Serena had started keeping some spare clothes and other supplies at the mansion, otherwise it would be extremely painful to commute every day for training. Part of her wished she could just teleport there now. She definitely wasn’t going to just move back in though, she valued her apartment and that aspect of her life too much. You couldn’t really fault someone for wanting to move away.

Rebecca and Mirror lived here, but it was more like Mirror’s home than most people, and Rebecca had left the US for several years before coming back a true adult. Serena went through the most important and difficult years of her life here, and her living apart from the mansion but still staying connected to it in several ways was sort of symbolic for her. Also she just couldn’t deal with all the people muttering when she walked past.

How had she, of all people developed a reputation for snogging people in the grounds?

She dropped off a couple of pints of her blood in the fridge for the Doc, and went and got changed into some workout clothes. It was around midday. She was pretty sure nobody would currently be using the dangeroom, and she needed to cut loose. Everything recently had been such a mess.

Apparently even Sam was now de-aged. Serena debated walking around with a gas mask, just to avoid this whole debacle. How was it reaching so many people? Was it all the same person? If it was, Serena hoped she enjoyed having a damaged jaw.

She moved to the door and keyed to be let in before being warned someone was already there. She didn’t recognise the program though, it didn’t look like Mirror or anyone she’d trained with recently. She paused it and keyed herself in, stepping inside with her gym bag before nearly dropping it at the sight. “Oh dear lord, you have to be kidding me.”

Sam, now apparently 12 years younger meant that he was 12 years weaker. He had a thermal sense, ice clones and a useful ability to get stabbed in the leg by said ice clones. Future Sam was messed up. A lot of the stuff he said didn’t make him want to remember any of it. To think, if Amanda got that powerful to control him like that and she was possibly alive still? She had 12 years of powering up on him. All he could do is get stabbed.

Thinking about his yesterday he kind of wished he knew what happened with his last run in with Agent Jackson. Older Sam never mentioned what happened to him. That, above all else made him uncomfortable, which meant he was doing the one thing he knew to give him some kind of order in his now far more jumbled life.

Sam had figured out the pass code to get into the danger room, it would have been one in twenty guess but he guessed right. The flash drive’s history of future Sam helped a bit too. The Danger Room it seemed remembered Sam as well, he however didn’t. It felt odd talking to a room, odd but kind of cool. When he managed to figure out what to do he went through two somewhat easy simulations. Capture the flag with people he didn’t know but programed to have mutant abilities, and a race to save someone from a burning building. Why he trained for stuff like this young Sam couldn’t understand but it was kind of fun once he completed them.

After finishing the last session Sam started to prep up the next session. Two people again he didn’t recognize formed in front of him. One was silver and the other was on fire both of which had a sword to match their element. Sam jumped back and then jumped again when he heard the door whoosh open. ”No beautiful I’m real.” Now Sam never saw the woman enter and drop a bag he just head a voice and could tell it was female and seeing as everyone apparently knew him he figured this was how he would respond.

Serena and Sam's training had been very personalised when they did it, and was mostly sparring in the past. With some power work here and there, but Serena was still most comfortable doing power training on her own.

As a result she didn't actually know very many of his training programs. It was always weird walking in on a paused simulation, like one of those really artistic photos of things in a scene paused mid-motion.

Picking her jaw back up off the floor Serena took a few steps forwards. "S-Sam?" What were the odds? She didn't see an eyepatch. Mirror had let her know about this, but she was so very not prepared to come across her old mentor in this state. What the hell.

Totally stumbling over the beautiful comment, the sight of him just sort of knocked the wind out of her. "H- Wait, are you training? How the hell did you work out your danger room codes?"

”Me!” Sam turning from the now stopped simulation towards the source of the voice. Yup, his ears didn’t stir him wrong. ”Assuming we met before...” Sam got out of his fighting stance and walked closer to the woman. Ex-girlfriend? If not could I buy you a coffee?”

Sam shrugged, ”No clue, but I’ve been using the same codes most of my life. I was worried I got creative with some numbers or letters. You know putting you and I next to each other or something.” the sword dissipated from his hand.

”Didn’t see there was anyone scheduled to be in here. Been here a bit already I can leave if you want me to. Or you could join me on some fun?” Sam put his hands on his hips and then asked with a smirk, ”you are? Other than beautiful.”

Serena tilted her head to one side, drinking in the sight of a younger Sam. He was so... pristine. Older Sam had this rugged damaged vibe to him, she supposed the eye patch probably contributed a ton to the vibe. The young one still had the self assured feeling to him, but it was different. Her teacher always radiated confidence, but she'd always figured it was balanced by experience, and just as much to throw other people off as partially actually true faith in his abilities.

The interaction was immediately easier than her ones with Amelia and Evelyn. "You could say that we've met yes." She had a knowing smirk on her face, of course he was hitting on her. She was well aware of older Sam's habits, but it had probably helped she'd effectively been a kid when she met him.

She put her face in her palm for a moment. "Of course you do. Typical." She rolled her eyes. At least this was easier than her other recent interactions. Little part of her had worried that when she bumped into Sam it would've involved a lecture, or punching each other.

She snorted. "I don't normally schedule, I just pop in when other people aren't training." Glancing around the scenario it looked pretty rudimentary. "I'm Serena. Way out of your league and also extremely, positively a lesbian."

Turning back to the young Sam with a smirk she added. "And if you want to train with me I'm more than happy to, I just hope that you can keep up, you're a bit more scrawny than the Sam I'm used to."

Sam smiled at her responses, ”I could argue the league thing. I did date French model two years ago. She was something. Really hard to top that one but I was willing to give it a shot.” he wasn’t a fan of the cities, the langue or the food but the models. Beautiful, only reason he took so long in killing her manager who happened to have been his target.

”Lesbian then huh?” Sam raised an eyebrow with his smirk, ”Lot in common then.” he pointed to her then himself, ”You like women. I like women. You train, I train. Could be the start of a good friendship. Could be more who knows.”

He folded his arms at her, ”I also happen to be more sober than the Sam you are used to. He was super depressing in the video Gawain made me watch. Pretty sure I can still school you I’m sure. Without me depressing Sam wouldn’t have been a teacher right?” Sam asked knowing the answer. He had trained for years he doubted older Sam was much better than him.

”So Serena, beautiful name by the way.” Sam said continuing to flirt. ”What do you typically do in here then. Wouldn’t’ want to give you something too easy.”

She snorted. "Oh, you've dated plenty of 'impressive' people, I won't argue that. I meant emotionally and physically speaking. Even as an adult." She smiled. He looked like he was probably a young adult, but he was now younger than her, and that fact was weirdly amusing.

If Serena had met Sam before Evelyn and... Ami happened, things might have been much more awkward. But given enough time she'd slowly adjusted to the situation. And Sam still probably had the same core to him, much like Amelia did.

Bursting out laughing again she carried on. "Good to see not too much changed between where you are now, and adult you." She didn't specifically call him old Sam, largely because the young one looked like he could do with being knocked down a couple of pegs.

"You can try little boy, I don't think it'd pan out how you think though." Serena was pretty confident she could give the highly experienced Sam a run for his money on a good day now, let alone one with much less experience and know idea of her style or powers.

"Why yes, he could be depressing. But he could also be surprisingly inspiring, and had his rare moments of maturity. I'm pretty confident he had more game than you though, the eyepatch helped I imagine."

Wow, he was freaking relentless. "It is a beautiful name." She mused. "And what I do in here normally wouldn't suit you, your mutation is more versatile than mine but I don't think it packs the raw power when I cut loose. We could do something more appropriate, or I could just lay you out if you feel like getting beaten up by a woman."

Ignoring the insults he nodded his head, ”Game recognizes game and you’re looking a little unfamiliar, and I’m sure the eye patch did help.”

Sam’s eyebrows raised when she said his powers didn’t pack raw power. They were versatile; she knew that so it was clear they had trained before or at least she had seen his powers. Said powers kicked in briefly giving a chill in the air near Serena. ”You could try. But I don’t want to hurt anyone especially such a pretty woman.” he smirked

”Now what would you consider more appropriate?” Sam asked looking away from her to the two figures with the swords. He too didn’t find the simulation particularly difficult but he made it for a reason so it must have come in handy to practice.

He didn't bite back to the teasing, which was amusing. That was fine, they could move past it. If he was going to openly flirt with every woman he met, even ones that claimed they were not interested or like herself just not interested in guys period, he'd better be prepared to receive some sass if he was persistent.

Snorting audibly. "I'm not saying you're weak, or untrained. I'm sure it's quite the contrary, but you were my teacher. Add an extensive amount of my own training, and my own power control on top of it and I'm just more experienced than you are. Especially with fighting you. Call it an unfair advantage." She smiled.

"Besides that, I'm sure meeting Mirror bruised your ego enough, lets see if you can keep up with one of my current training program, if things get too hectic, we can always call it off." Serena doubted it would, Sam's power for all her joking was pretty damn powerful.

Besides that, if he got any bad scrapes or bruises, she could fix him. "Forewarning, my mutation is a lot creepier than yours." She chirped as she walked over to her bag and opened up a couple of insulated canisters inside of it.

She was checking all the boxes in pissing him off flirting aside, he might have not shown it but he did not like looking weak he spent years being the best, some of it was luck other times it was fighting tooth and nail to survive. The way she was insulting his training was irritating. Sam was betting he never tried to seriously fight her. She probably wouldn’t have been a student long, either he would have killed her or she would have quit.

”Mirror wasn’t as bad as I was. Your teacher looked like a bum. Pretty sure I saw a beer gut too.” he said trying not to show his irritation. ”just the mutation?” he asked trying to slide a insult in to match with his.

”I’m excited to see this creepy power of yours, ladies first” Sam said watching her remove canisters from a bag.

Serena was trying hard not to laugh. "I'm sorry if I'm coming off as insulting, it's a little odd speaking to you like this when I knew your older self so well, It's sort of hard to explain." After Evelyn and Amelia's awkwardness, she was just so glad that Sam was so similar as an adult to a teenager. Okay, maybe he was technically an adult, but it was hard to view him as such. Maturity was a big factor in people, and he seemed to be sorely lacking.

"I'm pretty sure he was in good shape if all the drooling students were anything to go by." She replied, taking note of the obvious irritation.

"Sam dear, you've been pretty relentlessly flirting with me this whole time, implying now that I'm gross sort of loses it's effect." She pondered as she reached into the bag and unscrewed them. "I'd feel in your shoes, relieved that my older self had progressed and kept up so well." She mused. "You're not what, 19, 20? I'm shocked that you aren't pleased that older you was a bad ass that had serious game more than a decade on, most people would be happy with that."

His hands now on the back of his head he shook his head pretending there was nothing wrong, ”I was just trying to return the jabs.”. He was a little irritated she kept talking about how great he was. Again, that wasn’t him at least not yet. For all he knew he’d hate this place.

Sam did want to make up for all the bad things he had ever done however he didn’t want to try to do it in someone else’s shadow, even if it was a future version of himself. The only thing this place had that kept him here for now was his already room, danger room kitchen and an abundance of beautiful women. If he knew that T.A.T. was after him he would have left as soon as he found himself in this out of time experience. He didn’t need people to tell him that he would be great he was already great. The best. He had to be.

”Eighteen or nineteen” Sam corrected, ”Feel free to throw them on then.” she opened the canisters and he shifted his foot slightly into slightly hidden stance. ”That isn’t me. I already have sick game and a serious badass.” he paused then raised and eyebrow, ”Can you fly a aircraft? I can.” still one of his favorite things to brag about.

Serena turned back and glanced at him. That wasn’t really what he was doing, she thought she’d gotten under his skin. The older Sam was much better at the verbal sparring thing, that was for sure. Kid had a fragile ego, go figure. “Okay then.” She sighed, starting to get a little mentally worn out.

She nodded slowly. “Eighteen or nineteen, got it.”

Serena tried not to sigh again, really she did. “That’s very impressive for someone your age, yes.” God, she was glad she’d met adult same when he was older, this was already very difficult.

“So, you said you wanted to train? Ready?” She activated a control training program, causing the room to shift into an open arena setting, a scoreboard opening up floating up in the air above them. “The idea is to use your body and your power to disarm and incapacitate people causing as little damage as possible, the room will keep score.”

There was a purple haze surrounding the 30 or so individuals the room had created and their eyes were glazed over as they stood frozen, as if indicating they were not in control of their actions.

Sam waved her on when she asked if he was ready. He had been ready ever since she interrupted his training program to point out she and Older Sam was better. Something he still didn’t believe.

No damage… did that mean he couldn’t actually disarm then. Guess that meant no sword then. She was already limiting his abilities. If he couldn’t kill that limited them further. They were just training holograms after all. His eyes shifted from the scoreboard to the thirty in front of him and Serena. His eyes shifted from one opponent to the next. He heard the countdown and he started.

Sam’s hand started to glow blue, ice shot out and layered the ground near the targets. Running as fast as he could (yes he was taking this more than seriously) Sam ran towards the closest opponent and slide taking out his legs. During his opponents fall Sam willed the ice from the ground up the man’s torso where it froze him and his limbs in place.

”One!” Sam called as he started to the next shooting a beam of ice as he ran passed and stopped at another. It would have been far easier to remove the arms and or kill, but seeing as Serena thought older Sam was better he did his best to show off. Some attacks flasher than others.

Okay, if he was going to just concentrate and get on with the exercise she could deal with that. At least she wouldn't need to deal with the flirting. She activated her mutation as the timer counted down, the eerie blue glow surrounding her body and then drawing out the gallon or so of blood she had stored in the canisters, floating it around her body like some sort of disturbing shawl, floating a few inches away from her body, she took a combat stance at the same time.

As Sam sprinted off and immediately got to work icing someone Serena took a breath and steadied herself, positioning towards some of the more aggressive looking opponents first.

They sprinted at her in a group of 3 at first. She flicked out a wrist at one, causing a whip like structure of blood to wrap around his leg and just gently tug him off balance, tumbling into the second while the third came at her with a bat. She waited until what appeared to be the last moment and side stepped, catching his wrist with both of hers and pivoting hard on her heels, using his momentum against him to send him to the ground and disarm him in one swift motion.

The point counter rang out as the two in front of her tumbled to the ground. Sam had taken three points for immobilizing the man, Serena had 9 for taking out three so far.