Disclaimer: In case you didn't know, the only things in this story that I own are most of the new characters and the plot. Weren't you all in suspense after that exciting prologue. Probably not. Oh, well, if you don't like it, it's my problem. Or your problem. Well, it's a problem no matter who it belongs to. Anyway, expect a new chapter every week, unless I get caught up in some strange event or if I'm abducted by aliens. They won't be added on a specific day so expect random things to happen.
Bobby Drake woke up to the sound of music. He looked across the room to where the other bunks were. A boy with longish, blonde hair was sitting on the lower bunk. He was absorbed with the music that was blasting from his headphones. Bobby could distinctly make out the words '...pesticides for fumigation, high-performance lubrication, metal roofing, waterproofing, multi-purpose insulation, air compressors, brass connectors...'. He had heard enough.
"Ruben, shut that thing off!" moaned Bobby. The blonde boy known as Ruben looked up, confused.
"But, I'm not hungry," protested Ruben, "and besides, Mr. Kamon's waffles taste like mustard with pineapple."
Bobby gritted his teeth. He got out of bed and shut Ruben's Discman off.
"Hey," said Ruben, irritated, "I was listening to that."
"Precisely," remarked Bobby, "Why do you turn that up so loud?"
"It helps me strengthen my inner weirdness," replied Ruben.
"Hey, freaks, go back to sleep," grumbled Ray Crisp from above Bobby's bed.
"Dude, this waking up early thing is getting totally out of hand," agreed Allen Orris in his surfer accent.
"I'm going down to breakfast," Bobby declared, "I couldn't stay in here even if I wasn't hungry." He dressed and left the room. He thought about his roommate problem as he walked down the stairs. Ruben woke up early every morning to listen to "Weird Al" Yankovic turned up as high as it would go. He didn't mind the music so much, but having it played every morning at max volume got old after a while. His mind shifted to how it used to be. Ruben couldn't be any worse than having John Allerdyce bunk in your room. John had been just as annoying as Ruben was. John had recently left the institute and joined the Brotherhood.
"At least the room doesn't smell like smoke anymore," Bobby thought. He reached the large room in which they had their daily meals. He walked up to the counter where they served the food.
"Whatsit gonna be?" inquired Eugene Kamon, the cook, "come on, boy, I haven't got all day!"
"I'll have some eggs and bacon, please," said Bobby.
"There is no bacon!" scowled Mr. Kamon, "I didn't make any today!"
"What?" complained Bobby, "But..."
"What's the matter kid, you got wax in your ears?" snapped Mr. Kamon, "I said I didn't make any bacon today! You kids today just have to have everything you want on a silver platter!"
"Fine, I'll just have eggs," said Bobby, a little offended. Mr. Kamon piled the eggs onto his plate while mumbling something about respect. Bobby spotted his girlfriend Rogue across the room and walked towards her. Her name was actually Marie, but everyone called her Rogue.
"Hi," she said as Bobby approached her, "you look tired again today,"
"Ruben got up early to listen to his music again," muttered Bobby, "He can't hear a thing with his headphones on,"
The Meal Room started filling up rapidly. Bobby and Rogue were soon joined by Samuel Guthrie, Amara Aquilla, Shawn Kerr, Aaron Kerr, and to Bobby's slight annoyance Ruben Ryder. Bobby was about to say something to him when his eggs flew everywhere.
"Eggs nummy!" shouted the little ball of fur who was now sitting in the middle of Bobby's plate of eggs.
"Bear!" exclaimed Bobby as Ruben chuckled to himself, "get out of my eggs,"
The little furball shook himself, covering everyone with bits of eggs and laughed. Bobby picked him up and put him on the floor.
"Go ask the man with the long beard to give you your own eggs," said Bobby as he pointed to Mr. Kamon. Instead, the ball of hair waddled away towards a different table yelling, "Toast!"
Bobby looked back at his plate of eggs. It was covered in fur.
"Neat," Shawn smiled. Amara gave him a disgusted look. Bobby got up and threw his eggs away.
"Look at the time!" said Aaron nervously, "It's almost time for chemistry with Summers."
"Oh, yeah," said Ruben, "I've got physics."
"Too bad for you," remarked Shawn, "See you guys later,"
The twins left for chemistry. Sam walked away to go to his gym class. Amara followed Ruben toward their physics class.
"There's a lot of new kids this year," said Bobby.
"They're probably taking advantage of John's decision to join the Brotherhood," said Rogue seriously.
They started walking out of the Meal Room. They passed the table that Ray Crisp was sitting at. The hairball referred to as Bear was dripping with orange juice as he shook a piece of toast and a glass of milk. The milk splattered Ray's shirt.
"What a bummer, dude," muttered Allen Orris, who was sitting across from Ray.
"I'm gonna fry you!" shouted Ray as Bear jumped off the table, "Come back you stupid fuzzball!"
Bear just giggled and ran from the Meal Room, passing Bobby and Rogue as he went.
They continued to their history class. They entered and sat down in their seats.
"OK, class, you will all continue working on your timelines today," announced Ororo Munroe, also known as Storm, their history teacher. There was a knock on the door.
"Keep working, class," said Storm, as she moved towards the door. She opened it to find Professor Charles Xavier sitting in his wheelchair.
"What is it, Professor?" asked Storm.
"Magneto has recruited another mutant to the Brotherhood," said Xavier calmly.
"What are we going to do?" Storm looked worried.
"I have also tracked a few more mutants that Magneto could be targeting," continued Xavier, "First thing tomorrow, we will be going to find them."
"Shouldn't we start today?" questioned Storm.
"Magneto will be busy getting his new recruit settled," assured Xavier, "We'll have the rest of today to get ready."
Storm watched as he rode down the hall on his wheelchair. She wasn't sure if it was a good idea to wait a day before searching out the other mutants. The professor had said they could wait. She relaxed a little. She walked back into the room.
The day passed quickly and Bobby soon found himself saying goodnight to Rogue and walking to his room. He got into bed but didn't have the chance to close his eyes and go to sleep.
"Whoa, dude, who are you?!" exclaimed Allen from his bunk.
Bobby recognized the tiny voice of Bear.
"I is asweep," Bear explained and began to let out false snores.
Allen wasn't exactly the brightest guy around.
"Dude, there's a SWEEP on my pillow!"
Bobby rolled his eyes and flipped himself so that he was facing the wall. He hoped he wouldn't have to wake up to music the next day.
Unfortunately, Bobby woke up early anyway. Bobby listened closely. He couldn't hear any music. He sat up and looked over at Ruben's bunk. Ruben had obviously gotten up early again because his bed was empty. Bobby checked his clock and decided to go back to sleep.
Meanwhile, Ruben was walking around the halls with his headphones hanging around his neck. As always, they were blasting the parodies of Weird Al Yankovic. The halls were still extremely dark. This wasn't a problem for Ruben. People didn't call him Flash for nothing. Ruben's mutation allowed him to glow in the dark and also make exceptionally bright flashes of light. Ruben thought Flash was kind of a stupid name, but he couldn't think of a better one. Ruben continued down the hallway. A brown-haired boy suddenly appeared in front of one of the doors.
"Hello!" said Shawn Kerr softly. Ruben jumped.
"What are you doing out here?" Ruben asked.
"You're looking mighty suspicious yourself," Shawn said, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm just walking," whispered Ruben, "Where's Aaron?"
As if he was on cue, a small gecko crawled out from under the door and transformed into Shawn's twin, Aaron.
"Hello, Sunshine," he said to Ruben and then turned to Shawn, "We were right, Shawn, this is the lovers' suite."
"What are you guys talking about?" asked Ruben, confused.
"Not so loud, Light Bulb," whispered Aaron, "We don't want anyone to wake up and see us in action."
"Actually," explained Shawn, "there isn't going to be much action until they wake up."
"Let's hear the details, then," said Ruben quietly.
"Well," began Shawn, "the happy couple are asleep in their room..."
"Who's the 'happy couple'?" asked Ruben.
"I guess he's not as bright as he looks," remarked Aaron.
"Dr. Grey and Mr. Summers," said Shawn, "Where was I?"
"We've been watching this room all week," said Aaron, "We've found that Dr. Grey always gets up first."
"Oh, yeah," whispered Shawn, "Aaron has just conveniently finished putting together our little trap."
"We hung a bucket of Mr. Kamon's lasagna above Mr. Summers' bed," snickered Aaron.
"When Dr. Grey opens the door, the bucket will..." Shawn stopped to give a false sob, "... dump its saucy contents on Mr. Summers."
"Dr. Grey doesn't get out of it, though," continued Aaron, "We've set up a slingshot to fling a batch of sticky, old meatballs towards the doorway."
"And guess who's at the doorway," finished Shawn, "We're going to breakfast early to check out the results,"
A door nearby creaked open a little bit. Shawn disappeared and Aaron became a cockroach. Ruben couldn't do anything except to shut off his Discman. He stared at the partially open door, his eyes wide with horror. The door opened a little wider. Ruben saw four pairs of eyes staring at him. The eyes belonged to four girls. Ruben knew he had at least seen all four of them. He didn't know all their names though. He recognized Amara Aquilla among them. One girl had bright red hair. He remembered a few people who called her Siryn. He didn't know the last two at all. One was blonde and the other's red hair was slightly darker than Siryn's. Ruben felt like he had been their forever when they closed the door. Shawn reappeared and Aaron transformed back into himself.
"Dr. Grey will probably wake up soon," said Aaron hurriedly, "Let's get breakfast!"
They walked to the Meal Room, got their breakfast and sat down with Bobby and Rogue. A few minutes later Sam Guthrie sat down with them.
"Keep a good watch for teachers," hinted Shawn.
"Why?" asked Bobby.
"Don't be impatient, Frosty," said Aaron, "We don't want to give anything away yet."
Amara Aquilla sat down next to Rogue with her breakfast. The twins looked at each other.
"What were you doing by Dr. Grey and Mr. Summers' room, Ruben?" Amara asked.
"Don't give him all the credit!" interrupted Aaron.
"Yeah, he just showed up while we were working," protested Shawn.
"It's true," said Ruben, "They were doing the dirty work."
"What dirty work?" asked Rogue suspiciously. Rogue didn't get an explanation because Jean Grey walked into the Meal Room.
"Just act casual," said Shawn quickly.
As Jean passed their table, Shawn snorted with laughter and Aaron pretended to drop his fork so that he could laugh under the table. Ruben chuckled. The humor didn't kick in for the rest of them until the situation sank in. Jean walked up to Mr. Kamon's counter. The whole Meal Room could now see the meatballs fixed to the back of Jean's shirt. She didn't seem to notice the laughter around her. She got her breakfast and walked back towards the exit to the Meal Room.
"Hey, Dr. Grey, where's Mr. Summers?" asked Aaron innocently.
"He said something about washing his hair when I left," Jean said.
As soon as she was out of earshot, the twins burst out laughing.
"What's this bit about Mr. Summers?" asked Sam.
"Let's just say he had breakfast in bed," said Shawn.
After breakfast, an announcement was made.
"There will be no classes today," declared Storm, "Keep yourselves occupied but don't leave the grounds."
"Perfect," Shawn said enthusiastically, "We can go work on our next prank,"
"See you guys later," called Aaron as the twins walked off.
Kitty Pryde, Kurt Wagner, Louis Shultz, and a girl that none of them knew walked towards the rest of them. Ruben recognized her as the red-haired girl who was among the four girls who saw him in the hallway.
"Hi, guys!" greeted Kitty cheerfully, "it's, like, totally great that we don't have classes today!"
"I don't think I know all of you," said Bobby.
"Well, this is Kurt Wagner," Kitty said sarcastically.
"I know who he is," said Bobby.
"This is Louis Shultz," Kitty continued, "some people call him Redwood."
"What's that mean?" asked Sam.
Louis smiled. "Watch," he said. Everyone watched as a large flower grew out of the top of his head.
"It's pretty," said Amara.
"You can grow flowers on your head?" asked Ruben, who thought it was kind of pathetic.
"Let me explain," said Louis, "I can transform into any type of plant."
"OK, that makes more sense," said Ruben.
"And this is...," Kitty began.
"That's Sarah Weidman," interrupted Amara Aquilla.
"Hi, I'm Ruben!" Ruben blurted, "That's Bobby, Rogue, Sam, and I guess you already know Amara."
"Hi," Sarah said shyly.
"Why don't we go find something to do?" Bobby suggested.
They all decided to go to the Danger Room. They were almost there when Sam turned the corner and walked into Evan Daniels. Everyone stopped. Evan wasn't the only one in the hallway. Standing behind him were eight more people. Ray Crisp had been talking to Evan at the time. Allen Orris had been discussing surfing tips to a tall boy with long, curly hair and a tough-looking guy whose hair had been turned into little spikes that formed a line through the middle of his head. Nearby, a small huddle of people, containing Roberto Da Costa, Rahne Sinclair, Jubilation Lee (Jubilee), Travis Cooper, and Melanie Seaton, were chatting about nothing in particular.
"Hey, watch where you're going, Cannonball," said Evan angrily.
"Sorry," Sam attempted to apologize, "I couldn't see you around the corner."
"Why are you guys walking around here anyway," asked Ray.
"We were going to the Danger Room," explained Bobby.
"Don't bother," said Travis, "It's closed. The teachers probably didn't want us messing it up while they were gone."
"You mean they're not here?" asked Kurt in surprise.
"What else would it mean?" Ray scowled.
"Why did they leave?" asked Rogue.
"I heard them talking about finding a mutant," said Travis, "That's why we don't have classes today."
"They should have let us come," muttered Bobby.
"Dude," said Allen obviously, "If they wanted us to come they would have asked."
"I think he probably knows that," Roberto responded to Allen's rather stupid comment.
"Dude, are you saying I'm stupid?" challenged Allen.
"Do you want to settle this outside?" Roberto shot back.
Ruben chuckled, "You know you only want to fight outside because you're solar-powered."
"Ruben, don't make it worse," Rogue started.
"I think he's got a point," Ray joined in, "Why can't you settle this inside?"
Roberto had reached his limit. He jumped on top of Ray and they both fell to the floor. Ray, who could use his power inside, shot a bolt of electricity into Roberto. Roberto rolled over backward. Suddenly, Rahne's red hair began to spread and she bent down on her hands and knees. Ray looked up but he wasn't quick enough. Rahne had transformed into a large, red wolf. She leaped and tackled Ray to the ground.
Ray's hands began to glow blue again. Before he could electrocute Rahne, Kurt appeared over top of her. He quickly took hold of her and they both disappeared with a noise that sounded like 'Bamf.' They reappeared behind Allen. Ray was furious. He got up and turned to face Allen. As if it was all Allen's fault he shot blue bolts of electricity towards him. Unfortunately for him, in his rage, he didn't have enough control over the bolts. They missed Allen completely, but hit the guy with the spiked hair.
"Dude, Max, he totally didn't mean to do that," Allen said quickly.
It was too late. The big guy called Max charged Ray. Max's huge fist hurtled towards Ray. Ray ducked to the right and Max's fist slammed into the wall. The wall was dented, but only for a moment. As Max's hand gripped the wall, the dent began to melt. Max pushed Evan out of the way and charged Ray again. In an effort to stop the fight, Louis's fingers extended to form vines and wrapped around Max's legs. Max fell to the ground. Louis's attempt failed completely. Max got up angrier than before and turned to face Louis. Evan had also lost his temper. As Max charged Louis, Evan's hands sprouted long spikes.
This triggered another reaction. Three people attempted to keep Evan from stabbing Max. Jubilee sent small sparks of light in Evan's direction. At the same time Amara had shot two balls of fire towards Evan. Ruben had also tried to help. His body suddenly became a silhouette of bright light. The light quickly spread throughout the hallway. Temporarily blinded, Evan stopped. The small sparks and fireballs on the other hand, kept going. They collided making a large explosion which sent everyone flying backward. Max, who wore sunglasses, wasn't affected as much by Ruben's flash of light. After the explosion, he simply got up and continued moving towards Louis. Melanie had seen this coming. She whipped her blonde hair back and began to glow. She suddenly shrunk into a wisp of sparkling, gold mist and headed for Max. The mist entered Max's ear. Max stopped. He looked over at Sam.
"Knock me out," Max said.
"What?!" Sam said incredulously.
"Knock me out so that I won't hurt anyone," Max said.
"OK, if you really want me to," said Sam hesitantly. His legs instantly became hidden by a tornado-like vortex which propelled him towards Max. Sam rammed into Max's head. At the same time, the gold mist exited Max's head and turned back into Melanie. Max slumped to the floor. Everyone turned when someone else walked around the corner. Ben Flemming and Peter Rasputin stared at the havoc that had spread throughout the hallway. The melting dent had become a hole in the wall and there were scorch marks everywhere from the explosion.
"What have you guys been doing?" Ben asked incredulously.
"Um, there was, like, a big, like...," Kitty stammered.
"There was kind of a little, squabble," said Bobby.
"A little squabble?" Peter repeated.
All the students (that were conscious) looked around at each other and at the destruction on the walls.
"Just wait until the teachers find out about this," Peter said.
"Dude, Kyle," Allen said quietly to the tall boy next to him, "I think we're totally busted."