Laughter bubbled out at the idea of that. Stalking proof! Yeah it was in a way, at least the party system was. Quests? Not so much. "Pretty much, since it seems to follow video game logic, makes sense I can't force parties. Meant to be all about teamwork and all that." In theory. Most parties in the MMO's she'd played were, volatile at best. People tended to get a little heated if things didn't go their way.

"Sounds good, shouldn't be too hard." She had a map to the womans location. How hard could it be?

Turns out, pretty damn hard when you're looking for someone in a maze of mirrors. It was really confusing, she'd taken a wrong turn after trying to follow Maya's path and now she was having trouble. It's just, her eyes kept playing trick on her.

Unless? Why not ignore them. Just look at the mini-map, plot a course and only use it for movement. Don't even pay attention to your surroundings. Seemed way to easy but couldn't hurt. Expect when she misjudged one distance and slammed into a wall. That had hurt.

After another minute or so she was rounding a corner to she her trainer standing there all trainer-ey. "Well, that wasn't too bad, when I stopped trusting my eyes at least." All she had to do was put a bit more trust in her power. It hadn't let her down and thanks to it, she had damn good navigational skills. Time to let it do what it was....designed to do.

>>"Sounds good, shouldn't be too hard."

Maya chuckled as the waited, leaning against one of the mirrorwed walls, for Alice to find her. She could hear her moving around the labyrinth; she could also hear the bumps and the groaning as she occasionally ran into a wall or into a corner. The place was trickier than it seemed. She stayed put, as per her promise, waiting for the girl to finally find her. It wasn't fast, but also did not take as long as she had expected.

>>"Well, that wasn't too bad, when I stopped trusting my eyes at least."

"Good job, young Wadapan, that was your first lesson." Maya chuckled. It wasn't really a lesson, but it made sense that she could move better by a mini map than by the mirrored walls... "Okay, this time, I'm gonna move."

She did. She turned a corner, then another one; she knew the labyrinth fairly well, since she had designed it once upon a time. A few turns in she walked into a mirror, and waited. She was curious whether Alice could still see here, while she was in the mirror world.

Grinning at the reference, "Someone a fan of sci-fi then? Sweet." It was pretty obvious how much of a nerd Alice was and she loved having people quote movies and games at her. 

This time, this time she'd be way quicker. Letting Maya get far enough away, but remembering the route she'd taken, she set off as soon as movement stopped. Ha, this would be easy! No way she'd miss her this time.

Unless someone cheated. It only took her a minute or so to get to the right place, but she walked past Maya's hiding place twice before she clocked what was happening. Looking up at the person in the mirror, it wasn't her own reflection. That was just mean! And so cool. No wonder it had looked weird on her mini-map, but she'd not clocked Maya's power as a possibility.

"Well played, didn't think I be fooled again but clearly I was wrong. Didn't think you'd show up on the map in mirror form though, that's pretty cool."

Alice found her faster this time, thanks to her mini map and her practice with relying on the display rather than on her eyes in the mirror maze... but then she walked straight past, twice, while Maya waited patiently inside the mirror, wondering when she'll finally notice what was happening. She could have taken on Alice's reflection too, for more confusion... but she decided to keep that one for later.

>>"Well played, didn't think I be fooled again but clearly I was wrong. Didn't think you'd show up on the map in mirror form though, that's pretty cool."

"So, you can see me on the map right now?" Maya tilted her head curiously. That was pretty cool, if Alice's powers could see into the mirror world. Navigation often got wonky once she started teleporting; someone who could see where she was going could definitely be useful on the team. "How about now?"

Maya slipped into another mirror a few feet away, then hopped into the next, moving along away from Alice and towards the edge of her radius. She wondered if the minimap could keep up with the teleporting; she wondered if Alice could, too.

Alice blinking when Maya sudden disappeared. That was......incredible. How the hell could she just teleport between mirrors? And why was she disappearing from the map when she did?

She'd get a warning message for her teacher to return to the area for all of a second before her icon pinged back up on the mini-map. That was trippy! It was like whenever she moved mirrors she was going to a completely different place. What was it like? Was it huge or small, was it dangerous? All very important questions but they could wait, this time she couldn't copy a route, she had to quickly map it out herself.

Fun times but she was getting a feel for the labyrinth now, it didn't take long to memorise a route and take it. Somehow it was even quicker this time to find the woman in the looking glass, "That is so weird, you popped of the map whenever you moved mirrors. Like you didn't exist in the same world or something."

The sci-fi nerd in her was coming up with so many wild and implausible answers. Could it be wormhole travel? Or maybe she was keyed into some kind of alternate dimension! The mirrors could be just a visual way her brain adapted to cope! "Whats it like when you move, what does it look like?" Too many late night movie marathons refused to let her not ask the question.

Maya waited for Alice to find her again. She was getting better at it; she was probably figuring the labyrinth out too, since it was not overly complicated. Maya grinned as the girl showed again, accompanied by her multiplied reflections on the walls. She was curious to hear how the minimap had coped with the mirrorwalking.

>>"That is so weird, you popped of the map whenever you moved mirrors. Like you didn't exist in the same world or something."

"That's about what I expected" Maya nodded, stepping out of the reflecting surface "For me, there is no empty space between mirrors, so I doubted your map could keep up with the jumps."

>>"Whats it like when you move, what does it look like?"

"Wanna see?" Maya grinned, offering a hand. She pulled Alice into the mirror world, holding on to her hand as they walked from one surface to the next. From the inside, the mirrors were one continuous surface divided by their frames, like a long line of windows back to back, each looking out to a different view. Space was a little trippy, like they were both two-dimensional, or walking in emptiness framed on one side by windows. Maya was used to it, but she chuckled as she glanced at Alice. "How's the map doing with this one?..."

No space? That explained how quick she moved, but how did that work? It just defied logic. Then she got the offer to step into the mirror and frankly, how could Alice say no? "Are you asking Alice if she wants to go through the looking glass? Bit on the nose don't you think?"

This was just, indescribable. It was the weirdest feeling she'd ever had experienced and it just kept getting weirder. What she guessed were mirrors from the outside were like windows into a hundred different places, although the only ones she could make out at the moment were the ones to the maze. Didn't help her mini-map was freaking the hell out.

It just kept forming and shifting the image, as if she was moving between places. "Oh this is freaky. The map can't focus, it's like it doesn't have something to anchor too." It was starting to give he a headache, the flashing messing with her eyes and now she notice the compass constantly changing where north was.

How on earth did Maya navigate this place? It made no sense.

>>"Are you asking Alice if she wants to go through the looking glass? Bit on the nose don't you think?"

Maya snorted as they walked into the mirror. She loved literary references (they were currently in one), but somehow the most obvious had managed to pass her by.

"Didn't even think of that" she grinned. But now she had, and it was kind of perfect. She took Alice into the looking glass, and watched her as they moved around. From the look on her face and the rapid blinking, she assumed the mini map was not doing great with the mirrorworld.

>>"Oh this is freaky. The map can't focus, it's like it doesn't have something to anchor too."

"That's not surprising." Maya mused, stopping to stand in front of just one mirror, staring into a corner of the Danger Room's labyrinth. She had been paying attention not to take Alice outside of the DR just yet. "How about if you stand still? Can you look out of the mirror with the map?..."

If she could, that would be a very useful scouting ability...

Stand still? It might work and hell, anything was better than the migraine inducing light show she was getting from it. Looking out into the danger room was weird, she knew it was there, she knew logically they could go back out into it but it just didn't seem real.

"Hmm, not really helping. Maybe..." trailing off in her own thoughts she reached out a hand and touched the glass.

Well that was interesting, her map came into focus and showed the room on the other side of the mirror, well as much as she could see within her range at least. Other than that she had empty space behind her, that was just wrong.

What on earth was her power? Was she attuned to the world around her or something, or maybe it was like a psychic field, it just didn't make any sense.
"This is so cool! When my brain has some kind of connection to the real world it has something to work with. God how weird is that?"

Still pretty damn amazing, she and Maya were like the perfect scouting squad.

>>"Hmm, not really helping. Maybe..."

Maya could see the change in Alice's face as she placed a hand on the glass. Something seemed to be working there. She was glad the girl was willing to figure some things out on her own, instead of waiting for the next instruction. She also seemed excited about it.

>>"This is so cool! When my brain has some kind of connection to the real world it has something to work with. God how weird is that?"

"Starting to make sense, actually" Maya chuckled, before she placed a hand on Alice's shoulder, and walked her out of the mirror world and back into the DR. "You have a very cool power there, and it seems it works with mine... more or less. I think we might be able to push your range as well in time, at least a little. Powers tend to change over time." she grinned "You'll level up."

She let go of Alice, and turned to face her.

"So, about the other stuff. How good are you at self defense?"

Sense, really? She could barely get heads or tails of it but apparently Maya had some ideas? At least they were shifted back to the 'normal' world. And she was getting praised, which was kind of awesome, especially by a real life freaking superhero. The idea of leveling up her power was also kind of cool, but Alice had no clue how to go about training her power.

"None, at all. About the only thing I've got is decent flexibility, but that's only from yoga." Hard to kickass with yoga forms. Hang on mister bad guy, let me just get my mat out and start stretching.

"It's hard for me to actually put on weight, of any kind. Along with all the fun stuff I have a hunger bar, goes down within an hour and after that I get very ill." It as tough building muscle or getting any benefit from exercise when your calorie intake had to be more than twice a normal persons.

Still, she got to eat anything and not get fat. That kind of rocked.

>>"None, at all. About the only thing I've got is decent flexibility, but that's only from yoga."

Maya chuckled. Yoga, indeed. Alice was lucky she did not get Sam in the DR, otherwise she already would be fighting zombies. Or vampires. Or both. There was something to be said for starting from scratch, especially with self-defense. At least she did not have any bad reflexes yet...

>>"It's hard for me to actually put on weight, of any kind. Along with all the fun stuff I have a hunger bar, goes down within an hour and after that I get very ill."

Maya's eyes widened.

"An hour?!" she blinked in shock "Girl, you must be burning calories like nobody's business..." she shook her head, looking Alice up and down. Where the hell did it all go? "Umm... okay, that's interesting. You have the minimap, the party system, the quest tracker, the bars... and somehow your power is eating up a whole lot of energy. Have you ever tried if you actually have... dunno, battle functions or something?"

That was the normal reaction but at least she wasn't hating her for it. It sounded awesome, being able to eat anything and keep the same weight but it sucked. Hard. She had to plan any trip so far in advance it was silly and the cost! Oh the cost. Once she was a student there would be so much rice eaten, simply to feed the bar.

"Yep, I go through so many energy bars a normal person would probably start flying." But they were high calorie, which was kind of nice, she didn't need eat too many and they were easy enough to force down her face when she was feeling ill.

That wasn't something she had ever tested but something about considering the question made her just kind of have a hunch it didn't. "I've never found one, but I guess that doesn't mean it's not there. I do get a, I don't know, feeling that it doesn't? Like thinking about it my brain is just telling me no. If that makes any kind of sense." It didn't really but maybe the older woman had more experience in how powers worked.

Not that hers actually made sense but hey, experience might having something to offer her. Maybe. Hopefully.

>>"Yep, I go through so many energy bars a normal person would probably start flying."

Well, she certainly did not look like she was eating all the time - but it also did not sound like it was a normal human condition to have, so Maya made a mental note to think about what part of a power would make such a skinny person eat so damn much. One likely explanation was that she was expected to burn it, like a computer would fire up when running a complex game. Maybe she could even channel it somehow...

>>"I've never found one, but I guess that doesn't mean it's not there. I do get a, I don't know, feeling that it doesn't? Like thinking about it my brain is just telling me no. If that makes any kind of sense."

"Yeah, it does." Maya smirked "But still, your system is burning a whole lot of energy somehow... good to know."

Maya rolled her shoulders, looking at Alice for a moment, pondering how she should proceed with the session.

"Okay, let's do some basics, and see how that goes" she decided finally. She showed Alice some basic stances, blocks, and hits, like Sam had done with her once upon a time; the bare necessities of self-defense, like a steady stance, how to make a proper fist, and the like. It did not take much time, and it was not enough for any kind of combat - but it was a start.

That was true but she'd not given it much thought, she'd just assumed because it was always on it was using up a bunch of energy. Maybe along with that she had some kind of increased metabolism? Or something. Biology wasn't her strongest area of knowledge.

"You're the boss and strangely the beginning does sound like a good place to start." Couldn't let a sarcastic comment pass could you girl, had to try and show off around the big bad X man. Woman. Person.

Following her movements and trying to make sure she got the stance right and was staying balanced, she did have a little issue grasp the idea that there was a wrong way to ball a fist. Like, it was a fist, it shouldn't be that hard, but no apparently doing it wrong was bad. Breaking bones bad. Who the hell discovered this stuff? Did someone so many years ago just hit a brick wall a bunch of times and see which hurt the least?

Which also raised the point, how did people actually create martial arts stuff? Trail and error seemed a, dangerous way to do it. Maybe that's why tournaments was a thing? Who knows, but at least it didn't take them long to go through the it. She wasn't exactly unfit but she couldn't claim to be an athlete. "That was pretty fun! Didn't know exercise would actually be enjoyable."