[Social] Looking for a Few Pointers

[Will Stanton]

"Ah, a mutant, are we? Good! Hail and well met," Will said, waving.

"Not one step? Fine, I can work with that," Will said flipping over so he was walking on his hands. "Is this more to your liking?"

[Leo Eskandari]

The stout man in the window returned an annoyed, hot tempered sneer.

"I guess you'll be wanting a welcome present then, wise guy!"

He gathered a larger sphere and launched it at Will.

---

Out back, the accomplice blinked in Leo's direction. Leo ducked back into the foliage to hide his eyes but it was too late. The large criminal was suspicious and emerged from the back door to investigate.

"Sh-show yourself! I know y-your here!" the man demanded nervously.

Leo waited until he got close, then pounced.

[Will Stanton]

Will did a standing hand-flip, his arms turning into coiled springs that shot him twenty feet in the air, over the large sphere, as he continued to close ground rapidly.

[Leo Eskandari]

The sphere exploded against a tree, shattering the plant and sending a wave of concussive force. Simultaneously, his opponent started spraying smaller bombs in Will's direction, turning the simulation into another obstacle course.

Will's jump also gave him a brief glimpse of Leo trading blows with an even larger mutant. He was a decent brawler but his stance could use some work to better capitalize on his beastly attributes.

[Will Stanton]

Will shifted and altered his shape to try to cut between the explosions -- he had been running the same obstacle course all day, so this was fairly old hat for him.

[Narrator]

All went perfectly well until the mutant in the window snapped his fingers and every bomb still airborne exploded at once.

[Will Stanton]

The explosion sent Will rocketing back into the woods, the blast knocking him out of range of combat for the moment.

[Leo Eskandari]

As Will regained his senses...

After subduing his opponent, Leo attempted to sneak into the cabin and get the drop on the other one. As he moved through an interior doorway his foot tripped a piece of twine strung across it and some empty cans fell and clattered noisily to the ground.

With the bomber staring at him, he groaned, "Well, fu-"

Then there was another explosion.

"Mission failed," the computer reported.

As the simulation ended, Leo laid on his back where the cabin had been. "Shit!"

[Will Stanton]

"Right! We go again then," Will nodded, already striding over to the console.

[Leo Eskandari]

"Sorry," he sighed as he got up, angry with himself, "Walked into a goddamn alarm trap like a freakin' idiot."

[Will Stanton]

"And now you know it's there, you can avoid it the second time," Will nodded.

[Leo Eskandari]

"That just lets us beat the scenario. We don't get redos in real life. So how is that good training?"

[Will Stanton]

"If you add 2 + 2 and get 5, you don't say 'well, I guess I'm never going to get that right; on to the next equation.'

You don't get re-dos in real life; but you keep practicing until you get it perfect, so if you stumble across the same thing in the real world, you don't have to think; you know what the right answer is."

[Leo Eskandari]

"I guess drillin' what not to do into my thick head isn't the worst idea. In this case, don't walk into tripwires."

[Will Stanton]

"I'll admit, not every lesson goes deep into strategy."

[Leo Eskandari]

"Yeeaah... pretty sure strategy isn't goin' to be my contribution to the teams."

So much for the stereotype of the prideful lion.

[Will Stanton]

"What makes you say that?" Will asked, as he worked the console.

[Leo Eskandari]

"Lee doesn't think I give myself enough credit, but I'm not... I don't feel that smart or leaderly."

[Will Stanton]

"Well, not everyone needs to be a leader, per se. Heaven knows I'm a poor fit for it. But that doesn't mean you can't have strategy thoughts."

[Leo Eskandari]

"Well..." he said hesitantly, "How about this time you don't reveal you're an X-Man right away? Can you do, like, a lost hiker?"

[Will Stanton]

"Well, yeah, but that would take longer," Will said, cocking his head to one side.

[Leo Eskandari]

"I'm sure you had your side handle, I'm just thinking of all the havoc the short guy was throwing around and most of our battles aren't gonna be in the middle of the woods."

[Will Stanton]

"I'm not sure I follow," Will said. "How would me going slower help you handle your guy faster?"

[Leo Eskandari]

"It wouldn't. I just don't like the idea of that guy blowing the shit out of half the forest. If this was real, that's potentially lots of dead wildlife."

"There's, uh, a non-zero chance I care because my boyfriend would frown on me allowing that to happen."

[Will Stanton]

"Well, if we get in there faster; he won't have time to fire anything. Skip that whole sequence. "

[Leo Eskandari]

"And how do we do that? You secretly Quicksilver too?"

[Will Stanton]

"Not the kind you're thinking of.

Walking is slow, right? What we want to do is reduce the amount of time from when they CAN notice us to when we reach the house to as close to zero as possible."

[Leo Eskandari]

"So, what... sneak close and bum rush 'em? Or, team up on my ambush and try to take one quietly?"

[Will Stanton]

"I'm not even sure quiet's the way to do it. I think we just arrive at them faster than we did before, now that we know exactly where they are," Will said, bringing up a map of the scenario.

[Leo Eskandari]

"I guess a speed run is worth a try but I don't see what that teaches me," he replied dubiously. He was a lion, not a cheetah.

[Will Stanton]

"Do you know the best way to stop someone from hurting innocent bystanders?"

[Leo Eskandari]

"Point taken."

He stroked his chin for a moment. "So, what if rush in from their blind side, split up and go around to attack through the window?"

[Will Stanton]

"We can give that a shot; sure thing. I was thinking coming in at such a high speed that by the time they reacted, we'd be in already, but your plan has merit, too."

[Leo Eskandari]

"I can't run that fast anyway. There's no cheetah in me."

[Will Stanton]

"Well, I wasn't thinking of coming in across the ground.

A precisely aimed slingshot, you know. Rocketing over the rooftops. I suppose the landing might be a bit tricky, however, so perhaps your way is best."

[Leo Eskandari]

"Yeeaah... let's not do that. I'm not part bird either," he said with a shudder. He clearly wasn't at the Fastball Special stage.

"Ready for the quick and dirty approach when you are."

[Will Stanton]

Will nodded. "And we go again."

[Leo Eskandari]

Soon Will had once again raced through the woods on the back of a glorious man-cat. At the cabin, Leo quietly dashed up to the blind side of the cabin to let Will off and once again stand on two legs.

"Count to twenty, then go for it. Starting... now."

Leo slinked off towards the back to get in position.

[Will Stanton]

Will silently counted to 20 -- time loss! Go faster, Leo! -- and then started hoofing it around the other way, to better get at the window.

[Leo Eskandari]

3...2...1...

Zero!

Leo rammed one of his powerful arms through the window and yanked the man inside halfway through the window and into the reach of his waiting stinger. The man broke free and called for help as he stumbled back, quickly losing his motor skills.

At the same time, the bomber suspected nothing as Will prepared to strike.