"When the danger room session commences, you will find yourselves on the wrong side of a very swift moving body of water. You must work together to cross the water, which confessedly will be easier for some of you than others. Once on the other side, you will fight through computer generated opponents and a variety of other obstacles in an attempt to rescue a computer generated prisoner located in a building somewhere within the area. You must find her as quickly as possible while working together and leaving no mutant behind. If any one of your teammates should be "killed" in virtual reality, the session will time out and your team will be disqualified."

It seemed like a fairly cut-and-dry practice session - not unlike the usual ones that were held here in the Danger Room. Team Two had waited out in the halls of the Subbasement for what seemed like forever as they waited for the first team to complete their mission. After the doors had slid open and the members of Team One tumbled out of the room, Emma Frost waved over the team that she was commanding (which consisted of Hellion, Rain, and Nous) with one white-gloved hand, giving them the signal to follow her inside. Her pale platform uniform boots made deep click-clacking sounds against the metal floor as she made her way to one end of the room. In no time the session would begin and they'd have to work together to escape and complete the sequence successfully. She swallowed hard. She still wasn't exactly sure how well she could work with a team beside her; back when she'd helped out the Hellfire Club she'd mostly worked by herself. . . But since moving to the mansion she had learned some vital lessons - hopefully she could use these lessons to her advantage.

The biggest 'problem' at the moment was that she really didn't know too much of the people in her own team. She'd seen Rain roaming around the halls a few times and had heard of Nous and Hellion, but she really hadn't taken the time of day to have a chat with them and get to understand them a little better. Which seemed like a big mistake now, since being a team leader was clearly a large responsibility. In fact, Emma wouldn't doubt that they could win the 'Most Unlikely Team of the Year' Award if such an award existed: Let's see; a former villian who could turn into diamond and rip into people's minds, a bipolar girl who could warp the elements, an arrogant telekinetic boy, and a gay telepathic guy who could pass for a model.

<Simulation 2401 Commencing in Thirty Seconds>

A metallic-sounding voice boomed loudly from invisible speakers. Emma sighed, tugged at her gloves to be sure they wouldn't slip off, and ran a few slender fingers through her high ponytail. Just because she was about to lead a team of mutants through a 'life-threatening' Danger Room session certainly didn't mean she couldn't still look fabulous. She turned to her teammates and gave them a slight nod. "Ready everyone?" she questioned just to fill the silence - but as soon as the words left her mouth, the metal floor and walls around them shifted into cliffs, rocks, and of course a gigantic body of water which blocked them from the other side of land. The side that they needed to get to in order to dispose of their opponents and rescue the damsel in distress at the other end. Rain fell from the dark blue sky and the river before them was choppy and deep which caused even Emma to hesitate slightly.

Rain was disturbed. She was on a team with males and only males, not including the woman leading them. As the room began to shift and change, the landscape became distorted and the rain began to fall. The moment the rain water touched her, it seemed to freeze on her skin and she began to rub the ice off of her tanned flesh.

"Ready. . ." She mumbled and allowed her body to heat up and melt the ice easily. The air around her, despite being cold from the rain, began to shimmer from the heat she was giving off. "Actually, I have a question, ma'am." She said softly, looking at the woman. "Are we supposed to use our powers, or is this stimulation about learning without the use of them?" Because it would be very unfair, her being able to control the elements and all.

She realized that this put her team at an advantage. If she was asked to, she could keep them dry from the rain, something she was doing to herself without thinking about it from the intense heat surrounding her. If asked, she could freeze the water in the river enough so they could walk across it. Not sure if she was able to do all this quickly and on demand, she decided to say something since the other two didn't know what she could do.

"I think the other teams are at a disadvantage." She murmured, her fingers itching to stop the rain. She hated rain. It came from Terry's personality.

Although it did seem like forever until it was their turn, Nous was in no way bothered by it. He's always had this pet peeve of time. "How much time" or "What time" never really mattered to him. It was usually the people around him that influence his stress. Definitely during the wait for his family's shows to start and getting ready. That was all of the chaos and frenzy going on around him that caused him to act in an identical way. Nous was just excited to get in there and show the others what he could do. But, a water session didn't seem like it'd be much fun. The second portion of the challenge seemed to catch his attention a lot more.

After the first team exited the high-tech room, Nous and his team did the opposite. Leaving the subbasement halls, and entering through the metallic doors into the highly anticipated Danger Room. Nous followed Emma into the gigantic, echoing room before stopping just short of a few feet before Ms. Frost. From there on, they'd wait until the simulation started. "Hopefully we don't get our heads chopped off in here." Time to knock on some wood. Obviously sarcastic. He left a smirk on his face and looked in around to view the others' faces. He crossed his arms and waited.

"Simulation 2401 Commencing in Thirty Seconds"

The robotic voice went bursting throughout the entire room. Not phasing Nous even the least bit. He was ready and began to crack each knuckle one by one. Emma had looked towards Nous and the other teammates. She had asked if we were ready. Rain, the girl he met beforehand, had answered verbally. Nous decided to take the conservative route and just give her a reassuring nod. And without missing a beat, the entire room surrounding them began to shimmer into different scenery. The outdoors, obviously. Where else would you find a raging river preventing you from reaching the other side. Nevertheless, the beast of water particles appeared before the team.

Rain, again, opened her mouth. This time to ask a question whether or not they're supposed to use powers. Nous merely looked at her and back at Emma. "Well, the only useful thing I might be able to do is make a shield to block off some of the water." Darnit, this was his chance to really show these people his real potential. And they give him a mission to play with some water. All of his other powers must have other people involved and are really offensive. Nothing like lifting each and every one of them over to the other side. "But I can definitely handle the fuckers on the other side." Well, that was quite vulgar of him. But he was a cusser, nothing you could really do about that, now was there? But it was a definite fact that he could take on the ones on the other side. Hopefully Rain got the answer she was looking for.

Hellion was more than a little excited by the prospect of a danger room session with Emma Frost. She was as foxy as they came, and even though she hadn't been officially made his advisor, his arguments with his current advisor Binary had led to the insinuation that he was going to be sent over to Emma when the Spring Semester began. Somehow he gathered that the two of them would get along a bit better than with the hardass Carol, who was not in the least bit "impressed with his attitude," as she had put it.

Team 1 finished their simulation faster than he had anticipated, and just moments later his team was in the danger room.

"Simulation 2401 Commencing in Thirty Seconds"

The wind and rain began, and he grumbled his displeasure. Not wanting to seem like a wimp in front of the White Queen of his teammates, he let it soak his training outfit and hair. He could have easily held it off of him with his power, of course, but he wasn't sure how that would have been taken.

When Emma asked if they were ready, he nodded his head sharply and moved forward. His teammates didn't seem to know exactly how to handle this water. The girl he remembered could mess with all kinds of elemental stuff, but a torrent of water like this would be pretty intense. And the rain wasn't entirely real, so manipulating the artificial clouds would be a bit more difficult than the real thing.

Julian Keller, on the other hand, had only a smile to offer the seemingly confusing situation. Hellion was not a complicated person. He ate, slept, hit on women that were much older than him and out of his league, and that's about it. Occasionally he would actually do his homework or take a break from playing video games to run around outside or bully someone smaller than him or try to burn down kitchens with his awful cooking. But all in all - not complicated.

And Julian Keller's powers were just like him. He had one power, and one only. There were no funky sides to it, no related developments. He was a telekinetic. For his age and training level, one of the best around - but a simple telekinetic nonetheless.

"How deep do you suppose this is, Ms. Frost? If Rain tries to lessen the wind and rain" -that sounded redundant - "and the riverbed isn't too deep, I can try to lead us across the center of it by forming a bubble of telekinetic energy."

It was a little ambitious for Hellion, and he'd never actually done it before. But, for all intents and purposes, he should be able to handle it.

Guess they'd find out.

Prying questions seemed to come from every mouth in the room - and the most infuriating part of it all was that Emma wasn't sure of the answers, really. God, I'm not ready for this, she thought silently. But instead of quaking in her boots and prancing away like the normal do-gooder at the mansion might've had they been as hesitant as her, Emma turned to face the rest of her 'troupe.' "Are we supposed to use our powers, or is this stimulation about learning without the use of them?" asked the girl. After a quick mind-scan Emma came to the conclusion that her given name was Liliha and she could manipulate all of the elements. Well. That could certainly be of use. Hopefully the elements within these walls were as easy to manipulate as the ones in actuality - something told Emma they weren't, though. "Well without our powers we're all positively useless and since this session is fairly challenging, I'm assuming we can use them," she finally answered, now having to raise her voice a little over the pounding rain.

"I can definitely handle the fuckers on the other side," said the man with light brown hair. Emma couldn't help grinning; hearing the word 'fucker' come from the 'good team' for once was certainly reassuring. Then came Julian, the little hotshot of the team: "How deep do you suppose this is, Ms. Frost? If Rain tries to lessen the wind and rain and the riverbed isn't too deep, I can try to lead us across the center of it by forming a bubble of telekinetic energy." Emma nodded patiently, grasping every word he spoke. No sense rushing the process of crossing a deadly river and having to fight to escape a virtual world, right? "From what I can tell, dear, the river is at least five feet deep. It'll take a lot of willpower - and mutant power - to get across it," she concluded.

After a few seconds of brainstorming, Emma walked over to the edge of rocky land they all stood on and looked at the rushing water before her. "Okay, team, here's the plan," she began, secretly hoping she didn't sound too cheesy uttering those words. "Since Hellion, Nous, and I all possess some form of telekinetic abilities, we can combine our abilities so that, as three, we become more powerful." She turned to face them. "But even with the combination, I'm afraid it will be incredibly difficult to succeed in crossing, so Rain I'm going to need you to try and control the rain and wind, lessening both elements so that it'll be a bit easier for us to cross." The young blonde nodded slowly, quickly running through that plan again in her mind, hoping there weren't too many flaws in it. "Sound easy enough?" she asked sarcastically, attempting to lighten the mood a smidge.

Nodding in answer, Liliha closed her eyes briefly before opening them again. No longer were they green, but now a vicious, glowing amber and sapphire blue. Around them, the weather picked up a bit of speed quite alarmingly before it suddenly slowed to a light drizzle and a plain, normal wind. It was obvious, even though she tried to hide it, how difficult it was holding it at a stable rate for a large amount of time.

"I hate to be a bother, but now would be a good time to get across." The river had also slowed and had frozen over, very lightly, as the temperature dropped in the room as she tried to keep an even grasp on the two elements at once. Watching the group through the wind and water, her hold on it started to slip and the river cracked slightly. The wind began to increase again, as did the rain. Forcing herself to take better control, Liliha focused her mind on controlling the raging elements.

Opening her eyes, she looked at the three and hoped that none of them would be harmed. They were all soaked by now from the rain that was still falling, which was a bit much but not as much as it was a few minutes ago. You're going to exhaust yourself, Liliha. Let one of us out to help.

No. Liliha growled to herself in answer. The last time I let you two out, you flooded the city. I'm not going to let that happen again.

Hellion nodded and shot his teammates his best serious-face as Emma dealt out her instructions. She was kinda distracting, honestly- what with not wearing much in the way of clothes and all. Shrugging, he moved forward with the group to try out their plan.

The girl Rain had apparently taken it upon herself to freeze over a section of the river as well as calm the weather. She has managed it, surprisingly, but she looked as though she were about to pass out and the ice on top of the river itself looked to be, oh, about a millimeter thick. Rolling his eyes, he walked right up to the bank of it and got down on his hands and knees for a better look. It was definitely not thick enough for anything bigger than a chihuaha to walk across.

Turning back to Emma, he spoke quickly. "It's not thick enough. The question is: would it be easier to use our psionic energies to try and hold the ice in place or would it be easier to try the psionic bubble idea across the riverbed? Or I could maybe lift everyone across one by one with my mind? But i guess that would take a while... "

He paused from his ramblings to turn back to the river itself. His eyes glowed as he stretched out a hand. Psionic energy welled from below the ice itself and on top of it. The combined psionic pressure above and below should hold it in place.

"I can only do that over a small area at a time, so we'd have to move pretty slowly... but it would still be faster than our other options I think. What should we do?"

Once the ever so glamorous Emma was finished giving instructions to the team, Rain was quick to obied by them and do what she was told. The weather did start to ease up a bit but just as fast she started to lighten up. The obvious strain she struggled with to try and ease the conditions was hard to watch. Such a young teen (at least compared to the ages of all the other students) trying to take on a tremendous job. That showed Nous that she was worth while. He wanted to help, but how? With his powers, there wasn't much he could do. But Nous let out a sigh of relief since it seemed that Julian, the kid he met in the kitchen, was up to help since he was going over to the water. No such luck, he was merely seeing how thick the ice was, which was smart. He turned and revealed the news and gave his own proposal.

"Well, there really isn't much I can do with my powers but maybe make another layer of tangible psionic energy that may keep us from falling through the ice." Well, what was he supposed to do? Possess the water into calming down? Don't think so. With that said, Julian had already wrapped his energy over and under the surface of the ice. Nous that he should wait for the "okay" from Ms. Frost to even begin to conjure his power in order to add another layer over Julian's. Now, this plan wasn't full proof but it was practically the only thing they have. Nous was definitely up for any suggestions. Once the question rose about what we should do, Nous looked over to Emma. "You're the leader. It's your call... No pressure." Like anyone would even hear that last addition to his statement. But really, he didn't feel safe without running the plan through their team leader. So that's exactly what he intended to do.

Thoughts rushed all throughout the blonde's brain - and not just her own. The thoughts of her own private team that stood beside her and even the thoughts of some of the students above ground, in the mansion. She could hear them. . . Whispering. Like they all had something to tell her at once; something extremely important that couldn't wait. Emma began to feel a little light-headed. No. Block them out, she commanded of herself mentally. You need to focus. She shut her eyes tightly and pushed every last thought but hers, out of her mind. She'd discovered her abilities only months ago which explained why she wasn't as natural as the others like Storm or Binary.

Swallowing hard, Emma stepped to the edge once again, feeling like she was going to fall in at any moment. She took a deep breath and shook it off. She couldn't let her teammates see her like this. . . It was so demeaning. "It's not thick enough. The question is: would it be easier to use our psionic energies to try and hold the ice in place or would it be easier to try the psionic bubble idea across the riverbed? Or I could maybe lift everyone across one by one with my mind? But I guess that would take a while..." Julian's words broke into her thoughts and she considered this for a while. "Go for it," she approved. Then she turned to Nous who looked like he was itching to do the same. "Let's all do it, at once. Rain, you're doing a great job, keep it up, dear."

Extending both of her arms, Emma closed her eyes and concentrated, summoning as much energy as her body would allow her for the time being. And then she released it, allowing it to caress the ice-water, thickening the hold on it since it was now combined with Julian's. Emma's white, heeled boots couldn't be heard over the pouring rain as she walked to the very edge of the ledge. "We'll have to cross soon enough. Who knows when the water will break through - and who knows how long we'll be able to hold it," she wondered allowed. As soon as Nous released his share of psionic energy they'd have to sprint across.

This isn't real, Liliha. This is just a simulation. Just focus and you'll be able to freeze the river over enough so they all can get across. You can go across at anytime. You can change your body into water, fire, wind, and even earth. A soft voice whispered to Liliha, urging her to do her best. Liliha wanted to do it, oh how she wanted to. It would be so simple... She could change them all into wind at once at transport them all across. But it would be hard, possibly harder than this.

Give it up, Water, Liliha's too weak to do that for all of them. She's weak. Terry grinned darkly in her mind. She was taunting her and it was working. Are you going to listen to that hothead, Liliha? You're one of us! You are us ALL together in one body. Your abilities are limitless when it comes to us. Mina whispered, unknowingly allowing Emma to listen in to the entire conversation.

Do it. Take control of the situation and release. They all said to her at the same time, a myriad of voices that had once been a curse.

"It's about to get really cold in here." Liliha murmured, opening her eyes, which were swirling with a multitude of colors. "There's two options I can do, if you all care to hear them. One, I can completely freeze the river over but it would take a few minutes. Two, we can go over by wind." The wind slowed a bit more then suddenly stopped as her eyes remained on the amber color which showed that she was no longer in control of herself; Mina was, for now.

Before anyone could do anything more, however, new - unfamiliar - thoughts broke into the young blonde's mind. Give it up, Water, Liliha's too weak to do that for all of them. She's weak. Emma's crystal blue eyes darted around the room, looking first to Hellion, then to Nous and finally to Rain. Neither of them had been the one to speak; she already knew their voices. Could it have been mental communication? But she'd shoved all thoughts of everyone above ground out of her mind! Are you going to listen to that hothead, Liliha? You're one of us! You are us ALL together in one body. Your abilities are limitless when it comes to us. Liliha. Wasn't that the Rain girl's name? Emma squared her shoulders and locked eyes with the girl. But Rain still wasn't speaking aloud - and that still wasn't her voice. Emma closed her eyes, shifting her train of concentration from the river to the young girl's mind. Huh - It wasn't anyone in the Danger Room, or even in the mansion. In fact, it wasn't solidified people at all. They were all coming from Rain's thoughts.

Schizophrenic, much?

Emma's hold on the riverbed was gone, now, as she willingly dove into the young girl's thoughts, detecting at least five different personalities. "Do you need help with them?" Emma asked Liliha telepathically. Before waiting for an answer, the blonde composed a prison within the girl's mind, locking up the other personalities and all other distracting thoughts from her mind - Rain really needed to focus right now, since she was a key part in this mission. The question was, How long would Liliha's multiple personalities stay locked within that makeshift jail in the mental realm? After all, Emma needed to turn her focus back onto the river again; if only two or three of them put forth the effort to get across, they'd most likely fail.

"There's two options I can do, if you all care to hear them. One, I can completely freeze the river over but it would take a few minutes. Two, we can go over by wind." Emma pondered on this for a brief second. "The first option sounds better. Hellion, Nous, and I are already working on making it solid enough to walk on - we just need you to help out and if things turn out successful we should all be able to make it across safely."

((OOC: I know that I shouldn't post right now, but it's too late to edit my post like I was told to do in a PM. So I'm going to post now to sort it all out since I'm apparently giving Liliha too much power.))

Liliha's eyes darted to Emma instantly when she heard her voice. Wouldn't that be hard to do? Considering that we're all different souls, it would be rather difficult to help us. Liliha raised a hand to her head and placed it on her right temple. She forced Mina away as well as the other three to the point where her powers were limited to simply slowing the wind down enough and keep the layer of ice, which had thickened by a few more inches in her uncontrolled power surge. The wind picked up a bit, whipping her trench coat around her legs wildly.

"Sorry. . . ignore my rambling." She said in apology to her teammates. She hadn't meant to let it get out of control. She needed help controlling her powers more. If she didn't. . . she'd end up killing herself. She's had them for ten years! You'd think that she'd be better at controlling them.

[[ ooc: a little posting order could be less confusing. ]]

"Let's all do it, at once. Rain, you're doing a great job, keep it up, dear."

"All you needed to say." Nous explained with an anxious grin lied across his face. At first, only his eyes flashed a shade of purple and was just as quickly, back to normal. He then bent one knee and set the other one on the ground. He was closer to the river now, therefore, even a bit easier to achieve his goal. A very light layer of his own psionic energy focused over the other psions' shields. Before Nous could rise to his feet, Ms. Frost explained that they would need to make a quick pace across the river once the energies were lied out. Whilst arising, Nous opened up his mouth to speak once again. "Agreed."

Once all was done, Rain had mentioned yet another proposal. Right after Emma had taken the time to answer the girl, Nous did the same."Just get it as iced as you can. We'll hold up the barriers as long as we can." It was a strain on his mind to keep the barrier up as it was. There was no way things could change again after putting this work into it already. Now, walking over it while keeping it up would be a whole other story. But the others were there to help, so it should be easier than he thought.. shouldn't it?

He looked at the other three before moving forward. After he gave each of them a glance, he stepped forward. Stepping on the ground once before leading to the ice and energy covered river. It's not like it was extra smooth or anything. It was still a raging river. Even if it were iced a bit, it had to have been at least some what rough. "It's bumpy, definitely. And I can sort of feel the water circulating underneath. But if we hustle, I think we could make it across." He easily put both feet onto the frozen over river and took a glance back at the others and looked forward again. "I guess I'll be the guinea pig." He meant it as to let the others know that it was time to start getting over. "Old Charlie better be impressed." Speaking of Charles Xavier, of course.

Julian stared blankly as ideas bounced around. Really, as far as he was concerned, his plan was best. But, then again, Julian always assumed that he was the smartest person in the room, which might be not always be exactly the case. With a shrug, he ignored the others and focused in stabilizing the ice. The danger room had made everything intentionally difficult, the water was moving fast enough and at a warm enough temperature that it was constantly melting the ice. It was a now-or-never situation, and what with all the talking and no doing, Hellion was half tempted to lift himself over and leave everyone else behind. After all, he was holding this ice up for their benefit, not his.

Finally getting the go-ahead, he nodded to Nous as the group moved forward. The older mutant volunteered to be the guinea pig, an idea that Julian was more than happy to go along with. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to help bond the psionic energies coursing above and below the ice. Emma was one of the most powerful telepaths in the world, but this sort of psionic manipulation wasn't her strong suit. Nous seemed to know what he was doing, but Julian was the only purely telekinetic mutant in the room. Somehow his powers had manifested without a scrap of telepathic talent. Nonetheless, challenges like this were where he really shone. He grunted slightly as Nous stepped onto the ice, trying his best to keep psionic pressure above and below the ice. If he let it become unbalance, the force below would break through the top or vice-versa.

Waiting for Nous to get a bit further, Hellion joined him on the ice, expanding his mind to steady his legs. Melting ice was a little slippery, and a fall could break his concentration. Moving steadily and deliberately, the dual efforts of trying to maintain the ice and keep his legs under him caused his eyes to glow slightly, a dull white light eaking from them.

"It's not going to hold forever, we're literally walking on an inch of ice. Let's get a move on!"

"It's not going to hold forever, we're literally walking on an inch of ice. Let's get a move on!"

Emma's icy blue eyes flicked over to the direction of Julian, a little bit annoyed at the way he was running 'her' team. But, really, she wasn't all so experienced in the area of risking lives and ordering people around. Add that to the fact that the boy looked so incredibly adorable at the moment - not just in a puppy-dog way - and there was simply no way the blonde telepath could stay irked at him for too long. Besides, what he spoke was the truth. Emma waited a few seconds, allowing space between the two boys that were already standing precariously on the ice before she stepped on it herself - she knew that if they were all to just hop on at once without any space whatsoever between them, the ice was sure to break.

She glanced over at Rain, a bit worried for the girl - would she be able to handle this? How long would her 'inner-demons' stay locked up? Then she shook her head slightly, her blonde locks bouncing a bit, and turned back around, facing forward. Concentrate, she reminded herself. The most important thing of all is for me to get everyone out of here in one piece. She took another step forward, her white patent uniform boot creating an unexpected crackling sound beneath her foot. Emma snapped her head in the direction of the sound and moved her foot aside, allowing her to view the damage - it wasn't so bad; the crack wasn't even visible to the naked eye. Swallowing hard and trying her best to compose herself - she needed to look strong and confident as usual, not just for herself but also for her teammates - she took another careful step forward, this one a bit softer.

All of a sudden a soft humming noise shot through Emma's ears, slowly growing with sound. Someone - something - was coming. She looked ahead, having to shield her eyes with one white-gloved hand due to the downpour, and spotted several mechanical obstacles rising on the other side of the river. Two of them were circular-shaped and hovering a few feet above ground, small concentrated lasers attatched on either side of them and four of them were gray mini-Sentinels capable of every feat a normal Sentinel could do, the only difference being that they was more agile and harder to focus on than the usual mutant-hunting robot.

Oh, great. They weren't even halfway across the unstable, slightly-frozen, oh-my-God-are-we-going-to-survive-this river-? when their enemies decided to attack. One of the circular disks randomly began firing off blasts in their general direction. Emma shifted to stand on one foot as a harmful flare of energy whizzed by her. Another one came from the opposite direction - an area she failed to have her eye on - and nipped her arm, tearing at her white uniform and burning her skin a bit. "Heads up!" she called to no one in particular. "We have to get across as fast as we can, now!" Her voice was loud and surprisingly sure. "If we use our previous strategy and cross it slowly, they'll destroy it before we can even get a chance to get across!" Several more crimson blasts were shot her way and she had to duck in order to avoid them, several small cracks appearing on the ice which she stood.

Listening to the conversation, Emma wasn't the only one annoyed. What gave Julian the right to try to control the team? Her flareup caused the ice to crack a little, which was the sound that the blond mutant had heard. "Head's up! Liliha looked up sharply, barely dodging a blast by bending backwards like a contortionist and straightening as quickly as she'd bent.

Heading over to the slowly melting ice, she looked at it with distaste. At this rate, they had one, maybe two minutes before it was too thin to cross. "I have to go last. At the moment, my body temperature is too hot for the ice and the second I step on it, it will break." Liliha said to Emma, the safety of the team the only thing on her mind, which was obvious. She was glad that it was impossible for her to drown.

Glancing at Nous, she hoped that he would be okay. She hoped the entire team would be okay, including herself. Dodging another crimson blast by altering the wind around it, she directed it back to the machine that had thrown it, effectively hitting it in the chest plate and destroying it.

Any second now! She thought anxiously, her eyes darting from Emma to Nous, and from Nous to Julian. Her powers were partially based on her emotions, which is why yet another cracking sound was heard and a section of the ice down the river way was swept away.

Hellion groaned as the simulation robots appeared on the other side of the river and began firing. If he wasn't on the ice itself, he'd have an easier time holding it together. If he didn't need to hold it together, he could erect a telekinetic shield big enough to protect them from the plasma blasts. He broke forward into a run, his eyes glowing white now and his brow furrowed in an effort to tie the psionic energies together enough to hold the ice. The first three were almost across now, and as his feet landed on hard ground, he stopped using his energy to hold his legs in place and erected a small psionic shield in front of him. Still, as the first blast hit it, it knocked him backward and he almost lost his footing.

Desperately trying to keep his hold on the ice, he watched the other two reach its edge. They should make it no problem, but what about this Rain girl? She was out of range for him to even shout at her, so he glanced at Emma instead.

"I think she can lift herself across, but if not would you let her know that I can try to steady her with my telekinesis." He paused, realizing how bossy he was being. He was certainly not in charge here. "Sorry," he said quickly, deflecting another plasma blast. "If you want to, that is."

The machines in front of them seemed to be multiplying. Releasing some of his energy from the ice allowed him to thicken his shield and also go on the offensive. His eyes glowing white, the robot closest to him seemingly buckled under its own weight, the metal of it's artificial legs buckling and snapping. It's torso began to crumple and its red eyes powered off. It fell to the ground in a heap and he directed his energy to the next one.

[[ ooc: "My my my, Nous. What a big POTTY MOUTH you have!" "The better to curse at you, my dear!" Caution before reading. ]]

"Heads up!"

Chris was too busy looking down at his feet, watching for cracks and similar things that could jeopardize their chances. The first energy projectile was shot, unknowingly, Nous kept walking. He was far too concentrated on keeping the barrier up. When the second one whizzed by, he definitely noticed it as it went right past his face, slicing the tiniest bit of hair from his head. His face showed shock before Emma was heard screaming. Nous wiped the expression off of his face and snapped his head in the direction of the scream. He noticed a knick in her jacket that was sliced to show her skin. She continued to shout order to get across swiftly. He let out a grunt. "This is where my circus act comes in." He was serious. He was highly flexible and very much so swift. Right before he was ready to dart for the edge of the river, he realized something. "Fuck!" He couldn't do anything he had anticipated since he was very concentrated on keeping his energy shield.

Rain began to shout back. Right after, a crack was heard closer to the end. "Well, guess we have no choice then." And again, right before he was just about to dart forwards, he was abruptly interrupted. Hellion had whizzed by like a track runner. "Little fucker." He released his words right after a very brief laugh. Of course, in a joking manner. Nous' eyes both flashed a hue of purple right before he finally got the chance to dash to his destination. He had to put all of his brain power into the barrier now, including trying to get across the thing without a single crack. But once he was only a few feet before the edge, and Hellion had already made it, another energy blast was shot in his direction. He was then forced to try and dodge it by performing one of his famous front flips in attempt to make it over to the solid ground. But landing one foot atop of the ice as he landed caused it to break straight through the ice. Only that portion and a few cracks were created, but that was more than likely going to become a gap in between Emma and Rain and their destination. "SHIT!" He cursed, pulling his left foot out from the ice cold water as soon as it was felt around his ankle.

Nous didn't even see the robots until he got to solid ground. One of them was closing in on him and there were a couple others making their way towards the ice in Emma's direction. "Shit, not what I was expecting." A major set back in his plans to "handle the fuckers on the other side" as proclaimed earlier. For some reason, he was really expecting humanoid computer generated simulations. Well, he had to deal with this and try and keep Emma from falling straight into the water. "Emma!" He didn't know exactly why he was screaming her name, but he was. Maybe she'd look up to see the predicament he was in and had some sort of solution. Either way, he yelled her name like a banshee. "You guys have to hustle!" He was still looking at the robots before him while screaming intensionally at the two mutants behind him. God knows where Hellion is. With a little power drawn from the barrier on the river, his left fist was engulfed in a sphere of purple energy and after a front-hand spring over one of the robots, he concluded with a punch straight through the chest of the mechanical beast. He picked up one of his feet and kicked the thing off of his limb.

Then finally, Hellion spoke up, speaking of Rain's complicated situation and how to solve it. He was obviously asking Emma. Then it hit him, she might have been a bit agitated towards the fact that others were sort of taking over the group. Shouting orders when they're not even the leader. But hey, Nous had no problem with it one bit. If they did, that was their problem. At the moment, they are trying to do the best they can to survive this underestimated simulation. And they could use all of the suggestions and help they could get. But still, Nous was a respectable man. So before saying a word, he looked at Emma. "I'm sure they could do both in order to maximize the chance of getting her over." But then that left another problem. "Hellion, you would be left occupied. So, me and Emma could try our hardest to defend you." After a short glance before finishing his statement towards Hellion, Nous looked back at Emma. Obviously trying to get the "OK" unless she had a better idea. As stated before, they were open to anything that was suggested.

Anxious and nervous, Liliha shifted from one foot to the other in rapid succession. Her eyes were swirling pools of color, one blending into the next until they were so mixed up that it looked like a mirage of colors. Her anticipation made the wind become chilling. As the ice began to melt more, Liliha tried to cool it down enough to keep it thick so they could walk across. Succeeding only slightly since she was more focused on keeping the wind down along with deflecting and attacks from the bots on the other side of the river, Liliha was starting to tire out from controlling the wind. It was the wildest, and hardest, element to tame.

Her powers, based on her emotions somewhat, were starting to spark again. Tampering them down and making herself feel devoid of any emotion other than the ones needed for wind and water, otherwise known as frustration and sadness, Liliha took a step towards the river when Nous was almost to the other side with the other two mutants. However, by the look of the river and how close the robots were getting to it, the ice wouldn't hold much more than another two, three minutes tops.

"I think she can lift herself across, but if not would you let her know that I can try to steady her with my telekinesis." Emma opened her mouth to respond but Hellion cut her off with a polite, "Sorry - If you want to, that is." Emma couldn't help but flash the boy a thankful little smile before switching back into fearless-commander mode (which, by the way, was entirely fake but for the sake of her team she pretended she had it down pat.) She planted her feet steadily onto the ice and twisted around in order to take in the sight of Liliha who looked like death, obviously struggling with so much of the mission's success falling upon her shoulders. She turned back around only to witness Nous' ankle faultering. Not just a crack appeared in the ice this time, but an entire hole became evident. Nous quickly yanked his foot out of the icy water and kept trudging on.

Getting across the ice would prove even more difficult now, especially since there was the added possibility that if any of the girls were to step near the opening, the entire frozen-over riverbed might just collapse. "I'm sure they could do both in order to maximize the chance of getting her over - But Hellion, you would be left occupied. So, me and Emma could try our hardest to defend you." Emma just nodded her blonde head in an understanding way. "But first," she began, having to shout over the storm: "I need to help her out a bit!" She turned back around to face the girl and extended one white-gloved arm toward her. Placing her free hand to her forehead and closing her eyes, Emma once again dove into the girls' mind. "Forget about the wind and rain. It's a lost cause," she assured the girl through telepathy. "Just keep your concentration up on the riverbed, Julian can help get you over." With that, the blonde put up several telepathic blocks within Liliha's mind that would do nothing but help her concentrate better.

Then, Emma took a few more slow, precarious steps forward. She stopped exactly nine feet in front of the hole that Nous'd made and with one swift movement she leapt forward, jumping past the hole and landing on the safe ground on the other side of the riverbed, rolling several times before she finally stood up and dusted her white uniform off. "Hellion, Nous and I will cover you. Rain has enough control on the riverbed - which shouldn't be much of a problem anymore with your help - so all you need to do is lift her across. Think you can handle that?" Emma had tacked on the question at the end in hopes that it would inspire the boy to do better or something. After all, teenage hotshots like himself were always so obsessed with looking good and proving their manhood.

Another crimson beam was aimed directly at the White Queen's chest, hitting her dead-on and throwing her against the cliff that stood high above the riverbed. Her outfit was torn and her chest felt pained and sensitive, but nonetheless she stood to her feet and coated herself with her diamond form which looked especially spectacular in the rain and with the added effect of the ice reflecting off of her invulnerable figure. She dodged another injurious blast and threw herself at one of the robots, landing hard on its chest, grabbing its shoulder with one arm and pounding its face in, repeatedly, with the other. "Nous, dear, a little help?!"

((OOC: I didn't realize that it was my turn to post, sorry! Warning: A little drama ahead. Admit it, we all knew that it was coming.))

She could hear their conversation, despite however much she tried not to. Liliha, maybe you should stop. You're going to end up killing yourself if you keep this up. You've never tried to control all of use at once and it's draining you. The teen listened to Lacey. However, the blocks that Emma had already placed refused to allow Lacey's words to get through completely. This caused the other four elements to start to tear down the blocks without Liliha's knowing. Letting the rain fall once again and the wind scream like a Banshee through the terrain, Liliha approached the melting river. Taking a deep breath, Liliha tested the strength of the river. Cursing to herself as it broke under the toe of her boot, she growled and knelt over. Direct contact would work better.

The moment her fingers touched the water beneath, a large cracking sound broke through the wind's and rain's furious screeching. The crack had come from the sudden freezing that she had caused. At the moment, her temperature was under subzero temperatures which had allowed her to freeze over a jagged bride of the water that was almost half a foot thick and a foot wide. It should be enough to get her over; she really didn't want to fall through. Watching Nous for a moment, she waited for him to get across before she straightened and took a step onto the thick ice she had created. Her eyes were downcast as she watched her footing. What she didn't expect was the large chunk that had broken off earlier up the river to come sweeping down, breaking through the thinner ice. It crashed against the ice under her feet and broke it.

Looking to the other side of the river at her team, her eyes let them know that she was going to be alright. She fell through, her body disappearing into the water.

[OOC: This thread was closed due to inactivity before it could be concluded. As it is a plot thread, admin decision was taken for the results and these results are available on the Plot List.]