Granny was a teacher. A teacher that had, conundrum there, not been able to teach anyone anything yet. This was curtsy of a nasty bout of Pneumonia, which had sent her surfing on a Californian beach after a somewhat lengthy ICU stay. Still. She was a teacher, who had not taucht yet. And she did not even know her classroom. From the briefing she had recieved upon signing her contract, she knew where it was suppposed to be, that 'Danger Room'. Now, after her triumphant return, she proceeded to inspect her Realm for the first time.

It was rumored to be Holographic. Holographic!

Of all things she - an old lady by all accounts - was supposed to be teaching in a high-tech environment. Talk about human-resource mismatch. She was rather amused by the notion that a computer and robots would be her tools of instruction. In her time robots had been thought of as Things That Go Bump In The Night. And even in recent History Registration and giant Sentinels - giant robots stalking the streets of the populated Centers looking for unregistered Mutants to round up - had not increased her trust in metallic companionship by even the smallest increments.

She had gone through a much harder school than even the Registration though - one that she did not wish to inflict on anyone else. Especially on the children. (Really Children: Stay away from a Military fighting a losing war in a jungle far off country. The Big Gamers tend to go all acidic and scared if - for example a nurse starts floating things with her mind. And they will start to forcefully recruit you into programs so secret they are still under wraps over thirty years after the fact. And in all possibility they will stay that way until the earth stops revolvoing. You see, those people then were slightly... inhumane... with their near-human resources.) So on giving it a moment thought she decided that she could - and would - work with robots. She had Children to teach after all. And the possiblitites of her getting hurt were - considering her skills - absulutely abysmal.

Yes, considering she could throw things that weighed a few tonnes, she felt absolutely justified in being cocky. Also: She had shields only very few things could overwhelm (she was not vain enough to think that they were unbreakable, thank you). But she did not find it in her mind that Students would be stomping into her class with a half-dozen machine guns aimed in her general direction. And even if they did - she smiled somethign that could be called a mildly evil smile - they would live through the surprise of their lives. Or not... Oh well. No use going there. They were her students and not something Vicious. She was, after all, going to that Danger Room, her cane surely in her hand, its thumping echoing through the halls of the Mansion, and not back to the Jungle.

When she arrived at the metal doors she had left the corridors of her usual occupation well behind. A keypad greeted her, off to one side, Computer obviously waiting for instructions as well as the code she had been given to access the more dangerous things here. Another old smile. Her arthritic fingers found the keys to be inconveniently small. And she had to squint to make out the numbers on them. No good, those young people inventing things. Always made things good for their age bracket. She finally had resort to punching in letters and numbers with her mind - leaving a slightly frustrated feeling in her belly. She would need to talk to that Doctor again. He had wanted her to take yet another pill. And - seething - she probably would.

Finally the door opened. To her it seemed mockingly slow in its progress. No-good computers indeed. When she stepped into the cavernous training facility she began smiling a happy smile though. So much space for her and her charges. And so... what to do with it?

She considered for a moment, settling on some trials with the electronic brain controlling the room. "Computer..." Her voice rasped in fair imitation of Captain Kirk... "... I need an Elephant, male." And indeed, the Computer deigned to oblige her. With a shimmering of the air in the middle of the room, the animal made its appearance. Stage set. Now: Training. Was thing heavier than a usual SUV? The thing trumpeted in her direction, obviously displeased. And obviously loudly. Had she closed that door? Probably not. So if she woke half the Mansion... The Bull began moving, interrupting that train of thought. It was - she noted for herself - quite obviously a well-programmed boy. Before it could take more than a few enraged steps into her direction it...

began to hover up to the ceiling, wrapped in a green glow. She stared intently at it, forgetting the world. And yes, she began to juggle a bull Elephant under the Ceiling of the Danger room. She even turned it overhead and made it fly in circles.

Yes, some early morning Danger Room training would be lovely. No classes. No cop stuff. No apartment searching. Nothing to distract. No, he didn't know if anyone had planned to utilize the room. No, he hadn't called ahead. Should he have?

Yes, this would be nice.

Shin went down the hall, towards the room. And then. He heard a trumpeting call.

Eyebrows rose like elevator carriages. Up up up.

Shin peered around the corner, into the room.

Wasn't that the same old lady he'd locked out of his private conversation with Slate and Katrina? Weird. Was that an elephant? That was cool.

He idly wondered if she could juggle that AND a Blastoise. This would require further investigating.

Shin coughed. Into his fist.

Someone coughed. Behind her. The fact of the matter registered a few seconds behind the actual act. She was much too engrossed in heaving the irate mammal around the room. Talking was a bit out of the question while doing that. So...

The Elephant dropped on the ground. Heavily. It was, in fact, a bit noisy. Oops.

Granny turned around, a smile on her old face. Her eyes were twinkling with fomething like.... fun? "Yes, dear?" She posed the question quite invitingly. As if the elephant behind her was not just shaking off his fall-induced confusion and was in an obviously murderous mood. Such trivialities were, it seemed, beneath her notice.

Was that a boom he heard?

Yes.

A rather large boom.

Luckily, it was just a hologram so all big booms were purely aesthetic. Still was loud, though.

He twirled a finger painfully in one ear. The boy was so focused recovering from the loud noise, in fact, that he entirely missed the twinkle in the old hag's eyes, and the question posed. His ears were, in fact, ringing, you see. Which made any comments made at that current moment a moot point.

The elephant was not moot, however. If only it could get to its feet.

Class was a waste of time today. Spark plugs really....three hours of his day were wasted on spark plugs. Nothing wrong against them, just he didn't need a three out tutorial on how to change them. It wasn't hard work, simple enough he was sure a monkey could do it. Still, he had to suffer through the dragged out material. By the end of it all, he was sure he could change the damn things with his eyes shut, maybe even with his dreadlocks. Now that would have been cool To bad he didn't have the wicked mutant ability to manipulate his own hair as a series of extra hands, it most certainly would come in hand. What was he thinking. If he could do something like that, he would just be a big freak like half the other people in here. No, not him. He was normal, just had the ability to hide, that was all.

The upper levels of the mansion that normal brought him to the roof seemed stupid today. He just didn't feel like hanging out on the roof wasting time until nightfall came, so it was to the lower levels of the school he roamed. He might have blown off that one guy in the kitchen that day...something about going to some room and blowing up stuff. He couldn't remember to clear, mornings were not his forte. Skirting down another set of stairs, he found himself in a place he really had never ventured to before, it was something new and different. Hopefully a good distraction from the rest of the school, if it was possible in the slightest.

Rounding a corner then another, he soon found himself looking at the back of some Asian guy. At least he didn't have wings and a huge monkey tail. Moving closer he soon spotted a sight he wasn't sure how to take. There was grandma standing in a weird room with an elephant. His mouth dropped a bit as his eyes squinted harder. Why was there a grandma in the basement? Seriously, wasn't this place full of kids mostly? Sure an elephant should cause more of an alarm, but he couldn't get over the fact there was an old lady in a room in the basement with an elephant. This place was a three ring circus! Elephants, the monkey girl and he was sure Taylor was the ring leader of it all.

"Grandma, old folks home is on Jefferson." The thought came across his mind, if there was that flying monkey girl in the school, maybe the elephant was a kid as well. That had to suck, wake up one morning and be an elephant. Wait, what in the world was he thinking, this was an elephant. Wait. Elephant. "How the hell did an elephant get down here?"

The Grandma blinked placidly at the youth, who had stormed into the Danger Room behind Tetsuya. Placidly, until words about old people homes came out of his mouth. She turned to face him fully, her flowered skirt swinging around with something quite girlish. Speed.

Her right eyebrow started on a slow journey twoards her hairline. A very slow journey, as she proceeded to look the disreptuable one over. "Child be assured, if I wanted to be in a nursing home, I would. You, on the other hand, might not like the soapy taste I am going to put in your mouth soon." Her cane, as it so happened, a very solid looking one of wood, was slowly floating from her hands. "Computer..." she said calmly "... I need a tree. Midsize." And behind her something needly made its shimmering appearance.

The Elephant was on his legs now. And quite irate.

An unfamiliar voice spoke, and Shin turned towards its source. It was a teen with long hair and a thoroughly native American look to him. He tilted his head. Where had this kid come from?

The woman who had been lifting the elephant prior to the Native American boy's intrusion spoke, and he turned his attention to her, and her reprimands. Yes, he quite agreed. Seemed quite rude to just up and say that sort of stuff out loud. And he wasn't cute enough to get away with comments like that, unlike some people.

"Watch out." He commented, towards the teen. "I think, maybe, you made her mad. And that elephant seems mad, too."

That elephant. He'd never done anything with an elephant before. He wasn't sure if he could lift one with his mind like she could. And he really didn't want to hurt such a lovely thing. So. He just stood there, and let fate take its course.

Old lady was cranky, must have mist her afternoon nap or didn't get enough tea. He knew how his grandparents functioned but not this lady. Oh well, not that it mattered. She was a loon and no doubt about that one. The elephant on the other hand, he should keep an eye on it, or two. He wasn't a huge elephant fan, they were big and cool but they smelled horrid at the zoo. Riding one might be fun though, but not this particular one.

Look, the Asian guy actually knew how to speak now, bravo. Though now he was wishing the guy to be mute again. Captain Obvious, that had to be his name. Hokee didn't need a play by play on this matter, he could tell very well for himself. With a roll of his eyes, the teen shook his head. This wasn't worth his time, not in the slightest. Of course the elephant looked upset, living in the mansion was enough to drive any living thing crazy.

"No soap in my mouth. You two go play with your......elephant." That sounded so wrong in some weird twisted way. He needed to get out of there. Not because of the crazy granny, but because there was a freaking elephant there and he didn't want to deal with that. With a flick of his hair, his attention veered away from the crazy duo and he started to walk away. Sure it would be cool to stand around and watch what might happen, but he didn't. It was time to leave, time to go find something else to do.

A quick reminder in maths:
Tree+ irate Elephant = broken tree + irate elephant
Tree+ Telekinetic + irate Elephant = Broken Tree + clubbed Elephant.
Worry much?

Well now that that was dealt with, and somewhat violently, Granny had to admit to herself, she turned to the Asian youth that had so tactfully remained at her side. (The other one, she thought, might get indeed a washing of the mouth.)

"Mad." She seemed to be tasting something unusual on her lips. And then smiled at Shin. "I am not. Though you might call it slightly irritated." Her hand made an apologetic gesture twards the Elephant that had sagged onto its legs and was still not moving. Going by the heavy sound of lungs working it was still breathing though.

"But there are formalities!" She announced, skirts swishing around her legs as she waltzed forward. "Ms. Stephens my name. Call me Granny. And you are?" She lifted an inquiring eyebrow at the Asian.

The Asian shrugged at the rude kid's exit. And continued shrugging.

"My name is Shin." He said, compartmentalizing the name of the wielder of giant elephants. He'd been interested before. Now he kind of felt like leaving...

"What's up? I thought it was mainly X-men who used this room." They needed to up security if countless children and elderly ladies kept sneaking on in.

Younger people might have huffed and puffed (or whatever steam-train related metaphor was in use presently) at the suggestion that she was not authorized to be here. Here. in her personal domain. Also: They might have balked at the suggestion of shrugs. Such impolite things. Nothing says "Whatever" better. Nothing tells you "im-only-interested-so-much" quite so eloquently. But alas... she was old and generous. Also she had just wielded an Elephant. That left her somewhat exhausted. (These things she did not di as regularly as she should, perhaps. People needed to keep sharp after all.)

"And I thought people knew faculty." She said most sweetly. "As you seem not to: I teach Mutation Control Classes."

Also: The Xmen. If she was right (and she had followed the news) they were a band of vigilantes that happened to be sweet and innocent and mostly interested in putting away THE BAD GUYS for good. So much young ardor. So much folly. Reminiscing brought half a smirk to her old face, making the lines in it deep as valleys. "And pray tell me, young man, what might you know of the elusive Xmen?" Just old ladies asking. You know?

Shin shrugged again.

Mutation control classes? He could have sworn Sam taught something like that. That must have been Self Defense, then, or he was far too busy to balance both. And every other class ever. "Sorry. I don't really hang around the school too often."

>>"And pray tell me, young man, what might you know of the elusive Xmen?

"I'm only in it," He said, without any touchings of pride. "A team leader, in fact."

"So you, young man, are responsible for reprehensive vigilante activities in this city..." Granny stated blandly. "This explainsa lot, don't you think?" Her voice was even a bit frigid now. "You need proper experience in dropping bad guys. I shall therefore attend you in your need."

Saying it simply, was she? And with so much modesty.

Shin shrugged, wiggled a finger in his ear, and walked out of the room.

"Sorry. Don't need help. I get enough lessons from my shows and anime."

So much shrugging. And the rude kid. And a bossy old lady? He really didn't feel much like training anymore. He'd leave her to her elephants and go get some sleep.