Instint rushes forward and leaps onto the offending robot, trying to rip it apart with his unusually strong claws.
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The bystanders are gone. This is about as safe as it's going to get to shift. Ok now, like the training. Instinct's breathing becomes quicker as he releases his control over to his beast. Claws erupt, muscles grow, jaws and teeth extend as he drops to all fours to run in between the robots and Psyforce and Catalyst.
All this excitement around him is starting to set Michael's beast on edge. Can't have me go full beast here. I wouldn't trust it around all this...prey He shakes himself a bit, shaking off the thought as well, just in time to see Twitch keel over. Damn it, Vinny, you can't do this now! he growls out, purposefully striding over to Vincenzo, ready to move him out of the way if this goes south. He turns his head back toward the robots, trying to figure out what targets they are going after. Damn it, what targets!
Look at the skylights! There's two others. We don't have time to disguise ourselves. We need to get these people out of here before something bad happens.
Taken aback by the new development What is that?
He looks around furtively at the people around them
For an instant, the beast side of Michael comes through, angered by the comments from both sides, rushing to Megan with speed not found in normal humans, almost seeming like he was going to attack. He practically roars out. But his recent training kicks in and what he says next is calm and even, turning around to Alex and the others. "Stop. We don't have to do this. We don't have to escalate. And we certainly don't have to provoke them, Alex." His eyes flair, suspicious of what Alex may have done."Everyone, let's just walk away now and pretend the other party doesn't exist."
Trying to stop the situation before it blows up, Michael puts a hand on her shoulder, though his nervous stutter gets the better of him. C-C-C'mon Alex, it isn't worth it. Let's j-just go to the arcade now.
It's good to see that you're back. Let's get this game moving again!
Over the last few weeks, Michael has been doing sessions with Xavier to improve Michael's self control as Instinct. The training has pulled off and now Michael keeps more of his intellect in hybrid and beast forms. And being able to indulge his instincts, like he did in the beginning, running around in the simulator has helped too by taking the edge off. Jackson has learned the past few weeks though that Michael isn't a restful sleeper. He twitches and growls at gods knows what. Once or twice he's even gotten up in the middle of the night only to leap out the window, running into the woods. Outside training, Michael had been taking full advantage of the library and the labs, spending most of his time working on attempting to learn the biological basis for his abilities. Michael didn't manage to sleep last night, working on a new hypothesis of his. But somehow, he doesn't feel tired. He's feeling a bit apprehensive about going out in the world today. As the group assembles, Mike says "So, what do you guys want to do at Salem Center today? I think Back to the Future is still in theaters. You know, the time travel movie. We could go see that." -Posted with Wayfinder
Michael quickly swallows 2 peppers, but by the third, Michael starts choking on the heat. Pushing through the fire in his mouth, he starts shoving them into his mouth, figuring that he can be the heat by speed. He doesn't even get another 2 peppers in before rushing to the fridge, yelling. No! Capsaicin is a non polar molecule. Water won't dissolve it. Milk! Milk!
Intinct throws his hand in too, wanting to join in on the fun.
Michael's stomach growls loudly, despite having eaten not all that long ago I'm good for anything on the pizza except mushrooms and olives. Pepperoni and jalapenos sounds awesome though.
He looks thoughtful for a moment and repliesNope, but I think parts of my family are from eastern Europe. It's entirely possible that it is a recurring set of mutations that's inherited. Who knows, maybe my ancestors were the origin of the story!
He rubs the back of his head, grinning back Yeah, sort of. I have all those nice wolfy features, but I don't seem to have the weaknesses of a werewolf. Sliver doesn't affect me. It's not limited by the moon. Plus I'm less hairy. Actually before I learn of mutants, I thought I was one. I did all sorts of test, tracked lunar cycles, and tried to figure out what could have infected me before I figured it out.
With the sights and smells of the city and Doom gone, Instinct is left confused. He runs around for a bit, trying to figure out where it all went, leaping and snarling all over the room. But with the danger over, his adrenaline levels go down and within a few minuteshis features go back normal, his intelligence returning. He stands up, looking rather sheepish, and says breathilyAfter that, I think I need to eat. And sleep. Turning always takes alot out of me Well at least I didn't harm anyone. Or at least anyone real. It seemed to know who his teammates are, at the very least...
Angry at failing to damage him, Instinct puts all his effort into one attack. -Posted with Wayfinder
Instinct bounds foward, leaping at Doom and slashing at him with his claws.
Dazed from the last attack, Instinct blearily moves between Doom and Kid Wonder. He lets out a roar at Doom.
Jackson! Michaels blood boils at the sight his new friend grievously injured, angry at himself for being foolish and Von Doom for his insult and attack. He starts running over, heedless of the fact that this is a simulation and seeking only to protect Kid Wonder. His instincts kick in as the battle explodes around him. His heart starts pumping faster as adrenaline starts entering his bloodstream. Muscles start to grow, rippling under his uniform. His arms and legs lengthen, his claws extend from his finger tips. His jaw lengthens and broadens into a powerful looking maw, quickly filling in with sharp fangs. He releases a roar as he drops into a four legged gait. He leaps between Von Doom and Kid Wonder. What stands in front of Von Doom now is some bestial creature, still reminiscent of Michael, but his features twisted and warped to be lupine. He growls out defiantly. Wrong. Choice.
Fine I'll talk to him. Surround him and be ready to attack if he does. Michael stays behind the car, calling over it. Okay, uhh. Crap. How do I do this? W-We may be young, b-but are capable of taking you down. You have no idea what our abilities are and we have you surrounded. S-Surrender peacefully and you'll save yourself a lot of trouble.
Michael arrives on the scene, crouching behind a car opposite of Whisp. Yeah the Torch flies, but you can lift her, right Psyforce? Tell everyone else to move, then lift a burning Catalyst up. Anyone that can see Instinct will see he has a mischievous grin on his face. Though you're right Psyforce, there's no where to go really. It looks like most of the people are running away and the cops have it surrounded with squad cars. I still think we should still try talking before this gets out of hand. We need to make a decision though. Talk, Fight, or Draw away.
If a fight breaks out, we'll probably end up destroying quite a bit of the area. Collateral Damage. We should at least try to prevent that. But first move to harm another, drop ten.
I, uh, turn. Into a beast. All power and instinct. Like a werewolf, but less hairy. And I am not allergic to silver, nor limited by the moon. Can't really control myself when I am it though, so like I said, let's call it a last resort.
Michael starts breaking out into a run, covering more ground a human would be able to.
Wow, that's better than I thought you would be able to do. Everybody hearing me? We should try to use the mental connection over the comms when we can, it will give us an edge if he can't hear what we are doing. Kid, I'm probably better at offensive than defensive, but let's call that a last resort. We may want to try diplomacy first. Professor did say we should try to think of this as a real situation, and unless he actively is harming people, we should try to do this without bloodshed. So, uh, anybody think they can convince him? While they do, we can work on surrounding him.
Well maybe that's what we are supposed to do...if we are going to treat this as the real thing, we should try doing this tactically Michael starts to move off, inhaling deeply and angling his ears trying to get a scent or sound (or sight, if he has line of) off of whatever could have caused it. He tries to get Jackson's and the others attention non verbally, but ops to "shout" to Alex, focusing his thoughts on her, or trying to at least. You can send thoughts too, right? It would be an excellent idea to use you as a go between for nonverbal communication. (-1 per 100 feet on auditory and visual. -1 per 1000 feet on olfactory, both olfactory and auditory are now accurate and acute, so I should be able to pinpoint and identify something as well as looking at it, though with the benefit of a radius sense)
Michael starts moving through the crowd "It even smells like the real thing!"
-Posted with Wayfinder
He puts on his uniform, but where Jackson checks himself out in the mirror, Michael only pauses long enough to straighten it out. Huh. This makes me look...better. I look like less of a nerd in this. Hopefully, I don't end up ripping this when I transform. Michael steals a glance at Alex as she passes in to the control room, finding it hard not to think of her in uniform and in compromising positions after she passed a moratorium on dirty thoughts. Catching himself he thinks. You know its not nice to punish us for what comes to mind naturally, especially when you draw attention to it. It's like punishing us for thinking of school buses or sunflowers when you tell us not to think of something yellow. But all that melts away when he the door turns revealing the Danger room Whoa...This is amazing. How does this work?
Michael plays along and pretends he is choking for as long as Jackson keeps it up, though a bit behind the Professor so he doesn't see. So how will the suits interact with our powers? Will it change its fit as I grow and change? Does it go further than that, like augmenting our abilities?
Michael laughs at the pair dueling mock light sabers. So Professor, what will be be doing while the others get checked up? Can we go see the Danger Room? If I can practice in a place I can't hurt others, maybe I really can control the beast
I know! This is insane! I mean,yes, we barely know this guy who we are about to let train us. And we are putting ourselves in the midst of a mutant civil war, where who is right and wrong are unclear. And the chances of dying are pretty high. But holy crap, all this is awesome.
Ok, so I played around with Alt effects. I think I did it right. Now he has a hybrid form that keeps most of his intelligence, and therefore control, but is not as powerful. I also added growth into the mix. I won't really use the hybrid form in game until he gets more training, but he will have the capability to. Appearance wise, the hybrid form is him with claws and fangs, and the beast form has the digitigrade legs, a snout etc, with a gradation of size and abilities.
Michael takes a while to think of a codename, hemming and hawing over the name. There's just too many possibilities. Predator, Werewold, Wolf, Razor, Jager, Beast. There's simply too many. Eventually, Xavier supplies the name Instinct, stating that it is the core of what his powers are. Wait, are you an alien? What planet are you from? Where is it? How does the environment compare to earth? How did your species develop" He seems very excited and has to be practically dragged out so the girls can be examined.
Looks I'm not the only one with "anger" issues. We are all going to need a lot of training. Speaking of training, I've been wondering something. This "Danger Room" we are to train in. You said it simulates environments and situations, but how good is it? Will it be like facing real foes, or is this more like fancy training dummies? Can we program it with the information we know or can gather on Magneto and his allies?
Michael is distracted by the memory to notice Jackson's death stare. What the hell was that. Alex's comments, however, turn his thought back to the moment. Is that all she is thinking about? She's focusing on the stuff that doesn't matter! Getting up for classes? whether or nor she can drive a car? How shallow can you get? I guess that last part showed that she is thinking about someone else
Spoiler: Turned, I killed 5 people, no matter how much I deny it, I did that. Turned, I may be too dangerous to put out in the world.
Made some edits. Edited his backstory again, making it a smoother progression of his powers, explaining why he seems a little more relaxed than he should about it. He fears losing control, but with the gradation, he can control the lower forms of it. I'm thinking of moving some points around and making a second stage of the power, where it is uncontrolled, larger, more beastlike, and made as a reaction to a certain threshold of damage, but more powerful, essentially giving him three forms. Human. Stronger, Faster Human, maybe with claws. And full on uncontrolled werebeast, but I am not entirely sure how to pull that off. Edit: Though with the last exchange with Prof X, maybe I should keep the powers the same for now, changing it later when he regains some control, having this binary power because he locks it away.
At first, Michael is stunned. So he wants us to be super heroes. Like Captain America and Namor? Ho. ly. S#%*. This is awesome. I expected training, but this whole place is like a sci fi novel. A room that can simulate environments? Advanced computers? Suits that adapt to its wearers unique physiology? This is awesome. I've read these for years, but I never thought I could be apart of something like this. But why, out of all of the possibilities, did you choose us. I mean my powers are, under normal circumstances, useful, but not particularly good in a fight. It's not like telekinesis or immortality. And when turned, I'm powerful, but I can't control it. I turn into a monster, a beast. I'd be a liability, a danger to the others. And I'm not entirely sure training can help. As far as I can tell, it's getting harder not to turn and harder to turn back. I'm getting further from controlling it as time passes, not better. When I turn, it's like being a wild animal. I can be peaceful, but threatened, I act on instinct, out of fear or anger. And Sometimes hunger. What if I hurt my team? What if I hurt innocent people?" He breaks out of his reverie in time to hear Jackson's question, absentmindedly answering it reflexively.
Yeah we should. Bye. See you later. She seems interesting. A little up tight, but I'm pretty sure that's a facade. It will be nice to have someone to talk science with here. None of the others seem particularly intelligent. Not dumb, just not smart. Turning back to the boys and making another sandwhich, Shouldn't be long now. We should be able to find a clock somewhere. What should we do now? Just wait around for orientation, or explore more?
Michael, in turn, goes off on Jackson. That technology can lead to those things, but it can lead to so many other better things. Curing genetic disease, understanding how we work, improving ourselves, the possibilities are honestly endless. And yeah some mutations are dangerous, to themselves and others, but with the technology to manipulate DNA we could turn those off or alter them. I'm not saying that the technology should be commercialized or that super soldiers should be made. It should be used to better ourselves, improve our lives. It's like the discovery of fusion. Yes the knowledge can be used to make terrible, terrible weapons, but it can be used as a force for good with power generation, giving us cheap, clean, and renewable energy, or at least eventually. Discoveries and innovations will happen, but bad things don't have to develop from them. Fear doesn't have to rule scientific advancement. He seems to grow angrier as time goes on, and you swear that he grows larger. He's practically growling by the end of it. But after he closes his eyes for a moment, breathing deeply. 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Ok, we're good. Sorry about that. It's a subject I'm a little passionate about. But yeah, that lab downstairs is amazing, Julia. And we couldn't even get access to all of it. The other sub basement is protected by some sort of biometric device. The medbay and apparently a hangar too.
Mike perks up too, his anxiety disappearing amidst the excitement of discussing science. I know! It's amazing. To sequence and crack the mystery of life and, well, us, it's simply a mindbogglingly huge leap for all of humanity. Hell, given enough time, mutations could be induced or removed, cloning the responsible sections of DNA in or splicing them out. I didn't manage see all of the lab, but with the stuff I did see down there, I wouldn't be surprise if it had something 20 years beyond scanning tunneling microscope. Seriously, just the monitors alone are amazing. Flat, no vacuum tubes.
A little more calmed down now, Mike again speaks. Oh cool. I myself am going for biology. Genetics, in particular. Trying to figure out what makes us tick. We actually just left the pool area. It's in the sub basement, with the labs. You have to check this stuff out. The computers are incredible! I don't think it's just chemicals. It's all over her. It almost smells like matches. Phosphorous maybe. So unless she took a bath in it, I bet it has to do with her power.
His mind races as he starts to panic a bit. Runrunrunrun. NO! not here. You can't turn here. 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Ok, you're good now. That could have been worse You may not bite, but I could. Psyforce gets a flash of what he looks like turned.
Don't worry. My posting rate will drop off dramatically by tomorrow. It just so happens that the past couple days have been my days off :P
Uhh, y-yeah, yeah.Crap, what do I say now? So, chemicals, huh? Is that why you smell? You blithering idiot! Why did you say that? I-I j-just mean that you smell of chemicals. I mean, I'm sure you don't smell to others, but you smell to me. Wait I should explain. I smell good. No I can smell well. Like a dog. Nose not fur. Heh. Crapcrapcrapcrap.
As they pass the kitchens, Michael catches a whiff of the girls, noticing that one of their scents is off, like they exude some sort of chemical he doesn't recognize. That's interesting. What could that be? Hey, I'm going to go meet the others. Want to come? Whether Jackson or Vincenzo follows or not, Mike goes to the kitchens, stands by the door, pausing for a moment, suddenly feeling some anxiety. C'mon, Mikey. You can do it. Go talk to them. Swallowing, he goes inside and gives a small wave. H-Hey, I'm Michael. Don't say anything stupid, you dolt.
Clearly relieved at the change in subject, Mike says I don't play sports much, but I do a lot of running. I'd be down for it. |