DISCLAIMER: The members of Gen.X are creations of Marvel Comics. Franklin Richards, Artie and Leech are also creations of Marvel. Marvel Comics owns them, I don't. I make no money out of this. Elizabeth is a creation of X-Visions, and is owned by us. And, as always, COMMENTS, COMMENTS, COMMENTS!! Send them at lama1@videotron.ca
September 98Headmaster: Tom
The Xavier's School For Higher Learning, Massachusetts. A peaceful place this early in the morning, as the sun rose slowly over it. But this particular building never stays quiet very long. In a room in the boy's dormitory an alarm clock rang, announcing the start of another day. Chamber groaned angrily in his bed, grabbed the alarm clock, and threw it from his window. He opened his eyes lazily, and he stared at the roof for a few seconds. He hated this. The last thing he wanted right now was going to school. With slow, sluggish movements, he rose from his bed and started to prepare for the day.
****
Across the school, in the newly rebuilt girl's dormitory, Jubilee slowly sat in her bed, gazing stupidly at her room as her brain registered what had woken her up. She slowly turned her head to face her alarm clock, still ringing loudly. She groaned and reached out slowly, shutting it down with a flip of a button. She slowly returned her gaze to the rest of the room. A mess, as always, her mind registered. She wore a large, yellow colored pajama. Not her favorite one, but the only one available when she had gone to bed last night. She sighed, and with a visible effort she rose from her bed, yawned, and headed for the shower, sliding her feet across the floor. Her mind kept screaming at her that it needed more sleep, to go back to bed, but she ignored it, instead getting out of her pajamas and into the shower. She came out around 10 minutes later, a bit more awake. Sighing deeply, she changed into more normal clothes, a T-shirt and a pair of jeans, then headed out, grabbing her school bag at the same time. It had been a while since they had a school day that hadn't been interrupted by some disaster. She looked around her in the hallway. Paige's door was already wide open, and when she gazed inside, the ex-X-man saw that no one was inside. Probably out jogging, Jubilee thought. She shrugged and went to knock on Elizabeth's door when it suddenly opened before her.
"Yo, Jubes, ready to go?", Elizabeth asked suddenly, stepping out of her room, fresh and ready to go, schoolbags ready.
"Sheesh, 'liz, for one girl who didn't like school, you sure are up early.", Jubilee commented, when she started walking down the hall with Elizabeth at her side.
"This isn't the same. I'm not going to school to meet today's newest challenge. I'm going to school with all of my best friends. To learn about the my powers and how to control it. Really, it's not such a big deal.", she explained to Jubilee.
Jubilee looked at her friend like she was an alien from another planet and shrugged. She had a whole different vision of it all, but if Elizabeth liked it, well, so be it.
"Uhh, sure, you're... err... right.", Jubilee said.
The two continued their walk towards the classroom.
****
Everett came out of his room, the first boy out, for that matter. He looked around and sighed at the sight of all the still closed doors and the various sounds coming out from behind them. The others weren't ready. That figured. He took out a book from his school bag and slowly began reading it as he walked. He didn't really mind going to school. That was, after all, what he had originally come here for. Not to be a super hero or anything, but simply to learn about his mutant powers. Like what he was going to do today. He whistled unknowingly while he walked, the outside world vanishing as he plunged into his studies. He set his legs on automatic, knowing they would take him directly to class using the hallways he had become accustomed to using. Unfortunately, legs don't have eyes. So when Jubilee came out with Elizabeth, Jubilee with her pile of books in her hands while she showed something to Elizabeth, and Everett not watching where he was going, it was bound to happen. Jubilee walked energetically fast towards the classroom, coming out of the hallway leading to the girl's dormitory. Everett walked down the hallway leading to the boy's side of the building, lazily and reading, his mind lost. And then, with a too late warning from Elizabeth, they crashed into each other, both of them knocking their heads and dropping all their books to the floor.
"Oh, Everett, sorry about that, I wasn't watching at all and...", Jubilee exclaimed, bending down to pick up the books while rubbing her forehead.
"It's all my fault, Jubes, I wasn't paying attention, I was studying and I...", he said, bending at the exact same time.
They both stopped halfway down and looked up at each other. They were at the same level, and they met eye to eye. Elizabeth coughed to remind them she was present. Jubilee shook her head suddenly and picked up her books. Everett did the same, and they both smiled weakly at each other before continuing on their way.
"I can't believe this.", Jubilee told Elizabeth as they resumed their walk. "It almost looked as though things were planned out that way."
Elizabeth couldn't help but laugh at that.
****
Sean entered the small kitchen of the school running, hurrying through the various breakfast choices that were offered to him, finally picking two toasts and a cup of coffee. Emma, who was already sitting in the kitchen, barely looked at him as he did so, before returning to the newspaper she was reading. He sat down in front of her, and began eating in silence.
"So, umm, anything good happening this morning?", Sean finally asked, the tense silence finally getting to him.
"Not really.", Emma responded absently, as though the article she was reading was the most important thing in the history of newspapers.
"Emma, are you all right?", Sean finally asked her.
The White Queen looked up at him for a second, before returning to her reading, without answering the Irish man's question. Sean sighed.
"Well, I'm hoping today will at least be a peaceful, normal, day.", he said thoughtfully, finishing up his toast and grabbing his cup of coffee.
Emma looked at him for a few seconds, and he held her gaze, until she simply nodded and returned to her reading. Sean had no idea what in the world was wrong with her, but he didn't have time to start wondering now. He finished the coffee with a gulp and headed out to face the day.
****
When Angelo came out of his room that morning, he instantly regretted it. He hated school. Always had. His L.A. schools were far from being the best schools on Earth, and he had grown up in places where what you learned in there were survival in the hood and how to be a good thief and drug dealer. Granted, the Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters was different. In a way. They did still teach survival. Not in the hoods, but in the whole world this time. How to live in a world that hates and fears you while still protecting that world. Angelo sighed.
"I guess my problem is plain antipathy for anything having to do with studying.", Angelo said to himself, not realizing he was talking out loud.
*I feel the same way.*, Jono told Angelo as he joined him on his way to class.
"Guess you overheard me, huh?", Angelo responded, realizing he had probably spoken out loud.
Jono nodded and the two of them remained silent for a while. Jono didn't feel too good this morning. He never did feel good these days, since that accident in McCoy's lab a few weeks ago. Angelo stared at Jono for a few seconds without saying a thing. His friend seemed to be worried about something. Angelo sure knew about keeping secrets and being worried, so he chose to keep his friend's privacy and not to ask what was wrong. If Jono wanted to tell, he'd say it in his own time. They went down a few stairs, heading for the classroom, when a door leading outside opened, and an all sweaty, fully awake Paige Guthrie entered the school, wiping her forehead.
"Hey chica, back from your usual morning jog, huh?", Angelo remarked.
Paige nodded, and then shredded off her skin, getting rid of the sweat and now looking perfectly relaxed. Her own "instant-shower", as she now called it. Both him and Jono stopped to wait for her, but the englishman stayed quiet, setting his gaze elsewhere. Again, none of Angelo's business. Paige also ignored Jono's behavior, and grabbed her school bag which was waiting for her beside the door. As the three of them were ready to start on their way, the door opened again, and Mondo stepped in, freezing a second in surprise at seeing them there.
"Mondo? I didn't see you outside.", Paige pointed out.
Mondo was wearing his usual fashion destroying Hawaiian T-shirt and shorts. He shook the surprise off and started walking down the hallway.
"I was... taking a walk in the woods.", he simply stated as an explanation, continuing on his way.
Paige, Jono and Angelo looked at each other and shrugged. All in good time.
****
The seven of them all waited in front of the classroom, one of the many in the building.
"Could someone explain me why we always use the same classroom with all of the others we could try here?", Jubilee asked the others, trying to spark some conversation.
"I guess it's the easiest one to find...", Elizabeth tried as an explanation.
"Come on, it's probably the first one Cassidy or Frost saw and they decided to keep it to that.", Everett said, shrugging.
*Heh. I can't help but ask myself what I'm doing here.*, Jono said, trying to once again open the locked door.
"Same here. A classroom is not where we'll learn to use our mutant powers, whatever these guys say.", Angelo added, letting his back fall on the wall.
"Well, when I was in the X-men...", Jubilee began, taking the pose of someone who's about to give a very important lesson.
Mondo groaned and the others returned the sentiment. Jubilee's known remark usually brought up that kind of behavior in them.
"Can it, Jubes. I don't want to hear it this morning.", Elizabeth said, and again all backed her up.
"You'd better be ready this morning.", Sean said as he finally appeared at the end of the hall.
"Ready for what?", Everett asked.
"You'll see.", Sean answered, unlocking the door and walking inside.
The others looked at each other, wondering what Sean could be meaning. It didn't sound good... for them.
****
They all sat down at their desks, all in front of the class, all regrouped.
"This is starting to feel way too much like real life.", Everett told Jubilee with a hushed voice.
"Aw, it won't be that bad, Ev.", Jubilee replied back, remembering the few classes she took with the X-men.
"To begin", Banshee began, grinning, "I'm warning you that there's going to be a test tomorrow and..."
The whole class groaned in protest, and Sean smiled, feeling a bit like normal teachers must do when they are in similar situations. A normal day well on its way.
****
A few hours later, the whole class was reading an article written by Henry Mc Coy about the laws of mutantcy in silence. All save Jono, who was staring at his book, but not concentrating on it at all. He was trying to keep the world from spinning. He closed his eyes, shook his head and opened his eyes again, but everything was still spinning. Nobody seemed to be noticing him, all of them concentrating on their reading. Jono was thankful of that. Unwanted questions were not what he needed right now. Even Mr. Cassidy was seemingly deep into his reading. He shook his head once again, only this time it seemed to do the trick. Everything around him became still, but he was still scared. This wasn't the first time it had happened, and he knew all too well it probably wouldn't be the last. He had to tell someone about this. Soon. Before it was too late.
****
The afternoon classes, as Banshee had announced that morning, were taking place in the school's Biosphere. The whole team, except for Elizabeth who was taking private courses with Emma, waited for Sean to begin the test. It was fairly simple.
"All right, all of you laddies better listen to what I say! Behind me are six robotic pods, all set to go after all of you with stun rays. You get hit by one, you're considered dead. This is an exercise to test your control over your powers and your teamwork. What you have to do is simple. Get rid of the pods. Destroy them. That's all there is to it.", Sean explained, stepping aside as the pods slowly rose into the air.
"The test begins... now!", he said, and the pods flew forward, each tagging after a member of Generation X.
The team scrambled, each going into their own direction, all running. Sean sighed. No teamwork at all was apparent here. A very bad start. He knew the solution, of course. This was a variation on a test that Cyclops had made the second generation of X-men go through when they were still doing everyday training. So long ago. He watched silently as the test went on. Jubilee seemed to be the first to catch on. She stopped running to throw a few bursts at the pod following her, but a built-in shield blocked it.
"Hey, how are we supposed to take them down when our powers don't work on them!", she wailed in protest before starting to run again.
Banshee smiled. That was the whole point of this. Jono tried his own power on his pod, with pretty much the same result. Nothing. He ducked a stun ray and almost crashed into Angelo, who was trying to outrun his pod. It was pretty fast and trying to catch it with his skin had failed. But Skin's pod had much weaker shield then Chamber's. And Chamber's was much slower then Skin's. The key was for them to switch pods. Each pod would fall easily to a power other then their target's. But Skin and Chamber didn't realize this and continued on their race. Everett and Paige weren't faring any better. Every time Paige tried to change into something, the pod compensated. And on his own, Everett's power wasn't of much use. Teamwork was the only way to win here. Banshee looked around until a scream caught his attention. Mondo. He had melted into the ground to escape his pod only to resurface in front of Leech, Artie and Franklin, who seemed to have now adopted the Biosphere TreeHouse as their constant new home. Mondo excused himself as the pod found him once more and he started running once more. He joined up with Jubilee, and that's when the two of them finally understood. They shared a small greeting when they passed each other, and then Jubilee shot a pyrotechnic blast at Mondo's pod, which then seemed destabilized and went down. Jubilee stood there, not sure she understood, and Paige, having seen what happened, told Mondo to attack Jubilee's pod. He did so, and the pod went down. Soon enough, the test was over. And they had passed.
****
Elizabeth wasn't certain she liked this. She stood before Emma, trying to clear her mind as she listened to the instructions given to her by the telepath.
"Today I want to test your telepathic skill.", the older woman explained to her pupil. "We both know that for some reason the use of your powers cause some kind of telepathic backlash, which sometimes appears as some kind of ray, sometimes as an unseen telepathic force. Let's see if you can manifest your telepathic powers without having that nasty side-effect."
Elizabeth nodded and the White Queen closed her eyes, trying to establish a telepathic rapport with the young mutant in front of her. Elizabeth reached out with her mind, trying at the same time to hold back the build-up she could feel at the back of her mind. She knew that build up was the power ray she would soon emit. Any contact with a telepath caused it. She started to feel Emma's presence, the two minds connecting, like computers did on the net.
*Hold it back, Elizabeth! It's the only way to control this...*, she heard her say in her mind.
*I'M TRYING!*, she telepathically shouted back, the increasing buzz in the back of her head starting to hurt.
And with that, she failed. The telepathic explosion was felt all around the room and caused everyone to lose their balance and fall to the ground, their minds on fire. They all looked up and stared at Elizabeth, who smiled weakly before falling to the floor, unconscious.
"She'll be okay. She's only winded.", Emma said, checking her up.
Behind the group, unseen, Jono retreated to the woods. The pain caused by the backlash hadn't stopped. He could feel it through his whole body, threatening to tear him apart. And he was scared it could very well do so. Moaning in pain he hid far in the woods of the Biosphere, unseen by all, and letting the pain flow through him until it stopped.
****
Franklin fell to the ground as the psychic wave hit him, and in doing so let go of the blue ball he always kept with him. It rolled out of his hands, stopping beneath a tree, waiting. But as it sat there, hidden from view, a small flash went on in it, followed by a very weak light, before it returned to normal. Franklin returned to pick it up a few seconds later.
****
In the living room of the team, later on that night, Leech, Artie and Franklin slept soundly on the couch, completely exhausted from the day, while the rest of the team tried to do homework and study.
"This is way too much! When I was in the X-men, I...", Jubilee began.
"Would you please stop saying that!", Everett cut in, sighing.
Elizabeth looked at the two of them
and sighed too. How she was supposed to actually work in so much noise was beyond
her. Mondo was laying back and watching everyone argue, pleased at having finished
everything earlier that day. Angelo groaned at the two of them, putting his hand to
his forehead. Beside him, Jono worked in silence, deep in concentration, unaware
that Paige was watching him, worried. She knew something was wrong with him.
If only she knew what.
****
Sean entered his office and opened the light, a smile showing on his face. He had gotten his wish. Besides the incident with Elizabeth, this day had been surprisingly normal. They had even done a little training. And no catastrophe. No disaster. No death, no surprise villain. Nothing. He sighed and sat at his desk. Just a normal school day. Now if only it would last.
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