'Yes.' This is what Tricity wanted. They were working together now. Maybe she wouldn't have to up the danger... yet... Luke had sacrificed himself instead of letting more of the others 'die' and Ghost was now giving the team a window of few moments to attack the disorientated orbs. 'Yes.

She smiled as Steel swooped in to save Ghost from the impending 'death' the orbs were threatening from their lasers. Tricity actually felt the disorientation of the orbs she was controlling from Ghost's attack. 'Interesting.' She released immediately from those orbs and gained control of five more, sending them at high speed toward the group again. Tricity had managed to separate the mutants a bit now, making their defense somewhat weaker. It was likely a few more mutants would be joining Luke at the sidelines to be released...

She glanced at the scoreboard with a smirk and simultaneously released an assault of pellets and nets at the team once more.

Garrett felt the cold metallic floor under his bare right foot. He had his little contraption ready to go as he heard Maya call out. He looked and saw her working her wind magic on the orbs, holding them in a stable pattern. He smiled, realizing this would be his only chance at a win. He began trotting over to the arrangement of orbs above as they fought her ability to right themselves. He held the net by its ends, the weighted end hanging. He began a slow circular swing of the net as Sam rescued Maya from their now stationary attack.

Looking up, he tossed the net into the air in the middle of the orbs. It went up and then opened. It reminded him of the little parachute men you could get out of the little quarter machines at a grocery store. As the net unfurled it floated down over the orbs that were held as Maya's control lessened. Garret quickly jumped up and caugh the four corners, giving the sack of orbs a violent jerk downward. He heard them clunk and whizz in the improvised sack. He then began swinging the sack against the floor of the Danger Room until the orbs stopped making noises.

He dumped the remains of the orbs out on to the floor of the room, nodding and smirking. He hadn't even had to use his ability , but still made a difference. Looking back up to see what was going on, he caught at least fourty pellets in the face and chest, followed by several nets around his limbs and torso. He went down almost as hard as the orbs had. Multiple lights covered in a dazzling array as he lied there, half conscious from the assault. " Maybe they held a grudge...."

Raina thought she'd avoided everything and was clearly making jokes to Tricity when out of nowhere Luke slammed into her and she was sent sprawling. "Ahhh!" she cried out reaching around for something to stop her fall and finding what else but the floor. "gah" she moaned for a second and sat up to see Luke covered in nets. "Oh, Luke!" she called out embaressed she hadn't seen them coming. "You saved me from my own stupidity." she laughe blowing a kiss in a flirtatious way.

She stood back up and pretended to beat her chest. "Guess I need to avenege you... yarrr!" she was having too much fun with this. It had been way too long since she'd been able to blow off so much steam in a healthy way. It was nice.

"Alright Ghost!" she called out "make the best of it, this is only going to work once guys!" as the orbs blinked disoriented Raina let out a beautiful shrill note that coated the air with a chill. Rings of ice spidered across the orbs and with a lower note they tightened like elastics until three of the orbs popped. "Awesome!" she said letting her voice go back to normal watching the broken orbs fall to the ground. "We work better as a team then I-"

Bzzzzzzzzzz

Orbs 1 Raina 0. That would be the sound of getting pelted with pellets and a laser signifying Raina's "Death'

"Aww..." she groaned. "At least I took so many out" she said proudly. "Good luck guys!" and with that she trotted off to meet Luke on the sidelines.

"Thanks." she whispered "but I didn't do so great a job avenging you."

As the simulation began, Nathan started to toss fireballs at the orbs. None of them had come near enough for a close range attack yet. Besides, this was the simplest way he could think of to strike at the orbs. There was no sense in showing off, not yet anyway.

As Tricity said, the orbs were fast and smart. But Nathan managed to keep them at bay for the moment. As Riana was about to 'die' Luke heroically saved her but only to the loss of his 'life'.

Nathan struck as quick as he could, tossing fireballs at the orbs targeting Luke while hoping to get rid of them before the did Luke in. Just as the simultaneous beeps sounded, orbs erupted in flame and were dismantled. The move earned him more than a few pellets hitting his body.

Blast! I wasn't fast enough. I'll be faster next time, I promise. Nathan watched as his teammates continued to take out more orbs, but their losses were mounting up as well. They needed something more effective. Something ingenius apparently, due to the fact that the orbs learned more about them every second.

Five orbs were suddenly hurdling towards Nathan at tremendous speed. Reacting quickly, created a fire sword and swung with all his strength causing him to fall to one knee. An arc of fire left the blade and continued to head towards the oncoming orbs. Two of the orbs didn't process the attack fast enough and were caught in the blaze. I probably couldn't do that again if I tried.

The remaining orbs seemed to take the fall of their comrades personal, for Nathan was peppered by numerous pellets before he managed to roll out off the way.

A pain shot through Tricity's head as Raina's voice rang out and shook the orbs. She immediately released control and grabbed a hold of another pair. "We work better as a team then I...," Raina began, but Tricity had released more pellets and a laser at her teammate, signifying her 'death'. She smirked and giggled as Raina headed off the field for now.

Tricity quickly took control of a few more orbs and headed toward Nathan. Man, did she wish she could make a sword of electricity... He took down half of the orbs she'd sent his way with his attack. Very nice, however, the ones he'd missed were raining pellets down on him now with a net and laser on the way as he dodged as best he could.

'Who's gonna help him now?'

Things were getting pretty active now. Orbs were flying this way and that. X-Men members and mansion residents were doing what they could to take down the pesky objects. Most were holding their own while others sacrificed themselve's to save friends. Ali had never seen the Danger Room so active before. The last time she was in the room with alot of people was for the try-outs and they faced a walking robot army. This was a new ball game and the Headmistress was in command.

Ali took shots at orbs some of the others didn't see coming at them. The only time they knew an orb had been there was when it fellt near their feet smoldering. This was working out alright for helping the others. She noticed Nathan's actions in trying to help Luke though he was just a split second too late to save the teammate.

Another group of orbs targetted Nathan as Ali watched them dive for him. To her surprise Nathan created a sword made of fire and destroyed two orbs in one shot. He had more tricks than he lead onto during their date.

With the remaining three orbs still homing in on Nathan Ali quickly created a jet of heat to knock the pellets, net and orbs off their target. Once they flew back up to regroup Ali's eyes began to glow as she created what looked like a flattened disc of fire in the center of the Danger Room. The disc expanded as it reached out to touch the room walls.

"Everyone get down!"

The barrier of fire reached it's goals of touching the walls a few feet above everyone's heads and then was pushed upwards towards the ceiling. Ali's eyes were glowing brightly as she pushed the barrier higher and higher catching any orbs that tried to break through.

Okay. So getting rescued wasn't half bad, but once Ghost was being carried and not having to concentrate on her feet at all that freed her to fend off any orbs attempting to shoot pellets at Sam and herself. It also let her notice the FIREBALLS that the pyromancers had been flinging around. Unconsciously, Ghost's grip tightened on Sam's shoulders. There was a single orb that seemed hell bent on tagging Sam for his effort... Ghost was trying to concentrate enough to create a vacuum and implode the lil sucker when Ali, the fire lady, said to get down.

Ghost yanked as hard as she could on CS throwing her weight back as she did so to tip his balance so that they would both end up down or CS would have to drop her. Fire lady said to get down, Ghost was sure as heck gonna get down. Except for that one testy little orb. It spiraled into a death-dive and zipped toward the both of them firing a net as it did so. The little metallic orb came close to clipping Sam's shoulder and as a last ditch effort, Ghost sent a highly pressurized jet of air at the thing pushing it back and back and... ooops. It was flung right toward the back of Ali's head.

Getting out of a tangle of nets was a mess... a big mess... almost bordering on nightmare to be honest but with the utmost concentraiton Luke diligantly plowed his way through, until finally the offending items had slipped over his shoulders.

"Easy from here on out." Luke said with a slight grin to himself as he removed his arms and then pushed the net the rest of the way down to the floor.

"Thanks, but I didn't do so great a job avenging you." Raina suddenly whispered in his ear as she walked off the floor. With fighting to be untangled and everything Luke hadn't been paying attention to the battle but apprently the beautiful mermaid was... um... dead.

"No problem." Luke replied with a grin before reply with his own whisper. "You can make it up with our training on Saturday."

Springing nimbly back up to his feet Luke turned his attention back out to the battlefield. He wasn't sure if there would be a signal for him to jump back in or if this would be it until the end but on a positive note, at least he had front row seats for all of the action.

Sam was breathing heavily as he was skating as fast as he could he had to find a safe spot to let ghost back down. ‘What is it with these guys?’ thought Sam as he felt a pellet bounce off of his shoulder he felt the impact through the ice now the shots were getting harder and the Orbs were indeed learning no longer could Sam out maneuver them with ease. This was getting frustrating, he turned and sped left the orbs turned and sped left he turned right the orbs turned right. ‘We need something to take them all out at once…’ thought Sam.

On a turn left Sam saw a few fireballs, “Take it easy Seraph!” Sam called out as he felt Ghost’s hand tighten around his shoulder. Sam wondered why all of a sudden she would tighten the grasp around his shoulder. A brief flashback to the meeting came to mind when he thought why she would tighten the grip,

“Also, I seem to be quite combustible? So I would say fire is quite problematic for me."

Sam sighed as he now tried to avoid the flames as best he could as well as try to out maneuver the orb. Something had to be done, “Gho…” Sam didn’t finish because he heard the quite attractive fire elemental yell,

"Everyone get down!"

Sam watched in horror as a large spiral of flame started to spread aiming for the walls unfortunately for him and ghost they were slightly over the area where the flames where they were heading…’this is bad…’ thought Sam but then felt the weight go from under him as he felt Ghost struggle to one side. Sam didn’t fight the fall but instead let gravity take and fell still holding Ghost tight in his grip.

Sam heard a slight whoosh and looked back and saw a orb fly off in the direction of the fire girl, Sam was to far to react to it and worse yet the flames were getting closer. A net that was fired by the orb had hit the mark as Sam and ghost had become caught in the net.
Sam frowned as he saw the flames getting closer, “Shoot! Ghost hold on!” he knew her weakness and there was no way he would let her be effected by it.

Concentrating his power Sam formed a thick bubble of ice around them. It was the first time he ever reacted that fast to an oncoming attack and he hoped that the ice bubble hit the ground, or it would hold up against the flames. Sam muttered under his breath, “Sorry Ghost…” the inside of the bubble was as warm as he could make it he just hoped it was warm enough for Ghost.

People had been doing pretty well until Tricity apparently upped the danger a little. Luke fortunately saved Raina from plenty of nets sent her way. Unfortunately Streak wasn't quick enough to save her. However he was mad that Raina and Luke had 'died' and he wasn't able to save them. He knew he could have but right now it just made him mad that he hadn't. Enough of this. Time to stop holding back. He thought as he created a big shield on his arm. He looked around to see Seraph and Raven Fire get into the fun of the simulation. He'd not fought with Seraph probably ever, or maybe a long time ago, so it was interesting to watch him take out some orbs with a giant fire sword before getting attacked by pellets.

Streak ran over to where Seraph was laying and dove, sliding along the polished tile to where Seraph was. Since he was already on the floor he didn't need to get down when Ali created a giant revolving fire. Streak watched as the fire reflected in his eyes. That's a really cool trick. As he watched he looked for anymore orbs that might have gotten past Ali. Right now he didn't see any. Streak saw that Sam and Ghost were still above the giant circling fire. He knew exactly that he was going to have to save them. No one else seemed to be able to get there fast enough. Streak quickly jumped to his feet and took off, flying straight towards the fire and making his shield bigger as he flew higher. Apparently if he was under enough pressure he could fly with ease.

He thought the shield was big enough to shield sam and ghost, mostly from the fire. It would be better than nothing he thought. Streak flew straight into the rotating fire, being covered by his shield he didn't feel the heat much, he tried to angle himself so that Sam and ghost would be as protected as he could make them when they fell through the fire area.

(ooc: hope no one minds me deleting my other post, just thought I should do some good for the team and save someone

With all that was going on Nika was easily kept on her toes. Striking orbs and dodging their attacks as best she could. He nimble frame allowed her to bend, twist and flip which ever way she wanted to go.

All was working out pretty well overall. Then Raven Fire shouted and the woman looked like a human sunflare almost. Nika bolted for cover while her peripheral vision kept track of the flame attack that was growing ever rapidly.

Then something else came into direct sight. An orb was flying right for the back of Ali's head. Nika strained to move faster in a rolling maneuver that allowed her to kick one foot out and knock the stray orb into the wall before tucking back close to Nika's body.

This... This is what she wanted. Teamwork. Impressive.

Tricity closed her eyes and smiled. 'Let's make a team, then.' Her eyes opened once more and all the orbs in the room had stopped. They were simply floating in mid-air, waiting for her instruction. She pulled the god-mic to her mouth. "Excellent work guys. Now let's get a little dangerous."

She clicked a few buttons and started a new simulation. The training room below changed. The orbs vanished. The lights dimmed a moment, leaving them all in blackness, and then the scene slowly came back on again. They were in the city. In fact, they were in Times Square during the middle of the day... and it was completely deserted. No traffic, no people, no noise at all. Just the endlessness of tall buildings.

Tricity clicked one last button and got up from her chair before giving Katrina another wink. She jogged downstairs and opened the door to the simulation room where she seemingly came out of Macy's. Her teammates stood in the streets as she hurried over to meet up with them. "The real danger starts now. We don't work as a team, we don't live." Tricity lifted her head up toward the simulated sky and said, "Activate simulation now."

The noise was first. The obvious background noises of businesses and advertisements calling for the shoppers' attention. Next, the cars appeared, some having crashed into one another, most parked and empty in the middle of the streets. Many on fire. The people were last and always kept on. Waves of them came running passed in hysterics every twenty seconds or so in groups of twelve to fifteen. A chaotic scene.

The ground shook every couple of seconds. Something huge was coming at them from both ends of the Square. "Sentinels," Tricity began. "Robotic titans with lasers, missiles, nets, and the ability to fly. They can read your mutations and lock on to you for an attack." The ground shook again. "Their biggest weakness are their agility. Surrounding them can prove affective with the right plan." The first sentinel could be seen at the end of the long streets, stalking over toward them.

"The people will act as people. They will come in waves and tend to be a distraction and obstacle at times. Try not to get them killed. The less casualties during missions, the better." She nodded at the cars lining the streets. "These can be good barricades and shields if a sentinel is baring down on you." The ground shook again and the sentinel behind them was now visible through the smoke of a group of burning cars.

"If anyone feels the need to leave, now would be the best time, otherwise," Tricity breathed in and pulled in the electricity from some of the running, but abandoned cars, "Let's make friends with the sentinels."

As the simulation ended and the landscape changed, Luke slowly walked back into the center where his other team mates stood. Picking up the silver staff where it had fallen the blind man slowly twirled it, careful not to hit anyone as he scanned the area around him.

"Sentinels, Robotic titans with lasers, missiles, nets, and the ability to fly. They can read your mutations and lock on to you for an attack. Their biggest weakness are their agility. Surrounding them can prove affective with the right plan."

Raising an eyebrow in curiosity Luke turned his head toward Tricity as though glancing at her before turning his attention down the street toward where the vibrations were emanating from. How in the world did she expect him to be an asset against huge robots? He didn't exactly have a power that could be used to fight them.

"The people will act as people. They will come in waves and tend to be a distraction and obstacle at times. Try not to get them killed. The less casualties during missions, the better."

And there it was... the option that seemed to fit with Luke's abilities the best. Sure he couldn't actually fight the robots but maybe he could help on the crowd control side of things.

"These," Tricity said with a nod toward the cars, "can be good barricades and shields if a sentinel is baring down on you. If anyone feels the need to leave, now would be the best time, otherwise, let's make friends with the sentinels."

Luke's mind was racing as he tried to remember how everyone had described their powers. He wasn't sure but he didn't think that Seizure's power would really work against robots so maybe they could work on the crowd control side of things together.

"I gotta take background in this fight." Luke said just loud enough for everyone to hear above the rumbling and rattling. His voice was calm but anyone that knew him or was paying close attention would be able to identify the tinge of regret in his words, "I'll work on crowd control. Focus on the robots and I'll do my best to keep the people alive."

Right at this moment Luke was really wishing he had his collapsible staff with it... it was so much easier to carry but there was no way he was just going to toss aside the only weapon he had either. Slipping away from the rest of the group, Luke made his way toward the sidewalks, staff in hand as he continued to sweep the area with his sonar. The important thing was locating the civilians and then getting them to safety as quickly as possible.

Streak landed back on the ground after everything had stopped. He shrunk his shield to its normal size and waited as Tricity walked down to join in their fun and games. He listened to Tricity explain what was going on in the scene around them. He recognized the place they were at but he didn't understand what was happening until she had told them about the sentinels. Streak couldn't see the sentinels yet but he could feel the ground vibrate with each step they took closer to the group. Once Tricity had finished her briefing of the simulation Streak started thinking about what he could do to help everyone win.

Streak formed a sword and started looking around for the best course f action to take. "Well, what do y'all think? Shall we go make some friends?" He gave a wink to Sam. They worked well together and hopefully this simulation would prove that. Streak started to walk forward casually. Unfortunately the people were preventing him from making much headway and so he found himself having to walk on the tops of cars as he made his way closer to the sentinel in front of the group. "Come on guys." He said picking up the pace. Was it a bad thing that Streak was enjoying this so much? Or was it a good thing? Did everyone enjoy these battle simulations as much as he did or was there something else inside him that he got to unleash when he was fighting other mutants or even simulations?

Whatever it was, these questions weren't Streak's biggest concern at the moment. He was more focused on winning this simulation and seeing every one at their full strength. However, he did notice that there were a few people who'd been especially nonexistent in the simulations so far. He knew these simulations weren't friendly to Garret and maybe the others that haven't been that active although they might have more luck with this simulation than the previous one.

Tricity's words of praise were short lived as the Danger Room took on a new look. Now the scenery was outdoors. Ali recognized the area. Times Square. People and cars were everywhere and in the distance one of the described giant robots was visible and heading their way.

Luke offered to help get the people out of the area. That was a smart move. Streak on the other hand was getting a little ahead of himself. He had formed a weapon for himself and was already moving off to engage the monumentally sized creation.

"Streak! Wait!"

Ali created a wall of fire in front of Streak to stop him from getting too far ahead.

"We need to attack together like Tricity said. That thing is too strong for us to attack one at a time. Let me draw it in closer and then we can surround it."

Looking around at the others Ali could see them getting ready to either help attack or to help protect. Figuring she could help in either roll Ali decided to help with the attack. Being a fire elemental with the ability to create her own fire was a huge bonus to her tactics. Ali fired a fireball at the robot down the street. The fireball impacted against the chest of the robot leaving a blackened mark. She wasn't putting much into her attack as it was only an attention getter.