Scott and Johnny in the danger room.

[x-dangersense.livejournal.com]

Johnny was waiting outside the danger room's door, hopping nervously from one foot to another, wearing shorts, a t-shirt and hoody. "Hey, Mr Summers," he called, when he saw him. "You're still on for seeing how awesome I am these days, right?" The bravado was false and he shuffled a little more. 

Scott smiled at Johnny's speech, he'd seen a lot of students come and go through the Danger Room over the years and they all came into it a little nervous. Given, most of them came out of a danger room session exhausted, but Scott did have a reputation to uphold after all. "Well Kyle has been telling me about your skills, so I am looking forward to seeing them in person," the older man replied as he opened up the Danger Room.

So, Kyle had actually said something good in between the gloating about being faster and better? Cool. "Awesome. Let's get started, before I lose my nerve," Johnny said, walking in and looking around in awe.

Entering the danger room Scott walked over to the wall panel and activated the program he had loaded earlier. "This one is a good test of agility, something simple to get you used to training in here again." Around them floating panels appeared randomly orbiting the Danger Room at different levels while at the center of the room a smooth sided cylinder raised slightly out of the ground. "Starting from down here you have to make it to the top of the cylinder where I'll be waiting" Scott told Johnny, "be careful though, the platforms are slippery, and if you don't land on them just right they're liable to spin and throw you off."

Johnny blinked, startled, when the platforms appeared and stared around in awe. "This is freaking awesome!" he said. "I mean, yes, Mr Summers. Do I wait for you to get up there first or just get started?" He bounced again, grinning and plotting a path across the room. The sheer awesome of the setup was, for now, enough to override his nerves.

Johnny's enthusiasm was infectious and Scott couldn't help but smile, "You can start if you want," he informed the younger man as he walked over to the stage. "If this was combat training I'd be trying to stop you from reaching the tip, but since we're just working on your agility today I think we can ignore that particular aspect of the scenario."
 
"Yeah, that, that would be good." Sure, he wanted to join the X-Men - who didn't? but it wasn't like he could till his ...little problem was sorted. "I'll get going then," Johnny said before leaping straight up to grab the edge of a platform. It tilted and he twisted, using the momentum to flip himself onto another one and another, trying to let sheer speed compensate for the slippery surface on some and the unstable footing. Ultimately, though, while he was achieving height the pattern of movement meant that he wasn't getting all that much closer to his goal.

Watching Johnny jumping around on the platforms reminded Scott of watching Catseye trying to deal with the same scenario. After watching the young man for a few minutes Scott realized he had the same problem and the X-man. "You can avoid being thrown off hte platform by always jumping but you're loosing track of the larger picture" Scott advised, "Try taking a step back and creating an image, or a map if you want, of the platforms in your head before you start. You can't rush at a problem like this, try to plan your route up before you start jumping it'll make it easier on you."

The platform he was on tilted and Johnny jumped again,  landing on another and dropping to crouch down on it, hands and feet near the edges of the platform and really looked at the platforms. At least half of them were going around the cylinder clockwise. It was the other ones that were all random. "I can do this," he whispered to himself before calling "Hey, Mr Summers, once I beat this, can you help me find some grippier shoes? My sneakers just aren't cutting it." Johnny surged to his feet and took off, flipping from one platform to another.

Scott nodded, "Of course, I'm sure we can find something that'll fit you," Scott replied as his eyes tracked Johnny's progress along the platforms. "Win this scenario and we can head into the city to find you a pair."

"Make it a bit harder, why don't you?" Johnny called, jumping again and landing balanced in an easy crouch just one jump from the platform. "Or, well, actually, don't, but maybe next time?" He rocked back and forward to build momentum before jumping one last time and landing beside Scott. 

"Is that a challenge?" Scott asked a gleam showing in his eye. "I'm sure I can find some way to make it harder, slippery surfaces, platforms that randomly disappear when you land on them, or you know you could always try to get up against active opposition from me," he grinned and let his eye glow red for a second. "You can ask Sharon how easy that is."

Some awful, treacherous part of Johnny's mind said "Cool. That'd be awesome!" before he could stop it and his danger sense flared a warning. He ignored it. "So, about those shoes...?"