Two's Company, Four's a Party(IC)

[Scuffles]

Kristin was too worked up to do more than nibble at a carrot stick as the team waited for the Doom room to reset. Being too nervous to eat was a bit of a new experience.

As she prowled restlessly around the anteroom she asked "So if we're going up against two tougher robots I guess we want to work out how we take them on. Do you think we should split up and go for a couple of two-on-ones?"

She glanced at Marcus. "I guess you didn't exactly cut everything loose against the first four right? Would we be better off letting you stand up to one of them while the three of us go for the other one? Or we could even have all four of us go for one at the same time, but I kinda don't like letting one of them take free shots at us while we do it. Those lasers look like they're probably painful!"

----------------------------------------

On her toes as the robots started to move, Kristin grinned in anticipation as her eyes tracked the first robots flight. The air in front of her shimmered green for a moment as she prepared to shield herself from attacks, then moved to her left a few steps. The robot still on the ground looked like an easier target, so she lashed out at it with her telekinesis.

The robot easily sidestepped the attack and she cursed under her breath, then called out "Hey Mister Cage.. any chance I could have something to throw?"

[Ari]

GM

"Hey Mister Cage.. any chance I could have something to throw?"

"Sure thing Kristin!" came the enthusiastic response over the loudspeaker "Try these out, see how they do" after a few seconds a circle of large irregularly-shaped boulders appeared from out of the ground, each of them about half as tall as Kristin and twice as wide.

The slightly crackling voice called out "Go to town! Hope those work out!"

[Vahnyu]

The second round of the combat trainning commenced, and this time, Serge was more ready to enter the action. ignoring the flying robot that seemed to favor defense over offense, Net Fly concentrated on the other robot, as Glow attempted to telekinetically assault it. Seeing that she had little luck, he decided to pitch in; running straight to the grounded Steeljacket, Net Fly redied a barrage of fists, aiming for it's body. It came as a surprise to him that the attack once again missed it's mark, and then some; his fists flew past the robot, as the momentum carried Net Fly, causing him to lose his footing and slip. Crap... he thought, as he tried to regain his balance.

[GranspearZX]

Marcus charged forward in a relatively open stance, both his hands low. A red symbol appeared on the back of both, igniting into a crackling flame that wrapped around his fingers, ending at his wrist. Had they not been on fire, his palm would have likely met his forehead at Net Fly virtually tripping all over himself.

Oh dear lord. That kid is TRAGIC.

The Beast Rune echoed the thought in the back of his mind, allowing Marcus to better concentrate on the task at hand. The flames seemed to burn with greater intensity at the young physical adept's concentration, forming short flaming claws at the end of his fingertips as he took a vicious swipe at the downed robot, orange embers trailing his swing.

[Ari]

GM

Net-Fly's assault was watched with unamused intensity by the robotic target, its limbs and body moving subtly to avoid the near-misses that might have been as fatal to its chassis as a full-on hit.

Arcturus's hands, blazing with the power of the Beast Rune, slashed and scored at the armor plate of the new adversary with commendable power. However, these were substantially tougher customers than the last holographic bunch, and the blow simply knocked the robot from side to side.

Ignoring the surer-footed enemy before it, the Steeljacket's thrusters burned with blue fire as it shot up to Net-Fly, and its single eye narrowed to a point as it slammed its fist into the harnessed body of the young hero, its anachronistic exposed pistons driving its clublike fist with unshakeable power.

[Ari]

Subito had been entirely relaxed during their short break, making small-talk with Marcus and Kristin while watching Serge out of the corner of his eye to make sure his friend didn't go into any more bouts of self-recrimination.

She glanced at Marcus. "I guess you didn't exactly cut everything loose against the first four right? Would we be better off letting you stand up to one of them while the three of us go for the other one? Or we could even have all four of us go for one at the same time, but I kinda don't like letting one of them take free shots at us while we do it. Those lasers look like they're probably painful!"

"I'm with Kris on that one" he had agreed "I think it would be best if me, you and Serge focused on one of the next ones, I don't think we're powerful enough to do much good individually like you are Marc"

As they had left the small break room he had called again on the power of the Blue Dame, and again walked eagerly into the ring in his bright costume...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You'll pay for that!" he bellowed as the hologram punched Serge. Dashing forwards, he struck with as precise a punch as he could muster at that moment, snarling under his breath as the robotic simulation simply stood there and took it, with no effect visible.

[Scuffles]

Kristin cringed as Serge completely whiffed on his attack yet again, inwardly groaning at the thought of the next round of self-recriminations from her teammate. As Marcus and Subito joined the assault she saw the airborne robot turn towards her. She tried to stay clear of the muzzle of its weapon as it tracked her.

She couldn't stay clear and desperately threw up her hands as the Robot opened fire, throwing every bit of strength she could muster into her telekinetic barrier. The bolt blasted into the shield with an explosion of light and most of the force dissipated in the flare, but some of the residual energy punched through and smacked solidly into her chest. She absorbed the impact with a single step back, but it still left her winded and a single wisp of smoke curled up away from the scorched patch on her jumpsuit.

With a hiss of pain Kristin called out "Guys! I can't stop many of those!" and then latched onto one of the holographic boulders, slinging it unerringly at her assailant. The rock crashed solidly into the chestplate of her target, but shattered into surprisingly realistic shards.

"Dammit!" She hissed. "Can I have some rocks to throw that don't suck!?"

[Vahnyu]

Net Fly regained his footing just in time to see the punch coming his way. Not feeling confident in his ability to run around the robot and evade the hit, he instead opted to use one of the many techniques taught to them during class, he braced himself for the impact, using his hands to shield his face and direct the blow to the shoulder, in order to absorb the impact. The maneuver was effective, if only barely so, and despite the burning from the impact, Net Fly was unharmed.

"You'll pay for that!"

"Calm down, Heraldo! I'm alright." Serge shouts to his enraged friend, trying to pacify him. "It wasn't even a scratch." Taking a short step passing down from the robot's extended Arm, Net Fly says "I'm not sure I'll be able to say the same for the robot!" as he unleashes another barrage at the Steeljacket. This time, his footing was more sure, and his fists flew true; the majority of the punches hit the robot in both it's sides and on it's sternum, making it take a step back, and his final punch, by extending his body, flew straight to the robot's jaw, sending the Steeljacket flying. "Alright!" he exclaimed, as he witnessed the robot succumbing to his blows. Throwing his pointer finger up while turning around, Net Fly shouted to his allies. "One more to go, everyone! Don't let up!"

[GranspearZX]

Could they really tell that he was holding back? It was certainly possible... The Beast Rune often had a subtle influence on peoples' perceptions. And, truth be told, he was containing his power--only because he had to. This was as much training for self control for him as it was general training for the newer students. Clearly Kristen was the most observant of the three, and she certainly wasn't shy about saying exactly what she thought. He had to admit that particular trait wasn't annoying.

"...right." The change in his eye color was subtle as he responded to Serge, transitioning from brown to red as he turned on the remaining holographic opponent. Under normal circumstances, the Steeljack's altitude would have been a significant problem. Thankfully, Marcus was far from normal. He crouched and launched himself off the ground, aiming to grab the robot in mid-air.

It worked in his mind; if it was a hard-light construct, he should be able to grab it, no problem. Mid-leap, his own sensibilities mixed with the Beast Rune's aggression, and he wasn't entirely sure--but by then, it was too late, and he'd already committed to tackling the thing out of the air.

[Ari]

GM

The robot made a desultory attempt to evade the flying rune-master, but it wasn't enough. With a groan of protest from its holographic metal limbs the thing strained with all of its might to escape the powerful hold keeping it immobile. Its jets flared desperately, and it shook itself vigorously trying to dislodge its unlikely embrace, but every effort simply caused its assailant to grip more tightly to its smooth armor.

At last it soon had reduced its recharging energy levels to the point where it could only hover in place and glare at Arcturus with a narrowed bronze eye.

[Ari]

Taking this opportunity, Heraldo raced at the robot, putting all his might into a punch that if it hit would doubtless to a great deal of damage to the comparatively weak metal of the robot's hide. However, the initial passion evaporated into confusion when his fist bounced off the target with a simple *clong*.

Standing in midair in front of the odd pair he said awkwardly "Er...darn" he looked sheepishly down at the other two.

"Hope they hit harder than that..."

[Scuffles]

"Nice tackle.." Kristin whistled admiringly as Marcus leaped onto the still flying robot. "Awesome jump, you'd make a great ruckman!"

As she talked she walked closer to the mid-air wrestling match, and two of the larger pieces left over from the boulder she had shattered earlier floated into the air once more, wreathed in green light. With the robot mostly immobile she positioned them carefully on either side of its head.

With a wave of her hand, the rocks crashed together against the sides of the metallic monster. Once again however the holographic metal plates proved more resilient than stone. "Seriously?" she called out as her weapons broke into yet smaller pieces. "What's this thing supposed to be made of?"

Aggrieved, she threw the stones aside and lashed out again with a mighty telekinetic punch, intending to dispatch the robot with a direct application of her power. Unfortunately her target tilted to the side slightly at the last moment as it tried to throw Marcus off and the attack missed by the closest of margins.

"Dammit, sit still!"

[Vahnyu]

Serge saw that El Heraldo's and Glow's attempts, unfortunately enough, didn't meet with success, as the Steeljacket remained mostly unharmed and still hovering. Thankfully Arcturus did a great job keeping the robot in check, as he had completely pinned it with his arms, so they still had time to take it down.

As he got ready, Net-Fly shouted at Marcus "Hold it steady, senior! I won't hold back." Flying at ramming speed, the young hero wannabe charged his fists with sonic energy. As soon as he was in range, he let out a rapid barrage of blows that managed to tear the Steeljacket to pieces. A few nanoseconds later, Net Fly witnessed Arcturus had lost his hold of the now destroyed robot, and started falling. Not having enough time to get his breath, let alone gloat on a successful mission, Net Fly reached out and grabbed him as fast as he could. "Don't worry, Arcturus. I've got you." He reassured the senior.

[GranspearZX]

Arcturus really, really hadn't thought things through. Getting up there was one thing, and he was a skilled enough wrestler that even in mid-air, the Steeljack wasn't going to escape his grip... but now that he was up there, he wasn't sure what he could do without ending up back on the ground. Still, his presence hampered the robot's movement enough to make him an easier target for the others--decent teamwork, even if it hadn't been 100% planned that way.

He flinched a bit as Glow's rocks pelted the robot; El Heraldo's attack didn't get the same reaction because he'd at least seen that one coming. Arcturus did, however, cringe inwardly when Net Fly came barreling in. He mentally braced himself and he felt his grip slip from the robot. The fall wasn't one that would kill him, of course, but it would hurt even if he landed wrong--the Beast Rune didn't exactly grant him feline reflexes. It could, of course, but Arcturus was trying especially hard not to tap into that power. He reached for empty air as he fell, half-resigned to hitting the floor when Net Fly grabbed him.

He had to admit, he was surprised that Serge hadn't missed.

"...huh. Nice catch."

[Vahnyu]

"Hey, thanks." Net-Fly smiled at the complement on a job well done. "Now... What do you say we get you down there." he said, as he descended slowly to the ground. As soon as he saw Marcus' feet touch the ground, he let go. Landing a few feet away, he all but knelt over from the fatigue, trying to take short breaths to compensate. 'Damn. Hehe, I really went all-out back there, didn't I?' he thought, as the soreness from his hands and back started to lessen a bit. "I think-huff, huff-I think we can jot this down as a mission success, everyone." He said, as he took his mask off to help him breath easier.

[Scuffles]

Kristin whooped happily as the second robot literally fell to pieces under a barrage of punches from Serge, then clapped her hands together as he also managed to catch Marcus. "Nice catch!" she chuckled as she jogged over to him and gave him a none-to-gentle slap on the back. "And damn you hit pretty hard when you're on target! Nice job!"

"Those things seemed pretty tough.." she decided as she rubbed at her chest, then inspected the scorch mark on the front of her jumpsuit. "Getting shot with one of those lasers again isn't high on my list of things to do!".

Pretty sure that's going to have left a mark... but I guess I can't exactly check while the boys are here...

[Ari]

Subito slid down to earth, feeling more than a little embarrassed at his ineffectual attempts to contribute to the battle. He dispelled the costume with more than a little irritation and put a companionable hand on Net Fly's shoulder "See Surge? You took down both of those things with hardly any trouble at all" he looked over at Arcturus "An' that was amazing senior! I've never seen anyone jump like that since that time I saw footage of Hepcat!"

He didn't say much other than that, hanging around with the rest until the small lounge was opened again, and thoughtfully considered what had happened on the field with regards to his efforts against the holograms. If this was any sign of what was to come, he would need to dramatically increase his training regimen to include hand-to-hand combat. Clearly he would need a lot more than just hitting things to be of help to anyone.

[Vahnyu]

"Nice catch! And damn you hit pretty hard when you're on target! Nice job!"

"Gah!" Serge cried, as the slap in the back took his wind out. "Hey, thanks!" Serge replied at Kristin, before asking her "Hey, Kristin, how's your bruise? You seemed to get hit hard."

"See Surge? You took down both of those things with hardly any trouble at all"

"Yeouch!" Serge exclaimed, as soon as Subito put his hand on his burned shoulder. "Easy there, Subito. You know, I used that shoulder to absorb most of the impact from that blow earlier." he said, as he started rubbing it in order to relax the muscles. "I'm not sure why you feel the need to reassure me of my capabilities; I'm perfectly aware of them, and for the moment, I have no interest in impoving them, as opposed to my shortcomings, but thanks anyway." he said with a light laugh. "And what was all that back there? The whole 'you'll pay for this, you robot'? I mean, it's a trainning excerise, and the robots were only doing what we wanted them to do, namely, provide a challenge for our skills. There's no reason to get angry at them." he teased his buddy, as the memory of that particular moment of the battle came back to him.

[Ari]

GM

With a slight crackle, Alan Archer's now-familiar voice rolled from the hidden loudspeakers. "Great work kids! I've rarely seen those programs go down so fast before a freshman. Besides Ms. White, anyway. Marcus, Subito, head on back to the lounge and rest up; Kris and Serge, head on to the medical bay on the other side of the 'Room and get those bruises and burns taken care of. Just step into one of the little cubicles you'll see and give the mechanical arm in front of you uninhibited access to the trouble spots, then say 'begin scan'. It will do the rest"

With an audible sip of some liquid, he concluded "Again, nice work! I'd like to see a little more cohesion though, it's a bad idea to fight those guys uncoordinated in a real fight. That said, go on! The next fight will be...a lot tougher, it'll be you against one of the weirder mad scientists from the 1960's, a Professor Expiostinot, a roboticist from Minnesota, good luck!"

With a brief whine, the loudspeaker cut out.

[GranspearZX]

"An' that was amazing senior! I've never seen anyone jump like that since that time I saw footage of Hepcat!"

"Yeah, that was... mm." He honestly wasn't sure that was going to work. He'd never tried it before, and truth be told, Marcus hardly ever made full use of his athletic ability since transferring to Claremont. "Good thing I'm not afraid of heights."

Then again, there wasn't anything he was afraid of... but he hated swimming. It wasn't even that he couldn't, and the Beast Rune had demonstrated that it wouldn't let him drown. Still... he hated the thought of being submerged anywhere and shuddered a little bit as he shoved it to the back of his mind.

Marcus tilted his head a little bit at Kristin. "...you okay?" He eyed the injury, eyebrow raised as if nothing was wrong with staring at her chest.

[Scuffles]

Kristin had the good grace to blush slightly when she realised that the burn mark on her jumpsuit was drawing attention to her chest. She shrugged it off quickly however and gave Marcus a smile and a nod as she replied "I'm fine, I'm pretty sure I blocked most of it. I think my suit is done for, but it'll just be a little bruise and burn I think.."

Following Archer's instructions she stepped into the medical bay and took the first cubicle, then peeled back her suit to take a look at the damage.

Ouch! Purple and red just aren't my colours...

A few minutes later she emerged re-dressed, and exclaimed "They totally need one of those in the gym for when Etain hits me with a stick! Now, does anyone know anything about this Expo-whatshisname? If he's really tougher than those last robots then we're going to need a better plan than standing around to trade shots!"

[GranspearZX]

"Strategy..."

It wasn't a foreign concept to Marcus, but he'd honestly never REALLY tried an actual plan of attack before, at least, not in a group. He was, perhaps, too used to working alone, and he was finding it difficult not to just wade into a situation, fists swinging. He sat there, mostly silent as he considered it, waiting for everyone to come together again before he commented.

"I'm... not used to this whole 'team' thing. Usually I just kind of do whatever, but I'm pretty sure that's not gonna last long. Whatever's next, I think we might have to think it through... just to be on the safe side. And if push comes to shove..." The rune on Marcus's back seemed to pulse faintly in anticipation. A trick of the light, perhaps? It was hard to say. "Whatever we do... might be a good idea to at least try to stick together. I can always pick somethin' up and throw it if I have to."

[Ari]

Subito shrugged at the question. "No idea, to be honest. My classes don't have much history yet. I think he had a robot suit or something, but that's it" he listened to Marcus's musing on his disuse of strategy, nodding quietly as it concluded He had very little real experience with combat or any kind of strategy, and usually relied on other people telling him what to do in fights to be most effective. He agreed that Arcturus picking things up and throwing them would be very practical, and said so "Yeah,at least you and Kr-Glow can toss him around if it comes to that. Maybe I could keep the guy firing at me, if he has blasters or something like that" he couldn't really think of any way he could be much more useful, his punches in the last fight had barely even dented the holographic robots.

[Ari]

GM

As Net Fly and Glow returned to the others, the robotic announcer launched into its spiel about this Prof. Expiostinot.

"robtoticist, previous enemies based off of captured specimens of his work. wears a powerful suit of mechanical armor with integrated electronic systems several decades ahead of their time. has vastly enhanced sensory-perception, limited increase in strength, and the power to deactivate electrical devices at will.

situation is the site of his final defeat at the hands of the Freedom League in the 1970s in his secret laboratory hidden in Minnesota, the students must defeat the prof. in his underground lair and remove him from the complex before it collapses on top of them. you have fifteen minutes"

With that, the Doom Room shifted, the lines along the floor warping and twisting as a ruined laboratory filled with computer banks of a surprisingly modern appearance materialized out of solid(more so) light. In moments the four were in the center of a circle of collapsed towers, fitfully jolting electric cables and shattered robots. Before them was a lean man in a suit of bronze-colored armor with a a sleek design. Though the face was much more prominent and human-looking than most battlesuits were.

Shrugging off the i-beam that had fallen on his shoulders, the armored man looked at the four, his eyes burning into them with a rage that was felt even past the being's holographic nature and the metal mask. In a heavily Georgian-accented voice he shouted furiously "That was my life's work! I was going to turn the world into a better place by destroying its weak foundation and building it anew! Prepare yourselves, obscurantists!" and with that, he charged at them with a wild yell of fury!

[Scuffles]

Kristin found it a little difficult to believe that their third training scenario was matching them against a villain that had apparently taken a goodly number Freedom league members to subdue, cocking her head to the side as she listened to the description of the situation.

Then, more suddenly than she would have liked she found herself faced with that very same villain, who looked very very angry. "Uh oh!" she yelped as the armoured inventor broke into a charge, her telekinetic barrier snapping into place as she waved her hand and sent a large chunk of broken concrete whistling towards him.

As her makeshift projectile cracked solidly into Expiostinots shoulder and left a minor dent, the diminutive telekinetic dodged to her left around a pile of rubble, calling out to her teammates.

"Scatter! See if we can keep him at a distance!"