Succes!

[x-dust.livejournal.com]

Sooraya and Ev have a breakthrough in Dust's powers training.

Bang!

The holographic cop let loose another shot with the shotgun, a bean bag speeding through the air. Sooraya, already in her sandform, dove in its path and quickly formed herself in a shield to protect the 'crowd' standing behind her. The bean bag hit the sand and dropped to the ground, but another bean bag was already speeding towards the 'crowd' and she dove again.

One member of the crowd hanged back, more interested in his tablet than the danger he faced. Ev had no doubt that Sooraya would prevent any harm from befalling him or his artificial fellows. He was more interested in the Danger Room's readings of Sooraya's sand form. She was shifting density at a much faster rate than she could the first time they had met, and so far, she did not seem to be slowing down. If she kept this up then he would give her all the gold stars.

The bean bag had not even touched the ground before she blocked another one. Then... from corner what would have been her eye, something flashed... a flash of sunlight of a gun being aimed at what seemed to be a feral mutant in the crowd. She dove once more, packing the sand tighter and tighter, ignoring the faint uncomfortable feeling.

The bullet penetrated three inches in the pack she had formed, then dropped to the floor with a soft ting.

That made a good screencap, courtesy of the cameras monitoring their session. Ev swiped the screen of his tablet so it would be sent to Sooraya's inbox. Satisfied, he tapped the screen a few times to call up the next challenge, an eight-foot-tall purple humanoid robot decked out with laser blasters and assorted armaments, modeled after an X-Men mission report from last spring. If Sooraya was going to overcome this, he thought wickedly, then she would have to do more than just flow like a sand tsunami.

'Glancing' back and forth between the purple thing and the crowd behind her, Sooraya had to decide priorities quickly. Get the crowd as far away as possible was one and luckily some of them were already responding to the side. Staying in between the robot and the crowd, she flicked backward with tiny tendrils of sand. Stinging bare skin, in the hope of encouraging people to follow their compatriots while she scanned the robot for weakness at the same time.

Ev followed the crowd to get out of harm's way. The mock Sentinel followed, slowly lumbering towards its perceived targets. "Punchy punchy, Sooraya," he suggested, almost giddy with anticipation to see if she could manage what they had been training for all these months. "Rock 'em, sock 'em."

Everett's call of rock'em gave Sooraya an idea and she backed away some more before pulling herself together into a massive log shape, dropping herself to the ground. A moment later she was rolling down the shallow incline, building more and more speed as she sped towards the feet of the robot in the hope of disturbing it balance.

Not exactly what he'd had in mind, but he was nonetheless impressed by her creativity and ability. The Sentinel did not stand a chance and fell to is hands and knees with a loud crash. That was not the end of it, though. A panel on its shoulder opened, revealing a small rocket launcher that aimed directly at the group of holographic civilians . . . and Ev. Well, hard-light illusion or not, this was going to hurt.

From the corner of her perception Sooraya 'saw' something opening. Realizing it could be nothing good and spotting the crowd of civilians directly in the line of fire she wrapped herself around one 'ankle' as a cord and pulled. If only she could throw of his aim enough... minimize the damage...

The rocket lost its target and went wild, saving the crowd from death by explosion. Death by crushing was another matter, though, as the rocket instead hit a nearby building. Crumbling pieces of masonry showered down on them and would have crushed them had Ev not extended his aura, synching with Sooraya to conjure a glittering multicolor shield of compact dust above them.

Back in her mind Sooraya registered the trick, ready to try it out later, but her attention was on the robot which was already climbing back to its feet. Digging through her mind for the report she had read about the mission for something to take it down with, she suddenly remembered about sensors... If she took those out, she could at least blind him. And to do that...

Sooraya remembered Everett mentioning their ultimate goal and she rushed forward, sending the robot back to the ground. Then she focused, starting to pull herself together in a vaguely humanoid shape.  

Ev guided the crowd away from the wreckage to somewhere more secure, but his attention was still mostly on his student as her nebulous cloud took shape. He cheered her on while he directed the Danger Room to record her parameters like height and density, and most importantly, how much force she would be able to pack into a punch against the mock Sentinel, which was still dazed from the second blow.

 Packing together her sand form was not really uncomfortable anymore... it was just that the human shape was a lot more complicated to form then the simple geometric forms she often used. Sooraya decided to discard the details and just focus on the main lines. There... where eyes of a human would have been... and in the middle of the thing's chest. Those were her targets.

A metallic tentacle came out from the outstretched hand of the now-standing Sentinel, the pincers on its tip snapping at the humanoid sand-Sooraya. The Sentinel lifted its arm, raising the tentacle with it, and then slammed it down to bludgeon Sooraya like a whip.

 The whip passed through the sand, splitting apart, but sealing back together immediately as it passed through. Something that faintly resembled a smirk formed on her 'face' and both fists shot out, aimed at the sensor on it's 'chest'. The combination of force and razor sharp sand cut through the thin metal and plastic as a knife through butter.

The Sentinel shuddered and jerked like it was having a seizure. It tried to raise its whip again, but it hadn't the strength anymore. The robot stumbled back several steps and then collapsed with a loud boom. The lights in its eyes dimmed and it was still.

A moment passed before the Danger Room alarm dinged and the holograms vanished, leaving the still-glowing Ev and sand-Sooraya in the empty metal-lined room. Holding the tablet under one arm, Ev applauded and whistled. "Marvelously done! That was great, Sooraya."

Sooraya assumed her human shape and walked over to the wall, picking up a bottle of water and taking several long sips. "Thanks. Only... was the last bit not a little bit too easy? I mean, I only took out one set of it's sensors? Or are there other vital components just behind the sensors that I hit as well?"

Ev shrugged and took out the tablet to review the data being analyzed and displayed. "That's how that particular menace is set at this difficulty level. There's only so much data on this thing so I guess whoever programmed it had to fill in the blanks. But even so, you needed quite an oomph to to destroy that one sensor. It wasn't a cake walk."

 She walked over and peeked over his shoulder at the display. "Difficulty level was not set overly high." Sooraya mentioned with a note of disappointment in her voice. "Though..." Her voice brightened at the next words. "... I finally did manage to pull myself together in a human shape!"

"Beating the snot out of a giant robot wasn't the challenge, even if it was pretty damn fun to watch. This was about achieving and maintaining that form in the face of danger. And you did it! After all that work. You should be proud."

"Alright... alright. I will be proud." Sooraya pulled a face. "See, there is my proud look... still it's gonna take a lot more work to really make my... how should I call this new form? My sandman form?"  
"This is just the beginning. We need to see how long you can hold it, how quickly you can get in and out, the force of your blows, how much strain you can take, your lifting strength . . ." Ev counted off these examples on his fingers. With all the ideas he was having, he was going to need more hands. "But now you've got somewhere to start and work with."

"That's true. I'm starting to have some ideas I want to try out when I have the chance myself." Sooraya grinned. "You know... I did it now. Got my sandman form and defeated a robot. Would be interesting to see how we could work together."    

Ev nodded and started to lead her out of the Danger Room. His own mind was racing, too, as scenarios for training and collaboration were born in his brain. "Absolutely. A next time, I won't even lose my pants."