Beautiful City

[Electra]

"You ready?" Erin stood in the doorway of the dorm room she shared with Alex, doing a few light stretching exercises while she waited for her roommate. She was already dressed in her workout uniform, hair held back by the blue and gold headband, and wearing her rapidly-wearing-down tennis shoes. Training in the Doom Room was certainly no new thing for her, but today was a little different. She had trouble thinking of Alex as a combatant at all, despite her impressive mental powers. Things in the combat simulator could get very rough. Erin couldn't help feeling just a little bit worried.

[alderwitch]

"Yup, just about!" Alex fastened the belt around her slim waist, securing it with the shiny gold buckle prototype. She'd pulled her costume out, looking a little cheerleaderish in the fitted leather bodice and short pleated white skirt.

With her mask still dangling in her fingertips, she caught up to Erin, and said cheerfully, "Don't worry, its way safer than when we went to the baseball stadium."

[Electra]

Erin didn't bother to deny her concern as they headed out, knowing that Alex probably didn't need so much as a peek at her mind to tell anyway. "But that time we weren't even looking for trouble, just like we weren't at the amusement park, or at the concert... God knows what Archer's going to throw at us when we do go looking for a fight. Maybe it'll be one of those things like the training I did with Mark," she reasoned, brightening. "Where the aliens weren't actually hostile and we had to reason with them. You'd be a lot better at that than either of us were." She shortened her stride so Alex could keep up without trotting as they left the dorm and crossed the windy expanse of the quad.

[alderwitch]

"Yeah, but its a little doubtful they want me to practice that. Might be kinda hide and seek-ish. I'm generally recon when we're doing actual super hero work. That wouldn't be so bad." Alex said with undimmed enthusiasm as they headed towards the doom room.

[Electra]

"I dunno," Erin shrugged, "All I'm good at is fighting, and nine times out of ten they've got me practicing that when I come down here. There's something to be said for practicing at what you're best at. But hide and seek works too. You find 'em, I pound 'em, it should work just fine." She let the metal elevator scan her, then stepped inside and held the door for Alex. "Maybe you can stay up in the sky and keep an eye out for them."

[alderwitch]

"Well, unless that makes me a bigger targer. Don't worry. We're going to be great!" Alex said encouragingly as they stepped into the Doom Room itself. The simulation today was set up as some of the more gritty environs of Freedom City, somewhere in the Fens no doubt. It had that oddly empty feel that the room tended to have before the simulation was activated. This time, the room took a few extra minutes to be calibrated to affect Alex's mental senses.

Alex flashed a thumbs up when she could sense the dummy thought waves of the simulators and paused to pull her mask on over her features.

[Electra]

"Fair enough," Erin agreed. As soon as the simulator started warming up, her attention sharpened even beyond her usual alertness, focusing in for any small movement or noise that might be an enemy. She unclipped the bat from her belt and spun it to its full length, even as she looked around for the instructions that would tell them what to do. Usually there was some little screen of instructions at least, unless Archer was going to be playful and throw them in the deep end. "Do you feel anything?" she asked Alex tersely.

[alderwitch]

The instructions were simple once Erin located the screen.

Locate Target. Neutralize Target. Minimal collateral damage.

"Succinct," Alex commented before she shut her eyes to block out the street and begin searching the simulation. "It's pretty neat how complete the simulation is. There are even random people walking around and in their houses doing stuff. I wonder how they run all that without slowing the sim down. I mean, clearly they're not instanced. Unless, they're instanced to my senses but that would be tricky to... Got it!"

The stream of happy tech chatter cut off as Alex zeroed in on the obvious problem. "Incoming."

Alex warned her verbally before Erin felt the light psychic touch of Alex's thoughts before a route was provided along with a visual of their current super-villain. A large beefy fellow in armor who currently was waving a telephone pole around several blocks over.

[Electra]

"Got it," Erin said with a nod. "That helmet should cut off his vision pretty thoroughly for anything not in front of him. We'll go in from above so he doesn't see us coming and start throwing things. Be ready to try and grab hold of anything he does throw. I'm sure there'll be civilians around, the simulator always makes them too dumb to run away."

She leapt up fifty feet to balance on the ledge of a fire escape, then completed the jump to the rooftops, trusting Alex to follow, then began leaping from roof to roof at high speed. She figured that if she could engage with the villain right away, that would keep his attention on her and away from Alex who, despite her forcefield, did not take a punch nearly as well. Alex was her teammate as well as her friend, but that didn't negate the impulse to protect her in a hands-on fight.

[alderwitch]

Okay, Alex acknowledged, picking up the communication link mentally even as she floated up into the air to follow Erin's rooftop jumping. I'm going to have to land. I can't hold a force field and fly at the same time. Once we get there, I'll pick a spot out of the way and deal with any civilians that need to be moved while you wear him down. I might be able to blast him mentally.

[Electra]

"All right," Erin muttered, a little dubiously. "Just make sure to keep behind some cover as well. Archer knows how strong your forcefield is too, you don't want this guy to try and test it." She slowed to a halt as they reached the area they'd been heading for. The noises from down below suggested that their quarry hadn't moved, but she leaned over the roof to get a visual assessment of the situation. "Wait to land till I jump him, he'll be distracted then. Or you could stay on the roof," she suggested, "and divert the civilians from up here."

[alderwitch]

Alex joined her in leaning over the roof to look at the behemoth waving his lamppost and bellowing. True to Erin's words, the civilians stood around cowering rather than running.

"As long as I can see things, I can use my powers..." She trailed off suddenly, her eyes narrowing on their bad guy. "That's weird. I can't see his brain like all the other sims. Something must be blocking me."

[Electra]

"Do you think it's a glitch, or something designed to keep you out?" Erin asked, not taking her eyes off the scene. None of the civilians seemed to be in instant danger, as a mailbox was taking the brunt of his wrath right now, but it probably wouldn't be long before he got bored of that. "Maybe they just don't want you blasting him from a distance. I can jump down there," she suggested, "take him on, while you get the civilians moving. If you're in their heads, they'll probably do what you say and get out of the way. If he's too strong, we can make other plans then."

[alderwitch]

Alex was already shaking her head, "Definately deliberate. I can feel all the civvies. It's probably part of the test."

She nodded her agreement with the plan, "Gotcha. I'll move the civvies out of the way. I'll need probably ten to fifteen seconds to thrall them all. If you can distract him for that length of time, great. If he's stronger and more dangerous than we're guessing, call out and I'll give you some cover with my telekinetics."

[Electra]

"Ten or fifteen seconds," Erin nodded. "I can do that. Here we go." She hopped up onto the ledge of the roof, measured the drop, then pushed off, pointing her feet down towards the ground and readying her bat. Her angle took her directly and silently towards her opponent, still wielding his telephone pole at the populace. Before she even landed, she used the momentum of her jump to drive the swing of her bat, right into the least protected area on her opponent, his face.

[alderwitch]

As Alex set her fingertips to her temples, she began to prod the civilians out of the way. She could understand Erin's complaints about Archer as she'd never had nearly so much trouble getting people to move out of the way of danger in real life scenarios. Generally, they were all for getting away from crumpling buildings and what all. It made Alex think of the Sims game on her computer where she had to tell the Sims to use the restroom before they wet themselves.

Wander's bat smacked into the faceplate of his helmet with a resounding 'gong' and the armored goon let out an angry bellow as he swung his light pole back at her midsection in retaliation.

[Electra]

Erin saw the pole coming and moved quickly, using her bat to lever herself up and out of the way of the swing. She jumped onto the telephone pole as he swung it, balancing precariously there for a moment before bringing the bat up into his face again. That was some tough armor, it didn't even look like she'd dented it last time. But he was definitely distracted! How many seconds had it been, five, ten? She didn't dare turn her head to look at the civilians around them as she dropped from the swinging pole.

[alderwitch]

Her lower lip trapped between her teeth, Alex managed to move away the last of the crowd as Erin continued to wrestle with the big guy. Her bat made a solid gong-ing sound again but this time the metal buckled a little under the bat's impact. He let out another angry and this time pained shout as he made another slow and clumsy swing for Erin but the light post was not the greatest weapon for close quarters fighting.

"I felt a little flicker when you bent his helmet," Alex volunteered from her vantage point above the fight.

[Electra]

Maybe the helmet is shielded, Erin figured, trying to project her thoughts without saying them aloud. Or maybe it's because I hurt him that time. I'll try to get the hat off first. You stay there! she reiterated with all the mental firmness she could muster. Dodging the pole once again, she darted around behind the behemoth and leapt onto his back, slamming the end of her bat under the join of his helmet, then doing her best to lever it up and off in one clean motion.

[alderwitch]

It went off as if they'd rehearsed the move a hundred times. His helmet flew up into the air just as Alex focused her attention on the man's brain. Her hazel eyes narrowed behind her mask as she focused all of her potent psychic ability on one man. Blood trickled out of his nose and ears as his eyes rolled up and he slumped to the ground like a puppet with his strings cut.

"Oops, pushed a little too hard." Alex muttered with embarrassment as she floated to the ground while the simulation faded, "If he was real, he'd wake up with one doozy of a headache. Sorry."

[Electra]

Erin laughed, spinning her bat back into its compacted form. "That's usually what I have to say," she pointed out. "But we took him down clean, and fast." She looked up to the invisible window where Archer could watch the simulation, if he chose. "I guess either he's not there, or he's not coming down today. He hates it when we beat his toys easier than he wants," she explained to Alex. "That was really good for your first run through the simulator."

[alderwitch]

"I was expecting more resistance but without his helmet, his brain was all vulnerable." Alex agreed with a little shrug of her shoulders, "Thanks. I think we did pretty well. The civilians were all kinds of resistant to moving out of the way. That never happens in real life."

She peeled her mask down and bounced a little on the toes of her boots, almost skipping as they headed out for the exit.

[Avenger Assembled]

As the doors slid open, the two girls were greeted by Mr. Archer, clipboard in hand. "Excellent work, you two," he said with a little half-smile. "Tell me what you think about what you did."

[Electra]

Erin stopped short, frowning as the instructor appeared. Apparently he'd just been biding his time. "We completed the mission according to your instructions," she said brusquely. "I don't think anyone could've saved that mailbox, but there was no more damage than that. What else were we supposed to do?" she demanded, already going on the defensive.

[alderwitch]

Alex took a half step in front of Erin, hands raised in a soothing gesture, "We searched for the individual and subdued him as quickly as possible once we'd removed the civilians from the danger zone. I should have pulled my mental blast a little. I meant to stun him. We also didn't give him a chance to surrender which we probably should have done. I don't think the simulations are entirely accurate in their flight response patterns, though, I have to say."