The New Mutants
Written by Darkstorm5000
Disclaimer: The X-Men and related characters in their various incarnations are the property of Marvel Comics and Marvel Enterprises.
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Story 2- Alternative School Part 5, The New Hellions?
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The Massachusetts Preparatory Academy.
Established in 1856 outside of the small and quiet township of Snow Valley, Massachusetts, for decades this exclusive private school standing in the shadows of the majestic Berkshire Mountains has prepared and educated children from some of the wealthiest and most influential families throughout the United States and beyond.
But times do change, and this sprawling, multi-acre campus now serves a different and seemingly more altruistic purpose thanks to its current Headmistress, one Emma Grace Frost, who has bought the school and opened its doors to a student body that is more varied and culturally diverse than ever before. While the school now also functions under the guise of reaching out to help disadvantaged and troubled youth by including them among its more traditional student pool, in truth, there is far more going on here than meets the eye. It is a fact that makes the Massachusetts Academy as much a place of fresh starts, as it is a place of secrets.
Foremost amongst its confidentialities that are kept carefully guarded from the outside world, is that the student body at the Massachusetts Academy is in reality comprised entirely of mutants, individuals born with a specific genetic quirk that gives them unique and fantastic abilities. Upon further investigation into the duplicitous web being woven around the school's true intent and mission reveals that the institute has been operating with the full backing and support from the Headmistress' fellow associates in their Inner Circle, a very covert and extremely powerful faction within the world-renowned organization known as the Hellfire Club.
The most shocking revelation, however, would be that Emma Frost, who also holds the coveted title of White Queen within this clandestine Inner Circle, has entered into a partnership with the infamous Master of Magnetism, the fugitive mutant-terrorist known as Magneto. Unknown to the rest of the world, and even to a good portion of the student body currently at the Massachusetts Academy, is that the next generation of mutants currently in its attendance are being groomed in preparation to one day become a part of the Brotherhood of Mutants, a force that Magneto, Emma Frost, and the rest of the Inner Circle believe will play a crucial role in their future plans for global domination.
At the moment, however, all of the students at the Massachusetts Academy are slowly gathering in the foyer area of the main dormitory on campus, having been telepathically summoned by their Headmistress for an assembly within on this early summer afternoon. The purpose of this assembly is so they can to greet her following a lengthy journey that she has just flown in from, but more importantly, to welcome the school's newest recruits also returning with her.
"So, Mon Ami, how much do you wish to wager that one of these new students that Mistress Frost has found is an absolu loser?" Matthieu Everard, the electrifying blonde teen codenamed Bevatron said, as he and a few of his fellow junior-level classmates came in from the student center located close by in the same building, and were the first to enter the large reception room, which was furnished with expensive, antique furniture throughout the entire area.
"If they are losers, then you can attribute it to Miss Frost simply bringing them here to make sure that you have some company." Haroun al-Rashid, the dark-haired native of Morocco also known as the high-flying, rocket-powered mutant codenamed Jetstream quipped in response.
Coming in with Bevatron and Jetstream were Sharon Smith, codenamed Catseye because of her ability to morph herself into various feline forms, which she was doing at the moment, as a lavender-hued housecat sauntered into the foyer alongside the two boys; Angelica Jones, the red-headed teen codenamed Firestar for her ability to produce powerful microwave energy from her body; and Demarcus Fonseca, one of the more recent students brought to the school who also went by the codename of Chrome for his ability to affect and alter both organic and inorganic matter, leaving it in a temporary metalloid state.
Just then, the large wooden front door opened, and in entered a stunningly beautiful woman with platinum-blonde hair, dressed in a white satin blouse with a French-cut collar, matching pants also tailor-made from the finest of materials, and wearing an expensive pair of ivory-colored designer boots. The school's Headmistress Emma Frost came into the foyer, followed by the new students that she had previously informed her other pupils were accompanying her this day.
As the junior students took in the sight of their new classmates, and now new teammates, the members of the senior student squad at the Massachusetts Academy entered next through an entrance on the other side of the room, having had to travel a slightly greater distance from their senior student residence on campus to this main building. Almost on cue, their presence was announced by Tabitha Smith, who was codenamed Boomer and was perhaps the liveliest personality on the senior-squad, as she came in dancing and singing along with her favorite Gwen Stefani track, which was blasting through the headphones of her MP3 player.
"Uh huh, this my shit
All the girls stomp your feet like this
A few times I've been around that track
So it's not just gonna happen like that
'Cause I ain't no hollaback girl
I ain't no hollaback gir--"
"If I may be so bold as to interrupt this sneak-preview of your upcoming appearance on 'American Idol's worst auditions', I would like to take a moment to formally introduce all of you to your new classmates." Emma Frost loudly and harshly said to the assemblage before her, and to Tabitha in particular, as she stood at the top of the very small staircase just inside of the front entrance alongside her new students. Tab instantly got her Headmistress' very unsubtle hint and turned her MP3 player off, then removed her headphones letting them hang down around her neck.
"But Miss Frost, John and Sloan aren't here yet." Angelica perceptively pointed out, in regards to the whereabouts of one of her junior squad teammates, and of the senior squad's deputy leader.
Then, as the senior students had just finished filing into the welcoming area, another and somewhat unexpected voice spoke to Angelica and the rest group.
"Thanks for being worried about me, but I actually got in here first before any of you other guys did." Sloan Beckwith, another fairly recent addition to the school codenamed Scanner smiled, as the girl with long strawberry-blonde hair seemingly materialized from thin air right in front of the group.
"I commend you on your initiative in my absence, by continuing to work on improving the various aspect of your powers, including your ability to convert yourself into your invisible astral form, Sloan. You are becoming better at completely masking your presence, and even my own formidable telepathic abilities were barely able to detect you when I first entered this room." Miss Frost complimented her.
"Well, now that we solved the mystery of what happened to the invisible girl, where the hell's torchy at?" Lance Alvers, the brusque, out-spoken, and earth-quaking mutant known as Avalanche stated, as he expounded on the whereabouts of their deputy leader.
"John will be along momentarily, he is finishing with a special task that I had assigned to him before my departure." Miss Frost replied, as she then went on to at last introduce the new students.
To her left stood Marie-Ange Colbert, a fairly reserved French-born teen with dark-brown hair that had naturally lighter-colored highlights in it. Emma had herself given Marie-Ange the new codename of Tarot because of her mutant ability to channel psionic-energy into the tarot cards that she always had in her possession, which she in turn used to create life-sized, three-dimensional representations of the pictures on those cards that then acted under her mental control.
Over to the Headmistress' right stood Eric, Sven, and Harlan Kleinstock, three imposing brunette figures that towered at more than six feet, six inches tall each. She had collectively codenamed these triplets Merge because of their ability to combine themselves into a single body that stood at over twenty feet tall and that blended their consciousness and the multitude of powers that they individually possessed, but with a lessened degree of control.
"Guys, it looks like we're gonna have to make sure to give the new meat over here a proper Mutant-Prep welcome." Lance ominously remarked to the other students close by, as he pointed towards Marie-Ange and the Kleinstock brothers after Miss Frost had finished her introduction.
"And you'd better watch who you call meat!" Eric, Sven, and Harlan all staunchly replied in unison, displaying the fact that intimidating them would be out of the question.
"And we got 'em in stereo too." Lance jokingly continued, with what he considered to be innocuous teasing of the recently arrived students.
Then John Allerdyce, aka Pyro, finally made his appearance and came in through the rear doorway and walked over to where the rest of the students were standing.
"Sorry I'm late, but I just finished testing out the last of those new training sims you programmed into the Combat Room before you left. They're all ready for both teams' to use in their next workouts." John said to Miss Frost, as he had hurriedly changed from his purple and magenta training uniform and into his regular street-clothes, before rushing up from the sub-levels of the school to join the small assembly.
"It's quite alright. Your intense dedication in aiding me has been noted, and it excuses you for this afternoon's tardiness." Miss Frost responded.
"Yeah, just keep kissin' her frosty ass 'fire-boy', and who knows, you just might thaw it out." Lance silently thought as he smirked to himself, while the Headmistress introduced the senior squad leader to the new students, and then to one more entrant now coming in to join them.
"Marie-Ange, Eric, Sven, Harlan, I would like you all to meet Ms. Adler. She is one of the instructors here at the Massachusetts Academy, and you will be going with her next to begin your orientation. I will send for Gilbert, one of the school's security officers, to gather your things from the car and bring them up to your new rooms." Miss Frost said to the new students, as they went over to Irene Adler, who secretly went by the name of Destiny because of her mutant powers that allowed her to gaze into a myriad of possible futures. Then, Miss Frost removed her glasses and turned her attention towards the woman that was holding a lengthy white cane in her hands.
"Irene, if you need me, I will be in my office. There are a few important phone calls that I need to make."
"I believe that I have everything under control. Now, if you children would follow me." Ms. Adler said to the new students, as they followed the older lady with gray hair and donned a pair of dark sunglasses out of the foyer, turning down one of the lengthy corridors in the building. All the while Miss Frost also exited, and headed in another direction from them towards her private residence on campus.
As the teacher, new students, headmistress, and some of the junior students dispersed to go back to various areas of the school, John and his girlfriend Tabitha were off talking by themselves next to one of the walls in the foyer, when Lance decided to come up and comment on John's showing up late for the assembly.
"What's our crazy little arsonist here been up to, to keep himself so gosh-darn busy today?" Lance sarcastically said to them, in what he had intended as a harmless joke.
But, John was about to make it very clear to Lance that this latest in a long line of verbal jabs had finally managed to push the wrong button with its target, by unknowingly hitting on an extremely sore subject with him.
WHAM!
Was the sound heard, as John quickly grabbed Lance and spun him around, slamming his teammate into the wall next to them with such force that it shook nearby hanging paintings and the sturdy oak beams inside of the walled exterior, immediately drawing the undivided attention of those students still in there with them. There was a look of total shock on everyone else's face in the room, including Lance's, at the unexpected and seemingly uncharacteristic reaction by John to one of Lance's usual annoyances.
"I'm only going to tell you this once, you EVER call me that again and I'll kick the living shit out of you! Do you hear me?" John shouted, as he held Lance pinned up against the wall with both hands, gripping Lance's denim vest just below the collar. John then pulled him a few inches from the wall, and then slammed Lance back against it once again to emphasize his point.
"Yeah, I hear you loud and clear. Now, you better raise up offa me before you get your ass SERIOUSLY crippled!" Lance loudly replied in kind, as he looked John directly in his eyes and spoke in a tone warning him of the fact that he was dead-serious as well, joke misinterpreted or not.
"C'mon John, just calm down and let him go. Lance didn't mean anything by it, he was only clownin' with you, that's all." Tab somewhat worriedly said, as she took a couple of steps over to the two boys and caressingly put her hands on John's arm and shoulder, trying to convince him to let go of Lance before this situation really did explode.
After a few tense seconds, John heeded his girlfriend's request and finally released Lance. Then John, who had never made such an outburst before in front of his classmates, abruptly turned and quickly left the room.
"Why don't you go find yourself a sense of humor and learn how to take a fuckin' joke, Allerdyce?" Lance said, as he straightened his clothes back and John continued on out of the room without responding.
After John had left the foyer, Lance could hear the faint sound of someone else in the room with him laughing, and he knew there was only one person that would find this current set of events the least bit amusing.
"And just what the hell's so funny, rich-boy?" Lance turned and said to Manuel Alfonso de la Rocha, the young man also known as Empath for his emotion-sensing and altering abilities.
"I would think the answer to be obvious, even to you Neanderthal." Manuel snidely replied, as he crossed his arms in front of him and continued lightly chuckling, displaying a smile that was a mile-wide gracing his classic European features.
"Then, why don't cha go ahead and enlighten me, bitch!" Lance vehemently snapped back at Manuel, as he proceeded to ball one of his hands, on which he was wearing black leather gloves with the finger-holes cut out of them, into a fist.
"Your ass gettin' slammed like a punk, is what's so funny." The tall and super-strong Joanna Cargill, who was a recent promotee to the school's senior squad codenamed Frenzy unabashedly clarified for Lance, as she stood next to Manuel and flipped her long corn-rowed hair back behind her shoulder.
While Lance, Manuel, and Joanna continued hurling insults at one another, Jennifer Stavros, the Atlantic-city native who was coincidentally enough codenamed Roulette, left them and came over by Tabitha.
"Tab, maybe you should go check on John or somethin'?" Jennifer suggested of her.
"In a sec, I'm just gonna give him a little time alone to cool off first." Tabitha replied.
"You know, John's normally so laid back. I wonder what made him just flip out like that?" Jen commented, regarding John's reaction to what Lance had said.
"I don't know." Tab responded, although her statement wasn't exactly accurate.
Tabitha had a fairly good idea as to what could have triggered such an infuriation in her boyfriend, thinking back to what John had told her about what happened when his mutant power to pyro-kinetically affect fire first emerged. Tabitha also knew that being called an arsonist would instantly dredge those painful memories back up in John, and was what most likely set him off in such an atypical manner.
"I'll catch up with you later, I think I better go ahead and find him." Tabitha now abruptly said to Jennifer, as she then turned and took off in the direction where John had gone, so that she could go make sure that he really was all right.
Meanwhile with the day's excitement now passed, most of the other students had went ahead and left the foyer. These departures now also included Manuel and Joanna, which left just Lance and Jennifer in the room by themselves. Lance was leaning up against the wall with his head back and eyes closed, the very same wall that John minutes before had properly acquainted him with.
"Um, Lance, are you okay?" Jen came over and genuinely asked him, as she pushed her shoulder-length blonde hair back from in front of her face.
"Yeah, fine." Lance shortly replied, as he opened his eyes to look at her briefly, before deciding to take off too, his pride and ego now feeling as slightly bruised as his body was.
Jennifer trailed behind Lance through the front room and stopped over at the doorway, watching as the gruff young man dressed in a denim vest, t-shirt, and jeans continued on, her light-green eyes remaining trained on him until he had finally disappeared around the corner at the end of the long corridor.
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Story 3- Alternative School Part 6, Like a Flame to the Moth
It had been barely a month since Colonel William Stryker had attacked Professor Xavier's school, kidnapped the Professor along with a few of the students and a teacher, and had attempted to use his copycat version of Cerebro to kill every mutant on the planet.
Having abandoned his former school and left his friends back at Alkali Lake to now follow Magneto, the man that he had firmly sworn his allegiance with but who was perhaps the X-Men's greatest nemesis, John Allerdyce, the teenage mutant known as Pyro, now found himself trying to adjust to these new surroundings and set of circumstances here at the Massachusetts Academy. Still, in spite of some of the exterior differences, John thought that this school in many ways was a lot like Xavier's back down in New York state.
Case in point, as John sat out on the spacious balcony patio located behind the school, which on this sunny and late afternoon gave him a perfect view of the Berkshire Mountains that surrounded the huge campus, one of his new classmates decided to come out and join him.
"Hey, you're one of those new guys." Tabitha Smith said, as she came up to John dressed in a short-sleeved pink tee, which was altered at the bottom just enough to expose her belly-button piercing, and was also wearing a pair of faded jeans.
John looked up from the marble bench that he was sitting on to see the girl standing next to him, instantly noticing her very athletic and curvaceous build. Then, he saw another small stud piercing in her nose, followed by him taking notice of the darker pink nylon cut-offs that she was wearing. The sheer cut-offs covered both of her arms and went from her just below her wrists, all the way up to her shoulders just beneath the short sleeves of her tee. Finally, John looked at her hair, which was slightly curly and a dirty-blonde color, and saw that it had been highlighted with brightly-colored crimson streaks in it. The way she wore her hair was such that it somewhat obscured the front of her face, and partially veiled her eyes, which were as remarkably clear, as they were a deep-blue tint.
"Yeah, I'm one of those." John replied simply to her question about him being new to the school, as he then turned his attention back down to the notebook sitting in his lap and began to write in it again.
"Your name's John, isn't it? I'm Tabitha." Tabitha now asked the young man sitting before her, who she observed was wearing an olive-gold toned short-sleeve shirt that buttoned up in the front and some dark-colored pants. Tabitha was pretty sure that she had heard his name was John, at least from what she could remember from the previous week when the new assistant Headmistress Ms. Darkholme had introduced him and another new guy that had dark-brown hair similar to his.
"Yeah." John simply responded, as he continued jotting down something in the notebook, this time without bothering to look up at her. So, Tabitha decided to go ahead and make herself comfortable on the marble bench right beside him.
"Please, have a seat." John sarcastically and mootly told her, his face still downward.
"Thanks, but I already found one all on my own." Tabitha just as sarcastically responded, as she crossed her legs over and put her elbow on her knee, so that she could rest her face in the palm of her hand while watching him do…whatever it was he was doing.
With that, the conversation reached its first moment of silence, as John continued writing while Tabitha sat and watched him feverishly scribble away on the paper. Then, curiosity finally got the best of her.
"So, what cha writin' about?" Tabitha inquired.
"Stuff." John answered, without any further detail.
"Yeah, that was reeaal helpful. I meant, what kinda stuff?" Tabitha continued with her questioning.
"Personal stuff." John now only slightly elaborated on, as he continued writing and paid her barely any of his attention.
"I guess you're writing about being locked up in juvey then? It's nothing to be ashamed about, kids mess up and get caught doin' stuff all the time. Back home, there was this one girl I knew who got caught--" Tabitha told him, when John finally broke his concentration away from the notebook in his lap, so that he could now fully acknowledge her.
"What makes you think I was in juvenile?" John asked, as he turned his head and his brown eyes now looked over to meet her blue ones.
"Well, I heard you and that other guy got in some trouble, and that Miss Frost got you out of there on some kinda student-release program." Tabitha explained, as she revealed the rumor that had been floating around the Academy since their arrival.
"Then you heard wrong. She might've got Lance out of a cage somewhere, but I just happened to transfer here at the same time." John clarified for her.
"Lance, yeah that was the other guy's name. I remember now, John and Lance, that sounds kinda nice together." Tab remarked to him.
"What, are you tryin' to pick out a china-pattern for us or somethin'?" John smiled and jokingly asked her.
"Nah." Tab replied simply, and then didn't say anything else. Figuring that she was now finished interrogating him, John decided to once again go back to writing.
But, he had figured wrong.
"Where'd you transfer here from?" Tabitha inquired after about a minute of silence, beginning a fresh round of information gathering.
"This girl is nosier than Kitty and Jubilee combined." John thought to himself, before he laid his pen down on his notebook and decided that he might as well go ahead and tell this girl whatever she wanted to know, if he ever planned on getting any peace and quiet.
"Well, I went to a school in New York, another school for mutants like this one. After I got into some trouble, a 'friend' of Miss Frost's and Ms. Darkholme's decided that it'd be good for me to come here for awhile." John said, explaining to her the dubious chain of events that had brought him there, all the while concealing the fact that in reality it was Magneto who had brought him to the school. John and Lance had both been instructed by Raven Darkholme, also known as Mystique, not to reveal Magneto's involvement at the school to any of the other students, at least until Miss Frost had determined which were the ones that she wanted to be given that information.
"What kinda trouble'd you get in?" Tabitha now asked, as she shifted her legs and crossed them in the other direction, resting her face now on her other hand that was closest to John.
"You sure do ask alotta questions." John candidly pointed out to her.
"You got a better way for me to find out stuff, especially since you've been so eager to volunteer and tell me about yourself." Tabitha smirked, as she took the green-tinted sunglasses above her forehead off and sat them in her lap.
"Well, let's just say I got into a major fight." John alluded to.
"You stomp on some kid pretty tragically then?" Tab questioned him.
"It wasn't a kid." John replied.
"Then who, an old lady look at you wrong or somethin'?" Tab humorously continued.
"It was the Boston police. They don't much like mutants, and I decided I didn't much like them either. So, we got into it and I ended up messing a few of them up, along with a couple of their patrol cars too." John revealed.
"For reals? You went buck-wild on the cops! And I thought I was the one who was punk, you don't even look like the type. Must be an undercover thing to fool folks." Tab excitedly remarked after hearing John's revelation.
"Suuurre, whatever you say Avril." John replied with his quasi-slam, as yet another question came to mind for Tabitha.
"I know where your comin' from, though. It doesn't seem like mutants are very popular anywhere these days, especially with folks wanting to pass that Act and stuff." Tabitha commented, referring to the Mutant Registration Act that Congress had been debating fairly seriously over the past few years, most notably with the backing of the formerly anti-mutant Senator Kelly.
"Act or not, I'm ain't gonna let any law say whether I have the right to live or not." John resolutely told her, now displaying for the first time a sense of conviction that Tabitha hadn't been expecting to hear from him.
"Hey, why don't cha check this out." Tabitha told John, as she stood up from the bench and put her green-tinted sunglasses back on. She then held her right hand out in front of her with her palm up, until John saw it begin to start glowing a little. Then, Tabitha put on a demonstration of her mutant power for John, producing a small orb-shaped object in it that looked like an orange marble.
"What the hell is that?" John asked her.
"One of my time-bombs. See, I can make these little bombs, and then set them off and make 'em explode as strong and as loud as I want. That's how I got my nickname of Boom-Boom." Tabitha explained to him.
"Boom-Boom? Um, that's some nickname." John said in a tone that relayed the fact that he thought the nickname was kind of silly.
"Yeah, well I've been thinking of changing it, maybe shortening it or somethin'." Tabitha responded, "So, now you gotta show me yours."
"Your direct, I'll give you that. But, you want me to whip it out right here and now, aren't you worried about one of the other kids walkin' out here?" John whimsically replied to her request.
"Jesus! I meant your powers, you perv. I wanna see what you can do." Tabitha told John.
John decided to go ahead and oblige Tabitha, immediately reaching into his pocket and pulling out his silver cigarette lighter that had a red sharks-tooth design on it.
"Um, before you decide to take a drag out here, you should know that Miss Frost has guards and video surveillance cameras all over campus. I mean, Randall probably won't care, but Macon and Kenders'll probably turn you in." Tabitha warned him, "But, if you want, I can show you some tricks to help you out, in case you get one of those monster cravings."
"Just hold on to your panties, Tabby. I'm not gonna smoke out here, I don't even have any cigarettes on me." John told her.
"Then, why do you got a lighter in your pocket?" Tabitha inquired.
"For this." John said, as he smiled and lifted the lighter's lid, flicking its small flame on.
To Tabitha's astonishment, John put his hand next to the lighter and the flame jumped over from it onto his palm, without so much as burning him. John then closed the lid of the lighter, setting it and his notebook on the bench between the two of them. He then concentrated on the flame in his hand, making it do a kind of dance for her all at his mental command. Next, John made the flame seemingly grow in height to nearly one-foot tall, and then he reformed it into the shape of a flower.
"Wow, that's pretty kick ass!" Tabitha exclaimed, as John made a fire rose and let it float in the air right in front of her for a few moments, before allowing it to dissipate into thin air.
"So Johnny, is that what they taught you at this other school for mutants?"
"Not quite, this kinda stuff I pretty much taught myself on my own." John told her.
"What's it like, you know at that other school, anyways?" Tabitha continued asking.
"Xavier's is a lot like this place, just not as big or as posh." John responded.
To which, Tabitha began to giggle loudly.
"What's so funny?" John now inquired of her.
"It's just, you've gotta be the first guy I ever heard use the word 'posh' in a sentence like that." Tabitha answered, as she managed to finally stop tee-heeing long enough to respond.
"C'mon, you probably had doubts about the fact I could even talk in complete sentences, before you came out here. And, it's not my fault I accidentally picked up a fashion magazine or two." John playfully replied, as he thought about the numerous fashion magazines that Jubilee, Kitty, Rogue, and the other girls used to leave scattered around the mansion.
"In that case…" Tab said, as she unexpectedly bent down and grabbed John's notebook that he had been writing in off of the bench, quickly taking a few steps back away from him like a kid playing keep-away, "let's just see what other posh things you've been writing about."
John at first started to get up, so that he could go take the notebook back from her. But, he decided to sit back down, as Tabitha's curiosity about what he had been writing was at last being answered, and the smile on her face lessened considerably. After a few minutes, Tabitha held the notebook back down by her side and walked over to the bench to sit back down next to John.
"Go ahead, out with it already." John now almost ordered Tabitha, as she closed the notebook and laid it in her lap.
"Out with what?" Tab asked him.
"I know you've got some smart-ass comment to make about what you read." John assumed.
"Actually I don't." Tab said, as she now handed the notebook back to him, "Straight up, I think it's beyond decent, brave actually, that you can write poetry and be so real about yourself. Not that many guys, well none of the ones I've ever met before, can critique the way people put on these phony masks to hide their real selves, and to hide their vulnerabilities from the rest of the world." Tabitha said, as she gave him a deep and heartfelt compliment.
"Critique? Where the hell'd you pick up that kinda talk?" John asked her, now turning the tables back on Tabitha by teasing her on her choice of words.
"Maybe the rest of us have accidentally picked up a dictionary once or twice." Tabitha laughed loudly, and now smiled widely as she gazed into his eyes.
"Well, little miss dictionary, now that you know all the dirt on me, how about I hear some on you?" John requested.
"Okay. There's not a whole lot to tell, but I guess I can give you the 411…" Tab said, as she began to tell John about herself, about what her life was like before Emma Frost recruited her for the Massachusetts Academy, and revealed to him the good and the definitely not-so-good things that she had experienced in said life up to this point.
But, that'll have to be a story for another day…
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Next Chapter: Let's spin the wheel of characters, and see who it lands on next…
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A/N: Special thanks to everyone that reviewed the last chapter-
Independent Fire- Glad you liked Gambit's quick save and the expansion of characters. I also hope you liked the look at the flipside of things in this chapter with the Massachusetts Academy, 'cause there's alot more where that came from.
El Varon- Thanks for the review, and no, I don't think getting hit by him would be that fun at all either. They do, after all, call him Cannonball for a reason…
TheDreamerLady- Glad you liked the chapter! As far as Kitty, I'm pretty sure I read in the early comics that she used to hold her breath to consciously activate her powers. I don't know if it had to do with her not having any other kind of conscious trigger for it, or if now she's just gotten so good at holding her breath that no one bothers to mention it anymore, or if her powers have simply mutated further beyond that point where she can breathe and phase at the same time (Possibly when the Marauders nearly killed her in the Morlock Masssacre, if I had to guess). With the Lila question, keep an eye out because you just never know…
Digital Tempest- Thanks for the review! And I love to respond to them because I appreciate readers taking the time to tell me what they think, even if it's a simple 'It was great' or 'It kinda sucked' (Although if someone says the latter, I like to know why so that I can make improvements in an area if it's needed).
Moon Comix- Well, I'm glad you liked the last chapter, and I hope this one gave you an indication about the kind of stories you can expect, possibly even including some school intermingling/clashing. And to be honest, I don't think I could even come up with enough stories only focusing on students training in the Danger Room, unless the Danger Room suddenly went crazy and started trying to kill the students. And, we both know that could never happen…
Episodic- Glad you liked last chapter! Anyways, it did get to be more technical than I had actually intended at first, but I thought it was probably best to breakdown the powers of each character since they were all about to jump right into a Danger Room session, and some movie-verse readers may not be too familiar with some of the comic-characters that haven't been introduced on screen yet. I'm also glad you look forward to seeing 'the bad guys', I promise to have more of them in future chapters as well.
hellion- I'm glad you think that I'm getting better as this story progresses, sometimes I have my own doubts, though. Anyways, this whole story arc is going to be a little more laid back than A Force Unleashed, but there will still be some moments of action, and as you saw in this chapter, some definite scenes of tension between the characters.