ArchivedLogs:Sky-Pirates!

Sky-Pirates!
Dramatis Personae Peter, Rasa	2013-10-05 '
Location <XS> Danger Room
The room is large and circular, a geodesic hemisphere of hexagonal ceramic panels. It is the Danger Room, and is thus often full of danger, but is presently not in use and is thus remarkably danger-free. Safest room in the school, probably. "Yarr," the Pirate Commander -- a one-eyed cyborg with a mechanical golden eye and a robotic, unfolding arm -- exclaims, lifting his scimitar to the heavens. "We'll never surrender, mateys! Forward -- to VICTORY!" The other ten pirates around him -- a sorry bunch of men and women who look like they all bought costumes at a discount Halloween store -- raise their swords in salute, growling and yarring in rapid succession. They stand atop of what looks like some bizarre manner of 'balloon' ship -- an upside down zeppelin with its deck on top of the cigar-shaped balloon, a steering wheel up front -- and six bristling TESLA CANNONS; three on each side! Above, the cerulean sky; thousands of feet below -- a sea that spans out as far as the eye can see! The ship is heading straight toward the bristling 'Titania' -- a towering airship that's six floors of luxury (AND BOOTY!), with Rasa and Peter currently on the top-most deck -- watching as the pirate ship comes rapidly within range. Already, the TESLA CANNONS are firing -- long electrified, magnified wires /slamming/ into the deck, spanning a distance of 50 or so yards -- when they hit, the pirates onboard the invading ship promptly snap out their MAGNO-HOOKS, swinging them down on the wires to ride them rapidly toward the deck of the Titania! Three wires in all; three pirates are swinging in close toward Rasa and Peter, eyes narrowed, their scimitars clutched tensely between their teeth. Peter, for reference, is currently clad in black slacks, a black hoodie, an unusual black mask (complete with bright white tear-drop shaped eyes -- and a series of plastic 'compartments' that extend down the back of his neck, like an outer spinal cord). Crouched low, he watches as the pirates approach, before turning to Rasa with a crook of his (masked) head: "--is this for real?" "As real as anything in the Danger Room is..." Rasa replies, eyes widening briefly before hir stance lowers. "Which means, it probably won't kill us, but it'll hurt a lot." Ze licks hir lips, a little bit of life coming back to hir grayish skin as hir heart starts to pump harder in anticipation. Ze is wearing Xavier's issue navy sweat pants with a gray tee shirt on top, hir pants modified for the long gray tail that sticks out the back end, giving hir stance a little more balance on hir legs than hir hands. "You want the ugly one? Isn't that what we're supposed to debate right about now?" "I forget. I think, yeah, probably something like that, or something else really witty, but honestly right now I can't think of anything even vaguely--" WHUMP! Three pirates are now on deck, landing in a crouch -- they reach for their scimitars, yanking them out from between their teeth and begin to approach -- sinisterly! There's something cartoonish about the whole process that makes it hard to keep seriously -- like the pirates are part of a dance number -- but at the same time, there's nothing /fake/ looking about the swords they're wielding. "Uh..." Peter starts, before straightening, looking at the next three pirates already getting ready to ride the electrified wires. "--can you handle these three? And I'll -- take care of the ship." Not bothering to wait for an answer, Peter's hands extend -- THWP THWP THWP THWP THWP -- and all three pirates suddenly find their scimitars thoroughly webbed and /yoinked/ out of their hands. The weapons soar over Peter's head, snapped around like a flail, released -- sent tumbling down into the ocean below. And then Peter's leaping, /springing/ off of the deck, firing a line for the distant pirate ship... Leaving Rasa with three very confused, very /irritable/ sky-pirates -- now armed with only their fists. "Oh, Peter..." Rasa shakes her head a little and stays low, hir attention on the swords as they flash through the air on webbing. Ze turns hir attention back to the pirates as Peter leaps away, lips pressing into a fine line. "Sure, Pete. Take off. I got this. Don't fall and die, okay?" Ze takes another step forward turning to sweep hir left leg and tail at the legs of the unarmed pirates, looking to knock them flat. Ze has to to take a full turn before facing them again, surging forward to launch a punch at one of the pirates who remains standing. Peter, in the distance, is flying much like bricks don't -- but then, THWP! Zip! He's swinging out from underneath the ship, his figure a small dot as it swoops up from the opposite side, catapulted to land on deck -- where -- distant little THWP THWP THWPs are heard, along with countless more "YARRS!" as the pirates converge toward him. Rasa, meanwhile, has hir own pirate asplosion to deal with. The first pirate who steps forward is caught by surprise by the swoop of hir legs and tail; he manages a yelp, tumbling to the ground with a thud -- the giant, burly lady-pirate behind him growls, hopping back just out of range of that tail -- as her cohort hops /forward/, reaching out for Rasa -- only to receive a punch for his efforts! KAPOW! He staggers back, just as the burly lady-pirate springs forward, swinging her arms around to try and BEAR HUG Rasa into submission! Rasa stomps the crap out of the burly lady's foot, settling for her shin or knee once hir own feet are off the ground. Then ze jabs some elbows into the mass behind hir and delivers a head strike backwards, moving to slip out of the pirate's arms when she loosens them in pain. Ze kicks out hard against any surface ze can find - deck or pirate - and jumps up into the air. Once on the ground, ze turns to reassess the situation, one arm raised defensively. "Whumpf--" Big, burly pirate lady grunts and stumbles back, growling in discontent when her foot is hit -- air rushing out of her lungs with a rumpled brow when that elbow /slams/ into her sternum. Her arms flail as she stumbles backward; the pirate who was first knocked to the floor is getting up -- along with the one who was punched, shaking it off -- both of them moving in to flank Rasa on either side while their companion tries to catch her breath. Enngh! Metamorphs! "Bah." Rasa scowls and dives right first, delivering a back fist to the pirate, before turning scale the large one swiftly, hands and feet taking on a distinctly two toed/fingered appearance. Ze raises hir clasped fists over the woman's head when ze stands on her shoulders and brings them down soundly to jar her spinal column. Then, ze leaps to the last pirate, hands and feet all aiming for his chest. "Nnghh--" The first pirate becomes little more than a punching bag as he suffers through a vicious backhand, stumbling back -- only for Rasa to spring up on the still-recovering burly pirate, who tries to snatch for the young metamorph as ze turns her into little more than a cat tree -- a hand managing to solidly grip an ankle right before that clenched fist SLAMS into her spinal column. There's a 'gunh', followed by widening eyes, and -- like a tree creaking and falling in the woods -- pirate #2 goes down. The last pirate blinks widely at this, his approach interrupted by Rasa's decision to clambor up his comrade -- when ze descends, swinging both hir hands and feet toward his chest, he steps back -- a little too late. WHUMP! He's sent reeling back, teetering on the edge, briefly flapping his arms as he stumbles, nearly flying off the side...! Rasa's hands and feet grab the pirate under hir and throws hir weight backwards, flipping him away from the edge and back toward the other two, because Pirate Bowling is in season. Ze rolls back to hir hands and feet after and looks toward the pirate ship, eyes narrowing as ze looks for Peter. The pirate, saved from a certain doom by Rasa's throw, lands with a crash into Pirate #3 -- who was just recovering enough from the previous backhand to catch his compatriot, sending him reeling /back/ to the ground once again. It's around this time that Rasa, upon searching for Peter, will find one Peter incoming -- descending along one of the very electrified cables that ferried the first three pirates herre, now clutching one of the MAGNO-HOOKS in his hands -- onboard the other pirate ship, there's little more than... a writhing mass of groaning pirates, all thoroughly glued to the ground, some of them grumbling, others kicking weakly -- a few even look to be coccooned! As soon as Peter flips his way in front of Rasa, he proceeds to dust himself off -- then looks toward the other three. And... THWP THWP THWP THWP. "--kind of silly and easy," Peter admits, a little weakly. "Different than, um -- the scenarios I've been... running." Somewhere over their heads, the computer rumbles to life: "SCENARIO ENDING IN 5... 4..." Rasa straightens up when the voice comes up on the loud speaker, waiting for it to count itself out, hir attention still a little braced in case something comes flying at hir in the remaining seconds. "So, was there anything over there? Like a flag to be captured?" Ze is breathing heavy, some of the action still getting hir adrenalin going. Hir arms start to shake out some of that pent up energy as ze bounces in place. "--no, just -- a bunch of pirates -- I think we were supposed to beat up the main pirate dude? With the robot arm? I just webbed him and kicked 'em," Peter admits, glancing back over his shoulder. In contrast to Rasa, he seems very calm -- though it's hard to tell in that outfit. "3... 2... 1..." Suddenly, the room fades; the imagery of the ships -- the sea below -- the crumpled pile of pirates -- everything save Peter and Rasa -- vanishes, leaving the familiar landscape of the Danger Room. Peter hesitantly reaches back behind his head, unsnapping the USB port that connects that mask to the slim, plastic case that hugs his spine -- like a little backpack. Then, he's pulling off his mask, exposing his chitin clad face -- a little flustered, tinted just a /smidge/ into the region of violet. "--you okay?" Peter asks, breathing quickly. "Yeah. I'm okay. I... will say that headbutting people is one of my least favorite things to do." Rasa reaches up and rubs at the back of hir head, frowning and letting hir shoulders slump now that all of the possible attackers have vanished into digital nothingness. "Oh? Well. Webbing is good. I mean, we're supposed to be thinking outside of the violence box in these things, right? The more we can handle without causing hurt is good. I'm pretty sure if Doc McCoy didn't want you using them, the pirates would spew vinegar. Or... Pickles. He does like the scenarios to be a little weird." Ze rubs at hir nose before moving to walk closer to Peter, looking him over. "You okay?" "Yeah, I'm fine. I think he wanted to do something silly just to -- I've been doing some -- uh, heavy sessions recently, and he's trying to--" Peter flushes, now; the violet intensifies as he glances back toward the entryway, then back toward Rasa. "--slow me down, I guess? He /does/ want me to stop relying on the webshooters all the time, but he said this was just supposed to be..." Peter shrugs, helplessly. "--fun." As if he's not even sure what that word means, at the moment. Rasa frowns deeply and moves forward, reaching out to grab Peter by his upper arms. "What do you mean? Don't you know how to have fun anymore?" Ze tilts hir head and studies him, hir brows rapidly knotting up and hir skin settling back into a worried gray color. "Peter. You're 16. You're not supposed to be pushing yourself that hard." Ze frowns more and lets hir hands drop. "How about this: what are you dressing up as for Halloween?" "--huhm. Maybe," Peter says, in response to Rasa's query regarding /fun/; he shoves the mask into his backpack and straightens up, a frown settling over his face -- brow creasing, wrinkling... but at Rasa's next question, Peter's face immediately brightens -- baring teeth in a tiny, private grin: "I was thinking of dressing up as SpiderDude." "Peter. How about you pick something a little less obvious?" Rasa shakes hir head and starts making hir way toward the exit, one hand nudging Peter as ze pases. "Maybe a cartoon character or a zombie president of the United States? Everyone liked that Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter movie. You could do a spin on that." "I'm clad in chitin, how could I pass as Abraham Lincoln?" Peter asks, before adding: "Wait, maybe I could use makeup? I've never used makeup before." He follows Rasa toward the exit! Suddenly picking up the pace. "--wait do /you/ use makeup could you show me how makeup works...?" "Well, Eloise showed me how to use it when my powers shut down, so sure. We can paint you up to be anything. Maybe the creature from the black lagoon?" Rasa gives a little smile as ze waves to the control booth on hir way out, heading into the hallway and toward the elevator. "I could do the creature from the black lagoon," Peter announces as they arrive at the door -- leaning back to point a thumb at his chest self-importantly. "Shane and Sebastian taught /me/ how to /swim/." Tsssst! The door opens; together, they step out.