Blood || Bullets (Husk, closed)

[Ethan Jaeger]

Serenity. It was really the best word to describe it. Even with the roaring thunder of crashing water, the scene beneath him was nothing short of tranquility incarnate. Balancing on the edge of the waterfall, Ethan let his eyes wander across the valley below, breathing deep of the warm summer air. It was a far throw from the world outside, where cold winter air and pollution battled over supremacy. But not here. No, not here. Here, everything was so much easier, simple. It never rained if you didn't want it to, never grew cold unless you wished it.

If there really was a heaven, he wouldn't be surprised if it was something like this room. Becoming whatever you wanted in an instant, morphing and changing to your every whim, ready to satisfy whatever you wished.

Rolling his shoulders, Ethan took another deep breath, closing his eyes as he let the simplicity of the make believe world around him wash away the lingering remorse. Then, with no further ado, he swan dived off the cliff, arms stretched wide as he leaped out into nothing.

For a second, he felt like he was floating in thin air, like the world stopped and took his thoughts with it. For a split second, there was no guilt, no remorse, no doubts. In that one, single moment, the last four years were gone, washed away. No longer did thoughts of what he'd done plague him. He didn't wonder if he'd had a choice, didn't wonder if maybe he wasn't supposed to have survived that hell. In that single moment, he knew he'd done the right thing, the only thing, he could have done.

With infinite slowness, he began to fall. The wind yanked at his clothes as he crashed downwards, body slowly twisting into a dive as he plummeted toward the water below. A few seconds later and he pierced the surface like an arrow, feeling the pleasant coolness of the water surround him, turning him weightless as he slowly sank downward.

In here, he could just let go, release all that pent up rage, frustration, fear, uncertainty and doubt. He could give in to the hate and anger that was eating him up inside, lose himself in the frenzy of mindless, cathartic violence and no worry about hurting somebody, not come to and find that he'd added yet another innocent to his list of victims, another corpse in his wake. No, the people here were meant to die. They were ghosts, mere whispers of men, cardboard cutouts with no past or purpose but to draw his anger and fall to his rage. In here, he could fight his war against himself and not worry about the consequences.

Pushing through the water, he broke the surface, wadding through the water as he walked up onto the beach, his now dripping gray T-shirt clinging to his chest, followed by his black cargo pants that showed themselves to be just as soaking wet as the rest of him. His bare feet slipped slightly against the wet rock, but he managed to maintain his balance without stumbling.

Least the 'mission' of this thing was pretty simple. Go through the valley, find some ancient temple or some such and retrieve the big golden relic inside.

Still, Ethan had already gone through enough of these to know that whoever the guy who've made them was, he was one sneaky sadist. There was always something they didn't tell you about, be it screaming ninjas jumping from the ceilings or shape shifters pretending to be the hostage. One time, they'd even had some kind of power disabling field going, which had been a less then pleasant surprise when he'd tried to defend himself.

Almost of it's own accord, his hand drifted toward his hip, checking to make sure that the reassuring weight of the handgun was still there. Reassured that he was armed, Ethan raised his hand to his face, focusing and watching with practiced indifference as a silver liquid seemed to spread from his fingertips and down his hand, turning the appendage a metallic silver before it started morphing and twisting, shifting without settling on any one shape for long before returning to flesh and blood a mere moment later.

Experimentally flexing his fingers before absentmindedly running them through his now wet hair, Ethan's gaze began scanning the nearby trees for his new partner, whom he'd seemed to have lost when the simulation began, brow furrowing when he couldn't spot her.

Where the hell she go off to?

[Paige Guthrie]

He was one of those dark, brooding types. Paige hadn't really talked to him yet, nothing beyond a few words at a time, but she'd seen him around. Looked for him to be around, even, although hell would freeze over before she admitted as much. Most of the time he kept himself apart from the rest of them, like he thought himself too good to sink to their level, but Paige didn't think that was the reason. On those occasions when she'd had the opportunity to study him without worrying about being caught immediately his expressions had tended to be either angry or depressed. Sometimes even managing to be both at once. Overall it gave him a rather dark, broody air that most girls found thoroughly attractive...Paige was no exception but, once again, you'd never catch her admitting it.

Thanks to this, when she was teamed up with him for this Danger Room session the Kentucky girl's glee had been twofold. First and foremost, she never turned down an opportunity for a workout within the high-tech room. Never. Secondly, she'd get a chance to be in close proximity with the hunk, and what girl in her right mind would say no to that? Maybe she'd even get an answer to some of the questions that had been formulating in her mind, although it was doubtful that she'd come right out and ask. Paige had learned some small bit of tact in recent months...not enough for most people, she was sure, but some was better than none.

Ethan had seen fit to go for a quick dip before beginning any real work, and despite the fact that he was sexy as all get-out the blonde had settled immediately into 'mission-mode', so to speak. While he played around, she had scouted out the immediate area to get a sense for what they might be up against. While stealth was not a strong suit of her powers, as a regular girl she wasn't too bad a hand at it...she had enjoyed seeing how close she could get to wild animals before they spooked when she was at home. However, it seemed that her bit of skill was useless and pointless in this instance, since she had discovered nothing at all. No one had jumped out at her, nor had she seen anyone, there were no traps...had she not known that this was supposed to be a mission at some point or another she would have sworn the whole purpose was just to relax and have some fun.

Striding back through the trees to where she had left her partner, Paige paused while she was still partially hidden to watch him climb out of the natural pool. God, he looked even better when he was wet. Sternly she forced herself to focus on the real reason she was here (and that was not to gawk, unfortunately), helped along by the small display of his powers. Metallic shape-shifting? Interesting.

Realizing that he was looking around for her, Husk stepped out of the treeline, Hellions uniform clinging almost uncomfortably close to every inch of her frame. She would have chosen something a little different to wear, had it not been for the fact that her uniform was the only piece of clothing she owned that wouldn't be ruined by her mutation. As cool as it was, it could also be damned inconvenient. Drawing even with him, clear blue eyes focused on his brown ones...oh was that distracting. Focus on what you're doing or you'll look like an idiot, she reminded herself sternly. "Whatever's waitin' for us, it's not hangin' around here. Ah didn't see anythin' out of place, no people, no traps...nothin'. Felt a bit watched once or twice, but that's just because Ah know we will be sooner or later." Six months had produced a major difference in her accent, a difference that pleased the blonde immensely. It had softened greatly, becoming less glaringly obvious. It lingered still in the way she dropped her 'g's and elongated her 'i's and occasionally mashed some words together, but that was much, much better than when she had first left the backwoods town she called home.

Eyebrow cocked slightly, she waited to see if he had any sort of plan in mind for this little exercise. She, of course, was already mulling over a few different approaches, but she had also learned (sometimes painfully) that she was not going to be the leader all the time. Damn it.

[Ethan Jaeger]

She was one of those strong, vocal types. He'd seen her around a few types, watching her pass by while getting this unshakable feeling she was watching him back. All his imagination, of course. Downside of living in a warzone, you developed this horrible paranoia. Cause no girl, especially not one as outgoing, gorgeous and sane as Paige would ever give a second glance, much less a solid stare, to a guy like him. Sure, he supposed he looked good enough, but he had no doubts that his past was already circulating around the rumor mill, and he doubted Paige was the kinda girl that went for the psychopathic serial killer.

Still, he had to admit that when he'd heard he was gonna be sharing the Danger Room with her, Ethan, despite his solitary bend, hadn't been that opposed to the idea. Even though he knew he was never gonna get to do anything but look, an eyeful of Paige was more then enough. She had this whole Amazonian air about her, and Ethan found that quite enticing. From what he'd seen, and heard, of Paige she wasn't the kinda girl to sit down and shut up. Which was far more interesting then this school's score of politically correct, socially aware butterflies that never said a word without running it through fifteen filters to make sure there wasn't anything even remotely possible of being offensive.

And she was just plain hot. Really hot. Really, really hot. With curves in all the right places and none in the wrong, beautiful blue eyes and a body to die for, even the blind could see that Paige... well, Paige was stunningly gorgeous.

It was girls like her that made him wished that he had some more experience in what could be called stable relationships. He'd had girls, sure, but he'd never really 'dated' any of them. Dating just wasn't something you did in the District, 'least not if you were a gangbanger. You had sex, you made out. But it was just lust, anxiety release. Nothing more, and that wasn't exactly the kinda thing that helped you build healthy relationships, now was it?

As Paige emerged from the treeline, Ethan had to curb his instincts and not reach for his gun. God, he hated his life. Still, any resentment was quickly washed away as his eyes meet hers, brown orbs locking with her blue ones, only to have him quickly lower his gaze. You really like tormenting me, don't you? he thought, aiming his mind at whatever higher power decided to mock him with all the things he was never gonna get.

"Whatever's waitin' for us, it's not hangin' around here. Ah didn't see anythin' out of place, no people, no traps...nothin'. Felt a bit watched once or twice, but that's just because Ah know we will be sooner or later."

"Yeah, there's bound to be trouble sooner or later. Well, no point standing around I suppose." Ethan said, his voice just as dark, grim and brooding as the rest of him.

Beginning to walk the only way he could, namely down the road-like valley ahead of them, Ethan kept his hand hovering close to his gun and his eyes peeled. Yet, after about two minutes of nothing, the silence started growing more awkward then tense.

"So... Kansas, right?" he said lamely, kicking himself for it before he'd even finished the sentence.

[Paige Guthrie]

"Yeah, there's bound to be trouble sooner or later. Well, no point standing around I suppose."

He had looked down after just a moment of meeting her gaze, a reaction that puzzled the girl. Surely he wasn't the shy type. While she had heard a few things concerning his time before the institute, Paige rarely paid attention to rumors. She was a factual girl, not one of those ridiculous, stereotyped blondes with little but air between their ears. When she heard it from his own mouth she'd start giving those rumors a little more credit, but until that happened it was basically a bunch of bunk. And since she had no concrete plans for overwhelming him with questions about it at the moment, it could be a while before she gave a rat's ass about his past and what it made him.

On the other hand, his apparent plan of action left no room for doubt and was one she whole-heartedly supported. Paige tended to favor the straight-forward approach in the Danger Room as well as outside it, so she had no reason to argue. He was getting more appealing by the moment, now wasn't he? Falling into step as they marched towards their goal, herded along by the lack of anywhere else to go, Paige allowed her thoughts to be a bit too preoccupied with Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome. At least it was just her brain that was stuck on the subject...she managed to keep her eyes focused in other directions on the pretext of keeping a lookout for danger. She was paying some attention to that too, of course...just enough so that if something jumped out at them she wouldn't be completely taken aback. That was about the best she could hope for at the moment.

"So... Kansas, right?"

Consumed by other thoughts, Paige missed that at first, the words filtering through only after a noticable pause. Once she had comprehended what he was saying she turned her head to give him a slightly confused look that melted into her signature half smile. "Don't travel much?" Make light of the cute boy's blunder. Made things easier. She could always take that for a mark of how much her accent had been reduced, she supposed. "Kentucky, actually. From the middle of nowhere. Literally." Dry humor laced her tone, although it wasn't really all that funny to the girl who had lived with the associated stigmas all her life. That, however, wasn't his fault.

"You're a city-boy, though, ain'tcha?" Maybe those questions about his past would be answered a little sooner than she thought. At least a couple of them, anyway. By the time she got to anything of substance they'd be eyeball-deep in imaginary enemies, which had a tendency to limit the conversation one could have. Speaking of... "What exactly are we lookin' for in here, anyway?" Yeah, maybe she should have paid a little more attention beforehand.

[Ethan Jaeger]

This was different. He'd never been very good at the social game, and that was when he was hanging out with social misfits and borderline psychopaths. Now, here, he was even more out of his element then before. The fact that he was talking to a rather attractive girl didn't do much to ease his discomfort either. It wasn't shyness and discomfort. He'd spent so long in a different world he'd forgotten how you were supposed to act and behave in this one. He said things he shouldn't and didn't say things he should, and for the life of him he couldn't figure out why it was wrong. To his warped mind, it made sense, but apparently he was so twisted it didn't make sense to anyone else.

Like accents, for example. He couldn't even tell the difference between a Texan and an Englishman anymore, not even the overdone fake ones. Luckily Paige wasn't being an ass about it. Well, not too much of an ass about it.

"Don't travel much?"

Talk about understatement of the year. He hadn't been out of District X since he got there four years ago. Not terribly surprising really. Wasn't like you got any paid vacation as a gangbanging thug, and the very idea of getting enough money to leave was laughable. If he'd had that much money, he'd been out of there a long time ago, loyalty to the Warclan be damned.
"No, really don't."[/color] he replied tersely, though he didn't sound that offended, or at least tried not to.

"Kentucky, actually. From the middle of nowhere. Literally."

Kentucky? Damn, that was in the middle of nowhere. His grasp of geography and national politics wasn't that great, but even he knew that nothing ever happened in Kentucky. It was like you knew it was there, but it never really did anything. The kind of state you moved to if you really, really wanted to drop off the radar. Still, he supposed it wasn't that bad. Drowsy and boring, sure, but he knew he'd kill for boring six months ago. Then again, he'd killed for a pair of shoes so he supposed that wasn't saying much.

"There's worse places to live." Ethan remarked honestly. "Lot worse."

Hey, he was managing this stuff pretty well. He didn't seem to have insulted her yet, which was no small feat to a man who'd used the end of a barrel as his primary method of communication for the last four years.

"You're a city-boy, though, ain'tcha?"

"District X." He suspected no more needed to be said. Most people had at least a vague sense about what went on in the District, and he wasn't really in the mood to wax poetically about what he'd done or how he'd lived. It wasn't really the New York lifestyle, but it wasn't exactly the kinda place that fostered a broad, global awareness. You had enough problems taking care of yourself, last thing you needed was to worry about global warming or war in some European country nobody cared about or whatever.

Still, apart from the short trip down memory lane, Ethan was kinda enjoying this. Compared to his usual conversations, this was downright normal. It was... nice, calming in it's total and utter normality.

"If I got it right, there's supposed to some sort of temple around here, and inside there's some great big sword or relic or something. We get the sword, we win." he said as he glanced at her once more, his eyes involuntarily running up and down her form, taking in every curve. God, this girl was gorgeous, and sorta charming, to be honest. Not that he had much to go on, honestly, but he liked what he'd seen so far. Plus, the accent was kinda of a turn on.

Not that he had any illusions about the fact that he had a snowball's chance in hell of ever getting to be anything to this girl. She was normal, he was a killer. Apparently, girls didn't want to date murders. Gosh, big surprise.

Just as Ethan was about to continue berating himself inside his own mind, he noticed something. Or rather, someone, just past Paige head. A man, decked out in camouflage clothing and combat vest, standing on a small outcropping with a very real looking rifle in his hand that was currently pointing right at them.

In an instant, Ethan's brain switched tracks, slipping into that cold, ruthless mindset that reacted rather then thought. Twisting, Ethan wrapped his right arm around Paige and spun her around, putting himself between her and the shooter and pulling her close in the process. Meanwhile, he felt the familiar cold feeling spreading across his back as thin metal plates grew beneath his skin, giving him a metallic undertone. Then, he felt the familiar sting as bullets hit his back, pinning off the metal sheeting underneath a few thin layers of skin, failing to even draw blood.

Wasting no time, he then turned, right arm still around Paige as his left went up, twisting and morphing to his silent call, calling up schematics and blueprints of it's own accord, six thick barrels pushing out from where his hand used to be, metal plating bristling along his arm. Then, with a mere thought he opened fire, throwing more then a dozen rounds into the air within a second, tearing the man into shreds before he ever had a chance to react.

Turning his head to the stunning woman that his brain was slowly starting to realize was standing very, very close, he saw the rest of them. More then ten more of the would-be soldiers, all brandishing guns and knives, rushing down the gorge toward them.

"So...." Ethan began as his other arm began to adapt the same cold, metal covering of it's twin "What's your power?"

Now, if he could only keep his mind off the hotness that was Paige and on the fight, this be a cakewalk. Unfortunately, there was... points of contact that were currently making that particular prospect rather difficult.

[Paige Guthrie]

"No, really don't."

A brow lifted at that. Touchy, wasn't he? Strange. But it wasn't like this boy was all that normal, really, even for a mutant. She'd let that pass without a smart comment. This time. His comment about worse places to live than Kentucky was not commented upon either, although she scoffed inwardly. Yes, theoretically there were lots of places that were worse to live in than her nice home in the boonies. But when you were actually living there, it was hard to remember that. At the mention of District X she made a soft noise that could have meant just about anything. To her it was thoughtful, as she processed that information and it's possible ramifications before filing it away, but to him it could have been any of a dozen things.

"If I got it right, there's supposed to some sort of temple around here, and inside there's some great big sword or relic or something. We get the sword, we win."

"A sword?" She snorted a little at that, glancing at him to make sure she had heard correctly -- which, of course, she had. "A little medieval, ain't it? Or maybe a lost episode of Indiana Jones." Which, to be honest, Paige actually liked. All the adventure plus an added bonus of having to use his brain...her perfect movie. Before she had a chance to mention anything else along the same vein, things began to happen rather fast. Before she even had a chance to wonder what suddenly captured Ethan's attention, his arm was around her waist pulling her around, and the sound of bullets pinging off of his back filled her ears. Dang he was fast with that shifting, wasn't he?

Without even appearing to think about it, his arm had taken the shape of a gun itself, spewing out ammunition to fall the idiot who had taken a shot at them. It was about this time that her brain caught up with what had actually happened and she felt her cheeks flush. Not because she was pressed embarrassingly close to him (okay, well a little bit of that) but because she had just been placed in the position of damsel in distress and there was nothing Paige hated more. She knew this was a mission, knew that they would have to fight, and yet she allowed herself to be distracted and had stopped really paying attention. And now she looked like she couldn't take care of herself. Damn it!

Luckily, there were more simulated foes heading towards them at all speed, which meant a chance for her to take out some of this newly born anger and prove that she was a big girl all at the same time. She stepped away from Ethan in one abrupt movement...perhaps too abrupt, but that couldn't be helped now. She was not going to stand around and let him think she lacked the ability to take care of herself.

"So....What's your power?"

Keeping a wary eye on the approaching mob, Paige took another step back, already internally debating the choice that lay before her. Rubber was out, since it wasn't always that good at repelling bullets despite it's other qualities. So, metal or diamond? Either would present adequate protection against the firearms...what the hell. Might as well kick ass in style, right? With but a thought she could feel the new skin forming under her current one, the itch that could only be taken care of by shedding.

So she did.

With the ease of much practice, Paige grabbed hold of her skin and pulled, tearing away the top layer to reveal glittering diamond underneath. Her old skin was dropped unceremoniously onto the ground, while cold, hard lips parted in a brief grin. "It ain't quite as handy as guns, but it works for me." She had transformed just in time, of course, as their foes decided to start opening fire on them. Always pleasant, the feel of bullets pinging off of you. At least they were pinging, rather than making her into swiss cheese. Ethan, she supposed, would hang back and return fire with their enemies, but she had to get her hands dirty. And not just because she wanted to.

With a whoop, the Kentucky girl took off to create a ruckus, diamond hands fisted and at the ready.

[Ethan Jaeger]

This... this he was good at. He was practically made for it, wasn't he? With evolution having granted him the power to form nothing but weapons and armor, it wasn't exactly hard to imagine just what it had intended him to do with it. Not like guns, bombs and bullets had that many alternate applications beyond creating big sucking chest wounds and blood loss, now was it? No, both destiny and nature had made it quite clear that it wanted him on the front lines, and it seemed that he had little choice left in the matter. Even at Xavier's, it seemed violence was as much a part of his life as it had been in the District. He couldn't escape it, and to be honest he wasn't sure he even wanted to. It seemed it was the only thing he was really good at, the only thing he could do better then almost anyone. He was born for it, breed for it, trained for it and he'd lived for it. Might as well face it, he was always gonna be a warrior, a soldier. Only choice he had left was what to fight for.

He watched, with equal parts morbid fascination and disgusted admiration, as Paige started... shedding. Okay, that was new. He'd always suspected Paige had a somewhat different power, considering she called herself Husk rather then something bland like Iceman or Pyro. However, he'd expected something like growing armor, not ripping out of her own skin and turning into some bizarre diamond lady. It was kinda gross yet... cool, somehow. It was certainly unique, at any rate, and a far more interesting power then telepathy or making ice. And even when semi-transparent and made of diamond, Paige still looked good. No, he had to keep focused, eyes on the ball.

Raising his arm to fire again, Ethan found his line of sight suddenly blocked by the dazzling diamond that was currently Paige. While she seemed to be handling the bullets thrown at her without any apparent problems, Ethan saw no reason to fire blindly into the fray, especially since he had no idea what his, less then standard bullets, would do to her. Besides, he'd always liked the up close kill. Charging forward after Paige, his arm started morphing his Gatling gun to something a little more accurate, barrels shifting and morphing as it formed a twisted mess of black cables and disturbingly organic projectors glowing with a slow, intimidating green. As he closed the distance, the oncoming bullets slipping across his new, metallic skin like water, the grazing hits sending sparks flying off him, their enemies seemed to grow more and more frantic, shooting wildly and swinging their rifles in failed attempt to hit the both of them. Amateurs, Ethan mentally sneered as he raised his new rifle and fired, a shapeless mass of green energy shooting from the largest barrel and rocketed towards one of the men, who just managed to leap into a roll as the projectile narrowly missed his head, hitting the trunk of a tree behind, the bark quickly beginning to smoke and sizzle, green glow lining the edges of it's new fist sized crater.

However, any luck on the man's part was cut short as Ethan charged him, greeting him with a swift side kick to the face the second he got back on his feet before continuing the onslaught with a hook kick. The man staggered to his knees, and Ethan's free arm came down on his like a sledgehammer, a thick blade extending across his wrist and straight down into the man's spine with a sick crunching sound as it slipped through. Ethan vaguely remembered when sounds like that had bothered him, but he was already feeling the adrenaline slip into his veins, washing away any thought even remotely resembling doubt or hesitation.

He caught the shadow of movement in his eye and turned, spotting the man with the rifle raised and ready, spotting him through the transparent skin of Paige, who was caught squarely between them. Ethan raised his arm, pointing it straight at Paige as he spoke, coldly uttering a single word, "Duck" as he fired. He watched Paige respond, the glowing green orb flying above her with mere inches to spare. He saw a look of surprise and shock spread across the man's gaunt face, slack jawed as the blast hit it's mark, knocking the man off his feet and sending him corkscrewing into the air. Then, in mid flight, his body began to break apart, eaten away by green energy that spread like wildfire, leaving nothing but ash behind, scattering to the wind without ever even hitting the ground.

The world was starting to make sense again. Here, in the eye of the storm, he was at home. Out in the real world, he was lost, trembling in darkness, unsure of what to do or how do go about it. But not here. No, not here. Here, he was at home. This was his world, his element, his domain. He knew what to do, without uncertainty, without doubt, without fear. All that melted away, gone with every trouble that the real world entailed. In here, there was just the fight, just the undeniable fact that he was gonna live, win, survive. Like the man he used to be was just a disguise, a illusion, something he thought he was between moments of clarity. Nothing here but the rage and the wrath, no lies, no guilt. Just the clarity that existed in the spaces between gunshots, the thrill of the kill that nestled deep in his heart and refused to let go since the first time he'd killed. All the questions that plagued his mind found their answers here, in a truth so pure it had no words. He was the End at the tip of a sword, Death at the end of a barrel. He was Ares, god of war, the embodiment of conflict, strife incarnate.

Every second was dragging out, lasting a lifetime. His body moved like a machine, precise and direct, every sensation heightened thousandfold. He lived a life within a single heartbeat, every move driven by clarity unasked for, moving with absolutely certainty of what to do next, his aim perfect.

This was where he belonged. This was where he was meant to be. He was made for this, meant for it.

Born for it.

[Paige Guthrie]

Paige loved to fight. Ever since she could remember she'd been doing it in one fashion or another, whether it was a heated argument about bedtime with her parents or rolling around in the dirt with the schoolyard bully. Or, even more commonly, rolling around in the dirt with one of her numerous siblings. Fighting was in her blood...maybe because she did have such a large family. Survival of the fittest and all that, right? A girl had to protect her position at the top of the food chain, lest younger siblings capitalize on any sign of weakness. It didn't really help matters that she had a bit of a temper, too.

Despite all that, however, Paige would never contest the fact that Ethan beat her in this arena. Everything about him seemed to be geared towards killing someone, from the machine gun hands to the dark and taciturn air he seemed to have permanently adopted. Never let himself get close to anyone, and all that. She had wondered before today if he kept himself apart because he liked being apart from people, or because he felt it was a punishment fitting the crime, whatever crime he felt himself to have committed. Watching him today, a graceful, elegant killing machine, she had a feeling it was the latter. Paige could have happily sat in the observation section of the Danger Room and watched him work, free to study and mull over every movement that he made. Since she was in the thick of it instead, she found it rather important not to ogle.

Having never been one of those girls who thought fighting meant pulling someone else's hair and scratching them with (fake) nails, Paige went at it with fists a'flying. While she had no real formal training in the area of combat she had tons of experience in general scrapping, which she used to all advantage. Also to her advantage was skin that was virtually impenetrable and an accompanying boost to her strength. Nothing extreme, but enough to make sure that most of them only needed one good hit to go down and stay down. She aimed for noses and temples, knocking away hands holding guns to reach her targets. The occasional knee or foot to the groin also came in handy, especially when the little jerks aimed their fire right between her eyes. It didn't hurt her at all, but it was irritating as all get out.

"Duck."

Instinctively she did as bid, head turning in an effort to find out what this threat was that she had missed, and -- even more important -- where it was. Barely had she registered the man than she saw him blasted off of his feet by some strange green energy beam, eating at his body like acid. Really, really corrosive acid, given how quickly he was turned into dust. "Damn." Half surprise, half admiration, the word slipped out as she rose back to her feet only to find herself immediately confronted with another ugly mug. "Didn't Ah hit you already? Stay down," she admonished, coupling the words with a vicious slamming of her fist into the poor fake man's head. Obligingly, he dropped like a stone.

Taking the opportunity to look around and take in the situation, she noted that all of their attackers were, for the moment, either disintegrated or laying on the ground and not in any shape to put up a fight. Noting this, she allowed herself a brief grin in her partner's direction. "Nothin' like a fight to get the blood pumpin', huh?" Although...he didn't look like he enjoyed it in quite the same way as she did. He seemed, if anything, even colder and more remote than he had when they'd begun this entire exercise. Like he truly was a killing machine, and the flesh and blood part of him was a facade. As the idea occurred to her the cheerfulness in her expression faded, leaving her looking rather thoughtful instead. It was a strange thing to think, really, that he was more man than machine, but perhaps there was some modicum of truth to it. After all, just look at the way he behaved all the time!

[Ethan Jaeger]

Ethan couldn't help but admire her. He'd seen a few of the girls at this school go at it in the Danger room, and most of them were downright painful to watch. And not because of any cringe-worthy groin kicks. No, they were just downright bad at it. Moment they got into anything resembling close-quarters combat, they fought like, well... girls. Not Paige though. No, she was quite different, putting more then a few of his old 'friends' to shame with her brutal, elegant efficiency. No frills, no fancy little twirls or spins or screaming karate kicks. Just a solid punch to the face and they were down for the count. It was impressive. Though the fact that he found a girl beating on a bunch of men worthy of admiration probably said a lot about how fucked up he was. No matter, he was what he was and right then and there, he was quite alright with that.

As the dust settled and the melee died down, Ethan felt better. Like always, the adrenaline had taken the edge off the cruelty of life, and his emotional state was resembling something close to actual happiness, thanks to his guilt now resting somewhere deep at the back of his head, quiet for once. Calm started spreading throughout his body as he lowered his arm, relaxing his concentration and letting his guard down, his skin returning to it's regular state, spotless and unharmed. A shame he couldn't say the same about his shirt, he thought as he poked a finger through one of the half a dozen or so bullet holes that now littered the garment. Least the sun had started to dry it off.

"Nothin' like a fight to get the blood pumpin', huh?"

"No..." Ethan answered, his mind clearly off somewhere else "Nothing like it." For a minute, the cold ruthlessness of the fight lingered on him, his face a emotionless mask as he just stood there, unfazed by the carnage around him, his mind still stuck in that machine-like mentality he always seemed to adopt whenever he found himself in a fight. A part of him wanted nothing more to stay this way, lost in a world without emotion, but for the first time, he found another part of him didn't. One small part of him wanted back, and not because it felt that he deserved the pain of guilt. No, it wanted back because as serene and simple as life seemed to be right then, it just felt so... empty. Looking at Paige, he felt nothing. Not that little self-conscious twinge that had made him lower his gaze when his brown eyes locked with her gorgeous, crystal blue ones. Not the flutter in his stomach when he let himself admire that stunning, Amazon body of hers. And he found himself missing that, along with all the other good things he'd experienced over the last few months. For once, he actually missed his emotions, if even just a little.

Ethan found his uncaring mentality slowly give way to the onslaught of emotions that plagued most of his time. Yet, it felt different this time. Less of a burden somehow, and the hint of a smile started spreading across Ethan's lips as he looked up at the warm, albeit artificial, sun for a second. It felt like something big just happened, but Ethan had no idea what. He just noticed he felt a little... better.

Brown eyes shifted, focusing on Paige once more, half studying, half admiring the diamond skin of hers. It was a really cool power, to be honest. Ethan wondered if she could turn into other things too, or if it was a one of those one form deals. For some reason, he thought it suited her, like some kind of symbolic symmetry. What he'd seen of Paige, she seemed very much to be a strong, independent, bow to no one kinda woman. Made sense she'd turn into the toughest substance on Earth.

Still smiling, his eyes found hers, only this time, he didn't look away. He still had no illusions about his chances, but it seemed to matter less this time around. For once, he was feeling rather content with himself. The gorgeous weather, beautiful company and perhaps most importantly of all, the simple fact that he was free from Hell, had finally begun sinking in, and right now it was outweighing the guilt, shame and the pain.

Today was most definitely a good day.

[Paige Guthrie]

The only real problem about adopting another skin was the lack of feeling that tended to result. Diamond was both pretty and functional, but it muted sensation to such a point that she could be rubbing her fingers together and not even feel it. It took plenty of force to produce some feeling, which was why she knew when someone was shooting at her, but even that was dulled down to simply a mild irritant. Knowing this, the Kentucky girl did a quick check of her person to see how much damage her uniform had taken. While it was good for not ripping along with her skin, it was not always so good at repelling blades and bullets. Heaven only knew why. Given the amount of bullets that had been flying, she wasn't really surprised to find a hole here and there, but she was a bit shocked to find that the fabric had been torn -- sliced, actually -- across the midsection. Frowning with annoyance, she fingered the edge of the fabric before folding it over and tucking the sliced end in between her cold skin and the unharmed portion of her uniform.

"No...Nothing like it."

An answer at last...although there was something wrong with it, with the words and the tone both. Paige was not a girl who was unsettled very easily, but the utter lack of any amount of humanity sent an entirely mental chill down her spine. The eyes that met her's were devoid of any spark of life, flat and uncaring. It seemed that being a walking gun took a serious psychological toll...who would've guessed?

He looked away then, and Paige caught the smile that touched upon his face. Thoroughly bewildered at this point, she watched him without understanding anything that was going on, wondering at the change in his face and curious at the reasons behind it. There were few things Paige liked better than a puzzle, and this boy here was shaping up to be quite an excellent one. Puzzlement was showcased on her diamond features, lightening only slightly when his eyes dropped back to her's. Such a strange boy. After a second or two of continued silence, she broke in with her typical bluntness. "You okay?" Leaving only a short pause for him to answer -- since honestly she wasn't expecting a long, drawn-out explanation -- she continued. "We should probably get a move on an' find this sword thing. Otherwise we'll use up all our time just fightin' withou gettin' anywhere." Which wouldn't bother her on the one hand, but on the other they actually had an objective here.

[Ethan Jaeger]

as feeling kinda weird. There wasn't that empty, hollow nothingness, yet... he couldn't feel the guilt, that black void of despair that seemed to drain the color from the world. Part of him wanted to question it, yet he didn't, too afraid that if he did, it would go away, leaving him as lonely and hollow as he had been mere moments before. Instead, he enjoyed it, savoring this rare few moments when the world made sense again and clarity could be found. It was like feeling the sun again, only to realize you'd always felt it, but you'd forgotten how it was supposed to be.

Ethan realized the guilt was still there, and it would always be there, forever reminding him of what he'd done. And no excuse, no fancy talk about destiny or gods or fate would ever make it go away. But right then, right there... it didn't feel so bad.

"You okay?" She asked, in that straightforward, no nonsense way that he so admired. No tiptoeing, no deceptions or smokescreens or anything but what she wanted to say. It was refreshing, that when the intricacies of inter human relationships were so lost to him, somebody went without them. She was probably one of the few people he could still understand, still talk to without feeling like he was an idiot for not knowing when to lie, when to bluff or hide what he was really feeling and say that he was fine when he really wasn't. It was just so hard, to go back to the real world after all that time living in that place, so cut off, so isolated from the world around him. He'd lived so long without being human that he had almost forgotten what it was like to not just keep everything bottled up inside, to not be blunt and think the worst of everyone. Out here, people weren't all out to get him, and he knew that. Only problem was, it wasn't easy to start trusting again.

"Yeah." he replied, with a voice far from the hollow, empty tone he'd used before. "I'm fine." finishing with a smile that even managed to bring some warmth to his usually cold, brown eyes. Because, for once, he really felt like it was true. Right here, with her, things were alright. He could pretend that he understood the world and the people in it. She made him feel normal, and he liked that feeling.

Nodding slightly as she suggested they'd get a move on, the slight shift in perspective managed to bring the gash in her uniform to his attention. Was she hurt? But the thought had barely entered his mind before he realized she was still in that diamond form of hers, most likely as indestructible as the real thing. It was a fascinating thing, to see her like that. As though she was some sort of exquisite masterpiece brought to life, living art. Girl was smart too, he realized. They'd been ambushed once before, it would be stupid to let your guard down. Yet... he had. Ethan, self-styled survivor and cynic extraordinare had made the most rookie mistake of them all. Why? What on Earth could possibly have made him do something so stupid as that?

As his form once again rippled to life, plates of living steel emerging through his skin, covering him from head to toe in armor that seemed to be almost organic in it's uneven, fluid design, Ethan just couldn't understand it. Had he grown soft in this place, lost his edge? As his eyes drifted toward Paige almost of their own accord, he just couldn't understand what it was that had distracted him so badly that he forgot the instincts that had kept him alive.
"Yeah, your probably right, we should get moving."

[Paige Guthrie]

"Yeah. I'm fine."

At least he sounded like a normal person this time, and his answer was every bit as short as she had anticipated. The metamorph allowed herself a private smirk of triumph. A puzzle he may be, but in some things at least he was easy to read. She was also glad to see that the robot boy of only moments before had decided to retreat. While he may be an excellent man to have at your side during a battle, too much of it in between might lead to a good boxing about the ears...or at least the tempation to do so. Whether or not she actually went the extra step and did it was up for debate; for the most part she reserved casual physical attacks for her siblings when they became too annoying, and even then it was a habit that was decreasing the older she got.

With open curiosity in her gaze, Paige watched his transformation back into the living gun-man, although it seemed for the moment he would retain his human personality. For her part the choice to remain in her diamond covering was only a matter of good sense -- every time she shed her skin, she lost some of her body's water, not to mention that each successive husk grew more mentally draining (not that you'd catch her admitting it). The protection from injury was just icing on the cake. Really yummy icing on the cake.

"Yeah, your probably right, we should get moving."

"No probably about it, metal man." A brief smirk of a smile crossed her face, before she dragged her attention back to the matter at hand. She had already needed to be 'saved' once...it was not an experience she planned on repeating during this session, yet another reason that her glittering skin was so handy. Really, was there a decent downside to her powers? Well, aside from that one hour time limit garbage. That was pretty lousy. Heavy footsteps fell upon the earth as Paige moved forward hardly feeling the impact created when foot met ground. A small price to pay for near invincibility. She remembered to keep her eyes peeled this time, outwardly relaxed but making sure to pay attention to every shift in the foilage.

"I think they'll wait for us ta actually be in this temple or whatever it is. Less room for us to manouver an' get away from them, plus there'll probably be plenty of traps an' such. Any strategy ideas or do we just go in blind an' hope for the best?" They would probably be best served by going in blind and hoping, since any hope of being able to observe the traps and get out of this sim before the end of the year was slim to none. Didn't hurt t ask, though...usually.