“Well, no, I can’t see magnetism, but I can see fluctuations in the earth’s electro magnetic field. Storms cause it, even blizzards can. I see wind patterns, temperature fluctuations…” Tempest shrugged. “So while I won’t see what’s magnetized, I should be able to figure it out with how it impacts the area around it.”

>>"Tell me, Legolas. What do your elf eyes see?"

Devon laughed. “It looks like you’re going to polarize objects in different ways and create a field you can manipulate in different ways.” He studied her at the center, her solar plexus that she’d gestured at. “Everyone influences such fields but you more than any other. You generate your own strong enough to be quite noticeable to me anyway. Must be all the energy you’ve absorbed.”

He watched her move the bracelets and then she described her attention. With a quick nod, he affirmed his understanding. “I think you’ll be able to,” Devon nodded. “In fact, I’m quite jealous. I can fling myself about or catch myself but I can’t levitate without a lot of focus and different winds. I want to be able to fly. I can understand if you’d prefer to be alone…” he glanced at the door.

“But I’d love to see this. I can tell you what I see too and hopefully help along. Remember those weights will disturb the earth’s field in small ways. Its electromagnetic field is far stronger and likely easier for you to push against. No better place to get a feel for it, right? If you get too high I can also help stabilize you or catch you should you fall.”

So he couldn't see magnetism, but he could extrapolate what things were magnetised from what he saw. It wasn't the advantage she'd thought, but it was still a serious leg up from what Lori had.

"I guess I don't really change fields except my own though I can change a magnetic field's polarity." More things that Lori had never thought about. As it happened, actually talking about her mutation with someone else was... helpful. She never would have guessed. "I can make them given the right materials. And I can make it stronger if a magnetic field is already in place." Maybe some research was in order...

For now, one thing at a time.

Another sigh. "You can stay, just... don't freak out. No white knighting or else I'm never going to learn."

She had to experience it, to feel it. She didn't know any other way.

So Lori closed her eyes and let the imaginary fingers that held onto her power loosen their grip.

With increased power flowing to her personal magnetic field, Lori found herself quite suddenly airborne. She had encouraged the ferrous metal washer to hold a magnetic charge with the same polarity facing her own. She did not weigh more than the strength of the force of her magnetic field and so she shot upwards with ponytail bouncing.

Unfortunately, magnetic force flows in a circular sort of pattern and it's not easy to balance one round thing on top of another.

She didn't go straight up. Before Lori reached the apex of her ascent she started listing to the side. She could feel the forces that wanted to attract trying to flip her upside-down so that the opposing poles could meet. This was what her three heavy disks were for: course correction. Lori incited a magnetic field in one that pushed her back toward the center... and well past it. So she tapped the other. And the then the third.

Like a live bug pinned to an entomologist's board, Lori bobbed up and down with her legs and arms squirming in an effort to keep herself balanced. She had a slight spin and sideways bounces as she again and again pushed too hard against her stabilizing magnetic fields.

>> “…And I can make it stronger if a magnetic field is already in place."

Tempest merely nodded. Given some practice and time, he was interested to see what Lori would come up with. A little scientific understanding really helped with the fundamentals of many mutant abilities, even if they did warp natural law and physics. Eventually some scientist would figure out how…

>> "You can stay, just... don't freak out. No white knighting or else I'm never going to learn."

“Of course,” Devon agreed. Granted he was likely more of a dark night, though not quite the one anyone reading his thoughts might immediately think of. He wasn’t swooping through the streets at night to stop criminals after all. No, but he was interested in stopping such activity and taking a strong arm to do so. There was a balance between nurture and nature and Devon hoped Tempest was along those fronts.

So he watched her. He watched Lori close her eyes and concentrate. He watched the magnitude of the electromagnetic field around her fluctuate and strengthen, sending her up. The washer had one as well, though it had a conflicting polarity. It occurred to Devon that together they could create a really nasty storm. The lightning could wreak havoc like a hurricane moving over a dry high pressure system in the Midwest. Tornadoes, winds... Devon frowned; he’d have to be careful what he encouraged around Lori when she was manipulating larger fields, especially against the Earth’s.

Lori’s movement started an orbit, slowly turning and rounding out as she started to flip. Devon watched, not saying anything, as she started to adjust herself using the three weights. It was a bit like watching ping pong or pinball but she was getting accustomed to it. This was practice after all.

“I can see the shifts,” Devon said with an admiring tone. “Remember the earth’s field is all around you; maybe that can help you find your center. We’re always moving after all.”

A couple of "Eeeeee!"s and a couple of "Ack!"s and all of the squirming later, Lori realized that, yes, she could feel the earth's magnetic field. She'd pushed off of it before, but she had wanted to try the washer to try and shortcut some of the power use needed.

The earth's field was weaker. No, weaker wasn't the right word. It was bigger. That meant the rounding of its field was less to Lori's perspective, but since it was so massive and spread so far, she had to increase the power to get a reaction.

Lori dropped the magnetic field in the washer and she started to plummet. She quickly threw a hefty bit more power into her own field and went right back up.

And up.

And up.

The power was great enough that the weights below shivered before flipping and zipping up toward her. Lori squiggled in midair in order to turn herself around so that her feet would catch the ceiling instead of her face. She looked down toward the ground from the roof in time to see three large projectiles and one rather small one zipping right up to join her.

She could shut it all down, but then she'd drop like a stone. And there was a significant amount of momentum.

So she polarized the metal beneath her feet and stuck herself to the ceiling panel and with an overly dramatic cheer-like wave of her arms, Lori did her best to make another field in the next metal panel over. A very, very strong magnetic field that made for a juicier target than herself.

Tempest continued to watch, his eyes maintaining a darkness that arose only in the deepest of storms. Lori was looming side to side, getting comfortable in the air and Devon was a little jealous. He had to batter himself around with varying gusts to stay up in the air. It was a lot of effort and not really useful in a dangerous situation other than to catch people. Here was Lori, floating for lack of a better word.

Then he saw the shift, the sudden fluctuation around her but it wasn’t her – it was the washer weakening and she was strengthening. There was more power around her and it spread out, rebounding off the Earth’s field. There was some distortion from the metal in the room but it didn’t have Lori’s power behind it. Devon smiled broadly as she gained altitude.

Of course, the weights skipped about and also starting rising. She went upside down and Devon nodded quickly. Well this was going to get interesting. There was a charge that danced over the ceiling and her feet stuck to it. Had she polarized the metal or her feet? It was hard to tell. Metal in her shoes could really come in handy...

There was a bubble that grew and everything was shifting again. It was hard to keep up but it did seem all was projected near her, but not quite at her. Devon chuckled and clapped a little. “You’re great,” he cheered with a little humor in his tone and another chuckle in his throat.

“Could you change the polarization of the weights so they’d be attracted back down?” he queried.

She had to brace herself against the pull of the other field or risk getting squished between plates. Lori's sneakers slipped ever so slooowly against the ceiling. It was a good thing those metal panels were fastened so well.

> "Could you..."

"Yeah." The strain was evident in her voice. She was not actually stronger than the attraction between two magnets; Lori was trying to shift her field to help keep them apart, actually. But it was difficult because what she wanted was not what the fields wanted. Plus it required a finer level of detail work than she'd ever attempted before.

"I'll let gravity do the work." Except, that when she let go of that second magnetic field, the weights were again attracted to the magnetic field she was using to stick herself to the metal ceiling.

If they hadn't been ferrous, it wouldn't have been a problem, but then... they wouldn't be up here with her if the metal wouldn't hold a magnetic field.

Lori danced around to avoid getting hit and the plates mostly slid to the metal plate at her feet.

All this upside-down-ness was starting to make her head throb.

"Okay." Lori spoke loudly, projecting so that the weatherman below would be sure to hear. "I'm going to try to make the weights' fields too weak to support their weight. One at a time. Uh. Don't get hit?"

She made sure that she was out of the way so no plates would drop on her and then focused on squeezing down on the field generated by one of the plates. It separated from the ceiling slowly and then, once the weight of the disk was greater than the pull, it dropped like the lead weight that it was.

Beware the bounce.

Tempest wasn’t worried now. Unless Lori had some sort of electromagnetic short or explosion, she seemed fairly in control. What she needed was practice to learn ways of using her abilities and getting comfortable with those practices. If this was her first time on the ceiling, then she wasn’t going to have any problems.

He nodded casually at her gravity comment. He didn’t want to say too much and disturb her concentration. Besides, he could see the shifts in the fields even if he wasn’t sure too clearly what direction of polarity she was intending. The weights affixed themselves at her feet on the ceiling as she was upside down. This was entertaining. That part of the ceiling was getting crowded. Devon grinned as that wasn’t something you heard often; just how much had this training room been designed for?

>> "I'm going to try to make the weights' fields too weak to support their weight. One at a time. Uh. Don't get hit?"

“Thanks for the warning…” Tempest said cheerfully but with a touch of playful sarcasm. He immediately stepped back a few yards as he outstretched an arm. The palm of his hand went parallel to the wall as he splayed out his fingers. It didn’t require a storm to protect himself, but he guided his focus as he had long practiced. A few somatic gestures were helpful. Perhaps the tales of wizards and witches were mutants of the Dark Ages?

The first one came down suddenly, its mass causing an echo against the floor. Devon was no physicist but he understood the effects of gravity and air resistance. They were increasingly important to him as he practices maneuvers with gusts and ultimately the ability to fly. The weight was going to bounce and bounce it did. Tempest simply wanted to ensure it didn’t bounce at him.

A rush of air encircled the weather warlock and flowed over his arm, his clothes and hair fluttering like a Dragon Ball hero. He could easily see the currents funnel out and press against the weight. Tempest was careful not to bombard the room with gusting wind. This one merely one controlled application of his power. Resistance met weight, where gravity was pulling hard anyway and it bounced a few times both far enough away and at a safe angle that Devon would be spared any bruising.

“Next!” Tempest shouted.

One word and somehow he managed to make her feel like they were a construction crew out repairing roads or whatever. Lori shook her head and craned her neck up, which meant she was actually looking down. She'd heard the first one hit, but nothing after. It looked like weatherman was doing a little mutation flexing as well.

"Next!" She echoed his call and squeezed down on the next disk. Again it was slow at first and then very, very quick.

Her skull felt very... full? How long had she been upside down? Power-wise she felt as if she could stick up there forever. Physiologically, she was pretty sure she needed to get down now.


"Next!" Whether he was ready or not, the next one was coming down. Lori bent in half and put her head between her knees. She wasn't sure if that was actually helping or not. And she wasn't entirely sure how to get down.


"It's too ****ing early for a trust fall." She muttered to her toes. Okay. So. She just had to do the opposite of what got her up there in the first place. Push against Earth's field and squeeze down on her power like she'd done for the weights. Easy...

The next one came down and Tempest tried something new. He wanted to practice adding gusts to his attacks, right? He swung a left hook and pushed a gust out from the shifting breezes around him. The gust rushed out catching the weight and throwing it into the target wall. It fluttered out a bit wildly from what he could see, but hey this was how you learned.

Black eyes gazed up at Lori and she let loose the next. This one he let fall, watching how it bounced. A few loud bangs echoed throughout the room. He studied the shifting electromagnetic field around it as the polarization subsided. How the room reacted was interesting. It wasn’t quite natural to have all these conflicting, changing fields was it?

>> "It's too ****ing early for a trust fall.

“I’ll be ready just in case,” Tempest laughed. He moved forward back to his original position. Both arms came in front of his chest as he gathered his focus. He clenched his fists and watched the young woman closely.

Lori would either gradually come back down then release the magnetic charge, or she’d fall with both gravity’s pull and the magnetic attraction. There was a lot she might try in the future. Heavy weights and ceiling walking could certain make for dangerous training sessions.

Catching up on his physics might not be such a bad idea…

Well. Now she had to prove that she didn't need him to be there. Lori put her hands up to the ceiling and took a breath. This was going to be maybe a little scary.

Lori squeezed down on her own power and similarly to the weights, she dropped in a free fall from the ceiling. She made sure to drop her feet down first and reorient herself before she let her power flare back to life.

She stopped falling and even started to go back upwards before she calibrated just how much power she was letting through. Her stomach caught up a half second later and Lori hugged herself in congratulations for not becoming a pancake and not needing help.

"What are you supposed to do with your legs?" But really. Like? Stand? In the air? She naturally wanted to jut one hip and that seemed to throw her off balance. Lori pinwheeled her arms until she was back at stasis pushing against the earth's magnetic field. Maybe she should be all lady-like and put them together? Point the toes?

Lori swished her feet in the air as if she were walking despite the fact that she went nowhere and made circles with her arms to help keep her balance. It wasn't so bad up here, actually.

"Did you say you were working on flying? I'd love to go more than just up and down." Maybe if she just tilted forwards? Like, falling with style?

Lori bobbed up and down and then was teetering around. Tempest was getting a little cross eyed from watching the shifting patterns. She hovered a moment and was collecting her thoughts. He was in no rush.

>> "What are you supposed to do with your legs?"

“Ah,” Devon laughed, “I’d suggest doing whatever feels natural so you can concentrate on what you’re doing.”

She seemed to do so but it made her teeter one way, then spin as her arms flailed. Then she crossed her legs and seemed to hold her balance like this was the ladies’ training school from League of Their Own. She walked gracefully and grandly but didn’t go anywhere in particular. But hey, she was floating without much ado. Tempest could only toss himself around.

>> "Did you say you were working on flying? I'd love to go more than just up and down."

“That I am,” Tempest nodded. “I’m trying to figure out how to get comfortable with a passive series of winds or currents to ride that will allow me to fly. I need to figure out hovering,” he gestured to her, “Which you seem to have down pretty quickly. It’s going to take training myself with the wind I can control. Right now, the protective shifting breezes I use have to be strong enough to lift and hold me in place. I tend to bob around a lot or go too far in various directions.”

The breeze swirling around him strengthened and he started to rise an inch or so, though quickly started floating more to the left. His dark eyes studied the area around him. “Fling myself with a gust or sail on down from a building? Easy. Catch people so they don’t plummet to their death? I’ve got that down. Heck I can fling you up too. But focused flying? Still working on that but I’ll get there. You probably can before me with the rate you’re going.”

"Seems to me that air is too... not solid for the way you're thinking." Lori experimentally put her hands on her hips. No. Too Peter Pan. Also, the act of keeping those arms moving had helped her keep upright instead of tipping. So, maybe just normal walking arm swishes then? That might be the key.

"There's that whole Coanda effect thing, you know? You should let the air do the lifting for you, if you can take the speed. Maybe goggles and the right angle..." She'd visited this problem before, clearly. "You should go to the science museum and visit the wind tunnel exhibit with the smoke. See if it jogs an idea." Trying to emulate how a wing worked seemed a much better path to follow than any actual "wind riding" or gyroscopic anything. A person wasn't built to survive spinning around like a tornado. Unless he was.

He didn't look equipped to handle a crazy fast spin, but then she didn't have him open on an operating table to check.

"If you get the air going fast above you and then a strong upward thrust... Or maybe a big circle of air. Or temperature changes? Can you change the temperature? Also, a flying squirrel suit wouldn't hurt." Bonus points if it came with ears and a tail, but then, Lori had a soft-spot for those with tails.

"Buuut, what I'm really hearing is that I have the ups and you have the side-a-ways so if we tried together we might actually get somewhere." She smirked down at him. "But for now. I have the high ground."

>> "Seems to me that air is too... not solid for the way you're thinking."

Tempest grinned, “It’s partially about learning to counter the effects of gravity just enough.” He nodded eagerly as she mentioned the Coanda effect. Maybe she knew, did a bit more research than she let on. He wasn’t about to wear goggles – he didn’t need them – but he was excited to hear someone else considered all the angles, as it were.

>> "You should go to the science museum and visit the wind tunnel exhibit with the smoke. See if it jogs an idea."

“That’s not a bad idea. I spend time in warehouses practicing or I go out to Montauk sometimes. Open air beaches and all. I learned a lot on beaches, in the woods… Free time and free space,” Devon nodded slowly, a somber quality to his words.

Devon laughed at the mentioned of the flying squirrel suit. “I don’t think I want to pick up whatever that would make me. Squirrel Boy? No way that could be good. Squirrel Girl? Now maybe,” he grinned. “But I can affect temperature, yes. Weather and I listen to one another. A circulating series of air currents is my primary idea at stabilization,” he nodded.

“But you’re right. You’ve got higher ground. I can certainly manage reaching very high heights or dropping from them, but maintaining takes a lot of effort and some errant bobbing around,” Devon gestured to Lori. “Not unlike your up down a few minutes ago.”

“What’s also clear is you’re quite talented and thanks for letting me stick around,” he smiled, folding his arms over his chest as his eyes brightened with blues again. “We’ll have to do this again sometime.”

Oh, the beach. The sun! Summer was a distant dream from this point in winter, but she could almost taste it. That's how badly she wanted to be there. Unfortunately, Lori's powers reacted better in the chill of winter. Heat made her sluggish. And there was that small matter of water being her biggest enemy.

Free time. Free space. Lori swished her arms around in an attempt to make herself spin. She managed maybe 1/5 of a turn and lost one of her shoes for the effort it took to get her back at her balance point. There was certainly a recurring theme in what he said. This man was an absolute idealist. He made it all sound kinda nice except for all the parts that were terrible. He must have been a hippy at heart.

Lori chanced a wobbly few moments in order to still her feet and put her hands on her hips. It was necessary to accompany a raised eyebrow with hands-on-hips. If Lori's mother had taught her anything, she'd learned how to express a deep disappointment.

"I do believe a proclivity for sexual deviance is showing." She was teasing, of course, as evidenced by the set of her mouth. The opportunity for teasing had been too good to pass up.

"Squirrel girl?" Her arched brow arched higher. No. It would be far more entertaining for HIM to be in a character suit. She hadn't actually meant squirrel-squirrel. Just the ripstop under-arm flaps. "Squirrel is a leading supplier of wingsuits, as in BASE jumping equipment." But if the guy was into ladies with animal bits, the Sanctuary was bound to collect the most desperate of them.

Lori took a moment to give the guy a hard assessment as he praised her "talent."

He couldn't be using the Sanctuary as a way to find and take advantage of those that actually deserved protection. He just couldn't. The way that he smiled too much said that he couldn't. And he smiled with too little guile. No cringing. No reservation. His eyes, though black all the way through his sclera, caught and reflected light and joy and emotion. They weren't jaded. Hell, they might have been black, but he was practically beaming rainbows. He was just too shiny and new. Not calculating and ugly inside like she was.

"This isn't talent. This is me. Doing what I do every day." Really, it was. She was suspended in air. Doing nothing but sustaining. If she relaxed the grip she kept on her power, she would shoot upward. And when she squeezed that imaginary fist in her chest shut, like she was now, Lori sank those last few feet to the ground. "I feel an up and a down. I make things point up or down. I go up and down. I am a one trick pony."

>> "I do believe a proclivity for sexual deviance is showing."

Devon laughed as his head went back and his shoulder shrugged innocently enough.

>> "Squirrel is a leading supplier of wingsuits, as in BASE jumping equipment."

“Ohhh,” Devon laughed again, a blush coming to his face. “I thought you were making fun of me.” Base jumping equipment… That was a good idea. That would at least give him some more finesse while he mastered his attempts at flying. Plausible deniability too of what he was doing. He could take them up state and have some fun.

>> "This isn't talent. This is me. Doing what I do every day."

“Ah, I’m sorry,” Devon apologized with a small smile. “Wisdom then, earned by each day’s experience. I thought that this was your first attempt at such levitation,” he gestured to the weights. “This is kind of what I do every day.” He laughed, “And I’m sorry to seem nosy or staring. I care about personal development, especially in regards to mutants. But I’ll stop being sappy.”

The blush lingered a moment longer as he watched Lori reach the ground. But his brow knit together over narrowed eyes at her comment. “One trick pony? Between electromagnetic influences and magnetic control there’s a large spectrum of things you might try. Remember the earth is always spinning, weakening its hold on you can allow you to drift more easily or move along its rotation. Electromagnetism is very important to the atmosphere as well, hence my view of it. Don’t sell yourself short.”