Chapter 4: Old Friends
"Wicked." Ham said, as they emerged from the wall.
"Where's his room?"
"Five down from yours."
Suddenly they heard a popping noise and Kurt appeared.
"Whoa!" Ham jumped back.
"You heard him, too?" Kitty asked.
Instead of answering Kurt their hands and transported all three of them to outside of Ryder's room. "Professor wants us to go in there and help him." Kurt explained.
Ham tried the door, "locked."
"Not for long." Kitty walked through the door, but came out a second later. "I miss calculated how dense the door would be and almost got stuck."
"Huh?" Ham was confused.
"He pushed his bed in front of the door and I didn't expect that."
"Oh." Ham knocked on the door. "Ryder? It's me, Hamilton, can I come in?"
"Get out of my head!" Ryder yelled back.
"What?" Ham asked as he looked at Kurt and Kitty.
"Professor." Both answered.
At that moment, Finn walked up. "Hamilton, why the hell did you run out of class like that?"
Ham sighed and leaned against the wall.
"Hamilton?" Finn sounded shocked.
Ham looked down to
see his body fading into the wall. Ham
groaned and pulled away.
Ryder yelled again.
"Ryder?" Finn tried the door.
"Don't bother he is not going to come out." Finn looked up to see Rogue walking up, followed by Professor Xavier.
"Xavier?" Finn stared at the professor.
"Bobby?" Xavier was surprised to see Finn.
"Bobby?" Ham asked.
"My first name is Robert." He told him and then turned to Xavier. "Okay, you found me, now what?"
"Bobby, I didn't even know you were here."
"You know what, I don't have time for this. I have a class to teach." Finn stormed away.
Xavier turned to Kurt, "can you get in there?"
((Pop)) Kurt was gone.
Kurt looked around in the corner was Ryder with huge bat wings sticking out of his shoulder blades. Ryder looked up. "How did you get in here?"
Kurt transported himself a few inches closer to Ryder. "Ta-da."
Ryder stood up. "Yeah, well, at least you don't look like freak."
"Wanna bet?" Kurt touched his watch and his appearance changed. He became covered in blue fur and he only had three fingers instead of five.
Ryder stepped up to him; Kurt extended his hand. Ryder felt the fur, "it's real."
"Of course."
Kurt tried to touch Ryder's wing, but his hand went through it. "But yours isn't."
"What?"
Kurt pushed him in front of the mirror on the wall next to where the bed should be. "Think about being normal." Kurt instructed.
Ryder closed his eyes, slowly the wings faded away. Kurt pushed the button on his watch. So when Ryder opened his eyes, they both looked normal.
"But how?"
"You're an illusion maker."
"A what?"
"You can create illusions with your mind."
"I'm a freak!" Ryder exclaimed.
"Yeah, you're like me."
"No, I don't want this. Leave me alone."
"But…"
"No, just leave me alone!" Ryder turned away.
((Pop))
In the hall, Kurt suddenly appeared.
"Kurt?" The professor asked.
"He can create illusions." Kurt told them.
"So why was he screaming?" Ham asked.
"When I went in there, he had huge bat wings coming out of his back."
"But?" Rogue asked.
"He's freaking."
"We should give him some time." Xavier said.
Ham looked at the group, and then took off running down the hall.
"Hamilton, wait!" Kitty started to go after him.
"Kitty, let him go." Xavier said. "He needs some time, they both do."
"Who was the other guy? Bobby?" Kurt asked.
"He was one of my first students." Xavier explained.
"I thought Jean, Scott, and Ororo were your first students." Kitty said.
"Bobby became my student two years before Scott, during the time that Jean came to me. Why don't we go back to my room and discuss this."
They headed back.
Ham climbed into the attic of the dormitory and then onto the roof. He climbed over to the side over looking the lake, and just sat there. He thought about stuff: Jake, Xavier, and Ryder. He watched the sun set. He was about to climb down the way he came, when he looked down and didn't see his body just the roof. Instead of climbing down through the attic, he went down the other side of the roof. Luckily the window he wanted was opened. By holding onto the awning, he swung himself into the room. Ham landed just inside the window. He looked around the bed was pushed against the door. In the corner farthest from him was the owner of the room. He looked down at the body, which was now back to normal.
"Hey, Ryder." Ham spoke in a low tone.
Ryder looked up, there were tear tracks on his cheeks. "What do you want? And how did you get in here?"
"To talk and the window."
Ryder got up and looked out the window. "From where?"
"The roof."
Ryder sat down on the couch. "So?"
"I know why you're hiding?"
"Really, why?"
Ham pointed to his fading feet.
Ryder stared at him.
"It started the first day of school, and got worse when Xavier showed up."
"You think maybe he caused this."
"Maybe."
"Makes sense."
Suddenly Ham felt weird, like staticy. He and Ryder looked at each other. Ryder's door started unlocking it's self. The bed slid away from the door, and the door flew open. Standing in the doorway was a man dressed in a blue and silver batman-like outfit, with a helmet. If Ryder wasn't so freaked, he would have laughed at the stranger's outfit.
"So this is what Xavier is hiding from me." The man spoke.
"Get out of my room." Ryder yelled at him. "Can't a guy get any privacy?"
The man laughed. "What did Xavier tell you, that he could help you?"
"Who's that?" Ham asked.
"Don't play with me! I know he's here."
Ryder reached down and picked up the baseball bat he keeps under his bed, and held it up.
Suddenly the man slammed against the wall. Ham saw that the man was being covered in ice.
"Magneto, get away from them!" Ham and Ryder looked up to see a translucent figure enter the room.
Taking the distraction, Ham pulled Ryder to the window. "We have to get out of here."
Ham climbed out first and grabbed onto the drainpipe. He slid down to the ground. Ryder followed behind him. Ham led the way, as the two took off across the lawn. Suddenly there was a popping noise and Kurt appeared with Rogue and Remy. Ham and Ryder slid to a stop in front of them.
"There's a guy in blue." Ryder said, half out of breath.
"Magneto." Ham looked up to see Scott, Jean, Kitty, and Xavier coming toward them.
"Magneto? That's what the other guy called him." Ryder pointed out.
"What other guy?" Scott asked.
Before anyone could answer there was a loud crash.
"My room!" Ryder exclaimed.
A figure seemed to float toward them. He landed in front of the group. "Hamilton, Ryder, are you okay?"
"Finn?" Ryder asked.
"Bobby?" Xavier asked, at the same time as Ryder.
"Not now, Xavier! Magneto's coming and he's after Ryder and Hamilton."
"Why?" Ham asked.
"New members for the brotherhood." Remy said.
"Brotherhood?" Ham asked.
"The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants." Rogue filled in.
"Oh." They both said.
"Both of your powers prevent you from fighting. So you had better hide." Scott said.
Ham climbed into a near-by tree, before everyone's eyes he blended into the branches. Ryder crawled into a ball next to the tree. When Xavier looked over at him, Ryder appeared to look like a large boulder.
Magneto slid down the icy slide Finn had made. "Xavier, I knew you were here."
