Chapter 3: Bloodshed in the Night

A younger girl that was probably in grade 5 was waiting in the weaponry room when they got back. Elizabeth dictated the events of the mission to Olivia, as she was later introduced, who wrote it down at an inhuman speed. A forest green cougar glittered on the back of her jacket. Kirsten explained to the x-men that Olivia was a bronze level to be and would be boosted a level during the international get-together. She was only one of dozens of bronze levels from all over the world who were to be boosted to the next level.

Olivia turned her deep brown eyes on them. Her eyes held the wisdom of an elderly woman but the gleaming spark of childhood was still there.

" You're the x-men right? I've heard a lot about you from my roommates but I never thought I'd actually get to meet you. Have you watched any of the classes? You should see how Ms. Macartha teaches her classes; she creates maps out of thin air and she had Mr. Roberts teleport the whole class to China just so we could see a real Chinese New Year. Did you know that some people call Matt 'The Black Ghost'? You didn't! Well you do now! Uh Oh, I've got to get to math class. I hope we meet again sometime." She raced off, a black and green blur darting through the hallways.

" Ms. Macartha? Mr. Roberts?" Jubilee asked.

" Ms. Macartha is 5B's homeroom and one of the Social teachers and Mr. Roberts is 8A's homeroom and the school's main gym teacher for division three. Ms. Macartha and Mr. Roberts often take students on international fieldtrips because Mr. Roberts can teleport large amounts of items or people over long distances. He's one of our most powerful teachers," a silver level girl, about her age, answered.

" Nicole do you mind showing them to their quarters so they can all settle in," Marie asked the girl. Nicole shrugged her shoulders and turned to walk the other way, beckoning for them to follow.

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Their quarters were fairly large and located on the fourth level of the main school building. Girls had one room and the boys had another. Jubilee turned to Nicole, " that other girl, Olivia, she said that some people call Matt the Black Ghost but she didn't say why. How'd he get the name?"

Nicole chewed on her bottom lip for a bit before answering; " when Matt first ended up on his own, he was taken in by a group of mercenaries and took a lot of jobs as an assassin. The mask and cloak he always wore, his speed and usage of the shadows earned him the nickname Black ghost. I wouldn't recommend asking him about it. He's not exactly proud of his past.

" Anyway, supper will be ready around six o'clock so you have a few hours to unpack and hangout. Someone will be sent to guide you there. I'll see you later I guess." She turned and walked down the stairs.

At 5:50 a girl by the name of Corey Feathers came to guide them to the dining room. The dining room was located on the second floor above ground and was crowded with students. They had already said grace and were eating spaghetti and Caesar salad. They sat beside Matthew, Elizabeth and another girl their age. The girl turned out to be the third member of the Whitehart triplets. She had strawberry blond hair and one green-brown eye and one blue eye. According to what they were told, Beth had control over plant life like Elizabeth. Samantha, Mark and the other boys and girls they had met were sitting at another table and kept pointing to this piece of paper. Sometimes Jan would write something down on it. At the end of the meal, Marie stood on one of the chairs and called the students' attention, " If I could please have your attention please...Thankyou. As you all know tomorrow will be the beginning of our international festival. Some of our guests will be arriving in a few hours but most of them will arrive tomorrow. We hope you will help them feel at home," she retreated back to the table she had been sitting at earlier as the dismissal bell rang out.

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The rec. room was filled with pool tables, a small TV, a few well-worn couches, several tables and a pile of board games. Allan, Mark, Olivia and Megan were head to head in a game of Monopoly. A small group of older teens were watching a Jackie Chan movie. Matt, Logan and Gambit had a game of Pool going with Elizabeth, Beth, Jubilee and Sam as spectators. The PA crackled before the secretary's voice rang out, " Matthias please report to the office. Your sister wishes to speak with you." Matt left the room and headed for the office. His sister sat behind her desk, her face was a sea of battling emotions as she handed him the black folder holding his mission. When he reached the dispatching room he opened the folder and slid out the piece of paper that had his mission. Upon the slip of paper two short sentences had been written...

Kill Tsunami.
Leave no live witnesses behind.

Eyes blazing, he pulled a match from his pocket and burnt the note. With his black cloak and demon mask he rode into the night to complete his mission. Tonight the sword that hung by his side would spill the blood of many men, both the innocent and guilty.

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Tsunami watched the moon rise into the sky with narrowed silver eyes. The wind tossed his hair and rattled the thick branches that reached up for the sky all around him. Above him, the stars winked at the city below him while black clouds in the west warned observers of the upcoming rain or possibly even snow. Most would think that the leader of a powerful army would be very sure of himself, never doubting his decisions, running from the past or fearing a child aged opponent but that's exactly how Tsunami was. He feared the boy known as The Black Ghost and the power the boy had in his grasp. Tsunami had seen the boy kill men without blinking an eye and then walking off as if nothing had happened. He remembered the event that had led to the boy's declaration of hatred against him.

~Flashback~

Tsunami points an automatic at a youth with golden eyes and dark brown hair with golden streaks. Blood already stains the boy's clothing in many places and yet, no fear reflects in the boy's eyes as he opens his mouth to speak, "if you kill me, the Black Ghost won't give up until he has avenged my death." At the time Tsunami had disregarded the warning and the final gunshot had rung out into the silence of the night.

~End of Flashback~

The boy's prediction had proved to be true for battles against the Black Ghost and his pack became fiercer and more lives were lost on his side. Ever since that day, Tsunami had doubted his decision of killing the boy but what was done, was done and there was no way he could cool the Black Ghost's anger. With the powers inherited from his father and the year of training he'd received from the one that would eventually become the Wolverine, the boy was almost unstoppable. As the boy's Uncle and one of the men working on the Weapon X program he'd watched the training sessions and chosen Logan as one of the candidates for the program. When they'd tried to take Logan the first time Collin had prevented the capture so his death had been ordered and the mission carried out. As Collin's brother, he'd received custody of the twins for a short span of time while the older girl was sent to their grandmother. The two young children escaped with the help of several other friends and gone to live with their whom'd inherited the school after her grandmother had 'died' in a large fire. Tsunami knew the old hag wasn't dead but it didn't matter to him because she wasn't counted as a threat.

A flash of black and red cloth snapped him from his thoughts. Perched on the thick branch of a nearby tree was the Black Ghost. Fresh blood already smeared the blade of the sword held in Ghost's hand. The cruel grin carved into the mask seemed to mock him as he stood, trying to conceal his fear.

" The end has come, Tsunami," the Ghost stated with a voice devoid of all emotion, " bow down and greet death."

" Please, don't kill me. I'll do anything just spare my life," he pleaded. The red eyes stared down at him and the sword was lifted in its response, preparing for the strike that would avenge the life of the golden eyed boy. In the silver moonlight of the night, Tsunami breathed his last breath. The death of their leader would not stop the mutants that were now under Magneto's command but the Black Ghost had avenged his friend and now he could release the anger that had built up in his heart. A solitary biker traveled the deserted back streets as he headed for his home.

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Jubilee woke in the morning, as bouncy and cheerful as always. She threw on a pair of jean shorts and a black tank top with silver trim and shimmering firework emblems, a gift from her new found friend, Nicole. Nicole had joined them shortly after Matt had left. Sam and Elizabeth began talking about past paint wars and food fights. Nicole added her own story in about how they'd had a paint war right before receiving a mission and had to complete the mission looking like the Colour Kids from Rainbow Bright. Even the Holly, the Torbi (Tabby-Calico mix) cat that was the school's mascot at the time, had managed to dip her tail in a can of purple paint. Beth managed to convince Nicole to bring out the photo album that held photos of everyone after various paint fights and even a fight using flour and icing sugar.

The pictures had them cracking up so much that they were falling out of their chairs. The older teens had eventually thrown them out stating they were disturbing the atmosphere of the movie so they'd gone up to the room that Nicole shared with Corey and Kirsten. The other two girls were already there and joined in the laughter as they flipped through the pictures. They'd had to leave for their own dorms just before lights out. There was one thing that confused Jubilee, she hadn't seen Matt since he'd left to speak with his sister. She made a note to ask him where he'd been when she saw him that morning.

The threatening dark clouds released their fury on the sleeping city and the people living there woke to torrents of rain, growling thunder and brilliant flashes of lightning. A tunnel of tents and tarps and large umbrellas was created leading out to the parking lot from the main doors so the arriving guests wouldn't have to carry their luggage in through the rain. Marie said that St. Bonaventure would be boarding the Japanese, Australian and Italian students. Students from other countries would be bunking in the other schools.

Jubilee didn't spot Matt until just before lunch, " where have you been? I've been looking for you all morning."

" I had some errands to run," he answered, voice unemotional. She took a closer look at him. His normally bright eyes were devoid of life. His motions seemed almost like those of a sleepwalker. Unnerved by his sudden change in personality, she muttered something about finding Elizabeth and disappeared. He mentally sighed in relief as he watched her retreating figure before trekking up to 'his' room and collapsing on one of the beds.

Jubilee did go to find Elizabeth but not to invite her for a walk in the in the green house as she'd told Matt. Rather she wanted to ask her about his strange behavior.

" Elizabeth...I was just talking with Matt and he seemed sort of, I dunno, different. You wouldn't know why, would you?"

Elizabeth placed a few more flowers in the vase she was preparing for use of decorating the tables that night before answering, " I suppose you deserve to know. Let's sit down first. When the secretary called him to talk with Marie, it was really because Marie had another mission for him not because she wanted to talk. I know that doesn't sound like much but are missions aren't always all that clean. Matt especially, receives rather horrid missions. He works as an assassin sometimes but he does pick and choose his missions. Whenever he gets a mission that includes an assassination he reaches what we call a ghost state. Emotions become almost non-existent and after the mission is over they become slow, almost frozen. Very few things can penetrate the shield that the person has created. Just about every silver level has had their fair share of missions and been trapped in the Ghost state. Some people sink so deeply into it that they can't be brought back."

" That's horrible! Why do you have to do these missions?"

" There's no other way. It's that or shut down the school. The school's already teetering on the edge from attacks. If we stopped the missions we'd be sitting ducks. Our enemies would tear us apart like a pack of dogs." Jubilee stood up and ran back towards the school trying to hide her tears. Elizabeth was left sitting on the bench, tears spilling down her cheeks as she watched her new found friend run away.

Logan had to dart to the side of the hallway as Jubilee came flying from the greenhouse. He thought he'd heard her crying, so he followed her upstairs. " Jubes?" she was curled in tight ball on her bed. Sobs wracked her body and tears left their trails on her face. He sat down on the edge of the bed and she threw herself into his chest, still crying, " Oh Wolvie, they can't be killers, they just can't. Especially Matt and Elizabeth, they'd never kill anyone intentionally would they?"

Logan didn't answer, he just held her and let her cry. Sobs became hiccups and then disappeared altogether. " You going to be okay?" when she nodded he left her to be alone for a bit. As he was walking down the stairs, he passed Matt; strangely, the boy seemed almost cloaked in the scent of blood and fear. Hmm I'll have to look into that later he thought to himself.

Elizabeth had retreated to one of the common rooms. She twisted the end of the ribbon that held the end of her braid together. I wish I'd never told her she thought to herself.

Mark sat down beside her and she leaned her head on his shoulder. " Did you tell her?" She nodded her head numbly, " now all we can do is wait and see if she tells her team members and whether they stay."

" I hope they stay," she whispered.

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I finally finished it. Sorry it took so long I hope you enjoyed it and I'll try to get the next chapter out as soon as possible.
Disclaimer: Marvel owns the X-men, not me. This story is purely for fun and I'm not getting any money out of it. Please don't sue me. My own characters either came from thin air or were based on my cousins and friends. Thanks to my cousins and friends for helping me created the characters based on them and thanks to everyone who reveiwed the last two chapters of this story. ^_^