DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters in this story for they all belong to their respective owners. I only own my original character and the situations I put all of the characters in.

Chapter 9

Mystery Phone

Yep, the stare could still make him sick in the stomach.

John could literally still feel the gut-wrenching glare Bobby gave him when he and Worthington left. Even if it had already been minutes that he was alone in the balcony.

And so much for asking himself into having a strong willpower either.

Just what the hell was up with him earlier again? Blushing? That was so un-John like! But he had to blame it on blondes. Yes, blondes. They usually have those types on effects on him. Every damn time.

Heaven's beard, he wasn't making any sense.

Holding the railing in front of him a lot tighter, John couldn't help but wonder what the look Bobby had sent him earlier meant. It was indecipherable. And John couldn't understand what Worthington was trying to imply earlier, too. There was something. A glint in the aerial mutant's eye that totally implied that he totally knew something, that he was clued on to a certain fact…

But what?

Whatever that may be, hopefully Worthington had a good intention inside his head, even if he had just met him and still looks at him as an unresolved fugitive case. And besides, why would the aerial mutant try to do something that would probably cause his ending demise right?

Well, you did try to kill his dad once, the rational part on John's head answered him, making John feel like smashing his head to the metal railing in hopes to shut the voice at the back of his head up. Oddly enough, the voice inside John's head was also creepily becoming to sound a lot more like Jeremy's voice.

Again, he probably wasn't making sense. Even inside his head.

Shaking his head at his thoughts, John turned around and decided to leave the balcony. The students' lunch break should be over now, so they should be at their own classes. It was probably safe to go wandering around the corridors this time, away from prying eyes. But wait—hadn't Drake come here earlier to call for Warren? That there was some meeting for the X-Men or probably some faculty thing? John leaned more into the X-Men emergency meetings notion, especially since lunch break was almost over and it was against all logical sense to have a planned meeting at the designated time.

So with that in mind, another random question popped in John's head: did that mean that classes were cancelled? Or were there substitute teachers who'll replace the X-Men in their absence?

Gah! How should he know? He never even attended during classes before. Much less pay attention to the arrangement of the teachers when one couldn't make it!

Oh screw it, John resignedly thought, he was going back in his room now anyway, or at least to the lounge room for more relaxation. He'll probably give himself some aneurysm or something trying to figure out how the hell this mansion works.

o-o-o-o-o

Jeremy sat, more like slouched actually, twirling his phone between his fingers absentmindedly, not really paying attention to the emergency meeting Storm arranged at the last minute. She thought she needed some debriefing at what happened to their last escapade with Multiple Man, since she weren't there most of the incident and that a lot happened on this certain event. Not only that, but apparently, Nhiles had also asked for some sort of immediate summary over the incident that had passed last Saturday. Jeremy thought that was suspicious, since the old man didn't ask for such reports before, and that his team and the X-Men usually didn't stand on each other's paths when it comes to their missions.

So what exactly brought this on?

Did that issue over John really intrigue the old man?

Jeremy thought that it was probable. It was widely known over the country that Dustin Nhiles was one of the biggest Magneto man-hunter around. And Jeremy wasn't fooled by Nhiles overly neutral expression at their meeting yesterday either. He was a telepath for Merlin's sake! And while he had the moral principle to never ever read another person's mind without their permission, Nhiles's neutral façade only made Jeremy a lot more suspicious. So he knew he just had to.

He remembered the feeling inside the older man's head. It was dull, like the literal definition of boring. Jeremy can't even remember yawning that much ever since his childbirth. There were lots and lots of documents inside the man's head. Permits, mutant files, heck! He even saw a blueprint of a robot hanging around inside the man's head. But luckily, even before Jeremy could even fall asleep back inside the man's head, he had found the information he was looking for.

Nhiles thought that John would somehow lead him into Magneto.

Ha, tough luck to the old man then, Jeremy thought, a smirk aching to pull up through his features.

But still, even though the information was totally irrelevant and unimportant to his real task, Jeremy made a note to himself back then that there were a lot of more interesting things inside the man's head. Perhaps he could report them to—

"So Jeremy, what really happened inside James Madrox's head?"

Snapping quickly back into attention, Jeremy slightly shook his head to clear out the huge fog of thoughts that had clearly taken over his entire head. Looking back at Storm, Jeremy gave the older woman a sheepish smile, implying that he wasn't really paying attention and that he requested her to repeat her question.

Laughing lightly when she quickly took the hint, Storm understood why the telepath was still out-of-his head. Maybe he was still exhausted, Storm guessed, knowing that Jeremy had never left John's side ever since they all got back from the mansion. She had asked him to keep an eye over the fire mutant, just in case John was again to cause trouble just like he once did when he was still on his student days.

"I asked what really happened inside James's head?" she repeated, giving Jeremy a small understanding smile.

Oh. Jeremy thought, so that was what she was talking about.

"There were mental blocks inside his head," Jeremy stated. "I managed to destroy it, but a girl with scary blue eyes was also inside his mind. The girl kind of threw me back out of James's head with what it felt like a simple flick on the wrist on her part."

Everyone stared at Jeremy confused. So there was a telepath on their side too then, Hank silently thought. Well, that wasn't good news.

"Not only that, but another mutant named Avalanche also came to Multiple Man's aid when Pete, Kitty, and I managed to corner him," Jeremy continued, shifting his gaze to his teammates.

"Avalanche?" Logan asked.

"Yeah," Kitty managed to reply before Jeremy could. "That was the only name he had given us."

"Well, do you guys know what his mutant abilities are?"

Moving his gaze back to Storm, Jeremy tried to recall what the other mutant did during the fight. "Seismic," Jeremy mentioned silently, but loud enough for the others to hear. "I'm not sure up to what extent his powers could really stretch but…it had something to do with the element of Earth."

Leaning back to her leather chair with a sigh, Storm felt her hand rubbing her temple slightly, feeling a migraine was coming up. Damn, now they were against another mutant, Storm thought to herself. A mutant they had no idea who other than the "code name" he'd given them.

"If I were you I'd look into the records of the previous Alcatraz brotherhood members," Jeremy suggested, looking at the stressed woman on her desk. "Maybe we could find a file over there that is at least slightly related to Avalanche's mutant abilities. I'll try to ask John too for some information."

Breathing in a small sigh of relief, Storm was silently grateful for the small suggestion Jeremy had given her. At least now she knew where to start looking.

Peering over to Hank, she looked at the blue-furred mutant that was looking back at her with a concerned expression. "Hank, would you please retrieve those archives for me?"

"I will," Hank answered. "I'll get them to you by tomorrow. Do you need any help looking over the documents?"

"That would be great. Thanks," Storm gratefully said.

A tensed and exhausted silence washed over the X-Men as they all dealt with the fact that there was again some villain out there, who could once more possibly revive the fire of the human-mutant war. It could be Magneto again, trying to continue his mission, but no one was actually sure.

A certain buzzing of a phone after a short moment of silence made the uneasy stillness disturbed, the sound coming from the phone Jeremy was currently holding. The telepath, aware of the eyes on him, opened his phone and noticed a new unopened message from a very familiar number.

Successfully managing to fend off the smirk that threatened to pull up on his features, Jeremy opened the new message only to make his impending prevented smirk turn into a prevented frown.

Open up your TV. NOW.

It was all deep breaths for all of them under a few more seconds before Jeremy suddenly spoke, his eyes never leaving his phone's screen. "Could someone turn on the TV please?"

His request was polite, but there was some urgency on his tone that made everyone look over at Jeremy in sudden curiosity, and for Pete to quickly garb the remote, turning the TV on as a voice of a female reporter registered on all of their ears.

"—disrupting your favorite program for a flash report. Another mutant prison camp was again under ruins as an explosion around 12 pm this afternoon had disrupted the silence that was surrounding the whole site. Authorities currently speculate —"

o-o-o-o-o

"—that this was the work of the famous robber James Madrox, who just had his own spree with the police force last Saturday. Apparently this explosion caused a massive hole in one of the thick walls of the prison, and had caused most of the delinquents under custody to escape.—"

John stared at the television screen in the lounge room with horror as the scene in the TV had revealed itself in front of him. A clip of a gigantic building was on fire as a helicopter was circling itself around it. And as the camera above them zoomed itself nearer to the crime scene, a few mutants who were currently escaping were facing the camera, looking glad and pleased, even mocking the camera with a few rude gestures. The huge hole on the wall of the building was obvious too, as were the fires that surrounded the whole building.

This…this was the work of Multiple Man? John asked silently, petrified.

John couldn't comprehend how Multiple Man did all of that. He knew he had his duplicates to help him, but the way the fire mutant look at the chaos in the TV screen. Now how did Multiple Man do all of that in a day alone, and without even being caught?! Surely surveillance in that area was packed pretty tight, right?

"Holy sweet hell," John couldn't help but mutter as he stared at the TV screen with an equally horrified stare that he did before.

Now he knew the feeling of shock that Hank and Storm probably felt when they discovered that he was alive.

o-o-o-o-o

"—As a total, this is the fourth major mutant facility here in the U.S.A. to be attacked by terrorist mutants. The government is now currently in talks with Mr. Dustin Nhiles, the head of the Human-Mutant Relation Department, about how the conflicts between humans and mutant terrorists will be solved."

On the same channel, the X-Men also found themselves petrified as they all stared in horror at the TV screen. The same clips that John had seen were shown in the TV screen wherein in the end, a picture of Mr. Nhiles was flashed in the screen to possibly notify the viewers who Mr. Nhiles really was.

And again, the X-Men had found themselves dumbfounded at what was happening. The mutant terrorist happenings were starting to become more active, having destroyed four mutant prisons now. That the police thought this was the work of Multiple Man alone had also caused stir ups and confusions in the X-Men's heads.

Something big was going to happen, Storm thought to herself. And whatever it was, her team and her school should be prepared no matter what occurs.

The X-Men had stared at the TV far longer in shock even though the TV was already showing a bunch singing teenagers in front of everyone. And of course, it was always Logan's role in the team to break such stillness, and usually, he did it with a cuss.

"What the fuck?" Logan found himself muttering in shock, a small shaky breath being released as if it was held there for almost a year.

"Why wasn't I informed about this?" Hank asked.

"I really don't think Multiple Man's alone in this," Kitty said, looking at everyone in the team.

"Well he's never alone," Warren responded wittily.

"Maybe he was with that Avalanche guy," Pete suggested. "I mean, seismic powers right? The last time used it was to make a wall, surely it's not that hard for him to breakdown a wall."

Everyone else except Jeremy muttered their own agreements to Pete's put out thought. Sudden contributions on who else Multiple Man was possibly with echoed throughout the whole room, everyone else having their own opinions on the matter.

Of course again, except Jeremy, who was silently trying to be non-existent to the whole group, hoping that someone wouldn't remember that he was the one who alerted them to the news. He was going to be questioned how he found out what was being reported, and that would certainly put him under suspicious gazes, and while he could always blame it on his telepathy, he was pretty sure that no one would believe him this time, even if the extent of his powers weren't really revealed to them. That being said he couldn't reveal to them who was his informant either.

They're gonna have to find that out soon, Jeremy thought.

But maybe…maybe not now.

o-o-o-o-o

A few hours later, after the sudden flash report, the whole school was already buzzing with excitement at the fresh gossip. And while no one had actually had the chance to watch the report earlier since they had classes, the mansion's most famous gossipers had managed to get the news on their hands, having their own, twisted version of the news reported a few hours before.

John had even found himself snickering as he eavesdropped on the students' version of the bulletin.

Walking away from more pair of eyes this time, perhaps the students had actually thought that he was somehow involved in this incident, John went to the familiar corridor that led to his and Jeremy's room. Moving briskly with a small innocent whistle on his tune, as if pretending that he wasn't aware of some students following him, John made a move to open his door only to find it locked. Fishing the pockets of his own jeans, John cursed silently when he realized that the only thing on his pockets right now was the key that Warren earlier had given him.

Suddenly remembering what happened at the balcony earlier this day, John suppressed a shiver as he recalled how Bobby glared ominously at him. All the hate, revulsion, disgust—

John quickly shook his head, trying to get rid of the mental image that his head presented him onto how Bobby probably looked like earlier when he glared at him.

He probably looked hot though, again, with the rational part of his brain responding at his own thoughts. Stupid brain, John complained.

Fisting his hands, John made a move to knock when he suddenly heard a shout from the inside.

"What?! Like, now, NOW?!"

It was Jeremy's, John recognized the voice right away. But who was he talking to? Pressing his ear at the door, John thanked the heavens that he could at least still hear some voices from the inside, and kicking himself internally at the same time for being as nosy as the students earlier.

Not a week in here yet and the students were already rubbing off on him the wrong way. Well, damn.

"—isn't ready yet," John heard. Who or what wasn't ready?

There were more muffled voices as John could only hear several pieces of Jeremy's conversation with someone.

"Are you sure that wasn't you, guys?"

"The whole team will definitely be surprised."

"Whatever. I've got some interesting reports for you, by the way. Make sure you wait for me."

"But what about John?"

John pressed his ear further towards the door, hoping to hear things more clearly now that his name was mentioned. But of course, fate, as he usually thought of before, always hated him to the bone. As the next thing he heard on the door was,

"Alright, alright. I'll see you guys over there. Bye."

John stood straight up on the door, hearing Jeremy sound like he was bidding his goodbye's to whoever he was talking to. And once the doorknob turned, John made the most innocent face he could come up with and tried to look like he was about to knock on the door, his fists raised towards the now opened door.

To say that Jeremy was surprised to see him definitely made John release a silent sigh of relief. Well at least, the telepath wasn't aware of his presence until now. He was probably too preoccupied with his conversation anyway.

John put down his clenched fist as Jeremy restored his usual amused face, with a raised eyebrow to silently tell his confusion as to why the fire mutant was there.

"This is my room, too," John muttered, noticing that Jeremy hid his phone on his pocket. "I just forgot my keys so I was about to knock."

"R-right, of course," Jeremy slightly stammered, much to John's absolute surprise. "Uh…get in. I have to be somewhere."

Somewhere to meet that mystery person of yours, John thought. "Where?" he asked, feigning innocence. "It's almost dinner time. Why don't you eat with us first and let me go with you?"

In the exact moment, John watched as Jeremy's eyes widened slightly, moving his eyes away from John before looking back at him with a small smile.

"Nah, I'm afraid you can't come with me today, Johnny," Jeremy answered. "Storm told me that I need to grab the files of the escape mutants from the prison earlier."

He was clever, John gave him that. If he probably hadn't heard his name in their conversation earlier Jeremy's excuse would've made sense. Apparently that wasn't the case, wherever Jeremy was going to, somehow, someway, it also had something to do with him.

The telepath was lying to his face and John had to find out what the truth is. And as much as John wanted to press Jeremy for more info…maybe for now, he'll let it slide.

"Oh…" John said. "I guess I'll see you later tonight then? Or tomorrow morning?"

"Don't go waiting for me, John. I'll be back very late tonight."

John chuckled. "Okay then," he said, putting his hands up in defense. "I'm not some nagging wife over here."

And with that he let Jeremy pass the door, with John staring at his back in suspicion for a few more seconds before heading back to their room.

A/N: So again, as promised, I updated. Yay! *cheers*

Now anyways, I won't be back again for quite a while, so...my advance apologies.

I truly appreciate the reviews you guys had sent me the past chapters, keep them going everyone! :D