The professor had brought us to the mansion with a massive black stealth jet. When we were all prepared and had said our goodbyes, we had entered the plane and were carried to upstate New York. Thankfully, Gwen was too deep into her book to bother me on the flight. Professor Xavier was sitting in the cockpit as the plane piloted itself with an autopilot program.
When we were back on solid land, we were walking out of the jet when it was parked on the main pathway leading to huge multistory mansion with a sprawling grounds.
"This place is super nice," I say. "How much did it cost to buy?"
"Really, Ben?" Gwen asks. "Your first question is how expensive it is?"
"It is alright, Gwendolyn," Professor Xavier says. "It has been with my family for generations. If I had to estimate its worth, I would gauge it in the upper ten millions. Are you both ready for the tour?"
"Yes!" Gwen says excitedly.
"I can probably take my own quicker tour," I say, reaching for my watch.
Gwen sees this and stops me. "Ben," she says in a warning tone of voice. "Don't go XLR8."
"I'm not," I say. I start to move my hand closer to my watch again.
"Ben, seriously, stop," Gwen says.
"I'm not doing anything," I say. Then, I quickly activate my watch, shoot through the forms and slam down on my intended one.
In a flash of green light, I am changed into a reptilian form. Blue and black striped tail extends from my back. My knees are reversed and my feet sit on small orbs. My hands have turned into claws. My head in encased in a helmet with the visor up. My eyes are solid green and my face is blue with black lines running across my skin.
"Too late," I say. "I am already XLR8. Hey, that rhymed." My visor drops down and I shoot forward to the mansion in a plume of dust.
The mansion was nice and had a lot of wood which gave it a refined appearance. I race through each level before I pass an open door where I see Kitty is laying on a bed. I stop in the door way.
"Hey, Kitty," I say. "How's it going?"
She freaks out at my sudden appearance and automatically throws a pillow in my face.
"Who the hell are you?!" she screams.
I tap the dial on my chest and revert back to human. "Wow, Kitty," I say with a hurt expression on my face. "I can't believe that you don't recognize me."
"Oh my God," she says. "Ben, you totally scared me. How was I supposed to know that that was you?"
"All of my aliens have my watch dial on them," I say. "I just wanted to say hey real quick. I still have a lot of mansion to explore before Gwen and Professor Xavier get to the front door." I change back to XLR8. "Bye!"
I continue traveling throughout the mansion until I notice that there is an elevator that was in the process of closing as a dark skinned guy was walking away. I slip inside and head to one of the lower levels.
The lower levels have a completely different vibe than the mansion. They were all modern and white in comparison to the aged wood above. I found one room which was empty, but I noticed a control room adjacent.
When I got there, I saw a large control board filled with many buttons. Since there were no labels , I decided I needed a bit of a more hands on approach. Tapping the dial on my chest, I change into a different alien.
This one is a humanoid shaped mass . It is white for most of the lower body but black with green circuit patterns on the top half of the arms and from the shoulders up. A green circle sits in the middle of my head and acts like an eye.
"Let's see if Upgrade can figure this out," I say.
I merge with the control console. I start randomly activating systems. In the room I was in earlier, laser torrents come popping out. Robotic tentacles extend from the floor, ceiling, and walls. Buzzsaws shoot across the floor. Walls and hurdles slide in and out of view. Sections of the walls, ceiling, and floor extend and slam into each other, forming crushing pillars.
"Cool," I say. "Way to dangerous to be at a school, but cool. Let's see what I can do with this."
Like the conductor of an orchestra, I start to command the different pieces of the room. The columns are the low notes, the lasers are the medium, and the buzzsaws are the higher notes. With these employed, I perform my own rendition of "Eye of the Tiger." It might be a little heavy on the mechanical sounds, but I like it.
After that, I get bored. I almost forgot to explore the rest of this place. I change back to XLR8 and zoom out of the control room.
Upon turning a corner, I crash into what feels like a wall. I stumble back and fall to the ground. When I look up, I see a short man with an angry expression on his face. His hair gives him a feral look that is augmented by the metal claws that come shooting out from between his fingers. "What are you doing here, bub?" he asks with a growl as he points his claws at me.
"Ahh!" I shout. "Scary pointy short guy!"
I immediately slam my hand on my dial and change again. This time, I am a large humanoid tiger. A black claw/blade extends out of the back of each hand. Black, orange, and white fur covers my body.
"Let me tell you something, short stabby guy pointing claws at Rath!" I shout. "No one points claws at Rath except Rath!"
The situation did not improve much from there.
--
"So, Gwendolyn," Professor Xavier says. "I can tell that there is a bit of tension between you and Ben. Why is that?"
"He is so immature," Gwen says. "He uses his aliens way too much, even when it is unnecessary. Do you know what happened when he first transformed, before he could control it and before he used his watch? He burned down a chunk of forest at a state park since he turned into an alien that was essential a blazing rock person."
"That can be understood because he did not know how to avoid using that form's powers," Professor Xavier says.
"Oh, he knew how to use his powers," Gwen says. "He started the fire because he was playing around with making fireballs."
"When was this?" Professor Xavier asks.
"When we were thirteen," Gwens says. "So, three years ago by now."
"He could have matured a great deal in that time," Professor Xavier says. "It could have been a learning curve helped along by having to control his powers."
"If what happened a few minutes ago is anything to go by, I don't think so," Gwen says. "Anyway, I think it is about time."
"Time for what?" the telepath asks.
"Time for Ben to have screwed up," Gwen says. "I just hope that it doesn't involve burning down the mansion."
"I think that you should have more faith in your family," Professor Xavier replies. "He could simply be taking a look around."
Moments later, accompanied with the shattering of a pane glass window, a writhing mass is hurled from one of the higher windows of the mansion. It was a blur of orange with flashes of silver.
Upon slamming into the ground, part of the mass is launched away in the Gwen and Professor Xavier's direction. It lands in a tumble that stops just short of the pair. It is shown to be a man in a white t-shirt, jeans, and a leather jacket. The most distinguishing things about him were the claw marks on his clothes, his short height, and the metallic blades protruding from the spaces between the knuckles on his hands.
"Hey, Chuck," he says to Professor Xavier. "I am just taking care of an intruder."
"Just so you know, that's Ben," Gwen says.
"Logan, could you hold back a bit?" Professor Xavier asks. "That is apparently one of the new students."
"Wait, what?" Logan asks before he is tackled by the tiger alien again. They continue their fight away from the professor and student.
"That was Rath," Gwen says. "It is Ben's angriest alien. Whenever he uses it, he is really aggressive, talks in the third person, and uses wrestling moves."
"The variety of your cousin's transformations is astonishing," Professor Xavier says. "Do you have any idea why this form involves speaking in the third person?"
"No idea to be honest," she replies. "Oh, this is getting good."
"Polaris Piledriver!" Rath shouts as he slams Logan into the ground head first, creating a plum of dust in the air.
"Sirius Buttkicking!" This involves actual butt kicking. Logan is launched through the air followed quickly by Rath.
"Lewodan Elbow Drop!" A massive colliding sound can be heard at the impact. A crater has been formed from the force of it.
"Antarian Armbar!" This was the finisher. Logan was held in place by the move which he could not over power due to Rath's greater strength.
"That's enough, Ben," Gwen says. She holds up her hand and a beam of pink energy extends from it, shooting forward and wrapping around Rath. He is pulled off of Logan and held up in the air, his arms held to his sides by the energy containing him.
"Let me tell you something, Gwendolyn Tennyson!" he shouts. "Just because you are Rath's cousin doesn't mean that Rath won't destroy you! You think that this will hold Rath?! Rath will show you!"
Rath starts to strain against the energy imprisoning him, causing cracks to form in the construct. Gwen just proceeds to throw him directly up into the sky.
"Will he be okay?" Professor Xavier asks.
"Yeah," Gwen says. "Rath is really durable."
As Rath reaches the peak of his trajectory and begins to fall once more to Earth, he is faintly heard to be shouting, "Let me tell you something gravity! You think that you can beat Rath?! Wait until Rath gets his hands on you!"
This leads to Rath slamming straight into the ground. The crater he made had a Rath-shaped indent in the middle which is revealed when Rath stands up. He looks down at the replication of his appearance in the ground and gets angry again.
"Let me tell you something, Rath-shaped hole in the ground!" he shouts. "You think that you can beat Rath?! Rath will show you!"
He then starts kicking at the dirt like an angry toddler. This doesn't last long since the dial on his chest starts flashing red and beeping urgently. Moments later, Ben is human once more.
--
I look around to see all of the destruction that I caused in a Rath-assisted rampage of violence and destruction. No matter how many times it happens, I am always slightly embarrassed once it is over.
I walk back over to Gwen and Professor Xavier. "Sorry about the whole Rath thing," I say.
"It was interesting to see someone defeat Logan in hand to hand combat," Professor Xavier says. "This is worth it in my book."
The short angry guy from earlier comes walking up. His clothes are practically destroyed, but he seems uninjured. I remember biting him and there being blood. There is even blood on his clothes. How is he fine?
"I didn't lose, Chuck," he says. "The twerp caught me by surprise. If it was a fair fight, I would have been kicking his ass across the grounds."
"I remember Rath kicking someone across the grounds," I mutter.
"What was that?" Logan asks. I may not be as smart as Grey Matter, but I know when to keep my mouth shut.
"So, how about that tour of the mansion?" Professor Xavier asks.