AN: My throat hurts and my head is ringing. I feel like I've seen more booty than any pirate. Maybe that's to much info, but I'm on a life high right now thanks to the wonderful and scantily clad women at the concert I just attended. I even got me some digits! Maybe they aren't fake ones. I'll find out tomorrow. But either way, I feel great! On with the story and disclaimer! Disclaimer: I do not on this series, nor does my mother. She apologizes for making that claim earlier. If you forgive her, she'll give you a cookie.

Chapter 5

Going Through Changes

"Come on, you lousy good for nothing! I thought you were a professional! Where's the big bad thief how could take on armed guards and win? Is he scared?"

"Logan, you gotta work on your trash talk. It was my profession to run away if caught and fight as a last resort. And since you haven't hit me yet with those butter knives, I'm doing just fine."

Logan growled at the teen's comeback, before lunging again through the forested area to attack his target. The teen in question merely jumped out of the way, lingering in the air longer than normal and going abnormally far.

"For someone who's so tough, you aren't so bad when you're carrying an extra ten or so pounds. Or maybe it's because I only weigh about half of what I should."

It had been a week since Luke had been assigned his assignment with the pen and his sessions with Logan. He'd made great progress under the eyes of his rough tutor, and Xavier was pleased as well after a few more 'discussions.' Luke thought of them more as polite interrogations, but he knew the man wouldn't push too hard. For such a powerful telepath, he had great restraint over his gift.

His team was accepting him rather well too, he thought. Asides from the fact, Scott hated him for being in trouble all the time and Jean hated his troubling friend, things were great. In fact, his friend had set him up big time his first day of school, but he felt that it was worth it in the end.

Flashback

Luke had just made it to his first period before the tardy bell had rung and was happy when he sat down next to his only school friend. Crystal was already in her desk and tapping away at it with her nails, glancing over to him every now and then, as if she was waiting for him to do something. Luke let it slide and started to daydream when the morning announcements came on. Practices were called out and the library was closed. Luke could've cared less. The office worker soon began calling out all the kids that needed to report to the principal's office for write ups. Luke set his head down for a nap and was about to fade away, when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Luke, they called you and me. We gotta go see Mrs. Darkholme again."

"Really? What did you do?" The fact that Crystal was renowned at school for being a trouble maker and a delinquent guaranteed her a spot in the office, but Luke wanted to know what for. What fun had he missed out on?

"You'll see. Just come on. She'll be done with all the other kids by the time we get up there."

The reply was cryptic enough, which put Luke on edge. His paranoia and her personality had his mind conjuring up insane ideas of how she had gotten him into trouble along with her. After all, he did leave campus with her. He didn't sign out or anything like that, so there was a chance Mrs. Darkholme would be mad about that. But if the entire class was told to leave, then surely not.

The trip to the office was made with several thought trains rolling through Luke's head on similar ideas, but when the he sat down on the bench and listened to the woman on the other side of the thick door, he stopped caring. She sounded pissed. Even more so than normal for her. She was either hissing out insults or shouting punishments as kids filled in and out of her office, each with a sour look on their face.

One kid Luke heard called inside, Todd Tolanski, according to the shouts from his principal, was sentenced to a week of after school detention for a single tardy. Luke may not have been at the school long enough to pick up on the policies, but he knew that no one ever gave detention for one tardy. So Mrs. Darkholme was definitely pissed.

When all the other student had been sorted through and assigned punishment, Luke finally was called into the office, with Crystal waving him goodbye and drawing her finger across her neck in a happy farewell.

Luke closed the heavy door behind him and turned to see his principal sitting calmly in her desk, glasses perched towards the end of her nose in a slant that made the glare she sent towards him all the more intimidating. Sitting himself in one of the chairs, the teen decided to shut his mouth and wait.

The woman behind the desk pushed her glasses up with a sigh and stood up, pacing around her desk in loud heels that Luke couldn't help but feel were way too loud. With each clack of the hell, the woman came closer and closer until she had positioned herself behind his chair. Luke didn't dare turn around when he felt her nails sink into his shoulders uncomfortably.

"Do you know why you're here, boy? Do you happen to remember why you came to my office yesterday? Tell me."

"I came here for my schedule, ma'am."

Luke was almost proud he didn't stutter, but the pinching from the sharp nails on his shoulders kept him from enjoying his pride.

"Yes. That's exactly what you came for. So please explain to me why you came to my office yesterday for my schedule, but you didn't follow it."

"I did. I went to all my classes, went to lunch and break, and left when my 4th period teacher told me to."

"Are you saying that your teacher told you to leave school an entire period early? Even though you have a full month to catch up on in school work? Please excuse me if I say I don't believe you."

Luke wished he could squirm out of her grip, but the woman had a solid one. If she kept this up, she was going to break the skin and get blood all over his 5th favorite shirt. Then it would be his 7th favorite.

"She didn't actually say it. There was a note on the door telling all of her students to go home. So I did. I heard that the teacher was sick often and did that kind of thing a lot, so what's the big deal?"

"Where did you hear this from, Luke? Whoever told you this must not like you, because they elaborately tricked you into skipping 4th period. So if you tell me who told you this, I'll let it slide."

"It was Crystal. Are you telling me that she was lying about the teacher being sick and letting kids skip her class? Oh, she's gonna get it whenever I find enough glitter and glue. Do you know where any craft stores are in Bayville?"

The woman ignored the comment/question and opened the door, calling in her new secret disciple. Gesturing the seat beside Luke, she looked over the two mutant teens and made her judgment call.

"The both of you are to serve 3 days of after-school detention doing community work around the school. You won't be chaperoned but your work will be monitored. Luke, go back to class. Amanda and I are going to have a discussion about the consequences of lying."

Luke nodded glumly before glancing over to his new partner in community work, who seemed rather happy if anything else. Weird.

Luke went outside the door, shutting it behind him, but didn't leave. Instead, he moved to were his shadow wouldn't be seen underneath the door and pressed his ear against the wall. After all, if she got him in trouble, he at least deserved to hear her get chewed out. Plus, he didn't want to go back to class without her. He hated English just as much as she did. Through the wall he could faintly hear Mrs. Darkholme talk, but it certainly wasn't the scolding he was expecting to hear.

"You have three days, Crystal. Three days to worm your way into Xavier's Institute and find out what Toad couldn't. I know you may think that it's too soon for you, but Xavier won't harm you, nor will his lapdogs. All you need to do is find one of their computers and let me in from the inside."

"Before I do anything for you, Mystique, I want to move back in with my dad. I'll show up to whatever training or practice you want, but I refuse to live in that disgusting environment. So let me live with my dad or I'm leaving your scrappy team for the Institute. I'm sure they'll be able to find a way to fix my problem."

"It doesn't need fixing, child. Soon you will be a beautiful and powerful mutant. Just give it time."

"Yeah, I can't wait to turn into a walking rock! That'll keep plenty of guys knocking at the door."

"That Luke boy has worked around plenty of other mutants. He'd look past that in a heartbeat if he's as soft-hearted as he looks. And since you're already friendly with him, it makes him the perfect way to get in the mansion. No more discussion, just do it!"

Luke threw himself into one of the benches by the office door, just as Crystal walked out. Pushing himself back up, he explained his presence before she could ask.

"I waited on you so I wouldn't get lost on the way back to class. So how bad was it?"

Luke definitely wanted to play off his presence near the door as normal. But from the near skeptical glance he got from the blonde, he was almost sure she knew he had heard. A moment later, she turned and walked away, back to class without a word. Luke followed along and the two were back in class just in time to catch the first 5 minutes of an hour long lecture. Neither were awake for the other 55.

Flashback End

The following 3 days of community service were normal enough, cleaning tables and taking out garbage, but Crystal never did anything to arouse suspicion. She never came to the mansion or even tried to, but it was clear now that she was a mutant, Mrs. Darkholme was a mutant, and both knew he was a mutant that attended a mutant school. This kind of threw off the relationship of friendship that Luke wanted to build with the cheerleader, because it was obvious that Mystique and her 'team' wanted something bad for the mansion and it's inhabitants.

The yellow blur that was Wolverine interrupted his contemplations by zigzagging forward and ducking out of sight behind a tree. Luke kept his eyes peeled on both sides, but the man never emerged from either side. Luke began to back away, wondering what the man could be up to. But before Luke knew what was up, the man had jumped out of the tree from its branches to tackle Luke into the ground. As Luke caught on to what happened, he found one of Logan's razor sharp claws hovering dangerously close above his neck.

The man got up after Luke admitted defeat and allowed his student to knock off the extra weight placed on him. At first for Luke, it was more of rough guesses on weight, but he was getting better and better at judging it now.

"Session's over kid. Same thing tomorrow. Until then, go inside, eat, and rest for team session later tonight."

With a sigh, Luke began strolling back towards the Danger Room entrance as the environment around him faded into nothing. It was cool when Luke first saw the labyrinth come out of the floor, but when Logan started making 3d environments that he could interact with, Luke took Charles at his word for state of the art technology.

The elevator ride gave Luke the personal time to discover that he reeked. Taking a shower would be his first priority. After said shower, he had a can of Chef Boyardee waiting on him in the pantry.

10 minutes later

Luke sighed yet again as he stepped out of his shower and into clean clothes. Who cared he'd need another one by the time he finished the team session? Grabbing his phone off the dresser and plugging in a pair of headphones, Luke cut on his music and began humming along as he made his way down to the kitchen. He found his prize still waiting in the pantry. Popping it open, putting it in a bowl and nuking it in the microwave, Luke finally let himself relax. He could definitely get used to this kind of life. Right as the buzzer on the microwave went off, Luke felt a prickling in his head and heard a voice.

'X-men, we have a situation. Report to the Blackbird hangar immediately for briefing and prepare for a trip.'

'A trip? Professor, do you want me to go? I'm not exactly an X-man yet, am I? I don't mind house sitting for you. My motorcycle is supposed to come in this afternoon today anyways.'

'I want you to come with us, Luke. You may not be an official part of this team yet, but you need to see how things are handled in the field before we can let you onto the team.'

Luke nodded, but he face-palmed a second later because he knew the telepath couldn't see it. Glancing back at his food, Luke toughened up and did the next best thing before leaving. He grabbed a protein bar and a can of Dr. Pepper from the fridge before running back to the elevator. Nobody else was up top, as far as Luke knew. Wolverine had gone back downstairs to supervise a exercise that the Professor didn't think he needed to be part of. Something about having enough experience breaking in anyways.

The elevator hit the basement level and the he hurried down the hallway to the hangar and onto the Blackbird, where the rest of the mutants were waiting. The active mutants were already in combat attire, which Luke couldn't blame them for. The suits were so dang comfortable. Once everyone was there, the Professor began to speak to all the mutants assembled, while Kurt of all people began to fly the plane out of the hangar and into open air.

"I've already informed the others, but we're on a mission to Mississippi, Jackson specifically, to retrieve a young girl who's powers have just developed. She's a danger to herself and others and it's important that we reach her before something goes wrong."

Luke nodded his head, already agreeing. Newbie mutants were bad and dangerous. Emotional, unreliable, and uncontrollable. The Professor was smart to look after new mutants before they got picked up by crime or sold off as personal guards. And since all of that happened under the radar, there wasn't much chance to rescue anyone from that situation.

Scott reported back to his leader, yammering about approved in Jackson airspace. Luke ignored it while he munched on his bar and hurriedly drank his soda. Luckily, Storm didn't take it away from him, but her look of disapproval wasn't a good thing either. As the trip went by, Luke let his thoughts wonder and decided somehow that he was going to advise the Professor to keep the team an extra pair of uniforms to go in the Blackbird. But asides that, the trip was relatively peaceful. Kurt messed around outside the plane, made Kitty mad, and her response was to pout. For some reason, Luke had expected more out of Xavier when he warned Kurt about playing around. He had such a serious tone, but he never punished anyone for anything. After the holes were fixed in the Mansion's walls, the telepath never brought it back up, let alone scold the brown-haired mutant for it.

The plane landed down and the X-men departed from it, driving off in a van. Xavier had said that a boy in the hospital was connected to the runaway mutant girl, so now they had to sit in a crowded van and wait while Jean, who dressed up in a ridiculous nurse's attire and somehow made it to the unconscious victim's room, relayed for Charles, who delved into his mind to find whatever he was looking for. Kinda boring for Luke, because he couldn't do anything but bite back witty remarks about Jean dressed like a nurse.

Once Jean was back, the X-men were split up. Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Shadowcat were to search in one part of town, while Storm, Cyclops, Jean, and Luke got to search the other. Since the Professor couldn't get a lock on her mind, this meant they got to wander around for a bit.

After a while of fruitless searching, the Professor said that Cody's brainwaves had disappeared. That meant absolutely nothing to Luke until Wolverine hopped over the fence and said she was 10 gardens over. Finally, they had found her and something could be done! But then Xavier started talking to a voice that wasn't there and started speaking telepathically to Kitty.

"When are we gonna go? I wanna find this girl before midnight so I can go home and eat some real food!"

"In time Luke. Kitty just informed me that somehow Kurt has been incapacitated and the girl is gone using Kurt's powers. I can track her now through Kurt's brainwaves. Wolverine, you tend to Kurt while I guide the others to the girl."

With that, Luke's group started running. For some reason or another, the telepath guided them to a graveyard, where they saw the girl sitting down and resting. Jean elected herself to go talk to her. Luke was fine with that. He didn't want to risk being knocked out like Kurt. But as soon as Jean gave her a communicator and Storm, Cyclops and himself started to walk over, the girl freaked. Scott missed a tackle and ate mud while the two girls started talking about why she ran off. Luke helped Cyclops out of the mud before pointing out the obvious.

"If Scott's epic fail tackle didn't scare her, then maybe she just hates being surrounded. We did crowd her."

The girls didn't take the idea to well, but shrugged it off either way. They still had to find the girl again and calm her down. The Professor began feeding in more directions to the group and they made their way to the opening of a grave, when the girl ran out, obviously spooked, and pushed Scott, who was the closest, back into the mud. When his head bounced off of the ground, one of his beams shot out and hit overhanging electric wires, sending a shower of sparks everywhere.

Luke helped the teen back up to his feet again while the 'Rouge headed back inside the grave, only to appear in the air via 'Bamf'. She teleported again to save her own skin from the fall, but still hit hard. Jean tried to help her up, but the girl was steadily crawling away. And then when Strom tried to help her, Luke saw a flash of white and then hell broke loose. The winds began pushing in, alongside rain and thunder. Luke had never seen what Storm could really do, but if it was anything like what the girl was doing now, then Storm was awesome. And unconscious in a pool of water to boot.

Seeing how the situation was heading from bad to worse, Luke began what he thought was best. Weighing himself down so he didn't get thrown around like a leaf. Jean and Scott were fine inside her force field, but when another power line got hit by the crazy weather, the two redheads began going after Storm. A moment later, Luke saw why. Immediately he shouted to Jean "I'll pull her out if you lift her up!"

The redhead complied and began lifting the conked out woman out of the water. Luke began jerking his hands back, as if pulling on an imaginary rope as Storm was pulled out of the way was the power line tower came crashing down.

And just when Luke prepared himself to handle the Rouge, she vanished by another teleport. A second later, the weather cleared up and the sky reappeared. Letting out a sigh of relief, Luke turned to his team and helped Scott carry Storm.

Xavier and the others showed up carrying Kurt, who was still out of it. The man admitted defeat, much to Luke's disappointment, but said that someone else was interfering. Joy. The last thing he needed right now was someone messing with the team's mission. Luke was soaked to the bone from rain and felt like he had been in a giant tornado. He was not in the mood.

"Mystique." The name snapped Luke out of his funk and got him focused. If Mystique was here trying to get the Rouge girl, then she must want her on the same team as Crystal. Kurt and Ororo woke up after the others finished talking. Everyone got a kick out of Kitty gushing over Kurt. Luke felt happy for the blue guy. He needed a little love. It was even funnier when Kurt swooned. Scott felt the need to mouth out something to the blue elf, but Kurt didn't smile in the slightest, so whatever it was must've ruined his mood.

The team made their way back to the plane and got home right at sunrise. Thankfully, Logan didn't have a morning session planned and Luke could play hooky. He didn't have the energy to deal with school. So when Luke walked into his room and found a small smelly little guy perched on the window sill, he almost didn't care.

"What do you want? Here to kill me? Because if you are I swear that I'm gonna kick your ass so hard you'll use the bathroom with your mouth."

The scrawny fellow turned around and Luke recognized him from the office at school. Todd Tolanski. He was wearing a funny outfit that was too big for him and hung down over his hands, but Luke could still see a disk case in his hands.

"No, I'm not here to kill ya. Keep it down though. I'm delivering a message for you. Crystal wants you to meet her after school tomorrow. You two have some things to discuss. See ya later, chump."

And with that, the bratty little mutant hopped out the window and off into the woods towards the property line.

'Damn. I'll tell Professor about that when I wake up. For now, I gotta sleep.'

At School - Principal's Office

"I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself here, where you'll be safe and secure. And with Crystal here to show you around, I'm positive that you'll see what all this place has to offer."

Mrs. Darkholme was back in her office, just finishing her speech for her newest student. Rouge may not have been very secure herself, but the shape-shifter was confident that she could keep a hold of the power stealing mutant. When the girl and her blonde escort left the office, Mystique saw her paper clips acting up and knew her true leader was here.

"She'll make a fine addition to our side. She's a powerful mutant, but are you sure you can keep her with us and not with Xavier's bunch? We cannot afford to lose her, Mystique. And I expect that information from Cerebro by tonight. Don't keep me waiting."

Xavier's Mansion - 2:45

Luke had been up from his nap for an hour now, still thinking over what happened before he fell asleep. The Professor had talked to him about it, telling him that over night, someone had broken in and gotten a copy of every mutant on file from Cerebro, Xavier's mutant detection system. Luke took this as bad news. So he knew what he had to do.

His motorcycle had come in yesterday, as it was supposed to, and Luke gladly rode it to school. He had a date, after all. He couldn't roll up in a van and still have an ounce of self-pride. No, he needed his motorcycle.

Crystal was waiting for him in the parking lot and much to Luke's surprise, she had a friend. A friend that Luke had seen last night in Mississippi. Which was a long ways away, even with Kurt's teleport. Uneasy, Luke wanted to question his blonde friend about her silent escort, but she shut him up and told him that he needed to listen first.

"Luke, I wanna get this out of the way so we can stop walking on pins and needles. I'm a mutant, she's a mutant, and you're a mutant. We're on Mystique's team, and you're on Xavier's and we all know that we aren't our teams aren't friendly, to say the least. We don't have to be enemies though. The X-men aren't your friends. Its kinda obvious that the only person on your team that you like is Kurt, who's too far in love with Kitty to be a friend to you. I'm your only friend around here and I don't wanna fight you. Todd took that info last night and Mystique is gonna use that to gather enough mutants to shut down the Institute, one way or another. I don't want you to be on the losing team here. The Brotherhood is open to you, if you wanna come."

Luke sighed, running his hand through his hair. This was what he was afraid of and what he and the Professor talked about. Even though it was planned for, that didn't mean Luke was comfortable with the question. He had a role to fill, however.

"Where do I sign up at?"

Amanda, who was expecting an argument or a fight, was shocked that Luke gave up so easily, but didn't question it. She was being honest when she said that she didn't want to fight Luke.

"I'll show you the place. Follow me."

Crystal and Rouge got in her car while Luke followed behind them on his bike, heading out of town and onto a dirt road that led to what used to be an overgrown shack. Now it was a rundown overgrown shack.

Crystal led the two inside, leaving Luke at the door and leading Rouge up to her room. Once she came back down, she yelled at her other housemates "Guys! We got a new recruit! Get down here and meet him!"

A few rumbles later and a slammed door, and two guys appeared on the stairway. One was Todd, the other some rough looking punk. Todd didn't even bother to introduce himself, just looked Luke over before pouncing off. The other guy introduced himself as Lance and shook hands with him. Crystal piped up and asked in fake concern "Where's Terrence? Surely he would want to see his best friend in the whole wide world?"

Luke nearly started sweating buckets then and there. Terrence wasn't part of the plan at all. If he showed up, then Luke was gonna bail.

"Springload is out doing whatever. He'll be back before dark like always. He's just lucky he isn't enrolled in school yet."

'Gotta be quick. I'll die here if Terrence makes it back before I'm gone.'

Dark thoughts aside, Luke was shown around the crappy little abode, stopping at the kitchen to eat old leftover pizza, before being shown upstairs. After being told strictly not to go in one room, which he concluded to be Mystique's, he went to his own room. It was nothing more than 4 walls and a bed, but that was fine by him. After waiting for five minutes and relaxing on the bed Luke started peeking his head out the door and making sure the hall was empty. Luke listened for his other housemates. Crystal was on the phone, Rouge was probably still in her room sleeping after being up for so long, and Todd and Lance were downstairs fighting over the TV remote. Luke eased out into the hallway, taking care to tread lightly. He'd only get one shot at this.

At Mystique's door, he affirmed that the door was locked, but broke it with his powers and a twit of the wrist. Near silently, Luke entered the room and shut the door behind him. He didn't have long before someone found out he was missing. But what he was looking for was right by the door. Todd must've slid the case file under the door because he couldn't get in the room himself. Luke opened the case file and saw the dick that contained the missing mutant info from Cerebro. Lifting it out of the case, Luke pulled out an empty case from under his shirt tucked in his jeans and placed the disk into it. Still holding the now empty case after putting his case back in position, Luke opened the door to see Crystal, Todd, and Lance all standing there.

"You didn't really think we were gonna let you roam around and do whatever, did you? I know you came here for that disk, Luke, but you're not leaving here with it."

Crystal stood at the doorway, anger all over her face as flashes of light would emanate off her skin. Luke could see Lance or Todd wince every now and then as a stray ray of light blinded them. But he didn't care that he had been caught. He had got what he came for and Xavier could sleep easy. If he made it back to the mansion alive anyways. With a flick of his wrist, Luke knocked the glass out of the window behind him, gathering up his power inside of him and lightening his own body weight. Crystal still stood in anger, maybe blinded by it, or maybe because she was scared to move against Luke.

But the other two Brotherhood goons weren't. Shoving Crystal out of the way, both came running into the room only to be thrown back out as Luke released his power in an open palmed push. Luke waved at Crystal, who was now shocked more than anything, and dove out of the window. Luke hit the ground light as air thanks to his feather-like state and ran to his motorcycle, nearly shouting at his clean get away. Lance and Todd were running out of the house after him, but Amanda was staring out the window.

Cranking his bike up and turning it around, Luke sped out of the drive and was nearly to the road when two things happened. First, Luke went upside down while flying through the air. Second, Crystal slumped down on the spot by the window, passed out from exhaustion.

Luke crashed down on the hard earth and dully noticed glittering rocks that had spouted on the drive and flipped his bike, trashing it. One of the tires was shredded, so he'd have to leave the bike for later. Maybe the Brotherhood wouldn't ruin it if it wasn't already. Pushing himself up and dusting himself off to smearing the blood into his shirt, Luke took out running, but the ground began to shake beneath him, buckling and throwing him into the air. Luke pushed himself off the ground with steps that made him look like he was running in air. Thankfully, he was still light from draining his own body weight off, so it was easier to stay afloat. Pushing himself higher and higher, Luke spotted the mansion and began his personal marathon race, a mixture of controlled falling and floating.

But Todd was still after him, leaping at incredible heights and making great distance on him. After catching up to Luke, the unhygienic teen shot out his tongue and nearly got a hold of the case, but Luke slapped the tongue out of the air with a push and threw Todd down towards earth in a heap with the wave of his arm.

Sighing yet again at his momentary safety, Luke began to examine his situation. He was hanging nearly fifty feet over the ground and was staying there. It was like a hot air balloon, only more tiring. So tiring, that Luke knew he couldn't make it back to the mansion. After a few minutes, Luke let himself fall to the ground, knowing he had lost the Brotherhood a long time ago. Pulling out his cell phone, he dialed the number as planned.

"Professor, I got it. Mission accomplished. Now come get me and take me home. I still got a bowl of Chef Boyardee in the microwave with my name on it."

AN: Chapter done! How's that for ya? I have to apologize before I get too carried away. I forgot last chapter, in my hurry to update, to put where the song title came from. It's an Eminem song off of Recovery, just like this chapters. Just wanted to clear that up before I forgot again. And for anyone that thinks the Chapter Titles are unrelated, well…I'm picking songs off of my Iphone's shuffle. So get over it.

It's a little short, but I didn't have much opportunity to insert Luke in the original episode. Sorry. But that's why I had the original stuff. So Enjoy and R&R. I'll get back to you guys later. Big Willis out!

And special thanks to my favorite little Beta ever. He may not of updated lately, but I've been trying to keep him busy with beta work. I can't let my slaves get fat and lazy while I work tirelessly on this keyboard, now can I?