"Session Beginning level 0" a cool female voice announced through the speakers.

Max stood in the center of the danger room that had transformed into a partially destroyed urban street. He was in his standard jeans and a black t-shirt and smiled as he unzipped his fanny pack.

Usually he wouldn't ever go into the danger room to train, but after what he can only call a year long blackout he felt he needed to see if his body was still as spry as it had been when he was gone. A car accident followed by nothing before waking up naked in an alley a year later. The police report had said he was dead on the scene during the crash, yet here he was. His special circumstances had allowed him to be given access to the room and a private block of time.

He had decided to start off easy. He pulled his hands put of his pack and felt the reassuring weight of his steel yo yos in his hands. Each one was wound with high durability metal wire and they were hefty. With a flick of his wrist Max sent one out in a simple walk the dog. With a push of effort he sent his power down the wire and watched as the yo-yo began rising up and flying around as he changed the gravity on it. He sent it in wide arcs and allowed himself to push out with his ability until the alarm in his pocket went off and the yo yo fell.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket. He had continually used his power for three minutes before feeling it begin to fail. Max smiled, it seemed his powers weren't any weaker than before. Now to see what he could do.

"Begin level one" He called to the room.

"Beginning Level One in 30 seconds, waiting on new arrival." The female voice responded.

As the danger room countdown began Max turned as he heard the door open. He thought he would be alone in the session but apparently he had been quite mistaken.

Cafas had glanced at the bookings for the Danger Room. He knew vaguely what it looked like, at least. He'd booked his slots years before, why bother rechecking? So it was with some surprise that he was declined entry to the main hardlight chamber for a session already in progress. The X-man blinked at the interface.

Who the hell is Max Rosewood...

A little peeved at having his schedule interrupted, Cafas shrugged and started towards the god room. He'd watch and wait this Max kid out. A level zero was likely just recreational anyway, and he did technically have the authority to kick people out for training purposes.

He'd made it three steps before a familiar cool voice stopped him.

"Beginning level one in thirty seconds. Proceed inside."

Cafas turned slowly and frowned at the screen. Level one meant actual training. The X-man shrugged his canvas gym bag higher onto his shoulder and headed through the door to see who this mystery trainee was, pausing at the biometric scanner to officially register his clearances. He felt the room like a driving wave against his metal sense, and did his best to ignore it. That had been irritating ever since it had started.

Urban environment. Good choice.

Cafas dropped his bag just inside the door with a sharp thud. A weapon or two really did make a bag heavy. Rolling his shoulders to loosen them up, Cafas took in his training partner with the sharp, evaluating gaze of a fighter. Kid looked like a dancer. Dressed for comfort. Probably featherweight to lightweight. Standing like he knew what he was doing. Holding something that looked a lot like a yo-yo.

...

Cafas' eyes flicked up to meet Max's, face carefully blank, eyes a minty green. "Well Max, if that's a yo-yo, then I have got to see this. Level one is all yours." Cafas continued shaking some life into his muscles as the door hissed shut behind him, replaced by yet more street. He could feel the metal of the simulation more clearly now, the hard light constructs that could still somehow be affected by his power. "I'm Cafas Johnson, by the way. Nice to meet you." People tended to recognise him, but he still believed in introducing himself. If nothing else, it kept him feeling human.

"Level one beginning. Stand by."

Show time.

Max saw the pink haired man enter and set his bag down. Max had heard about Cafas but had never run into him around the mansion. As they locked eyes he couldn't read anything about the guy. No pleasant smile, just a blank expression.

-"Well Max, if that's a yo-yo, then I have got to see this. Level one is all yours."

Max didn't know how Cafas knew his name, but the remake seemed like it held genuine curiosity. Max gave him a thumbs up as Cafas introduced himself.

"Nice to meet you. Hope I don't disappoint." Max grinned.

He hadn't expected an audience for his session and it made him curious as to whether he was being tested or not. He grinned. If this was some kind of test he would just have to blast through this level.

The round began and an explosion rang out. A building down the street and to the left combusted. Max heard a scream and saw a man fly out of the fourth floor window. The man grabbed onto the edge of the balcony and dangled there.

"Objective: Neutralize targets and secure civilian." The danger room announced.

On call the doors of the building flew open and Max saw two robots walks out. They looked like the standard Bots the police used around town, except they had some kind of tanks on their back with lines that ran to their palms.

Max took off at a full sprint towards the building. The hololight civilian was the mission priority. Max needed to get up there.

As Mad neared the building the Bots turned on him. The one on the left extended its hand and a blast of fire rushed out of its hand towards Max. The young dancer rolled and he felt the heat wash over him as he ducked the blast. He came out of the roll onto his knees. He was in range now.

With a flick of his wrist he threw his yo-yo, sending out his power as he did. It swung outward and collided with the Bot who had tried to cook him. As the yo-yo made contact Max extended his bubble of gravity over the Bot. The Bot flew backward, propelled back into the building by the augmented gravity.

The second Bot fired off a blast as Max recalled his yo-yo. The young dancer twisted his way out of the attack and flung himself at the Bot. The Bot threw a punch at Max but he spun out of the way and his hand reached out, grabbing the Bots extended arm. He formed another bubble around this Bot and grinned as the Bot hurled itself across the street and stuck to the opposing wall, pinned there by a field of double gravity.

Max changed gravity on himself, pulling himself to the wall of the building. He ran up the side.

"Easy." He thought to himself.

He reached the third story in an instant and was just about to extend his arm to grab the dangling civilian when the wall he was running up exploded. Max pulled himself away from the building as rubble blasted outward. The civilian screamed again as he was thrown off the balcony.

A third Bot appeared in the hole that had formed in the wall of the building. Time seemed to slow as Max hung suspended in the air, his arms raised to shield himself from the blast. He could feel his power holding the two Bots below him, and he knew he was reaching his limit of surface area for his power. He would have to be careful.

He reasserted gravity on himself and fell. The civilian tumbled down in front of him. The Bot leap at Max from above. As he fell Max spun and threw out both of his yo-yo. One streaked down to the civilian and wrapped around his leg. Max threw out his power and made the man weightless. At the same time the other yo-yo wrapped itself around the the head of the falling bot. He released the yoy holding the civilian as the hololight man gently touched the ground. Now came the tricky part.

Max grabbed the wire of the yo-yo with his free hand and doubled gravity on himself. He pulled the wire as hard as he could at the same moment. He watched as the force of double his weight and all his strength pulled the wire wrapped around the Bots head and with a mechanically snapping noise he saw the head seperate from the body.

He made himself weightless a moment before hitting the ground and used the momentum from his fall to spring off the sidewalk, grab the civilian and pull them safely down the street as the last bit hit the ground and exploded.

A buzzer sounded and the Bots and civilian vanished. Max felt his augmented gravity bubbles disappear and let out a sigh. He was breathing heavy and sweating from the exercise and use of his power.

"Level One Complete. Level two will begin in 60 seconds" the danger room announced.

Max collected his yo-yo and turned to Cafas, grabbing his towel as he went and wiping the sweat from his face.

"So what did you think?" He asked with a proud smile," you want to takelevel two? I don't wanna hog all the fun."

Cafas watched as best he could while warming up. The kid's mutation was clearly something akin to telekinesis. he still wasn't convinced about the yo-yos. Clearly Max felt the were beneficial to him, and he used them with a surprising efficacy. Watching a METAbot beheaded by a kids' toy was an odd experience.

Well, it is only level one.

The metal manipulator bounced as he finished a set of burpees just after the buzzer. He fancied, as ever, that he could feel the blood starting to pump into his muscles in earnest. He loved that feeling. A few high knee jumps for good measure, and a wiggle just to loosen up. "I think I'll need convincing," He replied non-committaly, "but I'm not as sceptical as when I walked in. I will take round two though. I need to warm up." Cafas windmilled his arms both directions and walked calmly past Max.

"Level two beginning. Objective: Neutralise targets. Obtain package."

"Computer, randomise package location."

"Randomising."

"Record and compare. File: Cafas Johnston."

"Recording."

The problem with the danger room scenarios was always the lack of new material. Cafas had run the META Apocalypse enough to remember that the package was a Samsonite case third door or the right on the fourth floor. Randomisation made it a decent mental exercise too. No point otherwise, there was only so far physical prowess could take you in a fight.

Cafas squared up to the building doors and set his feet. He took a deep breath in, let it go, and with it dropped his mind into battle focus. A second buzzer sounded. A short second. The doors burst off their hinges. Cafas swayed to avoid a chunk hurtling at his face, clearing it by a perfectly judged inch. The X-man wasted no time, breaking into a controlled run to close the distance between himself and the bots.

Twin jets of flame burst forth, incinerating the ground where Cafas had been a moment before. Heat washed over him as he sailed through the air above the flames, planting two feet into the face of the left bot. It fell back, the servos in the neck breaking in a way he wished they would in reality. Cafas landed just above it's head, turned, and heel kicked it, crushing the sensor hub in the head against simulated concrete.

The partner turned and unleashed again, but Cafas was already gone. No movement wasted, he stepped just out of the fire's arc, placed a hand under the chin, a foot behind the ankle, and drove the bot back and down. It hit the ground with a metallic clang, gas tanks and head badly damaged. Cafas grabbed the flamethrower arm, twisted it up, and pushed his heel through its elbow, broken pipe spewing fuel into the air.

The X-man ran through the shattered doors of the building as the jet of uncontrolled fuel found a still burning fire and flashed back into the tank, flames engulfing the bot. Cafas proceeded with a room by room search and clear. Several more bots were thrown at him to be pulled apart, their weakened versions not able to deal with the same expert application of leverage their real counterparts could.

Cafas found the package on the fifth floor, guarded by four bots. Cafas swept in low at a run, planted his shoulder into the metal stomach of the nearest and drove it into the bot behind. Cafas gave a final shove and both bots smashed through the window to fall into the street below. He turned to find the other bots spreading apart and advancing. One threw a punch which Cafas shifted slightly out of the way of, caught and abused its momentum to hurl the bot into the wall. Still holding the now awkwardly twisted arm Cafas launched himself at the second bot, sweeping the legs, shoving the chest, causing it to tip off balance. As it fought to regain its footing the X-man used a hip throw to literally drop the upright bot headfirst into the stumbling one. The force of the impact snapped important servos in both bots and rendered them incapable of fighting. Cafas grabbed the case.

Another buzzer, and the enemies disappeared. Cafas jogged down the stairs, still holding the case while the Danger Room spoke.

"Three minutes thirty two seconds. Personal best: Two minutes fifty one seconds. Personal best with randomisation: Three minutes thirty two seconds. Level three beginning in sixty seconds."

Good, that had felt like a good run. Cafas left the building still jogging and tossed the case at Max's feet. "You'll need this for level three. Let me know if you want to do it as a partner run." The metal manipulator quickly checked himself over while he spoke. Bit of bruising, a graze here and there, he was fine.

Cafas was....well the dude was cool. There were very few other words that came to mind as Max saw him walk forward to take the second round. He hadn't been impressed by Max's run on round one, but that was to be expected. This guy was an X-men. He was on a very different level.

This was evident even more as Max watched his run. Cafas even randomized the run. Max watched with earnest curiosity as the buzzer rang out and Cafas entered the fray. The metabots in the Danger Room were nerfed from their real life counterparts, Max knew that, but seeing the ease with which Cafas dispatched the Bots guarding the door Max couldn't help but be startled.

He entered the building with a small blaze if fire that had once been a pair of metabots behind him. A holographic screen appeared in front of Max, displaying a real time map of the structure Cafas was in as well as a camera feed of his run. What was this guy?

He tore through Bots like it was nothing, exploiting weaknesses in their joints and system that Max had never heard of. He didn't know what the Xman's mutation was, as far as he could tell Cafas hadn't even used an ability yet. He reached the fifth floor and grabbed the case.

Max didn't have to watch the display to see two Bots be tossed out the window of the building and smash into the street in front of him. He heard impacts and then silence. Shortly after which Cafas exited the building and a buzzer sounded.

"Unbelievable." Max thought to himself.

So this was what a real warrior fought like. Max had been in his fair share of scraps, heck he even studied martial arts, but this pink haired guy had blasted through a dozen or so Bots in three minutes and all he had to show for it was a couple of scratches.

He was pulled from his thoughts as the case skid in front of him and Cafas spoke. The timer was down to thirty seconds now and Max picked up the heavy case.

"Sure, it be a waste not to try out a team run." Max agreed.

The buzzer sounded and about a block away on top of a building Max saw a bright red contraption form. It was huge, taking up the entire roof of the place. Metabots spewed out of the thing, propelling themselves on jet packs.

"Level Three. "Place charges and detonate to destroy enemy assembly. Begin."

Max opened the case and saw a small box with a big red button on it that he took out. The rest of the case was full of tiny white blocks Max assumed were explosives with wires running to a small device in the center.

He shut the case and picked it up as a small crowd of Bots appeared at the end of the street. He turned to look at Cafas.

"What do you say? I go high you go low?" He asked.

Well he was eager at least. Cafas nodded. "Yeah, would be a lost opportunity." The X-man stood and waited for the sim to start. It would be weird not carrying the case on level three, but he suspected it would be more fun. Still, there was something distinctly satisfying about hitting METAbots with a case full of C4.

The air was full of METAbots within moments of the sim starting. That would have been a problem once upon a time. Now it just looked like a shooting gallery. Max finished checking out what he would be carrying as they started to advance.

>>"What do you say? I go high you go low?"

"Sounds good. Rendezvous at the base of the building." Cafas clapped Max on the shoulder and started forward. The bots hovering near the ground jetted forward, swarming around him. Two darted in to tackle him from opposite directions. Cafas stepped aside at the very last moment, watching the jetpack bots drive each other into the ground. There was still a swarm around him. It was incredibly distracting, feeling them all at once, zipping through the air. He couldn't afford to shut them out though.

Another came in for a pass. Cafas stepped aside, grabbed the extended wrist, and hurled the bot among those keeping their distance. Out of control it careened off, missing its allies but driving itself into a wall. The X-man had no time to watch it. He rushed forward suddenly and crescent moon kicked a bot. It skipped off the ground before spiralling up, forcing many others to stop. With several sharp cracks in short succession pieces of the damaged both shot off, peppering the hovering bots with holes. They fell, never designed to absorb the force of an anti-tank cannon.

Still there were more, but Cafas already felt a headache building from what was a rather inefficient use of his power. Aiming alone had been stupidly difficult, and he'd had to make sure everything missed Max. Still, it made an opening. Cafas jumped through the brief gap and sprinted over the rubble strewn ground to the base of the building. Something huge slammed into the ground in front of him.

Oh, yeah, forgot about these.

Cafas looked up at the huge Golem bot. The bigger, tougher iteration. Some of them had grenade launchers. They also had far fewer weak points, with mobility and fluid integration into society not being primary concerns. Cafas shook the headache off and smiled up at the bot, its smaller buddies jetting in behind him. All in all, too much metal to do anything other than pick a single body. That was out of the question. "G'day big boy. May I have this dance?"

A huge fist collided with the ground where Cafas had been standing, crushing simulated concrete.

"I'm going to take that as a yes." He said, leaning casually against the bot's waist. He jumped away as the bot aimed another blow his way. Another step and he was behind it. A loud clang informed him that the reinforcements had been coming in too hot. A broken knight bot slid to the ground behind the golem. It turned. Cafas smashed every ounce of his considerable strength through his foot into its briefly exposed knee joint. It bent, jammed, then fell to one knee. The Metal manipulator drove a soon to be sore fist into the exposed hip, channelling his power through touch and weakening the metal catastrophically. The whole hip set up cracked, bent, and jammed on itself. Cafas yanked a bleeding fist free just in time to dodge, deflect, and counter several of the smaller bots suddenly unleashing flurries of blows at him.

"Now would be a good time for a cool finisher." He called, crushing a metal bot head into the sturdy wall of the building.

Max jumped and activated his power, taking to the air. A number of Bots flew at him and he rose higher to avoid them. The case swung wildly in one of his hands. A Bot appeared in front of him, cutting him off and Max dodged to the right and up as the Bot swung at him. As he passed around the Bot he noticed the lines running from the Bot to the thrusters on its back. Bingo.

He stalled in the air and grabbed at the line with his free hand. It tore free from the Bot and he saw one of the thrusters die. The Bot spun out in the air wildly and collided with the crowd below. Max flew above Cafas, trying to cover. The man didn't seem to need the help though as he disposed of the assailants with immense skull and grace.

Max dodged another Bot and swung the case into the Bots face. The hard metals collided and the Bot swerved off course. They were almost at the building.

"Not to bad." Max thought to himself.

His thought was instantly interupted by the appearance of the Golem. Cafas evaded it'd attacks and the strikes of the other bots. Max saw some of the jet pack Bots smack into the large Golem and fall. Cafas drove a fist into the large Bot and Max saw the metal bend and crack.

"He said effecting the metal. Is that what he does?" Max wondered as he ducked and swayed away from another bot. Cafas shouted up to Max and Max nodded. With his free hand he grabbed a yoyo and he released the case, surrounding it zero gs so it would float beside him.

He unspooled some of the wire and wrapped the end around his hand as a bit rushed him. He pulled himself sideways as the Bot came in and sidestepped it. He adjusted gravity and shot after the thing. He flicked the exposed wire around the Bot, putting it in a choke hold and tightened his grip on the wire. The metal string clotheslined the Bot and Max spun around it and pulled, throwing his weight into it.

He changed gravity on the Bot, angling it towards the Golem and Max pulled the cord. The Bot flipped from the moment and Max released his grip on the yoyo end of the wire and watched the flying Bot streak towards its brother down below.

The jet bit smashed into the weakened Golem and the pair ended up going through the door of the building with a sickening crash. Max grabbed the case and dove towards the ground. He extended his hand to Cafas.

"Grab on." He shouted as the Bots chased him.

More bots flew in, but the swarm was thinning. Cafas grimaced as the whirring bots started to over-stimulate his metal sense. Two dove in. He lashed a heel into the head of one and grabbed the other by the extended arm, following through on the kick, planting the foot, and swinging the entrapped bot into the Golem like a baseball bat. It wrapped around, then spun off as he released the arm. The heel-kicked bot came in for round two. Cafas took one sure step backwards and watched as the Golem smashed into it, propelled by Max's bot. All of them missed him by less than a foot.

>>"Grab on."

The X-man wasn't prone to hesitating on a mission. So far it seemed Max could fly, so why not trust him? He'd trusted that Devon guy. Anyway, it was the danger room, it would keep him alive. He reached out and grabbed the extended arm. A bot flew in feet first at Max from above. Cafas grunted as his headache worsened when he applied enough force to divert the bot with his mutation. The bots were too heavy for him to use such clumsy moves, but disabling it wouldn't have helped Max. All the same his free arm drove a punch into its faceplate, leaving a bloody fist shaped dent in the bot, shattering the visual sensors. It flailed around blindly behind him, recovering from the crash landing.

"Cleared for take off Captain." The big X-man joked, wondering if Max was going to be able to fly carrying him.

Cafas grabbed onto Max's arm.

-"Cleared for take off Captain."

"Flight 169 taking off." Max said grinning.

Cafas kept the Bots at bay, giving Max time to work his magic. He sent his power out, extending a field of gravity around Cafas and himself. It was double gravity, angled straight up. The pair shot upward, escaping the ground based bots. A pair of jet pack Bots flew at him from the roof, a change in gravity pulled Max and Cafas to the left and they juked them as they rose ever higher. Max felt a rush of elation as they rose closer to the roof.

It was at that moment that he saw the giant metallic legs grip the side of the room. A giant circular body pulled itself off the lip of the roof and Max saw a giant glowing red eye on the tiny head of the gaint robot octopus. Max let go of Cafas and dropped his power over him, tossing the man into the open top floor still under construction. The giant robot sent out a blast of energy from its eye and Max threw the case after Cafas.

"Plant the case. I'll keep him busy." He shouted.

He flipped backwards as the beam flew under him and smashed a Bot that had been chasing him. He took to the sky and dodged a series of blast from the bot. Cafas would have to get to the roof from the top floor and plant the charge, Max needed to keep the robots away from the giant machine on the roof that was the target.