*glares at Ray and Moonie* would anyone like to explain why gremlins carrying plot bunnies have invaded my home? No? I didn't think so. LEM, thank you for your kind review, and as for you two, *points fingers at the gremlin culprits* one of these days I'm going to send a rampaging gremlin horde to your houses, turn the ruins into shiny silver and gold and then send Dragon for a visit.
Oh, and as before, I don't own the X-ers, just the characters that you don't recognise.
Chapter 2
Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.
10:53 am
"Is it just me being paranoid or are you afraid to go in there?" Sheriff Walter had trundled the car to a stop, just short of the school gate.
"You would be too, if you had meet the headmasters of the school. And some of the students. Let me give you a piece of advice. Stay away from the students, be as polite and respectful as possible to the Headmistress and try your best to get on the friendly side of the Headmaster." He finally moved the car up to the gate, leaving Mulder to think over what he had just said.
::Xavier's. Who is it?::
"Sheriff Walter and Special Agent Mulder to see the Headmasters."
The gate opened up, without a reply from the intercom, letting them drive through.
When they got to the end of the driveway, they were met with the sight of a giant mansion, that looked nothing whatsoever like a school. On the steps of the front door, two young women were waiting for them. Mulder gave them a quick once over as he got out of the car.
The older one was a dark skinned, black haired woman who looked like she should belong in a palace. Her nose was up in the air and she was looking at them like they were a waste of her time. Her clothes, which were a far cry from being a school uniform, looked like the kind of pants suit that Scully would wear.
The other girl, probably around eighteen years of age, seemed slightly more friendly, and except for the same long black hair as the other girl, seemed to be a complete opposite. She was wearing jeans and a black t-shirt, with a purple leather duster over it. Her skin was the colour of Chinese royalty and if he had to guess, he'd say she had the same brown almond shaped eyes as was common with Asian women. He couldn't tell however, because she had blue tinted glasses on, and didn't seem to want to take them off.
"Sheriff, Agent. I am Monet St Croix and this is Jubilation Lee. If you would please follow us, Ms Frost and Mr Cassidey are waiting to talk to you." Monet nodded at them sharply, while Jubilation just shook her head and opened the front door, gesturing for them to follow her friend. Monet was already striding down a corridor by the time that the men followed her in, and Jubilation sighed.
"Sorry about the welcoming committee, but Monet's still upset that Deana is gone. She'll probably act like a total snob until this whole thing is sorted out and she doesn't have to be reminded of it." Jubilation led the way at a slower pace. She took them down to halls and through a large living area, then through some more halls.
"This place is big. Where is everyone?"
"School holidays, Agent. Only the kids who can't afford to go home for the week, or don't have a home to go to are still here. I think there's about…seven of us. No, six now."
"Were you one of Ms Wendel's friends?"
"Well…I suppose you could say that. But it would be more accurate to call me her…social adviser." She grinned at the looks on their faces. "I don't usually hang with the younger kids, but when one of them needs advice, like 'what do I do about this boy who really likes me', they come to me for it. Plus, me being one of her teachers doesn't really make for a buddy-buddy friendship."
"You're a teacher?" Both males frowned.
"Assistant self-defence teacher." Again she grinned at their looks. "I used to compete in martial arts tournaments, so when Bansh, sorry, Mr Cassidey wanted some help in the SD classes, he asked me. I train some of the little kids in how to fend off an attacker bigger then them, and with Deana, I was showing her some basic karate moves. She's only been at the school for a few months, so she didn't know any more then that." She stopped at a door where Monet was already waiting for them then knocked and walked in without seeming to wait for a reply.
Sitting behind the big oak desk was a woman dressed in a completely white almost skin-tight suit. Her hair was platinum blond and she had the look of someone who was about to bite your head off if you didn't explain yourself quickly. Standing next to her, leaning against the wall, was a tall red haired man dressed in a Celtic's jacket and plain jeans. These two adults had the same, opposite but similar thing going on that Jubilation and Monet had. It was very weird to see.
"Ah, Agent Mulder, a pleasure to meet you. And a pleasure to see you again Sheriff Walter. Thank you Jubilee, Monet." Both girls nodded, Jubilee stared at the woman for a second longer, while Monet left, then nodded again and followed. Mulder frowned. That was weird. Like she had been receiving more instructions, but without words.
"Sit down, lads. Make yer selves comfortable. Now, in case ye be wonderin', Agent, this here is Emma Frost, my co-Headmaster, and I myself am Sean Cassidey." The thick Irish brogue made Mulder start and turn his attention back to the man against the wall. The Sheriff hadn't turned away the whole time, instead choosing to stare at the desk, eyes firmly not looking at either adult.
"Nice to meet you, though I'd like to give you my condolences on the loss of your student." Emma Frost stared at him straight in the eyes, and for a second Mulder thought he could feel something creeping around in his brain.
"Thank you Agent Mulder. I'm sure you both have a number of questions to ask though, so the sooner I can get this over with the better. I still have a number of other students to console over the loss themselves."
"Understood."
"Of course Ms Frost. First, could you tell us what Ms Wendel was doing out in the woods at that time of night?"
"She was meditating actually. I'm sure you both know by now, Deana was a mutant. Her powers were to commune with flora and occasionally fauna. We're not sure how, but we do know that if she doesn't meditate at some point in the day or night, then her mind overloads and she'll go into shock. I'm not quite sure how to explain it more clearly then that without a full genetics display and a scientist to talk to you."
"Why wasn't someone with her when she was out 'communing'?"
"Because, lad, none of us kenned (knew) the gal was out there. We all thought that the wee lass had done her med during the afternoon. When young Jessa, Dea's room mate, came down to tell us, it was already past midnight. The older students split up and went lookin' for the lass. Jubilation found ol' Jonas and his son keepin' an eye on her body, while Michael went to call the police."
"What did Jubilation do after that?" Mulder could tell that there was something more then that, but he wasn't sure what.
"Jonas made her stay down there with them, afraid that whatever attacked Deana would attack her." Mulder noticed that all three of the people in the room were avoiding something.
"Would she be able to take my partner and myself to the crime scene?" The headmasters exchanged glances, then as if on cue Jubilation Lee stepped into the room.
"Jubilee, would you go down with Agent Mulder and gather up his partner, then take them to where Dea died?"
"Yeah, sure, Frosty." Jubilee leaned up against the wall and waited, as if she knew this wasn't over yet. Walter nodded and turned back to the others.
"Do you have any idea what killed her?" Completely startled, Mulder stared at him. Emma on the other hand seemed to think it was a perfectly normal question.
"I'd hazard a guess that she accidentally stumbled into the wolf territory. We do have a local pack near here, remember. Plus, it is just coming into spring. They're bound to be starving."
"True. If we have any other questions, would you mind if we come back?"
"You're welcome any time. Jubilation, behave yourself." Jubilee was still wearing her glasses, but Mulder was sure she was rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, yeah."
Jubilee led the way back out, grabbing her purse on the way.
Mulder opened the car door for her, while Sheriff Walter got in the back. They rode back to town in absolute silence. Mulder was thinking, while the sheriff was trying not to fidget from the closeness of one of Xavier's students. Jubilee was thinking of how she was going to handle this whole situation. She was starting to think she should call Wolvie and mount a hunting party.
They pulled up around the back of the labs and walked through to the morgue. Mulder smiled when he saw that his partner was still reading through all the papers.
"Scully." The red head finally looked up and finally noticed she had company.
"Oh, you're back. You wouldn't believe some of the stuff I've been reading. We have to have a talk with Skinner about this. Apparently the government has been keeping mutants all over the country a secret. Half our cases could have been solved if they hadn't interfered some how." She pulled out a piece of paper and handed it over.
"This shows how over half the homeless kids in Los Angeles are either there because they are mutants, or because their parents were and were killed for it. I don't know if that's accurate but I'd like to find out."
"Actually it's very accurate." Jubilee came into view and held her hand out. "Names Jubilation Lee. You can call me Jubilee though."
"Dana Scully, just Scully to my friends." They shook hands, and then Scully looked at the papers in her hand. "How do you know that's accurate?"
"Because I know the woman who wrote it. Plus I spent my younger years on the streets of LA myself, so I have first hand knowledge. Are you coming to the crime scene? If not, then the rest of us had better hurry, 'cause I have to be back to the school in time for class or Frostbite is going to blow."
"Sure." She blinked. "You know where the crime scene is?"
"I was one of the first on it. Deana is, was, one of my students." She paused and waited for Scully to gather her stuff. Mulder walked up and added to the conversation.
"Yeah, she teaches self-defence. Cool, mmm?" Scully looked at her slightly hyper active partner and pulled out a white paper bag. Mulder took it without question and began to eat sunflower seeds. Jubilee and Walter exchanged looks, then gave a questioning glance to Scully.
"It calms him down." She shrugged and gestured for them to go. Walter said goodbye, leaving Jubilee to show the way. Ten minutes later they were standing in the closest parking lot to the woods.
"Follow me, and I suggest you keep your guns drawn. This is wolf territory, and they really don't like so many humans going through their pack lands."
"What about you?"
"Oh, the wolves around here know the scents of the peeps from the school. They won't attack us unless they're staving, or we attack first. I'm more then safe here."
"But Ms Frost thought it was the wolves who attacked Deana." Jubilee was silent for a while. She led them about another hundred meters before she said anything else.
"Dea hadn't been at the school long enough for the pack to know her scent. If she had arrived during spring or summer, there wouldn't have been a problem. The pack normally spends its time up around the school during the summer, hunting deer and stuff. They know that any humans on the school grounds won't hurt them, and since they come to our territory without harm, they allow us limited access to their territory. At least, that's what the guest psychologist told us during the lectures last year."
Finally they got to the taped off area, where a rough string outline showed where Dea's body had been. Jubilee stopped outside of the tape, smiled at the deputy who was on guard duty and let the Agents do their work.
Mulder stared around him as he entered the tapped off area. He couldn't believe how strange this was.
"Scully, are you seeing this?"
"I don't understand what's happened here…Deputy, any clues as to how this area got like this?"
"Not really ma'am. You'd be better off askin' Jubilee. She's got more experience with mutant stuff like this."
"Mutant…Jubilee, how'd all these trees die like this? And this patch of grass…?" Jubilee was leaning up against the closest living tree, looking anywhere but at the crime site.
"Deana's mutation. When she died, she destroyed the life force of everything near her. The grass where her body was actually grew because of the excess energy she gave off when her…life essence went out of her. It's a self-defence mechanism. She's showed before that if something attacks her, and she's desperate enough, she can take their energy and use it against them. She couldn't control it though; otherwise the body of whatever attacked her would have been lying next to her as well. So far the theory is, she tried to use that defence and hit the trees instead of the person/creature."
"That's amazing. And dangerous."
"All creatures are dangerous Scully. It's just part of nature, kill or be killed. Humans didn't have the physical strength to kill something like a lion or some other large predator, so instead they grew the brains to create tools to do the job." Mulder was grinning at her.
"You sound like a philosopher. And you're what, only eighteen?"
"Well, like I said, street kid. You learn to grow up fast on the streets or you don't grow up at all." Jubilee crouched against one of the trees; suddenly more interested in the grass at her feet than the people looking at her.
Scully stopped walking around the clearing and took a good look at one of the paw prints that had been marked out by evidence tape.
"Mulder, look at this." She gestured at the print and then outlined it with her finger. "You see the toes here? Too far apart, and too long to be a proper wolf. It does look like a cross between human and wolf, except that this part here," She gestured at the heel of the print. "Is too narrow, and it has this extra claw indent. That's more like a cat feature then anything else." She moved over to the next print. "This one is the front leg, I think. See, it has two more claw imprints on the back, and here the toes are almost like fingers, they're so long."
"So it's definitely something not natural…unless…Jubilee?" Jubilee looked up at him; her eyes still covered by her glasses. "Are there any kind of mutants who can make this kind of foot print?"
"…Well…there's a lycanthrope who has something similar, but she's over in Scotland at the moment, and besides, she barely has the will to harm an insect even when she transforms into her werewolf form, let alone rip apart a human body."
"But it is possible that this is a mutant?"
"Possible, but not bloody likely dude. This thing attacks only on full moons, and apparently only to get food during that time. There are a lot of feral type mutants around, but even when they get at their worst, they don't act this way. They'll follow the rules of whatever animal it is that their mutation takes after, canine or feline. This thing here is outside of animal behaviour. Jonas is positive on that." She stopped talking and lifted her head as if listening.
"All of you, stay still. Don't move, and do not make any loud threatening gestures. We have company." She twisted from her crouch into a kneeling position and cocked her head to one particular area of bushes. Behind her, the deputy, Mulder and Scully stood absolutely still, waiting to see what was going on.
From under one set of bushes, a large grey and black wolf stepped forward, looked at the other humans on the dead grass, then looked at Jubilee. Finally it stepped toward her and nudged her hand with its nose.
"Well hi to you too." Jubilee's voice was almost singing as she held her hand out for inspection. The wolf sniffed her hand, licked it, then turned and loped back into the undergrowth. Jubilee sighed with relief.
"That was lucky. I think if you lot are finished with this area, we should leave. Now. You too Robbie." She nodded toward the deputy and he started to breathe again.
"Sure. I was only stayin' here to make sure no one tampered with the sight till the feds had a look. But Jubie here is right. The wolves have been prowling around this area all morning. We should leave soon."
"I don't think there's anything more we can see anyway. Scully?"
"Yeah. I think now would be a good time to go back to the lab."
The deputy pulled the tape down from the trees and picked up the string from around the evidence.
"Sheriff Walter already got the photos on all this any way." The four of them walked back to the cars, where Jubilee stopped at the edge of the camping ground car park.
"If there isn't anything else, I'd better get back to the school. I'm late for class."
"Yeah, sure. We'll drop you off."
"No need Mulder. It only takes five minutes to get through the woods, and before you say it," She held a hand up to stop him. "I'm perfectly safe in there. It's day time, and the wolves already know I'm here, so they won't attack."
"Alright. If we need any more help with mutants and things, would you mind if we contacted you?"
"Hey, anytime Scully. Just call the school. If I'm not there, there are a few others who know a bit about mutants."
The agents nodded thanks and said goodbye, while the deputy just waved, and Jubilee loped back into the woods in the same manner that the wolf had.
"There is something really strange about her, you know." Mulder frowned as he watched her disappear. "You notice the people here seem to be really uneasy around her?"
"The deputy didn't look that uneasy to me. He called her Jubie." They looked over to where the deputy was putting all the tape and string in his truck. He suddenly looked a lot more comfortable then he had been five minutes ago. "Then again, maybe he's just a really friendly person by nature. But I don't see why she'd make anyone tense up."
"Except that she has contact with mutants. From what I remember of Senator Creed's campaign, being friendly with mutants is enough to get the FoH on your case like that." He snapped his fingers then caught his partners look. "FoH, Friends of Humanity. Sort of like the KKK for anyone different from them. And I do mean anyone different. I'm not sure if it's just for mutants alone."
"You would know. Maybe that is it. From the statistics I read on those papers, it would mount up to being a traitor to the human race or something. Really though, from a scientific point of view, mutants are just humans with genetic anomalies." They waved goodbye as the deputy got in his truck and took off.
"Come on. I wanna have a look through the case file again. Something's wrong here."
"Aside from the fact that there is a mutant in the morgue with no possible cause of death. And something that could possible be a mutant werewolf in the forest."
"Yup. Aside from that."
