Guess who figured out how to hook her laptop up to the Internet!! That's right, I did! ((This is a big thing for me. Electronics and I don't get along well!)) Anyway. It's currently 1:17 a.m. Neato! I'm sleep deprived! I'm also going on vacation tomorrow…for two weeks…with no Internet. O.O So don't expect any updates for a while! However…I will have my laptop with me and as a result be able to continue writing the whole time! Yay!!
Thank you once again to those who reviewed!! Here is another chapter for your reading pleasure!!
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They had went to get Janella on a Thursday, so the next day, Friday, was still a school day for the older kids, who hadn't finished taking final exams yet. The earliest riser was always Scott, followed closely by Kurt and Rogue. The other girls, even if they woke as early as Scott and Kurt, often didn't come down until much later, since they needed to 'prepare for the day." Evan was usually last one down. He always slept late.
Scott was very thoroughly surprised then, when Janella came into the kitchen at six in the morning. She stretched and yawned, and though her hair was a mess, she looked otherwise awake. He looked at her over his sunglasses.
"Why are you up so early?" he asked. She glanced at the clock.
"Early? I'm up late! I usually get up at five thirty!" she exclaimed. He nearly dropped his spoon into his bowl of Cheerios.
"Why?" he asked incredulously.
"My bus down in Jersey picked me up at six thirty," she explained, looking for a bowl to get some cereal of her own. "I liked to have a lot of time to prepare myself…and finish any homework I might have neglected!" She chuckled, and Scott directed her to the appropriate cabinet for bowls and drawer for spoons. She poured herself some Raisin Bran Crunch, splashed it with milk, and sat down opposite Scott. She took a bite, and they regarded each other across the table.
"So," Janella said, breaking the silence. "You guys still have school?" Scott nodded.
"Yeah," he said, though it came out a half groan. "I technically don't even have to go today. I'm exempt from both of the finals I have!" Janella nodded.
"Why are you up so early?" she asked. He chuckled.
"I drive the others to school." Janella smiled.
"Yo veo," she said softly in Spanish, repeating after in English, "I see." There was silence for a few moments as they applied themselves to their cereals. It was too early for really coherent speech. Just as the silence began to get uncomfortable, Kurt appeared with a bamf in the kitchen.
"I'm sooooo hungry!" he complained, honing in on the cabinet and assembling a bowl of cereal faster than Janella had ever seen anyone do. He set it down on the table and pulled a chair over in one fluid movement. His eyes widened slightly in surprise as he noticed Janella for the first time. He tried to speak through a mouthful of cereal, nearly choked, and had to stop and swallow before trying again.
"Was are you doing up?" he asked. She rolled her eyes and gave a straightforward answer this time.
"Habit," she said with a dramatic sigh. Both of the young men chuckled, and all three applied themselves once again to their food. Gradually, others trickled in, and those who had already eaten vacated the table to make room for them. Janella wandered back to her room, and the kids departed. She waved at them through the window, and then picked up her laptop. It was sitting atop her dresser, plugged in, charging. She pulled the plug from it, and tucking it snugly under one arm, headed out of her room to the beautiful gardens she had been shown last night. She chose a tree that was slightly out of the way and leaned back against it, crossing her legs and opening her laptop on them. She pressed the power button and let her mind and gaze wander as the thing booted up. This really was a beautiful place, and deep inside her she was glad she chose to come. She turned her mind to the main problem at hand: How much should she tell them of her family in New Jersey?
She brought up a word document and allowed her fingers to type what they pleased while her mind considered her dilemma. It snapped into a conscious decision. She wouldn't hide it from the Professor if he wanted to know, because she couldn't, but if she could prevent the others from finding out, she would. She read over what she had written and deleted it. Just useless dookie.
She had just pulled up one of her actual projects when, to her surprise; she heard the Professor's voice in her head, summoning her. She shut down her computer with a few taps of a button and detoured to her room so she could drop it off before descending into the lower levels where the Professor was waiting for her. He guided her to a large doorway, and was waiting outside it with Wolverine. She vaguely recognized it from her tour with Kurt the previous day, but he hadn't really shown her that much of these underground areas.
"Greetings, Janella," the Professor said genially. "I've called you down here today because we need to assess how much control you have over your powers." Janella nodded.
"Okay," she said. "What do you need me to do?"
"You and Logan will enter this chamber, the Danger Room," he explained. "This is where my X-Men train, so the activity will serve the dual purpose of familiarizing you with the Danger Room and providing us with a rundown of your basic abilities."
"Works for me, Professor," Janella said. Logan nudged her.
"Enjoy this first time while you can kid," he said. "We'll be going easy on you, since it's your first time." Her eyes widened slightly, but she smiled, a crooked grin that was slightly unnerving. Professor X went up towards the control center, and the door opened, and Logan led the girl into the room. She expected a large room, so was surprised to find herself in a seemingly endless field. The sun was up and shining brightly, and she and Logan were standing alone in the middle of it. Professor Xavier's voice boomed out from nowhere, filling the space.
"See, the thing about the Danger Room is that it can stimulate any environment, and situation you want," he said, "which makes it an ideal accessory for training."
"I see," Janella said.
"This is just for our assessment. Usually, there are a few more geographic features, not to mentions the dangers after with the room is named." Janella acknowledged this, and the Professor's voice was gone, leaving her and Logan alone again. He turned to her.
"Okay," he said. "Shift for me. Right now. The first thing that comes to your mind." Janella immediately grew the wings and tail of the shift she had gone into when Reno had spooked her early yesterday. She ran her tongue over her two new fangs and looked at Logan.
"Pretty impressive, kid," Logan commented. "Are you that fast with all of them?" She shook her head.
"Regrettably, no," she said. "The three humanoid forms are quick, but the three less humanoid ones take a little longer, and I can't do them I one go. I need to rest and do them in stages."
"Let me see them, one at a time," Logan commanded, taking a step back. Janella took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and concentrated. The membrane lining her wings stiffened and splintered into feathers, paling to white as they did so. Her hair changed from black to an almost silver blond, and her eyes too paled, to bright, beautiful blue. She paused for a moment before changing again.
The fangs of the first form reemerged, but not as prominently as before. Her ears changed shape, becoming cup shaped and pointed, and they moved to the top of her head. Her hair became entirely bright red, and grew extremely long, braiding itself up. A fringe of short red hairs formed a cloud about her head, as a bushy tail the same auburn color as the ears sprouted from right above her rear. As the final change in this form, the blue eyes changed to bright green, the pupils elongating into slits. Her tail swished from side to side as she turned to Logan.
"Those are the three humanoids," she told him. "I can speak orally in those, and…um, yeah. Here are the three non-humanoid."
She took a deep breath and immediately the changes of the raptor form began in her. She paused partially through like she always did to re-gather her strength and re-focus her concentration, and quickly finished up. She swung her tail from side to side before kicking up and lashing out into the air, displaying the curved sickle claws that were among a raptor's deadly weapons. She landed lightly on her feet and glanced at Logan. Taking another deep breath, she began the change into the black and red dragon she had shown to Kurt, Ororo, and Jean. She winked at Logan and spread her wings.
~This form has an added perk,~ she informed him. He started.
"You said that?" Logan asked. She nodded.
~In any form that crosses the line into the bestial side of life has to be communicated through like this,~ she said. She opened her mouth to show a forked tongue and backwards-pointing, serrated and sharp teeth. ~Completely incapable of human speech as we know it.~ Logan nodded.
"I see," he said. "You mentioned a perk?"
~Yep. Watch.~ With that, she leapt into the air and spread her wings wide. They had to span at least 25 feet, and her body, when neck and tail were fully stretched, was at least twenty feet. As he watched, she disappeared, reappearing on his other side. She continued to blink in and out in dizzying circles around him. Eventually, she stopped and set back down on the ground.
"Impressive," Logan conceded. "Only in that one?" She nodded, and taking another deep breath, set into the third change.
This was another dragon, but a smaller one. Her black scales changed to sliver, and the red spines to deep blue. They all lengthened, the spines, and lighter blue webbing sprang up between them. The cluster of spikes on the end of the tail disappeared, and was replaced by two, webbed, curving ones. The red webbing between the spines of her head frills disappeared also, and the horns shifted position, straightening out slightly and pointing now behind her. A third one grew between the two, and curved slightly up. She cocked a solid black eye at Logan as one of the digits on each forepaw disappeared. She clicked her tongue rapidly against the roof of her mouth and lashed her supple tail back and forth a few times before changing back to human form.
"Not bad, kid," Logan said. "Are those the only things you can change into?" She shook her head.
"I can do other things, but it takes a while if I haven't done them before. I've experimented with others, but none come quite as easily as the ones I've shown you."
"Alright. Have you had any training in hand-to-hand combat of any type?" Janella smirked.
"I guess you could say that," she said. Logan unsheathed his claws and, taking her completely by surprise, charged her, claws held in front of him offensively. She took a step back and leapt instinctively into the air, wings almost magically open. She arced over his head and, with a deft twist of her wings, dropped out of the air, feet first. She nailed Logan in the back and knocked him forward. He caught himself and whirled at her, arms wide, but she had used her momentum to flip off his back and back into the air. She dropped to the ground and whirled, one leg extended. He blocked it and then grabbed it, immobilizing her. She brought her other legs up underneath her and lashed out at him with it. The impact probably hurt her more than him, but it startled him into loosening his hold. She planted her foot on his chest and pushed off, freeing her leg and knocking him back. She planted both feet firmly on the ground and leapt into the air, crossing her arms and flapping her wings slowly. Logan stood and retracted his claws.
"Not bad," he said again. "Better than most new recruits I've seen. Where'd you learn that?" She carefully let herself down on the ground, wings and tail disappearing back into her.
"My stepmothers are women of many myriad talents," she said. She ran past him and, taking a running jump, launched into an energetic round-off. When she landed it, she had sprouted the wings and tail again, and used to the momentum to arc backwards into the air again. She completed a loop and landed in front of him.
"Are there any other talents like those I should know about?" Logan asked her. She shrugged.
"Some say I'm acrobatic," she said, jumping into a midair somersault. She landed in almost the same place. "Some say I'm agile." She pantomimed rapidly climbing a tree. "Some sat I have fast reflexes." At this near boast, Logan extended the claws of his right hand and swung at her as fast as he could. She ducked under his arm and grabbed it, stopping it dead. She smirked. "Some say I'm strong."
"No shit," he muttered, pulling his arm from her grasp. She let him have it. "That was pretty impressive, short stack."
"Very good, Janella," the Professor's voice said from nowhere again. "That's all for today. You may go." A door swung open off to her left. It opened out of nowhere, but she could clearly see the mansion through it. She shrugged, wings sagging slightly.
"Okay, Professor X," she called walking through the door. She waved back. "Bye!" She turned the corner and darted off. She was gone.
"Logan too moved out of the room, the door shutting automatically behind him. He walked up to the control room and stepped inside.
"Well?" the Professor asked, looking up.
"She's good," Logan said, leaning against the doorframe.
"I'd noticed," the Professor said.
"She needs a lot of work on her powers," Logan said, "but that's not my field." The Professor nodded acknowledgement. "However, in regards to her ability to fight physically, there's not much I can do for her, aside from polishing her abilities, honing her reflexes, and trying to improve her reaction times."
"They seemed fast to me," the Professor remarked.
"They could be faster," Logan growled. "I was moving slowly." Professor X chuckled. "Who are these stepmothers she talked about?" Logan continued. "If they taught her to fight like that, I'd like to meet them."
"I'm not sure yet, " Professor X admitted. "She requested privacy on the matter, though I'm not sure why, and I'll respect that unless it becomes apparent that withholding the knowledge is dangerous to her and the other students." Logan shrugged.
"Oh well," he said. "If it's her business, it's her business." He left the room with a nonchalant wave at the Professor.
"Yes," the Professor said to himself, clasping his hands thoughtfully. "It is her business, isn't it?"
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So. It's late. I'm tired. My Neopets RP partners are all signed off. It's 2:00 a.m. ((Okay, so I was doing thins in between writing this and writing the first a/n!!)) I think it's high time for this tired…person to cuddle with her Movie-Kurt figure and fall asleep in a desperate attempt to induce Kurt-filled dreams unlike the one I had last noght, which oddly involved the X-Men from the '90s show all flying around (and those who couldn't fly had wings.) That's what I get for watching the Nightcrawler segment of "The Legend of Wolverine" over and over. *Rolls eyes.*
Seeing as it's late, I'm not going to beg for reviews. Just do it, 'k?
Disclaimer: I own, Janella, possibly Reno, and…this Kurt action figure. *Holds it up.* See? Super-poseable! But, other than that, nothing is mine. *Sigh.*
Reno: Just so you know, you don't own me.
I don't? Damn. Oh well!