The X-Men: Volume One - Survival

The X-Men: Survival - Issue #3

Basement of X-Mansion, 10.a.m.

"You ready, Kitty?" asks Peter, reassuringly. Last time they trained in the Danger Room... well it didn't go as planned. They're a lot stronger and better prepared this time though, or at least that's what the pair of them had told Mr. Summers to convince him to let them do this.

"Yep, let's do it" she replies with some false confidence, as Bobby swaggers over to the couple.

"Alright, Kurt and I are in there with you, Ororo, Scott and Illyana will be watching and assessing your performance. Let's get out there and show them what we've got, as a team, yeah?" says Bobby.

"Sure thing, 'Iceman'" Kitty replies with a smirk. She wished she had an official codename, but only field operatives receive them, which is what her and Peter were training to become. Having lost Warren and Hank, the X-Men were a little short handed these days, and 'Shadowcat' and 'Colossus' were feeling ready to join the ranks.

They geared up; 'Iceman', 'Shadowcat' and 'Colossus' were to think on their feet to remove an unknown threat and also save Kurt, who was playing the hostage. Up in the observation deck, Scott is excited to unleash his design upon the team, that he's been working on for several months now. Beside him resides Headmistress Ororo Munroe, who remembers far back when she first used the Danger Room, along with Scott, Hank, Jean, Bobby, Warren and, of course, Professor Xavier. It was to help train his team of extraordinary students to defend against threats to Mutant-kind and humans alike, if it came to that.

5... 4... 3... 2...1... BEEP!

The X-Men burst into the room and take offence positions, but see nothing threatening initially. Kitty spots Kurt hanging from the ceiling in a cramped metal cage, electricity running through the bars. It must be stopping him using his powers, she figures. Her objective is to rescue Kurt while Bobby and Peter neutralise the hostile. She spots a generator connected to the cage, but as she's about to point this out, something humongous and robotic crashes down on top of them all!

Kitty and Bobby fall over dramatically, then scramble to their feet. Peter also gets knocked back but remains steady. He's the first to retaliate against the foe. He armours himself up as he slams into one of the creatures 8 mechanical legs and yanks it with all his considerable might. Metal meets metal, and an extremely loud screeching sound happens as the leg is torn from its hinges.

"Damn, Pete" exclaims Scott, while Ororo smirks. She has more confidence in the team's ability than most.

"Yes!" Illyanna says under her breath, cheering for her brother, not that he'd be able to hear her.

The team regain attack formation as the Spider-like beast circles around for a second attack, scuttling around the walls and defending it's hostage. Oil and mechanical pieces are leaking from it's severed limb. They get a better look at the giant critter of Scott's creation. It's not purely a spider. It has the body of a man attached to the torso of an 8, well... 7, legged being.

"A Drider...?" Bobby exclaims, mildly surprised. "Really Scotty?" he shouts towards the observation deck. "D&D creatures again?"

Scott chuckles at this, but straightens his face to tell him: "Focus on your objective, Bobby" through the speaker. "Do I need to remind you what that is?"

"No need to be a-!"

*THUMP*

The Drider whacks Bobby across the room with it's extended tail before he can finish his retort.

Kitty watches as Peter attacks before the Drider can reach Bobby, who is lying on the floor half-dazed. She's very glad to not be on the offensive for this exercise. Her mission is hostage extraction, not to deal this horrible spiders. She sprints over to the generator she previously spotted and figures it's easy enough.

'I've just gotta phase into the generator, disable it, open the cage and save the elf'

However, as she attempts to reach into the generator, her fingertips are met with warm, humming metal. She can't phase through.

'Scott is probably so smug right now' she thinks bitterly, glaring upwards at the observation deck. Sure enough, Scott notices her, as does Ororo, who glances over at him.

"What did you do Scott?" Ororo inquires.

"Little bit of reverse engineering of her powers. It's not very nice, I know, but they won't get liberties in the field"Scott replies, just a little bit proud of his mechanical accomplishments.

Beside them, Illyanna is engrossed by the fight. Bobby and Peter have taken to the tactic of freezing the Drider's limbs, then smashing them off with ease. Their only problem: Getting the damn thing to stay still. Kitty, searching her mind for ideas of how to rescue Kurt, see what her teammates are attempting to do.

'Freezing the metal then crushing it will destroy it, huh?', she thinks to herself, sparking an idea in her head.

"Hey", she yells at her team. "Let it come get me!"

Peter has the thing in headlock when he hears her call. "We've got this!" he calls back.

"Guys!" Kitty yells over the mechanical screeching of the creature trying to break free. "YOU need to save Kurt, and destroy that!" she shouts as she gestures heavily towards the power generator.

A little unsure, Peter and Bobby look at each other to confide, but as then do, Peter accidentally loosens his grip and Bobby isn't fully focused. The drider breaks free of them both and with a swift *SWISH* of its tail, swipes them across the room towards Kurt and the generator. As this happens, Kitty runs right into the middle of the room.

"Come at me!" she yells, antagonistically. "I really hope this works", she mutters, as the drider turns to face her.

Getting to their feet, Bobby and Peter are reluctant to leave the drider to Kitty alone, but they realise her plan. Bobby begins smothering the generator with a layer of hard ice and reassures Kurt, shouting "We're coming for ya buddy!" in his typical, overly-positive tone.

Meanwhile, Peter can only watch in horror as the Drider makes its aggressive charge for Kitty. As it's approaching her, she prepares herself, counting down in her head the distance.

'Okay 20m, 10m, now 5m, oh god 2m!'

"No!" shouts Peter desperately, positive that the Drider just crushed her. The Drider continues at full speed, directly into the opposing wall, making a colossal crash and magnificently exploding into a thousand nuts and bolts.

For a moment, even Ororo is thinking the worst. However, as some of the debris and smoke clears, Kitty is standing just where she was stood, completely unscathed.

'She phased through, of course!' Peter realises, just as Bobby yells "Now!" and Peter runs and jumps onto the generator.

*CRACKK*

With a colossal punch, Peter cracks all the ice and the machine that it encompassed. The electricity fizzling through the metal bars of the cage halts.

"Yay! Woohoo!" Ilyanna shouts, jumping up and down and clapping for their victory. Ororo and Scott also feel very proud of their teams accomplishment, not that Scott necessarily show it.

Peter runs over to Kitty at speed and picks her up with a giant hug.

"I almost thought I'd lost you" he caringly says.

"I'm not going anywhere" she responds.

They both hear a familiar BAMF and then feel Kurt's arms and tail encompassing them both.

"Nice job, you guys" the fuzzy blue man says with his thick German accent.

"Thanks, Elf" Kitty replies softly.