Chapter Text
Kurt Wagner had never been this unsure in his entire life. He was at least pretty sure about that. Maybe like fifty percent sure, that he’d never in his life felt this unsure before.
Kurt Wagner was not much of a mentor. He was more of an auxiliary one. He let his friends do the more serious mentoring. He was usually off to the side. Like the fun uncle who gave you a bunch of candy and let you stay up late playing video games and eating ice cream.
He was not usually the sole mentor figure for young mutants.
Of course, things couldn’t always stay the same. If there was one thing he’d learned from Scott Summers, it was that you needed to be adaptable to survive.
So, here he was, adapting.
“Remy ain’t so sure this is a great idea.” Remy (naturally) said, his tone apprehensive. Kurt found himself agreeing with his brother-in-law.
“And why not? The children need to be taught, do they not? The two upper classes were small, but this one is far too large for one or two instructors.” Emma Frost explained. The headmistress of the new Xavier school looked at six of her staff members with a small smile on her face. She’d obviously thought this through, and Kurt knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t move off of her stance.
“Very smart, Kurt. Yes, you’re right, I won’t be changing my mind. You all are the men and women for the job. Let me explain. We’ll be going back to the student squad idea we once had. It’s done well for us, naturally. Four current X-Men came out of that program. Naturally, two of them were mine-”
“Get to the point.” Dani Moonstar snapped, clearly annoyed. Emma smirked at her.
“Relax, Danielle, I’m getting there. We have a nice, even, twenty students who are interested in this program this year. So, I’ll be splitting them up into five teams of four. The six of you will lead the five teams. Kurt, Warren, Jubilation, Danielle, and then Remy.” Emma said with a smile, resting her chin on her palm.
“I’m in.” Jubilee said, smiling. Out of everyone, she seemed the most into it. Kurt couldn’t say he was surprised. Jubilee had done this sort of thing before. The whole class of young mutants, at least. She also had a young child of her own. Not to mention, she’d been one of those students before.
So had Dani, though. She seemed much less enthused.
“Why should we do this again? Sure, a lot of the kids turned out great, but in case you forgot, a lot of them died, too. Don’t you-”
“Of course I remember.” Emma snapped suddenly. She’d obviously read ahead of whatever Dani was about to say. She obviously hadn’t liked it.
“A lot of that stuff happened just because they were at the school, not really because they were in squads.” Warren mused.
“It might be safer to have us train them. We don’t neccesarily need to send them out on missions or anything like that.” He added, stretching his wings out behind him, and his arms over his head.
“Sure, but where does it stop? Emma has the third years going on missions already.”
“Small ones.” Emma pointed out.
“They can’t go out on missions on their own.” Dani stated.
“I wholeheartedly agree.” Emma said simply. Dani stared at her a few more seconds before nodding.
“Fine. I’m in.” She said. Emma smiled, clasping her hands together.
“Wonderful, and the rest of you?”
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dominic Murray was almost certain that he didn’t belong here.
He’d agreed to join up with the student squad program mainly because his mentor had asked him to. She’d said it’d be good for him, and also that since all the staff knew he was her pupil, it’d be a bad look for her if her student didn’t go in there and show everyone what he could do.
Dom wasn’t sure exactly what he meant by ‘what he could do’ but he did want to make his mentor proud. So, when he was asked, he said yes. From what he understood, they’d be sorted into squads, and then be trained by one of the X-Men as a team.
It sounded practical, although it sounded like Dom was going to have to be around his fellow students, and he didn’t really know any of them that well, or particularly like any of them.
‘You can use the opportunity. You spend too much time sitting in your dorm playing video games. You should’ve got a roommate, you whelp.’ The voice in his head said. He wasn’t crazy or anything, he just had a demon inhabiting his body. That was where his powers to control darkness and shadow came from.
As for his mutation? Well, that was the fact that his skin was completely black. Not black like how normal people were black, but black like, all his skin was pitch black. Every inch of his skin. The only parts of him that weren’t pitch black were his hair, which was a pretty normal, unassuming shade of brown, and, he assumed, the inside of his body. When he opened his mouth, his tongue was a normal colour, and the inside of his mouth was a pinkish-red colour. Dr. McCoy said his insides and internal organs were normal colours, so that was cool.
As far as he knew, his mutation didn’t give him any actual powers. They just made him look abnormal. His powers came from the asshole shadow demon wolf named Geulimja who lived inside his head. Him and his mentor had put in a lot of work to talk the demon down. He no longer raged maniacally, or took control of Dom’s body, or anything like that. Nowadays, he mainly just let Dom use his powers, made fun of him, or napped.
Dom didn’t know the extent of what Geulimja allowed him to do yet. He knew that he could control and generate shadows. This usually started with his own shadow, he could form tendrils from this darkness, or various other things. He could also completely disappear into darkness, and he could teleport, but only through shadows. Geulimja hinted that there were other things he could do, but apparently, Dom hadn’t earned those yet.
Dom got off the elevator he’d been on, and realized he had no idea where he was going. He’d never been in the sub-basement before, since students under the highest year weren’t allowed without adult supervision, and he’d never really had the need to go. Thus, he had no idea where he was going. All the hallways were the same silvery colour, and all the doors were the same circular shape with an X on the inside. Dom supposed he was lucky, then, that there was someone waiting outside the door he had to enter.
Paige Guthrie, otherwise known as Husk. The school therapist. Dom had had a few sessions with her. Nothing too crazy, just a couple when he’d started. When they’d all still thought he was crazy, before his mentor had showed up and informed them that no, he wasn’t making up the voice in his head.
“Heya, Dominic. They told me you were on the list. It’s just through these doors.” Paige said with a smile. Dom smiled back, waving, before walking up to the doors. They pulled open, and he walked in.
Nineteen sets of eyes turned to look at him. Dom almost folded in on himself.
Most of the people who turned to look at him turned away from him the moment they’d seen who it was. Dom was pretty sure he was the last one to arrive. That wasn’t embarrassing at all.
He walked up to the group, standing at the back. Nobody bothered looking at him. That was fine, and also made sense, considering he wasn’t looking at them. He was getting a lay of the land. The room was wide open. There was literally nothing in it, but it was huge. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all white tile, except for a small section of glass in one of the walls, which Dom figured was an observation deck.
His suspicions were confirmed when Dr. McCoy stepped into view through the glass. His voice projected through the whole room.
“Welcome, students, to our student squad program! As you can see, twenty of you have entered… but only one of you will leave.” The doctor said, prompting everyone to look at each other in confusion.
“I kid, I kid! I make myself laugh… No no, you’ll all be leaving here alive and hopefully, mostly, well. Now, for our actual itinerary! This, my young friends, is what we call the Danger room. It’s where the X-Men train, so as you can imagine, it’s quite state of the art. Now, here’s how this is going to work. There’s twenty of you, and we mean to divide you into five teams of four. Here’s how it’ll work. You should now see five doorways ahead of you. These have been generated by the Danger room. Inside each of these doorways, is one of the five squad instructors. Above the doors, it will currently show the number zero. Four people must enter each door. Once four people have entered, the door will lock and disappear. Everyone will be entering a door, so don’t worry too much about it, you’ll get one.” Dr. McCoy explained, and indeed, the doors did appear, well ahead of all of them. The numbers also appeared over them.
Well, seemed easy enough.
“I’m sure you’re all thinking that seems easy.” Dr. McCoy spoke. Dom cursed inwardly, he could hear Geulimja laughing at him.
“To mix things up, we’ve thrown in a few obstacles.” Dr. McCoy added with a quiet chuckle. The landscape shifted to that of a forest. It instantly felt humid. Dom really didn’t like that.
“The doors are still vaguely ahead of you, but they’ve been moved a bit. Now, go find them. Oh, we’re also testing your combat capabilities. Feel free to have some little scuffles, just don’t seriously hurt your fellow students. There will be punishment for that, just to be clear. Now, on your merry ways!” Dr. McCoy ended his little speech, and immediately, everyone burst into action. That was fine with Drew. He was content to hang back-
He had to move quickly, pulling up a wall of darkness to defend himself from a blast of purple energy. He looked around for the source and frowned. Jennifer Park. He only vaguely knew her. He’d seen her in classes and the like. The girl had purple skin, and curly fluffy purple hair, as well as long orange horns on the top of his head. She was mostly nice, but they weren’t friends…
‘Fight back!’
‘I don’t wanna fight!’ He snapped back at the annoying little demon in his head. Jennifer ran ahead, followed by two people Dom knew were her friends, Danica Krajewska and Monty Hale. Monty was a seven foot tall man whose head was close to that of an orca. It was like, seventy percent orca and thirty percent human. His body seemed mostly human, but it had orca colours. He also had a tail hanging off his lower back. As far as Dom knew, his powers were just that, and being incredibly strong.
Danica was a normal looking blonde Russian girl, whose powers let her create a bow and special arrows out of thin air.
Dom didn’t blame them for sticking together. If he had any actual friends, he’d be doing the same thing.
Dom regained his focus and realized everyone had already pretty much run ahead.
‘Let’s go, runt!’ Geulimja snapped in his head. The damn wolf took control over his powers, creating tendrils out of shadow. The tendrils extended from his wrist, wrapping around tree branches. Dom used them to fling himself forward, then started extending them and pulling continuously. He could put Spider-Man to shame with the way he was moving right now.
He managed to catch up to people quickly. He could see a boy he knew named Brendon Abdin bouncing across trees. Abdin could transform his limbs into springs, which had various practical applications. He could see three people floating above the rest on a cloud, while another boy flew next to them with wings that looked like a bug’s. From the cloud, a boy who Dom didn’t particularly like fired powerful blasts of energy down, which blew up the ground and trees they connected with. Ronnie Graf was an asshole. Dom barely knew any of the kids at the school, but he did know Ronnie Graf was a douche. He mainly knew this because he and his buddies had made fun of him when he’d first got to the school.
Y’know, called him crazy. A maniac, delusional, deranged, whatever other words you could think of that fell under that general umbrella.
It hadn’t really bothered Dom that much. Sure, it hadn’t been great, but like, he didn’t really care what the other kids thought of him anyways, so it didn’t actually matter.
‘Liar.’ Geulimja muttered. It really was like having a devil on his shoulder. He just wished he could get an angel on his shoulder as well. Dom kept swinging through the undergrowth, but he was kind of doing it thoughtlessly now. He was just swinging forward and hoping that he wouldn’t randomly get hit by something.
‘PAY ATTENTION!’ Geulimja snapped. Dom looked up and saw a blast of what looked like fire flying just in front of him. He stopped his momentum and pulled up some shadow at his side to cover him. He managed to block any real damage, but the flames slammed into his barrier, knocking him off of his tendril and to the ground.
He grunted in pain, forcing himself up to his feet and running. He didn’t really know where he was running. He just ran. He ran for what felt like a while. At one point, he turned, then turned again. He just ran until he found a door. The door had the number three over it, so he didn’t hesitate to shove it open. When he did, he found himself in a completely different area. Gone was the jungle, instead, he was in what looked like a regular living room. There was a couch and a couple chairs scattered around, but nobody was sitting down.
Dom didn’t really have it in him to care that he was the last one to enter the room. He looked around and, thankfully, recognized everyone in the room. That was good, he wouldn’t have to awkwardly pretend he knew their names until someone else said them.
There were three people there. Their instructor seemingly hadn’t arrived yet, so it was just the students.
First, the flaming girl who glared at him until he looked at her, which prompted her to look away. Natalie Tran, she was East Asian, and Dom was pretty sure the girl was rich. She had that sort of snobby, rich, stuck up air to her. Dom didn’t particularly like her, in all honesty. She was, to her credit though, one of the smartest students in their year. She was also a real powerhouse. She could ignite her body on fire and project flames.
She basically had the same powers as the Human Torch from the Fantastic Four.
‘Lame! Get your own gimmick!’ Geulimja chuckled in his head.
Dom turned his attention to the other two. First, Cassandra Northcott, who’d seen him enter and had quickly taken a seat. Cassandra was indigenous, and wore her hair in long braids. Dom had heard she’d lived on a reserve before her powers had manifested and caused some damages, leading to her being run off. Dom knew the feeling, in a sense…
He didn’t know much else about her, though. He didn’t really know what her powers actually were. He’d never really spoken to her either, although she’d never come off as rude to him like Natalie had.
Then, there was Chukwueke Pratha, a Nigerian immigrant who could absorb any hits taken and redirect it back. Chukwueke, or Chuk as he told people to call him, was as affable as people came. Naturally, he and Dom weren’t really friends, but Dom recognized that Chuk was maybe the one person where that was entirely Dom’s own fault. Chuk had always been nice to him, even approached him a couple times. Dom had always essentially turned him away, though. Not because he didn’t like Chuk, but because, well…
‘You like being a loser. Hanging around by yourself all the time. You need a roommate.’
‘I’ve got you!’
‘Flattery will get you nowhere with me, you know this.’
Dom sighed quietly, looking at the group again. Chuk was smiling, Cassandra seemed to have spaced out, and Natalia not only looked annoyed, but also gave off the general vibe that she was annoyed. Dom supposed it could be worse. Besides, it was kind of a powerhouse team, if you included him and Geulimja.
The room was suddenly filled with a puff of purple smoke and an absolutely awful smell. Dom pinched his nose, and from the cloud of smoke emerged Nightcrawler. Or, Mr. Wagner… What were they supposed to call him now?
“Aha! Mein kinder, how wonderful it is to convene with you all. What a wonderful little group we’ve put together here!” Mr. Wagner said with a wide grin on his face. Dom had seen Mr. Wagner around plenty. From what he knew, he was one of the more important teachers at the school. It helped that he was…
‘Woohoo! We got the head honcho! Not bad!’ Geulimja actually seemed excited. Maybe because he himself was a demon, and Mr. Wagner looked a lot like one.
Dom had seen Mr. Wagner around a lot because he was important. He was the current leader of the X-Men, which Dom recognized as a big deal. He’d also seen the guy in his ‘coping with physical changes’ class, occasionally as a guest speaker. He’d always seemed nice.
“Does nobody wish to speak? Have you all been stunned into silence by my presence?” Mr. Wagner joked. At least, Dom was pretty sure the guy was joking, although he supposed he didn’t actually know that for certain.
“It’s an honor, sir. To be in the squad of the leader of the X-Men.” Natalie said, stepping forward as she spoke up. Dom had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. Of course the top performer was gonna be a teacher’s pet even in endeavours like this.
“Ah! Well, it’s my honor to have you all as my students! You all have such great potential. Ms. Frost certainly gave me an interesting team. Now, oh, I believe they’re ending the simulation now…” Mr. Wagner mused. Indeed, the room they were in faded away, being replaced by the Danger Room’s original walls and ceilings. Dom had the opportunity to look around a bit.
He spotted Jennifer Park, and her friends Monty and Danica, as well as a kid Dom was pretty sure was some sort of exchange student, or he was new. He hadn’t really seen him around, but he had big black wings on his back. The four of them were crowded around Jubilee, or Ms. Lee… seriously, was he supposed to use codenames, or their normal teacher names?
Looking around a bit more, Dom thought maybe the exchange kid should’ve been put in a different squad. Ronnie Graf, as well as the two kids Dom assumed had been on that cloud with him, Elissa Turner and Haneiry Alvarez, as well as the kid with the dragonfly wings, Horacio Perez, were standing around… Angel? He wasn’t a usual teacher at the school, so Dom didn’t know his surname. They couldn’t have assigned that guy to the group that had a kid with the same powers as him?
Brendon Abdin, was with Mr. LeBeau, Gambit. There was a dark skinned boy with him who was definitely new, along with two kids who were kind of loners like Dom, Rachel Turner and Khadija Ahmad. Khadija was well liked, but she was really spacey and kind of weird, which made her a bit of a loner. Rachel was the sister of Elissa from Angel’s group, and from what Dom gathered, the two didn’t get along. Elissa was very bubbly (maybe a bit too bubbly, if you asked him) and Rachel was very quiet, reserved, and almost a little creepy. So, she was a bit of a social outcast, like he was.
The fifth group was with Ms. Moonstar. Mirage. Dani. Dom knew her a bit better than the others, since she was a close personal friend of his mentor, and had actually helped with his training a couple times. She was really nice, and a good teacher. Standing with her was Xavier Young, a kind of rude black dude with a scorpion-like tail protruding from his back. To his right stood Tiffany Baker, a girl who basically appeared to be half human girl and half panda bear. Tiffany was nice, although she could be a lot sometimes. Standing next to them were two kids Dom had never seen before. One was a ginger dude who looked like he had a few unhealed bruises on his face, and to his right was a girl who looked latina, with her hair in braids, and tattoos on her arms.
So, that was everyone in this program accounted for. Quite a few people Dom had literally never seen before, but whatever. At least he… vaguely knew the people in his group.
“Well, meine kinder! I look forward to working closely with all of you, and helping you grow both as a team and individuals. From what I understand, the four of you are not as familiar with each other as people in other groups may be. That’s quite alright though! When my first X-Men team came together, none of us knew each other… well I suppose Cyclops was familiar with Banshee and Sunfire… but no matter. The point is, strangers can become great teammates, and close friends! I hope the same will be true for all of you! Now, I am expected for a briefing, so I’ll be seeing you all around. Goodbye, now!” Mr. Wagner said, disappearing in another smelly puff of smoke.
Everyone was silent for a few moments after he left. It was Chuk who broke the silence.
“So… we’re teammates now! That’s fun. This is a good team!” Chuk exclaimed. Dom was almost certain he saw Natalie scoff. Maybe he’d just made it up though. He couldn’t say for sure… but he was pretty damn sure she’d just rolled her eyes too.
“Some team we are. The other teams are all made up of friends. They’re going to have a headstart on us. Not to mention, among our team, I’m the only one with a top ten GPA. Oh, and as if it couldn’t get any worse, our mentor is the weakest one available.” Natalie grumbled. Dom was a little surprised by that. He hadn’t expected the teacher’s pet to disrespect the teacher.
“What does a top ten GPA matter? Mr. Vaccaro was useless in school, and he’s on the X-Men.” Cassandra chimed in. Natalie just scoffed.
“Because Rockslide is a brute. Every team needs one of those, but in case you haven’t noticed, Northcott, none of us have that type of power. That’s Monty’s role.” She grumbled. Cassandra looked like she might argue, then just sighed and walked away. Natalie frowned after her, then turned to look at Dom.
“What’re you staring at?”
“Nothing, jeez.” Dom quickly replied. He really wasn’t enjoying this. It felt like they were off to a really rough start already. He hadn’t really known what to expect with this girl, but it certainly hadn’t been this.
“Well good!” Natalie snapped back, walking away after Cassandra. Dom just stared at the ceiling and sighed. He heard Chuk laugh.
“Well, not every first meeting goes well! You know, when Mr. Wagner’s X-Men first met, Sunfire refused to help them at first, but he ended up coming back after!”
“Yeah, and then he actually left.” Dom pointed out. That didn’t wipe the smile off Chuk’s face though, he just nodded.
“True! Guess we’ll just have to do a better job keeping our squad together, huh? None of us really know each other, guess it’s up to you and I to build that first bridge.” Chuk grinned, patting him on the shoulder.
“Guess so.” Dom agreed with a sigh. He’d always pushed Chuk away whenever he tried to approach him, but he supposed this time he had to let him in. He did want to get along with his teammates. After all, that was…
Whatever.
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jubilation Lee was having an excellent day. Seriously. Just killer! She already loved her students! They were totally adorable. Maybe not as adorable as her three year old son, but still, they were very very cute. Jennifer was super cutesy. She reminded her a bit of Kurt. She was a totally abnormal colour for a person, but she didn’t let it get her down! Monty was a whale guy, and he also didn’t seem to let it get him down! He seemed a bit… How could she say it? He reminded her of Santo. That was the nicest way to put it, she figured.
Danica was nice. She seemed very self assured, and it was clear she was the more collected, disciplined member of her little trio with Jennifer and Monty. She reminded Jubilee a bit of Monet, but like, a whole lot less stuck up than Monet could be.
Then, there was Haruto. What an adorable little emo kid! He thought his whole dark and brooding aesthetic would scare Jubilee, as if! Haruto was a relatively new student, a new arrival from Japan. He had these big, pretty black wings coming out of his back, just like Warren’s! He was obviously very guarded, but Jubilee had a feeling his new teammates would have no trouble breaking down those walls. In fact, Haruto reminded her a lot of an old friend of hers. One she hadn’t seen in far too long…
“Hey! Jubes.” Jubilee turned quickly to see Paige Guthrie heading right for her, a smile on her face. She couldn’t help but smile back at her friend. It was sad, but she felt like over the past few years, she’d barely even seen Paige. It felt like they’d barely been able to see each other on Krakoa, and she certainly hadn’t seen her since it had fallen, during their time in Louisiana.
However, once they’d all come back to the school idea, Paige had ended up back in the capacity of the school therapist, which meant Jubilee got to spend plenty of time with her. It was awesome. She only wished the rest of their friends from that time could end up back at the school, too.
“Paige!” Jubilee wrapped her friend up in a hug, which they both allowed to go on for a little while before pulling back.
“Well? How was it?” Paige asked, as the two started walking down the halls. Classes were out for the day, and Paige didn’t have any appointments scheduled until the next day. That meant the two of them could just… chill. Talk about life. Things of that nature. Jubilee practically squealed before replying.
“Paige! They’re like, the cutest kids ever. They kinda remind me a bit of us back in the day. Jennifer, super bubbly purple girl, she’s kinda like me. Monty, he’s like, a big dumb id- uhhh, doofus! He reminds me a bit more of Santo than any of her teammates from back in the day. Danica, she’s kinda like Monet, y’know? She seems a bit stuck up, but I can tell she really cares about her friends! Then there’s Haruto-”
“Oh, the new student from Japan. Yes, he’s very… emo? Is that the word? Nice boy, though.” Paige said. Jubilee nodded along.
“Yeah! He kinda reminds me of-”
“Jubilation! Paige!” Jubilee and Paige turned, looking over their shoulders to see Emma Frost approaching. One of their former teachers from when they’d been students. Just made Jubilee think… if the kids were like her and her friends, then did that make her-
“Oh, darling, you’ll never be me. Now, we need to have a quick staff meeting, assuming you ladies aren’t busy.” Emma said, walking behind the two, practically shepherding them in the direction she wanted them to go. The two of them really had no choice, so they just went along.
They reached the staff room, which was in the sub-basement anyway. Most of the staff was already there. Hisako, Santo, Julian, David, Sooraya and Laura were sitting in a little bunch, like they usually did. Rogue and Gambit were also sitting next to each other, and Kurt sat not far from them, with Kwannon to his left. A little further down, Dani and Illyana sat, and a little bit behind them sat Ben Liu, Jen Starkey, Shilpa Khatri, Xorn and Glob Herman.
As far as Jubilee could tell, the only people missing were Hank and Warren, although Jubilee wasn’t sure if Warren would actually be participating, since he wasn’t technically staff.
Jubilee and Paige moved to fill the gap between Kurt and the LeBeau’s, with Jubilee taking the seat closer to Kurt.
Emma stood at the little podium they’d set up at one end of the room, just in front of the little projector screen they had.
A few moments later, Hank and Warren entered, chatting lightly. The two of them made their way over to where Jen was seated, and stopped talking once they sat down.
“Well, now that we’re all here, I suppose we can begin.” Emma said simply. The lights dimmed, and the projector flared to life, projecting twenty images in squares onto the screen. They were images of the twenty students joining the new squad program.
“For those of you who don’t know, we have decided to start the student squad program back up again… please table your questions, my dears.” Emma said, looking in the Hisako group's direction. Jubilee moved her head slightly to get a view. A few of them appeared… less than happy.
“I understand the reservations many of you on the staff may have. We will discuss them in this meeting, but I just want to go over things. Firstly, this is not a decision that was made lightly. All of the squad leaders agreed to the decision. Additionally, not only are there less groups, but the groups are smaller to ensure more dedicated time with their instructors. Also, I’ll be ensuring they undergo more training sessions with not just their instructors, but other staff members. They also will not be sent on missions until they’re in their third year, and even then, missions will be probationary and highly, highly monitored.” Emma explained. Her face shifted to a smile as she looked over the staff again.
“Again, this decision was not made lightly. However, I believe it is what’s best. This way, the students will be able to practice more frequently, and more in depth, in the use of their abilities. This way, they will be able to defend themselves, and others, if and when it becomes necessary. Every student joined the program willingly, and any student will be able to leave the program at any time without any sort of penalty or judgement from the staff. This program exists solely for their benefit.” Emma stated, looking over the staff once more.
“Now, does anybody have any questions?” Emma asked, and David Alleyne’s hand immediately shot up.
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry, Emma, but I just don’t see any world where this is a good idea. We all remember how this went last time.”
“Yes, it turned out four valued X-Men members, and two additional staff members-”
“Don’t be dense, Frost. You know what David means. Let’s all be real with ourselves, it’d be easier to count the names of the students that didn’t die than the ones that did.” Laura chimed in. Jubilee frowned at that. She knew Laura was right, and she didn’t blame her younger teammates for having reservations. Still, though, Jubilee did truly believe this was the best way to get these kids prepared.
“She’s right. I mean, c’mon. Jay, Laurie, Kevin, Brian, Mark-”
“Eddie.” Hisako cut in, frowning.
“Yes, you’re all right. The first time this was done, it did not run smoothly. We lost the lives of far too many children-”
“We got teleported to hell!” Santo interrupted, glaring at Illyana, who actually looked mildly embarrassed.
“That one’s on me, sorry, again.” She muttered.
“Aw, it’s alright-”
“No, it’s not! I mean, it is. We’re fine now, but the point is that we can’t be grooming more children for death like they’re lambs to the slaughter.” David interjected. Emma sighed at that. Jubilee knew her old teacher, and she knew she knew this wasn’t going to be an easy thing to convince David, or any of the former student squad members of.
“Listen… this is happening. You all are welcome to have your reservations about it. We will do everything in our power to keep these kids safe, and get them ready for the reality of their world, that’s all we can really say.” Emma said simply.
“Ja. If you like, you are more than welcome to take a look at my training. I could use some advice from people who were once in the children’s shoes.” Kurt chimed in, grinning. Jubilee caught Emma shoot a small smile at Kurt, but he didn’t seem to notice it himself.
“I’ll also be involving myself with the training moving forward, and that of all the students in training, including the higher years.” Kwannon randomly chimed in. Jubilee had to admit that she hadn’t really expected that from her. It was probably her own bewildered look that made Kwannon elaborate.
“Not constantly… I just mean I’d like to be involved, albeit as a small player. I do not wish to see any more of our children die. That’s all.” Kwannon said simply, and that was the end of that.
“Well, Remy could use all the help bein’ offered. I ain’t gonna say no.” Remy said with a grin.
“Me neither.” Jubilee chimed in, smiling at Kwannon, who actually shot her back a small, almost imperceptible smile.
“I’ve never been much of a solo act either.” Dani agreed.
“Sure.” Warren added.
Emma just smiled.
“Well, isn’t that just wonderful. Look at all of us coming together-”
“Hey! You guys almost done with your meeting?”
John Greycrow’s voice cut in through the intercom. He sounded panicked, and his voice sounded very muffled. He was talking through his communicator.
Jubilee really did not like that Greycrow sounded panicked, and clearly, neither did his girlfriend.
“John? Is everything alright?”
“Oh yeah, everything’s peachy. No security threat, but uhh, we could really use medical, like, now” Greycrow said, and Jubilee really didn’t like the sound of that.
“Are you hurt?” Kwannon questioned. She was pretty much just yelling at the wall, since that was where the intercom system was in the room.
“No, it’s not me. Or any of our guys. Well uh, I guess it is technically one of our guys. I can’t remember this kid's name, but I know he’s a mutant. Aside from the… obvious, I definitely saw him around the island a couple ‘a times, and in a couple pictures-”
“Who is it, John?” Kurt questioned, standing up from his seat. Everyone was on edge now. This could realistically be anyone.
“Just- I don’t know, Kurt! Get the med staff to the med bay immediately. The guy’s roughed up, I mean seriously, he’s bleeding all over the damn place, I have no idea how he even made it here on two feet.” John said, and then his microphone cut off.
“Alright, everyone move aside, doctors first!” Hank shouted, practically parkouring his way through the room to reach the door. Xorn wasn’t far behind, although he just moved on two feet. The two rushed out of the room to the med bay, and the rest of them followed, all curious who it could be. There were plenty of friends who they hadn’t seen in a while, it could realistically be anyone. Aside from Hank and Xorn, Kurt was the first to reach the med bay, and he rushed inside. Emma followed, and then Kwannon.
“Nobody else, we can’t have too many people in there. I’ll let you all know.” Kwannon said, before disappearing into the room.
“Well, that’s frustratin’.” Rogue grumbled. Jubilee couldn’t help but agree. She was seriously curious who’d show up at the front door all battered and bloody and-
Emma rushed out of the med bay not fifteen seconds after she entered it. This caught Jubilee off guard, considering how composed her former teacher tended to be. Emma wasn’t crying when she rushed out, but she was clearly upset. This was a far cry from the Emma Frost she usually knew, and that told her one thing.
This was one of hers.
Which meant it might be one of Jubilee’s old friends. Which terrified her.
Now she really needed to know.
Thankfully, Kwannon came out a couple seconds later.
She looked Jubilee dead in the eyes. There was a strange mix of sympathy and fear in her eyes.
“It’s…”
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dom had to admit that being in the company of another person who wasn’t a teacher, or an adult, for an extended period of time, willingly… maybe wasn’t the worst thing ever.
Chuk had essentially forced him to hang out with him after the formation of their team. It was a Friday, classes were over, and the hallways had been full of students milling about, heading to their dorms or heading out for various plans they had. Many of them went to Salem Centre, a small little town that was barely even big enough to be called that. There was a bus terminal close to the school that went there. Dom doubted more than a thousand people actually lived within Salem Centre. Dom was pretty sure the correct word for it was ‘hamlet’. Anyways, a lot of students went there on weekends, because it had a bunch of shops, and other things that were generally viewed as fun for students. Additionally, they were, for the most part, pretty accepting of mutants. At least, the shopkeepers tended to be. Dom had heard that even mutants who were visually distinct were allowed to go inside the shops, but that didn’t mean he was willing to risk it.
Anyways, he and Chuk hadn’t headed over there. They’d pretty much just gone to the cafeteria and eaten dinner together. Still, it hadn’t been bad. Dom hadn’t totally hated being in Chuk’s company. The best part about the guy was that he was willing and able to fill gaps in conversation. He didn’t expect Dom to talk all the time, so he could get away with just being quiet, and letting Chuk do most of the talking.
Still, it was nice to eat his dinner with another person his age for once.
Once he and Chuk had wrapped up dinner, Dom had headed to the student gym, which was in a small building just off the main campus. Dom tried to get work outs in at least three times a week. Nothing crazy, he wasn’t going for world records or crazy PR’s, he was basically just trying to keep himself in decent shape, and keep his body semi toned.
Dom spent maybe an hour in there, and then he wrapped that up too, heading back to his dorm.
He opened the door, and was greeted by complete and total darkness.
Juuuuust how he liked it.
The blinds were drawn completely shut, and it was dark enough outside by this point that the room was completely engulfed in darkness. Dom walked over and took a seat on his bed. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, then turned the thing over, facing the screen down on his desk before he plugged it in. The less light, the better.
After all, the darker it was, the easier it was to-
“GAaaAHhHHhH! Free at last!” Geulimja spat as he shot out of Dom’s chest.
This was something that had taken a while to figure out.
The pure black wolf sat on his haunches in front of Dom, staring at him. His yellow eyes were slightly illuminated, and it was damn near the only light in the room.
Honestly, if he didn’t trust Geulimja, he’d probably be shitting himself right now. He’d damn near shit himself the first couple times he’d done this.
Dom had learned he could do this a while ago, but hadn’t actually got the trick down until a couple weeks ago. It had actually been near the start of the fall semester. Geulimja got antsy, cooped up inside what was essentially Dom’s head all day. It was technically a different dimension, but the poor wolf demon couldn’t really do much in it, so Dom let him out at night. The demon couldn’t really leave his room, otherwise risk either getting caught, or being exposed to too much light and having to run back anyways. Geulimja didn’t seem to mind though, at least not for now.
Notable also was the fact that in this state, Dom couldn’t actually use any of the powers Geulimja granted him. He was essentially just a normal human. Still, it was nice for Geulimja. It added to his techniques. Teleporting, cloaking, weird tendril things, and a demon ejection button.
He probably needed more offensive firepower. Oh well, he’d work on it.
‘Damn right you will.’ Geulimja spoke telepathically. That was one thing they did have even when Geulimja was out of his body. They remained connected, and could speak telepathically, which was nice.
‘That’s the hope with this whole program thing.’
‘Maybe you can learn to play nice with others.’
‘Look who’s talking!’ Dom sniped back, telepathically of course. He didn’t want anyone walking by and getting confused by him yelling at nothing, or a random strange voice in his room.
‘That Chuk kid seems alright. Bright. He could be a valuable asset for you.’
‘He’s not an asset, Geulimja, he’s a person.’
‘Oh, that’s right, I suppose. I shouldn’t get in the habit of calling these people assets, you don’t like it.’
‘You’re right, I don’t.’
‘No matter. You should rest. With tomorrow being your human weekend, I wouldn’t be surprised if your new instructor takes the opportunity to start instructing. If he doesn’t, you and I will be getting to work. If you’re to make a strong impression, you have some improvements to make.’ Geulimja grumbled. Dom rolled his eyes, and he was pretty sure Geulimja’s eyes allowed him to see that.
‘What kind of improvements?’
‘Well, for one thing, as wretched as that Natalie woman is, she was right about one thing. You could stand to get those grades up.’
‘How the hell is that gonna help me?’ Dom questioned, groaning audibly. Geulimja physically tilted his head.
‘For one thing, you’re a bit dense. The second thing is that it shows initiative, it shows that you care. Leaders respect that. Your new instructor will value it. Not only do you need to improve in your school mandated classes, though. You also need to improve with the gifts I’ve blessed you with. You and I will be doing training tomorrow night, whether or not you train with Nightcrawler, so ensure you get some sleep tonight. Your workout schedule will be getting moved up to at least six days a week, and you’ll be studying the X-Men. You need to learn everything about them, their members, past and present, as well as their enemies, in the event you ever have to face them.’ Geulimja instructed, laying out an entire laundry list of bullshit he expected from Dom.
‘Why’d I have to get a demon who mothered me. Couldn’t I just have like… Kurama or something? Just sit there and give me cool powers?’
‘I do that too, you dolt! Now sleep, or I’ll jump back into you and put you to sleep!’
‘Woah… can you do that?’
‘Do you want to find out?’
Dom just sighed. He took off his clothes from the day, then hopped into bed. He typically just slept in his underwear, which he was pretty sure was normal for boys his age. He then settled into bed, and slowly fell asleep.
His demon wolf friend had a big day planned for him tomorrow, so he really did need to get some sleep.