Author's Note**
This'll be the last chapter featuring the new mutants. Hmm, we're getting frightfully close to the end of the story here.
For a long, silent moment, the young Japanese man stood and stared at him almost as if he was studying a creature he had never seen before. Uncomfortable underneath the scrutiny Bobby stuck his hands in his pockets and shuffled his feet. He had a sinking suspicion that the boy was going to make some kind of smart ass remark about his purple turtles. Well, if that happened he was just going to have to turn the kid into a popsicle and remove his head from his body. Nobody treats the Iceman with disrespect. NOBODY! Except for Rogue because he was about as frightened of her as Pietro was of his sister. But other than that, NOBODY! Well, and Kitty because she had once threatened to reach into his chest and rip out his still beating heart. Okay, but other than that . . . . .NOBODY!
To his surprise though the stranger, who stood straight as a pole, gave a brief nod of his head. The movement sent his long black ponytail swinging.
"I would believe that, yes. I have seen them, too," he confessed. Bobby's eyes widened and his grin nearly split his face in half.
"Really? Wow! That's awesome. Hey, have they ever tried to snack on you?"
"Sometimes. Then I kill them." The boy's black eyes were fierce, and then became confused. "But still more come."
"Whoa, kill them. I never thought about that," Bobby murmured to himself. He shook his head and held out a hand to the young man. "My name's Bobby Drake. What's yours?"
"Shiro Yoshida," he replied, accepting the handshake. "Some call me Sunfire."
"How come?"
In response the youth placed one hand over the other and held his arms out in front of him. For a split second there was nothing, and then on the ground in front of him a ball of what looked like green flame began to grow. Bobby looked on in astonishment. Once the orb reached a certain size, it stopped growing but the flames became hotter. Small rivers of sweat ran down Shiro's face and after a minute he dropped his hands.
"It will explode now," he stated almost casually. With bulging eyes, Bobby threw his arms out towards the orb and encased it in a block of ice. Then he focused on dropping the temperature of the ice until all the molecules with in it had stopped moving. Blowing out a long breath, he turned to stare at Shiro, who looked back with an equally amount of curiosity.
"You are a mutant." It was not a question. Bobby nodded his head and stood up straight.
"Yeah, and there are a lot more of us where I come from. We've got this school going. Let me tell you about it."
Shiro glanced away from a moment, obviously considering the invitation. It gave Bobby time to study the young man further. He was at least four inches shorter than he was but Bobby got the distinct impression that he could and would kick his ass if it was warranted. The way he stood, so straight and stiff, made him think of one of those samurai warrior guys in the movies. All he was missing was a long sword hanging at his side.
The stranger nodded his head. "Yes, tell me about this school."
Bobby grinned and stared walking towards the street, wanting to get as far away from the small nuclear bomb as he could. "It's really cool and everyone's really nice. Except for this one guy Roberto. He's an. . . ."
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"Okay, listen up."
Storm set her hands on her hips and looked over her group. They all looked back, wondering if Storm was finally going to go natural disaster on them. She wasn't; not that she hadn't considered it about fifty times. But she reminded herself that they were young and this was a learning experience for them. And they were all blind idiots.
"We've had a few set backs, but that's okay. Things like this happen occasionally. It's all part of learning how to become a team," she continued.
"What?" Tabitha asked, snapping her gum. The scream that Theresa had given her had caused her to become temporarily hearing impaired. Next to her, Amara scribbled down what Storm had said in a notebook they had bought for that reason and showed it to her. Tabitha skimmed it. "Oh."
"Now, there are two more young women that we have to speak with, and they both happen to attend this school. Professor Xavier called up the school and set up a meeting with them."
"Maybe you should take the meeting Storm," Amara said, glancing up from her dictation. "I mean, we're not having a lot of luck here."
"Yeah, it looks so easy when the X-men do it," Roberto chimed in.
On the way over to the school, Storm had been thinking about doing just that. After all, they wanted to recruit some new students to the school and all they were managing was to scare a bunch of them off. But she heard the defeat that was heavy in Roberto and Amara's voices. If she took the meeting, it would be like telling them they had all failed. Of course, they had all failed but not because they hadn't tried their best. They were all just hopelessly incompetent. Maybe it was something they would grow out of. So instead of accepting Roberto's suggestion, she shook her head and reminded them,
"You are all X-men. Now, who wants to give this a try?" she asked.
Amara kept her head down and looked everywhere but at Storm, a sure sign that the girl was not the least bit interested in attempting to persuade anyone to go anywhere. Sam met her eyes but looked like he might throw up at any moment. Roberto and Tabitha had already had their shots, and they didn't look interested in trying either. The only one who appeared to be both cool and confident, was little Jamie Madrox. When she looked at him, he smiled his sweet smile and nodded his head.
"I'll do it Storm. Let me try."
"Alright Jamie," she agreed, careful to hide her own smile. "They're meeting in room 201. It's the second one on the left after you enter. Good luck."
They all watched as he ran towards the building and up the front steps, hoping he wouldn't trip and accident shoot out half a dozen duplicates of himself. But he made it to the front doors without incident and, after tugging them open, he slipped inside. Roberto shook his head and glanced over at Storm.
"Is that such a good idea? I mean, Jamie's so small. What if they hurt him?" he asked.
"Nah, I don't think they will. Not even Rogue can hurt him and she never turns down an opportunity to kick someone's ass," Sam answered, keeping his eyes on the school. If it seemed like Jamie was in trouble, he was going to blast in and rescue the little fellow.
"So what did you say to Theresa anyways?" Amara was asking Tabitha.
"What?"
Sighing, Amara scribbled down her question and shoved the paper underneath her friend's nose. The blonde haired rebel read it and then chuckled.
"I told her she wouldn't be able to bring her leprechauns."
"Why - " catching herself, Amara wrote down what she was going to say and handed it over again. Tabitha shrugged after reading it.
"I thought it would be funny. I don't think she got it though."
"Storm, what are we going to do about Bobby?" Roberto asked, as the minutes dragged on and there was no sign of Jamie. Sighing, Storm remembered that they had left Bobby in that garbage bin. Sam nodded his head.
"Yeah, he probably escaped by now."
"Hopefully he will meet us at the designated leaving point," Storm said grimly, folding her arms. "Otherwise we will simply leave him here."
Sam and Roberto abruptly turned their attentions elsewhere and wisely withheld any further questions.
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Nearly half an hour had passed before Jamie, a.k.a. "Multiple", finally re-emerged from the school. To everyone's distinct amazement, he had two attractive young ladies on either side of him. One had long dark hair pulled back in a tight ponytail and the other had a tumbling mass of green curls. Not a color you see every day. Both girls looked curious and at ease as they made their way towards the group. Jamie walked with them like a miniature pimp. He presented them to Storm with a bright, cheerful smile.
"This is Elizabeth Braddock," he introduced, motioning to the girl with the ponytail. And, pointed to the green haired girl, he added, "And this is Lorna Dane." Then he turned back to the rest of the group.
"They'd really like to see the school and meet the Professor."