So here it is! The next chapter! Well, for those of you who like action...here it is...sort of. This is a chapter that just kind of explains some of the mutants' powers a little...yeah, that's right...has nothing to do with the plot. Oh, I was wondering, I don't know if you readers can actually read my story in its tightly packed paragraphs. I mean, you might be making stuff up when you review my story. Nah, you guys would never do that...would you? Let me know if you have trouble reading and I'll do what I can to fix it. Well, anyway, it's an alright chapter so enjoy it as much as you can.
Neither Nucleo or his team of mutants were present at breakfast the next morning. The late night had tired them all and they were sleeping in. The students, however, were all awake and excited.
"It's finally Saturday!" Ruben shouted as he sat down next to Sarah with his bowl of cereal, "I didn't think I would make it through this week."
"For once, I agree with you," Bobby said, taking a bite of a pancake.
"But guess what," Ray muttered, obviously just to get on everyone's nerves, "Monday's in two days!"
"Curses!" Ruben exclaimed, clenching his fist dramatically.
"And even worse," Jubilee moaned, "Mr. Summers is giving us all a test in the Danger Room this afternoon."
"What's the Danger Room?" Erin asked curiously, "It sounds 'dangerous'!"
"Oh," Ruben said overdramatically, "But it is."
"It's a room where we're trained to use our powers," Rogue explained, "It's not all that bad except when we have to do it on weekends."
"Hey, like, where's your sister, Steve?" Kitty asked.
"Oh, she's hanging out with the twins over there," Steve pointed behind him at the table on the other side of the room.
Melanie was indeed with Aaron and Shawn on the other side of the room. The twins had mysteriously found out about the previous night's events and were pestering the table's occupants.
"We know what you were up to last night," Shawn grinned, pleased with himself.
"You can't hide it from us," Aaron told them as Scott groaned.
"We're here for the details," Shawn pulled small notepad from his pocket, "Do you have a pencil, Aaron?"
"Certainly," Aaron smiled at Xavier as he handed his brother the pencil.
"Please, begin," Shawn raised his eyebrows.
Xavier just smiled, while Scott mumbled something and continued eating. Tom, as usual, didn't say anything. Logan glared at them as he took a bite of his toast.
"We weren't there," Jean shrugged, referring to her and Storm.
Ben and Peter got up and began to walk away.
Aaron let out a war cry, "Aaaah! They're trying to escape!"
At this, Ben and Peter broke into a run. Shawn hit Aaron in the head with his notepad and Aaron morphed into an ostrich. Shawn and Melanie got on and Aaron took off after the two mutants.
"Why don't they put that much effort into their schoolwork?" Scott shook his head.
That afternoon, the students were waiting in line for their turn in the Danger Room. They were to be put in groups of three and sent in group by group. The door to the Danger Room slid open and Scott's voice echoed throughout the room.
"Roberto, Steve, and Jubilee may enter the Danger Room. Everyone else report to the Viewing Room."
The three chosen students walked into the Danger Room as the others headed for their destination.
Scott activated the computer in front of him. The other X-Men were standing around him while the other students filed in from the side door.
"Please enter program that you wish to use," the computer spoke as the words appeared on the screen.
Scott quickly typed his reply: Combination: Roberto DaCosta/Jubilation Lee/Melanie Seaton.
They hadn't had time to give Steve his own separate program, but as his sister had the same power, they used the same program.
"Preparing to initiate sequence," the computer began loading the program.
Xavier gestured for Erin and Chris to move up beside him so that they had a better view of the room.
"If you don't feel you want to try today, you are permitted to simply watch," Xavier told them.
"Get ready," Scott spoke into a microphone and his voice reverberated around the Danger Room.
The three students took their positions as the machines roared to life. Immediately, a row of photon guns moved outward from around the walls. Jubilee took aim carefully as the weapons began focusing on their enemies. One of the guns exploded colorfully as Jubilee hit it with a flickering beam. Roberto began using the bright ceiling lights to his advantage and his body began glowing. Jubilee continued to destroy the artillery on the wall, while a series of robotic creatures emerged from the middle of the floor. Roberto tackled one to the ground and disabled it instantly. Jumping up, he ripped the arm from another and proceeded to slam the limb into its owner. With all his focus involved in destroying his attacker, he failed to notice another mechanical being approaching him.
Steve glanced around and spotted the unnoticed assailant. His body began to shrink as it formed a glowing, blue mist. Instead of using the ears as an entrance, the mist drifted into the android's spinal area. The motorized enemy stopped in its tracks. Instead, it turned towards a group of its fellow machines. A set of blades swiveled out from the possessed robot's hands and arms. It then lashed out and short-circuited its group of opponents relatively quickly.
Jubilee, feeling a little trigger happy, was blasting every life- threatening object in sight, excluding her fellow students. Except that she couldn't find one of her fellow students. She winced with guilt as she noticed a blue mist exit a fallen android and morphed back into Steve, who looked like he was in some pain. Jubilee began to run over to see if he was alright when a huge column of the wall flew right in front of her, colliding with the other half of the room. When she tried to take a step back, another column hurtled towards her. From nowhere, Roberto stepped in front of her and crushed the wall as it rushed headlong into his fists.
After that, the Danger Room began to shut down. Jubilee sighed as she walked towards Steve.
"Sorry, I didn't know you were possessing that robot," Jubilee apologized, "Are you ok?"
"Yeah, I'll be alright," Steve stood up slowly and followed her and Roberto out of the Danger Room.
Scott turned around and looked at the students, "Amara, Frank, and Ruben, you're next."
The three chosen students entered the Danger Room while Scott changed the program combination. Within moments, the room began moving again. Immediately, a field of long spikes began covering the floor.
Amara's body became encased in flame. Any spikes that had come close to her were torched instantly as Amara began hurling fireballs at them.
Frank on the other hand, made a sound like he was clearing his throat and started spewing a caustic substance from his mouth which burned through the spikes surrounding him. Most of the spikes were eventually eliminated, but were replaced with spinning circular saws with sensors so that they could follow the students.
Ruben stared with horror at one of the oncoming saws. He quickly lifted his hand in front of his face. A bright light expanded swiftly from his hand. The saw's sensor was instantaneously overloaded with the light energy and flew itself into a wall, spraying the room with debris.
The saws continued to be scorched, blinded, and burned through until they were all reduced to a few pieces of scrap metal. The students didn't have time to catch their breaths, however, because a large amount of mechanical arms began sprouting from the floor and walls.
Amara started throwing fireballs again, leaving behind smoking cinders of what was left of the arms. Behind her a sneaky arm clamped around her and lifted her into the air.
Frank spit on an attacking arm and watched as it dissolved. He turned around quickly and threw his arms up against a particularly large arm. Spotting a wire, he spat a well-aimed ball of saliva at his foe. The wire split instantly and the arm collapsed to the floor. Frank now noticed Amara dangling in an arm's grasp, high over the floor.
Ruben ducked as an arm lunged for him. He turned around and began running after it. He wondered what effect light would have on it.
"Come back, you coward of an arm!" he yelled, as if the arm would turn around and come back to him.
Above him, Amara released a wave of fire melting the arm holding her. Gravity then took effect and she plummeted towards the ground.
Ruben held up his hand, ready to surprise the arm with a burst of light energy. Unexpectedly, Ruben suddenly found himself falling towards the floor as Amara landed on top of him. Ruben's astonishment grew when a sphere of light flew from his outstretched hand and landed near the arm. A few seconds later, the sphere expanded filling the room with its luminosity.
After Scott uncovered his face from the sudden flash of brilliance, he shut the Danger Room down again. Moments later, Ruben burst into the room, followed by Frank and an apologetic Amara.
"Professor!" Ruben stammered, "What was that ball of light?"
"Calm down, Ruben," Xavier couldn't help but smile, "It seems that your power has developed in such a way that you can now use those 'balls of light' to your advantage."
Ruben stood bewildered for a moment, "Cool."
"Kurt, Aaron, and..." Scott began, but was cut off.
"Ooh, me! Me!" Erin jumped up and down, "I want to try! It looks so cool!"
"Ok," Scott shrugged, "But it will take a little longer to start up and I'll need to ask you some questions."
"Ok," Erin agreed, as Kurt and Aaron headed for the Danger Room.
"First, your full name," Scott instructed.
"Erin McNevin, do I really have to give you my middle name?" she replied.
"No," Scott typed in her name and moved on to the next question, "What is your power?"
"Uh, I can't really explain it," she said sheepishly, "I can show you though."
Scott flinched slightly as she approached him, almost as if she would use her power on him. He relaxed a little as she created a pink orb in her hand.
"It may look harmless," Erin warned, but it's pretty dangerous, depending on what mood I'm in."
"Um, ok," Scott began typing again, "Last question, have you ever had any previous training in battle?"
Erin seemed to grin a little, "Aye."
"Ok, I can fill out the rest of this myself," Scott told her and she left to go to the Danger Room.
He filled out the rest of the information and started up the Danger Room again.
The three students all watched as large hammers began pounding the floor. Kurt teleported around the room looking for wires to disengage the hammers while Aaron transformed into a huge elephant and tore one of the hammers from the wall.
Erin watched all this with amazement, never knowing how diverse mutant powers could be. Her thoughts were interrupted when a hammer slammed down a foot from her, making her jump. She smiled, her embarrassment disappearing just as quick as it had come. She conjured two pink globes and fired them at the violent hammer. The innocent looking orbs collided with the hammer, knocking it from the wall. Erin looked around for another as the disabled hammer landed with a crash. Raising her arms high in the air, she created a cluster of pink bubbles above her and let them fly a moment later. An unsuspecting hammer was then pelted to extermination as Erin held out her hands to control her creations.
As the hammers began to diminish, razor-firing guns began to spring from the floor. Kurt teleported as a sharp disk hurtled towards him. The firearm didn't have a chance as Kurt reappeared and gave the device a hard kick, destroying it. The other pieces of artillery began focusing on Kurt and the other two students.
Aaron's elephant form shrunk to form an anaconda and began slithering towards the weaponry, avoiding the jagged projectiles. Reaching the closest gun, he wrapped his body around the threat and crushed the machinery until it was only a heap of damaged metal.
Erin deflected the oncoming blades with her multitude of orbs, while destroying the hazards at the same time. It wasn't long before the Danger Room slowed down once again.
"Kitty, Kyle, and Sarah," Scott announced, "You're next."
The three exited the room as Kurt, Aaron, and Erin reentered the room.
"Wow, that was great," Erin declared while Kurt wiped sweat from his forehead.
"I'm glad you enjoyed it," Xavier smiled, "There are a few rules, however. No one is allowed to use the Danger Room without a teacher's supervision and only a teacher is to operate the computer."
"Ok," Erin agreed, "What's everyone's power?"
"Well, we can actually bring up a list on the monitor if you wish," Xavier said as he wheeled himself next to Scott, who began typing and the list appeared.
"Wow," Erin said, transfixed to the screen, "I never knew there were this many kinds of powers."
She looked through the window into the Danger Room, where Sarah had just burned a robotic insect with a bright, green beam. The insect had just phased through Kitty after being attacked by a beastly reptile, which was Kyle.
"And there are many more powers than this," Xavier stated, "Ah, it seems Nucleo and his associates have decided to get up. Perhaps we will save the rest of the Danger Room trials for tomorrow."
With that, Scott shut down the Danger Room completely and dismissed the students.
Sarah followed Kitty and Kyle from the Danger Room and walked down the hall towards the Meal Room for dinner. The other students had already been dismissed and were there already. Turning a corner, she found Ruben waiting for her.
"Hi!" he said cheerfully, "Ready for lunch?"
Sarah opened her mouth to answer, but someone caught her eye at the other end of the hallway. Her eyes widened in amazement as a black lizard crawled down the hallway.
"Roy?" she said audibly.
"Huh?" Ruben stared at Sarah for a moment and then turned around, "Yikes!"
The lizard had heard Sarah and had stopped in its tracks. A smile of recognition crossed Roy's face as he spoke, "Well, if it isn't my ticket to freedom."
Ruben scratched his head as Sarah and the lizard named Roy walked towards each other.
"How've you been?" Roy asked, standing up on his legs.
"I've been great," Sarah smiled, "Where's Carlos and Bludgeon?"
"Oy, it's a long story," Roy shook his head, "I can spread details over dinner."
Ruben shrugged and followed the two old friends into the Meal Room for dinner.
Ooh...mysterious past acquaintances...doncha just love those? Anyway, I probably won't be addressing how Sarah and Roy know each other in this book. I am, however, considering creating individual stories on my original characters after I'm through with this book. And THAT, my friends...and foes...is how you'll find out about Sarah and Roy's past. Oh, and reviewers...I just gotta say...I love you guys.