Take Me Out to the Ball Game

[Ecalsneerg]

As Eddie left, Geckoman decided to go in. Weeeee, let's go get yet another lecture. He walked into the office, sat down in the chair, and started doing what he was good at: talking. "Ok, Mark said you just wanted to hear our point of view, so here it is. We went along to the game, like everyone else, but our bus arrived late. We got there, the place seemed quiet. Everyone turned out to be in some sort of stasis field, and two wannabe supervillains were there, along with a load of robots and demons. So, we go in and try to save them. Yeah, maybe we weren't particularly professional and should have waited for the League or something." He paused to think. "But, when push comes to shove, we were there, we had powers we could use to stop those little punks, we did so. That's how it goes."

He leaned back in his chair. "I'm not taking responsibility for the press conference, though. Blame Mark, I was all for me staying behind since I do this sort of thing a lot and letting the others slope off to maintain at least some privacy."

[quotemyname]

"First," he said mildly, "I suggest you cease thinking of today's events as a game. What occured was quite real, and your opponents are in the hospital, not jail. One of them has a punctured lung from the rib that was broken. If you are incapable of realizing your actions have consequences, I can assure that any extra curricular activities will be heavily monitored. Indeed, I will give the matter my personal attention."

"Second, Mister Summers, or headmaster will be sufficient." He inclined his head at the door, "If you would wait outside with the others. You can send in the next student."

"Right..." Eddie was beginning to get why everyone was so afraid of the man. "Sorry, headmaster. I'll make sure I try and keep a cool head last time. I guess I was just excited about that cool power that had activated that I've never been able to use before." This guy didn't even NEED to yell.

"Headmaster it is then."

---

Out in the hall, Eddie was his usual beaming self. It really was hard to keep him in a bad mood. "Well that wasn't so bad. I don't think he liked my nickname for him, though..."

[alderwitch]

"Well, I'm glad we cleared that part up," Headmaster Summers said with dry humor, one hand resting casually on his desk and the other out of sight below it, "Tell me, Chris, what do you think of working with this group. You've usually kept your jaunts as solo endeavours."

[Ecalsneerg]

"Hey, I've never been against team-ups. I've done it before, although generally with only a couple of guys. This, well, it's different. But I reckon they need someone to keep an eye on them. I'm not going to try and make out like I'm some big-shot hero, but I still kind of know what I'm doing, whereas these guys alternate between overtly naive or inexperienced or scared. If they decide to make a go of this, I'd feel obligated to watch their backs." Well, that and it may stop me getting beaten up as much. Knives hurt. Like, a lot.

[alderwitch]

If Summers was amused at the idea of Geckoman as any team's experienced member, it didn't show on his face. Nor was there any sign of concern. He merely looked... thoughtful.

"Thank you, Chris. As always, it's enlightening. I wish you luck with fixing the airship. I suggest you take a look at the converter. I think that might be your problem. Please send in the next student on your way back to the bench."

[Ecalsneerg]

Chris walked out into the hall. "Ok, next person to go in and get ruthlessly disembowelled!" he proclaimed.

[Electra]

Erin looked from Alex to James, then stood up. "I'll go." She walked into the office, pausing in the doorway to check the room. Door, area behind the door, window, vents in the ceiling... all the access points and hiding places accounted for. She walked into the room and closed the door. Instead of taking one of the seats, she stood behind them, closer to the door than the desk, hands clasped behind her back as she watched the headmaster.

[alderwitch]

Duncan Summers inclined his head to look at her a glimmer of understanding in his eye.

"Next time you've got a physical training session, please inform the instructor that I'd like to have them teach you how to roll out of a chair and send it at an opponent in the process." He delivered the statement with a matter of fact air to the entire matter, as if they were discussing any of the more scholarly studies of the school.

With that out of the way, he leaned back in his chair, "Would you mind telling me what happened today?"

[Electra]

Erin cocked her head for a moment, thinking about the maneuver as she committed it to memory. She shifted her feet slightly and began talking. "We were going out to the baseball game with everyone else. Our van got stuck in traffic, so that by the time we got there, just about everyone was in the stadium. Some villains had taken the stadium hostage and were threatening the civilians with demons and robots. We had the element of surprise on our side, and no way of knowing what damage that field might be doing. Mark came up with a plan of attack and we followed it."

She took a deep breath, looking just past the headmaster's head as she continued. "I know I'm not cleared for any combat against living people besides my trainers yet, so I concentrated on taking out the robots and the demon-things that were there before they had a chance to harm any of the civilians. While I was doing that, one of the human villains attacked me with a weapon. It hurt me, so I knew it would do a lot worse to any of the other students. I incapacitated him, while Alex disabled the field and Mike took out its power source. The others helped to stop the last of the robots, and the other human villain." Erin did her best not to shift from foot to foot, still glancing periodically to make sure the exits were still clear.

[alderwitch]

Summers nodded slightly as he volunteered quietly, "The boy has a severe injury but he's going to be fine. You know this is a realm that you need to work on. If you're going to be continuing to work with your friends, I might suggest training with Mike. He has the opposite problem you are currently working through. Thank you, Erin. Could you send in one of your classmates? I'll call you all back in when I've spoken to everyone."

[Electra]

Erin didn't comment or argue, just turned and left much more quickly than she'd come in. Back out in the hallway, she hesitated a moment, then looked towards James and Alex. "Whoever's up for it can go in next," she told them. Rather than retake her seat, she started pacing, doing a ten-step lap in the hallway.

[Cyroa]

James looked over as Erin walked out and gave a relaxed smile. "No worries. I'll head in next." He stood up and walked into the Headmaster's office. He looked around curiously, never having been in here or met the man. He walked up and stood in front of the man's desk. "Evening Mr. Summers," he said unconcerned.

[alderwitch]

"You're welcome to have a seat, James." He made the offer without there being any pressure to accept. "I'd like you to tell me about today's events."

[Cyroa]

James shrugged. "S'ok, I'm good." He wasn't going to be here long enough to need a seat he figured. He didn't know if the headmaster was responsible for having a priest meet him on his first day here or not, but he was willing to give the man the benefit of the doubt. The man was a hero after all. Of course, that still didn't mean James was particularly inclined to trust any authority figure though.

James shrugged. "Sure. It's all on tape I'm bettin. Anyway, we went to the game but noticed something was off before we even got into the stands. We peeked, saw the situation. Mark made the call, we took out the baddies and made sure the people in the stands weren't so much as touched. When it was over, we gathered, Mark made the statement. We left. That's it." He shrugged again. "No big deal. Anything else?"

[alderwitch]

Headmaster Summers looked up at the new recruit to Claremont with a thoughtful gaze, "Would you like to talk to someone about the demons?"

[Cyroa]

James just raised an eyebrow. It wasn't like he hadn't expected that. His addressing them and their actions was broadcast far and wide after all. That didn't mean he had to explain it though; certainly not to someone who might have sent a priest of all people to greet him. Authority figures were pretty much not to be trusted was a pretty solid rule. "Why would I? They weren't that impressive. Did they scare some of the other kids," he asked dismissively, voice showing his doubt of that last query.

[alderwitch]

"If you do find a need to talk about today's events, I will remind you that I am available. If you have nothing more you need to discuss with me, you may rejoin your friends."

He inclined his head to the younger man, not pressing him further. For the moment.

[Cyroa]

James shrugged and turned to head for the door. Heading out, he looked at the assembled group. "So...anyone else need to head in or are we finally done with this?" He was unconcerned about mythical punishments or reprisals. "We need to go celebrate or something. Or go relax at least!"

[alderwitch]

Alex trooped in after James and volunteered in the sort of detail that only someone with eidetic memory could today's events. After the blow-by-blow of the traffic, Summers cut in to ask pointed questions instead. Otherwise, Alex would have been in there longer than the twenty minutes that it did take her. When she stuck her head out, her expression was a subdued shadow of its usual sunny smile and she told the kids, "He wants to see us all now."

As the kids trooped back in, Duncan Summers was standing with his back to them, behind the massive desk. He watched the children playing in the field and didn't turn around as they all trooped in and assembled themselves in a rough grouping infront of the desk. He was always a slightly imposing figure, but standing there backlit by the sun he seemed larger some how. A product of a bygone era. And when he finally spoke, it was to a dead silent room,

"Today, you made a choice. You may not realize the full consequences of that choice for months. Even years. But you will remember that today was the day you made it. I can't tell you if the choice was right or wrong. Nor can anyone else. The only person, who will ever know if in the end you regret the moment, or cherish it... is you. :bat: "

His voice rolled through the small room, deeper and far more serious than they've heard the headmaster before.

"What I can do is see that you're as ready for the world out there that you can be. You'll start weekly trainings. If you are going to work together as a group, you're going to need guidance. A fair amount of it from what I've seen today. That we can provide. The rest of it, in the end, will only come from hard work and a single-minded dedication that we will both see if you're capable of. I can only hope that you are up to the task set before you."

He paused for a long moment, his eyes searching the field and his hand clasped behind his back with his cane forgotten at his desk.

"All I ask is that you do not forget in the immortality of youth, that we are always here to guide, to help or even to listen... Now, off with you. I'm sure you have homework to attend to."

[Electra]

Erin needed no further prompting, and as she was already quite close to the door, managed to duck out almost before he was done dismissing them. She didn't take a deep breath until she was out in the hallway again. She paused long enough for one deep sigh, then headed off in the direction of the dorms. That had been quite enough excitement for one day.

[Avenger Assembled]

Edge politely thanked Mr. Summers, promising to do his best to live up to the expectations of the headmaster, and walked out of the building with a carefully animated fast walk. The moment he was outside of the administration building, Mark ripped off his goggles and threw his head back, shouting a short, wordless cry of pure delight, all but falling to his knees with joy at the fulfillment of his life's ambition. He actually dropped onto the grass nearby, a big smile on his face as he pulled off the headpiece of his costume.

[quotemyname]

"HEYO!" Breakdown called out as they left the headmaster's room. "Off the hook, and no damage done!" he wandered within the group exchanging high-fives with anyone who would have them, as well as a chest-bump here and there.

Walking backwards in front of the group he found he couldn't control his excitement. "Dudes! We rock!" Eddie's enormous smile seemed like it was far too large for his face. "Weekly trainings? No big deal! We are going to OWN this town before we know it!"

[Cyroa]

James turned and walked back out, a fake but pretty good smile on his face. He headed off across the campus without a particular direction mind, his mind certainly not dwelling on the concept of mythical homework. And weekly trainings weren't that big a deal; he exercised and practiced plenty. More was always fun. And he did try to have as much fun as possible...for however much time he had left.

This wasn't new. He'd been expecting the other shoe to drop. His...sleeping/nightmares told him that much. A couple months left maybe. But now, he was part of some kind of team. People were actually going to depend on him. A first, and certainly not something he had planned for... Crap.

[Ecalsneerg]

"Weekly training sessions? Weekly training sessions? I'm telling you, if he sets the Raven on me again... well, I was forced to throw poisoned soda all over some old guy's lap. It wasn't pretty." Geckoman grumbled and moaned his way over to the Pitchoo, pulling out various wrenches and screwdrivers from his belt as he did so.

At which point he disappeared from sight into the airship to the sound of metal clattering and sparks flying.

[angrydurf]

Mike waited for the others to leave almost as if he had more to say before he turned and lef the office shakeing his head as if convincing himself of something. 'Might regret this choice? I already do.' He thought to himself drearily.

Eddie and Mark were clearly elated, whether for getting away with it or surrviving or just over the events themselves he wasn't even sure he wanted to know. He trudged back towards his room to call his parents before they heard somewhere else.