xp_logs | Powers training - Everett and Sooraya

Everett works with Sooraya on her powers.

It was about time someone made Ev eat his words and finally work to earn his keep. It was funny, in a way, that after running away from the mansion and then SHIELD, here he was back at the mansion does much of what he'd done in SHIELD.

He leaned against the wall outside the Danger Room, arms crossed over the X-Men uniformed he had been loaned, as he awaited his first student.

"You look uncomfortable in that." Sooraya observed as she approached, her hood she usually wore with her X-men uniform still in her hand. "Thanks for agreeing the work with me. I think an outside view might be just what I need."

"It's not leaving a lot of breathing room." Ev smiled at the young woman and turned to type in the entrance code on the keypad. He was rewarded with a pleasant ding and the doors slid open. "And you're welcome. I don't think I've ever encountered a mutant with powers like yours before. I'm looking forward to learning more, myself."

"How do your powers work exactly?" Sooraya asked as she followed him in, coiling her braid in the back of her neck before slipping the hood over it. Even though she no longer wore hijab in daily life, the hood did have the advantage of keeping her hair away from her face during training or missions.

The adage of showing is better than telling applied to more than just writing, so Ev demonstrated before answering. The air around him shimmered and the light split as if focused through a prism, bathing him in a nebulous rainbow halo. The aura wavered and then began to slowly dissolve, sending out glimmering particles like the wind blowing away the colored sand of a Buddhist mandala. The particles slowly spread through the Danger Room, and then just as suddenly as they appeared, they vanished, leaving Ev and Sooraya alone in the empty room.

Satisfied with the demonstration, he smiled softly at the young woman. "Usually, I create this aura that mimics the other mutant. With Scott, for example, I project it as force blasts through my eyes. And with you, it turns into sand. I can actually physically copy powers, too, like shapeshifting, but that requires more focus."

"Very pretty." Sooraya commented with a smile. "And very interesting. So you're saying each mutant has their own unique aura and by copying that, you copy their power? It's not on a genetic level? You're not changing your DNA or anything?" She might not have been a scientist, but living in the mansion, preparing for many years to arrange education for young mutants and being close with Moira MacTaggert had given her a fair understanding of the intricacies of mutant powers.

Ev did not bother to hide his mild surprise that she picked up so quickly the details of his ability. "Pretty much. I can change physically. I don't know if it's a genetic change. I've never actually looked at that, come to think of it."

"And now you have copied my powers?" Sooraya asked curiously as she absentmindedly tugged the last buckle of her uniform in place. "How long will they stay with you?"

"Until I decide to let go or you get too far away" Ev began to glow again as he synched with her once more. "But we're here for you today. Tell me about your abilities. What are your limits?"

"Basically, my mutation is the ability to turn my body into a cloud of sand. I can control the direction, density and velocity of this cloud, as well as reforming when I want too. Might be easier if I just showed you some what I can do?" Sooraya gestured towards on of the Danger Room panels where they could summon a scenario.

With his limited privileges, Ev had only the most basic scenarios available. That would be more than sufficient for a cursory introduction to the young woman's abilities, though, so he did not bother to conjure any of the ultra-highly detailed hard light simulators. An obstacle course that would require expanding and contracting through hindrances to get from one end safely to the other would suffice.

"Pretty easy." Sooraya dissolved into her sand form and entered the long, transparent tube that circled around Ev. Soon it narrowed towards an opening an envelope just would have fitted through and Sooraya 'flattened' herself to fit through. Next was a tube no wider then a quarter and the only way to get through was to make a long thin rope.

Various others followed this the last one... a simple tunnel, but where the wind blowing through.Here she had to move a pretty high speeds, otherwise she would be blown against the tube. Sooraya moved back just a bit, before gaining speed and rushing though and out of the tube and retook her normal form. "Does that give you a fair idea?"

It did not escape Ev's notice that only Sooraya herself transformed into sand; her uniform was left in her wake and she had to mold herself to get back into it. Which brought up a good question. "So you can expand or contract to fit your container," he said, "But can you sculpt yourself into a shape without anything holding you in?"

"I can change shapes, yes, but the closer I pull the particles together, the harder it gets. Or the more complicated the shape get. Simple things, like a massive wall or whips are easiest to do." Sooraya tilted her head curiously. "What are you thinking of?

The rainbow aura lit up the Danger Room as Ev synched to Sooraya again. To maintain communication, he would have to manifest through the aura, which might inhibit powers ingenuity, but they would do what they could. After a second, the aura vibrated and dissolved into sand again, enveloping Ev in a swirling globe of variegated dust.

"Hard in what sense?" he asked. "Is there some kind of pressure? Or do they repel each other like magnets with the same pole?"

Sooraya frowned, searching for the words to what she felt when she tried to work that way. "I think the easiest way to say is that because all particles are drawn so close together, it becomes harder to feel and control each of them. I can do it, but not easily."

Ev looked thoughtful. "You control each particle? That is impeccable mental ability, keeping track of each one of trillions of particles. Maybe this is just my aura that I control as a whole, but . . ." He held out his right hand and clenched his fist, and his own dust cloud amassed around it. It took on the vague appearance of a fist, blurry, like magnifying Ev's hand with a poor resolution microscope. "Can you treat yourself as a single fluid entity? Everything at once."

"From what I understand it's basically a kind of TK how I control it. And through it are a whole lot of them, controlling them in general does not really seems that hard anymore..." Sooraya paused for a moment, considering Ev's question. "And generally I can move myself fluently... I mean... it's how I fight. There are certain ways that are harder, like the massive shapes we talked about."

"But to flow like that, you're moving everything in the same direction. One command for the entirety of your form. It's easy to spread that one thought through your whole body. I've synched with shapeshifters before. They don't have to think of every single cell and how to change it. They consider the whole form, the end product, and their body reacts automatically to meet that."

"It's not really thinking of every particle that I do... though I think the main difference from what you are saying is that I am used to splitting my focus across several bits. When I fight with multiple whips... I have to keep them all moving and some sharper or firmer then others. The way you describe... it feels very foreign."

"Then here's your challenge," Ev said, grinning. "The ultimate goal will be to transform but maintain a humanoid form. A large humanoid form, with big smashy fists. That will be useful for combat. It's a complex shape. You'll have to keep yourself dense enough that you don't fall apart at every blow, but also be able to quickly change your density for ease of movement. What do you think?"

Sooraya's eyes twinkled as she returned the smile: "That sounds like quite a challenge to me. Getting myself pulled together enough to fight as I do in self-defense." She hummed as she considered possibilities in a fight. "It would be a good addition to my arsenal though. I would like to have a way to take people out without cutting them to ribbons... punching them seems a bit more... gentle."

Ev nodded in agreement. "It's all relative. And in the meantime, the skills you learn and perfect while you work to achieve this goal will be useful in their own ways. Are you able to communicate when you're transformed? We might need to recruit a telepath to facilitate." And he'd have to get a muumuu or something so he could easily and quickly reclothe himself after transforming to normal, to spare either of them the embarrassment.

"I am aware, seeing or hearing in some form, but communicating is hard. And something about my dispersed mind makes it really hard to read for telepaths... neigh impossible even." Sooraya frowned a little. "We might have resolve to some pre arranged signals?"

"I don't suppose you know Morse code?" Ev asked in jest, tapping S.O.S. on the wall with his knuckles. "Well, we'll make it up as we go along. Let's start with some baseline measurements, make sure we're really aware of your current limits and where we need to focus. We've established fluidity, so let's go with density. How close can you pack yourself together, and how much can you spread yourself out?"

"Spreading out it easily. the packing myself close together... let's see..." Sooraya dissolved back into her sand form, and selecting a simple barrier as a shape, she started to pull herself closer and closer together. The first few steps were easy, but as she progressed, trying to pull everything in a way that would form a solid barrier, it became harder and harder

"Record Sooraya's dimensions," Ev ordered the Danger Room computer, which dinged in compliance, sending out a pair of small drones that revolved around her cloud to measure her. "Keep going," he said to her. "You're doing well, but pack it in more."

If Sooraya had had a face in her sand form, it would have been furred into a deep frown as she pulled tighter together. Bits of sand kept dripping of as she tried to pull it all together and parts would waver as she shifted her attention around to make sure she packed it tight everywhere.

"Just focus on being a tight packet," Ev instructed. "Don't pull back what's falling away. Concentrate on the shape you want to be, on a tight, dense sphere. The rest of your body will follow. Assuming you maintain your mass in this form — and for the sake of physics, I hope you do — then a hundred or so pounds should be able to be packed into, hmm, no more than a couple cubic feet."

After a few more moments of trying Sooraya shifted back. "This is the issue I keep running into every time I have tried something similar. At a certain point everything is too close together and I cannot keep my focus on the separate particles."

Now without a target, the drones retreated to their docks, and a screen on the wall lit up with the data they recorded. "For what you were able to maintain, that was quite good," he said, skimming over the numbers. "Obviously the hard part is the maintenance. Concentrating on the sum of the parts rather than each individual piece. We'll work on that."

"It sounds like I might have to make some changes to my mental picture." Sooraya replied thoughtfully. "How did you envision things when you maintained your shape?"
"Well, like I said with shapeshifting, it's about keeping the image of the final form in your head and telling your body to go to that. And keep picturing that in your head so your body stays there. But, like everything, it takes a lot of practice. Once you can hold that form, the rest will easily follow."

"I will work on visualizing that in during my meditations as well. That should help me to keep the image in mind. Thanks Everett." Sooraya replied with a thoughtful nod.

"My pleasure," Ev replied, surprising himself to discover that was not simply a pleasantry but, after nearly a year of post-traumatic inactivity, was absolutely reflective of his mood.