Umbra stood next to Rogue as the professor gave instructions for the session. "I'm going to run a maze simulation. All of you must start at a different location and get to the center platform, making sure your teammates arrive safely as well. When everyone gets to the platform, through the switch to cut the simulation. Now spread out."
Everyone scattered in a different direction and then stood there, watching the screen above them as it counted down to the simulation. 3...2...1...0.
The room around Umbra suddenly became a metal maze, and from where she was standing she could see the platform. She set out through the maze, when suddenly a whirring sound was picked up by her pointed ears. She looked down, and her eyes widened as she saw a giant buzz saw, turned horizontally, heading straight for her knees!
Suddenly, Umbra changed. She shrunk in size and became a tiny black kitten. Leaping gracefully and with perfect reflexes over the hungry teeth of the gleaming blade, she landed in a patch of shadows, then melted into one herself.
How did I do that?! She thought in shock, looking down to see nothing but darkness rather than her black and orange clad form. She ran along the maze in the darkness cast by the walls, no more than a fluid shadow, until there was nothing but light, and she reformed. She wasn't out of danger yet, though. Blocking her path was a spiked sphere on a horizontal pole, spinning in lazy yet precise circles.
I can time a jump, but it looks risky... Unconsciously, the raven-haired teenage put her hands out to the shadows, flexing her slender fingers. The darkness gathered in her palms as if beckoned by some unknown force, drawn by some invisible magnet. It curled like midnight fog, the edges tinged indigo, the endless center a black hole. Umbra stared in disbelief at the sphere of shadows she held. What is going on?! Then she remembered what Rogue had asked her when they first met. These must be my powers.
As if to confirm this, she hurled the shadows at the spiked, spinning ball. They struck, stalled, and then forced their way inside the metal to it's core, bursting open the steel in a near-silent explosion. Pieces coiled back from the center in an intricate flower with razor-sharp corners. A spike went flying right at her, but Umbra took to the shadows once more and sprinted for the platform.
She was almost there when she had to reform; the platform was surrounded by lights, banishing the shadows. A slot suddenly opened in the ground and a tick metal rectangle, no more than an inch high, rose from the floor directly in her path. Even her cat-like reflexes couldn't help her. She stumbled and hit the ground, just as a multitude of tiny blades shot forth from nowhere, like a fleet on warships in mid-air. Their edges glinted maliciously and Umbra felt she was done for. Game over.
But within the next second that passed there was a flash of yellow light and a cloud of sulfuric smoke. Umbra felt tridactyle hands gently grip her shoulders, and a familiar, heavily accented voice spoke. "Got you." The blades disappeared... didn't they? No... she could faintly hear them bound harmlessly off the floor. Her surroundings had changed. She was suddenly on the platform, the gentle grip of Kurt's three digits loosening, though his hands remained lazily perched, like fuzzy blue parakeets.
"We're all here," Rough called. "Shadowcat, throw the switch." And with a soft whir, the simulation shut off and the room faded to it's original emptiness with the same effect as that of a light dimming until everything is dark.
"Good job everyone. Now report to the control room," came the professor's voice, magnified over the intercom. All eyes shifted expectantly to the pale-eyed German, who gave a warm, if pointed, grin.
"Alright. Everybody grab on." And with that they were all teleported to the control room. Looks more like the 'world domination center' thought Umbra with amusement, studying the vast array of machinery lining the walls. Lights and buttons flashed, screens changed rapidly, and power cords entwined intimately on the floor, along the walls and up the ceiling, disappearing into tiny drill-holes like cowardly snakes.
"Fine job today, everyone," Umbra jumped a little, yanked from her thoughts by the professor's voice. He took no notice, but instead continued analyzing today's simulation. "Nightcrawler, excellent rescue. Rogue, good job making sure everyone was there before you threw the switch. Team work means working together, after all." Everyone in the group nodded in slightly uneven unison. Professor Xavier turned his profound eyes upon Umbra. "And as for you... your powers were quite impressive. See for yourself." He reached to one of the panels and tapped a few keys on a keyboard, flipped a switch, and the biggest screen in the room clicked, trembled, and then began to play back the clips taken from the cameras Umbra had passed in front of.
Everyone watched silently as it replayed when she had morphed into a kitten and then melted into the shadows. Perhaps most amazing of all, all eyes widened as she gathered the shadows into a foggy sphere in her hands, then silently obliterated the obstacle. As the professor paused the replay, each gaze moved to the cat-eared mutant, who's own emerald hues were staring at her hands in an expression of utter disbelief. Professor X cleared his throat, and she looked up. "Now that you know what your powers are, you should decide on a name," he told her softly.
A name? thought Umbra, quickly recalling how Kurt had been referred to as 'Nightcrawler' and Kitty as 'Shadowcat'. A code name. To go with their powers. She stared again at the screen, the frozen image of her right before she dodged the flying spike. To her this was like living some unbelievable dream. But, even though she had never met him, she knew what her father would think. To him, such a thing would be a -
"So, Umbra, what will you call yourself?" the professor asked her. Ending her train of thought aloud, the new member spoke.
"Nightmare," she said firmly, and Professor Xavier gave a curt nod of agreement.
