Issue 1 Downtime

Kay is practically bouncing down the corridor towards the Danger Room that Thursday, already wearing her training uniform.

Mahua was a little late, but she arrived, tugging at a uniform of her own, obviously never having worn one before. "I apologize for being late. This outfit was more difficult to put on than I first imagined."

"That's okay! They're tricky like that. You kinda gotta... well you figured it out." she ends in bit of a mumble when she realized she was about to give a teacher tips on how to squeeze into what's basically a skin-tight suit.

"I hope I do," she said, looking at her outfit again. "I can't say that I find the cat suit all that flattering a look."

"I, uhm... no, it's kinda... yeah." she says, totally not blushing. "But I guess it's sorta like a swim-suit."

"Inded. Well, you're the tour guide, take me on the tour," she said with a smile, sensing a need for a change in subject.

"Right. Yeah. So... this is the Point. Down there are all kinda of briefing rooms and stuff we're not supposed to go to, but I got to walk through it when I got kidnapped and they flew us back with the jet. Oh right, yeah, there's a hangar down there too and an armory and some kinda engineering room and computer and stuff and I think Mister Bowen has a lab there for testing... stuff. And then this is the Danger Room." she says, pushing a panel on the wall to open the door. "Straight ahead is the actual room, to the left there's stairs up to the observation deck and to the right are locker rooms and showers. Sometimes I just shower in the Danger Room though cause when you're done and turn it off all the water disappears and your hair's instantly dry." she grins, obviously proud for having found that trick by herself.

"Impressive," said Mahua, managing to mostly keep up with the running narrative. "So it just makes things appear and disappear?"

Brigid was passing by, in a training uniform herself, albeit with a sweatshirt on over top.

"Oh hey, Kay."

She looked to Mahua.

"...something for class?"

"Oh! Hi Bri. Just showing Miss Clarke around. Was gonna show her the Danger Room..." she mumbles.

"Bri? Short for?" Mahua extended her hand to Brigid.

"Brigid. Brigid... Plunder," she said as if trying it on for size. She shook Mahua's hand.

Kay grins at her friend using her real name.

The name didn't appear to mean anything to Mahua. "A pleasure to meet you, Brigid. Would you like to join us? Assuming Kay doesn't mind, of course."

"No, of course not." she say. In fact she almost looks a little bit relieved.

"Sure thing, I've got some time."

"Lead the way, Kay," Mahua gestured.

Kay nods and heads into the Danger Room proper.

"Computer, load training program Kay One."

And just like that they're suddenly standing on a picture perfect beach. White sand and crystal-clear water slowly rolling onto the beach. Further out is a hint of a big coral reef and, this would probably be new to Brigid as well, there's a small hut just at the edge of the jungle with sun loungers sitting in front of it. Kay is obviously spending at least some of her hour of training time just vacationing.

"Oh, you spruced it up a bit, huh?"

Mahua bent down to touch the sand, observing everything with an awed silence.

"Yeah. Power control homework's easy and I got a whole hour in here..."

"Nobody to serve you little fruity umbrella drinks?" She teased.

Mahua smiled at the banter, dropping to sit on the beach and bask in the artificial sun for a moment.

"I was a little worried about what would happen if you eat or drink something in here and then turn it off..."

"Oh, that. You explode." She deadpanned.

Judging from her face she actually takes it serious for a second or two. "Not funny, Bri!" she tries to cover up the fact that she almost bought it.

"So you have power control homework?"

"Kinda. I mostly just see how fast I can swim and how deep I can dive and then I'm supposed to try and figure out if... well there are these spikes that come out of my skin when I'm startled and Mister Gabriel said I should try to see if I can control that, but I don't think I can, so I mostly just hang out in here and swim around..." she admits, hoping she didn't just kill her free hour of tropical island per week.

"That bit was... kind of my fault."

"It would have happened eventually..."

"Such things tend to," Mahua said with an understanding nod.

"So yeah... Not like I have to learn how to not wreck my room at night or set things on fire or anything..."

"And you don't have to be the elephant in the room," Mahua pointed out.

Kay blushes for some reason. "I... I read up on the different kinds of elephants, by the way."

"Hopefully it was educational. A lot of people think an elephant's an elephant."

"It was! Thanks."

"...I don't get it."

"I think Kay should tell the story." Mahua grinned.

"Oh, yeah, the other day I was going for a swim in the pool and there was an elephant just sitting there in the water!"

"So the professor is a shifter?"