"What are you doing here?!" Lance wasn't sure, but he was pretty certain that behind the red glasses, Scott Summers was glaring in an attempt to kill by will alone.
The two groups of mutant teens stood across from each other, each lining a side of the hallway. The tension in the air was almost a physical presence, and the human teachers and students kept casting nervous glances at them. "Same reason you are, Summers." Lance shot back. "Turns out that school isn't the drag we thought it was."
The X-Men looked doubtful. "So you're saying you've all seen the light and are on the straight and narrow?" Rogue snorted. "Like we belive that."
"Look," Lance snarled, "we're not here for trouble. We're here for class. You've got a mind-reader," he pointed at Jean, "you figure it out. There's no way we're gonna get tossed out of here again. And not on the first day back."
The bell for first period sounded, sending students scrambling to make it to class before the second bell. "Well,there'sthebell,catchyoulatter." Pietro cut in, grabbing Wanda by the arm and dragging her off to their first class. The X-Men watched as the Brotherhood broke off to go to their various classes.
"What do you think, fearless leader?" Kurt asked as Scott's hands clenched into fists.
"We can't do anything." he answered, "They haven't done anything... yet. Everyone, keep an eye out for anything today."
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!
Xavier looked up from his book. The phone on the nearby table was ringing for the third time that day. He sighed. If this was another collect prank call from Tijajuana...
Meanwhile... In Tijajuana...
"Pick up the damn phone, you fucking telepath!" Mystique hissed under her breath.
Finally, last period. Scott walked into the art room where the art history class was held.
"Yo, Summers!" Scott's blood froze. He slowly looked over to the far side of the room to see Todd sitting at one of the desks near a window. Or more accurately he was lounging as he was slumped down in the seat, legs stretched out in front of him.
Scott looked shocked. "You're in this class?"
Todd pulled himself up in the seat and leaned forward over the desk. "Yeah. I'm into art and all that, yo. Diddn't know you were too."
Scratching his head, Scott looked somewhat confused. "Actually, I'm just here for the fine art credit."
Todd snorted and slumped back in his seat. "Philistine."
"Do you actually know what that word means?"
Todd cleared his throat. "Philistine: As a noun, a person who is generally from the middle-class who shows ignorance or antagonism towards the arts or of a particular subject."
"Ah..." Scott really wasn't sure what to say, so he just found a seat and sat down.
"Yeah, you just sit down, Summers." he heard Todd snicker from across the room. "I'll just sit here and bask in the glory of the great masters." He opened his textbook and started reading. "Ahhh, Hiroshige. The West truely does not understand your genius."
Scott shook his head. This was going to be a surreal class.
"Can you belive that guy is in culinary arts class?" The four girls sat a short distance away from Freddy as the class worked on baking oatmeal rasin cookies.
"Yeah, but he bakes cookies like no one's business!" another girl replied, munching on a cookie that was still warm from the oven.
"He's one of those mutants, isn't he?" a third girl asked. The second one nodded.
"Hangs out with Tolensky, Alvers and Maximoff."
"Hard to belive he's really the kinda guy who bakes cookies." the first girl said, still somewhat dumbstruck.
"Did it hurt?"
Wanda looked over at the blond-haired jock in a letterman's jacket sitting next to her in her journalism class. "What?
"Did it hurt when you fell from Heaven, 'cause there's an angel running loose down here."
"Is this some sort of lame attempt to flirt with me?" she asked, her eyes narrowing.
"Duncan Mathews doesn't 'attempt.'" he replied, flashing a smile.
Wanda cupped her chin in her hand and leaned on her elbow. "So you just always fail?"
"Feisty. I like that." Duncan sat down next to Wanda as she just rolled her eyes. She'd heard of Duncan Mathews from other members of the Brotherhood and had a pretty good idea of what to expect. She didn't think he'd normally hit on someone like her, but of course he didn't know that she was a mutant, Pietro's sister, or that she was a goth girl who just happened to be wearing plain denim jeans and a white turtleneck. "So, what will it be? Dinner and a movie or just straight to Makeout Point?"
"You know," Wanda leaned back, "I didn't think it was possible to actually be more annoying than Todd."
"Todd?" Duncan looked confused, then a look of dawning comprehension crossed his face. "Todd Toad Tolensky?"
"Ah, you know him." Wanda smirked and turned back to her book.
"And you're comparing me to him?"
"I guess I really shouldn't." Wanda paused, looking up from her book for just a moment. "I mean, he's not a pretentious, self-important egotist."
"Woah, don't tell me the two of you..?"
Wanda shot Duncan a glare to kill. "No. But I would say that he's got a better shot that you do."
"Man, first day of gym and they've already got us running laps." Lance groaned as he flopped back down on the bleachers after he and Pietro came out of the boy's locker room, where they had just come from changing out of their gym gear and collecting their backpacks. Pietro just mumbled something in reply as he sat down next to him. "What did you say?" Lance asked.
Pietro looked over at Lance. "I said, 'You've got it easy'."
"Easy?" Lance huffed, "You're the one who does all the running. This should be a piece of cake for you."
"Except I'm not allowed to use my powers." Pietro replied, "Which means that I've had to deliberately slow down all period. Do you have any idea how hard that is?"
"So what, you been jogging or something?"
Pietro shook his head. "That's still too fast. You know that stage that's too slow to be a jog but defenitly not a walk?" Lance nodded. "And you know how it's probably the speed that tires you out the fastest?" Lance nodded again. "That's what I've been having to do all period." Lance winced a little. Now that he looked at Pietro, the white-haired teen did look more tired than normal. Pietro sighed. "Well, I guess it'll help build up endurance or something, but I tell you, I can't wait for winter so we'll be doing something that involves less running. Vollyball or something."
Lance looked across the gym. Evan and Kitty were talking as the two headed towards the locker rooms. They had just come in off the track after finishing the mile run-walk that was the day's 'assignment.' When Lance and Pietro had been on the track, the two pairs had taken care to stay on opposite sides of the track in an amazing show of self-restraint on both Evan's and Pietro's part to keep from letting their rivalry surface. As he looked across the gym, Kitty looked over and caught his gaze. She shot him a look and quickly turned away.
Lance frowned, he didn't see what her problem was. It wasn't as if the Brotherhood had been causing the X-Men any problems since last April at the school board meeting. And before that they had actually worked together against the Sentinels and Juggernaut. The Acolytes and various anti-mutant groups had been the biggest pains in their X-butts for the past couple of months. She was probably still pissed about the incident at the Gut Bomb. Lance grinned, that had been funny. The smile dissapeared just as quickly as the two X-Men came over to the bleachers.
"Not very fast today, are you Pietro." Evan taunted. Pietro glared at him, but was too tired to make any sort of retort.
"Get lost, Daniels." Lance growled. "We're not looking for trouble."
"For once." Kitty didn't look totally conviced.
"Hey, watch it kitty-kat. Just because we're not all sugar coated like you doesn't mean we want to start something."
"Sorry if we find that a little hard to swallow." Evan took a step towards the two Brotherhood mutants, but before Lance could do anything in response, Pietro got between the two of them.
"Let's go, Lance." he grabbed Lance's shoulder and turned him in the direction of the auditorium where they had planned to meet the other Brotherhood members. "We're this close to making it through the first day, and I want to make sure Wanda's classes went smoothly." With one last look over his shoulder at the X-Men, Pietro pulled Lance towards the doors to the halls.
Lance pulled his shoulder away. "What's eating you, Pietro?" Lance asked, "That actually hurt."
"Sorry." Pietro said quietly as they reached the auditorium. Leaning up against the wall, the speedster let himself slump down to the floor. Lance looked down at Pietro and started to grow concerned. Pietro's normally pale skin had nearly gone white and he was sweating as he wrapped his arms around himself in what looked like an effort to keep warm. "Lance, do you think you could see if the cafeteria has any vegetables or cheese or something?"
Kneeling down next to Pietro, Lance looked at Pietro's face and saw that Pietro's eyes were glazed and rather unfocused. "You alright, Pietro?"
"Not really." Pietro laughed weakly. "I'm kinda crashing, I think.
"Do you want a soda or anything?"
"No, sugar right now is a bad thing." Pietro replied. "I forgot all about it." He shook his head, looking a little dizzy.
"Forgot what?"
"You know all that sugar I eat?" Lance nodded. The ammount of sugar that Pietro consumed on a daily bais was enough to send most people on a sugar high that would last days. "Well, normally it doesn't do anything to me because I just run it all off. But I've been slowing down all day and I didn't bother adjusting my sugar intake."
Lance wasn't quite getting what Pietro was saying.
"If I don't readjust my sugar intake, I get kinda hypoglycemic. I just need to get something in my system without sugar in it."
"Ah, okay. Gotcha." Lance stood up. "Freddy had his cooking class last period. He might still be in the room and I'll bet they've got something. I'll be back in a few minutes." Quickly turning, he rushed off to the room where Freddy hopefully still was.
Thankfully, Freddy hadn't been in any hurry to leave class. He was good in the kitchen and had honestly been enjoying the lesson. He was chatting with the teacher when he saw Lance rush through the door. "Hey, Lance. What's up?"
"Freddy, I need your help. Pietro's gone hypogly... shoot... Well, he's crashing and he needs something without sugar to eat. He's looking pretty bad."
"Hypoglycemic?" The teacher ventured. Lance nodded.
"Yeah, that's it!"
The teacher quickly walked over to a large fridge that held supplies for class. She pulled out a bag of carrots and tossed them to Lance. "Make sure he eats all of those." she instructed, "And he should probably see a doctor."
"Thanks!" Lance said as he turned towards the door. "Come on Freddy. I'm probably gonna need your help to get him to the car."
"Right behind you." Freddy replied as he headed out the door behind Lance.
The two quickly made their way through the halls and by the time they reached the auditorium they found Wanda kneeling next to Pietro. "Hey, Pietro," Lance tore open the bag of carrots and gave one to Pietro, who slowly started munching on it.
"Thanks, guys." he said quietly. "Guess I'm just gonna have to carry something around with me for after gym." Pietro made another attempt to laugh, but Wanda gave him a gentle hug and quieted him down.
"Shut up you and eat your veggies."
"Gotcha."
"Hey, what's going on, yo?" Todd slowly walked up to the others.
"Aw, Pietro just forgot that he needed to eat his veggies after gym class and... WHOA! Todd, what in the hell happened to you?" Lance exclaimed, seeing a nice new shiner over Todd's left eye.
Todd anxiously rubbed his toe against the tile floor. "Mathews." he mumbled.
"Tell me you weren't being sticky-fingered again."
Todd looked indignant. "No way, yo! I donno what I did. I was just coming out of last period and then Mathews had some sort of overwhelming desire to re-introduce his fist to my face."
Wanda groaned and rolled her eyes. "Oh gawd... Figures he'd do something idiotic like that."
The Brotherhood looked at Wanda, confused. "How do you know him, Wanda? You couldn't have met him before today." Freddy pointed out.
"The jerk is in my journalism class. He was hitting on me today."
"What?" Todd and Pietro hissed in unison.
"I brushed him off." She sighed. "I told him that I thought he was a hell of a lot more pathetic than Todd. I guess he really took that as an insult."
"He was hittin' on you?" Todd asked, more upset about that than the black eye.
"I'm gonna kill him." Pietro's fists clenched.
"Oh no you're not." Todd cut in. "I wanna do it!"
"I'll settle this, neither of you are gonna kill him." Wanda snapped. "Anyway, I have a better idea."
"We're home!" Wanda called as she opened the door to the Brotherhood's house. From the living room there was the sound of Mortimer working on something. Peeking in, they saw the television spread across the floor and Mortimer hunched over a spread of pieces. He gave the teens a wave without looking up. "Um, Mort, could we talk to you for a sec?"
"Sure." Mortimer looked up but froze when he saw the black eye that was standing out quite well against Todd's pale skin. His left eye had nearly swollen shut and bits of were turning an unhealthy shade of green. "What happened?" He asked, his voice low and sounding very dangerous.
"Well, there's this guy at school..."
Duncan Mathews walked past the back of the gym after the first day of preconditioning for the upcoming football season. His car was parked in the far lot, further from the school and a little out of the way, but fewer underclassmen drove around there and it was closer to the field anyway.
At first he didn't notice the dark figure in the shadows.
At least not until the figure grabbed him by the shoulder. "H... Hey! What's the big idea?!" Duncan exclaimed as he tried to spin around. He tried to break free of the stranger's hold, but he was held in an iron grip that refused to let go.
"Big man picking on people littler than you." The voice from under the stranger's hood was enough to make Duncan's blood run cold.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Duncon whined.
"Bullocks." the figure hissed. "Just keep this in mind, mate: Be careful about picking on people who can't fight back. That sort of thing has nasty way of coming back to kick you in the arse." And with that, the figure roughly shoved Duncan aside as he dissapeared back into the shadows.
"Aw man, I can't believe you did that, yo!"
"Don't worry. It's the only time I'm going to." Mortimer replied as Todd hopped from one foot to the other. "Fighting your battles isn't going to do you any good, and frankly I have better things to do with my time. But," Mortimer smirked, "it was a laugh seeing that little git shit his pants."
Todd crossed his arms over his chest. "So then why'd you go and rough him up? I don't need everyone to act like I can't take care of myself. Just because I'm the youngest don't mean that I'm a little kid."
Mortimer looked up from the engine of Lance's Jeep. "I know that, mate. But the thing is, we don't need that Mathew's kid causing us any trouble. I know his type. He'll just keep at you until you loose your temper and then you'd be out of school without a second chance. You could kill him, you know."
"Kill him? No way, yo." Todd snorted.
"Don't think so?" Mortimer replied, "Just think about it. You can jump huge distances, right?" Todd nodded. "Think about how much strength has to be in your legs in order to do that. I can put my foot through a wall if I want to. A human chest or limb is a lot weaker than that. One good kick could cripple or kill him."
Todd looked skeptical. "You're not kidding me about that?"
Setting down the wrench he was holding, Mortimer walked over to the old washing machine that had given up the ghost the previous night when the internal mechanism had decided to burst into flames. He stretched out his right leg a little and then slammed his foot into the side, managing to go right through. After carefully pulling his leg out, he turned to Todd. "Convinced?" Todd just noded.
"You ever... take anyone out that way?"
"No." Mortimer shook his head, then he grinned. "Knocked an X-Man down an elevator shaft though. That was fun."
"Yeah?" Todd laughed and hopped back over to the Jeep. "Which one?"
"Storm." Mortimer replied. "Knocked her right down. 'Course she survived. I think those X-Men are blasted near invunerable." He flexed his hands unconciously. "Bloody hell," he growled as he turned back to the Jeep, "Lance needs a lesson in basic auto care. Here, mate." Mortimer pulled off his sweatshirt and t-shirt, tossing them to Todd. "Only shirt I've got right now. Not a good idea to get covered in grease."
Leaning over the engine, Todd watched Mortimer work on the engine, asking a question here and there. After a good half hour of tinkering, Mortimer had Todd hop into the driver's seat and turn on the engine. Once it was running, it purred like a cat and Mortimer stepped back and cleaned his hands off with a rag. "Boy, that sounds great!" Todd quipped as Mortimer closed the hood.
"Right that." Mortimer agreed. A moment later, a whistle came from down the road and both Toads looked over to see Mystique and Wanda returning from a trip into town. Mystique had a naughty smile on her face and Wanda looked rather embarrassed and was suddenly finding the road really interesting.
"Thanks for the view." Mystique called as she shifted from her 'Ms. Pearce' shape back into her template body. Wanda just quickly ran into the house.
"What's up with her?" Todd asked as he and Mortimer walked over to the porch.
"I think she's having trouble getting over the fact that someone named 'Toad' could have a six-pack." Mystique laughed as she slapped Mortimer lightly on the stomach. Mortimer just snorted and pulled his shirt back on.
"Don't see what's so weird about it. The kid just never had the right training."
"And on that note," Mystique raised a finger, "we need to talk about what sort of conditioning these kids need."
Todd looked curious. "What do you mean by that?"
Mystique smiled. "You didn't think we were just going to throw you out on a mission eventually with just a high school deploma to fight with, did you? We're going to make sure that each of you is prepared for anything you might encounter."
"Oh. That's cool." Todd replied as he hopped into the house.
"Were you that layed back as a kid?"
"Nope. Of course, the streets of London are a little more rough than the mean streets of Bayville."
"Okay, you want to explain again why you're strapping ten pound weights to Todd's arms and leggs?" Pietro asked as Mortimer finished fastening the weights on.
"Simple." Mystique answered. "It's an easy way to work on building muscle. It's the same way that Mortimer started his training. Todd just wears them during the day and when it gets to the point that he's used to the ten pound weights, we'll up the ammount. And speaking of which," she pulled out another box and tossed it to Pietro. "you get to do the same thing."
Todd snickered. "Hey, Pietro, twins!"
Pietro arched an eyebrow as Freddy, Lance and Wanda tried contain their laughter. With a sigh, he pulled the weights out and strapped them on. "Daniels is going to get a laugh out of this during gym class." he muttered under his breath.
Todd meanwhile, was testing the new weights. "Man, I can't lift my arms above my waist, yo." he whined.
"Then I guess it's a good thing we started this on a Friday." Mortimer grinned as he gave Todd a shove in the direction of the couch, which he fell into rather clumsily. "You got the whole weekend to get used to them. I'll give you a few minutes and then we'll see how you two do moving around in them."
Pietro lifted his legs. "This is... restricting."
"I don't expect you'll have to wear them for more than a few months." Mystique replied. "And once they're off we'll see if we can't shave a few seconds off your half-minute mile." Pietro looked a little unsure, but didn't say anything. He had put himself into the hands of Mystique and was going to follow through.
"Now come on, you two." Mortimer pulled Todd back up from the couch. "Let's see how well you two can handle forty extra pounds."
"I'm not gonna get off the ground." Todd said as he practically dragged his feet across the floor and made his way to the front yard. Mortimer just laughed as he gave Pietro a look.
"You too."
"Right behind you." Pietro answered. He still moved quickly, but there was a marked decrease in speed.
The others watched as the three exited the house. "So what's up for the rest of us?" Lance asked.
Mystique took her now usual place in the armchair. "I'm working on understanding the precise nature of each of your mutations. Once we understand that, we will be able to be able to decide the best course to take in each of your training. Now Wanda," Mystique gestured over to her, "seems to have recieved a good deal of training in regards to the control of her powers already."
Wanda nodded, "The other Mystique had a woman named Agatha come and help me for the first few weeks I was here."
"Then you probably require the least training in terms of your abilities. However, I would like to see how you fare in terms of some more conventional skills." Mystique looked thoughtful.
"What sort of skills?" Wanda asked, curious.
Mystique shrugged. "You know, the basic skills that any self-respecting mutant... 'activist' knows. Infiltration, computer cracking, that sort of thing." She smiled slightly, cocking her head slightly to the side. "Now as for the two of you," she looked over to the two remaining boys, "I think we'll have a little Q and A time to see if we can't better understand your mutations. Now, Lance, what is it exactly is it that you do with your mutation?"
Lance didn't even skip a beat before answering. "I cause earthquakes."
Leaning back in the chair, Mystique regarded him carefully. "And just how do you do that? Is it like Storm and her control of the weather? Do you have a conection with the earth?"
"I... I'm not sure." Lance admitted. "I've never really thought about it like that before."
Mystique smiled, but it was a gentle one. "Most mutants don't. That's why humans are able to treat us they way they do. We cannot do anything until each of us is able to use our powers to their full potential." She leaned forward again. "So let's think about it. Close you eyes and pretend you're about to use your abilities." Lance closed his eyes, somewhat self-conciously, and raised his hands a little like he would when he was about ready to cause a tremor. "Now, think about what you are about to do. I know when you normally use your powers you generally don't really think about the process, just the result, but try."
Taking a breath, Lance attempted to center on that spot in his head that always raged with pain when he used his powers and concentrated.
Meanwhile, Mortimer was putting Pietro and Todd through their paces with the forty pound weights strapped on. Pietro had still managed an impressive few laps around the house despite the weight, but when he finished he was breathing heavily. "And I gotta go to school with these things on?" he asked, tossing a pleading look at Mortimer, who just nodded in return. "Well, misery loved company, I guess." he huffed as he sat down next to Todd.
"Guess it's my turn, huh?" Todd asked.
"Yup, hop on down." Pietro replied.
Todd got up off the porch and walked over to Mortimer, still dragging his feet. ""Cor, that brings back memories." Mortimer laughed softly. "I remember shuffling around Magneto's lair for months before he let me take the weights off. I cursed him out every time I saw him for about two weeks."
Todd and Pietro looked at Mortimer as if he had just told them he had waltzed with lowland mountan gorillas infected with the ebola virus. "And you're still standing?" Todd stammered. "How come you're not a smear on the pavement, yo?"
"Honestly, I think I amused him." Mortimer leaned back against the Jeep and looked thoughtful for a moment. "I mean, come on. I was a sixteen year old kid, probably weighed 150 pounds soaking wet, and I was thowing every four letter word I knew and a few I was making up on the spot at someone who is probably one of the most powerful mutants on the face of the bloody planet. Now come on, Todd. Let's see how much of a hinderance those weights are going to..."
Suddenly, all three mutants were slammed to the ground, hit by something that was almost like a sonic boom but was silent and moving much slower. Pietro was the first to his knees and wiped the dirt off his face. "What the hell was that?" They raced inside as fast as they could, not sure what to expect. They found the others laying at various points in the living room, the furniture knocked over and Lance standing in the middle of the room with a dazed look on his face. After a few minutes of stunned silence, Mystique crawled up over the armchair with a wry grin on her face. "Well, I think that experiment went quite well."
"Experiment?" Mortimer sounded confused, "Mystique, luv, it looks like a bloody earthquake hit. What were you all doing in here?" He carefully made his way into the room, as Freddy helped Wanda to her feet and started to pick up furniture. Reaching Lance, Mortimer gently pushed him back onto the couch.
Todd followed Mortimer in and looked at Lance. "Hey, is he okay?"
Mystique nodded. "He should be fine. I think he just experianced his mutant ability with a little more intensity than he's used to. I have to admit though, I didn't think that having him focus so much would result in that surge."
"I thought he just made earthquakes." Pietro picked his way over to the couch. "That felt like a wave or something."
"I think we all misunderstood Lance's abilities a little, Lance included." Mystique replied.
Lance was finally coming out of his stupor. "Woah..." was all he could get out as he slowly shook his head, "That was intense..." Lance looked up and was shocked when he saw the state of the room. "What happened?"
"We thought we'd try redecorating while we waited for you to regain conciousness." Wanda replied dryly.
Mystique pulled herself up to her feet and walked over to the couch. "It would seem Lance, that your power is less earthquake specific and more of just a general seismic wave that we just might be able to work on focusing."
Lance looked around the room. "Yeah... But maybe we ought to do it outside next time."
"Lurking in the shadows isn't neccesary, Mystique." Xavier looked up from his book. Slowly swinging his wheelchair around to face the female figure that was concealed in the shadows. "You should know by now that sneaking up on me is near impossible. Come, have a seat." He gestured to a wingback chair that was nearby. Xavier saw Mystique's shoulders stiffen at the knowledge that she hadn't been all that sneaky after all, but she eventually made her way to the chair and sat down, a sour look on her face. "Now, what can I do for you?"
A flury of emotions ran across Mystique's face. Anger, trepidation, embarrassment about having to ask Charles Xavier of all people for help. "I need you to do something for me." she finally spat out, just trying to get the fowl taste of pleading words out of her mouth. Xavier mearly arched an eyebrow and leaned back into his chair, fingers pressing together. It wasn't often that Mystique humbled herself to the level of actually asking him for help. Generally she would try blackmail or hostage taking first.
"And what is it that you need me to do?"
"There's another shape-shifter in Bayville," Mystique started, "and currently she's masqurading as me in the Brotherhood."
A small smile played across Xavier's lips. "Another shape-shifter is impersonating you? Excuse me for a moment while I drink in the irony of that idea."
"I hate you." Mystique growled.
"I am quite aware of the fact." Xavier replied. "I am a telepath."
"I'm worried for them, Xavier. I don't know what that woman will do.
Xavier frowned. "Are you worried for them, or worried about what this shape-shifter will have them do?"
"What kind of question is that?" Mystique shot back, "I took those children in when no one else would. I gave them food, shelter and a reason to exist!"
Xavier just regarded her cooly, his poker face perfect. "They've returned to school, Mystique. All of them, Wanda included. And from what my students have told me, they are actualy doing well and showing great restraint in using their powers."
Mystique's fingers changed slightly into more claw-like apendiges as they dug into the arms of the chair. "But they're still in that house with that fucking psycopath who knocked me unconcious and sent me on a one-way flight to Tijajuana!"
Xavier's eyes got a little bigger. "Tijajuana?"
"Yes, Tijajuana." Mystique hissed. "I actually tried calling this blasted place, but I guess no one was here."
"Probably not." Xavier replied and to quickly wrap up the conversation, added, "If it will help, I will try and contact this other shape-shifter and see if I can't find out what she wants."
"I suppose it will have to do." Mystique reponded. She got up out of the chair, which by now had ten clawed lines in the arms, much to Xavier's dismay. As she turned to leave, she handed Xavier a slip of paper. "You can contact me here. And I do expect to be contacted soon."
Xavier was rather suprised to see Mystique leave via the main door, but didn't linger on the fact. No doubt that was how she had indeed come in. She had probably just shifted to look like one of his students or staff.
Jean, He sought out the mind of student best capable of the job he had in mind, I would like to talk to you for a few minutes. Please come to the library.
"What's this?" Mystique asked as Freddy handed her the envelope that Jean had given him that day during English class.
"Not sure." he answered honestly. "Jean just said it was from the Professor and that it was important for you to get it."
Mystique shifted a rather Wolverine-ish claw out from her arm, much to Freddy's amusement, and sliced open the envelope. Her golden eyes scanned over the contents for a moment and a smile slowly crossed her face. "Well, well, well. It seems as though your former so-called-leader has finally gotten back from her little vacation."
"Wot's this I hear?" Mortimer said as he hopped into the room, a habit he found he had been catching from Todd, "Did someone say that the bitch is back?" He grinned in Freddy's direction as the larger mutant suppressed a laugh.
Mystique nodded as she 'retracted' her 'claw.' "I did. And it would seem as though she has actually persuaded Professor Charles Xavier himself into interceeding in her little cause. He wants to meet with me and talk about 'things.'"
"Is that so?" Mortimer stood up and leaned against the door jam. "So what's the plan going to be?"
Mystique shrugged and returned the letter to the envelope. "I'm going to meet him. Xavier is a man who prefers to have all sides of any issue before he does anything. Freddy, do you have some paper and a pen in that backpack of yours?"
"Sure," Freddy pulled out the requested items out of his pack. "What you need them for?"
"It certainly wouldn't do to have the good professor waiting, Freddy. It's just good manners." Mystique gave him her best Donna Reed smile. Taking the pen and paper, she quickly scribbled a reply down and handed the completed note to Freddy. "Take this to school with you tomorrow and make sure one of Xavier's students gets it back to him." Freddy nodded and shoved the note into his culinary arts book where he would be sure to remember it.
"Going into the lion's den?" Mortimer asked.
Mystique shook her head. "I don't think any of us need to be near that Institute for a while yet. A nutral location, just a small cafe downtown" She sat down in her chair. "This will be interesting, Mortimer." She smiled up at him. "Let's make a good first impression."