Issue 1 Downtime

"So, uh..." Samantha said to Nailah as she stepped into the Danger Room, "...fair warning, I've never tried this thing before."

"Are you sure it's safe to go into something called a danger room?" she asks, totally not worried at all. Just making sure.

"Well... from what I read in the manual there's safety protocols to keep us from getting hurt until we pass some sort of testing?"

"Wait, there's gonna be some kinda test?"

"No! Uhm... not unless we request it. I think."

"Right, okay..."

"So... what do you want to try?"

"You're going to make me dress up in that silly thing with the feathers for this, aren't you?"

"Hey I put this on again and you still gotta show off the feather thing." she chuckles.

"And I dunno... I guess giving these another try would be safer in here?" she says, spreading her wings a little.

"Alright, I'll go get changed, and you can pick the scenario. Sound cool?"

"Right."


"Wait! How do I pick the scenario?"

"Just talk to it!" She said as she went over to the locker room. "It's voice activated!"

"Oh, okay..."

She turns towards the empty room.

"Uhm... hello?"

"User recognized. Access level restricted to alpha simulations."

"Right, hi. So... can you do, like, the grand canyon? Only the ground is soft or something? For flying and, well, falling safely."

"Grand Canyon simulation loading. Gravitational buffers engaged."

And then Nailah was suddenly standing on rocky ground, looking out over the giant gorge.

"Okay, I've got this thing on and it feels really drafty and..."

Samantha's jaw dropped as she stepped back into the room.

"...well, you didn't go small, did you?"

"Well... why not, right? And shut up, you look great! Don't complain just cause you've got some cleavage..." she teases.

"Oh, thank you very much for reminding me," she said as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and stuck her tongue out at the sphinx.

"Relax. No one's looking."

"Not even me." she adds with a smirk.

"It's kind of weird that we can joke about that now, isn't it?"

"Dunno... I think it'd be weirder if we couldn't. I mean, I'm glad we can anyway."

"Aye, and it's not like I was going to accuse you of it anyway."

"Right... Anyway... Are you really sure this place makes things safe? This looks awfully real..." she says, looking down into the canyon without going too close to the edge.

"It's supposed to not be able to give you anything you haven't proven you can handle."

"Okay, but if I go splat that's on you..." she says, carefully stepping a little closer to the edge.

"Oh, if you're so worried about going splat, let me just..."

And that was when Samantha jumped into the Grand Canyon.

"What the hell Sam!" she shouts, rushing to the edge to watch her fall down into the canyon until she slows down the closer she gets to the ground and eventually ends up hovering a couple inches above it.

"Not a pancake!" She called back up, echoing through the canyon.

"You're crazy, you know that!?" she shouts back.

"The topic might have come up!"

"Right, okay, can't let her upstage you. She doesn't even have wings. You just gotta jump..." she talks to herself as she takes a couple of steps back from the edge. And then she takes a running leap over the edge. Her wings unfold and... she plummets down into the canyon, letting out a high-pitched scream, desperately flapping with her wings because she's not really thinking much right now. As the ground rushes closer she eventually raises her arms in front of her face and shuts her eyes before she stops just off the ground, hovering next to Sam, carefully peeling one eye open.

"Also not a pancake," she pointed out.

"That was terrifying..."

"But you saw that I didn't get hurt!"

"I was still falling!"

But before she can object too much the computer cuts in. "Course failed. Resetting." And the next moment the two of them are standing at the top of the cliff again.

"...well, at least we didn't have to climb back up!"

"Guess the room took pity." she chuckles.

"Oh come on, I bet you'll do better this time!"

"Hey I didn't say I was gonna give up!"

"Good, because I'd totally have to nag you if you did."

"Right, yes. Let's try again with less panic." she says and takes a bit more of a headstart but slower and a more controlled jump over the cliff, her wings open.

She still ends up falling but this time she feels the wind against her wings and has a clear enough head to try to angle them until she ever so slightly slows her fall, being carried further away from the cliff-face as she sort-of glides down.

"That looked pretty good!" Samantha called down.

"I know! Look at me! I'm almost fly--aaaah!" Trying to turn around to look back up at the cliff was probably a bad idea because she ends up messing with the delicate balance of wings and airflow and her gliding turns into uncontrolled plummeting again, ending with the danger room dumping her next to Sam again.