Margo leaned nervously against the wall in the control room, peering over Danny's shoulder as he hit a few buttons, none of which she knew the function of (but she sure hoped he knew what he was doing). She might have had second thoughts about this whole adventure, but for the little time she had to ponder the situation. A green light above the door to the room lit up, and then Danny was pushing it open with a grin.

"After you," he said.

At that point, she really had no choice but to go in.

It seemed like the whole world froze for a split second as she stepped through the doorway. "User unknown," announced a disembodied voice. Then the moment was past, and she was inside the Danger Room for real.

The room was large, empty, and anti-climatically...normal looking- that was, before Margo turned around and realized the door by which she had come in had vanished into thin air. "Oh gosh," she moaned, panicking a little. Was this some sort of trick Danny was playing on her, or was she trapped in this place for real? But the words were barely out of her mouth when her surroundings changed, and the girl found herself standing on what appeared to be a frozen lake. 

Margo entered the Danger Room first, and Danny hung back very briefly to actually start the simulation. It took only that brief moment, though, before he realized that the door kind of disappeared and wouldn't reappear until the end of the simulation. It was locatable, of course, just not visible, in order to not ruin the illusion that it was a legitimate battle that the user was caught up in. He knew where it was at this point, but he didn't know if Margo had used it enough to be able to find it again, so that might be startling.

Well, he was going through said door just as the landscape morphed to that of some sort of frozen wasteland, so he hoped she wasn't too startled.

The temperature was dropping rapidly as Danny stepped into the huge room, the door shimmering out of view as soon as he shut it behind him. He peered at the ground, observing that it was - well, crap. It was a frozen lake. He'd never encountered this sort of thing before. He'd also never really figured out for himself if he really did have a body temperature higher than most normal human's, but considering how the lake's surface was melting away even as he stood on it, heat seemingly seeping through his shoes, he was going to go with it was.

He scrambled off his prior location, ice starting to melt ever so slightly wherever he stepped, until he finally managed to get to what he presumed was land, considering the snow was starting to drip, but he could see dirt underneath the layer of snow upon which he stood.

"So I can't actually step on that lake because mutation," he called out to Margo, who seemed to be frozen (ha - get it?) on the surface of the lake somewhat far away. "But there will be something we have to fight soon. So mind explaining what your mutation is?" And suddenly he frowned, remembering something else. "And, uh, I think I may have put the simulation on max difficulty by accident, because then there's a slight chance I'll die and my mutation will become useful. Sorry?"

It took Margo a second to adjust to her new surroundings: the expanse of frozen wasteland stretching out in every direction, the frigid atmosphere, a slight stirring in the air. By the time she had taken inventory of the setting, to her great relief, Danny had appeared as well, not too far from where she was. He called something to her, and she carefully made her way in his direction- the ice was thin in spots, but not terribly hard to navigate.

"So I can't actually step on that lake because mutation. But there will be something we have to fight soon. So mind explaining what your mutation is?"

He indeed seemed to be having a bit of trouble with the ice. She'd never really considered the different elements of his mutation, but it appeared as if this landscape wasn't the preferred setting; he'd already half melted several sections of the lake, and was now standing in a puddle of mud on what she judged was the shore (great, there was a shore).

"I have a joke of a mutation," said Margo tiredly. However, seeing as Danny was really under the illusion that her mutation would be helpful in this situation, she decided to enlighten him. Quickly. "I guess I'm like a really weak psychic. Like, well, this. It won't be any help," she said, sending him a brief flash of emotion to demonstrate.

"And, uh, I think I may have put the simulation on max difficulty by accident, because then there's a slight chance I'll die and my mutation will become useful. Sorry?"

"Apology accepted," the girl said, voice barely edged with sarcasm. Yes, she supposed it made sense that Danny would play his strengths. Leveling the playing field. But what would she do, other than making sure to stay clear of him? "Are there rules to this game?" She wondered aloud, eyes on the yet clear horizon.

It was a simulation, and a very convincing one at that. But if Margo had nothing of her own, could she bend the rules?

"I have a joke of a mutation," Margo said, and that was hardly helpful. Especially since it really depended on what kind of mutation you considered a joke - to Danny, exploding upon death was useful considering his less-than-legal lifestyle, but to somebody trying to live a normal life, it never really came into play. "I guess I'm like a really weak psychic. Like, well, this. It won't be any help." And suddenly, he had a sudden urge to go smash the nearest object into pieces while at the same time kind of wanting to start screaming. Except it disappeared almost as quickly as it had appeared, to Danny's extreme confusion and surprise. So she was... a... telepath? Vaguely? While Danny had felt the frustration, he hadn't felt the need to act on it, which he supposed was his own resistance to telepathy coming into play. So she was a telepath. That... was actually pretty cool.

"Apology accepted. Are there rules to this game?" Yeah, max difficulty had been a bad idea. He just usually found anything lower to be too easy, especially considering getting horribly injured wasn't really a problem for him. All he had to do was activate his gauntlet and he was perfectly fine within the hour. As for rules.

"None that I know of," he said, shrugging. "I mean, if there are, I didn't read the instruction manual or anything. The whole 'playing it safe' thing never really stuck with me."

He peered around the frozen landscape, not seeing anything that would constitute as a threat just yet. Presumably, the reason he wasn't cold was because of his internal body temperature heating him up and the environment, but Margo was probably cold. So he asked her just that.

"You cold?" he asked almost offhandedly, still scanning the frozen lake for anything that might burst out and attack them.

"None that I know of," he said with a shrug, "I mean, if there are, I didn't read the instruction manual or anything. The whole 'playing it safe' thing never really stuck with me."

Well, seeing as nobody knew anything about the situation she was now conveniently stuck in, Margo decided to abandon the topic, at least for the moment.

"Why did I already have that impression?" She said, still warily scanning her surroundings for whatever threat they supposedly had to fight off. She saw exactly nothing. Ditto.

"You cold?" he asked suddenly, in an offhanded matter.

"It's definitely pretty chilly," said Margo, shrugging. "I grew up in Canada, so it's not that big of a deal, the cold doesn't really bother me, I guess."

By this time, the girl was rather worried. She'd been apprehensive at first about playing around in the Danger Room- restricted places were usually restricted for a reason. She had to admit it was pretty cool. But really, were they going to do anything other than stand around on some frozen lake?

"So, did this 'instruction manual' that you didn't read say anything, specifically, about fighting something off?" She asked, "What if it's supposed to be a treasure hunt?"

Really, she was just trying to fill the silence. It was awkward, not to mention stressful.

"Why did I already have that impression?" Margo said, and Danny fought back the urge to grin. Apparently that was one of his more obvious, though definitely not one of his redeeming, qualities. It helped for him, though - nothing topped an explosion to end any sort of conflict. "It's definitely pretty chilly; I grew up in Canada, so it's not that big of a deal, the cold doesn't really bother me, I guess." Well, that was good. Hypothermia wasn't fun, though, as he knew from some of his more ridiculous forays into areas further north, so he shrugged off his jacket, tossing it to Margo. It was relatively thick but not clunky, though it might be slightly large on her. More importantly, there was a gun tucked into one of its pockets, along with one of his knives, spare ammo, and yes, a grenade. Never would it be said that he didn't leave his apartment prepared. And seeing as while her ability was pretty cool, it may not be as useful as could be hoped against a technological construct, which made the weapons all the more important.

"So, did this 'instruction manual' that you didn't read say anything, specifically, about fighting something off? What if it's supposed to be a treasure hunt?"

Danny frowned. "Actually, you may be right. I've never had to do a treasure hunt of any sort before, so I wouldn't know the difference. Usually it's just an enemy of some sort and the occupants are expected to fight it. Also, side note - there is a small arsenal in that jacket, so you may want to be slightly careful with what you nudge." He peered out at the snowy landscape around them, trying to identify something that may indicate what the point of this specific exercise was. "What do you think? I doubt that your guess could be any worse that mine, considering I have no idea what to do either."

Ignoring her protests, he shrugged off his jacket and tossed it to her anyway. Which actually was the beginning of an exciting adventure, which actually didn't involve the rather interesting discovery she found within the coat's pockets. Rolling her eyes, Margo had gratefully pulled it on over her own relatively thin sweater, only to casually stick her hand into the pocket...

She quickly withdrew it. Was that ominous lump what she thought it was?

"Actually, you may be right," said Danny with a frown, " I've never had to do a treasure hunt of any sort before, so I wouldn't know the difference. Usually it's just an enemy of some sort and the occupants are expected to fight it. Also, side note - there is a small arsenal in that jacket"...as she had noticed..."so you may want to be slightly careful with what you nudge."

"No kidding," said the girl, raising an eyebrow, "You must have an interesting life. Thus the arsenal. But, um, what exactly did you hand it over to me for?" Examining the contents of said arsenal, she began to freak out a little. "Well, I totally understand if you don't understand this," she began, "but not being immortal, I only really get one chance at life. And I'd rather not spend that one chance accidentally shooting or stabbing myself, not to mention being blown to bits, you know? It's just not all that appealing to me."

"What do you think? I doubt that your guess could be any worse that mine, considering I have no idea what to do either."

"Whatever we're supposed to be doing, I doubt it's standing around here aimlessly."

Alright. They'd already been standing around too long. So it was time to do something productive. Danny understood on some level the concept of self-preservation, and Margo seemed to have it. But he was guilty of kind of ignoring her slightly agitated comments about the jacket arsenal, but he had a good reason.

Namely, the fact that something was slowly tightening its hold on his leg.

He really didn't want to look down. But he felt like he kind of had to, and so he glanced down, coming face-to-face with the most hideous thing he'd ever seen in his life. It was an ice tarantula the size of a dog, and it was slowly tightening its grasp on his leg for no real reason he could fathom. Horrified, he stabbed it with a knife that he seemingly procured out of nowhere but had really just pulled out of his sleeve, and watched it disintegrate with no small amount of satisfaction. He turned around to face Margo, ready to alert her of the present threat, only to find that she likely wouldn't need to be alerted. The lakeshore around them was covered in hordes of bug-eyed ice spiders, staring them down in the most disturbing way possible, and Danny backed up until he was a bit closer to Margo.

"Um," he said eloquently. "I think I figure out what we're supposed to be doing." Suddenly, a spider lunged at Danny, who spasmed as soon as it so much as touched him. He stabbed it instantly, causing it to disintegrate, but he was still clearly agitated.

"Er, I don't like large spiders," Danny said, brandishing the knife he'd had and another one he'd made appear. "Last time I saw some, I had a very unpleasant blast from the past, so to speak. And there was an actual blast involved. A death blast." That time with Mirror and the nightmare beasts had not been fun and left him with a growing dislike of spiders.

He hated those things.

In retrospect, she probably shouldn't have complained. Because the Danger Room had apparently taken it as a challenge and now they were surrounded by hordes of ice spiders, of all things, and life was so much better standing around aimlessly. Even with a grenade in your pocket.

Because seriously, spiders.

"Um," gulped Margo, just as eloquently. She backed into Danny, who'd somehow conjured a knife in each hand and was in the motion of dealing with a tarantula that had gotten uncomfortably close- he could do that, okay, that was great. "I'm...not a fan either. I think there used to be a kid in my class who had a pet tarantula?" It was totally relevant, because it kept her from panicking. Especially now that the spider army was skittering in their direction.

"So I know I said I wasn't that big on death blasts in general, but there wouldn't be a chance that you could get close enough and...?"

Death blast. Spiders. Um, that'd probably work. There was just one small problem with it.

"Well," he started, as he stabbed a spider right in the abdomen and tossed it to the side. "It worked last time I faced down giant spiders. Mostly." The rather grating sound of a blade against ice. "There's just one small problem." And he kicked one square in its multiple eyes, wincing as he cracked a few. They were made of pretty weak ice, all things considered, but it didn't make them any less creepy. "Uh, we are in a forest and even when covered in snow, wood tends to catch on fire very easily. Personal experience."

Something was rumbling in the distance. Danny was having a bit of trouble paying attention to it, considering that a spider had tackled him and was trying very hard to bite him in the face with its hideous pincers. He'd even lost track of wherever Margo was or what she was doing. Only when he'd thrown the thing off, in two pieces, did he have a chance to scramble up and look at the new enemy.

It was an honest-to-God, fifteen or so feet tall Yeti. And it had something glowing hanging around its neck - Danny assumed that was the target of the simulation.

"Um," he said, and looked at Margo. "Grenade?"

The spiders were literally made of ice- black ice, to be exact. Margo booted one backwards and was pleasantly surprised when she smashed through several of its creepy eyes. Not so much as it flew backwards only to crash into an oncoming wave of the creatures, drenching the girl in their guts, err, frigid slush.

The spiders disintegrated. Their innards...not so much.

"I wasn't serious, you know." It could work, in theory, provided the tarantula parts took long enough to disintegrate; maybe that would be enough to keep the surrounding woods from going up in flames? She didn't say anything, though, because blowing yourself up on purpose was never a good idea and that was the last idea Danny needed to get into his head. It was too risky anyhow, and would probably defeat the entire purpose of this demented game.

Somewhere in between trying to avoid the buggy-eyed stampede, she lost track of Danny. Somewhere after that he popped back up asking for the grenade, which was the least of her problems now that there was a Yeti. He hadn't been kidding when he said he'd set it to the hardest level, had he?

The said grenade was already in her hand-

-in the air

Danny's phone rang.

He frowned, looking down at the pocket of his jeans, which was vibrating and ringing incessantly. As he dodged an ice spider that launched itself at him, he pulled it out to check the caller ID - it was an old friend of his. And yes, he did have friends, thank you very much.

He picked it up, pretty much ignoring the Yeti that exploded in a shower of ice shards as the glowing thing fell to the ground, more focused on the direct interference from the real world. "Giovanni?" he asked, surprised. "I haven't heard from you in a while." It'd been a month, maybe?

"Yes, nice to hear your voice again, Daniel, but remember Bangkok?" the faintly Italian-accented voice said in a rush, and Danny could've sword he heard gunfire in the background. "I'm calling in that favor."

Oh. That was bad. "Gio, I told you I wasn't going to get mixed up in gang vs gang scuffles," Danny said, kicking another spider away and, by total accident, right at Margo. "Heads up!" he yelled, fumbling for the gun tucked into the waistband of his pants, firing at the spider and missing twice before managing to hit it, right before it got to Margo.

"Eh?" came the confused sound from the other end of the line.

"Not you, I'm -" Danny sighed. "Is this a turf war, Gio?"

A pause as bullets flew in the background. "No," came the breathless reply. "We're by the docks; it's an FBI raid."

And that was even worse. Because Danny was getting quite a bit of his supplies for an idea he'd had - a company, or more accurately, an insurance policy - cheaply, from Gio.

"On my way," he said quickly. "Warehouse 9?"

"Warehouse 9," Gio confirmed. "See you."

Danny hung up, shooting at another spider and wasting another bullet before he finally hit it. He glanced over at Margo, dodging his way through the hordes of hideous legs to get to her. "Sorry, gotta go save the mafia from the FBI, bye!" he called out brightly, aware that it was a terrible way to punctuate his exit, but there was no better way to say it.

And with that, he fled. Danny was sure that, next time they met, she would not be happy with him, but he didn't really have a choice in staying. De Carabases kept their word, after all, even if it was to less-than-reputable mafia dons that they'd been in a relationship with in the far past (but they were just friends now). And on that note, he shouted back as he dodged out the door, "He's my ex but we're just friends now; I have a reason!"

He really hoped Margo wasn't going to be too pissed about it.