Despite the thick padding of her open-fingered gloves, Anna could still feel the soft cartilage of Logan's nose when her fist made contact with his face. What she felt next was utter shock travel from her core up and through the rest of her body. She had never once punched another person, and never - at least until then - thought herself capable. Logan was normally so quick with his padded gloves to block her blows, but - apparently - in this one instance, she was just that much faster. He recoiled and took a step back, holding up one padded glove at her to signal her to stop.
"Jesus… Wolverine, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"
He wiped one of his hairy arms under his nose, looked at the blood, and smiled. "Good one, kid. It's rare anyone gets one over me. You're really getting quick."
"Um, thanks?" Keeping her distance, she tried to look at his face. "Shit - I didn't break anything, did I?"
"Nothing that won't fix itself in a couple of minutes." He wiggled his nose back and forth, then looked back at her through a recomposed fighting position. "Give me more of that. There was some anger in there."
She reclaimed the fighting stance he had been grinding in her head over the past few weeks. "I… don't want to hurt you."
"Trust me, kid, you can't." He took a swipe at her and she nimbly dodged. "Come on, take your week out on me."
"If you say so…" She curled her fists tight enough the material in her gloves audibly constricted, then got low in her stance. She jabbed once, twice, then faked him out with a third and instead swept for his leg with her own.
He dodged her leg and gave her a shove. "Come on, skunk hair. You can do better."
Bouncing on the balls of her feet, she gave him a jab, then a shove of her own but he easily grappled her and spun her around to where her back was at his chest. "Amateur shit. Use your head a little-"
It was then she threw her head back and nailed him in the same spot in the nose. When he recoiled back, she freed herself from his grasp, slipped a leg behind his, and clotheslined him - knocking him flat on his back. After he fell she was quick to take him by the arm, twist it, and drop a knee onto his chest where she pinned him. Her free hand poised to strike his face she waited for him to say something smug. She almost thought he was when he smiled.
"You know, I think you're ready, kid."
"For what? What else could you freaking do to me? Run more laps? Climb another god-damned rope? You know what, whatever it is - bring it old man! I. Don't. Care! Fucking bring it!"
*
The two tall doors looked nearly 20 feet in height and near just as much in length. They were the sort of doors Anna only imagined existed in secret military bases or fallout shelters. Thick and heavy, the doors keep a near-perfect metallic sheen to them that she could just about see her reflection in. Near her imperfect reflection, she read in large black letters 'DANGER ROOM.'
"I don't want it." She said, staring at the words. "I'll take the extra miles instead, please."
"Stop clutching your pearls." Logan made for the control panel fixed to the right of the two doors. "You knew this day was coming eventually."
"Sure but - I didn't think it would be this year… or like, the next." She gestured at the words. "For Christ's sake, dude, the thing is called the 'Danger Room.' Do you really think I'd be thrilled about this?"
If Logan responded, Anna couldn't hear it over the massive doors splitting apart and slowly revealing a small sort of antechamber. Just as tall and as big as the doors, the small room held a series of tall lockers on the left, and on the right was an assortment of weird-looking pads and gym equipment. Logan brushed past her and started sifting through the gym gear. He eventually tossed orange spray-painted pads and body armor onto a bench behind him. "Suit up. Newbies pad up."
She walked over, picked up a helmet with a little cage over the face, and gave it a sniff. "God - this stuff wreaks."
"Sorry, the armor doesn't fall under the dry cleaning budget. Now get dressed, and when you're ready, hit that button on the wall." She followed where his finger was pointed and saw a big red button just a couple of feet beyond the bank of lockers.
"But-" When she looked back he was already gone. Cursing the whole time, Anna fixed the rubber and foam padding onto her person via the frayed Velcro straps. The worst was the crotch straps for the chest armor that seemed determined to dig into her upper thigh through her gym pants no matter how many times she adjusted them.
Safely tucked into her 'armor,' Anna faced the massive red button on the wall, sucked in a breath, and pressed its dome-like surface flush against the wall. The room was bathed in red light as another set of great metal doors, opposite the ones she had arrived in, split and slowly began to open. The bright white light beyond hit her face first, setting stars in her eyes. By the time she got accustomed to the bright florescence, the doors had set apart and she found herself looking at a massive looking metal colosseum. It looked almost as large as a football field, if the football had hexagonal walls and ceiling, and the grass was replaced with a long slate of solid steel. She stepped forward into the alien-looking chamber and looked up. She could see, now, on the opposite wall in the topmost corner was a long glass chamber. The chamber reminded her of the air traffic control towers she once saw at the airport.
"Welcome, Rogue, to the Danger Room." Declared Xavier's godlike voice over a loudspeaker that bounced off the blank walls.
"Um - Yeah, thanks." She shielded her eyes against the overhead light and could just see Xavier's smooth-headed silhouette in the long command center.
"You will find that this room is the lifeblood of the X-Men. Here you will train both by yourself and with your teammates, and it is here you will learn to hone your abilities." As he spoke, Anna looked around the massive chamber further. She noted the strange-looking, seemingly overlapping patchy lengths of metal on the walls. She then spotted several scorch marks and slight gouges on the metal floor nearby, then a few on the ceiling high above.
"The Danger Room is capable of creating just about any sort of environment or scenario." Xavier continued. "While Wolverine has told me nothing but good things about your progress working with him, I think it still best we start you off small. Before we begin though, I want you to understand that safety is my number one priority. Obviously, training and honing your extraordinary abilities can be dangerous, and if you ever feel the situation is getting out of hand, let me - or whoever is controlling the room at the time - know immediately and we will stop the simulation. At all times we have your vitals regularly available via the watch on your wrist, but you always have the option of shutting down if it becomes too much. Do you understand?"
Anna walked over to one of the white scorch marks on the ground and tried to scuff it with her foot. The burn was deep and had done more than deface the metal, it completely altered it in that one spot. She straightened up and looked at the command center. "Yeah, I guess." Her tone was more in form of a question than an answer.
"Very well." Said Xavier's great voice, then there was the sound of a loud clang and Anna just managed to spot a small corner of the wall spinning and spitting out a robot-looking thing just about her size. Sat on long black treads, the thing rolled up to her and stopped a respectful four of five feet before her. Waiting patiently, Anna could see the robot had a thin cylindrical white body that led up to a pair of black wobbly-looking shoulders. On either side of the shoulders were long arms seemingly made out of some sort of bending segmented tube, and at its hands were big puffy blue boxing gloves. Its head too was a wide boxy rectangle with two wide lenses, which were connected to the wobbly shoulders with the same material as the arms. All in all the thing looked kind of adorable.
"Meet your sparing partner." Xavier's voice echoed. As it did the robot's arms folded together to make a boxing stance. "It will wait for you to make the first move. Your objective will be to knock it down to the floor."
Anna felt the corners of her mouth crinkle into something close to a smile. The robot in front of her looked more like a great big wind-up toy than some sort of fearsome combatant. All the same, she wiped the smile from her face and got into her fighting stance. "Okay, C3PO, let's see what you got."
She threw it a simple jab and it blocked with ease. She threw it another, then it somehow managed to catch her arm, and while her guard was down, punch her directly in the face with its other hand. She was knocked back and nearly fell on her rear.
"Goddammit!" She made to touch her face, but the face cage blocked her hand. "Alright, mother-fucker." She bounced back on either foot. "Let's do it." She got closer to the ground and curved a roundhouse kick into its broad side which it too blocked with ease. She then gave it a straight kick, followed by an interlaced hammer fist from above. The robot deflected the kick and then punched her in her undefended abdomen before her subsequent fists had a chance to land, knocking the wind out of her.
She doubled over and sucked air in through her teeth. "Damn it!" She eventually stood back upright and shook out her arms. Facing the robot again, she threw in a hailstorm of punches, one after another, all of which the robot deflected. Now out of breath, Anna was unable to stop the machine from landing another hard hit to her abdomen - this time knocking her to the ground.
Forehead slick with sweat she threw herself back to her feet, "You know what?" She undid the chinstrap fasting for her helmet and threw it to the ground. "Fuck this."
"Rogue, are you hurt?" Asked Xavier, but by the time he ask, she had already turned and was making for the doors.
"I'm done with that shitty robot, I'm done with this fucking weird room, I'm just…" She threw up her arms. "Just fuck this place!" As she was about to hit the big red button on the wall for the doors, they split open without her touch. A moment later, Logan strode through the open doors. "What do you want?" She snapped.
He crossed his arms over his chest. "To tell you to get over yourself."
"Fuck you man, I don't need this crap." She was about to pass him when he barred her with his arm.
"Believe it or not, skunk hair, you do. You need this crap more than anyone here. These are the first few steps to learning to control those." He pointed down at her hands.
"How does getting my ass kicked by that-" She pointed a rigged finger at the robot. "Help me learn to control my powers?"
"We have to get you up to combat speed with the others, so you can train with them and hone your powers with them. Now, will you stop questioning every single thing we do to help you?"
"Fuck you! I-"
"You need to get over your fragile ego, kid. So the oversized phone knocked you on your ass. You know what you do? You get back up and fight till you knock it on its ass. Or what? You going to give up and cry every time life pushes you down? Are you that damn fragile?"
Anna felt the skin on her face tighten. "I am not fragile! You don't know shit about me!"
"I know that much. Because whining, complaining and quitting is all I've seen you do so far. That's just fact."
Anna felt her whole body tremble with white-hot rage. When she tried to speak, her tongue garbled her words, and only shrill squeals emitted from her throat. She turned on the spot, march towards the robot, and laid into it with a punch. As before, the robot deflected it easily and returned a cutting jab to her chin, knocking her to the floor. She jump back to her feet - her hair wild - then threw her whole body at the robot. It simply dodged out of the way and she fell on her face.
"Focus, kid!" She heard Logan call from the sidelines. "Your emotions are getting in your way."
She looked back at him and shouted "Fuck you!" just before trying to kick out the robot wheels, hitting them, then feeling a shock-wave of pain travel up her leg.
Panting, she circled the robot, and the robot kept its face towards her. She licked her lips and became aware of her heart pounding in her ears and the thrumming in her chest. 'Focus' She heard Logan say in her head. She stopped, rocked between her legs, and stared at the robot. She could just see her reflection in its featureless lenses. She thought through every move she had tried, then something dawned on her. She had been doing all the punching, and it had simply been waiting.
A little smile curled the corner of her stinging lip. She then got real close to the machine and dropped her guard. The robot didn't do anything immediately, instead, it kept guard near its non-existent chin like it had the whole time. She then pretended to launch at it once again, watched it try to dodge to the side of where it thought she was going, then lean into its typical counter punch. This time, though, she caught its arm, put a leg behind its wheels, and clotheslined it with her free hand, knocking it to the ground. The robot was helpless to stop its fall and hit the metal floor - hard.
There was a brief metallic whistle sound then Xavier's voice returned to bounce off the walls. "Very good, Rogue! You have clearly taken Wolverine's lessons to heart and am happy to give you clearance for the Danger Room. Though I must warn you, there will be repercussions next time you take off armor without approval. The armor is there to keep you safe."
"Yeah-" Anna cupped her knees and breathed, her face feeling pale. "Gotcha." A clap on the back nearly made her jump out of her shoes. Then before her stood Logan looking smug as ever.
"Good job, boots."
"Yeah - whatever."
Logan held out his hands to either side. "What, even in victory, you're going to be pissy?"
"No, it's not that."
"What th-" Logan didn't get to finish his sentence before Anna threw up all over his shoes.