If You Thought The Mall Was a Pain…

"I'm really sorry about this morning," Jesse said. He was outside with Tabitha and Paige.

"Hey forget it," Tabitha said. "I mean look at how many times I've blown stuff up. Of course usually it's on purpose…"

"So what happened with the Professor?" Paige asked.

"I've been banned from the Danger Room until I learn to control my emotions," Jesse sighed.

"Trust me," Tabitha laughed. "That's not exactly a punishment."

"Yeah but I now gotta work with Jean at least once a day on control," Jesse sighed. "And Logan's personally going to supervise my physical training outside."

"Yikes," Tabitha gulped. "Well at least you got out of the guys' obstacle course training."

"I don't think any of them want me on their team anyway," Jesse sighed.

"Aw they'll get over it," Tabitha told him. "You've only been here a week. Give it time."

"This from someone who took off when she first got here?" Paige grinned.

"How did you hear about that?" Tabitha asked.

"My brother," Paige told her. "He used to write home every week to me and tell me everything!"

"Oh," Tabitha nodded. "Hey I got a great idea! Why don't I show you more of Bayville?"

"Well okay," Paige shrugged. "But shouldn't we tell someone where we're going?"

"And have them stop us?" Tabitha grinned. "Come on!" The three of them went over to the garage.

"I hear a helicopter," Jesse looked around. "Wait…there's a lot of helicopters!" He pointed to the SHIELD helicopters landing in the back.

"Who is that?" Paige asked as she pointed to a man with gray hair and one eye patch.

"I recognize that guy," Tabitha told her. "Nick Fury, he runs this super spy organization. I wonder what he wants with ol' Wolvie?"

"Maybe it's business or something?" Paige said. "I remember Sam once told me that SHEILD and those army guys show up every now and then."

"Army guys?" Jesse asked nervously.

"GI Joe," Tabitha waved. "Haven't you heard about them yet?"

"I've only been here a few days," Jesse reminded her.

"Yeah but I thought you would have heard the whole story by now," Tabitha asked.

"You mean nobody's told you about the Joes and the Misfits?" Paige asked.

"Who? And how do you know all about them?" Jesse asked.

"My brother wrote me all about 'em," Paige said.

"It's a long story," Tabitha got into Scott's car. "I'll tell you all about it as we go."

"Isn't this Scott's car?" Jesse asked.

"What better way to go than in style?" Tabitha asked. "Hop in!"

"But won't he get mad?" Jesse asked as he got into the car.

"Nah, he's used to it," Tabitha waved as she hot-wired the car. "Let's ride!" She drove out the driveway, telling the others all about the Joes, the Misfits and the latest rift between the two teams.

"Wow," Jesse said. "I had no idea things were so…Well interesting at the school."

"It's like a regular soap opera," Paige said.

"Yeah," Tabitha said. "Besides the Arcade incident things have been kind of quiet lately. I kind of miss them popping along whenever they feel like it."

"Well I am kind of glad we're out of the Institute," Jesse said as he looked at the scenery. "I was going a little stir crazy back home."

"I've just had the weirdest feeling all day," Paige told her. "Like someone was watching me."

"You too?" Jesse asked. "So have I!"

"Calm down you two," Tabitha said. "You guys are just nervous because you blew the Danger Room session. No biggie. Bobby screws up all the time. Tell you what, I think its high time the two of you got a proper introduction to Bayville. Particularly it's shopping centers."

"I hope we don't get in trouble for taking off," Jesse said.

"Relax!" Tabitha told him. "What could possibly happen anyway? Besides it's not like anything interesting is going on at the mansion."

She pulled into a parking space at the mall. "We have arrived!" Tabitha said cheerfully. They ambled through the mall for a while then they went to the food court.

"I gotta admit this is a nice mall," Paige said. "It's bigger than anything I've seen back home."

"Yeah you would never know it's been trashed one or two times," Tabitha remarked. "Uh oh. Watch it. Jock alert."

Duncan Matthews was hanging with a few of his cronies. He glared at them as they walked by. "Hey look! It seems there's more freaks than we thought in this town!" Duncan snapped loudly. "Can't go anywhere without more of them crawling around."

"Just ignore them," Tabitha said.

The Jocks had other plans. They caught up to them and blocked their way. "I haven't seen you two around here," Duncan said. "Are you mutants or not?"

"So what if we are?" Paige snapped. "We're not bothering you!"

"Just you being here bothers us!" Duncan snapped.

"Oh yeah?" Tabitha glared. "And what are you gonna do about it? We're the ones with the powers stupid! Not to mention the martial arts training."

"Why do you hate us?" Paige asked. "What did we ever do to you?"

"Because of freaks like you my parents are cutting me off and I have to get a job after graduation!" Duncan shouted.

"So it's our fault you're such a loser?" Tabitha yelled.

"If you think for one minute that we're gonna let you back at Bayville High…" Duncan began.

"Since when are you in charge of school policy?" Tabitha snapped.

"Uh maybe we should just be going?" Jesse gulped.

"No way! We're not gonna let these jerks push us around!" Tabitha snapped.

"Oh we'll push all right!" One jock shoved Tabitha. The others roughly shoved Paige and Jesse.

This caused Jesse to loose control over his emotions. All the electricity and machines in the mall went haywire. An ATM started shooting out money, causing several people to race for it. Cash registers in nearby stores started to open and close rapidly and explode, shooting out more money. Sparks came from some of the store's lighting. Some surveillance cameras exploded and created small fires. Soon a small riot situation was beginning to form, mostly because of people trying to get all the money and the security guards trying to stop them.

"What the…?" Duncan looked around nervously. "Let's get out of here!"

"Oh great," Jesse moaned. "I did it again!"

"Hey forget the freaks and let's get some free cash dude!" One jock shouted. He ran off and started fighting with other people in order to get some. Soon all the jocks including Duncan had taken off for the cash.

"Well not the way out of this that I hoped," Tabitha looked at the chaos. "But at least that solved the situation."

"I just hope we don't end up on the evening news," Jesse moaned.

"Not if we get out of here! Come on!" Tabitha grabbed his hand and they ran out the back door.

Later that day after driving around the rest of the town the three of them returned to the mansion. "Well today wasn't boring," Tabitha said as they got out of the car.

"We should have stayed at the mansion," Jesse grumbled. "It would have been nice, quiet and safe."

"Look let's just not tell anyone what happened okay?" Paige said as they walked into the mansion. "Hopefully no one noticed we were gone."

"Something tells me we weren't exactly missed," Jesse pointed. All around them the mansion was trashed.

Logan walked in carrying Rogue. "There you three are!" He groaned. "Look I don't know where the three of you disappeared to and I don't really care. Right now I need your help looking after the others. Nearly everyone's unconscious and injured."

"WHAT?" Paige yelled. She then saw her brother was unconscious on the floor. "SAM!" She ran to him.

"What the hell happened here?" Tabitha yelled.

"We…had a little visitor," Logan growled.