The Swamp: Setting up the Trap (the Gold SF)
Almost soundlessly, the X-Jet glided through the air like an eagle on static wings. The way to the Training Island was not a long one, especially not using a plane as fast as this which – among what else there was in the X-Men’s possession – could only be topped by the Blackbird that contained Forge’s genius at its best.
Silent she was, the white-haired leader of this team, maneuvering the stealthy object through thick clouds that she had summoned herself. This indeed was no real mission, however, it was supposed to be as close to that as can be without endangering the participants and so completing it victoriously was an essential part. Although Ororo was known for her dramatic entrances, her tactic in team combat was different, more subtle – while Rogue normally preferred to hunt intimidating with aggressive bluntness regarding her intentions, the weather witch tended to rely on strategic means.
Little she knew about what her old friend had planned for this special mission, still she was curious to find out about it. It was also a contest, in a way… one that, as she feared, Aurora was doomed to lose. The girl had proven repeatedly that on her own, she was a flawless fighter. There were also definitely leading qualities, yet the question remained whether giving her of all potential leaders the most troublesome team really had been a wise decision. When discussing this idea, it had seemed tempting, the thought of Circe’s perfection influencing and helping those misfits to integrate. Yet what they failed to consider was the possibility that this her perfection was in fact the strongest weakness she had.
When the isle that they would spent this and the following day on came into sight. Without a warning, Storm directed the jet downwards, quietly let it fly past the shores where a large helicopter told of the Silver Strike Force’s presence. Their destination, however, lay elsewhere. Passing quite a lot of forest area, a clearing could eventually be seen which the windrider landed on.
”We arrived. I advise you to be very careful when exiting,”
The reason would become clear to everyone when they left the plane’s stairway and touched solid ground…
Sick of sitting around, Matt decided to quickly follow their leader outside. For him, the training session had been ok… not brilliant but he could live with that. A little frustrating it had been to see Anna presenting her “cool” gift… or Madison showing off her claws… or Taylor… or even Hope. Not that he really could remember all those names yet, in fact he was only certain of Frostbite’s names for the plain reason that he found her interesting – and Angela’s since she was the only other one whose power had not been quite as impressively possible to demonstrate and especially fight with.
There was only one spot in the whole Danger Room they had been in that provided enough shadow for him to disappear in and naturally – basically knowing how this his power worked – attacking him in there had been all too easy for the others which had kept Contrast from even trying it after the second attempt which he had thought to have not been noticed by anyone. And keeping others from seeing properly? Wolverette hadn’t been overly hindered by it, her heightened senses providing her with enough possibilities to make up for the loss of eyesight and in addition, it hadn’t taken her long to understand how he was manipulating the light so that she could revoke the effect with what she had absorbed from him.
So it had clearly shown what he had suspected anyway: He was lousy in direct combat! Still, Storm had said that this didn’t matter. For every kind of power and skill, there would come the time that it would prove useful. And he dared to trust in those words.
When leaving the plane, Matt walked a few more steps than necessary to let the others exit as well. He wanted to avoid hindering anyone… no need for aggression which some of the members seemed to have too much of, boiling inside and ready to explode. In front of his eyes, an odd scenario unfolded. The area surrounding the plane looked very much like a meadow, just that there seemed to be a river or lake of some sort to be nearby since about some of the plants Matt could remember to have learned that they were only growing in moist areas. Where they didn’t cover the ground, oddly brown earth could be seen and around the clearing, there were trees whose strange roots were partly seen above the surface. All in all, it reminded him of something he had once seen on TV about the Amazonas area.
Something, so his instinct told him, was extremely fishy about their location. The last step backwards he made was one too much and Matt saw his suspicions confirmed. Gasping, he almost lost balance as one of his feet began to sink into the ground. Knowing that there were enough people closeby, the black-haired mutant remained calm and managed to get his leg out of the dangerous area, his black jeans covered in mud up to a few inches over his now grayish brown shoes.
”Swampland?”
he wondered quietly, more directed towards himself as he couldn’t imagine what they would be doing here. It seemed, however, that Storm would explain this to them every second as she – wearing the combat outfit, yet without the cape that would have hindered her flying among the trees that weren’t far off – called everyone to her.
”I believe, now it is time to let you know why exactly we have come here…,”
Her eyes wandered around while she spoke, a habit she had developed in those years of leading teams. It just was better to keep some sort of contact to every member instead of focusing on one or none at all, helped making them all pay attention to her words. ”Today and tomorrow, we will have a training mission here on this island where nobody from the outside will interfere. Scattered over the area, there are almost all X teams save for a few that had to stay at the Institute for security reasons. Four of them, X-Force and the Blue Strike Force, the Green Strike Force and Exiles as the new teams have decided to call themselves, will be striving to reach a meeting point which the rest is to prevent. There will be points given for the successful completion of either of the teams’ missions, however, the score can be reduced for teaming up with other groups as well. There may be a few more factors deciding upon the outcome, yet those are the most important things to know,”
Giving everyone some time to let those words sink in, Storm’s gaze kept on wandering – then drifted off towards the surrounding area a little before returning, a slightly ironic smile directed at Matt. ”As Contrast already demonstrated impressively, this is quite a dangerous area. Still, there are safe ways that we need to find and memorize so that when one of the target teams attempts to cross this area – which at least one definitely will – we have this advantage on our side. You may find other ways of keeping yourself or your teammates from sinking in. Experiment a little but be careful… there are approximately two hours left until the others will arrive their starting points.,”
It seemed she was finished, yet when Ororo attempted to turn away and have a look at the area to think about the best tactic to use which she had announced after her introductory speech, she stopped and added ”One more thing of importance: We are still all X-Men. If one of the others, anyone of the others gets into a dangerous, even life-threatening situation, do by no means hesitate to help. Depending on the circumstances, points may be taken but in the aftermath, this mustn’t have any relevance for you,”
With that, she gracefully allowed the winds she commanded to carry her away to the trees. Everyone had an intercom so that in case of an emergency they could easily communicate with one another. Her worries were low.
TBC – Gold SF members only (OOC: I presumed quite a lot here, so if anyone objects, tell me and I'll edit it ASAP. Anyways, it'd be good if you all could include some reaction towards the training.. you may want to talk to other players to decide on anything)
"Never shall I allow myself to show signs of weakness
Neither in front of my friends nor my team and certainly not my enemies"
A smirk while Ororo spoke, Frost's features calm and careless until mention of setting up traps for others came into the discussion. X-Force? Although Anna got on well enough with Riley since once they had done a student training team together for a few months and she knew of Sean (though never talked with him) the others she knew little and cared even less about. Though that girl, the one who came storming in a year ago all high and mighty, the mutant hater depsite being a mutant herself, pathetic weakling doesn't deserve... what ever equally pathetic gift she was born with!
Angela meanwhile kept her distance from Frost, hovering behind Taylor and having him blocking the icy girl from view, and it was more then her powers that where cold. The nasty girl had used her experienced fighting abilities to her best - as was usual when she was training, never one to hold back - and poor Angela got pummeled with physical combat. Her legs hurt and her back had small bruises scattered all over it and her sore shoulder was now stiff from all the effort put into using it. Hardly fair putting her against people like this, she doesn't know how to defend herself, and when Fear did release an attack on Frost she got angry at the 'cheap attack'.
And truth be told, Madison's claws terrified her, well, the thought of getting close and fighting her was intimidating, she'd seen the two other girls, Frost and Madi, ripping into each other earlier. No regard for the welfare of their team mates, Angela couldn't believe how much they seemed to enjoy thrashing anyway that they paired up with, even if they knew full well they were inexperienced as Angela and Matt. In the end Angela kept her distance and helped Taylor discreetly when those girls took him on, purposefully distracting them with emotional fear while they tried to focus.
Rubbing her shoulder a little, Angela looked over towards Matt as a surprised noise erupted from him while his leg sank into the ground. Two days, two WHOLE days, she didn't even tell her friends she was going to be missing for the weekend, sometimes they say they were worried if she doesn't hop online, after all, anything could happen and they wouldn't know until she recovered and told them herself. Sometimes she was alright when not able to post, other times she felt bad for holding things up, most of the time she got anxious because there was a creative need that burned within and the lack of an outlet even for such a short duration of time could become mildly frustrating.
Fear hovered beside her, his ghostly form peering around at their surroundings as Angela did the same, glowing red orbs following the path of Angela's own earthy brown, soft sparkles of pale gold gleaming as the light reflected against her eyes. None of the team members (Aside the older X-men themselves) were allowed to suit up, they were taken as they were when summoned to the hanger, after all, no one wears their suits all the time and this was a spontanious exercise their handling of such situations.
A soft groan escaped accidently from Angela as she realized her jeans were going to most probably get horribly dirty as well as her top and black boots. She wasn't one to complain about how she looked, though on very special occasions she gets more thoughtful about it. Not to only to try and impress others, but so others know that she wants to try and be at her best for them. But she had only a small collection of clothes and these were her only shoes except for an old pair of nice gray hi-heel 'sandles' that - although strangely comfortable - were rarely worn since she never had anywhere to go.
It made hot days difficult though, wearing boots may be practical for travelling but it'd get unbareable since the feet would boil. She was lucky in the sense that Angela wasn't really tall.. heck, she was a 'tall' short person, slightly under the adverage height, yet taller then most of the woman in her family (At least on her mothers side). So on the warmer days when Angela went out, to the movies or to eat or whereever, they'd know if she was in hi-heels if they could suddenly look her in the eye or weren't looking so far down (Since most men were at least half a head taller then her).
While lost in thoughts of risking the loss of her only real footwear in all this mud and strenuous activities, Storm took off and a stunned look was thrown at her retreating for and then at Taylor.
"Wait, what does she want us to do?" She couldn't walk on water, she didn't want to try walking over that stuff, a displeased frown formed on her forehead as Frost walked passed Matt, 'accidently' brushing past him and hitting her shoulder against the new boy, a blunt 'get out of my way' attitude. The moisture in the ground crystalized and solidifed so that it could support her weight, a bored scoff as she folded her arms and turned her body around to face the group.
"Well obviously some of us will be more useful then others, maybe the rest of you ought to help by staying out of our way." The irritation still hadn't left her voice from the training session, she had been fuming that newbies had been put onto this team, newbies that she could easy deal with if she wanted to.
"You know," Angela kept her voice low while speaking to Taylor, "A charge of electricty to that swamp might prove to be entertaining." Angela folded her arms, she was in a light blue top, it was cut to show more of her shoulders and upper chest (not a low enough cut to be revealing, still casual and comfortable) with a white heart over the front, white letters with silver shimmer and black partial outline had 'My Immortal' at the bottom of the heart and pictures of scenes from a song similiarly named with a pretty female in a pale yellow dress which looked white in the black and white shots. Mostly it was face shots of the female singer called Amy from a band that had once been a popular group before Angela was born. It was a nice top, and it was new, and the thought of getting it spoiled was weighing surprisingly heavy on her mind at the moment.
Imprisoned in a Forlorn Reverie - Struggling for Inner Peace and completion
Re: The Swamp: Setting up the Trap (the Gold SF)
Slightly absent as happened quite often for him, Matt's gaze was wandering over the area. So they would probably be supposed to find a way through that swampy maze and maybe dig some holes or what? Well, it would certainly need a bit but the contrasting mutant was quite optimistic that his intuition would help him to get over to the trees as dry-footed as possible. It was rather the part that included memorizing the paths that made him worry for if something more riddled than a net existed... then it was definitely his memory.
He was just about to turn upon hearing Angela's question when - being caught off guard - something hit his shoulder and past it. Confused yet slightly irritated storm-grey eyes flickered into the direction he could hear steps disappearing into to see Anna using her quite active gift to simply freeze the water without having to look for pathways like the rest.
"Well obviously some of us will be more useful then others, maybe the rest of you ought to help by staying out of our way."
A disbelieving snort was the only reaction Matt seemed to contribute in reply to the insult at first, while the liking he had taken to the ice-powered mutant immediately began to crumble. It was rare for him to be mistaken when judging people and Matt still believed that within this aggressively blunt girl, there was a lovable person... but he was by far not as noble as seeing only what was inside, ignoring what slapped him in the face.
Although trying to keep it down most of the time, Matt had quite a temper which he, mostly for his own sake, channelled into sarcastic comments rather than physical aggression. He was anything but strong and thus predestined to lose most fights he would have taken on. Sharp replies dripping with irony were his favorite weapon, or had once again become that after his main powers had been taken - a means that would have made it so easy to get this arrogant look off Frostbite's face.
"Lone wolf-gal revealing her split personality, now isn't that touching," was the comment he couldn't keep himself from uttering. Not loud, rather forcefully calm and clearly understandable in this rather quiet area. Honestly, there was nobody else who had it as easy as Frost when it came to walking over a watery area and so Matthias couldn't help but scoffing at the loner speaking of more than her. Who did she have anyway? The only one Anna obviously had known a little longer seemed to be Wolverette... and those two were obviously not the best of friends.
His head titled slightly to the side, Matt then decided that fighting in either way wouldn't get them anyway and this he didn't mind saying. After all, what was the worst thing to happen? Would she make him an ice-block and say somebody else had done it when Storm returned? "Seriously, why can't you at least try to get along with us? Most of us are new to the whole fighting thing and just because you've been lucky getting that uber-cool power...," He raised his eyebrows a little alluding a rolling of his eyes. "That's not everything, yanno?"
Inwardly, Matt was rolling about laughing. Had he just said that? He who was so obsessed with power, or had been anyway? A quite nastily annoying part of him asked mockingly what he would have said if he had possessed his light-elemental force. Would he really have acted as he did now, weak and powerless as he was, self-righteous only because now he was on the other side of the scale?
"Most decisions in our life are made by no one but ourselves. You should never forget that.
Re: The Swamp: Setting up the Trap (the Gold SF)
Sitting on the X-Jet proved to quite the bore, even as short as the trip from the mansion to the special training isle was. Madison wasn’t one who liked to sit still for too long, hell, even in a deep sleep she couldn’t stay still for the entire night always tossing and turning as if she wasn’t getting a good nights sleep when she actually was. Though there was no point in getting up and walking about, she had done that when she was young and first went in the jet and had gotten told off by her father for doing so, so she sat silently with arms folded and her head being thrown back every few minutes with the frustration of boredom when she noticed that Storm was yet to lower the jet to a landing area.
Before the middle child of the legendary Wolverine stepped out of the jet she clearly heard Ororo’s warning to be careful when stepping out, but of course Madison chose to ignore that as she virtually always did with advice and found her short leather boots coated in the swampy mud after a few short steps. A displeased smirk crossed her face as she raised her left foot to see the damage done to the boot. That was great, just great! Madison never had any luck with any of her clothing: her clothes were constantly getting ripped and torn from her claws coming out when not wanted and from training, then a jumper of hers was coated in blood as she used it to try and help Michael from losing too much blood when Connor had stabbed him a few days back when they were up for sale in the Harmony Market and now swampland was destined to ruin what she was wearing for the next two days in navy, almost black, slightly flared jeans and a scarlet three-quarter length sleeved top that had writing scattered across it in many layers so it was hard to make out what was actually written. Her hair was also doomed to not stay up in a ponytail for the entire weekend as she listened in on what the Gold Strike Force leader had to say.
So this X-Team was to stop other from crossing the swamp and set up traps for the other teams? Perhaps this wouldn’t be too bad, especially if they got to sit back and watch as one of the other teams, who meant nothing to Madison, fell right into a trap and began to sink into a dangerous part of the swamp.
”One more thing of importance: We are still all X-Men. If one of the others, anyone of the others gets into a dangerous, even life-threatening situation, do by no means hesitate to help. Depending on the circumstances, points may be taken but in the aftermath, this mustn’t have any relevance for you,” Now this amused the younger of the Enright siblings. Did Storm really expect her, Madison Enright, to go out of the way to help anyone else but herself? In her entire lifetime she had only helped one person properly, meaning that she wasn’t giving ‘advice’ to poor innocent souls who crossed her paths, and that was Michael. It felt strange, yet in a sort of good way, to have helped out like that but Madison hadn’t planned on doing it too often. For all anyone knows, it might take another seventeen years for her to do the same thing again.
Madison knew that Michael was recovering well, she hadn’t gone to see him but had heard about it. It wasn’t as if she didn’t want to see him, she did. After all, he was the first person she had ever helped and she also had a couple of questions for him. Ever since she had absorbed then used the astral projection mutant’s powers to see herself as her mother, to see herself as someone who she wanted to be more like, she had slowly began to think over it. And that wasn’t a Madison thing to do. She never thought over things and when she did it was only for around a few minutes, not a few days like this. Madison just wanted to know if Michael’s power just worked differently with her, though she knew that was probably stupid to think that, so the question was why did she want to be more like her Michelle, someone who was the complete opposite of Madison? Of course, that question was probably something that he wouldn’t know the answer to, but Madison hadn’t thought that far yet to register that fact.
Snapping out of her brief thoughts Madison looked over to her so called team mates, an amused smirk slowly spread from her lips as she remembered the training session in the Danger Room. Both Frost and herself hadn’t gone to the Danger Room to make any friends by being nice to the new, and weak, members of the Gold Strike Force and to their happiness they hadn’t gotten any with the way they used their training session. But really, could the others expect them go nicely on them? That would only be pitying them and that was something she didn’t like to waste her time doing. If they wanted to see how you have to be on a team, they may as well get the entire show!
Seeing Matthias, the smirk grew a little upon recalling the memory when she had out smarted the contrasting mutant with his own powers. She didn’t always do that, using absorbed powers but he had disappeared and Madison always liked to know where an opponent was and she was the kind of girl who liked getting her own way and would do whatever it takes to get what she wants.
Hearing the voice of Angela reminded her of the fear she had felt when she had absorbed the empathy and used it for the smallest of moments. Having had claws her entire life and grown up with family members who also own claws Madison was so used to them that she found no problem with them and found it amusing to see that they actually scared others. It didn’t bother Madison though, if it was something that would make one dislike, or even hate, her she wouldn’t care.
"Well obviously some of us will be more useful then others, maybe the rest of you ought to help by staying out of our way." Reluctantly, her gaze shifted over to Frost as she spoke. A true statement, those with not as powerful mutant gifts weren’t going to be of much use and it was a wonder why they were actually put onto a team when they clearly weren’t ready for it.
Once more she heard Angela speak, this time to Taylor and then she heard Matt utter something about Frost. A comment she couldn’t help but even smirk a little at. It was then that she noticed she still had her enhanced senses that she had absorbed from Connor yesterday, that meant she could still use them for a few more hours of the day. Absorbed powers lasted around 24 hours with Madison, sometimes more and other times less but most of the time a days period was how long they lasted. It was probably better that Madison wasn’t stuck with the enhanced senses like her brother since he suffered with them, she could use them as she likes whenever she likes (as long as she had absorbed them), meaning she could use enhanced hearing and not the other senses like sight and scent. Actually, Madison sometimes kept the hearing up while she slept since she was a rather deep sleeper and barely any noise effected her during the night and she had done that last night to keep her guard up and hadn’t stopped it. The could explain why the jet sounded louder than usual.
"Seriously, why can't you at least try to get along with us? Most of us are new to the whole fighting thing and just because you've been lucky getting that uber-cool power...That's not everything, yanno?" Her lips parted slightly as an 'ooOoo' escaped from her mouth as she awaited Frost’s reaction to this. Like she was just going to listen to what Matt had to say and go by it. Madison was the same, it was always the weaker powered mutant that said such things.
"And what is then? I'd love to know," Madison spoke, the first time for the day so far in fact. Well, if there was something out there that means more than being strong, she wanted to know. Of course, whatever it could be would only be a joke in her opinion.
"If I don’t want to be me, why do I want to be more like her? Stupid astral form, it's making me think..."
Re: The Swamp: Setting up the Trap (the Gold SF)
Nadzieja sat in silence on the jet, watching the fog scudding past the window. She shifted in her seat, feeling constricted by the safety belt; its man-made material lying very close to the bare skin left exposed by her t-shirt. As soon as they landed, Hope unbuckled the belt with gloved hands. She looked curiously out the window as her other team members began to file out, and felt slightly better when she saw the naturalness of their surroundings. The young mutant had despised the training session; aching from the physical combat, she had been unable to use her power as there had been nothing for her to use it with. And now she was certain that they all thought she was useless, with her stupid limited power, her complete physical weakness and her deadly allergy against anything unnatural.
The young girl stepped carefully from the jet, looking around intently at the swamp they had landed in. She could hear the distinct croak of toads around them, the quiet rustle of countless small creatures.
“X-Force, the Blue Strike Force and Exiles as a new team has decided to call themselves, will be striving to reach a meeting point which the rest is to prevent.” Nadzieja did not fully understand the reasoning for these training missions, she had never really aspired to be a fighter like the X-Men, but she had to grudgingly admit that it did sound quite exciting, and here, in the vast openness of the swamp, she could use her power with a lot less chance of being observed.
Once they were alone, she looked around at her other team members. Angela looked as worried as she felt, but she at least had friends to rely on, while Hope stood alone, a little apart from the others. Madison and Frost looked superiorly at the others. The former was strong, well trained, a powerful mutant who did not have patience for anyone who could risk her gaining the most points. Frost walked easily over the swamp, as the water froze beneath each foot, but it would prove a lot more difficult for the rest of them.
“It would be most sensible to feel our way through the swamp,” she said quietly to herself, looking around for a long stick, or anything she could use.
Nadzieja walked away from they others heading towards a stunted tree whose branches where lower to the ground than normal. Its branches were thick, made from hard wood, so it would have been useless trying to break any off with strength alone. Pulling off the glove that protected her, she took hold of the nearest branch, followed it towards its base. Closing her eyes, saying a silent apology to the living tree and gritting her teeth against the horrible feeling that always passed through her when she used her power, Hope eased her naked hand through the bark, through the wood. Closing her open hand into a fist, she twisted her wrist, simultaneously pulling her hand free of the branch. A shattering crack split the silence; the young mutant reached out quickly with her other hand to catch the falling branch. Her right hand loosened its grip, a shower of splinters falling to the soft ground.
Looking around, a slow burning blush rising up her cheeks, she noticed the others looking at her. Holding the long branch tightly in both of her hands, she moved slowly back towards the others, tapping the end lightly on the ground. She may not be very strong or very powerful, but she was pretty smart, she admitted to herself.
“It’ll make moving around slower, but it’s probably better than testing the ground with our feet,” Nadzieja said sheepishly to the rest of her team, looking meaningfully at Matt, whose trousers and trainers were now caked in mud. “I can get more, if you want.”
Re: The Swamp: Setting up the Trap (the Gold SF)
Taylor had managed to pull himself from the warmth of his bed when the alert had gone out calling all the members of the X-Teams to the hanger. He had arrived a little desheveled by the whole experience, wearing a plain white tshirt that should probably have been in the wash and a pair of fitted jeans; he had hoped they would have time to change into their uiniforms but that had apparently not been the plan and they were all shuffled onto the jet and Taylor's usually well groomed look had taken a hard hit having to stay in these old cloths.
He had taken a seat near Angela on the jet but due to his very subdued nature there was little conversation, polite chatting but nothing that would really be noted as a meaningful discussion. In a way Taylor was pleased that he had been able to reach a friendship level with Angela where silences were comfortable and they could both happily sit in each others company without having to force a conversation.
When the jet had set down he had been one of the last to leave the comfort of the warm plane and follow the team out into what Matt quickly demonstarted to be swampland. It was Taylor's worst nightmare, not only was he stuck in old cloths that surly needed a wash, he was now in a position where he could only get dirtier and with no obvious way to go and get a nice warm shower he sighed deeply walking up near Angela as Storm began to brief them.
The brief seemed fairly simple to him, an obvious team exercise, but he had to admit to being a little excited about it, he enjoyed the danger room sessions, able to find ways to use his powers to help him and others around him but that excitement soon evaporated as he heard Storm inform them that they were going to have to find their own way through this swamp, again increasing the chance that he would walk straight into the most boggy part of the area and get covered in the foul smelling mud that surrounded them.
"Wait, what does she want us to do?" Taylor heard Angie say from behind him but before he could even answer the sarcastic and attitude laced voice of Frost filled the area. "Well obviously some of us will be more useful then others, maybe the rest of you ought to help by staying out of our w[/i] He still could not understand how she could be assigned to a team when it was so blatently obvious that she thought she could do everything her own way and alone; it was an obvious flaw when assigning someone to a team and it could possably get them into more trouble than ever.
"You know," Angela's soft voice whispered into Taylor's ear from behind, "A charge of electricty to that swamp might prove to be entertaining." The yellow skinned mutant stiffled a chuckle, and he inadvertatly allowed a number of sparks to dance inbetween his fingers as his laughter halted the general control he had over his electrically charged body. Reigning his powers back in, for a split second he thought about 'loosing control' and allowing that charge to leap over to near Frost, the charge would easily burst any air pockets in the thick mud bursting the smelly gloop everywhere. But he knew that doing that would not be a good idea, not only will Storm not be amused but future meeting with Frost would not be good.
"Lone wolf-gal revealing her split personality, now isn't that touching. Seriously, why can't you at least try to get along with us? Most of us are new to the whole fighting thing and just because you've been lucky getting that uber-cool power..., That's not everything, yanno?" Taylor once again reinned in a smirk, Matt was being very brave confronting Frost like that Taylor thought, he often just let her get on with it and ignore any snide comments made; it made for an easy life, he had quickly learnt that when he had moved to the city from his country home. He watched as Frost turned towards him and he knew that the this situation had to be defused and quickly.
Taylor stepped forward and as he did the soft, shy voice of Hope filled the air by them;“It would be most sensible to feel our way through the swamp, It’ll make moving around slower, but it’s probably better than testing the ground with our feet, I can get more, if you want.” Taylor turned to see Nadzieja holding a long wooden branch, demonstarting how they could safely traverse the swamp, he could openly see merit in her idea and if they combined it with Frost's powers then maybe they would have something. Turning back to Frost and Matt he spoke quickly before they could start arguing in the middle of this sess pit.
"Listen guys, snide comments and arguements wont help us here. Matt although she might have put it in a way that would get most people's backs up, Frost has a point, she can use her abilities to freeze the moisture in the ground around and behind her which we can all walk carefully upon," Taylor turned to Hope and smiled, "And if we combine Frosts powers with Hope's idea, each of us can make sure that we are staying to Frost's path and don't wander off into the swampland." The electrical mutant turned back to the others. "Frost would you be willing to lead us through here with your powers, we will have to be carful not to slip on your frozen path, but I think it is our best bet here, we need to get to safer ground." Taylor held his bretah momentarily waiting to see if the team agreed, he momentarily looked at Angela flashing her a soft smile that held all his anxiety that him stepping in like this might make everything worse, he just hoped that they saw the logic in it all. He knew that his increased speed would probably allow him to glide a little over the soft ground but that would not help the others so if Frost was not willing to do this then they were stuck.
((NOTE: The introductory post has been modified! There are four teams that are being hunted. Please edit your posts accordingly if you included anything referring to this detail.))
Re: The Swamp: Setting up the Trap (the Gold SF)
Matt didn’t actually expect Frostbite to not thrust a comeback at him immediately. In fact, in the very second he had spoken those words, he had wondered what he was actually talking about. Those opinions, they were new to him… he was just on the verge of realizing their full and deep meaning and although Contrast felt what he had uttered was the truth, he found it difficult to put it in words when not Anna but Wolverette posed the dreaded question.
"And what is then? I'd love to know,"
Mostly to gain some time, Matt turned towards her quite calm on the surface though inside he expectedly to make a complete fool of himself by stuttering in search of words. Now what a great start of those two days, wasn’t it? Why for heaven’s sake was he never able to just keep quiet and let such remarks pass? By the time his eyes met Madison’s, the light-elemental had not only realized that he didn’t want to do it differently, he had even found a fitting answer that expressed exactly what he felt like.
”You won’t get it if I tell you… you’ll probably just come to understand it when they’ve ta-,”
He had spoken just loud enough to be understood, yet when Hope let the wood crack loudly, it cut through his words effortlessly. Although not liking to be interrupted – which he was quite sure she hadn’t done on purpose, probably she hadn’t even heard him being farther away than the rest – Matt stopped talking immediately, especially since Taylor spoke directly to Frost and him. In a way, he was even glad about it – he hadn’t wanted to mention them in any way, rather had planned to keep it more vague which, fortunately, it had turned out to be being an incomplete sentence. For a moment, the dark-haired young man wondered whether anyone would have noticed he had been about to talk about a group extracting mutant powers like they had done with him but as he judged the two he had mainly been talking to, they had probably not really listened anyway and if they had, what had followed from Taylor was likely to distract them completely anyway. He wasn’t overly sad about that and so he thought about the proposal as well for a moment before the logical mistake the electricity mutant had made almost jumped at him.
”The problem is that this would just get all of us from A to B while we’re supposed to be able to spread out and all walk the save paths to circle the other team and such. Maybe it’d be better to just get sticks and walk around finding some routes we can use later… the Jesus fraction aside of course,” While his gaze had mostly been directed towards first Taylor and then Nadzieja hinting that he’d like her to break him a walking stick, Matt had indeed obviously been speaking to everyone and at the end felt unable to suppress another ironic comment concerning Frost’s glorious walking-over-water ability.
”It’s just that this bloody disadvantageous terrain is actually what’s increasing our chances of catching the others with a lot less effort… so instead of – dramatically spoken – fighting it, I think we should rather use it to our advantage,” Matt was convinced that in the aftermath, this way of getting around would get them farther then what the yellow-skinned mutant had suggested, still he had made it sound like a proposal open for discussion.
"Most choices in your life are made by no one but yourself. You should never forget that...."
Re: The Swamp: Setting up the Trap (the Gold SF)
Taylor looked up at Matt and realised his own mistake in comment as soon as the other mutant pointed it out. Taylor hoped people didn't instantly think that he hadn't been properly listening to their leaders orders; in truth his mind had wandered a little with the news at home and his attention focused a little more on Angela than it probably should have been. He cursed himself for allowing even a little lapse in concentration in a matter like this, he was well known for not have the best concentration span but he should at least be able to find some kind of self control when put in an important situation like this.
Focusing fully on what Matt was saying Taylor took it all in, even the little quip at the more adept mutants in the team. Despite Taylor himself being quite a tease and someone who welcomes jestful talk with his friends, he knew that at this time and with some of the team members personal histories with one another, one liners such as that should be used very carefully - they all had to work together after all!
However, what Matt said made sense, they had to circle the other team, and they had to find a way of making this terrain an advantage, to be honest, Taylor wasn't often the one that came up with many plans, he was usually one of the ones to carry it out. So in this case he was having a little trouble adjusting. After a few seconds of silence amoung the team and people looking everywhere around them except at the other team members Taylor started to speak;
"OK, I see your point, we need to circle them so maybe we should pair off maybe, and then use our powers or abilities with partners that would complement them. That way we are stratiegically stronger ourselves, but I'm a little stumped on how to use this swamp as a good thing!" Taylor knew that the hours of strategy computer games he used to get so enveloped in would come in handy one day and to a certain extent that day had come, partnering off would allow them to circle the other team as well as have the strength of a team situation, evn if the teams were only pairs.
Taylor stopped talking to see if any of the others had any opinions on the matter; opinions that would help that is. He knew the kind of things that Frost might come out with but he had learned to take most of what she said with a pinch of salt. Taylor's bright yellow eyes darted from person to person as they stood in the grim swamp, the thick air filling his lungs with things he didn't want to think about seeing as the smell was something he would rather not endure for much longer. His gaze lingered a little longer on Hope and then Angela, the two he knew more than the rest of the team. Although he had to admit to himself that the lingering gaze was probably more for Angela to a certain extent before he looked back towards Matt and the others.
Re: The Swamp: Setting up the Trap (the Gold SF)
Nadzieja listened to Matt and Taylor discuss the problems they all faced. She agreed that it would be better to split up into groups, and part of her preferred the idea of not being in a big group anymore. She had always felt uncomfortable around people and some of these people blatantly did not like her...or anyone for that matter!
"OK, I see your point, we need to circle them so maybe we should pair off maybe, and then use our powers or abilities with partners that would complement them. That way we are stratiegically stronger ourselves, but I'm a little stumped on how to use this swamp as a good thing!" Hope looked around at their surroundings again, trying to discern if there was any visible differences between the stable and marshy ground, but could not find any at all.
"Maybe we could make a false path...lead them straight into the swamp," the mutant had not meant to say this out loud, and suddenly felt very shy when all eyes were suddenly on her. It was a stupid idea, she knew, so why did she have to say anything! Suddenly feeling angry at herself, she turned away, muttering to the others that she was going to fetch more sticks for them.
(OOC sorry it's really crap... I've lost my imagination, obviously)
Re: The Swamp: Setting up the Trap (the Gold SF)
Ooc: Matt, I know how you like to be corrected and all, and I’ve noticed this a few times but passed it off as typos, just to make sure though… you type ‘Safe’ as ‘save’ a lot, like save paths ought to be safe paths, wasn’t sure if that was an error through typing or not, but I noticed it a few times so I just wanted to mention it.. so.. *fidgets* yeeeeeah *nods* My job here is done! See, teaching English to unaware kiddies is paying off!
---------------
"Listen guys, snide comments and arguements wont help us here. Matt although she might have put it in a way that would get most people's backs up, Frost has a point, she can use her abilities to freeze the moisture in the ground around and behind her which we can all walk carefully upon,"
Frost raised an eyebrow slightly at this comment, at what point did she become their road work slave? Though the thought of using her powers to help others stroked her ego a little, the fact she’d be making things easy for them annoyed her, what made them think she would do all the work? This was a bloody training exercise, not a ‘lazily follow Frosty around’ day!
"And if we combine Frosts powers with Hope's idea, each of us can make sure that we are staying to Frost's path and don't wander off into the swampland."
There it was again!! Slightly narrowing her eyes in a outward sign of disgust at the way he was taking charge, where was their glories leader now? Damn yellow toad thinks he can tell HER what to do!! Frost only grudgingly took orders from Storm because the woman knew how to put people into their places when they went out of line, what right did he think he had to plan out things with HER powers?
"Frost would you be willing to lead us through here with your powers, we will have to be carful not to slip on your frozen path, but I think it is our best bet here, we need to get to safer ground."
Although Angela admired how take charge Taylor was being, it was part of her nature to kind of hover in the background, able to take charge when absolutely needed, but preferring to leave it up to others, probably one of the biggest faults in her personality when leaving aside her often forgetful memory. Frost didn’t reply and merely pondered how she could twist this chance for the better in her amusement, fragmenting the path they were walking on could result in a few of them slipping into the murky mud, that could be entertaining…
“The problem is that this would just get all of us from A to B while we’re supposed to be able to spread out and all walk the save paths to circle the other team and such. Maybe it’d be better to just get sticks and walk around finding some routes we can use later… the Jesus fraction aside of course,”
Slowly a puzzled expression crept over Angie’s face, her hand reaching up to rest on the back of Taylor’s arms, parting her lips a little about to ask what a Jesus fraction was, being as she wasn’t the most religious of people around, and weekend bible reading sessions hadn’t really been part of her lifestyle. But she pressed her lips together and pulled her hand away, using her own smarts to try and assume what the other was on about… Jesus treaded water right? Well… maybe that was it, or… something… dark eyes glanced around her feet a little while she thought and then slipped off back towards Matt as he continued.
”It’s just that this bloody disadvantageous terrain is actually what’s increasing our chances of catching the others with a lot less effort… so instead of – dramatically spoken – fighting it, I think we should rather use it to our advantage,”
“Well… dah.” Frost rolled her eyes slightly, giving a slight sigh and shaking her head slightly, as if Matt just lowered her opinion of him even further. “At least you caught onto that thought,” Was the only comment Frost gave as she spoke as if he had just said the most ridiculous thing, what did he think, it was just a coincidence that they had been dropped of at this exact location, god, even Madison could be said to be THAT stupid! Never-the-less Frost distracted herself by looking around and see what she could do to trap any of the foolish souls trying to get past her, the thought made the ice elemental mutant snicker inwardly, she was surrounded by water, this was HER domain!
Goosebumps scattered across Angela’s skin while she worked around the swampy waters, her legs were muddy and her socks wet from when she had slipped and sunk to her knees before Taylor helped pull her out not too long ago. Now Angie was stabbing the ground in a long stick she had gone off to find, Fear usually hovered around her while she worked on navigating a safe pathway with the others though he’d disappear by diving into the ground for minutes at a time. This was stupid, she wasn’t an outdoor person, she wasn’t even a out of the house person, heck, she barely left her room at home, what did they expect of her here? She got tired easily and she wasn’t strong and lazy was definitely an understatement, her athletic skills where non-existent and her social skills where something that could use some improvement since she didn’t really get along with others well, at least not with the people she’s met so far – Taylor being an exception, for now…
God knows what was in their area, anything could have been sucked down there and decayed or rotten flesh could be spreading all sorts of diseases through the area. A paranoid glance around her feet followed that thought, but she tried to push it out of her mind – not really considering that the older mutants at Xavier’s school created the island’s habitats so it wasn’t like animals could just strolled up and die or murdered carcass’s were tossed in by passing cars.
The end of her stick got caught onto something beneath the surface, resisting to budge when Angela tugged at it, the empathic mutant frowned a little and wiggled the stick from side to side slightly to try and get it unstuck. A shocked yelled erupted from her lips as something tugged her down quickly, making her nearly fall forward into the unexplored regions of the swampy ground. Balancing her weight on the stick and pushing herself back, her heart racing now in the panic of not understanding as she fell back and slumped into the muddy ground.
“Fear…!!” The angry and annoyed yell followed the ghostly creatures appearance as he drifted out of the mud, mimicking the fears that Angela unintentionally was creating, at least she couldn’t see the skeletal form with the decayed flesh he had become, “Oh…!” A pause while she struggled to find words as she grabbed her stick indignantly and glowered at her little companion. “Honestly!!” Ended up blurting out for in replacement of the lack of words she could think of yelling at him at this time, anyone who knew Angie would recognize ‘honestly’ as a commonly used word, whether it be angrily said, curiously said, or teasingly said, it seemed a very versatile word for the young mutant! As well as the occasional ‘sheesh’ amongst other unusual things she tends to blurt out by habit. A hand full of sludgy mud was thrown smack bang into the creatures face, his glowing red eyes seeming to widen a little before getting hit and having his body flop down into the muddy murky depths he had just risen from.
(OOC: yeah thanks ^^ I really have a prob deciding which one to use... but now I'm too lazy to reply. I take it as a future.. um... thing *nods*)
”Well… at least one person enjoying the trip,” Matt muttered cynically, his eyes lingering on Angela playing mud games with the ghostly embodiment of her powers before taking a stick from Hope with a grateful smile. He wasn’t actually the kind of guy working out or even enjoying any kind of activity that was as pointlessly tiring as sports either and so the whole concept of this odd mission was not really likely to excite him. Having Miss Oh-So-Wonderful and her rival as part of the team was certainly not improving the situation either. Matt couldn’t help but wondering why those two girls didn’t get along perfectly well – similar in attitude and behavior, they were like twins… with different parents, looks and powers but those were minor details anyway. Didn’t they all say it were the inner values counting? Contrast just wondered whether it really were “values” in Frost’s and Madison’s case.
A sighed ”Whatever,” while rolling his eyes had been the only reply that he had considered Anna worth of. He didn’t want to waste his energy on arguing with the ice-powered mutant who – obviously – had more experience in this childish game she had probably named “Who can find the fanciest comeback?”… considering her going “duh” on him made him doubt she was actually winning by score very often. More probably the others rather tended to give up as he had done getting tired of it. Although anything but much time had passed, it seemed odd to remember he had actually thought to be able to come along with Frostbite. Maybe there was something good about her, a nice and charming core… covered by a thick wall of ice he was not at all willing to try and break through then when there was a swamp around them… one that the person in question was eyeing a little too suspiciously for Matt’s liking.
Trying to ignore the warning tickle in his neck, the light-elemental cast a quick glance around wondering who to team up with. Taylor certainly had had a point… he quite liked the idea in the sense of its effectiveness. Now who was a real option as a partner? Madison, Frost – he fought hard not to burst into a fit of laughter at that thought… no, he favored living a little too much to be that reckless. Angela and Taylor – seeing how well they seemed to get along – would probably prefer working together so…
”Hey, mind getting dir-… I mean teaming up with me?”
An impish grin was directed at Nadzieja while his thumb pointed back over his shoulder towards where the swamp was glistering in the sun. Occasional gas bubbles causing blobbing sounds wasn’t the only thing making the scene less than inviting. ”I know that place got declined by House & Garden but hey, call it savage beauty,” It was more than obvious that Matt was just fooling around, annoyed of what atmosphere had been reigning ever since they had landed and even before. He knew his sense of direction was horrible but still he trusted on his intuition to help him getting along. It wouldn’t be easy… but possible. And that was at least something, wasn’t it?
"What am I doing here again? Ah right… resisting the urge to blind Frosty… I bet mud-brown is just her color though,"
Re: The Swamp: Setting up the Trap (the Gold SF)”You won’t get it if I tell you… you’ll probably just come to understand it when they’ve ta-,” When they’ve what? An annoyed glare went in Nadzieja’s direction for cutting off Matt’s words. She clearly hadn’t gone out to do that but to this middle child accidents, mistakes, coincidences and things done on purpose were all the same.
At least it wasn’t Madison herself who had got her words cut off, though that barely happened since she’d just ignore the interrupter and continue with what she was saying as if they weren’t there at all. However, just because it wasn’t her that was cut off didn’t mean she was going to get over it right away. She found it quite rude that Matt hadn’t finished what he was going to say to her. Sure, she didn’t care much for other peoples words but when ignored or people didn’t complete what they were going to say to her when they clearly had something to say just annoyed her. If they had her wasted the time in them getting her attention they may as well use it the best they can.
Perhaps if Matt had actually said what was on his mind, Madison would notice that they had something in common, though A. Corp., but he hadn’t so nothing in her mind changed her view on him, that being low amongst virtually everyone else she has met, bar a select few.
Madison’s dark eyes looked over to Taylor as her voiced his idea. There was no way Madison was going to lower herself and go along with that. Besides, she doubted that Frost would actually want everyone to go along with that in the first place. And if she was, for some unknown and bizarre reason, Madison would rather swim her way through the swampy waters than walk along a path made by Frost. Her stubbornness would not cave in no matter what the others said, not as if they’d care anyway. That was what Madison liked, people not liking her. She didn’t like them.
Her gaze swung back to Matt as he pointed out something that Taylor obviously hadn’t noticed, something Madison hadn’t either, and said his own Nadzieja inspired idea, which was just as bad. She was certainly not going to walk around with a stick in her hand to find the parts of the swamp that were safe to walk on. Her memory was to be saved for more important things, not to be wasted be remembering a path to take on some swamp.
Taylor began to speak again, Madison choosing to tune out since she was convinced that this was going to be another lame idea that she would not get herself involved in. However her ears did pick up the ‘pair off’ bit. See, yet another stupid idea! It really hurt to be right all the time.
"Yeah right..." She muttered to herself, her body language showed that the pairs thing wasn’t working with her. Madison didn’t need to work in pairs (didn’t need to, didn’t want to, easily mistaken in Madi’s points of view), especially when it came down to Frost and her being the only two left, she always worked by herself or if she did happen to team up with someone it was always Connor. It was kind of strange though, Madison was second in charge of X-Treme and she was not much of a team player, let alone in any form to be a leader but that had been given to Madison and she wasn’t going to knock it back as if she couldn’t handle it. She didn’t even see her lack of leadership so that reason alone played a reason to why she remained the co-leader of the student back-up team.
Also, what was the point in teaming up with Frost even if she was forced to do so? Frost was already easily making her way over the swamp, the unstable parts freezing before her foot could sink into the muddy waters. Madison could do the same if she wished, but she never really seemed to use Frosts’ powers. Whether that was because she despised her so much she wouldn’t do it or because when they met, which was mainly in the Danger Room, Madison had her claws to use and other absorbed abilities to boast about with and she left Frosts to not be a complete show off or maybe due to some kind of unsaid mutual agreement or even something else it was not known, but for the fact that Madison wouldn’t use Anna Drake’s powers unless really needed and she doubted that her powers would ever come useful for herself.
This didn’t mean that Madison had nothing to work with other than her feet to find safe ground, since she wasn’t going to use Frost’s power nor a stick as Hope had suggested. She had absorbed other powers too, like Storms for example. She didn’t need to walk. She could fly!
"You guys can play your little stick game," the Wolverette’s tone showed boredom and little care for their ideas. She didn’t need a team to help take care of her, she had enough strength and power to look after herself. The whole idea of this training mission was to help each of the teams work as a team never crossed Madison’s mind.
She had used flight before, so it was nothing new to the younger Enright and even if it was Madison’s power absorption allowed her to use her borrowed powers with ease and with skill, often even better than the mutant who actually owns the power. So Madison summoned the winds that were able to pick her up and allow her to hover a little off the ground, the fact that this could bother her teammates didn’t seem to enter her mind. She didn’t care much for them so why should she waste her time and pay attention to what bothers them and not.
If she went high enough she could probably get a good view and see if any of the other teams were coming their way, but the trees would be covering their paths so that wasn’t of much use. However, she still had her absorbed senses where an enhanced scent and hearing would come to be an advantage for her and ultimately the team. Her heart wouldn’t be completely in on this weekends event but it was still something she had to do and she most certainly didn’t want to be on the losing team so if she could hear or smell some strange smells - above the smell of the swamp which proved that it might be a little hard for her to smell other scents over - she would inform the rest of the Gold Strike Force to get ready for their coming. Teamwork may not be her thing, but losing was defiantly not her thing.
"If I don’t want to be me, why do I want to be more like her? Stupid astral form, it's making me think..."
Re: The Swamp: Setting up the Trap (the Gold SF)(OOC:Sorry bout small post. Was a bit unsure where to go with it.)
Taylor watched with a soft smile as Angela seemed to half start to use the stick Hope had got for her for the reason it was meant and half use it to play with Fear. Even in this situation Taylor couldn't help but admire how the young woman had so easily moved to living at the mansion with everyone compared to how they met with her mother as she was.
The yellow skinned mutant decided to ignore the bickering between the other team members, for one he knew that he wouldn't be able to keep his cool for much longer and an argument between the team members would not be a good thing just at this minute. Nodding thankfully towards Hope, he took one of the sticks she had collected earlier and then moved towards Angela, watching as she stumbled for words as Fear playfully floated around her stick.
"Well it looks like we're a team if ur ok with it Angie" Taylor grinned as he looked at her, nudging her arm with his in his usual playful manner. In fact no one had stated who would pair with who, but taylor knew he would feel a bit more comfortable with her, they got on, they knew each other and Taylor felt he could trust her and he hoped she felt similarly. "So where do we start?" He asked poking at the muddy floor, lightly flicking bits of the swampy muck a few centimetres off the ground, although he didn't break looking at Angela, except for a second when Fear decided that his stick was just as fun to tug on as Angela's.
Re: The Swamp: Setting up the Trap (the Gold SF)”Hey, mind getting dir-… I mean teaming up with me? I know that place got declined by House & Garden but hey, call it savage beauty,”
Hope was absently prodding at the soft ground with her stick when Matt spoke. She didn’t feel at all comfortable being surrounded by virtual strangers, and the sound of his voice broke her train of thought. For some reason, so far from the Institute, her thoughts had strayed to the man she had met three months ago. John had been so nice to her; in all her life she had never had a guy show any interest whatsoever, and suddenly this older, handsome man had captured her thoughts. She had not spoken to him since. Work and training had taken over her life, and he had obviously not seen her on the few occasions she had passed him in the corridor.
The words took a moment to sink in, and she suddenly felt indignant at what he had said. While the melancholy thoughts dissipated from her mind, her frown softened as she registered the joke. She looked at Matt closely for the first time since she had met him. His dark hair had a slight blue tint that she had not noticed before, and his green eyes stood out from his pale complexion. He seemed nice, but part of her was still wary of trusting anyone. Then again, no one else had offered to work with her, and she wasn’t really in a situation where she could cope on her own.
“I’d like that,” Hope said, nodding and smiling slightly, “Just lead the way!” She added, hoping her voice wasn’t as miserable as it sounded to her ears.
(OOC: I assumed a bit here... hope that's alright? If not, just tell me! )
Matt hadn't actually expected Madison to be all enthused about the plan.. he wasn't sure whether he had thought she'd just leave them either though. Guilt struck him hard seeing the power absorption mutant using Storm's winds to carry her into midair. He used to be able to fly with supersonic speed once... *Yeah, once upon a time, now hop off the self-pity train already!* the light-elemental scolded himself clutching his fists. But it was unfair, wasn't it? Wasn't it?! True, after his powers had kicked in he had by far not been Mr Goodie-Two-Shoes. Arrogant, condescending, ruthless even, he had never cared for the weak, for the powerless but had regarded them as second or third class beings. Still, Wolverette didn't seem any better... so why was fate playing rough on him and not her?
Nadzieja's reply got him back into the real world. A place where they had to find ways through a swamp, where he could not just soar to look out for his opponents and... there was just no use in entertaining thoughts about the past.
With a sigh, Matthias took a firmer grip around the stick and let his eyes wander for a moment. The trace of a smile and a nod were directed at Hope as a sign that they could give it a go. And so they slowly made their way through the most disgusting place Matt could imagine with no helpful powers whatsoever. This was one of the few moments that envy turned into something quite close to hatred towards Frost and the female Wolverine. The moment came and passed but the question whether those two would ever realize how fortunate they really were remained.
The first fifteen minutes went by quite uneventfully. For a reason Matt didn't want to think about worried it might lift the charm, they had constantly been lucky walking the right path which - having found it once - was even quite easy to memorize. Dead ends and dangerous parts they had always detected just in time to avoid them and although one couldn't really talk of team work when it came to wandering about, they weren't actually not cooperating either. But of course this was meant not to go on like that forever. Distracted by a quite large bird of prey blurting out a shrieking cry, Contrast had failed to pay full attention to the way he was walking and - with a surprised intake of breath and a quite undramatic squish - found himself next to the safe route. Muddy hands seemed to seize him, pull at his legs to drag him ever deeper into the swamp which from the waist downwards he was already in.
"F*uck!" he exclaimed too angry at himself and his easily distracted mind to realize the danger he was in. A state that changed quickly though, however, he forced himself to avoid further shouting to not attract those two Ms Wondrous' attention. If it was his choice to make then - so the contrasting mutant thought - he'd rather die in this nasty grave than being mocked at by the two. Stick and hand stretched out towards Nadzieja, he struggled to keep his calm though slowly, realization of the thin line he was walking made it difficult not to move wildly trying to get out. Some oddly detached sensibility, however, reminded him that this was the worst mistake to make...
"Would you mind givin' me a hand or two?" The semi-joking request was accompanied by a cracked smile that had something of an embarrassed grimace. And as seldom as it happened, Matt was glad to not be a 90kg mountain of muscles so there was even a chance of the girl being able to get him out on her own or maybe with one of the others' help.
Strangely enough, Matt did very well mind who this other one would be.
"What am I doing here again? Ah right… resisting the urge to blind Frosty… I bet mud-brown is just her color though,"
Re: The Swamp: Setting up the Trap (the Gold SF)
"Well it looks like we're a team if ur ok with it Angie" Carefully shaking her leg a little before she inwardly sighed and gave up, instead throwing Taylor what appeared to be an out of place grin of delight. As long as it was not anyone she did not know she was happy, and at the moment she didn’t know anyone other then him. Additionally he was not bad company either, not that Angie’s ever really found she has the luxury to be meticulous considering her difficult-to-tolerate personality. At least that is what it seemed like, she was too playful or too serious or too easily hurt by things said or done, even if it was not a direct assault or even a purposeful one on her.
"So where do we start?" It wasn’t as if Angela has had an abundance of time around guys, so her eyes had drifted off to Matt while he was talking with Hope and then thoughtfully settled back on Taylor while he started talking once more. She has had one boyfriend, but he had done a wonderful job of destroying a lot of her self-confidence regarding her appearance and she had always been uneasy with her looks sine she was young. Therefore, it was a hard blow, but she pretends she’s quite effortlessly ignoring the bruised mark he left.
Still, just because people did not find her top mark in their books, didn’t mean she herself thought little of them in return. A tugging in the corner of her lips struggled to break into a smile as she realized she was assessing the two males down to the most delicate of details. It was like being given new toys to play with, both looked like promising playthings, and yet if you were not careful you could break them in the excitement if not being cautious in their handling.
"You teamed up with one of the clumsiest people on the team, are you sure you want me to lead?" The teasing remark was more of an upfront warning, the amount of times she has dropped something and the variety of ways it has occurred are uncountable in her memory. Although Angela did motion in the general direction of the other side of the swamp that spanned ahead of them and began walking forward while poking the ground with the end of her stick.
"So uh," Ignoring the constant orbit Fear had taken up around them, like their own little black moon, Angela concentrated on trying to start up a topic of some sort to pass the time since at the moment silence wasn’t as comforting as it could sometimes be for her. "How long have you been on these team things?" A perfect topic! Lull the males into a false sense of security and spark up a friendship, then she will see if she can enjoy their company and maybe if all goes well they’ll be able to advance to that next step! Not that she was looking forward to anything of the sort though…not at all…Brown eyes gave a shifty glance away from Taylor before drifting back to the base of her stick, all right, maybe she was only in the tiniest of way looking forward to a chance of getting that far with someone again. Only a little bit though, just the tiniest of bit excited, just a fragment of the littlest bit of exci-…her eye’s attention were distracted easily by the arms beside her as they shifted the stick Taylor was holding from one place to another before she glued her own gaze back down to the swampy surface.
"F*uck!" A curious glance was cast over towards the outburst, a hopeful spark inside of Frost longing that some sort of confrontation or misery of sorts were taking place. A wicked little grin spread over her icy lips as her dark eyes peered over towards the struggling pale mutant. Being as helpful as always, Frost contemplated stopping him sinking deeper by freezing the water around him, a tempting thought as her mind wandered away from the possibility of freezing the temperature of the air around Madison while she was in mid air. Admittedly, the decision of who to humiliate had torn the frosty mutant, like a child lost in a candy store given far too many delightful options to take pleasure from.
Being indecisive, Frost gave a slight smirk and merely cooled both the air and water, turning her back to them so as to attempt to not appear too obvious as her abilities cooled the swampy sludge and chilled the air a little too quickly to be normal but not enough to cause more then a shiver.
Re: The Swamp: Setting up the Trap (the Gold SF)"F*uck!" The sudden curse that came from Matt’s mouth jolted Nadzieja from her thoughts. She hadn’t even realised that she had been paying so little attention to what was happening around her. Looking back, the young mutant suddenly saw the reason for his outcry. Her partner was embedded in the foul-smelling mud of the swap, his legs completely immersed. Hope reached out of the outstretched stick, trying to get a firm grip on slippery wood
"Would you mind givin' me a hand or two?" She couldn’t help but smile at the hapless boy as she tried to haul him in with as much strength as she could muster. But the concentration she exerted on her task suddenly caused her mutated power to encroach upon the situation. Suddenly Nadzieja found herself not only struggling to keep hold of the stick, but also fighting the nauseating feeling of her hand passing through the wood. Panic overcoming her senses, she pulled as hard as she could, hearing a satisfying squelch as the contrast mutant was freed from the gloop.
The final outburst of strength was too much, and as her team partner was pulled free, the momentum sent her reeling back, threatening to throw her into the swamp water as well. Clinging blindly still to the end of the stick, she hauled herself towards safety, only to fall forward into Matt. Looking up at the mutant, Hope gave a rueful and sheepish smile, trying to muster a little dignity. “I think we need to be a bit more careful from now on,” she pointed out lamely, more to fill the awkward silence than to offer any kind of advice.
Righting herself and smoothing down the cotton of her shirt, damp from perspiration in the sticky warmth, Nadzieja picked up her own stick, discarded during the incident. Gripping it in her right hand, the young girl continued to prod at the soft ground to find a safe route, hoping that Matt would not make a bigger deal of the situation and cause further embarrassment.
She looked over her shoulder at the others, but they were a fair distance away. The sun was high, and beat down on the swamp, making the air cloudy with swamp gas, and encouraging the bloodsuckers to come out in large numbers. They had travelled away from the rest of the group, the path winding quite a bit, but not enough to cause any major miss-footings. Hop suddenly wondered at how they could have walked so far without falling into the waters of the swamp, as it looked identical to the more stable ground. Plants looked embedded in earth, when they really floated on the thick swamp. An idea began forming in her mind.
”If we were to mark a false path, do you think the other teams would follow it?” she asked out loud, not really aimed at her partner, but more in contemplation. ”I mean, would we be able to trick them into walking off the safe ground if we made it look like we’d marked it out for our own purposes?” Suddenly, Nadzieja’s reflection was disturbed as a slimy, smooth body slid through the water, the large water snake rising out of the thick water enough for the sun to sparkle on the glistening black scales. A feeling of dread passed over the young girl as she saw the creature, and she wanted suddenly to be a long way away. ”Can we move on?” she pleaded with Matt, her eyes wide in fear.
Re: The Swamp: Setting up the Trap (the Gold SF)
Taylor smiled widely, he was glad that Angela had accepted to be his partner, but what made it better was the fact that she had made a bit of a joke of it. It had been a long time since Taylor had found someone that he related to so easily. Taylor had always been a playful person, enjoying messing about, taking things a little less seriously, that was where Sean came in. As long as he had known him his cousin had always been the one to slow Taylor down and get things back on track, and it seemed that Angela too had a similar playful nature when she let it show. Taylor had initially tried to hide it on this mission, trying to be the serious one, but it didn’t suit to well and although he could be serious in an important situation, when he was relied on, he couldn’t help but joke still. When they had first met getting to know her had been slow, a little at a time, she was quite guarded and seemed a little surprised that he would show her any attention at all. But as soon as Taylor had seen her in the Dying Star he knew he wanted to get to know her.
"You teamed up with one of the clumsiest people on the team, are you sure you want me to lead?" The words broke his trail of thought and he realised that his team partner had started to head off down the swamp and began making a way through the pot holed area. Taylor smiled and walked up behind her; "Ah, see it was a cunning plan, if your leading then you’ll be the on to find the worst of the messy, smelly mud holes and the most likely to drop in, I’ll be able to dodge them from back here. " Taylor grinned wider and stepped in line with Angela, nudging her a little with his shoulder to show that he was joking as he chuckled slightly. Softly a silence fell over the pair and they continued to poke the ground with the sticks they had been given, avoiding areas where the stick poked in deeply.
As they walked Taylor’s mind began to wander back to what he had been thinking about, he sneaked a look at Angela as they walked, making sure that he didn’t take his eye off where they were walking too long otherwise he would be the one to follow suit with the others that had found themselves deeper into the mud than they would have liked. Despite Taylor’s sociability he hadn’t been able to get particularly close to anyone since he had left home, he had always been worried about someone finding out about his mutation, people can get easily frightened and he didn’t want to ruin the slight friendships he had been able to form in the city. However that all changed as soon as his mutant genes decided that another changed would appear in the form of his skin colour. But before that his inability to get close enough to anyone meant that it had been a few years since he had had a proper partner, and that had left Taylor, now in his early twenties, extremely shy in that respect. Even when he had thought that something could come of a friendship he never wanted to jeopardise it and that had stuck with him even now that he was staying at a place where everyone was the same.
He had to admit to himself that he had grown closer to Angela than he ever thought he would, at first he wanted to help her but as they had grown to know each other a bit better, Taylor even confiding in her from time to time, his feelings for her had grown further. But still he wasn’t ready to admit it, and knowing that Angie’s powers were emotional he made sure to try and hide what he was truly feeling, but he couldn’t help but realise that that in itself was getting harder and harder. Also it hadn’t been long since Angela had moved to the Institute and although Taylor had known her for a while and quickly grown to like her he wasn’t about to put another pressure on her in that respect, the move itself would have been hard enough with her mother being as she was.
"So uh, How long have you been on these team things?" Taylor noticed the slight uncomfort in her voice and hoped he hadn’t been thinking too much and that his emotions had betrayed him but for now he chose to ignore it, she would say something if she needed to….he hoped. In fact he hadn’t actually been training with his powers in the way they use them at the moment for that long, he had mucked about in the danger room with Ben and Sean and trained with X-Treme, and the one mission to Harmony. That had been exciting, for once he had been able to use his increased physical powers and electrical manipulation for something of use, unlike some mutants like Jean or Sean, Taylor’s powers were of little use outside of the team missions and training, they could even be a burden, setting off a burst of voltage when he got to excited or his emotions ran high.
"Not that long to be honest, I learnt to control my powers when I was younger, but only recently got to use them for some good. I train in the danger room with my cousin Sean and our friend Ben, but actually got to go on a rescue mission not long ago. Before I got here I had to hide my powers, incase people rejected me like my family." Taylor heard the bitterness in his voice, but it was to late to hide it, a slightly uncomfortable silence fell over the pair as Taylor pushed thoughts of how his family had reacted to his mutation to the back of his mind.
It was the sudden silence that actually made Taylor realise the chill in the air. He wasn’t really set up for a mission out on this island. The sudden call up had taken him unawares as it was meant to, meaning he was not prepared at all, the thin white t-shirt he wore held little protection from the cold and he knew that as night would begin to fall upon them he would be feeling much colder than now, he cursed himself for not grabbing a jacket of some sorts, but the sudden wake up had shocked him and the result was this. The hairs on his arms raising high to try and trap any heat he had but it did little and just showed that he was cold more obviously, he swapped his stick from had to had, using his free one to rub his opposite arm in a vain attempt to get some warmth from the friction but it did little to help, he looked at Angela as she glanced at his arms for a second (he was a little unsure as to why) and smiled weakly; "Maybe I didn’t pick the best cloths before I left my room, I didn’t realise that we were going to be leaving straight off, it’s not exactly summer weather out here." He spoke weakly, hoping that his light hearted comment would hopefully lighten the mood from his previous comments as he continued to rub his yellow skinned arms.
Re: The Swamp: Setting up the Trap (the Gold SF)
Those muddy arms striving to pull him into their unappettizing embrace rather seemed to work with weight, not strength, for trying to move his legs in an attempt to support Nadzieja in her attempts of freeing him, Matt found he could barely move them as if some ball and chain was keeping him down.
Air and "water" suddenly cooling down immensly did barely help and despite her innocent behavior, the contrasting mutant knew all too well where to place the blame. If he had learned one thing during the past weeks then that no one had their code name without an actual reason... "They should've named her Goosebumps," he snarled, a short glance out of narrowed eyes directed at mischievous Anna. Deciding it just wasn't worth another quarrel, Matt nodded at Hope's comment about their need to be more cautious and followed her guidance with a - slightly embarrassed - "Thank you." on his lips.
Stalking over the safe path they had found, Matt still could feel a chill running up and down his spine, yet this time he was quite sure it wasn't as much Frostbite's but rather his wet and dirty pants' fault. Life was such a wonderful thing, wasn't it? Cynism actually was the only thing keeping his mood up. Well, that and the fact that - his little excursion with the only purpose of knowing what awaited the team unfortunate enough to cross their path aside - they had actually succeeded in finding a safe route. After they had hurried past the scaly creature Matt had eyes with the utmost distrust, he realized they had not only made their way straight over to the forest but had also discovered a way of crossing the whole are between where they had landed and the woods diagonally.
"Sounds like a plan," Contrast agreed a bit more content with the world. "I'm all for it."
FADE-OUT
I will continue with Storm as soon as Exiles and another team have caught up which will hopefully be very soon! If someone wants to continue in the current scenario, feel free to do so. Otherwise we'll jump around an hour ahead.
"What am I doing here again? Ah right… resisting the urge to blind Frosty… I bet mud-brown is just her color though."
Re: The Swamp: Setting up the Trap (the Gold SF)
"Ah, see it was a cunning plan, if your leading then you’ll be the one to find the worst of the messy, smelly mud holes and the most likely to drop in, I’ll be able to dodge them from back here." There was a playful narrowing of her eyes. It still all felt so alien to have someone interacting with her, most of the time when she played around she felt uncomfortable… Mainly because people were too serious for their own good or just weren’t close enough with her and Angie would feel embarrassed interacting with them. So far both guys on the team seemed nice enough, she hadn’t really been forced to interact with Matt therefore she hadn’t passed more then a word or two with him or anything and only saw him during the times they were doing team activities. The other girls seemed difficult for her to interact with, Hope for different reasons to Frost and Madi, at least Hope didn’t seem snobbish or rude…
"Not that long to be honest, I learnt to control my powers when I was younger, but only recently got to use them for some good. I train in the danger room with my cousin Sean and our friend Ben, but actually got to go on a rescue mission not long ago. Before I got here I had to hide my powers, incase people rejected me like my family." It came as a shock to her, the sudden realization that someone of his own family discarded him for something he had no choice over. People have commented on her odd perception of things, feeling bad for people as if she could never understand what it was like to go through such a thing, even if she too had dealt with the same thing. Everyone handle their own situations differently, some hurt more then others, how does she know she suffered any more or any less then those dealing with similar problems? It wasn’t her place to comment on how they personally felt and try to put her own experiences on the table to bluntly say they aren’t the only ones with that problem.
She honestly couldn’t understand how his family could reject him, they must be really cold, it made her upset to know there were people like that. Although her mother didn’t exactly show signs of warm affections towards Angela’s oddities, Katerina still allowed her daughter to live with her – even if it was for her own selfish desires not to be alone and uncared for. Rejecting anyone for any reason that evolved around things so insignificantly meaningless in Angie’s mind was something she just couldn’t tolerate. She has seen people hurt and abused for many reasons, and yet not a single reason so far has been worth the punishment they thought the others deserved.
"Maybe I didn’t pick the best cloths before I left my room, I didn’t realise that we were going to be leaving straight off, it’s not exactly summer weather out here." There were those moments people just switched topics hoping to move on from one thing to another and have the person they were speaking with get the hint and move on as well… Poor Angie however was someone who was easily distracted from one thing to another so it wasn’t something people had to struggle to do, though that didn’t mean she was ignoring the previous comments, if she didn’t respond to it, there was usually a chance that much later on she may bring it up again. One thing she was extremely talent in doing when socializing was randomly picking up old topics where they left off… mainly coz she was used to working like that, one of her online friends would have to run off when they were half way through saying things and so it just sort of stuck with Angie.
"Well," The empathy began, placing both of her hands on the top of her stick and leaning on it a little as she offered a perfect little smile, "We could switch tops if you want." Not that it would help him, since she was smaller and hers was lower cut around the collar then his, and her sleeves were much shorter, basically it was very close to being sleeveless they were so short. Not to mention that it showed her stomach when she raised her hands over her head so she pictured it showing most of Taylor’s stomach, and being so tight it would definitely show every curve and bulge over his form. At this image her smile broke into a brighter grin, forcing her to look away, for some reason she was often quite shy when she smiled… fearful that there would be something wrong with how she smiled or something else her mind panicked over and considered humiliating.
Or. Came a thought while she was pretending to study the path before them. I could help do some rubbing to warm you up. The teasing thought was directed towards helping rub his arms, she’s never touched muscles before, she wondered why girls always went on about how wonderful they are… sure it gave the guy some shape but it didn’t seem overly important in Angie’s opinion. A stronger blush however spread through her cheeks unwillingly despite not having said it aloud, it sounded far kinkier then even she intended it to be.
There was definiate relief when the group started plotting out the false paths which Hope had come up with, it at least got her mind off wishful thoughts that she wasn't used to plotting.
)
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