Disclaimer: I don't own anything, you know the drill.
Author's Note: This is the last chapter, guys! When you review, tell me if you want a sequel or not. If I don't get enough reviews, though, I might not do one regardless, so review if you want me to do a sequel!
ldypebsaby: Tao's in this chapter, and you'll have to figure out later if Lance lived.
paprika90: That wasn't the last chapter, this one is though.
Tao's Girl: Hey, tell me tomorrow (or today depending on when you see this) what did you sign up for on the beta thing? C U tomorrow or the next day.
Chapter 15- A New Beginning
The children of the Institute were quite happy to be in an air conditioned house again, and were taking full advantage of the mansion's seemingly endless food supply. They were biding their time until their parents would lecture them about how dangerous and irresponsible it was to run off like that, and give them a lengthy and quite miserable punishment. Tao, who had been allowed to come to the Institute with the rest of the kids, hadn't a reason to worry, and wasn't as tense as her fellows. Triss and Nate had just sneaked two gigantic cartons of ice cream from the freezer, intending to share the frozen dessert with everyone else, when they heard their father call, "Triss, Nate, I need to see you for a moment!"
The twins' eyes widened, as did everyone else when they heard their own parents calling their names also. Kaye was slightly ill at ease when she heard Rogue yell for her, sounding a bit peeved, and hissed, "Hide!"
The others thought this to be a grand idea, and dashed off to their own hiding spots. Kaye and Ron were down in the lower levels, lurking in the shadows of an unused room, using their mutant forms to blend in with the gloom. Nate found sanctuary in the large, dusty attic with Raina and Will, Joel hid with Rosie in the jet, and Triss crawled into a closet, turning invisible to add to the difficulty of finding her. Unfortunately for them, it was no trouble for their parents to figure out their little game, and they were quickly found. Even Triss was caught, much to her dismay, and it was a sight to see when Kitty, without any hesitation, pulled her daughter from the closet by the ear. It was more interesting, though, to see Triss scrambling across the foyer trying to ease the pulling on her ear. All the children were marched into separate rooms for their parents to deal with them. Triss, Nate, and Drake sat in a row, looking at the floor as Kitty, and in Triss and Nate's case Kurt, frowned down upon them. They sat in this sheepish silence for a while, before Kitty spoke, "Would any one like to tell me what they were thinking?"
"Thinking what?" Nate muttered, slouching in his chair.
"Nate, you know good and well what she means," Kurt chided.
Nate continued to study the floor, and Triss and Drake joined him.
"I asked you a question," Kitty reminded her children.
"We, um, just wanted to make you mad," Drake bravely answered.
"And why is that?" his mother asked, arms crossed.
"Because you and your friends were all talking about all those missions and stuff you did when you were kids. And then you were talking about how we were too young to do all that stuff and we got mad and...," Triss murmured, choosing not to finish her sentence.
"You could have gotten yourselves killed!" Kitty howled, forgetting that Iris was there, making the baby whimper softly.
"But we didn't," Nate pointed out.
"You came close!" Kurt replied. "You ran off, got taken by our enemies, then tried to fight them, knowing you were disobeying your mother and me, and don't even get me started on the whole panther incident."
"Wait, how do you know about the panther thing?" Triss asked curiously.
"That kind of information comes easy with two telepaths in the house," Kitty sighed, cradling Iris whose tiny whimper had progressed into a good, steady wail.
"Ok, so what's our punishment?" Nate whimpered, realizing what was coming.
Kurt looked at them grimly and said, "You will be cleaning the mansion."
"WHAT!" Nate protested, after which Kitty hushed him, trying to get the new born to calm down
"All by ourselves?" Triss squeaked questioningly.
"No, you each will have certain jobs," Kurt answered.
"Triss, you and Kaye will be cleaning the jet, the helicopter and the floor in that room," Kitty stated, "Nate, you will be dusting, since your arm's broken, but you have no help."
When Kurt saw Nate's relieved expression, he said, "I'm warning you, this house is very big, and very dusty."
Finally, Kitty turned to Drake and said, "You will be beating rugs and vacuuming."
"All of the rugs?" he asked.
"Yes," she told him.
"How many rugs are in the house?" He complained.
"Ten," she replied with a finality in her voice telling Drake to be quiet.
"This is so not fair!" Triss whined.
"Oh, I assure you it is fair, everyone else is doing the same thing," Kurt snapped.
"Joel is cleaning the floors on the lower levels and washing all the cars, except the room you and Kaye are doing, Triss. Ron is cleaning the bathrooms; Raina is doing laundry and dealing with a bat infestation in the attic."
Kitty was cut off as Nate asked, "Am I dusting the attic?"
"Yes, after Raina takes care of the bats," Kurt answered.
"Tom is working outside in the greenhouse and on the front, side, and back yards, Will is cleaning and checking chlorine levels in the pool, and cleaning the kitchen, and Rosie is cleaning her room," Kitty finished.
All the children groaned as they left the room, being told that their work started as soon as they left. Most of the parents were leaving to attend to some business, and that left only Ororo, Logan, and Hank in charge of the ten children. They all made sure the kids had gotten to work, and then settled down to do other things. Logan soon got restless, though, thinking it was too quiet. He decided to check on them once more, sensing mischief. Logan started with the attic, where Raina was, and found both Raina and Nate. Raina, instead of getting rid of the bats, was chatting happily with them while Nate gazed at her, eyes slightly unfocused. Raina giggled as she saw this, but stopped upon seeing Logan in the doorway, looking very perturbed. Nate scurried out the door, and Raina hurriedly started to tell her new friends why they couldn't stay in the attic. Logan growled softly and proceeded downstairs, peeking in one of the bathrooms and finding Ron on the way. He looked out the window to find Tom thinking over a bed of flowers, and Drake beating a very large rug with an equally large tennis racket. Logan then made his way downstairs to the lower levels, after peeking in on Tao who was channel surfing, to make sure that Joel, Triss, and Kaye were working also. After slipping and sliding down the hall way due to Joel's soapy mop, he made it to the hangar. He swept the cavernous room with a hasty glance, but only found Kaye. Logan growled in annoyance, and once again performed a clumsy sort of skate down the wet hallway to the elevator. After getting to the floor above, the agitated man walked out side to see if Will was behaving any better than most of his friends. Will was not by the pool, he was in the pool, obviously not cleaning or checking chlorine levels, but rather trying to fish something out of the aquamarine depths. Will surfaced for air, and Logan found Triss as he heard a girlish giggle from behind him. Triss was trying to draw attention to herself and was succeeding. Will turned a bright red color and dove back under water. Logan had had quite enough. He hissed exasperatedly, "What are you doing?"
Triss wheeled around sharply, having not realized that anyone was there, and Will looked at Logan warily when he resurfaced. Logan repeated his question, and Will answered, "Triss dropped her bracelet in the water, and I was trying to get it out."
"Why didn't you use the net?" Logan growled, pointing to the net hanging off a long pole that was situated against one of the three gazebos on the Institute's grounds.
Will looked at the net sheepishly and leaped out of the water and grabbed the net, and dipped it into the pool, bringing out a delicate, silver bracelet. He tossed it at Triss, who caught it deftly with her tail before scampering off into the house to help Kaye like she was supposed to be doing. An irritated Logan shut his eyes for a moment, trying very hard to control his temper, and made his way back inside, leaving Will to deal with the pool. After going inside, Logan sat down in a chair, in the same room Hank and Ororo were in. They were both buried in a book and paid no attention to his angry expression. Storm looked up as Nate passed by the room, sneezing loudly due to the dust that had settled in his fur. As she saw Logan's heated countenance, she laughed softly and murmured, "They're worse than their parents, aren't they?"
Hank chuckled as Logan nodded wordlessly. The three adults sat in peace, but not for long. Suddenly, some type of music that the children obviously had selected came blaring over the loud speakers that were installed in every room all over the mansion.
"How the heck did they do that?" Hank shouted over the clamor.
"How should I know?" Logan snarled.
The three scattered about the cavernous house, looking for the source of the earsplitting music. Of course, Logan got to glide down the soapy lower levels again. He looked in on Triss and Kaye, and found Joel in that room also. His eyes widened as he saw the topsy-turvy scene before him. The trio had somehow found eight thick sponges, and had strapped them to their feet with duct tape in order to skate about the slippery floor. It was quite a sight to see a panther with four sponges on her feet have a skate-off with Joel. Logan didn't say a word, because he was set on stopping the music first. The source of the awful din happened to be in the room overlooking the danger room. The twins, having inherited their mother's skill with technology, had wired the source of the loudspeakers to play music. After the music was turned off, Logan spoke threateningly over the loud speaker, "The next person who does one thing wrong, will be punished."
The next time Logan walked down the hallway, Ron was in the bathroom, cleaning the toilets with the brush instead of dancing in the hallway with it, Kaye, Triss, and Joel had taken the sponges off their feet, and Joel had proceeded to the garage to start on the countless vehicles it contained. Will had worked his way to the kitchen, Raina was in the laundry room, throwing bed sheets into the washer, Drake had begun the long process of vacuuming, Nate was dusting the attic, sneezing loudly, and Rosie had already cleaned half of her room. Once the rest of the adults got home, the place was spotless. The parents smiled at their children for the hard work they had done. Soon, the Professor spoke, "Children, I have something to tell you."
Their parents smiled knowingly as the children stepped forward curiously.
"As you know, your parents when they were younger lived here for a time, to gain control over their abilities, learn to use and live with them. I am offering you a place here at the Xavier Institute, to stay just as your parents did nearly twenty five years ago," the Professor stated.
The children looked around in excitement, obviously grateful of the Professor's offer. Tao tried her best to look unobtrusive, hiding her hopefulness.
"Yes, Tao, you are being offered a place here too," Xavier smiled and Tao beamed in happiness.
"I have also proposed that your parents move in also, as they seem to have lost a lot of what they learned here," The Professor spoke.
The children looked around excitedly at their parents, happy that they were staying too. Then something struck Triss, "Mom, what about our pets?" she asked.
"The Professor agreed to let us bring them too, as long as we brush the cats every day, since Rogue's allergic to cats," she answered soothingly.
"And Sammy?" Raina asked about her fat, yellow hamster. Roberto nodded smilingly at the thought of the plump little rodent.
The Professor looked wistfully at the children he had taught, wondering how they had grown up so quickly. He looked to them, to their children and said, "I think it's time for a new beginning.