How... irritating. (And so like totally 90's. Who said "news flash" anymore?) Jude clenched his fists and concentrated on activating this power. If zombie movies had taught Jude anything, numbers were always better than stupid crap like skill or strength or guns. Yeah. That was assuming they could make enough numbers between the two of them to mob the guy.

Where there was one, there now were two. Elke made it look that simple. Gah.

So. His master plan? Jude scrunched his eyes shut and thought SPLIT!. No? He looked at himself. And around himself. Yeah. No other self. Uhm... maybe the Dragonball Fusion dance? No, that was making two people into one. Uhm.

Maybe he just needed more oomph? He threw his hands up as Elke had just before she split and tried to imitate the venom filled glare she sent Saphirus' way. That part wasn't hard. Then he stopped trying to split himself and just tried to activate the power, throwing as much energy at that feeling he knew so well.

Blop. It should have made that sound, but it didn't make any sound.

He staggered sideways and another Jude staggered the other way. They both straightened and smoothed their shirts. Both turned to glare at Saph.

Okay. Now it was a 4v1. Should they start throwing chairs and stuff at Saph now?

Ignoring Jude for the moment, she snapped her fingers at the duplicates, who were both bemoaning being trapped in a classroom. It grabbed their attention rather quickly, and she motioned them over. Saph was just standing there, all smug and cocky, so she ignored him. Turning to look at Jude, she just about choked on her own tongue in surprise. There were two! Two lanky boys! One of her clones summed up her thoughts elegantly, by pointing a finger at him and squealing "Power thief!" at him.

To say she was surprised wasn't entirely wrong, there was a mix of emotions she was feeling. joy, excitement, anxiety, and maybe a pinch of jealously. With her clones following on her heels she marched over and attempted to instigate a huddle. Fist things first, though. Looking him dead in the eyes with a crooked smirk on her face. "Brat! It took me years to figure out how to do that." Keeping her voice hushed and low so only the two five of them could hear, the native wrinkled her nose at him in distaste, then peeked at Saph from over her shoulder.


"Alright... I know how this guy works. He's big and strong, but kinda daft. I bet you can out smart him." Given who he was, she could vividly recall acciden-- purposefully pegging him with a tear gas grenade in the past. Though she hadn't necessarily gotten away from that rumble unscathed, it had done quite a bit to inflate her ego. Then there was the fact that she had lots of training (mostly fighting herself, but whatever); she'd been snagged way before she was supposed to start fighting other people.

Then again, she was okay at brawling with Badger so long as she didn't tick him off too bad. Badger was big, strong, and just as annoying as the Xman was. Elke focused back on Jude. "Should I run as distraction?"

Well, that was interesting. The exact same power? No... that didn't make sense... He'd only seen blood relatives with powers that were activated in the same way; typically no two powers were exactly the same, even if they were blood relatives; from what he'd seen, this was exactly the same process.

The girl put it a little less elegantly than he would have. "Power thief!"

He reached back to the table. His hand found the newspaper he'd been reading. He guessed, given the teen's move to make skin contact, that if he were a power thief, that was how he did it. Slowly, casually, whilst whistling a tune, he rolled the newspaper up tightly. If he did absorb powers, and Saph had run into people who did just that in the past, he had to be careful not to make skin contact; His wasn't the type of power someone could just borrow; it very much could lead to the stealer killing themselves and anyone around them. Still, he'd probably have better luck with that... Moose's power was interesting, but not without it's flaws; he knew that because she'd tried to kill him before.

He wondered for a moment if Jude realized that the clones were always significantly less intelligent than their maker. Saph wasn't exactly singing praise for this kid's cleverness in the first place, so be was probably going into this a bit cocky He had to admit that to himself... It would be hilarious, though.

"Don't got all day, Adolf, you gonna run that blitz or can I take a nap. We can just skip to you cleaning every toilet in the school now, instead of after you run outa gas."

> "Power thief!"

He shrugged, both of him. Well, yeah.

Elke got over it. Sort of. So they huddled.

>"Brat! It took me years to figure out how to do that."

"Hey, it was challenging!" Did that sound defensive? He had experience with lots of different abilities so he kinda did have a leg up on that one. Anyway, that wasn't what this was about.

>"He's big and strong, but kinda daft. I bet you can out smart him."

"Ugh. So. No pressure?" Jude looked at the other Jude and then at all the Elkes. They were still at a disadvantage. "Okay. I don't know how his power works, but I sink if we surround him... Wait. Do you think he'd get in trouble for hitting us?" If his reputation was at all correct... no. But maybe they could slow him down?

>> "Don't got all day, Adolf, you gonna run that blitz or can I take a nap."

Jude extended one hand behind him and raised just oooone impolite finger to salute Saph. He could wait. This was war.

>"Should I run as distraction?"

"No. Wait. Yes." He wasn't sure what good it was to slow Saph down at first, but now it was clear what their real goal should be. "Do you see the room up high? Behind you? God room. You can change the environment without using stupid voice commands from there. Give me your doubles and I'll try to hold him? Then you can maybe change this classroom into something more fun. Worst case, we trap him in here and make a break for it."

He nodded at the other kids in the huddle. That was the best plan he could think up for the amount of time he'd been given. "Ready?"

The native shot him a incredulous look with one eye slightly squinted. He wanted to try and hold him off? Even with all the duplicates they had between them, it didn't seem like a great idea. "...Are you sure?"

With an unconvinced expression on still, she finally shrugged and caved. If he wanted to get creamed alone, she was fine with that. "Alright." She turned to her twins next and pointed a finger at him. "You two do everything he says, got it?" They nodded while sharing a nervous glance with each other. No one else had ever ordered them around before... would it be fun?

"Ready!" Whispering fiercely, she thrust a fist into the center of the pile and her clones were swift to follow. "Go!" Standing, she cast a glance up at the 'God box' Jude had mentioned, then around the walls.

... where the hell was the door?

Boy, they really were taking their time over there... Saphirus was starting to think they just might have the brains to think up a real plan... Well, not Elke.

Jude, though. He was an unknown factor. He had the blood of an X-man running through his veins, though, so the older mutant reminded himself it may be best not to underestimate them... He'd never live it up if they actually pulled a fast one on him...

The would-be sub took decided it best to lean against the desk, and mumble into it for some reason; he doubted the teens would even notice, being all absorbed in their huddle.

He then stood tall, kinda stiff, and gripped his news paper tightly. His face had taken on an almost grim, but emotionless expression.

When the ready, go was called, he started off by sprinting directly at them. He was fast. Scarily so. That little newspaper would start dealing out stinging blows like crazy.

None would be serious to leave more than temporary marks, but Saphirus knew the clones themselves tended to be whiny little babies above all else. He figured he really didn't have to actually hurt anyone to get his point across.

Jude turned and... WHAP! Right across the eyes. "Augh!" He reached for his stinging, watering eyeballs, but... wait. no! "Grab! Grab!" He probably sounded like a moron, but hey! He was the one who waded right all up into their huddle space.

Jude's clone mobbed forward. Not as slow as zombies but not fast enough to outrun a rage zombie either.

"Ow!"
"Ah!"
"Quit that!"

Jude couldn't be sure if it was him or his clone saying it because any time he didn't say it, he most certainly thought it.

He was just too fast. Like. Really, actually way too fast. Jude had planned on walking toward him without posing a threat and letting him make the first violent move. Well. He'd made the first violent move, alright.

Jude, real Jude, let the energy inside him grow again as he grabbed for (and missed) an arm that slapped by. Screw it. He threw himself at Saph's feet instead and let his arms and legs flail and kick and grab for Saph's legs and feet so that he officialyl became the world's most obnoxious obstacle. Then Jude threw as much of his power into activating Elke's ability again.

Blop. Why the heck did it not make that noise!?

Whap! "Argh! My EAR!" Whap! Whap! " Guh! Muh nobe!"

Faster than she could track, stinging paper-y slaps rained down on her. Her eyes watered and she threw herself to the ground as she clones started to pitch a fit at the treatment. Thankfully, instead of copying her, they started flailing back at the attack with arms and legs.

Belly-crawling out from under their feet, the native sprang to her feet the moment she was free and sprinted across the room. She needed to find that goddamn door and quickly.

Elke skidded to a halt in front of the wall. Behind her, Saph was wailing away at jude and the clones with... what was that, a newspaper? Really. He'd boxed her ears and nearly broken her nose off her face (not really) with the morning paper?!

Well, at least it wasn't the sunday edition.

She wriggled on the spot momentarily, wanting desperately to throw herself back into the fun. Damnit, why hadn't she just sent a clone instead?!

... the image of one of her twins running back and forth along the wall, demanding it to open in various ways sprang to mind, and she sighed. Running her hands along the wall to feel for bumps and edges, she started her task. surely if there was a door, she'd feel it... right?

Saph was unbeatable. When the clones tried to tangle him up, it was like he magically slipped right on out, delivering a few stinging snaps as if it were a sunny street, and he were the paper boy of pain. All the while he didn't speak a word, or even stop for breath. It was like they were stepping into a league that they had no business even glancing at.

Hax, yo.

If Jude were the astute sort, he might, after a few good whaps and exchanges, notice that the incredibly fast beast of a man he was currently combating may or may not have any power at all to steal.

Why would that be?

Well, Elke might soon find out, as touching the right space on the wall would just happen to make the door appear, and slide open silently. Looking into said door would reveal none other than Saphrius's keester, as he was bent down digging through what appeared to be a box of notes and scrap computer parts.

"c'mon... where the hell is that program code... I know it's here."

He'd been playing with the danger room a lot lately, preparing for trainee tryouts, and he'd found very few limits to what the danger room could do... If you used the right program, you could even step out of yourself, and let a high level combat simulation take over for you, so you could find a simulation to run on safe mode that could scare a couple stupid teens straight.

You could totally do all of that if you wanted to.

Slippery devil! Neither Jude nor Jude-thing-1 or Jude-thing-2 were able to catch any of Saph's legs. They were able to, with great efficiency, catch newspaper strikes to the face, arms, and shoulders.

After a stinging blow that left Jude's ear ringing, the teen had a realization: He didn't have to touch him to take Saph's power. The only other power to copy that was in easy range was Elke's and... well, he already had that one.

Jude took a step back with his hand to his ear to assess the situation and let his power off the hook. Once he stopped holding onto Elke's power so hard, his own greedy power slipped out like an invisible arm. It reached past his clones and breezed right on through Saph like he wasn't there.

Wha-?

Total hax!

He watched Saph thwop one of his other selves on the nose and he just didn't get it. His power plucked lazily at Elke and then it got reeeal interested in the doorway.

One of Elke's clones stumbled into Jude and he landed buttfirst in the chair behind him that the danger room had magically generated.

Wait.

He shoved Elke clone back into the fray.

Danger Room.

No power.

He was on the verge of a thought...

Yes! There it was! Jude stood and leveled an accusatory finger at the false Saph. "It's a fake! Forget him!" Could he throw the chair attached to the desk? He grabbed it, fully prepared to lob it at fake Saph's head, but... Yeah. No. "Mob the door!"