Sam gave it a moment or two till he could see and feel Sara moving again, he knew the tree wouldn’t be able to stop her so he turned his large ice armor to another tree and repeated the process up to the point he threw it. Sam held onto the tree and felt the weight of the ice armor around him dig into the ground a bit. He ignored it and yelled, ”Because you don’t want to be!” he threw the tree and turned his large ice armor shaking the ground as it stepped leaving shards of ice sticking out of the ground with every step.

”We need someone who doesn’t want to be on the team to keep us in line!” Sam said simply enough as he made it past the trees into the clearing right before the now frozen lake. The odds of Sara beating him now were slim now. ”Who watches the watchers?” Sam yelled his voice echoing now throughout the danger rooms hologram, ”We need someone to keep me and the rest of the team in check, someone to tell us when we go to far, someone to keep us honest!” Sam paused for a moment, ”Someone to keep me honest and make sure I don’t lose sight of why I joined the team in the first place, why I help lead the team and make the calls I do!” this was his way of asking her to help.

Sam took a step back and the ice armor followed as he stepped onto the ice of the lake. His armor grew larger and larger until he was in the biggest armor he had ever constructed outside of the artic circle where he trained and practiced this, ”I need you Sara! Keep me in line!” it was large and slow and it continued to compact and grow the movement strained Sam as he focused on it he was feeling drained and his eye looked up to see the house where he had a family, Alexandra, Sammy and Ayrin. His heart sank and a large crack formed on the knee of the giant ice armor one that was due to the weight and his lack of concentration.

It was a loosing battle and Sara knew it. If it wasn’t for the fact that Sam had made it to the shore of the lake, it was because Sara’s sense of sight had finally given in to her sixth sense. Sam’s wind, snow, and cold had been buffering her almost the entire time. The branches and frozen leaves of the tree had put what her eye sight could take over the top.

While Sam let her recover, she’d crouched. Her sixth sense exploding inside her head as a series of ribbons representing all of the movement that herself, and Sam, had taken through the danger room. Then expanded to the shards of ice and snow that he’d thrown, her makeshift staff, the tiny snow flakes that had buffered against herself, and even the fish in the lake behind Sam. All of it had it’s own paths that it followed, and she couldn’t physically see her surroundings, but she could sense them. Her other senses strengthened. Or at least she noticed all of them more. All of the sensations combined and at first, disoriented her.

Meanwhile, Sam had continued talking about why she should join. She hated to admit it, but… He was right. He could use her. They could use her. Maybe she could use them. When she opened her eyes, her pupils had contracted so tightly, shutting out all of the light from her sense of sight, that they were paper thin slits across the amber Iris. She’d strolled across the snow, stalking closer, but just outside of the reach of Sam’s armor. Her toes sliding across the ground slightly to better find her footing and make up for not being able to see. She followed the line that her stick had made after it had struck Sam in the knee, Finding it with her foot first. Then scooping it up in her right hand and sliding her fingers till they rest at the staff’s center.

“Maybe.” Sara yelled back. Her right ear twitching in the direction of the sound of cracking ice about the armor’s knee and deciding that concentrating there, again, wasn’t that bad of an idea. Maybe was the closest answer that Sara had ever given Sam. She wasn’t sure if he’d get her to say anything closer out loud again. so he’d better make the most of it now.

Sara pushed off of the ground, headed first for Sam’s blind side. She faked a move to that side, before ducking to the other just when she’d gotten within Sam’s reach. Her intention was to jam her stick inside the crack of Sam’s ice armor before it fixed itself. Then twist it while in motion.

The armor groaned under it’s own weight ans instead of fixing it right away and preventing himself from the fall he let it happen as the large ice armor fell to the ice causing the layer that had formed to shatter to send freezing cold water and ice in every direction. There Sam sank to the bottom in his ice armor still thinking about things he promised himself he’d try to stop thinking about. His little girl’s call for daddy. The laugh his wife made when he did something stupid, and the smile his son had.

Sinking to the bottom looking back up at the hologram of the sun and the ice shifting back over sealing him in. He closed his eye as the armor around him faded and he felt the wet and the cold and he sank. He swam to the bottom of this lake before or rather he remembered doing it. The danger room session they were in was built to his memory meaning everything was as he remembered it except for his family. He wouldn’t and couldn’t do that to himself again. Before hitting the bottom his eye opened and he righted himself. He had to focus and beat Sara that was the task at hand.

Spinning in a circle the water around him turned to ice and touched the bottom of the lake freezing everything around him and propelling him higher and higher. Right before he reached the surface he reached his hands up and pulled them done directing the surface of the ice where to go. The sheet of ice above him collapsed and was pulled under as he slid between it, the ice around him latching onto his body and forming a dense armor. He was his normal height however his body was thicker and more compact.

When he erupted out of the water he yelled, ”Maybe is all I need to hear till I win!” Slamming his foot down he tried to catch Sara with some walls of ice. He knew she hated to feel trapped but if he could leave her face free then that was all he needed. If she couldn’t get up to speed she couldn’t be a problem.

The staff hit it’s mark and did it’s job. As Sara moved past Sam’s leg, she broke through it and skittered across the ice of the lake when Sam and his armor fell. The result sent the ice buckling in a round wave around them, and Sara’s feet skittered across it’s surface with her claws trying to find a decent grip. A wave of water splashed over her, splattering her fur and clothing. It’s cold soaking into the outer layer of her fur. She did her best to stay in the center of the ice platform Daring not to venture to close to and edge for fear of having it dump her in. Besides. She didn’t need to look over the side to monitor Sam in the water below her. Having trouble telling what the danger room had created, from what Sam had.

“come on.” She did her best to shake the water free. Most of it was flung back into the lake. Sara waited as the residual waves made her rise and fall. Still the fact that Sam didn’t start moving right away put her more on edge. Tail twitching at her heals and her right ear twitched. “common common.” Even though it was only the matter of a few moments that Sara waited, it was still an annoyingly long time. She adjusted her stance, low to the ice as the ribbons that representing Sam’s movement suddenly grew. Spiraling like a screw straight for Sara’s sheet of ice. She propelled herself off of it’s surface and onto the next just in the nick of time because the piece that she had been standing on, sank.

Sam would be in it’s place in an instant. She was in motion when Sam’s foot came down and a wall of ice erupted where she’d been standing. Most of her body was fast enough to avoid it, but her left foot wasn’t quite fast enough to avoid getting trapped. Her foot was halted in mid air… well… Mid ice. And she ended falling hard on her hip and her elbow, her head twisting back to look at her stuck foot and moving to slam her other foot into the ice to try to break herself free. Sure to pull away swiftly so Sam couldn’t trap it too. At least not as easily.

Her leg was caught, at least for the moment if Sam didn’t act quickly she would have freed herself and made a run to the woods where Sam could still win but it would have been difficult. Honestly though, if Sam couldn’t win on the ice he really shouldn’t have his powers because he wasn’t putting them to good use. She was faster than Sam but his control over his mutation helped bridge the gap between their power differences.

Exhaling slowly Sam concentrated on getting the water and air around him cold. Cold in this case was an understatement he was pushing himself to his limits once again and the last time he did it he wasn’t able to move much due to dehydration and exhaustion and that was only after a minute of pushing his limits. He called the technique ‘winter wonderland’ and it had its pros and cons. The name was hard to take seriously when said allowed but if you saw it in action that was the only way to describe it.

Everything started to slow down, a bird swooped by overhead as it was caught in the radius of effect and it’s wings started to flap up and down slower as it was pulled down by gravity slowly. Sam looked to Sara who was free now and before she could take off and run Sam slammed the ice again and started running after her closing the distance between them in a few seconds. Willing the ice to push his feet with every step making him that much faster.

Once he got close to Sara he raised his hands and slapped them together overhead clapping them together, as he did this a ten-foot radius of ice formed two halves for domes and slammed together over head. They were trapped.

Laughing and bringing his hands back down into a guard Sam quickly started to punch Sara leaving a bit of ice behind with each attack. He was moving faster and faster until he finally jumped back and slammed his foot back to the ground causing the ice within the dome to shoot up and throw Sara into the dome ahead. Willing the ice he left on Sara after each punch to stick to the top of the dome. Then he started to laugh and started to add more and more ice to layer over all except for her face.

She’d freed herself from the first wall of ice. That was made clear when her foot fell free, and her arms pushed herself up, against the platform. Sam was on her heals and now that she’d spent a few moments on the ice over the water, she’d had a chance to rethink that plan. However, it was too late.

She’d taken off towards the woodlands again, and an intense cold took a hold of Sara. Literally. She felt a lerch in her stomach and while she was still moving forward, it was like trying to move through thickened water. Every path that every part of her body took was etched out in her mind. Her hair that floated around her shoulders as in if slow motion, her tail. Even the bird that swooped down seemed to be caught off guard and every motion of every feather joined in the 3D road map that etched it’s self out in Sara’s mind. Combine that with the intense cold that hit Sara’s lunges when she inhaled so sharply, and she found herself back pedaling as two thick walls came up in front of her. Represented by two thick ribbons of paths that now representing a thick wall around herself and Sam.

She spun back around. Well spun as best she could. Her hair swimming around her face and her amber slit eyes. Her equilibrium because of the effects of winter wonder land, was off, and so she ended up sliding backwards into the dome’s wall. Eyes widened when the adrenalin in her speeding heart hit her blood stream. God she hated tight spaces. At least now, there was no more running.

Instinctively, her hands came up in a guard. Though not fast enough at first. In fact, not fast enough for Sara at all. There was some exertion she had to deal with as she pushed to keep up with Sam. The force of winter wonderland forcing her normally fast smooth movements to be sloppy and… normal. Dare she think it that way. Two of Sam’s strikes found their marks at Sara’s right side of her ribs. Ice forming in every spot that Sam struck. At least her healing abilities weren’t effected by winter wonderland. Where others would have felt their aches and pains for days, Sara’s pain would only last a few moments, and that knowledge made her reckless once again.

How her claws were out. Winter Wonderland evened out the physical differences between Sara and Sam. He could not only use his ice abilities to slow her down, but speed himself up, and the ice armor, that he manipulated, more than made up for her strength. About the only thing that she had left to out maneuver Sam with was her own stamina that her healing ability gave her.

So she struck back. Mixing her claws, to dig into Sam’s ice armor, with her punches back at Sam, trying to break through his armor. Something a lot harder to do now that he’d momentarily robbed her of her speed. Somewhere in the mix Sam had still caught her a number of other times. A block to her arm or leg. He’d even caught a strike on the side of her head and she realized ice was crusted around her ear after the initial disorientation of the strike. He wasn’t giving her a chance to shake off the ice, and the reason why was made very clear when Sam suddenly backed up and ice came up, under Sara’s feet throwing her into the air. Her back hit the wall / ceiling of the dome, and Sara stuck like a dart in the board. Suddenly finding herself upside down as the ice that Sam had left on her spread and thickened.

Her body jerked and she tried to pull free, but she just wasn’t getting the speed that she normally had. That she needed to keep the inertia to break what kept her in place. Her lips pulled back around her teeth and her head angled in Sam’s direction. She gave another jerk. Her hair floating around her as a result of her struggling, but that was all the free movement that she was getting and it made her exhale sounding like a snarl. “I’ll still break your stuff.”

”That’s no way to talk to your team leader!” Sam yelled back to the snarling cat who was stuck to the wall. The effects of his mutation were starting to wear off. He could feel the ice armor get heavy so he decided to shed the extra weight for his normal body armor. The air around them was still a bitter cold but it was starting to warm. His body started to feel the effects of the speed change and he too was now becoming sluggish. Raising his hand and forcing the dome to change shape Sam willed the ice to form around Sara until she was surrounding by a thick ball of ice all except her face.

”Computer, end simulation!” The danger room flickered and the large ball that was surrounding Sara slammed onto the danger room’s cold metallic surface and Sam severed his connection to his mutation. The air started to warm up and his ice armor fell. He did all in his power to keep the ball of ice around Sara however making sure she couldn’t break free and try claiming that she won when Sam collapsed. He doubted she would do that seriously but he could see her calling it a draw. Sara was like Sam, she didn’t like to lose.

Breathing heavily as he fell back on his rear and looked at the balled up Sara ”You also owe me a new TV.” Sam said nodding his head, ”Also I’ll make a request to Kealey to build you an X-suit with a tail hole.” Sam said smirking.

When Sam yelled back at her, her ear that was still free of the ice ball, flinched back against the ice behind her head. Was that really necessary? She replied with a low vocal that wasn’t quite a growl, but could have easily been mistaken as one.

The danger room session disintegrated around them, and Sara’s ball of ice, that Sam had trapped her in, fell to the floor with a heavy thunk. Making Sara’s jaw tighten and she grunted. Sam fell on his backside, and Sara found herself staring at him, still upside down, but the ball of ice still held her at an angle that was tilted towards her back.

”You also owe me a new TV.”

“Yeah yeah. I know.” Sara sighed. She hated loosing but she would just have to get better for next time. “I don’t suppose that the best two out of three would count here?” She spoke while forcing the tention out of her shoulders. Starting to try to wiggle her tail and her fingers but so far, she wasn’t getting very far. “What happens now?”

Sam smirked and ignored whatever sound she made. It sounded like a cat stuck in a box and couldn’t find it’s way out and he figured if he commented on it Sara would only get more upset. Snapping his fingers Sam willed the ice ball to shatter around Sara freeing her from the ice ball that Sam had created. ”You mean three out of four? I won the last one two or did you forget?” Sam smirked.

”What now?” Sam repeated shrugging his shoulders. ”Now you wait as I go through the process of making you a member of the X-Men. When I call you’ll come and meet some of the people you haven’t met and I’ll give you a communicator, and have Kealey get your measurements. Then we start team building and exercises.” Sam said not bothering to get up he was still far too drained for that.

”I know it’s not what you want but we all do it, we learn each others strengths and weaknesses and we learn to compensate for them. Seeing as you have been in some fights with me before and a few heated situations we won’t bother putting you through tryouts. You have more field experience than some of the newbies.” Sam laughed and smirked some more. ”Been trying to get you to join for two years now. Can’t believe it finally worked.”

Sara shrugged while still stuck in the ball of ice. Making it rock slightly. “I wasn’t counting that…” Sam released Sara and she fell. Panicked only for a moment because even though she knew Sam turned the program off, she still was expecting to fall in the water. Surprised at the solid thunk her hip made with the bottom of the danger room floor. “We were holding back in that one.”

She still couldn’t see because her sight hadn’t returned to her yet and the recent events still had her sixth sense on. Until Sara slowed her heart beat, she had no chance of getting her sense of sight back. So she settled for rolling onto her stomach, propping herself up on one elbow, and listening to Sam. She was obviously much more comfortable not trapped in a ball of ice. Her head lifted and tilted at Sam when he finished. “I count four years.” Her free arm and shoulder shrugged and she started massaging her temple. As if that was going to help her manipulate that side of her mutation. “And if I don’t get that call?” Sara asked. Teasingly.

Even if she wasn’t counting the last time they sparred, it was still a win in his book. He didn’t feel like arguing with Sara, if he brought it up and tried to claim it counted odds were it would have led them down a slippery slope that eventually caused them to enter another spar match. Sam wasn’t sure he had it in him for another round right away. A few hours and a lot of hydration and he might be back at half strength, Sam sometimes wished for Sara’s healing ability.

Sam ignored the four years comment as well. He didn’t’ feel like correcting her. If he had been trying for four years then Sara would have been on the team two years ago. Not just joining today. ”If you don’t get that call?” Sam asked mockingly and shaking his head, ”Who knows it might be before I wanted you to meet the rest of the team and I might have been jumped again and left for dead.” Sam said with a small smirk still feeling quite heated that the attack happened in the first place.

Sam’s response to Sara made her chuckle. She pushed herself into a sitting position and scooted so that she was next to Sam. Her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs. Her tail flicked, then slid over Sam’s feet so she could find him. More for her own comfort level in deeling with the lack of sight at the moment, than anything else.

“So that means that if there is a next time, that you will be calling me then… Right?” The smirk on Sara’s face spread into a grin. “Because I could see this happening again.”

A comment about worms popped into his head when Sara scooted. He refrained from stating it knowing it would only upset Sara and possible causing the two to throw down again. Something he didn’t think he was for again. Her healing powers made constant fighting easier on her than it did on Sam.

Sara’s tail laid across Sam’s feet causing Sam to look at it for a second. He didn’t know exactly why she put her tail on his feet but he didn’t question it. Sara usually had a reason for doing things. “You’ll be the first one I call.” Sam said nodding his head, “I hope it doesn’t happen again but I’m not the luckiest guy in the world so who knows.”

Sam let out a small sigh, “Let me know when you plan on getting my television replaced. Other than that. Welcome to the X-Men Sara, you are going to make an outstanding addition.”