"All right then" Gawain grinned, stepping out of the mirror once again "First stop: offices. I'm gona pick up the forms and we can fill them out as we go."

Making sure they both followed, he started the tour, walking between the two of them. He was sure Andrew already knew his way around, but he still didn't know Andrew, so as far as the young knight was considered, both of them were new.

"Ya've already seen the kitchen." he said to Kate "Free food all around, healthy an' everything. No booze, though. Most kids are too young to drink."

Including Gawain himself, but he failed to mention that.

"Living room. This is where people hang out." he went on "Library's down this way, boys that way, girls the other way, don't ask. Offices."

He lead them down the corridor that lead to the offices, and he even knocked before he entered. Of course Sam was not there. Gawain returned with a clipboard and some papers.

"So, the boss man's not here, if you ask me, he's probaby trainin' someone in the DR, we'll walk that way anyway and see if we can catch him. In the meantime" he smiled at Kate "Care to share a few things about yourself? What are you in for?" he glanced at Andrew and curiosity got the better of him "Both of you, actually."

Kate follow with Gawain at her side and Andrew at his as the tour began again.

>>Free food all around, healthy an' everything. No booze, though. Most kids are too young to drink

"Booze?" Kate had never heard this word before. It must have been an American way of saying something, but Gawain didn't hear her and kept talking.

They moved quickly through the halls and Kate looked into every room and area she was informed of. After only minutes they were back upstairs at the offices.

Gawain ducked into one of the rooms and quickly returned.

>>So, the boss man's not here, if you ask me, he's probaby trainin' someone in the DR, we'll walk that way anyway and see if we can catch him. In the meantime" he smiled at Kate "Care to share a few things about yourself? What are you in for? Both of you, actually.

Kate looked at him confused. She had only understood about half of what he said, "What am I in for?"

Andrew sort of tuned out the rest of the tour out. He'd been there done that already. Though Gawain made much shorter work of it than Kealey had. Everyone had their own style though. Gawain would probably have taken more time if Andrew hadn't been there. Kate was good looking and Gawain seemed the sort that would acknowledge that and probably flirt a bit. At least that's what he guessed those charming smiles he'd thrown Kate's way in the kitchen were about.

He did notice that Kate was confused about a few things Gawain said though. Andrew figured that Gawain was probably too young for the booze he'd mentioned too but he didn't say anything about it.

"Booze means alcohol." he said for Kate's benefit.

They got back to the offices and apparently Sam wasn't in. Gawain however had a suspicion of where he might be where as Andrew had no clue. Still, he had the papers necessary and began on the questions. Before Andrew answered in regards to himself he once again cleared things up for Kate.

"He means what is your mutation." Andrew paused for a moment to look back toward Gawain, "I make promises. If I don't keep them it means pain, injury, possibly death if the promises is worth enough, and I get a tattoo-like reminder of each promise currently in effect."

Andrew pulled off his glove to show the single black band around his wrist. He didn't say what the promise was or anything else before he pulled the glove back on.

>>"Booze?"

Gawain blinked at the question. Okay, so which planet did this girl come from?
Oh. The UK. Right.

"Alcohol" he explained the same time Andrew did the same. Well, they made it abundantly clear.
She also seemed to have problems with his other question. All right, so maybe it was too American for her (then again, it was usually too American for Americans too), but she could always quess...
Andrew to the rescue.

>>"He means what is your mutation. I make promises. If I don't keep them it means pain, injury, possibly death if the promises is worth enough, and I get a tattoo-like reminder of each promise currently in effect."

"Wow." Gawain's eyebrows arched. That... just didn't seem too useful. Not for the mutant himself, that's for sure. Well, you can never know. Maybe there was more to it. The tattoo looked cool though. "A person we can trust." he grinned, before he turned to Kate.

"So, how about you? What's your specialty?"

Hey cutie, is beauty your mutation?...

Kate laughed at how both boys jumped at the chance to answer her question.

Kate listened to Andrew describe his power again and hoped she never had to have him make a promise. She didn't want to hurt him if he couldn't keep it. he had been nothing but nice to her. She had hoped that they would be friends, having him make promises that could hurt him was not the best way to established a relationship.

>>So, how about you? What's your specialty?

Kate thought for a second, "Well that is a complicated question. My mother always had me show my tutors and things so they wouldn't be startled when I used to, but as I told Andrew the best way to explain it is a being of elemental fire."

Andrew just rolled his eyes and grinned. Gawain had probably had to reach to find something good about his power.

"No need to try and find something good to say about it. I'm well aware that it does me no good."

Kate once again described her power and Andrew remembered again that he had it easier than her in some ways. At least he only had to worry about hurting himself. The more useful mutations often coincided with the more dangerous ones. There were arguments for both sides Andrew supposed. However he wasn't about to enter a mental debate with himself over which sort of power would be best. Even if he won he'd also lose.

Bah, Andrew decided to just stop thinking about it. He glanced around a bit and settled on watching Gawain and Kate. This was primarily her thing anyway. Andrew had already been through this with Kealey. Wasn't much he could add to this portion of the conversation.

>>"No need to try and find something good to say about it. I'm well aware that it does me no good."

Gawain smirked at Andrew "Believe me, when it comes to useless mutations, I can relate. Maybe ya'll find out it comes in handy when ya least expect it..."

Like, turining into a boy/girl. That one had its uses too. Obvious or not.

Gawain turned his attention back to Kate.

>>"Well that is a complicated question. My mother always had me show my tutors and things so they wouldn't be startled when I used to, but as I told Andrew the best way to explain it is a being of elemental fire."

"Wow." he grinned as they walked down the corridor at a comfortable pace, allowing Gawain to take notes as he walked. "So, you can light fires an' stuff? Is that why you wear those gloves?" he glanced at them "Is there anythin' we need to know before we find you a room?..."

Kate wondered what was so useless about traveling from room to room undetected anyway. It seemed to her that that was a rather useful power. She would rather have something like that then her slightly debilitating one. Sometimes she felt like her power was more of an ailment then a gift. But she was stuck with it and there was nothing she could do.

"Yes I can make fire and stuff. Though, that is not the reason I wear gloves. I actaully have a rather high body temperature and it can be like touching things coming out of a freezer when they are coming out of a fridge. I wear the gloves as a precaution more then anything else. As for a room I am sure my mother already called with the things she thinks I need as well as the things I actually need to have. I can still list them if you would like. I would be happy to go into the city and pick anything up if that work better for you." Kate rattled off the answers to his questions and then waited for more.

His shoulder rose and fell in a shrug. That was a possibility. Perhaps he'd find a use for his mutation somewhere down the road. It was doubtful but you never knew. Stranger things had already happened to him after all. Andrew was inclined to wonder about Gawain's statement about relating to having a useless mutation. Mirror-walking didn't seem that useless but perhaps there were other components to it.

Kate cleared up why she needed the gloves for Gawain, though it had the effect of lending reason to some of her earlier actions for Andrew as well. Details like that were interesting and provided information on the downsides of someone's power. That's why he tended not to mention the effect his promises had on him other than just that he had to keep him. Making a promise affected his behavior and ways of thinking. And even though he knew that it was difficult to overcome. Like knowing that you had handcuffs on didn't get you out of them.

Tagging along silently like this gave Andrew time to think. There was a lot to think about. With Gawain handling the paperwork and Kate answering his questions Andrew was quite free to do as he pleased. He contemplated what to bake next and then followed that up with wonderings about his next boxing session with Jorge. Then he turned his attention to the walls and anything hanging on them. Andrew just followed along, allowing his mind to wander where it would.

Gawain nodded, and took notes.

"If she called, Sam will now. He's the one who usually talks to the parents." he smirked. Parents loved trustworthy people like Cold Steel with the pirate eye patch. "If there are parents involved, that is." he added. In many cases, there weren't any.

"All right, so we're goin' this way" he said as he walked with them "If you can't find the boss man, safest bet is he's in the Danger Room torturing some poor kid. He's the self defense teacher." he added with a grin.

As they walked past one of the doors in the boys' wing, a noise could be heard from the room on the other side: scratching, whining, and the general sounds of a pet who wants outside of the room. Gawain stopped, and turned to the door.

"Whoops." he chuckled, opening the door "Don' be alarmed, but looks like someone wants to tag along."

As the door opened, Angua stormed out. She had grown in the past few weeks; she was bigger than most grown-up dogs now, but she still looked like a puppy, with big paws and one ear turned inside out, and her tail hanging out as she yelped cheerfully, wagging her tail with a loud swishing sound, and ran circles around the tree of them.

"Andrew, Kate - meet Angua. She's harmless."

Kate wondered what this Sam was like. And what kinds of things he did to kids in the Danger Room. And what was the Danger Room for that matter. It was all so new and different. She could tell this place was going to take some getting used to.

As they walked down the hall Kate heard a loud commotion coming from one of the rooms in the boys wig. Which she later learned was probably Gawain's, since he walked over and let out a large dog. She had never seen many dogs and had no idea what to expect.

"Oh dear." Kate watched as the dog ran circles around them. How could a thing so... well not small but not big either, have so much energy?

She leaned down and let Angus investigate her hand before she scratched the top of his head.

It seemed like forever since Andrew had seen Sam. Andrew had been wandering around the Mansion for a little bit now and hadn't seen him. That he suspected was pretty common. More and more it was sounding like he was an incredibly busy person. However, considering his pending employment with Sam, it was good to know at least one place where he could reliably find him.

They made a brief stop at what was apparently Gawain's room to let out what appeared to be a rather large puppy. Gawain introduced the dog, a she apparantly, as Angua. It was cute in that over eager clumsy way that big dogs were. Kate seemed a little shocked by the dog for some reason but went right in to pet it. Andrew just smiled and looked at Angua.

"Hello Angua."

Andrew liked dogs, even if he'd never had one. Andrew petted the dog a couple of times and then stuffed his hands in his pockets. His mind drifted back to something a bit more pertinent than the dog. What was a Danger Room? The name didn't bode too well at least. Andrew decided to ask.

"Just out of curiosity, what is the Danger Room? This is the first I've heard of it."

"Angua. Behave." Gawain gave a stern look to the puppy, who ran a few more circler before she fell into pace behind the three of them, wagging her tail furiously as she went. The new female and the new male were nice, and they petted her, and that made them good people in Angua's book. Gawain smiled as he scracthed the pup between the ears, and realized he didn't really have to bend down much to do it. Uh-oh.

>>"Just out of curiosity, what is the Danger Room? This is the first I've heard of it."

The smile widened.

"It's a glorified gym and a training area." he explained, leading them downstairs and towards the DR "People go there to work on their powers, combat skills, that kinda stuff. Gives you a place to try things that would not be safe elsewhere." he added, glancing at Kate "We also learn self defense. It's very useful, when you're a mutant..."

They walked to the door, and Gawain couldn't help but feel a little proud of himself.

"You can only enter under the supervision of an X-man or an X trainee. No sneakin' in alone. It's called Danger Room for a purpose."

And, of course, when the door opened, the DR was empty.

"Damn" Gawain muttered "Well, looks like the Boss is not here..."

BOOM

The sound of the sonic boom rang out in his ears making it sound like thunder. Sam gasped for air as he was hit with an uppercut seconds later and flung up into the air. Three on one was never fair, a telekinetic, a boomer and Gravity manipulator… Sam smirked as he flew higher and higher into the air still under the effects of the gravity manipulator. He just thought of a start for a good joke, ”A telekinetic, a boomer and a Gravity manipulator walk into a bar…” before he could come up with a good punch line all three of his partners for the training session flew into the air ready to take the fight to the air.

”Note to self… eliminate flying from possible mutations…” again his thoughts were trailed off when he noticed three people walk into the Danger Room, he frowned slightly with his one eye and wished the locks wouldn’t be as random as they were. Gawain was there… good maybe they could start their session a bit earlier than expected. ”YO GAWAW!” he couldn’t finish the call for as soon as he opened his mouth the gravity manipulator landed another punch sending him flying to the danger room floor, luckily for him he wasn’t the only one going down.

His hands grasped firmly on the Gravity manipulator’s hand and he held tight as they both started to tumble to the ground, it seemed that his partner didn’t have the best control of his power which was good, it made things easier for Sam. Turning over and hooking his legs and arms around the gravity manipulator he placed himself behind him so when they crashed only one of them would crash.

The ground was coming fast and then there was the impact. The danger room shook as a crater was formed in the center of the danger room. Looking up from his partner under him Sam eyed the other two coming in fast. Boomer opened his mouth and a loud screech sounded before there was a gust of wind coming towards Sam.

The effects of the Gravity guy faded quickly and Sam felt light as a feather, pushing off the Gravity manipulator and jumping up and out Sam managed to jump from the crater right before the sonic boom hit. Sam was of course thrown back by the wind that was created from the attack. Closing his good eye the temperature in the danger room dropped a few degrees and Sam could see everything clearly.

Two flying towards him one in the crater and then three where he saw Gawain, but unlike a normal person one of the three was registering off the scale with body heat. Sam shook his head slightly his heat sense still engaged he opened his eye and tried to see the source of the heat signature. He was too far and boomer and Red (the telekinetic) were getting closer and closer.

”Gawain!” Sam called out successfully as he leaned back and jumped back avoiding a red spike that shot from the telekinetic and faded seconds after impact with the ground. ”Who are you with?” Sam called out as another spike took a piece of his shirt with him as he dodged again adding to the already torn shirt.

Kate watched wide eyed as what she could only assume was the Sam plummeted to the ground with someone else in tow.

Kate had no idea what to think. Was her mother right about the world being a violent and scary place? She found herself praying for this not to be real. She understood it was called the Danger Room, but would she really need skills like this in the world? Had her mother really put her behind protective walls for a real reason? Part of her didn't want to know, while the other half had to.

As she watched Sam fall to the ground in what seemed to be slow motion she closed her eyes, only hearing the bang as they hit the ground, shaking the room around her. She covered her ears and listened to the beat of her heart. She had started doing this when she was a child and her mother had one of her attacks. They happened every so often and she could hear the woman all the way on the other end of their expansive house. She would scream and yell and break things and then finally she would break down and cry. Before Kate was old enough to help her mother she would sit in her room with her eyes closed tight and her hands over her ears, listening to the beat of her own heart. The steady reliable beats. When nothing in this world was certain, including her mother half of the time, her heart beat was. It was strong and true and safe. It was the one place where she could be somewhere else.

After a bit she tried but couldn't open her eyes. No one could have survived such a fall, not without being hurt badly. She couldn't bring herself to open her eyes and see the carnage. She still remembered her father laying there broken and she never wanted to see anything like that again.

She felt the temperature drop and a shiver travel up her spine. All she could do was stand there like the scared little child she had hoped to never be again.