Roughly ten minutes later, the X-Van pulled up in the garage of the Institute. Jamie was waiting for them.
"You better come inside," he said. "Something's wrong."
"What is it?" Scott wanted to know.
"Um... we're not sure. But it's like someone is messing around in here and nobody knows what's causing it. Mr. Logan is really mad."
Sighing, Jean pushed her sunglasses up the ridge of her nose and opened her door. "Well, we better see what the problem is."
In the backseat, Kitty nodded. "Whatever. And then I gotta make sure Evan didn't rip out much of my hair with that window."
"I said I was sorry!"
"You will be if it happens again."

Picking up her bag from beside her seat, Kitty sighed and slid toward her door. She made no move to reach for the handle, instead intending to phase right through it.
Instead a hugely powerful blast of red energy shot from her eyes and tore the door off its hinges.
Jamie had been standing outside the door; still pushed by the blast, the van door neatly collected him as it went, sailed across the garage, and embedded itself in the wall.
As the blast died down, everyone stared at the cracked plaster of the wall, the buckled and ruined van door, and the tip of one of Jamie's sneakers, hanging three inches off the floor from where he was pinned between the two. Then they all turned and looked at Kitty.

Kitty fainted.

----

Kitty opened her eyes to a world bathed in red. The walls, the bed she was lying on, the ceiling, everything she looked at was simply another shade of red, as though all around her had been bathed in blood. For a second her heart skipped a beat, wondering if that blast fired from her eyes had destroyed her vision; that she would never again see in colour.
Then she realised someone had just strapped Scott's visor to her head, and she sat up.

"Was wonderin' when you'd wake up," Rogue observed from where she was sitting on her bed in their room. Kitty blinked at her.
"You're wearing... a T-Shirt?"
"Yup. Whatever's happenin' with our powers, I got mine cancelled out. Ain't no problem with my skin, at least for the minute."
"What?" Kitty swung her legs off the bed and massaged her temples. "What are you talking about?"
"C'mon." Standing up from her bed, Rogue nodded at the door. "The Professor can tell ya what's going on."
Kitty frowned and followed her. "Wait, is this like what was happening to the Brotherhood?"
"No idea. Couldn'ta been their fault, 'cause things were goin' crazy over here before we got back. Somethin's screwy, anyhow. An' don't be surprised if somethin' weird happens 'fore we get to the Professor's study."
"Wait a minute, wait!" Kitty stopped dead. "Omigod, Jamie! Is he okay? I, like, totally killed him! Is he hurt bad? Is he gonna be okay?"
Rogue opened her mouth to answer; before she could, Jamie's voice echoed in through the open door from somewhere down the hall.
"Eat it, bub!"
Rogue closed her eyes and thumped her head gently against the wall. "Trust me. Jamie ain't hurt, despite everyone's best efforts. Little bastard scored Logan's powers and he's runnin' around sniffing people and tryin' to slice stuff up. If anyone figures out how to switch us back, Bobby's probably gonna kill him."

----

"Are you feeling alright, Kitty?" the Professor asked.
Kitty blinked at him. "Didn't we just see you in the kitchen -"
"Yes," he said sharply. "You did."
"...huh?"
"And also in the Gazebo, the Library, and supervising the Danger Room."
"You got Jamie's powers, didn't you?"
"Unfortunately."
"How's it feel not having telepathy anymore?"
"Very strange." He nodded at her visor. "Oh, and I'm fairly certain you can take those off."
Kitty frowned. "You think so? Wouldn't it be, uh, dangerous?"
"No. Scott lost control of his powers in an accident. You appear to have inherited his powers, but not the accident. You should have control over them."
Carefully, Kitty pulled off the visor, and sighed in relief when she failed to destroy anything. "So what's going on, then? What's causing all this?"
"I'm not certain." the Professor shrugged. "As near as we can place it, it began in the Danger Room. The New Mutants were running through a sim, Ray fired up his powers, and everyone suddenly jolted as though they'd been electrocuted."
Rogue nodded at Kitty. "Remember? It was about five minutes after we left the 'Hoods house."
"Indeed," the Professor agreed. "From that point on everything went haywire. Before we knew what was happening, everyone's powers were completely out of control. We don't know why."
"But..." Kitty frowned. "It couldn't have been that. The Brotherhood tried to fight us, and -"
"I know," he cut her off. "I've discussed this with the others. Scott and Jean are trying to make contact with the Brotherhood now to see if they have any idea what may have caused this. The rest of us are just trying to get some kind of a handle on the situation."

Taking this all in, Kitty sat back in her seat and looked at Scott's visor. She raised an eyebrow.
"So if I have Scott's powers, whose did he get?"
"Mine," Rogue answered. "I got Rahne's. Kinda weird turnin' into a wolf like that. Not that she's complainin'... she got Ray's powers."
"We don't know who has made which switches yet," the Professor put in. "Some are obvious... Jean's eyes started glowing, so we know she has Kurt's powers. Scott managed to drain Rahne at one point, revealing that he had Rogue and Rahne had Ray. And Jubilee..."

----

"Jubilation, please. Open the door."
"No!" The girl's voice was firm. "I am not coming out until we find out how to reverse this."
"This is not helping anyone, Jubilation. It's not that bad."
"Yes it is!"
"No it is not. I have had to deal with this before. And this will be only temporary, I assure you. You will not have my powers forever. Now will you please come out and discuss this?"
"No!"

Sighing, Hank turned away and walked back down the corridor. He'd tried his best, but for some reason Jubilee just didn't want to see the upside of becoming an enormous blue gorilla.
Kids these days.

----

"...as for the others, well, we're not quite sure on everyone," the Professor continued. "Logan, Kurt and Evan are still unknown, and they're a little cautious about trying to find out in case their powers are dangerous. Roberto seems to have retained his own powers, as has Storm. It's quite confusing."
"Who's got mine?" Kitty wanted to know.
"We're not sure yet. I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. At least your powers are unlikely to cause any long-lasting damage, so long as there's nothing electronic involved."

----

Upstairs in his bedroom, Logan swiped a hand through his matted hair.
"This is stupid," he growled. "It don't matter whose powers I got. We'll work it out soon enough."
Ororo rolled her eyes. "Logan, this is important. Will you just try?"
"I am trying. I ain't used to this. Passive powers, remember?"
Two of the Professor's clones were also present; one steepled his hands under his chin. "Logan, tell me. How do you 'pop your claws', as you often put it?"
Logan shrugged. "I flex."
"Then flex now," the Professor encouraged. "The others seem to be able to activate their new powers by getting in the same mindset they were in to activate their old ones. Give it a try."
Sighing, Logan closed his eyes and concentrated. For a long moment, nothing happened.

Then his clothes abruptly dropped away from his body and crumpled to the floor.

Logan's eyes snapped open in horror as a look of barefaced dismay plastered itself on his features. However, his face fell only a split second before he did, dropping straight through the floor of his bedroom and into the ground level of the Institute.
Ororo managed to snap her jaw shut and blink as the screaming started to float up from the kitchen downstairs. Shaking her head, she glanced at the Professors next to her.

"Kitty," they all said in unison.