The hallway echoed his footsteps as he made his way further into the depths of the school. Sam had only been down here once before and that had been one hell of a brutal first time. For the illusion mutant was headed down to the danger room, that place where you could create any kind of environment and any kind of virtual situation. In Sam’s eyes it was a small miracle of science and most days he seriously wished he knew enough about engineering to even begin to understand how it worked.

For today however he would be content with just figuring out how to obtain the set up he wanted without summoning anything that wanted to blow him up. The memory of Granny’s mutation control class and their blood thirsty army was still fresh in his mind and he was never going to try that again if he could help it.
Besides it had been hard enough to convince himself to get this far, he did not want to have to face his mutation but he had come to the conclusion something was going to have to be done. He could not keep losing control of it as soon as his stress levels peaked.

Sam had been at the mansion several months now and he had to admit that life here was good. The schooling was excellent and you had everything you needed to be comfortable. However it had not helped him with his mutation yet, not really. Granny’s class had just left him feeling bitter and useless and he had not gone back since. So what future was left for him if this place could do nothing for him? Would he get his degree and then be left to his own devices to try and find a job where he would not be found out? As he was now how could he not be found out?

These questions had been haunting him and he had finally come up with this as being the only answer. He was going to have to push himself both physically and mentally so that he could better control his state of mind and his stress levels; which was what was leading him down the silent echoing corridor to the danger room.

It was time for Skydancer to figure out what she was going to do with her future. More than one person had brought up that particular question with her and she didn't have any more answer now than she had then. The circus was wonderful and she hoped to be doing that for many years, but it wasn't something to build an entire life around. She could only expect to be an acrobat for what, a decade? Maybe two if she was very good and very lucky? After that she had to have options and she simply wasn't sure what those options were going to be, at that time.

Skydancer's current plan, in figuring out her future life, was aimless wanderings around The Mansion. She always thought best when moving but, as this was a very important decision to consider, she needed to engage her entire mind in the question. Thus, her usual rooftop activities didn't quite seem appropriate in this case. There were so many different mutants at The Mansion, some of which stood out like she did and some of which looked entirely human. At that moment, all of them seemed to have a better idea regarding their future than her. Why were these things so complicated to figure out?

Admittedly Skydancer wasn't paying as much attention to what was going on around her as she really should have been. That was how she almost walked straight into a young Asian guy, looking up just in time to skitter to the side without actually colliding with his body. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry I almost ran right into you!" She let out a sheepish laugh at her own mental distraction. At least The Mansion was a safe place and she didn't need to worry about danger lurking around every corner.

As he pushed into the depth of the mansion, Sam was surprised to hear a second pair of footsteps off somewhere in the corridors ahead. His curiosity was quickly pricked and he found himself wondering who would be down here and where they were headed. However he knew that trying to guess who it might be was pointless. As it was highly unlikely that anyone he actually knew would be down here, unless of course it was one of the teachers.

But it appeared that he would not have to be curious for long as the footsteps were growing closer. He strained his hearing to try and figure out where the other would appear from and he decided that the sound was coming from the left. Slowing a bit so as not to pass the intersection up ahead Sam almost found himself holding his breath as the figure came into sight. To say that the person that came round the corner was as far from his guess as physically possible was an understatement.

She was short and well… it was pretty obvious why she was at the institute. The girl that came round the corner put him in mind of the alien characters in dodgy cartoons. Sam bit his lip, he had been at the school for several months now and had met and befriended all sorts of different mutants, but he could not help the thoughts that popped into his head at times. He felt like his own mind was betraying him and was heartily grateful that he father had taught him to think before he spoke.

As it turned out however the girl had not even noticed he was there, which wiped sensory or psychic mutation from her possible list of powers. Sam stood bemused as he watched her come almost directly at him. He wondered how long it would take her to realize that he was standing there. The answer to that was that she did not realize he was there until collision was imminent; in the end he dodged her as much as she dodged him.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry I almost ran right into you!"

Sam bit down on the sarcastic answer that rose up, it would not do to be rude to someone you had only just met. Instead he put a smile on his face and decided that this near collision was probably mostly his fault as well. No normal person just stands silently in an empty corridor.

“Don’t worry about it, maybe just look up a bit more when you’re walking around… Where are you going like that anyway?”

The last question just kind of slipped out, his curiosity had gotten the better of him yet again.

“Don’t worry about it, maybe just look up a bit more when you’re walking around… Where are you going like that anyway?”

Skydancer laughed and nodded in agreement. She could be said to have a number of different flaws, not the least of it was the fact that she was sometimes obsessive about her pursuits and deadly serious where they were concerned. When it came to most things in life, however, she had a sense of humour and sometimes one just needed to learn to laugh at oneself.

"I'm not really going anywhere," Skydancer answered. "I think better when I walk and I have a lot of think about lately." She grimaced, not particularly wanting to think about such things anymore. She'd had enough of thinking; sometimes it was better simply to be doing.

"Trying to figure out my future, and all that. One thing about The Mansion is that its helped make it very clear that I actually have one of those to think about now." Although Skydancer had most gotten over the loss of her Olympic dreams, she couldn't' help that last lingering bit of bitterness from showing in her voice.

"I'm not really going anywhere, I think better when I walk and I have a lot of think about lately."

Sam could understand the need to take a breath and gather ones thoughts. He had been doing exactly that since that depressing night in the alley. But he could not think and walk at the same time. The idea reminded him of something one of his “girl” friends had told him over and over “men can’t do two things at once”. Well it appeared that it was true for him at least about some things; he was not the greatest multitasker.

"Trying to figure out my future, and all that. One thing about The Mansion is that it’s helped make it very clear that I actually have one of those to think about now."

Sam was surprised at how easily this girl he had only just met volunteered information. He found it strange and refreshing at the same time. Most of the conversations he had at the moment had to be thought out before he dared say anything. Celeste would cry at him if he put his foot in it and Michael did not understand things unless you made sure they could fit in his world. Then there was April, he had seen quite a bit of her recently and ever since that weird first meeting things had stayed awkward. He made a mental note to try and find some more laid back friends because the ones he had now were lovely but exhausting.

As for the girls statement about her future he found it interesting that by coming here she had discovered a path for herself whereas he felt trapped. He could however relate to her, he had just made a decision about his own future and he now felt that at least a small sense of purpose had been returned to him.

“Well I just recently came to the conclusion that we have to build our own future. This place protects you but what you do while you’re here is up to you.”

He hoped that his opinion might help her somewhat. He did not know what her circumstances were and therefore had no specific advice to give her. But as encouragement he decided to let her know that he was off to build the start to his own path.

“Actually I’m off to work on my own future right now,” the idea made him smile “have you ever seen the danger room?”

Skydancer never did have much of a need for secrets in her life. Her motivations were almost always transparent because what need did she have of hiding them? Even if she was a bit paranoid at times, her paranoia had little to do with other people discovering her motives and much more to do with the prospect of other people using her to their own ends. Thus, it didn't seem especially odd to her mind to speak to a stranger about her thoughts on her future.

“Well I just recently came to the conclusion that we have to build our own future. This place protects you but what you do while you’re here is up to you.”

Skydancer nodded. "Sage advice. But in what direction do you choose to build your future? There are a million different future buildings to choose from but you can only have one of them. Thus, my dilemma." At the very least, the analogy made sense to her own mind although she wasn't positive how well that sense of logic translated to others.

“Actually I’m off to work on my own future right now,” the idea made him smile “have you ever seen the danger room?”

Now that was something interesting and Skydancer's ears perked immediately. "Danger room? I think I've heard mention of such a place but I've never seen it myself." Perhaps it might offer other alternatives to promote her training and possibly even something to help edge her above her competition. Now that was a prospect worth exploring.

At the mention of the danger room his new companions face light up. Well he couldn’t blame her; the danger room was an awesome piece of technology. He had been really impressed when he had first seen it and he still wondered why more of these things did not exit out in the world. They would make the world’s best entertainment system. You would however have to remove the option that allowed you to create mutant killing human sized, mace wielding nutcrackers.

That mutant control lesson had somewhat reduced his enthusiasm for the place. Nearly being killed by an army on your first visit will do that to you. But the memory almost made him smile now and it meant that he knew he was going to have to be very careful with what kind of program he loaded. As the girl mentioned that she had never seen the place herself he decided to offer to show her.

“You can come along if you want. I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to use it yet but that’s kind of part of the fun.”

Sam had been planning to try and put himself on a stressful situation so as to try and test his control. But now he was wondering if knowing that things were just illusions or machines would limit his reactions. Well he would just have to see that when he got there. Smiling at the girl he started to make his way back down the corridor, the danger room was not that far now. He wondered what she would want to do in there, which lead him to realize that he did not even know her name. He felt a bit ashamed that he had not bothered to introduce himself and decided to remedy that straight away.

“Oh I’m Sam by the way.”

"I would love to come alone," Skydancer agreed with a friendly smile. She didn't have much of an idea what to expect of The Danger room but even if it didn't turn out to live up to its name, it was likely to be an interesting experience. Perhaps she should have asked Koga for more information about the place.

"So, what's your power, if you don't mind my asking?" There didn't appear to be any visual clues that Skydancer could pick out from just looking at him but she had learned that there often weren't any. For that matter, her own visible mutations didn't exactly give much of a clue about what her own powers were.

"I'm Skydancer." Skydancer extended her hand in case Sam wanted to shake it. Respect was one of the things she had been taught growing up and it was something that stayed with her quite strongly over the years. With some people, it went a surprisingly long way. "Nice to meet you Sam."

"I would love to come alone,"

Sam’s smile widened as he was genuinely pleased that someone was coming with him. It appeared that he had subconsciously feared the whole experience and the fact of having someone there suddenly took that edge off. So with a lighter load he led his new acquaintance down the maze of corridors that was the basement.

"So, what's your power, if you don't mind my asking?"

And there it was the question no one in this academy could escape. The one thing everyone wanted to know about and really the one thing Sam did not like talking about. He had developed a nice standard answer to that question now but he really did not want to talk about it right now. The mood was good and he did not want his sullenness to ruin it. It appeared however that he was to be given a brief respite as his companion just kept talking.

"I'm Skydancer. Nice to meet you Sam."

He shook the extended hand and kept a smile on his face relieved that now at least he had a name to call her by. This however did not free him from having to answer her question. His mind through all the ways he could cover the subject without being either rude or elusive. When the answer finally came to him he was quite pleased with it.

“How about you wait to see it for yourself? That’s what I’m going to the danger room to train. I have a tendency of letting it activate when I’m under pressure. It’s… inconvenient.”

He hoped that she would not pry any further. It was always hard to see the look of curiosity that sparked in people’s eyes when he told them of his power. They all wondered who they would see if he activated it. And when he did turn it on their curiosity often disappeared as fast as it came, it turned out seeing your loved one without them actually being there was not a pleasant experience for most people.

“I will tell you this though, it’s not dangerous, it’s a passive ability. But it can sometimes mess with people’s heads.”

He let the words die. He knew he had let his negativeness about the whole thing take over once again. And that only comforted his decision to do something about this stupid uncontrollable power.

The fact that the other mutant seemed to be avoiding the question regarding his powers, just a little bit, only served to make Skydancer more curious about them. She could wait, however, as discovering their nature seemed to be imminent. Patience might not have been her best trait, but it wasn't something she struggled with too much either.

"I look forward to seeing what you can do," Skydancer answered with a smile. The vast variety of powers out there was fantastic and made every potential new discovery a mystery. In the few short months she had been at The Mansion, that mystery only served to make the adventure more intriguing.

"I guess you're lucky in some ways to have a non-dangerous power," Skydancer mused out loud. As she spoke, she followed Sam, anticipation regarding what was to come building. "My power is. Or rather, it can be. But I'm fortunate in that its not really accidentally dangerous, you know? I can hurt people but its not at risk for getting out of control or anything."

Way to go, now she'd probably just convinced him that she was some sort of creepy violent freak. Good job.

"I look forward to seeing what you can do,"

The fact that Skydancer seemed un-phased by his roundabout and evasive description of his powers seemed strange to Sam. He knew that if he had been the one asking he would have felt a bit weird after receiving that kind of answer, but he was slowly coming to the conclusion that Sky was a “take things in your stride” kind of person. Who knew maybe, with a bit of luck, some of that personality would rub off on him.

He watched her for a minute and it looked like she was busy imagining all sorts of different powers for him. That made him smile a slightly bitter smile; he knew she would never be able to guess no matter how long she thought about it. Turning into people’s loved ones was not high on the list of fun and interesting powers people immediately thought off.

"I guess you're lucky in some ways to have a non-dangerous power,"

He would not go as far as lucky, he felt somewhat cheated by the fact that he had a completely useless power. He wouldn’t mind having a more interesting or battle worthy power at times at least that would provide him with a decent reason to have people look at him askance. As it was he had all the drawbacks of being a mutant with none of the perks… ok maybe not all the drawbacks; at least he still looked perfectly human.

"My power is. Or rather, it can be. But I'm fortunate in that it’s not really accidentally dangerous, you know? I can hurt people but it’s not at risk for getting out of control or anything."

Sounded like the perfect type of power to Sam, something that packed a punch when you needed it to and could stay quiet if not required. He tried to imagine what it would be like to actually enjoy his powers. To have something that was fun or super useful in everyday life, he reckoned that it must be pretty awesome. He remembered Darren and his rubber man powers, that he seemed pretty cool. Ok not obviously useful but still it was the kind of thing that could probably help in a sticky situation.

“Well I really wish I had your kind of powers then. Mine are really painfully useless.”

As he finished his sentence the large doors of the danger room appeared up ahead. This was going to be the hard part: working out what kind of program to input and well finding out how to input it in the first place. They drew to a stop by the computer panel outside the doors and he stopped to touch the screen.

“This is it. All we need to do now is managed to get the damned thing to work.”

The first thing the screen asked him was for his ID and the ID of anyone planning to go inside. This seemed logical because in case of any problems it was good to know who might be stuck inside and whether or not they could blow you up.