The TV announcer looked as calm as they always do, with a backdrop of a secluded research facility him. "Researchers at this highly regarded Government lab have only more failure to report, as attempts to find a 'cure' for mutation remains elusive. As promising as the drug seemed, it only suppressed effects for a few hours at a time..." Katie's mother shut the TV off, suppressing a sigh. At least her daughter was transferring to a private school later that day. It was so tiring, really, never being able to go to the beach without having to deal with all the power outages. Hopefully her daughter would return a bit easier to manage. Just as Katie's mother tossed the TV remote onto a nearby sofa, the doorbell rang. Sighing once more, she walked wearily to the door. As she began to open the door there came the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs.
Katie appeared at the foot of the stairs, her red tinted brown hair was down and she had a brush in her hand. "Who's at the door?" she inquired curiously, then immediately began to pelt her mother with questions "It's just barely two forty, it can't be Nicole already... she's way early... doesn't she know that the transportation to Xavier's doesn't come 'til three o'clock!" Never the less, when Denise opened the door, there Nicole was, standing on the door step, smiling nervously with her hand on a huge trunk of her belongings.
"Er... hi... my mom just... took off so..." she trailed off, looking expectantly at Denise, "Um... can I come in? It's... kind of wet out here..." it was of course, as is accustomed to New England, raining, and given the fact that it had been a rather muggy day for the first of August, the rain came down in torrents of warm droplets.
"Of course you can come in," Denise said, though she looked a bit nervous as to how Nicole had managed to transport such a large trunk herself. She wasn't a close-minded person, exactly; it was just that all these odd things unnerved her. Just as she had suspected, the trunk slowly and with a good amount of shuddering, lifted off of the ground, floating inside behind the girl.
"So, how exactly are we getting to Xavier's, mum? I mean, I know there's transportation and all... but bus? car? helicopter?" Katie badgered, taking Nicole's coat very carefully by a dry spot.
Nicole smiled dreamily, "I hope it's a helicopter... I've never been in one before..." she mumbled, going to sit on the couch.
Katie grinned, laughing softly and joining Nicole on the couch," I doubt it 'Cole, why would they come in a helicopter just to pick up some new students? We're nothing special." she chuckled.
Denise, who had been listening in on the conversation, cringed. 'That's what she thinks... nothing special, ha'. Oh yes... they were definitely "special" all right, in a freakish sort of way. She knew that this was her own daughter she was thinking about but, she couldn't help it, the two girls were just plain weird. But just as the girls were beginning to gush about how excited they were about going to a high-ranking private school, a loud sound like that of huge engines whistling cut the conversation short. " What in the-" Denise yelled, yanking back the curtains.
The girls whirled around, and the descending of the behemoth of a jet on Katie's front lawn was reflected in their wide, awestruck eyes. "Even better than a helicopter..." Katie breathed, as Nicole nodded along silently.
Denise felt rather faint. Really, whatever had she done to deserve this? It had always been hard enough talking to the neighbors ("my daughter was walking by six months" "by then my daughter could speak complex sentences" "at six months, my daughter electrified our cat.") ... Did she really need a jet ruining the grass?
The girls couldn't help but ogle as the roaring of the engines stopped abruptly. "W-why do you think they brought a jet?" Nicole breathed, staring at the huge letter "X" painted on the side of the sleek, black jet.
Katie shook her head in disbelief. "No idea." she squeaked, "But it. Is. So. Cool." As the two girls continued to stare in rising excitement and a small tingle of fear, there came a banging on the door.
"That's impossible!" whimpered Denise, " didn't even see anyone get out of that Jet!"
Nicole wrinkled her nose, "No wonder Denise, there's all of that fog... weird... it just sort of... appeared."
The banging on the door turned to normal knocking, and there were angry voices on the other side of the door, one female, and the other male. "YOU CAN'T JUST GO BUSTING DOORS DOWN LOGAN! GET BACK TO THE JET!"
"I DIDN"T BUST THE DOOR DOWN! I MERELY KNOCKED!"
"KNOCKED! HA! YOU PRACTICALLY HAD THE DOOR QUIVERING IN IT'S HINGES!"
Katie dashed by her mother to the door, twitching slightly as she grabbed hold of the metal doorknob. Opening it, she was rather surprised to find a most unlikely looking group standing on her doorstep. The woman who had been knocking smiled pleasantly at her, gently kicking the tall, rugged looking man next to her until he smiled too. There was a very nice looking bald man in a wheelchair, with a rather more sketchy man in sunglasses standing at the back. "Hello...?" Katie offered, uncertainly.
"Yes hello we're-" the woman began pleasantly, but she was cut off.
"Hey Katie..." it was Nicole; her head was poking around the corner. When the rest of her body was in view she continued, "What's going..." she stopped speaking again. Her eyes traveled over each of the odd looking characters on the doorstep. From the friendly black woman, the one with whom Katie had been speaking, who stood out due to her pure white hair, all the way to the sketchy man at the back. "On..." she finished softly, her eyebrows furrowed suspiciously as her eyes fell onto the rugged man; he frowned, touching his temple and squeezing his eyes shut tightly.
The man in the wheelchair took this moment of silence to say something. " You two are Katie and Nicole then, are you?" Katie nodded, looking nervous. The man smiled, "I'm Charles Xavier, may we come in? I think Scott is getting soaked..." he said warmly. The man wearing the sunglasses smiled in an almost sarcastic manner. Without getting an answer, the rugged man took a step in and shook the water from his leather jacket.
Katie avoided the wet patches on the floor and went to grab the ever-present and ever-filled cookie jar, thinking that at least she should try to be polite. "Have a cookie," she offered the jar to the rugged man first, as he was closer.
Denise (lurking in the background) looked even more alarmed to see the four strangers in her kitchen, and torn between running away and staying to protect her daughter (not that the girl really needed it). Running away, in the guise of doing laundry, won out.
Nicole on the other hand, after shooting Katie an entirely flabbergasted look, replied "Um... so... I'm assuming that you guys are here to take us to..." she paused as she watched the slightly scary, rugged man light a thick cigar. Both irritated and fascinated; she continued, "school... um... " She watched him take a puff from the cigar. "Uh... I'd rather not have you smoking..." she began, but a threatening look from the man shut her up momentarily. Suddenly, the cigar was jerked from his fingers. It floated in front of him then promptly put it self out, and soared into the inner pocket of his jacket. Nicole glared at the man, "Smoking is a disgusting habit. I suggest you give it up." she said coolly. The man with the shades, Scott, snickered.
The rugged man looked slightly surprised, as though he really hadn't been expecting that. "She did tell you to stop, you know." Katie commented, deciding that the man wasn't cool enough to have a cookie after all and offering it to the sole woman.
The man in the wheelchair was also smiling, looking amused. "I can see why your parents want to send you to my school", he said kindly. The rugged man (who still did not offer his name) "harrumphed", though he did not attempt to take out another cigar.
"Well, I'm not sure why Nicole is going... she isn't exactly the Honor's student..." Katie babbled, putting the cookie jar away after giving one to Scott, who smiled and pocketed it.
Xavier raised his eyebrows in almost surprise. " Indeed..." he mumbled, looking slightly perturbed.
Nicole glared at Katie, blushing while the rugged man smirked, " Shut up!" she hissed poking Katie in the side. Immediately afterward she jumped back, squeaking. She sucked on her finger gingerly, "Ouch!" she whined softly. Katie grinned cheekily.
The woman spoke again, looking shocked and stepping forward. "You mean you don't know-" she started.
"Shush!" Charles whispered glancing at Katie, " Your mother is listening to us." he murmured. "That's why we're going to be leaving now," Charles continued, gesturing to the rugged man. "Logan, why don't you go and get the girls' things?"
Logan, as the man was apparently named, grumbled to himself, but complied. "So why did you come in the... jet-thing?" Nicole inquired, as they ducked through the rain towards it.
"Because its too far away to drive," The woman commented, as the space-ship-esque walkway descended. Katie shivered, imagining the sort of power it took to run such a jet.
Charles smiled kindly, turning around to face Katie. " Don't worry, our jet is resistant to... people with gifts of your nature." he said softly. Relieved, Katie followed him up the ramp and into the coolest jet that she had ever seen. Everything was high-tech and bleeping and whirring, and for once something wasn't going haywire in her presence.
"Whoa…" Nicole gushed, expressing the way Katie felt. " This is wicked cool!" she mumbled, running a hand along one of the comfy looking luxury airplane-style chairs.
Katie plopped into one of the seats, still marveling at all the electronics that were working perfectly fine. Nicole looked more reluctant to sit down, certain there was more cool things around that she couldn't see. "Look, here comes Logan with the bags." the woman commented, lending a hand with Nicole's rather massive trunk.
"Nicole, why did you bring so much stuff?" Katie asked, at the size difference between her suitcase and the trunk.
"Because it's all stuff I need..." Nicole tried to justify. Scott snickered again, apparently not the talkative sort.
"Like what kinds of stuff? A small killer whale?" Katie retorted, raising an eyebrow.
"No!" Nicole defended, plopping down beside her in a chair and began ticking off things on her fingers, " Like, clothing, toiletries, pencils, paper, notebooks, books, a bag of twizzlers, a box of milk duds, skittles, and some colored pencils, and some watercolors, and-" as she continued the items on the list began to steadily become more and more useless.
Logan smirked, lounging in the seat diagonal from Nicole, " And a television, and a lap top, and a pink polka dotted giraffe..." he teased.
Katie laughed outright. "Nicole does love her pink polka dotted giraffes..."
Nicole didn't look half as amused. "For your information, I do not have a TV, or a laptop. and my giraffe is blue and striped!" This, of course, only made them laugh harder.
Scott, walking by them to a seat behind Logan's, would have rolled his eyes at them if they had been able to tell. "You might want to buckle up," he commented instead. "Takeoff time."
Looking nervous, Nicole and Katie buckled their seat belts, Katie jerking it tightly around her. Nicole glared at Katie, " I'm going to kill you when we get there, and I hope you know that..." she muttered under her breath loud enough for Katie to hear.
A deep chuckle sounded from the depths of Logan's chair. She blushed once more. " Stupid... stupid... Logan... what kind of name is that... heh... just like Logan airport..." she mumbled in a flustered embarrassed manner.
Katie giggled quietly, " I'd like to see anyone try and land a plane on him Colie..."
Nicole made a face, unsure of exactly why she was so very irritated by the non-airport Logan. Katie ignored the face her friend was making, entirely used to it. She was looking for the woman, wondering exactly what hadn't been able to be said in front of her mother.
Nicole shrugged at her friend. "I have no idea," she whispered.
Katie shivered. "I hate it when you do that... its so... creepy!"
Nicole made another face. "Like you sticking your fingers in outlets isn't creepy."
Katie blanched, " How did you know I did that!" she squealed. Nicole made yet another face, grinning and tapping her temple in a quite literal, know-it-all manner. Katie scowled, " It's still cree--PYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" she screamed out right as the jet jerked into instant motion like a roller coaster, going from 0 to 60 in 2.5 seconds.
Logan's loudly, hoarse laughter could barely be heard over Katie's shrieks. Nicole shut her eyes tight, cringing at the shrill sound it hurt her ears... "Oww! ow STOP!" she yelled. What happened next made things work, the lights in the jet flickered as Nicole covered her ears, trying to block out the sound. But it was no use, Katie's mind was screaming too ' I HATE HEIGHTS! GOING TO FAST EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!'
Logan was still laughing as he turned around, leaned over to where they were sitting, and (none too gently) slapped Katie on the cheek (ignoring the shock he got in return). Her scream cut off abruptly, as she snapped out of it and glared at him, sweat standing out on her face. The lights went back to normal as well, as Nicole's mental anguish stopped.
There was a brief awkward silence. "Your welcome." he commented, before settling back into his own seat. Katie shot him a glare, looking as though she was considering seeing if he was immune to her.
Sighing with relief, Nicole slumped against her chair as cold sweat began to sprout on her own face. Feeling weaker, she turned to Katie who still looked utterly scandalized. "You know when you scream like that it screws everything up don't you?" she mumbled rubbing her temples so hard it was as if she were trying to reach her brain.
Katie blushed, "Sorry..." she mumbled looking uncomfortable and slightly guilty, "I had forgotten... I didn't mean to...are you alright?" she said abruptly. They hadn't noticed but the flight was much smoother once one got over the shock of how fast the jet had taken off.
Nicole smiled and nodded, " 'm fine..." she mumbled.
They both all looked up in surprise as Xavier's voice sounded from the front of the jet, " We should be arriving in a few minutes.." he murmured softly...
Katie raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Seriously? That was really quick... how fast were we going?" she asked, puzzled.
"Too fast to think about." Scott commented dryly from his seat, as though the antics of the flight had not perturbed him in the least. Nicole giggled suddenly, perhaps from catching a stray thought of Katie's, perhaps from whatever was going on in her own warped little mind.
"So, what is this school like?" Katie asked, hoping for an answer.
"You'll see," Logan replied, sounding far too amused for this to be a good thing.
- - -
After about fifteen minutes of mock polite patience, the girls were practically glued to the windows of the jet. "OOooohh... wow... its huge!" Katie whispered, eyeing the grounds and the huge mansion with awe.
"It must be super old..." mumbled Nicole as she examined the thick layer of green ivy that covered almost half of the school. Charles smiled at their enthusiasm.
"Yes, it is. I think that you will enjoy it here" he replied, "Oh, and by the way, all of us are your teachers here at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters... so there will be no need for introductions.." he smiled in an almost fatherly fashion.
Nicole ogled at him for a moment at the increasingly odd group, "Really? Weird..." Nicole stated. I wonder what Logan teaches...Gym no doubt... he seems the type who likes to look up girls gym shorts when their doing the warm ups... stupid pervert..
As the jet made a much smoother landing than it had taken off, the woman emerged from the cockpit, smiling kindly at them. "I'm sorry, I don't think I introduced myself earlier. My name is Ororo Monroe." She held out a hand to them, which only Nicole took. Katie was a bit afraid of making the woman's hair stand up any higher. They filed out of the jet, Logan somehow ending up in-between Katie and Nicole, with Scott taking up the rear. Katie resisted the urge to give the rugged scary man a really hard jolt, though she would have liked to.
There were at least fifteen students in that entry hall, and all of them were acting decidedly un-normal. A boy was walking around playing with a lighter, one girl had an extremely odd complexion, dark green and she wasn't wearing any clothing what so ever. A young boy, maybe 6, or 7 hung upside-down from the ceiling from his feet, which were bare. Nicole screamed as a girl near by ran right through her. This place was a mad house! A hiding place for all of the mutants! Why hadn't Charles called the police! This was insane! Her parents had always been telling her that mutants were bad news...
Charles chuckled. "Children, Children!" he called their attention. All of the people of varying ages stopped abruptly, looking as if they were about to be put to death, fear in their face. Charles smiled, "Off to your rooms now... you know that this sort of behavior is not allowed... even if all of the teachers are absent.." All of the kids, wearing similar expressions of guilt, trudged up a grand staircase and out of site.
"Stupid Kids.." Logan growled, gripping a cigar between his teeth and lighting it. Nicole twitched.
Katie was rather more surprised and less afraid, at least until she saw a rather scary rubber-child stretching out his arm some ten feet long. She twitched, "ew. rubber" she hissed to under her breath, before Scott poked her in the back to keep her moving. They were going into an antique-looking wooden study, that seemed perfectly normal until one of the walls whooshed out, revealing a stainless steel hallway.
"But... but... I'm not like them!" Nicole exclaimed, echoing what her parents had always told her.
"I'm normal!" Katie looked a bit afraid as well, nodding along with her friend. Logan just laughed at them, pushing them through the door. "Normal my ass."
The two girls walked in cautiously. What was this place? Where they going to be experimented on like in those Science Fiction movies? Dissected and examined from the inside out? Nicole shuddered.
"Stop thinking those things!" she hissed to Katie, who twitched, having forgotten that Nicole could tap into her thoughts whenever she liked. "You're scaring me..." Nicole mumbled softly, not wanting Logan to hear.
"Sorry..." she whispered, examining the hallway walls and the long, almost never ending hallway.
"This way please," Charles' voice echoed down the hall towards them (he was up at the front), and they followed him into another whooshing door. An elevator... they all ambled in fitting, not so comfortably inside. Scott's back was squashing Katie into the wall of the elevator, Charles' wheel chair had rolled over Logan's foot causing him to knock Ororo into Nicole, who practically toppled onto Charles' lap.
He laughed. "Sorry, this elevator isn't made for quite so many people." he stated, allowing Nicole to perch on the arm of his wheelchair in order to make what little room was left for the others to stand. The elevator rose and opened up to reveal a rather comfortingly normal looking room with bookshelves, a chalkboard, and a desk that looked very expensive with a number of bits and bobs on it. Xavier let Nicole off, and wheeled himself away so that he was sitting behind it.
He looked the girls both straight in the eye. "You two may think that you're normal, but from what I've seen I'm quite sure that you are as un-normal as you can get. You are mutants girls, and this school..." he motioned to all that surrounded them, " it a safe haven for us, where mutant children can be free to learn with away from the pressure of humans on them... Now, I can look into your minds and find out what you can do. But I'd like you to tell me." He continued, still looking them in the eye.
Katie squirmed, and spoke first, Nicole still in denial. "Electricity, mostly..." She held up a hand and concentrated, making a small flicker of what looked like lightning jump from finger to finger. "I really don't know how strong it is, though. I've never been allowed to see...I was six months old when I electrified our cat..?" She offered, feeling rather stupid because she knew so little about herself. "It gets stronger in water or through metal." The lightning-esque flickers died, and she let her hand fall into her lap.
After Katie's demonstration, everyone's eyes strayed over to Nicole, who blushed. " Umm.." she began, " Well, I can move things with my mind and hear other people's thoughts..." she mumbled, looking slightly embarrassed. " I used to make food that I didn't like fly up into my mother's face... and... one time when I had a tantrum in the supermarket... all of the shelves fell over like dominoes... and if I concentrate hard enough..." she paused and in a split second she had phased through her chair, so that her upper body was the only thing visible on the seat of the chair.
Charles looked at her, smiling. "Well, I'm sure you'll both fit in very well here. Why don't we have Logan show you to your rooms, and then you can meet some of the other kids?"
Katie shrugged, "Sounds alright to me," though Nicole was sending Logan a look that said that no, it was not all right with her. Logan did not look particularly amused either, not really wanting to end up in a girl's room.
- - -
The room was a rather nice place, painted a light cheerful sort of green, with two pretty wooden beds with comfy blue sheets. Katie was rather more interested in the light socket, though she refrained from playing with it while they watched Logan drag Nicole's trunk into the room and attempt to find a place for it.
Nicole walked in last, dropping the pout that had previously commandeered her face as she took a look at everything. "Wow... it's almost my own room...but at least I get to share it with you, Katie instead of my annoying little sister. I swear all she thought about were her stuffed animals... how I would have loved to tear them to pieces.." she mumbled, fingering the soft comforter on the bed nearest to the door. She looked up; " Which bed do you want Katie? I don't care which but I don't want to end up taking the one that you want.." she inquired, ignoring the grunts of aggravation coming from Logan as he continued to drag her trunk towards the closet.
Glaring at him, Nicole levitated the trunk towards her, "Give me that.." she grumbled as it landed with a thud next to her.
Logan scowled as he bent over, bracing himself by clutching his knees, panting like an animal. "If you could do that, why did you have me carry it up 3 flights of stairs! " Nicole smirked, not saying what she really felt like saying, because I like to see you suffer... but apparently this thought was practically palpable in the air because Katie giggled and Logan's lip curled unpleasantly.
Logan had just opened his mouth to say something biting, when he was interrupted when someone knocked gently on the doorframe. He was a nice looking sort of kid, very-boy-next door. "Hello, I heard we had some new kids", he offered as an explanation. Before they had a chance to reply another three or four kids had also showed up in the doorway, anxious to meet them. One was a pretty, soft-looking girl, a boy with rather ungainly massive wings, and the kid with the lighter from downstairs.
"Uhm... Hi.." Nicole offered, "I'm Nicole... and this, " she motioned to Katie, who waved, her face turning pink, "This is Katie" she finished, smiling as pleasantly as she could with Logan less than 5 feet away from her.
The nice boy smiled and held out a hand. " I'm Bobby." he stated. Taking his hand Nicole shook it, but not before realizing that her hand had become terribly cold. She sucked in a breath and looked at their hands, they were both blue with cold.
Bobby grinned, " My friends call me Ice Man" he laughed, his blue eyes twinkling with amusement at the shocked look on Nicole and Katie's faces.
"Erm... nice to meet you Bobby." they echoed. Turning to the other's Bobby promptly introduced them to the girls. The girl was Kitty, and the boy with the wings was Warren, but he liked to be called Archangel. Arch for short. The kid with the lighter was John, but he liked to be called Pyro. He flicked open the lighter and formed a fireball out of the flames.
Bobby gave him a disapproving look, and sent a small gust of ice to quench the flame. "Can we be careful around the wooden rooms, please?" He asked, sounding like he had to do this all the time.
John made a face at Bobby, but put the lighter away. Logan took this opportunity to escape, not really wanting to hang around. As Nicole watched Bobby and John, Katie was oohing and aahing over 'Arch' (as they called him)'s wings. "They're so pretty! Can I touch them?" She asked, feeling rather stupid.
Nicole rolled her eyes as Arch, reluctantly stretched out a wing for Katie to examine. Bobby, smiling and wanting to keep the conversation going, continued. "So where are you girls from?" he offered going to sit on the bed that had Nicole's trunk next to it, looking comfortable.
Nicole felt like telling him to please get off, but thought better of it as it would be rude and he was only trying to be friendly. "Um around Boston... we just got here.." she said rather stupidly, feeling weird. Boys never really thought much of talking to her, they much rather liked teasing her about accidentally walking through the door to the classroom instead of opening it. It felt nice to have someone to talk to who didn't beg you to "tell their future" (when all you can do is read minds) all of the time.
Bobby looked rather interested. "Really? I'm from Boston too..." He then went on to quiz Nicole about famous places in Boston she'd never been. There was another lull in conversation, which Kitty broke.
"So, what can you guys do?" She asked, curious.
Katie shrugged, feeling a tad awkward. "Electricity", she answered, giving another brief lightning display. Nicole did not answer, pretending she hadn't heard the question.
Bobby smiled, " Cool." he said. Then everyone looked at Nicole, again.
"What can you do?" Arch asked, smiling both politely as if to say I'm sorry and questioningly. She sighed, closed her eyes, and then promptly sank right through the floor. When she reappeared, she made a very distressed Bobby float two feet in the air.
The group oh-ed and ah-ed and Kitty even clapped. She was grinning, " At least I won't be the only one who can walk through walls now" she laughed.
BANG! There was an unexpected booming outside their window, as a thunderstorm built itself up into a royal fury above their heads. Katie dashed to the window, laughing rather crazily as lightning flashed rather too close for comfort.
"That came up really fast," Nicole commented.
"That's Storm's work." Bobby replied, as though this was no big deal to him.
"Storm?" Nicole repeated, questioningly.
"Ororo." Kitty explained. "They all take special names that have something to do with their mutations."
"Katie! Close the window!" Nicole yelled, as a suddenly strong gust of wet wind mussed her hair. Katie just laughed, hanging half out of the window, for once heedless of the height of the window.
"Katie!" Nicole shouted, trying to fight her way to the window. "Katie! I said GET AWAY FROM THAT GOD DAMNED WINDOW!"
Another bolt of lightning flashed past the window, and Katie leaned farther out of the window, almost as if she wanted to- Katie caught the bolt of lightning. It wrapped itself around her arm and kept moving upward toward the center of her body to move toward the ground.
"KATIE NO!" Nicole screamed. Katie, completely unaware of the danger, watched it with an almost maniacal sense of fascination. Breathing heavily, Nicole felt her physical strength weakening and the wind blew her backward. "Enough!" she screamed, with out warning, everything in the room began to shake violently as if an earthquake was going on as well as a gigantic thunderstorm.
But Katie was far too entranced with the pleasure of the lightning wrapped about her arm to notice. Everyone else in the room were a bit less concerned than Nicole, finally caught on to what a good conductor the wet, permanently static-y girl would make. Of course, everyone was afraid of just grabbing her by the shoulders, as they'd get zapped themselves (and without any nice, inborn immunity). Being the closest, Arch finally bit the bullet and dragged Katie inside of the room, breaking the connection to the lightning bolt.
Nicole slammed the window shut, and the wind finally stopped. "Katie! You're such an IDIOT!" Nicole snarled, wanting to slap her friend (but a bit afraid too, given the look on Arch's face and the small burns on his hands). "Leaning out of windows like a lunatic, nearly giving me a freaking heart attack! You could have been hurt! You could have been KILLED! Lightning isn't SAFE it may be electricity but it is also UNPREDICTABLE! ITS NOT YOUR AVERAGE EVERY-DAY LIGHTBULB!" Nicole burst in disbelief and complete and unstoppable rage. They had been there what, 15 minutes and they would be expelled for Katie's creepy fascination for white-hot bolts of electrical energy.
With this loud statement said, Nicole slumped onto her bed breathing heavily, and with ever disaster there comes... someone to make things increasingly... worse... " WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON UP HERE! I TURN MY BACK FOR ONE MINUTE AND YOU TWERPS GO HAVING A FUCKING SHOUTING MATCH WHEN I'M TRYING TO CONCENTRATE!" Logan was back, and his claws were bared. Literally.
Everyone whirled around, Katie and Nicole rather understandably shocked to see three steel-looking blades extending from each of his hands. "Its not my fault!" Nicole yelled back. "The smart one over here decided that thunderstorms were fun to play with and was hanging out of the window, grabbing at the tail end of a lightning bolt!" "
I was perfectly fine!" Katie yelled back, ignoring Logan entirely. "It was entirely under control, until you started freaking out!"
"SHUT UP!" Logan roared. "I'm not interested in who the hell started it!"
Nicole scowled, folding her arms over her chest. "Alrighty then, beastie boy, what are you interested in... if you don't care... why are you here?" she challenged, narrowing her eyes. Everyone in the little 'posse' gaped at her.
Bobby's blue eyes were round with disbelief and amazement. " Nicole!" he hissed, " do you know who your talking to! "
Nicole shrugged, not really sure why that should matter. "Yeah, I'm talking to Logan. and he's a hairy asshole." she said a little too loudly, and entirely not caring that he could hear her.
Bobby gasped, looking rather afraid to be caught in some sort of crossfire from what was sure to turn out as a vicious, bloody beating... and at the same time immensely cowed by what had to be overwhelming bravery, or overwhelming stupidity.
- - -
Storm looked up from her seat by the window, suddenly confused as to why her storm had gotten weaker. Someone was... siphoning off power from it, via a... lightning bolt? But, who'd be able to withstand the massive volts of electricity?
Charles Xavier, sitting behind his desk not to far from Storm, was smiling to himself. Dimly he could hear yelling upstairs, dominated by Logan's voice. This was going to be a fun year indeed...
Though Logan's voice was certainly very prominent, another voice, female, was beginning to master it. "AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN OUR ROOM! THIS IS A GIRLS ROOM! UNLESS YOU ARE EITHER AN IT OR A VERY UGLY GIRL, I SUGGEST YOU STEP OUT OF OUR ROOM!"
Storm laughed. "That's a good one!" she giggled.
"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE TALKING TO YOU LITTLE-"
"HEY! DON"T THINK OF CALLING ME THAT YOU INSOLENT..."
"I'LL THINK WHAT EVER I GOD DAMNED WANT TO!"
Charles sighed to himself. "Do you think we should give them all a talk about the rules?"
Storm shrugged. "I'd rather wait until this Nicole and Logan duke it out first."