2014.02.18 - Old Programs

The official timetable for the Danger Room has this time allotted for a joint training session with Cyclops and Channel. However, having spotted a free block beforehand, the First X-Man has arrived early to get in a little one-on-one time with the holograms.

Scott's Danger Room scenario is not exactly the most imaginative, visually stimulating program in the hard drive. The room around him is empty, a white space that seems to stretch on in every direction. The only colors are blue spheroids that dart at random angles this way and that, dissolving whenever a burst of crimson energy from his visor strikes them.

The thing about Danger Room sessions is you never knew what was going to happen, unless you were the one doing the programming. If Joce was doing the programming, it'd be far different, and usually she has some sort of scenario when she and Rachel do their training together. The woman looks over at the Danger Room and spots the telltale sign of the optic blasts (well, their energy signature at least) and sees no other life energy in the room. That meant Scott had gotten there early.

The woman walks over and pushes the button for the intercom. "You clear for me to come in Cyclops, or you want to finish shooting up whatever you've got in there?" Jocelyn asks. She wasn't in the observation area, but rather outside the door of the Danger Room, using her sight ability to pick up on the fact it was just Cyclops in there.

"End program," Cyclops tells the Room, lowering his hand from his visor as the unadorned walls and floor reappear around him and the holographic spheres vanish, "Come in, Channel."

That said, he moves towards the opposite wall and opens one of the silver panels. A small computer keyboard whirs out and he begins typing, queuing up the next simulation. He foregoes the pleasantries, already speaking as he walks.

"This is an old one. It's one of the earliest simulations from back before we had the holograms ... well, a recreated version of it."

That wasn't all that abnormal. The woman enters, the door closing behind her as she glances around. "I don't think I've seen it before," Jocelyn admits. Her being comparatively new to the mansion (isn't everyone, compared to the original five?), she hadn't dug around in the older stuff. "I haven't really messed around in all of the older files like that, aside from some of the basic stuff we have for initial power training".

However, seeing something she hadn't seen before was certainly interesting to the younger woman, and so Jocelyn waits to see what Scott is going to be loading up for them. "What's the goal for the scenario we're going to do today?" she asks as Scott works on loading the program.

Scott continues to tap at the keys, eyes narrowing with focus though his visor leaves him looking as stoic and impassive as ever.

"You wouldn't have seen it before, no," he answers without looking back, "It's not one of the more popular ones. No sentinels or rampaging members of the Brotherhood. The objective is a pretty simple one, though."

He hits execute, prompting the silvery plates of the wall and floor to disappear once again. In their place, the room immediately becomes older, more worn and concrete. A series of metallic obstacles protrude and retract from the walls, ceiling and floor with a pneumatic hiss. Silvery turrets emerge as well, moving slowly to track their movements.

Scott glances over his shoulder, permitting himself a half-smile, "Work together and don't get hit."

Without fanfare the turrets begin to fire bursts of blue energy at the pair of them.

"Ohh, but getting hit is half the fun!" Jocelyn protests, only half-joking. The tall woman reaches her hand out as a blast of blue energy comes flying at Scott. The energy is drawn into Channel instead of coming at the First X-Man and absorbed by the woman, which she uses to boost her physical attributes. She then absorbs a second blast from one of the turrets and lets it fly at a different turret that popped up behind them, intending on busting it up with it's own energy.

"You want to be the offensive part of this show while I play defense?" Jocelyn suggests as she flies upwards, avoiding another couple shots from some turrets that popped up and tried to pick the young woman off. Energy weapons were something she enjoyed sparring against, as they were right in her power's wheelhouse.

"Sounds good to me," Cyclops answers, lifting a hand to his visor and blasting one of the turrets with a narrow burst that leaves a smoking, sparking remnant, "You call the shots."

He quickly steps to the side, dodging one of the stray bursts that leaves a scorch mark on the floor behind him.

"Feel free to break whatever you like. Back in the day this all used to be real ? I'll never understand how he could afford to repair it every week."

"Bulk discount at Best Buy?" Jocelyn quips as she reaches out to absorb some more of the energy coming at Scott, intent on freeing up the man to take more potshots than he'd normally be able to. The blue energy shots being fired at the team leader defy physics and bend up and towards Jocelyn, with the woman just absorbing the energy into her body. She focuses a small burst around a group of three turrets and shatters them with a quick explosion of energy.

In truth, Jocelyn wouldn't know how you'd afford to replace equipment like this regularly. Maybe Charles knew someone who could fix stuff quickly and easily that he trusted? It was one of those thoughts that Jocelyn didn't pay a whole lot of thought to though. Technology wasn't something she was particularly skilled at. She just knew that with holograms, she could cut loose.

"The idea of fixing things up after power training without the Danger Room does sound like it'd be expensive at best," Jocelyn admits as she dodges one of the shots from a turret. She couldn't absorb all the blasts, as she did have a limit on how much energy she could absorb at one time.

"Luckily I wasn't the team accountant," Cyclops answers, dropping to one knee so a blast aimed at his chest passes overhead.

The turret readjusts itself, firing again and prompting Scott to tuck and roll aside to avoid it. He fires off a wide blast from his visor, taking out two side-by-side turrets and cracking the concrete around them.

"The holograms are much more practical."

Four turrets pop up on four sides of Channel, firing at her. She focuses her energy conversion ability, and the blue energy disappears, converted into harmless solar energy that is invisible to the naked eye. Then Channel blasts the turrets with a few quick shots. She's really focusing on accuracy of her shots in this simulation, trying not to make errant blasts with her attacks. The turrets are mostly stationary, so that does make it a little easier.

"That's a job I'd never want, mutant or not. Accountant". Shudder. Jocelyn would not enjoy that job one little bit. Sitting at a desk all day, staring at ledgers and talking about debits and credits. It's something out of a nightmare.

"That they are, though they always look a little weird to me," Jocelyn admits to Cyclops as she absorbs a couple more shots heading for the duo.

"There are little inaccuracies you can spot that show it isn't quite real," Cyclops agrees, "It depends on the simulation but I don't think anybody's put together a flawless one yet."

He lifts his hand to his visor to let fly a narrow blast, knocking one of the turrets from the wall and sending it crashing to the ground. He takes the briefest moment of respite to nod his head at the place it hung until moments ago.

"That should've done more than crack the wall. See? Little inaccuracies."

"I'm sure Doug is working on it," Jocelyn responds with a nod as she continues absorbing energy blasts around the two of them and launching them back at turrets, which explode as she shoots at them. "I suppose it'd be tricky though". She dodges a couple more blasts. "I can't actually imagine programming anything that advanced. The best I can do is taking certain elements and tweaking them a bit, like when Rachel and I do some of our testing and just remove everything except the general setting". Because an empty room is boring!

"It's a complex exercise," Cyclops agrees, "But if it sharpens the skills then it doesn't matter if the paint chips correctly or not."

He ducks away from a steel arm that suddenly hisses out of the floor, slicing it in two with a narrow beam from his visor.

"How is Rachel, by the way?" A bit of a weird question but it's not easy to approach someone who is technically your child from the future.

"Good. She's adjusting to this time period reasonably well," Jocelyn says. She grabs the newly-sliced pair of steel arms and hurls them at a pair of turrets, the beams causing the turrets to explode as they strike the turrets. She raises her eyebrow a little at that. "Think the turrets are mostly programmed to explode from any projectile," Jocelyn comments.

She ducks another blast. "I know she's still got some baggage from her past. Or future. Or whatever you call it. But she's got it pretty well handled at this point, I think. I haven't seen much of anything in our morning workouts". The two had become workout partners recently.

"I'm glad to hear it."

Scott nods his head in agreement, picking up another piece of scrap metal and hurling it at a closer turret like a baseball pitch. True to form, it explodes when struck.

"You're right."

He pauses after ducking another metal arm that darts at speed out of the floor, "Do me a favor? Don't let on that I was asking after her. I don't want to make things ... difficult for her."

"Alright, not a problem". Jocelyn could do that easily enough. The trick was just to not mention it. Really, that was the trick with any secret. Don't talk about it and you won't spill it. She opens up on another couple turrets, and the number of turrets does seem to be diminishing. "I think we've got most of them now," Jocelyn says to the man as she absorbs a couple more blasts from the turrets.

Scott fires off a final blast, clearing out the last of the turrets and prompting the metallic arms to immediately slow and disappear into the wall cavities. A few minutes later the simulation itself shuts down, leaving them once again in the room sans projections.

"Well done," he compliments, rolling his shoulders, "I can't tell you how many times we failed that one in the early days. That promotion to the X-Men was well-deserved."

That said, he moves towards the door, "I've got a class I need to get to. I'll see you again next week. There's another program I think might be interesting."

He doesn't wait for the answer, disappearing out into the corridor and heading in the direction of the locker room.