Languages, Explosions, and Monsters: Oh My!
Disclaimer: I don't own X-men Evo. I am making absolutely no money, and I am wasting time I could spend working. But it is a Labor of Love!
A/N: If you are one of the sorts of readers who likes speedy updates, I suggest that you please remain patient. I am not a speedy writer. And if anyone knows Tarot's street name, tell me!
Chapter 1: Introductions
Xavier scanned the three new recruits, wondering what he was getting into. The teen-aged boy in the trench coat expertly brushed the other guy, and went rifling through his wallet. Upon seeing this, the victim began telling the thief off in French. The girl simply shuffled a deck of tarot cards while managing to look snobby at the same time.
"You three are the newest." They didn't stop to listen to his pearls of wisdom, so Xavier got their attention mentally, first. "Now, you three each have unique talents which set you apart from-"
"The little people?" the girl interjected. She looked at the other two, clearly communicating how she couldn't see these boys as anything but little.
"Anne, I was going to say 'most of the earth's population'. Your powers of combustion, translation, and materialization are volatile and need extra training."
The thief pointed at the blond boy. "Excusez-moi, but translator?"
"Yeah, so people can understand you, voleur."
Xavier started to defuse the situation. "Remy, Doug, please.." Remy disregarded the professor as he charged up a playing card. Doug's eyes widened as he realized that is power couldn't counteract explosions. Anne's aloofness melted a bit while she watched the guys squabble.
**
Meanwhile, on the other side of the door, Kitty, Jubilee, Bobby, Roberto, and Rahne were trying to learn anything they could about the newest students. So far, they knew that at least one guy could be gotten to help with French homework, the girl would be the one to beg for lunch money, and don't approach the guy with the southern-ish French accent for anything.
"What a snot!" Bobby said under his breath. " 'The little people'! I'd like to see her use her powers with frosty fingers."
"I'd like to see them, period," Rahne added.
'Yeah, I mean, like what if one of them is totally cute?"
"Careful, Kitty-kat," Roberto whispered. "You already have your little Quakey. Don't get greedy."
"Why don't you phase through, phase back?" Jubilee whispered. "Then we'll find out."
"Like, yeah, right! I'll look like a total dweeb."
Rahne suggested, "What about you phase through the next person to pass by? That way, us five are all happy."
Roberto clapped her on the shoulder. "Malicious and self-centered. I knew you were the brains."
At that moment, Rogue came walking down the hallway. Kitty ran up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Like, talk about timing!" She continued to steer the confused Rogue towards the door the others had cleared away from. "We're all too shy, but since you, like, obviously don't care about your image." She then pushed and phased Rogue through the door. ".you can scope them out for us."
**
She only got out a startled yelp before she found herself in the room with Xavier and his new recruits. This blond kid was pleading in all intelligible languages, even resorting to squawks and squeaks. He looked to be the average good kid.
The girl in the room had red hair reaching just below shoulder length. Everything about her screamed, "ROB ME". The only tattered thing even near her was her deck of fortune-telling cards, which were practically destroyed from constant use.
The last guy, with a red-hot King of hearts in his hand (oh, the irony) she could describe in no other way than Grrowll! The way his clothes fit, his trench coat, the sexy sunglasses, and his hair falling in the face all added up to make her weak in the knees.
"Proffesah, Ah, Ah," Rogue stammered, saying the first thing that popped in her mind. "Ah'm gonna kill Kitty!"
The hottie took off his sunglasses. 'Now, chère, y' can just tell Gambit y'r problems." She was somewhat placated by his words, (and what a cute accent!) but the way his red and black eyes traveled her body made her even more uncomfortable.
Then, adding insult to injury, he liked his lips!
Disgusted, she turned around and exited.
Or would have, if the door hadn't stopped her.
She rubbed her poor nose with her gloved hand and opened the door. After muttering, "Ah meant ta do that," she exited, feeling like a fool.
"Cheerrup?" Doug shook his head. "Qui était ça?" He blinked; glad to have at least spoken a human language this time.
"Une belle femme. Y'll stay away from her, n'est-ce pas?"
Doug tried one more time. "Who was that?" Mental high five!
Xavier answered, with much more useful information. "A student who is called Rogue. Her powers don't include phasing through doors. But judging by what she said, Kitty, another student, pushed her through."
Tarot leaned towards Doug. "I'll give you three guesses to what Kitty wanted to know."
Doug nodded. He was no dummy. She obviously wanted to know how much of a looker he was. He motioned for Tarot and Gambit to move closer. "And I might have an idea on how to show her what she wants to see," he whispered. "Let's make them need a new pair of pants. "You, voleur.umm Gambit, heat up one or two cards and take off your sunglasses."
"Wit' pleasure."
Anne flipped through her cards, pulling out one and showing the strange- looking lion on it. "Luckily, the cads throw up the Lion of Strength." The creature took solid form directly next to her. Both guys stared wide- eyed at this strange power. But hey, the scarier the better, right?
"What are you going to do, translator?" Anne said, her lion snarling at her inflections.
"I'm going to make like the tower of Babel. What else am I good for?"
"Trop vrai," Gambit mumbled as he pushed his glasses on top of his head and got out a couple of cards.
Doug placed his hand on the doorknob, waved the other two closer, and counted on his hand.
One.
Two.
Three.
Chaos!
Gambit went first, and to imagine what the others saw, imagine a demon commando at Mardi Gras. Yeah. That's it.
Tarot's monster followed, letting out judicious roars whenever she snapped her fingers.
Doug exited the room after her, using sign language and speaking a variation of Latin intermingled with Dog that he had learned from the next- door German shepherd. Roughly translated, he said things like: "Oooh, there's five of them," and "They want their mommies." But when considered among the other two, he could have been casting a spell or something.
Needless to say, this intimidated the others. So, what is better defense than a good offense? Nothing.
All of the startled kids with alternate modes instinctually went into them. Rahne became half-wolf, Roberto became Sunspot, and bobby reverted to his ice-form. Sparks sizzled at Jubilee's fingertips and Kitty sank halfway into the floor.
"Mon Dieu," Remy said. "You're like us?"
Tarot put her card back in the deck and the lion disappeared. "Mutants?"
Doug signed and spoke (in English), "Yeah, what else could do that?"
Xavier wheeled himself through the doorway, the students automatically making a pathway for him. "Very astute, students." Xavier addressed all those standing in the hallway. "These are your new classmates. Rahne Sinclair, code named Wolfsbane. Roberto DaCosta, or Sunspot. Also, here is Bobby Drake alias Iceman, Jubilation Lee, who is Jubilee, and Kitty Pryde, or Shadowcat.
As he said the names, they returned to human forms, unsure of how to respond. The most popular response was a sheepish grin.
"And here are Remy LeBeau, Doug Ramsey, and Anne Montgomery." The three acknowledged their names in their own ways: Doug smiled widely and wiggled his fingers in a half-wave, Anne graced them all with a nod, and Remy raised his hand, kinetically charged card and all, to about shoulder height. He tossed the card up, where it exploded.
Bobby (never the shy one) aid, "Hey, nice to meetcha. Mi casa es su casa, now. Professor, d'you think they should meet the others, too?"
Doug nodded. "Sí, Dónde está Rogue?"
Xavier inferred what Doug had said. "We shall soon find out, Doug. Kitty, she's in your shared dormitory. Would you mind getting her?"
"No way, Professor. It's like, really fast my way," Kitty said as she phased through the floor. Professor Xavier went back into his library, leaving the students in the hallway. An awkward silence filled the air, only broken by the rifling of tarot cards.
"Hey, can you tell someone's fortune with those?" Jubilee asked.
The redhead stopped shuffling her cards. "Yes, but unless you want a pack of monsters accompanying the fortune, I wouldn't recommend it."
"Oh." Jubilee looked down, chastised.
"So, ummm," Doug began, trying to break the ice. "What do you do around here for fun?"
Bobby shrugged. "Same thing as most kids do. Go swimming, listen to music."
'Train in the Danger Room." Rahne added.
"Go for field trips cross-country." Roberto said.
"Take the X-jet on a joyride." Jubilee pointed out.
"I don' t'ink dose are what 'mos' kids do'," Remy said, absently cutting a deck of cards and pulling out an Ace of spades.
Kitty came running in at this moment, panting but obviously pleased. "Like, you totally wouldn't believe how hard it was to find her. First I checked our room, because, duh, she's there half the time. Then I looked in the kitchen because, like, what if she was hungry? Then."
"Did you find her, finally?" Rahne asked.
Kitty blinked wide, pseudo-innocent eyes. "Well, yeah. I found her in the rec room."
Rogue came walking in, fuming. And when Rogue isn't happy, nobody is going to be happy. Or else.
Apparently, Remy hadn't been told this. His face lit up a bit when her stormy, rain-cloudy mood entered the premises. She noticed his expression, and since he was the reason for her bad mood, she decided to focus on him. She set her anger to a low simmer as she stared, edging a little closer.
When he saw her move closer, thoughts ran rampant in Remy's head. Was she going to do something to him? When was she going to do something? Where would she take this revenge? What an incredible body! The card in his hand started glowing.
Rogue glared at the Cajun. She hated the way he was looking at her, the fact that he wasn't saying anything, and especially hated him for being so damn attractive.
The other students had been silent for most of this time. Finally, Kitty waved her hand in front of Rogue's face with no result. Emboldened, Bobby did the same in front of Remy's face. He also added, "Woohoo, Earth to lover boy, we're losing you!" This still elicited no response from the twitterpated Cajun, and his card continued to glow hotly.
"Hey, is his card supposed to do that?"
BLAM!
Bobby and Remy both had char all over their faces, as well as bewildered expressions. Rogue stopped scowling in order to hide a giggle behind her hand. Yes, Rogue was giggling.
Now it was Remy's turn to scowl.
"Aww man!" Bobby cried, "You know how long it takes to look this good? My face is ruined!"
"What 'ruined'?" Jubilee teased, "I like the charred look. I could even help you get that look every day!" She touched her fingertip to his nose and created a little, tiny spark, just enough to blacken the tip of his nose.
"That's it!" Bobby threw a snowball at the girl. She responded with pyrotechnics. "Power war!"
Remy glared at Rogue. What was she doing, laughing at his expense! Hadn't her powers ever been a bit out of control? Some smooth operator he was. The pyrotechnics lit her face up in alternating colors. She looked good in all of them. Damn her.
His face was so frickin' funny! The burn-marks offset his red, angry eyes. And that look he had had on his face! Obviously, he hadn't planned on being the entertainment. But Rogue couldn't stop laughing, especially when a snowball hit him in the back of the head!
Storm walked into the hallway at this very opportune moment. What she saw was carefully controlled chaos. She supposed that it was good that the new students were so readily welcomed, but not at the expense of the hallway.
"Students, is this the way X-men should act?" Storm spoke quietly, but a tendril of wind brought her voice clearly to each ear. There are more ways to influence people than psychic powers.
The ice balls and fireworks stopped almost instantaneously. "Thank you," Ororo said. "Now, please clean up this hallway so that you can go outside and get acquainted at the expense of trees, and not our defenseless hallways."
Roberto bristled a bit. He hadn't done anything! He deserved to complain. "Awww! Auntie O!"
Lightning energy crackled around Storm and the wind picked up. "NO ONE BUT EVAN CAN CALL ME THAT! GO. TO. YOUR. ROOM."
The hallway was immediately deserted. Kind-hearted kids had steered the three newbies in the right direction before running off.
**
Doug had finally finished putting his stuff into drawers and the closet that he shared with Bobby. Man, this was great! He really got along well with the guy, even when he couldn't switch his brain to the right language.
"Well, that's just about everything," he said, scratching his head. "But there's something wrong!"
Bobby looked at both sides of the room. His side was a veritable minefield. Doug's half would have passed a military inspection.
"Ah-ha!" The blond kid pulled out one of his drawers and scattered his clothes all over the floor. "There! All done!" ~Mental high five! Wait, I don't have to do that.~
"High five!" Both guys made for each other with their hands in the classic high-five pose.
And they kept going. They had missed each other by a mile.
**
Anne pointedly ignored Jubilee as she put up her framed poster of N*Sync. It had sing names all along the border: Chris (something), J.C. (something else), and so on and so forth. All she was missing was Justin! Sigh! He is an egomaniac jerk, granted, but oh, what a cutie! (Author's note: Make me barf! Please! I just WROTE this dribble! You only have to READ it! You can skip over it any time you like!)
Jubes glared at Anne, and popped a CD into her little boom box. The grating tones of the Backstreet Boys filled the room. She sat on her bed, glaring a challenge at Anne.
Anne all but leaped for her N*Sync CD, and jammed it into her sound system. Not boom box, sound system. Now, the hallway had not only "Backstreet's back, all right!" to deal with, it was mixed with the prepubescent wailings of "I want it that way!"
The two fans sat on their beds, each shooting daggers at the other with their eyes.
Evan strolled by the room, and hearing what seemed to be the same sounds coming from each box, called, "Hey Anne, Jubes! It's great you both like the same music!"
"SHUT UP!" A barrage of powers came out of the doorway at Evan, who had the decency to run.
**
Remy was settling in nicely as well. For some strange reason, he had to share the room with the squarest guy in the Institute.
"Remy, I don't care how you like your room decorated, NO MORE EXPLOSIONS! They're ruining my side of the room!"
Right, and this was coming from the guy who had a poster-sized picture of that red-haired chick right next to his signed photo of Captain Kangaroo.
"Didn't I just say-"
"Oui." Remy charged a card.
"And what are you going to do about it?"
He tossed the card towards a white spot on is wall, where it left a nice black mark. "Ça."
"Arrgh!" Scott stormed out of the room, obviously heading for Jean's room. Pity they didn't actually do anything.
Remy shrugged, and charged another card. Rogue and another girl he couldn't recognize slowed down near the doorway, curious about the noise coming from inside. He stared up at the ceiling and decided it wasn't the right shade of burn, and tossed the card upwards. The explosion made Rogue yelp and jump a little. Amara simply giggled.
"You should have seen your face!" she said, pointing at Rogue. Remy looked at the doorway to see a blushing Rogue. The color did wonders for her already beautiful face.
"Did I scare y' chère?"
Rogue pouted. "No! C'mon, Amara." She started to turn away, but the toe of her right foot got caught behind the heel of her left foot. In layman's terms, she kissed the carpet.
Remy made his way over to her, his chivalrous side poking through. When he reached out to help her up, she smacked his hand away and ran. Amara shrugged, and hurried after her.
"Mebbe next time, Gambit use some of de charm. Don't work wit'out."
A/N: Sorry I didn't have translations before. I have edited my existing chapters. A glossary will be at the end of every chapter from now on.
Excusez-moi: excuse me (French)
Voleur: thief (French)
Chère: dear (French)
Cheerrup?: Who was that? (Sparrow)
Qui était ça?: Who was that? (French)
Une belle femme: a beautiful woman (French)
n'est-ce pas?: right? rhetorical question (That's yours, right?) (French)
Trop vrai: too true (French)
Mon Dieu: my God (French)
Mi casa es su casa: my home is your home (Spanish)
Sí, Dónde está Rogue?: Yes, where is Rogue? (Spanish)
Oui: yes (French)
Ça: that (French)
Disclaimer: I don't own X-men Evo. I am making absolutely no money, and I am wasting time I could spend working. But it is a Labor of Love!
A/N: If you are one of the sorts of readers who likes speedy updates, I suggest that you please remain patient. I am not a speedy writer. And if anyone knows Tarot's street name, tell me!
Chapter 1: Introductions
Xavier scanned the three new recruits, wondering what he was getting into. The teen-aged boy in the trench coat expertly brushed the other guy, and went rifling through his wallet. Upon seeing this, the victim began telling the thief off in French. The girl simply shuffled a deck of tarot cards while managing to look snobby at the same time.
"You three are the newest." They didn't stop to listen to his pearls of wisdom, so Xavier got their attention mentally, first. "Now, you three each have unique talents which set you apart from-"
"The little people?" the girl interjected. She looked at the other two, clearly communicating how she couldn't see these boys as anything but little.
"Anne, I was going to say 'most of the earth's population'. Your powers of combustion, translation, and materialization are volatile and need extra training."
The thief pointed at the blond boy. "Excusez-moi, but translator?"
"Yeah, so people can understand you, voleur."
Xavier started to defuse the situation. "Remy, Doug, please.." Remy disregarded the professor as he charged up a playing card. Doug's eyes widened as he realized that is power couldn't counteract explosions. Anne's aloofness melted a bit while she watched the guys squabble.
**
Meanwhile, on the other side of the door, Kitty, Jubilee, Bobby, Roberto, and Rahne were trying to learn anything they could about the newest students. So far, they knew that at least one guy could be gotten to help with French homework, the girl would be the one to beg for lunch money, and don't approach the guy with the southern-ish French accent for anything.
"What a snot!" Bobby said under his breath. " 'The little people'! I'd like to see her use her powers with frosty fingers."
"I'd like to see them, period," Rahne added.
'Yeah, I mean, like what if one of them is totally cute?"
"Careful, Kitty-kat," Roberto whispered. "You already have your little Quakey. Don't get greedy."
"Why don't you phase through, phase back?" Jubilee whispered. "Then we'll find out."
"Like, yeah, right! I'll look like a total dweeb."
Rahne suggested, "What about you phase through the next person to pass by? That way, us five are all happy."
Roberto clapped her on the shoulder. "Malicious and self-centered. I knew you were the brains."
At that moment, Rogue came walking down the hallway. Kitty ran up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Like, talk about timing!" She continued to steer the confused Rogue towards the door the others had cleared away from. "We're all too shy, but since you, like, obviously don't care about your image." She then pushed and phased Rogue through the door. ".you can scope them out for us."
**
She only got out a startled yelp before she found herself in the room with Xavier and his new recruits. This blond kid was pleading in all intelligible languages, even resorting to squawks and squeaks. He looked to be the average good kid.
The girl in the room had red hair reaching just below shoulder length. Everything about her screamed, "ROB ME". The only tattered thing even near her was her deck of fortune-telling cards, which were practically destroyed from constant use.
The last guy, with a red-hot King of hearts in his hand (oh, the irony) she could describe in no other way than Grrowll! The way his clothes fit, his trench coat, the sexy sunglasses, and his hair falling in the face all added up to make her weak in the knees.
"Proffesah, Ah, Ah," Rogue stammered, saying the first thing that popped in her mind. "Ah'm gonna kill Kitty!"
The hottie took off his sunglasses. 'Now, chère, y' can just tell Gambit y'r problems." She was somewhat placated by his words, (and what a cute accent!) but the way his red and black eyes traveled her body made her even more uncomfortable.
Then, adding insult to injury, he liked his lips!
Disgusted, she turned around and exited.
Or would have, if the door hadn't stopped her.
She rubbed her poor nose with her gloved hand and opened the door. After muttering, "Ah meant ta do that," she exited, feeling like a fool.
"Cheerrup?" Doug shook his head. "Qui était ça?" He blinked; glad to have at least spoken a human language this time.
"Une belle femme. Y'll stay away from her, n'est-ce pas?"
Doug tried one more time. "Who was that?" Mental high five!
Xavier answered, with much more useful information. "A student who is called Rogue. Her powers don't include phasing through doors. But judging by what she said, Kitty, another student, pushed her through."
Tarot leaned towards Doug. "I'll give you three guesses to what Kitty wanted to know."
Doug nodded. He was no dummy. She obviously wanted to know how much of a looker he was. He motioned for Tarot and Gambit to move closer. "And I might have an idea on how to show her what she wants to see," he whispered. "Let's make them need a new pair of pants. "You, voleur.umm Gambit, heat up one or two cards and take off your sunglasses."
"Wit' pleasure."
Anne flipped through her cards, pulling out one and showing the strange- looking lion on it. "Luckily, the cads throw up the Lion of Strength." The creature took solid form directly next to her. Both guys stared wide- eyed at this strange power. But hey, the scarier the better, right?
"What are you going to do, translator?" Anne said, her lion snarling at her inflections.
"I'm going to make like the tower of Babel. What else am I good for?"
"Trop vrai," Gambit mumbled as he pushed his glasses on top of his head and got out a couple of cards.
Doug placed his hand on the doorknob, waved the other two closer, and counted on his hand.
One.
Two.
Three.
Chaos!
Gambit went first, and to imagine what the others saw, imagine a demon commando at Mardi Gras. Yeah. That's it.
Tarot's monster followed, letting out judicious roars whenever she snapped her fingers.
Doug exited the room after her, using sign language and speaking a variation of Latin intermingled with Dog that he had learned from the next- door German shepherd. Roughly translated, he said things like: "Oooh, there's five of them," and "They want their mommies." But when considered among the other two, he could have been casting a spell or something.
Needless to say, this intimidated the others. So, what is better defense than a good offense? Nothing.
All of the startled kids with alternate modes instinctually went into them. Rahne became half-wolf, Roberto became Sunspot, and bobby reverted to his ice-form. Sparks sizzled at Jubilee's fingertips and Kitty sank halfway into the floor.
"Mon Dieu," Remy said. "You're like us?"
Tarot put her card back in the deck and the lion disappeared. "Mutants?"
Doug signed and spoke (in English), "Yeah, what else could do that?"
Xavier wheeled himself through the doorway, the students automatically making a pathway for him. "Very astute, students." Xavier addressed all those standing in the hallway. "These are your new classmates. Rahne Sinclair, code named Wolfsbane. Roberto DaCosta, or Sunspot. Also, here is Bobby Drake alias Iceman, Jubilation Lee, who is Jubilee, and Kitty Pryde, or Shadowcat.
As he said the names, they returned to human forms, unsure of how to respond. The most popular response was a sheepish grin.
"And here are Remy LeBeau, Doug Ramsey, and Anne Montgomery." The three acknowledged their names in their own ways: Doug smiled widely and wiggled his fingers in a half-wave, Anne graced them all with a nod, and Remy raised his hand, kinetically charged card and all, to about shoulder height. He tossed the card up, where it exploded.
Bobby (never the shy one) aid, "Hey, nice to meetcha. Mi casa es su casa, now. Professor, d'you think they should meet the others, too?"
Doug nodded. "Sí, Dónde está Rogue?"
Xavier inferred what Doug had said. "We shall soon find out, Doug. Kitty, she's in your shared dormitory. Would you mind getting her?"
"No way, Professor. It's like, really fast my way," Kitty said as she phased through the floor. Professor Xavier went back into his library, leaving the students in the hallway. An awkward silence filled the air, only broken by the rifling of tarot cards.
"Hey, can you tell someone's fortune with those?" Jubilee asked.
The redhead stopped shuffling her cards. "Yes, but unless you want a pack of monsters accompanying the fortune, I wouldn't recommend it."
"Oh." Jubilee looked down, chastised.
"So, ummm," Doug began, trying to break the ice. "What do you do around here for fun?"
Bobby shrugged. "Same thing as most kids do. Go swimming, listen to music."
'Train in the Danger Room." Rahne added.
"Go for field trips cross-country." Roberto said.
"Take the X-jet on a joyride." Jubilee pointed out.
"I don' t'ink dose are what 'mos' kids do'," Remy said, absently cutting a deck of cards and pulling out an Ace of spades.
Kitty came running in at this moment, panting but obviously pleased. "Like, you totally wouldn't believe how hard it was to find her. First I checked our room, because, duh, she's there half the time. Then I looked in the kitchen because, like, what if she was hungry? Then."
"Did you find her, finally?" Rahne asked.
Kitty blinked wide, pseudo-innocent eyes. "Well, yeah. I found her in the rec room."
Rogue came walking in, fuming. And when Rogue isn't happy, nobody is going to be happy. Or else.
Apparently, Remy hadn't been told this. His face lit up a bit when her stormy, rain-cloudy mood entered the premises. She noticed his expression, and since he was the reason for her bad mood, she decided to focus on him. She set her anger to a low simmer as she stared, edging a little closer.
When he saw her move closer, thoughts ran rampant in Remy's head. Was she going to do something to him? When was she going to do something? Where would she take this revenge? What an incredible body! The card in his hand started glowing.
Rogue glared at the Cajun. She hated the way he was looking at her, the fact that he wasn't saying anything, and especially hated him for being so damn attractive.
The other students had been silent for most of this time. Finally, Kitty waved her hand in front of Rogue's face with no result. Emboldened, Bobby did the same in front of Remy's face. He also added, "Woohoo, Earth to lover boy, we're losing you!" This still elicited no response from the twitterpated Cajun, and his card continued to glow hotly.
"Hey, is his card supposed to do that?"
BLAM!
Bobby and Remy both had char all over their faces, as well as bewildered expressions. Rogue stopped scowling in order to hide a giggle behind her hand. Yes, Rogue was giggling.
Now it was Remy's turn to scowl.
"Aww man!" Bobby cried, "You know how long it takes to look this good? My face is ruined!"
"What 'ruined'?" Jubilee teased, "I like the charred look. I could even help you get that look every day!" She touched her fingertip to his nose and created a little, tiny spark, just enough to blacken the tip of his nose.
"That's it!" Bobby threw a snowball at the girl. She responded with pyrotechnics. "Power war!"
Remy glared at Rogue. What was she doing, laughing at his expense! Hadn't her powers ever been a bit out of control? Some smooth operator he was. The pyrotechnics lit her face up in alternating colors. She looked good in all of them. Damn her.
His face was so frickin' funny! The burn-marks offset his red, angry eyes. And that look he had had on his face! Obviously, he hadn't planned on being the entertainment. But Rogue couldn't stop laughing, especially when a snowball hit him in the back of the head!
Storm walked into the hallway at this very opportune moment. What she saw was carefully controlled chaos. She supposed that it was good that the new students were so readily welcomed, but not at the expense of the hallway.
"Students, is this the way X-men should act?" Storm spoke quietly, but a tendril of wind brought her voice clearly to each ear. There are more ways to influence people than psychic powers.
The ice balls and fireworks stopped almost instantaneously. "Thank you," Ororo said. "Now, please clean up this hallway so that you can go outside and get acquainted at the expense of trees, and not our defenseless hallways."
Roberto bristled a bit. He hadn't done anything! He deserved to complain. "Awww! Auntie O!"
Lightning energy crackled around Storm and the wind picked up. "NO ONE BUT EVAN CAN CALL ME THAT! GO. TO. YOUR. ROOM."
The hallway was immediately deserted. Kind-hearted kids had steered the three newbies in the right direction before running off.
**
Doug had finally finished putting his stuff into drawers and the closet that he shared with Bobby. Man, this was great! He really got along well with the guy, even when he couldn't switch his brain to the right language.
"Well, that's just about everything," he said, scratching his head. "But there's something wrong!"
Bobby looked at both sides of the room. His side was a veritable minefield. Doug's half would have passed a military inspection.
"Ah-ha!" The blond kid pulled out one of his drawers and scattered his clothes all over the floor. "There! All done!" ~Mental high five! Wait, I don't have to do that.~
"High five!" Both guys made for each other with their hands in the classic high-five pose.
And they kept going. They had missed each other by a mile.
**
Anne pointedly ignored Jubilee as she put up her framed poster of N*Sync. It had sing names all along the border: Chris (something), J.C. (something else), and so on and so forth. All she was missing was Justin! Sigh! He is an egomaniac jerk, granted, but oh, what a cutie! (Author's note: Make me barf! Please! I just WROTE this dribble! You only have to READ it! You can skip over it any time you like!)
Jubes glared at Anne, and popped a CD into her little boom box. The grating tones of the Backstreet Boys filled the room. She sat on her bed, glaring a challenge at Anne.
Anne all but leaped for her N*Sync CD, and jammed it into her sound system. Not boom box, sound system. Now, the hallway had not only "Backstreet's back, all right!" to deal with, it was mixed with the prepubescent wailings of "I want it that way!"
The two fans sat on their beds, each shooting daggers at the other with their eyes.
Evan strolled by the room, and hearing what seemed to be the same sounds coming from each box, called, "Hey Anne, Jubes! It's great you both like the same music!"
"SHUT UP!" A barrage of powers came out of the doorway at Evan, who had the decency to run.
**
Remy was settling in nicely as well. For some strange reason, he had to share the room with the squarest guy in the Institute.
"Remy, I don't care how you like your room decorated, NO MORE EXPLOSIONS! They're ruining my side of the room!"
Right, and this was coming from the guy who had a poster-sized picture of that red-haired chick right next to his signed photo of Captain Kangaroo.
"Didn't I just say-"
"Oui." Remy charged a card.
"And what are you going to do about it?"
He tossed the card towards a white spot on is wall, where it left a nice black mark. "Ça."
"Arrgh!" Scott stormed out of the room, obviously heading for Jean's room. Pity they didn't actually do anything.
Remy shrugged, and charged another card. Rogue and another girl he couldn't recognize slowed down near the doorway, curious about the noise coming from inside. He stared up at the ceiling and decided it wasn't the right shade of burn, and tossed the card upwards. The explosion made Rogue yelp and jump a little. Amara simply giggled.
"You should have seen your face!" she said, pointing at Rogue. Remy looked at the doorway to see a blushing Rogue. The color did wonders for her already beautiful face.
"Did I scare y' chère?"
Rogue pouted. "No! C'mon, Amara." She started to turn away, but the toe of her right foot got caught behind the heel of her left foot. In layman's terms, she kissed the carpet.
Remy made his way over to her, his chivalrous side poking through. When he reached out to help her up, she smacked his hand away and ran. Amara shrugged, and hurried after her.
"Mebbe next time, Gambit use some of de charm. Don't work wit'out."
A/N: Sorry I didn't have translations before. I have edited my existing chapters. A glossary will be at the end of every chapter from now on.
Excusez-moi: excuse me (French)
Voleur: thief (French)
Chère: dear (French)
Cheerrup?: Who was that? (Sparrow)
Qui était ça?: Who was that? (French)
Une belle femme: a beautiful woman (French)
n'est-ce pas?: right? rhetorical question (That's yours, right?) (French)
Trop vrai: too true (French)
Mon Dieu: my God (French)
Mi casa es su casa: my home is your home (Spanish)
Sí, Dónde está Rogue?: Yes, where is Rogue? (Spanish)
Oui: yes (French)
Ça: that (French)