fandomhigh | Basic Training, Tuesday

Class met -- as it would every week, most likely -- in the Danger Shop. (Gambit was basically guaranteed to call it the wrong thing every time he talked about it; why was it a "shop" here and not a "room"?) Today it was left neutral when the students arrived, the walls bare and a plain landlord-beige. Just a big empty space ready to be filled with possibility!

Or at least robot drones.

Gambit, suited up in his full working uniform, complete with ridiculous "X" branded accessories, stood leaning against his bo staff, and gave the students a cheeky wave as they entered, counting them up and looking for anyone who might be missing. "Bonjour," he greeted when it seemed everyone who was coming had arrived. "Some of you I know. Some I don't. I'm Gambit. King of Thieves and more-than-occasional professional superhero. I'm here to introduce you to some of the basic training drills I and my fellow X-Men do on a regular basis to keep ourselves in full fighting shape. To do it right, though, I gotta know what each of you can do. So that's what we're doing today."

He pushed himself upright from his lean, gave his staff a spin, then hit the button that caused it to collapse into something pocket-sized and tucked it away, replacing it with a deck of cards that he idly shuffled while he spoke.

"Your job today is to show off. Let us all see what you can do. Maybe you have special powers, like me. Maybe you don't, but you've got skills: great aim, say, or acrobatics. Maybe you just got a lot of cash to spend on goodies and want to use them to save the world. Superheroing, she takes all types."

He flicked the top card of his deck up between his index and middle fingers and charged it, causing it to glow a fabulous fuchsia that matched the breastplate of his armor. "Me, I make things go 'boom'." He flicked the card away. Sure it enough, it burst in a bright flash against the wall, leaving a scorch mark that would vanish once everyone's attention was elsewhere, thanks to the Danger Shop's safeties. He flicked another card up between his fingers and pointed it at one of the students. "How 'bout you?"

[open class is open!]

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Did Illyana roll-up to the first day of class with the remainders of a black eye, and maybe not moving as fluidly as normally? Yes. Because she was rather sure if she didn't go to class, Midnight was going to turn on all the lights in her room every time she tried to nap.

At least she looked like she was in the last stages of recovery out from whatever had happened, thanks to the glories of carefully applied healing magics over the last few days!

Since it was only a few drones, she could luckily take it easy. Dozens of portals instantly opened around the room, and Illyana gestured, fire curling around her fingers before shooting straight through the disk nearest her, shooting out of all the other ones to scorch the drones.

Gambit was unsurprised. The Magik from his world would have been pretty well as . . . thorough . . . as this one was.

He nodded. "Love me a creative portal." Even as he stayed nice and far away from them. "Think we might be able to crank the difficulty level up a bit for you."

He noted the bruises without comment. If she needed help with anything . . . well, maybe she'd start screaming in Midnight again. She was, he reflected, probably unlikely to actually ask for it.

Edited 2026-01-07 00:46 (UTC)

Hey! She'd asked Marc to help her fix up her ribs! ...mostly because she knew he wouldn't make a Thing out of it.

"Appreciated," Illyana replied. "Though I'm willing to take a handicap if it's needed."

Which was Yana for 'Just let me hit something and I'll be happy.'

“Merci,” Gambit said with a nod. “We do team drills, I might take you up on that.”

Sairis could always appreciate a good mage fire! Not to mention a good grasp of geometry. His smile to her was small but heartfelt.

Illyana noticed, and gave him a once-over. "Welcome to Team Magic, where we make physics cry," she said, dryly, though not in a mean way. "--New? Or just someone I've successfully avoided over the last semester?"

"Why do we make physics cry?" Sairis asked. "What have they done to us?" He was assuming it was a shortened form of "physician". Granted, he hadn't ever needed one, but he had no quarrel with them.

"I'm new, I suppose," he answered to the other part. "I just arrived. I'm Sairis."

"Physics? The branch of science concerned with the nature and properties of matter and energy?" Yana replied, bemused. "Scientists usually have a few unkind words about what we do and how we do it, either because they think magic isn't real, or they get real pissy about we break all the known laws of the universe with our spells."

"Oh! I haven't heard science called that before," Sairis said. "But magic follows the rules. Or...well, it does where I'm from," he amended.

"Magic follows rules," Illyana agreed. "Just...not always the rules that scientists think it should, at least where I'm from."

"They get especially riled-up over 'matter cannot be created or destroyed,' and yet, I have Creation magic that says otherwise."

"It's all about power and change processes," Sairis said. He shrugged. "My science has no problems with it."

Mind you, you'd need a massive outlay of energy to create matter, but that was part of physical science too, wasn't it?

Basic Training, Tuesday

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