“Professor, what is this danger room?” I asked curiously.
“You will know when you see it, Peter.” Professor Xavier said while smiling enigmatically.
“Follow me, everyone.” Under Professor’s guidance, we entered deep into the mansion and eventually stepped onto a spiral staircase going downwards.
When we reached the end of the staircase, I was surprised by the sight before my eyes. I had anticipated a spacious basement as it was after all the basement of a large mansion. But what stretched out before me was nothing short of an underground bunker. Its vastness defied all of my expectations and the term ‘basement’ seemed woefully inadequate.
“Is that a fighter jet?” I was surprised to see a fighter jet of all things as we continued into the bunker.
“Yes! That’s the X-jet.” Professor Xavier started explaining about the jet.
“Before we started the school, I along with Logan and Ororo used it as a primary mode of transport while going on some government sanctioned operations. Logan and Ororo still use it sometimes even now.” Professor Xavier said wistfully. He seemed to remember his past as he explained the history of X-jet.
As we continued, we finally reached our destination which appeared to be some kind of hi-tech control room.
“Welcome, everyone!” A blue skinned, furry guy wearing a lab coat, who has obviously a mutant greeted us as we reached the control room.
“Ah! You must be Peter. It is always nice to meet a new member.” He raised his large, blue furred hand towards me for a handshake. Honestly, he looked like a humanoid, blue coloured lion.
“It’s good to meet you too, Mr….” As I shaked his hand, I realised that he did not introduce himself.
“Oh! How could I forget to introduce myself? Guess I was too excited. I am Hank McCoy, the resident scientist of this school. However, everyone calls me the ‘Beast’.” He ended his introduction with large grin which surprisingly suited him.
Well, the name suited him because his appearance reminded me of the ‘Beast’ from the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ movie I had seen some time ago. Only he was blue coloured and a scientist instead of a prince.
“By the way, Peter. Is your current appearance due to your mutation?” Mr. Hank asked hesitantly.
“Yes, it is, Mr. Hank. May I ask why?”
“It is just that I was curious. Would it however be possible for you to give me a few drops of your blood?” He asked kindly.
“I could give it to you, Mr. Hank. However, my blood is impossible to be analysed by scientific equipment.” I had already tried it earlier when I had time at the Oscorp Lab. My blood was too much charged with magical energy to be analysed by any equipment.
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“Is that so?” Mr. Hank muttered sadly.
“Hank, we will have time to talk later. For now, we need to use the danger room.” Professor Xavier stopped our conversation and uttered our motive for coming here.
“Peter! You were asking me what is danger room, right? This here is the danger room.” He took me to the glass windows in the control room to show the danger room.
Outside, I could see an expansive metallic field, larger than a football field, full of several weird equipment.
“Danger room is a special training facility of our school we use to train our students.” Professor Xavier finally explained what was danger room.
“Generally, we only use the lower levels to train our students which consists of obstacle courses and holograms.” Well, that didn't seem too dangerous.
“However, I had discussed this earlier with Ancient One when she had called me earlier. She has given me permission to use the higher level which Logan and Ororo use.
She quoted that it would be shameful for you not to use this level after so much training.”
“Well, then what are we waiting for?” I said excited.
Now, this was something interesting. Because I was busy helping Dr. Connors the whole week, I didn’t have time for a good workout. This was just perfect.
“You ready, Peter.” Mr. Hank’s voice sounded from the control room as I stepped into the danger room ready to start.
“Born ready.” I said confidently.
“Very well.” Saying these words, Mr. Hank activated the danger room.
A wall slid away and robots entered the field. They immediately moved towards me using the skates they had for their feet. Moreover, several turrets appeared all over the field and started shooting lasers at me.
For any untrained person, even if they were a mutant, it would have been a difficult situation. But for me, it was nothing much.
I immediately launched some weak lightning bolts, well weak by my standards to finish them off. I had now enough control over my powers that I could launch these weak bolts repeatedly like a machine gun.
“It seems that this much is nothing for you, Peter. So, I am increasing the difficulty.” Mr. Hank’s sounded again, warning me.
As his voice sounded, the floor beneath me started to move like an escalator while some parts of the floor rose above the ground like pillars. Several turrets appeared on the pillars ready to shoot at me.
“Now, that is something that would require some effort.” I unfurled my wings and flew while shooting at the turrets.
“Are those actual wings?” Mr. Hank’s voice sounded from the control room in a low tone. Looks like he was surprised upon seeing my wings.
“Uhm… It seems that I would have to release our ace. Be glad, Peter. It is not everyday we get to release the Sentinel.” Mr. Hank warned me that he was releasing the ace of the danger room.
Another wall slid away and a giant robot walked into the danger room. It’s hands ended with barrels revealing they were actually laser weapons.
Furthermore, even more laser turrets appeared while the obstacles started moving faster and some more robots also appeared behind the Sentinel.
“Well, let’s hope it requires at least a little more effort.” Excited that I had finally a worthy opponent, I created a lightning spear crackling with my unique red lightning and hurled it at the Sentinel.
However, the lightning spear pierced through the Sentinel as if it was butter and left a large hole in its chest.
Had it been too weak or was it I was too strong? If it was later, then Ancient One had my greatest respect for facing these lightning spears of mine everyday as if they were nothing.
“Stop! Stop! The testing is over.” Mr. Hank hysterically spoke from the control room. Just like he had said, the danger room was now deactivated with every robot and equipment switched off.
“Could you not have hold back your strength a little? Do you know how much it would cost to repair a Sentinel?” Mr. Hank’s despair could be felt from his voice, even through the speaker.
“Sorry! I didn't realise that.” I said sheepishly.