X-Men: New Class - Season 2

by Ambaryerno

Summary:

In the aftermath of Stryker's assault on the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, the X-Men must face the reality that society has not changed as much as they hoped, and that a new team must be raised to protect the school against the threat of the Purifiers.

Set in the Earth-10005 Universe, a new class of students arrives at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. Inspired by Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., X-Men: New Class loosely adapts Kyle and Yost's New X-Men as a hypothetical live-action television series.

(Note: This story only accounts for movies up to X-Men: Days of Future Past, and will not be updated for Apocalypse or beyond)

Chapter 1: 2x01 - Alone

Summary:

William Stryker’s attack on the school has been thwarted, but not without cost. Max Jordan was killed during the assault, and David Alleyne, Jubilee, and Paige Guthrie were all gravely wounded. Even more alarming was the discovery Stryker and his Purifiers were in possession of four functional Sentinels, marking a deadly escalation of his war on mutants.

If not for the actions of Laura Kinney, Stryker’s attack may very well have succeeded. But her terrified classmates are left with one burning question after the shocking revelation of her powers: Just what is she?

2x01

Alone

###

Act I

###

Scott stepped off the lift from the subbasement and continued on his way with his tablet tucked under his arm. The halls of the school were virtually deserted. Most of the remaining students were in their rooms or in the lounge, and many with the option had elected to take advantage of the extended hiatus to visit their families. He watched the crews hard at work tearing apart the walls and damaged paneling, and wondered how many would return.

Though a sense of normalcy quickly settled back over the school in the wake of the bus bombing, Stryker's assault was proving much harder to shake off. The fear and uncertainty in the air was palpable, and the tension among the children remaining at the mansion was so thick Scott felt he couldn't even cut through it with Logan’s claws.

The damage to the building was mostly superficial, however. And while the décor, furniture, and some of the amenities would need to be replaced, the mansion itself survived relatively intact. Sheet plastic hung across the main doors in the entry hall and let in an unseasonably warm gust of air from outside, while carpenters, plumbers, and electricians swarmed through the hallways taking measurements, and the sounds of saws and hammers filled the halls with the chorus of hard work.

But none of it could fill the silence left by the missing laughter of the children under their care. Scott felt that void keenly in the pit of his stomach, not least of it from the guilt of even allowing it to happen. They had been blind to the extent of the danger and left their wards vulnerable. Scott clenched his jaw and turned towards Xavier’s office, weaving past the workmen removing broken tables, damaged chairs and bookshelves, and loads upon loads of garbage.

Never again.

Scott reached the open door and knocked on the frame. Through the doorway he saw Xavier seated at his desk, one hand wearily rubbing his forehead while he talked on his phone. A few workmen hefted one of the chairs in the conversation circle — its back had been nearly cut in two by the volume of fire it absorbed during the attack — and carried it out to be disposed of. Scott backed away to clear them a path while they edged around the doorway, and by the time they stepped out into the hall Xavier hung up the phone and motioned him in.

"Yes, come in, Scott," he said, and leaned back in his wheelchair. "Pardon the mess, but they've only just gotten to my office."

Scott nodded and stepped inside. Xavier's office was still in shambles: thousands of fragments of broken glass littered the floor, along with bits of splintered wood, scattered papers and books, and more plastic sheeting covered the blown-out windows. His ruined computer had been cleared off his desk, and for the moment he worked with the school's hardcopy resources while he waited for Hank and Kitty to get a replacement ready. Scott made his way across the office and dropped into one of the chairs across from the desk from him. It wobbled unsteadily when he settled his weight on it.

Xavier said nothing for a few moments. He jotted a few notes down on the book in which he was working, while cross-checking references in the large volume spread out on his desk. He finally finished what he was doing and clicked his pen closed, then sat back in his wheelchair and mopped his face.

“Long morning?” Scott ventured after a moment.

"Too long," Xavier said. "Though I'm sure you'll be happy to know that the State Department has officially declared Stryker and his church to be a terrorist organization."

Scott scowled and folded his arms across his chest. "That won't be much comfort to the kids."

"I know. They're angry and scared, Scott." Xavier rubbed his temples. "No matter how much I try I can't keep their thoughts out. Not after this, there's just too much."

Scott heaved a sigh and nodded his understanding. "Jean has hardly slept. Quentin and Ruth aren’t doing any better. It's not just thinking that Stryker escaped and is still out there, though. Most of them she says are afraid about what's going to happen to the school. Especially the ones with no family to take them in."

Xavier slumped in his chair and folded his hands in his lap. "I know. It's the foremost thought on all their minds; 'What happens now?' I want to assure them that we will not give in to such acts of terror, but for the first time in a very, very long time, I begin to wonder whether I or any of us have the strength to go on."

"You know the staff and I are with you, whatever you decide. We're not about to give up and let him win. He hurt us, yes, but while I'm not that eloquent, I'm sure Hank would be quoting Nietzsche were he in the room right now."

Xavier managed a small laugh. "'That which does not kill us makes us stronger.' You are right, of course; we cannot afford to bow to such acts of barbarism."

Scott nodded his agreement, and Xavier studied him intently. He couldn't feel the touch of the Professor's mind, but he was left with no doubt that he knew Scott had come to him for a particular purpose that morning.

"You seem to have put some thought into how to respond," Xavier said, giving voice to the suspicion.

"I have," Scott said, and handed him his tablet. Xavier accepted it and started looking through it. "There's no other way around it, but what happened here is as much our fault as it is Stryker’s. We failed these kids. I think we were so content with the peace we'd won over the past decade that we not only failed to protect them, we failed to prepare them."

"Hm. I seem to recall Kitty mentioning Ms. Braddock said much the same thing."

"She did." Scott sighed. "And I'm forced to admit she was right, because of what happened here not least of all. I know we had hoped that the X-Men were becoming a thing of the past, but I don't think we have any choice but to raise a new squad from the student body."

Scott let that pronouncement hang in the office, but even if Xavier had refrained from plucking the purpose for his visit from his mind, he had little doubt he already guessed. The Professor just studied the tablet without emotion.

"I've chosen the students from those among the upperclassmen I think are best suited for it. I'm not talking about putting them in the field, at least not right away, but as a means of helping to protect the others when the rest of us aren't here." He sighed and mopped his face. "We were lucky. Max Jordan was killed, but Jubilee, Paige, and David Alleyne are going to be okay, and most of the other injuries were minor. It could have been so much worse, but I can't help but feel that had there been a team here to actively cover the school while the rest of us were following up on the warehouse lead this may not have happened at all. At the very least, they might have had some warning."

"I do agree in theory," Xavier said. "But Scott, you know as well as anyone the challenges such a team would face. Even if we were to utilize them only as you suggested, it would still put their lives at risk. Especially in the current climate." He glanced away from the tablet and gave him a significant look. "Stryker has already used the existence of the X-Men as a means to publicly attack the school in the court of public opinion, and while most people dismissed his remarks, I have little doubt that there may be some misguided souls who view his actions as warranted. In fact, I very much expect it to be questioned whether Stryker was justified if word of my 'secret mutant army' continues to spread. People won't care why you and the others have been organized, which is why we've done our best to keep the team's existence secret from the general public."

"I know, Professor. Believe me, I know. I just don't feel we have a choice anymore."

Xavier sighed and nodded. "Unfortunately, Scott, I do agree. But I would not be doing my own duties as headmaster of this school if I did not at least point it out."

"Most of the names are noted there," Scott said, "as well as why I've chosen them. But in short, I think they have the personalities to be able to handle it. Though for some there might be a question of maturity, I think this could actually be a way to help them develop as citizens, as well."

Xavier raised an eyebrow. "Most?"

Scott took and held a breath, and he felt his stomach begin to churn in anticipation over Xavier’s reaction to the last name. "There was one I didn't include yet, because I knew you’d want to discuss it first."

The Professor studied him closely. "Out with it,” he said with a touch of impatience, but letting Scott say his piece himself without pulling it from his mind.

He let out the breath and lowered his head. "The last is Laura Kinney."

"Scott ..."

"I know, Professor, and I had this exact same conversation with Logan." He twitched one corner of his mouth into a smile. "Or rather Logan did a lot of snarling and growling. But I ask you to hear me out on this:

"Laura is the only one with any sort of combat training and experience, and she has a lot of it. I know how difficult what we'll be asking these kids to do can be; it's physically, mentally, and emotionally grueling, and they've already suffered severe trauma over the past two months. But she can help them through it. And more to the point, I believe she can help keep them alive if things go wrong. And they inevitably do." He waved his arms to indicate the wreckage of Xavier’s office. “Exhibit A.”

"I'm not disputing the strategy or tactics, Scott," Xavier said, and dropped the tablet on his desk. Scott's belly churned nervously when he saw the frustration in the Professor's face. "Laura is here because she needs to heal, Scott, not jump right back into what she's been running from."

"This isn't going to be the same thing."

"You would be using her as a weapon, just as the ones who made her did."

"None of this would even be mandatory. It would all be up to them to make the choice for themselves. Even for Laura."

"Has it occurred to you that she's not even capable of making that choice for herself? All her life Laura has had people in her ear giving her orders; telling her where she is going to go, what she is going to do, and when she is going to do it. Freedom of choice is something she's still struggling to understand, and I'm afraid that if you put this question in front of her, she would agree for no other reason than that she sees you as a person of authority over her, and that she would thus interpret it as an order, not a request."

"Yes, I have," Scott said. "But it also occurred to me that not making the offer would be no better than making one she may not understand the gravity of. It would deny her the right to even consider making a decision for herself, and if we deny her that choice altogether it would make us no different from the ones who abused her. Even Logan had to agree with me on that point."

Xavier buried his face in his hands, and Scott watched him closely. For a few moments Xavier said nothing, then heaved a sigh.

"You're right, of course," he said, and picked up the tablet and made a note on it. "As little as I like it, you're right. And more to the point I did place the safety of the children in your hands. We'll extend the offer to her along with the others. But Scott—" Xavier met his eyes, and Scott felt that even without optic blasts of his own the Professor's gaze might bore a hole clear through him. "—as little as I fear it will help her recognize the magnitude of the choice before her, it must be made absolutely clear that her participation is strictly voluntary. We don't order or compel her."

Scott nodded in acceptance of the condition. "I never intended otherwise."

Xavier sighed again and stared at the tablet for a long moment. "This was a day I'd hoped would never need come again. I only hope it is the right decision."

###

Act II

###

Cessily sat on the couch with her knees drawn to her chest and her arms wrapped tightly around her legs. The lounge — one of the few parts of the school that largely escaped damage during the attack — was unusually empty for this time of day. Victor and Santo shared the couch with her to distract themselves from the oppressive quiet of the mansion with a movie. She honestly wasn’t even paying enough attention to remember what it was, and none of the others seemed to care much, either. Illyana, Megan, and Fabio were off at a corner table by themselves. Melody was gone; picked up by her older brother Sam to take Jay home and to be with her family, though Paige, despite Josh’s efforts, was still in too bad condition to be moved.

And Josh...

Cessily sighed, still not quite able to wrap her head around the change in his appearance. She wanted to ask him about it, but he spent almost all his time since the attack in the med bay helping Dr. McCoy with the wounded. “Trying to feel useful,” he said the rare times he ventured out of the subbasement, never long enough for her to sit down and get him to talk.

Rahne and Dani sat at the window table talking over breakfast, from the snippets Cessily overheard voicing the same frustration and worries as all of them: What was going to happen to them now? Quentin Quire sat at the other table with Sydney, Alani, and Roxie, regaling them once again with the story of how he “saved” everyone taking shelter in the classroom. That drew a scowl of disgust from her; Quentin’s telekinesis manifesting right then was just a happy accident. If any one person deserved the credit for saving the rest of them it was Laura. And Laura, of course, was nowhere to be seen, all but vanishing in the aftermath of the attack and avoiding everyone. As unsettling as Cessily found the stories of what happened, she couldn’t blame her for wanting to avoid all that attention.

She sighed again, a sentiment she saw mirrored on the faces of the others trying their best to relax that morning but not finding much success doing so. Oppressive silence hung over the lounge, and the tension made her skin crawl. Or would have, if she were capable of such sensations.

“Hey, who turned the music off?” a voice called from the entrance to the lounge, and everyone snapped their attention away from whatever they vainly tried to distract themselves with and towards the door. “It’s time to par-tay!”

“Jubilee!” Cessily cried, and a broad smile came to her face when Dr. McCoy pushed her in on a wheelchair.

Jubilee’s hands were raised high above her head, and though she was dressed in a plain linen gown and bundled up in a robe, her Oakley Radars were in their customary place perched atop her hair (looking more neglectfully disheveled than artfully spiked, but Cessily supposed Dr. McCoy refused to give her access to any product that could make a mess of the med bay bedding). A folded blanket was neatly spread across her legs.

Everyone was on their feet at once and rushed across the lounge to meet her. Cessily got there first and, after a moment’s hesitation, gathered her into a ferocious bear hug that Jubilee returned along with a grunt and a grimace.

“Oh! I’m so sorry!” Cessily began, but Jubilee waved her off.

“Don’t be, dude! It’s totally ok,” she said, and let out a giddy laugh. “The Doc has me on some totally radical painkillers, so I don’t feel a thing.”

Victor glanced at Dr. McCoy before joining in on the hug parade. “How are you feeling? We were all worried about you,” he asked.

“I’m okay, really. The ol’ Fuzzyball-duddy ...” She giggled again in amusement. “You know, he’s just being fussy.”

Dr. McCoy let out an annoyed grunt and rolled his eyes, though there was no disguising the amusement on his leonine features. “It was either wheel you up here in a way I could keep an eye on you, or strap you down in bed. I decided on the answer that would be least aggravating for both of us.”

Jubilee leaned in conspiratorially and winked. “He’s just grumpy ‘cause I took him away from his petri dishes.” Everyone laughed, the first sound of genuine levity Cessily had heard in the school since before the attack. “But I heard everyone’s been feeling down, so I wanted come up and say ‘hello!’”

Megan fluttered her wings, and clasped her hands uncomfortably in front of her in a way that managed to somehow make her look even younger than her stature and fairy princess dresses. “There hasn’t been much to feel good about,” she said, and the others glumly nodded their agreement.

“I know, guys, I know,” Jubilee said, and for a moment the medication-induced grin faded from her features. “I’ve been there, you know? I mean it’s not been a picnic for me, either, but look at me now! Woo!”

And with that she started dancing around in the wheelchair with her hands waving above her head. They all laughed, and Dr. McCoy gingerly laid a paw on her shoulder. “All right, that’s enough of that. Calm down before you give Mr. Foley and I more work to do.”

“Lame!” Jubilee exclaimed. She shifted her attention back to the crowd gathered around her. “But what I came up to say is, I’m okay. It’s okay. We’re all gonna be okay, okay? I know some of you might have doubts, but the Professor and everyone are doing the best they can, y’know? And that’s not just the whatever it is the Doc’s been shooting me up with talking.

“I don’t wanna go all after school special on you guys, although I’m probably totally there already, but hang in there, okay?”

“Okay,” Cessily said, and the others all voiced their agreement with her.

“Good. Because if you don’t, Imma come back up here and paf the lot of ya for spoiling my happy place.”

“All right,” Dr. McCoy said, “I think you’ve had enough excitement for now. Let’s get you back to bed.”

Jubilee gave an exaggerated sigh. “Oh, all right. So you kids be good and try to have a little bit of fun, okay?”

Cessily smiled. “We’ll try.”

“Awesome,” she said, and Dr. McCoy started to wheel her out of the room. “Hey, I know! Let’s go find the Professor. We can have a wheelchair drag race in the hall! Weeee!”

None of them could help but laugh at that when she disappeared down the hall.

###

Sooraya knelt on her prayer rug facing the Qibla, with her hands cupped palms-upward in front of her, and her head bowed in penitence.

“Rabbanā Fāghfir Lanā Dhunūbanā Wa Kaffir ’Annā Sayyi’ātinā Wa Tawaffanā Ma’al-’Abrār,” she said.

She remained like that for some time, repeating the prayer over and over again. “Rabbanā Fāghfir Lanā Dhunūbanā Wa Kaffir ’Annā Sayyi’ātinā Wa Tawaffanā Ma’al-’Abrār. Rabbanā Fāghfir Lanā Dhunūbanā Wa Kaffir ’Annā Sayyi’ātinā Wa Tawaffanā Ma’al-’Abrār. Rabbanā Fāghfir Lanā Dhunūbanā Wa Kaffir ’Annā Sayyi’ātinā Wa Tawaffanā Ma’al-’Abrār.” She let the tears she held back ever since the attack flow when she reached out to Allah, and let go of the burden on her heart.

She proceeded through the du’a while she cried, before finally finishing with a soft, “Amin.”

“Why do you ask for forgiveness?” came a voice behind her; not one that was unexpected, but it caught her by surprise nonetheless, and Sooraya jumped a little when it broke the silence hanging over the room upon finishing her prayers.

Sooraya reverently folded her rug to put away, and turned to Laura while she worked. She sat on her bed with her legs drawn to her chest, dressed all in black except for the golden locket gleaming in the light of the lamp next to her bed. Sooraya puzzled at the half-sleeves sheathing her forearms; something she had seen her wear on rare occasions, but which she now seemed to have on almost every day.

“I must admit that I forget at times you speak Farsi and Arabic,” Sooraya said. “I beseech Allah for his forgiveness because my hands have killed.”

Laura cocked her head while she considered that. Her face was empty of emotion, but there was something beneath the surface of her green eyes that seemed somehow troubled. “Why?”

Sooraya blinked in surprise at the question; both that she asked it at all, and the earnest confusion in her tone. She sat on the edge of her own bed facing her, and folded her hands in her lap. “To take a life is a terrible sin, Laura. For me to have done so is to break one of Allah’s commandments.”

“They would have killed you had you not done so.”

“I know, but however necessary the act it doesn’t absolve us of the guilt before the eyes of Allah. Only He may forgive me for doing so. I do not regret defending our friends, but I do regret that I needed to take the lives of those men to do so.”

Laura hugged herself tightly, and scrunched her face. “I do not feel guilt,” she said, but there was an infinitesimal catch in her voice when she spoke, that someone who didn’t spend a great deal of time around her would miss. “These men attacked us. They deserved to die.”

Sooraya gave her a patient sigh, but the certainty of her statement made her uneasy. She had acted only out of necessity, but Laura’s response was almost instinctual, and she waded into combat with neither hesitation nor remorse. It gave her a queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach to think about. “Laura, that is not for us to decide, only He is given the right to judge.”

She started to say something, then hesitated, her delicate features twisted in uncertainty and confusion. “I do not understand.”

“I wish I had the answers for you, Laura. But Allah alone knows His purpose, we can only do as we believe is right and pray that it’s what He asks of us.”

“Stryker was no less certain in his conviction.”

“No, I suppose he was not. But I put little stock in any man who professes to know Allah’s plan. Especially when he should espouse hatred in His name.”

“That is inconsistent; the Torah, the Bible, and the Qu’ran were all texts written by men either professing to know the will of God, or that they were the words of God himself.”

Sooraya bristled at the remark, but forced down the defensive response forming on her lips. While Laura’s thought processes were often a mystery to everyone but herself, she was slowly becoming accustomed to her very deliberate and analytical observations. However the words sounded to her ears, Sooraya understood Laura meant no offense, and it was only in her nature to question such abstract concepts in search of concrete truth.

“It comes down to faith, Laura,” she said instead. “I believe in my heart in the words that are written, because I have faith in them as the will of Allah. But that does not mean I can say ‘This is Allah’s plan.’ Accepting that all shall be what shall be is also entirely a matter of faith.”

“So you believe that God is ultimately responsible for everything that happens.”

“Of course,” Sooraya replied. “The world and all that is in it was created by Him alone, and nothing happens that is not a part of his purpose.”

“Then God is responsible for me, as well,” Laura said, and Sooraya was taken aback at the bitterness creeping into her voice.

“I...suppose so.”

Laura seemed to consider that, and Sooraya watched her closely. She huddled on the bed as if trying to shrink out of sight of her scrutiny, and it was more and more apparent that something was deeply troubling her. “Laura, are you all right?”

She blinked in confusion at the question. “I am uninjured,” she said. “My healing factor has already repaired all wounds I sustained during the fight.”

“No, that’s not what I mean,” she said with a small smile of amusement, but sobered again with a sigh. “I mean that you’ve been avoiding everyone since the attack, and now you seem troubled. I know you’re not given to talking about what you’re feeling, but I consider you my friend and it concerns me.”

Laura hugged herself tightly. “I prefer to be alone.”

“Yes, but this is not the same.”

“The others are afraid of me,” she said, and her bluntness caught Sooraya by surprise.

“Laura, that’s not true,” Sooraya said, and Laura sniffed audibly.

“You are lying.”

Sooraya folded her arms beneath her breast and scowled at her in response to the brusqueness of the accusation. “It’s not polite to say such things, especially to someone trying to help!”

Laura flinched at her tone, and ducked her head away slightly. “I am sorry. But I can smell it.”

“You can smell when people lie?”

“Yes. The physiological changes that occur when someone lies alters their scent. I know your scent, so I can tell when you are dishonest.”

“I see,” she said, rather taken aback. “How, then, do you know they are afraid of you?”

“Because I can smell that, too,” she said. “And I can hear them talking about me. Even the whispers.”

Sooraya sighed. “I will not deny you surprised a lot of people, but you also don’t give any of us an opportunity to get to know you better. The whole reason we are here is because people fear what they don’t understand.”

Laura stared off into space for a moment, as if looking at some distant point, or perhaps a memory. “They are right to fear me.”

“Laura ...”

Laura snapped her eyes back into focus, and hugged herself tightly once more. “I do not wish to talk about this anymore.”

And that was the last Sooraya was able to get from her for some time.

###

Julian knocked on Sofia’s door, and leaned against the wall while he waited for her to answer. The dormitory hallway was mostly empty; anyone still at school was either down in the lounge or shut up in their rooms. He couldn't help but feel the emptiness of the mansion over the past couple days, like a big, gaping wound that wouldn't heal. None of it felt right. It was all wrong, and the halls should have been filled with the sounds of laughter. This quiet was almost as unnerving as the uncertainty of what was going to happen to them next.

Sofia's door opened after a few moments and lulled him from his silent musings, and her face appeared framed in the door. She didn't open it far enough for him to pull her into a hug and a kiss, and almost seemed to be using the door as a shield between them.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," she said.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets and shifted awkwardly for a few moments. "Is this a bad time?"

Sofia looked away, and that made his stomach churn anxiously. Something wasn't right. She let out a heavy sigh and opened her door to let him in. Laurie's belongings were half-packed, and the emptiness he had been feeling only deepened at the sight of it. But it was Sofia's suitcase set out on her bed while she folded and packed up her clothing that set off alarm bells in his head.

"Uh, are you going somewhere?" he prodded, and the churning in his belly just got worse.

"Home," she said, and Sofia said it almost as if she didn't quite believe it herself. She sighed again, and hung her shoulders. "I'm sorry, Julian, I meant to tell you, but after everything that happened I just kept getting distracted."

He crossed the room with a frown tugging at his lips, and sat on the edge of her bed to watch her pack. "Tell me what?"

"After ..." she trailed off for a moment when her voice choked up. "After what happened with the bus, my father contacted me."

"Your father?"

Sofia nodded. She neatly tucked a stack of panties in one corner of her suitcase and leaned over it with her head lowered. "Yes. My father — who never, ever, called me to see how I was doing, and always had Derek do it for him if he needed something — asked me to come home."

Julian stared at her open-mouthed, and the churning quickly escalated into an all-out whirlpool of acid sloshing around his insides. He wanted to throw up. "Like, as a visit, right?"

She shook her head. "To stay."

"You're not going, right? I mean, you're going to visit, but telling him you'll be coming back?"

Sofia shook her head again. "No," she said, her voice going so quiet Julian could barely hear her.

He stood away from her bed, a dozen different feelings tugging him in as many different directions. And in spite of himself he fixated on one.

Anger.

"You're kidding me!"

"No, I'm not," she said, taken aback by his response. "Julian, what do you think is going to happen, here? The school has been torn apart, and Stryker has painted a big, gigantic bullseye on us. He's even proven he can get to us here and there's nothing the Professor can do to stop it!"

Julian rounded on her. "So you're running away? You're going to leave me — all of us — behind?"

"Julian, for the first time ever my father wants to be a part of my life—"

"That's bullshit and you know it!" he snapped, and Sofia flinched back at the heatedness of his tone. Julian didn't register it while he stormed around her room, waving his hands wildly over his head when all of the fear, grief, and anger he'd felt building inside him came out at once. "You know daddy's just looking at the news reports and thinking just how bad it makes him look if his little girl gets blown up because he doesn't do anything about it!"

"Don't you even say that!" Sofia snapped back. "Maybe it's hard for you to understand because Mommy and Daddy take such good care of you, but some of us don't have anything outside this school! My father is asking me to come back, and for the first time since my mother was murdered I'll finally have a family!"

"And what do you call this?!" Julian swept his arm around the room. "You didn't need more than this before, but now that things are getting a little bit scary you're going to just run away?"

She planted her hands on her hips and glared. Julian matched her posture with his arms folded across his chest. "We don't even know if the school is going to reopen! Half our classmates who are left have gone home and we don't know if any are going to come back."

"Then they never belonged here in the first place!"

"Julian!"

"What? It's the truth! This is supposed to be our place! And you're going to let Stryker win? Because if you step out those doors that's exactly what you're doing." He jerked his thumb at his breastbone. "I'm not going to just surrender. This is my home, and I intend to fight for it!"

"I'm afraid that there's nothing left to fight for," she said.

"Then you're a coward! Even Jessica decided she’s going to come back for next semester. But you're just going to turn tail and run and bury your head in the sand, and hope Daddy's money can protect you, even though he never really cared for you!"

Tears filled Sofia's eyes, and Julian regretted saying it the minute it left his mouth. But his blood was boiling now, and he didn’t care. How dare she give in? How dare she just let Stryker win? How dare she run off and leave him here alone?

"God damn you, Julian."

"It's the truth! You just don't want to admit it because you think by playing make-believe you can pretend that everything is fine. You're just fooling yourself. All he cares about is himself and his own image. He never cared about you, it's why he shipped you off in the first place! You're a mutant, Sofia. You're a freak, and that's all he sees. But because it's the 'in' thing to be outraged about everything Stryker's done he's just using it to make himself look good. And you can bet the minute he remembers why he threw you out he's just going to do it again."

"God damn you!" she screamed, and a powerful gust of concentrated wind slammed into the center of his chest and flung him backwards. He hit the ground hard on his back, and his breath rushed from his lungs with a sickening grunt. Julian gasped in a desperate effort to draw a breath with Sofia standing over him, her hands balled into fists and tears streaming in rivers down her face. "You don't know anything!"

Julian coughed and levered himself back to his feet. "Then tell me how I'm wrong!" he wheezed, and fought to catch his breath.

"I'm sick of it! I'm sick and tired of you judging everyone! I'm sick of your ego! You think you know everything! You treat this place like some exclusive club, and that anyone who doesn't measure up to your lofty standards doesn't belong!"

"And if you're not willing to fight for it maybe you don't! Maybe you never were one of us!"

"One of us?" She gawked incredulously at him. "One of us? I have news for you, Julian Keller, there is no 'us.' I don't think there ever really was. Did you ever really mean it when you said you loved me? Or was I just a fancy little trophy to parade around in front of the others? I'd hoped you would understand!"

"Understand what? That you're going to run away the second things get bad? Why didn't you even tell me what was going on? Why did you wait until your bags were packed and you already had one foot out the door?"

Sofia hesitated for a moment, and she let her hands fall to her sides. "Because I knew how you would react. That's why. I knew the moment I said anything that this would happen. I should have been honest with myself from the beginning. You're just a spoiled, selfish ass who only cares about how things affect himself."

"You're the one who's running away."

"Get out!"

"It's the truth!"

Sofia pointed at the door. "I said get out! Get out! Get out! Get! Out!"

Her face was red, her breaths came in heaving gasps, and her tears flowed freely down her cheeks. Julian stared her down for a moment, then spun around on his heel and followed her arm for the door, gathering his power to him as he went. The aura formed around his hand, and he reached out to the doorknob, all but yanking the thing off its hinges when he stormed out of the room and slammed it behind him.

Once he was in the hall again his legs gave way beneath him, and he collapsed against the wall and buried his face in his arms.

###

On the other side of the door Sofia sunk to the floor, and all she could do was cry.

###

Julian stomped down the stairs and headed for the lounge. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a group by the stairs clustered around Quentin Quire snickering and hiding their smiles, though Quire made no effort to disguise the smirk on his stupid face. “I know you’re in here, and I swear to God if I hear so much as a peep out of you I’m going to rip that mohawk off your scalp and nail it to my bedroom door,” he thought in Quire’s general direction, and sure enough, the smirk twisted into a scowl.

“You want to fight? Let’s go Keller. I’ve got TK now, too, so let’s see what you’ve got,” Quire’s voice echoed in his head.

Julian just thought a string of profanity back and continued on his way into the lounge.

He ignored the stares of the rest of the occupants — clearly Quire had been busy — on his way to join Cessily, Victor, and Santo around the television. Sooraya was there as well, wrapped in her niqab and abaya, with a steaming bowl of he didn’t really care what for breakfast. He idly thought of how odd it had been to see her face the night of the attack, but at the time everyone was so focused on just staying alive it somehow never registered she spent the entire time in her nightie and with her face exposed for all to see.

And when he remembered that night his thoughts drifted to her. The claws flashing, trailing thick, red streamers while she spun through Stryker’s men and tore them to shreds. He heard the screams, the panic, and watched them all die over and over again. Her expression never changed, just a calm, serene mask when she casually slaughtered everyone around her. And then the faces of the dead changed, and instead of Stryker’s goons he saw Cessily. And Sofia. And Victor. All lying crumpled at her feet with their blood and viscera running from her claws.

Then she looked at him and charged.

Julian squeezed his eyes shut tight and shook the image from his head. But he couldn’t quite throw it off entirely, and it stayed there, just at the edge of his consciousness. It made him want to throw up.

He sighed and threw himself down in a chair next to Cessily, and leaned his head on one hand.

“Hey,” Cessily said. “Are you okay?”

“No,” he grumbled in a low voice. “Sofia’s leaving.”

“We know. I’m so sorry.”

“Whatever, it’s fine.”

Cessily sighed and reached across the space between them to lay a hand on the shoulder. “No, it’s not. I know how much you care about her.”

“I said it’s fine,” he snapped. “She’s leaving, and we’re done. Like I said, whatever.”

She flinched at his tone, and Julian immediately regretted the sharpness of his response and mopped his face. Cessily just gazed levelly at him. The others remained silent, and even Santo kept his mouth shut.

“Look, don’t give me that, I know you too well,” Cessily finally ventured after a few moments of letting him stew in his own remorse. She sighed, or at least offered her best approximation of one. “And I also know when you’re just going to sit and sulk and depress the rest of us.”

Julian looked up at her from beneath his hand, but Cessily just turned her attention back to the television. Sooraya deftly maneuvered her spoon under her niqab while she silently ate her breakfast, and Victor and Santo sat awkwardly and listened in on the conversation, neither particularly in the mood to contribute.

“I’m not sulking.”

Cessily just rolled her eyes. “Of course you’re not. I’m just saying if you need to talk ...”

He sighed, folded his arms across his chest, and slumped in his chair. “I know. Thanks.”

“So, uh, what do we want to do today?” Santo asked, and idly scratched the back of his head with the sound of stone grating against stone. Another thing Julian found it difficult to adjust to since the attack; after putting Santo back together again he was looking even less human than before. His face was vaguely symmetrical, but looked more like a collection of rubble with sharp projections where his eyebrows ought to be, and a pale blue glow peering out from black gaps in the space between the rocks making up his face for eyes.

“I don’t know,” Julian said. “I kind of don’t want to do anything.”

“Aw. I want to get out of here! I mean, it’s like actually nice outside.”

“Santo, why does that even matter?” Cessily said with a roll of her eyes. “You don’t get cold. You don’t get hot.”

“I start to ice up when it’s cold! I think I felt myself eroding last time we went out.”

“Santo just used ‘eroding’ in a sentence?” Victor asked. “If he’s actually expanding his vocabulary maybe we do need to get out of here.”

“And go where?” Julian asked. “They’re still not letting us go to Salem.”

“Well, there is at least going out in the grounds,” Sooraya suggested, the first she had spoken since he joined them in the lounge.

“You guys can, but like I said I don’t want to do anything.”

Cessily made a face. “That’s more reason than ever to get you off your butt, Grumpy.”

“Look, if you want to go screw around outside with Gorignak over there be my guest. I’m staying right here and hoping a ceiling tile comes loose.”

She groaned in exasperation. “Oh my God, Julian! Don’t be such a baby!”

“Wah.”

Before Cessily could say another word, the lounge fell into a silence so complete he could practically hear his own blood rushing through his ears. Everyone looked at the entrance to the lounge, and when Julian followed their gaze, he saw Laura standing in the doorway, hugging herself tightly and trying her best to shrink out of sight under the scrutiny. Julian felt his stomach tie itself in knots at the sight of her, and once more the image of claws dripping thick, gruesome strings of gore came unbidden to his mind. From the deafening silence hanging over the lounge, he suspected everyone else was seeing the same thing.

But rather than recognizing how unwelcome she was and leaving, she instead ducked her head and continued into the lounge. Much to his distress she made her way directly for the rest of them, while the lounge slowly filled with the sound of voices once again. Julian had no doubt just what the topic of conversation was, especially when Laura glanced periodically over her shoulder at the knots of people whispering quietly from the corners.

“Hey, Laura!” Cessily said cheerily, though when Julian scowled in her direction it was impossible to miss the anxiety on her features. Victor gave her a small wave of greeting, but Santo just folded his arms across his broad chest and shifted nervously. Sooraya alone smiled warmly, though her expression was mostly lost behind her niqab.

“What are you doing here?” Julian growled at her, and Laura froze at the ice in his voice. “Get lost!”

“Julian!” Sooraya admonished.

“What?”

“No kidding, Julian,” Cessily said, and spit him with a glare.

“Oh, don’t give me that, we’re all thinking it: She doesn’t belong here!”

“Dude!” Victor said, aghast. For her part Laura said nothing and just tried to shrink even further out of view.

Julian levered himself out of his chair and glared down at her. “You all saw what she did!”

“She saved our lives,” Sooraya said. “Yours, too, or have you forgotten?”

“What I haven’t forgotten is that she’s been here all this time and not said a word about what she is. And then she tears those men apart right in front of all of us! What if it had been one of us? Huh?” Julian tightened his hands into fists and stretched to his full height over her. “She could have killed any of us and do you really think any of us would have been able to stop her?”

A crowd began to gather when his voice rose. No one said anything, however, and just watched.

“I mean seriously, what the hell is she?” He fixed Laura with a glare, and she turned her head away and hugged herself even tighter. “Huh? What are you!”

“Julian, that’s enough!” Cessily snapped, and jumped to her feet. She seized him by the arm to try and drag him away, but he shoved her off.

“She killed those people! How many times have we all been told we don’t use our powers like that?”

Laura edged away from him, looking for a path of escape when he continued towards her, but the crowd hemmed her in and left her with nowhere else to go.

“Would you rather she just let Stryker’s people kill us?” Victor asked. “And what about Sooraya, you hypocrite!”

“Yes, Julian,” Sooraya said. She carefully set her breakfast on the floor next to her chair, stood, and folded her arms beneath her breast. She narrowed her eyes behind her niqab and stared him down. “What about me? I regret my actions, but I killed Stryker’s men too. And what of Jubilee? Or Noriko? Why are we any different than Laura?”

Julian ignored her. All the frustration and anger he’d built up over the deaths of his friends, over Sofia, venting in a rush when he advanced towards her now that he had a target to let it go against. Laura was left with no path of retreat, and she backed against one of the tables. “You’re a freak! A monster! You got that? You don’t belong here with any of us!”

“Julian, that’s enough!” Cessily said.

“Dude, that’s way harsh,” Santo said.

“I’m talking to you, Wednesday!” he snapped when Laura tried looking away. “Do you understand what I’m saying?” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at Santo. “He’s a walking pile of rubble and you’re still the freak.”

“Uh, wait, am I supposed to be insulted?” Santo asked.

Julian stepped up and shoved her backwards, and a collective gasp filled the lounge. “Do you hear me? Go away!”

Laura staggered backwards a step and around the table she was pushed up against, but quickly regained her balance. He stepped forward and shoved her again. Again she gave ground, and her whole body tensed as if ready to spring. Somewhere in a distant corner of his mind Julian heard himself screaming in warning, but it didn’t register.

“Please, do not do that,” Laura said, her voice barely above a whisper. Had he been in his right mind, Julian might have heard the pleading in her voice. Instead, he stepped up and shoved her again and again, each time Laura’s body trembling more and more from the effort of holding herself back.

“Don’t do what? What are you going to do? I said you don’t belong here. Do you hear me? You! Don’t! Belong!”

Finally, Laura could restrain herself no longer, and when he shoved her one last time, she instinctively seized him by the wrist. Faster than he could blink Julian felt his arm twisted nearly out of its socket, and then his entire body was driven into the ground. He landed hard on his back, though not hard enough to drive the wind from his lungs, and a sharp metallic snikt rang out across the lounge when a weight settled across his chest. He found himself looking up into angry green eyes with Laura crouching over him, one hand seizing him by the shirt front. The claws of the other hand hovered just short of his throat.

A threatening growl escaped her throat. Julian’s stomach lurched and his limbs began to shake. But he just looked her in the eye, swallowed, and said quietly, “Don’t. Belong.”

At that Laura seemed to realize just what she had nearly done, retracted her claws, and released him before she scrambled away. Everyone in the lounge was staring open-mouthed at her, and silence hung over the crowd. Without a word she spun around and ran for the edge of the ring of students pressing in around them, and lunged through the opening that appeared when they hastily scattered out of her way. Laura disappeared through the doorway, and slowly everyone began to breathe normally again.

Cessily glowered down at him, and didn’t offer him so much as a hand up. Julian just scowled and got back to his feet on his own. “Thanks a lot, rock pile, you were a big help, there.”

“If you want to push around the creepy scary girl with the cut-anything-claws you’re on your own,” he said, and folded his arms across his chest.

Victor mirrored his posture and glared. “That was not cool, Julian. That was so not cool,” he said in disapproval, then shook his head in disgust. “I can’t deal with you right now.”

“What did I do?”

“Yeah, man, that was way over the line,” Santo said.

“You too? Are you kidding me?”

“I was a pile of rubble that whole time, and even I know you should be thanking her.”

“Come on, Santo, let’s get out of here,” Victor said, and started away. The big rocky mutant fell into step beside him and lumbered off, while the rest of the crowd in the lounge broke up to return to whatever they were doing.

“If you will excuse me,” Sooraya said, “I’m going to see if she’s okay.”

“If she’s okay?” Julian said in disbelief. “She almost took my head off!”

She glared at him. “Allah forgive me for saying so, but I have a hard time finding it a shame she restrained herself!”

And with a flutter of her abaya she stormed off, leaving her half-eaten breakfast cooling on the floor. Julian turned to Cessily, who folded her arms across her chest and glared at him in a way that reminded him disturbingly of his mother whenever he gave her too much lip.

“Cess—”

“Save it!” she snapped. “I love you, Julian, but after what I just saw I can’t even be in the same room as you right now.”

And with that she, too, turned and departed, and Julian could only watch in disbelief as one by one his friends abandoned him.

Just like Sofia.

###

Act III

###

“Ow! Be careful!” David yelped when Josh gently probed his side.

“Sorry!” Josh said. “You know I’m still learning a lot of this.”

“Maybe we should wait for the Doc to get back ...” Nori said from the stool where she was watching Josh tending his patient. David lay in one of the beds in the recovery bay with his shirt off while Josh, dressed in surgical scrubs, gently laid his golden fingers on the ugly bruise that remained where her slow-but-brave boyfriend had been shot. She still couldn’t quite get used to the sight of it, but Josh had so far refused to talk to anyone about what happened. So instead, she sat and watched, and quietly admired David’s chest and abs — lucky her to find a guy that wasn’t just ridiculously smart, but also ripped on top of it!

“I can do this,” Josh said, and sniffed indignantly. “I just need him to hold still!”

“It’d be easier to hold still if you weren’t punching me in the ribs.” David said.

“I’m not punching. Dr. McCoy told me exactly what to do, and I’m doing it.”

David didn’t say anything else, and just winced while Josh continued whatever it was he was doing. He gave a small nod of satisfaction once he finished and stepped away.

“It’s all knitting together, so I don’t think I need to do anything else. The bruising should fade on its own, and I think Dr. McCoy will be able to release you within another day or two.”

“Good, I’m sure the Doc will be happy to not have to put up with us bickering,” David said, while Josh helped him put his shirt back on again.

“I’m sure it would have been easier if you’d just admitted you were wrong.”

David glared. “I would have if I was, but I wasn’t! You just don’t want to admit I got a higher score.”

“Oh, come on! You missed the extra credit question!”

“It was a trick question! There wasn’t a right answer, and I told him!”

Josh folded his arms across his chest and glared. “No, there just wasn’t an obvious answer, but if you’d thought outside the box—”

“Ugh!” Nori groaned, and she hopped off her stool. “Enough already! The only time I like hearing boys argue is when it’s over me!” She gave Josh an impatient glare. “Don’t you have another patient to tend to? I’d kind of like some time alone with my boyfriend so I can undo all your hard work.”

Josh blushed a bit and threw his hands up in the air. “Fine! Fine! I get the hint.”

“Good, because I was trying to make it obvious.”

He rolled his eyes and stumped away with a shake of his head, leaving them alone while he went to check on Ms. Guthrie, who had still not regained consciousness. Nori watched him go, before closing off the privacy curtain separating them from the rest of the recovery bay. “He seems to be doing better,” she said.

David sighed. “He’s just distracting himself. I don’t think he’s doing well at all.”

She sighed and hung her head. “It’s not fair, you know? Laurie was so sweet, and to lose her like that, I—” Nori choked up when tears welled up in her eyes. “Stryker didn’t even give us time to grieve.”

“I know,” he said, and reached out for one of her gauntleted hands. They were still unsatisfyingly chunky, and with everything that had been happening Dr. McCoy couldn’t spare the time to develop something more to her liking.

“Have you decided about Harvard, yet?”

David sunk back into his bed and heaved a sigh. “I’m not going to go. At least, not yet. I know I have the credits to finish here early, but I do want to graduate with you. And I don’t know, leaving now after everything that’s happened just doesn’t seem right.”

Nori’s breath caught in her throat, and she shook her head. “No. You need to go. I want you to go!”

“Nori?”

“Go to Harvard and get away from here!” she said, and the tears she was holding back broke free. “I don’t want you here!”

David gawked at her. “What? Why?”

“Because of this!” she wailed, and waved her arms to take in the recovery bay. “David, you don’t have horns, or funny eyes. You don’t shoot stuff out of your ears or move things with your mind. Your power just makes you really good at doing things. No one would ever know you were a mutant if you didn’t tell them. You’re probably the only one of us who’s safest outside of here!”

David grabbed hold of one of her hands and ran his fingers across her gauntlet. Nori squeezed her eyes shut tightly to force out the rest of the tears, and tried to imagine what it would be like for him to touch her without the metal sheathing her hands, or the risk of fatally electrocuting him. “That’s a big part of why I can’t go. Too much happened, and I can’t just run away like that.”

“You were almost killed,” she said in protest.

David clasped his other hand around hers. “So were you. If not for Laura you might have been.”

Nori rolled her eyes. “God...Laura. How do you even deal with that?”

“By accepting that she did the only thing she could do to save the rest of you. I’m not saying it doesn’t scare the hell out of me, but I’m glad she did it, because we might not be having this conversation otherwise.”

“We could so easily still not be having it. I can’t lose you the way Josh lost Laurie!”

David reached out and ran a thumb across her cheek to wipe away her tears. “You won’t, I promise. But I’m not going to run off and leave you here alone, either. Admissions said they can defer my application and scholarship until after I finish next year, and I want to do that.”

“But what if Stryker comes back?”

He quirked a grin. “Then next time I’ll be sure to skill-snatch someone who’s a lot better at ducking.”

Nori laughed in spite of herself. “You’re sure this is what you want to do.”

“It is.”

She nodded against his hand. “Then I guess I have to support you, don’t I?”

He chuckled. “I think that’s usually the way it goes.”

Nori glanced over her shoulder and peered around the privacy curtain. Josh was nowhere in view, nor could she hear any sign of him elsewhere in the bay. “So how much trouble would we be in if I crawled in there with you?” she asked, lowering her head just enough to gaze up suggestively through her lashes.

A smile spread across David’s face, and he made a show of craning his own neck to look for Josh or Dr. McCoy coming. “A bit, but I think it’ll be worth it.”

Nori giggled softly and leaned in and kissed him, and for a moment forgot all about Stryker and Harvard.

###

Sooraya made her way up the stairs, fuming silently at Julian's behavior. Laura only saved all their lives that night, Allah forbid he show some graciousness! As uneasy as she admitted Laura made her, she could not dismiss what she did for them, and no matter how little remorse she displayed for her actions Sooraya could not help but feel something deeply distressed her she refused to discuss. Why could Julian not see the same? She murmured a string of Farsi invective beneath her breath she promptly begged forgiveness for in frustration at his narrow-minded obstinacy.

"Soo! Hey! Soo!" a voice behind her called, and Sooraya paused at the gallery when Cessily rushed from the lounge to join her. "Wait up!"

"Allah forgive me for having such thoughts, Cessily, but I wanted to smack Julian across the face for what he did," she said, leaning on the railing while she waited for her to catch up. The old banister had been so thoroughly chewed up by gunfire during the fight it needed to be removed. Though a new one had been put in place, it was still unfinished; raw wood smooth as satin to the touch, but not yet varnished to match the rest of the wood trim. The windows overlooking the gallery were boarded up awaiting replacement.

"Believe me, I'm the choir you're preaching to. This was out of line even for him."

Sooraya turned once Cessily reached her, and they continued together. "To think that he would tell any of us that we don't belong here! Here, of all places!" She sighed and mopped her face. "After all that has happened, I cannot imagine how he could be so cruel."

"I'm not trying to defend him,” Cessily said, “but he's scared. He doesn't want to anyone to see how much the last couple months have really shaken him up. It doesn't excuse him treating Laura like this, but I didn't see her and even I have to admit it scares me.

“And don’t tell me the claws and stuff don’t remind you of anyone. That can’t be coincidence.”

They reached the top of the stairs and started across the dormitory hallway. It was deserted, with everyone either still downstairs or shutting themselves away in the privacy of their rooms. "Of course, it would be impossible not to have noticed.” Sooraya sighed. “And I won’t deny that what happened makes me uneasy as well. I can only assume that the Professor knew about this, but I do find it troubling he wouldn't trust us with it."

Cessily shrugged. "I dunno. I mean it's not any of our business, I guess. It's up to her if she wants to tell us about herself, right?"

"I suppose. And that, at least, Julian ought to have respected. He knows how difficult it can be for many of us to be here. But to make her feel unwelcome ...?"

"I know, Soo, I know."

They said nothing more until they reached the door to her room. Sooraya reached for the doorknob, and frowned when it refused to turn. "The door is locked," she said, and knocked instead. "Laura? It's me, are you alright?"

Silence answered her, and Cessily leaned against the door frame with a frown. She hooked a loose strand of red hair behind one silver ear. "Laura?" Cessily called. "Hey, you there?"

"One moment," Sooraya said, and fumbled beneath her abaya for her room key. She unlocked the door and pushed it open, and she and Cessily stepped inside.

Laura was nowhere to be seen.

"Uh ..." Cessily said. "Is she even here?"

"I thought I saw her heading this way, but she moved so fast ..."

"Laura?" Cessily called, but there was no response. Sooraya frowned and made her way to Laura's bed. Her backpack was conspicuously absent, as was her copy of Pinocchio, and Sooraya suddenly felt a hollowness eating away at her gut. Some of her clothes were gone as well.

"She's gone," Sooraya said quietly, and balled her hands into fists.

"What? Are you sure?"

She nodded. "Look! Her bag and book are gone."

When Cessily saw for herself her silver features twisted into a scowl. "God dammit, Julian!"

Sooraya spun around and rushed from the room, back out into the dormitory hallway, and hurried for the stairs with Cessily close on her heels. By the time she reached the gallery Julian was emerging from the lounge, his hands jammed into his pockets and his head hanging dejectedly. She was aware of the black cloud that seemed to be following him, but her temper got the better of her and she brushed it aside.

"Julian Keller!" she shouted, and Julian paused and looked up at her. "You...you ass!"

"Woah, potty mouth!" Santo said from the entry hall below, where he and Victor were about to step outside.

Julian stared at her incredulously, and Sooraya felt the eyes of everyone nearby on her when she hurried down from the gallery with Cessily close behind her. He was so taken aback by her use of profanity that he couldn't even find words to respond.

"Did Sooraya just call Julian an ass?" Victor asked in disbelief, and the pair joined the small knot forming around them to witness the new confrontation brewing in the hallway. "I mean did she actually just curse?"

“That’s what it sounded like to me,” Illyana said when she emerged from the lounge with Megan and Fabio, and her smile was almost as broad as Santo’s. “My, my, whatever will Allah think?”

“’Tis nae a jokin’ matter to be usin’ such language, Yana,” Rahne said with an irritated glower in her direction when she and Dani joined the others investigating the commotion.

“Aw, you are so innocent. Come on, Rahne, Sooraya Qadir calling Julian Keller an ass is absolutely hilarious.”

"What's gotten into you?" Julian finally managed once the shock of her outburst wore off, and while Illyana and Rahne sparred over her slip of the tongue.

"Laura is gone!"

Rahne gasped, even Illyana was taken aback, and everyone gathering around them fell into silence. Julian just scowled and folded his arms across his chest. "What are you talking about, Soo? She's probably just hiding somewhere."

Cessily glared at him. "She's gone, you asshole! She took her bag, her book, and we think some spare clothes and left! And it's probably because of you!"

"Oh come on! Like you can honestly understand anything that freak is thinking!"

"She has feelings you idiot! God! How can you stand there and not even care?"

"Because I don't!" he said. "Because she never belonged here in the first place!"

"Don't you dare say that!" Sooraya hissed, and felt her nails dig into her palms when she balled her fists and gripped her abaya to force herself not to slug him right then and there. "Ever since I have known you, you have treated this school like it's your little kingdom, but it's not. This is supposed to be a refuge for all of us, Laura not least of all! She saved your life, and this is how you would repay her?"

"Well, what do you want me to do about it?" Julian said, and raised his arms helplessly out to the sides.

"You're going to go bring her back," Cessily said, and glared at him.

"What?!"

"You heard me! You're going to go find her and bring her back!"

Julian glared and clenched his fists. "You have got to be kidding me!"

Sooraya folded her arms beneath her breast, and Cessily mirrored her posture. "Do we look like we are joking?" Sooraya asked. "You drove her away. You need to make this right."

"You've all gone freakin' crazy!"

"No, they haven't," Victor said, and joined them in staring him down. "Sooraya and Cessily are right. Look, she spooks me, too, but none of us would even be here right now without her."

“’Twas certainly nae very Christian o’ ye how ye treated her. Ye should be ashamed of yerself,” Rahne said, and crossly planted her hands on her hips.

Dani balled her hands into fists. “This is even worse than what you did to Nori when she first got here.”

Even Santo stepped up, stretching to his full height and glaring down on Julian with his arms folded across his broad, rocky chest. Julian suddenly looked very small, and very betrayed, when Santo took his place next to them. "You, too, traitor?"

"Yeah, me too. She's creepy and weird and I don't think I like her much even if she is pretty hot—" the big rocky mutant said, and Cessily rolled her eyes.

"You're a real piece of work, Santo," she muttered.

"—but she saved everyone here, including you. That makes her one of us."

"I can't believe this!"

Sooraya narrowed her eyes to slits. "You had best believe it, Julian. And you had best believe if you don't get out there and find her that you'll be learning just how it feels to be as unwelcome as you treated her. I suggest you start now before she can get far."

###

Act IV

###

The afternoon was unseasonably warm for so late in the winter, and her jacket was all she found she needed for the moment.

Temperature approximately 12.7 degrees Celsius. Wind out of the south, but weather reports suggest colder temperatures will return overnight. Priority: find food and shelter.

Laura forced herself to ignore the voice in her mind driving her to consider such practicalities, stuffed her hands in her jacket pockets, and hung her head while she made her way along the road. All she wanted to do now was walk as far as she could, while Julian Keller's words echoed in her mind.

Don't. Belong. Don't. Belong.

She took a shuddering breath, and fought against the tears threatening to once again well up in her eyes. He was right: She did not belong. The Xavier School was a place for children in need of help, and she was not a child, nor could she be helped. Logan was wrong. She was nothing but a tool to be used and discarded when she no longer served her purpose. She had tried to tell him, but he would not listen, and out of respect Laura agreed to give the school a chance. But in the end he was wrong and Julian was right.

Laura sniffled and wiped the tears from her face when they broke free and rolled down her cheeks. In some distant corner of her mind, buried behind walls and barriers, she remembered feeling this way before. Laura immediately slammed the door shut on the memory when it tried to force its way back into the light. The body lying still and unmoving in the reddened snow, the face so like hers... And with it came a rush of guilt and shame surging against the dam she constructed to contain the flood. It strained but held, but more and more it crept towards the forefront of her consciousness when she began to feel again.

Laura clenched her hands into fists so tight she felt her nails dig into her palms. She did not want to feel. Not that. Not again. But the feelings were awake again and she could not stop them entirely, so instead she focused on one and drew it around her like a cloak against the coming return of winter's chill.

So she felt alone.

Her wanderings proved not to be as aimless as she would have liked. Subconscious practicality won out over her attempts at randomness, and Laura found herself nearing Salem Center. It was practical. If she wished to leave Westchester she needed to secure transportation. She could take a bus from Salem, so here she was. More memories clawed their way out of the recesses of her mind when her eyes took in the sights along Titicus Road. She saw the Grind Stone and remembered her first trip into Salem with Mark and Cessily and Sooraya. They tried to make her welcome, and the deep pang she felt at the empty place left by Mark's death and Julian's rejection threatened to return and hammer against the shield of aloneness she wrapped around herself.

She did not want to be in Salem. In Salem there were people. And the overwhelming pall of their mingled scents, or the many conversations going on around her. All of it felt uncomfortable to her enhanced senses. Even the whispers. And worst of all, she saw herself kill them all, over and over and over again. Everyone she passed was dead the moment she laid eyes on them. Men, women, and children. No one escaped her while her mind calculated plan of attack upon plan of attack.

She could not stop it, so she lowered her head so she need not look at them, hitched up her backpack on her shoulders, and quickened her pace to hurry past them.

A group of boys about her age were gathered at the corner of June and Titicus near the movie theater. She ignored their catcalls, some sending a shiver down her spine, so alike were they to things she heard in the City. Things that made her feel small. Like meat.

She killed them all in her head.

Targets distracted by my appearance, not expecting a threat. Take down the leader first.

Laura tried to walk past them, but one ran into her path.

"Hey! Didn't you hear me?" he said.

"No," she said.

"I said where you going?"

"Away." She kept her head lowered. She did not want him to be more than a voice. If she were to kill him better that he not have a face.

"Come on, baby, don't be like that! We can party later."

"No."

He reached out to grab her by the arm. A mistake. Laura effortlessly wrenched it behind him and drove his face into the pavement. It took all her willpower not to extend her claws and drive them through his skull.

"Do. Not. Touch. Me." she hissed in his ear. Laura then turned her eyes on the rest of the group, and a low growl escaped her throat while she crouched ready to spring at the first one to make a move towards her. They all backed away, and they stank of fear when she released her assailant and continued on her way. Laura ignored the insults hurled at her back when she left them to prey on other girls.

She did not go to the bus stop, and instead forced herself to wander through Salem. As she did, she found herself drawn to the sound of laughter, and by instinct followed it to its source; a playground in a small park. It was unusually warm, so children were out playing in their light jackets, relieved however briefly from the cold grip of the New York winter. Their mothers and fathers stood watch over them, but it did not matter. Laura killed them all in her head. Again and again and again. She was murder, and nothing could stop her.

Adults are primary threat. They will attempt to defend or escape with their offspring. Most will panic. Once primary threat neutralized proceed with secondary...

With great effort she forced herself to stop, the faces of so many dead children surfacing from the depths of her memory where she banished them. She felt sick at the thought of them, but no matter how desperately she wanted them to, they would not go away.

For a long time Laura just stood and watched. Children ran and laughed, climbed on monkey bars, and slid down slides. Mothers and fathers pushed them on swings, and she watched them while the aloneness she wrapped herself in tightened around her throat like a garrote. A little girl, perhaps seven years old and with black hair, sat on a swing, while her black-haired mother pushed her, the girl’s legs pumping in rhythm with her mother's pushing. She laughed, insisting "Higher! Higher!" with every push when Laura's enhanced hearing picked her voice out of the crowd.

A hollow, empty feeling started in Laura's belly and radiated outward. Something deeper than her aloneness. A void in her that started her eyes to water again.

The afternoon wore on, and Laura did not move from the edge of the park, watching, her hands in her pockets and shrinking into her jacket. The sun sunk into the west, and the air grew colder, and slowly, one by one, the children left. They were carried by their mothers. They walked hand-in-hand with their fathers. Laura could hear the light and life in their little voices and laughter. They were untroubled by memory, by pain. They were happy and content. The little girl on the swing wrapped her arms around her mother's neck and kissed her cheek when she was plucked off and set on her little feet, and they left the park behind together. Laura's tears broke free again, and she found herself standing alone gazing at a deserted playground.

She started forward, slipped her backpack from her shoulder, and headed for the swing set. Laura set her pack down and lowered herself onto one of the swings; the soft rubberized seat hugged her bottom when she sat down, and she took hold of the chains suspending it from the top bar. Then she began to pump her legs, and slowly swung back and forth, higher and higher. The wind rushed coldly past her face and stung her eyes, and caught the long fall of her black hair until it floated behind her whenever her trajectory carried her forward.

She thought of the little black-haired girl while she swung, but she could not feel the gentle touch of soft hands pushing against her back on each downward swing, and her arc and momentum was driven only by her own power. Laura stopped pumping, and she gradually lost speed and slowed to a stop.

And for a long time after she sat on a swing in the middle of a deserted playground.

Alone.

###

Sofia shuffled out of her room for the last time, a bag hung on her shoulder and drawing a wheeled suitcase behind her. It was growing near to late afternoon, but the dormitory hallway was virtually deserted when she stepped past the west stairwell. She distantly heard the workers laboring downstairs, and the quiet background hum of voices. The handful of students gathered in the hall looked away from their private conversations, a few offering silent waves. Dani and Rahne bid their farewells with hugs, but the rest were so accustomed now to losing their friends that they were numb to it all.

She couldn't blame them. So much had happened the past few months the best she could muster at leaving was a hollowness in her belly.

Sofia made her way to the main stairs, where Derek, dark-skinned, his hair neatly styled, and dressed in a neat suit, met her to take her suitcase, and he effortlessly hefted it and preceded her down the stairs. Most of her classmates loitered around the entry hall and lounge to keep out of the workmen's hair. Floorboards and wall panels were taken down, the drywall needed patching and replacing, and all the holiday decorations had been removed (most having been damaged during the fight, anyway). Sooraya and Cessily caught sight of her when she reached the entry hall and started for the door, and hurried to intercept her.

"Sofia!" Cessily called. Sofia paused and set her bag on the ground at her feet when they caught up with her. Derek continued out the front door, weathering the curious looks from her erstwhile classmates with practiced ease.

"Hey," she said, the word all but forcibly squeezed from her lungs when Cessily glomped her. Sooraya's farewell was much more restrained and dignified, but Sofia could see the tears darkening her niqab.

"So this is it. You're really leaving." Cessily said. For all she went on about her inability to cry, Sofia could easily imagine tears flowing in rivers from the look on her face.

"I'm sorry. I just ..." She trailed off when her voice caught in her throat. "I just need to get away. After everything that's happened, I just can't stay anymore."

Cessily nodded. "I understand. Especially, you know, with it being your father asking you to come home."

Sofia's stomach churned when Julian's words echoed in her ears, and a part of her feared he was right — that her father only asked her to come home to protect his own image — but she quickly forced that thought from her mind. No. This time was different. Tears welled up in her eyes when she took in her friends. "I'm going to miss all of you guys."

"You'll always have family here," Sooraya said, and her own voice wavered while she fought to keep herself from breaking down entirely. "Never forget that."

Sofia stepped forward to give them both one last hug. "I won't. You guys take care, okay?"

"Is there anything you want me to say to Julian?" Cessily asked when they parted, and fresh hurt stabbed through her at his name.

She shook her head. "If he can't be man enough to say good-bye himself, then no. It's not worth it." Cessily and Sooraya shared a brief look, but Sofia waved it off.

"Look,” Cessily said, “I know it's not my place to say anything, but please don't be too hard on him. He doesn't want to admit it, but he's been shaken up worse by all of this than I think you realize."

"It's not that I don't believe you, Cess, I just can't deal with him over this. Maybe I'll have something to say to him if he decides to grow up. But I can't see that happening." She sighed. "Look, I have to get going, Derek is waiting for me. I'll give you a call when I get settled in."

"Ok. And you know, you're not all that far away so it's not like we can't still hang out sometime."

Sofia smiled. "I'd like that." She hesitated a moment, looking them each in the eye before hefting her bag again to stave off another glomp from Cessily. "You guys take care."

"You too."

Sooraya inclined her head. "Ma’ al-salāmah."

And then Sofia turned and made the slow walk along the entrance hall. She exchanged a few farewells with the others she passed on her way out the door, and paused for one last look back at the school before heading for her car.

###

"What do you want?" the boy said.

Julian stood at the corner of June and Titicus, confronting a group of locals about his age who were hanging out in front of the movie theater. The unseasonably warm afternoon was slowly giving way to a more appropriately cold New York winter's evening, and his mood was not helped by being forced to ask everyone he passed if they happened to see the little goth freak while she meandered through Salem. It wasn’t exactly a difficult trail of breadcrumbs to follow, but it was turning into a long one.

Why can't I just find a dead end so I can go home?

Julian folded his arms across his chest and scowled at the thug-lite poser leading the gang. "I said ‘Hey dumbass, I’m looking for someone, have you seen her?’"

The boy glared down his nose at him; he was a good half a foot taller, and the angle of his head gave Julian a spectacular view up the kid’s nostrils past the hoop of gold stuck through his septum. "I dunno, we see a lot of people," he said, and his equally thug-lite poser goon squad somehow found that hilarious and laughed uproariously. Julian just rolled his eyes in disbelief that anyone could have so bad a sense of humor.

"She's about five-foot-nothing, black hair, spooky, and dresses like she just walked off the set of The Craft."

One of the members of his — and Julian used this term ironically — posse piped up from the back. "Hey, that sounds like the chick who threw you on the pavement an hour ago!"

"Shut up!" the leader snarled, and his face reddened with embarrassment.

Julian ignored him and turned his attention on Number Two-For-Brains. "Where is she?"

"I don't know, man, but I don't think she's looking for a good time if you catch my meaning."

"I don't care what she's looking for, I just want to find her."

"What is it to you, anyway? Girlfriend run off on you?" the leader of the group asked.

Julian rounded on him and glared daggers at him. His power gathered around him when he balled his fists, and the green aura formed around his hands. It wasn't an overt display, but enough to make the thugs take notice, and they all backed away. "Let’s get one thing strait Ferdinand: She is not my girlfriend."

"Mutie freak!" he snapped.

"Blahblahblah mutie blahblahblah freak," Julian said. "Try something I don’t hear about a million times a day. You have no idea just how bad of a day I'm having. So, you want to try something? Go for it, I could use a chance to unwind with something to hit. Or maybe I'll just rip that ugly ass ring right out of your nose." And for emphasis he gave the septum ring a gentle tug with his power.

"Dude, she went that way!" Number Two said, waving further south along June. "We don't want any trouble from you people."

He dismissed his power and released the idiot with the nose ring. "You people? Seriously?"

The leader glared at him. "Look, you've got what you wanted, so get lost. Because it’s Salem I’ll be generous and not pound your freak hide into a bloody smear!"

"Whatever, Thug Life. Peace out," he said, and threw a mocking gesture at them when he turned and started in the indicated direction.

Julian passed no one else when he continued south down June, but in no time he found her; alone, sitting on a swing in the middle of a playground, and staring blankly at the patch of rubber mulch in front of her. The place was deserted, except for the two of them, the children long ago gone home after the sun began to sink towards the horizon and cast long shadows that stretched out across the park to enfold it in the approaching night.

He stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets and crossed the park, scowling in frustration and annoyance over the search. Julian had no doubt she already knew he was there, but Laura made no effort to bolt, to which he admitted a degree of disappointment. If she ran, he could go back to the school and tell everyone she refused to return and that would be the end of it. But no, the freak had to just sit there staring at nothing.

Julian reached the swing set, leaned against it, and glared at her. Laura didn’t even look at him, and just sat hunched and hugging herself on the swing. He gathered his power to him, idly spun one of the empty ones around to wind it up, then released it and watched it untwist itself again.

“You found me,” Laura finally said, her voice so quiet he almost didn’t hear her.

“Hail goth queen of the obvious,” he said.

Her gaze shifted from the ground in front of her to her lap, and her black hair spilled across her face hiding her expression.

He grumbled in exasperation. “Look, can we just go back now? I’ve been chasing you down all day, it’s getting cold, I’m tired, and I’m hungry. You’ve thrown your tantrum. Get over it and let’s go.”

Julian’s glare was lost on her. She didn’t even look at him, and that just irritated him even more. Laura just sat there on the swing, staring blankly at her lap, and Julian stared at her, waiting for her to... waiting for anything so he could just go home.

Finally, after an interminable pause, Laura spoke again.

“You are right,” she said, her voice once again almost unintelligibly quiet.

“About what?” he snapped irritably.

“About me. I do not belong.”

He rolled his eyes. You’re just now realizing it? He nearly voiced that thought aloud when Laura did something he never, ever, expected to see her do.

She began to cry.

It was only a few tears, first one and then another slowly rolling down her cheeks, and in an instant the force of death that so deeply terrified him was gone, and left in its place was a girl sitting alone on a swing in the middle of a playground.

Laura raised her hands, palms towards her, and studied them for a moment while she rubbed her thumbs across her fingertips. Then she balled them into fists, and with a distinct metallic snikt extended her claws. The sudden movement when they burst from her hands made him jump, and this close he couldn’t help but notice the spray of blood that accompanied them. Jesus, doesn’t that hurt?

“I am a killer, Julian,” she continued, and her voice trembled. “A monster.” Laura sniffed and retracted her claws again, and dropped her hands into her lap. “It was what they ...” She trailed off and swallowed visibly, but did not elaborate when she found her voice again. “What I was bred for.

“So when I killed those men attacking the school I felt nothing for them. No regret, no sorrow, nothing. I did not care who they were, and I did not even see them as people. I do not know if I feel anything for them now. They were a threat to be destroyed, and nothing more.”

Julian frowned, and a shiver worked its way down his spine at just how matter-of-factly that was said. He warily stepped away from the frame of the swing set and approached her. Laura did not turn to look at him, and her eyes stared blankly ahead of her. He sat in one of the swings next to her. “Who are ‘they?’” he asked, perplexed.

She did not answer the question, and only closed her eyes as if to shut out some distantly remembered pain. “When I walk into a room, I already know exactly how I will kill everyone inside it,” she said instead, and her voice broke while more tears wandered down her cheeks, “and I cannot turn it off.” Laura drew a ragged breath, and her voice was on the verge of breaking. “Logan, Sooraya, Cessily, you. The children who were playing here earlier. I killed them all over and over and over again in my head and it does. Not. Stop. I hate it.

“I hate myself.”

Julian couldn’t find the words to respond, and the fear of being so close continued gnawing at him. But he suddenly realized that it was tempered by the self-loathing dripping from her voice. She still terrified him — the memory of her claws tearing Stryker’s men to shreds, her standing there among the bodies covered in blood and gore vivid in his mind — but suddenly he felt something else. Something new for her he never expected.

Pity.

“I do not belong,” she repeated, “and I am a danger to everyone so long as I remain.”

“Laura ...” he started, but she cut him off.

“Just go.” Tears began to flow freely, and he could see now the effort she was exerting to remain in control. “Tell them ...” she hesitated, uncertain what to say. “Tell them whatever makes it better. I am not good at lying. But you are right. I do not belong, and it was foolish of me to allow Logan to convince me otherwise.”

The hopelessness in her voice at those words broke his heart, and suddenly Julian understood. Seeing it now for himself, he realized what Sofia and Sooraya and Cessily had tried to make him see, but he was too arrogant and stubborn to listen. Whatever Laura was running from, whatever she had been made, the school had been her last chance for some sense of normalcy in her life.

And by driving her away he had stolen it from her.

Julian bowed his head when the guilt settled over him. “No,” he said. “I’m not.” He looked up at her, and for the first time Laura looked back, and her green eyes wavered from the tears welling up behind them. “I was wrong, and I’m sorry.”

He sighed and hung his head again, and they sat in silence for a few moments while he mulled over his words. “This school was my last chance,” he admitted. “When my power manifested my parents were tolerant of it as long as I obeyed their rules and never used it outside the house. They didn’t want it to get out to their friends and business associates that their son was a mutant. I was an inconvenience they didn’t want to have to deal with. Unfortunately, I don’t exactly like to follow the rules.”

Julian glanced over to her and gave her a lopsided smile. “Not that that comes as any real surprise, I’m sure.” Laura just looked back at him without a word. He sighed and turned his attention back to his hands. “So of course I made one scene too many, and I was starting to become uncomfortable for them. When they learned about Xavier’s, I was pretty much told I would either enroll here or they would throw me out and cut me off entirely. So here I am.”

He clasped his hands together in front of him. “Only Cessily knows about any of this,” he said. “Everyone else? I let them think I was here by my own choice, not because I didn’t have one. I was just too embarrassed by it, and I didn’t want to be like everyone else. I didn’t even tell Sofia. God, I am such an idiot. The person I cared about most, and I was so ashamed about why I was here that I couldn’t even be honest with her. And now she’s gone.”

Laura blinked. “Sofia has left?”

Julian nodded and covered his eyes with one hand to hide the tears threatening to well up. “Sofia is gone. Mark, Laurie, Jay, and so many others are dead. Kevin snapped. I’m losing the people that made being here bearable. And when you... It scared me, ok? Seeing how casually you tore those men apart after watching people I cared about — my friends — die ...”

“I am sorry, Julian,” she said, and hugged herself self-consciously.

“No, don’t apologize to me. You’re the one who deserves one. You saved my life — all our lives — even after how terribly I treated you, and you didn’t deserve the things I said about you this morning. I took everything that’s been happening out on you, and you didn’t deserve it. I don’t blame you at all if you want to leave, and I don’t know if I can ever really make up to you how big of a jerk I’ve been. Just don’t let me drive you away. You belong here as much as any of us do.” He sighed and mopped his face. “In fact, you probably belong more than I do.”

Laura said nothing, and just turned and gazed at the rubber mulch in front of her again. Julian levered himself out of the swing. “I don’t care if you forgive me. Just please don’t let me ruin your chance at a normal life, whatever that is for people like us.” He extended a hand to her, and Laura flinched away from him reflexively, like a dog beaten once too often. For a moment Julian puzzled at her reaction, but otherwise made nothing more of it. “Please, just come home.”

She hesitated a moment and eyed his hand like it was a rabid dog ready to bite her, then slowly reached out and accepted it when he helped her off the swing.

###

Act V

###

Xavier steepled his hands in front of him, rested his chin against his index fingers, and leaned on his elbows over his desk. Scott stood beside him, and together they regarded the students gathered in his office. He lightly brushed each of their minds for a surface impression of their feelings, and was met mostly with curiosity along with a touch of apprehension for good measure. Underlying it all was the fear pervasive among the student body, and their confusion over why they were summoned to his office mingled with their existing uncertainty to keep them alert and on edge.

He hid a sigh behind his hands. This was not what he wanted, but Scott's assessment was right: They blinded themselves, either willfully or out of hope, to the reality of the threat Stryker presented. And it cost them the lives of dozens of their children. Stryker forced their hand; it was time for them to grow up.

“It's time,” he thought to Scott. “There's no point in delaying.”

Scott straightened in response, and Xavier looked the group over to take them all in: Noriko stood behind the wheelchair David was wheeled in on at Henry's insistence, the two of them presenting a bright beacon of happiness amongst the fear and anger permeating the school. Sooraya sat with her typical calm serenity wrapped around her like her abaya and niqab, with Cessily rocking with anxious energy in a chair next to her.

Josh stood at the back of the group not far from David and Nori, his eyes downcast, head hung, and shoulders slumping, while the lamplight reflected off his golden skin. Xavier felt he could reach out and touch the grief radiating from him even without his powers. Santo and Victor stood together off to the side; the former's mind blissfully empty of much of anything, the latter watching and waiting intently. Julian leaned against one of the bookshelves nearby with his arms folded across his chest, looking thoroughly bored and anxious to be anywhere else.

Last was Laura, seated in one of the chairs as far from the others as she could put herself, hugging herself tightly with her head downcast. Her thoughts and feelings were unreadable, but at times Xavier saw her green eyes flick in Julian's direction, accompanied by brief spikes of confusion evident even behind her mental defenses.

Xavier puzzled at that for a moment. It of course didn't take long for word of the altercation in the lounge earlier that day to reach his ears, but something more seemed to have transpired between them afterwards that neither wished to discuss.

"I know you're wondering why you've been called here," Scott began, and Xavier roused himself from his private ruminations on the children gathered in front of him. "I know you're all upset and angry about what happened. I know everyone has questions about what is going to happen next. And I know that you're all afraid."

He sighed and hung his head. "All I can say to you is this: I'm sorry. Our job is to be here for you all. To teach you, and most importantly, to keep you safe. We failed in that commitment, and you are the ones who suffered the consequences of that failure."

Xavier felt something dark surging from Josh's mind at those words. He kept his head lowered and hid his expression from view, however he couldn't hide the glistening tear rolling down his cheek.

"The reason why we've gathered you here today is, in part, to address this failure, and make sure that it doesn't happen again. I've discussed the matter with the Professor, and he is in agreement with me: For good or ill, your childhood ended the night of Stryker's attack. You're not the innocent boys and girls who came to us to learn, but instead are young men and women who have experienced first-hand the cold truth that the world has not progressed as much the last ten years as we had thought. It's time for all of you to decide whether you will be taking the next step in growing up."

All of them, except Laura, now stared at Scott with rapt attention. If any of them guessed the meaning of his words it wasn't evident in the surface impression Xavier felt, and he resisted the desire to probe deeper.

"That is why I've decided that in order to address the school's failures, it's time to form a new team among the student body, whose assignment would be to help safeguard the school, as well as preparing you for the new reality: All of you know Stryker is still out there, and he has declared war against us. It's not a war we want or asked for, but it's one we have no choice but to defend against."

Santo's rocky features brightened considerably. "Dude, does this mean we're gonna be X-Men?"

If there was any surprise that Santo pieced Scott's meaning together before the rest of them, it was lost behind the mixture of astonishment and excitement in their minds. Cessily and Sooraya, and David and Nori whispered amongst each other, Victor just stared in surprise, and Julian smirked and fist-bumped Santo. "Rock on!" he said. Only Laura and Josh didn't outwardly respond, though Josh's feelings were a muddled blend of determination and anger. Of Laura's thoughts Xavier could feel nothing.

"Calm down, calm down," Scott said, motioning for silence. "This is not a command or order, but is entirely voluntary. I'm extending you this offer because for various reasons I believe you're the best-equipped to handle it, because you have the most to offer, or because you stand to benefit from the responsibility. It won't be easy. It certainly won't be glamorous." He eyed Santo closely. "And you'll also be expected to maintain passing grades in your classwork in addition to your training."

"Aw." Santo groused, and deflated noticeably, drawing chuckles from the others. Even Xavier had to admit to some amusement at that.

"Any of you who need the time to consider this offer you're under no compulsion to decide now. And I want you all to remember that this isn't going to be mandatory. It's entirely up to you." Scott glanced at Julian. "Julian?"

"I'm in," Julian said, the smirk still on his features, and Xavier couldn't help but notice him standing a little taller and straighter. In fact, the fears that had been looming in the back of all their minds evaporated the moment Scott made the offer.

Scott looked to Santo, who nodded eagerly. "This is gonna rock!" the big mutant said, prompting groans and a roll of the eye from Victor, who just shrugged.

"Sure, I mean someone's got to keep him in line," he said, and jerked his thumb at Santo.

"Count me in," Nori said, and folded her gauntleted arms across her chest.

"Me too," David said, and Xavier couldn't help but feel a flare of anxiety from Nori in response.

Josh nodded. "Why not. I'm sure someone's going to need a healer sooner or later."

"Allah teaches to give of ourselves," Sooraya said, "and I can think of no greater service than to protect others. I accept."

"Me too," Cessily said. "Don't know about God and all, but I just feel like I want to do something, y'know?"

Only one voice had been conspicuously silent, and everyone turned to Laura. She felt the attention of everyone else on her and tried to shrink out of sight, with her feet drawn up on the chair and her knees hugged tightly against her chest.

"Laura?" Scott asked.

"Come on, Laura, you want to be one of the cool kids, don't ya?" Santo said, and Xavier fixed him with a stern glare.

"Santo!" he said. "This is Laura's decision alone to make. And none of you should by any means feel that you are being pressured to accept."

"It's entirely your choice, Laura," Scott said, and when Xavier reached out to her he could feel the turmoil hidden behind her stoic green eyes. The confusion overwhelmed her while she wrestled with the meaning of Scott’s offer, and when Laura finally responded it was without words. She gave a small, uncertain nod, and Xavier closed his eyes in sadness.

She did not understand.

Scott studied her for a long moment, and then nodded while he regarded the entire group. "Then it's settled. Let me officially welcome you to the X-Men. I can only hope you survive the experience."

---

A Note From The Author

When originally writing this episode I planned two main focuses:

The first was the aftermath of Laura's actions in the season finale. Throughout Season 1 I deliberately kept her nature as secret as I could for those unfamiliar with the books, so hopefully the big reveal in 1x13 would come as much of a surprise to the audience as it did her classmates. That, of course, meant that there would be lingering questions about it among both. Well, of course I'm not going to reveal them all right away, I want more surprises to come! But I knew I would be dealing with how the other characters react to her; particularly Julian.

I’m not really sure how well that’s aged since Logan and Deadpool & Wolverine introduced X-23 to a wider audience. I suspect that sort of reduces the chance of surprising anyone at this point. But it still makes for a nice narrative flow so I decided to leave it all as it was during the reedits.

The second thing I wanted to accomplish is establish my team going forward. I'm sure most of you had guessed which characters I would be using based on Season 1 (and of course, it's probably not a surprise to readers of KYost's turn on New X-Men). So that meant maneuvering the different characters where I wanted or needed them. Without M-Day that obviously affected some of the relationships, but I nonetheless have everyone where I want them, and have the team put together.

The imagery of Laura on the playground alone was inspired by a piece of fan art on DeviantArt by Danni Torres, not the altercation depicted in her backstory from X-Men: Evolution. There was just something poignant about that image, and the subplot of her encounter with Julian was built almost entirely around that idea, which fundamentally alters the dynamic of their relationship.

It’s a common misconception, usually by people who just plain hate Hellion in general, or the HeliX ship specifically, to cast Julian as a bully who was constantly pushing Laura around in their initial interactions in New X-Men. The reality is Laura very quickly shut him down, and the extent of his bullying (of Laura, at least) has been greatly exaggerated.

However, the circumstances of her introduction to the cast of the original Academy X was in quite a different context. Logan made their relationship clear from the start, and the nature of her powers was never a big mystery. In my version, however, Laura is being hidden, and I accordingly made her more withdrawn from and secretive with the others. So she never had that moment where she stood up to Julian and put him in his place. I therefore decided to run with Julian being much more of a bully towards her, especially to set up this moment of reconciliation where he realizes what a heel he’d been.

Character development!

The argument between Julian and Sofia comes from the original book, though like his treatment of Laura, I amped up the conflict a bit, as well as adjusted the circumstances (remember: no Decimation in my universe). The interaction between Nori and David this episode came about as something of a counterpoint of Julian and Sofia; the idea being to highlight the differences between them, and why their relationship survived their problems at the end of the first season but Julian’s and Sofia’s didn't.

Jubilee high on painkillers and wanting to drag race the Professor was totally spur-of-the-moment, though.

With all that in mind, here’s an update on the student body in the aftermath of Season 1. A new floorplan of the room assignments for the Spring Semester will be coming in a later episode.

---

Xavier School for Gift Youngsters Student Body

Spring 2014

Abbott, Hope

Abidemi, Nezhno

Aldine, Ruth

Alleyne, David

Ashida, Noriko

Bohusk, Barnell

Borkowski, Victor

Foley, Joshua

Gavaskar, Paras

Green, Sidney

Guthrie, Melody

Gwynne, Megan

Hamill, Benjamin

Keller, Julian

Kincaid, Cessily

Kinney, Laura

Medina, Fabio

Moonstar, Dani

Qadir, Sooraya

Quire, Quentin

Rasputin, Illyana

Ryan, Alani

Sinclair, Rahne

Vaccaro, Santo

Vale, Jessica

Washington, Roxanne

Chapter 2: 2x02 - Girl's Day Out

Summary:

A trip to New York City with Jubilee for a girl's day out unexpectedly forces Laura to confront a part of her past, leading her to paint the town red in a way Jubilee didn't have in mind. Meanwhile, the short break before beginning training offers Julian an opportunity for a visit home.

2x02

Girl’s Day Out

Based upon a story by Marjorie Liu

and

Based upon a story by Nunzio DeFillippis and Christina Weir

###

Act I

###

Julian stood back, scrutinized everything laid out on his bed, and rubbed his chin thoughtfully while he considered what to take with him. The sunblock and his swim trunks were a must; New York might be gripped in the harsh cold of a Northeastern winter, but even at this time of year Southern California meant beaches and bikinis. If he had his way that was all he would take, but unfortunately a trip home also meant a trip home, so there would be no avoiding a stay with his parents.

So with a sigh he set aside a couple changes of clothes to go with his beachwear.

“You ready yet?” he asked, his eyes still focused on his packing.

“What do you think? Board shorts, or all natural?” Santo asked from across their room. A messy pile of jeans and t-shirts filled the middle of his suitcase, with no thought at all towards how he expected to close it.

“I’m really hoping you’re not asking me if you should just go naked at the beach.”

“What? It’s not like there’s anything to see. I lost my junk when I got blown up.”

Julian sighed and mopped his face. “And thank you oh-so-much for that visual. And while I just know I’m going to regret asking: What’s the difference?”

“I want to make myself look good for the chicks, right?”

“Santo, you’re a walking, talking, pile of gravel. In what way is that going to look good no matter what you’re wearing?”

The big rocky mutant shrugged. “What? You never know. Maybe there’s some hot chick with like, a rock fetish, or something.”

Julian groaned and rolled his eyes. “Oh God. We’re going to get lynched the minute you step on the beach, if everybody doesn’t run screaming first.”

“Dude, you’re just jealous. Imma be so up to my armpits with the girls once they see me.”

“That’s it, I’m totally TKing you into the ocean when we get there.”

Santo casually tossed his board shorts into the growing pile of clothes, forced his suitcase shut, and zipped it up. “Hey, you think we’ll actually get Cessily out there?” He flashed his stupidest grin. “Maybe she’ll actually wear a bikini, too.”

“Maybe I won’t have to do it myself. Maybe Cess will do it for me ...” Julian finished sorting through his clothes and started packing them neatly away. “Will you promise me to behave yourself? I had to do a lot of sucking up to get Mom and Dad to allow the rest of you to come along.”

Santo sniffed indignantly. “Humph. You sound like I’m just gonna embarrass you.”

Julian looked away from his suitcase and gave him the stink eye. “Gee, I wonder why that is.”

“I’m just glad to be getting away from here for a bit. The whole being an X-Man thing is gonna be awesome, but it’s sucked not being able to go to Salem.”

Julian sighed. “I’d rather be staying here than dealing with my parents.” He didn’t say another word after that, and hurried to finish packing.

###

Jubilee slowly shambled up the hall, with her weight supported on a cane provided by Dr. McCoy. She gritted her teeth and ignored the stab of pain ripping through her side, nodding in greeting to the students she passed, but politely declining their offers of help or support. Getting back into a normal routine wasn’t easy, but damned if she was just going to lie about all day.

Normal.

She mused on that to distract her from her discomfort when she turned into the lounge. The fear and anger of November and December was passing into fresh optimism again when the New Year began, and the students relaxed (if “relaxed” was the proper sentiment) in anticipation of the resumption of their normal, everyday grind of classwork with the beginning of the new semester. Jubilee managed a tight, satisfied smile at the sight of her kids talking and laughing over breakfast, a welcome display of levity interrupting the doldrums of the past few months.

Illyana and Melody — the latter recently back from Kentucky — were leaving the lounge when she entered, and nearly bumped right into her. Jubilee awkwardly hopped to one side, and her body protested the sudden movement with a fresh spike of pain drawing a yelp from her lungs. At once the pair were on either side to steady her and keep her from tumbling all the way to the floor.

“Oh my God!” Melody cried in embarrassment. “Jubilee! Ah’m so sorry, Ah didn’t see you ...”

“It’s all right, Mel,” Jubilee said through gritted teeth once she steadied herself. “I’m just testing out my reflexes.”

“Liar,” Illyana said. “Shouldn’t you still be in bed?”

Jubilee leaned her weight on her cane to take some of the stress off the still-mending injuries in her hip and side. “Hey, dude, I’ve been up for a week now. Anyway, I think Dr. McCoy was getting tired of me complaining about the food down in the med bay, so he kicked me out.”

“So you came up here? I’m not sure that’s an improvement.”

She chuckled softly and grabbed her side. “Please don’t make me laugh! Besides, there’s been too much to do. How are you guys doing? Mel, how’s your mom holding up?”

“She’s okay. Holdin’ up about as well as the rest of us, considerin’,” Mel said, and rubbed one arm self-consciously. Jubilee eyed her closely; the grief over her brother’s death continued to linger in her features. “Relieved Ah’m all right, kind of scared Ah wanted to come back, but she understands why Ah didn’t want to give up. She missed seein’ Paige, though, an’ Ah think she’s plannin’ to make a trip up.”

Jubilee gave her a reassuring smile and squeezed her shoulder. “Doc and Josh say she’s doing just fine, but she could probably do with some company.”

“Ah know, Ah was just on my way down to see if she was up yet this mornin’.”

“I won’t keep you guys, but if you need to talk later I’ll be in my office most of the morning.”

“Okay,” Mel said. Illyana just nodded. “Just want to say it’s good seein’ you back on your feet.”

Jubilee gave her shoulder a parting squeeze. “Thanks. I’ll talk to you later,” she said, and let the pair continue on their way. Jubilee turned back into the lounge and picked out face in the crowd she was looking for, huddled on a couch in front of the television between the gleaming silver skin of Cessily Kincaid, and the darker, less-distinct figure of Sooraya Qadir wrapped in her abaya.

Laura balanced a big bowl of oatmeal so heavily spiced with cinnamon Jubilee could smell it from halfway across the lounge on her knees, and watched whatever was on the television with her peculiar child-like interest. Cessily and Sooraya had already finished eating, and all three were so absorbed in their own conversation they didn’t seem to notice her approach. All but Laura, of course, whose green eyes briefly flicked in her direction almost as soon as she entered the lounge.

“You are leaving?” Laura asked around a mouthful of her breakfast, her lips pulled down into a frown so faint that anyone who didn’t know what to look for would never have even noticed. Her voice, for want of a better phrase, spoke volumes more over what she was feeling, and there was a distinct note of sorrow in her tone.

“Only for the week,” Cessily said. “Julian is going home to visit his folks, and he’s asked me, Santo, and Victor to come with him.”

“Oh.”

Jubilee raised an eyebrow at that; if she didn’t know better, Laura may have actually sounded disappointed, and for just a moment her delicate features shifted at the mention of Julian’s name. She couldn’t exactly place what she was thinking, but there was more than a hint of confusion in that brief display of emotion.

“When are you all leaving?” Sooraya asked.

“The taxi’s picking us up for La Guardia in about an hour,” Cessily said, and rolled her eyes. “Eight hours stuck in a tiny metal tube with Santo Vaccaro ...”

“I’m sure the living will envy the dead,” Jubilee said, and stopped in front of the couch and leaned on her cane. She craned her neck a bit to check out the TV; the girls were watching a rerun of Animaniacs, and she arrived just in time to watch the Brain’s latest scheme to take over the world backfire with spectacularly hilarious results.

“Jubes!” Cessily said, and her silver features lit up when she vaulted off the couch and started towards her to drag her kicking and screaming into one of her bear hugs.

“Whoah! Let’s take it easy on the glomping, ‘k? Doc Fuzzy took away my happy pills so you wouldn’t believe how much pretty much everything hurts right now!”

“Oh, sorry.” Had she been capable of it, Jubilee had no doubts Cessily’s face would be bright red in embarrassment, and instead she stood awkwardly with her hands clasped in front of her. “It’s just so good to see you up and around again.”

Jubilee gingerly eased herself into a chair next to the couch, and waved off Sooraya’s wordless offer of assistance. “It’s good to see me up and around again, too. Doc says I really lucked out.” The last bit came out as a wheezing grunt when her body protested the change in orientation. “Fortunately, I had two good doctors, neither of whom are going to let me forget it, either.”

“And how is Josh doing?” Sooraya asked.

Jubilee slumped in the chair and walked her cane through her fingers. “He’s not talking about things, and is just trying to stay distracted, I think. All I can do is give him time to come around on his own.”

Cessily returned to her place on the couch next to Laura, and pulled her legs up until she was sitting cross-legged with her hands in her lap. “I wish there was something we could do.”

She sighed. “Unfortunately, it’s one of those things where there really isn’t much except be there for your friend, y’know? Anyway, I did want to say to have fun before you guys took off. Kinda wish I was going to Cali for a bit, too, but work work work.

“So what about, you, Soo? Any plans for your break?”

“I’ll be remaining here, as well,” Sooraya said.

“No luck, huh?”

Sooraya shook her head. “No. I’ve spoken with several aid groups the Professor has recommended, and there’s still been nothing.” She sighed. “I’m afraid I may have to accept that my mother is, indeed, gone.”

Laura looked between the two of them, and something briefly passed across her expression Jubilee couldn’t quite put a name to. “I’m sorry,” Jubilee said with as sympathetic a smile as she could muster.

“I can’t say that it has not been disappointing, but I have placed my faith in Allah that if I’m to see her again in this life that I shall, as is His plan. If not, I will merely see her again in Heaven. Still, with everyone else having the chance to go home it would have been nice to have family to go to as well.”

“Sometimes family is what you make of it, y’know? I bounced around foster care myself after my parents died, but then I came here.”

Sooraya smiled behind her niqab. “Allah provides.”

Jubilee smiled back. “Now the reason I’m here, before I become one with this nice, comfy chair and never want to leave it, I know you’ve all been through a lot, and that I haven’t been available because of the Doc’s magic pills. So first I wanted to let you all know that I’ll be reopening my office today and am officially back in business.”

Cessily smiled broadly. “That’s awesome!”

“So yeah, if you guys need to talk about anything that’s happened, come and find me. Second ...” and she looked directly at Laura, who stared back with an expression not unlike that of a deer caught on the wrong end of a speeding semi “What have you got going on today?”

Laura froze with a mouthful of oatmeal puffing out her cheeks hamster-style, and regarded her warily.

Cessily quirked a grin, and even Sooraya chuckled in amusement. “Come to think of it, I don’t think she has any plans. At least that she’s shared with either of us.”

Jubilee nodded and smiled mischievously. “Perfect. You and I are going to hit the town this afternoon.”

Laura swallowed her breakfast and frowned slightly. “Is there a problem?”

“Oh, no problem. But y’know, pretty much everyone has come by to talk to me from time to time, but I get the distinct impression that you’ve been avoiding me since I got here. I think it’s time for us to have a girl-to-girl chat.”

Laura shrunk away from her and tried to hide behind her bowl. “I am content to remain here.”

“Not this time, babe. I’m pulling rank on you today. Besides, I’m dying to get out of here for a bit and Dr. McCoy won’t let me go without someone to keep an eye on me. So you and I are gonna hang today. It’ll be fun, I promise!”

Laura just eyed her doubtfully and continued eating.

###

Act II

###

“Jesus Christ, hasn’t this part of the country heard of the sun?” Julian grumbled upon stepping from the bitter cold of the winter’s morning and into the overcompensating heat of the terminal. The day was clear with a bright and beautiful blue sky, but it was all a cruel illusion to sucker them out of the warm and toasty confines of the school and into the icy wasteland outside.

“God I’m going to be glad when we get there, just so I don’t have to listen to you whine about it,” Cessily said. “You don’t hear me complaining.”

“Ha!” Victor laughed. “Give me a break, Cess, the whole way over you were whining about how you were icing up. I’m the one who’s literally cold-blooded.”

Santo said nothing. He carried all of their bags perched on his broad, rocky shoulders, and dressed only in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. He alone of the four of them was smiling. That same, dopey, vacant-headed smile Santo was always smiling. Julian wanted to TK his head off.

“Let’s just find our gate and get our bags checked,” Julian said, and checked his ticket. The airport was packed with travelers — some arriving, some departing, all of them in as much of a hurry to get where they were going as the four of them — and he ignored the attention they drew out of force of habit.

“Fine, fine. But I am not sitting next to Santo,” Cessily said.

“Aw, what’d I do?” Santo asked, and he visibly deflated at that.

“You can sit next to Victor; you take up a lot of space, he doesn’t take up any at all.”

Victor rolled his eyes. “Gee, thanks, Cess.”

“D’aaaaw, don’t worry, sweetheart, you can just sit on my lap,” Santo said.

“Can’t we just make him fly air freight?”

“Are you kidding? At the rates they charge?” Julian asked, without ever looking away from his ticket. “Come on, it’s this way.”

And with that he started off through the terminal, not bothering to check to see if the others followed him.

###

Nori slumped in her chair in the lounge, with her head propped up on one gauntleted hand, and surfed through the thousands of channels available to them. She found absolutely nothing of interest to watch. Voices wrapped up in their own private conversations filled the room with a low background hum, none of it particularly intelligible, and probably none of it particularly interesting, either. She sighed.

There was no way around it; she was bored out of her skull.

“Maybe we should go into town,” Rahne suggested in her distinct brogue. “I heard they’re restartin’ the normal shuttles again.”

“Oh good, that means Luna can start calling me into work again,” Nori said.

“Oh come on, Nori,” Dani said from the couch next to Rahne. “We’ve been cooped up in here for weeks! It would be good to actually get out for a change.”

“You guys can go ahead, I’m staying right here and vegging out.”

Rahne eyed her closely, and Nori did her best to ignore the scrutiny. “Well, ye’re a bundle o’ joy this mornin’, what’s gotten into ye?”

Dani smirked. “More like what’s not getting into her. David’s out of town, you know.”

Rahne colored fiercely like any good Catholic School Girl (regardless of her insistence she was Presbyterian) ought to at the innuendo, but Nori just rolled her eyes. “Oh come on,” she said, “My whole life doesn’t revolve around David!”

“You could fool me. You’re a lot more pleasant to be around when he’s here or you two aren’t fighting.”

“This isn’t about David!”

“Then what is it?” Rahne asked.

Nori sighed again and mopped her face. “My ‘anniversary’ is coming up pretty soon. I’ve been a mutant for almost six years now, and here I am still wearing the stupid Nintendo Power Gloves.” She flexed her fingers in her gauntlets for emphasis.

“Oh.”

“The worst part is everyone gets to go home on break to see their families. My parents haven’t talked to me since I first told them what I was!”

“Nae everyone,” Rahne said, and scowled. “Or have ye forgotten my father the Reverend?”

“It’s not the same!”

“Ye’re right, ’tis nae. At least yer father dinnae try t’ purge the ‘demon’ out o’ ye once ye manifested.”

Nori buried her face in one hand. “I really don’t want to go into this right now ...”

“Rahne’s right, Nori,” Dani said. “You’ve actually got it pretty good compared to a few others.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m doing great. At least you guys can control your powers.”

“Seriously, Nori?” Rahne growled. Actually growled; a low, animalistic rumble in the back of her throat. “Ye know there’s bad days when I cannae keep the Wolf under control.”

“Let me know when you start chasing cars on reflex. I can’t even touch my boyfriend without electrocuting him unless I’m wearing these.” She raised her hands again.

Rahne gritted her teeth and tightened her hands into fists. “Och, boo-hoo. Ye have it so hard. At least ye have David, even if ye nearly lost him doin’ the same bit of sulkin’ ye’re doin’ now over the Harvard scholarship, when ye shoulda been happy fer him. Ye know how long ’tis been since I had a boy lookin’ my way? They’re always lookin’ fer fangs an’ claws, an’ expectin’ me t’ sprout fur at a moment’s notice. But I can tell ye fer sure the boys dinnae see yer gauntlets when they look at ye.”

“Oh will you two knock it off!” Dani said, and mopped her face. The low background murmur of the other conversations in the lounge tailed off at the outburst. “Everyone’s got it bad about something and we can go round and round about it for days and not get anywhere. Let’s just get out and do something and not just sit around here sniping at each other!”

Nori leaned her head on her hand again, and just resumed surfing. “Like I said, you guys can go ahead.”

Dani threw her hands up in the air and groaned in exasperation. “Come on, Rahne. If Nori wants to sulk she can sulk. I just need to get out of here for a little while.”

And with that the two of them left the couch and made their way out of the lounge. Nori didn’t watch them go, and just sighed and continued flipping channels.

###

Jubilee levered herself out of the back seat of the cab with a grimace, and pulled the front of her yellow wool trench coat closed around her throat against the sudden bite of the winter breeze rolling down the street. Laura emerged on the other side of the cab and huddled down into her oversized jacket, her legs clad in a pair of black skinny jeans and knee-high flats. The wind tugged at her hair and set it to flapping around her pale face like a black banner, and Jubilee flipped her Oakleys down as much to shield her eyes from the wind as from the glare of the sun; aside from the cold and the wind it was a beautiful day with a high, clear blue sky.

She leaned on her cane while she waited for Laura to join her on the sidewalk and took a deep breath, reveling in the myriad scents of the City; particularly the warring vendors and restaurants all competing for their attention. Her mouth immediately started watering and her belly rumbled in an unnecessary reminder it was just about lunch time.

Laura stuffed her hands into her jacket pockets when she stepped up next to her, and the cabbie drove off behind them to look for other fares. She swept her green eyes with uncertainty up and down the streets, a strange expression crossing her features that seemed to be mingled with hints of familiarity and recognition.

“So, where do you want to eat?” she asked. “Got any favorites?” Laura just shrugged and didn’t say a word. Jubilee sighed in frustration and craned her neck. “Where did the cab drop us off, anyway?”

“The corner of East 187th and Arthur,” Laura said, almost offhandedly.

“Hum.” She considered. “Do you like Italian? I’ve been wanting to try Zero Otto Nove since I got back to New York. I think that’s a block south of here, which is awesome ‘cause that’s about as far as I’m gonna walk.”

Laura considered her closely, and her features briefly twisted in concern. “Are you certain you would not rather return to the mansion?”

Jubilee dismissed the question with a wave. “Absolutely sure. I’ve been cooped up way too long, dude, I need to get out and stretch my legs. Maybe a little dancing later.”

“I do not dance,” Laura said, and fell into step beside her when Jubilee hobbled south down Arthur.

Jubilee laughed. There were a few pedestrians abroad ducking from one building to another to avoid the cold, but here and there they passed small knots gathered alongside the street talking while waiting for cabs or the bus line, or just enjoying the day. “It’s a joke! Come on, do you really think anyone’s getting me out on the floor right now?”

“Oh,” Laura said, and when Jubilee glanced over her shoulder at her was surprised to see embarrassment on her delicate features. “I am not good with humor.”

“Well, we’ll have to work on that.”

“Cessily says that as well.”

Jubilee quirked a grin. “Smart girl; she understands you can’t take everything too seriously and just have to cut loose and have fun sometimes.”

Again, Laura didn’t answer, and Jubilee frowned. Wow, tough crowd.

“Well, I know so little about you,” she said instead, “so why don’t we start at the beginning? I heard the Wolverine found you somewhere around here; were you born in the New York area?”

“I do not wish to talk about it,” Laura said, her voice growing very quiet, and very definitive.

Jubilee frowned again. “Any family?”

Laura shook her head, and shrunk into her jacket, trying to slip out of sight.

“Pets? Imaginary friends?”

Again, there was no response, and Jubilee sighed. “Look, I’m not trying to pressure you into anything, but we need to find something we can talk about, or this is gonna be a very dull and one-sided conversation.”

“Why am I here?” Laura asked instead.

“Right now, it’s to grab some lunch, I’m starved and I’m looking for some real food for a change.”

“You are deflecting.”

“No, I really am hungry.”

Jubilee felt Laura scrutinize her closely, her green eyes almost looking through her. “That is a joke.”

She quirked a grin. “Very good, you’re learning!”

“If you wished to question me, why come here and not your office?”

“Because I don’t think I’d have gotten you to come into my office, and I wanted to talk about what happened the night of the attack.” Jubilee paused and leaned her weight on her cane. “I haven’t had much chance to get back to work, but I did talk to a couple of the others this morning.” She sighed and glanced at Laura, who watched her back like a dog wary of being struck. It troubled Jubilee immensely how easily that comparison came to mind. “You may or may not be surprised to know that your name came up quite a lot.”

“I see.”

“You know I’m here to help you guys. And, well, I just get a sense from you that maybe you need someone to talk to; someone other than one of the kids.” She quirked a grin. “Y’know, someone who’s been around. Done things. Someone awesome.”

Laura didn’t so much as blink and just kept watching her. Whether or not she recognized the joke for what it was this time she didn’t say.

“And since you’ve made a point of avoiding my office, I figured maybe you’d be more comfortable talking in a more casual setting, away from the school.”

Laura considered that for a moment, but before she could say another word her head snapped up like a dog whose attention was suddenly grabbed by a nearby squirrel. Her nose twitched, a low growl escaped her throat, and her lips turned downwards into an uncharacteristic scowl.

“Laura ...?” she asked. Jubilee studied her with no small amount of trepidation, and her belly churned nervously when she realized Laura was shifting into a defensive posture.

And then she was moving.

“Stay!” she barked over her shoulder, and she rushed off back the way they came like a hound trailing a scent.

“Laura! Damn it!” Jubilee hobbled after her as fast as she could, and her side burned in protest at the effort of forcing her body to respond. “Wait! Will you wait! Come back!”

It was no use; Laura just kept moving, a black streak darting up Arthur and deftly weaving through pedestrian traffic until she was lost from sight.

###

“Are we there yet?” Santo grumbled for about the fiftieth time, and Julian buried his face in his hands.

“We’re not even to the desk yet, knock it off!” Julian said.

The line to board the plane seemed to be taking its own sweet time to advance, and Julian had half a mind to TK the crowd ahead of him out of the way if only to shut up Santo’s bored complaining. The four of them — that is to say, the three who couldn’t even pass for “normal” at a costume party — had garnered a not inconsiderable amount of attention, and even if his hearing wasn’t as sharp as Laura’s, he couldn’t help but hear mutterings of “muties” and “freaks.” Julian also had no doubt that was by intent.

He just ignored it as best he could.

“What’s the hold-up, anyway?” Cessily asked.

“I don’t know,” Julian said, and craned his neck around the coat-swaddled body in front of him. “You want to do the Elastigal thing and ask, Ms. Liquid Metal?”

“Are you kidding me? I’ve already been getting stared at ever since we got inside.”

“Maybe they’re checking you out,” Santo said. “You should start asking for phone numbers.”

“Can’t we jettison him over Nebraska?” She jerked her thumb over her shoulder at the mountain of rock behind her.

“I wish. I mean it’s not like there’s actually anything in Nebraska for him to hit on the way down. But he’ll probably just follow us on foot, anyway.”

“Oh will you guys knock it off,” Victor said, his own irritation evident in his voice. “The line is finally moving.”

Sure enough the mass of bodies ahead of him were now moving forward again, and in no time they approached the counter and the neat-uniformed American Airlines woman manning a computer terminal behind it. “Good morning! Do you have any carry-on?” she said without taking her eyes away from her computer screen, and her voice just on the ear-splitting side of perky.

“No, just her purse,” he said, with a nod at Cessily.

“Ok, please have your tickets ready and oh my ...” She trailed off when she finally turned her attention to them and locked eyes with Santo, who just gazed dumbly down at her.

Julian rolled his eyes. “Look, it’s going to be a long eight hours, can we just board?”

“Um, I think we may have a problem ...”

Santo smiled when he noticed her staring. “Hey baby, you working this counter on the return trip, too?”

Julian groaned and mopped his face. “Shut up, Santo. See, that’s why we can’t take you anywhere.”

“What’s the problem?” Cessily asked with a frown and leaned on the counter. The woman’s face colored when she took in Cessily and Victor, and Julian might have found the awkward silence amusing were he not in a hurry to get on the plane. And were it not drawing an uncomfortable amount of attention from the equally irritable travelers now grumbling about them holding up the line.

“Your, ahem, big friend, there,” she said, and her features twisted in discomfort when she pointed out Santo. “I, ah, don’t believe any of the seats will accommodate him.”

Julian sighed. “Look, lady, my father personally arranged these seats and cleared it all with the airline. Now maybe you might not think that means much to you, but believe me when I say that he can make your life incredibly miserable in a hurry.”

The woman stiffened indignantly. “I’m sorry, Sir, but airline safety regulations are very strict, and our seats just aren’t designed to accommodate a passenger of his ...” she trailed off uncomfortably. “Well, girth.”

The crack and grinding of stone accompanied the shift of Santo’s features when he frowned. “Wait, is she calling me fat?”

“Look, it’s genetic, ok? He can’t help it,” Julian said.

“I’m sorry, Sir, but that doesn’t change the fact your friend exceeds our safety limits.”

“I don’t believe it! She’s calling me fat!” Santo wailed.

“Oh shut up, rock pile, she’s not calling you fat.”

Cessily folded her arms and delivered her most withering glare at the woman. “It’s because he’s a mutant, isn’t it,” she said, and made it a statement of fact.

“No, not at all!” she said, and her face colored at the insinuation. “But the airline is responsible for the safety and comfort of all our passengers, and we simply can’t accommodate someone like him.”

“Just load him up as cargo and get on with it!” someone further back in line shouted, eliciting laughter from a few others, though most looked away from the confrontation in embarrassment.

Julian rounded on the source of the remark, and he reflexively balled his hands into fists and called on his power. “Are you calling my friend freight?” he said, his temper getting the better of him. The aura formed around his hands, but he managed to restrain himself from a more overt display. That was still enough to send the front few rows of the line stumbling back from them. Victor grabbed him by the arm. The tightening of his grip on his wrist was enough to bring him back to his senses again, and he released his hold on his power.

“Sir, I need you to calm down!” the woman at the desk said.

“What are you talking about? I am calm,” Julian said, forcing himself to keep from shouting while a larger and larger crowd began to gather. “I just want you to board us, if you can’t do it, I want to see your supervisor.”

“There’s no need to get angry!”

Julian gawked at her. “I’m not getting angry. I just want to see your supervisor.”

Cessily grabbed his arm and put him between her and the crowd gathering around them. “Julian I really don’t like where this is going ...”

“I’m not getting angry. She’s really, really annoying me, but I’m not getting angry.”

A sharp plink put an end to any further debate when an empty soda can bounced off Santo’s head. “Hey! Who threw that!” he said, and the nearest row of spectators scrambled away at his glowing blue eyes sweeping across the crowd. But despite the admirable amount of restraint he was showing, the thought of what he might do all but started a panic among the flatscans.

“Sir! Please step away from the desk, and get your friend under control!” the woman at the desk shouted.

“What the hell are you talking about? He’s completely fine. What about the asshole throwing garbage?”

“Sir, I won’t tell you again ...”

“Tell me what? We’re being persecuted, here!”

“I don’t want to call security.”

Julian glared. “You go ahead and call security, and get me your damn supervisor while you’re at it!”

“Julian,” Victor said, “maybe we ought to go.”

He turned his glare on Victor, on whom it was lost; his attention was focused on the people surrounding them who hadn’t quite grown enough of a spine to press back in again.

“We ought to be boarding this damn plane,” Julian said.

“Back away from the desk, now!” a commanding voice called out, and Julian wheeled to find himself staring at probably half a dozen Tasers when the TSA Enforcer Goon Squad swarmed around them.

“What the hell? We’re just standing here,” Julian protested.

“I said back away! Now! Police have been called and are on their way. Get down on the ground and put your hands on your heads!”

“You have got to be kidding me.”

“What’s going on?” Santo asked. He folded his arms across his broad chest and glared down at the security dunces. Julian doubted their Tasers would so much as tickle his rocky hide, and from the look on Santo’s face he knew it. To say nothing of the fact that all of them together wouldn’t be able to subdue him.

“We’re being arrested, dumbass,” Victor said.

“Oh.” Santo considered that for a moment. “For what?”

“Pick a reason, Einstein.”

Cessily sighed as she complied with the order. “So now what, Julian?”

Julian glared hellfire at the head rent-a-cop, and made a show of cooperating. “I want my lawyer.”

“Uh, I want his lawyer, too,” Santo said.

All Julian could think about while they were cuffed one-by-one to be led to a holding area, (except for Santo, who just laughed at them helplessly trying to figure out how to actually restrain him) was that his parents were going to kill him.

###

Josh stuffed his hands in the pockets of his lab coat and made his way up the hall from the elevator leading down to the subbasement. The dreary mood of the days immediately following the attack were gone, replaced by what sounded like an almost normal, if somewhat subdued, level of chatter and laughter from among the student body. But though the physical damage had been repaired, some scars remained buried deeply beneath the shiny new veneer.

Just like his gleaming golden skin hid the hole where his heart ought to be.

Josh sighed and shrunk into his coat, trying to avoid the stares from his classmates gathered in the hallway. Most looked at him with expressions of deep sympathy, others still filled with awe and wonder at the change to his appearance. All of it attention he didn’t want; the words of condolences changed nothing, and the stares just made him more and more self-conscious of who and what he was.

Rahne Sinclair and Dani Moonstar bounded down the stairs from the dormitory hallway ahead of him, the former still threading her arms through the sleeves of her coat, and he caught a glimmer of the cross around her neck. Dani had gathered her long hair into two loose but neat braids with a pair of eagle feathers worked into one of the hair ties, and a choker of bone and turquoise beads to express her Cheyenne heritage without being overly stereotypical about it (not particularly helped by her fringed, western-style suede coat and open crown hat).

Josh slightly altered his pace so they would pass him by without their paths intersecting in hopes of avoiding a conversation, but Rahne caught sight of him, murmured something to Dani (who rolled her eyes and leaned impatiently against the banister at the landing) and turned to meet him. Although not particularly desiring company, Josh stopped and offered her a friendly smile of greeting.

“Hey,” Rahne said, and finished adjusting her coat.

“Hey,” he said. “Heading out?”

“Dani and I are goin’ to Salem fer a bit since the shuttles are startin’ again.” She shifted awkwardly, and ran her hand back through her tomboyishly short red hair. “Since ye’re here, I thought I’d see if ye’d like to join us.”

“Thanks, but I’m just up to grab some lunch for myself and Ms. Guthrie.”

“Ah,” she said, and her shoulders slumped a bit in disappointment. “How’s she doin’? Any better?”

“Physically, I guess. Melody’s been down keeping her company most of the day.”

“How did she take it? Ye know, about Jay?”

Josh sighed. “As well as you could expect, I guess.”

Rahne studied him closely, her green eyes searching him intently — and was it just him, or was there an unusually high percentage of the student body with green eyes? “And how are ye doin’?”

Josh blinked at her, and it took him a moment to consider his words while under her scrutiny. “You know, I think you’re the first person to actually ask me that. All anybody else seems to want to do is stare.”

“Well, ye do make fer quite the striking sight now, so I suppose ye cannae blame ’em, right?” she asked, and let out a nervous laugh.

She waited expectantly for him to respond, but Josh just stood with his hands thrust into his lab coat pockets and shifting uncomfortably from one foot to the other at the intensity of her gaze.

“Well?” she asked, once she realized no answer was immediately forthcoming.

He sighed again and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Surviving,” he finally said with finality, wanting nothing more now than for the conversation to be done with so he could slink back to the med bay.

Rahne frowned — clearly his response was not what she was expecting — and nodded. “Look, if ye ever need t’ talk, ye know, about whatever. Like, if ye need a friend ...”

“Thanks,” he said, and motioned with his thumb back the way he came. “I, uh, need to get back to work.”

She nodded, and visibly deflated. “Okay. I’m sorry, Josh. About Laurie. I know it may not mean much to ye, but ye both have been in my prayers.”

A hollow feeling worked its way through his gut, and Josh clenched his hands into fists and tightened his jaw. He wanted to tell her to keep her prayers to herself, that it was God’s name that led a man to walk up and put a bullet in Laurie’s brain, but he saw the intense sincerity in Rahne’s eyes, the same sort of honest conviction of belief he often saw with Sooraya, and he forced himself to relax.

“Thanks,” he said, his voice sounding rougher than he liked, and his throat closed around the words. “I, uh, I appreciate that.”

Rahne glanced over her shoulder at Dani, who waited with quiet impatience. “I better get goin’ before Dani takes off without me,” she said with a small laugh. “Ye take care, and tell Ms. Guthrie I said ‘hello.’”

Josh nodded. “I will. Have fun.”

She smiled, waved, and backed away a few steps before hurrying to rejoin Dani when she turned down the entry hall. Josh thought he saw Rahne glance back over her shoulder at him once or twice, but he lowered his head, continued for the lounge, and ignored the deep pang of loneliness slowly gnawing away at his belly.

###

Sooraya made her way into the lounge with her lunch and headed for the couch. Nori already sat curled up at one end flipping through channels, her boredom evident from her posture and expression. She circled around the couch and smoothly lowered herself at the opposite end, and arrayed her abaya around her legs so she could sit comfortably. She smiled warmly to Nori behind her niqab.

“Good afternoon, Noriko!” she said.

“Sup?” Nori said, her voice as bored as her features, and she never took her eyes off the television.

“How are you today?”

“Oh, I’m just awesome. Which is totally why I’m going to sit here and endure this conversation.”

Sooraya’s smile faltered. “Is something the matter?”

“Nope. At least to hear Rahne and Dani tell it.”

“What do you mean?”

Nori sat back on the couch and folded her gauntleted arms under her breast in frustration. “Do you know how long it’s been since I even talked to my family?”

Sooraya deftly maneuvered a bite of her leftover pasta from last night beneath her niqab. “I’m sorry, I don’t.”

“Our school has been blown up, and then had an army come down on it trying to kill all of us, and they won’t talk to me. Not even to make sure I’m ok! All they have to say is ask when I plan on stopping this pretend mutant foolishness and come home. Pretend!” Nori held her gauntlets up in front of her face and flexed her fingers. The jointed metal plates sheathing her hands articulated with a series of soft clicks. “This is pretend?!”

Sooraya sighed in sympathy. “I’m sorry. I know it must be difficult to have family that cannot accept you for who you are.”

Nori folded her arms again and slumped. “See? You get it, why doesn’t anyone else?”

She frowned around another bite of her lunch. “Get what?”

“That this sucks! You’re lucky, at least you don’t have anything to miss.”

Sooraya eyed Nori closely. “I beg your pardon?”

“You know, from that godawful hell hole.” Nori waved her hands vaguely as if indicating a direction. “I mean nothing but terrorists cutting off heads and stoning girls who God forbid want to speak their minds. I mean it’s so much better being here, right?”

Sooraya glared, and she felt her face heat in indignation in spite of herself. “You have no idea what I have lost, Noriko.”

“Oh, please. At least here you can say what you want and not have some Taliban ISIS hardcases trying to blow you up. At least you could until Stryker came along.”

“I have not seen my mother in years, Noriko. I don’t even know if she is still alive! At least you can go to bed at night certain that your family is safe.”

“She probably just doesn’t want to be found. You know that, right? She’s probably all happily enslaved to a new husband who keeps her locked away and hasn’t spared a moment’s thought for her freak-of-nature abomination daughter. Well believe me you’re better off.”

“How dare you!” Sooraya shouted, and came to her feet with her bowl of pasta still in hand. The lounge fell into astonished silence at the outburst, and she was distantly conscious of every eye in the room turning to watch the confrontation. “Are you really so absorbed in your own little problems you would project them on everyone? You ignorant, selfish, and sanctimonious—”

“Me ignorant?” Nori said in disbelief, and jumped to her own feet and stared her down. That she expressed genuine shock at the accusation just made Sooraya even hotter. “And you and your ‘Allah’ this and ‘Allah’ that have no business calling out anyone for being self-righteous! You won’t even consider what you believe is wrong!”

“It’s called faith, Noriko! I have faith in the rightness and goodness of Allah.”

“Oh, right, a God who would make you hide your face and tells his followers to blow up children. You know who else thinks God wants him to blow up children?”

“You are not comparing me and my faith to Stryker.”

“You heard him! You saw all his pamphlets and speeches just like the rest of us!”

The lights in the lounge began to flicker and the television set blinked off when Nori’s control over her powers slipped along with her grip on her temper. Electric-blue arcs of energy as bright as her hair rippled down the lengths of her arms, sparking and popping, and filling the lounge with the whiff of ozone. Sooraya was aware of the rest of the students crowding around them, and somewhere among them a childish chant of “Fight! Fight! Fight!” began, accompanied by what sounded like Quentin Quire meowing.

Sooraya’s face heated in embarrassment, and she tightened her hands around her bowl in an effort to steady herself. “I do not want to fight you over this, Noriko.”

“Saint Sooraya as always thinking she’s the better person, right? You always have to be bigger than the rest of us!”

“Well, when you insist on acting like a spoiled child one of us has to!”

“Oh that is it. It is so on, Sand Girl!”

Nori was just about to free her hands from her gauntlets, when a golden figure appeared between them and bodily forced them apart. Nori let loose a string of Japanese invective when she stumbled backwards, but when she tried to rush in again Josh forced her back.

“Knock it off! Both of you!” he snapped, the anger in his voice catching everyone so off-guard the chanting and egging for them to fight tapered off into stunned silence, and Nori immediately stopped resisting his efforts to separate them. “What the hell is the matter with you two?”

“You heard what she said to me just now!” Nori said, and raised her hands in protest.

“Shut up, Nori! Jesus Christ isn’t it enough that Stryker is trying to kill everyone that you two have to be doing his job for him?”

“Josh,” Sooraya said, “that wasn’t—”

“I said shut! Up!” He stared them both down, his teeth clenched in anger, and tears welled up in his blue eyes. “Both of you just shut up and listen!

“Do you two think you’re the only ones who have problems right now? That you’re the only people who have lost someone?” He turned his glare on Nori. “Ever since I’ve known you you’ve done nothing but moan about your powers, how you can’t control them, and you can’t go home again. Do you really think you’re the only one here whose family won’t accept them for who they are? That you’re the only one of us who can’t control themselves?”

He rounded on Sooraya. “And you! Maybe you don’t mean it, but do you really not hear just how condescending you sound whenever you start going on about your faith? It’s like you have all the answers and the rest of us just need to listen to you!”

Sooraya hung her head, and felt her face heat in chagrin at Josh’s admonishment. She glanced up at Noriko, who mirrored her posture without the benefit of her niqab to help mask the embarrassment etched on her features.

“For most of us this place is all we’ve got,” Josh said. “And you two aren’t the only ones who’ve lost people you cared about. Laurie was murdered right in front of me. Mark and how many others were killed on the bus? Melody lost her brother and one of her best friends, and all you two can do is claw at each other.

“Now we’re supposed to be a team helping to keep all that from happening again. So both of you just grow up!”

Josh glared from one to the other, while the crowd looked on in stunned silence. Finally, when he seemed certain his words had sunk in, he spun on his heel and stormed from the lounge in a huff. The ring of students encircling them opened for him to pass, and even Quentin Quire remained silent when Josh left them to consider his words.

###

Laura’s blood boiled. She pursued the scent and followed it unerringly back up Arthur Avenue, not the least bit distracted by the confusing mishmash of other odors dominating the City. It was faint, but clear and familiar. She distantly heard Ms. Lee calling from behind for her to wait, but she ignored the entreaty and wove past pedestrians on her way up the street, and darted across Arthur when she reached a place across from Marie’s Coffee Beans & Gifts. She dodged through traffic heading south, ignoring the blaring of horns from the alarmed drivers, reached the far side without incident, and ducked into the alley between Marie’s and the building to its north.

There she paused and sampled the air for a moment; the scent was strong, now, and she strained her ears while she slowly proceeded down the alley towards the rear of the space enclosed between the buildings fronting Arthur and Hughes. She heard voices echoing between the walls rising up on either side, and she tightened her hands into fists at the sound of the confrontation unfolding in the back alley.

“...told you I don’t know what you’re talking about!” a woman said. Young, likely late teens. Frightened. Too far away to ascertain by scent if she is telling the truth.

“Bitch, don’t you lie to me!” a man said. Probable African American. Mid-twenties.

“You’ve been holding out on the Boss, he knows it!” Another man said. “So you better wise up!” Speaker is urban, but likely Caucasian.

“I’m not! I swear!” the woman said, and the pleading in her voice verged on the edge of panic. Laura ground her teeth and clenched her jaw so tightly at the scenario unfolding in the alley her jaw ached. She paused at the end of the passage she was following and leaned out to gauge the situation.

Two men: One African American with a shaved head and a gold earring, of average height and build, wearing a light leather jacket. The other Caucasian, dark-haired, and with several piercings and a tattoo across the back of his neck just visible beneath the collar of his heavy coat. He was taller than his companion and heavily built, and Laura scowled in recognition of the tattoo and his stench. The woman was perhaps her age, Hispanic, and of slender build with dark hair pulled back in a neat ponytail. She appeared to be a habitual drug user, wore an apron for Ceri Beauty Supply under her coat, and stood with her back pressed against the wall of the building behind her.

“Don’t you lie to me!” The bigger man snapped, and made an aggressive move towards her. “We’ve been watching you, and don’t you try to tell me you can afford that place you’re living in on what you make for the Boss.”

“I don’t! The rest is coming from working at the store!”

“Bullshit!” the other man said. “The Boss wants his cut, so you can either hand it over now or we take it from you, and you ain’t gonna like that.”

“Please!” the woman said, and her voice broke when she began to cry. “I swear!”

“Lyin’ skank!” the big man said, and reached out to grab her. At that, Laura stepped fully into view and started towards them. The woman looked past her assailants at her, and the two thugs took note of this change of focus. They both turned and Laura eyed them closely on her way across the alley, her face a mask of rage, and her body trembled with lethal energy begging to be released.

“Bitch you better turn right around and walk back the way you came!” the African man said. Her eyes locked on him; there was no obvious sign he was armed, but his right hand hovered over his abdomen in manner that attempted too hard to look casual.

Probable concealed weapon in a shoulder holster. Subject is alert, but disregarding me as an overt threat.

“Didn’t you hear him?” the bigger man said. “Get lost!”

Laura narrowed her eyes and stopped just out of his reach before taking a big sniff; the stink of the man was all but overpowering in the confines of the alley. “I know you,” she said, her voice low and like ice.

The man studied her back for a moment. His features twisted in confusion at first, but then flared in sudden recognition.

“Oh shit!” he said, and leveled a finger at her face. “Shit! I know this ho. That’s the skank that shanked Daddy!”

His companion’s eyes went wide. “You kidding me? This is the chick who did him? Bro, my baby sister is bigger than her.”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s her! I wasn’t there, but I knew her back then.” His features turned hard and he glared. “You should have kept walking, bitch, and not stuck your nose in where it didn’t belong. Boss has got a price on your ass so high a man could be set for life bringing you in. It was a big mistake coming down this alley.”

Laura narrowed her eyes at him and tensed to spring. “Yes, it was. For you.”

And before either of them could react she was moving. A metallic snikt rang out in the confines of the alley, and she leapt onto the big man and buried all six of her claws in his chest. Her weight drove him to the ground, and she used him as a springboard to fling herself at his companion. He reached inside his coat for his weapon, but his reaction came too slow. Laura landed on his shoulders, hooked an arm around his neck, and effortlessly spun him into the ground. She jammed her claws into his face, and his body jerked and spasmed when they speared through his eye sockets and into his brains.

It was all over in moments.

Laura withdrew her claws with a sick but somehow satisfying wet sound and retracted them again. She scowled down at the two men sprawled at her feet while their blood cooled in the cold winter air, the one already dead, and the big man’s breath rattled in his throat while his body vainly struggled to stave off death. She took and released a shuddering breath and felt...satisfied.

“Oh God! Oh my God! Oh my God!” a tiny voice squeaked nearby, and Laura spun towards the girl. She huddled on the ground and looked up at her with eyes wide with fear.

“Are you all right?” Laura asked.

“You killed them!”

“Yes.”

“Laura!” Came another voice from the alley through which she entered, and Laura spared a momentary glance over her shoulder at Ms. Lee staggering into view. She clutched her side and supported herself on her cane. The pain in her voice was evident, and she labored to catch her breath. “Oh God. Oh shit! What did you do?”

Laura ignored her and turned her attention back to the girl. “Who is the Boss?” she asked.

The girl gawked at her. “What?”

“The Boss? Who is he?”

“Laura!” Ms. Lee said, and took hold of her by the shoulder. Laura’s body tensed, but she managed to force herself not to spin around and cut her hand off. “What the hell is going on?”

Laura sniffed, the air thick with the cupric scent of blood, the stench of the big man now lying still on the pavement, and the girl’s fear. She did not recognize her scent. “Who is the Boss?”

“You’re really her, aren’t you?” she stammered, and looked at her with a mixture of fear and astonishment. “You’re the one who killed Zebra Daddy.”

“Yes,” Laura said. “Who is the Boss?”

She swallowed and looked between her and Ms. Lee, and the corpses cooling behind her. “He took over Daddy’s gang. You need to go. He wants you dead! If he knew you’re back in his district ...”

Laura scowled, and she felt the rage build again. “He took over the gang?”

“Laura, what’s going on?” Ms. Lee asked, but Laura ignored her.

The girl nodded. “Yeah. The whole territory. A couple of the other lieutenants tried to carve it up, but he ...” She trailed off and her face turned a sickly greenish hue, and Laura needed no explanation for what the Boss did to the dissenters. “After that warning, the rest of them all fell in line.”

“Where is he?” Laura asked.

The girl’s mouth hung open and her eyes went wide with incredulity. “Are you crazy?”

“Where is he?”

“I can’t! He wants to kill you, and if I help you, he’ll just kill me, too!”

Laura set her jaw resolutely. “No, he will not. Because I will kill him and every one of his men first.”

“Laura!” Ms. Lee said, aghast.

“Where is he?”

“He owns a club on 19^th Street between 5^th and 6^th. As far as I know he runs the whole operation out of there,” she said.

“Does he keep any of the girls there?”

“I think so. At least the new girls just starting. He—”

“I know what he does,” Laura snapped, and her voice fell into a snarl. “You should go to the police.”

“What? I can’t! If his people see me—”

“You will be safe there until this is over. You do not have to be afraid of him anymore.”

And with that she started away without another word and headed back towards the street. She heard Ms. Lee scuffle to catch up behind her, but Laura made no effort to check her pace. Her belly churned and her chest burned, and she dug her nails so tightly into her palms they cut into her flesh.

“Laura!” Ms. Lee called. “Damn it, Laura! Hold up!”

Laura stopped, let out a sigh, and turned to watch Ms. Lee scrambled after her. She clutched her side and panted heavily, and her features twisted in pain.

“Oof. Damn. All right, what the hell did you do? What was that about back there?”

She cocked her head to one side and blinked. “Those men intended to harm that girl. I intervened.”

“Oh no, none of that ‘Isn’t it obvious’ stuff now. You killed two men!”

“Yes, I did. And I will kill more.”

Ms. Lee clapped a hand across her face in exasperation. “Okay, that’s Strike Two. Strike Three is that you’re not being honest with me. Now what the hell was that about?”

Laura gave a heavy sigh and stared at the ground while she momentarily wrestled between expediency, shame, and disclosure.

“The girl is a prostitute,” she finally said. “The men work for a local gang who traffic in drugs and women. I killed their leader. Now I intend to kill his replacement.”

She spun around and resumed her original course, but Ms. Lee hurried after her. “What?! Hey! No! We’re going back to the school before this turns into an actual street war!”

Laura rounded on her and glared. “This is not a war! This is a mission!” she snapped, and Ms. Lee stumbled back in surprise. She felt her face heat and her breath came in heaving gasps. She clenched her fists at her side and her whole body trembled. “I failed to prevent this. I intend to correct that mistake.”

“What mistake? Will you please talk to me?”

“There is no time! There are others who are in danger and need help. Do not follow me; you do not want to be part of this.”

And with that she continued on her way again, and did not care whether Ms. Lee obeyed or not. The only thing on her mind now was seeing her mission through.

###

Act III

###

Julian slumped in the chair with his head bowed and his hands wrenched uncomfortably behind his back. The cold metal of the handcuffs dug into the skin of his wrists. He could have TK’ed himself out without a problem so he could at least be comfortable, but decided to play nice. The room was small with only one door leading out and no windows, and the only furniture of note was the table at which he was seated, and an empty chair across from him. Everything else — the walls, the ceiling, and even the carpeting on the floor — was a boringly functional gray. And of course there was the camera in one corner, gazing down remorselessly on him and allowing the guards outside to keep an eye on anyone in what they politely refused to call a holding cell.

He sighed in boredom. That, he decided, was the most annoying part of the whole experience; except for the five-minute call to his father’s office to explain the situation (his father, of course, was far too busy to actually speak with him himself, leaving him with the indignity of telling a secretary what happened) there was nothing to do and no one to talk to. Even an interrogation was beginning to sound interesting, if only to break up the monotony.

Finally, after what seemed like hours (or maybe only one. He couldn’t look at his phone, and there wasn’t even a clock in the stupid room!) the latch clacked, the door swung open, and a man in a nice suit carrying a laptop under one arm strode in. He was tall and dark-skinned, and judging from the fact he was cut like a linebacker Julian doubted he was just an office flunkie. The man set the laptop down on the table and opened it up, and tapped a few buttons after taking the empty seat across from him. Two of the TSA thugs entered with him; one taking up a position beside the exit, the other standing behind his boss and looking thoroughly uncomfortable.

“Mr. Keller,” the Suit said, with a voice somewhere just north of James Earl Jones, “you and your friends will be released immediately and are free to go.”

The man nodded, and at that, the guard behind him circled around the table and went to work unlocking the cuffs.

“It’s about damn time,” Julian grumbled. The restraints came free, and he massaged his wrists to restart the blood flow to his fingers.

“On behalf of the airport I wish to extend to you my sincerest apologies for this terrible misunderstanding.”

Julian glared at him. “Oh, I bet you do. I ought to sue your ass for wrongful prosecution under the Mutant Rights Act. It might be fun to own my own airport.”

“There will be nothing of the sort,” a very annoyed, and very familiar, voice that sent Julian’s heart plummeting somewhere around his belly button said from the laptop. The Suit turned it around, and Julian found himself facing the stern and unrelenting glare of his father. Family friends often remarked on how alike they looked, though Julian never saw a resemblance himself. His hair was stylish and he kept his face clean-shaven, while his father wore a typical dad ’do and a carefully groomed mustache and beard that was black shot through with gray. Maybe they meant their eyes, but the best description he could come up with for his father’s was “frosty.”

“If you gentlemen will excuse me, I’ll see about releasing the others,” the big Suit said. He quickly vacated the office and took the two TSAs with him.

Julian envied them immensely.

“Dad ...” he said, and his throat went very dry.

“Your mother and I sent you to that school for you to learn discipline and responsibility. And yet after a word with my secretary I turn on the news to see a report that my son has attacked an airport? What is the matter with you?”

“We didn’t do anything! Some desk jockey started causing trouble for one of my friends and those overpaid rent-a-cops overreacted.”

“I don’t want to hear any excuses!” his father snapped, and Julian flinched at the rebuke. He felt the heat of his father’s temper even over the webcam. “Do you know how embarrassing this is for the family? People are already beginning to talk about our son the freak!”

“Yeah, I don’t want to cause the family any embarrassment just by existing,” Julian said. “Do you even care what’s happened the last couple months? My friends got blown up by a religious crackpot. I got shot! And you and Mom didn’t so much as call to see that I was all right.”

“We set ground rules, Julian, and you agreed to those rules!”

“No, you gave me an ultimatum. Well, I’m here, and you’re still blaming me for everything.”

His father sat back at his desk and glared at him over the connection. “I had hoped you would have at least expressed some contrition for the trouble you’ve caused today. You don’t leave me any choice.”

A hollow feeling filled Julian’s gut. “Choice for what?”

“Your mother and I made it very clear there would be consequences if there was any further trouble over your powers, and the papers are already being filed.”

Julian felt tears well up when he realized just what was happening. “Dad, you can’t do this!”

“I warned you, Julian! We gave you every chance to fall in line and you’ve squandered them. Now you have to live with the consequences.”

“Dad!”

Without another word his father cut the connection, and the video feed went blank. Julian sank into his chair and for a time could only stare at the screen in disbelief.

And then he buried his face in his hands and began to cry.

###

Laura stopped halfway down 19th Street on its south side, across from a large and ostentatious building with a big neon sign — it was off now in the light of afternoon — and band posters advertising the night’s performers plastered across the windows. This was no hole-in-the-wall dive, but a trendy and upscale, from the looks of things quite hot during its hours of operation, and incredibly exclusive club. Jubilee’s imagination immediately ran wild with thoughts of celebrities rubbing elbows with New York’s elite, and lines circling around the block for admission.

“Woah,” she said, and she rubbed her throbbing side. “This is it?”

Laura’s grim features hardened. “This is it. You should not have come.”

“Hey, look, I’m supposed to be keeping an eye on you while we’re out. Lotta good that’s doing. So what are you going to do, just walk in the front door?”

“Direct approach inadvisable owing to uncertainty over distribution of sentries. Covert entrance preferred.”

“Oh-kay. Look, you’re taking this whole urban commando thing a bit too far. We shouldn’t even be here.”

Laura ignored her and studied the façade across from them more closely. “There is a rear entrance.”

Jubilee frowned. “Are you sure? It all seems pretty tightly packed back there ...”

“They need a means of moving contraband without suspicion, and I see a gap. There will be alleys. Stay.”

And with that, Laura took off again up the street. “Stay? Like a dog? Really?” she groused. Jubilee started after her, and grimaced against spike of pain lancing through her side in protest at the strain of keeping up with her.

Laura crossed 19th when they reached the intersection at 5th, and her small frame blended in alarmingly well with the pedestrian traffic. Jubilee nearly lost her entirely until she stopped at a narrow alley between buildings. Jubilee gasped for breath — the cold air burned her lungs and her side was in agony — and she leaned against the wall and waited next to Laura for the crowd to thin out so they could proceed without drawing attention to themselves.

“You should sit down,” Laura said, almost casually and without even sparing her a glance. Instead, her green eyes carefully swept the street, Jubilee guessed looking for any sign that the traffic around them wasn’t as innocent as it looked.

“Really? We’re supposed to be having lunch right now, you know.”

Laura glanced at her. “A joke?”

Jubilee scowled. “Does it look like I’m laughing? And I’m not exactly satisfied with your story. What we should be doing right now is talking.”

She hugged herself tightly and looked at her feet. “I am not good at that.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed. But unfortunately, it’s also my job, so one of us is going to end up disappointed, here. I really don’t want to go all hardcore disciplinarian on you. I hated that when I was in school, but I’m the faculty, here, and you’re the student, so—”

While she spoke the pedestrian traffic thinned out and passed, and before Jubilee could finish Laura took one last survey of the street and spun into the alley. Jubilee let out a growl of exasperation in her throat and rolled her eyes. “Don’t paf... Don’t paf ...” she grumbled under her breath, and hurried after her.

The alley was narrow, but enough light found its way down into the confines between the buildings rising up on either side she had no difficulties seeing the way ahead. There was little trash here, mostly some debris built up in the angle between the walkway and the walls. Otherwise, all there was to see was Laura’s back while she quietly hurried along the passage, before stopping at the end of it and waiting for her to catch up.

Jubilee huffed and puffed, and hobbled along on her cane. “Okay, look,” she began, but Laura shushed her with a raised finger, and peeked around the corner. Jubilee followed her gaze, and she felt a bit of bile churn in her belly.

As Laura predicted there was indeed an open area behind the club, and a back entrance providing access to what Jubilee suspected would be the kitchens. And guarding it were two very large men whose heavy winter coats made them look even bigger. But Jubilee’s eyes were drawn away from their physical bulk to the assault rifles gripped in their meaty, gloved fists.

“Woah.”

Laura frowned. “These men are not normal guards,” she said in a low voice. At this distance, even with the alley’s best efforts at magnifying every sound, their voices didn’t carry enough to be heard. “There is something happening here.”

“Yeah, trouble. All right, you’ve had a look, but we really need to be going, now.”

Laura rounded on her and her green eyes narrowed. “No.”

“Look, you took out two thugs and saved that girl, that’s awesome. But even I can see that these guys are hardcore.”

“I have dealt with worse.”

Jubilee buried her face in the palm of her hand. “Look, even if you can, there’s nothing you could do before they could raise an alarm.”

Laura considered that a moment, then unzipped her jacket and let it slip down off her shoulders. Almost immediately her fair skin began to pimple, not at all helped by the midriff and cleavage-bearing top underneath. “There will not be an alarm,” she said.

And with that, Laura started into the alley, and Jubilee could only watch in amazement while Laura strode right up to the guards with an uncharacteristically sultry swaying of her hips. Even more astonishing: Neither guard so much as raised their weapons on her, and shared smug grins between each other at something Laura said.

And before either of them could even think of reacting, a sharp snikt echoed through the alley, and Laura buried the claws of both hands in their throats. They both collapsed without so much as a whisper.

Jubilee felt her stomach lurch at just how simply it was done, and hurried across the alley to join Laura over the bodies. “What did you do?” she asked.

“They were distracted,” Laura said flatly, and dug through their pockets. One of the men had a keycard tucked inside his jacket pocket.

“How—”

“The girls will likely be held in the upper floors” Laura said, waving off the question. “They will likely be under guard, but only lightly. Stay back until I clear the building.”

“What?!” Jubilee reached out to her and took her by the arm, and Laura visibly flinched away from her. “Look, I’ve gone along with this so far, but you’re out of your mind!”

“The men inside will kill you. You are wounded, and I cannot protect you and carry out the mission at the same time.”

“To hell with your mission, Laura! Do you realize what you’re doing?”

“I do,” she said with finality. “Please wait here.”

And without another word Laura used the keycard on a reader built into the door frame, and slipped inside.

###

Act IV

###

Cessily leaned against the wall and hugged herself tightly. Traffic flowed into and out of the terminal around them. A few people spared them looks ranging from curiosity to disgust, while outside airport personnel loaded their bags up into a cab called — at the airport’s expense, of course, in a transparent attempt to save some face — to take them back to Salem once they received news that their trip was cancelled. Santo slumped his massive rocky shoulders.

“This sucks. I wanted to work on my tan this week,” he said.

Victor sighed and mopped his face. “Santo, you’re made out of rock. You don’t tan!”

“Why couldn’t they just put us on another flight?”

“I don’t know.” Victor frowned and looked around. “And where’s Julian, anyway? I’m seriously not looking forward to all the butt-kissing I’m going to have to do for having his lawyer get us all out of this pro bono.”

Santo snickered. “Heh. Pro boner?”

Cessily groaned and rolled her eyes. “Shut up, Santo.” She spared a moment to sweep her eyes across the concourse, but there was no sign of Julian, only the hundreds of travelers making their way through the terminals either for the gates or the exits. “And I don’t know, I thought he’d be right behind us.”

“We’re not going to get detention, are we?”

“I don’t know. It’s not like we actually did anything.”

Victor shrugged. “Yeah, sure, we only almost caused a riot in the middle of La Guardia.”

“Hey, I was being good!” Santo said.

“Exactly. No way will the Professor believe that.”

“Look can we just talk about something else? It’s bad enough to get singled out to begin with, but then we got arrested on top of that,” Cessily said. “I’m more worried about Julian.”

Victor frowned. “How come? It’s not like he hasn’t been in trouble before. Remember that time he tried to TK the buttons on Dr. Grey’s blouse?”

Santo grinned. “That was pretty cool, especially when Dr. Grey almost knocked him across the room.”

“It was stupid. The point is I’m sure he’ll just walk this off like he always does.”

Cessily glanced over her shoulder. “Don’t be so sure ...” she said, and trailed off when she caught sight of Julian picking his way through the crowd of travelers. Whatever passed for her heart leapt up into her throat when she saw his dejected expression, and he walked with his head lowered, his hands in his pockets, and trying to shrink down into himself. “Uh-oh. Stay here. Victor, make sure Santo doesn’t run off and get us into any more trouble.”

“But I was being good!” Santo wailed at her back when she left the wall she was leaning against and hurried to meet Julian.

“Julian! Are you ok? What—” He grabbed her into a hug that with anyone else would have forced all the air from their lungs when she reached him. “—happened?” Cessily could only wrap her arms around him while he began to cry into her shoulder. “Julian?” she asked, but already knew the answer before she opened her mouth.

“They’re doing it,” he sobbed. “They’re actually doing it.”

Cessily would have cried with him were she capable of it, and she hugged him even tighter once he confirmed her fears. “Oh God, Julian. I’m sorry! I’m so, so sorry!”

“Woah! Hey! Get a room!” Santo called, and Cessily glared at him over her shoulder when she saw the big, goofy grin on his rocky features.

“Shut up, Santo!” Victor snapped, and uselessly dug his elbow into Santo’s stony flank. His reptilian features were downturned when he saw the tears streaming down Julian’s face. “Hey man, are you all right?”

“No, he’s not,” Cessily said. “His parents are cutting him off. Permanently.”

“What?!” Victor said, his mouth dropping open in astonishment. Even Santo seemed taken aback by that, and his eyes widened in surprise.

“Dude, that is so not cool.”

“Is there anything we can do?” Victor asked.

“I want to go home,” Julian said and sniffled, as miserable as Cessily ever heard him, and the defeat in his voice broke what passed for her heart.

“Come on,” she said, and slipped her arm around his waist. “Let’s get the hell out of here and go back where we belong.”

###

The back door opened onto the kitchen area, and Laura ducked behind an island counter in the middle of its spacious floor. She cocked her head and perked her ears for any sign her dispatching of the guards outside had been heard. The distant drone of voices mingled with the background hum of electronics and the rumble of an industrial-sized dishwasher, but otherwise the service areas appeared to be deserted. She swept her eyes across the room; the walls were lined with cabinets, an industrial refrigerator, and ovens, and a large walk-in freezer stood in one corner. There were no security cameras in sight.

Ms. Lee, against her objections, followed behind her. Her features were drawn with pain from her aggravated injuries.

“You should stay outside,” she said in a whisper.

“Like hell am I letting you do this alone. Just tell me what you need me to do.”

“Stay low and watch my back. I am unfamiliar with the layout of this building and there is no time for thorough reconnaissance. Are you able to use your powers?”

Ms. Lee shrugged. “I don’t know, I haven’t tried since I first woke up in the med bay.”

Laura frowned. Ms. Lee presents a potential liability in combat or for reconnaissance-in-force, proceeding inadvisable under current conditions.

She forced down the practical voice and started for the door leading into the hallway. “I suggest you avoid contact with hostiles.”

“Brilliant suggestion, John McClane. What if they don’t avoid contact with me?”

Laura looked at her flatly. “Use your powers or die.”

Ms. Lee rolled her eyes. “Thanks, that’s reassuring.”

Laura started into the hall and crept quietly along it towards the front of the building. Ms. Lee scuffled along behind her, and she gritted her teeth at the racket her companion was making. Nonetheless, they reached an exit leading into the public areas without incident. Laura peeked through a window set in the door, and found herself looking out into the main entry hall; a spacious and luxurious antechamber with a few upholstered chairs and couches arranged in conversation circles, and big screen TVs hung from the walls. Directly opposite them was the main entrance from the street. A staircase on the same wall as the doorway leading to the service corridors provided access to the upper levels, while a large, grand set of double doors on their right provided access to the club itself. Two more of the large bodyguards with guns flanked either side of those doors.

Laura considered that for a moment, and slipped off her jacket and handed it to Ms. Lee. The club was not active at this time of day, so clearly there must be a reason for such conspicuous firepower. It was a demonstration of force for someone’s benefit. She looked at Ms. Lee and motioned for her to remain silent and stay put. Ms. Lee, in turn, sighed and rolled her eyes in annoyance, but nodded. And with that Laura slipped through the doors and started towards the guards.

Unlike the men out back, who readily allowed themselves to be distracted by her body, these men immediately tensed their grip on their weapons when she entered the room.

Targets are alert, analyzing all intruders as potential threats. Low probability of distraction. Alternative means of access required.

Laura stepped up to them and stopped. Both scrutinized her closely, and though Laura had no doubts their examination was not entirely professional, neither relaxed their guard enough for her to take advantage of it. “Club’s closed,” one of the men said.

“I am here to see your boss,” she said, and tensed her body in preparation to fight if needed.

“They haven’t called for any of the girls yet. So get lost.”

She clenched her jaw and narrowed her eyes. “I am not one of the girls. Your boss is looking for me, and I am here.”

That seemed to surprise them, and they looked between each other for a moment. “You’re kidding me.”

Laura scowled at him. “I do not ‘kid.’”

“Watch her,” the guard said to his companion, who lowered the muzzle of his weapon at her, and slipped through the doors. For a moment Laura considered moving in for the kill, but his finger already hovered over the trigger of his weapon. Though she had no doubt she could kill him, it would not be before he set off an alarm.

That was unacceptable. Zebra Daddy’s successor would likely escape in the confusion once an alarm was raised. If she was to succeed in finishing what she began, she needed to get close to him first.

After a long few minutes of waiting, the guard staring at her, and Laura staring back, (and he shifted uncomfortably as he did so, as if recognizing he was living on borrowed time) the second returned.

He lowered his weapon at her. “Let’s go,” he said, and Laura was directed into the club, with the big guard following her inside. She took a deep breath and twisted her lip at the mingled stench of bodies, alcohol, and narcotics. A large number of men were crowded into the room, most of them armed, many of them familiar. There were a few others she did not know. Some were likely newcomers to the gang, but several men appeared to be of particular importance, and were encircled by armed men of their own.

Hypothesis: The Boss is meeting with other gang leaders, possibly to exert influence, or negotiate distribution of contraband and girls.

Laura turned her attention to the room itself. There were three exits; the large double doors through which she entered, a smaller emergency exit in the opposite corner, and another door behind the large, full-sized bar occupying much of the wall on her right. There were also doors leading to restrooms on both ends of the bar. The middle of the floor was open, likely for dancing, with spotlights hanging from the ceiling, large speakers hung from the walls at even intervals for the sound system, and a place for a DJ on the far wall. Surrounding the open floor were large circular tables spaced closely together, with chairs picked up off the floor and stacked upside down atop them. The men gathered within were concentrated in the area around the bar. Some sipped drinks, others sampled their host’s product.

Key strong points: The bar and DJ’s station. Positioning of tables restricts mobility, but provides some cover. Middle of the floor is open; panic may drive hostiles in this direction.

The guard directed her to a tall but slender man in a white button-down shirt and a khaki-colored blazer and trousers. He was perhaps thirty years of age and of mixed Caucasian and Latin heritage, with dark eyes, slicked-back hair, light olive skin, and a clean-shaven face. Laura saw no obvious traces of a weapon, but she suspected he carried at least one sidearm concealed beneath his jacket. Her lip twisted into a scowl once she caught the scent of his cologne, and her eyes burned with recognition.

And when the man looked her over, Laura knew that he recognized her, too.

“Oh man,” he said, in a mild Salvadoran accent mingled with common urban vernacular. He laughed. “Oh man, bitch you have a lot of nerve showing your face here.”

The guard stopped Laura at the edge of the dance floor — too far away for her to lunge for the Boss — with the muzzle of his weapon buried in the small of her back. The Boss waved the man away and started towards her.

Laura curled her lip in contempt. “You are the one who replaced Zebra Daddy?”

“That’s right.” He turned to the other men seated or standing around the tables. Those who knew her edged their hands for their weapons, others just looked on her with emotion ranging from astonishment, to confusion, and in some cases lust. Laura balled her fists, and felt the rage smolder in the pit of her belly. “You see,” he said to the gathering, “this is the skank who did Daddy. All that money I put up to have her carcass dragged back in, and she comes to me herself? Ain’t even my birthday!”

Laura said nothing, and just watched him. He stopped within arm’s reach, took her chin in his hand and leered down at her. “All he did for you, that’s how you repay him?”

“Zebra Daddy got what he deserved, and so will you,” she hissed, and narrowed her eyes to slits. The Boss flinched back at the lethal threat in her voice, but then he laughed, and slowly the rest of his men laughed with him.

Then he dispensed with the show of humor, and seized her roughly by the chin again and put his face in hers. His breath stank of alcohol and tobacco, and his eyes burned. “Daddy was exactly that to me! He was like a father to all of us, and you went and took him away. Well, I’m the Daddy here now. This is my territory! And damned if I’m gonna let some two-faced whore bizzo like you run loose in it. Someone give me a knife! I’m gonna cut you apart piece by piece and feed them to you.”

He released her head with a shove, but then smiled hungrily at her, and pressed his body close to her. He made a show of running his fingers through her hair, and Laura suppressed a shudder and a feeling of nausea welling up in disgust at his touch. Her whole body shook, coiled like a spring begging to be released. Her target, however, mistook it for her quaking in fear.

“But you know what I’m gonna do to you first?” He asked, and his tone changed, becoming almost sickeningly sweet, much like she remembered Zebra Daddy’s when he was trying to butter someone up. “Daddy let me an’ all the boys have a go with the girls for cheap whenever they weren’t working. But never you. You know that? You were the only one he never let us touch, ‘cause you were his favorite.” His voice turned nasty again, and he seized her by the neck and squeezed. Laura ignored the pressure of his hand tightening around her throat, and focused all her attention on his eyes. “Well Daddy’s gone, now, so I’m gonna get my money’s worth out of you before I hang you by your guts from the ceiling.”

He released her with another shove, and Laura staggered backwards while she regained her breath. She clenched her fists until her nails cut into her palms, and straightened again in defiance when the Boss closed in on her.

“You will not have me,” Laura said, her voice barely more than a low growl. “You will never have me, or any other woman, ever again!”

And with that she released her hold on her anger. The ring of her claws extending echoed across the club, and faster than anyone could react — before even the Boss knew what was happening — she buried them all the way to her knuckles into his groin. All of the air rushed from his lungs in a sick grunt when she twisted her hand and shredded his manhood, and she casually tossed him aside and faced down the rest of the gang with hate in her eyes. For a moment no one, not even the guards, could even think of reacting.

It gave her all the time she needed. She already knew how every single one of them would die.

Laura spun around and with one deft slice of her hand tore open the throat of the big guard behind her while he uselessly scrambled to bring the muzzle of his weapon to bear. Blood sprayed in a brilliant crimson fountain across her face, and her claws tore through the action of his rifle and spilled its inner workings across the floor.

By now the rest of the men were reacting, and the lounge was filled with the sound of many voices all shouting orders over one another. Shots rang out, and Laura spun to face the shooter. With a snarl of rage she charged him, and carved a bloody swath through anyone too slow to dodge out of her way. She danced through them while gunfire tore through the crowd; some shots ripped through her torso and momentarily staggered her, others zipped past her to bury themselves in the walls or ceiling. She dodged and spun through the melee, her claws flashing and wet with blood, and blood soon covered her from head to toe. She tore open bellies and faces, and ripped out throats. She danced around and over and under the tables, and there was nowhere her prey could hide.

The cupric stench of blood filled her nostrils, and a fine red mist hung in the air. Men screamed and died, and soon Laura was screaming as well; it started as a low growl in the back of her throat, and built to a sustained and inhuman screech at the top of her lungs.

That was when the club vanished, and all she saw was red.

###

At the first report of a gun discharging the guard outside the lounge spun on his heel and started for the door. Jubilee bit out a curse; whatever Laura’s plan, things had undoubtedly just gotten ugly.

“Cover her back,” she muttered, “Cover her back. Crap, how the hell do I ...?”

Jubilee watched the guard start into the lounge, and panicked cries and the sounds of more gunfire escaped from beyond. Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! With no other options, Jubilee rushed as fast as her pain-wracked body would let her into the antechamber. The sound of the door flying open when she burst through got the big man’s attention, and he rounded on her faster than Jubilee thought possible given his size.

“Who the hell are—” he began, and Jubilee whipped up her hands and raked him with a small but concentrated burst of shrieking plasma. It exploded in a cascade of sharp pafs! around his face, and he yelped in pain, dropped his gun, and shielded his eyes against the assault. That was all the opening Jubilee needed to close the distance between them and deliver a solid whack to his head with her cane. For all his size and strength, the man crumpled up in a heap at her feet.

She quirked a grin at the sight of the man lying motionless on the floor, but before she could see about helping Laura, Jubilee heard the heavy tread of boots from the stairs above. She quickly took cover against the wall out of sight next to the landing while several more men, all of them armed, rushed down to respond to the sounds of the fight in the club. The group neared the landing, and Jubilee stuck out her cane and was rewarded with a cry of alarm when the first man in line tripped and tumbled down the stairs, with the rest losing their footing in a vain attempt to avoid him. Several quick blows from her cane put them down for the count as well.

“Ok, that was pretty satisfying. Nightie-night, boys!” she said, and brandished her cane with a flourish.

However, just as she was turning back for the club, a large fist-shaped object careened towards her face, and Jubilee’s head was snapped around when it struck her hard in the jaw. The rest of her body followed her head, and she spun into the floor. She cried out at the icy shock of pain lancing from her side to her hip, and Jubilee reflexively curled into a ball to shield herself from the large boot connecting with her belly.

“Bitch!” the big guard said, still dazed from her previous attack. The kick drove the air from her lungs, and she fell into a fit of coughs. Some part of her mind still functioning through the agony racking her body expressed relief that she had at least gotten him off balance. “What kind of freak are you?”

Jubilee rolled onto her back and propped herself up on her elbows. He stumbled after his weapon, which skittered across the antechamber floor when she paf’ed him. And once her mind cleared and she shook off the punch to the face, she became aware of her Oakley’s lying on the ground next to her; the frame was broken, and one lens was shattered. Jubilee’s lip curled and she glared at him. “Son of a bitch! You busted my shades!”

The guard retrieved his gun and swung the muzzle towards her, but Jubilee was faster, and the room lit up under the concentrated blast of plasma. It struck him square in the chest and flung him backwards into a table, and the whole thing collapsed beneath him with a loud crash. For good measure she shifted her aim to the ceiling and unleashed another screaming barrage that tore a gaping hole overhead, and buried him under large chunks of ceiling tile. This time he didn’t get up.

Jubilee grimaced and levered herself back to her feet, and limped to retrieve her cane from where it fell during the scrap. A pitiable groan rose from the pile of tangled men lying at the foot of the stairs, which she silenced with another whack on her way past. Jubilee prodded the dazed guards with the end of her cane to make sure that they would be staying down, and started for the lounge.

She paused at the door and listened. All sounds of fighting within had ceased, and a deadly silence hung over the club. Jubilee’s stomach churned anxiously and she started inside. She immediately wished she hadn’t.

Bodies lay everywhere, and blood painted the floor and ceiling in gruesome splashes of red. The tables were smashed, clawed, and overturned, and in the middle of it all was Laura, her whole body shaking. She stood over a man in a khaki blazer lying on the floor, who held his bleeding groin while trying to crawl away from her. Jubilee limped across the club, shocked and horrified by the carnage around her.

“Laura!” she called, but Laura ignored her.

“Please don’t kill me,” the man on the floor weakly begged. “Please don’t kill me! Please don’t kill me!”

Laura stooped over the man, seized him by the front of his shirt, and snarled in his face. His features were white, but whether due to blood loss or fear Jubilee couldn’t tell.

“Laura!” she repeated, and ignored the bite of pain arcing through her side to quicken her pace when Laura raised her claws to the man’s throat. “Laura, no!”

She couldn’t reach her fast enough, however, and Laura’s claws flashed. She cut his neck so deeply she nearly severed his head altogether. The man gurgled sickeningly and blood sprayed from the wound, and almost immediately his body went limp in her grip before she unceremoniously dumped his corpse on the floor. Jubilee hobbled over and took Laura by the shoulder. She immediately regretted that decision; Laura spun around with a scream of rage, twisting out from her grip and raising her claws to strike.

“Woah! woah! woah! woah!” Jubilee said, and hastily backed away with her hands raised. “It’s all right! It’s me!”

Laura’s breaths came in ragged, heaving gasps, and tears streamed down her face, leaving meandering trails through the blood smeared across her cheeks. She had been shot several times, to judge by the holes in her top, but the wounds had already healed over, and her body continued to shake. Slowly she came back to her senses, and her face beneath the mask of blood colored in embarrassment. “Ms. Lee?” she said, her voice raw from screaming.

“Yeah, it’s me,” Jubilee said, and kept her voice as even and calm as she could. “It’s all right, dude, it’s over.”

Laura’s breathing slowly returned to a normal rate, and she lowered her hands and relaxed. “No, it is not, the girls ...”

Jubilee gently reached out and took her by the shoulder. “The guards are down. At least I think I got all of them, I don’t know if there’s any more upstairs. We’ll take care of the girls, okay?”

She cocked her head and studied Jubilee closely while she finally put up her claws. “You are injured,” she said, and Jubilee self-consciously reached up to nurse what was almost certainly a nasty bruise forming across her face. It wasn’t quite hurting yet, but she knew it wouldn’t be long before she would have to decide whether it distracted her from the pain in her side, or vice-versa.

“It’s nothing. Come on, someone on the street is bound to have heard the shooting, so let’s hurry up and do what we can here, and make ourselves scarce before someone comes for a closer look.”

###

Act V

###

Jubilee slumped in a chair across the desk from the Professor, casually spun her cane through her hands, and awaited the scolding she knew was coming. Xavier’s office was more or less back in order again, with a new computer and all-new furnishings, though enough of the old décor survived to lend the office a comforting feeling of familiarity. Especially considering in her days as a student she certainly saw enough of it.

And with the Professor leaning on his elbows with his face buried in his hands in frustration, she certainly felt right at home.

“I thought you were going to be keeping an eye on Laura while you were in New York?” Xavier said into his hands. She could practically hear him rolling his eyes.

“That was the plan, right,” she said. “But in my defense, I like, literally don’t have a leg to stand on, and there’s no way I could stop her from taking off like that. Hell, I don’t think I could have stopped her even if I hadn’t been turned into Swiss cheese by Stryker’s goons.”

“That’s not the point!” Xavier barked, but Jubilee ignored the anger in his voice. “This is a very, very serious matter. If not for Laura’s foresight in destroying the surveillance tapes this school might have had a lot of explaining to do.”

Jubilee sat up, and grimaced at the change in posture. She looked Xavier right in the eye and frowned at him. “With all due respects, Professor, I think it still does.”

Xavier raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really? And what part would you like us to explain? How the entirety of a major New York gang and the heads of at least five others were slaughtered by a sixteen-year-old girl? Or maybe illuminating the anonymous tip that led the police to the rescue of some forty missing women, and one of the largest drug caches in the history of law enforcement.”

“Gee, the way you say that it almost makes it sound like Laura was a hero or something. And I don’t mean talking to the authorities. Hell, Laura was pretty adamant about destroying all their surveillance just to erase the connection. I mean what the school needs to explain to us.”

“To you?”

Jubilee nodded. “Look, Professor, you know I was never a model student. I liked skipping class better than sitting through them, and breaking curfew to go to late-night raves in the City. But I’m smart enough to read between the lines.”

She sighed and mopped her face. “I missed what Laura did to Stryker’s men seeing as I slept through it after I was hit, but I got a good front row seat for what she did to some seriously hardcore dudes today. She tore them apart like they were nothing! And those first two guys in the alley ...” Jubilee trailed off and shook her head. “I don’t know, something about them set her off. And I think you know something more about all of this than you’re telling me.

“Look, I’m not saying I don’t trust you: I’ve always trusted you. All of us have always trusted you, because for many of us you were the father we didn’t get to have growing up. But everything Laura did that night? And then her student file... I mean it may as well be like she doesn’t have a file at all! It all makes me think one thing: You’re hiding her.”

Xavier didn’t respond for a moment, and just stared back at her. He sighed, steepled his hands in front of him, and rested his chin on his index fingers in that particular manner he did whenever he was deep in thought. Finally, after a long moment, he spoke. “You know, Jubilation, you never did give yourself enough credit. Had you applied yourself, you may have been one of the best students to have come through those doors.”

Jubilee quirked a grin. “Thanks, Professor, but I’m not letting you flatter your way out of this.”

He chuckled softly. “Well, it was worth a try.” Xavier sighed again and sat back in his chair. “But you’re right; I have been hiding something from you, and all I can ask is that you accept my reasoning behind it. It’s not just that we’re hiding Laura here, but protecting her.”

“Protecting her from what? Herself?”

“There are some very, very dangerous people looking for her. People who would give little consideration to harming everyone in the school if it meant getting her back.”

“Who is she?”

“That’s not my place to say,” he said, and Jubilee frowned and folded her arms in frustration. “It’s entirely up to Laura to share that when and if she’s ever ready. All we can do is try to help her as best we can. Which I do believe is your department.”

“Right, right. Well, if you want my opinion, Professor? The sort of help she needs is way out of my league. She needs to talk to someone with some actual degrees.” She eyed him closely. “But I get the feeling you’ve already had that conversation.”

He grinned at her. “You know me so well. I wouldn’t have made this decision had I not already considered all the options.”

She sighed. “All right, I’ll do what I can.”

“I know that you will. And how, may I ask, are you feeling?”

Jubilee shrugged. “I guess I’m all right. The Doc and Josh gave me a good going over when we got back. My face was just a little bruised, and Josh did some touching up after I aggravated some of what Stryker’s men did to me, but they’re giving me the usual ‘You’re mending quite nicely’ spiel. My Oakleys were a total loss though.”

“What a tragedy,” Xavier said, with a roll of his eyes. “Now, if you will excuse me, I believe you have a few students looking for you, and I have some work to do as well.”

Jubilee levered herself out of her chair with a grunt and a grimace, and nursed her side. “Aw man, I was just getting comfortable, too.”

He laughed softly “Go on.”

She nodded politely at the dismissal and hobbled for the door. But when she left Xavier’s office an uneasy feeling resumed gnawing at her gut. Jubilee just stamped it down as best she could when she stepped out into the hall.

###

Jubilee stopped at Laura’s door and leaned on her cane, ignoring the discomfort in her side. She wasn’t expecting much in the conversation to come, but she had to at least try. So she took a steadying breath and knocked.

“Laura?” she said into the door when no response came. “Laura it’s Jubilee, can I come in?”

For a few moments there was no response, but before she could knock again she heard a subdued voice beyond.

“The door is unlocked,” Laura said.

Jubilee turned the handle and stepped inside. The room Laura and Sooraya shared was neat and orderly, and Laura’s space was purely functional, missing all the little personal touches a sixteen-year-old girl’s room ought to have. Laura herself was seated on her bed, her legs drawn up against her chest and her arms wrapped tightly around them. Her chin rested on her knees, and she just stared at the far wall as if seeing nothing.

“Hey,” Jubilee said, and hobbled across the room to sit at the foot of the bed. She eased herself down gingerly and folded one leg beneath her. “I wanted to see how you were doing.”

Laura didn’t respond, and just rested her brow on her knees to hide her face.

Jubilee sighed. “Look, Laura. It’s my job to help you kids. It’s what I’m here for. After we got back, I talked with some of the others who needed to see me while I was down; I put this off because I wanted to give you some space. You’ve all been through something traumatic, and I know many of you had fears or questions you needed to get out in the open. ‘Why us?’ ‘What did we do to them?’ ‘How could this have happened?’ I wish I had all the answers for them, but mostly all I could do was listen.”

She considered her next words for a moment. “Many of them also talked about you, and what you did that night. Most were supportive, and even grateful. You saved a lot of lives. There are a few who were afraid of what you did, but I think they’ve come to accept that what happened gave you no other choice. Julian mentioned you told him you felt nothing for the men you killed, and I’d ordinarily find that totally disconcerting if it wasn’t for the fact he said how much it was bothering you that you didn’t.”

Jubilee paused to give Laura a chance to respond, but she said nothing and didn’t even move. She just remained where she sat, her black hair falling like a curtain around her to hide her face.

“What I saw today,” she continued, “wasn’t the same thing. It was something so far beyond rage that I don’t even know where to begin imagining where it came from. You hated those men, and you wanted them to die. I’m not sure if I would say you enjoyed it, but you sure weren’t cold about it.”

Again she paused, but still Laura didn’t move. Jubilee sighed. “Laura, I want to help. But, and forgive me for sounding like some sappy, clichéd after school special, I need you to help me do that. Can you please talk to me?”

Jubilee waited several moments to give Laura time to form a response, but once again none was forthcoming. Jubilee hung her head, levered herself back to her feet, and started for the door in defeat.

“I was a prostitute,” Laura said quietly when Jubilee reached for the doorknob. She stopped and turned back, and found Laura now sitting cross-legged, with her hands in her lap and her head hung low and staring at them. “The men I killed today used to work for a man called Zebra Daddy. He was my pimp.”

Jubilee returned to the bed and eased herself back down. Her side ached in protest and Jubilee casually rubbed the wound. “I’ll admit I’m not entirely surprised to hear that after what I saw today. What happened?”

“I ...” Laura’s voice broke for a moment, but she quickly regained control of herself. “He found me wandering the streets two years ago. I had nothing and nowhere to go, so he took me in. I was broken when he found me. But he gave me food and a place to stay, and at first asked nothing in return.”

She took a shuddering breath, and shifted a bit to hug herself. “Then he started pressuring me to work for him. He tried to make me take drugs, but they would not affect me.”

“Because of your healing factor?” Jubilee asked, and Laura nodded.

“So he got angry and started to hurt me, instead,” Laura said, and tears began to well up in her eyes. “He did other things, as well. He should not have been able to. I should not have let him. I could have killed him in a second, but I did not fight back.”

She wiped away the tears beginning to stream down her cheeks. “I gave in and started seeing clients just to make the pain stop. Some liked to be cut, which was my specialty, but others just wanted ...” Laura trailed off, and her face colored a bit in embarrassment. “I was the best at what I did, and the clients paid a lot for me, which made him very happy. But if a girl tried to run away or did not do what he said, he would get very angry. Most of the time he just hurt them, but some girls died.”

“How did you get away?”

“A friend found me, and woke me up inside. Then I killed him.”

“Logan?” Jubilee asked.

Laura shook her head. “No. After I escaped I sought him out ...” She trailed off into silence, and Jubilee could see some dark memory passing behind her eyes, but Laura refused to elaborate further. “And he brought me here. I am ashamed that I did these things, and that I let him make me when I could have ended it at any time.”

Jubilee reached out and took her by the hand. Laura flinched at the contact, but didn’t withdraw from her touch.

“Hey, listen to me: You don’t have anything to be ashamed of. Men like that are smart. Scary smart. Believe me, when I was working cases back home, I saw a lot of girls that were in the same place you were. They were alone and didn’t have anyone, then some guy comes along, takes them off the street or otherwise does something to fill that hole, sometimes they get them addicted to drugs, and then they push them into it.”

She sighed in disgust. “I’ve seen it over and over again, a lot more than I want to remember. The girls get arrested, maybe sent to treatment or counseling, which is where I would come in, but far too many ended up right back where they started again. Eventually if they can’t get out it kills them, and the pimps just get richer. It’s a sick and disgusting situation, and they know exactly how to work around or with the system.

“There’s not a thing wrong with you or what you did back then. Maybe society is only just figuring out that you and the other girls like you were victims of the problem and not the problem yourselves, but don’t let that stigmatize you.”

Laura sniffled and wiped the tears from her eyes. “I could not let those girls today suffer as I did,” she said. “I killed those men for what they were doing, and I am glad I did it.”

The hate in Laura’s voice sent a chill down Jubilee’s spine. Whatever she was, the thought of how deadly she was when detached from the situation was frightening enough. Seeing what Laura was capable of when she wanted to kill filled her with dread.

“The thing is you can’t save everyone,” Jubilee said, forcing down the ball of ice in her stomach. “You’ve helped these girls, but this isn’t a problem you can solve like this. It’s too big.” She gave Laura’s hand a squeeze. “I’m not going to say you did the wrong thing, but I can’t condone it, either. I’m not here to judge you, just to help.”

“I do not know that you can help me.”

Jubilee quirked a smile. “Hey, give me a little credit, dude. A couple months ago we wouldn’t even be having this conversation at all, and look at us now.”

Laura seemed to consider that for a moment, and nodded.

“I do not want the others to know ...” she trailed off again in embarrassment and hugged herself. Jubilee gave her a sympathetic pat on the knee. She may have talked about it, but she still doesn’t want to really open up and deal with it. I guess saying something is some progress, at least.

“See, that’s one of the bright sides to talking to me; nothing you say leaves this room. Whatever you want the others to know is entirely up to you. My lips are sealed. And not even Quentin and Ruth can get through the static in my head.”

“Thank you.”

Jubilee smiled and levered herself back to her feet again. Her side twinged in protest. “Oof, next time I sit down I think I’ll just stay down. Are you hungry? They’re about to serve dinner downstairs, and I think some food will do you some good. Especially since we never did get to check out that restaurant.”

Laura didn’t respond immediately, and instead mulled over Jubilee’s suggestion with the same deliberateness she gave everything, then nodded and slipped gracefully off the bed. Jubilee put an arm around her shoulders and led her out of the room.

---

A Note From the Author

I actually started writing elements of this episode — mainly the final conversation between Laura and Jubilee — way back during Season 1. It just sort of sprung from the idea of making Jubes the school guidance counselor, and I also knew I wanted to start exploring parts of Laura's background around this time. A few sharp-eyed readers already noticed I was sowing the seeds of this reveal as early as 1x03, and it's a part of Laura's background in the books I wish Marvel would explore in greater detail. Sex trafficking and underaged prostitution are serious problems even in the US, and I think it's something that Laura could be a great means of highlighting the issues around. And the original NYX is an underrated book if you look past the exploitation of it.

The B plot was intended to really break Julian down, and start pushing his development from the haughty, superior jerk he began as, and of course follows up on his conversation with Laura in the premier.

I'll be honest I'm not sure how well the moments with Josh, Sooraya, and Nori really work. If this were an actual series I'm sure those scenes would likely end up on the cutting room floor as they distract from the A and B plots. On the other hand it's a bit of a shame, because Rahne's accent is REALLY fun to write. Plus it lays some groundwork for later character development.

There were two main stories which formed the basis of this episode: Girl's Night Out from Liu’s X-23 ongoing, on which the Laura/Jubilee plot is based, and parts of the Hellions miniseries by DeFillippis and Weir. Since the series as a whole is mainly based on Kyle and Yost's New X-Men run I've already got a story credit for them in the main description. So episodes based on other writers' stories will be noted in the fashion I did above.

See you next time!

Chapter 3: 2x03 - The New X-Men

Summary:

The time has come for the latest generation of X-Men to begin training. But can they survive the most dreaded day of class: Orientation?

2x03

The New X-Men

###

Act I

###

Her lungs burned and her limbs ached. The ground beneath her feet was hard, parched, and cracked, riven by deep fissures belching noxious fumes into the air around her that colored the sky a sickening yellow-brown. It stung her eyes and choked her, but still she ran on, exhausted and driven now only by blind panic.

Somewhere behind her a low howl echoed across the blasted mud flats.

She did not pause or turn in her flight, and instead plunged into a thicket of black, hoary bushes. There was no greenery, only razor-sharp thorns like knives that clawed at her flesh and tore deep gashes in her naked body. Blood flowed from the many wounds left by the thorns, and she felt her strength ebb. The calls of her pursuer were soon joined by responses on all sides, and she knew at once she was being run to the point of collapse, when the pack would spring on her for the kill. There was no reason guiding her while she fled now, only instinct, the desperate flight of prey seeking to escape the predator.

She forced her way through the thicket and back onto open ground once more. Without the tangle of brush to slow her she was able to pick up speed, but she knew it was hopeless. The pack closed in all around her, and bayed joyfully with the thrill of the hunt. Their eyes burned, their gaping maws slavered in their eagerness for a taste of her flesh, and their teeth glistened wetly in the thin light. The forms of her pursuers were perhaps vaguely wolf-like, but otherwise shadowy and indistinct. They ran without tiring, patient for her to make the misstep or stumble that was their cue to finish her.

Still she ran, seeking for the shelter of a distant wall of rock ahead, perhaps to find a defensible place where she might be able to stand and fight.

She would not make it.

Her head swam from loss of blood and want of breath. She gasped and choked, and her eyes were blinded by pain, fatigue, and the stinging gas vented into the air around her. And then she went down. Whether because she could run no further, or because her foot caught a rock, she could not tell. Only that one moment she was on her feet, and the next she felt her face smash into the cracked and desiccated ground beneath her.

And with a howl of delight the pack moved in for the kill.

###

Laura awoke with a cry. Her hand and foot claws burst forth by instinct and reflex, and she flailed wildly against the covers threatening to smother her. Her claws tore them to ribbons and filled the air with the down of her comforter.

When she came back to full awareness, she found herself sitting upright in bed, drenched in a cold sweat, and with the gruesome remains of her latest blanket set lying eviscerated around her while its fluffy insides floated down around her bed. Her heart pounded against her sternum and her breathing came in ragged gasps, and she clenched her fists and dug her fingernails into her palms to steady herself. A light clicked on, and soft, golden illumination speared across the dorm room. Sooraya, her dark hair disheveled, raised herself up on one elbow and wiped the sleep from her bleary brown eyes.

“Laura?” she called. Her tone and the manner in which her words slurred together betrayed she was not yet fully awake. “What is the matter? Are you alright?”

Minimal threat level, target disoriented and unprepared for defense. Quick and direct attack to take advantage of current state recommended...

Laura closed her eyes; the light of Sooraya’s bedside lamp blinded her enhanced vision even from across the room. She let loose a shuddering breath, and attempted to calm herself and silence her mind. Her claws retracted, and almost immediately the skin healed over, leaving no sign of the lethal adamantium blades. The moment of panic that jolted her awake passed, and the pounding of her heart slowed and soon resumed its normal rhythm.

“Laura?” Sooraya said again, more urgently now that her mind found clarity after having been awakened so suddenly, and she became aware of the state of Laura’s blankets. “What happened?”

“It is nothing,” Laura said, and pulled the remains of her covers against her chest, more out of shame at her outburst than any self-consciousness over her state of undress.

Sooraya sighed and sat up. “It is not nothing,” she said. “You had the dream again, didn’t you.”

Laura looked at her sharply. Sooraya just gazed back. Her brown eyes regarded her with sympathy, and she wore a concerned frown on her dusky features. Having spent her first few months at the school unable to see Sooraya’s face in public due to her adherence to hijab, she was still unaccustomed to being in her presence without it. Laura looked away again and pulled her shredded blanket even higher and tried to shrink out of view. “Yes.”

“Would it help to talk about it? I am sure the housekeeping staff would appreciate it if we could find a way to get you to spare your covers.”

Laura glanced at her and considered Sooraya’s uncertain smile for a moment. An attempt to offer comfort by means of humor. No mockery intended.

Laura gave her head a short shake. “No.”

Sooraya sighed again. “Laura, whatever this dream is disturbs you terribly. It is the third time this week alone.”

She shuddered a bit at the memory of being pursued clinging to her mind.

“Laura?” Sooraya repeated.

“Thank you,” she said instead. “You should sleep.”

###

He was in the middle of a wonderful dream. Sofia came back to school, and they were taking a romantic walk beneath the trees in a quiet corner of the grounds. It was not too far off his birthday, and she wanted to see him! But the nagging sensation of being watched pursued him while they made their way along the shadowed avenues between the neatly spaced trees. He couldn’t tell where it was coming from, and it persisted when he leaned in to kiss her. But he came half-awake before their lips met, and the dream world shattered into a million fragments of light that scattered into the darkness of his room.

And yet the feeling of eyes watching him remained.

Julian tossed and turned a moment, unable to relax and return to his dream while that something watched him. Then by chance he looked to the foot of his bed and spied a shadowed figure hunched there. He shot bolt-upright in alarm, and gathered his power to him while his heart threatened to burst out of his chest at the unexpected sight. He fumbled for the light next to his headboard, and Laura ducked her head slightly to shield her eyes against the sudden brightness.

“Laura?!” he said in a hoarse whisper, equally incredulous and irritated to find her there. “What in the hell are you doing in here?” He kept his voice low, desperately hoping to avoid waking Santo, who snored loudly at the other end of the room. The last thing I need is him seeing her in here, I’ll never hear the end of it.

She crouched cat-like on her hands and feet at the foot of his bed as if ready to spring. Her black hair was a disheveled mess, but her green eyes were alert and glittered under the light of his lamp. She was also not wearing much, just her locket and a short black nightrobe cinched tight around her waist. It bared much her legs and did little to conceal the shape of her figure, which added a bit of mortification that she would come sit on his bed in such a state of dress to his incredulity and irritation at her being there at all. Laura watched him with a strangely agitated expression.

“I had a bad dream,” she said.

The manner in which she said that was almost comically childlike. Or at least it would have been at any time other than... He glanced at his alarm clock and let out an exasperated groan when he saw the time.

“Jesus Christ, it’s three AM! What do you think you’re doing? You just about gave me a heart attack.”

Laura’s expression turned confused, and she shifted from her cat-ready-to-spring posture, to sitting back with her legs drawn up to her chest and her chin resting on her knees. Julian had to force himself not to stare with the way the tail of her robe rode up. She took no notice of this, however, and hugged herself tightly, clearly discomfited by whatever led her into his room at three in the morning.

“I ...” She hesitated, and screwed her features a bit while she tried to make sense of what she was doing. “I do not know.”

Julian rolled his eyes. “Oh, wonderful. And how the hell did you get in here, anyway?”

“Through the door.” She gave him a look as if the answer was blindingly obvious and he was a fool for not thinking of it.

“The door was ...” He pinched the bridge of his nose in aggravation. “You picked the lock?”

Laura nodded somberly.

“Will you just go back to your own room and go to sleep so I can, too?”

She shuddered and tightened her arms around her legs. When she spoke her voice remained quiet, but her distress — a jarring display of actual emotion he was unaccustomed seeing from her — was evident. “I do not want to be alone,” she said.

Julian gawked at her. “You’re kidding me.”

Laura gave her head a small shake.

“Why don’t you go bother Sooraya?”

She shrugged, a very subtle rise and fall of her shoulders. “I do not know.”

Julian flopped back onto his bed, grabbed one of his pillows, and mashed it over his face to muffle the snarl of frustration begging to be released. He stayed like that for a few moments, before peeling the pillow away from his face again. Laura still sat at the end of his bed and watched him with big green eyes sparkling under the light of his lamp. Are you kidding me, is she actually trying to use puppy-dog eyes on me? There was something almost childlike about the way she hugged herself, and finally he couldn’t take any more of it.

He heaved a sigh, scooted over, and threw open his covers. “Alright, alright, fine.”

Laura lightly crawled along the bed without another word, and curled up into the space he made for her. She pulled the blanket up over her shoulder, and almost immediately fell into a deep sleep. For a moment Julian watched her breathing slow and her body relax. As much as she unnerved him when awake, now she seemed like such a small and fragile thing, seeking comfort from him, of all people, for reasons she didn’t seem able to explain. Her fair-skinned face was lost in the dark shadow of her unkempt hair, and she gave a small, contended sigh as if she indeed drew comfort from his presence.

Julian muttered quietly, put his back to her, and rolled himself into his blankets. He shut off his lamp again with a flick of his power.

And when he drifted back to sleep himself, his last conscious thought was his awareness of Laura lying beside him.

###

Act II

###

The first thing of which Julian was aware when he awoke the next morning was Laura still lying curled up beside him. At some point during the night he put an arm around her, and she threw an arm across his chest to cuddle closer. Now she slept with her head nestled in the crook of his arm.

The second thing of which he was aware was the big blocky head of Santo watching him, with an amused smirk on his big stupid features, and a mischievous twinkle in his glowing blue eyes.

“Good morning, lover!” he said, his voice a touch too loud for Julian’s taste.

“Shh!” Julian hissed, and carefully slid out from around Laura. She murmured something unintelligible, then sighed and rolled herself deeper into the blankets. “Keep your voice down!”

“D’awww, you don’t want to wake her up?”

“I don’t want anyone to know she’s in here!”

“Why not? You looked so cute together. Y’know if you two need a few more minutes I can always come back ...”

Santo started for the door, and Julian quickly seized the big rocky mutant with his power. “Don’t even think about it, rock pile. The last thing I need is you blabbing about this.”

Julian released him, and Santo folded his arms across his broad chest and glared indignantly over having been so restrained. “So what’s she doing in here, anyway?”

“Hell if I know. I woke up at three in the morning, and there she was at the end of the bed watching me.” He shuddered a bit at the fright she gave him, and wasn’t sure what part of it unnerved him most: That she so easily broke into his room at all, or the way she decided to just sit and stare at him while he slept.

“Creepy.”

“No kidding.”

“So of course you decided to let her spend the night. Totally makes sense why you’d go for it, though. I mean, yeah, she’s got that whole spooky goth thing going, but she’s still smoking hot.”

Julian let out a growl of exasperation and mopped his face. “Seriously, dude, don’t even start with me this morning.”

Santo regarded him thoughtfully for a moment, or at least whatever passed as thoughtfully for him. “So why didn’t you tell her to leave, or just TK her out?”

He sighed and watched Laura sleep. In his bed. In her robe. And the millions of embarrassing thoughts and comments that would ensue if anyone knew about it flew wildly through his head.

“I don’t know. Some stupid dream had her shaken up. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she was afraid to be alone.”

Santo scratched his head in confusion. “Doesn’t she have a roommate?”

“Look, I don’t ever know what’s going through her head. You want an explanation, sit in on the Professor’s next Psych class.” Julian then looked pointedly at him. “And before you get any bright ideas, I meant that sarcastically. Seriously don’t tell anybody about this.”

“Aw, why not? I think it’s sweet. You’re just like a big teddy bear!”

“I mean it, rock pile! Or I’ll TK you apart and use you to pave the walkways!”

Santo, however, knew better than to take the threat seriously, and just started making kissy faces at him. “I always knew you were really all fluffy and cuddly inside.”

Julian let out a growl of frustration and braced himself for the torment to come.

###

He woke slowly in a trash-strewn alley, wrapped in a completely inadequate blanket scavenged from some trash bin or dumpster. It was another cold morning, and his breath misted in the air as if he needed a further reminder of that fact. Christmas and the New Year had come and gone, but Kevin gave little thought to the passage of the days. The only thing on his mind now was food.

Kevin sniffled and wiped his nose, and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. His sleeping area was crowded into as sheltered a place as could be found in the alley, wedged behind a dumpster with only a few old and rotting cardboard boxes and a plastic trash bag to provide insulation from the cold asphalt beneath him. The sun was bright but cold, and outside the alley he could hear the blaring of horns, the rumble of traffic, and the background drone of thousands of voices as New York City awoke on this frigid winter's morning.

He pulled his blanket — fortunately he found one made of synthetic fibers — tighter around himself, and swept his eyes across the other human refuse taking shelter in the alley. Most had spent months, if not years, on the streets. Their clothes were filthy, and their faces were haggard. All of them were men; most of them older than him but there was one nearer to his age. Everyone stank of the streets and garbage around them. At first Kevin could barely stand the smell.

Now he wasn't aware of it at all.

Kevin sighed and reluctantly untangled himself from his bedding. His stomach was rumbling quite fiercely, and it had been weeks since he had anything approaching a decent meal. Under better circumstances he might have considered how the other men sharing his alley had gone even longer, but now he didn't care. All that mattered were his own needs, and that he had only himself to rely on.

Some of the men stared at him with cold eyes. One of the bums assaulted him on his first day here to steal his coat. Kevin was still in the mad place, then (in fact he couldn't even remember the journey to the City after fleeing Salem). He lashed out without thought or hesitation, and grabbed him with his bare hands. The man's screams that night filled the alley, but Kevin didn't hear them. When he withered his assailant and reduced him to a pile of dust in front of the horrified denizens of the alley all he saw was the face of the man that took Laurie away from him. He cried himself to sleep that night in his grief.

No one else dared bother him since.

He could have gone to a shelter, of course, and avoided this entirely. Mutant Town had a place for people exactly like him; mutants with nowhere else to turn and who slipped through the cracks and were missed by the Xavier school, but Kevin knew he couldn't dare turn up in such a place. They were hunting him. He heard the sirens, and the sounds of pursuit when he fled Salem after exacting justice on Laurie's killer. And he knew that Xavier would be sending people after him as well; maybe even the Wolverine himself. They couldn't take the chance of letting him run free. So Mutant Town wasn't an option.

Kevin stood, grimaced at the stiffness in his back, and tried his best to not let the hollow rumbling in his belly distract him. The rest of the men sheltering in the alley all hastily backed away and gave him a wide berth while he made his way to the street in search of somewhere he could beg or scavenge a meal.

###

Sooraya made her way down the main stairway, and her abaya swirled around her legs and floated with simple elegance around her. Although still rather early, the school was alive with the sound of voices, and Sooraya smiled at the sense of peace permeating the halls; a feeling whose return was gladly welcomed.

She exchanged greetings with Megan Gwynn, Melody Guthrie, and Fabio Medina upon arriving on the ground floor. They loitered around the fireplace waiting for Illyana Rasputin to join them. Sooraya turned down the west corridor, and traded several more pleasant “Good Mornings” while she made her way past the dining hall. That was deserted, but she heard voices from the kitchen, and she entered to find Cessily tipping back casually in one of the chairs eating breakfast with Victor and Nori. Sooraya hesitated at the sight of the latter, but took a steadying breath and made her way to the refrigerator for something to eat.

“Hey, Soo!” Cessily said cheerily around a mouthful of Lucky Charms.

“Good morning, Cessily!” Sooraya said pleasantly, with a slight incline of her head. “Victor. Noriko.”

“Morning, Soo,” Victor said, and nibbled on a piece of toast. Nori just waved, her head propped up on one gauntleted hand while stirring a spoon aimlessly around her bowl of Cheerios.

Sooraya leaned into the refrigerator and rummaged around for a few moments until she found what she was looking for: a leftover platter of eggs with sejouk and flavored with herbs from her last trip into Salem Center.

“How is everyone this morning? And have any of you seen Laura?” she asked upon backing out of the refrigerator. She shut it behind her and made her way for the microwave.

“Not bad,” Cessily said. “And sorry, but I haven't."

"Me neither," Victor said.

Nori just shook her head. Sooraya put her food in the microwave and started it up on reheat. She frowned behind her niqab; Laura insisted everything was all right, but she woke that morning to find her bed empty, as if she had not slept in it the rest of the night.

Her concern was masked behind her niqab, however, and none of the others seemed to notice.

"You missed the announcement, by the way," Cessily said. "Mr. Summers dropped by and wanted me to pass along that our vacation is over and we start training today.”

“How exciting!” Sooraya said.

“I’m actually a little nervous.”

“It can’t be that bad,” Victor said, and set his toast down for a drink from the cup of orange juice at his elbow. “I mean they’re letting Santo do it, right?”

“Well, you’ve got me there. Although it doesn’t take much to just stand there being indestructible,” Cessily said after making a show of considering it. Sooraya merely chuckled.

“Oh come on, you know there’s going to be more to it than that,” Nori said with a roll of her eyes. “We’re supposed to be learning to work as a team, you know.”

Cessily shrugged. “Well, that would be Santo’s part.”

“Noriko is right, Cessily,” Sooraya said, and folded her arms beneath her breast. “The X-Men have always functioned as a group. Even Santo must pull his not-so-inconsiderable weight.”

The microwave beeped behind her, and Sooraya collected her breakfast.

“The real question is: Who is going to be team leader?” Nori asked. “Every team needs one.”

Victor grunted a laugh. “I know who’s going to want to be. I’d be surprised if Julian hasn’t already gone to Cyclops to volunteer.”

Nori rolled her eyes. “Ugh, that’s all I need, to be taking orders from Julian Keller. I might kill him before the end of the first day.”

“Cut him some slack, Nori,” Cessily said. “He’s honestly not that bad. And I think it would be good for him.”

“Oh please, he already has Santo following him around like a puppy, he doesn’t need you to stroke his ego, too.”

“I do think Cessily has a point,” Sooraya said, and retrieved a fork from one of the kitchen drawers. “Although I would be concerned that he has the sort of bravado that would create too many dangerous situations of his own. But that is something being responsible for the lives of others could temper.”

“Anyway,” Victor said, “we haven’t even started training, yet, so who knows how many of us are going to wash out. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

They all nodded their agreement.

“Well, if you will excuse me, I think I will take my breakfast out in the lounge this morning,” Sooraya said.

“We’re supposed to meet in the Professor’s office about nine o’clock,” Cessily said as Sooraya started for the door. “Don’t be late!”

Sooraya smiled behind her niqab. “Thank you! I will see you then!”

Sooraya left them to talk amongst themselves, and retraced her steps back down the hall and towards the lounge. Dani and Rahne waved from the couch when she entered, though the it was otherwise empty that morning. Sooraya inclined her head in greeting, then headed for the window table. Just as she was sitting Julian and Santo entered and made their way to join her. Santo, it seemed, was giving Julian a hard time about something. He dropped heavily into a chair, folded his arms on top of it, and buried his face in them. Though New York was still held firmly in the grip of winter, the sun streaming in through the large windows lining the outer wall felt warm and welcoming, though did little to improve Julian’s disposition.

“Good morning, Julian!” she said pleasantly. “Santo.”

“Hey, Soo,” Julian said. He never lifted his head from his arms.

“Sup, Soo?” Santo said, a thoroughly amused grin on his stony features, and his arms folded across his massive chest.

“Tell me, have either of you seen Laura this morning? I just found out we are to begin our training this morning, but she wasn’t in our room when I woke up.”

Santo snickered, and Julian lifted his head and glared. “I’m warning you, rock pile.”

Sooraya looked between the two of them and frowned. “I’m sorry, is something the matter?”

“Just that you need to keep better track of your roommate,” Julian said, and mopped his face.

“What happened?”

Santo’s grin broadened into a full-on smile. “Ask Julian.”

“Santo, I swear to God ...”

“Julian,” Sooraya said, and laid a hand on his arm. “Do you know something?”

Julian let out a groan of frustration. “Look, you need to keep this under your hat. Niqab. Whatever.”

Sooraya made a show of placing a hand over her heart and inclining her head. “With Allah as my witness, what you say shall not leave this table by my lips.”

He sighed and lowered his voice to a whisper. “She broke into my room last night.”

Sooraya gawked at him, though the expression was lost behind her niqab. “She did?”

“That’s not the best part, either,” Santo said, much too loud for Julian’s tastes to judge by the withering glare he shot him. The big rocky mutant gave no further mind to that than he did Julian’s verbal warnings.

“What does he mean?”

“Look, you know her better than anyone, right?” Julian said.

Sooraya sat back in her chair and considered the question for a moment. “I suppose. I must admit that though we share a room, and Cessily and I spend much time in her company, I’m afraid that Laura has in truth shared very little about herself with me. She doesn’t avoid us like she did when Mr. Logan first dropped her off, but mostly she just seems to listen and observe.”

“Well, something about some dream she had freaked her out. I woke up about three o’clock this morning to find her staring at me, and she wouldn’t leave.”

“I know she's been having very bad dreams, lately; I suppose they began not long after Stryker’s attack. But it’s been particularly bad this week. She will not tell me about them, but it’s clear they disturb her terribly.” Sooraya frowned, and tapped her fork on her plate. “But I do not understand why she went to you if she desired company; I was right there all this time.”

“Isn’t it obvious? Laura is totally diggin’ him!” Santo said, again loud enough to draw an irritated glare from Julian.

“Shut up!”

Santo just responded by making kissy faces at him.

“Julian, you didn’t ...”

“No!” he shouted, and when that drew the attention of Dani and Rahne off the program they were watching and in his direction his face colored and he shrunk into himself in a useless attempt to hide. “Of course I didn’t,” he continued in a low voice. “I let her stay, but that’s it. I just wanted to go back to sleep, and I couldn’t do that with her there staring at me.”

Sooraya frowned again. “I still find it curious she went to you, rather than talking to me.”

“Look, I never know what’s going through her head, and clearly you don’t have any better of an idea. I’m honest to God trying my best to be nicer to her, but she still weirds me the hell out. All I know is this better not turn into a routine thing. She’s got issues, all right? Real issues.”

She sighed and considered her plate for a moment, and deftly lifted a bite of her eggs beneath her niqab. “Perhaps we ought to tell Jubilee?”

Julian’s eyes widened at that suggestion. “No way! I do not want anyone else to know about this. If word gets out — especially to Quire — I'll never hear the end of it!”

She studied him closely and took note of the sincerity in his expression. It made little sense to her that Julian would be so defensive about involving the school counselor, but she also knew his pride and ego too well. It was a great concession that he had even been pushed into bringing Laura back when she left in the first place.

Sooraya sighed again. “All right, I will say nothing. I did, after all, give you my word. But Julian, I still feel this is a matter best addressed by a professional.”

“Yeah, well, I’m sure this will all blow over on its own and she’ll find something else to freak everyone out over.”

Sooraya just rolled her eyes and shook her head and resumed eating. However, the peace of the morning was soon disrupted once again, this time by a much less welcome voice behind her.

“Morning, Keller,” Quentin Quire said, and Sooraya craned her neck to find him standing behind her shoulder, dressed in his usual punk-rock fashion and thick-framed glasses, a thoroughly unpleasant and smug grin plastered across his features. Sooraya was often at a loss on American fashion — Nori's nonchalance about her body and their conflict on hijab created no small amount of tension between them. Laura was no more modest with her preference for skirts and corsets, with a darker edge Sooraya found even more baffling — but Quentin Quire's gaudy mismatch of brightly colored blazers, plaid shorts, and shock of pink hair was particularly off-putting.

Julian mopped his face. “I'm really not in the mood this morning, Quire,” he said. “Take a hike.”

Santo's rocky features twisted into a scowl and he leveled a glare at him. “You heard him: Get lost before I mash you into paste.”

Quire dismissed them both with a smile. “Really, guys? I’m just here to say 'Good morning,' and that's how you treat me? It's no wonder Mantega decided to go home to Daddy, if that's how it is I wouldn't want to associate with you, either."

Sooraya sighed and buried her face in one hand. "Quentin, I do believe you have crossed the lines of what constitutes courtesy."

He shrugged. "Just making a point."

"The only point here is the one your head comes to," Julian said, and clenched his fists. Sooraya caught the telltale green glow emanating from his hands when he called his power to him. "So do I need to tell you again to get lost?"

Quire held his hands up in a mocking gesture of peace. "Hey, calm down, dude, I just wanted to see if his Majesty had any plans with the Royal Family back home for spring break in a couple months and all."

"Quentin!" Sooraya said in disgust. "You may not have the decency to stay out of other peoples' heads, but even you ought to know better than to make such comments of anyone."

He just folded his arms across his chest and stared over the tops of his glasses at Julian with a malicious grin. "Actually, I find it hilarious. After all this time of lording Mommy and Daddy's money over the rest of us, Julian Keller has descended from on high to walk among the rest of us rabble."

Julian gripped the edge of the table and came to his feet, and his chair toppled over backward. His jaw clenched tightly, and his blue eyes blazed with barely contained wrath. Santo joined him and glared down on Quire with his massive stone body towering over him. Quire, for his part, looked at both of them without concern, and casually called his own power to him. Sooraya stood and vainly tried to place herself between all of them; if it came down to a battle between telekinetics there was little her power could do to stop them.

"Boys, please!" Sooraya pleaded. "This is not the place!"

"You want to go, Keller? I'm still dying to see how you measure up to me now; I already know exactly what you're going to do before you can even think it, and I'm willing to bet I at least match you in raw power. And as for you," he added, with a glance at Santo, "I think I'll turn you into a rock garden."

Santo smacked one fist into his palm, and the crack of stone beating against stone split the air. "You go ahead and try it. Imma use your scalp as a toupee when we get finished with you."

"Two against one? Really, Keller? You don't think you can take me on your own?"

"Leave him alone," said a low, dangerous voice behind them. Sooraya and Quentin spun around, and Julian buried his face in his hand. Laura had taken advantage of the confrontation to approach unseen, and now stood directly behind Quentin. She held her hands loosely at her sides but balled into fists, and her gymnast's body tensed to spring into motion.

If Quentin recognized the threat in her posture he didn't show it, and just flashed her a greasy smile.

"Hey, Laura. What, you mean this loser?" he said, and jerked a thumb over his shoulder at Julian. "You could do way better. Y'know, someone like me. So what do you say, sexy Girlverine? Want to hit up Salem Center later?"

Laura's response came without words. A sharp, metallic snikt broke the silence, and she extended the claws of one hand just short of his groin. Quentin’s eyes opened the size of saucers.

"Ouch," Santo said with a gleeful smile.

"I'll take that as a no," Quentin said, and raised his hands in surrender.

"Leave. Him. Alone," Laura said again with a dangerous edge in her voice. She circled around him to put herself between him and the rest of the group and glared coldly. Quentin took advantage of the opening she provided to hastily back away.

"You should really put your girlfriend on a leash, Keller," he said, "although then again, she might be into that sort of thing ..."

Laura took a step towards him and growled, and Quentin started off. "Alright! I'm going! I'm going! Jeeze are you frigid!"

Laura retracted her claws and she watched him go, then relaxed from her fighting posture. Sooraya released the breath she had been holding. "Thank you, Laura," she said, and slumped her shoulders. "Ordinarily I might not condone such a display, but in this case ...?"

"He should not have said such things about Julian," Laura said, and looked past her at Julian. Sooraya glanced over her shoulder to find him back in his seat again with his face buried in his hands. Santo watched with that amused grin once more on his features, and Sooraya had no doubt Julian would not be hearing the end of this from him any time soon.

"I didn't need your help," he said. "I could have handled that tool."

Laura frowned in confusion at his response, and Sooraya folded her arms beneath her breast and harrumphed at him. "Well, that is gratitude for you," Sooraya said. "You know the Professor would have just given you detention again if you and Quentin got into another fight."

He sighed heavily in recognition of her unspoken warning. "Look, thanks, but please don't make a habit of it. I can take care of myself."

Sooraya sighed and rolled her eyes. "Oh don't mind him, he is just grumpy this morning, and that is probably about the best we can expect from him."

Laura hugged herself self-consciously and averted her eyes from them. Sooraya raised an eyebrow at that; it was as if someone flicked a switch. "I should get breakfast. We are beginning training this morning."

And with that she started off towards the kitchen without another word, though Sooraya thought she caught a glimpse of green eyes glancing at Julian when she departed the table.

"Dude, she totally digs you," Santo said with that big, goofy grin etched on his features.

"I hate you, Santo," Julian murmured into his hands.

###

The gymnasium was an enormous facility in the labyrinthine subbasement levels deep beneath the school. Weights and exercise equipment of a variety of types and for every possible exercise Cessily could name dominated most of the space, but there was also a large open area that was, in turn, further subdivided for different activities. A regulation-length woven metal piste was laid out on the floor in one corner, and there were racks of epees, foils, and sabres, and a cabinet for storing masks, jackets, and gloves nearby. They, however, gathered that morning around the padded mats dominating the part of the gym used for martial arts and floor exercise.

They all knelt barefoot on the floor, with Mr. Rasputin — that is Colossus, as he insisted they call him while training — towering over them all, his massive, muscular frame clad in a gi cinched around his waist with a black belt marked by five yellow bars at the ends. They each wore a gi as well, (except for Sooraya, who merely tied her belt over her abaya) only their belts were white. Cessily wasn't sure where they found one to actually fit Santo, but both he and Julian immediately began aping every kung fu movie they ever saw the moment they stepped out onto the floor. Nori immediately groused about how it looked, though David took it in stride. Josh said little, and Victor stood with Julian and Santo looking thoroughly embarrassed at their antics. Laura, however, was nowhere to be seen.

It took some time for Colossus to reign them all in, but now they watched and waited expectantly for him to begin.

"Good morning," he said, and his deep voice carried to fill the entirety of the gymnasium. "Professor Xavier and Cyclops have determined that you are to become X-Men." He smiled in amusement. "We'll see. Today you will begin your training, with me and with the rest of the staff. It won't be easy. You'll be expected to work hard, and be diligent in your studies and exercise. Failure in any of these courses means you will be removed from the team."

"That's kind of harsh, isn't it?" Julian asked, prompting snickers from Santo, and eye-rolling from Victor and Sooraya. Cessily found herself torn between the two responses, so settled for a smile.

Colossus's smile faded and his expression turned into a stern glower. "I'm sure, Mr. Keller, that some of you see becoming an X-Man as something glamorous. I expect you to rid yourselves of that notion immediately; it's a privilege to be able to serve the school in this capacity. It's hard, and it's dangerous. There are many men and women who've come before you, and many have given their lives to defend the Dream. All of us are willing to perform that sacrifice ourselves if necessary."

Josh raised his hand. "With all due respects," he said, "Some of us have already made sacrifices."

He nodded. "True enough. But you are here to learn and listen. The lessons to follow are meant to keep you alive, and teach you how to work as a team. We begin, however, with the self-defense course, which will hopefully significantly increase your chances of the former."

Julian raised his hand this time, and waited for Colossus to nod at him. "Why bother with this? I mean, we've all got powers. If some dude gets up in my face I'll just TK him, right?"

"And what will you do if you find yourself in a situation where your powers don't work? There are some mutants who might be able to turn them back against you. Or you may find yourself facing an adversary who can outright nullify them. What will you do then?"

"Stand behind Santo and let him mash them into jelly."

They all laughed — even Nori and David, in spite of themselves — and Colossus gave them all a moment to enjoy the quip. "Santo is indisposed. Perhaps he is on a different part of the field, or maybe — just maybe — the enemy has found a way to incapacitate him, as was done during Stryker's attack."

Colossus folded his arms across his massive chest and took them all in. "I can't stress enough the importance of being able to defend yourself without your powers should the need arise. And that is where your training begins." He beckoned to someone standing behind them, and they all craned their necks to see whom he was motioning to.

An astonished hush fell over them when Laura circled around the group and approached the mat, her diminutive figure clad in a gi tied with a black belt, hers sporting four yellow bands. Her black hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail, and it was perhaps the first time Cessily had ever seen her without her locket. She bowed stiffly at the waist and said something in Japanese to Colossus when she reached him, then turned and stood in a relaxed stance with her hands clasped behind her back.

"Even her Japanese sounds like she has a stick up her butt," Nori muttered to David.

"Ms. Kinney has agreed to assist me with teaching this class," Colossus said. "All of you, I am sure, are aware of her ability, and there is a great deal you can learn from her. Now, none of you to my knowledge have received formal and accredited martial arts training prior to coming to the school ..."

He trailed off when Santo raised his hand. "I wrestled before I got my powers, does that count?"

Julian buried his face in his hands. "Wrestling isn't real, rock pile."

"Yuh-huh! Wrestling is totally real!"

"That's enough," Colossus said. "Santo, your prior experience will certainly prove useful, although not everything will apply. Now, can I have a volunteer to come up and demonstrate some basic techniques with Ms. Kinney?"

"Hey Julian, you should totally do it and get some time down on the mat with her,” Santo said, and jabbed him in the side with one rocky elbow.

Julian's face turned a brilliant shade of crimson, and he flopped over on his back with both palms hiding his face from the others. Sooraya facepalmed as well, all while Santo watched the reaction with his usual stupid, goofy grin. Cessily frowned and looked between them and Laura, who stood with her typical mute stoicism, and seemed just as confused by Santo’s comments as she was.

"Santo, I swear to God I'm going to start TKing you apart piece by piece, and then I'm going to hide them so you can never put yourself back together again," Julian said into his hands.

"Well, Mr. Keller?" Colossus asked.

Julian peeked out from behind his hands. "Yeah, no, I'm not getting up there."

Colossus regarded him with a raised eyebrow, then turned his attention to the rest of the group. "Someone else, then? Mr. Foley?"

Josh's golden skin paled a bit, and he shook his head. "I'm a healer, right? If things are that bad that I have to fight we're already screwed."

"Nori?"

Nori shrunk down into her gi. "Um. Pass."

"You mean you don't know karate?" Santo asked.

Nori glared at him. "Why? Because I'm from Japan? Hey Santo, you're Italian, I'm sure you must own a gondola, right?"

"Are you kidding?" Julian asked. "I don't think he can even spell 'gondola,' Pikachu."

"And I'm from Boston, anyway," Santo said with a pout.

Nori folded her arms across her chest and let out an aggravated growl. "Mr. Rasputin, I mean Colossus, can't I just kill him, instead? You know, just a little?"

Colossus rolled his eyes and sighed. "Perhaps when you're working with your powers later. Now, will anyone volunteer, or do I need to pick someone?"

Cessily sat on her hands, and Victor's skin tone changed color in a vain attempt to blend into the background. David looked between Julian and Nori, and set his jaw resolutely. "I'll do it," he said, "if we can do some free sparring to warm up."

Everyone regarded him with surprise when he stood up and stepped out onto the mat.

"Very well," Colossus said, and quirked a grin. "Fortunately, we do have a healer present, though please try to avoid joint locks and breaks for now."

Laura bowed to David, David returned the gesture, and both took up defensive postures.

"Ten bucks says she floors him with one punch," Julian said.

No one accepted the bet, and David glanced sidelong at Nori when she kept quiet. "Really?"

"No offense, baby, but I saw first-hand what she did to trained mercenaries, remember?" She turned her eyes on Laura. “Please don’t break my boyfriend.”

"If you're ready," Colossus said, "you may begin. Remember, you are fighting without your powers."

Cessily watched David and Laura circle one another. They each shifted from stance to stance, and sought for an opening. "Sweep the leg!" Santo shouted, and he and Julian began trading every martial arts movie cliché they could think of.

Laura struck first, and snapped off several kicks in quick succession, which David effortlessly batted aside. He caught her foot on the last and twisted her to the ground. That immediately shut Julian and Santo up, but if Laura was surprised at being upended she didn't show it, and quickly and easily rolled herself back to her feet again the moment she struck the mat. David didn't give her much time to recover, however, and waded into her. A tense, electric silence hung over the rest of them while they watched the fight rage back and forth across the mat, neither David nor Laura able to obtain a clear technical advantage, and only Laura's healing factor-enhanced reflexes, strength, speed, and stamina (which she couldn’t exactly turn off) provided her an edge in the fight.

Nonetheless, Laura never succeeded in landing a solid blow against him. David always just managed to keep up with her, and once or twice even managed to take the initiative away. Finally, just as David was beginning to visibly tire, Colossus called a halt to the fight.

"All right, that's enough," he said. "Very good, David, I'm impressed, I wasn't aware you'd studied in the past; it wasn't in any of your transcripts."

"Just a few things I picked up here and there," he said, and panted for breath. "I think I'm a bit out of shape, though."

Laura said nothing, and just eyed him thoughtfully before they bowed to one another and David took his seat again next to a visibly stunned Nori.

"Now then," Colossus said, "I'd like to break you up into pairs, and we'll begin with some basic techniques ..."

###

Act III

###

"Hey man, spare some change?" Kevin asked, and reached out with one gloved hand towards the suit walking down the street. The man recoiled from him with a scowl, his features twisted in disgust.

"Get lost, kid," the man said, and continued on his way without slowing.

Kevin curled his lip and glared at his back, and for a moment he saw himself seize him and use his power before taking everything he needed from his shriveled corpse. He blinked and violently shook the vision from his head, but it clung to the back of his mind, gnawing at him like the hunger in his belly. And it was a hunger; killing the man who murdered Laurie satiated something deep within him, as if his power was an entity all its own, hungering, desiring to be used, and demanding sustenance.

He balled his hands into fists and forced himself to discard such thoughts, and turned his attention back to the crowd making their way down the street, his hands stuffed in his coat pockets and feeling a small wad of cash and change. Enough, perhaps, for the evening if he kept to the bargain menu at McDonald's.

A tall and leggy blonde made her way past him, and Kevin stepped out into her path. "Spare some change, Miss?" he said, repeating the entreaty he had been making all day. She sighed, wrinkled her nose in disgust, and looked through her purse.

"I think I have a couple bucks," she said in a tone that was more annoyed than sympathetic. She rifled through her purse and came up with two crisp dollar bills she stuffed into his gloved hands. "Here."

Kevin accepted the money with a slight incline of his head. "Thank you, Miss, thank you!"

She quickly returned to her own business, and Kevin allowed his eyes to linger on her swaying backside when she continued away from him down the street, before adding the money to the crumpled wad in his pocket. The sun sank towards the west, and streetlamps flickered to life with the approach of night. The temperature was dropping rapidly, and Kevin's belly rumbled audibly. All that awaited him for shelter was the cold, hard ground behind the dumpster, but at least he could do something about his empty stomach.

Kevin started up the street, his hands stuffed into his pockets and ignoring the stares and disgusted grumblings of anyone who passed within a few feet of him. Perhaps he ought to make a visit to the Y to make use of the showers, but he doubted he'd even make it through the front door.

A pair of figures loomed up ahead of him, catching him by surprise in his distracted state while he thought about the idea of a hot bath and a full belly, and he nearly ran right into them before he realized they were there.

"That's far enough, freak!" one of them said in a voice rough from the street. When Kevin looked up he recognized a couple of the men from the alley.

The street quickly emptied with the approach of night, and Kevin found that he was alone aside for himself and the men blocking his path. He sighed. "Look, I don't want there to be any more trouble."

"It's too late for that. We all know what you are, and we won't stand for it anymore."

Kevin's eyes hardened, and he doffed his gloves. The men shrunk back at the unspoken threat. "Look, that's nice you guys grew some balls. But I just want to be left alone, you got—"

He didn't get to finish. Something struck him hard in the back of the head, and the next thing he knew, the pavement rushed up to greet him.

"Get his coat!" he heard someone shout through the fog clouding his senses. "And see if he scored any cash!"

But before he felt coarse hands grabbing him and stripping him of his possessions, one of the men let out a strangled cry. Kevin raised his head and found himself staring at the two men from between the legs of a hunched figure standing between them. His assailant's faces were white with terror, and they stood trembling at the figure advancing on them. Kevin tried to get back to his feet, but his legs refused to cooperate and his head spun dizzily. The best he could manage was flopping down onto his backside and watching the confrontation brewing in front of him.

It didn't last long; the two men immediately spun around and fled in a raw panic, leaving their stricken accomplice (who slipped in behind him while the other two acted as a distraction). There was no sign of an injury on him, but the man didn’t so much as move. Kevin just scowled at him and resisted the urge to punish him for the assault.

"Are you alright, boy?" his rescuer asked, and Kevin tore his eyes away from his attacker and looked up into a lined and weathered face framed by long silver hair.

In her youth, the woman standing over him might once have been strikingly tall, but now her figure was bent with age, and she leaned heavily on a short, black cane. She wore a heavy and battered old coat and wool trousers, with a plain russet scarf wrapped around her neck to keep out the bite of the wind. Her voice was as rough as her appearance, but kind, and along with her eyes — which were large, clear, and a soulful brown he thought he might lose himself in if he gazed into them too long — Kevin found it remarkably soothing.

"Yeah," he said, and rubbed his head. "I guess."

"Stand up and let me have a look at you," she said, and with an effort Kevin complied, as if it were a command. His head swam and he staggered a bit unsteadily, but he managed to stay upright while the woman looked him over.

"You poor child," she said. "When was the last time you had a good, hot meal, and slept in a real bed?"

Kevin hugged himself and fidgeted uneasily under her scrutiny. "It's, uh, been a while," he said. "Look, I appreciate the help, but I don't think you want to get mixed up in my troubles."

She waved him off. "Oh, don't be silly, boy. Come with me, I don't have much, but I can at least offer you a roof over your head for the night."

"No, really," he said. "Look, it's best that—"

She cut him off. "And as for your troubles?" She chuckled, a strange, raspy sound in the back of her throat. "Your troubles are our troubles, I think."

The woman stared him deeply in the eye, and Kevin saw, or thought he saw, a strange flicker in their depths. The woman smiled slyly while he studied her, and the realization struck him like a thunderbolt. "You're a mutant?"

"Indeed I am. Now then, why don't you come along with me and we'll see about getting you cleaned up. And then you can tell me what such a handsome young man is doing all alone begging for pennies on the street.'

The woman started off down the street back the way he came, and Kevin stared after her for a long moment. Then he retrieved his gloves from where he dropped them and hurried after her.

###

Cessily and Nori made their way out of the women's locker room and stepped into the hallway outside the gymnasium. The walls and floors were sleek, shiny, and bare, missing all the rich décor of the inhabited areas of the mansion above the subbasement, and everything was lit to almost oversaturated by the light panels in the ceiling. Nori tugged at the high collar of her uniform; a one-piece leather jumpsuit that zipped up from waist to throat. It was black overall, except for a broad yellow stripe running up her stomach from the belt around her waist, over the tops of the shoulders, and down her back to her waist again. The collar was black but trimmed with yellow piping, while more yellow piping traced an X inside a circle at the ball of each shoulder, and also provided additional detailing down the lengths of her arms and legs. This was finished off with knee-high black leather boots.

Cessily wore one to match, the only difference was Nori’s short sleeves to accommodate her gauntlets.

“Ugh, I am sore in places I didn’t think could be sore,” Nori grumbled while they made their way up the hall to meet the others.

“I’m sorry,” Cessily said, and hooked her thumbs through her belt. “I tried not to overdo it.”

“It wouldn’t have been so bad, but most of the locks and stuff that Colossus was teaching us didn’t work on you!”

Cessily gave a small, humorless smile. “Yeah, no bones, and no real joints. Score one for the liquid metal. Makes me wonder how my hair works, you know?” As if to emphasize the point, she pulled her hair back and gathered it into a simple ponytail.

“And can you believe what they’re making us wear?” Nori said with disgust. “Oh my God, who would ever think this looked good?”

They rounded a bend to enter the briefing area; a small amphitheater facing a bank of flat panel displays. Santo’s enormous rocky figure burst in from another direction, clad in an oversized suit to match theirs, though his top was completely sleeveless (whether by design, or because he accidentally tore them off trying to fit into it, Cessily couldn’t tell).

“Check it out!” he said to Josh, who was seated on one of the curved benches, and his voice boomed excitedly through the room. “We’ve got uniforms!”

Cessily snickered and hid her smile behind one hand. “You were saying?”

Sooraya, clad in her abaya and niqab, laughed at Santo making a show of strutting around the room, and clapped her hands. Julian and Victor filed in behind him, and Julian buried his face in his hand while Victor rolled his eyes. “You look marvelous, Santo!” Sooraya said.

“Hey, how come you don’t have to wear one?” Nori asked at the sight of her.

“Cyclops excused me on religious grounds,” she said. “Though I appreciate the importance of a uniform appearance if we are to be a team, I’m unable to wear something so, shall we say, flattering.”

Nori frowned, and looked down at herself. “You must be kidding me, you seriously think this is flattering?!” She spun around in a circle trying to look herself over, and Cessily laughed and made a show of checking Nori out.

“Well, it certainly is quite, ah, conforming.”

“Ugh, at least let me cut out the middle!” She placed a hand across her abs. “I worked hard for these just so I could show them off!”

“Don’t worry,” a voice behind her said. “When we’re done you and I can sneak off and have a look all to ourselves.” David adjusted a pair of sports-style glasses and looked her over. “Although maybe these have an X-Ray setting ...”

Cessily’s eyes widened. “Woah, X-Ray specs?”

“No. At least, not yet, but Dr. McCoy decided as long as I need to wear them, anyway, they ought to do something more useful than just help me see better. He and Ms. Pryde are still playing with the software, but they want to try using them as a way to feed information directly to me from the mansion’s computer databases. Kind of like a mobile intelligence center.”

“Coooool,” Nori said, but then pouted and clasped her hands in front of her. “By the way, I’m sorry I didn’t take Keller up on his bet earlier. I didn’t know you’d actually studied ...”

Nori trailed off when Laura entered the briefing area and headed straight for David. She, too, was dressed in the new training uniform.

“David, may I ask you a question?” she asked, and showed no consideration for the semi-private moment she just interrupted.

David gave the back of his head a nervous scratch. “Yeah,” he said, and Cessily raised an eyebrow. From the tone of his voice it sounded an awful lot like he knew exactly what that question would be.

“Where is it that you learned to fight?”

“I, uh, kinda borrowed a few things from you.”

Laura cocked her head and blinked. “The purpose of the exercise was to learn self-defense without the benefit of our powers.”

He sighed. “Yeah, I know, I’m sorry. But Julian was being Julian, and someone needed to put him in his place.”

Laura considered that for a moment. Nori fixed David with a look halfway between disappointed and amused, Sooraya chuckled, and Cessily quirked a grin of her own while David squirmed.

“You cheater!” Cessily said, and shook her head. “Ok, I’ll admit the look on Julian’s face when you matched Laura was pretty funny, but you cheater!”

“How much of my knowledge did you retain?” Laura asked.

David shrugged. “None of it. As soon as the group broke up and hit the showers you were out of range and I lost it. I won’t pick it up again unless—”

He never had a chance to finish. Laura threw a fast straight jab that struck him right in the nose. David’s head snapped backwards trailing an arc of blood, and he went down in a heap. Cessily stood transfixed in astonishment at what just happened, Sooraya gasped and pressed her hands to her mouth beneath her niqab, and Nori scrambled to catch David before he hit the ground. For a moment silence filled the room while the rest of the group processed what just happened, then Julian and Santo broke out into an uncontrollable fit of laughter.

Laura stood relaxed over David, who held his nose against the blood streaming between his fingers, and Nori glared up at her. “What the hell is the matter with you?!” she snapped. The lights flickered and arcs of electricity danced across her body.

“Jesus Christ, Laura!” David said, his voice muffled by his hands and sounding strangely nasally. “What was that for?”

She cocked her head to one side. “The purpose of the exercises this morning was to be able to defend yourself without your powers. You used your powers to artificially gain my skill, and now that it has faded you lacked the training to process and counter my attack.”

Nori barked out a string of Japanese invective and shot to her feet. Cessily quickly placed herself between them. Julian and Santo continued to laugh, and that just made her go red in the face.

“Woah, hey! That’s enough! Yeah, Laura, I think that was a bit over the line,” Cessily said. Nori tried to rush her, but she and Sooraya strained to hold her back.

“Seriously, what the hell?!” Nori said.

“No, she’s right,” David said from the floor. “I cheated just to make Julian look like an idiot. Harsh as it was, it was a pretty effective way to make the point.”

“That’s still not an excuse for punching my boyfriend in the face!”

“Look, Nori, it’s all right!”

Cessily and Sooraya kept a firm grip on her until she finally calmed down and shook them both off to crouch next to David and inspect his nose. She discharged her power into her gauntlets, and steadily the lights settled down. “Ew, I think it’s broken. Seriously, Laura? You didn’t need to do that.”

“Nori, I said it’s all right,” David said. “Look, can you just help me over to Josh so he can do something about my nose?”

She sighed and helped him back to his feet, and David hung an arm around her shoulder while Nori guided him to the bench. Julian was red-faced and gasping for breath, and leaned against Santo for support.

“Oh shut up!” Nori snapped, and helped support David while Josh went to work mending his nose.

Cessily sighed and looked at Laura. “You really didn’t need to do that,” she said.

Laura frowned in confusion. “David accepted the demonstration was appropriate.”

“He was only trying to prevent a fight,” Sooraya said. “In the end there was no harm done, but perhaps in the future you ought to consider such lessons more carefully. Not everyone would be so quick to forgive in such cases.”

Laura hugged herself tightly, and shrunk down into herself. Her face flushed in embarrassment at the faux pas. “I will take that under advisement.”

“Come on,” Cessily said, “let’s get over there. But let’s find a seat away from David; I think we better keep you away from Nori for a while.”

###

It took Julian a few minutes to get his laughter under control, but he just couldn’t stop thinking about how damn funny it was to see Laura punch Alleyne’s lights out. Especially after that stunt he pulled in Colossus's class. It made concentrating on Cyclops’s lecture that much harder.

Mr. Summers stood down on the stage area of the briefing room dressed in his uniform, though he wore his sunglasses rather than his visor. The team was scattered around the benches. He, Santo, and Victor sat off by themselves in the back corner; cool kids sat in the back, after all. Foley sat with Alleyne and finished up a few last touches on his broken nose while Ashida fussed over him. Cessily and Sooraya took Laura about as far as they could from Ashida and Alleyne while still being in the same room, and Julian smirked in their direction.

That was definitely a hell of a sucker-punch.

He turned his attention back to Cyclops, who was still droning on about...something. Julian heaved a sigh and folded his arms across his chest.

“Good morning, and welcome to your first day of teambuilding,” he said, and swept his eyes across the crowd. “The first thing I see when I look at you, is that you’re divided; all of you scattered throughout the room, and grouped with your friends, I see. I’m afraid that’s not going to do. You nine are a team, and that is the focus of what we’ll be addressing in this course. So I’d like for you to begin by sitting together; not in your own little cliques, but as one group.”

Julian frowned. “What, now?”

“Yes, Mr. Keller,” Cyclops said, and folded his arms across his chest and spit him with a ruby-quartz-lensed glare. “Now.”

“Man, he’s probably gonna make us sit in a circle holding hands next.”

Santo snickered under his breath, but the three of them got up and moved to join Foley, Ashida, and Alleyne, while Cessily, Laura, and Sooraya did the same. Julian rolled his eyes and sighed when he found himself seated next to Laura on the bench. She squirmed a little in uncharacteristic unease, and Julian couldn’t help but feel her green eyes flick in his direction. He folded his arms across his chest and kicked his legs out in front of him.

“Not today. The campfire sing-along is next week.” Cyclops waited for them to get settled, and then nodded. “Very good. All of you were selected for this team for a variety of reasons. Each of you brings your own unique gifts and talents, and it’s forging those disparate parts into one functioning whole that is going to be the true strength of your team.”

“Which makes me the Face of the team, right?” Julian said, twitched one corner of his mouth into a cocky grin, and made a show of rubbing his chin. “Because it certainly is a gift to look this pretty.”

“We certainly didn’t pick you for your sense of humor.”

The others laughed, (aside from Laura, who just seemed lost as to what was so funny) and Julian chuckled at the riposte. Oh yeah, me being taught by Professor Stick-Up-His-Butt. This is gonna be a blast.

“Teamwork is at the heart of all we do. But I’m not going to stand here and lecture you. There are nine of you, so I will be dividing you into three-man squads. These squads will rotate members from week to week, giving each of you opportunities to work together.” David raised his hand, and Cyclops nodded at him. “David?”

“Work together towards what?”

Cyclops twitched one corner of his mouth into a smile. “A little competition.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to have two teams, then? With three, any head-to-head matchup means one team would either be sitting out or could be doubled up on.”

Julian rolled his eyes. “Considering your powers pretty much just means you’re really, really smart, how do you not realize how dumb that is? Even Santo can count to nine, and two teams means one team would have one more person than the other.”

“Yeah!” Santo said, and then frowned. “Hey, wait a minute ...”

“While Mr. Keller’s tact leaves a lot to be desired,” Cyclops said, “He’s correct. It wouldn’t be possible to divide you without giving one team a numbers advantage.”

“Then again,” Julian said, and made a show of studying his nails, “You could always make Alleyne the odd man out, not like Poindexter’s power is going to contribute much, anyway.”

Nori glared up at him, and even Alleyne bristled at the comment. Cyclops just regarded him without emotion. Or at least any Julian could see behind his glasses. “And what makes you come to that conclusion?”

“I’ll give you a couple reasons: First, I heard the Purifiers were able to block telepaths, right? Even Dr. Grey couldn’t punch through them. If Alleyne’s power is telepathic, he couldn’t pick up anything useful from them. And as for pulling skills from us, what if we run into TP area-denial?”

“TP area de-what?” Santo said, and scratched his head.

“Second,” Julian said, and raised two fingers for emphasis, “It’s all temporary. He skill-grabbed her—" he jerked his thumb at Laura "—to show off during Colossus’s self-defense class, and he lost it as soon as he was out of range and turned back into a total poseur again. Which means he’s only as good as the people he’s around at that moment. It's kind of redundant.”

Cyclops raised an eyebrow behind his glasses. “Mr. Keller, I’m impressed. That’s actually a very astute, and well-reasoned argument.”

Julian smirked again in satisfaction, and made sure Alleyne and Ashida could see it when he puffed out his chest.

“But I want to make this very clear: There are no useless powers, and even the most powerful of abilities can’t address every situation. What matters is how you apply them, and that’s where learning to function as a team becomes important. Perhaps Mr. Alleyne's power may have limitations, but what matters is how he uses it together with the rest of you. However, I think we’ll take Mr. Keller up on his challenge: Two teams, with David as the extra man. Does that work for you two?”

Julian shrugged dismissively. “Sure, bring it on.”

“Fine by me,” David said, and glared over his shoulder at him.

Cyclops twitched his mouth into a grin. “It’s settled, then. And I see no reason not to jump right in.”

###

Act IV

###

Scott watched from the darkened observation deck with his arms folded across his chest. Flat panels arrayed on the console beneath the one-way windows in front of him provided feeds from throughout the chamber beyond, allowing him to watch every nook and cranny while the kids worked their way through the obstacle course set up in the chamber beyond. Essentially configured as a giant, indoor paintball range, hardened barriers cordoned off parts of the floor to create a labyrinth of twisting passages, with other obstacles and hazards providing hiding places and ambush sites. The only illumination was provided by a few spotlights, and smoke machines further reduced visibility.

The purpose of this configuration, of course, was to create a difficult to negotiate environment that didn't exactly mimic actual battlefield conditions, but forced the participants to think creatively about their powers.

"How are they doing?" came a voice from the door leading back out into the subbasement hallway, and Scott looked away from the monitors for a moment to see Jean leaning against the frame of the hatch, backlit by light spilling into the observation deck from the hall.

Scott returned his attention to the monitors. "It's like a melee in there; they're on teams, but not working together. A couple big egos, and most of them aren't sure how to coordinate their powers."

Jean stepped the rest of the way into the observation deck and the door shut behind her, plunging it back into darkness. She leaned over the console, and the glow of the terminals bathed her an eerie, pale blue. "It's their first day. I seem to recall it took you, me, and Ororo a while to learn how to complement each other, and that's with the advantage of a full telepath to coordinate us."

Scott conceded her point with a nod. "Julian's team is up by a point, and they have the ball now."

"What are the teams?"

"Julian, Nori, Laura, and Cessily. Then David, Victor, Santo, Josh, and Sooraya."

"Uneven numbers? I thought we were splitting them by threes?"

Scott smirked. "Mr. Keller's suggestion."

"Ah," Jean said, and nodded. A small smile crept across her face after she brushed his mind and picked up the gist of his thoughts. "I take it David hasn't risen to the challenge?"

"He's trying, but not having a lot of luck with it yet. I'll admit his power isn't the easiest to apply in this situation, but I think it's just because he hasn’t learned how to use it more creatively yet."

"He'll figure it out, I'm sure. As it's telepathic in nature I'll be sure to arrange some one-on-one time with him to see what we can do."

Scott nodded, and grinned. "It's like you read my mind."

Jean chuckled softly, and regarded one of the monitors. "Looks like something's about to get interesting," she said, and motioned at the display.

Scott slipped around behind her to look, as much for an excuse to thread an arm around his wife's waist as to see the monitor, and gently rested his chin on her shoulder. "What have we got?"

"Take a look for yourself."

###

Julian flattened himself against the wall and gripped the ball tightly against his chest. The corridor he was heading down ended and branched to the left and right, and he felt his heart pounding somewhere around his throat when he approached the juncture. So far he had seen no sign of either his or Alleyne's team for some time in this round, and with the poor lighting and all the smoke filling the maze of twisty passages — all of them very much alike — it was difficult to make out just where he was.

He froze at a noise from around the corner and gathered his power to him. A figure appeared through the smoke and headed right towards him without breaking stride, almost as if they knew he was there. He didn't exactly relax his hold on his powers when they got close enough Julian could make out their features in the darkness of the Maze.

"You are going the wrong way," Laura said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"No I'm not," he said, more out of a need to feel in control of the situation. In fact, he got himself quite lost while dodging Sooraya when he ran across her unexpectedly, and only narrowly escaped her after ducking through several twists, turns, and reversals.

Laura sniffed audibly. "This way," she said, and then darted off back the way he came.

Julian hesitated a moment, then sighed and followed her while she quickly made her way through one passage after another with the unerring certainty of a bloodhound following a scent, and Julian was flabbergasted that she was able to tell one corridor from another. "Are you sure about this?"

"Yes, I spent the first ten minutes of the match memorizing the layout of the passages."

He frowned; Laura disappeared the moment Cyclops began the timer and this was actually the first he'd seen of her since. So that's where she went.

Laura reached another juncture; the passage they were following split in two. One corridor angled off to the right, the other more to the left. "Wait, I remember this, it's to the right,” he said. “That will take us right to the goal at the middle."

She reached out and grabbed him by the arm when he started forward and dragged him back. "Hey! What's the big idea!" he snapped, and violently shook her off. Laura flinched back at the rebuke, but said nothing. Instead, she slowly started up the corridor...

...and with an audible snikt her claws extended, and flashed in the dim lighting when she spun and buried them in one of the wall panels to her right.

Right next to Victor's head.

"Shit!" he blurted out alarm, and dropped his camouflage in his haste to duck her blow.

Julian gave him a smug grin. "Nice try, Vic, but I think this means you're out for the rest of the round.”

Victor stood with his back pressed against the wall and panted heavily while apparently trying to force his heart out of his throat and back down into his chest where it belonged. "All right, all right. Jeeze, Laura, you didn't need to almost take my head off!"

Laura withdrew and retracted her claws. "You should set your ambushes downwind."

"I'll keep that in mind next time."

They left him there and proceeded down the corridor, and now Julian chose their direction with confidence. He turned left, and then right, right again, and then left, past a few other openings on either side. Laura followed along in his wake, her gymnast's figure tense and alert, and her green eyes swept the corridor on either side. At times she paused for an audible sniff of the air, and turned her head this way and that in a manner that immediately made Julian think of a dog pinpointing a distant sound.

I guess she has her uses. Victor would have absolutely had me if she hadn't been there.

Julian frowned and cast a quick glance over his shoulder at her. That was twice today she stepped in on his behalf; first Quire, and now this. What was her deal, anyway?

They came to the end of the passage and Julian paused. Beyond was a wide, open space accessible only from their entrance. There was no other cover, and a spotlight cast a brilliant white light on a raised platform at the center. In the middle of the platform was their goal: the basket. All Julian needed to do was get the ball inside and victory was assured.

Of course, that also meant getting past the walking mountain of rock between him and the basket.

"Aw crap, Alleyne made Santo goalkeeper ..." Julian said, and his heart sank. He pressed himself against one wall of the passage to use the shadows for cover, while Laura took a position opposite him. Her slender figure all but disappeared into the shadows, except for the blaze of yellow highlighting her uniform.

"Can you hit the basket from here?" she asked.

Julian considered the distance but shook his head. "If he wasn't there, sure, but even Santo would be able to cover the goal and block me, TK or not."

Laura considered that for a moment. "I can take care of Santo."

"You what?" Julian gawked at her, but Laura didn't even look at him, and just studied the distance between them and the goal.

"The ground is too open for me to reach him unseen. Can you get me over there? Santo needs to be taken quickly. I can do it, but I need surprise."

"Yeah, but you know he can turn you into a bloody smear with one hit, healing factor or not."

"I will take him out," she said. "You score the point while he is down."

Julian just stared at her for a moment. Jesus Christ she's insane. "You're sure about this?"

"Yes. Do not miss."

He sighed, levered himself away from the wall, and called his power to him. "All right, it's your funeral."

Laura stepped away from the wall, and Julian reached a hand towards her and took hold of her with his power. A green aura formed around her body when he lifted her from her feet, and Julian was struck by how aware he was of her. It was always a strange sensation whenever he telekinetically touched another person; He could feel every breath she took, the subtle pulsing of her blood circulating through her, the beating of her heart, and every twitch of her muscles. And if he really, really concentrated he could even stir her finer hairs if he wished. Julian felt his face heat when his thoughts started to run away with him, and he forced himself to focus his attention on the task at hand.

"Ready?" he asked, and gently steered her body to take aim at Santo in front of him, who was so far oblivious to their presence.

"Now."

And with that, Julian unleashed his power, and Laura was flung across the open space between them and the goal, fast and straight as an arrow. Her claws rang, and she struck him hard before Santo could even process what just happened. Julian nearly overshot his mark, but Laura buried the claws of one hand in Santo's rocky shoulder, and used that to swing around and seize him from behind. Momentum and leverage took care of the rest. Santo yelped, and she spun him into the ground with a deafening crash.

"Dude! Unnecessary roughness!" he cried out, but Laura dropped herself onto his broad chest and leveled her claws at his throat.

Julian strutted across the floor and made a show of stuffing the ball into the basket, and the point was recorded with an alarm and flashing red lights in the floor around the platform. "Score one for the good guys!"

The chamber's lights came on and Julian blinked at the searing white light stabbing his eyes out. Laura shielded her face against the sudden change in brightness and rolled off Santo. The rest of the class made their way out of the Maze to gather around the platform when the exit hatch opened and Cyclops entered with Dr. Grey (except Santo, who remained flat on his back and moaning about the chips Laura gouged out of his shoulder). They strode across the floor and waited for the rest of the team to gather around before speaking.

"Well," Cyclops said, "that was certainly entertaining, and I hope you all enjoyed the exercise."

Cessily sidled up to Julian and Laura, and Ashida joined them. She folded her gauntleted hands across her chest and stared at the floor. Julian scowled at the thought of her sulking even though their team won. Josh, Sooraya, and Victor helped Santo back to his feet, and they all gathered next to Alleyne, who looked just as crestfallen as Ashida.

"We kicked ass is what we did," Julian said, and shared a high-five with Cess. Laura just watched the display with bemusement, and Ashida refused to partake in the celebration.

"Oh yeah," Alleyne said, and glared. "Just look at the team you had."

Santo folded his arms across his broad, rocky chest, and scowled down at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Cool it, Santo," Victor said. "David's got a point. No offense Josh, Soo, but Julian had the perfect team: Nori can move faster than any of us if she's charged, Julian's TK can keep any of us from even reaching the basket if he's goal-tending, Cessily can shape herself like a wall to block off a passage and we'd never know we were walking past her, and Laura could pick us off one-by-one and none of us would even see it coming."

Cyclops folded his arms across his chest and took them all in. "Individually, yes, Julian's team members had a clear advantage in this matchup. However, your team also failed to work together to take full advantage of your own strengths.

"It's not about the score, and if that's the takeaway you kids have with this exercise, I can see we have a lot of work to do. Yes, Julian's team won, but you were all acting as individuals, not a team. Now, Julian and Laura, come forward, please."

Julian frowned and stepped forward to stand next to Cyclops. Laura hugged herself tightly and tried to shrink down into herself (though the effect was lost without her oversized jacket) when she came forward as well, clearly uncomfortable at being made the center of attention.

"I did want to call out one thing I liked seeing: The final point was scored not by raw power, but by working together. Santo is without question a very formidable opponent. He's bigger and stronger than anyone else on this team, and one-on-one almost certainly could have successfully defended the goal. However, by working together, Laura and Julian were able to take him out of action quickly for the final point. This was the only time during the entire exercise that any of you demonstrated what it was actually all about."

Julian smirked triumphantly at the praise and straightened to his full height with his hands on his hips. Laura just shyly ducked her head and shifted uncomfortably. At times he thought he caught flashes of her green eyes flicking in his direction, but Julian brushed it off to bask in the adoration of the others.

"I would like for you all to consider this as we break for the day," Cyclops continued. "We'll certainly be revisiting this in the days and weeks to come."

###

"I can't believe we're doing this," Julian grumbled, and slouched in his chair.

"Come on, Julian," Cessily said between sips at her caffé macchiato. "Just give it a chance, will you?"

They were all crowded together around her favorite table at the Grind Stone. On her left, Nori contented herself with sitting in David's lap to help make room for the others, with Santo the odd-man-out sitting backwards in a chair somewhat behind and between Julian and Victor. Laura squeezed in between Julian and Sooraya, and Josh sat quietly between her and Cessily. There were a few other patrons in the café at the other tables, though they mostly ignored the party with only a few curious looks. Luna, of course, jokingly expressed her dismay at the sight of all of them piling into the establishment at once, but quickly went to work serving drinks and snacks (and most important to Cessily, a big plateful of those cherry tarts).

"Look, Cyclops says we're supposed to be a team, right?" she said around a mouthful, and relished the sweet-and-tart flavor of the cherries. "I just figured, you know, it wouldn't be a bad thing for all of us to hang out together for a change."

"Yeah, well, I'm only here because it's you," Julian said, and shot a dirty look at David and Nori.

"It's no picnic for us to be here, either," David said. Nori just reclined into his arms and made herself comfortable, though the tension while they and Julian stared one another down across the table was palpable.

"Can we please just all get along for at least one night?" Sooraya asked. She cupped her Turkish coffee in her hands and fixed them all with an annoyed glare. "Cessily is right, I think this is a wonderful idea; we are, after all, going to be spending a lot of time together. I know we all have had our difficulties in the past—" She gave a significant look at Nori which didn't go unnoticed by Cessily or, frankly, anyone else at the table. "—but that does not mean we cannot learn to live with one another, and perhaps all even become friends."

Julian snorted a laugh. "Me and Alleyne friends? I know faith's kind of your thing, Soo, but you're asking a lot."

"I can't believe I'm saying it, but I actually agree with Julian," David said.

Sooraya just smiled at them both behind her niqab. "Perhaps, but just to be sitting together at this table, and neither of you have yet attempted to kill the other is, I believe, marvelous progress."

Cessily smirked. "She's got you there."

"So like, now that we're X-Men—" Santo said.

"We're not X-Men yet, Santo," Victor said over him with an annoyed roll of his eyes. "We're just in training."

"—doesn't that mean we should have, like, names, now?"

"What, like codenames?" Nori asked, and leaned away from David long enough to retrieve her cup of coffee from the table for a drink. "Like Cyclops, and the other staff?"

"Yeah," Santo said.

"I thought that was something they were going to give us when we were ready for them," Cessily said with a frown. Come to think of it, neither Cyclops nor the Professor had said much at all about what they could expect aside from what the day's orientation classes revealed.

"I don't see why they should get to do it," Julian said, and a broad grin lit up his face at what Santo was saying. "I'm with Santo. We're X-Men, now. And that means we should have codenames."

"Rock on!" Santo said, and fist-bumped him. Victor just groaned and mopped his face.

"God, do you realize how cheesy it is when you say that?" he said. "I mean first uniforms, now he wants a codename. Pretty soon we'll be on to catch phrases. This is real life, dude, not a comic book."

"Well, I think it is a wonderful idea," Sooraya said, and looked between everyone gathered around the table. "In fact, I think that it would be most fitting for us to name each other."

David groaned. "Oh God, that won't end well."

"What's the matter, Urkel? Afraid we'll give you something stupid?" Julian asked, and smirked across the table at him.

"As a matter of fact."

"Ok, ground rules," Cessily said. "It's got to be nice, and we each get veto power, especially if it's something stupid."

"Sounds fair," Nori said, and waved her coffee cup in Santo's direction. "This was all his idea, so the walking pigeon perch should start."

"We could always just call him Rocky," Josh quipped, the first thing he said since they sat down. He took a sip of his drink and went back to his quiet brooding.

"Nah, that's pretty lame," Santo said.

"Let's just use Rock Pile. That's what we call him most of the time, anyway," Julian said.

"Yeah, but you don't mean it nicely," Santo said, and pouted. "It hurts me on the inside."

Cessily considered for a moment. "Well it's totes got to do with you or your power somehow, right? So why not Rockslide?"

He considered that for a moment, and his dopey, rocky features lit up. "Yeah, Rockslide. That's totally bad ass! So, uh, what about you, Cess?"

Cessily lifted her hands in front of her and turned them over to study her gleaming silver skin closely under the lights of the café. "Well, Dr. McCoy says my skin is similar to mercury, so maybe something like that."

"Nah, that's too plain," he said. "Oh! We can call you Quicksilver!"

David buried his face in his hands. "Santo, first: Mercury and quicksilver are the same thing. Second, Quicksilver is already taken."

"Oh."

“I think Mercury works just fine,” Julian said, and smiled in her direction. “I mean if you're going to own what you are, then own it."

Cessily raised her cup to him and took a drink. "So what about you?" she asked.

Julian considered for a moment, and rubbed the line of his jaw. "One of the last things my mom said to me before she and Dad shipped me off here was that I was a hellion heading for trouble." He scowled at the memory, and Cessily felt her heart (or whatever it was she had that passed for one) ache at the pain in his features. Much to her surprise, Laura looked away from the cup she had been quietly staring into ever since they sat down and turned her eyes towards him. Cessily studied her closely, but her expression was unreadable. "That's probably the last thing from the heart my parents ever gave me. Call me Hellion."

The others considered that, and murmurs of agreement made their way around the table. "Totally appropriate," David said. "I'm sure you'll live up to it."

"Think you can do better, Poindexter?"

"Please, sit back and watch: So I can do anything any of you guys can, short of duplicating your powers, and even if I don't retain it, it helps me learn faster than anyone else can."

"Yeah, you're a regular prodigy."

David smirked. "Exactly."

Julian widened his eyes incredulously. "What, that's it?"

"Prodigy," Nori said, as if testing it out, then smiled. "I like it."

"So what about Nori?" David said.

"Sparky?" Cessily suggested with a giggle.

"Oh my God, I would die," Nori said.

"I know," Victor said, "Overload."

"That's actually kind of cool. And pretty much describes what my powers do to me." She raised her gauntleted hands and flexed her fingers as if to emphasize the point. “But I’d like something that’s more like what I’d do to someone else, please.”

"There's always something like, Tesla," David said. "You know, for Nikola Tesla?"

"No offense, sweetie, but I don't think anyone else will get your nerd reference."

"Surge?" Sooraya offered, and Nori considered that for a moment.

"Yeah, Surge," she said. "I like it; it's short, simple, and to the point. And a whole lot less negative."

Cessily shrugged and grinned into her cup. "Surge it is. But I still like Sparky, better. You're up, Soo."

"I know!" Santo said, and his voice all but shook the Grind Stone to its foundations. "Sooraya turns into sand. We can call her Sand!"

"Yeah, that's not going to come across as in any way insensitive or anything," Victor said from behind his hands.

"Actually," Sooraya said, "I have no trouble at all acknowledging who I am or where I came from in such a manner. Though perhaps a name that is a tad less abrasive."

Julian groaned. "Isn't there a special hell for puns like that?"

Sooraya chuckled, and the corners of her eyes wrinkled with the smile hidden behind her niqab.

"Well, if not Sand," Victor said, "to keep with the theme, how about Dust?"

"I think that would do quite nicely," she said. "Dust it is! And as for yourself?"

“I’ll just call you Sweetiekins,” Santo said, and put a massive arm around his shoulder. Victor all but disappeared under it while he sat and fumed.

“Does he really have to be on the team?” he asked.

“You’re kidding, right?” Julian said. “I’m not going to be the one to listen to him moan when we tell him he can’t play.”

“New Rule,” Cessily said. “Santo: No more ideas.”

Santo deflated and hung his shoulders. “Aw.”

“Anole,” Josh said, and Victor considered it for a moment, before replying with a shrug.

“Good enough, I guess. So what about you, Josh?”

“Already thought about it.”

“Foley’s easy: Golden Boy,” Julian said.

“And that’s not it.” Josh set his cup on the table and folded his hands in front of him as he thought for a moment. “The Elixir of Life from mythology was said to be able to grant immortality, heal wounds, and cure illness. All of you, even David, have powers that can be used in a fight. Me? I’m just a healer. All I wanted to do was use my powers to help people, and it’s something Laurie loved about me. Alchemists and adventurers spent lifetimes seeking out the Elixir of Life, but I can do all of that with a touch, and maybe do some good, for her.” He picked up his cup again and took a sip. “Elixir.”

Silence hung over them when his words sunk in, and everyone bowed their heads somberly.

“Wow,” Julian said, and spoiled the moment of reflection. “Way to sap the life out of the room, Foley.”

For his part Josh gave him a lopsided smile and raised his cup to him. “Just helping all of us keep a little perspective.”

They all shared a small, melancholy laugh, and Cessily turned thoughtfully to Laura. “Well, that’s all of us but one: It’s your turn, Laura.”

Laura looked up from her cup, and Cessily thought she actually saw a hint of trepidation in her green eyes. “My turn?”

“Yeah, you need to pick a name!”

She frowned. “My name is Laura.”

Julian rolled his eyes. “Your codename!” he said, a note of impatience in his tone. For Julian, particularly the way he treated her until recently, Cessily found it a remarkably restrained display at that.

“I do not want another name,” she said. Her voice turned very quiet, and she tried to shrink away from the attention focused on her.

“Dude, you gotta have a codename!” Santo said, and to Cessily’s amusement his expression actually turned alarmed at the thought she might go without. “I mean, it’s like part of being an X-Man!”

Laura shook her head, and huddled down into her chair. Cessily frowned at her. “What’s wrong?”

“I do not want another name,” she repeated, and Cessily was astonished to see just how distressed she was over that matter.

“Look,” Julian said, “we’re all doing it, and we need something to call you whenever we go out on missions. Morticia? Wednesday? Maleficent?”

“Julian,” Cessily said in warning, but the admonishment was lost on him.

“Oh! I know! She’s kinda like the Wolverine, right? So we can call her, like, Honey Badger, or the Ferret, or something like that!” Santo said.

“Guys, back off,” David said, having also picked up on her discomfort.

“Although you kind of have to give Santo some credit for staying in the same animal family,” Victor said.

“Laura?” Cessily prompted.

“I do not want another name,” she said again, and there was a small catch in her voice that caught everyone by surprise.

Sooraya reached out and gently laid a hand on her shoulder. Laura flinched at the contact, but otherwise remained in her chair. “It’s all right, Laura, part of this is all just meant as a bit in fun. And it would not be taking away your name, but adding a new one; one of your own choosing. Even Mr. Logan has taken on a name.”

Laura seemed to consider that for a moment. She lifted one of her hands away from her cup, held it up, and slowly extended one of her adamantium claws. Julian tried to back away as best he could, but was blocked in by Santo’s bulk and Victor next to him. Laura ignored him, and just studied her reflection in her claw for a long moment. She turned it this way and that with a strangely thoughtful expression on her delicate features.

When Laura finally spoke again, and her voice was so quiet they almost didn’t hear her.

“Talon,” she said, and retracted her claw.

Laura retreated back into herself again after making that pronouncement, and none of them said another word on the matter. Sooraya lightly patted her on the shoulder, and Cessily smiled at her. Santo was beaming widely; apparently choosing her name initiated her into some secret club that existed solely in his own head. Julian’s expression was much more difficult to read, but Cessily saw, or thought she saw, the barest hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

###

Act V

###

Her lungs burned and her limbs ached. The ground beneath her feet was hard, parched, and cracked, riven by deep fissures belching noxious fumes into the air around her that colored the sky a sickening yellow-brown. It stung her eyes and choked her, but still she ran on, exhausted and driven now only by blind panic.

Somewhere behind her a low howl echoed across the blasted mud flats.

She did not pause or turn in her flight, and instead plunged into a thicket of black, hoary bushes. There was no greenery, only razor-sharp thorns like knives that clawed at her flesh and tore deep gashes in her naked body. Blood flowed from the many wounds left by the thorns, and she felt her strength ebb. The calls of her pursuer were soon joined by responses on all sides, and she knew at once she was being run to the point of collapse, when the pack would spring on her for the kill. There was no reason guiding her while she fled now, only instinct, the desperate flight of prey seeking to escape the predator.

She forced her way through the thicket and back onto open ground once more. Without the tangle of brush to slow her she was able to pick up speed, but she knew it was hopeless. The pack closed in all around her, and bayed joyfully with the thrill of the hunt. Their eyes burned, their gaping maws slavered in their eagerness for a taste of her flesh, and their teeth glistened wetly in the thin light. The forms of her pursuers were perhaps vaguely wolf-like, but otherwise shadowy and indistinct. They ran without tiring, patient for her to make the misstep or stumble that was their cue to finish her.

Still she ran, seeking for the shelter of a distant wall of rock ahead, perhaps to find a defensible place where she might be able to stand and fight.

She would not make it.

Her head swam from loss of blood and want of breath. She gasped and choked, and her eyes were blinded by pain, fatigue, and the stinging gas vented into the air around her. And then she went down. Whether because she could run no further, or because her foot caught a rock, she could not tell. Only that one moment she was on her feet, and the next she felt her face smash into the cracked and desiccated ground beneath her.

And with a howl of delight the pack moved in for the kill.

###

Julian stirred in his sleep at the sensation of being watched, and slowly he came awake. For a moment he tried to return to the dream from which he had been dragged, but the feeling of eyes on him persisted and he just couldn't shake it off enough to drift back into its warm embrace. He sighed and turned on his light...

...and Laura, crouched cat-like at the end of his bed, (and again with only her nightrobe to preserve her modesty) ducked her head to shield herself from the sudden change in illumination.

He sighed and mopped his face. "Are you kidding me?"

Laura said nothing, and just sat at the end of his bed, her features both troubled and deeply confused.

"This is so not happening," Julian said. "You got me? You've got your own room, and you've got a roommate who actually has the patience to deal with your crazy at this time of night. So go on! Shoo!"

Despite his annoyance Julian couldn't quite bring himself to add more vitriol to his demand she leave, and his tone only came across as frustrated and mildly irritated. A part of him wondered exactly why he didn't just TK her out, but somehow in spite of himself he couldn’t do it. Laura flinched at the dismissal nonetheless, and while he wouldn't describe the look in her eyes as pleading, her distress over the recurring dream Sooraya described was evident.

He sighed. "Why me?" he asked, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Why not Sooraya? Or Cess? Hell, get a cat!"

"Oh just kiss her good night and go to sleep so I can, too!" Santo grumbled from the other bed, and Julian rolled his eyes and flopped onto his back.

"You're killing me, Laura." He sighed again. "All right, all right. But this is it, got it? No more sneaking in here staring. Tomorrow you find another way to deal with this. Got it?"

"Okay," she said.

Julian murmured a string of curses and turned his back to the spot he opened for her on the bed, and Laura settled in next to him. She almost immediately fell into a deep, peaceful sleep, her back pressed against his. For a long time he stared at the wall, before finally reaching out with his power to shut off the light.

---

A Note From The Author

Lots of setup for things to come going on in this episode. Some for the near future, some that will be on the burner for a bit, but all eventually going somewhere.

We get our first look at the Danger Room, if not (yet) by that name. To be honest, I found that a somewhat difficult concept to figure out how to work in. However futuristic the tech of the X-Men, the films have generally kept things much more grounded than the books, and giving the Danger Room the full Holodeck treatment was problematic. I decided instead on making it more like a modular arena with practical equipment instead; one of those things that keeps the spirit while still being a bit more grounded. Especially since I was keeping it contemporary to the early-2010s, rather than the mid-2020s setting of Days of Future Past.

Ironically, I wrote the description of the kids’ training uniforms long before Deadpool hit, so the similarity with Negasonic Teenage Warhead’s uniform was entirely a happy accident. Instead they were inspired by the uniforms the Academy X crew took on in the later part of Kyle and Yost’s runs, just without the chonky boots and bracers.

Now, when I was writing out the beginning in the back of my mind I suspected the scene between Laura and Julian might generate a small amount of controversy. However, aside from wanting to have some fun with the shippers, the end of 2x01 left them in kind of an interesting situation that will be driving much of their relationship in season 2.

All this time Julian has treated her pretty badly, and Laura has more or less accepted it because it’s how she’s accustomed to being treated. But now he’s changed in his attitude towards her, and she’s confused by this. I’ve always seen her as someone who responds to kindness almost automatically, (thus my theory of how Zebra Daddy got his hooks into her in the books. It’s also a very real way that abuse victims are trapped by their abusers) so we see that here: as he warms to her and begins treating her with more kindness she’s drawn to that. She’s also seen Julian at his most vulnerable; he’s trusted her with something very private that he never even shared with Santo, and that in turn has laid the foundations for her trusting him in a way that’s unique among the others. So when she’s upset and distressed by the dream, she turns to Julian.

The way I see it, however advanced Laura is in some areas, she lags behind significantly in others. Her protests in 1x01 to the contrary, I see this as resulting in situations where Laura is very much a child, and with no other frame of reference she has a tendency to react impulsively and on instinct where her feelings are concerned. Her dream upset her, she’s unaccustomed to such feelings, and instinct tells her to reach out, so she turns to Julian without really understanding why she’s drawn to him.

At least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

The “naming scene” is, of course, inspired by the scene from First Class, and I tried to work in as much of how the different characters got their names in New Mutants Vol. 2 as I could. Obviously, there’s some modifications, (IE, with no Emma Frost there’s no Hellions, so I decided to subvert how Hellion got his name by having him choose something negative, which certainly fits the way he’s been broken down over the last few episodes) but I tried to be true to it nonetheless.

Laura’s chosen codename is technically her actual codename. Or at least what Kyle and Yost tried to establish, had Editorial not gotten in the way. As such it only appeared a few times in the book, but I chose to use it here. And of course, this was long before Krakoa and the “introduction” of Talon in the books themselves by Duggan actually made the name relevant (though you’ll never convince me Talon in the books wasn’t just a plant by the Children of the Vault. I reject your reality and substitute my own). I also wanted to play up how Laura is almost always called Laura by her friends and teammates in the books, and is only occasionally called by a codename, by putting some actual psychology behind it that will become more evident as more of her backstory unfolds.

I do also want to say it’s complete coincidence that Santo suggested the name Honey Badger. This chapter originally published more than a year before Gabby’s first appearance in the books, and I just threw it in there as a play on the mustelid theme.

I really would have liked to reveal what happened to Wither earlier, but I just didn’t have time in 2x02 and it really didn’t fit the action of 2x01 (though in hindsight it could have fit thematically fairly well with Laura running away). It’s unfortunately one of those things where I only have so much room per episode, and only so many episodes to work with. This is also why Stryker’s fate is still up in the air at this point. There’s just so much to get through these first couple episodes.

The second part of Kevin’s story and getting rescued when he’s jumped was originally part of Act V, but I decided to move it earlier in the story to tweak the act structure a bit. I also didn’t originally replay Laura’s nightmare at the end, but after moving Kevin’s story I felt Act V needed something, and I liked the symmetry. Also, I wanted to fully establish the exactness its recurrence. Almost as if there’s a reason behind it.

And now that I’ve about doubled this entry with commentary, I suppose it’s time for me to sign off. See you next time!

Chapter 4: 2x04 - Enigma

Summary:

A night at Salem Center ends with an encounter with a mysterious power. What does it want? Is it friend or foe? And what is the team to do when one of their number is possessed and they are forced to face one of their own?

2x04

Enigma

Based upon stories by Marjorie Liu

###

Act I

###

Laura studied the drink menu with her typical diligence, and categorized each item by its ingredients, dietary characteristics, and cost. Each was then carefully crosschecked against her mental list of confections she had already sampled for similarities in potential flavor profiles based on bean type, preparation, and ingredients, and further sorted by those that were pleasing to her palate (a curious piece of nomenclature, as the palate was unconnected to the sense of taste) and those she found objectionable. The latter she set aside, though did not discard outright; she found that subtle variations in ingredients she might otherwise dislike could at times interact in unusual ways, often presenting an entirely different taste than the individual components might suggest. For now, however, she would make her selection from the list of choices nearest her own preferences.

Ordering coffee had proven to be quite the unexpected mental exercise.

The others were not quite so meticulous in their selections, and Laura suspected they would adhere closely to their typical orders. For Sooraya, seated to her left, the Turkish blend, orta şekerli. Cessily sat on the other side of Sooraya, and would have the caffé macchiato with cocoa. Victor, in turn, sat to Cessily’s left, and would abstain from coffee and, given the weather, would order a hot chocolate. She frowned slightly when she considered Julian, seated on her right, and glanced sideling at him from behind her menu. Since he only recently began accepting her as part of his social group Laura had not had the opportunity to observe him enough to establish a baseline for his preferences.

They were all gathered at what Cessily called their “usual table,” which often distressed her greatly whenever they arrived at the Grind Stone to find it occupied by others. Laura at first was unsettled by the idea: A usual place to sit implied a routine. A routine was a pattern. A pattern meant predictability. Predictability was a vulnerability to be exploited. Yet oddly enough her friends found such predictability comforting, rather than distressing. Even more oddly, Laura was beginning to find it so as well, though when once she made an attempt to remove interlopers from their table the others quickly stopped her, and surrendered their favored place to sit without a fight.

She found that perplexing.

She sniffed and caught a hint of a familiar scent approaching from behind; a subtle yet spicy perfume, mingled with the lingering pungent aroma of coffee beans. Luna DePaula casually strolled up to their table and greeted them all with a smile. “Hey guys! How are my favorite Junior Woodchucks doing today? Oh, and you, too, Mr. Keller.”

Cessily, Sooraya, and Victor all chuckled at Julian’s expense. Laura considered the reaction for a moment. Referencing Julian by name in this manner implies he is not one of Ms. DePaula’s favorites. Ms. DePaula’s tone of voice suggests this is not true, however, therefore humor is to be derived from Julian’s exclusion from the group, and laughter is acceptable.

One corner of Laura’s mouth twitched into a faint smile.

“You’re just denying your real feelings, Luna,” Julian said, and quirked a confident, lopsided grin. “You know I’m on the market again, right?”

Laura felt an odd sensation in her belly when he said that, and frowned while she pondered what it meant.

Luna just rolled her eyes. “Sorry, hon’, but you’re not my type.”

He made a pout. “It’s because I’m a mutant, right?”

“No, it’s because you’re a guy.”

“What, you don’t go both ways? Not even a little?”

“Not even a little.”

“Don’t tell Santo that,” Cessily said. “He thinks it’s hot.” She smirked at Julian. “Anyway, I thought it was because Julian’s an arrogant, narcissistic, egotistical ass?”

“And that is reason number two.”

“What?” he said, and shrugged. “Those are some of my best qualities.”

Luna just chuckled under her breath and shook her head. “Besides, I mess with you, and I’ll be calling all sorts of trouble down on my head, kiddo.”

He sniffed indignantly, though Laura judged from his posture and tone of voice that it was all meant in fun. “Who are you calling ‘kid?’ I’m going to be seventeen soon and that’s totally legal in the state of New York.”

She made a show of ruffling his hair. “Thanks for the warning. So what can I get you kids today,” she said once she finished the verbal sparring Laura observed to be part of the ritual of ordering coffee at the Grind Stone.

“I’ll go with the caffé macchiato,” Cessily said. “And keep the tarts coming!”

Luna chuckled and made a note on the pad she carried tucked under her arm. “You know I envy you, sweetie. I’d never be able to keep my figure if I packed them away like you do. Some girls have all the luck!” She turned her attention to Sooraya. “And how about you tonight, the usual?”

Sooraya nodded, and folded her hands on the table in front of her. “Of course!”

“Hot chocolate,” Victor said. “Light on the foam, with three marshmallows.”

“And what mad concoction can I get for you today, Mr. Keller?”

Julian thought for a moment while he looked over the drink menu. “Give me a layered latte macchiato, but with a full shot of espresso using the Geisha beans, and add one shot of caramel and one shot of chocolate,” he said. Luna gave a subtle roll of her eyes, but scribbled it down on her pad. Cessily and Victor smirked at him, but Sooraya’s reaction was hidden behind her niqab.

Laura just watched Julian while he made his order, and made a mental note of it for further observation before returning her attention to the menu in her hands. She caught Luna looking in her direction and smiling down at her from the corner of her eye.

“Need a few moments as usual?” she asked patiently.

Laura nodded without a word while she resumed studying the drink menu. She was becoming too predictable.

Luna just laughed lightly and shook her head in amusement. “You know, I’m going to have to expand the menu if you’re going to keep trying something new every time you come in here.”

Laura frowned; she had not considered her proclivity for experimentation might impose upon their host. “I do not mean to inconvenience you,” she said, and felt her face heat in embarrassment over the thought of making another faux pas.

Cessily and Victor just smiled and shook their heads, and Sooraya giggled softly from beneath her niqab.

Julian rolled his eyes and heaved a sigh. “She’s just teasing,” he said, his tone colored a little by impatience, and that just made the odd sensation in her belly over his previous comment even worse.

“Oh.”

Luna just smiled down on her. “Don’t worry, sweetie: If you like to try something new, you go right ahead and don’t worry about what anyone else thinks. A little experimentation every now and then can be a good thing.”

Julian’s cocky smile returned. “So you say, but I’m not seeing you give it a try.”

Luna rolled her eyes and gave Cessily and Sooraya a patient look. “You ladies better fix him up with someone soon, because I can see he’s going to be trouble.”

The strange fluttering returned, and all Laura could do was bury her face in the menu and hope no one might think something was the matter, while she pondered the meaning of this feeling distracting her from her drink selection.

###

Julian stepped outside the café with his to-go cup in hand, and took a long sip while he waited for the others to join him on the sidewalk. The fragrance of the coffee blended with the crisp scent of the night air, leaving him feeling invigorated and refreshed (though it could also have been the caffeine at work). Faint stars winked to life in the sky overhead, all but overwhelmed by the skyglow of New York City to the southwest. Cars rumbled along June and Titicus, and the sidewalks were packed with pedestrians out enjoying the winter’s evening. The bite of the wind was dulled by the warmth spreading through him from his drink, but his breath still misted in the air in front of him, and Julian was eager to be on his way somewhere warmer.

“So what are we doing next?” Victor asked between drinks of his hot chocolate when he stepped up beside him. His diminutive, slender frame was buried underneath layer upon layer of heavy winter clothing, with a knitted cap on top of his head, and a scarf wrapped securely around his neck. Only the green scales of his face were visible, and he looked distinctly uncomfortable in the cold. “Whatever it is, I hope it’s someplace warm.”

“We can always hit the arcade,” Julian suggested.

“I don’t know, I think the owner doesn’t like seeing us around ever since that fight last fall.”

Cessily joined them, and a sheen of condensation formed on her gleaming silver skin. She was dressed much lighter than would be reasonable for most people (other than perhaps Santo, Ms. Munroe, and Mr. Drake), in a stylish pink woolen coat. With her mutation the cold didn’t particularly bother her, for which Julian envied her immensely; he would never get used to the Atlantic winter. Sooraya and Laura followed her, the former with a heavy down coat over her abaya, the latter clad in her oversized jacket, black leggings, and a miniskirt just longer than scandalous. Julian had to focus his attention on the street to distract himself from checking out her legs.

What the hell was the matter with him lately?

“We could go see a movie,” Cessily offered.

“There are a few that I have been wanting to see,” Sooraya said in agreement. “Laura?”

Laura shrunk down into her jacket when they all shifted their attention to her for her feedback. Her pale face, framed in the shadow of her hair, colored slightly, and she shyly ducked her head away from them at being asked to cast her vote.

“Come on, Soo,” Julian said, letting his impatience through. Inviting her along hadn’t been his idea, but now they were stuck with her. “You know you’ve got a better chance of Santo getting a question right in class than you do of getting any kind of meaningful input out of her.”

“Oh be nice, Julian,” Cessily said, and glared.

“What?” he said, and shrugged defensively. “I’m just saying. You know she always goes with what everyone else is doing.”

Sooraya rolled her eyes behind her niqab. “Perhaps that just means we don’t give her interests enough consideration?”

“Well, let’s let her pick, then,” Victor said.

Cessily smiled and nodded. “That’s totes fair.”

Julian sighed and rolled his eyes when he was quickly outvoted, and before he could object to what would probably be an evening of Morrissey. “All right, all right, fine,” he said. “Laura, what sounds good to you?”

If anything, the sudden responsibility of picking their next destination only seemed to make her even more uncomfortable. She huddled down even further into her jacket until she nearly disappeared into it entirely, her to-go cup (and Julian was somewhat chagrined when she placed the same order he did) clutched protectively in front of her like a shield. She scrunched her features as if deep in thought, and he couldn’t help but frown in confusion at that; it’s not like it was all that hard a decision to pick between the arcade or a movie.

“The arcade,” Laura finally said in a very quiet voice.

The corners of Sooraya’s eyes wrinkled when she smiled behind her niqab. “The arcade it is, then!” she said in a merry voice.

Julian sighed and rolled his eyes, and the five of them started off together down Titicus towards the arcade. They drew a few curious looks from the pedestrian traffic, though most people just disregarded them with the passing familiarity that came naturally to them with the school’s presence near Salem.

Cessily and Sooraya were soon gossiping away while they walked, with Victor chiming in periodically on some inane goings on among their classmates, and Julian tuned them out by force of habit. Laura followed along, trailing slightly behind the rest of them, and swept her green eyes across the pedestrians passing around them. Julian’s stomach twisted itself in knots when he recalled the things she told him during their talk in the park, and he nervously wondered just how many ways she had already come up with to kill them all. Laura had scarcely said another word to him about it since, but now that he knew what to look for he could see just how deeply she was still troubled by it.

Laura seemed to sense him looking in her direction, and he quickly turned his eyes back to the sidewalk ahead of him to avoid the flash of green flicking towards him. Maybe Sooraya was right. Maybe they ought to say something about her dreams to Jubilee; it would certainly be easier for him to get a normal night’s sleep without waking up to find her crouching at the end of his bed. But no, that wasn’t an option. It was bad enough with Santo knowing about her being in their room. The last thing he needed was—

Julian’s thoughts were cut off when Cessily abruptly stopped in front of him, and in his distracted state he nearly bumped right into her. He shielded his coffee from being knocked from his hand and awkwardly stepped around her. “Hey, Cess! Watch it!” he yelped.

Cessily didn’t respond and just kept staring straight ahead of her. Julian frowned at the expression of shock and wonder on her silver features, mirrored on Victor’s face and in Sooraya’s eyes. He looked in the direction they were staring, and there, not twenty feet in front of them, was a big, glowing blue ball hovering in the air above the sidewalk. A large crowd had gathered around and were now watching in astonishment, and all this stretch of Titicus buzzed with excitement. Phone cameras flashed, though from some of the murmurs Julian guessed nothing was being picked up.

“What the hell is that?” Julian asked, dumbstruck. The ball bobbed and wove about, radiating a cool and eerie blue light that illuminated the area immediately around it like broad daylight. Small arcs of energy escaped from its surface while it hovered in front of its audience.

“I’ve got no idea,” Cessily said.

“Nori didn’t come to town, did she?” Victor asked. “I thought she was staying back at the school because she needed to study for a test tomorrow.”

“What, you think Ashida did this?” Julian asked, and motioned at the bobbing ball of light and energy dancing in front of them.

“I mean, it looks kind of like the ball lightning Dr. McCoy made in his lab during science class. So if it’s electricity I’d imagine she could do it.”

Sooraya shook her head. “No, you’re right. Noriko wasn’t able to make it to Salem tonight. It’s a shame that Dr. McCoy isn’t here, maybe he could tell us more.”

Laura squeezed in between him and Cessily to see what was happening, and Julian shifted self-consciously at the feeling of her shoulder pressed against his arm (though Cessily paid the contact no mind on her end). She sniffed audibly and her expression turned thoughtful.

“Reports of ball lightning generally reference a smell like sulfur, or an odor akin to an electrical fire. This has no odor at ...” she said, but trailed off and cocked her head to one side. Her eyes narrowed in concentration.

“Laura?” Cessily asked, when she saw the perplexed expression on her delicate features.

“You cannot hear it?” Laura replied, her voice growing very quiet.

Julian strained his ears, but if the whatever it was made a sound, he couldn’t hear it over the awed babbling of the crowd. “I don’t hear a thing,” he said, and shrugged.

Suddenly, the ball began to move much more rapidly, sweeping back and forth across the front row of people pressing in around it. Sooraya frowned behind her niqab in growing concern. “Perhaps we should suggest they all move away. I do not think I like what it’s doing.”

“How do we know they won’t just blame it on us?” Victor asked.

“Twenty bucks say they will,” Julian said.

Laura suddenly squeezed past them and stepped out into the open space in which the thing was bobbing around, her slender gymnast’s figure silhouetted when the light it emitted suddenly flared brilliantly. Julian blinked and shielded his eyes, and the rest of the crowd gasped audibly at the change.

“Laura!” Cessily said. “What are you doing?”

“Seriously,” he said, and scowled at her. “I don’t think we should be messing with this thing.”

She ignored them and just stood where she was, her coffee in one hand and studying the glowing orb with her head cocked to one side. Julian was reminded for all the world of a cat regarding an empty box. The ball hung in the air, pulsing rhythmically and weaving slowly back and forth in front of her.

And then suddenly it rushed towards her, slammed into her chest, and vanished in a flash of blinding white light. Laura let out a startled yelp and was flung backwards. Her coffee flew from her hands and spilled across the sidewalk, and she struck the ground hard on her back and lay unmoving. The crowd shrieked in panic and people began to scatter.

“Laura!” Julian cried out, and the four of them all rushed forward together, as much to keep the startled crowd from trampling her as to check on her condition.

She lay unmoving, her head turned to one side, her eyes closed, and her mouth hanging open. A few of the pedestrians who weren’t startled into flight crowded forward as well to help when he, Cessily, Sooraya, and Victor crouched around her. Cessily reached out a hand and Laura’s breath misted on her silver hand. A hollow feeling spread through Julian’s gut in spite of himself at the sight of her lying sprawled and unmoving on the street; memories of the crumpled bodies around the bus and in the school flashed before his eyes.

“She’s still breathing,” Cessily said, unnecessarily, and gently shook her in a vain effort to rouse her. “Laura? Laura! Are you all right?”

Laura didn’t answer, and just lay still and cold on the pavement, while her forgotten coffee dripped into a nearby storm drain.

###

Act II

###

They all crowded into the observation gallery of the medical bay’s quarantine area. Laura lay still and silent in a bed beyond several layers of ballistics glass allowing observers to watch what was happening inside, with sensors and other apparatuses Julian couldn’t even begin to name attached to her skin, and surrounded by computers and other instrumentation. She somehow seemed even smaller than normal in this state and, Julian found himself strangely alarmed to realize, incredibly fragile while she slept. Despite this, when Julian looked at her face she appeared relaxed and at peace.

He watched Dr. McCoy and Josh at work from the moment they brought Laura back to the school; one of the residents of Salem who witnessed the incident broke several traffic laws speeding them back home to get her here. Julian leaned against the glass watching intently while Dr. McCoy poked, prodded, and attached his gizmos to hook her up to the machinery inside. Cessily, too nervous to watch, sat in one of the chairs along the far wall with Sooraya and Victor trying to keep her company. Professor Xavier and Cyclops were there as well, the former seated calm and serene in his wheelchair, the latter standing with his arms folded across his chest and a worried scowl on his face. Both stood next to Julian and watched the activity inside the quarantine room.

Ashida, Alleyne, and Santo arrived last; summoned by the Professor upon learning of what happened. Ashida stood at the window with the Professor, and Alleyne threaded his arms around her from behind. For a moment the sight of them together spiked a pang of longing for Sofia — the warmth of her in his arms, or the scent of her hair when he nuzzled the back of her neck — but the memory of their parting quickly blunted such feelings, and he forced the thought of her from his mind.

Santo just sat in a chair in back playing Farty Troll on his phone (thankfully he turned the sound off).

The airlock hatch hissed, and Dr. McCoy and Josh filed out to join the rest of them in the observation gallery. Julian stood away from the window, and Cessily, Sooraya, and Victor jumped out of their chairs and joined the rest of the group.

“Is she all right?” Julian asked.

“Why Mr. Keller,” Dr. McCoy said, his furry features twitching with amusement, “unless my ears are mistaken that sounded like you actually cared for young Ms. Kinney. I wasn’t aware you were friends.”

Julian felt his face heat at that, and he wished he’d just kept his big mouth shut. Especially when he heard Santo sniggering behind him. The Professor regarded him for a moment as well, but whatever he thought of the matter he didn’t say. Julian folded his arms across his chest and glared at the big furry mutant. “I didn’t say I was or I do; she just tagged along with Cessily and Sooraya when we all went to Salem. Doesn’t mean I can’t be concerned.”

“Oh, of course not. But, to answer your question,” he said, and sighed. “I honestly really don’t know.”

Xavier frowned, and Cessily edged forward and gripped Julian by his arm. While Julian did his best to hide his own anxiety, Cessily’s was plainly visible on her silver features.

“What do you mean, Henry?” the Professor asked.

Dr. McCoy shrugged. “Physically, she appears to be in her usual perfect health. All her vital signs are stable and normal, and if she sustained any injuries during the incident her healing factor has already repaired the damage.”

“But she hasn’t regained consciousness since we brought her home,” Sooraya said.

“That is what’s particularly curious about her condition,” he said, and brushed past them to a computer console built into the wall below the observation windows. He tapped a few buttons, and part of the glass lit up with charts and monitors Julian couldn’t even begin to make sense of. Dr. McCoy motioned to one chart in particular; a line graph that looked an awful lot like the results of a lie detector test. “I’m reading a significant amount of neural activity. As far as I can tell she ought to be conscious.”

Cessily regarded the chart with only a vague look of comprehension. Julian didn’t have the slightest clue what it meant. “So you mean her brain is crazy active?” she asked. “What about dreams?”

Julian looked at her sharply, and then glanced nervously at Sooraya. If she thought anything of Cessily’s suggestion she kept it to herself.

Dr. McCoy shook his head. “No, the activity is lighting up in the wrong parts of her brain. I wish I had a baseline reading of her neural oscillations against which I could compare the activity I’m seeing, but Laura has been remarkably resistant to visiting me for a physical.”

Xavier nodded in understanding, and glanced up at Mr. Summers, who said nothing. “Yes, Laura is rather uncomfortable around doctors.”

“There’s something else,” Dr. McCoy continued, and tapped another button. Another chart appeared, this time showing three separate graphs all overlaid atop one another. McCoy pointed out one of the lines, somewhere around the middle of the chart. “This is a measurement of the normal bioelectric field generated by a baseline human.”

He then indicated the next line, which was very similar to the first, though with a few higher spikes. “This is the field reading from a mutant. I chose to use Logan’s from the last time I was actually able to lure him down here, as their mutations share several key characteristics. As you can see it’s very similar to the baseline human’s, with a few differences that are likely triggered by some combination of his mutation and the adamantium bonded to his skeleton. I would assume that Ms. Kinney would have a very similar reading, accounting for differences in her sex, age, and the fact that only her claws are bonded.”

Finally, he motioned to the third line, which was practically off the chart. “And this is what our equipment is reading from Ms. Kinney at this very moment.”

Xavier’s mouth hung open in astonishment. “Dear God.”

“What?” Cessily asked, her face as confused at what they were seeing as Julian felt. “What’s wrong?”

“Laura’s body is currently generating a bioelectric field far more powerful than it should,” Josh said. "It's weird, but actually kind of cool."  That drew an annoyed glare from Julian and Cessily, but he ignored them and shrugged helplessly. "But it's nothing my power can do anything with even if I knew where to start."

“Is there anything else that happened before Laura was struck?” Xavier asked.

“Laura said she heard something just before the phenomenon struck her,” Sooraya said.

“Did she say anything else?” Xavier asked. “Perhaps what it was she heard?”

Sooraya shook her head. “No, and I didn’t hear anything at all.”

“Julian? Cessily? Victor?” Xavier asked.

Cessily and Victor both shook their heads, and Julian shrugged. “Not a thing,” he said.

“Does that necessarily mean anything?” Ashida asked while she studied the charts. “I mean she is kind of bat-shit crazy as it is, right? Maybe she just heard something.”

Dr. McCoy folded his arms across his chest and grunted. “There’s too many medical anomalies to rule out Ms. Kinney’s perceptions of hearing something as any sort of crazy, bat-shit or otherwise. Particularly as her auditory acuity is far beyond normal human limitations.”

Mr. Summers considered this for a moment. "Professor, do you sense anything?"

Xavier shook his head. "Nothing from a surface impression. As Henry indicated; Laura is unconscious, though it's not a coma." He considered this for a moment, his hands steepled together and his index fingers leaned against his chin. “Henry, please keep Laura quarantined. Until we find out exactly what has caused these readings I don't want to risk the possibility that it might present a danger to the rest of the school. And I would like her kept under constant observation. I want to be informed the moment she awakens.”

"We'll set up a rotation," Mr. Summers said, and immediately shifted from teacher to X-Man when he turned his ruby-quartz glasses on the group of them gathered in the gallery. "Hank and Josh can work in shifts, but I want at least one of you with them at all times just in case the containment isn't enough."

Julian raised a hand. "Enough for what?"

"Hopefully nothing, but I don't want to take any chances." He quirked a grin. "Think of it as your team's first live exercise. David, I'd like you to set up the rotation."

Alleyne shifted uncomfortably, and Julian scowled indignantly at his back when Cyclops gave him the responsibility. "Uh, yeah, okay, I can do that."

"Good. Remember that whatever is happening, that's still Laura in there. So be sure to take that into account."

Julian folded his arms and leaned heavily against the glass looking out into the room beyond. "Yeah. Great. Which means if she decides to flip out when she wakes up we're screwed."

###

Why did I have to open my big mouth?

Julian sighed and leaned back in a swivel-chair with his feet kicked up on the console in front of him. The lights were turned down to better help Laura sleep, and for the past two hours Julian had counted the ceiling tiles about a hundred times. He actually found himself wishing he was sitting in on Ms. Pryde's computer science class. At least then he'd have something more enjoyable to look at than the spartan furnishings of the observation gallery.

Josh sat in another chair and watched the information projected on the glass intently. Monitoring Laura's vital signs was apparently no more interesting than watching someone watch them, so Josh slumped in his chair and leaned on his fist while trying not to fall asleep.

"So how'd you do that, anyway?" Julian asked, once the boredom of being assigned the overnight watch finally became too much for him to bear the silence, and even Josh's conversation was better than nothing.

"Do what?" Josh asked, his voice distracted while he focused his attention on the readouts from McCoy's gizmos and doodads plugging Laura into the monitoring equipment.

"Your skin, Threepio," Julian said. "How did you do that?"

Josh lifted his head off his fist for a moment so he could study both of his hands at once. "I don't know, to be honest. When Kevin ..." he trailed off, and Julian heard a small catch in his voice at the memory his question dredged up. In some distant corner of his mind Julian regretted asking, but it was already out there, and he couldn't take it back. "He messed me up pretty bad with his power. I was able to fix it, but when I woke up I looked like this."

"Yeah, but you're just a healer, right? Shouldn't you just come out looking like your usual preppy self?"

Josh sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. "I overheard Dr. McCoy talking to the others when I was recovering afterwards. Healing is apparently just the first thing I've figured out how to do. He says I have total control over pretty much everything that's biological."

Julian tore his eyes away from his contemplation of the ceiling. "What does that mean?"

"It means I could do a lot more than just heal people. Like turning myself gold, however the heck I did that."

"So, what, you can like, make people grow wings? Or give Santo a functioning brain?"

"The first, maybe. But come on, Julian. Santo? Even my powers have limits."

"Can you like, make people into mutants? Or take their powers away?"

"Maybe. I really don't know. I mean, I guess mutation is all genetic, and if I can alter people's genetic code—" he motioned at his face "—see Exhibit A, I suppose I could." Josh's expression hardened. "I suppose I could do other things, too, that I really don't like to think about."

"Like what?"

"Please don't ask me that. You have no idea how much I wish I could get my hands on Stryker."

Josh didn't elaborate, but from the look in his eye and the dark tone of his voice, Julian didn't need him to. It sent a shiver down his spine. He shifted uncomfortably in the awkward silence that followed, and lowered his eyes to his lap so he didn't have to see Josh's features twisting in anger.

"Look," he said hesitantly, instead. "If I didn't say anything to you before, I'm sorry about what happened. With Laurie, I mean. I'd be mad too if I lost Sofia that way."

"But you didn't," Josh said pointedly. "You drove her away."

Julian's face heated and he clenched his fists to stop himself from calling on his power and sending Josh across the room. "Yeah. I did."

"You know, that's always been your problem. You took everything you had for granted, and walked around with that chip on your shoulder thinking you were better than everyone else. You don't really understand what it is to have something that matters like Laurie did to me."

Julian bristled at that. "Look, Foley, I don't need a lecture from you, or anyone else. So you can—"

His diatribe was cut off by a loud beeping from the console, and Josh immediately swiveled around to address the equipment. Julian jumped to his feet, feeling his heart start to pound against his breastbone in spite of himself while he uselessly swept his eyes across the scores of readouts Josh was monitoring. "What's that?"

"The computers are picking up a change in Laura's brain activity, I think she's coming out of it."

Julian looked away from the console and turned his attention to the quarantine bay beyond. Sure enough, Laura slowly began to stir. "Call the Professor, she's definitely waking up."

"Already on it," Josh said.

Laura's eyes fluttered open, and that was when everything went to hell.

She let loose an inhuman shriek Julian thought might have been audible even without the intercom system allowing communication with anyone behind the glass, and sprung out of her bed and ripped out all of the sensors affixed to her skin, setting off alarms in the observation gallery when the equipment lost track of her vitals.

"Oh crap," Julian said, "I don't think she's happy."

Josh jumped up beside him, his eyes wide with alarm when Laura's claws flashed, and in a blind panic she went to work tearing the quarantine bay apart. She smashed and slashed equipment, sending sparking and torn computers and electronics flying across the room, and hurled one so hard into the observation glass that it cracked.

"She's panicking!" Josh said.

"No kidding, Foley, what the hell's going on?"

"I don't know! I don't know! I'm not the doctor, I'm just supposed to be monitoring the feeds and calling Dr. McCoy if there's a problem!"

"Jesus Christ, Foley, don't you think this is a problem? Get the Doc!"

With no further equipment to trash, Laura turned her attention on the room itself. The piercing squeal of metal rending metal split the air — and Julian's skull — when Laura slashed at the walls, leaving deep, ragged gouges in the reinforced bulkheads securing the quarantine bay. She flung herself against them, and soon she was bruised and bleeding from the effort of trying to force her way out of the room.

"Oh God," Julian muttered, ignoring Josh's frantic calls for Dr. McCoy over the PA.

Laura spun around in circles, her breath coming in heaving and ragged gasps, her hair in disarray, and her green eyes wide with terror. For a moment she ceased being human and Julian was reminded of an animal trapped in a cage and desperate for escape. And then in a moment of clarity her eyes fixed on the airlock door.

"Oh shit," Julian muttered, and with a deafening squeal she plunged her claws into them, the adamantium blades carving effortlessly through what had to have been at least a solid foot of steel. An alarm sounded and emergency lights began to flash.

"Warning! Warning! Breach detected in quarantine, please begin evacuation and containment procedures," an automated voice said in an annoyingly disinterested tone of voice.

"Foley!" Julian cried.

"Doc and Xavier are on their way," he said. "We need to try and stop her!"

"That's just great, how do you plan to do that?"

Laura's desperate cries grew louder and she hammered at the door with her claws, metal squealing while she slowly but steadily carved her way through in an effort to free herself. The voice warning repeated itself over and over again, yet somehow never managed to get more insistent.

"Can you restrain her?" Josh asked.

Julian gawked at him. "Oh yeah, great, that's just what I need. One hundred pounds of whirling death that needs to go through me to get away!"

"Well I can't stop her! If she guts you I’ll just heal you."

A frustrated growl rumbled in the back of his throat when he called his power to him. "All right, all right! You'll need to open the airlock, I can't do anything while it's closed."

"Got it, let me know when you're ready."

A solid thump, followed by another and another, and accompanied by the sound of tearing metal, echoed through the observation gallery when Laura flung herself into the hatch. Julian winced at each impact, wondering just how much damage she was doing to herself in her panicked efforts to escape containment.

He gathered his power to himself and nodded at Josh. "Go," he said.

Josh tapped a few buttons on a control console, and with a sharp hiss the inner airlock door swung open. Laura immediately rushed inside and started work on the outer door.

"Don't worry about closing the inner door, just get the damn thing open!" Julian snapped.

"I'm trying, but it's not designed to have both doors open at once!"

Laura's cries grew more and more frantic, which is more than he could say for the voice of the alarm, and to his astonishment the outer door actually shook with the force of her diminutive body slamming into it. She clawed at the inside, and then finally, with a release of gas, the outer door opened as well. Julian braced himself for the ball of violent frenzy about to pop out.

Laura sprung free of the airlock, but before her feet touched the ground Julian seized her with his power. She screamed in rage and fear, and uselessly flailed about with her claws while she tried to fight free of the invisible grip holding her suspended over the floor.

Bile rose up in Julian's throat at the sorry state she was in: blood matted her hair, her face and body were bruised and battered from flinging herself into the walls and door, and her hands and feet were bloodied. But what struck him most was her eyes.

She was terrified.

"Laura!" Julian called, "Laura, it's all right!"

"Laura," Josh said, raising his hands towards her so she could see they were empty. "It's okay, you're safe, I just need you to calm down."

Laura looked between the two of them without seeming to comprehend what they were saying. Her breast heaved while she gasped for breath, and her eyes were wide with fright.

"Laura, look at me," Julian said. "I'm not letting you go, but you need to look at me. Just calm down."

And Laura looked at him. Her green, frightened eyes bore straight into his, and for a moment Julian saw just how deeply she actually felt. And right now, all that feeling was focused into pure and terrified fight-or-flight survival. His mouth went dry, and he briefly entertained a mental image of losing his hold on her and adamantium claws slicing him to ribbons in vengeance for blocking her escape. However, Laura stopped struggling, and recognition finally began to settle over her when she saw him.

"Julian?" she said in a raw and shaking voice.

"It's all right, Laura," a voice behind him said, and Julian risked a look over his shoulder to see the Professor entering the observation gallery, with Dr. McCoy following close behind. "You're safe, now."

"Oh my stars and garters," McCoy said, dumbstruck when he saw the level of destruction Laura had wreaked inside the quarantine bay.

"Let her go, Julian," Xavier said, his voice gentle.

"Professor," he began, "I don't think—"

"It will be all right. Let her go, gently now."

Julian met the Professor's eyes, and Xavier offered him a small, comforting smile and a nod. He looked back to Laura again, who now seemed more confused than afraid. She had retracted her claws, though her breathing was still coming in rapid gasps. He sighed, carefully lowered her the rest of the way to the floor, and released her from his power.

Laura immediately collapsed to her knees. With all the energy of her rampage spent, she crawled into a corner of the observation gallery and huddled there trying to shrink out of sight.

###

Josh fidgeted uncomfortably while he faced Xavier and Henry inside the ruins of the quarantine bay, his surface thoughts alive with concern over how they would react to what happened. Laura remained curled up in the corner of the observation gallery behind them and stared numbly at the floor, while Julian sat next to her to keep an eye on her. What little he picked up from her mind was alive with fear and uncertainty breaking through her normal shield around her emotions, but strangely enough Julian's presence seemed to act as a soothing influence.

"Well," Henry was saying, "I know for certain I'll need to replace most, if not all, of the equipment. Ms. Kinney was quite thorough in destroying the facilities."

"I don't know what happened!" Josh said, his voice loaded with apology. "One moment she was waking up, and then the next ..."

"It's all right, Josh," Xavier said, and laid a hand on his shoulder. "No one is laying blame on you for anything." He sighed. "If anything, it's my fault. I should have known how Laura would react to waking in such circumstances, and taken better precautions to prevent the outburst. However, I thought it best to proceed with caution until we better knew what we were dealing with."

He turned his attention on Henry next, whose expression was crestfallen while he examined the remains of the quarantine room. "And Henry, we can replace the equipment. The important thing now is to find out just what has happened."

Henry sighed, and scratched his chin with one big, furry blue hand. "I'll review the data logs and see what I can find. With luck Laura was conscious for long enough before she started tearing everything apart for it to record a scan of her more-or-less-normal neural patterns."

Xavier smiled. "Very good, Henry. And as for you, Josh, go ahead and head back upstairs. Get something to eat and try getting some rest."

"Yes, sir," he said, and hurried off, filled with relief that he wasn't in any actual trouble over the destruction of the bay. Henry followed him to see to the computers outside in the observation gallery, and Xavier retreated as well, stopping his wheelchair next to Laura and Julian. Laura spared him a momentary glance, though Julian sat with his eyes closed and his head leaned against the wall. Xavier lightly brushed his mind and could feel his exhaustion.

"Julian, we have everything in hand now, why don't you get some rest? We'll call you if we need anything more."

Julian's eyes blinked open. He wearily pinched the bridge of his nose and nodded. "Right, okay. She's, uh, she's okay, right?"

Xavier smiled as reassuringly as he could, but couldn't help but feel a small amount of trepidation himself. "I'm sure she's just fine, just a little shaken up."

Julian looked between him and Laura for a moment, then levered himself to his feet and started for the door. He was just about to step into the subbasement hallway when he stopped and turned back. "Professor," he said, and for a moment looked at Laura before meeting Xavier's eyes again. "I don't know what's going on, but something has her more than just a little shaken up. She was terrified to be in that room."

Xavier sighed. The events of the past few weeks were certainly making keeping his agreement with Logan much more difficult than he liked. "Thank you, Julian," he said. "I assure you we have it all in hand."

Julian's shoulders hung, but he nodded, ran a hand back through his hair, and retreated without another word, leaving Xavier and Henry alone with Laura. She followed Julian out with her eyes, and her posture became much more guarded in his absence.

"Laura," Xavier said, and her eyes flicked back in his direction. "How are you feeling?"

"I am sorry I damaged Dr. McCoy’s equipment," she said. Her voice was raw, uneven, and very quiet.

Henry, for his part, just smiled at her. "Oh, it's all right. I assure you that this is by far not the worst abuse my equipment has taken over the years. You have no idea how many times I've had to rebuild the Blackbird after Cyclops has crashed her."

Xavier chuckled softly at Henry’s attempt at levity, but Laura didn’t so much as smile at the joke. He abruptly sobered to match her mood, and leaned forward in his chair and rested his arms across his knees. Laura remained huddled into the corner and hugging herself tightly, and Xavier frowned sympathetically at her.

“I’d like to ask you a few questions so we can try to understand just what, precisely, is happening to you. What’s the last thing you remember about this evening, before you awoke in quarantine?” he asked.

Laura bunched her features and thought back to earlier in the night. “I am not certain, I ...” she trailed off with a choked sob, and it seemed as if she were about to begin crying.

“It’s all right, Laura,” Xavier said, keeping his voice as soothing as possible. “Take your time.”

She allowed herself a moment to collect her thoughts before speaking again. “I went to the Grind Stone with Julian, Cessily, Sooraya, and Victor,” she said. “After leaving there was a disagreement over what to do next. Julian wished to go to the arcade, but Cessily and Sooraya suggested a movie. So they decided to ask what I wanted to do.” Laura’s expression changed, and a measure of confusion appeared on her features. Xavier allowed himself a moment to touch her thoughts more directly, and though her defenses were up and preventing him from grasping a complete picture, he could see that she was conflicted as much over being forced to make such a decision at all, as why she made the decision she did. “I decided the arcade sounded interesting.”

Ordinarily Xavier might have dismissed her choice, but he recalled the way she watched Julian’s departure, and how his presence seemed to help calm her after her earlier outburst. He filed that thought away for later consideration, however, and returned his attention to much more pressing matters. “What happened next?”

Laura concentrated. “On our way up the street we encountered the phenomenon.”

He nodded idly; Laura’s story so far was matching up with the report the others had given as well. “Sooraya mentioned you heard something, but the others didn’t.”

“A voice.”

Xavier raised an eyebrow and frowned. “A voice?”

Laura nodded stiffly, and hugged herself tightly.

“Do you remember what it said?”

She shook her head. “I could not make it out. It was very faint, like a whisper. I remember nothing more after that.”

Xavier glanced at Henry, who was frowning at the computer terminal. His mind was radiating a sensation somewhere between alarm and fascination. “Henry?”

“Charles, I’ve never seen anything like this before,” he said, and ran a hand back through his furry blue mane in disbelief. “The neural scans managed to pick up a flurry of activity from Laura’s mind when she regained consciousness, and I’m reading two entirely distinct patterns. One, I assume, is her normal oscillations, accounting for elevated stress levels under her current circumstances. The other is the pattern I detected while she was unconscious. Both of them were active and inhabiting her mind simultaneously.”

Xavier’s mouth hung open in shock. “My God, Henry, are you saying that there are two separate consciousnesses inhabiting her mind?”

“That’s certainly what the data is telling me.”

Laura looked between the two of them, and Xavier felt a flare of anxiety break through her defenses. “What does that mean?” she asked.

Xavier sighed. “I’m not entirely certain yet. With your permission, I would like to enter your mind. Whatever this presence is it must be buried deep within your subconscious. I ought to at least be getting a surface impression even with your mental defenses, but though I can get one from you, I can’t touch the other. Perhaps if you were to allow me to read you more thoroughly, I might be able to ascertain just what it is we’re dealing with.”

Laura considered the request for a moment, and then gave him a small and reluctant nod. He repositioned his chair so he could face her, and carefully reached out to place his hands on either side of her temples. Laura flinched slightly at the contact. “I promise, you won’t feel a thing.”

Xavier concentrated, and he felt her mind open little by little to allow him inside. He found himself standing in a long corridor with doors on either side, the walls thrown up by her psyche around all the traumas in her young life in a desperate effort to keep herself functional, and was immediately reminded of Logan’s mind. But where Laura had closed and locked doors, Logan had nothing but blank walls, crumbled in places to reveal doors and windows where fragments of the memories buried deep in his subconscious could still be glimpsed.

But for Laura, everything that had ever happened to her was accessible. Many of the doors strained against their hinges and threatened to give way at any moment.

Upon making his way along the corridor he was buffeted by the wild surging of emotion she normally kept buried behind her mask of emotionless calm. Xavier had often heard the other students speak disparagingly of her icy stoicism, and he idly wondered what they would think if they could see the storm of feeling lying beneath the surface of her green eyes as he did now. Grief, fear, and pain surged around him and threatened to sweep him away, and only a firm grip on his power buoyed him against the flood. A grim undercurrent of rage simmered beneath it all seeking to be unleashed, but was clamped down and forced deep below the surface.

Xavier fought against the tide and continued deeper, seeking for the memory of what happened. Somewhere in the back of his mind he felt something there, lurking among the locked doors of Laura’s subconscious. But where was it? He felt as if it could sense his presence in turn, fleeing deeper into her mind in fear of discovery, tantalizingly close but just out of his reach. He searched and probed with care, mindful of the fragile doors so as not to risk tearing one from its hinges and unleashing a storm of hurt that would cause Laura’s fragile emotional barriers to collapse upon themselves, and expose her to the full weight of her grief. But the something continued to elude him.

“Hello!” he called out into the empty corridors. “Are you there?”

His voice echoed through the hallways of Laura’s mindscape, but there was no response. At least at first.

Slowly he became aware of a sound like a whisper, just audible enough to be heard, but so quiet he couldn’t make out what it said. Xavier started forward, deeper and deeper into her mind, following the sound of the voice.

“Where are you?” he said. “I can hear you, but I can’t understand you!”

Xavier continued past row upon countless row of doors, and the further he went, the more extensive Laura’s efforts to lock away the grief and pain hidden behind them, until now he was walking past heavy steel vaults. Yet even here the lightest disturbance might be enough to rip the walls down, and it grieved him to pass among these memories, unable to help her reconcile the horrors she had lived through; horrors no child should have ever endured.

And finally, just when he reached a turning in the passage among her most bitter and deeply buried memories, he found what he was looking for.

A large ball emanating cool blue light floated in the corridor like a will-o’-the-wisp. No, something more wondrous and yet more mundane even than that: a star, churning and boiling in a mass of plasma. At times a solar flare erupted from its sunspot-dotted surface, ejecting plumes of energy into the space around it, while coronal loops and other features twisted and writhed above it. A star small enough he might hold it in his hand. Xavier gazed with amazement on it silently radiating its light into the hallway.

“My God, Laura,” he whispered. “Is this truly what you saw?”

Xavier slowly started towards it, and somewhere in a distant corner of his mind he could feel its thoughts. To his complete and utter amazement, he realized that it was truly alive and conscious, and aware of his presence in Laura’s mind.

“Hello,” he said, keeping his voice as conversational as he could. “My name is Charles Xavier.”

The star just continued to shimmer and glow, and hovered silently in the corridor.

“Who are you?”

For a moment, Xavier thought he heard a response; like a whisper from a great distance, but he couldn’t make it out.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t understand you,” he said, playing a hunch that the star was indeed attempting to communicate with him. He cautiously continued forward and reached out to it. “My gifts allow me to touch the minds and thoughts of other sentient beings, if you will allow me—”

He never finished. A blinding flash of light seared his eyes, and Xavier shielded his face.

And then he felt Laura’s mind evaporate around him when something struck him heavily in his chest, blasting him backwards across the observation gallery. He cried out in pain and alarm. His chair toppled over backwards under the impact, and he was dumped unceremoniously on the floor.

“Charles!” Henry cried, and rushed to his side. Xavier tried to push himself up on his hands but for a long moment his body wouldn’t respond. The pain passed quickly, though for a long time afterwards there was a lingering pins-and-needles prickling throughout those parts of his body which still had feeling. His head spun, and he looked up to see Laura huddled as deep in the corner of the gallery as she could retreat, her green eyes mortified and frightened by whatever just happened.

“I’m all right, Henry,” Xavier said. “I’m all right. What happened?”

“I’m not sure. One moment you were working with Laura, and not even a second later there was a flash of light and you were being blown halfway across the room!” Henry looked dumbstruck at Laura. “How did you do that?”

She shook her head. “It was not me!” she whimpered, her voice laden with equal parts guilt, confusion, and fear. “I did not—”

“It’s all right, Laura,” Xavier said, holding a hand up to wave off any further protest. “I know this wasn’t your fault, and that this wasn’t you. It’s all right.”

His assurances, however, did little to assuage her, and she just hugged herself even more tightly. He turned back to Henry.

“Henry, see that Laura is comfortable, and see what you can do to determine how to remove this entity from her. Have Scott and the rest of the training squad meet me in my office.”

Henry nodded and glanced at Laura. “Right. I’d like to run a few tests now that she’s awake, and maybe see if I can sort out what is her, and what is this entity.”

Xavier turned his attention back to Laura. “I understand that being here will be difficult for you, but under the circumstances I must insist you remain in quarantine until we can ensure that this presence in your mind is not a threat. Any tests Dr. McCoy runs would be strictly voluntary, and I promise we’ll do everything we can to remove it safely.”

She nodded, but shrunk down into herself uncertainly. Xavier refrained from touching her thoughts to confirm that she did, indeed, understand, and just offered her as reassuring a smile as he could muster while Henry helped him back into his chair. Then he turned and wheeled himself from the room.

###

Julian slumped in one of the chairs in Xavier’s office, packed into the room with the rest of the squad. Despite the Professor’s insistence he get some rest after the evening’s excitement, he only just threw himself down on his bed when they were all called back down again. Josh leaned against one of the bookshelves. Cessily’s hair was disheveled while she lounged in the chair next to him; apparently she had already turned in for the night when they were summoned. Sooraya’s niqab and abaya were neatly arranged, though the former couldn’t quite hide the weariness in her eyes. Victor apparently hadn’t gone to bed at all, nor had Ashida and Alleyne. Santo dozed quietly in another chair in the corner, his blocky, angular head propped up on one massive fist.

The Professor was in his customary place behind his desk, with Cyclops standing at his side while they studied something on Xavier’s terminal. The rest of them just sat around impatiently for the briefing or whatever it was supposed to be to begin.

They didn’t have long to wait. Xavier folded his hands in front of him and swept his eyes across the room to take them all in.

“There’s no point in withholding this information from you, or even in skirting around it,” he said. “A foreign presence, the nature of which we still don’t understand, has invaded Laura’s mind.”

Julian sat up abruptly, and when he swept his eyes across the rest of the group he noted that the pronouncement had quickly grabbed all their attention (except for Santo, who continued to nap off to one side).

“What do you mean by foreign presence?” Ashida asked, and casually brushed a stray lock of her electric-blue hair back from her face.

Xavier sighed. “Dr. McCoy and I are still not entirely certain, but I have reason to believe that the phenomenon she encountered earlier this evening was, in fact, a sentient intelligence of some form. It has taken up residence in Laura’s subconscious.”

Julian’s stomach churned. “Could it be a mutant? A telepath of some kind?”

“It’s not something I can rule out, but nor can I even confirm it.” He paused and closed his eyes as if in thought, but soon shook his head. “There are mutants capable of astral projection, but I’m dubious of this explanation. Laura allowed me to enter her mind in an attempt to access the memories associated with this phenomenon, and much to my surprise I encountered the entity itself. Its energy was unlike any telepath I have ever encountered. If it is a mutant, it’s something far beyond our understanding. Perhaps even more powerful than Jean.”

Cyclops gawked at that, and even with his eyes hidden by his glasses his shock was evident on his features. “More powerful than Jean? How is that even possible? There’s never been a telepath of that magnitude.”

“I know, Scott, but the power I sensed during that brief encounter was something far beyond my experience.” Xavier sighed and rubbed his face. “We’re dealing with something that, to my knowledge, has never been encountered before.”

“We have to help her!” Sooraya said, and Julian nodded his agreement.

“What are we supposed to do, though?” Cessily said. “I mean, what can we do?”

“For the moment Laura will be remaining in quarantine,” Xavier said, and Julian frowned and raised his hand at that.

“I don’t mean to sound like I’m saying you don’t know what you’re doing,” he said, “but that didn’t work out so well earlier.”

“I know, Julian, but that I think owed more to her surprise at awakening there unexpectedly.”

“Ok, but what now?” Josh asked, his golden features unconvinced by the Professor’s assurances. “We can’t keep her locked up in quarantine forever. And Julian’s right; she really, really didn’t like being in there.”

“Josh, I would like you to assist Dr. McCoy in analyzing the data he’s collected, and develop a means to remove this presence from her mind.” He turned his attention on Alleyne. “David, your powers are a form of latent telepathy. It’s possible that you might be able to glean something from this entity without triggering the same defense mechanism I did.”

Alleyne folded his arms across his chest and frowned. “All I can do is pull skills and knowledge. I can’t reach out and communicate like you and Dr. Grey can.”

Xavier smiled. “Which is precisely why I believe you’ll have better success than I did. What I’d like you to do is absorb as much from Laura as you can. She would then be able to help you to rule out what skills are hers, and isolate what belongs to the entity. Perhaps that might help us gain a better understanding of what it is.”

He nodded, though his expression wasn’t particularly confident. “All right, I’ll see what I can do, if she’ll let me.”

“Julian,” Xavier said, and turned his eyes on him. Julian’s belly churned anxiously at that; there was something about the way the Professor looked at him just now that he didn’t like. “I know it’s late, but I’d like for you to go with them.”

He blinked. “Me? Why me? That’s all nerd work.”

“Believe it or not, Laura seems to find your presence comforting. I’d like you to be down there to keep her calm.”

Ashida barked out a sarcastic laugh. “Are you kidding me? Whenever I’ve got to spend more than five minutes in a room with him it just makes me want to punch him in the face!”

Julian’s face heated; both in irritation at her comment, and a bit self-consciously over the Professor’s remarks. “Look, Sparky, it’s been a long night and I’m tired. I’m really not in the mood for this.”

“That’s enough, both of you,” Cyclops said. “We don’t have time for you to be at each other’s throats right now. Our priority is Laura, and doing whatever we can to help her.” He fixed his gaze on Julian, and he could feel Mr. Summers’s eyes on him even without being able to see them through his glasses. “Can we count on you to do this?”

He sighed and slumped further into his chair. “All right, all right, it’s not like I was wanting any sleep, anyway.”

Xavier held him in his eyes for a long moment, but what he was thinking Julian couldn’t tell. He just gave him a short nod before looking at Mr. Summers. “Scott, I’d like you and Jean to go to Salem. If this phenomenon was indeed some form of telepathic construct, it’s possible a mutant this powerful may have left a psychic footprint or echo in the area. If that’s the case, she might be able to detect it.”

Cyclops considered that for a moment. “If we’re talking a mutant that powerful, couldn’t Cerebro do a better job?”

He shook his head. “I couldn’t even detect the entity while sitting in the same room as Laura without a deep probe of her subconscious. I’m not certain if there is such an echo that Cerebro would even be able to detect it.”

Alleyne raised his hand. “Out of curiosity, has anyone considered whether this was actually an isolated sighting? It’s entirely possible there could have been reports of similar phenomena elsewhere.”

Xavier nodded. “If he hasn’t already, I’ll have Dr. McCoy start a sweep of all news feeds for anything that could be connected. If there’s nothing else, I’ll let you all get to work.”

###

Act III

###

Logan had broken his promise.

Laura huddled in the far corner of the quarantine bay, her arms wrapped tightly around her legs and drawing them to her chest, while hot tears rolled down her cheeks.

No more labs. No more tests. No poking or prodding, or men in white coats. Yet here she was. Trapped in a cell once more, and though Dr. McCoy was bluer and furrier, he was now just another man in a white coat running tests. She shuddered and buried her face in her arms and cried, for one blissful moment left alone in her misery while Dr. McCoy carried out some order from Xavier that took him away from the observation gallery.

"Laura."

She snapped her head up at the sound of the voice, somehow both distant and yet right beside her.

"Laura."

She craned her neck, looking this way and that, and cocked her head from side to side in hopes her enhanced hearing could locate its source. She sniffed, but could only smell the lingering scents of Dr. McCoy and Xavier.

That was when the Entity appeared in front of her, and Laura scrambled back deeper into the corner in alarm when it coalesced from a pale blue mist venting from her pores. And when she saw the form it took she felt her heart shatter; a fair-skinned face so much like her own, but older and careworn, black hair swept up into a simple and functional knot atop her head, tired but kind green eyes, and lips turned up into a calm and reassuring smile. Seeing that face again struck her like a blow to her gut, and she clenched her teeth and fists.

"It is all right," the Entity said, when it sensed her distress. Its voice echoed strangely in the chamber, and whatever form it took it was clearly not her. "I am sorry if I have done you harm, that was not my intent."

"Why do you look like that?" Laura asked, her voice ragged with conflicting emotions. "Why are you doing this to me?"

The smile faltered in genuine confusion when the Entity considered her form. "I saw in your mind that you have strong positive feelings for this woman, and thought you would be more comfortable—"

"Stop it!" Laura screamed, and the tears welling up in her eyes over her new captivity broke free.

The Entity seemed taken aback by her response, but its form shimmered and it reverted into Laura's own mirror-image; her skin turned completely black, like the void of night, and her hair was white and shining like starlight. "I am sorry," it said. "I do not intend to bring you pain."

Laura hugged herself and fought to regain control. Such outbursts were not conducive to resolving her predicament. "What do you want from me?"

"I need your help."

She blinked in genuine surprise. "My help? Why?"

"You have skills that I need," it said, and Laura immediately shifted to a defensive posture.

"I am not a weapon to be used!" she snapped, though for the moment she kept her claws stowed away.

The entity raised its hands in a calming gesture. "You misunderstand me, I do not intend to use you as the others did."

"Then what? Why me?"

"Because I hope that you will understand what it is I ask of you.

“I am a traveler and guardian, and am not of this world. I have journeyed this universe from its inception, protecting the seeds of life wherever I found it, and safeguarding the civilizations that have arisen from them. Shi'ar. Skrull. Badoon. Human. But on my most recent sojourn to this planet, something happened."

Laura sniffed and frowned while she processed what the Entity was telling her. To her consternation not only could she detect no olfactory evidence that the apparition in front of her actually existed, she could not tell whether what it was telling her was the truth.

"What?"

The Entity's posture shifted as if deep in thought, but with no features of its own Laura had no other cues as to what it was thinking. "I cannot remember. All I know is that I was drawn into the planet's gravity well. Somehow, human scientists managed to capture a sizable portion of my being. I am unclear of the means by which they accomplished this, but I am aware of what this part of me is experiencing. I can feel them running experiments; their curiosity over what they found.

"But Laura, we must stop them. They do not understand the potential consequences of what might happen should they continue along their current course, and that part of me is too weak to free itself."

Laura frowned. "What consequences."

"There is no time to explain everything, but you must understand the cataclysm that would result should part of me die would not just threaten all life on Earth, but all life everywhere."

She considered that for a moment. "But why me? Why can you not recover that part of yourself on your own?"

"My nature prevents me from so overtly interacting with the corporeal world. I can take shape, as you saw me in what you call Salem, and as you see me now, but I can only act here by bonding with a mortal agent. I know where the rest of my being is held. The decision is yours — I will not force you — and I promise you that once we bond you will understand everything. But please, Laura, there is so little time, and I hoped that you would understand better than anyone my pain."

The hollow feeling in her gut spread, and Laura felt tears welling up in her eyes once more when memories of the men in white coats surged up from the depths of her mind. Whatever the consequences the Entity spoke of, she could not allow another being to suffer as she had.

Laura set herself and gave a resolute nod. "What must I do."

The Entity reached out and clasped her hand. "Thank you, Laura. I promise, you will feel no pain. You and I will become one, for a time, and I promise that you will understand."

Laura held a breath. The Entity shimmered once more, and collapsed into a small point winking in the medical bay like starlight. She gasped when it penetrated her chest; her head rolled back and her back arched, and a feeling not unlike euphoria rippled through her while its energy infused her body.

And as it promised, Laura understood.

###

Julian made his way along the subbasement hallway, his shoulders slumped and his hands in his pockets. Alleyne, Ashida — who refused to let her boyfriend anywhere near Laura without a bodyguard after hearing how she destroyed the quarantine bay — and Josh preceded him, but he kept his eyes focused on the floor in front of him so he wasn't staring at their backs. He didn't know why he was so anxious over Laura's condition; it's not like they were friends or anything. If he spent any time around her lately it was because she was always following Cessily and Sooraya around like a lost puppy. Whatever understanding they might have come to that day in the park, she was still weird, creepy, and scared the hell out of him, and the idea that she found him, of all people, comforting was laughable. Just another one of those bizarre, inexplicable quirks that made her so off-putting.

So why the hell was he so worried about her?

He sighed heavily, and tried to force his mind to other subjects, but time and again he kept drifting back to the same thoughts.

They were just drawing near the medical wing when a flash of light lit the hallway to something about the equivalent of staring right into the sun. All four of them cried out and shielded their eyes when the heavy reinforced door allowing access to the quarantine bay’s observation gallery was thrown from its hinges and blown across the hall. Julian stumbled against the wall and might have fallen entirely without it to support his weight. Josh and Alleyne went down in a heap, entangled in each other's limbs, and Ashida fell on top of them both.

"What the hell?!" Julian exclaimed.

And then a figure emerged from the quarantine bay. A figure that looked like Laura, but something more; Her green eyes were gone, replaced by glowing spheres that burned like twin blue suns, and countless pinpricks of light, like stars suspended in the night sky, sparkled in the black shadow of her hair.

Julian tried to shake what was almost certainly an illusion caused by the surge of light searing his retinas off, but when he opened his eyes again Laura was still there, radiating a muted inner light. Ashida scrambled to her feet while Alleyne and Josh struggled to untangle themselves, and muttered a bit of Japanese invective at the sight.

"Laura?!" she stammered. "What the hell?"

Laura took one look at them both, and then took off down the hall, not so much running as she flew.

Ashida shed her gauntlets, and immediately the hall lights began to flicker when her power quickly built up to an overload. "Shit!" she blurted out, and rushed off after her, trailing electric-blue sparks in her wake.

"Julian, stay with her!" Josh said.

"Gee, thanks, Foley, I wouldn't have thought about that myself!" he growled, and started after them. With the twisting path Laura took through the subbasement keeping up proved to be much less troublesome than he feared, and soon he caught up with them in the long gallery that led to the storage hangar where the Blackbird was parked beneath the basketball courts.

Ashida had taken advantage of her power to put herself ahead of Laura, and whipping sparks of electricity danced across her body when she dropped into a fighting stance, barring her access to the hangar. Laura stood a short distance away, regarding her calmly but with a hint of impatience in her stance.

"That's enough, Laura," Ashida was saying when he rounded the corner and started down the corridor behind Laura. "Look, I don't know what's gotten into you, but I can't let you leave."

"Noriko, please," Laura pleaded. "There is no time!"

"You're going to have to give me better than that, now go back to the med bay so we can sort this out!"

"I cannot, I know what I am doing. Please stand aside, I do not wish to fight you."

"You take a step and I'll have to put you down, I can't let you go."

"Ashida!" Julian snapped, but though Laura glanced over her shoulder at him approaching the brewing confrontation, Ashida neither budged nor stood down.

"I'm warning you, Laura," she said, and the lights in the hall flickered wildly while she rapidly built up to a full charge.

"Do not do this," Laura said, and took a step forward.

"Damn it!"

Ashida snapped her hands up and unleashed a concentrated blast of electrical energy. Julian cried out, but they both stood dumbstruck when Laura raised a hand, and Ashida’s attack splattered harmlessly against a shield of light.

"What the f...?" Ashida began, but was cut off when Laura's eyes flashed, and a column of light ripped from her hand and down the hallway. It struck Ashida in the chest and knocked her off her feet. She landed hard on her back, and skidded several feet along the floor before coming to a rest just shy of the door.

"Laura, no!" Julian shouted, and reached out to her with his power when she tried to continue on her way. He didn't expect to be able to hold her like this, but much to his surprise he was able to lift and freeze her in the air, and turn her so he could look her in the whatever it was now passing for her eyes.

"Julian, please do not do this," she said. "You must let me go!"

"I can't do that," he said. "Let's just go back to the medical bay so the Doc can fix you, all right?"

"I cannot. Please, I did not wish to hurt Noriko, and I do not wish to hurt you, too."

Ashida coughed and stirred on the ground behind her, and lifted herself up on her elbows. "What the hell," she murmured. "Do you have her, Keller?"

"Look, this isn't you, all right? It's that whatever in your head."

"No, it is not! Julian, please, you must trust me."

"Don't you let her go, Keller!" Ashida said.

Julian looked between her and Laura, searching her features for any sign that it was really Laura or the thing inside her mind he was speaking with now. This wasn't right; Laura was creepy and scary, but had never demonstrated power like this before. And yet...

"Julian, please!"

He heard the pleading in her voice, the sincerity when she begged him to release her. Julian gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and lowered his hand. Almost at once his telekinetic hold over her failed, and Laura was free. She remained suspended over the floor for a moment of her own volition before gently settling back to her feet.

"Thank you," she whispered, then spun around and rushed down the hallway. Ashida bit out a curse, staggered back to her feet, and angrily stomped towards him.

"What the hell is the matter with you, Keller?" she snapped, but Julian ignored her and just stared after Laura until she disappeared through the hatch leading into the hanger.

###

There wasn't much left the quarantine bay or its observation gallery at all this time when they all crowded inside to survey the damage. The entirety of the wall dividing the gallery from the room beyond had been smashed, the terminal built into it was a sparking ruin, and fragments of armored glass littered the floor.

"Laura did this?" Xavier said, dumbstruck by the destruction. "Henry, what happened?"

"To be honest, I don't know," he said. "I ran a few tests on Laura and left the bay to check the results, as well as do some looking into possible related phenomena as you requested. Seems it was a good thing I did."

Ashida folded her arms and scowled, and Julian could feel the heat of the glare on him. He did his best to ignore her and joined the others in staring awestruck at just what Laura had done.

"Lucky you, Doc," she said. "Who knows what she would have done if you were in there."

Julian turned on her and glared. "You're the one who tried to fry her," he snapped when his temper got away from him. "If you ask me, you deserved it."

"Oh please. I don't know what you were thinking with back there, Keller, but it sure as hell wasn't your brain. And now who knows what sort of damage she's doing!"

Sooraya frowned and shook her head. "I can't believe that Laura would have harmed you deliberately," she said.

"How could she even do this?" Cessily asked, her silver features betraying her inability to grasp what happened.

Xavier turned his eyes on Julian, and he shifted uncomfortably under the Professor's searching gaze. "Julian, tell me again what you saw."

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Like I already told you; Ashida, Alleyne, Josh, and I were all on our way down here. She blew the door off its hinges and when she came out ..." he trailed off while he tried to order his thoughts and comprehend just what it was he saw. "I don't know, it was her but different. Like really, really different. I really don't know how to explain it." He looked at the Professor and scowled. "And rather than asking me over and over again you could always just pluck it out of my head."

"Calm down, Julian," Victor said, and reached out and squeezed his arm. "Getting mad at the Professor isn't going to help."

Julian shook his hand off and fixed them all with a glare. "Answering questions fifty times isn't going to help, either! Look, all I know is that whatever she looked like, that was Laura."

"It sounds pretty freakin' cool, too," Santo said. "Like something out of Poltergeist or something."

"And she said nothing about where she was going," Xavier said, making it a statement of fact.

"No!" Julian said, tiring of repeating the story. "All she said is that there wasn't time. Look, I get it, it sounds insane and she's already one hyperactive ball of crazy as it is, but she sounded so sure of what she was doing."

"Regardless of whether she was sure or not," David said, "We can't just let her run around loose. What she did to Nori, and what she did in here? What if she loses control in a major city?"

"Are we really sure she lost control?" Cessily asked. "I mean Julian said she didn't hit Nori until Nori attacked her first."

"That's easy for you to say when you weren't thrown across a room," Ashida grumbled under her breath.

"That's enough!" Xavier snapped, and spit them all with a glare. "Arguing about it is not going to change what happened. Our first priority is finding her, and making sure that she and this power are drawn away from population centers so it can be safely contained and dealt with. Henry, did you have any luck in your search?"

"I think I did," Dr. McCoy said, and looked sadly at the computer. Though he wouldn't say it, his annoyance at having to replace the equipment — and especially not having it available to demonstrate his genius to them now — was evident. "I have academic access to a number of private scientific databases, and one entry in particular caught my attention: There was an unusual period of solar activity about two weeks ago, which interacted quite energetically in the upper atmosphere. Around the same time, an observatory Upstate detected a strange energy signature that they couldn't quite explain. They recorded it but dismissed it as a sensor being out of calibration. When I compared it to the readings I took from Laura earlier, the signature was a match for the anomalous bioelectrical readings I recorded."

Julian frowned and considered that. "Laura seemed in an awful hurry to get somewhere. Could she be heading to that observatory?"

Dr. McCoy nodded. "I think it's a possibility. It can't be a coincidence the two signatures match."

Xavier steepled his hands and closed his eyes in thought. "Scott and Jean will be in Salem now, and it may take too long for them to return." He opened his eyes and fixed them on Dr. McCoy. "Henry, ready the Blackbird. We don't know Laura's capabilities now, but she already has a head start. At the very least the jet ought to be able to get there before she can cause too much damage."

"Who do you want with me?" Dr. McCoy asked. "Based on what she did here I wouldn't be able to stop her if she made a fight of it."

The Professor turned his eyes on the rest of them. "I think we have a team already assembled and ready to move."

Santo's rocky features lit up. "We're going on a mission? Awesome!"

Ordinarily Julian might have shared the sentiment, but his heart sank somewhere around his navel knowing they were setting out to hunt down one of their own.

One who could tear them all apart even without her current power-up.

###

Act IV

###

Hank, his lab coat exchanged for his black uniform, adjusted the pilot’s seat of the Blackbird, and flicked the switches to bring its systems online. A faint whine filled the cockpit when the powerful engines slowly spun to life, and he felt the familiar vibrations through his seat. The children — well, they were not exactly children any more — took their seats in the passenger compartment behind him, with Nori and Julian — or that was to say Surge and Hellion, and he found it odd now to think of them in such terms — crowding into the cockpit with him.

“All right, let’s establish a few ground rules before we take off,” he said. “First of all, for all intents and purposes I’m leading the team. I’m not the sternest of disciplinarians, but for your own good if I give an order I expect it to be followed.”

Nori shrugged. Her modification of her uniform after she found it not to her tastes came as something of a surprise to him when she boarded the jet. Now, instead of the one-piece leather jumpsuit, she had arranged to cut off and shorten the top half to bare a sizable swath of her middle. “Whatever you say, you’re the boss. As long as he gets it,” she said, and jerked her thumb at Julian.

“Look, you want to take this outside, Pikachu?” he said, and tugged at the high collar of his own jumpsuit. “I made a judgment call.”

“And it’s your fault we have to go bring her back!”

“You’re just PMSing because she kicked your ass. And I think that’s an argument in her favor.”

Hank growled and rolled his eyes. “All right, that’s enough, both of you! The mission starts now. I don’t care what happened before. Now go back and strap in so I can take off.”

The two shoved past each other on their way out of the cockpit, leaving him blissfully alone while he pushed the throttle forward and engaged the vector thrusters. The Blackbird slowly and gracefully lifted from its revetment in the hangar, and he flipped a switch on his console opening the door concealed beneath the basketball courts above.

The Blackbird gently climbed out of the hangar, and Hank shifted power to the main engines, gaining speed when he swung the jet past the mansion and turned onto a course for the observatory.

“Are we there yet?” Santo groaned from somewhere behind him, before they sped north to intercept Laura.

###

Laura alighted in an open field behind the privacy walls surrounding the observatory. The winter sky was dark, and dusted with a net of winking stars that, away from the skyglow of New York City, would be clearly visible even without her enhanced vision. She made her way across the open lawn towards the entrance, and Laura was astonished to realize she could actually hear the stars singing through her bond with the Entity. She paused for a moment to look up at them in wonder before forcing her thoughts back to her mission. The installation itself was a nondescript building whose most dominant feature was the telescope dome on its roof, and there was no sign of activity within.

“This is it?”

“Yes,” the voice of the Entity replied. “This is it. Can you feel it?”

Laura closed her eyes and concentrated, and sure enough, she distantly felt something calling to her from deep below the structure. She gasped at the familiar sensation of unbearable agony wracking her body.

“You are in pain.”

“Please, we must hurry!”

Laura threaded past the security cameras she noted within the complex and approached the door. There was an alarm, but it took her only moments to circumvent it, and the lock was a very simple one that required little effort to open. She stepped inside the entry hall — a sparsely-furnished and purely functional space leading deeper into the building — and followed the call of the Entity's trapped portion.

She made her way among the offices and laboratories, (the latter of which drew an uncomfortable shudder from her) and paused at times to sniff the air or listen intently, but though she found her senses had been even further enhanced by her bond with the Entity, there was no sign of security, and for all intents and purposes the observatory's upper levels were deserted. Everything was dark except for the dim blue security lighting. She frowned, finding it peculiar that such a facility would have the means to run the sorts of experiments the Entity was undergoing.

Hypothesis: The observatory could be a public front for a larger research project.

She filed that away for future consideration. Now, however, she had a mission to complete.

###

The Blackbird swooped in low over the observatory, and Hank deftly maneuvered it into an open space outside the privacy wall. Sensors aboard the jet immediately picked out multiple security cameras on their approach, so he flicked a switch on the console to activate the stealth and jamming systems before bringing the craft down outside the fences. He shut down the main engines once the Blackbird settled on its landing gear, but left the auxiliary batteries online for a quick startup if needed.

With the Blackbird secured on the ground he opened the boarding ramp and clambered out of his seat to address the team unbuckling their flight harnesses in the passenger compartment.

"All right, we're here," he said. "I'm not sure if Laura has already arrived or not, so we're going to have to do a little light reconnaissance. David, how are the glasses?"

David adjusted their fit over his nose and blinked when he activated their displays. "Oh man, it's like Google Glass on steroids. Okay, I'm getting a full schematic and floorplan of the whole installation."

Hank smiled. "Excellent! I have the facility's exterior security systems jammed, so we should be able to get inside without being spotted. We have about three hours until dawn, so that gives us a bit of cover from visual tracking."

Nori raised her hand. "Dr. McCoy?"

"We're in the field, Surge, you may call me Beast."

"Right. Beast. What exactly do we do if Laura doesn't want to come back willingly?"

"Let's find her first, and we can deal with that when we come to it."

And with that, he led them down the ramp. The night was cold, but the sky was clear and filled with stars not usually visible through the heavy light pollution nearer to New York City. His fur rippled in the breeze, but the kids shivered a bit in the chill (particularly Nori, whose alterations to her uniform weren't exactly conducive to insulation). They quickly reached their first obstacle immediately upon stepping out of the jet; the observatory's security gate.

Santo pounded a fist into his palm, and stepped up with a grin. "I got this!"

"How about we do it without destruction of property?" Victor said with a roll of his eyes.

The big rocky mutant deflated. "Aw."

Hank grinned tightly. "I appreciate your enthusiasm, but Anole is quite correct. Hellion, if you would be so kind?"

"Right," Julian said, and his hands began to glow, bathed in a flickering green aura upon calling his power to him. He lifted the entire group together, floated them over the wall, and set them down gently again on the other side.

"Well done!"

He quirked one corner of his mouth into a cocky smile. "I flew a truck last fall in Salem. This was nothing."

"Yes, well let's not get ahead of ourselves. Come on, then!"

They hurried the rest of the way across the lawn to the main entrance. Henry froze and examined the door with a frown; the alarm had been disabled, and the door hung open on its hinges.

"Well, it seems Talon has beaten us here. Prodigy, any sign of that energy signature?"

"Just a sec," David said, and nodded. "Yeah. And I'm reading two; there’s one big one a couple floors beneath us, the other is smaller and looks to be on the ground floor.”

"Lead the way, then!" he said, and they followed David when he stepped inside.

###

Laura froze and perked up her ears at the sound of voices behind her. She flattened herself against the wall, took cover between a pair of computer terminals, and extended her claws. They glowed pale blue in the darkness of the security lighting, and blue flame danced along their edges. She sniffed and strained her ears, and retracted her claws again when she caught the scent of Noriko's perfume — she wore so much it was overpowering even from a distance — and heard the distinctive and heavy tread of Santo's rocky feet.

“They have come to stop you,” the Entity's voice said in her head.

“I know,” Laura replied in kind.

“What will you do?”

“They are my friends. I do not wish to fight them.”

“I understand.”

Laura stepped out of cover and waited in the middle of the hallway. The first to round the bend in the hall leading from the entrance was David, and at the sight of her he immediately froze with his arms out to hold back the others following him.

"Beast!" he called, and Dr. McCoy (followed by Julian and Noriko, neither of whom wished to stay back) stepped around the corner.

"Laura!" Julian said upon seeing her.

“Oh my stars and garters!” Dr. McCoy said, and gawked at her in astonishment. Laura shifted a bit self-consciously at his scrutiny.

"There you are! Are you ready for Round Two?" Noriko snapped. Laura flinched back at the ire in her tone, and shrunk down into herself at the dumbfounded stares of the others when they slowly filled the hall behind her.

"Noriko, I am sorry, but you left me no choice but defend myself."

"I don't know what this is all about," Dr. McCoy said, quickly putting his big, furry body between them. "But you need to come back to the mansion with us so we can fix this."

"I cannot leave now," she said. "You do not understand what is at stake."

"What's to understand about breaking and entering?" Noriko grumbled.

"Dr. McCoy, I made a promise," Laura said. "You must trust me, but what is happening here cannot be allowed to continue."

"And what is happening here?" he asked. "Laura, I want to believe you, but I need you to give me a reason. Attacking Nori and running from the mansion doesn't do that."

“Tell them,” the Entity said, “but we are running out of time.”

Laura clenched her fists and steeled herself. "I have bonded with the Entity," she said, and the others gasped. "I know everything it knows, and I have seen things that none of you would comprehend. What is happening in the labs below, if it is allowed to continue, could destroy everything."

Sooraya frowned. "What do you mean, 'everything?'"

"Everything!" Laura said. "When the Entity passed Earth a part of it was captured by the researchers here, and they are now running experiments that are killing it. And if it dies then what it is holding back will destroy all life everywhere."

David's eyes widened with astonishment. "You mean like, alien life?"

She nodded. "Yes. I have to stop them before that happens."

Laura took all of them in; Dr. McCoy rubbed his furry chin while he considered the implications, David was still trying to wrap his head around the confirmation of extraterrestrial life, and Sooraya, Cessily, Victor, and Josh just looked uneasily at her and at each other, as if they could not believe what she was saying. Noriko simmered, her arms folded across her chest and watching her for any sign she might bolt and run, and from the look on her features she clearly did not believe her. Julian stared at the floor, his hands clenched at his sides while he wrestled with his own thoughts. Finally, he heaved a sigh and resolutely stepped forward from the others.

"No, you don't," he said. "We do. I mean this is supposed to be a team, right?"

"Keller, what do you think you're doing?" Noriko asked.

"Look, I don't understand what's going on here, but she seems sure of it. And if things are really that bad, I think it's worth at least giving her the benefit of the doubt. I don’t know that I care much about the Happy Fun Ball that’s gotten us into all this, but I sure would like to keep living."

Laura felt a small tremor in her belly she did not know what to make of, but gave Julian an appreciative nod.

Dr. McCoy sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "All right, we’ll check it out. Where are these experiments taking place?"

"There are labs beneath the observatory," she said. "I can feel it below us."

David frowned when he pressed a hand to his glasses and stared at the floor. "If I’m using these things right, I can see the second energy reading directly below us, but there's nothing on the building floorplans to suggest the structure extends any further down."

"Something is not right here," Laura said, and swept her eyes across the hallway. "It makes no sense that an observatory would be conducting this sort of research."

"Curious," Dr. McCoy said. "I thought it rather strange that an energy reading of this magnitude might be dismissed as an anomaly." He looked at her. "Have you any idea how we might get down there?"

Laura nodded. “I believe so.” She turned and started off down the hall she had been following. “This way.”

###

The service elevator stopped with a jolt and the doors opened. Hank followed Laura out into another wide corridor leading deeper into the subbasement of the facility. According to David’s feed from the Blackbird’s databanks they were now some five stories below what should have been the storage basements. He blinked in the bright white lighting, a sudden change from the dim blue security lights illuminating the basement and main level of the observatory above. The deeper they went, the greater his sense of trepidation. Laura was right: Something was clearly out of sorts with this facility. On such a perfectly clear night the observatory itself ought to have been a hive of activity, but there was no one at work above.

He strained his ears, and his enhanced hearing picked up what sounded like the hum of machinery and distant voices, though he couldn’t make out what they were saying. Laura, however, picked an unerring and certain course through the maze of passages. Whether she was guided by her own senses or the connection she felt to the trapped fragment of the Entity she didn’t say. Instead, Laura silently hurried past rooms dedicated to massive computer and server banks, laboratories filled with equipment and sample containers, and storage rooms loaded with supplies, parts, tools, and other errata, and Hank felt a small thrill at the occasional glimpses inside of advanced robotics and top-secret research. None of which had anything to do with what sort of science ought to be taking place here.

Finally, she reached a bend in the corridor and froze, one hand raised to stop them. Hank pressed himself against the wall and slid along it until he was standing right beside her, and peered around the corner with her.

There, in the center of a cavernous chamber lined with catwalks and gantries, and surrounded by equipment, was the distinct torus of an experimental fusion reactor, with a brilliant point of blue-white light glowing at its heart.

“Oh my stars and garters,” he murmured, awestruck at the sight.

“Wow,” David said when he crowded in behind him for a look. “That’s impressive.”

Laura’s body tensed and she bunched her hands into fists. There were perhaps some dozen or so people working the various consoles or on the floor of the reactor laboratory, and a control gallery accessed by a flight of steps overlooked the cavernous chamber. There was a sudden flare of light, and the buzz of electricity filled the air, accompanied by a mechanical whine. “They are trying to draw power off of it,” she said, her voice ragged.

“Uh, Doc? She doesn’t look too good,” Santo said, and pointed at her.

Hank tore his eyes away from the nerdgasm-inducing sight around the corner, and when he looked at Laura, he realized with a start her face was drawn as if in great pain, and she slumped against the wall.

“Laura, are you all right?” he asked.

She shook her head. “It is dying, we have to hurry.”

“Do we have a plan?” Nori asked.

“The reactor needs to be stepped-down,” David said. “If we try to just pull the plug, with as much energy as I’m reading the whole thing could blow.”

Hank nodded, just a hair slower than David and his power. “Can you do it?”

“Yeah, I’m close enough now I was able to pull the procedure from the engineers’ heads. As near as I can tell, once get it shut down we ought to be able to free the Entity.”

Hank rubbed his chin, but before he could say anything else Laura cried out in pain and clutched her head, just as another massive flare of light erupted from the reactor and bathed the room in a searing white-hot flash. Suddenly all the lights within shut down when a massive spike of energy ripped through the electrical systems and overloaded every capacitor and surge protector in the laboratory. The ground heaved up sharply beneath their feet, and everyone tumbled to the floor.

“What the hell?!” Julian muttered from his hands and knees when alarms began to blare, and flashing warning lights turned the chamber the color of blood.

“That can’t be good,” David said.

“We are too late,” Laura said, her voice suddenly gone very small. She and Santo were the only ones able to keep their feet at the convulsions pitching the floor up underneath them, and she staggered forward into the chamber.

Hank scrambled back to his feet and stumbled around the corner after her, and his jaw fell all the way to the floor at the sight confronting him now. Where the reactor once stood there was now just a big, black, gaping hole of nothingness staring at them, surrounded by a brilliantly illuminated event horizon. The catwalks and galleries had been ripped from the walls, and sparking equipment and computers littered the floor, along with the bloodied and twisted remains of the scientists.

“Oh my ...”

“Stars and garters. We get it, Doc,” Julian interrupted, his own features slack with awe. “What the hell are we looking at?”

“A black hole?” David suggested.

The others filed around the corner and into the lab, and Hank was distantly aware of Sooraya muttering a prayer, but no one else said anything; even Santo stood quietly transfixed by the sight, and without so much as a snide remark to offer.

“We are looking at the end,” Laura said, and extended her claws. They glowed blue in the darkness, and flame flickered along their edges.

###

Laura stood at the edge of the abyss and stared into the darkness beyond. No, it was more than just darkness; it was the absence of everything. No light, no substance. Beyond the event horizon was absolute and utter nothingness, but she could already hear what was imprisoned beyond stirring. They could see the life beyond, and through her connection to the Entity could feel their hunger when they swarmed from the emptiness beyond, drawn to the scent of blood and flesh like moths to flame. And there was nothing that they could do to hold back the onslaught to come.

“What do we do now?” she asked the Entity.

 

“I might be able to seal the breach,” the Entity said in her mind, “but opening it in the first place required a substantial part of my power, so I cannot do it from here any longer.”

Laura’s breath caught in her throat. “What do you need me to do?”

The answer was exactly what she suspected, and Laura could only clench her fists and set her jaw.

“We must pass through the breach and seal it from within. It is the only way.”

“Laura, what are you doing?” David asked, and Laura knew immediately he had absorbed the same knowledge from the Entity that it had passed to her.

“Dr. McCoy, get everyone out of here,” she said.

“Laura?” Cessily prompted, but Laura refused to look at them and kept her gazed focused on the void of eternal and starless night looming ahead of her.

“I can fix this, but you need to go.”

“Laura,” Dr. McCoy began when her intentions became clear. “Don’t do this.”

“Do what?” Santo asked.

“She’s going to go inside that thing,” David said. “The Entity knows how to repair it, but without its full power it has to do it from inside.”

“Are you out of your mind?” Julian said, and strode forward to grab her arm. “You’ll be killed!”

Laura turned in his grip and stared him deep in the eyes. She could not read what he was feeling, but beyond his fear over their current predicament there was something else buried deep beneath it that confused her.

“If I do not everything will die,” she said, and twisted her arm from his grip. “None of you can help me now; even if I can repair the breach, if you stay here when it closes you will die, or worse be trapped beyond the seal. You must go. Now!”

She met all their eyes. “Go!”

And without another word, or waiting to see if they complied, she turned around and strode into the darkness, her hands held loosely at her sides, and waited for the onslaught to come while she gathered the Entity’s remaining power around her.

###

Julian watched her go, and Laura’s subtly glowing figure disappeared into the blackness beyond the event horizon. His racing heart leapt somewhere up around his throat when she vanished from view, and all he could do was stand and stare in shock and horror while the entire facility shook and convulsed around him. Then he clenched his fists and jaw, and took a step after her only to be yanked back by a hand on his arm.

“Julian what do you think you’re doing?” Alleyne yelled at him.

“The rest of you can run if you like, but I’m not leaving her!” he snapped. “This is a team, and as far as I’m concerned we don’t leave anyone behind!”

“You heard her, Keller,” Ashida said. “She’s made her choice, but we have to go!”

“She’s right, Julian,” Dr. McCoy said. His furry features were crestfallen, but that didn’t make what he said sound any less bitter. “There’s nothing we can do for her.”

“No! We’re not losing anyone else!” Julian spun around and strained against Alleyne’s arms while the others crowded in to hold him back. “Let me go! I said let me—”

Julian didn’t get a chance to finish. He pulled against the arms trying to drag him back, but soon felt himself spun around, and the last thing he clearly remembered was Alleyne’s fist flying towards his face.

###

Julian’s head spun when it slowly cleared, and the ceiling of the Blackbird’s passenger cabin wheeled overhead. Santo, Victor, Cessily, and Sooraya, as well as their dozens of twin brothers and sisters, spiraled around him before slowly resolving into individuals again. It did not, however, stop the violent vibrations ripping through the jet.

He blinked and sat up, and immediately felt hands under his arms propping him up.

“Easy, Julian,” Josh said into his ear from behind, and he felt his golden hands cupping the sides of his head. “You’ve got a mild concussion, but I think I took care of the worst of it.”

“What happened?” he grumbled. “How did I get back on ...”

He trailed off once the memory of what happened down below in the observatory subbasement flooded back to him. “Laura!”

Julian jumped to his feet, but Cessily threw herself into his path and gathered him into an embrace. “Julian, no! It’s too late!” she said. Her voice caught in her throat. “Dr. McCoy is already starting the takeoff procedure, there’s no time to go back.”

“We can’t just leave her down there!” he said, and forced his way past her for the cockpit. Julian staggered through the cabin, supporting himself on the chairs while the Blackbird shook underfoot and the rest of the group followed him. He arrived in the cockpit to find Dr. McCoy working frantically at the controls, with Ashida and Alleyne strapped into the chairs around him. At the sight of the latter his lip curled into a sneer, and he grabbed him from behind.

“You son of a bitch!” he snarled. He balled a fist to bash Alleyne’s face and glasses in, but Cessily and Sooraya quickly grabbed him under the arms and dragged him away. “Let go!”

“Julian, that is enough!” Sooraya snapped into his ear. “It grieves all of us to leave her behind, but David saved your life!”

“The bastard cold-cocked me and you’re taking his side?”

“Will you children please sit down!” Dr. McCoy shouted. An alarm blared in the cockpit. “Hang on tight, this is going to be a little bumpy!”

He threw the throttle forward, and the Blackbird lurched underfoot. Julian grabbed onto one of the consoles when the bucking jet threatened to pitch him off his feet, and he heard a strangled cry followed by a crash when Santo lost his balance and went over hard on his back. Outside the forests and fields of Upstate New York wheeled about, and the Blackbird slowly lifted into the air and drifted away from the observatory. Massive cracks and fissures appeared in the ground around it, and the lawn, privacy walls, and the observatory vanished when the entire facility was swallowed by an enormous sinkhole, accompanied by a massive plume of dust.

And then nothing. The tremors stilled and everything was quiet.

For a long moment Julian and the others could only stare at the countryside through the Blackbird’s canopy, and he felt his heart sink down into his stomach. Everyone, even Ashida and Alleyne, slumped while they stared down at the wreckage of the observatory. Another grave after having buried so many other friends.

Julian clenched his teeth and choked down the tears threatening to well up in his eyes. He turned away to return to the cabin, but didn’t make it more than a step before a brilliant flash of light filled the jet, and they all cried out and shielded their eyes against it.

And when the spots cleared from his vision and he could see again, Julian was astonished to see Laura standing among them.

“Laura!” Cessily said, and started forward to glomp her, but froze at the broad, relieved smile that passed across her features. Everyone just stared in shock, as much at seeing her standing alive in front of them as the fact that Laura didn’t smile.

“Laura is asleep,” a voice said with Laura’s mouth. It echoed in the confines of the cabin, and sounded for all the world like the clear musical ringing one heard at the end of a chord. “It took both our strength to repair the breach, and I fear it was a bit much for her.”

Dr. McCoy set the Blackbird on autopilot, removed his harness, and levered himself out of the pilot’s seat. “Then you are the Entity she bonded with?” he asked.

“That is correct, Dr. McCoy. Before I departed, I wished to thank all of you for your efforts. I only regret we could not have arrived sooner, but all is now well.”

“The breach is sealed?” Alleyne asked.

“For now. I must return to the stars to rest and regain my strength.” The Entity-in-Laura smiled again while it took all of them in, an expression that was equally thoughtful and amused on its features. “Humans truly are a remarkable species. You fear what you do not understand, yet are also driven to seek out the unknown like no other civilization I have encountered. Perhaps I may return for a closer study someday. But for now, the stars are calling me home.”

And with that, the entity emerged from Laura’s body, filtering out through her pores like a blue mist and coalescing into a glowing blue ball, much as it appeared when they first saw it. Almost immediately Laura — returned to her normal appearance — collapsed, and Julian rushed forward to catch her before she could fall to the deck.

“Farewell,” the Entity said. It shot through the cabin ceiling and vanished, leaving Laura asleep in his arms.

###

Act V

###

Laura slowly blinked her eyes open. Her head hurt, her throat was parched, and she felt a sharp stab of hunger in her belly. But she was alive, and when her mind slowly focused itself, she found herself alone and in familiar surroundings, as if she were awakening from a long dream.

And she was alone; the Entity was gone, and her mind was hers again.

She sniffed to gain her bearings, and realized with a start that she was actually not, in fact, alone. Laura quickly sat up, clutched the covers to herself, and balled one fist, ready to extend her claws. She was in her own bed in her own room, dressed in a tee and pair of shorts she did not remember putting on herself. Once her disorientation passed and she shook off the last remnants of sleep she recognized the scent almost as soon as she saw him. Julian sat in a chair near her bed, his arms folded across his chest and his head lowered. He dozed with his legs kicked out in front of him, and for a moment she watched him and tried to puzzle out for herself what he might be doing there.

“Julian?” she finally called when no theory she could formulate answered the question to her satisfaction.

Julian jumped in his chair and his blue eyes blinked open. “Oh, you’re awake,” he said around a wide yawn, and wiped the sleep from his eyes.

“What happened? How did I get here? The last thing I remember ...” she trailed off at the memory of the abyss she stared into and shuddered.

“The whatever it was dropped you off on board the Blackbird with the rest of us before taking off again. Professor Xavier thought it would be best if you woke up in familiar surroundings so you wouldn’t trash the Doc’s lab again, and had you brought here. You’ve been out for the better part of two days.”

Laura blinked while she considered the lost time; it certainly explained her dehydration and hunger pangs. She looked at him again, but his features wore a confusing blend of contradictory emotions she could not read. “Have you been there the whole time?”

“What? No!” he said, and his face colored in embarrassment. “Xavier wanted someone to keep an eye on you in case you woke up, and we drew shifts. It just happened to be my turn.”

She clutched her blanket against herself, a part of her strangely disappointed by that answer. “Oh.”

Julian forced himself out of the chair with a grunt. “I’ll let them know you’re up. I think Dr. McCoy wanted to give you one more exam before letting you out of bed.”

Laura shuddered a bit at the thought of more examinations, but nodded. “Okay.”

Julian started for the door, and Laura chewed on her lower lip while watching him go. “Julian,” she called when he reached for the doorknob, and that brought him up short. He sighed, turned back to her, and leaned wearily against the door.

“What?”

“Thank you for trusting me,” she said, not entirely certain what it was she was feeling, or what words best fit, so she settled on gratitude.

“Look, don’t, uh, don’t read too much into it, okay?” he said. His posture and tone shifted and both were clearly uncomfortable. “That thing down in the subbasement? That was total self-preservation after what you did to Ashida.”

Laura sniffed, and much to her surprise found that he was lying.

“Okay,” she said.

Julian hesitated and their eyes met for a moment, then he turned and hurried from the room, shutting the door behind him. Laura watched him go, baffled by the incongruity of his words and behavior.

###

“Has there been any further news on what happened Upstate?” Hank asked while he lounged in one of Charles’ office chairs. The Professor worked at his terminal on the other side of the desk. The past two days had been unusually quiet, and he had learned a long time ago not to accept such silence at face value.

“So far, no,” Charles said. “The authorities seem content to wave the entire matter off as a natural sinkhole.”

Hank nodded, folded his hands, and leaned his furry chin on them. His biggest concern after the whole misadventure was drawing attention to themselves, but this was certainly a stroke of good fortune.

“I do regret I didn’t have time to question the Entity further,” he admitted with a sigh. “Imagine, Charles, incontrovertible proof of the existence of other intelligent life in our universe.”

Charles smiled. “Indeed, that would make for one of the great scientific discoveries of our lifetime. Especially given the difficulties finding it on our own planet.” Hank chuckled along with him at the old cynics’ joke. “But I suppose it’s for the best. We as a species already struggle with those who are different among our own kind, I truly doubt society is ready to learn we aren’t alone in the universe.”

“I find it doubtful the men running those experiments even knew what they captured was part of a life form,” he said, and frowned. “I must admit to some concern that we don’t know more about what that facility actually was. I can’t imagine why an observatory would be conducting that sort of advanced technological research.”

Charles nodded. “I agree. All in all, though, I’d say that was not bad for a first mission.”

Hank managed a small laugh. “Yes, I seem to recall ours was a good bit more of a near-disaster. Still, whether you’re preventing a missile crisis or stopping the potential end of all life in the universe, I suppose saving a few lives could be considered a good day.”

“It is indeed.” Charles paused, and his expression turned distant. “Well, I’ll let you get back to work. I do believe from Mr. Keller, who is about to knock on my door, that you have a patient to check in on.”

###

Julian found Laura later that evening sitting on the ridge of the gabled roof over the east wing. He tried not to think about the ground below, and that should he slip and fall he likely would not be able to gather his power quickly enough to stop himself from leaving a messy divot in the lawn. Still, he took a deep breath and unsteadily made his way out to where she perched while watching the skies to the east.

“Hey,” he said when he reached her, taking extra care when he sat next to her so as not to slide off and into the empty space beyond. Laura never took her eyes off the sky overhead, but he knew she was aware of his presence the moment he stepped out there with her.

“Hello,” she said. Her voice was quiet, and there was a strange look of wonder on her face while she gazed upwards into a clear night sky.

“Cess and Soo were wondering why you weren’t at dinner tonight. What are you doing out here?”

“Looking at the stars.” The way she said that, as if what she was doing were such a blindingly obvious and natural thing, made him feel a bit silly for asking.

Julian squinted and followed her gaze. The skyglow of New York City behind them to the southwest made picking out all but the brightest of the stars in the sky difficult for his eyes — Orion was only dimly visible low above the horizon, and even then not all of its stars could be seen — but he suspected Laura’s keener vision could more readily peer through the pollution of millions of city lights.

“Oh,” he said.

“I was taught to navigate and triangulate my geographic location with the stars at need,” she continued. “Aside from this function, for so long all I thought was that they were inconsequential balls of gas. Most are no longer even in the same place that we see them because of the delay in their light reaching earth, and due to interference from gravitational lensing. Many have also exploded or collapsed hundreds, if not thousands, of millennia ago, and we have yet to see this from our vantage point.”

She hesitated for a moment, as if trying to put her thoughts in order. Julian might have given her a smart remark over the Sheldon Cooper analysis, but something about her expression now made him hesitate.

“Until tonight I have never truly looked at them before.” Laura’s face twisted while she sought for the word to describe what she was seeing. “They are... beautiful.”

Julian nearly laughed aloud at hearing her say such a thing, so far was it from her typical mood or choice of vocabulary, but when he looked at her and saw the childlike amazement on her face, as if she truly were seeing them for the first time, he couldn’t bring himself to actually do it.

“It is strange, to have known something for so long but to suddenly see it again anew,” she continued, hesitating again for a moment while she considered her words. “Have you ever felt this way?”

Her question caught him by surprise, and for a moment Julian didn’t have an answer. Laura just kept staring enthralled at the sky above, and Julian just watched her, her green eyes glittering under the moonlight, and her pale face framed by the black shadow of her hair.

Julian cleared his throat and quickly changed the subject to divert his line of thought from where it was headed. “What was it like,” he asked instead, “to have that presence in your head?”

Laura considered a moment, either not taking note of his failure to answer her own question, or perhaps she meant it rhetorically from the start. “I felt ...” she hesitated again and struggled to find the right way to express herself. A strange expression crossed her features, and she heaved a small sigh. “I felt at peace.”

He regarded her with a frown, the statement recalling to mind her words on the playground a couple weeks before, and the nightmares that led her at times into his room. “At peace?” he asked.

She just nodded slightly. “Yes.”

Laura did not elaborate further, so Julian said nothing more, and instead just sat with her and gazed up at the stars.

---

A Note From The Author

When originally written, this episode was one of several that I had really been looking forward to getting to. However, it was also one of the diciest to handle because it tip-toed around the incredibly thorny rights issues that existed between Marvel and Fox at the time. Those familiar with the books will probably recognize that, yes, the Entity is indeed the Enigma Force. I always thought it was an interesting plot development to see Laura's connection with it in the books, and really wanted to work that into the series. The best solution I could come up with was to make allusions but never exactly say what the Entity is.

It's another one of those episodes where there's so much going on it ended up a bit longer than usual so I could fit it all in. The final battle was the most difficult part to decide how to approach, so I eventually settled on not showing what was happening at all, as I felt that would even further ratchet up the tension at the end. That, and the actual Whirldemons in the original story were honestly kind of disappointing.

Obviously, this episode focused primarily on Laura, with us seeing more new pieces to the puzzle of who and what she is. However, it's also about Julian as well, and his continued development that began in the season premier. The ending of this episode is the first part I wrote. I just liked the idea of that moment between Laura and Julian sitting together on the roof and wanted to build to that. And besides, it's so much fun toying with the shippers.

The alien species the Entity mentions when explaining itself to Laura were those I presumed were included in Fox’s movie rights, either through the X-Men or Fantastic Four. But a lot of that was conjecture because it was unclear exactly what properties slotted in where.

Anyway, not too much more to really say about this one, so until next time!

Chapter 5: 2x05 - Command Decision

Summary:

As the new X-Men continue their training, it soon becomes apparent that they need to choose a leader if they hope to come together as a team. Meanwhile, Stryker and his Purifiers regroup following the disastrous assault on the Xavier School.

2x05

Command Decision

###

Act I

###

Westchester, New York, three months earlier...

“That’s quite enough!” Stryker barked, and the slip of a girl he just watched tear trained and hardened soldiers to shreds ripped her claws from the belly of one of his Purifiers, and spun around to face him. In one hand he held his pistol, her pale face framed in its iron sights. In the other he gripped the belt full of charges primed to blow the entire school apart.

The girl’s gymnast’s figure quivered like a coiled spring straining to be released, and Stryker smiled at her in sudden recognition.

“Well, now, isn’t this a surprise? Tell me, my dear: How is the old man? And Laura Kinney, was it?” he said, emphasizing the surname the Guthrie boy gave him before he died. “Ah thought Ah remembered that name from somewhere.” Stryker chuckled mirthlessly, and fixed her with a significant look. “Ah know what you are. Ah wonder if the rest of your friends do. And in fact, Ah know someone who would very, very much like to know what’s become of you.”

There was an infinitesimal change to her complexion, just enough to tell him she hadn’t missed his meaning, but she did not make a move and only eyed the string of explosives in his hand. “Reverend Stryker,” she said instead, “You are ordered to stand down. Drop your weapon now and surrender.”

He chuckled softly, and raised his explosives for emphasis. “Ah think not. You know what this is, yes?”

The girl gave him a short nod and swept her eyes across the room before she lowered her hands and retracted her claws.

“Very good. Very smart. This is on a five-second timer on a dead-man’s switch. And you know it’s enough of a charge to level this building.” Stryker smiled smugly. “Now Ah was hoping to bring my benefactor a prize or two from this exercise, but you, my dear, are more than Ah had dreamed of! We’re going to take a little ride together, and maybe Ah won’t leave this behind.”

The girl sniffed the air, likely ascertaining whether or not he was bluffing. He wasn’t, of course; better to die in the blazing glory of a righteous fire burning down this den of evil. She quickly looked around the room and took in the faces of those watching the standoff.

“Quentin, shut him down,” she said.

“I can’t,” one of the abominations said. “I can’t see him at all.”

Stryker’s smile only broadened, and she glanced over her shoulder at another boy, a tall and striking fellow whom he recalled from his files went by the name Julian Keller. Telekinetic. They trained you well.

"Julian—"

Stryker interrupted her before she could even think of telling him to seize the explosives with his power. “Clever girl. But we can’t have that, can we?”

He quickly readjusted his aim and fired twice, the Keller boy went down hard, and chaos erupted in the hallway.

It was, in the end, a foolish tactical decision.

One of the girls let out a scream of anguish and rushed to Keller’s side, and the dark figure in front of him snatched a pistol from behind her back and opened fire. Stryker shot back, and cursed inwardly he didn’t have the foresight of swapping mags for his carbonadium rounds when a shot ripped through her chest, only for her healing factor to immediately expel the bullet again. She emptied her magazine and walked her shots into him, and a round passed through his left arm and shoulder. He cried out in pain when his hand went numb, and the string of charges fell from his grip.

Stryker took advantage of the bedlam to turn and run, and forced a path out of the school while everyone was distracted by the explosives ticking down in the hallway. He silently murmured a final prayer for absolution, keenly aware that there was no time for him to escape before the explosives went up and took the entire nest of vipers — and him with it — to oblivion. Yet five seconds passed, and he was clear of the building. He stumbled out into the cold of the New York winter, and though he heard and felt the whump of the blast behind him, he was astonished to find himself still of this earth, and the Xavier School standing as strong and resolute as ever.

He wasn’t left with much time to process what happened, however. No sooner was he bursting out into the grounds than he met a small knot of his men holding a line of retreat through the back door of the mansion.

“Medic!” someone cried, “The Reverend’s been hit! Get him evac’ed, now!”

And then he was safe in the waiting arms of his faithful, leading him as fast as his bad leg allowed towards the van housing the command post idling in the grass behind the mansion. Stryker was half-lifted, half dragged inside, and he collapsed on the floor gasping for breath and grimacing in pain while Jack loomed over him. The van lurched beneath him when the driver stepped on the gas, tearing up the lawn in a bid to accelerate away while the denizens of the school were still occupied.

“Hang on, Bill,” Jack said. His voice slipped into the carefully practiced calm and measured tones that saw many a wounded soldier through just these sorts of surgeries.

“How many did we lose?” Stryker asked, and hissed in an agonized breath when Jack tore open his sleeve to have a look at his wound. Blood ran down his arm and dripped on the floor of the van bouncing and jostling its passengers, and did no favors to his old and battered body. “Where is Matthew?”

“I don’t know, we loaded up as many as we could in the vehicles parked around back, but some fled on foot. It was a rout.”

“God in Heaven, Ah can’t imagine what has gone wrong,” he said, and felt his heart sink. Or perhaps it was the loss of blood making him dizzy; the roof of the van wheeled overhead, and it was becoming hard to concentrate. “It was all so perfect!”

“Easy, Bill,” Jack said, and went to work tying a tourniquet around his bicep to stem the bleeding.

Stryker let his head roll to the side, and he saw a woman lying still on the floor of the van not far from him. Wisps of golden hair peaked out from the bloody bandages tied to her face, and he tried to sit up in horror.

“Dear God, Mary!” he said, and in his current state he couldn’t have fought off one of the pairs of hands pushing him back down, much less the three that restrained him now. “Is she all right?”

“She’s alive,” Jack said. “Severe lacerations to her face. The rest of the CP crew was killed, and she was down before she could get a look at their attacker. We still don’t know what happened, but all the patrols were taken out, as well.”

“It’s all my fault. Ah have failed you all.”

Darkness encroached on the edges of his vision, and he was aware of the sensation of slowly falling into warm and inviting shadow. He watched the parade of dead faces marching past him, destined for the glory of Heaven, and all he could do in his last moments of consciousness was weep that their sacrifice had been in vain.

“Ah have failed you, Lord.”

###

Abandoned Weapon Plus bunker, the Canadian wilderness, present day...

It was a far cry from his church and New York City office, but for the time being it was sanctuary.

Stryker stood in the doorway of the bunker leading back into the hillside, and swept his eyes across the approach up the snow-swept slope spanning the distance between their shelter and the dense pine forests surrounding it. There was little of the installation left, picked clean over the years by scavengers and trespassers after his project was closed down in the years following the loss of his project’s prized creation. Alkali Lake was the heart of Weapon Plus, but now it lay under hundreds of feet of water that might take years more to drain. This installation was just one of many satellite facilities conducting research in support of the main developments there.

It would suit his purposes just fine.

He sighed and shifted his weight off his bad leg. One hand gripped his cane, and the other hung in a sling and was tucked beneath his jacket. Jack had done his best, but the muscles were stiff and shriveled, and he doubted he would ever have full use of it again. His breath misted in the air in front of him, but he ignored the bite of winter with practiced ease. He was an old soldier, and had lived through far worse conditions with no promise of a warm cot or hot food. No, what he felt now was not from discomfort or lack of supply. It was loss and defeat. God had not answered when he called out to Him in the aftermath of the assault, everything so carefully planned undone in horrifying and savage alacrity by the one thing he could never have imagined, yet ought to have been prepared for.

Somehow, without having been there himself, the Wolverine had thwarted him once again.

Stryker turned and hobbled back inside, leaving the mournful howl of the winter wind and the swirling snow piled in high drifts around the entrance to the bunker behind him. He made his way along the tunnel leading deep underground, passing the handful of men on watch or milling about in the barracks on his way to the command post. Once, thirty-odd years ago, the installation was filled with the hum of equipment, and the animated chatter of the scientists and soldiers making it their home. Now it was still and silent, stripped bare of all but the most basic of necessities. Even the slightest noise echoed deafeningly in the confines of the concrete and steel corridors.

His destination was a spacious and heavily reinforced chamber off the main hallway, which continued deeper and deeper into the mountainside to the empty armories and laboratories. Most of what remained of his senior staff were already present, all looking a bit worse for wear after three months of running and hiding while the National Guard pursued them across the breadth of New York.

Jack looked the best of all of them; a little careworn and exhausted, and his neat mustache was slowly being filled in to a full beard by several weeks' worth of stubble, Otherwise, he escaped the battle unscathed.

Stryker winced in sympathy when he saw Matthew and Mary.

The left side of Matthew’s face was now a mass of scar tissue; He stood in the path of the students staging their breakout from the classroom his Purifiers had trapped them in, and caught a face full of flame conjured by the girl his records identified as Illyana Rasputin.

How fitting that such abominations would consort with actual demons and practice black magic.

Mary’s beautiful face was slashed open by the claws of the Kinney girl; her nose was gone, as was her left eye, and one corner of her mouth was permanently curled into a sneer. Jack had done all he could for her, but with their present circumstances she would remain marked by the two ragged, parallel scars across her features. It was a distressing defacement of such a masterpiece of female beauty.

Stryker’s heart ached to see them in such a state, but for whatever reason God had deemed their attack was to fail, and that they should be so disfigured.

Adversity makes us stronger. God desired for us to lose for some purpose He has yet to reveal. No matter how difficult it is to bear this failure when victory seemed so certain, it is not for us to lose faith.

“Reverend,” Matthew said in greeting, and he, Mary, and Jack all inclined their heads.

"Good morning," he said, and sighed. "Well, Ah suppose there is no use stepping around it, so we might as well begin with the morning's round of bad news. Matthew?"

Matthew folded his arms across his chest and glowered at the table dominating the center of the command post. "I have little to report this morning, though another cell went dark overnight and hasn't checked in as scheduled."

Stryker twisted his lip into a scowl of frustration. "Was it the authorities?" he asked, though he suspected he knew the answer before Matthew said it.

"We're not sure yet, but I don't think so. It's not showing up in any of the local papers or online media. If I were to guess, I think it's the same group that tracked and destroyed one of the Sentinels before we could get it across the border."

Stryker leaned over the table and mopped his face. "Damn. Matthew, Ah'm beginning to tire of our shadowy pursuers. We need every man if we're to reverse our fortunes, and having this Church taken apart piece by piece is going to make reorganizing and rebuilding rather problematic, wouldn't you agree?"

"Yes, sir," Matthew said. "The problem is we still don't have a means of coordinating the cells that have managed to withdraw from the States, much less the ones that were left behind."

"I think I can help there," Mary said, and raised her hand. Her disfigurement made her slur the words together, and Stryker had to concentrate to understand her. Poor child, if only we weren't being hunted like animals, we might be able to get her the proper surgery to repair the damage.

"Go on," Stryker prompted.

Mary folded her arms beneath her breast and shifted her weight. "We should have communications back online in the bunker pretty soon. We've got a working hotspot, but the connection has been spotty. I have a crew trying to get it stable."

Matthew nodded. "Any connection is better than none at all. At the very least we won't have to risk sending people into town to act as relays."

"How long before you can get a phone line up and running in the CP?" Stryker asked.

Mary considered that for a moment. "Most of the technicians we have on maintenance are still trying to get the bunker's own generators up and running so we don't have to worry about the portable units giving out, and the barracks are still relying on space heaters until we can solve the power issues."

Stryker glanced at Matthew. "Getting the phones online is a priority; we need to be able to communicate with our people outside of this installation, and Ah'm sure our benefactor is wondering what has become of us."

"I'll divert the crews working on the water pumps," Matthew said with a nod. "We have enough bottled water to get by for now, and if that runs low we can always just melt snow from outside. Some of the men have been dying for a shower." He quirked the healthy corner of his mouth into a grin. "And I'm sure we could all use one, but they've made it this long with sponges so they can probably keep a little longer."

Stryker nodded. "Very good, see to it." He leaned on the table and took them all in. "Let me be clear: We may have been driven out of Eden, but this is not a defeat. We will return to bring God's wrath down on these abominations, and their supporters who have infiltrated the government and branded us as terrorists and fanatics. That alone is a treason Ah can't abide.

"This war, my children, has only begun. And when next we clash it is Xavier who will bleed."

###

Act II

###

"Hellion, now!" David shouted.

They were gathered together in the training room. The metal barriers and obstacles from their sessions in the Maze had been removed, leaving them with a wide and open floor to work with. The lights were up at normal intensities to reveal the dark grey color of the impact flooring. The monotonous uniformity of the brightly polished metal walls was broken up only by the one-way glass of the observation gallery (they saw only a mirror from their side) and the doors leading out again.

Fortunately, they currently had something else on which to focus their attention. A big something that was currently kicking all their asses.

Santo grunted and strained with his arms locked against Colossus, his body encased in organic steel. When Cyclops gave them their assignment for today — taking on Colossus — Santo was insistent on the opportunity to wrestle with the towering mountain of muscle; something he had been dying to do almost from the day he arrived at school. So David decided to make use of that when he formulated a plan of attack. To the astonishment of all of them, despite Santo’s impressive strength and mass Colossus actually seemed to be winning the match.

"Hellion!"

"What?" Julian asked, content to stand back and watch.

"Stay with the plan!"

"Dude, I got this!" Santo growled back.

"You're strong, Rockslide," Colossus said, "but a team is only as strong as its weakest member!" And with that, the crack of splintering stone split the air and Colossus twisted Santo's arm around and drove him towards the floor. He strained and pulled, and David could only stand dumbstruck when Colossus ripped his arm clean off. "And yours was too slow!"

"God damn it, Keller!" Nori said, and she rushed at Colossus from behind in a blur of electric blue. Cessily pressed him from the other side, and whipped her metal arms around his legs seeking to take him off balance. He ducked around them both with practiced ease. Nori slammed full-force into Cessily, and they both tumbled wildly across the floor in a tangle of limbs.

"Uncoordinated!" he growled. "You should have—"

A sharp snikt echoed through the room, and Laura made her move. She vaulted onto Colossus's back while he was distracted, and whipped one arm around his neck from behind while the other brought her claws to bear against his neck.

“Anole, get in there and help her!” David shouted.

“Aw, crap,” he grumbled, and sprung in to do what he could while Nori and Cessily untangled themselves. David spared a glare at Julian, who stood off to the side smirking and watching everything fall apart.

It should have been simple enough; there were nine of them against Colossus, and while David might not be able to mimic their powers, he certainly could absorb their knowledge on how they knew best to apply them. He played the fight out over and over in his mind: Santo engaged Colossus at close range to hold him down, while Julian used his TK to throw another tether around him. Then Josh moved in and used his power over organics to force Colossus out of his armored state, at which point he was vulnerable to Laura’s claws.

And because Julian decided to be contrary it was all going to hell.

Colossus spun to intercept Victor and effortlessly swatted him aside. He yelped and tumbled across the floor. David quickly waved Josh down. “Elixir! Check on him! God damn it, Julian, get in there!”

“I don’t know, I think you’re doing a great job as it is,” he replied, and the smug grin never left his features.

“There are nine of you!” Colossus said, his metal features twisting slightly in annoyance while Laura clung for dear life to his back. He spun and flailed his arms for a hold on her, and finally by chance managed to catch a handful of her hair. Laura snarled in a mix of pain and anger when he ripped her from his back and flung her aside. She managed to control her fall, however, and deftly rolled back to her feet and dropped into a defensive crouch.

“But you’re acting like nine, you need to work as one,” he said, and took up a fighting stance of his own.

A crack like thunder split the air, and a blue-white arc of electricity flashed across the room accompanied by the distinct whiff of ozone. Colossus grunted in pain at the arcs of energy racing across his body.

“Oh come on!” Nori bit out from the effort of maintaining the barrage. “I’ve got enough of a charge to power Tokyo! Shouldn’t you be screaming in pain?”

Colossus stormed forward with his face shielded from the worst of the onslaught by his massive arms. Rooted as she was to focus her attention on her powers, Nori wasn’t able to move clear before he reached her and seized hold of her arms.

“Hey! What are you—” she began.

“You have a lot of power, Surge, but you don’t have control of it.”

Colossus forced her arms away from him, and Nori’s knees buckled beneath her. “Well yeah, that’s why I’ve got the gauntlets!” she said.

“That’s not what I mean!” And with that, he redirected one of her hands right at Cessily, who had also regained her feet and was moving back in while Colossus dealt with Nori. She cried out when the energy enveloping him arced to her instead, and her body almost instantly collapsed into a writhing and shapeless silver blob.

“Josh—” David began, but was cut off by Nori’s body slamming into him and knocking them both to the floor when Colossus tossed her aside.

“Dude, this is so not cool!” Santo said, and David managed to lift himself up enough to watch him level a wild and off-balance swing that Colossus effortlessly caught in one metal hand. One arm-bar later Santo’s other arm had been wrenched off. “Medic!”

Colossus spun around again just as Laura was making another move in behind him. Her claws flashed, and she struck a blow at the back of his knee. The ring of metal clashing against metal echoed in the training room, and Colossus stumbled when Laura’s claws found some weak point in the armored muscle and sinew, but not enough to collapse his leg. She dodged a counter-blow and attacked his other leg, darting in and out with surgical precision to deliver quick blows and retreat again before the giant mutant could respond. David absorbed flashes of her strategic processes; she was without question a more skilled fighter, and against any ordinary opponent her strikes would have been crippling. Her size also worked against her, and she knew she couldn’t take him down in a sustained grappling contest, so her best option was to wear him down with her speed and find a weak point her claws could penetrate.

David ran the calculations in his head, however, and even if adamantium could cut through any known material, there was still the matter of leverage, force, and whether her bones and connective tissue could with stand the strain.

It was a moot point, anyway. By pure chance Colossus wheeled around to evade a further move around to his rear, and managed to catch her across the jaw with one hand. The impact lifted her roughly her own height off the ground and threw her a good dozen or so feet back. This time when she struck the ground it was with a solid thwack, and rather than a graceful roll back to her feet she lay still and unmoving.

“Laura!” Julian called out when she struck the ground, and David caught the tell-tale green glow of his power flashing angrily in his eyes. “All right, Tin Man, time to go down. Dust! Blind him!”

“Right!” she said, and Sooraya, who held back for much of the exercise, discorporated into a swirling cloud of sand and enveloped Colossus. He staggered and shielded his eyes from the onslaught, but Sooraya was all around him and, if David understood her powers, in him, invading his lungs with every breath. It was a particularly vicious attack, and it took little imagination to wonder why Sooraya objected to such a drill.

Before Colossus could take action against her, Julian stepped forward and a blast of coherent telekinetic energy lanced across the room and struck the towering mutant in the chest. He grunted and stumbled back, and ducked his head away while Sooraya howled around him like a hot desert wind. They didn’t give him a chance to recover, and Julian blasted him again and again, driving him out of the center of the chamber and towards one of the walls.

“Go down!” Julian shouted over the roar of Sooraya’s sandstorm, but though between them they managed to force Colossus back, and his uniform was slowly shredded like he was struck by a sandblaster, he still refused to fall. The big mutant braced himself against the onslaught, and a powerful blow rattled the training chamber when he drove his fist through the floor. He jerked and twisted his hand, and ripped out the end of one of the water pipes servicing the subbasement. Frigid water blasted across the chamber, and he took aim at the swirling cloud of sand harassing him. Sooraya yelped when the powerful stream scattered the particulate making up her being, and she was forced to reconstitute herself before she was washed away. She struck the floor hard on her backside and didn’t get up, her abaya soaked through and dripping on the floor.

“Aw hell,” Julian muttered. No longer distracted by Sooraya, Colossus discarded the water pipe — the flow of water slowed to a trickle and stopped when the mansion computers detected the leak and redirected the flow of water to auxiliary pipes — and turned his attention on him. Julian threw up a barrier of energy between them, but Colossus let out a roar and brought both hands down on his shield with all his strength. The force of the blow was so powerful Julian’s shield collapsed with a blinding flash. It forced David to duck away and shield his eyes, and when he could see again Julian lay at Colossus’s feet and scrambled desperately away from him on his hands and knees.

“All right, that’s enough,” a voice said over the intercom, and Colossus stood down. To David’s consternation he wasn’t so much as panting. The big mutant deactivated his armor, and with a distinct metallic clacking organic steel became flesh once more. Though his uniform was in tatters, baring much of the absurd musculature of his chest and shoulders, Colossus didn’t have a scratch.

David and Nori stood together, each helping the other back to their feet. Sooraya wrung her abaya out as best she could and joined them, Victor and Josh busied themselves helping Santo reassemble his arms, and Cessily slowly regained control of her body and shifted back into her humanoid form, though her hair was sticking out in all directions from static, and she was still having problems keeping solid. He sighed in frustration and mopped his face before glaring hellfire at Julian. He knelt over Laura while she reoriented herself from the blow she received, and offered her a hand up.

“You okay?” he asked, and David regarded his concern with no small amount of surprise.

“Ow,” she murmured, and though she at first flinched back from Julian’s touch, she let him pull her back to her feet. She swayed a little unsteadily, and David caught a distinct crack when what was probably a dislocated jaw popped itself back into place. An ugly purple bruise marred the side of her face as well, but soon faded away after her healing factor finished taking care of her injuries.

David rubbed the back of his neck and grimaced at the full-body throbbing from the blow he received when Colossus flung his girlfriend into him. Some people have all the luck.

One of the doors leading out to the briefing area opened, and Cyclops stormed in. Though it was often difficult to make out what Mr. Summers was thinking behind his ruby-quartz glasses, the scowl on his features pretty much told the whole story, and the nine of them shuffled uneasily while they awaited the dressing down.

“All right, so can anyone tell me what happened?” he asked, and folded his arms across his chest and glowered at them. Colossus stepped up beside them and planted his hands on his hips, making himself look even bigger than he normally did.

“We would have been fine if Julian had just followed the plan!” David blurted out, his frustration over being ignored getting the better of him.

Julian rolled his eye. “Oh, please!”

“I had it all worked out!”

“It was a stupid plan.”

David glared and bunched his fists. “I didn’t hear you coming up with any ideas.”

Julian didn’t back down, and his own body tensed for a fight. David reflexively drew on his power and in a moment had all of his moves, most of which relied on whaling blindly at his opponent until they went down. “When would anyone have been able to do that?” he asked. “Especially after you said, ‘All right this is what we do,’ the second we walked into the room. Who asked you?”

Nori stepped up beside him. She stared Julian down, and the lights began to flicker. “David’s the smartest one in this room, Keller, you don’t think it’d be a good idea to listen to him?”

“Big flipping deal! Just because he’s so damned smart doesn’t make him right!”

“If you’d just done what he said—” she took a step towards him with her fists clenched at her sides, and jumped back with a startled gasp when Laura put herself between them and extended her claws. Julian visibly cringed in embarrassment at the protective posture Laura assumed while she warned Nori off with a low growl.

“That’s enough!” Cyclops snapped, and they all nearly leapt out of their boots at the fire in his tone. “You kids are a team, and the entire purpose of this exercise is to teach you to act like it. If you can’t do that in this room, what chance do you think you’d stand if Stryker parked a Sentinel on the school?”

“I didn’t have a problem!” David said in protest. “It’s Keller and his ego; if he doesn’t get to give the orders he just doesn’t care!”

“Now listen here, Brain Boy—”

“I said that’s enough!” Cyclops said again. “All of you hit the showers, we’ll be calling class early so you can cool down. I’d like you all to think really hard about how you failed today, and keep in mind that I and the rest of the staff will be discussing this matter as well. David, Julian, I don’t want you two to say another word to each other, or we’ll be adding that to the discussion, do you understand me?”

David’s face heated, and Julian averted his eyes to the floor. “Yes, sir,” they both said together.

“Good,” Cyclops said, fixing them both with a glare. “Class dismissed.”

###

Scott watched them file out of the training room. Fortunately, David and Julian chose to exit out different doors, so for the moment their argument showed no sign of continuing. He sighed and mopped his face.

“Julian really has a chip on his shoulder,” Peter said. He folded his massive arms across his broad chest while watching the kids leave the room.

“I know,” Scott said with a nod. “The shame is he’d have a great deal of potential without the arrogance.”

Peter nodded. “He and Sooraya didn’t do too badly together, and for a minute I thought they might have actually gotten me down.”

Scott glanced sidelong at him, and took note at the ragged state of his uniform. “You know any other of us but Logan would have probably been torn to shreds by Sooraya.”

He looked down at his chest and smirked. “My armor needed a good cleaning, anyway.”

“Just keep in mind that you’ll be helping Hank repair the plumbing,” Scott said with an amused smile.

###

Julian stepped out of the men's locker room and into the subbasement hallway. Santo and Victor trailed out behind him, and he leaned against the wall with his hands thrust deep into his jeans pockets. The polished metal that dominated everything down here was cold against his back, but then again almost everything in the subbasement was a couple degrees cooler than the living areas upstairs.

"I still don't think my arms are on right," Santo whined, and looked his hands over.

Julian rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Jesus Christ, Santo, you've been complaining about it since class ended. I'm tired of hearing about it."

"You got off easy," Victor said, and nursed his side. "You guys do realize that Colossus was holding back, right? He'd have probably killed me with a hit like that if he was really trying." He folded his arms across his chest and glared at him. "Seriously, Julian, what the hell was up with you in there?"

"What?" he asked, and shrugged defensively.

"Cyclops was right; we're supposed to be a team. David had a plan and it wouldn't have killed you to give it a shot."

Julian glared. "Look, first of all, who put Alleyne in charge? And it was a stupid plan!"

"Oh come on, Julian, you're just butt-hurt because someone else tried to take control and didn't give you a chance to be the hero. And Nori's right: He's a lot smarter than the rest of us."

"And that automatically makes him the leader? It doesn't make him anything."

"Well, I thought I was pretty bad ass," Santo said. He planted his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest.

"Oh yeah," Julian said, with another roll of his eyes. "Right up to the part where he tore your arms off."

"Hey, how many of the other guys can say they went a round with Colossus? That's like, Miesha Tate getting past the first round against Rhonda Rousey."

Julian groaned and buried his face in one hand.

The door to the girl's locker room further down the hall opened, and Cessily, Sooraya, and Ashida filed out. Ashida took one look at him and glared, but didn't make a move towards him. Instead, she stood against the wall and waited for Alleyne. He emerged from the men's room behind them and brushed past the three of them without a word. Julian glared at his back, but Cyclops's warning echoed in his head, so he didn't say a word.

"Hey, Cess," he said when the girls joined them. "Your hair is still frizzing out."

Cessily self-consciously flattened the hairs that were still sticking up after Ashida zapped her. "At least I'm not going all gooey anymore. I can't tell you how much that hurt."

"You okay?" Victor asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. How about you?"

"Bruised, but I’m healing. Julian's ego needs intensive care, though."

"Hey!" he snapped, and glared.

Cessily sighed and shook her head. "He's not wrong, you know. It wouldn't have killed you to give David's plan a shot."

He rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, Cess, you too?"

"Especially since not doing it pretty much did," Victor said.

Julian pinched the bridge of his nose. "I get it! I get it! 'Julian and his ego got everyone killed.' God forbid anyone call out Alleyne for thinking just being smart automatically makes him Sun Tzu or something."

Cessily groaned in exasperation. "Oh forget it, you're impossible. Let's just go get something to eat, all right? I may not get hungry but I'm seriously in need of something sweet and/or fattening after getting my butt kicked like that."

"Well, I am hungry, so I'm with Cess," Victor said. "Salem?"

"I could go for a slice," Julian said, the talk of food making his stomach rumble.

"Soo?" Cessily asked, with a look at Sooraya.

She shrugged. "I have no plans for the evening."

"Cool," Cessily said, and started off down the hall for the elevator leading back to the living areas above. "I think the next shuttle leaves in twenty minutes. Maybe I can even get my hair to lay flat before we go."

Julian was just stepping away from the wall to follow when he caught a flicker of motion out of the corner of his eye back the way Cessily and Sooraya had come. Laura stepped out of the girl's locker room with her hands stuffed in her jacket pockets, before turning the other way.

"Hey, hold up a sec," he said to the rest of the group, and started back down the hall. "Laura!"

She stopped and turned at the sound of her name, but didn't respond.

Julian closed half the distance between them and jerked his thumb towards the others. "We're heading into town to grab dinner, you coming?"

Laura shifted her eyes between him and the others for a moment, and she screwed up her features into what Julian could only describe as confusion at the invitation. She blinked at him and hesitated a moment, before ducking her head shyly and nodding. "Okay," she said.

"Cool, come on, we're heading up for the shuttle," he said, and Laura fell into step with him when he started back up the hall to rejoin the others. Victor stared at him with his eyes wide in surprise, and Sooraya smiled into her niqab at Laura, the only sign of her expression the slight wrinkling of the corner of her eyes. Santo snickered but said nothing after a warning glare, and Cessily just quirked one corner of her mouth into an amused smile.

Julian frowned at her. "What?"

"Nothing," she said, and looked away from him while they made their way up the hall together, with the smile still etched on her silver features.

###

“You mean you’ve never played?” Julian asked, his eyes wide with surprise in a way that made Laura try to shrink into her jacket out of embarrassment.

The two of them stood at one of the arcade’s pool tables. Cessily, Sooraya, Santo, and Victor sat around a table nearby working their way through several slices of pizza. The arcade’s pie wasn’t as good as North Salem Pizza and Pasta, but it was at least more convenient. Kids from Salem crowded the floor, and the establishment was alive with the overlapping din of voices, music, and arcade machines, and filled with the aroma of pizza, burgers, and other junk food. Laura winced a little at the cacophony, which he guessed was likely hard on her enhanced hearing, but she weathered the assault on her senses without complaint.

“I have not,” she said, and a small hint of color spread across her cheeks to further emphasize her awkward shifting.

“I haven’t in a while, but we need to find a game that Victor doesn’t have a stupidly unfair advantage at,” he said, and shot him a faux-irritated glare.

Laura blinked. “Victor’s enhanced agility and reflexes naturally benefit games of physical skill, but it would not by a strict definition be considered ‘cheating.’”

He grunted a laugh. “Yeah, well, see how you like it when he creams you at the dart boards every single game.”

“That would be unlikely. I have superb reflexes, and extensive training in ranged accuracy.”

Julian studied her a moment at a loss for words, and unsure whether that was serious or if she was actually making a joke. “That would actually be worth seeing. You hear that, Vic? When the dart boards are free it’s you versus. Laura.”

“Bringing in a ringer because you can’t take me yourself?” Victor asked around a mouthful of pizza.

“I’ll be happy just to see you lose for a change.” He returned his attention to Laura, who watched the exchange with some bemusement. "Anyway, you at least know how to play, right?"

Laura shrugged and tried to shrink even further into her jacket, her features twisted once again with embarrassment. "My knowledge of billiards is limited. I am aware there are multiple variations and have read the basic rules, but am otherwise unclear on the minutiae of the game."

He blinked. "All right, so you speak God knows how many languages, are a black belt, and even give Alleyne and Foley a run for their money in school. Didn't you ever get to have fun as a kid?"

"I was only ever permitted diversions of intellectual value."

Julian frowned, not least at the hint of pain in her features when she spoke. "What, like, educational games?"

"I play chess," she said. "I have never been beaten."

"I think that's a bit over Julian's head," Cessily quipped from the table, and he spit her with an indignant glare. "Though maybe you could try checkers."

"Ha ha," he said, and Cessily flashed him her most funny-at-his-expense sisterly sort of grin. "Well, we're not going to be playing chess."

"Okay," Laurae said, and scrunched up her features in that awkward manner she did whenever she wasn't entirely certain of what she was feeling. Now that he started actually paying attention to her mannerisms, he actually found it kind of adorable, as at odds as it was with her usual stoicism. "I would like to learn this game."

Julian smiled and grabbed a pair of cues off a rack near the table, and checked them for straightness before handing one to her. "Okay, it's pretty straight-forward, and since you do know the basics we can probably jump right to the rules of the game. Nine-ball?"

She shrugged again, and let him take the lead. Julian was aware of the others watching from the table while he went about racking for the game. None of them said anything, but he caught Cessily's amused smirk from the corner of his eye.

"All right, you've got nine object balls, and the cue ball," he said, and made a show of flipping the dingy white ball in the air and catching it again. If Laura was in any way impressed by the display she didn't show it. "The goal is to sink the nine ball into one of the pockets. The catch is that the cue ball has to strike the lowest-numbered ball still on the table before it can strike any others. Also, either the cue ball or any other ball has to hit the rails or else it's a foul. So is hitting any other ball with the cue ball before the lowest numbered one. If you fail to sink a ball or foul, the other player gets to shoot. After a foul the new shooter can place the ball wherever they want. Got it?"

Laura digested this and nodded. "Very well."

"Since you haven't played before I'll break, if that's okay."

She gave him a small nod, so Julian chalked the tip of his cue and placed the cue ball for his shot.

"Keep an eye on him," Victor said from the table, "I've seen him nudge the balls with TK before."

Julian glared over his shoulder. Santo and Cesily were snickering, and Sooraya needlessly hid a smile behind her hand. Laura regarded him with a raised eyebrow.

"Would that not be cheating?" she asked.

"It was just the one time! And that guy had it coming after he hustled Santo." He looked back at Laura and gave her his most innocent pout. "Really!"

He saw, or thought he saw, a subtle twitch of her lips pulling the corners of her mouth into a smile. Julian smiled back, then leaned over the table and prepared to shoot. He felt Laura's green eyes watching him intently and carefully studying his form, and Julian was just a little self-conscious of the scrutiny. He ignored it as best he could, and made his break. The sharp clack of the cue ball striking the rack joined the general cacophony of the arcade, and the balls scattered in all directions. The break was legal, but Julian frowned when he didn't manage to pocket a ball.

"You're up," he said, and stepped clear so Laura could approach the table. She chewed her lower lip a bit and studied the positioning of the balls; the break didn't leave her with a particularly good shot. The one ball was wedged between the four and the six, and fairly close to one of the side rails.

Laura considered this for a moment, then readied for her shot. To Julian's amusement she mimicked his posture almost perfectly. She struck the cue ball, and he watched open-mouthed when it threaded between the scattered balls, bounced off two rails, and neatly struck the one ball. The one ball then split the four and the six, driving the latter into the side pocket.

Cessily and Sooraya vigorously applauded the shot, and Santo and Victor hid their laughter behind their hands. Julian gawked at Laura, who just focused her attention on making her next shot. "You totally hustled me!"

"Hustling implies deception; I made none," she said. "The game is at its core simple physics and geometry; gyroscopic spin on the cue ball can alter its trajectory, and the pattern of the diamonds on the table indicate a grid system for calculating angles."

"I guess Julian is going to need to find another game," Victor said. “This one needs too much brain power.”

His face heated at the laughter exploding from the table behind them while Laura made another improbably awesome shot.

###

Act III

###

Julian stifled a yawn and unzipped his coat while they made their way along the entrance hall. He and Laura trailed a bit behind the rest of the group, her hands stuffed in her jacket pockets and a thoughtful expression on her features. Victor and Santo argued over who owed who for how much pizza, with Cessily and Sooraya interjecting the occasional correction. The lights were turned down at this late hour, and the lower levels were largely deserted; most of the student body had long ago retired to their rooms for the night, and they only just made it in before the curfew themselves.

He glanced sidelong at Laura. She hardly spoke a word since she totally drubbed him at the pool table, and spent much of the rest of the night lost in thought. It came as no small frustration that here he was trying to do right and make her feel like part of the group, only for her to pull back into herself again. She didn’t even so much as say whether she was actually having a good time or not. Cessily and Sooraya took it all in stride as just one of her peculiar idiosyncrasies, but Julian just found it bewildering.

A flash of green made him hastily look away from her again when she flicked her eyes in his direction. Julian wasn’t sure if she just felt his eyes on her, or if she was looking at him on her own — something he had caught her doing a couple times as well since she tried to run away from the school. Regardless, his face heated at being caught looking. Laura, of course, said nothing, and they all made the turn for the stairs up to the dormitories.

They didn’t make it. Josh poked his head out of the Professor’s door, and flagged them down before Sooraya and Cessily even set foot on the bottom step.

“Hey, where have you guys been?” he said.

“We all went to grab dinner in Salem,” Cessily said. “We’d have asked you along, too, but you took off before we made plans.”

“The Professor and Mr. Summers want to see all of us in his office. We've been waiting for you guys to get back.”

Julian sighed and rolled his eyes. “What, now? It’s past midnight!”

Josh shrugged. “I know, but they want all of us.”

“Perhaps we should see what the Professor wants,” Laura said, the first she had spoken since they boarded the late shuttle back from Salem. Julian mopped his face in irritation.

“Can’t it wait until morning?”

“If it cannot, then it must be important.”

“She’s right,” Victor said. “It’s not like any of us were actually going to be turning in right away, anyway.”

“I thought we were done with classes for the day!” Santo said, and his shoulders slumped.

Cessily shrugged. “Being an X-Man means always on-duty, I guess.”

Julian folded his arms across his chest and pouted. “We’re just trainees and not even full X-Men yet!”

Sooraya rolled her eyes, though most of her expression was lost behind her niqab. “Oh, you can be such a child sometimes. Come on, let us see what the Professor wants.”

“Man ...”

Nonetheless, Julian fell into step behind the rest of them, and they all filed into Xavier's office. Alleyne and Ashida were there on the couch already, both dressed down and bleary-eyed, having apparently just been awakened, and Julian took some satisfaction in the knowledge that the rest of his night wasn’t the only one that was ruined.

The Professor was seated behind his desk — What the hell, does he sleep in that suit? — with Mr. Summers standing behind him, his expression set in his usual commanding stoicness, with stick lodged securely up his butt. Xavier smiled warmly and gestured for them to take whatever seats were available. Santo just leaned against one of the bookshelves since none of the chairs comfortably accommodated his massive frame. Cessily and Sooraya dropped into the chairs next to the fireplace, and Victor found a seat on the opposite side of the room from Santo. Julian and Laura took the other chairs in the conversation circle with Cessily and Sooraya.

“I’m sorry to summon you so late, and I hope you all had a good time in town,” the Professor said. “I promise you we’ll keep this brief, as I want you all to get a good night’s sleep for tomorrow.”

Santo raised one of the stony projections that served him for eyebrows. “What’s tomorrow?”

Cessily sighed and looked Julian’s way. “Do you want to tell him?”

“I’m just going to hear him whine about it all night, anyway,” he said with a shrug, then glared at the big rocky mutant. “Did you even bother paying attention to the training schedule? We’ve got a class in the morning.”

Santo’s jaw dropped, and his glowing blue eyes went wide. “Wait, what? Weekend classes?! I’n’t that like, a crime, or something?”

Ashida yawned and mopped her face in annoyance at his incredulity. “Oh my God, Vaccarro, how did you even survive kindergarten without choking on a glue stick?”

“God I can't believe I'm agreeing with her, but seriously, Santo, stop talking,” Julian said.

“Aw,” he said, folded his arms across his broad, rocky chest, and sulked in the corner.

Mr. Summers shifted in a manner that suggested a roll of his eyes at the exchange, though Julian couldn't tell through the ruby-quartz lenses obscuring his features. The Professor just allowed a small, tight smile to tug at the corners of his mouth. "As I was saying," he said now that the interruption had been dealt with, "we won't keep you long. Scott?"

Mr. Summers nodded stiffly and swept his gaze across them to take them all in. Julian just slumped in his chair and leaned his head on his fist. "The staff and I have had a long discussion after this afternoon's session. Individually you're all performing well within our expectations, but we're still seeing a resistance on the part of many of you to work together. Simply put, there's just too many egos at play."

"Most of that you can put on Julian," David said, and tossed a glare over his shoulder. "His ego makes up half the team's."

Julian twisted his lip into a scowl and glared back. "You want to start something I'll be happy to TK those glasses up your—"

"That's enough!" Mr. Summers said, and Julian flinched at the sharpness of his tone. "This isn't about one person, this is about the entire team. And, Mr. Alleyne, if Julian's ego accounts for half of the team, yours is likely not far behind. Being the smartest man in the room doesn't mean you're the only one with a grasp of a situation."

Julian flashed Alleyne a victorious smirk, and he in turn clenched his jaw at the rebuke.

"The staff and I have therefore decided to appoint a team leader to address the situation. They will report directly to me, and will be responsible for coordinating the team during training and, of course, directing it in the field."

Julian folded his arms across his chest and smirked. "Don't worry, I promise to be firm but fair. Gifts and your adulations are encouraged and accepted."

Santo snickered under his breath, and Victor just buried his face in his hands and shook his head. Cessily rolled her eyes, Sooraya's reaction was lost behind her niqab, though he guessed her sentiments mirrored Cessily's, and Laura didn't seem to react at all. Neither Josh, Ashida, nor Alleyne seemed particularly amused.

"Not so fast, Mr. Keller," Mr. Summers said. "Being a team leader is not about being able to give orders. It requires you to be able to manage multiple, often clashing, personalities. It means you're the hardest worker; the first to start and the last to finish, and the lives of every one of your teammates are on your shoulders. You're the one they'll be looking to for direction and encouragement. Leadership is a responsibility, not a privilege."

"This is all awesomely after-school-special, but I'm the obvious choice."

"Which is why we've decided to appoint Nori as the squad leader."

"What?!" he and Ashida both said at once, both equally stunned. From the looks on the others' faces they were no less surprised.

"Ashida? Are you kidding me?" he said.

"Me? That's crazy!" Ashida cried.

Alleyne offered her a smile and a hug. "Congratulations!"

Julian rolled his eyes. "Guess we know who's going to be Number Two."

"Oh shut up, Julian," he said, and glared.

"This is so unfair!"

Mr. Summers scowled at him. "Who said being an X-Man is a matter of fair? What matters is the team and saving lives, and that means making decisions that benefit everyone, not just one or two bruised egos. The staff and I have concluded that Nori is the best choice to lead the squad. Your objection has been noted, but now you need to make it work."

"Man, this is bullshit."

Xavier gave him a hard look. "If the situation is that intolerable, Mr. Keller, you can always resign. You would not be the first in the history of the school to do so, though I would hope it is not for such petty reasons as pride."

Julian folded his arms across his chest and slumped in his chair. A part of him wanted to tear the place apart, and he had no doubt Xavier felt it the moment the thought came to mind, but he said nothing more and just fumed silently at being made second-fiddle to Ashida of all people. The others didn't say anything in his defense, and they all just sat there looking thoroughly uncomfortable in the silence that followed. He caught Laura looking in his direction with, as usual, a thoughtful but otherwise unreadable expression on her features.

The Professor eyed him closely a moment, then turned his attention back to the rest of the group. "If no one else has anything to add, you're dismissed. It's been a long day for all of you, and I suggest you be well-rested for tomorrow."

###

Nori watched them all leave. Keller stormed off in a huff, and Santo followed him without a word. Most of the others offered her a few congratulations on their way out before heading off to their rooms. Laura just looked between her and Keller's back with a thoughtful expression, before slipping quietly out of the room. David alone remained behind, putting his arm around her shoulders and giving her a squeeze.

"I know you'll do great," he said, but Nori just sat numbly in her chair, her brain still not entirely processing what just happened. "Come on, let's go celebrate!"

"I'll catch up with you in a minute," she said, and slowly got up from the couch along with him.

David studied her closely, but she turned her head away to avoid meeting his eyes and hugged herself tightly, ignoring the cold touch of her gauntlets against her bare arms and midriff. She felt the Professor and Mr. Summers staring as well, and if Xavier read why she was planning to loiter in his office he didn't say.

David nodded. "Okay. Meet in the lounge when you’re done?"

"Okay."

He gave her another quick hug and a peck on the cheek — the Professor and Mr. Summers watching the exchange discouraging him from anything more intimate — and followed the others out. Nori mopped her face once the full weight of what just transpired hit her.

"Why me?" she asked, the words coming out much more petulantly than she intended, but for the moment she was so overwhelmed she just didn't care.

"I know it's a lot to take in," Mr. Summers said, "but we really do think you're the best choice."

"But why? Ugh! As much as I hate to say it Keller would be way better. Half the team are his friends and always listen to him, anyway. And he actually wants it!"

"And that is part of why we chose you," Xavier said. Nori peeked at him from behind her hands. His expression was calm and serene, with that slight smile pulling at his lips that always seemed to promise everything was okay even when the recipient of it felt otherwise. "Neither I nor Cyclops will dispute that Julian does have the potential to be a good leader, but until he learns to master his ego it would be a poor choice for the team.

"As Scott said, leading them is more than just about giving orders. That is also why we didn't choose David."

Mr. Summers nodded his agreement. "Julian did make a very good point after the session today: David came up with his plan and expected it to be followed with no input at all from the others. He automatically assumed he knew better."

"But he does!" Nori said, and tugged at her hair in frustration. "He's smarter than all of us!"

He sighed, stepped around Xavier's desk, and laid his hands on Nori's shoulders. Although the ruby-quartz lenses of his glasses obscured his eyes, Nori felt them bore straight into hers.

"One of the most important things I said earlier was that a leader needs to be able to balance drastically differing personalities,” Mr. Summers said. “David wouldn't be able to do that; he and Julian would be at odds with whatever David planned, and that could get people hurt or killed. And right now, Julian would be no more inclined to accepting advice or criticism from the others.

"I'd like you to think about that before tomorrow's session: How can you get all of those individual parts to work as one? What went wrong when David tried to take control? How do you manage Julian in light of that? How can you work with Julian's influence on the others?"

Nori sighed and bowed her head. "I don't think I can do this."

"I think you're wrong. Like all the things you and your team are learning, it will take time to piece it all together. Just give them and yourself a chance."

###

Laura stood at Julian’s door, and shifted from foot to foot with uncertainty. The dormitory hallway was empty and only the security lighting was on, though her enhanced vision had no difficulties picking out every detail in the darkness. Likewise, she could easily hear the voices, music, snoring, and other nocturnal sounds of the student body through closed doors. Most were asleep, but here and there were a few still up long past curfew talking and laughing, and a deep stab of emptiness worked through her belly at the sound. She did not quite understand what it meant, but she desired it to be gone.

She bunched her hands into fists and chewed her lower lip, uncertain why she found herself hesitating now. Julian and Santo were still awake. She heard voices from within their room, but frowned when she found some of them unfamiliar. Though the slightly tinny quality suggested they originated from an electronic speaker. Did their being occupied with their television explain her reluctance to announce her presence? Laura's belly churned, a sensation becoming more and more frequent, and she puzzled over it now that she was beginning to recognize it as anxiety. Perhaps that was it; Julian was clearly angry when he stormed from Xavier's office, and she did not want him to turn his anger on her again by interrupting him.

Laura reached out to the doorknob and stopped herself. Social protocol dictates announcing my presence, and waiting to be acknowledged and invited before entry. She considered that for a moment; did she need to follow social convention in this situation? When the nightmares came and were at their worst Julian allowed her in uninvited. But Santo was awake, now, and they were engaged in some activity of their own. Therefore, her entry would be an intrusion.

She bit her lip while her hand hovered over the door. The churning continued as well, but why would something as simple as knocking on a door make her so anxious?

Finally, she took a steadying breath and knocked quietly. Perhaps Julian and Santo would ignore her.

"It's open," Julian said from within, his voice muffled by the door but his frustration evident in his voice. Unable to retreat now that she had been invited, Laura opened the door and stepped into his room.

Julian and Santo sat on the floor with their backs against his bed, and controllers for his video game system in hand. She craned her neck when she entered for a view of the television, and watched the action on-screen on her way across the room. Two figures were locked in an exaggerated martial arts competition, and Laura immediately picked out every failure by the game to account for actual fighting technique, to say nothing of human body mechanics and biology. The fighters gushed what she estimated to amount to several liters of blood with every hit, with the artificial mechanic of a bar across the top of the screen to denote the severity of injury. One of the figures took a blow and started to sway dizzied on his feet, and an angry voice screamed "Finish Him!" This was followed by a particularly gruesome — and unrealistic — attack in which one of the fighters ripped open the torso of the loser. "Here's Johnny!" the fighter said, while staring out from the screen through his opponent's shredded chest cavity.

Santo tossed the controller to the ground in annoyance. "Geeze, dude, you could at least give me a chance!"

"Right now I want to hit something and this is the best I have, so just suck it up! If I squint Kano even looks a little like Cyclops." Julian glanced away from the screen long enough to acknowledge her presence. "Hey, Laura."

Laura shifted uncomfortably and looked between the two of them. "Santo, I would like to speak with Julian," she said.

The big rocky mutant levered himself to his feet. "Sure, fine, I could use a break from getting my ass kicked, anyway."

"She means out of the room, too," Julian said.

"Hey, I'm not stupid! Besides, I'm sure you two want some cuddle time, anyway."

Santo grinned at Julian, and Laura frowned in confusion at the meaning of that remark. Julian just buried his face in his hands and groaned in exasperation. "God I hate you, Santo! Go bug Victor or something!"

"I'm going! I'm going!" he said, and lumbered out of the room, leaving them alone.

Laura hesitated a moment, then crossed the floor and lowered herself next to Julian while he started a new game by himself.

"You are upset," she said, and pulled her knees tight against her chest. She ignored the action on the television set and watched him instead; his mouth was pulled down into a scowl, and the muscles of his jaw were tense while he ground his teeth together.

"No-freakin'-duh," he said, and Laura flinched at the ire in his voice. Julian sighed. He paused his game, threw his controller down on the floor, and mopped his face. "Look, I'm sorry, I'm just really not in a good mood right now."

She looked away from him and chewed her lower lip. "You are angry with Mr. Summers." She made it a statement of fact.

"You heard that part about Kano, huh?"

"I am unfamiliar with the game you are playing, but I believe I understand the context."

"It's just not fair! Why does Ashida get to be the team leader? Me and Santo? From like, the minute we showed up here we thought it would be the greatest thing to be X-Men. My parents weren’t exactly leaving me with much to look forward to even before they cut me off, and if Santo can’t wrestle anymore, he’s got this stupid idea being a superhero is like the next best thing. And now Cyclops goes and screws that up by making us Ashida's lackeys."

She frowned at that. “I do not think that is what he intended; I find his explanation reasonable in that he is only concerned for the well-being of the entire team. Nor do I believe that Noriko would abuse her authority.”

Julian gave her an annoyed glare. “Gee, thanks for the support. Maybe you don’t see it that way, but this is going to be a disaster!”

"You do not believe Noriko will make a good leader?"

"Yes! No!" Julian sighed in exasperation in his effort to put his thoughts in order, but his indecision only confused her further. "I don't know. I mean, you saw what happened today, right? Well it's gonna be all Ashida and Alleyne from now on. Do you really think she's going to listen to anyone else?"

"You believe that she will show favoritism towards David?"

“I know she will.”

“How do you know this?”

Julian hesitated and sputtered a bit while he tried to think of an answer. Laura just watched him in confusion over his reaction, and waited patiently for what evidence he found to confirm his accusation.

“I just know,” he finally said, and she blinked in surprise at the certainty in his voice.

“That is an irrational conclusion to make,” she said, and rested her chin on her knees. “We have yet to actually witness Noriko’s approach to leadership, and I find it difficult to make such a judgment without an opportunity to observe it for myself.”

Julian stiffened, and his voice turned defensive. “I’m not being irrational!”

Laura flinched back from him again, and puzzled over why the sharpness of his response made her belly churn even worse. “I am sorry, I did not mean to offend you. I just do not understand how you could make such an assumption without allowing her the opportunity to prove herself.”

“I ...” He trailed off and his face colored. Julian leaned his head back against the side of his bed. “We’ve just never gotten along, okay? And it’s a mutual thing. Santo, Victor, Soo, Cess, and I? We’ve all been friends almost from the start. Foley’s all right, I guess. But not Ashida, and Alleyne is just too damn smart for his own good. I mean come on, what did you actually think of his plan for taking out Colossus earlier?”

Laura considered a moment. “I believe his strategy was inherently flawed, and relied too heavily on assumption and not enough on observable fact. Nor did it take full advantage of our numbers.”

He smiled. “Thank you! At least someone gets it.”

“However, while your strategy yielded more observable results, you failed to coordinate with the entire team. A joint effort may have succeeded where your individual plan of attack failed, yet you refused to join the engagement until I was injured.”

Julian’s face heated at that remark, and he shifted self-consciously. Laura was unsure whether his reaction now or to her injury in the training room was more perplexing.

“Yeah, well, Alleyne had a stupid plan.”

“But does that justify refusing to assist him at all? And if not David, then the rest of the team?”

Laura shuddered a little bit when memories buried in the recesses of her mind threatened to break loose from the depths to which she had banished them, and with a great effort she forced them all back down again. “I am accustomed to working alone. It is what I was trained to do, but I see the purpose of what Cyclops is attempting to teach us; that together we are more formidable than we are as individuals.”

“Says the one-girl army.”

“I am not an army. I could not have stopped Stryker’s attack alone. Had you not contained his explosives everyone would have died despite my efforts. You say that the others are your friends, but you do not believe refusing them aid because it was David’s plan let them down?”

Julian sighed and mopped his face. “No. I did let them down,” he admitted.

“I know I am not good with people,” she said. “I often find the nuances of interpersonal relationships incomprehensible.”

He frowned at her in sympathy. “Why is that?”

“I do not wish to talk about it,” she said, for a moment her voice softening to a pained whisper while she fought back against the buried past. “I am learning that people often rely on others. Cessily, Sooraya, and Mark ...” Laura trailed off for a moment, and a hollow feeling spread through her gut at the thought of Mark lying dead in her arms. “They have all helped me, but there is so much I do not understand. And I do not understand why you would allow your animosity towards Noriko and David to interfere with your willingness to aid the others.”

Julian sighed. “Look, you’re getting into some deep stuff that’s way over my head. Maybe it’s something the Professor can answer, but I just don’t know.”

“I am unaccustomed to giving advice, but if you wish for mine, it would be to give Mr. Summers’s decision a chance.”

“You sure don’t hold back with the honesty, do you?”

She frowned at him. “Why would I not be honest?”

He shrugged. “I guess a lot of people would rather just tell a small lie to make someone feel better than to be up front and hurt them.”

“I do not mean to hurt you ...”

“I know, Laura, I know. I probably needed to get smacked in the face with a bit of honesty. Thanks.”

Laura screwed up her features in confusion at that. “You are welcome,” she said, uncertain that there were any words more appropriate.

Julian casually reached out with his power and called his controller to his hand again. “Look, you, uh, you want to play for a bit? Santo’s probably going to harass Victor for a while, and I’m not really in the mood to turn in, yet.”

She considered the game’s pause screen and hugged herself to suppress a shudder. “I am not certain I would enjoy this game.”

“Oh, right,” Julian said, and his face colored a bit. “I can dust off my Wii U if you want to give Mario or something a go. I don’t play it much because we’re usually doing Team Fortress or something like that, but Nintendo’s still got some good party games.”

“Okay.” Admittedly, Laura did not understand much of what he was saying, but the thought of him including her felt...good. The subtle flutter in her belly she could not explain returned, and she squirmed a bit in an effort to get comfortable while Julian shut down and disconnected the game system he was playing to set up the other. Laura chewed her lower lip for a moment while she considered the strange feeling in her gut, before speaking again. “Julian, may I ask you a question?”

“‘Sup?” he asked, without looking up from what he was doing.

“Are we friends?”

Julian paused and sat back on his heels for a moment, his features taken aback while he considered her inquiry. “Huh. That’s funny, I, uh, I haven’t really stopped to think about it, but I guess we are, now.”

He flashed her a lopsided smile, and a blossoming of warmth joined the flutter in her belly. Laura gave him a small smile back while he returned to work. She considered what she felt in that moment, though its meaning remained a mystery, and decided it was a good sensation.

###

Act IV

###

She wanted to throw up.

They all gathered in the training room, dressed out and ready for the day's session, and Nori felt all their eyes on her. All of them waiting and expectant for her to give them their orders, each of them betraying what they felt of her in command by their posture and body language. David, of course, supported her fully, and focused his attention on analyzing the situation confronting them. Cessily bobbed anxiously on the balls of her feet, eager to get started, and though Sooraya's niqab masked her expression, she all but radiated that irritatingly omnipresent serenity of hers. Victor stood quietly with Keller, Santo, and Laura, and waited patiently to begin. Josh was thoughtful, but kept whatever it was he was actually thinking to himself, and Laura's intense green eyes swept the room and took in every detail.

Keller watched her with an impatient scowl and his arms folded across his chest. Santo mirrored his posture, no less unhappy that Cyclops placed her in command of the team. Neither said a word, but she knew Keller was just looking for her to screw this up.

Nori clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. If for no other reason than to shut him up, she needed to succeed now.

"David?" she asked, and glanced sidelong at him. He stared at their objective through his glasses and studied it intently for a few moments, then gave a small shake of his head.

"I've got nothing," he said, his voice colored by his frustration. "There's no data in the computer at all."

Dammit.

"Any ideas?"

He considered for a moment. "Send Talon in for a closer look to see if there's a way inside."

Nori glanced up at the towering, featureless metal container occupying the middle of the room and frowned. "Or she could just cut her way in."

"That could work, too."

"Hey, Pikachu!" Julian called from the back, "Care to include the rest of us in your planning session? Or do you and Alleyne have this and the rest of us can hit the showers?"

Nori twisted her lip and glared daggers at him. "I swear to God, Keller, one of these days I'm going to show you what a mosquito feels when it hits a bug-zapper! But if you have any bright ideas why don't you share with the rest of the class?"

He tilted his head so he could glare down his nose at her, and a smug grin spread across his features. "There's a door right in front of you."

She looked back at the giant block of metal and frowned. "How do you know that?"

"Because I've been checking it out with TK ever since Cyclops turned on the lights," he said, and unfolded his arms. For the first time Nori noticed the pale green aura flickering around his hands.

"Why didn't you say so?"

"You were too busy playing favorites with your boy toy to actually ask."

Nori's face heated, and David's body tensed at the accusation. Damn you, Keller. "Can you open it?"

He regarded the container, and the aura around his hands grew brighter when he focused his power more directly on it. Another aura formed around the box, but Julian's smug grin faded, and he shook his head. "I can feel the seams and hinges but can't get a grip on them. And whatever the lock is it's not mechanical; there's nothing for me to work with."

She chewed her lower lip for a moment and looked at David. "Okay, that's something, at least. Do you have any other modes on the Super View-Master that might be able to pick up what he's feeling?"

David took hold of the frame of his glasses and stared at the target. "Yeah, I've got it. Whoever built it did a great job hiding the hatch. Or not so much a hatch, but the entire side facing us opens." He squinted and craned his body this way and that to scan the surface facing them. "Looks like there's some kind of magnetic lock."

"Anything inside?"

He adjusted his glasses and shook his head. "I'm not sure; whatever this thing is made of is interfering with the other scanning modes. I can't get past the outer skin."

"So how do we open it?" Victor asked.

"Nori should be able to do it," Josh said. "She should be able to scramble the lock if it’s magnetic."

"Are we sure that's a good idea?" Cessily said. "I mean we don't know what's in there."

"We're supposed to open it."

"Yeah, but this is supposed to be some big challenge, right? What's so challenging about opening a box?"

"Come on, Cess, you've seen Santo try to get into a box of donuts," Julian said.

"Hey, it's not my fault they make the boxes so squishy!" the big rocky mutant whined.

"Yeah, well, I don't like donut-flavored paste, so ..."

"All right, that's enough!" Nori said, and cut him off before the banter drove her batty. "Cyclops said we need to open it, so we'll open it. Just stand back, and be ready just in case Mercury is right and this is an incredibly bad idea."

Nori gathered her stored energy, took aim at her target, and with a sharp crack an arc of blue-white energy lanced across the chamber and splashed against the container. Sparks danced and popped across its metal surface, and Nori caught the distinctive whiff of ozone when she unleashed her power.

"I think that's got it!" David shouted over the electric squeal of her barrage, and Nori discharged the rest of her stored energy into her gauntlets. The din faded away with a dying echo, leaving only a hazy cloud of smoke where the blast ionized the air around her.

Sure enough, Nori's barrage scrambled and shorted out the magnetic locks holding the box closed, and it swung open with a groan...

...and when the eye lights of the Sentinel inside flickered to life and the towering robot forced its way out of its prison, Nori felt her heart sink out of her chest and down into her bowels.

"I hate being right," Cessily said, her voice blending astonishment and sheer terror into something just barely more than a squeak.

For a moment they could only stand dumbstruck, and every ghost story and urban legend she ever heard danced in front of her at the sight of the mutant-hunting machine. Its purple armor gleamed in the lights of the training room, and it spun up its massive arm cannon with an unholy whine that echoed off the walls of the chamber and promised death to anyone unfortunate enough to be standing in its line of sight.

Just like they were at that very moment.

"Everybody cover!" Nori screamed, and the Sentinel opened fire.

She ducked away from the hail of bullets streaking towards her, the Sentinel so close she had no time to scatter with the rest of the group, but rather than sawing her in two its fire splattered uselessly on a glowing green barrier that sprung up in front of her. Nori looked over her shoulder and watched Keller grit his teeth against the strain of maintaining the shield between them under the hail of fire.

"Hellion ...?" she said, astonished, but he cut her off.

"Win now, worship me later! The others are under cover, fall back! This way!"

Nori scrambled in the direction he indicated, towards the barriers and walls that made up the outer sections of the Maze, and which had risen from the floor behind them the moment the Sentinel activated. Keller followed and maintained his shield, but it quickly became apparent the strain of the bombardment was wearing him down, and with a flash of light the wall of telekinetic energy between him and their attacker collapsed when he was still a good fifteen feet from cover. A burst of fire walked into his hip, and Julian went down in a heap with a cry of pain.

"Julian!" Cessily screamed.

"No!" Laura snarled, and her claws extended with a sharp metallic snikt. Before Nori could even think of restraining her she used her claws to clamber up the wall behind which they sheltered, charged along the top of the barrier with catlike balance, and vaulted into the air.

The Sentinel's sensors detected her approach, but it couldn't react in time to shift its bulk to meet her attack, and she jammed her claws into its face. A shower of sparks exploded from one ruined eye, and the machine staggered backwards. Its servos whined and strained to maintain its balance, and it swiped at her with its free arm in a vain attempt to dislodge her.

"Hellion's down!" Nori said. "Rockslide, Anole, get him back here while that thing's distracted. Dust, help Talon; she won't be able to hold on to it long, so try to keep its attention."

They all started moving, and Nori felt the bile rising up in her throat at the sight of Keller lying stricken and groaning on the ground. Awesome, my first day as leader and I get one of my team killed. Even if it is Keller.

Victor and Santo broke from cover, and with a howl like the wind Sooraya discorporated and blasted across the chamber in her sand form.

"I've got him," Victor said. He grabbed Julian beneath the armpits and dragged him back to cover with strength belying his diminutive stature. "Cover us!"

"Right!" Santo said. He took up a wrestling posture and glared the bucking and flailing Sentinel down with murder in his glowing blue eyes. "Imma tear that thing apart!"

"Don't be stupid!" Nori said. "Cover Anole and Hellion and fall back!"

"But—"

"No buts! Just do it!"

Santo's response wasn't in words, but Nori didn't need them to understand just what he thought of the order. Nonetheless, he complied and followed Victor while he dragged Julian under cover.

"Christ! I'm gonna put Cyclops on the roof and leave him there!" Julian said. "What the hell is he thinking putting us up against a freakin' Sentinel!"

"Elixir, see to him," she said, and risked a peak around the corner. Laura clung tightly to the Sentinel's back, and Sooraya darted around it to help keep it off-balance. The heavy thud of its feet echoed through the chamber while it staggered against the assault, though Laura focused mainly on holding on, and Sooraya's attacks did little more than scratch its paint.

"He's okay," Josh said behind her. "Rubber bullets and reduced muzzle velocity, and it wouldn't have been fatal if they were live, anyway."

“Gee, thanks, Foley,” Keller said around a grimace. “It still hurts like hell!”

“Duck next time.”

"With the way he's carrying on you'd think it would have killed him," David said.

"Let's see how you like—"

"Shut up, all of you!" Nori snapped. "Let's just figure out how to stop this thing. David?"

"It's a Mark I Sentinel. I don't know where they dug it up, but it looks pretty new, so it's not one of the original Trask prototypes. Polymer chassis and plating, no metal, and its critical components would be very well-shielded. They were definitely designed with Magneto in mind."

"So I can't just fry it."

"Afraid not. With the amount of energy it would take, in a confined space like this we’d all be cooked."

Keller grimaced when Josh helped him back to his feet and rubbed his hip. He leaned against the wall behind Nori and watched Laura and Sooraya wrestle with the giant killing machine. "Whatever we do it needs to be quick," he said. "Laura and Soo can't hold that thing by themselves."

"I'm thinking!" she said, and beat her gauntleted fists against the sides of her head in a useless attempt to force a plan out of her brain. "Can you grab it?"

"Believe it or not shields are a lot harder than levitating. It took most of what I had to cover against all that incoming fire. I'll need a minute before I can even think of trying to restrain something that size."

"Wait," Cessily said, "Prodigy said its vitals would be shielded. I'm not an engineer, but would that be, like, armor? Something we can cut open?"

Nori glanced at David, who nodded. "Yeah,” he said, “though you wouldn't want to try stabbing it unless you want to be electrocuted."

"No, but if we can get rid of the shielding I can zap the stupid thing," Nori replied, and a plan took shape in her mind. She glanced out from around their hiding place and watched the Sentinel finally manage to get hold of Laura and fling her aside. She tumbled through the air but managed to right herself with catlike grace before she struck the ground, and rolled back upright in a fighting stance. Sooraya warped around the machine to keep its attention while she recovered.

"All right, here's what we do: Rockslide, you wanted to go a round with it? Get in there and help Dust and Talon keep it distracted. Try to take out that gun if you can."

He pounded one rocky fist into his palm, and an eager grin filled his features. "Got it. This is gonna rock."

"And no stupid one-liners! Mercury, can you cut through it?"

"I think so," Cessily said. She held her hands up in front of her, and watched her arms elongate and flatten into blades. "Even if I can't Laura should be able to."

"Hellion, while Rockslide pins it down, I want you to get Mercury in there."

"If it's built to the original specs, the main power source is going to be just behind that vector thrust engine. If you can pry open the chest armor right above it, that should give Nori a clean target." David said.

“You got enough left?” Nori asked.

Keller gave her an indignant sneer. “I’ve got more than enough power left, Sparky. Do you?”

Nori released the latches securing her gauntlets and freed her hands. No time to hold back, now. She would need everything she had for this. The lights overhead flickered, and she felt a rush like euphoria flood through her when she allowed the power to flow into her unrestrained and uninhibited. “I just don’t want to blow our chance because you have performance issues.”

“You just worry about your own part. Don’t miss.”

“Rockslide, go!”

The words were only barely out of her mouth when Santo rushed out from behind the wall with speed belying his bulk. “Hey tin can!” he shouted in challenge at the Sentinel turning in awkward circles in a vain effort to track Laura and Sooraya darting about its feet. The overgrown battlebot spun to face the new threat in response. “Let’s you and me wrassle!”

Keller mopped his face. “I vote we let it knock his head off.”

“Don’t tempt me,” she said. “Let’s go!”

She, Keller, and Cessily followed Santo out and took up their positions. The Sentinel uselessly sprayed Santo's rocky hide with a burst of fire from its cannon, and the big rocky mutant just laughed. "Stop, that tickles!" he said, and sure enough the Sentinel changed its plan of attack and leveled a blow that he easily deflected. Santo managed to get hold of the gun in his rocky fists, and he crumpled it with a crunch and a squeal of plastic.

"Mercury, Hellion, get ready!" Nori said. Cessily tensed her body and waited for Keller to launch her, while the green aura of his power formed around her body. Santo dodged around the towering machine, delivering a furious series of blows to its knees, (the only part even he could easily reach) and the pounding of his fists echoed loudly through the chamber. The Sentinel lifted one foot and tried to stomp down on him, but Santo managed to catch it across his broad, rocky shoulders, and not get squashed like a bug.

"Holy crap this thing is strong!" Santo said, nonetheless, and his voice warbled under the strain of holding up the Sentinel’s foot. "If you guys are gonna do it now would be good!"

"Hellion!"

"Santo! Incoming!" Keller said. He lifted Cessily off the floor, and she let out a surprised yelp when he blasted her across the room in a streak of silver. Cessily struck the Sentinel dead-center in its upper chest, and her arm-blade-things speared through the armored chassis. The heavy plastic squealed and groaned, and Cessily reformed her arms into hooks and ripped it open. The power supply glowed faintly in the shadow beneath the rent plating, and Nori felt her power dance across her skin.

"Everybody clear!" she said, and raised her hands.

Santo grabbed hold of Cessily and ducked out of the way, and Laura and Sooraya both fell back. The Sentinel turned towards them. Nori took aim and cut loose with everything she had.

The chamber was lit to blinding by the blue-white column of twisting and writhing plasma exploding with a deafening crack from her fingers. The Sentinel convulsed and staggered. Arcs of energy raced through its limbs, accompanied by a long, drawn-out electric squeal when its processors overloaded and shorted out. It started towards her in a dying attempt to close the distance between them. But with its gun disabled it had only its own bulk as a weapon, and it didn't make it more than a step before it sunk to one knee, its remaining eye went dark, and it collapsed onto its face with a deafening thud.

Nori swayed a bit on her feet at the amount of power she just discharged, but kept her hands raised to the Sentinel and watched it for any sign it might just be playing possum. Smoke rose in thick, acrid curls from its chassis, and the chamber was filled with the stench of cooked electronics. Laura's gymnast's figure was tense and quivering and ready to spring, Santo stood ready in a wrestling posture, and the tension in the air was as thick as the smoke pouring from beneath the Sentinel's armored shell.

They waited and watched for a few more moments, then Santo stomped forward, placed one foot on its back, and raised his hands over his head. "The winner, and still champion!" he cried. His voice boomed across the chamber, and Sooraya laughed and clapped at his posturing.

Cessily managed a giddy laugh at the sight. "Oh my God, we did it! We took out a Sentinel!" She turned to Keller and gave him a high-five, but when they both tried to do the same with Laura, she just looked between them with bemusement and retracted her claws. David, Victor, and Josh joined them, and David handed Nori her gauntlets. She quickly slipped them back on, then gathered him into a ferocious bear hug before planting a celebratory kiss on his lips right in front of the rest of the team.

The doors leading out of the chamber hissed open, and Nori reluctantly pulled herself away from David to face Cyclops and Dr. McCoy when they entered. The Beast's expression was crestfallen, but she saw, or at least thought she saw, a small smile of pride cross Cyclops's features.

"Well done, all of you," he said when he reached them. "Very well done. Hank?"

"I'd say it's a definite kill," he said, and sounded like someone had just killed his puppy.

Keller folded his arms across his chest and glared. "Does anybody but me wonder why the hell a school for mutants keeps a mutant-killing robot in its basement? I don't care if those are rubber bullets or not; one good stomp makes you dead just as well, and I almost got squashed."

"My boy, that robot has been specially programmed as a training aid," Dr. McCoy said, and his voice turned indignant. “It’s designed to challenge you, not obliterate you.”

"I don't know, I have to agree with Julian," Cessily said, and hugged herself tightly. Nori regarded her, and for all the exhilaration of winning couldn't help but notice she was practically shaking. "I mean, a Sentinel? Isn't that kind of advanced for us?"

"Come on, Cess, you should be feeling pretty good right now," Santo said. "We kicked its ass!"

"Yeah, but remember Julian was hit. Josh said he'd have been okay, but still."

"I can't believe I'm agreeing with him, but I kind of have to side with Julian on this one," David said, and raised his hand for Cyclops's attention. "I mean, there's still people our age who think these things were just a myth or a bedtime story."

"I'm sorry to spring something like this on you without warning," Cyclops said. "And if you're a little overwhelmed I can understand, but I won't sugarcoat things for you. We did this for a reason: We recently discovered that Stryker has a number of Sentinels in his possession. Jean, Colossus, Storm, and I destroyed three the night the school was attacked, and several more have been dealt with since. But we still don't know how many the Purifiers actually have, or the full extent of the technology he has access to. The reality of the situation is that it might very well be possible that you could encounter them — or something even worse — for real. And I'd rather your first experience with one be in a controlled situation rather than in the field.

"More importantly, we needed a scenario in which you had no choice but to work together to succeed. There are very few mutants who could take down a Sentinel single-handed, and for the first time you all acted like a team and not a collection of individuals."

"So this was a test?" Nori said, and watched Dr. McCoy puttering around in the wreckage of his pet and mutter quietly to himself over the repairs it would take to get it up and running again.

He nodded. "Yes. If you hadn't gotten together to work as a team, you would have failed. I was also testing you particularly with this exercise; you nearly failed with the box when you tried to rely too heavily on David and didn't seek input from the rest of the team." Nori's face heated at that. "The other purpose of the Sentinel was to see how you would handle under pressure, and you performed wonderfully."

David flashed her a smile and put his arm around her shoulder. Nori's stomach, which had been turning somersaults throughout the exercise, slowly righted itself and the bile frothing inside it was replaced with pride at Cyclops's praise.

"All of you performed wonderfully today," he said, taking them all in with a look. "Class dismissed."

###

Act V

###

Stryker sat at a console in the deserted command post. The computer hastily put together by the techs tottered unsteadily on a battered and dented metal table that didn’t quite want to sit level. It was a far cry from his office in New York, but it would have to do. He adjusted the webcam fixed to the display with a hefty amount of duct tape, launched a few encryption programs, and placed the long-overdue call.

At first nothing happened, and he just stared at the “Connecting ...” flashing at the bottom of the display window. But then, slowly, a choppy video feed blinked to life, and Stryker found himself face-to-face with his benefactor.

Adam Harkins was just entering middle age, with neatly-groomed red hair, clean-shaven features, and thoughtful green eyes behind a pair of wire-framed glasses. An amused smirk spread across his lips when he saw just who it was on the other end of the call.

“Well, well, Bill! I was beginning to think I’d never hear from you again,” Harkins said. His voice was just on the polite side of patronizing, and in his current mood Stryker wished for nothing more than to be able to reach through the connection and throttle him.

“The past few months have been rather hard,” he said instead. “We only just now got a stable network connection.”

“So I’ve heard. You’ve got a lot of people looking for you, and seems you’ve lost quite a few of yours to the authorities.”

“Ah’m pleased to hear you’ve been keeping up on me.”

Harkins’s smirk faded, and he glared over his glasses into the camera. “I’m also disappointed. I’ve been giving you a lot of tech at a discount rate, seeing as we’re old friends, but you haven’t held up your end and given me much of value to work with.”

Stryker rolled his eyes. “Oh please, Adam, don’t you even start with me. Ah’m sure times are tough safe and secure in your government-funded lab, but you have no idea what my people are going through right now.”

“I’m just giving you a little friendly reminder that you’re overdue on your tab. And it’s not like I’m not having my own problems. I just had an entire research division up and vanish overnight a couple weeks ago.”

Stryker raised an eyebrow, and a smile tugged at his lips. The thought of an inconvenience putting a dent in the man’s arrogance appealed to him immensely. “Oh, really?”

“One of our clandestine labs beneath an observatory in Upstate New York reported a quite fascinating discovery, but before they could analyze it the entire installation collapsed on top of them.”

Stryker frowned. “Collapsed?”

“Collapsed,” Harkins said, and made a “poof” gesture with his hands. “The official story is a sinkhole opened up and swallowed the whole thing.”

“And you don’t believe the official story.”

“Of course not, because I knew every inch of that installation, and it was solid bedrock all the way down. But I can’t get anyone close enough to check it out.”

“Ah truly am sorry for your loss, Adam, but you and Ah have business to discuss. Ah’m in need of resupply. We’ve lost a couple Sentinels during our operations and retreat, and we’re low on ammunition and other materiel.”

Harkins heaved an exaggerated sigh and leaned his head on his fist. Stryker could practically feel the smugness oozing off him across the connection. “I’d love to help you, Bill, but there’s two big problems: The first, you’re officially on the terror watch list.”

Stryker glared. “That is merely a maneuver by the government to placate the mutant rights activists. And do Ah really need to bring up your other illicit dealings? Ah’m sure the CIA would be quite interested in the identities of some of your clientele.”

“Point Two,” Harkins said, ignoring him, “as I said before, I still haven’t been paid. You promised me specimens, Bill.”

“Ah’ve given you specimens.”

“Useful specimens. There’s hardly any usable material at all with the ones you’ve provided.”

“So that’s the way it will be, then?” Stryker said, and fished inside his coat for a flash drive.

“That’s the way it’s going to be. You give me something to work with, I’ll see what I can do.”

This time when Stryker smiled it lit his entire face. He plugged the drive into his computer and started a file transfer. “It’s funny you should say that, because Ah seem to have found something you’ve lost.”

Harkins shifted in his chair to bring up the file, and when he opened it, his jaw dropped and his green eyes went wide. “When was this taken?”

“One of my men had a body camera during our assault on the school, so about three months ago.”

He turned his eyes back on the camera, and despite the poor reception, Harkins’s delight was palpable. “Where is it now?”

“The subject is being sheltered by Xavier’s school at the moment. Ah attempted to make the grab myself, but unfortunately circumstances were out of my control, and we were forced to retreat. And of course, right now another attempt is impossible given my current condition. However, should you find it possible to ship some of your surplus my way ...”

“No. No, I have someone special in mind for this job, though it will take some prep work at Atlas Base before we can make a recovery attempt.”

“So is this information worth something to you?”

Harkins smirked. “I’ll see if I can put a care package together for you. Oh, and Bill?”

“Yes, Adam?”

“I’ve got a little something new on the books. Something which may just help turn the tide of your private little war.”

Stryker chuckled softly. “Ah knew Ah could count on you, Adam. And of course, that was only a down payment, shall we say? Once we’re back in order Ah’ll see about those other subjects you were interested in.”

Harkins nodded. “I look forward to it. It’s good to see you, Bill. Take care.”

“You too, Adam. Contact me at this address when you have everything together and we’ll arrange a pickup.”

Harkins nodded and shut down the connection. Stryker stared at the blank window for a few moments. He then leaned back in his chair and drummed his good hand on the desk in front of him while he considered just what it was Harkins and his band of mad scientists were cooking up now. Whatever it was, Stryker felt it in his bones that a reckoning for the abominations was at hand.

God always provides.

---

A Note from the Author

I deliberately wanted to leave the fate of Stryker and the Purifiers ambiguous to start the season, but now it's time to start getting back into the A-plot. This is also where I kind of hint at the idea of this series as part of a larger, shared universe. The concept would be that while New Class covers events for the kids, the other properties would weave in and out of it. So I'm not going to actually show the shadowy group tailing the Purifiers, because that's an adventure from another movie or series, but it still all ties in together.

The fight between the kids and Colossus was, of course, taken from Kyle and Yost's New X-Men, and it's a scene I really wanted to include both to showcase just how bad-ass Pete can be, and to set up the dominant theme of the episode: Simply put, the strength of the X-Men is the sum of its parts.

This is one of those episodes that would probably have been more effective with a full, 22-episode order rather than a 13-episode half-season, as it would allow me to stretch out Julian and Laura becoming friends a bit more organically. But since I have so few episodes to work with, things do have to be sort of rushed a bit. And honestly, I love writing those moments of them together, even when Julian was still in turbo-douche mode. The main conflict of the episode — Julian vs. Nori for command of the team — is also one that would have benefited from being able to stretch out longer, but again, being crunched for time means compressing things.

When I first wrote this episode a decade ago I forgot just how big the Mark I Sentinels were in Days of Future Past, and had Santo actually wrestling it. Clearly, I’ve had to rewrite it. Just tell yourself the subbasement levels are very deep under ground to allow such a tall roof on the Danger Room.

Not really much more to say as this episode was otherwise pretty straight-forward, so until next time!

Chapter 6: 2x06 - Lying With Angels

Summary:

When an incident back home threatens to reignite the Guthrie family's feud with the Cabots, Nori and her team join Cannonball and Husk in an attempt to stop the conflict from escalating into all-out war.

2x06

Lying With Angels

Based upon a story by Chuck Austen

###

Act I

###

Burkesville, Kentucky...

It was a beautiful spring afternoon, not quite warm enough to go without a jacket, but the cold of winter was, for the moment, forgotten. The sun hung overhead in a blue sky dotted with perfect, white, cotton-ball sort of clouds, and a fresh breeze rolled in off the Cumberland River. Jebediah Guthrie leaned his back against the wall of Godfather's Pizza, and smiled at a couple girls from school making their way inside. One of them giggled and waved, but the others whispered quietly among themselves and gave him uncertain looks. Jeb just shrugged it off. Being a Guthrie meant two things, and one was dealing with the stares and whispers his siblings bore with pride because of the second: Every one of them so far was a mutant.

Maybe soon it would be his turn.

Ray Junior leaned against the wall of the pizzeria next to him and fidgeted with his phone. Ray was very dark-skinned, skinny, and short for his age, though not that Jeb had much on him in size.

He glanced sidelong at Ray and rolled his eyes. "God almighty, Ray, can't you put that thing away for a few seconds?" he said in his thick Kentucky drawl.

"What? My Clan is in a war right now," Ray said with a shrug.

"We're supposed to be hangin' out lookin' cool, here."

"Ah don't think you an' me'll be foolin' anyone."

"Yeah, but you could at least pretend," Jeb said. "Ah mean those girls walked by just now an' one of 'em even smiled at me."

"You sure she weren't just laughin' at ya?"

Jeb socked him lightly in the shoulder. "She was probably laughin' at you, dweeb."

"Hey, Guthrie!" said an unwelcome voice from behind him. Jeb turned away from Ray and his phone and glared up at Abraham Cabot. "Ah thought Ah told you that you an' your kin weren't to be comin' 'round here no more!"

Jeb clenched his jaw. Being a Guthrie meant three things...

"Hey look, Ray, it's Abe Cabot!" Jeb said. "He kinda looks like that ogre thing in your game, don't you think?"

"Nah," Ray said, and quickly pocketed his phone when the ugly mountain of a boy approached. "You couldn't put Abe's face in a game, some innocent kid could get hurt."

"You got a point there. The ESRB oughtta put a warnin’ label on it: Unsuitable for all audiences."

Abe curled his lip and glared down on him, and the expression did nothing to improve his pig-faced features. He kept his hair buzzed closed to his scalp, hidden beneath an old, faded ball-cap, but otherwise was as well-dressed as all the Cabots, without shame of flaunting their money around the rest of the residents of Cumberland County. His two friends with him, however, couldn't be more Redneck if they tried with their faded overalls and Confederate Flag t-shirts.

"Oh that's funny, Guthrie," Abe said. "Ah don't kick your ass enough at school you want me to kick it here, too? You ain't got the teachers to hide behind now, either."

"Right here in front o' the whole town, Abe?" Jeb said. "Forget ugly, you ain't got much for brains, neither."

"Ya think anyone in town'd care if Ah pounded you into dirt right here? Your whole family ain't nothin' but dirt, so no one'd even notice." Abe stepped forward and jabbed a finger into his breastbone to emphasize the point. "More'n that, some o' your family turned out to be muties, and muties is less than dirt!"

Jeb's whole body stiffened, and he clenched his jaw and fists. "Better'n bein' a Cabot. Julia were the only one with a brain, an' the rest o' y'all from yo' daddy on down ain't got half o' one to split between ya!"

Abe seized him by the shirt front and dragged him away from the wall. "You don't even say a thing about my sister! It was yo' filthy brother that got her killed, an' it's too bad the Reverend didn't finish what he started with him, an' wiped every last one o' ya freaks out!"

By now a small crowd began to gather. A few people inside Godfather's poked their heads out the door to investigate the ruckus, and pedestrians making their way along the street stopped to watch. They murmured among themselves, but what, exactly, the sentiment was Jeb couldn't tell. All his attention was focused on Abe, and his face heated when his temper got the better of him. Stryker's attack on the school took away Jay, and they almost lost Paige, as well. He tightened his fist and let his hand fly.

Restrained as he was, he couldn't put much force into the blow, but nonetheless his fist connected with Abe's temple and snapped his head around. He lost his grip on Jeb's shirt and stumbled under the blow.

"Jeb!" Ray gasped. He tried to rush forward but was restrained by one of Abe's goons.

Abe grabbed the side of his face and glared murder at Jeb. "Oh, you’re so dead, Guthrie!" he said, and threw a wild haymaker that drove Jeb into the ground. For a moment he saw stars, and the voices of the crowd faded to a distant rumble while he curled into a ball to shield himself from the blows raining down on him.

"Stop it!" Ray shouted! "Leave him alone!"

Abe was on top of him now, one hand gripping his shirt and the other rhythmically pounding him in the face. Jeb vainly tried to fight him off, but now Abe's size and strength gave him all the advantage. Jeb's head was throbbing in time to Abe's fists, and he felt sick inside. Something was wrong. He'd been beaten up pretty badly before, but this was different. Oh God, he's gonna kill me this time! He's really...

His line of thought died away as a sharp crack like thunder split the air, accompanied by the distinct whiff of ozone. Abe was flung backwards off him with a startled cry when two bolts of electricity slammed into his chest. A hush fell over the crowd, and Jeb found himself staring up into the clear blue sky with no sign of Abe's ugly face to block the view. Jeb blinked and rolled himself upright, and found everyone staring at him.

"All right Jeb!" Ray said, while he struggled against the arms holding him back. "How'd ya do that?"

"Do what?" he asked, no less astonished. Abe was scrambling to his feet, a look mixed somewhere between horror and rage on his pig face.

"Ya Goddamned mutie freak!" he roared, and charged at him again.

Jeb didn't move. A strange pressure built up in his head again, and now that he wasn't distracted by Abe Cabot's fists pounding his face bloody, he was aware of a subtle prickling sensation around his eyes. Realization settled over him, and he smiled.

He was just like Sam, Paige, Jay, and Mel! It was his turn!

He wasn't quite sure how he did it, but just as Abe reached for him Jeb released his hold on his power. Another sharp crack rocked the street, and two bolts of electrical energy flashed from his eyes and struck Abe. The crowd screamed and many of them scattered in panic. Abe cried out and danced and writhed while arcs of blue-white energy raced through his body.

"Somebody put him out!" someone shouted, and one of Abe's friends rushed forward to try to extinguish the fingers of electricity coursing through him. Abe went to the ground and rolled over and over while his friend threw his jacket over him and vainly tried to pat him down.

"It's like, electrical or somethin'!" he said. "It won't go out!"

"Jeb! Stop that right now, ya hear me!" a man said, and Jeb saw Sherriff Pete — an older man maybe Momma's age who may have been an imposing man when he was younger, but now looked to have spent too long sitting in his patrol car at Krispy Kreme — rushing into the middle of the fracas out of the corner of his eye.

Before he could even think of responding, something struck him hard in the head from behind. Jeb saw stars, and he staggered under the force of the blow. He was distantly aware of Ray screaming his name, and the appalled disbelief in the Sherriff's voice.

"Christ almighty, Jason, what the hell did you do that for!"

"He started it!" a man said. Jeb nursed the back of his skull and saw the burly local mechanic — or was that both of them? — standing over him dressed in his oil-smeared overalls and wielding a wrench in both hands. "It was them Guthries and niggers again!"

Ray's eyes flashed, and he managed to seize hold of the goon still restraining him. "What did ya call me?" he screamed, and Jeb's jaw fell slack when, with strength belying his size, Ray flung his assailant in Jason's direction. Both went down in a tangled ball of limbs.

"God dammit, Jason!" the Sherriff said, and laid a hand to his sidearm, "Everyone just calm down!"

"Ya heard what he called me, Sherriff!" Ray said. "An’ he coulda killed Jeb with that wrench!"

"Ah know! But y'all need to simmer down before someone really gets hurt!"

Jeb was back on his feet, his power sparking in his eyes while he glared down Abe's gang and the mechanic. Jason was scrambling back up after throwing off Abe's fried, and grabbed his wrench again. This time, rather than risk closing in, he flung it straight at Jeb's face. But his throw went wide and instead Jeb watched the wrench arc straight at the back of the Sherriff's head.

Aw, hell!

With no time to think it through, Jeb released his power again, and the wrench disintegrated in a flash of light. Unfortunately, the Sherriff reacted just as quickly out of reflex when the arcs of energy blasted past him. Jeb didn't even see his gun clear his holster, only heard the shot ring out before a sensation like being punched hard in the shoulder ripped through him. Then he was falling, and all he knew was darkness.

###

Act II

###

Westchester, New York...

Sam Guthrie blasted across New York, wrapped in the energy field propelling him through the air, and Westchester rushed by him in a blur of early spring green and brown. The wind rushed through his hair, white clouds in the clear blue sky drifted past him, and the sun shone down bright and warm on the countryside below. He didn't get to experience the joy of flying in quite the same way as Mel and Jay, but damned if there wasn't something just awesome about being able to reach out and touch the sky.

Or at least there would be if he weren't rushing to the school on such dire business.

The towering tone edifice of the Xavier School appeared below him, and Sam slowed himself and adjusted his trajectory. He swung his legs out beneath him and dropped out of the sky, controlling his descent with subtle bursts of energy until he touched down lightly in the courtyard. Being springtime, a few of the students not in class were out enjoying the improving weather, and excited whispers spread from child to child at the sight of one of the X-Men alighting among them. Sam ignored the attention. He removed his goggles and stuffed them in a pocket, and ran his fingers back through his hair in a vain effort to straighten it out again before he hurried inside.

The entrance hall had changed somewhat since he was last here. That was perfectly understandable considering what Stryker did to it, but otherwise it presented a comforting sense of familiarity. The sounds of laughter echoed through the school, but Sam couldn't quite bring himself to feel the joviality. Instead, he strode with purpose up the entry hall from the doors. The sensation of being watched washed over him upon nearing the end of the staircase leading up to the dormitory hallway. Not the casual curiosity he was accustomed to on his occasional visits, but a deep, careful scrutiny that made his hair stand on end. He glanced at the gallery above to find a slight, dark-haired girl sitting with Cessily Kincaid and Julian Keller, and studying him intently.

Sam suppressed a shudder and hurried to the Professor's office. Before he could even knock he heard Xavier's muffled voice from the other side of the door.

"Come in!"

Sam opened the door and quietly slipped inside. The Professor was seated in his wheelchair in the conversation circle near the fireplace with Paras Gavaskar, Hope Abbott, Dani Moonstar, Ben Hamill, and Sidney Green. Like the entry hall, Xavier's private office had changed since his last visit, but not so much as to be completely unfamiliar. The computer and furnishings were much more up to date, but otherwise it was the same sort of elegantly stuffy and somehow still comfortable space it had always been.

He hesitated a moment inside the door. "Ah'm sorry, Professor," he said in his Kentucky drawl. "Ah didn't know ya had a class this mornin'. Ah'll come back ..."

"Actually, we were just finishing for the morning," Xavier said. "I'll be with you in just a moment."

If Xavier knew the reason for his visit he didn't let on, and Sam leaned against the wall behind him and folded his arms across his chest. The Professor returned his attention to his students and resumed his lesson.

"Now," he said, "I would like each of you to pick a chapter from the first Book, and write your interpretation of the meaning behind Merlyn's lesson to Arthur. This assignment will be due at the beginning of class next Thursday. If there's no questions, we'll go ahead and break for the day."

Sam allowed himself a tight smile at the collective groans over the assignment, and then the class broke up and drifted out of the room, leaving him alone with the Professor.

"It's good to see you again, Sam," he said, but there was a subtle catch in his voice, as if he were aware of the reason for his visit. Sam knew the Professor would refrain from plucking the purpose from his mind and let him get to it himself, but he also had no doubt the seriousness of the matter was clear.

"It's good to see you, too, sir," Sam said, and stepped away from the wall. "Ah wish it could be under better circumstances."

Xavier frowned and motioned for him to take a seat. Sam complied, forcing down the sense of urgency that had him wanting to bounce off the walls. "What happened?"

"Are Paige an’ Mel around? This'd better wait until Ah can talk to them, too, but we've got trouble back home an' Ah need help."

"Paige and Melody are both in class, but one moment ..." Xavier trailed off and closed his eyes. Sam watched him in silence, while he wrung his hands and rocked on the chair. "I've asked Peter to step in for Paige, and Melody has been excused. Sam, what has happened?"

Sam sighed and hopped up out of his chair to pace. "Like Ah said, there was trouble back home. It was mostly a family matter, but ..."

"You said you needed help?"

He nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Of course we'll do what we can, but it would help if you'd let me know more."

Sam sighed. "Ah know, but it bein' a family matter'n all Ah'd not feel right about talkin' about it before Ah had a chance to let Mel an' Paige know what's goin' on."

Xavier gave him a nod of understanding. "Of course."

They didn't have long to wait. The school being the size it was, it took his sisters little time to reach the Professor's office. Mel burst in the door first, apparently so alarmed by whatever the Professor broadcast she didn't even bother to knock. She took one look at Sam when she entered, and a broad smile filled her features. "Sam!"

Mel didn't even need her powers to fly; she rushed across the space separating them and vaulted into his arms for a ferocious hug belying her size. Sam just laughed and crushed her against his chest. "Hey there, kiddo, how're you?"

"Ah'm all right, is it just you?"

"Yup, just me. Where's Paige?"

"Ah think she's comin'. What are you doin' here? Shouldn't ya be blastin' yourself into somethin' stupid right about now?"

His smile faltered, and he laid a hand on her shoulder. "We'll talk as soon as Paige gets here."

Mel didn't miss his change of mood, and stepped out to study him. Her smile faded into a worried frown. "What's the matter?"

"Sam?" Paige called from the doorway, and Sam looked up to see her hesitate at the door. "What are you doing here? Is something wrong?"

Sam crossed the space between them and gathered her into a hug. "Hey, Paigey."

Paige hugged him back, and after a long moment — long enough he felt her tremble anxiously, and was keenly aware of Mel impatiently wringing her hands and dancing from side-to-side — pushed her at arm’s length.

"Ah've got some bad news, y'all better sit down."

###

They all squeezed into Xavier's office, and Julian silently groused the Professor really needed to add more chairs. He, Laura, and Cessily managed to get there first, and appropriated the couch; himself on one end, Cessily on the other, and Laura's slight frame squeezing in between them with her knees drawn up to her chest. The others grabbed whatever seats were available around the room, with Santo as always leaning against the bookshelf since none of the chairs could comfortably accommodate his rocky bulk.

Julian's first warning this wasn't one of Xavier's usual scowl-fests over something he did wrong came when he entered to find not only Ms. Guthrie and Melody present — the latter in tears and leaning into her sister's arms — but Illyana Rasputin as well. Even more surprising was Sam Guthrie, standing with his arms folded across his chest, and his blonde hair a disheveled mess. He dressed in the black leather uniform of the X-Men, highlighted throughout with gold piping; whatever brought him to the school, it was clearly as Cannonball, not just a family visit.

Xavier regarded them all piling into his office with an expression somewhere between surprise and amusement, then turned his attention to Josh, who stood off somewhat away from the rest of them. "I don't recall asking you to bring the others," he said, and Julian could hear the smile in his voice.

Josh colored a bit through his gleaming golden skin. "Sorry, Professor, but the way you called I thought you were wanting the whole team."

"No need to apologize, in fact I'm quite pleased that you've begun to think of yourselves in such a fashion, and that it was your first instinct. But in this case, it was just you I wished to see."

Sooraya raised her hand. "If this is meant to be a private meeting, perhaps we can go ..."

Sam shrugged. "Don't see the harm in y'all stickin' 'round. Knowin' the school the way Ah do Ah'm sure y'all will know by lunchtime, anyway."

Julian frowned. He had to strain his ears and focus to understand a word Sam Guthrie was saying. If Ms. Guthrie tried her best to bury her drawl and hide the hick in her, Sam Guthrie positively reveled in it.

"Truth be told, our brother Jebediah ran into some trouble back home, and ..."

He trailed off when Julian snerked, earning him glares from everyone but Laura, (who just seemed lost at what he found so amusing) and especially the Professor and the Guthries. "People actually still name their kids Jebediah?"

"That's right, Mr. Keller," Sam said and glared. "We do. An' if you've got a problem with that Ah'll thank you to keep yer mouth shut. Our family's been through enough as it is."

Ashida frowned. "What's going on?"

"Jeb's been shot!" Mel wailed, and buried her face in her sister's shoulder.

Stunned silence fell over the room, and Julian's face heated in chagrin.

"Jeb an' a friend of his were hangin' out in town when they got into a scrap with Chester Cabot's youngest boy. Ah just got the call from Momma an' came right here so Ah haven't been home to see for myself. She was in hysterics, but said they’re sendin’ him home shortly."

Josh frowned. "Why isn't he at a hospital?"

Sam sighed and his shoulders sagged. "It was the Sherriff who shot him." He glanced at the Professor for a moment, who sat in what Julian recognized as his "I'm thinking really hard so carry on" posture. "Jeb manifested durin' the fight. We don't rightly know what it is about our family, but so far all of us kids have turned out to be mutants. Well, the Sherriff says things got out o’ hand an' it was all on reflex."

Julian folded his arms across his chest and scowled. "You don't actually believe that, do you?"

"All Ah know is what Momma tells me. The Sherriff is havin’ him brought home to try an' cool things down in town. Ah'd have to guess he weren't hurt too bad if they’re not holdin’ him at the hospital."

"So what do you need from Josh?" Alleyne said.

Julian rolled his eyes. "For the smartest guy in the room you're pretty slow on the uptake, Brainiac."

"They need a healer," Josh said, making it a statement of fact.

Sam nodded. "That's right. Ah figured you can put Jeb back on his feet again."

Josh shrugged. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to take a look. I mean if it's not bad enough to hospitalize him it will probably be a pretty easy fix."

Xavier looked between him and the Guthries and nodded. "Very well. Paige, I'll have Peter cover your art classes while you're away, and Melody, you'll be excused from classes for as long as you need with your family."

Melody sniffed and wiped her nose. "Thank you, Professor."

Illyana raised a hand. "I'm sorry about what happened to Mel's brother, but why did you call me here? I get why you asked Josh, but ...?"

"Ah can fly myself home right quick," Sam said, "but Ah can't get everyone there on my back. Even if Jeb ain’t hurt bad Ah don't want to delay any longer than we have to. Ah'd be obliged if you can 'port us home."

Illyana's eyes widened, and Julian realized with some astonishment her expression was actually anxious.

"All the way to Kentucky?"

Sam regarded her with a raised eyebrow. "Will that be a problem?"

"I don't think so, I've just never done a teleport that far before. And I'm not sure you'll like it all that much in Limbo on the way. My little pets can be a little, well, aggressive."

Illyana regarded the Professor. "I'd have to go with them, too. I can't just send them on their way. They'll need me to open the portal at their destination and, uh, make sure everything on the other side behaves itself."

Xavier nodded. "Very well."

"Excuse me, Professor?" Ashida said, and her gauntlets clinked when she raised her hand.

"Yes, Nori?"

"Look, I'm not trying to say you and Cannonball don't know what you're doing, but as team leader, I'm not sure I like sending one of my people off alone if things are this tense."

Julian regarded her with a scowl and narrowing of his eyes. My people?! Laura's eyes settled on him in mild warning, however, and he just folded his arms across his chest and fumed silently.

"I have to agree with Noriko," Sooraya said, and that just irritated him even more. "I confess I do not completely understand the complexity of this feud between the Guthries and the Cabots, but Jay tried to explain some of it to me once. I don't think it unreasonable to believe that this incident might stir up trouble, particularly if their brother manifested in such a manner."

The Professor raised an eyebrow at Sam. "Sam?"

He considered that for a moment and shrugged. "Most folk back home tend to leave us alone, an' it's mainly with the Cabots that we have any sort o’ trouble. But like Ah said, Ah don't know more than what Momma told me, an' she was near to hysterics."

"An unknown tactical situation demands thorough reconnaissance. Sufficient force to establish an adequate defensive perimeter around key facilities is both advisable and strongly recommended," Laura said, and the cold, precise manner in her voice made Julian's skin crawl. Everyone stared at her with varying shades of trepidation.

Xavier tapped his index fingers against his chin in deep thought for a moment, then nodded. "Very well. Sam, in addition to yourself, your sisters, Josh, and Illyana, I'd like you to take the rest of Surge's team with you."

He turned his gaze on Ashida, and she stiffened with an expression that read something to the effect of, "Me and my big mouth."

"Cannonball will be in overall command,” he continued, “but I'll leave the handling of your team to you. Bear in mind we can ill-afford any controversy, particularly under the circumstances of Jebediah's manifestation. Keep as low of a profile as you can, and try to avoid confrontations with the locals. I'll make a note that you will be excused from classes until your return."

"Yes, sir," she said.

"All right! Field trip!" Santo said, and was practically bouncing on his feet like a puppy being let off the leash.

Julian groaned and rolled his eyes, a sentiment mirrored by almost everyone in the room.

"'Santo' and 'Low Profile,'" Cessily said, and mopped her face. "We are so boned."

###

Burkesville, Kentucky...

They emerged from the dark hellscape of Limbo with a blinding flash of light, and Julian swayed dizzily on his feet. He forced down the bile rising up in the back of his throat, and with it the urgent desire to empty the contents of his stomach all over the ground. Judging from the weak groans of the rest of the group he wasn't alone in the sentiment, though everyone managed to maintain their composure.

"Nice puppy... nice puppy ..." Cessily muttered. Her eyes were wide with fright, and her body shivered violently.

Well, almost everyone.

"You okay, Cess?" he asked.

"I warned you to keep your hands in your pockets and no petting," Illyana said, almost flippantly, and flashed a grin. "They're a little nippy with strangers."

Julian put an arm around Cessily to help her still the shakes. She clutched him back in turn, and after a few moments gave him a small nod of thanks. "And you're telling me you've been going in there since you were a kid?" he asked.

"Oh, no," Illyana said. "I didn't learn how to open the portals until I was older." Something shifted behind her blue eyes, however, and the smugness of watching the newbies react to her pocket dimension faded. There was a hollowness in her gaze that may have unnerved Julian even more than her casual stoicism in the face of the hellspawn they traveled among on their way to Kentucky. "No. At first, they visited me at night when I was little. Just sitting and watching when the lights were out and I was supposed to be in bed."

Then it was gone, and that casual smile was back again. "They're really quite sweet once they get used to you."

"No offense, Yana, but I'd rather take my chance with a plane on the trip home," Cessily said, and parted from Julian.

She shrugged and glanced off to the side. "Suit yourself. Although you know, I've never seen them react like that to someone before ..."

Julian followed her eyes, and they landed on Laura while she stood away from the rest of the group. She turned this way and that, sampling the air and sweeping her green eyes across the open fields surrounding them. He suppressed a shudder of his own. The creatures inhabiting Limbo grew bold halfway through the trek, and they all watched in astonishment when Laura stared one down, let out a short growl of warning, and sent it with a yowl of fright back into the fire-and-brimstone darkness whence it came.

"Yeah, well, right now I can't decide which of you two is weirder," Julian said.

"Decide later, boy, an' let's get a leg out. Momma's expectin' us," Sam said, then brushed past them and started across the turf.

Their destination was a modest two-story house set at the end of a long drive off the main road that couldn't be any more painfully Americana if it tried; white siding, picket fence, tire swing hanging from a tree nearby. And it was all set in the midst of fields of furrowed brown dirt awaiting planting. A red barn with flaking paint — and what looked like burn damage on one side — occupied one corner of the property nearby, and a water tower cast long shadows across the fields while the sun slipped down towards the horizon in the west. The evening promised to be a cool one, and Julian pulled his jacket tighter around himself and despaired at the utter lack of amenities.

"Dude, I think I hear banjos," Santo said.

Laura, falling into step with him and Cessily, frowned in confusion. "I do not hear anything."

"It's a movie reference, Laura," Cessily said, and glared over her shoulder at the walking mountain of rock. "Because Santo's an insensitive jackass."

"Yeah, well, it sure looks like something out of Deliverance," Julian said, earning himself an annoyed glare from Melody and Ms. Guthrie, and a swat up the back of the head from Cessily. He fixed her with his best "What did I say?" look, and rubbed the back of his skull.

"This is our home, Mr. Keller," Ms. Guthrie said. "Maybe it's not the fancy 21st-Century castles you're used to, but it's still home. And you're a guest, here, so I expect you to act like it."

Julian rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything more when they followed Sam inside.

The interior of the Guthrie home could best be described as "quaint." For a small gathering it might even be comfortable and cozy, but for the dozen-or-so of them piled inside Julian found it almost claustrophobically crowded. Especially at the sight of half the nearly dozen more Guthrie siblings popping their heads curiously through a doorway leading into the family room off the short entry hallway to the left. A small, open dining room occupied the space opposite it on the right, with another door leading to the kitchen in the back corner.

"Sam!" A girl's voice called, and a blonde and blue-eyed girl a few years younger than Mel bounded out of the family room, and gathered him into a hug.

"Easy, Liz, Easy!" Sam said with a laugh. "Girl, you are growin' up strong! You sure you ain't manifested yet?"

"Naw. Now that Jeb's got his powers you know Jo is next."

"How's he doin'? Momma was beside herself when Ah talked to her."

Liz accepted hugs from Melody and Ms. Guthrie in turn. "He's hurtin' pretty bad. The Doc said it weren't as bad as it coulda been. Pete mostly just winged him, but he can't move his arm much. Where you been, Sam?"

"Ah had to make a stop on the way," he said, and nodded his head towards the rest of them. By now the other Guthrie kids had emerged from the family room to investigate the newcomers, and most of them looked up dumbfounded at Santo and his big, stupid grin when he stared down on them. A small smile crossed Cessily's lips at the fascination on their features, while Laura tried to shrink into her jacket at the scrutiny. Julian just folded his arms across the chest and shifted his weight from foot to foot.

"Y'all's mooties, too?" the youngest, an almost painfully adorable little girl in blonde pigtails, said. Julian bristled reflexively at the slur, but forced his indignation down in deference to the innocent puppy dog eyes boring into him.

"That's right, Bonnie," Sam said, and scooped her up to give her a kiss on the cheek. "They're here to help Jeb. Where is he?"

"Momma, Jo, an' Lew are upstairs with Jeb, they just got back from the hospital," Liz said. "Sam, Pete's here, too."

Sam sighed. "Don't surprise me none. All right, Elixir, you're with me. The rest of y'all can tag along, or make yourselves comfortable down here."

###

Josh followed Sam up the flight of steps leading to the bedrooms on the second level. Ms. Guthrie and Melody came with them, but the rest of the group remained downstairs with the Guthrie kids rather than try to pile into the crowded stairwell. The furnishings were rather sparse, though framed photographs lined the walls all the way up the stairs. A hollowness spread through his gut at the smiling faces of children wrapped in their mother’s and father's arms, and Josh stuffed his hands in his pockets and hung his head to avoid looking at them.

The stairs opened onto a small hallway on the second floor. To the right it led directly into the master bedroom, which occupied a sizable part of the upstairs. There was also a single bathroom which, from the brief glimpse Josh caught inside on his way past, was at least a few years out of date. The rest of the space was given over to three smaller bedrooms made even more cramped by the bunkbeds needed to fit all the Guthrie siblings under one roof. As problematic as Josh found it at times to get some privacy at the school, he couldn't imagine just how much more difficult it would be living in such quarters.

"Damn it, Jeb! That was a stupid thing to do!" a woman shouted from one of the smaller bedrooms. A bedroom which Josh concluded was their destination once Sam turned left down the hallway.

"Would you stop sayin' that, Momma? It weren't my fault!" said a voice in protest.

"That don't make it any less stupid! Pete says you could have killed someone!"

The four of them arrived at the door to the room, and Josh craned his neck to peer past Sam's athletic frame and the edge of the door. A knot of people clustered around one of the beds; One wore the uniform of the county Sherriff, holding his hat in hand and shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot during the tirade. The woman — Josh guessed it was Mrs. Guthrie — was of average height and build, and with hair that was once a rich brown now shot through with streaks of silver. Her features were careworn and tired, and she glowered down at her son in frustration.

Jeb Guthrie was maybe a year or two younger than Melody, slight of build, and dark-haired like his mother. His shoulder was wrapped in linens, and his arm hung in a sling. Joelle and Lewis sat on the side of his bed and fidgeted under the ire of their mother.

"Momma, Ah had it under control!" Jeb said in protest.

"Damn it, boy! Ah raised you better'n that! You know you ain't supposed to be usin' your powers on folks!"

"Ah didn't mean to! Abe Cabot started whalin' on me an' it just happened!"

Sam cleared his throat, and the argument died away when everyone spun around to face the newcomers. The younger Guthries' faces lit up at the sight of their eldest brother, and Joelle and Lewis both left the bedside and charged in for a glomp.

"Sam!" they said in unison, and Sam accepted the hug with just as much joviality as the assault down below.

"Heya Jo, Lew!" he said. Sam turned his attention to his mother. "Momma."

"Thank God you're here, Sam," she said. "Maybe you can talk some sense into your brother."

"Ah don't know about that, Momma, you know how reckless Ah was when Ah were his age. But Ah did bring some help with me." Ms. Guthrie ushered Josh forward with a hand to his back, and Josh fidgeted under the eyes of the others. "Folks, this is Josh, from the Xavier School. He's a healer, so Ah brought him 'round to mend up Jeb's shoulder."

"Well, at least someone in this family has their head on straight," Mrs. Guthrie said.

The Sherriff eyed him closely and hooked his thumbs through his belt. "Look, Ah don't want to get involved in mutie affairs; all Ah care about is keepin' the peace in my county. This business between you and the Cabots has to stop, Lucinda."

"But Abe started it!" Jeb wailed in protest.

"Ah don't care who started it, and this ain't just about you an' Abe Cabot, Jeb. This feud's been goin' on too long. It was bad enough that mess that came out of Jay an' Julia, an' now y'all are letting it spill over into town an' puttin' innocent people at risk. Ah don't want to have to do it, but if Ah have to Ah'll ask y'all — officially — to steer clear of town!"

Mrs. Guthrie glared. "You can't do that, Pete! We've got rights."

"So do the folks that live there, Lu. Jeb was out of control today, an' he nearly cooked me too—"

"That's a lie!" Jeb said. "Jason tried to throw a wrench at me, but he missed an' it was about to hit you, Pete. Ah blew it up. You're the one what had the itchy trigger-finger."

Mrs. Guthrie buried her face in her hand. "You ain’t helpin' boy. Maybe if your daddy were still alive he'd be able to keep y'all in line, but Ah have to manage the best Ah can. We've already lost Jay, an' nearly lost Paige, too. This family's had enough tragedy to deal with to have you addin' to it."

A sober silence fell across the room. Josh fidgeted, and the Guthries lowered their heads. From the looks of him, the Sherriff was just as uncomfortable as he was.

"Well, it's not worth dwellin' on," Mrs. Guthrie finally said after a few moments, then fixed her blue eyes on him. "Boy, my son says you're here to help, so if you can help put Jeb's shoulder right Ah'll be much obliged."

Josh nodded, and the others cleared him a path so he could approach Jeb's bedside to go to work.

###

"Lord almighty, girl, where do you put it all?" Mrs. Guthrie said when Laura heaped another helping of green beans onto her plate.

The dining room was so crowded Julian scarcely had room for his plate. Laura and Cessily squeezed in on either side of him, with Santo next to Cessily, and one of the younger Guthrie siblings next to Laura. Otherwise, there was no real order to the seating arrangements, and everyone found a place wherever there was room. He and the rest of the newcomers — especially Santo — generated quite a bit of excitement, and there were actually arguments and squabbles over who would get to sit next to who. Most of the kids looked so alike Julian long ago gave up on trying to remember who was who. To his astonishment even the Sherriff crowded in at the table.

If someone shot one of my friends, I sure as hell wouldn't invite him to dinner.

"My healing factor provides an accelerated metabolism, necessitating a significant increase in caloric intake," Laura said flatly, and Julian quirked a grin at her missing the hyperbole in Mrs. Guthrie's remark.

Ashida made a face at her plate. "If she's anything like the Wolverine by the time she's sixty she won't look a day over twenty. Some girls have all the luck!"

"Theoretically my life expectancy should surpass Logan's, since his healing and regenerative abilities are adversely affected by the adamantium bonded to his skeleton."

"Ada-what?" one of the kids asked.

"Don't ask," Ashida said, "or we'll be hearing about it all night."

Mrs. Guthrie sobered a bit and stared at Laura, who for her part shrunk into her jacket at the scrutiny. "Ah understand you were the one who was with my boy when he died."

The whole team visibly stiffened at that pronouncement, and in anticipation of the faux pas looming on the horizon.

"I was there when Jay was killed," Laura said, almost casually, between bites of green beans.

"Was it quick? Did he suffer?"

Laura opened her mouth, but Julian gave her a warning shake of the head, and her pale cheeks colored slightly. "It was not instant, but he succumbed quickly."

Mrs. Guthrie nodded. "Ah'm sorry to put you on the spot, dear, but Professor Xavier didn't have much for me about what happened. Did he say anything?"

"He said that Julia was waiting. I do not know what that means."

"Julia Cabot," Sam said, with a heavy sigh. "Blood's been bad between us an' the Cabots so long it's hard to remember sometimes there was at least one bright spot in all of that."

"Jay mentioned her to me once," Sooraya said, and deftly maneuvered a bite of her dinner beneath her niqab. Her hijab proved almost as much a source of curiosity to the younger Guthries as Santo's enormous rocky bulk, Victor's reptilian features, and Cessily's gleaming silver skin. Fortunately, Mrs. Guthrie had no trouble making accommodations for Sooraya's halal diet. "He did not wish to speak of her much, though."

"Ah don't think Jay ever got over Julia," Mrs. Guthrie said, and offered her a sad smile. "He mentioned you on a couple of his calls home, though, near the end. From the sound of things he thought very highly of you. But Julia ..."

"She was Chester Cabot's daughter," Ms. Guthrie said, and slumped in her chair. "She and Jay found something in each other the rest of us could have done a better job looking for. Chester got wind, though, and went after Jay to keep him away from her. He didn't really tell us much more about what happened, only that Julia thought her father killed him, so she killed herself. Jay was never the same after that."

"Wow, that's like, total Romeo and Juliet stuff," Santo said.

Cessily blinked. "Okay, I'm impressed you actually picked up on that."

Santo shrugged. "What? We just watched that old movie in English Class. You know, that one with Olivia Hussey where you can see her—"

"Santo!" several of them all shouted at once, but Mrs. Guthrie just chuckled and shook her head.

"Liz, honey, why don't you see if desert is ready," she said.

"Yes'm," Liz said.

The Sherriff wiped his mouth on a napkin. "I'll have to pass. Thanks for supper, Lucinda, but it's time Ah got back to town. If you want my advice, it'd be to think long an' hard about what happened with Jay, and what near happened today. This business between your family an' the Cabots has got to stop before it gets someone else killed."

Sam folded his arms across his chest and scowled. "Come on, Pete, it ain't on us an' you know it. It's Chester you ought to be havin' this conversation with. We'd be content to live an' let live, but it's always been the Cabots stirrin' up trouble."

"Now look, boy, Ah've been tryin' to keep the peace between y'all and Chester for years, but frankly Ah'm runnin' out of patience—"

"Momma!" Liz shouted, and everyone craned their necks to look at her through the door leading to the kitchen. "Momma, you'd better come take a look at this!"

Mrs. Guthrie got up from the table, and hurried into the kitchen. "What's the matter, baby?"

"It's Chester Cabot an' his boys. An' they got guns!"

Mrs. Guthrie's face blanched, and Julian's stomach churned. "What in God's name does he think he's doing?" she said. "Liz, fetch me your daddy's rifle. Rest o' you kids stay here."

"Now hang on, Lu!" the Sherriff said, and hurried to follow Mrs. Guthrie when she sprang to her feet and headed for the back door. "Don't you go makin' a confrontation out of this!"

Everyone was in motion, now; the Sherriff caught Mrs. Guthrie by the arm, Liz hurried off to the family room to do as her mother asked, but no one else showed any sign of obeying her orders to stay put. Mrs. Guthrie threw the Sherriff's hand off her arm and glared. "It's been confrontational for years, Pete! An' Ah'm not the one walkin' up to his back door armed for bear! Liz!"

"Here, Momma!" Liz said, and hurried back into the kitchen carrying an old lever-action hunting rifle. Mrs. Guthrie snatched it from her hands and stormed for the door.

"Lu, wait!"

"Damn!" Sam said, and hurried after his mother. Ms. Guthrie tore at her skin when she followed behind him, exposing a gleaming metallic surface beneath. He glanced over his shoulder at the rest of them. "You kids stay here and keep an eye on the youngun's."

Julian scowled at the order and pushed past the knot forming in the doorway leading into the kitchen, anyway, and Laura and Cessily hurried after him.

"Keller! What do you think you're doing?" Ashida said. "Cannonball told us to wait here!"

"We're here to help, so I'm helping," he said over his shoulder. "Ms. Guthrie might be bullet-proof right now, but the rest of them aren't. If anyone starts shooting I'll put up a shield. Fight over."

"God damn it, Keller!" she said, before falling into a string of Japanese invective when she followed him.

Julian ignored her. He hurried through the kitchen and squeezed outside to join the others on the back porch. Mrs. Guthrie cradled her rifle in her arms and glared out onto the path leading up to the back door while four men — the eldest a well-dressed and somewhat doughy older man with thinning brown hair who could only be Chester Cabot — marched determinately up it. The family resemblance of the other three was impossible to miss, and all of them carried rifles or shotguns. Laura's green eyes were already flicking from man to man to digest the situation, and her lithe frame trembled, ready to spring into motion at the first sign of aggression.

He cautiously reached out a hand and laid it on her shoulder. Laura flinched, but didn't move. "Hey, remember these guys are just a bunch of dumb rednecks," he muttered into her ear. "It's not Stryker's men. So like, no removing limbs, or anything."

Laura gave him a bewildered look. "They are armed and threatening our host."

"I know, but trust me, no killing."

She chewed on her lower lip, then nodded. However, her body remained tense. Julian felt the rest of the team crowd out of the kitchen behind them, and they all took up positions flanking and behind Mrs. Guthrie, with the rest of the Guthrie kids watching the standoff from the kitchen windows and doorway.

"What's with the artillery, Cabot?" Mrs. Guthrie said when he approached the steps leading up to the back porch.

"Protection, Lucinda," he said. His accent was a bit more refined than the Guthrie clan, but was still a thick Cumberland drawl. God, it's like freaking Gone With The Wind, or something. "Ah mean come on, your boy shoots lightnin' from his eyes, and who know what else the rest of these freaks can do?"

Julian scowled and folded his arms across his chest. "We can do lots of things, do you really want to push us?"

"Can it, Hellion," Sam said. "You ain't helpin'."

"You an' all your kind back there better stand down," Cabot said. "We've come for the one that hurt my boy, an' aim to teach him a bit of respect for us normal folk."

Mrs. Guthrie barked out a sharp laugh. "Is that right? You aim to teach my boy a lesson on respect? What about all the nonsense your boy has done to us over the years? Jeb can't hardly walk down the hallways at school without Abe beatin' him within an inch of his life, or how about the time he set our barn on fire an' poisoned our dog? An' you expect me to just stand aside an' turn my son over to you?"

"Them's lies, daddy!" Abe Cabot, an ugly, pig-faced sort of boy, shouted from the back.

"You ain't never been able to prove that!" Cabot snapped, and gestured at her with his shotgun. "You're just paranoid, Lucinda."

"Ah ain't got to prove nothin', Cabot," she said.

"Damn it, Lu! Chester! You both step back before this gets out of hand!" the Sherriff said, and tried to put himself between them. Julian clenched his fists and called his power to him; the tension hanging over the porch was so thick he doubted even Laura could cut through it with her claws, and everyone fell silent.

"What are you doin' tellin' me to step back?" Mrs. Guthrie said. "Cabot's the one here on my land without invitation, packin' heat, an' threatenin' me an' mine. Ah’m well within my rights to shoot them all down like the dogs they are!"

"Momma's got a point, Pete," Sam said. He folded his arms across his chest and glowered down on the Cabots. "You've got a lot of nerve tellin' her to stand down with Cabot there pointin' his shotgun at us."

"Look, Ah'm just doin' my job, here!" the Sherriff said, and raised his hands. "This county's been peaceful an' Ah don't want nobody to start pullin' triggers and spoilin' that! An' yes, dammit, Chester needs to put his gun down, too. If y'all want to come down to my office so we can talk this out like adults we can get your grievances out official-like, but for God's sake let's not let this turn violent!"

Mrs. Guthrie's glare hardened even further. "Is that supposed to help, Pete? My boy was just defendin' himself, an' you up an' shot him!"

"Damn it, Lu! Ah told you what happened!"

"If you think Ah'm goin' to sit down with a Guthrie you're out of your mind, Pete," Cabot said. "This ain't your affair, now get out of my way! If Lucinda and her freakshow ain't gonna clear the way quietly, we'll just have to make them!"

And with that, Cabot muscled the Sherriff out of his way, racked his shotgun, and leveled the barrel at Mrs. Guthrie. She in turn snapped the barrel of her rifle up, and the Cabot boys raised their own weapons.

Aw, hell!

A sharp snikt echoed across the Guthrie farm, and Laura sprung between them and Cabot. "Laura, no!" Julian shouted, but before he could even think of making a move to restrain her, her claws flashed and she brought them down on Cabot's shotgun, slicing it cleanly in half and spilling its inner workings across the porch.

"Shit!" Cabot blurted out and stumbled back. The Sherriff reflexively reached for his sidearm, and the Cabot boys readied to fire.

"Cabot! No!" the Sherriff cried, and tried to put himself back in his path, but his protest died in his throat when Cabot swung wildly at Laura with the remains of his shotgun, and clocked him in the side of the head.

The Sherriff went down hard on his back. Laura evaded the blow, caught Cabot by the wrist, and effortlessly drove him into the dirt. She dropped her full weight on him and leveled her claws at his throat. Julian threw up a wall of telekinetic energy between them and the Cabot boys just in time for a shot to ring out, and splatter uselessly against his shield. Sam unleashed a low-level blast of energy that struck the eldest son in the shoulder and spun him into the ground. Ms. Guthrie rushed forward and delivered a ferocious right hook to the jaw of the middle son. Santo followed after her with a bellow of challenge, and Abe Cabot, wielding his gun like a club, futilely whacked him in the flank. The stock shattered against Santo's rocky body, and his glowing blue eyes lit up gleefully when he smiled down at him.

Dumbstruck, Abe immediately raised his hands at the sight of the towering mountain of living rock casting his shadow down on him. "Whoa! Ah quit! Ah quit!"

Santo smacked one fist into his rocky palm. "That's right! You try it and you're gonna get rocked!"

"Oh shut up, Santo," Cessily said, while she helped the Sherriff back to his feet.

The fight was over in seconds, but Julian's heart did its best to tear through his ribcage nonetheless. The Guthrie kids watched in a mix of excitement and terror, all of them too enthralled to retreat from the porch or kitchen windows. Electricity danced across Ashida's skin when she retrieved her discarded gauntlets and slipped them back on. "Damn it, Keller!" she snapped, and discharged her built-up energy. "I told you guys to stay back!"

Julian glared at her over his shoulder. "Hey, if it wasn't for me one of those idiots would have killed someone!"

"That's not the point! We're supposed to be—"

"That's enough! Both of you!" Sam said.

"Damn it, Cabot!" the Sherriff snapped once he regained his balance. "You had no cause for any of this!"

"Her boy almost kills mine," Cabot said from his back, "an' you're layin' this on me?" His face was white while he stared up into Laura's cold green eyes, her claws at his throat and gleaming in the light from the porch.

"You came here lookin' to start a fight, Chester! You're on her property, you came here armed, an' Lu ain't wrong about that." The Sherriff turned his glare on Laura. "That's enough, darlin'. Put them blades away an' let him up."

Laura complied immediately and stood away from Cabot and retracted her claws.

"Now you get your ass into the back of my car and tell your boys to get on home!"

Cabot gawked incredulously upon returning to his feet. "You're arrestin' me, Pete?"

"Damn right Ah am! Now you get into that car right now an' maybe Ah won't charge you with assaultin' an officer on top of it all." He nursed the bruise forming on his jaw to emphasize the point.

"That's it?" Mrs. Guthrie said. "You're gonna just let his boys walk away?"

"Ah'm tryin' to do the right thing here, Lu. Me an' the entire county have had it with this mess between you an' the Cabots. Ah'm already bendin' over backwards not bringin' Jeb in for that brawl in town this mornin'. By all rights Ah ought to bring the lot of you in, as this ain't just about your barn; it's startin' to spill over an' put the locals in danger, too! This business has to stop!"

She ground her teeth and fumed silently, but otherwise said nothing.

"Now Ah'll take Chester in to cool off; he had no right comin' armed onto your property demandin' your boy be turned over. Ah don't want no lynch mobs in my county, but this has got to be settled, you hear?"

###

Pete turned his car off of Lucinda's drive and onto the main road. Chester fumed silently in the back of his car, his hands cuffed behind him, and glared at the Sherriff's back.

"So you're really takin' me in, Pete?" he asked.

"Ah ought to, you idiot. What the hell were you thinkin'?" Pete snapped back.

Chester glared incredulously at his head silhouetted against the windshield while the car sped down the road. "You weren't even supposed to be there! You were supposed to be clear before me an' my boys got there!"

Pete sighed. "Ah saved your life, Chester. Can't you count? You were outnumbered an' out-gunned. Jesus Christ, that little girl threw you down like you was nothin'. Ah've heard of another of them muties with claws like that, an' that's trouble you don't want brought down on your head. Who knows what else those kids Sam brought home with him can do? That gold-skinned one? He just touched Jeb's shoulder an' put it right."

The car struck a rough spot in the road, and Chester bobbed a bit on the rear bench. He rolled his shoulders as best he could to relieve the strain in his arms. "Ah had it all under control!"

"You woulda been killed ya idiot!"

"We had a deal, Pete! Look the other way while we burn Guthrie an' her clan out of there. You've said how many times the Guthries bein' here ain't nothin' but trouble!"

"Right now you ain’t exactly endearin' yourself, either. Your boy attacked Jeb Guthrie in the middle of town in broad daylight, for Christ's sake! Sentiments ain't what they used to be; ever since the mutie school up in New York was attacked folks're more open to their kind, an' you think they're gonna look kindly on your boy attackin' one in public? Now Ah'd been willin' to turn a blind eye, but damn it, Chester! Not when it's tearin' up my whole damn county!

"An' now the Guthries brought those out-of-town kids in on top of it! Jesus Christ, Chester, what do you expect to do about that big rocky one?"

"Anything can be killed, Pete," Chester said, and twisted his lip into a scowl. “That includes the Guthries and whatever help they bring in from outside, an' Ah don't care how tough they think they are. They can be killed."

They spent the rest of the ride in silence while Pete turned his car on the road for home.

###

Act III

###

"This isn't going to end here, Sam," Paige said, "and you know it!"

They were all crowded into the family room, Guthries and X-Men crammed into whatever space could be found for them. Momma sat on the couch with the littlest, Cissie on one side and Bonnie on the other, hugging them tightly against her side while they sobbed in fright from the scrap outside. The rest of her siblings' faces were downcast and anxious. Mel was holding up better than the rest; surviving Stryker's assault gave her a measure of experience she never wanted her sister to have, but at least helped her relax from the confrontation. Illyana sat with her, her expression almost bored, and that sent a shiver down Paige's spine.

For their part, Nori's team was masking their own anxiety well; well, Sooraya's expression was always hard to read through her niqab, and Santo never seemed to stray far from his usual dopey cavalierness. Julian Keller leaned against a wall with his arms folded across his chest, his lips turned downward into a scowl. Nori glowered irritably at him, and Paige couldn't exactly fault her reaction. The others didn't offer much clue as to what they were thinking or feeling.

Sam sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "We ain’t supposed to be here for a fight, Paige."

She waved her arms in exasperation. "But that's exactly what Chester Cabot came here looking for!"

"You don't think Ah know that? But what are we supposed to do, march up to the Cabot estate an' start bangin' on his door? Professor Xavier don't want us to raise a ruckus!"

"Yeah, well, Chester's already raised one. And it's just going to get worse!"

"She's right, Sam," Momma said. "Chester's up to somethin', Ah can feel it. Oh, he's always been a right pain in the ass, him an' his boys, but this? Ah never thought I'd see the day he'd grow enough of a pair to march up to my front door an' outright threaten us right in front of the Sherriff. It's always been whatever he could get away with an' deny."

Paige folded her arms across her chest and nodded her agreement.

"Momma, you're askin' me to go to war with the Cabots, here," Sam said.

"We're already at war, baby. Ah'm askin' you to help us fight back!"

Sam sighed again. "What about the little'uns? Do you really want them in the crossfire of that?"

Momma stroked Cissie’s hair. "You know Ah don't! We can send them somewhere safe until this is done with."

Paige regarded Sam. "We can have Yana 'port them back to the school. The Professor will be able to keep an eye on them."

Sam's shoulders slumped, and he ran a hand back through his hair. "God damn Chester. All right, all right. Nori, in the mornin' Ah want you and your team to get out of here; Ah don't want you kids part of what's goin' down. Take Mel an' the others with you until this all blows over."

Julian started to open his mouth in protest, but Nori beat him to it. "We're not kids anymore, Cannonball."

"Ah know that, but this ain't gonna be a trainin' exercise."

She folded her gauntleted hands across her chest. "We handled Stryker, we can handle this. Besides, it would just be the two of you and your mom, you need help!"

"Ah ain't leavin', neither," Mel said, and twisted her lip. "This is my home, an' Ah'll not leave you, an' Paige, an' Momma all by your lonesome."

A chorus of other voices chimed in with their agreement, and Paige couldn't help but quirk a smile when every one of their siblings refused to leave.

"Now look!" Momma said, "This is serious, an' Ah don't want you kids getting' hurt!"

"Ah already been hurt, Momma," Jeb said. "Abe Cabot beats the tar out o’ me every day, an' Ah'm not gonna watch his daddy do the same to you."

"Professor Xavier put me in charge ..." Sam said.

"We ain't X-Men," Mel said, "but we're still Guthries. So what Professor Xavier said don't apply."

"An' what Momma said don't?"

"Momma can't make us leave."

Momma raised her eyebrow in amusement. "Oh she can't? You want a paddlin', girl? Same goes for the rest of y’all!"

"A paddlin' ain't much a price to pay for runnin' off the Cabots for good," Joelle said.

Paige looked back to Sam again. He rubbed his chin, lost in thought. "Well, Sam?"

"God, the Professor's gonna kill me, Paige. What Ah wouldn't give to have Cyclops and the others here to deal with this."

"We have to make do with what we have," she said.

Nori grunted. "And we're still X-Men."

"Sorta," Cessily said.

"And being X-Men means we're supposed to protect people! Even flatscans!" Santo said.

"Easy for you to say," Victor said. "You can't get shot."

"Hey, I got blown up, remember?"

"It doesn't change the fact the walking pigeon perch is right," Nori said. "Keller was right about one thing earlier; we came to help. So let us help!"

"All right, all right," Sam said. "But we best have a good plan. For now, everyone keep close to the house. It looks like we'll be diggin' in for a spell, an' without knowin' what Chester has planned Ah don't want any of y'all wanderin' off alone."

"Ah'm afraid Ah don't have much room in the house," Momma said. "But y'all can stay in the barn. Most of the damage Abe Cabot caused has been repaired an' the heater works."

Julian rolled his eyes. "Oh, great."

Sam glared. "If the accommodations ain't to His Majesty's likin' Yana can always 'port you home." Julian ground his jaw, but ducked his head from Sam's glare and didn't say another word. He stared the younger mutant down a moment more to be sure, then swept his eyes across the rest of Nori's team. Paige watched his lips twitch downward into a frown, and she mirrored his expression.

"Sam?" she prompted, when he didn't say anything.

"Where's Laura?"

Paige's eyes widened, and her belly churned when she realized Sam was right: Laura was gone. The rest of her team all looked among each other in alarm once they, too, realized she was missing.

"I have not seen her since after the Cabots left," Sooraya said, her own concern evident in a barely noticeable widening of her eyes behind her niqab.

Nori sighed and mopped her face with one gauntleted hand. "Oh, great. Girlverine is on the loose."

Julian stood away from the wall, a scowl still plastered across his features, this time directed at Nori. "She's probably just trying to get some space, you know she’s not big on crowds. I'll find her. I need some air, too, anyway."

"All right, just stay close to the house!" Sam said when Julian started for the door. "An' tell Laura that goes for her, too."

Julian waved him off, and headed outside. The others watched him go, Nori's expression annoyed, the rest anxious. Paige sighed. She had no doubts Laura could take care of herself, but the idea of any of them going off alone right now made her uneasy. Hopefully Julian was right and she just wanted some space.

"Well," Momma said while she watched Julian step outside and close the door behind him. "Let's get y'all settled in."

###

The most striking thing Julian noticed when he stepped out onto the front porch was the brilliant dusting of stars spread across the black night sky, winking across space to shine their light down on Cumberland County. Accustomed as he was to the skyglow of New York City and Los Angeles, it was an awesome sight to actually be able to see them. At first he couldn't entirely understand Laura's fascination with them since her encounter with the Entity, but being able to see them so clearly for himself, now, was like a veil lifted from his eyes.

They really were beautiful.

He sighed when his train of thought threatened to derail him from his purpose, and he stepped down off the porch and onto the path leading back to the road.

"You should stay close to the house," a voice above and behind him called down, and Julian spun around and gathered his power to him on reflex.

Laura sat with her knees drawn up near her chest on the roof of the Guthrie house. All he could clearly see of her was her dark shape silhouetted against the night sky; a small black patch obscuring the stars behind her. The image of her bound to the Entity sprung unbidden to mind, and he thought of the twinkle of starlight in the black shadow of her hair.

"What are you doing up there?" he said.

"Keeping watch," she said, and Julian colored at her tone, said as if what she were doing was completely obvious.

Julian gathered his power, and he lifted himself from the ground and up to the roof to join her. The roof sloped gently to its precipice, but when his feet touched the shingles he felt queasy at the thought of sliding off and tumbling to the ground below. Laura's green eyes flicked in his direction for a moment when he sat beside her, then turned back to watch the darkened fields stretching for miles in all directions, leaving the Guthrie household a small, and crowded, island of humanity in an empty sea of waving grass. Mrs. Guthrie's rifle lay at her side, and a shiver worked its way down Julian's spine.

"Not much to see," he said.

"You do not see in the dark," she said. Julian glanced at her, and thought he caught a hint of a smile on her lips.

He shrugged. "Yeah, well, there's still not much to see even if I could. It's too empty out here for me. Give me the city any day."

"I like it here. It is quiet."

Julian considered her for a moment, but Laura didn't look at him, and just kept watching out into the nothingness of rural Kentucky. "Well, don't get too comfortable. Cannonball wants everyone to stay close to the house. They're thinking the Cabots are going to cause more trouble, and we're sticking around to help out."

She nodded. "That would be advisable."

He sighed. "This is some crazy Hatfield and McCoy type of shit, that's for sure."

Laura frowned at that, but said nothing for a long moment. Julian leaned back on his elbows and stared up at the twinkling net of stars overhead. The temperature dropped quickly after sunset, and spring for the moment relinquished its grip. Still, aside from the excitement earlier it was an almost perfect night.

"Julian," she ventured after a time. "May I ask you a question?"

He shrugged. "What's up?"

"Is that what it is like to be part of a family?"

He looked at her in surprise at the question, but Laura never tore her eyes away from her vigil over the house.

"Honestly? I don't really know. Thing is, even before I got my powers my mom and dad didn't think much of me. It's like no matter what I did it was never good enough." He sighed. "My brother, though... He couldn't do any wrong. I got so sick of hearing 'Why can't you be more like James.' 'James' this and 'James' that. Looking back at things now, them packing me off for Xavier's may be the best thing they ever did for me."

He frowned at her. "Why?"

"I do not have a family," she said, and rested her chin on her knees.

"None at all? Not even before you got your powers?"

Laura hugged herself tightly, and even if her expression didn't change it was evident from her posture the question dredged up something painful. "I have an aunt and cousin," she said, and her voice got very quiet and distant. "But I have not seen them for several years, and I do not know where they are."

Julian sat up again, and dropped his hands in his lap. "That's a familiar story for a lot of us, I guess."

She shook her head. "They did not force me away, but I had no choice ...” Laura trailed off and slumped her shoulders. Julian nearly voiced the question she left unanswered at that remark, but she continued again before he could. “I see Melody with her siblings and mother, and it is different than what we were like."

He shrugged. "Well, they're bigger than a lot of families, I guess. It's too crowded in there."

Laura nodded. "Yes. So many people made me uncomfortable. But I also watch Melody and Ms. Guthrie, and they are different here than they are with their friends at the school."

Julian suppressed a shiver at the thought of Laura slipping ghost-like through the halls of the mansion and watching the private doings of others from afar. "Well, it's nothing like my family, that's for sure. I guess Cess and I are a bit like that, though."

She frowned while she considered that. "But you are not genetically related."

He suppressed a laugh. "No, no we're not. But it doesn't make us any less family. We are because we've chosen to be, and I guess if there's any good thing to take away from the fact my parents are assholes, it's that I've been able to choose a family that actually means something."

Laura seemed to consider this for a moment, but didn't say another word on the matter. Julian studied her for a time, watching the starlight glitter in her eyes, and the subtle spring breeze stirring her finer hairs. He shifted a bit and looked away, but if she noticed she didn't say anything. "Look, it's already been a long day, so don't stay up too late. Cannonball wants us to get a good night's sleep. Though I've got no idea how anyone expects to do that in a freakin' barn. Santo’s snoring is bad enough to have to deal with pigs, and cows, and who knows what else, too."

"I can go two weeks without sleep before suffering ill-effects," she said.

Julian chuckled under his breath. "Of course you can."

"He is right to be concerned," she said. "If I correctly interpret your context when referencing the Hatfield and McCoy feud, it suggests a pattern of violence. This pattern will continue. If Chester Cabot intends to exact vigilante justice against Jebediah over a slight to his son, his arrest is unlikely to curb such aspirations for vengeance."

It took Julian a moment to process just what she was saying, but he nodded. "So much for keeping a low profile, right? Mrs. Guthrie thinks Chester Cabot is planning something, I just wish we knew what. Maybe then we could actually do something about it."

Laura considered that for a moment but said nothing. She then looked towards him. "It is late, and Cannonball is correct: you should get some rest."

Julian regarded her and sighed. "Yeah, it's been a long day. Just hard to wind down from that business earlier. You're really going to stay up here a while longer?"

"Yes."

"All right, I'll let them know. Just stay close, okay?" he said, and got back to his feet.

"Good night, Julian," she said.

"'Night," he said, and levitated himself back to the ground again. By now the rest of the team was breaking up and heading for the barn, and Julian fell into step with Cessily, Santo, and Victor following Mrs. Guthrie across the grounds.

###

Paige watched Momma and Nori's team file out the front door. The excitement over the visitors was still palpable among her younger siblings, and they all clustered around the windows to watch them go. She allowed herself a smile at the fascination on the features of the youngest — particularly over Santo's enormous rocky bulk, which the big mutant received with almost childlike glee of his own — and thought back to the day her own powers manifested, and her excitement over getting to join Sam at Xavier's.

She heaved a sigh. Going to the school wasn't just a fun family tradition. Deep down she knew, in part, it was to keep the rest of the family safe by leaving the farm and drawing the stigma of being a mutant away. But now danger had come right to their front door, and in the pit of her gut she knew this time it wouldn't just follow her, or Sam, or Mel, or Jeb were they to just go away.

"All right, y'all need to be getting' up to bed," Sam said, jumping into the Herculean task of rounding everyone up and ushering them upstairs.

"Aw, Sam, can't we go an' talk to the others for a bit?" Liz asked. "Ah ain't tired yet."

"Sorry, hon', but it's been a long day an' Nori an' her folks need to get some sleep as well. They'll still be here in the mornin'. 'Sides, Momma's comin' right back, an' don't you think Ah'm getting' on her bad side lettin' y'all stay up!"

"Aw, man," Liz said, and her shoulders sagged, a sentiment mirrored on the faces of the rest.

Mel chuckled softly. "C'mon, Liz. Yana will be stayin' in the house with me. Maybe if you're all good she'll show you a little magic."

Paige frowned in trepidation, but that got the attention of the others. "Like, real magic?" Cissie asked. "Not like, pullin' coins out of my ears?"

Illyana, who remained behind in the house when the others left for the barn, leaned her hip against the couch and twitched one corner of her mouth into a rather unsettling smile. Somehow rather than finding the pretty blonde with the darkly gothic style as unnerving as even her friends did, Paige's brothers and sisters were almost as fascinated with her as they were Santo and Cessily. "Real magic," she said. "And if you like scary stories there's things that I could tell you ..."

She let her voice trail off ominously, and that only piqued their interest more.

"All right," Paige said with a roll of her eyes. "So it's settled then. You guys go with Mel and Yana, and have your little magic show." With the promised distraction, the rest of the kids rushed in a squabbling knot for the stairs leading up to their rooms, with Mel and Illyana in the lead. Almost as an afterthought she shouted up behind them, "And no demons in the house!"

Sam chuckled. He watched the herd of cats scramble over each other to get upstairs and shook his head. "Suddenly, Xavier's seems like a quiet retreat, don't it?"

Paige smirked and shook her head. "God love them, but I think if I had to spend more than a couple days in the house they'd be driving me crazy." She sighed and wearily pinched the bridge of her nose. "I still can't believe it's come down to this."

He folded his arms across his chest. "Hey, if it were up to me Ah'd just get everyone out of here. You're not officially an X-Man, Paige, you ain't seen how ugly this can get."

She glared. "I don't want to have this argument with you tonight. No, I didn't join the team. I thought the best way I could help those kids is to teach, not running around God-knows-where fighting the Magnetos and Trasks and Strykers of the world. That doesn't mean I can't or won't fight to protect them, or give up my life for them if I have to."

"Look, Paige, Ah ain't sayin' that—"

"Ah was there, Sam!" she snapped, and tightened her hands into fists. Her drawl broke through in spite of herself, and that only made her face heat even more. "Ah was there an' Ah watched Stryker's men try an' shoot down those babies! Maybe if Ah were a bit quicker Max Jordan wouldn't have died. Maybe Ah coulda even protected Jay. This is my home, Sam! Ah may live an' work in New York, but my heart is still here, an' damn it, Ah aim to fight for it!"

"Ah'm glad to hear that, Paigey," came Momma's voice from behind her, and Paige spun around to find her leaning against the front doorjamb, her arms folded beneath her breast. She looked older and even more careworn than Paige could ever remember seeing her, and her throat tightened at the sight of her. "To be honest, Ah never thought Ah'd hear you say that. You were always so anxious to be off to the big city an' that school up north. An' you always tried so hard to hide your accent. Ah just figured ..."

Momma trailed off when Paige hung her head in chagrin. A few tears welled up in her eyes and trailed down her cheeks.

"Ah'm sorry, darlin', Ah don't mean nothin' by it, but ..."

"Ah know," Paige said, and her voice broke. Sam shifted uneasily in the silence, broken only by the sound of laughter and excited shrieks at whatever mischief Illyana was getting up to upstairs.

"Look, Ah know you got your own life, baby, an' it's a good one. You've got a good job, an' you're makin' somethin' of yourself helpin' those kids, it's just ..."

"Just what, Momma? You thought all Ah'd want is to shake the hick offa me and forget all about y'all?"

"It's just folks that make somethin' of themselves ain't too interested in poor white trash like us," Momma finished. She hugged herself, and Paige watched tears start down her face as well. "Ah lost your daddy to the mines. We lost Jay the day that Julia died. Ah thought we'd lost you too, to them big city lights an' rich folks in Westchester."

"Momma, this is still my home. It's always been my home, an' that hasn't changed!" she said. "Ah'd never give that up!"

"It don't change none you're ashamed to be a little bit redneck. You're so proud of bein' a mutant; you just couldn't wait to get your powers, too, so you could go off with Sam, why can't you be proud of the other part of what it is to be a Guthrie: a hard-workin' coal minin' family. We never had much, Paigey, Ah know that. But we did have each other, why do you need to hide that?"

Paige colored and hung her head. Momma stepped away from the door and crossed the floor to gather her into a hug, and she wrapped her arms tightly around her in turn. For a long moment they just stood there in each others' arms.

"Look, baby, we can talk about this later, if you want. It's been a long night, an' we could all use the sleep."

Another excited squeal, followed by a loud crash ripped through the house, and she, Momma, and Sam all looked up to the ceiling.

"An' someone needs to find out what that ruckus is before they tear apart my house!"

###

Act IV

###

The silver light shining down on the fields stretching out between the Guthrie and Cabot estates left her more exposed to watchful eyes than she liked. Laura pressed on, gliding quickly and silently across the turf and flitting from shadow to shadow. It was well past midnight before she was able to slip away, and time, now, was of the essence. Julian was right: They needed more intelligence as to the intentions of Chester Cabot to adequately prepare for the fight Cannonball expected. She had a mission, and she would not let him down.

Several kilometers of tilled fields and fallow grasslands separated the Guthrie household from the Cabot farmland, but it took her little time to cross them, and soon she was crouching behind an old split-rail fence encircling Cabot's house. It was a large, sprawling, plantation-style home evoking the grand estates of the Deep South, with a columned entry façade, and many windows looking out onto neatly manicured lawns. She noted a few modern amenities all carefully hidden and disguised to avoid spoiling the architecture's evocation of the past.

Design suggests a preoccupation with pre-War Southern aristocracy. Cabot therefore views himself in this context, possibly informing the hostilities with the Guthrie family, whom he considers beneath his station.

She filed that away for future consideration; speculation into the motives involved might prove an interesting mental exercise, but was a distraction from accomplishing her mission objectives.

Laura made a quick survey of the grounds between her and the mansion. There was no obvious sign of a security system covering the expanse of lawn between the wall and house. The wall itself appeared mostly to be for aesthetics rather than practical security, and aside from a few decorative trees clustered around the sides of the house, the grounds were empty of cover or potential sites for cameras. She did, however spot a few placed at fixed angles on the corners of the house itself, and she quickly calculated the blind spots allowing her an unobserved approach to the building. A long circular driveway off the road led to the front door, and branched off to a garage around back. She frowned: the Sherriff's car was currently parked on the driveway.

She kept low and rolled over the top of the fence, then hurried across the grounds in a low crouch through the gaps in the camera coverage. Upon reaching the house she pressed her back against its outer wall and slunk through its shadow towards a darkened ground floor window. A quick survey found it locked with an alarm, but she easily bypassed both and entered the mansion.

Laura found herself in an elaborate dining room, and in the darkness she could clearly make out the long table and chairs, and a hutch filled with fine china and crystal glasses. A chandelier hung suspended from the high ceiling over the middle of the table, and fixtures for gas lamps on the walls would provide additional illumination and was part of the home’s historical aesthetic. The walls were papered, and the floor was made of polished hardwood. Nonetheless, with long practice and the natural affinity of her mutation, Laura crept in complete silence through the darkened room, straining her ears for any hint of activity elsewhere in the house.

Her ears caught the distant sound of voices, one of whom might have been the Sherriff.

She slipped through the darkened halls of the mansion, her keen hearing focused on the voices while they slowly resolved from an unintelligible mumble into clarity.

“...you’re confused about your loyalties, Pete,” a man said. She recognized the voice as Chester Cabot’s. “Makes me wonder if you’re really up to this.”

Laura frowned. The Sherriff was supposed to be taking Cabot into custody following the altercation at the Guthrie household.

“Damn it, Cabot,” the Sherriff said. “You just don’t want to get that times’ve changed. “The media had them kids’ bodies splashed all over the news after that business up north. People ain’t seein’ muties as second-class citizens no more. This ain’t the ‘60s in Birmingham where you could kill a black man in broad daylight and be acquitted by an all-white jury. Kill a mutie — especially a kid — an’ folks are goin’ to be angry.”

“An’ that’s a damn shame, ain’t it? They don’t belong here, Pete. They’re freaks of nature, every one of ‘em.”

“They got rights, Chester.”

“Ah got rights, too! That Guthrie boy uses his mutie powers on my boy an’ you just gonna let him walk? Ah thought you an’ Ah had an understandin’!”

Laura narrowed her eyes and curled her lips at that. Institutional complicity with the persecution of mutants. Probable corruption within the Sherriff’s office. She reached the source of the voices and pressed her back against the wall in the shadowed hallway outside a large study. The décor reminded her in some ways of Professor Xavier’s office; a large oaken desk in front of a window with a computer, and chairs across from it for visitors. A conversation circle occupied one corner, and a bookshelf another. However, this space was not nearly as lavish and, like much of the rest of the house she observed, evocative of the Old South.

Cabot sat in his office chair, leaning over his desk while the Sherriff loomed over him. His hat was gripped in one hand planted on his hip, while he glared down at Cabot.

“Our understandin’ was Ah’d turn my eye to what went on out here between you and Lucinda,” the Sherriff said. “But now it’s spilled over into Burkesville an’ innocent folks are bein’ put in the crossfire. Ah ain’t got a choice but get involved, now!”

“Then help us, damn it!” Cabot said. “You know what muties are capable of, they’re a danger to everyone in town so long as they’re here.”

“You attack the Guthries an’ what do you think is gonna happen? They got the eldest two called in, an’ who knows what the rest of them kids they brought with ‘em are capable of. You’d need an army for that.”

“Funny you should mention that, Pete.”

Cabot let out a smug chuckle, and Laura peered around the door frame with a frown as if expecting one to appear at any moment. She chided herself for foolishness even a year ago she would not have succumbed to, and for a moment wondered what other effects the influence of the others was having on her instincts, before filing it away for future consideration.

She had a mission to complete.

“What do you mean, Pete?”

“Ah’d gotten a call not long ago from Reverend Stryker. Seems he heard about my little vermin problem down here. He couldn’t send folks to help me out all direct, but said he could point me to some like-minded associates of his. But there’s better’n that.”

Cabot paused and leaned under his desk. Laura craned her neck, but her view was blocked from this vantage point. However, she did not need to speculate; Cabot straightened again and when he did, he tossed an M4A1 carbine into the Sherriff’s hands. He scrambled to catch it and dropped his hat in the process. A small thrill worked its way out of Laura’s belly and through her whole body at the implications.

“What the hell, Chester!” the Sherriff said, and his face went white while he scrutinized the carbine. “This is military-grade, where did you get this?”

“Stryker sent us enough of these to arm a whole infantry platoon for if things got really bad, an’ more than that besides. Soon as my boy came home all banged up by that Guthrie freak Ah started makin’ calls. Stryker’s friends’ll be here in the mornin’.”

“Jesus Christ, you’re plannin’ to wage a war right in the middle of my county?”

“We’re already at war, Pete! Maybe you don’t get that. Maybe none of these folks get that. But the Reverend does! He’s out there fightin’ for us, to preserve our way of life, an’ Ah intend to join him in fightin’ back.”

“Ah can’t help you with this, Chester,” the Sherriff said, and thumped the weapon down on the table.

Cabot kicked his legs up on his desk and threaded his fingers behind his head. “You don’t need to, Pete. Go back to your office an’ just stay out of my way. You’ve even given me the perfect alibi; Ah’ll be all locked up tight through tomorrow to cool down after that fight.

“As far as anyone else will know, it’s all Stryker’s boys strikin’ a blow for us normal folks.”

###

“You just let her go?!” Ashida shouted. Her gauntlets clacked when she clenched her fists, and sparks of electricity danced down the lengths of her arms and through her hair.

Julian matched her posture and called his own power to him, and the green glow of his telekinetic aura filled the barn. “I didn’t ‘let’ her do anything! I didn’t even know she was gone!”

Cannonball, Ms. Guthrie, Mrs. Guthrie, and the rest of the team were all gathered in a circle around them in the middle of their lodgings for the night; a spacious timbered structure supported by heavy wooden beams and filled with machinery. An old, battered, and rusty tractor occupied one corner, among other pieces of heavier equipment. There was also a storage cabinet for tools, while the upper levels were filled with feed, and enough hay that Julian spent much of the evening with his nose running like a faucet. The lower level was, as Mrs. Guthrie promised, heated and at least serviceable as a place to stay.

All the same Julian would have much rather sprung for motel.

“You were the last one to talk to her,” Ashida said.

“And I told her to stay close,” he said. “Last I saw her she was sitting up on the roof of the house with Mrs. Guthrie’s rifle keeping watch.”

“Well she’s not there now!”

Julian glared. They were just beginning to turn in when Cannonball came to do a head-count, like he didn’t trust them not to run off and do something stupid. So of course, much to their shock, they realized that Laura had apparently done just that. And yet he was taking the blame!

“All right, both y’all calm down,” Cannonball said. “Snipin’ at each other ain’t gonna solve anything.”

“Tell Ashida! She’s the one who started the ‘snipin’’” he said, adding the last with a mocking imitation of the other’s accent, which drew indignant glares from his sister and mother.

“Because you’re probably the only one she actually seems to like, God knows why!” Ashida said.

“Hey, she likes me,” Cessily said, wounded.

Sooraya raised her hands and tried to put herself between the two of them. “Cannonball is right,” she said. “Getting upset with one another will not change the fact that she’s gone. But Julian has a point, Noriko: Laura is nothing if not independent, and I have no reason to doubt she might have gone off on her own without warning.”

“That’s right,” Santo said. “She followed Jay that night Stryker attacked us without telling anybody.”

“Santo!” Victor snapped, and glared. The others paled, Sooraya’s face colored beneath her niqab, and even Julian scowled at him.

The damage, however, was done, to judge from the look on Mrs. Guthrie’s face. Ms. Guthrie and Cannonball both shifted awkwardly. “What’s that about Jay?”

“It’s nothin’ to worry about right now, Momma,” Cannonball said.

She folded her arms across her chest and glared. “Like hell it ain’t, boy! That little girl knows somethin' about what happened to my baby at the end that y’all been keepin’ from me. Ah may be your momma but Ah ain’t a helpless, weak ol’ woman who can’t handle the truth.”

Ms. Guthrie sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Look, Momma, you know Jay weren’t right after Julia died,” she said, her native accent slipping through. “Somehow Reverend Stryker got his hooks into him an’ used him to hurt the kids at the school. He didn’t know, but we thought it best not to say anythin’ about it.”

“Why? You didn’t think Ah could handle it? Ah may not have the fancy city education, Paigey, but Ah ain’t stupid. Ah know my baby was hurtin’, an’ Ah know that there’s folks out there who use it to take advantage of kids. The whole reason Ah sent him to your school was because Ah thought if anyone could get through to him it was your Professor!”

“Mrs. Guthrie, we all tried to help him,” Sooraya said. She clasped her hands in front of her, and hung her head in such a way that even her eyes were hidden by her niqab. Julian’s shoulders sagged, and everyone fell silent when her voice broke. “I tried to get him to open up, but ...”

Mrs. Guthrie sighed and crossed the barn to gather Sooraya into a hug. “Ah know, sweetie. Ah know y’all done your best, but maybe Jay were already gone. An’ that’s just more reason we have to fight now for what we got left.”

“There will be a fight,” came a voice from behind them, and everyone spun around in alarm to find Laura standing in the doorway of the barn, with a gun tucked under her arm.

“Laura!” Julian said in astonishment; she hadn’t made a sound.

“Where the hell have you been!” Ashida said, and glared hellfire at her. Laura flinched at her tone, but otherwise ignored her expression.

“Julian desired to know what the Cabots were planning,” she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and Julian’s face colored at the incrimination.

Ashida turned her glare on him. “God damn it, Keller!”

“Laura, I only meant it rhetorically,” he said. He scratched the back of his neck self-consciously over both the stares fixing on him, and chagrin over Laura’s pronouncement that she did it for him. “I wasn’t asking you to go off snooping around.”

A faint hint of color appeared on her cheeks, and Laura shifted uncomfortably when the attention of the gathering shifted back to her. “Oh.”

“Look, what’s done is done,” Cannonball said. “In the future, Laura, you need to remember that as part of a team you can’t just go off on your own like this. If somethin’ happened you’d have been in a world o’ trouble without help.”

Much to Julian’s surprise, Laura’s expression actually seemed indignant at that rebuke, but before she could offer an argument Cessily stepped forward and frowned at the gun in her hand.

“Laura, where did you get that?” she asked.

“From the Cabot residence,” Laura said, and turned her attention to Cannonball. “The Sherriff did not take Chester Cabot for incarceration as he claimed, but returned him to his home. He has been complicit in the Cabots’ predations against your family.”

Ms. Guthrie’s face dropped, and Mrs. Guthrie gawked at her. What Cannonball thought of the announcement wasn’t quite as clear, but he ran his hand back through his hair. “Pete’s been workin’ with the Cabots?”

Mrs. Guthrie shook her head. “That can’t be possible. Pete’s been tryin’ to keep the peace between us for years!”

“He has an agreement with the Cabots to ignore their actions against your family," Laura said, "Though he has refused to aid them directly.”

Julian twisted his lip into a scowl and clenched his fists. “That son of a bitch!”

Mrs. Guthrie spit him with a glare. “You watch your language, boy!”

“There is more,” Laura said. “Cabot has been in communication with Stryker regarding your family, I suspect due to intelligence the Reverend extracted from Jay, and received a shipment of munitions from the same source.”

She tossed the rifle in her hands to Cannonball, who caught it and turned it over while he studied it.

“M4A1 carbine,” she continued. “The same as Stryker’s men used in the attack on the school. Note the lack of serial numbers; these weapons are meant to be untraceable. I estimate from the shipping crates he has at least thirty-six. Stryker also put him in contact with a local organization to assist him. Based on Cabot’s description I do not believe they are Purifiers themselves, but perhaps an affiliated organization.”

Mrs. Guthrie bunched her features in confusion. “Purifiers?”

“Stryker’s militia,” Cannonball said, and his hands tightened on the gun. “As near as we can figure, ex-military types recruited by Stryker for wagin’ a war on our kind in God’s name.”

“Based upon their tactics and organization I speculate most are drawn from elite units, with extensive combat experience,” Laura said. “I cannot estimate the strength or capabilities of the men to which Cabot referred, however, as they were not present.”

Alleyne raised a hand. “Did you hear how many? When they’re expected?”

“Cabot contacted them as soon as he learned of Jebediah’s powers being used on his son, and expected them by the morning. Assuming the weapons cache I located is the extent of the shipment he received, we can expect approximately thirty-six men altogether, perhaps more if they supply their own equipment.”

Cannonball deflated visibly, and Mrs. Guthrie hugged herself tightly. “Dear God,” she said. “Ah never wanted any of this! If Ah had my way Ah’d live and let live, but Cabot? He just can’t leave well enough alone.”

“So what do we do?” Victor asked. “If Laura’s right, they’re going to be coming in force tomorrow. I mean yeah, at least this time we know they’re coming, but still.”

Julian folded his arms across his chest. “We kicked Stryker’s ass, we’ve got this.”

“Gee, I remember it different,” Ashida said. “We were the ones getting our asses kicked until Laura showed up, and were just lucky to get out of it alive.”

He glared at her. “If you want to run home and hide, fine with me. All I see is a bunch of KKK-wannabee redneck hicks wanting to kill mutants.”

The Guthries all spit him with a glare, but he ignored them. All he could think about now was Stryker’s men standing over the bodies of his friends.

“Shouldn’t we call the authorities?” Cessily said.

“Pete is the authority in Cumberland County,” Ms. Guthrie said, her control over her accent restored. “If he’s letting Chester Cabot have his way there’s not anyone we can turn to.”

“Except for us,” Josh said from the back, and everyone looked in his direction. Except for tending to Jeb Guthrie, Josh had remained quiet since their arrival. Now, however, Julian noted the grim set in his jaw. “We’ve all lost friends and people we loved to men like Chester Cabot. I’m with Julian: We have to stand and fight.”

Julian gave him a nod, but the others fell silent. Cannonball mopped his face, and sighed. “Damn, Ah wish Scott were here.”

“He’s not, Sam,” Ms. Guthrie said. “You're in command, now.”

“Ah know, Paige. Don’t change Ah’d rather not be.” He looked to Mrs. Guthrie. “Momma, this is gonna get ugly. Ah missed Stryker’s attack but Ah saw the aftermath. You need to let Yana port you and the kids somewhere safe.”

Mrs. Guthrie stormed up to him and snatched the stolen rifle from him. “Ah already told you once, Sam: This is my home, an’ Ah’m not leavin’. If Chester Cabot wants me an’ mine off my land, he’s gonna have to drag my dead body off it with his own two hands.”

“You know none of the others will go,” Ms. Guthrie said. “And if Yana refuses to go, we won’t be ’porting anyone out, anyway.”

Cannonball sighed. “All right, all right. We fight, then. But let’s just have a real good plan, an’ maybe we’ll all get through it in one piece.”

###

Pete glowered at the rough collection of thugs and hooligans crowding around Chester Cabot and his boys. There was little uniformity among them; here and there were a few in matching fatigues, and were he to venture a guess they had been collected from several diverse militia groups. The one thing they had in common was the righteous frenzy Chester Cabot was working them into.

He looked at Cabot, standing in front of the gathering with an assault rifle clutched in his hands. The morning sun, just breaking the rim of the horizon in the east and stretching a golden light across his fields, glinted on his sunglasses, while his sons stood behind him similarly armed.

“Y’all know why you’re here!” Chester said. “We ain’t doin’ this for ourselves. No! We’re here because our families, our homes, our way of life is in danger! There’s folk that say times have changed, but Ah say they ain’t committed to the cause.”

And at that Pete thought he saw Chester’s eyes flick over to him, before returning to the crowd.

“Ah say when it’s your family you’re protecting, there ain’t no such thing as too far! We got ourselves a nest of vipers across the way, an’ it’s high time we burned them out!”

A cheer went up among the men, and Chester flashed him a smug grin.

“Y’hear that, Pete?” he said. “Devotion. They ain’t afraid to do what needs to be done.”

Pete folded his arms across his chest and glared. “What they’re doin’ is turnin’ my county into a warzone. Damn it, Chester! This is getting’ out of hand!”

“It’s them Guthries that’ve been getting’ out of hand, an’ if you’d done what you were supposed to be doin’, we’d have this tidied up a long time ago. Now get on home, Pete. We’re finally takin’ back control of our county.”

Without another word Chester pushed past him, and his rag-tag militia formed into columns behind him and his boys. Pete watched them go without another word, and ground his back teeth together while they made their way across the fields separating the Cabot estate from the Guthrie farm. He took off his hat and slapped it against his thigh, then hurried for his car.

“Damn it!” he growled under his breath. Pete threw open the door and dropped into the driver’s seat. He grabbed the handset for his radio and queued up the channel.

“Dispatch,” a woman said on the other end.

“It’s Pete. Get me everyone still on duty, an’ anyone who ain’t get ‘em anyway.”

###

“But Sam! Ah can help!” Mel cried.

“That’s right, you can,” Sam said. “By stayin’ out of the way an’ takin’ care of the little’uns.”

“That ain’t fair! Ah’m a student at the school, too!”

Sam sighed and folded his arms across his chest. Somehow, he knew exactly how the conversation would go the moment he ordered Melody to stay in the house and guard the others. Not that it made preparing for her arguments any easier. Right now she stood with her hands balled into fists and her arms stuck down straight at her side in that defiant-little-sister posture and spit him with her best glare. The rest of the kids crowded behind her, their expressions ranging from anxiety for those old enough to understand just what was about to happen, to confusion, to fear from the youngest because they knew something was going on but couldn’t understand what. Illyana, for her part, leaned her hip against the kitchen table and made a show of boredly examining her nails.

“Ah know, Mel, an’ Ah know what you been through, but you’re still just a kid.”

“So are Nori an’ the others!”

“They’re older’n you, and they’ve at least had some trainin’. But someone needs to help protect the others in case any of Cabot’s boys get past us.” He looked at Illyana. “An’ that’s both of you.”

“But Sam—”

“No ‘buts!’” he snapped, and Mel flinched back. “Ah ain’t tellin’ you this as your brother, Mel, Ah’m tellin’ you this as the senior X-Man on site. You keep your butt inside this house an’ take care of your brothers an’ sisters, got it?”

Mel hung her head, and gave her head a reluctant nod. “Got it.”

“Good.”

And without turning back to watch for faces and dirty looks, he stormed out the back door and locked it behind him. Nori and the rest of her team formed a loose line astride the path from which Cabot was most likely to approach, and a knot formed in Sam’s belly at the thought of bringing them into combat.

Damn, why’d this have to get out of control so quick?

Momma stood with Paige and Nori, calmly loading Daddy’s rifle. David and Josh hung further back out of the way, while those of the team with better combat utility kept to the front. Santo’s enormous rocky bulk shifted impatiently from side to side after he put on what he called his “wrestling face.” Julian, Victor, and Cessily stood around him, with Sooraya on the other flank nearest to Momma, Paige, and Nori. Sam casually called his power to him, and his body began to glow when the energy field formed around him. Julian followed suit, and his hands glowed with a pale green aura. Blue-white arcs of energy raced across Nori’s body, and she shed her gauntlets. Paige took a firm grasp on the skin of her face and ripped it away, exposing a surface like granite underneath.

“Remember,” he said when he took his place in line, “We’re X-Men. Our job is to preserve mutant an’ human life, so do everythin’ you can to put ‘em down without killin’.”

“You know they ain’t gonna give us the same satisfaction, baby,” Momma said, and worked the action of her rifle. “An’ Ah got one for between Chester’s eyes, besides.”

“That’s why we gotta be better’n them.”

“They are coming,” Laura called from above and behind him, her voice cold and calm. It sent a shiver down Sam’s spine. He glanced over his shoulder and looked up to her perched on the roof of the house, the appropriated assault rifle in her hands. She peered through the scope. “I count thirty, no body armor. Their lack of organization suggests they are not a cohesive unit, and stiff resistance combined with light casualties may provoke a panicked withdrawal. I have a shot on the lead element.”

Sam took and held a breath. “Take it.”

###

It took them the better part of a couple hours to cross the fields on foot, but now the Guthrie household loomed up ahead, and Chester could see a group of people standing in a loose line across the line of his march. He smiled tightly; the Guthrie clan and their freak show companions were making themselves a perfect target.

“There they are, boys!” he shouted, and hefted his rifle. “Let’s go get ‘em!”

However, before anyone could take a step forward, one of the men out front cried in pain. He spun to the ground with blood fountaining from his shoulder, and that scattered the rest of the men in the lead when the report of the shot echoed across the empty fields.

“Man down!” someone cried. The others all started talking over one another in a panic, punctuated by another cry and a second man going down. Then a third. All three lay writhing in pain, their wails turning the features of their comrades a sickly green hue.

“Shit!” Chester said, and threw himself down. “Where’d that come from!”

“Ah don’t know, Daddy!” Abe said, his own face buried in the turf with his hands over his head.

“Come on, damn it! Get goin’! We ain’t gonna let a couple shots drive us off!”

The men hesitated, crouching low in a vain effort to present as little of a target as possible; a fourth man went down, this time the round smashed through his temple and out the corner of his jaw.

“Go!” Chester shouted, and they responded and surged forward with a cry.

###

“Four down,” Laura said, her voice never rising above a calm and measured tone. “They are charging.”

Sam sighed. So much for a couple casualties sparking a panic among the rest.

“All right, here they come,” he said. “Stand your ground, keep them from reachin’ the house.”

Santo bashed one rocky fist into his palm. “All right! Our first real fight! Bring it on!”

“Cool it, Rockslide,” Nori said. “Remember what he said; no killing if we can avoid it. You’re playing bunker.”

“Aw, how come I have to just stand here and be shot at?”

“One because you’re bullet-proof, rock pile,” Julian said. “Two because you’re going to turn anyone you hit into jelly.”

“Hellion, keep a shield up; nothing gets past you to hit the house,” Nori said. “Dust, once they’re close enough see if you can blind them. Anole and Mercury, we’ll help take them down.”

Sam cocked a grin and gave a short nod. Good girl; usin’ your team to their strengths. Were it up to me Ah’d give you an A+.

He didn’t have time to deliberate any further, however; with a cry what was left of the lead group rushed in and opened fire. Julian threw up a shield between him and the house, and their shots plinked harmlessly off the telekinetic barrier and Santo’s rocky hide. More shots rang out from behind them, while Laura effortlessly picked off one man after another with an efficiency that made Sam’s blood turn to ice. Momma took cover and fired back as well, the report of Daddy’s old gun joining with the sharp crack of Laura’s appropriated assault rifle, though her fire was not nearly so accurate and quickly proved more effective at keeping their attackers’ heads down than actually putting them down.

“Husk, let’s go!” he said, and with a howl Sooraya discorporated and blasted across the grounds, like a wall of sand driven by the wind. Chester’s firing line faltered and shielded their eyes.

“Right!” Paige said, and rushed in. Return fire plinked off her skin when she waded into them, and effortlessly flung them aside.

Nori unleashed a barrage of electricity with a crack like thunder, and a blue-white blast of energy ripped across the field. It struck among a knot of the intruders, and they all shrieked and jerked when the bolt arced from one to another, the effect for all the world like an oversized Taser. Victor and Cessily held back closer to the house, and when the stragglers reached them quickly dispatched them.

All right, Sam, time to get into the game...

Sam unleashed his power and blasted skyward, trailing a wake of energy behind him. He propelled himself in a ballistic arc through the air, and slowly arced around to strike them from the flanks. Men screamed and scattered when he ploughed through what little formation they had left, an unlucky few blasted aside by the barrier of energy gathered around his body.

###

Chester, dumbstruck, watched the leading element of his assault collapsed in on itself, torn apart by a bunch of children.

“Daddy, what’s happenin’? We’re losin’!” Abe said.

“Ah know that, boy!” he snapped, and swatted him up the back of the head. He seized on the leader of one of the groups from across the state line. “Get your boys and swing around the house! The others’ll tie ‘em up long enough for you to get inside an’ deal with the young’uns! Go!”

###

Laura did not hear the sounds of the fight raging around her. She did not see how the rest of her team was fairing. The only thing that existed for her was the rifle in her hands, and the picture through its scope. One pull of the trigger after another, one by one, Cabot’s men fell. The Guthrie farmhouse was not the ideal perch — she might have preferred the hayloft of the barn, allowing her to enfilade with Mrs. Guthrie on the ground below, and fire into the enemy from behind — but it afforded her the best position by which to survey the entire battlefield.

And that was how she noticed the group splitting off to circle around towards the front of the house. She swung her rifle around to track them, but they disappeared into a blindspot in her firing lines, and she was unable to reestablish contact.

Laura lowered her weapon and quickly surveyed the field. The enemy main body had the others occupied; Julian was maintaining his shield with Santo covering him, while the others assisted Cannonball and Husk with breaking up the attackers.

Threat rear, no other assets available to assist. Breaking position to secure the flank advised.

Without a moment’s more hesitation she dropped her rifle and hurried back inside the house through the attic window she used to reach the roof.

###

The youngest squealed in fright with every crack of a rifle, or the explosive blasts of Sam unleashing his power. They all cowered in the middle of the living room behind furniture thrown up into makeshift barricades, and Mel huddled with them, trying to keep them calm.

Why, oh why, couldn’t we have listened to Momma an’ just had Yana ‘port us out?

Mel glanced at Jeb, whose face was drawn and tight. If she looked closely, she could spot a subtle glow around the corner of his eyes; in the stress of the fight raging outside he struggled to maintain his hold on his power. Even though Mel had a year or so on him at the school, she still found it hard to keep hers under control under stress, so she didn’t know how he was managing. She couldn’t help but drift back to those terrifying minutes that seemed to drag into an eternity during Stryker’s assault, expecting the door to the classroom to give way at any moment and for men to pour through and slaughter them all. And now here she was again; helpless to stop it.

Illyana, alone among the group, stood up tall and straight, radiating a cool nonchalance in an effort to help calm the kids.

The sounds of fighting intensified, and her brothers and sisters ducked their heads and whimpered and sobbed at the sounds of gunfire, and the splatter of bullets slamming against the shield Julian threw up between their assailants and the house. All it would take was a moment of inattention for a hail of hot lead to tear through the old walls and kill them all.

She heard, or thought she heard, a muffled sound around to the front of the house. It was hard to tell because of the chaos outside. But Illyana seemed to hear it, too, and immediately fixed her attention on the front door.

Before anyone could think of saying a word, the door collapsed under the weight of a booted foot, and armed men swarmed in like ants invading the kitchen during summertime. Liz screamed. Illyana reached into her soul and drew her sword, baleful white flame flickering along the edge of its long, slender blade when she raised it overhead in both hands. Mel placed herself in between the invaders and her siblings, her own power utterly useless now, but determined to at least shield them with her body if all else failed.

Rifles leveled on them.

Snikt.

Cabot’s men didn’t even have time to piss in their boots.

Laura vaulted over the railing of the stairs leading up to the second floor, her claws flashing in the lights of the house. Mel only saw the aftermath of Stryker’s attack. She didn’t see what Laura did, even if she heard the stories from her classmates.

They didn’t do her justice.

She watched with expression frozen in astonished horror when Laura tore through them, a black shadow flitting among them and dancing around their panicked efforts to fight back. Blood sprayed across the walls. She ripped open bellies and tore out throats. She spun, rolled, and flipped through them, hands and feet working in concert to keep them off-balance.

Had Mel so much as blinked she would have missed it. It was over that quickly, and in less than a heartbeat Laura stood amid a heap of corpses. She was splattered in blood that was not her own, and her claws were red with it, a thing of terrifying, deadly beauty. But what frightened Mel the most was her expression; calm and cold. Illyana loved to put up a cool detachment, but this wasn’t the same; Laura felt nothing over the men she just killed.

Mel’s stomach lurched. She wanted to throw up. Joelle did. Laura sniffed at the sickly-sweet stench of vomit filling the living room but ignored it. She casually retracted her claws and without a word crouched next to the broken front door and watched.

###

Chester couldn’t see what happened to the men he sent around to the front of the house, but he could hear the screaming over the radio the leader of that group carried. It was over in moments, and now there was only a deathly silence that turned his mouth dry. In front of him the remnant of his army collapsed; their bravado failed against the unrelenting assault of the eldest Guthrie boy, and they broke and ran in a panic, leaving him and his sons there alone.

“Daddy, what we gonna do?” Abe asked.

Chester just stood dumbstruck at the sight of it. A bunch of kids, that’s all the Guthries had. A bunch of God damned kids and they were giving him a thorough beating.

“Daddy!” Abe said, more insistently this time, but Chester couldn’t form an answer, especially when a new sound reached his ears. The wail of sirens rapidly drew nearer, and a fleet of police cars and SUVs rounded a bend in the road. They ploughed onto the Guthries’ lawn and fields, swinging around to encircle the fleeing gunmen driven into panic by the muties defending the Guthrie household.

Pete vaulted from his car at the head of the pack with a bullhorn in hand, and crouched behind it in case anyone decided to start taking shots. “Everybody drop your weapons, now!” he shouted. “On the ground with your hands where Ah can see ‘em!”

The rest of his deputies sprung from their vehicles. Chester heard the racking of shotguns, revolvers cocking, and the whisper of steel against leather when service pistols were drawn. He found himself staring down the barrel of no less than a dozen officers. That was too much for the men, who all cast down their arms and threw themselves face-down in the dirt. Maybe they were praying for salvation from the abominations that so thoroughly routed them.

“Daddy?” Abe said, and tugged on his arm.

Lucinda Guthrie stepped out from behind the barricade she was sheltering behind, rifle in hand. Sam Guthrie alighted beside her and dismissed his power, and all the children drubbing him and his men relaxed from their guarded stances. Every last Guthrie poked their head out the door to see what was happening, like a pack of curious rats. Chester fumed and gritted his teeth, but he did the only thing he could do.

He tossed his gun to the ground.

###

Act V

###

Sam watched Chester Cabot and his boys led away in handcuffs to a waiting squad car. Those of his thugs who escaped without injury soon followed, while the wounded were loaded up under guard to be taken to the hospital. A couple died during the fight; one or two Laura shot from her perch and due to quirks of ballistics took fatal wounds or otherwise succumbed to their injuries after they fell, as well as the knot who managed to reach the house but didn’t make it past her.

He glanced sidelong at her, sitting quietly in the grass and showing her claws to Cissie, Bonnie. Ever since the attack ended they clung close to her in a way that made Sam equal parts secure and uneasy, and Laura seemed to find baffling. Cessily and Sooraya just found the whole idea amusing, and even Julian seemed to smirk at the expression that, if Sam didn’t know any better, all but pleaded to be rescued from the children latching onto her.

Santo seemed to be doing an admirable job entertaining the rest; bench-pressing a picnic table out in the yard with Mel, Jeb, Joelle, Lew, and Liz piled on top, counting each rep almost casually with his deep, booming voice, and untroubled by the weight. The kids laughed and giggled, while Illyana and Victor watched with amusement.

Josh was among the medics and deputies, helping tend to the injured men, guided by an altruism Sam reluctantly admitted he might not feel himself in his place. Somehow, he doubted the men he healed would be much appreciative of the gesture; most would spit and curse him for what he was, even while he helped put their inside back inside and put their broken bodies to rights.

Nori and David stood with him, Paige, and Momma, watching the scene. The former folded her gauntleted hands across her chest and gave her best impression of Cyclops’s commanding glower, while the rest of the team wound down from the battle. But despite that little victory in the field, Sam knew deep down there was another one coming, and no sooner did that thought cross his mind than Pete slammed a car door shut on Cabot and his sons, and started across the field towards them with his thumbs hooked through his belt. Momma stiffened and tensed her grip on the barrel of her rifle. Sam laid a hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t go shootin’ the Sherriff, now, Momma,” he said. “We ain’t under arrest yet.”

Momma scowled at him. “What do you think is gonna happen here, boy? A fight like this don’t just get swept under the rug, Ah don’t care what your Professor’s been teachin’ you about all them shenanigans you’ve been getting’ up to.”

He sighed. “Look, let’s just let him say his piece, is all.”

“All right, Sam, we’ll play it your way. But Ah ain’t forgettin’ what that little girl said; He’s been part and parcel to our troubles all along, an’ Ah ain’t about to let him playin’ cavalry make me forget it.”

They waited for Pete to approach, and once he reached them he stopped, whipped off his hat, and mopped his brow on the back of his sleeve. It was all for show, of course. Pete hadn’t really done much himself, certainly not hard enough work to justify it. Sam just folded his arms across his chest and waited.

“Welp, that’s the last of ‘em,” Pete said. “Near as Ah figure it’s an open an’ shut case of self-defense. Chester Cabot got some of his boys riled up an’ come lookin’ for trouble. Y’all ain’t had a choice but to stand an’ fight. That’ll be the end of it.”

Sam’s eyes widened in surprise, the expression mirrored by Paige, Nori, and David. Only Momma narrowed her eyes and scrutinized the Sherriff in suspicion.

“All nice an’ neat like that?” she asked. “What’s the catch, Pete?”

Pete put his hat back on and made a show of adjusting it in as official-like manner as he could. “The catch, Lu? The catch is that’s the end of it. All of it. Ah’ll do what Ah can to make this go away, you have my word, but this business between you an’ the Cabots ends here. Now. Today. You’re gonna bury that hatchet before it tears up my whole damn county.”

Momma thumped the butt of her rifle against the ground and leaned on it. “It ain’t never been our business, Pete, an’ you know that! All we ever wanted was to live in peace, but Chester an’ his kin never gave us the chance.”

“Chester’s goin’ to jail, Lu. Along with his eldest boy. It’s up to the courts to decide what becomes of the rest of ‘em, especially Abe since he’s still a minor. What happens between you an’ the Cabots is for you an’ Ma Cabot to work out for yourselves. But damn it, Lu, Ah want this to be the end of it!”

Sam looked between Pete and Momma. Momma stared at him a good long while before she finally grit her teeth, lowered her head, and nodded.

“All right, Pete.”

Pete stared at her for a long moment, before giving a curt nod, satisfied this was, indeed, the end of it. “Good. Now Ah mean you no offense, Sam, but Ah suggest you an’ that group you brought in be makin’ yourselves scarce. As long as y’all are around it’s gonna be a lot harder to keep a lid on what’s happened out here.”

Sam nodded, and shot Nori a warning glare when he saw her open her mouth to protest. “We’re as good as gone, Pete.”

Paige crossed her arms and eyed Pete closely for a moment. “This is awfully charitable of you, Pete. You’ve never lifted a finger for us before, why change now?”

“Because Chester Cabot was tryin’ to turn my county into a war zone!” Pete said, and spat off to the side. “If things continued as they were all of Cumberland could have exploded, an’ that means innocent folks getting’ hurt. Ah mean look at all this hardware! This ain’t kid gloves, Lu, this is military. Ah don’t know how Chester managed to slip it through, but it was all sent by Reverend Stryker. Ah think y’all ought to know that.”

“We already do,” Nori said. Her gauntlets clicked and clacked when she flexed her fingers. She spit him with a glare, and a grim scowl crossed her face.

Pete gawked, taken aback by the revelation. “How ...?”

Sam shook his head. “Pete, that’s a Pandora’s Box you’re really best not openin’,” he said, and glanced to where Laura was demonstrating some of her techniques to the delight of Cissie and Bonnie, with Julian as her target dummy. For his part, much to Sam’s surprise, Julian seemed not the least bit bothered about being roughly and cleanly wrestled to the ground time and time again by the lithe but lethal little ball of fury. In fact, if he didn’t know better, he may even have been enjoying it. “Trust me, the less you know the better.”

The Sherriff followed his gaze, a look of amazement on his features, and he swallowed visibly. “Right. Well, Ah’ll leave y’all to get this back in order.” He turned his attention back on Momma. “Ah’ll need you to come into town to take your statement, an’ to make the arrangements to get this talked out with Ma Cabot. Just remember what Ah said: This is the end of it, here an’ now.”

“Ah get it, Pete,” she said. He eyed her for a good moment more before, satisfied with her response, he turned and headed back to the cluster of police cars and SUVs slowly breaking up and pulling away, hauling Cabot and his thugs off to jail.

###

Abandoned Weapon Plus bunker, the Canadian wilderness...

Stryker stood in the doorway leading out of the bunker and onto the wide swath of ground between it and the line of trees beyond. The snow was just beginning to recede, shaking from the boughs of the dense growths of pine forest, and running in trickling streams down the hillside. Soon the rivulets and rills would find their way down to the rushing waters of some creek or river, to eventually drain into the lakes, and maybe, perhaps, the Atlantic Ocean. All was still and quiet, just the sound of the wind and a few birds singing while spring slowly tore the Canadian wilderness from winter’s icy grip.

He heard a noise behind him, but didn’t turn. He was already expecting Matthew with the morning report and dispatches; a small routine to break up the monotony of waiting. Waiting for what, exactly? The Canadian authorities to rout them out under pressure from a screaming U.S. State Department? For Xavier and his band of terrorists to come barging down his door? Or for some sign of providence from the Almighty himself? A sign that his sacrifices and labors were to be rewarded.

Stryker sighed. More than anything, he was just waiting for the end of the waiting.

“Reverend,” Matthew said upon reaching him. Stryker frowned. There was an odd catch in his voice. He turned and was surprised to see his scarred visage was deeply troubled.

“What is it, Matthew?”

“You’d best take a look at this.” He handed him the tablet he had been carrying, and Stryker found himself looking at a news feed out of Cumberland County. “You remember Chester Cabot? The man in Kentucky we sent a shipment of arms to?

Stryker scowled. The Guthrie boy. “Yes, Ah recall he had something of an infestation at home.”

Matthew nodded. “He decided to take it on himself to try and burn them out. It didn’t go well.”

He read the news feed himself: Seven men killed, over a dozen more wounded. Chester Cabot, his sons, and the other survivors all arrested on charges of some flavor of assault, home invasion, destruction of property, and attempted murder. His stomach churned at a note near the bottom of the article:

Weapons recovered at the scene have been tentatively linked to wanted fugitive William Stryker and his organization known as the Purifiers, which has been listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“Damn,” he said under his breath.

“There’s more, Reverend,” Matthew said. “I checked in with one of our local contacts, and the attack was broken up by a group from Xavier’s school. He says it was led by the eldest Guthrie boy.”

“The X-Men?”

“He wasn’t sure, but it’s likely.”

Stryker sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Contact Adam,” he said. “Ah think we may need to move up our plans. Tell him we have the perfect target in mind for his field test.”

“Sir?”

He fixed the younger man with a deadly serious look. “Tell him to make the release in Salem Center.”

---

 A Note from the Author

This is the first episode I really needed to sit down with a copy of the books (well, digital. Thank you, Marvel Unlimited!) open while I've written it. Most of what I had done to this point I knew the material fairly well, but at the time I was relatively new to the books themselves so there's a LOT I never read (I grew up on the '90s toon and movies, and it was only discovering X-23 that got me to start actually picking the books themselves up). It was certainly a different experience to work that way, and there will be other stories to come which require the same process.

She Lies With Angels has certainly become quite the source of memetic ridicule among the fanbase, and Chuck Austen with it. However, I knew I wanted to touch on the Guthrie/Cabot feud at some point. That said, if you get past some of its more ridiculous moments (like Angel banging Husk in the air. In front of her mom) and the heavy-handed Romeo and Juliet subplot, there's actually not a bad story there. So, in adapting it for this series I decided to streamline things by focusing solely on the feud itself. This was helped by the cast; removing Warren eliminates the awkward romance with Paige, and since Jay and Julia are already dead by this point it excises the pretty laughably bad Shakespeare homage. Yet even with all the streamlining (I just couldn't fit the Rays in except for Ray Junior in the beginning; there just wasn't a spot for that subplot) this still ended up as one of the longer episodes to this point (though episodes to come at the end of Season 2 would surpass it).

Were this to be a series with a full 22 episodes per season I'd love to spend more time building up Paige in advance of this episode, particularly the fact she's been burying her accent. Unfortunately, this is the main recurring issue I've been running into: I've got such a large cast of regulars and secondary characters there's just not room to fit them in every episode, so some ideas aren't developed as fully as they could be. I took a little license with the rest of the Guthrie family itself. Although all of the children are accounted for, as near as I can tell the youngest has never been named in the books, so I took it on myself to name her Bonnie after Ma Guthrie’s cousin just so I had something to call her when it became necessary (I was tempted to have Paige or Sam scramble for their name to lampshade it, but eh).

Although this episode focuses mainly on the Guthrie clan, we do get a little more psychology of the other characters. Since I've established that something is a little "off" about Illyana in her previous appearances, I wanted to give a few hints on how I imagine that happening in this adaptation. Her backstory is one of the more complex and convoluted, (which is saying a lot for the X-Men) and I wanted to both simplify it while still offering nods to some of its more iconic elements. We also get another nice moment between Julian and Laura with their conversation on the roof.

I did want to give a nod to this episode’s origins by referencing She Lies with Angels’s connection to Romeo and Juliet in the dialogue. The version that Rockslide mentions is a real adaptation and is a bit of a personal in-joke; we watched this 1968 version starring the now-late Olivia Hussey when studying Shakespeare when I was in High School. Unfortunately, the teacher hadn’t seen it, and didn’t realize there was a scene where Hussey is topless...

As a tangential aside, one of my favorite choices for an actress to portray Laura in live-action at the time I was writing this episode, before Dafne Keen’s spectacular (if not quite as book-accurate) performances in Logan and Deadpool & Wolverine, was India Eisley. Eisley just so happens to be the daughter of Olivia Hussey, which makes Santo referencing that version even more amusing to me.

This episode was incredibly frustrating to write, to be honest, and it really got me behind schedule the first time around. I just found it incredibly hard to stay focused and slog through to the end. Unfortunately, this wouldn’t be the end of my writer’s block/motivational issues, which would ultimately lead to quite a long hiatus by the time I was writing 2x08.

But that’s a story for another day. Next up we jump straight back into the A plot that will drive much of the rest of the season, so until next time!

Chapter 7: 2x07 - Legacy

Summary:

When a mysterious illness strikes at the Xavier school, it's a race against time for Henry McCoy to identify it before it can begin to spread.

2x07

Legacy

###

Act I

###

Jubilee spit them both with her most withering glower, but the expression was lost on them.

Ugh, being the “cool” grown-up totally sucks when I actually need to punish someone.

Illyana sat up straight, her arms folded beneath her breast. She lifted her chin in indignation, crossed her long legs, and turned her back as much as she could to Quentin Quire while still facing Jubilee across her desk. Quentin, for his part, slumped in his chair. His face was smudged with soot, his clothes were rumpled and stained with sweat, and the shock of pink hair running down the center of his shaved head hung limply across his face. The pervasive stench of brimstone filled her office.

"All right, look, I don't care which one of you guys started it," she said. "Yana, you don't just stick someone in Limbo whenever you feel like it!"

Illyana clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes. "I made sure to put him somewhere reasonably safe! They only would have eaten him if he tried to move!"

"'Only?!'" Quentin said, aghast. "Those things were salivating the whole time I was in there!"

She glared over her shoulder at him. "I warned you what would happen, didn't I? You brought it on yourself!"

"Oh come on, you totally overreacted!"

"Dude!" Jubilee said, interjecting before Illyana could dig herself in deeper. "I don't care how she reacted. When a girl says — or thinks — keep your hands to yourself she means it. And that includes the TK, mister! Copping a feel is still copping a feel no matter what appendage or lack thereof you're using."

She turned her eyes on Illyana, just in time to see the satisfied grin tug at her lips. "But there's better ways to handle it than teleporting him to Limbo. Maybe he was safe, but he could just as easily have been hurt or killed."

Illyana pouted. "I have total control of everything that goes on in there! I made Sy'm promised he would only let the others scare him a little."

Quentin gawked at her. “Those things have names?!”

“Of course they do!” she said, and glowered indignantly at him. “They’re demons, not animals!”

"I don't care!” Jubilee said. “No more siccing demons on your classmates."

"That is so unfair!"

"Suck it up, dude! If you've got a problem with Quentin's wandering hands and head, that's what I'm here for." Jubilee glared at Quentin. "And you: Touch another girl — and I mean that in every sense of the word, so don't get cute with the TK or TP, buster — without her permission again and I will totally paf you into your next birthday. Got it?"

Illyana fumed, and Quentin ducked his head so he didn't have to look her in the eye. Neither of them said a word.

"I said, 'Got it?'"

"Yes," they both said in chagrined voices. Jubilee looked from one to the other for a moment, then nodded. "All right. Now I'll do you guys a favor and I won't put this little incident in your records, but I don't want to see you in here over this again, deal? Go on, get back to class."

She watched them go, Quentin making a show of raising his hands in the air to forestall any accusations of his hands being where they oughtn’t, while Illyana spit him with a murderous glare. Then they were out the door and slamming it shut behind them. Jubilee let out an exasperated growl and buried her face in her hands for a long moment, her frustration over the squabble mingling with memories of being on the other side of her desk.

“I hope you were listening in on that, Professor,” she said to no one, but with so many telepaths under one roof you never knew for sure. “I’m sure you’d appreciate what I just had to deal with.”

###

Illyana stormed from Jubilee’s office and fought down the urge to tear Quentin apart. Fortunately for him he kept out of her head — or at least she couldn’t feel him in her head. With telepaths you never knew who might be bouncing around where uninvited. However, he responded to her warning glare with a smug and self-satisfied grin, and that just made her even hotter.

“Just so you know: Totally worth it,” he said, showing a hint of teeth through his lopsided smirk, before strutting off down the hall. Melody, Megan, and Fabio were waiting for her, and watched him pass by.

“What was that all about?” Melody asked when she joined them, still glaring daggers at Quentin’s back.

“The little pervert TK-pinched my ass during Dr. Grey’s class,” she said, and folded her arms beneath her breast. “So I sent him to Limbo.”

Megan’s face blanched. “Alone? Yana, you didn’t...!”

“Oh come on, Megan, I wouldn’t have let them hurt him, just freak him out a bit to teach him a lesson. But Dr. Grey didn’t think it was very funny and made me bring him back, then sent us both to Jubilee.”

Fabio scratched the back of his head and shifted from foot to foot. “That’s kind of harsh. I mean, I’ve been in there, and I couldn’t get out fast enough.”

She smirked. “That’s because you’re so plump and juicy. Quentin’s too scrawny for their tastes.”

“Not helping!”

“Come on, Yana,” Melody said, “that’s cruel even for Quentin.”

Illyana rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated groan when she started off down the hallway. “You guys are no fun at all!”

“Ah just don’t think the Professor wants to tell anyone their kid was eaten by demons at the next parent-teacher conference.”

“I made it very clear to them there was to be no devouring.”

“An’ they’d really do as you say all the time, even when you ain’t there to keep an eye on ‘em?”

Yana rounded on her and her eyes flashed. “Of course! Limbo is my world, and nothing happens there that I don’t control.”

Megan’s wings fluttered, and she hugged herself tightly. “The demon doggies tried to eat me even when you told them no.”

“Ok, sometimes they can be a little rambunctious. But housebreaking takes time and love.”

Melody rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but most puppies just jump on ya, not try to gnaw your face off.”

“Aren’t we losing sight of the important part of this, that Quentin Quire is a perverted little creep who needed to be taught a lesson?”

“Yana ...” Melody said, with that impatient sort of tone she heard Mrs. Guthrie use whenever one of the million Guthrie siblings got up to something they ought not to.

She threw her hands up in the air in defeat. “All right! All right! Fine! Poor Quentin, what did he do to deserve it? Can we just get back to class, now?”

Without waiting for a response from the others, Illyana stormed for the stairs leading back down to floors below in a huff.

###

The shuttle let them off on the corner near the movie theater, and Illyana, Melody, Megan, and Fabio all piled out and onto the street. It wasn’t quite dark yet — a smidge of rosy gold smeared the horizon in the west while the dying light of the sun made Salem Center glow — though it was still rather cool for her liking. Illyana ignored the chill against her bare legs, and uselessly tugged down the hem of her miniskirt. Had it been up to her, she would have just teleported the lot of them right to the Grind Stone and taken advantage of the fire-and-brimstone warmth of Limbo to avoid the spring chill, but the others quite emphatically balked at her suggestion.

The streets of Salem were unusually crowded that evening, not only with their classmates enjoying the end of classes for the day, but the locals as well. As usual the residents ignored the student body with the casual disinterest that came from the school's proximity. Piotr's towering frame poked above the heads of the crowd — and she had no doubt Ms. Pryde would be somewhere nearby, though her diminutive figure was lost in the sea of bodies roaming the town — keeping a quiet and surreptitious watch on the students in their charge. Well, as surreptitious as well more than six and a half feet of muscle could be.

Everyone at school took the surveillance in stride, and Illyana doubted the locals even noticed it at all. But though things had been quiet in Salem since Stryker's attack, the Professor insisted on having someone keep an eye on things.

“So what do we want to do first?” Megan asked. The breeze ruffled her bright pink hair, but though her fairy princess costume was little longer than Yana’s skirt, she showed no sign of being the least bit troubled by the weather.

“Ah don’t know about y’all, but I’m starvin’,” Melody said.

“I could do with something to eat,” Fabio said.

“We could see if Luna’s running any specials tonight.”

“As long as it isn’t pizza again,” Illyana said, and made a face. “Last time I went to Limbo after a slice my babies wouldn’t leave me alone! And you would not believe how well demons can work the puppy dog eyes. I’d have to bring some back for everyone, and there’s a lot of everyone.”

They started up the street for the Grind Stone, and Melody glanced sidelong at her. The corners of her mouth twitched upward into an amused smile. “Can’t you just, like, conjure it up with your powers while you’re in there?”

“Conjured pizza? Ugh! And you guys think I’m deranged?”

“I wonder what I’d do if I could work real magic,” Megan said. “I mean, my pixie dust can make people see things that make them happy, but it’d be great to be able to actually make it come true, you know?”

Illyana smirked and allowed herself a quiet chuckle. “Oh Megan, you’re so cute. The dark arts are so much more fun!”

“You always talk about it, but Ah hardly ever see you actually doin’ it,” Melody said.

“Magic is harder to work outside of Limbo. What I can do out here you would hardly even call parlor tricks. But in there, I could make you and Fabio fall desperately in love with each other.”

“Oh my God! You wouldn’t!”

“Hey! I’m standing right here!” Fabio said, and made a face.

“I’m sorry! It’d just be kinda weird.”

Illyana’s smirk broadened to a full, toothy grin. “Oh don’t worry, I won’t. He’d just get nervous, and then you’d have his balls flying at your face.”

Megan and Melody gawked, and Fabio’s cheeks turned a brilliant shade of crimson.

“Yana!” Megan said, her expression aghast. Melody and Fabio didn't say a word.

She just laughed off their discomfiture and continued up Titicus for the café.

A number of locals gathered outside the doors, laughing and chatting over steaming to-go cups. Megan's rainbow-colored wings drew a few curious looks, and an awkward compliment from a Salem boy about their age that made them flutter. Melody wasted no time in suggesting she give him her number, which just made her freckled cheeks turn red. Illyana smirked and rolled her eyes as she took hold of the door handle and swung it open.

Just as someone standing inside the door while fumbling with his phone and cup burst through.

The man yelped when he distractedly ran straight into her, and dumped his cup all down the front of her shirt. For a moment she could only stare down at her clothing in a mix of shock and indignation. Everyone around her gasped and scattered out of the way to avoid the spilled coffee arcing through the air.

"Hey!" she snapped. "Watch where you're going!"

For his part the man colored in embarrassment and fumbled for a napkin. "Oh! Oh God, I'm sorry! I didn't see you!" The man immediately made a move to wipe down her shirt front, but Illyana seized him by the wrist and sneered.

"Don't even think about it!"

"Calm down, Yana!" Melody said, and tried her best to squeeze in between them. "Ah'm sure it was an accident!"

"Yeah, right, it's always an accident. Maybe I should accidentally—"

"Yana!" Megan said, and her wings fluttered anxiously at the threat in her voice.

"What?" Illyana fixed the man with her most withering glare, and his face paled at what he saw in her blue eyes. "It would serve him right."

"Come on, it ain’t that bad," Melody said. "You don't want to get detention this time, do you?"

"I'm really, really sorry!" the man squeaked, his voice going very small. By now more of a crowd had gathered to see what the excitement was about, but before anyone could say anything else Nori forced her way through the crowd inside the Grind Stone, her gauntlets clacking and clicking, and an apron tied securely around her waist.

"Hey, what's going on?" she asked, and looked between Illyana and the oaf standing there with a handful of napkins hovering irritatingly close to her boobs.

"This id—"

"It was just a little accident," Melody said, cutting her off and spitting her with a glare. "Nothin' a few wet wipes an’ the school's laundry room can't fix."

Illyana scowled back, and Nori sighed.

"All right, Yana, you can clean up in the ladies' room. And you—" she turned on her erstwhile assailant and folded her arms across her chest "—just watch what you're doing, huh? You know I'll have to clean up the spill, now."

"I'm sorry! Really!" he said.

Illyana snatched the napkin out his hand and raised her nose to him when she stormed through the door. Behind her she could hear Melody returning his apology. "Ah'm sorry, she's kind of havin' a bad day, no harm done ..."

She released her hold on her powers, and with it the urge to teleport the idiot right to the darkest, dankest dungeon in Limbo she could find. And if she couldn't find one, she would have willed one into existence just for him.

###

Act II

###

The Lower East Side, Manhattan, aka Mutant Town...

Kevin mopped the sleep from his eyes. The sizzle of bacon and the pungent aroma of coffee filled the run-down apartment, much as it had every morning of the past few weeks. He sat up in bed when his stomach began to rumble, and, as he had every morning, resolved that this was the day he would tell her it was time for him to move on. The weather was warming as spring drove back the Mid Atlantic winter, and he heard no rumor that he was still being hunted. Certainly Professor Xavier could find him in a heartbeat if he really wanted to, and yet when he looked out the apartment window there was never a sign of the X-Men coming to take him back.

A hollowness crept into his gut at that thought: They really did care that little about him.

He sighed and swept his gaze across the cramped spare bedroom. As New York City went, it would almost be considered lavish, but it was old, with peeling wallpaper and warped floorboards, and worst of all to most prospective buyers, right in the heart of one of the biggest populations of mutants in all of New York City. By chance she had a mattress his powers wouldn’t destroy, and after sleeping on the hard, frozen ground it came as a welcome relief to have a real bed again. Something that just made it even harder to leave.

Kevin swung his legs out of bed and dressed, then left his room and headed for the kitchenette. She stood over the stove and stirred breakfast around in the pan, an old crocheted shawl wrapped around her shoulders. Her face was obscured by the fall of her silver hair, but she stiffened when he stepped out of the short hall connecting the kitchenette to the bedrooms; a barely perceptible hitch in her movements he quickly learned meant his arrival hadn’t gone unnoticed. His host had thus far been coy about her powers, but if she was a telepath she never gave him the same sort of hints he noticed in the Professor or Dr. Grey, or even Quentin or Ruth, for that matter.

Without a word he approached the small table in the middle of the room and dropped into a chair. The table was already set; a plate for each of them with a heaping pile of scrambled eggs, a glass of orange juice for him, and her strong, black coffee steaming in a white ceramic mug. The woman — strange, he thought she once mentioned her name, but now it slipped through the back corners of his mind like a ghost, always at the tip of his tongue but just out of reach — finished her cooking, and tossed the pan with a dexterity belying her gnarled hands. She turned off the burner, then smiled in greeting when she turned away from the oven and shuffled to the table with the pan in hand.

“Well, good morning!” she said pleasantly. “Did you get a good night’s sleep?”

Kevin smiled back when he met her brown eyes. They were warm and soothing, and if he stared into them too long he thought he might lose himself in them. There was something he meant to tell her that morning, wasn’t there?

“I did, thank you,” he said.

Never mind, it would come to him.

“I’m glad to hear it!” She served him a few strips of bacon from the pan. “I was afraid you might run off and leave me all on my lonesome after a few hot meals.”

The last was added with a wry turn of her lips, but Kevin was aghast at the very notion he could be so ungrateful. “I wouldn’t think of it! This is the first place I guess I’ve felt welcome in a while. I really appreciate it.”

She smiled again, and returned the pan to the stove after serving herself the rest of the bacon. “So do you think today you might finally be up to telling me something of yourself?”

Kevin’s face warmed in chagrin; all this time together and he had never said a word about who he was or where he came from, though to be fair she neither asked nor offered to do the same in turn. That odd, raspy chuckle rattled in her throat at his discomfiture. Her chair squeaked when she sat down and started on her eggs. “Oh, don’t be so embarrassed. I know what it is to run from something, and that for people like us it’s sometimes easier not to say too much about who we are or where we came from.”

He swallowed a mouthful of his eggs. “What makes you think I’m running from something?”

“I’m merely old, my boy, not senile. I’ve seen that look many times in my life. And, well, you’ve been quite secretive, avoiding the windows and such.” She narrowed her eyes and scrutinized him closely. “I hope you’re not a thief.”

“No, I promise I’m not a thief,” he said.

“Good! I don’t have much, but I would prefer my charity is not so rudely rewarded as to wake up and find it all gone. Though I suppose it wouldn’t be worth all that much, anyway. Trouble with your family, then?”

He shook his head, and stared down into his plate of eggs, suddenly not feeling particularly hungry. “I don’t have any family.”

“Ah,” she said, and when he looked up her eyes filled with sympathy. “I’m so sorry. That’s a story of our kind I’ve heard a bit too often, I’m afraid. I didn’t mean anything by it, I suppose I just figured that might have been your big secret.”

“I wish that was all it was.” Kevin heaved a steadying breath. “I used my powers on someone.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Well, that does explain a lot.”

“He hurt someone I cared about. I was upset, and ...”

She reached across the table for his hand, but Kevin flinched back reflexively.

“Don’t touch me!”

She jerked back, and her brown eyes widened in surprise at the outburst. “I’m sorry, I was only trying to—”

“It’s not that. It’s just...when someone touches me it hurts them. If they hold on too long ...”

“Oh, I see. So then you’re not running, you’re being hunted.”

He winced at the accusation in her voice, but gave a stiff nod of acknowledgement. “Yes. Maybe, I don’t know. I was a student at the Xavier School. I’d have thought they would have come for me a long time ago. Professor Xavier or Dr. Grey could find me anywhere, you know? Maybe even send the Wolverine after me. But they haven’t come after me here ...”

“Well, my young fugitive, perhaps they’re merely waiting for you to be careless. But I suppose now I need to ask myself what I’m going to do with you!”

Her thoughtful musing startled a whole flock of butterflies into flight in his belly.

“I’m sorry if I’m bringing you any trouble!” he said. “I appreciate you putting me up the last couple weeks, and that’s not how I wanted to repay you.”

She smiled, and the warmth of it lighting up her face and eyes washed over him and quickly soothed the butterflies. “Ah, so you do wish to repay my hospitality. Very good! And as for whatever you did, it’s a hard world for us, and I suspect will be even harder before it gets better again. So don’t worry, I wouldn’t think of tossing you back out onto the streets for something as noble as protecting someone you cared for.”

The sour taste of bile filled his mouth, and he took a drink of his orange juice in a vain attempt to wash it away. The memory of Laurie lying cold and still in a pool of blood flashed unbidden through his mind, and he heard the screams of her killer while his face rotted into dust in his hands.

“Thank you.”

“But!” she said, and raised a finger pointedly, “I do expect you to start earning your keep! And I do have a few things you can help me with.”

He eyed her warily, and try as he might he couldn’t keep the suspicion off his features. “What do you need me to do?”

She picked up her coffee mug and smiled at him over it. “Oh, nothing too objectionable. I’m an old woman, after all, and more than anything I could use a strong young man to help me keep this place up, and just keep me company.”

Kevin considered for a moment, and swept his eyes across the kitchenette. “Well, I’m pretty handy. I mean, I was an artist at school, but I took shop, too. I could probably help you fix this place up a bit.”

She pouted. “So you think I’ve done an abysmal job of keeping my home?”

He colored. “No, not at all! I mean, it’s a really nice space and all, it’s just ...”

That raspy cackle filled the room. “Easy, boy, no need to defend yourself. This place is indeed quite the wreck. Maybe when I was younger I could take better care of it, but now?” She clicked her tongue and shook her head. “Very well, I think that will do for a start. Now, eat up! I’d like to do some shopping later and could use a hand with the groceries!”

Kevin relaxed and turned his attention back to his breakfast. The emptiness that threatened to overtake him after Laurie’s death faded to a dull ache, and when he watched his strange roommate dig into her breakfast, he found himself feeling as if things were actually turning around.

###

Illyana leaned over her desk, her face buried in her hands, and listened to Dr. McCoy drone on and on. And on. Or at least she might have had his voice not been an all but unintelligible buzzing in her ears. The pressure between her eyes was becoming unbearable, it was too hot by about a thousand degrees, and her guts did handstands and somersaults in her belly.

She really ought to have just stayed in bed that morning.

“Psst! Yana!” Melody whispered from the next aisle over. Illyana risked looking away from her desk and immediately wished she hadn’t. The overhead lighting stabbed spikes of pure agony straight into her brain, while Melody and her identical twin sister spun dizzyingly around each other. They might have worn a concerned frown, but Illyana couldn’t quite get them to hold still well enough to be sure. It just made the gymnastics routine going on in her bowels all that much worse. “You okay?”

She grimaced and lowered her head, squeezing her eyes shut tight in hopes the darkness would settle her swimming head and stomach.

Nope.

“Illyana! Wake up, you know what Dr. McCoy says about sleeping in class!”

Illyana mumbled a response into the crook of her arm that was unintelligible even to herself.

“Yana!”

“Excuse me, Ms. Guthrie,” Dr. McCoy said. “I’m sorry if my lecture is interrupting your private conversation. Do you and Ms. Rasputin have something you’d like to share with the rest of the class?”

Everyone else snickered, but Illyana just kept her head buried in a vain effort to shut out the light and get her stomach to behave. “Ms. Rasputin!”

“Mmmmpf,” she replied, and wanted to cry. Sweat beaded on her brow, and the churning in her belly just got worse.

“Dr. McCoy, Ah don’t think she’s feelin’ very well,” Melody said.

“Hm ...” Dr. McCoy started across the classroom, his footfalls as imperceptible as a cat, though the rustle of his fine tweed suit was almost deafening right now. He stopped next to her desk, and Illyana raised her head. It was all she could do to hold it upright. His big, blue, furry face lowered until he could look her in the eyes, and he placed a paw to her brow. “Stars and garters you are burning up! Melody, help her down to the medical bay, I believe Dr. Grey is on duty this morning.”

“Yes, sir.” Melody’s chair scraped along the floor when she rose and stepped around her desk. “Come on, Yana.”

Illyan grimaced. The very thought of getting into any position except horizontal made her stomach tie itself in knots, but she pushed away from her desk and, with her shaking arms for support, managed to stand. Melody put an arm around her to guide her for the classroom door, but she didn’t make it more than one tottering step before her belly decided to make its displeasure known. She gagged, collapsed to her knees, and everyone around her groaned in disgust when she vomited onto the floor.

“Whoah! Chunky!” Santo exclaimed from the back of the classroom.

Her stomach lurched again and again, emptying the entirety of its contents — breakfast, dinner from the night before, a late-night snack snuck from the kitchen when she ought to have been asleep — into a slimy, sickly-sweet pool spreading out in front of her. And when there was nothing more for her to throw up her body was wracked with dry heaves. Dr. McCoy and Melody were immediately beside her, and they held her upright when her body threatened to give way beneath her. Then she retched again, but to her surprise and Dr. McCoy’s horror, it wasn’t dry this time.

This time she vomited blood. A lot of it, and bright red.

“Oh dear God!” Dr. McCoy exclaimed, and Illyana was distantly aware of a crowd forming around her when her classmates realized something was very much out of the ordinary. “Everyone get back! Give her room!”

Her eyes fluttered and a gray fog passed across her vision. She saw shadowed faces looming over her, but they were frustratingly vague and indistinct, and their excited chatter echoed dully in her ears, as if from a great distance.

“Yana? Yana!” Melody called, her voice breaking in fright. “Doc, what’s goin’ on?”

“Please clear the classroom. Go back to your dorms immediately and remain there. Go on!”

The words were spoken with just the right blend of urgency and practiced calm that everyone started moving without protest. Their chatter — she was just cognizant enough of what was happening to know it was about the mess she just made on the classroom floor — grew fainter and fainter until it faded away to nothing.

“Doc, is she okay?” Melody asked.

And that was the last she heard before darkness reached up and swallowed her whole.

###

“Let me see her!”

Peter tried his best to shoulder his way past the wall of bodies between him and the new isolation ward, but Hank stubbornly put his furry blue body in between them. He was clad from head to toe in a biohazard suit, and the sight of it when he emerged from quarantine just as Peter arrived — responding to Jean’s frantic telepathic call as fast as he could excuse himself from his class — made his heart jump into his throat.

“I’m sorry, Peter!” Hank said, and gently pressed his paws against his chest, more of a symbolic restraint than any meaningful attempt to do so. If he wanted to, Peter could have tossed him aside as if he weren’t even there. “Until I know what it is we’re dealing with I can’t let anyone in there without taking the proper precautions first.”

Scott, Jean, and the Professor were all there as well. Jean sat at the monitoring terminal mounted beneath the observation window, while Scott leaned his hip against the console with his arms folded across his chest and his head bowed. Xavier wore a sympathetic frown, and steepled his hands together in thought. Melody Guthrie was there, also, rocking from side to side in a chair while she wrung her hands.

Peter ran his hands back through his hair to keep himself from ripping the console out of the wall. “What’s wrong with her?”

“I’m afraid I really don’t know yet,” Hank said. “We’ve only just begun to run tests. All I can say for certain is that she’s running an alarmingly high fever, along with symptoms of severe nausea, hematemesis, vertigo, and photophobia.”

Peter muttered a string of curses beneath his breath in frustration, and approached the window looking into the quarantine area. Illyana lay in bed asleep and hooked up to Hank’s machines. Sweat plastered her golden hair to her brow, and her face was frighteningly pale. Her breast rose and fell with every ragged breath, but otherwise she lay absolutely still.

“Melody, did she say anything to you about feeling unwell?” Xavier asked. Peter just stared at his sister, and let them talk behind him.

“No, Professor,” she said. “Ah mean she was fine last night, but Ah first noticed she didn’t seem right when we came to class this mornin’. She started fallin’ asleep in Dr. McCoy’s lecture, an’ that’s when she got sick.”

“Has she eaten or done anything unusual?” Hank asked. “Anything at all, maybe something from Limbo? Illyana has thus far declined my requests to study it in more detail, and there’s a possibility that perhaps whatever flora and fauna are native to that dimension may be harmful.”

“Nothin’ Ah know of. Most of the time Ah see her go in it’s just to ‘port ‘cause she doesn’t feel like walkin’.”

“It wouldn’t be anything in Limbo,” Peter said, with as much conviction as he could muster while his own stomach was doing its best to turn itself inside out. “Yana essentially is Limbo; nothing can happen there that she doesn’t will to be.”

“Respectfully, Peter, I understand Illyana has considerable power there, but from what little I’ve gleaned the denizens are nonetheless naturally occurring entities and not constructs of her imagination or even her mutation. They have wills of their own and, if I’m not mistaken, even her control over them can be tenuous when they get, shall we say, uppity.”

Peter spun around and fixed the elder mutant with a glare, but was interrupted by Scott before he could offer his retort.

“Can you think of anything else?” he asked. “Anywhere at all she might have been, maybe even somewhere she used Limbo to teleport to where she might have ingested or been exposed to something unusual? Are you absolutely sure?”

Tears poured down Melody’s face at Scott’s laser-focus fixing on her. She rocked in her chair, and if she wasn’t tearing at her own hair, it was because she was hugging herself so tightly. Peter sighed and crossed the observation room to lay a hand on her shoulder. She was all but trembling.

“Ah don’t know!” she wailed. “Ah mean, she hasn’t even left the grounds as far as Ah know since the last time we all went to Salem!”

“What did you do in Salem?”

“We just went to the Grind Stone! That’s all!”

“Who was with you?”

“It was just me, Yana, Meg, an’ Fabio.”

Scott rubbed his chin while he considered that. Jean turned her attention away from the terminal just long enough to deliver a warning look to her husband.

“Scott, that’s all she knows,” she said. “Questioning her further isn’t going to help.”

“Ah’m sorry!” Mel said, and her voice came out as something between a sob and a squeak. “Ah wish Ah could be more help, but that’s all!”

“It’s all right, Mel,” Peter said, and gave her shoulder another squeeze. “I’m sure it will be a big help.”

She sniffled and reached up to touch his hand.

“Well, it’s a start, at the very least,” Hank said. “Melody, I’d like you to remain here so I can run some tests as a precaution. I need to see Fabio and Megan as well.”

“But you don’t know what it is you’re looking for,” Peter said.

Hank folded his arms across his chest and twisted his leonine features into an indignant scowl. “I am aware of my current predicament, thank you very much.”

“All right, that’s enough,” Xavier said. “Henry, I’ll have Megan and Fabio excused from class; under the circumstances I do agree it’s wise to take precautions in the event that we’re looking at something communicable. Let me know whatever you find.”

The furry blue mutant nodded.

“Jean, I’d like you and Scott to go to the Grind Stone. Speak with Ms. DePaula. For all we know it could very well be a case of food poisoning.”

Jean nodded. “I can’t imagine she would get lax on the health code, but we’ll see what we can find out.”

“If I may offer a suggestion,” Hank said, and raised one digit of his paw. “I think it would be best that we confine the student body to the school grounds until I have a better idea of what this malady is. Best to err on the side of caution, after all.”

“I agree,” the Professor said. “Peter, would you see to it that for the time being all shuttles into Salem Center are suspended? You may want to coordinate with Jubilee informing the students that we are taking precautions in light of Illyana’s illness.”

Peter hesitated a moment and opened his mouth to protest the command. Xavier’s eyes met his, and he didn’t need words to understand just why the Professor chose him for this particular task. He sighed in resignation and nodded. “Yes, sir.”

He held Peter’s eyes a moment longer, then nodded himself. “Thank, you, Peter. Afterwards, I’m sure Illyana would appreciate having you here when she wakes up. I’ll arrange for Paige to substitute for you in your classes.”

“Thank you, Professor.”

Scott looked between the two of them and gave a curt nod. “All right, we’ve all got work to do, so let’s get to it.

The group slowly broke up. Peter paused at the observation window when he started towards the door back into the subbasement hallway himself, and gazed at Illyana lying pale and fragile in bed. A big, furry paw took hold of his shoulder, and when he looked back he found himself staring straight into Hank’s solemn golden eyes.

“I promise, Peter, I’ll do my absolute best to get to the bottom of this, as quickly as I can.”

Peter clenched his fists in a Herculean effort to restrain the desire to start smashing something — anything — in frustration. But he supposed Hank needed all of his equipment, especially having only just recently put the quarantine bay in order after what Laura did to it a few weeks before. He sighed, hung his head, and nodded.

“I know, Hank.”

The grip on his shoulder relaxed into a gentle pat. “Well, I don’t envy you your task; I think the students may well tear you to pieces. But, once you’re finished and I surgically reattach your limbs, I’ll see if I can scrounge up a suit to fit you so you can sit with her.”

Peter managed a smile in spite of himself, and gave him a stiff nod of appreciation. “Thanks, Hank.” He sighed. “I guess I better get to it.

With that, he slipped out from under Hank’s paw and started for the door.

###

“Man, this sucks!” Santo said, and threw himself down on the couch in front of the television. The springs squealed in protest when his weight abruptly settled on it, and for a moment Cessily thought the legs might give way and the whole thing would collapse beneath him. Bad enough they couldn’t go to town, but if Santo destroyed the only couch in the lounge she would never forgive him.

“Oh come on, it’s not the end of the world,” Victor said, and dropped lightly on the opposite end, leaving the center cushion for Sooraya. She lowered herself with her particular grace and adjusted her abaya around her legs.

“But it’s so nice outside! That means the chicks from Salem are gonna be wearing skirts again!”

Cessily rolled her eyes in disgust and curled up in one of the chairs sharing the circle around the television. She took a sip of her Coca-Cola. “God, you are such a pig.”

“What?” he said, and shrugged innocently. “I like variety, and I’ve seen all the chicks’ legs here at school already!”

Victor pinched the bridge of his nose. “Santo, stop talking.”

“I dunno, I’m with him,” Julian said while he lounged in his seat across the circle. Laura sat on the floor with her back against his chair, her arms wrapped around her legs, and her knees drawn up to her chest. “Besides, Vic, it’s not like you’ve got a lot of options cooped up in the school, either.”

“I’m just gay, Julian, not boy-crazy.” He turned his reptilian features on Santo and spit him with a warning glare before the walking pile of rubble could open his mouth. “And don’t you even say a word, dude, I’m not in the mood for it.”

“Aw, now you’re just taking all the fun out of it,” Santo said, and leaned his hand on his fist.

“Children,” Sooraya said. Her expression might have been hidden behind her niqab, but Cessily could practically hear the rolling of her eyes in her voice, “Perhaps we should give some consideration to Illyana.”

“No kidding,” Cessily said, and swept her own glare from Julian to Santo. “It must be pretty bad if Dr. McCoy is confining us all to the grounds.”

“It looked pretty bad,” Santo said. “That was the chunkiest puke I think I’ve ever seen!”

“Thank you, Santo,” Julian said from behind his hands. “I was actually thinking about grabbing some lunch until you opened your mouth.”

“Sorry! But it was!”

“Seriously, that’s enough!” Cessily said. She finished off her soda, and plinked the can off his forehead. “Let’s just think of something to do, okay? Especially so I don’t have to listen to you talking about puke.”

“It would be best to be productive so long as casual diversions are out of the question,” Laura said.

Cessily regarded her with a frown, but Laura just leaned her chin against her knees, and her expression was unreadable. “Like what?”

“Practice.”

Julian groaned. “There’s got to be something else we can do. No offense, but I can only stand so much being tossed around on the floor mats.”

Santo quirked a grin. “I dunno, you seemed like you were enjoying the last session a lot.”

“Can it, rock pile! Before I make bird bath out of you!”

The big, rocky mutant just snickered at the defensiveness in Julian’s tone, and Cessily looked between them with a raised eyebrow. Sooraya shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose over whatever this private joke between the two was, and Laura just blinked in confusion.

“Train more and you fall less,” she said, in her uniquely matter-of-fact way.

“That sounds an awful lot like homework,” Santo said, and his rocky features twisted into a suspicious glower.

“Dude, you used to wrestle,” Victor said. “Didn’t you ever have to work out on your own?”

“...Yeah. But that was like, before I became this granite god.” Santo made a show of flexing, though the effect was somewhat lost due to the fact that his skin wasn’t exactly flexible. “These guns don’t need any work!”

Cessily just rolled her eyes at the display. “That doesn’t mean you still don’t have anything to learn about fighting or working with the rest of us.”

“I’m already not allowed to fight because I’ll just squish everyone that’s not Colossus or a Sentinel, so not like it matters, anyway.”

“There are numerous mutants with enhanced physical strength and durability which rival, if not exceed, even Colossus,” Laura said. “The X-Men have, traditionally, been required to engage many of them in combat when they presented a threat to the public. This does not include technological threats such as powered armor, and other developments beyond Sentinels. Neglecting practical training to focus strictly on your physical characteristics is a weakness to be exploited.”

Victor grunted. “That’s not counting the ones that can just outsmart him, either. Which is already a pretty low bar.”

“Hey!” Santo groused, and glared between the two of them. “I’ve got, like, street smarts! And I could totally have taken Colossus last time we fought him. I just didn’t want to take all the credit.”

“Right, you keep telling yourself that. I’m sure there’s even some corner of that goldfish brain of yours that actually believes it.”

“It’s not like we’ve got much better to do,” Cessily said, interrupting before Santo could voice the retort forming on his rocky lips. “So if we’re going to go all cabin fever on each other we may as well do something useful. I’m with Laura.”

Victor shrugged. “May as well. It might be fun watching Julian get tossed around the floor again.”

“Har har,” he said, and glared. “I don’t remember you doing all that much better last session.”

“He did,” Laura said flatly.

Cessily smirked into her hand when Julian’s indignant expression twisted into one she read as “Low blow!”

“Oh, snap!” Santo said, and he guffawed at the knockout blow to Julian’s ego.

Laura, for her part, didn’t seem to find anything amusing about the exchange, and regarded the big rocky mutant with a measure of confusion etched on her features.

“It’s on now, lizard boy,” Julian said, and rose from his chair, stepping around Laura in front of him with his hands planted on his hips.

Victor smirked and jumped up, matching his posture. “Ten bucks says she floors you in five seconds.”

“No way!”

“Put up, dude!”

Cessily smiled at Julian. “Yeah, you heard him! Put up.”

“All right!” he said, and reached for his wallet. He pulled out a couple bills and held them up in front of Victor. “Ten bucks. Just to show I’m good for it.”

Laura just looked between the two of them, bemused by the exchange. “I do not understand ...”

Cessily hopped out of her chair and extended a hand to her. Laura flinched back reflexively, and for a moment her smile faltered. Man, every time someone reaches out to her she jumps like they’re going to bite her or something... Laura didn’t accept the help up, but easily rose from the floor and stuffed her hands in her jeans pockets.

“Easiest way to get Julian to do something he doesn’t want to do,” she said. “Either appeal to his ego, or take a shot at it.”

“I see.”

“Come on, let’s do this,” Victor said, and started out of the lounge. Julian fell into step behind him, and Santo levered his bulk off the couch to follow.

“Hey Soo, you coming?” Cessily asked.

“I think I’ll pass for now,” Sooraya said, and shifted a bit on her cushion to get more comfortable once Santo removed his rocky butt. “I am sure there will always be another opportunity to watch Julian make a fool of himself.”

“I heard that!” he shot over his shoulder.

“Okay, we’ll catch you later,” Cessily said.

Sooraya waved, and the corners of her eyes wrinkled when she smiled behind her niqab. “Have fun! And Laura, do try not to bruise him too badly.”

“I make no guarantees,” Laura said. “It depends on how well Julian has practiced his falling.”

Cessily laughed and hung an arm around Laura’s shoulder — she shrunk under the contact — when they started after the guys. “Well, he’s certainly had plenty of it. Let’s go give him some more!”

###

Scott opened the door to the café, and the bell chimed in welcome when he ushered Jean inside. It was not yet noon, so the Grind Stone was largely deserted when they arrived, with only a few patrons in scattered ones and twos around the establishment. Some looked up from their drinks, papers, and phones when the newcomers arrived, then returned to their own business. Luna DePaula busied herself behind the counter stacking cups. She paused at the sound of the door chime and leaned her hip against the counter.

“Good morning Mr. Summers,” she said with a pleasant smile, and a nod to each in turn. “Dr. Grey. What can I get you? The usual?”

“Good morning, Luna,” Jean said, and smiled back upon approaching the counter. “Actually, I think I’ll try the orta şekerli today, Sooraya recommended it.”

Luna quirked a grin. “I hope everyone doesn’t start to get experimental. Laura has already been through almost every combination on the menu, and I pride myself on my variety. Scott?”

“Nothing for me, today,” he said.

“Suit yourself,” she said, and went to work behind the counter loading a hand-grinder. The fragrant scent of freshly roasted coffee beans taken from the air roaster filled the café. “You know, you guys left me short-handed today.”

Scott raised an eyebrow. “We did?”

“Mm-hmm. I just got a call from Nori that she wasn’t going to be making it in today because the shuttles were cancelled. Everything all right over there?”

“We’re sorry for the inconvenience,” Jean said. “But one of our students is sick and we thought it best to confine everyone to the grounds until we can be sure it’s not contagious.”

Luna’s lips twitched down into a concerned frown, and she paused in the middle of grinding the beans. “Oh my! Is it serious?”

“We don’t know yet,” Scott said, and leaned over the counter.

Luna went back to work grinding the beans into powder. “Who is it?”

“Illyana Rasputin,” Jean said. She folded her arms across her chest and leaned against the counter. Scott glanced in her direction, and noted her eyes grow distant while she swept them across the patrons.

“Trouble?” he thought.

“I don’t know,” she replied in his head.

“We were hoping to ask you a few questions,” Scott said, and returned his attention to Luna while she went back to work.

“You don’t think she got sick on something here, do you?” Luna asked with a raised eyebrow. She poured the grounds into a cezve and added the sugar and water.

“Right now we’re just trying to piece together where she’s been and what she’s done lately. She hasn’t left the grounds — that we know of — since the last time she came to Salem, and this is the only place she came on that trip.”

“Have you seen or heard anything unusual lately?” Jean asked, her attention still focusing on somewhere beyond herself. “Maybe someone snooping around, or acting strangely?”

Luna shrugged and set the cezve on a burner. She leaned her hip against the counter so she could address them while watching the coffee. “Nothing, no, it’s all been pretty quiet. Aside from the usual squabbles between the kids. Keller and Nori getting into it, Quentin Quire trying to cop a mental feel, that sort of thing. Honestly, I’ve been happy how well things have calmed down since last fall and Christmas. As much as I support what you do at the school, the demonstrations and counter-demonstrations and all of it last year was still pretty hard on business.”

“Did you change any of your suppliers within the past weeks? Maybe get a bad shipment?” Scott asked, and leaned in closer to study her features more closely.

Luna shook her head. Jean’s coffee began to froth and she took the cezve from the burner until it subsided, then replaced it to heat up again. “No. And come on, Scott, you know me; if I ever got a bad shipment my foot would be so far up my sales rep’s ass you could see what color I painted my toenails whenever he opened his mouth.”

He quirked a grin, but sobered at the indignation in her voice. “I don’t mean anything by it. As I said, we’re just trying to be thorough.”

She sighed, and repeated the process when the cezve frothed again. “I know. I wish I could be more help, but there really hasn’t been anything out of the ordinary lately.”

“That’s all she knows,” Jean’s voice echoed in his head.

Scott sighed. “Thanks, Luna. If you do think of anything else, please call me right away, okay?”

“You know I will. Tell Yana I hope she feels better.”

“Thanks,” Jean said. She smiled, but her distant expression lent it an eerie quality that made Luna squirm a bit. “I’m sure she’ll appreciate it.”

The coffee frothed twice more while they spoke. The first time Luna again took it off the heat for a moment and poured off the froth into a cup, then returned the cezve to the heat one last time. When it frothed again she finished pouring the cup and handed it to Jean. Scott dug into his back pocket for his wallet while Luna rang them up, and after paying made his way with Jean to a table not far from the karaoke machine. He helped her into her seat, then circled around to sit across from her.

Jean took a small sip of her coffee, and nodded appreciatively. “Remind me to thank Sooraya for the tip when we get back. This really is good.”

“That man in the front corner by the door,” her voice echoed in his head while she spoke, “I can’t read him.”

Scott kept himself facing Jean, but flicked his eyes towards the man in question, his glance hidden from view behind the lenses of his glasses. His face was obscured by a newspaper, but after a moment’s scrutiny it was clear the man wasn’t actually reading. Every time he turned a page he lowered it just enough to peer over the top at them.

“I’m sure she’ll be glad you enjoyed it,” he said. “Is he blocking you?”

“I don’t think there’s anyone at the school more thoughtful,” she replied. “No. It’s like he’s not even there. Like there’s just a void where his mind should be.”

Scott clenched his jaw and his whole body tensed. That meant only one thing. “What about the others? Is he alone?”

She took another sip of her coffee. “Just him. This can’t be a coincidence.”

“I agree, especially because he’s been watching us ever since we sat down. He’s hiding it, but even if you can’t read him, I can see right through him.”

Jean frowned. “What do you want to do?”

Scott rubbed his chin and considered a moment, then made a show of checking his phone. “We’ll wait until he leaves, and follow him. He could just be watching Salem, but the timing is too dubious.”

“Agreed.”

They sat and talked for a few minutes longer, and chatted casually over class schedules and trips, and ill-advised pranks (as if the perpetrators could so easily fool a telepath). Scott watched their suspect from the corner of his eye, and eventually the man reached the end of his paper. He folded it up neatly and tucked it under his arm, before pushing away from the table and heading for the door.

Scott gave Jean a subtle nod. “Here we go.”

She finished the last of her coffee, leaving the muddy grains at the bottom, and returned the nod. “Here we go.”

The man paused in the door long enough to zip up his coat, then opened the door and stepped outside. Scott and Jean rose and headed after him, Jean tossing a parting wave towards Luna. “We’ve got to get going,” she said, “thanks!”

“Any time!” Luna said. “Again, tell Yana I hope she feels better, and let Nori know I won’t make her take any of her sick days.”

Jean grinned. “I’m sure they’ll both appreciate it, and if you hear of anything give us a call.”

And with that they stepped out onto the sidewalk and into the chill of early spring. Pedestrians crowded Titicus and June while they made their way along the strip mall. Scott swept the crowd, but their quarry vanished into the sea of bodies enjoying the improving weather, his appearance just unremarkable enough to be nondescript, allowing him to vanish from sight. Scott’s lips twisted into a scowl, and he pushed through the crowd gathered in front of the café, searching each face from behind his glasses.

“Do you see him?” he thought.

“No,” she replied. “I’m searching everyone, but it’s a lot harder to find an empty spot than— Wait! Headed towards the theater, just ahead of you to your left! Blank spot!”

Scott spun in that direction, and sure enough caught a glimpse of the man’s back. He hurried after him and politely excused himself while he pushed through the crowd. The man showed no obvious sign he knew Scott was following him, and casually continued on his way for the theater. He walked with his head bowed and his hands stuffed in his coat pockets, weaving through the pedestrians and exchanging a few polite “good afternoons.” Scott spared a glance over his shoulder to be sure Jean was still with him. She followed a few paces back, sweeping the crowded streets of Salem with her eyes and power. She twisted her features in concentration, and Scott didn’t envy her the difficulty of searching every face for an absent consciousness. There were dozens of people abroad just in that small part of Salem, and finding what wasn’t there was certainly even more trying than sifting through what was.

He turned his attention back to his quarry. By now his pace had allowed him to close within a few dozen feet of the man. Scott caught a slight turn of the man’s head, and perhaps a flash of eyes flicking over a shoulder, but he continued on his way at the same, unhurried pace. A ball of ice formed in his gut; the man knew he was there, and was calmly leading him along.

“Scott, be careful,” Jean’s voice echoed in his head when she picked up on his sudden anxiety. He searched the edges of the crowd but found no sign the man had backup. The windows of the storefronts on the south side of Titicus gazed impassively down onto the street, any one of which could hide unseen observers. On the north side stood St. James Episcopal, and his strategic mind quickly conjured visions of gunmen crouched in its tower, with clear lines of fire all up and down Titicus.

Up ahead his target stopped, and alarm bells rang in Scott’s head when he removed his right hand from his side pocket and reached across his body. And in one motion the man spun to face him, pulled a pistol from inside his jacket, and leveled it at his face.

“Gun!” Scott yelled as loud as he could. “Everybody, look out!” His hands shot towards the frame of his glasses, and he dove to the side.

Not quite fast enough. His target squeezed the trigger, and a sharp crack split the air. The people nearest to them screamed, panicked, and bolted. A sharp burning sensation nipped at the side of his neck when he narrowly avoided the bullet. He vaulted through the air, hit the sidewalk on his shoulder, and rolled into a defensive crouch, his hands on his glasses and ready to tear them off. But by the time he was up again the man was gone; vanished into the crowd stampeding away from the center of the uproar.

“Scott!” Jean cried, and rushed towards him, pushing past panicking pedestrians. Others crowded in to gawk and try to find out what was happening, and the wail of a police siren responding to the shot echoed across Salem.

Scott regained his feet and released his glasses. He swore under his breath while he searched the crowd, but it was no use: The man was gone.

“Scott! Are you all right?”

He sighed, twisted his lip into a scowl, and planted his hands on his hips in frustration. “I’m all right. He missed, it was just close.”

“No, he didn’t!”

Scott rounded on Jean without comprehension, and found her eyes wide with alarm and her jaw hanging slack. He casually reached towards the side of his neck to nurse the graze, and his hand froze when it brushed something sticking out of his skin.

“What the hell?”

“Don’t touch it!” Jean barked, and slapped his hand away.

He froze on instinct, and waited while Jean leaned in, one hand holding his head steady while she carefully plucked whatever it was from the side of his neck. She held it up between them, and Scott’s gaze settled on a small hypodermic dart.

He frowned and rubbed the side of his neck. His hand came away with a small smear of blood. “Jean?”

“Come on, we need to get you back to the school, now!”

###

He watched from the cover of a nearby shop. The crowd slowly calmed and pressed in around Summers, craning their necks in curiosity while Grey tended to him. A tight smile tugged at his features when she removed the dart from the side of his neck. With the chaos of the scattering crowd and Summers’ attempt to take cover he wasn’t sure whether his shot had struck home.

Police cars screeched to a halt, blocking off the intersection of June and Titicus when they responded to the reports of the gunshot, and the two mutants were stopped and questioned before they could depart. No matter, his mission was accomplished.

He pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed in. After a brief ring a woman’s voice responded.

“This is Base, go ahead.”

“Two-One-Beta,” he said. “Confirming subject zero is presenting symptoms.”

“Well done, Two-One-Beta. Anything further to report?”

His smiled broadened. “Yes. Summers has been hit. Two-One-Beta out.”

He shut off his phone and started past the movie theater after one last look towards the officers closing off the intersection.

###

Act III

###

Peter sat still in his chair, leaning out across his knees with his head bowed and his hands clasped in front of him. The lights in the quarantine room were dark, with only the displays monitoring Illyana’s vital signs providing any illumination. Machinery whirred and beeped while pumps hissed, not quite masking a distant background hum emanating from the mansion’s enormous computer core somewhere deep beneath the floor. His sister’s breath came so faint and quiet that only the sensors hooked up to her body, and the faint fogging on the nasal cannula, offered any indication that she was indeed still alive. Her face was frighteningly pale, bathed as it was in the muted blue-green glow of the monitors inside the bay. The light cast her features in a sickly and unnatural hue, not her usual healthy, beautiful, Slavic complexion. Her hair hung limp and lankly, spilling down her pillow, and sweat beaded on her brow.

And for all his strength, and the organic steel of his armored hide that made him so dangerous in battle, he could do nothing more now than sit helplessly at her bedside. He was supposed to protect her, but he was helpless in the fight now raging inside her while her body desperately battled whatever malady afflicted her.

He moved a hand to run his fingers back through his hair, but was cheated by the hood of the plastic hazmat suit covering him from head to foot. Hank was nothing if not thorough in his adherence to procedure.

The airlock door behind him hissed and groaned when it yawned open. He raised his head, but his suit’s mask robbed him of his peripheral vision, and he had no desire to look away from Illyana while she slept. He listened to the soft footfalls drawing nearer. Logan, perhaps, might have been able to identify the intruder on his vigil by sound alone, but Peter needed to wait until they circled around to where he could see them. But they made no move to step around from behind him. They slowed, almost hesitant, and finally stopped a few paces behind him.

“Peter?” Kitty called, her voice tinny and somewhat muffled by her suit.

Peter finally turned in his chair and looked back at her. Her face was invisible behind the mask of her suit in the darkness, and the barrier of plastic between her and the air of the quarantine bay disguised the shape of her petite figure.

“Hey,” he said, and turned his attention back to Yana. “Hank has you all bagged up, too, huh?”

“Yeah, he’s a stickler for his procedures.”

She rolled another chair over beside him, and her hazmat suit squeaked when she settled in next to him.

“How is she? Any change?”

He shook his head, though he doubted Kitty would be able to see the gesture. “No. Nothing. I tried talking to her half an hour ago, thinking maybe it could help, but I don’t think she can hear me. The Professor won’t even tell me if her mind is active right now.”

“What do you think?”

“I don’t know. Maybe she can.”

“Then there’s not much use Xavier telling you otherwise, right? If you believe she can, that’s good enough.”

Peter twisted in his chair so he could glance in her direction, then lowered his head again. “I just feel so powerless right now. Yana and I, we’re all the family each other has left. I’m supposed to be taking care of and protecting her, but all I can do now is just sit here and hope she wakes up again.”

She reached out with one hand and gripped his forearm. Her slender fingers couldn’t even close around his wrist. “You’re the strongest man I know, Peter, but sometimes that’s not enough. Hank and Jean are doing everything they can to find out what’s wrong with her, and you know they’re not going to give up.”

He sighed and laid one of his meaty fists on hers. He clasped it tightly, and wished it was actually her hand he felt, and not just the plastic of their suits separating them. “I know, Katya,” he said, and if he squinted really hard, he might just make out the corner of her mouth twitching into a smile at the pet name. “But it doesn’t make the waiting any easier.”

Kitty leaned her head against his shoulder, and he distantly felt her nod through the material separating them. “It never does, but if it were you that was sick, there isn’t anyone I’d trust more to find out what it is.”

Peter nodded. For a long moment they sat together in silence, and listened to the pumps, and computers, and medical equipment he couldn't even begin to name. He found little solace in the sensation of her pressed against his side, particularly through the layers of plastic between them, and just sat and stared down on his little sister while she slept. Memories of another vigil, a long, long time ago, flooded to the surface again, and tears welled up in his eyes.

"The last time I sat with Yana like this," he finally said, and his voice was raw from the lump rising up in his throat, "was when her powers first started to manifest. She was so young that we didn't even realize that was what was happening. We thought she was having nightmares, and imagining monsters under the bed. We didn't know that there really were monsters under the bed, drawn out of Limbo by her powers.

"Well, she was terrified to go to sleep at night because she thought the monsters might get her. So I made her a promise: If she went to bed, I would sit with her all night in my armor and keep the monsters away. Long after she finally fell asleep I remained at her side, and I kept my promise."

He drew in a ragged breath when his tears broke free, unable to wipe them away. "But this time I can't. The monster already has her, and there's nothing I can do to keep it away."

###

Hank squeezed his eyes shut tight and rubbed them with the index finger and thumb of one big, blue, furry paw. When he opened them again the solution had yet to materialize, so he heaved a sigh and bent over the microscope once more. He carefully adjusted the magnification until the cells of the blood sample on the slide came into focus, and he just stared quietly. He forced all other distractions from his mind, and all that existed for him now was the sample and his equipment.

He intently studied the structure of the cells, seeking for anything out of place, painstakingly moving the slide this way and that until he searched every square micron.

“No indication of bacterial infection in sample AB-4,” he said to the recorder running at his terminal. “ELISA tests for common viral infections are also negative. I have begun cultures, but given the rapid decline of the patient’s condition this may not yield results soon enough. NAAT has yet to yield results. Toxicology is also negative in all samples, ruling out poison or envenomation, nor is there a sign that this is a parasitic infection. Should Ms. Rasputin regain consciousness I’m certain she will be appreciative to learn that the flora, fauna, and environment of Limbo has been exonerated as the vector for her condition. Nonetheless, it’s hard to believe I’m saying this, but this malady has me stymied!”

He sighed and stood away from his microscope, and ran one claw down the length of his jaw.

“Samples from Ms. Guthrie, Ms. Gwynn, and Mr. Medina have likewise come back negative. All three subjects remain in quarantine for observation, though have yet to present with symptoms. As clinically morbid as it may sound, I may need another subject to search for some commonality in their biological response to this pathogen."

Hank removed the slide from his microscope and gave everything a thorough cleaning, his mind spinning with hypotheses and postulations while he worked. "The only place off the school's grounds Illyana visited before falling ill was Salem Center. Therefore, either the school or Salem are the most likely sources of the infection. The school, I think, can be ruled out: Had Illyana fallen ill here, then at the very least other students in her classes would almost certainly be affected, and I suspect that those she had the most contact with — her brother and her friends in observation — would have likewise already presented symptoms themselves. This means Salem is the most likely source ..."

He paused in the midst of his musings and frowned. "However, this assumes an incubation period of only the past two weeks. If, perhaps, the pathogen has a longer incubation period this could expand the potential range considerably." Hank rubbed his chin. "Which means I'll need a more thorough history on her activities over the past months ..."

“Hank!” Jean's voice echoed in his mind, shattering his focus and derailing his chain of thought. Hank staggered as if struck at the double-whammy of the urgency and alarm in the summons, and he squeezed his temples between his paws. “I need you upstairs right away! Medical emergency!”

Hank was in motion almost before the words stopped rattling around his head. He snatched a medical kit from the wall, and shouldered through the door of his lab. The cold metal hallways of the subbasement passed him in a blur, and he rushed for the elevator leading back up to the inhabited levels of the school. He punched the call button, and an eternity passed while he waited for it to arrive. It took another eternity for the elevator to make the trip back to the upper levels, and all the while Hank kept repeating “I'm coming! I'm coming!” in response to the undercurrent of panic Jean was broadcasting across the school.

He emerged in the wood-paneled hallway outside the library, and broke into a dead run for the entry hall. He wasn't the only one; students and staff alike mobbed towards the front of the school in response to Jean's broadcast. Their confusion and alarm was palpable; they weren't privy to the why, and all they knew was something had upset one of the most powerful telepaths in existence, almost certainly giving them a splitting headache in the process. So curiosity overrode caution, and Hank found himself forcing a path through the sea of bodies.

"Out of the way! Out of the way!" he said, mixed with a few "excuse me's!" and "pardon me's!" to the few who couldn't quite clear the way fast enough, and ended up thrown aside by his furry bulk. Finally, he broke free of the crowd filling the hall and stumbled to a halt.

Scott lay cradled in Jean's arms, and she knelt in a spreading pool of vomit and blood.

"Oh my stars and garters!" he managed to blurt out, and sprung across the open floor between them. Fortunately, the student body had the sense to give them room. "Jean, what happened?"

"We were attacked in Salem," she said, a barely-perceptible hitch in her voice that anyone other than those who knew her best would miss.

Hank tore open his medical kit and went to work. "Jean, I need to check his eyes, can you hold back his power?"

She nodded and closed her eyes. "I have it."

Gingerly, and with no small amount of trepidation at the thought of being blasted across the room, Hank removed Scott's glasses.

"Significant mydriasis," he said, at the sight of Scott’s dilated pupils. He dug through his kit for a flashlight. "Attacked how?"

"There was a man staking out the Grind Stone while we were checking in with Luna about Yana. I couldn't read him."

Hank frowned when he waved the flashlight over Scott's eyes, and there was no response. "One of Stryker's toys?"

Jean nodded. "I think so. When he left we followed, but he must have been waiting for us to make a move. He took shot at Scott. He thought it was a conventional pistol at first and that the round missed, but he was hit by a hypodermic dart."

He paused his work and stared up at Jean. His expression froze somewhere between shock and curiosity. "Did you save it?"

"Yes, I bagged it as soon as I saw what happened. We rushed back as fast as we could, but barely got through the door before he vomited and collapsed."

Hank replaced Scott's glasses, and Jean visibly relaxed when she released her telekinetic hold over his powers. "We need to get him to isolation immediately, I think whatever Scott was hit with is the same as is affecting Illyana." He sniffed and craned his neck at the familiar scent lingering nearby. "Jubilee!"

"Right here, Doc!" she replied, and squeezed through the sea of bodies. Her features twisted with concern at the sight of Scott lying sprawled on the floor.

"Jubilee, get everyone out of here. And I mean now! Until further notice the entry hall is off limits."

"Got it!" Jubilee spun around to face the gawking crowd of children, and spread her arms wide. "All right, you heard Doc Fuzzy! Get back to class, your rooms, or the lounge. Don't make me paf you!"

A low mumble rippled across the crowd while they dispersed and Jubilee ushered them off, leaving Hank and Jean alone.

"I'm sorry to ask right now, Jean," he said, "but I'm going to need your help in the lab. I don't want to say it in front of the others, though I suppose with Mr. Quire's lack of restraint he's probably already spreading the news, but whatever this is even has me stumped."

"I'm all right, Hank," she said.

"You understand I also need to quarantine you, as well for the moment."

She managed a small, tight smile. "And here I thought I could slip out for a night on the town."

"Well, come on, Scott is in no condition to make it to the medical bay on his own. Watch his head ..."

###

Act IV

###

“You keep letting your guard drop!” Laura said, and Julian felt his legs fly out from beneath him, ending up somewhere over his head when she effortlessly flipped him backwards.

He landed flat on his stomach and the air rushed from his lungs with a grunt. It took his brain a moment to process the fact that the blow to the back of his knees sent him nearly through a full 180 before he came back down again. He rolled himself on to his back and gasped in a desperate breath. For a long moment he just stared at the gym’s ceiling tiles and light panels spinning overhead. Laura’s face appeared in his line of sight upside down above his. Her simple ponytail swung down in front of her shoulders, and a thin film of sweat plastered a few stray wisps of hair to her face when she leaned over him. “Are you all right?”

“Ow,” he grunted, and every bone and muscle throbbed in protest when he declined the offered hand up and slowly forced himself back to his feet. Laura stood away to give him room while he leaned his hands on his knees and panted for breath. For a moment he just stared at the floor mat he spent most of the afternoon falling on.

They were alone, now; Cessily, Victor, and Santo tired of watching him get his butt kicked about an hour ago (he lost the bet) and headed off to get something to eat. Julian wasn’t sure if it was pride or masochism, but he couldn’t bring himself to call it quits just yet and insisted on working out for a bit longer. He straightened with a grimace, and as he did so he concluded there was a third possibility for why he continued to subject himself to the beating she was giving him.

Laura stood with her hands on her hips. She watched him with those big, calculating green eyes, and a slight inquisitive tilt to her head that reminded him for all the world of a cat sizing up a stuffed mouse for a pounce. Her gymnast’s figure was clad in a pair of those tiny black compression shorts that barely reached the top of her thighs, and a matching sleeveless crop top that bared a wide swath of her abdomen. Everything — neck, back, shoulders, arms, belly, butt, and legs — was toned and defined in a way that if he weren’t already flush from the exercise he would almost certainly be turning red at his thoughts running away from him.

Truth be told he hadn’t been able to concentrate on anything she was trying to teach him all afternoon.

“You know you don’t have to go easy on me,” he said dryly, and stretched his back.

Laura blinked, and her features twisted in confusion. “I have adjusted my technique to account for your skill level. If I were not holding back you would be unconscious.”

Julian couldn’t help but laugh at the obliviousness in her tone. Laura blushed slightly and she shifted awkwardly, apparently not recognizing his teasing. “I’m kidding! Laura, it’s a joke!”

She hesitated a moment and her cheeks reddened even more. “Oh.”

He smiled and shook his head. “It’s okay, y’know? Everyone has their skill sets. I need to work on not getting my ass kicked, you need to practice your sense of humor ...”

This time the corners of her mouth twitched into a barely-perceptible smile. “You have improved considerably since we began training with Colossus, though you seem distracted this afternoon. However, I confess I still don’t pick up very well on the nuances of humor ...”

Julian gawked at her, and when she noticed him staring open-mouthed she trailed off self-consciously and tried her best to shrink down into herself.

“Back up a sec, what did you say?” he said.

She chewed her lower lip a moment and considered his question. “I said I do not pick up very well on the nuances of humor,” she said, in that matter-of-fact way that always made him feel as if he just asked the most foolishly obvious question in the world.

“No, you said ‘don’t.’ You actually used a contraction.”

Laura blinked and screwed up her features. To anyone who didn’t know her the expression would be virtually unreadable, and a couple months ago he just wouldn’t have cared. But as he began to pick up on her subtle quirks and gestures he now recognized her amazement was palpable.

“I did?” she asked, astonished. “Is that wrong?”

“Not at all!” He quirked a grin. “For a second there you actually sounded like a real girl.”

This time Laura picked on his teasing — she was learning — and her face all but lit up at that. “Then I should do so more often?”

He offered her a playful shrug. “Well, baby steps, you know. But yeah, it wouldn’t hurt to loosen up a little bit and not be so serious all the time.”

“I admit I don’t find it easy.” Something passed across her lips that almost looked like a mirror of his teasing smirk from before, and Julian eyed her suspiciously. That’s new. “But it helps to have an example who never takes things seriously.”

The remark came so unexpectedly that it took Julian a moment to realize that she was actually poking him back. He folded his arms across his chest and pouted. “Hey, I can be serious!”

The slight smirk remained on Laura’s lips when she resumed a guard stance. “Then concentrate, please.”

Julian mirrored her stance, then thought better of it and assumed one he recalled offered a better counter to hers. She gave a short nod of satisfaction and began shifting through several different guards at random. He responded by taking up the appropriate counter.

“Y’know it’s not easy when you’re seeing spots and double. I think you gave me a concussion.”

Laura paused and regarded him for a moment. “Perhaps we ought to stop, then.”

“Joke. I’m good, really.”

She considered, then nodded again and returned to her pattern. “Okay. This is a simple throw. When you are ready, move in and grapple me.”

Julian’s mouth went a little dry at that, and he had to fight to keep his voice even. “Right. Grapple. Got it.”

They danced around one another a moment longer. When Julian found a comfortable stance from which to make his move he rushed in. He threw his arms around her shoulders as if to throw her to the mat, and was suddenly aware of her lithe figure pressed close against his, their cheeks almost touching. The scent of her sweat filled his nostrils, and the heat of her body bled through his loose gym shirt. Her state of dress did little to help him concentrate on what he was supposed to be doing.

“Tighter,” she said.

“What?” he said, and cringed when his voice broke in surprise at her instructions.

“You are supposed to be grappling me.” A hint of impatience crept into her voice, and Julian couldn’t help but notice their current position put her lips rather close to his ear. “This technique relies on your opponent attempting to control you in the clinch. You are holding me too loosely, so don’t have control of me.”

“Oh, right.” Julian complied and tightened his grip.

“Good. This is called koshinage. When your opponent grabs you, put your hands on their hips to open up some space between you, then take their tricep with one hand, and reach around their back about at the belt line with the other.”

She demonstrated while she spoke, and Julian felt a small measure of relief when she took hold of his hips and pushed away. Her small hand clamped onto the back of one of his arms, and the other threaded around his waist.

“Stay low and keep your feet together. Turn into them to get them onto your hip ...” she said.

Julian’s face heated when she walked through the steps and she pushed her backside against him. Oh God! Don’t think about it! Think Santo skinny dipping. But don’t hurl on her when you do!

“...then push up with your legs and use your grip to lift and roll them over your hip.”

Laura kicked against the mat, and the movement jammed her butt even deeper into him. Before he could even think of distracting himself from that he was lifted from his feet, and once again found himself tumbling through the air. He struck the floor at her feet on his shoulder, and grunted with the impact. For a moment Julian lay there in a daze and stared up at Laura spinning above him.

“You need to practice your falls,” she said, and extended him a hand up.

Julian accepted the help and got back to his feet. He nursed his shoulder. “I think you’ve helped me get the falling part down. It’s the landings I need to work on. Still amazes me you can do that, I’ve got to outweigh you by like eighty pounds.”

Laura folded her arms across her breast. “Because of my mutation, my musculature and skeletal structure are denser than that of a normal human. But it is as much a matter of mechanics and leverage as of strength. Are you ready to try?”

He rocked his neck to loosen up the muscles and rolled his shoulder. “Sure, why not, it’ll be nice to be the one doing the throwing for a change.”

She gave a short nod and took up fighting stance. Julian assumed its counter, and once again they circled each other for a few moments. Then Laura lightly sprung in with catlike speed, and threw her arms around him. She gathered him into a crushing bear hug belying her size, pinning his arms to his sides. Once again Julian was suddenly conscious of her body pressed close against his.

Focus, dumbass!

“Now, put your hands on my hips and push away,” she said, and Julian did as she instructed, gripping her tightly on either side of her pelvis and backing away from her.

“Then I grab your arm like this, and put an arm around your back ...” he replied, repeating her instructions. He took hold of her arm in one hand, turned slightly away, and threaded the other around her back. His grip ended up somewhere just below her shoulder blades.

“Your hand is too high on my back,” she said. “Lower.”

“Sorry, there’s a height difference, you know ...” Julian fumbled around behind him to find the right spot. And probably because someone up there was having some fun at his expense, when it settled, he found himself with a handful of her backside.

If Laura was as surprised or embarrassed by his hand on her butt as he was, it didn’t register in her voice. Instead, she maintained the same professional tone she had throughout their training session. “Too low.”

“Shit! Sorry! Sorry! My bad!” Julian cringed when he couldn’t keep the chagrin from his voice, and hastily readjusted his grip to somewhere around the small of her back. Get it together you idiot!

“Good, now push into me, and lift me over your hip.”

Julian did as she instructed. He pushed his hip into her and kicked off with his legs, but rather than rolling her over his hip like she so effortlessly did to him, he only succeeded in lifting her straight up off the ground. “Crap!”

“Try again, make sure to use your grip on my arm and back to help roll me over.”

“Right, right,” he said, and silently cursed himself for the mistake.

Julian tried again, and this time managed to flip her. Laura struck the ground on her shoulder, and smoothly rolled back to her feet.

“Good!” she said, and turned back to face him. The corners of her lips twitched into a slight smile, and Julian smiled back in satisfaction (and more than a little relief that it was over). “You might try dropping lower next time, that will make it easier to get under me when you lift me for the throw; paradoxically this technique is actually easier to perform if you are shorter than your opponent.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” he said, and rubbed his shoulder, which started to throb around the time he accidentally caught a handful of Laura’s butt. “Look, if it’s okay with you I think it’s probably time to hit the shower. I’m gonna be one big walking bruise in the morning, so should probably call it quits for the day.”

“Okay.”

Julian hesitated a moment, and met Laura’s eyes. She stared back, and the confidence and ease she demonstrated while kicking his ass across the gym faded. She tried to shrink down into herself at the scrutiny, though the effect was lost without her oversized jacket. A small thrill worked its way through his gut while he considered what he was about to say. “Do, uh, you have any plans for dinner tonight?”

Laura considered the question for a moment and was just about to respond when a voice cut through Julian’s head.

“To me, my X-Men!” the Professor’s voice echoed between his ears.

Julian stumbled under the urgency of the summons and pressed his hands to his temples.

“Ow! What the hell?” he blurted out.

Laura swept her eyes across the gym, and a disconcerted expression twisted her features. “That was the Professor ...”

Julian shook his head to clear the ringing and blinked. “Oh good, I thought I was going crazy for a second.”

“Come on,” she said, “we should see what he wants.”

Laura started away from him and Julian ran to catch up when she hurried for the bench where they left their things. His belly churned at the moment and opportunity slipping through his fingers. “Woah, what? You don’t think he meant us, too, do you? I mean we’re not real X-Men yet.”

She considered that for a moment. “Perhaps, but why would the Professor broadcast such a command to us if he did not intend us to respond?”

Julian heaved a sigh and let his shoulders slump in defeat when the moment was destroyed. “Man, this better be good ...”

###

Laura and Keller were the last to arrive, slipping quietly into the Professor’s office together. Nori guessed from their mussed and sweaty hair — and Laura’s sweatpants and hoodie thrown on over her workout clothes — they must have just come from the gym. Santo snickered something under his breath in Cessily’s ear that earned him a solid sock in his rocky shoulder, and it was about as effective as she imagined punching a rock wall could be. He just grinned that big, stupid, vacant grin of his in response, and continued munching on a bag of Cheetos. The pair found seats together in their usual spot on the couch, saved for them by Sooraya, and the Professor regarded them with that barely-perceptible smirk he wore whenever he allowed himself to be amused by some antic of the student body.

“Thank you for joining us,” he said. “And yes, Mr. Keller, it’s safe to assume that when you hear that summons it does include you, as well.”

Keller blushed fiercely and did his best Laura-shrinking-into-her-jacket impression at the public rebuke. Nori allowed herself a smile at his discomfiture over the scolding. David chuckled under his breath from the chair next to her.

The entire team was crammed into Xavier’s office, made even more crowded by the presence of Dr. McCoy, Mr. Drake, Ms. D’Ancanto, and Jubilee. She frowned at the absence of Mr. Summers and Dr. Grey. With Illyana so sick it stood to reason that her brother would be staying by her side, but if the X-Men were assembled where were...?

Xavier heaved a sigh. “There’s no point in stepping around the situation or in holding anything back,” he said, “So I will come right to the point. You all know that Illyana Rasputin has fallen very ill. Dr. McCoy and Dr. Grey are still working hard to identify the nature of her illness, but we have, unfortunately, determined the source.”

“I’ve said all along there’s something wrong with the food. Those school lunches are a health violation,” Keller quipped with a lopsided grin, and leaned back on the couch. Nori rolled her eyes, the others groaned, and Keller’s smile faltered under the Professor’s withering glare.

“Henry, show them the footage Ms. DePaula sent us,” Xavier said, and his tone when he stared Julian down lowered the temperature in the room by several degrees.

With grace belying his bulk, Dr. McCoy slipped around the others crowded into the office towards a nondescript wall panel otherwise identical to all the others. He touched a concealed button in the paneling with one clawed finger. It depressed with a quiet click, and a soft hum filled the room when the panels split open, revealing a large flat-panel monitor tucked away inside one wall.

“Dude, can we get one of those for the lounge?” Santo asked.

“Shut up, Santo!” Victor hissed.

Nori didn’t spare them a look, and just focused her attention on the TV while her stomach twisted itself in knots. What on Earth did Luna have to do with this?

“Earlier this afternoon,” Dr. McCoy said, “Jean and Cyclops visited Ms. DePaula as part of our investigation into the vector for Illyana’s illness. She was as bewildered upon learning the news as we are, and Jean can confirm that she wasn’t hiding anything.”

Nori released a breath she didn’t realize she was holding when her boss was exonerated. The thought of Luna’s friendly and welcoming smile masking sinister intentions couldn’t have come as a more appalling shock.

“However, while she may have had nothing to do with it, we now have reason to believe that Illyana did, in fact, contract this illness at the Grind Stone.”

Nori gawked at him and raised her hand. Dr. McCoy gave her a slight nod of acknowledgement. “How is that possible? I mean, I help her stock everything, and she’s completely anal about her expiration dates and making sure none of the shipping cartons are tampered with. We sent back an entire bag of beans just because there was a teensy tear in the seal! And if it was something at Luna’s, how come I’m not sick, too?”

He held up one clawed finger. “Watch and see, Nori.”

Dr. McCoy slipped a small remote from the breast pocket of his lab coat, pointed it at the TV, and started a video. Nori immediately recognized the grainy, black-and-white security feeds watching over the café. Dr. Grey and Cyclops sat at one of the tables, but everything else seemed pretty normal. She was about to raise her hand to interject again when one of the patrons visible in the recording got up, and Dr. McCoy paused the image.

“While Ms. DePaula was unable to provide much information for us to go on, this individual caught Jean’s attention for a rather sinister reason: She was completely unable to read him.”

When Nori looked back to take in the others’ reactions at the Beast’s ominous pronouncement, she saw the Professor staring as cold and hard at the picture as she could ever recall. She shuddered; normally he kept his feelings tightly controlled, but damned if his composure wasn’t on the verge of failing outright. The barely-fettered rage in his eyes made bile bubble up in the back of her throat. Laura’s green eyes narrowed thoughtfully, and Keller leaned forward on the couch with a concerned frown. Even Jubilee’s easy smile was gone, and she folded her arms beneath her breast while she stared angrily at what they were seeing. The only sound was the ceaseless crunch crunch crunch of Santo blithely snacking away on his chips.

David swallowed, and Nori self-consciously reached out and squeezed his hand. “Another mutant blocking her?” he asked.

She could tell from the tone of his voice he didn’t honestly believe it.

Dr. McCoy’s leonine features twisted into a scowl, and he shook his head. “I’m afraid not. The sensation she described is identical to the effects of the Purifiers’ technology.”

Electricity danced along the surface of Nori’s arms and made her finer hairs stand on end. She quietly discharged the build-up into her gauntlets.

“Cyclops and Dr. Grey pursued, however he must have been watching for them. They did not get far before he stopped and opened fire on them.” McCoy bowed his head. “Cyclops was hit.”

Sooraya gasped.

“Is he all right? How bad was it?” Josh asked. Nori glanced at him over her shoulder, but the expression on his metallic golden features was unreadable while he leaned against a bookshelf and stared at the footage.

“He was struck by a hypodermic dart. I’m still analyzing what was left of its contents, but by the time Jean managed to return him to the school he was exhibiting the same symptoms as Illyana.”

The silence that followed Dr. McCoy's pronouncement was so thick and oppressive Nori doubted even Laura's claws could cut it. She looked from face to face; Sooraya bowed her head in silent prayer and Cessily deflated. Laura's expression was, per usual, unreadable. Keller's eyes darkened and he folded his arms across his chest. Josh shifted from foot to foot, and Victor mopped his scaly face. Santo's expression was as empty as ever, but his rocky hand stopped halfway into his bag of chips, and his glowing blue eyes flared slightly. David heaved a sigh and lowered his head as well.

"What has this to do with Illyana?" Sooraya asked, when she finished her prayer and found her voice again.

"After the incident with Scott and Jean, I requested access to more of Luna's security recordings," Dr. McCoy said.

He tapped a button on his remote and the video they were watching was replaced by another one that made Nori's gut go all hollow and queasy. There she was, working the counter at the Grind Stone. A figure seated at one of the tables stood up and headed for the exit, only to run right into Illyana when she entered the café. Dr. McCoy froze the video there, but he didn't need to: Nori already knew what was about to happen.

"We ran the two recordings through facial recognition software, and this is the same man encountered by Scott and Jean."

"Oh God ..." Nori said, and something rose up into the back of her throat. It was all she could do to keep from throwing up all over the Professor's floor.

"Nori?" Jubilee prompted.

"That guy spilled his coffee all over Yana's shirt. She just about popped him off to Limbo over it!"

"Unfortunately," Dr. McCoy said, "Illyana already ran it through the laundry when she got back. I've fetched it and brought it to the lab, but unless we're dealing with a particularly hardy little bug, I highly doubt there will be anything left for me to find."

"Nonetheless, it leaves us with little doubt: This was an attack," the Professor said, and there was a hard edge to his voice that sent a chill down Nori's spine. "The concern now is blunting it before it gets worse."

"How much worse are we talking about?" Cessily asked, and wrung her hands.

Dr. McCoy sighed and pinched his nose. "Unfortunately, until Jean and I can isolate and identify the actual pathogen I can't venture a guess as to how easily or quickly it can spread. However, it's clearly highly virulent; Scott's symptoms onset rapidly, though I suspect that has much to do with it being injected directly into his bloodstream. Illyana took about a week to present, so I would suggest that as a more accurate baseline of how quickly it begins to affect the victim after infection. However, it does appear to be rather versatile in its means of transmission."

"What about those with healin' factors," Ms. D'Ancanto asked in her Mississippi drawl, and Nori glanced at Laura. A few other pairs of eyes followed, and she shrunk into her hoodie self-consciously at the attention. "Or mutations like Bobby's ice form, Peter's armor, or Santo's...rocks?"

Dr. McCoy offered a helpless shrug. "I honestly don't know. In Santo's case, since he has no known biological component my hypothesis is he would naturally be immune, as there's nothing for a virus, bacteria, or parasite to actually attack."

"Does that mean I don't need a shot?" Santo asked, and raised his Cheeto-crusted fingers. "Because I hate getting shots."

Victor buried his face in his hands. "Stop talking, dude. Seriously, just stop talking."

Santo visibly deflated at the rebuke, and resumed munching on his Cheetos.

Nori raised her hand again. “Ok, so the point is that things are super scary bad. So what are we supposed to do?”

“Jean and Henry will continue their work attempting to isolate the disease and finding a way to cure it,” the Professor said. “I would like Josh and David to help them.”

Josh gave a stiff nod. “I don’t know what good I can do, but okay.”

“At least it helps having another pair of eyes,” David said. “And being able to pool Dr. McCoy and Dr. Grey’s knowledge at the same time, maybe I can spot something that they might miss.”

Nori smiled and gave his hand a squeeze.

The Professor turned his attention to the others. “Bobby, I’d like you to assemble the team. Head back to Salem center and try to find this individual before he can infect anyone else or disappear entirely.”

Mr. Drake nodded. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to drag Pete away from Yana, so we’ll be a bit short-handed while Storm’s away at that climate change conference.”

“I know, Bobby. In fact, a smaller team in this case will be less likely to alarm the public in Salem Center.”

“I guess that puts me back on ‘Keep everyone from freaking out’ duty,” Jubilee said.

The Professor nodded. “The last thing we want now is a panic. Let the students know Henry and Jean are doing everything they can to help their friends.”

She heaved a sigh and pinched her nose. “You know it’d be easier if I wasn’t so freaked out myself. No offense, Doc.”

Dr. McCoy quirked a grin. “None taken.”

Last, Xavier turned his attention to her, and Nori swallowed. “Nori, while Bobby and the others are out, the security of the school is up to you and the rest of your team in case this is prelude to another direct attack.”

“Oh, great, I’m sure we’ll have them running scared when we line up on the lawn,” she said, and rolled her eyes.

Xavier was about to offer a retort when an alarm bleeped and Dr. Grey’s urgent voice broke out on the intercom.

“Hank, I need you! Now!”

The tone of her voice made Nori’s belly churn, and she idly wondered why Dr. Grey didn’t just call for Dr. McCoy telepathically.

Dr. McCoy touched a control on his remote. “Jean? What is it?”

“It’s Melody, Hank. Whatever this is has begun to spread.”

###

Act V

###

Hank was in the airlock almost before he got the seals on his biohazard suit secured. The door closed and locked behind him, and with a gaseous hiss the inner door released and swung open, admitting him to the quarantine bay. Jean already stood over Melody Guthrie, holding her upright while she retched and emptied the contents of her belly into a bucket. Sweat beaded on her brow, and her hair clung wetly to her face. By the time Hank reached her bedside, blood was pouring from her mouth.

“Oh my stars and garters ...” he muttered. “Temperature?”

“Spiking hard,” Jean said, her voice straining with the effort of containing her alarm. “104.5 ...” An alarm bleeped from one of the monitors attached to the bed, and Jean glanced away. “104.9.”

“We need to get her temperature down quickly.”

“Hank, this came out of nowhere. It jumped from normal to this in less than ten minutes! I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Melody gagged again, and Jean hurried to put the bucket in front of her. More blood erupted from her mouth.

Hank rest a hand against Melody’s back to steady her. “Neither have I,” he admitted.

Melody’s retching subsided. “Doctor McCoy, Ah’m not feelin’ good ...” she murmured, her voice barely above a weak whisper.

“I know, Melody,” he said, fighting to keep his voice as even and soothing as he could under the circumstances. “It’s going to be all right.”

She hugged herself tightly when a shiver worked its way through her body, and tears welled up in her eyes. “Ah want Momma ...”

“You need rest,” Jean said, and gently guided her back down.

“Ah want Momma!” she mewled again. “Momma! Mom ...”

Melody’s voice trailed off and her eyes rolled back. And like a marionette whose strings were cut, her body went limp and her head lolled to the side. Hank frantically checked her vitals. So far none of the alarms went off, but her pulse was thready and her breathing shallow.

“Where are Megan and Fabio?” Hank asked, and chided himself for letting his voice rise with fresh urgency.

“Next bay over, as soon as Melody presented I separated them.”

Hank hurried to a control panel along one wall and adjusted the environment controls. The scrubbers filtering the air flowing into the room whined when the air conditioning units kicked in, and the temperature in the room dropped quickly. “Melody and Megan share a room with Illyana so it’s not surprising one of them was the next to present. Call Josh and David, we’re going to need their help and they’ve already been briefed. I believe Megan will likely be next, but Fabio has also been in close contact with all three, so I want them in beds and monitored immediately for the slightest change in their condition. Temperature, heart rate, oxygen levels, everything.

“Has there been any change in Scott’s condition?”

“No,” Jean said, and Hank returned his attention to her at the tightness in her voice. He couldn’t quite make out her face through the mask of her suit, but her distress was evident in her posture. “But he hasn’t gotten worse, either.”

Hank ground his teeth together and clenched his fists while he hesitated a moment to weigh his response. “Jean, I won’t insult you with false assurances; I have no hope that this is going to get better any time soon. In fact I’m afraid it’s only going to get much, much worse. What we’re dealing with ...”

She nodded. “I know, Hank. I’m all right. We have a job to do. I’ve already called Josh and David. I’ll get Fabio and Megan into beds. And then I’ll start preparing more, because we’ll need them.”

###

Abandoned Weapon Plus bunker, the Canadian wilderness...

Matthew wove through the bodies packed inside the bunker's command center and tapped the tablet against his hand. Men and women stepped away from their stations only long enough to clear the path, and the drone of voices filled the installation with a buzz of excitement he had not felt since the moments just before they stepped off for their attack against the Xavier school. The hardships of winter were over, and everyone now focused their attention on their part in the war to come. He allowed himself a tight smile, and self-consciously brushed his fingertips against the mass of scar tissue when the incline of his lips tugged against his burned flesh.

After months of defeat and retreat, they just won their first victory in the struggle to come.

The Reverend stood with Jack, Mary, and several other senior officers in a quiet corner not far from the communications terminal. Stryker reviewed information on an iPad in Mary's hands, gesticulating at times at some point or other, and the others nodded their understanding. He paused when he caught Matthew's approach out of the corner of his eye, and the others all turned their attention on him when he raised his tablet in triumph.

"Good morning, Matthew," Stryker said once he reached them. "You have the morning report from our agents in New York?"

"Yes, sir, Reverend," he said. The others took note of his smile, and waited eagerly for his update.

"It would seem you have good news this morning."

"Very good news, Reverend. Very good news. I just received an update from Beta Team reporting mission accomplished."

The Reverend's face could have lit the room all by itself, and even Jack and Mary smiled.

"The test was successful?"

Matthew nodded and handed him the tablet. Stryker accepted it and paged through the team leader's report. "Yes, sir. We can confirm that the target subject they selected has been infected. If everything works as our benefactors promised, the virus should be spreading within the school by now."

Stryker's lips curled into a victorious smile. "Good news indeed, Matthew!"

"There's more, sir. Two-One Beta encountered Grey and Summers in Salem Center, questioning the operator of that café the abominations frequent. He was spotted and pursued, but managed to shoot Summers." His smiled broadened at the delight on the Reverend's features.

"Summers is infected, as well?"

"If everything works as expected, yes."

Stryker chucked and shook a fist in triumph. "Very good! Very, very good!" He turned his attention to Mary and Jack, who were beaming as well at this turn of fortune. "It's time to move forward. Mary, Ah'd like you to take control of the operation. Ah've arranged a rendezvous with our friend Mr. Pierce, who will help you slip past the watch for us on the border. He's placed his people at our disposal, so we'll use them to proceed with the next phase."

Mary nodded and tapped a few options on her iPad. "Yes, sir. What's our target?"

He considered her pad for a moment, then jabbed a finger into the display. "This virus is our legacy to mankind. It's time for us to make a statement that we will not bow down to these abominations and their supporters. We make the release in Mutant Town."

To be continued...

---

A Note From The Author

Lots of little things needed to be set up in this episode. We've got the main arc for the next few episodes, along with preparing for things to come. As I noted previously, I wasn't actually planning on Yana being a particularly big presence in the series, but as soon as I started developing this season her role grew, especially once this plot started to come together. I knew she simply had to be a part of it. We also get a bit of a look in on what Wither has been up to, and more bits and pieces of Stryker's evil plan for this season.

I am, of course, perfectly aware that in today’s era of Zero Tolerance, Quentin Quire would likely have been expelled outright for his antics, but I’m just going to leave it at the Xavier School doesn’t operate under the same rules as most American schools, especially since booting a student could very well be a death sentence.

And of course, we get a shameless little bit of fanservice to tease the shippers. We also get to see that Laura is developing more, particularly in her speech patterns. The funny thing about her language in the books is that everyone assumes that she never uses contractions, and her dialogue should always be extremely formal and stilted. However, this was actually only a characteristic when she was written under Liu. Even her creators, Kyle and Yost, gave her a more naturalistic — if still formal — manner of speaking. I went with the Liu characterization at the beginning of the series, as I felt that best established where she was in her development and it’s what many readers are likely familiar with, however we’re going to start seeing the influence of the others on her as time goes by.

I was asked during the break between seasons when I originally posted on FF.net whether I considered casting for the series, but honestly, I never gave a lot of thought about it beyond India Eisley as X-23. Now, obviously, Dafne Keen owns that role, but in 2013 that wouldn’t have been an option. Eisley had the look, and between films like Kite and Underworld: Awakening played similar roles. So I think she would have been perfect.

Not really much else to say about this one, so until next time!

Chapter 8: 2x08 - The Reavers

Summary:

Illyana Rasputin has fallen deathly ill, victim of biological attack perpetrated by Stryker and his Purifiers, who have been equipped by their benefactors with a virus engineered to target mutants. While investigating the source of her illness, Cyclops and Jean Grey were attacked in Salem Center by one of Stryker’s agents, and Cyclops was also infected.

With the virus already spreading through the student body, Stryker begins to put plans in motion to unleash this deadly weapon in Mutant Town...

2x08

The Reavers

###

Act I

###

Josh slumped in his chair, bathed in the glow of the quarantine bay monitors. It was the only light in the darkened observation gallery, and flashed off the reflective surface of his golden skin. The various terminals and computers beeped and chittered, oxygen pumps hissed and thumped behind the glass isolating him from the quarantine beyond, and cold air rushed from vents until the temperature dropped to somewhere just north of freezing.

He shivered and wrapped his arms tighter around himself, imagining his breath misting in the chill of the bay.

Their patients slept quietly beyond the glass. Melody and Illyana and Cyclops, and in the past three days even Megan and Fabio fell ill. Josh sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Laurie’s face forced its way unbidden from the back of his mind to the forefront of his thoughts, but he didn’t see her awkward smile, the demure ducking of her head whenever he looked at her, or even the shy flush of her cheeks in the quiet moments between just the two of them. Instead, she appeared to him as he last saw her; lying still and motionless in the bloody snow, her beautiful blue eyes staring vacantly into the sky, and a red river winding its way off her brow, dripping hot and steaming onto the cold, snowy sidewalk. He watched again in his mind while he clamped his hands, painted red with her blood, over that neat little entrance wound in the middle of her brow. He saw the gruesome mess the bullet left when it blew apart the back of her head on its way through. The bile surged in his belly at the memory of desperately willing her brains to knit back together.

Josh squeezed his eyes shut and buried his face in his hands. It was useless. He was useless. She was dead before he could even lay a hand to her, and despite all his power and potential he could do nothing. Just like that, in one infinitesimal moment, Laurie’s life slipped from his fingers, ripped away from him in a savage act of mad hatred.

And now it was happening again.

He sighed and thumped his head against the back of his chair. Josh idly reached out to the control console and adjusted the cameras allowing him to watch the victims of this affliction from the safety of the quarantine bay. Illyana’s skin was ghastly white, and sweat poured down all their faces. They were all alike; burning alive from the inside while the disease ravaged them. Dr. McCoy couldn’t even put a name to it. All they could do was sit, and watch, and hope. Hope for a change, hope for some miraculous discovery that would allow them to treat this malady.

Until then, all he could do was sit and watch them die.

Again.

The door leading back out into the subbasement hallway opened, and a thin shaft of light speared into the gloom of the observation gallery. Josh blinked his eyes against the sudden spike in illumination and craned his neck. A figure stood silhouetted against the light in the hallway, and hesitated a moment before stepping the rest of the way inside.

Once Josh’s eyes adjusted to the light the blurry black shape resolved into Rahne Sinclair’s slim figure. She carried a covered tray in her hands. The dim lights of the console glittered on the lightweight chain and crucifix around her neck, and reflected off her green eyes. She took a few uncertain steps towards him, though not, he suspected, to avoid tripping over something in the darkness. Rahne’s senses were nearly as keen as Laura’s.

“Good evenin’,” she said on her way across the gallery, her Scottish brogue rolling off her tongue. “A didnae see ye at supper.”

“Thanks,” he said. “But you shouldn’t be down here.”

Rahne clicked her tongue when she reached the observation window and its consoles. She eased herself down into a chair beside him. “With everyone that’s gotten sick so far, A dinnae think it matters much at this point. Besides, ye could do with somethin’ t’ eat fer all yer hard work.”

She removed the cover of the tray with an exaggerated flourish, and herbal fragrance and pungent garlic rose up from the two steaming platters of spaghetti beneath. There was also a piece of buttered garlic bread for each of them. Rahne balanced the tray on her knees and reached into the pockets of her sweater for two cans of Coca-Cola.

Josh quirked a grin when she handed one to him. He popped the top and took a swig. “Well, in that case I won’t tell the Doc if you won’t.”

Rahne flashed him a smile in return and opened her can. “’Tis good t’ get away from everyone upstairs fer a bit, anyway. Ye ferget how crowded it can be when everyone is confined t’ the grounds.”

Josh set his soda on the console and accepted one of the plates and a fork. “I know, I can hear Santo sulking all the way down here.” He took a bite of spaghetti, and realized he had been focusing so intently on the monitors and his private thoughts he didn’t know just how hungry he was.

“How are they doin’?” she asked, and twirled her fork around her spaghetti.

“About the same, I guess. Dr. Grey was down about an hour ago checking up on them.” He hesitated a moment. “I asked if she felt anything. Like, thoughts and stuff, you know? She said she couldn’t reach any of them. It was like someone shut off a light switch.”

Rahne took a bite of her supper and chewed on it thoughtfully. “A’d just talked t’ Megan a couple days ago. ’Twas right after Yana got sick an’ she was so upset she couldnae control her powers. Pixie dust was everywhere, an’ she had half the lounge seein’ unicorns an’ elves an’ such.” She giggled, and the worry on her face vanished for a moment when the memory lit up her features. “Och, we could sure use a good laugh now.”

He nodded and shoveled another bite into his mouth. “Seems like every time lately we think things are getting better something new comes up.”

She glanced up at him through her lashes. “Is it true what Quentin Quire was sayin’, then?”

“About what?”

“Well, ye know A dinnae like t’ gossip. My father the Reverend always said ’twas unbecomin’ o’ a good Christian girl—”

Josh let one corner of his lips curl up into a sardonic smile. “You? Gossip? While hanging out with Dani and Nori? I’d never imagine it.”

Rahne rolled her eyes, and her cheeks flushed. “—well, Quentin was pokin’ around where his head didnae belong, an’ ye known he cannae keep his head out o’ other peoples’ business. An’, well ...” she trailed off and stared at her plate.

Josh lowered his fork and watched the emotions flicker across her face; embarrassment over spreading gossip, anxiety, and outright fear all warring for prominence on her features. His breath caught in his throat in spite of himself, and the bile that subsided after her entry bearing food began to churn again.

She heaved a sigh, as if coming to a decision, and scooped another bite of spaghetti into her mouth. “Well, he says he heard through Sooraya’s thoughts that one o’ Stryker’s men poisoned Mr. Summers an’ Yana.”

Josh’s grip tensed around his fork, as much in chagrin over Quentin poking through peoples’ heads over a matter the Professor was trying to keep quiet to prevent a panic, as for the worry such thoughts etched onto Rahne’s face.

“Look, A ken ye all have been workin’ a lot. An’ we dinnae need Quentin bein’ a busy-body t’ learn the lot o’ ye have been made junior X-Men in trainin’ an’ all; Santo never could keep his mouth shut fer anythin’. ’Tis just ...” she trailed off again, and Josh watched the lights of the terminals flicker across her face and glitter in her eyes. Half her features were bathed in the muted glow of the displays, the other lost in shadow. “Everyone’s just so afraid. ’Tis like we’re just waitin’ around t' see who goes next.”

“Dr. McCoy’s not going to let that happen,” Josh said, but couldn’t quite banish the hollowness spreading through his gut.

She managed a smile. “An’ with ye t’ help him A’m sure he’ll have a cure in no time.”

Josh’s face heated, and he ducked his head so she couldn’t see the embarrassed smile tugging at his lips. “Well ...”

“Och come on, Josh. Ye can pretend t’ modesty all ye like, but we’ve all seen what ye can do. The one good thing my father taught me was the importance o’ faith, an’ A have faith in ye.”

He sighed, and the smile fell from his lips when Laurie’s face sprung once more unbidden to his mind. “Thanks, but I think it’s a bit misplaced. Dr. McCoy had me try to fix Yana when she first came down ill, and I just... I just couldn’t do anything.” His voice trembled a bit, and he tried his best to hide it behind his soda can.

Rahne wasn’t fooled for a moment, however, and her sympathetic green eyes just bored into him. “Josh?”

He rubbed his eyes, and for a moment didn’t respond. A part of him wished she would just get up and leave, but nor could he bring himself to give a more obvious hint.

“Are ye alright?” she prompted when he didn’t answer. “Should... should A get Dr. McCoy?”

Josh instantly regretted his hesitation when he heard the sudden rush of anxiety in her voice, and heaved a sigh. “No... No, it’s not that. It’s just ...”

Rahne set her platter down on the console and folded her hands in her lap. “What is it, then?”

“I’m just feeling useless right now. I can’t help but think about Laurie, and how this is the same way I felt when ...” his voice cracked and tears welled up in his eyes, and he found himself unable to finish that sentence.

“Oh,” she said, very quietly, and Josh risked looking at her.

Rahne slumped in her chair with her head downcast and her hands clasped nervously in front of her. Her tone was somewhere between sympathy and... He frowned. There was something else very familiar in her voice. Disappointment? Regret? His mouth went a little dry at the realization it actually pained him to hear it.

“A ken ’tis been a while, but ye havenae really talked about it, have ye?” she finally said after a few moments of quiet deliberation.

Josh took a last swig of his soda. He found it annoyingly empty for his liking, so busied his hands with finishing off his supper, instead. “I don’t know what there is to talk about.”

“Och, come on.” Rahne made a face at him, and her voice colored with strained patience. “Look... A ken ye loved her, an’ A cannae even begin t’ imagine how much it hurt t’ lose her. Especially like that. But ye cannae dwell on it forever. Laurie wouldnae want t’ see ye drag yerself through life the way ye have the last few months. A cannae imagine she'd be happy seein' ye bein' so unsure o' yerself or yer powers now.

"Ye can help these people — our friends. A ken ye have the power t’ do it, an' Laurie did, too." As if on impulse, Rahne reached out and took his hand. Josh tensed at the contact, but if she noticed it didn't show on her features. "We all lost someone t’ Stryker an' his ilk, an pardon my language, but damned if A'll let ye sit by an' let him do it again while feelin' sorry fer yerself."

Josh offered her a smile. "I appreciate the confidence, Rahne, I really do." He sighed and lowered his head. "It's just... I mean how do you keep going when your biggest failure cost you the thing you cared about most?"

Rahne flinched a bit, and she slipped her hand from his and clasped them in front of her again. "A dinnae ken." She sighed. "Fer a long time A blamed myself fer the way things fell apart with my father — not that he was a model parent t’ begin with. A felt like A was the monster an’ not the good Christian girl he wanted me t’ be, an' that it was all my fault. But 'twas only the time A spent here that helped me come to realize that what A was, was good an' natural, an' 'twas my father in the wrong."

She let out a nervous laugh. "Though A suppose 'tis not exactly the same thing, is it?"

He managed a smile. "I get what you're saying, though."

"A ken ye're hurtin', Josh. A really do, but ye dinnae have t’ go through it alone. An' ye cannae let it stop ye from doin' yer best t’ stop this. Then ye'll just be lettin' Stryker an' the ones like him win, an' Laurie's death really will be in vain."

Josh sighed and stared at his hands. He balled them into fists, and ran his thumbs along the sides of his index fingers. The lights of the consoles flashed off his golden skin, much the same way it caught Rahne's crucifix and eyes. "Thanks. You're right, you know? It's just not easy to keep going sometimes."

"Have ye tried talkin' to Jubilee at all?"

He shook his head. "No. I've thought about it, but somehow I just couldn't bring myself to see her."

Rahne smiled. "Well, maybe ye should be givin' her a chance. She's helped a lot o’ the others who dinnae ken how t’ cope with everything that's happened."

"I'll, uh, I'll think about it."

She reached out and patted the back of his hand. "An’ if ye still don't feel right goin' t’ Jubilee, ye can always talk t’ me."

He managed another smile for her in return, and laid his free hand atop hers. This time she flinched a little at the contact, but after a moment clasped his fingers. "Thanks."

Josh met her green eyes for a moment before withdrawing his hand again. They sat together alone in the darkened gallery and finished their supper.

###

Donald Pierce stood over the map of New York City and its surroundings and leaned over the table. The dim lights of their command post filled the room with a muted glow except for the spotlight directed onto the map itself. Stryker's woman stood opposite him, her arms folded across her chest, and trying not to stare. Pierce didn't blame her.

At one time she must have been a true beauty — exquisite features, golden hair, and blue eyes — but her visage was ruined by the pair of parallel scars slashing her face in two. A pity, really, considering she still had quite the lovely figure. He glanced up at her from beneath his brows and considered her thoughtfully. The sight of her when his men first brought her across the border certainly caught him by surprise, but such was the danger of the enemy she fought.

A few other senior functionaries clustered around the table with them. Sister Mary brought a few of Stryker's Purifiers with her, but her fanatics were outnumbered by his own men. The only commonality in their appearance was that everyone was wearing body armor and carrying pistols and rifles, but even there the two groups were in stark contrast; the Purifiers carried the latest and greatest technology provided by their mysterious benefactor, while the balance of his rank-and-file were left to scavenge whatever they could off the black market.

He worked his jaw. If Stryker was so determined to have his help with this operation, that's something he would need to have remedied.

"Well?" Mary asked, and Pierce admitted some admiration that she never allowed her impatience to leech into her posture. "What do you think?"

Pierce nodded while he considered her proposal. "I agree, that's the best target. And you're sure that humans won't be affected?"

"Our benefactor assures us that only those with active X-Genes and dormant carriers will be infected. Baseline humans won't be directly harmed by the virus."

He glanced up at her and frowned. "Directly?"

"The virus has been engineered with a very specific path of mutation once released into the target population. You have to understand, Mr. Pierce, we're not only waging a war against the abominations. The unfortunate truth is that the general populace has been coopted. People have been increasingly voicing their support for the Mutant Rights act. We needed a means by which we can turn the populace against them, and bring them back to the side of righteousness."

Pierce grunted and twisted his lips in disgust. "You mean the demonstrators in the aftermath of the bombing."

"Among others." She curled one corner of her mouth into a smile. The scar tissue immobilizing the rest of her mouth made it all the more chilling. "They need to be reminded just how dangerous these abominations are. There will be some collateral damage, but all of it has been carefully calculated."

Pierce straightened and folded his arms across his chest. The mechanics of his arms quietly whirred and hissed with the motion, and the woman shifted quietly at the reminder of his prosthetics. He ignored the stare with the familiarity born of experience, and tapped his lip with one hand. "Mutant Town will certainly be the largest target, though may not give you a very effective demonstration since there's so few humans living there."

"What do you propose?"

"We make the release in Mutant Town as you've planned for saturation. But then arrange a few more, shall we say, dramatic demonstrations for the public."

She made a show of considering that and gave a short nod. "I'll have to brief the Reverend first, but I think he could be agreeable to a modification of the plan. What are you thinking?"

"We infect a few of them with the more advanced strain and release them into other population centers. Somewhere we can set a much more public example."

Mary nodded again in agreement. "It's not a bad idea. Confining things to Mutant Town would have a limited impact, as you say. But a targeted attack? Say, at a school? Or maybe a baseball game? That could be very effective."

She shuffled through the papers spread out on the table and replaced the map of the City with one of the greater New York area. Mary stabbed one part to the northeast with her finger.

"Our secondary concern is here, in Westchester," she said.

Pierce nodded. "Xavier's school."

"More specifically, the X-Men. Our ability to operate has been significantly reduced since our attack against the school failed. Unfortunately, Xavier seems to have decided to take a more aggressive stance against us. He's sent a team out to actively hunt down our personnel and bases of operation. Good men and women have been killed."

He frowned and rubbed his chin. "That's unusually bold, given his rhetoric, but it could be something we can use."

"We're frankly unsure of how much direct oversight he has on these operations, and may be maintaining plausible deniability so we can't directly connect him to it. However, it means we're also bogged down defending our own assets, which is part of why the Reverend requests your assistance.

"We'd like to set a watch on Westchester. Because of the school's defenses we can't get too close, but we've managed to operate small teams in Salem Center itself for brief periods without drawing too much attention, especially now that Xavier has quarantined his people inside the school."

Pierce nodded. "I can spare a team to set up a listening post in the town. And I'd like to have a look with a few...special operatives to see what we're dealing with, myself."

"Understood, but I'm sure the Reverend wants you to personally lead the men you're assigning to assist us with the release."

He gave her a bitter smile. The mechanics of his arm whirred and clattered when he clenched his fist. Mary suppressed a shudder. "I'll be there. Believe me, I wouldn't miss it for the world."

###

Act II

###

The tension filling the school's hallways was so thick she thought she could cut it with a knife.

Nori strolled with purpose down the dormitory hallway from her room at the very end of the girls’ wing, past closed doors, and knots of anxious students trapped between fear of gathering in groups in case they would be the next to get sick, and the need for the comfort of their friends. She balled her hands into fists, and her gauntlets clattered and clicked in response. That was without a doubt the worst part: Not only were her friends and classmates under attack yet again, but Stryker managed to take away the most reliable source of comfort they could have turned to while they weathered the storm.

She reached the stairs leading down to the main floor, and found Laura seated in her usual perch on the gallery watching those down below. Her green eyes flicked briefly in her direction when she drew nearer, before returning to her silent, brooding vigil. Keller loitered around with her, but otherwise ignored her when she passed them. She had no idea why Laura decided to start palling around with him, of all people, but no one else had any better idea what was going through her head at any given moment, so best not to dwell on it.

Nori hurried down the stairs and cut across the entrance hall. Her resolve wavered for a moment upon nearing her destination, and she paused well short of the Professor's door. It was closed while he worked, a forbidding barrier warning intruders to stay away. She worked her jaw and flexed her fists. The soft clicking of her gauntlets was almost deafening in the oppressive silence of the empty hall, and her breath caught in her throat. There was still time for her to change her mind. To retreat back to the lounge and see if David had finished his shift in the medical bay, or to her room to be alone, and let the knot growing in her bowels ever since she saw Luna’s security videos untie itself. She clenched her teeth and screwed up her features. She could turn around, but she wouldn't. She was the team leader, so if anyone didn't have the luxury of running away to hug a pillow and dwell, it was her.

Nori took a steadying breath, stomped determinately the last few paces to the Professor's door, and knocked. A heavy, metallic clank reverberated across the hall. She winced inwardly at the racket made by her gauntlets, but she refused to let her self-consciousness show on her features. Bad enough that Xavier would likely sense it either way.

After a few moments of silence she distantly heard the Professor's voice on the other side of the door. "Come in."

She stepped into his office and shut the door behind her again, and made her way across the carpeted floor. Xavier was alone, leaning over his computer terminal. He looked more exhausted than Nori could ever remember seeing him before, and that thought gave her pause; rare enough to see the Professor's emotions so openly on display, but especially the concern weighing heavily on his brow now.

He wearily rubbed the corners of his eyes and sat back in his wheelchair. "Yes, Nori! What can I do for you?"

"Professor, I was hoping I could speak to you for a minute ...?" she ventured, and despite her earlier certainty she now found herself wavering again.

"Of course you may. Please, have a seat."

She found herself complying despite the renewed desire to be anywhere else and just let the matter drop. Nori frowned, unsure whether it was some subconscious suggestion of the Professor's — who if he wished could have known exactly why she came to him before she even knocked on the door — or her own determination to be heard.

"Thank you," she said, and hesitated a moment while she braced herself for the argument that was certain to come.

"Now, how are you this morning, and how is your team?"

"We're good," she said, though she didn't exactly believe it. "I mean, we're keeping busy, at least. But without Cyclops to direct our training and Colossus spending all his time with his sister we've been kind of left on our own. We're doing the best we can, but ..."

Xavier offered her a sympathetic smile. "Yes, I know, and I'm sorry if it seems that I and the rest of the staff have been distant." He sighed and mopped his face. "But you and the others understand the crisis we're facing. I'm pleased, however, that you've taken the initiative to keep up on your own as best you can."

Nori frowned. She couldn't quite be sure, but she thought she saw a twinge of something on his features when she mentioned Mr. Summers' name... "That's why I'm here," she said instead, and forced down her curiosity and concern. "I want to take part of my squad into Salem."

There. It was out, and Nori released the breath that she had been holding in relief. For a moment she was treated to the rare sight of actual surprise on the Professor's features, and he stared at her wide-eyed in disbelief at the request.

"I'm sorry, Nori," he said, when he found his voice again. "But I'm afraid that's out of the question."

"How come?"

"Because Stryker has men watching the town, and under the circumstances I cannot, nor will I, condone putting you or the other members of your team at risk."

Nori scowled and folded her arms across her chest. "Yeah, I get that, but maybe you don't get we're already at risk."

Xavier frowned at her and his eyes hardened, unaccustomed as he was to such back-talk from his students. "I beg your pardon?"

"A bunch of us have already gotten sick. They're all down there in the med bay dying, and the rest of us are just sitting around up here waiting for... I don't know what! For us to catch whatever the others have? For Stryker to make another attack? The others might not be saying anything, but they don't have to. I feel the same way: I don't want to just sit around and wait for something to happen, I want to actually do something."

He sighed and leaned over his desk, with his hands folded in front of him. His expression shifted into that same calm patience he radiated whenever one of them got ornery, but Nori just scowled back. Maybe as a student she understood it, but she was an X-Man now. Sort of. Ish.

Now it just felt like patronizing.

"I understand your frustration, Nori, but there really is nothing more to do."

"I disagree," she said, refusing to back down. "I think there is more we can do in Salem. You have to do something. I have to do something!"

He eyed her closely, and Nori squirmed under his appraisal. It was as if he was looking straight through her. For all she knew he was doing exactly that, probing her mind for whatever led her to his office. So rather than wait for him to ask, or pluck it from her mind, she clenched her teeth and decided to just say it.

"I was there, okay? When that guy attacked Yana, I was working! Dr. McCoy played that video, and I saw myself up there on that screen. I was there pulling Yana off that guy before she could send him to Limbo because I thought it was just a bit of coffee. Well, we know better now, don't we? That's how she got sick! I was right there! I could have done something, but I didn't!" Tears welled up in her eyes when the guilt gnawing at her belly ever since Dr. McCoy played the security tape washed over her.

Xavier heaved a deep sigh and rubbed his jaw. Nori's tears broke loose. She hugged herself tightly, but the cold metal of her gauntlets offered her little comfort.

"He got away and was able to attack Cyclops, all because I didn't do anything." She lowered her eyes to her lap and sobbed. "What if I could have stopped this? You made us X-Men, and Cyclops put me in charge of the team to protect my friends, but when the time came, I didn't even see there was a danger!"

The soft whir of Xavier’s chair filled the office, and he circled around his desk to approach her. She felt one of his hands reach out and take hold of hers, the contact distant and nearly imperceptible through her gauntlets.

“What happened to Illyana and Scott isn’t your fault, Nori,” he said. “No one — not even Jean or myself — could have seen it coming.”

“That’s easy for you to say, you weren’t standing right there when it happened!”

He quirked one corner of his mouth into a rueful smile. “Perhaps not. It’s been quite a while since I stood right anywhere.”

Nori glanced up at him, but the rare display of humor offered her little comfort.

“I understand what it is to lay blame on yourself for things beyond your control. But whether you take it onto yourself or target it at others, doing so unjustly in the end doesn’t change the past. You need to absolve yourself of whatever guilt you’re carrying around, and let it go.”

He gave her hand a squeeze and looked her deep in the eyes. Xavier could, if he wanted, make her do just that. She gritted her teeth and tore her gaze away from him, and instead turned her eyes down to her lap. In all honesty, she wished he would.

“I just need to do something,” she repeated. “Feeling sorry for myself may not do anything productive, but neither will just sitting here waiting to get sick. You approved the team, and Cyclops put me in charge. The least you could do is hear me out.”

Xavier sighed and sat back in his chair. He buried his face in one hand in exasperation, and for a long moment said nothing. Nori just watched him slump down into his wheelchair, wondering at just how old he was beginning to look. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat while she watched his vitality fade away, leaving in its place a tired, careworn old man. Then he sat upright and straightened out his jacket, and suddenly he was stern Professor Xavier again, glowering at her with a peculiar mix of urgency and his usual limitless patience.

“Very well, I will. What did you have in mind?”

Nori’s heart leapt up in her throat, and her belly started knotting itself again. All the time she spent rehearsing this conversation she never actually expected him to listen. She swallowed and scrambled to put her thoughts in order. “Well, I know that the other X-Men have been tied up, but I don’t think you’ve done everything that could be done to track the guy who attacked Yana and Cyclops. For all we know he could still be hanging around Salem watching what’s happening at the school, and not following up could be letting them know that we’re retreating.”

“This is a conversation I’ve already had with the others.”

“I know, but I think that’s where we can be of use. I get it, you won’t send us out looking for Stryker, but we can at least cover Salem. I’d just take a small team: Myself, Keller, Laura, and Josh.”

Xavier furrowed his brow while he considered that for a moment. “And why those four?”

“That guy bought coffee, and I’m pretty sure he used a card. If he’s one of Stryker’s people there’s probably fake names and all that other kind of cloak-and-dagger stuff that would make tracing that pointless, but Luna would still have the credit receipts until she goes over the books at the end of the month. I’m thinking maybe Laura could pick up a scent and sniff the guy out if he’s still hanging around. She says her nose is even better than the Wolverine’s, so even though it’s been a while it would probably be worth the shot.

“If we do run into trouble, Keller can at least shield us if they start shooting darts, and maybe even restrain the guy outright. And we’ll have Josh right there just in case. He hasn’t been able to heal anyone who’s already gotten sick, but maybe he can do something if he catches them quick enough.”

He nodded idly. “And you?”

She squared her shoulders. “Because it’s my team, and I wouldn’t ask them to go if I wasn’t willing to go myself.”

Nori leaned over in her chair and clasped her hands. “We can do this, Professor. I know we’re still in training, but the way I see it the grownups could use the help, and this is as much our fight as it is theirs. So let us help!”

###

Julian leaned his back against the gallery railing that was the only thing separating him from the top of the stairs and becoming a potential splatter on the floor below. Laura sat beside him and looked out across the hallway below the stairs, sweeping it with her keen green eyes. She looked away only long enough to watch Ashida pass them without a word, a determined look on her features over Julian didn't particularly care what.

"So, you can really smell it," he asked, not quite able to keep the incredulity out of his voice.

"Yes," she said, and returned her attention to the floor below, like a cat perched on top of a shelf and looking for some unsuspecting victim to pounce on. "I don't like it."

Julian glanced sidelong at her. "Can't say I blame you, really. So what does fear smell like?"

She scrunched her features a bit while she considered that, as if not quite certain how to put it into words. "It...smells like fear. And sweat. But there's not one particular olfactory component. Humans still have pheromone responses to different stimuli, but since smell is a less important source of input than sight, the species has largely lost the ability to consciously detect those cues."

"But you can?"

Laura nodded, and wrapped her arms around her legs. "Yes. My mutation heightens my ability to process olfactory stimuli, including to some extent those pheromones. Once I have a scent, I will never forget it, and I can pick it up again long after the source has passed."

"So, you know all of us by scent, then? Like, if we were to blindfold you, you could pick any of us out of a crowd."

"Yes."

Julian grinned in amusement. "Okay, that's kind of cool."

She shrugged. "It can be overwhelming. Being in close proximity with so many bodies in a confined space can provide too much stimulation, and makes me uncomfortable. Particularly strong odors such as Noriko’s perfume are also discomforting, and I would be more susceptible to anyone whose powers are based upon scent than others. I must admit that I found it difficult being in a room with Laurie as a result."

He frowned, and for a moment his thoughts drifted back to Laurie and the pheromones she struggled to control. "Ah, I didn't think about that."

"That is because you only have an average sense of smell." Laura sniffed and her expression turned thoughtful. "You are also wearing more aftershave and antiperspirant than normal."

His face flushed at her remark, and that set off an anxious churning in his belly. "No I'm not!"

She sniffed again. "And you are lying."

Julian glared at her, but caught a subtle smile tugging at the corner of her lips. Instead, he stuck his tongue out at her. "I liked you better before you developed a sense of humor."

In the past she might have ducked her head away, and that would have been the last he would get out of her for a long while. Now, however, she looked back at him, her hair cascading over her shoulder at the canting of her head in a way that made his belly turn somersaults, with that slight smile still on her lips. "I didn't say it was a bad smell."

Julian's face heated. Was that a smolder? "Well, I'd hope so. That was some expensive stuff, you know."

Laura sobered and leaned her chin against her knees. “Everyone tries to mask their natural scent with perfumes and deodorants, but I can still smell them for who they really are. And I can smell that they are all afraid. Even the Professor.”

His belly took another tumble, but this time at the thought that anything could break the man’s calm. Oh, Julian had certainly seen him angry, usually after some prank or smart word with a teacher landed him in Xavier’s office, but that was always a carefully calculated display of temper. He found the idea that the Professor had emotions that weren’t just for his and the other students’ benefit mystifying.

“Okay, maybe we are, a little. What about you?”

“I don’t feel,” she said, as matter-of-factly as if she were saying the sky was blue.

Julian gave her a sharp look, but if her expression changed at that pronouncement, it only grew more introspective.

“Come on, that's not true. Why would you say something like that?”

Her features twisted uncomfortably, and she huddled down into herself. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she said, and her voice turned very quiet in that way that made it clear she had no intention of continuing further on that subject.

Julian sighed in frustration and thumped his head against the railing behind him. “Of course you don’t,” he muttered under his breath, and blushed when he remembered that she likely still heard every word of it. “Look, I get you don’t like talking about where you’re from, but if you ever needed someone ...”

She nodded. “I know. Jubilee has made the same offer.” Laura screwed up her features while she contemplated what she was about to say. “I do appreciate the consideration.”

He shrugged. “No pressure, you know? Just laying it out there.”

“Okay.”

Julian regarded her for a moment, but Laura just continued watching the floor below. Her eyes seemed unfocused, however, as if she stared at a point much further away, and her delicate features were troubled.

“I was wondering,” he began, and suddenly his bowels started tying themselves in knots again. “I know it’s not exactly the best time, but if you’re not busy—”

Hellion, Talon, and Elixir, report to my office immediately, Xavier’s voice echoed in his brain, and Julian grabbed his temples and let out a discomfited moan.

“Are you kidding me?” he asked, and speared the ceiling with his most withering and irritated glare. The ceiling tiles, however, were unimpressed.

Laura was on her feet even before the Professor’s voice stopped reverberating between his ears. “Come on, we should see what he wants.”

Julian twisted his lips into a scowl. “Man, of all the rotten timing. This better be good ...”

###

Rahne made her way along the dormitory hallway. A few of her classmates gathered about here and there, but it was unusually empty for a day without classes. Most of the others locked themselves away in their rooms, in a most-likely-fruitless effort to protect themselves from the illness ravaging the school. The rest, she was sure, were in the lounge doing anything they could to distract themselves from the anxiety winding its way through every room and corridor. She sighed and muttered a soft prayer for them while she continued on her way, but found little comfort in the words, or even the feel of her crucifix in her hand.

She reached the stairs and started down with swift and silent grace. An odorous pall hung in every hallway that made her wrinkle her nose in disgust. Fear had a peculiar scent, one she could never quite put to words, but it made her finer hairs bristle. The Wolf in her rejoiced at the stink of prey driven to panic, and yearned to run free in pursuit. But the girl was just as terrified as the others, and wanted nothing more than to run away and hide.

Nori emerged from Xavier’s office just as she reached the bottom of the stairs, with Julian, Laura, and Josh following behind her. Rahne frowned at the determined set of Nori’s jaw, an expression mirrored by the others when they turned down the entry hall.

Rahne altered her course to intercept them, and jogged a little to close the distance. “Hey! Hey guys! Wait up!”

They all stopped and turned. Josh offered her a small smile it seemed as if he was afraid she would see it, to judge by how he ducked his head. Laura’s expression remained empty of...well, anything, as usual. Julian folded his arms across his chest and scowled impatiently. Nori just scratched the back of her head awkwardly.

“Hey, Rahne,” she said. “I’m sorry, I forgot I was meeting you and Dani for lunch.”

Rahne came to a stop just short of the group and scrutinized them with a raised an eyebrow. “What’s goin’ on?”

“X-Men business,” Julian said. “Nothing you need to worry about.”

A small thrill worked its way through her belly at that. In her excitement she completely disregarded the impatience in Julian’s tone at the interruption. “Oh? What sort o’ business?”

“The Professor is sending us into Salem to follow up on that guy who attacked Cyclops,” Josh said, with a glare in Julian’s direction the other ignored.

The thrill wound out of her belly and up into her chest. Josh straightened ever so slightly when he said that, even if he wasn’t aware of it, and Rahne couldn’t help but let a smile cross her features. “Sounds excitin’!”

“It’s just a simple tracking mission,” Nori said. She folded her arms under her breast with a clack of her gauntlets. “We’re just seeing if Laura can pick up a scent at the Grind Stone.”

The thrill metamorphosed into a full-on attack of butterflies, and she found herself all but bounding on her heels, like a pup straining to be let off the leash. “Well, take me with ye!”

Julian gawked, and even Nori blinked in disbelief.

“Are you serious?” Julian said. “We’re not going walkies here, Lassie. This is serious!”

Rahne’s finer hairs bristled at that remark, and she balled her fists and wrinkled her nose in annoyance.

“Keller!” Nori snapped, and glared. Julian glowered back, showing no sign of being impressed with her rebuke. “I’m sorry, it took a lot of convincing just to get the Professor to okay the four of us.”

“Och, come on, Nori!” she said, and ran her hand back through her boyishly short hair in frustration. “A cannae stand bein’ cooped up in here any longer! A need t’ get out an’ be able t’ run fer a bit. ’Tis bloody hard on a wolf t’ keep her all caged up. An’ besides, my nose is just as good as Laura’s. A can help!”

Nori mopped her face. “Look, I get it. I’m going stir-crazy, too, but this isn’t a trip to the mall! As far as we know Stryker has people all over Salem. The Professor would kill me!”

“Rahne’s got a point, Nori,” Josh said, and Rahne flashed a smile in his direction. His face heated, and his golden cheeks took on a slightly rosy color. “We can cover more ground that way.”

Julian groaned. “Jesus Christ, Foley! Anyone else you want to drag along?”

Josh scowled, but his glower was just as lost on him as hers and Nori’s. “Look, her sense of smell really is that good.” He looked at Laura. “What do you think?”

They all turned their attention to Laura. Rahne frowned when she stiffened, and her delicate features twisted into what for a moment actually seemed like indignation over Josh’s praise, as if she alone weren’t good enough. Then the moment passed, and she shrunk down into herself at the sudden attention focused on her.

“Noriko is under orders from the Professor. His understanding was that this mission would consist only of us, and I don’t believe that he would be amenable to Rahne accompanying us since she has not received any combat training in the event we do run into danger.” She hesitated a moment while she considered. “However, your reasoning is tactically sound. With two of us, we would be able to track our target and bring him to ground much more efficiently by doubling the ground we can cover.”

“There ye have it!” Rahne said. “Come on, Nori! Let me do somethin’! ’Tis my friends who are getting’ sick, too, an’ A dinnae want to just stand around waitin’ fer it t’ happen!”

Nori looked between her and the others. Julian rolled his eyes and sighed in aggravation. Laura huddled down into herself and tried to avoid eye contact with everyone. Rahne thought she caught a flash of Josh’s eyes flicking in her direction, but his golden features remained stoic.

“Please?” Rahne said, and folded her hands in supplication.

Finally, Nori sighed, and her gauntlets clicked when she buried her face in her hand. “All right, all right. But I just know I’m going to get in trouble for this ...”

###

“It’s so not fair!” Santo wailed, and threw his head backwards against the back of the couch.

Victor buried his face in his hands. “I’m so tired of hearing you say that!”

He, Santo, Cessily, and Sooraya gathered in their usual spot around the television. Tension hung so thick over the lounge he doubted Laura could cut it with her claws, but with nowhere else to go and nothing else to do, it was a bleak island of comfort against the fear gnawing at everyone. The school was appropriately subdued, and most conversation among their classmates was lowered to hushed whispers. Not that it needed to be; with most of the others holed up in their rooms, the place was unusually empty for what should have been a typical morning without classes.

Victor curled his lips into a scowl and leaned back into his chair; the current mood wasn’t exactly helped by learning that Julian got to go on a mission to Salem while the rest of them were forced to stay behind.

Sooraya, seated on the couch next to the giant pile of walking rubble, reached out and patted Santo on one rocky knee. “I know you’re frustrated, but I am sure the Professor has his reasons for picking the others.”

Santo harrumphed. “How could they not want me around? I mean what are they going to do if there’s trouble, and I’m not there to pound it into paste?”

Cessily rolled her eyes. “I’m sure they’ll be just fine without you. Besides, if Stryker attacks and Julian decides to do something reckless he’s got Laura there to keep an eye on him.”

“Yeah, Laura,” Santo said. Victor raised the ridge of scales that served him for eyebrows at the sarcastic tone in his voice.

“Wait, back that up,” he said. “You actually sounded jealous.”

Santo’s features sank, taken aback by the accusation. “Am not!”

A smirk crept onto Cessily’s lips, and even Sooraya pressed a hand over her mouth. Victor smiled broadly and he scooted to the edge of his seat in excitement. “Dude, you totally are! You’re totally jealous of Laura.”

The big rocky mutant straightened to his full height and glowered down on him from across the conversation circle, but that just made Victor want to laugh even more. “So what? Julian’s my best friend, but ever since he started liking Creepy Girl we haven’t done stuff like we used to.”

This time Victor couldn’t help but laugh, and slapped his knees gleefully. Cessily and Sooraya were much more restrained, but even Santo picked up on their amusement. His glowing blue eyes spit them both in irritation, but they took it no more seriously than he did.

“Yeah, I wonder why he could possibly want to hang out with Laura over you.”

Santo harrumphed, and his body cracked and groaned when he folded his arms across his chest and sulked.

“Well, I think it is wonderful to see them getting along so well,” Sooraya said.

Cessily threaded her fingers together behind her head and leaned back into her chair with a smile. "I’m enjoying the peace and quiet. Julian is the least insufferable he’s been since Sofia left.”

“And Laura seems much more at ease, as well.”

“Yeah, well, I still don’t like being left out,” Santo huffed.

Victor rolled his eyes. “Will you give it a rest already? You’re not the only one that got left behind, today.”

“Now who’s jealous?”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s like dealing with a three-year-old with him.”

“Yeah, well, I’ll show him. I’ll just have to find a new best friend.” A foreboding silence fell across the group, and Victor risked a look in the big rocky mutant’s direction. His heart leapt up into his throat and a queasy feeling washed over him when he met Santo’s blue eyes, glowing in a strangely thoughtful manner.

“What are ...”

Santo’s big blocky lips twisted into a smile. “You and me are gonna be BFFs from now on, Vic.”

“Someone shoot me ...”

Cessily didn’t bother hiding her laughter, and even Sooraya’s eyes wrinkled in amusement. “Oh, I can’t wait to see this!”

He glared across the circle at her. “Don’t encourage him!”

“You know that just makes it even more fun to watch.”

Victor’s face heated, and he gritted his teeth. “...hate you both ...”

Sooraya chuckled lightly. “Oh, come now, Victor, you know we have had little enough to laugh about of late. It’s nice to see some levity again.”

He curled his lip into a scowl. “Yeah, but not when it’s me!”

“Hey, leave my buddy alone!” Santo growled, but that just made the girls laugh even harder, and Victor’s face burn even more.

Cessily held up her hands in mock surrender. “Woah, just having a bit of fun.”

Santo stared them both down to no effect, and Victor just mopped his face in exasperation. When he pulled his hands away again he caught a flicker of motion from the door, and David stumbled in with his glasses in hand and wearily rubbing his eyes with the other. He made his way across the lounge while Santo, Cessily, and Sooraya poked at one another, and the bickering slowly trailed off when he drew nearer.

“Good day, David!” Sooraya said in her most pleasant voice. Santo scowled, but gave him a curt nod of greeting.

“Hey guys, you seen Nori?”

Cessily shook her head. “Sorry, she, Julia, Laura, and Josh left a little while ago. The Professor is sending them into Salem.”

David frowned. “Salem? What for?”

Santo shrugged. “I don’t know, but I don’t like being left out of a mission.”

“Here we go again,” Victor said. “He’ll be moaning about it all afternoon, now.”

David raised one eyebrow. “I’m sorry?”

“Oh, don’t mind them,” Sooraya said. “Santo and Victor are just a little grumpy.” Her expression sobered behind her niqab. “How are the others? Is there any change?”

He sighed and found an empty spot next to her on the couch. Santo reluctantly scooted his rocky butt over to give them more room, and leaned his blocky chin on one fist. “I’m afraid not. Dr. Grey decided I needed to take a break. Josh was supposed to take over for me, but if the Professor has him running around ...”

Cessily pulled her legs up against her chest and rested her chin on her knees. “Everyone up here is either freaking out or going stir-crazy. Whatever the others are looking for in Salem I hope it helps the Docs figure out what’s going on.”

“As Joshua accompanied them, I presumed they were investigating some lead connected to the illness,” Sooraya said, and thoughtfully tapped her chin beneath her niqab.

Victor considered that and shrugged. “Maybe, but then why take Laura along? Or Julian, for that matter?”

Santo glowered. “I’m telling you, there’s gonna be trouble, and they’re gonna regret not bringing me along!”

He was about to offer a retort when a sudden flare of pain spiked through his sinuses. Victor squeezed his eyes shut tight and flinched away.

“Victor?” David said, and every word jabbed fresh agony through his brain. “You all right?”

Victor moaned and massaged his temples. “Yeah, yeah, just have a headache all the sudden. I think Santo’s whining is getting to me.”

“Hey!” Santo snapped, and that didn’t help the red-hot needles poking him in the slightest.

“Dude, keep it down!”

When he opened his eyes again, he realized Sooraya was leaning back against the couch with her arm draped across her face.

“Soo?”

“Oh my,” she said, and her voice wavered with discomfort. “I do believe it’s spreading!”

“I don’t feel anything,” Santo said.

“Well that’s because you have rocks in your head!” Victor snapped, and instantly regretted it.

“Ugh! Don’t you start, I’ve got one now, too!” Cessily said.

“That’s new ...” David said, and trailed off with a wince. He doubled over on the couch and hung his head in his hands.

A smattering of moans and groans from across the lounge drew Victor’s attention away from the conversation circle around the TV, and he blinked in surprise at the realization that everyone was rubbing their heads and struggling with what looked to be a world record for migraines in one place.

“David?” Victor asked, and motioned around the lounge.

“What the hell?” David tried to stand. He abruptly swayed on his feet and had to support himself on the arm of the couch to keep from sinking all the way to the floor.

“Okay, this can’t be normal,” Cessily said. “How do we all have headaches at once? It’s not ...”

David shook his head. “No one reported headaches like this before they got sick.”

The spikes of pain between his eyes grew even more intense, and when the groans throughout the lounge got louder Victor guessed he wasn’t alone. Through rapidly blurring vision he spied a figure stumbling into the lounge. Quentin Quire moaned loudly and gripped the sides of his shaved head so tightly Victor briefly imagined it cracking open like an egg. Sweat poured down his face, and his skin was frighteningly pale. David’s features twisted with alarm.

“Quentin?” he called, and tried to take a step towards him.

“Someone... someone help ...” Quentin stammered between moans. He collapsed to his knees and let out an agonized scream.

And at the same time, Victor’s head exploded in a white-hot flash of pain and all he knew was black.

###

Jean clasped Scott’s hand in hers, though the sensation was dulled by her isolation suit, and gazed down on him from the seat at his bedside. Pumps, monitors, and machinery hissed, buzzed, and beeped, and the rush of cold air filling the quarantine bay stirred his finer hairs. Yet somehow it still wasn’t enough to bring down the fever. He lay with his eyes shut tight behind his visor, and a cloth bound around it to prevent any accident with his powers. His skin was frighteningly pale, and sweat poured down his face. She pressed a cold compress against his brow, closed her eyes, and gently reached out to him with her mind.

“Scott? Scott, can you hear me? Are you in there? Please, if you can hear me, give me a sign.”

Nothing. No thought, no feeling, not even the slightest hint that his mind was alive and functional. It was a coma so deep she couldn’t feel even the barest shred of an indication he was still with her in that room.

She sighed deeply and squeezed her eyes shut tight. For all her power all she could do now was sit helplessly by his bedside and watch the man she loved slowly burn alive in his own skin.

“If you can hear me, please, come back to me. We need you, Scott. I need you.”

A tear slipped from her eye and slowly rolled down her cheek. Jean casually reached out and flicked it away with her power, never once releasing Scott’s hand or the compress against his brow.

She was alone now. Peter had finally been prevailed on to get some sleep, and he dozed in a bed in the recovery room outside the quarantine bay. David had just finished his shift in the observation gallery. The Professor had mentally warned her Josh was unavailable because of the mission by parts of Nori’s squad to Salem, but she decided not to hold him any longer so he, too, could get some sleep. The only other occupants of the bay were those lying still in the beds around her.

They remained just as unresponsive when she brushed their minds with hers. Though the monitors were alive with the activity of their respiration and heart rate, when she touched their consciousnesses there was no bright spark of living, only the faint traces of autonomic activity driving their shallow breathing and faint heartbeats, and if she really focused, the even fainter—

Jean blinked, shaken from her musings by a sudden spike of...something. She narrowed her focus on each in turn; Scott, Illyana, Megan, Melody, Fabio. Where was it? Her heart hammered against her breastbone with urgency and...hope? What was that sensation? And then as she settled on Illyana she saw it. A faint, flickering spark, so dim it was little more than an ember. But it was there. Carefully, lest her presence smother it, she reached out, delicately touching that faint point of light in the darkness. And felt her, Illyana’s mind, wandering lost and alone and frightened in the darkness.

“Yana, it’s Jean. I can hear you. Follow my voice.”

Slowly that dying ember brightened and took light. Outside her mind she could hear the subtle change in the feedback from the support machinery and monitors affixed to Illyana’s skin. Her breath was still thready, her heartrate weak, but both were strengthening.

Before she could try to rouse her fully to wakefulness, pure agony speared through Jean’s mind, driving her off her chair and to her knees on the floor.

She clutched the sides of her head and screamed.

###

The shuttle let them off outside the Grind Stone. Rahne sniffed the air and noticed Laura doing the same, turning her head this way and that, but if there was anything out of sorts she couldn’t smell it, only the usual myriad scents that blanketed Salem. Nonetheless, her heart raced when her hunting instincts broke through her control, and her finer hairs bristled. Their prey was somewhere, and the Wolf was eager to run free in pursuit.

“So, what’s the plan?” Rahne asked.

Nori did her best impression of Mr. Summers’ commanding glower while she swept her eyes along Titicus, eyeing the pedestrian traffic closely. “Laura?” she asked.

Laura cocked her head slightly and considered the crowd.

“I don’t smell anything,” Laura said, and Rahne blinked in surprise at the unexpected casualness of her words. Don’t? “Pedestrian traffic appears to be following its normal patterns, nor do I see any obvious signs of observation. If there are Purifiers keeping watch on Salem Center they are maintaining their distance.”

Julian frowned. “Doesn’t mean they’re not here, though. They have tech that can even block the Professor and Dr. Grey, who knows what else.”

Laura conceded his point with a shrug.

“A dinnae smell anything, either,” Rahne said, more out of a need to contribute than any input being necessary on her part.

“Come on,” Nori said. “Let’s go talk to Luna and see if she still has the credit receipts.”

They all filed into the Grind Stone, following Nori’s lead. A few customers sat around the tables, but the place wasn’t particularly busy. Luna promptly appeared the moment the entry chime rang, and her features lit up at the sight of them.

“Nori!” she called when she came around the counter to greet them. A few of the patrons looked up from their business, but other than a few curious looks at Josh’s golden skin, showed no further interest in the newcomers with the same familiarity they had come to expect of the locals. “Thank God you’re okay. I heard what was happening up at the school.”

“I’m sorry to leave you short-handed like this, Luna,” Nori replied, “and wish I could say I was coming in to pick up a shift, but I’m actually here on X-Men business.”

Luna raised an eyebrow and took them all in with an amused smirk. “Oh, really?”

“Sorta,” Josh said.

“Is there something I can do to help?”

Nori hesitated for a moment, and Rahne watched the discomfort play across her features before she stepped in and lowered her voice, with an eye to the patrons occupying the tables. “Can we talk somewhere in private?”

Luna studied them all closely, and, taking note of the seriousness of their expressions, nodded towards the back. “Come on, we can chat in my office.”

Nori looked to the rest of them. “Laura and Rahne, come with me. Keller, Josh, keep a look out here?”

Julian made a face. “Why me?”

“Because we won’t all fit in there, and someone needs to keep watch out front in case of trouble,” she hissed between her teeth, so as not to alarm the locals. “If something happens shield Josh and the people in here.” She then turned away and followed Luna before he could respond.

He let out an irritated groan of protest. “Come on, Foley, let’s grab a table so we’re not standing around looking like idiots.”

“We’re still idiots for getting ourselves into this, so does it really matter if we’re standing or sitting?” Josh asked dryly, and Rahne hid a laugh. Even Laura twitched a corner of her mouth into a faint smile over her shoulder at Julian’s expense when she turned to file into step behind Nori and Luna. Rahne trotted after to join them.

Sure enough, Luna’s back office was cramped even with just the four of them. There was a desk with a computer in a corner, and a safe built into one wall with a digital lock. There were also lockers along the wall on their left as they entered for employees to stash their personal belongings while on the clock, (the time clock was right by the door) though none were occupied. Boxes piled in another corner, and there was also a filing cabinet. A calendar, industry posters, and photos of Grind Stone patrons hung from any open space on the walls, and Rahne’s heart climbed up into her throat when she spied pictures of classmates now gone: Mark Sheppard in a group picture taken not long after Laura first arrived. Laurie and Josh sharing a table together. Jay perched on a chair with his guitar. Sarah Vale with Jessica, the two so alike it was almost impossible to tell them apart. Among many other missed faces. She clenched her jaw at the sight.

A wasnae able t’ do anything to save ye, but damned if A’m not goin’ t’ do my best t’ help Nori an’ all stop it from happenin’ again.

Everything smelled of coffee, the pungent sent of the beans hanging so thick in the air it threatened to overwhelm her nose.

Luna took a seat at her desk and turned to face the three of them when they squeezed into the office behind her. Laura shifted uncomfortably at being so hemmed in, and Nori sighed and sat on the edge of the desk. Rahne just leaned up against one of the stacks of shipping boxes.

“So, what’s going on?” Luna asked while they all got as comfortable as the cramped confines allowed.

Nori folded her clattering gauntleted arms beneath her breast. “You’re not going to like hearing this, but there’s no use in dancing around it: We know how Yana got sick.”

Luna frowned at her tone. “I would think that would be good news, right?”

“The problem is she got sick here. Do you remember that day she was in and got coffee splashed all over her? It wasn’t an accident. We’re pretty sure the guy was one of Stryker’s people.”

The color drained from Luna’s face when Nori spoke, and she pressed a hand to her mouth in horror. “Are you sure?”

Nori nodded. “I recognized him in the security footage you gave us. He’s the same guy who attacked Mr. Summers when he and Dr. Grey visited you.”

“What do you need from me?”

“I was hoping you hadn’t gone through the credit receipts from the day Yana ran into him yet. I think he paid with a card.”

Luna thought for a moment. “That would have been...no, I haven’t run them, yet.”

Nori sighed in relief. “Oh, good! If it’s all right, I’d like to have Laura and Rahne take a sniff. I know this might sound weird, but they’re both really good trackers, and it might help us find the guy if he’s still in Salem.”

She offered them a playful smile. “Sweetie, you guys have been visiting my place almost since I set up shop. I learned a long time ago there’s nothing too crazy when you kids get involved.”

Luna pushed herself out of her seat and went to the safe, squeezing past Laura, who lightly dodged out of her path with her peculiar feline grace. She punched in her access code and the latch clicked open. After a few moments of rummaging she found the box she was looking for, removed it, and closed the door again. Rahne heard the lock resetting itself, a sound that would be undetectable to anyone without her enhanced hearing.

Upon returning to the desk Luna seated herself and opened the box. Rahne craned her neck out of sheer curiosity and saw a pile of signed credit slips. “This is every card that was run that day,” Luna said. “The end of the day should be on top.”

Nori hopped off the desk and grabbed the stack. “Thank you so much for this, Luna,” she said, and she began shuffling through them. It only took a few moments for Nori to find the one she was looking for. “Here it is!” She let out an annoyed grunt when she read the name. “John Smith? It’s like they’re trying as hard as they can to scream, ‘I’m part of a super-secret murder cult trying not to look suspicious!’”

She held the slip out to Laura, who sniffed it.

“Anything?”

Laura frowned. “I smell yours and Luna’s perfumes, and the paper smells overwhelmingly of coffee beans. But there is a scent there I don’t recognize.”

“Rahne?” Nori said, and offered her the slip, as well.

Feeling slightly silly, Rahne leaned in and gave it a good whiff. Sure enough, the strongest odor was that of the coffee permeating everything in the café, though even that wasn’t enough to mask the heaviness of Nori’s favorite fragrance, and the subtler aroma of Luna’s delicate scent. But underneath it all was another odor, possibly with a hint of men’s after-shave, though she couldn’t be sure.

“Aye, there’s somethin’ there.” Rahen flashed a smile. “This might actually work!”

“At least it’s something to go on,” Nori said. She returned the slips to the box and Luna closed it. “Do you guys really think you could track it if there’s still traces around?”

Laura’s face twisted indignantly, as if she took the hint of doubt in Nori’s voice as an affront. “Now that I have the scent, I will not lose it.”

Rahne nodded uncertainly. “A think A could find it if there’s anythin’ out there.”

Nori squared her shoulders and let out a breath, but despite the mask of confidence she put on in front of Luna, Rahne knew her much too well and could see right through her: She was scared.

“All right, let’s get back out there and see what we can find.” She turned back to Luna. “Thanks again for your help, Luna. I hope this will all be over with soon.”

“If there’s anything more I can do for you please let me know,” Luna said. “I’ll see about putting a care package together for everyone, if you want to see me before you guys head back to the school for the day.”

“Thanks, and I’ll let everyone know you’re thinking about them.” Nori turned to Rahne and Laura. “Come on, for now we’ve got a job to do.”

###

Every moment was pure agony, as if iron spikes were being driven directly into Xavier’s brain. Outside his office and inside his head he could hear his children screaming under the barrage of the psychic backlash blasting across the school. His arms felt as if they were made of lead, and it took all his strength to lift them to the controls of his chair.

Half-blinded by pain, he rolled out of his office and turned out into the entrance hall. Children writhed on the floor, and the nearer he drew to the lounge the more the world around him seemed to shake.

Xavier clenched his jaw until he thought his teeth might burst from the pressure and called his power to him. But the onslaught struck him so suddenly and so hard that he could not gain a grip on them. Tears filled his eyes, and the vice gripping his head passed down into his chest. He gasped and choked, and every laborious breath was wracked with pain.

Finally, once he neared the heart of the psychic storm, he managed to gain hold of his power, and threw up a mental barrier against the flood of energy. His senses cleared, and he steered himself for the origin near the entrance to the lounge. There he spotted Quentin Quire lying in a pool of bloody vomit, screaming and thrashing. Tables, chairs and other debris swirled around him, scooped up and flung everywhere by his powers now raging out of control. Those nearest to him bled from their ears and eyes under the brunt force of the telepathic assault.

With no other means of reaching down to him, Xavier threw himself forward out of his chair, and dragged himself by his hands across the floor. He ignored the sickly-sweet pool Quentin lay in, and choked down his own urge to vomit from the stench. He pulled himself close enough to seize hold of his ankle, and expanded the shield of mental energy wrapped around him until he could feel Quentin’s mind. Then he issued one command:

“Sleep!”

Quentin’s consciousness plunged into darkness, like a torch doused in a water barrel, and as suddenly as the psychic onslaught began it subsided. Everything lifted by his telekinesis crashed suddenly to the floor, and those children far enough away to have escaped the worst of the attack regained their faculties. Agonized moans filled the hall when they slowly began to recover.

Cessily Kincaid was the first to reach his side, gingerly lifting him until he sat upright.

“Professor!” she cried. “Professor, are you okay?”

Xavier took hold of one of her silver hands and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “I’m all right, Cessily,” he said, panting heavily from the strain of maintaining the mental shield. “Someone find Jean and Henry, now!”

###

The girls returned from the back of the Grind Stone, and Julian stood away from the table. Laura was already sniffing, turning this way and that, and scrutinizing everyone in the café with her keen green eyes. He could see her processing while she swept them across the patrons, and an unconscious shiver worked down his spine knowing exactly what thoughts were passing through her mind. But she shook her head at Nori, and the three rejoined him and Josh.

“Any trouble out here?” Ashida asked upon reaching their table.

Julian glanced out the front window of the Grind Stone, but shook his head. “Nothing. If anyone is watching the place they’re not making it easy for us.”

“Stryker’s men are very good,” Laura said. “What I saw during the assault on the school was well-planned and professional, so they will likely have watch posts inside off the street. I may be able to pinpoint the most likely vantage points, but it will be problematic gaining access to those buildings for a thorough search.”

“So they could already know we’re here.”

She nodded. “Yes.”

Julian sighed. “Awesome.”

“There’s not much we can do about that now,” Ashida said. “At least not without resorting to breaking and entering. But we got what we came here for. You two are sure these guys are clean?” She jerked her thumb vaguely over her shoulder at the locals seated around the café.

Laura took another sniff. “One is in an advanced state of untreated cardiovascular disease, but I don’t smell the man we’re looking for.”

Ashida rolled her eyes. “A yes or no would have been enough... Anyway, let’s split up. Keller, you and Laura search the south side of Titicus and see what you can pick up there. Rahne and I will head north. That gives us a tracker and artillery in each group. We can meet back here to check in in half an hour.”

Julian folded his arms across the chest and leaned against the table. “What about Foley?”

“It might be best if I stay here,” he said. “I’d likely just be in the way if there’s trouble, but from here I can get to either of you in a hurry.”

“Are ye sure ye dinnae want t’ come with us?” Rahne asked. There was a nervous tremor in her voice that made Julian scowl. Ashida shouldn’t have agreed to this, Lassie is likely to just get herself killed if there’s a fight. He held his tongue, however, having already lost that argument. “If ye stay alone an’ there’s trouble here, there willnae be anyone t’ help ye.”

“I’ll be fine. Besides, if I’m off the streets it means I won’t be making myself a target.”

Julian rolled his eyes. “Well, when you put it like that ...”

“He has a point, Keller,” Ashida said.

“You need not worry about your safety, Julian,” Laura said. “I will be there.”

Julian gawked at her, and Rahne, Ashida, and Josh all stood struck dumb by the remark. He sputtered for a retort, but the best he could come up with was an impotent “Who’s worried!”

“Holy crap, did Laura just dunk on Keller?” Ashida asked, and his face colored at the amusement — and was that satisfaction? — in her voice.

Josh struggled to keep a straight face, but Julian’s warning glare just led to his loss of control entirely and he burst out laughing. “I think she just did.”

“Oh my God, I’m actually impressed.”

Laura said nothing, and just looked out the window of the café, one corner of her lips turned up in what Julian had come to recognize as her playful smile. It was such a small shift in her expression, and yet spoke volumes. He made an “I’ll get you for that one later” face at her, but while in the past she might have ducked away self-consciously at the response, now, if anything, it only made her smile wider.

“Can we just go,” he grumbled in feigned indignance.

“He’s right,” Rahne said, no less amused at the unexpected reversal than the others. “Work now, flirt later.”

That time Laura did react, and her cheeks colored slightly at Rahne’s insinuation. Julian’s own face heated, and he hurried out the door to escape any more shots from the others.

Julian hung a left upon stepping out onto the sidewalk, and Laura slipped smoothly to his side when he started along Titicus towards the theater. Ashida and Rahne jogged across the road before making their way for St. James Episcopal. Laura stopped and sniffed occasionally, methodically scrutinized every storefront and window looking down on them, and studied everyone they passed. As far as Julian could tell there was nothing untoward about any of it, just the usual human traffic making their way along the strip mall and shops. They passed families with young children here and there, and at those moments Laura’s expression turned melancholy for a few paces, before returning to her usual stoic mask.

Julian allowed her to set the pace, and watched her with a sympathetic frown. Despite relaxing more often around him and the others, and the small cracks appearing in her serious demeanor allowing occasional flashes of feeling through coming more frequently, Laura still often remained guarded, retreating back into herself after some little breakthrough or other. She had said nothing further about her family since their talk on the roof of the Guthrie house, and he puzzled over her words.

“They did not force me away, but I had no choice ...” she had said, but however ominous it sounded she refused to elaborate, and it had never come up again since. Julian respected her silence and didn’t press, but her reticence was troubling the more the little bits and pieces spoke of whatever traumas before coming to Xavier’s had left her so messed up.

He sighed and turned his attention to his feet while he walked along beside her. They reached the intersection with June and turned south. The little moments of openness like in the training room aside, so much about her remained a mystery. There was always something holding her back.

After a time, he became aware of her eyes on him, and he glanced over at her to find her closely studying his features.

“You are not angry, are you?” she asked.

He raised a quizzical eyebrow and twisted his lip in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“About what I said at the Grind Stone.”

Julian let out a small laugh and shook his head. “Oh that? No, not at all. I think you just caught everyone by surprise, you know? I know you spend a lot of time hanging around with Cess and Soo, but I guess it never really seemed like you were making yourself part of the group before.”

“I see,” she said, paused, and sniffed. Laura frowned, but continued on again, sweeping every passerby and window.

“It’s cool, really. Me and Santo dig at each other like that all the time.”

“Yes, I have observed this before. And not just with Santo, but Cessily and Victor, as well.” She hesitated a moment and screwed up her features in that cute little way she did when something didn’t quite compute for her. “I don’t entirely understand it.”

“How so?” he asked, more as a prompt for her to continue.

“Many of the things you and the others say to one another would ordinarily be construed as an insult or hurtful, but instead you use it as a form of endearment.”

Julian shrugged. “I guess a lot of it just kind of depends on what you say, who you say it to, and how you say it. And then there’s knowing some things are off-limits. Like, there’s things I absolutely wouldn’t say to Victor about being gay, even if it’s just meant to be a bit of friendly ribbing. It would be crossing a line.” He sighed. “And you’re right, some of how me and Santo, or Cess, or Victor joke around with each other to the wrong people could hurt. Like the things I said to you when you first came to school. The names, especially.”

Laura did not respond, and just mulled over his words in silence. They were drawing near the end of the strip mall stretching south from the theater, and though she continued to stop and sample the air, she continued south without turning aside.

“Are you getting anything at all?” he asked, once it became clear she would not be continuing the conversation.

She scrunched her features in frustration. “Nothing. It is possible we are going away from the direction our target was headed. Salem Center is not so heavily traveled that the scent would be covered over, even after this much time. I have picked up trails that are older — and in much more densely populated areas — in the past.”

Julian considered that. “Well, we know Stryker’s people can block telepathy, do you think they could be doing something to foul your nose?”

Laura shook her head. “Contrary to what you may see on television, Julian, there is very little you can actually do to obscure your scent trail. If he was here, I should be getting something.”

“We had a 50/50 shot, I guess. Dr. Grey didn’t say what direction they chased this guy after they spotted him, so—”

Suddenly, Laura froze and cocked her head to one side. Julian stopped short and frowned. “Laura?”

“Wait, something is not right. I hear ...”

Julian’s stomach knotted itself, and he swept his eyes up and down the street. They had stopped by a storefront at the very end of the line of shops south of the theater, and further beyond that was that big mansion on the East side of June. There was nothing unusual he could see, and none of the pedestrian traffic seemed out of place.

“What is it?” he asked, when Laura still made no move to resume their search.

“I...don’t know. But something sounds off. I think—”

Laura was cut off by the sound of someone giggling, and they both spun to their right. A woman emerged from the trees behind the Post Office, and the parking lot for North Salem Pizza and Pasta and the Second Time Around antique store across the street. Julian blanched at the sight of her.

She was Asian, though beyond that Julian was unable to place her with any better accuracy, and her mouth was pulled into a broad and positively unhinged smile. But it was her hands that truly caught his attention: Where her fingers ought to be were instead gleaming metal claws, each at least a foot in length. When she stepped out onto the sidewalk pedestrians shrieked in alarm at the sight of the blades, and Julian was left with little doubt where she was headed.

“Julian, get behind me!” Laura barked, and with a sharp snikt the claws in her hands extended. Everyone on their side of June now scattered in response, and Julian’s bile bubbled up in his throat when he realized their simple tracking job was about to get considerably more violent.

The woman’s giggling grew louder, and when she drew nearer Julian was aware of a soft whirring sound accompanying her movements.

“Well, well, what have we here,” the woman said, and her sing-songy voice was no less insane than that toothy rictus grin spreading across her features. “Two of Xavier’s little imps out for a walk alone?”

“Julian, behind us!” Laura snapped, without even turning her head.

Julian spun around and gawped at the sight in front of him. “What the hell is that?” he stammered, when a man — at least he thought it was a man — stepped out from around the back of the shop at the end of the block. From the waist up he appeared human, with a powerfully built chest, arms bigger around than Julian’s head, and the neck of a linebacker. Julian could make out nothing of his features behind a full head mask emblazoned with a skull, and his torso was protected with heavy body armor. But below the waist everything was gleaming metal and mechanical, looking for all the world like they just grafted his upper body onto the legs of the T-800.

And he was pointing the biggest damn gun Julian had ever seen straight at his face.

“Laura ...!”

“Ah! Laura-chan!” the woman said in recognition, her syrupy words positively dripping with mockery. “So, this is the one Stryker wants so badly? I see your claws, little girl, and I know what you are. And here you are all alone, with no Wolverine to protect you.”

Laura let out a threatening growl, and Julian risked a look over his shoulder to see her tense and drop into a fighting stance. Her lips curled. Oh shit...

“What about her boyfriend?” the Terminator asked.

“He’s of no use to the Reverend, Skullbuster. Kill him!”

###

Nori let Rahne lead the way north up June past the church, elementary school, and courthouse, watching her stop periodically to sample the air. Even if she lacked Laura’s training, there was no doubt about her nose, and Rahne proceeded with confidence that if there was anything north of Titicus to find, she would find it.

Her stomach, however, was tying itself in knots ever since they separated from Josh, Laura, and Keller. Nori didn’t really understand it whenever David went on a rant about his Dungeons and Dragon games with the other nerds in the lounge, but she did remember his complaints about the last time they split the party, and everyone got killed.

So of course that’s exactly what she did.

“Are ye all right?” Rahne asked over her shoulder. “Ye’ve been awful quiet since we left the Grind Stone.”

“Oh yeah,” Nori said, not particularly believing herself, “I’m just fine.”

“A may not be able t’ tell when folk are lyin’ like Laura can, but A do know what fear smells like.”

Nori scowled at her back. Though Rahne was doing her best to stay in control, she could hear the telltale anxious warble in her voice. “You’re one to talk.”

“Yer right, A’m terrified! But at least A admit it.”

“Yeah, well, I can’t afford to,” Nori said, and her gauntlets clacked when she hugged herself and watched the pedestrians on either side. A few regarded her gauntlets with curiosity, and some local boys closer to her age made no effort to hide it when they checked out her abs and butt, (not that that was the sort of confidence boost she was needing at the moment) but at least as far as she could tell there was nothing out of the ordinary on the streets of Salem that morning. “I’m in charge, so all you guys are my responsibility.”

“Ye’ve led yer team in the field before, right? That business with Melody’s family a few weeks ago.”

Nori sighed. “I wasn’t in charge, though. Cannonball was in overall command, and Ms. Guthrie was there, too. This is the first time I’ve ever had to do this on my own.”

Rahne shrugged. “Ye seem t’ be doin’ all right so far.”

“Things can also go bad really quickly. Like that first night at Mel’s house their neighbors showed up with guns, and everything went to hell before I could even get my gauntlets off! People could have been killed if not for Laura and...ugh...Keller being alert.

“If something goes wrong this time it’s all going to be on me.”

Rahne paused and took a good long sniff of the air. A troubled look passed across her features, and she turned in a slow circle. “A dinnae think Mr. Summers would have put ye in charge if he didnae think ye could handle it.”

“I know but...” Nori trailed off when Rahne suddenly spun around to face south. “What? What is it?”

“A dinnae ken, but I thought I heard Laura shoutin’ just now.”

Nori’s stomach stopped tying itself in knots and just started turning somersaults altogether. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, but A—”

Rahne was cut off by a sound echoing across Salem that even Nori could hear, enhanced senses or not, and her blood turned to ice. She, too, turned to look south down June, and could already see people running from that direction. “That was gunfire.”

Nori broke out into a run, cursing herself for splitting up the team. “Come on! If someone’s taking shots at them, they must have found something.”

She didn’t wait to see if Rahne was actually following, and electricity danced up her arms when she called her power to her.

###

“Are you sure I can’t get you anything?” Luna asked while Josh slumped at the table and watched out the window.

“I’m sure,” he said. “But thanks anyway.”

Luna pulled a chair away and dropped down across from him. “Well, fortunately it’s not too busy today, so I don’t need the table.”

Josh pulled his eyes away from the window long enough to catch her playful smirk, and allowed himself a smile of his own. Had Luna really been serious he had no doubt she would already have him out on his ear if he didn’t buy something.

Her expression sobered some. “I don’t think I ever had a chance to tell you I’m sorry about Laurie. Seems it’s been a while since you’ve been in here without the others, so we never really talked.”

Josh swallowed down the hollow feeling in his throat and nodded. “Thanks. It’s just so hard to go a lot of places now, because there’s always a memory, and I always feel like I’m seeing her. And we were coming here when ...” he choked on his words before he could finish that thought, and Laurie’s still face and the neat little bloody hole in her forehead flashed to the front of his thoughts.

Luna reached out and took hold of his hand. “I know, hon’, and once again I’m so sorry. But you also have to live your life.”

He drew a shuddering breath to steady himself and nodded. “I know. And I can’t help but think about Jay, if I’m being honest, and how it destroyed him when Julia Cabot died.” Josh felt his jaw clench. “He was never really right after his family dropped him off, and whether he meant it to happen or not, it’s what let Stryker get his hooks into him. And that set up everything else that happened with Laurie, the bus, and the school. I don’t want that to happen to me, too, but I can see now just how easy it was, wanting answers for why it happened or why I should keep getting up in the morning, and having that voice taking advantage to poison your mind and manipulate you.”

Josh sighed. “Rahne says I should move on because it’s what Laurie would have wanted, and maybe she’s right, but it’s just so hard to let go.”

“The girl’s got a good head on her shoulders, that’s for sure.” Luna flashed him a smile. “She’s cute, too, you know.”

His face heated a bit. “Yeah... And maybe if things weren’t what they are now, I just ...”

“Loss is like that, sweetie. It does get better, though, and eventually who knows how you’ll feel. I’m sure the Professor could tell you that.”

“It helps, I think, having something to actually do. I think what really got to Jay is that he just let it take everything from him, especially his music. He was trying to get back into it towards the end, you know? But just keeping busy, something to keep my mind focused, at least it helps to distract me from dwelling too much.” He twisted his lip bitterly. “Though to be honest, the things that are happening right now ...”

“I know, kind of a two-edged sword I guess.”

“Yeah, you’re d—”

Josh was cut off suddenly by a commotion outside. People rushed past the Grind Stone heading away from the intersection with June, many of them in a panic. Luna frowned at the sight as well.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“I don’t know.”

The chair skidded across the floor when he rushed to his feet, and hurried out the door and into the stampede. Luna followed, and just as they both stepped out onto the sidewalk Josh heard a sound that caused his heart to sink somewhere into his bowels: Gunfire echoing between the buildings. People screamed in fright, and those not already running bolted in terror.

“Was that-?” Luna began.

“Get back inside!” Josh shouted, turning and all but forcing Luna back through the doors. “Call the police, and then the school and let them know we’ve got trouble.”

“Whoah!” Luna protested. “What are you planning—”

But Josh didn’t wait for her to finish or to answer her. He plunged into the crowd, forcing his way back down the street whence they came. Even before he reached the intersection with June he spotted Nori and Rahne running south. Sparks of electricity danced along Nori’s arms, and Rahne bounded after her on all fours. Josh realized with a start she had let the Wolf out; her legs were contorted into a dog-like stance, her face and head elongated into a toothy muzzle with pointed ears standing straight up, a bushy tail extended behind her while she ran, and where before was her fair, freckled skin she was now covered in reddish fur.

Shit! Rahne isn’t combat trained; she could get killed!

Josh took off at a dead run, shouldering through pedestrians scrambling away from the source of the gunfire. Suddenly, just before he could reach the intersection at June, the human wave parted, and he skidded to a halt. Standing in front of him was a face he had prayed he would never see again. Blond hair, piercing blue eyes, and a wicked smile slashing across what ought to have been pleasant features, twisted into something horrible by the mirthlessness of the expression.

“Foley,” Donald Pierce said gleefully, that cruel smile never leaving his features when he stalked towards him.

###

Julian only narrowly managed to throw up a shield between him, Laura, and Mr. Skullhead to block the hail of lead blasted out by his rifle. But instead of the expected “plink,” every round that struck his shield exploded on impact, sowing shrapnel across the sidewalk.

“What the hell!” he managed under the strain. He could hold back bullets for a bit, but this much energy hitting the barrier all at once quickly began to tax his control.

“Explosive rounds,” Laura said, almost too casually for Julian’s taste as she switched into combat mode. “Don’t let them through.”

“Oh gee, you think?”

Laura didn’t respond, and Julian risked a look over his shoulder just in time to see her leap at the woman behind him, her adamantium claws flashing.

He turned his attention back to his assailant and the incoming fire exploding against his shield.

“Come on, mutie!” Skull Guy said, “You’re only gonna make it take longer.”

Julian gritted his teeth and redoubled his efforts, but he knew it would only be a matter of time before his shield failed, and he was reduced to thick and chunky Pace picante sauce splattered across the sidewalk. He caught sight of a heavy-duty trash barrel around the corner near the back of the shop facing him, and took a steadying breath.

This is either going to be really cool, or I’m about to be turned into a fine pink mist.

Julian split his focus, leaving as much of his power in his shield as he could yet still be able to manipulate the trash can. At first, he was unable to get enough of a grip with what little of his power he freed up, but he clenched his jaw, furrowed his brow, and redoubled the effort. The can wobbled into the air. He positioned it over his target, and flashed a grin.

“Say ‘Goodnight,’ asshole,” he said, and flipped and released the can.

It came down right on target. First the garbage inside raining down when the can upended, distracting his assailant with a disgusted snarl at the half-finished Slurpee landing right on his head, and stopping the hail of fire against his shield. Then the can followed, neatly falling on top of him.

“Hey—!”

Freed from the barrage, Julian refocused his power and unleashed a full-force blast that flung can and the human waste trapped inside it straight through a privacy wall separating the back of the row of shops from the residential sections behind. He smirked and made a show of dusting off his hands.

“And that’s how you take out the trash.”

Julian then turned, but instead of the expected sight of Laura standing over a bloody corpse, he was treated to the horror show of Laura’s body slamming into the window of the shop behind him, and the glass exploding into hundreds of gleaming, jagged fragments from the impact.

###

Nori’s heart raced. She sprinted down June and back to the intersection with Titicus. Rahne slavered and panted beside her, but managed to keep up with a casual lope when she let the Wolf out.

Shit! What is she doing? She’s not trained for this!

They reached the intersection, and from the corner of her eye she spied a tall figure standing amid the scattering crowd, and Josh was running straight into him. Immediately, Rahne angled away.

“Rahne!” she cried out, skidding to a halt. “Dammit, get back here!”

“Josh needs help!” she growled through her fangs. “Get t’ Julian an’ Laura!”

And then she was gone.

Nori let out a string of invective, but continued south. Her heart hammered in her chest while everything started going wrong, and she gasped for breath at the prolonged dash down the street.

She arrived just in time to watch Keller unleash a TK blast at a trashcan with legs. And a sick feeling welled up in her gut when a second assailant lifted Laura’s body into the air and hurled her through a store window.

“Laura!” Keller cried, and Nori was shocked at the rage and anguish in his voice, reaching her even from this distance. A blast of green energy slammed into the woman and threw her across June and into a lamp post. The force of the impact snapped it in two, and sparks erupted from the severed wiring.

Before Nori could reach him, something smashed into her from the side and knocked her sprawling. She hit the street hard, and all the air rushed from her lungs at once while stars wheeled in front of her eyes. Nori managed to gasp in a breath and lifted herself up onto one elbow in time to spot a towering man with handsome features ambling towards her. Or well, he might have been handsome were it not for the wiring and metal grafted to his torso and supporting his gleaming metal limbs. His legs clanked ominously on the pavement, and his limbs whirred and clattered in a manner not unlike her gauntlets. But a wave of nausea washed over her when she realized these weren’t something he wore, but were actually part of him.

“Where are you going in such a hurry, gorgeous?” he said, and though he stood a couple yards away, he leveled another punch at her face. To Nori’s horror his arm telescoped and extended to cover the distance, and he struck her with a ferocious right jab. Blinding light flashed across her vision with the impact, and Nori felt pavement grinding against her bare midriff when she was propelled to the far side of the street.

“Come on, Pretty Boy, don’t hog all the fun,” came another voice nearer at hand, and once Nori’s vision cleared she found herself looking up at a dark-skinned man with arms much like her assailant.

“Be my guest, Cole.”

Nori tried to get her feet beneath her, but a hard kick to her ribs lifted her into the air, and dumped her unceremoniously back to the ground again. She felt something crack in her side when his foot connected, and she cried out in agony at the spike of pain lancing through her upon landing.

Something seized her around her ankle, and Nori was dragged back across the street. Blinded by pain she heard, more than saw, the one called Pretty Boy’s arm retract, and she felt herself lifted upside down with her face somewhere around crotch level.

God I’m glad I can’t see this...

“What do you think, Cole? Think she’ll be of any interest to the Rev?” Pretty Boy said.

“I don’t know, she don’t seem very impressive to me so far.”

“Shame. For a mutie she’s kind of cute.”

Gritting through her teeth, Nori freed her hands from her gauntlets, letting them clatter to the ground. Neither of her assailants paid them any attention. Barely able to breathe, she fought through the agony burning up and down her side to call her power to her. The two were so focused on her they failed to notice the nearby lights flickering when she siphoned off the energy for the desperate blast she was preparing.

Pretty Boy seized her other leg. “I think I’ll make a wish.”

Before he could make good on his threat, Nori snapped up her hands and unleased everything she had straight into his groin. He shrieked in agony when the blast arced across his body, the electronics in his limbs sparked, sputtered, overloaded, and shorted. Nori was dumped unceremoniously on her head, and Pretty Boy collapsed to one knee.

“You really want to ride the lightning, little girl?” Cole snarled, and Nori managed to look back at him just in time for his massive electrical barrage to slam into her. “Ride this!”

Nori had never given thought before to whether her mutation would protect her from getting zapped herself. The white-hot agony lacing through her when her vision went black answered the question for her.

###

“I’m very disappointed in what you’ve become, boy. So much promise, only to throw it all away,” Pierce said. Josh tried to back away from the man stalking towards him, but he knew there was nowhere he could run to escape. The pedestrians had fled, and he didn’t dare try to duck inside off the street; Pierce would have no qualms against killing anyone who came between them.

“How was I even supposed to know?” Josh said. It was useless. He wasn’t a fighter. All he could do was play for time and hope someone would get to him before Pierce.

“Doesn’t matter, mutie. You are what you are, and it’s time to put you down.”

Josh took up a fighting stance, though what little Laura and Colossus had taught them about self-defense would likely be of little good against the hybrid of man and machine in front of him. “I never should have even listened to you in the first place,” Josh said instead. “I should have seen what you were from the start and just walked away.”

“Coulda, woulda, shoulda,” Pierce said in casual dismissal, and batted him aside. Stars flashed across his eyes, and he felt himself lifted a few feet in the air before he came down hard on his back. He managed enough presence of mind to shield his head with a break-fall, but the impact was enough to put the fight out of him.

Josh shook his head to clear his vision, and watched Pierce raise his arm. With a metallic clatter and a whir of machinery its structure shifted, morphing into the muzzle of a cannon. Josh simply stared down the black maw of its barrel, and watched it begin to pulse with energy.

Before Pierce could fire, however, a barking growl split the air, and Josh gawked when Rahne lept on Pierce’s back, snapping and clawing wildly. What she lacked in skill and finesse she made up for in ferocity, and the leader of the Reavers staggered under the assault with a surprised grunt.

“Rahne, no!” he cried, but too late.

Strong as she was in her wolf form, she was no match for a man like Pierce. He seized her round the scruff of her neck with his free hand, tore her from his back, and held her out at arm’s length.

“Well, well,” Pierce said mockingly. “Looks like you’ve made some friends after all, Foley.” He flashed a wicked smile while Rahne thrashed in his grip. But, held as she was, she could neither reach him nor gain the leverage to strike effectively, only snarl and snap uselessly in his face, or scratch at the armored shell of his arm. “I wonder what they’d think if they knew who you really were. I’m half tempted to tell the animal and let it live just to see what happens.”

“Pierce, don’t ...!”

Pierce merely shrugged. “But not like it will matter. None of you are going home today.”

Josh could only watch in horror when Pierce slammed Rahne so hard into the pavement it cracked beneath her, and she let out a canine yelp of pain upon impact. He scrambled to his feet, but before he could act Pierce’s free arm changed again into a long, wicked blade, and with one violent slash ripped her throat open to her spine. Rahne choked and gurgled. Blood fountained from severed veins and arteries, and she uselessly struggled to draw a breath through her opened trachea. Josh cried out in anguish at the sight of another friend dying.

He stumbled forward when Pierce stepped away, Rahne’s blood dripping from the edge of his blade. With her hold on her powers failing, she reverted to her human form, and that just made the sight before him even more sickening. Their eyes met, and Josh could see the pure terror in them while the light slowly began to flicker out. He paid no attention to Pierce looming over him or the clanking of his arm shifting back into the cannon, and knelt over Rahne’s prostrate form. Her legs thrashed and jerked in her body’s desperation to remain alive, while hot blood pooled around her and soaked through her clothes. Josh clamped both hands around her throat, ignoring the sickening feeling of the muscle, sinew, and exposed bone beneath, or her blood streaming between his fingers.

All he could think of was willing Rahne’s throat back together, whether Pierce killed him or not. He had to try, he couldn’t just watch her die like Laurie.

Through the fog clouding his thoughts as he unleashed his power, he distantly heard the wailing of sirens.

###

Julian unleashed another TK blast leveled at the woman’s chest. Striking her hard and throwing her into a lamp post. It snapped in two and crashed down on her, and for a moment she lay unmoving.

He was turning back to the window he last saw Laura’s body disappearing through when he spied Ashida being flung across the street, boxed in by two more men who had been lurking out of sight. After a moment’s hesitation, torn between checking on Laura and Ashida being kicked across the curb, he swore and charged up June, gathering as much power to him as he could.

Ashida managed to strike one of her assailants with a massive electrical blast, staggering him and driving him to one knee. But it was just a trickle compared to the column of blue-white energy that struck her from the other side before she could regain her feet. Her screams echoed across Salem Center, her body writhed and jerked, and sparks danced over her skin.

Julian leveled his hands and blasted Sparky from the side, knocking him clear and cutting off the stream of energy pouring into Ashida’s body. Smoke rose from her skin, and she continued to spasm until the electrical impulses slowly subsided. By now, the first man was staggering back to his feet, but though Julian willed his power to him once more, he was so exhausted from the effort he had already expended, it barely seemed to tickle.

Before he could even think of what to do next, white-hot pain speared through him, and all the air was driven from his lungs.

Something lifted him from the ground and marched him towards Ashida while she weakly lifted her head. He realized something was very, very wrong when he looked down and saw the five bloody blades protruding from his body. Blood filled his lungs, and he choked at the effort of drawing breath. His vision clouded over, and he heard three things in quick succession:

The woman who just killed him speaking...something.

A howl of grief and rage.

And sirens.

Then everything turned black.

###

Something cut off the energy coursing through her, and slowly the pain subsided. Nori managed to raise her head in time to watch Keller struck from behind by the woman he and Laura had been fighting. Blood erupted from his chest when she plunged fingers like swords through his back and lifted him from the ground. Blood poured from his nose and mouth as his lungs filled with it.

The woman lifted Keller from the ground, and smiled maliciously when Nori locked eyes with her.

“Come to me, child,” she said between giggles, her voice all mockingly sickeningly sweet. “Come to Deathstrike.”

Before Nori could even consider trying to fight, a howl like a wounded animal tore across Salem Center. All grief and rage. Laura leapt onto the woman’s back and buried all six claws into her. The woman snarled and staggered, and Keller’s limp body slid from her fingers. Laura struck again and again. Blood sprayed from multiple wounds, and the woman spun in awkward circles trying to seize hold of her.

Nori coughed, still barely able to draw breath with fingers of pain stabbing her in the side, and tried to rise. The wail of sirens joined Laura’s screams while she stabbed and sliced, and metal rang against metal from the impact of her claws. Finally, the woman managed to seize hold of her, and again the spastic ball of fury was thrown through the air.

Laura’s body struck Nori full in the chest, and they both went down in a tangle. A fresh spike of pure hurting lanced through Nori’s body, and she wanted nothing more than to curl up and cry.

###

Pierce watched in amazement when Foley seized his companion by the throat and a golden glow spread through her body. Within moments, the severed veins and arteries knitted back together, and shredded flesh first scabbed over, and then healed into pristine pale skin.

Remarkable, the boy has grown even more powerful. Shame, Stryker might have found him useful.

He raised his arm cannon at the back of his head, but before he could fire, he snapped his head to the sound of sirens and the fleet of police cars screaming down Titicus.

“Damn,” he growled, reverted his arm back into its normal form, and queued his transmitter. “This is Pierce, everyone fall back to the rally point.”

“What about the subjects?” Yuriko responded.

“You heard me: Fall back, we don’t have time to get drawn into a fight with the authorities. Besides, we’ll be giving them something new to worry about.” He chuckled. “Nothing like a little chaos in the enemy’s camp.”

He heard Yuriko fall into an angry tirade of Japanese invective, much of it quite creative and biologically impossible comments about his mother, but she grudgingly acknowledged the order. And with that, Pierce casually strolled away up the street, passing with a glance at Foley helping his companion to her knees.

“Another time, Foley. Looks like you’re going to have some explaining to do, after all.”

###

Josh ignored Pierce and helped Rahne upright. Relief washed over him when she took a shuddering breath.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

Rahne nodded. “A think so. Thank ye so much, A didnae want t’ die like that,” she replied, and drove the air from his lungs with a bearhug belying her stature. Her voice came as barely more than a harsh, croaking whisper in his ear. But considering the alternative... “Josh, what was that all about?”

“Later,” he said. For a moment he squeezed her back, before self-consciously squirming out of her arms. He stood and helped her out of the puddle of her own blood and back to her feet. “Let’s find the others, fast.”

“Josh, wait—”

Rahne’s protest died when he started off south down June, pulling her behind him. She stumbled unsteadily but managed to keep pace.

“Will ye please tell me what that was about?”

“Not now!” He cringed when his response came harsher than he intended, but now wasn’t the time. If Pierce was here...

He soon found the others, and his heart sank at the sight. Laura’s clothes were shredded and she was covered in blood. Jagged slivers of glass stuck out from her body, face, and neck. Nori was barely holding herself up on one elbow and held her side with the other. Both girls crouched around Julian, who lay cradled in Laura’s arms. Laura’s head immediately snapped in his direction, and she called out to him. Josh immediately thought back to that day last November, and saw once again Mark’s body, burned beyond recognition, clutched in her arms.

“Oh God, not again ...” he choked out, and dashed the rest of the distance. By now police were cordoning off the area, and the pedestrians, having grown brave enough to venture out of cover, began to gather.

“Josh,” Nori said when he arrived. Her voice was weak, and her face pale and drawn in obvious pain while she clutched her side. There was no outward side of injury worse than a few bruises and abrasions, though her hair frizzed out from static. “See to Keller, fast.”

“This is very, very bad,” Josh said when he crouched beside him. Blood covered Julian’s chest, pouring from five ugly stab wounds that went all the way through to his back. More blood frothed from his mouth and nose, and his breath came alarmingly shallow.

“Punctured lungs,” Laura said unnecessarily, “severe thoracic damage. He needs medical attention immediately.” Her voice was raw, and Josh was shocked to realize there were tears in her eyes.

“Okay, lie him down flat, and stand back.” At first Laura didn’t move, refusing to release her hold on Julian while he lay still and unmoving. “I’ll do what I can, but I need room to work. Rahne?”

“Come on, Laura,” Rahne said, and carefully took her by the shoulders. Laura’s body tensed reflexively, but she allowed Rahne to help her lower Julian’s head and shoulders to the ground, and then lead her away. Nonetheless, she hovered protectively nearby, her body tense and watching the crowd.

Uniformed officers were now gathering around them, but there was no sign of an ambulance.

“Paramedics are on their way,” one of the Uniforms said, “But they’re still a few minutes out. I don’t think they’re going to make it in time.”

“We’ve got better than the paramedics,” Rahne said. “Ye got this, right Josh?”

“I don’t know, he’s barely breathing ...”

“Josh!” He looked up at her at the sharpness of her response and met her eyes. “Ye can do this. Ye fixed me, ye can save him.”

He swallowed and placed his hands against Julian’s chest. Reaching as deep as he could and calling everything he had, he poured his power into him. Julian’s body glowed, and the responders and onlookers all gasped and fell back at the display. At first nothing happened. Josh’s bile bubbled up into his throat in fear that he got there too late and that Julian was already gone. But then he felt it: The wounds closed, his lungs drained of blood and other fluids, and Julian’s eyes shot open with a desperate gasp for breath.

Laura rushed forward to inspect Julian for herself while Josh collapsed onto his backside, with only Rahne hurrying to his side to keep him from collapsing entirely.

###

Act III

###

“I must admit, this is truly fascinating,” Hank said while he studied the blood sample drawn from Quentin Quire. Jean frowned at his back in response.

“‘Fascinating’ isn’t the word I’d chose, Hank,” she said. “If the Professor hadn’t gotten to Quentin when he did, that psychic blast could have killed someone.”

Quentin lay in the quarantine bay, smothered deep within an artificial coma by the Professor’s powers, while sweat poured down his brow. The good news that Illyana’s mind was active enough for her and Xavier to feel her thoughts was tempered by this unexpected change, and she, Hank, and Xavier all puzzled over what it meant.

“Yes, quite.” Hank’s words came almost absent-mindedly while he made a few adjustments to his equipment. “Fortunately, no one was critically injured, and David should be able to handle the worst cases until Josh gets back.”

Jean glanced towards the hospital beds in the recovery bay cordoned off from quarantine, where David helped tend those who needed additional care with the help of Hank’s medical knowledge. Victor lay curled up on one of the beds, along with a few others who absorbed the brunt of the psychic backlash. They all groaned in pain, but the only lingering effects were perhaps the worst headaches they had or would ever experience.

Xavier considered the readouts on a terminal with a frown. “What precisely are we looking at?”

Jean recognized the base pair sequences of a DNA strand, but the pattern and structure was unfamiliar to her, and scrolled so rapidly she could make little sense of it herself.

“Well, despite the unfortunate side-effects of Mr. Quire’s attack, I feel this may actually have helped us,” Hank said. “I don’t believe the timing of his illness and the loss of control of his powers was coincidence. In fact, I do believe this result was intended.”

Jean gawked at him. “What do you mean?”

“The virus that is infecting Quentin is indeed the same as the one afflicting the others, but it itself has mutated. And if I’m reading the genetic sequence correctly, that mutation was specifically planned for. In fact, I can now confirm that the entire thing was engineered and is not a naturally occurring pathogen. I think I also know exactly how the virus is affecting its victims: By attacking their X-gene directly.”

Xavier scowled. “Their X-gene? Are you saying ...”

Hank sighed and rubbed his nose with one furry paw. “I’m afraid so, Charles. This virus was engineered specifically to target mutants or other carriers of the X-gene, and to follow a particular sequence of mutations as it spread. What happened with Quentin was the next stage. It served as something of a power amplifier, causing Quentin’s powers to build up to the point they overloaded, and he could no longer control them.

“Had you not put him into a coma when you did, I do believe he could have killed everyone around him.”

Jean swallowed, the memory of the psychic energy tearing through her mind still fresh. Even in the medical bay, far from Quentin, the pain had been agonizing, and it took her precious moments to gain enough control to shield herself and their patients. “What would happen if this would affect someone like Scott?”

Hank clasped his hands behind him and hung his head. “We could be looking at a massive uncontrolled surge of mutant power, not unlike what many mutants experience when they first manifest, but of considerably greater magnitude. If someone like Scott, or perhaps Jubilee or especially Erik, were to be affected, I dare not even hazard a guess just how massive the damage could be.”

“Dear God, Henry,” Xavier breathed.

He nodded. “Indeed. If this contagion were to spread to a major population center ...”

Xavier bounced a fist off the arm of his chair. “Damn! Have you any idea yet how to treat this illness?”

Hank shrugged. “I don’t know. Now that I know how it attacks its host that gives me somewhere to start, but so far it’s resisted any conventional antiviral remedy I’ve tried. Perhaps if I had a pristine sample I might be able to study it in better detail.”

Jean looked to Xavier. “We’re still not even entirely certain where the virus actually originated. So far all we know is that Illyana was exposed deliberately at the Grind Stone, and Scott was injected with it in Salem. I presume that the others all fell ill from exposure here.”

“Hm. Engineering a virus of this complexity would require an exceptionally well-funded and equipped research lab.” Hank sighed. “I’ll start going through my databases to see if I might be able to find something, but if Stryker and his heretofore unidentified benefactors are involved, we could very well be dealing with a black site.”

“Do what you can, Henry,” Xavier said. “Jean, I think we best leave Henry and David to their work here and return upstairs. I expect Noriko and her team will be returning soon. With luck they may have more information.”

She nodded and took hold of the handles of his chair, wheeling him out into the hall and leaving Hank behind to work.

“Are you sure letting them go into Salem was a good idea?” she asked. “Laura, certainly, can take care of herself, but the others still have so much to learn I feel sending them out on their own like this is incredibly risky.”

“I don’t know that we could afford not to. Unfortunately, Nori made a quite compelling argument.”

“Knowing what we do now, though, Nori or Julian could cause considerable damage in Salem if they were to be affected by this advanced strain of the virus.”

“True, but I feel if there’s even a chance of locating the man who attacked Illyana and Scott, and perhaps get more information on how he actually came by it, it may be worth it.”

They reached the elevator back up to the inhabited levels, and she wheeled Xavier inside before punching for the ground floor.

“We’re all worried,” Xavier said. “And the children are frightened. We’re beginning to have precious few alternatives at this point.”

Jean sighed wearily and slumped against the wall of the elevator. “I know. And I suppose Laura is with them, so she at least should be able to keep them out of trouble.”

“Indeed, though I had my reservations about Scott offering her a position on the team, so far it seems to have paid dividends. The incident in Kentucky could have gone considerably worse had she not been there.”

“Maybe, but ...” She trailed off and lowered her head.

“But?”

Jean sighed. “But she’s hanging on by a thread. On the surface it certainly seems she’s doing better; She’s made friends with Cessily and Sooraya, and even Julian Keller, of all people—”

Xavier grunted in amusement. “I’ve noticed, and I daresay that friendship may even be working to the benefit of both.”

“—but I can still feel all the hurt and pain underneath. Jubilee says she still refuses to talk about it, and I’m afraid if she continues to keep it all bottled up when it all finally comes out it could break her entirely. Putting her in these sorts of situations ...”

“I know, Jean.” He shared her sigh, and stroked his chin. “Under any other circumstances I wouldn’t have allowed it. But as we keep finding over these past few months, our options are increasingly limited.”

The elevator reached their destination, and the hidden doors opened. Jean wheeled Xavier out and into the hall. It was quiet, now, most of the students having retreated to their dorms in the aftermath of Quentin’s attack. Only the remainder of Nori’s team still waited around the lounge. She heard Santo’s booming voice complaining again about being left behind, while Sooraya and Cessily attempted to keep him entertained.

However, when Jean turned Xavier for his office she spied Jubilee coming up the hall in a rush.

“There you are!” she said, and waved them down. Jean’s heart crawled up into her throat at the expression on her face, but refrained from using her powers to pluck the cause from her mind.

“Jubilee? What is it?” Xavier asked urgently once Jubilee reached them.

“I just got a call from Luna DePaula at the Grind Stone.”

Jean’s stomach knotted itself. “Did something happen?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but she said it sounded like shots were fired in town, and that Nori and a few of her team were there.”

Jean and Xavier shared a look, and the Professor’s face paled when the worst-case scenario loomed over them.

###

Everything hurt when Julian stumbled through the doors of the school, but though Laura walked anxiously by his side, he refused to be helped across the threshold. They may have gotten their asses kicked but damned if he wasn’t going to come home on his own two feet.

Ashida, however, gave no thought to such impressions, and leaned heavily on Rahne. Josh was still drained from the effort of healing the two of them, so she was forced to make do with just enough patching up of her busted ribs to be able to move. Despite the severity of Rahne’s wounds she seemed largely unbothered; Josh had gotten to her first while still fresh and at full strength.

Her slashed throat aside, Julian envied her immensely.

Laura was the only one of them who looked little worse for wear now that she had removed all the glass from her body, (she still at times plucked some little fragment from her hair) though dried blood caked her face and clothes, and slashes across her top and jeans betrayed the severity of her own injuries when she went through the window. Julian glanced at her; she had been even more silent than usual on the ride home, and it seemed she was actually fuming over having lost a fight.

He suppressed a shudder lest it trigger a fresh stab of pain from his only mostly healed injuries. As disturbing and gruesome as the sight of their attackers was on their own, the thought that even Laura — who casually carved a bloody swath through hardened and trained mercenaries like molten iron through a block of ice — had been in over her head shocked them all to the core.

They were greeted upon entry by the rest of the team, the Professor, and Dr. Grey. Santo folded his arms across his rocky chest and glared angrily at them. Cessily rushed forward to help Rahne with Ashida. Julian frowned when he realized Victor and Alleyne were missing, and a hollow feeling spread through his gut. If Victor got sick...

“Allah be merciful!” Sooraya exclaimed when they stumbled past her. “What happened?”

“Trouble. Bad trouble,” Ashida managed with a shaky voice.

“My office, immediately. All of you,” Xavier said, and Julian swallowed at the stern tone of command.

“I knew it!” Santo said when he fell into step with them. “Didn’t I tell you guys? I knew if I wasn’t with them they were gonna miss me.”

“Not now, Santo,” Cessily snapped irritably.

“But I told you!”

“Santo, shut up! Enough!”

“We’ve had a long day already without listening to you complain about it, rock pile,” Julian snapped. “Everything already hurts, I don’t need you giving me a headache on top of it.”

Santo grumbled irritably at the rebuke, but fell silent.

“Thank you!” Cessily said over her shoulder. “He’s been driving us crazy all day.”

A dark cloud hung over Xavier’s office when they all piled in. Julian collapsed against the couch with Laura next to him. Cessily joined them after helping Ashida sink into a chair, with Rahne seated nearby and trying to shrink away to escape the Professor’s notice. Josh leaned wearily against a bookshelf, partly held upright by Sooraya. Santo towered over all of them, looking as angry as Julian had ever seen him. Dr. Grey stood behind the Professor’s desk, though whether she was poking around for details of the mission he didn’t know.

“Nori, would you please care to explain what happened this afternoon?”

Nori swallowed, and her gauntlets clacked together when she hugged herself and nervously drummed her fingers on her arms. “We met with Luna, and got hold of the card receipt like we discussed. With two trackers, we decided to split up so we could cover both sides of Titicus at the same time, while Josh remained at the Grind Stone with Luna. It was while we were searching both sides that we ran into...I honestly don’t really know who they were.”

Jean frowned and studied all of them closely. “Were they Stryker’s men?”

Nori shook her head. “No...at least...I don’t know. They had powers...or at least they were modified somehow. I caught a couple names: Cole, Pretty Boy, and Deathstrike. The first was an electropath, but much more powerful than me even on my best day. Pretty Boy had these mechanical arms that let him punch me from across the street. Deathstrike didn’t so much have hands as she had these long knives in place of her fingers. They were longer than Laura’s claws. A fourth attacked Josh while we were trying to get to Laura and Keller, but Rahne broke off to help before I could stop her.”

“There was a fifth one,” Julian interjected. “He had metal legs and a big gun. Skullsmusher, or Skullbasher, or something equally stupid.”

“Skullbuster,” Laura said flatly.

“Right, that.”

“Woah, did you guys like, run into a traveling wrestling stable or something?” Santo asked. “Now I really wish I was there!”

Cessily mopped her face. “Shut up, Santo.”

“Whatever they were they hit like a freight train,” Nori said, and nursed her ribs. She sighed. “I couldn’t believe it, but Laura was taken out almost right away, and I spent most of the fight being a human kickball. I didn’t see what happened with Rahne, but I know she was hurt really bad.”

“Yeah, I missed that part after I got skewered,” Julian growled.

Xavier said nothing at first. He just sat behind his desk with his head in his hands not talking, and not even looking at them. Julian would have rather been getting a scolding than having to endure the Professor’s silent treatment. Dr. Grey remained silent as well while she processed their report.

Finally, after a long few moments, he spoke:

“I understand that sometimes we must take risks, but I have always endeavored to make sure those risks were carefully calculated to minimize the danger as much as possible. We took a gamble today, and we are all incredibly fortunate.”

He speared Ashida with a disappointed glare. It was the sort Julian had been on the receiving end plenty of times in the past for some prank or fight, and he was grateful that it was focused on someone else for once.

“I agreed to your request to lead a part of your team to Salem because I appreciated your candor, and the care and reasoning you put into selecting who to take with you. It was, under the circumstances, a good plan. But to take Rahne as well, without my knowledge and approval, was incredibly careless and irresponsible. I am very disappointed that you chose to put her in that situation.”

Even Julian swallowed hard at the simmering anger in the Professor’s voice. Christ, even I never got that sort of talking to, no matter how bad I’ve screwed up.

Rahne cleared her throat, drawing Xavier’s attention off Ashida for the moment. “Beggin’ yer pardon, Professor,” she said. Her voice was still weak and raw from having had her trachea opened for the whole world to see. “But please dinnae blame Nori. ’Tis my fault A was there. When A saw them leavin’ t’ head into town A begged her t’ let me come. She didnae want to take me, but ’twas me pleadin’ that made her cave in. A thought if all we were doin’ was trackin’ A could help. My nose is just as good as Laura’s, an'—”

Xavier silenced her with a hard look. “Whatever the reason she agreed to take you, it was still her decision to make, and sometimes a leader must put what’s best for people ahead of what they want. I took it upon myself to authorize the mission to Salem, so that I must take responsibility for, but Noriko choosing to take you — despite your lack of training in how to handle a dangerous situation like the one you were placed into — was hers.”

The Professor turned his stern eyes back on Ashida again, who sat stiff and with her jaw quivering. “This was an incredibly poor lapse in judgment, and I will be considering this as your team continues training going forward.”

“Yes, Professor,” Ashida said, and Julian cast his eyes down at the pain in her voice.

Xavier sighed. “Did you learn anything at all during your search of Salem to make this all worthwhile?”

“I could not pick up a scent,” Laura said flatly, her own eyes downcast, and her slight figure tense. She balled her fists, and Julian recognized the subtle hint of frustration in her voice. “Nor did I detect any sign of where Stryker might be watching Salem from. And I failed to detect the ambush in time to avoid it.”

“Who were those guys?” Julian asked. “I’ve never seen anything like that. And for that crazy chick with the sword hands to beat Laura so quickly ...” He trailed off and risked a glance at her beside him. Laura didn’t make a big reaction, but the tightening of her jaw was all the sign he needed to tell how hard she was taking the defeat.

“Josh seemed to ken somethin’ about them,” Rahne said, haltingly, and with a nervous glance in his direction. Josh’s whole body stiffened, and a hint of color appeared on his cheeks at their attention all shifting onto him.

“Josh?” Xavier asked, silently prompting him to speak.

Josh swallowed hard and took a steadying breath. “The Professor will already know what this means, but they call themselves the Reavers.”

Xavier’s face paled, and his voice fell into a hoarse whisper that sent a chill down his spine. “Are you sure?”

Even Dr. Grey’s expression darkened at the name. If the Professor and Dr. Grey are afraid of these guys...

Josh nodded and closed his eyes. “I saw Pierce myself. He’s the one who almost ...” he trailed off when his voice broke. “I’m just glad I was able to get to Rahne in time ...”

Laura twisted her lip in consternation and Julian judged from her expression she was just as in the dark as the rest of them. As knowledgeable as she was about all things military, that just made his blood run a few degrees colder. Cessily looked between the Professor and Josh, and asked the question all of them were now asking.

“What are the Reavers? I mean, other than some seriously scary people if they could take out Laura so easily.”

Laura’s diminutive figure tensed once again. She’s really not happy that everyone keeps reminding her how bad she got her ass kicked.

Xavier sighed. “Something I hoped that you would never, ever have to deal with.”

“They’re a human supremacist group,” Josh continued. “But they’re not like the Purifiers. In fact, they may be even worse. There’s no sense of divine purpose, and they don’t try to justify their actions with faith or God or any of that garbage. They don’t really even have an ideology. They’re just a bunch of sadistic psychopaths who love hunting, killing, and tormenting us just because we’re mutants. They do it for sport.

“Their leader is a man named Donald Pierce. Most of them are just regular people, not ex-military like the Purifiers. But Pierce and his chief lieutenants — That’s who we ran into — are all cybernetically enhanced to some degree.”

“Woah, like, robots?” Santo asked. Josh gave a shrug and a nod.

Rahne shuddered, and her finer hairs bristled. “This Donald Pierce...he acted like he ken ye,” she said. “Ye’ve run into him before?”

Josh nodded again, but didn’t speak.

“Josh?” Sooraya prompted, when he didn’t continue. “How do you know him?”

Josh tensed, and his hesitation made it seem like all the warmth was sucked out of the room. “Because,” he finally said, “Before... before my powers manifested, I almost became one of them.”

There was no sudden clamoring of voices at that pronouncement. No words of outrage. Only silence. Thick, oppressive, tense silence, while everyone processed what Foley was saying. Julian, naturally, found his voice first.

“You what?”

Foley hung his head shamedly, but Julian’s blood began to boil. “My powers hadn’t manifested yet,” he said. “A couple of my friends were already members, and they invited me along to a couple of their meetings. They even introduced me directly to Pierce.” he sighed. “And with my parents being bigoted against mutants, too, at the time everything they said all made sense to me.”

Julian clenched his jaw and balled his fists. “You son of a bitch!”

“Julian!” Sooraya said, appalled, but Julian didn’t listen. Though every inch of him hurt, he still pushed himself off the couch.

“Julian!” Xavier said in warning, but Julian didn’t hear him. Nor did he notice Laura and Cessily both rising from the couch with him, or feel Cessily’s hand on his arm to restrain him.

Foley didn’t even give him the courtesy of looking him in the eye when he continued. “My powers manifested at the worst time; the first time I was taken along when the group went out. A couple of my friends decided to smash up a mutant-owned business nearby, and things...got out of hand. One of them got shot, and while I was trying to stop the bleeding... At the time I didn’t even understand what had happened when my friends all turned on me and attacked me, too. But the cops were already on their way and they took off. I guess the police decided I was one of the victims, so no one ever pressed charges against me.”

“Son of a bitch!” Julian snarled. He was across the room in a moment and his fist flew, striking Foley full in the face and driving him into the bookshelf.

The tension in the room now exploded into chaos when Foley pushed himself upright and struck him back with a furious right hook. Somewhere in the back of his mind, past the full body aching and the fresh pain in his jaw he processed the Professor and Dr. Grey trying to call for calm. Santo gleefully chanted “Fight!” Sooraya pleaded something about “Allah” and “peace” while he and Foley laid into each other. Ashida and Cessily each tried to pull him off Foley but he shook them off, and Rahne tried to do the same with Foley.

And then a small black shadow interposed itself in the middle of the bedlam, and a sharp snikt rang out. Julian and Foley both stumbled back in surprise when Laura crouched in a fighting stance between them, her claws raised, and looking at each of them with a warning growl.

“That is enough!” Xavier shouted. “Julian, sit down, now! Laura, your claws!”

Dr. Grey, who had been hemmed in behind the Professor’s desk, managed to seize hold of his arm and drag him away from Laura and Foley. The others slowly separated. Ashida, her face twisted in pain, slowly lowered herself onto the couch with Cessily’s help, while Cessily herself joined her. Rahne fussed over Foley, and Santo deflated when the fight broke up.

But Julian didn’t sit down, and instead shook off Dr. Grey’s grip and stared Foley down over the top of Laura’s head. He didn’t dare try to push past her to take another swing. “You son of a bitch!” he spat. “After everything that’s happened—”

“I didn’t know!” Foley snapped, cutting him off. “I was 13 and I didn’t know anything. It was a mistake!”

Julian laughed sardonically. “Wrapping your dad’s Beemer around a tree after sneaking some beers out of the fridge with your friends is a mistake. Joining a bigot murder club is way beyond that!”

He spun around on the Professor. “And you knew about this?”

Everyone gasped at the accusation in his voice, but Julian didn’t care. All he could see was Laura going through a window. Ashida on her knees. The blades spearing through his body. And then he saw Laurie, and Mark, and Brian Cruz, and Sarah Vale. He balled his fists, and a few smaller objects around the room began to rattle when he lost his grip on his powers along with his temper. “You know all about what he’d done?”

“Yes, Julian,” Xavier said coolly, but while ordinarily Julian might have cowed under the glare the Professor fixed him with, he instead stared him down, buoyed by the rage boiling in his blood. “I knew. I was the one who reached out to his parents when the circumstances of his manifestation became known to us. I was the one they signed his guardianship over to when they threw him out of his home for being a mutant.”

“We all almost died today!” Julian shouted.

“How was the Professor supposed to know they'd be here?” Foley asked. “I haven’t seen any of them in years, and even then, I only ever actually met Pierce, none of the others.”

“How many of us already died because how was he supposed to know!”

“Julian,” Laura said, her soft voice tinged with warning.

“Whose side are you on?” he snapped. A part of him regretted the sharpness of his tone when she flinched back, but right now all he could see was betrayal: Laura standing between him and Foley. Foley and the Reavers. And the Professor, the one who should have prepared them, keeping it a secret from everyone.

“Julian, that is enough,” Dr. Grey said in a low, calming voice, and tried to lay a hand on his shoulder. She could easily have simply used her powers to force him to sit down quietly. She could have put him to sleep. She could have made him walk up to Foley and give him a kiss and a big hug. But she made no effort to do so, and Julian’s temper slowly cooled on its own.

But he couldn’t just forgive and forget.

“I can’t be here right now,” he said, and violently threw Dr. Grey’s hand away.

“Keller!” Ashida snapped when he turned to leave. “We’re not done yet!”

“Right now, I am!” he yelled back. “I just need to get out of here. Just...leave me alone!”

Ashida tried to come to her feet again, but Dr. Grey stopped her with a raised hand. “Nori, let him go,” she said. If he didn’t know better, he would have sworn her voice was actually sympathetic.

And with that, he forced his way past Laura, Rahne, and Santo, and speared Foley with a glare when he stormed out of the Professor’s office as fast as his battered body allowed him.

###

Act IV

###

The debriefing did not continue much longer after Julian stormed from the room. That suited Josh just fine. There was little more to really say as it was; everyone’s spirits were swirling around the toilet from what they all knew was a defeat.

They lost. Badly. And Xavier was right it was a miracle things didn’t turn out worse than they did.

Josh was the first out the door when the Professor released them, self-consciously avoiding everyone in shame and guilt. He just wanted to retreat somewhere to hide, perhaps for the rest of his life. But he still had work to do. The one good thing he had left right now: Work. Xavier’s news about the breakthrough with the virus, however disheartening it was to be confirmed it was engineered specifically to attack them, gave him ideas. Maybe, with Dr. McCoy’s help, knowing how the virus worked against its victims would give him a way to use his powers on those who were sick.

He made his way for the elevator leading down to the sublevels, but didn’t make it far before a voice called out to him.

“Josh!” Rahne called. “Josh, wait!”

Josh stopped and hung his head, forcing aside the instinctual feeling of betrayal that she would put him on the spot in front of everyone as she had.

The rest of the team filtered past him. Santo glared down at him, and even Cessily and Laura gave him a wide berth. Sooraya’s expression was masked behind her niqab, but her dark eyes were lost in thought. Only Ashida remained behind after the others departed.

It was bad enough seeing the accusation in the eyes of everyone on the team, but his talk with Luna earlier that day dredged up thoughts he hadn’t really given the light of day before. He didn’t know if he could face seeing that same disappointment in Rahne’s eyes.

“Josh, are ye all right?”

“I’m fine,” he said, though not believing his own words in the slightest.

“Nae yer not!” Rahne circled around so she could force him to face her, but Josh kept his head down and eyes lowered. “What happened today, and what Julian said ...”

“What Julian said was right.”

“Nae, ’twas not right. Ye cannae change what happened then. Ye didnae ken better, and you shouldnae blame yerself, simple as that.”

Josh looked at her for the first time, and all he saw in her eyes now was concern and compassion. “I wish it was that simple. I should have known these were terrible people and they were planning to do bad things to innocent people, but I didn’t!”

“Ye saved my life. Ye saved Julian’s. Whatever ye might have been in the past, that’s not who ye are now.”

He sighed. “You don’t... you don’t understand. This is still something I actually did. I helped hurt mutants that night. I ...” his voice broke once the memories of that night flooded back to him of an innocent man beaten, his home and shop trashed and ransacked. “No one was killed, but people still got hurt.”

“We all have our demons,” Rahne said, and reached out to touch his hand. Josh flinched back from her, and she shifted uncomfortably. “They may not be flesh an’ blood like Yana’s, but we all have ’em. What matters is whether ye let them control ye, or if ye learn and grow from them. A didnae ken that Josh Foley. But A ken in my heart that’s not who A see when A look at ye today.”

Josh lowered his head again, desperate to look anywhere but in her eyes when the pain and guilt washed over him. Men like Pierce took Laurie away from him. They killed Jay, and Mark, and knowing had things been different he might very well have become just like them — that he might have been the one to put a bullet in Laurie’s head, or cut Rahne’s throat — gnawed at him.

“Ye didnae betray us, if that’s what yer thinkin’,” she continued, and folded her hands awkwardly in front of her. “A wish ye could see that yerself.”

“I wish I could, too. I just... I need to keep busy. I need to do something to make what’s happening now right.”

“But ye dinnae have t’ do it alone, and it’s certainly not yer fault. And ye dinnae have t’ work yerself t’ death, either. Ye need rest after what happened today.”

“I can’t. At least not now. With what the Professor said Dr. McCoy figured out, there might be something I can do now. I at least need to try.”

Rahne sighed, and gave a short nod. “Okay. But please, dinnae beat yerself up over this. Julian already did a number on ye, an’ that’s enough of a beatin’ for now.”

Josh managed a short laugh at the teasing lilt of her voice. “Come on, I thought I gave as good as I got.”

“Maybe, but I dinnae think anyone is really counting. Just...take care o’ yerself.”

He took a breath, and nodded. “I will. Thank you, Rahne.”

And with that, he turned back for the elevator, and continued on his way alone.

###

Nori hobbled out of Xavier’s office, the last to leave after the others all broke up. Keller’s meltdown did little to help her sinking spirits, and she wanted nothing more than to throw up.

Everyone steered clear of Josh except Rahne, who trailed after him like a literal lost puppy. To her chagrin, Nori realized she couldn’t entirely blame Keller’s anger over the revelation. The shock of learning that one of her classmates — a member of her team — at one point was one of the very people who just used her face to scrape trash off the pavement was as hard a punch to the gut as the blow that cracked her ribs.

Yet worse still was Xavier’s admonishment, and the disappointment dripping from his voice.

She made her way to the ground floor girls’ room under the stairs leading up to the dorms. Everything was empty and quiet, and the lounge smelled heavily of disinfectant. She twisted her lip in disgust at the powerful stink of ammonia when she skirted the spot where Quire got sick, and pushed through the bathroom door.

Nori approached one of the sinks, and her gauntlets clacked loudly upon making contact with the porcelain bowl. She leaned heavily on it for a moment before looking into the mirror. Though Josh had managed to repair the worst of the damage on the car ride back to the mansion, her face was still battered and bruised, marked by a few small cuts and spots of dried blood. She grabbed a paper towel from the dispenser and wet it in the sink before wiping her face. It made little real difference, though at least got rid of the grime and blood.

But it certainly did nothing to wipe away the knowledge she had failed.

Nori’s lip trembled. Water filled her eyes, and her breast heaved raggedly when she began to cry.

###

Julian lay on his bed, staring up at the ceiling and trying his best to ignore the lingering soreness in his chest. And his jaw, come to think of it. Foley hit him hard.

I’d like to see how hard he can swing after being impaled by a human pitchfork.

He tried closing his eyes for a time after he made it to his room, but all he could see was Laura being hurled through that window. Or the two thugs stomping Ashida into the curb. And then the slow horror dawning on him when he saw his own guts hanging from the blades spearing through him. Over and over and over again. So now he just glared at the ceiling and tried to force it all from his mind.

A soft knock at the door interrupted his brooding, and Julian sighed in irritation. “What do you want?” he snapped.

The door opened slowly, and Laura quietly slipped inside. Julian swallowed, and his face heated somewhat at her timid approach to his bedside, slinking like a dog called to heel after a beating. He immediately disliked the image it called to mind.

“Julian, are you all right?” she asked.

“I’m just fine,” he said, and regretted it when she flinched at his harsh tone. “And what’s with you, anyway? I’d thought you’d have had my back against Foley.”

Laura worked her jaw for a moment, at a loss for words. “You are angry with me,” she finally said.

“You popped your claws on me!”

“I did not want you to fight each other. We are supposed to be a team.”

“It wasn’t your business!” He sat up abruptly, and immediately wished he hadn’t. He winced when the muscles in his chest protested the sudden change in position. “That was between me and Foley.”

“I don’t understand why.”

“You heard what he said!” he snapped. “We got our asses kicked, and he used to be with those people!”

“Once, but not anymore.”

“Those people kill mutants, Laura!” he roared, and Laura blanched at the venom in his tone. “People like us! They nearly did today! Me, Rahne, Ashida. You got thrown through a goddamned window! And Foley used to be part of that.

“What’s worse is the Professor knew. He knew what he used to be, and decided it was all okay.”

Laura shifted uncomfortably and tried to shrink down into herself while he raved. She slowly lowered herself onto the edge of his bed, about as far as she could get from him while still sitting on it, and folded her hands in her lap. Something odd passed across her expression, something pained, and when she next spoke her voice was very small, and very hurt, and he felt hands like ice seize round his throat to hear her talk like that.

“Do you not believe people can change?”

There was something more loaded behind that question, he could hear it in her voice, but Julian just stared at her and struggled to find his words. He sighed.

“No...it’s not ...” He mopped his face while he tried to piece the mad jumble of thoughts together into something at least partially coherent. “These are the same sort of people that killed Laurie, and Mark, and Jay. They were our friends. Don’t you understand? This is like...learning your next-door neighbor used to throw the switches on the gas chambers at Auschwitz after you just had them over for Thanksgiving dinner!”

“Many people have done horrible things they later regretted,” she said, and her voice broke. “I have done horrible things ...”

For a moment Julian saw tears forming in her eyes before she regained control of herself, wiped them away, and returned to that same expressionless mask she wore over everything she felt. His face heated in chagrin at the thought that he was responsible for that momentary slip, and curiosity over just what she had done tugged at his thoughts.

“Joshua saved your life,” Laura continued once she mastered herself. “He saved Rahne’s life. And he was not lying in Xavier’s office. Would that not deserve the benefit of the doubt?”

Julian slumped, and winced when his body protested. Everything now ached, and he just wanted to curl up in a corner somewhere and die.

“I don’t know. Laura, it’s just not that easy! This is...I just don’t know. Right now, I’m really tired, I’m angry about what happened in town, and I’m still really hurting. I don’t even want to be thinking about this.”

She considered that for a moment, and gave a small nod. She slipped off edge of his bed and started for the door. Just as she reached it, she stopped, her shoulders slumped, and she turned back.

“I am sorry if I betrayed you. Does this mean we are no longer friends?” she asked in a trembling voice, and the question came as solid a punch to the gut as Foley’s right hook.

He lowered his head, shame-faced that she might think so little of him. Not that his history with that was all that great to begin with. “No... I don’t mean... Of course it doesn’t. Friends fight. We don’t always agree about everything. I’m sorry if you felt I was taking it out on you. I’m just so angry about everything right now.”

Laura considered that for a moment and nodded before straightening. Once again that brief moment of feeling and vulnerability slipped away when she buried her emotions deep down once more. “Good night, Julian,” she said quietly, and then slipped out the door.

For a time he just stared after her, then lowered himself back down again to resume staring at the ceiling while his thoughts and fears threatened to drive him mad.

###

Sooraya could hear Julian raving behind his door when she stepped out of her room and made her way back down the stairs. Santo had lumbered off to the kitchens after their meeting with Xavier had concluded, so she was not sure who he might have been speaking with, though she thought Laura might have been heading for the dorms when last she saw her. Since she wasn’t in their room when she returned, Sooraya supposed she had gone to visit him, instead.

She sighed at the thought of Julian and Josh at each other’s throats in the midst of a crisis. What was said was said, but even she was taken aback by the vitriol, and that it could even escalate to physical violence. But try as she might, she found she couldn’t entirely blame Julian’s reaction.

Allah forgive me, but how could this have been kept from us in these circumstances?

It served to cast an even more ominous pall over everyone's moods after learning just how badly things went in Salem. She expected a few more “I told you so’s” from Santo before all was said and done.

Sooraya reached the ground floor and made the turn into the front girls’ room. And she froze when she nearly stepped on Nori sitting on the floor, her back against the wall, and her knees drawn up to her chest and crying.

And it was not a few tears running down her cheeks, but an ugly, bawling wail while they gushed in sheets from her eyes.

“Noriko!” she gasped, rushing to her side and falling to her knees beside her “Are you alright?”

Nori didn’t respond at first, and her body was racked by ragged sobs. “All of this is my fault,” she wailed, when she finally managed to draw enough breath to speak.

“Oh, no, Noriko. You must not blame yourself.”

She sniffled and tried to wipe the mess from her running nose, but only succeeded in smearing it across her gauntlets. Sooraya fetched her a wet paper towel to help her clean her face.

“I was in charge,” Nori sobbed. “It was my plan, and I’m the one who was leading them. And I almost got all of us killed! I almost got Rahne killed. And now Josh and Keller are getting into it, and everything went wrong. The Professor was right, I screwed up.”

Sooraya sighed and laid a hand on her shoulder. “You could never have known what was going to happen today,” she said. “I don’t think even the Professor could have anticipated something like this.”

“You heard what he said, though. This is all on me.”

She sat beside Nori with her back against the wall and shifted her abaya to more comfortably cover her legs. After a moment’s hesitation she removed her niqab and ran a hand back through her hair.

“I heard what he said. And maybe you did make an error in judgment. But I don’t think the Professor expected you to be perfect. There is only one perfect being in the universe, after all, and Allah understands that we all make mistakes. Even the Professor, however boundless his patience may seem to us at times, may let things slip that he regrets where our lives are concerned.”

“But it’s different for me: When I make a mistake people get hurt.” Nori took a ragged breath, and the tears immediately started to fall again.

“I’ve seen Julian pull enough foolish stunts with Santo to know that he can do a fine job hurting himself on his own.” Sooraya offered her a smile, but Nori didn’t respond to the joke.

“They were wrong to put their faith in me, I can’t do this.”

And with that Nori broke out into another fit of sobs. Sooraya’s heart broke to see her so completely falling to pieces. She reached out and put an arm around her shoulders, and Nori collapsed into her. For a long time after Sooraya quietly held her while she cried.

###

Act V

###

Yuriko paced their safehouse like a wild animal trapped in a cage, fuming over their mission to Salem. Pierce, however, merely smiled.

Children. Charles Xavier is so desperate he sent out children.

“Hey, watch what you’re doing!” Cole growled, drawing him from his deliberations.

Of course, they were not without casualties. Pierce turned and watched a technician make an adjustment to one of his limbs through an access panel. Sister Mary hovered over them watching the procedure with interest.

“When I get hold of that spoon-bender I’m gonna light him up like a Christmas tree.” He rolled his shoulder once the tech finished her work and secured the panel again. Machinery whirred and clicked with each motion. If Stryker’s woman was unnerved by the crude melding of flesh and machine it didn’t show on her ravaged features.

“Get in line,” Skullbuster said around a mouthful of Jack Daniels. He was stripped down to his waist, exposing the ragged flesh where his artificial legs and hips were grafted to what remained of his human body. Pierce wrinkled his nose at the stink of garbage still wafting from him.

“You’re the one who couldn’t put him down. All it should have taken was one bullet. Boom!” Cole said, with a finger-gun to the head to make his point.

“Oh, knock it off,” Pretty Boy said. Of all the team he had taken the worst, and now lay in several pieces on a table while the technicians replaced wiring and parts that were blackened by smoke. “Did you even bother reading the dossier? You should have known not to try shooting a telekinetic.”

Skullbuster pushed himself off his chair and glared at him. “You’re one to talk. At least I’m still on my own two feet.”

Pierce stepped in and forced Skullbuster back towards his chair. “Enough, both of you! This wasn’t a wash.”

Yuriko — the techs all kept their distance after she nearly disemboweled one upon returning to base — spat a string of Japanese invective that needed no translation while she paced impatiently. “One of Stryker’s priority specimens fell right in our laps, and you let her escape!”

“And we didn’t get to kill anybody, either,” Cole groused. “Not one of those filthy mutie brats.”

“We were only here to observe Xavier’s response in Salem,” Pierce reminded them, “and that is exactly what we did. Anything more would merely have been a bonus.”

The response, however, did little to placate Yuriko, and she continued to pace up and down, up and down, until Pierce finally could take no more of it.

“Yuriko, that’s enough,” he snapped.

“Enough?” she snarled. “We had them! I had the Kinney girl right there, and we could have taken her and killed the rest if you had not lost your nerve.”

Pierce casually strolled up to her. Yuriko stared him down, her face twisted with rage. “Yuriko, there’s a reason why I am in charge. Westchester and its immediate surroundings are a delicate situation. They have been living with mutants and the school long enough that they’ve all but accepted them into the community. This, in turn, requires a delicate touch.”

He seized her suddenly around the throat, and slammed her against the wall so hard the stonework cracked, holding her with one hand a good two feet from the floor. The technicians tending the others all cowered, Pretty Boy, Cole, and Skullbuster all fell into nervous silence, and Sister Mary paled. Her own disappointment they had not collected any specimens had been palpable upon their return, but she had the good sense to remain quiet about it.

“We cannot afford to be dragged into a public confrontation with the local authorities,” he hissed between his teeth, “or we’ll just be calling them down on our own people’s heads, just like they have with Stryker and his little cult.”

He jerked his head towards Mary for emphasis, and squeezed his hand tight around Yuriko’s neck until she struggled to draw a breath. Her bladed fingers grasped his arm, searching for any weak point she might use to free herself, but with no leverage she couldn’t even scratch his outer armor.

“You saw the reports of what happened following the attacks on the school. For now, we stick to Stryker’s plan. We’ll have plenty more opportunity for you to play, but the plan, so long as it’s of benefit to us, comes first. Do you understand me?”

Yuriko choked out something that might have been an acknowledgement. He skewered the others on his blue eyes, and they all hastily mumbled their agreement. He looked back to Yuriko, and with one final crushing squeeze he let her fall. She collapsed to her knees, gasping and coughing desperately for breath. Pierce knelt beside her, took her chin in one hand, and forcibly turned her to meet his eyes.

“I’ll warn you for the last time: Don’t ever question me again.”

Pierce released her chin with a shove and stood away from her, leaving her groveling on the floor and returned to the map spread out on the table. Mary joined him there, her hands folded behind her back. She didn’t turn to look at him, and her posture remained guarded after the outburst.

“The Reverend, I’m sure, would agree with your assessment,” she admitted. “Making a grab in Salem in broad daylight would have drawn too much attention.”

Pierce grunted. “At least you understand the long-term plan comes first. You see how hard it is to find good help, but I have to make do with what I have.”

“Respectfully, Mr. Pierce, were your people this mad before their upgrades?”

He glanced sidelong at her and smiled coldly. “Of course. What sane man would agree to have his guts ripped out and replaced with wires and circuits? But sometimes that’s the exact right sort you need for this business.”

Mary nodded idly and considered the map. “In three more days we’ll have enough of the virus stockpiled to make the release in Mutant Town.”

“Good,” he replied. “And now I’ve introduced a little poison pill with the traitor Foley to tear Xavier’s people apart from inside. All we have to do is wait.”

He smiled tightly in anticipation of the carnage to come.

###

Xavier held his head in his hands and mopped his face. The attacks on the school last autumn left him feeling older and more worn down than he thought he had been at any other time in his life.

He was wrong.

“Professor?” Jean asked, and leaned around him to meet his eyes. “What are you thinking?”

He sighed and lifted his head again. Was it just him, or was it feeling a little warm in the office? He swept his gaze around the room to take in those gathered. Henry waited patiently for his turn to speak. Jubilee lounged on the couch playing Cat’s Cradle with a web of plasma, with Marie and Bobby in chairs on either side. Ororo had returned from her conference as soon as she could pull herself away and joined them. David, looking sullen and his thoughts clouded by worry after learning of the disaster in Salem, Paige, and Kitty rounded out the group gathered in the confines of the office. Peter insisted on remaining at his sister’s bedside, and Josh refused to leave the medical bay to avoid any further confrontations.

“For now,” Xavier said, “no one is to venture into Salem. There have already been two attacks in as many visits since Illyana fell ill, and both have resulted in casualties. Fortunately, Nori’s team is back on their feet, but the appearance of the Reavers is both unexpected and worrisome.”

David’s thoughts darkened at the mention of the Reavers, and doubt clung to his mind over Josh. That so many of their team had been put off by the revelation was not unexpected, but the intensity of Julian Keller’s outrage still caught Xavier off guard.

“How much do we know about them?” Bobby asked.

“Very little, I’m afraid. Josh had never encountered these lieutenants of Pierce before, and only knew of their existence in passing. But if they are allied with Stryker this is an alarming development of his ability to physically attack us.”

Henry grunted. “Of course, there have been attempts to replicate mutant powers in humans before through prosthetic upgrades and other technology similar to what Nori described, but I’ve never heard of them being used practically in the field.”

“Indeed. Considering the amount of damage Stryker has been able to cause with conventional weaponry already, this presents a significant threat and escalation that we cannot dismiss in the future, especially as we are already stretched thin.”

“Do you think they may still be hanging around Salem?” Jubilee asked.

Jean shrugged. “Unfortunately, it’s impossible to say. Nori’s team was unable to get very far in their search before they were ambushed. Whether this was a unique scouting mission by Pierce, or they’re stationed in the town is anybody’s guess.”

“Ah still can’t believe they were able to take out Laura so easily,” Marie said.

“As skilled a fighter as Ms. Kinney is, she’s still a child,” Henry noted.

“She’s also taking it very hard,” Jean added. “She’s trying not to let it show, but she feels like she let the team down.”

“None of them are pleased by their performance,” Xavier said, and pinched the bridge of his nose. The temperature in his office seemed to be continuing to climb. “This is the first time any of them have had to face a real defeat like this.”

“How did Rahne even get tied up in this?” Paige asked, but Xavier brushed off the question with a shake of his head.

“That is a separate discussion that I must have with Nori once everyone has had a chance to calm down. For now, let us focus on the immediate crisis at hand. Henry, have you had any further insights about the virus?”

“Beyond what we’ve already determined, no,” Henry said, and his fur flattened dejectedly. “Mr. Foley thought that now that we knew how it affected its victims, he might be able to do something with his powers. Unfortunately, if anything it actually seemed to make things worse.”

“It reacted negatively to him when he tried to reach out,” David said, and looked hesitantly at Jean. “He tried to bolster Cyclops’s immune system, basically reprogramming it to specifically target the virus, hoping he could get him back to the semi-lucid state Yana’s now in, but it almost caused him to crash.”

For her part, Jean lowered her head, but didn’t say a word.

“I’ve been in touch with a few of my colleagues who are specialists in the X-gene itself,” Henry continued. “They ought to be arriving within a few days to assist us with the research.”

“Now that we know it attacks mutants and carriers of the X-gene, shouldn’t we be concerned about more exposure?” Ororo asked. “If this is a targeted bioweapon as Hank believes, Stryker has to realize that confining it to the school isn’t going to have the effect he wants.”

“Dr. McCoy and I believe that Stryker may be planning to release it elsewhere,” David acknowledged.

“Indubitably,” Henry concurred. “In fact, I think the most likely first target will be Mutant Town. It’s the largest concentration of mutants in New York, if not the country, which will provide a sizable population for it to spread. So far, it’s proving to be extremely virulent, though not particularly contagious, given that it has not spread significantly through the student body.”

“Which is assuming it doesn’t just remain dormant for a period of time so it doesn’t die out simply because it kills its hosts too fast to spread,” David said.

Jubilee frowned. “You mean we could all already be infected, and not even know it?”

He nodded. “It’s possible.”

Xavier swallowed uncomfortably. The collar of his suit felt like it wanted to choke him. He felt something else on David’s mind, however, he hesitated to speak on.

“David, you have something more to add?” he asked, and lowered his head onto his hand.

“Yes, sir,” David said. “I’ve also been giving it some thought after Quentin came down sick, with the way his powers went out of control.”

“Dude, tell me about it,” Jubilee said. “I thought my head was going to explode!”

“And that’s my point entirely: If an infected mutant were to lose control of their powers in a densely populated area, a lot of people could be hurt or killed. Up until now we’ve only been thinking in terms of it spreading naturally. But what if Stryker were to plant someone who’s about to reach that stage of the infection in a population center? Especially if it’s outside Mutant Town, and anywhere that is largely populated by baseline humans?”

Ororo frowned. “In addition to the potential loss of life, an incident like that could do considerable damage to the public’s perception. If enough people are hurt, or even killed, it could renew interest in the Mutant Registration Act. It wouldn’t even matter if the incident was engineered or not, people will still consider it proof that mutants are a threat to the public safety.”

“Maybe we should be getting ahead of this,” Kitty said. “Don’t keep quiet about this until we don’t have another choice, but instead let the public know exactly what’s happening now. Call Melita Garner and get the information out there.” She swept her eyes across the room to take everyone in. “All of it, including our suspicions about Stryker.”

Henry nodded. “Involving the CDC may not be a bad idea. They may even be able to provide additional resources to help manage the situation.”

Xavier’s head began to spin under the assault of so much information all at once, and his stomach lurched. “Yes,” he said weakly. “Yes that’s...the spin would be a very real concern ...”

“Professor?” Jean called, gripping his shoulder. Her voice sounded incredibly distant. “Professor, are you alright?”

“Henry, I—”

Xavier’s whole body spasmed at once, and the last thing he heard before the world went black were the distant voices of everyone in the school crying out in agony.

To be continued...

---

A Note From The Author

This episode got hit with one hell of a case of writer’s block. Real life simply smacked me hard in the face, leading to a ten year delay before I finally got this episode out when I originally posted on FF.net.

There were quite a few developments that occurred during the gap. The most significant, obviously, was that Disney purchased Fox. The X-Men film franchise that we all knew came to an end, while the X-Men themselves have slowly begun to make their MCU debuts.

It was so long since I first started work on this episode, that believe it or not, I actually planned to introduce Pierce and the Reavers even before we learned they would be turning up in Logan. X-23 also made her live-action debut in that film as well, superbly portrayed by then-newcomer Dafne Keen, who has since headlined her own series in the lead role of Lyra Belacqua in the HBO adaptation of His Dark Materials, played a major supporting role as Jecki Lon in The Acolyte, and has now reprised her role as Laura in Deadpool & Wolverine.

I also must say I appreciate the irony of having started a story about the Legacy Virus not all that long before the COVID pandemic kicked off.

I actually got stuck on the scene with Jean and Scott in the med bay, not really knowing how to proceed through it. So when I reopened the document last summer, having reread through much of the story so far, I decided to just push it along to Yana starting to come out of her coma. The rest of the story just kind of flowed after that. I knocked out 18,000 words in not even a week. If only I could stay that motivated for my real-world projects...

This was also the longest chapter at the time of its first posting, at over 28,000 words of actual story text, if you exclude these notes. But there’s some real whoppers to follow.

Lots of different things are happening this episode as the stakes are raised. The Legacy Virus has moved to its next phase, so aptly demonstrated by Quentin Quire. And well, it’s Quentin, so it’s always immensely satisfying to see him suffer. And our young heroes are handed their first real defeat in the field.

I wanted to really hammer home that these are just a bunch of kids not ready for the fight they find themselves in. And the whole battle in Salem Center was built around the image of Laura being thrown through that window. So far, she’s been the one they’ve been relying on. Without her the kids are all likely killed by Stryker in the Season 1 finale, and they may not have been able to stop the Cabots a couple episodes ago. I really wanted to show just how shocking it would be for the rest of the team to see her beaten so badly.

And it’s not the Worf Effect: Lady Deathstrike is a serious threat even to Logan, so naturally it made sense that if anyone would hand Laura her ass in a fight, it would be her.

Obviously, I’m leaning into a bit more of a book-accurate approach to the Reavers by going whole hog with them as cyborgs, rather than just a bunch of buff military dudes with prosthetics. Though Bonebreaker remains a somewhat more difficult one to figure out how not to make look ridiculous. I’ve also chosen to reframe Deathstrike in her proper context as one of the Reavers. Sharp-eyed readers will certainly recognize her little taunt to Nori from Messiah CompleX.

Much of this episode is centered around Elixir. We start to get more of his backstory, including the fact that yes, before he received his powers he was a new recruit in the Reavers. I knew I wanted to make use of this to create another conflict within the team besides Julian and Nori butting heads over leadership. But it will also play into the rest of the arc going forward.

And then there’s that cliffhanger...

As far as the future of the series, I wanted to at least make sure to get through the end of Season 2, and bring it to a point where it at least doesn’t just cut off in the middle of a story arc. I still don’t know much beyond that. I do have a vague idea for Season 3’s overall plot, and even a few specific episodes and shorter arcs. But writing is hard, and finding the motivation to do so is even harder...

Until next time.

Chapter 9: 2x09 - Outbreak

Summary:

With the crisis at the Xavier School worsening, Noriko Ashida has led a part of her team into Salem Center in hopes of tracking down the man who infected Illyana and Cyclops. There they were ambushed by the Reavers, cybernetically-enhanced mercenaries and human supremacists who hunt mutants for sport, and have now allied themselves with Stryker and his Purifiers.

In the aftermath of their defeat the team learned that Josh Foley was a new recruit into their ranks the night his powers manifested, inciting turmoil among the team. However, no sooner were they rocked with this revelation than the Professor himself was struck down by a dangerous new mutation of the virus...

2x09

Outbreak

###

Act I

###

Julian slunk past the dining hall on his way along the west corridor from the kitchen, his head bowed and his hands in his pockets. An oppressive silence hung like a pall over the school, so thick he could hear his own blood rushing through his ears. It was impossible to imagine that the mood in the school could have gotten any worse than it had been already, but the previous day’s events plunged it into a hole so deep it was suffocating.

It didn’t take long for word to spread of the disaster in Salem, and he was conscious of the terrified eyes of the rest of the student body any time he walked past them. He, Laura, and the others were the ones their friends and classmates were supposed to look to if trouble came for the school, but how could they protect them against a real threat if they were so unprepared for yesterday’s fight?

And then the most unexpected, most horrible turn of events when the Professor himself fell ill.

Julian shuddered at the memory of his head nearly exploding when Xavier’s powers raged out of control. Cessily had told him about what happened with Quire while they were out. But this... He thought he was going to die.

His throat threatened to close up on him in shame and embarrassment over those final heated about the secrecy surrounding Foley and the Reavers. Xavier was the rock all of them grew up to rely on; eternal and omnipresent, and the father most of them never had. He was the one person they could all count on to be there, and the very last thing Julian said to him was out of anger.

He turned into the entry hall, and upon approaching main doors of the school he noticed a small crowd was already gathered there. Dr. McCoy stood with Ms. Munroe, Dr. Grey, and Alleyne, but also two others he had never seen before. Julian slowed to look them over on his way past.

One was a brown-skinned woman with black hair in a simple pony-tail, perhaps ten or so years younger than Ms. Munroe and Dr. Grey. She was shorter than both, but still attractive, dressed in a neat suit styled with an Eastern flare, and with a bindi in the middle of her brow.

The other was a tall blond man in an impeccable white three-piece suit and trilby hat. He had features the girls, at least, would probably melt over, but Julian immediately picked out the conceited arrogance in his posture, as if it were deliberate so he could look down his nose at everyone he spoke to.

Clearly, introductions were being made.

“I’m glad you could make it, and on such notice, at that,” Dr. McCoy was saying. “Allow me to introduce Ororo Munroe, Dr. Jean Grey, and David Alleyne. And this is Doctors Kavita Rao and James Bradley.”

“Doctor,” Dr. Grey said.

“Doctor,” Dr. Rao said.

“Doctor,” Dr. Bradley said.

Julian rolled his eyes. It’s like I walked into the middle of Spies Like Us.

“Now that these superfluous introductions have been made, McCoy,” Dr. Bradley said, “can we please get to the crux of why you asked me to fly overnight across the country to visit your quaint facilities, and have taken me away from one of the most advanced and fully staffed research laboratories in the world?”

“My apologies if this was an inconvenience for you, Bradley,” Dr. McCoy said, a hint of irritation tempered by familiarity in his voice, “but I thought you would wish to examine our patients and the research first hand.”

“Oh, don’t mind him, Henry,” Dr. Rao said, her voice colored by a mild Indian accent, “You know how grumpy he gets when he’s only second to discover a new development in mutant research.”

“I’m not grumpy, I’m jet lagged.”

“I had to sit next to you on a six-hour flight and listen to you complain the entire time. You are grumpy.”

Julian watched Alleyne shift from foot to foot when the nerd battle began, and he just kept his head down to avoid being trapped in the crossfire.

He slipped out the door into what should have been a beautiful spring morning. The sun beyond the covered front porch was warm, but not overbearingly so, and the sky was clear and blue. Green grass waved under a gentle breeze, and birds sang in the trees. It just seemed so empty with the student body sheltering in their rooms and afraid to venture outside. Julian, however, needed some fresh air after the solemn and sleepless night.

When he spied the dark figure seated on the steps leading up to the door, he was reminded of the other purpose for venturing outdoors.

Julian sat down beside Laura on the top step, and winced slightly at the ache in his chest and abdomen. She didn’t respond to his presence, but just kept watching out onto the grounds. Laura was gothed up a bit more than she had been in a while; a dark red shoulder-baring corset, a miniskirt short enough it would probably send his mom into a judgmental fit if she saw it, calf-high flats, fishnets, and half-sleeves from her elbows that just covered the backs of her hands, with her choker and locket in its customary place; the same thing she had been wearing the first day they met, now that he thought about it. Somehow, though he had noticed it that morning in Ms. Pryde’s class, he hadn’t really noticed it.

“Hey,” he said, not entirely certain how else to begin.

“Hello,” she replied. Her voice was subdued, but her face was expressionless.

She had largely avoided him since the night before, slipping away quietly when he came down to dinner, and hiding away in her room after Xavier’s attack, rather than watching the entry hall from her favorite perch on the steps, or gazing at the stars from the roof of the school. It was, of course, his fault, and his shoulders slumped contritely once he settled in beside her. Nonetheless, she made no move to vacate the steps, which was an improvement on the night before, so he decided to take the chance while it was available.

“Listen,” he began, “I wanted to say I’m sorry if it felt like I was taking things out on you last night. I guess I’ve got a habit of laying into whoever happens to be there when I get angry, whether it’s their fault or not.” He sighed heavily, and leaned forward with his hands clasped together between his knees. “I did the same thing to Sofia when she told me she was leaving, I did it to you because of that fight, and you absolutely didn’t deserve it again yesterday.”

Laura tilted her head slightly, and he caught a flash of her green eyes looking in his direction. “Everyone was upset,” she said, though Julian wasn’t about to take the offered excuse. She deserved better than that. “Noriko spent much of the night crying.”

Julian blinked in genuine surprise. Ashida had been many things since the first day he met her, but a crier certainly wasn’t one of them. “Crying? Combative, stubborn, I’d-like-to-TK-her-into-Thursday Ashida was crying?”

She nodded and rested her chin on her knees. “I could hear her in her room. I...think I understand why you were angry.”

“Look, Laura, just because you understand doesn’t mean it was right. I know you were only trying to help, and I ended up biting your head off, instead."

Laura sighed. “I, too, am sorry if it seemed I was avoiding you. I'm still not very good at this, and sometimes I just feel it easier to stay away.”

“Maybe you’re not, but you’re learning. Just don’t let anyone push you around like that, okay? You deserve better.”

She regarded him quizzically. “Even if it’s a friend?”

“Especially if it’s a friend.” He lowered his head again sheepishly. “Especially me.”

Julian sat upright when his slouch began to grow uncomfortable, and pulled his shoulders back in a vain effort to ease the soreness in his chest. Laura watched him, and a brief flash of concern passed across her features.

“You are still in pain,” she said, making it a statement of fact.

“If you were ever wondering what it was like to get impaled by Freddy Kreuger, believe me you don’t want to try it.”

Laura processed that for a moment. He wasn’t sure whether she recognized the reference or not; as with Mortal Kombat, she seemed to not be overly fond of slasher horror. “You should talk to Joshua,” she finally said, and a hint of concern crept back into her voice.

Julian’s expression soured, but he bit back a more acerbic retort. “That really wouldn’t be a good idea right now. It’s just...it’s still complicated. I’m fine, really.” He eyed her carefully for a moment, and she ducked her head shyly with a slight coloring of her cheeks at his scrutiny. “How are you doing?”

She blinked in surprise at the question. “I’m fully healed.” Through the matter-of-factness of her response Julian could hear the hint of confusion in her voice.

“That’s, uh, not what I meant. You seem to be taking what happened in Salem yesterday pretty hard.”

“I truly am fine.”

He rolled his eyes. “Come on, Laura. I may not be able to smell it when you’re lying, but I can see that you’re not happy. You’ve been brooding over getting your ass kicked since we got home yesterday.”

She sighed and hugged her knees tightly. For a moment she didn’t respond, and he watched her features twist while she tried to put together what she was feeling. “I should have been prepared for the ambush,” she finally said. “It nearly got Rahne, Noriko, and ...” Her voice broke for just a moment. It was only a brief hesitation she quickly tried to mask, but anyone who knew her well would have heard it. “...and you killed.”

“I don’t think it’s just that,” he said. “Have you never really lost a fight like that before?”

“I am not indestructible,” she said flatly.

“So you’re saying Edwina Scissorhands really could have killed you yesterday?”

Laura nodded. “Yes.”

“I guess when you’re technically immortal that could be a harsh reality check.”

“It is not that I could have died that has me troubled. It is that I felt as if it would be a relief.”

Julian could not find his voice at first, and gawked at her while icy fingers wrapped tightly around his heart and began to squeeze. Laura just stared straight ahead, her eyes unfocused and looking at nothing with those words left hanging in the air. His thoughts drifted back to their first real talk on the playground in Salem, and the self-loathing thick in her voice. He swallowed the lump forming in his throat when it crept back in.

“You can’t mean that.”

“I ...” She drew a ragged breath to steady herself. “I got back up because otherwise I would have failed all of you, and I can’t do that. But it would have been so easy to just stay down.”

“But why?”

Laura hugged herself tightly and shrunk back down into herself. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she said, her voice suddenly extremely quiet, and she squeezed her eyes shut tight.

Every time I think I might be getting her to open up...

He sighed. “Well, I’m glad you did. Get back up, I mean. It wouldn’t be the same here without you around to bail my ass out of trouble. I’ve, uh, kinda gotten used to you being here and I’d miss you if you weren’t.”

Laura managed a small smile. “Thank you,” she said, and leaned her head against his shoulder. Julian stiffened at the unexpected proximity, stuck between wanting to put an arm around her, and worry that doing so might lead to her pulling away and spoiling the moment.

“Listen,” he said instead, “I know everything seems to keep piling on, but I wanted to ask you if—”

Before he could even get the question out Laura was on her feet. Julian gritted his teeth in frustration. Goddammit, not again... And when he looked up at her she was staring down the drive leading up to the school’s entrance, and back towards the main gates. Julian followed her gaze, and soon clocked the solitary figure strolling casually up the path.

“Who is that?” Julian asked, and stood up to join her. “And how the hell did he get past the gates?”

“I don’t know,” Laura said, and sniffed. “I don’t recognize his scent, but there is something familiar ...”

The intruder approached, and he resolved into a tall but elderly man dressed all in black: Black shoes, black pants, black button-down shirt, black scarf, long black wool coat, and a black fedora. His stern features were angular and well-lined, his hair was white, and his eyes — the only actual color in his entire persona — were a piercing blue.

When he drew within a dozen paces Laura’s eyes suddenly flared in recognition and she growled in warning. A sharp snikt echoed across the grounds, and Julian nearly leapt out of his skin.

“Laura! What are you doing?”

The old man raised his hand, and Laura immediately froze on the spot while a low electric hum filled the air. Julian could tell she was trying to move from how her body thrashed, but something rooted her in place as if her limbs were made of lead.

“Temper, temper, my dear,” the old man said. Amusement filled his voice, and his tone was starkly patronizing. “I thought the Wolverine would have taught you better about where you pointed those claws.”

“Julian, I can’t move,” she said, unnecessarily.

“The school’s closed,” Julian said, and, despite the warning in Laura’s eyes, he stepped forward to put himself between them. He called his power to him, the green aura coalescing around his hands in a subtle show of threat.

The old man chuckled. “There is no need for any such display of gallantry or heroics, my boy, I assure you. That was merely a precaution to forestall an unfortunate misunderstanding by your considerably more educated friend.” He released Laura with a wave, and she staggered when her limbs came back under her control. The strange hum fell silent and left only the birds singing in the grounds to break the lingering tension. Laura’s stance remained guarded, but she put up her claws and made no effort to advance.

“Now, would you be so kind as to run along and tell Charles that Erik is here, and wishes to speak with him.”

###

Act II

###

The tension in the observation gallery overlooking the quarantine bay was so thick Nori didn’t think even Laura’s claws could cut through it.

Magneto, a name she and her peers only knew from stories in Mutant History class, was here.

The old man stood in front of the observation window looking into the bay, supporting himself on one hand with his head bowed nearly to the glass, and a mournful expression on his features. Beyond, the Professor now lay in a coma alongside the other victims. Since Xavier’s attack the previous evening, four more of their classmates fell ill, and Nori’s throat tightened at the sight of Dani lying deathly still beyond.

Laura and Keller flanked the elder mutant. Laura never took her eyes off him, and the intensity of her green eyes sent a shiver down Nori’s spine. Keller was just trying to keep as far from Josh as possible. For his part, Josh tried to do the same. Fortunately, the terminal he was monitoring was on the opposite side of the gallery. David was there with him, and though she could tell his body was tense, he was intent on putting his work first.

Not that she was one to ever agree with Keller on anything, but she admitted to herself she wasn’t sure whether she could do the same if she were David.

Dr. Grey and Dr. McCoy, who had been consulting with the two visitors — Dr. Bradley and Dr. Rao — when she, Laura, and Keller arrived with Magneto, now watched him closely. Bradley paid the elder mutant little attention beyond a brief, “Didn’t I see you making a colossal mess in Argentina once?” which earned a surprised look from everyone but Dr. McCoy and Dr. Rao. Dr. Rao greeted him politely, but, as the only baseline human in a room with one of the most dangerous mutants on the planet, remained understandably on edge in his presence.

Ms. D’Ancanto had arrived last upon learning about their visitor, and now watched him with a singularly cold glare that might have been even more withering than Laura’s, and the temperature in the room fell about ten degrees the moment she stepped inside.

“What’s he doin’ here?” she asked.

“I am here at Charles’s request,” Magneto said. “I came to offer my help.”

Dr. Grey raised an eyebrow. “The Professor didn’t say anything about contacting you.”

He gave her a smile that Nori didn’t find the least bit friendly. “My dear, there are many things that Charles keeps secret even from you. I am sure had he discussed it with you first you would have objected.”

Dr. McCoy grunted. “And with good reason. No offense, Erik, but you do have a tendency to make things considerably more complicated when you visit.”

Magneto didn’t take his bait, and instead turned back to the quarantine bay window. “When did it happen?”

Dr. Grey sighed. “Last night,” she said, a pained expression crossing her features. “Fortunately, I was standing right next to him and able to stop it, otherwise the psychic attack may have killed everyone in the school.”

Nori squeezed her own eyes shut tight in memory of the explosive headache when Xavier fell ill, as if thousands of tiny molten needles punched directly into her eyeballs and then tried to tear her skull apart.

“Oh, Charles,” Magneto said, and his shoulders sagged. Nori was stunned when the one mutant whose name struck fear into every one of her classmates now appeared to her as nothing more than a tired old man. “All the years you fought for us and continued to hope, and now this. I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner, my friend.”

Magneto turned away from the window once more. He folded his hands behind his back and now stood as tall and proudly again as when he first entered. “So, Doctors, what next?”

Dr. Grey and Dr. McCoy shared a look between each other, as if they were surprised that he would ask them for the plan.

“We had a hypothesis on a possible temporary measure to arrest the progression of this malady,” Dr. McCoy said.

“I had a hypothesis, you sesquipedalian hairball,” Dr. Bradley interjected.

“Oh please, James, are you ever going to learn how to play nice with others and share your toys?” Dr. Rao replied.

“I shared my hypothesis, didn’t I?”

“This is a collaboration, not a competition.”

“I am collaborating! Some of us just provide more valuable input than others.”

Dr Rao pulled off her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. “God help me I don’t even know why I try ...”

“We can decide on the order of our names on the inevitable scientific paper another time,” Dr. McCoy said, and spit Dr. Bradley with his most “my patience is strained and I will hang you from the ceiling if there’s any more back-talk” glare, one she had seen leveled at Keller and Santo many times when they interrupted one of his lectures. “So, if you don’t mind lets first address the more pressing task.”

“Oh, very well,” Dr. Bradley said, and turned to Magneto. “Do stop me if I’m going too fast for you, but we do believe we have a way of providing some temporary relief.”

“So I’ve heard,” Magneto said dryly, and folded his arms impatiently.

“You see,” Dr. Rao interjected, before Dr. Bradley could go off on another tangent, “the virus works by targeting the victim’s X-gene, and that may give us a means of attacking it.”

“Although Mr. Foley’s efforts to manipulate the virus directly yielded...unsatisfying results,” Dr. McCoy added, “there may be another approach we can take until a permanent treatment can be formulated.

“As Erik is aware, forty years ago I developed a serum which could temporarily shut down the X-gene. The duration depended largely on the metabolic rate of the subject, but the effects could last from a few minutes, to a few days.”

Magneto’s mouth twisted in disgust. “Ah yes, I do recall you and Charles hiding from the world with this for a time, before you finally saw sense.”

“I have continued to find use for it today as a therapy in extreme cases,” Dr. McCoy said, ignoring his remarks. He motioned at Nori with one blue paw, and she shifted uncomfortably when the eyes of every scientist in the room fell on her. “Nori, for instance, will uncontrollably absorb any electrical energy in her environment which, unless she discharges the build-up regularly, has severely debilitating effects on her mental faculties.”

Dr. Bradley stepped forward and scrutinized her closely. “Yes, I could see why that could be a problem even for the average intellect.” He took hold of one of her gauntleted hands and turned it for examination. “I assume these are your work, McCoy?”

“The gauntlets let me release the charge I’ve built up somewhere safe without the risk of frying everyone around me,” Nori said. “They also help limit how much power I actually absorb, kind of like a resistor. If they break or the Doc needs to upgrade them, he’ll give me a shot to suppress my powers until they can be repaired. If I don’t it’s...not pretty.”

Keller grunted. “That’s putting it mildly.”

She spit him with her nastiest glare, but he ignored her. Dr. Bradley released her hand. “Crude, but effective. If I have the time I might see if I can devise something a little more elegant.”

“Our thought,” Dr. McCoy continued, with another glare at Dr. Bradley, “is that we may be able to use the serum as a sort of inoculation, at the very least to prevent the more potentially dangerous symptoms.”

Dr. Grey considered that for a moment. “Would suppressing the X-gene even be enough? So far, your research suggests that even dormant carriers are at risk.”

“The serum was effective enough to fool the genetic sensors of a Mark I Sentinel even after it had already locked on to the target, causing it to disregard the subject as a threat. It’s possible that this may be sufficient to do the same with the virus.”

She sighed after a few moments. “I suppose at least it’s better than nothing. Hank, go ahead and proceed.”

“The Doctors and I will also be giving a press conference this evening per Kitty’s recommendation,” Dr. McCoy continued. “All our findings to date have already been passed on to the CDC, as well as to our friend Ms. Garner, and several other news outlets.”

Magneto frowned. “Are you sure it’s wise to be so forthcoming?”

“Kitty’s reasoning that it’s better to head off any potential misinformation if the disease spreads before we say anything publicly is sound, and Charles did agree with the course of action.”

“Ororo, Bobby, and Kitty are meeting with the administrator of Mount Sinai Beth Israel now to help coordinate efforts in Mutant Town, as well as to make arrangements for the conference,” Dr. Grey said.

“And what am I to be doing?” Magneto asked. “I do believe it best I maintain a low profile for the time being.”

“Nori, please update Erik on your team’s encounter with the Reavers.” Nori’s heart sunk somewhere into her stomach and her throat went dry. “Everything you can tell him about their capabilities.”

Keller’s eyes hardened at the mention of the Reavers, and he glared at Josh. Josh, for his part, ignored him and continued working on whatever he was doing to look busy and avoid attention. Nori envied him immensely when Magneto’s icy blue eyes fixed on her.

“Me?” she asked, her voice coming out as little better than a squeak. “Wouldn’t Laura be better at the whole tactical rundown thing?”

“I’d like you to coordinate your squad with him to prepare for defense of the school in the event this Donald Pierce gets bold, and if possible, develop a strategy to counter his people. David and Josh will remain here to help us with the virus for now, so your focus should be getting the team combat ready.”

Nori hugged herself tightly and bit her lower lip.

“Is there a problem with this?” Dr. Grey asked.

Of course there’s a problem with it! I can’t do this, I’ll just get everyone killed if I try to take them into the field again. For real this time!

But Nori just shook her head and stared at the floor, trying desperately to shrink out of sight but not being nearly so effective at it as Laura disappearing into the Wolverine’s oversized jacket. “No, ma’am,” she said.

“How do we know we can trust him?” Ms. D’Ancanto asked, having never taken her eyes off Magneto. She self-consciously ran her fingers through the white streak in her dark auburn hair. “Every time in the past he offered his help, he just betrayed us for his own agenda.”

Magneto squared his shoulders indignantly at the accusation in her voice. “I chose to stay out of the way after the incident at Alkali Lake,” he replied, “and give Charles’s initiative to reveal Stryker’s machinations to the President a chance. And for over a decade as I watched things change, I accepted that, perhaps, Charles had been right all along.”

His expression hardened, and everyone tensed. “And then I saw what happened here last autumn. You don’t know how prepared I was to come forward in vengeance; if Charles would refuse to act, then I would.

“But then I witnessed a miracle: Humans coming forward not in celebration of the attack, but in condemnation.”

Magneto sighed, and suddenly he was that tired old grandfatherly-looking man again. “I have lived a long time, my dear. As a child I witnessed the very worst of what humanity could do to its fellow man, while the so-called ‘decent men’ sat quiet and allowed their neighbors to be taken away to the gas chambers. And as I grew older, I watched it unfold time and time again. Charles would have me believe that there was hope for humanity, and he never stopped believing that the ‘decent men’ would pave the way forward in the end. And every time I watched his dream crumble, no matter how tightly he clung to it.

“But then I saw the reaction to the attacks on your school, and for the first time in my life, those decent men stood up and cried out for justice.

“I have only ever cared for the safety of my people. All of you included, even though Charles stood against me in my methods. And that day I saw his dream might not have been as fruitless as I once thought, and I will give him that chance.

“And if you still do not believe me, I suggest you ask your young friend, who has been spending this entire time trying to sniff out whether I am telling the truth, and not bothering to hide it.”

Everyone suddenly turned their attention to Laura. If she was embarrassed at having been so caught out it didn’t show on her features.

“He is telling the truth about his motives,” she confirmed.

That was enough for Dr. Grey, though Nori noticed the suspicion never left Ms. D’Ancanto’s eyes.

“We’ll take him at his word,” Dr. Grey said. “Nori, if you would please take him in hand.”

Nori took a steadying breath, shuddered, and nodded. “Okay. Um...it might be best to talk in the briefing area down here.”

Magneto gestured for her to lead the way with a dramatic sweep of his hand. “After you, my dear.”

But just as they turned to leave, Laura spit him on her green eyes. “I will warn you,” she said, and her voice went very low and very dangerous, “if you do go back on your word and betray us, I will kill you.”

A chill ran down Nori’s spine at the lethal threat in her voice, and everyone went deathly silent. Even Dr. Bradley remained at a loss for words.

“Of course you will, my dear,” Magneto said, his voice dripping with patronizing amusement, which did little to alleviate the elevated tension after her threat. Laura’s eyes hardened at being so casually dismissed.

“Remember that I am not Logan,” she said. “If I were to decide to kill you, you will never see me coming.”

Magneto offered her a knowing smile, and to Nori’s surprise any trace of mockery dropped from his expression with a respectful incline his head. “I do believe you.”

And with that he fell in with Nori on her way out the door. The last she saw before it closed behind her was Dr. Bradley turning to David and Josh. “You, laboratory monkeys!” he called. “Please make yourselves useful and fetch me a pot of your strongest coffee, and keep them coming. There’s science to be done!”

###

Julian and Laura gathered at the table next to the windows with Cessily, Santo, Sooraya, and Victor, and a stack of pizza boxes from Salem in the middle. With Ashida off bringing Magneto up to speed on the Reavers, and no further need for them in the med bay, they were dismissed for the moment. Laura did not relax and remained on guard until they had returned to the inhabited areas of the school and out of reach of the old mutant’s powers. Julian couldn’t decide whether he was scared or star-struck by his presence. Or perhaps it was a mix of both.

Alleyne and Foley remained at work with the rest of the science nerds, and that suited Julian just fine. The further Foley kept from him the better.

The rest of the lounge was only sparsely inhabited. Paras Gavaskar lounged on the couch watching tv with Hope Abbott. She sat in one of the armchairs as far as she could distance herself from him and still see the screen. Ben Hamill played something old-school on the arcade machine, his flickering head illuminating the space around him, and Roxanne Washington and Jessica Vale talked quietly at the table nearer the door.

Theirs was the only group in the school still willing to gather in more than twos and threes, only further depressing the mood inside. Fortunately, even if access to Salem had been more or less permanently cut off since yesterday, at least being able to order lunch in helped provide them with some sense of normalcy. And true to her word, Luna sent a generous selection of coffee and snacks up from the Grind Stone.

“I can’t believe I missed Magneto,” Santo whined, and stuffed half of a pizza into his mouth. Victor glared between him and the now half-empty box, and quickly grabbed a couple slices before the big rocky mutant could finish it off.

“Is there anything you’re not going to complain about? It’s getting exhausting,” Victor said.

“I’m just so bored! We can’t go to Salem, and I missed an awesome fight.”

“Dude, Julian, Nori, and Rahne were all almost killed,” Cessily retorted from beside him. “That’s about as far from awesome as it gets.”

“At least I might have been able to fight one of those robot guys without worrying about squashing someone.”

“The Reavers were cybernetically enhanced, not robots,” Laura, seated on his other hand, said matter-of-factly. “They were still ultimately human, and prone to being ‘squashed,’ so to speak.”

Santo’s glowing blue eyes blinked in confusion, and the sound of stone grating against stone filled the lounge when he scratched his head. “But yesterday Foley said ...”

Julian rolled his eyes. “He was simplifying it so you could actually process it, rock pile.”

“Come on, Julian, you know Santo’s a few rocks short of a quarry,” Cessily said. “It was impressive he actually made that connection himself at all.”

“What I wonder,” Sooraya said, interrupting the usual give-and-take with a roll of her eyes, “is what Magneto is actually doing here.”

“He said he was here to help,” Julian said with a shrug, and around a mouthful of pepperoni. “Laura believed him, anyway.”

Cessily scrunched her face in disgust. “Will you not talk with your mouth full?”

“I did not smell a lie on him,” Laura said, with a quizzical look between him and Cessily. She reached across the table for another slice, having almost eaten as much already as Santo.

“Just how reliable is that, anyway?” Cessily asked.

“There are a few people who are accomplished enough liars they can even control those unintentional olfactory markers. I also cannot detect them with individuals like you or Santo due to your unique physiological makeup.”

Laura paused to take a bite of her slice and struggled with the long strings of hot mozzarella. Cessily might have blushed had she been capable. “Uh, thanks?”

Sooraya chuckled and maneuvered a bite of her lunch beneath her niqab. She refrained from the pizza that afternoon and settled on something left over from the fridge. Whatever it was smelled delicious; some sort of meat dish with a pungent blend of spices Julian suspected Laura, with her fondness for such strong flavors, would enjoy. “That certainly is an odd form of complement.”

“That’s not the best part, though,” Julian said, exchanging the pizza in his hand for the can of Coca-Cola by his elbow. “Laura threatened to kill him if he screwed us over, right there in front of everyone.”

Everyone gawked, and Cessily pressed a hand to her mouth in disbelief. “Laura, you didn’t!” she gasped.

“I did,” Laura confirmed, and popped a stringy bit of cheese and pepperoni in her mouth.

Sooraya’s expression was largely unreadable, but her eyes widened in mortification, and her fork hovered half way between her microwave dish and her mouth. “Whyever would you say such a thing?”

“Magneto has never proven to be a reliable ally to the X-Men, and has on several occasions undermined the Professor’s efforts after having agreed to aid him. I merely warned him of the consequences should he do so now.”

Victor’s slice went forgotten in his hands for a moment, and bits of cheese dripped off onto his plate. “But...killing Magneto? That’s extreme, even for you.”

“I think it’s hardcore!” Santo said, and smiled gleefully.

“Of course you would,” Cessily replied with a roll of her eyes.

“How would you try to get the drop on him, anyway?” Julian asked around a swig of his Coke. “Wouldn’t he feel you there from your claws, or any metal on your clothes?”

“Since only my claws have been bonded with adamantium I can simply remove them and wait for the natural bone the metal encases to grow back,” she replied. “They would not be as effective, but can still kill.”

“Wouldn’t that hurt?”

“Yes,” Laura said, and for a moment her voice was pained as if by memory. Before Julian could think to ask about it, she brushed it off and continued. “But it would present a useful enough tactical advantage to be worthwhile. As for my clothing, the most natural solution would be to carry out the attack without them at all.”

Julian had just put his can to his lips again when she said that, and choked violently in an effort not to spit it all over the table, pizzas, and Santo and Victor (the others being out of the splash zone). Some of it tried to force its way out his nose when it couldn’t escape through his mouth, and it burned like hell all the way up (and back down). The others all stared at her with expressions ranging from surprise to discomfiture. Julian failed very hard to not let his imagination run away from him, and blushed intensely at the mental image he was respectfully trying not to conjure up but insisted on popping into his head regardless.

“Wait, you mean naked?” Santo asked, naturally the first of them to find his voice once his mind processed what she just implied.

Laura ignored the scandalized expression shared by everyone in the group. “Of course,” she said, almost off-handedly.

“Dude, that’s hot!”

“Shut up, Santo!” Cessily said, and buried her face in her hand.

“You’re joking, right?” Julian asked.

Laura just took a bite of her pizza and pulled at the clingy bit of cheese without another word. However, Julian caught her watching him from the corner of her eye, and a hint of her playful smile appeared on her lips.

“You are such a troll!” he said with a laugh.

Cessily blinked in astonishment. “Wait, that really was a joke?”

Julian leaned his elbows on the table and buried his face in his hands. His whole body shook with laughter. His chest protested immediately with fresh spikes of pain, but he didn’t care. “She’s been doing this to me the last couple days,” he managed when he was able to regain control. “I’ll think she’s being serious and bam, there it is.”

Cessily laughed, as well. “Oh my God, we’re becoming a horrible influence on you.”

“I wonder what Mr. Logan will say when he has learned how Julian has corrupted her,” Sooraya said, her own voice laughing upon recovering from her embarrassment over Laura’s suggestion.

“Me?” Julian said in protest. “I didn’t teach her that!”

“Oh, you better believe we’re going to blame you for it,” Cessily said.

Julian looked askance at Laura for help, but that playful little smirk remained on her lips while she chewed on her pizza. It was such a small little change in her expression, but it lit her features in a way it was impossible to notice how beautiful she really was. His face colored both at his thoughts running away from him, and at becoming the target of the group’s teasing.

“I’ll get you all for this,” he said uselessly. “I will have my revenge!”

###

The wait seemed interminable while Mr. Rasputin finished the decontamination procedures and exited the airlock. Though he finally managed a few hours’ sleep the night before, his features remained drawn, haggard, and weary from his constant vigil at his sister’s bedside when he finally emerged.

David shut down the scrubbers from his console and stepped away, leaving Josh to pour over the data from the last round of tests by Dr. McCoy. He glanced over his shoulder at him and suppressed a small shudder. It hadn’t taken long for word of his connection to the group that attacked Nori and the others in Salem to make the rounds of the school, and he hadn’t left the med bay since retreating downstairs afterwards to avoid the negative attention.

He sighed, not entirely sure how to respond, or even what to say. People made bad choices and could certainly come back from them, but knowingly joining a group whose entire identity was built around hatred of who you were was somewhat more complicated.

He forced those musings aside and joined Dr. McCoy, Mr. Rasputin, and their two guests. He wasn’t sure what to make of them, either. Although Dr. Rao was fascinated by his ability to pull her knowledge with his powers, Dr. Bradley proved less than impressed.

“On the one hand, it gives me the opportunity to consult with the single greatest scientific mind I have ever known — Me, Myself, and I — without having to hold that conversation in my head this time,” Dr. Bradley had said. “On the other hand, you are completely lacking in my scintillating conversational skills and are ultimately a dull second-hand imitation.”

David continued to chafe at that while running the experiments Dr. McCoy proposed.

“Ah, Mr. Alleyne.” Dr. McCoy said upon his approach. “I trust you have completed the task I’ve set for you?”

“Yes, Dr. McCoy,” he said. “I ran the sequence five times as you requested, and a sixth for good measure. Josh is finalizing the results, but it looks promising: When the serum was administered to the infected blood sample the virus went dormant. Once the cells in the sample finished absorbing and metabolizing it, the virus went active again.”

“Of course it looks promising,” Dr. Bradley said indignantly. “I was sciencing while McCoy was still chasing rudimentary laser pointers around his crib like a proverbial kitten. Antiviral research is an utterly pedestrian pursuit. Death rays are considerably more useful. And fun.”

“Unfortunately, that will not help us address this particular problem,” Dr. Rao said.

Dr. Bradley sniffed. “Any problem can be addressed with a death ray if you are creative with its application.”

Dr. Rao narrowed her eyes. “And where will you get one small enough to apply it to our problem?”

Dr. Bradley folded his arms across his chest and tilted his head back with a superior smirk. “By inventing a shrink-ray first, obviously. Do try to keep up, Kavita.”

“Doctors ,” Dr. McCoy said, with an exhausted roll of his eyes, “can we please focus?”

“I would if I had more coffee,” Dr. Bradley said. “But since the minions have been otherwise occupied, my mug is now unsatisfyingly empty of science’s gift to all-night research binges. However, I will endeavor to persevere.”

“Oh good. Now, with the confirmation of the first round of experiments, I believe we can move on to the next phase of a live trial.”

“I still say we could have saved time by just pumping the little blonde disease factory full of serum and watched what happened.”

Mr. Rasputin positively towered over Dr. Bradley even without his armor up, but if he was intimidated, he didn’t show it. “What was that?”

“James, what have I told you about your bedside manner?” Dr. Rao asked. David watched her eye twitch while she nursed the headache that was Dr. Bradley.

“And if I were bedside that would actually have mattered.”

“Peter,” Dr. McCoy interjected, before Dr. Bradley could say any more to infuriate the mountain of muscle glowering down on him. “We believe we may have a means of easing Illyana’s symptoms, at least until we can synthesize a way to attack the virus directly. We’ve run some tests on samples of her blood, and the serum we use for temporary suppression of the X-gene is showing promise of forcing the virus into a dormant state. It won’t cure her, but it may at least help us keep her alive until we can.”

“What would this involve?”

“The plan would be to provide your sister with a full dose of the serum, which will totally suppress her X-gene. While it’s in effect, it would completely cut off her access to her powers for a short time, but it may be necessary to save her life. As she’s unable to provide consent herself in her current state, it would fall on you as her next of kin.”

Peter sighed, but immediately shook his head. “I’m sorry, Doctor, but I can’t.”

“Peter, you understand that if Illyana’s condition worsens and she slips back into her coma, its possible she may never come out again.”

“I know!” he said, and tears formed in his eyes. “But I also must respect Yana’s wishes. She would never allow anything that would cut her off from Limbo.

“Limbo?” Dr. Rao asked.

“Limbo is a pocket dimension that Illyana’s powers can access,” Dr. McCoy said. “She primarily uses it for teleportation, but also taps into it to fuel her magic outside. She’s also the de-facto ruler of the demons that inhabit it.”

Dr. Bradley scoffed. “Magic, demons... I believe in neither superstitions nor hocus pocus, Dr. McCoy. I believe in science. And I believe in applying it harshly to any problem life presents.”

“They’re very real, Dr. Bradley,” David said. “I’ve been inside myself not long ago.”

“It is, indeed,” Dr. McCoy said. “However, while Illyana’s mutation allows her to reach it, Limbo itself, as far as I can determine, exists independently of her. Regardless of whether her powers are suppressed, Limbo will continue.”

“Yes, but we don’t know what will happen if Yana’s access to it is cut off,” Mr. Rasputin said. “She would never forgive me if I made that decision for her.”

“Ugh. Informed consent is the bane of medical research the world over,” Dr. Bradley groused.

“Can’t we just ask her?” David asked.

“Illyana has still yet to regain complete consciousness,” Dr. McCoy said. “She’s drifting in and out, but thus far has not been sufficiently lucid that I would feel confident in accepting any answer she may give.”

“Not any answer she can speak, but Dr. Grey says she’s able to touch her mind, now. Why not have her ask telepathically?”

He sighed. “I’m not certain it’s ever been clarified whether psychic consent qualifies or not, but that may be our only choice in this case.” Dr. McCoy turned to Josh. “Mr. Foley, if you would be so kind as to call Jean back down.”

“Yes, Doctor,” Josh said, and punched the call button.

“What do we do if Yana refuses treatment?” David asked.

Dr. McCoy rubbed his furry chin with one paw. “She would be my preferred subject since she’s already out of the deeper coma, but if not, we’ll have no choice but to find another.”

“At the very least we could test its efficacy as an inoculation,” Dr. Bradley said.

“Are you volunteering?”

“Of course not! Suppress my X-gene and I’ll be reduced to babbling puerile nonsense like a fifth-grade science teacher, and will be of no help to anybody. I suggest finding a subject considerably less useful if they spend a few days in mundanity.”

Dr. Rao rolled her eyes. “This from a man who injected himself with an experimental antidepressant just because Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth broke up.”

“I assure you the timing was purely coincidental, and the science was still invaluable.”

“The effects of celebrity breakups on individual emotional health is hardly noteworthy research.”

“All science is noteworthy,” Dr. Bradley huffed. “Some more noteworthy and worth my attention than others, but noteworthy nonetheless.”

Dr. Rao just groaned in annoyance and buried her face in her hand. “I should have let him drink that beaker of acid he concocted ...”

Fortunately, the show was ended by Dr. Grey’s arrival, and Dr. Bradley and Dr. Rao both stepped aside to allow her to join their conversation.

“Ah, Jean, good,” Dr. McCoy said, “I’m sorry to pull you away from your other duties with the students, but we needed your assistance.”

“What can I do for you?” she asked.

“Peter?”

Dr. Grey looked at Mr. Rasputin, whose shoulders slumped. “I would like you to try reaching Yana,” he said. “Hank wants to test the serum on her since she’s nearest to consciousness. However, this will completely suppress her powers, and without knowing what this would do to Limbo I can’t give consent without her approval.”

Dr. Grey sighed. “Peter, I appreciate how important this is to you, but while I can sense her thoughts now, I can’t guarantee they will be any more lucid and organized through her fever than she has been the brief moments she wakes.”

“I know, but if we do this and it has any negative effects on Limbo, she’ll never forgive me. Please.”

She watched him for a long moment, then nodded. “Very well, I’ll at least try.”

Dr. Grey closed her eyes and concentrated, and for a long moment said nothing. Dr. Bradley watched with impatient curiosity. Dr. Rao’s expression was more that of fascination. David’s belly churned anxiously; he didn’t spend much time with Illyana, but he had seen how fiercely protective she could be of Limbo and its denizens, and he didn’t relish the thought of seeing how she would react if something went wrong.

“Peter?” Dr. Grey said, and David frowned when something felt...off about her voice. “Peter, where are you?”

Mr. Rasputin watched her uncertainly for a moment before he found his voice. “Yana, is that you?”

“Where are you?”

“I’m right here, Yana. You’re very sick, but we’re doing our best to make you well. Dr. McCoy thinks he can help, but I didn’t want to do it without your permission because it will cut you off from Limbo for a little while.”

“No!” Dr. Grey stumbled a bit, and her face twisted with pain. “You can’t! I don’t... I don’t ...”

“Jean?” Dr. McCoy called, and rushed to catch her before she sunk to the floor.

“Take me to Limbo,” Dr. Grey said. “Take me... take me ...”

She gasped and opened her eyes. “I’m all right, Hank,” she said in her own voice while he helped her steady herself. “I’m sorry, Peter, but I’ve lost her.” She shook her head. “Her consciousness is so fragmented right now it was already difficult to communicate coherently, but once she grew upset ...”

“Why would she ask to be taken to Limbo?” Dr. Rao asked.

“Out here, in our world, Yana can only draw on a fragment of Limbo’s full power,” Mr. Rasputin said. He sighed and shook his head. “But inside ...”

“Yana once told me that she has absolute control over everything inside,” David said. “All she has to do is will for something to happen and it does. The power she wields inside is astonishing.”

“She may be thinking if she can get into Limbo she can cure herself,” Josh said. He left his workstation and approached them. It was the first he had really contributed to any of the deliberations, and he shifted self-consciously when everyone’s attention fell on him.

“Oh, wonderful, why have I never considered eye of newt and crystal mumbo-jumbo instead of this remarkable function of nature called the scientific method!” Dr. Bradley scoffed.

David thought for a moment. “No, I think Josh is right, and I think it could actually work. I certainly wouldn’t suggest sending anyone else in with her — the demons on the other side tend not to have much sense of personal space without her to keep an eye on them — but it might let us help her without having to cut off her powers.”

“But how do we open a portal to Limbo without Yana to do it for us?” Mr. Rasputin asked.

David clenched his jaw at the thought that came to mind, and awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. “I may know of a way, but you’re not going to like it.”

###

“Are y’all out of your minds?” Marie cried, horrified.

Her reaction was exactly what Jean had anticipated, and nor could she blame her. She stood in the middle of the observation gallery with Peter, while everyone else circled around them. Josh and David were trying to look anywhere but at her, and Hank and Dr. Rao waited patiently. Dr. Bradley drummed his fingers on his arm in irritation, but for the moment he remained mercifully quiet.

“Please, Marie,” Peter said. “It’s the only way.”

Marie sighed and touched his arm with a gloved hand. “Look, Peter, it’s not that Ah don’t want to help, but you know what happens to the people Ah touch.”

“I know, and I wouldn’t be asking if there was any other option, but Yana is refusing to be treated with the serum and asked me to take her to Limbo. But she’s the only one who can open a portal to it from outside. You should be able to do it if you absorb her power.”

“Ah’ll absorb her power, but Ah won’t know how to use it. And in the condition she’s in right now Ah may even kill her!”

“I think I can tell you how to do it,” David said. “Even if she’s not coherent enough for Dr. Grey to reach her, I’m still getting something like an echo of her, so have an idea how it works.”

“Does it involve a Ouija Board and chicken blood?” Bradley piped in, the first he had spoken since Marie returned to the observation gallery. “Because we seem to have left the realm of science for hoodoo voodoo.”

“That is not helping, James,” Rao admonished him. “Remember what we discussed.”

“Discussed, yes, agreed to, no. There is very real science loaded up into a neat little science-y syringe. One poke and one plunge, and we can move on from the land of elves and fairies and get back to the real work.”

“And what about Yana?” Marie said, mopping her face and ignoring Bradley’s ranting. “Even if Ah could get the portal open, she may not survive me touching her.”

“I might be able to help fortify her and repair any physical damage as fast as it happens,” Josh said.

Marie sighed in resignation. “Do I need to go through with her?”

Peter shook his head. “No, we only need you to open the way. The fewer from outside who enter Limbo the better, especially with Yana still unconscious. I don’t know what the demons on the other side will do if she’s unable to control them in her current state. They would never harm her, but I don’t know about anyone else. So I intend to take her alone. At best, they may recognize me as her family. At worst, my armor should be able to handle the rest.”

“Are we even sure this will work?”

“I’m afraid not,” Hank said. “Unfortunately, all we can do is try.”

Marie lowered her head and nodded. “All right, just tell me what to do.”

###

The quarantine bay door hissed open, and Josh, Ms. D’Ancanto, and Mr. Rasputin all stepped inside in file, while the others watched from outside. Josh tried to settle the bile churning in his stomach, but no matter how he tried it kept on bubbling up to the back of his throat. He desperately wanted to throw up, but the idea of doing so with his head stuck in a fully enclosed mask did not appeal to him in the slightest.

He couldn’t help but feel the eyes of everyone in the observation gallery on him. No one had said anything about what happened yesterday. David largely avoided talking to him at all, but he knew they were all thinking the same thoughts. He wished they would just be as open about it as Julian and get it over with.

They threaded past the beds for their other patients, and the machinery beeping, whirring, and hissing in time to their slow breaths and faint heartbeats. By habit he checked the monitors on his way past; all of the victims were still spiking alarmingly high fevers and showed no conscious brain activity. Only Illyana had managed to come out of her coma, but though some of her vitals strengthened, her fever had still not broken.

Finally, they reached Illyana and gathered around her. Josh shut down the monitors and unhooked the various leads and contacts.

“Okay, so now what?” Ms. D’Ancanto asked while he worked, her voice sounding tinny through the speaker on her containment suit. “Ah’ll have to remove my glove to touch her.”

“Right,” Josh said, and uselessly nodded in his mask; neither would be able to see him. He disconnected the last sensor. “Okay, let me get ready first, that way I can start as soon as you touch her.”

“Won’t this infect us, too?”

“Possibly. But I haven’t tested positive yet, even though I tried healing the others already, so it might not be transmissible by physical contact.” He shrugged, though the gesture was muted by the bulky containment suit. “Unfortunately, we don’t really know yet. Anyway, be ready.”

Josh detached and doffed the gloves of his suit and stuffed them in his pockets. He then carefully reached out and placed his hand on Illyana’s brow. Her skin burned through the sheen of sweat from her body desperately battling the infection raging within her. Illyana may not have been as frightening as Laura, but she wasn’t far off. Seeing her in such a state exposed her fragility in a manner that deeply unsettled him; they were all just children, and now they were dying again.

“I’m ready,” he said, forcing such thoughts from his mind and concentrating on the task at hand.

“Right, here goes nothing,” Ms. D’Ancanto said, and doffed her glove.

She laid a hand on Illyana’s lying above the coverlet pulled up to her breast. At first nothing happened. Then Illyana’s cheeks began to sink, and dark veins spread through her body. Josh immediately reached out to her with his power. It filled the room with a muted golden light, and bolstered and fortified her body to sustain it throughout the contact.

Ms. D’Ancanto stumbled back and released her, but Josh maintained his hold on Illyana until the veins slowly faded away, and her body returned to its properly filled-out state. He let out a sigh of relief as she stabilized.

It had worked.

“All right, David,” Ms. D’Ancanto said. “Now what?”

David’s voice echoed over the intercom in the quarantine bay. “Ok, so as near as I can figure it, all Yana does is will a portal to open. She kind of pictures it in her mind as if she were opening a doorway. If it helps, focus on your fist as if it were the latch.”

“Ah’ll try.”

Ms. D’Ancanto closed her eyes and raised one fist. Again, at first nothing happened. Then a spark appeared, hovering in the air between the row of beds and the observation gallery wall, and slowly, torturously, it irised open. Beyond it stretched the blasted hellscape of Limbo, and the stench of sulfur slowly filled the chamber.

“That’s it!” David said. “Colossus, you’re up.”

Mr. Rasputin stripped off his helmet and gloves, hefted his sister’s small frame without effort, and with a moment’s hesitation stepped through the portal.

“Ok, to close the portal, simply will it just like before, but this time picture the door shutting.”

Again, nothing happened at first, but with a sharp crack that startled them all, the portal snapped shut, trapping Mr. Rasputin and his sister on the other side.

###

The portal snapped shut behind Peter, and for a moment he stood still with Illyana cradled in his arms. He swept his eyes across the tortured plains of Limbo and swallowed.

Slowly, his sister stirred, and her eyes flickered open. A faint smile passed across her features.

“I’m home,” she murmured weakly, before she fell back into unconsciousness.

Shapes began to appear in the thick clouds of sulfurous fumes closing around them. At first they remained indistinct, but here and there he caught tiny baleful points glowing in the shadows. Finally, one resolved into something vaguely humanoid, and stumbled forward into view. He, and Peter assumed it was a he, managed to tower over even him, possessing a powerful build, long tail, a mouth filled with sharp fangs, and a single horn projecting forward from the top of his head.

“Mistress,” he said in a raspy voice, and Peter clutched Illyana to himself.

“I am Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin,” Peter said. He did not activate his armor yet. “I am the brother of Illyana Rasputina.”

The demon sniffed at him, considered Illyana in his arms, and grunted. “You are known to me, and I smell the Mistress in you. Why are you here, and who opened the portal? What has happened to her?”

“I’m here because my sister is very ill, and she hopes her power here might help sustain her until a cure is found. A friend helped her open the portal from Earth.”

At that the demon’s features became troubled. “Ill? How?”

“That, I’m afraid, is a long story.”

“I am S’ym, her seneschal. Come with me. But stay close; the others will not trouble you so long as you are in my company.” And with that, the Demon turned and started into the haze parting around him.

“Hold on, Yana,” Peter murmured, and started after him.

###

Josh stepped out of the elevator once it reached the inhabited levels of the mansion. Dr. McCoy had ordered him out after Mr. Rasputin vanished through the portal with Illyana.

“You’ve done a great job, but you need a proper rest,” he said. “Doctor’s orders. We’ll call if we need you.”

He hung his head and slumped his shoulders, desperately wishing to shrink away and not be seen. Unfortunately, he remained distressingly visible, so he turned up the east corridor back towards the main hall and the stairs to the dorms above. The sooner he could retreat into his room and close out the rest of the world the better.

He reached the stairs without incident, but before he could start up he heard someone calling his name.

“Josh!” Rahne said, far too loud for his liking.

She hurried down from the gallery above, and already he could feel eyes on him from the handful of students in the hall trying not to be obvious about staring.

“Where are ye goin’?” she asked when she reached the foot of the steps.

“Dr. McCoy ordered me to take a break,” he said, hanging his head so he didn’t need to look her in the eye. “I was just going up to my room to sack out.”

“Och, nae yer not. A havenae seen hide nor hair of ye since last night, and A cannae imagine ye’ve had a real and proper meal, either, havin’ missed supper an’ breakfast.”

“Look, it’s best if I just stay out of everyone’s way right now.”

Rahne sighed and seized him by the hand. “Dinnae talk like that. Yer friends A’m sure will want t’ see how yer doin’, an’ A’m sure they’ll want t’ know how things are goin’ with everyone downstairs.”

“Rahne, I appreciate what you’re trying to do but—”

“Nae ‘buts!’ Ye’ve been doin’ enough mopin’ around the last few months as ’tis, an’ A’ll not have it. Now come on, let’s get ye somethin’ t’ eat. A think there’s some leftover pizza, if Santo hasnae finished it all already.”

Rahne pulled him by the hand away from the stairway leading up to the safety of his room, and towards the proverbial gauntlet in the lounge. Josh dragged his feet as best he could, but she was not to be put off by his stubbornness, so he reluctantly relented.

He felt every eye in the place turn on him the moment he set foot inside the lounge. The only sizable group was the rest of the team, minus himself, David, and Nori. Everyone else was scattered about. Thus, when all conversation stopped it fell so silent Josh could hear his own blood rushing through his veins. His stomach started a gymnastics routine in his gut at the scrutiny.

Rahne led him right up to the table with the rest of the team. Julian impaled him on a glare so withering he doubted Cyclops’s eye beams would cut through him so cleanly. He balled his fists, and a couple of the empty boxes and soda cans on the table started to shake until Laura leaned in and muttered something in his ear. The tremor caused by his power subsided. The eyes burning a hole through Josh’s head did not.

Santo’s rocky features twisted, and he eyed him darkly. Victor shifted uncomfortably, as if he suddenly wanted to be anywhere else. Sooraya’s expression was, as usual, difficult to read beneath her niqab. But she, too, avoided meeting his eyes. Even Cessily tensed upon his approach.

“Hey, guys,” Rahne said pleasantly. “How are ye holdin’ up this afternoon?”

“As well as anyone, I suppose,” Sooraya said. “How are you feeling?”

“Better, thank ye. A had a bit o’ a sore throat fer a bit, but Josh put me t’ rights. A dinnae ken how ye can do that, goin’ out an’ puttin’ yerselves in danger, kennin’ what could happen if things went bad.”

“It’s a lot to think about,” Cessily said, squirming a bit when the temperature around the table dropped a few degrees at the mention of his name. “Um...that’s really only the second real mission any of us have had, though.”

“What about the observatory?” Victor asked.

“Well, yeah, I guess, but that was kind of all Laura’s thing.”

“Still, A wish A could have done more to help ye. A wish A could do more now. A did my best, but ...”

“You fought and you survived,” Laura said. “Learn from it and do better next time.”

Rahne seemed taken aback by the brusqueness of the response, though Josh supposed she wasn’t as accustomed to Laura’s manner of communication. “May, uh, may we join ye?” she asked.

“You can,” Julian said.

“She can? Uh, yeah, you can, but not the Reaver,” Santo added, and the temperature in the lounge now plunged to somewhere just above freezing.

Josh’s face heated, and he suddenly would rather have gone to Limbo and faced every demon in it than to continue standing there.

Rahne planted her hips and glared. “Well, that is quite un-Christian o’ ye!” she snapped. If Santo was chastened by the scolding it didn’t show on his stony features. “Especially after Josh put my throat back together, an’ Julian’s insides back where they belonged!”

“Look, Rahne, things are just...it’s complicated,” Cessily said, nervously scratching behind her ear.

“A dinnae see ’tis all that complicated. But it certainly all smacks o’ Julian Keller. An’ are ye all o’ like mind on that, ready t’ toss him aside fer somethin’ that happened four years ago?”

Everyone at the table tried to look anywhere but at him and Rahne. All except Laura, whose green eyes flashed to all of them in turn. A troubled expression passed across her delicate features.

“I don’t agree,” Laura said haltingly. Santo glared at her, but Cessily and Sooraya both hung their heads shamefacedly, and Victor’s color shifted as if trying to blend into his chair. Julian glanced sidelong at her beside him, and Laura stiffened as if waiting for a rebuke. To Josh’s surprise it didn’t come — in fact his expression softened for a moment at her visible discomfort — and instead Julian simply picked up his can of Coke for a drink.

“The point is that it did happen. He hurt people like us — like him — and that’s not something that just goes away.”

“Och! Yer a horrible, horrible person, Julian Keller! If A were not a good Christian girl A would tell ye where ye can TK that can o’ yers!”

“Oh snap!” Santo said, his ire for the moment forgotten in his glee at Rahne’s uncharacteristic outburst. However, she quickly turned her glare on him.

“An’ that goes fer ye, too, Santo Vaccaro! See if A help ye put yerself back together if ye ever get blown up again!”

The big rocky mutant visibly deflated “Aw, that’s not nice.”

Sooraya stood away from the table and clasped her hands in supplication. “Rahne, please calm down, you must understand—”

“Understand what? A understand well enough how ’tis ’round here. An’ A expected better o’ ye especially, talkin’ on an’ on about the love o’ Allah ’til it drives Nori up the wall. A dinnae ken how much o’ the Bible is in that Quran o’ yers, but A’m sure it says somethin’ about fergiveness just like the Good Book!”

Rahne’s voice broke, and tears welled up in her eyes. “He’s yer friend an’ he’s doin’ his best to help! A’m ashamed o’ all o’ ye, an’ ye can keep yer cool kids table, A dinnae want anythin’ t’ do with the lot o’ ye!”

She seized Josh by the hand again, and nearly yanked him off his feet when she started away. “Come on, Josh. If ye aren’t welcome here, then A dinnae want t’ be in here, either.”

And with that she took off like a puppy straining against its leash, and he was left haplessly stumbling behind in her wake when she stormed out of the lounge.

“I’m sorry ye had to see that,” she said and dragged him up the stairs. They reached the gallery overlooking the entry hall, then turned and continued past the east tower seating alcove to the second floor above. “It just makes me so mad after what ye did fer us yesterday!”

“Look, it’s okay, you don’t ...”

“Nae, ’tis not okay! Ye saved my life, and ye saved Julian’s life. They’ve got nae business to be treatin’ ye like that, especially with all ye’ve been doin’ down with Dr. McCoy the past week.”

Rahne didn’t stop until they reached the door to his room. She sighed and leaned heavily against the wall with her back to him. “A wish ye would stand up fer yerself. Ye didnae deserve any o’ that.”

Josh put his back to the wall and thumped the back of his head against it. “I wish it was that easy, but I understand how they’re feeling.”

Rahne turned to face him. He didn’t look at her, but could feel her green eyes on him. “How can ye make excuses fer them like that? A dinnae understand at all. Maybe A can see lettin’ things slide with Santo because...well...he’s Santo. But Julian, an’ Cessily, an’ Sooraya?”

He squeezed his eyes shut tight. “You don’t know what it was like. I was raised by my parents to hate mutants. I was part of the popular crowd in school before I came here, and all my friends hated them, too. If there was a mutant at our school, we made their life a living hell. I really did believe everything they told me about...well...us. And I was so confused by what was happening when my powers manifested. When I learned what it meant, and why I was attacked by my own friends, literally overnight I became the thing I was taught all my life to hate.”

A lump worked its way up his throat, and he shut his eyes against the tears threatening to break free. “Everything I knew got turned upside down. When Xavier came to get me because my parents wanted to get rid of me I didn’t even want to be here. Do you understand that? I still hated mutants. I wanted it all to just go away so I could go back to my life and things could be what they used to be. I hated everyone here just because of what I was raised to believe, even though I was here for the same reason.

“I threw myself at my classes at first because it was a way to stay away from everyone else. I didn’t tell them the truth, and the Professor thought it best to keep things quiet. He never expected I’d actually see Pierce again and for this to all get dragged out like it did ...” He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “And after, as I started to accept myself and what I was, I realized that everything I believed all my life had been wrong. So I wanted to excel here because I wanted to prove I was better than my old life. And I wanted to use my powers to help people to make up for the harm I’d caused.”

Rahne lowered her head. She stepped forward and took him by the hand. “But ye’re not that person anymore,” she said. “A do understand how it feels t’ believe something all yer life, an’ suddenly have that pulled out from under ye. But ye dinnae need t’ let that define ye ...”

She trailed off and leaned around him with a frown. Josh followed her gaze and spotted Laura approaching, hugging herself self-consciously at their attention settling on her.

“Joshua,” she said, and stopped just far enough to be part of the conversation but still maintaining her distance. “I wished to apologize for what happened in the lounge.”

Rahne’s face twisted into a scowl. “Well, at least one o’ ye still has some common decency. A dinnae ken why ye even hang around with that lot.”

Laura seemed taken aback for a moment, and when she found her voice again it was very quiet. “They are my friends,” she said, in her peculiar “isn’t it obvious?” sort of way.

“Some friends! There’s nothin’ Christian about the way they treated Josh just now. How could ye even consider them friends after that?”

“Sooraya, Cessily, and Mark—” there was a tiny hitch in her voice when she mentioned his name “—were the first ones who tried to make me feel welcome here, when no one else would. Logan left me here alone, and though we talk at times, I have no one else.”

Rahne fumbled a bit, and some of her earlier fire was quenched by the subtle hint of pain in Laura’s voice. She took a steadying breath. “But that doesnae explain Julian. We all saw how awfully he treated ye.”

Laura scrunched her face in the manner he and the rest of the team had learned meant she wasn’t quite sure how to put her thoughts or feelings into words, and when she spoke it was uncertain and halting. “I have found that Julian is...complicated, and often contradictory, and I am not sure I entirely comprehend why I ...”

Something strange passed across her features, mingled with her evident confusion that Josh couldn’t put a name to, but he caught a hint of color appearing in her cheeks that she quickly forced away.

“Well, that still doesnae justify him treatin’ Josh as he did,” Rahne said. “A ken that fer whatever reason ye’ve been crushin’ on him lately, but ye cannae always defend everything he does.”

Laura’s face now heated considerably, and for a moment she faltered. Josh watched the confusion play across her features with some surprise at the intensity of her reaction, as if she now scrambled to put thoughts she had never before considered in order.

“No, it is not ...” she replied, when she managed to find her voice, but even then, it came out uncertain and without assurance. Josh frowned when it sounded to his ears as if it were too strong a denial.

“Och, A ken A cannae tell when someone’s lyin’ like ye can, but A still have a good nose. An’ A can smell it on ye when A see ye two together.”

“Rahne,” Josh said in warning; Laura’s face had gone completely red, the color spreading down her neck as well, and she huddled down into herself as if trying to shrink out of view. It was a painful display of bashfulness that could not help but bring Laurie back to his thoughts. He forced it aside with great effort. “That’s none of our business. But Rahne’s right, none of it makes him any less of a judgmental asshole.”

Laura took advantage of Josh’s interruption to compose herself again, and her coloring returned to normal. Nonetheless, she continued to hug herself awkwardly.

“No, it does not,” she finally said, and sighed. “I know I struggle with comprehending feelings, and I am often at a loss as to how I should respond to them. I have gotten...better, and Julian is the one who has actually helped me the most. I have thus begun to understand that in some ways he is not so different from me.”

Josh blinked in surprise, and Rahne let out an incredulous laugh that made Laura shrink uncomfortably again. He placed a warning hand on Rahne’s arm and gave her a small shake of his head. Laura was seldom forthcoming with what she felt or thought as it was, and any sort of dismissal — especially after the shock of confusion Rahne already hit her with — was as likely as not to send her retreating back into herself again.

This time, however, she screwed herself up. “It is not that he does not know what he feels, but I am learning he does not always know how to express it rationally, and he has confessed to me that he knows sometimes he lashes out when he should not.”

“An’ just what is he feelin’ do ye think that justifies how he’s treatin’ Josh?”

Laura hesitated a moment and chewed her lip uncertainly.

“Laura?” Josh prompted when she did not immediately continue.

“I have been learning it is not polite to discuss others’ personal affairs without their consent, and I don’t know if this would be a betrayal of his confidence... but he is angry and afraid.”

They both frowned at her words. Any temper Rahne had left evaporated, and she suddenly sobered. “A’ve never heard him admit t’ bein’ afraid before,” Rahne said. “Even after what happened in Salem yesterday, he just got up an’ didnae let it get t’ him.”

“He was lying,” Laura said. “He does not want to see any more of his friends die, and feels helpless because of the attacks on Illyana and Cyclops, and the others who have fallen ill. Now he is angry because of our defeat in Salem.”

Laura fixed Rahne with a pointed stare, two pairs of green eyes dueling for supremacy, and Josh couldn’t help but be reminded of two dogs staring one another down in a display of dominance. Only natural, I suppose, given their mutations. Rahne blinked first, ducking her head away and lowering her eyes.

“They are all afraid,” Laura continued. “I know that you can smell it, too. I have been trained to focus on my mission and not let anything else intrude, but even with all the work we have been doing with Colossus, they have not.”

She sighed heavily. “I have seen that Julian is a good person. I don’t agree with how he has treated you, and I have learned that friends may disagree without ending that friendship. But I do believe in him, and... I believe he does not truly mean to target you, but your past connection to the Reavers gives him an outlet to release on.

“I don’t think it is right, and I wish I could help him see that, but I ...” her voice broke for a moment, and again she scrunched her face. “Others, perhaps, could help him, if he were willing, but I cannot.”

They both hung their heads for a moment. How the hell is Julian being an asshole, yet Laura Kinney of all people can legitimately make me feel bad about wanting to knock his head off?

When they looked up again Laura was gone.

###

Act III

###

“This is Melita Garner reporting live from Mount Sinai Beth Israel hospital, where noted research experts in the field of mutant genetics, Doctors Henry McCoy, James Bradley, and Kavita Rao, are holding an urgent press conference,” Melita Garner said on the television. She stood in front of the entrance to the hospital, while pedestrians, patients, and hospital workers passed behind her on their way in and out of the building.

Everyone still at the school — except for Magneto and Dr. Grey, who remained in the subbasement — gathered in the lounge to watch the report. Julian crowded on the couch with Laura and Cessily on either side of him. Laura seemed even quieter than usual after lunch, and when she came to join him her manner reminded him an awful lot of a dog that knew it had misbehaved even if it had not been caught.

Victor and Sooraya sat on the floor in front of them, with Santo’s rocky bulk crammed into one of the arm chairs, and Nezhno Abidemi in the other. Foley stood with Rahne about as far from everyone else as he could get without leaving the lounge. He only came back from his room after their confrontation earlier when a school-wide announcement was made about the press conference.

Ashida hovered near the back with Alleyne, her shoulders slumped and her usually fastidiously styled hair a complete mussed-up mess. Jubilee, Ms. D’Ancanto, and Ms. Guthrie stood nearby. With everyone who had not yet gotten sick crowded into the lounge to watch it wasn’t possible to scatter.

“We take you now inside, where the conference is about to get underway.”

The camera switched now to the interior of a conference room, filled with hospital personnel and news crews waiting for it to start. At times a camera flashed from the audience, while the photographers jockeyed for position. Dr. McCoy looked like a big blue trained monkey with his furry head and hands sticking out of his incongruously fine suit. Rao and Bradley, seated on either side of him, looked much less out of place and considerably more doctorly.

“Good evening,” Dr. McCoy said. “In the interest of full public disclosure, and to stave off the dissemination of misinformation and most importantly prevent a panic, my colleagues and I have been consulting with members of the Center of Disease Control over what we now suspect to be a deliberate biological attack undertaken against the mutant population of New York.”

Almost immediately the conference room exploded into chaos. Every camera in the room began to flash, and reporters shouted over one another for his attention. Dr. McCoy promptly raised his hands and called for calm.

“There will be time for questions shortly, please be patient,” he said.

“Last week, a student of the Xavier School For Gifted Youngsters was assaulted in Salem Center by an unidentified assailant who later also fired shots at and struck a member of the faculty. A hypodermic dart was recovered, and has been turned over to the authorities for an analysis. Both victims subsequently fell sick of an unknown and potentially life-threatening illness.

“Analysis of the virus’s genetic structure indicates it was deliberately engineered and is not a naturally occurring pathogen. The virus specifically targets the X-gene both expressed in mutants, and, we suspect, dormant in carriers of the gene.

“As such, we anticipate no direct danger to the general public at this time. The Xavier School has already been put under quarantine, and we are now working with Mount Sinai hospital to coordinate efforts, as we believe a second biological attack may be imminent in Mutant Town.”

###

“Reverend?” Matthew asked, while Stryker fumed at the television set and the press conference being given by McCoy.

“Damn!” he snarled, and thumped his good hand down on the top of his desk. Those gathered around the bunker had all stopped in their work to watch the development unfold, and they jumped at his sudden outburst. “God damn them!”

They had planned the operations down to the last detail, and yet somehow it had never occurred to him to consider the abominations would break their pattern of secrecy and actually come forward publicly about the illness before he had forced their hand. By then, it would have been too late to head off the negative press. But here they were, seizing the initiative and control of the narrative for themselves.

“Get Pierce,” Stryker said. “We have no choice but to make the release in Mutant Town immediately.”

###

Hank looked out into the sea of faces while cameras flashed. The reaction to the announcement was received about as he expected.

“Additionally, we are currently tracking two distinct developmental stages of the virus:

“The first phase attacks the initial victims by causing extreme fever, weakness, disorientation, and severe and sudden onset of hematemesis. However, upon interaction with the victim’s X-gene, the virus has been specifically engineered to mutate into a second stage before spreading further.

“This stage, upon infecting its victim, causes a rapid onset of a potentially catastrophic and uncontrolled outburst of the mutant’s powers.

“We urge the residents of Mutant Town to report any medical incidents immediately, so medical professionals can respond with alacrity. The CDC is already preparing mobile response units in anticipation of an outbreak in Mutant Town, and more details will be made available as they become known.

“As of yet, no one has taken responsibility for the attacks in Salem. However, we are fully cooperating with the New York Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security to locate the perpetrators of this heinous attack, and request anyone who may have information to please contact the authorities immediately.

“We will now open the floor to questions.”

As he anticipated, every hand in the conference room shot up, and a chorus of “Dr. McCoy’s” rang out when everyone began shouting over each other at once. Hank pointed at random. “Yes?”

“Dr. McCoy, you said the virus doesn’t pose a direct danger to non-mutants or non-carriers of the X-gene. Does that imply there is an indirect threat?”

Hank took a steadying breath when the most dreaded possible question, but also the one he most expected, caused the entire room to plunge into tense silence.

“We believe there may be a particular risk associated with the secondary stage of the disease, however this will depend greatly on the powers of the affected individual. In my case, I imagine the worst that will happen is an explosive increase in the rate at which I shed, woe befall the custodial staff who must vacuum behind me.”

An uneasy laugh worked its way around the room at a response carefully devised well in advance to ease the tension as much as possible, and to soften the blow of the remainder of his answer.

“However,” he said, “we do believe there is potential of a dangerous uncontrolled outburst of a more destructive nature. Rest assured we will take every precaution to prevent inadvertent harm to any innocent bystanders.”

Another hand went up, and Hank motioned for her to speak.

“How do you expect to prevent an outbreak outside Mutant Town? Especially of the second phase?”

“I believe I shall handle this one, McCoy,” Bradley said, and Hank nodded with a sigh at the potential faux pas to come. “The process will be a very scientific one. I’ll spare you the specifics, as I’m sure it will involve chemical processes and other technical mumbo jumbo that you will need spelled out for you, and we don’t have the time to be your personal Hooked On Phonics tapes.

“Comfort yourselves that we are currently exploring a treatment designed to temporarily suppress the X-gene while we work on developing an antiviral remedy to permanently resolve the matter. So, rest assured we do have measures in place to prevent anything from going boom.

“Next question, please.”

Another hand, and this time Bradley pointed.

“Could you please define ‘going boom?’”

“Next intelligent question, please,” Bradley said. “You, in the fashionably outdated tweed, look reasonably literate and capable of meaningful scientific contribution.”

“What makes you certain that this was indeed a targeted attack, rather than a natural outbreak of disease originating from within the mutant community?”

“There are multiple signatures by which a genetically modified or artificially created organism can be identified,” Rao interjected, before Bradley could further alienate their audience. “You may, for reference, cite Kinney’s 1990 paper on manufactured genetic sequences, for specifics.”

###

Julian glanced sidelong at Laura when Dr. Rao spoke, and was shocked to see her face drained entirely of color, turning a deathly shade of white. Her features twisted as if in great pain, and her eyes went unfocused. No one else in the lounge seemed to take any notice, and kept their attention on the television.

“Additionally,” Dr. Rao continued, “initial laboratory study on samples taken from victims demonstrate the virus is not behaving in a manner consistent with a naturally occurring pathogen, but rather following a specific program. This includes its mutation into its secondary phase.”

Dr. Rao called on another reporter, drawing his attention back to the television, but Laura’s reaction kept poking at the back of his mind, and he found it much harder to focus.

“Have there been any fatalities? How deadly is this disease?”

“None at this time,” Dr. McCoy said, “However, the resulting fevers are incredibly dangerous, and thus far have largely resisted efforts to reduce them to safer levels. All victims have quickly presented symptoms and fallen into comas within a short time of infection, and require careful monitoring. So, while we cannot yet provide an estimate on its lethality, we can say with confidence it should be considered medically significant to infected individuals, and is highly virulent ...”

###

Pierce watched the news conference unfold with a building fury. McCoy threatened the entire plan before it could even begin with nothing more than simple, up-front honesty.

The public Q&A soon ended, and the feed cut back to Melita Garner.

“There you have it: A biological attack has been made against mutants in Salem,” she said, “and it is now believed a second attack may be imminent in Mutant Town. Authorities also caution that further incidents may be possible in the larger New York area.

“Additionally, information has been released to both the press and local and federal law enforcement agencies on the attacks themselves.”

An inset image popped up on the news report, showing the grainy image of Stryker’s agent in Salem.

“Among the materials we’ve received is this security footage of the assailant who perpetrated the release of the virus in Salem Center. Authorities are requesting anyone with information as to his identity or his whereabouts to come forward, but to exercise extreme caution: This person of interest is believed to have connections to William Stryker’s Purifiers, which have been deemed a terrorist group by the Department of Homeland Security. He is to be considered armed and potentially dangerous.”

Pierced glanced at Sister Mary to gauge her response to Garner’s announcement, but her ravaged face gave away little of what she was thinking. She merely stared intently at the television.

“Furthermore, we have now confirmed that violent Human Supremacist Donald Pierce, who is wanted in connection with multiple attacks against and murders of mutants nation-wide, has been positively identified as a participant in a violent altercation in Salem yesterday, which resulted in damage to one local business, minor injuries to a number of bystanders, and severe injuries to at least four of the mutants targeted by the attack. Police have no information as to the identities of the four victims at this time, however they are reported to be in good condition following emergency medical treatment at the scene.”

The security footage was replaced by his own photo, and Pierce’s blood boiled. He seized the heavy metal table, his cybernetic hands buckling the rim under the force of his grip, and hurled it across the safe house. Everyone present scattered to avoid it when it slammed into a wall and crashed down again, scattering computers, monitors, papers, and other equipment everywhere.

“Mr. Pierce,” came a hesitant voice behind him.

Pierce spun around, seized the woman around the neck, and lifted her from the ground. “What?”

“Matthew Risman on the line,” she choked out against his iron grip tightening around her throat. “He’s asking for you immediately.”

He released her and let her fall. She remained where she landed on her hands and knees, choking and gasping for breath. Pierce stormed past her on his way to the communications terminal and dropped into the chair. Sister Mary accompanied him and hovered over his shoulder. Risman’s scarred visage peered back at him from the video feed.

“Pierce. Sister Mary,” Risman said, and the moment he saw Pierce’s expression he gave a short nod. “I assume you’ve just seen the news.”

“Yes, and this is a problem, to put it lightly,” Pierce replied.

“The Reverend agrees, unfortunately there's little more we can do about it beyond proceeding with our plans. Perhaps the planned incidents outside Mutant Town might still sway public opinion.

“However, the Reverend believes we may have to act sooner than anticipated. Can your team make the release in Mutant Town tonight?”

Mary frowned and leaned on the back of his chair. “Possibly,” she said. “However, we don’t have nearly the stockpile we had expected. This may reduce the effectiveness of the attack.”

“The Reverend believes we don’t have a choice and need to move now, before the authorities can make things more difficult.”

Pierce clenched his fists, but refrained from smashing the terminal. “All right, we’ll make the release tonight with what we have. I may not be able to supervise the release personally, my damn face is about to be all over the news.”

Risman nodded. “Understood. But let’s get it done. Sister Mary can assist your people with the release so long as you’re under scrutiny.”

And with that, he severed the connection. Pierce ran his hands back through his hair in frustration. Mary remained silent, watching him sit and stew for a few moments. Then he pushed away from the station and returned to the main room, where some of his men busied themselves putting it back in order. Yuriko, Skullbuster, Pretty Boy, and Cole all hovered nearby. Pierce snapped his fingers. “Yuriko,” he called.

She detached herself from the rest of the group and approached. A scowl twisted her features; she was little happier about the report than he was, though she had shown considerably more restraint.

“New orders from the Reverend,” he said when she reached him and Mary. “We make the release in Mutant Town tonight. With me having been identified I need to lay low and stay out of sight. I’m trusting you to supervise the release in my place with Sister Mary’s assistance.”

Yuriko nodded. “Very well, I’ll make sure it’s done.”

“Good. Get ready to move.”

###

With the end of the news conference everyone began to break up and return to their own rooms or diversions. Julian levered himself off the couch, and Laura slipped off it with him. She hugged herself tightly when she started away, and Julian noted from how she dodged through the crowd she was trying to slip away unnoticed to the dorms. He excused himself from Cessily and hurried after her.

“Laura,” he called, bringing her up short, and she turned to face him. The pain in her expression from earlier had gone, and her face returned to something resembling its normal color. However, something haunted the depths of her green eyes, and her features remained troubled. The rest of the student body filtered around them upon departing the lounge, giving them a space for the moment to talk.

He approached close enough they could do so without others around them hearing, and when he spoke, it was in a low voice.

“Are you okay?” he asked, and a bit of concern over her reaction to the broadcast leeched into his voice.

“Yes,” she said, but there was a subtle hitch in her voice that all but screamed he didn’t need her enhanced sense of smell to catch her in the lie.

“Look, we both know that’s not true. It has something to do with what Dr. Rao said, about that research paper by someone named ‘Kinney.’ Do you know them, or something?”

A subtle tremor worked through her body. She bowed her head, her shoulders slumped, and her breast heaved upon drawing a deep, steadying breath. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Julian sighed, and on a gamble stepped in closer and took one of her hands. Her whole body went rigid, and he felt the tension in her limbs when she fought the instinctual desire to jerk away from him. “You never do,” he said, fighting just as hard to keep the frustration from his voice, and only partially succeeding. “But something about that really bothered you. I just want to help.”

“Julian, please,” she said, louder than he would have liked. Her voice broke, though no one seemed to have taken notice. “Please, don’t ask me. I don’t ...” Laura swallowed hard while she scrambled to regain control of her failing composure. “I can’t talk about it. Just please, don’t ask.”

She slipped her hand from his and backed away. “The less you know the better it will be for everyone.”

And with that she turned and fled, and he could only watch her back retreating across the corridor.

Cessily drew up beside him, concern etched on her polished silver features. “What was that about?” she asked, laying a comforting hand on his shoulder when she noticed his own troubled expression.

“I don’t know, Cess,” he said, and reached up to lay his hand on hers. “What happened in Salem bothered her enough, but something in that press conference really got to her.”

“What was it?”

He sighed and hung his head. “I honestly don’t know.”

“It...uh...didn’t have anything to do with Dr. Rao, did it?”

Julian glanced over his shoulder at her. She eyed him closely, and he saw his own frown mirrored in her gleaming silver skin. “You caught that, too, huh?”

“I didn’t want to say anything, but ...”

“Yeah.” He sighed, and nodded glumly. “But she doesn’t want to talk about it.”

Cessily patted him on the shoulder. “You know how she gets when she’s upset about something, and that... Listen, just give her space, Julian, she’ll say something to us if she’s ready.”

“It’s just that more and more it seems like she never will be.”

“I know, but we can’t force it. I care about her, too, but I’m sure Jubilee would say the same thing.”

Any further discussion was cut off when Dr. Grey’s voice suddenly echoed through his head.

Surge, Hellion, Talon, Rockslide, Anole, Mercury, and Dust please report dressed out to the training room. Elixir, please report to the med bay.

“Ow!” Julian growled, nursing his head and glaring at the ceiling. “Do they really not know how much that hurts?”

“Come on,” Cessily said, “let’s go see what they want.”

###

Peter woke the next morning — or at least he thought it was the next morning. The haze and ubiquitous red glow of Limbo made guessing the hour impossible — to the pervasive stench of brimstone and sulfur. He found himself still slumped in a plush, comfortable armchair he had been watching over Illyana from after laying her to bed.

He rubbed his eyes at the memory of following S’ym through the blasted, fiery plains of Limbo, to a twisted fortress of black stone erected on a hill behind many ramparts and towers. Though beyond the walls the denizens of Limbo were mostly bestial in form and intelligence, all those he saw upon approaching the fortress were of human shape, armed with bladed implements of various sorts, and girded in armor of polished black metal.

He paid little attention when the giant demon led him through the massive iron doors of the central keep, through a dark hallway, and then finally up the steep spiraling staircase to the top of the highest tower, where a room had been prepared for his sister.

Now he allowed himself a moment to examine his surroundings more closely. In an odd juxtaposition of the twisted hellscape of Limbo, his sister’s private chamber was surprisingly cheery. The floors were of polished wood with a pale blue rug dominating much of it, and the walls were covered in white plaster. He could not tell from where it was illuminated, but a soft, warm, golden light filled the space. Dark wood columns supported the beams holding up the ceiling, and a large window in an elegant gilt frame looked out across the countryside. Behind a screen in one corner stood a luxurious alabaster bathing tub with gilt fittings. The remaining furniture — a dresser, wardrobe, vanity with elaborate mirror, a small, circular table surrounded by four chairs, and a night stand on each side of the massive, four-post bed — was all of wood, and of remarkable craftsmanship.

The mattress was soft, made up with large, fluffy pillows, and a bed set of pale gold satin. Stuffed animals of every possible description piled on top of it, surrounding Illyana resting nestled among them. Under other circumstances he might have found the sight comical, but now she lay with a cold compress over her eyes, and one pale arm cast across her face. Peter’s chair squeaked when he moved, and Illyana stirred in response.

“Piotr, is that you?” she called weakly, and Peter shot to his feet with his heart leaping into this throat.

“Yana! You’re awake!” he replied, while relief and elation flooded through him, each warring for prominence in his mind.

“Please, not so loud.” Illyana moaned pitiably, and pressed the cloth tighter to his eyes. “I have a ferocious headache, and the brimstone is already bad enough without you shouting and stomping about.”

Peter just shook his head in amusement and dropped onto the side of the bed. He took one of her hands in hers and brushed the bangs off her brow with the other. Illyana risked pulling her compress away and her blue eyes, and squinted up at him with strained patience. “I’m sorry, Snowflake. You had me so worried. You had all of us worried.”

“How long have I been asleep?”

He hesitated a moment and screwed up his features while he tried to count; he had been so focused on his vigil he had completely lost track of time. “Four, maybe five days.”

“Ugh, it feels like it,” she grumbled. “I’m starving, and as much as I love them, demons simply can’t cook.”

“I’m guessing there’s not many options for takeout in Limbo,” he replied.

“McDonald’s hasn’t franchised here, yet, though they’d be right at home in Hell. And I can’t open a portal right now, either, so you’re stuck here.”

“Are you okay?”

Illyana nodded weakly. “I’m just so tired, and it’s taking all my focus to heal. My magic is working, but it’s slow.”

Peter squeezed her hand. “Then rest, little Snowflake. I’ll be here.”

“Sitting up all night again?”

He laughed quietly, memories of past vigils flooding back to the surface. “All night.”

She managed a small smile, then shifted a bit to get more comfortable. Peter helped her place the compress over her eyes, and gave her a light peck on the brow. Illyana’s breathing slowed and she relaxed, soon falling back to sleep. He remained there on the edge of her bed for a short time more, then returned to his chair.

And for the first time since Illyana fell ill, he felt hope that things might actually be turning a corner.

###

Julian tugged at the neck of his uniform on his way out of the men’s locker room, and stepped into the training room. All the barriers and obstacles were down, leaving the floor empty from wall to wall.

Well, empty except for the tall figure of Magneto, dressed in a dark red, high-collared tunic and pants and glowering down upon them.

He joined the rest of the squad, slipping into an open spot next to Laura and Santo. She shrunk away from him, lowering her head self-consciously. The subtle hints of her distress in the lounge still played across her features, and he regretted now trying to press her on whatever was bothering her. Cessily caught his eye from the other side of the group for a moment with a sympathetic glance, before turning her attention back to the old mutant in front of them.

Santo stood awestruck, every school legend about the X-Men’s battles against Magneto in the decades before any of them were even born likely bouncing through the echo chamber between what passed for his ears. Victor just tried to keep from drawing attention to himself. Sooraya’s features were unreadable behind her niqab. Ashida hovered near the back, her expression even more crestfallen than Laura’s if that were possible, and hugging herself tightly with her gauntlets.

Once satisfied they were all gathered, Magneto took them in with a sweep of his cold, blue eyes.

“Well,” he said. “So this is what I have to work with. I will not insult your intelligence by dissembling how dire the situation you now face is. Some of you saw for yourselves yesterday how deadly your enemy can be. I have prevailed upon Jean Grey that in the absence of Cyclops and Colossus, I shall take over your training to prepare you for what is to come.”

Cessily uncertainly raised her hand. “Um... Mr. Magneto...uh...sir?” she asked hesitantly, “where is Colossus? He hasn’t gotten sick too, has he?”

“Colossus took Yana to Limbo,” Nori said quietly, and they all looked at one another uncertainly. “David told me a little while ago. Yana thinks she can use her control over it to fight off the virus.”

Cessily visibly shivered, her last trip through Limbo still an all-too-recent unpleasant memory.

“I suggest you put such concerns from your minds immediately,” Magneto said. “There is nothing any of you can do for her. Nor is there anything you can do for the others who have fallen ill. You have one responsibility: Your job is to protect this place in the event Stryker or the Reavers are encouraged by the school’s vulnerability to make another attack ...”

He trailed off, and looked over their heads just as Julian heard one of the entry doors open. Julian turned and was surprised to see Rahne dancing nervously just inside, dressed out in a sweatshirt and sweatpants. How’d she get down here, anyway? Crap...Foley must have let her in.

“Rahne?” Ashida said in astonishment, finding her voice first. “What are you doing here?”

“A...A want t’ help,” she said anxiously while looking uncertainly at Magneto. “A ken A’m a good ways behind ye all, but A cannae just sit around doin’ nothin’ while ye’re puttin’ yerselves on the line fer us.”

Julian twisted his lip. “This isn’t a game, Lassie,” he said, ignoring Rahne’s indignant scowl. “You were almost killed yesterday.”

“Yer right, A was. But that’s also why A ken ye could use the extra help. And dinnae call me ‘Lassie,’ Julian Keller. A have a name of my own.”

Santo lifted the ridge of rock that served him for one eyebrow. “Ooooh, what is it?”

“Ye can call me Wolfsbane.” She blushed and scratched the back of her neck awkwardly. “Josh thought it sounded suitably X-Man-y, though A dinnae ken how well it fits.”

“As much as I hate to admit it, Keller’s right,” Ashida said. “This isn’t a game. This is very real and very dangerous. I already nearly got you killed once, I don’t want to put you in that spot again.”

“A can make my own decisions, Nori,” Rahne shot back. “The Professor said A wasnae trained fer it? Well, train me then! Laura even said A could learn from what happened. As A said t’ ye yesterday, these are my friends, too, an’ A want t’ do somethin’ t’ help.”

“Rahne—”

“Enough!” Magneto snapped, cutting off the argument. A small smile that sent a shiver down Julian’s spine crept across his angular features. “Wolfsbane, is it? Take your place with the others. If this is truly what you want, we’ll see just how prepared you really are.”

###

Act IV

###

Josh entered the med bay to find Dr. Grey and David waiting for him. David fidgeted anxiously, but Dr. Grey exuded calm, and it washed over him when he stepped through the door. Nonetheless, her expression was serious in a way that still put him on edge.

“You wanted to see me?” he asked.

Dr. Grey nodded. “Yes, Josh. With Hank, Dr. Bradley, and Dr. Rao busy at Mount Sinai, David and I have been working on preparing to test the serum on another of our patients. We’re ready to begin, but I wanted you to be here.”

“We’ve run the last tests we could with the blood samples we drew, and that’s about as far as we can get without an actual subject,” David said.

He considered that for a moment, then nodded. “What do you need me to do?”

Dr. Grey took a steadying breath, and that moment of hesitation made Josh’s finer hairs stand on end. “In the interests of matters of consent, we will be making the test on Scott since I have that authority, and he was the second to come down infected so is the furthest along of the other patients.”

Josh felt icy fingers wrap around his heart at the weight of Dr. Grey’s decision. “Has Mr. Summers started to come out of his coma?”

She shook her head. “No. I’m not even sure why Illyana did. However, we’ve never been able to fully establish how her connection to Limbo influences her. It’s possible that even if her magic isn’t as powerful outside, that she may still have been subconsciously drawing on it and this helped fight back against the virus.”

Dr. Grey sighed, and lowered her gaze to the floor for a moment in a manner that which of his hackles weren’t raised already now stood straight up on end. “I will be honest, though: Scott’s condition is deteriorating rapidly. In fact, many of the others are, as well. I’m afraid we’re starting to run out of time.

“Right now, Hank is still operating under the assumption that suppressing the X-gene will force the virus to go dormant, but we don’t really know for sure what will happen in an actual patient. If this goes wrong, I need you there to do what you can to stabilize his condition. Can you do this?”

Josh swallowed. The faces of Mark and Laurie flashed through his mind unbidden, and he found himself once again watching the life inexorably drain from them while he desperately willed their bodies back together.

Ye saved my life. Ye saved Julian’s life. Rahne’s voice smashed through the memory, shattering it into fragments, and he saw her green eyes flutter open when her throat knitted back together. He had failed once before, but he didn’t the next time it mattered.

Josh nodded. “Yes, I can,” he said, and steeled himself for what came next.

###

It was all going horribly, horribly wrong.

Magneto had given her one command: “Attack me.” And Nori watched in growing horror while the situation deteriorated and everything fell apart. Again.

She had no plan of attack. Her mind blanked. She had nothing. No creative spark. No real insight. No single inkling of what she was supposed to do. The only thing that managed to slip out was to surround him and hit him all at once, hoping that simple numbers could do the rest.

Of course, that was incredibly stupid.

Santo rushed in with a roar, his stupid rocky features in his “wrestling face” when he brought both fists down where Magneto’s head ought to be, only to be cheated by a barrier of energy the old mutant almost offhandedly put up between them with a simple clench of his fist. None of their uniforms had metal, (thank God for plastic zippers) but not like that did them much good. Sooraya discorporated and blasted across the training room, but unlike Colossus’s armored form, Magneto was still flesh and blood, and she balked at unleashing the most horrific use of her powers against him. Even then, Nori doubted it would have made a difference. With Santo’s attack deflected, a simple shift of the barrier and her sand form splattered uselessly against it, like water splashing against a pane of glass.

While Sooraya reconstituted herself, Cessily tried to take advantage of the opening and trap his hands, flinging her arm out like a whip to wrap it around his wrists. She quickly learned how foolish even considering such an action was. Magneto simply seized her with his power, and she cried out in panic when her body was forcibly flattened, stretched, (practically shredding her costume in the process) and thrown around Sooraya, trapping her in a sealed ball of Cessily.

“Ashida!” Keller called once Magneto turned his attention to him. “Do you want to jump in here?”

Nori froze, her mind still blank. Nothing was coming.

“Ashida!”

“I ...”

“Jesus Christ, Ashida! Fry him, pretend he’s me and piss him off, don’t just stand there, damn it!”

In a movement born of panic more than planning, Nori snapped her hands up and unleashed a barrage of concentrated electricity.

It was probably about as stupid as Cessily trying to attack the Master of Magnetism head-on.

Magneto casually deflected her blast into the floor with a wave of his hand, and then yanked her gauntleted hands to aim them straight at Keller before she could cut off the flow of power.

It was only the black shadow of Laura darting in from the side to throw Keller out of the way that saved him from a blast straight to the chest that could have stopped his heart. Laura was less fortunate, and shrieked in agony while blue-white fingers of electricity speared through her. Nori managed to stop the blast, but her hands were jerked upward before Magneto off-handedly tossed her across the floor. She landed hard on her shoulder and skidded a dozen feet before finally coming to a stop.

Santo struck again. Nori cleared her head from her fall, and watched him uselessly bring his fists down again and again on Magneto’s shield. The old mutant simply tore one of the polished metal floor tiles up, and smashed it through his body, demolishing his legs. The big rocky mutant crumbled into rubble at the force of the blow with a whiny “Oooow!”

“Surge!” Magneto called, while Keller struck him with a concentrated TK blast he nonchalantly batted aside. “You are meant to lead this team. Lead them!”

“Ashidaaaaa!” Keller cried.

Magneto retrieved the floor panel, ripping it into fragments that swirled around him before launching them straight at Keller. Keller managed to put a shield up in time to deflect the barrage, before launching himself into the air. The elder mutant smiled in amusement at the change in battleground, and casually levitated himself after him.

“Oh for ...”

Nori’s heart raced while she unsteadily regained her feet, and her hands began to shake in her gauntlets. Keller seized several loose pieces of Santo with his powers while the rocky mutant tried to reconstruct himself.

“Hey, I need those!” Santo complained.

Keller didn’t respond. Instead, he surrounded Magneto in a ring of orbiting debris. He flung every stone inward at once, peppering Magneto’s shields. Except for one the old mutant simply slipped to the side to avoid, and allowed to continue on its trajectory right into Keller’s forehead.

Fortunately, Keller’s head proved harder than the rock, but the blow disrupted his hold on his powers. He plummeted back to the floor and landed hard on his shoulder with a grunt.

By now Laura was regaining her feet, but Magneto gave her no time to act. Victor’s tongue shot out and seized tightly around his ankle in an attempt to drag him down, and Magneto simply grabbed Laura by her adamantium claws and hurled her with sickening force straight into him. Laura and Victor both went down in a tangle of limbs, and a sickening, wet snap split the air. One of Laura’s legs was now bent in a direction it was very clearly not meant to go.

Sooraya cried for help from within the ball of Cessily. Santo was still reassembling himself. Keller lay dazed on the floor, and neither Laura nor Victor moved.

Only she and Rahne remained standing.

“Your team is dying, Surge!” Magneto growled. A cold sweat washed over her, and her fingers went numb. “You’re supposed to be leading them. What are you going to do?”

“Nori?” Rahne asked, uncertainly.

“I... I don’t ...” Nori choked on her words against the tightness gripping her chest, and she struggled to draw breath.

“Surge! Lead your team!”

“I... I can’t!” she gasped. And she did the only thing she could think to do.

She ran.

###

David was nearly finished helping Dr. Grey secure the gloves on her containment suit when the doors to the med bay were flung open, and Nori stumbled inside. She clutched her chest with one hand, her eyes were wide as saucers, and her breath came in heaving, ragged gasps.

“Nori!” he cried. He dropped the glove in his hand and rushed to her side just as she collapsed into him. David’s heart climbed up into his throat when he caught her in his arms and gently lowered her to the floor. Her whole body shook, and sweat beaded on her brow. “Come on, please not you ...”

David laid a hand on her brow and sighed in relief when he found her temperature normal.

“I can’t... I can’t breathe,” she choked out between desperate breaths.

Dr. Grey was quickly beside him. Josh hung back, shifting anxiously and uncertain how to respond. “Nori,” she called, her voice never rising above a calm, assured tone. “Nori, listen to me, it’s okay. Here, place your hand here ...” She picked up one of Nori’s gauntleted hands and laid it between her navel and ribs. “Now, breathe with me.”

She took a slow breath through her nose and let it out through her mouth. “Just like that, can you do that for me?”

Nori struggled at first, madly gulping for air, but slowly her breathing changed as Dr. Grey directed.

“Good, very good,” she said. “Do you need anything? Can I get you some water?”

She nodded, and Dr. Grey looked over her shoulder at Josh.

“There’s some bottles of water in the supply cabinet, could you get one for me, please?”

“Yes, Dr. Grey,” Josh said, and hurried to do as she asked.

“You’re doing great, Nori. That’s it, keep breathing just like that, and listen to my voice, stay with me.”

“Dr. Grey ...” David started, but she silenced him with a raised finger. So instead, he just held Nori close and ran his hands through her hair.

Josh returned with a bottle of water, and Dr. Grey twisted off the top before handing it to Nori. She tried to swallow it all in one gulp, but Dr. Grey gently pulled the bottle from her lips.

“Easy, Nori. Nice and slow. Small sips, okay?”

“Okay,” Nori said weakly. Slowly she calmed again, and her breathing normalized.

“David, why don’t you take Nori to the recovery area so she can lie down for a bit. Josh and I are ready to start, but I think we can manage for now if you’d like to stay with her.”

“Yes, Doctor,” he said. “Come on, baby, are you okay to stand?”

Nori nodded. “I think so,” she said. Though she was slowly returning to normal, her voice nonetheless remained weak and uneven.

David helped her back to her feet and walked her through the observation gallery, past the airlock to the quarantine bay, (he kept himself between her and the windows, so she could not see past him to Dani and the others lying beyond) and through the doors to the recovery room. He eased her down onto one of the beds and sat beside her while she finished her water.

Nori slumped against him and leaned her head against his shoulder. He hugged her close.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked, and felt more than saw her shake her head.

“I think I just want to lie down for a bit,” she replied around the last sip from the bottle.

“Okay,” he said.

Nori slowly lowered herself onto her side and curled herself into a little ball with her back to him. David was about to get up, when one of her gauntleted hands reached out and took him by the wrist.

“Lay with me, please.” The uncharacteristically pitiable tremor in her voice made his heart try to climb the rest of the way out of his throat and run screaming for the nearest exit.

Without a word he settled in behind her and wrapped his arms around her, and for a time he held her while she quietly began to sob.

###

Josh helped Dr. Grey finish with her suit and load the serum in the syringe pistol. At times he uselessly glanced towards the door to the recovery bay, unable to see it with his mask cutting off his peripheral vision.

“Is she going to be okay?” he asked.

Dr. Grey sighed. “For now. Fortunately, it was just a panic attack.”

Josh frowned. “A panic attack from Nori?”

“This isn’t something for us to discuss right now,” she admonished. “Focus with me, now. Are you ready?”

Josh nodded, though he doubted Dr. Grey would see it through his mask. “Yeah,” he said, trying to inject as much confidence into his voice as he could.

She picked up the syringe pistol and made her way to the airlock. Josh followed and keyed in the opening sequence, then they both stepped into the airlock together. They didn’t speak while it cycled, and the inner door finally opened to admit them.

Dr. Grey led them along the rows of beds, and Josh mulled over each name as they passed them. Barnell. Dani. Sidney. Alani. Melody. Fabio. Megan. Professor Xavier. Cyclops. Josh fidgeted, not quite sure what to do with his hands while he waited. Dr. Grey set the syringe down on a nearby tray, and prepared Mr. Summers for the injection. A rubber tie was wrapped around his bared arm, and she swabbed his skin with disinfectant.

“Ready?” she asked.

“Yes, Dr. Grey,” he replied, and approached the other side of the bed.

Dr. Grey removed the tip cover from the syringe, found the vein she wanted on the inside of his elbow, and inserted the needle. She pulled the trigger, and with a sharp click the serum was injected. Then, with the help of her powers she wrapped a piece of gauze in place, withdrew the needle, and removed the rubber tie from his arm.

“Do we know how long before we see any difference?” he asked.

“Unfortunately, no. The serum itself takes effect immediately, but Hank wasn’t able to give me an estimate how long it may take for the virus to go dormant, or even when we might expect to see any change in his symptoms.”

Josh watched Mr. Summers, but there was no sign of any alteration of his heart rate, breathing, or any of the other monitors. He sighed in frustration.

“Are you all right to remain here and watch him on your own?” Dr. Grey asked. “I’d like to check in on Nori, but will be back in the observation gallery shortly.”

“I think so,” he said. “I’ll call you if there’s any change.”

“Thank you.” Dr. Grey laid her hand on Mr. Summers’s, and Josh ducked his head in embarrassment when she leaned down and touched her brow to his (anything more than that was precluded by the containment suit’s mask). “I’ll be right outside, Scott.”

She then turned away, and Josh turned slightly to watch her leave. He couldn’t quite be sure because of how the baggy suit broke up her figure, but it seemed to him as if her shoulders slumped and her head bowed when she walked away.

###

Night hung over Manhattan, lit brilliantly by millions of street lights and glowing signs. The air was alive with the sounds of traffic elsewhere in the city, dogs barked, and everywhere there were signs of human activity. However, this part of Mutant Town, fronted by apartment complexes between Avenues B and C, was relatively quiet. A few cars were parked along the street, but the residents had either shut themselves away from the night or were out enjoying it. Many had likely not yet seen the news report from earlier, and were unaware of reckoning to come.

Yuriko stepped from the nondescript van their men had secured for the operation, spreading her fingers wide so the blades would not clatter together. The mechanisms of her cybernetics whirred softly with each movement, but would be audible as little more than a quiet whisper to those near her. The rest of her men — mundane foot soldiers whose most advanced equipment were their rifles and body armor — piled out of the vehicle as well. Stryker’s woman, who had spent the ride silently trying not to stare, joined her on the sidewalk. Storage tanks were removed from the back, perhaps a dozen altogether and not even half of the number they were expecting.

Yuriko might have preferred to release at multiple points around Mutant Town, but with their limited supply she doubted they would have enough saturation, so a single block would have to do.

One of the technicians checked each tank before making a note on a tablet. The dispersal system consisted of nothing more than a simple valve with a manual pump and a threaded aerosol nozzle. This might slow the delivery of the package, but a mechanical pump would be too loud and draw too much attention.

“Are the containers ready?” Yuriko asked, once the technician reached the final tank.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “Full pressure on all the tanks, so no leaks. The best dispersal method would be to feed it into the HVAC intakes.”

She nodded. “Brief the teams and begin distributing the tanks.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Yuriko folded her hands behind her back, taking care not to let her blades clack together. Stryker’s woman folded her arms across her chest, casually checking her watch, and the lips on her ravaged face twisted into a scowl. The dispersal teams gathered around the technician while he hastily issued instructions, and one by one they retrieved their tank and headed to their assigned buildings. Yuriko allowed a tight smile to spread across her features.

So far, everything was going to plan.

###

Jean stepped out of the med bay and into the hall outside, turning down the passage leading to the briefing room. She forced an air of patient calm onto her features, but beneath it her temper boiled.

She reached the door and stormed inside. The remainder of Nori’s squad were scattered about on the benches. Julian lay on one, with Cessily — wrapped in a robe over her tattered training uniform — helping him hold an ice pack to his head, and Laura hovering anxiously over them both. Santo had a bucket full of gravel slowly reassembling itself into some part of his body, and Sooraya sat with Victor, both with their heads bowed. She was surprised to find Rahne Sinclair there, as well, nursing a nasty bruise on her cheek.

Erik stood on the floor below scowling up at them. Jean clenched her jaw until she thought her back teeth might explode.

“Kids, out,” she ordered.

They all looked up at her in surprise.

“Dr. Grey?” Cessily asked, finding her voice first.

“You heard me: All of you out, now. Go ahead and hit the showers, and grab something to eat.”

It took a few moments for them to comply. Cessily helped Julian out, ice pack still over his head, while Laura trailed behind them. Rahne shrunk into herself on her way past, her mind alive with thoughts of seeking out Josh and fear she was in trouble. Sooraya and Victor hurried after, with Santo the last to depart, still carrying a bucket of himself with him. When the door shut behind them Jean glared down at Erik.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked.

“Precisely what you agreed to: Teaching,” Erik replied.

“What you were doing wasn’t teaching. What I saw from Nori was an outright beating. Laura and Victor can heal, but the others can’t. These are still children.”

Erik smiled, and he laughed that infuriatingly smug laugh of his. “My dear Dr. Grey, is that Charles’s sanctimonious hypocrisy I hear? As I recall, you were no older than they are now when Charles first reformed the X-Men.”

“Do you really not understand that you could have killed them?”

His smile twisted into a scowl. “The enemy they’re facing will have no compunctions against doing just that. Surge tells me they very nearly succeeded yesterday. If you continue to fuss over them like an overprotective mother, they will never be prepared for this sort of fight.”

Jean threw her arms wide in exasperation. “You gave Nori a panic attack! They weren’t ready for you to cut loose on them.”

“Oh, I assure you, I was very much holding back. I could have very easily killed most of them with young Ms. Kinney alone. And oh, what I could have done with Cessily Kincaid if I really wished to.”

Erik started forward up the amphitheater steps towards her, his cold blue eyes boring into hers.

“As for Surge, Cyclops assigned her as team leader. If she cannot lead the team in a crisis, she will only get them killed.”

“She already blames herself for what happened in Salem yesterday and is taking it very hard. I can feel that her confidence has been shattered, and you think pushing her like this is supposed to get her head back into it?”

“The Reavers are not the Purifiers, Jean. Stryker’s congregation are nothing more than a clan of Neanderthals whipped into religious furor. It is nothing I have not lived through before. What Surge described of her encounter with the Reavers horrified even me in a way I’ve not felt since I learned of Trask’s Sentinels forty years ago.

“Surge must accept that no matter how well she plans, or how hard she tries, at some point she will lose a battle. Better she learn that lesson in here with me, than relying on the mercy of a man like Donald Pierce. Were Cyclops able to, he would be the first to tell her that a leader can’t stop to second-guess themselves if they fail. If she can’t commit to picking herself up after a fall, then she never should have been leading these children of yours in the first place.”

He brushed past her without sparing her a second glance, his hands folded neatly behind his back. “Now, if you wish to continue coddling them, that is your decision. But do be sure to have ten more holes dug in your memorial garden for when the inevitable befalls.”

###

“Guys I think I’m missing some pieces,” Santo whined.

It was already fairly late in the evening when Dr. Grey dismissed them, and the first floor was deserted by the time they cleaned up and returned to the inhabited levels of the school. There was nothing else for dinner but some leftovers. Not that Cessily needed the sustenance, but after the drubbing they just took she was desperately in need of something nominally fattening. Fortunately, there was still a carton of ice cream left in the freezer. I suppose that’s one advantage of this body: I can eat whatever I want and not have to worry about it.

She, Julian, and Laura were in their usual places on the couch, with Victor and Santo slumping in the chairs to watch a rerun of Futurama someone left on the TV. Sooraya had already gone up to bed, and Rahne vanished as soon as Dr. Grey dismissed them. There had been no sign of Nori after she bolted from the fight once Julian had gone down.

“Santo, I swear I’m really not in the mood for any more of your complaining today,” she said, and mopped her face. “Or the rest of the week.”

“But I feel like I’m an inch shorter!”

“Are we sure Julian didn’t use the rocks that make up his brain to attack Magneto?” Victor asked around a mouthful of leftover spaghetti.

“The one was certainly hard enough,” Julian grumbled. “I can’t tell you how much my head is killing me right now.”

“Next time don’t block with your forehead.”

He glowered at him. “I didn’t exactly plan that, you know. And where the hell was Ashida? She was just standing there not doing anything until she took off.”

“Ease up, Julian,” Cessily said, and scooped up another bite of Double Fudge Brownie. “Nori hasn’t been right since you guys got back yesterday.”

“She’s supposed to be the leader, but she wasn’t doing much leading. We got our asses kicked.”

“We were not expected or even supposed to win,” Laura said, matter-of-factly. She pulled some of the crispy off the cold piece of fried chicken she had been working on and popped it in her mouth. Her distress from the press conference had faded after the distraction of the training session, and Cessily marveled at how something that so deeply upset her could disappear as if flipping a switch. “Magneto was holding back. Had this been an actual fight we would have been dead.”

“Thanks, Laura, I’d almost gotten my confidence back after yesterday.”

“It is dubious even had Noriko participated that we could have defeated him,” she continued, picking off another bit of chicken crispy and munching it in child-like fashion. “She, Cessily, and I are poor choices to engage Magneto in a direct confrontation. Cessily and I are merely weapons for him to use, and in addition to being able to manipulate Noriko’s gauntlets, his control over the electromagnetic spectrum would likely render her powers useless. This would deprive our team of much of its fighting strength.”

Julian rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I’m sure we figured that out already without the tactical analysis, but didn’t you say earlier today you could kill him?”

“Yes. But with preparation and while avoiding a direct confrontation.”

“Don’t forget the being naked part!” Santo said, that big stupid grin plastered on his rocky features.

Julian’s face heated noticeably at that remark, and Cessily narrowed her eyes at his uncharacteristic show of discomfiture. Laura did not react at all, and just continued pulling off and nomming bits of crispy, until her chicken was down to the meat underneath.

“That was a joke, Santo,” Julian groaned.

“Yeah, but it’s still hot.”

“Oh my God, will you shut up?” Cessily asked. She was tempted to flick a glob of ice cream at him before thinking better of it. It’d be a sacrilegious waste of perfectly good ice cream. “She’s literally sitting right there, you pig.”

“What? It’s a compliment because she is. Julian agrees with me.”

“Next time we fly in the Blackbird can you just eject him when we get over water?” Victor asked with an aside glance at Julian.

“Don’t tempt me,” Julian said through gritted teeth, his face turning an even brighter shade of red. Ok, something’s up with him tonight. Usually he just brushes the big rock pile’s stupidity off.

“I am not hot,” Laura said flatly and, it seemed to Cessily, more than a little self-consciously.

“Oh God dammit, now you’re dragging me into it,” she grumbled in response. It called for another big bite of ice cream. “You totes are. I’m actually insanely jealous.”

“Come on, Cess,” Julian said, “You’re gorgeous.”

“Yeah, see, there’s not a lot of guys lining up outside my door. But every time we go to Salem there’s totally someone checking Laura out.”

“But I am not hot,” Laura repeated, helplessly.

“Yeah, you are,” Victor acknowledged after slurping a spaghetti noodle into his mouth, and now it was Laura’s turn to blush awkwardly.

“Wait, is Victor allowed to say that?” Santo asked, scratching his head. “Would he even know?”

“Shut up, Santo.”

“What? I like, wouldn’t know if another dude was hot, and if I looked it might give the wrong impression.”

Julian let out an exasperated groan. “That’s it, I’m going to find some aspirin and go to bed. My head can’t take Santo trying to sound clever. Good night!”

And with that, he levered himself off the couch and started off towards the dorms. Cessily was aware of Laura watching him go with an odd, thoughtful expression while she finished her chicken, before she, too, got up without a word and took off after him, discarding her chicken bones in a nearby trash can on her way.

“Way to kill the room, Santo,” Victor said.

“What’d I say?” Santo replied, and scratched his rocky head in confusion.

###

Jean sighed heavily inside the mask of her containment suit, and brushed Scott’s hair back from his face. So far there had been no change in his condition, but more than anything she just needed to get away from Erik after his final parting words in the briefing amphitheater left her wanting to put him through a wall.

“Scott, I could really use your help right now,” she said. “Everything’s falling apart here. Erik is being Erik, Nori is barely holding together after the fight in Salem yesterday, Julian is at Josh’s throat over it, I can feel everyone tipping nearer to the breaking point each time someone else comes down sick. I’m trying to hold them all together the best I can but ...”

She took his hand in hers and bowed her head. “The Professor is down, too, so I can’t even turn to him. What do I do to keep everyone going, when I’m fighting to myself?”

Jean closed her eyes tight, and remained seated by Scott’s bedside. Cold air rushed through the air conditioners, pumps and respirators cycled, and monitors beeped. Everything else around her remained still, and she soon lost track of time. The fear of the remaining student body had become so thick and pervasive since the press conference and Nori’s panic attack she had largely shut down her telepathy to shield herself from the hurricane of anxiety, leaving her cut off and alone among the sick. Only David and Josh remained nearby; David still sitting with Nori in the recovery bay, Josh back at his post in the observation gallery.

It was all becoming too much, and yet there was still no end in sight.

“Jean?”

The voice was quiet, and at first she wasn’t certain whether she actually even heard it, muffled as it was through the helmet of her containment suit.

“Jean?” the voice repeated, stronger now, but still very quiet, hoarse, weak, and barely above a whisper.

Jean opened her eyes, and her heart lept up into her throat. Scott’s hand tightened around hers. His grip was very weak, but perceptible even through her gloves.

“Scott?” she called, fighting to keep her voice even. “Scott, I’m here. Are you with me?”

“Wh-where am I? I can’t see.”

“Scott, you’re in quarantine. We had to take your visor. Do you remember? You were attacked in Salem.”

“Salem...? Jean, are you there?”

Jean took his hand in both of hers, now, and pulled it close to her breast. She wished she could tear her helmet off right there, but dared not expose herself. “I’m here, Scott! I’m here.”

She released the block on her powers and reached out to him with her thoughts, brushing his mind with hers in reassurance. This was not like Illyana; her consciousness was unstable, ephemeral, drifting in and out of awareness. But though his thoughts were still erratic and disorganized from fever, she felt Scott’s presence in her mind strengthening. She glanced at the monitors. His pulse and respiration both showed signs of improvement, and his fever was down almost a full degree.

“I’m here, Scott. Just stay with me, and we’ll get through this.”

And for the first time since Scott was struck, Jean dared to actually hope that it was true.

###

Peter stirred in his chair and blinked his eyes open. He was not sure what time it was, now, but from the ache in his back and neck he suspected some time had passed. I must have fallen asleep again. He stretched and looked to the bed, and to his horror realized that his sister was no longer in it.

He leapt from his seat in a panic. Before he could call out a door nearby creaked open, and two demons, garbed as servants, entered bearing a tray. They bowed low upon placing them on the table, and then withdrew again.

“Wait!” he called. “What’s happened to Illyana? Where is she?”

One of the servants paused, turned, and bowed respectfully. It clutched its taloned hands together as if in supplication.

“Forgive us, but the Mistress has already broken her fast,” the demon said, its voice somehow managing to be both ominous and stuffily polite at the same time. “She bids you eat, and you may enjoy the art gallery downstairs. She will summon you when she is ready.”

“Summon me?” Peter replied.

The demon nodded. “Yes, sire. The Mistress has other matters requiring her attention. But she asks that you not worry, and enjoy the repast.”

With that, it bowed again and followed its companion out the door. The latch clicked, though there was no sound of a lock or bolt, and he was left alone.

Peter sighed. What on Earth is Illyana playing at? She’s sick and ought to be in bed!

He reluctantly turned towards the table and dropped onto one of the chairs — despite the spindly and delicate craftsmanship it didn’t so much as squeak under his weight — and considered the trays in front of him. Both were of finely crafted silver of an opulence he had not even seen at the most high-class formal dinners at the school. He removed the lid of one of the trays and laughed in spite of himself at the aroma of hot kasha, and his mouth watered when he realized it smelled much like his memories of their mother’s cooking. With it was a platter of Syrniki topped by fruit and sour cream, and two stacks of Blini; one topped with sour cream and red caviar, the other with strawberry jam and fresh sliced strawberries.

He lifted the lid of the other tray, and there was a bowl of fresh Tvorog with blueberries and strawberries, and a platter of Doktorskaya, smoked sausage, cheese, and black bread with butter for making buterbrody. Last, and certainly not least, there were cookies and tea for after the meal.

Peter shook his head in amusement at the extravagance of the breakfast, and idly wondered how much power Illyana expended for simple hospitality.

With little else to do for the moment, and his stomach growling over the fragrant melding of aromas, he dug in. Almost immediately, his mind was transported many years to the past, to the little farm on the shores of Lake Baikal. Everything tasted exactly as he remembered from his childhood, and Peter wondered whether that was some artifact of Illyana using her magic.

He took his time savoring the meal and allowing the memories they conjured of home to carry him away, but soon everything was finished, and he grew anxious to see Illyana and make sure she wasn’t pushing herself too hard. So, remembering the suggestion of the servant, he pushed himself away from the table and made his way for the door.

It opened out onto a landing illuminated by lamps of gold and crystal, with a stairwell spiraling down. With nowhere else to go he followed this. There were no other chambers or stops all the way down, which he estimated to be the height of a modest New York high rise. Well, it was a big breakfast, so at least I’m working it off. Eventually, he reached the bottom and found himself in the northeast corner of a large antechamber. In the center of the long southern wall was a passage leading to the main entrance and grounds. Across this to the north, an elaborate set of double doors flanked by guards in ceremonial armor barred access to what he suspected was the great hall. There were other doorways to the east and west, though he could not guess what lay behind them. Tucked away between the stairwell to the tower and the doors to the great hall was another open passage, through which drifted the Promenade theme of Pictures at an Exhibition.

Curious, he followed the music and shortly found himself in what he assumed was the gallery. Like Illyana’s room it was a chamber of luxurious embellishment; fine, polished dark wood, marble floors, and lit by more gold and crystal lamps. There was no indication exactly where the music originated. Another magical conjuration, I suspect. Statuary and sculpture of marble and stone dominated the center of the floor, ranging in styles from modern (one even appeared to have been the work of the missing Kevin Ford) to classical Greek. The surrounding space was divided into several open halls, and Peter noted that each hall was dedicated to a particular artist or stylistic school.

A survey revealed an astonishing collection of historical and modern paintings, and it seemed no matter how deeply into the gallery he ventured, there was another hall, and another, as if the dimensions of the room held no meaning. Some were pieces lost to time, theft, or war, and which Peter recognized only from descriptions in books and scholarly works, or the rare photo or facsimile. Others were famous compositions from the Louvre, the Met, the British Museum, and the National Gallery, among many other prestigious institutions. Warhol, Da Vinci, Hokusai, Caravaggio, Picasso, Dali, Zhaodao, and many more from across the world from antiquity to the 21^st Century, all neatly hung from the walls of their respective niches. Peter thought he could spend a lifetime studying and cataloguing the full extent of the collection, yet barely scratch the surface.

However, he soon reached what appeared to be the place of honor of the collection; opposite the main doors, and positioned so that one would naturally find their way to it as they browsed the other alcoves. A marble archway served as a portal admitting access within, and when Peter stepped inside a lump rose in his throat.

Every single piece was his work.

Some were very old; forgotten exercises of his childhood. Many of them were little drawings, sketches, and watercolors he made for Illyana when she was still very young, before her powers manifested and she came to Xavier’s. Others were more recent; works he had painted for Kitty, or gifted to the Professor to display in the school. Some he had never shown to anyone, and he marveled at the completeness of the collection. His face heated in embarrassment at his modest work being held in esteem even above the Great Masters, yet it was all carefully arranged, so each piece could be displayed in its best light and context.

“The Mistress thinks very highly of your talents,” came a hissing, rattling voice behind him. Peter spun around, and found S’ym standing over him, his taloned hands clasped at his back while he regarded the collection. “She insisted that it be displayed in a place of honor. Though I myself am quite fond of Caravaggio.”

Peter stared at the giant demon in surprise, not least because he never imagined such a creature appreciating the arts.

“I’d never have considered my work worthy of being displayed in the same hall as the Great Masters,” he replied, “much less with this much reverence.”

The demon grunted. “It must be a human trait. But come, this is not the time to discuss art, the Mistress is ready to see you.”

Without waiting for him to respond, S’ym turned and stalked away, and Peter hurried to follow.

###

Julian made his way up the stairs to the dorms, passing Jubilee going the other way. Her features were worn and haggard, and she pinched the bridge of her nose. It seemed she took no notice of him, and didn’t so much as say “good evening.”

She looks like she just took a rock to the head, too. This whole lockdown thing must be getting to her.

He crossed the central corridor of the dorm level, heading for the short hall ending at his and Santo’s door. Just before he reached it a voice behind him brought him up short.

“Julian!” Laura called, and he turned to find her following him at a brisk pace.

“Hey,” he said, when she reached him. “I’m sorry to take off on you guys like that, but I’ve really got a ferocious headache right now. I just want to bury my face in a pillow and not wake up for about a week.”

Her lips twitched into a small, concerned frown. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah, fortunately, Mom always said I had a hard head. It’s not the bug, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Okay.”

“Y’know, I never thought to ask whether you’re even at risk of getting sick or not. I mean, if any of us had a break like Magneto gave you, or if Ashida had lit me up like that, we’d have been laid up for weeks.”

Laura considered for a moment. “Theoretically, my healing factor ought to render me immune to all known diseases barring unusual circumstances. But if this deliberately targets the X-gene as Dr. McCoy says, that would suggest it attacks my mutation directly, in which case I may be as susceptible as anyone else.

“The only individuals I can reasonably assume are immune are those whose mutations would prevent transmission altogether due to lack of any actual remaining human biology, such as Santo, or perhaps Cessily.”

“Right ...” Julian said, his head pounding a bit too much to really process Laura’s penchant for detail at the moment. He sighed and leaned against the frame around his door. “Listen, is it okay if we talk tomorrow? I’m not trying to ditch you or anything, but my head is splitting open, and you know how Santo snores: Loudly.”

“Okay,” she said, but hesitated for a moment. Julian watched her features screw up in contemplation. “May I ask you a question, first?”

He shrugged and wearily scratched the back of his neck. “Shoot.”

Laura’s posture shifted suddenly into something adorably uncharacteristically awkward. She hugged one arm self-consciously, and shrugged her shoulders as if trying to shrink down into herself (an effect lost with her bare shoulders, and not having her oversized jacket to hide in). A hint of color splashed across her cheeks. “Am...am I actually...hot?”

Julian’s own composure broke down at the forthright pointedness of the question. There was no hint of her teasing smile, only an awkward, uncertain earnestness in her expression. As accustomed as he had become to her bluntness, (which was strangely endearing in its own socially awkward way) that one caught him off guard, and for a moment he could only stare at her with his mouth agape while his brain rebooted.

“Um ...” was the only thing he managed to say before the connection between brain and mouth reestablished themselves. He tried to keep his eyes respectfully on hers, and blushed fiercely when they instead decided to wander off exploring of their own volition. Mercifully, they did not truly linger anywhere he would be mortified to be called out on, but he stole more than a passing glance at her cleavage and the way her locket nestled just at the top of it, her legs, and all the little curves and contours of her neck and shoulders and... “I...uh ...”

Her eyes, dumbass! Look at her eyes.

Laura’s cheeks now colored fiercely, as well, whether self-consciously at the scrutiny, embarrassment over the question, or hurt at his failure to respond. She tried to shrink even further into herself. “I...I am sorry, I should not have ...”

“No!” he said, hastily, once he finally exerted control over his faculties. “Wait, not...it’s just that you kind of...I mean I wasn’t expecting ...”

Focus, moron. Complete sentences.

Julian swallowed and took a small step towards her. “Santo’s a moron, but, uh... Look, he’s not blind. I mean yeah, you are hot...beautiful, I mean.” He watched her features twist doubtfully. “Has...uh...has no one ever said that to you before?”

Laura lowered her head shyly, letting her hair spill across her face in a manner that didn’t really help keeping his mind from drifting. “It is...complicated.”

He frowned. “How come?”

She sighed. “I do overhear things sometimes in Salem. From the local boys. They do not think I hear them, but ...”

Laura let that trail off, her enhanced hearing needing no further explanation.

“I have heard much of it from Quentin Quire, as well,” she continued after a pause to put her thoughts in order, “only he does not care that I do. In fact, I suspect he intends it as such. Those things don’t feel good. Even before I came to Westchester, I have had things said to me that ...” A strange look passed across what he could see of her features when she fell silent again and a visible shiver raced through her body. Julian did not need to think particularly hard to imagine just what sort of things might have been said.

“Hey, you okay?” he asked, after it seemed no further response was forthcoming. When she did speak again her voice was strangely hollow.

“They made me feel sick inside. It was...it was a very difficult time that I often feel ashamed of. And I ...” she trailed off again.

Julian slumped against the wall, and watched her fidget with her hands, as if she were unsure what to do with them. Her choice of words puzzled him, but from her tone he knew pressing her would only lead to another retreat. Part of him wanted to reach out and take one of her hands in his, but he refrained under the circumstances. “Look, I’m sorry if all this just made you uncomfortable.”

“I am just...unaccustomed to such attention. At least, not in a way that feels ...” she screwed up her features again while she struggled to put what she was feeling into words. “Welcome ...? As it did with Mark, and you ...”

Her face colored again.

His heart climbed up into his throat at that response, and his stomach turned a little bit of a cartwheel. She chewed her lip uncertainly, and he caught a flash of green when she looked up at him from beneath her brows in a manner that nearly cut his legs out from under him.

Julian swallowed and edged forward a bit more. Laura did not step back to regain some of the space between them, and in fact it seemed as if she were leaning towards him. “Look, when all of this stuff is over and things begin to calm down again, would you like t—”

He didn’t manage to get the words out before a loud whump echoed across the school, and the floor pitched up beneath him.

###

Jean dashed along the corridors with Josh close behind her, their smooth, featureless surfaces passing by in a blur. Fire alarms blared, and warning lights bathed everything the color of blood, forcing aside her elation over Scott’s unexpected waking. She had only just gotten out of quarantine and updated Josh when a shudder rattled the school and the alarms went off.

She reached out with her powers, and though she sensed alarm and confusion from most of the student body, there was very little actual fear. At least until she touched the thoughts of Cessily Kincaid. Cessily’s mind was typically difficult to reach because of her mutation, but now the panic washed over her and pinged on Jean’s powers like a beacon, spreading to Victor Borkowski nearby. Santo...was Santo. But then another mind: filled with static and difficult to grab hold of but not actively blocking her from entering.

Jubilee...

She sprinted forward, reaching the concealed stairwell leading back up to the inhabited levels alongside the elevator, levitating herself more than climbing as she sprung upwards, and then out the door exiting near the library.

Jean did not check her pace when she emerged from the stairwell and swung around the corner, skidding to a halt with her heart in her throat when she found the lounge awash in flame while Marie and Paige struggled to keep the children back and the fire alarms screamed.

###

Julian already thought his skull was going to split open. The alarms shrieking in his ears didn’t help.

“Julian!” a voice cried, only adding to the cacophony threatening to turn his brain into mush.

Julian lifted his head from Laura’s chest. He opened his eyes with a groan, and found himself staring directly into hers. His face heated in chagrin when his addled wits realized exactly where his head had just been from the considerably more horizontal orientation he now found himself in. Laura was trapped beneath him, and fragments of drywall dusted both of them.

“Julian, are you all right?” she asked.

“Sorry, so sorry,” he murmured, half-dazed from whatever had just slammed him into her. The other half from having been lying atop her with his face where it ought not to have been.

He managed to push himself off her, and Laura easily got her legs underneath her, helping him sit upright.

“What just hit me?” he asked once his senses cleared, though the fire alarms just replaced the fog.

“That was an explosion,” she said, considerably more calmly than Julian found reasonable.

“Wait, what?”

Laura sniffed audibly. “I smell fire. Come on.”

She offered him a hand up, and Julian uneasily pushed himself to his feet with her and the wall for support. “I was just getting comfortable, too,” he murmured dazedly, immediately horrifying the part of himself still processing things at the accidental innuendo.

Laura, however, seemed not to notice, and took off for the staircase. Julian stumbled after her, and more of the student body emerged from their rooms to investigate the commotion.

They reached the top of the stairs and all but flew down to the gallery, turned around the corner, and reached the first floor just in time to see Dr. Grey reach the central corridor from the direction of the library. Julian’s heart plummeted somewhere into his bowls at the sight of flames within the doorway into the lounge.

“Merciful Allah, what has happened?” Sooraya asked in a pained voice barely audible over the alarms from behind.

“I don’t know,” Julian said, “but Cess, Vic, and Santo were in there!”

Laura was already moving before Julian could stop her, and he narrowly missed catching her arm. “Laura, wait! You’re going to get burned up!”

Julian reached out with his power and grabbed her before she could charge into the flames. She uselessly flailed about for a moment before she finally stopped struggling. “Julian, let me go! I need to—”

He hurried to join her. Even from this distance the heat was growing intolerable. “You’re going to incinerate yourself in there.”

“Cessily and Victor are in there,” she protested, her voice audibly annoyed at having been so restrained. “They need help.”

“Diving head-first into an inferno won’t do that!”

“Everybody get back!” Dr. Grey shouted, her telepathy projecting the command to reach all of them above the screaming alarms.

“Promise me you won’t run off and do something crazy if I let you go,” he said.

“Julian—!”

“Just promise me! Please!” Julian cringed at the fear leaking into his voice, and she gazed at him taken aback by his change of tone. She nodded.

“I promise,” she said.

Julian released his hold on her, and though she stumbled a bit upon being let go, she made no effort to move.

Hellion, do as I do. Dr. Grey’s voice echoed uncomfortably in his head for a moment, before she projected something straight into his mind. It took him a moment to comprehend what she was showing him, but he nodded in understanding.

“Besides, it’s my turn to be a little crazy. Let’s see if this works ...” Julian said, and he flexed his fists. He called his power to him and projected a bubble of telekinetic energy into the burning lounge as Dr. Grey instructed. When he concentrated, he became aware of the flames and air within the bubble. He couldn’t manipulate them, but he could feel them.

Now, adjust the shield.

Julian closed his eyes and focused, and solidified the bubble of energy just until even air could no longer permeate it.

“Julian?” Laura asked, uncomprehendingly.

He did not respond, and instead gritted his teeth in concentration; maintaining such a solid barrier required far more focus and effort than even flying a truck. It took a few moments, but soon the fire within the bubble exhausted its supply of oxygen and died away. Julian then slowly expanded it to encompass more of the flames, and then more, each time increasing the bubble just a little bit further. Sweat beaded on his brow from the concentration required to maintain such a dense field of energy for this long.

But he wasn’t alone. He could feel the energy released by Dr. Grey doing the same thing, enclosing a section of the lounge in an impermeable telekinetic bubble until the flames were snuffed out, gradually expanding it until eventually most of the lounge was enclosed, and the last of the fires sputtered out. With it, the alarms finally silenced, and Dr. Grey rushed forward into the lounge.

Well done, Julian!

Julian’s strength finally gave out, and if not for Laura catching him, he may have collapsed entirely.

“Oh, I don’t want to do that again,” Julian said weakly, his voice strained from the effort.

“Are you all right?” Laura asked, her voice almost deafening in his ear. Although that might have just been from his hearing readjusting to the sudden silence when the alarms stopped.

“I think so. Come on.”

And now it was his turn to rush forward.

The lounge, it turned out, was not so badly damaged as the flames would have implied. The tables were smashed, the windows had shattered, the chairs and couch were burned out, and the TV had been destroyed again, but the rest of the burn damage was mostly superficial and not as severe as it could have been.

They also found Jubilee curled into a ball and lying in a pool of bloody vomit in the middle of the destruction. Julian almost threw up himself when he realized that wasn’t the only source of blood: It was pouring out of seemingly everywhere: Her mouth, her nose, her ears, and even her eyes.

“Oh my God,” he murmured. “That’s ...”

“That is new,” Laura said flatly. “None of the others had bleeding this severe.”

“Shit, are you saying this is... that she’s ...”

She nodded. “All I smell is disease.”

By now, Foley reached the lounge and hurried to Dr. Grey’s side while she tended Jubilee. He immediately laid hands to her brow and a golden glow illuminated the lounge, though from Dr. Grey’s expression it seemed to be doing very little.

Julian steered well clear to avoid an altercation under the circumstances, and instead his attention was drawn to the rocky body of Santo, or at least, the half of him that was dragging himself across the floor with one hand, while he cradled Victor in the other.

“Santo!” he cried, and rushed to his side.

“Dude, this sucks! I just put myself back together!” Santo moaned.

“Vic, you okay?”

Victor groaned. “Ugh, I think so. I’m a little cooked but I’m already healing.”

Sure enough, his scaly skin was a little cracked and blackened and blood oozed out between his scales, but the burns slowly healed over. Laura, who by now had joined them, scrunched her nose in disgust at the smell, but she acknowledged his prognosis with a stiff nod.

“Ya know, Vic kinda smells like chicken,” Santo said.

“Shut up, Santo,” Victor replied.

“Where’s Cessily?” Julian asked

“Uhm ...”

“Julian, I’m over here,” Cessily called. “Sort of.”

Julian craned his neck to follow her voice, and his heart, stomach, lungs, and probably both kidneys all leapt up into his throat at the sight.

“Cess?!”

As bad as Santo looked, she may have looked even worse. The only part of her that seemed to be even remotely intact was her head and torso above the waist. Otherwise, bits of Cessily were splattered all over the lounge. Some of it was recognizable as a leg here, or an arm there, but the rest was now pooling into puddles of organic mercury.

“Could someone help gather me up, please?”

“I think I’ve got part of your butt,” Santo said, from where he was left with Victor.

“Oh my God! Will someone take that away from him?”

He and Laura hurried over to her and he helped her sit up. If that was even the proper position to call it when she didn’t actually have anything to sit on.

“Two questions,” he said. “First, and as relieved as I am to see it, how the hell are you still alive right now? Second, what the hell happened?”

“I’ll have to get back to you on the first,” Cessily said. Her silver features were twisted in discomfort, but other than being scattered in bits and pieces she seemed to be in considerably less pain than Julian imagined he would be in her condition.

“Dr. McCoy could perhaps explain the mechanics better,” Laura said from her place kneeling beside her. “But I believe it is the nature of her mutation; Cessily’s structure is not differentiated into separate organs, therefore she would not react to trauma of this nature as you or I would.” She looked pointedly at Julian. “You would be dead instantly. My healing factor might keep me alive long enough to regenerate, especially if my missing anatomy were reattached.”

“I’m not sure that helps me feel better ...” Cessily replied.

Julian blinked in surprise. “Woah, you can do that?”

“Yes. If I were to lose a limb, my healing factor could reattach it.”

“Gross. Cool, but gross.”

“Hey, guys,” Cessily interjected, “can we get back to me, please, and the fact I’m currently in about twenty different pieces?”

“Sorry, Cess,” he said, and couldn’t help but smile at the annoyance in her expression. Especially once the relief of finding her alive — even if not whole — washed over him. “But it is pretty cool. Can you do the same thing?”

“I don’t know! I’ve never wanted to cut off a piece of me to try it. Because in case you didn’t know, this still really hurts!” The last was added with an angry shout that drew the attention of anyone not gawking at Dr. Grey, Foley, and Jubilee.

“Alright, Stumpy, take it easy.”

“Julian, when I get my arms back I’m gonna smack you so hard.”

“That’s not exactly encouraging me to go any faster. Besides, I think we’ll need to track down a mop and bucket,” he said, and gave Laura a playful wink. A small smile crept onto her features, and she ducked her head to hide it.

“Really? You too?” Cessily said, aghast. “Oh my God, I should have known you and Julian becoming friends was going to be trouble.”

“Children!” came a voice from behind, and Julian looked over his shoulder to see Sooraya standing over them, with her arms folded impatiently beneath her breast. “Dr. Grey and Josh are taking Jubilee down to quarantine now. If you are quite finished with the grisly jokes, could you please get Cessily put back together?”

“Spoilsport. Santo got blown in half, too, you know. Looks like his ass got vaporized altogether.

“How did you manage to do this to yourself, anyway?”

Cessily sighed, and watched Nezhno, Hope, and Jessica gathering her pieces up. The puddles proved considerably more troublesome than the stuff still anatomically recognizable. “Oh my God that’s so funky. I can actually feel them pushing my...stuff around. Santo! Stop playing with my ass!”

“Cess! Focus!”

“Right, sorry, my mind is like literally in a dozen different places right now... So, Jubilee came down to see if anyone needed to talk, and I thought she was just really tired at first.”

“Yeah, I passed her on the way up to the dorms. I thought she just had a headache like mine.”

“Well, things went really bad, really fast.” Her expression sobered and she swallowed hard. “The blood... It just started pouring out, and suddenly her whole body was covered in plasma. If I hadn’t ...” Cessily trailed off awkwardly.

He frowned. “Hadn’t what?”

Cessily looked up sheepishly at Sooraya. “So... I got the idea from what Magneto did to me and Soo earlier. I just...flattened myself out and wrapped around her — those were my favorite jeans, by the way. I didn’t know if I could actually shape myself that way, but I managed to pull it off. I guess I was just in time, because she just...she just blew up! I honest to God think if I hadn’t... I think I absorbed most of it, but Santo and Vic still got hit.”

“I heard the Professor mention after Stryker’s attack that Jubilee has never exercised the full extent of her powers,” Laura said. “Even that night something still held her back. Had you not restrained her, she likely could have leveled the school. Or worse.”

Julian felt the color drain from his face. “Worse?!”

“Oh God ...” Cessily muttered in horror. “Could you imagine what she could do if she wasn’t...well...Jubilee?”

“I don’t think I want to. If she could already do this much damage, I don’t even want to think about how much worse things can get.”

###

Act V

###

It began with a desperate father the morning after the press conference.

Henry was just going over a few final details with the hospital staff at Mount Sinai, when a young man who could not have been a day over 25 ran into the hospital, cradling a toddler girl in his arms and crying for help.

He was, therefore, first on the scene to face the moment he had been dreading.

The virus had been released in Mutant Town.

She was not the last. Within the hour a dozen more people were brought in. Some managed to stumble in under their own power, having chosen to head for the hospital at the first sign of symptoms. Others were brought by family, too ill to drive themselves. Three others came by ambulance. An entire floor was soon cleared and set aside for quarantine. Henry moved from patient to patient, gauging the seriousness of the infection. Some had already lapsed into coma. Everyone was hooked to monitors as fast as they could be processed.

The news crews who had not yet packed up and departed now crowded as close as they could, and security had to be called in to push them back. Doctors and nurses shouted orders over one another, with Henry trying to be heard over them all.

“Get patient information as quickly as you can!” he shouted. “Home addresses, and anywhere they or their families might have been in the last 24 hours!”

The first hour passed into the second, and then a third, and more and more people arrived. Men and women, young and old, the virus showed no more preference in its choice of victims than it had at the school. Parents cried, grief-stricken, while they watched their babies loaded onto carts and wheeled away to quarantine, terrified they might never see them again. A wife had to be forcibly separated from her husband so doctors could take him into care. A son watched his elderly parents carted away before collapsing in tears. Henry saw to it that he spoke personally with each of them, offering what assurances and comfort he could.

But for all his skill and knowledge, he had never felt more helpless and overwhelmed in his life.

Ororo, Kitty, and Bobby lent their hands where they could, but they were now far beyond their experience, and the best they could do is help try to get as much information about the victims as they could. When the ice packs brought out in a desperate bid to bring down the patients’ fevers ran out or were used up, Bobby cooled them again, far faster and more efficiently than any refrigeration unit.

The rush passed into its fourth hour, and still more people arrived.

Stars and garters! How has it spread so quickly?

He was subconsciously aware of a buzzing from his pocket, but he ignored it while he processed one case after another as quickly as he could. But then...

“Hank!” Ororo called, fighting through a mob of orderlies converging on the sick. “Hank, it’s Jean! She’s been trying to reach you!”

Henry looked up just in time to catch the phone lobbed in his direction. Another man would have fumbled it, but he reflexively snatched it out of the air and had it to his ear in one smooth motion. “McCoy,” he said, not stopping his work even to talk.

“Hank, it’s Jean,” she said.

“Jean! I’m sorry I didn’t answer, it’s been chaos the past few hours. We have almost seventy cases already. I don’t know how it has exploded like this, I thought we would have some time!”

“Hank, Jubilee came down sick last night. She nearly destroyed the lounge when she lost control of her powers.”

“Oh my stars and garters!” he said, stunned for a moment into inactivity. “Was anyone hurt?”

“Cessily managed to contain the outburst, but about half of Santo’s mass has been obliterated. She was scattered all over the lounge, but is alive.”

He nodded automatically, though Jean would not be able to see it across the phone. “I suspect her undifferentiated structure allowed her to survive.”

“But Hank, the symptoms are getting worse. She was bleeding from everywhere. Paige and Marie have just both come down, as well, along with five more students: Roxie, Jessica, Paras, Ben, and Hope, all within the past couple hours. None of them lost control of their powers, but they’re all bleeding. Ears, nose, mouth, and eyes. This if the first chance I’ve had to even call.”

A ball of ice formed in his gut. “Dear God!”

“Could this be another mutation?”

Henry considered for a moment. “It’s possible. I’ll have Dr. Bradley and Dr. Rao return to the school immediately. Let them know about the bleeding. I also had a hypothesis on how we might try to fight this, though I’m a little hesitant to bring it up.”

“Anything you have is something.”

“Logan’s healing factor has shown remarkable resiliency when faced with an infectious pathogen in the past. Quite simply, his immune system is as savage as the rest of him, and slaughters anything foreign entering his body before it can establish itself. There may be a possibility we can use that to develop an antiviral treatment.”

Jean did not respond immediately. Though they were a good fifty miles away from one another, and well out of telepathy range without Cerebro, he suspected she guessed his meaning even without being able to read him.

“Hank, Logan’s not here,” she said, and her reply sounded very automatic to his ears. “His team has gone so deep I don’t have a way to reach him unless he breaks radio silence.”

“We do have the next best thing.”

“Hank ...”

“I know, I know!” he said, at the motherly reproach in her voice. “But under the circumstances we may not have a choice.”

“I’ll look into it, but I doubt it will go well.”

“Things may not go well one way or another. As I said, it was merely a hypothesis. Dr. Bradley knows the details, so please coordinate with him, if you will.”

“All right,” she said, her voice no more assured than before. “I did administer the serum to Scott earlier. He regained consciousness briefly shortly before Jubilee went off, his vitals are getting stronger, and his fever came down about a degree.”

He sighed in relief. “Oh, thank God some good news at last! I suggest you begin treating anyone who is already sick, and inoculating everyone else but Nori’s team if you can. Keep a sharp eye on them! With the way this nasty little bug has been engineered we may have to throw everything we know about infectious disease research out the window.

“If there’s nothing else you need from me right now, I do need to get back to work here before it gets any worse.”

“That’s all for now, I’ll keep you updated. Good luck, Hank.”

###

Stryker watched the live news feeds coming from Mount Sinai Beth Israel, a tight smile spreading across his features. Whatever the setback caused by the unexpected press conference, the virus itself was proving incredibly effective.

“Ah trust you gentlemen are watching this, as well,” he said to the two men videoconferenced on his computer. Harkins remained dispassionate, but the wicked, mirthless smile on Pierce’s face sent a chill down even his spine. Mary stood behind his shoulders, and as immobile as her features were, her satisfaction could not be missed.

“Oh, I am,” Pierce said. “It’s a shame we didn’t have enough to hit all of Mutant Town, but even that block should have everyone tied up for our next move.”

“Has there been any update from the teams watching Westchester?”

“Only one,” Mary said. Pierce glanced over his shoulder at her when she stepped up and leaned on the desk to face the camera. “Three people arrived at the school yesterday morning. Facial recognition suggests two of them are colleagues of McCoy. Doctors James Bradley and Kavita Rao.”

Harkins leaned forward at his desk, his expression now one of keen interest. “Bradley and Rao?”

“You know them?” Stryker asked.

He nodded. “I know of them. Bradley is a mutant, however he’s tampered with his own biology so thoroughly over the years none of our researchers have been able to determine what’s his mutation and what’s something he did to himself. He does possess unusual longevity. It’s not a healing factor like Weapon X and our priority subject, but he served in the Field Experimental Unit of the OSS during World War II and doesn’t look a day over 35.

“Rao is a researcher specializing in the X-gene and mutation. She was formerly part of a project working on a means of permanently eliminating the X-gene in manifested mutants, but she resigned her position a decade ago.”

Stryker thoughtfully rubbed his chin with his good hand. “McCoy must have called them in to study the virus, possibly to find a cure. Could they do so?”

“Given time, I believe so.”

“What of the third?”

Mary swallowed and lowered her head, as if steeling herself to deliver some very unpleasant news. The thought the abominations could find a cure to Harkins’s virus was bad enough as it was, he couldn’t imagine what could possibly be worse than that.

“The third,” she said, “appears to have been Magneto.”

It was worse.

“Magneto?” Stryker asked, and he felt his blood turning to ice in his veins. “Are you sure?”

“There’s about 95% probability of a positive identification.”

“If Magneto has come out of hiding ...”

“It could suggest the situation at Xavier’s school may be worse than McCoy suggested,” Pierce mused. “This could indicate an opportunity ...”

“An incredibly dangerous one, if I’m following your line of thinking,” Harkins said. “An attack on the school could be suicide if Magneto is present.”

“Not if you were to provide us with the equipment and asset I’ve asked for.”

“And that is out of the question. I can’t stress enough the importance of the asset to our research and development. I won’t risk it in the field. As long as Magneto is in play, I suggest you put any thought of storming the school from your mind, Pierce. Especially if Xavier himself or Jean Grey are still active.”

“I need you to give me something, Harkins,” Pierce growled. “With Stryker’s Purifiers having to go to ground it’s my people who are going to face the brunt of any fight against Xavier.”

“And here I thought so highly of you and your lieutenants.” Harkins’s lips curled into a mocking smile. “You did such a wonderful job in Salem yesterday.”

Pierce’s face turned scarlet. “I swear, Harkins, I will—”

“Gentlemen, please,” Stryker said, before things could escalate further. “Let us focus our attention on the common enemy, shall we? Adam, Ah am sure you could spare some equipment for Donald’s people. Ah’m willing to forgo one of our own deliveries if we must, as he is quite correct that we are still unable to move openly.”

“All right, Bill,” Harkins said. “We can provide munitions and heavy equipment, but I can’t send the asset he’s requesting, I have need of it here.”

“And Donald, Ah do believe Adam is right: Attempting to make an attack against the school if Magneto is there would be foolhardy. You and your own people, despite your remarkable enhancements, would be useless against him.”

“Very well,” Pierce said, “We’ll play it your way. But if Harkins wants specimens we have to collect them somehow.”

“Never mind about that,” Harkins said. “I’m already making arrangements to acquire some from the group Dr. McCoy so kindly gathered for us.”

Stryker frowned. “You’re sending someone to the hospital?”

“I’ve had a specialist in place even before Xavier’s people arrived. I wasn’t anticipating them to move so quickly with that press conference, but Mount Sinai Beth Israel was always the most logical place for them to coordinate their response from.”

“Ah don’t like being kept in the dark, Adam.”

Harkins narrowed his eyes, and his voice turned frosty. “And I don’t answer to you, Bill. Remember that you and I have very different goals. At present they overlap, and you have been quite helpful in providing me with subjects, but remember I do have my own job to do and will carry it out in the manner I best see fit.

“I will see to it Pierce’s men are outfitted, you just keep doing your part.”

Stryker glared. “Oh, Ah intend to, you needn’t worry about that.”

Harkins’s smile returned. “Good. And Bill, you worry too much. The surprise of McCoy’s press conference aside, everything is proceeding exactly as we’ve planned.”

To be concluded...

---

A Note From The Author

So I originally got this episode drafted in just about two weeks. I wish I could always write at this pace.

I knew from the start of Season 2 that our three big cameos were going to appear in this episode. Dr. Nemesis isn’t easy to write, but is still just so much fun because of his over the top, over dramatic assholery. And if Nemesis was appearing, I kind of needed Kavita Rao for him to play off. Obviously, in this version she’s considerably younger than she was portrayed in The Last Stand. Something something timeline change. Her main role in this episode is mostly to be Nemesis’s nanny, but she’ll get a bit more to do next time.

And of course, Magneto. This is a character I knew would have to be used with care. As he so brutally demonstrated during the training scene, he’s a story breaker if he’s not handed the Idiot Ball, so I’ve been taking pains to try to downplay his presence once he does show up. In this case, I’ve decided that since the events of X2 don’t quite play out the same way, especially with Jean’s survival, Charles took a different approach when addressing the President that led to considerable changes in subsequent events. Plus, with him still being a wanted terrorist, he decided it best to just stay out of Charles’s way. And as angry as I could imagine him being about Stryker’s attack on the school, I wanted to play with the idea of how people being much more demonstrative about injustice towards minorities in our modern culture than in the past could sway him: The so-called “decent men” actually coming forward rather than remaining silent could profoundly affect a man who spent his life watching them let horrible things happen.

Speaking of modern culture, the long hiatus between 2x07 and 2x09 made me realize I failed to account for how things have changed in the 10 years since I began this story. For instance, upon looking through past episodes after originally posting 2x08 I realized I made a continuity error: Corrado’s Pizza, which I named in the original version on FF.net, was formerly known as North Salem Pizza and Pasta at the time I started writing. Google Maps, obviously, used the new name, so... I’ve since used the reedits as an opportunity to clean some of these details up.

We of course get some other developments this episode. Nori’s breakdown is building on groundwork I laid way back in 2x05 with her self-doubt about leading the team. Laura and Julian’s relationship continues to evolve, as well, while I mercilessly tease the shippers. I wanted to show she’s aware of feeling something about how she’s opening up to Julian — IE her feeling it's welcome when he sincerely tells her she’s beautiful — but is confused and unclear about what it actually means.

I promise, we’ll get some of Laura eating the eye candy so she’s not the only font of fanservice. Her inner voice can just be rather difficult to approach, especially since she’s still so unsure of how to actually process things on an emotional level, and still relies heavily on instinct and training. I was honestly hesitant about how directly I should even handle Julian checking her out in their conversation before Jubilee exploded, seeing as they’re both minors, but ultimately decided this worked without being too lurid.

Laura is also beginning to open up more, and is even telling jokes (obviously Julian being her favored target so far). Her trolling Julian is inspired by how she messed with Elixir in X-Force, by insinuating Cyclops’s only recourse for his discovering the team existed was to kill him, and then leaving him hanging to freak out about it. It’s how I’ve always imagined Laura’s sense of humor ought to work: She doesn’t quip, use references, or trade insults like the rest of the group. Instead, she’s much subtler, using wordplay and playing into her serious demeanor to screw with people by leaving them unsure whether she was actually messing with them in the first place.

We also get a big hint into Laura’s backstory that will be paying dividends later. I’m also going to pretend I intentionally chose her outfit as a call back to the “pilot” and didn’t realize it after the fact...

Obviously, the circumstances of Josh’s arrival at the school are a bit different from the original books. There, the New Mutants squad was present when his powers manifested, so they knew from the start he was a Reaver, and this was the initial source of friction between him and the rest of the cast. Since in this telling the kids weren’t privy to this information that changes some of the dynamics slightly. The only overtly hostile one is Julian, for quite obvious reasons, with the others being more unsure how to react. And if anyone would be willing to look past what someone did in the past, it would be Laura.

In the original version, Colossus and Magik’s part in the episode ended with meeting S’ym in Limbo. Peter waking up in the tower, the breakfast, and his conversation in the gallery were part of 2x10. However, I decided to move a few things around as part of the reedit and added it to this episode, instead, so their part in 2x10 doesn’t feel so rushed.

As dire as things are getting, I wanted to at least get some levity in there, too. Thus, the stuff with Cessily esploding and Santo somehow ending up with part of her ass. Also, Santo being blown up again after having just been torn apart by Magneto. And Santo just being Santo.

Anyway, things are now ramping up to the conclusion of the arc, so stay tuned ‘til next time. It’s going to be a whopper.

Chapter 10: 2x10 - Antibody

Summary:

The moment the X-Men had been dreading has come to pass: The virus spreading rapidly through the population of the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters had been unleashed on Mutant Town.

In an attempt to head off negative publicity which could endanger mutants world-wide in response to the disease, Drs. Henry McCoy, James Bradley, and Kavita Rao have publicly declared a medical emergency. Despite this setback, the plans of Stryker and the Reavers progress as they anticipated.

Meanwhile, the situation at the Xavier School continues to deteriorate. With Colossus taking his sister to Limbo and much of the staff falling ill, Jean Grey is left to hold the school together while Bradley and Rao scramble to put a plan in motion that may yield a cure. But this will not be without cost, and one of the new X-Men is left with an uncomfortable choice...

2x10

Antibody

###

Act I

###

“All I need is a little bit of blood,” Bradley said, brandishing a test tube and collection needle with a mad gleam in his eye. “Now be a good girl and roll up your sleeve so I can jab you in the arm.”

Jean buried her face in her hand at the confrontation now brewing in the observation gallery. The moment Bradley and Rao returned from Manhattan the white-suited mad scientist had barged into the med bay demanding Laura be summoned immediately, and would not be put off.

“Dr. Bradley, this will be an incredibly delicate matter, and it’s best that we don’t make a confrontation out of it,” she had warned him.

“Dr. Grey, at this moment there is a hospital full of mutants positively swimming with a horrifyingly remarkable genetically engineered superbug of a quality of craftsmanship I am admittedly considerably envious. And oh yes, by the way, there is a very real possibility it may soon kill every single one of them in a very gruesomely fascinating manner. If this is a calamity you wish to prevent so you can go back to running your little daycare operation, I suggest you drag the goth bag of hyperviolent antibodies in here and strap her into a chair.”

“James, please,” Rao had said. “We talked about this on the ride back from the hospital.”

“There is science to be done here, Kavita! And it’s the sort that doesn’t care about boo-boos and rainbow band-aids.”

In the end, Bradley would not be argued with, and Jean relented and called Laura down. She arrived a few minutes later accompanied by Julian. Now they were all standing in a circle, and Jean could feel Laura’s simmering hostility breaking through her control over her emotions.

“Dr. Bradley, please,” Jean said, her own patience growing strained. “Step back, and everyone calm down.”

Julian glared at Bradley and subtly placed himself between him and Laura with his arms folded over his chest. Laura, for her part, shrunk down into herself as if to hide from having been made the center of attention.

“Just in case McCoy failed to elucidate when he discussed his hypothesis with you, time is of the essence,” Bradley said.

“I am more than aware of the severity of the situation, but I need you to understand you’re treading on some very unstable ground. There are some complications involved you don’t know about.”

“For one thing, Laura really doesn’t like doctors poking at her,” Julian interjected.

Bradley dismissed him with an indignant glare. “I’m sorry, but the scientists are speaking now. I don’t need a lecture from a hormonal reject from a boy band audition.”

Julian’s temper flared, and a green aura formed around his hands. Jean immediately placed herself between them.

“Dr. Bradley, this is quite serious, and Julian is correct: We had to replace the quarantine bay once already recently, and I’m sure Hank would rather not have to do the same to the observation gallery because you got impatient and provoked her!”

Jean sighed wearily once Bradley finally backed off and turned to Laura.

“Laura, I understand this is a very uncomfortable situation for you,” she said, softening her voice as best she could despite the urgency, “and I understand this would be asking a lot. But Dr. McCoy believes your healing factor may be the key to stopping this virus. You would be helping a lot of innocent people if he’s right.”

Laura did not respond, and she bunched her features up while she wrestled between the desire to help that Jean could feel at the surface, and something far darker lurking underneath.

Jean’s heart ached while she watched Laura’s emotional defenses chip away little by little the past few months, battered by Stryker’s attacks, the violent incident Jubilee reported in New York, her possession by the Entity, and now the fight in Salem. Cessily, Sooraya, and especially Julian, of all people, had established themselves as stabilizing forces holding her up, but as she watched the turmoil pass across her features now the cracks were beginning to show, and the buried memories Xavier spoke of were threatening to break through more every day.

Subjecting her to Bradley’s nonchalance about human experimentation was throwing grease onto a fire.

“Laura?” Julian asked, his own thoughts and feelings a tangled mess of worry, anger, and fear he would never publicly admit to.

“I ...” Laura started, but stopped again when her voice broke. Jean felt the panic building, and her body coiled tightly like a spring under tension and ready to release.

“Oh, enough of this waffling, I’ll give you a lollipop when we’re done,” Bradley said, and before she or Julian could warn him otherwise, he seized Laura by the arm.

Laura reacted immediately, catching Bradley’s wrist the moment he laid his hand on her, and with strength belying her stature she effortlessly rolled him over her shoulder and slammed him to the floor.

“Laura, no!” Julian cried, and with a metallic snikt her claws extended at Bradley’s throat. For his part he looked suitably anxious about the adamantium a hair’s breadth from his windpipe.

“Do not touch me!” she hissed hatefully between her teeth. Her voice was ice and filled with lethal intent. “Do not ever touch me!”

Her body quivered with barely restrained rage at the uninvited contact, and revulsion and a sense of violation so thick it made Jean queasy rolled off her mind.

“Laura,” Julian repeated softly. He knelt by her side and gently laid a hand on her shoulder. Laura clenched her jaw and her neck tensed, but otherwise she made no move to avoid his touch.

Trust. It’s still fragile, but she’s showing complete trust in him. As much as she is struggling beneath the surface, it’s still remarkable that she has come that far.

“Hey,” he gently prodded, “come on, he’s not worth it.”

Laura slowly relaxed. She retracted her claws again and let Julian help her to her feet. Bradley, for his part, remained on the floor.

“A simple no would have sufficed,” he grumbled.

“You didn’t give her a chance to say so, James. And they did warn you,” Rao said. “Repeatedly.”

“This will get us nowhere,” Jean said, and squeezed her eyes tight against the exhaustion threatening to overwhelm her. Exactly how long it had been since she actually slept she didn’t not know, but she could feel it telling on her now. “Let’s try something else, shall we?”

She turned to Laura. “Would it be all right if you and I talked in private? No one crowding around you, no one else watching, or trying to pressure you. Just you and me.”

Laura hesitated for a moment, then gave a slow nod. Jean offered her an encouraging smile and motioned for a door leading back to the hallway. “We’ll talk in my office. The rest of you please wait here. Dr. Bradley, Dr. Rao, if you could please begin the serum protocol we discussed while I’m gone. Begin with everyone already infected, and we can move on to inoculating everyone else once that’s done.”

Julian opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off with a look. “We’ll be back soon, right now I think we just need to let everyone calm down. If you would please help Dr. Bradley off the floor.”

Jean reached out with her powers and grabbed the needle and test tube from Bradley’s hand, floating them to herself before stowing them away out of sight in a pocket. Then, without actually making contact, she ushered Laura towards the door with a hand hovering over her shoulder blade.

###

Nori had not moved since David helped her into the bed in the recovery room. She might have slept for a bit before a sudden commotion out in the observation gallery woke her, but she had lost track of time and was no longer even sure whether it was yesterday, today, or tomorrow. Dr. Grey, her voice raw from exhaustion, was speaking to someone else there, (or maybe it was several someones) but otherwise it all jumbled and ran together into a cacophonous mush of sound on the other side of the wall. A sense of smothering urgency hung over the med bay, but Nori couldn’t lift her head from her pillow. Instead, unable to fall back asleep, she remained lying on her side and stared blankly at the wall in front of her.

Whatever was happening next door slowly quieted down, and for a moment she was left in silence.

A moment spoiled when Keller stormed in, raking his hair in frustration and muttering a string of some truly creative profanity about Dr. Bradley. Nori neither responded nor gave him any further consideration, and she continued to bore an imaginary hole into the wall across from her. It was some moments more before her brain even processed he was speaking to her, and it finally took him dropping his stupid face into her view and waggling his fingers in front of her eyes for her to focus enough to pay attention.

“Yo! Pikachu! Are you even listening to me?” Keller asked, when she finally heard him.

“Go away,” she said.

“Do you even care what’s happening around here anymore?” He folded his arms across his chest and glared down at her. “That freakin’ mad scientist decided to start sticking needles in Laura and she nearly took his head off. Jubilee and a bunch of others have gotten sick since last night, too. This whole place is falling apart, and you’re just lying there!”

Nori didn’t answer, and wished he would just shut up and leave. She was tempted to zap him, but that would draw her attention away from the wall.

“And what happened last night? We were getting our asses kicked and you just ran off and left us.”

“Would it have really made a difference if I didn’t?” she asked.

Keller fumed. “Probably not. Laura says we were never meant to actually beat him. I mean it’s Magneto, so yeah. But that doesn’t mean we weren’t supposed to try.”

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you. We lose either way, so why does it matter?”

He stared at her incredulously. “You’re supposed to be leading us, and that’s all you’ve got?”

“What can I say?” She took a steadying breath and squeezed her eyes shut tight while she prepared for perhaps the most horrible and humiliating words she ever had to say in her life. “It should have been you.”

“What?”

“It should never have been me in charge. They should have given the team to you.”

Nori opened her eyes again. There. It was said. Time for him to gloat and take control. Better for everyone.

To her surprise his shoulders slumped, and he hung his head. He sighed in frustration and twisted his lip as if tasting something sour. “No, Cyclops was right.”

Keller stepped out of her view, and the bed squeaked and shifted when he sat down on the end of it.

“He was right to give it to you,” he said. “I’d have probably gotten everyone killed in Hicksville, because I’d have just rushed in looking to start a fight. I sure as hell wouldn’t have listened to Alleyne’s advice about how to take out that Sentinel during training.”

“And I almost got everyone killed in Salem,” she said, and silently cursed him at the unevenness of her voice.

“That wasn’t your fault. Look, even Laura got blindsided by those guys, and sometimes it scares the hell out of me just how...aware she is of everything. She’s five-foot-nothing and can carve up Stryker’s fundie Delta Force wannabees like they were a God-damned Boy Scout troop, and they managed to ambush her and take her out of the fight! Do you really think you should have done better than we did?”

“I put us there. I should have been prepared.”

“We didn’t even know those assholes existed! None of us could have seen it coming...well, Ruth probably could have warned us if anyone could even begin to piece together her crazy enough to figure out what the hell she was saying half the time. The truth is we were all in over our heads.”

“It’s still my responsibility. I screwed up.”

Keller groaned in frustration, and the bed shifted again when he stood up. “Jesus Christ, that’s the entire point I’m trying to make here: You didn’t. And this is me saying it!

“Like, Sofia and Laurie did this experiment for McCoy’s chem lab last year. I don’t know what it was, but they were mixing a bunch of stuff together. They followed the instructions exactly as McCoy told them, and she said the entire test tube exploded on them. Sofia almost smacked me when I laughed about it, because it sprayed this gunk right in her face that turned it green for a week.

“They did everything right, but they still failed the lab.”

“You almost died,” she said.

“Yeah, I did. So don’t you think if I thought you’d screwed up I’d have been rubbing it in your face?

“You’re supposed to be leading us. Cyclops and Xavier put you in charge for a reason. So you need to get off your ass, stop feeling sorry for yourself, and figure out how to put your head back in the game. Magneto wants everyone dressed out this morning so he can throw us around the room again, so you better have a plan this time. Because if all you can do is lie around here you really will be failing us.”

And with that he stormed from the room, leaving Nori to continue contemplating the wall.

###

Bobby looked up at the apartment complex towering over him. Mutant Town was unusually silent except for the distant wailing of an ambulance rushing for Mount Sinai. The police had not yet set up road blocks to cut off access to the district, but their presence was everywhere on the streets to help coordinate the response to the situation as it deteriorated.

“What do you think?” he asked, and glanced at Ororo standing beside him.

She considered the building carefully. “Hank said almost all the first cases to arrive were residents of this block. About two dozen from this building, a few more from next door, and others from up and down the street or on the other side of the alley.

“If the virus was deliberately released as he thinks, we’re likely to find something here.”

Bobby folded his arms across his chest and frowned at the red brick façade of the apartment building fronting the sidewalk. The iron cage of the fire escape zig-zagged up the top five stories. None of the residents had noticed anything suspicious, at least that they reported to the police accompanying them and who were now checking the building; neither of them could risk entering themselves under the circumstances.

“Yeah, but what are we looking for?”

Ororo sighed. “Hank was, unfortunately, extremely vague. It could be literally anything at this point.”

“I don’t know, ’Ro, I don’t like this one bit. I especially don’t like being away from the school with all this going on. With Scott and the Professor down, Jean tied up dealing with the sick kids, Logan off with his team doing who-knows-what, Sam running around keeping up appearances, Pete in Limbo, and us, Hank, and Kitty out here ...” He sighed and shook his head. “I just keep thinking how that was exactly how Stryker was able to attack the school last winter.”

“We do have Nori’s team there.”

“I know, but they’re still just kids.”

Ororo’s lips twitched into an amused smirk. “I seem to remember you weren’t any older than they are now when you became an X-Man.”

Bobby flashed her a scowl of feigned indignance. “Yeah, but I was more mature than they are.”

She laughed. “Bobby, you’re still not any more mature than they are. Marie keeps me informed on everything.”

He rolled his eyes and his face heated in embarrassment at what sort of stories she could be telling about him. “Whatever she says it’s a lie.”

“Oh, Paige, Kitty, Jubilee, and I all get a big laugh out of it. I’d say Jean and the Professor wouldn’t hear it from me, but I’m sure they already have, too.”

He took one look at the playful grin on her face and shook his head. “You’re killing me, ’Ro.”

“Turn about is fair play, Bobby.” She made a show of mussing up his hair. A couple of the responders waiting with them on the sidewalk had to turn away to hide their efforts to restrain their laughter. “I still remember all the trouble you gave me back then, and I’m not going to let you hear the end of it, either.”

“I should have volunteered to go with Logan ...”

Before the repartee could continue, the crew emerged from the building, two of them carrying a large cannister between them. Bobby frowned and glanced at Ororo, and found his own curiosity mirrored in her features.

“What is that?” he asked.

“I don’t know, but I don’t like it. Come on,” she replied, and started forward to meet them.

Bobby trailed after her, and they gathered around the men carrying the device. It looked much like a regular propane tank, but something was off about it he couldn’t quite place.

“We found this in the HVAC room of the building,” said one of the investigators, a heavy-set and mustachioed man who couldn’t look or sound any more New York if he tried. “It was hidden, but someone had run a hose into the ventilation system. Even then we still might have overlooked it if we weren’t specifically lookin’ for somethin’ outta place. Yooz seen anything like this before?”

Bobby shrugged. “Not since our last barbecue. ’Ro?”

Ororo shook her head. “Other than it being a storage tank for some sort of compressed gas ...”

“You think that’s how they exposed the building?”

“Woah, exposed?” the investigator said, and his face paled. “Hey, we’re not all gonna come down with this thing, will we?”

“Unless you’re a mutant or a carrier of the X-gene, you’re safe,” Bobby said.

“Do ya think yooz ought to be messin’ with that thing?”

“Almost certainly not,” Ororo said. “Let’s get this contained.”

“Agreed,” Bobby said, but something fixed to the simple valve knob on top caught his eye, and he leaned in for a closer look. “Hold on, there’s something attached ...”

“Bobby, wait!”

Ororo’s hand caught his arm, but not soon enough. Something on the tank beeped, and a scratchy, tinny voice blurted out, “Mutant genetics detected, threat identified.”

“Was that a Sentinel’s gene detector?!” Bobby said, incredulously.

As if in response, a concealed blasting cap blew off the neck of the valve with a sharp bang that echoed across the street, and a foul-smelling gas blasted directly into his face.

###

Act II

###

S’ym led Peter into a grand, cavernous chamber of black marble. It was fashioned in gothic style, but rather than the opulence of the library and Illyana’s room, the effect here projected an atmosphere of something sinister. Guards in armor were stationed at intervals, and a few functionaries — Peter could not quite wrap his head around the concept of demon courtiers — gathered below a dais mounted by seven broad steps.

A single, towering throne sat atop the dais, fashioned of gleaming black stone graven with reliefs of grotesque leering faces filled with sharp fangs, skulls, and panels of bodies writhing in agony while trampled beneath the hooves of a towering horned woman brandishing a sword.

Peter’s bile churned in his belly when he observed the figure’s likeness to Illyana.

His sister lounged on a dark purple cushion upon the throne, one leg hooked over an armrest while she slouched against the other, her hand propped upon the hilt of her sword, which stood upright in its scabbard on the floor. Peter’s face heated in embarrassment at the sight of her: Above the waist, she wore a cuirass of the same polished metal as did the guards, with elaborately etched and embossed pauldrons, fully articulated arm armor, and finger gauntlets.

Yet this was paired with a flimsy black scapula that only just preserved her modesty below the waist, with a narrow strip of fabric hanging down the front and back that left the sides of both legs nearly naked to the hips, except for knee-high boots encased in greaves and sabatons, with fanned poleyns protecting her knees. Atop her head she wore a black spiked crown. It all looked uncomfortably like something out of a video game, and surely their mother and father would be scandalized if they could see her in such a revealing state.

S’ym stopped below the dais and bowed.

“Mistress, I present your brother as you have commanded,” he said.

“Thank you, S’ym,” Illyana said, then turned her attention to him. She smiled when she met his eyes, but it was not the mischievous little smirk she favored Melody and her other friends with after some teasing comment, or even the special warm smile she saved solely for him. No, this was something dark, baleful, and empty of joy that sent a shiver down Peter’s spine. “Good morning, Piotr. Did you sleep well?”

“Well enough, Yana,” he said. Illyana’s eyes hardened at the familiarity of the address. “Though I worried when you weren’t still in bed when I woke up. How are you feeling?”

“You don’t need to worry over me. I’m in Limbo, now. Nothing happens that I do not will to be, and this virus has no control over me here.”

“So, you’re cured?”

“Soon,” she said, and boredly flexed her armored fingers on her sword. “I have all of Limbo’s power flowing through me now, so it’s only a matter of time. My own powers are still disrupted by the virus, so it may be a few hours more before I can open a portal back to Earth. I’m afraid you’re stranded here for a little while longer.”

“That’s all right, I’m just relieved to see you feeling better.”

Illyana waved him off with one hand and shrugged. “There’s not much Limbo has to offer in the way of entertainment, but I hope you enjoyed my gallery.”

Peter’s face heated again in embarrassment. He risked a look at Illyana’s attendants, but all averted their gaze away from him and paid him no attention. “I didn’t have a chance to explore it thoroughly, but it’s a very impressive collection.”

She offered him a playful smirk that he found a little unsettling. “Most of them are obviously just copies I conjured, but there’s a few rarer pieces that are real. Things my little pets collected over the ages.” Illyana casually motioned at one of the demons gathered below the dais. What they thought of being referred to in such a manner Peter could not read on their features. “Perhaps I ought to loan some of them out for display.

“You’re welcome to study it as long as you like until my powers are stable again. But for now, I have other matters to attend to. I just wanted you to know I was well. S’ym will show you to a room where you can get a proper rest, but otherwise you may explore the castle as you wish. I suggest you remain within the grounds to avoid any...unpleasantness with the demons beyond the walls.”

Peter frowned up at her. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather get some rest yourself? Magic or not, you were very ill.”

He thought he caught a flash of white fire from behind her blue eyes, and her glance momentarily hardened. But then it passed, and she dismissed him with another wave. “I told you, I am fine, and you are dismissed. S’ym, please see to it that he is comfortable.”

“Yes, Mistress,” S’ym hissed with a sweeping bow, then motioned Peter towards the doors.

Peter bristled for a moment at being called and released as if he weren’t her guardian, but he was suddenly aware of the guards flanking the length of the hall tensing, as if waiting for a command. So instead ,he offered her a nod, then turned and followed S’ym for the doors.

This is Yana’s domain, and if this is how she wishes to play it, so be it. I just hope she doesn’t push herself too hard before she’s full recovered.

###

“Dude, you gotta be kidding me!” Santo said, astonished, and pretty much speaking for everyone else in the gym.

“We’re sure those are real plates, right?” Julian asked.

“Hey, you made the bet,” Cessily said with a smirk. “Don’t tell me you’re trying to back out now.”

He spit her with an impotent glare. “Just load up the next set.”

They gathered around the flat bench in uniform while waiting for Magneto to arrive and throw them into another ass-beating session, and Julian didn’t know whether to be impressed or terrified. Laura lay on the bench, her feet planted firmly on the floor, and gripped the barbell with both hands while she waited for Victor and Santo to add another set of plates.

“Ok, this is going to be 405 pounds,” Cessily said. “Anyone else want in?”

Sooraya shook her head and buried her face in her hands. “I’m not sure this is what was meant when we were instructed to work on team building.”

“So that’s a no from Soo. How about you, Nori?”

Julian glanced across the gym to where Ashida sat with Rahne. Rahne had finally found a spare training uniform that more or less fit her slim frame, though he doubted it would hold up if she wolfed out. Ashida showed no more sign of being engaged with anything as she had last night, and he chafed that even after he manned up and admitted she was the right person to lead the team, she remained distant and subdued. I don’t care how much she pisses me off. If we’re not butting heads she’s lost it.

“Nori?” Cessily repeated.

Ashida shook her head and slumped her shoulders. Cessily watched her for a moment and sighed. “All right. Rahne?”

“A’m not sure what the Good Lord would have t’ say about makin’ wagers,” she said. “Especially if ye might just get someone hurt in the process.”

“Come on, it’s just a bit of fun.”

“Well, ye go an’ have yer fun, but A’ll pass on it.”

“Suit yourself,” Cessily said. “Just remember when Julian loses you don’t get to share when he buys everyone dinner.”

Julian made a face at her. “Can we just do it already?”

“Just making sure there’s no one else wanting in. Ready, Laura?”

“Yes,” Laura said, almost conversationally.

“All right, Santo, help her start the bar, then it’s all you. Same as before: You have to rack it yourself. If Santo has to help, you lose.”

“Right!” Santo said, and took position to spot. Julian folded his arms across his chest and waited for Laura to find a comfortable grip, and then all her muscles strained when she pushed the bar off the rack with Santo’s help. He then released it, and they all stood dumbstruck at her supporting the full 405 pounds on her own.

She inhaled while slowly lowering the bar to her chest. Then, bracing her feet against the floor and with her back and shoulders flat on the bench, she pushed it up again. Her body quivered, and the muscles in her arms, chest, and shoulders strained from the effort. She did not exhale until she had successfully finished the press and racked the weights again with a loud clunk.

Cessily let out a victorious whoop and clapped. Laura rolled off the bench and stood upright again.

“Ok, just how the hell is that even possible?” Julian asked, flabbergasted, more than a little intimidated, and... he forcibly banished that particular thought before it told in his features. “You’re five-foot-nothing, built like McKayla Maroney, and are barely a hundred pounds soaking wet.”

“Oh, good call,” Santo said. “She’s hot, too.”

“Because of my healing factor, my skeletal structure, connective tissue, and musculature are denser than would be the case for a normal human,” Laura said, ignoring Santo’s remark. “My bones are therefore less prone to failing under stress, and I am able to exert considerably more force without risk of rupturing muscles or tendons.”

“What does that mean?” Santo asked, scratching his head with the grating sound of stone on stone.

“It means she’s a lot stronger than she looks,” Cessily said, then flashed Julian a mischievous smile. “And Julian owes everyone dinner.”

Julian frowned. “So, if one of us had taken a hit like what Magneto did to you last night ...”

“My leg broke. Yours would likely shatter,” Laura replied. “Logan would be even stronger. Although the amount of additional muscle mass required to move the extra weight of the adamantium bonded to his skeleton has been exaggerated, there would be no risk of a bone fracturing under excessive stress because of it.”

“How about you, Vic? Is super-dense bones and muscles why you can toss Santo off the stairs when he pisses you off?”

Victor shrugged. “I think it’s just that he’s got so many rocks in his head it makes him top-heavy and easy to flip.”

“Hey!” Santo said, indignantly.

“Anyway, let’s take stock,” Cessily said, and Julian narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the playful gleam in her eyes. “We know Laura can kick Julian’s ass, and she’s stronger than him.”

“Don’t forget smarter,” Victor added. “I’ve seen his report card.”

“Oh, and faster.”

“What are you picking on me for?” Julian said, mock defensively. Laura just looked between them with a subtle hint of amusement tugging at her lips.

“What does that leave Julian?” Victor asked, quite deliberately ignoring his protestations.

“Ego,” Cessily said. “Definitely ego.”

“Oh, and I don’t think he’s been all that disappointed when Laura throws him around on the mat,” Santo said, and grinned his big, stupid grin. Julian’s face heated, and a hint of color even appeared on Laura’s cheeks at the suggestive lilt of his voice.

“You guys suck!” he said, turning his back to the group in hopes of hiding his sudden discomfiture. If the others thought anything of Santo’s remark, none of them said anything. “I don’t need this kind of abuse, I’ll just wait for Magneto to get here and start kicking our asses again.”

Cessily laughed lightly, stepped up beside him, and threaded an arm around his shoulder blades. She hugged him against her and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Oh, don’t be such a spoilsport. You know it’s just because we love you.”

Julian stuck out his tongue, and from the corner of his eye he caught a hint of a smile creep onto Laura’s lips.

Any further give and take was cut off when the door to the gym opened. But rather than Magneto, it was Foley who stepped inside. Santo folded his arms across his massive chest, and his glowing blue eyes glowered down at him. Julian scowled. Laura looked between them. Something odd passed across her features, and with some embarrassment he noticed her place herself between them when Foley turned right towards him. The others all shifted uncomfortably, and the room suddenly grew very tense. Only Rahne received his arrival warmly, and she hopped down from her seat next to Ashida and trotted over like an excited puppy who had been left home alone for five minutes.

“Hey Josh,” she said. “Have ye come to watch us get killed by Magneto again?”

“Actually, I’m here to take Julian away from you guys and give him a reprieve. You’ll have to get your butts kicked without him. Dr. Grey wants to see you.”

Everyone suddenly looked his way, and Julian’s scowl screwed up into a confused frown.

“Me? What did I do?”

“Knowing you, that could be a lot of things,” Cessily said dryly, and Julian spit her with a dirty look that just broadened the playful smile on her silver features.

“She didn’t tell me, I’m just a messenger,” Foley said with a shrug.

“Why’d she send you over? Why not call me through the psychic hotline?”

“Something about having not realized how much it hurts.”

Julian’s face heated in embarrassment, and Cessily doubled over laughing. He just sighed and rolled his eyes. “Fine, anything to escape the torture Cess has been putting me through.”

She just giggled and patted him on the shoulder once she regained control of herself. “Hurry back, it won’t be the same getting our asses kicked without you.”

###

Jean slumped in her office chair and wearily rubbed her eyes. She knew she ought to be taking advantage of the brief lull to try getting some rest, but as fast as the situation in the school was changing, she dared not allow herself even a few minutes of inattention. Even Scott’s positive response to the serum could do little to lift her spirits: Though he woke briefly and his vitals and temperature were improving, he soon fell back asleep. She wanted nothing more right now than to be there with him, but she knew it would do no one any good. Hank’s last call certainly did nothing to improve matters.

Sleep would simply have to wait.

It took a few minutes for the expected knock at her office door, and she frowned when she felt three presences outside; Josh and Julian standing outside her door, and a third trailing along a short ways behind.

“Come in,” she said.

Josh entered first, followed by Julian. The latter tried to put himself as far from Josh as he could in the confines of her office, and she sighed heavily. With the school threatening to fall apart around her Jean had not had the opportunity to address the conflict between the two, and there would be little time to do so now.

Of all the times for Josh’s history with the Reavers to come to light, this has to be the worst...

“Have a seat, please. Both of you,” she said, and motioned to the chairs across the desk from her. They complied without a word. “There’s no use in dancing around it, so I’ll be frank with you both: Storm and Iceman have fallen ill.”

Julian gawked, Josh’s golden features paled, and both their thoughts were alive with fears that neither was willing to admit to publicly.

“They were investigating the source of the outbreak in Mutant Town, and it seems one of the cannisters used to deliver the virus had been booby trapped.

“I’ve spoken with Dr. McCoy, and the situation there seems to be getting worse even without this. He’s already beginning to see cases of the second stage of the disease, though fortunately the powers involved have not proven particularly dangerous. But the number of victims is climbing even faster than they have here, and he’s requested you two at Mount Sinai immediately.”

Their shock was almost physically palpable, and they looked between one another without a word. Julian managed to find his voice first.

“Look, I can get why the Doc would want Foley,” he said, “but what am I supposed to do? Fetch bedpans?”

Jean leaned forward and met his eyes. Julian was seldom forthcoming about his insecurities, but she could read them plainly now, even without needing to draw on her power. “Dr. McCoy believes that you may be able to help by containing any sudden outbursts in the event a mutant with more destructive powers comes down sick with the second stage.

“Your ability to create and maintain telekinetic shielding has developed considerably in our classes over the past few months, and I agree with him. We can’t afford an incident in such a crowded location as Mount Sinai. Especially because we can’t rule out that someone might try to attack the hospital directly. We’ve been concerned from the moment we discovered the second stage that it might be deliberately weaponized, and a hospital would be an ideal target. They have transferred as many of their non-mutant patients as they can to other locations as a precaution, but there are a number that can’t be moved, and we need someone who can prevent a catastrophe if the worst should happen.”

Julian rubbed his forehead anxiously. “I don’t know if I can do it,” he admitted. “If it had been me in the lounge when Jubilee went off ...”

“Julian, you can. You contained a very powerful explosive device during Stryker’s attack on the school, and you’ve only grown more refined since then.”

He sighed and sunk down into his chair. “Okay, I’ll try.”

Jean offered him a reassuring smile. “I have faith that you’ll do far better than that. Just remember what we’ve worked on.” She then turned to Josh, who fidgeted. “Josh, I want you to assist Dr. McCoy directly. Do what you can with your powers to help those who are sick. I know you haven’t been able to attack the virus directly,” she said, cutting off the protest forming on his lips, “but anything you can do to try will be of help. The hospital staff is also overwhelmed as it is, so the extra pair of hands now that we’re down two more people will be of tremendous use.”

Josh nodded wordlessly and shrunk into himself.

“Good. For the next matter: Right now, our foremost concern is getting this outbreak under control, and helping the people who have been infected. I know that tensions are high between you two over what happened in Salem, but I need you to put that behind you. Now. We can sit down and talk through it once we’re out of this crisis, but right now we need everyone on the same page, and I can’t afford you two getting into it. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Dr. Grey,” Josh said.

Julian’s lip twisted into a scowl, but he gave a grudging nod. Nonetheless, he refused to so much as look Josh’s way.

“Now, just one more thing before you’re dismissed,” she said, and looked to the door of her office. “You may come in, Laura.”

Laura awkwardly edged around the side of the door, shrinking down into herself in chagrin at having been caught eavesdropping. Jean merely offered her a reassuring smile.

“What can I do for you?” Jean already suspected what had Laura following along behind Julian, but though she could pluck the confirmation from her mind, she allowed her to give voice to it herself.

“I would like to volunteer to accompany Julian and Joshua,” she said, her voice even quieter than normal. Julian’s face colored a little bit at that.

“I believe you have a training session with Erik, and I’ll already be leaving him short Julian,” Jean said.

Laura hugged herself, and an uncomfortable shiver ran through her body. “I...do not like Dr. Bradley. I don’t want him chasing me with needles again.”

Jean sighed in sympathy. “I know, and as I said when we spoke earlier, I’m sorry he touched you without your permission. I’ve already warned him, and I promise he won’t do it again.”

“Furthermore, if you believe someone may attack the hospital, I would also be of more value there providing additional security.”

Though the response was the sort of analytical logic Jean had come to expect from her, somehow it rang strangely hollow, as if it were an argument she made to cover her real feelings. Jean dared not probe deeper in fear of upsetting her delicate emotional equilibrium, but Laura’s surface thoughts when she spoke were a jumbled mismatch of confused feelings, all of them centering around Julian. The most dominant was a sense of protectiveness Jean had felt growing stronger after the attack in Salem.

It may not actually be the hospital she’s concerned with, but she does make a good point, nonetheless. With ’Ro and Bobby out of action it leaves only Kitty to help Hank. If the Reavers or one of Stryker’s people were to attack the hospital...

“The shuttle will be leaving immediately,” she said with another sigh and a nod. We’ve asked so much that she’s done without a thought just because she sees us as having authority over her. If this is something she wants to do I think she deserves the indulgence. “I’ll let Dr. McCoy know he can expect the three of you within the hour. Laura, please see to it these two stay out of trouble.”

“Yes, Dr. Grey,” she said, and Julian and Josh both blushed in chagrin at the veiled admonishment.

###

The lab was a clean room behind its own airlock in the suite of rooms making up the med bay, just off the observation gallery. Rows upon rows of microscopes, spectrograms, sensors, detectors, autoclaves, centrifuges, incubators, cryostats, and analyzers of every type crowded every available wall and table. There were freezers for cold storage of temperature-sensitive samples and chemicals, an industrial sink for cleaning beakers and other equipment, and cabinets for the storage of same. Air conditioning units brought the temperature down to just below comfortable, while air scrubbers hummed and filtered out any potential contaminants. Another airlock door led to a decontamination chamber in the event something unfortunate should occur.

David, dressed head to foot in a clean room suit, with a mask covering his mouth and nose, raised a hand to wearily pinch the bridge of his nose between his eyes, but was stopped by the goggles covering them. Instead, he blinked a few times to work some moisture back into them. The excitement of the morning when Laura nearly snikted Dr. Bradley aside, the day had been a monotonous grind of samples and cataloguing. Josh had been called away by Dr. Grey a few minutes ago, leaving him to carry on alone.

Only Dr. Rao was still in the lab with him, running an experiment on a sample of Megan Gwynne’s blood with a modified form of Dr. McCoy’s serum. David could have run it himself once he grabbed her knowledge of the procedure, which would have freed her up for other tasks and at least given him something more interesting to do than peering through a microscope and counting cells. But Dr. Rao insisted on doing the work herself, likely as an excuse to have a few moments of peace from Dr. Bradley.

David could sympathize.

He sighed and jotted a few notes down, before removing the slide he had been looking at and discarding it in a medical waste receptacle. He removed his gloves, tossed them in the bin as well, and then pulled a fresh pair from the box next to his station. The next sample was waiting for him, freshly prepared and ready to go. He reviewed the label and frowned at the instructions in Dr. Bradley’s erratic hand:

Diagnostic subject: Laura Kinney

Exposure test using virus sample to determine effects of subject’s healing factor interacting with the pathogen upon exposure. Make observations at 30-minute intervals.

He started a fresh line on his notepad and prepared the sample. I hope this was worth Bradley almost losing an arm. Laura really didn’t like him touching her. David placed the slide on the microscope’s stage and peered through the eyepieces. He adjusted the axes and focus knobs, and selected his objective. And the moment the image came into focus his head shot upright in disbelief.

“What ...?”

David looked again, and his mouth suddenly went dry.

“Dr. Rao!” he called.

“One moment, please,” Dr. Rao replied calmly.

“Dr. Rao, you need to see this right away!”

Dr. Rao’s chair squeaked, and a moment later he felt her hovering over him.

“What is it?”

David backed away from the microscope and gave her room to sit down and look for herself. Her expression was largely masked from view at this angle by her mask and goggles, but he could still make out the consternation spreading on her features.

“Dear God,” she muttered, then looked up at him. “Call Dr. Grey and Dr. Bradley immediately!”

###

They gathered in the briefing amphitheater, seated together while Magneto addressed them from the floor below. Only Nori distanced herself from the rest of them, sitting with her head bowed off to the side and not looking at any of them. Laura and Julian were conspicuously absent, and Cessily frowned; Julian may have been called away by Dr. Grey, but Laura simply disappeared. Given her inclination for following along the peripheral of a group in silence, it was not until they filed into the amphitheater that any of them noticed she was gone.

Below, Magneto stood straight-backed with his arms folded behind him. Somehow, he seemed even grayer and older than yesterday.

“I have been informed by Dr. Grey that perhaps my methods yesterday may have been, shall we say, too advanced for you,” he began, and Cessily couldn’t help but notice the roughness in his voice. “However, there was a very specific purpose to the exercise. Would any of you care to venture a guess what that was?”

Cessily raised her hand. “Um, Mr. Magneto, shouldn’t we wait for Laura and Julian to get back?”

“Hellion, Talon, and Elixir have been dispatched to Mount Sinai at Dr. McCoy’s request to address the situation there, so they shall not be joining us.”

They all looked between each other, and a pall of uncertainty settled over the group. It made sense that Dr. McCoy would request Josh to be sent, but the thought that Julian, and especially Laura, might be necessary sent a shiver down her spine.

“Are they expecting some sort of trouble?” Sooraya asked, giving voice to the question Cessily suspected was on all their minds. Except perhaps Santo. He just watched with his usual dopey expression.

“I really cannot say, so I suggest you put it from your minds for now and focus on the task at hand. So tell me: What went wrong in our last session?”

Santo raised his hand. “Uh, we got our asses kicked?”

“Wow, great job, Santo,” Victor said. “You really hit the nail on the head.”

“Hey, he asked what went wrong. Us losing was wrong.”

“Weren’t you paying attention last night? Laura said we weren’t supposed to win.”

“And your young friend was quite correct,” Magneto said, cutting off any retort from Santo. “Yesterday’s exercise was not about winning. In fact, it was very much about losing. Now, I ask again: What went wrong?”

No one responded, and everyone tried to look anywhere but at him. After a few moments of awkward silence, he sighed and rolled his eyes.

“The failure, was that you had no sense of direction or leadership.” He turned his icy gaze on Nori. Cessily watched her do her best Laura-into-her-jacket impression, and she tried to shrink away from his glare. “Yesterday was a test of you, Surge, and I will not mince words: You failed.”

“Because I should never have been in charge,” she said, the first words she had spoken most of the morning. “I’m not a leader.”

“Why? Because you lost? Because people nearly died under your command?”

Nori just lowered her head and nodded. Magneto sighed, and for a moment it seemed to Cessily that he swayed on his feet. “The mark of a leader is not in never losing. Many of the greatest generals in history have lost a battle, sometimes disastrously.” He paused and swallowed, as if his throat had suddenly gone dry. “What sets apart a leader is how they respond to defeat, and how they learn from it. Your failure was not that you were unable to defeat me; you were never meant to. I could have killed you all had I wished.

“You failed because you allowed what happened against the Reavers to consume you, and prevent you from making decisions in the present at all.”

“You weren’t there!” Nori snapped, and shot to her feet. The lights began flickering when she lost her temper, and with it what control she had over her powers.

Magneto mopped his forehead. “My dear, I didn’t need to be. I have faced death and defeat since before your parents were born. You were beaten. You were bloodied. You survived. You only fail so long as you don’t get back up again.”

No one said a word, and allowed the awkwardness to hang over the amphitheater. Even Santo remained mercifully silent for the moment. Cessily looked between Nori and Magneto; Nori looking as petulant as only a contrary teenage girl could, Magneto glowering sternly up at her, as if challenging her to lash out. His features were drawn, and, it seemed to Cessily, had grown paler.

And it was then she noticed the sweat beading on his brow, and, more horrifying, a small trickle of blood dribbling down from his nose.

“Someone get Dr. Grey,” Cessily said, slowly rising to her feet when Magneto touched his fingertips to the blood, and studied them with growing dread once the realization settled over him.

“What’s wrong?” Sooraya said, uncomprehendingly.

Nori’s features paled when she saw it, as well. “Do it!” she snapped. “Someone get her now!”

“A’m on it!” Rahne replied, and all but bounded up the amphitheater benches in her rush to the top.

No sooner did she reach it and start for the doors than the little trickle of blood built into a torrent, and now began to flow from his mouth, ears, and eyes. He sunk suddenly to his knees and vomited, a slimy pool of bile, blood, and whatever he last ate splattering over the floor to Santo’s disgust. A low, electric hum buzzed between Cessily’s ears, and to her dismay she realized she couldn’t move.

Magneto cried out and grabbed the sides of his head, and all around him the metal panels and flooring began to squeal and buckle. Cessily felt his power tearing at her body. She wanted to scream in agony, but she was completely frozen in place.

“Everyone out!” Nori cried, unnecessarily, while the entire briefing room seemed to be collapsing around them.

Magneto was now screaming, and the amount of energy building up condensed to the point it began to distort the light around him. Santo and Victor both ran for the door, Victor springing lightly over the benches while Santo ploughed through them. Cessily was distantly aware of Sooraya seizing her by the arm but, try as she might, could not budge her.

“Noriko! I think Cessily can’t move, and I can’t move her, either,” she called. Nori tried to come to her side, but stumbled awkwardly when she, too, was trapped in place.

“Oh shit!” she cried. “My gauntlets, I can’t—”

Nori’s words died in an agonized scream and the squeal of crumpling metal when her gauntlets crushed around her hands. The benches, wall panels, and flooring all collapsed under the strain, and the electric buzzing in Cessily’s ears was now deafening. Her whole body was one big undifferentiated mass of pure pain. Her skin began to spaghettify, drawn to the heart of the magnetic storm centered around Magneto.

Her last conscious thought before a massive blast of energy slammed into her was a prayer that it would all end soon.

###

Days passed. Or at least Peter felt like days had passed; he soon realized that tracking the passage of time in the endless crimson twilight of Limbo was nearly impossible. He had neither seen nor spoken to Illyana since she dismissed him, so instead he whiled away the hours in the gallery, save for meals. These were always prompt and exquisite, served either in the room given over to his use (itself a place of lush opulence he could hardly imagine the demons occupying the fortress appreciating) or at the gallery.

Now he wandered through a wing given over to the 19^th Century impressionists. The longer he spent within the gallery, the more overwhelmed he became by the peculiar geometry of the place. No matter which wing he entered, it seemed he was never far from the main hall or whichever other part of the collection caught his fancy. More than once he wished he had something to take notes on the vast collection within, but unlike his meals this did not so readily present itself, so he had to satisfy himself with committing as much to memory as he could. An endeavor he found increasingly difficult the more anxious he grew as time stretched on.

I know she has to heal, but I’d like to know what’s happening on the outside and if things have gotten any better. Or if there’s anything Illyana can do to help from here.

But no summons came, and the guards outside the great hall would not let him pass.

Finally, after what he guessed were an interminable few days, S’ym appeared and led him once more to the hall. Illyana sat perched on her thrown as before, and Peter was mortified to see her still in the same state of dress as before. The demons, however, took no notice, and Illyana showed no more regard for his discomfiture as before. They arrived before the dais, and S’ym bowed before retreating.

“Good afternoon, Piotr,” Illyana said, but there was no pleasantness in her voice, only cool detachment that made his finer hairs bristle.

“Good afternoon. How are you feeling?”

“I am better now. The virus has been burned out of me entirely. I am sorry to have kept you so long, and I hope you enjoyed my hospitality while you waited.”

Peter heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank God!” he said. However, something in the tone of Illyana’s voice set off warning bells in the back of his mind, and she spoke as if his presence there was an annoyance or inconvenience, like an unwelcome guest who refused to leave.

Illyana merely shrugged and slouched casually on her throne. “God had nothing to do with it, only my magic. And now that my powers have returned, I can send you back to Earth when you are ready to go.”

Peter frowned up at her. “Send me back?”

“Of course. There’s no need for you to remain here any longer. I’ve made myself whole again, and I don’t need you to nursemaid me.”

“Is there anything you can do to help? Things have been getting worse since you got sick, and unless Hank has made a breakthrough I have to think they’ve only gotten worse.”

“No,” Illyana said with finality.

Peter blinked in surprise. “No?”

She sat upright and crossed her legs, one hand rested against her sword propped up next to her. Her expression now grew hard as iron. “There is nothing I can do outside Limbo, and I will not permit any of the others to be brought here.”

“What about Megan? And Melody?” he asked. “What about the Professor?”

“Limbo is my concern, now,” she said, dismissively. “The Earth must solve its own problems.”

“Yana, these are your friends!”

Illyana leaned forward. She rested her free arm across her knees, the other still gripped her sword. “Look around you, Piotr. All of this is me. I have been attacked, and I don’t know what might have happened here had this...assassination attempt been successful.”

She leaned back again, and her armor clattered with the movement. “I will defend this place, and I shall avenge myself.”

Peter sighed in exasperation. “Yana, listen to yourself! You’re still not well. You’ve never tapped so completely into Limbo’s magic before.”

Illyana’s eyes flashed dangerously. “Don’t presume to tell me what to do in my own realm, Piotr! I will not have my will questioned, even by you!”

“Yana, please!”

“Get out!” she snapped, rising to her feet and pointing do the door. “Get out, or I will have you dragged out!”

“Yana—”

Peter was cut off when S’ym’s massive body interposed itself between them.

“The Mistress commands that you leave her presence,” he said, but despite the command in his voice, Peter noted something odd playing across the demon’s features. He had never interacted with the denizens of Limbo as Illyana had, but he was shocked to realize it was fear.

“Goodbye, Piotr,” Illyana said. “A portal to Earth will be opened soon. I suggest you use it.”

Peter stared dumbstruck at her dismissal, but with the towering muscular frame of S’ym standing between them there was nothing to be done. He sighed, turned, and stormed from the room, with the demon trailing behind him. They passed out of the doors to the great hall, and returned to the antechamber once more. S’ym stopped and beckoned him to follow.

“Come with me,” S’ym said, and turned for the set of doors at the western end of the antechamber. Peter followed him, and soon found himself in a short passage with two other doors. One to the right led deeper into the castle along the western side of the great hall. The other opened onto a set of stairs spiraling down into darkness. S’ym followed this second passage, and they started down.

“Where are you taking me?” he asked after a few minutes descending in silence. So far there had been no other openings or landings, and the stairs continued to burrow deep into the earth — or whatever one might call the substrate of Limbo — beneath the castle.

“Somewhere we may talk. But not here, not yet. Now, no more questions.”

Peter frowned at the demon’s back but remained silent. The stairwell seemed to go on and on forever, and the temperature plummeted the deeper they ventured. Eventually it ended abruptly at another door. S’ym opened it and ushered him inside before shutting it behind them.

He found himself in a cramped cell with a bed, but few other comforts. Nonetheless, it was unusually warm and welcoming despite its austerity. Peter turned to S’ym, and the troubled expression on the demon’s features unnerved him.

“What is happening here?” Peter demanded. “Yana has been coming to Limbo since she was a child, but I have never seen her like this before!”

“You are right, the Mistress’s behavior has changed,’ S’ym said.

Peter frowned. “How?”

“Though the Mistress visits often, she has never before drawn on her power as heavily as she has these past few days.” He sighed and mopped his face with a clawed hand. “Had I realized the effect it would have on her ...”

“What effect?” Peter asked, his impatience getting the better of him. “I could see it in Yana’s eyes she was prepared to attack me had you not stepped in!”

“The Mistress is not the first human to find a way into Limbo,” S’ym admitted, and folded his arms across his massive chest. “Limbo is very old, predating even the creation of your Earth. But the Mistress’s connection to it is unique. We exist with or without her, but she is still a part of it, as it is a part of her.

“But Limbo is a place of incredible power, and power always exacts its price. Sorcerers and magicians from Earth have sought to tap into it for centuries, and they did succeed. But that power twisted them and drove them mad. The human mind is simply incapable of harnessing such power unaffected, especially if they draw on too much of it at once.”

Peter studied the demon in horror. “You mean it’s Limbo itself that’s doing this to her?”

S’ym nodded contritely. “I fear so. It has been working at her mind slowly since she first opened a portal, but these past few days the process has quickened considerably, in part because she has been channeling its power into herself directly. This illness...what was it?”

“We’re not entirely certain,” Peter said. “I assume you know that Yana, I, and the others she has brought here at times while traveling are unusual from other humans.”

“Yes, the Mistress has told us of mutation, and how it sets you apart from others of your species.”

“This disease was manufactured specifically to attack us. In that much Yana wasn’t entirely wrong; this was an assassination attempt, so to speak, though it was purely by chance she was the first to be infected. And it was not specifically an attack against her, or against Limbo, as she seems to think. It was meant to wipe out all of us.”

S'ym considered that for a moment. “Then you must understand that Limbo itself is...complicated.”

Peter frowned up at the thoughtful expression on the demon’s features. “Complicated how?”

“The Mistress, I believe, is part of a very old prophecy: A child born of the Earth, connected directly to the Heart of Limbo. We were sworn to serve her millennia before she was even born.” He lowered his voice conspiratorially, and leaned down to take Peter in. “But there are some who question being so bound to a child, and a human child, at that. They had ruled parts of Limbo for eons in her name, waiting for her to be born, and I fear they have developed a taste for power of their own in that time.”

S'ym sighed, and suddenly the immense age of the demon, which Peter could not even fathom, weighed heavily on him. “This illness...if word were to spread of it ...” He shook his head. “I, and many others, remain loyal to her, but I fear that there are some who would see this as a weakness, and attempt to usurp her and take her place.”

“Do you think she’s in danger?”

“Possibly. They may not directly harm her, but they may attempt to use her for their own ends. I cannot even guarantee that her enemies do not have spies in this castle. I also fear what might happen if the Mistress were to be further corrupted. Those human sorcerers who tapped into Limbo in the past have done considerable damage, not just to your Earth, but to Limbo itself, and they only possessed a fraction of the power the Mistress can draw on.”

“If this is true then I must get her home,” Peter said, “for everyone’s sake.”

“Whatever you choose to do, you must act soon. If she continues to draw too heavily on her powers, even I dread what could be unleashed.”

###

“It’s no use,” David said in frustration. “I checked the secondary generators, and they’re completely fused, too. Anything that was powered on when Magneto blew is fried. Even the stuff that was shielded.”

Jean buried her face in her hands. They were all gathered in the recovery bay, while Dr. Rao tended to Nori’s hands as best she could. Every bone in them had been crushed the moment Erik’s powers raged out of control and crumpled her gauntlets around them, and with all of their equipment offline there was little more they could do for her beyond giving her an injection of Hank’s serum to prevent her powers from overloading her mental faculties, and some painkillers that were doing much less for her than Jean would have liked.

A few glow lamps provided the only illumination, casting a weak circle of light around the team. Cessily lay curled up in a ball on a nearby bed while Sooraya stroked her hair to offer her comfort. Erik’s powers had nearly torn her metal body into atoms during the massive magnetic blast that ripped through the lower levels of the school. David sat with Nori hugging her close to his shoulder while she cried in pain. Santo and Victor slumped in chairs nearby, and Rahne just tried not to draw attention to herself. Bradley paced the floor irritably.

“I would have thought McCoy, at least, would have the foresight to make better preparations than this,” he said, gesticulating wildly in frustration. “Considering he spent the better part of 50 years at odds with a literal walking EMP, that should have been obvious!”

“Recriminations will get us nowhere, James,” Rao admonished him once she finished securing the bandages immobilizing Nori’s hands. “I suggest we try to fix the problem at hand instead of complaining about it. We do have the portable generators, so at least the quarantine bay and life support equipment are back online again.”

“Good thing, too,” David said. “If we hadn’t gotten Melody on oxygen when we did ...”

“It’s best not to dwell on what could have happened,” Jean said. “Dr. Rao is right: Let’s focus on what we can do. Dr. Bradley, I believe this is falling more under your area of expertise without Hank, but is there anything you can do to get main power to the school restored? The portable generators won’t last long.”

Bradley stopped and considered. “I’ll have to see what sort of materials I have to work with, though I suspect from what I’ve seen of McCoy’s work it will be like building a nuclear reactor from stone knives and bearskins.”

David shook his head and rolled his eyes. “You got that one from Star Trek.”

“Ellison got that one from me,” Bradley sniffed indignantly. “He often consulted me on the science for his work. But rather than appreciate its grandeur, he instead distilled it into the literary equivalent of two buck chuck.”

David made a face as if Bradley had just run over his puppy, and then backed over it for good measure. “Ellison was one of the greatest science fiction writers of his generation!”

“Feh. Science fiction. I deal in science fact. And it will not be some fanciful bit of speculative wizardry that resolves this conundrum, but the liberal application of physics. Rock hard, unyielding physics!”

Everyone just stared at Bradley when he finished pontificating, and for a moment silence hung over the recovery room. Jean felt ripples of embarrassment over his choice of vocabulary from Rahne and Sooraya.

“He does hear himself, right?” Nori whispered to Rao, who could only pinch the bridge of her nose in exasperation.

“I hate it when nerds fight,” Santo finally said. “Too many big words.”

“I don’t recall asking for opinions from the sample from the geology lab,” Bradley said.

“Can you do it?” Jean asked, cutting off Santo before he could process the insult and retort.

Bradley sighed in indignation. “Point me to the stone knives and bearskins, and bring me your strongest amphetamines since coffee is clearly out of the question without power.”

“This is a school, James,” Rao admonished.

“Precisely my point. One of these miscreants must have something squirreled away somewhere.”

“I’m afraid you’ll have to make do without,” Jean said sharply, her temper beginning to get the better of her when Bradley strained the last of her patience. “And no arguments or complaints, just get it done.”

“There is another matter,” Rao interjected, before Bradley could respond, “and it’s the reason David called you before the incident.”

Jean picked up a hint of trepidation from David that made her finer hairs stand on end. “What is it?”

“We had a chance to review the sample you took from Laura earlier,” Rao said, “and our findings were...unexpected.”

Jean eyed her and David closely, already not liking the tone of Rao’s voice, or of their thoughts, for that matter. “How so?”

“I rechecked the sample myself, and it seems that she is already infected.”

Jean gawked, and a brittle silence filled the room. Cessily levered herself upright.

“What?” Cessily said in disbelief. “Are you sure?”

Rao nodded. “Sadly, yes.”

“But Laura didn’t seem to be sick,” Victor protested. “Last I saw her she was completely fine.”

“It seems that her healing abilities have established homeostasis, of sorts, with the virus. Her immune response is holding it in check, but can’t destroy it entirely.”

“How long has she been infected?” Jean asked.

Rao shrugged and let out a sigh. “Unfortunately, it’s impossible to say. She could very well have been the first infected after your husband and Ms. Rasputin, and we would never know it. I can’t even estimate how long her healing factor can maintain this equilibrium. It’s incredibly powerful, but it does have its limits.”

Jean’s shoulders slumped at the implications settling heavily around her. “I just sent her to Mount Sinai with Josh and Julian. Could she be contagious?”

“Again, I just don’t know. If her healing factor is fighting the virus as fast as it can establish itself, it’s possible she will not be able to spread it further. However, I do believe that this is actually an encouraging sign.”

“How could you say that?” Sooraya asked, aghast. “With what this virus has done to everyone else it has infected, and now Laura is carrying it?”

Rao raised her hands defensively. “Please, let me finish: The important fact to take away from this is that her heightened immune system is successfully fending the virus off. This seems to be supporting Henry’s hypothesis that her healing factor may be the key to formulating a cure.”

“But you said that it’s kind of a stalemate,” Cessily said. “Like, it’s keeping her from actually getting sick, but hasn’t been able to kill it off entirely.”

“Not now, no,” Rao replied, “As Dr. Grey explained to me, Joshua attempted to use his powers to fortify the immune response of the other patients to little effect, but I believe that is because their immune systems were unable to adapt to it from the start. However, Laura’s healing factor is of a uniquely aggressive type that I have only seen in two other mutants before. Henry believes that we may be able to amplify this effect to the point where it can actually eliminate the virus, not just prevent it from spreading.”

Jean considered that for a moment. “What would you need to do this?”

“First, we need to get power back to the lab. James’ confidence notwithstanding, if he’s unable to do so we won’t be able to get anywhere synthesizing enough of an antiviral treatment to take care of the patients here, much less at Mount Sinai.”

“Now listen here, Kavita!” Bradley said irritably, “Do you even comprehend how quickly the wheels are turning in my brain right now?”

“Yes, James, but it will do us little good if the hamster’s dead.”

“Oh, snap!” Santo said, earning himself a glare from Bradley. The other kids tried their best to hide their smiles and laughter.

“Archimedes never had to deal with such insolence!”

“Archimedes got stabbed in the back by vengeful Roman soldiers,” David said.

“Anyway,” Rao interjected, forestalling another retort from Bradley, “We need power or everything else is pointless. I’ll also need Josh’s assistance. His ability to manipulate the genetic structure of biological matter will be the key: We need to modify Laura’s white cells to fully overcome the virus’s own defenses. I believe now that we’ve seen it in action I can guide him through what needs to be done. Fortunately, her blood type also makes her a universal donor, so we have no need to be concerned about finding compatible blood supplies. But this does mean I’ll need her assistance as well to collect further samples.”

“Laura is not going to like that,” Cessily said, giving voice to Jean’s own concern. “She really doesn’t like doctors.”

“Yes, I know. James helped demonstrate that quite emphatically this morning.”

“We’ll address that as it becomes necessary,” Jean said. “But this does bring us to a second urgent problem: Right now, we have no way to reach Hank to even have Josh and Laura sent back. All our phones were killed by the EMP, and I’m sure any other electronics that were online at the time are shot as well. So even if we can restore power most of the school’s computers will likely need to be replaced.”

She turned to Rahne, who until now had remained quiet, hovering near the back of the room and trying not to be noticed.

“Rahne, please head upstairs. The elevator is offline, but you should still be able to use the emergency stairs. Check with Nezhno and see if his phone is working. With luck, the energy Erik released was contained down here and anything in the mansion itself is intact. If not, check all of the other students’ rooms to see if anyone had a phone that was powered off at the time. I’d also like you to have everyone still in the school come down here. I don’t want them left alone with all of us tied up in case one of them gets sick, as well.”

“Yes, Dr. Grey,” Rahne said.

“David, please work with Dr. Bradley on the generators, that’s still our first priority.”

“Me?” David asked, and looked doubtfully at Bradley, who fumed silently over the suggestion he needed assistance.

“Hank is the only other person who would likely be able to understand the engineering required for this. At the very least, you can draw on Dr. Bradley’s knowledge in a way that even I can’t to help speed the process.” She offered him an apologetic smile. “He’ll still be in charge of the project, but don’t let him bully you.”

David nervously scratched the back of his head. “Um, okay. What about Nori?”

“I’ll be fine,” Nori said, though Jean could not miss the pain in her voice even through the painkillers. “If Josh gets back he can fix my hands, but my gauntlets are a total loss!”

“Didnae ye have a spare pair?” Rahne asked.

Nori looked at her with horror. “Those old things? Oh my God, I would die if anyone saw me in them!”

“Under the circumstances, Noriko,” Sooraya said, “I suspect that vanity is the least of our concerns. If your powers should return you will need to contain them.”

Nori bristled, but Jean interjected before the acerbic retort forming in her mind could make it to her lips. “Sooraya is right, Nori. Hank and Dr. Bradley can see about repairing the others once the more immediate concerns have been addressed, but we can’t afford another outburst. No offense, but your powers especially may be especially hazardous down here. And I have a bad feeling you may need them before all of this is done, so we can’t afford to keep them suppressed. Rahne, please see about grabbing the old pair when you’re upstairs.”

Jean wearily pinched her eyes. “I understand how bad things are looking, but we can get through this. Let’s just get to work, and take it one step at a time.”

###

The ride from Westchester to Mount Sinai was just under an hour of awkward silence, with he, Laura, and Foley all piled in the back seat together. Laura squeezed onto the bench between them to physically separate them, but Julian spent the trip watching the scenery roll by out his window to stave off the temptation to punch Foley again.

They arrived at the hospital none too soon, and stepped out of the shuttle and into the sheer chaos of press, ambulances, and hospital workers struggling to direct the flow of pedestrian traffic and maintain clear lanes for emergency workers. Julian shuddered at the sight of men, women, and children being rushed through the crowd on gurneys by EMTs. Parents and children wailed and cried when their loved ones were carted away, while nurses frantically scrambled to take the patients into care.

“Julian!” a voice called, and Julian turned to find Ms. Pryde’s diminutive figure darting through the crowd. Those she couldn’t evade she simply phased through, and he was treated more than once to the bemusement of some idiot who couldn’t get out of the way fast enough.

Ms. Pryde slowed upon drawing nearer, and she took note of Laura in surprise. Neither of them had changed from their training uniforms, and only had time to throw their jackets over them to deflect at least some of the attention of the onlookers away from them. “Laura,” she said, “I didn’t know Hank asked for you, too.”

“He did not,” Laura said. “However, Dr. Grey agreed it would be prudent under the circumstances to provide additional security.”

Julian smirked. “She’s also hiding from Bradley.”

Laura’s cheeks colored. “I am not hiding.”

“Sure you aren’t.” He laughed at Laura’s indignant glare. “Just think of it as revenge,” he added with a wink that made her turn completely red.

“Whatever the reason, an extra pair of hands is welcome,” Ms. Pryde said, with a roll of her eyes at his teasing. “Come on, Dr. McCoy wants to see Josh right away.”

Foley nodded and set his jaw determinedly. “Right.”

“Julian, I’ll leave you and Laura in the intake. Help the orderlies and nurses if they ask, but keep an eye out for any sign one of the victims may begin to lose control of their powers. If you can, try to get the details of their mutations so we can be aware of anyone who might be a particular risk if there’s an outburst.”

Julian twisted his lip into a scowl. “You want us to point out our own people as dangerous to the flatscans?”

Ms. Pryde sighed patiently. “You know that’s not what I mean. Everyone here is on the same side, and they’re all doing their best to help. But we do need to be ready if something goes wrong and someone needs to be isolated in a hurry.

“Now come on, the Doc’s expecting us.”

###

Hank leaned wearily against the nurse’s station. The initial flood slowly started to subside, but the number of new arrivals remained steady. Now, victims were arriving from further afield in Mutant Town than the block they identified as the focal point of the release. An orderly arrived with another gurney, and Hank levered himself off the desk. A sickening feeling roiled through his gut at the sight of a girl who couldn’t be more than ten years old, lying still and pale, drenched in sweat while her body burned itself alive from within. He caught sight of a pair of gill-like structures behind her ears.

“She just came in, Doctor,” said the orderly, a young woman whose face looked much like how Hank’s heart felt, when she handed him the chart. “Nine years old, her parents claim to not be mutants themselves. They lived a block over from the release site. Her best friend lived in that building.”

Hank glanced over the chart, and the words began to blur together. He pinched the bridge of his nose to force them back into focus.

He sighed and nodded. “All right, take her to Isolation B. Have they been advised to be tested for the X-gene?”

“Yes, Doctor,” she replied.

“Good, one of them most likely is a dormant carrier, so we’ll want to be prepared.”

The orderly wheeled the gurney past and took the girl down the hall. Hank, left for the moment without anyone to direct, headed the opposite way to the overflow area, where a makeshift ICU had been assembled to handle the influx, and his heart ached to see so many more of them were children.

It's sickening that men of science could willingly unleash something so horrific against anyone so young and helpless.

Hank sighed and swept his eyes across rows of gurneys and their attached equipment. Some of the victims were now hooked up to respirators and other life support equipment. However, the largest challenge remained bringing their fevers down. The temperature in the isolation and overflow rooms had been lowered as far as the air conditioning could be set. Portable units were brought up in an effort to cool them even further, and now filled the air with the hum of their compressors and fans. Fortunately, Hank’s fur insulated him and prevented the chill from becoming uncomfortable. However, almost as soon as he began his survey of the room from the door a frown crossed his features.

There were gurneys missing.

Hank stepped through and made his way to an empty space where a young boy had been. The equipment had been powered off and disconnected. The same was the case a few beds over; an older woman. And another, a teenage girl. Five altogether were gone.

“What the devil ...?”

Hank retreated from the room and hurried back to the nurse’s station. She looked up upon his approach, and frowned at the expression on his features.

“Doctor, is something wrong?”

“Yes, there are five patients missing from the overflow room, along with their charts.”

The nurse regarded him with some confusion. “Missing? Dr. Chandler said they were being transferred to New York Presbyterian Lower Manhattan because of the volume of cases we were handling. He had a signed order for it.”

Hank narrowed his eyes. “I gave no such order, and I assure you, I would not have signed off on having patients removed unless I were personally overseeing the release. When were they taken?”

The nurse clicked around on her computer. “That was about half an hour ago ...” she trailed off, and her face turned a sickly color.

Hank stepped around the desk to look over her shoulder. “What?”

“The order is under your name, but there was no log for a medical transport.”

He scowled. “Find Dr. Chandler, I want to see him immediately. And get security to look for those patients!”

“Yes, Doctor!”

###

Laura wrinkled her nose at the overwhelming layering of smells filling the hospital; the stink of disease, the overpowering sanitized odor of disinfectants, the fear of families watching their loved ones carted away, and the sweaty, musky stench of too many bodies crammed into too small of a space. Doctors, nurses, orderlies, EMTs, and other hospital personnel rushed through what to the untrained observer would be disorganized chaos, but Laura immediately picked up the pattern while the incoming patients were evaluated, logged, and routed.

She huddled deeply into a corner to stay out of the way and avoid the white-coated men and women diving into the heart of the fracas. Everything looked and smelled much too sickeningly familiar, and now she found herself questioning her request to accompany Julian.

He stood next to her, his jaw clenched and his lips twisted into a scowl while he watched the activity, leaning against the wall behind them with his arms folded across his chest. The fragrant scent of his aftershave floated above the other overlapping odors, and she focused on it as a respite from the assault on her senses.

So far, the hospital staff had ignored them once Miss Pryde introduced them and had not called upon them for assistance. The visitors and families largely paid them little attention, though the training uniforms beneath their jackets drew a few curious looks. Laura forcibly ignored the few whispers reaching her ears over the background cacophony about the close cut of the jumpsuit to the shape of her legs and backside.

Her eyes strayed to Julian, and her face heated upon realizing his suit was no different; not quite as conforming as leggings, but enough to leave little doubt about the shape of his rear. And that stirred up a response she could not quite put a name too. She had once overheard Laurie mention a feeling of “butterflies” when around Joshua. Laura supposed if she pushed her imagination, what she felt might not be dissimilar from the sensation of something fluttering about in her stomach. And that just confused her further.

Her enhanced hearing had at times picked up other girls at school — predominately those not part of what she now understood constituted her immediate social circle — commenting favorably on his appearance. Laura considered him for a moment herself: Smooth, symmetrical features with a strong jawline. Clear, bright blue eyes. Hair neatly groomed in accordance with what she had learned of current fashion trends, and glossy in a manner that, combined with his other features indicated good health. A strange warmth spread through her when her assessment shifted lower: Despite his power compensating for a need for physical strength, Julian nonetheless kept himself fit and athletic, with an appropriately low percentage of body fat, and the traditionally masculine morphological characteristics of a V-shaped torso with broad shoulders, tapering to a slim waist and narrow hips... Laura suddenly flushed even hotter when, upon continuing her inspection, her eyes fixated on his backside again.

Why should I be reacting this way?

She determined it was not a bad sensation, but she forcibly turned her eyes away, anyway. It was rude to stare, and she could not afford to be distracted by such musings.

“Look at it,” Julian was saying, inadvertently helping to give her something new to focus on than contemplating the cut of his jumpsuit and how he filled it out. “Most of these people aren’t any older than us.”

Laura considered the scene playing out before them and performed a quick mental calculation. Approximately 65% of the victims who had been brought in so far were adolescents, with the elderly making up the bulk of the remainder.

“Children and the elderly are often more susceptible to infectious disease, the former primarily due to developmental factors,” she said. “That is likely why our classmates fell ill at a faster rate than the staff at the school, excepting the deliberate introduction of the pathogen when Cyclops was attacked.”

“Ok, but, Jesus Christ, they’re still just kids. Between this, and the bus last year ...” He sighed and trailed off, and his frustration rolled off him as a sudden change in his scent.

“It is not uncommon for children to be the preferential targets for terror attacks. They are more vulnerable, and present a powerful emotional impact on the target population.”

Julian looked over at her, but she hung her head and refused to meet his eyes. She swallowed hard and fought off the memories threatening to claw their way out of the deep recesses whence she banished them.

It was becoming increasingly difficult to do so, now more than ever.

“You okay?” he asked. “It’s not about all the doctors running around, is it?”

She shook her head, wishing that was all it was. “No,” she said, and she felt her voice grow very small. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Julian sighed. “I know.” There was no reproach in his voice she could detect, though again his frustration was evident in his scent. “I get it, but I am here if you ever think it would help to just get it out there.”

Laura looked up at him, a confused mishmash of feelings she didn’t understand warring for prominence. “It is just ...” She trailed off when her voice broke, and the ghosts locked away deep in her memory tried to break loose again.

“Look, I don’t want you to think I’m trying to pressure you, you know? I just wish I could help.”

She swallowed. “I...appreciate it. But I don’t know that anyone can.”

Julian tensed beside her, and his features twisted as if in indecision. Laura was aware that hugs were often customary in times of emotional distress; Cessily in particular was fond of initiating such contact when one of their friends was troubled, often whether they wanted it or not (though her victims usually relented). Physical interactions of that sort made her uncomfortable, but Laura found herself wishing Julian would do just that now, and that puzzled her further. Why did uninvited touch from others feel like a violation, and yet she welcomed it from him?

Before she could consider such implications further, a new scent intruded on her senses. Something — someone — familiar. And a face broke through the wall she had built around the pain of the past; Bald. Bearded. Glasses. One of the men in white coats.

Robert Chandler.

A low growl escaped her throat. She stood away from the wall and swept her head across the crowd, attempting to pinpoint the source of the scent. Julian snapped upright as well, now alert and his frustration giving way to confusion.

“Laura?” he asked, a sudden surge of adrenaline coloring his scent. “What is it?”

Laura sniffed, concentrating through the confusing olfactory chaff to single in on that one particular, familiar scent. “Something is wrong. There is someone who should not be here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Because he should be dead.”

From the corner of her eye Laura spotted a member of the hospital’s security pushing through the crowd, and Laura turned to follow him, ignoring Julian’s audible cry of protest. He approached the doctor overseeing efforts at intake, and Laura picked up a fragment of their conversation over the background noise.

“...McCoy says that several patients have been moved without authorization,” the security guard said. “Dr. Chandler is wanted for questioning immediately.”

“I haven’t seen him,” the doctor replied. “Not since we cleared that first big influx from Mutant Town. He might be out front coordinating efforts there.”

Laura’s blood boiled at the confirmation, but her lack of height precluded her efforts to see past the sea of bodies around her. Instead, she relied on her nose, following the ephemeral trail winding through the crowd. Eventually, she reached a place where the press around them cleared, and when the bodies parted she spied Chandler in a hallway issuing directions to a man in scrubs.

And at the same time, his eyes met hers and his face went white in recognition.

Chandler turned and bolted, and Laura sprung forward in pursuit. She dodged past people scrambling out of her path, while Chandler bowled through anyone unable to clear the way. He turned down a corridor and Laura followed him around the corner, kicking off the wall to make it without slowing. She was distantly aware of Julian calling her name when she quickly left him behind, her legs and arms effortlessly pumping despite the speed of her pursuit.

Knowing he could neither escape in a contest of speed, nor outlast her over distance, Chandler fled back into a more heavily trafficked part of the hospital in hopes of outmaneuvering her. He plowed through the crowd, and the men and women he knocked down cried out angrily. Laura lightly vaulted over the prostrate bodies, and turned her small size to advantage dodging between those still on their feet. She did not need to see him to follow his path; she had his scent and now followed him as relentlessly as any bloodhound.

By now, his flight had drawn the attention of security, who joined in the pursuit. But Laura outpaced them and quickly gained ground on her quarry.

Chandler pulled upon a door leading into a stairwell, and his feet echoed loudly within its confines. Laura followed and found him three floors down by the time she reached the first steps. Without hesitation she vaulted over the rail into empty space, Julian’s astonished cry echoing behind her.

Laura landed exactly where she intended, coming down with an arm wrapped around Chandler’s neck and spinning him around from the force of impact. Her weight settling onto his back and shoulders pulled him off-balance, and together they toppled over the rail.

“Laura!” Julian screamed as she and Chandler plummeted down. The bottom of the stairwell rushed up to meet them. She would survive the impact, he would likely not.

A web of green energy arrested their fall just before they struck the concrete below. Chandler was white with terror, and his eyes stared bewildered at the floor inches from his face before they were gently lowered to the ground. But her prey had not yet surrendered. The moment Julian released his telekinetic hold on them, Chandler twisted onto his back and reached inside his lab coat. Time seemed to stop when he drew, leveled, and fired a pistol in one smooth motion. A puff of compressed air erupted from the muzzle, and something whizzed past her cheek just as she turned her head aside. She watched the dart speed for Julian — casually levitating himself down to join them — and her heart leapt into her throat when it struck and lodged in his neck.

Chandler squirmed and readjusted his aim. A sharp snikt echoed in the stairwell, and she slashed her claws through both gun and hand. Its mechanism spilled across the floor, and with it several of his fingers. He cried out in pain and grabbed his wounded hand.

A strangled snarl of rage escaped her lips, and she seized Chandler by the shirt front and raised her claws to strike. But by now security had finally caught up with them. She thrashed at the hands seizing her by the arms and hauling her off him, and it was only Julian’s voice that snapped her back to the present before she could lash out defensively.

He leaned against the handrail at the foot of the steps, his eyes wide with fear, and touched the dart protruding from his neck.

“Laura, you okay?” he asked, his voice hollow once he processed the implications of his situation.

Her mind scrambling to process what just happened, she said the only thing that made sense.

“Someone get a doctor!”

###

Peter followed S’ym back up to the inhabited levels of the castle. The demon was not able to explain precisely how that particular chamber, which served as his quarters, managed to block Illyana’s ability to monitor what happened within Limbo.
Nonetheless, he was certain their conversation would go unobserved. The problem now was to get through to her and make her see reason.

They reached the top of the stairs, stepped out into the small hallway, then back through the door leading to the antechamber. Peter squared his shoulders and, with S’ym remaining behind, approached the guards flanking the doors to the great hall. They immediately crossed their spears to bar his entrance. Unlike S’ym they were only the height of the average man, and Peter towered over them.

“The Mistress has commanded that none are to enter,” one said.

“She will see me,” Peter said, in the most commanding voice he could, but the guards were unimpressed.

“You will be summoned when she has need of you,” the other replied. Neither so much as looked at him.

Peter twisted his lip in irritation. “I am not here as some supplicant or courtier to be summoned and dismissed at her whim. I am here as a brother come to talk sense into his sister. I will ask you once more politely to let me pass.”

The guards both lowered their spears at him at the veiled threat. “The Mistress has commanded that none are to enter,” the first repeated. “Remove yourself now or be removed.”

He sighed. “Forgive me, I wish it had not come to this.” With a metallic clattering his armor formed around him, the organic steel gleaming in the lamp light, and he seized both guards by their surcoats and bashed their heads together. He stepped over their crumpled, groaning figures, and threw the doors to the hall open.

Peter proceeded down the hall, glowering at Illyana seated on her throne. Complete silence fell over the chamber, and Illyana, her face contorted in anger, came to her feet.

“How dare you force your way into my hall!” she snarled. “I am not your sister here, but Lady of this domain, and I will be respected as such!”

“You are always my sister!” Peter shouted back, his baritone voice shaking the hall. “Whether you are here, at Xavier’s, or at home, I am your brother. And as your brother, I tell you to listen to yourself! The Illyana I know would never have dismissed the well-being of her friends.”

“Guards! Remove him at once!”

“Yana, stop!” he commanded, and the guards flinched back at the anger in his voice before they could carry out her order. “You are already unwell from the illness, and you have drawn too heavily on the power of Limbo fighting it. It is twisting your mind!”

Illyana stormed down from the dais, her scapula flapping between her bare legs. “Liar! I am Limbo!”

“No, you are not! However you are bound to it, Limbo exists with or without you, and its power corrupts everyone who draws on it. Your own servants would tell you if you were to ask them!”

“This is my power, Piotr! It’s mine by right, and you will not usurp it from me!”

“I don’t want your power!” he roared, and even Illyana was taken aback by his show of temper. “I want my sister back! Now before this goes any further, you will open the portal back to Earth, and we are going home!”

“This is my home!”

“No, it’s not! So stop this childishness. Either we both return to Earth, or neither of us do.”

Illyana’s eyes lit with a baleful fire, and she drew her sword. Flames flickered wrathfully along its pale, gleaming edges. “You betray me, brother, so if you refuse to go when I offered you the chance, so be it!”

With no further preamble, she charged with an inhuman scream. Peter did not flinch. He did not stand aside. He planted his feet and met her, and deflected a powerful blow from her sword with his forearm. Steel rang across the chamber, and Illyana bore into him with savage abandon. They stepped around one another and circled, Illyana seeking an opening, Peter controlling the distance and not giving her a clean line to strike. Though she attacked with an animalistic fury that matched even Laura’s, Peter refused to take the offensive against her. He deflected blow after blow, and soon the sleeves of his shirt were left a shredded mess.

Illyana struck again and again and again, every swing cheated when it connected with his forearms or hands. Their feet shuffled across the floor when she circled around to his side, and Peter countered her movements. Her eyes blazed with wrath, and, seeing her efforts with her sword had no effect, spun out of distance.

She raised one hand and barked something in a guttural tongue he could not comprehend, and a ball of white fire appeared in her clenched fist. Another sharp intonation, and the flame erupted in a column of raw energy that struck him square in the chest. Peter felt himself lifted from his feet, and it was not until he slammed into one of the marble columns supporting the ceiling overhead he realized he had been flung nearly thirty feet through the air. He came down hard on his backside, and dodged to the side when another blast split the space he just vacated, smashing the column into rubble.

Illyana charged again, mixing sword and sorcery to batter his defenses. Peter managed to catch her off-hand when she raised it for another blast, and he was horrified to find her appearance changed. Her face was a twisted mask of rage, and great black horns curled back from her brow that had not been there before.

The moment of distraction gave her an opening, and she hooked the hand holding her wrist with the pommel of her sword, and leveraged him into an arm bar that broke his grip. She lacked the strength to take advantage of her position, however, and Peter managed to twist himself free. Illyana stumbled forward a few paces while Peter backed away. She lashed out with a concentrated blast of power again, but this time rather than striking him directly, she aimed at his feet.

The beam of energy gouged into the floor, and fragments of marble erupted in a cloud of dust. Peter dodged, but Illyana merely turned to follow. The floor tiles were torn up beneath him, and dumped Peter to the ground.

She stalked forward, and Peter cried out at the sustained barrage of energy now blasting into him. Illyana did not stop until she stood directly over him and took her sword in both hands. She panted in rage, and her eyes blazed. Peter raised himself up on his elbows. Now he had one last card to play.

Illyana lifted her sword high overhead, and stomped one heeled boot down on his chest, pinning him in place. Peter could have upended her effortlessly. Whatever power she gained from Limbo, she still could not match him in raw strength. Instead, however, he dropped his armor and waited for her strike to fall.

Her whole body trembled, her breath came in heaving gasps, her lips twisted into a sneer. And yet there was a moment of hesitation while she stood over him, the blade of her sword poised for a final, fatal blow.

“What are you waiting for?” he said. “Do it!”

Illyana blinked. The flame dancing in her eyes shrunk, though they remained lit from within.

“Do it!”

“I ...” she said in a trembling voice.

“This is what you want, isn’t it? This is your kingdom. You’re both ruler and executioner. You accused me of betraying you? Then strike and be done with it, because if this is who you are now, the Illyana I knew is dead, and there’s nothing left for me outside.”

Illyana stepped back, gripping her sword so tightly it began to shake. “Fight back!” she screamed, yet rather than a note of command, it echoed petulantly across the hall.

“No,” he said. “Look at what you are doing, Little Snowflake.”

Confused, Illyana looked at the sword in her hands, and then at Peter lying on his back. The fire in her eyes dimmed and then extinguished itself, and the horns curling from her brow receded. “What I am doing ...?”

“This is not who you are, Illyana.”

“Piotr ...?”

Tears filled her eyes, and with a howl of grief Illyana dropped her sword. It clattered to the marble floor, and she sank down to her knees beside it, her face buried in her hands. Peter pushed himself up and gathered her into his arms. “It’s all right, Yana.”

“What is happening to me?”

“Your brother was right, Mistress,” S’ym said from the doorway, and he approached with the clicking of his taloned feet on the marble floor. By now a small crowd had gathered, the residents of the castle coming to investigate the disturbance in the great hall. “You were drawing too heavily on the power of Limbo, and you were not prepared for it. It was twisting your mind.”

She lifted her head from Peter’s shoulder, and her features relaxed from the contorted expression of demonic rage, into that of a contrary teenage girl. “That should not be possible! I am Limbo.”

“You are bonded to it, as we are to you, but you are not Limbo itself. This place exists with or without you, as your brother said. There have been others in the past who have tapped its power before you, and they all met with the same fate: Some went mad. Some have become twisted.”

“But I have done things here before... I conjured my room, the gallery ...”

S’ym’s expression was patient, and Peter couldn’t help but be reminded of their father giving him a stern but encouraging talking-to after some foolish venture had gotten him in trouble, or of the Professor about to lecture one of the students after a bit of back-talk. “You wished for things to be, and they became.” He shook his head and sighed. “What you were doing now is different. You were taking Limbo’s power into yourself directly. Opening yourself to it greatly expanded your magical power, but a human mind cannot bear that much all at once.”

Illyana slumped wearily, and Peter saw the disbelief and disillusionment in her eyes.

“You still have much to learn about both magic and rulership,” S’ym said. “I have taught you as best I can, but you have responsibilities elsewhere: A good queen does not abandon her people, and your brother says you have friends on Earth who need you.”

“I’m so sorry,” she mewled. “I thought I had control ...”

“We need to get back,” Peter said, steering the conversation back to the matter at hand and away from her recriminations. He helped her to her feet, picked up her sword, and returned it to her. “If you are cured.”

She nodded. “I can feel that the virus has been purged from me. But I can’t do this for the others. It took considerable power to burn it out, and outside Limbo my magic will be too weak. And I wouldn’t dare risk bringing the others here, not if what you and S’ym are telling me is true.”

“I know, Yana. We’ll just have to rely on science, and hope Dr. McCoy can find a solution. For now, let’s go home.”

“I’ll need a few moments to open a portal,” she said, sheathed her sword, and took a shuddering breath. “Thank you for stopping me.”

He smiled and hugged her close. “It will be all right.”

He watched S’ym frown doubtfully from over the top of her head, and Peter frowned in turn. Illyana pulled away, and S’ym immediately masked his expression when she turned to him.

“S’ym, I must return to Earth. I leave the castle in your hands.”

He bowed low. “Mistress.”

“Come, Piotr,” she said. “I think I am ready.”

“I’ll be right behind you,” he said, and watched her depart. Her clothing changed, her armor vanishing and her scapula being replaced with something much more appropriate for her age — a simple pair of ripped black skinny jeans and a cropped t-shirt — and with it her sword vanished back into her soul. When she was out of earshot he turned to S’ym. “What’s wrong?”

“Be wary, Piotr Rasputin,” S’ym said in a low voice. “The Mistress may have regained control of herself for now, but the corruption of drawing too heavily on the powers in Limbo is not so easily cleansed.”

Peter scowled at him. “Are you saying she might have been permanently changed by this?”

“I will not lie to you: She has drawn the power of this place directly into herself, so will carry the mark of what she has done all her life. Her magic will also be much stronger on Earth, now, though still not as great as it is here. This will be a very dangerous time for her.”

“Is there nothing to be done, or is she doomed to the same madness as the others you’ve mentioned?”

S’ym cocked his head and considered for a moment. “Time, perhaps, will tell. But the more she draws upon her magic, the more precarious it will become. It is seductive, and addictive. And those who would seek to use her to pursue their own power in Limbo may now be drawn to her. Not all the demons in the world reside in Limbo. Protect her.”

“I can give you my promise I will. And if Limbo needs to be protected, then you have my word that I won’t allow her to face such a threat alone.”

###

Josh rushed after Dr. McCoy, marveling at how quick and agile he was despite his size. He deftly threaded his way past nurses, doctors, orderlies, visitors, and other staff, dodged medical equipment and the occasional floor buffer, and vaulted a gurney here and there. If the ceiling had been designed for it, Josh imagined he’d have simply swung from it to evade the traffic jam altogether, and in which case he suspected he would never be able to keep up.

Dr. McCoy skidded to a halt at the top of the stairwell just as the door opened, and Laura emerged supporting Julian’s weight on her shoulder while a security guard accompanying them held the door for her. He was already looking very ill in the few minutes it took to get him upstairs again. Sweat beaded on his brow, and his face had gone white. If not for Laura, Josh suspected he would have collapsed altogether.

Laura’s green eyes immediately swiveled towards Dr. McCoy, and Josh rushed forward to take Julian’s weight.

“Foley get your damn hands off me,” he slurred, and from the lack of focus in his eyes, Josh suspected he was barely maintaining consciousness.

“Shut up, Julian!” he snapped. “You’re in no condition to be picky about who’s keeping you off the floor right now.”

“Joshua, can you help him?” Laura asked, and Josh was stunned by the despairing pleading in her eyes.

“I’ll do what I can, but so far I haven’t been able to do anything after someone’s already been infected.”

“Someone bring a gurney, stat!” Dr. McCoy called. “Hold on, Julian. Make room, and everyone get back!”

Josh lowered Julian to the floor with Laura’s help, and he placed a hand to his forehead. It already felt as if he were on fire from the inside. He closed his eyes and called upon his power, however any hope that he might be able to stop the spread of the virus if he got to a victim before they fell unconscious was quickly dashed, and he collapsed back helplessly, spent from the effort.

“I’m sorry,” he panted. “It’s just like before, I can’t even touch the virus with my power. I’ve tried to bolster his immune system but it’s just not enough.”

“Nice work, Foley, that’s real helpful,” Julian murmured.

“All right, that’s enough of that,” Dr. McCoy said. “There’s no time—”

Laura’s head jerked upright, and she cocked it to the side, cutting Dr. McCoy off before he could finish his admonishment. “Listen,” she snapped. “Do you hear ...”

Josh strained his ears, but at first he could hear nothing. Then he became aware of a quiet rattling sound, slowly building in intensity, and he frowned. “What the hell is that ...?”

“Oh my stars and garters ...” Dr. McCoy uttered, and Josh noticed the gurney pulling up had started to shake.

“Uh oh ...” Josh managed, just before a concentrated blast of energy exploded from Julian, and his whole body contorted.

Josh found himself lifted from the ground and thrown through the air. He struck the wall behind him, the blow driving the air from his lungs. Everyone nearby had been blasted across the corridor. The gurney crashed against a wall, and anything not bolted down was scattered, levitating, or swirling.

Julian screamed and writhed on the ground. His power exploded from him unrestrained, tearing apart the floor and ceiling tiles in a whirlwind of green-auraed telekinetic destruction.

“Somebody help me!” he cried, the plea dying away into an agonized, inhuman wail as he grabbed the sides of his head.

Josh levered himself up. The whole floor shook beneath him, and people screamed in terror. Laura was crawling on her belly to reach him before a loosened floor tile smacked the side of her face and knocked her sprawling. Josh managed to get his feet under him, but the moment he tried to dart forward a blast of telekinetic energy struck his shoulder and flung him back into the wall again.

Blood poured from Julian’s mouth, nose, eyes, and ears, and as if the storm of flying debris wasn’t bad enough, his power scooped up bloody vomit and sprayed it across the hallway.

Somehow, Dr. McCoy managed to fight his way through the maelstrom, braving the furious telekinetic hurricane threatening to tear the entire floor apart. He reached into a pocket of his lab coat and jabbed the produced syringe into Julian’s neck. The outburst subsided, and anything still lifted into the air came crashing or splattering down. Julian’s body twitched and spasmed for a few moments, before lying frighteningly still.

“Is everyone all right?” Dr. McCoy called. The people around them slowly recovered and regained their feet.

Laura was now at Julian’s side, but he did not respond when she touched his shoulder. Josh groaned, already feeling the bruises forming where Julian had thrown him into the wall. The gurney was righted, and a pair of orderlies rushed to load Julian on it. It took Dr. McCoy’s gentle hand on Laura’s shoulder to keep her from chasing after them when Julian was wheeled away towards the care unit. Her distress was palpable, and she continued staring after him in agitation after he disappeared.

“What the hell happened?” Josh asked.

“The kids managed to run down Dr. Chandler when he tried to run for it,” the security guard who had accompanied Laura and Julian said, then produced a compressed air pistol in one evidence bag, and a magazine of hypodermic darts in another. “We took these off him.”

“Dear God,” Dr. McCoy said. “Where is he now?”

“We’re holding him in the security office. The police have been contacted and are on their way.”

“Take me to him, please.”

“Doctor?” the guard asked, incredulous.

“Take me to him,” Dr. McCoy repeated. “Five patients have disappeared from this unit, and Chandler has apparently forged my signature to make that happen. We don’t have time for the police to get here; their lives may be in danger.”

The guard sighed and nodded. “All right, the admin said you’re in charge. This way.”

###

The security office was a small suite of rooms far from the functioning areas of the hospital. A guard manned the desk and phone, though he largely ignored them in favor of the New York Times crossword puzzle. There was also a holding area and interview room. Josh watched Dr. McCoy with Chandler through the one-way window in the wall of the latter, though what was being said he couldn’t hear. Laura paced behind him like a caged tiger desperate to sink its claws into a zookeeper.

He watched her over his shoulder. Her gymnast’s figure was tense and wound up so tight he thought she might start clawing up the walls. He had seldom seen her express much of what she was feeling openly, but he didn’t need to be a telepath to sense the barely restrained rage boiling beneath her stone-faced stoicism.

Minutes passed, and finally the door to the interview room opened and Dr. McCoy stepped out. His expression sent a shiver down Josh’s spine.

“Well, that was unproductive,” he growled.

Laura stopped pacing and eyed him intensely. Josh stepped in to speak before she could say something unfortunate. “What happened?”

Dr. McCoy sighed and mopped his face with one massive paw. “He wouldn’t say a word. The man is a doctor, for God’s sake! No one has found a trace of those missing people, and he refuses to answer any questions.”

“I will make him talk,” Laura said, and the shiver at Dr. McCoy’s frustration was nothing compared to hearing the ice in her voice now. The guard lowered his crossword and looked at her incredulously.

“Laura,” Dr. McCoy replied, a note of warning in his voice. “Now is not the time—”

“We need information,” she snapped back, furiously. “And he will give it to me.”

He sighed. “The police are on their way, I can’t permit—”

“I am not asking permission. Joshua, I will need your assistance.”

Dr. McCoy stared at her dumbfounded for a moment, taken aback not only by the backtalk, but that it was coming from Laura, of all people. “I beg your pardon? I am still in charge here,” he said, when he finally found his voice.

“You are needed to help Julian and the others. This is what I am good at. Joshua.”

Laura started towards the door to the interview room. The guard jumped up from the desk and tried to cut her off, but flinched back when she growled in warning. Josh put himself between them before it could escalate further.

“Laura, whatever you’re planning to do I can’t help you with this,” he said. “I can’t let you do this. You need to calm down and let the authorities handle it.”

“The authorities will be unable to do what is necessary, and we don’t have the time.”

“Look, I know this guy shot Julian but—”

“This is not about Julian!” she snarled defensively. Almost too defensively, in fact, and he didn’t need to be able to smell a lie to read one in her voice. Josh was horrified and taken aback by the pure hatred in her green eyes, while she trembled with barely restrained rage. Acid churned in his belly, and his throat went dry at the cold realization settling over him at what he was seeing.

“What did he do to you?” he asked, his voice barely more than a whisper.

“Laura?” Dr. McCoy prompted, just as perplexed by the explosive show of temper.

Laura froze for a moment, as if she had let something slip she never wanted to see the light of day, and just as suddenly as her temper flared it was doused again and her icy stoicism returned. She shrunk uncomfortably under him, Dr. McCoy, and the guard all staring at her.

“I am going to do what must be done, and you are going to help me,” she said instead.

“Look, kid,” the guard said, and stepped to block her path, “I saw what you did to that guy’s hand, and I can’t allow—”

She speared him on a glare so withering Josh thought the guard would wet himself.

“Move out of my way,” she hissed, and balled her fists.

Dr. McCoy took hold of the guard’s arm. “I think it best that we do as she says. I won’t go into the details, but there’s too much at stake to not at least let her try. I, at least, will trust her, and take responsibility for whatever happens. Josh, please assist her.”

Josh gawked at him, and a queasy feeling spread through him. “Dr. McCoy, I can’t—”

“Just do it. I’m forced to admit Laura is right, we don’t have any other options.”

Laura didn’t wait for him to respond, and instead brushed past them all on her way to the door. Josh looked helplessly at Dr. McCoy, hoping that he would step in and stop what was about to happen, but all he did was give him a nod. He sighed and slumped his shoulders, and followed Laura to the door.

He felt like he was going to throw up.

They stepped through and he shut the door behind them. Chandler blanched at the sight of Laura approaching the desk in a very slow and deliberate manner. She lowered herself into the chair opposite him, leaned forward, and rested her elbows on the desk. For a long moment she just stared, and a brittle, expectant silence filled the room. Chandler was soon fidgeting nervously, and a cold sweat beaded on his brow while Laura’s angry green eyes lanced through him. Cold dread washed over his pallid features. This wasn’t about the chase through the hospital, or the bandage over his maimed hand. There was recognition and familiarity in his terrified eyes. Somehow, Chandler knew exactly who Laura was, and that thought unnerved Josh perhaps more than her intentions.

Finally, just when Josh thought Chandler would be able to take no more, Laura spoke. Her voice was as cold and hard as he had ever heard it, and there was no mistaking the malice she held for the man across from her.

“You remember me, don’t you, Dr. Chandler,” she said. “I don’t know how you are still alive, but you remember me.”

He swallowed and nodded.

“Then you know what is about to happen. The human body can endure only so much physical trauma before shock and blood loss become fatal. And I know exactly where that line is.”

She nodded over her shoulder to him, and Josh did his best to at least try to look intimidating. Not that it mattered with 100 pounds of very angry Laura between them and obviously holding Chandler’s attention. “This is Elixir. He has a power that allows him to heal almost any wound. Which means I can keep you in agony indefinitely until you tell me everything I want to know.”

She extended the claws of one hand with a sharp snikt that echoed in the confines of the room, and Josh’s heart crawled up into his throat.

“You know that I am the best there is at what I do,” she said, “so I am going to start asking questions, and you are going to answer them.”

###

Act III

###

Pierce watched the live newsfeeds reporting from Mount Sinai at a makeshift desk in the safehouse, his lip curled into a satisfied sneer at the chaos unfolding in Manhattan. The virus had spread rapidly despite the limited release, and the hospital was now filled to almost overflowing, inundated by a wave of disease that practically emptied Mutant Town. There had been no deaths yet, but the sight of respirators and other life support equipment made clear how quickly the situation was deteriorating within not even twenty-four hours.

Sister Mary hovered behind his shoulder, and nodded in satisfaction.

“It’s a shame we couldn’t make as wide a release as we wanted,” she said, “but it seems the extra samples weren’t necessary after all.”

Pierce nodded. “I’ll admit this much: Harkins’s people know what they’re doing.”

“Do we have a time table on our special demonstration yet?”

He twisted his lip in annoyance, and leaned back in his chair. Harkins’s people know what they’re doing, but they’re damned slow to do it.

“No,” he said. “We’re supposed to sit tight for now. The subjects Harkins has are low-level threats. Seems almost anyone who would actually be destructive enough to make for a worthwhile demonstration is holed up with Xavier.”

Mary considered the monitors, her expression unreadable behind her ruined features. “We need to do something soon. If McCoy, Bradley, and Rao are able to synthesize an antiviral as Harkins fears, the moment could slip away.”

Pierce grunted, and looked up when one of the men approached his desk and waited patiently with his hands folded behind him. He let him stew for a few moments, before shutting down the feed and skewering him in place with his eyes.

“What is it?”

“Sir, Dr. Harkins is on the line for you, he says it’s urgent.”

Pierce sighed in frustration. Thus far, Harkins had been less than forthcoming with his promised help despite the efforts of his Reavers. He silently chafed while the scientist played his little games, but his patience was beginning to wear thin.

“Have we received any weapons shipments yet?”

The other swallowed. “Not yet, sir, though it’s only been a few hours.”

Pierce scowled at him. “Don’t presume to overstep yourself by telling me about the timetable.”

“Yes, sir,” he stammered, and Pierce satisfied himself he had been suitably chastised.

“Put Harkins through.”

“Yes, sir.” The aide hurried away, relieved to be released from his presence with his limbs intact, and shortly a chime on his terminal announced the call had been routed.

Pierce leaned back in his chair and activated the conference. Harkins’ face — Pierce was satisfied to note his customary smugness was gone and replaced by an agitated expression — appeared on his monitor.

“Harkins,” Pierce said. “Where are my weapons?”

“You'll have them," Harkins said, “but right now we have a bigger concern.”

“Oh? I thought you had everything in hand. You certainly sounded so full of it last night.”

“Not now, Pierce, I’m really not in the mood. My man at the hospital went dark an hour ago. I have a contact within the local police who are telling me he was caught removing subjects and apprehended.” A dark look passed across his features that even gave Pierce a moment of pause. “I’m working on getting him extracted, but this is potentially serious.”

“Would your man have talked?” Mary asked, and leaned over him so she could fit into the frame.

“Ordinarily, no. But I’ve learned our priority subject was present, and I have every reason to believe it would have convinced him.”

Pierce chuckled, and however foul his mood was already, Harkins’s features darkened even further. “Yuriko certainly didn’t think highly of your priority subject.”

“Do not underestimate it! It’s already cost my organization considerable resources and personnel.”

Mary idly rubbed the scar slashing her face in two. “He’s right, Pierce. I’ve seen first hand what it’s capable of.”

Pierce gave her a momentary glance, and watched the mobile part of her face darken.

“So what do you want from me, Harkins?” Pierce said, smugly leaning back and folding his hands behind his head.

“I want you here,” Harkins replied. “My contact had full details of our New York operation, and if he has been compromised it’s all going to be at risk.”

“I’m sure Xavier’s people are a little busy at the moment.”

“Remember, the group hunting Stryker and his Purifiers is still unaccounted for, and they have a few others we’ve not heard from, either. I want you to bring your people in to strengthen security in case there’s trouble.”

Pierce stood and leaned forward, staring Harkins down. “And what about what I want?”

“I’ll see to it that your people are fully equipped on-site.”

He jabbed his finger at the monitor. “They better be, Harkins. Playing rent-a-cop for your organization was not part of our agreement in this operation.”

“Plans change, Pierce, you know that. Can I rely on you and your people?”

Pierce straightened, his cybernetics whirring and clicking with the motion. “We’ll be there. Just make sure you hold up your end when we do, or it won’t be Xavier’s wet works team you have to deal with.”

###

Power had still not been restored by the time Josh and Laura unexpectedly returned to the school, and Rahne’s search for a functioning phone proved fruitless; even the upper levels had been struck by Erik’s EMP when he fell sick.

They gathered now in the briefing amphitheater, minus David and Bradley, who were still working on the generators. Jean and Rao stood on the stage at the bottom and watched while the others filtered in. Much of the room was still in pieces after Erik’s attack. Torn and twisted wall and floor panels lay scattered everywhere, and many of the benches had been ripped up. With little functional seating left, the group clustered together; Josh sat with Nori and tended to her hands. Sooraya was beside her, and waited patiently with Laura, Santo, and Victor gathered around them. Rahne and Cessily, who had been helping her tear the school apart in hopes of finding a functional phone, arrived last.

“Laura! Josh!” Cessily called, when she entered and spotted them with the team. “When did you guys get back?”

“Just a few minutes ago,” Josh said from the bench. “It’s been an eventful couple hours.”

“Where’s Julian?”

The confused jumble of anger and grief rolling off Laura at the mention of Julian’s name struck Jean like a tidal wave. Yet other than a slight tightening of her eyes and twitch of her lips it did not show outwardly on her features. Jean’s heart ached to see her so upset yet unable to process what she was feeling.

“Julian is still at the hospital,” Laura said, her voice cracking just enough to put Cessily on guard. “He has come down sick as well.”

Cessily’s eyes opened wide, and she pressed her hands over her mouth in horror. “Oh. Oh no!”

“Dr. McCoy is seeing to him,” Jean said. “We’ll have to trust he’ll do everything he can, but we still have our own jobs to do. Please, have a seat.”

Cessily joined Laura, and Jean could feel her uncertainty over whether or not offering her a hug would be welcomed under the circumstances. Sooraya put a hand to Cessily’s shoulder; her own grief radiated from her like a beacon. The others had been more subdued upon first learning the news, but even now she could feel the concern dripping from Sooraya, Santo, and Victor. Rahne dropped onto the bench next to Josh, with an old pair of Nori’s gauntlets tucked under her arm. Once he finished working with Nori she flexed her healed hands and fingers experimentally, before slipping them on.

“Right now,” she continued, “we’re still without power, and have had no way to communicate outside the school. Laura, Josh, if you had your phones with you when you left, we’ll need one of you to update Dr. McCoy on the situation here as soon as possible. Dr. Bradley believes he can get one of the generators back online within the hour. Most of the other equipment will need to be replaced, but we can at least get the lab up and running again.”

Jean looked at Laura. Sooraya and Victor had already informed her of her condition, but what Laura felt was overwhelmed by her thoughts of Julian. “To fill Laura and Josh in, we now believe we have the foundations of a cure for this disease. Laura, so far, your healing factor has been able to resist the virus. Dr. Rao believes that with Josh’s help this could be modified into an antiviral agent.

“She would like to draw some additional blood samples to begin the process, and will be overseeing this personally, not Dr. Bradley,” Jean added, when Laura’s discomfort and negative thoughts of Bradley surfaced. “I know this will be uncomfortable for you, but it could save peoples’ lives. We won’t force you, but I do ask for your help.”

Laura hesitated for a few moments, then slowly nodded her head. Her discomfort lit up her emotional state like a beacon, but Jean felt her desire to help was genuine, and not a rote response.

“Thank you, I promise we’ll do everything we can to make this as easy as we can. Now, could you and Josh please update us on what happened at Mount Sinai?”

Josh looked askance at Laura, whose mood abruptly darkened. Jean frowned at his surface thoughts; doubt whether he ought to be the one to speak, and suspicion churning in his mind over Laura’s behavior. In the end he did not need to say anything. Laura took a steadying breath and stood.

“We now know both where the virus was manufactured, and who created it,” Laura said, and her voice was so cold even Bobby would not be able to chill the room so completely. “One of the doctors overseeing the crisis was planted by an organization I only know of as the Facility.”

Icy fingers seized around Jean’s heart. If they’re here, and involved in this...

“Several victims had been clandestinely removed to an installation in an industrial park outside Albany. That is where what he called the Legacy Virus was engineered and manufactured. There are more stockpiles there, as well as a number of captive mutants, many of which were taken by Stryker’s Purifiers last Autumn.”

“How do you know all this?” Victor asked.

“I am familiar with the Facility,” Laura replied, and no one needed telepathy to feel the revulsion in her voice, “though this specific installation is unknown to me. The rest the prisoner revealed under interrogation.”

“It’s a good thing he didn’t call your bluff, too, otherwise we’d still be stuck,” Josh added.

Laura spit him on narrowed eyes. “I do not bluff, Joshua. Had he not cooperated, I would have done exactly what I said.”

Josh’s face paled, and a hint of green showed through his golden skin.

“If this...Facility is holding people captive, surely we must do something to help them?” Sooraya said.

“Not to mention destroy that virus before they can release it anywhere else,” Josh added, finding his voice again.

Dr. Rao nodded. “I would suggest we also obtain a sample. It may be invaluable in formulating the antiviral agent now that we know where to start.”

“Yeah, but how do we even get there?” Victor asked. “I don’t know if the Blackbird is still operable, but can we even get it out of here with the power out? And none of us even know how to fly it.”

Jean regarded him with a raised eyebrow. “I think you’re being a little presumptuous, Victor. I haven’t agreed to any sort of mission at all.”

“We have to do it,” Nori said, her voice quiet and lacking in assurance. “Sooraya is right, if there are people there, we have to help them.”

“I know you kids want to do something, but—”

“Sooray is right,” Laura reiterated, and what Nori might have been lacking in conviction she more than made up with her emphaticness. “If the Facility has any captives they must be released, and that installation must be destroyed. And we must act now; Dr. Chandler’s handlers will almost certainly be aware he has been compromised and will take action to burn the site.”

Jean squeezed her eyes closed. Dear God, why did this have to happen now...

“But Victor has a point, too,” Rahne added. “Even if ye ken where the place is now, how can we get there?”

Before anyone else could answer a blinding flash of light filled the room. When it cleared, they were astonished to see Peter and Illyana emerging from a portal opened down on the amphitheater floor. It snapped shut again with the pervasive stench of sulfur and brimstone.

“Okay, is the timing of that just a little too convenient for anyone else?” Nori asked.

“I like to make an entrance,” Illyana said.

“Yana!” Cessily cried, “You’re up?!”

“I’m up, I’m alive, and I’m very angry.” Her pretty features screwed into a fierce scowl. Peter, however, slumped wearily, though Jean felt no indication it was anything more than simple exhaustion.

“Yana was able to cure herself with her magic,” Peter said, “but she can’t help anyone else this way, so don’t ask.”

“That’s cool, ’cause we’re gonna go on a mission to get stuff to do it, anyway,” Santo said.

Jean rubbed her eyes. “That hasn’t been agreed to yet.”

“You haven’t agreed,” Nori said, a little of her fire returning the moment Illyana stepped through the portal. “The rest of us already have.”

“We do have a ride now with Yana back,” Cessily added. “You could ‘port us where we need to go if Laura tells you where, right?”

“Now hold on,” Peter said. “I don’t know that would be a good idea right now.”

Yana gave him her best indignant little sister look. “What’s done is done. I can open a portal to transport everyone without worry.”

Jean looked between the two but remained silent on the matter. She sensed whatever happened in Limbo was something neither was prepared to discuss in front of others.

Illyana turned to address Jean. “But I don’t want to just be the Magic School Bus. These are my friends who have been attacked, too. If I go, I intend to fight.”

“Yana!” Peter said, appalled.

“I know, Yana,” Jean said. “But I’m already reluctant to send Nori’s team as it is, and they’ve been trained.”

“Sorta ...” Cessily added.

“I have training. It may not be from the X-Men, but S’ym has been teaching me to use my sword since I was a child, and I do have magic outside Limbo.”

“Yeah, but you don’t have a uniform,” Santo said.

“Oh my God, shut up, Santo,” Victor said, burying his face in his hand.

Illyana’s eyes filled with white fire. “I don’t need one,” she said, and more fire danced across her body, burning her clothing away to reveal armor over a black scapula that only barely covered her lower half, with her sword at her hip. At first the pauldrons were unmarked, but soon an embossed “X” appeared on them. Everyone stared for a few moments, before Santo, naturally, found his voice first.

“Ok, now that’s hot,” he said.

Illyana made a pout and clicked her tongue at him. “Oooh, Santo, I would break you into rubble.”

“And you say I show too much skin,” Nori said, leaning towards Sooraya.

“Yana ...” Peter said, burying his face in one hand in embarrassment. “Would you at least conjure some pants?”

The fire faded from her blue eyes, and she glared indignantly up at him. “Call me Magik, Peter. And I shall shape my armor however I like.”

Rahne blinked. “Am A just hearin’ things, or did ye really just pronounce that with a ‘K’?”

Illyana flashed her a mischievous and just a little unhinged smirk. “Of course I did.”

Jean sighed. “If you kids are insisting on doing this... Peter, I’m placing you in overall field command. Take Nori and her team, plus Rahne and Illyana. Rescue any prisoners you can, and shut that operation down.”

Nori raised a gauntleted hand. “Shouldn’t David be on this one? He can do his genius hacker thing to get any information on what’s going on.”

“I’ll see if Dr. Bradley can spare him.”

Rao grunted. “Knowing James, he’ll want to get rid of him just out of sheer ego. And David will probably be just as eager to get away from him. In the meantime, whenever Laura and Josh are ready, they can report to me in the lab. The bulk of the work will need to wait for the power to come back up, but we can at least get started.”

“I will be going, too,” Laura said, and her tone of voice made it clear it was not a request.

Jean shook her head. “No, Laura, right now your healing factor is the only reason you’re still on your feet, and if you’re wounded it could affect your ability to heal, or worse, give the virus a chance to take hold.”

“And I can’t in good conscience send you in there. Logan would almost certainly go berserk if he finds out,” she added telepathically.

“I am not a child!” Laura snapped defensively, and her temper began to flare at the thought of being coddled. “I am the team’s best fighter. If there is trouble you need me there.” She waved her arm to take in the rest of the team. “They will need me there. I am going.”

“If there’s going to be a fight I should be there, too,” Josh said. “Just in case anyone needs medical attention.”

Jean felt their determination, and she sighed again in frustration when it became clear that neither would accept sitting out. She could, perhaps, telekinetically restrain them, or knock them out with a word, but neither option was palatable. And in Laura’s case, could be potentially damaging to the trust she had slowly been building with the school.

“All right,” she relented. “It’s against my better judgment, but I won’t stop you. But I want everyone to be careful. Get in, do the job, and come back safe.”

###

Albany, New York...

They stepped from the portal, exiting Limbo into a wooded area on the east bank of the Hudson River. The skyglow of Albany was visible in the north, and night slowly settled over eastern New York. The industrial complex loomed up in front of them. It was surrounded by a security fence, and flood lights cast spotty illumination across the grounds within.

Nori frowned at the complex. They were hidden from view of any security by the surrounding woods, but she could not see from her vantage whether there was anyone watching from within. Her stomach turned somersaults, and her hands shook within her gauntlets. She forcibly banished the doubts clawing at the back of her mind to concentrate on the task at hand: They had a job to do, and people were counting on them. Panicking again was something she could not afford.

“Aw, we have to walk the rest of the way?” Santo complained.

“Illyana didn’t want to risk dropping us in too close,” Colossus said. “Not without a better idea of what’s actually in there. Prodigy, what do you see?”

David stepped up to the edge of the tree line and peered into the darkness, one hand on his glasses. “There’s security, all right. A few guards inside the wall.” He let out a low whistle. “They’re all armed, too. And that’s not surplus equipment, either. I don’t know where these guys are getting their weapons, but this all looks modern. Some of it may be the same gear the Purifiers were using.”

Laura slipped forward in a low crouch until she stood beside him. “The Facility is, ostensibly, a civilian organization. They do receive government contracts in addition to their off-book black projects. Their security will be professional paramilitary, supplemented by private military contractors. Lethal force is both justifiable and strongly advisable.”

Nori’s throat went dry at Laura’s matter-of-fact analysis. “You want us to kill them?”

“They will not hesitate to do the same to us.” Laura’s voice suddenly took on a hard edge that filled Nori’s bowels with ice. “What these men do would put them outside the laws and customs of war. They deserve no mercy.”

“Enough, Talon,” Colossus said. “We’re still X-Men. Prodigy, any further security that you can see from here? Cameras? Alarms?”

David adjusted the functions on his glasses again and nodded. “Hoo, yeah. I’m picking up cameras all over the place, both inside and out, and there’s definitely an alarm system. Looks like they also have their own generator.”

“Can you show me?” Laura asked.

“Yeah, just a sec.” David pulled an iPad out of his kit and cast the feed from his glasses to it. Nori looked over Laura’s shoulder while she studied a 3D scan of the installation taken by David’s glasses, but could make little sense of it herself. Laura just nodded, and jabbed a finger.

“I can gain access at this point here. There is a gap in their camera coverage because of this angle in the wall.”

“What about the alarms?”

“If I can get you remote access to a terminal, can you take control of the system from here?”

“It may depend on how their network is physically segmented,” David said. He reached into his kit and produced a USB device about the length of his thumb. “Wireless dongle. It’s loaded with a script that will override any security blocking external device access, and mask its presence so it won’t show up on scans. Plug it in to any terminal that has access to their security system, and I can hack into it remotely.”

Laura accepted the device and slipped it into her own kit.

“Are you sure you can get close enough undetected?” Colossus asked.

Laura’s features twisted indignantly, as if she took the question as a personal affront. “Yes.”

Colossus pulled them back from the edge of the woods, and they gathered with the rest of the group. The others circled up so he could address them in a low voice and without risk of it carrying. He took the iPad from David and laid it on the ground between them so they could all see the map.

“Ok, we have a point of entry,” he said. “Talon will approach the complex here.” He indicated the spot she identified. “After gaining entry, she will get Prodigy access to a terminal to disable the alarms in this stretch of the perimeter fence to allow us to follow her in. The idea is to do so before the guards can raise an alarm.”

Cessily looked up doubtfully. “Alone?”

“I can move more quickly and more quietly than any of you,” Laura said. “I also have extensive training in making unsupported infiltrations of this sort.” She motioned at a couple points nearby on the iPad. “There are also guard stations here, and here. These will need to be eliminated, which will open a blind spot in their patrols. Once we are inside, the rest of the defenses can be taken by surprise.”

“What about the prisoners?” Sooraya asked. “Do we have any idea where they are being held?”

“According to Chandler they are being held inside the main building here,” Laura replied, indicating a large structure at the heart of the compound.

Colossus considered the map. “Our first objective, then, is to gain entry to the grounds, and secure access to that building. We need to get in fast to find the prisoners.” He sighed. “We missed our chance last fall, and I don’t want to fail them again. We need a team to go in, while the rest secure the perimeter. Surge?”

The butterflies started dancing around in her innards again when Colossus turned to her for her input, and Nori forced herself to breathe steadily. Oh God... You can do this, just focus...

“I’ll go. Talon, this is your area of expertise, so you’ll be with me on point. And we’ll also want Prodigy to get into their computers to download whatever information we can, because I think Dr. Grey plans to expose all this. And Mercury, as well. You can slip through places that the rest of us can’t.”

Cessily shrunk down into herself. “Um...yeah. Just not with my clothes, you know.”

“Hey, Laura is totally cool going commando in a fight, so you’ve got no reason to be shy about it, either,” Santo said.

She glared up at the dopey smile on his rocky features. “Shut up, Santo!” Cessily hissed through gritted teeth.

“Elixir and Magik will round my group out,” Nori continued, ignoring the exchange. “We don’t know if the captives may need medical attention, and it gives us a fast exit.”

Colossus smiled and nodded his approval. “Very good. The rest will remain outside with me to provide cover. Does anyone have any questions?”

Santo raised his hand.

“That doesn’t have anything to do with me or Laura fighting au naturale,” Cessily growled, her face buried in her hand. Santo lowered his.

“If we’re through, let’s get moving,” Colossus said. “Talon, you’re up.”

###

Act IV

###

Laura crouched low at the edge of the woods, adjusted the straps on her field pack, and studied the approach to the installation; about 100 meters of open ground. Though dark outside the compound, her enhanced vision picked out details that the guards would be unable to see. Her target was a side entrance, flanked by two guard posts. The security cameras were placed in a manner that left a narrow blind spot in their coverage at one corner of the compound until she reached the fence, which stood about twelve feet high, and was topped by barbed wire. However, this approach was exposed to view from the guard posts at the side gate.

External security unusually light. Likely standard concealment protocol in place, downplaying external features to deter closer inspection.

She considered the terrain. It was mostly flat, but she noted a slight slope descending from north to south that, if she stayed low enough, would screen her from view of the guard posts without exposing her to the cameras. There was also a large warning sign identifying the facility as private property.

Laura adjusted her earpiece, then darted forward in a crouch. She moved forward a few yards, stopped, and dropped prostrate, listening for any sounds her presence had been detected. Then she put her feet beneath her for another low sprint. Proceeding in this fashion she reached the sign, which provided a little better cover than the fall of the terrain. Laura leaned around it to study the gate from this new vantage.

The guardhouses were built into the perimeter fence, with windows looking out on all three external faces. Lights glowed from within. Probable security monitors; possible means of disrupting camera feeds.

The complex was approached by a narrow, two-lane drive branching off River Road, crossing the rail line following the course of the Hudson, then turning south to parallel the rail tracks. A shallow drainage channel followed this road, eventually draining into Papscanee Creek further south. The road forked upon nearing the gate, and the intersecting drive from the complex crossed the ditch by means of a small culvert under the road.

With a plan taking shape, Laura resumed her dash across the field in much the same manner as before; moving forward in a crouch for a few meters, then dropping flat to listen for any sign she had been spotted. When none was evident, she darted forward again. She dropped into the drainage channel upon reaching it, which put her perhaps twenty meters from the fence. It was little more than a dirty, debris-clogged, sloped depression a meter deep and perhaps another meter across, and ran very close to the front of the guard posts. Laura considered the layout of the cameras.

The depression is sufficient depth to screen me from the cameras, and this will place me closer to the guard posts.

Laura turned along the ditch, stepping lightly in a crouch through the layer of old, wet leaves and vegetation choking the bottom until she reached a point near the corner of the first guard post, opposite the road. From this vantage she noted there was no glass within the windows, or any other barrier to entry. She quickly surveyed the layout of the cameras and determined the guardhouses themselves would screen her from view. Lights illuminated the gate itself, but none on the outside walls of the guard posts.

Night vision of guards likely compromised, this will help facilitate my entry.

There was no indication the guard was watching the direction of her approach. Laura slipped forward, quietly moving in a crouch until she reached the shadow of the nearest guardhouse. She slowly raised her head up until she could peer over the windowsill and inside.

The guard sat in a chair with her back to her, sipping on a cup of coffee while watching the feed from the security cameras. Her posture was relaxed, and showed no sign of having heard her approach. Slowly, and as delicately as a cat stalking its prey, Laura raised herself up, rolled across the windowsill, and silently dropped into a crouch on the floor. She kept low and crept the remaining distance until she was now directly behind the guard.

Elimination of guards necessary to proceed, target unaware of my presence. Severance of spinal cord between C1 and C2 to ensure no warning. Body in this position should obscure line of sight of the other guard.

Laura rose from her crouch, carefully keeping the guard’s body between her and the view from the other guardhouse, not even touching the chair to steady herself. She lifted her hand beside the guard’s neck.

Snikt.

Laura extended one claw directly into the guard’s neck. Her body jerked suddenly in her chair by reflex, but any effort to struggle was instantly stilled when the adamantium blade severed her spinal cord. The coffee cup dropped from her hand, and Laura casually snatched it out of the air before gently setting it on the floor.

She retracted her claw again. Unconsciousness due to lack of oxygen imminent, death by suffocation within five minutes. Target eliminated, no indication my presence has been detected.

Laura retreated back to the window, rolled over the windowsill once more, and landed in a crouch in the grass outside. She returned to the ditch, slipped down into it, and hurried along it to the culvert. This was just large enough for her small figure to fit through comfortably. So, dropping to her belly, and pulling herself forward with her elbows, Laura slid inside. The partly rotted, wet vegetation inside muffled the sound of her movements to anyone outside, though they echoed uncomfortably loudly in her own ears.

She reached the other side without issue, or any indication the other guard had heard her or even noticed the death of the first. As before, Laura slunk under the window opposite the road and peered over the sill. Once again, the guard watched the security feeds with his back to her, so Laura quietly slipped in through the open window and crept up behind him. One quick snikt later and it was all over.

Laura pushed the guard’s chair out of the way, leaving him to quietly suffocate while she examined his terminal. Monitors were built in to the surface of a desk, and she traced the connections to a locked and reinforced cabinet on one side. Laura extended a claw, slipped it into the gap, and casually sliced through the lock. Upon opening the cabinet, she found a small terminal mounted inside. Laura retrieved David's wireless dongle from her kit and plugged it in to one of the USB ports on the front. A small blue light blinked on and began flashing.

She crouched down next to the desk and cued her headset.

“It’s Talon, I am in, and you should be able to connect now.”

###

Several tense minutes of waiting passed after Laura slipped out from the cover of their hiding place. Nori paced nervously behind David and Colossus, her stomach doing an Olympic-level floor routine with her bowels as the mat. She focused on breathing like Dr. Grey showed her, and willed her hands to stop shaking. But try as she might, she could not keep the intrusive fear she had just sent Laura out to her death at bay.

“Keep stomping around like that and they’re sure to hear us,” someone said behind her. Nori turned to find Illyana leaning casually on the sword at her hip, and watching her with that peculiar sense of detachment with which she regarded everything she deemed beneath her time.

“It’s been too long,” Nori replied quietly, unable to keep the nervous tremor out of her voice. “This could all go wrong very quickly.”

Illyana shrugged. “It’s Laura. With what she did to Stryker’s people they have more to be afraid of from her than she does from them.”

“She’s not invincible.”

“None of us are. Not even Piotr.” The last Illyana added with a thoughtful look past her, and at Colossus crouching next to David while they waited for Laura’s signal. Nori chafed at how even her voice was under the circumstances.

“How do you do that?” Nori asked. “How can you stand there all calm like this, and acting like you don’t care what happens next?”

“I grew up with demons,” Illyana said, again with a shrug. “You learn quite quickly not to let fear get the better of you. It doesn’t mean I don’t care.”

“And how do you do that knowing that you could be getting everyone around you killed? I almost lost one of my best friends and two of my team because of a decision I made.”

Illyana’s eyes filled with a dangerous light, and she curled her lip into a wicked smile that made Nori’s finer hairs bristle. “Stand up to what you're afraid of and give it a reason to fear you back.”

Before Nori could respond her headset crackled to life.

“It’s Talon,” Laura said, “I am in, and you should be able to connect now.”

Nori turned away from Illyana and approached the edge of the clearing. She knelt next to David, and watched her genius hacker boyfriend at work with his iPad and a portable keyboard.

“That’s great, Talon,” he said. “I see the dongle online and I’m connecting now.”

“Heh, ‘dongle,’” Santo said from behind them.

Nori watched uncomprehendingly while his fingers flew over the keyboard, punching in line after line of code. “How do you even do that?” she asked.

David looked away from the screen long enough to give her a playful smirk. “I just think about you and imagine unhooking—”

Her face heated, and she cut him off with a swat to the shoulder. “Don’t even say it, especially not with Santo listening in.”

“Aw, I wanted to hear more,” the walking pile of rubble whined.

“Shut up, Santo,” Victor said.

“Don’t worry,” David said. “I’ll save it for later, it’s more fun to do than think, anyway.”

“I should hope so,” Nori said, and folded her arms across her chest in mock irritation. Her gauntlets clattered louder than she liked. “So what are you doing, anyway?”

“Well, I pulled the gist of Laura’s covert training on handling security before she headed out. We can’t just take out the cameras; anyone else watching them will see them go dark. So, I’m using a back door in the system to use my tablet to record them, and I’m going to loop that through in place of the live feed. All their security will see is the prerecorded footage.”

Nori suddenly felt a little warmth flooding through her. “I love it when you talk nerdy to me. I don’t understand it, but I love it.”

David grinned. “And we’re good...now.”

He hit the enter key on his keyboard with a flourish, and his grin broadened in satisfaction at the response on the screen. “Awesome, now I just need to cut the alarms off ...”

A few more taps later, he nodded. “That’s it.” He looked up at her, beaming proudly. “We’re in.”

###

It took them considerably less time to reach the fence with the cameras taken out of the equation than Laura had, and now Nori frowned up at the gate allowing access deeper into the complex. There was no sign of Laura at either the gate, or in the guardhouses on either side of the road. One look inside and Nori was ready to throw up at the sight of the guards slumping dead in their chairs, each stabbed cleanly through their necks.

“Talon, where are you?” she called into her headset, and there was no response.

“Um...that can’t be good, right?” Cessily asked.

“She couldnae have been taken, could she?” Rahne asked.

“If they managed to take Laura, we’re all boned,” Victor said.

“Talon, come in!” Nori repeated, her voice rising and the gymnastics routine in her belly turning into a mosh pit.

“Radio silence is advisable under combat conditions,” Laura said suddenly from behind them, and Nori nearly jumped out of her skin. She spun around and found Laura in the doorway of one of the guardhouses that a moment ago was empty except for the woman who had been unfortunate to draw her duty shift that night.

“Jesus!” Nori yelped. “What happened?”

“I am sorry,” Laura replied, flinching a little at the rebuke. “There were patrols near the gate that needed to be eliminated in the interests of maintaining secrecy.”

Cessily swallowed. “Did you ...” She dragged a finger across her throat.

“Yes.”

Colossus sighed. “Laura, we’re not killers,” he said in admonishment.

“I am,” she replied flatly, and Nori caught a small hitch in her voice, though whatever troubled thoughts passed through her mind were quickly forced down again in favor of her typical icy stoicism. “What is more, so are these men. I know what I am doing: Nonlethal means of suppressing sentries and patrols are unreliable, and may lead to our presence being discovered before we are ready.”

“Look, we can figure this out later,” Nori said. “Let’s just get this done first and get out of here before anything goes wrong.”

“What’s our way in, anyway?” Victor asked.

“I can bash that gate down,” Santo said, and he rolled his shoulders with the grinding of stone on stone.

“That will be unnecessary,” Laura said, and Santo deflated.

“Aw, why am I even here if I don’t get to smash something?”

“It will give away our presence, and stealth will be to our advantage so long as we can maintain it. There is an entrance through the guard house. This way.”

She disappeared back inside and motioned them to follow. Nori trailed after her, followed by Colossus, and the others filing through behind them. Rahne gasped at the sight of the dead guard.

“Are we just goin’ t’ leave her there?” she asked.

“Proper disposal of the body will require time we don’t have,” Laura said, her voice never changing from her detached calm.

“Come on, Rahne,” Cessily said. She put an arm around her to guide her past and offer a little bit of comfort after the shock. “It’s best not to think about it. Laura’s right. I don’t like seeing it much, either, but she knows what she’s doing.”

Laura led them through a door in the back wall of the guardhouse, which then opened directly into the compound. She paused at the entrance to the opening and sniffed experimentally before proceeding. They found themselves in the shadow of one of the maintenance sheds surrounding the main building. Darkness stretched between them, with most of the illumination provided only by the spot lamps on the perimeter. Everything was deathly still around them, and that descriptor sent a chill down Nori’s spine; somewhere lying nearby were the corpses of the security patrols Laura had liquidated.

Laura crept forward, motioning them to follow, and picked a deliberate path that kept the outbuildings between them and their objective. It was slow going, but Nori soon saw the reason behind her cautious approach: A direct path to the main building would take them through a large, open loading area in the center of the complex that would provide them no cover, and there was a small group of men at the main doors.

They continued working their way around the perimeter, pausing every time they were about to cross the open space between the buildings they used for cover. Nonetheless, they made good progress, and soon reached a point near where they could reach the rear of their target. However, Laura suddenly froze and pressed her back against the storage shed behind her. Everyone fell silent and crouched down, trying to blend into the shadows as best as possible (Victor almost disappeared when his skin changed color to match the wall of the shed). Laura unnecessarily pressed a finger to her lips and motioned for them to remain in place.

She quietly jumped up and caught the edge of the shed, and effortlessly pulled herself up and rolled onto her belly on the roof. Nori peered around the corner, and paled when she spied three men slowly making their way from the main building to the structures they were sheltering behind, entering the narrow space between their shed and the next. All three were armed with military-style rifles. Above, she caught sight of Laura carefully crawling along the roof to parallel them, before drawing her feet beneath her and perching in a manner like a cat sitting on top of a shelf and surveying the floor below.

Laura did not remain there for long. The moment the patrol reached her position she jumped down between them. They didn’t have time to utter more than a confused “What th—” before Laura sprung back to her feet and had all three pinned against the walls on either side with her claws through their throats; two with her hands in front, the third with the claw of her right foot behind her.

Nori gasped and pressed a hand against her mouth, sickened by the helpless spasming of the guards, their blood gurgling in their desperation to draw a breath, and unable to collapse held in place as they were on Laura’s claws. Laura remained balanced there on one leg like some horror movie ballerina until, satisfied her victims would make no further noise, she carefully lowered them to the ground and retracted her claws again.

“Oh,” Illyana muttered in her ear, and Nori looked over her shoulder to find her peering around the corner with her. “Now she’s just showing off.”

Laura crouched beside the bodies for a moment, and relieved one of their rifle and a few spare magazines before retreating back to join the rest of them.

“We are going to have a long talk about this when we get back to the school ...” Colossus grumbled, his features twisting in disgust at the sight.

Laura ejected the magazine of her appropriated rifle, checked it, and slid it back into the receiver. She then started forward again without a word, beckoning them to follow.

On the other side of the next building she turned left, and followed it to the corner. She peeked her head around the side, and satisfied the way was clear, swiftly and quietly darted across the open space, until she was now crouched along the side of the large, central structure that dominated the heart of the installation. Nori followed, and they all piled up behind her. There was no door Nori could see on the back side of the building, so Laura motioned for them to hold back, then crept to the front and checked before retreating.

“Four guards,” she whispered, “they don’t appear to be alert.” Laura looked up, and frowned. “I can’t approach them unseen. There is no cover, and the roof here is too high for me to climb without them hearing.”

Illyana slipped around Nori and Laura, and pressed her back against the wall. She gave a confident smirk that sent a shiver down Nori’s spine. “I have this one,” she muttered.

“Yana ...” Colossus uttered in a warning tone.

“Oh, relax, Piotr. I won’t kill them.”

She crept to the front edge of the building, Laura and Nori following behind to watch. When Illyana reached the corner, she raised a hand and clenched her fist, and with the stink of sulfur and brimstone a portal opened directly beneath the guards’ feet. They only managed a brief yelp before falling in and vanishing.

“Okay, so that was cool,” Nori said. “But where did you send them?”

Illyana motioned into the air in the east. “About a thousand feet up and a mile that way,” she said.

Realization dawned on Nori too late. She spun around and watched in horror as another portal appeared in the night sky to the east. Nori couldn’t see the men falling out of the air, but the distant echo of their screams just managed to reach her ears.

“Yana!” Colossus gasped, and his jaw dropped, appalled. “You said—”

“I said I wouldn’t kill them,” she replied nonchalantly. “I never said anything about gravity.”

“That is not what I meant, and you know it!”

Illyana shrugged. “We had to deal with them one way or another.”

“Och, ye’re an actual demon!” Rahne exclaimed in disgust, and as loudly as she dared without her voice carrying.

“Oh, I like that.” Illyana’s eyes flashed, and a circlet appeared around her head, with two horn-like extensions rising up at the back. The smile that crossed her features turned Nori’s blood to ice.

“I understand pragmatism sometimes may call for extreme measures,” Sooraya said, her eyes wide behind her niqab, “but that was excessive.”

Illyana sighed and rolled her eyes. “Oh, you guys are no fun. Laura said these people are dangerous and won’t hesitate to kill us. Whether any of you like it or not, we’re not doing this without it getting bloody. So let’s just accept that and move on.”

Nori forced the bile bubbling up her throat back down where it belonged. “I’d rather we be able to do this without having to kill anyone.”

Illyana clicked her tongue derisively. “Oh, you sweet summer child.”

“I’m a year and a half older than you.”

“There is no time for this, we need to get moving,” Laura said, cutting Illyana off before she could offer a retort.

“Laura is right,” Colossus said. “Once we reach the doors we split up. Nori, take your group in, the rest of us will keep watch.”

However, no sooner did he issue those instructions than Laura snapped upright and sniffed audibly. “Wait, something is wrong. I hear movement ...” she said, and swept her eyes across the compound.

It was at that moment that multiple flood lamps snapped on, filling the center courtyard with light. Men poured in from all directions, all of them armed, and Nori’s stomach lurched at the sound of rifle slides being drawn.

“Put your hands up and come out immediately!” a commanding voice shouted.

“It’s a trap!” Colossus said, and the clanking of his armor activating filled the air.

“Thank you very much, Admiral Ackbar,” David muttered.

“Oh crap, what do we do?” Cessily asked.

“We cannot retreat, our path out has been cut off,” Laura said, and brought her rifle up to her shoulder.

“Yana, can you get us out of here?” Colossus asked.

“We can’t!” Josh exclaimed. “There are people trapped here who need our help.”

“I said come out!” the voice repeated.

“Elixir, if they were expecting us—”

“Last warning!”

Laura didn’t wait. She quickly sighted in on the direction of the voice and fired off a shot. A voice cried out, and all hell erupted as every gun in the compound opened up on them.

“Damn!” Colossus snarled. “Anyone bullet-proof up front!”

“All right!” Santo crowed, darting forward as fast as a quarter ton of living rock could to join Colossus on the front line. “Finally!”

“Oh crap,” Cessily murmured, “we’re doomed.”

Automatic weapons fire rang off Colossus and Santo while the two big mutants absorbed the incoming barrage to shield the others. Laura kept under cover of the corner, her own rifle barking back with precision. She emptied one magazine, and then another, and finally the last one. Each shot found its mark, but there were still dozens more men to replace them.

“Surge!” Colossus bellowed. “Get your squad moving, it’s now or never!”

“Shit shit shit shit shit!” Nori said, fighting down a wave of nausea, and forcing herself to breathe. “Talon, Magik, Mercury, Prodigy, Elixir on me!”

Without waiting to see if they were following, she broke for the main doors. Laura was soon ahead of her. Colossus and Santo paced them while they dashed the dozen or so yards along the front of the building as mobile cover. Laura popped her claws, shredded the lock, and hauled the door open. Nori ducked in first, followed by Illyana, Cessily, David, and Josh, with Laura bringing up the rear.

They found themselves in a small antechamber, with a reception desk opposite the entrance, and a small keycarded door leading to the office area next to the desk ahead of them. Another door with a safety warning sign led to the left. A pervasive, mechanical hum reverberated through the structure, punctuated by the rattle of weapons fire outside.

“David?” Nori asked.

“Looks like the offices are this way,” David said, and headed for the secured door. “Best place for a computer terminal is back here.”

Nori nodded. “Okay, Mercury, stay on him for now.” She grabbed her by the shoulder, and her wagging finger reflected in her silver features. “Don’t let anything happen to him!”

Cessily sketched a half-mocking salute. “Sir, yes sir!”

She rolled her eyes. “Talon? Where to?”

Laura sniffed, and frowned. “Most likely any research spaces will be concealed below the manufacturing area itself. There is too much noise with the heavy equipment and fighting outside, and all I can smell is machinery, smoke, lubricants, and your perfume, so I can’t guarantee we will not be running into another trap.”

Illyana drew her sword, and lightly tapped its flats against her palm with a grin. “Oh, wouldn’t that be too bad. For them.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Nori said. “And my perfume is not that strong!”

“We can argue about that later,” Josh said. “Let’s just go.”

“Nori, be careful,” David said from behind the reception desk. He already had his iPad in hand and was working on getting the office complex door open.

“Yeah ...” she mumbled, and turned towards the door leading out to the manufacturing floor.

###

Bullets deflected off Peter’s armor. He stormed forward into the middle of the formation firing into them, Santo right beside him and grinning his big, eager, empty-headed grin. The others crowded in behind them, taking cover behind their bulletproof bodies and letting them clear out a path. Men scattered at their approach, and soon he and Santo were swatting armed and body armored men aside like ragdolls. They broke ranks when the two giant mutants smashed into them, fleeing and seeking cover wherever they could to continue firing into them.

It’s time for the others to get into the fight, they can’t just hang back now.

“Wolfsbane, Dust, Anole, move in. Dust, blind them. Anole and Wolfsbane, hook left and try to clear them on the flank and work around behind them! We need to buy Surge’s team time.”

“Och, A didnae think there’d be so many of them!” Rahne cried.

“It can’t be helped, just get in there, and work together!”

“Allah be with us,” Sooraya muttered, before she discorporated into fine particulates of sand, and blasted across the front ranks of the soldiers facing them. They cried out and vainly shielded themselves against the onslaught, but her sand form tore through them, stripped the skin from their faces, and scoured their eyes.

From his peripherals he watched Rahne’s body twist and contort, her head torturously elongating into a long muzzle filled with sharp teeth gleaming in the floodlamps. Her limbs reshaped and her muscles bulged. The sleeves and legs of her jumpsuit ripped under the strain. She crouched low for a moment, before springing forward with a snarl. Victor followed her, scrambling on top of one of the storage sheds to get above their attackers. Together they struck the flank of the installation’s defenders, tossing men aside, and making up in strength and speed what they lacked in Laura’s finesse.

The men were good. Despite the savagery of Sooraya’s attacks, and Rahne and Victor tearing into them from the side, they held their ground at first. Peter and Santo had by now forced a path deep into the center of the line, and some were now trying to swing around behind to cut them off.

“Rockslide, cover the back! Keep a path to the others open!”

“Got it!” Santo said, but then skidded to a stop. “Uh...Colossus?”

Peter turned to look over his shoulder, and his heart immediately crawled up into his throat. About half way back along the way they had come stood a tall blonde man in a long coat, flanked by more men equipped like the complex’s guards, but wearing distinct, dark uniforms and body armor.

The Reavers were here.

###

Laura stopped abruptly, and Nori cursed when she nearly crashed into her.

“Hey, what ...” she abruptly trailed off, and her heart sunk somewhere into her colon at the sight in front of her. Illyana stepped forward next to Laura and gawked, and Josh crowded in behind.

“Oh shit,” he muttered in her ear.

They had just busted onto the factory floor. Opposite them was a loading door for trucks. Scaffolding from floor to ceiling supported catwalks and conveyor belts, and heavy industrial robots, lasers, a large glowing incinerator spewing noxious fumes into the air, and other machinery Nori couldn’t begin to name but looked like something out of every 80s SciFi movie David had roped her into watching (before they inevitably led into a makeout session) filled the space within.

But that was not what drew her attention. No, that was reserved for Deathstrike, standing in the center of the factory floor, her bladed fingers spread wide, and that wicked, psychotic grin spreading across her features. Cole stood beside her, making a show of rolling his neck and shoulders, and dancing on his feet in anticipation of the fight to come. They were surrounded by more men. Some carried rifles, others metal batons and riot shields. Laura growled low and threateningly, dropped into a fighting stance, and a sharp snikt echoed across the cavernous space when she popped her claws. Illyana raised her sword into a guard position and flames raced down its sharpened edge. Nori’s mouth went dry, and she stood frozen in place.

“Hello, children,” Deathstrike said in that giggling voice of hers. Her smile broadened when she laid eyes on Laura. “Laura-chan! I’m so glad to see you. Pierce didn’t let us finish our game before, are you ready to play again?”

Laura stomped forward, her whole body shaking in rage.

“Laura ...” Nori stammered, but she could not move. They had walked into the very worst of scenarios, and memories of Salem flashed across her eyes. She saw Keller lying bleeding on the ground. Laura being thrown through that window. She felt the agony of her ribs shattering under Cole’s boot, and every nerve shredding all at once under his electrical barrage. Her hands shook, her heart raced, and her mind blanked on everything Dr. Grey had instructed her about controlling her breathing.

“Kill them,” Deathstrike said, and casually folded her arms across her chest, that malevolent smile never leaving her features. Her men swarmed forward with a cry. Laura and Illyana did not wait for Nori’s orders and charged into them.

###

Mary stood atop the catwalk surrounded by Pierce’s and Harkins’s men, and watched the scene unfolding below. Deathstrike’s company charged into the fight on the floor, denying her position a shot without risking hitting their own people. She spied the dark shape dancing through the wall of human flesh, claws flashing in the overhead lighting, and Mary self-consciously stroked the ragged scar slashing her face in two. Her lip curled into a sneer, and she keyed up her radio.

“This is Sister Mary,” she called over the cacophony. “Priority subject is in play, repeat, priority subject is in play. Subdue and capture.”

###

Laura’s claws flashed as she spun through their assailants, a whirlwind of death tearing through their useless body armor. Metal rang when her claws struck one of the batons, and to her shock they did not cut through.

Adamantium!

She dodged a counter stroke, rolled around the edge of her opponent’s shield, and sliced his knees out from under him. His pained cry was cut short when she buried the claws of one hand through the back of his head. Another rushed in from the side. Laura dodged past his blow, cut his weapon arm off at the elbow, then followed with a left hook that opened his throat. More from the left. She tore through shields and ripped out bellies. Her hands and feet flew, and it was not long before the floor was covered in blood.

She did not see it. Her eyes fixated on Deathstrike waiting beyond the wall of men separating them. Rage built at the sight of her, and she saw Julian hanging from her bladed fingers again. And then she saw red.

###

Illyana’s sword danced in her hands. Flame flickered along its edge, and it sheared through shields and bodies alike. A smile tugged at her lips at the carnage unfolding before her, the air thick with the cupric stench of blood. Some small, distant corner of her mind cowered in disgust, but that just let the demon out to play. Rahne was right: That was precisely what the Reavers had called down upon themselves, and now she would take them all to Hell.

She laughed and reveled at the blood fountaining from her sword with every stroke, splattering across her face, neck, and armor. She hacked off limbs. Heads rolled. She lost sight of Laura, but she could hear her screaming in rage somewhere nearby, her voice carrying over the cries of the dying, and the panicked shrieks of those still on their feet. Her claws rang on impact with their clubs, or struck flesh with a sick, tearing thunk.

Illyana abandoned herself to the bloodlust, and her laughter echoed across the complex.

###

Nori stood dumbstruck at the carnage playing out in front of her. Laura deftly rolled through the press of men, tumbling and flipping like a demented gymnast to bring her foot claws into play. She leapt into the air, striking men on both sides of her with lethal kicks. Upon landing again she rolled past a fresh wave, cutting their legs out from under them on her way through.

Illyana, less grace and more mad abandon, carved a bloody swath on the other side, her sword trailing blue-white fire. She slashed faces in two, hewed off limbs, and split another in two from shoulder to groin.

The bodies lay in heaps here and there. Those still clinging to life moaned pitiably in their agony or tried to drag themselves away. But more took their place. The men with guns, positioned on the catwalks overlooking the floor, held their fire in fear of hitting their own men with Laura and Illyana in the middle of them, but they were still too many. It was only a matter of time before they would be overwhelmed.

“Nori!” Josh shouted in her ear. “Nori, do something!”

Nori’s breath started to come in ragged gasps, and her hands began to shake. Cold sweat beaded on her brow. Cole’s eyes locked on hers from across the battlefield, and a mirthless smile spread across his lips.

“I—”

“Nori, you can do this,” Josh said, gently, and touched her shoulder. “You fought Stryker’s men, we’ve got this.”

She closed her eyes, but the rising tide of fear was already up to her neck, and soon would be over her head and drowning her.

“You have to move! David and Cessily are back there, we can’t let them down.”

David...

Nori saw him in her mind’s eye; Now it wasn’t Keller hanging from Deathstrike’s blades, but David. Her blood began to boil. The flood of panic threatening to inundate her receded.

No! I can’t let that happen.

The lights throughout the factory flickered, and with a solid clunk her gauntlets fell to the floor. She stormed forward, raised her hands, and released her power, aiming for the gunmen on the catwalks overhead. It responded immediately; white-hot fingers of electric pain spearing through them, unrestrained by her gauntlets. They screamed in agony, dropped their weapons, and crumpled or pitched over the catwalk railing to slam into the floor below.

She then turned to the fight on the ground, snapping off blasts on either side of Laura and Illyana to clear the space around them, and she watched in satisfaction when the smile fell from Deathstrike’s stupid face.

###

Cessily’s heart clawed up into her throat at the sound of screaming from the room beyond, while gunfire raged outside. Or at least it would have if she actually had a heart.

“David, you better hurry up with what you’re doing,” she said.

“I’m going as fast as I can,” he replied from the floor behind her. “Damn, I should have just had Laura cut the lock before she left. Wait ...”

Cessily turned to look at him over her shoulder. “Wait, what?”

“Can’t you just, you know ...”

She would have blushed if she were capable. “I am so not going to do the T-1000 thing under the door and lose my clothes!”

“No, I mean, can’t you make blades?”

Cessily smacked herself in the forehead. “Oh my God, Santo’s stupid is rubbing off on me.”

“Don’t feel bad, he’s got a lot to go around so it was only a matter of time.”

“Stand back.”

David gathered up his equipment and made room for her to step around him. Her hand shimmered for a moment, before extending out into a long, sharp, sword-like blade. Cessily didn’t know if she could cut as well as Laura’s adamantium claws, but she didn’t have to. She braced herself, took a breath, and brought her arm down hard on the keycard lock. It sparked and sputtered, and the door fell open.

“Not quite as clean as Laura, but I guess it works,” she said.

“Horseshoes and hand grenades,” David said. “Now let’s go before—”

He didn’t get the words out before something smashed into the door frame just beside his head, only narrowly missing splitting it open like a ripe melon. They both turned and found themselves staring up at a tall, handsome man with gleaming metal arms wired grotesquely to his torso, standing in the doorway leading back outside. His arm telescoped back in with a whir of cybernetics, and he took up a fighting stance.

“What is it with you kids always trying to check out before the fun starts?” he said.

“Oh crap,” Cessily said in a small voice, just before he swung again, propelling his hand across the room. She and David jumped to either side just in time to avoid it, and it smashed through the wall behind them.

“You must be Pretty Boy,” David said from the cover of the receptionist’s desk. Cessily found herself trapped in a corner without cover.

He chuckled and retracted his arm again. “Your friends have been talking about me, huh? They must be in here with you, ‘cause they’re not out front with the rest. I’ll be sure to say ‘hello’ once I’m done with you.”

Pretty Boy struck again, and Cessily only just managed to avoid the hit, landing behind the reception desk with David.

“Shit!” Cessily blurted out. “Now what?”

“Hey, you can do that, too, right?” David said.

“What?”

“Stretch.”

“Yeah, but I can’t put holes through walls like he can!” she protested.

“Come out come out wherever you are!” Pretty Boy called, and smashed his fist through the reception desk, right between them.

“Maybe not,” David said in a low voice, “but this guy’s all brawn, no brain. I’ve got every one of his moves and it’s pretty much just ‘pummel to mush.’ You tanked an explosion from Jubilee.”

She glared at him. “I got splattered across the lounge!”

“You got him, Cess. Just be creative. I need time to get to a computer.”

Cessily buried her face in her hand. “God dammit... Ok, just get ready to run.”

David gathered his feet under him. Cessily slipped around the hole left by Pretty Boy’s last attack until she reached the edge of the desk and braced herself. The moment he threw another punch she jumped out from cover and whipped her arm around his. She yanked him hard to the side, pulling his punch offline, and giving David a clear path to the door. David took advantage of the opening and broke into a run, darting through before Pretty Boy could recover.

Bracing herself again, Cessily turned her hips and retracted her arm, and Pretty Boy yelped when she yanked him off his feet and slammed him face-first into the reception desk, leaving another hole next to the one made by his fist.

“Oh, shit! I can’t believe that worked!” A wicked grin crossed her features. “All right, Pretty Boy, Imma go Stretch Armstrong on your ass!”

###

Peter tuned out the sounds of fighting around him, and stared down the man in the long coat. The men flanking him snapped up the muzzles of their weapons, but he raised a hand in dismissal, and they fell back at once to seek out other targets.

“Well, well, it must be my lucky day,” the man said with a laugh. “If it isn’t Colossus! And I thought I wouldn’t get to have any fun.”

“And you must be Donald Pierce,” Peter replied. “The pleasure is all yours.”

Pierce laughed. “Oh, it most certainly is.” He removed his coat with a flourish and tossed it aside. “It’s been a while since I had a good fight. Come on, show me what you’ve got.”

“Rockslide, on me,” he said, and Santo’s glowing blue eyes lit up like he just received everything he ever asked for on every Christmas list he had ever written all at once.

“You mean I get to tag-team with Colossus?” he asked.

Peter nodded. “We take him together.”

“Oh my God on a scale of one to a million this is gonna be awesome!” Santo bashed one rocky fist into his palm, and stared Pierce down. “Get ready to get rocked ya robot freak. Rockslide is gonna bury you!”

“No smack talk.”

“Aw, but that’s half the fun!”

Pierce set himself, a wicked smile crossing his features. Peter and Santo spread apart to hit him from both sides at once, and at his signal they charged together.

###

Rahne leapt off the top of the shed and landed in the middle of a group of guards. They all tried to swing their guns on her at once, but she grabbed the nearest and flung him into the men in front of her, while Victor cleared her from behind, snatching one with his prehensile tongue and whipping him into his comrades. The Wolf in her smelled their fear the moment they realized they had been outflanked and longed to run wild on the hunt.

Sooraya blasted across the group, popping out of her sand form here and there to deliver punches and kicks, before discorporating again and assaulting them with fine particulate that got into their eyes and noses, blinding them and choking them, and leaving many coughing out blood. The scent of it mingled with their fear, and Rahne’s instincts threatened to drive her into a frenzy.

A’ll not lose control...! A’ll not lose control...!

A shot nearby rang out, and suddenly her shoulder exploded in pain that drove her to her knees. Rahne let out a canine yelp, and stared in horror at the ragged wound just below her right clavicle. Victor was by her side immediately. A few of the guards rushed in to try to finish her off, but he quickly drove them back, dodging around them, shredding through their body armor with his clawed hands, or simply tossing them aside.

“Elixir, Wolfsbane’s down!” he called into the radio, but no one responded. In fact, Rahne didn’t even hear him in her own earpiece. “Aw hell, I think they’re jamming the frequency.”

Rahne forced herself back to her feet. Her right arm refused to respond at first. But then, to her surprise, the bullet was ejected and the wound closed up on its own.

“Praise God almighty!” she exclaimed in disbelief.

“Woah, you can heal?”

“A dinnae ken! A didnae when Pierce almost killed me in Salem.”

“Well, you do now, so let’s not waste it!”

Rahne turned to find the man who shot her hastily changing out magazines, his features full of panic when he realized what just happened. She pounced on him with a snarl, seized him by the armor, and hurled him into another knot taking aim at Victor and knocking them all flat. The composure of the other guards around them was breaking down under their relentless assault. Some dropped their weapons and fled altogether.

“A dinnae believe it, but A think we’re winnin’!”

A sudden explosion behind her lifted Rahne up and flung her forward, accompanied by a hail of shrapnel tearing through her back. She hit the ground hard on her shoulder and her head swam. When it finally cleared again, she looked up to find herself staring at a gruesome construct of flesh and metal, wearing a mask painted with a skull and leveling an oversized rifle at her. It fired again, hurling explosive rounds over her head that ripped into one of the maintenance sheds behind her.

“Rahne!” Victor cried, and leapt at the monstrosity of flesh and steel stalking towards her. He struck the man square in the chest and knocked him back. The cyborg swung his gun around, and Victor dodged to the side to escape his line of fire. More rounds tore through the space he just vacated.

“Squirrely little shit, ain’t ya!” the masked man snarled in frustration, and wielded his rifle like a club. Victor kept a step ahead of him, ducking, bobbing, and weaving, and he countered every missed strike with a furious series of blows that would have floored a normal man, but his opponent shrugged off. So, despite his strength and speed, Victor was soon at a disadvantage once his adversary recovered from his initial surprise.

Victor ducked a vicious blow from the butt of the cyborg’s rifle, and aimed a kick at his face. But the move was only a feint; as soon as Victor was unbalanced, his assailant lunged to the side, caught him by the ankle, and flung him aside. Rahne watched Victor sail through the air and slam into the side of one of the storage sheds so hard the wall buckled. He scrambled to his feet, bracing himself against the wall with one hand. The cyborg snapped the muzzle of his weapon up and fired from the hip.

Victor screamed as his right arm evaporated in a shower of blood and bone.

“Nae!” she screamed. Victor crumpled to the ground and grabbed the ragged stump where his arm used to be. The cyborg ejected his spent magazine and slapped a new one into his rifle to finish the job.

Rahne shook her head furiously to drive out the last of the cobwebs. Her healing factor ejected the fragments of shrapnel from her back, and soon the pain ceased. The Wolf now hungered to be unleashed, thirsting for blood. Memories of Nori and Julian lying wounded on the ground, and Pierce’s blade slashing through her throat fed and nurtured it. A low growl escaped her throat. She put her feet beneath her and turned, staring the cyborg down with murder in her eyes. She curled her lip to bare glistening fangs, and her fur bristled.

Rahne sprung forward with an angry bark.

###

“Talon! Magik! Regroup on me!” Nori called, unleashing another electric blast into the sea of bodies between her and the rest of her team. Deathstrike’s men spasmed and jerked under the energy pouring through them, dropped their weapons and shields, and collapsed to the floor.

Illyana and Laura continued to press forward ahead of her. Laura cut her way through anyone that stood between her and Deathstrike. Illyana seemed to just be looking to inflict as much carnage as possible. Both girls were covered head to toe in blood that wasn’t theirs. The men in front of them buckled and gave way, leaving the bodies of their dead and wounded to be trampled while the survivors regrouped.

“Laura! Yana! God dammit, get back here!”

Nori rushed forward, fueled by the electricity she absorbed from the surrounding machinery. I’ve never had access to this much power before! She paired blows from her fists and feet with electric blasts, and fought her way through the mob between her and her teammates. She quickly lost sight of Josh, and she guessed he must have sought cover until the fighting was done.

Illyana, at least, finally acknowledged her, and checked her advance. She raised one fist, and flames danced along her arm before concentrating around her hand. Nori shielded her eyes against a blinding flash of blue-white flame raking the space around her. Those of the enemy close enough were incinerated before they even knew what was happening. Further back they screamed, threw their weapons aside, and futilely dropped to the ground in a desperate effort to smother the flames consuming them. Nori’s stomach lurched when she realized just what Illyana was using against them, and that their efforts were in vain. The black magic of Limbo rapidly consumed them and left nothing but ash behind.

Nori finally reached her side once the flames subsided, and took up a guard position on Illyana’s flank. “What the hell, Yana? Since when can you do that outside Limbo?”

“It was an eventful few days,” Illyana said, dismissively.

“Colossus took you in there yesterday.”

“Time works differently there, and for me it was more like a week. And I really don’t want to talk about what I had to take on to burn this virus out of me.”

“Okay, but just remember we’re here to do a job, not for revenge.”

Illyana smirked and leaned on her sword. “You might want to tell that to Laura, she’s headed right for razor finger lady.”

Nori turned to follow her gaze and her shoulders slumped in frustration at the sight of Laura carving a bloody path towards Deathstrike. The Reaver’s smile returned, and she leered gleefully in anticipation. “Craaaaaap. Laura! Get back here, we take them together!”

“Deathstrike is mine!” Laura snarled, slashing through the last of the men standing between her and her objective. She now stood panting furiously, surrounded by a pile of bodies and glaring murder at the bladed horror in front of her.

Illyana pursed her lips. “So, she seems angry. What did I miss while I was enjoying my coma?”

Nori sighed and rolled her eyes. “Oh, not much. Deathstrike just almost killed Keller when the Reavers kicked our ass the other day.”

“Huh. Just between you and me, I think we ought to let her work this one out herself. Besides, we have a problem of our own, now.”

“What do you mean?”

Illyana raised a finger, and Nori followed it to Cole approaching with a wicked smile on his dark features, and making a show of rubbing his fists.

“Hey, baby girl!” he said, his voice dripping with mockery. “Ready for round two?”

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me!” Nori groaned.

Cole snapped his hands up. Blue-white fingers of electrical energy blasted across the space between them, and only Illyana stepping in and throwing up a glowing barrier of magical energy between them spared her from taking another full-force blast. Cole did not relent, and kept pouring more and more energy into it. Illyana grunted and clenched her jaw, and Nori watched in disbelief when Cole’s assault ultimately overwhelmed and shattered her shield.

Illyana shrieked in agony at the energy suddenly coursing through her, and the impact threw her backwards with such force it blasted her clear through the wall behind her.

“Yana!”

Cole laughed, and casually cut off his power. He shook out his arms and reset himself. “Come on, baby, it’s just you and me, now!”

###

Laura’s blood boiled, her body tense and ready to unload. Deathstrike giggled maniacally, clacking her bladed fingers together. For a moment they stared each other down, and nothing else existed for her. The surviving soldiers kept their distance, and Laura could smell the fear on them; none of them wished to come between their commander and her prey.

That suited her just fine.

“Are you ready for me, little girl?” Deathstrike said, her voice playful and mocking. “I would promise you a quick death, but someone wants you very badly.” She took up a fighting stance, and her blades gleamed in the factory lighting. “That doesn’t mean I can’t have my fun with you first.”

Laura dropped into her own guard. The only thing that existed for her now was Deathstrike. The image of her holding Julian aloft impaled on her fingers forced itself into her thoughts unbidden, and tinted her vision red. “You call yourself Deathstrike,” she growled through gritted teeth. “Show me!”

Laura charged forward, and Deathstrike responded in kind, her blades raised to strike. However, rather than meet her head-on, Laura dropped at the last moment so the strike at her head went high. She slid across the floor and used a foot claw to rake her opponent’s ankles on her way past. Deathstrike stumbled, but Laura did not give her a chance to recover. She dug her claw into the floor and her body jerked upright, spinning herself around for a kick at the back of her adversary’s head that staggered her further.

Laura rushed back in and struck multiple times in quick succession from behind before Deathstrike could turn. Though her claws cut deeply into her toro, the blows did little to slow her for long, and soon the damage was only visible from the ragged slashes through her clothing and body armor.

Target possesses enhanced healing capabilities, possibly cybernetically augmented. Conventional attack strategies ineffectual.

Deathstrike now turned to face her, and that unhinged smile came to her face. “Arrogant little child! Do you really think you’re a match for me?”

Laura dodged through a rapid series of strikes, deflecting some with her claws, and spinning around others to deliver quick, experimental slashes to key points. Every attack she landed soon healed over, confirming her suspicions. But something caught her ears over the ringing of her claws against Deathstrike’s blades, and a plan began to take form.

###

Cessily dodged around Pretty Boy’s fists, taking advantage of her fluidic body to maneuver around him. He launched a powerful blow at her face and she snaked out of the way. When he retracted it again, she flung one arm around his wrists to bind them both together, then delivered a ferocious left hook to his temple.

He tried to use his advantage in size and strength to tear himself free, but she had a firm grip on him now, practically encasing him within liquid metal. Cessily turned on her heel, and with whip-like leverage swung him around and released him. Pretty Boy’s face smashed through the wall behind her, followed immediately by the rest of his body. He hit the ground with a sickening crunch and skidded a good dozen feet across the ground outside.

Cessily pursued him out through the hole just in time for him to regain his feet again.

“Hold still, you slippery little bitch!” he snarled, and launched into a flurry of rights and lefts, his fists exploding outward on his telescoping arms.

Cessily threaded her body through the barrage, and delivered another solid punch to his face. However, before she could snake clear of him again he managed to catch hold of her by the ponytail. She yelped in surprise, and Pretty boy hurled her away from him. The ground rose up to meet her, and she smacked her face into the pavement. The blow left her momentarily dazed, but she managed to dodge to the side just in time to avoid his fist smashing the ground where her head had been.

She rolled back into a crouch and reshaped her arms into blades. “Ok, I really didn’t want to do it like this, but no more playing around!”

“Bring it on, gorgeous,” Pretty Boy said, and grinned wickedly.

Cessily darted forward, rolled past a fist rocketing towards her face, and brought her arm down on his, shearing through his cybernetics with a shower of sparks. Pretty Boy cried out in pain and lashed out with his other arm in a wild left hook. She ducked under him, and the momentum of the blow exposed his back to her. Cessily quickly reshaped her arms into scythes, and she brought both of them down into the shoulder joint. She pulled hard, and her blades tore through the outer plating and sliced through the wiring and plumbing allowing his arm to function.

“Gah! Do you really think that’s gonna stop me?” Pretty Boy allowed his momentum to carry him around, and Cessily’s arm-blades dragged through the flesh across his back. He managed the turn so quickly she was nearly pulled off her feet, and his hand shot out and caught her by the throat before she could recover.

His grip locked tightly like a vice around her neck and began to squeeze. It certainly hurt, but she narrowed her eyes to slits.

“Are you really that stupid? I don’t breathe, dumbass!” Cessily said. “Do you?”

Pretty Boy’s features twisted in confusion. “What?”

“Let’s find out!”

And with that she slammed one of her hands into his face, and snaked her fingers into his nose and mouth. He managed a muffled grunt of surprise, and Cessily was satisfied when his eyes went wide with panic. He released his hold on her, and though she dropped roughly to the ground, she never lost her grip. Pretty Boy grabbed and slapped at her arm in desperation. His eyes rolled back in his head and he dropped heavily to his knees, before he finally keeled over unconscious. Cessily withdrew her hand from his face, and her features twisted in disgust at what was left all over her fingers.

“Oh gross!” she said, and wiped her hands off on her pants leg.

###

Illyana lifted herself up onto her elbows and shook her head.

“Ow,” she murmured.

“It’s about to get a whole lot more painful, mutie,” said someone above her, and she looked up to find herself outside again, and hemmed in by men in body armor. Her sword, its flames doused, lay behind them.

Illyana smiled malevolently. She rose into a crouch and braced herself. “Don’t worry, I promise you won’t feel a thing.”

She called her sword to her hand, and its blade reignited when it struck her palm. And then she was moving, darting through the crowd, dodging blows, and cutting them apart. In a moment it was over, and all her assailants lay dead at her feet.

Freed for the moment, she swept her eyes across the battlefield. To her left, near the doors they originally entered through, Cessily extracted herself from a collapsed body before retreating back inside. She spied Piotr and Santo engaged in a furious brawl with a tall blond man nearby, and she was astonished when he took a full-force blow to the face from her brother and immediately snapped back up again.

Illyana took off at a jog to join the fight, but the moment Piotr spotted her, he stopped her with a look while straining against his opponent in a wrestling clench. Santo tried to circle around behind him, but was fended off with a quick kick to the stones.

“Don’t worry about me,” Piotr said, “help Dust and the others!”

“Don’t play the martyr with me, Piotr.”

“Rockslide and I have him. Go!”

She spit him on an irritated little-sisterly glare. “Oh, fine! But if he kills you, I’m going to drag your soul to Limbo just to say I told you so. And you know I can do it!”

Illyana turned away and ran past them. Sooraya moved through the back of the fight, surrounded by armed men and darting through them in her sand form. Illyana took up her sword in both hands and charged into the middle of the fray. Sooraya held back; she blinded and distracted her adversaries, using her sand form to blast through them before recorporating to strike with her hands, rather than simply pour herself into their noses and mouths to suffocate them, but that just let more of them close in around her.

Illyana had no such scruples.

Her sword flared and she dove into them with relish. Those Sooraya blinded she cut down while they shielded their eyes. She called hellfire to her hands to blast others, their bodies burning to ash and drifting away on the wind before they could even scream. Illyana soon ran out of targets, and for the moment the area around her and Sooraya was clear.

Pity.

Sooraya recorporated next to her with a swirl of howling sand. Her eyes behind her niqab were weary, and her shoulders slumped in exhaustion. She surveyed the carnage and bodies strewn around them, and bowed her head.

“Such a senseless waste of life... Yana, what are you doing out here? Where are the others?” she asked.

Illyana leaned her sword on her shoulder and considered her work with satisfaction. “Laura is working through some anger issues at the moment, and Cessily just finished off one of those big guys. She’s supposed to be covering David, so I guess they made a move on him. I haven’t seen Nori and Josh since I got knocked through a wall. Piotr wants us to clear out the rest of the flunkies while he and Santo deal with some big blond. So what about Victor and Rahne?”

“We got separated when these others arrived, and I couldn’t get back to them.”

Illyana turned her head in the direction of the distinct cries of fighting on the other side of the complex. Through a mob of goons swarming around the outbuildings on the east side of the installation she thought she caught a vaguely canine shape wrestling with someone rather large. “I think they went that-a-way.”

Sooraya sighed. “Merciful Allah let this be over soon!”

“I’m only just getting warmed up,” Illyana replied, and smiled wickedly. “Race you over there?”

“This is not a game, Yana!”

“It is to me.” She brought her sword to her shoulder, and broke into a slow jog. “So let’s go play!”

###

Rahne snapped and snarled, and dodged the muzzle of the masked man’s rifle. He fired wildly past her, his legs whirring and clanging with each step to dodge her attempts to lunge in. She knew she was faster on her feet, but his combat experience managed to keep him a step ahead of her. The Wolf raged in frustration at being denied its prey; she was unable to take advantage even when he had to swap out magazines, and they now found themselves in a stalemate.

Her ears picked up the thudding of many feet on the pavement behind her, and she managed to glance away long enough to spot more of the newcomers approaching her flank. The fear of being caged in intruded on the Wolf’s hunger, and she desperately leapt at her opponent, her claws flashing in the floodlamps.

Once again, he dodged to the side, but this time her sudden movement caught him off-guard, or perhaps he was finally tiring. Rahne seized the barrel of his rifle in one paw. The flesh of her palm sizzled from the heat, and the stench of burned flesh and fur filled the air. She snarled in pain, but it was soon forgotten when she began to heal. Rahne brought her free hand down, and her claws smashed through the rifle’s mechanism and tore it in two.

“Shit!” her opponent yelped. He dropped his end of the destroyed rifle and drew a combat knife from his belt.

Rahne threw the rest of the weapon aside and lunged in, heedless of his knife strokes. She lashed out with her claws and snapped her jaws at any appendage that came near, the ferocity of her offensive soon pushing him onto his back foot. After a few moments shuffling back-and-forth he thrust his knife out, and she dodged to the side and compassed around him. His momentum carried him past her, and she raked her claws down his back. She shredded through his body armor and flesh, and left ragged, bloody gouges in his torso. His head jerked back with a cry of agony.

Rahne seized him by the armor, spun on her heel, and hurled him with all her strength over her shoulder and into the side of one of the buildings. All the air left his body with a grunt and a sickening snapping of bones, and the wall crumpled inwards. His body collapsed to the ground, and Rahne did not give him the opportunity to recover. She pounced and struck him repeatedly with her claws.

He cried out as each blow tore the flesh from his chest and abdomen. Rahne seized him roughly by the throat, lifted him from the ground, and growled into his face. The Wolf hungered, the stench of blood almost overwhelming her.

“Go on! Do it, mutie!” he said weakly, but defiantly. “You’re gonna have to kill me!”

Blood poured out of his many wounds. It covered her hands and dripped on the ground. Her lip curled and bared her teeth. The Wolf in her craved it, thirsted for it. And somewhere deep inside her rage over Victor, lying in agony on the ground nearby, blazed. But Rahne shook her head and forced her primal urges from her mind with a snarl.

“Nae!” She pulled his face close to hers, and tore the mask from his head. To her satisfaction his expression was suitably terrified at her slavering, fang-filled maw barely an inch from him. “The Lord says thou shallnae kill. No matter what ye’ve done to my friends, A’ll not break his Commandments. Fortunately for ye, A’m still a good Christian girl, an’ A dinnae want yer blood on my hands or conscience!”

She tossed him unceremoniously to the ground, and he slowly pushed himself to his feet. He spat blood from his mouth and reached for a spare weapon on his belt. “You’re a damned fool, mutie, you should have killed me when you had the ch—”

He never finished that sentence. Blood fountained from his chest, followed by the blade of a sword bursting out through his sternum from behind. He choked and gagged, and collapsed to his knees. Illyana stood behind him, her eyes blazing with baleful white fire.

“Unfortunately for you,” she said in his ear, and a trace of mockery filled her voice, “I’m not a good girl, Christian or otherwise.” She wrenched her sword from his back and raised it overhead.

“Yana, dinnae do this!” Rahne pleaded.

“You’re an angel, Rahne. Promise me to never change,” Illyana said. “But you said it yourself: I’m a demon, and I’m sending this one straight to Hell where he belongs!”

She brought her sword down, and Rahne ducked her head and shielded her eyes in revulsion when Illyana clove his head in two.

###

Nori stared Cole down, her heart hammering against her breastbone while a leering grin spread across his dark features. She slowly leeched power from the complex around her and felt the charge build within her. She forgot Josh taking cover away from the fight. She ignored Laura and Deathstrike’s battle raging nearby. All that existed for her was Cole, and the malevolent gleam in his eyes when he sized her up.

“It’s winner takes all this time, baby,” Cole said, and set himself. Nori clenched her jaw, balled her fists, and willed her breathing to slow. Her power waited, an electric buzz in her ears.

“Fine,” she said. “Let’s get this over with.”

They both snapped their hands up together, and Nori unleashed the full force of her stored power. Electricity popped and exploded between them, two columns of blue-white bolts of energy crashing together. Their poles met and repelled, creating a brilliant fountain of power that lit the space around them to blinding. The acrid stench of ozone filled the air, alive with dancing sparks and crackling from the intensity of the electricity surging between them.

Nori furrowed her brow and braced her legs against the floor. Cole’s blast pushed against her, threatening to knock her over backwards. However, she leaned into it, and let go with everything she had; if she fell there would be nothing between her and the agony of electric fingers tearing her body apart atom by atom. Sweat beaded on her forehead, and her hair stood out straight from the massive amount of static they put out. Her lungs burned from the acidic smoke when the air annihilated around them. Her whole body ached, every muscle tensed to bear the strain of the shoving match.

Slowly, she realized to her horror that her power was beginning to wane. Cole’s blast drew nearer, and her reserve of stored power was nearly spent. In desperation, she closed her eyes and forced everything else from her mind. Her entire existence was nothing but her power. It danced around her hands and up her arms, stored deep within the core of her body, and she felt her presence in the world as a beacon of energy.

And then she saw it: Other bright points in the void she had wrapped herself in full of light and life. She opened herself up to them, and a thrill of euphoria rushed through her body when she was flooded with energy. In the world outside the nearby lights in the factory first flickered, and then exploded in a shower of glass and sparks. She drew that energy into herself and fed it back into her attack, and soon it was Cole’s barrage buckling and sputtering.

“What...What are you doing?” he cried, and panic dripped from his voice.

Awestruck, Nori realized it wasn’t just the factory complex she had drawn power from; she sensed Cole, as well, and the generator buried deep within him powering his cybernetics. She was draining his own energy cells dry and turning it back against him.

“There’s a difference between you and me, baby,” she snarled through gritted teeth. “My power doesn’t need batteries!”

Nori drained the last of his energy. Cole collapsed to his knees, and his attack sputtered and died out. She cut off the flow of power, and it now danced across her skin, begging to be unleashed. Blue arcs of electricity surged around her. It raced up her arms and legs, across her bare midriff and along every contour of her body, a caress of pure energy wrapping her even more tightly than David’s arms. Her hair stood on end, and the raw power glowing in her eyes tinged her vision blue. Cole looked up at her helplessly from the floor, his cybernetics dead without energy to drive them, and fear etched itself onto his features.

“Aw, shit ...”  he managed, weakly.

Nori glared down on him without pity and raised her hands. “Get ready to ride the lightning, bitch!”

She released it all at once, a massive wave of energy that slammed into Cole’s body. His screams could just be heard over the shrieking crackle of the column of light and energized plasma boiling around him. His cybernetics popped, the wiring burned, and his flesh cracked. Nori did not let up until she had poured everything she had into him, and when the sparks subsided black smoke rose from his crumpled, slagged hulk.

###

Yuriko slashed through the space the Kinney girl had just been occupying, and turned to defend a series of furious counter-slashes. She struck out her hands and feet, but Yuriko effortlessly battered her efforts aside. Other than a few light blows, her adversary had done no damage to her.

How disappointing.

Tiring of the game while the larger battle raged around her, Yuriko waded into her. Adamantium rang against adamantium with the clashing of their claws and blades, but though the girl was considerably faster, Yuriko’s strength and cybernetic enhancements soon gave her the upper hand. A furious left hook tore Kinney’s chest open, spraying blood across the floor. Yuriko followed with a rising slash from the right that sliced her from belly to sternum, and only the quick action of her adversary’s healing factor kept her innards where they belonged. Nonetheless, the blows staggered her, and she stumbled backwards. Yuriko landed a backhand slash into her face and neck, her fingers biting deep into flesh and bone. The blow ripped the girl’s face apart and opened her throat almost to her spine, while the force of impact spun her around. Yuriko raked her blades down her back.

Her adversary did not cry out. Yuriko drove her hand through her back, and blood exploded from her chest when the blades burst out the other side. “How pathetic!” Yuriko snarled in her ear, and Kinney managed only a sick, bubbling, bloody gurgle in response. She withdrew her blades and let the girl slump to the ground. Kinney collapsed onto her back and lay unmoving.

Yuriko stood over her and twisted her lip in disgust. “You truly thought you were a match for me? You are just a weak, wretched child. Look at you! You’re not even fighting.”

The girl’s wounds healed over, and though blood continued to pour down her mouth and nose, her features twisted in determination. “No...I am listening,” she said.

“What?” Yuriko replied, and confusion washed over. It was just a moment’s hesitation, but she chided herself when Kinney struck wildly with one leg from her back. The claw struck deep beneath her armpit, and she snarled angrily and in pain. A shower of sparks erupted from her cybernetics, accompanied by a fountain of blood that took much longer to stop than it should have. Yuriko tried to raise her arm to strike, but to her dismay it refused to respond. “My arm...what...what did you do?”

The girl was now in a crouch, her clothing in tatters, her features twisted in wrath, and her claws ready. “I can hear the motors driving your cybernetics. I just severed the main control servo for your arm. I just needed you close and still enough to strike it precisely.

“Now it’s my turn.”

Kinney darted forward, and struck with renewed fury. The first blow finished the job her surprise attack started, and severed Yuriko’s damaged arm at the shoulder. Sparks danced along the shredded circuitry, and blood spurted from the artery once supplying it blood. Yuriko countered with a wild blow from her left, but the girl lightly danced around it, spinning up the outside of her arm to drive her claws into the back of her knee. Again, sparks and blood exploded from the wound, and the cybernetics controlling her lower leg were cut.

Yuriko stumbled aside, but crippled as she was, she could no longer keep up with her adversary. Kinney leapt in for a series of strikes to her hips and torso, each blow slicing through wiring or actuators, and piece by piece Yuriko’s body began to shut down. Her attempts to counter attack were uncoordinated. Her head swam; with her cybernetics failing they were no longer repairing her biological components, and blood poured from many gaping wounds ripped in her flesh.

“Your cybernetics are too damaged to self-repair,” her adversary said, darting in for another blow to the inside of her thigh, laying open her femoral artery with a spray of crimson. Darkness crept in at the corners of her vision. “You are losing blood faster than they can heal you. You are dead and don’t even know it.”

Yuriko screamed in fury, and leveled a desperate, wild haymaker at the girl’s head; if it could only cut her head from her shoulders...

But her own body was fast shutting down, and she no longer had the motor function or even the strength needed for such a blow. Kinney casually ducked under her, and all the breath left Yuriko’s lungs with a sick grunt when a pair of claws were driven full-force into her bowels. The girl spun around behind her.

Yuriko sunk to her knees. Severed cybernetics sparked. Blood was everywhere. And then a last, agonizing pain tore through her back, and blood fountained from her chest. She tried to draw a breath, but it would not come. And just before her vision went black she looked down to see her own stilled heart, impaled on twin adamantium blades.

“You were dead the second you touched Julian Keller,” echoed in her ears, the last thing her consciousness processed before it faded into oblivion.

###

Mary drew an agonized, racking breath. Every nerve felt like it had been set on fire, and when she raised her head and opened her eyes she found herself lying on the floor, surrounded by dead and wounded men. Blood poured from fresh wounds across her body and frothed in her breath, and in places her skin was blackened from the massive jolt of electricity that had struck her.

She coughed and forced herself upright. The fighting around her subsided. Cole was reduced to a blackened heap of slag, and she watched in horror when the priority subject wrenched Deathstrike’s heart from her body and unceremoniously threw it to the ground. Her body slumped to the ground with the clatter of metal, still except for the occasional sparks from her ruined cybernetics.

Mary’s own vision darkened against the agony wracking her body, and she found it difficult to stay awake.

Merciful Lord, I beseech thee not to let this battle end in vain. Bless me with the strength for one last blow in thy name.

She reached for the sidearm slung at her hip, and forced herself to her feet. A flash of light drew her eye, and she spied the gleaming golden skin of the abomination their intelligence identified as Josh Foley, one of Harkins’s priority targets. With the last of her strength she raised her pistol and framed him in her sights.

###

Josh watched the end of the fight in nauseated horror from his hiding place behind a control console. Laura wrenched her hand from the bloody wound in Deathstrike’s back, and when she held it aloft she gripped the woman’s severed heart in her hand. Deathstrike’s body collapsed with a clatter, and a few final sparks before her cybernetics completely shut down.

Laura tossed her gruesome trophy to the ground beside her. She was covered in blood from head to toe, and her uniform was so shredded it was practically falling off her. Even the story Josh heard of her fighting the night of Stryker’s attack was that of refined elegance, like a lethal ballroom dancer. Now he gawked, horrified at the wild savagery she projected.

Nori stumbled up beside him, fumbling with her gauntlets when he came out from behind his cover. Her features were drawn and weary, and she slumped her shoulders.

“Josh, you okay” she asked. Her face turned green at the sight of Laura walking away from Deathstrike’s cooling corpse.

“Yeah,” he said, and his voice echoed painfully loud in the utter stillness filling the inside of the facility in the aftermath. Josh forcibly tore his attention away from the grisly scene, and turned it on Nori for no other reason than to not have to look at the carnage. “Where’s Yana?”

“Oh, shit!” Nori cried at the reminder, and clapped her hand over her forehead. “She got hit by Cole and I lost track of her in all the this!”

“We’d better go f—”

Before Josh could even get the words out something struck them from the side, and threw them both to the ground.

“Gun! Down!” Laura snapped in his ear. Josh heard a series of strange, muffled whumps. Laura was then up and lunged at the gunman; a woman with blonde hair and a badly scarred face. Josh wasn’t sure why she wasn’t down, but Laura soon made quick work of her, and he closed his eyes against the blood arcing from the woman’s throat.

He helped Nori back to her feet, and they both jogged over to Laura. She stood still with her back to them.

“Hey, thanks,” Josh said upon drawing up beside her. “I owe you ...”

He trailed off when Laura didn’t respond.

“Laura?” Nori called. “Hey, you okay over there?”

Josh stepped around her so he could look her over, and all the color drained from his face at the five darts embedded in her chest. “Oh shit ...”

“Get away from me!” Laura cried, and hastily retreated from them. “Both of you get away!”

“Laura—” Nori began, but her words died in her throat when Laura stumbled and sunk to her knees. Josh pulled Nori back just before Laura vomited blood on the ground. “Oh no!”

“Get back!” she repeated between heaves. Blood poured from her nose and mouth, and her breath came in gurgling gasps. “Keep everyone away from me!”

The symptoms set in with horrifying speed. Josh couldn’t imagine how much of the virus surged through her system now; a single dart had been more than enough to floor Cyclops and Julian within a few minutes. With this many hitting her all at once...

“Nori, find Yana, we need to get Laura out of here and back to the school. Like, now!” Josh said

“On it!” Nori replied. A few nearby lights flickered, then Nori sped off, fueled by the fresh surge of power. Josh watched her go for a moment, before turning back.

And when he did his heart climbed up into his throat; Laura was gone.

###

Peter rolled along the outside of Pierce’s arm to dodge his punch once Illyana rushed off, and smashed his elbow into the back of his head. Pierce stumbled momentarily, opening him up to a hammer fist from Santo that landed on his collarbone. However, despite the quarter ton of living stone bringing his hand down with all of his strength and weight behind it, Pierce tanked the hit, seized the big rocking mutant by the wrist, and rolled him into an armbar.

“Woah! No fair using joint locks!” he cried, before Pierce shoved him directly into Peter.

He managed to slip out of the way, and Pierce took advantage of the moment’s distraction to gain some distance. A manic smile spread across his features.

“Is that all you got?” He mockingly beckoned him with his fingers. “Come on, Colossus, I expected better of you.”

Peter didn’t favor him with a response, and merely moved in with a powerful right hook. Pierce caught his fist, rolled it, and stepped aside. With the ring of metal against organic steel Pierce pummeled the side of his head, struck with such force that even he was dazed. However, before his adversary could take advantage, Santo recovered and rushed in. He moved faster than someone of his mass had any right to, and seized Pierce in a crushing bear hug trapping his arms against his sides.

By the time Peter turned back Santo had suplexed Pierce into the ground. He struck hard on his head and neck with a sharp clang, and the force of the impact left a deep gouge in the earth beneath him. Pierce’s cybernetics whirred and strained, and he righted himself before Santo could recover and seized him round the neck.

Peter moved in quickly with a knee to the side of Pierce’s head that knocked him sprawling and jarred his grip loose. Santo spun clear, and Pierce rolled back to his feet. Blood trickled from the Reaver’s nose and brow, and gathered between his teeth. They stopped momentarily to circle one another, and in the brief respite Peter noticed the environment within the complex had changed. All of the gunfire had fallen silent, and the sounds of fighting had ceased. Pierce’s expression twisted with fury when he realized that it was his men on the losing end of the fray.

“Looks like I’ll have to end this myself,” he snarled. “Play time is over, boys!” His cybernetics clacked, and suddenly his arms began to change, his right shifting into a long, sword-like blade, and his left into a cannon.

“Oh ...” Peter muttered, just in time for the cannon to fire, and a massive bolt of energy slammed into his chest. He struck the ground hard and skidded another dozen feet, his armor blackened, buckled, and smoking. Painfully, he got his feet beneath him and staggered upright, one hand holding his chest.

Santo charged Pierce, delivering a powerful series of strikes that would have reduced any normal human to a fine red paste. Pierce took several directly to his head, but it did little more than stagger him for several ferocious body blows he also shrugged off. His left arm shifted again into another blade, and he was soon trading blows with Santo. Bits of stone were gouged out of his rocky hide with each strike, and the grating of metal on stone was deafening. Despite Santo’s tremendous strength, however, Pierce was gaining the upper hand, and with an explosion of shards of rock, severed Santo’s right arm.

Peter stumbled forward to rejoin the fight, but soon became aware of another figure darting in from the side. Illyana’s sword blazed wrathfully when she lunged in and brought her blade down on Pierce’s shoulder, trailing fire like some baleful comet. The blade smashed through his cybernetics and buried itself part way through his torso, yet Pierce hardly seemed bothered by it.

He momentarily reformed one of his hands and seized Illyana by the hair, casually tossing her aside. Before she struck the ground, she opened a portal and disappeared into it. Another opened above Pierce’s back, and Illyana used the momentum to drive her heel into him. She wrenched her sword free of his back, kicked off him back into the portal she had exited from, and popped out once again from the first. She wheeled her sword through a powerful rising blow at Pierce’s chest, fueled by the power of her flight. The portals snapped closed, and Illyana dragged her blade through Pierce’s body before landing in a crouch behind him.

Pierce wheeled around — his damaged body repaired itself — and reformed his cannon again to fire. But before he could unleash the charged blast a deadly howl filled the air, and Sooraya’s sand form blasted across him. It flayed the flesh from his endoskeleton, and he grunted, uselessly shielding his face with his arm. Illyana took advantage of his momentary blindness to withdraw out of distance, just in time for Nori, blazing with electricity and speeding out from the main building to flash past him. She skidded to a stop and shed her gauntlets. A deafening crackle split the air, accompanied by a massive electrical blast that raced across Pierce’s body. Illyana unleashed a column of white hellfire from behind him, and between them the flesh was practically seared from his body, leaving only his cybernetic superstructure underneath.

Ragged strips of bloody flesh clung to the metal, and what of his internal organs were still biological were now exposed for all to see.

“Whoah, groady!” Santo exclaimed while he reattached his right arm. But Pierce was not down. A massive shock of energy exploded from him, deflecting Nori and Illyana, and Sooraya’s sand form splattered uselessly against the shockwave. Flung clear, she hit the ground hard enough to knock the wind from her when she recorporated. Pierce’s arms shaped back into blades. He wheeled between his attackers, fighting off Illyana’s sword and Santo’s fists, while Nori dodged around him and continued pumping blasts of electricity into him.

Peter dashed forward. With Santo on one side and Illyana on the other, Pierce was forced to turn between the two and was unable to concentrate on one of them, and Nori’s blasts showed a visible effect disrupting his cybernetics.

And that gave him the opening he needed.

With a primal scream, Peter launched into a superman punch, and Pierce turned in response to square up to him. His organic steel fist smashed through Pierce’s chest armor. Metal squealed as it buckled under the force of the blow, and the impact froze Pierce out of pure shock and disbelief. His hand now deep inside the cyborg’s body, Peter seized hold of the wiring connecting brain and cybernetics, and with a savage jerk tore them out. Sparks exploded from Pierce’s body, and his legs collapsed beneath him.

Santo rushed in to seize him by one arm, and Peter grabbed the other. They pulled them out tight, and restrained Pierce upright. He thrashed against their grip, but with his legs non-functional couldn’t manage the leverage to tear himself loose.

“Surge, light him up!” Peter ordered. Every light across the complex blinked out. Electricity danced and sizzled across her skin, and her eyes blazed a brilliant, neon blue.

“This is for Salem, asshole!” she sneered, and cut loose with everything she had.

Pierce’s whole body jerked as white-hot fingers crackled through him, frying every circuit powering his cybernetics, and reducing his biological components to ash. Nori didn’t let up until thick, black smoke poured from his chassis, and after a few final pops and spasms, Pierce hung limply, with only Santo and Peter’s hold on his arms supporting him.

They released him, and he collapsed lifelessly to the ground.

“Dude, does this mean we won?” Santo said, giddily.

Illyana leaned her sword against her shoulder, and a smirk tugged at her lips. “I think so, once Laura finishes with finger lady.”

Nori retrieved her gauntlets and slipped them back on. “That’s why I came out here: Yana I need you with me right away,” she said, and Peter could not mistake the panic in her voice. “We have to get Laura back to the school immediately!”

“What happened?” he asked.

“She’s been hit by darts, and it looks like she just took a massive dose of the virus.”

Sooraya’s hands went to her mouth. “Oh, Allah be merciful! Is she all right?”

Nori shook her head. “It’s very, very bad, we have to get her home now!”

“Right,” Peter said. “Yana, go with her. Get Talon back as fast as you can. The rest of us will finish here, but we’ll need you to port us back once we’re done. Let’s hurry, the noise we’ve been making is sure to have attracted attention.”

###

Laura stumbled along the catwalk, blinded by the torrent of blood leaking from her eyes, and leaning on the railing for support while she half-dragged herself along the length of it. She could barely breathe; blood and fluid filled her lungs, and twice she sunk to the ground, vomited, and had to force herself back to her feet.

Organs failing. Healing factor compromised and...coopted.

She clenched her jaw in determination. Laura could feel the virus ravaging her body, reproducing so swiftly and in such a massive volume as it took control of her healing factor that just being near the others would guarantee infection of the entire team, if not everyone left at the school still unaffected.

Another stumble, and again she vomited blood and something more disgusting she dared not even guess at. Blood frothed in her mouth and nose. Lesions split open on her exposed flesh, and more blood leaked from them.

I can’t let this happen...

Laura forced herself up again, only sheer will driving her forward to the end of the catwalk, and the industrial incinerator it overlooked. A heavy safety gate stood closed, blocking anyone from falling in by accident. She extended her claws and sliced through the latch, allowing it to swing open. Then she closed her eyes and rolled herself over the edge.

###

“Vic!” Santo cried, and bolted across the complex when he spotted Rahne approaching with Victor cradled in her arms. Her shoulders sagged wearily, and she gladly gave up her burden when the big rocky mutant reached her. “Speak to me, buddy!”

“Oh God, is that Santo?” Victor murmured weakly, while Santo cradled him to his massive rocky chest. “I’m dead and this is Hell!”

Rahne shifted back into her human form and rolled her eyes. “Och, dinnae be so dramatic,” she said. “Josh will have ye back in order in no time.”

The others gathered around the entrance to the main building, and Rahne shuddered at the sight of Pretty Boy lying crumpled near the big hole in the wall where the door used to be. Colossus was busy securing his hands and legs with a thick piece of rebar. Sooraya, Cessily, and David stood with him, but there was no sign of Nori, Yana, or Laura.

“’Tis over?” she asked upon arriving beside them.

“Not yet,” David said, and his shoulders sagged. “Laura...she got hit bad during the fighting.”

Rahne blinked in surprise, and more than a little shock that Laura, out of all the team, had been taken down. “How hard could she get hit that her healin’ factor cannae fix it up?”

“There were darts. A lot of them,” Cessily said. “Soo just filled us in.”

“Good Lord Almighty! Is she ...”

“Yana, Nori, and Josh are getting her back to the school, but the way Nori made it sound it may have been too much for her.”

Rahne pressed her hands to her mouth, and cold fingers wrapped tightly around her heart. “Oh no. Oh no.”

“There’s nothing we can do about it now,” Colossus said, once he finished securing their prisoner. “We still have a job to finish. Prodigy, any luck?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I’ve just hacked the encryption on the files, and holy shit, this is some scary stuff. Dr. Rao will really want to look at this when we get back, it may help her with the cure. It also looks like there’s a concealed entrance leading deeper underground beneath the factory floor, as Laura said. That’s where the actual labs and storage are located, along with the prisoners. It looks like nothing has been moved yet.”

“Good work! Once Magik has Talon and Elixir in hand and the area’s clear, we’ll join Surge,” Colossus said.

###

It didn’t take long for Josh to find her; a trail of blood led up the stairs onto the catwalk, and deeper into the complex. He rushed past pools of it, along with something even more disgusting, she had spit up. It quickly dawned on him just where she was heading, and horrified, he picked up his pace and sprinted along the catwalk. His boots clattered loudly on the metal grating and echoed across the complex.

He reached the end of it just in time to watch Laura cut open the safety gate overlooking the incinerator, and let herself fall.

Josh dove, landing hard on his belly at the edge, and grabbing wildly. He managed to catch her by the wrist, and the sudden jerk of stopping her fall nearly pulled him over with her. He managed to hook one of the vertical supports of the safety rail with his foot, and now they hung precariously over the open maw of the incinerator.

Laura looked up at him with bloodshot eyes. Blood poured from every orifice, and from great lesions tearing apart her skin. Josh wanted to throw up at the sight.

“Laura, no!” he cried, straining against her weight held tenuously by one hand. The blood smeared over her hands made it harder for him to maintain his grip, and he felt her slowly slipping away.

“Joshua, let me go!” she pleaded.

“I can’t do that! I can’t let you do this to yourself!”

“Please! It’s too late.”

“No, it’s not! Just let us take you back to the school.”

“Joshua, the virus is coopting my healing factor,” she said, and Josh’s bile climbed up into his throat. If the virus can actually use her healing factor... “I can feel it! This will not be like what happened to the others. It is mutating, and if it gets out it will kill everyone.”

“Laura, please. Just let me try!”

“It’s not worth it,” she said. “I am not worth it. My life does not matter, and I won’t endanger everyone else, please just let go!”

Josh was stunned at the resignation in her voice. Through all the self-consciousness she displayed, he had never before seen anything to suggest the depth of self-loathing he heard in her voice now. This wasn’t humility; she genuinely believed her life was not worth saving.

“Laura, listen to me. You do matter, and I’m not going to let you kill yourself when we have a chance to make this right. Please just give me time!”

“There is none.” Snikt.

Josh stared in dismay at the lights flickering along the edge of her claws as she drew back to strike at her wrist. His mind scrambling for something — anything — to stop her, and he thought back to the afternoon before. He took a steadying breath.

“And what about Julian?” he asked.

Laura froze, and for a moment clarity came to her bleeding green eyes. “Julian ...?”

“You matter to him! He’s going to be looking for you when he wakes up. You matter to all of us! You’re our friend. Cessily doesn’t want to lose you. Sooraya doesn’t want to lose you. Just please, let me try!”

Tense silence hung over the complex, broken only by the hungry roar of the incinerator. Josh looked straight into her eyes. They were glassing over now. Whatever reserve of strength Laura drew on faded fast. If she didn’t relent soon...

Her claws retracted. Josh grabbed her other hand, and with a grunt of effort pulled her up. Laura’s bloodied body collapsed in his arms. She choked and coughed blood, and it frothed on her mouth and nose.

Please, God! Let me do this!

Josh cupped her cheek in one hand and closed his eyes. He reached out to her with his power, and as he explored deep down, beyond her skin and muscle tissue, down into the cells themselves, he realized with dread that Laura was right: The virus had not only overwhelmed her immune system, but was now using her own healing factor to replicate itself at an unprecedented rate. And this new mutation was even more aggressive, it poured out of her body through the lesions opened in her skin, and Josh realized that this time contact with those fluids alone would be enough to spread it.

He grimaced in determination. Not this time. Now he knew what he needed to do. Now he knew just how to attack it, so Josh gathered his power to him. An incandescent golden light burned through Laura’s body and lit the surrounding catwalk until it was blinding, and he went on the offensive.

###

Act V

###

“Come on, Vic! It won’t hurt, I promise!” Santo said.

Cessily, Rahne, and Santo gathered around Victor’s bed in the recovery bay, which was now crowded with the first group of patients whom Dr. Rao had declared suitably cleared that they could be released from quarantine. Mr. Summers watched them with amusement from a bed nearby, where he was being fussed over by Dr. Grey. Melody was still in quarantine, but Megan and Fabio were up and about again, wrapped up in soft robes while they stretched their legs in the recovery area and observed the exchange with morbid curiosity. Others napped with privacy curtains drawn, or talked quietly with each other and ignored the big rocky mutant’s appeal.

Cessily smirked at the distress on Victor’s reptilian features; since his healing factor wasn’t as strong as Laura’s they all expected Josh would be called in to fix the arm he lost in the fight against the Reavers. So it came as a surprise to them all when he had already regrown it by the time Josh was freed from his work with Dr. Rao preparing the vaccine and antiviral agent. It came as an even bigger surprise when the arm that grew in was even more muscular and reptilian than the old one, looking comically out of place on his otherwise slender physique.

“Dude, I am not letting you pull off my other arm!” Victor replied crossly. “Why would you even think that would be a good idea?”

“Because your new arm is stronger, imagine how much more badass you’d be if the other one was, too!”

Victor buried his face in his hand. “Oh my God, shut up, Santo!”

Cessily regarded him with amusement. “I don’t know,” she said. “Right now you’re kinda lopsided. You look like Quagmire after discovering internet porn.”

He speared her with an annoyed glare. “Don’t you dare take his side, Cess!”

“Think about it, Vic,” Santo said, “you’d look totally jacked with both arms all buff. The other gay dudes wouldn’t be able to keep their hands off ya!”

“Rahne, please, help me out here”

“Dinnae drag me into this!” she said, trying her hardest not to laugh. “A’m just glad yer not goin’ to need much more healin’. Ye scared the life out o’ me!”

“Sounds like you were pretty badass, too,” Santo said. “Yana said you just about took Skullf—”

“Santo!” Cessily and Victor shouted together, mindful of the younger kids hovering nearby.

“What?” he asked with an innocent shrug. “I was just saying she took that dude who hurt Victor down single-handed! That’s awesome! Those Reavers were some pretty hardcore dudes.”

Rahne’s face colored intensely, and she hugged herself uneasily. “A didnae take any joy in that. What’s worse, A almost didnae stop myself from killin’ him. God help me, the Wolf in me wanted to so bad it scared me!”

Cessily took her shoulder by the hand and gave it a squeeze. “Hey, don’t beat yourself up over it. It was a hard night for all of us. But you did what you had to to save Victor. And if it helps you feel better, you did stop yourself.”

She sighed. “A ken A did, but the feelin’ was there all the same. A dinnae ken how Laura and Yana can cope with somethin’ so dark.”

Victor frowned and looked between them. “Honestly, I don’t know if they really are. Yana’s been kind of weird since she got back from Limbo, and Laura...well, she’s Laura. She doesn’t let it show but Julian’s mentioned she’s a lot more bothered by what she does than she lets on.”

“Look, Jubilee said it may be a few days before she’s up to opening shop again, but she’ll be there,” Cessily said, and gave Rahne’s shoulder another squeeze. She then flashed her a teasing grin. “Besides, if you need someone to talk to, I’m sure Josh would love to sit down with you.”

Rahne’s features heated again, and Cessily laughed at her discomfiture. “Och! Ye’re an evil, evil person, Cessily Kincaid!”

“So how about it, Vic? One little tug,” Santo said.

###

Scott watched the exchange between Santo and Victor with amusement, then with a shake of his head returned his attention to the iPad in his hands. His glasses were back in place now that the treatment had been administered, and Hank’s serum wore off and restored his powers. Jean hovered over him radiating her disapproval, but there was too much now to do.

“What is that you’re reading, anyway?” she asked, trying to crane her neck to look over his shoulder.

“It’s the information dump David pulled from the Facility’s computer,” he replied.

“I thought Dr. Rao said you were supposed to be resting, not working. I don’t have to put you to sleep, do I?”

“I’m feeling better, Jean, really. I really just need something to do. I already feel I’ve been idle too long.”

“Scott, you’ve only been up a couple days!” She shook her head with an exasperated look at the ceiling. “Why did I marry a workaholic?”

“Well, I asked and you said yes. Have you looked over any of this, yet?”

Jean sighed and leaned against the wall behind her with her arms folded beneath her breast. “Some, and it made for some very disconcerting reading. Almost all the missing mutants we had been tracking were there. I already made a couple calls, and once Dr. Rao clears them we’ll begin reconnecting them with their families. At least, those that have them. It looks like we may have a couple new students joining us.

“I’ve also arranged to have all this information released to the CDC and Homeland Security. Anonymously, of course. They’re going to want to know what was going on. It’s a shame most of the staff got away during the fighting, but at least they weren’t able to make off with any of the captives or equipment.”

“What worries me is the Facility has been operating this close to Westchester all this time.” He frowned at the report. “There was no specific mention of her, but... Unfortunately, they’re very good at compartmentalizing their activities. This black site was focused entirely on their biological weapons research. There’s definitely information the DHS and the CDC will want to know about, but it still doesn’t help us track down this Harkins, or determine what site Stryker’s weapons shipments were actually coming from.”

“I know,” Jean said, and sighed. “I’m worried, too. I’m afraid the situation has only gotten more dangerous.”

“Have you contacted Logan, yet?”

She shook her head, and wearily sunk into the chair next to his bed. Scott took her hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze of support. “I haven’t been able to get in touch with him, his team is still dark.”

“What about Cerebro?”

“David and Bradley are still working on getting the rest of main power restored to the school, so Cerebro won’t be operational again until at least then. If Logan hasn’t responded by the time it’s up, I’ll try him that way.”

Scott nodded and set the iPad aside. “He’ll need to know about this, and we’ll want to set a closer watch on the school. I have no doubts these people are capable of anything.”

Jean nodded her agreement and slumped in her chair. Scott looked up at her, and the weariness in her features was disconcerting.

“Look, I’m doing okay. You need to get some rest. Peter said you’ve hardly slept in a week.”

“I can manage,” she said. “There’s still so much to do.”

“Now who’s the workaholic?” he asked, and flashed her a playful smile. “I think the others can manage without you for a couple hours. Please, get some sleep.”

Jean smiled back and gave his hand a squeeze. “Who do you think I learned it from?”

Scott’s smile broadened, and Jean shifted in her chair so she could lean her head against him. Scott didn’t release her hand, even when her breathing slowed and he felt her doze off beside him.

###

Peter stepped out onto the terrace behind the school. Morning passed into afternoon, and the sun overhead was bright and warm. Kitty had not yet returned from Mount Sinai; though Dr. Rao’s antivirus was proving effective, it would be another week or more before the hospital could begin discharging its patients, and Hank still needed every hand he could get. Nonetheless, it was still a major victory, and things already felt like they were beginning to return to normal.

He stepped down from the terrace and made his way out into the wooded area behind the school. Peter followed a path to a quiet little sun-dappled glade and found Illyana there. She was clad in leggings and a crop top beneath a leather jacket, and her sword was in hand. A brass pendulum hung from a post driven into the ground and swung from a crosspiece.

It was mostly beginning to return to normal.

Illyana cut at the pendulum, and upon striking it, it swung around away from her. She stepped to follow, stringing together a series of cuts. Each blow changed the direction of the pendulum, forcing her to constantly move to keep it in front of her while striking at different angles. Peter watched her for a time. Her movements had their own particular grace, if not of the same feline fluidity as Laura, and her sword turned deftly in her hands. However, the longer the exercise went on, the faster the pendulum moved, and the more furiously she cut at it. Eventually, her swings became wild and uncontrolled, and the pendulum swung around so fast it managed to get behind her and strike her in the back of the head.

Her eyes blazed furiously with white flame, and she lashed out with a ball of hellfire that blasted the pendulum into molten fragments. Illyana let out a petulant scream, and watched the shower of shattered brass fall into the grass.

“Yana,” Peter called, and Illyana rounded on him. The fire in her eyes flared again over the interruption, and it was only when she saw him that it died away.

“I wanted to be left alone,” she snapped. She raised her hand to the dangling cord, and with a surge of power a new pendulum appeared at the end. When Peter approached her he became aware that there were far more bits of brass scattered around her than could be explained by the one she had just destroyed.

“We need to talk.”

“No, you need to talk.”

He conceded the argument with a shrug. “Maybe, but I think you’d benefit from it, too.”

“Well, there’s nothing to talk about,” she said dismissively, and launched into a fresh bout against the pendulum.

“Illyana Rasputina!” he snapped back, and that made her flinch. The pendulum, still in motion, flipped around and popped her in the nose.

Illyana uttered a curse in Russian that would no doubt have given their mother a fit were she alive to hear it, and lashed out once again, disintegrating the ball of brass in a blaze of hellfire.

“Language, Snowflake!” he shouted in admonishment.

“What do you want from me, Piotr?” Illyana demanded, lapsing into Russian in a fit of pique.

“Illyana, I’m not here to fight with you,” he replied in kind, trying to keep his voice level and his frustration from leeching into it. “But we do need to talk about what happened in Albany. You killed people.”

“So did Laura. So did Nori! She melted one of those Reavers into slag, and then fried Pierce at your orders!”

“They are not you. They did not enjoy it, but you treated it all as if it were a game.”

“We had a job to do, and those men were not innocents! They were all killers, too. They were no better than Stryker’s men, or those men at the Guthrie home. They would have killed all of us if we did not kill them first!

“So don’t you dare try to scold me as if you were father. First of all, you’re not. And you were never as good at it as he was, anyway!”

“I’m not trying to scold you,” he said, and glowered down at her with his hands on his hips. For her part Illyana didn’t back down. “But something has happened to you, and it scares me. I’ve never seen you use power like this outside Limbo before.” He motioned at the fragments of brass scattered around her feet. “A few minor conjurations, perhaps, to show off, but nothing like this. And I’ve never known you to be so callous about human lives.”

“I did what I had to do, and I would do it all over again!” The fire returned to Illyana’s eyes, flickering balefully when she stared him down. “And this power is mine by right! I will use it as I see fit!”

“Illyana, please, listen to yourself,” he pleaded. “You’re talking like you did in Limbo right before you attacked me.”

She closed her eyes, and her whole body shivered. When she opened them again tears welled up in them and meandered down her cheek. “You need to understand that I am not your Little Snowflake anymore. I am growing up, and I am growing into my power. It is becoming part of me.”

Illyana clutched a hand to her chest. “I feel it here all the time now, and I’ll not squander it.”

“I’m not saying that. But you heard S’ym’s warnings: You mustn’t draw too heavily on your magic, especially not all at once. Mutant or not, you’re still human.”

She turned her back on him and hunched her shoulders. “I don’t think I am. I think Rahne had the right of it: I truly am a demon.”

Peter felt icy fingers seize around his heart. Though she would never admit to it openly, her words were tinged with despair and fear. He stepped towards her and laid a hand on her shoulder.

“No, you’re not. Maybe you fought like one, but you will always be my Little Snowflake.”

Illyana turned, and her features twisted through a range of emotions; anger, fear, frustration, grief. “You’ve always been naively optimistic.”

He shrugged and smiled. “Maybe. But someone in this school has to be.”

Peter gathered her into a hug, and for a moment, at least, she collapsed into him and buried her face in his chest.

###

Nori hesitated a moment outside the door and clutched the book in her hands to her chest. Her belly turned somersaults, and she closed her eyes tightly to steady herself. She could have asked someone else to do this instead, but Dr. Grey personally requested she deliver the book for her. And, if she were to be honest with herself, this was something she needed to do.

And yet here she stood, frozen in indecision.

She stood in the hallway outside the observation gallery, staring blankly at the door of one of the smaller, private rooms away from the main med bay suite. Santo’s booming voice echoed off the walls and drowned out most of the other background noise. Some of their classmates and teachers were back up again, and a little bit of joy was starting to seep back into the student body, but Nori’s heart sunk down somewhere into her bowels at the task before her.

Unable to retreat or put it off, she rapped her gauntlet-clad knuckles against the door.

“Come in,” came the muffled voice from within, and with a steadying breath she turned the latch, opened the door, and stepped inside.

The room was functionally appointed, lacking many of the comforts of the dorms upstairs, but at least projected the idea of rest. A few monitors and other bits of medical equipment were tucked away in the corner. There were no tell-tale scorch marks of fried electronics, so Nori guessed they must have been shut down when Magneto went off. There were also cards, bouquets, and other “get well soon” gifts piled on every conceivable space.

Professor Xavier looked up at her from the bed in the corner opposite the door. A chair and table occupied the other, and would provide visitors somewhere to sit. His wheelchair also stood ready beside his bed for when Dr. Rao released him. At the moment, however, both chairs were empty.

“Hello, Nori,” he said cheerfully. Despite the pleasantness of his voice, and as good as it was to hear him again after the fright of the past few days, it was hard not to notice just how tired he sounded. “What can I do for you?”

Nori held up the book in her hand. “Dr. Grey said you asked for this ...”

A momentary look of confusion passed across his features. “Did I?” Then an understanding smile replaced the puzzlement, and he nodded. “Ah, yes, I see. Thank you, I’ll take that from you.”

Nori crossed the room and handed over the book, though the Professor set it in his lap and showed no further interest in it. “And how are you doing?” he asked.

She hugged her arm self-consciously and cast her eyes to the floor. “I don’t...I really don’t know. I did some things in Albany I knew had to be done, but ...” The smoldering remains of Cole and Pierce returned to mind unbidden. “I still can’t get it out of my head.”

He nodded, but when Nori looked closer there was nothing but sympathy in his eyes. “I understand.” Xavier sighed. “It’s the unfortunate reality of being a leader that sometimes you must make hard decisions.”

Nori’s breath caught in her throat, and she swallowed it down hard. “I...kind of wanted to talk to you about that. I think that you and Cyclops made a mistake putting me in charge.”

“Why would you say that?”

“All the decisions I’ve made since Yana got sick have just led to one mess after another. I nearly got everyone killed in Salem, I messed up training with Magneto, and I almost froze again in Albany. And all those people I hurt ...” she trailed off suddenly, and tears filled her eyes. “Worst of all is knowing I let you down.”

Xavier sighed and lowered his head. Nori braced herself for the chewing out she knew was coming, but much to her surprise, Xavier beckoned her forward, lightly patting the bed next to him. She hesitated momentarily before sitting next to him.

“There’s a reason Scott and I chose you to lead the squad,” he said gently. “Because we knew that when it all came down to it, you would do whatever you had to to protect them, even if it meant making a decision I would disagree with, or taking the burden of action on yourself to spare the others that same terrible choice. You made a judgment call with Salem, and the choices you made all had sound reasoning behind them. If I gave you any cause to believe you had failed me, that was my own poor judgment.

“And that’s the hardest thing a leader has to face: That sometimes, they may make a mistake. What matters is whether you continue to dwell on it, or if you learn from it. The reality, Nori, is sometimes you will fail. That doesn’t make you a bad leader, it makes you human.”

Nori’s shoulders slumped and she hung her head. “Magneto said much the same thing.”

Xavier smiled and leaned in conspiratorially. “Every once and a while, Erik does know what he’s talking about. But don’t let him know I said that.” He offered her a mischievous wink, and Nori giggled in spite of herself. “You are a good leader, Nori. Perhaps you weren’t ready for a situation like this, but in the end you came through and got your job done. That’s all you can really do.”

###

Josh tilted his head back for a long drink from his Coca-Cola and relaxed in his chair. The lights in the quarantine bay and observation gallery were turned down low so those who had not yet been released could rest, though Santo and Victor’s squabbling was clearly audible from the recovery room next door and would make it difficult for anyone to sleep. Although he kept an eye on the monitors and feeds coming from the quarantined patients, the urgency of the past week had finally faded away.

Melody, whose condition had become the most precarious, slept quietly. She was finally off the respirator, but had only just regained consciousness from her coma. Ms. Guthrie dozed in a bed beside her; her vitals had not yet stabilized, though her fever had broken that morning. Magneto remained unconscious, and his fever was still high. He was responding to treatment more slowly, but his outburst had been more severe than any of the others and left him considerably weakened. Alani, Roxanne, and Jessica were up and about, but Dr. Rao wanted them kept under observation a little longer. They gathered around Roxie’s bed conversing quietly with one another. Quentin, Barnell, and Sidney were tucked away nearest the airlock; Quentin glared at the ceiling in boredom (his powers were still suppressed; more to prevent him from tormenting the others for amusement than any potential risk of him losing control again) while the others napped.

Finally, in a corner away from the others and under several extra layers of protection, lay Laura. She had been drifting in and out of consciousness since their return from Albany, and though his powers had managed to repair the damage to her healing factor and stop the virus from spreading further, her immune system was only slowly responding to this more aggressive form. The lesions had healed and some of her normal color was returning, however her fever remained dangerously high, and Dr. Rao insisted on the additional precautions to prevent the virus’s new mutation from spreading further. The antivirus was working, but slowly.

Josh did not particularly appreciate the cruel irony that though her blood had been vital to creating the antiviral agent in the first place, it was having such a delayed effect on her.

The door back out to the subbasement hallway opened, interrupting his musings, and to his surprise Julian walked in with a backpack slung over his shoulder. Josh jumped to his feet at his unexpected arrival. Julian did not look at him, but nor did he consciously avoid him. Instead, he approached the windows overlooking the quarantine bay and peered inside.

“Julian!” Josh said, when he found his voice.

“Foley,” Julian replied, his voice neutral, which Josh supposed was an improvement over the hostility the last few times they spoke.

“What are you doing back here? I thought you were still recovering at Mount Sinai.”

“The Doc cleared me for discharge, which suited me just fine. Nurses aside, I had to get out of there before it drove me insane.”

Awkward silence hung between them for a few moments. Josh didn’t respond, and Julian didn’t seem to be interested in continuing along that line of conversation. Finally, Julian sighed and bowed his head.

“Foley ...” he began, and trailed off uncomfortably. Josh didn’t press him, and instead waited for him to continue in his own time. “I just wanted to say thank you. For saving Laura’s life. And for everything else you did for us.” He closed his eyes and swallowed hard. “And I wanted to say I’m sorry for how I was treating you.”

Josh stared at him for a moment, stunned into silence. He never got used to the rare times when Julian Keller would apologize for being an asshole.

“I took everything out on you because ...” he sighed. “Well...because you were there, and I didn’t have Pierce or any of those other assholes in front of me. But Rahne was right, it wasn’t fair to hold something that happened four years ago and before you even came here against you.”

“Look, Julian,” Josh said, and joined him at the window. He leaned his shoulder against it and folded his arms across his chest. “To be honest, if it was the other way around, I might have reacted the same way. I shouldn’t have kept something like this a secret from everyone, and maybe it wouldn’t have blown up like it did if I hadn’t. The truth is, back then I really did believe all that bullshit Pierce was selling. But that’s what it was: bullshit, and I’m embarrassed and regret I ever bought into it. It took me having everything I knew turned upside down before I could finally pull my head out of my ass and see the truth.”

Julian glanced sidelong at him for a moment and nodded. “Yeah. I think I can understand that.”

“I don’t blame you for being upset about it. That right hook might have been a little out of line, but I don’t blame you.”

Julian managed a small laugh. “Yeah, well, you gave as good as you got.”

Josh extended a hand to him. “Maybe things won’t ever be the same again, but I’m willing to put the past behind me if you are.”

Julian eyed his hand for a moment, before accepting it with a firm shake. “Just don’t spring any other surprises on us. Like you’re actually Stryker’s secret nephew or some bullshit.”

This time it was Josh’s turn to laugh. “I’ll do my best.”

Again, for a moment neither spoke, and Julian looked back out into the quarantine bay.

“Can, uh, I go in and see her?” Julian asked. He shrugged the shoulder with the pack. “Soo was going to bring this down; it’s got a few things she might like to have to make her more comfortable down here, but I volunteered.”

Josh nodded. “Yeah, it’s fine. Dr. Rao lifted the full quarantine protocols, so you’ll be good with just a mask as long as you don’t go into the inner tent. Just leave her bag in the air gap, and next time one of us suits up we’ll take it the rest of the way.”

He hesitated for a moment, memories of Laura’s reaction to Chandler haunting his thoughts. “Look, I think you ought to know that there’s something going on she’s not telling us about. She knew that Chandler guy who shot you, and I saw something in her eyes ...”

Julian frowned in suspicion. “Saw what?”

“I honestly don’t know how to describe it. Look, she seems to confide in you more than she does anyone else, but this guy did something to her she’s refusing to talk about.”

Julian hung his head and twisted his lip. “She always does,” he said, and Josh was surprised at the frustration in his voice. “Thanks for telling me, though. I’ll mask up now if you want to let me in.”

###

Julian adjusted the mask around his nose and mouth. It smelled heavily of charcoal, which actually improved things over the overwhelming antiseptic smell of the quarantine bay. Quentin Quire glared at him upon stepping through the airlock, and he smirked behind his mask in amusement at seeing him left powerless. He passed Sydney and Barnell, then Melody and Ms. Guthrie’s beds. Alani, Roxie, and Jessica gathered around Roxie’s bed talking quietly, and Alani offered him a small wave of greeting. Jessica leaned in conspiratorially to the others, and all three girls giggled while they watched him pass. Julian rolled his eyes at Jessica.

Ugh. Precogs...

Julian reached the isolated corner of the bay. Two nested clear plastic tents surrounded one of the beds, with air conditioning units managing the temperature within. The clear plastic allowed Laura’s condition to be visually monitored from the observation gallery, alongside the other equipment hooked up to her now. Laura lay quietly with her eyes closed, however he couldn’t tell whether she was asleep. Her black hair was plastered to her brow by a thin film of sweat, and when Julian looked at one of the connected monitors it read a temperature of 103 degrees.

He opened the flap of the outer tent and stepped into the air gap in between. The portable AC units hummed quietly, and the temperature inside was somewhat cooler than he found comfortable. He slid the pack from his shoulder and laid it on the ground upon approaching the inner tent; almost close enough for him to reach out and touch her if not for the sheet of plastic between them. Laura stirred slightly on his approach, and her eyes, a dull and glassy green, fluttered open. She turned her head, then tried to sit up in surprise at the sight of him.

“Julian?” she said, weakly.

“Hey,” he replied. “Don’t try to get up, okay? How are you feeling?”

She sunk back down onto the bed again and swallowed. “I am better, but still tired. Joshua did something that helped.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Are you still angry with him?”

Julian sighed and hung his head. “After what he did for you, and everyone else, I can’t be. I think we’re kind of back to normal again.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Better, too, I guess. Next time I’ll be faster to duck.”

Laura’s lips twitched slightly into a weak smile. “I am glad you’re well.”

Julian smiled back, though the expression was cheated by his mask. “So, Soo asked me to bring your bag down. She says there’s some stuff in there to help you feel a little more comfortable while they’ve got you trapped in here like Bubble Boy. It’s right out here, so next time Foley or one of the Docs come by suited up they’re going to bring it the rest of the way in.”

“Thank you.” She closed her eyes again and sighed. “I am sorry, Julian, I am just so tired.”

“I know. I just wanted to check in on you and make sure you were okay.” He hesitated a moment then took a steadying breath. “I’m going to let you get some sleep, but I wanted to ask you something first I’ve been trying to get out for over a week. Hopefully before there’s another interruption.”

Laura opened her eyes again and regarded him quizzically. “What is it?”

“I was wondering once you’re up and we’re able to go to Salem again if you wanted to catch a movie or something.”

There. The question was finally out, not that it stopped his stomach from knotting itself while he waited for her response.

Laura worked a little moisture into her mouth. “Do not feel you must wait for me to be out of quarantine if the others wish to go,” she replied, and for a moment he felt as if someone had just sucker punched him. It wasn’t a no, but he was a little chagrinned how she misinterpreted it.

“No, I mean this would just be you and me.”

A little bit of color appeared on her cheeks once Laura realized her error. “Oh.” She hesitated for a moment, and her features bunched a bit while she processed what she was feeling about the question. She turned her head a little to look at him, and a hint of a sparkle returned to her green eyes. “I...I think I would like that.”

Julian smiled. “Okay. For now, get some rest, okay? We’ll make plans once you’re up again. And I’ll let the others know you’re feeling better.”

She closed her eyes again and nodded, and Julian stayed there for a moment and watched her breathing slow until she fell asleep. He sighed, but felt a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

She said yes.

Julian withdrew from the quarantine tent and back into the main bay. Jessica, Roxie, and Alani followed his retreat back towards the observation gallery with a turn of their heads and giggled audibly at his back.

Goddammed Precogs...

###

Adam Harkins stepped off the helicopter with an aide in tow, and ducked under the whirring blades. The downdraft made a mess of his hair, tie, and jacket, and he scowled in irritation while he straightened them again.

The ruins of the Albany installation were now swarming with police and emergency responders, and more concerning, DHS and other Federal officers. Fortunately, many of his own people were already among them, subtly directing the investigators in the wrong direction.

He leaned to his aide and lowered his voice. “Find out where the remains of Pierce and the rest of his lieutenants were taken, as well as where they’re detaining Pretty Boy, and have them loaded up for transport to the New Brunswick installation. Then see about any other survivors. Keep it quiet.”

“Yes, Doctor,” she replied, and hurried off to carry out his instructions.

Harkins continued on his own and approached the officer in charge of the site. He waved, and the officer — an older man with dark skin and graying hair, dressed in a neat black suit with an FBI ID badge clipped to the jacket — detached himself from a small group of other men dressed in Evidence Response Team jackets and made his way over.

“Dr. Harkins!” he said, extending his hand in greeting. Harkins accepted it and gave it a firm shake. “When they said they were sending an expert to evaluate the site I didn’t realize they were sending you personally.”

“What do we have?” Harkins asked, feigning ignorance.

“A godawful mess. There were reports of gunfire in this area a couple days ago, and then we received a tipoff about a possible bio-terror site. When we arrived, there were bodies all over the place. And get this: Donald Pierce was with them. Or at least, what was left of him was.

“I’ve had a few of my teams doing a preliminary investigation of the main installation—” he waved vaguely in that direction “—and there were more bodies inside. Whatever happened here, it wasn’t a robbery gone wrong. I did some time in Iraq, and I know a special forces raid when I see one.”

“Special forces, in Albany?” Harkins asked, and allowed an appropriate amount of practiced surprise into his voice.

The officer shrugged. “Whoever they were pulled out long before we could get here, but this was definitely a professional job. They had the security cameras cross-wired, the alarms were jammed, and the perimeter guards had all been taken out. Real precise blade work on the guards at the east gate, too. Forensics are looking over the computers, now, but it seems they were all fried. Some sort of massive electrical discharge burned out the whole system. They say they’ll have to pull the drives physically to see if there’s anything recoverable, but they’re not hopeful. There’s also a pretty serious laboratory complex underneath, along with prison cells. It's too early to tell, but this may have been where the muties who disappeared last fall were being held, though we have no idea where they are now. We’ve also got a positive ID on one of Stryker’s militants among the bodies we’ve already bagged, so there’s definitely enough evidence to connect this site with the bio attack in Mutant Town.”

Harkins nodded. “I’ll have a team of my people available to assist you with the forensics. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Thanks, I’ll be sure to have them briefed.”

“If you’ll excuse me, I’ll make that call.”

“Right, good to see you again, Doc.”

Harkins extricated himself from the conversation, and pulled his phone from a pocket. Once he had moved off a safe distance and out of earshot he dialed an unmarked contact. It rang for a few moments, and Harkins scowled in irritation. The site was in ruins, the Albany operation was lost, the computers almost certainly had been compromised, and now he was convinced the priority subject had been here.

The phone picked up. “Doctor?” the man on the other end replied.

“Get Kimura,” Harkins said. “I need her in Westchester immediately.”

---

A Note From The Author

Woof. That was a monster. I hadn’t expected this episode to go so long, but there was so much to work through. In hindsight, I either should have spread some of this out more across the previous three parts of the arc, or extended it out for a fifth episode. However, next up is the season-ending arc, and I needed all three remaining episodes to do it.

There’s lots of pieces moving and groundwork being laid for future stories, here, especially with Illyana. As I’ve mentioned before, I never expected her or Rahne to become larger fixtures in the cast, but it opened up some new dynamics and storytelling potential.

Originally, there was only one conversation between Peter and Illyana. However, I moved Peter waking up and being summoned to the previous episode so I could get myself a little more room to work with. I really wish I had more time to explore Illyana’s mental deterioration in Limbo, but the episode was already stretched out as it was.

As I mentioned in the notes for last episode, I knew from the start Magneto was going to be a problem. Originally, it was going to be him leading the team in the climax. But it’s Magneto, he would have crushed everyone with a wave of his hand. So what better way to address the problem than having him getting sick, too. As a bonus, it even gave me a way to up the stakes a bit at the school.

And of course, we get more HeliX development. Didn’t I promise Laura was going to eat some eye candy? I kind of hit on the idea that while Laura obviously knows sex, she doesn’t understand attraction. So, I went with her observations about Julian’s physique being more scientific and clinical. At least until she got to the butt. However, it’s going to be important moving forward that she doesn’t comprehend what any of what she feels means, and will absolutely be part of her development figuring that out.

Originally, Julian was planned to be in the fight at Albany, and would help Josh talk Laura out of sacrificing herself, but I decided to knock him out of it, too. Him getting sick from the Legacy Virus was also a minor nod to his appearance in Kyle and Yost’s X-Force, as was Laura nearly throwing herself in an incinerator, only for Josh to talk her out of it. And yay, Julian finally got to ask her out without interruption!

The final fight was a lot of fun to write, and everyone gt to play a part in it. Laura’s duel with Deathstrike drew considerable inspiration (and dialogue) from their confrontation in Messiah Complex. Cessily shows off how dangerous her powers actually are. Rahne gets to have a real moment to shine. Illyana has some portal fun. And Nori gets a couple great one-liners, especially a wicked callback to her first encounter with Cole. I didn’t intend to reference Victor’s oversized arm, but it just came about naturally as the fight scene played out. This is, officially, the single largest fight scene in the story so far, exceeding even the Battle of Xavier’s to end Season One when you consider all the different focuses involved.

Also, “dongle” is one of my favorite words.

Obviously, the big elephant in the room is more of Laura’s history with the Facility getting teased. I never expected that Josh would be the first of the kids to realize she was connected to them, but somehow the interaction just worked out naturally. And a name people have been dreading just dropped...

Incidentally, the training target Illyana is using at the end of the episode is a very real historical training aid called a pendelziel, and comes from a mid-16^th Century German fencing manuscript. Yana’s fighting style is going to lean into the German longsword tradition, so it seemed appropriate.

The reedit of this episode took longer than I expected because of its length, so unfortunately that meant only one post for August. The next three episodes are a bit lengthy, as well, so I may just do a single release the next three months. That will bring 2x13 releasing on December 1 to close out the year, and I like that tying up neatly like that.

The final arc of the season is up next and it’s going to be a doozy, so stay tuned.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 2 of X-Men: New Class