DaughterofPersephoneandHades: Thanks for the love. I'm glad you're enjoying it!

FYI:
I do not own the X-men. However, I do own Allison. My fiance owns her truck.

Chapter 4: God, is that you?

Only half an hour had passed since Allison had stood on the front steps of the mansion to hug and kiss her mother goodbye before Ororo Munroe drove her to the airport so that she could fly back home. Allison smiled knowing that her mother would find the adventure in flying back by way of two different puddle jumper sized planes that could only carry fifteen passengers.

She shook her head, dislodging the memory and the sad smile as she set about her task of unpacking all of her clothes from the trunk. Meanwhile, two blue eyed girls sat on the end of her bed and watched with avid curiosity. Their heads were even tilted in unison in order to try and get a better view. But there were some pretty stark differences between them. The first girl had purple hair and was a little older and already out of high school. The other girl was petite, a brunette and talked like a sweet valley girl.

As Allison knelt in front of her trunk, and by proxy them as well, she began to dig in for another armful of clothes as she spoke, "So let me get this straight. You're Betsy, my roommate." Allison nodded slightly towards the girl with purple hair who nodded and smiled. "And you're Kitty and you opened the gate for my mom and I tonight." The brunette nodded this time and Allison nodded herself as she took a deep breath and stood up to turn back towards the closet. Great, she thought, by dinner tonight, I'll have 'em all forgotten.

Don't worry about that, Luv. You'll get the hang of them eventually.

Allison's eyes snapped open wide as she heard the clear, distinctly British, female voice in her head. Somehow it didn't surprise her that God was a woman, but British? I'm too young to die, God.

That's a first. I'm a telepath.

Allison turned slowly to look back out at the girls sitting on the end of her bed and Betsy was waving at her and smiling. Allison shook her head and scolded herself for forgetting that there would be all kinds at the institute. She also made a mental note to try and think less clearly around others. "Okay, so she's a telepath, what are you?" she asked pointing at the petite girl.

"I can like phase through anything. And if I phase through electronics, they short circuit," Kitty said wiggling her hand through the air as if to demonstrate.

"That sounds really cool," Allison agreed.

"Well, like usually it's pretty awesome, but I've like gone through three alarm clocks in the past year."

Allison started to laugh and was immediately joined in by Kitty and Betsy. She reached into the trunk and pulled out the last of her clothes, her prom dress that she'd worn only a few short weeks ago.

Immediately, the laughter was cut as if by a knife as Betsy and Kitty stopped and stared. Their mouths formed little 'o's of wonder as they gazed upon the shimmering aqua material. "That's like so pretty," Kitty breathed finally.

Allison just looked down at the dress and shrugged with indifference. "My mom got it for me. I wasn't even going to go to the prom, but my best friend had an extra ticket after his girlfriend dumped him.

The two girls exchanged looks that reminded Allison of how her mother and Kelly would act whenever the conversation turned to these matters. "So, what's this friend's name, Luv?"

Allison let out a little sigh as she hung up the dress in the back corner of her closet. "His name's Mark and we've been best friends since I moved into that school district. In economics, we had to do this project one time where we had to pretend we were married. It was the most ridiculous thing we've ever done, but we didn't know who else to work with."

"Right..." Kitty said casting Betsy a knowing look as she waggled her eyebrows.

Allison just shot her a glare as she pulled her photo albums out from the bottom of the trunk and set them out on top of her dresser with a few picture frames. Already, it was starting to feel a little more like home.

Fearlessly, Kitty had followed Allison so that she could peek over her shoulder at the pictures. "Is that Mark?" she asked pointing at the picture that had used to live next to Allison's bed. Allison nodded as Kitty picked it up and scrutinized it more closely. "And like, that's you?" she asked in surprise as she recognized Allison in the football pads.

"Yeah," Allison admitted a little sheepishly. "I was the kicker for our team last season." The gaze that Kitty gave Allison was one of sheer wonder and respect.

"Hey Kitty, Kurt's looking for you." The girls turned to see a slender Indian girl standing in the doorway. Her long black hair was pulled back into a pair of long braids and she wore a soft brown shirt with jeans. Allison and the girl exchanged smiles before she went on her way again. Kitty ran after her, waving as she went and Allison and Betsy were left alone.

That was Dani Moonstar. She's a psychic as well.

Doesn't this place have enough psychics?

No such thing, Luv. Betsy winked before going back to speaking out loud. "She's not the same though as the rest of us. Her powers take the form of projections and dreams. She can't actually read minds, at least not of humans.

Allison laid down on her bed just behind Betsy and sighed as she stretched her arms up over her head. "So, who's the third bed belong to?" she asked as she rolled over to lean on a propped up elbow.

Betsy glanced sideways at the emerald green comforter and frowned. "Rogue," she answered after a few moments.

"Didn't I hear she was in New Orleans?" Allison asked, her eyes wandering over the few personal effects that had been left behind.

"Yeah, she went to see her boyfriend," Betsy replied, her voice softening as if their additional roommate was a touchy subject. "We keep hoping she'll talk him into coming back soon."

"Hey, you guys going to eat or just lie around here?" The two girls looked up to see a vibrant girl with dark hair appeared in the doorway. She was dressed wildly in a hot pink shirt and bright yellow jacket.

"We're coming, Jubes," Betsy said as she stood up.

"Just hurry up, or I can't promise you that Kurt will leave anything." She took off running and Allison blinked as she looked up at Betsy.

Betsy just waved for Allison to follow her and the two left the room to head down to the kitchen. That's Jubilee. She's a tiny bit on the wild side so just be careful you don't end up on the exploding end of one of her practical jokes.

Allison just looked at Betsy in confusion but didn't ask for an explanation. She wasn't sure she wanted one. As they passed one of the rooms, a redhead joined them and she smiled at Allison. Allison got the distinct feeling that there was no warmth behind it. They were the same height, but the redhead was of a far more slender frame than Allison. Allison was instantly self conscious next to this girl. "Hi, I'm Jean. You must be Allison."

Allison held out her hand in greeting but the Jean seemed to not see it. "I prefer Al...or Ally," she added after seeing Jean's discomfort at the first option for a nickname.

They entered the kitchen and dining room to find that almost the entire group of students were already there. Allison was overwhelmed by the number of people present at one time. There were teachers down at the far end and students that seemed to be seated almost by age or perhaps it was cliques. Betsy just took Allison by the elbow and led her towards the center of the table so that they were seated just between any students out of high school and those still in it. Allison glanced back to see that Jean had walked over to a counter and leaned over it to plant a kiss on a tall guy wearing shades. For a brief moment, Allison could feel an overwhelming dispair at that Mark was nowhere around.

That's Scott Summers. Betsy's voice resounded in Allison's head causing her to glance back at her roommate. He's the field leader of the X-Men, one of Professor Xavier's first students. He wears the shades because if he didn't, we'd all be blasted into the next county.

It took Allison a moment to recover so that she didn't look like she was horrified by what was being served for dinner. Which was far from terrible seeing as she was staring into a bowl of mashed potatoes. Her eyes then flickered to the pair of guys she'd seen earlier wrestling over the game controller and Betsy immediately picked up on it.

The blonde one is Sam Guthrie. We call him Cannonball because he can fly at super speeds and must have some invulnerability. There was a hint of amusement at the last part before Betsy continued. His best friend is Bobby Drake, the Iceman. He can create ice from water particles in the air. Pretty cool, and no pun intended. The little guy next to him is Jamie. Jamie came here when he was pretty young so he tends to hang out with the older guys out of familiarity. He's Multiple, the name gives it away but in case you were wondering, he can make copies of himself. Next to him is Sarah. She too has been here for a little while now, but she's completely taken with Jamie and Remy if he ever comes back. We call her Marrow and you can probably see why for yourself.

Allison's eyes followed Betsy's descriptions around the table. Betsy breezed over the group of youngsters, whom she lovingly referred to as anklebiters, at the far end of the table before rounding the end and coming back up.

The guy with the to-die-for tan is Roberto, or Sunspot. He can use the sun's energy for super strength. Jubilee whom you met earlier can make fireworks-in all sizes. Next to her is Amara, who is by the way a real princess. We call her Magma. The guy with the crazy hair next to her is Ray, better known as Beserker. He can shoot bolts of electricity. Usually he just ends up short circuiting the mansion. Rahne is a lycanthrope so we call her Wolfsbane. I believe you've already met Kurt who is a teleporter. We call him Nightcrawler. He calls himself the 'Ze Fuzzy Dude'. The big guy on the other side of Kitty is Piotr or more aptly called, Colossus. He can cover himself in armor if need be. Did I miss anyone?

What about the adults? Allison asked.

Right! Logan is invulnerable to everything. And as if his personality wasn't scary enough, he has claws too. Miss Frost is not only a telepath, but she can take on an invulnerable diamond form. Ororo is a weather witch. The really big blue guy, not to be confused with the 'fuzzy dude', is Dr. McCoy. He's our in house medic, and even though his nickname is Beast, he's anything but. The guy quotes Shakespeare, so you know he's gotta be a sweetie. Then there's the professor.

Allison gave Betsy an appreciative smile which the girl returned as she continued to eat. Apparently the psychic conversation had done little to deter her from her original reason for being there. Allison took a deep breath before starting to work on the contents of her own plate. She was starting to understand though what Jubilee had meant before. Just by getting a run down of who everyone was, she'd already missed most of the food disappearing from platters. Luckily, Betsy had been kind enough to put food on her plate for her.

"So what'd you do for fun?" Betsy switched to a verbal conversation which seemed to catch the interest of a few others.

Allison shrugged not entirely liking the spotlight. "Played sports mostly. I was on the softball and football teams. But we also had horseback riding, snow mobiling, those kinds of things. We made our own fun most of the time."

"So like what are your powers?" Kitty asked, entirely ignoring the warning glance she got from Ororo.

Allison chewed on her lower lip as she tried to think. She didn't even know herself yet. She'd been too frightened to try on her own. "Well, I don't really know yet. But apparently I can melt into a liquid and turn into a vapor. Something to do with water, I guess," she answered hesitantly.

"What about your folks?" Someone from the other end of the table asked and Allison swiveled her head around to see that it was Amara who'd asked. "Did they understand the whole mutant thing?"

As her gaze had shifted, she'd caught sight of Sam who was watching her with an intensity that was greater than his friends. To the rest, she was just the new kid. She couldn't figure out what his interest was. At least not yet. "My mom was cool about it and I haven't told my dad though." She didn't add in the last part that she was thinking which was that it didn't seem to matter since they hadn't spoken to one another in quite a few years. She didn't even know where to find him if she did want to speak to him.

Allison raised her glass to take a drink and was stunned as she realized that the water inside had begun to swirl. She quickly set it back down, watching with surpise at the miniature whirlpool that had started.

Allison was aware of a new voice now in her head. It was male, and kind. Her eyes flickered to meet the gaez of the professor as he continued to speak directly to her. Try to relax, Allison. It's not unusual for mutant powers to be emotionally connected. Let go of whatever fear has just gripped you. You are safe here.

Fear? Allison had not been aware that she'd been feeling anything even remotely close to fear. Anger perhaps, but fear? Still she forced herself to tear her gaze away from the professor and look back down at the glass of water. The water still swirled and she was struck by the beauty of the phenomenon. Finally, it stilled and there was a round of applause from most of the students as Allison stood up somewhat awkwardly. "I've got to finish unpacking," she said excusing herself from the table. She nearly tripped on her chair and caught herself before quickly exiting.

Sam was still staring at the glass of water in amazement and was only brought out of his thoughts when Roberto spoke up. "What was that all about?"

Most of the guys were watching the new girl's hasty retreat from the dining room with open curiosity and Bobby snorted, shaking his head. "Girls. Who'll ever figure them out?" His face was soon contorted in pain as he grabbed at his shin from where Jubilee had delivered a sharp kick. "What?"

"You know what, Icepick," she snarled, crossing her arms over her chest.

The rest of dinner passed in near silence as there was really nothing that could top the water glass whirlpool. Any attempts by the younger students to goof around were quickly reprimanded thus making the silence feel even heavier.

As the dishes were cleared from the table, Sam stayed behind to take his turn at dish duty and did his best to not listen to the adults as they spoke at the end of the table. He tried to work as quickly as possible without breaking any plates and luckily he had a decent amount of experience in washing a lot of dishes all at once. That typically happened in a large family when you were the oldest.

He had just finished and was trying to slip away unnoticed when he was called over anyway. He tried to look innocent, which he was, but felt as though he was failing miserably. "Sam, I was wondering if you could do me a favor."

"Sure thing, Proff." Sam shrugged just grateful that it wasn't a reprimand for something Bobby had talked him into doing at some point. There were too many things that they'd gotten away with thus far that Sam worried that any minute now, they'd all catch up to him.

"Would you take this package up to Allison for me? She's in the same room as Betsy." Sam nodded but groaned inwardly. He'd once had a crush on Betsy. And if there's anything worse than just having an unrequited crush, it's having one on a psychic who knows about it all along.

Sam headed up the stairs to the dorms, two at a time, and diverted left towards the girls' rooms. He glanced around quickly hoping that no one would see him. He didn't want the rumor mill to start churning about him still liking Betsy. He'd barely survived it the last time. He sighed seeing that the coast was clear and knocked on the door. There was no response but he could clearly make out the rock music coming from inside. He knocked louder and the door opened after a few moments. Allison looked genuinely surprised that someone was even knocking and after a moment recovered as she smiled. "Hey, Allison."

"Uh, don't call me that," she said as she walked away to turn down the music a little. "Only my mother calls me that and that's only when she's mad. Call me Al, or Ally or just about anything but Allison. And if you're looking for Bets, I think she's downstairs." She turned to see that Sam was still standing awkwardly in the doorway and she rolled her eyes as she waved him in.

"Actually, the proff sent meh ta give ya this," Sam said holding up the box he'd been tasked with. She pushed herself upright from where she'd been leaning against her dresser and took the box from my his hands. While she inspected it, he took the chance to look around her room to see that it had changed since he'd last spent any time there. Most of Rogue's things were more or less packed away and Kitty's obnoxiously pink themed items had been replaced. Allison's section of the room was decorated in royal blue and she still had some things lying around in piles waiting to find a new home. Sam couldn't help but eye up the various piles of sporting goods and a bookshelf that she must have been in the middle of overcrowding when he'd knocked.

She tossed the box unceremoniously onto her bed and turned back to the bookshelf and began finding new ways to wedge the books into the available space.

"So, Ah, uh, overheard ya talkin' 'bout football at dinner. Yo' a cheerleader?" Sam asked trying to fill the awkward silence.

She froze, set down the book she'd been holding and looked back at him over her shoulder. "Do I look like a cheerleader?" she asked with one eyebrow arched high.

"No..."

"Good," she said in a relieved tone as she went back to her task.

"So, why were ya talkin' 'bout football?" He hesitated for a moment and then decided to sit down on the end of Betsy's bed. He figured he didn't want to push his luck too far by assuming he could sit on Allison's.

"'Cause I was on the team last year. We went to states and everything. I was thinking about trying out here in Bayville."

"Cool," he breathed. "What position did ya play?"

"Kicker...and then during the last part of playoffs, one of our runningbacks got hurt, so I filled in." She'd moved on from the books and was now unloading a box of sporting equipment: a well-worn softball glove, batting gloves, catching equipment, and finally a football was pried loose as well. She looked at it all appraisingly before shoving it all into the bottom of her closet under the racks of hanging clothes.

"Maybe we can go sign up at the same time," Sam offered.

Her head instantly popped back out of the closet. "You play?"

He shrugged. "Runningback. I was only on JV last year, so I'm trying out for Varsity this time."

She nodded as she stood up and brushed off her jeans. "That actually souds like a plan. The professor says I need to get enrolled into the school as soon as possible if I want to get onto any of the fall teams. So if you don't mind hanging around the high school waiting on me that sounds great."

"No problem." Sam scratched the back of his head and looked away for a moment. "Um, ya mind drivin'? Ah only have a permit," he admitted and she laughed as she nodded.

"That's fine with me. I'd be lost anyway if you didn't ride along. You don't mind beat-up, ol' Chevys, do you?"

"Not at all," he answered grinning. "Ah used ta drive one on the farm in Kentucky all the time. Didn' need a license to do that. Well, Ah'll see ya in the Danger Room tomorrow morning...bright an' early," Sam said as he stood up to leave.

"What do I wear to that?" she asked suddenly a little panicked as she glanced back into her closet.

Sam just laughed and pointed at the box on the bed in answer to her question before leaving. She watched him leave and couldn't help thinking that he was a near clone to Mark. They both seemed to have some self-esteem problems. Nevermind that they're both farm boys too. She sat down on her bed and spun the box towards herself and tore it open. Inside was a jumpsuit made out of some kind of material she couldn't quite put her finger on. It seemed far to heavy to be spandex. It was mostly black with electric blue accents. There was a blue collar at the neckline and blue lines running down the sides and legs. A pair of light gray 'X's adorned the shoulders and there was a matching symbol on the belt too. A pair of blue ankle high boots with black buckles were in the bottom of the box with a pair of gray and blue gloves that had the fingers cut off.

Allison held the suit out in front of her as she stood up and couldn't imagine the thing fitting her. It looked tiny by comparison to her in the mirror's reflection. She looked back down at the box and saw a note tucked under one of the boots.

Dear Allison,
Welcome to the Xavier Institute. I hope that you find the uniform to your liking. Like the rest of the students, everyone has a code name that is used in training and combat. Unless, you object, yours will be Hydra. I think you will find it to be interesting.
Once again welcome,
Charles Xavier

She reread the note again wishing that it would have included instructions on how to get into the suit but nothing more revealed itself. Hydra, huh? She remembered the creature from mythology. It was said that if you cut off one of its heads, two more would grow back in its place. It also sounded like it was water related so she assumed that had more to do with it than the multiple lives aspect.

Reading the note again, she picked up on the word 'combat' which she'd overlooked before and frowned. They certainly hadn't mentioned that during the introductory spiel to the institute. She tossed the uniform over the back of her desk chair and looked around the room feeling satisfied with job of unpacking. It still had a sterile, unused feel to it, but she figured she'd give it a week and then it would feel just like home.

"There you are, luv. You gonna come down and join us?" Allison looked up to see Betsy leaning in their open doorway. The girl was twirling purple strands of hair through her fingers as she looked over the change in their room.

"I dunno know, I think I might crash," Allison admitted. It was still somewhat early, but she felt exhausted from everything that had happened in one day.

"No, you're going to be semi-normal and sociable," Betsy contradicted as she linked her arm through Allison's and led her from the room. It took Allison a moment, but she finally got herself turned around and followed willingly. "Was that Sam I saw coming outta there?"

"Yeah. He was giving me my uniform. We also talked shop about football."

"He's really excited about trying out."

"I picked up on that."

"So you're really not completely clueless," Betsy teased as they reached the main hall.

"Hey! I resent that," Allison fired back and by the time their playful squabble was over, they were in the living room where the guys were arguing over what to watch on TV. The decision had come down between the X-Games and Soccer and it was quite the heated debate.

"Let the newbie pick," Ray suggested when he saw Betsy and Allison enter the room.

A half dozen pairs of eyes trained themselves on Allison as she considered the options. "X-Games?" she said slowly and Sam grabbed the remote and turned on ESPN2 with a shout of glee.

"How much did he pay you off for?" Bobby asked which immediately got him hassled by the other boys as the jerked him around to sit out of their line of sight.

Allison moved around the end of the couch and considered the amount of space that was left. The boys were a little spread out but there was room for one more if they could be convinced to squeeze a little. She grinned as she moved to the center of the couch blocking their view of the TV. Instantly, they parted like the sea for Moses and she quickly sat down in the middle before propping her feet up on the coffee table. She sighed as she sank back into the cushions and watched the motocross race with as much enthusasium as the other boys.

Kitty started to giggle from behind the couch, causing Allison to twist around to look back. "I've like never seen anyone get their attention during the middle of a sports thing."

"You just gotta know what it takes to make 'em move. In this case, the same thing that would make me move," Allison replied grinning causing Kitty to shake her head in amusement.

Kitty leaned back towards the girls who were also laughing at the boys' reaction to the new girl. "She like totally fits in with the guys, you know?"

Jubes gave an indifferent shrug as she tried to pay attention to her magazine instead. "Uh huh."

"Hey don't sound so down, Jubes. It's not like Bobby's falling for her," Amara teased. "In fact, it's more like he hates her guts. She's more of a guy than he is and it's messing with his head some."

Amara, Betsy and Kitty broke into giggles at the thought of Bobby being emasculated. Betsy was too kind to share a mental image of Bobby in a skirt. But just about any guy compared to Allison had his work cut out for him. She was into everything and if it ended in the word 'ball' she played it. If it had to do with engines, she could run it. If you needed a decent belch, the had no doubt she could pull it off.

"She seems really nice though." We all nodded in agreement with Betsy's assessment. She was nice, almost too nice because at the institute, things were sometimes a little too chaotic for being too nice. Every once in a while, you had to stand up for yourself or run the risk of being run over.

"I don't think she'll last five minutes tomorrow morning though." Amara's comment brought another round of nodding. Danger Room sessions were grueling for everyone. They were hell for first timers.

"We'll like all have to wish her luck then," Kitty declared, but deep down she just hoped that her new friend would survive Logan's training.