Skye really needed to find something to do with her time.  She wasn't going out partying again anytime soon, or possibly ever, between what happened last time. Well, lots of things happened last time: she realized she had a crush on a friend, and they both got busted for underage drinking and suffered a fate arguably worse than jail. Man...Mari's uncle was one scary-ass dude. She'd thought about enrolling in online classes for journalism, but until then...she was living in a blanking school...

Walking down the hall, she'd seen a sign posted about using powers in combat and to meet on the lawn. So, she decided that's what she'd do. She'd pulled on a pair of comfortable shorts, a black tee shirt, and a thin blue hoodie that she'd cut the sleeves off of. Even in summer, a girl needed her hood.  She topped it off with a pair of black tennis shoes. 

Mid-afternoon rolled around and the young woman was out on the lawn, as the flyer had instructed. No one had showed up yet, so she was just sort of sitting on the grass, cross legged as she looked at her phone. Her hair was orange, displaying that she'd been in a relatively good mood today. She wasn't really doing much, just looking through pictures and whatnot; she didn't have any texts worth noting, so she was cleaning out her photos, finally. 

Pictures of her mother found the delete button. Her hair flashed red as she thought about...her...that woman that made her life miserable. Then...she got to pictures of Mari. Nothing special, mostly selfies she took, some they'd taken together. She got to one of them hugging, holding up a pair of corny peace signs and her hair turned pink, light emanating from her hands as she looked at it, a small smile on her face. She wasn't sure what she was feeling, but she really admired that girl. She was something special. 

For a moment, she almost forgot she was there for a reason.

Saphirus was having a good week: He'd just gotten back from his honeymoon, they'd been looking at houses online, he'd hit the headlines after saving a bus full of tourists, and to top it off, someone had finally signed up for his training class! He'd been trying to think of ways to spend more time on the mansion grounds, and not just sitting in a security office. There were so many new faces around here, and fighting crime solo or watching screens all day wasn't going to introduce him to any of them, so Shelby had put the thought in his ear of teaching.

What did he know that he could teach, though?

Not much, but he did know one thing. Fighting. More-so, fighting smart against all sorts of mutants and skilled humans. If there was one thing he can and had taught in the past, it was that. 

So there he was, walking out into the sunny day with clip board in hand and crowbar at his side, wondering what eager learning mind he was to encounter today, and how he might be able to work with them to develop their power. He walked out onto the lawn, and looked around for anyone waiting. There was a girl sitting there, but she seemed pretty entrenched in her phone. Her hair kept changing colors, sorta like Cafas' eyes used to, but maybe not for the same reason. 

He stood in the center of the lawn, looking about a little bit, and then waiting. After a moment he shifted uncomfortably, and turned around to see if anyone was coming. Nope, just the one girl staring intently at her phone as her hair turned pink. He cleared his throat awkwardly, and spoke up.

"You, eh... Sorry to bother you. You here for the class?"

He himself was dressed in his X-Men uniform, which was recently repaired, but still had a few scratches and scrapes from the bus hijacking the other day. The X-Man was half a foot taller than her, roughly, and built like a heavyweight boxer. His voice had a New-Yorker twinge to it, and his unkempt hair seemed to betray a nature much less focused on aesthetics.

He looked down at the name on the clip board, and then back up at her. "Skye Sinclaire?"
 

Skye snapped out of her thoughts when she heard a voice, and her hair flashed green with surprise as she put her phone in her pocket and stood to her feet. She looked the man over, noting the uniform; part of her wondered if she should have worn her training uniform to this but it was really too late now. Besides it was *almost* like what she was wearing, only with pants and more...uniformy. Ah well.

"Oh, no. You didn't. I was just occupying my time while I waited." A phone was more casual and less rude than an entire novel, right? Though that was a thought the young woman internalized, because asking it just seemed sort of...well, mean. And she didn't want to land herself in any more trouble than she already had. She tucked her phone into her back pocket.

"Yep. That's me; also known as Prism," she said, trying on the new codename for size as she looked at the larger man. Not quite as tall as her Uncle Blaine, but definitely built like him. His uniform seemed to have seen its fair share of action, unlike hers which had seen...one mission.

Her hair gradually turned purple as a hint of nervousness settled in, her hands flickering slightly with the violet light. "My powers don't have a lot of...combat usage, to be honest, but I feel it'd be nice to learn to use them any way I can..." she admitted.

He'd taken some time to gain insight on her powers... She seemed to have little control over little flashes of light that emanated from her hands. Was this cosmetic, or indicative of her overall ability. He looked her up and down, assessing her overall physical stature. Not built to bust skulls by any means, but that didn't mean she couldn't be combat effective. He would have to test her to know more.

Looking at it twice, he did sort of recognize her name, too, though they'd never met in person before. Was she a trainee? "Prism. Good ta meet you. I'm Saphirus, or the Masochist, whichever you prefer." He set his clipboard aside, turning to look at her blankly as she stated that her powers weren't really of use in combat.

"Eh, I'll decide that... Can you tell me about them? What can do you?"

He walked over to stand in front of her, about three feet away, his stance relaxed, but the feel of him emanating an air of discomfort. He was stoic, direct, and spoke with a bit of an edge to his voice. If she was a trainee, he wanted to see how she dealt with what she'd signed herself up for, even if it did turn out to be a bit stressful.

"I'll want to know some other things as well. What's your combat experience, what martial arts or combat practices are you trained in? Have you fought with other mutants in the past?"

Her hair remained a more steady purple, nervous as she spoke after her instructor for the day had introduced himself. She normally wasn't self conscious about her powers, but for some reason, now that she'd signed up to use them in combat...she was.

"It's connected to my emotions," she explained, looking up at him. "The light changes color depending on how I feel, and it's intensity is based on how much I'm feeling, I guess?" She bit her lip, realizing how lame that must have sounded, but she'd already signed up, and she was already here, so there was no choice but to tuck her head and keep on going, right?

"I don't have much experience, honestly. I mean, my uncle used to be a fighter, so I've watched and learned a little from him, but aside from that..." She shook her head, light pulsing steadily from her hands, holding the same rhythm as a calm heartbeat.

He finished assessing her as she spoke, and turned around, walking off to the side to toss the clipboard on the ground. He then pulled out his crowbar, and set it on the ground next to the clipboard. He wasn't going to need it just yet. "A little background on me. I have been a member of the X-Men for eight years, I have fought and defeated easily over one hundred mutants in armed and unarmed combat, and I managed to do so by knowing my own abilities to their greatest extent, and being able to identify the strengths and limitations of my opponents as well." The statement, while confident, did not have any tinge of arrogance to it; this was because it was absolutely truthful. During his life he had fought more mutants than he could count, and even more humans.

"This class has three main sections to it... The first is a general assessment of your abilities, but power based and physical. The second will include instruction and advice on using your own power in combat, and the final one will be instruction on interacting with the powers of others, friend and foe." He turned and walked back to her, stopping the same distance away, just as relaxed as he was moments ago before he'd stepped off to put his things down.

"The first part starts now... We are going to spar; Judging from your experience and physical condition, I ask that you please go all out. I will start by blocking your attacks, and as we go I will begin to assess your ability to dodge and block. As you go, I want you to take note of my power to the best of your ability."

He stayed there, in that relaxed stance, arms reach away, staring down at her. "Begin."

Skye stood, her hands pulsing with purple light as she took in her soon-to-be-instructor's words. Ability assessment....greeeat. Sparring....shit. She tensed a little, her heart threatening to beat out of her chest. Sure, she'd watched her uncle's old fight tapes every day since she was like seven but...she'd never actually been in a fight in her life. Part of her was thinking this may have been a mistake.

She held her hands low, but then remembered her uncle had a certain ability that helped him in fights...one she didn't have. So she held her hands higher, protecting her face, like the guys Blaine used to fight.

"Begin."

Skye took a breath, stepping in and throwing a punch just like she'd seen her uncle do, though it didn't have any speed or power behind it. She was thinking too hard. Her inexperience was definitely showing, but she threw a few more, slowly but surely figuring things out. Though she was certain if this was a real fight, she'd be done for by now.

But if she wanted to be part of the X-Men...she'd have to learn this sometime, right?