Shannon's expectations had been exceeded. She and Scott had hoped that some friendly competition between the two boys would hone both their powers and their ability to defend themselves in a given situation. Well, there was competition, certainly, and Shannon couldn't really say if it were actually friendly, but their time together had definitely been benefitual.
The first few times, Mark had gotten cocky, believing he could find Whip no matter where he was. Whip's control over his invisibility wasn't the greatest, and Mark had caught him out on those occasions where his power had failed him. But for the most part Mark had great difficulty in trying to find Whip in their games of hide and seek. It took him quite some time before he would finally admit to himself that he was not as infalliable as he believed he was, and was now trying to seek a new way of tracking down his classmate.
Whip, on the other hand, had started to get smug when Mark had so much trouble trying to find him. This lead to a fall of his own when he realised that he couldn't teleport and be invisible at the same time. Such a lapse horrified Whip - who had always believed he could do it if he wanted to, and the realisation that he couldn't forced Whip to practice being invisible and teleporting all the more. He was determined to get it right, and refused to accept the idea that they wouldn't work in conjunction.
Then came the sparring. At this, Whip excelled, but mostly because Mark refused to make an effort. Shannon watched nervously at their first spar, hoping their plan wouldn't fall through.
"Mark," Whip had said patiently, as if talking to one of his younger sibling, "if you don't defned yourself and this was a real battle, you would be dead right about now."
"Everyone says that."
"Well, it's true. So maybe you should listen."
The banter had gone on like that for some time before Whip had started restorting to spar in a teasing manner. That is, he'd teleport or turn invisible and move around him then tap his back or knock his legs from under him. He taunted him, with words such as "betcha can't catch me" and "hmm, where could I have gotten to now?"
Shannon hadn't let those sessions go on too long, but eventually Whip's teasing had gotten the better of Mark, and he - finally - started to try to fend off this villian who came at him with taunts that hurt far worse than the taps on his back. Shannon marvelled at the way Whip had addressed the situation. Certainly his efforts had been much more effective than any amount of yelling and threatening from Logan.
Right now, however, the boys were in a game of hide and seek. Whip was wandering around the danger room while invisible. Mark was focused on the probes he had in the danger room, trying desperately to find a way to locate Whip. Shannon was sitting at the consol, looking bored.
It was then that Mark noted some movement in one of his probes. He check the spot out, but determined that it was just a leaf blowing in the breeze. As he settled back, he stopped. This was the danger room. There was no breeze. A smile lit up his face as he annouced the part of the danger room.
"Very good," Shannon said. "You found him."
She did wonder briefly if it were just a lucky guess. Sometimes Mark started annoucing places just for the luck of the draw, so to speak.
Whip teleported and made himself invisble as soon as he was done. Mark knew what to look for now, and watched him move away from his teleportation position by simply eying the activity of the surrounding folage. In a minute he accounced Whip's new position.
"Found him again," Shannon confirmed.
Whip was wearing a special device that Forge had conjured up. When Whip was invisble it was invisible as well, but it tracked Whip's movements on a screen in the control room. Shannon supposed that Mark could be cheating and have a probe in the control room, but she prefered to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Mark was now on a roll. He found him over a dozen more times before the session was over.
"How'd you do it?" Whip asked in the end.
Mark smiled smugly.
"You weren't watching the screen in the control room, were you?" he asked suspiciously.
"No!" Mark objected.
"Then how?"
Shannon interupted at that point:
"While I am most curious at the reason for your string of success," she said, "I will understand your decision to keep your serect just that. However, I will point out that these are training sessions, and if the secret to your success is something that Whip can counter I would ask that you tell us. After all, it will be less of a challenge for you, if today's session is any indictaion."
Marck considered for a moment. He did have to admit, while he was rather triumphant, it was starting to get a little boring towards the end. Besides, he didn't get to brag that often.
"The folage moved," he said to Whip. "Wherever you went, you would brush past some leaves and stuff, and it would move."
"Oh, wow," Whip said, his eyes brightened. "Hey, that's clever of you to notice. I'll have to work on that. Thanks."
Mark beamed.
Shannon smiled, both outwardly and in. The boys were starting to work together, and Mark was finally starting to work with his power. For someone who claimed his power was that of observation, he wasn't overly observant.