A Force Unleashed
Written by Darkstorm5000
Disclaimer: The X-Men and related characters in their various incarnations are the property of Marvel Entertainment.
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Chapter 3- Alternative School Part 2, Up the Academy
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A/N: This chapter contains some mild language.
Nestled in the shadows of the Berkshire Mountains, and just outside of the small township of Snow Valley, Massachusetts stands the Massachusetts Preparatory Academy. It is a sprawling and spacious institution that serves as a school for the gifted. The gifts that these students possess give them fantastic and unique abilities, mutant powers that separate them from the rest of mankind, and powers that they are taught to control and to make better use of here. But, not to be confused with another School for the Gifted located a few hundred miles due north in New York's Westchester County; the Massachusetts Academy has a decidedly 'different' philosophy on how mutants should use those powers.
Despite the more than intentionally similar designs, right down to the series of secret corridors below the school that includes a state of the art training complex, the difference between the two schools can be seen when comparing the Headmaster and Headmistress of each fine institution. While Charles Xavier aspires to help his students learn how to control their powers for the benefit of all humanity, Emma Frost on the other hand, wants more from her students than just mere control of their powers. She is teaching them to become thoroughly proficient in the use of their abilities, preparing them to one day take their place in the world as part of a new, elite power structure. And, she expects that they shouldn't be satisfied with anything less.
It is a point that Miss Frost is making quite clear at the moment in the school's Combat Simulation Room, located in the lower levels beneath the Massachusetts Academy.
"Everybody just stop! End training sequence now…" Emma Frost shouted to her students from the control booth high above within the Combat Room, as she removed the eyeglasses that she was wearing and closed her eyes in frustration.
At first glance, one couldn't help but notice the platinum blonde hair, ice-blue eyes, and strikingly classic features of one Emma Grace Frost. The expensive white pantsuit that she was currently wearing helped in finalizing the realization that she could have most likely had a successful career as a fashion model, if she had so desired one.
"What's the matter?" Joanna Cargill, the muscular and super-strong, 6'11" African-American teenager codenamed Frenzy asked, as she looked up from inside of the Combat Room.
Frenzy stood there dressed in her dark purple leather uniform trimmed in fuchsia, one just like all of the other students at the Massachusetts Academy wore during their training sessions, and waited for a response. Despite the color and different insignias on the collars and belts, the leather uniforms were similar in design to those worn by students at another school, while training in their Danger Room or on missions away from the school.
"What is the matter, Frenzy, is that I'm stopping this training session before one of your teammates manages to get themselves killed!" A somewhat, flustered Emma Frost replied.
"Idiots." Joanna angrily mumbled to herself, referring to her junior-squad teammates. Her remark also showed her impatience at still being on the school's junior squad, when she believed that she had more than proven that she was ready to be promoted to the school's senior-team.
"Jetstream, your primary responsibility is to help Firestar in providing aerial cover for your teammates on the ground, while they disable the target drones." Miss Frost continued, as she spoke to Haroun ibn Sallah al-Rahman, the young man that she had recruited to join the Massachusetts Academy from his home country in the Middle East, "It-is-not to fly around the Combat Room, as though you were performing in some air show. And, the rest of you aren't performing much more effectively than him."
"I'm sure we can do a lot better if we try it again, Miss Frost." Firestar, the red-haired girl whose real name was Angelica Jones, assured her.
"I appreciate the gesture Firestar, but I think that it might be more beneficial if all of you observed one of the older students run the simulation in there." Miss Frost replied, as she turned around behind her and looked at the five senior-most students at the Academy. There stood the teenagers that had been code-named Pyro, Avalanche, Empath, Boomer, and the most recently promoted to senior-status, Roulette.
"Do I have any volunteers?" The Headmistress asked them.
"Hell, I'll go." John Allerdyce, the confident flame-controlling mutant known as Pyro quickly answered, as he then turned and walked out of the control booth.
While Pyro made his way down to the Combat Room, Miss Frost once again spoke to the junior students still inside.
"Jetstream, Frenzy, Bevatron, Catseye, all of you join me in the control booth." She angrily instructed them.
"What about me, Miss Frost?" Angelica asked.
"I want you to remain, Angelica. I will tell you more in a moment." She replied, now in a calmer tone.
After a few minutes had passed, John was down in the Combat Room and the junior students were now up in the control booth above.
"I'm ready whenever you are." John said, as he took out the lighter with the shark-toothed design on it from a small pocket on his purple and fuchsia leather uniform. He then flipped the lid up, and flicked up a small flame on it.
"Pyro, close your lighter and lay it down on the floor." Miss Frost instructed him.
"Okay…This gonna be hand-to-hand, or something?" John asked, as he knelt and put the lighter down in front of him.
"No, as an extra challenge, you'll be working with an alternate source of power for this session." Miss Frost informed him. Then, she spoke to Angelica.
"Firestar, I want you to focus your microwave energy around you. Heat the air particles around your body until they achieve combustion, just like in your individual session with me the other day." Emma told her.
"But, Pyro's in here too. When I do that, it makes the room really, really hot." Angelica replied.
"As long as you focus your energy and keep it in a closely confined area around you, you won't harm anyone else. Besides, I believe that Pyro is more than apt to handle any additional heat that may come his way." Miss Frost said, as a small smile came to Pyro's face.
Firestar closed her eyes, held her arms out to her side, and activated her mutant power with a mental command. It caused her body to begin emitting microwave radiation that started to heat the air around her. Then, she did as she had been instructed by her teacher and focused that energy into a tightly defined field around her body. She increased its intensity until the very air around her started crackling loudly, and then violently exploded into white-hot flames.
"I am beginning the exercise." Emma informed Pyro, as she activated the training sequence from the control booth.
"Just stand still, and don't move." Pyro instructed Firestar, as the first wave of flying target drones came towards him.
The drones were round and metallic, roughly about the same size as a volleyball. They had targeting sensors that locked onto their subject and fired small energy blasts at them. Since Pyro was more experienced than the younger students that had been running the simulation previously, the drones were moving much faster and the blasts that they were firing were set on a higher damage level. Frost had programmed the drones to only target Pyro, meaning that Firestar was in no danger of being hit as she stood in the center of the Combat Room. Pyro remained close to Firestar, and used the tremendous flames that she was currently generating to fuel his pyro-kinetic ability. He took out the numerous drones one at a time, all the while jumping, ducking, and rolling to avoid being hit as they targeted him.
Within a matter of a few minutes, the bright red siren lights inside of the Combat Room flashed on, signaling that the training objective had been achieved.
"Allriight John! Way to show the life-sized video game who's boss!" An excited young lady named Tabitha Smith, who also went by the code-name Boomer, shouted from the control booth.
"Looks like teacher's pet just scored some more brownie points he doesn't need." Lance Alvers, the appropriately code-named Avalanche remarked, which quickly drew the ire of one Tabitha Smith.
"Why don't cha do us all a favor and shut-up already?" Tabitha said, as she pushed blonde hair that had a few brightly-colored red highlights in it from in front of her face, further revealing eyes that were deep blue and also her small diamond stud nose-piercing.
"What, you think you can shut me up, Boom-Boom?" Lance challenged her, cocking his head to the side and causing his semi-long, dark brown hair to sway to the side as he folded his fairly muscular arms in front of him. "'Cause I'm sure as hell not scared of you, or your hot-shot, matchstick boyfriend."
With that, a small tremor could be felt within the control booth, making it seem as though there was a localized aftershock affecting just that one room. But, since the Combat Room didn't sit directly on a fault-line, the students knew that there could only be one cause of the rumbling sensation, or rather only one person causing it.
"In case you forgot, my code-name is Boomer. I don't go by Boom-Boom anymore." Tabitha quickly responded, with her temper now starting to flare.
"Like it matters. Both of them sound pretty damn stupid, if you ask me." Lance said, as he started to laugh. To which, Tabitha could only think of one response.
"I'll show you stupid, Alvers! You're the one who's gonna 3…be lookin' stupid, when they're spending the next month, 2…scrapin' you offa the walls in here, 1…" Boomer replied, as the teen used all of the might in her curvy, yet athletically-built physique, to hurl a bright, round baseball-sized object at Avalanche from the opposite side of the control booth.
"Oh shit, she's gonna blow us all up with one of those home-made grenades!" Lance yelled, as one of Boomer's plasma-energy, time-controlled bombs bounced on the ground towards him in the control booth. While Lance jumped to take cover, most of the other students in the control booth also did the same, or at the very least covered their ears to protect their hearing from the impending blast.
Sharon Smith, the ani-morphing mutant known as Catseye who had been born with the ability to change into a variety of different feline forms, converted herself into small housecat and sought safety in a small space between two of the large computers in the control booth.
But, instead of responding like most of her young charges, the Headmistress of the school walked over from the instrument panel that controlled the Combat Room, and knelt down to pick the time bomb up. As Emma Frost gazed down at the small energy ball in her hand, the other students that had scurried for cover watched in amazement at Miss Frost's bravery. After waiting for a few moments, they saw that the time bomb didn't explode violently, but rather fizzled out and dissipated into thin air.
"What'd you do to it?" Jennifer Stavros, the blonde Atlantic City native who was ironically enough codenamed Roulette, asked her teacher.
"Nothing." Miss Frost replied, "I sensed no danger telepathically from Tabitha, and reacted accordingly."
"As did I, Mistress Frost." Manuel Alfonso de la Rocha, the emotion-sensitive mutant that hailed from the nation of Spain and who had given himself the name Empath also revealed, as he had not moved from where he had been standing either.
"But, I totally faked out 'Earthquake-boy' over there with that dud. I actually had him shakin' in his boots, for a change." Tabitha commented with a smile of self-satisfaction, as Lance stood back up.
"It's about time someone taught 'too-much-testosterone' a lesson." Jennifer said approvingly, while the door to the control booth opened.
"What'd I miss?" John asked, as he had re-entered the control booth, to hear a couple of the students laughing within. John had left Firestar behind in the Combat Room, so that she could finish powering herself down.
"Your girlfriend actin' like a complete psycho, man." Lance answered.
"You missed witnessing your teammates waste valuable energy, energy which they should be conserving for their own training session today." Miss Frost told him.
"Shall I restart the program that Pyro was just using?" Manuel asked Miss Frost.
"Leave it off for the time being, Empath, classes will be starting within the hour. You and your fellow senior squad-mates will get the opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge of the Combat Room, this time with a much more difficult training program. All, except for you John." Miss Frost told them, as she turned towards John, "Since you've more than demonstrated your proficiency in there this morning, you may excuse yourself from this afternoon's session."
"It's alright, I can run another one with everyone else." John told her.
As soon as John said that, Lance started to make kissing sounds, an implication that the senior-squad leader was volunteering to participate in the afternoon session just to kiss up. But, he quickly stopped when Tabitha gave him a look that seemed to ask, 'Do you want seconds?'
"As you wish. I expect the five of you to be in here promptly this afternoon at 3 o'clock. The junior students will be here to observe you this time." Miss Frost said, as she turned and headed for the control booth exit.
After hearing her talk to the students before departing, it might seem like Emma Frost was upset with their displays of power this morning. But, she couldn't have been more satisfied at their desire to use them, and particularly Tabitha's willingness to stand up to Lance's bullying attitude.
"Girl power indeed…" Emma thought to herself, as she continued on to her office with a small smile on her face.
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The students soon began to file out of the control booth above the Combat Room, heading for the locker room area. Last out were Tabitha and John, as they walked a good distance behind everyone else.
"You kicked some major ass in there." Tabitha said, as they walked together down the corridor.
"What else would you expect? Ass-kickin' is my middle name." John replied.
"I thought 'St. Reginald' was your middle name?" Tabitha smirked.
"Hey, I didn't tell you that so you could go broadcastin' it to the whole world." John quickly said to her, "The last thing I need is for Lance to find out, and give him an excuse to be an even bigger asshole than usual."
"After this morning, I don't think you'll have to worry about Lance razzin' you for awhile." Tabitha said, as a huge smile returned to her face when she thought about what had happened that morning between her and Lance, "But, sometimes I think that deep down Lance doesn't really mean to be that way."
"I don't believe it, you're actually coming to his defense?" John said in a surprised tone, as he had always gotten the impression that his girlfriend really didn't like Lance.
"I don't know. I'm just pointing out that his life has been pretty rough, and maybe that's the only way he knows how to be to other people." Tabitha replied.
"Well, most of us here haven't had things that easy, either." John told her, as they both stopped to talk in the now empty corridor.
"Yeah, but talkin' from personal experience, some of us have still had it a lot harder than others." Tabitha said, as she now looked down to the ground.
"Yeah, I know. You told me about how bad things were with you and your Dad." John remembered.
"Yeah." Tabitha quietly sighed.
Tabitha usually didn't like to think about the abusive home that she grew up in, one which she and her mother eventually had to leave. They left not too long before Emma Frost found them, and extended an invitation for Tabitha to attend the Massachusetts Academy. John could see how much the memories of that part of her life bothered her, and responded by putting his arms around her. After a few moments in their comforting embrace, Tabitha looked up at John and spoke again.
"So, did you enjoy your little bonding moment with Angelica this morning?" Tabitha smiled once again, as she asked the loaded question and tried to lighten the currently heavy mood between them.
"Who, her?" John answered, "C'mon Tab, you know you're the only one I wanna bond with. Speaking of which, we haven't bonded for awhile now."
"Actually, I think you need to cool down from your workout first." Tabitha responded.
"But, I thought you liked your guys hot?" John said, in a flirtatious tone.
"With you, that can be a safety hazard." Tabitha said, as she put her arms around John's neck and stepped up on her toes to kiss him.
Tabitha then remembered that classes were about to start, and then she spoke again, "We'd better hurry up, so we can get out of these uniforms."
"Now that's what I'm talking about." John said suggestively.
"Guys, you're always thinking with your head. Too bad it's always the wrong one." Tabitha shook her head, as she took John by his gloved hand and they continued on to the men and women's locker rooms.
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After a full day of classes that were meant to help shape the students' minds, and then after another grueling session inside of the Combat Room meant to push their genetic gifts to a new plateau, the students at the Massachusetts Academy were then allowed to spend the rest of the afternoon unwinding in various parts of the school.
As Jennifer Stavros walked out to the huge balcony patio behind the school, she could see that her classmate Manuel de la Rocha was already standing out there in, what appeared to be, a form of silent meditation.
"What 'cha doing out here, Manny?" Jennifer asked, as she stepped out onto the balcony as well.
"Thinking." Manuel replied with a single word, as he continued looking ahead to the open commons area in front of him.
"About what?" Jennifer continued to inquire, as she took a seat on a bench that was perfectly positioned for viewing the nearby mountain landscape.
"About the sheer madness that seems to surround me on a daily basis." Manuel answered.
"What's got your boxers in a bind now?" Jennifer remarked.
"It's not enough that I have to suffer John Allerdyce as our squad leader, but it is insane that I am forced to put up with the antics of that punk-party princess Tabitha Smith, and especially with that complete neanderthal Alvers. A De la Rocha should not have to remain in the company of such…commoners." Manuel remarked, as he finally turned around towards Jennifer to reveal his unmistakably European features, displayed by his golden brown hair and light brown eyes.
"Really? And how do you manage to remain in the company of this 'commoner'?" Jennifer asked with one eyebrow raised over her light-green eyes, as she reached into her pocket and took out a clip to pull her long blonde hair into a single ponytail.
"Because, your emotional state remains fairly stable, and you are one of the few individuals at this school that surprisingly does not wreak havoc on my empathic senses. With everyone else, it's like they are all jamming their emotional prattling into my skull every waking moment of the day." Manuel revealed, "If it is not Pyro constantly brooding about something, or Lance's anger at the rest of the world, then it's Angelica's painfully shy feelings of inadequacy, Mistress Frost's, as expected, cold demeanor, or Tabitha's wild personality. Much of my concentration throughout the day is spent simply trying to shut them all out."
"Poor Manny." Jennifer replied sarcastically, "Maybe one of my good luck discs'll help you out."
With that, Roulette activated her mutant power and created one of her small probability-altering discs in her hand. The discs that she was able to create could cause a person to receive good luck from her red-colored discs, or be hexed with bad luck from a black-colored disc. At that moment, she created a small, red psionically-charged disc in her hand and got up from the bench to hand it to Empath.
"Thank you, but no." Manuel said, as he refused her gesture, "Standing out here has cleared my thoughts for the time-being."
"Hmmph, I guess it's your loss then." Jennifer said in an indifferent tone, as she took the disc and simply tossed it out into the grassy field that they were both overlooking.
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Meanwhile at the Headmistress's private residence on campus, Emma Frost was sitting at her desk in the study. She was pouring through important information that she had been gathering over recent months on potential new recruits, which she had filed into dossier folders that now lay in front of her. As she carefully looked at the name on each folder and then read what was known about them, she made notations of her own within the file, and debated on what her next course of action would be in regards to each individual--
-Aaronson(2)-Christopher, Jesse
-Blevins, Sally
-Callasantos(2), Maria, Lucia
-Kleinstock(3)-Sven, Harlan, EricEmma looked up, however, when she heard a knock at her study door.
"Come in." Emma said, as she closed the folder that she was currently holding marked, Colbert, Marie-Ange.
The door then opened and in walked Raven Darkholme, the school's assistant Headmistress.
"Is everything alright Raven?" Emma asked her, as Miss Darkholme took notice of the less than conservative attire that the Headmistress was now wearing in the privacy of her own home. Emma had on a tight and revealing white corset, long white satin gloves and leather boots, and an exquisite fur-trimmed shawl to complete the outfit.
But before she bothered to respond, Raven Darkholme first made sure to close the office door and then underwent a physical transformation of her own. She shape-shifted her fair-hued skin to a very dark blue tint, and her jet-black hair to a now fiery red color. Gone were the average looking white eyes with dark-colored pupils, now replaced by eyes that glowed an eerie yellow color.
"Your housekeeper let me in. I came to inform you that my presence has been requested in Washington D.C.--" Mystique replied, before she then changed her appearance yet again. This time her voice became deeper, as she now took the form of a man that had died more than a year and a half ago.
"--Or rather, the presence of Senator Robert Kelly, for a Senate hearing on national security." Mystique replied in the guise of Senator Kelly, before reverting back to her own blue-skinned form.
"By all means, don't delay any further. I can handle things here at the school." Emma told her, "I've taken care of most of my important duties at Frost International for the upcoming quarter, and I had already considered spending the rest of the current semester here."
"If you hear from Erik, inform him of where I have gone." Mystique requested.
"Certainly." Emma responded, as Mystique turned away from her and headed towards the door.
Mystique proceeded to revert back into her Raven Darkholme identity, and then left the study to make preparations for Senator Kelly's flight back to the nation's capitol. Meanwhile, Emma sat back in her chair at the desk in her study and thought about how she even came to be in association with individuals like Mystique, or the Brotherhood for that matter. She still recalled vividly the night when Erik Magnus Lensherr made his first, and unexpected, late hour visit to the Massachusetts Academy.
Despite the school's advanced security system that had been developed by her very own Frost Technotics, and the well-trained security detachment that had been specially-assigned to the Massachusetts Academy from the Hellfire Club, all at the urging of her fellow member Sebastian Shaw who held the title of Black King of their Inner Circle within the Hellfire Club, Magneto proved that none of those precautions could impede the Master of Magnetism. Emma was astounded even more by the fact that Magneto could walk right into her spacious, private residence on the campus and right up to her bedroom, without her mutant telepathy even alerting her to his presence…
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(Flashback to nearly a year beforehand, a few weeks following the incident at Alkali Lake…)
"This is a rather fine institution that you have established here."
Emma groggily opened her eyes at the sound of hearing the voice within her room, and instantly sat straight up on expensive silk sheets in a bed that was more than large enough to accommodate her and a handful of others. She could see a figure standing at the window in her room, and from what she could tell, he seemed to be dressed in a rather unusual outfit.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Emma asked, as she nervously stood up and grabbed a robe to cover the negligee that she was wearing.
She wasn't as unnerved at being awakened at such an ungodly hour of the morning in her state of undress, as she was by the fact that her telepathic probes weren't picking up any thought patterns in the room, despite the fact that she was obviously talking to somebody there. Emma had never considered herself to be the most powerful mind on the planet, that title had already been taken by another man, but she believed that she was still powerful enough to be counted among the first order psi's in the world.
"There is no need for alarm, I come here bearing no ill-will." The figure said, as he turned from the window and faced her.
Then with a wave of his hand, the lamp next to Emma's bed suddenly turned itself on without the switch being flipped. With the room now illuminated, Emma recognized instantly the man before her. His face had been paraded across every newspaper and news broadcast around the world after his capture on Liberty Island, and now again, since his recent escape from the federal prison where he had been incarcerated.
"I now recognize the who, but what do I owe to your presence, Magneto?" Emma inquired, as she continued her psi-probe that was still netting zilch.
"You can stop with your mental probing, you won't find the answers that you are requesting that way." Erik replied, as he stepped closer to Emma and lightly tapped on the helmet that he was currently wearing.
"How do you know…" Emma said, surprised that he knew about her mutant ability.
"Child, I am not a novice at this game that we play. And I can see neither are you, as the equipment underneath your residence can attest to." Erik responded, "The mutant detection device that you built below us is similar to the Cerebro machine that I helped to create many years ago. Where did you happen to come across the designs for it?"
"I have my sources." Emma shortly replied.
"As do I, which is how I learned about this school and about your unique abilities." Erik told her.
"Are you here to blackmail me then?" Emma asked him.
"On the contrary, I've come seeking your aid. I have a proposition that I believe would be beneficial to the both of us." Erik revealed.
"A proposition, at this time of night. I'm curious as to what that could be?" Emma smiled, as she now sat back down on her bed with both legs tucked underneath her.
"The war that will determine who will gain final dominance on this planet has begun, with the first shot being fired in the form of a worldwide phenomenon that occurred a few weeks ago." Erik said, as walked back to the window and looked carefully outside.
"You don't have to worry, I haven't alerted the security at this school to your presence." Emma assured him.
"I am pleased to see that you possess wisdom of a woman far beyond your years." Erik said, as he now took a seat in the room near the window.
"I haven't alerted them, yet. I'm just extending you the courtesy to finish telling me why I've been awakened to find an uninvited guest in my bedroom." Emma clarified, "This phenomenon that you referred to, you're talking about the attack that happened against every sentient mind on the planet?"
"Indeed, a man named William Stryker attempted to wipe every living mutant off of the face of the planet. Although he was unsuccessful, it is only a matter of time before the 'next' Stryker comes along to try and kill us all in our sleep." Erik believed.
"And what would this have to do with me and my school exactly?" Emma wanted to know.
"It has been brought to my attention that perhaps the methods that I have employed in the past, in my fight to ensure the survival of our people, needs a fresh approach. Instead of relying mainly on hired mercenaries to fight alongside me as I have done in the past, an old friend has shown me time and time again that having a group completely dedicated to his dream will ensure complete and unwavering loyalty from them. I think it is time that I helped to do my part in shaping the minds of the next generation of mutants. I have two such recruits already, a young man named John Allerdyce and another named Lance Alvers, known as Pyro and Avalanche respectively. I would like to bring them here to attend your school for mutants." Erik further revealed.
"I've already begun recruiting young mutants of my own, what makes you think that I would even want these two?" Emma asked skeptically.
"Because their power is without question, and with the proper guidance, they could quickly and easily reach their full potential. Miss Frost, I am not a teacher and I do not presume to fool myself into thinking other wise. In exchange for training these and the other recruits that I bring to you, I will leave my own personal liaison Raven Darkholme to assist you. I would also like you to provide sanctuary to some of my other associates, and in exchange, you would have full access to the services of my new Brotherhood. Seeing as I learned of this school with little trouble, and judging by the ease at which I was able to waltz in here, you might find having them around may come in handy in case trouble decides to rear its ugly head." Erik offered.
"I think it already has. You've made an interesting proposal, but once this new Brotherhood is assembled and completely trained, how would that benefit me?" Emma inquired.
"You would have access to more power and influence than you could imagine, taking your place as a Queen at my side if you so desire." Erik said to her.
"I'm sorry, but being offered that title doesn't do much to impress me." Emma, who already held the title of White Queen of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club, replied.
"In the new world order that I intend to create, you would be a Queen, the likes of which the world has never seen before…" Erik promised her.
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In almost no time following Magneto's proposal, Pyro and Avalanche were enrolled into the Massachusetts Academy as students. Emma Frost's student senior-squad was soon being groomed as part of a new and revamped Brotherhood, a fact which the rest of the student body has yet to be informed of. Magneto also had Mystique give Emma the files that they had obtained from Deathstrike's computer on mutants that had already been identified, which Emma added to the database of potential recruits that she had been collecting on her own. With her thoughts now returning to the present, Emma Frost went back to looking through those very files that sat on her desk--
-Manh, Xi'an Coy…
As she considered who she would attempt to bring into the fold next…
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Next Chapter: The junior X-Men get a surprise, while Storm answers the question, 'How do you talk to an Angel?'…
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A/N: Special thanks to everyone that reviewed the last chapter.
ishandahalf- Glad you liked what's happened so far, especially all of the angst with Bobby and Rogue. As far as Ororo, just stay tuned because I don't think you're going to want to miss that!
Episodic- A brother like Bobby…guess he must come in handy on a hot, summer day. (Just kidding, I know what you meant.) I'm glad you like Jubilee in here, it's fun just hearing what she's going to say, just like it's fun to read what you have to say. As far as Generation X, as you'll soon see this Massachusetts Academy is not quite like the one that had Skin, Husk, Chamber, M, and the rest of the gang. But, it should still be interesting nonetheless…
plutospawn- I'm glad that I'm able to relay that kind of detail that makes it so vivid to you. Forge and Storm? Sometimes if you wish hard enough, you just might receive. Since you brought up Essentials Volume 5 (I think they're great too, and I have most of the volumes), I think you may recognize a few of the characters from there in this upcoming chapter…
MoonlightPhoenix3- The 'Black' Tom Cassidy? I wouldn't be a true fan of the X-Men, if I didn't know who he was. But, as far as him helping his cousin, I think Tom would be more likely to help Sean to an energy blast from his shillelagh cane, than actually help him with information. But then again who knows, maybe Tom'll be a lot more mellow, if and when he finally shows up…
TheDreamerLady- Of course, it wouldn't be the Massachusetts Academy without Emma. Bobby and Rogue have some things to work through in their relationship, all the while having to deal with everything else around them. And I promise, you'll be seeing Angel in the near future. Don't worry about the late review, I take 'em whenever I can get 'em. So, you found 'Night of the Sentinels'…that very episode is what got me hooked on X-Men in the first place, so I hope you enjoy every single minute of it.
Lucas'sgirl- Oh, the plot's gonna get thicker than a jar full of peanut butter with nothing to drink to wash it down, so I hope you're ready. The plot-gremlins that helped me write this wanted me to say thank you for your wonderful compliments, and say that it's reviews like your's that keep them going. (But seriously, thanks for the review).
Independent Fire- Glad you liked the last chapter and the developing love-triangle/angst. Where is Logan off to, guess you'll just have to wait to see. As far as Rahne, stay tuned because she may get some help to get her back to normal, and from an unexpected source. As far as the Massachusetts Academy, just read on and get all that you can handle…
Moon Comix- Glad you liked it so far. It may be a while before the X-Men find Moira, but that doesn't mean that you won't get to see where she is in the very near future. As far as Logan, I promise to show how he and Mariko have been keeping in close contact with each other, possibly through a video-phone or by other means.