A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the long wait! Anyway, here it is.

Chapter 5

Kurt

"Hey dickwad!" A voice called from behind Kurt. A rock soared through the air, crashing into the back of his head, making a loud crack as it collided with the hard surface. "Suck on that you creep!"

Kurt lay still on the ground, not wanting to give the group behind him any more reason to walk over to him. He touched the back of his head tenderly, his fingers coming away sticky and red. At least three of them did, his image inducer, though a life saver, had some serious flaws.

A hand appeared beside him, offering help to his feet.

"Who was it this time?" Logan asked as Kurt brushed himself off.

"Does it matter? It's always the same group and nothing's ever going to change that." Kurt sighed.

"Maybe a head bashing would." Logan growled, pounding one fist into his hand in a vigorous motion. Kurt could see three claws begin to protrude his knuckles. Beads of blood formed and ran down his fingers and pooled in his palm.

Kurt sighed again. Many of his friends did not understand his situation. His image inducer worked, sure, but it simply made him look like a scrawny teen with poor teeth. And then when it malfunctioned, the other students got a glimpse at his true form. While his friends' mutant abilities could sometimes be a nuisance or a danger, they could walk around without being followed by people carrying pitchforks. They could had a regular life without the help of technology. "Violence will not solve anything with these people. I just need to tough it out."

Logan gave him a lopsided glance with one eyebrow in the air and shook his head, "I can't understand you sometimes. C'mon, you're bleeding."

The two boys walked up to Professor Xavier's office to attend to Kurt's wound. Under normal circumstances they would have opted to visit the nurse, but because of Kurt's unique physique, they decided that the Professor would likely be the safer choice.

Logan turned the door handle and stepped into the large office. Kurt looked in to see that the Professor already had a visitor. Professor Lehnsherr stood slightly stooped leaning against a desk. The two men stood glaring at each other and there was a moment of intense silence. Kurt and Logan looked at each other, unsure what to do.

"Come take a seat, Kurt. Professor Lehnsherr was just leaving." Professor Xavier commanded suddenly.

Professor Lehnsherr glared harshly at the other man. It seemed that his leaving was more forced than willing. He exited the room quickly in one swift motion.

"What can I do for you boys?" The Professor asked nonchalantly, as if the past min had not just happened.

"I had a... A bit of a run-in with some students of the rougher nature." Kurt admitted feverishly.

Logan sighed and pushed his friend forward in his ever-aggressive nature. "He got hit in the head with a rock."

Professor Xavier wheel closer so that he could examine the wound. "My, that does look rather nasty. Lucky for you I've taken some first-aid training. I'll have that bandaged up quickly."

As the Professor worked, Logan paced the room. "What did Professor Lehnsherr want?" He asked.

"I'm afraid that information is strictly between he and I." Professor Xavier sighed. "Though I can assure you it's nothing to worry about."

"It sure didn't look like that." Logan growled in reply and sniffed the air suspiciously. "I have to get to my next class."

"So do I." Kurt agreed, sliding off the table and touched the back of his head insticively. Great, he thought, now I look like a skinny loser who can't defend himself. "Thank you for all your help, Professor."

"You're welcome Kurt, and remember that it was Mahatma Gandhi that said, an eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind. In other words, don't do anything that you'll regret just to look more acceptable in the eyes of your peers."

Kurt stopped at the doorway where he had been about to exit and nodded.

Anna-Marie

"Hey, Marie!" Kitty called from down the hallway. She looked a little worn out, but otherwise her chipper self. "Did you get the notes from history? Professor Newman talked way too fast for me. I missed like the entire thing."

Anna-Marie laughed, "more like ya spent the whole period textin'! Yeah Ah got them, Sugah."

As she handed the notes to Kitty, their fingers brushed slightly, sending an unnevering chill down Marie's back. She was glad that she had the gloves on, but she hated having to use them.

"Thanks a million! Wanna go down to the courtyard?" Kitty said, with more of statement than a question as she pulled Anna-Marie down the hallway. Kitty reached the courtyard in no time as she towed Anna-Marie behind her. "Hey, guys!" She shouted eagerly as she spotted a group seated around a picnic bench.

Anna-Marie sighed. It wasn't as if she didn't want to spend time with her friends, but it had been a long day and she was an introvert. She eyed Kitty menacingly, trying to convey her feelings, but the freshman didn't seem at all fazed and continued pulling her along. Anna-Marie was a junior, but still somehow ended up with Kitty as her roommate, after her old one, well, ended up in a coma.

"Hi Kitty, Anna-Marie!" Jean smiled at the approaching pair.

"Wow, your name can really be a mouthful, Anna-Marie." Kitty, ever the chatterbox, continued talking despite the presence of other people. "Can I, like, shorten it to something?"

Anna-Marie was quite for a moment. It wasn't like the idea had never popped into her head. "Yeah... Maybe 'Rogue'."

Kitty tiled her head slightly in confusion, "why 'Rogue'? I was thinking like just 'Anna' or 'Marie'."

Anna sighed and felt her face go slightly pink as the others stared at her, suddenly a part of their conversation. "It like, I dunno, like a codename or somethin'. Ta go with mah powers 'n all."

"But what does 'Rogue' have to do with creepy put-people-in-comas-and-steal-their-memories powers?" Bobby grinned and then scooted away quickly, narrowly avoiding Anna-Marie's punch.

"Well, Ah figure that since Ah'm kinda alone on the now bein' able ta touch people thing, and mah powers are a touch creepy, that makes me a bit o' a Rogue. Don't ya think?" Anna-Marie replied while shooting death looks in Bobby's misguided direction.

"Alright then, Roguey, if you get a code name I want one too," Kitty smiled, "Maybe 'Shadowcat' or 'Sprite'."

"What, like the soft drink? No, I like Shadowcat better." Warren said. "I wanna be 'Angel'"

"I call Iceman!" Bobby sputtered.

"No one else would take that name, Bobby. I'll be Phoenix." Jean stated.

"I will be 'колосс' or as I believe it translates, Colossus." Peter managed to say, with some mental help from Jean who had become sort of his mental tutor.

"I wanna be Cyclops." Scott added.

"Ooh, Ororo you should be 'Storm', Kurt, you should be 'Nightcrawler', and Logan you should be something really scary like 'Lion', or 'Tiger' or 'Bear'." Kitty supplied, to which the former two both nodded and smiled, while Logan merely grunted.

"Kitty, I believe that you have watched 'the Wizard of Oz' a few too many times. Logan should be known as the 'Wolverine'. They happen to be very fierce creatures with stocky builds and are very strong for their size. Much like our friend here. And since we are on the subject of names, I would like to be called, 'Beast' for my animal-like traits." Hank said with a knowledgeable tone.

"Alrighty, well Ah guess Ah started a trend. I gotta get ta class." Rogue said.

"I do too, I'll walk with you Roguey." Kitty smiled.

A/N: Thanks for reading folks, sorry for not being more punctual. There are a lot of X-men characters out there, and it would really help me out if you could either comment or message me which character(s) you would like to hear from next (can be a repeat). Thanks so much!