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There's been a series of low-grade explosions in the Danger Room, but, being the Danger Room, that's not all together unusual. It exists to be exploded in. At the moment, Alex is walking some targets down to the end and positioning them. He's in… half of his suit. Well, all of it, the top is just peeled to the waste and wrapped around sort of like a belt, at least for the moment.
Jubilee was going to do some practice. When your only real 'power' is kind of explosive, learning how to use it in a non-lethal way takes work. And that's what she ducks in to do, only to see the room is already being used. So she stands at the entrance, waves, and watches before jumping in herself.
As Alex returns to the 'front' of the Danger Room he notices Jubilee and smiles, lifting a hand to wave at her, "Hey. You doing some training?" He gestures to his bare chest with a wry grin, "I was working on control without the suit, myself. I'm getting really annoyed by being essentially powerless anytime I'm not in the outfit. Don't get me wrong, I like the uniform, I can totally make the uniform look good, but really, what if I'm out on the town and some mobster attacks my date? I'd be lame."
Jubilee snickers and waves. "I was going to work on non-lethal explosions, but it looks like you're kind of busy so I was going to let you finish first." She then pauses, tilts her head and grins "So practice is god. Get comfortable."
"Hey, no reason we can't both do it. You take the left target. I take the right." He squares his shoulders, then rolls them and turns to face the target itself. There's a swirl of blue light that seems to stream out of him, his arms clench, and then the stream of blue plasma strikes out and hits the right target, annihiliating it. Of course, this also sends Alex yelping and falling back, which sends the plasma stream up along the wall and burning a line along the ceiling. Alex, fortunately, gets the power off right then. He coughs. "…damnit I haven't fallen on my ass doing that in years." Pause. "Did I hit it?"
Jubilee laughs. "You completely destroyed it. Which is something I'm going to be trying NOT to do." She shifts to the side a bit after watching that show, points a finger, and sends a bright spark into the air. It curls in an arc over to the target, and explodes in a pop, making the target shake, but not 'killing' it at all.
"Yeah I can't control the power level without the suit." Alex climbs up, brushing off his hands on his pants, "All my concentration is tied into aiming forward, I can't regulate the actual plasma flow rate. The suit's primary purpose is to aid in those two capacities: directing the plasma discharge forward, and limiting how much goes at once. I want to work on that too, but hey, only one thing at a time." Then he grins as he watches her fireworks go and shake up the target, "Was that the desired outcome?"
Jubilee nods "Yeah. Well I think so. I'm not sure how to measure if that would kill someone, but it didn't look like it would." She looks at Alex. Do you think you'l be able to learn to control it without the suit?"
"I'm sure of it." replies Alex confidently, "Though I might not have ever gotten a grip on it without the suit— I can feel what the suit does, how it alters the plasma flow, and then I can… intuit… how to do it with my body directly. Its not easy but I never used to be able to shoot straight without the suit. I could only aim in the most vague way originally." He then considers the target for a long moment, "Well, it just shook the target, I doubt it'd kill someone. But I'm not sure it'd knock them down, either. You might want to tone it up slightly."
Jubilee take a second shot as she listens to him, this one arcs again a bit brighter, and pops just a little bit more. "I have good control, but my explosions aren't as big as yours." she smiles. "I stillw ant to avoid an accident though."
"There's a reason they named me Havok." Alex grins, and even though the target is gone, he flexes his arms again and focuses. Concentrates. Once more the swirl of blue light— it almost seems to seep out of his skin— that coalesces in front of him. This time he keeps his feet set, and when the plasma bolt shoots out and slams into the far wall just beyond where his target is, Alex sighs, nodding. No target to hit anymore, but in the end, what does it matter? "Accidents are bad." he agrees, "Eventually I plan on being able to send a much smaller burst, primarily concussive, out of my hand. Bobby gave me the idea, really."
Jubilee leans on the wall again, and nods firmly. "Soundsl ike you have a good plan then, if you keep working on it. I'm probably closer than you are, but your work is a bigger deal."
Alex shakes his head slowly, "Hey, we each have our own path. Different strengths. Different weaknesses. Control takes different forms for everyone. Its not really useful to make comparisons except in the case of thinking of new ways to approach the problem."
Jubilee grins. "Oh sure. I'm just saying, I'm fine tuning. You're trying to grab hold of a monster and pin it sown. Completely different things."
"Fair enough." Alex smiles, "Think you can go a bit hotter? The temperature differential is probably what ends up causing the concussive blast which is going to knock them on the ass. So a little bit but really hot might work out for you." He shrugs, "At least that's how I turn my power into non-lethal mode. I shoot near to them and then release it as a concussion without the plasma actually hitting them."
Jubilee nods and tries. She ramps it up a bit more. The spark flying through the air is brighter this time, and when it pops, it's bigger, sending the target shaking more fiercely. "I wish I had a good way to measure this."
"What you need is something that better replicates the human body… to see how much actual damage is being done." Alex wrinkles his nose a bit, "It… might sound gross, but maybe we should get a whole pig down here. You blast it a few times and we see how much actual damage is done, then?" He grins, "I make a pork roast." He pauses, "You know another option is for you to shoot me. I'm immune to plasma, heat, fire, energy, that sort of stuff. So if you focused on concussive blasts and see if you can knock me on my ass without, say, setting my shirt on fire, you have your non-lethal power level."
Jubilee scrunches up her face. "Poor piggy!" She then laughs. "I'd rather not shoot anything actually living just while I'm practicing… thank you though."