Taking up too much space, Bishop/Toad June 7 midday

[Lucas Bishop]

If anything the simulation Bishop was running in the Danger Room was even grimmer than the man himself. The scenery was a blasted landscape of half ruined tenement buildings, with piles of trash and rubble turning streets littered with craters and potholes into a labyrinth of blind corners. And through it all echoed the metallic tread of Sentinels on the hunt for mutants.

And yet Bishop felt entirely at home in the hellish surroundings, more so than he did in peaceful Westchester. The simulation was an accurate portrayal of some of the worst areas he'd been in in his own time, the blasted cities that had served as the backdrop of the Summers Revolution against Sentinel rule. Except this time he wasn't a child, he was a soldier himself and he was here to hone his skills against the mutant killers.

The simulation had already been going for more than three hours, and even someone as fit as Bishop was starting to breathe hard. The safeties were as low down as he could set them without overriding the locks and the Sentinels were fiendishly good at changing their tactics. At this rate he'd be here all day, training simulated warfare over and over again. Which suited Bishop just fine, his skills needed honing if he wanted to complete his mission.

[Mortimer Toynbee]

Toad looked at the clock again. Well, damnit. He'd read through the comic book three times already. And he'd been sitting there as patiently as physically possible. For one wholle hour! And Bishop had barely even acknowledged his existence! Danger room hog. Toad sighed. Enough was enough already.

With one bout of annoyance and anger, he slammed a hand on the abort button, immediatlely ending the program, even if it was in progress. It was about time he got a turn. Obviously Bishop had never been to preeschool or anything...

"Ey, you gonna troi an' let someone else in mebbe?!" Toad asked in his obnoxious cockney accent.

[Lucas Bishop]

Given his upbringing and training, Bishop's response to the sudden shutdown of the world around him was predictably military. He dived to the side to bring his back up against the now featureless wall of the Danger Room and brought his gun up to bear. It all happened almost on reflex, which only increased his irritation when he realized it was Mortimer causing the interruption and not some intruder.

At first he wanted to turn around and snap at the little man, and quite possibly do even more than that. Despite his respect for the X-Men, despite him telling himself that Toad may well be essential to the future, the fact remained that Mortimer Toynbee was just plain irritating. Bishop bristled visibly for a long moment before he rigidly clamped down on his temper and replied through gritted teeth. "Maybe I'd be more inclined to do so if you asked instead of interrupting me."

[Mortimer Toynbee]

Toad sighed. Apparently, someone had a permanent stick up his futuristic butt. Though the fact that his shutdown of the program was far from mature, or nice, it didn't give Bishop an excuse to basically pump bullets into his skull. Based on his earlier reaction, Toad was pretty sure he was ready to do just that.

"Oh, excuse me, Bishie," Toad said, with a mocking gloomy face. "May I pretty, pretty pleeeease come in the dangeroom with you? I'll even add a cherry on top."

See? He was even nice enough that he offered to do a group session. Something most likely completely foreign to Bishop. But hey, that way he wouldn't have to give up the danger room. Just share it.

[Lucas Bishop]

'Bishie's' fists clenched when Toad broke out the new nickname and the big man's teeth ground dangerously. Bishop's rigid discipline had been imposed over his natural hot temper with hard labor, and it was moments like this when it seemed tempting to just ditch his self-control and haul off to cool his temper with a few satisfying blows to Toad's face. The impulse was quickly squashed though, he was not going to humiliate himself by losing his temper in this house.

"And what do you suggest?" Bishop sounded openly doubtful, but he wasn't rejecting the idea out of hand. Mostly because he wanted to see Toad in action, to judge if the man was as incompetent in combat as he was socially. Bishop seriously doubted that the boy could keep up with him.

[Mortimer Toynbee]

Toad smiled proudly, as if he had just won whatever had happened. Not that he really won. He didn't notice the anger in the man's face, and if he had he'd probably be hopping away by now. It's not that he was a wimp... it was that he was a coward when it came to particularly intimidating figures. Bishop just happened to be one of those.

"Simple." Toad said, as if speaking to a six year old. He hit the start program button again. "We start up wotever it was you were doin', and then we just kick some ass together. Sound loike a-"

Before the green mutant could finish, the program had restarted. A group of three sentinels had already found them (thanks to Toad's voice), and had nearly stepped on him. Toad had only barely managed to hop out of the way.

"JEEZ!" he screeched, his voice cracking as he stood back up and hopped out of the way again. He shot out his tongue to wrap around one's leg. and pulled his tongue back with such force that the Sentinel tripped and fell.

"Wot the 'eck are these?!" he asked, exhasperated already from straining his tongue muscles.

[Lucas Bishop]

Bishop had been about to snap back at Toad's patronising tone of voice when the simulation restarted and he suddenly had other things to worry about than the mouthy little snot. WIth reflexes honed by a lifetime's practice he snaoped his gun up in a two-handed grip and fired a salvo of shots that smasked into the faceplate of one of the gigantic robots. It was enough to cause some damage, but the thing was a long way from disabled. Three Sentinels was not going to be an easy match, especially since it looked like he'd have to protect Toad in the process.

"Sentinels, giant robots built to hunt down and exterminate mutants. They almost succeeded in making us extinct in my time." The two Sentinels not momentarily blinded by Bishop's fire raised their hands and fired volleys of energy blasts down at the two mutants.The Danger Room equivalents of the Sentinels weren't hugely accurate, but they did pack a decent punch for simulations. One of the blasts struck Bishop in the chest and the force of the impact caused his knees to buckle a little even as he absorbed the blast.

"Welcome to the future." The big man growled grimly. Hopefully this would teach >TOad to think before he jumped.

[Mortimer Toynbee]

"Lovely," Toad set with the utmost sarcasm as he hopped out of the way of the Sentinel's blasts. "Do you get floiyin' cars an' movin' sidewalks, or is it just these creeps?" Perhaps now was not the best time to go and crack jokes, especially ones referring to a TV show Bishop would not be familiar with. Toad wasn't one to care. Anything that came to mind, he just blurted out. Such was his philosophy.

That's when Toad had a momentary stroke of brilliance. Well, not his own genius. He couldn't remember which TV show was from, but it was crazy enough to work. Maybe. The green mutant could only hope so. Hopping past the blasts, he slowly crawled his way up one of the Sentinel's legs (Thank you sticky fingers). Apparently, the other two weren't very smart as they turned around and shot him. Toad hopped out of the way, so the Sentinel's leg was blown off.

"Ha ha, missed me- CRAP!" Toad said mockingly, before the sentinel teetered dangerously and fell to the grown. "Look out below!" The first of the three were smashed and Toad sat up, still dazed...

Toad- 1
Bishie- 0
Robot Creeps- Big fat 0

[Lucas Bishop]

"There are a few left, but much of that was destroyed." Bishop replied evenly. If that was supposed to be a joke then it wasn't particularly funny, and now was not the time for chitchat.

Another salvo of blasts struck Bishop and he clenched his teeth in discomfort. Just because the Sentinels weren't really doing him any harm didn't mean he liked getting shot. Had they been full real Sentinels he'd have been doing more than just grimacing. The security protocols made this exercise easy.

No matter what he thought about Toad otherwise, taking a Sentinel down by tricking it's compatriots was an impressive move for someone he'd thought was completely useless. Thou8gh he didn't make a big deal about it, Bishop quietly adjusted his impression of Toad upwards. It seemed the snot had some potential after all.

Toad wasn't the only one who could use the Sentinels' weapons against them. The energy Bishop had gathered from the robots gathered up in his right fist in a glowing ball of purple energy. With an angry yell the big man punched his fist upwards towards the Sentinel whose face he'd already damaged. A lance of energy shot from his face and straight through the damaged section of the plate, frying the circuitry behind it.

There wasn't much time to celebrate though, as the Sentinel Toad had taken out smashed into the facade of the house Bishop was standing next to. He had to leap to the sidee and even so only barely managed to avoid the falling debris. Still, it was better than having the Sentinel itself fall on him.

[Mortimer Toynbee]

Toad wasn't quite sure whether what Bishop replied with was sarcasm, or serious. And his mouth hung open for a moment, trying to figure out whether to laugh or not. When Bishop didn't even do so much as move his lip, Toad closed it and went back to the fight. In which he brought down a Sentinel on top of a house, leaving him dazed with his legs trapped under the debris.

Great.

Try as he might, Toad could not pull the beam off. The strength in the green mutant's body was from his legs, and hopping, not in his arms. He furiously tried to kick it off, only to find that the heavy debris was stuck to his feet (boo sticky fingers). He was helpless.

This would explain why two minutes later he was grabbed by the Sentinels that was not damaged by Bishop, who put him in a tighter grip than anything he'd ever experienced. He again, tried to pull himself out, but could not.

Finally in frustruation, he spat slime out at the Sentinel, covering its eyes. Maybe that would at least slow it down.

"Uh, little 'elp?!" Toad called out.

[Lucas Bishop]

Two down, one to go, and Toad had managed to get himself caught. The Sentinel would keep squeezing until Toad was dead or the hand was broken, Bishop had seen it happen before. Luckily this was only a simulation, the safeties would end things before oad got seriously hurt. It was tempting to let the simulation run it's course as a lesson to the boy. But as much as he kept himself apart, Bishop was still an X-Man, and he wasn't going to leave a team-mate hanging.

The gun in Bishop's hand started to whine strangely and the readouts flashed wildly as Bishop drained part of the battery into his hand. He needed more power than the gun could provide on it's own. But that was why he carried an energy weapon, it could serve as a ready supply of power for him when he needed it.

A second later another lance of purple energy blasted from the time-lost man's hand and sliced through the Sentinel's hand at the wrist, severing both the joint and the couplings that caused it to grip Toad so hard.

"You've got a few seconds before it shifts to backup sensors." The big man said in a dispassionate voice, pointing to the Sentinel's blocked eyes as he did.
"Let's see if you can take it out before then."

[Mortimer Toynbee]

Toad felt his lungs nearly give out under pressure from the Sentinel. He tried to use his legs and arms to spread it apart, but it was no use. He was trapped. He gasped for air for a moment, and hoped he wouldn't break a rib or anything before the safeties kicked in. Bishop put in safeties right? He sure hoped so.

The green mutant took a deep breath of air once the grip was released. For a minute he thought that he had failed and "died" in the program. That was, until he saw the smoke coming from the arm, and connected the flash he saw was Bishop. He gave a sort of mock salute before crawling up the Sentinel's arm and going to the back of the head, searching for some sort of circut breaker.

"C'mon... it's gotta be somewhere...AHA!" Toad said, kicking the door inward and prying it off. The Sentinel had already switched to back up sensors already, and was targeting Bishop, apparently not smart enough to know Toad was on his back.

Toad finally managed to get the door off, to see more cords than he had in his life. He wasn't sure which one to pull... so with one wrap of the tongue and swift pull, out came all of the cords. The Sentinel stopped mid step.

"Ha! I did- S***!" Toad cried out, "GET OUT OF THE-"

The Sentinel toppled over towards Bishop before Toad could finish the warning, and Toad was still on it's back. Thinking quickly, he hopped off. Unfortunately, he thought too quickly and didn't pick out a spot to land. Instead, his head hit a metal rafter from some run down house, and he fell to the ground only semi-concious. The green mutant groaned in pain, not moving from his position...

[Lucas Bishop]

It took Toad too long to find the maintenance hatch at the back of the robot, the Sentinel was already on it's backups. But at least he had found it at all, so Bishop had to give him some credit at least. After he was done dodging the Sentinel that was. The big robot had apparently realized that Bishop was absorbing the energy blasts, and with typical Sentinel adaptation was now trying to grab Bishop with a metal tentacle that extended out of it's still functional arm. It was almost amazing that whoever had built these things had made them so very good at adjusting to mutant's powers on the one hand and so very simple-minded on the other.

Ducking between the wrecks of several cars to avoid the lashing metal flail, Bishop heard the sizzling of failing electronics that meant that Toad had finally gotten what he was after, but couldn't actually see the Sentinel fall. Until he heard Toad's shout and looked up from his cover to see the Sentinel toppling towards him. With a desperate leap to the side Bishop cleared the wreckage that would otherwise have buried him. The arm he'd just blasted almost came crashing down on his head.

Rolling over one shoulder, Bishop landed hard in a pile of debris. It wasn't exactly pleasant, but better than being crushed by a Sentinel. As he clambered to his feet and looked around, the big man couldn't immediately see Toad. The Sentinel's wreckage was blocking his view.
"Toad, are you allright?"
Any impression that Bishop might be worried about his partner was neatly taken care of by his harsh tone of voice. It definitely sounded more like an officer rallying his troops than a friend inquiring after someone he gave a damn about.

[Mortimer Toynbee]

Toad sat up after what felt like hours and rubbed his head. Of course it had only been a few minutes. However, being smacked head on tended to warp your senses, something Toad knew from experience sadly. There wasn't a spot on his body that hadn't been bruised one point or another...

"Asoide from the gigantic lump on moi 'ead, Oi'm just dandy," Toad said, clambering to his feet. His legs felt a bit wobbly beneath him, and standing up only made him feel dizzy. After a few seconds, Toad gave up and went back to sittingl

"Please tell me that wos the last of it..." Toad said.

[Lucas Bishop]

By the time Toad had come to fully, Bishop was crouching on some of the rubble near him. Judging by his watchful stance and the way his eyes roamed about, it was unlikely that things were going to end that easily.

"When you switched the simulation off I assume you reset it, which means that there are two more teams of Sentinels in the simulated city. We can end it here if you don't want to go on." Bishop was above sounding derisive or mocking people, but his tone of voice made it more than clear enough what he thought of people who gave up early.