Note: This is not kitty Beast, this is ape Beast. I liked him better that way, though kitty-beast is cool. I grew up knowing ape-beast, thus I write ape-beast. K.

Ch. 9

Sandy had been the one to tell the rest the news about Rena's sessions with Xavier. Jas and Kota were fine with it, after all Rena was becoming a little more cheery everyday, well at least she was in a better mood.

"And the fact that we are now welcome at Xavier's place doesn't add in to your little minds, huh?" Hel asked them.

"Course not." Replied Kota.

"Uh, what she said." Agreed Jas.

Hel rolled her eyes, Cyclops was a stiff, and Logan, little hairball, had serious anger management issues.

"Well, maybe we should take him up on his offer. I mean, besides the tour I got, y'all haven't seen inside that place, have you?" supplied Sandy, discontinuing that train of thought.

"No."

"Nope."

"Ditto."

This is gonna be fun. Thought Sandy with no such feeling behind it.

**********

"I'm glad all of you came. Perhaps I could persuade you to stay permanently." Said Xavier with a smile.

"One step at a time." Murmured Hel looking around the huge mansion as Xavier left for his session with Rena.

"Jas and Kota were too busy staring at the . . . uh, statues.

Now Sandy wanted to roll her eyes until she saw Hel copying right off the other two. Turning to see what was so interesting, Sandy saw Hank walking up.

"Sandy, I see you brought more of your friends. Is Rena with Charles?"

"Yeah. You know, if I didn't know any better I'd think something other than therapy was going on up there."

Hank gave her a warm laugh that seemed to break the spell on Hel, averting her eyes she began to blush.

"And who is this lovely lady?"

"This is Helen Rogers, she's a pyro, basically."

"Pleasure to meet you."

"Uh, likewise." Hel still didn't look at him.

"Over there," said Sandy, breaking an otherwise awkward moment, "are Jasmine Winters and Dakota Kelly. You already know Serena Thompson."

Hank nodded "Well, I must be going. See you around Sandy!"

"Yeah, see ya!"

As Hank walked away, Hel moved closer to Sandy, "What was that?!"

"That would be Hank McCoy."

"He's covered with blue fur!"

"Yeah, cute ain't it?"

"Cute! He . . . oh never mind."

"What Hel?  He just looks different. He's still one of us!"

"One of us? Oh, a mutant. I'm sorry, I've just never known mutants could look like that."

Sandy shrugged, "You should see Nightcrawler, he's got a tail. Anyway, I don't think he looks bad at all. Then again, blue is my favorite color."

Hel nudged her, "What think you'll date Blue?"

Sandy grinned, "Only one way to find out!"

**********

Hank was down in his lab doing a very delicate experiment.

"Hey." Came a feminine voice behind him. Hank nearly knocked down a rack of vial as he jumped. "Jeez, sorry. Didn't mean to frighten you." Turning around Hank came face to face with Sandy. "You okay, Hank?"

"Yes, besides having my heart in my throat, I'm fine."

"Yeah, did I mention I'm really sorry 'bout that. Anyway, whatcha doin'?"

"An experiment." Said Hank as he turned back around.

"Right. So ya probably wanna be alone?"

Hank shrugged, "It doesn't matter."

"So, what's the experiment all about?"

"The X-gene. I'm trying to figure out just how it decides what characteristics a mutant will manifest."

Sandy merely nodded, "Okay. So . . ." Here's your chance. He's not all that busy. "You doing anything Friday night."

"No, why?"

"Well, I thought that if you weren't that busy, we could have dinner together." It was more of a question then a statement.

Hank froze vial in hand. Gently, he placed the vial back where he had it and turned to Sandy. "You wish to go on a date . . . with me?"

"Yeah. Does that surprise you?"

"Yes. Quite frankly it does."

"And your answer would be . . ."

"No."

"Oh, I see. Well, uh, see ya."

Hank sensed that he had said something wrong. "Wait, Sandy. Let me explain. I'm . . . involved with someone, Trish Tilby, that is."

"Tilby? The Reporter? Huh, well, luck in your relationship." Sandy smiled again.

From above they heard a crash and the whole room began to shake. Moving slowly they made their way to the main lobby with minimal injury.

"Serena, get it under control!" yelled Xavier from the floor. His wheelchair had been hurled to the other side of the room. The other X-men were busy trying to subdue the monster. At least it was a monster, now it looked like a man that Sandy instantly recognized as Randy.

Randy flung all the X-men to the ground, Rogue was the only one still conscious. "Calm down, Serena! Control your emotions!" yelled Xavier as Rogue grabbed him and moved him out of harm's way.

"Serena!" yelled Sandy, adding her own voice to the din, "It's not real, it's your illusion, control it!"

Illusion Randy had just caught sight of Sandy. "You! Dirty Mutie Bitch! I'll kill you!" Randy lunged forward as Sandy flipped out of the way. "Gotta be faster than that!" she taunted.

Some of the X-men were coming around, Cyclops leading the charge. Randy shimmered and shrunk. There standing where Randy had just been was . . . Sam.

"You aren't gonna hurt me, are ya sis?"

Sandy hesitated, this wasn't Sam, she knew that, but why did he had to look so much like him!

"Dirty mutie bitch! That's what you are! Nothing but a dirty mutie bitch!" 'Sam' didn't even flinch when Logan thrust his adamantium-coated claws into him. "Dirty mutie bitch. Dirty mutie bitch." Sam kept chanting it over and over again in a sing-song matter.

"That's it!" screamed Sandy, taking her eyes off of 'Sam' she looked over at Rena. "Rena get rid of this damn illusion or I will."

"I-I can't!" Rena was near tears. "It won't obey me!"

"Fine." All during this 'Sam' had been chanting. "Rena, is he still intangible?"

"I don't have the energy to make him physical."

"Good." Without another word, Sandy strolled over to Rena. All the while the figment Sam jumped around her and in front of her, she just ignored him. When she finally reached Rena she stretched out her hand and lifted Rena's face so that their eyes met. "This won't hurt much, and when you wake up that thing," Sandy pointed with her thumb, "will be gone. Do you understand?" Rena just nodded. "Good." Sandy sent a tiny spark of electricity through her hand to Rena, not enough to kill her, but enough to knock her out. 'Sam' shimmered then disappeared.

"Xavier." Sandy spoke without looking up, "This therapy of yours better start working quick, I won't do that to her again."