So many people thought Kitty ought to go to Cali along with Lance I almost let her go, but Jean's a teacher's pet and I sort of needed Kitty in Bayville :). Thanks for the feedback: signals x lost, raniatlw, The Midgar Demon, Eboni, Dusty, SkyDancerHawk, Yuurei Kinhoshiou, WormmonABC, IceBlueRose, Ice Princess, Pandora, T. Riddle, Psyc, Chibi Makoto, UnknownSource
Jean glanced across the X-Jet to where Lance was slumped, one arm wrapped around his stomach, the other hand covering his mouth. "Are you okay?" she asked.
"Bug off Red," Lance muttered, mustering a quick glare before going back to wallowing in misery.
"You really don't like flying," Scott commented from the pilot's seat. "Now that I think about it, you've gotten airsick every time you've been in the X-Jet."
"Shut-up," Lance groaned.
"That's right," Jean said. "You threw up when we gave the Brotherhood a ride home from Antarctica after Asteroid M blew up and when you and Kitty tried to stop Bobby's joyriding…"
"Please don't remind me!" Lance snapped.
"Even the little hop back from Illinois got you looking green," Scott added.
"Storm could he be like Amara?" Jean asked. "I think we've got some of that medicine Tante Mattie whipped up for her after we found out she gets sick when she's out of contact with the earth for too long."
Lance glanced up, suddenly interested. "You mean there's a reason I can't stand planes? I'm not just being a wimp?"
"It is quite possible," Storm said. "Like Amara, your mutation is connected with the Earth, however, that medication was concocted with Amara's specific biochemistry in mind. I would not advise taking it."
"What's the big deal, it's some sort of folk remedy," Scott said.
"I would not dismiss Mattie's remedies so lightly," Storm said. "Healers like her are more likely to use individualized cures than traditional doctors."
"I think I'm gonna throw-up," Lance declared.
"Amara is considerably smaller than you, if we halved the dose it should be safe enough to try," Storm said.
Jean dug through the first aid kit and triumphantly held up a hand-labeled bottle. She shook out a tablet and handed it to Lance.
****** ****** ******
Hank drove the three remaining and very reluctant X-Men to school.
Kurt stared at the hostile crowds gathered in front of the school to greet them. "Do ve really have to go?" he asked.
"The crowd appears smaller than in previous weeks," McCoy commented.
"You notice there's only three of us?" Evan snorted.
"Come on guys, lets go get this over with," Kitty said getting out of the van. Evan and Kurt followed her with a groan and a whimper respectively.
They walked up the steps past jeering, hostile classmates then Amanda broke through the crowd to join them, linking arms with Kurt. "Hey, where is everyone?" she asked.
"Scott is visiting his brother, Rogue is, vell, having troubles vith her power and Jean is helping Lance vith his recovery," Kurt explained glancing around a little nervously.
"Hey guys, wait up!" Tabby yelled as she and Forge ran to catch up. "Ranks were looking a little thin," she said more quietly falling in step beside Kitty.
"Like, you didn't have to blow you're cover for us," Kitty said giving Tabby a quick, impulsive hug.
"Don't get all mushy on me," Tabby laughed. "Discretion was completely cramping my style. Yeah, I'm a mutant! If you don't like it too bad!" she yelled at the crowd.
"Technically I'm over forty years old," Forge said with a shrug. "If this doesn't work out I'll just quit coming. It's not like there's anything anyone here could teach me about inventing or engineering and I don't care about English or History or useless stuff like that anyways."
"Thanks. It was feeling a little lonely," Kitty said.
****** ****** ******
"Have I told you how much I love the ground," Lance laughed walking beside Strom, letting the Weather Witch offer him the stabilizing hand he needed to stay on his feet.
"Maybe Storm was right," Scott whispered to Jean. "I don't remember Amara getting high off that stuff."
"At least he didn't get sick," Jean whispered back. "And he didn't really get hyper until after we landed."
"Maybe fate doesn't hate us after all," Scott replied. "He's been going on about the ground for almost fifteen minutes already. Can you imagine what it would have been like trapped with him like this for the whole flight?"
"I love the ground. I love the ground. I'm never leaving it again. We can drive back can't we Storm? Please, please, please, pretty please with sugar on top?" Lance begged making his voice high and child-like.
"You are certainly in a good mood," Storm said with a smile.
"I'm on the ground!" Lance reiterated.
"A fact which normally doesn't affect you so strongly," she said. "Even after a long flight."
"I don't know, it's like three days before Christmas," Lance exclaimed.
"Why * three * days?" Jean asked curiously.
Lance paused, thinking about it, "I dunknow, that's when school gets out for break right? I don't care! I'm not flying! Life is great!"
"He's like Kitty in a shoe store," Scott said shaking his head.
At the sound of Kitty's name Lance turned and scowled at Jean, "You're such a tattle-tail," he complained. "You got to come with your boyfriend, why couldn't Kitty come?"
Jean rolled her eyes and just ignored him. "Or when she cons someone into giving her driving lessons," she said to Scott. "Have you ever noticed that Kitty can be a little Lance-like when she's in a temper? I think they're rubbing off on each other."
"Just as long as he doesn't start forcing food that could kill a cockroach on us and she doesn't start picking fights at school," Scott said.
****** ****** ******
"I hate gym," Kitty muttered taking a deep breath and heading out of the locker room for roll call.
Before the X-Men she'd hated gym because she'd been clumsy and un-athletic. Then, before she'd started dating Lance she'd hated gym because Todd and Fred were in her class, since the secret about mutants came out she would have given up a month's worth of mall trips to see either of the guys in class.
Kitty set her shoulders and her eyes filled with loathing as Duncan and several of his cronies noticed her and started over. "It's basketball today freak, don't you just love full contact sports?" the football player said leering down at the slight freshman.
"With you tennis is a full contact sport," Kitty spat pushing past him.
Roll call and calisthenics weren't that bad but after they ended the teacher divided them up into teams and started the game.
Kitty stumbled as a member of Duncan's group slammed into her for the dozenth time since the game started. "Oops, didn't see you," he laughed.
"I hate them," Kitty muttered regaining her balance.
A few moments later she found herself facing off against Duncan. One of his friends passed him the ball and he slammed it down into her face using both hands and all his strength.
Kitty's legs collapsed under her. Duncan glanced around and saw the teacher was distracted by something in the hall so he drew back a foot to kick Kitty before she could recover herself.
"Hasn't that gotten old yet," a sardonic voice announced, distracting Duncan. "Four of you ganging up on a girl half your size, I know she's a mutant, but damn that really lacks class. She can't even use her powers without getting expelled." Kitty recognized her defender as Scott's ex-friend Paul.
"What are you, some kind of Mutie lover?" Duncan demanded stalking over to Paul as he forgot about Kitty for the moment.
Paul braced himself, glaring up at his much heavier built classmate. "Maybe I'm just sick of all your garbage, Matthews."
The other students gathered around, ignoring the teacher as he tried to shove his way through to break up the incipient fight.
Kitty scrambled to her feet, her mind set shifting from High School student to X-Man as Paul went down with a bloody nose. Defensively she pushed between the two boys. "Cut it out!" She shouted at Matthews.
"You gonna make me? Gonna use your powers on me?" he taunted.
"I don't need powers to beat a big, dumb, bully like you!" Kitty stated dodging Duncan's first punch with a back flip that let her get in a kick of her own as she sprung away.
The teacher was stridently blowing his whistle, trying to get the students to pay attention and back off from the fight. The noise drew Principal Kelly in from the hall.
Kitty nimbly dodged Duncan's charge, feeling like a bullfighter then, using a throw Logan taught her, she put his momentum to good use and flipped him onto the floor, knocking out his wind.
"Katherine Pryde, you're expelled!" Kelly yelled taking in the scene at a glance and jumping to conclusions.
"She didn't use her powers," Paul protested, standing up and pinching his nose shut to stem the flow of blood. "Matthews and those jerks have been torturing her every day since the school board let her back in, but she never used her powers, she just knew more about martial arts than he did."
****** ****** ******
"Professor-why-ain't-this-wearing-off?" Rogue demanded sticking her head in Xavier's study.
//One minute, I'm on the phone,// Xavier thought at her.
Rogue retreated to pace the hall impatiently. To an outside observer she was little more than a blur of color darting from one end of the hall to the other, but regardless of the speed she was moving at the reflexes she'd stolen from Pietro ensured she was in perfect control. She could have dodged traffic on the freeway as easily as another person would maneuver through the halls at school. What his reflexes didn't allow her to do was interact with the slow moving world around her, that was something Pietro had taught himself to do, something she'd lost along with his memories.
Inside the office Xavier rubbed his temples, "Principal Kelly, neither your instructor nor yourself witnessed Kitty using her powers. The students who claimed she did have been engaged in an intensive campaign to pressure her and her fellow mutants to quit school. That even one student is willing to stand up for her given the atmosphere of bigotry and hatred you encourage in that place should tell you something," he said resisting the temptation to nudge Kelly's mind to a more accepting world view. It was wrong, not to mention futile, Kelly's hatred was too deep seated, it would reassert itself given time and then the man would have even more cause for his paranoia. "I am willing to go to court to ensure that you abide by the school board's decision to allow my students to attend public schools."
"Fine," Kelly snapped. "We both know those little monsters can't control themselves, it's only a matter of time until they're all kicked out anyway."
Xavier sighed as the other man slammed down the phone. //Rogue, come in before you wear a rut in the floor,// he thought.
A heartbeat later the Goth-girl was sitting in front of him, scowling and fidgeting. "Why-don't-this-wear-off?" she demanded.
//I don't know Rogue, but you've never had such lengthy contact with another person before, it stands to reason that the effect of your powers might last for an extended time. You are simply going to have to learn to deal with these powers,// Xavier projected.
"Professor-couldn't-yah-just-copy-some-of-Pietro's-memories-back-into-mah-head?" Rogue asked.
//I could,// Xavier admitted. //But I won't, since you and Pietro began dating you've become increasingly casual and reckless about your powers.//
"It-wasn't-mah-fault!" Rogue protested. "Ah-had-to-knock-Sabretooth-out-then-ah-couldn't-think-straight."
//If Pietro hadn't been semi-conscious when Sabretooth broke in, you both could have gotten out that window,// Xavier pointed out. //And yes, I am aware that Pietro instigated that kiss, but these are your powers. Ultimately you must be responsible for managing them. I believe allowing you to learn to cope with your current situation, without shortcuts, will be good for you.//
"Professor!" Rogue wailed.
//Once Pietro wakes you might ask him to teach you how he first learned to adapt,// Xavier suggested. //Assisting you may provide him with a reason to stay here. I believe he will be able to make amends with his friends as long as he doesn't run away too soon.//
For a fraction of a second Rogue was dumbstruck then she grinned. "That's-a-good-idea-Professor-sort-of-underhanded-but-I-like-it-bye."
****** ****** ******
That evening Xavier wheeled into the guest room, "Pietro, it's good to see you awake," he said.
Pietro frowned at him in confusion. "Xavier, Baldy, Uncle Charles, Professor… What do I call you now?" he asked, his tone faintly curious but otherwise flat.
Xavier gave the teen a concerned look, bothered by the lack of emotional inflection attached to the wide variety of names. "Professor Xavier will do," he said. "How are you feeling?"
"Like someone started spring cleaning in my head then got bored and left everything in a big pile on the front lawn," Pietro replied scowling.
"Given your recent adventures I'm hardly surprised your memories are somewhat jumbled," Xavier said.
"It's a mess!" Pietro complained. "Things piled every which way. Nothing is in order. I can't find anything. It's like Toad's room! Who's Toad?" Pietro trailed off his gaze turning introspective. "Oh okay…that doesn't make sense…something's missing, hang on a second…"
"What do you remember?" Xavier asked.
Pietro glared at him, irritated with the interruption.
"Talking may help you put your thoughts in order," Xavier encouraged.
"Toad, Todd Tolansky, brown hair, yellow eyes, green, six-foot-long tongue, greenish-yellow skin, freshman, fifteen, part of the Brotherhood, hops, slimes stuff, eats bugs, gets beat up, smells bad, doesn't brush his teeth…"
"We're working on that," Xavier groaned, remembering Moira and Todd's most recent blow-up over the suggestion, make that command, that bathing should be a daily activity rather a monthly one. "Pietro you are listing statistics. Perhaps it would be more helpful to place things in a context. How did you meet Todd?"
Pietro paused trying to find the specific memory. "When I joined the Brotherhood. Dad, no Magneto, broke me out of jail so I could join his team. Todd had already been recruited."
"Who else was there?" Xavier prompted.
"Everyone; Lance, Fred, Rogue, Mystique, I was the last one to join."
"What was your first impression of each of them?"
"Todd: pathetic. Lance: angry. Rogue: stand-offish. Fred: fat. Mystique hated me."
"But you stayed?"
"Magneto said if I went back to Mom and Papa they'd send me back to jail. He said that he wouldn't bother to break me out again and people would realize I was different. Then they'd never let me go. So I stayed."
****** ****** ******
That night Gambit slipped out of Pietro's room with a scowl on his face only to find Wolverine standing in the hall, obviously waiting for him. "Mind explaining what yer doing up and wandering about like you own the place?"
"Mais mon Tante don' like to admit it, but de truth is her magic touch works best when it goes hand in hand wit' modern medicine. Your doctor stitched up de holes an' topped off m' tanks den Tante hastened de healing process." He held up his burned hand. "Dis is goin' to be a bother dough."
Wolverine smiled, or at least he bared his fangs. "I think yer missing the point. I don't care how yer healing up this quick, I'm just thinking where I ought to be locking you up till we're ready to send ya on yer merry way."
"Dat ain't hospitable," Gambit sulked. "I save your student an' her amore…"
"After being the one putting her in danger in the first place."
"At great risk to m' own person. Takin' on a practically unkillable foe. Yo' could show some gratitude."
"Interest subject for ya to bring up, 'practically unkillable'."
Gambit gave a disgruntled sigh. "Oh don' be tellin' me yo' mind seeing dat fiend put down, we bot' know he was way over due. 'Less dat whole mortal enemy t'ing was jus' a screen for unresolved tensions…"
Wolverine snarled at Gambit's suggestive smirk. "It ain't yer choice of victims I mind. It's having a guy cold blooded enough to see an opening for a kill and take it without hesitating wandering around a school with a bunch of kids."
"Don' yo' mean * another * cold blooded murder?" Gambit asked innocently. "In addition to your own self of course."
"You aren't always so careful about choosing your victims now are you. Or are you planning on telling me every person at the FOH meeting was involved in the kid's murder?" Wolverine pressed. "I looked into that bombing, your scent was all over the place."
"Guilt by association," Gambit replied, his tone markedly less glib.
"And you drag a seventeen year old kid into a flat out terrorist attack," Wolverine finished.
"Silver had nothing to do wit' dat!" Gambit exploded. "Don' yo' go botherin' him wit' dis crap! I left him in de car. He had nothing to do wit' it. He didn' even know what I was doin'."
"So you do know the difference between right and wrong," Logan said sounding smug.
Gambit calmed instantly. "Yo're better dan I gave yo' credit for M'sieur Wolverine."
"Don't forget it," Logan said.
"Oh I won't," Gambit promised.
****** ****** ******
"Quickie's up," Todd informed Fred as he came into the kitchen for breakfast.
"I heard," Fred replied adding cracking another egg into the frying pan.
"So what do we do?"
"Nothing."
"Come on, Lance said we couldn't let him leave."
"He ain't trying."
"Yeah, he ain't even left his room, don't that worry you, yo?"
Fred glanced up as if he could see through the intervening walls and ceilings to where Pietro was undoubtedly sitting, staring blankly out his window, trying to put his memories back in order. "No."
"Liar."
"Well maybe I don't want to Toad!" Fred exclaimed. "What if he decides to try to impress Magneto again? Or what if Wanda gets mad at the X-Men and he tries to make-up with her? Or what about his mom? Can you see Magneto going out with someone who wasn't super evil? What if he's got another sister or a brother we don't know about? Or… or… cousins, he could have evil cousins. Maybe aunts or uncles…"
"I get the picture Freddy!" Todd exclaimed.
"It's not like anything's changed." Fred continued. "He's just here 'cause he got hurt."
"He found Tante Mattie to help Lance," Todd argued. "And, yo, you gotta wonder why his dad suddenly decided to kill him right?"
"Don't you ever get tired of forgiving people for treating you like dirt?" Fred asked.
"I guess you're lucky I haven't yet," Todd shot back. "Cause I seem to remember you * all * ditching me when Mags asked everyone with a good mutation up to Asteroid M. I'm going to talk to Pietro, you don't have to come."
"Well don't worry I ain't gonna," Fred said watching Todd leave.
Todd hopped upstairs and knocked on Pietro's door then, without waiting for an answer, let himself in. "Hey Quickie, how you feeling?"
Pietro glanced away from the window, "I'm sorry Todd. I acted like an idiot."
"No argument here, but what's new? 'Member deciding to crash that post-season bash the football team had?" Todd replied pulling up a chair.
"Yeah, I remember," Pietro said after a moment. "You're right, that was stupid. Who's idea was it?"
"Yours of course," Todd said. "It was fun though, we really trashed the coach's house and the food was good."
"Lance knocked the whole house down," Pietro recalled.
"He felt pretty bad about that," Todd recollected. "It wasn't his fault thought, I mean we weren't the ones that spiked the punch."
"He did?" Pietro asked.
"Yeah, I guess he overheard the guy talking about how hard it was on his family loosing their home in school the next week. That's why he wouldn't come in the boarding house for two weeks." Todd replied.
"I thought he did that because he was delirious," Pietro said.
"Naw, you got the order mixed up. First Lance decided to sleep in the jeep. The weather was miserable, all cold and rainy, so he got sick. We didn't figure it out till the fever made him delirious, which was kinda funny to tease Lance about afterwards…" Todd decided against mentioning how badly freaked out they'd all been at the time. "So how are you doing?"
"Honestly? I don't know," Pietro said.
****** ****** ******
Gambit stood silently in the back of the control center for the danger room, unnoticed by Jamie, watching the scene below.
He'd heard the girl's snarling voice demanding 'a challenge this time' as Wanda stormed past the med lab door and decided getting a look at the femme in action was a good excuse for his second foray out of the infirmary. His first had been to visit Silver the night before. The boy had been distant, not so depressed but there was something lacking about him. Xavier had told the doctor that Silver had disassociated himself from his memories, possibly as a side effect of being bounced from skull to skull or possibly a coping mechanism to remove himself from the recent traumas he'd experienced.
Gambit didn't like it; it meant he'd failed to protect someone he'd taken responsibility for, again. And one of the reasons why was in the room below.
Wanda leaned against the wall, arms crossed over her chest frowning boredly as the danger room tore itself apart around her. In the control room Jamie slammed his fists against the console. "Arrg! She's impossible!" he yelled then glanced at the eight other hims his out burst had created. With a sigh he collected the dupes back into himself. "Alright, I can take a hint, I give up," he said into the intercom.
Gambit faded into the shadows and Jamie stomped past him, unaware that he'd been observed.
"Yo' ain't gonna beat dat femme wit' brute force," Gambit commented to the departed boy after reviewing Wanda's danger room sessions. Then he turned his hacking expertise to the other data Cerbro had stored on Wanda.
"Now dis is a more promisin' avenue," he said to himself settling down with her psych-profile.
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