Author's Note: Welcome to chapter 2! I was disappointed by the lack of feedback to chapter 1. My only consolation is that no one hated it enough to leave a scathing review.

This chapter is dedicated to Wing-Mei, for her awesomeness and support! You have awesome editing skills, too, Wing-Mei! ;^)

Chapter Two:

Distractions

As she stood stiffly in the mansion's foyer, Emma looked as though her smile had been pasted unnaturally on her face.

"One day, you will learn how to show emotions, ice queen," Erik snapped, his temper short. The others watched in interest as Erik rounded on the unsuspecting Emma Frost.

"It's White Queen, and you're the one who invited me to teach here!" The smile remained on Emma's face as she gestured to her suitcases. "Is there anyone to help me with my luggage?"

"You're a telepath. You know very well that today was Charles's funeral." Erik's eyes were downcast, and he clenched his fists angrily. How dare that vile woman come into Charles's childhood home and insult his memory. "I've obviously made a mistake in inviting you here!"

"We are going to need a telepath to find new recruits. I've begun working on building a new Cerebro in the basement," Hank spoke up, channeling more of his meek, scientist side than his beastly, animalistic one. He did not want to alienate their one chance to gain new recruits.

Although he did not want to admit it, Erik knew this to be true. "Carry your stuff upstairs on your own and find an empty room!" Erik growled, stomping off upstairs to find solitude in his own room.

The young mutants and Moira watched as Emma changed into diamond form and proceeded to march up the staircase, mustering up as much confidence as possible. Inside, she felt embarrassed and ashamed of her behavior, but she mostly did not want to appear weak in front of her soon-to-be students. She had honestly always dreamed of becoming a teacher. As a child she had imagined herself teaching a classroom full of privileged children at an upscale private school, but she realized that this was a close as she would ever get to fulfill her dream. Being callous and coldhearted was merely a front to prevent herself from snapping and killing Shaw because of his disrespectful attitude. He always acted like a male chauvinistic pig, and Emma was glad to be free of that life.

The rooms were nice and already furnished, and Emma had no trouble finding a vacant one. After unpacking her suitcases, she reverted back to human form. She lay down on her bed and tried to compose herself, hoping to mingle with the other residents later. It would not do to have no friends in the school.

Downstairs, Alex, Sean, and Hank were sitting on a couch, relaxing.

"Erik, Moira, and Raven sure are taking Professor X's death hard," Alex blurted out, breaking an awkward period of silence.

Sean and Hank whipped their heads around to look at him. "Alex!" they both shouted at once. Hank was astounded at Alex's candor, while Sean just shook his head, knowing Alex all too well.

"Erik was Charles's best friend! And Charles and Raven were pretty much brother and sister!" One of Hank's furry blue hands had shot up and was now covering his mouth in astonishment.

"Yes. Xavier was our teacher, and it's a lot different to compare your teacher dying to your best friend or especially your brother dying," Sean pointed out.

Alex's eyes had a glassy quality to them at these words. He had not thought about his own brother in a long time… "What about Moira. She was just Professor X's CIA agent or something." He tried to cover his momentary distancing.

"My theory is that Moira had a crush on Professor X." Sean whispered, conspiratorially. This time, Alex and Hank stared at him like he was crazy. They immediately dismissed the notion, and that was the end of that conversation.

Hank did not understand why the two other young mutants were taking Charles's death so lightly. Earlier at the funeral, everyone had been grieving for Charles's loss, but now here those two were, joking and going on with their lives as if nothing had happened. However, Hank recognized that everything had changed. Charles had been more than just a teacher to Hank; he had been more of a mentor to him. Narrowing his eyes at his fellow young mutants, Hank exited the room, leaving to work on Cerebro.

A sudden wave of melancholy washed over Sean. "Professor X would have wanted us to go on with our lives, right? He would have wanted us to live our lives to the fullest." He looked to Alex for guidance. The worldly Alex had been in prison after all; he had all of the answers.

"Yeah. I mean, my parents died when I was younger. Plane crash. And I got over it. I'm a perfectly normal young man now. Who went to jail. And is a mutant."

"Thanks for the pep talk." The two boys sat in silence for a while, before Sean spoke again, "What happened?"

"What?"

"What were you put in jail for? What did you do?"

Alex glared at Sean, who realized that Alex was not ready to share the story with him yet.

"When my powers first manifested, I blew out all of the windows in my house with my sonic scream. My mom burst her eardrums too… What about you?"

"That was it."

"When your powers first manifested, you blew out all of the windows in your house and caused someone to burst their eardrums, too?"

"Why am I even talking to you?" Alex made to get up, but Sean grabbed his arm and pulled him back to the couch.

"No! I was just kidding. Now tell me!" Sean was pleading now, and Alex knew that if he did not tell the redhead now, he would never be able to live it down.

Alex sighed and began his story, one he had never told a soul before now. "After my parents died, I was put into the foster care system. I had no one else to take me in, and I was already fourteen, so they thought it would be better for me than an orphanage. The couple I was put with already had a foster son; he was eight. My real brother had been eight… " That made it twice in one day that he had thought about his younger brother. It had been so long since that fateful day. Alex could still remember his brother's innocent smile, his deep brown eyes, and his messy brown hair. He ran his hands through his own blond hair. There was not much of a family resemblance there. His brother had been the one who looked like their parents. But he should not dwell on the past…

Looking over at Sean, Alex checked to make sure the other boy had not noticed his zoning out, but he need not fear; Sean, too, was deep in thought. He looked up as Alex continued, "Anyway, I was much older than the other foster kid. One day, the foster parents left us alone together—I was babysitting—but we never really got along. At one point—I don't remember what he did—but I got so angry, and this red energy shot out of me, towards him. His arm was vaporized instantly, and there was this huge hole in the wall. There was blood everywhere, and I couldn't do a thing; I was in shock. The neighbors called 911, and the next thing I knew, I was being hauled away by the police, and my foster brother was being carried away in a stretcher."

Next to him on the couch, Sean cringed slightly, disgust evident on his face.

"I couldn't control it. That's when I first got my mutant powers!" Alex felt ashamed by this tragic event, and Sean's negative reinforcement was not helping in the least. His anger had triggered the powers, so in his mind, he felt responsible for his former foster brother's loss of limb.

On the other hand, Sean's face was contorting as he tried to make sense of Alex's words. He finally won out over his disgust and his expression changed into concern. "That's terrible. What a terrible way to have your powers first manifest! Whatever happened to the boy?"

"He lived." But now he only has one arm. He will never become an athlete. He will always be at a disadvantage. Many words went unsaid, but Sean decided that Alex had shared enough. Alex had really opened up after Sean had shared such an insignificant tidbit with him. They both put on fake smiles, and their deep conversation digressed into irrelevant chatter.

In his room, Erik stared at a picture of Charles as a boy. Young Charles's cherubic round face and cute brown hair did nothing to soothe Erik. There was no way to avenge Charles, no one to get revenge against, no one to blame. Except himself! He could not blame Moira because that would be disrespectful to Charles's memory. Erik really needed to find a way to occupy himself before the opening of the school.

Down in the basement, Hank worked diligently on Cerebro while Raven sat cross-legged on the floor. While she wanted to make herself useful, Raven did not understand a thing Hank was doing, so she resigned herself to watching him work.

"Hey Hank, is it hard to hold things with paws?" Raven asked, playfully.

"I'm trying to work, Raven. Don't you have something better to do?" Hank looked down at his furry blue, clawed hands, scowling.

"That was uncalled for!" Erik Lensherr chose that moment to walk in, eyes ablaze. "Never speak to her that way again!"

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean that. I've just been under a ton of stress lately." Hank wished that he could take back what he had said. Although it was difficult to concentrate while building Cerebro 2.0, he genuinely enjoyed Raven's friendship, and usually her company, also.

"I actually came here to offer my services. Obviously, most of your materials are metal, and my powers are over magnetism."

Raven glanced at Erik coldly, quickly leaving the room. Erik's behavior was sending her mixed messages, and she did not yet know if she blamed him or not for Charles's death. At the moment, she wanted to avoid him, although she did not wish to be alone. She had a sudden, babyish urge to stick out her tongue, which she gave in to.

After momentarily staring after the blue-skinned girl, Hank snapped back to reality and turned to Erik. "I actually have a really good idea. The mutant students will need a training area to hone their abilities. Don't ask me why, but on this level, there's an underground bunker. I've created these specs for a high-tech training arena, which I have dubbed the 'Danger Room'."

Grabbing the blueprints from Hank, Erik studied them closely. "You want me to use my control over magnetism to upgrade this bunker?" He felt relieved to finally have a temporary distraction from his grief.

"Yes. If you have any questions, just ask me."

"I have just one—how did you come up with such a lame name?"