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The sun had barely crested the horizon when a loud banging echoed through the guest room in the Xavier Institute for the Gifted.
Fred slept on undisturbed. Todd stirred briefly; checking the room for imminent threats then pulled his pillow over his head and when back to sleep. "Do-you-have-any-idea-what-time-it-is?" Pietro yelled irritably at the knocker. "Go-away!"
"There's a danger room session scheduled for before breakfast," Logan's rough voice replied. "Charles wants you three to participate. You've got fifteen minutes to get yourselves out of bed and ready. You don't want to be late."
The unspecified threat in Wolverine's voice was more than enough incentive to get the three boys scrambling into their clothes. All three disdained the X-Men training uniforms they found left for them in the hallway, preferring their own battle gear.
"You think this is for our benefit or are they just nuts?" Todd wondered.
"Look-at-Summers, what-do-you-think," Pietro replied.
"It's normal," Todd decided. "Bunch of goody-two-shoes geeks."
Protests not withstanding the trio joined Xavier's students well before Wolverine's deadline. They were heartened to note that the majority of the X-Men were no happier than they were about being awake at the crack of dawn. Even Jean was looking cross and discretely yawning.
Scott led the mostly disgruntled group of X-Men and Brotherhood members into the bowels of the mansion.
"Oh shit," Todd exclaimed as the doors slid open, "I remember this place, it tried to kill me!"
"We'll protect you," Fred promised giving Todd a reassuring thump on the back that all but knocked the smaller boy to his knees.
"The setting will be much lower this time," Scott promised. "Today's exercise is a variation of capture the flag. Whichever team gets across the room and back with their flag first wins. Use your powers to assist you or hinder the other team as much as you like, but remember this is just a training exercise, no one should get hurt." Scott paused to give the Brotherhood a warning glare. "Kurt it's your turn to help Wolverine man the room's defenses."
"I thought I was next," Evan complained.
Scott glanced from Evan to Pietro and back, thinking about the possibilities for disaster with Evan controlling the room while Pietro was in it. "Not this time," he said. "Okay today's blue team, by random drawing is Jean, Quicksilver, Rogue and Shadowcat. Which leaves myself, Spyke, Blob and Toad as the gold team."
Kurt bamfed up to the control room as the two teams spread out for a quick strategy session.
"This'll be a breeze," Pietro laughed. "Just let me do my thing."
Jean watched the silver haired boy walk arrogantly back toward the starting mark. "Okay ladies, lets keep Mr. Ego from falling on his ass," She sighed. "I doubt Toad or the Blob can do much to slow him down, but Evan's and especially Scott's projectiles could make life difficult for the speed demon. Rogue, you keep Cyclops busy, Kitty and I will take Spyke. Knowing Evan it's going to be a job and a half to distract him from going after Quicksilver."
Rogue nodded decisively, she and Jean started after Pietro. "Kitty, you coming?" Rogue called.
The slight brown haired girl jerked her head up. "What?" she asked distractedly.
"Come on," Rogue repeated.
Scott glanced over at the other team. "Blob, Toad, I need to know upfront, are you guys going to play to win? 'Cause if we want to stand any chance at all we need to take out Quicksilver."
"Quickie ain't exactly a graceful winner," Todd said. "If I gotta share a room with him, he don't need braggin' rights."
"Alright," Scott said. "Spyke, you're going for the flag. Blob run interference. Toad… How well does Quicksilver deal with slippery surfaces?"
"I like how you think Summers," Toad said grinning.
"Just keep in mind that Wolverine is in the control booth. The room will probably be as big of a challenge as the other team and Mr. Logan thinks pain makes lessons sink in better."
"Big surprise," Fred snorted.
The four boys joined the other team at the staring line.
"Let's get this over with already," Pietro exclaimed.
"Toad?" Scott asked quietly. The sandy haired teen nodded. "We're ready?" Scott called out. "On my mark. Three, two, one!"
As Scott's count down ended the doors opened and Pietro started running only to skid on a patch of slime. Cyclops' optic blasts ended any illusion of control the boy had.
Spyke hopped on his skateboard and started into the obstacle course as Jean reached out with her powers to stop Quicksilver before the wall did.
"Thanks," the speedster yelled, sounding a little startled but not letting that slow him down.
What Jean hadn't noticed was that while she helped Quicksilver the rest of the teens had already entered the room. With an apologetic shrug, Cyclops triggered the door, locking her out of the danger room and the game.
The rest of them were quickly swept up in dodging and ducking the room's traps.
Scott's eyes widened in alarm as he saw a wall dropping toward Shadowcat. Kitty's gaze was distant and inattentive. He dove for the girl, knocking her clear.
"What's the matter with you?" Scott demanded angrily. "You're better than that."
Kitty shrugged and sighed.
"Look if you can't focus just get out of here before you get hurt!" Scott said.
Kitty nodded then phased out of the room. As Cyclops turned back to the game a metal tentacle caught him around the waist pinning his arms to his side.
"Take your own advice sometimes Summers," Cyclops muttered. "Guys I'm out!"
"No problemo, I got it covered," Spyke called out crouching on his board as several bolos flew over his head.
"Guess-again-slowpoke," Quicksilver exclaimed, knocking Spyke off his board then pausing to harass the other mutant.
"Yo, Fred we're getting totally left behind here," Toad exclaimed. "Gimme a boost."
The Blob scooped up his slight friend and tossed him toward the far end of the room.
"Geronimoooo!!" Toad screamed, twisting in mid-air to avoid a laser beam. Then hopping from the top of a cannon emplacement to a tentacle, before landing neatly beside the gold flag just as Quicksilver grabbed the blue one and started back.
Quicksilver was a fourth of the way back across the room when a spike embedded itself in his path. He stumbled and two more spikes pinned him in place.
"Got ya!" Spyke crowed.
"Gimme the flag!" Rogue exclaimed running up to Quicksilver.
"You'll-need-more-than-that-to-win," Pietro said touching her cheek before she could pull away. He impatiently counted the fractions of a second until her powers took hold of his essence.
"Don't-do-that!" Rogue exclaimed talking a mile a minute as she pulled away.
"Time's-a-wasting!" Quicksilver yelled. Rogue turned and sped away, leaping over a pit that opened in the floor to the finish line.
"Alright!" She crowed.
"We-win! We-win!" Pietro cheered pulling free of Spyke's trap to race across the now quiescent room and swing Rogue around in an impromptu victory celebration.
"He's going to be impossible to live with," Todd sighed.
"Nice team work guys," Scott said joining his despondent group.
"We lost," Fred pointed out.
Scott shrugged, "Pietro and Rogue, via borrowing his powers, had a big edge in this game, but Todd was only a few seconds behind her. Besides, bragging rights rarely last long around here. Come on, let's get breakfast."
At that Fred's expression brightened.
"So this is your morning schedule," Todd said. "Volunteer for abuse, then go have breakfast."
"It's not that different from what we do," Fred said. "Only we have a lot more pranks and getting even thrown in."
"Got a point Freddy," Todd said. "Race you to the kitchen!"
Logan leapt back into the control booth narrowly avoiding the pair as they charged the elevator. Kurt wasn't so lucky and ended up carelessly knocked aside.
"If they've got this much energy after a training session I'm not trying hard enough," Logan grumbled.
"I thought it went really well," Scott said helping Kurt to his feet.
"Dah, no one even tried to kill anyone," Kurt said.
****** ****** ******
Logan found Kitty sitting on the steps in front of the mansion.
"I know, I screwed up, endangered myself and Scott because I wasn't thinking and emergencies can happen at any time so I can't let a bad day throw off my game. I'm sorry already," Kitty said without looking at him. "Now leave me alone."
"I wasn't gonna lecture at you half-pint," Logan said. "This situation has you pretty shook up and that's okay, but you heard the Prof and Dr. MacTaggart, Avalanche is going to be fine."
"Until the next time," Kitty said. "Can you really see Lance 'Avalanche' Alvers not using his powers? You know I was comparing notes with Pietro and Todd; we figure it's a miracle Lance hasn't ODed on painkillers sometime in the last month or so and that didn't stop him. Why should this?"
"Kitty, take my word for it, your boy isn't suicidal and he does have control over his powers. He'll hold off using 'em until we can figure out how to fix things for real," Logan said.
Kitty stood up slowly and started inside to collect her books. "You're probably right," she said. "But do you ever just have a bad feeling about something?"
****** ****** ******
"So um, what am I supposed to be doing?" Fred asked as Pietro and Todd got ready for school.
"I don't know," Pietro sighed. "It's not like I think they'll hurt him or anything, and I believe Baldy when he says Lance's mind is going back to normal, I just don't want to leave him alone and helpless… Just keep an eye on things and if someone decides to trash the mansion or something get Lance out of their way."
"Okay," Fred said.
"Don't worry about it," Pietro said. "I'll check in between classes, it's not like I need a whole five minutes to get around the school, even if I do detour across town while I'm at it."
"And we all ditch as soon as Lance wakes up," Todd reminded the older boy. "You ain't leaving me out, yo."
****** ****** ******
Pietro stood, staring at Principal Kelly with disbelief and fury. "But we couldn't come, Professor Xavier even called you. You can't put us in detention," he protested.
"Only you aren't Institute students and the good Professor has no authority to pull you out of school," Kelly said smugly. "I'll see you in detention after school. You can tell Mr. Dukes and Mr. Alvers that as well when you see them."
"Lance is in a fucking coma!" Pietro practically screamed in Kelly's face. "So lay off before I do something I regret!"
****** ****** ******
Fred watched Lance stir restlessly. He thought that was a good sign. In any case it scared him less than seeing Lance lying deathly still like he had the day before. Still Fred was more than ready to have the dark haired boy wake up for real and tell him everything was going to go back to normal.
Sure the grub was good at the Institute and he didn't have to worry about whether or not they'd even have food tomorrow, let alone good food, but he didn't want things to change.
With the Brotherhood he had friends, people who teased him because they liked him not because they thought he was a freak. With Mystique gone there was no one to boss them around or ball them out or spew propaganda at them. Things were uncomfortably tight when it came to money, but Lance never let things get too bad. There had been a few months when they'd had to choose between running water and heat, but it wasn't that bad.
Fred's train of thought was broken by Lance opening his eyes. Fred grinned broadly. "Hey, you're back."
The large teen felt a stab of disappointment and concern when Lance didn't respond.
Lance blinked a couple of times, his eyes tracking randomly around the room without really seeing anything. Unsteadily he reached up to push his long bangs out of his face. He paused when his hand encountered the bandages around his head. After a few moments his hand fell back to his side.
"Lance?" Fred asked, reaching out to hesitantly touch the other boy's shoulder.
Lance turned toward him briefly, then his gaze slid away.
"Dr. MacTaggart!" Fred yelled. "Something's wrong!"
The red-haired Scot hurried into the room, she took a few moments to evaluate the situation then smiled reassuringly at Fred. "This is perfectly normal, nary a reason for concern. This isna quite like waking up after a night's rest, more like emerging from a deep dive, coming back ta the surface is a gradual process, ye have ta give him time to reacclimate. He's almost there."
"Did-something-happen?" Pietro asked seeming to appear from thin air.
Moira sighed and prepared to explain again.
****** ****** ******
Scott frowned seeing Todd pinned up against a locker by Duncan Matthews, two of the jock's teammates hovering behind them.
Scott noted all three had bleached the dye from the Brotherhood's prank back out, but they still were looking to settle the score.
"Let him go," Scott said firmly, moving to intervene. Todd sighed with relief as Duncan let him slip to the floor.
"Mind your own business Summers," Duncan said.
"I just find it interesting that it takes three of you to pick on one scrawny freshmen," Scott said. "Can't you guys find a hobby?"
"Jean isn't here to protect you, so maybe you should back off," Duncan snapped.
"Come on Matthews, Fred'll be back tomorrow and if Todd gets beaten up today you know it's going to get ugly so give it a rest," Scott said.
"Who's afraid of that fat freak?" Duncan laughed.
"Well you, or don't you remember Mr. Dumpster?" Todd asked.
"Don't help," Scott said watching Duncan's face go red.
"What'd-I-miss?" Pietro asked rushing up. Scott sighed at the other boy's blatant use of his powers.
"Just Dunce and crew trying to pound me, yo," Todd said sarcastically.
"I think they're ready to leave now," Pietro said smugly a second before a fist cracked into his jaw. The surprised speedster stared up at Duncan from the floor.
Duncan reached down to grab him and Scott swept the football player's legs out from under him. "You were warned," Scott said grimly as Pietro leapt to his feet.
"I-can-take-care-of-this," Pietro hissed.
"Shut up Quicksilver," Scott said punching one of Matthew's friends. The third guy moved to join the fight and fell on his face, thanks to Quicksilver tying his shoes together.
The sound of fighting drew several other students including Jean. Duncan glared at Scott. "This isn't over Summers," he said. "Tolansky, keep looking over your shoulder."
The three mutants relaxed as the jocks withdrew. "You okay Todd?" Scott asked.
"We could have handled them ourselves," Pietro said.
"Speak for yourself, yo," Todd said as Pietro added. "You don't have to play Lance," under his breath, directing a quick glare at Scott.
"I don't like Duncan any more than you do," Scott said quietly. "And I don't stand by while he and his cronies bully someone."
"Geeze Pietro, lighten up," Todd said.
"Whatever, come on Toad we have some plans to make," Pietro said.
"Don't start any trouble," Scott warned as they walked off.
"Who us? Never," Todd called back throwing an innocent grin over his shoulder.
"Why am I not reassured," Scott sighed turning toward his own class.
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