The girl stopped. Crouching down, she listened carefully. Nothing. No noise other than the wind rustling through the trees. Another false alarm. She waited for another few seconds, just to make sure. No. There was nothing. It was safe to move on. She stood, slowly, and began to pick her way carefully through the trees once more. Her eyes scanned the ground, looking out for any loose twigs or leaves or anything else that would make too much noise if she stepped on it. She stayed low, trying to keep herself behind cover whenever possible. Being small and nimble made this easier.

In the distance she heard a muffled scream. She stopped, dropping to her knees again, holding her breath and listening intently for any more sounds. The silence was interrupted by the sound of running feet, somewhere off to her left, and then another scream and the sound of a body hitting the ground. After that there was only silence. How far away had it been? The girl didn't know. It was hard to judge distance in the midst of these woods. It hadn't sounded all that close, but she couldn't be sure.

One of the others was down, that much was obvious. She knew exactly what that meant, and she redoubled her determination to keep going. Getting back to her feet, she restarted her slow and cautious progress through the trees. She knew she couldn't be far from safety now. Pulling up the face of her wristwatch, she consulted the tiny compass built in underneath. Yes, she was still heading in the right direction. It was easy to lose one's bearings in these surroundings, so she was checking the compass regularly to ensure she kept on the right path. She flipped the face of her watch back down, and checked the time. Good. She still had enough time.

But the going wasn't quite so easy now. She was nervous after hearing the scream, and knowing that one of her friends had been captured. She wasn't moving as easily or as quietly as she had done before. Her movements were faster and no longer calm and fluid, as she needed them to be. She was making too much noise. One of her pursuers was bound to hear her. Ducking down behind a large oak tree, she forced herself to relax, to slow her breathing and her heart. That was the only way she was going to get through this.

She had only just succeeded in bringing her heart rate back to normal, when a sound from behind her sent it thumping once more. Someone was there! Someone was just the other side of the tree! Her heart pounding, the girl knelt and listened, waiting for more sound. There was none. Maybe it hadn't been anything. Maybe it had been a branch or a leaf falling. Maybe it had been a wild animal. Whatever it was, she couldn't hear anything now. Allowing a few more seconds to pass, until she was sure it was safe to move, the girl slowly and cautiously got to her feet.

The noise came again. There was somebody there! There had to be! Instinct told the girl simply to run away as fast as she could, but she forced herself to overcome that urge. She might well be running into a trap if she did that. Those chasing her were not stupid. They'd already caught one of her friends, and maybe more. She had to be smarter than that. Crouching down to pick up a small stone from the forest floor, she took careful aim and threw it in the opposite direction from the one she planned to run.. The stone smacked into the trunk of a tree, and the sudden sound of the impact gave her the opportunity she needed.

In the second when she knew the other person's head would instinctively turn to look in the direction of the noise, the girl took off like a shot. Sprinting away from the oak tree towards safety, she no longer cared how much noise she made. She already had a head start on her pursuers, and she just had to stay ahead of them until she reached the edge of the tree-line. After that she would be safe. She was small and her own footsteps were light, and she could soon make out the sound of at least one other set of footsteps behind her. They knew where was now, all right. They were coming after her.

If there was a trap, it would come now, before she could build up her speed. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a black figure approaching from the side. Instinctively glancing to the other side, she saw another black figure. This wasn't good! There were three of them after her now, the two on either side closing in to form a pincer movement. The girl looked ahead of her, and her heart sank with dismay. Blocking her path was a huge fallen tree! She knew now she'd been deliberately manoeuvred into this. She was going to be trapped by the blockade, and the three pursuers would converge on her from all sides. Climbing over the tree would take too long; they'd be on her in seconds.

She had no option but to take a risk and try something she'd been practising. Putting her head down, she built up a burst of speed, approaching the fallen tree trunk. The black figures were closing in from all three sides now. At the last second before the tree trunk, the girl leaped from the ground and turned into a mid-air somersault, launching herself clean over the fallen tree.

"What the – " she heard one of her pursuers gasp.

The girl landed awkwardly on her hands and knees, but was on her feet again in a second, and running towards the safety of the tree-line. With her chasers behind her, blocked by the tree, she knew she it was safe to open up and go for broke. The girl accelerated forwards, faster and faster, until the trees on either side of her were merely a blur. She knew she would tire herself out quickly, but as long as she left her pursuers far enough behind, that was all that mattered. The tree-line was in sight now. In her haste to get there, she tripped over a fallen log, and her momentum sent her flying through the air. Curling into a ball, she hit the ground in a perfect roll and kept on going. Behind her were the sound of shouts, but they were far behind her, and she knew she was safe.

Emerging from the forest and slowing down to jogging pace, she immediately saw that two of her friends had also made the journey safely. They were sitting together on a sunny patch of grass, and they beckoned her over.

"Accel! You made it!" one of them, a younger girl, exclaimed with a broad Australian accent.

The ten-year-old girl named Accel sank down, exhausted, on to the grass beside her friends.

"Here," said the other girl, handing her a bottle of water.

"Thanks, Bibi," said Accel.

She uncapped the bottle and took a long drink. Then she asked, "You made it as well, huh?"

"Yup!"

"So did I, faster than both of you," said the boy who was present, with a smirk.

"Yeah well, it's not hard when you can fly," Bibi countered.

"Well, how did you do it?" he asked.

Bibi giggled, "I copied Mr Summers' voice and made them do all sorts of stupid things, while I snuck past. They were running around in circles by the end."

"Right. So you used your powers," he said triumphantly. "Exactly the same as me. If I could copy people's voices, I'd have done the same thing."

"Oh, whatever," she said impatiently. "What about the others?"

"Dunno. Phoebe got caught, I think. Haven't seen Turtle."

Accel finally got her breath back, and said, "I heard someone go down. Sounded like Turtle."

"Here they come," said the boy.

The two girls looked over to see the group appear at the edge of the woods: two kids – a girl and a boy – and most of the adults.

"Over here!" Bibi called. "Phoebe! Turtle!"

"We got caught," Phoebe lamented.

"What happened? Did you go dizzy?"

"I – "

Cyclops spoke to the kids, "All right, gather round and we'll give you marks for this exercise."

" – I'll tell you later," Phoebe finished.

The five kids hurried over to their headmaster.

"OK," he began. "I'm just going by alphabetical order here. Acceleratus: you made it through the woods without being caught, so that's great. You were spotted though, so that loses you a point. However, due to your excellent use of – improvisation – to escape, you get a bonus point to make up for it. That's full marks."

"Well done!" Bibi whispered to Accel.

"Next," Cyclops went on. "Byblos: excellent work. You made it all the way through without anyone seeing you. Oh, and a bonus point for sending Wolverine the wrong way, resulting in him ending up face-first in a ditch."

The kids began to snigger, but stopped when Logan looked at them.

"Anyway, that's full marks for you too."

"Thank you, sir!" Bibi said excitedly.

"Who's next? Icarus: excellent work as well. You escaped detection, and since yours was the quickest time, you get a bonus point. Full marks."

Icarus smirked.

"That's not fair!" Bibi complained. "What's the point of putting him in a forest when he can just fly over it?"

"Kimberly, that's enough. OK…Phobia: not so good, I'm afraid. I'm not going to fail you on this exercise, because I know you can't help having your dizzy spells."

"I thought I could control them!" Phoebe said in frustration. "I've kept them under control all week!"

"I know. Don't worry about it. That's the whole point of these exercises: to get you accustomed to using your powers in a pressure situation. If you're not ready yet, it'll just take more practice."

She nodded, but still didn't look happy.

"Turtle," he went on. "You didn't make it, obviously, but that was because you were trying to help Phoebe."

The other boy sighed, "Yeah, I saw she was about to go dizzy so I shouted at her to get under cover until it was over. I guess I gave myself away."

"Yes, I know. But I'm not going to fail you either, because putting others before yourself in a dangerous situation is important to learn as well. OK. Does anybody have any questions?"

None of the children said anything. Eventually Bibi shook her head and spoke for the group, "Nope."

"Right. Good work today, all of you. And thanks to everyone else for helping out," he glanced over at the other X-Men and X-Women, and some of the older students, who had been 'hunting' the kids during the exercise.

He concluded, "Since you all did so well today, we'll finish up here. Classes will resume as normal tomorrow."

The kids gave a cheer and hurried off together to discuss their experience among themselves. They found a nice sunny area and sat down together.

"So what happened?" Bibi asked of Phoebe.

The nine year old sighed, "It's so annoying. Like, I heard someone coming, and I thought 'Right, I'll use my power to scare them away'. But when I started trying to cast fear into their mind, I just, like, lost control, and went dizzy and passed out. I thought I had control over it, but I just lost it, like I used to when I was little."

Accel sympathised, "Don't worry about it, Phoebe. You just need more practice. It's like Mr Summers said: that's the whole point of why we're doing these things. If we were already good at them, we wouldn't need to practice."

Phoebe brightened, "I guess."

Icarus, playing with a piece of grass, turned to look at Turtle, "What were you thinking, dude? Getting yourself caught because you stopped to help a girl?"

"What's wrong with that?" Turtle shrugged.

"You have to ask?"