The first week was the hardest. Obvious sides were drawn, creating a not-so-silent war between those who welcomed us, and those who still harbored resentment for the old rivalry. Leading those against us were Nightcrawler and Kitty, but they were closely followed by almost everyone else. Those on our side were restricted to Tabby, Rogue, Amara and Jubilee. The adults like Storm, Beast and Wolverine were all on the professor's side, which meant they stayed out of either protecting or ostracizing us. I was glad that Wanda got to keep her shared room with Tabby; it sheltered her from a lot of the underhanded pranks. Since I was in my own room, I got the brunt of them. Mud above doors, showers turning to ice, things disappearing or being left halfway in a wall…..it seemed to never end. I was used to this kind of treatment; I'd been getting it almost all of my life. Even from normal human kids. It was Wanda I was worried about. No matter what happened, we could never fight back. It would start an all out war that would probably end in her being kicked out to fend for herself against Magneto.
By the second week though, the teachers figured we had better start learning how to work with one another. That's when we started to be included in the danger room sessions. The good side was that the other x-men couldn't openly do anything against us there. The stakes were too high, and the teachers would jump down their throats if anything life threatening was directed at either Wanda or me. The bad thing was that there were plenty of 'accidents' that could have been avoided. Luckily Wanda was on top of her game, since she was always able to manipulate anything they threw at her to her advantage. Much to their dismay, they were making her stronger. Still, there were some who didn't approve of the way we were handling these sessions.
"Wanda!" called Logan through the loudspeaker for the millionth time. "You can't spend your whole life watching only you. You have to become part of the team, and watch their backs as well!" he chastised.
"Maybe that'd be a bit easier if I knew they weren't out to put a knife through mine," Wanda muttered just loud enough for me to hear. A giant metal arm was headed towards Rogue, but before it could snatch her I slimed it shut. It still tried to shoot a beam of red light at her, but my goop was strong enough that it stayed shut and imploded on itself. She turned to see what had happened and smiled at me. Wanda let out an exasperated sigh, then turned her eyes to the whole picture. I stayed with my plan of just watching out myself, Wanda, Tabby and Rogue. I was able to keep most of the attacks off of us while they fired back in their own way. I wasn't much of an offensive mutant, but I did some great defense. A sweeping line of red was dragging across the floor towards Jubilee, so I launched myself across the exact 9 feet and seven inches I knew lay between us, wrapped my arms around her, then jumped as high as I could to let the red light sweep under us harmlessly.
"Thanks!" she said breathlessly as we landed again.
"Don't mention it, yo," I told her before she took off, shooting lights into some other mechanical being that was going after Jean. As I watched this, I realized that we were losing. Again. We had yet to win a danger room session, and I was beginning to wonder if they ever had even before we got here. Almost everyone was put on defensive now, the only two left attacking were Spike and Wanda. Spike, however, was quickly surrounded by spiked walls that were closing in on him. I was content to leave it be, but Wanda felt a change of heart.
With a snarl not only her hands but her whole arms glowed a brilliant blue as she raised them, holding her two middle fingers down with her thumb on both hands, and threw them first to the left with one step towards Spike, them to the right as she took another step. The metal walls were tossed aside like styrofoam, leaving Spike standing there in awe. A floating orb had ghosted up behind Wanda, but before I could slime it down, it was shot away by a red beam from Cyclops. Since I had been watching this, I hadn't been paying attention. A solid bar of metal slammed into my back and pinned my against the wall, but only for a few seconds before Rogue used Kitty's power to phase me out. Wanda brought two glowing hands together, which smashed two whirling arms that sparked with electricity together, which resulted in both of them shorting out before they could touch Wolfsbane. I grabbed onto another bar of metal that was headed for Sunspot and leaped as far to the left as I could, taking it with me and using its own momentum to throw it into a wall. Things were looking good, until something heavy snaked its way around my entire body, head to toe, and squeezed. I felt like I was going to pop from the pressure as dark spots swam through my vision. Tabby went to throw explosives at it, but was knocked down and pinned to the ground before she could do anything. Rogue turned to throw something at it, but she too was snatched from the floor and captured by one of the giant metal arms. Just as I felt consciousness drifting from me, I heard a shout.
"Toad!" was the agonizing scream, then everything turned an eye-smarting shade of sapphire. Everything mechanical stopped in its tracks. Within the same second, everything that wasn't human was ripped from its position and smashed into the walls. I was dropped and air rushed back into my lungs, trying to replace the vacuum they had become just seconds ago. Every bone in my body ached, but I was fine. Everyone was, thanks to Wanda. The whole room was no longer operational, even the lights were flickering.
"Whoa," I heard more than one person say. Wanda paid them no attention; instead she came over to help me up with a worried look in her eyes.
"You ok?" she asked as I straightened and winced.
"Yeah. Yeah I'm fine, thanks to you," I told her and smiled at her. "What was that?" I asked, and she shrugged.
"I…I don't know." She went to say more, but then must have felt the eyes of everyone else on her back. She turned around to catch them all gaping it her and crossed her arms. "What?" she asked.
"Wanda…you just took out the whole danger room," Amara told her.
"Like that's never happened before? There's a whole team of mutants shoved in here every day, it can't be that uncommon," Wanda replied. Silence. Before it could get any more awkward, Logan's voice came over the loudspeaker again.
"Well, guess that's a wrap. Hit the showers. Meet me in the entry hall after dinner for a team meeting." I didn't wait for a second invitation. I took Wanda's hand and lead her out of the staring eyes of the other x-men and back to her shared room.
"Maybe now the others will lay off us, huh?" I joked with her as we rounded the last corner. She just shrugged, but looked worried. As soon as we were safe in the room, I turned to face her. "So you gonna tell me what that was?" I asked. Again, she just shrugged.
"Look, I was telling the truth before. I really don't know," she said. She went to look out the window, but seemed to change her mind mid-course and went to sit on the bed.
"Well, what do you know 'bout it? 'Cause I've never seen you do anything like that before. You manipulated everything Wanda, not just one or two things. And you didn't even look at any of them. You didn't even move your hands!"
"Toad, I really don't know, ok?" I sighed as she said this, and went to sit next to her. I slid my hand into hers which made her turn her face to look at me.
"I'm just impressed, yo. That's all. You're growing so much, 'n so quickly I can't even keep up." I put my free hand to her cheek, cupping her face with it. She closed her eyes and pressed her face into my hand for a moment before pulling out of it.
"I know. Well, I guess I know now. Kind of. I surprised myself in there," she admitted to me.
"You didn't do it on purpose?" I asked. She shook her head.
"No. I mean, I was doing everything else on purpose. Then, I saw that you were in trouble and…I got scared."
"Scared?" I asked incredulously. "Scared of what?" A slight color rose to her cheeks, and she looked away from me.
"I don't know. Hey we better get going, or else we'll miss dinner. I want to grab a shower, so I'll meet you down there ok?" I gave her a quizzical look, but she got up and started gathering her things for the shower.
"Um, yeah ok, yo. I'll see you at dinner. And Wanda?" I asked as my hand reached out to take hers again. This stopped her movements and made her face me, and I closed the distance between us before I could change my mind. My lips brushed hers gently and I let my hand release hers so it could slide up her forearm then around her waist. Her first reaction was to stiffen everything and I could tell she was fighting the initial reaction of pushing me away. Within seconds though, that thawed and the relaxed into my hold. Both her arms went behind my neck, closing any space that had existed between us. I could feel her fingers from one hand run through my hair, and shivers erupted down my spine to scatter across my flesh. My blood was pounding, roaring in my ears. The now-familiar sensation of my thoughts fogging up and my heart trying to beat its way out of my chest were overwhelmed by the clawing urge to lose myself in her. The richly spiced perfume that was her natural scent assaulted my senses again, but before I could get totally lost the door swung in as Tabby entered. She stopped dead as Wanda pulled away from me, blushing a bright red to rival my own green fire that was rushing across my face.
"Oh. Didn't mean to interrupt or anything…" Tabby said as she started backing up.
"No, no don't worry 'bout it, yo. I was just leaving." Before Tabby could have any more time to jump on the situation, I forced my brain to start working again just well enough to remember how to walk. Somehow I managed to fight my way out of the fog that proximity to Wanda always surrounded my mind in and find my room. Once there, I cleaned up the grime from the danger room, then headed down to dinner. Wanda and Tabby walked in only a few seconds after me, and slowly the others trickled in as well. Wanda took her seat on my right, Rogue on my left, and we went about our usual business of ignoring everyone else. Within the last two weeks this had become customary for us. It was easier this way, to not start any unpleasantness.
This time though, dinner was mostly quiet. I guess people were still getting over the shock of what had happened in the danger room today. Because of this, dinner passed all too quickly and soon enough all of us were sitting on the giant stair case in the main entryway, waiting for Logan to come talk to us about something. We didn't have to wait long. As he approached most students stiffened up automatically. I simply slid my hand into Wanda's, and she gave it a gentle squeeze in return.
"Well," he said as he came to stand in front of us. "Today was eventful. But more importantly, I saw the first steps of teamwork. You did great work there, near the end. I'd like to focus on that a lot more than we have been. In order to do that, I've set up a little trip that will ensure that you all start thinking like a team instead of individuals." Murmurs ran through the other students, mostly of apprehension. It was well-known that when Logan sent students on a 'mission' like this, it was never pleasant. He ignored the mumbles and continued. "Tomorrow morning, every single one of you is to report right here at 6 am." The mutters grew into groans, to which Wolverine put his hand up. "I'm not finished. You're to be right here at 6 am, with supplies that would last you a week in the wilderness. That means one bag of less than twenty pounds." As he emphasized this last part, his eyes narrowed in on Kitty, who blushed. "Any more than that will just weigh you down, and slow you down. One week should be enough to get the idea of a team drilled into your head, but the time is really up to you. That, and we could really use the time to fix up the danger room so it will be ready for you when you get back." More groans erupted from those around us, which Logan also ignored. "Now, get off to sleep. You're going to need it. Tomorrow, 6 am, here, backs packed and ready to go." He gave one last nod to us before turning around to leave us. As soon as he did it felt like everyone around us exploded. Wanda didn't stay to take part in it, instead she rushed after Wolverine.
"Logan?" I heard her ask as I trailed after her. He turned to look over his shoulder, and raised an eyebrow when he saw it was Wanda. This made him stop and turn around, but he crossed his arms over his chest as he looked down at her.
"Yeah?" he asked her in a tone that implied he was not open to whining or begging not to go on this mission.
"This trip…it's going to take place outside of the mansion?" she asked. Oh. Now I knew where she was going with this. Magneto had agreed not to touch her as long as she stayed with the professor, who would obviously be staying in the institute and not be out with us in the field. This would be a prime time for Magneto to launch any type of attack he had against her. Once Wolverine realized she wasn't complaining about this mission, he relaxed a bit.
"You don't have to worry about Magneto where you're going. It's a place he doesn't even know about, far from here and basically undetectable thanks to the work Charles has put into making it seem invisible. You'll be safe from him there, so you don't have to worry about that." Wanda let out a relieved exhale and nodded.
"Thank you," she told him and turned to leave.
"Wanda," Logan said, stopping her. She looked back at him with a question on her face. For a second he looked uncomfortable, but then he stepped closer to her and put a hand on her shoulder. In a lower voice he continued. "It's a brave thing you've done, kid. I'll admit I didn't think you had it in you to last a day here. You proved me wrong. Now I'm rootin' for you. Don't make me regret that." The way he said it, I wasn't sure if it was a compliment or a threat. He gave her another nod, then turned around an continued walking away.
"What was that 'bout?" I asked her.
"I really have no idea," she admitted. We watched him leave, then turned and headed for our own rooms.
"You got the same bad feelin' 'bout this that I do?" I asked her.
"Yup," she said with a curt nod. Being trapped alone with the x-men, off the grid and out of reach of civilization had so much stink on it that it made Blob look innocent. We both sighed in unison and she turned to face me as we reached the point where we had to part ways. "See you in the morning?" she asked, and I nodded.
"Try 'n get some rest, will ya?" She only nodded, and I took her hand in mine once more. I kissed the back of it, then stole a quick kiss from her lips before smiling and heading off to my room. She smiled back at me, but her heart wasn't in it. I could tell that she was worried sick. Hell, she had every reason to be. Who knew what this trip would bring?