Everyone in the danger room control panel winced. They were watching Professor X guide Emery through some difficult mental tests. She had breezed through the easy and intermediate ones, so the Professor had agreed to move her up to advanced studies sooner. Currently, he was trying to get her to levitate something the weight of a submarine. It was twice as heavy as her last lift, which had proven easy for her. Now, he was trying to push her past her limits.
Her mental screaming was painful for all of them.
"Control your mind Emery. You need to shut off your mind to us. Your screams of frustration are painful to your allies. You need to channel your mind so that it only affects what you want it to affect."
The weight she had lifted a few inches off the ground, suddenly dropped, shaking the mansion.
'I don't know how,' she shot at Professor Xavier as she spun to face him.
"Hm," the Professor said slipping into thought. Emery had already gotten used to the way the Professor was. When she saw his thoughtful expression, she sighed in exasperation and stormed out of the danger room.
He was plotting something. That old guy was plotting something, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to know. Kurt snatched her arm.
"Em," he started.
'I told you not to call me that.'
"But I will."
'What is it Kurt?'
"Come here," he pulled her gently into his arms. She wrapped her arms around him. "You're doing really vell."
'Shut up.'
"Vhat? You don't want a compliment?"
'I want to destroy something.'
"Vell… come outside to the training field with me. We can destroy something out there, and blame it on practice."
He donned his goofy grin. Emery couldn't stop a smile from forming on her face; Kurt's was contagious.
'Alright.' She slid her hand into his. 'Lead the way.'
The training field was set up with a net at one end. There were red rims around the holes that had been cut for target practice. A huge bin of dodge balls was at their end of the field. The carefully drawn chalk line a foot in front of them indicated that they were expected to throw the balls into the targets from over a hundred feet away: nearly impossible for about 99% of humans. Then again, they were mutants, albeit origins, they were a species above humans on the food chain. That only meant more was expected of them.
Kurt picked up a dodge ball and chucked it at the net. It flew easily into one of the pockets. He had done this for hours when he was bored and alone. He had gotten used to it.
Emery picked up one as well. It burst into pieces between her hands.
"Feel better?"
'A little bit.'
Kurt smiled. "Now try getting the ball into the hole like I did."
She picked up another ball. It zipped across the little field and landed expertly into the pocket.
"Now try without your powers."
'That's impossible.'
"I just did it." He threw another one into one of the holes. "Twice. Und with no powers."
She picked up another one. Well, he did have a point. It didn't mean she could do it, but she could still try right? She wound her arm and chucked the ball at the net, imagining it sinking into the pocket. And it did. She opened her eyes in surprise. She'd heard it swoosh into the net pocket. She turned with a grin to Kurt. He wasn't smiling. She stopped grinning. Had she done something to offend him?
"You used your powers again."
She fidgeted; she hadn't meant to, but they were a part of her. She couldn't help it, she supposed.
"She sure did," Professor Xavier said from behind them. Neither had noticed him arrive.
"I was trying to get her to stop using them."
"I know. Instead, you got her to focus them, and without broadcasting them into anyone's mind."
'I didn't?' she asked.
"No, you did not. Try it again and see if you can replicate that."
Emery picked up another ball, closed her eyes, and threw it at the net. It was easy to imagine it curving like Kurt's had, sailing smoothly down into a hole. Swoosh, she heard. She opened her eyes in delight. She'd never really focused her powers before, besides the mental communication. Everything else always came out massive or ill-controlled.
"Well done," the Professor said. "Now, you are no longer allowed to communicate mentally, unless circumstances arise that it is needed. Understood?"
So that was his thought process.
'But…'
"Ah ah, no mental. Understood?"
"Understood."
Kurt tensed at the sound of her voice. The Professor handed her a piece of paper.
'What is…?'
"No mental," the Professor chided.
"What is this?" she asked.
"Your class schedule. Since you are old enough to be out of high school, you will be on a training and educational schedule here at the Institute." The Professor left, not bothering to wait around for her opinion.
She looked at it.
Monday:
11:00am: Target Practice, Instructor: Gambit, Location: Outdoor Range
12:00am: Classic Literature, Instructor: Beast, Location: Second Floor Library Classroom
2:00pm: Water Training, Instructor: Cyclops, Location: Pool, Lake, and otherwise decided by Instructor
6:00pm: Images, Instructor: Jean Grey, Location: Basement Testing Room
8:00pm: Yoga, Instructor: Storm, Location: Front Lawn
9:00pm: Combative Training, Instructor: Wolverine, Location: Danger Room
Tuesday:
10:00am: Hand to Hand Combat, Instructor: X-23, Location: Second Training Field
11:00am: Language (of your choosing), Instructor: Self-Study, Location: Library
1:00pm: Obstacle Course, Instructor: Rogue, Location: First Training Field
6:00pm: Partner Training, Instructor: Professor X, Location: Danger Room
7:00pm: Combative Training, Instructor: Wolverine, Location: Danger Room
Wednesday:
10:00am: Weapons, Instructor: (Will Vary), Location: Basement Testing Room
1:00pm: Edibles, Instructor: Storm, Location: Kitchen, Woods, Library as required
2:00pm: Weights, Instructor: Self-Study (with Partner of your choosing), Location: Weight Room
3:00pm: Science (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, etc.), Instructor: Beast, Location: Second Floor Classroom 3
4:00pm: Combative Training, Instructor: Wolverine, Location: Danger Room
Thursday:
10:00am: Mathematics, Instructor: Professor X, Location: Second Floor Classroom 2
11:00am: Partner Training, Instructor: Professor X, Location: Danger Room
2:00pm: Electronics, Instructor: Boom-Boom, Location: Second Floor Classroom 1
3:00pm: Endurance Training, Instructor: Rogue, Location: Determined By Instructor
7:00pm: Combative Training, Instructor: Wolverine, Location: Danger Room
Friday:
10:00am: Power Studies, Instructor: Nightcrawler, Location: Basement Testing Room 2
1:00pm: History, Instructor: Self-Study, Location: Library
2:00pm: First Aid, Instructor: Beast, Location: Second Floor Classroom 2
3:00pm: Modern Governments, Instructor: Cyclops, Location: Second Floor Classroom 3
4:00pm: Hand to Hand Combat, Instructor: Nightcrawler, Location: Second Training Field
Saturday:
2:00pm: Combative Training, Instructor: Storm and Beast, Location: Danger Room
4:00pm: Music, Instructor: Self-Study, Location: Music Room
7:00pm: Partner Training, Instructor: Professor X, Location: Danger Room
Sunday:
Everyone is required to Train 1 Hour in the Danger Room alone, with a supervisor in the booth.
Everyone is required to stop by Beast's Infirmary for a routine check-up of physical health.
Other Rules:
Everyone is required to help clean up messes. That being said, if you make a mess, you clean it.
Danger Room Sessions are for Team Training. We spent the last week catching you up in the Danger Room, of sorts. You have been placed with the team that I feel would be most beneficial. Yes, this is Kurt's team. I warn you this is one of the advanced teams, so you may find yourself needing to play catch up, or familiarize yourself with trusting them to help you.
Ororo cooks a delicious breakfast every morning at eight. If you are not awake for it, breakfast will be of your own making. Lunch and Dinner are served by staff at 12:00pm and 5:00pm. Again, if you are not available for said times, food will be of your own making. There is a staff kitchen, which Ororo and her Edibles classes are the only ones, and times I expect any of you to be in there. There is a separate kitchen stocked with food for when you need a fend-for-yourself style meal, or even a snack.
Invading someone's personal space, or for that matter mental space, is unwarranted unless permission is granted or established.
All self-study courses will be tested once a month to gage progress, nothing more.
The Library, Music Room, Kitchen, and Social Room are open at all hours. Training rooms of all kinds and Classrooms will be locked at midnight.
Training without a supervisor of adequate level is not allowed. I.E. Adequate supervisors are as follows: Jean, Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Beast, Gambit, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Shadowcat, Magma, Boom-Boom, Iceman, X-23, and of course myself.
'He expects me…'
"Mental," Kurt interrupted her.
"…to do all of this every week?"
'Yes."
"What if I don't want to?"
"You'll get a three hour session in the Danger Room set zu a level above vhere you are vith Heir Logan there to ensure you don't get killed."
'That…' "…doesn't sound like fun."
"It's nicht."
"What's today?"
"Saturday."
"Do I start tomorrow?"
"Ja, I vould think so."
Kurt had avoided looking at her the entire time, his body tense and unflinching.
"So," she drawled.
Kurt shifted his feet.
"You're going to be my teacher huh?" She smirked.
He turned his head to look at her.
"Ja."
"What are we going to do in these classes? Who else will be there?"
"Niemand, their private classes, und ve vill do a lot, Em."
"Your English is slipping."
"Your English is vocal."
"Do you not like my voice?" she asked, tilting her head to the side. It was so very tempting to crawl inside his brain and take a look at what he was thinking.
His gaze traveled to her lips, then to her eyes. "Im gegenteil."
She raised an eyebrow, slowly starting the process of working herself into his brain.
"I like your voice," he said carefully, ensuring he spoke English.
By now she'd already crept into his mind. She gasped unintentionally at the thoughts and emotions swirling about his brain, and unintentionally sent a mental shock to his brain.
The shock wasn't painful as much as surprising. Kurt flinched and immediately knew she'd been in his brain. 'Wundervoll,' he thought sarcastically.
"Emery," he said cautiously, face flushing.
She shook her head. She didn't know how to handle the knowledge she'd pried for. She took off running for the mansion, and her room.