The Xavier School for the Gifted is nestled in the quiet hills of Westchester, New York. A pristine locale with a rich heritage: finely manicured lawns giving way to Victorian era buildings and architecture. Traces of the modern world dotted the school's outer landscape. Among these contemporary hints was a professional-quality basketball court. The sounds of young people engaging in athletic competition were commonplace at this site… but that was normally during the day, not at 2:00 AM in the middle of the night. At this ungodly hour, four young men were playing a game that was half-finesse, half pugilism. Michael Naismith himself, inventor of basketball, wouldn't have recognized it. These guys turned an indoor recreational activity into an intense blood sport… with prerequisite death threats filling the night sky – from a CD-boombox, that is.
OH NO… The fight's out
I'm about to punch yo lights out
Get the F**K back, guard ya grill
There's somethin' wrong, we can't stay still,
I've been drankin…' and bustin' too
And, I been thinkin' of bustin' you
Up…side ya motherf**kin' forehead
And if your friends jump in, "Ohhh girrlll", they'll be mo' dead
Causin' confusion, Disturbin Tha Peace
Since this no illusion, we runnin' tha streets
So bye-bye to all you groupies and golddiggers
Is there a bumper on your ass? NO NIGGA!
I'm doin' a hundred on the highway…
So if you doin' speed limit, get the F**K outta my way
I'm D.U.I., hardly ever caught sober
- and you about to get ran the F**K over…
"That music is loud and obnoxious", said Scott Summers as he rubbed his temples. Why did his room have to be facing the basketball courts? He should've realized someday there would be somebody playing out there at all hours of the night keeping him up. This wasn't an issue before, since the school had a lights out policy of 10:30PM on weeknights.
"I think it's Ludacris honey", Jean said, resting a hand on his shoulder and smiling.
"Ludicrous? More like ridiculous to me!"
"No, Ludacris… he's a rapper from Atlanta."
"Jean", Scott's mouth was agape in shock, "Please don't tell me you listen to that garbage…"
Jean giggled and pulled him into a light hug, "No silly… I heard that from the girls. But I think Ororo listens to some of that stuff. Some of it is Ok actually."
Scott winced at the thought of regal Ororo in big baggy pants, hats, and gold teeth… she'd kind of look like that girl from that movie "B.A.P.S.", he thought. Shaking that image out of his mind he leaned in close to Jean and whispered "I'm going downstairs to get something from the kitchen, you want anything?"
"Just whip-cream, and hurry back." Scott pursed his lips, giving her a quizzical look, and then smiled broadly as he realized what her request meant.
"You bet I'll hurry…" And the man literally jumped over the bed and ran out the door. Jean looked a little confused herself.
"I just wanted some whip-cream because I had those little deserts in our mini-fridge…" She then caught a whiff of HIS thoughts… She let out a short gasp, and then a broad smile spread on HER face. "Please hurry back Mr. Summers", she told Scott mentally.
Scott hurried indeed. He was down in the kitchen in four minutes flat – a new record. He walked to the cupboard and retrieved a mug. He went over to the refrigerator, opened the door and reached for the whip-cream… then couldn't remember what ELSE he came downstairs for. When he closed the refrigerator door, his grin faded. Logan was standing in the doorway, arms folded, leaning against the door frame. "Whatcha doin' One-Eye?"
"Ummm, just preparing a little snack of Jean… I mean a snack FOR Jean… and Me. Jean and Me. Me and Jean. I got to go now." Before Logan could say a word, Scott bolted past him, and down the hallway.
"Sex in the air." Logan chuckled inwardly. He had come to the kitchen to escape the racket outside. His heightened senses were going crazy from all the cussing and noises - and that was just from the other awakened mansion residents. As he sat down on the table, a wave of fatigue washed over him. He hadn't gotten that much sleep since the day before, and last night he was going toe to toe with those murderous bastards… errrrr… murderous GUEST bastards. Healing factor or not, he was needing some sleep. Problem was that his senses couldn't allow him to sleep because of the basketball noises and music.
"Mind if I join you?" Logan whirled around to see Ororo walking in – wearing a white silk robe that matched her white hair. Logan nodded as she walked over to the refrigerator and got some milk. She began to warm it and then sat down at the kitchen table across from Logan. "Can't sleep either?"
"It's that damn basketball noise! Can't you hear it?"
"I can't hear it from my room. I came down because I was feeling some discomfort. That emergency surgery didn't take away all the pain." Ororo winced a little as she settled in her chair, her hands instinctively reaching for her abdomen. Logan's hand shot out too, resting on her abdomen gently as if she were carrying a baby. He cursed silently at the fire-wielding gangster who burned some of the X-Men's internal organs.
"You shouldn't have been there 'Ro. Marie neither. it was too dangerous."
"Logan, I am a fully trained member of this team. And besides, nothing could've stopped me from going. I've been dying to see Dakota ever since the riots."
"Not much to see. The place was a hell-hole before the riots, and it hasn't changed any since."
"Logan, how can you say that? Innocent people were killed in those riots, and the gas you described was mostly to blame." For Ororo, Dakota's Big Bang riot was a point of contention between her and the other X-Men. It was Ororo that wanted to rush to Dakota to stop the riots, and then to help in the Red Cross relief efforts. But at every turn, some more pressing "mutant" matter came up. And then she was told it just wasn't their problem. At one point, she even argued vehemently with Scott that the X-Men would've gone to help a more affluent city (code for "whiter"). Scott, alongside Jean and the Professor, assured her that this wasn't the case, but she never really believed them 100%.
"Ororo", Logan replied, "I was there remember? These guys were killing each other LONG before the gas came. Those gangs were trying to kill each other for nothing more than drug money and turf before that gas hit. The gas was bad, but it just turned some evil guys into evil guys with mutant powers."
"But do you think they would've used an untested gas on people from a richer background?" Ororo looked at Logan incredulously.
"That's the ticket 'Ro", Logan continued, "Rich folks don't have Big Bangs." Ororo watched Logan as he got up and left the kitchen table. She sat pensively for a while, sipping her warm milk. It soothed her stomach somewhat, and she too slipped back upstairs, back to her restive slumber.
***********
It was mid-morning, and Jean Grey had just finished her tests on the gang member called Static. He was so cooperative and sweet with her, trying to hide his nervousness with humor. She could hardly believe that this young man was the same kid who just last night was part of a group that tried to kill them. It actually made her a little uncomfortable – that they could have such a mental and moral disconnect between their actions last night and their demeanor at the mansion. Granted, the entire mess was a massive misunderstanding… but it was still a little unnerving to see these guys simply turn a mental "switch", and suddenly everything's fine. "That's not stable", she thought to herself. "It can't be done that quick."
She prepared to her lab for the other gang members who had begrudgingly accepted to come see her. By about noon, Commando X came in, eyeing her suspiciously. She tried to have some conversation with him, bit all he did was nod, and shake his head. Finally, she took out a needle, and he said, "Aw hell naww! You ain't stickin' me with that!"
"But how else can I draw a blood sample?"
"F*ck a blood sample! Why you need blood from me?"
"To see what changes have been made to your physiology.."
"My what?"
"You're…", Jean gave out an exasperated breathe, "That gas changed you, but it killed other people. It may even be killing you slowly right now and you don't even know it. Did you ever think of that?"
"Now you soundin' like Fade. He talks sh*t like that all the time."
"This Fade is a smart man. Wasn't he the one who stopped us from fighting?"
"Yeah that's him." Commando X sat up and stuck out his arm for Jean to draw blood. "He's a ghost cuz o' the gas. Just floatin' around and sh*t. You know that if he doesn't use his powers, he just fades out? That's some freaky sh*t!"
"That's frightening", Jean said as she drew a blood sample, thankful that this test was the last. "It'll take me a week to get all the results. I'll let you know what we found by then." She hurriedly put her instruments away, trying not to make eye-contact with the man who almost killed her last night.
As if reading her mind, Commando X said, "You know,… last night… that was business. Ya'll came to the hood lookin' to bang the Syndicate…"
"But we didn't. That's what we tried to tell you before… (her mind rushed through the last night's event) before Wolverine threw the first punch… ohmyGod!" Jean suddenly realized how that must've looked to them. All their hasty words were overshadowed by Wolverine's aggression. And to these guys, aggression apparently speaks louder than words or even kindness. "Look, that wasn't what we came there to do. We just wanted to meet you and speak to you. You have powers, but you may not be mutants, and that's a first."
"Damn straight we ain't no mutants", Commando X got off the lab bed and put his jacket back on. "Am I done?"
"Yes you are. You can go ahead and leave." As he was walking out the door, she called out to him, "Mr. X? Ummm, Commando?"
"My name's Howell. Howell Rice. But now everybody calls me X."
"Well, X", Jean said, "This isn't business for us. It's personal. The X-Men are fighting to make the world safer for mutants AND humans alike. It's not just a job for us, it's our way of life. We're not your enemies…"
"Yeah, whatever. No blood, no foul." And with that, he headed out of the lab. Jean wasn't looking forward to her next two clients – Holocaust and Wise-Son. She was already exhausted, and these guys were hard to deal with. Static was a welcome breath of fresh air, but even he took a little while to warm up to her.
**********
"So how were the tests?" Professor Charles Xavier wheeled over next to Jean. She was still in the lab, and it was way past the school's official dinner time. Her absence from the night's meal was odd, since she rarely missed any corporate gatherings.
"Oh, hi Professor", she said turning around to greet him. "I was just caught up with these findings."
"Care to share, Ms. Grey?" Professor Xavier smiled that whimsical half-smile that made his lips purse. She smiled back and pulled a chair next to him. He could see that she was beyond fatigued, but she made every mental effort to press on.
"Professor, these results are astounding. These men don't know the extent of their mutations!"
"Really? How so?"
"Well, calling them mutations is wrong. Their cells don't have any trace of mutant genes in them."
"Which explains why Cerebro couldn't detect them", Professor X surmised. "Cerebro detects the mutant gene in humans, and helps us tract mutants, but I never thought that people could manifest powers WITHOUT them."
"That's just it Professor", Jean said, handing him a copy of some preliminary lab results. "Their powers are physiological, molecular, and even radioactive. That gas made chemical changes to their bodies' chemical and molecular structure, but made no genetic changes. And look at this…" She handed him a folder labeled "Wise-Son".
He thumbed through the files, and his eyebrows arched. "You mean to say that nothing could penetrate this young man's skin? Even at the microscopic level?"
"Yes Professor. He was the hardest one to run tests on because I couldn't get a sample from him for anything. Nothing worked. I even tried a mental scan. Nothing."
"I too have tried to make mental contact with him and have failed. What kind of change has occurred in him?"
"Well Professor, I didn't get any results… until I tried this…" Jean handed Professor Xavier another stack of papers.
"An electron-spectrograph? Was this able to penetrate his skin?"
"No Professor, but I was able to look at his outer molecular structure with it. Wise-Son's molecular bonds are super-compact. It seems that the gas added to his molecular structure, but at the SUB-atomic level. No kind of radiation from the spectrograph could get through those bonds."
"But how does that explain his ability to block our mental powers?"
"That's a side effect. Our powers work on normal physiological brains, but his brain, if it's like the rest of his body, has a seriously different sub-atomic structure. Our powers have some type of biological component to them that his brain just isn't compatible with."
"Ms. Grey, this is all quite fascinating. We need to discuss it with the group at the morning briefing tomorrow." Professor Xavier placed the papers and files back on the lab table next to him. "I have found some information of my own, after doing some background checks on these young men."
"Background checks?"
"Yes Ms. Grey. You don't expect me to give these young men refuge, given their history, without knowing who we are dealing with, do you?"
"No Professor, of course not."
"It seems that some of our guests have EXTENSIVE criminal backgrounds, even including possible murders. I have been mentally tracking our guests' whereabouts ever since I got wind of this information."
"Oh my, Professor. Are we in danger?" The thought of another confrontation with these guys was not only disheartening, but made her fearful for the students as well.
"No Ms. Grey, I won't let it come to that. Except for Wise-Son, they have no defenses against mental manipulation. I can forcibly make them compliant if the need arises."
"But what about Wise-Son? He can do whatever he wants to, and his strength is at least six to seven times higher that a regular man."
"Yes, he does pose a challenge, but he can be restrained if it's properly planned for. No need to worry." Professor Xavier wheeled out of the lab, "Good night Ms. Grey, please get some rest."
"I will Professor, good night." Jean just packed up her stuff and finally left the lab, turning the lights out as she left. Scott mentally contacted her and asked her to meet him down in the Rec hall. He was the only one who could do that, since they were somehow mentally bonded. It had something to do with their love for each other… but an emotional bond couldn't be it. Jean had loved her family, and friends, and never had it affect her powers before. There was something else there, and someday she would look into it – but not tonight. Workday is over, and this one was done the hard way.