Practice by the Lake, Open

[Sophia Seed]

“Very well. I’m not very well versed on any sort of fighting or battle techniques, but my glass should be enough,” she wondered though, what could Betsy have meant. Seeing something in action when fighting could have been strange, considering the last thing Sophia ever wanted to do was hurt anyone. Though thinking about it, if she needed to stop one of her students from hurting another, or if something goes wrong, she might have to be clever with her glass.

But clever, especially with glass, was something Sophia had been accustomed to doing for quite some time. Coming up with unique patterns, different styles, and even one of a kind sculptures was her specialty. Though how to show her was a completely different matter. Sophia could imagine any number of movies she had seen where the action hero was capable of fighting, but what exactly Elizabeth wanted to see from her was a completely different matter.

“Well…first,” she could in theory fly. Thinking about the sand beneath her feet, it took all of a second or two to form a simple glass disk beneath her feet, which floated her up in to the air as effortlessly as she had thought about creating. Looking back down at Elizabeth and Jubilee beneath her, she must have been about five to six feet off the ground when she finished her thoughts,”.. I can fly. But I imagine I’m not the first.”

“And,” looking behind her at the sculpture, it began to move. Subtle at first, as though the first time it had moved before, but then, stretching outward, the very life like, angelic stature of Elizabeth was now moving on its own. Reaching in to the very platform it stood on, it pulled out what appeared to be a large ornate sword, something very European inspired, but easily normally very unwieldy and would definitely hurt if caught by it. The statue then leaped from its location in the middle of the lake toward the group of women, landing just short and in the water. But coming out of the water, the sculpture looked ready for a fight, though what sort of creature with such an angelic, innocent looking face would try to cleave you with a long board claymore was impossible to imagine, “I can make my sculptures move as well. I can take apart pieces and move them as I want, lift them off the ground and even change their strength, so that they’re just as hard as steel or super resistant to heat.”

[Jubilee]

Jubilee watched Sophia's statue move, simply in awe of the lady now. Okay, so she was capable of being here - and why wasn't she an X-Man? Oh, well, if she didn't want to fight she wouldn't have to until something came in and hit home. Probably through a window, which would give Sophia an edge - in both a literal and metaphoric sense.

She stepped back from the statue and smirked, trying to regain her composure. "You'd probably be better off with a smaller weapon. The larger it gets, the more force you'll have to apply at the base, which might shatter the glass, or make it more easily broken, right? But, if you, like, want to see what it could do in combat, we could do a test run, right?"

They could actually see when the 'valley girl' stupid act slipped in like a mask over her brain/mouth filter. Some of her lessons had actually hit home, and the greatsword proved it. But these flashes of knowledge were so few and far between that most people wrote it off to her just having gotten the fact stuck in some otherwise disused corner of her mind.

[Psylocke]

Elizabeth crossed her arms over her chest as she watched the new girls display of power. It was something Psylocke hadn't seen in her lifetime, which made it quite interesting. She seemed sweet. From her judgement, Psylocke believed her to be a more of a teacher than any real asset to the X-Men team. Though there was endless interior design possibilities.

If Sophia learned how to fight, even just the basics, she'd be able to manipulate glass as if her statues were multiple warriors who fought to protect her. That'd be quite the sight on the battlegrounds.

It was then that Jubilee suggested a test run for their abilities. She was surprised at Jubilee's eagerness, though she probably shouldn't have been. Jubilee had been a wonderful addition to the X-Men. In a fight, Jubilee surpassed the common student at Xavier's. It was a wonderful idea, though Betsy still felt Sophia may be reluctant to join in on the girls festivities.

"How about a game.... of Hide and Go seek? It would give you both some experiance in tactics we would have to use in any mission... While adding some fun to an otherwise boring adventure. I'll even volunteer to be 'it' first if you two would join me." It wouldn't make Jubilee feel any better about such a game with Betsy as the first person 'it'. Psylocke was a ninja. She was able to creep undetected even sometimes to Logan. And as much training as Psylocke had been doing since her return from Antartica, she grew rather bored with the same thing over and over.

[Sophia Seed]

Though probably not dressed for such an occasion, like a game, she was up to the challenge. The long flowing skirt and barely tennis shoes might prove difficult to run around in, but Sophia could offer some flight instead if necessary, allowing her to play this hide and seek game. Though she wondered how it might be played, never having played this hide and seek game before.

Before this however, if they were going to play this game, she needed something a little bit more useful than a glass statue. Shattering all the glass she created in the area, she reformed it in to a set of glass balls, each almost a foot in diameter, all of them floating around Sophia was though orbiting her like a sun. She floated back down to the ground, back within eye level to each of the other girls, though wondering how such a game could be played, “It sounds interesting. But I’m not quite sure how you play. I am new to the mansion and being around so many mutants already.”

[Jubilee]

Jubilee stared at the woman, completely incredulous. Was she really saying that she hadn't played hide-and-seek before? Sure, Jubilation was a little old for kids' games like that...but when Betsy Braddock suggested it, with her ninja butt as 'it', that was a little less than a game! This was a lady who'd gotten away from Wolverine.

"Like, you've never played hide-and-seek before? Like when you were in school, at gym or recess or whatever? That's totally impossible. What kind of a school did you go to? Did you like, not play dodgeball there too?"

[Psylocke]

Psylocke smirked as she saw a bit of growing excitement in the two girls. Sophia was much more socially awkward than Jubilee, though four times the amount of maturity. Jubilee found it incredibly strange Sophia wasn't sure how to play. People from different cultures didn't always have the same background. But Psylocke's game would be more intriguing.

"This isn't an ordinary game of Hide and Seek, Jubilee. This game will test you on strategy and stealth. Of course, we must have a few ground rules. Powers are allowed, however, you may only use your abilities in a defensive mannor while you're the ones hiding. The person who is it may use any abilities or skills. A physical tag is required to pass the 'it' status. Once you're tagged, you must stop and close your eyes and count to one hundred. Any questions?" It should be enjoyable, even though they were to try and be more strategic about it. Psylocke just about couldn't wait to start as the huntress.

She was far more experianced than either girl. She also knew the area from her running. There wasn't a crack in the rock or a tree they could climb that Psylocke couldn't find them in. And they probably knew that...

[Sophia Seed]

Odd that they took the simple reply that Sophia had made so literal, but ofcourse it might as have been confusing that way. Having younger siblings and growing up as a kid in America, Sophia knew all about the game of hide and go seek, but the nature of it was probably different for Mutants or as a training exercise. But if the concept was as simple as possible, then by all means, a chance to perhaps show that she knew what she was doing with glass, or maybe that she was more than qualified to be a teacher. Nodding a yes, she had to think for a moment, as far as what she might do to hide.

No doubt, these two girls knew this forest better than anyone else, but Sophia was completely different, her first time here at even this tiny lake would have proved difficult. Looking around, Sophia couldn’t really conceive anywhere to hide if given the option, so perhaps making a hiding spot would be best for her, or atleast throw her off in the wrong direction perhaps. Sophia looked around and started to account of the things she could do in a short hundred second count, but she waited in anticipation, “Well, if it’s going to be that easy, then sure, whenever you’re ready.”

[Jubilee]

Jubilee chuckled at Sophia's understatement of the matter. "Easy is relative, y'know..."

It'd be easy enough to catch anyone else, but outside of cheating, Jubilee didn't see how in the world she could evade Psylocke in these woods. Now, it was going to fun, no matter what, because they hadn't been able to run around and play a game for a long time. They were finally coming back to a family again. She was gonna get her butt whomped by Betsy in this game, but, that was okay. It was better than okay, actually. She couldn't stop herself from one of her going okay again.

[Molly]

Molly hiked through the woods that held Nathair, the stupid lizard from before. She didn't want to think about that right now, but that is why she was up here. Bruiser had been walking around for hours just trying to get away from Zeke and the idea of that she actually kissed him, by accident of course. The others would kill her if they found out, but then again they all did far worse, right? Why did that snake have to put them in that situation? Well, she did ask him some rather personal if not stupid questions.

No! This was all his fault, now Zeke probably didn't like her anymore. What did she care? She didn't like him. Molly held her hands in the front pocket of her purple hoodie while wearing a pair of jeans, sneakers, and her black cat hat with big yellow eyes and cat ears. It was impossible to for her to take her mind off of this thing. If only she had not turned around.

"Why does this always happen?" Molly thought as she walked out of the woods and found three women, one of which was Psylocke, and a glass statue of her turned into orbs. "Great now I'm interrupting something too. Oh well, I guess this could count for that note Psylocke left me." The over powered pre-teen walked up to the other three, hoping she wasn't about to interrupt something.

"What's going on?" She wanted to ask them, but they were already talking. Molly just turned and walked back into the forest, maybe they would stop pretty soon.

[Psylocke]

Psylocke smirked as she saw Molly wonder onto their little game. After their meeting in the Danger Room, and knowing the power she packed, it would be an interesting addition to the game. "ahh, Molly. Just in time. Hide and Seek. I'm it. You can only use your abilities on the defensive unless you're it. You have 100 seconds. Go" And then Betsy closed her blue eyes, and covered them with her hand, while turning her back to them all.

Slowly, Psylocke started counting out loud as she tried to listen to the girls footsteps as they stepped on every piece of dried leaf or twigs. As a ninja, it wouldn't be hard for Psylocke to find them. Ten seconds passed by VERY quickly. She wondered if the three of them would work together, or have every woman for herself. She couldn't wait for the 100th second and the hunt to begin...

[Sophia Seed]

As far as hiding went, Sophia wasn’t going to be overly skilled at this at all, particularly since her knowledge of her surroundings were pretty limited. She could float through the forest, but that would be unfair, particularly since she could simply stay out of range, but wasn’t so much hiding, and even if out of physical range, Sophia was aware of people who fire projectiles out. No, for Sophia, deception would probably be best, as she could try to come up with some interesting stuff.

First, she needed material, as she imagined getting further away from the lake and the sand bar around it would mean she had less material to work with. There was still the remainder of the statue’s pedestal that was still stuck in the lake, so Sophia conjured an idea that would work well. Sophia would create a glass bubble within the pedestal’s base at the bottom of the lake and hide there, slipping in through the top of the pedestal and never getting wet the entire time. From there, some clever plumbing to get air that would hide in the décor of the statue would likely throw anyone off. Though, she wanted atleast one or two distractions as well to throw off her pursuer, maybe three if she could get it to work properly.

As she floated toward the glass pedestal, she cannibalized some of it, to make it atleast look like had abandoned it or use it for material, creating atleast two humanoid looking approximations of her body, and placing them in otherwise obvious hiding places. One was sent to the stop of one of the trees with lots of brush and over hang coming off, another behind a much larger rock in the opposite direction. Lastly, Sophia create a figure of herself that looked like she was running, and would merely tow it through the forest for a distance and then abandon it, though seeing it would be the tricky part and guiding it even more difficult. So she placed it quite a distance off, though not too far away that it couldn’t have been seen easily, particularly near some wooden branches on the floor to create noise. When Elizabeth began her chase after others, and left the lake side area, Sophia could create some disks to act like mirrors and telescope lenses, giving her the ability to look around without giving away position right away.

Sophia would barely finish in time, but if she planned herself right, it would be exceedingly clever perhaps. Just as she heard the last seconds counting down, she slid in to the pedestal and closed up the entrance, sealing herself inside with only tiny plumbing through the base of the pedestal to breathe out of. If all went well, either one of the three decoys would throw her off and send her chasing in the opposite direction.