Template:Featured Articles/2-2022
 The smoke was worse this time; it brought tears to his eyes. And the acrid smell, familiar had it become, practically made him retch. But even through the haze, he watched as the enemy slammed a clawed hand through his teammate's shoulder. Behind him, the portal opened. Choices, he thought to himself. He first started toward the woman on the ground, then pivoted and diverted his course toward the demon. But his foe, busy though he was, caught the juke. A wall of flames sprung up before him, and though he tried to stop, he was moving too quickly, and he swore as they singed his skin. "End the simulation," Gabriel said, adding a few more "fucks" in for good measure. The words seemed to reverberate off the metal walls of the Danger Room as the holographic projections disappeared and he was once more alone in a steel box. "Reset the program." He crossed the room to grab his water bottle and a towel, stopping to avoid the drones as they reset their locations. It had taken no small effort for him to program the Danger Room to give him a scrubbed-up replica of the pocket Hell dimension in which Garrison had been left behind. But the chaos faced by the X-teams in the last few weeks had left the Danger Room largely unoccupied, and with Gabriel keeping to himself, he'd had ample opportunity to tinker until he felt things were more or less right. "Not that it matters," he muttered, wiping his skin dry. Already, today, he'd run this scenario about a dozen times. And this is where it left him: covered in sweat, mentally drained, and no closer to finding a solution to the problem that Garrison's absence had posed. Still, Gabriel was determined to try and find one. "Okay," he tossed the towel and the bottle toward a corner and braced himself. "Let's start again." |
