Pop! Off went barbie's arm

Honestly, it was surprisingly easy; this was level one after all. The doll stumbled back, and regained an unsteady balance as reinforcements wobbled forward slowly.

"It's best to have a weapon that is more of a tool... Take a crowbar for example; It can pierce, it can bludgeon, it can open doors, and take punishment. Not devaluing your rapiers, by any means... If you'd like, I'll let you summon a backup weapon for the time being. Just call it out, like before."

The barbies returned in force, their wobbly steps and clumbsy swings trying to find purchase; it would be quite easy were there not too many of them... To the right was a shoe turned sideways and a textbook down on it's face, which formed a neat funnel they could be used to limit the number of attacking enemies, though it would also cut off any retreat. Otherwise, there was a volley ball and a tennis racket that sort of created a hallway; it wasn't ideal, but it would allow a back exit.

Two barbies block the first way, and one arm and another blocked the second. Five other barbies approached from various angles, slowly closing in.

Saphirus' voice was too everywhere still. And while he appreciated the sentiment of letting him choose a new weapon, given the change in situation, there wasn't really anything leaping out as spectacularly well suited to dismantling barbies. Except maybe an anti-zombie baseball bat or a stockpile of grenades. Hmm.

"I'll keep that in mind," Aiden said distractedly, still watching the zombiedolls. See if they could climb or just clobber them on the ground? Except some of them had got behind him. Not good not good not good. Definitely needed a change of scenery. Volleyball strip it was, even if he couldn't quite wrap his head around such a stereotypical girly-girl room have sports equipment strewn everywhere. He'd take what he had to.

Disarming the barbie didn't seem to have done much but slow it down and (hopefully) reduce its ability to attack, and it was in the way anyway; Aiden shoved the butcher knife out of the way and under the book before stepping in and locking the blade of his left sword under the damaged barbie's chin, levering the hilt against its shoulder while he swept his blade-held right sword up under the other nearby barbie's weaponized arm. The sports path seemed to be clear still, so hopefully it would work.

Too bad stabbing didn't work as universally in real life as it did in video games. If it did, he could just use a few skills, backstab all these dolls, maybe chain up enough little hits for a combo, and be done in no time. Or run as a mage. Now that would be effective. Plastic melted, after all. A single fireball could probably take out the lot of them. And then probably set the place on fire, being rather more real-world than games where magic never had any side effects.

Saphirus kicked back in the seat of luxury in the observation room, his hands behind his head and his chair leaning back on the verge of tipping the balance. He spoke into a headset in between sips of his soda.

"Not changing weapons, eh? Brave little snowflake."

"Oh. My. GAWD. Those glasses are so last tuesday!" The damaged barbie got out before he head popped off, and she ceased moving. The other managed to bury it's knife into the book, and appeared to have trouble getting it out. With one target down, Saph was enjoying the show. To think, he could go as high as ten levels in this simulation if he wanted to... He wondered how many the newbie could take.

The barbies had no taste for tactics, once corralled, they would come in single file, swinging with the expert control of a flailing baby, and screaming fashion tips while pointing out faux pas in his ensemble.

So not impressed with that name, and how was he little, exactly? As far as he had seen, he was more or less the same height as Saphirus. And so what if he wasn't changing weapons? Better to use something he knew in a way he wasn't familiar with than something he didn't know in just as unfamiliar a fashion. At the very least he had half an idea of where he could put his hands, how he could apply pressure, and how the air would react to the tools' movements.

So they did shut off when their heads stopped being plugged in. Good to know. Things were definitely settling down now that he had a route for permanently disabling the dolls and they couldn't mob him. He kept a watchful eye on the route behind him, but none of the dolls seemed interested in trying to flank him, but most of his attention was on the remaining dolls. With them facing him, popping their heads off wasn't quite as straightforward as it had been, but he wasn't going to try to take them out in one rush, which is what he'd have to do if he started stepping behind them to lever them off as he had before. So.

Eh, he wasn't coming up with any better ideas. Aiden let the barbies advance and settle into single file, gave his shoulders a quick roll, and sidestepped the lead barbie's swing. His sword locked under her chin and he levered it against her shoulder while parrying a (rather pathetic) swing from the next barbie. When he felt it give way, he gave the doll a shove between the shoulder blades. Wash, rinse, and repeat, with more and more snow settling on or drifting across the obstacles in place of decreasing bubbles or added grease.

"I HATE YOUR HAIR~~~"

The final barbie retorted as she fell to the floor. There was a still and eerie silence as Saph leaned forward in the comfy chair, and touched a slider, placing it to level two for a moment, and then pausing... He could be nice, and ramp it up slowly... Nahhh. Click!

AAAAAND poke the 'go' key!

"Level 3 initiated."

"Listen, newbie. It's about to get a little rough; you just let me know if you want to quit any time, kay? I mean, you just might not be X-man material, and that's okay."

The floor would suddenly rush far away from Aiden as he was returned to normal size. The room would remain silent for a moment longer; that silence would be shattered by a tear gas grenade smashing through glass. The door to the room was open; retreat to the hallway would seem like a viable option; or there was the now open window. It was one of those two, or tear gas! Yay!

The final barbie clattered to the floor. Aiden stepped against the ball for a moment to look around, but it seemed that they were nice and limp.

So, was that done? Saphirus was -

Saying it was going to get worse.

........

The abrupt absence of drifting snow was rather more disorienting than the equally abrupt flight of the walls. Uh... slight potential for that to indeed be worse. Aiden wasn't familiar enough with that aspect of his mutation to want to practice it right now. He didn't have to worry for long, though, because something hissing crashed through the window.

Was that..?

It didn't matter. He was clearly meant to leave now. He was closer to the door than the broken window and would have to go past the smoking grenade to get to the window, plus the window still had some glass in it and was, you know, a window. Windows were not restricted to specific heights above the ground. So. Door or find out if that was actually tear gas and, if so, just how nasty it was in reality. Aiden slipped his right hand rapier through a belt loop and made for the door with a pivot that kicked some snow into the air again. Much better. He stepped through the open door and pulled it shut behind him to at least slow down the gas' escape.

The target had exited the room; around the household, more windows were heard being smashed in, though these sounded more like the entry type of smashing. At the end of the hallway, a thick gloved had cleared out glass before a man in a red hooded coat hopped through. They were apparently on the ground floor.

The man had a mask on... It looked like... A shy guy? He didn't say a word, instead opting to reach into his coat and pull out a BB gun, and start pumping it furiously. Similar things were happening in other parts of the house.


As for the layout; at one end of the hallway was a window, which the shy guy occupied. Right across from the door Aiden had just shut was another room, similar to the first, but blue. Two more small rooms were further down the hallway; one was a laundry room, the other, some form of office. Past that set of doors was another hallway, which lead to a living room, the front door, which was being kicked in, and the kitchen.

There were two sets of stairs, one going down, the other, up.

Oh, and there seemed to be a lot of shy guys... Like... An uncomfortable amount, all pumping their BB guns, and firing off pop shots.

"Ahh, good ol level 3. Those are gonna sting for weeks, I tell you what." Saph chuckled; he was confident the kid could get through this one... What was next, though... Well... They would have to see.

Aiden suspected he would never have to concern himself about forgetting what smashing glass sounded like.

... Or be able to play anything with Shy Guys the same way ever again. These were still simulations, right? Light given shape and colour and motion? Not real people? Simulations were on the same tier as standard video games, just with that elusive level of interaction so many players dreamed of. He could hit simulations that looked like people.

SAPHIRUS GAVE THEM GUNS? Wait, that was plastic. BB gun. Right. Yeah, lethal force would be a pretty big step up from Barbies with knives. Best to be a bit realistic and all. Twitching one pellet caught him in the arm, then another in the shoulder, Aiden moved down the hallway and struck out as soon as he was in range, lashing out at the Shy Guy's wrists with the base of his left blade. "Shy Guys are supposed to be shy," he muttered. "Got Bowser on the list for later?" He'd clearly kept his footwork up enough; the faint dents and their accompanying would-be bruises from the BB pellets had already faded and healed, hopefully without visible scars. Maybe he should upgrade to a ranged weapon for the rest.

Saph watched with piqued interest as Aiden's mutation began to manifest in truer form... Regenerative qualities were useful. Saph zoomed in on the action, replaying one of the impacts to see how fast it healed. Interesting; A snow based regenerative mutation; he'd seen a lot, but this was a first.

Already, Saph was thinking about how young snowflake's skill would apply to the group dynamic. He made everything else colder; that would make other's uncomfortable, and the snow accumulation might make team movement difficult. Still, CS managed to get by alright.

The Shy guy dropped his weapon when he was hit, and popped into the air, falling through the floor as if he'd been jumped on by a plumber.

"You worry about what's goin on right now; you don't wanna know what's next."

The other Shy Guys closed in, turning their BB guns around and attempting to use them a bludgeons when the BB's showed to be less than effective; they would work well as a team, approaching at equal distance, and falling back if their opponent attempted to single one out. There was still the up stairs or down stairs rout, if Aiden wanted to fall back, though fighting them off all at once was still an option. The Masochist wondered what the boy would choose to do.

Once again, one down and the rest were closing in. Okay. He didn't want to know what was next, did he? Of course. At least the Shy Guys had given up on their guns when he gave up trying to dodge them. Shorter ranges were easier to deal with. They stuck together, though, and groups were not exactly his strength. But how to narrow down their numbers?

Well, if this were a video game, he'd probably either lure them back until he could split them up or give up and rush them. He didn't want to get clubbed in the back of the head, though. If just giving them a good whack was enough to clear them.... Hm. He backed into the blue room again, then used the doorframe to hide until the Shy Guys came a little closer. His right sword was in his hand when he moved again, striking for the two most crowded opponents.

It would help if he knew if the point was to get out of the house or to clear the area of enemies, he mused. He could probably outrun the Shy Guys if he tried, although he would risk leaving the snow behind as well, but that would be utterly pointless and quite possibly detrimental if he was suppose to get rid of all the Shy Guys. Well, it would be easier to get out if they were all gone.

Aiden pulled into the boy's room, and the Shy Guys didn't follow, instead hovering at the entrance, and watching silently. A glance out the window would show it crowded by more of the masked red coats, all standing silently and watching. Saph sighed.. Well, that was just great; he had to go into the blue room.

Beneath Aiden's feet would be a colorful assortment of any self respecting kid's favorite pass time; Legos. The Masochist chimed in, a somber grumble filling the air.

"You mentioned you didn't want people getting hurt... Well, they will. No matter how well you do your job, people will get hurt, and you will be putting yourself right there in front of it. Can you take that?"

Beneath Aiden's feet was a city of blocks; strewn about were little Lego men, hundreds, easy; they crowded the little Lego streets, half facing one way, half facing the other; in the middle was a thin line. All of the figures in the line where wearing blue. As Saphirus continued speaking, the line of blue would become more a little less cartoony. Motion would be introduced, and the scene would creep closer; The familiar sensation of being shrunk would certainly be hard to miss.

"Would you hurt people to save people?"

Aiden would find himself in a very real New York, times square... In the middle of the riots. The streets would be dusted with snow; to the left and right would be a line of cops, ahead, a crowd of mutants, behind, another line of cops attempting to hold back a similarly sized group of humans.

"Could you betray your own kind to protect those who would see you as something less... Just because it's the right thing to do?"

Not far off, a greyed out Masochist stood next to another familiar figure; Cafas, also oddly muted in color. They prepared for the first wave.

"I guess we'll see... Good luck, Snowflake."

The greyed out Saphirus yelled at the top of his lungs. "Don't let them through!"

And then the horde was upon them.

He should have stayed in the hallway. He really, really should have.

With his attention on the Shy Guys, it was entirely Saphirus' voice and the disorientation of another size change that changed Aiden's focus. Hurt people to save people?

He swallowed. He hadn't ventured out of the mansion during the riots, if only because he had been far too occupied with his own headspace and misery. He'd heard enough to recognize at least the concept of this, though. The shiver along his spine had nothing to do with the expected chill in the air.

There was no time to think or plan. He thought he saw Cafas. There was something off, but he didn't have a chance to work it out or notice anything more. The crowd surged towards him. Something caught him in the ribs and he ground out a cough. Don't let them through. Nice quest description. He kept his feet, though, amidst the shoving. The faces sank like lead statues to the bottom of his stomach, soured his mouth, and dragged him down. How could real people be so... so angry? So consumed with rage beyond any recognition of humanity. Saphirus said protect. He said not to let them through. What else was there to do? Join the raging mob and fight against people like Cafas, and keep hoping he didn't get trampled anyway?

Where did such fury come from?

The fury would not cease. People didn't want him to join them! They wanted to destroy him. A close look at himself would show that he was wearing blue. The crowd was seeing red.

"Being an X-Man means making hard decisions. It means running into a burning building as saving everyone you can, even if you know you wont be able to save them all. It means harming those who would harm others. It means you may even have to kill."

The crowd pulled at Aiden, tearing at him, lashing out at him relentlessly. Angry faces would appear, and be replaced with others. People would fall, and they wouldn't get back up. Any struck down would quickly be replaced. In any respite, Cafas and Saphirus could be seen plunging into the crowd to take out dangerous threats, such as a mutant flinging giant.(True story)

"We held the line that day... Four officers died, but they gave their lives in order to prevent the deaths of hundreds. You will be asked to risk such sacrifice. You will be asked to do more than you ever thought yourself capable of, and you will rise to the occasion."

The pressure of the crowd would grow. It would go on for what seemed like an eternity.

"That is... if you really want it... So tell me, Aiden... Do you?"

Saphirus' narration was about all that kept Aiden cognizant of the fact that none of this was real. There weren't really raging monster faces, so much more vicious and horrible than any mask or Hollywood disguise could ever be, so undeniably human but so incredibly alien at the same time. There weren't really people trying to claw at his face, tearing at his clothes, kicking at his shins.

The rage was sickening, disheartening. It wasn't about whether it was human faces or mutant ones he was staring into. They were all people on any other day. They'd just been caught up in this madness. From what he remembered, they'd had every reason to. Both sides had reason to. The only real division between them was who they thought had started things and the language of the insults they hurled at the thin line even as they hurled their own bodies.

This madness had to end. Crushing one side beneath the other's heel might be the obvious solution, the historical solution, but it didn't work even in fantasy. As long as there was distrust and disagreement and hatred, the monster possessing all the people here would survive. Disagreement, at least, came when neither side was willing to put any effort in. Someone had to stand up and say there was another way.

That was the point of the X-Men, wasn't it? To take that stand and hold that message out. There is another way. Fighting and slaughter and conquest wasn't the way. One foot slipped against the crushing pressure of the crowd, then caught.

He didn't want to be there. He didn't want to be on the front lines, fighting, dying, hurting others even if it was the only option. Someone had to be there, though. Someone had to step in when things fell apart. "If anyone wants to do this," Aiden grated out, more or less relying on the danger room's systems to pass his voice to Saphirus, "they're crazy. But someone has to do it."

((Many congrats on 300 posts!))

It was unclear if Aiden's words got through. Screams, riot gun shots, mutants using their abilities, car alarms, officers shouting orders, and thousands of other sounds coalesced into a symphony of awesome dread. One by one the officers around them fell. Saphirus fell. Cafas fell. The horror was so real, so great.


The chair in the control room was empty.

The crowd grew, not only in numbers, but in size; once again the floor was rushing up, and the rioters were pressing down as if to try and stamp him into the ground. Everything grew dark, and the din of the crowd grew loud enough to drown out thought.

And then it was all over. The room was the soft white it had been when Aiden had entered, and a hand was in his face, open, as if offering to help him back onto his feet.

"Heh heh... Good answer, trainee. Good answer."