Anna could see it all from her perch atop the fro-yo shop. To her left was a horde of Wall-E-looking knockoff robots dressed as ninjas wrecking the area around the downtown clock tower, and to her right was her fellow X-Men doing all that they could the survive against the half-pint, menace.
Metal ravaged by bony spikes and black scorch marks littered the central boulevard, but it was as if for everyone they took down, another two took its place. Anna could see Kurt bamfing around like a madman landing kicks and punches into every other bot that she saw. She saw too, his face returned to 'normal' with the aid of his new disguise watch, that he had one of the robot's black ninja cowls wrapped around his forehead like a bandanna. As he whizzed by, she could hear him shouting Samuel L. Jackson quotes from the movie Pulp Fiction as he drove a heel into one of the robot's tubie necks.
In the middle of the fray were Scott and Jean. Back to back, Jean would pick an unfortunate robot victim into the air and Scott would fire it out of the sky with one of his laser blasts. It was probably the closest thing Anna had ever felt to 'penis envy' when it came to Scott's - admittedly kinda badass - eye lasers while she only had her overpriced squirt gun to pick off robots with at range with.
A near block away from the others, Evan looked more creature than human with the number of spikes jutting out from his body. However, not all of his thorns were stuck out in the typical porcupine maneuver Anna was used to seeing from him. Instead, most of the bony constructs were curved along his back and down his arms shaping what almost looked like a shell. Each robot brave enough to challenge him would get cut down like wheat.
Despite their efforts, the robot ninja horde didn't relent. They would cut them down, only for the durable little monsters to get back up and try their luck again at with their bright orange katanas. Anna did all she could from her spot atop the frozen yogurt stand. She fired one bright bolt after another; her accuracy rarely failing her. With a good shot, she'd knock the little robot's over where her concussive blasts, scorching and bruising their plastic bodies and singeing their black garb, but like the others, they just got back up again to wreak more havoc. They needed something to knock the robots down for good. What they needed was an edge. What they absolutely didn't need was the biggest robot Anna had ever seen smashing through the face of the clock tower with, what looked like, not one, but two gigantic mini guns.
The ten-story, thousand-ton, robot looked identical to all the other Wall-E clones, except on either shoulder were mini guns that looked capable of drilling into the earth and popping out the other side. Crushing the last of the tower with a mighty fist, the monster stretched to the peak of its height and just about eclipsed the sun. Anna felt her shoulders go slack looking up at the thing. Only her thick padded armor her upright.
"What. The. Fuck."
The mini guns started spinning, and a moment later the air was filled with bright red laser fire that sent the others on the street sprinting for cover. Ducking behind the concrete lip of the building, Anna looked at her own laser pistol. The 50's sci-fi-looking water pistol with its hidden laser capability looked back at her. Its little water tank on top catches the light in its bright glitter paint job. That feeling of 'penis envy' from earlier returned ten-fold as she watched the goliath's spinning turrets wreaking utter destruction upon the city below. At a loss for any other ideas, she propped up her pistol on the edge of the roof and squeezed off a few bright bolts for the robot's eyes. Her shot's hit home, tapping the robot's flat VCR player-like head with the same effect as a little kid flicking the side of an older brother's face. The thing craned its head in her direction, and Anna suddenly became all too aware of her mistake.
Along with its head, the gargantuan robot shifted its body and faced her. Its two turrets already spinning at speed, Anna could see her doom quickly approaching. With no time to run, she ducked behind the shallow concrete railing and waited for the air around her to be filled with a hailstorm of fire. But instead of popping concrete and splintering metal, Anna heard a very different sound. The sound of someone yelling. The sound of Kitty yelling.
Anna dared to poke her head over her shelter and just spotted Kitty bolting along rooftops across the road with something big and shiny in her hand. Shouting at the top of her lungs, Kitty leaped off the side of the building and shot - what turned out to be a grappling hook gun - out of her hand. A long string of winding chrome wrapped around the robot's thin neck and within a breath's time Kitty was ascending up the giant's front, running along its center chassis. Kitty landed behind the robot's left shoulder gun, somehow got control of its firing mechanism, and started drilling into the smaller robots below. The big daddy robot she rode on tried to shake her off, and when that didn't work it tried throwing a couple of punches her way. Every time an arm came near her, however, she would pepper it full of laser fire and chunks of molten plastic and metal would fly off in a spray.
It was one of the rare times when Anna didn't feel a single thought bounce around in her brain. It seemed like her fellow X-Men felt the same way as no one else helped, but instead watched as Kitty single-handledly obliterated anything that came near her with a gun that was nearly the size of her. Eventually, Kitty had done so much structural damage to the giant robot that it started to lean off center and fell into a building, kicking up a plume of dust and smoke. Even in the dusty air, Anna could still see the red-hot glow of laser fire eviscerating anything that came nearby, and above the calamity, Anna could hear Kitty shouting at the top of her lungs with a sort of chaotic ecstasy that sent a slight shiver down her spine.
"Alright!" Declared the almighty voice of Xavier over the intercoms. "That's enough! Simulation over."
The world around Anna blinked and, like magic, she and the team were no longer in downtown Bayville, but surrounded by tall metal walls in the Danger room. She was long longer laying prone atop a frozen yogurt stand, but instead on a building-sized metal rectangle. She felt a shift, then heard a metallic whine as her platform slowly descended back into the ground. The many little robot ninjas sheathed their adorable blunted bright orange swords, bowed, then picked up their fallen brothers and scooted towards open doors that had appeared in the walls. All mutants gathered towards the center of the wide open Danger Room, aside from one. Anna spotted Kitty atop the supped-up mini gun. On the ground next to the fallen body of the giant robot, her legs were wrapped around the mounted gun like a spider, her hair wild and her forehead slick with sweat. As she and the group got closer, Anna could see Kitty's hand phased through the back of the gun, its many chambers still spinning though no more ammunition poured out of its mouth.
Kurt stepped an inch closer "Uh… Kitty?"
"Dang it!" Kitty slipped her hand out the back of the gun, then twisted the heavy-looking thing off its mount as if she were snapping someone's neck. The gun's mount popped and then fell uselessly to the floor. Kitty stood and then kicked the disabled gun. "I was just starting to have fun!"
"You all performed well given the circumstances." Declared Xavier. Anna, as well as the others, turned to face the great glass booth tucked away in the highest corner of the colosseum-like room. Behind the many windows, the silhouette of a bald head could just be made out. "'Winning' in the traditional sense was unlikely. This scenario was designed to overwhelm you all with numbers and push you to your limits. Cyclops and Phonix, you both performed remarkably well as always together, but I don't want you to forget the rest of your team. Spike, the same goes for you. You're excellent on your own in tight situations, but remember it takes only one unseen strike to put you on the back leg. In such circumstances, you'd want an ally nearby to watch your back. Nightcrawler, that was a remarkable showing in your recent strides towards mastery in your ability - but next time I'd like to see you focus more on a single target and defeat it before moving on to the next. Rogue -" Anna felt like she had drunk a gallon of ice-cold water hearing her code name called from the faceless box in the sky. "Same goes for you. I'd like you to focus your fire more on a single target and closer to your fellows. Not close enough to hurt anyone - of course - but enough to assist. Team effort, everyone, remember this is a team effort. Speaking of, Shadowcat -"
"What?" Kitty shouted up to Xavier's canopy. She hefted her grappling gun onto her shoulder, its long spiny chrome cable all wrapped nicely back into its barrel. "You want to thank me for single-handedly saving the whole squad from the Iron Giant over there?" She thumbed over her shoulder to the wreckage of the robot. A few of the smaller robots had gathered around it and were - admittedly adorably - trying to stick pieces of its bigger brother back together with their tinny 'C'- clamp hands. Watching them, Anna almost wanted to go over and help the little guys. That was if the mega robot wasn't the same monster that had almost turned her body into swiss-cheese.
"Kitty -" Boomed Xavier's amplified voice. "I don't want you to get bravery confused with -" He paused. "The lack of awareness of your situation. I will not refute your results, you saved the team from what, in real life, could have been a catastrophe. I will remind you, though, it could have easily gone the other way. What if your grappling hook hadn't found purchase when you leaped in mid-air as you did? What if you got onto the robot's shoulder and were unable to take control of its gun?"
"Ugh -" Kitty held out her hands to her side. "Then what do you want me to do? Sit around and cry?"
"Communicate, young lady, communicate with your team. I've seen in the Danger Room time and time again that you are more than able to defend yourself, and your bravery is to commend, but you seemingly act without thinking or ever consulting with the rest of your squad."
'Bravery?' Anna felt the word bounce around in her head as she looked on at Kitty. The girl standing before her, face lacquered with sweat and soot, her hair a mess, and her black battle suit tarnished from laser fire - was not the Kitty she had known in the breezeway back at Bayville High only a couple of weeks back. When a certain 'Blob,' a 7-foot behemoth of a boy pinned Kurt against a wall, Kitty only stood there cowering - seemingly frozen in place. Or back on the mission that Anna watched through Cerebro with Xavier. She watched the others battle tooth and nail with The Brotherhood, while Kitty was nowhere to be found. Yet here their shinny-headed leader was going on about 'bravery.' What was even odder, was after what Anna saw only moments before with the robot, she could hardly argue.
Kitty rolled her head to one shoulder and tapped her grappling gun against her leg. "So what, I'm supposed to get everyone on group chat every time I breathe? Is that what I'm supposed to do?"
"No -" Xavier answered, his tone starting to become clipped. "I'd like you to coordinate major actions like taking on a more sophisticated opponent with your fellows. When you don't, you risk getting yourself seriously hurt in the real world."
"Sure. Fine. Whatever." Kitty tossed the grapple gun over her shoulder and just missed nailing one of the smaller robots in the head. "We done here?"
Anna could see Xavier's head bob slightly in the booth. "Yes, I think training is finished for the day."
"Great." Kitty turned and made for the door.
"And Shadowcat -"
"What?"
"After you change, I'd like you to come by my office please."
Kitty stopped mid-step, and stretched her head from one side, then to the other "Fine." She stormed the rest of the way out of the Danger Room, and it was only after the great doors closed behind her did Anna look at Kurt who was looking right back at her. His tattered black head wrap was still half fixed upon the top of his shoulder-length blue hair. Anna's gaze was stolen away when she felt something short tug at the bottom of her thick combat padding. She turned to find one of the little ninja robots holding up Kitty's grappling gun for her to take. Anna flashed the little guy a deep-set smile and plucked it out of its tiny grasp. It looked up at her a moment, the bright fluorescent light above reflecting in its two evenly spaced lenses, then hugged her leg in the most awkward ridged embrace she had ever felt in her life. She looked back at the others for help and spotted Evan half losing his mind with laughter. Kurt smiled and made a petting motion with his hand. Anna looked back down at the robot and patted its flat plastic head.