The Teen Titans followed their mysterious rescuers to a large mansion like building. Robin noticed a large sign on a wall XAVIAR'S SCHOOL FOR GIFTED YOUNGSTERS. Obviously, this was a special school for special people, he thought. Must be the highly academic people. He began looking around with sudden interest. School was out but kids still roamed the halls of this one. He turned to the man with the red visor, "Do these kids live here?" he asked.
"Yes," the man replied, "This is a special place for special people."
"What's that mean?" Robin asked, curious.
"You'll see soon enough," the man replied, "I'm Scott. People call me Cyclops." He pointed to the two other men with him. "This is Logan, also called Wolverine. This is Peter Parker, also called Spider-Man. He doesn't want the public to know his true identity, so don't say his real name in public unless he's out of the suit."
"I'm Robin. This is Starfire, Cyborg and Raven." Robin introduced his friends.
"Ah, the Teen Titans," Scott smiled, "We've heard a lot about you guys. Never thought you'd come to New York."
"Well let me tell ya somethin'," Logan interrupted, "I may not be a 'hero' but at least I won't embarrass myself by running around in spandex."
"Ah, don't mind him," Scott consoled, "he's just a little moody."
"You mean a lot," commented Beast Boy "Well I'd love to stay and chat but I need to go,". Spider-Man said, "but I have a wife to get back to. See you around Scott," he said and began walking out the door.
"Bye, Peter, see you around." "So this is some kind of school?"
"Yes it is, come on, I'll introduce you to some of the students," Scott said as he showed them around.
Scott spotted a boy and a girl about Robin's age. He had spiky blond hair and a warm smile. The girl beside him had dark hair and a small area of white hair. Robin noticed. He wondered where it had come from. "This is Marie, also called Rogue and this," he gestured to the boy, "is Bobby, also called Iceman."
Robin introduced his friends, "It's nice to meet you," Iceman replied. "Welcome to Mutant High." "
Thank you, Iceman," Starfire replied.
"So," Cyborg suddenly spoke up, "Where are we gonna stay?"
"Come on," Scott said, "I'll take you to your rooms." "He led them to their rooms and told them, "If you need me just call."
"Thanks, we'll keep in touch," Robin smiled and shut the door.
Later that evening, Raven climbed silently into her bed. She thought over the day's events. The mysterious attacker from her nightmare and their mysterious rescuers. She wondered about this mysterious "School for the gifted," and what it meant. She decided that she would wait until morning to straighten out her thoughts. She tried to sleep, but still, no sleep came. The nightmare returned, same attacker, same face, and same outcome. She was always strangled. Raven snapped awake, sweating profusely. The whole room shook from her power. She had to calm down, control, she needed to control herself. Raven lay back down and waited slowly for the morning to come.
The others meanwhile, had had a better time, they were laughing and talking as Raven came out. Beast Boy looked at her, "Well Raven, it's time for breakfast, what would you like, Scrambled eggs or French toast?"
"Scrambled eggs," Raven replied. Eating, she said nothing. After finishing, she began wondering the halls, thinking about her dream and what it mean and why it kept reoccurring over and over again. She sat down, frustrated. She couldn't think anymore.
A voice suddenly seemed to call out of nowhere, "Who are you? Where are you going?" it asked. Raven stared around, looking for the source. She began walking around, trying to find the voice. "Over here," it beckoned. She followed. Taking a mysterious elevator downstairs, she continued listening, waiting for the voce. "This way." she followed it until she came to two large doors, which she quickly ducked inside of.
"Ah, Raven, I see you're awake. Would you like some breakfast?" She turned around and stared at the source of the voice.
"No," she replied as best as she could, "I already ate." "I'm Professor Charles Xavier. This is my school for the gifted." Raven looked at him curious, he didn't look like a typical professor. He was middle aged and in a wheelchair.
"So," she asked hesitantly, "Why are we here?" "I've had you and your friends brought here for medical attention."
"We don't need medical attention." "We saved you and your friends from Venom."
"What is Venom?" Raven asked. "He's a very powerful mutant. He is very dangerous. A criminal."
"How can I find him?" Raven asked.
"I will help you find him," Professor Xavier stated. "Bur how?" she asked. "You're not the only one with gifts." She heard the voice again. "Who are you? Where are you going? Come here." Raven looked around for the voice and then turned back to Xavier. She stared. He gave her a smile. "Come, I'll take you to Cerebro." Raven followed him out of the office and down a narrow hall.
"Cerebro?" she asked curious, she'd never heard of Cerebro before. At least she thought she hadn't. Still, it rang a bell somewhere in her brain, she just didn't know where. She wondered what it was. "You'll find out soon enough, Raven. Have patience, you will see it for yourself," Professor Xavier said in answer to the questions spinning in her mind.
"How did you know what--" Raven asked, shocked, "--you were thinking?" Xavier finished her question. "I'm telekinetic, as well as telepathic,like yourself. " Xavier explained simply. "I discovered when I was 17 I had the ability to control people's minds; make them do whatever I wanted. But I have a deep respect for mankind. Unlike other mutants who believe that the human race hates them and wishes to wipe them off the face of the earth."
"I see," Raven said simply, not wanting to interrupt him; she was fascinated by his tale.
"So I formed this school to help other mutants learn to control their powers," Xavier smiled, "Scott, the man with the red visor you met was one of my first students." He looked at her with a piercing gaze, "Do you not remember me, child?" He looked at her in a quiet way.
"I can't say that I do, sir," Raven replied, unsure of what he meant. "It's been 11 years since Azerath." She stopped and looked at him. It suddenly hit her hard, like a blow. She remembered him now, except when she knew him, he had been able to walk. "You were my tutor once, a long time ago." "Yes, I was, Raven., I have watched you all these years, and you have done great things for humanity. Things that have surpassed even my expectations. It is good to see you again." He stopped before two large round doors that formed the letter X. "Ah, here we are, Cerebro." He wheeled himself close to the door. Raven saw a small laser scan his eye and a mechanical, computerized voice said,
"Welcome Professor," and the doors opened.
She entered a very large, circular room. Xavier wheeled himself up to a small desk like structure with a strange looking head set on it. He placed it on his head and said, "Cerebro amplifies my powers, enabling me to find almost any mutant anywhere in the world. That's how I intend to find Venom and see what he's up to." He turned back to her, "be very still," he ordered. Turning away, he began concentrating. Raven saw Cerebro light up and flash like a million stars and then she saw forms of people walking and talking everywhere. Soon, she could see faces. Soon he began to slow down and she saw a face. A very familiar face, her attacker from her dream. He was standing around a large table talking with two men. She gasped in horror. The other she knew very well. It was Slade. He had been the enemy of the Teen Titans for years. She thought they had destroyed him for good. But she was wrong, he had returned again. She did not recognize the older man with them. He didn't matter, all that mattered to her was that Slade was back to ruin her life, and destroy her friends for what they had done to him.
Suddenly, the image vanished and the room became normal again. "They're in the warehouse on the south side of New York," Professor Xavier's voice cut through her thoughts. "This is disturbing, if Venom and Magneto are planning something, it has to be important."
"Magneto?" asked Raven, so that was the older man she had seen with Slade and Venom. Who was he?"
"Magneto is the leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants. They believe that humanity will never accept us. So he intends to have Mutants become dominate over humans," Xavier explained, "He was my friend once, he still is although our beliefs concerning the human race are different. If he is allying with both Venom and--"
"Slade," Raven interjected quietly, "he has been my enemy for many years."
"Slade," Xavier continued, "they are planning a strike. Why else would they ally themselves together? They plan to attack Spiderman, that's why Venom's in on it. They obviously plan to attack me, Magneto's leading it. And this Slade, as you call him is obviously in on it as vengeance against you Titans." Raven saw him smile, "it is a good thing you found me here, Raven. Without you, there would have been chaos and their plans would have succeeded more easily. But now we can prepare, thanks to you. Go on, you better go, your friends are probably looking for you." Without another word, he telekinetically opened the door for her. Raven thanked him and walked out silently.
She began walking down that long blue hallway, thinking. Raven was shocked, stunned, confused, and could it be, even afraid? No, she told herself, she didn't do fear. It just wasn't in her nature. But, she admitted to herself at last, she was afraid. She couldn't tell anyone, should couldn't let them know--
Oh no, she thought. It was Beast Boy, to her surprise; he hadn't morphed into any inparticular animal. He was just himself, and that was unusual in itself. He's seen me, she thought. I can't let him see me like this, Raven thought as se turned to go back in the other direction.
"Raven?" Beast Boy called out. "Beast Boy," she answered in a dull, flat tone, trying to hide her emotions, "what are you doing here?"
"I was looking for you," Beast Boy explained, "I--we--we were worried about you." "You--" Raven mused, "worried about me? Why would you worry about me?" she asked, this was not normal for Beast Boy at all. If there was one person he did NOT get along with, it was her. So why would he be concerned?
Beast Boy shifted, slightly uncomfortable with the conversation. Well, ah," he tried, "well, you've been acting strange lately and—"he stepped closer to her and peered at her face, "why are you so pale? You look like you've seen a ghost." Raven tried to step away, but she found that her body wouldn't move. She seemed frozen.
"I'm fine," she managed to say. He was too close to her, way too close for her comfort. Still she couldn't move.
Are you sure you're alright?" Best Boy asked again, "Are you sure nothing's wrong?" Raven forced herself to push past him, "I'm fine, don't worry about me." "Alright, if you're sure," Beast Boy said, still looking at her. Raven continued walking away. "Wonder what that's all about?" he said to himself, "I have no clue."
He turned and walked away. "Beast Boy," a voice said quietly, he stopped, the voice rang in his head. He looked up, there was a man, he was in a wheelchair and he was smiling at him. "I'm Professor Charles Xavier, listen to me: I need you to go get your friends and have them meet me at my office. This is extremely important."
"Yes sir," he did as he was told, Just WHO is that guy? he thought. He ran to find Robin and Cyborg. He found them outside, playing basketball with Wolverine and Cyclops. "Hey guys, Professor Xavier wants a meeting with us! Get in here!" Robin turned and looked over at him, "Who?" he asked. "Professor Xavier, he's in charge of the school, I guess."
"Come on, let's go," Scott said, "this game will have to wait." They followed him into the building. Robin pulled out his communicator, "Raven, we need you to meet us at—"he turned to Scott, "What's his name?" he asked.
"Professor X," Scott whispered, "Professor X's office,' he said. "Alright, see you there," came Raven's curt reply and the communication was shut off.
"So who is this professor guy?" Cyborg asked.
"The Professor? He's the one who started this school for the gifted—Mutants," Scott explained. "Here children learn to control their gifts and use them for the good of mankind."
"So he teaches people how to become superheroes?" Beast Boy asked.
"Not exactly," Scott replied, "humans hate and fear us so we are ostracized by society as mutants and social outcasts. People are suspicious of us because we're different."
The boys looked up as Raven and Starfire were making their way toward them. "So we're all here, I wonder what's gonna happen," Robin said out loud.
"Scott."
The man turned, "Professor," he said. "Go call the others to my office," he instructed, "contact Peter Parker immediately. This is extremely important. Time is a necessity."
"Yes Sir," he replied and walked off. Robin didn't know what to think. He found himself staring at a man, probably in his late forties. He was bald and in a wheelchair and he seemed like any normal, average person you'd meet on the street.
"Please," he said smiling, "won't you all come in and have a seat?" With a gesture of his hand, he opened the door and rolled himself into a wide, spacious office. The Titans all sat down and waited. Just then, Scott came in, followed by Rogue and Iceman.
"Where's Nightcrawler?" Professor Xavier asked.
"Right here," came a sudden reply, as a strange blue, somewhat humanoid creature appeared in a puff of blue smoke before Robin's eyes. Beast Boy jumped and let out a startled scream. He noticed that the blue man had a tail, and he found it kind of odd.
"Hey, Professor!" came a shout from outside the window, "Need a little hand."
With a thought, Xavier opened the window and Spiderman crawled through, settling into a seat beside Logan and Scott.
"So, why are we all here?" Spiderman asked the question that was in everyone's mind at the moment.
"There has arisen a threat that is far more sinister than we could possibly imagine," Xavier began in a quiet tone.
"What is it?" Wolverine asked sarcastically, "space aliens?"
"No, this is far greater than space aliens. Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants have allied themselves with Venom and a criminal mastermind named Slade."
Robin's mouth dropped to the floor. Beast Boy felt as if he would be sick, while Starfire was horrified and Cyborg thought his hard drive would overload from too much information. "Are you sure?" Robin demanded.
"Yes, I am sure," Xavier said, "Raven identified him." They all turned to her, "Yes," she said, "I saw him with my own eyes." Robin cringed.
"I have called you all here to discuss what we are going to do." Xavier continued, "If we do not plan ahead in case of a strike, they could take us out."
"But how," Wolverine asked, "We don't even know where they are."
"I do," answered Xavier, "they met in a warehouse on the South Side of New York." "Are they still there?" Scott asked. "I don't know, that's why I'm sending the X-Men out. I don't want the Titans exposing themselves to danger yet. I need all the information on Slade they can tell me." The Titans nodded, understanding.
"We start today," Xavier said, "Scott, can you and Jean get the X-Jet going?"
"Definitely," he replied.
"Good, when you reach the warehouse, tell me if you can find anything that we can use to pinpoint their whereabouts." Scott nodded.
"We'd better leave then," he said and the X- Men got up and left the room.
"Peter, I need you to research the tabloids, the Daily Bugle, anything that we could use in helping us with this would be excellent.
"I'm right on it," Spiderman said and jumped out the window.
Robin had been silent for a long while. Finally, he spoke, "So...Slade has returned?"
He looked at Raven sadly, "I wish you were wrong." "I know," she said softly, shaking her head, "I know."
"So, what can you tell me about him?" Xavier asked.
"Well," Robin began, "he isn't one to trust those he works with. He's tricked us on plenty of occasions. He's not easy to find, and even if you do find him, it's hard to tell if it's the real Slade or not. He had plenty of robotic copies of himself to go around before we actually caught him."
"I see," he said, "anything else I need to know?"
"He has heavy body armor and it's very hard to penetrate."
"Thank you, Robin. That shouldn't be a problem for Logan though, his Atomantium claws can go through just about anything."
Beast Boy raised an eyebrow, "So that's what those are! I've been wondering about those."
"Well, I can see I have kept you all longer than I intended. It's about time for lunch. Get yourselves something to eat and enjoy the rest of the day. You have nothing to fear because you are safe and they do not know you are here," Xavier smiled. "Thank you for your time."
"You're welcome," Robin replied, "and thank you for letting us stay here."
"Think nothing of it." He said and opened the door and ushered them out.
Walking down the hall, Cyborg asked Robin, "Do you really think that Slade won't be able to find us here?"
"I don't know," Robin, replied, "it seems we're safe for now."
"Yeah, for now," Beast Boy pointed out, "but what about later? He could discover where we are and try to get us."
"Will you all stop this discussion?" Starfire asked, "I'm already worried as it is and you are making it worse by talking about it."
"Okay," Robin said, "let's go get something to eat. I'm starving!"
"I'm agreeing with that one!" Beast Boy chimed in, "I hope they have good food here." They all made their way into a large cafeteria and grabbed the food. Pizza and salad, not bad by Robin's terms, at least it was fresh. He spotted the boy named Bobby and the Marie sitting together at a table.
"Do you mind if we join you?" he asked.
"No problem," Bobby replied, "There's plenty of room. The only other two who are coming are Kurt and Jubilee." There was a blue flash and the man that Robin had seen earlier appeared with a tray of food. He sat down beside them.
"You're Robin, right?" Bobby asked, making sure he'd got the name straight. "Yes," he replied. "Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, and Beast Boy, I think." They all nodded. "Welcome to Mutant High. Enjoying the food?"
There was a resounding "Yes!" from Beast Boy and Cyborg who were happily chowing down on the pizza. A girl in yellow sat down beside Bobby, "I'm Jubilee," she introduced herself. Bobby introduced the Titans and they said hi and continued eating.
"Hey Bobby, I heard the weirdest thing today from someone."
"What's that?" he asked. "I heard that Professor X's first original student is here."
"What?!" Bobby asked, "What do you mean by original student?" he asked. "I mean the first one he ever taught to control their power, it's kind of odd isn't it?" "What's odd?" Marie added, interested.
"Well, what's odd is, that no one, and I do mean no one, not even Dr. Jean, Scott or Ororro know who it is." "Did you catch a name, anything like that?" Bobby asked.
"No, all I heard from someone was that they saw someone talking to the Professor and something about being a tutor a long time ago," Jubilee shrugged, "Anyway, I'd like to meet whoever this person is." "Why?"
"Because, whoever they were, they must have gone through boot camp, we think we have it hard? It had to be worse than what we do."
"Well, I don't suppose we'll ever find out will we?" Kurt said. He looked across the table, "Beast Boy is it? What exactly can you do?"
"Well, I can turn myself into any animal I want."
"Prove it," Kurt said. "Alrighty, then," Beast Boy immediately turned himself into a dog and went over to the next table giving the occupants puppy eyes. They all laughed, except Raven, who was frowning at him, shaking her head, she returned to eating.
Kurt laughed, "Well he proved it alright!"
"Hey Kurt," Marie said, "Kinda reminds me of your mother." "Don't talk to me about my mother, don't like to think about it."
After they had finished eating, Bobby invited Robin, Cyborg, Starfire, and Beast Boy, and Raven to join in a basketball game. Raven refused, and walked around the grounds until she found the reflection pool where she sat for a long while thinking. It had been a long day, she thought. Inwardly, she chided herself. How could she have forgotten Professor Xavier? After all he had done for her. He was the first person she'd opened up to. He had taught her so much, and yet, she had forgotten him.
As she got ready for bed that night, she sighed, so much was happening to her so fast; Beast Boy's sudden concern, her mysterious nightmares, the return of her old tutor Xavier and the chaos that was spinning out beyond her control. She needed sleep; that would help her ease her mind until the morning. So Raven climbed into her bed and tried her best to sleep.