And here it is, the chapter we've all been waiting for: In which the new students arrive! Hope you're as excited as I am. Enjoy!
Jean, Kitty, Rogue, Kurt, Storm, Logan, and Scott all peered in horror out the large hole in the wall. Down, about twenty feet below on the ground outside the Brotherhood of Bayville Boardinghouse, lay the limp body of the boy, whose name they still did not know. Toad had fled the scene, while Mystique, Pietro, and Freddy lay unconscious on the floor.
"Hgh-uh!" Wolverine grunted as he jumped out through the hole, landing on his feet on the ground below. He knelt down next to the body.
"He's breathing." He called back up to them. "But it looks like he broke his left arm, badly. And he's pretty bruised up."
Everyone simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief when they heard this. Kurt held Kitty's and Rogue's shoulders and teleported to the ground. Jean lifted herself and Scott up, and Storm glided through the air. They gathered around the boy.
-Can you hear me?- The Professor's calm voice spoke to Jean. -What happened?-
-The boy took a pretty bad fall, and Logan said he broke his arm.- Jean mentally responded. -He's currently unconscious.-
-And the Brotherhood?-
-Mystique, Quicksilver, and Blob are out. We didn't see Lance or Wanda.- Jean paused. -Toad was there, but he took off.-
-Toad is the least of your worries. Bring the boy here. Hank can treat him.- The Professor replied. -But you'd better get going before anyone else shows up.-
-Got it, Professor.- Jean turned back to the others.
"The Professor wants us to bring the boy back with us so Mr. McCoy can take a look at him." She told them.
"He's in no position to be carried." Logan said gruffly. But beneath his harsh exterior, he was also secretly concerned.
"I can handle that." Jean slowly, carefully, levitated the boy into the air. She placed her hand on his arm.
"Kurt, can you teleport up back to the mansion?" Jean asked.
"No problem." Kurt slipped his arm through Jean's and they disappeared with a Pbiffmmff!
…...
"Logan was right, he's broken his arm in three places." Hank McCoy, aka Beast, bent over the examining table where the boy lay. "His left side is badly bruised. And there's also the slight chance of a concussion."
"How much longer until he'll be able to get up?" Professor X inquired. He was sitting in front of the door of the infirmary.
"It's hard to say, but roughly about four hours." Hank replied, straightening. "I've had to sedate him, but once he gets up, he'll be confined to bed rest for a day. He'll be able to get up and walk by tomorrow night."
"And how long until his arm heals?" The Professor asked, noticing the cast that Hank had set on his arm."
"Also difficult to say." he replied. "The breaks were severe but clean. They should be completely healed in seven to eight weeks."
"Thank you, Hank." The Professor turned and wheeled out of the infirmary. It was eleven thirty at night, and they had fifteen new students coming in tomorrow.
…...
The boy's eyes opened. He was lying in a strange bed.
Why is every time I wake up I have no idea where the heck I am? He thought. He took in his new surroundings. He was in a hospital room-like room. It was very clean, but not overly sterile. There were cabinets lining a wall, full of medicine, bandages, and other tools used by doctors.
What happened to my arm? It felt heavy and was throbbing slightly. On inspection, he discovered it was broken and that he was wearing a heavy, white cast.
Oh, I remember now... The last thing he remembered was being in a dark room with he Brotherhood and X Men fighting. He was just about to try and sit up when the door opened. A large, blue, feline/ape looking...man? walked into the room. A friendly smile made up for his...beast-like appearance.
"Glad to see you woke up." He also had a kind, friendly voice. "You had us all pretty worried there for a bit."
"Where am I?" he asked.
"You're in the Xavier Institute, in out infirmary." Beast told him. "Feeling better?"
"A little." he admitted. "What happened to my arm?"
"You fell, as I'm told, from a hole in the wall on the second floor of the Brotherhood house." Beast replied. "But you've got to stay in bed for a day to recover."
"What time is it?" he asked. What he really wanted to know was, how long was I out?
"It's three in the morning." Beast replied. "But unfortunately, you arrived at kind of a bad time."
"Meaning..."?
"We have sixteen new students coming in later on today." came the reply. "It'll probably Beast turned and walked out. "You know," he called over his shoulder, "You'd be welcome to stay here if you want." And with that, he was gone, leaving the offer dangling in front of the boy's eyes.
…...
At 1:P.M
The new students are arriving...
Cassandra Sykes stepped out of her older sister's car. She was carrying a black duffel bag, as well as a backpack. She turned and waved to her sister. She waved back, then drove off. Cassandra, or Cassie, as she liked to be called, had already said good-bye to her parents, who had stayed home. She stood in the bright, early autumn sunlight, which made her pale, creamy white hair glow. She drank in the expansive grounds, with manicured lawns, neatly trimmed hedges, and trees scattered throughout. At the end of a long driveway, with a large, elegant fountain, sat the mansion.
Amazing, she thought. And I'll really be living there! She'd seen the mansion on TV, usually as it was surrounded by anti-mutant mobs, ranting and holding signs that said things like Lock mutants up! or Mutants, go home!, which didn't make any sense, Cassie thought, as they were telling the mutants to go home right outside their place of residence. But it couldn't be any worse than back home, where she had been expelled from school, bullied, abused by her peers, and basically robbed of all happiness. Her sister had supported her, and she was grateful for that. She'd heard horrible stories about mutant kids were abandoned by their parents and left to fend for themselves.
She tightened her grip on her bag and started to make her way to the mansion. Some of the new students had already arrived, she could see them gathering at the front door. There was a short girl with chin-length blond hair streaked purple chatting with a Japanese girl with. A tall boy with wild black hair was sitting on the front steps next to a a girl with wavy black hair.
A boy with bluish-black hair was facing the institute, but when he turned around, Cassie barely stifled a gasp. His skin was a deep, rich blue-green, but other than that, he looked pretty normal: Sharp features, an narrow face, dark blue eyes, and long, athletic limbs. She heard footsteps. Approaching the group was a petite girl and a dog. The girl had tightly curled dark brownish hair, with red highlights, and smooth, chocolate brown skin. Her dog was very tall, with long, shaggy, silky tan fur that cascaded off it's back like waves that rippled and bounced as the dog walked with long, elegant steps. It's fur was shorter on it's underside, girl, however, was taking sort of short, fast steps, and her eyes looked sort of far away, and she wasn't looking straight ahead. Cassie realized that she was blind.
"Hello." The girl extended her hand. "I'm Roxaya."
"I'm Cassie." Cassie replied, shaking Roxaya's hand. She noticed that Roxaya wasn't looking at her, but her dog was. As Roxaya walked off with her dog, the front door of the mansion opened. A bald man in a wheelchair came out along with a young woman with long, red hair. Her hair wasn't a typical 'red', as in orange, she had 'red' red hair. Cassie recognized the bald man immediately. He was Charles Xavier, also known as Professor X, also known as simply the Professor. But she didn't recognize the redhead.
"Welcome, all of you!" Professor X's said to the students who were gathered around the steps. "My name is Charles Xavier. And this is Jean Grey, one of my students." he gestured to the redhead woman. She smiled pleasantly.
"Let's meet the others students around the back of the mansion for your orientation." she told them. She and the Professor turned and went back into the mansion. Cassie and the rest of the students followed. Exclamations of Whoa! and Cool! and Awesome! could be heard as they opened the big glass doors and entered the mansion. They found themselves in a vast front lobby, with a grand, sweeping stairway that led to the upper levels. They followed Jean and the Professor through a hallway that led them past a kitchen, living area, and dining area. The hallway ended and branched in two, on way led to more halls, and one led to another glass door that opened up to a large patio and another lawn. Past that, there were cliffs that dropped straight into the ocean.
About eight kids ranging in age from about thirteen to about seventeen were seated in chairs arranged on the patio. Cassie and the other students joined them in the remaining seats, while the Professor and Jean joined a short, muscular, gruff-looking man with dark hair, and tall, elegant woman with flowing white hair. Behind them stood a group of people, who were all teenagers.
"I would like to welcome you all to the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters." the Professor began. "I've already introduced Jean Grey, and this is Logan, also called Wolverine, Ororo Munroe, also called Storm." he nodded to the short man and the elegant woman.
"Hello. Welcome to the Institute." Storm smiled. Logan just grunted and snarled a little. He reminded Cassie sort of an animal, but man. A manimal.
Cassie got so caught up in repeating manimal in her head that she almost missed what the Professor was saying. He was gesturing to a tall guy, maybe seventeen, who was wearing a red visor. He was standing directly behind the Professor. "This is Scott Summers, also called Cyclops."
"Hey." Cyclops said. He gave them a small smile.
Hey. Cassie thought. Is Hey really the only greeting you want to give us? Especially since we'll be living with you starting today? Well,she reasoned, it's better than *grunt*.
"Now, behind me are some more students." The professor went on. "Kurt Wagner, also called Nightcrawler."
"Hey there!" Kurt Wagner was furry, dark blue, with black hair, he had three fingers on each hand, and a tail. Another manimal, thought Cassie. At least he put a happy there! At the end of his Hey. The Professor went on to point out Kitty Pryde, also known as Shaowcat, a perky girl with a ponytail; Rogue, (What kind of name is that?), a slightly gothy-type girl with brown hair and white bangs, and a whole group of other people that Cassie would need days to sort out names and codenames she was a bit distracted by Cyclops. As far as Cassie knew, cyclops were brutal, grotesque, mythical, creatures that had one eye. And Scott Summers was neither grotesque, brutal(at least as far as she knew), or mythical. So the only other thing he could have in common with a real cyclops was having one eye. And he was wearing a visor...
"Now, I would like you all to introduce yourselves." The Professor went on. "Starting from person on the far right in the front row."
A short, thin boy with shaggy light blond hair stood up.
"My name is Paul Keller, I'm thirteen years old, and I'm from France." he offered in a soft, flutelike voice.
"My name is Ivana Fox, and I'm American. I'm fourteen." The girl with wavy black hair said.
"I'm Roxaya Harding, I'm fourteen, and I'm also American." The blind girl with the dog announced. Cassie saw that she would be sixth.
A muscular boy with wavy blond hair was next."I'm Sean Blais, and I'm fifteen." He winked at Cassie. "I'm from Ireland."
"My name is Mandira Singh. I'm from India, and I'm fourteen." A girl wearing a loose shawar khameez and a scarf wrapped around her head said. Cassie gulped. She was next. She took a deep breath and stood up.
"I am Cassandra Sykes." she told them. "I'm fifteen, and I'm from Guam." In reality, only her mother was from Guam, but she had lived there for part of her life, before she moved to Chicago. Her two younger brothers still lived there, though. After she introduced herself, she relaxed and was able to enjoy herself more.
"My name is Yukiko Yamada." the Japanese girl went. "I am from Kyoto, in Japan."
Cassie listened as the rest of the students introduced themselves. She smiled to herself. She might living here.
…...
"Welcome to your new home!" Kurt bowed gestured grandly down a hallway on the third floor of the mansion in the boys' dorm. On each wall were two doors, each leading to a bedroom. There was a bathroom at the end of the hall. There were eight boys in total, so that meant there would be two in a room. Orlando Reznov did not look forward to it. He had spent most of his life in privacy because of his teal skin. Sharing a room was not something he was used to. He noticed a boy who clearly did not have anyone who was immediately pairing off wit him, so he walked over to him.
"Want to share the last room?" he asked cautiously. It was Paul, the shy French boy. He nodded mutely, barely a bob of his head. He and Orlando entered the last room on the left. There were two beds, a closet, and two nightstands. Orlando took the bed by the window and dumped his stuff onto it. After getting settled in, it was lunch time. Orlando looked out the window over the grounds. He might have finally found a home.
There! The new characters! Hope you like it! Review!