Evelyn shook her head, trying not to think too much about Gawain's garbled statements. Probably for the better. The last thing she needed was dealing with scrambled echoes right now.

Unfortunately, the dragon seemed to have other plans.

As Evelyn turned to toss one of the stars over her shoulder, it roared and a bolt of electricity jolted at the object. With a zap, it hit her would be weapon, and Evelyn yelped, dropping it in surprise. A rush of electricity zipped through her arm and made her feel like she got punched in the chest. It wasn't strong enough to be damaging, but it had a rather nasty side effect. Much like a blow to the head, the zap managed to set her brain on reboot, which sent a wave of playbacks through her mind.

"Ugh..." Evelyn stumbled, trying to keep up with Gawain but her senses were overloaded by the influx of information. For a fleeting moment, there was a sense of satisfaction as the vase on the beside table shattered. Shards of colored glass clattered against the wall, sprinkled the carpet, and landed close to the mirror she had started to aim for.

She saw the tail of the beast lash out, uncertain whether she managed to stumble to the side or if she was yanked that way. Her hand tingled with the relived sensation of pain.

She was back in school, arguing with another girl with dark brown hair and a massive amount of freckles on her slim face. The cold eyes glared at her, and the girl crossed her arms firmly across her chest, her skinny little legs spaced evenly apart like a barrier from the rest of the lunch room.

She shook her head, as if she could shake free of the playbacks and tried to focus. She felt her mouth moving at least, and she was still on her feet which was a good thing. "I don't think my powers like electricity much. Playbacks are on, like my brain is on reboot..." She squinted and threw a star, the little object clipping the monster on the shoulder. Focus... She told herself. She flinched as another playback sent ghostly pain through her back, then breathed deeply to root herself in the more present images of clouds and the dragon.

Clouds. The echoes started arguing about the impossibilities and she threw the star with more blind panic and less accuracy. It clattered above the animal's head, knocked into one of the stars, and both clipped the dragon on the head as they flopped back down.

Watching Eve get hit by lightning did nothing to improve Gawain's day.

Dammit Sam get your ass down here.

They ran and they stumbled, but there was really nowhere to run except forward, with the dragon throwing itself around behind them. And to add panic to the situation, Evelyn suddenly did not look so good.

>>"Ugh... I don't think my powers like electricity much. Playbacks are on, like my brain is on reboot..."

"Damn." Gawain skidded to a halt, catching Eve before she tripped. The dragon looped around behind them in an arch, ready to strike again.

"Eve, close your eyes and focus, okay?" he said, holding her up.

If... when we get outta here I'm gonna murder Sam for this.

"Just... trust me on this."

God knew he could use some extra trust.

Leaning down, he pressed his lips to hers.

Well, we are giving a whole new meaning to speed dating... come on Sam, you gotta have at least one make-out scenario in this...

The dragon's roar faded in the background.

Evelyn tried not to panic as she delt with the chaos in her mind. Getting electric shock was bad enough, but the repercussions were even worse. The pain prickling through her muscles stung, and the playbacks they brought up were just as painful. The problem with her memories was they felt real. She was trying to run from a dragon when her body was struggling with the sensation of falling on moment and getting hit on the back of the head the next. The echoes just murmured about impossible cloud walking.

>> "Eve, close your eyes and focus, okay?" Gawain's voice cut through the chaos and she mental latched onto it like a compass, pointing the direction out. She obediently shut her eyes and tried to focus, almost missing Mirror's next remark.

She didn't miss his next action though.

The sensation of being kissed melted every thing else. The first time she was kissed, it caught her by surprise, but this time it was just as unexpected but still a pleasant experience. She ignored the echoes questions about the impractical action in the middle of a battle, and felt herself gently kiss the mirrorwalker back. The chaos in her mind quieted.

So did the room around her.

The scene melted and she felt the ground shift and the air get warmer. Around them, the scene of a beach at sunset melted into view, with a sandy beach and a blanket set out facing the sunset. A little mix of romantic and cheesy, but the sunset was beatiful, impossible colors lingering in the sky as the scene came to a rest. The echoes finally stopped freaking out and tried to make sense of their new surroundings.

The kiss seemed to have a calming effect on Evelyn. Either that, or she was just pouring all the anxiety into him. As she kissed him back, Gawain forgot for a moment about... pretty much everything around them, until the new-found silence registered and he pulled away to see the colors of a bright tropical sunset.

"I promise I'll stop doing this to you" muttered, still holding her to make sure she could stand "Next one I'll wait till you ask."

In the meantime: no dragon. Gawain had no doubt something was going to go wrong sooner than later. He just hoped the message to Sam got through.

Sam blinked when he entered the god room. He heard some thunder and then saw some lighting flash in the background as he looked through the windows. As of now the god room would have been invisible to those in the danger room simulation however Sam could still see it all and when he looked at the video screen that had zoomed in on the pair he smirked more. ”Damn I’m good.” Sam said to himself as he saw Gawain locking lips with Evee. Sam continued smirking then looked up through the windows as the scene changed again into the beach date. Sam blinked with his good eye slightly confused that the scene changed so quickly.

”Hmmmm….” Sam verbalized as he sat to the control tables and set the basket filled with food on the floor next to him. He’d hold off for a second on the delivery and give them a few minutes just incase that one kiss wanted to go a little longer. Reaching to the controls he started to work. Several screens started to flash before him one was pulling up music while he rewind two of the other screens to show him how the ‘date’ started. First thing was first. Reaching to a few of the settings he manually changed the sun setting to sunset followed by inserting a few soundtracks the first was of course ‘Endless love’ by Celine Dion why? Because it was more for a laugh than anything else.

Sam started to laugh a bit as he watched the two still not starting the replay of the start of the date he wanted to see if the pair noticed they were no longer alone. He of course didn’t verbalize he was there yet. But rather sent Gawain a text, ‘You are welcome, warms my heart to see a happy couple I’ll be sending food in shortly and leave you to it!’

After he sent the text and looked up out the god room window that was when he noticed the now darkened sky glitch slightly. At first Sam didn’t think much of it but when he started to replay the beginning of the date he noticed the screen glitch a few times. ”That shouldn’t happen…”

Evelyn's cheeks felt warm as the contact ended, and she gave a small smile, fiddling with the ends of her hair at Gawain's comment. The sand under foot shifted a little with her movement, and she wondered if she would find sand in her shoes once all this was over. Probably not, but it still felt real. "It's fine, I mean, I'm not complaining... I..." She struggled to find the right words to say, something that seemed to occur more recently ever since she met Mirror. She wasn't a know it all around him, the large void where her dating life would belong wedged somewhere in an empty corner of her brain.

"Is that Celine Dion?" She blinked in surprise as the music started playing through the scene, and the echoes tried (and failed) to pinpoint the source. Apparently, this scene came with a sound track. Either that, or Sam had finally showed up. She hoped for the later as she glanced out towards the sunset. The Jaws music seemed to play in her mind overtop of the love song filling the Danger Room. Even more so as the colors of the sunset seemed to flicker and start to fade.

It was getting darker. She scooted closer to Gawain and cautiously looked around. She glanced backwards, and noted some trees a short bit away from where they were at. Not bookshelves like the first time, more like palm trees, with slender branches and little cover. There was still enough foliage for something to hide in though. She debated between the trees, the sand, and the water for an attack to arrive. This would have been so much easier if she had a weapon of some sort... There might be shells in the water, but she would hate to discover some form of sea monster instead. Wandering closer to the trees seemed like asking for a panther or some exotic wildcat to appear. Heck, it was the Danger Room. Nothing really made sense in here.

They could get attacked by poodles for all she knew.

>>"It's fine, I mean, I'm not complaining... I... Is that Celine Dion?"

"Huh?" Gawain's education in pop music lacked the girly part, so he blinked a couple of times when the soundtrack started up out of nowhere. When he heard the lyrics, he rolled his eyes. "Come on Sam, that's bad even for you..."

Evelyn was still holding on to him, apparently trying to see what was going to attack them next. He did not mind holding her.

The X-comm beeped. Gawain fished it out of his pocket and took a look at the text forwarded from his phone: ‘You are welcome, warms my heart to see a happy couple I’ll be sending food in shortly and leave you to it!’

Damn.

Gawain turned the X-comm on.

"Sam, get us the **** out of here, right now!" he growled "The DR's on the fritz. I've had enough weird sh*t attaching us for one night, and I can't seem to shut it down from in here!"

Strange chirping sounds echoed among the nearby trees.

The chirping sounds didn't sound like poodles.

It didn't sound like song bird either though.

While Gawain tried to get his message across in the X-comm, Evelyn cautiously moved forward, echoes scanning the trees. It was too dark to make out what was in them, and she had to squint to make out the outlines as the darkness continued. Releasing the mirrorwalker's arm, she stepped forward a few more steps, emotions settling somewhere between curiosity and a little bit of fear. She didn't want to just stand and wait for something to happen, but learning also meant getting a bit closer.

If the echoes could tell what was out there, she'd feel more prepared. But darkness made it more difficult for them to work and she wished it were a little lighter. Maybe that was the point of training though. Situations weren't always going to be ideal, and getting by on dumb luck alone wasn't going to help. She needed to practice and work through her weaknesses. She listened and tried to focus on sounds as well, honing in on the movement. Her eyes couldn't be her only source of information. She had to build on her other senses as well.

Something was moving... large by the sound of it, but the footsteps were light, padded, and there was a low growl that followed the chirping sounds. The echoes were confused whether the creature was feline, or if they had heard a bird. Then two yellow eyes blinked out from the trees, somewhat owl-like, but far too large.

"Gawain..." She backed up a step, staring in disbelief as a creature came flying out of the trees.

She thought it was a bird. Then she thought it was a cat. When it launched at them, talons ready, she saw a little mixture of bear in it. She was pretty sure she'd seen this movie.

She was also fairly certain cartoon violence would not replicate the same way in the danger room if it got a hold of them.

Even though he was far above them the danger room picked up and relayed Gawain’s disproval of the song, it was clear though that Evee knew the song. ”Come on, friends can listen to endless love in the dark.” Sam said to himself quoting one of his favorite comedy classics. Clearly Gawain didn’t get Adam Sandler at least when he was good, not the new one who only appears in poor movies.

Still looking at the other two screens however Sam started to notice more and more screen glitches, followed by them getting attacked multiple times. His date scenarios never had any sort of creature attacking those in the session. It was only meant to be a way to have a cheesy classic date with someone that didn’t involve him taking them on the X-jet after Neena and Tricity chewed him out for using the jet inappropriately, ‘for pleasure’ they called it. Sam smirked to himself for a moment and was about to make a joke to himself but decided not to.

His pocket started to vibrate and he removed the X-communicator and placed his ear piece in. "Sam, get us the **** out of here, right now! The DR's on the fritz. I've had enough weird sh*t attaching us for one night, and I can't seem to shut it down from in here!"

Sam cleared his throat and then responded still watching everything that had already happened in the danger room, ”This isn’t my date scenario… what did you do to it?” Sam asked curiously watching the screen glitch then noticing the darkened sky glitch again. He looked at the screen that showed the real time feed the one that was happening right now. ”Keep Evee, close and walk me through what you tried to do to shut it down. I’ll try to do what I can in here… you might need to let this last scene play out though if I can’t cut it off. I might be able to shorten the scenario.”

The speakers in the god room picked up some clicking over the sound of Celine Dion. Sam looked to the monitor again and shifted the camera towards the trees. ”Keep her away from the trees I think I know what’s coming.” Sam said through the communicator as he turned off the soundtrack he was playing in the background. Sam then turned the sunset back to a noon sky with the sun high in the air; the creature they were about to encounter would be slower due to it being nocturnal. Sam then also tried to a few other buttons to give them the edge. The first thing that happened in the danger room was a few dozen different weapons appeared in the sand around them. Sam noticed another glitch in the background again.

>>”This isn’t my date scenario… what did you do to it?”

"What did I..." gawain gaped in disbelief. Was Sam really going to blame him for this training turned date turned training scenario?! "It turned itself on when we walked in, and I coulnd't get it to stop. What did you do to it?!"

It was kind of reassuring that the monsters were at least not Sam's idea of a fun date. It would have explained his current lack of girlfriends though...

>>”Keep Evee, close and walk me through what you tried to do to shut it down. I’ll try to do what I can in here… you might need to let this last scene play out though if I can’t cut it off. I might be able to shorten the scenario.”

"Play out..." Gawain forced himself to focus despite the urge to punch Sam in the face. "I just told the computer to shut it down and it refused. Said there was an override built in under your name. Sam, if this is your idea of being a wingman..."

>>”Keep her away from the trees I think I know what’s coming.”

Gawain turned and saw Evelyn eyeing the trees. Not good. The chirping sound came closer and it was hard to tell what animal it belonged to. Before he could guess, however, the owl-cat-bear thing burst through the trees.

>>"Gawain..."

Grabbing Eve by the elbow he yanked her out of the way, hard enough to make her stumble, which in this case was the lesser of two evils. Suddenly there were weapons around them, and Gawain grabbed for a spear.

"Worst..."

The cat-owl-bear thing swatted at the point of the spear as Gawain stood between it and Evelyn.

"... wingman..."

The creature growled and swatted again, this time tipping Gawian out of balance so he rolled in the sand.

"... EVER!"

Evelyn none-too-gracefully landed on her butt when Gawain yanked her backwards, and quickly scrambled out of the way as the creature snarled and attacked. She could only hear half of the argument he was having with Sam, but frustration boiled over from every feature as the Mirror walker took a defensive stance in front of her. Trying to keep calm, she glanced at the remaining weapons and the echoes flickered through the possibilities.

[Bo staff. Allows greater distance from opponent. Strength needed to make blows effective. Hunting knife--] Not happening[/color] [Sai. Close combat, sharp tipped. Blunt handles for hitting if necessary.]

It'd have to do. She grabbed the pair as Mirror went down and stumbled back to her feet, the sand sifting and making it hard to stay balanced. She had handled weapons a few times at the museum, but that was always while taking them to the back room or showing them to patrons in a rare demonstration. She never held anything with the intention to use it before, especially nothing like the metal objects in her hands. The fabric pressed into her skin as she clenched the handles, feeling silly and regretting grabbing them. But as the creature took a slash towards Gawain, she pushed aside that emotion, and reminded herself why they were here.

She needed to train. If nothing else, it was a step in the right direction.

[Feline/bear combination. Head swivels 360 degrees, lacks effective blind spot. Opening on back for attack, stay out of rang of beak and teeth.] She took advantage of the information before jumping on the creature's low back and stabbing the sai roughly in between the creature's shoulder blades. She flinched in surprise as the weapon cut into the creature's skin effectively, apparently sharper than many of the Sai she'd held. As warm blood rose from the wound, the creature screeched in pain and backed away from Gawain, swiveling it's head and snapping at her. She had smartly shoved herself towards it's tail though, out of range of teeth. It wasn't the most comfortable place to sit, and would have looked silly for any form of riding purposes, but she was improvising and thinking as she went along. Step one was making sure Gawain didn't get mauled trying to defend her.

Step two was making sure she didn't get mauled trying to defend herself.

The triumphant moment of wounding the animal quickly evaporated as the animal gave a snarl and rolled, dislodging it's attacker. It was one blur of movement even the echoes couldn't warn her fast enough of, and it's body weight shoved her into the sand, winding her as it jumped back to it's feet and shook itself, the sai falling free and flopping a few inches away. Gasping for breath, she sat up quickly, making a dive for the weapons. A clawed foot planted itself on her back, talons painfully pressing against her shoulders as it screeched in her ear, taking a snap at her hand as she grasped the handles. Teeth barley clipped her skin as she gripped the weapon, the bite mark appearing just below the teeth marks from the books in the last scenario.

Well, at least now everything could get bandaged together... She thought bitterly as she flipped the Sai around and slammed the base of the weapon into the creature's face. It made a painful sounding crack as the blunt metal handle impacted beak.

The glitches were becoming more and more frequent whenever he hit a button. Sam altered the sun setting again and watched the background glitch again. He caught it again on camera and nodded his head, ”Interesting…” he said as he was listening to Gawain yell his accounting of what happened. ”I set it up so the date scenario would start up as soon as you two entered the danger room.” Sam said explaining why the danger room started up. ”It was a feature that was already available, just never heard anyone try it before.” Sam said talking to himself but still having his voice carried through his active communicator.

”Honestly though, if you didn’t try to override it you’d be thanking me. Hell, still might they say when a woman works out her body releases chemicals that stimulate attraction, same goes for fear oddly enough…” Sam said fixing his lone eye on the screen that had Eve stabbing the creature in the back than riding it about till it rolled. Sam hit the open mic button, ”Atta girl!” his voice booming throughout the danger room as he left the button on then went back to pushing more buttons.

"Worst..." "... wingman..." "... EVER!"

Sam smirked again as Gawain’s voice carried over the monitor and his own ear peice, ”Or best.” his voice carried out through the communicator and loudspeaker still forgetting that it was on letting Eve glimpse in to their conversation. ”Gawain, keep your head out of the sand. Use yourself as bait, you have more experience in the field than Eve let her jump in when she sees fit.” Sam said still not fully aware that Eve could hear everything he was saying.

”Close your eyes and get her to do the same for a second… trust me.” Pushing another button again Sam turned the waves by the ocean up a bit as the wind died down then increased a few times kicking up the sand on the beach. Hopefully they both shut their eyes or at least covered them to keep the sand out. The creature won’t be as lucky seeing as its eyes were very large.

”Glad to see you finally kissed her though, you dog you. Took you long enough didn’t thin; you’d work up the stones. She’s kinda out of your league.” Sam said laughing while turning off the wind and adding, ”Wind’s off, charge ‘em.” the background glitched again and then Sam started to devise a theory as to why the danger room was glitching.

>>”Interesting… I set it up so the date scenario would start up as soon as you two entered the danger room. It was a feature that was already available, just never heard anyone try it before.”

"You did this on purpose?!"

Gawain was, sadly, much less surprised than what his tone suggested. He kind of already had put the pieces together. It was not far fetched to assume that Sam would be capable of devising such a plan.

>>”Honestly though, if you didn’t try to override it you’d be thanking me. Hell, still might they say when a woman works out her body releases chemicals that stimulate attraction, same goes for fear oddly enough…”

"SAM!!!"

Before Gawain could channel anger and embarrassment at the fact that Evelyn just heard all that, the creature was in motion again, with Eve clinging to its back. And stabbing. And falling. The young knight was more than a bit surprised to see her acting like that.

>>”Gawain, keep your head out of the sand. Use yourself as bait, you have more experience in the field than Eve let her jump in when she sees fit. Close your eyes and get her to do the same for a second… trust me.”

Frustration, anger and confusion aside, Gawain shut his eyes without a moment of hesitation. Sam, as whacked as he was, was the team leader for a reason, and in a combat situation Gawain would have never doubted his word. It kind of came with their field experience together.

He could feel the sand on his face as he tried to stay on his feet, listening for sounds from Eve's direction. The creature screeched, not happy with the sand storm.

>>”Glad to see you finally kissed her though, you dog you. Took you long enough didn’t thin; you’d work up the stones. She’s kinda out of your league.”

"Don't I know it." Gawain muttered, promising himself to deck the team leader at the first opportunity, trust or no trust.

>>”Wind’s off, charge ‘em.”

The wind died and Gawain opened his eyes, fine sand falling from his hair to his shoulders. He blindly grabbed for the nearest weapon that turned out to be a sword, and yelled at the owl-bear.

"Hey! Over here! C'mon!"

Evelyn probably would have been more embarrassed by the conversation if she wasn't still flat on her face in the sand. The owl creature took a snap at her, teeth flashing just over her shoulder as the wind kicked up and she obediently shut her eyes. The echoes quieted, then went silent, and she tried not to panic as she wriggled free from the creatures talons. Her cheeks burned red at the remarks Sam kept making, but she forced herself to focus for now.

Sand was everywhere: in her mouth, in her hair, in her ears and clothes. She seriously hoped it would disappear after this, otherwise several hours in the shower would be necessary to remove it all. As the wind died, she jumped to her feet and dodged a few swats with the echoes guidance, getting out of the way. Gawain yelled at the beast and its head swiveled backwards, body still faceing Evelyn. It was hard to distract a creature with 360 degree vision, but slowly Mirror managed.

It hissed at the boy, turning and prowling that direction while Evelyn shifted the sai in her hands. She was winded and her hands shook as she held the objects, running on adrenaline to keep going. The effects of lack of sleep were more evident in battle now, and she waited until it lunges forward then gave the sai a solid throw. Mental slammes into the back of its feathered head and it yowled, stumbing and nearly falling. Without much strength in the throw it didn't so much damage, but it made thw mistake of turning its head back to face Evelyn, giving Gawain a clear opening to attack.

Sam didn’t need Evee’s mutation with the voices to be able to read how upset Gawain was with him. Sam smirked to the computer screens as one zoomed up on his face as he was busy distracting the creature before him giving Evee ample time to make her move. She stabbed the beast again and Sam hit another button and watched the screen and background glitch.

Sam smirked and then hit the override button and spoke into the speaker again only now realizing he left it on the entire time. He resisted laughing for the moment and cleared his throat, ”Computer… Sam Override, Omega, Omega, Foxtrot.” the beast froze and started to dematerialize as the rest of the danger room went back to the normal gray empty self.

A few seconds passed and Sam turned off the mic to the loudspeakers and started to bust out laughing at what had just occurred he suddenly felt bad that he had said what he has said on the speakers to Gawain. ‘Yeah, he’ll try to get me back for this one…’ thought Sam as he wrote a note to look into the ‘auto-scenario’ set up that had given Gawain and Eve such a hard time. After he made the nod he smirked to himself scooped up the picnic basket and then exited the god room into the main danger room level.

Creating a slide Sam slid down to the main level closer to Evee than Gawain because if he knew Gawain the guy might try throwing a punch and well he did spend a bit of time making the picnic lunch be a shame it something happened to it. Letting out a whistle Sam set the basket down next to Eve, ”Evee, great job with the scenario. Even the kiss was entertaining to watch!” Sam gave her a smirk then lifted up the basket, ”For the two of you figure you two could use a easy date after that one. Hopefully one with nothing trying to eat you…”

Sam looked to Gawain and shrugged his shoulders, ”So crazy scenario right? Think I figured out why it started to alter from the original path. It was supposed to be a super date but…” Sam shrugged again not really sure what to say at the moment, ”You two did get to lock lips…”