1A/n: I suck at writing certain charecters...Avalanche (via Evolution) fans forgive me...please.

Chapter Twelve

I slid into my own bed, wanting to be alone and not tugging blankets back from Logan (who liked to hog them). I was still almost fully dressed, except for my shoes which I had kicked off near the door somewhere, and my jacket which I had tossed on the floor. My belt was somewhere in the hallway, and I was exhausted.

"G'night Rogue." I sighed, and closed my eyes. I was asleep almost instantly. My dreams were riddled with snippets of the nights events, and clearing Lance's memory. I was glad that Magneto was finally caught, and put away where he belonged, but I worried about the others in Magento's band of merry men (and women). Would Mystique try and take over Magneto's work? What about Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, who I had found out were Magneto's children.

Would they take over the Brotherhood and come after me as well?

I woke up the next morning relatively early, considering the previous evenings events. Rogue was still asleep when I got up for a shower, and got dressed. The school was quiet when I walked down to the kitchen, and I was surprised to find the Professor making a morning pot of coffee.

"Good morning, Joanna." He greeted me, "I trust all went well on the mission last night?"

"It was fine...it felt like the end of an era or something." I yawned, opening the fridge and removing an apple juice box, "But I'm worried, Professor. What if the others try to come after me? Just because we took away their leader doesn't mean that they won't stay organized."

"I've thought about that as well, Joanna." The Professor pressed his fingers to his lips, "But I believe that Mystique will be more then happy to just go on her way. If we have to worry about anything, it is them trying to break Magneto out, but heightened security at the containment center should help with that." He turned as his coffee finished brewing, and he poured himself a cup, "Besides, you're to young to worry. Go out and have some fun."

"Thank you Professor."

"For what?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"For everything." I bent down to hug him for a moment before taking my juice box out to the rec room to watch the Bayville Morning News.

"So what did they say about the Carnival getting trashed?" Kurt asked, sitting down on the couch next to me as the news was finishing.

"They owed it to a gas leak, or something. No eyewitnesses to put us there, and I wiped Lance's memory, so-."

"Wait, Lance was there?" Kurt raised an eyebrow.

"Yea? So?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What was Lance doing there?"

"He must have seen us change or something...I don't know what he was doing there, Kurt! I'm not Lance's keeper! I wiped the memory, so what does it matter?"

"I guess it doesn't...It just surprises me. Lance's parents disowned his brother you know, two years ago. He's living somewhere down south." Kurt moved on the couch, "He a habit of blowing things up."

"Lance's brother is a mutant?"

"That's what I've heard."

"So his parents are like...bigots or something?"

"Something like that..." Kurt shrugged, "It's probably a good thing that you erased his memory."

I crossed my arms, and stared at the television, "Before I cleared his memory...he said that he was okay with it...that it was 'cool'..."

"Well Lance may not be like his parents, but it's still a good thing."

That bugged me for the rest of the day, that Lance had a mutant brother, and never told me. Although I guess with parents like his, he probably didn't want to talk about his brother to much.

"Hey Jo!" Kitty phased through the couch coming to stand in front of me, "Lance is on the phone, he wanted to know if you had some book on the reading list."

I sighed, getting up off of the couch to go to the hall telephone, "Hey Lance, what's up."

"Hey Joanna. I was wondering if you still have that copy of Catcher In the Rye... I thought my Dad had a copy, but he seems to have misplaced it."

"Oh, yea, sure. Why don't you come by this afternoon and pick it up." I glanced over at the Visitor's Chart next to the phone, "Around One?"

"Yea, that's cool. -Hey, do you have sometime today, we could just talk?" He asked.

"Yea, sure." I nodded, "I'm not doing anything to much today." Except babysitting the dorks from the Brotherhood...the Avalanche guy was still pretty cute, and he wasn't trying anything to funny as of late, so he kind of irked me.

"Okay, I'll see you in a little while then. Bye."

I sighed and hung up the phone to go back into the den where Kurt had switched the television to cartoons.

"What did Lance want?" Kurt asked.

"He wanted to borrow Catcher In the Rye. I told him to come over around one, so get word around, okay?"

"Alright."

"Well, I guess I better go tell Warren that I'll take over his babysitting duty for awhile. Will you tell Rogue to come see me when she wakes up?" I looked over at the clock. We had set up shifts before we had departed for Scotland the night before.

"Sure." Kurt nodded, "Anything."

"Hey Warren." I walked into the control booth with the different television screens showing all of the different containment rooms. All of them looked pretty bored.

"Hey." Warren turned, still in his uniform from the night before, "How was your trip?"

"Uneventful, thank god." I sighed, sitting in the chair next to him.

"Well, this job is even more boring, just to warn you. The only exciting thing so far is when Blob tried to power-haul his way through the door... He bounced back like five feet. It was hilarious."

"What about the Avalanche kid." I asked, tapping the monitor, "He seems...different."

"Are you getting a little crush?" Warren raised an eyebrow, "Do I need to remind you about your little...boyfriend?"

"No..." I shook my head, "He is so not my type...and besides, he's really more of an interesting specimen then a romantic escapade...you were a romantic escapade... Avalanche is a science experiment."

"Well, I think he's tried shaking his room a couple of times. The Professor must have some kind of a field around it."

"I want his power..." I sighed, "I hate it when I covet a power..."

"Me too." Warren kissed my cheek, "But you keep day dreaming, and maybe the Professor will let you pay him a visit later. I'm going to go to sleep for a few hours, and Kurt is supposed to come relieve you before lunch."

"Bye, Warren." I waved him away, my eyes on the monitors.

The Brotherhood mutants didn't move around very much. To entertain herself, Mystique was shifting into different people, myself included. Scarlet Witch was brooding in the corner of her room, and the Blob was staring hungrily at his pillow.

I pressed the intercom button for the Professor's office, "Professor Xavier?"

"What is it, Sundry?" He replied a moment later.

"Are we feeding these people? Blob is about to eat his pillow."

I heard the Professor laugh, and almost immediately afterwards I saw little cubbyholes open in each of the rooms with a plate of steaming food, and a drink.

"Thank you for reminding me, Joanna. I almost forgot that our hostages need to eat as well."

I turned back to the monitor where Blob and Toad were munching away happily, and the others seemed to eat half heartedly, probably pissed off that one girl had taken them all out.

I turned when there was a slight knock on the door and Rogue entered the booth.

"Hey." She yawned, sitting next to me, "What's up? Kurt said you wanted to see me?"

"I just wanted some company. I'm kind of bored up here all by myself...and these guys are very boring...almost to boring." I leaned to look at the screens a little more closely.

"Kurt will come to take over in about an hour, and the Professor is working on finding someone to take them into a different facility."

As I watched the screens, Rogue and I talked about the nights events.

"That was really cool when you just picked up that rod from the Token booth and hit Mystique over the back of head." Rogue couldn't help but laugh, "She just like crumpled."

"Well the look of shock on Magneto's face when you held onto him for so long...jeez, you knocked him out for almost two hours."

"That power is so cool. I'm jealous you get to use it all of the time."

"Well, it is my favorite."

"Well it is the one that's most likely to be useful. Unless you were in a plastic bubble or something..." Rogue shrugged.

Kurt came in early to take over, so I left with Rogue to go to lunch, and then we met Lance outside on the steps.

"Hey Joanna...Rogue." he nodded at her. Lance wasn't particularly familiar with Rogue, but didn't dislike her.

"Hey, the book is up in my room, it should be safe to venture up there." I stood up, dusting off my jeans, "Rogue, why don't you...uh...go find Logan for that...lesson."

Rogue took the hint, and made herself scarce as Lance and I walked up to the room.

"Excuse the mess, we've been kind of to busy to clean up lately." I paused for a second before opening the door.

"That's alright, it can't be any worse then my room." Lance shrugged.

He followed me inside, and made himself comfortable in my desk chair while I found the book, shoved into the drawer of my bed-side table.

"Here you go." I handed him the book, "Now, you...wanted to talk to me?"

"Yea, about last night..."

"What about last night?" I asked, raising an eyebrow, "That gas leak was something, wasn't it?"

"You're a horrible liar, Joanna." Lance sighed, "Look...I know you tried to like...erase it or whatever, but...I remember, okay? I remember all of it?"

"Remember what, Lance?" I asked.

"You, and your boyfriend, and all of your friends here... I saw you last night."

"Yea, we were at the Carnival, but..."

"Look, I don't know who those people were, or what they wanted, or anything, but I know that they got their ass's kicked, and I saw you do the ass kicking... Everyone else did well too, but you were extra special."

"Look, Lance, I don't know what you're talking about, or know what you think the Institute is, but we're just like any other school."

"Yea, for mutants."

"Excuse me?"

"I saw you fly, Joanna...or should I call you Sundry? Do you guys only go by your code names when you're fighting people, or do you use them all of the time?"

I got out of my chair, "Think you should leave, Lance."

"Look, I know what I saw."

"I don't know what you saw, but..."

Lance stood up too, "Look, I know you tried to wipe that memory out of my head, but it didn't work, okay? I just...I just wanted you to know that...I won't tell anyone about you, or your friends, or anything about the institute."

"Get out, Lance."

"Joanna! I thought we were friends."

"I said, get out." I opened the door calmly, "You know your way out." I pushed him through the doorway, and then slammed the door in his face before turning and slowly dropping down door. How could Lance remember what happened? I had wiped his memory, hadn't I?

I went to the window to watch for Lance's car to leave. After I saw it pull away from the main doors, I rushed down to the Professors study.

"Professor, I want you to erase my memory."

"Excuse me?" He raised an eyebrow on my outburst, looking up from his paperwork.

"That boy from school, Lance... I erased his memory last night after he saw us fighting the Brotherhood...and it didn't work."

"I thought I may have felt the presence of extra mutant in the school a few minutes ago..." The Professor clasped his hands together, "What's the name of his boy? Lance?"

"Yea, he's was my Chem-lab partner."

The Professor thought for a moment, "Invite him back again sometime, Joanna. I think I want to meet this boy..."

"Hi Mrs. Hang." It was Lance's mother that answered the phone when I called him later that evening, "Is Lance home?"

"Well he sure is, who may I say is calling?"

"It's Joanna, from school."

"Well you just hold on for a second, Joanna, and I'll go get him." She sounded like a nice person, not someone would disown a son, or sons, for being mutated (it wasn't like it was there fault).

"Yea?" Lance asked, sounded slightly annoyed.

"Look, I wanted to apologize for earlier. It was uncalled for."

"No shit, Jo."

"I'm sorry, okay? The Professor wanted me to invite you over tomorrow. He wants to talk to you."

"Who?"

"Professor Xavier... He's the...headmaster of the Institute. He just wants to talk."

"And what do I get out of this deal?"

"Answers."

Lance was quiet for a few minutes, "Alright, fine. What time?"

"Any time is fine. We obviously don't have to hide around you anymore."

"I always wondered why the hell you guys had visiting hours...I figured it was something about being a boarding school..."

"Just come by any time tomorrow, okay?"

"Yea, I'll see you then and I'll talk to the Professor."

"Bye Lance."

"Bye Jo."

I hung up the phone, and sighed. Life was to complicated, which was weird because I had just gotten rid of my nemesis...but I had a feeling that my problems were just starting to begin.

Lance showed up the next morning around ten when I was sitting out on the front porch arguing with Jubilee about tennis.

"Am I interrupting something?" Lance asked, raising an eyebrow and leaning against the porch railing, "Or am I just in time for a cat fight?"

"No, of course not." I stood up, and brushed off my jeans, "Look Jubilee, I'll play with you after this meeting with the Professor, alright, I promise. Why don't you ask Warren or Kurt to play with you for now? Or Remy... He needs a friend. Besides me."

Jubilee sighed, "Remy doesn't like me...and I don't like Remy."

I sighed, "Why don't you go practice your serves? There is a bag of tennis balls in the back shed."

"She's a tough little bugger to get rid of, isn't she?" Lance followed me into the front hall.

"Yea, but she's sweet." I sighed, "C'mon, the Professors office is this way." On our way to the office, we passed Kurt, in full blue-fur, Kitty phased through the hall, into the kitchen, and Warren walked out of the kitchen eating a pear. He shifted his wings down below his shoulders, out of sight.

"Joanna! You're supposed to schedule visitors" He reminded me.

"The Professor wanted to talk to him, and besides, he already knows about us."

"Oh..." He looked dumb for a moment, shifting his wings back up over his shoulders, and continuing on his way.

"So...uh...what do you do?" Lance asked, "I mean...obviously you can move stuff around, and fly, but..."

"I do a little of everything." I knocked on the Professors study door.

"How about your boyfriend -sorry, Logan?" Lance asked, as the Professor called to enter.

"He's got claws." I smirked as Lance's eyes widened slightly, and I opened the door to the Professors study.

After the meeting with the Professor, where we learned that Lance was able to block off any kind of telekinetic power used against him, which was the extent of his power so far, we left the Professor's study and I showed him back downstairs.

"Well, you're more then welcome to hang around the Institute...There aren't that many of us around during the summer." I offered, "You can watch Jubilee kick my ass at tennis..."

Lance laughed, and started to reply when suddenly an alarm was triggered and the Professor's voice entered my head, "X-Men! Our hostages have found means of escape!"

"Sorry Lance, uh...stay here in the rec room, I'll be back soon." I pushed him towards the door where Rogue and Kurt were running out, Kurt teleporting his way down the hall. I beat them all down to the lower levels, cutting off Scarlet Witch as she made her way to the passage enterence.

"Not so fast, Red." I tripped her, sending her into Toad, who was right behind. The others joined me a minutes later.

"You're fast." Kurt noted.

"Thanks to you." I took a moment to pat his head. Logan took the time to repair the switch that Blob had broken in his room to open all of their doors, putting a new reinforced lock over it in at sonic speed, while we managed to get the rest of them back into their rooms. Scarlet Witch didn't look happy and I felt her trying to use her Hex power against me -which didn't work as I was just throwing it back at her, canceling them out.

Avalanche was having a hard time with his power as well, growing frustrated when he couldn't get his earthquake effect to work in our underground tunnels. Quicksilver however was being evasive, speeding around, until Kurt dropped low to the ground, tripping him back inside of his cell. Avalanche went in peacefully, not looking for a fight, just wanting to be free of his cell. I would have gotten his power, except for his stupid uniform making the only exposed skin his face, and I wasn't about to reach up and grab him. Toad was an easy catch for Rogue, who grabbed his bare hands. She took on his form and groaned, "Aw man...remind me never to do this ever again, alright?" She sighed, pulling him towards his cell, and throwing him in, "This sucks..."She flicked her tongue out at me when I laughed.

We all had to work together on Blob again, who wasn't pleased about having to go back into his room. We eventually pushed him back inside, and slammed the door shut, him beating down on the door with heavy fists.

"What the hell did we do before you came here?" Logan asked, putting an arm around my shoulder.

"I don't know, since I do most of the work here..." I sighed, laying my head on my shoulder, "Well okay...maybe that makes me sound a little bigheaded..."

"But it's true." Logan leaned down to kiss me for a second, and then released me, "Better go back to entertaining your guest. He seemed a little freaked out when I saw him in the Rec room after the announcement."

"He was probably freaked out at the Institute suddenly looking empty, I better get back, before he stumbles into something he shouldn't." I kissed Logan again before teleporting back into the main hall.

"Whoa." Lance was just exiting the rec room, "How the heck did you do that?"

"A little trick I picked up...so, uh...sorry about that. We had a problem downstairs..a little water leak, but-."

"It look all of you to fix a water leak?"

"We have very big pipes."

"You are a such a horrible liar, Joanna. Never become an actor, alright? Your shirt is torn by the way." Lance motioned down to the my shirt, "And you might want to soak those jeans."

"Um, anyway...so..." I pursed my lips.

"I think I'm gonna go home...and think about all of this...stuff." He motioned around the hall, "I'll talk to you soon, I promise."

"Okay." I nodded, walking with him to the door, "I'll see you later, then."

"Bye Jo."

"Bye Lance."

After I changed, I joined Jubilee on the tennis court, Warren's racket in hand.

"So, how's Lance?" Jubilee asked, bouncing one of the tennis balls from the bag on the corner of the court.

"He's fine." I said, giving the racket a couple swishes, preparing for her serve, "Just...surprised, I guess."

"Is he going to take lessons with the Professor?"

"Well...Professor Xavier offered, but Lance said he'd have to think about it. His parent's can't know. He told him what happened to his brother."

"What happened to his brother?" Jubilee looked up, half way through her serve, and stopped.

"His parents disowned him, and he moved to California." I told her, "Are we going to play tennis, or what?"

"Oh right." She threw the ball up in the air, and connected the racket with the ball, sending it into the net, "Whoops," she picked up the ball when I used my telekinesis to roll it towards her, "lets try that again."

I won the game, by two points, and we headed inside for a late lunch before I went to relieve Jean from her post on the observation deck. She informed me that since the previous break, they hadn't done much of anything except sit and brood, and that they probably wouldn't be a problem for the rest of the afternoon.

Like she had hypothesized, the Brotherhood was quiet. I filled Kurt in on their lack of antics when he arrived later that evening.

"When is the Professor going to have them moved, anyway?" I asked, leaning in the doorway.

"I'm not sure." Kurt shrugged, "But hopefully soon. Warren is becoming irritable with those late nights he's been putting in."

"Alright, well, enjoy your shift. I'm going to go eat dinner." I gave Kurt a half wave and exited to make my way down to the kitchen where everyone else was just finishing dinner.

"Hey, I put a plate for you in the oven." Rogue said, standing to put her plate in the dishwasher.

"Thanks." I went to the oven to extract the plate before sitting down in the empty seat between Logan and Warren, "Nothing is more boring then watching those guys for three hours. I should take a crossword puzzle with me tomorrow." I stretched my legs out under the table, cracking my ankles, before linking my foot around Logan's outstretched leg.

"I can certainly thing of things I would rather do." Logan raised an eyebrow at me.

"Not at the dinner table, Logan." Professor Xavier warned, raising an eyebrow, "As for the remainder of the Brotherhood, I plan on releasing them tomorrow."

"Just releasing them?" I asked.

"We really can't hold them here, legally, Joanna...and my friends in the government don't have the correct methods of containing them...and we certainly can't keep up our hours here."

"Then why didn't we just let them go when they escaped earlier?"

"I believe you wish to obtain a certain power from a Mr. Lance Alvers, am I correct?"

"Who?" I asked.

"Avalanche."

I bit my lip, "Well, it isn't like I actually need it...but it would be totally cool."

"You have my permission to obtain it any way you deem. Avalanche will not be released until then."

After dinner, I informed Kurt that I was going to enter Avalanche's cell with Rogue. He gave me a raised eyebrow, but shrugged, "Alright. Try not to let him go, okay?"

"Thanks Kurt." I smiled, and Rogue and I walked down to the lower levels.

"Rogue, you watch the door...I'm going to go have a little chat." I punched in the security code and stepped through the door before Rogue closed the door again.

Avalanche, or Lance Alvers as the Professor had referred to him, looked up from where he was sitting on the cot in the corner.

"Well, look here...Visitors... I haven't got many of those lately. Which one are you?"

"The one you were coming after."

"Right... And how can I help you?" He leaned back, crossing his arms.

"You could take off those gloves for a start."

"I think I'll keep them on, thanks."

"Look, Lance, was it? I think you better take one of your gloves off, because my Professor has given me permission to do as I please on my endeavor."

"What exactly is your endeavor?"

I crossed my arms, "Look, we can do this the easy, painless way, or we can do it the hard...very painful way."

"I'd like to see a tiny little thing like you try." He stood up his arms crossed, "C'mon...take your best shot."

I only had to look at him to send him back onto the bed, head over heels, "Are you going to do like I asked now?"

"What do you want?" He asked.

"Take off your glove." I requested again.

"Is this going to hurt?" He asked, pulling the glove off.

"It'll probably hurt me more then it hurts you." I told him, touching our palms together. The absorption was quick, and relatively painless except for rip through my hands.

"Was that all?" He asked, after I pulled away from him, pulling his glove back on.

"Yes, thank you."

"I don't suppose you know when the heck we're getting out of here, do you?" He asked, making polite conversation.

"Tomorrow."