"Control and endurance are all well and good," said Magnus, returning all the Danger Room equipment to its recessed cabinets with a scornful wave, "but it's time all four of you learned to survive. None of you are the sort to start a fight. When you are forced to use your skills, it will be to defend yourselves against either unreasoning bigots, who will outnumber you in mob strength, or criminals, who are fighting for their own survival and freedom, and thus will not hold back. You must learn to deal with superior numbers and with ferocious foes. You must learn to fight dirty and to use not only your powers, but also your bodies and whatever else is at hand. Warren, you will watch with me and not interfere. Hank, Scott, you will attack Bobby. The fight is not over until he or both of you are completely helpless and surrender. You will all be graded on your performance."
Hank and Scott started running towards Bobby, who iced the floor. The two attackers tumbled over each other, but Hank managed to free himself and leap off the wall and over Bobby's head--
Where he was hit by a shot of ice to the midsection just as Scott found his feet and shot Bobby's feet out from under him with an optic blast. But before he could aim again, Scott was buried in a mountain of snow, his optic blasts firing harmlessly at the ceiling.
Then Hank got Bobby in an arm lock and pushed him down on the ground. "I'd say we got an A for this assignment," said Hank. "Sorry, Bobby."
Magnus turned to Warren. "What grade would you give each of them?"
Warren blushed beet red. "Huh? Oh, I don't know. I guess Hank and Scott should get A's and Bobby should get a B. Maybe he should get an A anyway, since he had the harder job."
"Next time, Mr. Worthington, pay attention. You had the advantage of observing the action without panic, free to think things through and analyze from outside. You get a D."
"What?" Warren yelled.
"You can bring it up to a C if you can tell me how each of these three could have used teamwork to solve their problems."
"But Bobby couldn't have used teamwork at all!" Warren protested, his voice cracking.
"Do you accept the D, then?" asked Magnus.
"No!" Warren's eyes darted from one confused classmate to another. "Uh, um, Hank should have helped Scott get up when they both slipped."
"That's a possibility. But it would have put them so close together that Bobby could freeze them both at once."
"What if Hank had jumped all around Bobby, distracting him so Scott could get a better shot?"
"Much better, Warren. What could Scott have done to save Hank?"
"Shot the ice before it hit Hank in the stomach?" Warren hazarded.
"You're getting better at this. How could Bobby have used teamwork?"
"Um … he, uh…"
Magnus decided to throw Warren a clue. "For our purposes, teamwork means combining powers to achieve your goals."
"Oh! Bobby could have used an ice slide to shoot Hank at Scott and crashed them into each other!"
"Excellent. You've won your C. I'll bring it up to a B if you can answer one last question. How could any of them have used the tools in the room to further their efforts?"
"The room was empty," said Warren, confused.
"You'll keep the C, then?" asked Magnus.
"I guess I have to, sir. But I'm telling the truth."
"No, you're not looking properly. You and I are in effect civilian bystanders. Human shields. I never want any of you to use an innocent civilian or a crowd of onlookers as protection in a fight, but you have to be prepared for enemies who take hostages. If Hank or Scott had ducked behind me, Bobby would have thought twice about shooting ice or snow at them. Likewise if Bobby had used us for shelter. And in a real fight, if one of you could have escaped up to the control booth, you could have used the room itself to attack your enemy. If I don't lock the Danger Room door, assume you can do that. You each get a C for this assignment. Warren, I'm partnering you with Scott. Attack Hank. Bobby, you're the observer. Let's try this again."
For the second time, John Grey brought his daughter up the gravel driveway to the mansion's front door, but this time his daughter held his hand and walked beside him, instead of sitting unresponsively in a wheelchair, and his wife walked beside them. Magnus opened the door for them. "Thank you for coming to see the school, Dr. Grey, Mrs. Grey. Hello, Jean," he said.
"Thank you for telling me about it," said John. "I'm surprised, though, that Charles isn't here."
"Charles is in Britain on important business," said Magnus. "As I said on the phone, the school is small, but growing. Charles and I felt there was a great need for a school that could push students to academic greatness, but still nurture them emotionally. We thought Jean would be an ideal candidate." He ushered the Greys to the sitting room. "Tea?"
"Yes, please," said Mrs. Grey.
Magnus took a ceramic pot from a little brazier in an alcove and poured cups for everyone.
"How many other students do you have at this point?" asked John, "and what's the ratio of girls to boys?"
"So far we have one girl and four boys," said Magnus. "My daughter Meggan; my son Scott; Warren Worthington the Third; Hank McCoy, a football and physics star; and Robert Drake, a gifted boy from Long Island. Since this is our first class, we decided to keep it small, so we can focus on students in one-on-one sessions modeled after the Oxford system."
"That's exactly the model we use at the college where I teach," said John.
"It seemed to us the best system. For the most part, Charles and I teach the courses ourselves, but we have a teacher-in-residence plan which allows us to bring in specialists for a month or so to teach the children personally. Dr. Moira MacTaggert, an expert in biology, has agreed to come this year, possibly every year, and Dr. Reed Richards is expected to give several lectures and labs, when his schedule permits. We're negotiating with Ian Nelson of Oxford to come during his winter break to lecture on his writings and on classical English literature. In addition, we're trying to set up a correspondence program with Columbia University in New York. They're interested to see how high school students interpret college level material, and have expressed interest in taking our students after they graduate high school. Even if Jean chooses not to go to Columbia, this program will be a prestigious note on her college applications."
"I'm a little concerned that Jean won't have many friends, if there's only one other girl here," said Mrs. Grey.
"That's perfectly understandable. But the school is near enough to town that our students have easy access, and we've been invited to the local high school's mixers. There will be plenty of opportunity to make friends her own age in the area. And we'll keep accepting new students."
"Can we meet one of the students you have now?"
"Of course. The boys are in their rooms studying for Monday's exam. If you'll follow me?"
Magnus led them down the corridor to the dormitory section of the school and knocked on the first door, which was, not coincidentally, Warren's. The boy was neatly but casually dressed, his wings discreetly hidden with a harness under his sweater. He'd been more than cheerful about the possibility of sweet-talking Jean's parents when Magnus had approached him earlier that weekend, and Magnus had to admit, watching him charm the boots off of Jean and her parents, the boy had his father's brilliant people skills. Then Magnus took John and Elaine to discuss the financial aspects of Jean's education, and Magnus left Warren to discuss the true nature of the school with Jean in private. By the time Jean's parents were ready to go, Jean was the school's most eager advocate, begging to come back and start on Monday.
"Now Jean, I know it's been a while since you've worked in the Danger Room, but I expect you've been practicing your telekinesis in secret at home," said Magnus, and was rewarded with an embarrassed smile. "You'll be expected to perform in three kinds of sessions in the Danger Room: private lessons with me once a week, and the daily regimen of basic control and skill exercises and king-of-the-mountain scenarios where you will fight with and against combinations of students on different terrains. You will also be expected to keep up with the course load and to apply yourself to any homework or outside responsibilities with equal diligence. I will never make unreasonable demands on you, though you can argue with me if you feel I'm being unreasonable. But I expect you to perform to the best of your abilities, and will downgrade you if you do not. Is all of that clear?"
"I've got one question, sir," said Jean.
"Yes?"
"How am I supposed to train as well as the boys if I have to worry about my skirt flying up?" she asked, indicating the miniskirt of her uniform.
Magnus shot her a startled smile. For a moment she reminded him of the partisan girls he'd fought alongside. "Quite right. Go get one of the spare uniforms from the locker room."
A few minutes later, Jean emerged in the black and yellow body armor which protected her much better than its feminine version had. The belt fit her waist snugly, emphasizing the curve of her hips, and Magnus had a feeling the next few sessions would be ruined by the boys' hormonal reactions.
Nevertheless, it was time to start Jean's first group session. Magnus opened the door and let the boys in. But the moment Scott caught sight of Jean, he stopped like a prisoner facing down a gun barrel, frozen in mid-step. "Come along, all of you. This is Jean, our new student. Jean, this is Hank, Scott, Bobby and you already know Warren. We'll start with parallel sessions." With a few gestures he created a complex web of hoops and bars, a jungle-gym of labyrinthine proportions, suspended from the high ceiling. "Hank, Warren, I want you each to thread that maze, going for tighter and tighter control. Don't interfere directly with each other, but try and angle yourselves so you block each other's moves." He planned to release some flying bots to confuse the situation once the boys had their bearings.
"Scott. Precision training. I want you to disable this computer array using the lightest, thinnest possible optic blast. Disable, not dismantle. Bobby, we need to work more on the speed at which you reduce an object's temperature. These wine glasses are extremely fragile, and will shatter if you chill them too fast. You have two minutes to reduce the temperature of each to minus thirty degrees Celsius without breaking them. After that, I'll ask you to freeze fruit so fast and so cold that it shatters on the floor when you drop it. Start … now."
"And finally, Jean. Until Charles returns, we cannot remove the blocks in your mind to work on your telepathy, but you still have your telekinesis. We'll play a little tug of war to test your strength." He lifted a heavy barbell with a thought. "Try to pull it towards you." He gently applied more and more force to keep the barbell in place until Jean was sweating with the strain of it. Meanwhile he mentally opened the metal door behind which the bots waited, and released them on Hank and Warren, smiling at the rather creative curses Hank came up with when panicked. This job did have its rewards.
Along with training the children in the use of their powers and in teamwork, Magnus began teaching them the fighting techniques he'd learned in Israel from his friends in the Haganah and the Irgun. Between those sessions and the daily academic workload, Magnus was physically and mentally exhausted. But every night he lay awake wondering where Charles was and how his daughter was doing. If anything was really wrong, Charles would have tried to contact him mentally, or even phoned, but Magnus couldn't help worrying at the endless silence from across the sea. Jean had asked, after a few days, where 'the other girl' was. Magnus had automatically snapped, "She's fine!" and then had struggled to choose better words to explain both the situation and his outburst.
Scott had spoken first. "Meggan's sick. But she's going to get better."
"Professor Xavier is with her in England," Warren had added.
"What's wrong with her?" Jean had asked.
"Her powers don't work right," Bobby had said.
"But she'll get better?" Jean had pressed.
"Of course she will," Scott had said. "Dad and Professor Xavier fix us, and they don't stop until we're all right."
Magnus had sent them off to shower and change for class after that. But Scott's words had stayed with him, and late at night in his bed he wondered if the boy's faith in them was justified.
After another long night, Magnus decided to purge his worries by putting the teenagers through a grueling session in the Danger Room, pitting each one against the other four in turn. In her time at the school, Jean had proved to them that she wasn't a porcelain doll; and after some shock on her part at how strong they really were when they treated her as one of the guys, she'd fought back with just as much ferocity, creativity, and insults. Magnus found himself caught up in the intensity and enthusiasm of his students, even laughing it off when Hank ducked behind him and knocked him off his feet, using Magnus's natural defenses as a shield against Jean's telekinesis.
"Excellent work, Hank." Magnus got to his feet and looked his students over with some measure of pride. "After one more session of this, I'm going to start pitting you against each other in teams, so you become aware of both your team and the enemy's. That will also mean no one is playing lone villain, so no one gets to use me as a shield again. Is that clear?"
"Yes sir," came a chorus from the five grinning students.
"Good. Let's make our last session a little more interesting. All five of you attack me." He grinned ferally and raised his shields just in time for the first optic blast.
That night, bruised, exhausted and happy, Magnus padded from the shower to his bed, too worn out to focus on anything but sleep. Then he felt a strange shift in the room's energy, and a portal of light opened in front of him.
Magnus snapped his shield up before realizing that one of the figures materializing was Charles. Beside Charles stood a man in a red, white and blue costume modeled after the Union Jack, and a dark-haired, elfin woman in simple robes, holding Meggan's hand. Meggan was in the semi-bestial form Magnus had originally found her in: webbed feet and hands, patches of fur, antennae, and all.
"Elkhanan Yigdal," the woman addressed Magnus, "I am Roma, daughter of his Universal Majesty, Merlin, and this is Captain Britain, my champion on this Earth."
The sound of his Hebrew name hit Magnus with a terror he hadn't felt in years. "You would do me a great service by calling me by my chosen name."
"I am doing you a great service by coming here, Elkhanan. Do not presume to ask more of me. Fortunately, my father was detained elsewhere, or you would not even be given the choice I'm offering you.
"Meggan is a changeling, a creature native to Britain," said Roma. "Whenever she leaves its network of ley lines, she is cut off from the magic which sustains her life. She is not your child, and if she leaves Britain for too long, she will die. Captain Britain is already the father of three children, he is willing to adopt her if you relinquish your claim to her. It would be in her best interests. However, I can give her a portion of my own energy to sustain her outside of Britain, for a price, or you could relocate to Britain and raise her there."
"Captain Britain is a good man, Magnus," said Charles. "And he has two sons and a daughter. I met the younger son and the daughter, and they seem very well brought up." He added, pleading, "Magnus, it's not really Meggan's fault. She's young, and the gypsies treated her harshly. She wanted to believe you were her father, and she wanted to please you. I think it would be best for all concerned if Captain Britain took her."
Rage clenched Magnus's chest. The gypsy woman, Margali, had lied to him. She'd knowingly sent him on a wild goose chase after Meggan for some dark purpose. She'd made a fool of him. This wretched freak was none of his.
But what would Scott say? The boy was still fragile from his history of abuse. Would he think Magnus could abandon him as easily as he'd abandoned Meggan? Magnus tried to think of what he could say to the boy, and couldn't think of anything that wouldn't drive a permanent wedge between them.
And Charles. Instantly assuming Magnus would vent his anger on a child. Wanting to send her as far away from Magnus as possible.
Magnus looked at Meggan again, transformed to her ugliest form out of fear that he would reject her. Or maybe it was her true form, after all. Could this proud man, Captain Britain, understand what it meant to be wretched and hated? Could he give her the understanding she needed, or help her when children made fun of her? For that matter, what would Captain Britain's own children make of her appearance?
"Meggan's lineage doesn't matter to me," said Magnus, "I took her in as my child, and I won't abandon her now. But I have responsibilities to this school which I do not take lightly. What is your price?"
"I know that you are amassing an army of mutant children. My father ignores the possibilities, since it is based in America, rather than Britain. He is ancient, and often fails to realizes how modern technology can make distance irrelevant. In return for Meggan's health, I want your oath that you and your army will come to my aid one time, if I need you. I promise not to make the demand of you if it will mean the martyrdom of all your troops, nor if the specific request is completely reprehensible to you. But my world is changing, and I may need allies. Is that acceptable?"
"Charles?" Magnus asked. "I can't decide for both of us."
"Magnus, I don't think this is a good idea. I don't like the thought of giving anyone carte blanche to use us as they will--"
"She made it clear we don't have to do anything too terrible," said Magnus.
"What about this healing spell? What if it fades or fails?" asked Charles. "Are you prepared to deal with that responsibility?"
"What if Scott's glasses stopped blocking his optic blasts?" asked Magnus. "I would still be his father. Meggan is no different."
"But Roma's father, Merlin, does not seem the most savory of characters. If he were to cash in this favor--"
"My father knows nothing of this, and will have no power over you. I swear it." Roma said.
"Roma's a lady of her word," said Captain Britain. "My family has served her for thousands of years, and though Merlin's decrees are sometimes harsh or strange, Roma is to be trusted unequivocally. I'll gladly raise Meggan myself, she's a sweet girl, but if you want to accept Roma's offer, I see no problem with your making an alliance with her."
"I do want it," said Magnus.
Charles pulled Magnus aside and murmured, "She's not Anya. She never will be."
"I know that. But she is my daughter."
"What are you going to do? Keep collecting children until you find the right one? What if you never find your child, Magnus? How many children are you going to adopt? Where is it going to stop?"
"Meggan is my child," said Magnus. "I told her I was her father, and that I would never abandon her or hurt her. I will not go back on my word."
"But where does it stop, Magnus?" Charles pressed.
"Not here."
Charles was silent for a long time. Then he muttered, "Do what you will."
Magnus stepped forward. "I want you to give Meggan your aid," he told Roma.
"Give me your word, then," said Roma. "Swear by your name."
For a brief moment, Magnus thought of protesting that he wasn't that Elkhanan anymore, or that Jews couldn't swear those kinds of oaths. But he was a man of his word; an oath wasn't that much different. "I, Elkhanan Yigdal ben Yosef, swear to aid Roma once in her hour of need, I and all those who follow me, in return for Meggan's health."
Roma gestured, and Meggan was sheathed in a filigree of golden light. For a moment she changed, becoming sylph-like, with eyes like a star-lit sky, inhuman and beautiful. Then she had changed back to the form she'd worn with Magnus, that of his dead daughter.
"I could see…" said Meggan, wondering. "Just for a second, I could see all the patterns…"
"That was your true form. When you take it, your abilities increase greatly," said Roma. "It helped me set the field around you. But I must leave before my father inquires about my absence." With that, she vanished and took Captain Britain with her.
Magnus hugged Meggan and looked her over. "You look much better. How do you feel?"
"Elkhanan?" Charles asked, testing the word out doubtfully.
Magnus replied in Hebrew, "Call me that again and I'll beat you to death with my bare hands." Then in English, "Tell me about Roma and this Captain Britain. How did you find them?"
"I saw Captain Britain rescuing people from train wreckage. We couldn't help him, but afterwards I got his attention and asked him if he knew where I could find gypsy camps. When I explained the problem, he explained about the ley lines, which have a similar effect on his own powers, and invited us to his home to decide what would be best for Meggan. Roma's assistant, Opal Luna Saturnine, keeps an eye on all the Captain Britains in all alternate realities, and alerted Roma to the situation."
Magnus nodded. "Captain Britain sounds like a good ally. And if this oath turns out to jeopardize our students lives, I can appeal to him, father to father, to make Roma release us from our promise."
"How has the school been in my absence?" asked Charles.
"Very well. I've changed the training regimen, made it more versatile," said Magnus. "It, ah, encourages teamwork. And I've recruited Jean as a student."
Charles smiled. "Thank you."
"She's settling in very well. And she's stronger and more spirited than I had realized earlier. I think you'll like her, Meggan," said Magnus. "If you'll excuse me, Charles, I should put her to bed."
When he returned from tucking her in and singing her to sleep, Magnus was surprised to find Charles still waiting for him in his room. "What is it?"
"We need to talk about Meggan. It's obvious that she's only four years old, not ten as your daughter would be. We can't treat her like any of the other students; she's not developmentally ready. She's not even old enough for kindergarten."
Magnus took a deep breath. "What do you suggest?"
"If we can teach her some control, she might do better in preschool in town."
"If those children hurt her…"
"Then we'll remove her from the school and teach her at home or hire a mutant-friendly nanny. But we devote too much time and energy to the other students to take care of a preschooler full-time. We need to try it, at least. And it might do her some good to learn to socialize with peers."
"We'll try it," Magnus agreed. "Charles, we have to find that witch, Margali. She must have misled me for a reason. She might know where my real child is. She might have done something to my child."
"The device I've been working on, Cerebro, is almost ready. We can use it to track her. And I may be able to configure it to look for biopatterns similar to yours, to track your child. But Magnus," Charles added softly, "I think it's time you accepted the possibility that you might not have a child out there somewhere, or that you might never find him or her. You could search forever. When are you going to stop?"
"When I find my child, and not before," Magnus growled. "That witch knows more than she said. We will find her, and we will discover what she's hiding. And she will pay for keeping me from my child."
End.
Notes: Erik Magnus has no Hebrew equivalent, so I chose the most likely candidate, which translates as God's Mercy, Great One. In Jewish legend, Elkhanan was a Jewish boy kidnapped by Christians, who rose to become Pope and later died with his people.