She watched him climb from a distance. He was doing surprisingly good, for a guy who was using crutches. She wondered how serious his injury was, and whether DocProf was going to bust her ass later for lalowing him to train. Oh well. If thiy guy wanted a chance at making the X team, he had to be prepared to endure some pain.

So far, so good.

Maya moved silently among the bushes and trees, keeping an eye on him - it was not hard, he might have been a good climber but he sure as hell was making a noisy work of it.

Leaving him to climb for a while she moved away; this was not the first time she used this scenario, she knew exactly where to find her weapons of choice. The only question was, what she was going to use them for...

Breaking the stereo type for his nationality, he continued to climb up the tree in his unique fashion. Upon getting high enough in the tree where he wouldn't have to worry about his crutches getting knocked off easily, he started to nudge them in the bows to form a comfortable spotting point. He might be a bit sloppy right now, but this was life, work with what you got.

The squinted eyes in the tree gazed about quickly, getting an abbreviated version of his surroundings. There were tons of trees, endless at times. How far this went or not was something he couldn't know for sure, but he could easily conclude, he was in a jungle. "I've turned into freaking George of the Jungle. His fingers quickly went to work as he started to pull vines and leaves free from the tree and start covering his crutches. Blend in, don't stick out. This was like a giant paintball gun war, and he just needed to bunker out till he could get ammo.....what could he use in a jungle?

Armed with bow and a quiver full of arrows, and stylish war paint on her cheeks, Maya returned to the jungle, slipping silently from shadow to shadow. It was good to be cautious, even though as far as she knew, they were alone in the jungle.
For another ten, fifteen minutes at least.

He was still up a tree. Impressive. The guy was on crutches, but he could still climb. And camouflage too, obviously, since if she didn't know where he was, she would have easily missed him, vines and all. Talk about being one with nature, and a whole bunch of insensitive jokes.

Pulling an arrow from the quiver, she found herself a position that allowed an opening between trees and bushes to aim at the buy perched on the tree. She considered the distance and the angle for a few moments, before she let the arrow fly, and strike a branch a few feet away from Hokee.

With one crutch completely disguised, he was busy at work getting the second one all set up. With a rustle in the leaves, his eyes flickered about wildly as an arrow, a freaking arrow went and jammed itself into a branch not far from him at all. "What the hell, is Pocahontas all up in here?" Who in their right mind would shoot arrows up into a tree where he was......no that stupid chick couldn't have been the one that did that, could see?

Lowering his body to lay flat on the branch, he left the crutches to the side as he pulled his body across the tree to where the arrow was snugly stuck into the bark. Wrapping his legs around the branch, his hands went to work on the arrow. He certainly didn't have a weapon, and if he was going to have arrows flying up at him, he best take what he could to use for himself. He certainly wasn't the bow and arrow type, more of the can of spray paint and run in the shadows type. Knives he could deal with, or in his case it seemed today an arrow, that was if he pulled it out smoothly.

It took some work, but he managed to get the arrow free with the tip in tack. Taking the shaft of the arrow in his mouth, he shimmied backwards to return to his home position. He needed to figure out a plan and quickly, if not he might turn into a sitting duck. Keeping the arrow in his mouth, his fingers went quickly to work to finish off the last crutch. His location was known, he needed to move and be swift about it.

Wrapping his hand around a vine, or what he thought was one, he was slightly shocked to feel muscles flexing in the palm of his hand. With a quick look, he knew he wasn't the only one in the tree. Big, massive snake. Great. Doing the only thing he could think of, he took a hold of one of the crutches and started to smack at the large snake. With any luck he might be able to use the serpent to his advantage. Of course getting smacked wasn't a happy feeling for the snake, and it soon lunged out at the dreadlocked lad. One good smack with the crutch and the snake started to free fall down through the tree.

Locating a real vine this time, he took extra care in testing the strength of it. Satisfied, he set up a knot he could use with the crutch to make a quicker decent down. Taking the arrow out of his mouth, the teen snapped it and started to shove the fragment into the rubber stopper. Not exactly a real weapon, but the tip on an extended crutch was better than nothing. Resourceful, he needed to be resourceful right now. Holding the armed crutch like a paintball gun, he loaded himself up on his Rambo crutch swing. Time for some aerial assault.

The guy was obviously improvising, but he was not panicking. Brownie points for the rookie. Maya waited until he retrieved the arrow. She couldn't make out exactly what he was doing up there, but he seemed to be busy. Slipping around the tree she found herself another position to fire from.

A snake fell down from the tree. Whoops. it was not like something could really poison him in the DR, but many people would still have freaked out more than he did. Maybe he was not just talk after all.

She watched him for a few moments longer before she let the second arrow fly, and strike much closer than the first one did. She could get them back from him later; right now she just wanted to make him feel on edge. Whatever li'l Tarzan was doing up there, he was running out of time.

Working his way down the tree by using the vine tied to one of the crutches, he soon found himself having a close by encounter with another arrow. Things getting lo close to him now. The shot couldn't be just pure luck, this took some real skill. He needed to find the source of the arrows and take it out. Stupid jungle though, he wasn't familiar with his surroundings at all and it was vastly different then what he was used to. Climbing trees in the Reservation certainly didn't have big huge snakes all up in them. This was just messed up. Taking the arrow, he held it within his teeth, with any luck he could figure out how to use them later.

Down on the ground, he left the crutch attached to the vine. He could get it later, all he needed was one, and with just one he'd be a lot faster. Getting low to the ground, he was soon on his belly diving into thick jungle floor shrubbery. The crutch soon became hidden to the naked eye. Carefully using the elements in his favor, he started to let his skin shift about to camouflage into the darkness. Delicately he pulled off the Speedo and tucked it under his chest. Fully nude, fully invisible.

Now where the hell did he go?...

Maya was still not sure what the kid's powers were. Had they been of any use for walking or climbing, he would have displayed them by now, so that left only... a few hundred other options.

Crouching down in her position, she put another arrow on the string and listened. Really listened, filtering out the usual sounds of the forest - and there was a lot - and quieting her breathing and the adrenaline strating to build up the drumming in her ear. Seconds were trickling by.

"Hokee?" she called, and then she moved, silent as ever, just in case he tried to locate her by her voice. Keep moving, always keep moving "Hokee, there's somethin' ya need to know. We're not alone in here."

It was working, a successful hide. Rather proud of himself for the improvised work, this gave the teen the time he needed to work out some sort of plan on what he was going to do. The mission inside this freakish jungle was still unknown, survival just seemed to be the only thing he could do. He knew enough to know that at least with the wildlife in the woods, you stay still enough things should leave you alone. There was another plus side to his location right now, it was giving his body some time relax after all the hard work he did to climb up the blasted tree to begin with.

In ideal conditions, he wouldn't have needed crutches, but he didn't want to hobble around the mansion doing nothing. Yes there was always the option of a quick heal, but at the same time that wasn't an option. When did he ever have that option before in life, never. Break a bone here, sprain something there, this was just the life style one lived when you free run. Healing took time, and in that time he was getting dirt on how things worked. Now he was literally laying in dirt, funny how things worked out the way they did.

Hearing his name called out, oh it was a beautiful sound. Was it possible there was an edge of concern in the voice? Looked like girly was missing him already. Well she would just have to wait a bit longer before he'd grace her with his presence. It was a pity his body still wasn't exactly 100% better from the crash, but why let that stop him. This just gave a more even playing field for her, or more likely a better chance of surviving him. Climbing up the tree was sloppy, but hiding, this was perfect. Let his body do what it did best, why not use his mutation for something good, that is other then graffiti.

The squinted eyes watched very closely to what was going on. He just needed to wait for her to pass him first, then he could strike. Lure her in, false sense of security and BAM he could spring into action. Resting on the ground hidden was giving him that perfect opportunity to recover and prepare. Nothing like the rush of anticipation! Soon enough he could see the feminine feet. Oh his time was going to come real soon. Your mine girly.

She got exactly what she expected. Nothing.
The guy was good.
Well.
Better than she'd expected. He probably learned to trust no one, just like she did, back on the streets. She knew how he was thinking. Survival.

"I know you can hear me." her voice was lower now, and her eyes scanning the surroundings. She was not looking for him. She had a vague idea where he was.

"You don't trust me. Great job. Achievement unlocked."

Stepping slowly, she tilted her head in the pauses between her words, trying to catch a warning sound.

"But you need to know something: this training program was designed for X-men training. And the X-men are a team. You can get through this alone, or you can team up with whoever else is in here, that's just how the program works."

The forest was quiet. Almost as if waiting.

"Hokee? Ever read the Hunger Games? It has been all the rage lately..."

Don't trust people...yeah like he needed a trip to the jungle to learn that one. Welcome to the day of an average kid who lives in the Reservation. Trust was not something to take lightly. It was to easy to turn things over to your own advantage, way to easy. With the way girly pants was talking, it seemed more like a boy scouts expedition or some arcade game then whatever it was they were supposed to be doing here. He could see her clearly now, one good strike and he could take her to the ground.

Team up...group effort. Gag reflex for sure on that one. Wasn't the whole point of going down here to show sissy pants he could take her out? Team up, team up! An arrow in his own ass would be a better option, unless......naw it wasn't likely going to happen. Now there was another option, team up with whoever else was in there. Who was in there? He certainly didn't recall another person waltzing in with him, and wouldn't the jungle get all funky shaking or something if another person joined them? This really sucked not knowing how the room worked, majorly.

He could team up with her or wait for a better option. Though there was no absolute guarantee the others in there would be human looking. Getting stuck teaming up with a half lizard would be worse then taking a ride up a flag pole by the seams of his pants. He was going to be stuck with her, this was not cool. His top jaw clamped down against the bottom. Things could be worse, he could be stuck in there with the monkey girl.

The last statement was a joke in its own. Read. Yeah right. The only thing he read was car magazines, mostly to check out the babes and second to check out the cars....and magazines he shouldn't have access to at his age. Hunger Games, what was that, some mutant cookbook? Wrapping his fingers around the camouflage crutch he gave a thrust out at the leg aiming to give a nice thwack on the calf.

She heard the rustling a split second before the crutch hit her calf. Damn the guy was good at camouflage. Was that an ability? She had not seen anything like that since Twyla. That thought alone was enough to make her wince.

It was too late to completely move out of the way, but she managed to shift her weight just enough to not fall on her butt. Stumbling back her back hit a tree as she stared down at the crutch, barely able to make out whoever was holding it.

"There ya are." she was not pointing the arrow in his direction, but she had it on the string. She would not shoot the newb, and the newb probably knew that all too well. She needed the weapon for other purposes.

"Now that ya've tagged me, can we start playing the game?"