This ended up being a tie between Alena and Skylar for favourite character and Skylar/Abigail Skylar/Cora for couple. 

Chapter 08

Ms.Frost taps her finger on her arm impatiently. "And that is why I don't believe that further training with Logan is necessary." Bobby finishes a long winded speech. "So he had a temper tantrum." Ms.Frost asks with a cocked eyebrow. "He nearly killed that clone." Bobby restates himself. "Having a temper is different than being a loose canon. I don't feel safe with him around the other team members." "How you feel isn't my concern." Ms.Frost tells him. "According to Logan he's becoming more open every day and now we you want us to sever his link with the only psychic who can get into his head?" "He's too powerful now." Bobby tries to get his point across. "I used to be able to keep up with him but now he can easily outdo me with those new powers." "Why do men always need to compete with each other?" Ms.Frost asks with a sigh. "I'm serious." Bobby tells her. "And so am I." Ms.Frost says back. "If this happiness again you can toss him to Logan but for now he will remain a part of Excelsior and on the suspended list."

Cora is pacing around in her room, hugging an oversized plush toy to her chest. 'If you do that to Skylar he'll fall in love for sure.' Alena holds up her note pad. "That's not funny." Cora flops down onto her bed. "I have to figure out how to tell Skylar I love him." 'Words work well.' Alena writes down. "But what if he doesn't like me back." Alena shrugs. "You're no help." Cora groans, burying her face in her pillow. "Now I barley see him because he's not on missions. Why's he even suspended from them anyway?" She looks up from her pillow and sees that Alena wrote 'Abigail sees him every day'. "How's she do that?" Cora gets up in a blink. 'She cooks him lunch.' "W-What?" 'They're good too.' "You had some?" 'I helped make them.' "You're a traitor." 'All's fair in love and free food.' Cora groans into her pillow. "But I can't make him lunch." 'True. Cooking + You = Death.' "But what should I do?" Cora whimpers. "At this rate he's gonna fall in love with Abigail." 'Yes. Because that's how relationships work. Hate then Food then Love.' Alena sighs and writes more. 'She's got that psychic link with him now too. They got the whole destiny thing going on now.' "I'm gonna kick you out of our room." Cora moans in sorrow. 'Just go over. If you need an excuse just tell him you wanted to thank him for saving you before.'

I'm sitting at my desk by the window with Abigail beside me and I'm munching on a lunch she made me. "You sure its okay to do this for me every day?" I ask her. "Well, if I leave you alone you'd just eat those microwave Salisbury steaks" She tells me as I gobble down. "Since I'm the leader I need to take care of every member of the team." She looks out the window to avoid my eyes. "Besides. You're special. Because of our psychic link." She notices a piece of potato on my face and wipes it off with a napkin without thinking. We're both awkwardly silent for a moment. There's a knock at my door, brining us back from our little world.

I open the door and see Cora and Alena there. "A-Are we interrupting?" Cora asks me. "No. We where just talking." I tell them and let them in. It's pretty awkward now that I'm sitting with three girls all facing towards me. Alena suddenly writes something on her note pad and Abigail gets up to go with her. "I'm sorry, I have to go now." She tell me with a smile. "Enjoy your lunch."

Abigail fallows Alena through the hall. "What was that all about?" She asks. Alena quickly writes out the situation. 'Cora's trying to confess to Skylar.' "W-w-w-w-w-w-w-wha-wha……." Abigail's brain reboots. 'You didn't know?' "No." Abigail says, honestly. "I-I didn't think she could act so natural." 'Yeah, you're both masters of you emotions.' You can't read the sarcasm on the paper but its seeping from every pour of Alena's body. "They don't really seem like they'd make a good couple." Abigail says. 'Jealousy?' Alena holds up her notes. "N-No way!" 'Screaming = Denial = Jealousy' "I'm not in denial!" 'Right.' There's a period of silence between them. 'You worried?' "Not really."

It's not as awkward when it's just me and Cora anymore. I've gotten used to her being so jumpy. I offer her a cream soda from my fridge and crack one open for myself too. "How are you holding up?" Cora asks me. "Y-You got in a lot of trouble after the last mission." "Ms.Frost is cool with it but Bobby's the one who decided I should be held back from field work."  I sigh and take a sip from my soda. "What happened. I was knocked out so I don't really remember." Cora asks me. "How far do you remember up too?" I ask back, trying not to expose too much. I've gotten really used to keeping so many secrets. "Well, I remember the clone attacking me and then you saved me. I blanked out a little after that." Good. She didn't see me go ballistic. "I copied his powers." I tell her. "The serum he drank was a trigger that was supposed to meld his artificial cells with cells of the real Vulcan and that meant that his x gene became a perfect copy of the real thing. I lost my temper a but when I was fighting him and Bobby told me that too much power at once is bad so he wants me to take the time off." More like he's afraid of me, but I prefer Logan's lessons to his anyway. At least with Logan he teaches me the basics before dropping me in. He's also not afraid to take a punch so I can go all out on him.

I yawn and stretch back on my bed, happy to be in my quiet room again after the past little while it's nice to have some peace. "I really appreciate that you rescued me." Cora speaks up, unable to look at me again. "I'm no the team to take out omegas we're not expecting." I tell her. "Y-Yeah." She says, trying to smile. "I want to thank you for saving me." "You don't need too." I tell her. "I want to." She says a little more excitedly than she meant to. Bobby throws the door open, earning himself a sad look from Cora that practically screams "why now, why?". "Cora. We need you for a new mission today." Bobby tells her. "Have fun." I tell her as she leaves.

The mission is to help Warren Worthington the third, Angel, and Paige Guthrie, Husk, to quell a small mutant uprising in Genosha. Abigail gives Cora awkward glances every so often, trying to figure out whether she should talk to her or not. "We have three different uprisings spotted in separate areas at different parts around Genosha." Angel tells them. "What's the plan, Abigail?" Bobby asks. "Uh!" She snaps away from her thoughts. "Well, there's the powers of the individuals involved that should be put into question but considering that Skylar isn't here we'll have to go with numbers and communication." She quickly counts over the troops. "Since we have eight usable warriors, three of which are far more experienced then the rest, we should send out Iceman, Angel and Husk who will take on one of us students and leave two in a central area that isn't under attack. Those two should remain as back up for the others." "It'd be a lot easier ta decide 'o goes where if we 'ad Skylar here." Macaulay says, with his arms folded behind his head. "It's a lot easier 'en we know what we're up against."

After going over each individuals powers it is decided that Vibe should go with Iceman, Micro should go with Angel and Impact should go with Husk. That leaves Outburst and Spector as the reserve members.

It's not a comfortable wait. Both Spector and Outburst find themselves almost wishing that someone would need help. "S-So you've been making lunch for Skylar?" Cora asks. "Y-Yeah." Abigail says, trying to figure out something else to talk about. "What do you think of him?" Abigail decides to just jump into it. "I like him." Cora says blushing. "He's really sweet and nice and thoughtful." "Do you love him?" Abigail asks and Cora goes mad red. She can't answer but she shakes her head yes. "Oh." Abigail says, depressed but snaps out of it quickly. "I guess I shouldn't make anymore lunches then." She tries to keep her smile going. "So, if you want then you should make some for him." "I can't cook." Cora tells her. "I could teach you Abigail offers. "That's alright." Cora smiles back. "I can win his heart on my own." Abigail feels something terrible in the pit of her stomach.

No one appears to need help and for a while Cora and Abigail stand in awkward silence, both attempting to read the others emotions. "Do you have any feelings for him?" Cora asks. "Who?" Abigail pretends not to know. "Skylar." Cora tries to hide the desperate emotion behind her voice. Abigail tries to deny having feelings towards him but the words wont come. "We're just…It's my powers. I've been in his mind so we have a connection." Cora looks sad so Abigail tries rephrasing. "I don't think I have any romantic feelings for him." She says. "You don't think?" Cora asks. "Let's talk about you." Abigail makes one desperate attempt to avoid the question. "How long have you liked him?" "Since the first day of school." Cora tells her blushing. "And you haven't told him yet?" Cora shakes her head no. "How could he not catch on?" Abigail thinks. "This girl's an open book." "I'm not planning on making any moves on him so he's all yours." Abigail tells her. "Just hurry up before someone else grabs him." Cora gets nervous at the thought. "I was going to ask him." Cora swallows hard. "Just before the mission." Abigail feels her heart drop. "What stopped you?" She asks. "Bobby." "That guy needs to get a sense of the mood once and a while." Abigail sighs. "But I made up my mind." Cora says with a triumphant look on her face. "I was worried because I thought you might have feelings for him too and I didn't want to make you feel bad if we went out. But since you don't have any feelings for him then I can definitely find the courage to ask him." "Yeah." Abigail tries to smile. "Will you support me?" Cora asks her. "What?" "Well, I don't know if I can really ask him but if you're supporting me I know I'll be able to do it." Cora asks with big sparkling eyes. "You're so cool and confident so if I have someone like you on my side I'll be super confident." "Sure." Abigail gives in.

The days work ends and Excelsior spends the night in Genosha. Abigail is smacking her head against her bedroom wall. "Idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot." She mumbles to herself as the pounding headache she's been feeling all afternoon gets worse and worse. "Why did I agree to that?" She groans. "I just can't say no to Cora sometimes. It's that innocently adorable face. I wonder if she'll be okay with Skylar. She'd be eaten alive by Macaulay or Andy, but Skylar's not like those animals." She thinks back to the past couple battles they where in together. "I wonder how much it would cost to get the guys neutered." She flops down face first onto her overly fluffy bed, drowning her head in the cloud-like pillows. "They'd be good together." She says for the thirtieth time that night. "I really want a drink."

The next day Abigail has had about twelve minutes of sleep in total, unlike Cora who's bright and feeling just chipper…oh boy. Abigail sits across from Cora due to the arranged seating. "We'll be joined in todays work by a fellow x man who wished to help." Warren announces. "So I thought we should split into groups of two and take on the rising groups as they come." "Wouldn't it be better to split into groups of three?" Macaulay asks. "It would keep us more closely knit but we'd have a much better chance of taking on any attackers." "True." Warren thinks it over before assigning groups. I'm sure you can see how this is going.

Husk, Spector and Outburst all walk down the streets of Genosha like any normal day in the mutant dominated island. "Wow." Cora looks around with a big grin on her face. "I didn't know a place like this existed." She says. "Everyone's so open with their powers and they look so happy." "That's Genosha, a world without prejudice." "Why would anyone want to rebel against this place?" Abigail asks. "There are a lot of people who want to rule humans instead of come here." Husk tells her. "They feel like they're hiding and don't like it." "Then they should leave." Cora says. Abigail is shocked to hear such a clear cut answer from her of all people. "If this is neutral ground then it has nothing to do with the conflict. It doesn't make sense to stay here if you want to fight." "That's true." Husk tells her. "But when has humanity not fought, even in a peaceful time?"

It's not long before they find a riot. The girls descend upon the crowd of angry mutants and begin knocking them down one by one. Spector tries to talk the mutants out of continuing, having to faze thorough all the flying debris they throw at her. Cora fights surprisingly well, knocking away every attacker that tries to make a move. It's impressive but Abigail can't help but feel a little glad that I'm not there to see.

The mission ends when the new arrivals for the Genosha defence force arrive and everyone is sent home. Cora is kicking her legs up and down anxiously, waiting for the Black Bird to make its landing. Alena looks at both Abigail and Cora before sighing. Cora nearly jumps out of her seat when the mansion comes into view. "When we land she's going to ask Skylar out." Abigail clenches her teeth. "What will he say?"

Chapter 07

It's a cold night at the Xavier Institute. Abigail tosses in her bed as ghostly figures dance inside her brain. Memories of bestial claws and vicious fangs run down her subconscious. The Cougar's laughing face appears from inside her own. She wakes from her nightmare, covered in sweat and breathing heavily.

The next day she goes to ms.Frost about her dream. She tells her that Skylar has been having the same dreams over the last few weeks with varying details. "I believe that these dreams the two of you have been having may be the manifestation of psychic powers that Abigail is developing." Emma tells the two of us as we sit in her office. "I believe that these dreams Abigail is experiencing are actually Skylar's dreams which she is unconsciously channeling into her own dreams." The two of us take that in before Abigail speaks up. "I thought that a psychic couldn't effect Skylar." She says. "That was due to an subconscious self defence mechanism that Skylar used when he felt uncomfortable with the professor being inside his mind." Emma leans back in her chair. "The same would have happened if I had tried but it seems that on a subconscious level Skylar trusts you more than he trusts us." Abigail blushes a little. "So, what does that mean?" I ask, trying to move the conversation along. "It means that we now have a window into your mind." Emma tells me. "If this trust lasts then we will be able to help you to experience what your full potential is and decide on whether you would like a block you be set on your powers or not."

The decision of whether I let Abigail go inside my head and mess with my mind was left up to me to decide at a later date. That seemed more like mr.Summer's call than ms.Frost's. I'm still a little uncomfortable. The dreams I've been having lately are a direct result of the incident with Cougar and I don't want Abigail to learn what happened when she passed out. I wish I could forget it. I still feel angry because of it but Logan's been helping me deal with it. I wonder how Abigail will feel about me being on the team after she's seen who I am on the inside. Maybe she'll be as scared as I was when I learned how far I could go.

Today's training with Logan goes horribly. I'm all over the place and clumsy. "What's wrong kid?" He asks me. "This whole thing with Abigail." I tell him. "I'm not sure whether I want her to see what's in my head." "You're afraid she wont like it?" He asks me. He's become a lot more of a mentor to me over the course of our training. I've started to look up to him a lot and keep his advice at heart. "If you ask me, havin' a dame in your head can be trouble." He tells me as he tosses a water bottle to me and crack himself open a bear. "But it can be pretty fun too." "You sure we're talking about the same thing?" I ask him. "Boy, if you don't want someone in yer head that's your decision." He tells me. "But if you're just afraid they wont accept you then you're running away from who you are." "What if the real me scares her?" I ask him. "Depends." He stretches out one of his arms and sits down. "Which one's the real you?" That's something I've been thinking about for a while now.

Both Abigail and I have been avoiding each other since the psychic incident. I keep wondering if she saw something bad. I'm walking down the halls of the Xavier mansion when we run into each other. "Hi." She says, a little jumpy. "Hey." I say back. "Is this psychic thing weird?" She asks me up front. "Not really." I say awkwardly. "I don't really mind you in my head, since we're teammates and all. It's good for the team to have someone with those kinds of powers." She looks up at me with a disapproving look that practically screams I don't believe you. I give in and tell her a bit of the truth. "It' a bit awkward." I say, trying to keep my eyes from wandering all over the place. "I'm a little uncomfortable with the whole dream part of it." "Afraid you're gonna think something dirty?" She asks me, being really blunt today. "Yeah." I decide to go with that. "I don't have any interest in what goes on in your dirty brain." She tells me. "But I don't have full control of this power so I can't help but see things now and then. That doesn't seem fare so I want to talk this over with you in my room." I look at her weird. "Is something wrong with that?" She asks me. "No." I tell her. "But you had a hard time letting in your room that one time." She goes red. "This time's different." She leads me through the mansion to her room.

I'm sitting on her bed again. This time the room seems cleaner, if that's possible. "Since I can't help but see into your mind now and then it's only fair for you to have something over me." She tells me, sitting next to me with a  big photo book. "This will be embarrassing but I guess I have no choice." She clears her throat and begins to tell me the story of how she learnt of her mutant powers.

I already knew that she was made fun of by the other girls in her school but to the extremes they went to was worse that I thought they'd be. They'd take her clothes while she was in the shower, throw things at her at any point they could. Even the female teachers would ridicule her. There was one point where she was beaten by a group of girls and they video tapped it and played it during a school assembly. She told me about it all, in order. "And that's why I'm such a B!+(* sometimes." She says seconds before noticing a tear drip from my face. "Are you crying?" She asks me, surprised and a little touched. "That's way too cruel." I tell her. "They really shouldn't've done that to you." At that moment she felt my feelings through her psychic powers and starts crying. "You idiot." She says through sobs. "Now you have me crying. Do you always get this depressed when people tell you about bad stuff that happened to them." She shakes a bit as my feelings take her over. "It's in the past. I-I don't care anymore." She tells me, tears streaming down her face. I calm down for her sake and she grabs me a tissue to wipe the tears, even though she cried way more than I did.

We're both calm now. "I've never really told anyone about that before." She tells me with a smile. "Anyway, we're even now. I can go prodding around against my will in your mind and you can't say a thing." She says it so playfully it seems like a different person. Then she kicks her legs  up and down as she thinks about asking me a question. "Might as well ask." She sighs. "I saw something in your dream." I tense up at the mention of my dream. "It's been bugging me for a while." She twirls her long blonde hair in between her fingers, trying to find the words to say what she's thinking. "I saw the Cougar killing everyone and he had you by the neck." I swallow, remembering it differently. "I'm assuming I was the one he had held up in your dream." I nod, unable to say anything. "I see." She gets up and walks out in front of me. I can't see her face right now. I can't look at her anyway. "You don't have to worry about him. He's locked up and can't get to us." She tells me. "I know." I say, dropping my guard. "Then why do you feel so afraid of him?" She asks me with genuine concern filling her voice. "I don't want to talk about it." I tell her. "You don't really trust me?" She asks. "I just don't want to talk about it." I tell her. "I just want to help." She says. "I don't want your help!" I yell back. She shutters and steps back. "I-I'm sorry." She says with a look on her face I've never seen before. It's fear. I can't look at her face like that anymore. "No, I'm sorry." I tell her. "It's just that something happened after you where unconscious and I don't really want to talk about it." I get up and leave.

Excelsior gets another mission. This one is to check out a new mutant friendly shelter around a near by neighbourhood. Our job is too investigate and make sure it's not a trap. It seems pretty normal. We all pretend to be volunteers (human ones). It seems like any normal homeless shelter. It's a big gym-like cafeteria full of cheep benches and tables. I'm working at the front counter with Cora while Abigail and Andy work on cooking in the back. Alena and Macaulay are serving the guests and I haven't seen Bobby anywhere but he comes to check up on us now and then. I think he's slacking off. Abigail's been avoiding me all mission and I don't really want to talk to her that much.

Cora's been having some trouble with a customer. "The hell is this?" He scowls at her. "Move it! I'm hungry!" He yells at her as she fumbles with the order he wants. "S-S-Sorry." She says timidly. "I'll get your food right away." The man's a sloppy looking fat guy with this stupid looking face. "I want my order already. I've been waiting here for almost ten minutes." He slams a hand on the table. Cora shutters. "We still need time too cook it." She says. "Are you talking back to me?" He snarls at her. "I'm starving and this is how you treat me? I thought you people where here to help mutants." He grabs her and picks her up off the ground. I grab his mushy arm. "I'm going to have to ask you to stay behind the counter." I tell him. "You telling me what to do?" He says, dropping Cora and turning his attention to me. "You all see this!?" He calls out. "This is what humans do! They pretend to be all nice to us and then they try to push us around." What an A$$. "They think they can push us because we're different! They don't know what it's like to be a mutant! To be persecuted! This shitty little establishment is just one of the ways they want to keep us down! They don't know what it's like to be a mutant!" I freeze over his back with a blast of cold. "Calm down." I tell him as he turns to me with a furious face. "Your little speech i causing a commotion." "You piece of shi-" He goes to hit me but Cora jumps out in front of me and knocks him one so hard his nose practically explodes. "I'm sorry." She says, realizing what she did and running into the back. Everyone starts cheering for us. I guess he wasn't a very liked person around here.

Macaulay takes over for me while I go talk to Cora. "That was pretty cool." I tell her when I find her hanging out i the back. "Thanks." She says blushing. "You stood up for me, so" She starts but decides on something. "Actually." She says, getting up and walking up to me. She doesn't look at directly at me and her face is bright crimson. "Actually, I did it because…I…I lo…I." "Hey, you guys gonna help out or what?" Andy calls us from the kitchen. "Be right there." I call back. "What where you saying?" I ask her. "Never mind." She says and walks back to the counter. When I'm leaving I see that Alena wrote the word 'idiot' on a napkin and held it up to me. I'm still trying to figure out why.When we switched up shifts and Cora became a waitress she was really popular, not only for beating the snot out of that jerk before either.

It's about time to close down the kitchen so we pack up. Bobby has just finished talking with the manager who will be locking up after we leave. As we're packing up we see a man standing at the door. "I'm sorry, we're closed." The manager tells him. The man holds up a finger and I realize what's about to happen. "Cora, get him!" I call over and she pushes the manager out of the way just in time to keep him from being shot through the chest with a laser blast. I ice up my arms and defend myself from the next blast. The man walks into the building. He's a solar absorber who unleashes his powers through his fingers. I don't give him time to knock the place down. I ice over my body and charge into him, taking him away from the building to a safer area. "Abigail." Bobby calls back. "You and Andy go help Skylar out. We'll be there as soon as possible."

The mutant gets out of my grasp and falls to the ground from my ice slide. Another mutant (a flyer) catches him and I have to fallow them through the air. They lead me outside of the city limits and then I am shot out of the air by the laser user. I land inside of a building on a small island. The ceiling closes up on me and a bunch of spot lights turn on. "Welcome." A voice rings in over an intercom. "My name is doctor Stephen Castings. I am a biologist in the field of mutations." I stand up and look around but I can only see blackness. "I have been working on perfecting the ultimate mutant cloning process but…well, you've seen the results." So those where his clones we've been fighting. "I am under the impression that you are a mutant sensor and that you have a particular taste for omega level abilities. That is quite the power. I would love to replicate it. Unfortunately my attempts at creating an omega level mutant have always ended in unfortunate failures." He stays silent for a moment before continuing. "But now I have created a clone I believe you will find very much like the original. In every way." The lights go one again and I am standing in a room of human sized glass jars, filled with blue liquids and human forms. "I had to go through one hundred seventy nine two thousand and thirty six tries but I was finally able to replicate a living specimen that doesn't run out of energy and dissolve like the others. That is because this one can control energy itself and use it at will. The key is the omega gene. I was so silly, trying to use low grade gene specimens but now I have recreated the ultimate mutant once thought as above omega." I feel a tremendous sensation as one of the jars begins to glow and boil. "Say hello to the new version of homo superior." The voice cackles as a hand bursts from the glass and a man with short black hair and glowing eyes stumbles out of it. He looks at me and screams in a voice that is almost human. "Say hello to Vulcan."

Abigail and Andy are fallowing me. "Can you sense him?" Andy asks Abigail. "I feel his presence in that direction." She points him towards the island I'm on. He's about to fly their when he's shot out of the air. He shields Abigail on their way down by taking the blunt of the fall. But they're attacked again by the flying mutant who grabs hold of Andy and tosses him towards a metal spike on a nearby wall. Abigail fazes through it. Andy lets Abigail on the ground and flies up to take on the flyer. "This is the one that attacked Skylar." He calls back to her. "I'm gonna get some answers." It tries to punch him bit he ducks under it and grabs it in a full nelson. "Why don't you start talking bird man." He grins but the flyer screeches and knocks Andy off of it. It goes in for another attack but is shot out of the air and killed itself. Both Andy and Abigail look up and a large beast like man with a smoking gun and a dead laser using mutant laying at his feet. Abigail looks up in horror at the assailant. "Cougar."

I'm getting my A$$ kicked. This Vulcan guy is throwing all kinds of energy at me. He's an energy manipulator with incredible control. It's nothing like the other clones. It's so calm and precise. I can't form an ice sword because he melts them as soon as I form them. I try to use my ice and water but he manipulates them back at me. I turn on Josh's powers just in case and resort to Logan's training. We both walks around in circles for a moment. The only thing I have on him is intelligence and skill. I can keep up if I stay one step ahead. He comes at me with a punch but I leans back far enough that he misses and I grab his hand but he punches me with the other. I land on my stomach and he kicks me up into a wall. I stand up and turn around but he's on top on me in seconds with another kick. Blood drips from my lips but I wipe it away and let Josh's powers do their thing. I charge him and he kicks me flat on my stomach. I get up before he gets back to me and shot him back with an ice blast. I punch at him twice with my left hand and again with my right but he blocks all of them he pushes me back and goes in for a punch but I jump back , causing hi to fall forwards and I kick him so hard he flips backwards again. He goes to kick my head but I duck in time and shoot him in the back with another ice blast. I unleash a flurry of ice spikes over and over again but he punches each out of the air with blasts of energy. I don't know why I can't take his powers. Is it because he's a clone? He kicks me in the face and then spin kicks me again, this time sending me through a wall. Luckily I have most of my body healed up before he gets to me and picks me up over his head and flying up into the air. He goes like a rocket and crashes into the pavement, making sure I take the blunt of it.

We land in the same area that Abigail and Andy are. Abigail calls out to me. "Skylar, run!" I look up to try and find her but see Cougar, but I look harder and see that it's not really him. It's just someone who has the same monstrous looks. He jumps down and drops Andy and Abigail on the ground. They're covered in scars. "Vulcan's up." He smirks. "Good. The doc wanted me to give ya something." Vulcan reaches put an arm, knowing what's going on and the other guy stabs a needle into him. "The last piece of the puzzle." The mutant smirks before taking off. "The doc said you can do whatever you want to them." Then he runs off. I can barley keep up with what's going on. It's happening so fast. Vulcan surges with power as whatever that guy gave him courses through his veins. He laughs out with glee and looks down at me. "Oh, I've been waiting for this." He can talk? "That last shot of Gabriel Summer's DNA was the last piece I needed to be born. Not that our fight wasn't fun, but now I can really have a hell of a time." He walks up to my teammates. Andy gets up and tries to stop Vulcan with a punch but he grabs his hand and squeezes. I can hear Andy's bones break through his agonized screams. He tries to hit him again but Vulcan punches a hole straight through his stomach. I run up to Andy and start healing him immediately. I just get him out of the danger zone when Vulcan slaps me so hard across the face I fly half way down the street. He fires a wave of energy at me which fries my muscles, leaving me helpless. I can't fight him. My muscles begin to heal but not fast enough. Vulcan is already at Abigail.

He goes to pick her up and she's unable to get her fazing powers working. He's about to grab her when Cora flies out of nowhere and punches him in the face. She then blasts him back as Bobby, Macaulay and Alena show up. They all get ready to fight but Bobby calls out for them to stop. Vulcan shoots Macaulay who tries to defend himself but is thrown back into the wall behind him. Vibe goes to use her powers on him but Vulcan slaps her across the face, knocking her unconscious. Bobby tries to freeze Vulcan over but he's the next to be taken down when Vulcan shoots him too. Macaulay tries to fry Vulcan's face but his arms are grabbed and Vulcan turns the power in on him. Vulcan cackles in amusement.

We're in a lot of trouble. Vulcan's neutralized most of our team. Macaulay and Alena are unconscious, Bobby's unable to move. Andy has a hole in his chest and is lucky to be alive. Abigail can't move and I'm still trying to heal my muscles back. The only one left able to move is Cora. She fires her concussive blasts at Vulcan who is unaffected. He smirks and walks up to her. "I like a girl with spirit." He licks his lips. She gets nervous but tries for a punch which Vulcan grabs out of the air and pulls her off the ground. "But you should really learn to behave." I recognize the look in his eye. It's just like Cougar. I squirm to try to do anything but still can't move. Cora tries to fight back but he's too strong. Vulcan grabs her top, shredding it to pieces as he tugs it clean off. "You got a nice body under these rags." He licks his lips in anticipation. "You should really feel sorry for me you know. I've been stuck in a test tube for so long and I've always wanted to try a woman out. Guess you'll be the first." He's just like him. Cora fires off blast after blast at Vulcan's face but he remains unaffected. He slaps her across the mouth and blood drips from her lip. Bobby freezes Vulcan's foot but he fires a blast back at him, knocking him over in an explosion. Vulcan forces Cora down to the pavement. "Look at that. All your little friends can't help you. You're all mine." He cackles. "I have all the powers of the original Vulcan. I have his DNA coursing through me. I am way more powerful than anything you could become. I have no limits." He tears at her pants, toying with her, enjoying her struggling. I can feel his powers growing as his body continues to adapt to the last shot of Vulcan's DNA. "With this power I can take anything I want. It's my right."

Cora struggles under Vulcan until a blast of ice slams against his back. "Get off of her." I tell him, smoke from the last frost blast rising from my hand. He smirks and holds her up to his stomach facing me. He grabs her face and squeezes her cheeks. "You want some too?" He asks me. "I don't mind sharing." Tears are streaming down Cora's face. When he lets her cheeks go she calls out to me. "Run! Run away! Hurry!" She tells me. Vulcan grabs at the strap of her bra. "If you're a good boy I'll let you have as much fun as you want." He smirks. "You can't beat me so it's a good offer. Don't you want some of this little cutie too? Maybe you're more into the blonde or the punk one over there." I smirk and start laughing.

I didn't know it at the time but Abigail's powers have been going on this whole time. She's seen everything I've been thinking. Every memory this situations caused me to remember and every feeling I've felt. She shutters on the ground as my rage fills her until she breaks into tears.

I'm laughing sadistically as I face Vulcan. Cora's face is covered in fear and confusion. "Stop laughing!" Vulcan tells me. "I am above omega! I a have all of Vulcan's DNA and all of his power! You have nothing! You're all worthless worms compared to me! You should be begging for your life!" I laugh harder. "Above omega. That's not even possible." I chuckle and cock my head smiling at him. "You're just a shitty clone and a disgusting pervert. But you are right about one thing." My eyes glow with power and I raise a hand. "You do have all of Vulcan's powers." My grin widens viciously. "But so do I!" The blast cuts a line straight across his cheek. He drops Cora to the ground. "You B@$+@)D." He snarls at me. "I don't really have anything against clones." I say, walking straight up to him. "But I can't stand sadistic B@$+@)Ds like you, who prey on women. It's a constant frustration to me. All you perverted freaks that try to fore yourselves on helpless girls. You're all worthless." He goes to punch me but I side step it. "And you should all die." I fire a blast straight into his face. He falls to his butt and I'm standing over him with a hand pointed down at him. "And right now I don't really care showing you my own sadistic side."

Vulcan doesn't have time to get away before I've begun moving at high speed and knocked him straight into the building behind him. I don't waste any time in creating an energy version of my ice sword and charging him. He's still getting up when I run through his lower hip. I laugh as I twist the blade. He shoots a blast of pure energy at me, searing my shoulder but I'm not interested in that right now. I can only think of beating him senseless. I grab onto his arm and manipulated the electricity in his body to shock him. He slaps me away and I get to my feet just in time to set up an ice shield to keep him from hitting me again. "Am I getting under your skin?" I ask him. He tries to hit me with another energy attack but I absorb it, surprising him. "Didn't know about that?" I ask, slamming my head into his and making him loose sight of me for a moment. "You're gonna pay for threatening my friends." I tell him as I put my fingers to his temples and sparks start to fly. He pushes away from me just in time to avoid the electricity but not my next attack. He collides with a massive ice flail I flung the second he got away from the electricity. "I'm gonna rip your heart out you piece of worthless shit!" I call out to him, grabbing his arm with a water hand. He zaps the hand away with electrical energy and tries to fly off. "You're not leaving." I grab his leg with ice and pull him back in, smashing him off of a nearby building. "I'm not done with you." I rain down ice spikes on him, tearing parts of his skin but not doing any real damage.

Vulcan goes to smack me but I block and grab his neck, pulling him down to the ground. I fire a few ice blasts and then catch him with an energy burst. He fires a desperate attack at me but I catch it and divert it back at him. He dissipates it. I shoot one stream of electrical energy from the finger which knocks him back a little. He tries to punch me in retaliation but I shatter into glass, revealing myself to be just an ice imitation. I show up behind him and run him through with an ice blade. He snaps the blade in half when he turns and smacks me across the street. I flip and land horizontally on the side of a building, I jump off using my new powers to speed up and create a new energy sword. I cut across Vulcan's chest, sending blood everywhere. He goes to grab me but I ram an ice spike through his hand. "Son of a-" I kick his face mid sentence. His nose bursts. "You'll pay." He growls.

I make it up to Vulcan and grab his neck, squeezing tightly. "Let's hear your scream." I grin as his body comes off the ground. "Come on. Where's the begging?" He tries to say something but I crush his throat shut momentarily. "What was that?" I ask him. "Can't hear you. Was it something like. "Kill me. Please kill me. I don't deserve to live."?" He's struggling to get free but I absorb all the energy he sends to me. "I can suffocate you with water or freeze you with ice. Maybe you'd like to be burnt to death. Or maybe I should just get to the point." I pull out another ice blade and run his left leg through. He chokes on a scream and I plunge the icy blade into his shoulder this time. I let go of his neck and spin around, kicking him with an energy powered kick, knocking him straight into the building behind him. I use water to bring him flying back and freeze over my hand with a spiky glove, punching him in the face as I force him back. He lands flat on his back and I sit on his chest, freezing over a new pair of ice gloves and punching him over and over. "You want to use your power to hurt people?" I ask him as I continuously land punch after punch to his bleeding face. "Want to be the big guy and get whatever you want by taking it. Well, how does it feel to be helpless? Just like Cougar was. It's gotta hurt. It's gotta feel so freaking bad." I pick him up off the ground and electrify him. "It must suck to know that you're helpless! That there's nothing you can do to stop this! That I can do whatever I want and you can't stop me!" He screams as the electricity cooks his cells. "How do you like being helpless!? Well, Vulcan?! Answer me." I drop his smoking body to the ground and take a step back. "You thought you where on top. That because you're a big scary omega mutant you had the advantage. You thought you had power. And then you got greedy." I freeze his arms and legs to the pavement. "But now you're facing someone with all your powers and more. Funny how life works." "Mercy." He coughs. "Would you have given Cora mercy?" I ask him. "You wouldn't would you? You'd ignore her or shut her up. You would just let her suffer, the way I plan on making you suffer." I raise my arms and make a guillotine blade of ice above Vulcan's right arm, suspending it in the air with his energy manipulation abilities. "I will never let you touch her or any of them again. And I will make you regret ever trying." "Spare me." Vulcan begs. "No." I get ready to bring the blade down.

I'm seconds from dropping the blade before I hear it. "Stop!" I look over at Abigail who's crying on the ground. "Don't kill him! You'll regret it!" She snaps me out of my murderous rampage. I liquify the blade, letting it rain down on Vulcan. "Not again." I look at what I've done. Vulcan's a bloody mess. I swallow nervously. "I did it again."

I spent the the next day away from the mansion. I hadn't said anything to the others on the way back and only stuck around to give medical attention. I spent lunch and dinner out at reassurance and wasted time watching movies and reading manga in the public library. I needed something, anything to get my mind off of how much I hated myself. Luckily Cora fainted before seeing me go ballistic, but this time Bobby and Abigail saw me. Andy had apparently gone under too. The one I was worried most about was Abigail. She didn't only see what I did. She felt it. And I'm sure she got a bunch of memories along with it. I feel like a monster. All the hate I felt for Cougar and Vulcan caved in on me and kept plunging me deeper into self loathing. On the way back I see a girl being harassed by some older guys and I walk up to them. She calls for help so I stand right between the two without saying a word. "The hell ya-" One of them gets ready to hit me so I grab his arm and freeze it. "I'm a mutant." I tell him. "If you want to live walk away." The both of them take off so I turn and leave waving when the girl calls out to thank me. A part of me still wanted them to stay. I wanted another chance to…to…I don't know. I want to stop thinking. Killing people like that can't be the answer. It goes against what I believe in. But it feels so good to beat them into a bloody mess. It's simple. I resort to my last mind clearing event and watch a movie.

I finally decide to go back to the mansion at around eight. When I get to my room Abigail's waiting for my outside the door. "Might as well get it over with." I sigh, accepting it and moving on. She looks at me with an angry face when she notices me. "You didn't come back for lunch or dinner." She tells me. "Do you know how long I've been waiting here?" "You waited this whole time?" I ask her. "I obviously didn't wait the whole time." She snarls. "Then how do you know I didn't come back?" I ask her. "The point is that you ran away." She tells me. "What if we needed you?" "I think Bobby's got me on the inactive list because of what happened." "We could've needed you anyway." She grumbles. "Can I get in my room?" I ask her and she shakes her head. "You don't get to run away from this." "From what?" I ask her, annoyed and a little pissed off. "You don't get to make me go through something like that and just run away." She almost yells at me. "I felt everything you did. Don't you think I might have needed to talk about it." "I didn't want to talk about it." "Thats not the point." "Then what is the point?" She gets quiet and looks me in the eyes, tears forming. "The point is I was worried about you." She looks like she resents me for making her say it. "I find out you nearly kill a guy because of me and then watch you try to kill another one and then you go and run off for a day. How do you think that makes me feel? It's my fault you did that to Cougar." "That wasn't your fault." "Don't interrupt me." I shut up to let her finish. "You scared me. It's not fair." She's quiet again. "I'm sorry." I say. "Shut up." She tells me. "You can go in your room now." I go to open my door but she hasn't moved since the conversation started. She grabs my shirt to stop me from going in. "If-If it was you." She starts but decides to rephrase herself. "You're not them." I don't know what to say to that or what she even means. "Anyway. We have a psychic link now so get your screwed up mind together and get back to being sweet instead of psychotic." "Okay." I say and she lets me go.

Chapter 06

I've got my shirt off, checking out the new muscle I've got from only three week of training with Logan. He told me to take the "mr" off his name. I guess he's uncomfortable with being a teacher. I have to use Macaulay's full body mirror since I don't own any mirrors. I turn around and walk up to my bed, grabbing the shirt off of it. The door suddenly swings open and Alena and Cora are standing there. Cora's mouth falls open and Alena looks me up and down with a devilish grin. "We're sorry!" Cora snaps back to reality and slams the door shut.

Alena turns to Cora with her note pad up. 'Why'd you do that?' Is written on it. "He was half naked." Cora says, her blush still shining brightly. Alena writes 'once again' above the last sentence. "You're a pervert." Cora gives her a disappointed look. "You're worse than Macaulay." 'You know it.' Alena writes with hearts all around it.

Abigail walks around the corner and notices the two girls outside of my room. "Hey." She says. "What are you guys doing here?" 'Spying on half naked Skylar.' Alena holds up her note pad. "That's disgusting." Abigail sighs. "You two are as bad as boys." "I didn't do anything." Cora moans. 'She flung his door open.' "That was you!" 'Either way it was hot.' Cora doesn't respond. 'Told you.' "Shut up!" Cora flails in flustered anxiety. "Yea sure it was hot! I mean he's totally pumped now and it was pretty sexy! I don't know why I'm saying this!" I open my door and stick my head out, having put a shirt on. "You guys know I can hear you right?" I ask. 'Hiya sexy.' Alena smiles. "Hey. Did you guys need anything?" I ask them. "We just wanted to check up on you." Cora tells me. "You've been seeming a little down lately. My eyes involuntarily move to Abigail for a second. "No. I'm fine. Training with Logan just takes a lot out of me." 'giggidy.' Alena grins. "Sorry, but I've got more training in fifteen minutes." I tell them and they leave.

Today we're doing kendo lessons. It's supposed to help my discipline and improve my overall fighting style. I was earning Aikido yesterday. He said that was supposed to make up for my lack of physical strength…sigh... "Keep it up kid." He informs me as the bamboo stick comes down on me. "Keep up your stance and make sure keep your footing in mind." I block the swing and go in for my own attack but am blocked and disarmed. Logan knocks me back and comes in for a strike. I hold up a hand and form a katana out of ice. I block Logan's strike and get back up quickly. "Good one kid, but you're not allowed to use powers here." Logan tells me. "Didn't have much of a choice." I take my stance. I'm about to attack but Logan gets a mental call from ms.Frost. "Logan. I'm afraid that your training will have to be cut short."

Ms.Frost wanted to call me and the rest of Excelsior to her office to tell us about a small attacking mutant group in Central Park. "There are eight of them in total so you will be outnumbered." Ms.Frost informs us after we all suit up and get ready to go. "Your job is to quell this attack before anyone gets hurt and before the media can use this as anti mutant propaganda." So we're sent on a mission to a city for once. I'm kind of nervous. It's been nearly a month since I was on any missions with the rest of Excelsior.

We're land the Black Bird in Central Park and keep it in invisible mode. "What are we looking at?" Bobby asks me. "One with class fifty strength, stamina, durability and reflexes. One with flight and energy based aura. One with control over electrolytes in blood streams. One with the ability to shift their matter into gas liquid and solid. he gas is toxic. Another has strength, endurance, injury resistance and venomous gas. More strength and endurance. Technoformer specifically metal plastic and glass. Then there's one with seismic energy waves." "What's your call Abby?" Bobby asks Spector. "I would send you after the technoformer since your powers should be equally unpredictable. Vibe should go after the one with just physical power so she can take him down easier. Micro will take on the electrolytes and Impact should go for the flyer. Outburst will take the class fifty since she has more strength. Intersperse will take the venom user with super strength since he can heal himself if he's infected and I will take the shifter." "Why's Bobby taking orders from Abigail?" I ask Outburst. "You weren't there." She remembers. "Spector was made the second in command. Bobby wants her to learn how to make battle plans so he always asks her opinion." I guess I've missed a few more mission than I thought.

I spin around and shoot a blast of ice into the bush behind me. "What the hell?" Impact asks before getting knocked off his feet by the enemy. "Poison user." I let everyone know and launch an ice blast at his feet, keeping him in place. Impact tackles him down and the mutant opens his mouth. I run up and freeze the mouth closed. "He was about to kill you." I tell Impact who gets off the enemy and bumps into me on purpose. "I knew what I was doing." He grunts. The mutant goes purple and dissolves. "Clones." Iceman mutters as he looks down at the steaming pile of mutant cells. "We'll use Spector's plan and help each other when our own are taken care of. These clones dissolve after a certain amount of energy's been used so if you can't win drag the battle out." We all nod and break up to track down our targets.

My target's a purple haired woman. I create my ice sword and take a kendo stance. "Let's do it bub." I smirk. I go to strike but she shatters the sword with her hand by releasing seismic energy from it on contact. I'm kind of thrown off that my opponent is a woman. She knocks me off my feet with a kick.

Impact flies up to his opponent, floating down with his arms crossed over his chest and a cocky smirk on his face. His opponent is a scrawny blonde haired man. The man looks normal enough until he screams at Impact with an unnatural sound. Impact scoffs as he lands. “Am I supposed to be impressed?” He asks. The enemy leans back and makes a devilish grin before lunging forward activating his mutant powers.

Outburst meets up with hers first. Her opponent is a black haired female who looks at her and screeches. "I'm only asking once." Outburst tells it. "Give i and I wont hurt you." The enemy charges forward and punches her straight in the gut. Outburst swallows and gets ready for an attack. The enemy charges forward for a punch to the face. Outburst grabs the punch, knees her enemy in the stomach and pushes her to the ground. "Shouldn't tick off a girl with ju jitsu training." Outburst warns. The enemy breaks free and hops to her feet. Outburst takes her stance again.

Micro finds his enemy and walks out from the bushes. His enemy's a blonde, muscular man. "Frig." Micro sighs. "I was 'oping fr a bikini model with pheromone powers…Maybe a cat girl. Guess I jus don't have much luck." He ignites his arms with microwave radiation and gets ready. "But neither a' you bra." He fires the blast of heat and the enemy dodges. He comes in and knocks Micro to the ground. "Bad move dude." Micro's body glows red and lets out a blast of heat, burning the grass around him. Micro jumps to his feet and kicks the enemy in the face before swimming around and slamming the enemy with radiated fists. Three connect before the enemy connects a kick to Micro's stomach. It hits so strong that he feels his insides stretch to the point of breaking.

The purple haired woman grabs my jacket but I push down on the inside of her elbow and grab her hand, twisting so she falls off balance and her head comes down. She falls to her knees but hits the ground with her energy, causing it to explode into my face. I have remember what Logan taught me about fighting blind. I listen for her attacks and doge them, making sure not to get dust in my eyes. She goes to chop me but I cover my arms with ice and block it with a cross block. When she smashes through and starts another attack. This time I grab her wrist and elbow. Turning around I flip her over my shoulder and toss her on her but. I freeze her arms but she smashes the ice and flips back up. I freeze up another sword and keep her at a distance. I've got her figured out. She's a short range fighter so if I keep my distance she's at a disadvantage.

Impact is sent flying up into the air as the skinny man collides with his stomach. He tries to punch the man but his fit is deflected by the force field aura around him. Impact moves his body to the side slightly, allowing him to fall off of the flying man. He suspends himself in the air with his own flying ability and smiles as if to say that his opponent was nothing special. The enemy flies like a cannonball towards Impact. Impact goes to defend but the opponent flies over him and grabs his head, hurling him towards the ground. He pulls himself out of the freefall and turns around just in time to dodge the enemy’s next attack. This time he grabs the enemy’s leg and tosses him right into the ground. “I learnt this one wrestling with my big brother.” Impact says, floating down and picking up his enemy. Putting his head under the enemy’s shoulder Impact slips one arm around and grabs one of his legs. With the other hand he grabs the back of the blonde’s neck. He then spins and lands flat on the enemies head. “It’s called the lightning spiral.” Impact grins but the enemy is not through. He gets up and charges straight at Impact, sending them into the air again. This time Impact grabs him and flips him over his head, sending him into the ground like a comet. The enemy’s force field protects him from the counter attack and he’s right back it the air. Impact grabs him by the head and spins him around. “This is the 29.720 DDT!” He tells him, slamming him back into the ground. The enemy is unaffected. “Yer a tough B@$+@)D.” Impact smiles.

Spector makes it to her opponent. He's a male with black skin and purple lines going up and down his body. He attacks immediately, bursting into a cloud of gas but Spector fazes through and is unharmed by the poison. He tries liquids next and when that doesn't work he becomes a solid. When he does this Spector kicks him and goes in for a punch while he's caught off guard. He goes into a gas form and she fazes through it. He spreads his smoke all around her and goes in for attacks from all around but Spector closes her eyes and waits for the moment to strike. He comes out for an attack but she drops to her knees and spins, knocking him off of his feet bat he's back into gas form before she can hit him again. "It's become a waiting game." Spector thinks to herself. "If I become solid too early I might miss hi and every moment I spend in solid form I'm poisoned a little more by the gas." So she stands stationary, waiting through clouds of poison kicks and punches she knows she can't use. Waiting for her chance to strike.

The black haired woman rushes straight at Outburst but she pushes the enemy's strike away with her left hand and grabs her throat with her right, pushing back and knocking the enemy to the ground. She then pulls the woman's arm and wraps her legs around it, dropping to the ground and pulling.The enemy kicks up and strikes Outburst, knocking her away. Outburst flies forward before she gets hit with another strike. The strike hits the ground and it cracks beneath the force.

This time when she comes at me I grab her elbow and wrist like before but this time I twist and bring her to her knees. I move my hand to her shoulder and start freezing her over. she jabs two fingers into her shoulder, blowing it up.

The gas man makes a move. He goes to strike from the upper right of Spector's head. she steps back just in time and becomes solid. She then flips and kicks the enemy in the face, knocking him out of the rest of the cloud. She takes this chance and grabs him pushing him back into the ground with a chop. "My taekwondo training is helping me a lot with this battle." She comment in her head. "It was a good idea to study up on fighting styles. I feel way more useful now." When her chop connect the poison man bursts into liquid and  tries to impale her but she's already fazing through.

Vibe makes her way to her clone. She meets him by a fountain and makes the first strike against the blondish brown haired man. She sends a resounding wave of sonic energy at the giant man but he seems unaffected and walks forwards. Vibe throws up both of her fists in front of her face and kicks straight up but the enemy's not effected by the kick as he lumpers towards her.

The next strike coming at Outburst is a straight forward punch which she grabs and flips her opponent with. Outburst then punches the other woman in the gut and the creature lets out an agonized moan. "Don't get back up." Outburst tells it but it takes advantage of the opportunity to grab Outbursts head between her legs and toss her. As Outburst is flying out of control the black haired woman comes in and strike her in the stomach. Outburst grabs the hand on her stomach and turns , spinning her opponent and making her take the blunt of the impact with the ground as well as an elbow in the chest. The clone is breathing heavily as it gets to its knees shakily. It wont take much more to end this battle. It goes in for one last desperate attack but Outburst grabs the fist and ducks down and uppercuts the clones jaw and spinning around. She grabs the fist with both hand and pulls down, nearly snapping the clones arm, then spinning around she kicks the clones stomach, keeping her hands on the fist. With the spin finished Outburst pulls down on the arm, brining the clone to its back and punching it in the chest. The clone breathes heavily for a moment before dissolving.

The smoke man starts using his water form more often now and has all but abandoned using gas. "Running low?" Spector asks him. "That's what you get for changing form so often. Your molecular structure should be pretty weak with a power like that. I checks out all of the notes my teachers made o you clones and I'd say there's about twelve seconds until you run out completely." The creature turns to solid form to conserve energy. "Good job." Spector tells it. "Now it's thirty seconds. Solids are more packed together than liquids so your deterioration will take a bit longer." It runs into a final charge, ready to attack with all it's got. Spector fazes through it and looks back at the cringing creature on the ground. She looks away from it. "It's your fault for attacking without considering how much energy you're using." She tells it but falls to her knees as it dissolves, tears running from her face. "It's your fault." She cringes on the ground.

Vibe dodges a fatal blow and fires a wave of sonic vibrations at the ground, knocking the enemy from his feet. With that she jumps on top of his chest and puts her hands to his ears, releasing her sonic powers into the screaming man's ears. The creature knocks her away, completely disoriented and stumbles around. Vibe runs up and jumps on its back, starting up her powers again, this time shaking the creatures body down to its molecules. The clone screams out in pain and its body liquifies as each of its molecules are flung out of place.

The clone moves closer to Micro, ready to end their battle. He reaches down and ignites Micro's blood. "No!" Micro calls out in burning agony. "I can't take it! Make it stop! Make it stop!" Micro reaches up and hand towards the enemy's face. "Psych!" He smirks wildly as heat bursts from his hand, engulfing the enemy's head. Micro punches straight forward spin kicks the clone back. "I'm an x man ya moron." He says, getting to his feet. "We don't beg you for mercy, you beg us." He hold out his palm and lets out another blast of microwave energy. "Wonder if the others won this easy? Gonna have ta thank mr.LeBeau for the acting lesions. Here I thought they'd just be f'r gettin' girls."

With one arm she's not much of a fight anymore. I freeze her arms and legs again and again until she is so tired she can barely stand. She gets ready to come at me again so I forge another ice sword and get into stance. She runs at me and I lift the sword in the air. Her hand meets my blade and she falls to the ground, her dissolving blood vaporizing on the icy tip. The blade dissipates along with my enemy. I take a breath and get back to the others.

Impact decides to finish it off with one move and when the enemy lunges forward he kicks him straight in the face before he can start his force field and the creature cries out as its energy depletes.

We're all pretty quiet in the Black Bird on the way back. Cora shift beside me uncomfortably. "Well, I don't know why you're all so moody." Impact lays back in his seat. "We kicked some major clone butt today." "True." I smile, trying to forget the feeling of a body's weight on my sword. Being an x man is harder than I thought it would be. I imagined a heroes life of fighting crime and going home with no one knowing my secret identity but so far I haven't helped anyone. I've just been used as a solider in war after war. I'd like to take out a fire or bust up a super villain meeting. It's pretty quiet the rest of the way back.

Back at the school I lay on my bed, enjoying the hour of peace I have before being called in for secondary afternoon training. I hear a knock on the door. "Come in." I call out and Abby walk in through the door. "Hey." She says, wiping a few strands of hair from her face. "What's up?" I ask her. "I just felt like talking." She looks around uncomfortably. "Did it seem right to you? Taking them out like that." "They where clones." I tell her. "Do you believe that's right?" She asks me. "No." I answer honestly. "But I did it. I'm still trying to figure out why." I catch a glimpse of her smiling at me. "You're a really good person." She tells me. "Not really." I tell her, looking up at the ceiling. "I've been doing a lot of bad things lately." "You're just trying to help." She tries to convince me. "Thanks." I tell her, not completely convinced. She's about to leave but turns to me with a smile. "I know you have a lot to think about but when you're done we can talk about anything you want. I really like having you on the team, so don't stay sad too long." "Thanks." I say back, feeling a little better. "You're a good person too." She stops and looks back at me. "And I like being on the team." She smiles and leaves me alone. I'm spending an awful lot of time laying in my room alone lately.

Chapter 05

None of the students knew it at the time but mr.McCoy has been studying a strange goo that appeared from a bunch of mutated creatures Excelsior had to fight. "What's your verdict Hank?" Mr.Summers asks, walking in and crossing his arms as he peers through his crimson glasses. "I believe I have discovered the solution to our earlier conundrum." The hairy professor informs him. "You don't sound to happy about it." Mr.Summers asks his old friend. "The results where…how should I say it. Unsettling." "What are we dealing with Hank?" Mr.Summers gets concerned. "It looks like we are up against a genetic foe. Specifically clones." Mr.McCoy holds up a vile of liquid. "Unstable clones but almost perfect. The subjects being, Kurt, Peter, and Jamey among others." "Sinister?" Mr.Summers asks. "You tell me." The Beasts spins around in his chair. "You know him best." "Sinister's not this sloppy." The gleam in mr.Summers eye stagnates. "This person wasn't expecting company so he decided to do a little surprise research against real mutants. It's been a week already. We should've been tracking him down." "We've been busy." Mr.McCoy reassures him. "It's not our job to solve the worlds problems and catch every mad man with an ambition." "I know." Mr. Summers sighs and rubs his forehead. "I've just been feeling a little cooped up lately." "Try a whole week of sitting in a lab chair." Mr.McCoy grins. "The lab is my home away from home but one must know when to take time to oneself. Say, with a little training session." Mr. Summers smiles at his big blue friend. "Fine. You can have gym class with my team. I'm sure they're tired of track drills anyway."

Abigail walks up to Macaulay, Cora, Alena and me while we're walking down the main hall. Cora. "Skylar, we need to talk." Abigail stares into me with her big disapproving eyes. "Okay." I say as she practically drags me off. "What was that about?" Macaulay asks. "She looked pretty excited." Cora says in an awkward voice. Alena takes her hand and walks off. "Why's everyone leaving me?" Macaulay whimpers all alone.

Alena finishes written up what she wanted to say. 'You are jealous' Is written. "I am not." Cora gives her a nasty look. 'Are too' "Am not." 'You like him don't you?' Cora blushes bad. "Yeah, but that doesn't have anything to do with Abby." 'Idiot.' Alena keeps writing. 'She's your enemy. If you don't watch out she'll steal your man.' "He's not my man." 'You want him to be.' "But Abigail doesn't like him like that." 'How do you know?' Cora has to pause and think it over. "Even if she does, she's not that good with men. She wouldn't" 'Face+Body=Man' "That is so untrue!" Cora says but can't keep the whimpering out of her voice. 'What if he likes her? He could make a move' "He's not like that." Cora tries to argue. 'He's gay?' "No!" 'Then what's stopping him?'

Abigail drags me back to her room but catches herself before letting me in. "Wait. You can't come in." She demands. "Kay. Why?" I ask her. Her face is bright red. "G-Guys aren't supposed to go into girls rooms." "Yeah. In the 1920's." I sigh. "But if you don't want me to go in just tell me what you want out here." She shakes her head. "I can't tell you out here. What if someone comes by?" "Does it matter?" I ask her. "Of course it matters!" She scowls at me. "I-I can't do it out here, okay." "Fine." I sigh. "Then just tell me in your room." She caves and opens the door.

Abigail's room is pretty neat. She really is straight laced. A mother in law in a sitcom would be so proud of her. "S-Sit." She's shaking but commands me to sit on her bed. I do as I'm told since it's weird to see her like this, I don't really want to argue. "I just need a moment." She walks up behind me and I hear her moving around. She taps my shoulder lightly and tells me to turn around. I'm faced with a massive binder filled with papers and notes. "You want to copy homework?" I ask her. "No." She says, her blush still in full bloom. "I-I did a bit of research on that goop from a week ago but since I didn't know anything about science I had to read through a bunch of different text books and memorize the information." She swallows hard and braces herself. "Why couldn't you tell me this before?" I ask her. "Be-Because. If anyone heard about it they'd laugh at me." "Geh?" She thinks over whether she should explain then sits down to tell me. "I was always made fun of in school because of my marks. I would always get called names and stuff. Some of the girls would throw stuff at me. Binders, rocks, one girl threw her lunch box. It was full too." She gets this out there look. This is a side of her I really don't want to see. "Cheer up and forget it." I tell her. "If it was all girls picking on you, my guess is jealousy." "Jealousy?" She asks me. "Yup." I continue. "You've got a lot of good qualities so they probably felt threatened." "That's just corny." Abigail pouts. "Corny doesn't meant untrue." I tell her. "So, what where you studying all this for?" "I'm not sure you can call it studying, with my powers." She flips to some notes she bookmarked. "All I need to do is read it once and it's in my head forever. But what I found was that the DNA…Should I just give you the short version?" I nod. "They where clones. I'm sure that the teachers know already but I was considering telling mr.McCoy. I wanted your opinion first." "Why mine?" I ask her. "Well, uh. That's not important." She tells me.

Cora walks through the hallway, thoughts running through her mind. "Tell him when you see him. Tell him when you see him." She mumbles to herself. She turns the corner and walks right into me. "Skylar!?" She nearly yells. "Hey." I say, way too weirded out for one day. "Hi. I have something to tell you." She says. "Well, it's more a question than…well, what I'm trying to say is-" "Sup?" Macaulay swings out from behind me. "If you two keep huggin' like that someones gonna start talkin'." We both notice that we're so close we're almost touching and Cora jumps back. "What did you want to say?" I ask her. She looks over at Macaulay. "I forgot." She gives up and runs off. "Weird girl." Macaulay sighs. "Why are all the cute ones bonkers? Anyway, you up for'a caffeine dose?" "Yeah." I groan and rub my head. "I could use one." "You where out with Abigail before." Macaulay grins like a dirty old man. "Sure it's not protein you need?" I condense the water in the air and splash him with it. "I think I'll get a coffee myself." I walk away. "You're not allowed to use your powers on other students!" Macaulay calls as he dries his clothes with his microwaves.

The rest of the team goes out, mostly for different reasons, and many of the other x men teams have put this day off for specific training off campus. Apparently Bobby forgot to put us up for anything so we got left behind. Fun. Ms.Frost might have had something to do with it too since she called me to her office. She wanted me to meet someone. I've known he was on school grounds for a while. I've been sensing someone with strong telepathic powers, stronger than ms.Frost's. When I walk into the office ms.Frost is standing with a bald man in a wheelchair. Abigail is sitting in one of two chairs facing them. "It's good to finally meet you Skylar." The bald man says. "My name is professor Xavier. Mr.Drake speaks highly of you." "That's because we share a power." I blush. "Yes." Professor Xavier smiles kindly. "And you have much more than that don't you?"

They explain that ms.Frost has been sending Bobby's status reports to professor Xavier. They've also been tracking the progression of my powers. Xavier is a nice guy. He keeps this general glow that isn't really happy, but more father like or warm, I guess. He keeps asking me if I am fine with having my information recorded and if I feel uneasy. They invited Abigail since Bobby decided to make her team leader and they wanted to fill her in on the details of what's going on. She will also be handing in reports on me.

Xavier gets to the point of this meeting. "One of the things I wanted to speak with you about was the extent of your powers. As an omega level mutant you have the capability to grow to infinite levels. However there may be unforeseen consequences. It's not that your powers may overload your body but having such high amounts of it may have negative effects on you as a person." "You're afraid I might go berserk?" I ask. "Not exactly how I would put it, but that is essentially the truth." Professor Xavier tells me straight up. "That's why these guys want to poke around in your brain a but and put things into perspective." I didn't even notice mr.Logan in the room until he spoke up. I must have been distracted by the strong mutant signature the professor has. "And they want me to help you with control training." "I wouldn't mind." I tell them. "If it keeps me from going nuts and taking out a bunch of friends I'll do it." "That is a very admirable thing to say." The professor tells me. "I would like to help you through this myself if you don't mind. It's not every day I get to meet someone like you so willing to cooperate. We can start whenever you like." "I'm fine any time." I tell him and he wheels himself over.

Professor Xavier places one hand on his temple and one on mine. "You will have to clear your mind and relax." He tells me. I do as I'm told and he activates his power. His closed eye twitches. "If you are not ready for this we can reschedule." He tells me. "I'm fine." I tell him and he tries again. "Are you sure you're not tense. "I'm absolutely calm." I tell him. "Then please bare with me for a moment." He takes his hand off of his temple and puts it on mine so now he has both hands on my head. He starts to shake. "Kid. What are you doing?" Mr.Logan asks me but my mind is lost inside of my head. "Open your mind to me." The professor says as the shaking becomes worse. Things begin to start floating in the room. "What's wrong professor?" Mr.Logan asks but his hand is shocked when he reaches out. "Careful Logan." Ms.Frost warns him. "Something is interfering with the professor's link. There is a battle going on inside of Skylar's mind right now." "Free your mind Skylar." The professor says. "I am not trying to harm you." "I'm trying professor." I talk back. "I don't know what's wrong. It doesn't feel right. It feels like my head is on fire. Get out." "It's okay Skylar. I'm only trying to help you." The professor tries to calm me down but it's not working. His chair begins to start floating. "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" A burst of concentrated moisture particles knocks the professor back into his desk.

The room is quiet for a moment. "What the hell did you do?" Mr. Logan picks my limp body up by the collar of my shirt. "It's not his fault Logan." The professor tells him. I shake after being let down. "What happened?" I ask. "It appear that you have a natural dislike for having your mind tampered with." The professor explains. "Your mind put up an instinctual barrier and even prevented me from using my powers. A resistance to psychic attack may be a part of your mutation. It is also possible that you have trouble letting people become that close to you. It is a very intimate situation, allowing someone to see your every thought. Though it doesn't explain why ms.Frost was able to read your mind when you first came here." "I didn't mean too." I tell him. "I thought I trusted you in my head." "Trust is an admirable quality." He smiles at me. "But it can be a dangerous one as well. You can despair about this incident or use it a as a gift." Abigail is watching me, freaked out and almost on the verge of tears. She remembers everything from her birth to today as clear as if it was happening right now but I'm sure this was weirder than anything she's seen. "I know you harboured no ill will towards me." The prof tells me. "So don't think I'll hold this against you. Perhaps Ms.Frost can try again at a later time. Unless of course I am around. Then I would have to take another crack at it."

The rest of the time is spent on the prof getting to know about me and my abilities. Mr.Logan stands near the window but he keeps watching me with these cold eyes. I'm sure he thinks I attacked the prof on purpose. I wouldn't doubt him. Professor Xavier has such an incredible amount of psychic power that no one I know could resist his attempt at reading their thoughts. "Personally," Mr.Logan speaks up. "I think I should take the kid under my wing." "You offering to help?" Ms.Frost asks with a smile. "That's new." "I'm just sayin'." He ignores her. "If the kid is havin' trouble with letting people in then I can relate. I got my own mess of problems so maybe we can each other some good." "Actually Logan." Ms.Frost steps into the conversation again. "That is exactly why I had given him to Iceman. I was hoping his openness would help with Skylar's introversion." So I've been getting involuntary emotional therapy since I got here. Fun. "I guess Iceman's good for him. But you still got the fact that he's got a ticking time bomb in his brain. Bobby's got spunk but when it comes to control he's not the worst but definitely not the best. The kid's gonna need a lot more than a pat on the back. This is more about not havin' control than lettin' people-" Smash!

Out of nowhere a massive man flies in through the window, tackling mr.Logan to the ground. Logan unsheathes his claws and pounds the guy out the window. He fallows him down. "What was he saying about control?" Ms.Frost asks. Suddenly a metal tentacle slams into her, knocking her back. "My apologies." A man with blonde hair and white skin wearing a red suit comes in through the hole in the window. I'm afraid my employer is a little rash. Not my way of doing things, ya." He sounds Russian. "Omega Red." The prof wheels over. "What do you want?" "Money my dear professor." Omega Red says casually. "My large animalistic friend has dealings with Logan and hired me to help. He wanted to make sure that nothing interfered with his masters orders. I have no issues with seeing the fury one beaten and bruised." "I see. So you will not allow us to help our friend." The professor asks. "No. I do not." Omega red smiles. "We have to help him." I tell the others. "That mutant doesn't just have feral abilities. He has everything mr.Logan has, but he also has psychic powers. He's ripping int his mind like an animal." We can hear mr.Logan scream from all the way in the yard. His healing factor can keep up but he has no mental powers." "If you leave you will be fighting me as well. Then you will all die." Omega Red threatens us. "It is your choice." The prof tells us.

I'm ready to fight to help mr.Logan. He wanted to help me with whatever it was that just happened so I want to help him. But if I attack then that leaves everyone else here to fight this guy. Even if they don't fight back I have to assume he will attack them. I'd just be adding wood to the fire. Abigail swallows hard and then runs at Omega Red. He goes to attack her but she fazes through. "You looked nervous so we asked her opinion." Ms.Frost tells me. "She decided quickly. You should catch up to her." Omega Red walks over to me. "Your little friend ran away. No matter. I will deal with you now and take her life when the next opportunity arrives." "If you can." I say, causing a pulse of water molecules to erupt between u like from before with the prof. I shoot an icicle spike at him but he punches it into pieces. I cause the pieces to turn into water and send them flying like bullets. He is irritated but not harmed. Flying at me, he prepares his tentacles for an attack. "I don't have time to waste on you!" I use the water I pulled out of the air to knock him back. I dash for the window and ice slide out. "I will capture you quickly my tricky little friend." Omega Red says as he gets up but the prof puts him down with a mental attack. "That was an unexpected but, productive test." The professor says. "Yes. I was impressed with how he handled Omega Red." Emma looks at the unconscious man. "But what really surprised me was the plan Abigail thought up. She was able to deduce that your mental powers at this proximity would be able to defeat Omega Red while he was distracted with them. I believe I've misjudged her." "I believe that we should reconsider a few things." The prof says.

Abigail and I make our way to the fight with mr.Logan and the giant beast mutant. "Here's a message from Romulus. The worst is yet to come." The mutant slashes at mr.Logan, cutting open his chest. Mr.Logan is too caught up in the creatures mind torture to defend himself. I fire an ice spike,s stabbing the creature in the back. It has long flowing brown hair and an ugly face with huge fangs coming from the lower jaw. Two jagged spikes protrude from each of its elbows and hair grows from all down its back and forearms. "No one attacks the Cougar." It roars at me and attacks. Attacking me released its mental hold on mr.Logan. It slashes with it's long fingernails, cutting a piece of my jacket as it flails around wildly. It goes in for the kill and stabs me in the gut. It goes for a decapitation but Abigail grabs it from behind just in time and fazes him through me. He shakes free and tosses her. She lands hard on the ground.

The creatures attentions turn to Abigail. Mr.Logan tries to defend her but the creature grabs his face when he jumps at it and slashes open his stomach. I'm already healing my own. I'm stressed for time. Abigail fazes so the creatures claws go through her. "Aw, too bad. Looks like I'm gonna have to give up." It laughs. "Oh, wait. This is my favourite part of the game." Abigail's eyes widen in terror and she screams out in agony. "The mental torture." The creature licks its lips happily. "Aw, the things the mind can take but the body can't. It's so good to just cut loose and kick around someones brain a while." He kicks Abigail in the stomach. "And the best part is that it doesn't matter if you can regenerate or walk through me, because I can do anything I want to you inside your head." The creature cackles like a crazed hyena, drooling as he does. "And I just love it when my victims are cute young girls like you. It gives me so many options. I just love tearing you apart. Hearing you scream as my mind rips yours into tiny shreds." He grabs her by the head, squishing her cheeks and lifting her off of the ground. "And you are one cute trophy prize. I may just take you back with me." My eyes widen when I hear his words. "Just think of all the fun I can have. First I'll shred up that little brain of yours, then I can have my fun with this nice body and after that I think I'll have a little snack. Maybe I'll eat your arm one day and a leg the next. Who knows." She's still screaming in pain. My body's not healing fast enough. Damn it! "But one thing I know for sure is that I'm gonna make your suffering last as long as possible and get as much out of your sweet young body as I can." "Put her down." I tell him. a part of my stomach is replaced with ice. I healed all the vita organs so it's just a placeholder, but I'm not thinking about it right now. In fact, I'm not thinking much of anything. "So, you can move now. Maybe I should beat you down first and same the treat here for later." "Let her go now!" I demand. He scoffs at me and drops Abigail on the ground. She stops screaming but is unconscious. I'm furious. Tears poor down my cheeks. "Aw. He's crying. Where you afraid for your friend?" He mocks me. "Too bad. She isn't the first one you know. I've done really bad things to lots of pretty girls like her. Some older some younger. But is always ends with me being satisfied. You see, I need a certain level of pain to be felt by others. It just really gets me off." "I hate it." I snarl. "I hate people like you. I hate people who take advantage of other whoa re weaker than them, especially girls." "Aw, yeah? Isn't that just special." He snickers. "The you would love to hear about what I'm gonna do to your friend. I'm gonna have my merry way with her for months. You got me? I can keep her down with my mental powers. And every day I'll have my fun. And when I don't feel like doing it anymore I'll just eat at her brain a bit, make her think her family is coming to get her, or better yet, that I'm you. I'll turn everything she loves against her and the when it's all over with and I'm bored I'll eat her. How's that sound?" "Fun." I look up at him, a terrible look emanating from my eyes. "But before that happens, I'm going to kill you. But before that I'm going to rip your heart out of your chest and shove it down your throat." I start screaming. "I gonna rip you into so many pieces you wont be able to regenerate!"

I raise my hand and freeze the enemies feet to the ground. "You see, I don't just want to kill you!" I create a javelin out of ice and toss it at him. "I want to hurt you!" He shatters the javelin but raise my handI tossing a blade of water at him, which he can't block. "I want you to suffer!" Next I create a sphere of water around his head. "I want you feel fear!" He struggles and breaks free of the ice, charging at me. "I want to hear you beg me for mercy!" Water erupts from my hand like ice would normally and create two arms which strangle the feral monster. "Now beg me! Let me hear you scream for mercy! Let me hear you regret everything you've done!" He's out of breath and struggles harder to get free. I create a hammer out of ice on my arm and bring it down over and over again. The force of the hammer is so strong it breaks and I reform it every time. "You where gonna use Abigail like a toy! How does it feel to be the one who's helpless!? Do you think you can get away with that!? What the hell gives you the right!?Answer me!" I feel a hand on my arm. It' mr.Logan. "That's enough." He tells me. I look at what I've done. At the bloody mess that used to be something. No! He was someone! S#!+! "Well played kid." He laughs through busted lungs. I fall to my knees, shaking. "S#!+."

Abigail ends up being fine. The feral mutant who attacked her and Omega Red where picked up by SHEILD earlier on. She woke up a few hours later in a hospital bed. Professor Xavier helped her through what happened with her mind. That's something I couldn't heal. "Where's Skylar?" She asks, anxiously scanning the room. "He hasn't left his room since the incident." The prof tells her. "Logan has gone to check on him." "I remember him coming to save me but the rest is all blurry." "I would refrain from asking too many questions of him for now." the prof tells her. "He may need some time to think things over."

Mr.Logan comes to my room. i tell him he can come in. I'm sitting on my bed, tears running down my face. "How ya doin' bub?" He asks me. "Terrible." I answer without looking at him. "I wanted to kill him so badly." "I know the feelin'." Mr.Logan says, scratching the back of his neck. "I'm not trying to be your dad or anything. I can't tell ya whether killin' that guy was right or wrong. But I know a bit about feeling the urge to kill. So, if you ever need to talk." "I hate people like that. What gives him the right to use people like that?" I ask, anger returning to my voice. "The way he looked at Abigail. He just enjoyed toying with her." "You where protecting your friend." Mr.Logan tells me but then there's a pause and a feeling of guilt washes over me. "Unless it was more than that." "I think it was." I tell him. "I enjoyed it. I enjoyed making him suffer. I wanted to stop him because I didn't want him to have the satisfaction of getting what he wanted. I've been like this since before too. If someone abused a girl on TV I didn't feel right unless he died. Not just dead. I wanted him to suffer and today I met one of those people in real life, attacking someone I knew. Someone kind and compassionate. A really good person. He didn't have the right to do something like that!" "And you do?" Mr.Logan asks me. "I wouldn't do anything like that to Abigail, or anyone." "I didn't say anything about the girl. I was talking about Cougar. Did you have the right to do what you did to him?" "Yes." I answer. "No. I don't know." I settle down and take a few breaths. "If I let him go he'd just hurt more people. I thought about what he'd do to Abigail and what he would've done and has done to other girls." "It was a way of protecting them." Mr.Logan cuts in. "Maybe." "You're not sure?" "I don't know." "What else could it be?" "I don't know." I start to get agitated. "Did you want to." He asks me. I want to say no but my voice wont come out on the first try. "I wouldn't do anything like that." "Because it's not your right?" He asks me. I fall back on my pillow with my hands to my eyes. "I'm so F%(&ed up." "I'm not saying you're anything like him." Mr.Logan tells me. "But things did get pretty nasty out there. I personally don't think you wanted to do it. Yer too nice a kid." "Yeah, I'm nice." I laugh spitefully. "I'm just your nice little mutant strangling dude who likes to suffocate people with water bubbles and has a thing for smashing people  with ice hammers. Why did I choose a hammer?" "I've done worse things." Mr.Logan says. "Look, everything we said here could be an epiphany or a bunch of crap. It's for you to find out. We all snap and from what I've seen you've been handling everything these past couple weeks have thrown at you pretty well. Maybe this was just your chance to let off some steam." He goes to leave. "Oh yeah. Xavier said you're my pupil when you're not with Drake so now from thursday to friday you come see me." "Alright." I answer back. He closes the door and I'm left in darkness. I've never felt this at ease in the dark.

Chapter 04

Field trip! Excelsior is going on afield trip to Canada. It's some isolated mountain range I didn't bother to memorize. The goal of this trip is to gain real world experience and participate in combat training out in a world with no off switch. We'll be split into two three teams. My team has Impact and Cora. The other team is Macaulay, Spector and Alena. Bobby is on his own as well as the main goal. Our job is to navigate to each member of our team and to defeat Bobby in three on one combat. If we see the other team we can engage and neutralize.

Bobby flashes back to being in Emma's office. "In the battle against Arcade Skylar used the liquid cooling agent like I use my ice." Bobby tells Emma as she flips through his report. "And he said it was easy?" Emma asks. "Yes." Bobby answers. "I can't even manipulate water as easily as he did." "Could it have been an instinctual reaction to his life being threatened?" "No." Bobby sighs. "He's been using water manipulation in the Danger Room ever since. He said he didn't want to loose the ability just in case but it seems that there is no difference between water and ice to him. I'm completely outdone." "No." Emma gives him back his report. "He still doesn't have as much control over the ice ability as you do. It could be that he simply manifested the ability differently than you did." "Meaning?" Bobby asks, completely lost. Emma sighs before answering. "Which means that even though he gains the base powers of omega level mutants he comes into a certain proximity of, the powers he gains mutate differently. Where your ability to control water is just emerging, his powers have mutated so that he gains that ability now. That's some incredible unpredictability." Emma thinks for a moment. "Isn't it about time you chose two team leaders?" She asks him.

That's how we got to this point, parachuting from an open plane onto a mountain. "Everyone ready?" Bobby asks us. I am so not ready. "Let's go!" We all jump out and free fall toward the ground bellow us.

I don't know where I am but I can sense the others. I immediately head in Cora's direction since she's gonna be way easier to cooperate with than Andy. I better not use ice sliding. If I do it can give away my position.

Alena and Abigail meet up pretty quick since they happened to land near each other. "First we should meet up with Macaulay." Abigail tells Alena. "I saw him fall to the north." She whips out a compass but the needle spins rapidly. "Darn it." She says but Alena taps her shoulder and then holds up her arm. Macaulay's voice echoes from it. "Nice thinking." Abigail smiles. "Amplifying the vibrations from the noise around us. Can you get the rest of the guys too?" Abigail nods.

Cora finds Andy before I find them. "Hey." Andy smiles back at her. "We could ditch this whole finding Bobby thing and have some time to ourselves." "No thanks." Cora shoots him down. "Well, I'm just saying. If you can keep u-" Cora rushes out in front of Andy with her super speed before he can finish. "What where you saying?" She asks with a grin. "I..just wanted to get to know you better." He tries to act like it doesn't bug him that she can do that. "I think we should focus on finding Skylar." Cora turns around but I walk out from the bushes behind them. "Looks like he found us." Andy groans. "Took you long enough." "We should move to the other side of the mountain." I tell them. "The others met up and they're heading straight for us." "How do they know where we are?" Andy asks. "Alena." Cora tells us. "She was practising using her ability to amplify specific sounds. She could be using it to track us by sound." "Let's outrun them." Andy gets ready to take off but I stop him. "Then they'll be able to see where we're going. Flying makes a tone of noise." I tell him. "We should just not speak and hope she looses us. Let's walk quietly." "And how do you know she's not listening in right now?" "Good point." I think it over. "You may be right. We do have the only flying members on our team. If we outrun them we may be able to make it to Bobby before they do." "Knew it." Andy smirks. "You guys should listen to me more often."

We try to outrun the others by flying but Alena is somehow catching up to us. "It's like she knows the whole mountain." Andy huffs. "We can't get away from her." I realize something. "Can Alena use echolocation?" I ask Cora. "I don't know." Cora wonders. "It's possible." "What is echolocation?" Andy asks. "Bats use it to find there way around." I give a simple explain. "They make sonic vibrations which bounce off of objects and give the bats an image of the whole area." "With Abigail's phasing and Alena's echolocation they'd know where we are and how to get to us without any obstacles in the way. "Then that means we wont be able to fight Bobby without them interfering." Cora says. "Exactly what they want." "Then let's give it to them." Andy says. "We should take them out quickly and move on to Bobby. Running around like this wont solve anything." I hate to admit it but he's right. I really wanted to avoid a direct confrontation before fighting Bobby but it can't be helped.

Macaulay flops down on his butt. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" He grumbles. "With Cora and Andy we're kinda out powered." "We don't need to worry about them. Alena and I thought up a plan while finding you." Abigail tells him. "Besides, it would be impossible to find Bobby before they do. Skylar's a sensor and Alena can't find Bobby. He must be in some sort of sound proof gear or something. We'd be beaten to the punch." "But Sky's also got that fire cancelation ability." Macaulay points out. "I'll be completely useless." "Not if we can neutralize him. He's very important because of his healing ability."

We fly up next to the others. "Let's finish this right now." Andy says smugly. "Just what we where thinking." Abigail backs up behind Alena. Alena lets out a blast of sonic waves at us, rupturing our ear drums. I use my ice to escape but the others are down for the count. I go to stop Alena but Abigail phases me through her. Macaulay pulls me away from Abigail but I freeze his legs in place and push him back, knocking him off balance. Andy gets fed up with being captured and strikes the ground, knocking Alena just long enough for Cora to attack with a concussive blast. I Freeze Alena's arms to the ground but she uses her sonics to shatter them. I'm too distracted to keep Macaulay from using his powers and he microwave blasts Andy so that Abigail has enough time to grab onto him and make his intangible with her. This is insane. We just keep knocking each other down and getting back up again. Andy flips Abigail over his shoulder and pounds the ground in anger. We hear the sound of shifting metal underneath our feet. "Dude. You seriously need to take some time off the gym." Macaulay says but just then the ground opens and we all fall in.

We all hit the ground hard but we don't pass out for once. "One of these days we're gonna fall down a hole and one o' you guys're gonna remember you can fly." Macaulay jokes. But the joke ends quickly when the room starts flashing red and an intruder alert sounds. "I think we're intruding." Macaulay says. "I'm sensing mutant signatures." I warn everyone. "Self replication. Strength and a metal body. Teleportation. Fire breath and dragon form strength and endurance. Time control over a minute." We see them crawl from the darkness. Five creatures trudge into view. They are grotesque and deformed. Each one looking like the incredible Hulk after loosing a battle to Logan. One calls out to us with a creepy animalistic yell. Then they all attack.

Andy goes straight for the lizard person. The teleporter attack Abigail but she fazes through it. Cora gets stuck with the metal monster and me and Macaulay end up with the time dude. "You should help Abigail." Macaulay tells me so I rush over to help her.

I fire an ice shard at the teleporter and it ports away. Abigail grabs onto my arm before it attacks me. It can't hit us and I can't hit it. "It like to attack from behind on the lower right." Abigail tells me. I use the info by attacking it and spinning around as soon as it ports behind me. I launch a freezing blast at it and it goes solid. I thought I had it but it ports out of the ice. "This isn't good."

Like a commit, Andy's fist connects with the lizard beast. It's unaffected by his punch and retaliates by swinging it's tail. Andy grabs the tail and swings the dinosaur-like monster into the wall. The creature breathes fire out onto Andy. "Maybe we should switch." Cora calls out to him as she dodges her opponent. "I can do it myself." Andy yells back. The monster slashes open a cut on Andy's face. "Bad move." Andy snarls at it and flips up over its head when it tries again. He grabs its arms and pulls back hard while pushing it forward with his foot. "How's that feel jerk wad!?" He grins maliciously as he pulls the creatures tendons. The creatures arms rip off and Andy falls back. He looks at the arms in his hands and has to hold back barf. "Dude. I hope you aren't human." He groans.

Alena is trying to take hers on with her sonics but the physical damage creates more versions

Cora's concussive blast knocks her opponent through a wall. "If you back down and stop attacking us we'll leave you alone." She tries to convince the creature. It howls at her and charges. She sends it back with her blasts again. " You can't hit me without a long range attack. Give up." She keeps trying.

Macaulay is having the worst trouble. His opponent injured him several times but he hasn't got a hit. "D@^^* it." Macaulay falls to his knees. I freeze over his opponents arm from the other side of the room, giving him a chance. Spector fazes me over to him and I start healing. "How are we gonna win against these things?" He asks. "Impact's doin' good but the rest of us are whompin' big time." "I've been thinking about that." Abigail tells us when I'm done fixing up Macualay's wounds.

Cora is still trying to convince the metal man to back off when me and Macaulay get to her. "Tag out!" Macaulay calls to her. "We got this." We alternate between Macaulay heating him up with microwave blasts and me cooling him down with water. The beast lets out a yell before it stops moving completely. We explain Abigails plan to Cora.

Abigail has already gotten to Alena and swapped out with her. Alena goes to take on the teleporter after meeting up with Cora. Alena's sonics cause the teleporter to stop moving and Cora blasts it with her concussion blasts.

Macaulay and I separate and he goes to help out Andy. The flames are keeping Andy at bay until Macaulay uses his power to cancel them out and Andy punches through its head, tossing his lunch when he does.

I'm quickly surrounded by the multiple enemies so I use a wide spread freezing field and freeze all of them in place.

After we defeat the enemies we go tell Bobby what happened. He tells us to go back to the mansion in the Black Bird with mr.Beaubier. "What do you think?" mr.Summers ask mr.McCoy as he studies the creatures. "I cannot say." Mr.McCoy answers, looking at the ooze on the ground. "They where unstable. Bobby said that they had already become this liquid substance before he made it back. I will have a clearer idea after I study it." Mr.Summers looks over the mess. "Whatever it was I don't think it will end like this."

Chapter 03

I was walking past one of the old graduate class book cases with Alena and Macaulay one day when one of us notices something. "Check it out." Macaulay points at a picture in the book case. "Doesn't the guy in the visor look like Mr.Summers?" "Hey, you're right." I notice. "And that's Bobby." Macaulay scans the picture. "Don't know the girl though." Alena points at the name plate at the bottom of the picture. "Jean Grey?" Macaulay reads it out loud. "She looks like a little cutie." "She was my wife." Macaulay almost jumps out of his skin when he hears Mr.Summers voice. "She died a while back." Mr.Summers says with a sad looking smile. "I'm sorry." I apologize for everyone. "Don't worry about it." Mr.Summers says. "Shouldn't you guys be in class?" We all realize how late we are and run off, not noticing Mr.Summers glancing back at the picture once more before leaving.

It may have just been a two hour class but we really nailed it to the physical exertion department. I'm covered in sweat by the end of it. I guess Bobby wanted to make sure we where ready in case we had to go up against people like the Dark Avengers again. I'm reminded of Daken and a cold shiver runs down my spine.

Andy stretches his almost pulsating muscles, mostly to taunt me and Macaulay. He really likes showing off how much of an alpha male he is. I can't really blame him. He is built like a fraggin' mountain. He's got short, light brown hair and these confident green eyes.

Andy's a lot better looking than me, with my purple hair reaching down to the middle of my back and two crimson eyes peering out from under my bangs. I'm pretty scrawny too, not that I haven't put on a bit of muscle since training started but I'm still a stick. I was told I'm pretty cute a lot at my old school though.

Macaulay's not much better off. He's a natural redhead with baby blue eyes. His hair's a bit above shoulder length but he does stuff with it so it wont get in his eyes, unlike me.

I walk into the change room and am met with a small shriek. Looking over I'm met with several half naked x-girls. The door closes behind me and wont budge when I try to push my way out. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE!?" I'm pushed up against the wall by a very angry Abigail Stewart. Her long blonde hair, which is usually tied up in a ponytail sways back and forth. It looks pretty good trapped down to her shoulders like that. I'm starting to see the hot librarian thing Andy told me about earlier. "I didn't do it on purpose." I squeak, slamming my eyes closed. Come on! You're only wearing a t-shirt! I can feel her spectrum blue eyes burning an imaginary hole in my bright red face. She's got me backed up against the door, her body practically pressing against mine. She's so mad she doesn't notice. "How do you not do this on purpose!? You expect me to believe that crap!?" I can't freaking handle this pressure! "If you want me to go then let me go." I tell her, only making her angry. "Don't try to get away with this!"

Alena taps Abigail's shoulder and holds up a sigh with 'Sexual Harassment' written on it. "Yeah." Abigail says. "We can get you in trouble for sexual harassment." Vibe taps her shoulder again and shows her the other side. 'I mean you.' Is written on it. Abigail looks at our position and goes completely scarlet, not that I can see with my eyes closed. "This was just to teach him a lesson." She jumps back. 'With your boobs?' Alena writes. "That's not what I was trying to do!" Abigail tries to explain. "We can't have some pervert just walk in on us changing." "It was an accident, right?" Cora stands up for me. I'm so shocked I open my eyes and begging to thank her but remember where I am and close them again. "It was an accident. It's not like he meant to. Shouldn't we just let him go?" I feel like crying. "Fine." Abigail huffs. "It's not like I wanted him here. I just wanted to make sure he didn't try it again." "Can I go now?" I ask.

"You are both A$$ holes." I moan as I flop lifelessly on my bed. "We give you a free trip to the holy land and that's the thanks we get?" Macaulay asks me with a big grin. "Holy land my butt!" I groan, holding a pillow to my face. "I got chewed out by Abigail, teased by Alena and Cora had to stand up for me. How the heck is that holy?" "So you're telling me you didn't get a peak?" One track mind. "No I didn't. I was too busy holding my eyes shut and defending myself from a woman who now wants nothing less than my total annihilation." "Nothing at all?" Memory flash. "Nothing." I falsely confirm.

All of the girls on my team are cuties. Abigail's got the librarian thing. With her white hair down to about an inch under chin length and bright green eyes Alena rocks out a punky look. But the image taunting my mind is Cora. I got a pretty good glimpse of her back in the change room. Her big brown eyes where so intense when she was standing up for me and her her dark black hair was all messed up from the showers. Strands of it where framing her shoulders when she held her shirt to her chest. I swallow hard, thinking about it. No bad thoughts! Go away! Leave this young pubescent mind! I'm really gonna have to thank Cora for standing up for me.

The door of my room opens and Bobby walks in. "Hey, guess what." he says with a sadistic smile. "What?" Me and Macaulay ask with concerned looks. "We've got a new mission to go on." He said it so cheerfully but it feels like knives. Jagged knives in the pit of my soul. "Can't we wait until we've recovered?" I ask. "Come on." Bobby sighs. "Our mission's a trip to an amusement park. Looks like someone in some country opened a park which allows mutants to enter so we're going to check it out." "Sounds good." Macaulay tells him. Perfect. A whole day at an amusement park with the three women I did not want to see again today.

The place looks pretty lame on the outside. I could just be in a bad mood since I spent the whole time dodging nasty looks from Abigail and dealing with snickers from Andy, Macaulay and Alena. We buy tickets from a woman at the front and go inside. Bobby goes with Alena one way, Macaulay and Andy decide to be jerks and run off without me, leaving me with Abigail and Cora who both don't want to look at me, for different reasons. I try a water shooting game where you have to blow up a balloon with a water gun. Abigail is watching me with the worst look on her face. "Maybe you should try it." I hold the gun out to her. She snaps a glare at me before looking the other way. I look to Cora for help but she's just standing their fidgeting. I look around for something we can do. I notice Abigail looking at a fun house across from us called M world. Probably for mutant. "You like fun houses?" I ask her awkwardly. "I don't hate them." She says with a chill.

We end up going into the fun house. There's a room of mirrors with neon lights and I catch a glimpse of Abigail smiling as she looks into one. "Didn't think you'd like this kind of stuff." I smirk. She snaps into another death stare and I clam up. She scares me. She's worse than Noriko in the Danger Room. Cora hears a noise and jumps at me, grabbing my arm in fright. She notices what she did and jumps back. "Sorry." She says quickly. "Don't worry about it." I tell her, not intending to put on a smile but doing so anyway. "Perverts like it when girls jump at them." Abigail cuts in. "Isn't that right?" "I'm not a pervert." I tell her. "Yeah. You where just taking a nice little stroll through the girls locker room." She says sarcastically. "You just ran out of hallway."

We make it to a room that is completely black with a big screen. "Welcome to Murderworld!" A voice comes out of the screen. "The place where all your troubled fantasies come to life! A world of wonder! A world of magic! A world of terror!" "Murderworld?" I ask. "Come one, come all! You mutants of the Xavier institute are in for a real treat! Straight from the master of games himself, Arcade!" I've heard that name before.

The black curtains fall from around us and the hall we came from shuts tight. "Arcade is-" "A common enemy of the X men. Using machines and tricks to play sick games with lives on the line." Abigail interrupts me. "I don't sense any mutant signatures." I confirm. "That's because Arcade is human." Abigail tells me. Arcade's voice rings through the room. "Who's ready for mutant pin ball!?" A giant silver ball comes hurling towards us. Abigail fazes through it and I trow up an ice wall to stop it but it doesn't work. The pinball keeps coming.

Cora pushes me out of the way before the ball hit me. "Thanks." I tell her, getting up to prepare for the balls ricochet from the opposite wall. It comes in and I try to freeze it but it roles right over and keep coming. "I always wanted to try this." I say as I pick Cora up and ice slide out of the way. "This is so cool!" I chime happily as I slide across the ice. "Outburst." Abigail calls out. "You should be able to break it with your strength." Cora gives it a shot and pounds the ball to dust. It looks like we've won until a hole appears under me and abigail, causing us to fall downwards. Cora was about to fallow us but she gets sucked up into another hole.

Iceman fires off several ice beams at once, freezing Arcade's robotic minions in place. "You're getting sloppy Arcade." He calls out as Vibe uses her ultrasonics to shatter the frozen minions. "I've always thought the classics where the best." Arcade chuckles while his next group of robots rise from holes in the ground. These robots shoot fire from their arms, melting Iceman's ice. Vibe goes to take them down but Arcade presses a button causing the walls to reverberate the sound straight back at her. Both of them now have to fight with their powers all but neutralized.

I open my eyes and find myself laying on the ground in a dark room. "Another one?" I grumble. I look down at Spector who is draped over my chest, just regaining consciousness she notices our position immediately and slaps me across the face. "What the heck?!" I ask, rubbing my sore cheek. "It's your fault. What exactly where you doing?" She glares about ten times worse than anything I've seen. "I wasn't doing anything!" I snap back. "I just realized before you woke up!" The lights go on and we're faced with another one of Arcade's deadly games.

This one is a bunch of giant pendulums and moving platforms. We jump from platform to platform, dodging the pendulums. I make it pretty far to the goal with ice slides but Spector keeps jumping from one to another. "Hop on. I'll help you to the end." I tell her as I slide over. "No way." She refuses. "I'm not going anywhere near you." I've had it. "Look. Stop being a baby about this and let me help you so we can get out of this stupid place." I tell her but she ignores me and jumps to the next platform. She doesn't notice the pendulum coming towards her. There's no time to warn her so I jump out in front and throw as much freezing power at it as I can. The pendulum begins to slow against the ice, giving me enough time to push my still stunned teammate out of the way. The pendulum makes it through and crushes my ribs on contact, knocking me off of the platform. Spector grabs out and gets my hand but we both fall.

We would have splattered against the ground if Spector hadn't fazed into the bar underneath the platform and used it to slow our fall. I feel my ribs slide back into place and open my eyes to another dark room. "Guess we failed." I grunt as I sit up. "You shouldn't move." Spector tells me, genuine concern all over her face. "It's fine." I tell her. "My ribs are back in place now." I look at her and notice tears running down her cheek. "Are you crying?" I ask her. She quickly wipes the tears from her face and scowls at me. "I thought you where dead. Of course I'd cry." She tries to look angry but she looks kind of funny. I've never seen her with such a worried face. "About before." She says, fidgeting a little. "I know it wasn't your fault. I may have over reacted." "That's alright you don't have to-" "I'm not done." She tells me. "And saving me back their was really nice of you. It was kind of cool." She stops talking for a second. "So, I forgive you for walking into the girls change room earlier." Her face is so different from normal. She's usually all serious but now it looks like she's on the brink of crying but still trying to look like some sort of authority figure. "Thank you." I say, not really knowing how else to respond. "We still friends?" She blushes when I ask her that. "Yeah, sure." She says, looking away. At least that's over.

Andy's having a hard time. The robots he's been fighting have the same powers as him but it's more precise and with it's computer mind it doesn't freak out or overreact. "Man, why did I have to get stuck with you?" Andy yells out to Macaulay. "I could be protecting Abigail right now and showin' off my manliness but instead I have to watch your butt." "Watch my butt?" Macaulay snickers. "Like ya can wit those robot dudes on yers." "I can take these guys on." Andy tosses one in the air and takes down two others. "They aren't as invulnerable as I am." "Whatever." Macaulay calls out, taking down a couple of his own robots.

The next room Spector and I enter is a massively tight room. apparently our goal is to squish through to the other side. I'm so gad she's not still angry at me but it's still pretty awkward being stuck this close together. "If you want I can move back." Spector tells me. "I'm good." I tell her, unaware of the red hot blush she has going on. I guess she's not really used to guys. No surprise with her temper. We feel the ground start to shake and the walls begin to close in. I freeze the ground as soon as I notice and keep it steady. "I really don't like this Arcade dude." I grumble, pushing on. "Do you think your ice will hold?" Spector asks me. "I hope it will." I tell her. "If not we're pretty much squashed."

Luckily we make it out okay. I don't feel right about this though. "Welcome to the final stage!" Arcades voice rings in through the speakers. "The Final Round!" The other walk in from separate parts of the funhouse. "I'm glad you guys are okay." Bobby calls over to us. "A touching sentiment from the team leader." Arcade cuts in. "And now for a blast from the past! A full on death match of old verses new! We have Iceman's x men verses…my X men." Out from the centre of the floor five robots rise. Each robot is fashioned to look like one of the original five x men.

This is gonna be trouble. "Watch yourselves!" Bobby calls out to us. "They have all of the original x men's powers!" As he says it he is thrown back by the robotic Jean Grey's psychic blast. "Ow did 'e get it ta do that?" Macaulay wonders. "Figured a robot couldn't use psychic." "Yeah, it's a mystery. Now kill it!" Impact flies at the Jean bot, fists out and ready to collide but the robot built to look like Hank McCoy grabs him with his feat and tosses him back. Those two duke it out a bit.

As Impact tackles the beast bot Micro finds himself is a life and death struggle with Robo-Jean, but Outburst takes her down and tell Macaulay to take down the Summers robot. I end up fighting the Iceman robot while our Iceman fights off an Angel-bot. I'm getting pretty screwed here since the robot is way better with ice than I am. His ability to use the ice slides is amazingly superior to mine and he outmanoeuvres me, freezing one of my arms. It isn't that big of a deal until I realize what that last room was for. I fall to the ground, landing hard. "What's wrong?" Bobby asks me but understands all of a sudden when his powers die out too. "There's no more ice." I call out to him, getting ready to do some healing. I try to defend myself from the Bobby robot and am almost frozen over but Spector fazes me through the ice just in time. "If you hold onto me it wont be able to freeze you." She tells me and I nod in response. "Then we should get over to Bobby." I realize. "Without his powers he wont be able to take on the Angel robot." We make out way to Bobby but the Angel robot has a bomb which he tosses at us. Luckily it's a flash bomb and it only knocked us back but I loose hold of Spector and she lands on her head, knocking her unconscious. "How many times do we have to pass out today?" I grummble.

Looking up I see the Bobby robot get ready to attack me. It holds out one of its arms. I can't run. If I run then it'll get Spector. Macaulay fires a microwave blast, bursting one of the robots cooling packs. Freezing liquids poor over the ground. It turns to fight Macaulay but I call out to it. "Come on techno-teach." I hold out my arm and point it like a gun. "I thought your designer was supposed to be smart. I thought he knew everything about the x men." I smile at him confidently. "But he doesn't know jack." The robot points back at me with its unbroken arm as I continue to mock it. "You gave that thing ice powers Arcade. That means it's incomplete, because Iceman's power isn't controlling ice." The liquid on the ground surrounds my arm in a spiral. "Let me spell it out for you. The superhuman ability to psionically manipulate energy and water. In other words Iceman can control all forms of water. And as for me, I can do anything he can do." I fire the liquid like a bullet at the robot. The robot tried to freeze it but I separate it into two and drench the monstrosity. It must've been a coolant since it froze the robot solid. After I get my robot I use Iceman's powers to stop the heat exchange in the Cyclops robot and let Macaulay melt the bugger down. After that I pass out.

I may be out but there are three robots left. Impact was able to take care of his when Micro distracted it for a moment and Impact went to help out Outburst, who was dominating Jean-bot while Micro finished off the Angel robot. Things wrapped up pretty quick. After two of them went down the rest dropped like crazy. Unfortunately their creator ditched before the remaining members of our team could get to him.

When I wake up in the X mansion Spector, Micro and Outburst are there beside me. Bobby is sitting on a chair at the end of my bed. "Bout time ya woke up." Macaulay chuckles at me. "A whole twelve hours. That's a helluva coma." I rub my aching head, grumbling as I sit up. "Yer pretty lucky, have'n these two beauties stayin' by ya the whole time." Macaulay grabs the two blushing girls by the shoulders. "I was a little surprised to see crabby Abby stickin' by ya through a Gidin' light moment. Yera pretty good lady killer." Abigail elbows him in the stomach. "I wasn't here the whole time. I just felt responsible." "You where here before Cora and she ran." Cora goes red. "Besides. How are you responsible for Sky gettin' water powers? Unless you some'ow effected is energy levels." Macaulay's a complete pervert. He's the one she should've been mad at this whole time. "I didn't…We wouldn't!" Abigail tries to talk through the flustered frustration she's feeling. "Shut up." She grumbles. "How did you figure out my powers could effect water?" Bobby asks. "I thought that was how your powers worked." I say, a little confused. "I just manipulated the water like I'd use ice." "I see." Bobby smiles at me. "Looks like I've got a lot to write about in my report."

Chapter 02

Bobby wants the team to become more attuned to fighting conditions so what does he have us do first thing we get the chance? FIght another team in the Danger Room.

The Danger Room is set to Jungle mode so there are trees as high as buildings, reaching up into the sky. Excelsior is going up against another group of students called New Mutants. It's kind of like laser tag but with powers. If you get hit you're out. It's hard to believe that we're only a couple of feet apart. It feels like we're running through miles of forest. I put a hand to the communicator on my ear. "Intersperse to Vibe. Icarus is flying above you, coming from the north." I tell my teammate. It's my job to sense the other teams and keep track of my own since I'm a sensor.

There are six of us and six of them. I can keep up with five of them but one keeps blinking on and off. I recognize the signature.

I sense it in the blink of an eye and just have enough time to dodge to the side. I'm seconds away from being out. It's that Noriko chick who I'm up against. With my sensing ability I can last pretty long against any of the others but she's got super speed. She cocks a smile before dashing at me. I throw up a wall of ice just in time to make her run over it like a slope and freeze her feet when she tries to turn. "intersperse here. I'm under attack from Surge." I call for help. "Dude! She's got yer number. I say you beg fer mercy." My teammate Micro laughs through the intercom.

Noriko gives me this nasty look and melts the ice with her built up static. I throw up an ice wall to try and keep her from hitting me but she rams through it and I make another near death dodge. She's way too aggressive for me to keep up with. Noriko's got an angry cringe going on. She kind of scares me a bit. This time she runs at me too fast to miss and takes a shred of my arm with her.

I let out an agonized groan as I fall to my knees. This is the first time I've been injured like that. The simulation dies down and the Danger room returns to normal. "Who's hurt?" Bobby runs over to us. Noriko is already apologizing to me. "I'm fine." I tell them and lay my other hand on the bleeding arm. The wound is healed in seconds, wowing the rest of Noriko and my team. "Since when did you have healing abilities?" Impact, one of my teammates, asks me. "Since the other team was down the hall from us." I tell him. " I copied that guys powers. I point at the yellow skinned dude, looking at me with a weird face. "Manipulation of organic material on a genetic level requiring direct contact with what he wants to effect." I clarify the power, blushing from all the unwanted attention.

Bobby seems pretty happy about me getting a healing ability and later explains that it would come in handy more than an offensive one, especially when I find myself in a predicament where I'm low on ice.

When I get to my room Micro, my roommate, is waiting for me. "Yo. That was pretty awesome, jackin' that guys powers." His real name is Macaulay Boyle. He's Scottish, Redhead, Otaku, microwave manipulator. And a totally awesome roommate.

Micro tosses me a soda from his fridge and I sit down to drink it. "You where looking a little yellow back their though." He tells me. "That's 'cause I was using his powers. When I turn them off I don't get the side effects." "So now ev'y time you use that power ya get gold skin?" "Yup." Macaulay's a cool guy. We hang out a bit there is the downside that he also hangs out with Andy Cox, my other teammate called Impact.

I hear a knock on the door and let Andy in. "Hey." He pushes past me and starts talking to Macaulay. "Dude. I'm so in with Stewart." He's talking about Abigail Stewart, codename Spector. He's been trying to get her to go on a date with him since about three point four seconds after she started scolding him for being late for practice. She's got unlimited memory and intangibility. "I totally impressed her today in the Danger Room." Abigail hates him. Hates him. I've seen her asking to have him of the team hates him. But then again, it's not like she's as easy to get along with either. He's a complete jock in every sense and prejudice. She's a strict, no holds bared "head mistress" type girl. Andy says she's more of the hot librarian type but I can't see it.

Now Andy moves his attention to me. "Hey. You seem pretty good with the girls. Why don't you open some doors for me?" Like hell. This guy hates me because everyone knows I'm an omega level mutant and he's not. "And what would I say exactly?" I ask him. Might as well help the guy out. He is my teammate. "Just talk, dumb A$$." Oh, that's nice. "Talkin' ain't his strong point bro." Macaulay warns him. "Well, what else is he good for?" Andy groans. "He doesn't even have his own powers." Harsh. "He's got sensory. His range even increased a bit. He can sense half the school easily now and even focus to find one person even further." Macaulay defends me. "Whatever." Andy leaves.

I sit down on my bed with an annoyed look on my face. "Don't worry 'bout 'im." Macaulay tells me. "He's jus' angry that you outrank him genetically. All he has is flight, strength…" "Invulnerability." I remind him. "Yeah, that." He snaps with a spark of flame on his finger tips. "I think he's threatened since he's only the muscle man and you can keep evolvin' like, infinitely." "Thanks, but I'm not worried about Andy." I tell him, as I sit on my bed and hold a hand in the air. "It's more about my powers. I can't do all the things Bobby can. Isn't that how it works?" I form a sculpture of an X in my hand with ice. A pillow hits my face. "Don't complain about yer powers. All I got is a shorter waiting time for TV dinners and a new fireproof wardrobe. You got way cooler abilities." I smirk. "Yeah. guess so."

We hear a knock on the door so I go to open it. "What is it Andy?" I ask before noticing there's no large slab of super-human meathead in front of me. Back down to bellow my eye level are two girls. Alena Belkov, aka Vibe, and Cora Pak, aka Outburst. Alena's Russian and has an ability to generate and manipulate sonic vibrations. She's also mute. Cora is Korean and has concussive blasts that come from her arms as well as invisibility, strength, invulnerability and speed. Cora's pretty shy. She doesn't talk much and she's pretty timid. The first time Andy started hitting on her she just stood there shaking nervously.

Alena knocks Cora with her elbow and she starts to stutter. "Hi!" She says as more of a reaction to the elbow in her ribs than to me. "Hey." I say back. Macaulay swings an arm around my neck. "What's up ladies?" He says as suave as he can manage. "I need to talk to you." Cora says, looking away. "Awesome!" Macaulay chimes happily. Alena pushes him away shaking her head. She nudges Cora again. Cora looks up at me, trying to keep eye contact. "I-" "What's up?" Bobby interrupts her. "We got a mission." he says with a huge grin. Alena gives him a nasty look. "What's wrong?" He asks but she shakes her head and walks off to the War Room.

When we all meet in the War Room we find mr. Summers and ms. Frost waiting for us with someone I've never met. "Good. You're all here and in uniform." mr. Summers says, gesturing towards the new guy. "This is Namor. he's a friend of ours and also the king of Atlantis." Andy laughs. "Yer kidding right?" "Is this funny to you?" Namor asks. Andy shuts up. "My home world is under attack." Namor tells us. "The culprit is Attuma, a barbarian who feels his soul purpose in life is to rule my home." "And we're supposed to crush 'em?" Micro asks. "No." Scott tells him. "you are only beginners and the Xavier school is not meant to send students into battle." "Then what's the Danger Room for?" Micro asks under his breath." "The Atlantans have everything under control on the war front." Scott explains. "Your mission is to destroy a small outpost outside of the ocean that is supplying power to Attuma's forces." So we're vandals now? "Why isn't this outpost guarded?" Spector asks. "Because Attuma is a foolish creature who has no grasp of the values of technology." Namor explains. "He has acquired human assistance but is unaware of how any of it works. From what I can tell there are only humans guarding it but it is essential to his plans." "This guy sounds like an idiot." Andy scoffs. "We will send you along with the Corsairs, my team." Scott tells us. "You will all fallow you orders from either me or mr. Drake and anyone who is caught deviating from those orders will be reprimanded." And with that threatening word of encouragement we set off.

The drop zone looks pretty normal, like any other factory building. When we land Namor is the first to leave and scout ahead. I don't sense any mutants in the building but as Namor told us on the Blackbird we're dealing with Atlantans. It's easy for Spector to phase through the ground under the guards and place a looping video feed in front of the security cameras since she memorized the blueprints at first glance and formulated a system of taking them down one by one. Celeste, Mindee and Phoebe took care of putting the guards unconscious since they're psychic. Vibe has the worst job of all of us, keeping our noise level down so none of the microphones can hear us walking through.

We get in pretty easy. "You all have your orders." Cyclops tells us. "Namor will take the fourth route. Excelsior will take the eighth and Corsairs will take the third." "Why split up into three groups when we could just all go down a different route?" Impact asks. "Because we work as a team." Cyclops tells him sternly. So we head our separate ways.

We loose contact with the other teams a little into the tunnels. "That's not good." Bobby says as he tries to get through the interference. "We lost contact with Namor and Cyclops." He informs us. "Someone's here." I warn the rest of them. "What are we looking at?" Iceman asks. "Regenerator." I focus in on the enemy. "Senses too. He's like Wolverine." "Sabretooth?" Iceman keeps trying to verify. "We briefed on him the other day." "Not sure." I tell him. "I can only get powers not names. He's coming in fast though. It looks like he may have allies." "Seriously. Why are you even on this team?" Impact asks me. "We're all gonna die b'cause you can't handle figuring out who we're fighting." "Shove it, Impact." Micro steps up for me. "They're almost on top of us." I warn everyone.

This is the part where there's a giant "Bang" in block letters. The exploding wall would've knocked us back if Iceman hadn't thrown up an ice wall to protect us. At first I thought Wolverine had attacked us but his costume wasn't the right colours. He's with a woman who's wearing what looks like a ms. Marvel costume. And there's another one that looks like black suit Spiderman.

Ms. Marvel holds up a hand. "Brace yourselves!" Iceman commands seconds before ms. Marvel lets out a blast of energy at us. It makes it through the ice barrier and takes a nice bite out of Micro's leg. He goes down hard. I run up to Micro and start healing his leg. Spector is almost hit with a long tentacle that springs from Spiderman's arm. Outburst catches it before it can get to her stunned teammate. I'm done repairing Micro's leg and ice over my arms to make two shield-like blades. ms. Marvel flies at Outburst and tries to take her out but is thrown from mid flight by Vibe's sonic attack.

Iceman realizes we're in over our heads. "Keep on your guard!" He commands us. "It's just like in training! Except out here there's no off switch if someone gets hurt!" I realize what that meant and moved back a bit. He wants me to stay back so I can heal anyone who gets hurt.

"Impact." I call over to Andy. "Get over here." He looks at me, completely frozen. "Sh-shut up." He tells me. "I just need a moment." "We don't have one." I smash one of my blades over his super thick skull. "What the-" "Shut it." I interrupt him. "We don't have time to freak out." He looks at me like I'm nuts but his expression changes. "I don't need you to tell me that." He grins like a mad man and flies straight at the dark Wolverine. The Wolverine dodges him and sends him flying into a wall. "let's try that again." Impact gets up, shaking off the rubble of what used to be a wall.

Vibe, Spector and Outburst have all ganged up on ms. Marvel. Impact and Iceman are taking care of the dark Wolverine. That leaves Spiderman to me and Micro.

The dark version of Spiderman inches closer to us, muttering to himself. "Delicious." He chuckles at us. "I'm sure your brains are delicious." Micro's frozen again and Spiderman knows it. I tackle Micro down just in time to keep him from being impaled. Unfortunately I'm not as lucky. A gapping hole in my stomach pours blood out on the titanium flooring. I can't help but scream in agony, still trying to keep it in my mind that I can heal myself. I get right to it, sealing up the area around my vital organs. "Those look delicious!" Spiderman runs in but is sent back by a wave of heat.

Micro's mad. I didn't know he could do mad. "Dude." Micro says, standing up, heat rising from his skin and fire from his eyes. "You picked the wrong mutie ta tick off." He holds out a fist full of microwave energy. "Because messin' with my friends is like takin' a hammer to a nuke." The blast of heat waves cover the villainous web slinger and the black costume begins to shift and splatter. I finish healing my gut and stand up. "Careful not to kill him." I warn Micro. "I know that one." Micro smirks. "I jus' wanna mess wit dis guy a bit. Looks like he's weak against my powers." "If you can keep him down I can go help the others." I tell him. "Take yer time bro." He boosts up the juice. "I'm totally getting da hang of da hero thin' 'ere."

I head over to Impact and Iceman. "What are you doing!?" Iceman yells at me. "Take Venom!" Must mean the black Spiderman. "Micro's got him!" I call back. "Ms. marvel seems like the strongest so I thought I'd take over for you here so you can help the girls take her on!" Iceman looks impressed and swaps places with me. "Just don't judge him on his powers alone. He's got more skill than any of us here." He warns me. "Understood." I tell him.

Now it's me and Impact against dark Wolverine. "You know I'm fine on my own." Impact scoffs at me. "You can go beat up the girl if you want." "Thanks but I'm good right here. This guy's got healing powers so I won't need to hold back." I tell him before letting out a flurry of ice spikes from my arm. Wolverine dodges them. "Nice miss moron." Impact pushes me out of the way. "Watch the real hero take this guy down." He charges Wolverine but gets flipped. "Very impressive." I smirk at him.

Wolverine turns his attention to me and flips up over my head. He goes to twist my neck but I already have a suit of ice armour formed before he can. I push back and knock him into the wall behind me. "Not bad kid." Dark Wolverine licks his lips. That kind of knocks me off guard, and that's before I felt something on the butt of my pants. I tumble forward in shock, landing on my booty. Dark Wolverine does that lip licking thing again and waves at me. "He's all yours dude." I tell Impact nerviously. "What did he do?" Impact asks. "I don't want to talk about it." Impact is that last guy I want knowing that I just got my butt grabbed by the enemy…let alone the male enemy.

Dark Wolverine comes in for a shot at Impact and scratches his invulnerable skin. "Dude! He cut me!?" Impact starts to freak out again. "Keep it together." I tell him and launch another flurry of ice spikes. "This guy's like a freakin' ninja." I gasp. impact flies in and finally gets a hit on the enemy. I use the chance to freeze dark Wolverine's leg. "Bad move, sexy." He says, smashing the ice on the ground. "Now I'm gonna have ta kill ya." I feel incredibly awkward right now.

"Daken!" Iceman calls out. "Venom and Moonstone both retreated. I think you have marching orders." The dark Wolverine looks at his phone. "Whadaya know. Guess I got nothing to stick around for." He looks at me. "Unless you'd like to get a drink?" "I'm cool." I tell him. "I've got a lot of…studying to do." He pouts and walks off. Micro laughs at me. "You got hit on by the enemy." "Shut up." I groan.

We move further down and meet up with the Corsairs. "We got hit by Bullseye, Sentry and Osborn." Cyclops informs Iceman. "Looks like the Dark Avengers where helping out with the technology." Iceman sighs. Just then Namor and Attuma rash through the wall along with a tone of water. We stand at the sides, not allowing Attuma to escape while he and Namor fight it out. It was pretty cool. Attuma hurls a javelin at Namor who catches it and swings it back, pinning Attuma's arm to the wall. All in all a pretty awesome way to end a mission.

We get back to the x mansion and all I hear from Impact and Quill is about how I got molested by the enemy. I'd ask Bobby for some back up but he's laughing it up too much. Cora tries to comfort me.

When we get back I go straight to my room. Macaulay fallows me in. "Can I talk to you about somethin'?" He asks me. "If it's about how I feel being A$$ grabbed by Daken you can apply for a new roommate." I grumble into my pillow. "Actually itsa 'bout me." He says, sitting on his bed. "I froze up back there and you totally saved me, twice. I don' know how ta-" "It's cool." I don't let him finish. "No, it's not." He insists. "That was totally the coolest thing anyones ever done for me." He suddenly gets really moody. "I almost killed someone when my powers first woke up. When that happened everyone was really scared o' me. It's nice to have a real friend again." "You woulda done it for me." I tell him. "Now bug off. I want to sleep."

Micro's quiet for a minute before he can't hold it in any longer. "Dreamin' 'bout yer boyfriend?" I throw my pillow at him.

Chapter 01

"I am as far beyond mutants as they are beyond you…" En Sabah Nur.

I'm not ordinary. That's something I've known since I was a child. I like different things and I've never fit in with any of the schools I've been too. Must be the super long hair or my all encompassing interest in heroes and the supernatural...or because I have no social interest whatsoever. Either way I've always been different. This was the night I found out how different.

The night sky was cloudy and I could barely make out the shining image of the moon behind them. I was exhausted since I had to actually go outside today. I've spent the last month in my room reading comics and I was all out so I bought a few. I'm glad I wasn't at home because of what happened next. When I'd heard about Sentinels on TV I never thought I'd see one in real life. The moon peeks through the clouds just enough to let me see the towering metal giant glaring at me from above. The weight of it's large metal feet as it settles on the surface of the road shake the ground. It's taller than the buildings and it's glowing robotic eyes make it look like a monster from a cheesy horror film. It's amazing how terrifying a cheesy horror monster can be  when it's real. I freeze, completely paralyzed in fear and utter amazement. Right now I am living the coolest dream I've had since that one about figuring out I was a norse god and joining the Avengers, but being crushed by a giant robot's cool too. It reaches out for me, electric currents flowing through the circuits of steely fingers. A flash of red light erupts against purple steel and those ominous fingers that once threatened my life fall to the ground. I fall back from the shock and land on my butt. My eyes widen at the once in a lifetime sight I see in front of me. A burst of wind picks up around me and I hear the sound of large metal blades whirling in the wind behind me. “Don't worry.” A crimson spark blazes at the edge of a yellow visor. “We're here to help you.” I've seen the man talking to me on TV before. He's part of the X Men, A group of mutant terrorists from America. At least that's what it said on the news. I don't really pay attention since I  only watch the news to see people using cool superpowers. But this is real. A lot realer than a bunch of guys a Country away fighting in a little box. The man grabs the side of his visor and another beam erupts from the lens, piercing the sentinel's thick plated chest in a burst of smoke and debris. The monstrosity falls to the ground, glowing eyes fading and eventually going out completely. “You overdid it Summers.” Another man calls out from behind me. I look back at a large black shape in the sky. It's in the shape of a giant X and coming closer to the ground. I'd like to tell you what happened next and if I could tell what happens when I go unconscious I would but at that point everything went black.

When I woke up I was in what looked like a hi tech hospital from something like Star Trek or something. I put a hand to my aching head and groan. "A mild headache is too be expected." I jolt up at the sound of a woman's voice beside be. "It's a good thing you woke up. We where ready to tell your parents that you where no longer with the living." The woman is dressed (if you can call it that) in a completely white outfit that looks like it's supposed to make an X shape. Beside her are two men. One is a short guy with spiky hair and the other is a stern looking man with red glasses. I recognized the glasses guy from last night. "I guess we can finally get introductions underway." The woman crosses her legs, her light blue painted lips in a smirk. "My name is Emma Frost and this is Logan and Scott Summers. I am the current acting headmaster at this school, the Xavier Institute." "I'm Skylar Medley." I tell her, blushing a little. "In this school we find exceptional young students such as yourself and provide a suitable learning environment for" Scott starts but Emma interrupts him. "What mr. Summers is trying to say is that this is a school for mutants. People with extraordinary gifts. Here we teach you how to control your powers and to learn to adapt to the changing world around you. That thing you saw last night was a Sentinel. They hunt down and capture mutants like you and I." I think there's a reason she leans in a little when she says that. Probably easier to control the guys that come in here if she leans in while wearing that…I think you can still consider it a top. "If you where wondering, I'm a telepath." She places a hand on her chest then points to each of the men beside her. "Mr. Summers has laser eyes and Logan has regeneration." "What do I have?" I ask her, getting excited. "We don't know yet." Emma smiles at me. "It could be that you're a late bloomer or that your powers are something that requires a stimuli." She could've said trigger or something without alternate meanings. "Then, you're all teachers here?" I ask her. "Yes. But we will not be your specific teachers. Your teacher is currently conducting introductions with his group of possible students and was not able to attend." Scott answers. "We will, however have you meet him at the first possible time." "But first, would you like to take a tour of the school? Or do you feel too tired?" Emma asks me. I hop out of the bed, unable to control my beaming smile. "I am so ready to go now."

I got the whole run down about mutants and stuff, along with the history of the X Men. And that is how I got here, standing in a line of mutants looking around the coolest school I've ever seen and getting totally stoked about being a mutant. Apparently my parents where contacted when I was out cold and they accepted pretty easily when they learned I was a mutant. Most people would think that's kind of cruel but they know how much I love this stuff so I'm sure they just wanted me to be with other people with superpowers. One girl shows up late. I think her name was Noriko. The intro goes pretty normal, like any other…Until we got to the Danger Room. I start geek-ing out but the late girl starts mouthing off to miss. Frost. I'm loving the hi-tech stuff in this school but I'm not so sure about how I like the people. I always have trouble adjusting to new places so I guess it'll pass.I got to be introduced to my teacher the next day.

I felt a stream of cold running throughout my body when I woke up. I grip my sheets uncomfortably. I started to feel things, energy signatures or something. I felt like I knew where every student in the institute was all at once. I felt like I could reach out and touch them and I knew their powers, all of them. It feels like my body's freezing over too. I'm shaken from the trance that strange sensation had dragged me into by a knocking on my door. "Come in." I call out and a blonde man walks in with a big grin on his face. His grin transforms into a smirk when he sees my room covered in a coating of ice. "Whoops. Guess I should've asked if your powers woke up, huh?" He asks me. "I did this?" I ask him, a little scared and a little excited. "Well, you're the only one here. But I gotta admit, when I got my powers I just got the shivers and iced over a few dorks who wheer picking on me, but you managed your whole room. I'm Robert Drake by the way, call me Bobby. I'll be your new teacher. Our team's called Excelsior. Cool name huh? So if ya want to ice down this room we can go meet the rest of the team and get you suited up." "I don't know how." I tell him, a little freaked out. Bobby quickly teaches me how to turn the ice back to normal and shows me to the Danger Room. I'm glad I have a teacher with the same power as me. My suit's pretty cool. It has a jacket to it and is decorated with a yellow x. I notice in the mirror across from me that my hair had gone purple and my eyes red. Well, I guess I look like a mutant now. When exactly did that happen? I guess my mutant gene activated last night or something. After getting dressed in the locker room I head out to meet my teammates, which I wasn't looking forward too. The whole new people thing. When I meet them Bobby introduces me as Intersperse. One of them tries to introduce himself and I suddenly blurt out his powers without thinking. "Superhuman strength, speed, and endurance along with flight capabilities." I guess I was a bit nervous. "So you've got more than ice powers huh?" Bobby says chuckling.

Emma Frost whirls around and plants her butt on her desk. "It's more than sensory." She pulls my file out from a folder and hands it to Bobby. "I took the liberty of doing a scan on his x gene while he was still asleep. It's similar to Rogue's in that he has the ability to copy other mutant abilities. The difference is that he keeps the abilities he finds indefinitely. Also, from what I can make out, he can only copy the abilities of Omega-level mutants such as yourself. I would like you too figure out what his range and control is." "Sounds cool." Bobby gets up and gives the file back to Emma. "Should be easy getting him to test out a power like that." "Also, Scott is getting all nervous about Skylar's powers. he thinks he's going to pop like a ballon if he gets too much strength. I want you to know what you think after the month." "Sure thing boss lady." Bobby salutes. When the door is closed Bobby thinks for a second. "Hm. Doesn't Dannie have an Omega level on her team?" He smirks. "I wonder what they're doing tomorrow."