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He never shifted out of his combat stance as she managed not to fall, and he watched her quickly recover. His face was blank, though he did seem quite relaxed in this environment; the agitation written on his face before was all but gone. One might guess he enjoyed fighting. A big part of him did.

He took some mental notes; choosing to switch her grip greatly limited her range, but allowed secondary strikes.

She darted straight at him, attempting to take his crowbar out of the equation with a strike; he flicked it down, and let go of it, and his body naturally prompted him to twist toward the more powerful of the two strikes; it would almost seem as if his reflexes were inhuman as his right hand darted in to catch the weaponized pommel against his own finger tips, effectively halting the blow as if it were trying to strike a cement wall, but with none of the backlash of trying to hit something you shouldn't try to hit; needless to say, it would feel very strange.

There was a clang as his crowbar touched the ground, hooked side first, and he allowed himself to keep spinning fluidly, catching the sharp end of the crow bar, opposite the hook, with his left hand before it followed the first half to the ground. From there he would keep spinning, attempting to catch the back of her foot with the curve, and yank with all of his might.

She was smart; she hadn't even bothered striking his right side, but the left side was more of a reach, which gave him an advantage, considering how she'd limited her range. Still, she'd opted to strengthen her stance; perhaps that would save her?

Was Eve about to take a field trip to the floor? Find out on the next episode of "The Danger Room!"

He leaned forward to stand up tall, uncrossing his arms as she listed Locke and Mirror on her list of combat references. Not bad. Locke had grown a lot over the years, and Mirror was certainly skilled. He gave a little nod. He was sure he had something to add; something practical and real. Fighting on the front lines without a combative power was a dangerous ordeal, but it didn't stop some heroes from being feared by criminals everywhere. It was about fighting smart, and being vigilant in your training.

"Use their powers to help maintain peace. Stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves. Be both heroes, but also being a force for justice. I guess responsibilities could include a lot though... you guys train students, go on missions. Work with the police..."

He nodded again at her, casually reaching down and grabbing his crow bar from its sheath as he wandered away from the table.

"S'the gist of it." There were other important points he could touch on, but this wasn't a history lesson, nor was it a debate on morals. It was a training session.

"Grab your weapons. I want to see where you are for myself. Don't worry, I'll go easy on you to start." That wasn't boastful, he was simply being honest.

"Go ahead and engage when you feel comfortable." He stood, with his right side facing her, his crowbar in between the two of them, a guard that was centered and relaxed; it didn't cover his right side as well as it could.

That was another thing about Saphirus; No one in the mansion really know what his powers were exactly; They were confusing, and he wasn't the kind of guy that sat and explained things. People knew he could get hit hard and be fine, and that he could hit things really, really hard.

He watched her watching him. It was a little tough to get a gauge on her; She was clearly taking things in, he could see it on her face, but she almost seemed like she could just be distracted, or out of focus. He guessed this was because of her ability.

"I tried out because I wanted to do more with my powers than just organize paintings all day. I grew up having someone look out for me. Felt like I wanted to look out for myself."

His jaw set for a moment as he stared at her, clearly going over her words with a fine-tooth comb...

He wasn't sure he liked what he heard. Most trainees answered that they felt somehow unfulfilled, yes, but they also seemed to want to help others more than themselves. Maybe she was just more honest, though. He knew that when he first joined, he had a lot to prove, and mostly, he was proving it to himself.

"That works. You've learned a lot so far, then? About lookin out for yourself?" He had to trust Gawain's trust in her as a trainee; Yes, there was a bit of a conflict of interest, there, but the young knight's judgment was generally pretty sound.

The fact that her motives reminded her more of his own back then made him uncomfortable. It was no rumor that he'd taken a long time to move from trainee to full fledged X-man. That was because he'd had to learn many, many hard lessons.

"What would you say the responsibilities of the X-Men are?"

Unseen had been prepared to strike. The flashy dressed one had opted to step away from the hail of gunfire, which made him an ideal target; If he took this one down, the big, stupid one wouldn't be too hard to handle!

"SHIN, BEHIND YOU!"

He froze in place just milliseconds from a vital area strike. Shin's turn nearly put him eye to eye with the undetectable assassin. He stayed frighteningly still, staring right at the unaware X-Man. Did the stupid one know he was there?

The gunfire started to diminish as Saph picked off the guards one by one, knocking them silly with their own kinetic energy, and some less than lethal rounds.

As soon as that was done, he spun to see what had attacked Shin... Nothing was there. He looked closely as Unseen stepped back slowly.

"Woah... Nothing... Nothing there? Uhm... Sorry about that, Shin. I swear there was something there. Maybe it was my imagination... Jees, I coulda got you killed. I'll be more careful, alright?"

He nodded, looking back one last time, and turning to head into the room. It was another hallway.

Unseen was not adjusting his strategy. The traps, he could make sure the two fell into them. That would work... He would have to make sure the dumb one died first, too. He couldn't risk being noticed.

Saph stepped further into the room, surveying his handy work. One man was still moving, The X-man gave him a love tap, initiating early nap time.

And then he stepped on a pressure plate.

Click! "Uh oh..."

"Kid?... I ain't a kid. I'm a soldier."

Well... That melted your heart in a really messed up kinda a way... To think that there were still people out there that did this to kids. They tried to make them into killing machines.

"You are a kid. And that's okay. That's what you should be."

He sighed, and placed a palm on his forehead.

"Gimme a knife and i'll prove it."

"It ain't a weapon that makes a soldier... It's a war... you know there ain't a war on, right? You're in a safe place, surrounded by people who want to help... I'm one of those people..."

The clones had managed to recover from their discombobulation, and he sat in relative comfort, as if nothing they could do could hope to harm him... Or perhaps, as if he didn't mean to be a threat as well.

"What do I gotta do to prove that to you?"

Yup. He knew things didn't feel right.

Stepping in, the atmosphere; it felt very familiar. He'd walked into traps before. Her mutation was perfect for them, too.

He felt the familiar motion of someone trying to strike from behind, and was barely able to resist the very familiar reaction of taking the head off of his attacker. Instead, he pivoted quickly, and his hand left the chair to reach around and grab the wrist of his would-be assassin. A sharp tug worked to pull the makeshift weapon from her grip, and a quick shove would send her into the softer bedding, and likely into her clone.

Like it was as normal as taking out the trash, he walked on over and tossed the makeshift shiv out of the window.

"Made yer bed a lot less comfortable doin that."

He wandered over, turning his back to her once again, to flick on the light switch.

"Gonna make any more bad decisions today?"

"Oh Saphirus, will you please watch your language?"

"I can't help it! I'm all unciviized and stuff; yer gunna hafta make me a gentleman." He winked at her as she tried not to smile. Big pointy teeth made their way onto the scene, and he knew victory was his!


... Until, he went and opened his big ol mouth.

"Saph! How could you even say such a thing!? I've barely been off the plane for five minutes, too!"

He paused for a moment, and scratched the back of his head shamefully. "Aww, babe, you know I was just foolin. I know you'd never do anything like that. It was a joke is all. f... forgive me?" Aaaand, flash them baby blues; puppy dog face. Was he taking this 100% seriously? Nope.

How could he? It was almost surreal; he could accuse her of conspiring to assassinate the president of the united states and it couldn't ruin the moment.

Well... The cavity searches might, if he spoke it loud enough.