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."