We flew to the mansion in a private jet that Xavier knew how to fly.

"You have a pilot's license?" I questioned him looking around the jet.

"Yes," Xavier replied.

"They let a paraplegic fly a jet?" I restated the question.

"Yes," Xavier repeated the answered.

"Fucking miracles," I huffed trying to lean further back into my seat. So I was on a plane flying to a mysterious school for mutants, and the pilot of the plane happened to have no control of his legs along with the power to read minds. If someone came up to me and asked me how I was, I would have said that I was fucking dandy, but then Xavier over there in his wheelchair and his pilot's license proudly pinned on his tweed jacket would have been like 'That's a fucking lie!'.

I was uncomfortable the whole flight, sitting in silence and trying not to think about something stupid so I didn't make a bad impression on Xavier. Of course, I probably already did with the thought of not making a bad impression floating around in my head.

I was also trying not to think about my escape plan. I was just planning to go to the mansion to make the bald dude happy then skip out during the night after getting a shower and liberating all of the AJ. I was better off on my own, and flying to a mansion full of mutants was not 'on my own'. If Xavier got wind of my plan, I may just be put on full lock-down or some other shit thing to keep me from escaping the place he was taking me too.

The mansion was a bright beacon of freedom as we touched down in an underground hanger. That meant that I could go and my fucking AJ along with the fact that I would be out of Xavier's eye for a while. There was just one problem. WE FUCKING TOUCHED DOWN IN AN UNDERGROUND HANGER.

"Shit, underground hangers?" I said as I hopped off the plane. "You sure you aren't selling me a one-way ticket to being tested on?"

"No Dave," Xavier rolled down the ramp off the plane. "Here at the school we would rather keep the existence of mutants a secret than reveal mutant kind to the world."

"Well, all the towns I've been chased out seem to know their shit about mutants," I replied looking around the large metal room.

"You have been hiding in small towns," Xavier answered rolling towards an elevator. I followed after him in a coolkid strut to entertain him in his lecture. "They, much like mutants, would rather keep to themselves than tell the government about how they live their lives."

"And if we don't tell the government, then we won't have to be strapped to any machine with pin and needles sticking out of our arms," I guessed.

"Exactly," Xavier replied as the elevator opened. I followed him out into a hallway that looked a lot like a mansion, a polar opposite to the cold metal walls of the underground hanger.

I followed Xavier out to a type of balcony overlooking a front entrance, with grand staircases coming straight down through the center of the room. It was an open area, and mutants passed exercising their powers. It didn't look like the layer of a crazy man who tested on mutants, because kids my age walked around like they were normal.

"So," I started a question. "So this actually isn't a place to test on mutants?"

"I am a mutant myself," Xavier reminded me, though his powers of telepathy were still present on my mind.

"Yeah, so who many mutants do you have stuffed into this place?" I asked.

"Including myself, Ororo, Logan and the students," Xavier began. "Twenty-five. And you make twenty-six."

"And by students, you mean that we get to spent all day messing around with our powers?" I asked, the idea of this place becoming more inviting.

"We do spend some part of our days learning to control and expand our mutant powers," Xavier began. "But the students here also attend school at Midtown High."

"Uhg, school," I groaned.

"Yes," Xavier continued. "We can get you checked in later in the week after you settled down."

"There's one problem though," I began to explain. "I don't exist."

"I am sure that you exist," Xavier informed me as if I didn't know that already.

"No, no! I already know that I fucking exist!" I started to explain. "But according to the government I don't."

"So you faked your own death?" Xavier was curious about my disappearance from the world.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Got I planed it out months in ahead and traveled back in time three times. One so I could shoot the bullet. The second time to get myself out of there, and the third time to put in place the fake dead body."

"Why would you do such a thing?" Xavier questioned me.

"Why don't you read my mind?" I questioned Xavier.

"I do not tread where I am unwanted," Xavier explained. "If you would like to keep things personal, I completely understand that."

"Life just seemed easier if you didn't exist," I began to explain. "No school, no ties to family, no responsibilities."

"Ah, and you would rather up keep the idea that you are dead to the world," Xavier understood the gist of it.

"Yeah," I agreed. "So where's the fucking kitchen?"

"Wouldn't you like the tour first?" Xavier asked me.

"No, I was promised AJ and I will get my fucking AJ if it's the end of me!" I announced as I stormed down the stairs and followed the elite Apple Juice detector in my stomach down various hallways, finally ending up in the kitchen.

"Fuck yeah, Apple Juice time," I announced proudly beginning to rip through the kitchen. "Now where would a telepathic mutant hide his AJ?"

"Here?" a silky voice from behind asked as the fridge door was enveloped in black energy and a jug of apple was drawn out with the same black energy. I followed the flight of the AJ to a girl my age with stark blond hair, lavender eyes, and a grim smirk on her face. She carried two black needles in her hands that glowed with the same black energy.

"I think it would be wise to inform you that said telepathic mutant like to keep all his beverages slightly cooled in the fridge," the girl snarked.

"Thanks, after the trash can the fridge was my next best guess," I informed her.

"Rose Lalonde," the girl introduced herself using the needles and black energy to coordinate the landing of the AJ on the island counter in the kitchen. "And you must be a new student here."

"Dave Strider," I introduced myself. "Time traveler."

"Hhm, I do not think I have ever heard of a mutant with time traveling powers," Rose inquired as I grabbed a cup out of a cupboard and began to pour myself a cup of the nectar of the gods: Apple juice.

"Yeah, it's a pretty cool power. Traveling back and forward in time to stop myself from being killed," I elaborated on the subject. "I can stop time also, but that takes more work."

"So I guess that you have stopped time before on accident and then proceeded to flip the fuck out?" Rose guessed.

"Whoa! Fucking read my mind. Are you another telepath?" I asked Rose, kinda freaked out with the idea that there would be more than one telepath in the mansion.

"No," Rose replied. "Professor Xavier has just been teaching me the finer points of therapy."

"He's a therapist too? The best in the business then," I guessed.

"He does not do it as an occupation," Rose explained. "He runs the school instead."

"Then what can you do if you're not reading minds?" I asked.

"I am able to control magic," Rose produced her needles again. "Dark or light, I am able to control it. I prefer dark though, much more my style."

"I can see that," I agreed. "So what are the knitting needles for if you can control magic?"

"They simple help me channel the magical energy so it does not consume me unlike the last time," Rose explained dropping a major hint that I really didn't fucking care about at the time.

"Where'd you get them?" I looked at the needles.

"Professor X has various connections," Rose explained. "He procured these from a doctor friend of his. I had a few lesson under him. He's what you could call strange."

"At least he wasn't a giant burly man telling you that you're a witch and inviting you to a school where there is a greater chance of dying than at home with your abusive uncle and aunt," I answered.

"Yes, quiet so," Rose agreed. "Adventures at a school named after a skin blemish on a pig seems rather drab,"

"I have to say Rose," I began to give out a rare compliment. "You're pretty ironic for someone I've just met."

"And you have no idea what ironic means," Rose replied. "But yes, talking with you is a more entertaining talk with many other applicants at this school."

"So, what other idiots attend this school?" I decided to ask based on rose's statement.

"They are not all idiots," Rose started. "Some are complete and udder buffoons, but not all. Some mutants here are quiet smart."

"Hhm, so what's the dish on the other students?" I then asked. "Cool, not cool, idiot, smart, homosexual, heterosexual."

"Hhm, sexualities are important to you Mr. Strider?" Rose questioned.

"I just wanna know which guys I can hit on and which guys I can't hit on," I openly replied.

"Ah, yes well, there are twenty-one other students that attend here, so it may take a period of time to explain their entire lives to you," Rose replied.

"I've got all the time on my hands," I punned.

"Understood, but where to start?" Rose pondered.

"Start with the gay ones," I replied.

"Not everyone I assume that is gay has come out of the closet yet though so it will be suspicious if you start to try and woo them," Rose answered.

"I will then join them in the closet and we can have in Narnia," I answered. "Just tell me so I can get in a ride on Aslan's back before the wooing starts."

Rose opened her mouth and was about to begin, but was sadly cut off by an adult entering the room.

"Yes, there you are Rose," the woman said.

"What do you need Ororo?" Rose replied.

"Rororo?" I tried to say her name.

Ororo laughed at my failed attempt, "Mostly students call me Storm. You must be the new mutant Xavier found-Dave Strider."

"The one and only," I answered.

"Well, someone is looking for you as well Dave," Storm informed me. "Xavier said that you and the student in question are related."

"That's probably just some confusion," I dismissed. I took a long sip of my apple juice as Storm continued to talk.

"Are you sure? Because Dirk confirmed that you two were cousins," Storm continued.

I spit my apple juice on the table and exclaimed, "Dirk? Here?"

"Yes, Dirk Strider," Rose repeated. "You two do share the last name, do you not?"

"But he's back in Texas!" I argued.

"Dirk's been at the school even before I showed up when I was twelve Dave," Rose informed me.

I stared blankly at the wall opposite of me and let the fact that my cousin who thought I was dead was here at the school as Storm looked at me worried and Rose poured herself a glass of apple juice.

However, Rose did not pour the apple juice for herself. She then waved the cup of apple juice under my chin until I snapped out of it and snatched the cup out of Rose's hand like lightning.

"Wonderful reflexes Mr. Strider," Rose congratulated me as I chugged the glasses of apple juice. "Those will do you good in the long run of being a mutant here at Xavier's Institute."

"How?" I asked, putting Dirk off to the side for a new found curiosity.

"The Danger Room," Rose answered.

"Sounds dangerous," I retorted.

"And John's pranks on the side," Rose added.

"The pranks sound more dangerous than the Danger Room," I observed.

"And you would be right about that," Rose agreed.

"Always nice to see a blooming friendship between students," Storm observed. "Now Dave, would you like to be reacquainted with your cousin?"

"Too late I'm already here," Dirk announced his arrival entering the kitchen. "I was getting impatient."

"Dirk," I greeted Dirk in the regular Strider way.

"Dave," Dirk replied. "I thought you were dead."

"I thought you weren't a mutant," I retorted.

"Then you're both wrong," Rose cut in on the conversation.

"I'll leave you two alone to get reacquainted," Storm stated leaving the room. "Rose?"

"No, I would so like to see this family reunion," Rose answered staying in her seat. "Whatever I was needed for shall wait. Dirk Strider may just show feelings for once."

"Not going to happen," Dirk informed Rose.

"Striders don't show feelings," I replied. "Our natural mutations that run in the family are a poker face as unbreakable as the Thing's rocky ass and a sense of irony that would put the idiot who came up with literary terms to shame."

"Exactly," Dirk agreed with me.

"So what are you here for?" I asked pouring myself another glass of apple juice.

"I can control technology," Dirk demonstrated by turning on and off the lights without even moving. "An all around technopath. You?"

"Time travel," I answered. "Stopping time, slowing time, speeding time, using the time stream as a personal storage system."

"Handy," Dirk observed pouring himself a glass of apple juice.

"So is life here at the institute good?" I asked him.

"Warm bed, food, apple juice, awesome technology, a Danger Room full of things to hack at with a sword," Dirk explained. "We sometimes go out on missions and we get to hack at real evil people with swords."

"Awesome," I agreed with that idea.

"You still have a sword?" Dirk asked me.

"In the time stream," I answered. "It'll always be there for me to pick up even if I loose it."

"Have you ever done any 'Time Travel' clichés with yourself?" Dirk then asked.

"No, have you ever done the Nosfuato thing from Spongebob with anyone?" I then asked.

"Hell yeah," Dirk agreed. We shared a cousinly high-five and turned to Rose who looked quite disappointed with us.

"Well, you two seemed to have reacquainted quickly despite your prior beliefs," Rose observed. "Striders will always be an enigma to me."

Dirk and I both shared a smirk at that statement before Dirk offered, "So do you want a tour of the mansion?"

"Now that I've gotten my apple juice," I started putting my glass down on the countertop. "Sure."

"If you two will be off," Rose got off of her seat. "I bid you ado."

"See ya around," I told Rose as I followed Dirk out of the room. "So what's first? Is there a pool? There's got to be a pool. It wouldn't be a mansion if they didn't have a pool. Please tell me they have a pool."

"We don't have a pool," Dirk put down my high hopes.

"Shit, I was looking forward to pausing time and making people just happen to appear in a pool," I joked.

"That would have been funny. But you can do that in the Danger Room when we play games," Dirk answered.

"You play games in the Danger Room? I thought that the Danger Room was dangerous," I asked.

"Yep, better chance of getting hurt, and a lot cooler than practicing on the rooftop," Dirk explained.

"Cool," I remembered battling on the rooftop of the apartment building back in Texas when I was younger. Sure, I always got beaten up, but that didn't remove the educational purposes from it.

"Gah!" I cried as we turned the corner and I got attacked by a giant white fluffy beast with green energy cackled around it. I was knocked down on the ground and soon a soft pink tongue was being dragged across my face leaving behind a trail of spit.

"Bec! No! Come here!" a girl's voice called out. "Bec!"

"Keep your attack wolf under control Harley," Dirk dragged the white beast off of me. The beast had not collar so Dirk had to wrap his arms around the dog's chest and then physically drag him a couple feet away from my slobbering body.

"Ew," I exclaimed as I wiped the thick dog slobber off of my face.

"Sorry about that," the girl apologized for her dog. "Bec here just gets excited when he meets new people."

I looked up to see that the owner of the dog has a black mane of wild hair, and lime green eyes. She wore Harry Potter glasses and had a happy smile dancing across her face.

"Jade Harley," the girl introduced herself.

"Harley? Sounds like a name created by a stupid speech impediment," I commented.

"Right, I know," Jade agreed with me. "So who are you? You're new here right?"

"Yeah I'm new," I answered and I greeted myself as I shook her hand. "Dave Strider. Time travel."

"Cool! I haven't heard of a mutant with time traveling powers yet," Jade informed me.

"I'm just one of a kind," I said proudly. "So what can you do?"

"I can increase or decrease the size and density of any object," Jade replied.

"So I bet that getting food at the movie's cheep when you can just buy the small, then make it bigger," I guessed.

"Yeah, but then you have these giant popcorn pieces that barely fit in your mouth," Jade answered. "And trust me, I've tried."

"So, what's the furry beast all about?" I asked Jade looking at her dog.

"Bec? Oh, he's a mutant too," Jade began to explain.

"Dogs can be mutants?" I asked surprised.

"Yeah, Bec can created power bubbles that teleport people away and be used as shields," Jade explained before kneeling down on the ground to give the white panting dog a good rub. "He's also smarter than the average dog, aren't yeah Bec? Yes, that's right. Good dog, best friend."

"Cool, so he knows everything we're saying?" I asked looking at the dog.

"Yep!" Jade answered. Bec started to lick her face and before her face could be covered in a thick coat of spit, Jade stood up. "Well, I'll leave you two Striders alone to your tour. There are a lot of things to do and people to meet!"

"Right," Dirk agreed.

"See you around Jade," I bid my goodbye as Jade continued on down the hallway with Bec at her heels.

"Cool girl," I commented.

"Yeah, Jade has her own nuclear physics lab under the mansion too," dirk added.

"Awesome, a chance of everything exploding at once. Everyone seems to like to live life dangerously, I see?" I joked.

"No, Jade's pretty good at making everything all safe," Dirk explained. "But if the mansion is ever taken over by the enemy, the self-destruct button is found inside Jade's lab."

"So a fiery and painful death," I guessed, but I couldn't see Xavier to be one to do that kind of thing.

"It was Logan's idea," Dirk continued. "Logan is pretty much responsible for the mansions' security and enjoys making it especially gory."

"Hhm," I thought for a second. "So, so far I've met three out of the twenty mutants that are students here. I still have seventeen to go. This is gonna be a long night."

"Let's see the Danger Room before you're trampled by some of the other kids who are just flocking to meet the newest member of the team," Dirk informed me. I followed him to the bowels (heh, bowels) of the Mansion where I was able to witness a training session in the Danger Room.

And yes, as the name states, it is dangerous.

Claws and laser and anything deadly shot out of the walls, floor and ceiling and tracked the occupants of the room firing at full blast. Death seemed to be nigh, but
they weren't ordinary lab rats running around in the maze of death. These were mutants with kickass superpowers. People ducked and jumped and destroyed machines and it was just one big piles of awesomeness.

"You can control the course up here," Dirk explained running over the machinery. "Flamethrowers, magnets, walls, laser, robotic arms, everything."

"Everything?" I questioned.

"Everything," Dirk repeated. "And everyone's almost done. You can go down and meet them all at once."

The 'training session' was quickly done with and Dirk brought me down to the prep room where the assembled mutants where getting out of their costumes and introduced me to everyone.

To make things quick, this is how it went down. The people I met were pretty cool. It's easy to start off with Aradia Megido, the girl who can talk to ghosts. We hit things off pretty quick, talking about dead things and bones and stuff. I knew from the start that we would get along nicely. Aradia's dubbed Ghoul for her ghostly powers.

Next was the bipolar wonder, Sollux Captor. His mutant powers are telekinesis and the ability to control the internet. However, thanks to his bipolar disorder, there's an additive third power-splitting into two people. With his additive third power, we get Sol and Lux. Sol get the telekinesis and is the happier of the two, while Lux gets the control of the internet and happen to have the darker thoughts. He has a hard time controlling this splitting of person and powers, but the medicine helps a little bit. Because he's often split, Sollux's codename ended up as Double.

Roxy Lalonde is Rose's older sister and seems to have more of a mind on partying than her sister. She is still as smart as Rose, but more motivated by fun than reason. Roxy's good friends with Dirk and is very funny, so she's alright in my book. She has the power to turn invisible, so on the field everyone calls her Bygone.

Vriska Serket is the crazy spider bitch with the ability to control minds and has only revenge on her mind. Manipulative, cunning, and very, very lucky. Vriska will be able to gamble you out of house and home as well as freak you out while you're doing this. I was later informed of some rumors that she paralyzed a kid by mind-controlling him to jump off a roof before she got to Xavier. She also, for certain, mind-controled Terezi into looking at the sun wherein Terezi became blind, but her superpowers came in handy.

Terezi Pyrope is the amazing blind chick with the mental power to adapt to any situation. It's not like if you get cold, then you get more body heat. No, for Terezi it works when she's in a foreign country where they speak a language she doesn't speak. Quickly, her brain will adapt so that she speaks that foreign language. How did her mutant power come in handy when she was blinded? Well, since Terezi's ability to see handicapped her. Her brain made it so that she could taste and smell colors. Now, Terezi gets around fine and kicks ass. She's also crazy. And ironic. And cool. Yep, we hit it off also. We had already talked about getting together and drawing some really shitty pictures and maybe doing some really ironic role-playing.

Kanaya Maryam is the classy kickass glowing chick who enjoys spending her free time designing clothes because she is just that classy. Originally from France, Kanaya has adapted an American lifestyle quite well. Her mutant powers are glowing, and that may seem sucky, but remember Zack from Sky High and some of the sticking situations his glowing got him and his friends out of. With her glowing, she got above average strength, speed, and agility, along with the codename Firefly.

I thought I had made it through the crowd when there was someone else left hiding in the back quietly. He was small for his age, sixteen like me. He has dark brown hair and brown eyes that almost seemed red, along caramel skin. An angry look dominated his face as he scowled getting out of his super suit and getting ready to high tail it out of the Danger Room. He had a silver watch on his right wrist and wore a black hoodie as well as grey pants, ready to disappear into a crowd in need be. There was also a certain charm about him that made him seem leaderly, commanding, in charge. Needless to say, it felt as though Romeo just brought one of his cupid metaphors and claimed me to having been a captive in the one-way street called 'love at first sight'.

Needless to say, i was no Romeo with raging teenage hormones ready to be a good catholic and marry the man of my dreams just so I could fuck him. No, I pretty sure that this one-way street was going to be a bumpy on because when the boy caught me staring, he promptly asked, "What the fuck do you want asshole?"

This 'love at first sight' was going to be a pain in my ass.

Might as do something that would make Romeo roll around in his grave in one giant undead hissy fit. I was going to have to be a suave as Fabio if I wanted to land the hot mutant. I had to be as cool as Vanilla Ice. I was going to be as hot as Jennifer Lawrence. I was going to do my best to woo him so hard; I would ride to Narnia even if I had to win him.

"I said what the fuck are you looking at asshole?" he repeated again storming over to me. No one paid attention to this confrontation, except Terezi.

"N-n-nothing," I managed to get out. I hit myself in the face with the palm of my hand. Where was future-me to save me from this train wreck?

The boy kept on staring until Terezi came over and saved my poor ass from this sad sight.

"Karkat, I see you've met Dave," Terezi saved me. "Dave, Karkat, Karkat, Dave."

"Nice to meet you," I decided to go old school. Karkat didn't say anything but continued to start at me with his brownish-reddish eyes.

"Dave Strider's the new time traveling coolkid Karkles," Terezi elbowed Karkat in the ribs to try and get his attention. "Dave, Karkat's the co-leader of our team."

"Ah, so the boss man," I started to get my cool back.

"Yes, and I am forced to say this, and it does pain me to say this, but welcome to the team," Karkat informed me. "Try not to fuck up and get us all killed."

"Don't worry future-me always comes around to save my ass. I bet he won't mind saving your ass too," I informed Karkat.

"Sadly," Karkat replied. Karkat said nothing else but walked out of the room. Looks like this trip to Narnia was going to take a lot more than one magical ride on the back of a magical lion that represented Jesus or something religious like that.

"I thought you were supposed to be a coolkid Dave Strider," Terezi interrogated me. Her shit-eating grin didn't fall from her face, and she didn't speak with disappointment. She spoke her full on cheerful voice with no doubt that I was still a coolkid, just pondering how I failed at trying to woo Karkat. Which was weird, because she was the only one in the room who figured out I was trying to hit on Karkat, and yet she was the only one without sight. It was totally ironic.

I said nothing because I seriously had no idea how I lost my cool.

"What's Karkat's problem?" I asked instead.

"He just takes a while to get warmed up to everyone," Terezi answered. "Me and Karkles didn't get along at first but now-we're practically best friends. I watch over his ass on the field and he watches over mine-metaphorically speaking since I can't see anything! Hehehehe!"

"And how do I get him to warm up to me?" I then asked.

"Just act as yourself," Terezi advised me. "Just give him time. He'll warm up to you soon enough."

"Alright," I took Terezi's advice. It wouldn't stop me from traveling down this one-way road, but at least it would help. "So what can Karkat do?"

"No one knows," Terezi answered. "Not even the Prof! He and his brother are mutants, but no one knows what their powers are."

"Oh, maybe that's why he's so sour," I guessed. "everyone's running around with their cool mutant powers fucking people's shit up and he's just there with nothing."

"Karkat's an amazing fighter though," Terezi reminded me. "And not all mutant powers are fabulous."

"Right," I agreed with that. Before we departed, Terezi had to end it on an awkward note.

"Dave," Terezi began. "Did you know that you and Karkat both smell like cherry red?"

I had no idea how to respond to that. Thankfully, I didn't have to because our conversation ended with Terezi's shit eating grin and her cackling a hyena howl.

Terezi was still pretty cool though even though she was kind creepy.