Chapter 43
At the Institute...
The Professor had called the X-Men together in his office without saying why. It irked Scott a little, not knowing, but then again he hasn't been having the best week so irking him isn't hard. Jean is still being...completely irrational about the fact he dated Emma a couple of times 5 years ago. 5 years ago! Honestly it hardly like it matters. He's dating Jean now. He loves Jean and no-one else. She needs to let it go.
The other irksome thing was Bobby and Roberto and what they did with Cat 'Spy for SHIELD' Grant. To say Scott was not happy was a massive understatement. Those two had had words from him on top of ones from the Professor and Logan. Ok Logan didn't as much talk as threaten to castrate them if they ever did this again. Anyway Scott can see he's going to be needing to keep a closer eye on Bobby and Roberto to see if they really are up to being X-Men potential. They had been given a punishment but some menial task for them to perform was hardly the point. It is more to see if they actually learn the lesson of this. If they don't or can't then some serious rethinking about their role here will become necessary.
"Thank you for coming," Charles brings the meeting to order. "I asked you here because we are soon going to be facing a grave threat."
"What threat?" Logan demands to know, instantly on edge at the prospect of facing something that may endanger the students.
"I will explain in time," Charles promises. "But first I would like to begin with a photograph and a story."
The Professor then lifts off his lap an old photograph, torn and faded at the edges and he places it down on the desk. This is part of what he went to the bank to collect from the security deposit box. It is the only thing he needs to show the assembled group around him for the moment. It is a group photo of several individuals dressed in some kind of blue and yellow costumes. Everyone gathers in around the desk and has a closer look.
"Who are they?" Jean asks, her brow drawn down deeply in puzzlement.
"They are the first X-Men," Charles replies.
"WHAT!" virtually everyone exclaims and 5 seconds after that a barrage of questions, discussion and debate rises up.
"Oh my God. Can you like believe this," Kitty says to Rogue.
"Ah know," Rogue says, stunned as anyone by the revelation that there had been another team before them.
"I like mean blue and yellow. What were they thinking?" Kitty asks with a disapproving shake of her head.
Rogue just looks at the girl. A major revelation gets dumped on them and Kitty is complaining about their colour combinations? Seriously? What is wrong with the girl? And by the way Kitty's uniform; yellow and blue...ok it's a darker shade of blue with the strip of lighter blue down the middle with only yellow gloves, belt and a bit of yellow on the inside collar and really doesn't look as remotely hideous as the uniforms in the picture do but still Kitty's uniform has the colour yellow and the colour blue in it so Rogue doesn't know where Kitty can get off being that critical.
The Professor slowly brings things back to order. "I know it is a shock and I know you all must be wondering why I have never mentioned this before and in time I shall answer all your questions. For the moment please let me tell my story," Charles requests.
Everyone accepts his request.
"Thank you," the Professor says gratefully. "To start with I formed the first X-Men for pretty much the same reason I formed them today. As living examples of how our mutant gifts could be used to benefit mankind. I hoped to head off what was coming the day we were publicly revealed so I formed this team and then offered its services to the government."
There are many shocked expressions at that.
"You told the government about mutants?" Scott asks, sounding unhappy that the Professor would have done that.
"Not precisely," Charles gently corrects Scott. "Some branches already knew mutants existed. Like today many of them were hostile. I thought the best way to counter this was to work with them and let them see us for what we truly were. It didn't work out as I hoped which I will explain later in my story."
Kurt, meanwhile, is looking closely at the photo and at one individual in particular. "Zhat's you!" he exclaims in surprise at a man in the centre of the photo, standing and with hair.
Charles smiles lightly. "Indeed. It is," he confirms. He runs his hand over his now bald head. "The years have not been entirely kind."
There are a few snickers at that joke.
"Oh now don't say that Doc," Domino says. "I'm sure you can still make the ladies swoon," she sniggers.
Charles sighs with a small roll of his eyes at Domino's humour.
Logan moves and picks up the photo off the desk. He snorts and his head snaps as he recognises the person standing next to Charles. "That's Magneto!"
Charles remains calm. "I have made no secret of the fact Magneto was once my friend Logan. He was also not always such a bitter man. He was never entirely comfortable with this idea of a partnership with the government but he did not hate humans on the scale he does now. He, in fact, helped me recruit everyone you see in that picture."
"Yeah so ya care to explain why Mystique is there too?" Logan almost dares Chuck to explain.
"Mozher?" Kurt exclaims. He takes the photo from Logan and notices what he didn't before. Tucked away, half-hidden at the back is a woman with blue skin and red hair. His mother. He looks to the Professor for an explanation.
Charles takes a moment before answering. "That picture was taken over 20 years ago, Kurt, before you were born. I have no answers, I'm afraid, to any questions you may have about your father. Whoever he was, Mystique met him after she left. I was as surprised as you were the day we all learned Mystique was your mother. To answer your question, Logan, yes we were friends but as with Magneto that friendship soured and you know where we stand now."
"She looks just like she does now," Kitty observes. Mystique, in other words, hasn't aged.
"She's a shapeshifter Kitten," Ororo reminds Kitty as in Mystique can make herself look whatever age she pleases.
"I never asked her, her age," Charles says, feeling it wasn't his business and not wishing to be forceful when he was trying to form the team. "However I got the impression from things she said that she might rival you, Logan, in terms of longevity."
"She's zhat old?" Kurt asks in disbelief. How much else didn't he know about his own mother?
Logan growls, scowls and glares at the elf.
"Not zhat you're old, Logan," Kurt quickly tries to get out of the hole he just dug for himself, in panic at Logan's expression.
Charles feels he needs to say something to Kurt. "Kurt, I hope you don't feel I held anything from you about her. I'll give my reasons why I never mentioned any of this before but equally there is a lot about Mystique I don't know and she never told me...and even what she did say you can't always trust it was the truth. She's good at keeping her secrets."
Rogue snorts. "That I believe," she mutters in contempt. Clark's hand squeezes her on the shoulder gently in response since he knows how much hurt Rogue feels over Mystique.
"Who were the rest of them?" Evan asks.
"Well there's me," Hank points out. He takes the photo from Logan and points at one figure in the back row. "This was before I started taking my suppression serum. My mutation was not as pronounced when I was young." This is illustrated by the fact he is not blue. The only indication of his mutation is overly large, prehensile feet like he has now.
"That's the Mr Cassidy we met on Muir Island," Clark says, pointing at a teenager in the photo with a mop of curly red hair. Clark can see that despite the passage of time it is definitely him and they met him when they dropped Nitro off. Him and his daughter, Theresa.
"Sean, yes," Charles confirms. "He went by Banshee. He has the ability to produce supersonic screams."
"Appropriately named then," Ororo comments while trying to deal with this news. She has known Charles the longest, save for Hank, and never knew this. She has to wonder what it was that caused Charles to try and bury this which is what he must have done.
"Is that Dr McTaggart?" Jean inquires at another figure.
"Yes, that's Moira," Charles confirms with a warm smile at the thought of her. "She was the team medic, essentially."
"Who's zhe girl vith zhe wings?" Kurt asks at the girl with lightly coloured skin and wings which can visibly been seen.
"Her name was Angel Salvadore," Charles says, sounding bitter-sweet as he speaks her name. "Her wings most closely resembled a dragonfly's. She could also secrete acidic saliva."
"EW! Gross!" Kitty remarks as she imagines that.
"Who's the other babe?" Evan asks, pointing at another girl with long dark hair and these tattooed dark lines coming down from her eyes.
"Evan," Ororo lightly chastises her nephew for the 'babe' remark.
"Sage," Charles answers. "She was called Sage or Tessa or Diana Fox. I doubt any of them were her real name but I didn't judge what was obviously her desire to forget whatever past she had endured up to when I met her."
"What could she do?" Scott is the one to ask.
"Cyberpathy."
"What is that?" Jean asks.
"Telepathy is the ability to read another being's mind...to in a sense connect and interact with it. Sage could do that with computers and machines. She could connect directly to them using nothing but her mind," Charles explains Sage's gift.
"Wow. That's like amazing," Kitty thinks, being the computer nerd she is.
"As a consequence her mind was in many ways like a computer," Charles tries to further explain Sage's gift. "She possessed an eidetic memory. She could think at a speed and on a level that is hard to completely understand. Humans have a limit to how many different things we can do at once. Sage, like a computer, can easily have her mind performing several different tasks at once. A consequence of having a mind enhanced like this was that she did also possess a low level, limited, form of telepathy."
"This guy?" Evan asks, pointing at a tall, slim black man.
Charles' smile becomes very sad. "Armando Muñoz. His codename was Darwin. A truly remarkable mutant."
"In what way?" Rogue asks.
"We named him Darwin after Charles Darwin. He could reactively evolve his body to any environment."
"What does that mean?" Rogue asks, not having a clue.
"For example if he went underwater he would almost instantaneous develop gills to breath, scales would cover his body, his fingers and toes would become webbed to better enable him to swim. If he walked into a fire filled room his skin would harden to become fireproof and his lungs would adapt to be able to breathe in the smoke filled atmosphere. Heat, cold, any environment on Earth you can imagine, his body would evolve to survive in."
"So why are you telling us about this now?" Scott asks, his mind still reeling from the fact there were previous X-Men.
"I will get to that," Charles promises. "First let me begin at the point where I approached the government. They agreed to authorise a team to work for them in dealing with 'abnormal' threats to national security."
"Abnormal meaning mutants," Martha assumes, making her first contribution to this discussion.
"Yes. Like we do today in dealing with other mutants. If there was a mutant issue Division X was used."
"Division X? Is that what they called you?" Jean asks.
Charles smiles lightly as if it is slightly funny looking back on it. "Yes. They did. To continue my story we eventually discovered that most of the mutant incidents we were confronting were being controlled by a single entity."
"Who?" Domino asks, with more seriousness on her part than usual.
"Many whos Domino and a what," Charles replies somewhat cryptically. "Has anyone ever heard of the Hellfire Club?"
Martha blinks and stiffens. "I have," she says in a low tone. "It's an elite social club that caters for the rich and powerful."
"How do you know about it mom?" Clark asks.
"Your grandfather's a member. I was a member...probably still am technically but I haven't stepped inside one of their establishments in 20 years."
Charles looks at Martha and realises he may have to step carefully here but he must also speak the truth. "The Hellfire Club is a front for the elite who run it. They are called the Inner Circle and simply knowing that name can get you killed which is partially why I have never spoken before of this as I never wanted any of you in danger."
"So why tell us now?" Jonathan asks, as he gazes with concern at Martha whose expression is tense.
"Let me explain who the Inner Circle really are first. You know those conspiracy theories of a secret group that really run things from behind the scenes?"
"Yeah," several people say cautiously.
"That is the Inner Circle. They control aspects of the media, have politicians, industrialists, other people of power and influence all in their pocket. The Hellfire Club is simply the means through which the Inner Circle reach out and control these people."
Martha's brow furrows deeply. "I-I didn't know this."
"I know," Charles assures her. "Few people do. It only works if no-one knows you exist. If you are nothing but the chatter of so called conspiracy nuts."
"You came into conflict with this Inner Circle," Ororo can guess the next part.
"We did," Charles can confirm. "And in the end they destroyed us."
"Not all at once," Hank picks up the story, feeling he should tell some of it. "That's not how the Inner Circle works. They take time studying you, learning where the divisions lie within and how to widen them, learning what it is that can tempt you to their way of thinking and once they have someone in their grip they then use that person to betray you."
"Magneto?" Scott makes what he thinks is the obvious assumption.
"No. Angel. It's never who you expect Scott," Charles tells the young man. "We lost Darwin...we lost ourselves. The Inner Circle may have only physically killed one of us but psychologically they tore us apart. Still we there standing, fighting when the last betrayal came."
"Who?" Logan asks.
"The government we were trying to aid. There we were all in one place..."
"And they decided to get rid of you," Logan can figure out. "Missile strike?" he queries at the method.
Charles nods.
"But you were working for them," Ororo says, unable to understand why they would do that.
Logan snorts in derision. He understands the darker sentiments of people like that. "Didn't matter to them. They had their enemies in their sights. So what that some mutants who worked for them had to die. They probably thought good riddance."
"Magneto managed to stop the missiles but that's when he really started to hate humans," Hank explains. "Shaw had been at him for weeks already, needling the superiority of mutantkind, reminding him of what humans did to his family, stoking his anger."
Charles continues, "Magneto already had a lot of anger from his time in the camps and then the fact our human allies attacked us confirmed to him that essentially all humans were no better than the Nazis who killed his family. That is the day we started on our separate paths. He wanted to make our government allies pay in blood for their betrayal. I tried to stop him. Moira...Moira tried to aid me and take him by surprise. She thought she could shoot him if he wasn't expecting it. Magneto managed to deflect the bullet but not control where it went. It lodged into my spine and put me in this chair. Seeing what he had done took some fire out of Magneto's rage but the division had been formed between us and it has never been bridged."
"Is that when he started on his mutant supremacy crusade?" Scott asks about Magneto.
"No," Charles says before explaining. "Magneto didn't start instantly on his quest for mutant supremacy. After he had calmed down he decided he just wanted to be away from people. He also had just recently met Magda, Wanda's and Pietro's mother. He took her and went to live up in the mountains in isolation. Now obviously from we what we know, in regards to Kurt, Magneto must have decided at some point, after he left, to begin preparing for his war."
They know Magneto experimented on Kurt when he was a baby in some fashion.
Charles carries on with his story. "I believe it was Magda's death that finally pushed him over the edge to begin his crusade for mutant supremacy. I don't know the exact details of how Magda died. I only found out about it much later but I know she was killed by some kind of mob. When she died my belief is that the last tether that held Magneto back was cut. The last thing that kept his anger and hatred in check was gone. When she died I believe that was when my friend Erik really died and Magneto was born," he says with much sadness, a feeling of loss at losing his friend. He then adds, with even more sadness and regret, "The mob responsible...Magneto made sure they paid with their lives."
"Vhat happened to zhe ozher X-Men?" Kurt asks.
"The Inner Circle had done their job well," Hank says with deep anger at them and sorrow about what happened with his then friends as he picks up the story, seeing Charles needs a moment. "We could barley stand to be in the same room with each other by the end. We all went our separate ways. I...just wanted to disappear back into the mass of humanity so started using my suppression serum. Mystique...to this day we don't know where she went or how she ended up with Magneto in the end. Angel; no doubt the Inner Circle rewarded her greatly for her services," Hank says bitterly, with long held anger at her. "What happened to her, where she is now, I truly do not know...nor do I care all that much." Angel long lost any right for Hank to give her well being any thought.
Charles finishes it off. "Moira went home to Scotland and founded the facility on Muir Island." A lot of the reason she left being out of her guilt for firing the shot that crippled him even though Charles forgave her long ago. He continues, "Sean went home to Ireland, met a woman, had the daughter we met when we dropped Nitro off. Darwin..." he trails off, the strain of emotion clear on his face, the pain of losing a dear friend. "Shaw killed him."
Now Ororo can understand why Charles never wanted to talk about this. It was obviously extremely painful. It also explains the deep sadness she remembers when she first met him.
Martha had been in shock since the first time the name 'Shaw' was mentioned. The second mention makes her speak up. "When you say Shaw do you mean Sebastian Shaw?" she queries.
"You know him?" Charles queries from Martha, with a little surprise on his part that she would.
Martha's face has gone almost deathly white. "We were...I..."
Jonathan takes his wife into his arms. "They were engaged...close to 20 years ago," he answers for her.
Charles and Hank share grim looks.
"He...he was often away when we were dating...business trips he said...I didn't...I never..." Martha rambles. She can't comprehend this. Sebastian...oh god how close had she come to becoming...
Jonathan lowers Martha down into a chair before she collapses. Clark's face is pinched with emotion at seeing the state his mother is in.
"Son. A glass of water?" Jonathan asks Clark.
Clark nods and is out the room at a shot.
Charles lowers his head into his hands for a moment. Was there no life Shaw couldn't ruin.
A few moments later Clark returns with a glass of water which he hands to his father who gets Martha to take a few sips. Martha gathers herself a little. "I didn't know," she whispers, her face now having a deep haunted expression.
"I know," Charles assures her he believes her and he does. Martha wouldn't lie like that.
Scott lets the revelations sink in for a moment. "What about Sage?" he asks after the one who hasn't been mentioned.
Charles recovers his poise. "For appearance's sake she stormed out, blaming me for everything."
"What do you mean 'appearance's sake'?" Scott asks, his gaze intense behind his ruby glasses.
"Shaw beat us. Tore us apart physically and psychologically and then went back to his life knowing we...I was no longer a threat but even after such a tragedy my belief...my dream of mutant/human equality still stood. Yes I would take time to myself and to grieve but one day I knew I would form a new team of X-Men...and then Shaw would be back. So I needed a way to spy on him."
"Sage," Domino can assume.
Charles nods with a small smile of deep admiration for Sage. "Sage, put on that performance and then went to Shaw and joined him. For 20 years she has been my informant."
"How can people...how can an organisation like that exist?" Clark wants to know.
"There are always people who wish to use power for their own ends...and the Hellfire Club has been around for centuries. It's insidious and has wormed it's way into every facet of the civilised world. Shaw is the Black King...they rank themselves after chess pieces...he is the Black King of the New York branch. There is an LA branch, a London branch, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Sydney, Rio...I could go on but I think you get the idea. That's why we could never win. You take down one branch there's at least 50 more. You try and expose them but they control most media. You can't defeat the Inner Circle. You can only hope to survive them."
"I don't believe that," Clark says. "Something like that needs to be exposed."
Charles admires actually Clark's fire. "Perhaps I am cynical, perhaps our previous experience has tainted my view. Even if you are right Clark that's not a battle that can be won in quick order. That's a long hard fight. A fight I wanted to protect you all from which is why I have never mentioned any of this. As long as you didn't know the Inner Circle existed they had no interest in you."
"They have an interest in us now don't they?" Domino asks, having a feeling she knows why they are getting told this now.
"Yes they do," Charles can confirm. "It's already begun. That's why Emma was here yesterday."
"Emma?" Scott inquires. "What does this have to do with Emma?" he asks, baffled by how this relates to her.
"Emma Frost, White Queen of the Hellfire Club," the Professor just says it.
"I knew it!" Jean cries. "I knew that conniving, selfish, shallow, vain, self-obsessed, arrogant bitch was up to something," she says with real venom, feeling every thing she has said has just been justified along with her being angry at Scott all week.
"Whoa," Kitty says, taken aback by Jean's fury.
"I agree vith you," Kurt says.
"Jean..." Scott starts to say.
"Oh don't you dare defend her Scott!" Jean snaps, her voice almost shrill. "Not this time. I spent 2 years putting up with her snide attitude and superiority complex while you made excuses for her."
"She was not that bad! You know she wasn't!" Scott fires back in raised tones.
"Excuse me? Didn't you just hear what the Professor said?" Jean asks incredulously.
"I heard...but whatever happened to her after she left is not the same as who she was when she was here."
"Right. Take the side of your ex over your current girlfriend why don't you!"
"Ex?" Evan asks Scott.
Scott rubs his brow. "We dated a could of times."
"Without telling his supposed best friend!" Jean snaps snidely.
"You were too busy trying to get Matthews to notice you...which by the way I was nothing but supportive about despite the fact he was a jerk!" Scott fires back.
"Wow. Issues," Kitty whispers to Kurt.
Kurt nods in agreement.
The Professor intervenes before this breaks out into a full fledged shouting match between the bickering couple. "Ok. Enough. Please. I know you two have been having problems and, if you wish, I am available any time for advice but this is an official meeting about X-Men business. Personal issues are left at the door," he mildly rebukes Jean and Scott.
Scott gathers his emotions and buries them. "You're right Professor. I apologise," he states in a flat tone as 'leader mode' kicks in.
"Sorry Professor," Jean says, while still staring daggers into her boyfriend.
"Who is Emma Frost?" Rogue asks the question.
"She was a student here, before Kurt and the rest of you came," Charles begins to tell her story. "She's a telepath. A powerful one. When her powers kicked in, her parents thought she was suffering a mental illness, hearing voices. I found her in the asylum they had had her committed to. Her parents...they were not the best people I have ever known. They were only too glad to hand her over to me so they could brush the stain of her on their reputation under the carpet. They could, rightfully in a way, claim she was attending a special school for gifted children. That sounds better. They were very image conscious."
"Rich?" Jonathan inquires, with a certain disdainful look that shows he can guess that they were from that description.
"They are relatively wealthy," Charles confirms.
"What happened with Emma? Why did she leave?" Dom asks the obvious question since Emma must have.
"Emma's time here was difficult," Ororo steps in with a few words of explanation as she recalls Emma's time here. Her face has a certain strained expression as she recalls trying to teach Emma.
Logan snorts in derision. "Difficult is underplayin' it Ro. She was full of herself. Always arguing with just about every decision made because she thought she knew better."
"She did not agree with our philosophy," Ororo explains.
"She thought I was too passive," Charles expands on that. "Too...reactive. Not proactive enough in promoting the defence of mutantkind."
Jean snorts. "More like not proactive enough in promoting her self-interests," she mutters disparagingly.
Charles tells the story of Emma's departure. "After her brother died it all came to ahead. She was very close to her brother, unlike most of her family, which only made his death more painful for her. In her grief and anger she lashed out, blaming me for not letting her be more proactive and save him. Then she stormed out and never came back. Emma is...one of my biggest failures," he says with much regret.
"Professor that's not true," Jean comes to his defence. "Emma was always conceited, concerned only with herself. You put up with her far longer than you should have."
"Jean," Scott protests.
Jean glares at him. "What? It's true."
"Emma...she was more complicated than that," Scott argues.
Jean cannot believe this. He's still defending her!
Scott continues his argument, "Which you would know if you talked to her rather the constant arguing the two of you did."
"I tried being her friend," Jean argues back. "All she did was make her snide comments and cold, sarcastic put downs."
Loud whistling interrupts. "Enough the two of ya," Logan barks. "She's not even here and she has you two bickering. Save it for later," he tells them off. He turns to the Professor. "Chuck I know ya like to blame yourself but Jeannie's right. You put up with way more from Frosty than ya should have. She was always a pain in the ass. Honestly if I wasn't a gentleman I would have smacked her."
"Ya? A gentleman?" Rogue questions that. "Now ah've heard everything," she says sarcastically.
"Ya know Stripes ya ain't old enough to not be placed over my knee," Logan threatens as a punishment.
"Ah would lahke ta see ya try it," Rogue dares him.
Charles interrupts the little father/daughter spat. "I appreciate the comment Logan but I still feel somehow I should have been able to reach Emma. I never managed to do that," he says sadly.
"Charles, perhaps we should refocus on what Emma and the Inner Circle are planning," Hank suggests.
"Yes. Of course," Charles agrees. "Emma, after she left, somehow, I don't know the details, ended up joining the Hellfire Club. As I said before Sage is my informant within the Inner Circle and I learned that Shaw took a particular interest in Emma and she quickly rose through the ranks to the level of Queen, which is a very high position within the organisation. Now the Inner Circle have turned their attentions to us as I always feared they would one day. My belief is that they don't know I know who Emma is to them and therefore think they can use her to, in a sense, infiltrate us, and weaken us like Shaw did to the first X-Men. As a beginning to this aim Emma has invited us to her school."
"School?" Jean asks, with deadly seriousness. "What school?"
"Her Academy of Tomorrow where she teaches mutants the way she thinks they should be."
Logan laughs a little at the sheer absurdity of that and of Frosty of all people teaching.
"She uses them to protect the Inner Circle's interests," Charles relays what he knows. "You all may note how this sounds familiar to where this story started and how the First X-Men met the Inner Circle."
"Is this a trap?" Ororo asks, the very obvious question, with very obvious concern about her students' safety.
"I don't believe so. I believe it is the beginning of studying us, learning our weaknesses. The Inner Circle move slowly...although one thing did concern me."
"What?"
Charles looks to Clark. "Emma extended an invite to Superman."
"Me?" Clark asks, puzzled, momentarily turning his concerns off his mother. "Why?"
"Can't be certain," Charles says with his own puzzled expression as he still can't work out precisely why. "Emma tried to dismiss the request as casual curiosity," he mentions.
"You don't buy it," Logan guesses.
"No."
"What about Sage? Did she say anything?" Scott wonders about their newly discovered informant.
"There is a limit to what she can pass on. Emma's activities have always been vague. She keeps her secrets well, even from the rest of the Inner Circle. I cannot even tell you what we will face if we accept her invite."
"We're not accepting it are we?" Jean asks, surprised they would even consider it.
"That's why I called this meeting. If we go...it's the start of a very dangerous game."
"We would go to do what she is trying," Clark figures out. "Learn about what she is doing and what her team's strengths and weaknesses are."
"And in time understand why Shaw has all of a sudden turned his attention to us," Charles adds. "Sage hasn't gotten me an answer yet. Shaw has apparently been very secretive recently about his activities. He had to know I had formed a new X-Men months ago, years ago, so why now?"
It was a good question everyone there could see. Why all of a sudden now?
"I never wanted any of you near the Inner Circle," Charles says with deep affection for his students. "It's part of why I never spoke of them. Sometimes ignorance is bliss and you didn't need the burden of my past failures upon your shoulders. Now it's no longer an issue. They are coming and they will attempt to do what they did before and tear us apart. You need to prepare because the struggle ahead will be hard. You will need to be more united than ever for they will exploit any division. I do not expect a decision right now over this. Go, think over everything I have said and we will reconvene later."
They start to file out. Clark aids his father with his mother who is still deathly pale looking. He hopes she will be alright.
"Scott, Jean," the Professor calls out. "Wait behind one minute."
Jean and Scott wait until they are the last 2.
Charles brings his hands together and rests them on his desk. "It is not my business to intrude on your personal lives but if we agree to take the risk we are contemplating you two cannot continue to be so angry with each other. It is exactly the sort of divide the Inner Circle will exploit. Now I cannot tell you to make up but one thing I must ask is that it does not interfere with the team. When facing the threats we do you two must be able to be professional and work cohesively when out in the field."
"I understand Professor," Scott assures their mentor. The leader in him can see what the Professor means. "It won't interfere with the team. I promise."
"I understand too," Jean says. "Whatever personal issues we have will not interfere with the team Professor. You have my word as well."
"Good...but just a warning if it looks like it is interfering I'll have to remove one of you from the team. I hope you can understand why."
"Yeah," Scott says. In fact he can remember delaying inviting Clark into the X-Men after the red kryptonite incident and Clark and Rogue weren't talking exactly for that reason of team harmony.
"You may leave," the Professor permits.
Scott and Jean leave, closing the door behind them. They look at each other...and decide they're not ready to talk it out right now. They go off in opposite directions.
The Academy of Tomorrow...
The students of the Academy of Tomorrow had all been gathered into a single classroom and there the usual banter and pranks were being played. Julian, as usual, was flirting with just about every girl in the room...apart from the 5 Stepford Cuckoos who freaked him out...and were only 13 years old.
Emma, dressed in white hot pants, white t-shirt and white leather jacket that somehow seems to cover very little, marches into the room to in front of them all. "Sit down!" she commands and isn't in the mood today for the usual replies...especially from Julian who gets a painful glare from her when he tries it. "I have an announcement to make," she informs them. "We're getting visitors."
"Who Ms Frost?" the 5 identical voices of the Five-in-One(Celeste, Mindee, Phoebe, Esme and Sophie Cuckoo) inquire. They sit all in a row in their identical school uniforms and identical expressions of interest.
"The X-Men."
"Finally!" the large blond boy known as Beef(Buford Wilson) says enthusiastically. He was starting to think they were never going to get a shot at the high and mighty X-Men.
"Not to fight them," Emma contradicts the thinking she can pick up. "Not yet anyway," she amends herself. "We're going to be their friends...for now."
"Why only for now?" Hellion(Julian Keller) asks, with a frown.
"Not my place to say. If you want answers I can direct you to Selene to get them."
"Selene?" Julian gulps with fear etched in even his face. Even he knew of Selene's reputation. "Ah...um...no. No need to know why. I'm good. Friends with the X-Men. It's all good," he assures Ms Frost.
"That's what I thought," Emma says and she isn't saying more because that would be unwise. Xavier is too good. Can't let him know it's all a scam. "Still it is always better to study and know as much as possible about both friend and foe. We're going to run down the X-Men and list their strengths and weaknesses. Claire!"
Claire Selton aka Volcana blinks from her position at the back of the class. She was not really someone to be part of the group dynamic. Despite all her weeks here the only person she would remotely say she is close to is Firestar(Angelica Jones) because they often trained together since their powers had similarities...and also Tarot(Marie-Ange Colbert) who for some reason(God only knows why) kept wanting to hang out with her. "Um...yes Ms Frost?" Claire responds.
"Come up here please," Emma requests.
Claire gets to her feet and walks to the front of the class.
"Since you were once a student at the Xavier Institute you can assist me with the lecture," Emma tells Claire why she is here...and it was a good way to judge how willing Claire is to fight her former teammates.
"Well you know I was more a member of the New Mutants rather than the X-Men," Claire points out.
"Nonetheless you must have trained with them on occasion, yes?"
"Once or twice," Claire admits.
"Splendid," Emma says with a smile. "Marie, lights please," she requests of Tarot to dim them down.
As Tarot does so Emma fires up the overhead projector. A group shot of the X-Men appears. "Right let us be...Monet!" Emma snaps at one of her newer recruits.
Brown eyes peer over the top of a magazine. The eyes belong to an, arguably, gorgeous 16 year old girl with long dark hair and lightly dark skin. She was dressed in the most expensive of clothes. She was leaning back in her chair and had her feet on the table. Her name is Monet Yvette Clarisse Maria Therese St. Croix; Codename: M. "What?" she asks, sounding irritated her reading time had been interrupted.
"I'm sorry. Are we bothering you?" Emma asks sarcastically.
"Always...but I tolerate it," is Monet's arrogant reply.
Claire rolls her eyes. Monet was supremely arrogant, truly believing herself better than everyone else, that she is a superior human specimen. Monet walks around with this attitude despite the fact that Claire and the Hellions saved Monet from her own twisted brother, Marius, who, and Claire really can't blame him for this, didn't like Monet. In fact he hated her for apparently always, always, putting him down. Unfortunately for Monet and the rest of them he who was also a mutant who needed to feed off the bone marrow of other mutants..and that is even creepier than it sounds. He had these mouths on the palm of his hands he fed through.
Anyway Marius had plans to get his payback on Monet when the Hellions showed up to recruit her. Good timing for Monet. Bad timing for Marius. Recruiting Monet had been, in fact, Claire's first assignment with the Hellions. At first she was almost excited. A trip to Sarajevo, where Monet lived, and a nice simple recruitment mission. It was not fun in the least since it turned out Marius was nuts and his hatred for Monet had him planning to transform and enslave her. Don't ask Claire for details on how he was going to do that because it was suppose to involve magic or something. It was something she didn't understand.
When Claire and the Hellions turned up they stumbled upon what Marius was planning to do and he didn't take that well to say the least and the fight against him didn't go well either. In fact Monet's brother would have feed off all of them if not for Monet's younger(13 years old) twin sisters, Claudette and Nicole(now called the M-twins), who combined could open portals into other dimensions and they trapped their brother in some other dimension, hopefully never to be seen again. In return for their help the twins got to come and attend the Academy too. They were currently sitting on either side of their older sister.
Why did they go through that much effort is a question someone might ask. The answer is because Monet's x-gene had the weird effect of enhancing everything about her. It made her very unique and special as Ms Frost as phrased it. Monet has superhuman strength, near invulnerability, enhanced agility, dexterity, speed, reflexes, reactions, coordination and balance. Enhanced hearing and vision including night vision. Her mind is enhanced to a genius level IQ with perfect memory. On top of that her mental enhancements stretch to telepathy...although it's range is limited to only a few feet...and oh yeah, she flies. Monet is truly superhuman. If Claire didn't know better she might think Monet was related to that Superman guy or something.
"Well thank you for putting up with us. I know it must be difficult for you," Emma's sarcasm continues in response to Monet
Monet shrugs. "Nothing is difficult for me. I accept I must live with inferiors. It's my burden."
"Inferiors!" Julian growls. That girl. She was smoking hot but damn she just knew how to get on your last nerve.
"That is what I said," Monet says, sounding bored at the fact she has to repeat herself. She looks to her sisters. "Does he have some hearing issue I am not aware of?" she asks them.
"Don't believe so," Claudette says.
"Must be a mental deficiency," Nicole proposes.
"Of course. That's what I thought," Monet says as if only confirming her own brilliance.
Emma coughs. "Would it be possible Monet for you to divert enough of your attention to the following? This is important."
"Whatever," Monet says, bored sounding.
Emma presses the button of the control and the next image appears of Cyclops. "This the leader of the X-Men," she begins. "Scott Summers, codename; Cyclops. Fires concentrated concussive blasts from his eyes. Claire, strengths and weaknesses please."
Claire takes a moment...moment. Good choice of words. This is the moment she has been sort of dreading for weeks. What to do when she ended up going against her old friends. She made a choice to come here. She has rarely had the chance to do that in her life. Choices were always made for her before by other people. She must see her choices through. "While I've never seen it myself Cyclops' power is such that he can shoot holes through buildings...like having a bazooka behind each eye. It is controlled by the visor he wears because he can't control it himself...which I guess makes his visor his weakness." She looks to Ms Frost who smiles politely and nods, giving her pupil the encouragement she is on the right track.
Claire continues, "Uh...since he must use the control on the side of his visor you must try and immobilise his arms or get close enough to go hand to hand although he is an excellent fighter. Failing that you could knock the visor from his face as he won't risk hurting anyone with his power so will close his eyes. I would also just mention that he is an excellent leader from what I've seen."
"Not bad," Emma compliments Claire...and yes Emma is capable of compliments when they're justified. She adds a little more in more refined terms before they move on, going through all the X-Men, one by one, listing their varying known or assumed strengths and weaknesses. Domino is one Claire doesn't know about and neither does Emma know anything of her either. When trying to look into her past Emma had found next to nothing about the monochrome mutant as if it has been erased. It was odd. They would have to learn more about her soon.
Emma moves onto the last image. Superman. Her gaze falls upon Claire to see the reaction. To see if there is any reaction. To see if any loose thoughts emerge from Claire's annoyingly well fortified mind but there really isn't anything much that comes forth beyond some confusion.
"Why is his image up there?" Julian asks, with a disdainful look. "He's not an X-Man."
"He's allied with them and I want him here to see how he compares to M."
Monet, who is filing her nails, manages to gather enough interest at the mention of her name to stop and look up. "Hmm?" she queries as her eyes fall upon the projected image. "Oh him. Well I suppose it might be slightly challenging. It's not like anyone here provides me one."
"Thank you for your blunt honesty Monet," Emma mutters off more sarcasm.
"You're welcome."
Emma rolls her eyes. That girl. Monet is here precisely because of Superman. When Emma met Monet's father and he told her of his daughter's power Emma knew she had to recruit Monet no matter what. Of course the whole deranged evil brother thing she never saw coming admittedly but still it all worked out in the end. Monet is here and what better way to counter a Superman than with a Superwoman. How they would actually match up would be interesting to see.
Claire would pay Superman to come if it meant showing up this snooty bitch. Now that would be hilarious and Monet needs a serious ego deflation.
"Claire anything to add about Superman?" Emma asks.
"I...know nothing beyond what you can read or see on tv. He was never, what you would call, chatty...and frankly I didn't give a fuck," she chooses to say because...well...she doesn't know much more than that although she has this weird feeling like that she should know much more.
Emma's eyes narrow. She really must do something about Claire's vulgar language.
Tarot giggles, finding it funny when Claire swears.
Next to her, her friend, Roulette(Jennifer Stavros) is resting her chin on her hands, a dreamy expression on her face as she gazes at Superman's image. "Oh God I hope he comes. He's too cute. That would be a multi-change of underwear day if you get what I mean," Jen says suggestively.
"Is he making your panties wet Jen?" Empath(Manuel Alfonso Rodrigo de la Rocha) asks crudely, with a repulsive grin of perverted interest.
"More than you are capable of la Rocha. When you're around they're drier than the Sahara!" Jen snaps aggressively. Even for this place Empath was a major league douche.
Empath's face darkens, his empathic powers begin to rise up. He'll make her panties wet alright...and not in a good way.
"Empath!" Emma's telepathic voice smashes into his brain like a hot needle, as she sensed what he was doing. "You do not do that in my classroom, understood!"
"Yes Ms Frost," is Empath's contrite sounding reply, only because if he replied any other way Ms Frost would make his brains leak out his ears.
Emma narrows her eyes. Empath's powers were useful but his attitude, his thoughts, even she found them close to dangerously dark. She has not ruled out making a few personality alterations to him.
"Now," Emma addresses them all. "You will have information packs on the X-Men delivered to your rooms. I want them studied and yes you will be tested on this in a simulation in the training room before the question is asked. That means you Julian."
"Me? I wasn't going to ask that," Julian claims.
Emma gives him her 'Are you kidding me?' look. She's a telepath for crying out loud. Emma dismisses them.
Claire wanders off down the corridor finding herself surprisingly calm about the whole seeing her former friends fact. She is in a place better suited to her beliefs. Sure it means doing odd jobs for people she has never met in 'protecting' their interests but Ms Frost had been honest about that from the start. Yep. She's in a good place in her life right now and while it is not home...
'Shit!' she swears in her head along with a few other choice words. How can she still think of the Institute as home? She needs someone to hit her across the head. She made her choice. It's about time she accepted it.
Claire silently sighs in annoyance at herself. As she walks along back to her room she spots Roulette slip into Julian's room proclaiming they can help each other 'study'. Yeah Claire knows exactly what Jennifer 'studies' and it won't be anything to do with the X-Men. Julian isn't much better actually in that regard. She is so going to be wanting to be far away from here for a few hours because those two...not quiet.
Claire barely registers Tarot catch her up. "So you've met Superman right?" Marie asks in her peppy voice. She reminded Claire of Kitty in being an annoyingly cheerful person.
Claire sighs audibly. "A couple of times," she moodily admits. "Only he never called himself Superman. That's the press."
"What is his name?"
Claire frowns. What is his name? Did they always call him the Blur or something? Damn it. Why does she feel like there is something she has forgotten. All she can say in response to Marie is, "I don't think he ever gave his real one and really, I'm not one to judge on that." And she isn't. You should see how many aliases she went through during her time living on the streets. "Also there is the simple case of I really don't give a shit." Also true!
Marie giggles almost automatically.
"Why do you always giggle when I swear?" Claire asks, with bemusement at Marie's little cute expression when she giggles.
"I don't know," Marie says, still giggling slightly. "I can't help it. I never grew up around anyone who spoke like that."
"You're French. I doubt you grew up amongst anyone who spoke English."
"True," Marie concedes, her accent permeating through strongly.
'Damn a French accent can be sexy,' Claire thinks to herself.
"So Superman?" Marie repeats her inquiry.
Claire groans. "What? He's a guy in a costume. He goes around playing hero and hanging out with Spider-Man or something. There is not much to tell."
"Oh I bet he's so...so...super!" Marie bursts out.
Please someone pass Claire the sick-bag. Marie was a fan. Posters and all. Tarot starts skipping along beside Claire gushing about Superman. Seriously the girl needs a chill pill. Claire has no idea at all why she hangs out with her. Ok she doesn't often hang out with Marie. Usually only when Roulette was 'entertaining' and Tarot has nothing better to do, apparently, than bug Claire...ok so it's kind of often in actuality they hang out Claire suddenly realises. Roulette 'entertains' a lot...and Claire supposes Marie wasn't so bad really. You get past the annoying peppiness and she's alright.
Just then Tarot manages to trip up over her own feet. Claire reacts out of instinct and catches the french girl in her arms. Luckily Tarot is quite a slender girl. Otherwise they would both be on the ground. "Thanks," Marie squeaks.
"No problem," Claire says as she brings Marie back to a vertical base. Their faces brush very close to each other and Marie's cheeks blush. Claire catches a glimpse of something in her eye.
The two girls stand there for a moment before Marie lifts her head, tilts her chin up and gently brushes her lips over Claire's own.
The shock means Claire just stands there, unresponsive, like a lemon. No wonder Tarot kept seeking to try and hang out with her she suddenly realises.
Marie pulls her head back and laughs nervously. "Ok...that was...like insanely forward of me...and you just stand there...and I've...um...I should go study before I completely embarrass myself and..."
"Stop," Claire says gently.
Marie looks at the redhead puzzled.
Claire reaches a hand behind Marie's head and kisses her this time. What? Marie's pretty, the accent's hot and Claire gets as lonely as the next person and like she said Marie's not so bad a person. In fact she's probably the nicest person here.
When the kiss ends Marie stands there, her body humming.
Claire's lips curve up into what can be describe as a sultry grin. Her hand gently brushes some of Marie's dark hair back into place. "Want to go study together in my room?" she asks huskily.
"OK!" Marie agrees instantly in her peppy tones. She has been crushing on Claire since almost the day the fiery redhead arrived so this is what she has kind of been dreaming about.
For the first time Claire thinks she doesn't find Marie's cheerfulness annoying. Funny sometimes what a kiss and some mutual attraction can do ain't it. The two girls walk off together and this time even Claire's step has a slight skip to it.
Author's Note: So choice to be made. Did Wanda's spell make Claire forget who Clark is as well? Answer; yep because why wouldn't it. Claire had left who knows where and Wanda was wanting to protect Clark. Perhaps it was unintentional but then again there are probably lots of unintentional side-effects of what happened. Anyway that's part of why the little catch up with Claire who seems to be getting herself a girlfriend. Aw sweet, n'est-ce pas? Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; The X-Men visit the Academy Of Tomorrow and meet the Hellions.