>>”Small every day things? Like fighting a giant Lemur? So what counts as small everyday things then? When do you really have to?”

"Like... carrying groceries?" Javi ventured. He could carry heavier things than others, even though his powers did not come in handy very often. Those tasks, he had no problem with. But when it came to emergencies, or extraordinary feats... his powers had a tendency to break in the worst moment.

>>”Doing me a favor now. This helps me as well. Might have a kid in the future with something similar to what you’re going through. Makes it just that much easier to help them. Care to go again?”

"Maybe it's the confrontation?" Javi ventured, looking at the golem "Maybe I'm just not good at fighting. I can lift things. Or throw things. Maybe my powers are just not for fighting people?..."

The icemancer stared at Javier for a second then started to laugh, ”Groceries?” he didn’t know if he was being serious or trying to crack a joke but Sam needed a moment either way. Looking over to his ice golem Sam waved his hand and the large frozen creature started to lose form and collapse into a pile of snow and Ice.

”No confrontation then...” he thought for a second trying to come up with a better scenario for Javier. This whole thing was easier with kids.

For someone who was raised on fighting and how to solve confrontations with as much or as little violence as possible it was hard for Sam to understand,”You’re still human, everyone is good at fighting. Just need the proper motivation.” Sam nodded his head and looked up, ”Computer, give us a disaster scenario. Little confrontation as possible.”

The room started to hum as light constructs started to form. The smell of burning filled the air as the bare bones of the buildings started to expose themselves. ”Oh, this will be a good one!” Sam said having lived it once already he wasn’t sure at first what scenario it was but there was a large neon sign that told them they were in New York City.

”There was a drug den that took out a city block a few years ago. Luckily it was the warehouse district so no one other than the ones making the stuff were injured. Unfortunately the area wasn’t taken care of properly nothing was guarded or roped off so some people saw it as an opportunity to loot the building.” he said as the building now around them started to creak and groan any time a breeze came through.

”Got five people that need to be escorted out and have nothing collapse on them.” he grinned. ”Think of this like carrying groceries?” he asked with a smirk.

For a moment Javier felt ashamed. Sam would surely give up trying to work on his powers now that they turned out to be useless for a fight. Or rather, Javi's attitude was useless for a fight. Same thing.

>>”You’re still human, everyone is good at fighting. Just need the proper motivation. Computer, give us a disaster scenario. Little confrontation as possible.”

"A disa...?"

>>”There was a drug den that took out a city block a few years ago. Luckily it was the warehouse district so no one other than the ones making the stuff were injured. Unfortunately the area wasn’t taken care of properly nothing was guarded or roped off so some people saw it as an opportunity to loot the building.”

The whole thing was very realistic. Javi smelled smoke, felt the heat of fire, the dust in the air. He stared, trying to wrap his mind around the simulation. What did Sam expect him to do?

>>”Got five people that need to be escorted out and have nothing collapse on them. Think of this like carrying groceries?”

Javier froze.

Did he know?... How would Sam know? It had been on the news, he could have looked it up if he had done some kind of a background check on Javier. Was he doing this on purpose? Sure, this was a warehouse rather than the MIT Chemistry lab, but it brought back memories that made Javier turn pale.
He had done it back then. But just for a short while. And then his strength gave out. He swallowed, remembering the time he woke up at the hospital.

"Will I get... hurt if I fail?"

The icemancer studied Javier’s reaction as the hard light constructs started to form. Even though he’d seen it a thousands times anytime the room created a scene he was still amazed. Javi’s reaction wasn’t of ‘awe’ like he had hoped clearly someone has seen what the room could do or it was impossible to impress the man. Either way, Sam took a few steps closer to Javi still trying to reassure him with a smile. It wasn’t like they were going to be shot at. At least not this time...

”.... Yeah? It's a condemned building.” he said nodding to the sign on a warehouse that was hardly legible. It was a Danger Room scenario, meaning more than likely there was Danger. Sam then had to remind himself who he was talking to. Not a student of his or someone he got shot at with. Javi didn’t do confrontation.

”Not too bad, I can turn down the settings but I found it’s easier to access abilities in stressful situations. I mean, if you prefer we can sit in rush hour traffic with the bridges down to one lane. I might lose it before you can tap into your super strength though.” Sam folded his arms. ”I hate traffic.”

”Will you die? No, I won’t let that happen and the room won’t let that happen. Could you get injured if the whole place falls on you? Probably, again I’m gonna be behind you and I ran this a dozen times before.” he didn’t say with his students but instead gave Javi two thumbs up in encouragement.

”Only real things in here are you and me. Everything else is just a hard light construct.” Sam tapped on the brick of the exterior of the ‘condemned‘ warehouse to reveal the sound it made just as if it was real brick. ”Ready to get strong?” he asked trying to hype Javi up.

Javi stared at the building. It had been condemned even before the alleged disaster scenario. The last thing he wanted to do was go inside, even if it was just a simulation. He was not the kind of person to run into burning buildings.

>>”Not too bad, I can turn down the settings but I found it’s easier to access abilities in stressful situations. I mean, if you prefer we can sit in rush hour traffic with the bridges down to one lane. I might lose it before you can tap into your super strength though. I hate traffic.”

Javier blinked. He was not sure he saw the connection between traffic and super strength. He did not like traffic either, but he was the kind of person to sit patiently in his car and listen to some music. Sam was clearly not that kinda person.

>>”Will you die? No, I won’t let that happen and the room won’t let that happen. Could you get injured if the whole place falls on you? Probably, again I’m gonna be behind you and I ran this a dozen times before. Only real things in here are you and me. Everything else is just a hard light construct.”

So, it wouldn't kill him, but if the building came down it was still gonna hurt. Javier was not sure how far Sam would allow the simulation to go before he ended it. Did he believe injury was a learning experience? There was a reason Javier never played team sports...

>>”Ready to get strong?”

"Not really" he sighed. He didn't want to do any of this. He never wanted to be a superhero. But he did want to learn about his powers, how they worked, or rather, why they didn't work. And this was the place to do it.

It's safe. It's not real. It's totally safe. It's a controlled environment. It's not gonna kill you. It's safe.

"Alright." Javi sighed "Do I get like, a hard hat or something...?"

”Almost the level of enthusiasm I was looking for.” he said a little less enthused himself now. He stayed positive though and took a few steps into the building pushing open a small door which fell off the hinges. Sam didn’t try to stop the door from falling but turned around and raised an eyebrow.”[/color] was he joking?

”Danger.... two hard hats?” he stopped again, ”You want some vests as well?” he asked and two safety vests.”[/color] he held out his hands and the two helmets appeared. Sam awkwardly put it on. It wasn’t the first time he wore one, they were great bludgeoning tools.

Sam tossed the other to Javier and then opened his arms for the vest to stitch itself over his chest. ”Last thing we need is an OSHA complaint.” that one was a joke, he couldn’t imagine the violations the danger room could produce.

”I’ll go first.” he said and walked into the room. The floor creaked under his weight and Sam kept walking. ”Think of it like a giant 3-D puzzle. We just need to get to the other side." Sam didn’t grab the hand rail, it wasn’t secured.

>>”Almost the level of enthusiasm I was looking for. Danger.... two hard hats? You want some vests as well? Last thing we need is an OSHA complaint.”

Javi knew that he was embarrassing himself in front of a professional vigilante. But one way he had learned to cope with anxiety was to put safety above peer pressure. If he was going to run into a collapsing building, real or otherwise, he was at least going to put a damn hat on. "If it's good enough for firefighters, it's good enough for me."

>>”I’ll go first. Think of it like a giant 3-D puzzle. We just need to get to the other side."

They walked in. The door fell clean off the hinges, and the inside of the building was not much better. Sam walked in first and Javier followed, keeping an eye out for... anything that could jump, or fall, or explode on them. It was nerve-wrecking. Why did people do this day after day? Of course he knew the answer: to help others. Still, it was not as much fun as Sam made it out to be.

Javi jumped as a piece of fake ceiling gave way and landed just ahead. The stairs creaked, and the handle looked ready to fall too. Javi pushed it away instead of holding on, the metal bending at his hands. "So... who are we looking for?"

The Icemancer didn’t point out the sound of metal creaking as they continued up the stairs. ”People that nobody cares about.” he said as he looked around spotting the first one in a room where someone was asleep on an old mattress surrounded by old bottles of booze. Something that made Sam want a drink when he saw it and not want a drink. It was clear the man was an alcoholic that was about as far as one could fall.

”There is you’re first one. Just need to make sure he gets out safely.” Sam said standing off to the side as the man jumped from the mattress when he heard someone talking. ”This is my room! Get out! I’m trying to get some sleep!”

The icemancer looked from the guy to Javier if he wasn't in to physical confrontation he’d might have a verbal one. The man was clearly out of it but all Javier had to do was protect him on the way out. Sam didn’t say anything about how to get him out. His method was to just pick him up and send him off with an ice clone. Something he doubted Javier would do.

Javier noted the metal that had bent under his hand. His powers were working, for the moment. So far, so good. Also, this Danger Room was scary realistic.

>>”People that nobody cares about.”

Scary realistic in more ways than one. Javier frowned, looking around. In real life, he would not have run into a collapsing building of his own free will. Unless someone needed saving. Maybe.

>>”There is you’re first one. Just need to make sure he gets out safely.”

The man jumped up, clearly drunk and annoyed.

>>”This is my room! Get out! I’m trying to get some sleep!”

Sam was not stepping in. This was Javi's test. And it wasn't even testing his powers.

"Sir, the building is collapsing. You need to get out now. Come on, we can help."

“Why so you can steal my stuff?” the alcoholic asked as threw and arm up, knocking over a bottle of cheap whiskey. It didn’t look like whiskey at this point and suddenly Sam didn’t want a drink. He recalled what happened when he arrived on scene as the building was collapsing the first time. There was time to talk and time for action. They both knew that Javi could strong arm the guy with ease but that wasn't what this was about. It was about getting control of the strong arms.

“Help me with what? I’m fine. See this place is fine.” as he said that there was a loud rumble in the building they were standing in. A small section of scaffolding fell in the main warehouse portion of the building. The ‘clang’ echoed out from every corner of the building. Time wasn’t on their side for the mission.

”That would be a catwalk.” Sam announced and then looked back to Javi. Letting the tailor know that they were in a hurry. Sam would have frozen the man and carried him out kicking and screaming. Thankfully there was only one of Sam.