Author's Note: Hey, I want to check something, so I'm going to ask all of my readers for a favor of sorts. I want anyone to read this to post a review, it's really simple, hit the button at the bottom of the page, you don't even have to be signed in. Just say something like 'Yo, I'm still reading your story' I just want to know if I should keep going on with it, or if nobody reads it anymore if I should just give up and end it. Oh, and does anyone know what episode comes after this one?
Chapter 16: Jean is Missing
The danger room was a room that most of the warriors hadn't spent a lot of time in. In fact, the girls had only been in it that once. James spent the most time down there with Hank, experimenting. But recently only the X-Men had been using it to train, a mandatory thing that Professor X had ordered.
"He wants us to do what?"
"To train."
"With the X-Men, or whatever they call themselves?"
"No, just Miss Munroe, he thinks it could do us all some good. He wants to split us up into two classes."
"What two classes?"
"Girls and Guys."
"But we always worked together before."
"He said that he noticed a difference in abilities, and the girls seem to be given gifts that are less combat oriented than the guys. So he developed a different kind of program for us."
"I think it sounds cool." Danielle said walking into Elise and Megan's conversation. "When is the first class?"
"In about half an hour." Megan said looking over to her. "You two up for it?"
Unlike the X-Men, the Warriors didn't quite have uniforms, but the girls did wear matching outfits. Rebecca wore a pair of leather pants with vest, almost a biker look to her. Elise wore stretchy sweats and a t-shirt, loose and movable. Danielle and Grace wore the same as Elise, and Megan wore Jeans.
Miss Munroe was the last one in, wearing her uniform that she always wore when she was known as 'Storm.' "Good morning." She said with a smile as she came in.
"Morning." Grace said with a returned smile.
"What are we supposed to be doing anyway?" Megan asked.
"Well the professor wanted you to take this class in order to develop your abilities and learn how to use them in environments and circumstances that might or might not come up in life." Storm explained. "Now, although I know all of you, I can honestly say that I do not know all of your powers, and the explanations that the professor gave me; I don't quite understand all of them. So, as a beginning exercise, could you all please give me a demonstration of your abilities?" She asked kindly.
At first they just looked to each other, but then Rebecca shrugged. "I'll go first, name's Rebecca, my ability is a combination of enhanced reflex and premonition. I see some things a few seconds before they actual happen which give my inhumanly sharp reflexes a chance to react." Rebecca explained. "To give a demonstration I'd need you to throw something at me."
"Could you dodge a bolt of lightning?" Storm asked curiously.
"Never tried, but probably." Rebecca said with a shrug.
"Perhaps we could try later." Storm smiled. "What about you?" She asked looking to Megan.
"I have something of a hypnotic suggestion ability. I'd need a volunteer though to give you a demonstration." Megan answered.
"What kind of suggestion? Like you tell them to do something and they do it?" Storm asked.
"Sort of…" She began to answer.
"I hate to interrupt." Kurt said as he bamfed into the danger room. "But have any of you seen Jean?"
"No." Rebecca said shaking her head with a few of the others.
Miss Munroe shook her head as well. "Sorry Kurt. Why what's wrong?"
"The professor thinks she might be missing. Nobody knows vhere she vent." Kurt said shrugging. "Sorry, get back to your training, the professor has me and a few of the others looking for her."
"Hey wait!" Megan said before he bamfed out again. "Before you go, maybe you could help us with a few demonstrations?"
"Like vhat?" Kurt asked curiously.
"Well you can teleport, so can you try and hit Rebecca? And then Miss Munroe here wants to see a demonstration of my abilities, would you be willing to be a guinea pig?" Megan asked with a brow raised.
"Um…" He looked to Storm and then back to Megan. "Sure. You vant me to just bamf and hit Rebecca?" He asked to make sure.
"If you can." Rebecca said with a shrug. "Thomas never could."
Kurt shrugged and stood up straight. "You ready?" Kurt asked.
"Yup, go right ahead." Rebecca said turning so that her back was to him.
Kurt jumped into the air and then bamfed, Rebecca ducked as his arm came out of a puff of smoke next to her, followed by his tail coming around in a sweeping motion but she had already flipped back and avoided it. The hand to hand fighting went on for a few seconds, he kicked, punched, and teleported like crazy, but Rebecca was moving in advance of him, almost like it was rehearsed and she knew where he would be hitting. Finally Miss Munroe clapped as in applause and ended it.
"Very good both of you." She said with a smile. "Quite a remarkable ability there Miss Rebecca."
"You can call me Becky if you want." Rebecca said with a smile.
"You want me to go now?" Megan asked glancing a bit to Kurt.
"If you would." Storm answered.
"Hey, come here." Megan said in a low toned voice to Kurt.
Kurt looked at her for a bit with a brow raised and came over to him.
"I'm going to sort of manipulate you, promise not to hate me." She said with a smile.
"I promise." Kurt answered with a slight smile.
"Good. I want you to bamf upstairs and get me some flowers, roses, if you can find them." She said with a hand on his shoulder.
Kurt smiled a bit and nodded. "Sure." He teleported away and left, leaving a cloud of blue smoke behind him.
"Why didn't you use your ability?" Storm asked.
"I did. He really didn't have a choice about getting me the flowers, but I'll bet you he brings me at least one rose. Should I try something a little more obvious?" Megan asked curiously.
Kurt bamfed back before she could answer, with half a dozen roses in his two-fingered hand. "I couldn't find any upstairs, so I vent to town."
Megan smiled as she took them. "Thank you Kurt, now can you do me another favor?"
"Sure." Kurt said with a slight smile.
"Sing, the itsy bitsy spider."
He then proceeded to sing it, as if there was nothing at all odd about it, it was just something he was doing. Miss Munroe looked at Megan with a slight sense of surprise. By the time he finished the song, most of the girls were laughing, and Megan thanked him.
"Thank you Kurt. You may now continue your search." Storm said. "And you Danielle?" She asked looking to Danielle.
"I actually don't have an ability." Danielle said looking up to Storm. She pulled down the neck of her shirt a bit and looked up. "My vocal cords were ripped out by a dog, and Thomas replaced them with this." She said as she revealed a patch of circuitry at the bottom of her neck, running in two strips up towards her chin a bit. "Artificial vocals, that's my ability."
"No mutant gene or abilities?" Storm asked curiously.
"No, I can scream real loud, but I'm just a normal human." She said with a slight giggle. "Well, as normal as you can be when you don't have vocal cords."
"Okay… And you?" She asked looking to Grace.
"Agility." Grace answered. "Basically. But if you want the scientific term it's called stabilized equilibrium. My equilibrium is completely balanced all of the time so that I never get dizzy, and never loose my balance, I've got a supernatural sense of balance. It allows me to perform feats of gymnastics that no normal person could really do. Such as running across walls, and a few other things, though gravity still has its affect of course."
Storm raised a brow a bit. "Interesting." She said with a nod. "I'd be interested to see a demonstration if you're willing."
"Sure." Grace said with a slight nod. "Um…" She looked around a bit. Suddenly she ran towards the wall, but when she got there she ran up it a bit, only one or two steps, and then flipped off of it, flying backwards and landing on her hands. Then she proceeded to flip back towards them.
"Wonderful." Storm said with a nod. "I'm sure your abilities have a few other applications as well."
"Yeah, I'm a heck of a tightrope walker." Grace said with a slight laugh as she rejoined them.
"Where'd everybody go?" James asked as he came into the living room. Only Mike was sitting still in the windowsill looking outside.
"Well the guys are out in town somewhere, the girls are down in the danger room with Miss Munroe, but the X-Men all took off. The professor said that they found Jean." Mike answered not taking his gaze from the window.
"I'm surprised that you didn't go with them." James said as he came in a little more and sat on the couch.
"I wanted to, and the professor asked me to, but to be honest I don't think I could handle the X-Jet, crowded in that small space with all those people." Mike said shrugging a bit.
"I thought you were getting better at it." James said slightly curious. "Don't Jean and the professor give you those psychic shields?"
"Yeah, but they aren't working. The keep breaking down sooner and sooner, and I'm afraid too use them too much or they won't work at all." Mike said with a shrug.
"So what're you going to do? You can't keep going to that school down there if your powers are getting out of hand." James asked concerned.
"I know the risk." Mike said a bit sadly. "But to be honest I'm doing okay with it. The halls are pretty bad sometimes, but once I'm in the back of the classroom I'm fine."
"Yeah but from what I hear you've been getting picked on." James said looking over to him.
"James, look at me." Mike said turning his head. "I've got the intelligence of an adult with the body of a ten year old and the wisdom of fourteen years of experience. I've always been picked on."
"Well none of us pick on you, do we?" James asked.
"Of course not." Mike said shaking his head. "But that's because here with you guys I'm accepted. In school, I'm a freaky little smart kid who's too polite for his own good."
"Well I can't claim to know how you feel to be honest." James said with a slight smile. "I mean you and I are pretty different, I'm six and a half feet tall and three hundred pounds of muscle. I haven't been picked on since I was twelve."
"It's hard to believe you were ever picked on." Mike said with a slight smile.
"Everyone gets picked on once or twice in his or her lifetime." James said with a nod. "Back then I was a chubby little kid, then I started excercising, went out for sports, that kinda thing, stuff changed."
"Now you're a pro body builder and personal trainer." Mike said with a smile.
"Well, I wouldn't call myself a pro, but I was able to get the certification to be a personal trainer." James said as he looked towards the living room door for a brief second. "But for now, I'm just a fellow Highschool student."
"What?" Mike asked looking over to him.
James smiled. "My sister's mutation activated when she was twelve. I was only fourteen. We ran away to Chicago, and I dropped out of school. I never got my Highschool diploma, and I wasn't that smart to begin with anyway, so I figured what was the use, you know? Then we moved here, and Jessica went to school, I didn't have to work two jobs anymore, and I figured I should start getting my life in order, especially since now I'm getting married."
"Good for you." Mike interrupted. "I'm glad that you aren't just giving up."
"Well, it's like Jessica used to say, I'm too stubborn to give up." James said with a smile.
The danger room session was cut short, as Storm was called out with the X-men when they went to rescue Jean. But the girls stayed in there, training by themselves. The room itself was buzzing with activity. Lasers and tentacles were coming out of the walls. The floor was nothing but sticks, literally. Five-foot sticks roughly six inches apart covered the floor. Grace was on top of them, jumping around from stick to stick, but the rest of them were on the ground trying to maneuver through them.
"I think we ought to call it a day!" Danielle hollered over the noise of the danger room.
"And stop all the fun?" Grace called out comically.
"None of our powers, other than your and Rebecca's, are meant for this kind of thing." Megan answered.
"Fine." Rebecca said with a slight laugh as she shut the thing down from the control panel. "Come on, let's get dinner ready upstairs for everyone. I figure we can surprise the X-Men with a wonderful meal."
"You're nuts right? Remember what happened last time you tried to cook Becky?" Elise asked scoffing as the room returned to its normal state.
"It wasn't that bad." Rebecca countered.
"The meatloaf bounced." Megan said with a smile. "I don't think it's supposed to do that."
"Fine, then at least let's surprise them with some pizza." Rebecca said with a smile.
"Sounds good to me." Danielle said with a smile.
END
COMING SOON: Chapter 17, the Brotherhood starts some trouble and the Warriors are ready to answer, but can the X-Men stop the all out battle that the Brotherhood is planning? And what ever happened to that guy Magneto sent into town?