Love is Love (No Matter How Strange)
"I SWEAR THAT LIZARD IS GOING TO DIE!!!!"
Rogue idly looked up from the couch in the common room. She raised an eyebrow at Bobby. "Let me guess, Kitty's little pet chewed up your socks again?"
"Worse he barbecued them!" Bobby held up a charred pair of what used to be socks. "When I get my hands on that prehistoric iguana…"
"You know it's your own fault," Rogue said. "First you don't keep your door closed and second you shouldn't be teasing the poor thing in the first place!"
"Poor thing?" Bobby snapped. "Poor thing? That poor thing is a menace!"
"Save your breath Ice Boy," Ray sighed as he walked in. "You should know by now that every girl here is in love with the thing!"
"I am not!" Rogue said hotly. "And Lockheed is not a thing. It's just a harmless little baby dragon that happens to be a lot smarter than half the boys in this place anyway!"
"Harmless?" Ray asked. "That little baby as you called it has nearly fried half the people in this mansion!"
"The male half," Remy grumbled as he walked in. "For some reason Lockheed only likes the girls. Although Gambit must admit he can see its point."
"Except for Wolverine," Bobby said. "For some strange reason Lockheed likes him."
"Only because it annoys him," Ray remarked. "Speak of the little scaly devil…"
Lockheed was flapping in carrying something in its jaws. It landed by Rogue and placed it at her feet. "What have you got there?" Rogue picked it up. "Hey these are…"
"WHERE IS HE?" Scott shouted. "WHERE IS THE ROTTEN LITTLE PURPLE THIEF?"
They went into the hallway and found Scott fumbling around the halls covering his eyes. "GIVE ME BACK MY SHADES YOU MEDIVAL BARNEY RIP-OFF! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU…"
"Scott calm down before you blow the mansion up," Rogue put his shades back on. "Here you go…"
"Ugh…dragon drool," Scott muttered. He glared at Lockheed. "Come here you little…" He moved towards it menacingly.
"Hold it right there!" Rogue stopped him. "I'm sure Lockheed didn't mean anything by it! He probably was just playing, that's all."
"Playing huh?" Scott said sarcastically. "It wants to play a game? I got a game for it to play…Dragon Basketball! I'm gonna slam dunk that stupid little lizard into next week!"
"Take a number!" Bobby said.
"Hold it right there!" Rogue picked up Lockheed. "Any one of you lays a finger on Lockheed I'm gonna lay an ungloved hand on you! Got it? Oh look, now look what you've done!" She held Lockheed closer to her shoulder as it whimpered. "You've scared the little guy! You should be ashamed of yourselves! Bunch of bullies!"
"US?" Remy said incredulously. "Chere that lizard has got you blindsided! You ain't fallin' for that little act it's pullin' ain't you?"
"The only act that is gonna happen is a disappearing one if you all don't stop teasing that poor thing!" Rogue snapped. "Come on Lockheed, let's get you back to Kitty. She's probably worried sick about you." She carried Lockheed away in a huff, not noticing that the dragon gave the boys a flick of its tongue and made a sound at them.
"That thing just stuck its tongue out at us!" Bobby snapped. "I swear that thing just gave us a raspberry!"
"Remind me to kill Lance for giving Kitty that stupid winged iguana," Remy growled.
"I don't care what anybody says he must have planned it," Scott snapped. "Somehow he must have known that that dragon would drive us crazy! I know it!"
"You know Scott, normally when you go into one of your 'Avalanche is Evil' speeches you kinda go a bit out there," Ray said. "But this time I think you may be on to something!"
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"You wouldn't think that such a little dragon would not make such a big mess," Hank sighed as he continued to clean up his lab.
"Well at least Kitty's finally got the little runt housebroken," Logan grumbled. "Although I have a sneaking suspicion those 'accidents' weren't really accidents if you know what I mean!"
"Yes Lockheed does seem to possess an uncanny amount of intelligence for a reptile doesn't he?" Hank sighed. "He may even be more sentient than we think. Possibly on the same level as humans."
"Some humans anyway," Logan growled. "I can't believe the school board banned the kids from going back to school! Even though Chuck paid for more than half of the schools' reconstruction and had the X-Men help build it! It would still be a pile of rubble if it wasn't for us!"
"It's only a temporary ban," Hank told him. "Until the lawsuit is settled. However since the army has assisted us with testimony and evidence that the incident at the school dance wasn't really our fault, I'm sure we will be vindicated."
"Doesn't matter," Logan grunted. "Cobra makes the mess and mutants get the blame anyway!"
"Well technically Avalanche made the mess," Hank told him. "But since he was using his powers in self defense at the time I suppose we can assign Cobra more than it's fair share of the blame."
"Well at least Chuck got the Institute certified so at least the kids can get a high school diploma here if the worst happens," Logan said.
"Yes," Hank sighed. "I fear it may be too soon for complete mutant integration in society. These are troubling times. If anything the incident with Cobra and GI Joe has taught us that there will always be groups who will be hunting mutants for their own means. We must be more vigilant than ever."
"I fear you are right Hank," Xavier wheeled in. "And we may have a new problem to contend with. I've been running a diagnostic on Cerebro and I have discovered something very disturbing."
"What? Lockheed chewed on the wires or something?" Logan grinned.
"I'm afraid this goes beyond some harmless actions of Kitty's pet," Xavier told him. "I have just discovered that there have been several successful attempts to infiltrate Cerebro's programming. However no data has been stolen or tampered with. It appears that someone has figured out a way to access Cerebro's programming without detection."
"You mean somebody has been secretly communicating with Cerebro?" Hank asked.
"More like hacking," Logan growled. "Any idea who did it?"
"I'm afraid not," Xavier shook his head. "Whoever has done it is very good. Very good. It could be anyone or anything. It may be Magneto or Mystique…"
"Or it could be Trask," Logan growled. "Or Cobra."
"Could GI Joe or the government be involved?" Hank asked. "That's a possibility. Although I am loathe to believe that the Joes themselves would do such a thing."
"I gotta agree with you there," Logan said. "No way the Joes would do something like this to us. But the government…I dunno. There's always SHIELD or some other agency…"
"Or it could be a new threat," Xavier said. "Someone we don't know. That is a very real possibility. And we won't know until he or she tries again."
"You got something in mind Chuck?" Logan asked.
"Yes but I am going to need your assistance Hank," Xavier said. "As well as the assistance of a few of the students…"
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"Okay! Let 'er rip!" Forge called out to Jamie. They were in the garage where Forge had made a makeshift lab. Kurt was with them.
"Are you sure this is gonna work?" Jamie asked as he looked at the strange machine.
"Trust us," Kurt told him. "This time it will work!"
"That's what you said the last twelve times," Jamie told him.
"Hey thirteen's a lucky number!" Forge told him.
"No it isn't," Jamie told him.
"Well it is if you were born on the thirteenth," Forge shrugged. "Do it!"
"Okay," Jamie sighed as he pulled the lever. "Here goes nothing…" Instantly the machine sputtered and coughed. Then it started to rumble.
"It's gonna blow!" Forge shouted. Suddenly spews of yellow, orange and green liquid splattered all over them and the garage. Then some strange multi-colored gunk oozed out of a funnel into a basement. Kurt looked at it and pulled off a piece of it and chewed on it.
"Success!" Kurt beamed. "The perfect orange-banana-kiwi flavored chewing gum!"
"Yeah and you only had to wreck the garage to do it," Jamie grumbled.
"Hey at least we got the formula right this time!" Forge said. "Now all we have to do is figure out how to make the machine from not spitting up juice when it makes it and our science project is ready for grading!"
"Forget the grade," Kurt rubbed his hands together. "I smell marketing potential for this stuff."
"That's not all I smell," Amara poked her head in. "Don't tell me another science project blew up on you?"
"Not exactly," Forge told her. "But we did pull it off this time! Wanna try our gum?"
"Ew…no thank you," Amara held up her hands at the sight of the sticky substance.
"Amara have you found the boys?" Ororo walked in and saw the mess. "Never mind…"
"We did it Storm!" Forge said cheerfully. "Wanna taste our newest gum flavor?"
"Ah…maybe some other time," Ororo declined.
"You guys are so weird," Amara told them.
"I must admit, the mansion certainly has had some interesting changes since you've arrived Forge," Ororo shook her head. "Not to mention several new repairs."
"Hey you know what they say," Forge shrugged as he toweled his face off. "You can't make a world class omelet without breaking a few hundred eggs. Or something like that."
"Amara's right, you guys are weird," Jamie grumbled as they went into the kitchen.
Tabitha was in there drinking a soda. She raised an eyebrow as they walked in. "Let me guess, another day of playing 'Mad Scientist'?"
"Very funny," Kurt said dryly as he started to towel himself off. "I hate cleaning things out of my fur!"
"Bet Amanda would love to do it for you," Tabitha grinned.
"That's enough Tabitha," Ororo said. "I think I'd better go talk to Charles about the grocery list. We're running low on cleaning supplies as well as aspirin." She left the room.
"It stinks you and Amanda have to sneak around behind her parents' backs," Amara said to Kurt.
"At least you and Bobby don't have to sneak around," Tabitha pointed out.
"We don't really need to," Amara told her. "We kinda broke up." This stunned the table.
"So you two aren't an item anymore?" Tabitha asked. "Shame. You two looked cute together."
"Yeah well," Amara sighed. "Fire and ice don't exactly mix. Besides, I think he still misses Jubilee. It wasn't really anything serious anyway. We decided to remain friends but that's it."
"So are you looking to date anyone else?" Jamie asked.
"Don't even think about it Jamie," Amara said.
"Ignore him Amara," Forge told her. "I don't have anyone either but I'm not in any hurry to date anyone!"
"But you do have a girlfriend, well sort of," Tabitha said.
"What?" Forge yelped. "No I don't!"
"He does?" Kurt gasped. "Who is it?"
"Nobody!" Forge snapped. "I don't like anybody!"
"It's so obvious," Tabitha rolled her eyes. "Am I the only one who notices that whenever Storm walks into a room Forge gets this puppy dog happy look on his face?"
"You have a crush on Storm?" Kurt choked. "No way!"
"I do not!" Forge snapped.
"Do so! You know that look Lance gets whenever he sees Kitty?" Tabitha asked.
"Oh my god you're right!" Amara gasped. "I can't believe I never noticed that before!"
"Gross!" Jamie made a face.
"But she's an adult and you're…" Kurt started to say.
"Well technically I am over thirty," Forge pointed out. "Even though my body really hasn't caught up."
"So what's the problem?" Tabitha asked. "Why don't you ask her out?"
"I can't do that!" Forge snapped. "She's still my teacher!"
"Then you admit it!" Tabitha crowed. "Forge loves Storm! Forge loves Storm!"
"I DO NOT!" Forge shouted.
"Do too!" Tabitha chanted. "Forge has a girlfriend! Forge has a girlfriend!"
"Take that back!" Forge grabbed the first thing closest to him and threw it at Tabitha, which was an apple. She started throwing food at him which landed on Kurt, Amara and Jamie. Soon they were all in a food fight.
"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" Storm walked in and looked at the mess.
"Oh look it's your girlfriend Forge," Tabitha snickered.
"Shut up!" Forge squirted her with some ketchup. Soon the food fight resumed.
"Definitely need to triple the order of aspirin around here," Ororo groaned as the fight continued.
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Arcade sat alone in his room studying the monitor on his computer. "Well it was only a matter of time before the X-Men figured out someone was communicating with Cerebro," He said to himself. "Funny, I would have thought they'd have figured it out long before this. Oh well…"
He grinned and punched in a code then pushed the send button. "Phase one complete," Arcade smiled. "Now it's time to move on to phase two. Soon Cerebro, we'll be together. I promise."