Sam nodded his head to Locke slightly as he could sense the young mutants hesitation in stepping into a golem. It was something he could tell Locke never done before due to his reaction of the idea, however Sam didn’t really think about making golems until he thought about his armor moving with out him in side. As luck would have it he was able to do that and oh so much more.

The bits of moisture around his feet froze over and clung to his bare skin as his toes felt the cold earth beneath them, welcoming the feeling of both Sam kept his eye fixed on Locke despite a bird flying low overhead and landing in a nearby tree, ”Stay relaxed and stay focused, I’m here if anything goes wrong.” Sam said reassuringly as he pushed himself up and off the ground, placing his hands behind his head Sam watched and waited to see what would happen.

There was a possibility that Locke wasn’t yet able to do such a trick but Sam had confidence in him, he had abilities similar to Sam’s the only difference was Sam had far more control and years of experience on him, something that with time Locke would be able to achieve.

Right. Relax. Focus.[/color] This tme Locke had let himself hear Sam. He was finding it hard to follow the older man's advice. The dirt was moving easily enough. Messing about with it early had shaken up the dirt enough to get past the layer of frost. And though it was cold Locke did not mind the way the dirt felt. What bothered him was the chance that things would go wrong. Not that he doubted the sincerity of Sam's promise. Locke might like the idea of having the earth all around him, but continuing the armor up over his head felt too much like being trapped inside the wall. Suddenly something clicked in his head and Locke knew what was the most frightening thing about being inside the golem.

Yes he hid his scared eye behind his hair, but Locke never tried to hide his good eye. He was so afraid that if anything obscured his vision he'd be defenseless. To not be able to see was to be back in that hospital, with the darkness closing in. "I'm good," he said, taking a step. Dirt tumbled free from the shell that protected Locke. "I want my head free"

Talking was a distraction. Usually when he was working with Fluffy Locke kept his mouth shut. Loose lips sink ships and all that jazz. It was less difficult to say something though when he was wearing the dirt like an adult pair of footy pajamas. When this was all over he'd have enough dirt on the folds of his clothes and on his skin that he could make yet another golem. "Now what?" Locke asked. He had no fighting experience.

Slowly the dirt climbed upward as a look of panic touched Locke’s face it was clear this wasn’t his cup of tea but he did as Sam had told him to do, he tired to relax and before long his entire body including his face was covered in dirt. Sam smiled softly as he listened to Locke and his worries. ”Well free your head then…” Sam said as he took a step back and covered his body in his ice armor and removed the ice armor around his head so he could see Locke with his own eye.

”Move about,” Sam said as he jumped and then walked around in his armor showing Locke that movement was important. ”see what your limitations are, how high can jump, how fast you can move, use your control over your golem to help you.” Sam said as he showed Locke what he meant as he jumped into the air and landed on a near by rock and spinning on it due to the ice around his feet.

Turning twice Sam lifted his arms up in a fighting stance and then through a punch, ”It should be difficult to move at first but with time and a lot of practice it should get easier and easier to control your body when your covered by a golem.” he was speaking from experience, ”Think of your golem like a layer of clothing/”

The Californian did not physically see Sam, covered in ice, leaping through the air. With his mind in the dirt that covered him, Locke's vision was less on the things that everyone could see, and more upon the unique way he saw the rocks and dirt around him. In his earth sense they hummed, trembled, moved. Sam's movement registered for Locke. He saw it more like a string bouncing back into position after pressure had been removed from it. He also felt when he landed.

Stay focused, stay loose, he reminded himself. Locke moved a little, feeling the dirt fall off him, and he drew more up. Such a jump seemed impossible, even if he should get to the point where movement within a golem was easy. "Rocks don't go up," he grumbled. It wasn't natural.

Locke’s simple grumbled remark made Sam stop and stare before Sam busted out laughing not sure if Locke was making a joke or not. ”That maybe true but rocks don’t move as fast as they did when they tried to stop me from getting close to you do they?” Sam said, rubbing the back of his head and then shaking the ice free from his body shattering his armor.

”Then tell me Locke, what do rocks do?” Sam asked rhetorically hoping that Locke would answer him with something other than words a demonstration perhaps.

”Can you move at all?” Sam asked curiously getting closer and closer to Locke his footsteps making a crunch from the dirt and rocks under his feet, until he was a few feet from the young rocker.

He was being laughed at. Not much managed to get through to Locke when he was like this. Things would be heard of course, it wasn't as if he could turn off his ears, but there was very little that he listened to. For the self conscious teen laughter directed at him was something that he always picked up on. There wasn't any malice in the laugh, but Locke couldn't help but feel slightly offended. Of course rocks didn't go up. And yes the first golem moved with a speed that rocks generally only had when rolling down a hill, but he couldn't make them fly up in the air.

Maybe it was frustration that Sam could do something so effortlessly while he had to figure out an alternate method. Maybe it was the cold. Whatever it was, something clicked in Locke's head and he felt a flare of anger. It would never show on his face. Locke's mind was too deeply invested in his coating of dirt for his outward appearance to change. Inside he fumed though.

Letting his breath slow down Locke felt out for where Sam was putting pressure on the ground. They were the only two in there, so it didn't matter that the teen hadn't memorized Sam's weight distribution. The approaching footsteps had to be Sam's. Locke slowed his breathing down even more, past what was normal for sleep. He was standing perfectly still, waiting. Covered in a thick coat of dirt Locke might have been mistaken for some sort of odd art piece.

What did rocks do? A lot of things, Locke wanted to answer, but he kept his jaw clenched tightly shut. Could he move? Of course he could move, he just chose not to.

Well, not much.

One hand clenched into a fist and made a sudden sharp downwards tug. The earth beneath Sam's leg leaped up suddenly, wrapping around and pulling it down. Locke had kept the whole burying people thing quiet. Shaking himself like a wet dog, the dirt, for the most part, flew off Locke. As always there was a bit of dirt that stuck to the folds of his jeans. "They shift," he said dryly, a half smile on his face.

It took a second but after the sudden movement Locke had preformed he felt a pressure on his leg. Looking down Sam eyed the dirt that incased his leg and before Sam could fully respond Sam felt his stomach drop as his body lurched down into the ground. Sam’s eye shut quickly and his hands leapt up to his face as he felt the cold dirt encasing some of his body. It took Sam a second to realize what was going on but when he did his eye opened and his hands lowered.

Looking from his leg to Locke who was now sporting a smile, Sam laughed again and then nodded his head, ”Very good!” impressed at what Locke had done Sam gave a thumbs up and then tried to wiggle his leg free from the dirt instead of activating his mutation and pulling his leg free.

”I wasn’t aware that you could do something like that…” Sam said as he continued to wiggle it free, ”I take it you have some other secrets your not sharing?” Sam asked rhetorically.

"What? You've never done that?" It was a bit surprising to think that someone who had a similar powers hadn't done something so simple. Locke had done the same thing when he first came to the Danger Room to keep himself from being pulled away. It didn't work all that well back then, but since that first night he had greatly improved. Sam had to have tried holding someone in place with his ice before. The only difference that Locke could see was the ice didn't go back down into the ground. Not unless they were on a glacier.

He watched Sam struggle to free the buried leg with a strange sense of satisfaction. Sam might be able to move with more ease with his ice golem, but if his leg was under the ground. "Never said that I had to make a whole golem," Locke told Sam. With a wiggle of his fingers the dirt that was surrounding Sam's leg loosened up to allow the man a chance to get out. Maybe he hadn't explained everything to Sam earlier. Locke didn't think Sam wanted it anyways. "Only one more secret, but it's not relevant."

”Encase a limb?” Sam asked repeating Locke’s question, with a smirk Sam nodded, ”That and so much more, however when I do it I can’t pull back into the ground, not unless the ground is covered in a thick layer of ice or snow.” remembering a bit of Romania Sam smirked and added, ”But unfortunately mass amounts of ice or snow aren’t around all the time for me to use, you have to remember I have to create it when there isn’t any around.”

Pulling his leg free when Locke loosened it Sam righted himself stood up straight and brushed a little girt off the encased leg. Debating to do something similar to Locke (encasing his leg in ice) Sam shook the thought from his head and pointed to the ground, ”Why don’t we change the scenery a bit,” Sam said wondering how much time they had spent in the danger room so far. While he would have loved to spend the day helping Locke figure out what else he was capable of it was best to let him figure it out on his own all Sam could do was give him ideas and help him practice it.

”Got about another hour or so before I have to get some other work done so I want to head down to the cave if that’s alright with you?” Sam waved him over to the nearest area of rocks where an opening resided along with a lantern. ”Remember this won’t be our only session.”

After walking into the opening of the tunnel and grabbing and turning on the small gas lantern Sam headed down into the darkness of the tunnel that would take them to a large cavern where some water resided where Sam would begin Locke’s next part of his session.

Locke didn't even try to hold back his smile. Ever since Sam had brought his attention to the mineshaft Locke had wanted to get there and explore it. He needed to know what was in that void where the earth certainly should have been. It wasn't a blind spot per say, but it felt like going up the stairs at night and thinking there was one more stair there. The Californian followed Sam eagerly, stepping into the cave before the lantern could be lit.

He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. This was where he belonged, surrounded by the earth. Locke rested a hand on a wall, feeling more than seeing his surroundings. When he opened his eyes back up the light from the lantern hurt his good eye a little."There's a vein that goes on forever," Locke told Sam. The truth was that Locke couldn't 'see' as far as Sam wanted them to go, but he could see farther than the lantern's light. The mineral vein he had sensed wasn't weak, but it was worn out and old. "What was this programed to be?" he asked, reminding himself that he wasn't actually in a mineshaft, no matter how real this felt.

A kid on Christmas would have been an understatement, Locke’s reaction to Sam letting him know that they were about to take a trip down into the cavern of the mountain was priceless, it was actually the most excited Sam had seen Locke the entire training session. Which he could understand, Sam would have loved to train in a terrain of just snow when he was a kid. In fact he was almost sure he did at least once.

”Not forever…” Sam said with a smirk, ”But it does go on for a few miles.” as they continued down the mine shaft deeper and deeper into the mountain Sam noticed the increase in temperature the deeper and deeper it went just like in a real mineshaft. Details were key to creating a danger room scenario.

”What do you think it was programmed to be?” Originally it was programmed to help Sam work on his heat sense to be able to pick out and attack a target without actually seeing it. Once they were down deep enough Sam stopped as a large growl followed by some clicks and squeaks could be heard in the distance.

Locke shook his head no. He could tell when something was going to respond to him, and a few materials were easy for him to identify through his power, simply because he had worked with them or grew up with them. As was Locke wasn't sure if it was the rocks of the mine that spoke to him, willing to work, or if it was whatever had been the goal. "I can't even start to guess," the teen admitted with a sense of humility. Maybe it would do him good to go to one of those hippie shops that sold different types of stones and learn how they spoke to him. Sam had it easy. Snow was snow, ice ice, and there couldn't be that much variation right?

It was a comfort to have the mineshaft grow warmer as they continued down. It had been hard to concentrate outside in the cold. He heard strange noises and stopped behind Sam. "That sounds fun,". Of course it didn't really sound like something that he wanted to go headfirst into. Yes he was surrounded by materials that he could work with. What made Locke hesitate was the risk of a cave-in. Sam would try to keep them safe of course, but he had been easy to pull into the ground. There were some serious doubts that he'd keep the ceiling from falling in on them.

The lamp in his hand flickered, the sound of water falling into small pools that had gathered over the years. A screech from a bat from off in the distance and then there was the sound of Sam’s feet walking against the moist rocky surface. ”What do you think? The cavern goes on for a mile or so; several smaller tunnels are spread throughout for other training sessions."] Sam gave a satisfied nod at his own work and then looked to Locke, ”Ready for anything?"

Sam looked to the lamp then lifted it up to his face and gave Locke a wicked grin, ”Remember what you see isn’t always right…” another second passed as Sam paused and then a loud grumble from the darkness sounded. ”I’ll be right here with you, just remember to focus. The best way to do that is to make you rely on something other than sight…” Sam took a breath and slowly blew at the flame causing it to flicker than extinguish. The cave became dark and it was nearly impossible to see Locke who was a few feet from him. ”Rely on your senses, don’t focus on sight.”

Sam closed his good eye and the temperature dropped a few degrees around him as the ground around him lit up from the heat differences then there was Locke who shined like reddish light bulb. ”I’m right here with you and this is nothing you can’t handle.” the growl from the darkness sounded again as more clicks could be heard. ”I would recommend that armor you accomplished not to long ago. He will come in handy.”

Why Sam?[/i] Locke had to wonder when he extinguished the only source of light. Of course Sam didn't know that Locke didn't rely on his sense of sight much. Locke hadn't mentioned, let alone explain that he could only see out of one eye. It was his earth sense he relied so heavily upon. Why would he need to be told what he saw could betray him. The earth didn't lie, not unless Cthulu was involved. The ground filled in the missing details.

Sam also couldn't have known just how much the dark bothered Locke. Once the lantern's light was out Locke felt a familiar tightening around his chest. Being afraid of the dark sounded so childish. Neither one of his siblings needed a nightlight anymore, but Locke couldn't sleep in a totally darkened room. There was the fear that the dark would be there, closing in on him until when he opened his eyes in the morning and saw nothing. A few shaky breaths allowed Locke to remember that he wasn't a helpless eleven year old in a hospital. He was a capable teen.

Locke swallowed back his fear and nodded his head. Slowly the earth traveled up his body, clinging tighter to him because of the danger he fealt himself in. Whatever was making that scuttling was affecting what Locke 'saw' as well. He kept finding the traces of it. It was like watching the ripples in a lake, but not knowing what had been tossed in. Whatever it was, it liked the dark. Maybe it saw things the way Locke's earth sense did. Testing that theory out Locke laid a rocky hand against the wall of the tunnel and gave a tug to the walls.