Sue Penkivech: Thanks Sue, I'm relieved that you feel sorry for Warren. LOL! I've been writing him as such a jerk that I was afraid no one would care how he felt!

Beaubier: Thank you. :D I'm trying not to let him get too full of himself. You're right it is a very fine line, but it's also a lot of fun. It's okay, I can be demanding too. ;)  

smeg1: I just glad I didn't lose a reader, LOL! I won't quite say that the guys are friends yet. They still don't feel too comfortable with each other. And in answer your questions: yes.

Warning: I'm not sure if anyone if be offend but I some mentioned violence here. It's brief but I might be writing more about it later. So I just letting you guys know in advance.

Scott was the first one of us to get up in the mourning. He did so long before the time we were usually called by the Professor. I heard him rushing about to get dressed as I tried unsuccessful to fall asleep. When I cracked my eyes open again I saw him bend under my bunk. He spoke in hush tones, urging his friend to get decent. Scott told him that he would be waiting outside. Not to long after he had left I heard Bobby stir below. Not even bothering to change from the same clothes he had worn yesterday he left.

Normally I'd be offended that I was left behind, or annoyed that I had been awake the entire night because of this bull. The truth was that I simply didn't have the strength to care. Having nothing better to do I threw on my clean uniform (the other one was still in the laundry room and most likely needed to be stitched up) and decided to go onto the roof. I knew I wasn't suppose to fly without someone present but I decided to since it wasn't too remote. Besides, I'd most likely go insane if I couldn't fly. I need to do something to loosen up and what better way than soaring into the sky?

And god it felt so good to fly. To feel so alive and free if only for a fleeting moment to forget it all…until I had to get my head out of the clouds. My mutation, my wings, gave me the greatest gift of all: flight. It was then that I realized that I wouldn't exchange that gift for anything, not even normality. It was a part of me, something I was proud of. More precious to me than the wealth I had, or even the fame my family name gave me. I didn't care what some bigoted pricks thought of me, I would not be ashamed of who I am. I, Warren Kenneth Worthington the Third, the X-Man known as Angel swore that I would never give into that self-loathing. Never.

__________

About an hour had passed when I was 'called' by Professor Xavier to join them all in his office. I groaned, why did we have to go THERE when we were all feeling so crappy?

When I entered I took a seat next to Slim, facing Xavier and Duncan. Facing the clippings.

"Thank you for coming so quickly my X-Men. For awhile now you have all been speculating why you have been bought here, away from the school. I told you that it was because of business that was none of your concern. An error in my own judgment I confess." The Prof paused to consider us, his gaze finally resting on Bobby. "I wanted to protect you from the darker side of humanity, and in doing so ignored what we are trying to accomplish. I can not teach you to defend yourselves if you are ignorant to the threats you will be facing."

Duncan cleared his throat like he always did when he was going to start an uncomfortable speech. "About two months ago a series of disappearances began; the abducted were all suspected mutants. Only a few of the bodies have been recovered since then."

"What have you found?" Scott chimed in. I think it took us all a minute to register that the Boy Scout had interrupted; even Scott seemed shocked by his little outburst.

"Charles and I have been doing research: talking to the families, having agents obtain photos of the crimes and forensic test." Duncan answered enigmatically.

"What kind of evidence did you find?" I asked. One moment they claim we need to know the details, the next their dancing around the particulars. Would they just make up their minds? Xavier met Duncans' glance and at the Professors' small nod he continued.

"Not much I'm afraid. Not nearly enough to point to the suspects. At all of the crime scenes and on the bodies of the deceased there was a mark. Either painted or…carved into the victims flesh." I sat up straighter, noticing for the first time how truly tiny and enclosed the room was. "None of the victims died in the same fashion. It seems that the deaths were each decided …depending on the suspected mutants powers. …Though all were severely beaten before their deaths." He pulled out a photo; I almost didn't look until Bobby released a sigh of relief. It was just the crime scene, no bodies.

"This is the killers' calling card." Duncan pointed to a symbol spray painted onto a wooden fence. It was hard to make out since the 'artist' made it so abstract and the fence didn't help the image either.

"NBE?" Scott mumbled under his breath. No, not quite…I strained my eyes. MEF?

"Are there any more questions we can answer for you boys?" Duncan asked. I couldn't think of anything, or rather anything I wanted to hear. Slim and Bobby both shook their heads.

"That being the case we will be having breakfast now, and then you will be having classes with Fred. I will have to do some work of my own." The Prof said looking just as exhausted as we were. Couldn't he see that none of us were up for this?

"Come on, let's go." Slim muttered. Well…excluding the super-solder boy that is.

_______

Agent Duncan had just finished giving us some of the finer pointers about bandaging fractures and breaks. He told us that we had an half an hour break until next class. The day had been pretty easy so far, nothing to physical. And luckily we hadn't had any mental defense lessons.

Slim had gone back to the 'Closet' to retrieve an old beat up novel. When he returned he sat under a tree and disregarded the rest of the world, totally engrossed in his book. Not far away Bobby sat on the ground with his back to us. A mound of snow piled at his feet, his hands shaping the surface. I quietly advanced to get a better look. Bobby was forming the snow into some kind of a hill…with windows?

"What is that?" I couldn't help myself. Frosty jumped at my voice, then gave a little shrug.

"It's nothing."

"O-kay." Bobby glared at me and gave the small mound a hard kick. The snow structure toppled.

"What's the big deal--"

"Leave me alone Worthington." He retorted storming off in a huff.

"What did I say?" I asked Scott.

"I have no idea." He replied, casually flipping to the next page as if he hadn't noticed.

"You're not worried about him acting like this?"

"We're all a little high stung--" Scott suddenly winced at his own words. Weird. I nodded and glanced back at the pile of snow. For a second it almost looked like a castle.

In our 'Peer Reliance' lesson we needed to trust Bobby to protect us from the paint balls. He was doing great at the beginning, not one of us was hit. Iceman had excellent reflexes, much faster than I would have believed possible. Even Cyclops on his best day couldn't match his reaction time. (Of course I liked to believe I could.) The real difficulty came on the second run, when we all slipped. Dirt was kicked up into the air, blinding and choking us. Iceman seemed to lose control of the situation after we all started gagging.

When it was over the three of us were covered from head to toe in a variety of paint colors. (Who would think paint balls would smart this much?) Bobby had the most bizarre appearance of all with the rainbow of colors on his snowy form; he looked like a freaking snow cone! He 'defrosted' himself washing away the paints in the process.

"You got distracted again." Duncan informed our youngest member.

"I know." Iceman replied sullenly.

"You have to focus Bobby."

"I know."

"Alright. We'll do this exercise in a couple of days, so be prepared."

"Okay." Bobby muttered.

"I want you gentlemen to change into your normal attire and meet me in the kitchen in twenty. And no excuses." Duncan added sharply leaving the three of us to our own devices.

Once our teacher was out of sight Slim began with the verbal attack. "You had it down the first time, what happened?"

"I messed up." Bobby retorted bitterly.

"Why did you mess up?" Scott pressed.

"Because I was wondering 'how am I ever going to piss the great Scott Summer off' when I thought--"

"This isn't funny. You need to work on this Bobby, and find out what went wrong before this becomes something worse."

"Whatever…" Bobby moved passed us, leaving a chilly breeze in his wake.

A/N: I always thought it was interesting that Warren loved his mutation since most mutants loath theirs. One of the great things about War in my opinion. :- )  Xavier seemed to feel that the less his students knew about certain things the better. His 'death' and Sage come to mind, but I figured he would feel obligated to inform the guys about the mutant slayings. The snow castle is a reference to the issue where Bobby brought Rogue to meet his parents. Basically he made a sand castle when he was a kid and his dad kinda said it was pointless. It was just my way of showing that Bobby has always been a bit of a dreamer. And Scott's like this because…well he's a perfectionist.

Next chapter: Warren gets freaked out, and what Duncan has in mind for the X-Guys.