2018-05-13 - Jeniri and the Danger Room

Jeniri was told that they would begin with the first stages of training today. Of course, the first stage is finding out where she is currently at in her abilities. She was instructed to be here, but arrived a bit early, eager to begin. The area seems to be a fairly normal training area... At the specified time the doors to the danger room open and a woman made, seemingly, of glass, right down to her clothing (even the long cloak!), strides in. She's carrying a rugged tablet computer (not made of glass) upon which is displayed, seemingly, a complicated control panel.

"Oh, good," the glass woman says with a smile as emotionless as her voice. "You're here. Points for punctuality."

She tilts her head and regards Jeniri. "How are you adjusting to life in the Institute, Ms. Elgin? Has Samuel been a good guide?"

That's when it clicks: this is Emma Frost. The telepath who frightened Spider-Man. Even while welcoming a new student.

Jeniri observes the woman entering with a bit of puzzlement. It takes a moment to recognize Mz. Frost and when she does, she asks, "Good morning Mizz Frost. I have barely met the others yet, I suppose it takes a while for a new girl in school to be welcomed. Are you made of ice? I thought you were a mentalist." "This is my diamond form," Emma says, because, you know, this explains everything. "I prefer to remain in this form in the danger room because I'm largely unbreakable in it." The smile is as emotionless as it is not even slightly reassuring. "I actually find this room a little bit frightening."

Yeah. That sure doesn't add to the pressure, does it?

"My daughter will be along any mo..." She breaks off to look as the doors open and deposit Laura into the room. "Ah, Poppet, right on time. I was just mentioning you."

She turns to face Jeniri again. Ms. Elgin, this is my daughter, Laura Kinney. Poppet, this is Jeniri Elgin, a new student who I will be running through the danger room placement exam."

Facing Jeniri again, "I will have Laura go through a quick version of the test while the pair of us are in the operation booth to monitor so you have an idea of what will happen." She almost takes Jeniri by the arm, stopping just shy of actually touching, while gesturing to the door that leads to the booth. "Laura, standard drill: get from there..." She points to one corner. "...to there." She points to the opposing corner. "The room will try to stop you. And let's face it. It will succeed."

"Ms. Elgin, if you will?"

Jeniri has a lot of questions. Diamond form, so Mz. Frist has more than one power? From the little Jeniri hs read on the subject, most Mutants have a suite of abilities centered on a common theme. Mz. Frost is afraid of the room? Mz. Frost has a daughter? Funny, the girl does not look at all like her. The ROOM attacks her? Well perhaps better to wait and see the answers herself, since this Laura Kinney is going to demonstrate.

The smallish girl in pink and white sizes up the situation before her. Laura is presented with a turret, a pair of robot warriors wielding bokken, and a wall that rises and lowers at random. She hrmphs to no one in particular after sparing a glance to Emma and Jenny of acknowledgment. then nods once and dashes forth!

The room springs into motion even as Laura explodes into action, suddenly a third of the way across it prompting the robots to advance. Laura's knuckles crack as she bares them at the ready, her posture low as she beelines for the first one to approach. A hand snakes out to intercept the incoming sword, catching it by pommel before the other grasps a wrist, and she shifts her posture down and to the rear pulling the robot out of kilter before popping a pair of claws that are thrust at its neck.

The turret has a bead on her already and fires a stunning bolt of concussive energy tagging her in the back, fortunately she is wearing armor. This prompts Laura to keep moving and she streaks at the robot, dodging a stroke to bound up and off its shoulder scaling the wall....that rises to try to pin her on the ceiling!

Fortunately she just avoids that to make it to the other side where another turret is deployed to harry her along to the goal with staccato bursts of energy! "As you can see, Ms. Elgin," Emma says as she watches Laura's run dispassionately, "the room is rather versatile. It is fully automated. It is equipped with the best equipment some of the finest minds in all of mutantkind can design--minds that work on issues like "how to neutralize mutant powers" as warm-up exercises--and, as you will see, it adapts to who's in it. The X-Men use this room to train up joint tactics because very few people can cross that room solo."

She watches Laura's tribulations with interest.

"She has improved immeasurably since I first saw her in here."

The fact that a seemingly normal training room can pop up turrets, moving walls, and robots at a moment's notice is rather startling, "I see what you meant when you said the room attacks you. Do you make it across the room without help, Mz. Frost?" Laura Kinney is very quick and can damage metal with her claws. If the room adapts, then it will not hit her with the same things it hit Laura with, as her abilities are different.

Laura steps over to Emma from the far side of the room, the obstacles resetting even as she goes. When she nears, she offers,"I spend a lot of time in here, and the trick is focusing on the goal not the challenges."

"I cannot, no. Mental powers don't do much against stupid machines. And in diamond form, while I am strong and largely indestructible, I'm not strong enough to hold off its myriad of attackers. It has suppressed me using everything from sheer numbers to force field projections."

There's something off about Emma's tone as she speaks. It's so dispassionate she might as well be talking about the cost vs. benefit ratio of three-ply vs. two-ply toiler paper for all the emotional investment she shows. This does not match the Emma Frost who on the one hand was so effusively warm to Jeniri on arrival, while so heartlessly and frighteningly cruel to Spider-Man.

"I have taken a lot of combat training since my first arrival here," she continues, with curious emphasis on the word "taken". "But this room still defeats me every time I'm solo."

Her diamond hands applaud as Laura returns, face expressing approval. Oddly, despite being "diamond form", her clapping doesn't sound like rocks clattering...

"That is very sound advice, but it also helps to be a combat machine. I'm not that latter part. Laura is nearly perfect in that role. I'm more ... an administrator and educator."

She turns to face Jeniri. "It's your turn, Ms. Elgin. Since it is your first time, I offer you the choice: would you prefer I monitor from up here in the booth or join you on the floor?"

Jeniri thinks about the question, "I should try it alone. If it is adapting for two, the obstacles will be intended for both and thus either of us may encounter things intended for the other. This could throw off the results of an evaluation." Not to mention the room may use us against one another...

Laura purses her lips as she listens to and observes the other two after smiling in appreciation to Emma's approval. She is otherwise stock still, her eyes swiveling between them without shifting otherwise. She replies to Jenny's thoughts after a beat,"It does adjust to numbers, yes."

"Very good, Ms. Jeniri. You are already thinking deviously. This will help you in the room. You still likely won't reach the other side, but you'll do better than I did my first day."

The almost robotic visage of Diamond Frost stares momentarily at a spot in the room. Very close to the starting corner.

"That was my furthest extent that day," she says. "I've improved since."

She steps aside, gesturing to a spot for Laura by her side.

"Please prepare yourself, Ms. Jeniri. For now I'll let you decide when to start the simulation; merely should "GO!" and the system will begin its work. In the future you may find yourself on the receiving end of surprises should you choose a combat training program."

Jeniri steps into the designated corner and considers, she decides to not start with her powers active, the room is likely to adapt to what is being used, so what she activates it will respond to. If she starts without anything it should give her one free use of each trick. That should not get her across the room, but should get her somewhere. She says, "Go!" and starts with a standing long jump...having been on the track team (not to mention the cheering squad and the soccer team and...well she kept busy) she has a bit of normal physical skill to draw on.

A pair of holes open in the floor presenting Jenny with robot warriors armed with bokken much like Laura dealt with before. From the ceiling, the same turret lowers down, but this time sporting a net tosser that promptly fires! The net spreads in flight attempting to snare Jenny as the two warriors ready their swords! "Interesting start," Emma says to Laura as she watches and notes things on the tablet for later review. "This room is damnable in its predictive capacity. I keep getting the urge to give Hank night terrors when I watch it in play."

She watches with interest out the control booth window, following along with occasional glances to her tablet as systems update. She winces when one of the indicators goes red. "That's going to hurt," she comments dryly.

Robots are no problem...but she has a use for them. She extends her hands, creating larger copies of blue light that grab the robots and throw them into the net while she jumps over the hole the robots came out of. Using things against each other can go both ways.

The robots are handily dispatched by the net launcher, prompting the room to advance as she does. The launcher withdraws into the ceiling. Further down the room, a pair of turrets emerge of the sort Laura dealt with, one of them firing a cord at Jenny attempting to ensnare her to be fired upon. It has indeed learned, robot warriors are ineffective.

Jenny has an idea, keep it subtle at first...but cover the entire inside of the room with a construct made of yellow light. Sheer off the two turrets from the wall with a blade of purple light then solidify the construct, running for the corner while holding back any more popups... "Solid light," Emma comments out loud to no particular end. "It will probably take the room about fifteen seconds of observation to figure out she..." And on cue the danger room lights snuff. The room goes pitch dark. "...needs a source of light to power herself," Emma continues. "This is a horrible room. I will give Hank the sweating terrors for it."

She peers into the coalmine, trying to ascertain what's happening now that Jeniri's powers are the only thing lighting the room. "I hope the child has a plan for this."

The room dark with two fewer turrets, the challenge continues to escalate. The floor opens to elevate a wall barring her progress complete with a pair of metal cords snaking along the face of it barring climbing. The sound of metal clattering is distinct in the utter darkness...

Jeniri has found that she has the ability to store light, while the store of light bleeds off after a while, and she uses it up a lot faster than she stores it, it come in handy when there is no light available. One thing she was doing while waiting for Mz. Frost this morning was storing light. She anticipated she might need it. She only has a couple of minutes...and the problem of not being able to see...but she can feel the pressure of the wall upon her construct. Keeping the whole wall down might quickly drain her...but holding down the tentacles she can do as she displays her flight power for the first time... "Good. She has an alternative plan. The question now, Poppet, is if she has the endurance." She looks down at the display. "Because the winds are about to go hurricane force, I suspect."

She's seen fliers flattened against the far wall with this. It will be interesting to see if the versatile power set being used here can counter it.

"How is Ms. Lee, incidentally?" she asks.

Laura looks up to Emma at the question from the scene at hand, replying modestly,"Shes been busy. Her family has the misguided notion she is the sort to forgive and forget after all this time."

The winds do begin to escalate as the upward moving wall strains against the light barrier holding it down. The gears are audible beneath the floor, fortunately the winds don't ramp up immediately. Presently it is gusting like a gale, but they are gradually heightening to keep her from crossing...

When the winds start to pick up, Jeniri creates a fishing pole anchored in the corner with a fishing line attached to a fish that is all around her. She starts reeling in the line, pulling herself in. The fish construct may be thrashed about in the wind, but as long as the pole is anchored she will get where she is going eventually. "The strategy is sound," Emma notes, tapping the screen of her tablet. "But I doubt she has the reserves to pull it off. She's underestimated the opponent -- which is fair enough."

The mimicry of a sardonic smile crosses her face. "She's still doing better than I did on my first outing."

She leans over to a microphone and clicks on the talk button. "Ms. Elgin, this is Emma Frost. If depletion of reserves is potentially injurious, I would prefer you not do so in a placement test. This is more an orientation activity, after all, not a combat training situation."

She releases the talk button and settles back to continue watching, notes flowing from beneath her fingers like water.

The straining wall breaks through with the conjuring of rhe line and fish, the hydraulically powered wall snapping upwards with terrific speed and force sending the cables flying about seemingly of their own volition.

Laura nods quietly watching the scene without comment. She was raised for combat in a lab, so cant really offer much for encouragement that wouldn't come of condescending alas.

Emma is partly correct, running out of her light stores is inevitable. The wall pops up...but that pushes up on the fishing line throwing the fish up and over the wall past the tentacles. Unfortunately the fish hits the roof pretty hard, breaking Jeniri's concentration. She was, as Emma noted, almost out of stored light anyway...what would have happened then she is not sure yet. In any case she is stopped just past the wall. SIMULATION ENDED flashes on Emma's tablet. A few deft finger-flicks later and the results are stored for later analysis and instruction. "System engage safety overrides," Emma announces, then, upon receiving confirmation of this, she flickers and reforms in her X uniform.

"Well done, Ms. Elgin," she says stepping into the room. "You show distinct promise. I will be compiling the session recordings, readings, and my personal observations and submitting these to the training department. From what I've seen I am comfortable speculating that should you desire it, a trial placement in the X-Men reserve team would not be out of reach in rapid time."

She turns to face Laura, deferring to her daughter's experience. "If you have any comments of your own, Poppet?"

Laura steps down in Emma's shadow, expression as dispassionately aloof as ever as she offers,"You concentrated on the challenges instead of the goal. But you did make progress."

Jeniri comments once she recovers a bit, "You know, Mz. Frost, I think I see what you may be doing wrong...the room adapts, you always give it your Diamond form, you need to switch up so it has something different to adapt to." "Oh, I don't always go in diamond form. It's just that as flesh form it stops me faster. My powers are for living things not ..." Emma sniffs disdainfully at the room. "...machinery."

She shrugs easily.

"When in flesh form I carve a path through it far faster and farther than most mere humans would. I'm not completely helpless. It's just that physical conflict with robotic opposition is not my forte." An arm snakes out around Laura's shoulders for a quick squeeze. "I have help for that, thankfully. My daughter and my fiancé both are quite adept at the physical side of mayhem."

She snaps off her tablet. "I'll pass on these results, Ms. Elgin, but for now I'm afraid I will have to exeunt ... I have a therapy appointment." Her mouth twitches. "Given our conversation at your arrival you can guess what the subject of conversation is likely to be."