Summary: A new mutant arrives at the Academy an decides to help Rogue with her isolation from her powers. (Chapter 4)
Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own anything. If I did, this story would probably be on TV this saturday. Lol :)
Note: '...' is thinking and italics is telepathic communications.
Reviews: Man, that's a lot of reviews. Thanks to everyone who reviewed.
Nette-chan: Yes, surprises are much more fun. Hopefully I'll surprise you a lot. ;)
I'm too lazy to sign in you know who I am: Yes, I DO know who this is, Tenpi Shojo. Thanks for viewing the story beforehand. I only changed it a little from when you read it!
Post: Dang, you thought of a lot of the things I was going to mention... o_0 Anyway, Rogue explains a little about the night before in this chapter. Thanks for reviewing!
Bluefirez: Thanks, I'm gald you can't wait! I'll be updating almost every other day, unless school gets in the way... o_0
LiLGuArDiAnGuRL: Thanks, Ah liked doing Rogue's accent. But Ah agree, Kurt's accent CAN be a pain. And Ah think Ah'll read your story too. Sounds interesting...
Lucky439: Thanks. I was worrying about it being too technical sounding for some people. It's just that some of my ideas are very wierd... o_0
Jordan Rox: Thanks, that's quite a compliment. Lol.
SR: Lol. I hope I added enough for you in here. I almost thought it might be too much. Thanks!
Preparation...
"It's Thursday, only two more days of school until the weekend," Jordan reminded himself as he got up the day after his date with Rogue. The clock read 5:00 AM. The Professor had called for an extra Danger Room session today after Jordan and Rogue's brush with the Brotherhood, one before school and one after dinner.
Jordan got up and got ready for school, then headed down stairs to see what he could find for breakfast. Grabbing a pack of Pop-Tarts, he sat down across from Rogue, who smiled at him. Neither talked for a moment, both reviewing what had gone on last night. Rogue's kiss surprised both of them, as Rogue didn't know she was going to do it until after she had ran inside.
'Not that Ah regret it' she thought to herself, still smiling. 'That first brush with him gave me some of his thoughts. And they were full of how he felt about me and how he was helping me. So Ah decided to make the first layer around mah mouth. I guess it was just mah first thought, finding out that someone loved me just made me do that. And Ah'm pretty sure I love him back. Only a few days around each other and we've already gone out on a date. A month ago Ah would have laughed if someon said this was gonna happen.'
"Rogue?"
"Huh? What?" Rogue responded, snapping out of her thoughts. Jordan was trying to get her attention.
"I was asking if you were ready to go down to the Danger Room," Jordan repeated. "We're gonna be late if we wait too long."
Rogue quickly checked the nearby clock. Jordan was right.
"C'mon, let's go!" Rogue commanded, running down the hall and downstairs. They arrived just as the last of the students walked into the ready room. All of the students would be in this run. Jordan followed Rogue inside. A few minutes later, all of the students were in their uniforms.
"Alright, let's get this over with," announced Logan, who walked into the ready room in his unifrom. "As usual, we aren't going to tell you what's on this run, but I can tell you that it will not end until all of the enemy is defeated, or until no one can fight. Kurt, you will teleport any injured up to the control room. Any non-minor injury counts, got that?"
"Yes, sir," Kurt replied, making a mock salute with his two-fingered hand.
"On a side note, I suggest you keep track of where your teammates are at," Wolverine continued. "Some of you will not be as powerful against some of the enemy. That's all I can tell you. You have about five minutes until the run starts, so be ready."
Wolverine turned and walked back out, followed by "okays" and "sures."
"So, Rogue," Jordan began, turning around to face the goth girl next to him. "About last night... Two things."
"Yeah?"
"Eventually, your power will cease to activate subconsciously. So, you can eventually get rid of the metal in your body and you won't have to worry about it anymore. And the other thing..."
"Yes?" Rogue urged.
"Well, did that kiss mean anything?" Jordan asked, looking hopeful.
"Actually... Yes, it did mean something," Rogue answered, smiling. "It means Ah'm pretty sure Ah like you."
Jordan smiled.
"Hey, don't get a bloated head over it," Rogue kidded, smacking Jordan lightly on the side of his head with her "safe" hand.
"Sorry, can't help it," Jordan replied, still smiling happily. Then he looked as if he suddenly remembered something. "Hey, Rogue, maybe you should add metal underneath some more. Then you won't have to wear gloves on one of your hands and you'll get more used to it. I already told Xavier that it worked, and he said we can create the block at our own pace."
"Mmmm... sure," Rogue, holding out her "safe" hand.
Renegade touched it with his. Rogue concentrated on draining Jordan's power slowly, stopping when she had enough to add some metal around her hands and lower arms.
Jordan sat down to steady himself for a moment. Rogue sat down next to him, still holding his hand, but no longer concentrating on her power. Renegade looked around, only to find several students staring at him in shock.
"What?" he asked. Then he realized the other hadn't been told about his and Rogue's way of stopping the power.
"Like, how can you touch Rogue?" Kitty asked, almost stammering. "She-she can't control her powers!"
"Oh, yeah," Renegade responded. He went on to explain the idea to all of the other students. The newer ones, Iceman, Sunspot, Magma, Wolfesbane, Multiple, Cannonball, and Berserker accepted the news easily, not having been around Rogue very long. Cyclops, Shadowcat, Jean, Nightcrawler, and Spyke took longer to realize that Rogue would have control of her powers soon.
As he finished explaining, the door to the Danger Room opened up and they walked in, him and Rogue breaking hands and preparing to fight. Scott quickly began calling out orders, pairing up the different mutants. Renegade and Rogue were paired together and sent to the far wall, told to take out the simulations from behind, although none had appeared.
But when they did, the team was momentarily shocked. Standing before them were themselves, perfect mirror images, except for red uniforms, meant to distiguish friend from foe. The shock only lasted momentarily before Cyclops began calling out more specific orders.
The two groups attacked each other and then chaos reigned. Renegade stayed nearby Rogue, who was attacking a copy Jean. Reinforcing his arms and shoulders with titanium on the outside, Renegade punched a fake Iceman in the face, knocking into the far wall and out of the simulation. Looking back, Renegade saw Rogue fly across the room. The copy Jean Grey had somehow thrown the goth.
"So they also have our powers, huh?" Jordan commented to himself, grabbing the Jean's foot and swinging her toward the real Jean, who smashed the fake with a telekinetic wall.
Renegade looked back to where Rogue had landed. She was running back to rejoin the fight.
"Remember, the metal is not really a layer but just mixed in with your skin," Jordan explained. "So, you're not any stronger."
"Really? Ah wouldn't have noticed," Rogue replied sarcastically, punching at another copy.
Jordan laughed, then began helping Nightcrawler, who was being swung around by his tail. Knocking down the fake Nightcrawler who was swinging him, Renegade jumped back into the fight. After fighting for a few moments, he saw Rogue get punched by a copy of... himself! Kurt quickly teleported to Rogue, bringing her up to the control room.
Renegade ran over to the copy of himself, turning his entire outer body into titanium. Just as it was turning to meet him, Jordan tackled the fake, throwing it to the ground, then grabbing it by the arm and throwing it. The copy smacked against the far wall and was out. The battle was over. Only Jean, himself, Kurt, Bobby, Rahne, and Berserker had made it through unharmed. Most of the other had been simply tossed to the side by one of the copies. A few, such as Scott, had been beaten up a little. Some even had a few burnt pieces of clothing, complements of the copies Magma and Sunspot. Rogue had not been hurt, but she might of been had Kurt not caught her in the air.
"Overall, a good performance," Xavier commented when all of them were together again. "Scott, good job reacting to the nature of the enemy. The reason I chose to use yourselves is the fact that the last time we fought Magneto, he used some of our own against us. Now, off to school, you need to get ready. And you have another session tonight."
The students answered and went to clean up. Jordan walked over to Rogue and walked with her to her room.
"Hey... Rogue," He began, "Since you said that kiss did mean something, would you like to be my girlfriend?"
Jordan immediately blushed, unsure if he had phrased what he had wanted to ask the right way.
Rogue blushed a bit before replying, having never hoped to hear anything like that before just recently, "Sure, Ah'd love to."
"Thanks," Jordan replied, relief written on his face. "Well, I got to go get ready, see you in a bit?"
"Yeah," Rogue answered, kissing Jordan on the lips and walking back into her room.
'Now that's going to be something to get used to' Jordan thought to himself, walking to his room to get ready. 'But that's a problem I'll gladly handle.'
Jordan and Rogue walked into the school together, chatting about he classes they would have to deal with. Rogue was complaining about her math class when they were interrupted by a nearby argument.
It was between Scott and Lance. Kitty was standing nearby, looking unsure of herself. Jordan and Rogue walked walked over in case they were needed, but mostly to see what was going on.
"You better be ready, Summers," Lance called loudly, throwing a clod of dirt at Jordan, who just ignored it when it hit his pant leg. "We got a plan and you guys are gonna lose, big time."
"Just leave us alone, Lance," Scott called back. "We don't wan't any trouble."
"But your gonna get it," Lance yelled back, disappearing inside the school.
"What was that all about?" Jordan asked Rogue, watching where Lance had disappeared. He dusted off his leg lightly, not worried about the dirt that mingled with the rest on his shoes.
"Ah'm not sure," Rogue replied. "Those two always get into fights, but it's usually over how Lance acts toward Kitty. He usually doesn't give us messages like that."
"Odd..." Jordan commented aloud. "But we can worry about that later. I don't want to be late to first period again. The Danger Room is tough, but detention can be just evil with that teacher."
Rogue agreed and the two headed to class.
"I'm not certain what Lance may have meant by his warning, but I think we should be ready for anything."
Professor Xavier sat in front of the students in the large commons room. Jordan and Rogue sat together, the others now beginning to accept the two as a couple.
"He mentioned they had a plan," Scott stated. "Do you think he mean Magneto and Mystique, or just the Brotherhood?"
"Either is a possibility," Xavier answered. "But I think it's more likely that Mystique is somehow involved. Remember that Rogue and Jordan were attacked by the Brotherhood recently. They claimed that Mystique had wanted to talk to them."
Everyone was silent for a moment, each reviewing anything unusual that had happened recently.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except for Rogue's recent changes. Her and Jordan had finished with the metal screen after school.
'Ah don't think this matters much' Rogue thought, referring to the solved problem. 'Only odd thing is that Ah'm not as worried about someone being hurt by me anymore. And that has nothing to do with the Brotherhood or Magneto.'
"Well, we'll continue with the increased training," Xavier concluded. "Let's hope that's enough for whatever may be coming our way."
The students were dismissed, the Professor asking Jordan to stay. Rogue remained behind also after receiving Xavier's consent.
"Given the recent occurrences, I'd like you, Jordan, to work on creating adamantium. I know it may take a while, but we may need whatever advantage it can give us," Xavier stated.
"Sure thing," Jordan replied. "When should I work on it?"
"As soon as possible," the Professor replied. "You may even skip one of the excercises per day until you get control of the metal."
"Okay, thanks, Professor," Jordan replied, walking out of the commons room and toward the labs.
"Why do you need to go to the labs?" inquired Rogue, after she had learned of Jordan's destination.
"I need to be around a sample of the metal to be able to form it," he answered. "The more complex the metal is, the longer I need to be around it."
"Well, that makes sense," Rogue stated. She kissed Jordan, who responded back. "Ah'm going to go practice myself for a bit," Rogue said after the two parted. "Ah haven't practiced any fighting since the last time we fought Magneto."
Several hours later, Jordan still couldn't make any part of his body change into adamantium, not even a small portion of it.
"Well, it's not like I need this immediately," Jordan commented aloud as he headed down to the kitchen to eat. He found Rogue there, fixing herself a sandwich. He rested a hand around her waist and began making his own meal.
"That simulation was insane," Rogue stated, talking about the exercise Jordan had been permitted to miss.
"Really? What did Logan make you guys do this time?" Jordan asked, finished making his sandwich. He sat down at the table and Rogue sat across from him.
"We ended up fighting the Brotherhood member most likely to beat us," Rogue explained. "Ah had to fight Pietro. That guy is just too fast for mah good."
Jordan laughed, imagining the trouble Rogue would have in combating the speed demon. She wouldn't even be able to stop him long enough to drain his power.
"So, how'd you beat him?"
"Ah had to trap him in an alleyway," Rogue replied. "Whenever he moved around, he tripped up over all the simulated trash. He tripped up and I was able to touch him. The simulation was over because I touch by me is, well, you know."
"Yeah," Jordan responded. "So now you have complete control over your powers?"
"Yeah, it seems so," Rogue answered. "Concentrating comes easily now, and Ah don't flinch when someone touches me."
"That's good," Jordan commented, finishing his sandwich. "Well, is there anything you want to do? I'm not going to hang out in that lab all day."
Rogue laughed. "Yes, Ah can just imaging ya going crazy in there. Okay, let's go see if anything interesting was going on."
Nothing of interest seemed to be happenning at the Institute, so Jordan and Rogue decided to stay in Rogue's room and talk about what had been going on lately. The time passed and Jordan headed back to his room after a hug and kiss from Rogue, who seemed to be very comfortable with their relationship.
'Hopefully nothing will come of Lance's little warning' Jordan thought as he waited for sleep to come. 'And that he was all talk, like Rogue said the usually are.'
Jordan fell asleep, unknowing of what might happen sooner than he'd like.
Was it good? I hope so. I'm thinking about ending the series the next chpater, unless I can get some more ideas. I know how it'll end, like I said, but it can be later rather than sooner. Well, anyway, thank you to everyone who has been reviewing my story. I'm surprised that his many people have been reading this fic. Thanks. The next chpater should be up soon, if my internet connection holds up and school doesn't conquer my life again o_0. School's been a real pain lately. Well, R&R! Bye!