The books were definitely getting more hostile. The first batch mostly rustled unhappily, but after Evelyn tricked their protector into damaging a few of them, they seemed to step things up a notch. As she glanced to see where Gawain was, one of the books at her feet snapped at her pant leg, and she jumped as the paper managed to slice through the denim. Giving it a solid kick, she held onto her own books tighter, and responded to her echoes just in time to avoid getting nailed by the scorpions tail.

However fast the echoes were, however, they didn't help her dodge any faster, and the backswing of the tail caught her across the stomach and sent her tumbling backwards head over heals, landing with a 'omph' somewhere between the two book cases. At the moment she finally got a good look at what Gawian was doing.

Get out of the way...riiight.

She threw down the books and scrambled, the scorpion right behind her. She had to dive at the last second when the tower crashed into the beast, and then there was a rather gross sounding crunch as the shelf partially squashed it. Evelyn glanced back in concern, making sure Gawain was all right, and then yelped in pain as one of the nasty critters latched onto her arm. It hung on like a bull dog and growled at her when she stumbled to her feet, trying to escape before any of the books learned by example. It felt like having several needles shoved into her skin, mingled with the faint sensation of a papercut as she tried to pry it's jaws apart. The echoes glanced at the title and she gave a bitter laugh.

"Of all the books... The Hounds of Baskerville..." She wasn't sure whether to laugh or sob at that point. The thing had a wicked hold.

There was a moment when Gawain thought the shelf was going to hit Evelyn, and his stomach twisted into a knot. When he saw her diving out from beneath the falling books he took a deep breath of relief...
... and realized that he was still on top of the bookshelf.

The fall was everything but graceful. All Gawain managed was to jump sideways so he did not hit the opposite row of shelves. He landed on the grass with a thump and rolled with the momentum of the fall.
It still hurt.

CRUNCH.

"Umph." he rolled onto his back, groaning, just to see the shelves collapse in a domino effect, burying the scorpion. Turning the other way he saw Eve fighting off a book. He scrambled to his feet and ran up to her, using both hands to pry open the book much like one would pry open a dog's jaws. Then he dropped it.

The book did not land with a thump.

It did not land at all.

The lights flickered and the library melted into a moonlit sky with billions of stars shining bright with white clouds rolling in the silver light.

Under their feet.

Mirror looked down.

"Oh crap."

Removing an angry book from one's arm was apparently a two handed job, and Evelyn was relieved when Gawain appeared and helped pry the paperback jaws off her skin. Little tooth marks that looked somewhat like papercuts decorated her skin, and they stung but at least they weren't bleeding much, which was a relief. Her shirt had little cuts it them, but it could have been worse, especially considering the now crushed scorpion behind them. Evelyn felt herself sigh, until she realized the forest was vanishing, and they were up in the sky.

"Oh crap."

Well said.

Evelyn unwillingly reached out and grabbed Gawain's arm as a flicker of fear went through her. Standing on the clouds wasn't quite as romantic the week after taking a painful crash landing out of the sky, and after what happened in the library, she could only imagine what would happen now. Getting attacked by clouds or stars would be ridiculous in hindsight, but in the moment, she didn't think it would be so amusing.

"You know, I'm starting to think it would have been easier saving self-defense for another day..." She whispered. The echoes panicked, uncertain how they could be standing on clouds, and that didn't help ease the fear any.

Gawain swallowed as the ground dropped away under them, and sneaked an arm around Evelyn's waist who did not seem to mind at the moment.

>>"You know, I'm starting to think it would have been easier saving self-defense for another day..."

"Yeah this is not exactly what I had in mind." the young knight frowned, looking down and feeling slightly dizzy from the fake height.

"Computer: Discontinue training sequence..."

Static.

"I think the program's broken." he sighed, holding her close in case they suddenly started falling (not like it would have made much of a difference).

"Computer: Outgoing message, code name: Cold Steel. Sam, ***** get your **** **** down here right ***** now. End message."

It was very quiet on the clouds.

"Um... nice view?"

The arm around her waist was comforting. Her echoes were going haywire and it was making her head hurt. She shut her eyes and they stopped chattering in confusion, and she focused on breathing for a few moments to try and redirect things. The echoes never dealt with a simulation like this before. Trying to analyze clouds was like putting a broken line of code into her head. Her brain was confused. The rest of her was just getting nervous.

The Danger Room still refused to shut itself off. She wondered what would happen if something seriously injured them right now, would it stop? She didn't want to think about that. Then she heard Mirror's message, and a little timid chuckle escaped her mouth. Hopefully, Sam would get the picture.

Otherwise she would have to learn combat skills just to help kick his ass for making this happen in the first place.

"Nice view?"

Evelyn opened her eyes and looked at Gawain, giving a shaky smile. "It's pretty, but a little too realistic to try looking at with echoes. They're fairly certain it's not possible to stand on clouds..." She dropped her forehead to rest against his chest for a moment, then opened her eyes and looked back out across the clouds. There was a flicker in her head, and her grip tightened on his arm.

"Sam better hurry... something is swimming through the clouds toward us..." She whispered. It moved in a weaving fashion, lazy in it's approach. She didn't want to test what it could do though. She just wanted out of this twisted 'ultimate date'.

>>"It's pretty, but a little too realistic to try looking at with echoes. They're fairly certain it's not possible to stand on clouds..."

"Yeah" Gawain muttered, dizzy as much from the height as from Evelyn holding on to him "I'm not exactly a fan of sky diving..."

At least, as of right now, they were not at the diving part. Yet. Gawain turned his attention away from blushing and to more pressing matters: seemed like Sam had a scenario programmed for any and every date. Which made the whole experience very similar to movie walking.

>>"Sam better hurry... something is swimming through the clouds toward us..."

"Please let it be a lucky dragon..." the young knight muttered, turning to follow her look. Distant thunder seemed to echo across the cloudscape. Moonlight shimmered off something that was definitely not fluffy water vapor. Gawain gulped.

"I changed my mind. Please don't let it be a dragon..."

Evelyn gave a somewhat nervous laugh, and fidgeted in place. "I suspect sky diving is more fun with a parachute anyway. Just falling? I can say from experience the landing isn't great..." She shivered at the memory, her skin tingling with the still fresh sensation of claws digging into her skin. Her stomach turned circled at the thought of falling from this height. Gawain said the Danger Room wasn't lethal, but she had seen Gawain's face when CS tossed him off the skyscraper. It obviously still stung on impact.

It took effort to direct the echoes to the creature and away from the unrealistic cloud situation, but she finally managed. The thunder echoed in a haunting way, and she could almost feel the vibrations under her feet. Lightning flickered, adding static to the air, and she took an automatic step backwards. The echoes were recommending running. She was considering listening to them.

>>"Please let it be a lucky dragon..."

Evelyn shot him a look, turning back even before he regretted the wish. Using the word 'dragon' in this room seemed like it was asking for trouble. The clouds didn't look so fluffy now. A storm was brewing, and they were smack dab in the center of it. Lighting and thunder wasn't all so scary when you were on the ground. But one stray bolt of lightning here could cause more lasting damage.

The figure was too far to identify, appearing for a split moment, then vanishing back under the clouds. There was no visible movement, but the echoes flickered towards the ground under their feet, hissing in suspense. "Plan? Please say you have a plan. I'm feeling like we're in a scene from Jaws, and that is definitely not a movie I was planning on wandering into..."

>>"Plan? Please say you have a plan. I'm feeling like we're in a scene from Jaws, and that is definitely not a movie I was planning on wandering into..."

"I don't have a plan" Gawain said frankly, turning slowly around, trying to see movement under the clouds. He suspected they were better off while there was something under their feet, but he wished he could see through it anyway.

"Sam is usually better at planning, this whole mess was his... wait a minute."

Instead of looking down, Gawain turned his face up towards the sky filled with a million sparkling stars. As bad as it turned out to be, this was still a dating program. A very, very cheesy one. Maybe...

"I'll be damned." the young knight grinned, reaching up. He had to stretch more than a bit, but he was lanky enough even compared to Sam to bridge the gap between them... and the sky. When he turned around there was a grin on his face, and a handful of stars in his hand. They looked like a child cut them out of origami paper, but they glittered with diamond light.

"Not exactly throwing knives, but... whoa, behind you!"

Evelyn felt less useful in this simulation. It was hard to push past the echoes and try to think, which made her worry a little when Gawain didn't have a plan. They were on the clouds, there was nothing to use or throw or...Then Gawain grabbed the stars, and she blinked slowly. She shook her head in disbelief. "I'm not sure whether this program is incredibly creative, or just really chees-" She started to remark. The sentence wasn't quite finished when Gawain yelled out.

Turning, Evelyn saw her first glimpse of the cloud creature. It had a scaled body that glimmered with electricity, a slender neck and a face that seemed like it was a cross between a bear and a snake. It's forearms ended in talons, and when it snarled, electricity raced through the clouds in bolts like ribbons. It was just the danger room, but it still made her hair stand on end a little. The dragon--considering that was the only real word she could think to describe it at the moment--had dark golden eyes that focused on her possessively.

It was a good time for running.

She started to move, but the creature was wicked fast. A taloned foot lashed out and caught her on the back, flattening her into the clouds. The initial contact stung, but as she was dragged backwards, spitting out clouds, she didn't feel the tingle of electricity. Apparently, closer to the dragon somehow kept the effects at bay. Who was she to question the logic when Mirror was holding stars?

She opened her mouth to yell at Gawain and got a face full of clouds as she squirmed. The dragon snarled, turning it's head towards her and snapping it's teeth impatiently, then lashing it's tail towards Gawain. Her ego was getting more damage at this point than her body, but the simulation effected her echoes like trying to read a cell phone in bright light. She could barely make out her surroundings, but still scrambled to grab anything to help by herself loose with.

Evelyn ducked too late: this was the difference in a nutshell between theory and practice. No echo could make her faster than she was.
Twisted as it was, the whole situation filled Gawain with a sense of familiarity. This was training, plain and simple with unexpected events and the Danger Room throwing random stuff at them. Except, this time, it was truly random.
Still, his reflexes worked just fine. Gawain ducked under the swinging tail and threw one of the stars at the dragon. Although it stuck in the scales it did not seem to deal a lot of damage.
Still better than nothing.

Gawain moved around, drawing the dragon's attention away from the girl it had pinned down. Some of the stars skidded off the scales but others stuck. The creature yelled and twisted, releasing its grip on Evelyn for a few moments. Gawain reached up for more stars and kept aiming them at the dragon's throat and head, hoping to keep it distracted while Eve got away.

"Okay new plan" he gasped "How about... we don't ever... count this as one of our dates?..."

Evelyn, like most people, had at one point in her life laid on her back, looked at the clouds, and wondered what it would be like to touch them. The floating water vapor looked much like cotton balls, and assumably, one would expect them to feel like that. But in the Danger Room, Evelyn found that wish disappearing, with little hope of ever returning. Having your face smashed into one was about as comfortable as being smothered by a pillow. No matter how soft it appeared, with enough force it was still a little painful.

Squirming under the clawed foot, she took the first opportunity for escape she found and scrambled away, feeling all dignity fading as she army crawled a few feet along the clouds then rather sloppily stumbled to her feet and moved to where Mirror was. Her ribbon had come undone, and she was gradually getting worse for wear as a blood stain appeared on her shirt. Sam's date program was turning out worse than the alien battle Gawain dragged her in...

Desperate to redeem herself a little, she hoped to catch one of the stars, then focused the echoes on the dragon. It snarled, distracted by Mirror's throwing, and she shook her head at Gawain's statement. "I think at this point, we're lucky to consider this training." She followed the Echoes directing, and launched the little star as hard as she could as the dragon turned it's face. It slammed into the creatures eye, causing the cloud monster to angrily lash around, lightning bolts narrowly missing them. It wriggled backwards, hissing in pain and pawing at it's face.

"Maybe I'll actually get some sleep tonight though, if we ever get out of here..." She murmured more quietly, shaking her head as she plucked another star and glanced at the creature, uncertain what to do next. She was half expecting the scene to change again, then regretting the thought as possible outcomes filtered through her mind.

>>"I think at this point, we're lucky to consider this training."

"Oh it's training all right..." Gawain scrambled back, making sure he was between Eve and the monster, and watched as she hit it with a star square in the eye. "... lesson number one: nothing's predictable... Nice shot!"
Maybe she was not as helpless as she liked to think she was.

>>"Maybe I'll actually get some sleep tonight though, if we ever get out of here..."

"We will. This can't go on forever. Broken as it is..." Gawain ducked out of the way of a claw "... it's still Sam's dating program. And his dates don't go on fore... wait a minute."

It felt wrong to even think about it.

"If this is supposed to progress as a date does..."

There was probably a way to skip to the end.
Well, an end. It seemed like Sam had planned for every scenario.

Gawain glanced at Eve who was holding some stars defiantly in her hand, then back at the dragon.

The dragon seemed like the safer bet.

Nothing's predictable...

Evelyn couldn't resist the laugh that bubbled up from her mouth, and she muffled it with the back of her hand as she shook her head. "I think I learned that lesson first time I met you. There was nothing predictable about being attacked by Sesame Street." She resisted remarking about Gawain's less than impressive tree climbing at the time. That would be an image that would forever bring a grin to her face, and Mirror would be forced to occasionally hear about it, whether he wanted to or not. Never forget meant it never faded into the past. She threw another star, but the dragon's tail flicked up fast enough to knock this one away. Her accuracy was still fairly decent, considering her lack of training. Using her echoes to analyze a battle felt strange, but somewhat more invigorating than when she was just trying to organize paintings on the walls at work.

She smiled a little wider at the compliment, trying not to feel too proud of the action. There was no telling how the rest of the fight would progress. Last thing she wanted was to have a moment of pride then to need saving again. She was a little thrown off by her boyfriend's next remark though. She tilted her head and ducked the tail that zipped over the top of her head.

"I'm not following..." Evelyn was still fairly clueless as far as dating went, but whatever idea popped into Gawain's head seemed to make him nervous. Her next star hit the dragon in the ear and it snapped at them unhappily. She brought the echoes back to the fight, and tried not to get too distracted by whatever Gawain was thinking.

>>"I think I learned that lesson first time I met you. There was nothing predictable about being attacked by Sesame Street."

Welcome to the wonderful world of the X-men.

>>"I'm not following..."

"Um, it's just..."

Gawain scrambled further back as the dragon snapped at them, ushering Eve across the endless field of clouds. It was hard to be socially awkward while in a fight, but they seemed to manage it anyway.

"I just meant... dates don't last forever. We're gonna be outta here eventually."

Unless Sam used to DR for more than Gawain liked to think of. Ugh.

’What is love? Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me know more. What is love? Baby don’t hurt me don’t hur-beep’ Sam looked to his phone and read the text message from the automated system he installed on the danger room program for the ultimate date scenario. Sam started to laugh at the screen and looked to his paperwork that cluttered his desk and then looked at the clock he just sat down but slowly pushed himself away from his desk the wheels under his chair making their familiar sound and he let out a slight yawn, ”Good as time as any to take a break…” Sam said looking back to the paper work deciding Drew could help him out when he saw him next.

Quickly leaving his office and walking down to the kitchen Sam still continued to laugh practically doubling over from the joke he had set up for Evee and Gawain/Maya. It wasn’t in the best taste but he still couldn’t believe that it actually happened. He had set up the danger room to tell when his student and blondie were both inside the room. After having a conversation with Maya during the riots he figured he/she wasn’t going to make a move and Evee being well Eve he doubted she’d make a move either meaning it was up to Sam to get the ball moving.

It was obvious to him they both liked each other and they way they argued he figured they’d go well with each other. They were both super stubborn and were both too blind to see they liked each other so on the off chance they both went into the danger room at the same time ‘The Ultimate Date’ programs were supposed to run automatically locking them both in until the ‘date’ was over. He knew they’d both be furious with him but he wasn’t going to worry to much about that. Instead he decided to help make the date that much better.

So Sam spent a few minutes putting together a nice little picnic basket with a few sandwiches (half of them with the crust off because Eve struck him as the type to not like crust) and a few other treats like a few cookies some grapes and some sodas. That was when he got the other text, ‘Sam, ***** get your **** **** down here right ***** now.’ Sam started to laugh again as he slowly made his way down to the danger room god room it was clear they didn’t want to be on the date but if they both survived he was sure they would be thanking him. , ”I should start my own couples retreat…” Sam said walking down the hallway with a large basket still amused this was working so well.