nextgenerationmarvel | It's kind of like home.

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It's kind of like home.

Tony didn't spend an overly large amount of time at the Avenger's mansion these days. Not if he could help it. This was a special occasion, though. Today, he was going to introduce the kid to their new teacher. He suspected that many of them knew of her already, but proper introductions were only polite. Besides, he wanted to make sure They all knew to give her the proper respect. Anyone who gave her issues would answer to him and his primary methods of discipline were pay cuts and firing... nobody wanted that.

He waited with Kitty in the main living room at the mansion and waited for the kids to gather.

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The mud hands were little match for the power of slappy hands, apparently. As soon as the hands were squashed down, Aether took to the air to get out of their range.

"We need someone with a little more lifting ability than I have to help get Jay out of this mire." Marcus called over the comms. In the meantime, he slipped out of the saddle and dropped down onto Jay's back, hanging on with one arm while his sword sliced at some of the hands grabbing his squire's legs.

Bruce forced himself to spin around, blasting the Wraith in the face.

"We've gotta do something more..." he growled to himself. "Runecaster! We need a portal to Limbo! The rest of you, start herding them toward it!"

The dire wraith that had knocked down Bruce zipped away and moved to Erin, coming upon her from behind as she stumbled. It shot a blast of energy (that didn't look all that different from a repulsor ray) at her.

Vincent barely hears Bruce. He wants to go to her. He wants to rescue her.

"Tighten your assault! The shield will start fading as soon as I work on the portal!" He begins a new incantation, taking out his ritual knife and beginning to fly in a spiral towards the ground, making little tears in the dimensional wall as he goes.

Limbo?

Roxie whirled and bashed in the head of a Dire Wraith.

"Someone send Sofia Strange advanced noticed so we aren't attacked when we enter!" she yelled out in Vincent's general direction.

He was the one opening the portal, anyway.

She hoped he heard her.

Nicky flung his axe towards the Dire Wraith that was making headway for Erin. His axe whistled through the air, spinning blade over handle, before slicing halfway through the Wraith. He held his hand out and telepathically commanded his axe to return to him.

Which it did...Dire Wraith in tow.

"I got it! I got-plaugh!" Mouth full of mud digit did not make Jay a happy camper. He struggled to get free without knocking Marcus into the mire with him. Though with his legs less attacked, the young Hulk managed to get his feet on solid ground.

Erin feels the blast to her back and shudders. The water sheath was starting to come apart. She calls up more water and hardens it into a block of ice around a fist and punches one of the Dire Wraiths across the jaw.

She can tell her mental reserves are going down steadily.

Limbo. The timeless land to which Rom had banished his Dire Wraith foes, because that stalwart warrior from beyond the stars could not bring himself to kill even foes like them.

He blasted a Dire Wraith, hard, entrapping it in a force field bubble.

"Keep up the perimeter! Nothing gets past, and they all go in!"

As soon as Jay was free, Marcus hopped down and swung back up into Aether's saddle. Once they were in the air again, he used the flying horse's kicking hooves and his sword to try and herd the nearest wraiths in the direction of Vincent's portal magic.

Nicky's ax did cut through the Dire Wraith and then it went clear to the other side, having seemingly passed right through the Dire Wraith. The Dire Wraith looked a little worse for wear because it suddenly was crackling with electricity.

Cripes! Really? Really?

Kitty clicked off the transmitter and suddenly the Dire Wraith was gone, with Kitty in its place. Her poor gauntlet was also sparking. It seemed that it didn't agree with getting phased.

"Looks like the game is over, Stark," Kitty said with a smirk over the comm.

Roxie was rounding up as many Wraiths as she could, stunned for a moment that Kitty was standing where a Dire Wraith had been a moment ago.

What just happened? she wondered. Also, I should look into getting a lasso for jobs like this.

"It was fun while it lasted." Tony answered over the comm. A moment later, the area around them shimmered and the Wraiths, their ship, and their 'victims' vanished. "Thank you for keeping the property damage to a minimum. The city charged a pretty penny for the use of this park and I don't want to have to write them another check."

Bruce hovered to a stop. "Wait... this was all a test?"

Jay stopped swinging at air. He looked at his hands and then at the empty spots where his targets had been. He turned around and pointed at Kitty.

"Boo does not approve of such shenanigans. I-" he shrugged and lowered his hand. "-say eh. Whatever."

Vincent, when he recovered from his shock, and closed the portal before anything could come through from Limbo, scowled intensely.

"You.. do you have any idea the forces we could have unleashed if we kept escalating our efforts? And what if a real emergency happened and we were exhausted from this because we were going all out?"

Slowly but surely, Vincent is learning to think beyond five seconds ahead of him.

"Suddenly I feel less stupid for doing so bad," Erin says as she stumbles a bit. The water drops to the ground turning some of the snow from the latest snow storm into little more than slush.

She really didn't see why Runecaster was so upset. Her hand hurts from what she had done but everyone's okay, right?

Marcus directed Aether to land near Erin and he swung down from the saddle to check on her. Everyone else seemed pretty much okay, but she was the new kid and he wanted to make sure she hadn't gotten hurt. "You alright, there?"

"..." Roxie pursed her lips and floated back down to the ground. "That was...actually a good workout," she said after a long, silent moment.

She grinned at Kitty. "Thank you."

Nicky landed near Erin, silent. He slung his axe over his own shoulder before gently placing his free hand on Erin's. "For a first timer, you did well," he said before glancing at Vincent. "There will probably be days, Amorason, where we will be run ragged by having one terrible attack after another. It's good that we learn how to deal with an issue like that now, so that we're better prepared to save the world when it comes time for us to do so."

"Hard light adaptable holograms," Kitty explained. "I told Mr. Stark that I wanted to see you guys in action in a real-time situation, working as a team. This is what we cooked up. Don't expect this to be the last time, either." To the kids' dismay, they were now being overseen by not one, but two techheads who were dogged in their technique. This was not going to end well for the children.

"You guys always gotta be on your toes." She went on further, making eye contact with all of them. She was unperturbed by Jay's and Vincent's reactions and looked at them both intensely in turn. "'Boo' is not required to approve of this or not. It is what you signed up for." And then on to Vincent. She thinly smiled. "And that's what we wanted to see. What exactly you were going to do, what you are capable of doing while in a dog fight. So we threw you guys in a realistic battle situation. It's an entirely different mindset when you know you're facing a simulation." And as for Vincent's other concern, "You get trained by situations like this to be prepared for the real dangers out there. Pushing yourself over your normal threshold--which I can tell you right now that you didn't reach, not by a longshot--is not uncommon. I guarantee with me around, you are going to get out of your comfort zone. We are gonna get you into the mindset of competent adults and no longer privileged children." Because what Vincent said was skirting on that and that was disappointing.

Her gaze and speech softened when it came to Erin."This was your first time out. And for that I do say you performed adequately. There's still much learning for you to do--for all of you to do." She moved her gaze again, looking at each of them. She let her gaze fall on Bruce. "Now it's time for you guys to get back home. You can expect each of you having a one-on-one conference with me in the coming week." And with that, she headed back for the ship.

"Fact is, folks," Bruce said, "she's got a point."

He gestured toward the ship. "Let's head home."

Vincent just locks his jaw hard, refusing to let the incoherent rage and frustration out, even in the face of being mislead and deceived by the leaders he's supposed to trust.

"I've got my own ride." He simply says to Bruce, and flies off to take care of his sister, energy trail behind him as he opts for his armor's resources rather than magic.

Erin looks tiredly at first Marcus then at Nicky.

"I'll be okay. I just need to drink lots of fluids when we get back. I haven't pushed my powers like that before. Most of my constructs tend to be more.... hollow. This time they were solid so..."

She shrugs not knowing how to say her head was dully throbbing from the effort and a sudden case of dehydration.

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It's kind of like home.

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