Emerald Knight: glad to have you on board with yet another marvel fic. Oh, by the way if you like CSI, then I recommend Law & Order: Criminal Intent. I myself prefer the original, but there is something to be said for CI.

*B: **twitches in annoyance** sweetums, their names are Natalia Romanova and Piotr Rasputin. All due respect. Oh, and sorry but no. I have another romance planned for my favorite Russian. Oh, and any thoughts as to who the new guy in today's story should end up with?

Mutant High

Lance hadn't been to school in a long time. At the moment he was headed out where he always was during the school hours, his laughing spot. He had watched that Briar Rabbit cartoon as a kid, and liked the idea. Usually he went to his laughing spot to think. It was a large hill over looking Bayville. From there he could see it all. From there he was able to balance the bad in his life with the good. From there he was usually able to think alone.

Today however was different. As he approached it, he saw someone already there. It was a young man his own age. The boy was on a rock with his legs crossed. Lance usually used the rock to sit on when he was afraid of shaking his rickety jeep to pieces. Upon closer examination the boy was wearing a billowy pair of yellow pants, the kind one sees in old karate movies, and no shirt. The front of his head was shaved, but the back was pulled into a long ponytail. The guy was quiet so Lance pulled up beside him and sat on the hood of his jeep, trying to make sense of the world he had come to live in.

The facts of his life were thus; he couldn't stomach living like a criminal, he couldn't stand most of the X-Men, and he didn't want to leave Wanda in the situation she was in. He ran his hands through his hair. He just couldn't make the confusion go away. Suddenly the guy spoke up, "Troubled friend?"

He had been so silent that Lance had forgotten he was there. Lance jumped, accidently letting out a shake, and said, "Who are you?"

The guy bowed and said, "Shang Chi. It is an honor to meet you . . ."

"Lance," he said holding out his hand, "Alvers. What are you doing out here?"

"I expect," he said in a calm tone as he shook Lance's hand, "The same thing you are; searching for tranquility. Although I don't think that either of us is succeeding."

Lance chuckled, "You're right on that one. Haven't seen you around here before. You new in town?"

"Yes. I have moved in with a group of teens at the Hellfire Exceptional Youth Outreach Home. Though most of us just call it the Hell House."

"Picked the wrong town to come to," Lance said. "This one is full of mutants."

"Why would that make this the wrong town," he asked. At this point neither was looking the other in the face. Both were looking out over the town of Bayville.

"'Cause, it means constant destruction and mayhem. Trust me, I know that for sure." Lance looked at the guy, "I'm one of the mutants."

"I will judge the mutants I meet. If they are like you, I will have no reason to be worried."

"Then you'll wanna stay away from my 'friends'."

"Why?"

"Because they wanna rule the world, why else."

Neither spoke another word; both went back to their own forms of thinking. Chi went back to his meditation, while Lance kept trying to make sense of his life. As Chi said earlier, neither had much success.

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Back at Bayville school had just let out, and Peter was saying good bye to Kurt, who he coincidently had Algebra with. That was when they heard the screams outside. Both ran in opposite directions, but for the same reason.

Moments later Kurt, this time with his inducer turned off, bamfed outside. What he saw was Freddy "The Blob" Dukes throwing one of his temper tantrums, along with a few cars. Kurt wasn't sure what to do, it usually took Scott or Rogue to drop Freddy.

Suddenly over his head shot a blur. "Hey Tubbo!" called out a crass voice. The blur landed on top of a car in front of Blob. Freddy, being the intellectual he was, said, "Huh?"

"Dude?" said the figure in red and blue. "Haven't you heard of me? Don't you read papers?" he then looked Freddy up and down and said, "Who am I kidding, do you read, period?"

"Hey, you're callin' me dumb!" yelled Freddy.

"Ding, ding!" as Freddy slammed his fist where the guy had just been, he said from another spot, "I knew it wasn't humanly possible for a person to be as dumb as you look."

"Quit! Makin'! Funna! ME!" Freddy was swinging wildly.

"Two words," said the nimble figure in red and blue, "Thigh. Master. Or even Stair Master, any master really, but dude loose some weight."

As Freddy put his fist through a wall he said, "Well allow me to introduce myself, I am Spider-Man. And you are who? Fat-Man? Or maybe you are the Boy Blubber. Perhaps One Ton? No? geeze, tough fight." Spider-Man just kept dodging.

"Don't call me names!" screamed Freddy.

"Are you kidding?" said Spider-Man, "I am from New York. It is practically required to learn how to insult. Lets see, you are so fat, that if you went on a diet, three under developed nations would have enough to eat. You are so fat, your belt size is equator. You are so fat . . ." but he had moved just a little to slow and got socked right in the face. he flew across the parking lot and into a parked car. At that point Duncan Matthews, who had a very large bump on his head, cried, "My car!"

Spidey shook his head and said, "Geeze, let me finish my bad joke first." He picked up a light pole that Freddy had knocked down. Now I will explain that Freddy expects people he hits to stay hit. Thus he had not looked to make sure someone as small and scrawny as Spider-Man stayed hit. "Oh Chubby!" called the Wall-Crawler.

As Freddy turned around, Spidey hit him with the light pole, which ordinarily wouldn't have done much, but luckily, Spidey hit him square in the face. Freddy went down like a sack of potatoes. "Home run! And the Yankees win the World Series!"

He looked around and said, "You can all thank me later, for now; Eat your vegetables, tip your waitresses, and always signal your turns!" he said this as he swung off over the roof.

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Later that night, at the Hell House, Emma walked in and flipped her hair, a normal sign she had done something nasty, successful, or both. She sat down at the small bar that separated the dining room from the kitchen and barked at the Russian girl in the kitchen, "Vodka and oranges, and do be quick about it." Emma turned around to examine the living room. Sebastian Shaw, her father's business partner, and the man who was appointed their guardian, was in the living room reading the Wall Street Journal and chuckling. She turned around and saw Natalia walking out of the kitchen having left an orange on the bar with a glass beside it. "Excuse me? But I asked for a vodka and orange. What do you think you're doing?"

Natalia tried to see if Emma was joking, but realizing she wasn't said, "I am not house-maid. I give you orange and glass. I believe, however, that in this country we are under-aged for drinking. Thus, no vodka."

"Damn Russians," Emma said under her breath, as she rooted around in the liquor cabinet for the vodka. That was when Chi walked down the steps.

"Greetings ladies, and you Mr. Shaw." Neither Emma nor Sebastian gave any recognition that Chi had entered the room.

"Come, Chi, they are not happy." Natalia was warm and kind, despite her earlier life. Chi found it amazing that, even though she had been trained from birth to be an assassin, she could act so normally. He expected the same could be said about himself. He was a master of three different forms of martial arts, most prominently Kung Fu (hence he had earned himself the nome de gaur Master of Kung Fu). He had been raised by his father, the leader of a Chinese crime syndicate. Both of them were not only highly qualified assassins, but they were probably the best human assassins that money could buy. The fact that neither of them was out of high school shocked the hell out of everybody.

"I will have you know," Emma said, "That I am very happy. I have successfully driven a rift in the leadership of the X-Men."

"And why did you do that?" asked Chi.

"Because," Emma explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "If they are divided it will be easier to take the stronger ones back to the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle, and convince them to be guards and assassins. You do remember your roles, don't you?"

"Yes," Chi said, remembering the boy he had spoken to. He had said he was a mutant, maybe he could recruit the boy.

"Da," said Natalia, "Ve are not idiots, do not treat us like we are. I vas vondering though, Sebastian; Vhy are you mad?"

"Because there is supposed to be one more of you here. she was supposed to be here last night."

As if on cue the door swung open, and a tall slender girl, dressed more modestly than Emma, but with many of her qualities (platinum blonde hair, blue eyes, excellent figure) walked into the room. Even Shang Chi, who until now had been able to avoid staring at Emma's barely clad form, looked at the new girl. "This is the Hell House, isn't it?"

"Hardy?" demanded Sebastian.

"Yep. Good to see ya," she handed the bag she had been carrying to Emma and said, "Be a dear and put these in my room."

You would have thought the new girl had slapped Emma in the face. she threw the bag to the floor and said, "I am Emma Frost, not some lowly house-maid!"

Natalia muttered, "now vhy does dat sound familiar."

"I have blood so blue it is the color of the midnight sky, you will never speak to me like that again."

"Wanna bet?" said The girl with an impish grin. Emma tried to begin a psychic assault on this new girl, but she said, "Sorry sweetums, I am trained against that kind of thing." With that, Emma backed away, clutching her head in pain. She looked over at Shang Chi and said, "Could I get you to be a dear and get these up to my room?"

"No problem," Chi said, in his usual helpful and supportive voice. "How about I carry these two," he said pointing to the two massive suitcases behind her, "And you carry these smaller two." The girl realized she wasn't getting out of this without some work. "Fine," she relented."

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Meanwhile across town in a recently rented apartment, Peter hopped over the couch and flopped down on it. He turned on the television and there was Yu-Gi-Oh was about to start. "Sweet," he commented as the leaned back in the recliner.

Two minutes later, Tandy and Tyrone walked in, and as they saw what he was watching they rolled their eyes, but didn't say a word.

Then from a door across from them, an older man entered. He wore a button down shirt, with slacks and a vest with suspenders. It gave him the look of a business man from the 1930's. "How are you kids? How was school?"

"Fine," Peter said, absorbed in the duel going on on screen.

"Tandy stole a girl from me," Tyrone teased. Tandy blushed.

"Did not, she was just not interested in your people."

"What people is that Tandy?" asked Dr. Stephan Strange warily.

"Men," Tandy replied bouncily. She had baited him into the position.

"I should have seen that coming," said Dr. Strange.

"Dude I saw it coming, and I'm not paying attention," said Peter his eyes still glued to the set.

"Be quiet you," Tyrone said.

"Yeah, just keep watching your Digimon," added Tandy.

"Oh, no you didn't!" Peter stood up and faced Tandy (the show had gone to commercial).

"Oh, yes I did. What are you gonna do about it? Play your cards?" Tandy had learned how to use attitude in a mock fight. Peter knew she was kidding.

"You know, you're one to talk. All that Harry Potter stuff. Next thing I know you will be trying to hex me or . . ." he trailed off at the end looking at the man who had been appointed guardian of this motley crew. "Sorry Dr. S."

"Its okay kid," said Dr. Stephan Strange, the most powerful magical entity on the planet. He was, in fact, so powerful that he was known throughout the universe as the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth. At that point from the back door walked in Matt.

"Hello every one," he said, "Did Peter put his foot in his mouth again?"

Everyone chuckled. Then quite suddenly, Matt dove onto the couch. When he rolled over onto his back he was holding the remote. "Have you seen this?" Matt asked Peter. "Yeah," said Peter.

Matt flipped the channel. Everyone groaned as they saw the familiar screen appear which signaled the beginning of Law & Order, Matt's favorite show. It wouldn't have been so bad if Matt didn't feel the need to stand up and cheer when Mc Coy made a good argument, and boo when Mike Logan screwed up a case.

The rest of the night was spent arguing over what to watch. Eventually the wound up watching Buffy in primetime (to Tandy's delight) then an extra episode of Law & Order, and then at midnight, Peter forced everyone to watch Big O. they were all tired, but they had had fun.

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I am taking suggestions as to who Chi should hook up with, not Natalia, Felicia, Rogue, Tandy, or Wanda though. Sorry to narrow it down so much.

Oh, and all the stuff that the Knights are making fun of, I am actually into. Law & Order, Harry Potter, and Yu-Gi-Oh. They all rock! Digimon needs to make up its mind before it can rock.