Just for those of you wondering, The Glen is a real shopping center in a town near Deerfield. It really does have ULTA, Noodles and Company, and Von Maur in it. Also, Palwaukee is a small airport right in that area as well. And Palatine is about 20 - 30 minutes from Deerfield. Ah, to live in a Northwest Chicago Suburb. Please review!
Explosions of All Sorts
"I'm still surprised that Half-Pint's friend just happens to be a mutant," Logan commented to the Professor as they watched a Danger Room session of capture the flag. Kitty and Rose were on one team while Scott, Rebecca, and Rogue were on another. After a few hours spent with the Professor, it had turned out that Rebecca not only had exceptional luck, but had the ability to control the luck of others. She, therefore, had received the name Clover. As for Rose and her ability to control plant growth, and to even make them practically live, she was dubbed the Green Thumb. And Arwen, well, she was dubbed Muse, but wouldn't be participating in Danger Room sessions until she had a better hold on her power or was better trained in the arts of fighting and defending.
And, as for Professor Xavier's office where he tested Arwen's powers the first night after speaking with Rebecca, everything had to be replaced, including the wheel chair he had been sitting in at the time.
"They're not watching for enough surprise traps," Logan commented.
"We turned the difficulty down slightly for Rose and Rebecca," Ororo said. "We don't want to injure them, Logan."
"Injury means mistakes," Logan grumbled. "That's how people best learn."
"Wouldn't it work better if there were more people and the teams were even?" Arwen asked.
"We work with what we have," Logan said. "Just wait until the rest of the students return for the school year, Muse. Then you'll see things that will astonish you."
"That might be hard," Arwen said. "Did you have a look at that office? My grandma now has a miniature moon centerpiece for her living room coffee table. I gave my band director a heart attack when I auditioned for a higher band. Things don't really astonish me anymore."
"You got spunk, kid," Logan said. "Just learn to use your powers."
"So, let me get this straight," Mystique asked looking at what was left in the Brotherhood house. "You don't know where Avalanche is." Todd and Fred each shook his head. "You don't know where Colossus is." Todd and Fred each shook his head again. "And you don't know where The Scarlet Witch is."
"We assumed Wanda's working with her father," Todd said.
"By the way," Fred asked, "why are you here?"
Mystique narrowed her eyes. "Magneto sent me here to collect you five hooligans, but as I see that there are only two of you, I am going to be in a lot of distress."
"Colossus has turned against Magneto," Fred said quickly.
"I thought you knew that by now," Todd quickly added in. "To be with the X-Geeks."
"And Wanda left this morning with intentions to talk to Magneto after Pietro dropped by," Fred finished
"Good," Mystique said. "And Avalanche?"
"He left a day after school let out," Todd said. "Probably to wherever Kitty Pryde lives."
Mystique rolled her eyes. "Clean this place up, boys. Other people live here besides you two. And, tomorrow evening, you will have two new additions to your team."
"Is it still led by Pietro?" Todd asked.
"No, I will be in charge of you all once again."
Kitty glanced at Rebecca during their plane ride home. She fully expected Rebecca would be attending the Institute come fall, but Kitty didn't know how much she liked that idea. She loved Rebecca dearly, but sometimes Rebecca could be overwhelming. Across the aisle sat Rose. After learning that her brother had disappeared shortly after she left, she felt that it was important for her to stay home to help her parents cope, or possibly to hope he would return.
Kitty grabbed her headphones and began listening to the music. She sighed. Most of the songs were absurdly old. She really wanted to listen to something new, but received no better songs as the flight continued.
By the end of June, Kitty had come to terms with the fact that Lance wasn't about to leave her alone for a long time. No, she learned that he was quite infatuated with her, though it did scare her somewhat. She was proud that he had gotten a job at the local Domino's Pizza and he even began getting Kitty and a few of her friends free pizza's when he could.
"Hey, Kit Kat," Lance said one late afternoon coming up behind her and Rebecca as they were walking along their block. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him.
"What is it, Lance?" Kitty asked. She closed her eyes and couldn't tell if it was the air or Lance that smelled delicious. With a little extra thought, she realized he smelled like pizza.
"So, the Fourth of July carnival opens tonight," Lance began. "And since I am off work, I was wondering if you'd like to go with me… on a date."
"She says yes," Rebecca quickly answered for Kitty. "Oh, look at that, my house already. Got to go." With that, Rebecca disappeared up the steps and through the front door. Well, there went the girls' movie night they had planned weeks ago.
Lance smiled. "Pick you up at eight? Good." With that, Lance began toward his own humble abode, leaving Kitty standing in the street confused. How the hell did that happen? She questioned herself. Apparently her thoughts didn't matter.
"What was that about?" Kitty asked Rebecca over the phone as she cooked herself dinner.
"What do you think, Kitty?" Rebecca asked. "The one night all year that your parents are out of town, and you wanted to waste it with me? I refuse to let you. Plus, I now have a free night to spend with Mike."
"Parents out or not, I'm only going to the carnival with him," Kitty reminded her friend.
"Let me guess, you just happen to be picking out which pair of underwear is the sexiest," Rebecca asked. "And a really sexy outfit. Oh, wear that MNG by Mango shirt, you know, the black-ish one that had Sweet Heart Breakers in gold lettering that you got last week, and that jean mini-skirt, along with thin dangling earrings and black pumps. And, red Victoria Secrets lace that I got you last year as a gag gift."
"I didn't find it funny, and, what, are you, like, trying to get me to drive Lance mad with desire? He's not getting an invitation into my house."
"Sure he's not," Rebecca said. "Okay, it's a little too late for you to run to the drug store and back, so, you and I will rendezvous sometime around, let's say, nine by the ticket booth."
Kitty wrinkled her nose. "For what?"
"Well, unless you've already got a store of them or are on the pill, I was planning on giving you a couple of condoms. You know, protection."
"Rebecca!"
"Well, if you want to risk getting pregnant…"
"There will be none of that!"
"If you insist…"
"Good, Arwen, you're making very good progress," the Professor commented as Arwen held her body completely still, not daring to even blink, as a very simple song was played on a cassette tape. Only the chair she was clutching to shook slightly.
"Professor, you have a call," Storm's voice came through an intercom as the two were in the Danger Room.
"I'll be right back, Arwen," the Professor said. "See if you can loosen your body, or at least blink."
Arwen nodded slightly, but the slight disruption caused her chair to shake even more rapidly. As soon as the Professor was gone, Arwen's muscles tightened. She stared at the cassette player. If only she could turn it off without destroying the whole room.
She concentrated on the Stop button for what had to be ten minutes. Then, as if she was pushing down on it in real life, a small solid block of energy formed just above the button and pushed down. The music stopped and the energy disappeared.
"That was new…"
"The mansion is going to be on estrogen overflow," Bobby said while talking to Sam on the phone. "I hear that there are going to be at least three new girls, and all from Kitty's area. Plus Tabby's coming back."
"At least Jean will be at Syracuse for college," Sam replied. "Plus, there are two and a half months of summer. The Professor is bound to find at least one more male mutant. And, hey, if we feel the estrogen flow is too high over the testosterone flow, we'll just give Jamie a few hard pats on the back."
"Hope the girls are hot like Kitty," Bobby said. "Maybe they'll let me cool them off a little."
"I'm off, man," Sam said. He quickly hung up the phone. I hope they're hot, too.
"Sam!" The call came from the backyard of his house. He sighed and slowly stood, making sure not to trip over any of the things lying around the house. "Sam! Hurry!"
"What is it… Paige?" Sam asked opening the back screen door. His sister, two years younger, was suddenly a foot taller and had orange fur.
His brother, a year younger than Paige, was laughing, having trouble not falling from the tree branch he was sitting on. "You should have seen it, Sam," Jay said through his chuckles. "She was yelling at me to get down, and then her skin just fell off and she looked like that."
Sam wrinkled his nose at his brother. "How did you get up there, anyway?" Not even he could climb that high on the tree.
"He flew," Paige said. "He's got wings."
Sam let his face drop into his hands. "This cannot be happening to me." He looked at his two siblings. "Jay, down now. Paige, see if you can shed that new skin back to your old self. We're going to talk to mom and dad."
"But, Sam…" Jay began.
"I will seriously knock you out of that tree, Jay," Sam snapped, preparing to cannonball at his brother. Jay sighed and revealed his wings as he flew down.
Despite the fact that Kitty insisted that her date with Lance would result in nothing more than a simple date, Kitty wore what Rebecca had suggested. She left her hair down after her shower and it had dried into little waves and the slight touch of make-up she put on suggested a slightly older look than her usual light-colored eye shadow. She had to practice walking around her house a few times to get a hang on her pumps, but in the end, she felt she looked fabulous. When the doorbell rang, she grabbed her purse and made her way to the door.
"Hey, Pretty Kitty," Lance said when the door opened. His smile widened as he looked her up and down. "Very pretty, might I add."
"Thank you, Lance," Kitty smiled. She took in Lance's outfit. His jeans, as usual, had holes, though not quite as many as most of his jeans had. And he wore a nice, light green button-up shirt, leaving the top couple of buttons undone. He even looked like he had gotten his hair cut. He offered her an arm.
"No parents coming to give me a lecture about how to treat you?" Lance asked as he opened the door of his Jeep.
"Um, they went out for dinner," Kitty quickly said, implying they'd be back by the time she would get home. "I have a midnight curfew."
"I can work with that," Lance said leaning over and kissing Kitty quickly on her lips.
"I hope my roommate doesn't mind that I'm a mutant," Jean said to her mother as the two were searching for bed sheets for Jean's dorm room. Jean's parents has already told her that she could bring her SUV to school and were providing a television and microwave for the room as long as her roommate provided a refrigerator and DVD player.
"How about these sheets, Jean, dear," Mrs. Grey asked pointing to a red and white set of sheets.
"Um, I was really thinking more blue," Jean said. "Or periwinkle. Actually, periwinkle and brown. And white. Plus, my hair will blend in too much with red sheets."
Mrs. Grey sighed and continued to follow her daughter throughout the department store. They had already set limits to how much new clothes Jean could get for college, as well as thought about the best way to break to Jean's roommate that she was a mutant, and had previously stayed at a mutant institute for the past several years.
"Mom, you don't think that I'll freak them out too much, do you?" Jean asked.
"Of course not, Honey," her mother said. "What is there to be afraid of?"
"Nothing, I suppose," Jean said. "I mean, I have friend's that are much worse off than me. Like Scott."
"These sheets are cute." Jean looked at the sheets her mother was holding up. They were a dark yellow and puce green plaid. The only good they would do would be to hide throw up stains.
But, just behind her mother, Jean saw the perfect sheets. "No, those sheets are cute," Jean said pointing as she made her way to the sheets that had given her the periwinkle/brown/white idea in the first place. "Can I get them? Please, please?"
Mrs. Grey looked at the sheets with annoyance. They were not little girl sheets. But she gave in anyway.
"Arwen, are ya coming with us?" Rogue asked passing Arwen's room.
Arwen looked up from her book and shook her head slightly. "Rogue, you're going to a club, which means the music will be too loud for me to block out, which means something would probably blow up. Plus, I'm really getting into my book."
Rogue smiled weakly. "Ah promise we'll do something tomorrow so ya can get outta this place for the Fourth of July."
"Sounds good," Arwen said. "But if you don't hurry, you'll get stuck in a crowd getting into the club. Have fun, but not too much."
"Sure thang," Rogue said as she turned and hurried to meet Scott by the entrance.
"She wouldn't come?" Scott asked.
"I don't think she wanted to see the building blow due to her powers," Rogue replied. "She's still adjusting, so Ah say we let her take it slow."
As soon as Arwen was sure they were gone, she closed her book and tip-toed through the mansion. Logan had disappeared a few days earlier on his motorcycle and the Professor had assured her he just needed a few days to himself. The Professor and Dr. McCoy had left earlier that day to recruit a new Mutant named Hector Mendoza, and Ms. Munroe was visiting her sister.
Ever since she had managed to form energy to turn off the tape cassette, Arwen had been wondering what else she could do if she concentrated hard enough. Now that she was all alone, she sat down on the Danger Room floor with only the tape player as company. After enough digging, she had found a Guns N' Roses tape (which she assumed was Logan's) and had popped that in the player. She took a deep breath and pressed play.
Getting off the Ferris wheel, Kitty tripped and fell into Lance's arms. He had been a perfect gentleman all night long and she couldn't believe it. While they had been at the top of the Ferris wheel, a short preview of the fireworks show later that night had gone off, and Kitty couldn't believe how romantic it was.
"Do you know where the fireworks are shot off from?" Kitty asked Lance as they headed out into a partially crowded field looking for a place where they could sit.
"It's a small clearing past those trees," he said pointing. "But the best view is on the other side of the clearing on the rooftops of the old houses there."
"How do you know?" Kitty asked.
Lance blushed slightly. "One of my foster families lived there for a while and I watched the fireworks from the rooftop one year."
Kitty smiled lightly and stood on her toes, kissing Lance's chin. "Let's go."
"Mama, can I please, please, please, please, please, go back?" Jubilation Lee begged her mother. "Things are soooo much better now and I swear I won't cause any problems and stay out of trouble."
Jubilee smiled brightly at her mother in an innocent way. She was positive that she could convince her mother of just about anything. "Please, Mama, I beg of you. I swear I won't ask for anything else, ever."
"You know that's not true, Jubilation," her mother said. "But, I will allow you to return on the condition that no more attacks are made on mutants for the rest of the summer."
"Thank you, Mama," Jubilee cried and hugged her mother. She then danced around the room causing tiny fireworks to go off.
"Jubilation!" her father yelled from the next room down.
About half way through the fireworks, while Kitty was sitting between Lance's legs, with his arms around her waist and his chin resting on her right shoulder, she turned her head slightly toward him and he moved in to lightly kiss her. Well, it began as a light kiss, but before long, the passion flared up between them and Lance's tongue slipped deep into her mouth.
So wrapped up in the ecstasy of the kiss, Kitty accidentally phased the two into the attic of the house they had been sitting on. When they landed on a couch, they couldn't help but break out laughing. Kitty grabbed Lance's hand and phased them out the side of the building and from there they quickly made their way to his Jeep.
From the moment that Lance pulled into Kitty's driveway, her memory became fuzzy, only remembering a montage of the best moments of the night. Lance lifting her over his shoulder and carrying her into the house. The goofy smile on his face when she told him that her parents wouldn't be home until the next evening. The two of them falling onto her bed. How impressive his chest was when she phased his shirt off. His lips trailing along her neck, sending shivers along her spine. The heat of his body pressed against her. Most importantly, how he had refused to have sex with her, no matter how much she prompted him. His words, "I couldn't take that, Kitten. It wouldn't be right. I love you more than that."
"Let's see what you've got, Spunk," Logan said to Arwen. He had recently taken to calling her 'Spunk" as she would sometimes refuse to take his orders. She finally thought she was ready to take a Danger Room session using her powers.
"Don't forget to turn on a song or something," Arwen yelled up. "I'm basically defenseless without it."
"What about all those moves I've been teaching you?"
"I haven't stretched properly. Don't want to pull a muscle. Unlike you, I don't have super healing."
"Just get in fighting stance," Logan said. He activated a low-level battle simulation and turned on a song from one of Rogue's CDs. Rogue and Scott watched with Logan, both interested to see Arwen's powers finally in action.
"Shit, is she flying?" Rogue asked as Arwen hovered in the air after jumping to avoid a laser. She then sent a wave of energy to deactivate the laser.
"Impressive," Scott commented as she ducked below a few flying metal balls. They were even more impressed when she made the blow up. "Very."
"I'd say a job well done," Dr. McCoy said when Arwen finished. "Only hit by three lasers, but who needs a left leg anyway, right?"
"Please, Arwen, as celebration, what would you like for dinner tonight?" Professor Xavier asked. "We'll cook the meal for you."
Arwen's eyes lit up. "Mac and cheese, Professor."
Fred, Todd, Wanda, and Pietro all stood ready to officially meet their two new teammates. Technically, Pietro had met the girl, but he wasn't sure if a slap on the face was completely official.
The door opened and Mystique took two steps into the room. Her eyes jumped to each of the three boys and Wanda. "Blob, Toad, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, meet Duke and Tip, also known as Eros and Pheromones."
Once again, please review. I can't make it better unless you review.