It was meant to be a simple, easy, and maybe even 'fun' (by X-Men standards, anyway) exercise: Go to the Danger Room with your girlfriend; let off some steam with some co-op bad-guy punching; enjoy the adrenaline rush, then hit the showers.

But Bobby Drake was suddenly getting cold feet about the whole idea…'cause as soon as he had stepped into the Danger Room and logged in to the Simulation Selection screen, a 'Recommended Scenario' had popped up on the interface in bold red lettering.

#DESDEMONA someone had titled it. (But Bobby didn't get the reference.)

Required Participants:

• Robert Drake

• Jubilation Lee

It was paradoxically listed as both a 'cooperative' and '1-on-1' scenario, and had a list of physical and psychological risk warnings a mile long. And not just the standard ones either. Bobby sighed; it wouldn't let him select any other scenario.

"Uh, babe…" Bobby cleared his throat as Jubilee joined him in the room. "You might want to see this."

"Hm?"

Judging by the look on Bobby's face, Jubes guessed that his plan for a simple evening of Danger Room-ing may have hit a snag. "What's up?"

Bobby slipped his arm around Jubilee's waist when she joined him to fight with the console. Leaning into him, Jubes looked to the screen; reading it over with the same perplexed expression. "…'Desdemona'? Like that chick from Othello — or whatever?"

Trying to change the course selection proved futile, as Bobby had already come to find. "Like, what the heck?" Blinking now, the confused vampire glanced up at him. "Some dweeb is obviously tryin' to prank us. I mean, how can the scenario be both co-op and 1-on-1?"

"…'Othello'?" Bobby's brow furrowed. "If someone's pranking us with Shakespeare… that means our 'dweeb' is definitely Hank, right?"

Typical of the impulsive girl, she shrugged and hovered a finger over the [START] tab. "Wanna just run the sim and see what the deal is?"

Bobby sighed, then gave her a plucky smile and placed his hand over hers. "Yeah, sure… Go team!" He lightly pressed her finger onto the [START].

Immediately, the floor below them erupted upwards, separating the two with a wall that reached the ceiling and was quickly spreading the length of the room. He tried briefly to outrun it via ice-slide — but it was clearly designed to out-maneuver even his speedier girlfriend. The first task was a solo mission it seemed.

"So much for co-op!" Bobby shouted, irritated, at the room. For a moment, the sterile metallic walls did not respond, but then shimmered holographically: Bobby now stood at the base of the innumerable steps of an enormous temple. Jubes, on the other hand (or, on the other side of the wall), would soon find herself in a bitter, frozen landscape.

"Bobby—!?" Immediately after the pair were separated by the wall rising up from the Danger Room floor, Jubilee resorted to the tried-and-true method of slamming her fists into it.

"I already hate this simulation!" With her arm cocked in preparation to unleash a focused haymaker, the little vampire gritted her teeth before letting her clenched fist fly…

Which resulted in a 'swing and a miss', carrying her down into the snow as the metal box of a room shifted into the endless, wintry expanse; a cluster of icy snowdrifts loomed in the distance.

"Uh…" She blinked. "Okay then."

Pushing herself to her feet, Jubilee surveyed her surroundings — no sign of the Iceman anywhere.

"Bobby, do you copy?" The only response given by the comm in her ear was static. Much to Jubes' annoyance. "So much for co-op…"

After unknowingly quoting her boyfriend, she began her trek forward; waiting for something — anything — to happen.