It's Monday, Know What That Means

Continued from previous post...

X-Corporation: Los Angeles home office

“Want to go up another level? You’re at 38.7 tons and holding steady.”
Sweating more than she would care to, Monet St. Croix pressed the bar as high as she could. Connected to each end of the bar were pneumatic resistance pistons and gauges to display relative weight. Monet, or M to those she’s pummeling, was certain she was nearly at her limit, but, “Raise it two levels, Julio.”
“No prob, chica loca.” He raised the level to 40.6 tons but kept his finger close to the RESET button. “Your concern is noted, Julio, Monet announced, “but, ugh, unnecessary.” She grunted, loudly and frequently, but managed to keep the bar up with her arms at full extension for five solid minutes. “Who is the loca one, eh?”
“My sincerest apologies, Ms. St. Croix. I’ll remember to never doubt you again.” He quickly switched off the pressure, relieving his associate of her burden. “I think that’s enough for today. You’ve reached a record high by 1.7 tons.”
“I want to train some more.”
“Do you? Well, too bad. The equipment won’t work down there unless there’s someone up here. I call it ‘the no angry training’ rule. Come on. Help me do inventory, the move is next month.”
M patted her face, anxious to remove the sweat and to not show Julio she was worried about the sweat. “Fine. You better be very amusing while we work or we come right back.”
“Deal.”
BA-DOOM!
“What the hell?!” Julio, Rictor to those he’s pummeling, ran out of the training control room heading straight for the situation room. Collision alarms were going off and on the main view screen, a 3-D view of the outside of the tower showed a bow in the outer wall. Something hit the side, hard, and was apparently still there.
“What is it?”
“Something hit us. It’s embedded in the safety mesh and, shit, we got multiple incoming.” Rictor hit a button on the console, opening a port in the far wall. M didn’t hesitate, taking off immediately and Rictor barely had to the time to yell, “North wall,” before M is out and banking right. Rictor turns and heads for the roof elevator.
Nova shakes his head, knowing he can’t stay in the open for long. Three yellow blots are in his view, smaller green blots growing close to them. The lead blot yells, “Give us the data, buckethead, and we’ll make this easy.”
Nova glared. “It’s Nova, bitches!” He flew straight out, clothes lining two of the A.I.M. troopers and reaching out for a third. He was rewarded with a blast of plasma energy to his chest and a return to the depression he made into the X-Corp building. Hit thrice more, he finally broke through the safety mesh, a system of wire and polymers designed to keep structural integrity in the event of attack, and fell to the floor of a lobby.
He braced himself, wondering why he went in alone. A minute passed and nothing. Nova stood and looked up. A girl in what looked like an expensive leather trench coat was flying circles through the A.I.M. troopers. Nova had a split second of jealousy until he realized that the girl had outside help.
Rictor was on the roof, seismic blasting anyone getting a bead on M. It was getting tricky, wave after wave of troopers were sweeping in and the latest finally took notice of the Latino making hand gestures 38 stories up.
“M, we’re outnumbered. We need to get inside.”
“Too much excitement, Julio? Didn’t your X-Force buddies get into scraps like this all the time?” “That’s not-hey, Nova!” The Human Rocket streaked into the battle, taking great pleasure in smashing in as many of those stupid beekeeper helmets he could find. The troopers fired recklessly, hitting each other while M and Nova wrecked those they missed. But there were still too many.
“Inside,” Rictor called again, the signal being picked up by Nova’s helmet as well as M’s earpiece. “We need cover and backup.”

“Fine. But let’s clear of few of these clowns.” Nova circled around and took M by the arm. “Follow my lead, gorgeous.” Reluctantly, M took Nova’s arm and they begun a cyclone spin, intentionally ramming into as many of the troopers as they could find. After clearing most of the troopers in the vicinity, the pair turned and retreated into the X-Corp tower.
Once inside, M promptly smacked Nova across the face, only slightly holding back. “I’ll thank you never to call me ‘Gorgeous’ again.”