May was in the Danger Room, wearing a pair of jeans, boots and a beat up crop Fullmetal Alchemist shirt. She had sent a message to all of the Talons to report to the Danger Room for their squad training class. That was primarily because of the weather and what she had in mind. She was typing quickly on the console as she set up the scenario. She could hear voices and footsteps coming from the locker rooms. She knew they'd all come quickly, primarily because they knew better than to keep her waiting.

She glanced over her shoulder, seeing some and then opening the doors and going in. Inside the Danger Room was massive, thick and dense forest. It was dense enough to begin blocking out the artificial sunlight of the room. She sat down on a stump and lit a cigar, waiting patiently. As she waited she pulled out her cellphone and simply checked her text messages. She'd been trying to set up the ideal scenario for awhile now. She'd asked her mom and some friends what would be best. Eventually she'd settled on something ideal.

Her team was solid, solo. Sure Becca and Isaac were learning but already they'd come a long way. However when it came to team work, they were not very good. They tended to go solo and get lucky. Yes they were undefeated but she knew that wouldn't last at this rate. Eventually a solid team would trounce her Talons and she would be pissed and humiliated. She was always bragging about how great her team was, meaning the other mentors were trying their best to shut her down.

Tag: @flappybird, Edward Church, Becca Storm, @pyro

Becca was still getting used to the concept of being summoned somewhere and having to show up right then. She was accustomed to being told in advance and still being a couple of minutes late getting there. For once, however, when she'd gotten the message, she'd been able to get into her training suit and get to the Danger Room pretty much on time, and when she entered, she was the first one in. 

It was strange that, after trying so hard to win a place on the Talons, doing extra training and even going one-on-one with May, that she would find the experience a bit of a drag. She'd been expecting the workload to be about the same, just with stronger people. But no, May had them running drills, sparring, exercising whenever she felt like it, and it wasn't nearly so much fun as she'd thought it was. She was happy she'd gotten on the team, but she didn't much enjoy the experience of being on it. 

She didn't start warming up or stretching or anything else that she might have done before a training session as she took in the situation of the room. A forest. A really thick forest that was kind of dark. Brilliant. She didn't know how realistic the physics of the room were, but if it was anything like a real forest, a slip and she could light the place up. Or, more likely, Isaac would do something stupid and start a fire. As she stepped further into the room, Becca leaned up against a tree and looked over to May. She'd dressed fairly practically, in her training suit and a pair of trainers.

"What's going on?" She asked, not really hiding being unimpressed by the environment. It seemed like May had made it so Edward would be fine, whereas her, Kayleigh and Boy Candle would have to watch themselves. "We don't normally have training now." Presumably it was some sort of crash course in tracking or stealth or sneaking or assassination that was not the sort of thing she'd signed onto being a superhero for. She bet the Teen Titans didn't have to deal with anything like this. 

Kayleigh had taken the route of fairly casual sports wear for the session. They were with May, and next to that, her option of a sports bra and sports tights would attract no attention. Her wings were out, but folded up behind her. She got a few stares from people as she made her way towards the Danger Room, but none of them commented. It proved some of them had the brain cells to know not to mess with her.

Kayleigh entered the room, and saw Becca in front of her, as well as the forest. She saw the lighting and took off her sunglasses, placing them on the floor just beside the door frame outside. She then walked up beside Becca, and looked back into the room.

”F***, that means no flying, doesn’t it” From what Kay could see there were no gaps in the tree which she thought would be large enough, so unless they were fighting someone or something very tall, she was getting stranded on the ground. Fantastic.

”I think this is May’s idea of a nice surprise. I’d rather this, if it weren’t for the trees, than another midnight running session at least.” Indubitably, her wings were going to prove to be a liability here. There were gods know how many branches for her wings to catch on even if she was just walking through, let alone fighting. She hoped it was something short of that for once.

Kayleigh readjusted her wings slightly, anticipating how much damage they’d be going through if this were what kind of thing normally happened in the Danger Room, and then walked into the room properly. She headed over to near where May was and stopped in place.

”Who’ve you programmed to come in and fail at beating us up, then?”

Early morning call time. Damn, didn’t this woman ever consider that they had lives outside of her little “let’s try to kill my squad” funtime. Isaac yawned as he stumbled into his suit and headed towards the training room, a Red Bull was in one hand and a green apple in the other. He wore a basic white tank under the fire proof suit May had provided him with. The suit itself hung around his waist, leaving his upper half exposed for now.

He tossed the can into the trash before walking into the room, biting into his apple and looking around. He sighed seeing both Becca and Kay there, but no Ed. ”He better not be late,” Isaac said, taking another bite of apple. Isaac smirked at Kay’s remark about no flying. ”No fire-ing” He’d almost said firebending. It was all May’s fault. Having him watch the cartoon. He did have to admit it looked pretty cool, and it did offer him a lot more control after he’d fired off a few shots so to speak.

Isaac didn’t rush over to question May, he hung back, waiting, watching.

Edward had almost made it a habit to be just a couple of minutes late to training sessions, especially when May called them out of the blue. Sure, sometimes it was because he was catching up on some sleep, forgot, or had stuff to do, but sometimes he just made sure he was that little bit late. It was petty, but considering whenever May called a Talons training session, Edward had a distinct feeling he was going to spend a couple of hours being smacked around, so making May wait just a little bit was all he could really do in return. So he waited a couple of minutes after getting the message, finishing up a question on the homework he was actually doing for once, and then started to get ready.

He was in a sleeveless white shirt and tight jogging bottoms as he made his way to the Danger Room. The reason for this were threefold. First of all, his training suit was still waiting to be repaired after somebody slashed through it a couple of days ago. Secondly, he knew that wearing loose clothing was just asking for them to snag, or be grabbed, or tear, or anything else the universe might think was suitable for Edward at the time. And third of all, and the most petty, Isaac was there and Edward really didn't feel like being outdone.

He wasn't too sure about their new teammates. Isaac was kind of a dick, and Becca just seemed out of place. Sure, Kayleigh also wasn't exactly strapped for cash, but in a team that had a poor English guy, a homeless New Yorker and a not exactly rolling in it girl, a rich young socialite seemed to be just a little out of her element. Still, Edward found her easier to get on with Isaac. He just found him clashing with the other guy too much. Plus, Becca could clearly handle herself, as she'd passed May's "entrance exam", as had the rest of them, so maybe she was tougher than she looked and just complained a hell of a lot.

He was a grand total of two minutes and twenty four seconds late as he stepped through the door very casually and strode over to stand next to Kayleigh, folding his arms. A forest? He didn't mind that. May had spent a lot of time training him in forests and, to his relief, it wasn't the same one as in the Sabertooth simulation. He couldn't imagine the others were too happy. 
"Alright," He said, "Want to explain why we're having an evening ruined?" He addressed May. 

As everyone showed up she smiled and strolled over to them all, cigar still in her lips. She looked them up and down and shook her head. She didn't like the look of Kay and Ed. She didn't care what the argument was but all she knew was they all looked out of place and not a team. The only two who looked part of a team were the only two who were likely to murder each other, or f*ck, or both, she wasn't sure.

"Next time I call a training session you ALL will wear your training suits. I had to pull strings and call in favors to get those made. If it is damaged it is your job to get it repaired quickly. Hell there are at least five students here who could repair it with a wave of their hand."

She said before beginning to walk back and forth again. She knew they weren't happy. They'd almost made it 24 hours without a training scenario. But of course they wouldn't get that lucky, not her team.

"Today we're going to work on team work. You all are not going to fight anyone, well not ideally. He likely won't go down easy. You will chase him through this forest that is programmed to be endless. There are animals and other dangers in there."

She grabbed a metal case and opened it revealing four Blue tooth looking devices and began handing them out.

"You will need to communicate with one another. If one of you catches him, you'll need to wait for the other three. Only when all four of you have a hold of him will the scenario end. There are no rules. Capture him, by any means necessary."

She said with a smile. She then lifted a piece of foam out of the case with the communicators and underneath it were two sets of handcuffs with a chain about 2 foot long. Without a word she began grabbing them and cuffing them. Hopefully by now they knew better than to argue or resist. SHe'd win anyways and then they'd be doing this training session injured. When she was done she looked at the pairs, Kayleigh and Ed and Becca and Isaac.

"Now you're likely thinking that you'll just cut the chain when we start. Well despite the chain being highly durable, as well as fire proof up to a couple thousand degrees, they're booby trapped. Should the link be severed the people wearing it will receive a very powerful, continuous electric shock. It's enough to take me down for awhile with one shot, so there ya go. Now I can turn it off, but I need to be within three feet for the remote to work. Also that assumes I put batteries in it, or have it with me, or care enough to not let you suffer for a bit. But should one of you manage to break the cuffs and withstand the shock, then things get harder. Since we will immediately restart and move on to collars. See I have an open schedule, do you? Now as for who you're chasing..."

A firey portal appeared complete with the smell of Brimstone. Isaac would recognize it immediately and Ed may have a vague recollection of it. Namely since the two have met a few times and Seb has been told he smells of fire brimstone, likely due to his nature and the hellfire he uses. Emerging from the portal was Sebastian in his Brother Blood gear, sword on his back, and Admiral FLuffy Paws strolling along beside him. He exhaled smoke from a cigarette he'd just extinguished and looked around.

'I don't see why we're here. What do you owe the X-Men?'

"You're just angry because we're missing the Voice."

'Mostly. It's elimination night.'

"Well I need to help out. Plus I kind of owed May."

'Oh yeah, she saved you from that pack of Hunters.'

"Please those morons were hardly true Hunters. Blade is more of a threat than all of them combined."

He said before looking at everyone and smiled. He pushed his hood back and crossed his arms.

"So May wants you to catch me running through an endless forest, fun. We might as well get this started."

His gaze passed over Becca and he immediately felt guilty. He remembered calling her a brat and then she left. He was in a bad place but she also likely wouldn't be forgiving him anytime soon. That was fine, he didn't exactly deserve it. He began to shift and twist and turned into a brown wolf. He let out a howl that was returned from deep in the forest and took off running through the dense forest, jumping over roots and logs. Admiral Fluffy Paws meanwhile walked over to May and began to rub on her calf.

'May it's been awhile, Halloween I believe. We need to hang out more.'

He said before flying up to a low hanging branch and laying down, watching the four students.

Becca allowed herself a small smirk as May scolded Kayleigh and Edward for not wearing their training gear. It was always good when she wasn't the one in trouble. Her only problem was that Isaac wasn't getting in trouble as well, but she'd live. She could always find some other way to get him in trouble. And then May explained the task they would be doing today, and at least one pair of eyes were rolled at her. Catching some guy? Easy. Especially if they could ask. But then the handcuffs came out, and despite her instincts screaming at her to pull away, Becca let herself be cuffed to Isaac. She instantly stood as far away as the chain would let her. If he was holding her back, this wasn't going to be fun at all.
"What the hell?" She snapped as soon as she was away from Isaac. So handcuffs, electrocution, et cetera. May had just designed this to be shitty. Becca shook her cuffs angrily.

She took another step back as the portal opened, and the smell of something like eggs filled the room. Sulfur. She wasn't a religious girl, but if it turned out that May had made some sort of deal with the devil, she was out of there. She didn't want to damn her eternal soul. Or fight a devil, for that matter. But instead, what came out made her step forwards pretty determinedly, although she'd rather have seen a devil. She knew the guy who stepped out of the portal. Sebastian....something. One of the Titans, and she was pretty sure he was the reason she'd been rejected from the team. He'd called her a brat. Her! A brat!

So he was part of their training exercise? Becca was not having that. Had May known about her past with Sebastian? They'd only met once, but it had still had an impact on her. If so, then May was even more of a bitch than she'd thought. Maybe it was just a coincidence, however, and she was just being given a chance to light on fire the guy whose voice she had heard taunting her for years. See who was the brat when he was smokey and charred. May wouldn't have thrown him in if he couldn't take it, so there was a sense that it was okay for Becca to cut loose.

She ran forwards, towards the tree, but the chain stretched taut before she was halfway, having gone before Isaac.
"Hurry up!" She snapped behind her, pulling.

To most people, Kay would have been on the offensive about the suits, but this was May and Kay was sure May wouldn’t hear out her reasoning of just not wanting to. Or rather wanting to be in other layers so that the inevitable amount of sweat and probably mud and possibly blood that got on her clothing during training didn’t impact something that would be publically seen.

Kay was initially somewhat perplexed at the task. Just chasing down one guy didn’t seem much like the sort of training exercise that May would set. It seemed far too simple, and way too easy. It seemed like what everyone else would have been doing. Especially if she was classifying animals as being dangers. Most animals were far from being dangerous to any of them.

And then there was the twist. Of course there had to be a twist. She was honestly thinking about breaking the cuffs

As long as this exercise didn’t go on for too long, she was sure she could cope with being in close proximity to Ed for that time. She was very sure she could cope with being cuffed to him better than Becca and Isaac were going to be coping, at the very least. It was this which meant she gae very little protestation, plus the amusement at the idea of Becca and Isaac working together for once.

She was honestly thinking about breaking the cuffs before May’s warning. She’d seen what May could withstand without issue, and she didn’t particularly feel like experiencing the sort of shock which could achieve an impact.

Kay scrunched up her nose in slight disgust at the cat. She’d never been fond of cats, and seeing one that could talk just reminded her more firmly of how cats had a nasty habit of murdering birds that she could talk to. She was even less fond of seeing this talking cat with someone she knew, even if that someone was May. She wasn’t sure why Becca seemed to be reacting so much, but if it were at the concept of something sentient belonging to a species that would choose to eat something she could communicate with she understood perfectly. Kay was not going to smile back at the guy who liked cats.

” F***. We’re gonna have to take wide paths ‘cos my wings aren’t gonna let us through anything else. Come on.” Kay gave a slight tug on the chain and then turned in the direction that Sebastien had gone, and took a few steps forward, assuming Ed would follow after her.

Cuffs!? Well shit. Oh and now all this other crap on top of it. He was seriously wondering it he could heat it up fast enough to short out the entire thing, but then there was Becca. The girl didn’t like him, and he was having a hard time liking her, but he wasn’t that much of a dick to short his out and let her suffer for it. He pushed the communications device into his ear.

Isaac couldn’t help but smirk when his teleportation instructor showed up is their ‘prey’. He glanced over and noticed Becca’s face. “Oh, you know him too? How?” Yes, the ‘Im trying to be nice, please don’t eat my face off’ conversation starter. Not that it helped much as the announcement was made to GO!

Before Isaac had any time to talk to Becca to make a plan, he was quite nearly hauled off his feet as the buxom fire user took off and gave a tug. ”Yo, chill!” he snapped back, but trotted after her. Was he intending to let this slide and just go along submissively? HELL NO! With a rush he came up behind her, intent on driving one of his knees into the back of one of hers, forcing her to the ground.

”We need to have a talk Princess”

Edward made a show of looking respectful as May gave them a lecture. Sure, her threats of punishment were a tad more daunting than those of teachers, and he'd probably end up doing as she said, but he'd had pretty much a lifetime of disobeying swaggering authority figures, and it was taking a while to kick the habit. Still, he was pretty sure not wearing a suit had been the way to go here. The clothes were tight enough to  not get caught on anything, but still flexible enough that he could move in them.
"So we have to work on our team work?" He asked, "Me and Kayleigh make a pretty good pair, can we go and leave the old married couple here to work out their differences?" He wasn't sure where the animosity between Becca and Isaac had come from, but it was kinda funny, so he wasn't in a hurry to help end it. 

Capturing one guy sounded far easier than the average May Kinney-Riley Approved training task, that was for sure. Typically he at least got lasting as long as he could against a much tougher opponent, escort missions from hell, or how long he could keep going under immense strain. Catching up to a guy and punching him in the face a few times? As he and Kayleigh had proven a couple of times, he could almost do that in his sleep. As the Bluetooth devices were handed out, he put one in and switched it on. "Can everyone hear me?" He heard some feedback in his own ear, so he was assuming they were working. "Brilliant."

He was fine with an earpiece, but his eyebrows raised as May pulled out the cuffs.
"You know what?" He said, "I don't think I'm even going to ask why you have custom made handcuffs. I'm not sure I want to know." He accepted being cuffed to Kayleigh with somewhat poor grace, but if it was being handcuffed to Kayleigh or Isaac, he knew which one he preferred by far.

His eyes darted around as he looked for their target. The Danger Room was capable of replicating pretty much any mutant, he knew, so who would it be? Wagner? Maximoff? Kitty Pryde? Honestly any of them would be a pain to chase after in a forest, but watching Quicksilver run into a tree at a billion miles an hour might be fun. He smelt it before anyone else, his nostrils flaring as the smell of sulphur and brimstone mixed with vampire, shampoo and cigarette smoke. 
"Let me guess," He said sarcastically, turning away before anyone stepped out of the portal, "It's a demon vampire named Sebastian." He turned back around and saw Sebastian. "Shocking."

Would he be a hard target? Edward had only met him a couple of times, and never seen him in action. The vampire was a lot skinnier than he was, and he was no beefcake himself, but in their world muscles didn't really mean all that much.
"Can I use my phone?" He asked May glibly, of course knowing the answer, "I can call someone who can find him and kick his arse for us." 

As soon as the exercise began, symbolised for him by Kayleigh stepping away, Edward's demeanour changed. He went from disrespectful, sarcastic and glib to more determined and serious. He was absolutely planning on continuing to be sarcastic, but he dropped the impression that he didn't want to be here, stepping off pretty much in time with Kayleigh.
"We'll take left," He said into his Bluetooth, but then paused as he saw Isaac tackle Becca. Well so much for co-ordination, "And...we'll see whichever one of you kills the other in a few minutes." Technically as Team Leader Kayleigh should have been the one calling the shots, but Edward assumed she wouldn't mind him stepping in once.

He continued to chase after Sebastian, keeping pace with Kayleigh.
"You can't fly," He said, gesturing to the handcuffs. He knew she'd struggle to bear his weight if they were flying, and the chain would let her get maybe ten centimetres off the ground, "So when we get him, you let me go in first, take the hits and hold him up while you find something breakable?"

May glanced at Ed as he made a comment about calling someone to help stop Sebastian. May suspected who he had in mind and rolled her eyes.

"No Pup, no calling. You're gonna have to do that without your girlfriend's help."

She said before glancing over at Kayleigh and laughed lightly.

"Sorry, OTHER girlfriend. I thought I had a complicated love life."

She said with a smirk. Of course calling her series of relationships a love life was certainly a stretch. She had issues sometimes, well most of the time. All she really wanted was someone to connect with, however, she'd never actually admit that. She couldn't help but laugh as Isaac and Becca began to fight. Then Ed began calling the shots as they disappeared into the woods after Isaac and Becca began to argue. Well, more Isaac attempting to tell Becca how it's gonna be.

"Pup calling the shots, and here I thought Tweety was the squad leader."

Yes she was purposely trying to push them apart. She wanted to see how they handled a smart opponent that would be doing something similar. She'd even instructed Sebastian to do the same. She knew all too well how annoying he truly could be.

"Sugar, Brule, if the two of you are done fooling around get to work. Remember, the exercise only ends when all four of you are holding onto him. I suggest you go ahead and run after him. He's a lot quicker than he looks."

She said before looking up to Admiral Fluffy Paws in the tree. She leaned against the tree trunk and laughed lightly.

"I like ya Admiral Fluffy Paws, you're nice and all but where ever you go Sebastian comes. He's useful but also rather annoying."

Sebastian was able to easily bound through the woods. As a wolf he was smaller and compact and the trees themselves were close together. May had indeed made a tricky course, it was impressive. Sebastian was taking the less obvious route and was also beginning to go in circles. Odds are at least one of them had some tracking skills. By going in circles he was also leaving a few tufts of fur on some tree trunks. He could faintly hear arguing and couldn't help but laugh, well it came out as more of a yip. The fact all four needed to get to him was working in his favor.

He stopped and listened, he could hear one pair moving through the woods but the other was nowhere to be found. Of course that could mean they were sneaking up on him. As he ran he came across a cave that was 20 feet off the ground. He transformed back to his true form and looked around before shifting into a bat and flying up to the ledge with the cave. He then sat down in his normal form and waited. He could see that the danger room made it appear as though there were miles upon miles of trees with the occasional mountain or hill scattered around.

Admiral Fluffy paws meanwhile looked down at May and laid there calmly. He would rather be at home but Sebastian insisted that his familiar come with him almost all the time. He didn't like it but he also knew that he was supposed to be with Sebastian nearly at all times.

"Sebastian isn't all bad. Well okay he's annoying, but still. It could always be worse. At least he doesn't try to seduce you and feed on you."

Becca was most absolutely not in the mood to talk to Isaac about how she knew Sebastian. She didn't want to talk about it to anyone, and he would be somewhere near the bottom of her list. Around Ed, maybe. She'd rather talk to May or Kayleigh about it. Presumably some people knew, such as whoever the vampire had been talking to when he'd called her a spoiled brat, but Becca wouldn't mind if it was a secret she took to her grave. It was the biggest humiliation she'd ever suffered, and she didn't want to discuss it and wasn't going to forget it. 

So she didn't have much of a plan as she set off, determined to be the first to reach Sebastian. Maybe she'd give him a nice long hug while on fire. See how much he liked that. See if he still wanted to call her a brat then. He could survive it, she knew. May wouldn't throw someone they could kill or cripple against them. She was a bitch, but she wasn't evil. She hadn't answered Isaac's question and she had no plans to. She heard him call for her to chill as she took off, and then the chain went taut and she was forced to halt.
"Come ON!" She snapped behind her, and mercifully felt the chain loosen. Before she could take off, however, she felt something slam into her behind the knees, and she was brought to the floor. A look behind her confirmed her own teammate had done it.

"What the hell are you doing?" She hissed, trying to rise, but her leg remained pinned by him. She tried to tug on the chain, pulling him over. She wasn't hopeful; Isaac had had far more training than her.
"Talk about what?" She spat. "If we have to be here having bondage fun while that asshole wanders around, I want to find him as soon as possible. So get the hell off me." It didn't look like he was planning on letting up anytime soon, but if she got really pissed off, she could use her powers and use the burst of strength to throw him off. 

The sarcastic comments from Ed and May really didn't help either. Was it a family thing, being a snarky douche?
"I'll see you soon, Church," She said in reply to the comment about seeing which one killed the other, and glowered at Isaac.