Things seemed to calm down some the next few days.
No superpowered mutants came and attempted to kill one or more of their respected mentors. Fights between the two teams seemed to be nonexistent, if you didn't count Lance elbowing Scott in the hallway, if only for a few days. And then Friday rolled around.
"God, that science final kicked my ass." Jacelynn sighed, heading into the hallway, Pietro walking next to her. "And I still have two more."
"You probably did fine 'Lynn." she rolled her eyes at the sound of the nickname. "Not as good as I did of course, but good."
Another eye roll.
"I doubt you can even spell mitochondria Pietro."
"And I doubt that you even know what that is, your just trying to make yourself sound smarter." He retorts.
A short laugh escapes her, but just before she could fire back another voice joins the conversation.
"You know you guys have this exact same argument almost everyday, right?" sighs Lance, shutting his locker and joining them.
"It's not even an argument anymore, I just find his answers funny." Pietro is the one that scoffs this time but Lance beats him to the punch.
"Don't even start Pietro. I have a massive migraine and I will bring the roof down on all of us if you make it worse."
"Right, just like when you destroyed the roof when a certain freshman didn't want to get expelled for changing her grades." Jacelynn comments.
"Come on, you can't fault him for that. Almost killing the girl isone of the best ways of getting a girl to go out with you." the speedster adds on, and Jacelynn presses her hand over her mouth in an effort to silence her sputtering laughter. Lance scowls at the two of them.
"Are you done yet?"
"Ok, ok. Sorry."
The trio make their way to the cafe, which is significantly more quiet than usual. What students that were in the room were either bent over textbooks or looking like they might possibly keel over from exhaustion.
Todd and Fred had already beat the trio to the table, the latter already chowing down on the massive amount of food he'd somehow managed to pile onto his tray. He had a real talent at that, considering the size of his lunches were probably enough to feed a small army of children.
"Where have you guys been?" questions Todd as they sit down.
"In class, doing finals. Where else would we be? The moon?" commented Jacelynn as she fished in her jacket pocket for today's lunch (one whole entire apple.)
"Last of my finals are monday. If they weren't happening there no way I'd be going." Todd adds on.
"Most of mine were today. And I did amazingly on all of them, guaranteed." said Pietro, who had grabbed a tray of food during the couple seconds of conversation and rejoined them.
"I had some too. I think I did ok. I didn't fail at least." said Fred.
"Honestly that's the best thing to hope for with these things. I'm just going to be happy if I graduate." she couldn't help but think of the math final she had this afternoon, and how her grade in that class hung in the balance. Her tutor seemed confident in her, however he also was annoyingly eternally optomistic so she did not put too much weight into his words.
"I'm done for the day, and thank god for that. My head is probably going to explode."
"You not bring your advil?" questions Jacelynn.
"Ran out last week and forgot to get more. If I didn't have to get you lot home I'd be out of here."
"You could always skip. You said yourself that you don't have anymore finals." Pietro pointed his fork at Lance as he speaks.
He shrugs." I don't know, I'm trying to end the year on a high note. Make it look like I actually give a shit about my education."
Jacelynn hummed. "I think if you want to give off that kind of impression you'd have to lose the gloves, the ripped jeans, the attitudeā¦." He gave her a look. "I'm just trying to be are of the opinion delinquents can't be smart."
" And if you want to ever give an impression of being a nice person I suggest losing the sass. And never talking again. Ever." he fired back, the humour evident in his voice. She raised her hands in the air, smiling.
"Goddamn Lance, tell me how you really feel." she laughed.
"Personally I think he's wrong 'Lynn. Never stop talking, you say some of the dumbest stuff, it's quite funny."
"Pietro I swear to god if you call me 'Lynn one more time I will smack you."
"See! Just like that!"
Sparring was quite possibly one of her favourite parts of the day. As of that point in time Mystique had become increasingly busy, preparing for something. So the grueling training sessions that Mystique had once put them through day after day had become⦠sparse. Increasingly so. So suddenly there is a giant amount of time that was just there. A space to fill. She could do homework she supposed, but that wasn't exactly a fun way to use time. Then one day Lance jokingly asked to fight her, which turned into an actual practice sparring match. From there almost everyday after school they practiced.
"What do you think is going on?" Lance asks that afternoon after they finish up, after taking a drink from a water bottle. Jacelynn shrugged, leaning against the side of the old house.
"Something. Definitely big. No idea what it is though."
"Really? She hasn't told you anything." She shook her head in response.
"Of course not. It's Mystique, she's very much a fan of the whole shrouded in mystery thing. Besides, even if she wanted to I don't think it's hers to tell." Lance raised his eyebrow at that.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean I dont think this thing is hers. I think her boss is the mastermind of it all. Everyone's got one, right? Plus this whole thing, whatever this thing is, it feels too big for one person alone. Not only that, but she spends her days moonlighting as a highschool principal, she doesn't have time to be an evil mastermind."
"You've put some thought into this."
She shrugged at that. "You start questioning things after working under a person for so long. That and I've never taken well to not being in the know."
"Honestly I don't care what we do as long as she pays the bills and I get to keep bashing heads."
She rolled her eyes. "Why am I not surprised."
"What about you? What do you get out of all of this?"
She paused then, taking a moment to think. "Honestly for me it.. Something. A purpose, and a far better one then robbing stores for money to survive. That and I enjoy the missions. Thrill of danger and stuff."
"That last part I could've told you myself 'Lynn, just from the way you describe old missions."
"Come on Lance, not you too!"
"What? What did I do?"
"Call me 'Lynn! I fucking hate that name!"
"You do?"
"Yes and I say so constantly. Don't you hear that?" He shakes his head and she lets out a sigh. "Wow, thanks."
"I'm sorry, its just that you let Pietro call you it all the time."
"Oh I let him know, it's just he's Pietro and doesn't give a rats ass."
As if summoned by the sound of his name a gust came rushing at them out of nowhere. It stopped just as suddenly as it came-, that gust being none other then the speedster they were just talking about.
"Gear up guys, we've got a job to do."
"What does Mystique want us to do now?" asks Lance.
"Not Mystique. These orders are higher up then her." At that Lance and Jacelynn shared a glance.
"You going to elaborate?" questions Jacelynn.
"Yeah, I'll explain to everyone. But we need to go. Now."
She became more unsure of their orders every second during the car ride to the mall construction site. Didn't like messing with Mystiques meeting or whatever it was she was doing. Jacelynn had been on the receiving end of Mystiques wrath before, and wasn't particularly keen to see it again anytime soon. It felt wrong, above all. Going behind her back, when she had done so much for her when she probably didn't have to. But Jacelynn wasn't stupid enough to try and say anything, or attempt to not go through with it. No, far too many unknowns for her liking.
So she schooled her features into one of disinterest as the five of them appeared from the shadows and surrounded poor Nightcrawler.
She didn't take all those drama classes for nothing.
Mystique immediately tells them to leave, and looks genuinely surprised for a second when Pietro tells her that they received "higher orders", before it morphs into a look of collected anger that she tended to default to. Her gaze sweeps across them all, even Toads who, after a lapse of judgement is swinging from the hook of a crane. It works out for them, as him slamming into the metal frame Nightcrawler was perching on, sending him to the ground. Jacelynn, who was keeping the powerful mutant well in her sightline saw another break of character- was that.. Concern? Open concern? For someone other than Mystique herself? This might be a first, she couldn't help but think as she felt a twinge of jealousy as she followed the others to where Kurt landed, currently unconscious.
"That was easy." commented Pietro.
"Wrong." Interjects a familiar voice, and they turn to see the Xmen a few feet away from them. "It just got hard." Well, if this wasn't interesting before it certainly was now. Todd leaped down from the hook, landing on all fours.
"Get them!" And with that they launched into battle.
Jacelynn veers to the side, the first person she notices being Jean making a move for the unconscious body of Kurt. Having picked a target, she runs in an arc, positioning herself behind Jean. Just before she barrells straight into the telepath she drops to the ground and sweeps her leg into the other teens, knocking the red heads legs out from under her. Jacelynn stood up, and was about to drop her elbow into the side of Jeans head before she could react but was stopped by a red laser hitting her square in the back, throwing her forward and sending her into the dirt.
Ow.
It took a few minutes for her to pull herself up from the ground, muscles groaning in protest, the xmen long gone.
And so was Mystique.
She sighed, putting a hand on her back where she was injured and immediately wincing. Oh yeah, that was going to leave a mark. Shaking off the pain she started going around to her teammates, starting off by turning off the concrete blender that poor Fred was rotating in. He pushed himself out, muttering about stupid Xmen to himself before walking over to Toad.
Next person she went to was Pietro, who was currently lying in a mound of sand, however he was conscious, which she took as a good sign.
"You ok? Do you need help getting up?" she asked.
"Nah, I'm fine. I'll be up in a minute." he said, waving her off. She shrugged and moved on to Lance who was not as lucky as Pietro. She squatted down and gently shook his shoulder.
"Lance? Lance you need to wake up." she said, though to no avail. She closed her eyes for a second and decided to try a different method. Opening them again she spoke, this time throwing her power behind the words. "Lance, wake up. Now."
Right on queue he shifted, eyes opening and he sat up. "Ugh, what happened?"
"We lost. Badly. And now Mystique is pissed off at us most likely. Now come on, we need to get I'm driving." He stiffened and immediately started protesting.
"What? Absolutely not. That is my jeep and the only person who drives it is me. You-"
She put a hand up. "Lance you cannot expect me to let you drive. You just got knocked out by a crazy mutant and I had to use charmspeak to get you up. I'm driving." he scowled but otherwise didn't try to protest again.
Jacelynn stood up and saw similar irritated looks on the others face.
This was going to be a rough night.
Sorry for the short chapter everyone! Don't get too worried though, the following chapters are going to get longer as we are approaching the season one finale. And oh, do I have plans. Thanks for reading, and let me know what you thought in the reviews- I reply to every single one I get!
