Author's Note**

                        Mystique probably won't be showing up for a while and neither will Wolverine since he's supposed to be out looking for her. I'll cut to the two of them later but right now I want to get life at the Institute settled first.

            Twenty minutes later the hospital wing of the Xavier Institute for Gifted Students was chock full of mutants. Not exactly an ideal situation considering tempers were still fuming. Behind the ruby lenses of his glasses Scott narrowed the brown eyes that no one present had ever seen before. Across the room from him Gambit smiled and tipped his hand in an insulting gesture. A card appeared between his index and middle finger. First chance I get I'm going to burn those stupid things, Scott thought to himself

            The close quarters were felt keenly by everyone and discomfort was probably the only thing they all had in common. Angel folded his wings as tightly to his back as he could manage but there was no getting around the fact that they took up a large amount of space. He glanced over his shoulder and frowned.

            "If you get any of your slime on my wings Tolansky, I swear I'll drop you off a cliff somewhere."

            "If you keep your bird feathers outta my face there won't be any slime on them," Todd muttered in response. Nonetheless he shifted away from them and went back to cradling his head in his arms. The persuasive "tap" that Xavier had given to restore order in the foyer had left him with a bugger of a headache. Lance looked a lot like he was suffering from the same thing; he was scowling at the floor. Then again maybe he was just pissed off at the floor. Fred had been the lucky one. No brains, no pain.

            Wanda had chosen to sit down on Rogue's bed, something Pietro found amusing in a frightening kind of way. Two of the best looking and most untouchable girls of the group. Rogue wasn't entirely comfortable with the situation mostly because she wasn't comfortable when anyone got within a five foot radius of her. She wished that she had on a shirt with longer sleeves or at least her gloves.

            "Look, jus' be careful alright?" she said to Wanda. "Ah'd rather not have any of yer thoughts in mah head. No offense."

            "None taken. I like my thoughts where they are."

            The two smiled at each other, seemingly on the same wavelength. Pietro shuddered again. Scary, they've bonded.

            All the others were simply standing around waiting. The fact that everyone was so close made it impossible to talk really; anything you said would be heard by someone. The younger students did their best to restrain from amusing themselves with their powers. After all, they didn't want a repeat performance of the front foyer. Bobby had made himself a checker board out of ice but that was about it.

            Alternating between glaring at Lance and chewing her gum, Kitty felt more and more impatient as time wore on.

            "Like, where's the Professor?" she asked finally. Perched on the counter beside her, Kurt shrugged his blue shoulders.

            "He vas right behind us," he answered. Sighing, she crossed her arms over her chest.

            "I hope he gets here soon. It's like way too crowded in here."

            "I know a way to make it uncrowded," Lance stated suddenly, looking up from his scowling match with the floor. A light trembling followed his words.

            "Uncrowded isn't a word Alvers and bringing down the mansion on our heads isn't going to make anyone more comfortable," Scott retorted, leaning against the wall in an unconscious mimic of Gambit's posture. Straightening as if Scott had just said his mother was as ugly as a buck toothed horse, Lance held out a fist towards him threateningly.

            "You got a problem with my language Summers?"

            "What if I do?" Scott asked, putting a hand up to his glasses.

            "I believe that that is enough boys."

            Like so many times before, the Professor's calm voice quickly diffused the explosive nature of the conflict. He rolled into the cramped room and surveyed the scene before him. With the exception of Wanda and Rogue, the room had effectively been split in half; X-men on one side, the self proclaimed Bad Asses on the other. Each side glared at the other with open hostility. This will not be an easy undertaking, he thought. It would probably be best to simply be blunt and firm.

            "We have a serious situation on our hands and there will be no time to indulge in personal feuds." The Professor's eyes were stern as he looked around the room. "I do not expect you all to become the best of friends but I do expect you to put the welfare of the world and existence above your personal feelings. We know very little about the mutant that Mesmero is seeking to unleash, but we do know it is extremely powerful. Our lives, all our lives," he emphasized meaningfully, "are at stake here. There is a great deal of work to be done and a massive amount of ground to cover and only by working together will we be able to stop this threat. We need to discover the location of this mutant and Mesmero, what Mesmero's plans are exactly, and what his next step is. We have only what Mastermind has pulled from his mind and that information leads me to believe we have very little time. I expect your full cooperation." His eyes scanned the room again. "Now, are there any questions?"

            There was a collective murmuring but only one hand lifted.

            "What about the Morlocks?" Jean questioned. To the left of the Professor, Storm flinched slightly at the name and the first thought on everyone's mind was Evan. Xavier lifted one eyebrow and waited for Jean to continue. "Well, one of those mutants has the ability to locate other mutants, right?"

            "Caliban," Wanda clarified out loud.

            Jean nodded and tossed her long red hair over her shoulder. "If we want to find Mesmero, he might be helpful."

            Nodding, Xavier folded his hands in front of his chin. "Yes, you're right. Their leader may prove to be unwilling but perhaps we will be able to convince her of the importance."

            "I will convince her," Storm promised with an uncharacteristic flash of temper in her eyes.

            "That is all then. The younger students should retire, as they will be attending school tomorrow. I would like the older students, and our guests, to remain."

            Amongst groans of disappointment the younger students filed out of the room. There was a moment or two of confusion when someone bumped the pint sized Jamie and half a dozen of him toppled out. Once they had cleared out, there was a little more space. Just a little.

            "Now," Xavier began again. "As I said before, we have a tremendous amount of ground to cover and a small amount of time to do it in. Therefore you will be split into pairs and assigned tasks. It is important for you to focus on those tasks."

            "Hey, tell that to them. They're the ones who keep trying to kick the crap out of us," Scott protested, jerking his thumb towards the Brotherhood and the three other mutants.

            "Monsieur, have we hurt chore feelin's?" Gambit asked mocking, carelessly rifling his cards through his hands.

            I'm going to burn every single one of them, Scott thought menacingly.

            "There will be no further incidents," Magneto warned, speaking for the first time. The gaze he leveled at Gambit was enough to have the Cajun shrugging and putting his cards away. For good measure the master of magnetism sent an equally cool look to the Brotherhood members and they shuffled their acceptance as well.

            I have a feeling that is the best we can hope for, Xavier thought to himself. To the group, he said,

            "Good. Now for your assignments."