<“Figures,”> Iris thought as she found herself facing the two unarmed men. For a very brief moment the two of them merely watched her. A split second later, the first came at her in a flurry of punches and kicks that she could barely follow. She threw herself backward in a series of backflips, mentally thanking her Tia Carol for encouraging her to take several years of gymnastics in school. The flips barely kept her out of harm’s way, and she knew eventually she was going to hit the wall. So when she next flipped backward, she blew into the air and held out one hand. Ice formed a tall pole, and when she headed back down in the arc, she grabbed it with one hand and pulled. Her body twisted left, and she landed on her feet. The disk on her ear picked up a sound, and she ducked and rolled forward as a kick split the air where her head had been.

Unfortunately the roll landed her right in front of her second opponent. Her reflexes reacted before her brain did, and she threw up her arms. A shield of three-inch thick ice formed above her, just in time to block another attack. The ice shattered, but it gave her enough time to scramble away. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” she exclaimed as she went. Both opponents paused in their attack, once again eyeing her. Iris knew they were just computer-generated, and most likely not programed to be critical, but she could almost imagine them thinking how dumb she sounded.

The shards of her shattered shield glittered at their feet, which gave Iris had an idea. She pulled the shards toward her, morphing them into disks, faceted like diamonds. As they reached her hands, they tilted forward, sending the full reflection of the sun into both of her opponents eyes. They jerked backward, trying to avoid the light, but she created several more disks, positioning them to reflect off of each other. Everywhere her opponents moved, she followed, keeping them blinded. A rare smile graced her lips.

A faint sound reached her ear. She glanced right, in time to see Deathstar backing away from her downed opponent. But the sound had come from behind Iris. Iris shifted her body right, forming a thin dagger as she moved. The turn found her down on one knee, and the dagger left her hand, aiming for the sound. Focused on Deathstar, the archer didn’t see it until the last second. He shifted, and the ice dagger slid across the top of the bowstring, slicing it in two.

Iris crowed in triumph, which was a mistake. With her focus lost, one her own opponents broke free of the blinding, and came at her. She heard him, but couldn’t react in time. Fire burned her side as a kick to her ribs sent her flying. She rolled to her hands and knees, coughing.

<“That was worse than thrown by a bronco,”> she thought. She blinked, trying to clear the cobwebs from her vision.

As Deathstar was backing up, she heard a sound of a bow string popped she turned to her side an saw the archer running the opposite direction, she turn to her opposite side and saw that it was Iris that saved her, but Iris was on the ground coughing, she wanted to go after that arher but chose to go and save iris, Raph!!...cover me!!..Iris!! I'm on my way!! she yelled over the noise of battle trying to get Raph attention but he seemed to busy with multiple opponents , So she took matters in her own hands.

Deathstar begin running as fast as she can through the thick brush of grass, but was blindsided and clotheslined by one of the skilled fighters, Deathstar was on the ground blocking most of his kicks, she once again rolls on her side, and does a sweeping kick to knocking the fighter down to the ground, she jumps to her feet and from the corner of her eyes she another fighter with a kendo stick . swing his towards her head , deathstar turns quickly grabs the kendo stick with one hand and breaks it into three pieces using the superstrength she gained from the now dead guy she fought earlier, she grabs the fighters neck and snaps it in half killing him instantly...

the skilled fighter who was once on the ground , is back off from the ground and begins to throw chops at deathstar, she blocks all but one which catches her in the chest, she backs trying to regain her breathe and composure, the fighter comes at her again delivering a flying kick towards her, she capitalize with a back aerial kick, knocking the fighter back 20 feet, she lands on feet , and runs to the fighter and grabs him by the foot, she begins swingin him around with his ankles, trying to catapult him towards Iris attacker, so she releases the swing with full throttle towards Iris figher, the guy Deathstar just threw flys towards Iris attacker hitting and knocking him back thirty feet, Deathstar runs toward Iris and gets down on her knees, being fully aware of her surroundings... are you alright??.. she ask hoping she can carry on with the training.....

((Deathstar… there’s only 6 opponents total, not a barrage of opponents, 6 masters of a given style…))

Raphael uttered a soft growl as he engaged his third opponent. He had not brought any of them down, but then again, he was fighting the three armed samurai now. At most he had disabled the katana user’s arm when he had chosen to punch rather than slice with his sword.

He could hear the battle between Iris, Deathstar, and the two unarmed opponents and figured they were holding their own sufficiently, as he was still fighting only three and not four enemies.

He side-stepped a stab from the yari-man, parried a swipe from the nodachi-wielder and caught the reverse side of the katana across the bridge of his nose. He let out a low grunt as it cracked under the impact, and let blood flow down onto his chin. At this moment Raphael decided that enough was enough and to blow out to a more drastic potential.

He dipped away from the yari-man’s swipe and closed the distance on the samurai with the katana. Raphael let out a bestial growl and ducked under a swipe from the nodachi-wielder while at the same time slipping narrowly around the katana as it was thrust at him. He wrapped his arm tightly around the vulnerable blade and pulled the enemy off-balance.

In the same moment he brought his free arm down hard across the wrist of the katana user, producing another crack as he broke bones. Raphael stepped into the man and elbowed him under the arm with enough force to crack ribs, though Raphael did more than just that. He extended his elbow-blade through muscle, bone, and several soft organs before striking home: the simulated man’s heart.

Raphael jerked the sword from the dying man’s grasp and his elbow-blade from his chest and turned to face the other two. He rolled his head around, producing a couple soft pops, and then closed ranks with the yari-man. The yari-man had the advantage of reach over Raphael, though Raphael had the advantage of agility.

Armor tended to slow a person down, and encumber them, the trade-off being that it protected you when someone did finally land a blow. Raphael used this knowledge to his advantage to beat his way close up to the yari-man and pin his foot to the ground with his former comrade’s sword.

Raphael kept the spear well away from him, pushed out in the open where it could not hurt him, or help his opponent. Working solely against the crippled yari-man did, however, keep him distracted from the nodachi-wielder, who was setting up to strike his exposed back.

Raphael ignored the warning signs of the impending attack, focusing on bringing down the yari-man. In a flurry of punches, kicks, grabs, and grapples, he had managed to dislocate his opponent’s shoulder and break his other arm, all without taking much more than a scratch, practically self inflicted on the samurai’s armor, during the scuffle. Raphael dipped to administer the coup de grace, drawing his elbow blade across the mid-section of the yari-man.

Luck was on his side as his ducking took his head out of the path of the heavy nodachi’s swipe, though the simulated opponent was not so lucky. The nodachi-wielder missed Raphael, and decapitated the yari-man, and in the process threw himself off balance, giving Raphael just enough time to regain his composure and square off with his last foe. Somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered how the girls were doing.

“I’m okay.” Iris’ voice came out a bit hoarse, and in between several coughs. “Sorry,” she added. Frost spread across her side, numbing it. She was going to feel all of this later, that was for sure. But she didn’t have time to worry about it at the moment. The two unarmed men were still on their feet, and the bowman was around somewhere. She wouldn’t be surprised if he had a spare bow on him. She pushed herself to her feet, and assured Deathstar she could continue, apologizing yet again, and turning pink in embarrassment.

<“Must be getting close to the gem’s limit,”> she thought. Every little mistake was beginning to bother Iris. She hoped they could finish the battle within a few minutes, otherwise the gem would shut down, and it would be at least another five minutes before she could switch over to the liquid gem. She was struggling already with powers; she doubted she’d be able to help at all without them.

She and Deathstar stood back to back, each facing one man. Raphael had said the men would learn from their moves, so the blinding probably wouldn’t work again. She had to come up with something else. She created two more ice shields, thicker than the first, one for each hand. She hoped they would keep her opponent’s attacks out better than the last one did.

Keep the attacks out? What if she kept them in, instead?

If it was possible, Iris flushed even redder as the obvious answer hit her. Forcing herself to concentrate, she merged the two shields into one, held in front of her, just as the next attack came. Hoping Deathstar was handling the other guy, Iris put all of her focus directly in front of her. The attacks came faster than before, and she was almost unable to follow. She increased the size and thickness of the shield a little bit after each attack, until it was nearly as tall as she was and almost too heavy to hold. Finally, as a kick came from her left, she twisted and pushed outward. The ice seemed to turn liquid, and his foot sunk into it like quicksand. The thrust knocked him slightly off balance, and Iris pushed again, knocking him to the ground. Even as he fell, the ice shield seemed to melt around him, refreezing almost instantly. He hit the ground, and attempted to break free. The slickness made it nearly impossible to gain footing. While he struggled, Iris blew out, adding more and more ice. Within a minute he was completely encased in ice. She continued to thicken the shell, until she was sure he wasn’t moving. Spent, her knees buckled, and she slid to the ground, her body shaking from the effort.

Suddenly her back began to burn and her hand itched. Her head began to spin.

<“No! Not now!!”> She squeezed her eyes closed and concentrated. <“Just a little longer! I can’t stop now!!”>

A faint TWANGG!! reached her ears, and a high-pitched whine. She threw herself sideways, forming three six-inch-long throwing daggers as she went. She aimed for the sound, slightly left, and slightly right. She felt a sharp bite on her side, just under her arm. She wasn’t sure whether the arrow made a direct hit or just grazed her. But she did see that two of her daggers made contact; one hit the archer in his trigger hand, the other high up on his shoulder, near his neck. Most likely not a killing blow, but between the two they put him out of action.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” she murmured, and cringed.

Fire lanced through Iris’ back, and her hand felt like a thousand ants were crawling under the skin. For a brief moment, she blacked out. When she came to, the burning and itching was gone. The icy blue gem was gone from her hand. Her hair was the normal blond again, and her eyes were normal again. Beneath her shirt, the aquamarine stone had turned a dull gray, no longer active. Rayne was back, and defenseless for at least the next five minutes.

Deathstar stood back to back with Iris, she tried to to regain some of her strength by standing behind iris shield for a while before she attacked, but once again the guy she once threw was back on his feet and made a warpath towards Deathstar, she ran out there halfway to make her first move before he goes, she jumps in the air and and throws a punch, but the guy counter her attacked and punched her in the gut in mid-air , knocking her down on her feet, she recovers and rolls backwards.....

she prepares to throw in an another attack but stops dead in her tracks, and hears Iris voice faint in the background, she turns her head around to make sure she was okay,.. Iris!!! she screams Iris name hoping she get a reply that she is alright, she turns her attention back to the fighter, she ducks one of his punches, and jabs him across the face, knocking him on the ground for a while, this will give deathstar time to get iris to safety, ......

Deathstar Runs towards Iris, and sees she is is on the ground, so she picks her up with her superstrength, throws her on her shoulders and keeps running towards one tree she see in the distance, she turns towards Raph while still action, Raph!!, we got one down......she says while running out of breathe, she sits Iris and at the bottom bulk of the tree... Iris!!, Iris!!....I need you to get it together, we're almost finished she says while she shakes her shoulders hoping she would regain her strength ......

Raphael dipped out of the way of the nodachi as it sliced cleanly through the air where he was. He had used several of his surprises to dispatch the other two armed opponents and now this one was becoming increasingly difficult to counter and dodge his attacks, and he so preferred dodging the swipe of the large blade to parrying it with his forearm.

Then things got more complicated. He could hear Deathstar shout for help, or at least what he interpreted for help. He grunted as he purposely parried and caught the nodachi to give him the second he needed to glance around and find Deathstar with the fallen Iris. He shifted his weight and threw the samurai off balance and sprinted to intercept the blond-headed unarmed man.

Raphael threw a punch, a punch that missed, but did draw attention away from the pair of women. He shifted, retracting his elbow blade and settling into a purely defensive stance as the nodachi samurai caught up and began to attack as well.

He shifted, glad his healing kept his stamina up, and kept him moving at an equal pace with the unarmed man, keeping his fists of fury away from his more vital areas, while trying to keep the nodachi samurai at an angle that put the unarmed man in the way of his strikes.

“Get her away from here Deathstar,” He grunted out. “I want room to fight both these guys… and not have to worry about one of them turning on you two…”

“I’m okay! Take it easy Star! I’m all right!” Okay, so that was a lie. Rayne was sore and exhausted, and Deathstar shaking her didn’t help. But she wasn’t completely out of it yet. “I’m fine,” she repeated. “My powers are just gone. I mean, not completely, just part of them. The ice part. I mean...” Rayne shook her head. “Nevermind, I’ll explain later. Bottom line, I can’t power back up for a few minutes.”

She watched as Raphael put himself in between her and Deathstar and the last two opponents. He ordered them back. Even though she wasn’t fighter by nature or by training, backing away didn’t set well with her. This was supposed to be a team fight, where you watched each other’s backs, not ran away and let one member do all the fighting. As she retreated, she glanced around, looking for something, anything she could use.

The guest badge! It was still pinned to her vest. She unpinned it, noting it was made of cheap metal. Perfect. She stopped, and turned back to the fight. She shifted her weight and put what was left of her energy into a throw, twisting her wrist as she did. The little disc spun out and around, almost like a boomerang but not so far out. At the same time she whistled through her teeth, high-pitched enough to make a person cringe. The little projectile hit the ground just right of the fighters. One of them looked down, then up again in her direction, distracted for a brief moment.

Deathstar nodded with assurance, she understood what Iris was saying, and stood up and went back to her fighting stance, she looked at Raph!!....you sure you can handle those two, I going to take one of them down.. she walks behind Raph and stops dead in her tracks, and see a katana on the ground, it must be from one of those defeated fighters weapons, she picks it up , and gets into a fighting stance, she charges at one the fighters with blade in hand preparing to slice him in half, she swung the katana, miss her attack, leaving her vulnerable, he kicks her in the back of the head,and to the ribs with lightning fast shots, deathstar drops to the ground holding her screams of pain with grunts, she never drops her sword, the fighter somersaults in the air, and tries to land a powerful kick, but deathstar, used the katana, and turns it towards the fighter, hoping he would land on it, as if it was a pit of thorns,, the fighter flips over the sword and kicks deathstar square in her jaw.....

this made deathstar really angry, she used whatever strength she had left and stood up face to face with the fighter, he throws a punch but Deathstar blocks and counters it by twisting and breaking his arm, she grabs his neck and lifts him above the ground absorbing every ounce of energy he has left in his body.....

Darius stood silent in the now dimmly lit observation room. Dum founded by the capabilites of the danger room. He just stood there, quitely watching the fight. The new guest seemed to have it all under control at the beginning but slipped up at the end, but that didn't matter, because she fought differently than the other two and he admired that.

Not once did the newcomer attempt to kill or seriously injure her opponites may they be real or not. Darius than began thinking to himself, Layla took a life without a second glance, she broke the neck of one and rid two others of the lifeforce killing them.....Darius was shocked the girl he thought he was close to and was beginning to understand just threw in a whole new side, killing so recklessly, Darius began to think that he might have join the wrond place. Thoughts began to pop into his headAre Raph and Layla the only two that fight like this here!?? but the more that Darius began to think new suspisions arose in his mind.

He hadn't been trained to fight here yet, he suddenly had doubts of the institution Do they really teach the students here to kill, what about using abilities for a greater good Darius thought to himself. All of his life he idolised the famous X-men, there beliefs...there morals but not here..they where different, killing...and yes it was only a training mission but Darius suddenly began to think about how the new X-men would opperate in the world. He stepped backwards, his image of the facilty was shattered in a moment.

Darius was trying to rashonalise now, Maybe its only Star and Raph, Tricity wouldn't stand for this.....would she?? but as Darius thought that very thought another arose, he hadn't knowen Tricity that long and began to question her in his mind. The X-men stood for all thats good in the world, killing should always be a last resort if a resort at all, thats why the world fears and hates us mutants. He finally thought he found home but the cruleness of death seemed to follow him.

The new girl! Its not too late for her, the way she fights I can tell she still hasn't been tainted for lack of a better word, if we become the killers than were no better than the ones that we are trying to stop, Dad always used to tell me that, I'm sure that Tricity feels the same why else would Xavier trust someone her age with such a important role, I've gotta try hang on, I'll talk to them once they have finished, I'm sure theres an explanation....I really hope there is one he thought as he shook his head in dissapointment as he watch what was left of the fight continue.

Raphael heard, but paid no attention to the conversation as it went on behind him. He focused on slapping away punch and blocking kicks from the unarmed opponent in front of him keeping that opponent between him and the nodachi wielding opponent.

A metal badge zipped into his field of vision, nearly striking the nodachi samurai’s foot, and created a momentary distraction. Raphael however did not get the chance to act on the distraction. His tactic of keeping both opponents in front of him worked against him in this moment, though not against Deathstar, as she took the moment to slip back into the fight and start up against the sword wielder.

Raphael refocused his attention on the unarmed opponent in time to take a punch to the cheek that knocked him off balance. He staggered to the side and took a stiff kick to his unprotected side and teetered off-balance. Raphael then threw himself forward, controlling his fall through the air and across his shoulders, rolling a little ways down the hill and back onto his feet.

He drew a shallow breath and faced the unarmed opponent once more, and shifted to a defensive stance, waiting for the blond-headed man to attack. He gritted his teeth and brought his arms up in a cross blocking the man’s jumping kick. Raphael flowed smoothly, bringing his arm around to stop a reverse roundhouse kick the man threw at him.

Raphael continued a similar defense until his caught one of the man’s kicks and acted quickly against it, bringing his knee around hard into the blond’s knee, dislocating it with a sickening crunch. Raphael then planted his foot and sprung forward, pulling his opponent into his head-butt and released an either unconscious or dying foe.

Raphael left the man there; he had done what he had intended to do, and now needed to find the women. He did not need to look far and went jogging over to Iris, crunching his nose straight as he did.

“You okay? Deathstar said you were down,” he asked as he approached, rubbing a hand under his nose and wiping the majority of the blood from his previously broken nose away. As he came to stop in front of Iris, the computer announced that the simulation was complete.

Raphael drew a deep breath and offered his non-bloody hand to Iris to help her up. “Nice fight… I hope it wasn’t too much for you.” He said as the simulation setting faded.

Deathstar drops to her knees trying to regain her composure, she instantly grabs her side as if she was hurt but trying to hide it, this was no picnic... she said to herself quietly, she begins to stand up and starts to stagger at first but walks towards Raph and Iris.... Is she okay?.... she asks Raph while trying to catch her breathe, she bends over to put her hands on her knees, obviously tired and exhausted...

What level was this on Again??... she looks back out the danger room, Congrats herself for practicing in the danger room for the first time....She looks up and see Darius she smiles at the thought of him watching her Duke it out, but she takes a second and realized something was wrong, his face was straight with no stint of smile, Did I do something wrong? she thought to herself, she helps Iris get to her feet, and head towards the observation room... Hey Darius!! she said still breathing hard.....

Darius saw Layla look up to him with a smile and Darius managed to force one out although he could to it must have looked fake from her reaction. He turned around and walked out of the room before rushing down to greet his comrads. The door to the danger room zipped open and inside he saw two very tired looked mutants and one that looked as though he just woke up. Darius quickly diverted his eyes from Rapheal and gave Layla a nod and wave.

"Uh...congrats Star" he said uncomfortably before waling over to the new girl who was slightly older than himself. "Hi there name Darius Spears" he said as he gave her a welcoming handshake "You did really good out there, I mean that...for all of you.., hey when you all ready just let me know and I'll be glad to join you" he said trying to keep himself from looking at ether Star or Deltoid, the room had a tense awkward silence now and Darius tried to keep his mind off it by inspect the danger room, the size was amazing and it was completly empty but Darius knew that just under the floor lurked an arsenal of traps and weapons.

“Simulation complete.”

“Thank goodness.” Rayne let out a grunt of combined relief and amazement as the battleground faded into darkness. For a moment she just sat there, totally drained.

“You okay? Deathstar said you were down.”

She looked up as Raphael approached her. Then Deathstar repeated the question. She blinked, and nodded at them. “I’m okay.” Not exactly the complete truth.

“Nice fight… I hope it wasn’t too much for you.”

“Thanks.” She accepted the hand up, wobbling at first, but managed to stay upright. Her side ached, and she drew a shaky breath. “Ooooh....I’ll never complain about bronco-busting again, that’s for sure.”

“What level was this on again??” Deathstar looked as exhausted, if not more so, than Rayne felt. But she was smiling.

“I dunno, but I think I’ll stick with the obstacle courses from now on. I don’t think I’m ready for martial arts masters yet. Man!” Rayne remarked and shook her head. “You two are some serious fighters! How long have you been here? Are you both...what is it? Xmen?”

Deathstar’s attention was somewhere else. “Hey Darius!” Rayne turned to see where she was looking, but didn’t see anyone. Then, a moment later the door opened and another person, and young man entered. She picked up on his uneasiness pretty quickly; his eyes darted back and forth, avoiding eye contact. He nodded hello and extended his hand.

"Hi there. Name Darius Spears." He must have been who Deathstar was looking at before. “You did really good out there, I mean that...for all of you...” He paused, then added, “Hey when you all ready just let me know and I'll be glad to join you."

“Thank you.” Rayne bowed politely and smiled. “Nice to meet you. My name is Rayne. Or Iris. Either works fine. I’m just visiting, for the day and night.” She suddenly remembered her guest badge, and went to retrieve it. The side where it had connected with the floor was bent badly. “Oops.” She bit the side of her lip and smiled sheepishly. “Um, I hope Ms. Tricity has more of these. I doubt she intended them to be used for target practice.”

She paused and turned to Raphael and Deathstar. “I’m sorry about not being able to finish the sim. You see, my powers are, in a way, time-limited. I can only use them for an hour, max. And I’d already been at it for a while before you both came, so....well....I guess I should have said something. I think I got overwhelmed by all of this. Sorry.” She looked around at the now darkened walls, then back at the others. A somewhat comical smile lit her face. “And about all of that apologizing...Well, I’m sure you’ve heard enough ‘sorry’s from me already, but I’ll throw in another for good measure. Its, kind of a side effect.”

Suddenly Rayne’s stomach growled, rather loudly. Her dark skin flushed red. As if she wasn’t already embarrassed enough!

Raphael nodded some to Iris as he helped her up and glanced over his shoulder at Deathstar as she asked her question. “17.”

He looked at Darius as he came through the door. He immediately knew what was wrong, he had seen it dozens of times during his time as a cage-fighter. Someone shows up, a boxing fan perhaps, at the underground fight club, and walk out with a look of shock and dismay on their face. Most did not come expecting to see such brutality that is capable of occurring in the ring.

Raphael gave a shake of his head, watching Darius wander off. He looked back to Iris and nodded. “She won’t mind, in fact, if you want I can get you another, though I doubt anyone will think twice if you wander around with the bent one.”

He stretched, feeling that he was ready to go again; he felt a little sore from the blows he had taken, but did not show it even in the slightest. “No need to apologize Iris. I probably should have set the difficulty lower, and I apologize for that.”

He glanced down at her stomach as it rumbled. “Breakfast time I would venture.” He looked over at Deathstar. “Mind showing our guest to the dining room? I need to clean up before bein’ ready to go, sound good? Meetcha at, say, one in the garage?”

Raphael nodded and smiled. “Nice meeting you Iris, and if we should meet here again, we’ll have to do this again. Nice workout.”

He turned away from the women and made his way over to Darius as he marveled at the Danger Room. “We need to talk, and I have a favor to ask, if you’re still willing to grant me as such.” He said, keeping his voice low, so the women could not hear, and conversational in tone.

The man who called himself Deltoid approached Darius who was quickly trying to hide any sign of dismay. They both have probly had it hard, its how they have grown up Darius thought to himself, I have no right to put views apon them as I have only been here for no longer than a month, the time to talk will come but it is not this day Darius thought in his own mental converstation with himself.

Raphael pulled Darius aside and turned him away from the girls. He then said in alow voice that he had a favour to ask which Darius immediatly responded "A favour, sure and as long as your on my side I will always be able to grant them for you and anyone Raph" Darius said quitly as he looked over his shoulder to see if the girls could hear them at all.