Working Out Just Fine (Planned)

Right on time, Shin arrived at the Danger Room.

One of the interesting parts of the job of being an X-man was letting people into the Danger Room. Students usually required X-man permission to be let in. It had to do with the fact that the Danger Room was not the Room of safeness, or the Room of Requirement. Sure, it could change into a big room full of books and things on a whim, but that did not mean it was everything one could possibly need. It would stand up to a raging flame just as well as any other room would. Maybe. Or at least, its occupants would, even if it managed to deal with the hardcore damage people could dish out.

"Hey, Chris." Shin waved. He approached the young mutant, wearing blue jeans and a long-sleeved white t-shirt. "Are your friends here yet?" He glanced around. Sure didn't look it.

Staring at the clock on his bedside table he knew he was running a bit behind schedule. Why didn't he have anything to wear, at least anything that wouldn't make him look like a complete idiot for wearing last year’s training fashion. "I need to buy something new for next time" He said staring at his now semi worn out jogging shoes on the floor. When he was contacted by Chris he was a bit surprised that he was asked if he wanted some exercise. They hadn't exactly hung out, ever if one counted the time they had their little road side accident, well more like near death experience. The thought of it made his head tire.

'damn' he thought to himself as he took on a pair of black shorts, looking in the mirror he couldn't help but to disapprove at the way his legs looked, he really needed more toning for them, and perhaps a tanning session would help. Back in Spain he was always usually much more tanned, not only by his more naturally tanned skin, but the by the sun that would shine brightly often, that made him even more tanned. Now he was even paler than before, not that he should complain, his 40 year old self would thank him for rescuing him from too many wrinkles.

He took out a black and red striped tank top and looked down at his arms. Didn’t exactly make his arms look very well. He made a mental note that his arms needed desperate muscle toning. Stripping off the tank top, he instead took on a plain white t-shirt with the words 'Alex Who?' painted on it. Of course the idea was derived from the t-shirt and bag idea of Karl Lagerfeld's 'Karl Who?,' but he doubted many other's would understand the meaning. Not that it mattered. He quickly slipped his feet into his shoes, grabbed a slender blue gym towel and headed for the Danger Room.

This would be his first time there, so he was anxious to what he'd expect. He'd heard stories about how almost anything could be spawned there, from exotic landscapes to a freezing North Pole. He however had his doubt that he'd experience anything like that his first time there. Chris had mentioned exercise, and he didn't know if that would mean a run in some far of savannah, a rainforest, or even more boring a plain old gym. Even so, perhaps it wouldn't be too bad, at least there wouldn't be too many people watching.

He finally reached the Danger Room, after first going the wrong way, and then ending up at some place he didn’t' even know what was there. It seemed like he was the last one there, at least if Chris's information on whom else would be joining in was correct. Chris was there of course, and a young boy he had seen around the mansion at a few occasions, not that he knew him, or even talked to him. Then he saw Shin, whom he knew of, he was the one who had greeted him when he first got to the school. "Hi guys, I'm so sorry I'm a bit late, didn't realize the time just flew by as fast as it did." He lied. A little white lie, there was no need to mention that he had difficulties figuring out what he was going to wear. "I'm Alexander, just by the way" He said extending his hand to the young boy, just being polite, it was their first proper meeting after all.

They made minutes longer these days. A minute Chris said, and more than a minute it took. In the lull in conversation, silence reigned.

Chris broke the silence with a question. Shin opened his mouth to reply, but was rescued from any need to answer. An eyebrow arched. A tiny French man arrived.

Shin remembered Jude. Ghost's adopted son. The boy had been at Aurum's birthday party, and he'd seen him around at Full Circle now and then. The kid looked a mess in his too-big shirt, hair askew, like he'd just pulled the shirt down over his head in a hurry. The fact that he was out of breath and doubling over confirmed the hurrying as fact. The tone and words he'd said were the final nails in his coffin.

Jude had nearly been late. He was out of breath. And he needed to work out. He needed to work out, of course, because he was out of breath. Who ran out of breath running places in a hurry, huh? Who?

Shin, as usual, was not judgmental, nor did he wag any fingers. Yet. It wasn't like the boy had blown up any walls or thrown tennis balls at teachers, yet.

Another boy materialized. It was Alexander. Shin recalled meeting him once before, and showing him around the mansion. He gave a small nod.

"So, now that we're all here." He noted, after introductions had concluded. Shin turned briskly and plugged in the code for the Danger Room on the panel by the door. The doors opened. He glanced over his shoulder, then continued on into the room. "Let's go."

The inside of the Danger Room was plain and boxy, with metallic surfaces in shades of 'blah' and 'concrete lame'. There was a wall panel by a door on one side of the room. Above the door, higher up in the room, was a glass window. It was dark in the room beyond the window. The lights were off.

Shin waited by the door to the upstairs room. As they all entered and had their look around, Shin opened his mouth for a blanket statement. "Any questions?"

He immediately followed up his statement with another. "Oh. I have one. What sort of training scenario can I set you up with today?" Shin donned the smile of a pizza guy trying to sell you a slice.

“Yeah, it’s been a while.” Alexander said to Chris. It had been quite some time, enough to wonder why he was even asked to come along to the little work out session. With a tiny smile he looked curiously around the place. It was pretty bare, apparently minimalism was the preferred style of choice when it came to decorating the hallways, and not that he actually minded it much. It was a whole lot easier to keep the place neat and clean. When Jude went on to shake Chris’s hand, he couldn’t help but to notice how he shortly after rubbed his hand on the back of his shorts. Though he knew that Chris didn’t exactly have the driest hands in the universe, it wasn’t like it was too bad to actually touch him. Looking from Jude to Chris, he had hoped that all of it had gone completely unnoticed by him. The last thing he wanted was for Chris to feel bad about it.


Then when Shin asked for what training scenario he could set up for them, he began wondering. What could the place really do? He had heard stories from other on how it could basically create any sort of materials, and places, which made Jude’s answer quite disappointing. Just a regular workout room seemed like a rather dull thing for the room to create, though he had no doubt it was highly possible. Couldn’t they spice it up at least? Create a gym, only that it was a gym set at some exotic location, a rainforest or perhaps in the middle of the Forbidden City in China though it wasn’t as forbidden anymore.

“Yeah, I think just a regular workout room would work just fine” He seconded after Jude. “A workout room with like a nice view would be nice though.” Alexander added shortly thereafter before shifting his attention to Chris to hear what he had to say, which was likely to be the exact same thing that Jude mentioned.

>>"Ze regular work out room, please."

Regular, huh? Well, that wasn't very much fun. He'd have to do a little extra, just for Jude. And for Alexander. And Chris. Who wanted a view.

"A room with a view? That, I can do." Shin stated. "It'll just take a second."

Shin left the group to their own conversations as he unlocked the door and went up to the room overlooking the Danger Room. He started working on setting up the simulation. It didn't take long. Once he was finished, he commanded the room to start.

The walls around the Danger Room changed, becoming a calming white divided in parts by panes of glass. Behind the glass, fish of all types and colors drifted. All around the room, exercise equipment and machines appeared. To finish things off, a giant blue Blastoise drawing appeared on the floor in the center of the room, in all its giant blue turtle glory.

Shin leaned forward and spoke to them through the intercom. "You can start when you're ready. I'll be up here overseeing things. Let me know when you want to go."

The Asian closed the communication channel, stepping back from the computer terminal. He pulled up a chair, and grabbed a small book off a table in the room. He sat down in the chair and cracked the book open. He began to read.

The room they were standing in suddenly began changing as Shin had done some work in the control room. As the room changed he couldn’t help but not blink. Never in his life had he seen anything like it. In front of him now stood what seemed like all the gym equipment in the world, there seemed to be equipment for everything. With curious eyed the room carefully. When he had asked for a view it wasn’t exactly the thing he had in mind. It was as if he was standing in the middle of an aquarium and the world was looking at them as the fishes. It was simply amazing to watch and then whispering to himself "wow"

Smiling carefully he watches as Jude practically ran over to the glass. Young curiosity at its best, though if he hadn’t kept calm he himself would have been the one rushing to the glass to see any sort of aquatic beings. Instead he calmly walked to what appeared to be one big statue based on a cartoon figure from a show he had watched countless times as a child, as well as his late teenage years. A large Blastoise statue was there, just in front of him, what purpose it served to the whole decoration of the not so normal exercise room was beyond him, he didn’t complain however just the thought that it looked like he was standing in a room that could have been on the bottom of the sea would have sufficed.

>> "If you need a spotter, let me know." Jude said out, almost sounding a bit confident in his abilities.

Even though he wanted to chuckle, he kept it silent. He doubted that the boy would be of any use as a spotter as he looked as though he could barely lift a school bag. Keeping silent he nodded reassuringly to Jude before feasting his eyes on a pair of high bars. Next to it was a mat, perfect for some warming up. Before starting he looked over at Jude who was now trying to pull down the bar he was holding, without much luck. Alexander skittered over to him and saw that he was trying to lift way more than someone of his stature could manage. “How about you start with a lower weight?” he suggested. “You shouldn’t push yourself too hard in the beginning, start small and work your way up, that way your body get a chance to adapt more and it will feel easier, if you take on too much you’ll tire much faster and it will all be for nothing.” Rapidly he ventured to change the weight. “How about you start at 20 poun.. no, I think you should start with 10 for the first minutes and then you can gradually add on, you’d want to warm up first so going very slow is a good thing.” Giving a reassuring smile he got on his way and walked over to Chris.

“So what are your plans then? Do you want to do some warming up with me, and then you can jog or lift weights or whatever, I think I’ll do some work on the high bars at first, I haven’t in such a long time now, I hope I’m not too stiff by now.” With that he tried bending his back which made a loud cracking sound. He sighed, a crack wasn’t really a good thing, and he needed to get back in the game before his flexibility would disappear. It was however now that it struck him that Shin was actually in the control room, did he mention something about overseeing things? Did that mean that he would be watching them? Somehow that didn’t feel very nice it was enough having the other two watching him in a oxygen battle, but at least they would be in the same boat, not sitting watching them. Alexander imagined Shin sitting in a comfy chair with a bag of crisps and being slightly amused.