[Activity] Power Training: Will

[Samantha McManus]

"So at what point does Will's future become Will's concern?"

[Ballinger Lippincott]

"Gened requirements are not, as a matter of fact, against the Geneva convention, Ms. McManus," Lippencott said, looking down at her. "Nor are individualized curriculum."

[Samantha McManus]

"All I'm seeing here is you're treating Will a lot differently from the other students."

[Ballinger Lippincott]

"As you yourself said before, Will's situation is different than many of the other students."

He glanced over at Will. "I'm not sure this is the time or the place to be discussing everything, however. If you would like to discuss this further, perhaps we should head to my office?"

[Samantha McManus]

"Since you're going to be meeting with Will later, how about you use that time to have a frank talk about what classes Will wants to take?"

[Ballinger Lippincott]

Lippencott paused a moment, and then nodded. "Alright. I'll be sure to talk to Will about that during our meeting this evening."

[Samantha McManus]

"You don't have to let him walk all over you, Will."

[Will Stanton]

Will frowned a moment at all that.

"...I should get to class," she said, after a moment, almost explicitly not responding to Sam's statement. She squeeze Sam's hand once. "I'll keep."

[Samantha McManus]

"...right. Let's... get this over with, then."

[Ballinger Lippincott]

"Very well," Lippincott said, heading back to the observation deck. "Today, we'll be focusing on your shifting abilities, as opposed to your telepathy. Testing them apart from one another, as it were. There shouldn't be much combat, if everything goes well, so my apologies to the Morrigan," he added, somewhat drolly.

[Samantha McManus]

"...I don't think you'd enjoy testing the Morrigan, Headmaster."

[Narrator]

"On the contrary. I look forward to meeting her one day. I believe we would have a lot to talk about."

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Beginning.  Shifting Test.  For Subject.  Three.  Two.  Zero.  One.  McManus, Samantha.

Sam found herself in the middle of a busy open-air market, somewhere warm and dry, with people brushing past her as they went about their way.

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Scenario Level One: You are being followed.  You must avoid detection for as long as possible.

The person following you knows what you look like, and is aware you can shift.  They have no other special abilities.

From a ways down the market behind her, she could just make out a man in a suit beginning to make his way down the rows of stalls.

[Samantha McManus]

Sam starts making her way through the crowd, away from the man. She uses that vague awareness of his location to try to position people larger than herself in his field of vision. When she thinks she's suitably obscured, she pulls another face from the crowd to wear.

She tries to do this several times, hoping to loop back around and wind up behind the man, if she can manage it.

[Narrator]

As it's level one, the man in question seems more bothered with shoving people out of his way than staring at someone way, way down the aisleway. He grabbed one of the passersby as they...passed by, holding them up by their shirt as he studied them carefully, before letting them go with a tsk of disgust.

As Sam tried to loop around behind, the man did end up looking right in her direction, giving her a brief once over as he took a hitch in his stride...

[Samantha McManus]

For her part Sam is doing her level best to keep her poker face, avoiding looking directly at the man and relying on her general awareness of his position. She doesn't stop when he looks her way, and tries to put other people in his field of vision before she attempts her next shift.

[Narrator]

As Sam was, in essence, a random stranger to the man, there was nothing she did specifically to draw his attention out, Sam was able to slip by relatively undetected and unmolested. Good show! She was able to get about fifty feet down the row of stalls before the computer chimed in again.

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Level.  Two.

The time in the market suddenly shifted from midday to later in the evening, and about half of the NPCs in the market derezzed, leaving a much sparser and open area, with fewer people to hide behind or around.

A second man emerged behind Sam, from the direction she had originally came in. He hurried up to the first pursuer, and pointed back down towards where Sam was, though not at Sam directly. The two men quickly conversed, and started hurrying back down the stalls in her general direction.

[Samantha McManus]

Sam takes a somewhat less moderated approach. She doesn't make any sudden moves at first, casually stepping up to one of the stalls. She already knew her next action would cause commotion, so she wanted onlookers to be calm when she did it.

She tries to time it for a little bit of cover from the sparse crowd, but eventually she just has to go for it. Cries of surprise go up as suddenly there isn't anyone standing where she was, but rather a mouse scurrying under the stalls.

[Narrator]

Indeed, this move DID cause some pandemonium -- most shoppers don't turn into mice just because the deals at the stalls were so bad. It did also draw the attention of the two men, who started hurrying in that direction. The lack of people in the market would mean they could get down the row quickly, but getting around the stalls is difficult for two normal-sized men, and the cover of darkness would likely help Sam as well. They clearly saw where she had gone, but tracking her would be another thing entirely.

[Samantha McManus]

Sam is scurrying under the stalls as reasonably quickly as she can. She's not quite trying to be stealthy, but she's certainly easier to overlook at this size.

The trouble being that she's significantly multiplied the relative distance she'll need to cover.

[Narrator]

The world of the mouse, even a Morrigan mouse, is one of clomping feet and ever-present danger. Sam had spent plenty of time as small creatures, but a flock thereof, in the air, was presumably different than one small, insignificant rodent crawling around the ground.

She would have to dodge around several shopkeeper's feet as she scurried. One particularly pair of nice black dress shoes darted by, presumably belonging to one of her pursuers. The other was clambering over to the stall she began in, dropping down to try to spot where the mouse might have ran off to.

[Samantha McManus]

In an effort to lower her profile, Sam shifts into a garter snake while under the next stall. She starts winding through the posts, looking for her chance to bridge the gap to another stall.

[Narrator]

The second man had clambered over the stall Sam had originally darted under, and was down on his hands and knees, looking for...well, a mouse at this point. He kept looking back and forth; but Sam's position in the darkness around the posts kept him from getting a clear view of her. That might change, however, if she darted out into the open. Then again, how long could she stay underneath one stall?

[Samantha McManus]

Relying on the idea that the man was still looking for a mouse, she swerved close to the side of the building and skirted right where the pavement met the wall, darting for the next stall.

[Narrator]

This briefly put Sam out into the open, and the movement did catch the attention of the man closest to her. Had he reacted right away, he might have been able to rush out and grab Sam before she finished darting. As it was, hesitated a second before lunging, meaning that while he was right on Sam's tail...uh, metaphorically speaking... he didn't QUITE reach her, and was stuck trying to clamber under things to keep up with the slithering snake.

[Samantha McManus]

With the fellow well and properly wedged there, Sam makes a few more evasions to try to get out of his sight and emerges on the other side of the stall as a nonchalant alley cat.

[Narrator]

Sam's escape was clever and fully performed, so surely she won her Power Training sess...

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Beginning Level 3...

The stall that had trapped Sam's closest pursuer vanished, the danger room righting him back to a standing position. There was no way, logically, that he could have figured out that the cat was Sam, having been firmly wedged and Sam been well out of his sight when she shifted. And yet, he pulled a gun (he was armed? since when?) and started firing at Sam as he rushed forwards.

I mean, that's just blatantly unfair.

[Samantha McManus]

The main thing that probably saves Sam at first is the man couldn't possibly have had time to aim, let alone on the go. Mind, that's a limitation a real person would have, and a simulation could certainly fail to take into account. It's possible she just gets lucky, but at least the first shots don't fell the suddenly very lively alley cat as she dashes off.

[Narrator]

Indeed, the shots missed, and a new chase scene began, with both of the agents hurrying after Sam, trying to herd her along into a blind alley so they could snatch her. Because what could possibly be easier than herding cats?

[Samantha McManus]

Sam leads them on a merry chase, indeed one that anyone who tried to round up a cat to go to the vet might be familiar with. Eventually though they're near to cornering her.

Which would be a problem if she didn't skid on her heels and shift into a sparrow, taking flight.

[Narrator]

Sam's flight brought with it a hail of gunfire, but she was good enough to avoid that and take to the skies! Surely, that would end the program, or at least move her to a new location.

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Beginning level four.

With a shrill screech, a hawk swooped in from behind Sam, attempting to catch the small sparrow in it's talons.

[Samantha McManus]

Sam is certainly not expecting the baddies to be amateur falconers, and while sparrows are fairly maneuverable, this is a lot of overwhelming force coming down on her.

As such, the blindside is rather effective, and the hawk gets the better of her.

[Ballinger Lippincott]

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Stopping simulation.  Saving...

As Sparrow Sam was grabbed by the hawk, everything stuttered and froze before any real damage could come to her -- Danger Room after all!


Lippincott's voice came over the intercom.

"Very good work today, Ms. McManus! An impressive performance."

[Samantha McManus]

Sam descends, looking a bit rattled after she shifts back to human form.

"How was I supposed to anticipate the bloody hawk?"

[Ballinger Lippincott]

"You weren't. We weren't attempting to test your anticipation. This was a challenge for thinking quickly on your feet....so to speak."

[Samantha McManus]

"That thing loaded in right on top of me. There wasn't any time!"

[Ballinger Lippincott]

"It wasn't instantaneous. Theoretically, you could have swerved to avoid it, or shifted into something the hawk would have had more trouble attaching to. But, let me be clear -- this was a very solid performance, and there's no shame coming up against a limitation."

[Samantha McManus]

"It's a 'limitation' that only comes up when someone has the capacity to teleport a hawk directly onto my arse."

[Ballinger Lippincott]

"That isn't outside the realm of possibility for a villain," Lippencott said -- was that the faint sound of a smirk in his voice?

"But, of course, the hawk doesn't have to be a hawk. It could be someone teleporting right in front of you to deliver a punch."

[Samantha McManus]

"I can take a punch, though. The fight doesn't end there."

[Ballinger Lippincott]

"No, but your attempt to escape likely does.

Not everything is about getting into a fight. Sometimes, avoiding a fight is the mark of a true hero."