Disclaimer: Same thing as last chapter. For those of you too lazy to check, I don't own any X-men but do own Jon.

Chapter 4

            The viewing area was completely quiet. No one could manage to say anything. There was no way Jon should have been disintegrated. Bobby had set the lasers on low power. After another moment Kitty started to cry. Kurt tried his best to comfort her as Bobby, who for once in his life was feeling completely responsible for something, frantically tried to figure out what went wrong. Amara was continuing to stare down at where Jon had been seconds ago when something caught her eye. She turned but she only saw the robots.

Out of no where Jon jumped up and grabbed the gun out of the farthest back robot's hands and shot the robot. The rest of the group turned and started firing at Jon. Jon ran over to the wall and disappeared.

"Hey guys! Jon's not dead!" Amara exclaimed.

Everyone rushed back over to the glass and started talking to each other trying to figure out what had happened.

"Where is he Amara?" Kitty asked frantically.

"He disappeared when he got to that wall over there," she replied pointing.

Suddenly lasers started being shot from the wall. None of them got anywhere close to hitting anything.

"Man," Sam commented, "Jon may be a good fighter but he's certainly no marksman."

The tank turned and fired. Jon jumped from the wall and disappeared against the ground. He showed up again behind the tank. He climbed up on top of it and threw the commander and the driver out. He hopped into the tank and aimed the cannon point blank at the enemy force. The robots looked at each other and threw their hands up in the air in surrender.

Jon jumped out of the tank and looked up at the glassed area. Looking down at him was a very unhappy looking Kitty and a not so happy looking Xavier. Jon gave a weak wave accompanied by an uneasy smile.

I sure hope I didn't just blow it, Jon thought to himself as he prepared to face whatever greeted him.

"I'm a bit unsure of what to say Jonathan," The Professor began as he wheeled himself behind his desk in his study. He folded his hands under his chin thoughtfully. "Jonathan, as I've told other students we have rules for a reason. One such rule is that students aren't allowed to use the danger room without an instructor present. I don't think that I could expect you to know any better but I did think that you would know better Bobby," The Professor said turning towards the younger boy. "As a result I have decided to place you under probation. You should remember how that works from the Kurt/Tabitha incident." Bobby's shoulders slumped and he hung his head.

"Wait Professor," Jon spoke up. "It wasn't his fault. He was just showing me around. I asked him what the danger room was for and he said it was a training area. I wanted to take it for a test run but he said we needed Logan with us. Obviously I didn't want to go get him, ya know because of earlier, so we moved on. A few moments later we ran into Sam and while Bobby and Sam were talking I snuck off. When I got to the danger room I hacked in and locked everyone out. Bobby had been trying to stop it, right Bobby?"

Bobby looked at Jon for a second then realized what he was doing. "Uh, yeah yeah right. I was trying to get in."

"I'm really sorry Professor; I'll never do it again," Jon promised.

The Professor thought for a long moment then straightened his position in his chair. "Alright, Bobby you are free to go. You have been taken off probation." Bobby left without a word leaving Jon alone with the Professor. The Professor looked long and hard at Jon. At long last he spoke up. "Jon, you have yet to cease to amaze me. It took Scott three months to achieve a score like that and you managed to beat it on your first go. There is no way anyone who comes to this institute should be able to beat that score on their first day. But somehow you managed to do it. Jonathan, I heard someone mention that you picked up one of the robots. Those robots weigh over three hundred pounds. That is not a natural born ability, especially according to your build. I saw you disappear which isn't something I would expect from a normal person. Not only that but I noticed that despite the fact that you were shot at by multiple robots with the ability to shoot a moving target from 100 yards away with 100 percent accuracy you seem to remain unharmed. I want you to be truthful with me Jon, how many powers do you have?"

Jon leaned back against the wall but immediately winced and stood back up. "I have one power," Jon said.

The Professor looked at Jon waiting for him to continue. If Jon was telling the truth then the one power had to be to turn invisible. That's the only thing that could not be achieved in anyway, but at the same time Jon still didn't seem to be strong enough to lift up a robot or have quick enough reflexes to dodge the lasers.

Seeing that Xavier really wanted to know Jon told him, "I have the power to change my colors."

"How about you give me a little demo?" Charles asked after a moment.

"Fine," Jon said not sounding like he really felt like it.

Instantly Jon started changing colors. For a second his face was orange, his hair purple, his eyes completely green, his feet blue, his legs yellow, and his abdomen and arms red. Then everything switched colors. They continue to change till they changed so quickly from one color to the next that the Professor couldn't even keep up with the changes.

The whole time Jon didn't seem to be doing anything: he just sat there looking like he was totally bored. The Professor was amazed at how easily he manipulated his powers. Of course he had had his powers since he was little so he should have a pretty good grasp on his powers but this was just ridiculous.

Suddenly the whole entire room went disco. The ceiling divided itself into several parts which each changed their colors every other second. The books on the bookshelf against the wall rotated colors going up and down the colors of the rainbow. Even the Professor's wheelchair started to change colors.

It was now that Jon started to concentrate. He seemed to be trying to stare at the space in front of him as hard as he could. The professor was beyond amazement now. Even if he had Jon's powers he figured that it would be incredibly hard to use it at the pace Jon was. There was no way that a person could naturally be able to thing that fast and keep that many trains of thought.

Suddenly everything stopped changing colors except the ceiling and an empty wall. A star appeared on the wall and started to move around leaving a sparkling line. In the end it spelled out "And Now for the Grand Finally!!" The words faded away and the wall turned a dark hue of blue. Trees appeared which swooshed around in the breeze on the wall. The floor turned into such realistic grass even though it was just an illusion. Several small red things ran up the wall and seemed to continue going. The roof seemed to not even be there. The Professor had been so caught up with everything that had been going on that he didn't notice Jon close the windows and turn out all the lights but a small desk light. Now in the dim light from the single lamp the Professor watched as stars appeared where he had thought the roof had been. A fire works show was put on before him and he even started to hear the sounds of the fire works. He turned towards Jon who was watching the display. Jon seemed to be the source of the sound but the Professor couldn't figure out how he was producing it.

The Professor turned back to the show and watched it with enjoyment. How Jon was doing it, the Professor didn't know, he would just enjoy it. It looked a couple minutes more until the door was opened by Scott. The illusion instantly disappeared leaving the Professor in stunned silence.

"Yes Scott?" the professor said as he snapped out of his stupor.

"I was just wondering if I could talk to you about." An 'ahem' from the corner cut him off. He turned to see Jon standing there. "Oh, its you." Scott addressed Jon with a little a little bit of contempt in his voice.

"Look," Jonathan said, "If you have a problem with me then I expect you to take it up with me, alright?"

Scott turned from the door and faced Jon. "Fine! Here's my problem with you. You show up out of nowhere, act like you're some rookie and then you go and break my record that I worked on for months for on your first day. I want you to tell me where the heck you learned to fight like that."

Jon waited a moment to allow Scott to cool off before answering. "What can I say," Jon said quietly spreading his hands out, "`Worlds a harsh place. To survive you have to get stronger. Perhaps I've simply had a harder life than you. Of course there are also other reasons but I don't feel like discussing them right now. Maybe later. I'm sorry for breaking your record but hey, at least you have something to work towards now."

"Scott there is a little more that I have to talk to Jon about. So if you could please leave so that we could talk." Scott left leaving the Professor and Jon to finish sorting everything out. "I'm surprised that you handle that so well. Scott has gotten on some peoples nerves before and it didn't turn out so well. Do you have much leadership experience?"

Jon smiled a sly smile. "You could say that. But don't bother asking from where I got it, for now that's my secret."

The Professor knew that he wouldn't be able to get it out of him. He also knew that Jon knew that not knowing was killing the Professor and Jon was enjoying every second of it.

The Professor changed the subject back to how Jon would pay for his stay.

"I don't' particularly care. Just start giving me stuff to do. Oh yeah, and I'd settle with minimum wage."

The Professor gave a little smile, "Well, that didn't take long. Now all we have to do is get you into the school…"

"Don't worry about it. Give me a day or two to get back home then you figure it will probably take me another day after that to get some of my personal stuff together and the transfer papers. Then it's just another two days to get back here, so your looking at the most five days."

"I believe that I can cut that down by quite a bit. I could have Logan fly you there. If would only take a few hours."

Jon weighed his options in his mind. It would be much more convenient to take the jet than sneaking onto a cargo train. At the same time though, after his little rumble with Logan Jon didn't think that Logan liked him much. After a moment more of thought Jon decided to accept the offer.

"Oh, yes," The Professor said upon remembering something, "I could understand from your little speech with Scott that perhaps, despite your looks, you may have been forced to gain enough strength to lift one of those robots but I am still a bit confused on how you could have avoided getting hit."

Jon turned around and headed out the door. In a bitter voice he mumbled to the Professor, "Who said I wasn't hit." This only proved to leave Xavier a bit more confused. Jon didn't seem to be injured anywhere and the Professor would be surprised if Jon was somehow hiding his pain, an assault like that was not something someone could easily shrug off. Of course, this was Jon.

After setting it up with Logan, Jon decided to go to bed. As he was falling asleep his mind slipped towards the past…

***

            Jon was waling down an old street. Most of the houses looked like they had been around since colonial days and they seemed about ready to retire. Jon was about nine and it was his first time in this part of town. He spotted at a boy who appeared to be his age playing some kind of game on the street.

            Jon approached the boy cautiously; not because he was afraid of the boy but rather the grownups. He had played with other children before but the grownups always ended up grabbing the children's hand took them away. Jon always overheard them say something to the effect of 'Honey I don't want you playing with him, he looks like a thug.' Well, alright, Jon had never heard them actually say that directly but it was something along those lines.

            "Uh…hi," Jon greeted as he approached the boy.

            The boy glanced up at Jon, "Hey. I haven't seen you around here before, did you just move here?"

            Jon was amazed at how willingly the boy accepted him. He certainly wanted to keep the boy's acceptance so he decided to keep the truth from him. "Yeah, I just moved here from, uh, Louisiana."

            "Really?" The boy smirked in disbelief and raised an eyebrow.

            "Uh, yeah. Umm, whatcha playing?" Jon asked referring to the beat up bouncing ball and nails that were laid out in front of the boy.

            "Jacks, wanna play?"

            "I don't know how to play." Jon said slowly.

            The boy looked up at him suspiciously. "You're kidding." Jon shook his head. "Alright I'll teach you. Ready? You drop the ball and pick up a nail once you pick up all the nails you start over but this time you pick up two at a time then after that three at a time and so on and so forth until you reach 9. If you can do that you win."

            "Why is it called Jacks?"
            "Well, normally you use Jacks instead of nails but I don't have enough money for jacks so I just use these nails I found."

            "Oh, ok."

            "Go ahead, you can go first."
            The boy dropped the nails on the ground between the two of them. Jon sat down and was handed the ball. The boy watched as Jon dropped the ball and caught it on its' way up.

            "Here you go, your turn," Jon said with a smile handing he boy the ball.

            "Uh, you're supposed to pick up a nail when you bounce the ball," the boy said with a raised eyebrow.

            Jon continued smiling, "I did." He held up one of the small spikes. The boy snapped his head down and counted the nails on the ground.

            The boy smiled as he finished counting the rusty nails. He took the ball from Jon and thought to himself, Alright! Looks like I finally have a real challenge. Aloud he asked Jon, "By the way, what's your name?"

            "Jon."