She'd asked for a 'next'. She was getting a 'next'. "Okay," Shin said. "Get ready..."

The hamster grew again. Cheeks bulged grotesquely, eyes widened. Something popped in a spray of black and red confetti! A clown nose jutted up towards the ceiling provocatively, through the multi-colored rain. The cleft of a chin followed, then the neck, the arms. Soon, the entire clown was wobbling a tipsy dance to the disco beat. It was a familiar clown, or at least, Kealey would be familiar with it. It was the same clown from GARO. Right now, it was stuck in its mime stage. A mad funhouse cackling crackled from the speakers, mixing with the disco music and warping it. It took on a funhouse lilt.

The clown stood up and took a step back and glanced around the room, hands on his hips. His eyes caught Kealey. A cheery grin popped onto his face. "Teeheehee," he giggled. Then, his attention shifted to something behind her. He barked a laugh. With a single jump he somersaulted over Kealey to land behind her, a metal rod in each hand. The rods clashed with a blade. A projection of Shin in his GARO coat blocked the attack.

Shin's voice spoke over the intercom. "Protect the Shin. But..." The music cut off. The room blackened for a second. When the lights came back on, the Danger Room was filled to capacity. An army of Shins surrounded Kealey and the clown. The Shin broke the clash, vanishing amongst the others. "You'll have to focus on the clown to accomplish the feat."

Each Shin had a different emotion, ranging from rage to happiness, warm and fuzzy, all the way to bloodcurdling. Compared to the clown's old hamster mix of sadistic mirthful elation, it'd be hard to point out which Shin figured Kealey would have more trouble dealing with. The monster of a clown, or him.

This was kind of twisted. What the hell? He suddenly questioned what he was doing here. Even he'd have nightmares.

Shin leaned forward and spoke into the intercom one last time, then stepped back. "Good luck. Begin."

And all of a sudden, things started moving as the Shin battle royale heated up.

She’d wanted more, and Kealey got more. Her eyes mirrored the hamster as it grew, until they couldn’t open any wider. The nose popped out and the blond let out a small gasp. That clown was familiar. Blue eyes darted up to where she knew Shin was, then back down at the growing monstrosity in front of her.

It started to dance. Kealey shuddered.

She’d asked for more…and had definitely gotten more. The clown locked eyes with her. Kealey grimaced at its emotions, they were exactly what she’d imagined the Garo clown’s would be. The clown leaped into the air and Kealey pivoted to follow its motion, ready to put her novice self-defense skills to use if necessary.

Metal hit metal and the blond gasped when she saw Shin’s blade crossed with the bars the clown had picked up. When had he come down from the control room? Was he going to fight with her now? Would they defeat the clown together? A voice sounded through the speakers again, and Kealey frowned. That voice should have been coming from Shin…who was fighting the clown. Kealey’s eyes widened at about the same time the lights went out. They came back on a moment later, but it had been long enough for fear to blossom in Kealey’s chest, strong enough to nearly block out the emotions of the sick clown. The lights came back with a flood of emotion and Kealey’s wide eyes took in the scene with mottled disbelief and muted slight-horror.

There were so many Shin’s. With so many emotions.

The one who had crossed blades with the clown stepped back, and Kealey half-followed him. She was confused. There were so many conflicting emotions. She was supposed to stop the clown? Protect the Shin? All the Shins? They were all feeling so many things…it was a lot. A whole lot.

Kealey wanted to call out and put an end to the exercise before it even started. This was too much…how was she supposed to deal with this range of emotion, especially when it was all coming from Shin…or things that looked so much like him it almost made her stomach hurt.

The clown. The clown was there somewhere. Suddenly…Kealey remembered what it did…and the Shin’s started to react. Laughter started to fill the room, but it was a strange laughter, nearly hysterical in pitch. The holo-Shin’s started to fight each other. That’s what this clown did…he got people to fight each other…until they died.

Even if they weren’t real Shins…Kealey couldn’t let that happen.

All the clones were prancing around now. One hit another and burst out laughing, then continued to laugh when yet another pushed him down. They were a bundle of violence and glee. It made Kealey almost want to join in as much as it bothered her to watch.

She had to make it stop.

She surveyed the scene, a full-out emotion wipe was out of the question…there were simply too many Shins running around. The clown was there somewhere too, and Shin had said focus on him was the key. Kealey scanned the growing crowd with her eyes, how id a clown that size blend in so well in a room of clones? Fine she thought if eyes won’t work…

Kealey reached out with her mind, trying to feel the many little bubbles of emotion in the room. Some were gleeful, some were warm and fuzzy, some were absolutely blood curdling. So many emotions…

Kealey bushed over them all as fast as she could. There was one…sadistic, happy, powerful…it felt powerful, like it was running the show. Eyes that Kealey hadn’t realized she shut flew open and she struck out with her powers, muting everything but the happy. The last thing she needed was him getting mad…if it was actually the clown she’d managed to find.

OOC: Feel free to RP her having emotionally messed with one of the clones instead of the clown if you want to keep this simulation going for another post or so. Failing a bit would definitely be a good lesson.

Shin could see the confusion on her face as she reacted to the situation. It was an overwhelming situation. He'd wanted it to be. She'd wanted to train under intense situations, and he'd given her her wish. Still... it wasn't exactly fun for him seeing Kealey under all that stress.

He was somewhat glad she didn't give up right away. No. He was glad for it. But it meant he had to see her deal with all that some more. He'd liked the scenario idea when he'd conceived of it, but now... yeah. It was twisted. He agreed.

Kealey did her best.

It was not good enough.

She missed the clown. She got a Shin clone. A very happy, now, Shin clone.

Happy was bad in this case. Shin clones scattered due to happiness and swordplay, like tomatoes in a blender, left and right.

Shin pressed the communicator as Shin clone rushed through the fallen Shins, sword drawn and ready. Behind him, the clown cackled, belly rolling with that sickly erratic laughter.

"Yeah. I'm calling this." Shin said.

The danger room's contents vanished... just as Shin Clone's blade pressed gladly, millimeters away from Kealey's throat.

This got worse and worse by the moment. There were Shin’s everywhere and Kealey simply didn’t know what to do to fight them. There were too many emotions. She’d asked for a distracting situation…and that’s exactly what Shin had given her. Sure, it could have been a little easier the first time, but was something worth doing if it wasn’t done right? Kealey wasn’t sure…but man, maybe this was done a little too right.

She aimed for the clown, missed and got a clone. Great. Now there was a slap happy clone running around…just what she needed. The clown was really doing his job now and the clones were running around like crazy people, swords flying….man, it was a lot. Kealey was totally overwhelmed. This was going to be bad…things that happened in the danger room felt like they happened for real. She winced as the clone came at her…just in time for Shin to decide to call the simulation.

That sword had been so close. Kealey shuddered. This had not been her favorite simulation. Definitely not. Up she looked in the direction of the control room and heaved a sigh of relief. The lingering morbid happiness made her shudder again and she called, voice slightly weary, ”I think that was a good idea…I’m not sure I’m ready for that clown yet. He’s scary enough by himself. We should keep it in mind for later though.”

"We can work up to it," Shin agreed. "But until you tell me you're ready, I think the training will be focusing on lesser evils. That simulation... yeah... I don't like seeing you scared like that." He finished decisively. "I'm coming down." He did.

A minute or so later, Shin stepped out the door, rejoining Kealey in the Danger Room. He smiled at her. "Are you alright? Want waffles now?" Because after dealing with a rough simulation like that, it was a good idea to soothe the frayed nerves with good stuff. Waffles were such a good thing. This was their story.

Kealey realized she was shaking a little bit as Shin spoke. He said they wouldn’t do that type of simulation again until she said she was ready. If Kealey had her way, it probably wouldn’t be for a while…a long while. There were distractions, there were intense situations, then there was what had just happened. All those Shin clones….Kealey shuddered a final time, then tried to shake off the scary feelings. She nodded her head in the direction of the control room as he said he didn’t like to see her scared like that. She didn’t like to be scared like that.

Shin emerged from the control room and into the danger room a few moments later and when he smiled, she smiled back, relieved that the simulation was over. He suggested waffles and her face lit with a real smile. Everything was going to be okay. ”Waffles would be excellent.” she said. Excellent barely covered it. Waffles would be incredible.