It had been exactly one hour and thirty seven minutes since Mystique said she and Rogue would be back.
About ten minutes after that original time Jacelynn found herself in the living room, curled up on the armchair and staring at the door. Waiting.
Every passing minute she grew more anxious. What was the holdup? Mystique was nearly always back exactly when she said she would be. What's different about today?
The last time Mystique was late Jacelynn spent the night on the living room couch of the small apartment they were using (the actual owner was "elsewhere" as Mystique put it). That time there was a slight hitch in the plan that took some time sorting out. But she came back fine, just tired.
Jacelynn can't stop herself from envisioning the other times when it was later in the day and people she cared for weren't home when they said they would be.
When her parents didn't show up on time…
She shook her head. No, it's not like that. Mystique is a powerful mutant and she can handle herself
So were they, a little voice in the back of her head chimed in.
None of that matters, she tried to reassure herself. I'm not even worried, because everything is fine. In fact, I can get out of this chair anytime I feel like it.
Jacelynn did not move from the chair.
The next time she moved is when the door is thrown open, and the lights turned on. With some struggle, Jacelynn opened her heavy eyelids as best she could, relief washing over her as she saw the familiar figure of her mentor, closing the front door with quite a bit of force.
"Ungrateful brat." she heard the woman hiss to herself. "All it took was one boy and she forgets everything I've done for her." she stopped once her gaze met the tired younger teens. "Jacelynn," she began, her tone became more exhausted than angry. "Must you do this every time?"
The teen gave gave a shrug, slowly pushing herself into a sitting position. "You said you'd be back hours ago and then you weren't. Are you ok?"
Mystique sighed, and ran a hand through her hair. "Yes, I'm fine. Of course I'm fine. I'm not going to just disappear without good reason, there's a lot at stake here."
"What would be a good reason? How do I know you won't just up and leave?" she questions, giving up the battle on switching positions and letting her head fall back to the soft padding of the side of the chair, curling up.
"I'm not going anywhere. Besides, if I were, I'd at least let you know. I won't-" Mystique straightened up, seemingly realised what she's saying "And in any case, your powers are valuable and you haven't yet outlived your usefulness. And with that, returned to her normal behaviour.
Jacelynn smiled softly at the uncharacteristic caring tone that had appeared for a brief second, eyes closing. "Whatever you say Mystique. Whatever you say." With that, she was sleeping once again.
That next morning, Jacelynn awoke only a few minutes after dawn. She sat up and stretched, the blanket which had been strategically placed to cover most of her face falling onto the floor.
Had she fallen asleep with a blanket on? She couldn't remember.
Rogue, on the other hand, did not end up coming back. During her brief stay at the brotherhood Jacelynn's feelings had become mostly impartial- she had a decent enough humour but in general took things a little too seriously. However finding out she left for the Xmen, and doing so without so much of a goodbye? That shifted her opinion of the teen to a solid dislike. The first day or two it was strange, but they got over the decrease in numbers swiftly, and got on with their lives without so much of a thought towards her.
"Todd!" Lance hollered, shifting from where he had been previously leaning against the wall.
"It ain't my fault! You people forgot to tell me!" he yelled back, followed by some slamming and crashing coming from what could only be his room as he scrambled around it.
"We reminded you three times last night!" Jacelynn chimed in, adjusting her duffel bag strap.
"Well ya really should have made sure I was payin' attention!"
Pietro rolled his eyes. "I say we just leave him. In fact, why don't we just cut and run and spend the week at a resort instead. That sounds much better then going to some dumb survival camp."
"If you feel like pissing off Mystique, then be my guest. But the rest of us aren't going to take that risk." replied Lance.
"But she's not here right now! She'd never know!"
"Uh, but what if she comes back?"
"Then she'd be here with no idea and we'd be off at a resort living the highlife. It's a perfect plan!"
Jacelynn scoffed. "It's Mystique- I'm pretty sure she knows where we are going before we do. "
At this point in time Todd leaps down the stairs, his bag still half open, landing very ungracefully in front of them.
"Think I got everything."
"You better, because we aren't going to turn back, at this point we are going to be lucky if we actually get to the bus on time." comments Lance, already heading out the door.
Jacelynn sighed, and reluctantly followed. "Literal hell on earth camp, here we come."
She felt someone lightly hit her leg with their foot and looked up slightly irritated from her book.
Naturally, of course, it was Pietro who had claimed both seats across the aisle from where she and Lance were sitting for himself.
"What are you reading?" he questions.
"Oh- Shakespeare. Midsummer's Nights Dream."
"You? Read Shakespeare?"
Jacelynn shrugged. "I like drama, I like plays, I like reading about characters that manage to be bigger assholes than me. Shakespeare is kind of perfect for me." She hadn't really gotten into it until one of his plays was required reading over the summer, and was bored enough to give
it a shot.
"I'll give you that- everyone in that play is a really shitty person."
She arches an eyebrow."And you know this how?"
"Because I've read it. Duh."
Now it was her turn to be surprised. " You've read this?"
"Well yeah, for one they make you read it in grade nine. And when you do everything as fast as I do, you start looking for ways to fill up time. They're not that bad, could do without all the fancyness of the words though."
"I mean, it was written like 400 years ago, everything was probably a lot fancier back then. Plus it sounds more elegant."
"I mean sure, but it was pain in the ass trying to write an essay for it at that point when I didn't understand half of it."
She closed her book, and reclined in her seat. " Wow, are you telling me there was a point where you actually cared about your grades?"
"You say that like I don't get better grades than you without even trying."
"Yeah, and I happen to sit next to you in science, so I know for a fact that's not true."
"I aced the last science test without even trying."
"Oh sure. What's our teacher's name?"
He went quiet, a puzzled look coming across his face. She couldn't help but laugh.
"Yeah, I'm sorry if it's hard to believe you're doing well when you honest to god don't know our teacher's name."
"Oh whatever. Not like you care about school either."
"I care!"
He gave her a knowing look.
"Well I care like… half the time. For things like English and French and Gym. "
"Caring half the time isn't going to let you graduate."
"Certainly better then not caring at all. And besides, I'll just tell them they're going to let me graduate. Problem solved."
"Your charmspeak or whatever is one hell of a get out of jail free card. I could of used you when Daniels landed me in jail." Pietro's expression darkened, glowering at the backside of said nemesis's head.
Jacelynn rolled her eyes. "Can you go one conversation without mentioning exactly how much you despise him?"
"Yeah I can. And I have. If you want to go after someone on that I'd talk to Lance, who hasn't stopped brooding since they got on the bus."
"Of course he is. He's contractually obligated to whenever Summers is within 20 feet of him." she laughed.
"I do not." responded Lance, speaking up for the first time since they sat down in their bus seats.
"Lance, you're great and all, but yes you do. Either that or you have the worst case of resting bitch face I've ever seen." Jacelynn replied.
"I vote for both." Pietro commented.
Lance turned to face them, land looked like he was about to say something before Pietro cut him off. " I bet he's going to scowl at us and call us assholes"
"Or make a bad rock pun." She added on.
The other teen rolled his eyes, and tried to look annoyed, however the smile forming gave him away.. "You two are the worst."
Pietro and Jacelynn shared a mischievous smile. "Only when it comes to you Lance." She laughed, and with that returned to her book.
She saw the look on the guys faces when Sergeant whatever proclaimed Scott as their group leader and she knew exactly what she was in for. All her hopes of just completing this week uneventfully and returning her nice, warm bed slipped down the drain.
"And this is supposed to be tied to survival… how?" Jacelynn questioned, her hand over her eyes blocking the bright sunlight as she stared at the second task of the day. The first was a simple kilometre run, and as expected Pietro "won" with ease. Something he had continued to rub everyone's faces-especially Evan's- even though they had tried telling him multiple times that it was not, in fact, a competition. That was something you could make an argument for being "essential".
But this? "This is just an obstacle course on steroids"
"I think it's just to build muscle or something." Todd commented from where he was sitting on the grass watching everything go down.
"But there are ways to build muscle that are more practical then this! I mean, its climbing a rope, then down a zipline and then rowing a raft across a lake then running like three feet. There is no point!" She shook her head, the ponytail she tied her hair into swinging behind her back. Seeing as this was a survival camp, she had opted for a more casual style, namely a green t-shirt and shorts.
"Practical or not it's fun to watch." replied Pietro- who then promptly started snickering after Fred snapped his rope and tumbled to the ground. Lance on the other hand seemed to be fairing fine, one of the first to make it up the entire length of the rope and down the zipline. The only person ahead of him was Summers.
"This is going to end badly. I can already see it."
"What do you mean? You don't think Lance is going to win/" Todd asked, and got up from the ground.
"Oh no, Lance has a good shot at winning, but he is up against Scott. There isn't a way powers aren't- She couldn't even finish her sentence before the X-geek took a very unnatural looking tumble into the lake. "Sometimes I scare myself with how well I know you people."
Todd leaped into the air, getting more then a few feet off the ground without even trying. "He's gonna win! C'mon Lance! Show those losers up!"
Lance made it a whopping distance of halfway across the small lake before a "mysterious" and "strange" red beam sends him toppling out of the raft and into the water.
"Summers has some nerve doing that." scowled Pietro.
"You gotta be kidding me!" shouted Todd.
"Now that was real subtle." Jacelynn shook her head. "He's dumber then I thought."
With no one else anywhere close to the finish life, Summers passed through the finish line with ease. He had barely passed through when his friends obnoxious cheering got louder and she could see her friends walking towards them. She hesitated for a second. Was this really worth getting into a fight over? Probably not. Was getting into a fight going to be the only fun thing she got to do this whole week? Definitely.
And with that she quickly caught up to her friends.
"That loser Scott should have lost and you know it." Fred stopped in front of the other teens, easily towering over them all.
"Yeah," Pietro moved forward. "Just because he slipped and took a bath the guy went ballistic!"
"Slipped? More like avalanched." retorted Smurf, who was not actually blue at that moment, however Jacelynn could not remember his name.
"He stole that first place ribbon!' chimed in Todd.
"He did not!' said Kitty.
"Oh sure, hyper power laser beams just randomly occur in wilderness." Jacelynn rolled her eyes, her tone dripping with sarcasm.
"Oh yeah? If you want that ribbon so bad I'll pin it to your face!" Rogue just about snarled that at her, and quite possibly something else under her breath that she couldn't quite hear as everyone started yelling at each other.
"You can try, if you want your hand broken." Jacelynn gave her a sickly sweet smile.
"I'd watch your mouth before-"
A whistle screeches through the air, effectively halting all arguing near instantly. Sergeant Perma-Scowl gave them all scathing look felt even underneath his sunglasses.
Oh, they were in so much shit.
The counting had become background noise as Jacelynn sat at the end of the line of teenagers doing pushups, glaring at the immediate distance.
Naturally the instant pushups as form of punishment got mentioned she had immediately decided that she'd pass on doing that.
However when she went up to Sergeant UglyShades and "suggested" that she not do any of this, he resisted. No, not resisted. He told her no.
She knew she wasn't at the point with her powers where everyone would just follow without hesitation, sometimes there was resistance, if it wasn't in the person's first language then they just wouldn't work. A couple times people broke out with sheer willpower, But she had yet to have meet someone with enough sheer willpower to deny her.
He wasn't even a mutant. He was just a regular guy.
Frankly, it pissed her off.
Of course she was able to work him down, at the cost of having to do 20 of 60 proposed pushups. But that didn't make it sting any less. Her powers failed. She failed.
Jacelynn managed to push back her internal brooding enough to pick up on the others finishing up, and in sync with the others stood up so Sergeant Asshat could menacingly pace in front of them for some sort of intimidation tactic.
He began some sort of speech about loudmouths and tough guys that she wasn't really paying attention to until he got to the bit about "proving how tough you are". Which apparently involves their respective teams bringing back a photo of them and a flag brought back from where he planted it. "It" being something Sergeant Toughguy called "Mount Humiliation" and pointed behind him.
Jacelynn's heart stopped beating.
Mount Humiliation was actually a big ass mountain.
She followed her friends numbly as they went to prepare. "Sergeant Teenkiller is insane. Absolutely fucking insane."
"I feel like this is illegal or something man. We gotta tell someone." Todd shook his head.
"Tell who?" Pietro spread his arms out, gesturing around him. "Look where we are Todd. The middle of fucking nowhere. And there's one authority person, and he's the one sending us on this crazy quest."
Lance walk up behind them. "Not like we have any choice on this so we might as well win this. It'll be easy, even without our powers."
Pietro and Jacelynn share a look, something bordering on the edge of panic.
"What do you mean, even without our powers?" Pietro questions.
"Scott tried to tell me that the only way we could beat them is if we cheat and use our powers-
"Lance you didn't." She buried her face in her hands, knowing full well where this was going."
"So I said that he's wrong as usual. So we decided that no one is going to use their powers for this."
Jacelynn groaned."Lance no!" She pulled her hands away from her face. "You've done and killed us all. How are we going to do this?"
"We'll figure something out, it's just a mountain. What's the worse that can happen?" Lance shrugged, and headed off towards the supply shed.
"Famous last words if I ever heard them." Piretro muttered to her, folding his arms together.
"You're telling me." she sighed, and ran a hand through her dark brown hair. "How much you want to bet one or more of are going to nearly get killed?"
He gave her a dry smile. "Have you met us 'Lynn? We are all going to have nearly died twice by noon."
"Oh definitely. And for the love of god don't call me 'Lynn. "
She had to admit Lance's idea of tying ropes connecting them to Fred and having him just scale the side of the mountain was smart. Albeit slightly harrowing and more than a little uncomfortable.
She held her side with one hand as she untangled herself from the rope from where she'd gotten some nasty scrapes from the jagged mountain side as Fred pulled them up over the ledge.
The three walked over to Fred, who was carefully watching an entrance to what to be-
"An abandoned mine?" Lance questioned.
"Toad's checking for a shortcut."
Jacelynn's heartbeat started racing, and she took a small step back. "Oh fuck no. You aren't getting me in there." She couldn't tear her eyes away from the dark, small, abandoned underground cave. It was everything she hated combined into one claustrophobia inducing horror.
Lance gave her a questioning look. "It's just a cave."
"Yeah, and I'm not going through with this."
"Don't you want to win?
"I don't care about this stupid flag enough to- to have to go in there!"
Lance looked like he was going to argue with her and she was not above charmspeaking her way out of this situation when Pietro cut in.
"Just let her head up the normal way, she's obviously not going to do this and we can just meet up at the top."
Lance didn't look completely convinced but he dropped the subject. Jacelynn flashed the speedster a grateful smile and started up the path.
She figured she was making good time, and expected to get to the top in a couple more minutes. Did they actually win something without explicitly cheating for once? This might be a first.
Those naive hopes came crashing right back down when she felt the ground begin trembling beneath her feet, managing to catch herself before she fell on her face. She groaned. "Those idiots didn't actually do it, did they?" The second the ground stopped shaking she was charging back down the path to an exit of the mine shaft.
"Do none of you have brains?" she called down, and sure enough there was an answer.
"Jacelynn! You gotta help us man!" Todd's voice called up.
"How?" She dropped onto the ground. " Not like I can charmspeak the rocks into moving off of you."
"You have to do something, 'Lynn. I'm too awesome to die down here!" said Pietro.
"I am."
"You're sitting on the ground. How is that doing something?"
"Im sitting on the only real path up to the flag, because sooner or later the Xgeeks are going to walk up here and they are going to help you."
"Are you sure they'll help, Jacelynn?" questioned Lance. " They kind of hate us."
"Well obviously, but they aren't going to leave you to die. Besides, on the off chance they are hesitant I'll just force them to. Cuz I'm not sure about you but I don't feel like having my friends die in an abandoned mine tunnel."
"Aw, Lynn, I didn't know you cared." Pietro called.
"Yeah? And call me 'Lynn one more time and I'll have them leave you there."
"You wouldn't!"
She grinned down at him. "Try me."
Jacelynn waved the Xmen over when they got to their location and (thankfully) decided to help of their own accord. Once everyone was out it looked like it was about to dissolve back to their normal behaviours, with Pietro and Smurf trying to pull the flag away from each other, when things took a turn for the unexpected.
That unexpected turn being a huge black hyper jet appearing over the mountain edge and a womans voice informing them that both Professor X and Mystique were in danger and before she knew it they were being whisked away on an incredibly high tech aircraft.
From what the lady who's name is apparently Storm debriefed them with told them of Juggernaut, this was obviously going to be a fight. So everyone divided and changed into whatever their fighting gear happened to be.
Jacelynn ended up taking the longest to finish. Her gear wasn't what was causing trouble, it was pretty simple in all honesty. A high neck, black halter top that ended just above her abdomen, black leggings with a streak of purple running down the side, tall boots and black gauntlets for an extra edge in hand to hand combat.
No, the problem was with her glamour.
She hadn't been on a mission for a little while now, as Mystique was obviously in one of her "planning something big so I'm going to deal with this myself for now" phases. And normally Mystique would give her someone to "become". When she didn't, she normally opted for Damien, because his glamour was so familiar to her, and perhaps because she felt stronger and emotionless as him. But that wasn't an option. For one, it would majorly freak out everyone if she walked out as an intimidating adult. And secondly, while the combat oriented, form fitting clothes worked and looked great on her, they would decidedly look less great on Damien.
Besides, as Damien she acted differently, made more rash and impulsive decisions. It was just too risky.
But she had to do something. She couldn't do her normal glamour because it would be dumb, and her actual appearance was completely out of the question. So she stared into the small mirror of the bathroom for a minute or two, trying to think for what she could do. Eventually, she came to something.
Jacelynn looked at herself in the mirror and concentrated, watching as the desired changes took place. Her eyes turn an almost unsettlingly dark black, and her hair goes from brown to a rich dark purple, the closest thing to an homage to her original appearance she would let herself get.
Another glance over in the mirror, and she decided that this could actually work. On that note, she returned to the others.
Lance raised his eyebrows. "What's with the eyes?"
She shrugged. "Well for one I thought they were cool, and for a second it eliminates any need for a mask. Why?"
"More creepy than anything if you ask me."
"Good thing I wasn't then." She laughed, and he rolled his eyes at her.
"Creepy eyes aside, what are we going to call you?"
"Oh, you mean as in codename? Uh…" She went silent, trying to think of something. After all, codenames are important. It's what everyone was going to know her by. After a few minutes she settled on something she quite liked. "Glamour. In reference to my powers and stuff."
"Alright, Glamour it is."
Jacelynn wasn't quite sure what exactly she expected a Juggernaut to look like, but she had to admit the sheer height of this guy took her aback for a second. Though she got over it quickly, because after all, this was a fight they were in.
"Freeze Juggernaut, you can't move a muscle. " She threw her power at him, and was successful for just long enough for Quicksilver to quickly undo one of the fasts to his helmet before Juggernaut pulled himself out of her hold, charging at her.
Thinking fast she leaped out of the way, landing close to the ground a few feet away.
The rest of the fight, relatively speaking was pretty easy, with the combined effort and powers of all the mutants in the room. Once they managed to get his helmet off Xavier did the rest of the work for them,and just like that they were leaving.
As they reached the gates Todd dared to ask Mystique why she was with Xavier in the first place, and in her typical fashion she snapped at him, turned into a Raven and left them to find a way home by themselves.
Looking back at the institute, Jacelynn couldn't help but feel that with the way Mystique was acting, there was something she wanted in that mansion, not her boss. Something probably heavily guarded.
This definitely wasn't going to be the last time they passed through the gates of the Xmen headquarters.