There had been some human foot soldiers sent out way. Ruth had been able to pinpoint their location by reading their minds, and I had ambushed the bejesus out of them. Almost no collateral damage. Barely a single shot fired when they retaliated.
Small Captain Morgan pose for victory.
That being said, thirty minutes after that part of the mission, it was annoying just sitting back and hiding during the deciding moments of the simulation, mainly because in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't going to help any of us.
"Why are we even hiding?" I asked aloud as I took cover from a 'safe' distance with Ruth, "This thing can sense where we are. After it's done with them, it's coming straight for us. Then we're really screwed."
I got my answer from the cosmos themselves apparently, but it was just from the Danger Room's observation area, "I'll stop the program when it looks too far-gone. I don't expect you to win."
There might not have been anything worse she could have said to me at that point in the simulation, "What the fuck do you mean, you don't expect us to win!?"
"I want you to get used to dealing with odds that aren't in your favor," She explained, not seeing the problem with what she'd told me. "That's the way they'll usually be if you need to be called in to begin with, so I want you to be prepared."
I hated losing. The only thing I hated more than losing was the thought of failing at something before I'd even gotten to try.
I put my hand up to the communicator in my ear to reach out to the others, "Wing!" I said to my airborne teammate. I could see him in the air, a flying Sentinel in hot pursuit. Those things could move for gigantic robots, "Come get me!"
"Kinda busy right now, Sol!"
Sol was short for Solaris. As in, pertaining to the sun. Get it? Because I absorb light… and the sun is the most bountiful source of light on Earth. Haha! Whoever came up with that must have been a genius, Eddie.
I hated that name, but I had no luck coming up with my own, so that was what I was given.
"Fine, where's Armor?"
"Not up here! Look down!"
I was able to spot her, not too far away from where the Sentinel was chasing Wing in the air. She was on the ground, trying to follow along underneath on-foot. There wasn't much she could do but try and stay close, "Gotcha. Come on," I said to Ruth, grabbing her hand, "Stay with me! We're moving!"
Surprisingly, the city block that had been created in the Danger Room as our battlefield hadn't been too terribly destroyed. Sure, a few buildings were missing some walls, and the corner that had been blown off of that one complex was going to compromise its structural integrity until someone tore it down, but for a bunch of stupid kids, I felt like we were doing fine.
When Ruth and I made it to Hisako, she wasn't particularly enthused to see us. Probably because the plan had the two of us staying far away from the heart of the conflict.
"Sol, what the hell?" She demanded to know.
I pointed up at the Sentinel still trying to shoot Eddie out of the sky, "Throw me at that stupid thing."
Hisako's eyes lit up for a moment. If it was any other situation, she probably wouldn't have needed any explanation as to why this was a fair course of action. However, in the middle of a scored simulation, logic took hold, "As much as that would make my day right now, why?"
I pointed at myself, more specifically, my blue eyes.
By that time I had learned that my eye color correlated to how much juice I was working with. If I was low on energy, my eyes were red. Yellow meant I had a decent amount of power. Not much, but enough to be okay with doing things. Green meant I was in good shape. When my eyes were blue, I started feeling really itchy, fidgety, and uncomfortable.
"I'm overcharged, but I can't shoot it from here and hit it. It's moving too much," I told Hisako before I pointed at the Sentinal shooting energy blasts at Wing in the air, "Giant flying robot that you can't touch to tear apart," I pointed at Wing himself, "Flying guy with no other powers," I felt like I'd said all that I needed to, "Throw me."
Being grabbed by one of Hisako's armor arms felt strange. It was like being grabbed by nothing. No heat, no cold, just the feeling of restraint around you, which made sense because the armor was psionic. Mental energy wasn't material, so it wasn't like it would have traditional physical properties to it.
I felt like a cannonball all loaded up and ready to be fired, but I just had to make sure everything would go as smoothly as I needed it to.
"For the love of God, don't throw me like a girl," I said as I felt her cock her arm back to send me flying, "Throw me right."
I could feel the grip around me tighten a bit as Hisako turned her head to look at me, "What?"
There was more ice on her tone than Mr. Drake's backside.
Hisako was not pleased, but she could be as mad as she wanted to be. She wasn't the one who was about to be launched by a girl in mental power armor. Her posture for throwing me seemed off if I had plans on actually getting anywhere near the Sentinel. I wanted to make sure this was actually going to work, seeing as how we were only going to have one shot.
"Don't throw me like a girl. Throw me right!" I said with all of the miniscule authority I could muster, "If you throw me like shit and I go head-over-heels I'm not gonna be able to control myself or even see where I'm going. I still need to blast the damn thing, which means I need to see where I'm going so I can aim."
She seemed like she was a thought away from spiking me into the ground like a football, "You know, you're not in charge and you're not as smart as you think you are. I'm getting sick of your mouth."
I wasn't trying to be the smartest guy in the room. I saw a solution and if I was being a dick it was to best get my point across. It had worked for me so far.
Either way, we could argue semantics all day long afterwards, but at the moment, we were on the clock, "Be as sick as you want, just keep your goddamn wrist straight!" I snapped, "Throw, woman!"
And throw she did. I'm pretty sure a big part of her was hoping that she'd missed so that I'd go splat, but her aim was true enough to get me where I needed to be.
Damn, she had good aim. Either that, or Eddie saw me coming and guided it into my path. I barely had time to pump as much power as I could to my hands before I barreled right through the Sentinel's head, blowing it clean apart with a close-range shot. Chunks of metal and computer guts flew everywhere.
Great. We killed it… or deactivated it… or whatever you did to robots. One problem solved.
The next thing to take care of was my little falling problem, because I didn't have wings.
Any excitement I had over actually contributing to a successful objective for once quickly faded when I realized that gravity was a thing.
"Mission's over! Stop the simulation!" I yelled, as I saw myself hurtling back to earth at an alarming rate, "Off! End! Stop! Anything!"
My voice may have cracked.
Before I could hit the ground, a pair of arms put me in a full nelson, "Tancredi backs up all the way to the wall! It's almost gone, and he makes the catch! The crowd goes wild!"
Fast Eddie for the win.
The rest of the way down was comparatively gentle as Eddie guided me. Enough so that as he descended I could touch the ground with my kicking feet and come to a running stop, or a tripping and falling one at least.
Face down, ass up. It was not a graceful landing.
The feel of the ground changed from rough, uneven concrete to cold, smooth metal as laughter filled the Danger Room.
"So if I throw like a girl, does that mean you scream like one?" Fair enough. Hisako had to get her shot in while she could.
I pushed myself off of the floor with as much dignity as I could. What did I really have to be ashamed of, after all? I helped put a Sentinel down. That had to mean something, "If screaming like a girl means you fight like a champion, then yes, I screamed like a girl."
Eddie flew around us aimlessly in the air trying to work the kinks out of his arms, "I need to lift more weights," He said, "I almost dislocated my shoulders trying to catch you like that."
"In the NFL, that would not have counted as a catch," I said, touching at an abrasion on the side of my face. That was going to leave some road rash scabs later, "You didn't maintain possession all the way to the ground. That was a drop."
Eddie scoffed and flipped me the middle finger as he landed, "You're lucky it wasn't a 'splat'."
Our X-Men advisor Miss Pryde walked into the room all smiles. It was nice to see that something I'd had a hand in could make someone proud of me. Not enough of that going around lately.
"Well, it wasn't pretty, or safe, but you got the job done in the end, so way to go!" She applauded as she walked up to the four of us. It was then that she noticed the scowl on my face, "What's wrong with you, Sol?"
Oh, she could try and church it up with a pretty smile all she wanted to now. I didn't forget what she'd said earlier, "I'm still mad at you. You were expecting us to lose!"
Miss Pryde rolled her eyes at my ability to hold a grudge. What did she expect? It hadn't even been fifteen minutes, "Four students aren't expected to be able to take on two Sentinels their first time around!" It wasn't that easy to get me off of her back. I just stared at her until she felt uncomfortable enough to say more, "You're not the only ones who've done this simulation."
I felt my eyebrow automatically go up in curious interest, "And how many of the others failed it so far?" I asked.
You know. Because I was competitive and hated losing at things.
"Ten."
"Out of?"
She hesitated, "…Nineteen," For good reason, because after hearing that, I was livid.
"You didn't think we could pass a test with a 48% success rate?"
Once again, Hisako saw her chance to take a jab, and I couldn't begrudge her the opportunity, "Ooh, you can do basic math?"
"Making a point here, Armor!" I said to her before looking to Miss Pryde again, "As far as odds go, that's not even that bad!"
Yes, they weren't the best odds. Definitely not a sure thing. But it was damn near 50-50! I'd put my money on myself if the chances of success were that high.
Apparently being fussed at by a high school kid, even one with superpowers, wasn't even close to enough to make Miss Pryde fret, "To be fair, there are less of you, and your powers aren't nearly as destructive as some of the other training squads," She gestured to me and Hisako, "You and Armor have the only powers that can be considered offensive."
The two of us looked at each other and frowned. At least, I saw her frown. I'm pretty sure I did too, but the throbbing from the side of my face made it hard to know for sure.
"…Alright. Good point. I'll accept that."
"I'm so glad."
Sarcasm was unbecoming of a person in a position of authority. That being said, it was part of what made Miss Pryde an awesome teacher.
"Hey, telepathy is offensive," Eddie chimed in, poking Ruth's shoulder for emphasis, "I'm offended every time Blindfold reads my mind."
"Man, don't pick on Ruth," I said, moving over to the girl we were talking about to throw an arm around her, "She's the only one out of you three that actually wants me on the team."
"I want you on the team," Hisako said, "We didn't have any meat shields until you got here."
"If anyone's a meat shield it's you. That's basically what your power makes you good for."
"Better than a power that doesn't work if it's overcast outside or the sun goes down."
"Shows what you know. Clouds don't affect it that much, and the moon still gives off some light that I can use, so bite me."
It was hard to figure out just how pissed off at me Hisako was at any given moment. We argued all the time, but I never really felt any sort of real animosity toward her. It was just… automatic. I did honestly like her as a person. I thought her powers were cool, and it was nice that there was someone my stupid jokes annoyed enough to banter back at me.
Talking to brick wall excuses for living beings wasn't fun.
Eddie and I would egg each other on when it came to being stupid, and that was great and all, but there was something to be said for the challenge that came with going back and forth with someone and trying to come out on top.
You know. Because I was competitive and hated losing at things.