[CENTER][img]https://i.imgur.com/cGvkMjq.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/vT7cD5e.png[/img][B][COLOR=goldenrod] S E A S O N O N E : H O M E C O M I N G[/color][/B] [img]https://i.imgur.com/vT7cD5e.png[/img] [/CENTER][COLOR=#c9b142][indent][sub][B]Location:[/B] [COLOR=gold][i]The Xavier Institute[/i] - [I]Westchester, New York[/I][/COLOR][/sub][sup][right][b]New Mutants #1.05[/b][/right][/sup][/indent][/color][sub][hr][/sub][sub][indent][color=#c9b142][B]Interaction(s):[/B][/color] [@Retired][/indent][/sub] [indent][color=silver]It was a locker room, not a dressing room. They called it training, not rehearsal. Yet, some part of him still felt as though the Xavier Institute operated a lot like the Murderama. Not that he was complaining. The familiar elements helped make the rest seem somewhat less alien. The morning classes had followed the assembly as though it had been any other day. People had whispered excitedly over the team assignments, which seemed to have created new cliques that were cause for either anguish or celebration. As for himself, Cherub couldn’t have said how he felt. Aside from that he would have preferred to have been on a team with Evan. ...who he’d only met today, and then only because Evan seemed the only one willing to talk to him. It seemed like whoever Evan was a clone of, they both had some connection to Warren Worthington. The fact that Cherub had no idea what that connection was had made him aware of how very little he knew about the man he portrayed on the X-Babies. After all, what was there to know? Cherub was supposed to just be the X-Man Angel. It was really just about flying and looking the part. He didn’t actually know anything about who he was supposed to be. The blue-skinned child had changed into the black and gold ensemble that formed the uniform for when the students trained their powers under the supervision of the school. The meeting place for the team was out on the lawn, so the boy had stretched out his wings and taken to the air. The campus fell away beneath his feet. The boy’s blond hair free and wild in the breeze as his metallic wings seemed to resonate with a peculiar hum as they flared back. As the youth was lifted up, the rapidly shrinking mansion seemed to dip. The horizon rolled in a dizzying blur, as the ground was replaced with an endless blue sky. It was so different from the polluted smog of Mojoworld. The horizon rolled in another dizzying blur, as the boy rotated back toward the ground. He shot down from above like a speeding bullet, sailing down and then arcing across the roof of the mansion. The peculiar hum seemed to resonate again, as the techno-organic wings flared outward as the boy arrested his momentum. The child’s body seemed to bounce upward briefly, before his wings folded in against his back and he dropped back to solid ground. He knew three of the four – Katie, Bobby, and Sammy – mostly just because they were either in his same classes or, in the case of Bobby, because he was popular with the underclassmen. The fourth, a girl who seemed Bobby’s age, had an impatient look on her face as the blue-skinned youth walked up to the group. The fifth was one of the teachers, though Cherub wasn’t sure he knew what she taught. “My name is Dani Moonstar,” the woman announced. “While I am in charge of your training, you will address me by my codename; Mirage.” At the mention of codenames, a few eyes were cast his way. To be honest, he was still confused over this idea of codenames. He hadn’t even realized Angel wasn’t Warren Worthington’s actual name. [color=skyblue]“X-Babies only have one name,”[/color] the boy offered with a shrug. Seriously, why did these people need, like, two or three names or whatever? “I've got several tests for you today so I can determine where you're all at individually and as a group.” Just like the Murderama back home. She called it a test. He called it a scene. Directing their attention to the hedge maze, the woman offered, “This maze will be the first. Earlier this morning I took it upon myself to see how fast I could make it to the center. It took [i]me[/i] almost seven minutes.” Pausing there, she got their attention again before adding, “I'm giving you all five to make it there.” The boy’s head just went back. Five minutes? He could fly there in under five second... “And no powers. We're doing this the old-fashioned way.” [i]Oh[/i], the boy thought. Though, now that he thought about it, he was pretty sure Katie couldn’t fly. He knew Sammy couldn’t fly. So, he supposed that wouldn’t work for everyone anyway. At the start, it seemed two people were going in different directions. The impatient girl was off like a shot, even as Katie called after her. Bobby was the other, who uttered something under his breath and gave a dismissive gesture as he was just walked away from the maze. [color=pink]“[b][i]Un[/i]-believable![/b]”[/color] Katie snapped, at the realization that the teenagers had just split off on their own. Then, motioning for the two boys to follow said, [color=pink]“Stick together. Hopefully we catch up with Last Action Hero.”[/color] As the trio of kids jogged into the maze, Katie asked, [color=pink]“Sam, Blue, either of you got any ideas?”[/color] [color=orange]“Uh, one of us could see over the hedge walls if we lifted them up?”[/color] Sammy ventured aloud. [color=pink]“Recon,”[/color] Katie mused with a nod, slowing to a halt as the group arrived at their first choice of which way to go. [color=pink]“I like it,”[/color] the girl remarked, reaching into a bush to snap off a twig. Stooping down, the girl made an circle with an arrow pointing left. Then, straightening back up, looked at the three and said, [color=pink]“We mark our turns in case we get backtracked.”[/color] [color=orange]“What’s the point?”[/color] Sammy asked, as the three broke into another jog through the maze. Katie marked another turn, as the boy explained, [color=orange]“If Dan... er, Mirage, couldn’t do it in five minutes, what chance do we have?”[/color] [color=pink]“That’s not the point,”[/color] Katie offered flatly, marking a third turn and then jogging on. [color=orange]“What do you mean, that’s [i]not[/i] the point?”[/color] Sammy tossed back at the girl, throwing his arms out as he said, [color=orange]“That’s, like, the [b]whole[/b] point!”[/color] The girl shot the fish-faced mutant a brief glance as she replied, [color=pink]“It’s a test, right?”[/color] The two boys exchanged a look, then both gave a nod back to the pig-tailed girl. [color=pink]“What is it that you think she’s evaluating?”[/color] [color=orange]“But, she said...”[/color] Sammy began. [color=skyblue]“[i]Oh![/i]”[/color] Cherub murmured, the proverbial lightbulb going on over his head as realization of what Katie meant sank in. [color=skyblue]“Not, like, navigating the maze. But [i]how[/i], like, we navigate the maze.”[/color] [color=pink]“Close enough,”[/color] Katie remarked, coming up to a stop. Turning back to the boys, she said, [color=pink]“Lift me up.”[/color] The simple request turned into a brief demonstration of cheerleader stack techniques, after which the pig-tailed girl’s head peeked just over the top of the hedge. [color=pink]“We’re turned sideways right now. We need to try going right again,”[/color] Katie noted, as she hoped back down. The kids were probably already going over four minutes, and were not going to finish anytime in the next sixty seconds.[/color][/indent]