trans_9 | There Will Be A Show Tonight

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There Will Be A Show Tonight

Jonas was not usually the most sociable of the crew members to begin with, and he had been lying even lower than usual since his encounter with the Scarlet Witch.

Right now though, he was making use of the Sensoriums to do some training. There were drones and blades and electrified rods, and the floor and ceiling shifted suddenly in strange directions. A few people on board might recognize that Stacy was simply replicating the Avengers' Training Room.

Jonas dove right into the thick of it, punching and phasing and tumbling his way through all of the obstacles in his path. A knowledgeable observer might notice that his cape seemed more than capable of keeping itself out of trouble -- more than normal cloth should be able to.

Having one's cape actually being a part of one's body was very handy, as it turned out.

He catapulted himself through the last of the drones, remaining just solid enough to utterly destroy its inner workings as he passed. He rolled to his feet and dusted off his hands, smirking to himself as the drone toppled to the floor for a delightfully cinematic finish.

Then he finally looked up to meet the eyes of his audience. "[Yes?]"

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"Not bad, mon ami."

Standing at the entrance of the Sensorium, leaning in the doorway, is someone that Jonas has met before, but likely not seen in quite some time. His posture is cool and relaxed as he toys with a deck of playing cards, shuffling them from one hand to the other in dramatic fashion. He'd noticed the Sensorium in use, the sounds of what seemed to be combat coming from inside, and stopped to check on the occupant. When he saw the training room and the program that Jonas was running, Remy had stopped to watch and seemed to have been watching for quite some time.

"...for a beginner," the Cajun then adds.

"[Gambit.]" Jonas said, a little startled as whatever Stacy had been doing to block his memories slipped away. He was really going to have to figure out a way to make her stop that. "[It has been awhile.]"

He raised his eyebrows at the throw-away addition. "[Are you referring to my style or my effectiveness in combat?]"

"It's your style, homme," Gambit answered. He didn't doubt Jonas' effectiveness, not in the slightest. Remy was sure the kid could handle himself in a fight. No, it was showmanship that--to the Cajun--the kid was lacking. Being effective was one thing but being impressive was a whole other game.

"You got de moves down, now you jus' need to make dem your own. Add a little flair to it."

"[I am still working out what my own style is,]" Jonas conceded. Although he'd been relatively content with letting his effectiveness speak for itself thus far. There were not too many teenagers who could go toe-to-toe with Kl'rt the Super-Skrull (and he had learned his lessons from his fights with Kang and Noh-Varr, dammit!). "[I suppose that you have some suggestions?]"

"Gambit got lots of ideas," Remy answered, pushing off the wall and stepping further into the Sensorium. "But mebbe it's better dat I show you instead...."

Jonas stepped back and gestured at the training room, which shimmered and returned to the way it had been when he'd started.

"[Be my guest,]" he said. "[I will see what I can pick up the first go-round.]"

"You do dat," Gambit said with a wide grin as he stepped toward the obstacle course that Jonas had just completed. Pulling his telescopic staff from out of the pocket where he kept it and held it tightly, though unextended, in his hand as he waited for the show to begin.

Remy leaped into the air the moment the first blade came swinging for his legs only to be met with four large electrified rods that shot out from the wall, blocking his path. Three charged cards flew from Gambit's hand, detonating on impact with the rods, and blew a hole large enough for him to pass through unharmed.

He'd barely touched the ground before five heavily armed drones came floating toward him from all directions. Extending his bow, Remy leaped into the air again, spinning around as he held one end of the bow tightly in his hand while the other end struck the attackers, each one exploding from the pulses of kinetic energy the mutant sent surging down his staff.

Kicking off the wall, and sending three more cards to take care of the large blade that came hurtling toward his head, he did a somersault mid-air, barely dodging two rods as they came up from the floor and the ceiling to meet each other with an explosive crackle of electricity and taking out a drone that had been chasing after the nimble Cajun.

The next few moments were filled with more acrobatic feats, exploding playing cards, and well place strikes with his bow before, finally, Gambit landed on the other end of the obstacle course unscathed. Though his duster did carry a few new tears and burns from a few near-misses.

"And dat, mon ami, is how you impress de ladies," he said, grinning triumphantly.

Jonas applauded politely. He had to admit that it had certainly been an excellent show. He was even willing to admit that it was probably more interesting to watch than his own, since his ability to alter his density made it possible to pass through most attacks that he could not dodge. Not to mention that he could much more easily compensate for any potential damage than a mutant without a healing factor could -- he had reattached his own forearm in less than ten seconds, once he had extracted it from Noh-Varr's chest.

"[I see what you mean,]" he said. "[But the two of us have very different fighting styles. I could incorporate more acrobatics, of course, and likely a few more explosions. But would you not say that there is also some charm to the Implacable Man routine?]"

Nate had been planning to run the final diagnostics on his suit. He'd gotten most of the kinks ironed out. And the only thing left was the tweaking of the neuro-kinetic receptors. Somehow he'd managed to get them wired properly, but he still wasn't sure if they were sensitive enough. Only one way to test that though.

With his armor powered up, and a jacket thrown over it, (he'd decided he looked like a douche in just the armor) he'd stepped into the Sensorium, not expecting it to be occupied. When he saw Jonas moving through his workout though, he paused at the doorway. His first instinct was flight. Run, he didn't want to see his 'brother' right now. Not after what he and Cassie had almost done. But they had other things to talk about. And well...they really needed to work out the Cassie thing too.

So it was with great reluctance that, once Jonas completed his regime, Nate slowly golf-clapped, drawing attention to himself as he plastered a smile on his face. His head was pounding.

Jonas smiled a little and nodded his thanks.

"[Did you want a shot at the Avengers' training facilities as well?]" he asked, noticing that his 'brother' was wearing his armor. It was a little unsettling, considering that his body was Nate's armor, but this suit was clearly from long before had any claim to it.

Nate threw him a casual salute as he stepped further into the room.

"I was looking for something to test the suit with. I've got most of the bugs ironed out, but I still need to test the neuro-kinetic interface." He paused, taking a moment to examine his 'brother's' features. "You wanna help?"

He could only imagine what it was like for Jonas to see what was essentially his own body deconstructed and modified like Nate had done. But he hoped the other boy could appreciate the reasoning behind it. Not only out of respect for the new Vision, but out of a yearning for his own identity. Something outside Iron Lad, or the Young Avengers, or Cassie.

"[Sure,]" Jonas said after a moment. "[I have picked up a few things about how neuro-kinetic interfacing works.]" Even if it was mostly through trial-and-error and hacking into the files on himself that Iron Man would not share with him.

"[What do you want to do first?]"

Nate nodded, pausing to think for a moment. He had a few things he wanted to try out. A few new applications of the fluid metal. So after another moment's thought he nodded imperceptibly to himself before speaking. If he'd known about Jonas' viewing of Stark's files though, he would most probably have approved. It's what he would have done.

"I want to test the morphing capabilities of the suit. I rearranged several components and managed to integrate the helmet metal and spread it evenly along with the rest of the suit. But I haven't tested its response time yet. Any ideas?"

Jonas thought for a moment. "[Are you looking for millisecond timing or reaction time we could measure with the naked eye? The latter would be easier, but the former is also possible. We are in the Sensoriums, after all.]"

"Not bad, dude."

Tony leaned in the doorway, watching Jonas move with an experienced eye. He'd done more then his fair share of fighting and even though he was no martial artist (hit something until it stops moving is more his style), he knew a good fighter when he saw one

"[Thank you, Tony,]" Jonas said, smiling. Kate had introduced Tony to the rest of the Young Avengers (who were awake) awhile back, so the standard threats of retribution should he ever hurt her and promises that he would not hurt her had already been exchanged. "[I had some time to kill and thought I should work out a bit. Now is certainly not the time to get rusty at this sort of thing.]"

"Yeah, I hear that..." He flexes his hands, staring down at them for a moment. He remembers the zombies and the fight against the massive creature. That had been exhilarating, terrifying, full of terror. It almost reminded him of home. Almost.

"We fall outta practice, we're the ones who're gonna get hurt 'stead of the other guy."

"[My thoughts exactly,]" Jonas agreed. "[I am still in the process of determining my own limits and how I can compensate for my weaknesses.]" Especially those weaknesses that might allow someone else to compromise him and use him against his friends and/or the rest of the crew.

"[Has Kate shown you this place before?]" he asked, gesturing at the room. She'd only had access to the training room for a short time, between when the Avengers had finally accepted the Young Avengers and when the civil war had broken out.

"Ah..." He glanced around the room curiously and then shrugged, "...nah. Not really."

He scratched awkwardly at the back of his head. Meeting the other Avengers had felt a lot like meeting the parents, only these parents had super-powers and there were a half-dozen of them.

"Just... never got around to it, I guess."

Jonas shrugged. "[She did not spent a lot of time here anyway. She and the others spent more time in the Lair. I was stuck in the Tower and there was not much else for me to do after I copied the library.]" Mr. Jarvis had had other duties to attend to and had not been present to keep Jonas entertained, after all.

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There Will Be A Show Tonight

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