The echoes noticed the change in sounds shortly after reaching the dead end, and it forced Evelyn to rethink her strategy. The smells grew less important as the sounds of wings stood out to her.

Not just a few wings. Lots of them.

Uncertain what was following, Evelyn quickly processed her map of the maze. Considering where this dead end fell, she moved forward and quickly took two lefts. She narrowly avoided running back into the smell monster, and her path took her at an angle away from the wings. It was only a momentary escape, however. She was trapped on the ground, weaving through the obstacles, but her new opponent was by passing everything. It would catch up soon enough, all she could do was figure out the best place to stage a defense.

She would rather that defense not be at a dead end with an incorporeal monster.

Her grip on the sai grew tighter as she ran, and it took effort to stay calm. This was more than a test to her the longer it went. The problem with the echoes was that everything felt real. There was no way to separate the danger in the Danger Room with a real life battle. A mistake was no longer failing. A mistake could be injury or death. It didn't matter if it was temporary, with the playbacks making the pain feel infinite. As she chose to stop behind a corner section of the wall, the T in the path giving her several directions to run, she focused on the incoming shapes.

[Number incalculable. Species moving with singular purpose. Insect-like hivemind?] She scanned the figures for any central control, a specific figure she could target. But nothing stood out, the massive black blob swooping down towards her with a rumbling cry. She stepped back for better balance, squared her shoulders, and swung for the first almost bat-like animal. 1.

The echoes buzzed, attention split between the multiple targets, and Evelyn kept her back to the wall as she jabbed with both her weapon and her forearm. A solid collision to one of the creatures sent it tumbling to the ground, followed by a pained screech as the sai sliced through the wing of another. 2, 3. But the rest were on her, numbers breaking through her defenses. Claws grabbed hair, teeth nipped at clothing, and screeches rattled her hearing and disoriented the echoes further. In the midst of the struggle, she caught the strong smell of fur and gargling growl getting closer.

She started retreating down one of the paths, swing in shorter, faster movements. 4, 5, 6. Gawwww I hope these things don't have rabies or something... She kept moving just in case, careful not to let any latch onto her skin. The gargling was still following, and the hissing of monster number one sounded closer, although she couldn't tell how close over the clamor of the flying creatures. Her arms and legs burned, but she ducts and dodged, relying on the muscle memory she'd been building.

The test seemed to vanish from thought, images of the riots, the sewers coming back to mind. She learned to fight for a reason. This was survival now.

Gawain was not entirely surprised to see that Evelyn was not giving up just yet. He was not sure how well trained she was at this point, or how good a grip she had on her own powers - but he had no doubt that she was stubborn, and at this point, it was more about proving how far she could go than anything else. The young knight smiled to himself as he watched her hack and slash at the flying creatures.

She learned to navigate the maze fairly quick, which was not all that surprising with her memory and powers. She also found a good place for making a stand, even though the monsters were closing in on every side.

The program kicked itself up to the next level. With all the monsters still around, it started to add random lights, smells and sounds to the mix.
Evelyn would definitely have a headache after this.

As if having bat-creatures nesting in your hair wasn't bad enough, the room decided it wasn't done with the light show. Painfully bright, dim, then colorful flickers of lights splashed across the monsters. Stabs that should have made contact were suddenly too high or low, the echoes struggling to assess the situation. The smells grew intense next, the scent of perfume almost suffocating for a second, then turning into food smells that completely masked the monster she had smelt approaching. Then the noise started muffling her hearing, the rattle of trains, the peel of thunder, the rustling of a thousand books taking the place of the animal snarls in her ears.

[Approaching....approaching...] The echoes tried focusing on the hissing they had heard before, but it was drowned in the sound of a car revving. The more the echoes struggled to think, the slower they made her movements. Her eyes were pale silver, blue gone as her powers took control. [Danger. Sounds. Lights. Danger. Perfume. Bats. Pain. Danger.]

Out of the fog of lights, a snarling creature broke through the fray of flying animals. Teeth clamped onto one of the sai, snarling as it tried to pull it from her grasp. Evelyn stumbled, swinging the for it's eyes, slashing across it's jawline instead. The ground was tilting...

No, she was tilting.

Dragged by her weapon she fell sideways, brain swimming with echoes and useless information. None of it was relevant. [Everything. Relevant. Relevant. Attackers. Danger. Snarling. Lights. Danger.] She was going to fail.

The test. Become an x-men. Defend herself.

Her knee swung up, making contact with the jaw, freeing her sai. She shut her eyes, blocking out the light and focusing on the sounds instead. The tuned out the distracting noises, and tried to focus on one thing at a time. First, the hissing creature that had returned. She could barely make out the snuffling of claws on the ground, and stabbed for first one then the other as she backed away. She knew where the walls were. Or, at least where the walls had been. She ducked down the maze a few feet and swung out again, panting heavily with the effort. Her legs were shaking, her arms burned, and her head was throbbing with the headache and the almost dizzying amount of information. Her attacks were less precise, more staggered. If she fell again, she was fairly certain she wasn't getting up.

Gawain's eyes widened as he watched Evelyn fight blind.

Da-yumn, girl.

The mix of light and sound in the Danger Room below was straining even to his senses in the God Seat, but she was still muscling her way through it running on sheer stubbornness. Gawain sat back, folding his arms, and glanced at the screens. The program was getting exponentially annoyed at its subject still being on her feet, and the software designed to keep adding distractions was still doing its job. Gawain glanced at Evelyn's figure on the screen and smirked. Now it was only a matter of minutes.

Evelyn had just passed the test.

Without the distraction of lights, Evelyn had a small amount of mental relief, but it also took away much of her tactical power. The echoes relied heavily on site, and without it, they had to focus on the sounds, which were getting more and more murky. Wings bashed against her hair and ears, claws tangling in her while locks and pulling them loose from her ponytail. One or two might have scratched her, but the headache she was facing made everything else fuzzy.

At least, it felt like it was the headaches fault.

[Attacker, left. Sai went together to protect her face, the blow knocking her into the wall. The force of the attack was different than the last couple monsters, different enough she opened her eyes. What she saw was a giant bear like creature lumbering forward, tiger like stripes running down it's sides. Lights streamed across it, a horrid rainbow reflecting shadows off the flying monsters. A paw slashed out, she dodged--

WHMPH.

--straight into the cloud-like beast. The air was gone, the smell was horrendous, her legs buckled and she toppled back out the other side. Clear from the vapors she gasped for air, only to have a giant paw press down on her chest. She couldn't locate the sai, and there were lights [Bear-tiger. Lights. Bat creatures. Perfume. Train. Roar. Danger.] She squinted up at the swimming image dizzily, making out the shape of a paw slashing for her face. The echoes were too disoriented to let her move.

And everything stopped.

Slowly, the objects in the room faded. Monsters vanished, lighting returned to normal, sounds stopped and even the sai disappeared. Evelyn rolled her her knees, arms shaking and head still throbbing. The echoes, however, were still wired with adrenaline, chattering senselessly. [Metal room. Normal. Danger Room. Training environment. Danger?] The program ending was both welcomed and disappointing. Had she made it? Had she failed?

A strand of tangled white hair fell across her vision. She jumped, and the echoes dumbly identified the familiar locks.

The program shut itself down at the moment where Evelyn would have... been in really serious trouble. Gawain saw her scramble to her knees as the virtual reality melted around her, then punched a few key on the keyboard, and conjured up a mirror next to Eve.

"Sooo. That was... quite the show" he grinned, offering a hand to help her up. She looked battered and bruised, but nothing DocProf would even consider healing.

"Are you feeling all right?"

As Gawain appeared next to her, Evelyn accepted the hand and shakily got to her feet. Her head hurt and she felt a bit dizzy now, but at least things were over and her brain didn't feel like it was getting torn five different directions. She managed a small smile, and rubbed her forehead to try and ease the mental strain.

"I'm ok. Head hurts a bit, but that'll fade. Or I can get some headache medicine..." Medicine was sounding good right now.

[Mirror. Mirrorwalker.] Delayed input from the echoes almost made her laugh.

"I think the echoes are a little scrambled though....I'm going to be hearing useless chatter for a while..." She admitted, already feeling annoyed with the choppy incoherent analysis.

>>"I'm ok. Head hurts a bit, but that'll fade. Or I can get some headache medicine... I think the echoes are a little scrambled though....I'm going to be hearing useless chatter for a while..."

"Yeeah... I'm sorry about that" Gawain had the decency to turn slightly red; it gets awkward when you put your girlfriend's brains through the grinder, even if only in training. "I kinda have to gear every trial to the powers of the person, so... the point was kinda to overload your echoes."

He looked at her for a moment, still slightly disoriented and catching her breath.

"Closing your eyes, though... that was genius. You gotta have guts to do that."

He had not seen many trained X-men pull off something like that.
Gawain cleared his throat.

"Oh. You passed. By the way."

The echoes sorting themselves out enough to catch Gawain's blush, and Evelyn tried to give a reassuring smile. "It's ok. At least it's nothing permanent." At least she didn't pass out. Rebooting during a tryout could have flunked her for sure. Had she passed? She didn't know. The echoes kept repeating random nonesense about Gawain's body language, and Evelyn felt a touch of color on her own face.

The color turned pure red at the compliment. "Oh, that. I uh, it wasn't that smart was it? It was a lot better not dealing with the lights though. Just glad the room didn't try moving itself on me." Closing her eyes would have stopped looking cool at the point she ran face first into a wall.

>>"You passed, by the way."

The comment was nearly missed, then Evelyn realized what he said and her expression was somewhere between excitement and surprise. "I did? I mean...."

[Mirrorwalker. Mirror. Danger room. No monsters.] Passed... She was going to be an x-men. She wasn't sure if she should feel more pressure now or less.

>>"I did? I mean...."

"Yeah ya did" Gawain laughed a little bit, partly at the confused look she was giving him "I gotta admit, I didn't expect you to quite go... this far. But yeah, technically, you went far enough. And the computer's got it recorded, in case anyone asks. Sam'll probably have to take a look at it any verify, but... yea. Congratulations."

He grinned down at her. As worried as he was about the future, Evelyn deserved a place on the team.

Evelyn's confusion transformed into relief, and then excitement to hear she'd done well. But relief. Relief was definitely the strongest emotion. "I...I just. Thanks. I think I may celebrate with some Tylenol now though." She sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck, tangled hair catching on her fingers.

Headache medicine then maybe a shower. [Pride.]