Spider-Man and Jean looked over the ledge to have a look. "Wellwellwell," said the annoying Quicksilver, who stood in front of his familiar comrades. But there was one person there Peter didn't recognize. I girl...in red. Crimson red, the type meant to strike fear into an opponent's heart. The thing that made her stand out most was her trench coat...which was also crimson. "LookslikewegotX-men."

"What do you guys want?" yelled Cyclops.

"None of your business," replied Blob. It was obvious they were sent by Magneto after discovering that a mutant signal came from here. Toad was the first one to act, spitting out that disgusting goo at Cyclops' visor preventing him from using it. Iceman responded by trying to freeze the nasty boy, but was knocked away by Blob. Peter decided that it was his turn, so he jumped off the ledge of the second floor, spun a web onto the wall, and used both of his feet to kick the blob right in his stomach. But all it did was knock him back two steps.

"What are you made of?" asked Spider-Man after landing firmly on the ground. After catching his balance, Blob tried to trample Spider-Man, but he easily jumped over him, but as soon as he landed, he was caught in a whirlwind, which was obviously caused by Quicksilver.

"Youthinkyoursogoodhuh?" said Quicksilver. "Illjustgiveyousomethingyoucantescapefrom." He started spinning faster and faster, until he was nothing but a huge whirlwind closing in on the Spider. He looked around for anything. Anything that he could use as an advantage. But it seemed pretty hopeless, there were no gaps in the wind, and jumping over it is completly out of the question. Suddenly, to the shock of Spider-Man, the silver-haired speedster just stopped...in mid air. Peter looked behind him to realize that it was Jean using her powers of telekinesis.

Rogue was behind Quicksilver waiting. She then took off her glove saying to herself but loud enough for Peter to hear, "Great, now I need this guy's fucked up memories in my head again." She then touched his head with her bare hand, which caused her to cringe uncontrollably as Quicksilver passed out. Rogue took a couple steps back and grabbed her head. Spider-Man made his attempt to go to her and see if she was all right, paying no attention to his spider-sense. He was stopped by Toad, who hoped onto his back and got him into a choke hold. Spider-Man tried shaking him off, but he wouldn't budge.

"Spider-Man!" yelled Cyclops. "Don't move!!" Spider-Man froze after realizing what Cyclops planned to do. Toad also noticed and tried to get away, but it was too late, a ruby-red force beam impaled Toad off Spider- Man into a wall, cracking both the wall, and his back. Cyclops ran to Peter. "You alright?"

"Peaching-freakin-keen," replied Peter. Peter's eyes made his way to the unidentified yet somehow pretty mutant...at least he thought she was a mutant....in dark red. She was just standing there with her arms crossed not doing anything.

Spider-sense. "Spider-Man!" yelled Shadowcat running towards him. Peter didn't even notice that Scott had already left his side. He just stared at the ceiling. "What are you doing?"

"I've got to go," he said casually as he spun a web onto the ceiling then swinging himself onto a wall. Shadowcat tried to yell at him, but he didn't listen, he just scaled the wall until he hit a hole in the ceiling. The battle cries of his friends and enemies went in from one ear and out from the other, something was encouraging him to find out what his spider- sense was trying to tell him. He was on the top floor of the church. He heard the voice of Avalanche telling his teammates to retreat, but that didn't effect him at all. He knows something's up here, something that he needed to confront.

Spider-sense. Spider-Man ducked, dodging some kind of metal stick. He quickly dashed away from the metal rod, only to find a grimly familiar face. "Shall we finish this petite Araignée?"

Spider-Man smiled...which wasn't what he expected to do. He was actually waiting for another confrontation with Gambit ever since there little get- together at the park almost a week ago. Gambit spun his stick, showing off his skills with it, and then got into a fighting stance with the stick under his arm. Peter's smile grew. "So," he began. "You need a weapon, huh?"

Bullseye. Peter knew he hit a soft spot. Gambit smiled. "Don't flatter yourself, Garçon" he said tossing his weapon aside. "Let's do dis de way we know how," he said quickly taking out five card, charging them, and throwing them at Peter. They were easily dodged, but what caught the Spider off guard was a gloved fist right to his face. He took a few steps back holding his left cheek.

"Ow!" he yelled. Peter then charged at the Cajun in complete anger, using his Spider-sense to read his every move, and then tackling and pinning him to the ground. "That's the third time in 2 days I got hit there!" he said kneeing him in his abdomen."Come on!" Peter taunted. "Surely Remy LeBeau has a little more fight it him!

"My name!" 'Remy' snapped. "How...?"

"There aren't a lot of people with the eyes you have," explained. "Which made it easier to find someone like you on the net." Gambit quickly recovered and kicked himself up and through a few more martial arts-worthy punches. Peter did three back hand springs to get away with him. "Well, at least you know how to fight. I'm glad your not one of those Matrix wannabes." He said obviously referring to his brown trench coat.

Gambit smiled. "Well, mon ami," he began reaching into his coat. "Could Neo do...THIS!?" he quickly released at least 3 dozen cards, all charged, towards Spider-Man. He tried use his spider-sense to dodge the oncoming cards, but he couldn't keep that up much longer. One card eventually hit his leg causing him to trip and land flat on the ground with his leg in pain. On the way down, two more cards hit his abdomen. Peter couldn't find Gambit anywhere. He slowly tried to get up, still in pain. He looked around...No one. Spider-sense. Gambit tried to surprise Spider-Man, obviously to no avail. Peter tried to keep fighting, but the pain was too great. He unwillingly let his guard down, allowing his opponent to kick him in the chest right into the whole he (literally) crawled out of, putting him into a free fall heading towards the rest of his comrades. Peter snapped back to reality and spun a web, not preventing a fall, but merely breaking it. He heard the footsteps of his comrades approaching.

"Spider-Man!" Kitty yelled. "Are you alright?" Peter slowly stood up.

"Um...yeah," he said. He honestly couldn't if his aches where healing or getting worse.

"Good, because we have a LOOONG talk ahead of us!" yelled Logan. This can't be good.

llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

"What were you thinking!?" yelled Logan in the very back seats of the X- van. Peter was honestly trying to listen, but he really REALLY just wanted to go to sleep. Of course, he didn't want Logan to know that. "The plan was to stick together. STICK TOGETHER! Not to run off to play hero!"

Cyclops then began to wonder in the front seat. "By the way," he said. "Who where you fighting, anyway? Not Magneto!?" The thought stuck terror in the Red-eyed mutant's spine.

"No...no," said Peter. The pain wasn't going anywhere, and Peter was sure of it. His head bothered him the most, but it didn't hurt. He was just very light headed. Peter was still rubbing his head, begging the pain to go away. "It was...one of his lackeys..." His speech was failing him, he never had a work out...or a beating...quite like the one he had experienced. TGIF. "Weird eyes....Brown coat...Cajun..." The name escapes Peter.

"Gambit..." says Rogue quiet enough to be a whisper, but loud enough to be heard.

"That's the one...Gambit." Snapped Peter.

"What!?" Wolverine growled, never liked the attitude of that pretty boy. "What were you doing fighting him.

More questions... "We had a run in a few nights ago," replied Peter.

Wolverine growled again. "Why? what happened?"

Damn these questions! "He just wanted to warn me about who Magneto is...or something..."

"What did he say!?"

SHUT UP! "Logan," said the professor who was driving the van. "That doesn't matter now. It's obvious that Peter's tired. We'll find out what exactly what went on later. Right now, we have more....current....issues to attend to,"

Logan didn't seem to happy about the professor's last comment. "What do you mean by that, Chuck?"

"You'll see," professor said looking at Rouge, Kitty, and Peter through the rear view mirror. Rogue and Kitty knew what he was talking about, and they were nervous for Kurt and Amanda's sake. Peter was damn near asleep, so he had no clue what was going on. The drive was a little longer coming back thanks to the professor's more careful driving. By the time they got there, Peter was able to walk by himself, however, the feeling of hunger quickly took over the feeling of exhaustion.

Meanwhile...

"And zhen she called me "Wild Blue Yonder Boy."

Amanda laughed hysterically, which was what she's been doing for the past 20 minutes. Earlier that night, Kurt teleported her in the mansion after the rest of the X-Men left. She had just spent the last 2 and a half hours meeting the new recruits, taking a tour of the whole mansion...well...at least everything above ground. Right now, Amanda and Kurt were sitting alone in the living room, no TV or music on just talking about all of the funny times he had spent here...and they were quite a lot of them. That is until....

"What the hell is going on??" The Wolverine joins the show.

"Logan!" snaps Kurt in fear. "I....uh....any luck?"

"Kurt, what the hell is going on? Who is this? Who are you?"

"My name's..."

"Is this Amanda?"

Kurt put his hand over his face. Partially from fear...but mostly from embarrassment. Sure Logan was a tough guy, but sometimes when it comes right down to it, he's just like a father. He quickly removed his hand and scratched his head, then looked over Logan's shoulder to see Rogue, Kitty, Booby, Jean, Scott, and the professor. Peter went straight for the kitchen, not remembering the inevitable. "Logan, please," said the professor with a kind voice that calmed Amanda down a little. Professor rolled over to her, held out his hand, and said, "Hello, I'm professor Charles Xavier. Welcome to our home."

Amanda shook it. "Thank you..."

"I apologize for Logan's behavior." the professor spoke again. "He means well, he's just...very protective of the students."

"Oh, is zhat vhat you call it?" asked Kurt semi-serious.

"Watch it, Elf," replied Logan.

Amanda laughed, but tried to restrain herself. Kurt was almost shocked to see her laughing at a moment like this. "Vhat's so funny?"

"You do look like an elf, don't you?" she said rubbing Kurt's shoulder still laughing. Kurt smiled but didn't say anything. Lightening up the situation, one of the many things why Kurt loves her. No. Likes her. Likes her a lot. ...Does he love her? No! He's too young for that junk right now. He's got more stuff to worry about now...like not getting in trouble.

"Hey, professor," said Peter's voice from the kitchen, which was just in the other room. "Do you have any...WHOA!" he said after seeing Amanda. Peter didn't feel too hungry anymore...just very nervous. "Uh oh...uh...Hi...Amanda."

"Hey, Pete," she replied casually.

"Don't worry, Peter," said the professor. "Your not in trouble. None of you are. I just wish you would've come to me about this Kurt." Uh oh. The guilt trip routine. The professor was pretty good at that. Maybe it's his intellectual tone? "Anyway, Ms. Sefton. I think you would agree that it's getting late?" Amanda nodded. "Where do your parents think you are?"

She blushed in embarrassment. She was hoping that a question like that wouldn't be asked, "At the mall with friends. Please don't tell them I was here! I swear, I'll never come again, just please, don't tell my parents. I just really, really wanted to so Kurt."

"Don't worry Amanda," assured the professor. "I won't tell them. Believe it or not, some of my student's parents don't even know that this is a school for mutants. And don't worry, you can come here anytime, just call first."

Amanda was so happy, she jumped up and hugged the professor. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Amanda said. "I promise I won't do anything stupid."

The professor laughed. "It's quite alright." Amanda let go of the professor. "But I think it's time to take you home, come with me," Amanda quickly said good-bye to Kurt and hugged him real tight, and went with the professor to the X-van. Kurt looked over to Logan who had his arms crossed.

"You mad?" Kurt asked sheepishly.

Logan didn't answer right away, he waited a few moments. "Nah," Logan finally replied. "It's too late to hold a grudge." he said as he headed for the stairs. Kurt looked towards the rest of the X-Men..and Iceman...who were standing in the doorway near by. There was a few moments of silence. Then Rogue began to chuckle a little bit. Kitty and Peter began to laugh a little bit to. Soon enough, Kurt, Kitty, Rogue and Peter where all laughing. Iceman got a little freaked out, so he just left the room. Soon enough, Peter stopped laughing and said, "That coulda gone worse."

"Ja," agreed Kurt. "Thank god it didn't."

"Too bad we didn't actually meet," said Kitty.

"Ja, you vill soon though," assured Kurt. "So, how did it go?"

llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

"Saliva?" asked Kurt.

"Yeah," replied Peter, who was lying down on the couch, which was in front of Kurt, who was sitting Indian style ona table. Kitty and Rogue both where sitting on chairs. "But it didn't lool like it was spat out. There was a ton of it, and it didn't have a lot of bubbles in it. I think it was drool."

"Ok, that's gross," said Kitty.

"Scott also said that he founded shedded skin on the floor." added Rogue. "He said it looked like reptile skin. They also found some scratch marks on the walls"

"Ok, that's still gross," repeated Kitty. "I'm going to bed, good night guys."

"Ja, me too, night."

Kurt and Kitty left, which left Rogue and Peter. "You gonna stay there all night?"

"No," replied Peter. "I'll go to bed in a minute. I just need to think."

"Ok, night," Rogue followed Kurt and Kitty up the stairs leaving Peter all alone to think. Drool and reptile skin? What could that mean? A reptile like mutant? Could it have just been Toad? No, no. Toad doesn't have reptile skin. So, it looks like they weren't sent on a wild goose chase. Someone or something was in that church. But what? Well, one things for sure. Life at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters was getting pretty interesting for Peter, and the scratch marks on the wall that Rouge mentioned isn't promising a safe year. Peter decided that he shouldn't worry about that right now, and tried to get it out of his mind. After all....he has work to do...

""""""""""""""""

A habit that can't be broken. It was formed a month and a half ago if I remember correctly. That day...that one fateful day that changed my life forever, effects some of the decisions I make. It makes me wonder about the spider, my powers, my responsibility, my uncle. Every night, a stare at that window through fake eyes, wondering if this is truly a choice I am making, or am I a victim of habit? I sense it in my heart. It has to be done, but maybe it's becoming more and more frequent. But that doesn't matter, I still have yet to pay off my debt to him. Habit enslaves.

(A/N: Another chapter down. I still got more commin. PLEASE REVIEW!!! thanx. later)