[IC] X-Men: The New Era

[PapaOso]

2 Days Later

Things thus far had been fairly uneventful at the Ashford Academy. That is of course assuming you understand that the day to day life at an Academy for mutants is more eventful on a quiet day than some of the strangest days in the mundane world. Everywhere one looked there were oddities, things unseen by the general public. Every person inside of the gated school for the gifted were far from "mundane". Each of them held abilities unlike anything that an average human being possessed and the majority of them felt like outcasts in a world that would judge and fear them if their gifts were ever to come into the light. Not here...not in this school. This is where they belonged.

The Danger Room was formed into the illusion of a high school gymnasium, something the staff hoped would bring a sense of familiarity to the training session. Professor Pierce had been teaching the basics of Defensive Tactics to the team assigned to this particular time slot. He carried a stern demeanor about him that demanded respect and focus in their exercises. After walking everyone through some stretching techniques he asked everyone to follow him over to a thick, raised gymnastics mat that was reminiscent of a longer, rope-less wrestling ring. Once everyone was in place he pulled out his controls tablet and initiated the training sequence. In an instant a black and white doppelganger of each student appeared in front of them. These partially translucent clones mirrored their every movement until Professor Pierce addressed the group.

"Today we are going to start by facing the greatest foes you will ever have....yourselves." The professor had a smug smirk on his face as he spoke these words and immediately each of the doppelgangers pounced on their respective twins with ferocity. With little warning the students were once again thrown into deep end to adapt to their situation and hopefully overcome it. Only time would tell what was to happen next.

(OOC: Have fun with this sequence. Win, lose, draw it's up to you how your character fairs in this spur of the moment battle. Other than a few basic strikes and take downs no one has really been taught anything. This is another test from the trainers to see how the students react with situations like this. I trust you guys, let's do this xD).

[Guess Who]

Damian Hill

As the clone charged at Damian, the panicked boy ducked down and turned his shadow into a dome to cover himself. The monochrome clone began to pound into the black, transparent shield and cracks soon began to form around where its fists struck. This isn't going to last long. It's too bright in here. Damian began to frantically search the room for somewhere he'd have an advantage, a dark corner of the room, something. That's when he noticed the bleachers. Those would probably provide the most amount of darkness.

The dome-shield suddenly dissipated before turning into a large box-like shape and shoving the clone out of the ring. Damian wasn't sure if getting a ring-out mattered and didn't want to lose due to a misunderstanding of the rules, so he used his opponent as a guinea pig. Seeing the clone starting to stand back up, and confirming his suspicions that the match would continue, the boy ran for the bleachers to at least gain a slight edge over his opponent.

It wasn't as simple as the shadow manipulator had thought though as his opponent's own shadow wrapped around his foot, tripping and dragging him away from the bleachers. Damian spun onto his back and tried to pull himself free but he wasn't strong enough. "Let go of me!" he shouted back before his shadow transformed into a cleaver-like shape and severed his opponent's shadow. Both Damians' shadows turned into a mass of tendrils and seemingly began to flail wildly as they tried to hit the other, each attack being countered and each counter-attack being countered.

The two seemed to be evenly matched. Unless you watched the ground beneath them, as one of the real Damian's tendrils slowly snaked across the floor and began to rise above the black and white clone. The hidden tendril then wrapped itself around the fake Damian's mouth and nose, constricting his breathing until the clone passed out. Falling to the floor in exhaustion, sweat beginning to form on his brow, the real boy tried to catch his breath. Using his power for such precise and quick movements in such a brightly lit environment really drained the energy out of him.

[Rhapsody]

Alison was still more than a little stunned by her doppelgänger standing right in front of her, looking just as surprised as she apparently was. She blinked and cocked her head to the side, and the other... girl? Alison? herself? -God, this was confusing!- mirrored the movement as Ali took in her own appearance. Her dark-blue, slightly loose long-arm-shirt worked really well with her hair, which was pulled up into a ponytail. She wore a black sport-leggings and no shoes, bare feet looking pale on the mat, maybe partly because of the dark-green nailpolish that certainly emphasized her light skin tone.

And, of course, that moment of observation had to be the instant in which Pierce said something somewhere to her right and the next thing she knew, Ali was being tackled to the ground, gasping as the impact knocked all the air out of her lungs. She certainly was fast. Or her twin. Was it weird to be proud of that? Her musings were cut short when she noticed the fist closing in on her face and her eyes snapped down from where she'd breathlessly stared up at the ceiling. It took her a second to react, the fact that her 'attacker' looked exactly like what she saw every time she looked in the mirror was seriously putting her off, and she only just managed to roll to the side, narrowly avoiding the impact but hearing the solid thud the fist made on the mat.

Instinctively, she threw her opponent off, firmly planting her bare feet to the mat and twisting her hips to do so and then quickly scrambled to her feet as soon as she was free. She tried to recall what they had just been taught about self-defense, but had trouble remembering, especially while having to side-step another swing. Which didn't really work. Instead of hitting her face, the fist went to the right, catching her in the shoulder. She stumbled and lost her balance and in a matter of second she hit the mat again, this time with a grunt.

How the hell could her twin be this much better than her, the real person? That was totally unfair! Especially since Ali herself was having serious trouble remembering the defence techniques that were meant for a situation where your own clone was having a go at you like a madman.

But considering the fact that the other Alison was already jumping onto her again, it was not really a thought she should be getting hung up about just then. She tried to buck her off again, but this time the other one seemed prepared, planting her knees firmly on both sides of her waist. Well, damn, she thought as she threw her arms up to catch the next attack. And cursed at the pain from the impact. She, her twin?, certainly wasn't kidding around. It seemed she'd just have to go with instinct here. Better than letting herself get beat up by, well, herself.

Alison frowned in concentration, lowered her arms a tad and allowed the next hit to connect, ignoring the pain where it connected with her cheekbone, in order to get one in herself. She aimed for her opponents stomach, fist connecting pretty solidly wiht the softest part and swaying Alison#2 enough for Alison#1 to throw herself up and around, switching their positions and apparently taking the other one off-guard enough to pin both her wrists to the ground on either side of her head. She kept them there, using all her strength and weight. She was breathing hard at that point, grimacing at the throbbing in her cheek. She looked up, taking in her surroundings to see how her teammates were holding up.

[Heathen]

Danny Green

---

---

Nothing much really happened with Danny the past couple of days. After the event that took place in Biology, the red headed boy had time to think about what was said during that little debate. He could admit he did sound a bit crazy and even threatening when he mentioned that nature was going to fight back at its oppressors. It was a habit for him to admit what he said was loony only after the fact he said it. Oh well, you live and your learn. From then he kept to himself most of the time by spending time galloping through his garden and experimenting with his plants in the greenhouse that seemed to be a second home to him. No one seemed to bother him while he secluded himself away from the rest of the students in fear that they would either get scolded or get their ear talked off. Even so, Danny still enjoyed having time to himself to spend with mother nature and her creations.

Danny was now being walked into the Danger Room with the rest of his teammates for another assignment to go horribly wrong. Even though the last one didn't go so bad, they still had time to develop and grow. Either way, he knew they were all about to get their asses handed to them for another time. Immediately a knot formed in the pit of his stomach as he saw the scenery in which they would be tested in: A school gymnasium. This brought back horrible memories for Danny as he remember when he first started school and having to endure the taunting from boys his age. Of all places where they could be tested, it had to be here. Danny would have it in the bag if it took place outdoors or in a forest. But alas, scenarios like this is what made him a better mutant, to be able to survive in places that weren't exactly his comfort level.

After a few warm-up exercises, the professor walked them over to a wrestling style mat to explain to them what they would be doing. Danny jumped when he was immediately faced with an exact replica of himself, down to the very style of clothing he was wearing which was a mere green t-shirt, capris pants and some Vans. The only thing that was different was the fact they were in black and white while being slightly transparent.

"Today we are going to start by facing the greatest foes you will ever have....yourselves."

Not a moment too soon after Professor Pierce made that statements, the clones proceeded to attack the students by tackling them into the ground. Danny hit the floor with a loud thud that seemed to knock the wind out of him. So much for being transparent. The boy was more shocked that the clone who was supposed to be like him in every way was that strong. Maybe he didn't know his own strength after all. However now wasn't the time to over analyze his doppelganger. With a loud grunt, Danny pushed his clone off of him and stood up immediately, not taking his eyes off of him. From a distance, he could hear his teammates already struggling with defeating their counterparts. This was going to go horribly wrong fast. With no vegetation in the gymnasium, Danny did was he did best and reached inside of his seed pouch he had around his waist and threw a handful of seeds throughout the floor. A lot more than what he threw at the previous Danger Room session. Raising his arms, he commanded the seeds to sprout with grass and vines growing around his feet and over a vast amount of the gym. He was still struggling with the fact that he was seeing himself which would probably take a toll on him later.

Danny wasn't ready when his clone began to manipulate the very seeds he planted, animating vines to spring forth from the grassy plane that was created and sicking them on the human counterpart. He tried to move as fast as he could but it didn't work. The vines wrapped themselves around his arms and ankles, restraining him so he couldn't move an inch. He tried to use his own power to remove them, but it was no use. As trees and bushes began to sprout forth throughout the gym, the vines started to drag Danny to his black and white counterpart as if being caught in a trap. With every tug and jerk, it only made the vines tighten their grip around him as he looked up to see an evil grin on the clone as he was approached him fast. The clone jumped up and landed right on top of Danny, immediately going to right and left hooks across his face like a human punching bag. He started to spit up blood as he cried out for his clone to stop hitting him.

With a last mental strain, he managed to remove the vines with his abilities and telekinetically shoot them towards his attacker. Like tentacles, the vines started to tangle themselves around the clone which now started to grow sharp thorns. He was this clone like him? He was not evil and cynical like that. This had to be some kind of mistake. Even though the vines had subdued his opponent, it began to laugh at Danny, taunting him. So the clones could speak too? This was just becoming too weird.

"C'mon Danny. I know you can do it. Finish me off. It's your true nature," it said coldly.

"No it's not..." Danny was getting choked up hearing his own voice speak at him in such a way. He almost couldn't believe he was speaking back at it. This illusion was getting too real. "I'm not evil. I could never be like you."

"Oh yes you are. You're an Eco-Terrorist in the making. You want your plants to rule the world and to eradicate humankind. You're no better than Magneto," he spat.

"You're Lying! Stop saying that," Danny shouted as he increased the grip on his vines on his counterpart in pure anger.

"I'm not lying and you know it's true. You're a bad bad Danny boy," the clone said as it began to chuckle. "Now kill me! You know you want to."

[knighthawk]

Ever since the first incident, Alex had been keeping his tomahawk on his hip for every training session. He had also been logging in more than a few hours with the danger room in his free time. He did grab "The Art Of War" On the first day and had been drilled on the lessons by storm. Moral Law, Heaven, Earth, Commander, Discipline. Five fingers to make a striking fist or a guiding hand. This was a lesson to add to his preparation mentality.

Moral law, laws of the land and rules of engagement as well as the people who support the ruler. Heaven is the seasons and the weather with lighting as well as direction of the sun. Earth is the environment around you as well as the distance between you and your enemy, the ground beneath you with the walls and objects beside you to use to your advantage or negate from their advantage. Commander was the reflection of wisdom of the enemy, sincerity in their belief of their actions, benevolence in their discipline, courage against all opposition and strictness in their expectations. Discipline was the ability to dole out commands then trust in others ability to follow through and adjust as needed to accomplish the orders given.

Breathe, count to five. Morals, fighting a rendition of yourself. Heaven, closed roof with calm internal temperature and overhead lighting. Earth, mats, climbing rope, bleacher, basketball hoops on either side ten feet off the ground secured to the walls enemies and each other. Commander, Absolute. Discipline, overly focused.

The Robo-Hawk came at Alex in full force with thumbs aimed for his eyes. He grabbed at the wrists and was horrified at the power he was facing off against. He had never dealt with someone else of his power level except for that one time the Russian slapped him on the back, even the lizard from a few days ago wasn't as strong as this robotic rival who had no mental limiter to pull punches. Blinding gouges became a gash on the forehead as he fell back and dropped to a crouch while curling feet then planting on its belly before kicking off with ALL his strength.

"Buddy-up, switch partners. We are a team, we are alway a team. We fight our demons together!"

He had hoped to slam the robot into the wall but it twisted about in the air as expertly as he would to land in a crouch on top of the basketball frame. This not only had his strength, but speed and agility as well. All with its lack of his morals or limits.

~Ah crap!~

Alex's tomahawk was in his hand as it leapt into the air, only for the droid to form one in its hand as well as it was coming down with its full force. He dropped back into a roll as the hatchet was buried as deep as it would go where he was once standing. Alex used the crouch from the roll to coil and spring himself back to safety as it pressed on. He couldn't run forever so he had to switch to offensive.

Crouched down at the edge of the mats, his greyscale came at him again just for him to throw the topmost mat up to break line of sight and threw himself up behind it, he axe came down for split the stuffing and that is when he hooked his own hatched behind its hammerhead. His right arm was on the hachet as his left arm rested above to protect his face, when he pulled back with his right arm he slammed forward with his left, using the full force of both directions to put his whole upper body into the strike. The hit connected with the replicated face and the force was enough to rip the weapon out of the others hands to fly up and sever one of the hanging lights to fall with a crash near one of the students.

The Powahatan powerhouse was probably the only one here with a black belt worth of training, but this was his first fight against someone where his new powers meant nothing. As the arm strike to the face connected, android arms wrapped around his as it began the textbook shoulder throw. He barely managed to twist his arm against type to put the crook of his elbow into its shoulder, it would tweak his shoulder but it was better than shattering his humorous.

As he went flying overhead he used the momentum to his advantage as he went with the throw, As Mr. Pierce had shown them, to not only mitigate the fall damage as well as bring himself around to hook the hatchet into the others belt and pull himself in closer. This would not only severely adjust the center of gravity, but it also reversed the throw into his own as its head would now come crashing down. End over end the two rolled as this became a matter of grappling checks.

Lock, strike, grasp, counter, release, reverse, strike, throw. The two sprang up again with clearly forming bruises and more than a few cuts. It grew a new hatchet and came in again as Alex switched hands to mirror himself.

Its left handed chop was met with his right elbow to its knuckles but the wrist continued to drop as it could still function to catch his right arm and slice the edge down his radial artery. He screamed as it lifted the skin but did not hook his hose. Dropping the axe, he caught it with is free left hand in a reverse grip and brought it in a killing backhand to cut out its jugular. The backhand was blocked by its right palm strike to his ulnar bone and he stabbed down with the top into its right kneecap which forced it to buckle down and he brought his arm back up again hooking the jawbone under the beard of the ax.

It punched under his ribs into he soft meat to keep him from tearing its head off and so he brought the hammer head down on the crook of its elbow to diffuse he power of the strike then brought the arm into a weak backhand to cut out its right eye just as its own axe stopped inches from under his right arm near the ribcage as it shut down.

Alex's arm was bleeding like a sieve As he dropped to a squat and tore up his already ruined shirt to make an emergency tourniquet to stop the bleeding. He bit down on the cloth as he pulled to tighten it to the point of purple as he did not know the severity of the wound. This gave him jus a moment to try and slow his breathing and in turn his heart rate to see how everyone else was doing.

"Danny! I don't suppose you have any horsetail plants to grow, do you?" The plant in question is a natural anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antimicrobial, antioxidant, coagulant and more. He hadn't had a chance to sit down with him to discuss all the possibilities of having their own medicinal herb garden.

[Princeofhearts]

Amarie

It was obvious that Amarie didn't really feel well through the days that passed. Not just because of what she did to Alex, but more because of herself. If she was in this academy it was to learn about her abilities but instead it has made her cause trouble and that was something that she didn't want to happen. What if other students didn't accept her for whom she was...? Amarie was the girl to be solo at times, but at times she rather have friends and for them to accept her for who she is. This weird girl who has abilities that could potentially make her go crazy.. literally.

Anyways, as the other students and herself were brought into the danger room. It was her first time ever to be in the room, Amarie's eyes widened as she looked around it. It was amazing and pretty cool, Amarie didn't know how to react actually but her smile turned into a nervous frown as soon as the professor spoke about facing themselves. Of-course that just meant that they had to fight against themselves? It was probably the task for the day.

"I can't do it.. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it."

the thoughts running through her head as she slowly backed away from the others while her fingers were locked with one another. It was definitely nerve-wrecking. Then soon enough..! Amarie's illusion appeared right behind her as it sent the original Amarie flying backwards with a strong telekinetic wave. It made her crash onto the wall. The real Amarie slowly stood up from the ground while staring at the illusion. The illusion slowly walked over to Amarie before thrusting her hand forward as she slowly raised the original Amarie slowly up into the air while still being pinned against the wall.

"You are such a wimp you know that? You obviously have no idea how it is to feel this much power. Stop being a wimp and use it on me.. use it on yourself. Or else you wouldn't want your friends and your precious boyfriend to be hurt because you are too scared to use your abilities? Come on, Amarie." the clone said before throwing Amarie away via telekinesis.

[Scarifar]

The days passed with few major events happening. There was training and classes, but little else. Conner gathered hardly any information, and Kimberly was beginning to get bored from having so little to do. That was about to change, however.

Conner and Kimberly watched as the Danger Room transformed to suit the appearance of a high school gym. Kimberly was still fascinated by how the Danger Room could do that, but Conner was already unimpressed and had accepted it for what it could do. Then came the unexpected appearance of the doppelgangers.

Kimberly merely charged forward, taking wide swings at her doppelganger, who was merely dodging her attacks with sidesteps and jumps backward. Then the doppelganger ducked under a punch, and delivered a punch itself to her stomach. Kimberly clutched her stomach as she took a step back, stunned, which gave the doppelganger enough time to deliver a kick to Kimberly's upper body, knocking her several feet away onto her back. Frustrated, Kimberly got back up to take her clone on again.

Meanwhile, Conner was staring at his doppelganger. His clone was one of the few, if not the only one, that did not rush in to attack the original. Watching a few of the other fights through his peripheral vision, Conner noted that the clones could use the original's powers, at least to a certain extent. Finally, Conner's doppelganger walked forward. Conner, wary of attacks, walked forward as well. The two stopped inches away from each other, neither one throwing a punch or anything. Finally, Conner's doppelganger spoke, "You think you're weak. You think you can't do anything without your friend." Conner, unimpressed, responded, "A psychological attack? It's what I'd do if I was fighting myself, but you'll have to come up with better than that if you wanted to hurt me." The clone smiled, continuing, "Very well. So, what CAN you do? Nothing, that's what. You believe that you're useless compared to everyone else, even Kimberly. You're the only abnormal in a world of abnormals. You can't shoot lightning. You don't have super strength. All you can do is leech off other people's powers, and you try to hide that by submerging yourself in academics and studies. In the end, you don't belong anywhere. Not with normal people who've shunned you. Not with these folk who don't understand you. Nowhere at all."

Conner sighed. "I came to terms with that a long time ago," Conner said. "Every word you've said is true. My power is not like most others. Still, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, and I am no exception. I will never surpass or even reach people physically, but I can do so intellectually. With that intellect, even if no place exists for me, I will simply make a place for myself. No one has to give one to me." The doppelganger was silent for a moment, then asked, "Is that your answer?" Conner responded curtly, "It is." "How cliche," Conner's doppelganger said. "Still, it's probably the best answer for you." Turning around, the doppelganger waved a hand dismissively and said, "I concede."

With that done, Conner looked around to find Kimberly, and found her on the ground struggling, and failing, to escape the pin her doppelganger had on her. "Ok, I give up!" Kimberly said, and the clone got off her. "Maybe next time," the doppelganger said mockingly before leaving.

"Well, that looked embarrassing," Conner said as he extended a hand down to help Kimberly up. "Hmph. How badly did you get beaten up?" Kimberly asked as she took Conner's hand.

"I won," Conner responded.

"You liar," Kimberly said, glaring at Conner.

"Believe what you want," Conner said, turning away.

[KaiserElectric]

Sabrina walked into the gym with the usual spring in her step, throwing herself into her usual stretches with gusto. Sabrina made it no secret that she was having a good time at her new school, and when she wasn't in class learning she was exploring the grounds and the hallways, getting accustomed to her new life here. She hadn't made a lot of friends yet, but in a sense that was kind of a good thing so far. She was so used to getting stares and attention because of her looks that it came as a surprise when not a lot of people here gave her unwanted attention. Evidently when you could shoot lightning bolts out of your butt or something, a fuzzy girl with four arms and fangs did not seem all that outlandish. Sometimes she missed being the center of attention, but at the end of the day it was nice to be regarded as normal for once in her life.

If anything it helped her to focus on the lessons she was getting, especially the fight-training lessons. Sabrina's first experience with those was a good lesson in humility for her, since she thought that her enhanced strength and reflexes would be enough to carry her during a fight. At least until a smaller student with two years of training under his belt beat the snot out of her on the first day. She took the lessons a bit more seriously after that little incident, and after the second day she felt like she had gotten the hang of a few basic techniques. Thus Sabrina walked into today's training session with gusto, feeling she could take on anything that the Danger Room threw at her.

"Today we are going to start by facing the greatest foes you will ever have....yourselves."

Sabrina blinked in confusion as another Sabrina poofed into existence in front of her, just as furry and intimidating yet significantly more monochromatic. Flashing a lethal looking grin, the gray Sabrina sprung forward and pounced, slamming into the real Sabrina's stomach with two of her arms. The attack caught Sabrina by surprise and winded her, but she managed to shove Graybrina away before she could follow up on her attack. Chest throbbing from the rough impact, Sabrina powered through the pain and charged back at her for a devastating counterattack, but Graybrina managed to duck under the wild swipe and retaliated with a knee directly to Sabrina's groin.

"Ahia," Sabrina squeaked as she stumbled backwards, trying to stay on her feet. "Right in the arachnads..."

"You're pathetic," Graybrina sneered at her. "Get up and fight, you four-armed freak show. Then we can send you back to the circus where you belong."

"Whoah, whoah, was that a slam at my appearance?" Sabrina said in a miffed tone. "You do realize that you just insulted yourself too, right? I mean, you are a carbon copy of me, arms and all."

Graybrina's smile faltered as her cheeks seemed to take on a slightly brighter shade of gray. "I-I was only trying-"

"And besides, you're not exactly the best one to talk about appearances aren't you, Miss Grayscale?" Sabrina argued, resting her hands on her hips as she spoke. "Seriously, go eat a box of Crayolas or something, then we can actually talk shit about one another."

"Hey, I'm only doing the trash talking because I-"

"And besides, bitch," Sabrina interrupted, flipping her "hair" stylishly with a smug little grin. "...I'm FABULOUS!" Her psychological attack a complete failure, Graybrina stood dumbfounded as Sabrina made a fabulous pose before finally thinking of a response.

"I...thought we looked the same, so those taunts don't work," she said blankly.

"Well, since you're me, it stands to reason that you're fabulous too," the real Sabrina concluded, still in her dramatic stance.

"R-really?" Graybrina pondered, a bashful smile forming on her face. "Wow, that's such a nice thing to-"

WHAM!

Graybrina gasped as Sabrina slammed into her with a shoulder check, knocking the wind out of her almost as hard as she did to Sabrina earlier. With a triumphant laugh, Sabrina backed away as her clone regained her breath, readying herself for the next attack. Graybrina struck back quickly and attempted to connect with a devastating roundhouse kick, but Sabrina ducked under it with a split at the last second, and followed it up with an uppercut to her clone's groin.

"D-did you just Johnny Cage me?" Graybrina squeaked, trying not to fall flat on her face from the beneath-the-belt hit.

"Hey, you did it first. Now we are even." Smiling again, Sabrina got into a wrestler's fighting stance as her doppelganger did the same. "Let's be fair now though, nothing dirty from now on, just pure fighting, agreed?"

"Agreed," Graybrina said with a curt nod. "May the best fabulous arachnid chick win!"

They both nodded in agreement, and broke into a charge towards each other.

[PapaOso]

The fight started off with a punch square in the nose...Not a great start. Nathan felt his eyes water over immediately after the strike, the force of the blow actually knocking him backwards and forcing him to keep his footing. He had been in fights before, most of which he lost, but he had never in a million years thought that he would see himself fighting...well himself, and from the get go this entire scenario had him a bit thrown off. Rearing back in pain Nathan reached up to his nose to make sure that it wasn't broken; as far as he could tell it wasn't. The gray scale version of him stared at him with a smug and arrogant grin that he honestly didn't even know that his face could make until now. It didn't pursue him but rather stood there with its cocky smile waiting to see how he was going to react. Nathan didn't know what to do, but he was pissed.

He lunged forward as quickly as he could manage and went straight in with an attempted tackle. The was a brief look of shock in his copycat's eyes as Nathan made contact, forcing his shoulder deep into the clones ribs and beginning their descent towards the ground. Before the clone could hit the hard gym floor he somehow managed to turn the momentum around to where as they landed he would be on top of Nathan, giving him an unexpected advantage. Nathan's hip hit the ground hard and before he could even collect himself the clone began pummeling him again and again; all Nathan could do at this point was block. His arms managed to soak up most of the damage, and as this was happening Nathan desperately tried to come of with a plan to not only get him out from under his attacker but that would hopefully help him get the upper hand. Then he realized exactly what he needed to do.

Nathan waited a few more seconds before dropping his guard all together, which of course allowed a few well placed strikes to hit their mark which was unfortunately again his damned nose. He knew that in order to do what he hoped would get him back on track in this fight that he would have to take a few hits, and they hurt like hell, but his mind was focused on his next move rather than the pain. He reached up ferociously and grabbed his clone by the neck as soon as the doppelganger was going down for another punch. His intent wasn't to choke his attacker, but rather he simply activated his powers once their skin made contact.

Instantly the false Nathan's eyes lit up and shock and fear as the true Nathan could feel himself siphoning his enemy's energy. For a moment it seemed as though he had gotten control in this battle as the clone's face began to deteriorate and seeming dry out in front of him. All seemed well until the clone reached its arms out towards Nathan, grabbing him by the face, and doing the exact same thing. Nathan had never felt it before, never experienced what it actually felt like for someone when he used his powers on them, until now. It was excruciating. An immediate and intense exhaustion flooded his senses as both Nathan and his doppelganger had each other exactly where they needed them to be in order to win this thing. A panic rose inside of Nathan as he wondered what he should do next.

[KaiserElectric]

This was probably the toughest fight Sabrina ever had in her life. Not because of how difficult it was, though, but because of how evenly matched it was. Her grayish clone was indeed a clone, and as their fight progressed that fact became painfully clear. Every move Sabrina tried to make was countered by her clone, and every move that her clone tried to make was countered by her. Action, counter, action, counter, over and over again. What little semblance of control over their fighting style began to break down as the fight went on, their moves became more erratic and wild as their battered bodies began to reach the end of their rope, and yet they still kept going, still too perfectly matched to pull off a final, decisive move.

Finally, the real Sabrina, her fur matted with sweat and blood and her breathing heavy and labored, swung a final haymaker at her gray opponent. Graybrina staggered forward, looking just as rough as the real tarantula girl did, and tried to block the wild arm. Both girls missed as they lost their balance, and lightly bumped into one another as the momentum carried them forward. Sabrina and her clone fell to the ground with a resounding thud, too weak and out of breath to make another move against one another. As other fights raged around them, Sabrina and her gray doppelganger merely rested in a disheveled heap on the ground, pondering their next move. Finally, the real Sabrina spoke up between her staggered and painful breaths.

"This...really blows,"

"Yeah...ooooh," Graybrina moaned in pain. "My...everything hurts." The real Sabrina tried to come up with a witty response but was in too rough of a shape to come up with anything good.

"Hey, listen," Sabrina said, propping herself up on one arm to look into the battered face of her opponent. "I don't think we're...oww...going to accomplish anything. I mean....oww, my head...you can do everything I can do, so like...if you know everything I'm going to do, you can't, like, do anything that I won't know that you can do either...I think..."

Graybrina nodded, mulling over what the real tarantula girl was espousing. "So...I can't beat you, because you can do everything I can do, and you can't beat me, because...the other way around..."

"Yeah," Sabrina muttered, wiping the sweat from her eyes and coming to a decision. "So...let's, like...NOT fight, 'kay?"

"Aren't we...supposed to?"

"Yeeeeeaaaah...but I don't wanna," Sabrina mumbled lazily. "Do you wanna?"

"No, not really. Truce?"

"Truce. Want to go watch the Nathans fight?"

"Sure."

Together, the two arachnid girls managed to peel themselves up from the floor, stagger over to where Nathan was having his fight, and flopped back to the ground to watch the show. Checking her pocket, the real Sabrina was pleased to discover that the candy bar she kept there was miraculously still intact. She quickly unwrapped it and broke it into two pieces.

"Butterfinger?" Sabrina asked, offering her clone the other half of the candy. With a weak smile, Graybrina accepted the candy bar and the pair of them munched happily on their Butterfingers as they cheered on Nathan in his own battle.

[knighthawk]

It was awesome. It was Epic! It was... Taking forever, honestly.

Mr pierce nodded as he pulled out a whistle and blew into it sharply. All the droids disengaged while reverting to blank slates and shut down. He looked over at the many faces with grim determination and walked around the students in a circle. "What have we learned here today boys and girls?" He asked rhetorically. "Is that some days you will have to know yourself as well as your enemy. I present to you, Mystique."

Each of the droids turned into the infamous shape-shifter of blue skin and red hair. She in turn rippled and started to change shape herself, each of the ten mutant terrorists turning into ten more mutants from the famous roster. As the menagerie of a hundred mutants went on, Pierce continued to talk.

"She is not the only shape shifter, but she is one of the most infamous. She has had to learn the ways of dozens to hundreds of individuals to be one of the most successful espionage agents the world has ever known. She does not need any additional powers beyond surprise and confusion to kick your ass."

The superhuman slide show stopped and the droids vanished.

"I got to say I am proud of you all. This was not a pass/fail, this was to see how you would handle the unexpected and you all did admirably. Since it is friday, I am handing out passes for the weekend, there is a carnival setting up and there will be no 'suicide nights'. You have to buddy-up if you want to go and wear GPS bracelets that work like smart watches with a hundred foot radial alarm. Do good and next time the range increases. Do poorly and it decreases... IF you get to go out again at all. So, who wants to go?"