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"We do have security measures put in place. The Danger Room is down here in the sublevels where there is no reason to go unless you are hurt or a member of the X-Men. The Danger Room only opens when it is given an authorization code by a member of the X-Men. Students aren't allowed in unless accompanied by an X-Men, and if you didn't notice, I had a kill switch so if someone is stupid enough to come in here without a responsible adult they won't get themselves killed." He was willing to accept that maybe there had been some sort of glitch with the programming that had let the Danger Room started up without a member of the team inside or at the control panel. What Locke had a hard time buying though was that they had innocently run into here.

"And of course you couldn't have known that, I mean it wasn't as though someone had been standing in here, trying to tell you that it was dangerous, right?"He was looking very intently at the girl when he said that. Lack of shoes on feet gave more weight to the boy's argument than what the lady said.

It was hard to pull the wool over Earthwalker's eyes, even if you were someone that knew him well. He continued to stare down the two Danger Room stowaways, his face clearly saying "I ain't buying it." Getting into the Danger Room was not something that happened casually. It wasn't like opening a closet door, thinking it was the exit door. Safety protocols were built into it. So even if the two had just wandered into here on a whim, something that Locke found hard to believe, it would not have started up a program without being given the command to do so. "You're really going to play the finger pointing game? My little brother stopped that years ago and he's younger than you both."

Locke sighed and with a twitch of his fingers the giant rock monster, known best as Fluffy, went charging off to fight the creature that the Danger Room program had created. His head had not changed position, but no longer was the Earthwalker looking at Tses or Clyde. There was a glassy quality to his eyes, as if he were staring thousands of years into the future. Over the years he had gotten very skilled with his powers. Skilled enough that he was able to talk to people while still operating Fluffy. No matter how talented he got though, Earthwalker would always have that distant look on his face when using his powers. It went hand in hand with having to split his mind up.

"Terminate program, authorization Earthwalker code seven Mai alpha,"[/color] Locke barked out at last. In a very tidy manner the program started shutting down, taking with it the ruined cityscape and Fluffy. Locke felt a shudder travel through his body. It had felt like he had stepped into a pool of water that had been slicked with oil. "Now let's try this again, but this time with the truth. Or else you're going to have to go through my planned session and it sure as hell is worse than that."

"The Danger Room is great for all the possible scenarios that you could face. In there you can learn how to handle anything from Lovecraft creatures to zombie pirates, to just hitting a target," Locke explained as he started ringing out his shirts. The fabric clung to him and hung heavily making him feel more miserable about it than having had Ms. Summers get the best of him. The idea of it was to eventually loose, but it wasn't to surrender. It certainly wasn't to get a soaking. "The problem is that because it's a computer program everything is predetermined. Technology is making improvements everyday, and the computer that runs the Danger room is amazing. But as amazing as it is the technology just doesn't exist yet that allows a program to think and make adjustments. We can't make the Danger Room replicate the human brain, and that's something that you need to learn how to deal with. Not everyone follows logic the way you and I do. Got to practice for spontaneity.”

It was admittedly funny to hear Locke telling someone to be more spontaneous. He liked it best when things were regular and dependable. When people started acting in ways that he could not predict or understand it frustrated the young man. With the twins it was easier for him to get their sometimes insane behavior, but for people like his buddy Eaan or Saph, there was just no getting what was going on. Kids were so much easier. That was why he enjoyed working with them. You can't really tell someone who's older than you when they are doing something you don't like, especially if it's a person with authority over you. Exceptions being when it was some form of abuse. Even then it is hard for anyone to speak up, especially Locke who found it hard to express himself. Younger people you could speak more openly with in his opinion.

Dripping wet Locke had to admit that just wringing out his shirts wasn't going to be enough. He'd need to change his clothes and towel off his hair. At least these days there wasn't the unruly mop of it, and just rubbing his hand against the top of his head got a good chunk of the water off there. Now that Ms. Summers was no longer hosing him down he felt safe to approach her. Being barefoot in the mud you would expect some sort of slippage, but that would be a wild underestimation of the teen's powers over the earth. With each step the ground beneath him seemed to be on a tumbler, and the wet mud was rolled over to make room for the dry dirt. “When you're working with me, we'll be outside in good weather. Unlike you I don't do too well in the Danger Room. It gives me things I can work with, but it's like practicing for a triathlon using training wheels on your bike and a bathtub of water. And we will be working together some more Ms. Summers. You can count on that.”

Maybe he sounded a little too adult as he said that, as if he was trying to say that because he was a full fledged member of the X-Men he was superior to her. Locke was in reality one of, if not, the newest one to don the title. His only advantage, and only reason why he was so confident in his powers was because he depended upon them for his day to day life, usually in a way that the others did not have to. Locke's head tilted in thought for a second before he asked, sounding very much like he was the student and Ms. Summers was the teacher, ”Why didn't you hit me earlier?”

Sometimes being a hero sucked Locke thought. It could be as simple as having to cut back your class prep time so that you could go stop a megalomaniac with a death wish against mutant kind or human kind. His Halloween had been disrupted by a biker gang when they tried to trash a hotel. Flying out to locations was always stressful on the teen, and he still was convinced that the jet would spontaneously combust or something. Today he was spared that at least, but riding in a car was hardly top on Locke's list of way to travel. Normally if he had to go by car the teen would duck into the back seat and sit in the middle. Riding shotgun made his palms sweaty and brought to the front of his mind the last few seconds of full vision he had. There had been a time when he couldn't even force himself to sit in a car at all. But for the sake this mission, or more specifically for the sake of the one at the wheel, Locke dared the front seat.

If being a hero sucked for school or for taking your little siblings out for a fun visit, having your wedding crashed, well, destroyed practically, sucketh the greatest suck. He wasn't sure why Saph had asked him to be a groomsman. The two had done some things together yes, but it had always been business, and Locke always felt as if he was chasing after the older man to keep him safe. Honestly the man got himself into crazy situations and needed someone more sane to keep him grounded. In the past Saph had been mildly insane, but Locke was worried the man was going to loose it big time here. He bore witness to the man's unraveling. And while Locke wasn't going to pretend that he was the best example of mental health, he knew that Saph needed someone to keep him from going too far into a very dark place.

Earthwalker, as he was called when performing as a X-Men had been focused entirely upon the road ahead, nursing thoughts quietly in his head while trying not to let flashbacks of the accident that took his dead make him shake. As such he was surprised when Saph broke the silence to talk to him. Even more surprising was just how good of a grasp of his behavior Saph seemed to have. Locke did have some things to say to the older man, but wasn't quite sure where to start or even if what he had to say was going to be any help at all. "I'm always quiet," Locke said,one hand gripping tightly to his seat belt, the other going to the little handle thing that you used to shut the door when inside the car. His knuckles were turning white and he tried to relax his grip. "Eyes on the road." Honestly it was like trying to keep a puppy in check! But in all fairness Locke had never told anyone really about the car crash, and Saph couldn't have known why Locke was being so paranoid about his driving.

"I don't like wasting words," Locke said after another moment of silence, before Saph could get too snappish about it again. Where the older man was pissed off with what he said, Locke was being very calm and level headed. "We at the location yet?" he asked. Saph might want some space to tackle what he was feeling, but at the same time Locke had seen the man being kept clear of. "It's weird. First time we met, you were a single guy going into a gun fight with a lead pipe, and I was hiding behind my hair.". There. If Saph wanted to say anything about the events of the wedding he could. Locke wasn't the type to push people.

Mud was something that Locke could work with, sort of. Fluffy moved so much faster when there was the introduction of water. However keeping Fluffy together when the dirt became mud was harder. No longer was Fluffy able to keep doing the Bugs Bunny impression. That required the earth to be a bit more solid. Locke was going to have to move quickly before the ground became too saturated for him to be able to do anything. Already he could feel the topmost layers getting hazy in his earth vision.

Such a combo of mud would make just keeping a Fluffy together a challenge. Time for a change in tactics. Ms. Summers had seemed to object to taking her shoes off. Either she was even more insecure about bare skin than he was, or she did not want to risk getting dirty. Locke chewed his lip in thought as he weighed the options. A part of having her take her shoes off was because he did not want to risk getting them dirty. Thankfully that was only a part.

The mud, slick with water, wasn't able to take shape into the golem, but that did not mean that Locke had no affect on the dirt that was in it. What would have usually been an arm pulling up the rest of Fluffy came out as a burbling mess of a bubble that burst. The mud splattered by it didn’t bother Locke. Dirt and mud tended to be attracted to him anyways like iron shavings to a magnet. There was a reason why Locke had to do his laundry separately from the rest of his family.

"That's why we're working together," Locke said, giving Ms. Summer's a knowing grin. He couldn't help but feel the need to poke a little bit of fun at her previous statement, especially since the two had hit an impass in the lesson. Maybe joking with her would get her to be less stiff. That in itself was a rather ironic thought. He was Locke Tori, known to his friends as the rock man, not because of mutations, but because how immovable he could be, and how he did not give way to others. Locke did not often crack jokes, and on the rare occasion in which he did so, it was always with a sense of dry humor that went unnoticed. "We're working to getting you were you don't need to call for someone to rescue you, which means you have to think only about what is useful to you."

Her weight came dropping down to the ground like a hammer, causing a sigh to ripple through Locke's body. Honestly, when were people going to learn that the earth did not like having things thrown into it with such force. Ok, so it wasn't nearly as bad as Saph's landing on the beach, but still. Locke could have just as easily had the earth start gobbling Ms. Summers once her feet touched down. He had seen her leap from the tree, and was already in contact with the thing that would be manipulated to do so. It was good to see her roll with the landing though. It was a hard lesson for Locke to get himself. His knee occasionally had flare ups after the accident and just did not want to bend, so it was confusing to both the earth, and the young adult himself, when he didn't remember to use the momentum to soften the blow.

Now what are you up to? Locke pondered as Ms. Summers took off running past him. She had clearly come to some sort of plan while he had been busy staring up at the tree. In any case she was on the ground now, and to make sure that she didn't forget what was happening, he really should do something to startle her. Like in an old Bugs Bunny cartoon, a lump of earth raced beside her, swerving in front to switch to the opposite side. Nothing striking at her, only at worst trying to make her trip.