Second training session

[Gambit]

The Sentinel attempted to crush its way through the subway entrance but eventually evaluated this method as too damaging for its system, since the entrance was too narrow and pretty much fortified, and started blasting its way through the road surface above instead.

The lights started to flicker when the Sentinel began damaging the cables above. Some particles of the ceiling fell in a dusty shower around them. If there was a safe place anywhere in the program right now, this wasn't it.

Gambit patiently waited for the robot to pierce the ground through into the subway hall.

[Shade]

Shade ducked instinctively when the ceiling slowly but surely started to dissolve. Glancing over her shoulder she remembered there were two exits with a little space apart and the Sentinel was not near them. Whereever he would break through - if they were quick, they would be able to speed up one of those ways, escaping, making a dash out and away before the machine had a chance to follow. If they weren´t hit by blasts before they could manage to do so.

She tossed a look over at Gambit who, judging the position of his body, knew what he was doing. Shade retreated a little, so she was standing in an equal distance to both exits as she evaluated her chances to be best like that, stepped back a little to avoid the falling debris and waited. If she dashed away right now, she would be an easy target once she got to the surface.

[Gambit]

When the ceiling was peppered with the Sentinel's shots and blows, the robot came crashing down through. Gambit tossed several cards into its falling form and rolled back, dropping onto the railway and hiding there.

[Shade]

The ceiling crumbled into a heap of concrete, stone and cables and covered them both in ashes and dust. Shade drew back a little more, closer towards one end of the steps. Gambit was trying to lure the robot into a trap it seemed and she did not want to ruin it for him by speeding out right now as she knew she would have to run a bit without cover and the Sentinel would aim at her at once. Instead she drew back a little more, hiding behind a huge broken piece of the concrete ceiling, close to the stairs.

[Gambit]

Gambit glanced out from his hiding place. The Sentinel was slowly rising to its feet, at the same time scanning the surroundings. Gambit didn't wait for long. The stones strewn around him were far heavier than his cards - it meant they could imbibe much more of his explosive energy and make worse destruction.

He threw several stones the size of fist, charging them one after another. The effect was comparable to that of several mines exploding. The explosions damaged the Sentinel's head hull, ripping it apart and exposing the hardware inside.

[Shade]

Shade ducked again when she heard explosions, staying in hiding for the moment, ducking behind her huge piece of debris in a position that would make it easy to dash away at once. She didn´t dare raise her head enough to see whether Gambit´s strategy was successful but from the explosions that sounded different from the robots blasters she was almost certain it was. She prepared to run as soon as he would tell her to do so.

[Gambit]

Now it was time for the cards to do their trick in the game again. The winning hand flew straight into the exposed technobrains of the robot, shattering them while the Sentinel was still trying to orient itself around and locate its targets.

As soon as its last functions died out, the Danger Room ended the simulation, dissolving the world around them and restoring its usual plain metalling look.

[Shade]

When the simulation ended, Shade realised again how heavily her heart was pounding. Hiding behind that debris had given her a moment to calm down so she was not panting any longer. She straigtened up again, wishing for a moment the debris was still there. If it had been, she would have kicked it. "D*mn", she swore, more mad with herself but not with the challenging training session.

[Gambit]

"What?" Gambit asked, smiling as he walked up to her. He was certain he had several bruises on his back, as well as some minor burns from his own explosions, those that he had made at too short distance, but nothing drastic.

[Shade]

Her knee was hurting a little, but not much. Maybe she had bruised it when she had stumbled on the roof or when she had climbed up the ladder and tried to avoid the robot´s blast. "I shouldn´t have run into that hall." she said, criticizing herself. "I should have known that there might be no way out on the other end."

[Gambit]

"What wouldja do, if not run dere?" Gambit asked. "Keep runnin' 'til mornin'?" They walked back to the exit.

[Shade]

"I don´t know." Shade said honestly. "Run another way where it´s more difficult for the thing to follow me, hoping I pass out of its range eventually? How far away can they sense me anyways?"

[Gambit]

"Not too far," Gambit said. I'd say a couple 'f hundred feet is deir limit. Wanna see de footage?"

[Shade]

Shade nodded. "Yes." she said. "Would be good to get some feedback." And she felt she needed that right now. As well as she would ask him for another session some time later. She felt like she had failed in this one, she had not been able to outrun the Sentinel but run herself into a trap instead. And the perfectionist part of her mind was pouting about that with herself now.

[Gambit]

"Okay," Gambit said.

Sitting down in front of the monitors, he switched on the recording. Shade had been invisible most of the session, so he changed it to infrared and adjusted it for a more or less acceptable image quality. He left the original version on another screen so that they could see the holograms.