The Enemies and Sight Within

I haven’t really had a positive experience in the danger room before, but now that Jerry, Sandcrab and Socrates have made some updates to it, I’ve been convinced to try it again. They’ve made it, arguably, worse as far as I’m concerned – Now you need to be hooked to a machine to simulate reality. Having Tank download a helicopter piloting program into Trinity’s brain makes for a great bit of science-fiction, but if The Matrix is the best-case scenario of what can happen, who really wants random bits of who-knows-what inserted directly into their brain? Has nobody seen the Emoji movie?
 
Had I known this in advance, I might have declined and just watched, but my participation was required to make the teams even. We broke it down and decided that tonight it’s the blokes against the ladies. Shamrock is here, which adds a bit of pleasant eye-candy to the evening. He has a charming way about him, and he’s flashing a wicked smile, so I find myself laughing with him even when he suggests that his team will be “shirts” vs. our “skins”. I swear he winked at me when he said that. Hmmm… maybe… if he plays his cards right.
 
We’re in and I know to expect to get off slow, especially since Rocket is on the other team. Sure as a grey day in London, he is the first to strike, but I didn’t see him. My first indication he was even there was the bolt of lightning that blasted Dragon Lady, who was standing next to me. Maybe Rocket and I are close enough that he didn’t feel right about hitting me, so he chose Dragon Lady for.. reasons? I know that wouldn’t feel good, but I’ll show him what he gets for picking her first – I command the Spirits to show him all the choices he regrets in his life. Whether that includes our afternoon of Indian food, I don’t know, but when I knock him silly and stop him cold in his tracks, I’m sure one recent regret was choosing to attack Dragon Lady instead of me.
 
I’ve never faced Max before, so I didn’t know what to expect, so I’m surprised when a ball of electricity explodes between Dragon Lady and I, taking my vision and my hearing from me; the world has gone white to every sense that would be useful to me. I start lashing out blindly, hoping to accidentally hit, but the unexpected happens. As I’m commanding the Spirits, my world of white begins to coalesce into hazy purple images in my mind. I don’t understand what is happening, but it seems as if the Spirits themselves are sharing their own senses with me, and a world devoid of every colour but purple slowly forms in my mind’s eye. The purple haze is a gift from the Spirits I never had need of before losing sight and hearing to Max’s electric blast. Just as I’m starting to understand this sense, we’re pulled out of the Danger Room. Obviously, we won, because I never took even a single hit.
 
“What do you mean there were Destroids?” was about all I could get out before the technical people wade waist deep into trying to figure out this mystery. I look over and decide I can be of most help by bringing Rocket some Scooby Snacks.