A training room, hh? Not only that but a training room that was dangerous and was built for the sole person or training and perfecting mutant abilities? It’s not like his powers could be perfected anymore (how you give more luster to a diamond?), but there was still intrigue and interest there. How could there not? Atticus never had access to stuff like this where he was from. He was lucky if he and the mates could find an empty basketball court at the park for a game or two. Once again, the rich (even here in America) flaunting their wealth above all.

So it was only fair that Atticus take a whack at this “Danger Room” and really test its boundaries. Sure the counselor, Grandma T or whatever her name was, had said he needed to be supervised by someone from staff to sign off on such an exercise, but what did she know? Nothing, so long as he kept his time here quiet enough for no one to notice.

Standing in the middle of the empty room, Atticus Dashwood, dressed in jeans and a gray hoodie, yawned as he looked around at all the emptiness. It was a simple matter to melt the locking mechanism on the door. Easily granted him entry. But once he was in, he wasn’t sure where to start. It was a whole lot of nothing.

”Bollocks…” he said with a sigh. Snapping his fingers, the dark skinned young man continued to look around. There were no keyboards, screens, not even a big red “On” button. ”Man…what a scam. How do you even activate…”

As soon as he said the word, lights came on and walls seemed to shift. A mechanical voice spoke out from nowhere.

”Activating Danger Room…Difficulty settings…Default…Ready to begin?”

”Huh? Wait no. Umm…” He didn’t think it was going to work but now that things were finally starting, how could he not partake? ”Max difficulty.”

There was a beep and a long pause. The room adjusted further.

”Activity Danger Room…Difficulty setting…Maximum…if this is correct, please confirm and remember to only set difficulty to maximum if entire veteran team is present.”

Atticus rolled his eyes. He wasn’t some baby. He was certainly he could handle whatever these rich folks considered dangerous. So with a nod of his head he firm shouted ”Confirm!” and sat back and waited.

At first there was nothing. Just an empty room with the sounds of movement in its walls. For a moment Atticus thought maybe the system was broken again but quickly changed his mind when the scenery around him shift to that of a cityscape but all the signs were unreadable to him. Looked like some kind of Japanese, maybe? Heroic music began to play then and suddenly from the nowhere, jumped out several figures who landed in varying poses. All were colorful, all were helmeted, and some seemed to have animal or dinosaur insignias upon their chests or insect-like designs. What were they? And why were they synchronized? And why were they all jumping towards him with fists drawn back!?

As he approached the danger room, she noted some things out of place. First off, the locking mechanism was melted. Not broken. Melted. She noticed it. He did not. Secondly, the room set aside for Their training session had been assigned as for just the two of them. It had not been allocated for a third. Why, then, was there a third?

The Asian math teacher ahead of her caught on a few steps too slow for the young woman to appreciate. He always did seem like he was calculating a thousand things at once, missing a lot of stuff right in front of him, in favor of noticing some wild thing over there. Sometimes, it could be useful, but in this scenario… the brunette swept past him.

”Someone is within. Clearly.” She said coldly.

”Lenna…” The Asian said reproachfully.

She was uncertain what reason he had for any reproach. Her assessment had been flawless.

Lenna peered her head into the room. She saw a strange scenario, with colorfully garbed people and a man about her age standing amid a cityscape. It looked like Japan. Her brow furrowed.

”He is-“ She began.

”Lenna,” Shin cut in.

”Cute…” She trailed.

The Asian sighed. ”Go to your room. We can train you later. I’ve got to—“

Exceedingly violent sounds were coming from the danger room now. The most dangerous sounds. The highest difficulty settings had been unleashed. He could almost see the thoughts in her head as her eyes widened in sudden interest at the rapid exchange going on just through the doorway. Sounded like the kid was already fighting for his life. He knew how hard the simulation was. It just might have been one of his.

Lenna sighed, and turned to leave. ”Do not immediately shut it off. Give him a chance to prove he can handle the situation. We do not need to coddle people. And he chose it. Do not doubt people when they have self-confidence, until they prove themselves unable to back it up.

Shin sighed as she walked away. He rubbed at the back of his neck, then did an about-face and stepped inside the danger room.

Yeah. There was some chaos going on now. The kid was fighting a group of people in armor. People they had to be careful to be non-descript regarding, or else they might find lawyers on their doorsteps.

They attacked the young man with punches and kicks, in spite of the fact some had big swords at their sides, one, a bow an arrow that never shot for lethality except against monsters, and a comically large laser gun.. they chose fists. And he— well…

Shin crossed his arms again, and leaned against the danger room wall for a minute. The wall looked like a building. It said “Kaiba Corp” on a plaque on the wall. That was a silly detail. He was wearing a big flowing white coat too…

He would give the guy just a minute before he swept in to protect him. He was already prepping his own transformation. That’d take a minute or two. Until then he’d give him a chance. Like she said… he got a chance.

Okay. So this wasn't going as originally planned. Atticus has all the confidence in the world. There hasn't been many problems that he hasn't been able to solve with either intimidation, charm, or melting it down into slag. Now, apparently, he found one of those rare situations where he had absolutely no idea what to do.

It didn't start that bad. When the multi-colored knobs had launched themselves forward, Atticus wasted no time throwing himself backwards to dodge. As he rolled he tried to think of all the things that made him angry: the injustice of the wealthy, what his grandfather did to his mother, the fact that Muscle Man was getting a standalone film before Catwing. All of it bubbled up as rage within the young man's chest. So much heat generated within him that a yellow-orange light began to emit from within, making a silhouette of his ribcage. Eyes turning white hot, he raised his hands and grim the vents in his palms flames erupted.

Colorful warriors with displayed weapons in no way used were swept up in flames, turning and wheeling through the air. A could of them were tossed aside but far more seemed unfazed, mainly red and yellow ones. It was almost like they had an affinity for the element. Atticus then watched as those he had defeated had been replaced by others. Similar colors and designs, but different enough to look like they were from a completely different team. Who were these guys?

Atticus did not have enough time to think about it. The rainbow warriors came on in waves. Some easily falling to his fire abilities, others seemingly posted up by it. The heatmancer attempted to switch things up. Using makeshift weapons he could find around him or holding in the heat in his hands or feet to deliver a harsh blow. It was a valiant effort but soon enough Atticus was discovering his limit as his flames began to dim and a well placed shot from another warrior atomized a sizeable hole in his shirt.

This momentary faltering caused nearly it for him. Atticus was surrounded. There were so many of this multi-colored wankers that it looked almost at if he had not defeated any at all! Panicked by this thought, tore shirt half hanging off his lean but muscular frame, Atticus began to back off.

Maybe…Maybe due I've he had bitten off more than he could chew?

He watched the guy fight. Fire was the weapon of choice, which was interesting. He had helped one fire mutant train before, Kate. He has a few thoughts on that. Often, fire was deeply connected to emotions. Some feared their own gifts. Some had to have special bedsheets or bedrooms. One bad dream…

The young man did alright to start, using improvised weapons on top of flashes of flame. But… wave after wave came. Unrelenting. The man grew tired. Who wouldn’t?

He was surrounded. He’d been hit. It seemed it was time.

Decisions decisions.

The transformation he had mentally been prepping was still an option, but if He did that and jumped in to help, He might get attacked. Mistakes are made. Probably best to save that for later.

He could end the session. Lame. Nobody wanted that. What a cop out that would be. No “Yes, and” at all. Just resignation.

Giant tortilla chip? Took time. Big sword? Time.

Whatever. Something. Anything.

He ran at the group surrounding him, coat Kealey had made flaring in his wake. Big, white, long. The wedding ring on his finger drifted up and away as He focused upon it. It was made of shards. Loads of tiny shards. Triangular barriers he had made. Shin sent it flying into the back of the first armored figures helmet as he thrust out one hand. The figure staggered forward like they’d been hit by a pitched fastball in the back of the head. He tore his hand back, and the ring sailed to him, then, thrust, launch! It hit the next. Yank thrust. The next.

They started turning as it happened. He could tag several in rapid succession, and they noticed their allies stumbling forward.

” Hey guys! Look at me, the big, dumb distraction!” Shin laughed raucously. Then, as they all faced him, he jerked to a halt. And started running backwards, away from them without ever looking away. The fingers of one hand watched the taunting “come on” gesture.

They followed.

Her hoped the young man could take a breather, and utilize this opening. Capitalizing on a bunch of open backs.

Atticus…was…hurting. The ground was suddenly closer to him than he realized. He was down on one knee, his chest burned where the atomizing laser had struck, and the flames in his chest were sputtering and smoke was coming out of his mouth. He had always thought he had boundless anger, enough to full flames as hot as the sun if he needed to. But this place, whatever it is, was forcing him to his absolute limits. The constructs around him, be they robots, holograms, hard light, whatever the case, made it impossible for Atticus to think straight. There were just so many of them in different forms, different designs. Some armored, some in just spandex, some of them animal, or element, or even car themed. It was as if there were endless variations of them that would take an eternity to go through. What were they?

A female one, colored pink and with a heart-shaped visor on her helmet somersaulted closer and managed to drive her white boot into his chest. Atticus shouted and stumbled back onto his butt. A growl formed around his lips as he took a weak swipe at her from the ground, only to be met with another firm kick to his chin. For a brief moment, Atticus only saw stars of all the colors of the rainbow. And then, as he watched the pink one pull out a bow (oddly with no string or arrows) and awaited his end.

Only it never came. There was a sudden movement and towards the back one of the armored ones faltered forward. The movement was so sudden and off putting that multiple warriors turned to watch what happened. Atticus couldn’t see from the floor but shouting followed as someone called out to them, told them to look at him, and then the voice began to move away. He wanted to reach out, he wanted to ask for help, but as he watched all the warriors turn their backs towards him, he narrowed his eyes.

Opportunity.

Anger flared in him again. How dare they hurt him. How dare they touch him. How dare they mare him. The orange-yellow light in his chest began to burn brighter and firmer, filling his body as the smoke dissipated and only heat and flame remained. More of his clothing began to burn off then, falling into smoldering ashes on the floor. His gaze snapping onto the backs of many of the chasing warriors, Atticus suddenly slammed one foot into the ground.

A burst of fire erupted from that one foot, launching him upwards into the air, higher than he could have jumped on his own. Palms out forward, he screamed in bloody rage as all his fire and heat collected into his palms and were released from the vents in a surge of fire and heat that rippled the very air around him. The backs of several warriors were struck as fire wrapped around them and collected into a seemingly endless whirlwind of blazing fire.

Landing on the ground, Atticus’ yellow eyes flashed dangerously as he collected more heat into his palms and his other foot. Anger overtaking him, he shouts to those warriors still remaining. ”Come on, bruv!! Who's next?! I’ll show you why you don’t mess with the INFERNO!!”

Suuuper.

The guy capitalized on an open back. He launched himself into the air, then let loose a torrent of flames that hit several of the fighters.

You know, in the real world, that sort of thing would be frowned upon. Now that he considered things, they would have to work on figuring out what sorts of uses his flames could have that weren’t melting the bodies of his enemies. Or options that left him more fully clothed… since he was losing some things with every burst of fire.

Shin watched the people dance in flames. “An endless whirlwind of blazing fire”? Neat.

The guy landed, fires burning and ready to go.

>>> ”Come on, bruv!! Who's next?! I’ll show you why you don’t mess with the INFERNO!!”

Ahem. Yes, aaaand…

”Computer, please? Pause Scenario.” Shin said to the ceiling.

Everything froze. Including the people on-fire. Which looked weird.

Tmp tmp tmp. His footsteps were the only sound in the room as the Asian approached the fiery youth,

Shin took a deep breath, smiled, and waved.

”Hi. I’m Shard. AKA, Tetsuya Shinbo. I see you found the Danger Room alright. We, uh, saw your handiwork in the locks.” He scratched his cheek awkwardly. ”Love the enthusiasm, hate the destruction of property. Can we stop for a minute and talk about that? And maybe, about some thoughts I’ve got for the session, so you can finish it on a high note?”

Felt kind of awkward, to pause right in the middle, and right as he was all powered up to rain more… fire… on the backs of these nice folks. Really, they needed to find a way to fight with fire that didn’t leave everyone dead. As a teacher, he felt compelled to broach the subject tactfully.

This was it. It was a fight to the death now. Atticus wasn’t entirely sure what these things were or how the school managed to make them feel so damn real. Whatever it was, whatever programming, magic, learning computer they used, he was going to make damn sure that it never forgot his name. He would burn it into the memory of whatever this things and forever scar it for messing with the Inferno.

But, as he unleashed his fires and practically burned them all to a crisp…they suddenly stopped. Frozen in place, the fires crackling around their bodies but they paid it no real heed save for just standing there, still as mannequins. It was unnerving.

It was then that Atticus remembered that he heard something through the pounding in his ears. Words spoken, like a command, but not issued at him. Then there was movement. Then he saw a figure strolling through this photograph of a crowd, and Atticus realized it was another person. At first he wondered if maybe it was another hologram or robot, but the person was too lively. Too real.

And then he spoke.

An introduction was given. The name of where they were. An observation of Atticus’ entry. And a criticism? Atticus stared at him, a little dumbfounded, and to take a long moment to find his voice. Was this guy, this “Shard” really trying to tell him what to do? Soon Atticus staring became incredulous and then humored and then openly mocking.

“Oh, alright bruv,” He says with a shake of his head. ”You look like a math teacher. What’d you know about what I can do? I was just about to smoke all these robot-light-things. I had them on the ropes. So who’re you to give me pointers?”

How would he react? That’s what Shard wondered? Would he be defensive, understanding, some place in-between? Students had reacted myriad ways in his presence. It was not always the simplest thing to predict the future. But, he had to help the future generations. He had to try. Put himself out there, and TEACH. Because knowledge is power. And—

Yeah those frozen power characters were unnerving. Note to self: yeah, more of this more often. Put people properly off. Makes them unpredictable. Causes growth.

Atticus stared at him, a little dumbfounded.

That was his name, right? A teacher needs to know their students names. And he had memorized so many. The mnemonic for this one had been… “Atticus- atty- ‘ats a lott o fire, innit? Bruv…” he didn’t often share mnemonics, for obvious reasons.

Anyways.

Openly mocking. Yeah, that was his response. SYUPER.

>>> “Oh, alright bruv,” Atticus said, with a shake of his head.

SEE!! There, right there. The mnemonic. Bruv. He had not been exaggerating. He had been doing this teaching thing long enough to get some things right. Mostly.

Kid kept talking. Digging, really. Their own grave. Shin smiled tightly and listened.

>>> “You look like a math teacher. What’d you know about what I can do? I was just about to smoke all these robot-light-things. I had them on the ropes. So who’re you to give me pointers?”

”Well, I do happen to be a math teacher. And Japanese. Anyways! He smiiled.

”Smoking things isn’t quite what x men do. Unless we’re fighting non-living things. If they’re alive, people start doing wild things like calling the police, so- let’s try this session again, and go non-lethal.” Like the comics code version of being a human torch here. ”No openly burning people, no ‘people become ashes!’ Use your brain, create areas people won’t want to enter. Back them into corners, situations where they want to avoid your power! Webs of fire, cages, walls. Be smarter than the brainless AI I programmed. Aaaaand, go—“

Shin quickly directed the danger room to proceed with the scenario, through a verbal command. Before ‘Atticus- Atty- ‘atts a lot of fire, innit, bruv’… could react to very sensible suggestions of protocol: namely, don’t burn people alive.

The fire and the disrespect burned bright in Atticus’ eyes as he looked upon Shin. Atticus didn’t do well with authority figures on the regular, but after being embarrassed and nearly killed by a bunch of machines and hard light constructs, he was looking to lash out at any and everyone who could be perceived as better than him. And right now, Shin’s attitude, his word choice, even if that is not what it was meant to do, Atticus Dashwood took it as offensive as a slap to the face. And he didn’t do well when people gave him orders.

So he was a math teacher. Atticus wasn’t sure how to react to that news. He looked like he taught math but the majority of math teachers that he knew didn’t look like they could walk into a room full of robots to order them around. That seemed like another level of intelligence and/or confidence.

And then he went on. X-Men. Trying to be moral. Try again but this time with no casualties, even for the enemy. Atticus had thought this would go elsewhere, where he would be told rules and given threats about expulsion for breaking into a highly secret training room. Instead it seemed as if this guy wanted him to run through the exercise again – but with more challenges.

”No burning alive? Bruv, they’re not even real!” he started to argue. But, as the simulation began to whirl back into operation, Atticus could already see that the colorful warriors were beginning to slowly move back into action.

Great.

Atticus wanted wholeheartedly to just walk out. To flip off the authority and just do anything else. But it seemed that it would be impossible. If he walked out now, he was admitting defeat and that he couldn’t do it. If he stayed and managed to pass the stupid test then he could prove just how good he really was. Whatever. Not like he needed the approval.

So, rather than shoot Shin anymore sass, Atticus just scoffed and turned back around to face the rainbow brigade. Hands up, feet burning, the heatmancer turned to look them all solidly in the helmets and just grinned. He wasn’t going to back off from a challenge. So when the first of warriors moved, Atticus already had a plan in action.

He was a heatmancer, not a fremancer. He didn’t know how to make nets or cages out of fire, but he could definitely start controlling the environment. As a group of colorful warriors charged, fists up and running in unison, Atticus roared and shot a plume of fire off to the side. The flames immediately ate through a lamppost that sent it toppling down in front of the warriors. As they skidded to a stop, Atticus raised one foot, the heel of which was glowing white hot, and he slammed it down upon the concrete. Fire and heat erupted outward, melting down a path in front of him that turned from solid concrete into bubbling slag. The river growing, Atticus grinned as he made the moat, effectively boxing those warriors away from him. But, he wasn’t checking all his sides.

Another warrior, a red one, leapt from an area nearby, joined by one dressed in green. The duo quickly engaged with Atticus as he tried to defend himself but found that his defenses were severely lacking. He wanted nothing more than to burn them up but, trying to keep Shin’s request in mind, he did different. Raising the heat from his body, Atticus burned brighter and hotter, to the point that the heat around them was getting unbearable. Soon enough the two warriors began to weaken and slacken, their “bodies” inside the costumes sweating and overheating so much they couldn’t think straight. Once they collapsed, Atticus calmed enough to lower the heat. He then shot Shin a cocky look.

”Better?”

>>> “No burning alive? Bruv, they’re not even real!” Atticus started to argue.

Shin thought to himself, ‘well Attticus, I have high expectations for you and think you will go far. You can do hard things. You get better every day.’

He thought those sorts of thoughts about every student, but— well. Atticus had fire, which was one of the hardest elements to work with. Just because it burns. Other elements have less chance of mortality.

But he never shared these thoughts, because the scene went back into order, and the kid had to go back into the swing of things. Shin had not liked the fire in his eyes before he’d restarted the scenario, though… the way the boy had looked at him when he’d been getting lectured had seemed uber angry.

There was a moment’s hesitation, then the boy scoffed and stepped into action. Seemed he had a plan.

Shin watched. As he did, he casually formed a lime green triangular shard platform on the ground. It took a few seconds. He walked over to stand on it, when it was done being made. If the simulation attacked him, he would just fly away. Out of reach. He wasn’t going to step in again, unless the boy needed help. This was his simulation to win.

His first part of his plan involved destruction of property. The career history for Shin wailed, crying out the “I used to be a cop, stop, that’s illegal” wail of helplessness. He disregarded it. X men break things all the time. He was pretty sure the city had insurance for it. Or else the mansion paid. Thank god for deep pocketed investors.

The falling lamp post did stall people, though. Non-lethally. Good good. A step forwards for Atty. He followed it up with more costly destruction of property. A street, this time. Hooray!

Shin started hovering several feet above the danger room floor. He took on an aerial view. Away from the heat blooming off the street.

It was a good moat. Against most of the crew. Two jumped him from behind. He needed to work on his martial defenses. Maybe Shin could teach him some moves. Or Sam could. Instead of punching and kicking, Atticus got heated up. Unbearably so.

The heat got so bad, the fighters collapsed from exhaustion. Another benefit would have been, if he were hot to the touch, people would not want to touch him. Two-for-one. Not bad.

Atticus lowered the heat, and turned to look at him.

“Better,” Atticus asked.

Shin was actually floating in the air and not quite where he was looking.

The voice from above called ”Much better. Good move with making your body hot. They won’t want to touch you, and just being around you is unpleasant. Smart.”

He thought maybe he ought to clarify that last comment with a caveat (when you’re using your power), but figured ‘eh.’ Atticus surely knew he meant that. It was implied.

He was not going to lecture him on the destruction of city streets or lamp posts. He had not said ‘no melting lamp posts.’ If a situation called for drastic measures such as that, an X man assisting on solving that problem was probably worth the price of one section of city street.

He moved to land next to the group of fighters Atticus had stranded. Part of him wanted to showboat, and knock them all out. That seemed egregiously flashy. So he just told the danger room the scenario was over. The figures and city scape became blank white room.

”In a team situation, your teammates will probably help you take care of the people you’re stranding. And they will watch your back. Keep practicing with the things I’ve mentioned already, and you’ll definitely improve. You’ve already got some nice strength. Strategy takes practice.”

Atticus had…improvised. Not his best work but it was fast thinking for him. Managing to split off part of the group and heat exhaust the rest had been a brilliant strategy in his mind. If he wasn’t supposed to flame-broil them then this was a good enough option. He knew when he did a good job and this time was certainly it. How could it not be? His abilities weren’t meant for those with a soft touch but still he should have managed something passable.

Standing up straight, his hands poised to produce more flames, he kept looking around with suspicion as to what he could do next. He managed to give himself breathing room but if the rest of these guys lunged or passed his moat of bubbling tar, then he was going to have a real problem on his hands. Burning hotter was always an option but he also didn’t want to have to choke those who were already down. Atticus had a feeling that would also lose him marks.

But, to his surprise, the multicolored fighters had not come after him any further. Instead everything just…stopped. And not even that, the entire world around him ate away at itself until everything vanished into the ether and all that was left was a vast, empty room of white and coldness. Kind of reminded him of a training stage in some of his favorite fighting games.

Oh crap. Was he supposed to fight the teacher now? OH. It. Was. On-

He blinked. There was praise thrown his way. Not the glowing review he had been expecting (and deep down desiring) but it was still approval. His chest puffed out a little. But then the lecture began. Something about teammates and working together. He was man enough to be a team on his own and with his abilities there was little to stand up against him. Still, as much as he wanted to throw snark back at Shin, he managed to maintain some degree of control.

”Yeeeah…um…whatevs,” he says, stuffing his hands back into the pockets of his hoodie. ”Manage to pass your test? When do I get the wicked uniform that doesn’t burn off me shoulders every time I use my powers?”

>>> ”Yeeeah…um…whatevs,” Atticus said, stuffing his hands back into the pockets of his hoodie. ”Manage to pass your test? When do I get the wicked uniform that doesn’t burn off me shoulders every time I use my powers?”

Atticus had seemed to almost pick himself up a little when Shin spoke to him, before quickly reasserting the snark. On the teen scale, though, the snark levels were a little low. He could have done a lot more.

When did the kid get a uniform? Who made the uniforms these days? Kealey had, but there was another person. He had not really met them, but— well. He would have to speak with Sam about meeting them, some time. Kealey usually made his stuff, but the new person probably worked wonders of their own.

Shin shrugged his shoulders. Atticus was too old for X-kid, so he’d probably start as a trainee. ”Uniform, we can probably get you some training clothes sooner, rather than later. If you wanted to join the x men, you work a few missions side by side with a full team member, then take a test for trainee. Then you earn full status with more missions. At some point during that, Javi, I think their name is(?), would probably make you a costume. Or my wife could make something sleeveless. I don’t know much about fireproof clothing or unstable molly-whatevers or anything. Did you have a design in mind, or just the generic black and yellow, eye blinding yellow, or leather?”

They made pleather, too. In any color under the sun.