Morning had risen over the Xavier Institute. In the dining room, Rahne Sinclair was half listening to the conversation between Bobby and Jubilee next to her, and half listening to the general pandemonium that ruled the kitchen at this time of morning. As she listened, a German-accented voice rose briefly above the others, followed closely by one that was heavily punctuated with the words 'like' and 'totally'. Rahne winced with foreknowledge and counted down in her head.
Three… two… one…

BAMF

She coughed as a cloud of sulfur wafted toward her, containing a blue-furred teenager in its midst. Said teenager, regaining his orientation after the teleport, noticed her coughing and gave a sheepish grin.
"Sorry, Rahne," Kurt apologized. "Didn't mean to irritate you, but I'm being chased."
Bobby looked up from his conversation. "Do I even want to know?" he asked.
Jubilee frowned at the doorway. "I don't think we have much choice…" she muttered. As the words left her mouth, Kitty stormed in the door, holding a saucepan in one hand and a large spoon in the other.
"Kurt Wagner! Get back here!"
Kurt hid behind a chair. "I'd rather not…"
"You, like, totally promised you'd try this!" Kitty snapped at him as she phased through the table toward him. Kurt leaped to his feet and scampered up the wall, pausing near the roof to look down at her.
"Nein, I agreed that if you prepared some food, I would taste it. That," he gestured at the saucepan, "is not food."
Jamie craned his neck, trying to see into the pot. "What is it?" he asked.
"Low-fat porridge!" announced Kitty proudly. A speculative look on her face, she advanced toward the helpless boy. "Jamie…" she cooed. "You'll taste it, won't you?"
The colour drained out of his face in apprehension as he tried to think of a polite way to refuse. Fortunately, he was saved by Kurt – the blue mutant suddenly dropped from the roof, seized Jamie by the shoulders, and teleported with him to the other side of the room, leaving Kitty with a faceful of brimstone.
"From a fate worse than death, Jamie…" he grinned, then turned to bow at the others. "And I must bid thee fare well, before that fate catches up with me…"
While the residue of Kurt's following departure was clearing from the room, Kitty huffed and stomped one foot as Jamie fled via the door. Turning, she offered the saucepan to the others. "Does anyone want to try this for me?" she asked plaintively.
Rahne sniffed the pot suspiciously, then recoiled. "Chirst above!" she gasped, trying to get the stench out of her nostrils as she spoke. "Kitty, did you even try your own cooking before you passed it off tae us?"
"Um…"Kitty flushed."well, I was totally going to, but then Kurt was, like, right there, and then we came in here, so I was, like…"
"Kitty." Rahne cut off the babbling valley girl. "Eat yer cooking. Then, once you've tried it, you can try to get us to taste it. But nae before then."
The others had to hide their grins as, for an instant, a look of pure horror crossed Kitty's features. It was immediately replaced by a determined expression, indicating that Kitty was actually going to do it. "Fine!" she snapped. Raising the slowly dripping spoon, she took a large mouthful of the thick gray goop filling the pot.
And, a few seconds later, forcibly spat it back into the pot as the concentration of the others broke and the room exploded into laughter. Kitty gagged from the taste of her cooking as Evan pumped the air with one fist.
"And that," he announced, grinning, "is why the K-man doesn't eat anything you cook."
"Jawohl, mein freund," called Kurt from where he leaned against the doorjamb leading into the hall, watching the spectacle. "I will be perfectly willing to eat Katzchen's cooking – once she actually cooks something that won't try to eat me."
With a glower aimed at the rest of the room in general, Kitty held the offending dish at arm's length as she vanished back toward the kitchen.


This was, of course, not an ordinary morning at the Xavier Institute for several reasons. One was that it was actually only 'morning' by a matter of fifteen minutes – the meal being eaten, which qualified as breakfast for some of the students, was taking place at a quarter to twelve. Another was that all the students seemed to be present, despite the fact that it was Thursday, indicating that no-one had gone to school that day. The third extraordinary thing was that there were none of the adults present despite the pandemonium underway.
All three of these matters were quickly resolved with a single revelation – it was the first day of summer vacation. The majority of the students had only woken up within the last hour or so – the predictable exceptions being Kurt, Scott, Sam and Rahne, all of whom had been up before 9. While some of the students would be returning to their respective homes for a week or so, none of them had left yet. And, of course, the adults were seemingly absent because they had long since realized that there was no force on earth capable of restraining a dozen hyperactive teenagers armed with mutant powers. They were taking refuge in their respective 'safe zones', hoping to last out the first few days of unbridled chaos.

Examples of this chaos could be seen all over the Institute for the next two days. Courtesy of Bobby, almost everything in the mansion, including the occupants, had been frozen solid at least once. When he left to go home, the remaining students breathed a collective sigh of relief.
No less disastrous were the antics of Jamie. Swarms of his multiples ran though every room, occasionally carrying with them random items from around the building, more rarely carrying a person. Jubilee had managed to start a minor fire in the Library during one of Jamie's abduction attempts when her struggles had caused her to accidentally release a ball of plasma into a stack of books. Nobody knew exactly why Jamie was abducting people, and nobody was actually brave enough to ask him. He, too, went home for a short break, and the chaos in the Institute was much reduced.
Sam, Kitty, and Amara had also left, and by the third day of the summer holidays the chronic hyperactivity had begun to wear off. The students were no longer attempting to destroy everything that moved, and at roughly this time the adults deemed it safe to exit their sanctuaries – Ororo from her greenhouse, Hank from his lab, and Charles from his study. Logan, who'd simply vanished for three days, returned with no explanation of where he'd been. None was asked for.


By this stage, those who remained at the institute were busy making plans for the remainder of the holiday, sometimes individually, more often in a group. It was on this same day that Scott made a fairly predictable attempt to plan ahead. Entering the Rec room late one afternoon, he approached Jean where she sat on the sofa reading a magazine.
"Um… so, Jean…" he began, aiming for a casual tone and failing miserably. "I'm heading into town tonight, and I was wondering if… ah…"
Jean looked up, one eyebrow raised. "Yes?"
"Ah… ifyouwantedtoseeamoviewithme."
"Sorry, what was that?"
Scott sighed. "Do you want to see a movie tonight? With me?"
Jean bit her lower lip. Oooh, she thought,this is awkward. After a moment she answered haltingly.
"Um, Scott… I'd love to, but I…"
Scott flinched visibly. "But you can't," he said flatly.
Jean nodded. "Duncan and I already have plans tonight," she explained softly, and Scott winced before plastered a fake 'I'm Okay' face on.
"No problem," he answered shortly. To save face, he turned to the others. "Anyone else want to come? The whole car's empty…"
Kurt and Evan glanced at each other and came to an unspoken agreement. "Sure, dude, we'll come," said Evan quickly.
"Ja, not a problem," agreed Kurt, sticking up for his friend. As Rahne and, finally, Rogue agreed to the trip, Jean folded her magazine in half and left the room, muttering something about having to get ready. Jubilee, ever one to cut her losses, turned to Scott.
"So? When do we leave?" she asked.
"Hmm?" Scott snapped out of his reverie. "Oh… um, it's almost six now, so… we go in half an hour. We can eat at Gutbomb after the movie."
As Kurt pumped the air with one fist at the final sentence, Scott left the room, slowly trailed by the others who, one by one, prepared for a casual night out.


Four hours later, the small group arrived at Gutbomb. As they entered, still discussing the movie, one of the staff noticed the hologram-wrapped Kurt and immediately tapped a small bell next to his cash register. As Kurt grinned, the other four raised their eyebrows at this new development when the manager bustled out of his office and took a post at a separate register, while several staff hurried over to wipe down a large table in the cleanest corner of the restaurant. Kurt never broke his stride, but stepped up to the manager as his grin grew even wider.
"Guten nacht, Larry," he greeted the overweight, balding man behind the counter. "I'll have the usual, danke, and my friends have orders of their own as well."
"Of course, Mister Wagner," gushed Larry, carefully pronouncing Kurt's surname correctly. "Please, take a seat – we have a table ready."
Kurt nodded his thanks and wandered over to the table, slumping in a freshly cleaned chair and chatting to one of the staff who was cleaning debris off the table. The remaining quartet of bewildered mutants went up, made their orders, and took their seats next to Kurt with assurances from Larry that their food would be promptly delivered to their table.
Finally, Rogue spoke. "What's going on? This place is a step down from McDonald's, for Christ's sake! I've been to suit an' tie restaurants that don't give service like this!"
Kurt just grinned. "They know me here," he said simply.
Evan did not blink until some time after Larry himself had delivered their meals. Rahne and Scott just tried not to look like this was strange. They couldn't do it.


On the other side of town, Jean lounged in the passenger seat of Duncan's car as they drove through the streets, trying to look interested in what her date was saying. Not that the jock wasn't trying – he'd actually put on a real show for once. A fancy restaurant, tickets to a basketball game, which was one of the few sports that Jean actually enjoyed watching, and so far there had been no attempts to grope her. Duncan was improving admirably – he just wasn't much for conversation.
The next time he stopped for a red light, Jean made the effort to be involved in the conversation by starting a thread of her own. "This has been a really great night, Duncan," she smiled. "You can be a real charmer when you try, you know…"
Duncan grinned. "Hey, I had lots of practice. You just gotta notice the little things – what food you like, what sports you like, that sorta thing."
Jean raised an eyebrow. "Little things?" she asked.
He nodded. "Yeah. Like you – I notice the little things about you, now. I notice how you do your hair, what perfume you wear, how you read minds, the way you dress, what makes you laugh…"
Jean smiled for a moment before she registered what he'd said. Suddenly, she was so pale that she could have passed for a redheaded Rogue. "Wh… what?"
"I said, what makes you laugh."
"No, I mean…"
Duncan's grin suddenly looked sinister. "Oh, you must have meant the mind reading thing, right? Well, you may not notice, but I can feel it when you do that. And I can see it when you use telekinesis." He chuckled. "I looked that up, you know."
Jean was trembling. "Why… why are you…"
Duncan didn't let her finish, just continued in the same maddening monotone. "But you don't notice things, do you Jean? Like you don't notice how I look for signs like that, or how obvious you really are. Like you didn't notice that my dad, for example, is regional manager of the Bayville FOH. Like you didn't notice that your drink tasted a little funny…"
Jean's mouth went dry. Shaking her head, she pushed out at him with telepathy, trying to erase his memory, and felt… nothing. The same result occurred when she tried to use telekinesis.
Her powers were not working.

"How… Duncan, what's going on?"
There was definitely a nasty tone to Duncan's laugh at that statement. "What's wrong, Jean? Can't fuck with my mind any more? Aaw, too bad." He suddenly pulled the car over, locking the doors with a little button next to the steering wheel. "It's an experimental drug that Dad and his team developed. It's called Azmodium. Temporarily shuts off a freak's X-Gene, according to Dad. The perfect thing for catching a mutie bitch."
The soft, calm monotone of Duncan's voice was the most horrifying thing Jean had ever heard, the way he seemed to be just reciting facts instead of telling her that he'd blown her cover and was planning to… what?
With a cry, she lunged for the central locking control next to the steering wheel. Instantly, Duncan's hand whipped up. Caught in her hair. Yanked her head savagely back. Smashed it against the dashboard.
Jean began to black out. The last thing she heard was Duncan's voice.
"Dad's gonna be so proud of me…"
She was unconscious before she noticed the lights of the car coming up behind them.


As they sped by, Scott frowned and spun slightly in his seat, squinting at the parked vehicle they were rapidly moving away form. Evan noticed the movement.
"What is it, dude?" he turned awkwardly in his seat, trying to see out the back window, but Scott simply turned back to the road.
"Nothing, I… that just looked like Duncan's car, that's all."
Rogue shrugged. "So? An' even if it was his car, what's the problem?"
Kurt covered a sympathetic smile under an indifferent look lest his friend see it. "Scott, it's bad that she went out with Matthews instead of you. But being paranoid will get us nowhere, ja?"
Rahne agreed. "An' if she were in trouble…" she tapped the side of her head. "…she'd most likely let us know straight away."
Scott sighed. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Sorry about that."
They kept driving. And soon, the parked car was out of sight.