xp_logs | Hank and Angelo in the Danger Room (Reply)

Hank calls Angelo over to help with a new Danger Room program.

"So you want me to help program the Room with Julian's little adventure, right?" Angelo asked easily, taking a seat.

Hank nodded, tapping away on his remote input device, "Jean said that there was a serious break-down when everyone was stripped of their powers. The problem is, that means I need to intergrate inhibitor technology into the room, which will take more than a little work. For today, we're simply going to be doing something along the lines of, to put it simply, tag."

"Everyone but her", Angelo confirmed. "The guy had somethin' like Miles' power, but contact-based an' he could turn people's powers up as well as off. Guess Jean managed to make him think he'd got her like he did the rest of us, when he didn't. What's my job in this?"

"Again, putting it simply," Hank turned the program on and panels rose from the floor forming a maze. The doctor smiled, "Don't get caught and keep your partner from getting caught as well. I'll redefine more specific outcomes later, but we need to see if the tag-tech works first."

"Nice an' straightforward", he said with a grin. "We got a spotter, or is it safe enough we don't need one?"

"We shouldn't need one," Hank said, "but we will soon discover if that hypothesis is correct." He pushed a couple buttons and the lights lowered, "Alright, we've started...we need to find our way through the maze, without getting tagged. There will be a few pitfalls before us, but nothing the two of us can't avoid if we work together. Ready?"

"Ready", he agreed, standing and looking down the corridor they were standing in. "Let's go."

Hank began moving forward with a brief nod to his compatriot, somewhere else in the chamber a robot was tracking them down, programmed to wait for its opportunity to strike and render the team powerless. Suddenly, the walls shifted and the panels became mirrors as the maze readjusted itself. The corridor became a long stretch of Beast and Skin, stalking forward in their black leather uniforms. After a few minutes, Hank stopped, wondering if the program was working correctly, "That's strange, I would have thought that we would have been jumped by now." As if on cue, something moved behind Angelo, reaching toward him from the shadows. "Look out!"

He twisted away, spinning to face the figure at the same time. "Is there just the one enemy?" he asked, taking several steps back as the thing kept coming.

"In this scenario," suddenly the shadowy figure was gone and the mirrors shifted, redesigning the maze. "It will only attempt to tag you if you aren't paying attention to it though."

Angelo nodded. "Or if you haven't noticed it. But that's why we're goin' as a pair, right?"

"To watch each other's backs," Hank began to think of the various missions they could use this with. "My first thought would be to run the New Mutants through this with the parameters to get through it without their powers- of course that will require a great deal more field testing as I'm not entirely certain that the inhibitor field projectors I've cobbled up are entirely...um...well, safe isn't the right word, but...."

Angelo eyed him with some concern. "They're not goin' to explode or anythin', are they?"

Hank chuckled, "Probably not." He held up a hand and shook his head, "They shouldn't explode, but I'm more concerned that they might not work properly."

"But they'd either work or not work, unless I'm missin' somethin'. It's not like it's a drug..."

"Not on itself, no, but we do have to worry about inhibitor sickness," which was a common side effect of the collars that he'd developed so many years ago. "I don't think either of us would wish to see our students ill due to our good intentions."

"Definitely not", he agreed fervently. "I thought that was only when it was a long-term thing, but if you think it's a risk..."

Hank shrugged and gave Angelo a wink, "We'll just have to see." He waved his companion forward, slowly padding down a side corridor.

Angelo followed him, glancing up and down the passage he was leaving before stepping into the new one. Just in case.