Author's Note:

First of all, thanks for the two reviews I received! They make this COMPLETELY worthwhile, and even if there are criticisms, I truly appreciate them because I want to improve my writing. This chapter is for you two, next one will be out soon, lots of explanations in the next chapter and more Acolyte stuff brought into play. Hope y'all enjoy, and if you don't, write it in a review or message (remember, honesty isn't the same as being rude, okay...?). Just in case, Ray and Wolverine are the characters tagged in this story, but that doesn't mean there's gonna be a love triangle, just in case... not until this point, not between those two as far as I see.

Anyways, on with the chapter!


22:34

Xavier Institute

"It's not what it looked like."

The lights had been out for only a couple of seconds before she gave in and spoke. I'd spent the greater part of the day getting up to date in my classes at a desk in the library, and at dinner, Rogue had avoided me like the plague. Now that we were in the same room together without any witnesses, it seemed she felt free to talk. I stared up at the ceiling with my arms crossed behind my head, clearing my thoughts and opening my mind: it seemed the only way I could even begin to understand the complicated girl. She waited for me to speak, and then went on. "He's helping me find my parents."

"Adopted?" I asked, voicing a word projected to me by her mind's voice. Besides the one word, all I could read from her was a buzzing of emotions comparable to radio static, and it made the conversation frustrating. She was hesitant to answer, but muttered a "yes".

"Ray told me a bit about him. Are you sure you can trust him?"

"He understands what it's like," she said quietly, " and he's different now. The Professor wouldn't get it, so that's why--"

"It's fine, Rogue. I won't tell anyone: it's none of my business."

We didn't say anything for a while, but a question was biting at the back of my mind. This girl was so reserved, so hesitant to trust. She trusted the so-called Gambit because he was in the same situation as her, but why would she tell me anything? I honestly didn't understand anything about her family situation, much less how she felt about it. It seemed she was being honest, but at the same time, all I felt was that she was omitting information. Dizziness started to set in, and I wasn't too sure that having her as a roommate was good news if she'd have me so on-edge all of the time.


Logan grinned at our collective cries of protest. "You heard me, recruits. What I say goes, so get to it."

Dragging our legs through the dewy grass, we did as our tormentor ordered and stood in a straight line along the borders of the forest. The sun hadn't even completely risen yet, but who were we to question our instructor? He'd threatened that if anyone didn't show up they'd be waxing the floors of the mansion-- all of them-- and that was how we'd ended up here at the borders of the Institute in training gear, barely suppressing yawns or drooping eyelids. "Iceman and Berserker, you two will be team leaders today." Ray sighed lightly under his breath, but squared his shoulders and stepped up next to Logan as Bobby cheerfully walked to the mutant's other side. "Drake, you go first."

"Multiple," he said almost instantly, pointing out the puffy-eyed youth. Jamie raised his brows to his hairline and looked disbelievingly at Bobby.

"Huh? Me?" he asked, still unsure. Bobby nodded, so he shrugged and walked up to him. "Okay, whatever you say…"

"Cannonball," Ray stated. Sam responded by getting up from his sitting position on the ground and joining his friend.

"Nightcrawler," Bobby continued. I looked at the remaining students standing around. This was supposed to be an exercise for the younger class, but to even out our numbers, Kurt had volunteered to join in. There was Sunspot, aka Roberto, a guy I hadn't had much time to talk to, and Amara, a girl who had arrived the day before. We'd been introduced briefly, and she'd explained that she'd been visiting her family in Brazil. Sunspot had the same explanation, but judging by the way the rest of the team reacted to them, they were all old friends. Amara caught my eye, and the brown-skinned, black-haired girl kindly smiled. I half-smiled back; my night had been plagued with nightmares about hospitals and running from the police, so when Bobby had woken me up for an early-morning drill, I hadn't gotten up in the brightest of moods. She seemed nice enough, though, so I made an effort to smile so she didn't think I was upset at her.

"Danny." I jolted with surprise when Ray called my name. For a moment I didn't understand, but Logan cleared his throat, reminding me that they were waiting. I ordered my feet to move, and thankfully, they listened and guided me next to Sam, who gave me an understanding look.

"Sunspot."

"Magma."

Once the teams were set up, we all faced each other and waited for Logan to set the rules. I noticed Sunspot and Ray glaring at each other, not with hostility, but with a considerable sense of rivalry. Kurt grinned mischievously and winked at me, an assurance that he wasn't going to make this easy. I set my jaw and mentally prepared myself. Logan looked between the teams and smiled.

"Like I said before, the game is simple," he began, tossing a softball one-handedly in the air and catching it without looking. "Keep the ball away from the other team. The course is marked off with yellow tape, so if you get out of the area, you're disqualified. If you fall asleep, you're disqualified." He eyed Jamie warningly. "If you destroy the ball, you'll also be disqualified." Both Ray and Sunspot got warning looks this time. "Remember, this is a team exercise, so everyone has to participate. You have five minutes, and the team with the ball when the time is up gets an advantage in the Danger Room later. Are we clear?"

"Yes, Mr. Logan," we all chorused tiredly. He nodded, satisfied, and pulled a stopwatch out of his pocket.

"Alright." Without any warning, he threw the ball into the air and walked away. "Go at it."

Ray and Sunspot were the first ones to dive for the ball. I flinched back and watched with wide eyes as Sunspot's fist turned alight and Ray threw a blast of electricity at him. He'd explained his powers to me yesterday in the library and had given me the run-down on the rest of our teammates' powers as well, but even so, it was one thing to hear about what they could do, and another thing entirely to see them in action. Ray got a hold of the softball and made a break away from the others.

"Jamie!"

Responding to Bobby's orders, Jamie multiplied and sent four of his clones at Ray. They all tackled him to the ground at the same time, and one of them pulled the ball out of his hand. "Got it!" he exclaimed victoriously, and threw it to Bobby.

"Get him!" Ray's voice was muffled from beneath the Jamie-clones, but Amara and I obediently ran after Bobby into the forest. We heard an explosion behind us followed by the sound of a sapling cracking and falling over, a casualty of Ray's escape. Bobby slipped in and out of sight, and when we reached a clearing, he was left in the open. I picked up speed and had his uniform within arm's reach when somebody grabbed my shoulder. The only warning was a twisting in my stomach before Kurt teleported me away.

When I opened my eyes, I was hanging uncomfortably by the hood of my sweatshirt from a branch five feet above the ground.

"Kurt!" I yelled in annoyance. He laughed, and the cloud of strong-smelling smoke that descended announced his departure. Cursing under my breath, I twisted and turned, trying to break loose. The sweatshirt cut painfully into my armpits, so with a growl of frustration, I lifted up my arms and fell out of it to the ground. A pile of leaves was conveniently right underneath me, so my fall was softened, but the leaves and branches made a couple of small cuts on my now-bare arms. I crawled out and listened for movement. I heard footsteps and went in that direction.

Unlike the other students, I didn't have an X-Man uniform yet, so I was chasing the black-and-yellow clad mutants in nothing but a black camisole and black sweatpants. The early-morning chill bit at my skin, but I ignored it and felt a swell of excitement when I saw Roberto running in my direction, a softball loosely held in his hand. I hid behind a tree and, when I heard him close enough, jumped out and snatched the ball away. He cried out angrily and threw a ball of energy at me, but I ducked and ran between the trees as fast as I could.

My heart pounded in my throat and my breaths came in fast pants. A small stitch bit at my side, but I pressed on, fueled entirely by adrenaline and sheer excitement. We had maybe a couple of seconds left, and then--

I slipped on a puddle of ice. I flailed my arms and wildly tried to get my footing again, but Bobby continued to feed the ice slide and kept me slipping toward the yellow tape marking the edge of the course. Something crashed through the trees and caught me full in the chest before I could stumble over, knocking me several feet back and into another body. The person I'd crashed into cried out (Amara, judging by how female the voice sounded), and when we hit the ground, she was pinned underneath me. I tried to get off of her, but Sam was on top off me, his expression confused.

"Danny? I thought you were--"

"Me?" Roberto said teasingly, picking the softball up from where I'd dropped it. "You should look where you shoot yourself, Cannonball."

He ran off then, but none of us got up to pursue him. I was winded and pinned between two people, so I definitely wasn't going to be the hero and press on when I could barely even breathe. Sam scrambled away and I rolled off of Amara, groaning as the effects of Sam's attack began to set in.

"Ugh," I groaned, clutching my chest. "Man, this is so not how I planned to start my morning…"

"I think I'm going to be sick," Amara agreed, sitting up and holding a hand to her mouth. I cautiously moved away in case she was serious.

"I thought you were Sunspot," Sam explained apologetically, holding a hand out to help me to my feet. I took it and leaned onto a tree until I felt I'd regained my balance. Amara held out a hand so that Sam could help her up as well. "I'm sorry, guys."

"Don't worry about it," Amara said, waving a hand. She braced her hands against her knees and took a deep breath. "Alright, let's go--"

"Time's up!" Logan announced over the walkie-talkies he'd given us. We all sighed in defeat and made our way back to the starting point. Everyone was already there, the other team celebrating with cheers and high-fives and Ray bearing with the teasing. Kurt saw me coming and ran over; he'd turned his image-inducer on now, but even if he looked nothing like the three-fingered blue elf that had abducted me, I didn't let myself be fooled.

"Ah Danny, I got you good, ja?" he asked, grinning from ear to ear. I crossed my arms and looked to the side.

"I don't associate with evil people," I stated. He got an expression that was almost a pout. I dropped the act with a chuckle and a shake of my head. "You think you could get me my sweatshirt?"

He scratched the back of his head guiltily. "Um, about that, I don't think I really remember…"

We closed the topic with his promise to replace my lost sweatshirt and walked with everybody else back to the mansion. The sun had fully risen, so by the time we got back, everybody else had already woken up. I walked into my room and nodded at Rogue. She was already fully dressed in low-rise black jeans and a sheer long-sleeve over a purple tank-top, and as I pulled my clothes out of my dresser, she started blow-drying her hair. We didn't bother to say anything to each other, especially not in regards to our conversation from last night. After a quick shower and hurriedly getting dressed, I grabbed my backpack and went down to the kitchen for breakfast.

The older students had eaten, but Ray, Amara and Sam were still at the kitchen table. I sat down next to Amara and poured myself a bowl of cereal. While I ate, I listened to Roberto's animated recount of our shameful failure to Jamie, Kurt and Logan, who hadn't been present to witness it. I bit back my embarrassment and forced laughter to be a good sport, but for the most part, I tried to focus on eating. The Professor came into the kitchen and exchanged greetings with several of the students, and when I caught his eye, I smiled.

"Morning," I said.

"Good morning, Danielle," he greeted, coming up next to me. "May I speak to you for a moment?" I nodded and, having already finished the cereal, followed him into the hall.

"We received a phone call early this morning from your mother," he said, moving slowly towards the foyer. "She says that your father wants to meet for dinner later on this evening." I gave the Professor a curious look.

"Really? He's in Bayville?" I asked. He nodded.

"He's working in the financial district. She says that he's unaware that you are living here, but that it is up to you to whether you wish to explain your situation to him," he continued. "Here's the address where he'll be. I can have Scott or Jean drive you there." He handed me a folded white paper with an address written in neat, concise handwriting. While I read it, I noticed my hands were involuntarily shaking, so I quickly stuffed it into my pocket and left my hands there so he wouldn't notice.

"I'd appreciate that. I still don't know my way around town yet," I explained, smiling to hide my nerves. He nodded.

"That's to be expected. If you need anything else, please let me know."

I smiled and adjusted my bag on my shoulder. "Thanks, Professor. I'll see you later." With a wave, I walked out the front door to the garage. Like yesterday, it wasn't necessarily cold, but I'd covered up anyways with a black jacket over a mauve long-sleeve and jeans. When I got to the garage nobody was there yet, so I sat down on a work bench to wait. In the silence, it was inevitable that I'd think about the news the Professor had just given me, so I laid back against the wall, closed my eyes, and thought about my father.

It'd been a month since I'd last spoken to him and two years since I'd seen him in person. We weren't what anybody would call close, and after all that had happened ten years ago, our relationship was casual at best, tense most of the time, and destructive at worst. I'd been attacked in my mother's hometown, and when he'd tried to convince her to move the family back to Miami, she'd refused. His solution to the problem had been to leave in the middle of the night without so much as a word goodbye, and ever since then, my brother had been the only one who made an effort to keep in touch with the traveling business man.

To put how I felt about him looking for me into words would be difficult, but all I did know was that I was dreading seeing him. I knew much better than to say "no" to his invitation right off the bat, and despite how much I genuinely wanted to, I figured the best thing would be to find out what he wanted and get everything over with.

"Ready to go?"

Jean's voice snapped me out of my thoughts and her smile forced me to pull up a façade. It only took a second to push the thoughts of my father to the back of my mind and latch onto Jean's open early-morning passiveness. I yawned and stretched as I stood up from the bench to follow her to her silver SUV. "Wolverine should've considered a more aggressive profession than becoming a teacher," I commented, climbing into the passenger seat. "Like maybe as a torturer or a corrupt cop or something."

She laughed and started the engine of the car. "He woke you guys up for an early-morning session, huh?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yep. Frickin' early-morning session of 'keep away'."

Kitty, Kurt and Rogue all piled into the car then, and Jean drove us out of the Institute. As we were leaving, we passed by the rest of my teammates piling into the X-Van with Logan in the front seat. I shivered, grateful I wasn't in that car at that moment: the resentment toward the teacher would've made me dizzy.


Bayville High School

My favorite class of the day: Photography.

Least favorite class: Physics.

Good thing about Physics today? We had a substitute. A plump middle-aged woman with a 50's style hair cut and a floral print dress, Miss Greene had promptly informed us upon her arrival that she had absolutely no intention whatsoever of giving class, but that wouldn't hesitate to sign us up for detention the moment we decided to start pulling pranks. Once she finished this announcement, she sat behind her desk, pulled on a pair of reading glasses, and began to read a $2 romance novel with an erotic cover.

Now that Roberto and Amara had returned from vacation, I'd found out that they also had this class with Ray and me, so the four of us sat on the counters along the windows for most of the class. "So, Danielle, where are you from?" Amara suddenly asked, cutting across Ray's and Roberto's discussion on the newest features of the X-Van. The two boys stopped talking to listen.

"Here and there, but mostly Puerto Rico," I answered, smiling at the warm friendliness she let off. "It's a great place."

"Do you miss it? I've only been back a day, and I already miss Brazil," she said wistfully. I felt a small knot in my chest, but bit my lip and forced it down: whether it was her nostalgia or mine, I couldn't tell, but it'd be ridiculous to start crying now. "I hear it's beautiful over there."

I looked out the window at the roads, buildings, and groomed trees that bordered them. Everything here was so tame, and if not tamed, so different from what I was used to. Beautiful, maybe, but above all, different. I looked away for a moment and met Ray's eyes, so bright and observing, a blue that I had never seen before. Different, yes… but definitely beautiful. I smiled nervously and turned back to the window before I could begin to blush.

"Yeah, it is beautiful," I agreed, still staring out the window. "Where I lived, no matter where you went, you could see the ocean somehow. The people were loud and they always played the music louder, but it was easy to get used to. Christmas season begins in November, and we can find any reason to party. It was the best, seriously."

"We should throw a party!"

We all turned around to see Bobby there, a detention slip and a post-it in his hand. "But not just any party, a beach party!" he continued, as if it were entirely normal for him to be in this class with us. "That way, the three of you can feel more at home again."

"What are you doing here, man?" Ray asked, crossing his arms. "And what are you talking about? We went to the beach this weekend."

"Yeah, but they didn't!" Bobby insisted, gesturing at Roberto, Amara and me. "I'll talk to Jean and Scott to see what they say. Oh, and you have to go to the office," he added offhandedly to me. "You're leaving early."

"Leaving early?" I repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, apparently your dad's driver is here to pick you up," he explained. Suddenly he remembered something, and an accusing look crossed his face. "Danny, your dad has a driver. You were supposed to tell us if you were loaded!"

"But I'm not," I argued, perplexed. "I didn't know he had a driver, either. You sure it wasn't a taxi?"

"He had the whole black suit and funny-looking hat thing going on-- a chauffeur," he said, making air-quotes around the word "chauffeur". "Anyways, we'll talk about the party later, you get going. He looked a bit weird, and very impatient."

I shrugged and picked up my backpack from the floor. My dad hiring a driver? Another one of the topics we could talk about at dinner. "Alright, gotcha." Squeezing Ray's arm softly as a good-bye, I jumped down from the counter and waved to the rest of my teammates. "See you guys later." They all waved back (except for Bobby, who'd already begun planning the weekend with Amara), and when I got to the door, I stopped for a moment to check the time on my watch.

Suddenly a very warm, excited feeling like electricity shot through my blood, freezing me for a moment. I felt nervous, excited and scared all at the same time, and it was the most wonderful feeling I could ever imagine. The sucking sound that normally accompanied a connection was absent, but somehow I knew that was what had happened. I was thrown, and couldn't resist looking back to see if the person I'd felt was in the classroom.

All I saw were his electric-blue eyes before the door closed, blocking him from view.

My heart leaped in my chest, and even if the initial intensity had faded, I felt a warm, melting happiness that made the smile on my face painful to suppress. I couldn't explain why I felt so wonderful, why I felt like I was floating when I was really standing on laminated floors. With a sigh that made me feel like I was a preteen again, I made my way to the office with a small jump in my step. A man in uniform stood outside the office door and walked in my direction when I came closer.

"Danielle?" he asked. I stopped a couple of feet away and nodded slowly, running my eyes over his face. The grin on his face was much too wide to be casual or friendly, but I didn't detect any red flags. Although he seemed very familiar, I couldn't place why: it was easier to remember auras, not necessarily faces, and his aura was confusing. "Your father sent me to pick you up early. Shall we get going?" His voice was funny, as if it was an effort to speak the way he was speaking.

"Sure," I answered carefully, watching the way he reacted to my voice. I detected a jolt of excitement from him that shouldn't have been there, but it quickly disappeared behind the flux of his general aura. If I had to use one wordy to describe how his emotions felt to me, it would be noisy: too many things at once to be normal. I tried to follow him from a safe distance but he kept slowing down so that we could walk side-by-side, something that was quite unnerving. I sucked it up and stiffly walked next to him, making sure that we didn't make any physical contact.

Once outside of the school, he led me to a long, black BMW with tinted windows. Yep, this guy definitely worked for my father: he'd never owned anything other than black BMWs.

As I was getting into the car, I noticed a tuft of unique-colored hair sticking out of the back of his hat. He held the door open for me, but I didn't get in, simply looked at him: the question was driving me crazy. "Do I know you?" I asked after several seconds of open staring. The moment I said it, an image of a man in a similar business suit, with that same orange-colored hair spiking straight into the air came into my mind: Mr. Pyre.

Mr. Pyre, as in Pyro, the mutant who'd set the plaza in San Juan on fire.

As in, someone who had been sent to spy on me for Magneto.

He seemed to realize when I recognized him, because his grin grew even wider (if that was possible) and he braced an arm against the side of the car, blocking any exit. "Well, cat's out of the bag, ain't it?" His Australian accent came to life at that point, and he leaned down so that our faces were almost touching. I pushed at him to try to get away, but all he did was laugh that maniacal laugh that was all his own and shove me into the car, slamming the door shut. "We're taking a little joyride to see the wildcat's daddy, Mister Stone!" I dove for the door, but unsurprisingly, it had the child's lock in place.

Panic threatened to set in.

"Let me out of here!" I yelled, banging on the window that separated us two. "Where are you taking me, dammit?!"

"Like I said, to see your dad," he answered, cheerfully starting the car. "Don't worry, you'll be on time for dinner. We're just taking a liiiiittle detour first!"

He continued to laugh, but otherwise ignored me and started to drive away from the school. Even if I knew it was pointless, I banged on the back window and desperately tried to project an SOS to anybody attuned enough to understand, hopefully an X-Man who would realize what was happening. I didn't feel any connections made, and the dread crept into my stomach as the car turned a corner and the school was lost from sight.


Review, lovely readers...

PS= No, Pyro didn't try to kiss her -.-...