The alien's name was Todd, so she learned. Todd Tolansky. A mutant with toad-like powers and like her, a knack for pickpocketing. But that was roughly where the similarities ended.

They weren't really friends at that point, but they were far from hating each others guts. She would occasionally pull him out of a sticky situation and in return he would do the chores she was assigned when she didn't want to, willingly. Jacelynn wasn't all that sure if Mystique really cared if they got done, but she had seen her mad before and wasn't willing to chance it.

And nothing really happened those first weeks. It was a cycle of school, homework, tutoring to make up for the year where she was schooled more in "how to break a man's bones" and less in say, math or english.

The day would start with Jacelynn being up hours before him, as not only was Todd not a morning person in the slightest, she was a chronically light sleeper.

The whole house had an older feel to it, and while it was quaint, she went for the room that she felt it was easiest to make modern. One can of deep purple paint later and there was already a noticeable improvement.

She would waste away the remaining hours doing nothing of importance, until she decided it was a semi-reasonable time to head down for breakfast.

Jacelynn would throw on the glamour she had memorised by heart,and head down the stairs to the kitchen for a bowl of cereal, sitting on the counter as the sun rose higher into the sky. Around then Todd would hop down the stairs, mumble an unintelligible greeting, and head out the back door for his breakfast of just straight up bugs. Finishing up she stashed the dishes haphazardly in the sink and went upstairs to her room to get some clothes for the day. Originally she hadn't brought all that much, so she had been steadily expanding it. She would change quickly as by now they were running five or ten minutes late.

She'd brush her hair, rush some eyeliner and start hastily putting her stuff in her bag. If only, she would often bemoan, the classes she actually enjoyed weren't first thing in the morning. The ones she detested got the luxury of being in the afternoon, and whenever she could she would slip out of the school during lunch to avoid them. She would race down to the bus stop with about a minute to spare, Todd would usually miss it and find some other way to school or give up and spend the day terrorizing insects if it was a monday.

And then it was the regular, 7 hour, four periods and lunch of not paying attention, charming students and "convincing" teachers to not give her whatever assignment she didn't feel like doing, with an ear to the ground for any interesting bit of gossip or news.( It fascinated her, just how hooked on gossip the entire school was, as though it was the blood pumping the beating heart.)

There was always a little bit of something regarding the kids who lived in that giant mansion north of town - mostly just benign speculation from their classmates whenever they were all mysteriously absent on the same day for no particular reason.

She was pretty sure it has something to do with the fact they were all mutants. Mystique had mentioned their group with disdain, and Todd had told her in-depth about his failed infiltration.

At lunch she would usually sit by herself or with Todd on the days he was there, at a very specific table she claimed as her own. Sometimes she stuck around for her afternoon classes, other times the two of them would ditch and instead do whatever struck their fancy.


With the addition of Lance, the brotherhood rose to an astounding number of 3 members. And really, for an evil villain team, he was the perfect fit. Tall, strong, and favouring torn clothing and confrontations, he was the picture of a delinquent in the minds of paranoid parents everywhere.

Who, in Jacelynn's mind, was actually a pretty cool dude. He was amicable, he had a decent taste in music and also had a car, so they didn't have to take the bus to school anymore. While the pair of them weren't exactly best friends, they got along well enough that they jumped right to the platonic bullying stage of friendship.

"No Lance, you can't sit there. We have to swap the chairs we sit in counterclockwise each day, and you sat there yesterday."

"That's the stupidest thing I have ever heard." Lance responded.

"Look, you're lucky we're draping tha rotating of the table from the schedule for ya dawg, so I'd cut down on the complaining," Todd chimed in. Lance groaned, rubbing his forehead, and the other two snickered amongst themselves.


Mystique didn't bother introducing the next member. One evening, Jacelynn went to bed and there were two other people in the house. The next morning, there was a third.

At least this one was a girl. She went by Rogue, and she immediately struck Jacelynn to be the sullen, loner type. Rogue seemed to strongly dislike people in general, but especially them, and especially Todd. Jacelynn only hoped she would chill out enough to be tolerable to be around.

Jacelynn was quietly pleased at the continued addition in numbers to the house. The more people, the more noise at all hours of the day. And while she would gripe and groan, often with Lance, she was thankful for the chaos. She had been feeling a lot less lonely these past few weeks, and with more things to do and watch, the less likely she would dwell on the past.


The next lucky person to join the group of teens was Fred Dukes. A teen from Texas, who's first appearance at school made everyone's day more interesting.

"What do you think of the new guy?" Jacelynn asked Todd, leaning against the wall outside the school, waiting for Lance to park his jeep, which took a lot longer then one would think, as he just had to be certain no damage would come to it. That was another benefit of his arrival, no more noisy buses that hadn't been cleaned for weeks.

"Who, Fred?" he questioned.

"Who else? He is kind of hard to miss," she said, as Lance walked up to them.

"He definitely got the go big or go home part of Texas down." Todd joked. She laughed a little at that.

"Knock it off you two. He's part of the team now, and if we are living with him now, you shouldn't be joking about him behind his back." Lance said, as they entered the building, hallways lively with activity as everyone was getting to their lockers and classes before the bell rang.

"But that is how we show affection. Insults and sarcasm and jokes!" she complained.

"Well yeah, but not right now, he's obviously got some issues, and Bayville High isn't known for being the most inclusive and kind high school around." Lance said. It was true, the current reign of popular teens weren't the nicest people, excepting the perfect Jean Grey, who really rubbed Jacelynn the wrong way. And the gossip circle was ruthless, as she knew extensively.

She really needed a hobby.

"You're right man. I don't want to anger that dude, he might eat me!" Todd exclaimed. Jacelynn put her hand over her mouth, trying to muffle the sputtering laughter that was coming out of her.

Lance shook his head, looking exasperated, but there was a trace of a smile on his face. "That is exactly what you shouldn't say around him. So stop it, okay?"

He had a point, she had to admit. "Fine, fine. You win. C'mon Todd, let's go to class. We can see if Mr. Nice Guy is still around by lunch."


"Where is my Dracula script?" she mumbled to herself, rifling through the stuff in her locker. It was the play the junior drama class was working on, and she wanted to put some effort in to win the role herself. If she had to, she could pull some strings with Jason, the star student and person organizing everything.

Maybe she stuffed it in Lance's bag by accident, she hadn't been paying attention that morning.

Moving quickly, she went to Lance's locker, where luckily he was located, leaning against the locker, head turned in the opposite direction.

"Hey, Lance. Did you see my Dracula book in your bag?" she asked.

There was no response.

She took a couple of steps closer, and spoke louder. " Have you seen my Dracula book?"

Still no response.

She moved so she was standing next to him, and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Earth to Lance?"

Nothing.

He was staring at something, something that was making him smile slightly. She followed his gaze down the hall, which led her sight to-.

"Her?" she was astounded. Jacelynn connected the dots easily, but it seemed too absurd to make sense. "Kitty Pryde?" she hissed.

That was enough to snap him out of it. "What?"

She put her hand on her forehead, shaking her head. "I can't believe it. You like Kitty Pryde!"

Lance went red. "Would you keep it down?" he whispered.

"I'm not sure if I should laugh or be disgusted. Isn't she fourteen?"

"Actually, she is almost fifteen."

"...So she is fourteen."

"It doesn't matter."

"But- why?"

"Because. She's just, you know.. "

"I really don't Lance, it's why I'm asking." she reminded in a sweet tone.

"I - why am I trying to explain myself to you!"

"Because I need to know if this is good blackmail or not," she replied as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh- go away." He batted an arm at her, which she dodged easily before heading back down the hallway, laughing to herself the whole time.


"Any of you guys see the locker get ripped off the wall?" Jacelynn asked in between bites of her lunch.

Lance nodded. "Yeah, I did. Freaked a bunch of people out." He had his eyes closed with his hands behind his head, leaning back like he was trying to sleep.

"You bet. And I think I know who did it." Todd said, eyeing the new group member. He had already eaten his fill of insects that day.

"Really Todd? I didn't think it was that obvious. Personally, I was suspecting Miss. Gloom and Doom over here. She can get really riled up, you know?" She responded, voice dripping with sarcasm.

The resident goth scoffed as she continued eating.

"Please, Rogue? I was surprised she could lift her tray." Todd shook his head.

Rogue scowled, more then her average scowl, and chucked a cup at Todd. He yelped, ducking down, narrowly avoiding the projectile. Rogue got her tray and walked off in a huff.

"Good job Todd." Lance sighed.

"Thank you?"

Out of nowhere was a loud thud and suddenly food was flying through the air, landing on Duncan Matthews and his friends. The entire cafeteria went quiet, as if they were all holding their breath. Matthews did not like to be messed source of the food, evidently, was the new guy. The jocks were making their way over to where he was currently sitting on the ground in front of the tipped table, with food all around him.

He tried to get up but slipped, and laughter ricocheted around the room. This set the large boy off. He yelled, taking a glob of food and chucking it at Duncan with enough force to knock him down onto his back. Then another handful, and another, and he was sending the food any direction that he could.

As teenaged logic goes when provided with an opportunity like this, someone yelled "Foodfight!"

And all hell broke loose.

Just for the heck of it, Jacelynn launched some food into the crowd, before halfheartedly sending a tomato from her salad sailing towards Todd.

"Oh, you're asking for it dawgette!" cried Todd, whipping food at her.

She shrieked, and dove behind Lance to use as a human shield. "Save me!" she yelled, laughing as she shook his head, took a moment to send some grey-looking mush towards Summers, before taking off, the other two hot on his heels.

It wasn't until late evening that the two newest recruits showed up at the boarding house. When asked where they were, neither said anything, and walked up to their rooms.


Jacelynn sat on top of the counter, nose in her textbook, trying to figure what the hell it was talking about. They had progressed into algebra, and she just couldn't understand any of it. It had been 2 years since she was introduced to algebra, but she still couldn't make heads or tails of the subject.

First of all, she had a problem with letters even being in math. Words and letters belonged in English, and numbers belonged in math. There should be no crossing of the two. The second was the concept. It was so confusing, how could she find the answer if there was a letter replacing one of the numbers?

She tried to puzzle it out, but it simply wasn't happening. Giving up, she shut the textbook and put her head in her hands. Why did math have to be so confusing?

"Having trouble?" questioned Lance.

"No, not at all. I just don't like the looks of the next units we are covering, they all look long and boring." Jacelynn said, hoping he didn't pick up on the lie. She didn't want her new friends to think she was dumb. She wasn't, honestly! She just couldn't fucking do math.

"That is what school specializes in." he commented, as the door to Mystique's office pulls open.

"Come in. We have plenty to discuss." her tone was brisk and strict, walking back to her desk as the teens filed in.

The five of them took a seat, facing the permanent frowning principal. "Now, we need to discuss some things regarding the future, specifically regarding your gifts as being mutants." she began

"From this day forward, we are doubling down on training, strict times, harder drills. We need you in the best shape you can be in, because we are in the middle of planning something that can change the fate of the world." Mystique never specified who the we was when she referred to them. Jacelynn had a foggy idea, involving a powerful mutant, but wasn't sure.

"Following that, during the summer you'll be attending a survival camp for a few weeks." There were loud groans that followed that statement "And I will hear no complaints about it. Towards the end of the summer, our final preparations should be underway, and you will be filled in on our plans. Any questions?" she finishes in a tone that suggests that there should not be any questions.

"Uh, yeah," piped up Todd, "Are you trying to kill us?"

'If I wanted you dead Tolanksy, you would have been buried weeks ago." Mystique replied dryly. "Now get out of here, I have tasks to perform."


When Mystique said they were going to double down on training, she really meant it. It was various exercises, mock fights and different trials using our power to do something.

It was painful, hard, and put Jacelynn at a severe disadvantage because here mutant gifts weren't combat-related ones. However, they got through the two hours, sore and bruised but in one piece.

"That was the worst three hours of my life." Todd groaned as the teens finally walked back into the boarding house.

Jacelynn flopped onto the couch. "My entire body hurts." she groaned.

"Complaining won't make it better." commented Rogue, sitting down and putting her face in her hands.

", it will. Complaining makes everything better," she mumbled.

Fred went in to the kitchen. "Anyone want water?"

They all raised their voices in response, having not stopped for a water break for hours. If this was karma coming back to get her for something, she sorely apologized for whatever she did, courtesy of her aching muscles.

"Well, you are going to have to get used to it, we have the same thing again tomorrow." Lance reminded us, stretching his right arm in front of him.

Everyone groaned. "Don't remind ,man!" Todd cried. "I'm not gonna be alive at the end of the week!"

"What a tragedy." Rogue commented dryly, southern accent drawling as she spoke.

The door was opened with a loud slam in the middle of the conversation, something crashed in the kitchen which meant that Fred probably broke one of the glasses.

A vexed Mystique walked with urgent strides through the door and into the living room, where they sat draped against the various furniture.

Taking a side glance at Mystique, Todd mumbled something about helping Fred clean up, and wisely hopped past her.

You could tell the woman was thinking about something, something that definitely involved the teens, as she took in each of them in a sweeping look. "We are going to have a new member." she announced.

Side looks of questioning were shared among the teens. "Yay?" Jacelynn spoke out, the exclamation turned more into a question.

"Is the house clean? I need this place to be spotless!" Mystique continued, being vague on the why and the who.

"Yeah, it's decent," remarked Lance. "What's the big deal?"

"Because I want to-" Mystique stopped herself, like she was about to admit something she shouldn't comment on.

The door slammed open once again, this time letting a gust of wind into the house, stopping right next to Mystique, in the form of a tall, lean, silver haired teenager with an arrogant smirk on his face, as if he didn't even need to know you, he still knew he was better then you.

"This, is the newest member of the brotherhood." Introduced Mystique, and disappeared out of the room, like she didn't want to even be in the same room as her team.

"The name's Pietro. I guess you guys are the losers I've been told about." The newcomer said, looking at the worn-out others.

"Losers? We aren't losers! We're cool." protested Todd.

"Cool now, because you're going to be hanging around me." Pietro corrected, " Because I'm kind of the universe's gift to mutantkind."

"Humble and nice, how refreshing," Lance muttered to Jacelynn.

This was going to be interesting.