The "Big Mutant On Campus" Series
By David D. Amaya

Part One "First Day of School"
Chapter 2

Disclaimer: can be found at the beginning of the journey.


The Blackbird descended in front of the Academy, while four figures await its landing.

The first figure off the gangplank breathed in the New England air.

"Ah, never fear ya'll, Jubilation Lee has returned!"

She then bounded straight into the Sean's arms in a tight welcoming embrace.

" 'Tis great to have ye back, Lass!"

"Great to be back, Irish!"

"Welcome back, Jubilation."

"Thanks, Frosty," she said as she gave a hug to the Generation X Headmistress. Then she turned to the pair just behind them, one clad in an immaculate dress blues of the United States Navy. The other in a sharp Armani and dark sunglasses.

"Hi ya Admiral K!" she hugged the Naval officer, then pointed to his gold shoulder boards and noted the extra star. "Nice set of stars on thars!"

"Great to see you, firecracker! How have you been?"

"Great! How's your daughter, Alea and her friends?"

"They're inside the biosphere with the other students."

"Oh, Crap! I missed the cargo net drop!"

She then looked at the Secret Service agent. Of the many teammates she had been in combat and risked her life with, this federal officer stands out. She doesn't quite know if it's the way he reminds her of so many of her friends, or because he stands out among them for his lack of mutant abilities, but not many normals have risked their lives for an X-Man. So despite not having a prehensile tail, or mental telepathy, she embraces the newest adult member of Generation X.

"Welcome back, Jubilee."

"Thanks, Secret Agent Dude, you gave us a really big scare that day. How did you get out of that jam?"

"Ask me again, I promise, one day I will tell you, but now I cannot," was the Secret Service Agent's reply. Then he reached into his pocket and retrieved a St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap. "I believe this belongs to you."

"Keep it," she said. "It was never really mine anyway," Then she noted the two other items that he had on him.

The Armani tie was kept in place with a tack encrusted with the X-Men's insignia, a red X in a band of gold. She recognized it right away as Scott's. Behind the Secret Service badge he had clipped to his belt, she noted a white card with a black A. Both items were given to him on his apparent deathbed to bring him much needed luck that day.

"Do you like them?" He asked. "I never believed in luck until the nurses told me that these were given to me before I went into cardiac arrest. They are my new shield."

"Cool, but don't forget to put on your bullet-proof vest by tonight."

"Why? Expecting trouble?"

"Yea," she replied as the rest of the X-Men disembarked greeting Sean and Emma. "Tonight they're serving meatloaf!"

"Oh, Admiral K, I gots to introduce you to the rest of the gang! Of course you remember Jean, Scott and Ororo -"

"Aloha `oukou! I hope your eye cleared up quickly, Scott."

"…and these scoundrels are Remy and Logan."

"Aloha `olua, A pleasure to meet the two you," he greeted them as he shook both their hands.

"Any friend of Jubilee, is a friend to us, mon Admerial," Remy replied.

"Just a moment," Kordel remarked. "If Logan came in on the Blackbird, whose motorcycle is that?" He pointed to the Harley-Davidson parked next to the Escalade.

"That ain't mine, G-Man," Logan answered. "That's a '86 FLH Shovelhead. I roll in a '73 Sportster Ironhead."

"Yea, Secret Agent, dude, besides Wolvie wouldn't ride a Hog with a sidecar to win a bet!"

"That's Jason's bike," Admiral Kaulalona replied. "He must have arrived while we were inside."

"Well, come on guys! I want to see who gets KP duty tonight!"

She then grabbed Logan by the wrist and half dragged him towards the biosphere with the rest of the group in tow.


"Come on guys!" Cyrus told them as the came to a halt. "It can't be too far. We headed straight so we have to at least hit a wall!"

"Sale putréfier goons!" Stewart exclaimed. "They had Leech take us on the winding path so we wouldn't remember how to get out!"

"Stop sniveling, damn it!" Nathan grunted as he fought to catch his breath. "Whistler has denser forests then this and we made it through there in good time!"

"Yea, but remember how long you had that poison oak rash, Nakanaela?"

Out of the blue, 'Walk,' By Pantera started playing, Alea's phone was ringing.

"Shut that thing off! It'll give away our position!"

"Who the hell is this!"

"Is that any way to talk to the love of your life?"

"JAY!? Where are you?"

"Inside this indoor forest. You guys have to check out the view!"

"SHUT UP AND LISTEN! Are you in front the main entrance?"

"'In front the main entrance?' Yea, why do you -?"

"LOOK, we don't have the time to explain, but unless you want to spend tonight scrubbing toilets, whistle."

"Whistle? Why do -"

"DO IT!"


Did you hear something?

"Sounds like one of my 'all clear' signals, homes. Sounded like it came from the opening."

"Someone signaled them," Monet said. "They must be lost."

"Shh!" admonished Husk. "Do you here that? It sounds like it was coming from-"

Her words where cut off by the cargo net trap they stepped in. Only Angelo was not ensnared.

"Dang it, Jono! I thought you said you put this thing over there!?"

Sorry, girl, mustta slipped my mind.

"Hey, the other vatos are almost at the entrance. Want me to cut you down?" He asked pulling his butterfly knife out of the small of his back.

"No, go and slow them down while we get out of here. Ouch! Stop poking me in the butt, Jono!"


"Got it, Iakona. We're about 100 yards away from- "

Alea's phone, as well as Nuff, Cyrus, and Alea herself fell into a large bear pit Penance had dug that morning.

Yoink, who scaled a tree to get a better view, was spared the fall.

"Give me your hands! Je vous tirerai!"

"No, Yoink! You run to Jay and hold off the others until we get out."

"Yea, but-"

"NO BUTS! If they went to all this trouble to get out of dusting, they must leave a HELL of a big mess. MOVE IT!"


Entering a clearing, only 50 yards from his friend, Stewart paused to catch his breath, sweat dripping on his old Québec Raffles jersey. Before he could stand back up, he was ensnared by ten strands of … Well, he doesn't know what they are made of. The gray-skinned Chicano at the end of them might tell him. The Canadian would ask, but he had wrapped several strands around his mouth, gagging him so he can't call for his friends.

"Sneaky-assed Gabron!" Angelo chided his prisoner with a large grin wishing he'd pulled that stunt. "I'm going to enjoy seeing you get knee deep in shit!"

The young Canadian could only look at him with disdain from getting trapped, but suddenly his eyes flared at him in alarm, and he tried to scream a warning. Then a hand descended on Angelo's shoulder from behind and jerked him back, while it's twin struck him with the clinched fingers of a cold, cruel hand, on which was written on the knuckles, "FATE."


"What was that sound?" Ororo asked raising her eyebrows at the faint high pitched noise.

"That's Jason sounding off 'Call to Battle Stations,'" The Admiral answered having taught it to him. "What are they doing in there?"

"If I remember," Jubilee answered. "They lured the others to the treehouse and raced them back to the front. Looks like the home team is losing."


"LOOK," said the other end of the line. "We don't have the time to explain, but unless you want to spend tonight scrubbing toilets, whistle."

After riding his Harley for well over two hours Jason Delano wanted nothing more than a bowl of soup and the Hawaiian goddess who owns his heart, to help thaw him out.

I must've dialed the wrong number, he thought. "Whistle? Why do -"

"DO IT!"

I defiantly dialed the wrong number, he blared his loudest signal whistle the Admiral taught him, the 'Call to Battle Stations'.

"Got it, Iakona. We're about 100 yards away from…"

"ALEA! ALEA! ARE YOU ALL RIGHT!" He screamed into the phone. Fuck, something's wrong, He thought right before rushing headfirst into the biosphere in the direction he heard leaves rustling.

He didn't make it fifty yards when he came across a clearing, then he heard more leaves rustling. Stalking slowing in the lush growth, he crept until he came upon the sight of some gray-skinned freak that had Yoink hog tied.

"Sneaky-assed Gabron!" he grunted to his captive. "I'm going to enjoy seeing you get knee deep in shit!"

SON OF A BITCH! His mind screamed as he leaps to them.

Grabbing him by the shoulder he turned him round and smashed his right fist into his jaw and felt teeth crack.

Angelo's head erupted in a blinding white pain, then colors exploded in his brain. Not prepared to defend his life, the sucker-punch from behind him stunned him, releasing his grip on his new classmate. The unknown attacker was on him, his fists struck almost invisibly, like the mouths of cobras, he pounded him to the ground.

"WHO'S KNEE DEEP IN SHIT NOW, MOTHER FUCKER!" he bellowed each blow he sent to the gray-skinned asshole increased in force as well as frequency. The victim of his rage might never know that Jason Delano's mutant ability is not merely dependent upon cruelty and horrific violence, but born of it.

Then in a flash, he hears a sound he had never came across in his life.

SKINT

Then a long shiny blade crossed his eyes and he felt one similar part the hair in the back of his head.

"There's three of these claws, bub! Ya wanna see the third, up close!?"

"NO, WOLVIE, DON'T!" Someone shouts. "HE'S ONE OF –"

She doesn't finish her scream. Jason's combat-augmented strength, as well as the sudden surprise that broke his attacker's concentration, allowed him to grab his arm and shoulder throw the muscular man, crashing him into a nearby tree. Rolling out of the way of his victim, he reached into his motorcycle boot and extracted the switchblade he always carried in there.

"I'm strapped, too, asshole!" he announced with the ominous trademark click of the weapon. "Come on, I'll make you famous!"

"Secret Service!" Someone shouts from behind him, followed by the unmistakable sound of a simi-auto getting drawn. "Drop the weapon!"

Glancing over his shoulder he sees the Sig Sower, he knows only a Fed would carry a 9mm.

"Better do what he says!" Jubilee tells him. "That ain't Megatron's stunt double!"

"Drop the weapon! Place your hands on top of your head, and drop to your knees!"

Flicking the switchblade, impaling it in the soft grass, he does as he's ordered, experience telling him the best time to strike at the cop will be when he attempts to handcuff him.

"Wait, Agent Nichols," a very familiar voice called out. "That's Jason!"

"Admiral?" Jason looked around puzzled. "What in the hell's going on!?"

"This subject pulled a switchblade on Logan," Agent Nichols replied, his weapon still trained on the young man.

"This asshole," He replied head-pointing towards Logan. "pulled two shanks on me!"

"That's cuz this dickhead," Logan replied still laid out on the base of a tree. "was poundin' on Espinosa!"

"Because that mother fucker," now pointing towards the unmoving gray form at his side. "had MacKenzie tied up!"

"Ça baigne, Jay!" he replied finally extracting himself from Angelo's strands. "He was just fooling around!"

"FOOLING AROUND!?" He cried, now confused and crazily furious. "GOD DAMN IT, YOINK! WHAT THE FUCK'S GOING ON!?"

Upon hearing the roar of their missing friend, Alea and Nuff sprinted the rest of the way to the clearing, leaving Cyrus to catch up to them. What they found when they arrived on the scene read like Alice in Wonderland, on crack.

Jason is on his knees with his hands on his head, Agent Nichols training his sidearm at him. Angelo was on his back, withering in obvious pain. Stewart was wiggling out of some gray-colored, something, that was coming from Angelo's hands, and Wolverine was getting up off the ground with the help of Jubilee.

Right behind them, Cyrus and the rest of the Generation X students finally arrived.

"Angelo!" Paige cried once she looked upon the sight and was by her teammate's side in an instant joined by Jono and Monet, while Sean, Emma and the rest of the X-Men entered the clearing and spied the scene. Sean used to sights similar to this with his time with Gen X only sighed, while the White Queen said only two words.

"WHAT HAPPENED?"

"Speak slowly, and use small words," Delano replied from his knees. "You're going to need your energy when I get up!"


"CHORE LIST!?"

The kid's summery of the past hour's events still sounded stupid to the Admiral, even for a hazing, no matter who explained it to him.

While discreet mind scans done by both Jean and Emma told them that he genuinely believed that his friend was in grave danger, they also knew he intended to kill Angelo, if necessary to defend Stewart. Luckily Angelo's training allowed his to wrap his face in extra layers of skin to protect him from the force of Delano's fists, and was pronounced to be, other than a pending massive headache, recovering fine.

Despite this, the Naval veteran knew if Wolverine had not intervened, there was no telling how far Jason could have gone.

"You're telling me that Iakona almost wasted that laho kole, because you were afraid to swab the dinning room floor?" his eyes swept his audience with a piercing glare he doesn't even use on academy pleabes.

"We didn't know Jay was going to go all batshit on us, Admiral," Nuff replied. "It was supposed to be just a harmless game."

"A GAME!?" Jay roared. "A FUCKIN' HARMLESS GAME!?"

"Kî 'oia, Iakona," Alea added. "A harmless game!" she turned to her father. "Look at it from this point of view, Daddy. We walk into a place we have never seen before and the first thing we see is some 'a'ahuã hog-tying our po ki 'i wrapped up in - did you say that stuff came from his skin? EWWWE!

"Well, Nakana would have that silver dollar in his hands faster than you can say Don Ho! And you know I would have roasted his chestnuts like it was Christmas Eve. It could have happened to any one of us, makuakane."

"But it just happened to be Iakona it happened to, kaikamahine!"

"It'll be all right, Daddy! I felt Ms. Summers and Ms. Frost scanning Jay. They know what really happened. Once we get Jay to cool off, we can just chalk this up to a misunderstanding and call it a day."


"I want him removed from campus, this instant!" Emma Frost decreed. "I will not allow any student of mine to assault another without provocation!"

"Emma, please be reasonable," Professor Charles Xavier requested via the Comm link to the Xavier Mansion in New York. "You peered into the young man's mind. You know he truly believed his friend was in genuine peril. The fact that his mutant gifts allow him an unheralded advantage in such a situation is no reason to expel any student. After all, learning to control their mutant gifts is the very reason for the existence of this school."

"But, Charles that was not the only thing I found in his mind that disturbs me."

"Damn you, Emma! You know you shouldn'a be invading someone's mind, especially a student!"

"We are well aware of his situation," Scott replied. "We know about the time he spent incarcerated in California. The appellate court overturned his murder convection when the truth that he was framed by the police was brought to light.

"We also know of the events that happened to him when he was serving that sentence before his release. As disturbing as those reports were, we still made the decision to extend the offer for their enrollment here."

"Fact 'o 'da matter is that kid to damn good in a scrap to just let loose," Gambit observed. "If we don't keep a mutant with that kinda talent on our side, we might have to rumble against him one day down 'da road."

"Remy does bring a valid point of view, Emma," Ororo pointed out.

"I guess there's a first time for everything, Gumbo."

"In all seriousness, Logan," Jean began. "When we first met them at that hockey game, he was quick to defend them against US. He was apprehensive to our offer at first, but they all did agree to come here for instruction."


"Just remember, the ONLY way you guys got me here was because you cheated! Yoink told me Alea was sending you all my moves on during our chess duel after the game, Admiral!"

"That is a LIE, Iakona! I defeated you fair and square on my own!" Kaikamahine, he sent to his daughter please remind Kewalaka the difference between a well-intended tactical advantage and cheating! She simply slapped the Canadian in the back of his head in response. "Besides, Jason, like I told you months ago, coming to this kula hãnai will be the best decision you all will make. You will each benefit from expert instruction with using your kãhuli hiki."

"He has an incredibly violent temper."

"So, he kinda reminds me of me."

"But unlike you, Logan, he has already been expelled from two different schools in New England," Emma continued. "Thank goodness he did not use his mutant power in those cases."

"But ain't you all forgetting about the most important point of all," said a figure listening from the doorway.

"Jubilation! This is a private matter!"

"Hey, Frosty, Angelo is one of my best buds, and he got stomped on! I should be pissed off at Jay, too! But I didn't blast him with sparks because he did what any of you would, AND HAVE, done in the same situation."

From his desk in New York, Professor Xavier had to admit that despite her flippant attitude, practical joking and reports of inattentiveness in class Emma used to send, Jubilation often provides a point of view that strikes to the heart of the matter, and from looking at the monitor at his X-Men in Snow Valley, they agreed.

"But Jubilee," Agent Nichols interjected. "Beating someone senseless like that-"

"Is any different from, say, tryin' ta whack some unarmed scumbag, Secret Agent Dude?

"That's right! I heard what went down at the racetrack from your tag-team partner, Charlie. 'You would have gone too far if you weren't stopped by an X-Man.'" She waves her hands like a conductor to emphasize her words. "Sound familiar, guys?" She looked around the room. "Face it, he did that for one of his hommies. He'd do it in a heartbeat for any one of us once he believes he's one of US."


Wakening in the Med Chamber, Angelo Espinosa had one of the worst splitting headaches known to man or beast.

"Angelo, thank goodness you are okay!" Paige exclaimed WAY too loudly.

"Eye chingón!" he replied. "I feel like shit! What the hell happened?

You were on the receiving end of a one-sided scrap, mate.

"Shh! You're inner voice is too loud, bro. All I remember seeing is the tats on the vato's fist."

"His name is Jason, he with us new kids," said a small boy he did not recognize. "He saw you tying up his best friend, you must've said something that set him off."

What's going to happen to him, Paige luv?

"Well, the Admiral's scolding him," The boy answered again. "and I know he feels crummy about what happened."

"Do you know if they are going to boot him out, M?"

"I hope not." The boy replied once more. "Ms. Frost is trying to get Professor Xavier to expel him, but Jubes went to talk them out of it."

"Can I ask you a question?" Paige asked the boy, who simply nodded. "Who are you?"

"Sean didn't tell you guys? I'm Cyrus Parkman," he said extending his hand. "But you can call me 'Watt."

So?

"Do you not recognize him from all the television you watch?" Monet said matter-of-factly. "He is the son of President Parkman."

Angelo, Paige and Jono looked at him funny.

"There it is again!" Cyrus moaned. "'The LOOK!' Everywhere I go, I get 'the Look!'"

You mean as in the President of the U.S?

"Yep."

"And that vato with the cueté?"

"Special Agent Kordel Nichols, US Secret Service. But I call him Lariat."

"And you?"

"Yep, I'm a mutant, too."

"Your powers?"

"Think Gambit, but without the accent."

"And the events of your kidnapping?"

"Officially, the Secret Service and SHIELD rescued little ol' me from a former Agent that went 5150, but between you and me, let's just say that Lariat had a little help from some mutual friends."

"Hijolé! You mean El Presidente knows-"

"Hell no! Even the Director of the Secret Service, who's a mutant as well by the way, won't tell President Dad this school is owned by the X-Men, he'd have kittens!"

"And Agent Nichols?"

"Lariat scans as flat as a two-week old glass of coke, but don't think he's not up to it. He's tougher than Wolverine."

"Bulchitiando chavalito!"

"Nope, it's true! You know that Shi'ar program he likes, the bar fight?"

"Símon."

"He beat Logan's best time!"

No way!

"Oh, yes way!"

All twenty?

"All THIRTY!"


A little more than a half-hour later, everyone entered the Recreation Room. The X-Men were seated to the left, Generation X on the right, Jubilee sat in the middle of both groups. Cyrus Parkman was in an armchair, with Agent Nichols by his side. Alea, her father, Stewart, and his cousin Nathan sat in a couch just behind everyone. Jason was leaning on the arm of the couch with the backpack he road in with from Connecticut at his feet.

"We discussed what happened this afternoon, in length," Sean told everyone. "We looked at the fact that young Mr. Delano did not know what was happening in the biosphere was just a harmless welcoming. And given that he did give an apology to Angelo for what he did-"

"WHOA, hold on a minute," Jason burst out. "I said I was sorry for what happened, not what I DID. If it happened again I'd do exactly the same thing, again!"

He turned to Angelo. "Look, I know now you weren't gonna hurt him, but like I said, you can't undo a beat-down, if I knew what you were doing to Yoink, I'd just help him tie you to a tree until the good guys crossed the finish line."

"Be that as it may!" Emma continued. "While we were leaning towards expelling Mr. Delano-"

Jason stood up, grabbed his pack and turned for the door.

"We decided against it in this instance."

Alea reached out, grabbed his pack and pulled him back to the couch.

"Good call," Nathan replied. "If he had made it to the door, we'd walk out with him."

"You had better have believed that!" Stewart added. "Pour le meilleur ou pour le pire, nous vivons et mourons aussi un!"

"You tell 'em guys," Alea chimed in.

"We will NOT tolerate any such actions as what happened in the biosphere this morning is that clear!"

"Yes."

"Oui."

" 'Ae."

"Mr. Delano?"

Jason, just say the word, 'YES.' Now is the time to be polite, not honest. Do it for me? Hiki, mea aloha?

"Whatever you say," was his reply.

"Good," Sean interjected clearly cutting the tension that still hung in the air. "Now that our first full afternoon is out of the way, why don't we allow our new friends to unpack their things."


End of Chapter two

©David D. Amaya 2008