Mr Drake seemed to agree with her thoughts about when warning labels had appeared on various things. Emphatically agreed, based on the hand movement.

If that was the case, why had he asked in the first place? Not that it actually mattered much.

Especially not when he mentioned that maybe thinking danger sounded fun was an 80s kid thing, as though he were talking about himself.

Lee looked at him quizzically. While Lee had been born in the early 80s, she only had a handful of memories, if that, actually from the 1980s. No, Lee was quite solidly a 90s kid, and the man standing in front of her was easily younger than her no matter what criteria she used to make that decision.

And maybe they had called it the danger room for legal reasons? Unless that had been done by someone Lee had never met, well before she had met Sam and Shin, that didn't sound like the reason to her.

"Then wouldn't it have made more sense to name it the 'power training room', Mr Drake?" Lee asked. "Or even simply the 'training room' rather than the danger room?"

The 80s slip up had got her looking at him, and strangely. He didn’t smile about the comment, played it close to the chest. Whoops. Yeah, he did look way younger than an 80s kid. So what if his youngest memories before the age change were of stuff like hair bands and really good rock and roll? That did not mean a thing. But he would share if anyone ever asked. Just an old geezer, rambling about the good ol days.

Music these days. Not enough hair rocking. Too much emotion. Not even the right kinds. Stuff like asking what you’re made for because you’re unhappy, or whatever, when you could be focusing on how happy you were, or how happy you would make someone else, although there was that song about someone being happy… and it was mostly catchy and annoying. A real worm for your ear.

He Did like some modern music. Recent rock, some flavors of old. Maybe u2, the foo fighters, hozier, royal blood… He needed to check some out, too. The lemon twigs was supposed to be 60s-70s feel, dirty honey! He had friends that helped him on the music scene. Turned him to stuff like Allah las. Natural child, Greta van fleet, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Phanerons, Holy Wave, Triathalon… He even liked the Mars Volta. Stuff like that. Foxy Shazam, specifically their self-titled album and The Church of Rock and Roll. White Reaper sounds like early Cheap Trick. He could go on. But this was all internal monologue. Nobody was listening (not even him).

Miss Smith said:

“Then wouldn't it have made more sense to name it the 'power training room', Mr Drake? Or even simply the 'training room' rather than the danger room?"

He winced a little. Mr Drake.

” But it’s dangerous… “ He said sardonically. ”And you can call me Ashton. I’m off the clock. As for the room, yeah, maybe power training is pretty literal. The war room sounds melodramatic, too. But they probably mostly use it to play cards… not a lot of going to war lately. Except there one time they did, and it didn’t get used at all… the headmaster must enjoy melodrama.”

They were getting pretty far from the original thing He had meant to do today.

” Have you ever seen the danger room?” As thin asked curiously.

She hadn't questioned the 80s kid thing out loud, and he didn't say anything else about it. Though as Lee thought about it, Michael had said that they'd lost ten years when they were deaged. And Quin had been deaged as well.

Had that whole thing been far more widespread than Lee had thought. Or it had just disproportionately affected mutants, which wouldn't surprise her, and she had only avoided it because she had only really left her apartment when she'd had to.

How many years was it possible for someone to have lost in that?

"'War room' would have been an even worse name for it, Ashton," Lee replied, though there was a hint of humour in her voice. "Even more so if you actually think that they would actually all gather together and make a plan before rushing into a dangerous situation."

Then Ashton asked if she had actually seen the danger room before, and Lee nodded. "I have, though not since the rebuild."

Technically true, the mansion had been rebuilt since Sam had taken her to the danger room to help sort out her people radar. Lee just wasn't sure how many times the mansion had been rebuilt since…

>>> "'War room' would have been an even worse name for it, Ashton," Lee replied, and Ashton blinked.

Did she not know what they called their board room for discussing missions? Granted, he knew about it mainly from Jorge, and the man was a full X. But still.

Her humor was overshadowed by the fact she thought it funny, the idea that the x-men would get together prior to a mission, and talk about stuff. Rather than rushing off, blindly. Ashton was not an X. But he felt offended for them, by proxy. Seemed a terrible thing, to think the men in the X-men would rush off blindly, 9 times out of 10. And maybe a little sexist? Were there women on the team? They needed more women. He thought maybe the majority of women were married… he’d heard a rumor about it… and heck, even married to each other. Which meant not single. Which was a shame.

Yeah, the x men definitely needed more women in the team. More members, in general. And that was spoken by a guy who planned to join. Not just someone who appreciated the insights of the fairer… and smarter, let’s face it, folks… sex. She was probably right. Dudes probably did barge into danger, all braggadocio and ice armor, or water whatever, or whatever the hell it was the Asian did with his mind.

He totally missed the humor, yeah. He kind of stone faced past Ms Smith’s joke. So he made small talk. And she had seen the danger room once before, but not since the rebuild. She was not entirely clueless about it. Okay. Gave her opinion on it and who she would want exposed to it, a bit more weight. Better than someone who just hears danger and says “I don’t want it.”

”Well I was just about to go. If you wanted to see the new and improved room. But you were busy, weren’t you?”

At this point, he realized maybe he was artificially extending the conversation, and maybe he needed to let the woman get on with her day. Stop being selfish, monopolizing a woman’s time. Unless she wanted to kill the time, that was. With him.

Ashton didn't seem overly happy about her slightly joking comment about the XMen not really planning things out before rushing into situations. Not too pleased, but either not upset enough or unaware enough of how the team actually worked before missions to argue the point.

Or it was true, but he didn't like an 'outsider' pointing that fact out.

Not that it mattered much in the grand scheme of things. The XMen had their place, and Lee had her opinion of how they filled that space. Those who needed to know her opinion on the XMen knew what it was and why she felt that way.

That was the part that was important.

Ashton, apparently, was going to be heading to the danger room. Heading there then and now. And was inviting her to come check it out now that the mansion had been rebuilt.

Except he thought she was busy.

Lee quickly pulled her phone out to check the time then shook her head. "Actually no. I was going to head home because apparently it's 'not cool' for me to visit my son when he's trying to hang out with his new friends. Otherwise no plans for at least a couple of hours."

Turning back toward the door, Lee started walking. "They didn't change the floorplan down there, did they?" she asked over her shoulder, not bothering to look to see if Ashton was following her. She didn't need her eyes to tell that.

She wasn’t busy.

She had planned to head home, as an uncool mom, because kids can be so mean. And her son had new friends who would think less of him if his mom were around visiting. Ugh.

Kids.

She just started walking. And Ashton? Well, he supposed he followed. Because she knew the way. It kind of felt off-putting, put him off his game. This entire day, really. He did not much care for it.

Time to flip the script. He saw a waste paper basket, and traded places with it. It appeared in his prior location, and he appeared ahead of the woman. The two objects smells vaguely of cinnamon.

Had she asked about the floor plan? ”I suppose it’s probably the same,” Ashton admitted. He carried on as if nothing had just happened, except that now, he lead the way.

As Lee made her way back into the mansion, she felt Ashton following behind her. Not that Lee expected the floor plan to have changed that much. There was only so much that they could do with the danger room because of the size.

But then the strangest thing happened. Suddenly, the energy she was sensing from Ashton behind her was just…gone.

Lee knew that it wasn't because she had just stepped into an adapted's field because she could still feel the energy of people on the floor above them.

Just as suddenly, Lee saw Ashton walking in front of her. Interesting trick, Lee couldn't help but think.

Only then did Ashton answer her question about the floorplan. With a very uncertain answer. Well, maybe he hadn't been around for long before the need to rebuild.

"What kind of workout were you planning to do in there?" Lee asked after a few moments. "Powers, fitness, or combat?"

Well. He had already done cardio. Cardio was running. Fitness. He was good on that. He didn’t need any more of that. That left powers and combat.

Trading places with stuff, making things trade places with things, in combat scenarios. There was a lot of overlap there. He did that one a lot. That was honestly the one he had been planning today. Combat. But…

He didn’t really want to jump Lee into combat. After she had expressly shown disinterest in the danger portion of the danger room. So, his tone a bit beleaguered, grumbly, Ashton said: ”Powers, probably.”

If she had any situational awareness, she might catch onto the fact he didn’t sound thrilled, like he had changed plans. For her.

But. Whatever.

He could do this. It could be good. Great practice. He was making himself be more excited about it, changing his mood. Because he didn’t want to be Grouch.

He glanced back at her. ”Do you have an extra ability?” he asked. That was what one mutation expert called them, wasn’t it? A power. An extra ability. Yeah.

They were almost to the room. When they got there, he put in his code. The door opened up.

When Ashton answered her question about what he was planning to do in the danger room, Lee heard a very familiar tone in his voice. Very familiar because Lee heard that tone in her son's voice any time that he was frustrated or upset, but knew he had to do what she'd told him anyway. It was most often accompanied by a 'fine…' and eye rolling as he turned away.

Lee shook her head at the younger man walking in front of her. Was he really goin to change what he was planning to do in the danger room because she was there?

Sure, Ashton simply knew her as a bar manager and parent of a student at the mansion, but she had been the one to put combat out as an option for his workout. Didn't that show that she knew exactly what the danger room was used for?

Or was it because of her petite size that Ashton thought she wouldn't be able to handle herself if he were to load up a combat program in there?

Extra abilities? Is that what they were calling it now, Lee wondered. "I do," Lee said as the door to the danger room opened in front of them. "Though I don't have the energy today to actually be able to put them on display. I don't generally use my powers when I'm sparring, though."

She did have a power, didn’t use it for sparring.

He didn’t use his for sparring, either. Generally. Ashton said ”Same.”

He used his power to get in and get out. He used his brief bit of police training, and whatever he knew from his life before that, for sparring. For grabbing people and taking them to the ground, to detain them. Doing it quickly and efficiently. Because when he had been a police officer, people had often had weapons. But he had left the police for a reason—

Some people used their power for the wrong reasons. To feel power. And used them irresponsibly. Put too much into what they did. Hurt people. Didn’t care. He cared.

”My powers are good for mobility,” He explained. ”I have a few tricks, but mostly, it is teleportation. I just have to have a target to trade places with, and it can’t be too heavy. Or it gives me a headache. Need to train myself to increase weight limits…”

He grimaced, because training like that, it was painful. Stretching himself, to make it so when he strained himself, he could strain further, and snap back easier. With less problems. It was like muscle training. Or stretching a rubber band. Or something. He didn’t know. Maybe it was an exercise in futility. Maybe his powers wouldn’t grow.

”But mostly when I spar, I just use no powers…”

Ashton didn't normally use his powers when he sparred. Even though he could teleport himself by switching places with anything else. As long as it wasn't too heavy, he pointed out.

Lee nodded, but seriously wondered why the younger mutant didn't use his powers when sparring. An ability like that could be invaluable in a fight, and it made sense to get as much practice with it as possible. Lee's reasons for not using her powers while she sparred was for the safety of her opponent; she'd only found two people in the previous six years that she'd actually felt she was able to use any measure of her powers on, and one of them was already dead.

"Training your powers like that is good," Lee agreed. Especially if he was here planning to join, or already a member, of the X-Men. "Even if it doesn't seem to help improve your weight limit, it could help hold the headaches off longer."

Lee then looked around the empty danger room before looking back at Ashton. "Did you need to program something in?'

Ashton nodded slightly at what Lee had said. Mostly it was an incline of the head.

”True.”

Staving off headaches, migraines, nose bleeds, unconsciousness. Good to avoid all that.

He suddenly felt entirely too human. And tired.

Did He need to program something in? He looked around at the danger room. Sure. He supposed—

”Excuse me.”

Ashton went up to the God room and programmed something low level in. He started it. Various rings appeared on the ground, like stationary fallen hula hoops. Various objects, of sizes both large and small.

This is going to be about throw accuracy and speed,”. He explained. ”Once the session starts and things start up. It will be harder.”

He came back down. Stopped in front of her.

”The room will use wind to blow the objects off-course. My goal, I mean our goal— is to get them in, in spite of that. Guess we will use team work and powers. Then I have to teleport into the center of a ring. The room will try and stop us. Ready when you say start, unless you’ve got questions?”

While Ashton went up to set up the program his training session in, Lee looked around the currently empty room again as she took stock of her energy level. Definitely not great in terms of what she tried to have for a workout. Or for sparring.

But Ashton did say he was going to be working on his powers, not combat, so that boded well for this not being too much for her energy. Plus, she could always back out and not take part if she needed to.

It didn't take too long for objects to start appearing around the room and then Ashton was coming back down. Explaining what this scenario was about.

He wanted her to throw things? Trying to be accurate as part of him being able to teleport where he wanted to. That was definitely not what Lee had been expecting. Especially with him saying there would be wind to make it more difficult.

So why didn't he just do this outside then?

"Ok, so what kind of things are we throwing?" Lee asked. "And what do you mean 'the room will try to stop us'? How?"

>>> "Ok, so what kind of things are we throwing?" Lee asked. "And what do you mean 'the room will try to stop us'? How?"

Ashton looked around the room at the various scattered objects. Then He ordered the danger room ”More objects.”

More things appeared. Before, there had been stuff like frisbees and kites and balls, and other junk. Suppose it was easy to miss. Now, In addition to the previous things, there were things like grandfather clocks and alarm clocks and toaster ovens and kitchen sinks and you name it. All over the room. Ashton raised a hand, palm up. Like ‘eh?’

”The room will push against us or the objects with wind. I think Shin designed this one. No possible way I’m this creative. He might’ve used lasers or saw blades if this were higher difficulty, but we’re on a low setting.”

He looked at her to see if she was good to go.

Lee questioned what they were throwing, and Ashton responded by having the room create more objects. Objects that they were supposed to throw into the rings on the floor. In a program that Shin had apparently created.

This was going to be interesting to say the least.

"See. Lasers and saw blades are a perfect example of why you probably shouldn't go around telling random parents about the danger room," Lee said with a shake of her head.

"So you're aware, though, I suck at throwing," she let him know. "I'm much more effective at close quarters. So I hope you weren't expecting me to be too much help with throwing things accurately. But let's give this a try."