This was just getting ridiculous how is this practical in what world would he be stuck on a floating door having to battle fish people jumping out of the water trying to pull him under. The fish people even had weapons. Here he thought mermaids were only supposed to sing to fish. He sidestepped one flying up from the water. A wave was now coming and the rain made the door even more of a slip hazard.

Why did he program this before in the danger room? How often did he find himself in the ocean miles from land during a storm on a door being attack? What kind of life was he living before. Okay, credit to older Sam. He had a wild imagination and it was kind of fun. It was like training from when he was a child but instead of the same drills over and over again he got to find a way to make it fun. The fun was in the ludicrousness of it all.

The simulation paused as he heard the door open the rain froze opstructing his vision from the entrance was it Serena again? When he turned he realized how quickly the simulation could have gone bad. When he turned his bare back skinned against a sword that was made of bone. Now bleeding he counted himself lucky and turned towards the door and away from the merman with the sword who was frozen in midair.

”Thought I locked the door?” Sam yelled to the newcomer.

Amethyst had been exploring the building bit by bit. Some places were easier to discover than others, but one could never know where good things might be hidden. Having grown up in the giant Atlantean royal palace Amethyst knew for a fact that buildings this size did not give up their secrets easy. And she had all the time in the world. Because this place was also horribly boring.

Which brought her to the basement today. All kinds of things were hidden in basements. She wandered around aimlessly until she heard some faint sounds from behind a very sturdy looking door. She only gave it a half-hearted push, not really expecting it to be unlocked... but it gave way.

Amethyst stepped into another universe.

There was... water, everywhere. Under her feet, in the air. There were figures, fish-like gorgon shapes that made her jump at first, except they were not moving.

Was this... some kind of a portal? Through what? Space? To another place like Atlantis, before it rose?... Time? Was this the past or the future?

The door slid closed behind her and Amethyst jumped, equal parts curious and terrified. How could someone have this in a school basement?!

>>”Thought I locked the door?”

One of the figures was moving. She could not quite make out his form but she did hear the voice.

"Well, you didn't" she responded, glancing around "If you wanted to fight gorgons undisturbed maybe you should have put up a sign."

Shirtless Sam scowled at the response. Wasn’t there a light or something telling people the danger room was in use? Now he had only been here… he only remembered the past few days everything was still pretty new. ”Think they want to be called merfolk.” Sam corrected her. She might have not been able to see the faces but there wasn’t snake hair so to Sam they were merfolk.

”Well I didn’t know I needed to. Still new here. Sorry.” it wasn’t really an apology more of a sarcastic one. Young Sam was very sarcastic more so than older Sam. Sam turned back to the simulation and then added, ”You can join if you want but you should probably start heading this way. I think the door is important.” Sam said as he added, ”Danger Room start.”

The room cracked back into motion as Sam sidestepped the merman who poked his flesh. A little blood running down his side he shot a beam of ice and froze the creature. He bobbed up on the surface of the water as another wave threatened to capsize the door. His feet froze to the door as it rolled. Covered in water Sam surfaced to see where the new comer was.

>>”Think they want to be called merfolk.”

Amethyst quirked an eyebrow. All the gorgons wanted to be called something else these days. Physically mutated, citizens, gifted... these might have been gorgons, or might have been some kind of other creature entirely, either way, they looked disgusting.

>>”Well I didn’t know I needed to. Still new here. Sorry. You can join if you want but you should probably start heading this way. I think the door is important."

Once again, with the attitude. Did the school select its students based on their sarcasm skills? And what door was he even...

>>"Danger Room start.”

Amethyst sank. What had been frozen waves beneath her feet a split second before was not churning water. She dropped down, her saffron dress billowing wide around her as she let out a surprised yelp, taking in a mouthful of water. She broke the surface a moment later. All Atlanteans knew how to swim, even princesses. But the dress didn't exactly make it easy. Neither did the creatures jumping wildly around.

"Bastard!" she spat, trying to make her way to the only solid floating surface: the piece of wood the man was balancing on.

Sam heard the curse and started to laugh as he dodged a mermaid this time with a knife made of sharks teeth. Again, old Sam was creative. When he looked over to see the woman struggling towards him in the water he debated not even going to help it was after all a simulation then again, the water felt real. Maybe drowning was a simulation as well.

Sam’s feet still frozen to the door he bent down and willed some propellers to form on the back of the door. He directed the door to the woman hoping not to hit her with said door. When he got close the propellers fell off the door and into the water. His feet unfroze and he reached for the woman’s hand. ”Everyone else just calls me Sam. Hurry up!”

Behind a woman a large fin erupted from the water, Sam thought instantly of the jaws theme. Even he had seen the move. ”Double time!” Sam said blasting a beam of cold behind the woman trying to slow what looked like a big shark.

The whole scene was insane, and all kinds of threatening when viewed from the water. Amethyst pedaled towards the floating platform, but it was not easy with mercreatures jumping around her brandishing weapons. What kind of a place was this? Did the school just have some kind of an ocean tank in the basement, filled with murderous gorgons? Why?!

The platform floated closer, and the man - boy, reall, he could not have been much older than her - offered a hand.

>>”Everyone else just calls me Sam.”

"I don't care." Amethyst spat, but took the hand anyway - damn, he was cold - and struggled in a very ungraceful manner out of the water.

>>”Hurry up! Double time!”

The platform - was it a door?! - wobbled under their combined weight as Amethyst pulled her legs out of the water. Something under them made contact, and made the whole thing even more unstable. There was a large shadow under the surface.

"What in Poseidon's name is that?!"

It didn’t slow, just nudged the door and remained below the surface. Sam cursed and iced his feet over trying to lock himself onto the door. Hoping that if the door was iced over it would also mean he couldn’t fall off. Unfortunately for the late swimmer that meant it was probably getting colder.

”White whale? Nope.” the top fin didn’t add up for a whale, unless it was an albino Orca. ”Shark?” he wasn’t really asking just work shopping. It was clear that the woman didn’t want to be there but there was no reason to stop training. He was pretty sure he could figure it out he did make this scenario for some reason. He still had no idea what it was for.

A blast of ice shot from one hand towards the water and froze over lifting the door off the surface of the water. Maybe a little more room will prevent the shark? ”You gonna sit there or help?” Sam asked as he formed a baseball bat and cranked a jumping merman who landed on the small platform of ice under the door.

Amethyst used her palms to comb wet hair out of her face. Her dress was clinging to her, and the sudden drop of temperature made her shiver. Her bracelets and anklets clinked as she pulled her knees up.

>>”White whale? Nope. Shark?”

"Shark?" she stared at the shirtless guy balancing on the door. His legs were covered in sudden ice. "There are sharks in here?!"

Amethyst did not want to be in this room anymore. Whatever kind of perverted things these people at Xavier's were up to, with captive mermen and shark tanks, she wanted no part of it. Did the Queen even know about this?

The guy - everyone calls me Sam - shot a bolt of ice at the water, then made some kind of a weapon out of ice to hit a merman. He was clearly a demigod.

>>”You gonna sit there or help?”

Despite her less than stable position, Amethyst folded her arms.

"And what do you suggest I should do?" it wasn't like she had useful powers. She was not about to start tossing gemstones at the sharks. The guy looked like he was not about to stop with the madness. "Are you... enjoying this?"

It was the danger room of course they had sharks! The place had everything you could think of. Sharks in Sam’s opinion were the least surprising thing especially if the rest of Old Sam’s simulations continue as they had been. ”Ha! You aren’t!?!” Sam asked as the waves started to get a little more choppy, this time the water that his ice had been blocking started to retain it instead of prevent it from entering.

”Why would you come to the danger room with a dress on!” Sam asked now yelling as he cracked another merman who pulled himself up near the girl who clearly didn’t know what training meant. Why did she have all the jewelry on?

”Anything to help us end the simulation! If you can’t fight you can think right?” Sam asked as a tentacle shot from the water close to where the fin went down. He cracked it with a bat then realized he wasn’t gonna have the same luck knocking it out of the park like he could with the mermen/women. Turning the bat he willed it into the form of a trident and slammed down severing the tentacle from whatever body it belonged to. Trident was a good call; if the woman didn’t mention Poseidon earlier he probably would have come up with something that was easier to swing like a sword.

”What can you do?” Sam asked as he got closer to the woman holding up the trident in a defensive stance. He slammed his foot down and the ice the door was on/in developed spikes outwards making it hard for things to grab them.

>>”Ha! You aren’t!?!”

Amethyst's eyes widened. The man was clearly insane. Who would enjoy battling sea monsters and sharks in a place like this? Was he just doing it for fun?!

>>”Why would you come to the danger room with a dress on!”

Danger Room. Well, that was fitting. Amethyst tried to both curl up and keep her balance as things kept popping up around them. Why would a school have a room like this? Was it a punishment? Sam did not seem like he took it as a punishment. And what was she supposed to do now that she was in it?

>>”Anything to help us end the simulation! If you can’t fight you can think right?”

Now there were tentacles.

As a daughter of Atlantis, Amethyst was no stranger to sea creatures and aquatic gorgons. But this... this was just too much. She was not going to think her way out of this. A... simulation? It could be ended? Why did he not just freeze it like he had before?... Maybe it was his fight. He seemed to be good at it. Maybe it would end if he just stopped having so much damn fun.

>>”What can you do?”

Amethyst looked up the half-naked, annoying demigod.

"This." she noted, pushing at his knees as hard as she could. Maybe if the sharks ate him, the simulation would be over.

She was doing something, great! Teamwork was important to develop in training Sam was looking forward to what the woman could do. He was not expecting the attack on his person though from within his little island that the woman happened to be joining. Sam felt his knees give out forcing him closer to the edge it wasn’t much of a stumble due to the ice surrounding them he caught himself but it was enough to distract him from being grabbed from another tentacle. ”****ing kidding me!”

The grip around his body made it hard to break free and forced the air out of his lungs at the same time. Sam was underwater now, struggling to break free and return to the surface. His body started to ice over as the tentacle pulled him further down to the source of the body. It was the shark. Sam watched as menfolk swam around him laughing at him. This wasn’t his fault. If he had firepowers he would have erupted at this point.
Sam closed his eyes as he entered the mouth of the shark and everything went dark.

”End simulation.” Sam yelled from the belly of the beast. Just like that everything around them started to pixilate. He was still soaked but the remaining water started to vanish as well all that was left was his ice the woman and him. ”You broke my streak!” Sam yelled more upset that he’d have to do the simulation over again. Maybe this time he’d just freeze everything.

”That was uncalled for.” Sam said finally looking at the girl, really getting a look this time instead of just a ‘oh you’re here’ glance. She was hot.

That floating door was clearly too small for the two of them. And Amethyst was not a team player. She was royalty.

>>”****ing kidding me!”

A tentacle wound itself around Sam, and pulled him under. Amethyst sat on the floating door, hugging her knees. Was this going to end anytime soon, or did she just feed the man to the tentacle shark for nothing?... Because that would have been annoying.

Suddenly, everything in the room shifted. Shapes and water disappeared, even her dress was dry once again. In a few moments she found herself in a room with metallic walls, and a very pissy-looking half-naked demigod.

>>”You broke my streak! That was uncalled for.”

Amethyst was still staring around, smoothing her hands down her dress as she stood up. Sam seemed unhurt, and suspiciously un-chewed.

"Wait... none of that was real?"

He was still bleeding from when he got cut and his body ached from multiple sessions in a row. Technically it wasn’t real but if you got hurt in the danger room simulations did hurt you hard light constructs sucked. The danger room was also supposed to not kill anyone something that you’d know if you ever used it.

”Kinda.” Sam said pointing to the spot where he was bleeding a bit. It was just going to be added to the ton of scars he had on his body. It was proof that he had a ‘troubled’ upbringing. ”Hard light constructs, can create whatever you want. Volcano’s, murder bots, aliens a kraken apparently.” Sam said deciding that’s what the shark thing was called.

”Try not to think about it too hard. Pain and danger was real, the danger room just can’t kill. It’s meant to hone and train powers and the X-Men.” Sam put his hand on his neck and forced a crack from his stiff neck.

”Telling me you never be-“ he called it the ah-ha moment when teaching his face lit up just as he realized what had happened. ”You were willing to kill me?” Sam feigned being hurt. It wasn’t the first time or last time someone tried to kill him. His brow lowered, ”I thought I was messed up. You were willing to kill a stranger.” at least when he killed he had a reason to, something that he kept telling himself.

Amethyst finally got a better look at this Sam person. He was taller than her, and covered in all kinds of scars. Some of them newer than others.

>>”Hard light constructs, can create whatever you want. Volcano’s, murder bots, aliens a kraken apparently. Try not to think about it too hard. Pain and danger was real, the danger room just can’t kill. It’s meant to hone and train powers and the X-Men.”

Danger Room. All of it was fake. It created things out of thin air. Some scientist back home in Atlantis would have been thoroughly impressed. Amethyst already knew about the X-men, but this explained how they trained. And why they were all so weird.

>>”Telling me you never be- You were willing to kill me?... I thought I was messed up. You were willing to kill a stranger.”

"Well, a bunch of gorgons and sharks were trying to kill me." Amethyst folded her arms. She was not going to apologize for putting her own survival before some half-naked guy's she'd just met. "It was you or me, and you were having way too much fun. For the record, that is messed up."

Merfolk. Gorgons had snake hair, why did she keep saying that? Sam was about to correct her then she insulted his having fun during training. It was better than the alternative and hating it. Training meant he’d be able to survive something else he was big on survival not dying. Especially at the hands of this woman.

”What do you mean?” Sam asked folding his arms, ”You or me? That door was more than big enough, Danger room sessions are usually focused on teamwork and yeah, it was fun. A blast even. So sue me.” Sam felt personally attacked.

”I enjoy working out and pushing myself, part of the appeal of the danger room you can make anything happen.” Sam said raising an eyebrow. ”You never wondered what you could do if you have complete control over your environment… lady? And they were merfolk.”