X-MEN: TRAINING SESSION 1

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Shade and Eleanor (Team 1) vs. Light and Vincent (Team 2)

Setting:
Abandoned industrial complex

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Intending to practice with their own powers in the Danger Room, one day, Light and Shade meet up with Vincent and Eleanor before ever beginning a session. Shade decides that, rather than practicing individually, a two versus two battle using Danger's new Virtual Reality machines could play out interestingly. Shade spouts this off at the last minute before Danger shuts their bodies down putting them into a physical deep sleep while their consciousness is transported to another time and place`.

Shade and Eleanor are placed into a team together, as well as Light and Vincent, as Team 1 and Team 2, respectively. After jacking in to the system, Team 1 is spawned in the Engine Room of the Industrial complex, while Team 2 generates in the Lobby.

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Parking

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Lobby

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Light regained her 'consciousness' in the virtual world and immediately whirled around, looking for any signs of Shade. She half expected him to be near her, but knew it wasn't likely considering his last minute decision to pit the married couple against each other with the other participants as their partners. Pursing her lips, the girl drew in a deep breath, holding back a shouted threat at her husband. He could find her easy enough as it was, even be able to avoid her, and she really felt like kicking his ass right then. Stretching out her right hand, she let a few held-back sparks out into the air, letting her breath out slowly and releasing some of the irritation. The girl figured it was best, to put the two stronger mutants on opposite teams, but her pride wouldn't let her openly admit that. "So," she began after a few seconds of silence, slowly turning to look around the area she was in, what looked to be a lobby of some sort of industrial office, though the interior was old and worn and crumbling in several places, some areas without a solid roof overhead. It was definitely interesting, the capabilities of the new Virtual Reality system. She couldn't help but wonder why Xavier never used that in place of the old Danger Room methods, and just avoid his students getting hurt all together. "Who do I have the pleasure of fighting with?" she finally finished with a sarcastic smirk, her gaze falling on Vincent as she stopped turning.

Vincent's brows shot up as he regarded the woman before him and then the rest of the room they were in, still reeling a bit from the shock of opening his eyes and finding himself in a completely different place. They'd described it as virtual reality, but fuck him if he'd ever imagined it would be this real. "Holy fuck." He mumbled, then shook his head and looked at his new partner. "Vincent Gladstone." His eyes quickly took her in without lingering anywhere. She was a good looking woman, but currently he was more preoccupied with how real she looked. "This is insane. I've never seen anything like this. Are you sure its really not real?" He asked her with a look of slight disbelief, as if he was thinking that they were being fucked with.

Light cocked an eyebrow as Vincent didn't bother to hide his complete astonishment at the surprisingly reality the virtual world presented to the 'players' of this little game. A smirk still played on her lips, and after the young man's introduction, the girl began to turn away, taking a few steps and looking around at the crumbling edifice once more. "Light," she said simply, allowing the meaning of her name to be misconstrued for actual light for a moment before she added, "Or Impulse. Whichever you prefer to use." The girl was actually dressed in her uniform, a version she had modified to her own preferences and in order to enhance her powers. The skin-tight leather suit consisted of a pair of pants and thigh high boots with metal planted into the soles, a long-sleeved jacket that showed off her midriff, and a pair of gloves that primarily focused the electricity flowing through her veins into her fingertips. Diagonally across her torso hung a chain, one she had asked Danger to modify to look more like a Chinese fighting chain, with a handle for gripping and a bullet on the end for weight and easier maintenance. "I don't think so. Never used this before," she replied to the man as she tugged on her gloves, ensuring they were secure on her hands and wrists. It was surprising how real Danger had made this place look, but given that the AI had done plenty of other highly intelligent acts, it was believable. Holding up her hand in front of her, Light tried to focus the electricity in her hand out through her fingertips, and much to her pleasure, it worked even easier than she thought. The platelets on the fingers of the gloves suddenly came to life with small sparks, and Light grinned, more than pleased with the results of Danger's work. Turning back to Vincent, suddenly, she lifted her chin briefly in a slight upwards nod. "What's your power?" she asked, wondering if the kid was just going to keep standing there, gawking, or if he would test out his abilities.

"Alright," Vincent responded after her pause was over and she told him to use which ever he preferred. Light was a weird name, but Impulse even more so, so he made a quick decision to go with the former. "Light. Do you know what the goal is at least? Or what the limits are? I mean, if this isn't real then we shouldn't feel pain or be able to actually hurt each other and shit right?" He asked, ignoring her smirks and that fancy, rather showy outfit that made him feel under dressed in his grey tank and jeans. With his attention on her he caught her little lightening act with her fingers and grinned with a nod. "Nice." Came his comment before he approached one of the stone pillars, knocked on it with one hand, then reared back and slammed his fist into it with the other. He grimaced, feeling a dulled pain along the flesh of his knuckles, but was pleased with the hole he'd made in it. The young man turned back to Light and showed her the torn skin over his knuckles, giving his fingers a wriggle. "Looks like we can hurt our selves a little bit and take damage, but what happens if we die?"

"Knowing Shade, my guess is we just fight to win," Light responded to Vincent matter of factly, crossing her arms over her chest as she waited on the young man to display his powers so they could at least try to strategize something. She didn't exactly enjoying talking much with strangers, but for once, the girl swallowed her pride and did her best to answer the young man's questions, despite not knowing much herself. "I'm assuming we can hurt one another, but only in this world. Since the VR program was deemed safer, then it would make sense for our actual bodies to remain intact." Light kicked her foot out, sending a small pebble skipping over the uneven concrete a few feet away. Seeing Vincent decide to do something, the young woman focused all her attention on him, expecting some grandiose display of power. However, the girl was left disappointed while only a fist-sized hole was left in the column that the man had punched. "Maybe we just wake up?" she answered, uncrossing her arms and beginning to turn away. "We should start moving, looking for them before they find us." She said, glancing around the room again before walking towards the door leading further inside the building. "I don't know about your female friend, but the guy we're facing has extraordinary abilities. The shadows are quite literally his puppets and he has mastered them quite well," Light continued explaining, finally reaching the doorway, where she turned to face Vincent. "Watch your back, your feet, everywhere. Don't rush him. In fact, let me handle him, if you want to win this thing." Part of her was being selfish and wanting Shade all to herself, but another part of Light didn't trust Vincent to make any sort of good call when it came to fighting her husband.

Vincent gave a nod , gnawing at the inside of his cheek as she explained things. It all made sense to him more or less, about as much as a virtual world in which he could feel and move about freely and not even be able to tell that it was fake could make sense. Wonder if anyone uses it for things other than training. He thought with a smirk, glancing back over to Light and thinking he wouldn't mind having her around for something like that too. Seeing her turning around and not looking overly impression by the hole he'd made in the concrete kind of put a damper on that line of thought and he let out a sigh, walking after her as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Alright, I uh- think something with clones, but I don't know much else about it." He admitted, then raised his eyebrows at her description of their other foe. "Shadows, huh, I take it you two are close?" He followed his question with a slight scowl as she began dolling out commands. "Whatever then. I'll just deal with the girl and leave you to to it." Stopping a few feet away he leaned back against the wall and gave her an expectant look with a nod of his head to the doorway. "Ladies first."

Vincent wasn't exactly much help in the knowing-about-their-opponents department, but 'clones' gave Light enough information to have some sort of idea what they were going to be up against. The girl raised her eyebrows as Vincent questioned her and Shade's relationship, and she couldn't help but smirk. "Close.." she repeated, reaching up to push her hair out of her face, though it promptly fell right back into it's usual spot. "It's not the best idea to depend on closeness in order to know someone and what they're capable of," she added, completely avoiding answering the question directly. She had taken on quite a few of the viewpoints of Shade, though Light had more of a flair for the dramatics than the shadow-manipulating man. "He's my husband," she admitted after a short pause, not willing to let that fact slip by the other man. She had just started to make her way further into the building when Vincent decided he had a plan to stay out of her way, moving into the first floor offices.

Her smirk irritated him, not understanding why she couldn't just answer the damn question. What was it, a secret or something? "Okay." Vincent said in reply to her comment about closeness not being related to knowing what someone was capable of or something of the sort. Whatever she said it sounded like some kind of over complicated bullshit to him and he didn't really have anything else to say about it. I guess it's a good thing she's hot. Her actual answer to his question however, when she finally did give it, surprised him to an extent. Some how he couldn't have pictured her as being the kind to settle down, though he'd only just met her, and it showed in his expression. "Oh. Good to know." He commented as he followed her into the first floor offices.

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1st Floor Offices

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Light walked into the large, door-lined room, folding her arms over her chest again as cool, dusty air hit her bare midriff. She took a good, long look around the place, wary of whatever might be hiding in the shadows, before speaking to Vincent again, this time quietly. "I didn't say don't fight back. Neither one of them are going to just leave one of us alone," she said, walking further into the office space. The metal on the soles of her shoes tapped quietly on the ground, and a few steps in, she accidentally kicked a small piece of rubble, sending it skittering across the floor and causing her to look around, alert. "Take a hit if you have a chance. Get him in the light and he's yours. He's strong, but only with his shadows." As she walked along the hallway, the girl carefully pushed open the door to one of the offices, leaning around the corner and looking inside with half-expectations to see someone else hiding.

Paying more attention to Light than his environment, despite what she'd said, Vincent followed her into the room. "No shit," He replied with more than a hint of sarcasm, wondering if his partner thought he was an idiot. "I'm not just gonna stand there and take it like a bitch." With most girls he was careful about his language and the things he said around them, but Light struck him as the abrasive, bitchy type and wasn't really worried about politeness or respect with her. Mamma Georgia would've smacked him upside the head for it anyway, but he'd learned on his own that not every woman was a lady or worth the bother. "Only with the shadows?" He replied with a raised brow, glancing around the room with a snort, noting that there were shadows literally everywhere around them. "Helpful. Really. So does he have to be touching the shadows or can he control them from a distance, because even if I'm standing in the light there's always gonna be a shadow on at least one side of me."

The back of Light's head was the only thing hiding the massive eye-roll response from Vincent as he refused to think of her information as helpful, and instead took some sort of offense. The two of them didn't seem to be getting along well so far into the game, and the thought hit her that that sort of sketchy team relationship could be their downfall in the end, depending on how well Shade was getting along with his teammate. "Alright, tough guy, go get 'im," she mocked, part of her not even wanting to be generous with more information. She had seen plenty of the kids in the mansion stare down a beating like a deer caught in headlights, and the girl was less inclined to trust anyone that stepped foot through the doors of Xavier's School for Gifted Youths. At least she was trying to come up with some sort of plan. With a sigh, Light moved on as Vincent continued questioning her, walking down the hallway and carefully peeking around doorways to make sure no one was waiting there for a surprise attack. "The more light the better," she answered simply, moving cloer to the far wall of the room, and looking up at the balcony of the second floor. Bitterly, the girl added, "If you want less shadow, knock out a wall, or something. Seems pretty sunny outside."

Meanwhile, Vincent was giving Light an eye-roll of his own, though because her back was to him she didn’t see his either. Her response only further irritated him and he gave an exasperated growl. “Look, since you’re married to the guy I’m kind of feeling like you would have some fucking information about his power other than he’s super fucking fantastic at it. I mean the light thing, that’s great, but is he going to be able to kill me with my own shadows from far away or am I safe as long as I stay in front of a window? Can I hit them at least, damage them? Shit like that, unless you want to fight him all by your damn self.” He snapped back as he followed closely behind her. Of course she was just reiterating the light thing again and her suggestion for him to take out a wall stopped him in his tracks. “Yeah, that’s what I’ll do. I’ll just take out a whole fucking wall with my bare hands. Why didn’t I think of that?” The young man shook his head and rubbed at his eyes with a groan, already very much sick of her bullshit. “You know what? Fuck it. I’ll just figure it out when I find him.” With that he turned back around and started heading back to the stairs they’d passed earlier.

"Hooooly shit," Light murmured quietly, tossing her head back a bit further before turning to her left and looking straight ahead, towards the open door of the storage room. It would be an understatement to call this kid a pain in the ass. He was almost starting to giev the girl a headache with his sudden and uncalled for attitude switch. What the hell were you thinking, Shade? mused the girl, wondering why exactly he had decided to split up the husband-wife duo and pit them against each other, alongside people they barely knew. Light was curious if Shade was having better luck with his partner than she was with hers. Reaching up to push some of her hair out of her face, the girl continued walking toward the storage area, more or less ignoring Vincent, or maybe pretending to. He didn't seem eager to listen to her anyways, considering she had just given him a ton of information about Shade's powers, but apparently all that went in one ear and out the other with the seemingly bipolar boy. "That seems like the predictable outcome..." she stated as Vincent mentioned leaving her to fight Shade, speaking slowly and enunciating her words. She let him continue his tirade, pausing at the doorway until he finished. "Bye," she finally said in an unamused voice, barely loud enough for him to hear at the other end of the large room. Even more bored and annoyed now than she was before, Light continued walking, moving carefully through the hallway and into the Storage room.

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2nd Floor Offices

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Vincent grit his teeth as he took the steps two at a time and came up on a second floor of offices. He glanced around, not entirely certain of what he was looking for really, all the while steaming inside over his pseudo confrontation with Light. He knew that he may have overreacted, storming off the way he did, but she was just so- so- "Ugh." He grumbled out loud, not even able to think of the right word to use to describe her. Ostentatious? When the word popped into his head he could help but laugh to himself and shake his head; it was the word mamma Georgia had used to describe him. Ostentatious and obstinate. She'd gotten them from her little word a day calender, he remembered, feeling himself start to calm down now as he explored the upstairs, and had always made sure to find a use for it, "to help me remember boy, and you should too." Of course, she'd probably say that the reason he didn't like Light none was because she was too much like himself, and here he had already split off from her despite knowing that they'd probably lose if they didn't work together. Pride goeth before the fall. Another favorite saying of hers. Alright. Maybe I should try this again. He moved over to the balcony that overlooked part of the first floor where he'd left Light just in time to see her disappear into another room. Cursing softly, he looked around, wondering if he should run downstairs to try and catch up and look even more like a moron, when he noticed a walkway on his level leading into an area above it. Deciding to take a risk, he jogged over and across, finding himself on the second level balcony of the room she was in.

Plodding down the hall Vincent stopped when he got to the door, taking a quick peek out at the catwalk. Seeing the girl again, now crossing over the middle bridge, he pulled back instinctively. Light had wanted him to be a distraction for her though, so he opened the door again and stepped out onto the catwalk of the factory floor.

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Storage

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Cautiously, Light made her way into the storage room from the 1st Floor Offices, hands at her sides now in case she needed to punch her way out of a predicament, or into someone's face. She was content leaving Vincent behind to do his own thing - with the way he was acting, the girl assumed he would either slow her down or get her 'killed'. Slowly, Light stepped through the room, avoiding piles of rubble and boxes of stored items, all while trying to keep an eye out for anything lurking or moving in the shadows, even the shadows themselves.

"Hey." Vincent called, just loud enough to be heard by Light as he descended the stairs to where she was. He had to watch where he placed he feet as the stairs were littered with junk, so by the time he got down there he wasn't even sure what he'd planned on saying. Pausing, he cleared his throat, then jammed his hands into the pockets of his faded blue jeans as he looked at her. "That- started off bad, I guess. Could we just, I dunno, start over or something?" It sounded stupid saying it, or perhaps it was just a blow to his pride to be the one giving in and trying to make peace. Either way he ended up shifting uncomfortably and looking away as he pulled a hand free and rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean, we're fucked if we don't work together right? And I sure as hell don't want to know what it feels like to die in here." So please just fucking work with me and stop with the stupid fucking quips. He added mentally as he waited for a response.

Light truly, honestly was not expecting Vincent to even come back around her, and she had already figured she'd find his head virtual body somewhere inside the building after a few minutes. So, when she heard his voice, the girl stopped dead in her tracks and whirled around to face him, hand extending outwards and alighting with electricity. Seeing him, however, she stared for a moment, then let her hand fall back to her side. She was on edge, and he had sneaked up on her, almost costing him his 'life'. "Try not to do that," she warned flatly, turning slowly back around to pick through the wreckage and trying to make her way towards the door. She seemed completely uninterested in what he had to say, but when he offered a re-do, she stopped. After a moment, the girl gave a one shouldered shrug, then replied with a, "Sure." She didn't feel like getting into a fight with her team member right now, and he was right; if they wanted to win this thing and get out alive, they would have to work together. Taking a deep breath, Light buried her pride for a moment and turned to face the tall boy. "We need a plan," she said simply, crossing her arms and pushing out her hip. "What do you need to know?"

Her partner took a step back when he saw her hands flare up, putting his own up in a sign off submission. "Sorry." He replied, without sarcasm this time as he could understand the why even if her response was a bit much. At the very least, she hadn't made a big deal about his make shift apology and he let a smile form on his face when she turned back to him. "Yeah we do." Vincent said with a nod, then took a seat on a random piece of covered furniture with his legs spread wide and his elbows propped on his thighs. "Well, does he have to be touching the shadow in order to control it? Do you know his.. ahh. radius, I guess?" He said, trying to ask how far away he could control the shadows from but not able to get the words out right.

Slowly, Light let herself fall back, only a couple of inches, until her back hit a stack of boxes against the wall. She leaned there, listening to Vincent's simple enough questions, and considered her answer. The girl wasn't sure what to say; instinctively, and for the most part, Light could tell how Shade would act and react with his powers, but she had never thought about the technicalities of them, or how exactly to explain them. "He... has to be touching them, yes," she began, the skin between her brows wrinkling as she glanced down at the ground. "He can stretch them... I dunno, 15, 20 feet? Probably further. The catch is, he teleports faster than you can blink twice. Let yourself get distracted for even one second - he's behind you with a knife against your throat." The girl pursed her lips as she cast her gaze up towards Vincent again, then crossed one leg over the other, leaving all her weight on one foot. "Like I said, just keep your eyes open and your guard up." Her voice was still stern, as if she wasn't quite ready to believe in her teammate yet, but she was doing her best not to speak down to him.

Vincent nodded, and then looked slightly taken aback. "He can teleport too? Fuck." He replied, not liking the sound of that. A brow rose up as he glanced over to his partner. "Do your abilities have any effect on his shadows?" For the moment he stepped back into the stairs and slumped down on one of the stair steps. "I can probably handle the girl as long as I don't get swarmed, if you can do something against him, are you gonna be able to?" He asked her levelly, "Being married and all that is, wouldn't want to come up on the enemy and find out you're a double agent." He slipped a playful grin in with that last joke, not wanting her to take it the wrong way.

"Told you," Light responded with a short tilt of her head and a lift of her brow. She sighed as he asked his next question, not quite making eye contact with him yet. "Somewhat. It's the light that messes with his shadows. I can keep him off me for the most part, but he might be able to slow me down enough for the girl to get to me," explained the woman, standing straight again and taking a few steps around the room. She couldn't keep still; she was nervous and knew that Shade could show up at any point and take the both of them out before they could react. "Pft," spat the girl, a small smirk pulling at her lips as Vincent showed his suspicion about her. "I've wanted to kick Shade's ass since I met him." Light was actually being quite honest. Since the very first day they met, Light and Shade had always tried to best one another, and throughout the relationship, they never lost their competitive spirit. "If you can take the girl out, keep her from getting to me, I can handle Shade."

Her response garnered a laugh from Vincent, whose grin broadened as he pushed up from the step. “Well, all right then.” Knowing her ability could at least interfere with his was mildly reassuring. “I’ll take out the girl, keep her off you, you watch my back for Mr. Shadow. If we can knock her out of the game early and team up on him, I think we could win this; teleportation or not. He’s not immune to getting hit in the face is he?” As he said this though, he took a second to wonder what kind of effect his punches would have in this reality. He’d never actually hit someone full force, knowing that if he could leave a hole in a concrete wall he could just as easily bash in a human skull. Stepping over to the doorway that lead to the room they’d had yet to explore he peered out. As his eyes scanned the floor he caught some movement and pulled back quickly. “Shit there’s someone out there.” He said in a hushed voice to Light, and then glanced over to the stair. “There’s a cat walk up top that overlooks the area. Would your powers work that high up?”

"It's gonna be hard," Light assured him, narrowing her eyes and looking around the room. She had almost forgotten that, with his powers, Shade could easily ambush them at any point and take them out before they knew what was happening. Part of her wondered why he hadn't, but it hit her that he was definitely waiting for them. "No, he's not unbreakable. As hard as you can hit, you'd kill him in one punch," she answered, though she remained mostly quiet after the fact, while Vincent checked on the room outside. When he returned, claiming to have seen someone, the girl stood up straight. "They're waiting, probably with a trap. Was it the girl?" She moved over to the door, standing next to Vincent and placed her hand on the doorknob, holding it but not yet turning it. "Yeah, this uniform lets me direct my electricity. Where was she? We can probably take her out fast with a height advantage."

"What fun is it if there's no challenge?" Vincent retorted in a whisper, eager to get into the fighting now. "Yeah, the girl; didn't see
your boy." He confirmed, and then risked another quick peek out, just opening the door a sliver. The girl wasn't where she was before and he
didn't want to risk being seen while looking for her, so he pulled back quickly. "She's moved, I can't see her anymore." For a moment he fell quiet.
"We should still go up top and get the advantage." It was high, but he was pretty sure he could take a fall from that height if he needed to with doing
any internal damage, so if he spotted her below again he could drop down on her and she'd never see it coming. Let Light stay back, maybe lure out her
beau, use himself as bait. Hell, it wasn't like if he died here he died for good, no matter how real this place felt.

Light fell quiet as she finally turned the doorknob and slowly cracked the door open, the hinges letting out a long, eery and much too loud creak. "Right," she whispered, looking around past Vincent. She couldn't see the girl either, and, tired of waiting for something to happen, she figured she could make something happen, herself. "Go up ahead," she suddenly commanded, nodding towards the staircase directly in front of them. "Disctract her and I'll catch her from behind. If I can't take her out, we'll at least have her surrounded and we can do it together." With one last glance towards Vincent and a deep breath, Light suddenly darted out the doorway, doing the same as Eleanor and keeping close to the wall as she approached the staircase opposite the room, stepping onto Shade's web of shadows in the process.

His partner quickly took charge, ordering him to head up stairs. “Okay.” It wasn’t entirely what he had in mind, but she knew what they were up against and he wasn’t going to get into it with her again. Vincent nodded and headed swiftly up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Up at the top he slipped back into the offices on the second floor, moving as quickly and quietly as he could.

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Factory Floor

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Carefully picking her way from the Engine Room, Eleanor 1 stepped quietly and cautiously, trying to avoid her partner's shadowy tripwires. She kept as close to the wall as possible, a couple of feet to the right of the door, in the direction of the western wall of the abandoned structure. With Shade's warning in mind to do her best not to touch the tendrils, the process was a little slow, at least until she felt confident that she could advance at a more expedient rate. The clone paused to scan what she could see of the floor, slowly and methodically looking from left to right.

Pausing, Eleanor 1 took another slow, careful scan of the area, her gaze making its was down, around and up overhead, before she again cautiously proceeded in the same direction, doing her best not to trigger any of her partner's shadow lines, although she couldn't honestly say, in the dingy light of the warehouse, whether or not she was being successful or not. Eventually her shin came into contact with something, which didn't seem to so much bother the copy, but she did, as if in reflex cast her hands out in front of her to realize that there was a staircase, which she figured there had to be somewhere, since there appeared to a second floor of some sort. Without a second thought, the clone started to ascend the stairs, again trying not to make any noise.

Once she made it to the top of the stairs, Eleanor 1 crouched, first glancing over her left shoulder--behind her-- then along the longer stretch of catwalk toward the eastern section of the building. How big was this place? She carefully peered out over the railing, down to the first floor, to try and seeing exactly how far it was that Shade's shadows reached. Figuring if they hadn't been triggered as of yet, the other team must be further out than what she could immediately see. The copy squinted and swept her gaze from left-to right over the floor, and, deciding that she appeared to be in a corner of the structure, she headed east on the catwalk, as quickly as she could in her crouched position, soon coming to the second crosswalk over the expanse of the factory floor.

Eleanor 1 froze just past the juncture where the catwalks joined perpendicularly to each other, hearing a door complain from somewhere up ahead. Was it downstairs or upstairs? The storage facility was so cavernous, that it was difficult for the clone to pinpoint the location of the sound. After a still moment, El 1 hazarded another peek over the railing, her eyes focusing on the perimeter of the shadows to see if she could spy the culprit who had tripped Shade's shadow. [*]

No sooner than she had stepped out into the factory floor, Light landed right in Shade's web of shadows. He reacted quickly, catching the girl off guard and managing to capture her rather securely. In the blink of an eye, the inky shadows congregated around Light, whipping up like ropes from the floor and wrapping around the young woman's body with a snap. They managed to pull her down with a thud and hold her, back against the floor, the blackness covering all of her body save for her neck and head.

Light felt a wriggle beneath her foot immediately after she stepped onto the factory floor. She glanced down just in time to see what would be a scary sight, had she not known what was happening. A mass of ink-like black came rushing towards her, and immediately, what were Shade's shadows, surrounded her, climbing up her legs and jumping up from the floor to ensnare her. With a loud grunt, the girl tried to break free, but was unsuccessful as she shadows wrapped tightly around her, pulling her roughly to the floor. "You fucking prick!" the girl hissed, struggling against the shadows. Focusing on the flow of electricity in her body, Light frantically tried to release a large burst of lightning, attempting to push the shadows away.

The sound of static filled the air as Light pushed out a large burst of electricity. Unfortunately, the hold on her was too strong, and while she managed to dissipate some of the innermost shadows wrapped directly around her, Shade's grip on her was too strong, and the shadows merely replaced themselves, wrapping securely around her limbs and torso.

Well things certainly weren't looking good now, Vincent realized when he walked out onto the balcony to see his target staring at something down on the floor level and risked edging close enough to the railing to see Light caught up in a writhing mass of black tendrils. Fuck. His eyes snapped back to the girl and he started moving, shifting closer to the wall, hoping he hadn't been noticed yet. As quickly and quietly as possible, since his partner didn't look like she was winning despite the electric flare that seemed to briefly sizzle around her, he began approaching Eleanor’s copy 1.[*]

Unfortunately for Vincent, even as he tried his best to sneak quietly around the crosswalk to surprise Eleanor from behind, his weight was a little too much for the old and rusted metal beams. There was a loud, long creak that announced his presence, just before the catwalk jerked and shook once. A second or two passed, before something else clicked. Before Vincent could react, the metal platform of the catwalk where the man stood collapsed from beneath him! Vincent took a long plummet towards the factory floor, hitting the ground with a loud, bouncing thud, causing him some damage.

On Eleanor 1's side, the catwalk bent downwards and she was stripped of a solid foundation. Fortunately, she reacted quick enough to grasp onto a portion of the catwalk still attached to the wall, but she was left dangling in midair!

In the meantime, Light's continued struggle with Shade's powers proved fruitless. Fortunately for Shade, he was able to release his shadows and pool them beneath Light quickly enough for her to fall through and land on her rear in the Engine Room!

"You gotta be kidding me!" growled Light as she struggled with the shadows. She tried rolling onto her front, then onto her back, attempting to wriggle her way out of the ink-like tendrils, but Shade knew how to handle his own powers. Finally, after several seconds of struggle, the shadows released the girl and seemed to disappear. Shocked, Light blinked and tried to sit up, only to feel the ground disappear from beneath her.

Vincent hadn't even thought about whether or not the catwalk would hold under his weight, assuming that, this place being technically virtual, such things wouldn't really factor into their environment. He was punished for this assumption when the entire thing gave way beneath him and dropped him down to the floor below. Fuck. Had he jumped of his own accord he could have landed on his feet without too much of a problem, but since he hadn't been expecting the fall he landed hard on the concrete and for a moment had the air knocked out of him. Gasping for his next breath, he quickly pushed himself up off the floor and hissed with pain. Though nothing serious, the badly bruised flesh that hit the floor first sounded out with pain as he moved. Hope this shit doesn't carry over to the real world. It was surprising how real, if slightly dulled, the pain was, but he had to push that aside as he took quick stock of what was going on now. Vincent first looked to his partner only to see her just as she was sucked into the shadowy puddle beneath her feet. The. Fuck. Well, that wasn't good. He didn't know where she'd gone, but he was pretty sure that it wasn't a good sign and realized that he would probably have to count her out now. The idea that it was gonna just be him against the other two was more than a little disheartening, though he wasn't going to give up without a fight. With Light gone now he refocused his attention on the girl that had been up on the catwalk with him. [*]

Having only a couple of choices-- aside from just staying there and dangling, Eleanor 1 hung from her fingertips to the damaged catwalk, her booted feet swinging in the open air below her. Never having been particularly good at the whole physical fitness thing, the clone struggled to pull herself back up onto the structure. [*]

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Engine Room

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Shade suddenly 'woke up' in a run down engine room, slivers of Light came in from the large, ruined windows of the factory, dotting the floor in much the same way light filters through the canopy of the forest. Broken down beams and hanging chains made some for some more marked lines of Shadow breaking the spotted pattern on the floor. He seemed to be in some sort of engine room, with large power generators lined up along the far wall, towards what he assumed to be the outside of the factory. Opposite the generators there was a door which lead into what appeared to be a much larger area, though he couldn't see to far. Dust danced in the rays of light around him and he could actually feel the warmth of the day outside, and smell the musty scent of the old machinery and rusted iron. "Impressive." said Shade, looking around for his 'partner'. He didn't even know the girl's name, it was supposed to have been him and Light against their new sparring partners, but he had proposed they switched to make it more interesting... he just hoped his wife wasn't pissed about it. "The old danger room had nothing on this." he said, taking a couple of steps towards one of the windows, as if testing out his virtual 'body'.

One-by-one, the duplicates that Eleanor had created prior to the virtual shift in their surroundings opened their eyes, with the flesh-and-blood girl herself opening her eyes lastly. All told, there were three fairly decent facsimiles, all wearing a pared-down version of the real El's uniform. They stood still, forming a triangle of strange, unblinking mannequins with El standing, arms crossed, in the center. Forgoing introductions, the teenager took a gander about hers and Shade's surroundings, her gaze sweeping upwards and around the perimeter, before she finally looked in the direction of the man's voice, the person whom she now assumed to be her partner. 'I'll take your word for it. So you haven't played this game before?' Eleanor inquired quietly, as she didn't know how voice would carry in the large, unfamiliar room.

Shade turned to see half the room filled with clones of his 'team-mate' in the fight against Light and the other guy. Lifting an eyebrow, he took a couple of steps towards one of the broken windows which overlooked the back of the fight area. "So that's what you do." he said simply, almost talking to himself as he noticed all the clones. Shade leaned in closer to the broken glass, reaching over and wiping one of the small, jagged edges with his jacket sleeve before running his finger quickly over it. A small bead of blood appeared on the young man's fingertip as he examined the cut. "Seems there's a rather dulled pain response...makes sense." he said to Eleanor now, turning around and showing her the droplet of blood slowly rolling down his finger. "Don't want people to go into shock and die." he continued, pulling out a grey handkerchief from his jacket pocket and wiping the blood off, keeping a bit of pressure on his fingertip until the bleeding stopped. "I'm guessing the other two woke up somewhere too. Probably together, like us..." mused the young man, slowly walking towards the center of the room until he found a nice spot, under the large shadow cast by one of the support columns between two windows. The broken down metallic beams and scaffolding of the factory created a sort of web of shadows around the young man, trough which hundreds of small beams of light filtered through. "... What happens if you die in this?" he asked Eleanor simply, assuming she HAD played this game before, as he began to kick away some dust from the spot he'd picked.

With minimal delay per clone, each duplicate turned to look at Shade, as Eleanor continued to closely observe the other mutant. 'You got it,' she drily replied, copping a ya got me smile, then watched as he intentionally cut himself. She quirked an eyebrow in idle interest, and each clone, in turned, moved. The first crossed its arms; the next put its hands on its hips; the third replied, 'Guess they don't want mommy or daddy suing the school for gross negligence.'; the fourth looked down at its hands and flexed them, and Eleanor, herself, glanced back from what appeared the only doorway in and out of the room in. 'I dunno. They usually have fights to the death at the school?' she asked jokingly, as if the concept was totally implausible; besides, she was as unfamiliar with the new Danger Room as she had been with the old one. 'So what do you do, pardner?' she finally asked with a head-to-toe look at the pale, black-haired man, trying to size him up.

"Guess they don't." muttered Shade, tossing his head back a bit as he took in the scenery as well, glancing around at all the little corners of the room, as well as the ceiling. "I do very fun parlor tricks." replied simply Shade, giving Eleanor a smirk back as he slowly sat down on the spot he'd chosen. He had not known which of the clones to address as the true Eleanor, so he had settled with talking to the one who was closest to himself. "I do stuff with shadows." he simply added, trying not to antagonize his teammate so early into the 'game'. "It's actually not shadows but a sort of highly photo-phobic, psychoactive extension of myself, at least that's what McCoy said once when he tested it." he continued, placing his hand on one of the shadows cast by the canopy of broken metal beams, cables and brick. "Hell if I know what he meant, exactly. In any case, they're like an extension of me..." looking up, Shade smirked, "... which is all we need right now. Let's set up a web for our little flies, shall we?" he concluded as the shadows he had his hand on immediately grew darker, as if transformed into an inky substance. The darker lines then shot in all directions, following the pathways led by the criss-crossing shadows across the room, they reached the ends of the room and headed out into the hallway outside, making a remarkably spider web-like structure centered on Shade, perfectly disguised in the naturally occurring shadows.

At first, Eleanor looked like she wanted to be interested in what Shade had to say about his powers, but her pinched mouth and furrowed brow indicated that she was lost. Shadowplay, that's what she got out of it; El wasn't familiar with the name McCoy, although she probably would be if she had ever been bothered to keep up with current events. The teenager didn't quite pick-up on what it was that Shade was doing, until there was something enough for her to perceive with her eyes, and when the shadows radiated from the other mutant to infiltrate the area, each clone reflexively stepped back to try and stay away from the web. 'So, like... tripwires?' the real Eleanor murmured, her gaze running along several lengths and intersections of the shadowy strands. 'How long will it take for your feelers to work?' Eleanor asked then added, 'I'd like to go up, if possible, even a little bit. Send my girls out to run interference... sneak up on the others... hit 'em from behind with a two-by-four. Whatever.'

"Exactly." smirked Shade as the tendrils began to stretch outside the room, crawling slowly into the factory floor area, moving along pre-established paths set up by already existing shadows. "They work immediately, they're like a very broad, dull extension of my sense of touch, I can sense if someone breaks one and their relative position to me, I can also use them to map the area but... it's kind of like being blind and feeling the room with your hands, it's not going to be that accurate." mentioned the man as he slowly closed his eyes, focusing on building a mental map as the tendrils ran along the shadows of the factory floor, eventually finding their way into the storage areas and cooling power. Whenever a tendril moved to a dead end or out of a shaded area, it immediately disintegrated. "Positioning and awareness are the most important elements in an engagement. Only an amateur gives away their position. In fact, if you can disable an opponent without them even knowing where you came from, all the better... that's where you and your girls come in." added Shade, speaking in Eleanor's direction even though his eyes were still closed, it was just as if he was trying to 'feel' his way through the other rooms. The farther the shadows got away from him the harder it was to get any kind of feedback from them. "How do your clones relay information to you?" asked the man. If possible, he wanted to send out the clones as soon as either Light or the other guy tripped his web but keep the original around.

Eleanor cocked her head, looking like she was genuinely considering what it was Shade was saying. That was more easily understandable. Her gaze moved along the latticework of shadows leading from Shade and out into the next room before she answered, 'I can see what they see, hear what they hear and feel what they feel. More or less. The more I concentrate on one, the more I get from its surroundings, the more my attention's split between the copies...' she trailed-off and shrugged a little bit-- it shouldn't be too difficult to draw the conclusion to her explanation, she figured. This guy seemed pretty sharp. 'Kinda like remote viewing, I guess. Little to no harm to myself, though, and the copies are completely expendable.' She then added, as she smiled into the dappled light of the room, 'I hope the other two don't have superior eavesdropping powers, or anything.'

"Good, that'll come in handy. I say send them out now, we can relay information to them through your shared link." replied Shade with a smirk, he closed his eyes once more as his Shadows finished exploring the cooling towers. There seemed to be nothing there, so instead he pulled back the tendrils in there and focused on the other area, the factory floor he could see through the door. The area seemed rather large so he'd need more power to tripwire the entire room. "Can you see my shadows?" he added, nodding towards some of the now hair-thin tendrils all over the place. They were hard to see as he had had to stretch them out to cover as large an area as he could, but their darker form could be noticed within regular shadows if one knew what they were looking for. "Try to keep your clones from stepping on them and stay out of sight, behind the area I've covered with the shadow tripwires." continued the young man. "If one of them trigers them, I'll move all tendrils towards the enemy, maybe I can muster enough strength to hold them. In any case, follow them and hit them with all clones at once." he added. "Make sure you arm them all, you should find enough rusted pipes and sharp stuff around." smirked the young man. "Do you know anything about the fabio guy my wife is teaming up with?"

When Shade asked whether or not Eleanor could see the shadows, she looked down and around the floor. '...sure? Just a second,' she uttered, her dusky golden eyes glazing slightly before her lids fluttered shut. She blew a measured breath out between her lip, as if she were trying to center herself. One, two, three, her clones each looked down and around, blinking, squinting, searching with their respective gazes for the tendrils of shadow. 'Yeah? But, it's... a little fuzzy. I'm looking through three sets of eyes... gonna take a lot of focus,' the original Eleanor admitted, after a moment, then added, partially in jest, 'Why don't you try ta keep your shadows away from my clones?' with a half-cocked smile. Not really expecting an answer, El shrugged, saying in answer to his question, 'Nah, I dunno, I mighta met him at the pool party earlier this week,' then asked one of her own, 'What's yer wifey do?'

"Simple." replied Shade as he took a deep breath once more and closed his eyes, trying to focus on what his shadows could feel on the other room, making a mental map of as much of the factory floor as he could. He could find nothing moving so far, however. "I cannot see with my shadows, just feel around. If I find something I'll entangle it the best I can, but I have no way of knowing if it's you or Light." he continued. Soon enough, he had most of the room mapped out. "So, the guy is an enigma, uh? Can I bother you to throw one of your clones at him and figure out what he does before we figure it out with our real bodies?" he asked, cocking his head a little bit. "As for Light, if it was simply her against the both of us we'd already be outmatched in sheer destructive power. She uses electricity, but can only defectively conduct it with a chain or some other implement. Try to disarm her first and then hit her at range. She can fry people like its nothing but he's no more resistant than any of us to damage." Shade had profiled Light's abilities and how to counter them the first day she'd met her, getting off of her bike and heading for the small sparring tournament that had been organized in the Danger Room, so he knew how to handle her. The guy, he was uncomfortably in the dark about, which meant he'd have to go first.

'Yeah, I can send one out to look for the dude,' Eleanor said, not making light of the situation for once, and instead carefully scanned the floor for a place for her to stand so that she wouldn't be in imminent danger of tripping one of the shadows emanating from Shade. Her head fell back and she made a soft, disgusted sound in the back of her throat when her partner enlightened El about what it was Light could do, and as the multiplicitous mutant gazed toward the ceiling, she uttered, 'Electrocution? Awesome...' as if it were more of an inconvenience than anything. She blew a soft, dismissive and somewhat annoyed breath between her lips, finally looked back down and became very still. Without another word or sound, El closed her eyes and sent the first of her clones out onto the Factory Floor. The other two copies approached the exit onto the floor just as carefully, but didn't go out, yet.

"Good, the more we know the better, if we can get an idea of his abilities I can come up with a plan to counteract him." replied Shade simply, keeping his eyes closed and trying to stretch his tendrils more into the adjacent rooms. The farther they got from him, the thinner and harder to control they got and he was close to reaching his maximum effective range. He did not betray the fact, however, that he already DID have a plan to counteract every mutant he had run into before, it was something he did for fun, in his spare time. As soon as either him or Eleanor found Light's partner and they figured out his abilities, he could use whatever plan he had devised for someone with similar powers. Luckily, this would be enough to win them the match.

Still apparently zoned-out, Eleanor did appear to twitch, her nose wrinkling perceptibly, and her her foot shifting slightly, but after that she again still. If she heard or absorbed what it was that Shade had said, she gave no indication.

Shade had kept his eyes closed as Eleanor moved her clones into position when he suddenly felt something trip one of the small shadow tendrils he'd been working to stretch out. It came from the adjacent room, what he assumed was the main factory floor in the industrial complex. Immediately, he opened his eyes and stretching out his hand, palm open and facing down, towards the factory floor. "Got one." he said simply to Eleanor in his usual whisper-like voice. Immediately, he closed his hand, making a fist, focusing on every tendril in the factory floor and trying to make them launch themselves at the place where he had detected the intruder. He could not micromanage the tendrils without focusing and most would surely evaporate as they came into contact with the many light beams that criss-crossed the building, but he hoped enough would wrap around the target to temporarily immobilize it. With that done, Shade quickly stood up and headed for a nearby wall, placing his hand against it. "I need to borrow a couple of your girls, get ready." he said to Eleanor with a grin as a darkened shadow began to creep up the wall from the point Shade's hand was touching.

'mmmm,' Eleanor barely murmured by way of acknowledgement, then, 'B'low me...' in an attempt to indicate that she thought something was happening somewhere below Eleanor 1, who was out on the catwalk. Suddenly, her clones perked to life near the door, looking first over their shoulders toward Shade, then looking each other in the eyes and finally turning their attentions to the doorway, looking attentive and ready to go on command. [*]

Shade was surprised the hair thin tendrils of shadow seemed to be holding, though he didn't know what was going on in the adjacent room, he did feel several of the tendrils suddenly disappear, while tried to focus and get the rest wrapped tightly around the girl's body. Had it not been for the fact this was a competition of sorts, the whole situation would've given him ideas. Immediately, Shade dispelled the shadows he had in other rooms, trying to make it easier for him to control the tendrils around Light and the shadows in the room with him. He pushed the shadows extending from his hand so they crawled all the way up the wall and towards the middle of the ceiling, then, he turned towards the Eleanors and nodded to the point where his shadow had ended up. In the meantime, Shade closed his eyes and focused on trying to have the remaining tendrils let go of Light at once. The instead, they would dart down to the floor and hopefully create a black 'pool' of sorts right below her feet. He intended to have the girl sink into the shadow and teleport to the one he had extended towards the ceiling. She'd ideally fall on her butt right in the middle of the Engine Room, where the Eleanors could neutralize her.[*]

As Shade's shadows centered into a large circular portal on the ceiling, he could feel a body passing through swiftly.

A brief shout heralded Light's appearance through the shadow portal, and she fell straight to the ground, landing squarely on her rear. The rough landing seemed to know the breath out of her, and falling backwards, the girl arched her back and sucked in a loud gasp of air, rolling over onto her side, eyes shut tight, to avoid the pain she felt now in her tailbone and to try and ease the brief burning sensation in her lungs. A breathless swear escaped her lips as she tried to push out another burst of electricity into the warehouse floor.

Unfortunately for Light, the shock of hitting the ground had rendered her unable to concentrate and use her powers effectively for that moment, and only a small spark of static left her fingertips.

Upon Shade's silent signal, Eleanor 2 focused on the mass of shadow in the room, as did Eleanor 3, and it was with a strange and utter stillness that the pair of them unblinkingly regarded the dark mass until Light finally emerged. With no apparent concern for bodily harm for with themselves or for Light, Eleanor 3 closed-in first as the electrically-talented mutant rolled onto her side to give the fallen woman a swift kick to her back, while Eleanor 2 attempted to land a kick on the front of her opponent's torso. [*]

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Cooling Towers

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Shipping/Garage

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