Songs of Power Chapter Ten

Disclaimer: Not mine if it's recognizable. I own the plot, Sarah, Mia, Ally, Dr. Gonnal, Ben, Lucas, Heather, the teachers and Glimmer, who is an anti-teacher.

Shout-outs:
LalaithCat: Trust me, I watch for the dodos all the time... that Pickwick. Needs a better handle on her kid... And what do you mean, "a little odd?" I think it's far beyond that point...

Danrilor:Thank you! I hope you like this chapter as well.

iamhollywood: Thanks! I think the reason I don't update much is the lack of inspiration, which means it's never forced... that and I'm ridiculously lazy. Yup.

bant: THANKS!

Mugglebuddy: Really? You're a Phan? Oh cool! Me too! And I hate the state song as well... it is so eeevviilll...

mattb3671: Me too, actually! THANKS!

And the Author proclaimed, "Let there be fic!"... and there was.

As they walked in the doors of the mansion they ran into Freddy and Sarah, who had just woken up.

"Mia!" gasped Sarah.

"It's okay," said Ally, sounding as if she didn't believe her own words. "She ran into a rock."

The two other students drew to the side to allow Sabretooth to pass, then fell in behind him as well. A very little while brought them to the med lab.

"What happened?" asked John.

"Mia ran into a rock," said a hidden Ally, invisible behind everyone else.

The girl gave a slight groan, slowly blinking open her eyes. "Huhhh… what?" she managed. The foot of one of the beds crumbled, followed by the ping of a shattering window. Though she still wasn't all the way conscious, her eyes shot open, hands clasping over her mouth as if to keep her words from spilling out. Silent panicked tears started to run from her eyes, spilling onto her cheeks.

"Uncontrollable mutation?" John asked the students as Sabretooth gently lowered Mia onto a bed.

"No." said Ally. "Well, mostly. It requires concentration from her, not inordinate amounts, but some. Colds and flus, anything that messes with her throat, can make her loose control."

"Good. My guess is that the bump just rattled her a bit and has slightly impaired that bit of her mind. She should be fine in half an hour, if that's true." There was a collective sigh of relief. "Now, I need to get work done, so why don't you all get breakfast?"

Reluctantly the room cleared. Once everyone had scrounged something edible they started discussing this morning's events.

"I hope she's okay," said Ally worriedly. "If she can't talk anymore… It'll destroy her. I've known her when she couldn't control it."

"John said she'll be fine…" put in Sarah, but there was a note of worry in her voice too.

"I guess we'll have to wait and see."

Back in the med lab Sabretooth was watching Mia while John fussed with something in the attached office. The girl was propped up in a bed, no longer crying though she was staring straight ahead, face painfully blank.

Eventually John came back over. "Want to try talking again?" he asked, handing her a piece of paper and a pencil.

Just a second. Wrote Mia, getting up and leaving. A few minutes later she came back with Ally and a small round disc of metal, which she handed to her friend.

"It's a pitch pipe," explained Ally. "I give her a note and then she can sing it back. It's hard to find the starting note unless you have help, and Mia's told me it's easier to keep from breaking things if she's singing."

She blew gently into the pipe, making a clear pitch. Mia took a deep breath and started to sing.

"Do…Re…Mi…Fa…So…La…Ti…Do! Oh good! I can talk again!" she exclaimed, before bursting into tears.

"Ohhhh, it's okay," said Ally. "It'll be fine… nothing came of it. You can still talk and sing… good thing, too! We need you in the alto section… After all, Jean isn't as good as you are(1)"

That startled a watery laugh out of her. "Nope… She might be good and all, but she's not perfect."

"I won't ask," sighed Dr. Gonnal, who had just walked in. "You're okay now?" Concern was evident on his face.

Before Mia could answer a lot of yelling could be heard outside the window. "What on earth?" she said, walking over to the window. "Looks like fun… combined snow volleyball and a snowball fight."

"Really?" said Ally, brightening up visibly. "What are we waiting for?

As the two girls disappeared down the hallway Dr. Gonnal moaned "These kids are crazy."

"We prefer the term differently sane!" yelled someone around the corner.

Outside there was a game of sorts going. It involved snowballs, a volleyball and a complicated maze of snow-forts.

"What's the goal?" Ally yelled at Sarah.

"Keep people distracted with snowballs while playing volleyball…and it doesn't matter if the ball hits the ground because it's covered with snow."

"Fun! Whose on which team?"

"Todd, me and Rogue on one and Lance, Lucas and Tabby on the other."

"I'll go join there team!" said Mia.

"I'll stay here, then!" added in Ally. Soon the battle was raging, storm flying everywhere.

Ally was hit with a snowball on her head, snow sticking to her winter hat as she looked for the volleyball. To her surprise it came from behind her, managing to bop her on the head (again!). Shocked, she turned around to see Dr. Gonnal with another adult and two more kids. "Thanks!" she called, turning around to get hit with more snow. Ignoring it she served, managing to get Todd on his head. He kicked at it once it landed, accidentally hitting Dr. Gonnal.

"Kids…" he sighed. "Could you come over here, please?" As everyone clustered around him he introduced everyone: "These are Ally, Mia, Tabby, Todd, Lance, Sarah, Lucas, Rogue and Freddy; Remy and Ben are inside. Children, these are Mrs. Winthrow, the new math teacher, Heather Greenson and Jonathon Starsmore(2).

Heather was wearing a sweatshirt with the hood pulled low over her face so only her nose and mouth were visible, along with very baggy jeans. Jonathon was wearing all black, with a black scarf tied over his mouth, so you could only see his eyes as well.

"Jonathon speaks using a form of telepathy," put in Dr. Gonnal, "So don't be surprised if there's an…odd edge to his voice. Sarah, Mia, would you show them around?"

"Sure!" said Mia. "Okay, I'll show you around… I'm Mia, in case you didn't catch it the first time; there's a lot of us, huh?"

"And I'm Sarah."

"What is this place?" asked Heather as they walked off, voice very quiet. "A Professor Xavier found me, but said I would do better here…"

Mia started. "Well, technically we're a sister school of sorts to the Xavier Institute, one for kids who need a different learning environment, but technically isn't everything. As Sarah likes to say…"

Sarah finished her sentence. "Welcome to the Arizona Academy of Useless and/or Psychologically Scarred Mutants."

"What do you mean?" she asked again.

"Well, Ben's mutation is to be cold all the time, Todd can spit gunk and jump, Lance's power is too destructive to be used, pretty much, Rogue drains anyone she touches with bare skin and I don't even know if I can fly because I'm scared of heights. Remy is just messed up, Freddy has personal image issues, Tabby verges on psychotic and slutty, Rogue has relationship issues because of her mutation and as far as we know Lucas is the only normalish one here. And Ally is human. What's your mutations?"

Instead of responding directly Heather took off her sweatshirt hood. She had eight eyes, black and arachnidian (3), her hair an inch-long fuzz over her head. "I woke up one day somewhere between human and spider…"

"That's tough," said Sarah. "Physical mutations are the worst… It was agony, getting my wings in. And then when I fledged… What's yours, Jonathon?"

He regarded her coolly. First off, he 'spoke', it's Jono. I make…energy of some sort. It blew off most of my body; the cloth holds the energy in. Technically I'm dead.

"Well, technically isn't everything. Here's the kitchen—help yourself if you ever want anything. Teachers' rooms down that hallway, students' down this one. Classrooms up these stairs, you'll have class with the rest of us. I think Dr. Gonnal has schedules for you… Anyways, pick any room that's empty; boys' on the left side, girls on the right. There're bathrooms at the end of the hallway. And with that I exit, stage right." Said Mia, disappearing into her bedroom.

(1) See Chapter Six for the background on this. It's near the end, after the squirrels.

(2) I think canonly speaking he's 18, but imagine him as 16 to young 17 for the sake of this fic.

(3) Watch Read make up words! Fun, eh? It's one of my goals to see the utter ruin of the English language by the time I'm 18, and this is part of my attempt to do so.

A/N: I promise these are the last characters I'm introducing. For the rest of the fic. But I just needed to put them in here… Plot next chapter, I promise! Read and review, my lovelies! Heh... wicked witch moment.