Among the many problems that needed solving as leader of a would-be squad of junior X-Men was that I needed a way to make sure everyone stayed up-to-par. I couldn't really trust everyone to just train themselves on their own time. But even if I called group training sessions, what exactly was I going to do to make it worth anyone's while?
Just sparring against each other, or running drills against whichever X-Man was around and was willing to spare the time to help out wouldn't do much. It also wouldn't do much to instill any sense of autonomy, which was the point of all of this to begin with. I let it be known amongst all the others that I was willing to take suggestions if anyone had any. I hadn't gotten anything that was workable, or just not idiotic, until one day.
Early in the morning, before classes started, David sent me a message asking me to meet somewhere. He was vague, saying he had something to show me. Given what had happened when I'd sent an equally vague message to Noriko, who was his girlfriend, I smelled a setup. But if that was what it was, I figured I had it coming.
The thoughts that I was walking into some kind of ambush only intensified when I found myself wandering through caverns underneath the school. Certainly a good place to hide my body if I ran afoul of someone on campus.
"If someone's gonna jump me, can we just get it over with!?" I yelled, letting my voice echo through the caverns, "I've got a test first period, and I hate math."
"Bellamy," A voice not too much farther down the path said my name, "Over here."
I walked into an open cave space with lots of metal pillars and machinery lining the walls. There, I found David and Noriko waiting for me. I greeted them with a nod. Both Nori and David returned it, the former rather stiffly, I noted, "Hey guys. What is this, your love nest?" I tried to joke to break the ice.
Noriko turned a bit red, while David adjusted his glasses, "Uh, no. I meant to build this place as somewhere for the New Mutants to get extra training, but I didn't get it finished in time for the last Field Day," I grinned, thinking to myself that they needed more training to beat the Paladins. David realized my train of thought and rolled his eyes, "I call it the Danger Cave."
"Isn't that name a little derivative?" I asked. David just shrugged, which was just as good an answer as I cared about in the first place, "How'd you build this place anyway?"
He was happy to tell me, proud of his work, which all things considered, he should have been, "I've been working on it for a while. I started on it last year," "This is what happens when you borrow the knowledge of Henry McCoy and Kitty Pryde."
Yeah, but he didn't retain that information. To take notes and then be able to make heads or tails of them when he wasn't around the people that inspired them? Even without gleaning the intellect of others, he lived up to his smarts enough to warrant the codename Prodigy.
I felt a bit of a pang at the mention of my old teacher's name, but moved past it. Couldn't have people walking on eggshells whenever she came up, "Sounds... way more technical than anything I'll ever know about. What does it do, exactly?"
"It's a three-dimensional light-projecting, self-adapting training simulator."
I took in the information he tried to give me, and my brain simply spat it back out. At a loss, I turned to Noriko for hopefully a layman's terms explanation. She didn't let me down, "It lets us relive old field missions. The X-Men have hundreds, and David was able to program them into the system."
That was pretty nuts. It wasn't anything like what we had with the old Danger Room, but for a teenager to create this on his own time was remarkable, "David, that's fucking insane. Are you kidding?"
He was not kidding. Not at all, "I know you've been trying to come up with some way to run simulations and scrimmages for the team. I'm pretty sure this can help, if you want."
I was ecstatic. I didn't even bother trying to hide it and play things cool, "Hell yes, I want. I'd like to take it for a spin when there's more time, but... this is a huge help. Thank you."
David seemed happy to be able to contribute with his intellect. Our would-be crew would need more people willing to use their brains instead of their brawn - a brain trust, if you will. We had enough tough guys and gals.
"We can figure things like schedules and grouping out later," David said, "I don't think it would work with everyone at once. I'm not keen on trying to fit more than a handful of people in a simulation."
That did sound awful. Also, there were some people that I knew better than to try and put together in any setting that required productivity. Speaking of which, I finished thanking David, but as we headed out, I stopped Noriko. It was time to address the elephant that had clearly been in the room.
"Nori, do you have a minute?" I asked, "I want to talk to you about something."
Noriko frowned, but nodded, "I'll catch up in a minute, David," She said, sending her boyfriend away before turning back to deal with me. She waited until she was certain he was out of earshot to start, "Well? What is it?" She asked, arms crossed over her chest.
As if she didn't know. But, if I were setting myself up to eat crow, it was for the best that I did it properly, "I wanted to apologize."
Nori seemed confused at my demeanor, "You look like you're in pain."
If I did, it was because it was a struggle to say I was sorry, "I hate apologizing. So much," I told her, shaking my head, "But you deserve one from me. That thing last night? In the Danger Room? That was on me. I had a bunch of thoughts about what the deal between you and Julian was, none of them were accurate. And so..." I stood strong and closed my eyes, bracing for some sort of impact.
Again, Nori was taken aback by my display, "Uh, what are you doing?"
I explained myself, "You get a free shot, anywhere you want-, not my balls!" I hurriedly amended, putting both hands on my junk, "But anywhere else. Don't tell me where. Just do it. Punch. Kick. Headbutt. Electric shock. Titty-twister. Scratch me hard enough to draw blood. Hell, you can slam me onto my head if you can pick me up for it."
I expected her to take me up on the offer, not her complete and abject horror at the idea of doling out corporal punishment, "What? No. I don't want to hit you."
I opened my eyes, more than a little surprised, "You don't?"
Noriko scoffed, "Why does that surprise you?" Maybe because a lot of people did? Maybe because I was a piece of garbage? "Yeah, you fucked up, and I know you think you're a dick, but you're a pretty solid guy usually. You've built up enough goodwill where I can let it go. Don't ask me to bury the hatchet with Keller, though."
I wasn't going to. That was a choice only she could make, "I'll just try and keep you two away from each other. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to stick you two with me in the first place," Let alone for the first mission, "I mean, you two are my big powerhouses, but still. I think the X-Men in charge just like making things more difficult."
"Sounds like them," Nori said with a wry smile, "Ever feel like you're being set up to fail, running this whole thing?"
Not really. Mister Summers hadn't talked to me about what he'd seen in the Danger Room with Julian and Noriko. Not only that, but I had the impression that once you proved you could do something, that something then became the expected normal. Even if what you accomplished was a one-in-a-million shot. We very well may have been in over our heads, but my ego would never say I couldn't do something.
The original X-Men weren't any older than us when they got up and going. If they could do it, with no real idea of what they were doing at the start, we definitely could. I refused to believe we couldn't.
"Nope, because we're going to make this work," Somehow. I didn't know how to get things running smoothly yet, but we would all get there. I was determined to, "As far as I'm concerned, you guys are all my Paladins now. Ask Hisako what that means later," I gave Nori a pat on the shoulder before leaving to head to class.
"We all trust you," Nori suddenly said, stopping me before I could go, "Not just me. Not just the New Mutants. I'm pretty sure it's everyone involved. Like I said, you've built up a lot of goodwill."
I couldn't help but smile, no matter how hard I tried to fight it off of my face, "So what you're saying is, 'don't fuck it up'."
Nori smirked back at me, "Your words, not mine."
No pressure, right?