A/N: Just to clarify, 'blonde' is Raven, 'blond' is Alex.
"So where were you before?" Raven asked as she handed the men their drinks. A few glasses lined the table, and her own joined them as she spoke, "I mean, if you didn't want to be there."
"I was in school," The redhead replied.
"I was in prison."
The blonde's eyes widened a touch at Alex's casual response. She opened her mouth to respond although she wasn't entirely sure what to say, but Fern, surprisingly, saved her. The brunette glanced at the redhead and asked what he was studying. When Raven turned and offered her a dazzling smile (she was learning to socialize and the blonde was proud of her reclusive friend), the grey girl merely winked at her.
Both of them turned back to Sean as he answered with a shrug, "Art."
"What's so bad about art?" Angel asked with a quirked brow. "Seems like there are worse things to study."
"Hey, I'm all for art, but I am not all for living in a dorm room with two other guys with no sense of personal space or hygiene." Sean leaned back in his seat, raking his fingers through his shaggy hair as he sighed with distaste.
The girls' eyes all drifted over to Hank. Fern grinned at his discomfort as Angel smirked at him. It was the latter who teased, "You haven't showed them their quarters yet, have you?"
"We got sidetracked," The scientist admitted with a hint of pinkness to his cheeks.
Sean huffed and rubbed his face as he slumped in his seat. "Well, at least the company'll be good this time."
"Any chance of solitary in a place like this?" Alex asked before he took a sip of his soda.
"Afraid not," Hank told him with an absent frown.
"No!" Raven gave his knee a light slap. "No bad news! This is a happy occasion, okay? We're secret agents now!"
The others chuckled, but the girl pressed on, smoothing her long blonde hair as she did. "We should think of secret code names. We're secret agents now, we should have code names." Smiling widely, she announced, "I wanna be called Mystique."
"Damn," Sean teased. "I wanted to be called Mystique!"
"Well, too bad, I called it…" Raven shifted, her tan skin fluttering with scales for the briefest second before mellowing into freckled paleness. Where the blonde once sat, now sat the spitting image of Sean.
The reactions of the others varied, with Hank merely leaning away to give her more space, to Fern cackling and bouncing on her toes with delight. Angel gaped, Alex's jaw dropped and Darwin beamed. Sean, of course, had the most dramatic reaction as the young man tried to physically leap away from his doppelganger.
Voice mirroring the young man's drowsy drawl, Raven blinked slowly, "And I am way more mysterious than you."
From behind her, Fern teased, "How long've you been thinkin' that one up, Rav?"
Still in Sean's form, Raven turned to look at her. "Shut up, Fern."
The grey girl shook her head playfully and reached over to tug a strand of Raven's red hair. After she let go, the bubbly woman's skin shifted once more, the blue scales catching the light for only the briefest of seconds before turning back to the tan tone Raven preferred. When the blonde caught sight of the grey girl's disappointed frown, she swallowed and looked over to the man across from her. None of the others seemed to notice the slight catch in Raven's voice as she asked, "Darwin, what about you?"
"Well, uh, Darwin's already a nickname and it sorta fits…" Armando bobbed his head back and forth casually. "Adapt to survive and all."
With a smirk, the man bounced off the couch. "Check this out."
The group watched with eager curiosity (with Fern going so far as to rise up on pointe to get a better look) as Darwin strutted toward the fish tank against the wall. Shooting them another quick smile, Armando stuck his head in it. Before the young man could take so much as a watery breath, large gills sprouted from his cheeks. They ran the length of his face, past his temple to his goatee and he grinned as he looked toward the others. His expression only brightened further as they cheered for him.
Fern was the first person to speak as he pulled his head out. As Armando shook the water from his head dramatically, she shook her own and let her heels fall just a touch. "I have never been more jealous in my entire life."
"That was incredible," Hank told him as he applauded with Raven and Sean.
Bowing, Armando thanked them before he fell back into his seat. Angel rolled her eyes and made a show of wiping some of the stray beads of water off her leather jacket as he spoke to Sean, "What can you do?"
"I'm going to be…" Like the man before him, the redhead seemed to have a flair for the dramatic and he leaned forward in his seat. Drawing his shoulders up a moment, he relaxed and nodded. "Banshee."
Fern glanced at the young man in front of her as Hank sat up a bit straighter. With merely a puzzled frown, she listened as the bespectacled man asked, "Why do you want to be named after a wailing spirit?"
The redhead smirked as he popped out of his seat hips first. "You might wanna cover your ears."
The mutants shared curious glances; Alex with Fern, Armando with Angel and- well, Hank tried to share one with Raven, but she didn't seem to notice. Sean bent his knees, making his face almost level with the table and the series of half empty coke bottles and glasses that littered it. They did as he said and covered their ears (with the exception of Darwin, who didn't need to). The redhead sucked in a breath, holding it a moment while he shot each of the girls playful glances before letting out a chirp. A chirp so high pitched it shattered the large picture window that was behind the table.
The redhead slowly stood as the group uncovered their ears. Armando clapped and Raven giggled and Hank looked horrified for a few seconds. Not wanting him to end up being a wet blanket, Fern nudged the back of his head and offered him a shrug when he looked at her.
"I'm sure they can replace it," She told the scientist. Bouncing on her toes, she made a point of looking around in the same manner she had seen Angel do early to demonstrate her point. "It doesn't exactly look like they're hurtin' for money around here."
Hank looked like he wanted to argue, but before he could Sean had already prompted Angel to show off.
The shorter girl shook her head jokingly as she pulled off her jacket. Sean whistled at her as her halter top came into view. She ignored him. "My, uh, stage name was Angel." She turned her back to them, showing off her tattoos. Tattoos that pulled back from her skin to transform into pink, entomoid wings. With a teasing glance over her shoulder, Angel told them, "It kinda fits."
Fern beamed at her, her sharp canines catching the light as her skin rippled with delight.
In front of her, Raven leaned forward like an excited child as she shrieked, "You can fly?!"
"Uh-huh, and uh…" Angel turned and spit. A small fireball flew through the shattered window to land smack dab on the head of the statue outside. It sizzled as the group laughed. Sliding her jacket back on her shoulders, the petite brunette nodded to Hank. "What's your name?"
He looked visibly uncomfortable being the center of attention. He shifted in his seat, his gaze flickering from Angel to Raven. The pale man didn't get a chance to answer before Alex cut him off with a brash, "How about bigfoot?"
Hank crossed his legs and shied away from the blond's teasing.
Angel laughed as Raven scowled at him. On the defensive, she snapped at him, "Well, you know what they say about guys with big feet…"
Fern frowned. She had no idea what they said, but didn't ask. She had already gotten teased enough about being sheltered for one day.
"And yours are kinda small," the blonde finished, making a point to purse her lips with disappointment as she looked at the blond's sneakers.
Judging by the reactions from the group, Fern assumed Raven had said something rather catty, but once again chose to stay silent as Hank shot the girl beside him a grateful glance.
"Alex, what is your gift?" Darwin asked, extending a hand to him. "What can you do?"
Suddenly shy, Alex leaned forward to rub the back of his neck. Fiddling with his coke bottle, he told them, "I just can't do it…I can't do it in here."
Armando didn't let him off the hook so easily. "Can you do it out there?"
"Why don't you just do it out there?" Raven prompted.
"Come on," Angel added with an irritated scowl.
Beside her, Darwin began to clap and chant Alex's name, with Sean and Raven quickly joining in. Even Hank strained against a smile as the young man in leather reluctantly stood (to the joy of the group). Only Fern remained quiet as dread filled her stomach. After Alex shared, it would be her turn.
Frowning, the blond stalked toward the busted window. "Get down when I tell you."
Not to be deterred by his gruff tone, the others followed him to the window. They poked their heads out the window as Alex lined himself up with the statue.
"Get back," he warned them, but they merely slipped inside for a second before coming back out. "Get back!"
When the group ignored order, the blond shrugged.
"Whatever," He muttered to himself before he began to roll his shoulders and hips. Red light emanated from him, bright circles of pure energy that shot out from his torso. With a swivel of his hips, Alex shot two of them toward the statue. It sliced through the bronze like a hot knife through butter and the others let out shocked laughs as the head and torso fell to the wet grass.
As Hank stood gawking in horror at the destruction caused, Angel and Raven began to bounce with excitement. The other boys clapped and Fern made a vague effort to, although the sound was faint thanks to her gloves.
"Oh my god!" Raven crowed with delight as Alex came back to them. "We have to call you Havok!"
"You really don't," The blond told her with a hint of a frown. He made a point of going back to his seat and the others followed suit. His blue eyes flickered over to Fern. "Alright. Spill. What's with the skin?"
"Alex," Darwin scolded gently. Still, his brown eyes gleamed with curiosity as he, along with the rest of the mutants, glanced toward the grey girl.
The young woman rocked on her heels restlessly. "I can't show you-"
"Are you kidding me?" Alex snapped at her. "I torched a statue for these people!"
Fern's inhuman eyes narrowed on him. "I can't show you unless you want to wake up tomorrow morning in a coma."
"What do you mean?" Darwin asked. He leaned toward her a bit, along with Angel and Sean, as she unbuttoned her black overcoat.
Peeling it off, she tossed it into Raven's lap. The blonde shot her a saucy smile and held it to her chest, all but bursting with delight at the chance to see more of Fern's skin.
"I mean what I said," The girl replied stiffly. She rolled up the sleeve of her black long sleeve t-shirt and tilted her arm toward the ceiling lights to show them the various scales along the outside of her forearm. They were darker than the rest of her ashy grey skin, more of a charcoal color. She pointed out some of the blockier ones, the ones that rose slightly above the rest. "They're parotid glands-"
"You're poisonous?" Hank blinked with surprise and reached for her arm. "How long have you known?"
Fern smacked his hand away with a scowl.
He looked a bit hurt, then a bit irritated, but shrugged it off as curiosity got the better of him. Excitement palpable in his voice, he leaned a bit closer to get a better look at her exposed skin as he asked, "And are those triangular glands osteoderms?!"
"Yes," was the girl's stilted response.
"What the hell does that mean?" Alex snapped at them. He hated feeling stupid.
Hank rolled his eyes. Voice purposely slow and condescending, he explained, "It means she can regulate her body temperature."
"And they are so pretty when they catch the light," Raven gushed, much to Fern's embarrassment.
Her skin rippled (going from a concrete grey to an ink black for barely a second) as she glared at her, but Sean's voice cut her off before she could properly reprimand her friend. "Woah, how'd you do that?"
"Do what?" Fern asked with an arched brow. It was slightly hard to tell where her brows began and ended given her scales, but the young man caught the expression with ease.
The redhead faltered as his cheeks began to flush.
At his mildly panicked expression, she shook her head. "I'm just messing with you. It does it on its own."
"Oh." Sean relaxed. "Well, it's still cool."
"Glad I have your approval," Fern told him stoically as she pulled off her gloves. All but throwing them at him, she ordered, "Hold these."
Sean grinned and fanned himself with the leather gloves as she moved to take her shoes off.
Alex leaned forward with a hint of fascination, or maybe disgust, in his voice as he asked, "Oh, god, don't tell me you've got freak feet too?"
"I have amazing feet," Fern told him firmly. Channeling the confidence her mother had tried so hard to instill, she squared her shoulders and glared at him. "My feet can do amazing things and look good in heels, so you can just shut your mouth, you hooligan."
While Raven let out a shocked laugh, Darwin clapped. "You tell 'em, Fern."
Alex shot his friend a frown, but said nothing as the grey girl walked over to the window on the opposite end of the room. It was thankfully still intact and would suit her needs just fine; the last thing she wanted to do was get footprints all over the wall. The glass could be easily cleaned, the walls- not so much. With a glance back at the others, she was a bit embarrassed to find them all staring at her with the same giddiness she had felt watching the others. Fern righted her baseball cap and planted her right foot on the glass. Her left foot soon joined its twin and with ease she walked up the wall, her body completely horizontal and without a hint of strain in any of her muscles.
"Ta da," the grey girl said sarcastically. "It's not exactly statue burning or flying, but I get by."
Angel hopped off the couch. Skipping over to Fern, she ducked under the girl's back. She went to give her a light push, but the young woman tilted away from her with ease, spinning to have her back pressed against the glass, the bottom of her feet still pressed against the glass and holding most of her weight. When the shorter brunette kept staring, searching out her poisonous scales and scutes with her eyes, Fern hopped away from the glass and went back to her seat. Tugging her sleeve back down, she snatched the gloves from Sean's hands before she took a seat beside Raven.
The blonde bumped their shoulders together and offered Fern back her coat.
"Can I touch them?" Angel asked as she reached out. "Your scales I mean?"
"That's probably not the best idea. They can get kind of iffy when I'm embarrassed."
"Aw, Fern, don't be embarrassed." Raven bumped her shoulder again. "We're all friends here."
"We're not friends," Fern told the blonde with a crooked grin. "I don't even like you, Darkholme."
Raven stuck her tongue out at her and offered her arm to Angel, who was pouting slightly from her place beside Alex's chair. Tan skin turning an ashy grey, Raven smirked as the same blocky scales pressed out of the outside of her forearms. "Here. You can touch me. I can't poison you."
"Now you're just showing off," Fern teased good naturedly as Angel ran her fingertips over Raven's mock of her skin.
The petite brunette smiled approvingly. "Awesome."
"What should we call you?" Darwin asked her, ignoring the slightly embarrassed quiver in the girl's features.
After a moment of thinking, Fern nodded as she remembered what Dr. Casten had told her once. "Cane."
"Cane?" Alex repeated with a tilt of his head. "As in coke or as in like, caning?"
"As in the toad."
The blond arched a brow. Reaching to take his Coke off the table, he asked, "Why not just call yourself Toad?"
"Toads aren't sexy," Raven told him with a hint of a pout. Her pout shifted to Fern. "You should have a sexy name. Everyone else has one."
"Hey, just because I didn't spend the flight over here thinking it up doesn't mean my name is bad," Fern told her with a hint of indignity.
"I like it," Sean cut in. As tempting as it was to let the two of them escalate into a cat fight, he was having fun and didn't want anyone to put a damper on the good mood. "What should we call Charles? Or Erik, oh god, let's give Erik one."
The girls chuckled as Darwin agreed, "The guy could certainly use some levity in his life."
When Raven looked away, Fern carefully bumped her shoulder with her own. They shared a smile and all was forgiven between the two.