Hello again! From now one I'm going to try to update this story every
other day because it's the end of the semester and I'm getting lots of
school work. I'd wanted to write another chapter everyday, but I guess I'm
just not that fast at writing.
Okay, you might have notice that I've changed the category from action/adventure/drama to drama/humor, since I'm trying to keep this lighthearted. It's not going to be over the top like a lot of fiction I've seen under the humor category, I'm trying to keep a nice mixture of drama and comedy, sort of like the Evo cartoon itself.
Big thanks to Talentless for the link, it's been a big help with developing Spiny's character.
Jean settled into her seat in the Velocity, which was now far more crowded than it had been when they had left. It had just begun to dawn on her exactly how many new recruits they had found. She'd expected three or so from what the Professor had told them, not /eight/.
They had just returned from a trip to the cabin where they had been living in order to retrieve their few possessions. In the relative darkness of the forest she hadn't realized exactly how badly tattered their clothing was. The cabin itself was in a poor state of disrepair. It looked like the sort of building that state parks rented out to vacationing families for the summer, but this one was dilapidated beyond use. Part of the roof had collapsed in at some point in the distant past, leavening only two usable rooms. Both of those rooms had piles of blankets in them which Jean assumed were used as beds. There wasn't very much else, aside from a large metal basin with a few bars of discount soap and some other toiletries next to it and a small store of food. An dirt path leading away into the forest might at some point been a road. When questioned, one of the boys had told her it lead to the nearest town, but it was mostly blocked off by fallen trees.
Once they had made it back to the Velocity, it was past midnight and the younger members of their entourage were starting to show the strain. They hadn't taken much with them, a few changes of clothing, all as badly tattered as the ones they wore, and between them a few small personal items; a few books, a folder full of sketches, some stuffed animals.
/This isn't anyway fro those two children to live,/ Jean had thought to herself as she watched them scamper about the camp. /This isn't anyway for anyone to live./
Now she glanced around the interior of the Velocity, scanning faces and trying to remember names. The razor backed creature was indeed a girl, the others called her Spiny, and while Jean hadn't gotten a chance to really read her mind, she was certain that wasn't her real name. The two children were Nena and Dorian. It struck Jean at how young Nena was to have developed her powers, though she still was uncertain as to what those powers were. She had a vague impression that Logan had some idea.
Dorian looked about eleven or twelve. His fingers were webbed, and the vertical slats on his neck looked like gills. His hair was blue and and his skin had a bluish tinge to it. For some reason his hair had been wet when he'd first appeared, and still was, showing no signs of beginning to dry.
The alarmingly pale girl who had healed Jean's hand was named Athena. She was sitting in between Nena and Dorian, who were leaning on her as they dozed. Her eyes were closed, but Jean suspected that it didn't make any difference to her. Her posture was oddly ridged, making her resemble a marble statue. Jean thought she would be sitting stiffly as well if she had someone else's hair was dripping down her shoulder. Spiny was sleeping at Athena's feet.
Spiny had been hostile just after Jean had used her telekinesis to pull her down from the tree, but had warmed up to them surprisingly quickly after the others had made in clear to her that they were friends now. What had alarmed Jean the most was that Spiny's behavior was almost dog-like, she seemed to lack any more human behaviors. She walked on all fours, moved and stretched like a cat, and when she lay down to nap, she curled up like an animal. Jean also noticed that her quadrupedal movement was somewhat awkward since her back legs were longer that her arms. This made her move with her head lower that back end, and only seemed possible because she had a more animal, digitigrade bone structure in her back feet and legs, similar to Kurt's.
The question that weighed on Jean's mind the most was whether her behavior was a by product of her mutation, or of her environment, and would it be possible for her to ever attend school, or lead something resembling a normal life. She would have to ask the Professor. Spiny's mind was proving remarkably difficult to read at all, everything Jean got from her was muddled, more often in the form of images or sensations rather then words or feelings like most people's minds.
In front of Athena sat Kale, the guy that had confronted them, and the only one that was against leaving. He seemed to be the closest thing that this group of mutants had to a leader. In the darkness his hair had looked metallic, like liquid silver, but now, it looked like spun glass, reflecting the light so weirdly it gave Jean eye strain. A side effect of his invisibility mutation no doubt, as the effect was very similar to how he had looked right before he had appeared. He looked about seventeen or so, and stood at average hight with a lean build.
Across the aisle, the brown haired girl who had stopped them from fighting sat next to the pale boy in black. The girl, whose name Jean couldn't remember, had a pleasant, gentle look to her. She looked slightly younger than Kale, perhaps sixteen or so. Jean attempted to get some sort of mental reading from her in the hopes of finding out how she had known that they had come from the Institute and couldn't. It felt like she was slamming herself into a metal wall. The girl didn't notice. Jean assumed that she possessed some sort of telepathic ability, which apparently included the ability to shield her mind from other telepaths.
The mutant sitting next to the telepathic girl had black hair and disturbing black eyes. He was the one who had attacked Scott, and for that reason Jean immediately had to fight back a dislike of him. It didn't help that his presence made her feel uneasy, but she resolved to give him an equal chance. Jean couldn't even begin to understand what his ability was exactly, but it seemed to involve the manipulation of a dark, mist-like, substance that looked remarkably like shadows, and from what Scott had told her of his experience, the ability to open some sort of portal.
Jean glanced at the last member of the group. The boy who could control wind looked the most, well, normal of the group, and the friendliest. He was holding the folder he had retrieved from the camp open and drawing inside. He had the lightened brown hair that seemed so popular among Asian boys lately, and a pleasant face.
He looked up at her, noticing her attention, and smiled.
"What are you drawing?" Jean asked him.
He blushed slightly and held the folder up so she could see. "I hope you don't mind," he said. Inside the folder was a pencil sketch of her.
"That's very good, may I see it?" Jean asked him. Next to her Scott turned to see what was happening as the younger mutant came to sit down next to them.
"What was your name again?" she asked him as he handed her the sketch.
"Oh, I'm Wen-Ru, but everyone just calls me Wen. What about you two?"
"I'm Jean," she told him, introducing herself. "And this is Scott." Jean looked at the picture he had drawn. It was simple, but he managed to create an amazing likeness.
"Wow, that's pretty good," Scott said, looking at the portrait of Jean, his voice touched by the slightest ting of jealousy.
Wen seemed to notice this because he smiled mischievously. "You can have it if you want," he said to Scott, still smiling.
Scott looked surprised for a second, then embarrassed, and then grateful. Jean wasn't quite able to keep herself from smiling at his reaction. He seemed to notice that Wen had chosen a subtle way of letting him know, that despite the portrait, he wasn't a threat.
"Thanks," Scott said taking the picture and looking at it when Jean was done with it.
"I gotta say I'm impressed, didn't expect you guys to have a... whatever this thing is. You guys must have some major funding for a school, but, uh just one question," Wen said shuffling through some of the other papers.
"Yes, what's that?" Jean asked, she didn't need telepathy to know where this was going.
"What's up with the costumes?"
"The school is also the home base of our organization, the X-Men."
"So... what? Like superheros or something?"
Jean hesitated for a second and Scott answered for her. "Yeah, something like that."
"Cool, I always wanted to be a superhero." At the looks they gave him he just shrugged. "Hey, what kid doesn't?"
^~^~^~^~^~^
"Kurt! Like, wake up!"
Kurt groaned and shoved his head under his pillow. Someone was nudging him. Why wouldn't they just let him sleep? He was exhausted after yesterday. What had ever possessed him to agree to help Mr McCoy with the younger students? Where did they find all that energy? Especially Jamie. It had been bad enough helping keep track of just one of him, but seven? That was too much even for him.
"Kurt! It's, like, already after ten!"
"Keetty? Is that you?" He hadn't even gotten a chance to rub it in Kitty's face.
"Of course it's me!" she yelled, giving him a push that sent him rolling off the side of his bed.
Kurt lay on the ground staring up at the ceiling. Suddenly Kitty's face came sideways into his field of view. She was sitting on top of his bed, leaning over the side and grinning at him.
"Awake yet, Fuzzy? And here I though you were the morning person."
Kurt groaned again. "Keetty, vhat's the big deal?"
"The Professor wants everyone down in the foyer, like, right away. He's got something important to tell us," she was grinning at him in the most annoying way. Normally he liked it when Kitty smiled at him, but today, he was willing to make an exception.
Oh, that was perfect, first the professor inflicts play time with the kiddies on him, and then he sends Kitty to wake him up. At least he could still get some fun out of this.
"New mutants, right?" he asked, nonchalantly, standing up.
"Whoa? What? Where'd you hear that?" Kitty asked jumping off the bed.
"Eh, yesterday, Professor X said Cerebro picked up three mutant signatures in Washington," he told he as he walked over to his nightstand, picked up a glass of water and dumped some of it on his face.
"DC?"
"No, state."
"Why didn't you tell me?" she demanded, hands on her hips.
"I vas kind of busy," he told her sarcastically. "Anyvay, that's vhere evervone vent yesterday."
"Oh, that is, like so cool. I wonder what they'll be like?" she watched Kurt walked over to his closet and pull out some fresh clothing. "Oh, don't tell me you're not excited."
"Keetty, right now, I am a leettle tired for 'exited', try me again later," he told her giving her a push out and closing the door so he could change.
When he emerged, buckling his hologram watch on, she was waiting next to his door.
"Uh, Kurt, I don't think you're going to need..." she said, tapering off. When he didn't say anything, she just shrugged.
Kurt just yawned as his real body was replaced by a holographic images of a perfectly normal teenage boy.
"Wow, you're actually taking the stairs. Why don't you just like, bamf," she asked him.
Kurt smiled at her. "Too tired for bamf."
Kitty stopped and stared at him for a second. "Well that's a first," she said.
"Vhy don't you just phase through the floor?"
"Don't want to land on anyone."
"Vhy not? Vouldn't hurt zem or anything, and imagine the looks on zeir faces."
"Don't want to give anyone a heart attack either."
"Ah, goot point."
They stopped at the top of the landing and looked down. The X-Men and students were gathered together but there was no sign of any unfamiliar mutants. Rogue was standing with them, looking slightly shaky, but otherwise none the worse for the wear. As Kitty and Kurt walked down the stairs to join them, Rogue walked over to them.
"Hey, Rogue! How are you feeling?" Kitty asked.
"Ah'm, fhan, Ah guess," she said, twisting her fingers in her hair. Kurt wasn't really used to seeing nervous gestures from her. He wondered what was up. "Kurt," she said looking at him and biting her lip. "There's something..."
"Everyone gather round," the professor's voice came.
Rogue glanced back at him, and then turned back to Kurt. "Never mind, Ah'll tell you later."
Kurt turned to look at the professor. Behind him, just coming through the door were a group of teenagers. Their clothing was badly tattered and they looked tired.
"I would like to introduce you all to some new students," the professor told them. He glance behind himself and laughed. "Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, there are rather more of them than I anticipated, so I would like to ask all of you to help make them welcome and show them around."
Kurt looked up at the new mutants with wide eyes. He counted seven of them, from a small girl holding a worn teddy bear to a tall guy in black. Whispering broke out among the students.
The professor spoke again, and they grew quiet. "Perhaps you should all introduce yourselves?" he told the teens standing behind him.
They began to shift nervously, none of them wanting to be the first to speak. Eventually they all turned to look at a boy with dizzyingly colored hair. He glanced around himself and looked resigned.
"Hi, I'm Kale," he said, shuffling his feet.
"He's cute!" Kurt heard one of the girls behind him whisper, none too quietly. There was some giggling and that only made the boy look more nervous. Kurt felt sorry for him. He was certain girls did that sort of thing intentionally, just to keep guys guessing.
A shortish Asian boy was next. He waved to them and grinned. He, at least, didn't look the slightest bit shy. "Hi, I'm Wen, nice to meet you." When no one said anything he looked around in comically exaggerated disappointment. "What? Isn't anyone going to say that /I'm/ cute?"
That broke the tension in the room and almost everyone burst out laughing. After that the rest of the new arrivals had a much easier time introducing themselves. Kurt tried to keep track of all their names.
"I'm Dorian," the youngest boy said. Jamie looked pleased, he was used to being the youngest, and he didn't have many people to spend time with.
A pretty girl introduced herself as Laurie, and the creepy guy standing next to her protectively was Nick.
They came to an inhumanly pale girl with really long white hair, and blind white eyes. She was rubbing her temples. She just stood there while everyone watched until she turned her head towards Kurt saying, "Would you stop that?"
Kurt looked at her in surprise. "Eh? Vhat am I doing?"
"It's like there's two of you, two different people standing in the same place and it's really giving me a headache," she told him.
"Kurt," the professor said. "Perhaps it would be better if you turned off your image inducer."
"But Professor," Kurt began and then looked around. "Alright." He slowly brought his hand to the watch and deactivated it, preparing himself for someone to scream "monster" or something similar. But when he looked up the most he saw was a few raised eyebrows.
"Can I have one of those?" Dorian asked.
The professor smiled. "We'll see."
The pale girl nodded. "Thank you. By the way, I'm Athena, this is Nena," she said placing her hand on the little girl's shoulder. The little girl waved... and so did the teddy bear she was clutching. Several more stuffed animals peaked out from behind her legs making faces at everyone. Next to Kurt, Roberto looked into his mug of coffee suspiciously and Logan, who was standing off to the side, growled.
"Don't worry," Amara whispered to Roberto. "Kurt didn't spike the coffee this time, he was asleep till just now."
"And this," Athena said, continuing. "Is Spiny." She looked behind the group, and then turned back to them. Something meowed. "She doesn't like strangers."
Spiny, it turned out really didn't want to show herself. At last, after a lot of coaxing, she finally decided to come out of her hiding place. Everyone went silent. Kurt looked at her in disbelief. For some reason she walked over to him first, on all fours and sniffed, testing his scent.
"Merrow?" she asked inquisitively.
"Uh, hi." he said waving a three fingered hand.
She sat and stared at him for a while, before making a approving sounding noise and walking to inspect the rest of the students. She sniffed at some of them, and ignored others.
"I think she likes you," Kitty told him, mischievously, after Spiny walked passed her.
"Now, perhaps it is past time we all had breakfast. This way," Professor X said, leading the way to the dining room.
"You can see through holograms?" Ray asked Athena.
"I guess so," she replied.
"Dude, she can see through solid objects," came Wen's voice.
"Whoa, like /clothing/?" Kurt wasn't certain whether Ray sounded impressed, or horrified.
As Logan passed Kurt, he leaned down to tell him something. "No matter how bad you think you have it, someone always has it worse."
Kurt could only nod in agreement.
I'm finished, be happy for me, for now I can sleep.
Oh, and now that everyone more or less knows what all the characters do, I really need some code names. Help me please!
Favorite Character Votes
Nick 3 Wen 3 Spiny 1 Athena 1
Okay, you might have notice that I've changed the category from action/adventure/drama to drama/humor, since I'm trying to keep this lighthearted. It's not going to be over the top like a lot of fiction I've seen under the humor category, I'm trying to keep a nice mixture of drama and comedy, sort of like the Evo cartoon itself.
Big thanks to Talentless for the link, it's been a big help with developing Spiny's character.
Jean settled into her seat in the Velocity, which was now far more crowded than it had been when they had left. It had just begun to dawn on her exactly how many new recruits they had found. She'd expected three or so from what the Professor had told them, not /eight/.
They had just returned from a trip to the cabin where they had been living in order to retrieve their few possessions. In the relative darkness of the forest she hadn't realized exactly how badly tattered their clothing was. The cabin itself was in a poor state of disrepair. It looked like the sort of building that state parks rented out to vacationing families for the summer, but this one was dilapidated beyond use. Part of the roof had collapsed in at some point in the distant past, leavening only two usable rooms. Both of those rooms had piles of blankets in them which Jean assumed were used as beds. There wasn't very much else, aside from a large metal basin with a few bars of discount soap and some other toiletries next to it and a small store of food. An dirt path leading away into the forest might at some point been a road. When questioned, one of the boys had told her it lead to the nearest town, but it was mostly blocked off by fallen trees.
Once they had made it back to the Velocity, it was past midnight and the younger members of their entourage were starting to show the strain. They hadn't taken much with them, a few changes of clothing, all as badly tattered as the ones they wore, and between them a few small personal items; a few books, a folder full of sketches, some stuffed animals.
/This isn't anyway fro those two children to live,/ Jean had thought to herself as she watched them scamper about the camp. /This isn't anyway for anyone to live./
Now she glanced around the interior of the Velocity, scanning faces and trying to remember names. The razor backed creature was indeed a girl, the others called her Spiny, and while Jean hadn't gotten a chance to really read her mind, she was certain that wasn't her real name. The two children were Nena and Dorian. It struck Jean at how young Nena was to have developed her powers, though she still was uncertain as to what those powers were. She had a vague impression that Logan had some idea.
Dorian looked about eleven or twelve. His fingers were webbed, and the vertical slats on his neck looked like gills. His hair was blue and and his skin had a bluish tinge to it. For some reason his hair had been wet when he'd first appeared, and still was, showing no signs of beginning to dry.
The alarmingly pale girl who had healed Jean's hand was named Athena. She was sitting in between Nena and Dorian, who were leaning on her as they dozed. Her eyes were closed, but Jean suspected that it didn't make any difference to her. Her posture was oddly ridged, making her resemble a marble statue. Jean thought she would be sitting stiffly as well if she had someone else's hair was dripping down her shoulder. Spiny was sleeping at Athena's feet.
Spiny had been hostile just after Jean had used her telekinesis to pull her down from the tree, but had warmed up to them surprisingly quickly after the others had made in clear to her that they were friends now. What had alarmed Jean the most was that Spiny's behavior was almost dog-like, she seemed to lack any more human behaviors. She walked on all fours, moved and stretched like a cat, and when she lay down to nap, she curled up like an animal. Jean also noticed that her quadrupedal movement was somewhat awkward since her back legs were longer that her arms. This made her move with her head lower that back end, and only seemed possible because she had a more animal, digitigrade bone structure in her back feet and legs, similar to Kurt's.
The question that weighed on Jean's mind the most was whether her behavior was a by product of her mutation, or of her environment, and would it be possible for her to ever attend school, or lead something resembling a normal life. She would have to ask the Professor. Spiny's mind was proving remarkably difficult to read at all, everything Jean got from her was muddled, more often in the form of images or sensations rather then words or feelings like most people's minds.
In front of Athena sat Kale, the guy that had confronted them, and the only one that was against leaving. He seemed to be the closest thing that this group of mutants had to a leader. In the darkness his hair had looked metallic, like liquid silver, but now, it looked like spun glass, reflecting the light so weirdly it gave Jean eye strain. A side effect of his invisibility mutation no doubt, as the effect was very similar to how he had looked right before he had appeared. He looked about seventeen or so, and stood at average hight with a lean build.
Across the aisle, the brown haired girl who had stopped them from fighting sat next to the pale boy in black. The girl, whose name Jean couldn't remember, had a pleasant, gentle look to her. She looked slightly younger than Kale, perhaps sixteen or so. Jean attempted to get some sort of mental reading from her in the hopes of finding out how she had known that they had come from the Institute and couldn't. It felt like she was slamming herself into a metal wall. The girl didn't notice. Jean assumed that she possessed some sort of telepathic ability, which apparently included the ability to shield her mind from other telepaths.
The mutant sitting next to the telepathic girl had black hair and disturbing black eyes. He was the one who had attacked Scott, and for that reason Jean immediately had to fight back a dislike of him. It didn't help that his presence made her feel uneasy, but she resolved to give him an equal chance. Jean couldn't even begin to understand what his ability was exactly, but it seemed to involve the manipulation of a dark, mist-like, substance that looked remarkably like shadows, and from what Scott had told her of his experience, the ability to open some sort of portal.
Jean glanced at the last member of the group. The boy who could control wind looked the most, well, normal of the group, and the friendliest. He was holding the folder he had retrieved from the camp open and drawing inside. He had the lightened brown hair that seemed so popular among Asian boys lately, and a pleasant face.
He looked up at her, noticing her attention, and smiled.
"What are you drawing?" Jean asked him.
He blushed slightly and held the folder up so she could see. "I hope you don't mind," he said. Inside the folder was a pencil sketch of her.
"That's very good, may I see it?" Jean asked him. Next to her Scott turned to see what was happening as the younger mutant came to sit down next to them.
"What was your name again?" she asked him as he handed her the sketch.
"Oh, I'm Wen-Ru, but everyone just calls me Wen. What about you two?"
"I'm Jean," she told him, introducing herself. "And this is Scott." Jean looked at the picture he had drawn. It was simple, but he managed to create an amazing likeness.
"Wow, that's pretty good," Scott said, looking at the portrait of Jean, his voice touched by the slightest ting of jealousy.
Wen seemed to notice this because he smiled mischievously. "You can have it if you want," he said to Scott, still smiling.
Scott looked surprised for a second, then embarrassed, and then grateful. Jean wasn't quite able to keep herself from smiling at his reaction. He seemed to notice that Wen had chosen a subtle way of letting him know, that despite the portrait, he wasn't a threat.
"Thanks," Scott said taking the picture and looking at it when Jean was done with it.
"I gotta say I'm impressed, didn't expect you guys to have a... whatever this thing is. You guys must have some major funding for a school, but, uh just one question," Wen said shuffling through some of the other papers.
"Yes, what's that?" Jean asked, she didn't need telepathy to know where this was going.
"What's up with the costumes?"
"The school is also the home base of our organization, the X-Men."
"So... what? Like superheros or something?"
Jean hesitated for a second and Scott answered for her. "Yeah, something like that."
"Cool, I always wanted to be a superhero." At the looks they gave him he just shrugged. "Hey, what kid doesn't?"
^~^~^~^~^~^
"Kurt! Like, wake up!"
Kurt groaned and shoved his head under his pillow. Someone was nudging him. Why wouldn't they just let him sleep? He was exhausted after yesterday. What had ever possessed him to agree to help Mr McCoy with the younger students? Where did they find all that energy? Especially Jamie. It had been bad enough helping keep track of just one of him, but seven? That was too much even for him.
"Kurt! It's, like, already after ten!"
"Keetty? Is that you?" He hadn't even gotten a chance to rub it in Kitty's face.
"Of course it's me!" she yelled, giving him a push that sent him rolling off the side of his bed.
Kurt lay on the ground staring up at the ceiling. Suddenly Kitty's face came sideways into his field of view. She was sitting on top of his bed, leaning over the side and grinning at him.
"Awake yet, Fuzzy? And here I though you were the morning person."
Kurt groaned again. "Keetty, vhat's the big deal?"
"The Professor wants everyone down in the foyer, like, right away. He's got something important to tell us," she was grinning at him in the most annoying way. Normally he liked it when Kitty smiled at him, but today, he was willing to make an exception.
Oh, that was perfect, first the professor inflicts play time with the kiddies on him, and then he sends Kitty to wake him up. At least he could still get some fun out of this.
"New mutants, right?" he asked, nonchalantly, standing up.
"Whoa? What? Where'd you hear that?" Kitty asked jumping off the bed.
"Eh, yesterday, Professor X said Cerebro picked up three mutant signatures in Washington," he told he as he walked over to his nightstand, picked up a glass of water and dumped some of it on his face.
"DC?"
"No, state."
"Why didn't you tell me?" she demanded, hands on her hips.
"I vas kind of busy," he told her sarcastically. "Anyvay, that's vhere evervone vent yesterday."
"Oh, that is, like so cool. I wonder what they'll be like?" she watched Kurt walked over to his closet and pull out some fresh clothing. "Oh, don't tell me you're not excited."
"Keetty, right now, I am a leettle tired for 'exited', try me again later," he told her giving her a push out and closing the door so he could change.
When he emerged, buckling his hologram watch on, she was waiting next to his door.
"Uh, Kurt, I don't think you're going to need..." she said, tapering off. When he didn't say anything, she just shrugged.
Kurt just yawned as his real body was replaced by a holographic images of a perfectly normal teenage boy.
"Wow, you're actually taking the stairs. Why don't you just like, bamf," she asked him.
Kurt smiled at her. "Too tired for bamf."
Kitty stopped and stared at him for a second. "Well that's a first," she said.
"Vhy don't you just phase through the floor?"
"Don't want to land on anyone."
"Vhy not? Vouldn't hurt zem or anything, and imagine the looks on zeir faces."
"Don't want to give anyone a heart attack either."
"Ah, goot point."
They stopped at the top of the landing and looked down. The X-Men and students were gathered together but there was no sign of any unfamiliar mutants. Rogue was standing with them, looking slightly shaky, but otherwise none the worse for the wear. As Kitty and Kurt walked down the stairs to join them, Rogue walked over to them.
"Hey, Rogue! How are you feeling?" Kitty asked.
"Ah'm, fhan, Ah guess," she said, twisting her fingers in her hair. Kurt wasn't really used to seeing nervous gestures from her. He wondered what was up. "Kurt," she said looking at him and biting her lip. "There's something..."
"Everyone gather round," the professor's voice came.
Rogue glanced back at him, and then turned back to Kurt. "Never mind, Ah'll tell you later."
Kurt turned to look at the professor. Behind him, just coming through the door were a group of teenagers. Their clothing was badly tattered and they looked tired.
"I would like to introduce you all to some new students," the professor told them. He glance behind himself and laughed. "Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, there are rather more of them than I anticipated, so I would like to ask all of you to help make them welcome and show them around."
Kurt looked up at the new mutants with wide eyes. He counted seven of them, from a small girl holding a worn teddy bear to a tall guy in black. Whispering broke out among the students.
The professor spoke again, and they grew quiet. "Perhaps you should all introduce yourselves?" he told the teens standing behind him.
They began to shift nervously, none of them wanting to be the first to speak. Eventually they all turned to look at a boy with dizzyingly colored hair. He glanced around himself and looked resigned.
"Hi, I'm Kale," he said, shuffling his feet.
"He's cute!" Kurt heard one of the girls behind him whisper, none too quietly. There was some giggling and that only made the boy look more nervous. Kurt felt sorry for him. He was certain girls did that sort of thing intentionally, just to keep guys guessing.
A shortish Asian boy was next. He waved to them and grinned. He, at least, didn't look the slightest bit shy. "Hi, I'm Wen, nice to meet you." When no one said anything he looked around in comically exaggerated disappointment. "What? Isn't anyone going to say that /I'm/ cute?"
That broke the tension in the room and almost everyone burst out laughing. After that the rest of the new arrivals had a much easier time introducing themselves. Kurt tried to keep track of all their names.
"I'm Dorian," the youngest boy said. Jamie looked pleased, he was used to being the youngest, and he didn't have many people to spend time with.
A pretty girl introduced herself as Laurie, and the creepy guy standing next to her protectively was Nick.
They came to an inhumanly pale girl with really long white hair, and blind white eyes. She was rubbing her temples. She just stood there while everyone watched until she turned her head towards Kurt saying, "Would you stop that?"
Kurt looked at her in surprise. "Eh? Vhat am I doing?"
"It's like there's two of you, two different people standing in the same place and it's really giving me a headache," she told him.
"Kurt," the professor said. "Perhaps it would be better if you turned off your image inducer."
"But Professor," Kurt began and then looked around. "Alright." He slowly brought his hand to the watch and deactivated it, preparing himself for someone to scream "monster" or something similar. But when he looked up the most he saw was a few raised eyebrows.
"Can I have one of those?" Dorian asked.
The professor smiled. "We'll see."
The pale girl nodded. "Thank you. By the way, I'm Athena, this is Nena," she said placing her hand on the little girl's shoulder. The little girl waved... and so did the teddy bear she was clutching. Several more stuffed animals peaked out from behind her legs making faces at everyone. Next to Kurt, Roberto looked into his mug of coffee suspiciously and Logan, who was standing off to the side, growled.
"Don't worry," Amara whispered to Roberto. "Kurt didn't spike the coffee this time, he was asleep till just now."
"And this," Athena said, continuing. "Is Spiny." She looked behind the group, and then turned back to them. Something meowed. "She doesn't like strangers."
Spiny, it turned out really didn't want to show herself. At last, after a lot of coaxing, she finally decided to come out of her hiding place. Everyone went silent. Kurt looked at her in disbelief. For some reason she walked over to him first, on all fours and sniffed, testing his scent.
"Merrow?" she asked inquisitively.
"Uh, hi." he said waving a three fingered hand.
She sat and stared at him for a while, before making a approving sounding noise and walking to inspect the rest of the students. She sniffed at some of them, and ignored others.
"I think she likes you," Kitty told him, mischievously, after Spiny walked passed her.
"Now, perhaps it is past time we all had breakfast. This way," Professor X said, leading the way to the dining room.
"You can see through holograms?" Ray asked Athena.
"I guess so," she replied.
"Dude, she can see through solid objects," came Wen's voice.
"Whoa, like /clothing/?" Kurt wasn't certain whether Ray sounded impressed, or horrified.
As Logan passed Kurt, he leaned down to tell him something. "No matter how bad you think you have it, someone always has it worse."
Kurt could only nod in agreement.
I'm finished, be happy for me, for now I can sleep.
Oh, and now that everyone more or less knows what all the characters do, I really need some code names. Help me please!
Favorite Character Votes
Nick 3 Wen 3 Spiny 1 Athena 1