It was a sunny day at the Xavier School, but the Strays didn't know it. They were in the Danger room, per the instructions of Mr. LeBeau, training. "C'mon petites!" he called, watching them. Tender, Take, and Common were all running virtual tracks. X-Wire was practicing with her Wires. Eavesdrop was meditating, an assignment from Ms. Frost, and Norm was swinging on the uneven bars. Gambit marveled at Norm most of all, he trained, by choice, harder than the rest. Remy was pretty sure the boy was trying to compensate for his lack of actual powers, but the truth was, the drama club had voted him their best actor. And that was with a lot of them voting against the human.

Two floors, up Bobby Drake was walking down a hallway with a stack of papers in hand. He knocked on a door and a voice with a Canadian accent invited him in. "Jean-Paul," Bobby said. "I need you to look at something for me."

Jean-Paul Beaubier taught many classes at the school, but the one that Bobby had sought him out because of was Advanced Economic Theory in Modern Markets. It was a small class, but Jean-Paul was proud of them. He reached his hand out and took the group of eight pages Bobby handed him.

Jean-Paul skimmed through it at first, but slowed down, blinked, and reread many parts. "Are you turning this in for a degree or something Bobby?" Jean-Paul asked confusedly. "This is good, college level, but good."

"That was turned in by one of my students," Bobby said.

Jean-Paul looked through again, an expression of disbelief on his face. Bobby taught Introduction to Business and Economics. "No," Jean Paul said in disbelief.

"Yep," Bobby said shaking his head. "Does it sound like anything you've ever read?"

Jean-Paul shook his head. "No, this is… to put it simply naïve. Whoever wrote this plans for ideal morality in his company. I mean he doesn't just assume it, he states it in several places… this was one of your Intro kids?" he asked.

Bobby nodded his head. "Yeah… and whats more; you know that kid on Gambits team… the one with the collar."

"Yeah?" Jean-Paul said, wondering what connection this extremely intelligent writer had with the introverted and slightly creepy boy he had mentioned.

Bobby tapped the paper, where the name was. "Argos Thomas."

"I showed it to Warren too," Bobby continued. "He'd never read any of this stuff before either. He said the kid was correct in his points, but that he hadn't plagiarized it. You should see the works cited list he gave me." Bobby shook his head.

"So… he got assigned to the wrong class?" Jean-Paul asked.

"Can't be. He picked his schedule himself. He chose my class. I already put in for a meeting of his teachers. I wanna know if this is going on in his other classes."

One day later, Bobby got his wish. Six of the adults stood around. "I personally have just noticed this," Emma said superiorly. "I implemented a different grading scale to make up for it. The truth is I think the boy knows more Japanese than I do."

"Same with his English grades," Beast said, placing a small folder on the table they were gathered around. "His work is excellent, but he refuses to do any creative assignments. I usually give options whether the students do a creative or personal one. He usually opts to do a generic personal one. All of his punctuation, all his grammar, spelling, perfect."

"the same is said of his math scores," Beast continued. "He asked for remedial math and is acing it. I believe he is usually done before the class is over. He should probably be bumped up to at least Algebra I."

"Same in my class," Kitty said.

"So whah d' petite takin' d' classes?" asked Remy.

"Fluff courses," Scott said. "He knows he can pass them easily. He doesn't have to work so hard."

"Dat can' be d' reason," Gambit said, an expression of deep though covering his face. "He work bouquo hard durin' trainin'."

"I don't think its so much that he want to pass," Cain said suddenly. "I think its that the boy's afraid to fail."

The others in the room turned to the seldom so insightful Juggernaut for clarification.

He rolled his eyes. "Who here has seen the kid with his shirt off?" the eye brows of half the crowd shot up. Cain rolled his eyes again and continued. "I saw it a couple days ago while I was in my office yellin' at Julian Keller. Th' kid was out changin' inta civvies, and I saw his back. It was covered in old scars. Th' kinna scars I know alotta 'bout."

"Are you saying this kids father was abusing him?" asked Scott, not believing a word from Cain's mouth.

"Naw," he said. "I'm sayin' someone did. They did it cause 'a grades too. Prolly if he got less'n'a 'A' he got beat ta' hell."

Emma leaned back with a contemplative expression as Scott rolled his eyes. "He's on his way," she said suddenly.

The door opened and Common walked in, with Take in the lead. The teacher's looked at each other.

"Ms. Sloan, we need to talk to Mr. Thomas about his grades. Its kind of private," said Scott.

"Whatever," she said, she started to leave but felt him still holding her arm. She looked back into his eyes. She couldn't refuse his eyes. "Please?" she asked.

"I want her to," said Argos quietly.

The teacher's shrugged, and Scott turned to Argos. "Mr. Thomas, do you realize that the classes you're taking are… not right for you?"

"I'll make better grades," he said, fearful that he was failing. He began to hide behind Take, who put her arm around him protectively.

"Young man, you can't make better grades," said Emma coldly.

Common's eyes went wide. In his mind she was scolding him. He had displeased her. His mouth opened, quivered al little, then he hit his knees, pleading. "I'M SORRY! I CAN DO BETTER! PLEASE DON'T!"

The teachers in the room, most of all Emma were shocked. Take dropped to her knees beside Common and tried to comfort him while shooting nasty looks at the teachers. She spoke sweetly to Common, but her face was acid to the others. Emma walked around the desk and crouched next to Common, he began to scurry away from her. "I mean to say," Emma said, actually managing to sound apologetic. "That your grades are so high, they've no where to go."

Common looked at her fearfully. He looked at take, who nodded to him. He clutched Take and he and she stood together. Emma stood and returned to her desk. All in the room except Scott were astounded to see her act so kind. "Mr. Thomas, we were simply wondering why you didn't choose more advanced classes. Challenge yourself more."

"I might fail," he said meekly. "I… I can't get bad grades… I can't." he stressed the last word. Everyone heard the story that one word told.

"No one is gonna beat ya' here kiddo'" Cain assured him.

"No one," agreed Emma.

"Mr. Thomas," asked Beast. "Who beat you before?"

"Her," Common whimpered fearfully.

"Near as we can tell," added Take. "This 'Her' is his sister. He also some times calls her Aggie."

At that moment the door to the room flew open and Jean-Paul Beubier and Warren Worthington III walked in. "We knew we'd heard that name before," said Jean-Paul.

"I new something was up when Bobby showed me that paper," added Warren. Warren had been carrying a file. He set it down on Emma's desk, and Scott read over her shoulder.

"Well… I should have remembered this too," she said as she read the folder. She looked up, at Take this time. "Ms. Sloan, do you know who Mr. Thomas is?"

Edith shook her head no. they had met him on the street and taken pity on him.

Emma smiled. "His name is Argos Thomas, son of Caleb Thomas. Caleb Thomas was the head of Thomas House, a multi-national brokerage that negotiated deals in a number of different arenas. Caleb Thomas died three years ago. He left his business to his son on his son's eighteenth birthday, two years from now." Emma had been reading from the document, she looked up to see if Take was getting this. "Mr. Thomas, the one you hold there, is worth roughly two point five billion dollars.

"His sister," Emma had returned to reading bits from the document. "Agatha Thomas, was left nothing. In fact there is barely any mention of her by the Caleb Thomas. Although that really isn't surprising, he was a notorious sexist. There is one psychiatrists report here. It says that she has a good number of anger issues, displaced onto her brother, whom she practically raised. She has several violent tendencies, and much role confusion about her relationship to her brother. At some points she regards him more as a hated son, and at one point she…" Emma shut the folder. "we don't need the laundry list of atrocities Mr. Thomas endured. Suffice it to say, imagine his life were like the crueler parts of a V.C. Andrews novel."

Take shuddered and drew Common closer. She hadn't realized, but she'd begun to stroke Common's hair.

"I'm no longer surprised at Mr. Thomas' behavior. I don't think I would remain sane after an up-brining like that." Emma knew what it could be like growing up in a "rich" family.

"I recommend that Mr. Thomas be excused from classes pending an I.Q. test," Scott said, still a little dazed from the information about the boy. "And for the time being, Ms. Sloan or one of his other team mates will be allowed to remain with him at all times."

They filed out of the room slowly till it was only Scott and Emma left.

"Was it as bad as that for you growing up?" he asked Emma.

She shook her head. "No, I had it easy compared to this boy." Were she anyone but Emma Frost, she might have shed a tear for the boy.

As they walked to leave the office, Emma stopped. She turned around. She had felt someone, someone with great rage. They were gone now, but she made a note to keep an eye out for them.


A few miles away on a hilltop, a girl dressed in black opened her eyes, returned from her astral projection. So her brother thought he could hide in that school did he? She would show him. But she needn't sully her own hands. Not when hired killers are so cheap. She would have to look for someone durable thought. She thought on the person her father used to research business partners. She was in fact a bounty hunter. But she would serve Agatha's purpose. She looked at the body beside her. It had once been an living breathing mutant. But Agatha had stolen his telepathic powers, and his armoring scales. Then, when he had feeble human skin as the mutant had dreamed of since he'd grown the scales, she drove one of the horns on her head through his heart. The scales the horns and the telepathy would fade in a few days. She would need to find another mutant.