Chaotic Boredom: Super glue will hold the computer. And I will endeavor to return to this fic the humor that I have so brutally neglected
AN: I'm going to bring in a whole crap load of marvel characters in the next few chapters,. Most of them will be Acolytes, but four are X-Men, partly to flesh out the New Mutants, and partly to add a little more spice to said team... Before continuing, take a stab at who you think the new X-Men are... All right, I admit it; one of them has already been premiered in the series.
Chapter 26: Of Wolves and Cannons... More Newbies?
When Rahne walked out of her room, four days after Remy and Peter's arrival, she still had to fight down the wolf in her at their scent.
*Thaire friends now. When will ye' accept it?*
'When they prove themselves, pup.'
The two halves of Rahne, wolf and human, continued arguing until they were brought up short at the sight of four new people in the foyer, none of them looking to sure of themselves.
"All right! Newbies!" Said Jubilee from behind Rahne.
Sam walked out of the hallway, and stopped dead in his tracks.
"Paige."
One of the two girls turned at that name. She had shoulder length blond hair, and was dressed in a T-shirt and long jeans. Her blue eyes traveled over to the staircase, and quickly found Sam.
"Sammie!"
With that, the girl rushed forward, and tackled the human missile. Her arms wrapped around his waist, and she squeezed hard.
Rahne's eyes narrowed at this. Who was this bitch that thought she could take her boyfriend... Wait, we're not even officially dating. Heck, we've not even been on a date. Maybe she's why. With that thought, Rahne's eyes began tear up, and she ran out the door, her body transforming as she hit the stairs.
Sam watched as the Scottish girl ran out the door. There was a violent coughing noise from behind him, which sounded mysteriously like the word *bastard*. Turning, he saw that Jubilee, Amara, Bobby, Rogue, Kitty, Lance, and Kurt were all glaring at him, and that Kyle's face was the blank mask that proceeded only his worst of moods.
Kyle spoke for the group, "How could you do that Sam? How could you lead her on like that? You've just broken her heart, you know that?"
Sam stared at Kyle, wondering what he meant... Suddenly, it clicked... She thought that Paige was his girlfriend. Looking at his friends, he realized that Rahne wasn't the only one.
"It's not what ya'll think it is."
Lance glared at Sam, as Kitty said, "We've heard that one before."
Sam shook his head, "This 'ere is Paige Guthrie, my little sister."
At that pronouncement, the group's collective eyes widened. Suddenly, as they watched, they could see the similarities, their hair, eyes, their facial features, and general build. Kyle shook his head slightly, the tickling in his head becoming more annoying by the second. When it cleared again, he spoke.
"Well, Sam, I don't think Rahne realizes that. I would suggest you find her, before she does something stupid."
Sam looked at him strangely, wondering what he meant... Then, suddenly, it clicked, Rahne's mutation made her look like a werewolf if she wanted it to.
"Oh gawd no." Was all Sam said before he was out the door. As the newbies watched, he hit the stairs, and launched himself into a cannonball.
At this point in time, Kitty, Lance and Kurt looked over at the other newbies. They were shocked to find a familiar face among the four.
"Alex?"
Sam was flying through the air at top speed, slamming through trees like they weren't even there, following the footprints Rahne had left. Finally, he came upon the girl as she stood at the boarder of a campground in werewolf form. Making a decision, he slowed as much as he could, and slammed her into a tree. She began to fight with all the ferocity of a wolf, clawing at biting at Sam.
"Rahne, ow! Stop it... Yeowch, It's not what ya thaink. She's, Eouch, not my girlfriend, OWCH! She's my... Yow, Sistah!"
Upon hearing the end of that sentence, Rahne stopped almost instantly. "Ye'r sistar?" She said, transforming her voice box.
"Yeah, she's my youngah sistah. Momma didn't tell me she wauld be comin' thaough." Said Sam, even as he backed up, letting Rahne stand on her own feet.
Rahne transformed to her human form, as she lowered her head to her chest. "I was so jealous o' 'er that I nevah thought o dat. Ye've told us about ye family enough." At that point, Rahne began to cry.
Sam stepped forward, and wrapped his arms around his girlfriend. "It's alraight. Ya didn't know. It's ya'll's nature ta be like that. Part o' ya' bein' a wolf."
She smiled a watery grin at Sam. She then saw the cuts from her claws and teeth.
"Ye'r hurt."
Sam smirked weakly, "It ain't so bad. Let's go hoame." He then picked Rahne up, and cannonballed towards the Institute.
Alex turned to where the three senior X-Men stood, and smiled.
"Aloha. What's up?"
With that, the three senior X-Men muscled their way past their younger counterparts. Or, more accurately, Lance muscled his way past, and the other two followed. As Kurt and Kitty rushed towards Alex to greet him, Lance turned towards the New Mutants.
"If your still here when Scott comes through, he's going to run you all over." With that, he walked towards Alex.
As he arrived, he wrapped his arms around Kitty's waist, as she and Kurt talked with the younger Summers' brother.
"So, what brings you here?" Asked Lance, curious why the boy hadn't come before.
"Well, partly because Sabertooth decided to pay me a visit about two weeks ago. (AN: That's where he was during the Acolyte battle at school.) And partly because now everyone back home knows I'm a mutant. My parent's are the only people who don't hate me."
Kurt shook his head sadly, "Why must they hate us because we're different?"
"Because it's human nature to hate what they don't understand. So we must teach them to understand us." Said Kyle, as he walked up, "Not with fists or violence, but with kindness."
"Who are you?" Asked Alex, not liking this guy cutting into the conversation.
Lance spoke up. "Kyle Trevais, and try to hit him, and your likely to end up with your fist somewhere around the bottom of your shoulder blades."
Before Alex could say anymore, Scott came out of the dorm wing.
"Alex?! You're here!" With that, the two Summer's brothers hugged, neither slightly abashed.
"Well, that's sweet." Said one of the other two newbies, his voice melodic, but slightly condescending. Kitty turned to look at him. He had a fairly handsome face, an average build, and black hair, which had been cut short. However, his jacket seemed to fit poorly, and he had a set of bandages wrapped around his chest, which offset his looks.
"They, like, haven't seen each other for, like, a year!" Said Kitty.
The boy turned to look at her, and, after looking her dead in the eye for several long, tense seconds, shook his head slowly, and leaned against the wall.
Professor Xavier rolled into the room, to find the Summer's catching up with each other, and the rest of his students milling around the room. As he opened his mouth to speak, Sam landed in his usual method, with a loud crash. Luckily, the cement was only cracked, and he had shielded Rahne with his body. When he stood up and entered the room, the boy with the bandages was laughing slightly. The X-Men quickly took in the scratches and bite marks on Sam's arms.
"Rahne wasn' in th' mood ta talk."
The rest nodded, knowing what her teeth could do. Professor Xavier cleared his throat.
"I take it you have noticed that you have some new class-mates as of today. I would like you to meet Jonothan Starsmore." He motioned to the boy with the bandages, "Paige Guthrie," he motioned to Cannonball's younger sister, "Alex Masters for those of you who don't know him." He motioned to the younger of the Summers' brothers, "And Lorna Dane." He motioned to the fourth newbie, a girl who had been quiet for the most part. She was about Kitty's height with a slightly heavier build. Her hair was striped green and black, and fell haphazardly, the longest locks brushing her eyebrows on the front of her face. Her face was rounded slightly, giving her a child-like look, but still giving the impression of being well into her teenage years.
"I would like each of you to tell the rest of the X-Men your powers. And yes, Alex, you will have to as well, as not everyone her was involved in the Asteroid M events."
Alex nodded, and took a deep breath, "Well, my power lets me shoot energy from my hands, like Scott. Except I can control it."
Kyle chuckled, "That has to be a blessing, imagine having to wear ruby quartz gloves." Even Rogue had to laugh at the image.
"That would make it really hard to surf." Said Alex, in between laughs.
Finally, when the laughter died down, Jonothan was next to speak.
"My mutation converts matter to psionic energy. More specifically, it converts me..." He then, much to everyone's surprise, he unwrapped the bandages slightly, and, from behind them, came pouring a glowing maelstrom of orange energy. The students gapped for a second, then Jonothan continued, "Every time I push my mutation too far, too fast, it consumes more of my body."
Sensei spoke up from the doorway, "Then you will just have to push your limits slowly, so that it has no reason to consume the rest of you."
While Jonothan began turning that thought over in his mind, Lorna next spoke up.
"My power is the ability to control magnetic fields."
At this pronouncement, the occupants of the room began to collectively glare at Lorna.
"What's wrong?" She said, slightly fearful that she had, in some way, offended them.
Professor Xavier spoke to the students in general. "She has nothing to do with Magneto, and she is, point in fact, not him. She has done nothing to earn you hostility, and I suggest you all calm yourselves."
He then turned to Lorna, and said, "You have done nothing wrong. Their greatest foe has the same mutation you do, except he is much more powerful."
Lorna nodded, "I understand."
Paige was rather quiet, something that had Sam worried, "Paige, what's wrong?"
She looked at her older brother and shook her head, "Nothing."
She then stood up, and said, "The easiest way to tell you my mutation is to show you."
Kyle sighed, "That may be the easiest way, but the easy way is not always the best."
She turned to look at him, "Why not?"
"Because," began Kyle, as he reached up to his face, and removed his sunglasses, revealing his pupil-less eyes, "not all of us can see demonstrations."
Paige's eyes widened slightly, "Oh... I didn't know."
Kyle smiled at the girl, "That's alright,"
Paige then looked at her feet. In a quiet voice, she began to speak. "My mutation let's me take the layer of skin on top, and shed it like a snakes. When I do that, the layer underneath is a different material, like tree bark or iron. But doing so, kinda, destroy's what I'm wearing."
Jonothan chuckled, "So you end up butt naked."
A bellowed roar came ripping from Cannonball as he launched himself at the obnoxious boy. Reacting quickly, Colossus, who had been watching the gathering from next to the stairs, grabbed the angered teen by the waist. Beast grabbed him around the knees, holding him back. Cyclops grabbed his shoulders, hoping to apply a little bit of forward force. Jean reached over, and assisted her boyfriend in holding the highly agitated teen back.
Seeing that he was not needed to hold back his enraged friend, Kyle decided to deal with the other end of this. Walking over to Jonothan, his face was a totally blank mask.
"That, was uncalled for." He said, his tone totally flat.
The room froze. Kyle's voice was almost never flat, and when it was, Wolverine was the only person who was willing to piss him off any more.
"So what?" Said Jonothan, his voice indifferent.
"So, you could very well one day have to trust that young lady to save your life. Her mutation could one day be the thing that wins a battle, or prevents you from being killed. She does not need to be insulted and put down because of its side effects. Almost all of the mutations in this institute have some side effect or another, and commenting on them will quickly make you a very lonely young man. Rahne's actions earlier were a side effect of being able to become a wolf, she has a personality very similar to one."
Jonothan's eyes watched the young man in front of him, and simply shook his head, "Whatever."
Kyle's eyes narrowed, and, with visible effort, he turned from the young man. Turning towards Sensei, he bowed, and then left in the direction of the gym.
The four new recruits were shown to their rooms, and the day went on as normally as possible.
(AN: LET THE FLUFF BEGIN: Rahm.)
Later that day, about an hour after lunch, Sam found Rahne sitting on a hill on the grounds, legs curled up to her chest. Sitting down next to her, he smiled at her, "Waht's wrong?"
Rahne didn't bother to look up, "I was so jealoos o' ye' and Paige, dat I didn't think ta' question who shae was."
Sam realized quickly that she still felt guilty about earlier that day. Shaking his head, he stood up, sat behind his friend, and put his arms around her.
"Look, ya'll didn' know she was my sistah. Heck, the othahs thought Ah had been leadin' ya'll on. Remembah, ya paht wolf, lahke Kyle said. I shauld a done th's a long tahme ago."
Rahne turned to look at her boyfriend, a question forming on her lips. A question Sam quickly killed at birth with a kiss to said lips. Rahne moaned slightly into Sam's lips, and pressed against them.
Pulling away, Sam smiled at Rahne. "Next chahnce we get, wauld ya'll lahke ta go ta de movies?"
Rahne smiled, "Only iffen ye' kiss me like that agaein."
Sam smiled, "With pleasure." And he did so, with much gusto.
From a distance, Paige watched her elder brother, and smiled.
