Xaviers!

Charles stretched in the danger room wearing his shifting unitard. The cityscape for the scenario already loaded, but everything appeared to be paused.

Steph hesitantly stepped into the observation deck and frowned when she saw that the room was in use. She paused and considered her options before pulling out her phone and awkwardly tapping out a text to Tosh.

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 Want to introduce me to Bruce? At this...Danger Room thing you were telling me about right now

She tucked her phone back in her purse, stepping forward and examining the console while also peeking into the room. She found a mic control and hesitantly pressed it. "H-hi...would you...um...mind company in your program?"

Charles turned toward the observation deck.

"Uh...no sure... come right on in," Charles said, "More than enough room for everyone.."

"Okay...my friend and I were going to...work out I guess? Maybe we can all do something together."

Steph wandered downstairs, stopping along the way to put her purse in a locker, then walked into the room proper, eyes widening in wonder. "Oh...my goodness."

She spun around slowly, gawking at the frozen cityscape now suddenly surrounding her for a moment before she remembered that she wasn't alone.

"I'm sorry. This is my first time here...when it's been on at least...I'm Stephanie," the giant werewolf standing before Charles said, her words a bit muddled, but still understandable enough.

Woah...

"It is pretty amazing, right?" Charles said before xtending his hand towards Stephanie. "I'm Charles."

"I...didn't think things like this existed outside of movies," she replied.

"It's nice to meet you though. Sorry to intrude."

"I-it''s really no problem," Charles said with a shrug. "I didn't believe it was real the first time I saw it, still couldn't believe it after running a scenario or flying around in it. The whole thing is just so... science fiction, right?"

Stephanie nodded, asking after a beat, "You can fly?"

"Not always very well, but yeah," Charles said, "I'm a shifter. Can grow wings, claws, chameleon skin, and... things like that. Tends to freak poeple out a bit."

"Yeah. When you see our powers you won't feel so bad about looking like a werewolf," Tosh joked as he walked in, all suited up.

Stephanie's tail, much to her chagrin, began wagging as soon as she heard Tosh...no, as soon as she *smelled* him enter the room. His words didn't convince her though, Not so sure about that...

"Well, it looks like I'll get to meet both of your alter egos today...hello Tosh," she said cheerfully.

"Hey Tosh," Charles said in greeting. "Showing Steph the ropes?"

"He's doing a great job so far," she replied, tail still wagging.

Damnit, STOP that! she tried to stop her tail with minimal success.

"If I ever get to be less hairy, I'll have to bake him some cupcakes. Right now I'd be afraid of getting fur in the batter," she joked.

"Fair warning, offering to feed me can be a costly mistake," he joked.

"If your appetite is anything like mine these days, I can really relate," she chuckled.

"I don't think there's a shifter who couldn't put an all you can eat buffet out of business," Charles smirked. "D-did you have a scenario in mind, Tosh? Otherwise I was going to just run like an urban training thing."

"Nope. Nothing in mind beyond letting Bruce show off. That would fit that criterion nicely."

"RIghty-o," Charles said as he typed something out on a floating keyboard causing a glowing countdown to appear in the sky.

"Might want to put your game face on then," Charles said beginning to shift.

"Time for big ugly then," he nodded before shifting into Bruce.


"Did I say ugly? I meant awesome."

Charles finished shifting and looked between Tosh and Steph (Bottom left for reference).

"Eye of the beholder," Charles said. There was an odd clicking noise between words as alien vocal chords contorted to form words.

Steph watched with a mixture of fascination and fear as her counterparts transformed but quickly found herself growling and baring her fangs almost without realizing it. She covered her muzzle in embarrassment.

"Sorry!"

"Don't worry about it," Bruce said dismissively. "Your beastie just sees teeth, epicness, and, like, whatever Charles is supposed to be."

"Seriously bro, if I didn't know there was a dude in there I'd be punching already."

In response to tje growling Charles' skin flashed into the shapes and colors behind him. Apparrently his current form had a variety of biomimetic camouflage.

"I'd be offended if I didn't know it was true, Hyde," Charles chittered. "Just glad there aren't any pitchforks."

The countdown in the sky was steadily approaching zero.

"What happens at zero?" she asked, her hackles raising a bit as she began to gather why the this place was called the "Danger Room."

"We have a not-kaiju party," he nodded, cracking his monstrous knuckles.

The timer in the sky hit 10 seconds.

"Adaptive waves of robots and plenty of cars to throw at them," Charles said with what may have been a smile it was hard to tell. "The danger room safeties will kick in to keep us from getting hurt by whatever Bruce's terrible aim throws around."

The timer hit 0 and the robots appeared. There weren't an incredibly large number of them. They appeared to be fairly bog standard human sized robots at least for the moment.

"Pshh... it's not my fault robots break apart so easy," he scoffed with a cocky grin.

"Okay," she chuckled. "Lets...let's see what I can do, I guess." Steph took several deep, steadying breaths as she surveyed the situation around her, and then closed her eyes. When they snapped back open there was a bit more of a feral gleam in her eyes and she threw back her head and let out an ear-splitting howl before leaping at a group of robots and taking her claws at any soft spots she could find.

Bruce took her cue and charged the robots, shouldering one into the one behind it. He immediately grabbed another by the head to use as a weapon against the others around him.

Stephanie Kaltiera wrote:"Okay," she chuckled. "Lets...let's see what I can do, I guess." Steph took several deep, steadying breaths as she surveyed the situation around her, and then closed her eyes. When they snapped back open there was a bit more of a feral gleam in her eyes and she threw back her head and let out an ear-splitting howl before leaping at a group of robots and taking her claws at any soft spots she could find.

The robots turned towards the howl, but reacted rather slowly to the threat posed by Stephanie. She would find it not terribly difficult to pull limbs from sockets or to drive claws into joints. Several robots from the group she charged fell to the ground as limbs were disabled or wiring to the head was cut off by her claws. All around her sparks flew, small electrical fires started, and the smell of leaked hydraulic fluid began to spread around Stephanie.

The robots that weren't immediately disabled by Stephanie's attempts closed in slowly, more like zombies or drones than true 'thinking' combatants.

Toshiro Narumi wrote:Bruce took her cue and charged the robots, shouldering one into the one behind it. He immediately grabbed another by the head to use as a weapon against the others around him.

The robot club was effectual for a few moments. Other robots lost limbs, or had torsos crushed as Bruce swung his roboo-club around. However, it wasn't long before the robo-club was rather broken. One leg embedded in the chest of one robot, an arm jammed into the crumpled remains of the head of another. Robots missing legs or arms slowly returned to their feet around Bruce and as with Stephanie began the slow process of advancing towards him en masse.

Charles for his part laid into the robots with reckless abandon moving from one target to the next. One moment he was coiled around a robot before crushing it beyond recognition. Scythed limbs removed limbs, heads, or bisected torsos.

Still the robots came as if without fear of the increasingly sized pile of disabled or dismantled robots around the three heroes. Another set of numbers appeared in the sky and steadily decreased as the piles of robots grew larger.

Bruce punched another robot in the head, sending sparks and debris flying like gore in a zombie movie.

"Holy shit! Dude! Did you guys see that! Hahaha! That was awesome!" he rejoiced.

Steph growled, a low rumble that was impressive even against the backdrop of noise around them. Her eyes darted around looking for the easiest target among the myriad slowly, steadily advancing on her. She leapt at the nearest one, twisting in mid-air to land on its shoulders, then grabbed either side of its head and yanked, ripping the head off the body. Using the momentum, she flipped off the back with a shower of sparks, landed on her feet and threw the detached head a bot sneaking up behind Tosh.

Bruce just stared in awe.

"Nevermind..."

Stephanie Kaltiera wrote:Steph growled, a low rumble that was impressive even against the backdrop of noise around them. Her eyes darted around looking for the easiest target among the myriad slowly, steadily advancing on her. She leapt at the nearest one, twisting in mid-air to land on its shoulders, then grabbed either side of its head and yanked, ripping the head off the body. Using the momentum, she flipped off the back with a shower of sparks, landed on her feet and threw the detached head a bot sneaking up behind Tosh.

The counter in sky hit zero as the detached head decapitated the robot approaching Tosh. Charles was impressed even if it didn't show per se, which is the problem of lacking facial expressions. He turned towards Tosh.

"You sure she's never done this before? Because I think she might be better than you, eh," Charles said. That was when more words appeared in the sky, 'stage 2 start' and another countdown for them to collect themselves.

"I'm soooo holding back bro," the sharkman insisted with typical bravado. "Don't wanna scare the new blood with my epic moves of awesome."

Steph wrenched control of her mind back from the wolf with the brief respite, panting slightly.

Her words were slightly harder to understand than before, and her speech halting, "Just...taking what I knew before...mixing it with...her."

"Whatever you say, Bruce," Charles said before looking at Steph. "The mix seems to work magnificently. My feral side is never that useful. Just wants to eat everything."

"What feral side I have also wants to eat everything... as long as its swimming anyway."

He grinned. "Seriously though, sweet moves. Agility is only my thing underwater so I only have cool smashy kaiju moves on land."

"Well... thank you," she said a bit bashfully. "Smashing...suits you, Tosh," she said, her tail once again wagging a bit as she looked over at him.