Kyle and Sooraya: Danger room training (Backdated)

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Kyle sees something interesting when he is correcting essays in the control room.

The mansion had gone mostly quiet by the time Sooraya made her way to Danger Room. Three days after she had gotten the subpoena she had finally scrounged up the courage and headed to the Danger Room at a time she knew no one would be there.

Hitting controls for the door she spared a grateful thought for Mr. Summers for having set up these programs for her. Though they were restricted and had the safeties set on high, it gave her the chance now to work on some things without having a supervisor looking at her.

Inside the Room she quickly called up a very basic program, a simple humanoid figure or mannequin standing in the middle of the room. She stepped closer to the representation and took a deep breath. When she left it out, she shifted, sand poured out of the rest of her clothes as they dropped to the ground.

The sand cloud condensed into a loose cloud-ribbon like configuration that started to circle around the mannequin. First the sand was maneuvered to get as close to the humanoid as possible, so that it would sting if it hit bare skin, but not really damage it.

=

The Danger Room observation room was great for two things. First, watching Paige and Garrison throw popcorn at each other for their respective questionable tastes in music. Kyle was just waiting for them to suddenly burst into a duet of "Red Solo Cup" and Tragically Hip songs while throwing popcorn.  The other thing it was great for was having a nice quiet place to go grade papers and make mock lesson plans where he had a good idea of the scheduled interruptions because the Danger Room schedule was posted all over the place and unscheduled ones weren't all that commonplace.

He didn't even notice that the lights had gone brighter in the Danger Room until he was halfway done grading a vocabulary homework assigment, he'd been too focused on trying to make his comments legible. Kyle blinked a few times to refocus his eyes to the brighter Danger Room and away from the dim observation deck and then recognized the sand cloud before he saw the pile of clothes. What on -earth- was Sooraya doing? Whatever he was, he didn't want to startle her just yet.

=

Sooraya started to move up and down the mannequin like a hula-hoop that twirled around the body of its dancer. Up and down it went, space between the sand cloud and the mannequin sometimes widening a little, but then quickly closing up again.

A few  minutes later she reformed and carefully examined the mannequin. No red marks that signified psychical damage, but there were several green ones that signified that she would have been able to push the person away. A small smile stole over Sooraya’s face and she nodded, satisfied.

A few seconds later she shifted once more and started the next exercise of the series she had been taught years ago, when she first had started to learn to use her powers to defend herself and others. This time she didn’t form a ring, but a snakelike ribbon which also started to swirl and twirl around the mannequin like the ribbon of rhythmic gymnast that was being kept close to the body. The object was the same: stinging the person, but not damaging him. Only the patterns in which she moved were more complicated.

Kyle had set his papers down - they could wait, this was a lot more interesting, and watched carefully, halfway ready to hit a shut-down button if things got weird. Sooraya was, he thought, one of those relatively calm gentle people, but then he'd thought the same thing about Yvette right up until he saw her turn an entire felled tree into a cord and a half of firewood on a day when she'd just -had it- with people. Besides, watching the ribbons of sand move was kind of neat in a pretty art-y way he'd never admit to thinking.

=

Every night she had been doing the familiar exercises… And every night she felt her confidence increase just a little, her sense of where a body or object was sharpening bit by bit…

After some more practice Sooraya reformed and checked the mannequin once again. This time there were two minor red marks, but that was to be expected since she had been doing this one for only two evenings.

For a moment she considered starting the next exercise in the set… one where the mannequin would start walking around. But then she caught the time and startled a little… She really needed to get upstairs and in bed. She quickly made the mannequin disappear and headed towards the door of the Danger Room, pausing just for a moment to grab her bottle of water and taking some sips.

As soon as the Danger Room started it's shut-down process, Kyle jogged down from the observation room. It was pretty clear to him what Sooraya had been doing, he trained that way a fair amount himself, sticking to harm but not maim and even with the massive difference in powers, the red versus green marks on the drones were a pretty clear indicator. He also wasn't sure if Sooraya had wanted to go up to the observation room and replay the tapes or not, and he didn't want to startle her. So instead he waited outside the Danger Room, casually leaning up against the far wall.

=

When she exited the Danger Room, Sooraya was kinda lost in thought, he mind pretty far away. So when she spotted someone leaning against the far wall, she startled almost tossing her water bottle at him. “Kyle?!? What are you doing here?”

"Grading some really -really- clueless essays on Holden Caulfield." Kyle pointed at the folder tucked under his arm. "Observation Deck's pretty quiet, so less risk of me getting distracted." And most of the people who spent significant time in there understood why he needed the quiet to concentrate.  "I was finishing up the last couple when you came in, and I figured safer to let you know I was up there then for you to think I was like, spying on you or something."

"Ah.... Thank you..." A faint blush colored Sooraya’s cheeks and she lowered her eyes nervously. “I am sorry, Kyle. You startled me a little. I had not expected anyone to be there in the observation deck this late at night.” She fidgeted with her water bottle and to cover it up she opened it up and took a long sip. “Did… eh… did you get everything done?”

"I've got some more to do, but I don't have to get 'em back to my mentor teacher for a few days." Kyle said, with a shrug. "So, what has you down here all sandblasting a mannequin anyway?" he held up a hand.  "and if I"m being nosy, just let me know. I can back off, but it was sorta unusual to see you in there. Not the usual person I'd expect in the Danger Room."

Sooraya smiled and shook her head. “It’s no problem. The exercises I was doing were a part of both my powers training and of my self-defense training. The first was the Hulahoop, the second was the Ribbon. The basic idea is to push people away  or keep them in place by stinging them with the sand without hurting them.” She took another sip of her water and hid a yawn behind her hand. “Do you mind sitting down somewhere?” She suddenly asked, a little embarrassed. “I think I overdid it a little…”

Kyle gestured back towards the control room.  "Nice comfy chairs, and I can walk you through playback. The Danger Room records stuff when people are in there. We use it for the team stuff, you know, do a run, watch the tape to see where you need work. It helps when you can see it yourself sometimes, instead of someone just telling you."

"Mr. Summers mentioned that..." Sooraya said as she followed Kyle back to the control room. "He promised to show it to me one day, but we have not really gotten around to it. It would be interesting to see though." Inside the control room Sooraya looked around curiously. "I have never been here either..." She said as she examined the various consoles. "And that looks complicated..."

Kyle gave a lazy grin as he sat down in one of the chairs. "It is, which is why I make sure I don't touch anything except the playback stuff, and loading up programs I'm real familiar with." He slid over to one side, so he could show Sooraya.  "Playback's pretty easy, works like Netflix or a multidisc DVD player, only you've got a list of times and dates instead of shows or movies. So as long as you know what time you were in there, it's easy enough to pull stuff up and hit play, and anything you know, sensitive, will ask for a password."

Sooraya nodded as she followed his explanation. “I understand. It doesn’t look that hard…” Her movements remained a little hesitant as she checked the digital clock in the console and pulled up her own practice session. She watched with interest and she could see the advantages of the system. Still she peeked up at Kyle and said, a faint blush on her face: “It’s very interesting to see, but I have no idea what I should be looking for…”

Kyle shrugged.  "I'm actually not sure, to be honest. If it was actual hand to hand, then I could talk about working on your off-side balance, or making sure you kept your weight on the balls of your feet, but that's not gonna be much help to you, since your powers are pretty much not... anything... like that. Mostly I wanted to show you how to setup the playback, because.. okay, lets say you were in there and realized you were hitting too hard, or not enough. Sometimes it helps to sorta, get out of your own head and watch the tape." He grinned at Sooraya and pointed at the screen where the ribbons of sand were moving.  "Also sometimes it's just cool to see how stuff looks from the outside."

Sooraya nodded while he talked. "I see." She studied the buttons for moment and found the one that looked like the fast forward. "The first one went pretty well and I had no marks there. With the Ribbon I had two marks." She studied the footage where she scored the two red marks. "I made both of them with the tail end... And I have always more trouble to control the ends, so that kinda fits..." She looked up at Kyle. "Is that the kind of things that you mean?"

"Pretty much."  Kyle agreed.  "I wish I had more advice for you but I wouldn't even know where to start." He scratched the back of his head and then shook it.  "You need help editing an essay, or throwing a punch, or telling if your yogurt's gone off, I'm your guy, but powers stuff is just beyond me if it's not my own."

"Hmmm." Sooraya hummed absently. "I understand." Suddenly she stilled though as something occurred to her. After considering the thought for a moment, she spoke softly, her gaze firmly on the display. "Kyle, can I ask you something? Have you ever lost control while defending yourself and really hurt someone? I understand if you don't want to answer though..."

And suddenly, Kyle was all kinds of serious.  "Which time? For a while there, it was a problem for me, but I've got a temper, and..." he wasn't sure how much Sooraya had been told about Mistra and what they did to the people they tried to condition.  "and well, stuff. But yeah, I've lost it a few times."  He cracked a crooked grin, but it didn't seem to change how serious he looked..  "A temper's part of the feral thing, at least that's what they tell me, but eh, my mom's got a wicked temper."

"I did not mean a specific time...It's just..." Sooraya's voice trailed of. Talking about what had happened in November was still hard and she has still only shared what had happened with Mr. Haller and Yvette. "I really hurt someone... Back when I defended myself in November..." Despite the fact she thought she had been dealing with it since then her voice still caught and she quickly wiped at her eyes. "I..."

"It happens, don't beat yourself up too bad."  Kyle said.  "I mean, I'm not trying to like, say you shouldn't be upset, but I look at it this way. If you were defending yourself, if someone else was trying to hurt you or kidnap you or kill you or whatever, whatever you do to keep yourself safe is what you gotta do to stay safe. If they got hurt, well, they kinda had it coming for being an asshat."  His personal philosophy on self-defense possibly more aggressive than necessary, but it did cut down on lengthy fights.  "Anything else, well, you work on it. That's what practice is for, so you can learn just how much you can do to someone and where to stop."

"Yvette said something similar... And I have been training since then... I guess..." Sooraya's voice trailed off once more, fighting of the images of bone shining through mutilated flesh that sharply flashed through her mind. "At least I don't see the bone shining through his flesh anytime I shift." She muttered softly as the shudder that ran through her subsided, reaffirming for herself how far she had gotten in a month at least...

"Yeah, that's the other factor."  Kyle said calmly. "Time. Whatever you did to whoever hurt you, it'll seem a lot less awful eventually. I mean I don't wanna say you should end up like, numb to it, because that like, is the path of badness, but time does help, I mean, there's a reason there's that time heals all wounds saying, you know?"

Sooraya looked up for the first time and smiled at him. "That is true." She gave him a nod. "That was kinda the reason I was training here so late. Going back to my basic exercises to both strengthen my control and rebuild my confidence. It is helping."

"There you go. Seems like it's working, if you're able to talk about it some."  Kyle said.  "I mean at least from where I'm sitting, it doesn't show that you're dealing with stuff, which I always say is a good sign that you're getting back to you know, level and stuff."

She had to take a moment to sort through his words. "Thanks... I think." She replied, again with a smile. Suddenly her face cracked with a yawn. "Sorry." A faint blush quickly ghosted over her face. "I think it's almost bedtime for me. Thank you for showing me the playback mechanism..." She lowered her eyes a little. "And for listening. I didn't quite mean to dump that all on you."

Kyle waved a hand.  "No big. You're welcome and all, but I'd be a total jerkwad if I didn't, and you're a good ki... well, you're not really a kid anymore. Geez, everyone's growing up all over the place. You, Yvette, Catseye, next thing we know Molly'll be like driving a car or something."  He unfolded from his chair, gesturing towards the door.  "I'll walk you out. Just in case Mr. Summers shows up and is like "Kyle! Go hit drones". Then I can use you as an excuse to not do that."  He grinned, clearly teasing a bit.

Sooraya eyed the clock on the console. "You are right..." She agreed. "Besides it's far too late to hit more drones..."

Comments

[x-penance.livejournal.com]

but then he'd thought the same thing about Yvette right up until he saw her turn an entire felled tree into a cord and a half of firewood on a day when she'd just -had it- with people.

I don't know why, but this description from someone else makes me hugely happy. Since yes, this would be entirely what Yvette does when she's pissed off with the world.