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"Me?" Rahne gaped as she sat down. "They want me to be a Misfit?"
"Temporarily." Xavier reminded her. "It'll only be for a few weeks." When the Misfits had called to inform the X-Men of their choices for the program there had been some…surprise. Also a lot of money traded hands in the betting pools. Jamie won handily; he'd be collecting money from the others for quite a while. Tabby had been pretty enthused by being chosen (Sam was a bit glum that his girlfriend would be gone for a few weeks, though Bobby and Ray were glad that there would be notably less explosions in their underwear drawers for a while).
Rahne, however, was a bit more wary of being chosen.
"But why me? Okay, Tabby I get since she used to be in the Brotherhood with those guys, but why me? I barely know them!"
"Maybe that's why. Perhaps they wish to reach out to those of us they don't know as well in an attempt to forge new friendships."
"Or maybe they were simply getting tired of driving Slim and Half-Pint up the wall and want to do something new." Logan quipped. Xavier looked at him.
"You're not helping." Xavier told him telepathically. "I realize that this may seem a little frightening Rahne, but I am sure that this will be a wonderful experience for you."
"Besides, it'll get you out of the Mansion and Bayville for a while." Warren pointed out. "We've all been cooped up here too long."
"Poor Wings getting all cramped?" Hank asked mockingly.
"Bite me Cookie Monster!" Warren snapped.
"I'll just pluck your wings Tweety!"
"Case in point." Ororo groaned as Hank and Warren started bickering in earnest.
"If it gets me away from all this…" Rahne said slowly, warming up to the notion. "Not to mention Danger Room sessions."
"It'll be all right Rahne." The Professor promised. "I would never let anything happen to you." He meant that and not only because Rahne was the daughter of his old flame, Moira McTaggert. Rahne bit her lip and nodded after a moment.
"Okay…I'll do it!" Ororo smiled at Rahne. Xavier nodded. Logan just grunted. Hank punched Warren in the face.
Over at the Pit, the response to the X-Men's selection was a no less noisy.
"WAAAAAHHH!" Fred sobbed as he hugged Lina to his chest. "They're gonna take Lina away!"
"It isn't that bad Freddy." Lina breathed as her usual dark brown skin started turning blue from asphyxiation.
"It isn't like we didn't see this coming, yo." Todd pointed out. "I mean, who really thought that the X-Geeks woulda taken anyone else?"
"We couldn't even get a betting pool going." Daria grumbled. "There were no takers on anyone BUT Lina."
"Hey, when you're popular, you're popular." Pietro shrugged.
"And how would you know anything about that?" Wanda scoffed.
"Um, Fred? Maybe you should let go of Lina before you crush her." Althea suggested. Fred looked down and frantically let go.
"Sorry Lina!" He apologized. "It's just…I…I'm gonna miss you!"
"I know you are Freddy." Lina smiled kindly. "But I'm not going to be gone that long."
"But…" Fred wrung his hands together.
"Can you do me one thing Fred?" Lina asked.
"Anything!" He nodded eagerly.
"Can you make sure Rahne and Tabitha are okay once they get here? This is going to be a little strange for them and I want them to feel at home." Althea smiled. That was Lina in a nutshell.
"If you're that concerned," Althea suggested. "Why don't you head over to the Institute first when the time comes for the switch? You can give them a few pointers about life at the Pit before they go and then give them some spare teleportation watches so they can get here."
"That sounds good." Lina agreed.
"In the meantime, we'll get things ready on our end." Althea grinned.
"Do I want to know?"
"Not really."
"I might have guessed." Lina sighed.
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