I9DT - Feeling It (Open)

[Wanda Johansen]

Wanda was dressed in a training outfit and actually working out in a combat simulation for a change. She'd been working really hard and she was beginning to look actually competent in her technique. More importantly, she was beginning to feel competent and that may have been doing her the most good. She delivered a straight kick to the next-to-last training bot before ripping a leg off of it and clubbing a huge dent into the last one. The computer signaled the end of the simulation and asked if she wanted to view a replay. She let the question hang for the moment, enjoying the adrenaline rush for a minute.

[Ross Jacobson]

Ross had been training as hard as he could, being rather frustrated with his powers. So he couldn't be hurt. That didn't exactly give him an edge other than being able to be beaten around longer. So after a few telepathic prep sessions (which he'd had to work hard at first to convince himself wasn't cheating), he'd started training with a lot of the more passive martial arts. Someone could be super-strong and still be taken down by a judo throw, after all. And on the upside, after he'd spent a few training sessions getting punched around by superstrong opponents, he forgot all about thinking that the prep courses might have been cheating.

"Think my codename ought to end up being 'Human Shield,' he muttered as he walked down the hall. He pushed the button to open the door to the currently-inactive room, stopping when he saw Wanda already in the room. Oops. Wow. She's big.

[Wanda Johansen]

She tossed the leg aside. When she heard the door open, she turned around. "Hello."

[Ross Jacobson]

"Oh, ah, sorry," Ross said, being addressed before he could back quietly away from the door. "The room didn't say there was anything running, so I thought... yeah, sorry." She ripped up one of the robots? Eesh...

[Wanda Johansen]

"No, I just finished. You can have the room if you want. Really."

[Ross Jacobson]

"Oh, okay. It's... ah... no rush," he said. "You're an X-Man, right? Priority and everything."

[Wanda Johansen]

"Not yet actually. Still working on getting there."

[Ross Jacobson]

"Oh, really?" Ross said, sounding surprised. "Yeah... me too," he admitted. "Got until the summer's over to get my combat scores up enough, and they said I could give it a try."

[Wanda Johansen]

"I'm planning on joining in the fall. I've been working on things pretty hard since I got here."

[Ross Jacobson]

"Yeah, me too," he said. "Not sure how much good it is when everyone can shoot fire or... rip up robots, but... yeah." Well, one way to find out, I guess. "Do you want to... I don't know, run a session with me? I don't get much chance to practice with anyone. I mean, you don't have to, but... well, y'know," he said awkwardly.

[Wanda Johansen]

"What'd you have in mind?"

[Ross Jacobson]

He shrugged. "Lots of robots? I haven't tried anything more than one-on-one yet. Never much point when I don't have backup."

[Wanda Johansen]

"Sure. I could go another round. Set it up however you want."

[Ross Jacobson]

He shrugged. "Whatever settings you were using are good. I've got to be realistic, right?" he said, tossing his bag down outside the door and stepping inside. Granted, that probably sounded a bit cocky to someone who didn't know what his power was.

[Wanda Johansen]

"Okay," Wanda said, firing the program up again. It was a fairly standard simulation with normal human-sized robot opponents in small groups. A timer on the wall started ticking down. "That's when the next group is going to show up. Six groups in total." Wanda said as she blocked a punch thrown by one of the robots.

[Ross Jacobson]

Ross squared off with one robot, moving aside from a few punches that didn't quite meet what he needed. On the third punch, he stepped into it, a little closer than he had wanted, to, taking a glancing hit to the side of his head. Nevertheless, he grabbed onto the robot's fist and pulled the punch through to give the robot a Judo throw over his hip and into the path of the oncoming robots. Ow. I've done that better...

[Wanda Johansen]

Wanda blocked a kick with her shin and then brought her elbow down on the head of the offending robot, crumpling it. She rocked to the other foot and lashed out with a kick at the knee joint of another robot. The robot caught the blow and heft upwards, throwing Wanda off balance and onto her back. "Damn it, they're learning."

[Ross Jacobson]

"Well that's not -ungh- fair," Ross grunted as he was slugged by another one. Well, if they're going to catch on... It was a stupid move for anyone else to make, and that was why he was counting on it working. He watched for the fastest advancing robot and moved a bit to change its path, getting it moving the direction he needed it to. Then he used a throw that would use all of its charging momentum to send it in an arc over Wanda to hit the robot that was coming at her (well... or the one behind it. He hoped his aim was good.). The downside being that the throw left him on his back with two other robots almost on him. This... is going to hurt, he thought in a resigned frame of mind.

[Wanda Johansen]

Wanda rolled under the flying robot and let it careen into the others. She got to her feet surprisingly for someone her size and stepped over Ross. She threw a wild punch as she did so that sent one of the attackers reeling, but didn't put it down.

[Ross Jacobson]

That's it, definitely stepping up the training. With the kicks not coming like he'd expected, Ross was free to roll to the side, catching the staggering robot's leg and using its momentum to send it tripping to the side. "Sorry... I can knock 'em down, not so sure about taking them out, though. Fists on metal don't do much without -uhngh!- super strength behind them," he told her, taking a hard hit to the head in the process.

[Wanda Johansen]

Wanda grabbed the other one and slammed it into the one on the ground, leaving them both sparking. "Then we need to get you something else," Wanda said, ripping a robot arm free. "Catch!" She tossed it in his general direction.

[Ross Jacobson]

Yeah, don't know how much good that'll do someone who can't dismember them barehanded... Ross caught the arm, swinging it on the catch to try to knock over another robot, and missing miserably. Geez... He squared off, being more careful with it this time, tripping a robot and encouraging its fall with a hard hit to the back of the head with the disembodied arm.

[Wanda Johansen]

Wanda grabbed another by the shoulders and drove her knee into its chest plate, making a sizable dent. The robot stumbled backwards as it's circuits began shutting down due to the damage. "Sometimes you just have to improvise, I'm learning."

[Ross Jacobson]

"And people keep... looking at me weird... when I say they're lucky they can... blast things," Ross grunted, taking about as many hits as he was trading with the robot. Still, thankfully, the robot was the one that could be hurt and eventually went down.

[Wanda Johansen]

One of the last robots grabbed her arm. She hefted it into the air on the arm and then drop the robot into the floor, just as the timer reached zero and the next wave began to appear. "Do what you can with whatever you've got."

[Ross Jacobson]

"Yeah... let's change it up a little," he said. "Computer! Change... um... opponent parameters from robot to human. Strength levels can remain constant." It was still a workout as long as the humans were super-strong, right?

[Wanda Johansen]

Wanda squared off, moving closer to Ross as she tried to decide how to approach this. "I'm Wanda by the way."

[Ross Jacobson]

"Oh, ah... sorry. I'm Ross." Way to go, don't ask the girl her name. His thought process was interrupted as the attackers came at them. This time, Ross seemed to be getting a bit of a better start, tripping up one in the front by getting a joint-lock to subdue the guy next to him into falling right in front of him. Granted, he took a couple hard blows from the guys behind them in short order, but that was just par for the course for him. If Wanda didn't do something about them, he could move on to them once he beat down the first guy.

[Wanda Johansen]

Wanda turned knocked aside a blow and then laying into her opponent with a couple of body blows that knocked him back a considerable distance.