What is to Come
Chapter Twenty One
No one was quite sure why, but Kitty had taken an immediate and strong dislike to Emma Frost. Emma, for her part, neither knew nor cared why Kitty disliked her. The two of them constantly threw barbed comments and quips at each other. After a few weeks of attempting to get them to stop, the others gave up and simply instructed them to keep it down around the students.
Strangely Rogue had no issue with Emma despite being known for her usual distrust and dislike of anyone new. Emma and Rogue quickly became almost friends, and Charles was encouraged by this,insisting that Emma sit in on Rogue and Remy's 'maintenance' sessions so that she could better learn. Neither of them had an issue with this mostly because none of them actually read Remy's mind so he had no reason to complain.
Ororo never voiced an opinion of Emma, and no one aside (perhaps) Charles and Logan knew how she felt about the new member. Jean,like Kitty disliked Emma but the reason was obvious to everyone. Emma's first day at the mansion Scott barely managed to look away from the scantly dressed blond, Jean smacked his shoulder and Bobby glared at him.
By the week of Thanksgiving, the population of students had reached around one hundred and the feud between Kitty and Emma was at a breaking point. It escalated into a rather loud fight in the kitchen as Rogue, Kitty, Jean, Elizabeth, Emma, Amara, and Ororo were preparing part of the feast on Wednesday. Luckily, none of the students were around, as Logan and the other guys had taken them all outside to run off their energy before it was time to switch. The kitchen while huge was not big enough to fit everyone in it at the same time plus someone had to watch the kids.
It all began when Kitty arrived a few minutes late. Emma was sitting at the table peeling potatoes when Kitty came in. "Sorry, I lost track of time." Kitty said.
"No one else managed to run late."Emma said before Ororo could respond. "I was here ages before the rest of you, yet here I am stuck doing your job."
"Considering you never bother to get dressed I'd say arriving early isn't that big of an accomplishment." Kitty fired back.
"Darling, if it bothers you so much that your husband peeks at me, perhaps you should stop dressing like a little girl." Emma flung back casually. "Not that you have anything worth flaunting. Starting to look a bit pudgy there I'd say."
Ororo tried at this point to intervene, Rogue, Elizabeth, and Amara decided to just stand back and watch. Jean jumped to Kitty's defense. Things had already gone to far though, as evidenced by Kitty's shriek as she dived over the table at Emma, hitting her square in the nose ans scattering freshly washed potatoes all over the floor.
Jean and Ororo wrestled to two away from each other, and Ororo ordered the other three to finish up as they dragged the two of them away. Kitty outside via Jean for some fresh air and Emma down to the medlab via Ororo to check on her now bleeding nose.
Scott, Logan, Remy and Piotr chose that moment to enter the kitchen. Logan noticed the smell of blood and growled while Remy asked what happened and Piotr looked around for his wife.
"Emma and Kitty got into a fight. Emma said some stuff, Kitty said some stuff. Ya know the usual. Then Kitty punched Emma in the nose. Now they're being kept apart and we're stuck with the potatoes." Rogue said as she picked them up off the floor to rewash them.
"Hmm. Sounds like an elaborate hoax to get out of kitchen duty."Remy said.
"Are you saying they planned all this just to get out of peeling some potatoes?" Rogue said. "Started some kitchen fight have you? Talking from experience?"
"Non. Absolutely not. " Remy replied in an offended tone. "I don't mind kitchen duty, why would I do something like that. Now if it were bathroom duty, that'd be a different story."
Rogue rolled her eyes at his sarcasm and handed him a knife to help her finish the peeling as Piotr silently left in search of Kitty and Logan simply grunted. All kidding aside, Logan knew they had to find some way of calming all this fighting down before it spilled over to the where the students were witnesses to it.
~O~0~O~
The FOH had grown increasingly in numbers over the last few months, much to the delight of Graydon Creed. When he realized his goal of amassing a small army capable of fighting off any potential counter attack by the mutants, he intended to cut his ties to Kelly and Kelly's mutant benefactor. He decided just before Thanksgiving that he had indeed reached this goal.
He was rather happy as he made his way to the meeting with the other men, now that he could finally break away he felt much lighter, working with a mutant (even one who seemed to share his values) just didn't sit right with him. He honestly couldn't understand why Kelly continued to work with the man. He'd even asked Kelly a few times but had never gotten a response.
Graydon arrived moments after the others, ad sat calmly in the chair near the fire as Kelly outlined his latest accomplishment, which would be announced in a few hours. Creed wasn't really listening, after all this was his last meeting with them and his plans had nothing to do with theirs. Sure, it was possible Kelly's newest win could make hunting down those filthy abominations easier, but how could he really rely on the information so long as the man across from him walked free?
They other two had just stood to gather their coats, when Creed decided now was the best time to tell them he was out of their partnership. "Well gentlemen, it's been interesting working with you these last few months, but I'm afraid I'm ready to admit our goals no longer align." Creed said, attempting to be diplomatic. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, the strange mutant scared him. There was no reason to offend it while in the same room as it.
"What are you talking about, Graydon? We have several plans in the works right now."Kelly said with a frown. Unbelieving that Creed would just walk away this close to their goals.
Creed just shook his head and started to leave. "Have you decided to retire into a quiet life outside of politics then Creed?" asked Him. "That really is a shame, you showed so much potential. It would be a shame if anyone were to discover your secret should you continue your current line of work without us as an umbrella. How many of your followers do you suppose you would still have should it come out this afternoon?"
Creed stiffened and said without turning back into the room. "Are you threatening me?"
"No my dear friend. I am simply reminding you that you built a steel palace on a shaky deck of cards. One wrong move and it all falls to the next person able to pick it up."
"...So what are we doing next?" Creed said after a deep resentful glare.
"I will let you know when you are needed. Until then, you are free to go about as you please." He said. With that, he left and Kelly looked at Creed with pity in his eyes.
"Now you know. There's no escaping him, unless you're willing to lose everything you've build." Kelly said. "I don't know what he has on you, anymore than I'll tell you what he has on me. But just remember, now that oyu tried to leave, he'll never let you forget who's really in charge around here."
Creed nodded silently, and left the room. He was no longer anywhere close to being happy. He was trapped in that thing's clutches for the foreseeable future. The worst part was he still had no idea what it's agenda actually was, yet somehow he knew that sooner rather than later, he was going to be dragged right into the middle of it.
~O~0~O~
Despite the current high school-like behavior of a couple of the teachers, for the most part everything had transitioned fairly easily. None of the student body seemed to have noticed anything was amiss with Emma and Kitty, just as none of them noticed that Remy, Rogue, Scott, and Jean never left the grounds or went anywhere alone outside of the mansion even on the grounds. It may have been harder to hide these things from the students if not for the stress they were all under from the outside world.
It had been agreed at the beginning of the year that the students were not allowed to watch the local news without an adult present after the attacks had been escalating all fall. This rule was an attempt to avoid a panic over the way things had been going out there. This was how Bobby and Emma happened to see the 'breaking news' that appeared that afternoon.
Emma had the presence of mind to send the children from the room as soon as the 'Breaking News' announcement was made, and send a mental message to Charles. The other adults all arrived as The President and Senator Kelly walked on stage. "We reached a startling conclusion considering the recent Mutant Registration Act we have only a 41% compliance rate. This can not and will not continue, for the safety of all involved. This is why, I'm happy to announce the formation of the Mutant Registration Department. Department Officials had been given the legal right to detain and question anyone found to be an unregistered mutant. Again, I must remind you all that this is for the safety of all of our citizens." The president said.
The reporters were all vying for the chance to ask a question, but in the mansion the were all sitting silently staring at the screen. Some in anger, but mostly in shock. "Did they really just create a new police force to FORCE mutants to register?" Kitty asked in horror.
"Yup. They sure did." said Bobby.
" How are we going to make more people fit here?" Piotr said. "We are completely full now."
"That is not a concern."Xavier said grimly. "It can be easily rectified."
Everyone nodded at this, not sure how they could make room, but believing Charles would have a plan, for most of them they were far more concerned with the people who would be exposed and harassed.
Trask appeared on the screen, standing behind the others. Logan growled at the sight but Trask stayed in the background. Instead, the president continued to give vague half answers to the reporters questions, until Emma said. "Are we still watching this? They're telling us nothing but lies to cover up what they've really done." as she turned off the television.
Before anyone could protest, Ororo agreed. "Ms. Frost is correct. We will find no answers from this broadcast. We must seek out these answers elsewhere."
Warren and Hank both left to make a few phone calls to see if their contacts could give them any information. Charles waited until he knew the room was calm before retiring to his office to do the same. After a few minutes, Remy followed them out simply claiming that he needed air, but Rogue at least knew he was going to see what his Guild contacts knew.
Logan decided that it would be best to distract the children from the sudden activity and therefore left to announce a impromptu DR session. Jean and Emma went to the kitchen to begin dinner, Rogue and Kitty stayed where they were and everyone else returned to what they had been doing before the message to come to the rec room had been announced.
This was bad news, they all agreed, but they weren't really shocked after they had a moment to think about it. This was just another step into the control of their people.
~O~0~O~
With the announcement of the Mutant Registration Department, came the first en masse refugee move to Genosha, as Magneto suspected was coming. The number of new mutant arriving went from a few dozen a month to three hundred by week's end.
Dorian Leech was the youngest mutant to arrive that week, and his mother was only the second human to be granted passage to the island.(The first being Crystal who had, in Magneto's opinion, more than proven her loyalty to his son before arriving) Ms. Leech was accepted easily onto the island, and Magneto made sure to assign her housing near his own dwelling to assure her safety and to keep an eye on her. Old habits die hard, as to old hurts, and he didn't trust the woman, though he respected her for her continued loyalty to her son.
Crystal and Pietro announced their engagement the day after people began arriving on the island. Wanda was happy for her brother, as were their friends, and if their father had concerns he hid them well. Instead he congratulated the happy couple before returning to the task of transitioning all of the new residents into their new homes and jobs.
Charles had called him the first day people began arriving. After a rather long conversation over the events of the last few months, Charles agreed to send any Erik's way that wanted to go as they arrived at the mansion. Erik also agreed to send any teachers he could manage to find and were willing to go to Charles.
Magneto announced himself ruler of Genosha as soon as it became apparent that they would soon have a fully occupied country again, formally announced it that is, as everyone who had been on the island prior to the most recent event were already well aware that he was their leader.
Over the next few days, many seemed to regard him in an almost king-like status, so by the end of the first month he decided to just assume the title for foreign negotiation of trade. They also resumed planting in the farmlands, assigning mutants with powers that could aide in a healthy crop, and restarted some of the factories with the same theorized workforce. Wanda,Pietro, and Erik spent a lot of time making various arrangements to keep the country running.
Pietro also seemed to be improving every day, and was soon walking around without the aide of his cane or anyone's support. He was nearly completely healed, and spent most of his afternoons working back up his strength for the coming battle he felt building.
A/N: I apologize ahead of time, that the next chapter is probably going to bit a few days late. I injured my hand and have been unable to type. (Even now I am typing very slowly with one hand) Therefore am behind. Good news, hand's not broken, bad news it is sprained. I will do my best to get the chapter finished quickly.