After the orientation, a luncheon was held in the foyer and adjacent lounges of the mansion.
"Kurt!"
Nightcrawler and the others were just now joining the festivities after a much needed shower. A teenage girl was running up to greet the fuzzy blue mutant.
She waved her gloved arms in the air, gesturing at the vast scope of the room. "This place is huge! I really get to live here all summer?"
"Hello Anna!" Kurt hugged his sister and took in the decor as well. "I'm glad you like it! Miss Frost and I did a lot of the redecorating ourselves."
Anna brushed the distinctive lock of white hair away from her eyes. "C'mon bro, you know I don't like going by my boring human name around other mutants."
"Anna-Marie Wagner, you have a very nice name, and you really ought to know that by now."
Anna tried to keep herself from rolling her eyes. Kurt's only two modes were "remarkably cheerful" and "big brother." Guess which one she always got.
"Think of what mother would say if she were here, you running around asking people to call you 'Rogue,' like you were in some sort of roller derby league?"
"If mother were ever actually around," she muttered under her breath. "Besides, you all get cool names, isn't that right 'Nightcrawler?'"
"Hm. Yes, I have a codename. That's different. And you will get to pick your own. When you're ready."
Kurt then caught sight of an old friend - Doug Ramsey, their new IT administrator - and excused himself to say hello.
Now alone in the throng of people, Rogue realized that she wouldn't be seeing her brother nearly as often as when they both lived at home.
A smile crept across her face. Finally, she thought
"Ma, this thing is choking me."
"Do you see this house, Sam? This is the fanciest house you'll ever stand in. Not to mention, Charles Xavier was a family friend. He had a tremendous heart for people like you and your cousins. So as long as you're in his house, you'll keep your tie on."
"But Ma, when classes start I'll still be in the house, and I won't have to wear a bowtie then."
"Samuel Guthrie."
"Yes, Ma."
Sam broke off from his family to grab some food. Like Anna-Marie, he couldn't wait to start the school year and temporarily escape his family's shadow. He often lost track of how many siblings he had (more than a few of which had been students here in the past). But for this one summer, he'd be away from everyone. It wasn't that he didn't like everyone back home. But felt like his entire home town was part of the Guthrie family. If he wanted to make a name for himself it sure as Hell wasn't going to be in Kentucky.
"Nice tie," a dark haired boy about his age was smirking at him from the other side of the punch bowl.
"Nice suit," Sam retorted.
"I know," he said. "It makes me look smart, right?"
"Well, looks aren't everything."
Sam paused for a tense beat. Then the two boys broke out laughing.
"Bobby Da Costa," the boy stuck out his hand.
"Sam Guthrie," Sam shook it.
"I think we're gonna be good friends, Sam."
"Good to see the new guys already getting to know one another," Hisako said as she and Chris arrived at the table.
"I'm just happy there are going to be more boys here," Chris added with a mouth full of food. "Mr. Wagner and I have been pretty outnumbered."
"So you guys are like, real X-Men, right?" Bobby asked. "You saved the world and everything?"
"Yeah…" Hisako said slowly. "But we don't get a big head about it. Not all of us anyway," she glanced sidelong at Chris.
A tall boy with shoulder length blonde hair arrived to grab a plate of roast beef. A pair of what must have been feathered wings were folded tightly under his suit. He was quite handsome, Hisako thought.
"I mean, it's not like we fought off a whole army Avengers style. But we did stop a crazy corporate guy. And his crystal golems, which were kind of like a small army. There were what? Seven? Eight?"
"At least nine." Hisako put a hand on her hip.
"And they fired lasers!"
"Regardless, the important thing is that we became really good friends along the way. It's nice to meet other mutants, even if you didn't know what a mutant was longer than a week before you got here. Which was my case."
"I'm glad to have a place where I don't need to hide." The handsome boy said. "My father bought an indoor skydiving facility in Dubai just to be able to stretch his wings."
"Wait," Hisako squinted.
"He bought a skydiving place?" Sam gaped.
"In Dubai?" Chris finished.
"Oh yes. I apologize, I'm used to everyone knowing who I am. Warren Worthington IV. My father runs Worthington Industries, he used to run with the X-Men back in the day."
"I guess this is basically a private school," Chris stroked his chin. "Shouldn't be that odd to see a few rich kids around."
"Heh, yeah, right?" Bobby said with a nervous laugh.
In the yard behind the mansion, a number of white tents had been set up for guests to eat outside. Kitty Pryde was winding her way through the modest crowd, greeting parents and introducing herself to students.
Someone called out to Kitty from one of the tents.
"Hey, Pryde!"
Kitty found the source of the voice in Clarice Fergusson, her roommate from her student days at the mansion. They hadn't kept in contact for the 15 years since they last saw one another - they were never the closest of friends - but the woman's striking green eyes and purple markings around her face were instantly recognizable. She was sitting in a currently-empty tent staying out of the sun.
Kitty took a seat next to Clarice.
"Hey, Blink. Long time, no see."
"It's good to be back. How've you been?"
"Extremely bored, up until about a year ago. It will be ten months next week, actually. But now? This certainly isn't boring."
"I missed it, a bit," Clarice shrugged.
"I missed it very much," Kitty said sincerely. "There wasn't much waiting for me back home. But here, you had the Danger Room!"
"The big dining room!" Clarice added.
"The library."
Blink crinkled her nose in thought.
"The... bunk beds?"
"Maybe I don't miss the beds," Kitty and Clarice both chuckled.
"That was a very impressive stunt, Miss Pryde."
Kitty heard Emma's voice over her shoulder. The reformed supervillain put extra iciness into the 'Miss Pryde' part.
"Not a stunt at all, Emma," Kitty asserted. "The students and their parents need to know that mutation is more than just a party trick. Plus, we needed to get upstairs quickly."
"Well, perhaps the Avengers have increased the appeal of theater in our line of work, but unlike them we have very important things to accomplish. And it's imperative that we do them without attracting attention."
She huffed off to greet another tent.
"You wouldn't believe she used to be in the Hellfire Club," Clarice said dryly, once Emma had left.
"Sometimes it still feels like I'm a kid in those bunk beds," Kitty said sullenly. "I realize how much bigger than me this all is when I see how many people are here."
"There are definitely some big league mutants to stack up with around here. Just look who's coming back to the table."
Clarice gestured with her spoon towards the two people approaching the tent.
Lorna Dane and Jonathan Proudstar were two more of Kitty's classmates when they were all training under Professor Xavier. Kitty learned a few months ago that they had been leading an underground movement to keep the mutant population safe while the X-Men were disbanded. During that time they had gone by Polaris and Thunderbird, respectively.
The number of active mutants around the world was quite startling to Kitty. She had presumed that Xavier's options were limited when he selected her and the other young X-Men to restart the school. But there were pockets of former X-Men all over that came around once word got out that the X-Men were back in business. She wasn't sure what to think of it.
"There she is," Polaris called out. "The woman of the hour."
"You flatter me, Lorna," Kitty rubbed the back of her head. "I'm the one who should be greeting you. I hear your quite the celebrity in the mutant community. I didn't even know there still was a mutant community.
"It's not nothing that you got picked to run the school," the green haired woman said. "I'm happy to lend a hand."
"I'll need it. Five was one thing, this is another entirely. We're gonna have a lot on our plates if we want to manage all these students."
"And getting our name out there. We can't sit around having secret garden parties forever if we want to save more mutants."
"Emma thinks the opposite," Blink said. "That we need keep humans from finding us to keep the mutant race safe."
"They're going to find out one way or the other. If we wait too long someone's going to do it for us, and then we don't have any control over the message. We have a real opportunity here to reset human-mutant relations to something positive."
"Welcome to every argument Alison and Emma have gotten into for the last four months," Kitty groaned.
"You should be a saint for putting up with her after everything she put you through," Jonathan gestured.
"We're both on good behavior today for the orientation. Besides, I think the Vatican would have certain other objections to my canonization. She's really put a lot of work into reopening the school, all joking aside. Emma handled all the accreditation paperwork for registering us as a school, and our humanitarian status under the Walters Amendment of the Sokovia Accords is in her and Scott's name. She thrives for bureaucracy."
"She knows she has a lot to prove, given her past. I know a thing or two about that," Lorna agreed.
"Sorry, Lorna," he shrugged. "You'll excuse me if I keep an eye on her, though."
"I'm the one teaching a class with her," Polaris rapped him on the shoulder. "You worry about yourself."
"Where's your partner, anyway?" Clarice asked.
"Rahne is down in the infirmary greeting our newest tenant," Kitty answered. "We'll have to catch up with her later."
She was in a doctor's office of some sort. But not like any she had ever seen before. And not like the dentist's office she last remembered. A man was working on some instruments in front of her. His skin was shining gold, and he wore a pair of dark gloves.
"Good morning. It's Amara, right?"
"Yeah. Where am I? What happened to the building I was in?"
"Take it one step at a time," the golden man said. "You did quite a bit of damage to both yourself and your surroundings. But that can be addressed later. My name is Joshua, but you may call me Elixir."
"And where you are, is Westchester New York."
Scott Summers stepped into the room and revealed himself to Amara. A woman with red hair and sharp features was with him.
"I… need to get home," Amara said. "Thank you for getting me to safety, but, I'm allowed to leave, right?"
"Of course," the woman nodded. And we can contact anyone you need to let them know where you are."
Scott's face was unmoving.
"But before you do leave, you might consider staying. You have a great deal of power, but you don't know how to control it. Am I wrong?"
Amara looked at her hands.
"No…"
"But here, you are safe. And we can help protect everyone around you while you train."
"Train?"
"Train. Practice your gift, until you can control it as easily as using your hands."
"Rest here for as long as you like," Elixir smiled. "You can decide in the morning."
_Cerebro Files [The Xavier Mansion]
_I am of the fifth generation of Xaviers to live in this house since its construction over one hundred years ago. Since then it has been stocked with numerous creature comforts: 18 guest rooms, 3 bathrooms, a library, a theater, far more than one man could ever need. So I'm putting all that space to better use. A small group of students have been selected. Erik and I have developed a rudimentary technology for finding people like us - mutants. This old house is to be the headquarters from which we will save our race. [ADMN_X/0915-1994]
_Miss Pryde says that - since Miss Frost and I are the resident telepaths - we should take over for Professor Xavier as stewards of the Cerebro databanks. She really wants us to do it so that we spend more time together... But I suppose it won't be all bad. There are records here of nearly every mutant to have come through the school since it opened. There will be lots of interesting files to look through. [ADMN_R/0108-2024]
_The house underwent a number of changes since Xavier opened the school. Surely accommodating the professor's wheelchair within the three story home was one of the most notable. When it shut its doors in 2007, the mansion held 81 students. After our remodel to add more staff quarters finishes it's going to be more like half of that number. Another dormitory further up the property will be required as we continue to grow.
I never fancied myself a teacher, but it's far from the most far-fetched thing of these last five years. [ADMN_F/0107-2024]