"I'm sorry I couldn't call or e-mail to request an interview," Scout said, "but my family's trying to keep bills low and I can only get on the Internet at the library." She was trying her hardest not to shake with nerves, fiddling with her hands behind her back and glancing around the lobby. The grand staircase, deep red carpet, and shiny hardwood floors intimidated her with their richness, and Scout looked for somewhere to rest her eyes comfortably. Mr. McCoy had a kind face to match the voice she had heard through the call box, but his blue gorilla-like form was something of a surprise to her.

Mr. McCoy looked at her with restrained amusement. "That's all right, but I must say," he said, "you look a bit young to be looking for work."

She bit her lip to stop herself from revealing too much. "My…" Deep breath. "My family is having some money problems at the moment. We're on a tight budget, I have nothing to do all summer, and I just wish we could have nicer things or meals more often."

"Why inquire about this job? Surely there are entry level jobs available."

Scout hesitated, and then held up her hand to let a small bone spike pierce through her palm. "All other places won't take mutants," she explained.

Mr. McCoy's became more sympathetic. "While I can see that you want to work," he said, "I'm a bit concerned that a young woman like you won't be able to handle all the physical labor you'll be doing."

"Well, if you're worried that I can't handle the job, why not have a trial day?" Scout suggested. "Give me a list of all the things you want done today, and I'll see if I can complete them. I'd like to be paid for any satisfactory work I do today, but if my best isn't good enough, I won't bother you anymore." She clasped her hands behind her back and willed her foot not to tap as she waited for him to respond.

Mr. McCoy blinked and chuckled. "Well, I don't suppose it could hurt," he said. "A trial day it is then. Here's a list of things I'd like for you to do around here." He handed out a piece of paper that Scout glanced at, feeling a bit intimidated by the number of tasks:

BATHROOMS
Clean mirrors and sinks.
Scrub toilet.
Get hair off floor and out of drains.
If toilet paper is running low, restock from utility closet.
Take out trash.

LOUNGES
Check cushions for trash and crumbs.
Put away loose objects and then vacuum the floor.
Take out trash.

DINING AREAS
Clear tables, wash dishes, and load dishwashers.
Make sure surfaces are clean and organized
Take out trash.

"Um, do you have a map of the place I could carry around?" Scout asked.

Mr. McCoy was happy to give her one and marked the rooms on the list and utility closets. The students were eating breakfast at the moment, so he suggested that she care of the dining area once they left for morning exercise at 9. In the meantime, she could start on the bathrooms on the second floor. With a wish of "Good luck" and a handshake, Mr. McCoy let Nadia go, but not before adding that he would be in the library if she needed anything.

"Thank you, sir." As Scout made her way up the stairs, she saw Ace approaching. "You! You live here?"

Ace kept walking down the hallway and simply nodded at her. He seemed a cold person, but Scout had to know: "Did you find the girl you were looking for?" At that question, Ace paused and narrowed his eyes at her. Scout felt her face heat up and she began to sweat a bit. After a beat, he shook his head and continued walking. The air became breathable again as he left, and Scout quickly turned to scurry towards the utility closet only for her face to nearly run into someone's torso.

There would have been a collision, but with a spin on her leading foot, Scout managed to avoid him and she continued her way towards the utility closet. She glanced back to see shaggy snow-white hair bound in a low ponytail. "Sorry!" she said. "I wish I could talk to you more but I have to clean the bathrooms."

Hector turned around to see her running from him again. The fact that she wanted to talk to him only confirmed that she had amnesia, unless she had somehow learned to lie in the past few days. Just how much have you forgotten? he wondered.

Scout opened the closet and began to gather the cleaning powders and liquids in a bucket, but to her slight annoyance the scrub brush and paper towels were on a high shelf. As she readied the bones in her palm, a cool, soothing sensation surrounded her. She started as a thick strand of a smoky black substance snaked out from behind her and retrieved the cleaning supplies for her, placing them in her waiting hands.

Scout turned around to see the young man she had almost run into. He was dressed in all black and very handsome, taller than her (but who wasn't?), rather slim, and had kind brown eyes. Most strikingly, the dark shadows were coming out of his jacket sleeves, and some more darkness was creeping up his neck.

She had no idea how her mouth had stretched into an awestruck grin, but when she finally realized it, Scout went red and said, "Oh, sorry for gaping. Thank you for helping me and… Wow. That smoke is beautiful."

Hector felt a bit stricken at her comment, and Scout shrank back when she thought, from the look on his face, that she had insulted him. With a murmured apology, she ducked her head and went to clean the bathroom. As he watched her go away, Hector cursed at himself. Here was an opportunity to restore things, and he had just blown first impressions. He went to breakfast with low spirits, and the anticipation of a Danger Room session helped little.

"All right," said Logan when the students had assembled in the Danger Room, "since we have three newcomers here, we're going to start off with something simple: free for all, no holograms, no weapons."

"Then what's left for the Danger Room to do?" asked Kurt.

Logan's grin was feral. "Lights." With that, the room became pitch black, and chaos ensued.

Getting all of the hair out of the drains and off the floor from both bathrooms had just about exhausted Scout, and she had filled two plastic bags with the various body trimmings she had found as well as trash and paper towels. She had a healing factor, but the idea that some of… that lingered on her skin made her shudder. She did a final once-over on both bathrooms upstairs and smiled at her handiwork.

She placed the cleaning supplies back in the utility closet and headed downstairs towards the dining room/kitchen, noting that the mansion was much quieter. Even her softest footsteps echoed off the walls and betrayed her presence to whoever might be watching.

It was a great relief to be in the smaller, more intimate dining area, even as tables of stacks of plates and dining utensils greeted her. With a sigh, she began to fill the sink with detergent and water.

A collective groan rose from the pile of students in the center of the Danger Room as the lights flickered back up. A swirling mass of black miasma sat in the corner, wrapped around Hector like a protective cocoon.

"Well, it took me a bit longer than last time to beat you all into the pile, so you're improving," laughed Logan. "As for you three, not bad for first-timers." He turned to the black miasma. "Everything's okay now, Spooky," Logan said mockingly. "You can rejoin society now."

The miasma retracted and slipped back into Hector's body and he groaned when Logan announced that next would be individual Danger Room sessions. The X-Men would go first, then the New Mutants, and finally the three newcomers.

Hector watched with barely concealed boredom as most of the teenage X-Men passed through their custom chambers with ease. Shadowcat might as well have not had one, since she just walked through all her obstacles to retrieve the goal flag. When it was Rogue's turn, though, he paid more attention. How would Rogue's power help her when there was nothing to absorb?

What followed was a spectacular showing of flexibility and strength that reminded Hector that Rogue's toned arm muscles were not for show as she twisted herself in what looked to be rather painful shapes to get past a field of lasers and one-punched some androids to retrieve her flag and head to the exit.

Rogue and the rest of the X-Men had been impressive. He could not say the same for the New Mutants, whose relative inexperience showed as they moved through the course with either more hesitation or more reckless abandon than the X-Men. He snickered when Cannonball blasted through one projectile only to be caught off-guard by another one that snuck up from behind and knocked him to the ground. Multiple's solution to problems seemed to be to make more duplicates of himself, but that only gave the Danger Room more things to throw at him.

Basic strategy, dumbass. Don't bring or make more weapons than you absolutely need. Sunspot and Magma's solar- and fire-based powers took out most obstacles, but Logan took off points for excess collateral damage. Berserker's electricity shorted out the androids and smaller weapons well enough, but he was stuck when entire sections of the wall and floor turned against him. Of all of them, Iceman did the best, sliding across ice paths to quickly evade obstacles and androids while freezing anything he could to prevent them from ever reaching him.

Finally, Logan turned to the three fresh meats. "All right, Spooky, why don't you go first?"

"He's not going to be permanently injured, is he?" asked Renée.

Logan chuckled, putting everyone else on guard. "No. Nothing a stay in the medical ward won't solve."

"Thanks for the confidence boost," Hector grunted, his miasma quickly carrying him into the arena. The Danger Room whirred to life to give Hector an obstacle course full of pistons jutting out of the walls, floor, and ceiling to block him from the flag. From a glance, Hector could tell that the pistons were too thick for him to cut through, but he quickly identified the patterns and used his miasma to weave through the pistons. As he neared the goal, a part of the floor that had stayed perfectly still suddenly shot up when he stepped on it. Hector dove off the platform and grabbed the flag with his miasma, dashing towards the exit. He wished that there had been androids for him to chop up a bit.

"Well?" he asked Logan.

"Not bad for a beginner."

The kitchen had been paradise compared to the lounges. At least the kitchen and dining room had managed to contain its chaos to the dining table and the area near the sink, and it had been simple if repetitive work to get everything rinsed and inside the dishwasher. The lounges were sprawled chaos: couch cushions spread everywhere, music CDs lying about, and empty food packages strewn about. That was not even mentioning the crumbs! After an apparent eternity, Scout had cleaned and organized the lounge areas and thrown out all of the litter and food flakes.

Scout hoisted a bag over her shoulder. It was filled with the CDs (back in their cases), books, and various other items she had found laying around while cleaning. She was supposed to take out the trash, but first she would ask the students whether any of these things were theirs, but where were they? With the map Mr. McCoy gave her, she found her way to the library.

"I've finally finished everything on this list," Scout announced with pride.

"Well!" Mr. McCoy exclaimed with a laugh, closing the book he was reading. "You're just what I've been looking for then. May I check your handiwork?"

"Of course, but I need to find the students so I can ask them which of these belong to them," Scout explained.

"They're in the training room right now in the basement level," Mr. McCoy answered. "See it on the map? They should be done training by now."

Scout nodded. "Thank you, Mr. McCoy." With that, and she dashed off toward training room.

The androids really never stood a chance as Ace overheated the poor things on contact, but hesitated occasionally while weaving through obstacle course. Hector frowned. He's way better than this. What's he hiding for? Eventually, Ace retrieved the flag and received an evaluation of "Okay, but you need work on timing" from the smelly old Canuck.

Renée's mutation, like Rogue's, was of no use against non-organic beings, but while Rogue had favored a fist to the metal face, Renée preferred to first bludgeon one android with her Bo staff, and then swing the broken one like a club against all the others. Hector's eyes drifted toward the others in the observation booth, and with a snort he noted that most of the teenage males in the New Mutants were gawking openly at Renée. With the amount of bouncing her ample chest did as she swung around, Hector understood, but could not help but be amused. She tougher than all of you put together. Finally, Renée smashed the last android and retrieve the flag.

"Not bad." Logan turned to face all of the students. "All right, my turn. You know the drill. Design a course that I can't beat and I'll give you a week off." Logan stepped into the arena as the students crowded around the control panel, Scott making sure that there wasn't too much frenzy. Lasers, sleeping gas, explosions, robotic monsters with giant arms were all thrown into the mix, all to dissuade Logan from disabling a time bomb within the limit. Hector was particularly gleeful to add some power saws and knives to the mix.

As the simulation started, Logan seemed delighted to trash everyone's dream as he dove through the lasers. It seemed that this was not going to end well for the students.

Then Hector's adrenaline spiked as he saw a petite brunette girl enter the death-trap arena through a small, unlocked door.