Thanks for the feedback: LadyEvils, damien455, Jaina12, DemonRogue13, DoubleL27, Risty, Little Blue Dragon, Miracles, raniatlw, Dusty, crazyspaceystracey, Goofn1
Author's Notes: The timeline for this story is Jean's test takes place roughly three months after Lance's escape from jail in "Flashpoint".
Xavier waited while his students settled in around the Institute's living room. A gust of wind sent papers flying all over the room then resolved into Pietro. Rogue as he picked her up and stole her chair, but her annoyance faded as he settled her on his lap. "Sorry I'm late." He said. "I had to talk to my calculus TA."
"Ten seconds is hardly late Pietro." Xavier said with a slight smile then sighed. "I've been told to start expecting new students in two weeks. The staff at Bayville High will be helping out with academics but I'm going to need all of you to help make them feel at home here and to help with their powers."
"You can count on us Professor." Kurt said.
Xavier nodded to him. "Also you'll all need to submit for testing yourselves. Both Jean and Pietro passed without difficulty. Dr. Hunter is being exceptionally fair. I want as many of you enrolled in Bayville High as possible. Rogue, you were always Logan's best student when it comes to unarmed combat. I'd like you to take over his classes."
"Course Professor." Rogue replied.
"Finally, I'm going to have to ask all of you to put up with some shuffling of rooms. With the number of students anticipated we'll be switching to a more traditional residence hall system. You'll be acting as residence advisors to the newer students and I want your rooms to be close to your groups."
Bobby raised his hand. "With everyone getting kicked out of public schools will Jubilee be coming back?" He asked hopefully.
"Yes, Jubilee's parents have contacted me…"
"Alright!" Bobby exclaimed.
"I'm expecting both of you to be role models to the newer students." Hank interjected. "The positive sort."
"Scott's brother Alex will also be joining us. Wanda will be taking classes here, although Magda and Django feel it's best if she continues living at home."
"Mom and Papa want her to socialize more." Pietro volunteered. "And it's not like she can just run home for dinner like Rogue and I do."
"Is Roberto coming back?" Amara asked.
"The mutant situation in Brazil hasn't changed, Roberto's parents still feel it's safer for him at home." Xavier said.
Amara sighed.
"I am sure you will see him again someday." Ororo assured the girl. "And until then I am also certain there will be any number of things to keep your mind occupied.
"Are there any other questions?" Xavier asked.
"I'm not going to be the youngest anymore!" Jamie exclaimed. "Yes! Respect, finally!"
Sam leaned over and ruffled the younger boy's hair. "They'll be newer sure, but chances are you'll still be youngest."
Jamie crossed his arms and scowled.
"I'm going to go scope out the new dorm." Evan announced. "Pick a good room, you know."
"One near the cafeteria." Kurt suggested.
As the gathering broke up Ororo said. "Kitty, your parents called, they want you to go home this weekend."
"Again?" Kitty demanded. "Can't you tell them I'm sick?"
"No."
****** ****** ******
"Mr. Lehnsherr, you're a hard man to find." Emma frost said.
"And you are a presumptuous woman, assuming I wished to be found." Magneto replied as he looked down on her coldly.
"Let's face facts Mr. Lehnsherr. You are a general with no army; a preacher with no congregation."
"Why are you here?" Magneto demanded. The slender chain around Emma's throat tightened threatening.
The aristocratic blonde tilted her head back and smiled seductively. "I have what you need, assuming you can swallow enough of your pride to deal civilly with me. The government has, oh so helpfully, proposed to collect this country's young mutants for me. They will rip them from their families and friends and send them to me to educate; they will be a captive audience and ripe for your message. We can pick and choose the cream of the crop. Ms. Darkholme offered you Charles Xavier's rejects. Left to your own devices you resorted to brainwashing, threats and blackmail…" Emma shook her head and made a soft tsk-ing noise. "A remarkably shortsighted solution, truly I expected better from you. Now the humans make your case for you. Their fearful, draconian stance will drive our people into your arms."
As Emma spoke the necklace loosen around her throat, link by link. "And what do you gain from this?" Magneto asked.
Widening her vivid blue eyes innocently Emma gazed up at Magneto. "Why a future. I believe in you." She said breathily.
"You do that very well my dear." Magneto said. "You must have had considerable practice at the art of beguiling. I prefer a straight answer."
"I can already see you're going to be a joy to work with." Emma said, a tinge of sarcasm coloring her voice. "To be straight forward; I've studied you. I don't know if co-existence is possible or not but I like power. I'd rather rule than co-exist. As you can see we may not be allies, but we could be bedfellows. Make no mistake about it: I am neither Mystique nor Sabretooth. I'm no one's lackey. However I can be a very good ally, even a partner if you'll trust me."
"If you can deliver what you promise I might grow to accept this alliance." Magneto allowed.
****** ****** ******
Rogue walked into the Institute kitchen and frowned. Amara sat at the table, her nose buried in a book while she absently munched on carrot sticks. "Girl ain't it your turn to be chattering with Pyro?"
"Oh yeah, I forgot." Amara said. "What's the big? It's not like he cares."
Rogue scowled. "According to Ms. Mattie and Dr. McTaggart he does care. That's why we do it. Yah signed up, now get upstairs and talk to our unconscious firebug."
"Well I hope he likes John Allendyce." Amara huffed.
"Who's that?" Rogue asked.
Amara held up her book. "He's just the hottest writer around. He's going to be the next Christopher Pike."
"Well if he ain't into that junk Ah guess he can just wake up and tell yah so." Rogue said with a roll of her eyes.
"Like that Anne Rice stuff you read is so much better." Amara shot back with a cheerful wave as she started upstairs.
Despite the blazing fire burning in Pyro's guest room it wasn't uncomfortably warm, even for someone other than Amara. Mattie had told them the fire made Pyro feel welcome. Xavier believed its unnaturally low heat output was evidence that he was recovering.
Amara dropped into the armchair the students had dragged in for visitors, propped her feet up on the side of the bed, opened up her book and started reading.
After several minutes the fire began twisting into figures. Amara watched in amazement as they acted out the story she was reading. "Boy, I guess you really do hear us after all." She said.
****** ****** ******
Kitty used the back of her fork to shove her pasta salad around on her plate. "I don't know why you make me do this." She said. "No matter how many times you kidnap me from my friends and make me spend the weekend here I'm still going to hate you forever."
"Katherine, I've had it with this behavior." Carmen Pryde exclaimed. "Your mother and I haven't kidnapped you. We haven't done anything wrong."
Kitty glared silently at her parents.
"Kitty we were worried about you. We didn't want you to get hurt." Terri protested.
"Attacking my boyfriend is a really strange way of not hurting me." Kitty accused.
"So it's our fault your boyfriend tried to kill you." Carmen said. "All we did was tell the truth."
"How many times do I have to tell you: Lance never tried to kill me!" Kitty yelled.
"Right, he just dropped a building on you!" Carmen shouted back.
"That was an accident!" Kitty exclaimed. "Lance didn't know the building was going to collapse."
"Good Lord Katherine. You sound like an abuse case explaining how he didn't realize how hard he was hitting you."
"So it was my fault every time I phased without meaning to before I got the knack of using my powers?" Kitty demanded.
"Kitty, he did attack you." Terri said. "You can't deny that."
"I bet you're both happy he's dead!" Kitty shouted as she threw her fork down.
"If it means you're safe then yes!" Carmen stated.
"I hate you so much." Kitty declared poisonously. "I wish I never had to see either of you ever again. I wish I'd run away with Lance when he asked me to!"
"Kitty!" Terri called helplessly as her daughter stormed upstairs.
****** ****** ******
"How do yah think Kitty's visit home is going?" Sam asked conversationally as he dropped on the love seat across from the Goth-girl.
"If yah're here to sympathize get lost." Rogue snarled.
"Whoa girl, Ah was just making conversation." Sam said as he held up his hands in surrender. "Ah wouldn't presume to sympathize with yah; Ah might empathize though. Ah failed too, not enough control over mah powers."
"What-do-they-want-from-me!" Rogue exclaimed. "Ah'm up to fifteen seconds! Fifteen second, with mah reflexes Ah could go around in a bikini and no one'd get hurt by mah powers!"
"It's not fair." Sam replied.
"Damn right it's not." Rogue huffed.
"You can say that again." Evan said as he wandered in. "One little sneeze and I'm black listed."
"It could be worse." Jamie announced as he joined them. "At least we passed the psych exam." He gestured toward Bobby.
"I am not immature." Bobby muttered. "I do too have good judgment."
"Ah guess someone heard about your spring break Titanic imitation." Sam said.
Outside a burst of multi-colored fireworks exploded. Bobby ran to throw open the window.
"I'm back! Where's my welcome home party?" Jubilee hollered.
Bobby jumped out the window. He iced up as he fell, simultaneously creating an ice-slide to catch him. "Hey Fire-cracker! How's life?"
"Better now that I'm seeing a friendly face." Jubilee replied. "You've got no idea how lonely it is being the only freak around. Cali wasn't so bad until Avalanche went postal. I take it he's back to being a villain?"
"Don't say that around Kitty unless you've got some teeth you'd like to loose." Bobby warned. "It wasn't Lance's fault. You want to check out the new digs?"
"Sure, catch me up on all the gossip, 'kay?"
****** ****** ******
"Theresa!" A tall man with reddish highlights in his sandy blond hair bellowed. He waited expectantly at the foot of the stairs. "Theresa, is there something keeping you girl?" He demanded after a few moments.
"Geeze Dad, you don't have to shout. I'm coming." A teenage girl yelled back.
"If I were shouting you'd know it." The man replied. "That was simply raising my voice to be heard over that infernal racket you listen to. Now get a move on it. I want the moving van on the other side of Atlanta before the morning rush hour."
"You just can't wait to rip me away from all my friends can you?"
"Which of the fair folk did you offend to deserve this, Sean?" The man muttered to himself. "You'll make new friends. I'm being offered twice my current salary. You'll be able to attend a good school. And we might as well move on voluntarily rather than waiting for them to send us packing."
"A good school, right." Theresa snorted as she appeared at the head of the stairs with a bulging suitcase. "One that declares to the world that I'm a weirdo, that's so great."
Sean's mouth thinned at the sight of his daughter's tattered, barely decent shorts and tight, cropped tee shirt. "Your mother would have been ashamed to see you in such a get up." He declared.
Theresa tossed a main of coppery red-gold hair over her shoulder. "Mom's dead, how would you know what she would or wouldn't approve of. Unlike you, I'm sure Mom would have kept up with the times. This is what everyone's wearing."
Sean took a deep calming breath. "Everyone but you. Go change."
"I thought you were in a hurry." Theresa argued. "I'd have to unpack my suitcase, decide what to wear again… You know how long that can take… Uncle Tommy's always telling me how wild Mom was when she was my age. Would you have tried to stifle her too?"
"Fine, wear it. You'll be in the truck all day. It's not as if anyone is going to see you flaunting yourself." Sean grudgingly surrendered.
"No one except the gas station students. Maybe I can find a cute one." Theresa shot back.
Muttering under his breath Sean took her suitcase and hauled it out to the moving van. Theresa grabbed a Walkman and a CD case then plopped into the passenger seat and settled the headphones in place.
"I can see this is going to be a delightful trip." Sean sighed as he started the truck and pulled away from their old life.
****** ****** ******
Todd paused in the middle of a basketball game with Bobby, Ray, Evan, Rahne and Sam. He easily recognized the car that had just passed through the Institute gates, having repainted it several dozen times during the previous school year.
"Hey guys, go ahead without me." Todd said. "I'll be back in a while." He leapt up, did a flip and landed neatly on the top of the backboard. Another leap put him on the roof. He hopped along the edge of the gutter for a few moments then sprung out onto a tree branch. He climbed around the trunk and out onto a limb that extended over the drive. When Kelly's car passed beneath him Todd dropped onto the roof.
Kelly parked in front of the mansion. He got out of his car and glanced at Todd then sighed and shook his head.
"Yo Kelly, what ya doing here?" Todd asked. His tone was cheerfully disrespectful, openly curious and generally friendly.
"My duty." Kelly replied. He looked at Todd as if the teen were a particularly loathsome bug. "I hear you managed to convince the government that you're capable of emulating a civilized human-being. I hope that you'll start proving that to me by leaving my car in the same condition as when it drove through those gates."
Todd stuck out his tongue at Kelly's retreating back.
Hank met the Principal at the door. Kelly cringed away from the blue furred mutant's outstretched hand. Hank sighed and dropped his hand. "Please follow me. The Professor, Ororo and Moira are waiting."
"Then let's get this over with." Kelly said. Once they arrived at Xavier's office Kelly dumped several files on the desk. "Mr. McCoy's lesson plans are satisfactory. Dr. MacTaggart, I understand you'll be helping him teach some of the science classes, correct?"
"I'll be taking biology," Moira confirmed, "and health naturally."
"Alright, the two of you should be sufficient. Ms. Monroe, I've redrafted your English and Literature plans. You're obviously not certified to teach. I assume you are capable of grading papers and leading a group discussion. I'll handle the actual teaching."
"You?" Xavier asked with surprise.
"I won't ask my teachers to do something I'm unwilling to do myself." Kelly said. "I think you'd do well to include more examples of abuses of power in your history plans, considering…"
"I'll handle the lesson plans for history, thank you." Xavier replied coolly. "Is there anything else?"
"From what I've seen of your students, I assume the Physical Education requirement is covered." Kelly continued. "I've arranged for Mr. Redland to teach the necessary math classes and for a few other teachers to cover the odds and ends such as personal finance and language."
Outside Evan walked up behind Todd as he crouched beside Kelly's tire. "Need some help?" He asked.
"Naw." Todd said. "I'm only letting the air out of one tire. Kelly's a jerk, but he did stand up for Lance at the trial."
****** ****** ******
Xavier moved through the astral plane with caution and discretion as he circled around the Shadow King's Lair.
He'd learned his lesson. He didn't venture into the web, only skirted it. He followed the individual strands out to where they were isolated and vulnerable. Then he severed the strands. He used his powers to burn them back as far as possible in an attempt to make it as difficult as possible for the Shadow King to re-establish his connection.
The whole time Xavier could feel the Shadow King's malevolent gaze following him but like a trap-door spider the creature chose not to venture out from his lair.
Xavier worked steadily. Every day for the past few months he'd come here and spent hours pruning back the Shadow King's domain. He knew eventually he'd have to confront the entity directly but for now he was satisfied with eroding it's power base.
****** ****** ******
Hank and Ororo stood in the Danger Room facing the X-Men and New Mutants. They looked uncomfortable. "I don't want anyone to take this the wrong way but we've decided to reorganize the teams to be in accordance with the scenarios you're likely find yourselves in." Hank began.
Rogue crossed her arms and turned her back on them with a scowl on her face.
"Just be honest about it." Evan snapped. "You're demoting everyone who failed SHIELD's test."
"You shouldn't think of it as a demotion." Hank said. "The students who will be taking classes here will have a much greater degree of flexibility in their schedule for that reason you'll be the first called when trouble rears it's head. Furthermore I'll be asking some of you to take charge of the new students' training sessions. The primary responsibility of the group attending Bayville High will be dealing with public relations."
Ororo stepped forward. "Kitty, Kurt, Amara, Rahne, Pietro and Todd. You will be working together for the first session. I want you to complete the obstacle course without using your powers. Kurt and Kitty you will be acting as co-leaders for the time being."
"Welcome to my life," Jamie said as he, Rogue, Evan, Sam, Bobby and Ray filed out of the room behind Hank.
Hank sighed. "I am gong to schedule an hour of independent work on understanding your powers. As we've seen with Rogue sometimes all it takes is a new insight."
Rogue snorted. "It wasn't enough to impress those busybodies at SHIELD."
"Which in no way diminishes your accomplishments." Hank replied. "I will be looking to you to lead this team in group exercises. Apocalypse is not going to just go away you know."
"Ray, how'd you end up with us?" Evan asked quietly. "You've got control of your powers and you don't do dumb stuff like Bobby's joyriding and everything else."
Ray shrugged. "I didn't want to talk to a shrink. It's hard to pass a test you don't take."
Inside the Danger Room the newly formed team faced their first test.
Shadowcat glanced over the group thoughtfully. "I think Cyke would have Toad and Nightcrawler lead the way. Powers or not you guys have the best reflexes; if anything jumps out at us you've got the best chance of dealing with it. Rahne do you ever do any gymnastics in human form?"
Wolfsbane shook her head. "It's so natural just to change." She said. "I like my wolf-form. It feels right."
"Stick close to me." Quicksilver said. "I'll keep you out of trouble."
"I guess we watch each other's backs." Magma said. Shadowcat smiled at her.
"Vell, I guess that's everything." Nightcrawler said. He signaled Storm to start the session.
"Don't get too far ahead." Shadowcat reminded Nightcrawler and Toad as the room activated.
The pair led the way into the course. They criss-crossed each other's paths as they searched for any hidden dangers.
The others jogged after them. Quicksilver hung back and urged the three girls along impatiently.
The floor dropped out from beneath Nightcrawler. Toad grabbed his tail and yanked him back to solid ground. Nightcrawler nodded a quick thanks to him and they kept moving.
Several bolos shot out of the wall at them. Quicksilver yelled a warning as he jumped back and hauled Wolfsbane out of harm's way along with him. Shadowcat dropped and swept Magma's legs out from beneath her to get her below the line of fire.
Nightcrawler and Toad offered them a hand to their feet a moment later.
Ten feet further on several paintball drones zeroed in on them. "They'll take the closest target first." Shadowcat yelled.
Nightcrawler pointed Toad toward one of the drones. They made use of their pre-natural agility to draw the drones away from the others.
Quicksilver noticed a third drone coming up behind Toad. He snatched a ponytail holder from Rahne's hair and threw it at the drone; the invisible flick of his wrist accelerated the little bit of plastic to bullet-like velocities. The drone sparked and crashed as Quicksilver's projectile tore through its innards.
Kitty glanced from Rahne's disarrayed hair to the destroyed drone. "You cheated." She hissed.
"Only if I get caught." Pietro replied. "Admit it, the point's being discreet, not stupid."
"Later." Kitty sighed.
While they'd talked Toad and Nightcrawler lured the drones into shooting each other and caught up. "What's the hold up?" Toad asked.
"Nothing." Kitty said. "Everyone keep moving."