Sam heard a creak behind him and turned to see Boomer climbing on to the roof.
“Whatcha doing hiding up here, hayseed?” she asked.
“Jus' thinkin' ‘bout all the changes we’ve been through, Tab."
“It’s a real headache, huh? I brought ya some lunch.” She tossed him a couple of brown plastic bags.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t cook anything. Boss man gave us all rations to eat.”
“Thanks.” He smiled at her. She sat down next to him.
“Cable gave me these wrist launchers thingies for my time bombs. We’re gonna be trying out a bunch of stuff in an hour. Boss man wants to see us work like a team and all that stuff.” She showed him the wrist launchers while he opened the brown plastic cover and started to eat.
“Me, I’m not so sure I like our locale. It’s so out of the way and dusty out here. Domino was showing me where the girls bunker is gonna be. I told her I’m not bunking with that Feral. That weird kitty cat gives me the creeps. I doubt she likes us much. But I don’t like her anyway.” Boomer kept blabbing away like she always did, while Sam listened and ate.
Soon, Domino walked by and saw them.
“This isn’t a time for slacking!” she called up. “Field tests, five minutes.”
“Juss when ya get two minutes to yerself she comes along yelling again,” complained Boomer as she slid off the roof. Her code name had been Boom Boom just a few days ago, but along with the team change she had wanted to change her name. She was a volatile kind of person. Unpredictable. But Sam knew that she was a great gal inside.
That was what mattered.
The team gathered at the building Cable had set up as HQ.
“This afternoon we will be engaging in field maneuvers to further increase your control over your mutant abilities,” said Cable.
“Jeez, I thought we already did that as New Mutants. When’s the action gonna start?” commented Boomer.
“We must always work to improve ourselves Boomer. Otherwise the only action you’ll get is lying in a grave,” said Cable sternly.
“Chill out boss man!” she said snapping her gum. Domino sighed and Sam rolled his eyes.
“Here’s how it’s going to be,” continued Cable. “You are going to split up and take cover by any of the buildings we won’t be using. The mission will be to take out your teammates without seriously injuring them. Last one standing is the winner.” “Shouln’t we be workin on teamwork, sir?” asked Sam.
“We want to see the way you each handle your own abilities first, before having you work in team situations,” said Domino. They all nodded and headed outside.
“Take up your positions. Attack begins in 2 minutes,” ordered Cable. He then headed back inside with Domino and started adjusting TV monitors.
“This should be interesting,” said Domino, seating herself on top of a console. “Did you remember to make the popcorn?” she asked. Cable glared at her.
“Great, now I get a chance to shove a time bomb under the nasty kitty’s tail,” said Boomer to herself as she crouched behind the corner of one of the buildings. “If she joins our ‘cause’ and all that you’d think that she’d help with the work. But the morlock gal can’t clean up or help! Nooo! she might break a nail or sometin.” The two minutes should be up soon, she thought. There was a thud on the roof. Boomer looked up to see Feral glaring down at her.
“Ready to meet your match blondie?” she asked in her fierce growl.
“Waitaminute, you stoopid! You gotta wait for the time to end.” Feral jumped down on her.
“I don’t do rules, girly. Oopsy!” Her claws raked into Boomer’s ribs.
“You’re gonna get it now, Feral!” yelled Boomer tossing one of her time bombs at the Morlock. Feral rolled away from the explosion.
“You aren’t gonna get me with that twice!” hissed Feral.
Even though he was sure that time wasn’t quite up, Cannonball could swear he heard the sounds of fighting somewhere behind him. Must be that two people had picked the same hiding spot, he thought. A loud whistle sounded, announcing the end of their two minutes. “Too bad mah powers aren’t so great for stealth,” he muttered to himself. “Ah’ll just have’ta flush someone outta hiddin.” While concentrating on keeping the noise from his blast field down, Sam flew between building searching for his teammates. He kept low to the ground, figuring on running into them literally. That’s why he was caught by surprise when Shatterstar jumped on him stabbing down with his sword. Sam rolled, sending Shatterstar slamming into a building. The dimensional warrior was quick to recover and soon on the offensive, again. Warpath came bursting out of one of the buildings joining the attack as well. He tried to stop Sam in midair with a punch to the face. He managed to knock Cannonball off course a bit, but hurt his own hand more than he managed to injure him. “You can’t hurt me while Ah’m blastin,” said Sam.
Domino watched the screens intently, studying the images of the battle picked up by the surveillance camera’s Cable had installed. “It’s a free for all. Kind of pointless looking,” she commented.
“A soldier needs to master his own individual abilities before he can work on a team,” said Cable.
“Yes, but working together they can build on their abilities. These children already have preliminary training from their previous enterprises.” Cable opened his mouth to respond, when an alarm went off.
“What the hell?” He tapped in a few commands on a console and the images on the screen changed as he searched for the reason for the alarm.
"Looks like more of those Mojoverse goons,” said Domino.
“But how did they find us?”
“They must have some way of tracking the kid. If they bioengineered him it could be part of his DNA.”
“Great,” said Cable grabbing a gun and heading outside. Domino was right behind him.
Feral had Boomer pinned. “Hope you had a nice life blondie,” she rasped as she raised her claws for the kill. Suddenly an alarm went off and she looked up briefly. Boomer shoved her off.
“What do ya think yer doing, stoopid! This is jus' training! You were gonna kill me!”
“Shut up blondie. Smells like company.” Feral turned tail and dashed off.
“Smells like you need a flea bath or somethin you stoopid animal,” muttered Boomer as she ran after her. They came upon Warpath, Cannonball, and Shatterstar fighting some armored dudes like the ones who had come after Shatterstar earlier. “Mojo has made the capture of the being known as Shatterstar priority one. The Imperial Protectorate will not leave without him. We will keep coming until he is returned or you are all dead,” announced one of the armored soldiers.
“Oh crap,” whispered Boomer. TO BE CONTINUED....