So this is that thing they're talking about...

[Theresa McMasters]

Theresa had gotten directions down here just to see what the Danger Room was. She stepped into the large room.

"Welcome. State student name."

"Wow! Cool!"

"The temperature is set to predetermined comfort levels. Please dress appropriately for the temperature. Please state a valid student name."

"Theresa McMasters."

"Acknowledged. New account initialized. Be advised, privileges will be restricted until base competency assessment has been performed. Do you wish to perform base competency assessment at this time?"

"Sure. Let's do this."

One thing became quickly obvious. Theresa was great at anticipation and reading the field. Her athletic ability on the other hand was in need of some work.

((Open))

[Brigid Plunder]

Brigid for her part was about as nervous up in the observation deck as she had been for Alex, watching as she leaned forward.

[Theresa McMasters]

"Waa!" She exclaimed in surprise, stopping short as a padded section of wall tried to slam into her from the side. "Okay," she said to herself. "Get it together and stay out of the fire, for gods' sake, Theresa."

She moved past the slamming wall, scrambling up and over a fence like structure with relative ease before dodging her way between some suspended bags and managing to only get bludgeoned a couple of time when they all started swinging when she was halfway through.

[Brigid Plunder]

Brigid let out a breath, at least seeing that Theresa was more or less okay.

[Theresa McMasters]

At the end, she crossed the line with a reasonable time for someone who hadn't done anything remotely like this before.

Assessment complete. Combat assessment delayed until obstacle course time improves.

"Hmph. Okay," she said, looking at the time. "Can I walk a replay through in slow motion?"

Of course.

The system started a replay in slow motion.

[Brigid Plunder]

"Maybe you shouldn't sweat it so much this early in?" Brigid said over the intercom.

[Kay Haddock]

"Did I miss anything?" Kay asks as she enters the room, not quite wanting to admit that it took her a while to find the place.

[Brigid Plunder]

"Other than the room trying to cream her? It's... a tough course."

[Kay Haddock]

"Still don't really see the point of it..."

[Brigid Plunder]

"Yeah, well... me either." She flushed.

[Theresa McMasters]

"I'm not sweating it, I just want to see what I did wrong," Theresa said back. "You don't improve unless you learn."

[Brigid Plunder]

"...right," she sighed, pulling her knees up around her chest.

[Kay Haddock]

Kay throws a glance at Brigid but doesn't say anything.

"Couldn't you just, like, hit the gym if you wanna get fit?" she instead asks Theresa.

[Theresa McMasters]

"Depends on what you're after. Besides, this place is cool."

[Kay Haddock]

"I suppose. This place is pretty fancy." she admits.

[Nathaniel Davis]

A voice behind the two in the observation deck said, "And you've only seen a tiny fraction of what it can do." It was hard to tell when he'd gotten there or why they hadn't noticed him before. Kay would be able to recognize him immediately and it was possibly that Brigid had met him before, but probably with less grey in his hair.

[Kay Haddock]

"Aah!" she lets out a short yelp of surprise, turning around, startled. "Mr. Davis!"

[Brigid Plunder]

"...oh, holy crap!" She stammered in surprise.

[Nathaniel Davis]

"And now that I've gotten 'startle high school students' off my to-do list..." He chuckled, "Sorry about that, ladies. I just get excited about this place and I wanted to see how a fellow gamer handled the obstacle course."

[Theresa McMasters]

"You guys okay?" Theresa had stopped paying attention to the replay and was looking in the general direction of the observation deck.

[Brigid Plunder]

"Yeah, uhm... Mr. Davis just showed up."

[Nathaniel Davis]

"Good to see you again, Brigid. Last time I saw you, you were... well... never mind how long ago that was. Kay, good to see you again."

[Theresa McMasters]

"Oh, um, okay." She looked back at the replay, focusing on a particularly clumsy part.

[Brigid Plunder]

"Guess you've already met him, Kay? He uh... knows my mom and dad."

[Kay Haddock]

"Oh. Right. Yeah, he took me and Colin into town earlier this summer."

[Nathaniel Davis]

"I think we managed not to scar her for life," Nate said with a chuckle.

[Kay Haddock]

"It was pretty cool, yeah." Plus I got to look like a human again for a while there.

[Brigid Plunder]

"Well that's good. I'm glad you guys had stuff to do."