Anna-Marie took a seat towards the back of the room and surveyed her classmates. In the front was an Asian girl with a bright yellow blazer. A few seats over was a boy with no hair and several bluish markings (Tattoos? Cool.) running the length of his face. In the back corner, barely visible inside a maroon hoodie zipped tightly up to her neck, was another girl.
Students continued to trickle in. At the top of the hour a blonde woman breezed through the door with a purposeful gait, heels clicking.
"Hello class," she announced without looking at the assembled students. "I'm Miss Blaire, but you can call me 'Dazzler.'"
With a wave of her hand the word appeared in glowing letters that fizzled with a similar lack of enthusiasm. The girl in the yellow jacket grew a wide grin.
"This class is about the basics," Dazzler continued. "Some of you may not know how to use your power, or the way your power can be used. In our class you'll come to a greater understanding of what it is you can do with your mutation. Now, it was decided that we should all go around and get to know each other. Tell me your name, and how you would best describe your power."
The girl in the yellow jacket vaulted from her chair.
"I'll go first! My parents named me Jubilation, but everyone calls me Jubilee because I'm a one-girl party! I can shoot firecrackers from my hands!"
To demonstrate, she produced a shower of whirling blues and greens throughout the room.
Ugh, Anna covered her ears.
"Okay, well, we don't really do the name thing for a while yet, but sure," Dazzler trailed off.
The boy with the facial markings rose.
"My name is N'Ezhno. I can summon great strength, but only for short periods of time before it saps my energy. Yes, I am from Wakanda, and no, I do not know the Black Panther. You are all from America, yes? How many of you have met Barack Obama?"
Alison briefly considered raising her hand, before realizing that she was likely the only person in the room previously employed by the federal government.
The class went around introducing themselves until eventually Alison reached Anna.
"What about you, kid, what do you do?"
"Nothing," she grumbled.
"I think you might have the wrong class, then," Dazzler arched her eyebrow.
"My touch just hurts people. It's why I wear these," she held up her arms to show her gloves.
"That's nothing to be ashamed of. We can get you sorted. What's your name?"
"Anna-Marie. Wagner."
"Wagner? Ah, what a coincidence. Your older brother will be co-teaching with me."
"What?"
"Every class has two teachers, to better make sure you have the care you need. The rest of you will meet Nightcrawler next period. Is that going to be a problem?"
"Nope. That's just perfect."
Rogue couldn't believe it. Even at this whole big school she couldn't get her brother out of her hair.
Alison had moved on to the girl wrapped deep in her hoodie.
"You must be-"
"Amara," the girl muttered. She sounded exhausted.
"The new girl. Welcome to the school. What do you have for us?"
"I don't really know why I'm here," she said bitterly. "They told me I set a building on fire."
The other students murmured.
Dazzler sighed. She was out of her element, adrift in a sea of hormones. This was her decision though, to lend a hand to the X-Men after their help with Sinister. Alison had hoped to never see this place again; but then, a lot had changed.
"Who wants a syllabus?"
"Alright, let's begin!"
Rahne stood before her class with a sharp-toothed grin. Of all the incoming teachers she was perhaps the most excited to get the summer started.
"In this class you will learn intermediate self-defense, as well as the fundamentals of being mutant in a modern society. Mr. Proudstar and I will be your guides through this semester. By the end, we will have discovered what sort of role you'll play in the future of mutantkind."
"Miss Frost says the future of mutantkind is in constant flux," a blonde girl in the front row said.
"So we need to learn how to fight back against an indifferent system," an identical blonde girl next to her said.
These were Mindee and Phoebe, and together with their sister Celeste they made up the set of triplets called the Cuckoos. The circumstances of how they came to be at the school were somewhat complicated, but they never left one another's side
"Your tutor is wise," a scruffy boy with ruffled brown hair in the back piped up. "You never know what sort of unsavory characters you'll run into."
He grinned, and winked his red eye at Phoebe.
"We can see your thoughts, you know," Mindee scoffed.
"Horrid, dirty thoughts," Celeste added.
"Like Miss Frost when she's around Mr. Summers," Mindee finished thoughtfully.
"I do not deny it," the boy shrugged, grinning again.
"You are here," Emma began, "Because your potential places you above your peers. Because there are currently five X-Men, and if our school is to return to its former prominence we will need more. You are the lifeline between our kind and oblivion."
The small class, including Warren, Sam, and Bobby, regarded her blankly.
"The X-Men's mission statement is a simple one," Polaris continued, side-eyeing Emma as she did so. "To protect a world that hates and fears us. That mission takes many forms, and in this new and uncertain time it likely takes forms we aren't yet prepared for. But I emphasize yet, because we will adapt, and we will evolve. As mutants always do. Until one day, we will win the trust of the world."
Emma stepped forward.
"But at the same time, you must remember - they will always hate us. Fight as though Charles Xavier's dream will one day come true, but fight with the conviction that it likely never will."
Bobby raised his hand.
"Roberto, what is it, dear?" Emma's demeanor suddenly changed.
"This all sounds super life or death. I guess I didn't expect that from the first day of class."
"Miss Frost's account is somewhat… dramaticized," Lorna shrugged. "But she's correct to take this seriously. This isn't an entry level course, so to say. You will be challenged, almost as though you were the X-Men. Because someday you will be."
"Is it still out there?"
Chris moved away a blind to take a look outside. A flying machine hovered low through the streets of the town, a red beam taking across the buildings.
"Definitely. What's the play, Shadowcat?"
Kitty shrugged. "Team, check in, you still with us? Triage and I are pinned, second floor main street."
"Lockheed and I are in the park," Cecily whispered. "Enemy drone is around the corner from us. Should we intercept?"
"Not yet," Rachel called out. "This thing is zapping anything that moves. He'll see you coming down the road. It's a machine, so I can't disguise any of us from its sensors."
"Permission to try something?" Wolverine asked over comms.
"Laura, I don't know. We haven't drilled it enough," Armor argued.
"We'll be fine. You can hit a moving target, can't you?
"Oh boy. Here goes nothing."
"Girls? What are you doing? Talk to me," Kitty called out.
Her answer came when Hisako exploded through the wall of a building across the street. Laura dashed around her and rolled out of the way of the drone's blast. The machine had taken immediate notice. Armor's psionic shields grew taller and Wolverine leapt into her hand. Then one dark haired girl hurled the other like a javelin at the flying foe.
Laura popped her claws and hooked onto the side of the machine, digging out a large chunk. But she was unable to neutralize the cannon, which continued firing madly at Hisako. Her armor beginning to fade, she had to retreat.
The drone grabbed onto Laura with a metal claw and trained its guns on her. Flames built on the exterior of its wounded side. Its targeting systems were damaged, but it could still manage a close-up shot.
"Hey, that's enough!" Rachel called out, telekinetically grabbing the gun and trying to wrest it from the machine. It caught notice of her, and began firing the gun wildly in whichever direction it could manage.
"It's getting warm over here, Summers," Laura shouted as the flames started licking her.
Kitty and Triage emerged from their hiding place.
"I asked for status reports, not wild acts of heroism. What the hell are you guys doing?"
Then suddenly, the flying machine froze, and the world around them dissolved.
"I'm calling it there," Scott announced as he emerged from the Danger Room booth. At his side was Danielle Moonstar, one of the new Danger Room trainers.
"Well, let's review," Danielle started. "There was certainly some room for improvement."
"That sounded a lot more fun in Dad's stories," Laura said, nursing a few bruises.
Cyclops looked at Laura and Hisako.
"The Fastball Special is a bold move. But an advanced one. It would be best not to resort to it in live combat until you've mastered it."
"Is that not what practice is for?" Laura whispered to Hisako.
"Practice is for not risking your life even if the situation is virtual," Scott said flatly. "Shadowcat tells me you're still working on accounting for your own limits, Little Miss Adamantium Bones."
"We were doing well until we got separated," Kitty added, putting herself between Wolverine and Cyclops. "When we're divided, we try to take the situation into our own hands."
"Getting back together and staying together is the most important thing in those situations," Scott interjected. "We'll run it again. This time, Rachel and I will take the front."
"Hmph," Rachel grumbled. "Right."
"Um, yeah, Scott," Kitty said slowly. "Sure! Me and Lockheed will monitor from the... booth."
Lockheed tilted his head quizzically at his old friend. She didn't notice him, only turning to quickly walk out of the Danger Room.
At the end of the first week of school the teachers went down to Harry's Hideaway for a celebration of the smooth start to the term.
"Everyone," Kitty rang her glass with a spoon. "A toast! To the new school year!"
"Hear! Hear!" Kurt clinked his cup against hers.
"And thank goodness the world didn't need saving for one week," Blink raised her glass.
"Cerebro's been quiet as well," Doug added. "Not so much as a blip since young Amara's powers manifested."
The owner of the bar, Harry Morrel, emerged from the back with a tray of drinks.
"I gotta say," he said plopping his tray on the bar. "It's good to see that big old house being put to good use. Wasn't the same without all the tykes running around."
"Thank you, Harold," Emma took a mug and sipped it as daintily as she could manage.
"Teaching sure beats laser fights with crystal golems," Kitty grabbed a glass did her own. "When you're young you always want to be the one jumping out of the plane, but it's an awful lot of work."
"I heard you actually did jump out of a plane on that first mission," Dani smiled at her accusingly.
"I'm with her," Thunderbird nodded. "Saving the world is fun but the whole constant vigilance thing gets to be a lot. You never know when you have evacuate a clinic ahead of a SHIELD raid."
"Or a Brood infestation," Polaris added.
"God, I haven't seen a Brood in twenty five years," Scott said wistfully.
Kitty flashed a desperate look at Kurt. These guys had been in the game longer than her. She was in no position to talk shop.
"Um, so how are everyone's classes going?" Kurt spoke up, ever one to come to his friends' rescue. "Everyone getting along? I think I'll need to do some work to get Amara out of her shell."
"I wish my co-teacher would stop scaring half my students," Polaris said. "And maybe turning on the other half."
"I'm afraid there's only so much I can do about one of those things," Emma smiled. "But as for the other, I only ask that they know what sort of fight they're getting into."
"Maybe save all that apocalyptic jargon for finals week though," Alison offered. "Before you put the wrong ideas in their heads."
"Wrong ideas?"
The various conversations in the room ground to a halt.
"Um, Emma, perhaps this isn't the place," Scott murmured.
"What isn't the place?" Alison raised her hands. "You never miss an opportunity to talk about how much you're against reintegration."
"The lady has a point," Doug involved himself against his better judgement. "Even your speech at Orientation was rather… incendiary."
Emma sighed.
"Okay. If we are to all coexist this semester we should probably clear the air of this subject once and for all. I appreciate everything you all have done for mutantkind since the fall. That includes your work in the underground movement, Lorna, and your efforts to hide us from the federal government, Alison. But I have lived in the underworld of our people for much of my life. I've bumped elbows with the kind of people human and mutant alike that would make your skin crawl. And I know what they're after. The hatred of mutantkind is part of a complex ecosystem that all branches from one point: that the war was good for business. Dragging it back into the open will only increase their opportunity to profit, and drive the stakes further and further up. There's nothing that good men and women can do to stop rich men and women."
"Bull," Alison said sharply.
"What about this place," Lorna joined in. "Harry's no mutant, but we've gotten on just fine. His business is drinks, not war."
"That's quite different," Emma brushed her off. "The professor worked hard to build up a rapport with the locals."
"And we'll work even harder to build one with the world beyond Westchester," Lorna put her glass down. "We can't just ignore the rest of society, Frost."
"Our kind goes unappreciated by that so-called society."
Lorna tossed her hair aside haughtily. "And we both know how mutants got such a sterling reputation. Perhaps we should flee back into that sort of society."
"Okay everyone, let's maybe dial it back a hair," Kitty stammered.
"I left that life behind me," Emma said, stung.
"So I've heard. At length."
"But yet it's so hard to see me on the side of the angels? Or perhaps you're just upset because I make it look so easy."
The silverware rattled on the tables. Jonathan placed a hand on the green haired woman's shoulders.
"Lorna," he whispered.
She shook her head and let out a deep breath.
"It's been a long week. I'm going to get some rest."
Polaris left the Hideaway, a much quieter gathering of mutants behind her.
_Cerebro Files [Dazzler]
_Civilian Name: Alison Blaire
_Mutant Ability: Conversion of Sonic Energy into Light
_Alison joined the school as part of my "Millennium Team" just after the start of the year 2000. She... didn't enjoy the work very much, and left soon after. My sources tell me she currently works for SHIELD, a spy organization as far as I can tell. Perhaps we can share our resources some day…
[ADMN_X/0515-2003]
_Miss Blaire did wind up working as the liaison between SHIELD and the X-Men. Once both our organizations fell, she joined the more mundane law enforcement efforts of the FBI.
[ADMN_F/0220-2024]
_Dazzler had to resign from the FBI after the Isla Sinistra incident. She said it would make for less red tape anyway. Now she's living beith us at the Xavier Mansion. She and Mr. Wagner will be teaching some of the incoming students next month.
[ADMN_R/0408-2024]