I was awoken the next morning by people yelling. I heard a groan from across the room. Opening my eyes I found the time was nine in the morning on a Saturday. Rubbing my eyes, I sat up and pushed the blankets off. Before I could even get out of bed, Pietro zoomed out into the hall.
"Will you two shut up?"
I reached the doorway and peeked out to see Lance and Wanda glaring at each other.
"She's hogging the bathroom! I have to use it!"
"I got in here first! Back off."
"At least let me go to the bathroom!"
The two started yelling at each other in unison. Pietro sighed. I walked over to the window and opened it. I grabbed a bunch of dirt out in the backyard and brought it through the window and into my hand. Walking back out to the hallway, I tossed it at Lance. It landed smack dab in the middle of his face.
"What the-?"
He stopped when he looked at me, his jaw dropping. Pietro turned as well and gaped at me. Wanda just rolled her eyes. They were staring at my pink night dress with pink hemming. I sighed and grinned at Wanda.
"Why don't you let him go to the bathroom first before he wets himself, hm?"
Wanda laughed as I went back into the room and headed for my bed. I needed more sleep. I heard the door close. I looked back only to see Pietro right behind me.
"Pretty bold choice of clothing for you to be wearing when you share a room with a guy, don't you think?"
"Guy? What guy? All I see is you."
I got into the bed and pulled the covers up over my head. I could feel Pietro glaring at me through the comforter. I sighed and turned to peek out of the covers. I was right. He was glaring.
"Oh, take a joke, Pietro. But I'm not going to change my habits just because I have to share a room with you."
"Does any of those habits include changing in the room?"
"Nope."
"Damn."
"Dear me, I do believe you have to worst manners toward women in this whole house. And I do believe that that is saying something."
"Listen, you cheeky little plant witch, I'm in charge here so don't talk like that to me."
"If I recall your father asked me to come and help. Is that because you weren't doing a good job?"
Pietro was quiet. I raised an eyebrow and smirked. I sat up in bed.
"It is, isn't it? You couldn't get them to cooperate properly so I'm here to take over your job. That means I'm in charge, doesn't it?"
"We're both in charge."
"Oh, so it's suddenly a team effort now, is it? How good are these X-men? I think I would like to find this out."
Pietro perked up and sat on my bed.
"A full on onslaught of the Brotherhood?"
"No…me against all of them. They live at the Xavier Institute? I'm going to pay them a visit…after I sleep for a few more hours. Now get off my bed."
I kicked him off and pulled my covers back over my head.
I woke up a few hours later and got dressed. I would have rather stayed in bed, because if I had I wouldn't have had to deal with Pietro.
"You can't just walk into the "nest". Only I'm fast enough to get in and out of there without getting caught."
"That's because you have a pansy power," I replied, taking a bite out of an apple," Look, Pietro. If you're so concerned, do come and watch, but that's all. This is my show."
Pietro slammed hand down on the kitchen table.
"Their place isn't covered up in plants, Gen. How the hell do you plan to do this without plants. You're useless without them."
I smiled up at him and got up. I pat his cheek twice and headed for the front door.
"Your concern is touching, really. I'll remember that insult. I'm not stupid, Pietro, look at this."
I held a pouch that I kept tied around my neck at all times.
"See this? It contains seeds. To you it would be a bunch of useless seeds of different shapes and sizes and colors. To me…it is a diverse culture of plants with special qualities. Your father helped me find very nice seeds that can help with infiltration and battles. Would you like me to test one out on you?"
Pietro eyed a seed that I pulled out of the pouch. He noticed my over-eager look and shook his head.
"I'm coming to watch, like you said. Don't complain when I have to save your ass."
"I'm not going to harm anyone or anything, so you had better stay out of it. This is a test of the X-men.
An hour later, Pietro put me down outside the gate to the Xavier Institute. I looked at Pietro in disgust.
"Remind me to borrow Lance's jeep next time; I swear you were trying to grope me on the way here."
"Trust me. I don't want anything you've got."
I ignored him and inspected the building. I wouldn't need any of the seeds till I got inside and if I was lucky they'd have a few plants around for decoration. I turned to Pietro.
"See you in a bit."
"Ohhh, can't wait."
I snarled at him before sweeping my hand over the grass outside the wall of the Institute. The grass instantly made stairs for me. I used my grass stairs to get up to the wall and then I jumped down. I looked back and gave Pietro a smug smile. He stood with his arms crossed.
"Show off."
"Takes one to know won."
With a salute, I took off running toward the mansion. I stopped when I noticed security weapons popping up out of the ground.
"Too easy."
I grew the grass around the weapons, surrounded them, and then made the grass crush them all in three seconds. I did this all the way to the building. I pushed the glass front door open to find seven X-men waiting for me on the foyer.
"Who are you?" demanded a guy with a visor," What do you want?"
I bowed to them.
"Gaia, nice to meet you all. Why I'm here, well…you'll see."
I grabbed a seed out of my pouch and made it grow. It extended and wrapped around the leader guy.
"Let's see Cyclops, so you have laser eyes."
With a flick of my wrist, the plant wrapped around him and taken his visor and flung it into my hand. I pocketed it. I was suddenly stopped in my tracks by an invisible wall. I scanned the room and saw a potted plant in the corner. It grew in size and grabbed the girl who was sending the wall at me.
"Jean Gray, mind powers."
I dropped a seed on the ground and it grew into a huge purple and yellow flower. It was beautiful, all except for the sharp points sticking out of its middle. With a sweep of my hand a dart flung itself out and hit Jean in the arm, making her fall asleep.
A dark skinned woman with white hair rose up in the middle of the hall, her eyes glowing white.
"What have you done to her?"
"She's fine, but I think you'll have to be next, Storm."
I grabbed one of the spines as a blue boy tried to grab me after teleporting to where I was. I stabbed the dart into his arm and he was instantly down. Grabbing two more, I dropped another seed on the ground that grew into a springy flower. I jumped on it and I went flying straight at Storm. She tried to blast me back, but a vine flew out from another seed in my hand and wrapped around her. I landed and with a pull, Storm came flying right to me and I put her to sleep as well.
I turned just in time to see two girls charging toward me. One had one hand in a glove, the other wasn't. The other girl had her hair in a ponytail. I dodged the gothic one, grabbed her arm and flung her at another potted plant in the room and it wrapped around her. I noticed Cyclops trying to listen to where I was so he could laser me, so I had the dart flower knock him out as well.
"Let me out," Rogue screamed, angrily.
"Not just yet."
I saw Shadowcat running toward Rogue to set her free. With another wave of my hand, a dart got her in the back, right before she could reach Rogue. The only conscious X-man screamed at me.
"What did you do?"
"They're just asleep. Calm down. I'll be back in no time.
I dashed up the stairs and ran down a hall to run into none other than Professor Charles Xavior.
"Oh, good. Just the man I was looking for."
"Gaia, what have you done to my students?"
I smiled at him.
"I'm getting tired of answering that question. They are fine. I was just testing them to see how good they are. Let me just say they need more training, Prof."
He raised an eyebrow at me.
"Who are you?"
"Genevieve Martinov, nice to meet you."
He looked surprised.
"Martinov? The young woman Magneto has been looking after?"
I nodded.
"I can see why. Your powers are…in complete control. Level four mutant?"
"You're flattering me, but no, I'm still only level three. On the back half though. I just wanted to let you know that I am working for Magneto now. He has made me part of the Brotherhood, but let me be straight with you. I have no honest problem with you or your students. I am doing what I am told out of years of debt. I will not under any circumstance kill any of your students unless they are a true threat to my life. I believe myself to be fair. I make no promises about how injured they will be by fighting me."
Xavier studied me carefully.
"You don't have to fight or their side. I believe Magneto is wrong about the relationship between mutants and non-mutants."
"I take no stance on that platform, but like I said…debt is debt. And no matter how much you try to convince me, I'm staying with the Brotherhood. We'll meet again I'm sure. I know I'll see your students again. I must go now, the sleep is wearing off."
I turned and ran out of the building. When I'd gotten over the fence, Pietro picked me up and started running.
"What happened in there?"
"Took 'em all out. Not the little ones, they weren't worth scaring. Met the Professer. Nice guy."
"You what? He's what?"
I rolled my eyes as we were now back in our room. Pietro set me down.
"There is nothing wrong with him. He didn't do anything other than talk. I was just introducing myself. You all clearly suck because that took me less than five minutes."
Pietro looked at me but could say nothing. I pulled my hair out of the ponytail it had been in while I was fighting.
"So, starting Monday, you're all in training."
