cutting_edgex23 | (no subject)

Elle's tied that blonde hair back again, and pulled on a blue tank top and sweatpants she got from the Bar.

Well, she doesn't really see the need to feel pretty in practice.

As it is, she follows X, eying the room a bit warily. Her eyes flicker frequently for signs of other movement

"Is this it?"

"Yes."

X moves into the middle of the room, turning back to look at Elle.

"Prodigy built it."

Beat.

"Your clothes will change."

That, at least, X remembers very well.

"Um."

Elle still hesitates, before following X farther into the room.

"Ok?"

"It is the holograms."

Beat.

"They are mission logs."

She's fiddling with switches and dials right now.

Give her a moment.

Elle just watches her.

"But they can hurt."

It doesn't seem to match up with her idea of 'hologram.'

X looks a little uncertain, but since she's facing the console, Elle cannot see her.

"Yes."

Beat.

"I do not think it is Shi'ar technology."

Almost there. Just a few more--

Her gaze wanders to glance around the room again.

"I don't know what that means."

"They are humanoid aliens. From very far away."

She leaves her hand on the initiation switch, turning to look at Elle.

"You are ready?"

Elle... makes a face at that, but at the same time, something starts to glow under her hands.

With only a trace of uncertainty now, "Ok."

"Okay," X repeats.

And then she turns the Danger Cave on.

It's a good thing she gave advance notice of using the room--for her own personal training, of course.

Because the lights in the Mansion flicker and then go off. For at least ten seconds.

And X is now wearing a purple leotard. One that is familiar to her. She met Psylocke in the Savage Land more than a year ago.

snikt

Edited 2008-07-04 05:26 (UTC)

Elle's own light doesn't do much to help her see, which immediately puts her even more on edge.

This is increased when she abruptly finds herself hastily pulling off a pair of leather gloves.

"The hell," she grumbles, lighting up her hands again.

(That leather jacket may not look very professional, but it can stay.)

"We are standing in for the X-men."

X's voice is clipped, and she's scanning the surrounding rock walls for--

Well, for whatever is coming.

Hopefully it isn't Nimrod.

Again.

And in the relative darkness X and Elle can hear the buzz of wings. Insectoid wings.

Elle doesn't know what that means, either.

But she's not trying that hard - her mind, at the moment, is in a very specific place. Which can probably be best described as 'shoot whatever the fuck that is right now.'

It might be why she doesn't wait until she can properly see whatever's making that noise before she throws a strong surge of electricity toward it. At least, hopefully, it'll let them get a look at it.

Oh, it does.

They are aliens. A swarm of them. Dark brown, winged, and with terribly sharp teeth.

Somewhere in there is probably a Queen.

And in the meantime, there are lots of things for X and Elle to kill.

It's just going to hurt a lot while they do it.

X has already leapt forward, claws bared, slashing at the first influx of the Brood. She needs to keep them away from Elle for as long as she can. Or so X thinks.

It's probably a good idea.

Elle may not remember to keep that in mind.

But once she sees what they are, Elle physically loosens somewhat. A noise in the dark is creepy. These are bugs.

Really freaking giant bugs.

She can kill them. (And she'll remember that.)

And after throwing two more strong surges of light, she doesn't hesitate in moving toward them.

X dodges left, just barely avoiding the sweep of a stinger. It brings her within range of another's jaws, and she leaps into the air, swinging her foot around and slicing across the creature's eyes.

Then she drives her claws into its back, disengaging in order to slow the approach of another one.

These things are a lot faster than zombies. She's dealt with things that are faster, but they usually don't take so much energy to bring down. It means she stumbles, as one falls after she burns off its wings, and a spike on its elbow smashes into her left arm.

(One of the more important tests during Elle's childhood was on how her electrical output improved when her nerve endings were stressed.

It did improve. Considerably.)

Her gasp, while loud, is barely audible above the crackling, accompanied by a bright white flash, that violently finishes the thing off.

Elle takes a step back, hesitating for a moment, but -

She's supposed to be tough.

So her left arm (at least it was her left) is tucked against her, as she raises her right hand again.

X dodges another whipcrack tail, dropping and rolling beneath the feet of a second creature. She takes that one in the belly, spinning right to claw off a reaching arm.

She cannot afford to be slowed down by injury. Not with Elle still here.

And the aliens, who can fly, still have most of the high ground. She takes several quick steps, launching herself off a wall and back into the fray.

Elle can't jump like that.

But even with the injured arm, she can move surprisingly fast, and it's hard to be too distracted from a swarm of giant-alien-insect-things. Another is shot out of the sky (these are way bigger than tennis balls) before, without hesitation, she snatches up the tail of another and thoroughly electrocutes it before it can move.

At least her right arm's still fine. But she's a bit too distracted to think of that, too.

X is less afraid of the teeth than she should be. What she does worry about is the stinger in each creature's tail.

She does not want to be poisoned. Or paralyzed.

She also really does not want Elle to be hit. Which means that, when she cannot get a good kill shot, she will go after the tail instead.

Once it is severed she does not have to worry. Though there are plenty more to fill the gaps.

Elle, on the other hand, is mainly just starting to think that this would've been easier in a skirt - at least then she could've kicked a little more powerfully rather than relying on her arms.

She doesn't spend too much time contemplating this. Another scrapes her face as she makes a grab for it, shoving her back into the wall, and she barely manages to burn off the sting no its tail, which lands slightly astray, slamming into the wall next to her as the thing screeches.

There's time to finish it off, but she has to force her left arm up despit the gash in it to keep another from flying at her.

X slams into a third alien, knocking it away from Elle. She dispatches it quickly, grunting as she gets hit in the gut.

The floor is getting slippery with blood and bits of Brood, and she has to struggle not to lose her feet as she changes direction to avoid a sideswipe.

She isn't breathing hard at all, though. Instead she launches a kick at that creature, slicing across its throat. The head is separated from the body a half-second later.

X is very thorough.

There's no verbal response to or recognition of it. It's not necessary - X is doing her job.

(Or Elle is breathing hard, and can't spare the energy for it.)

In one movement, Elle pulls off the thin leather jacket. It's not as smooth as it could be with her injured arm, but allows her to ram her left side into one with enough electrical charge in her shoulders to destroy its heart while letting her use her right side to push off it again, and throw another surge at one that comes up behind her.

One boot falls into the blood pools that X has left. Elle may think, idly, that a sword might be nice after all.

X takes a moment to climb the rock face, using her claws to score her hand and footholds. Otherwise it is far too smooth.

This lets her drop on the Brood from above, claws digging in to drive one of them into its brethren. Then she leaps off, striking out with hands and feet as she falls.

It's effective.

And painful when she hits the ground.

She'll get up again in a moment. She'll have to.

Being trampled and ripped apart is not in her plans.

Elle hears X hitting the ground, giving her the moment to fire a strong surge over her and at an incoming Brood above.

But she has to slam herself against the stone to avoid another's stinging tail, and barely has time to cringe at the blow to her arm before pushing it away with a weaker bolt.

It falls into another when she throws a killing surge at it, at least.

X rolls to her feet, shaking her head to clear it. The rake of claws down her shoulder does not help.

She'll get over it.

A swift kick to that opponent shoves it further back, giving her the time to drive her claws into an unprotected throat.

Then she whirls, fist and feet digging gouges out of the approaching mob, killing some and merely wounding others. She can wait for those to bleed out.

Maybe.

It might be fortunate for Elle that these things have really not learned one important part of dealing with her: Don't touch her.

She does yell when one claw widens the gash in her left arm, but the electric shock it receives is enough to push it off, and Elle angrily shoves it away with with another blast.

Just as angrily, she manages, "How many - of these fucking things - are there?"

X ducks under another sideswipe, standing up in order to drive her claws directly into the creature's brain.

She uses that as a pivot point to get her foot high enough to claw through another one's eyes.

"I do not know."

Beat. She takes this time to disengage, taking a few running steps in order to get a better position.

"Many."

Her voice cuts off with a sharp grunt as she leaps upward, flipping over a tail-barb and slicing it off on her way down.

"You are ready to stop?"

She trims the wings off another before answering.

But when she does it's, albeit grumpily, "A little."

"Okay."

X dashes beneath an upswung tail, getting in a few final kills before she reaches the center of the room, right where the--

click

And everything disappears, except for the computer console in the center of the room. And the blank stone walls, of course. They're naturally a part of the Danger Cave.

Elle slips to the floor.

She's cursing under her breath however, which is probably a good enough sign, as she pulls her left arm up to assess the wound. It's not that deep, but falls nearly to her elbow, and is still bleeding.

There's no alarm or fear - Elle just looks annoyed at herself.

X's nostrils flare, and she slips over to Elle. Her own blood is not as important.

X heals on her own.

"You are bleeding."

"I noticed."

It's grumpy, but not malicious. Without looking up, she tugs at the bottom of her tank top with her right hand, pulling the material to her fingers and carefully burning a piece of it off.

She looks up again as she presses the cloth to the wound.

"I need to fix it."

X frowns slightly, thinking.

"I can get Elixir."

He would come, if she asked. But it would be awkward.

"Or we can go back to Milliways. There is an infirmary."

Elle pulls herself to her feet and takes a few steps toward X, holding the cloth tightly to her arm.

"Just - whatever -"

She doesn't really care which.

"Okay."

X does not look panicky, she just leads Elle away from the Danger Cave and--

"I will be back."

She was lucky to find Elixir away from Loa, today. He has been very strange lately.

But there is nothing on TV, so it is not hard to get him to follow her.

The first thing Elle might notice is that he has golden skin, and he's staring at her like she's an alien.

"Laura? What are--how did--is this like that blue thing Julian talked about? Because I really don't want to fight right now. I mean--"

Elle, for once, is not really in a mood to fight, either.

But she still gives - whatever it is a very wary glance, straightening against the wall and letting a soft blue light glow from under her left hand.

"Elixir is a healer," X says, shooting Elle a sharp glance.

Then she looks at the gold-skinned boy, head tilting.

"Elle is my friend. We were training."

Clearly that explains everything.

Elixir just looks bewildered, and a little nervous.

"Uh. Okay, Laura. Did. Does--oh never mind. You're going to tell someone about this later, right? I don't want to keep secrets."

When X nods, he heads toward Elle.

"This'll just take a second."

He hopes.

Elle lets the light go out.

Reluctantly.

She's met healers in her world. They didn't have gold skin, and she doesn't get why this guy does.

But... X is here, and Elle's willing to take her word for it. She still a little reluctant as she moves the piece of torn cloth away, and holds out her left arm.

Josh, with another half-frightened look toward X (only half, because he could kill Elle with a touch, too, something nobody here will mention), takes Elle's wrist in one hand.

"Gimme a minute."

He closes his eyes, concentrating on Elle's biological pathways.

It really takes less than a minute.

Then he steps back, quickly putting X between himself and her guest.

"And now I'm going to go back upstairs and watch gameshows, okay? At least until I have to go run around in the woods. Again."

That last bit gets muttered as he's on his way out the door.

X, meanwhile, has taken another step toward Elle.

"You are okay now?"

Elle doesn't say 'thank you.'

She does look down at her arm, and moves it around slightly.

"It doesn't hurt," she answers.

"Good."

X pauses there, waiting to see if Elle has anything else to say.

Elle pauses, too. She moves her right hand over her arm, as though feeling for some hint of the wound left.

"Maybe we should go?" she offers, finally.

"Okay," X says.

"People will be coming back."

Which is to say Elle is right.

And then X leads Elle out of the Danger Cave and into Milliways.

Hopefully the training session helped.

X likes being useful.