Disclaimer: As usual, I don't own the X-Men, Marvel does. OCs are mine or my reviewers!
Author's note: Wait a minute... this is done... EARLY?
Yeah I ran into some writer's block working on the Rena chapter (no worries, I'm still trying on it) and then all of a sudden the storyline for chapter 24 started writing in my head and I couldn't ignore it. Thanks to HMaster who's idea inspired this chapter.
Also this chapter is the beginning of less visible Haven members (at least for a little while), meaning there won't be as much from their view.
Enjoy. Read. Review.
A dark purple portal opened up in front of the television in the Haven's common room. The group of mutants spilled out and fell on top of each other. The three mutants on the couch, Rena, Nico, and Xander, stared at the new arrivals.
"I swear, Portal, if you don't take your elbow outa my side I'm gonna—"
"Oh shut up Fox-face, your knee is digging into my kidney!" Portal muttered, shoving the boy off of her.
The mutants untangled themselves and stood. Sionnach and Portal glared at each other, before the boy turned to leave.
"I'll be in my room so if anyone needs me, don't." He growled, storming off.
Portal shook herself off and began walking toward her room. "Ditto, I need to meditate or somethin'…"
Zendi shrugged and plopped down in an armchair. Cloak and Ash followed suit.
"So whatcha watchin'?" Zendi asked, leaning forward and looking at the television.
Nico answered. "Star Wars marathon."
"Sweet!" Zendi cheered. She raised an eyebrow at Xander. "Aren't you… sick?"
The black-haired boy shrugged. "Was. Apparently only a cold, I feel much better."
Rena barked, getting Zendi's attention. "Jed's in, Clay hasn't been getting better."
The tan girl frowned and stood. "What do you mean?"
"She means that your leader has the worst immune system I've ever seen." A male voice said, coming from the end of the girls' hallway. Jed walked forward and locked eyes with Zendi. "Answer me honestly; has she been getting any sleep?"
Nico muted the television and all the mutants in the room turned to Jed.
"I, I can't say for sure." Zendi said softly, her concern showing. "We've been doing border patrol for the past few days…"
"No, it would have to be longer than just a few days of no sleep." Jed interrupted with politeness. "Your immune system needs sleep to recharge, to protect, but hers… it's fragile, weak. She definitely has the Flu, but she's not doing well fighting it. Has she been under a lot of stress as well?"
"Yes." All of the squad in the room answered. Everyone knew how hard Clay worked, and that she always ran on high no matter what.
Jed frowned, and his iris-lacking eyes narrowed. "I will speak to Darth personally about this. Your job is to make sure she doesn't do anything… Clay-like… for the next few days. And avoid putting her under any sort of stress."
"Gotcha." Zendi said. Jed nodded and walked out. The girl looked at the mutants in the room. "We need to keep a constant eye on her, so she doesn't do anything stupid, because we all know she'll try." They laughed nervously, trying to get Clay not to do something was like wrestling an alligator.
Portal was watching from the shadows of the hallway and slunk back as the others talked about a system to keep Clay under surveillance. She couldn't afford to tell Clay about what happened at the meeting. She'd acted rashly and drew more attention to herself than they wanted. No doubt the professor already knew what and who she was. That and she used her powers in the school building outside of the power-approved meeting. Darth would be having a talk with her on that, no doubt.
She groaned and leaned her head back on the cold stone wall.
"And Portal?" Zendi called, turning to where Portal was standing, a slight smirk on her face that said she knew she was there the whole time.
"Let's not tell Clay. There's no reason she needs to know you're going to the Xavier Institute."
Portal nodded and actually went into her room this time.
"Speaking of which, we can't let her go alone." Xander spoke up. As all eyes turned to him he rubbed the back of his neck shyly. "I mean… er…"
"I will keep an eye on her." Enrique spoke up. He flashed a smile. "Profesor Xavier said I was welcome there anytime."
Rena snorted. "So you're going to just watch Portal? Doesn't that seem suspicious?"
The white-haired boy frowned. "Well… I… uh… I will be nearby."
Rena and Enrique continued to argue, but an idea struck Xander. He stood up and started walking to his room. He'd have to test it out first, but it would probably work.
"Uh, Xander? Where are you going?" Zendi asked, as the argument slowed.
He paused and tilted his head slightly back. "Idea, the X-Men are in for a surprise."
"Students," Professor X said to catch their attention. It was at dinner on the same Friday the first mutant meeting at school was. All of the students and faculty were gathered at the large table, they had all finished eating, but the professor had an announcement to make. "Tomorrow, starting at seven, new students will begin arriving for lessons. I know since it's a Saturday many of you would rather stay in bed, but I would like it if you would be up and ready to help if need be." He smiled, his eyes crinkling. "If, of course, you would still prefer not to be awake, please stay in your rooms until you're dressed. We don't want to scare these new students away." Many of the mutants in the room laughed.
"I think he's talking to you Rogue." Kurt teased, leaning over the table and laughing at her.
Rogue stuck her finger out at him. "Ah would watch it if Ah were ya, Kurt. Ya are no more of a morning person than Ah am. Yar blue fur is a horrah to see in the morning."
Kurt feigned hurt and sank back in his chair amidst more laughter.
"Alright, alright, the professor's not done." Logan growled, silencing the room.
"Some of the mutants are most likely Haven affiliated." The professor said, turning much more serious. "I know we haven't had the best of times with them but everyone is to give them an open mind. On the flip side, everyone should be ready for trouble. So I would—" Charles stopped suddenly and frowned.
Several of the kids shivered and a few looked around confused. Xavier extended his mind out into the room. He sensed a presence there, but it left quickly as he scanned the room. He and Storm made eye contact, both with the same worried look in their eyes.
Xavier recovered quickly, shaking his head. "As I was saying, again I would like it if everyone was at least awake and ready for anything." Everyone nodded. "Alright, that's it, you may leave."
In the scrapping of chairs and low voices Scott pulled Jean aside, both of whom were back for the weekend. "I want to get the main X-Men team together tomorrow so we can compare some of the new profiles against what we know of the Haven mutants."
"Do you think we can identify them?" Jean asked, as the room emptied around them.
"I think so, we already know of Sionnach Fae and I've talked with the professor… Portia Manderson, the first mutant who comes tomorrow, is Portal." Scott answered. "Plus, who doesn't love a puzzle?"
Portal stepped out in front of an apartment door. She double checked the room number. 7C, great. She knocked tentatively.
"Who issss there?" A voice hissed from the other side.
"It's me Seth."
The door cracked open and a scaly hand pulled her in. Seth Severus was on the other side of the door and he closed it quickly. He was dressed in a tan Zoo uniform that had a little star by the name tag. His forked tongue flicked out of his mouth as he looked at Portal with mild distaste.
"So, how are you fitting in here Seth?" Portal asked, trying to diffuse the tension.
Darth had begun to approve the relocation of some of the oldest mutants at the Haven, that is, if they wished. Some wanted to make a life outside the place that helped them out when they were younger, others wanted to supply funding for the struggling training housing, and it was also nice to have jump-off points for some mutants would needed to stay in the cities overnight. Clay came up with the idea after Seth had mentioned to her how hard it was to keep his cover at the Bayville Zoo when he had to be teleported there every day.
Seth motioned to his surroundings, the apartment was nearly bare, but was adequate as far as living quality went. As the Dysons knew, it could be hard to find apartment complexes that would allow mutants.
"I am working on it." He said, his deep voice rumbling. "It would be easssier if Jaller would lay off. He hasss made it difficult for me to get back to the Haven."
Portal nodded. She hadn't seen Seth around in a while. "You can give me a lift to the Xavier Institute right? I mean we talked about it yesterday, but I'm just checkin' again."
Seth nodded and glanced at his watch. It was about 6:45. "The professssor sssaid you could be there ssso early?"
"Yes, a variety of new students are stopping by today, and I got the earlest slot, because I know you can't be late for work."
Seth nodded. "Come on, before the other tenantsss begin to wake up."
The two walked out of his apartment and out into the parking lot. A run down silver Malibu sat closest to the building. They piled into it, Portal trying not to laugh. It was a somewhat comical sight to see Seth, who was so tall and lanky, try to squeeze into such a small car.
But again, they took what they could get.
They drove off in silence, and then Seth brought up the question.
"What happened yesssterday? You weren't sssupposssed to draw attention to yourssself!"
Portal clicked her tongue and sat on her hands. "I had a bad day, I was distracted."
Seth frowned and glanced quickly at Portal then back at the road. "Your powersss aren't controlled by emotion. Thisss issn't like you Portal. You had your powersss under control I thought!"
"So did I…" Portal muttered. "I… I don't know what happened Seth."
"Enrique messsssed with your head again, didn't he?" Seth said, as they turned a corner.
"Maybe, listen let's talk about something else. How's it at the zoo?" Portal asked, watching the city buildings go by.
Seth shrugged. "It'sss okay. Mr. Walkman, the guy in charge, wantsss me to call Leo Dyssson and bring him back." A faint smile etched itself across his reptilian face. "It ssshould be good. Everyone missssess ssseeing him around."
"Popular for a mutant, isn't he?" Portal laughed as they pulled up alongside the Institute. "Thank you so much Seth, for giving me a ride." She pushed the car door open and hopped out. He nodded and pulled away.
Taking a deep breath, the girl walked up to the gates.
Here we go.
Portal examined the control panel and pressed a button she hoped was something like a doorbell. A low tone sounded, and she stood there, waiting.
Leo's face was buried deep into his pillow. His and Benj's room faced east, so the sunlight spilled in early in the mornings. He grunted and tried to ignore the blazing beams of light. Finally he felt himself slipping back into sleep when a buzzing sounded from under his pillow.
He groaned and pulled his phone out from underneath the fabric. He rubbed his eyes, trying to get the blurriness to go away so he could see who was calling him so early on a Saturday.
As his vision swam and straightened out he saw a name he wasn't expecting.
Seth Severus.
Leo jumped up and answered his phone. "Hello?"
Benj moaned at the sudden sound and rolled over, his head at the foot of his bed. Leo rolled his eyes and ignored him.
"Ahhh, Leo. How are you?" Seth's voice sounded over the phone.
"I-I'm good, sir."
"Ssss. Don't call me sssir, Leo. We've been over thissss."
"Right, right… I… uh…" Leo muttered, clearing his throat. "What, er, is it?"
"Well, I'm on my way to work right now, and Mr. Walkman wanted me to ssssend you a call. I jussst wanted to let you know he may call you later, he wantsss you to return to the zoo."
"He… he says I can come back?" Leo asked excitedly, his voice growing loud. Benj sat bolt upright and glared at his brother. The lion mutant held a finger to his lips and mouthed the word: zoo. Benj's eyes widened.
"I sssaid he wantsss you to come back. He makesss the call on when." Seth stressed.
Leo sat back down hard on his bed and stared dumbfounded at the ground. He honestly had started to lose hope of ever returning to the zoo, and the fact that he now might possibly return made him shake. As great as it was at the Institute, he really loved the zoo. Plus he was running low on animal sketches, there were only so many times you could draw squirrels and birds.
"Leo? Are you ssstill there?"
The teen shook his head out and nodded. When he realized Seth couldn't see him nod, he said yes. "So… I just wait for Mr. Walkman's call then?"
"Pretty much. Lisssten, I've gotta go, traffic isss getting nasssty. Sssee you ssssoon I hope." Click.
Leo blinked at his brother, his phone still up to his face.
Benj ran a hand through his hair. "Was that your boss at the zoo?"
"Yeah… it was…" Leo muttered. He got that insane smile. "Hey, Xavier wants us up and ready. Better get on that!"
"Heck no!" Benj shouted, flopping back down. "I'm gonna hide in bed until I'm forced to get up."
Leo laughed, but figured there was no getting him up. He dressed and went down to the kitchen to grab some breakfast.
As usual Logan and Kitty were the only ones in there, Leo was learning though. Unlike his first day, he slowly opened the door and did his best not to knock it back into the wall. He nodded at Logan, who was sitting against the window sill with the paper and a coffee mug. The gruff man nodded back silently and went back to reading the newspaper.
Kitty was typing up a storm on her laptop, writing another letter to her parents, trying to convince them she wasn't getting into trouble. With growing mutant racism, they were worried.
No worries Mom and Dad. I'm doing my best to not get in trouble, and haven't run into any trouble at school. I just mentioned the three new students in my last e-mail, but I'd like to tell you a little more because I'm sure you're curious.
Leo, Benj (yes Benj, he says Benjamin is too formal, and Ben is not enough), and Tyler are great most of the time.
Benj has a knack for getting in trouble, but he's a nice guy. He's a little quiet at times, but he's caught the attention of my old roommate Rogue. They're dating now. He's got some cool powers; he's like an airbender from Avatar: The Last Airbender and he has some telepathic powers like the professor.
Leo is an interesting guy. He had a hard time at home, but he's trying to start fresh here at the Institute. I guess you could say he's the point the Institute exists, he's like the poster child for mutants in trouble. If you remember what I've said about Mr. Logan, Leo is kinda like a younger version of him… only with a sense of humor that isn't painful.
Tyler is a bit difficult; he's faced prosecution at work and was fired. Normally he's almost silent in the background, but he's been getting rough and in your face now. We're all a little worried about him, but I think Kurt got through to him. He's into those killing video games like Bobby, but when he plays the other boys all cry. He kicks their butts.
Other than that, nothing's really been going on. Xavier started up a program with the public school where we work with other mutants there who don't actually live here. It's a neat idea, but I have no idea if it'll work.
Until Something Crazy Happens,
-Kitty.
By the time she was done typing and sent it off, Leo had sat next to her.
"Morning."
"Like, yeah." Kitty said, her cheerfulness there even bright and early. She frowned slightly, she'd meant to tell her parents a little about the Haven mutants that had been causing them trouble, but for some reason she backed off. She shrugged it off and turned to Leo. "So, like, what are you doing up so early?"
He shrugged, but his excitement was nearly bursting out of him. As Kitty started to shrug he burst. "I got a call from the zoo."
The younger girl raised an eyebrow and glanced from him to Logan. "Really?"
"Yeah! Seth says that my boss might call sometime today to let me know." Leo grinned.
Logan looked up from his paper. "That the same Seth that attacked Storm?" He snarled a little at the end.
Leo looked confused like he couldn't quite remember. "Oh, yeah… I forgot about that."
"Well that's… nice…" Logan growled. As soon as he said it all three of them looked bewildered. The gruff man couldn't believe what just came out of his mouth. He snarled and looked around, expecting something out of the ordinary. Nothing.
Kitty and Leo exchanged looks that said: "I can't believe he just said that." The two glanced suspiciously at the man.
"You… feelin' alright Logan?" Leo asked skeptically. Something was very off, his crystal was freaking out, vibrating in his chest.
He frowned and rubbed his neck. "Possibly, I gotta find Chuck."
The two teens watched him leave.
"That was…"
"…Out of character…"
Xavier was already out on the lawn when Portal came up to the gates. He watched as Storm welcomed the girl in and brought her up to him.
"Good morning Miss Manderson." Xavier said, smiling. "I thought you might rather have the lesson outside."
The girl shrugged. "Fine with me."
Storm shook off the weird feeling she got as she remembered the night she first saw Portal. Subconsciously she touched the scar now on her shoulder where the snake-man bit.
"So, is that just a fashion statement, or what?" Portal asked of Storm.
The woman looked down at her and smiled. She was wearing her uniform and hadn't thought much about it. "It is my uniform, child."
Portal shrugged and turned back to the man in the wheelchair. "What did you have in mind?"
Scott began knocking on the eldest X-Men's doors at about 7:30, trying to round them up. This resulted in several slammed doors, curses, and one event of being slammed into the wall. In Scott's defense, he didn't know Benj was such an anti-morning person, especially when the person waking him was only looking for his brother.
Finally the unrelenting X-Man got the team together in the conference room in the basement not far from Cerebro. It was a completely metal room with a metal table and chairs in the center. Scott stood at one of the heads with a folder and the rest of the team was assembled around the table; Jean, Rogue, Kitty, Kurt, and Leo. Scott also invited Tyler to join them since he'd fought against and beside the Haven mutants.
"So why exactly are we here?" Kurt asked. "Not that I don't enjoy being up so early on a Saturday." He laughed nervously.
"I figured we could figure out who we're up against." Scott said, placing his folder down. "I got some photos from Cerebro of the Haven mutants. I didn't get one of all of them though, I thought Leo could help with some sketches."
The said mutant shrugged. "Sure, got my pencil and sketchpad right here." He pulled a pencil out from behind his ear and his sketchpad from his pocket. "Which one you wanna see? I'll try to sketch while you guys look at the first few."
"Clay Dune." Scott said simply. Leo nodded, no surprise there. "I also got the photos of the mutants who came to the first Xavier meeting at school." He spread a variety of photos across the table, some were blurry action shots, while others were school photos.
"Let's start with what we know." Jean said, pulling two photos out. They were both of Sionnach Fae. "We know that this mutant is known as Kitsune as well."
"Greeeat." Rogue said, rolling her eyes. "We know the one we saw leave is who he really is."
Jean ignored her comment and went on. She placed the photos off to the side and picked up one of a girl with purple streaks in her dark brown hair. "So we know this is a mutant called Portal."
Leo reached into the middle and fished out a photo of Portia Manderson with matching streaks in her hair. "Has to be her." He said simply before returning to sketching.
Rogue looked at the photo. "Yeah, this is her. She's the one who can open portals. She basically proved that at the meetin'."
"Like, two down…" Kitty said, picking up another action photo. This one was of a pale boy with a gray hoodie with its hood up. His hair wasn't visible, but his eyebrows were solid black, his eyes blue, and his cheeks a little dimpled. Kitty raised her eyebrows. "I haven't seen this guy before."
Tyler reached across the table and looked at the picture. "Hmmm, this guy was at the Sionnach recruitment, but I haven't seen him since." He felt as though a shadow fell over him for a second and on impulse he let heat escape from his fingertips. Flames quickly grew and swallowed the picture. "Ack!" He gasped, dropping the smoldering ruins of the former eight by eleven piece of paper.
"Aw man, Ty, you torched it!" Kurt groaned.
The red skinned mutant frowned and rubbed his hand over his jeans wiping the ashes off. "I… Lo siento… No… no sé por qué…" In his confusion he switched to Spanish, causing the others to frown.
Leo translated as Ty continued to mutter in Spanish, still sketching out Clay in his notebook. "He says he's sorry, he doesn't know why he let the paper burn. He says something told him to." A tiny glimmer of a smile spread across his face. "And now he can't make the switch back to English. He'll just do charades then." Leo chuckled.
Ty glared at his younger brother. "Lo puedo hacer." (I can do it) When Leo laughed and didn't translate Tyler sighed. He pointed at himself and made a silence motion and pointed back at Leo. It wasn't the same translation, but it got his point across.
"What do you mean, he can't, like, make the switch to English." Kitty asked, as confused as everyone else.
"I don't know, ask Ty." Leo waved the question off, his pencil flying across the paper.
When their eyes went to the man, he sighed. He muttered something in Spanish then pointed to his head. He then made his hands look somewhat like claws and he lined them up together and made a motion where he failed to get them to line up properly.
When they continued to blink at him he threw his hands up in frustration and started muttering in Spanish again.
"Come on, really?" Leo looked up at the others. "None of you take Spanish?"
"Well, like, I do." Kitty said. "But I'm not good at the, like, speaking and listening."
Leo and Ty face-palmed. "Of course not."
Tyler waved them on, signaling to continue.
Scott leaned over the table and grabbed another picture. "I never caught this one's name." It was a blurry photo of a boy with dark blue eyes and a brown cloak on over his head.
"Cloak." Tyler stated. "Clay se llamó Cloak."
Leo's hand froze on the paper and he gasped suddenly.
Kurt noticed the change in Leo's demeanor. "Is something wrong Leo?"
The teen went back to sketching, he was nearly done. "No. Did you say he was called Cloak? That's rather ironic." He finished the drawing with an additional stroke and handed it to Kitty. Kitty looked it over and passed it to Scott.
The older teen looked it over. "Well this doesn't help much…"
Leo laughed a little scornfully. "Sorry, she wears a mask." The picture successfully captured her body build and basic uniform, but as Scott said, it was hard to tell anything due to the mask. "All I know about her is she has those startling green eyes and gray skin."
"She's a shape-shiftah, she could look like anybody." Rogue muttered.
Jean and Kurt shuffled through the school photos of the mutants that came to the meeting the day before.
"No one here has green eyes like that." Kurt said, tossing down a photo in defeat. "Maybe she didn't come."
"Or…" Rogue said, sitting forward. "She was someone who wasn't there."
Ty broke the small silence with another comment in Spanish. Leo translated. "Let's move on, we won't get anywhere comparing a photo of a known shape-shifter to pictures of people who didn't say they were shape-shifters."
"Let's try this again." Xavier said, sitting behind a small control panel outside. Portal stood a few feet in front of him, breathing hard. Small cannons jutted out of the grass pointed at a person-shaped dummy. The dummy had a few places of blown stuffing, but they were only in nonfatal places.
Storm stood behind the professor observing the young mutant's skill. She seemed to have her powers very under control and kept her cool when she started falling behind in the exercise; but the girl seemed to be tiring.
Bending down to talk to the professor, Storm whispered. "I do not think she will have any difficulty with the Danger Room, maybe we can try that later."
Xavier nodded and folded his hands under his chin, watching the girl catch her breath. "Yes, although I'm not sure if anyone will want to spare with her. Why don't you go inside and see if you can find Kurt. I would like him to help out here."
"Of course professor." Storm said, standing up and walking toward the building.
Portal stretched her arms out above her head and shook them out. "Alright, I'm ready."
The professor nodded and pressed a button on the control panel. The cannons whirled to life and began firing small saw blades at the target.
"Protect the target at all costs, this time try to take out the cannons while you do that."
Portal extended her arms and made motions with her hands and threw her arms out to the side. As the blades sliced through the air portals opened in front of them and they were transported away. She opened corresponding portals that sent the spinning blades into the ground behind the dummy.
Her energy levels were greatly decreasing and she struggled this time to accurately send the blades away. Growing tired she decided to open a portal beneath the cannons. The small cannons slipped through the portal and fell from the sky directly above. Hopefully Xavier didn't mind her trashing them. They were rich here, right?
Professor X pressed a few buttons and halted the remaining cannons. "Very good, are you getting tired?"
"Yeah…" Portal sighed, rolling up her sleeves and sitting down on the ground. "Can… can we take a break?"
"Of course, another student Kurt will join us out here shortly, and we can give you a tour if you want." Xavier stated.
Portal smiled slightly. "Sure, I'd love a tour."
Storm walked into the conference room where the X-Men were still trying to pair photos up. They looked up gratefully when she came in.
"Kurt, the professor wanted to see you."
Kurt jumped up. "Great, I don't know how much more of this I could take!" He ported out leaving behind his signature smoke.
Scott stood also. "You know what? Let's take a break, I don't think we're going to get anywhere farther today." He looked at Tyler. "Maybe you should talk to the prof about being able to only speak in Spanish."
"What?" Storm asked, confused.
Tyler began to explain then sighed. "No puedo hablar en ingles. No sé por qué."
"We were trying to match these school photos of the kids who came to the meeting with some file photos Scott got from Cerebro, when Ty picked one up and torched it." Leo explained. "Then he started speakin' straight Spanish. We're all kinda confused."
Storm pondered that for a second before her eyes widened. "Did it feel like a shadow fell over you before you began speaking Spanish?"
Ty looked confused for a second then he nodded. That was the exact feeling he had.
"Woah, like, do you think it was a ghost?" Kitty asked. The others stared at her. "I mean… you know? Everyone's been acting weird today, like there's someone messing with us."
"That's ridiculous, Kitty." Scott argued.
Leo shrugged. "Logan's been surprisingly pleasant today."
The others stared at him.
"This Ah gotta see." Rogue said, standing up and walking out.
The other mutants followed, Kitty trying to convince them the whole way that it was a ghost.
Kurt flashed in beside the professor. "Hey, professor! You wanted to—" He noticed Portal standing in front of him. "Uhh…"
"Oh come on now, use your words." Portal teased. Kurt was wearing his image inducer so he looked relatively normal. Portal smiled, knowing he undoubtedly recognized her. "Care for a rematch, blue boy?"
Kurt looked from the professor to the girl and back again. "Uh, why is she here!"
"Kurt! We can't just turn away mutants who need our help." Xavier scolded. He gestured to the girl. "This is Portia Manderson."
"But… she... and!" Kurt stammered.
Suddenly there was a crashing noise from the mansion. The three turned to see a window blow out followed by a swirling mass of ice and snow. Ice and shattered glass littered the lawn below and students and teachers started to stick their heads outside of windows.
Wolverine growled from underneath the window. "What the hell is going on!" He looked up at the ice forming under the window and spreading over the building. "BOBBY! I'm gonna shred that popsicle!"
Bobby walked up behind the gruff man. "What's going on?"
Logan whirled around and grabbed the front of the teen's shirt. He snarled for a second then set him down. Reaching out he patted the kid's head and turned away. "Don't worry about it, we'll get it cleaned up."
The students just stared at Logan as he walked back into the mansion. Leo pointed his thumb at the man. "Told ya he was acting weird."
"Like, who's room was it that got trashed?" Kitty asked, walking gingerly over the debris. She saw a couple frozen pictures of Jean. "Oh man, Scott!"
"Bobby!" Scott shouted. "What did you do to my room?"
Bobby waved his hands. "No, no, it wasn't me dude!"
"Wasn't you? Who else would it be? Do you expect me to believe Storm did it?" Scott asked, jabbing his finger in Bobby's chest.
Bobby swatted his hand away. "Well it wasn't me!"
"REALLY?"
The students began arguing loudly. Xavier and Kurt rushed over to try to split it up.
"Scott! Bobby! Stop it!" Xavier said with authority. The two stopped in their fighting and looked at the professor. "We have guests here. We will figure this out later, for right now everyone is to help clean this up." He rotated his wheelchair to go back to the small training ground where Portal had been standing.
He stopped suddenly and frowned. "She's gone…"
It took a while, but eventually everything at the mansion was straightened out. Xavier continued to work with new mutants that came in that day, but none came after lunch so getting everything back to normal was easy then. Ty's locked on Spanish mind was reset thanks to the professor and he grinned hugely when he could talk in English again. As it turned out, Storm did cause a blizzard in Scott's room. Unluckily for the students Logan went back to normal and was determined to prove it in a Danger Room session.
That night Xavier went down to Cerebro to try and figure out what happened that day.
He sat alone at the controls with the Cerebral helmet on his head, scanning through the power signatures that Cerebro recorded for the day at the Institute. His eyebrows were nearly scrunched together in concentration.
"Charles?"
He turned and looked up. Storm walked in the door and across the metal platform.
"Ah, Storm… I was just seeing if I could identify our unknown visitor."
Storm looked nervously at him, waiting for an explanation.
Charles sighed. "It's kind of what we expected. There was a lot of action in the Astral Plane, our visitor somewhat possessed a few of us and manipulated us to some unknown goal."
"My brother was possessed?"
The two adults turned and saw Leo standing in the doorway. He coughed. "Sorry, I… uh… I left my sketchpad down in the conference room and…"
Xavier smiled, "No it's fine, Leo. As to answer your questions, spoken and unspoken, there's a plane of existence called the Astral Plane that telepaths can traverse freely. It's made up of all the conscious thoughts of everyone on the planet. It seems that our unseen visitor was a visitor in the Astral Plane, from which he could manipulate us to however he wanted."
Leo nodded, taking in the information. "Okay… so there was a mutant in this Astral Plane? It makes sense, they crystal over my heart was reactin' to a use of power, but I never saw anyone use their powers." He paused. "But it seems like the two of you know a little bit more that you're not telling me."
"Yes, well there was a man who called himself the Shadow King who only exists in the Astral Plane. We fear it may have been him." Xavier explained.
Leo scratched his head. "Was this Shadow King like an evil dude?"
The professor grinned a little. "Yes, I guess you could say he was."
"Then I don't think it was him." Leo stated. "This guy was just messing with us a little bit, creating suspicion, and interfering when we were trying to identify the Haven mutants."
"Wait, you said Tyler burnt a photo right?" The professor asked, an idea forming. He turned back to Cerebro and manipulated the controls while waiting for an answer.
"Uh... yeah… what's goin' on in that brain of yours, professor?" Leo answered, now extremely curious.
"Just an idea…" The professor responded. "It's possible it was a mutant from the Haven, but since it only seemed it was him here his mutant power signature might not be masked."
Storm caught on. "We might be able to identify him."
"Mutant signature found." Cerebro's mechanical voice sounded.
"Looks like we found something!"
"Scan complete, identity confirmed.
Name: Xander Green.
Residence: zzzt. Unable to locate.
Age: 16
Abilities include: Astral projection and suggestion."
A picture of a teenager with black hair, blue eyes, dimpled cheeks, and a scrawny build wearing a gray hoodie and jeans appeared. Leo snapped his fingers.
"That's him! The one in the photo, he had his hood up, but now I remember! He was one of the Haven that came to collect Sionnach Fae!" Leo exclaimed. He grinned; knowing just who he was getting involved with was making him feel more confident about promising future alliance to them. Jamie would be crushed to hear that, but it was going to happen.
He teen looked at the screen again, and then looked to Professor Xavier. "That brings our known Haven count to four: Sionnach Fae, Portia Manderson, Seth Severus, and now Xander Green."
"You were able to identify that many?" Storm asked.
Leo nodded. "Yeah, well it's not much, we stopped when we got to the girl Ash. Rogue was going to see if she could sift through her memories, they were a little jumbled."
"Perhaps I can help." Professor Xavier said, placing Cerebro's helmet down.
Leo hesitated on agreeing, but then he figured he might as well. "Yeah, sure! I don't really know when Scott wanted to get together tomorrow to figure it out, but we'd love to have you help us."
Xavier nodded. "Sounds like a plan. Also, I think I'll have the main X-Men team members run the next meeting at Bayville. I know you are starting to get full plates with school, but I would really like it if you could do it."
"Sure." Leo shrugged. "It's not really my call for everyone, but it's fine with me!"
"Great, now I believe Wolverine called another Danger Room session for later this evening."
"Awww man…" The spikey-haired teen groaned. "A double dose? Logan's really trying to make us forget he acted nice!"
Limited action, I know, but not everything is constant kick-butt. Thanks again to HMaster!
So small explanation: Shadow King is from the comics (I just read HMaster's Redux chapter with him in it and I felt like referencing him) and most likely a lot of you recognize him from Wolverine and the X-Men, but obviously he wasn't the one messing with the X-Men. Xander/Whisper has similar abilities, but he HAS a body to return to. Eventually I might let you guys see what it's like for him when he uses his powers.
I know the "nice" scenes of Logan were wimpy, but let's face it: IT'S WOLVERINE. That is nice.
I anticipate the next chapter being quite short but we'll see. It'll be the next mutant meeting at school about control. I'm starting to skip around again with the timeline within the story because I really want to get to the event I called the "breaking point" in one of my last author's notes. Don't worry, it's not the end, but it will dramatically change the story.