The X-Men characters featured in this
story are property of Marvel Inc and used without permission.
No profit is made from these works.
AJ Rovner/Unicorn was created by Abby
Rovner and is used with permission.
Ziska Xavier is my own creation.
The story takes place after Legion Quest
The fieldtrip was supposed to end around four o’ clock, so that Miss Rovner could settle in before she meets the rest of the student body. While she’ll be working mostly at the Institute, she will serve part time at the school with Generation X. Since the best laid plans have a way of going astray, they started heading for home early. Just in time to find the house abandoned. Paige practically tripped over the bags, even if they are carefully stacked next to the stairs. As the adults try to figure out what happened, Emma asks the students to go to the game room, promising she’d send for them when they had something to work with. For now, she and the other adults are gathering in the library for computer access.
“Did something come up?” Sean asks.
“Way ahead of ya.” Rogue replies, and scans through the log. “No, last major entry is for our new teacher coming in. Doesn’t even look like she got the tour yet. Before us, last door to open was the Professor’s office.”
“So where’d dey go?” Remy asks. As he finishes the sentence, they hear a booming sound from the sitting room and see a bright flash fill the hallway. “Nevermind.”
The four enter the sitting room to see the other teachers and Jubilee on their feet, the new teacher clad in a purple business suit standing in the middle and Professor Xavier seemingly having just rolled into the room, his hand raised as if reaching up for something, but Remy has no idea what for. The door is wide open, and the teacher is a few feet away.
“Is everyone alright?” Emma asks. The group looks around bewildered.
“Where’d she go?” Jubilee asks.
“Where’d who go?” Rogue asks back.
“She means Ziska.” Charles replies. “Where did Ziska go?”
Sean’s eyebrows knit together. “Who might ‘Ziska’ be?”
Charles finally lowers his hand slowly. “She is my daughter.”
******************************************
The last thing she saw was her father’s smiling face and him holding her hand. Then the light became so bright, she couldn’t keep her eyes open. Shortly thereafter, she felt her hand was empty. “Dad?” Even with her eyelids pressed shut, the brightness hurts.
“It will be over shortly.” Irech’s voice echoes around her.
“Have we met before?” Ziska responds.
“Yes. I was the one who brought you to the city. You’re just being… debriefed, so to speak. Does the light bother you?”
Ziska scoffs. “Ya think? But that’s the plan, isn’t it?”
“Never one for subtleties I see.” Irech snaps her fingers and the room dims enough for her guest to safely open her eyes. “I have to admit, I wouldn’t have pegged him to pick you.”
Ziska blinks a few times. Although she can look around, all she sees is white, reminiscent of a low budget movie version of heaven. “Sorry to disappoint you. But why am I in this place?”
Irech shrugs. “It’s a long story. Think of it as the prep room. When you leave here, you will fully integrate into this world. So, here’s a short version of the rules.”
“Define ‘short.’” Ziska demands.
“Aw, don’t you learn quickly. Not too long, I promise.”
******************************************
. “Lemme get dis straight.” Remy starts. “De powers dat be insist some version of David continue existing here because o’ de mess he made?”
After a long sigh, Charles answers. “When you put it that way, it sounds almost simple.”
“I wish it were that simple.” Emma retorts. Realizing how she sounded, she changes her tone. “I mean, we have to arrange for a birth certificate, life history, schooling, social security number… it’s not impossible, but a lot harder with technology being so tightly guarded these days.”
Charles considers. “I do have a few contacts around that might be able to give us a hand with that, although we’ll need her input.” If she arrives that is. Charles thinks to himself.
******************************************
As the now larger group discusses current events, Rogue takes it upon herself to give the new teacher the tour of the house. When they both realize they are quite hungry, the tour stops abruptly in the kitchen next door.
“One heckuva first day you’re havin’.” She mentions.
“As long as you can tell me this isn’t an every day occurrence, I should be fine.” AJ responds.
Rogue raises an eyebrow. “Well, you’ll either fit right in, or you’re a liar. But if you’re not an active duty X-Woman, you oughta be fine.” Rogue then reconsiders. “Please tell me you already knew about that.”
“About you being the X-Men? No offense, but you are a dead giveaway.” AJ responds with a smile.
Rogue runs her hand through her hair. “Guess I am. I forget sometimes; any interest in joining up?”
AJ considers for a moment. “We’ll see. It’s a good thing to see people changing the world, and it would be nice to have it be something other than recycling for myself.” AJ then looks out the window. “I take it the driveway was designed to make it hard to see the house from the road?”
Rogue shrugs. “Afraid that’s before mah time. But if you want to see the fun stuff, you are on the wrong floor.”
******************************************
It occurred to all of them some time ago that the Danger Room was not what Miss Frost had in mind when she sent them to the game room. Having Paige as the watcher in the control room does count as “supervision” after all. And she did loose the coin toss.
For now, the remaining four members of Generation X are walking through a hologram of a wrecked town, with plenty of places for bad guys to hide. Since no one has access to finished programs, Paige manually tells the computer where to generate “villains” for her team to fight.
I gotta be careful. Paige thinks to herself. These guys might just be thirty percent of that the X-Men face, but they still pack a punch.
Of course, having Monet punch one such enemy clear across the room doesn’t help. “Paige, you could turn up the power a bit.” She calls out.
Paige leans forward into the microphone. “No I can’t. This is the limit I can access with my clearance code.”
Can you increase the frequency then? The more the merrier. Jono adds.
“That might work.” Paige responds. “Let me see what I can do.” For a while, it does the trick. The bad guys still go flying, but there are more of them to go around for now. Paige wishes there was something else she could add, but for now she’s just happy no one noticed the activity in the Danger Room yet.
To her left, Paige sees a button flash from green to yellow and before she can do anything else, the computer panel before her shorts out. “What the hell?” She looks up again, and one of the cameras has focused in on a far corner away from her teammates, where a bright light is starting to build. Within the light, she can make out the shadow of a person, but cannot identify the newcomer.
Paige grabs the microphone and hollers. “Everyone GET OUT!”
But due to the short circuited control panel, they can’t hear her warning.
******************************************
Ziska’s
eyes take a moment to adjust to the daylight, and she nearly trips on the
debris. Where the hell am I now? She takes a step into a wall, but as she
turns, she looks into an empty alley. I’m in the Danger Room? Why?
She feels the ground under her feet quake, and as she looks down watches as a pulse wave emerge from her body, radiating like a rock thrown in a pond. She has an idea what’s going on, and just hopes the changes won’t be too drastic.
******************************************
Within the Danger Room, the wave is physically felt and since the four heroes in training are unaware that Paige lost control over the program, they perceived the light as strictly an attention getter for a more powerful foe.
“Anyone seen her around here before?” Skin asks.
“I can’t say that I have. Maybe Paige worked around the blocks and created a new adversary.” Synch suggests.
Monet smiles. “Let’s see if she succeeded.”
******************************************
When Paige does realize that she lost control of the program and her teammates couldn’t hear her, she tries to run to the door and warn them in person. No luck, the door is sealed from the inside. Without other options, she runs to the elevator pushing the override key… bringing her face to face with Rogue and the aforementioned new teacher.
“Do I want to know what you kids are doin’ down here?” Rogue asks.
Paige is practically out of breath. “Later if you don’t mind, the others are in the Danger Room and someone just got in there with them. I have no idea who the other person is, but I can’t contact them to warn them it isn’t part of the program.”
Rogue flies off to the control room and shouts back. “And that’s why there needs to be someone with the proper clearance in the control room!”
Paige watches as the new teacher touches the intercom panel. “We’re having a situation in the… Danger Room... whatever; I think Rogue might need help!”
******************************************
It only takes a moment for the able bodied teachers to start running for the Danger Room, while Charles goes to his office to try and override the sequence going on and Jubilee tags along with him. As his computer springs to life, he watches a band of light arc across the room. He’ll have to consider that later though. For now, the screen is dived into two sections, one featuring the students approaching the other side… and on the other is Ziska, apparently having just landed and seemingly off balance.
NO!
******************************************
Aw crap. She thinks for a moment. “Stop where you are.” She says as calmly as she can.
Angelo is first to speak. “Wow, Paige got into the A.I., this could be fun.” Without another word, he takes his position on a wall. Ziska has seen this formation before.
Keep it down Skin, no need to make this easy on Paige. Jono starts.
Monet adds. Jono’s right, telepathy only from now on.
The fact that Ziska is quite capable of hearing them makes the discussion a mute point. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
M approaches first, which is a diversion for Sync to borrow her powers.
“Suit yourselves.” Ziska responds. Rather than attacking M, which is what the plan calls for, Ziska takes aim at Sync with a combination of a small fire ball and telekinetic field. While Sync braces himself for impact, the ball falls apart and the fire disperses around him. He thinks he got lucky, but the lack of damage is intentional.
Before Monet reaches her target, Ziska herself is airborne and out of immediate striking range. And before M can keep up, she vanishes. “Where’d she go?” she calls out.
“Look up!” Ziska calls back, seemingly flying through the wall. She races past M and the two circle around the Danger Room at high speed.
Keep steady Monet. Jono reaches out. And again, Ziska hears the whole thing. She takes a sharp left, heading towards the center of the Danger Room. She sees debris just barely missing her.
Preoccupied with the debris, Monet doesn’t look ahead and grazes her head on an outcropping and from there, through a wall.
“Monet!” Skin shouts from his hiding spot and races towards his teammate.
******************************************
AJ catches up to Rogue as the later is trying to wire together something on a wall. “Don’t know what happened in there, but the controls are shot, my override ain’t workin’.”
“What happens when we force the door open?” AJ asks.
“Not much, the program is just gonna keep goin’.” Rogue then looks at Paige. “What did you cook up in there anyway?”
“The only program part that should still be going on is ‘wrecked neighborhood’. I had the attackers pop up manually.”
Rogue looks at AJ again. “Ah know you’re not a part of the team yet, but Ah’m goin’ to ask you to grab the kids and guide them out. Just to warn you, the environment may change in there, so since you have senses other than sight you might wanna use them.” She looks at Paige again. “You stay put!” Without another word, Rogue forces the door open, and AJ runs in right behind her.
******************************************
Aw crap. Ziska repeats to herself. Still, she gets to Monet before any of the boys do. Not that they appreciate the gesture.
“Back off!” Sync shouts as he approaches.
Ziska is kneeling next to Monet, dazed by the crash. Ziska looks up and makes eye contact. “I’m not hurting her Ev. I’m helping her.” Without waiting for a response, Ziska concentrates and creates a tactile force field. It passes right through Monet and she can’t even feel it, but to Ziska this is more accurate than an X-Ray. Thankfully, everything is as it should be.
“I said BACK OFF!” He repeats and borrows some of Jono’s power firing a blast near her, but on the far side from Monet. A simple TK shield blocks both from harm. Meanwhile, Jono himself walks up behind Ziska, and Angelo is off to the right.
Ziska gets up, ready to fly off if she needs to. “Monet will be fine, just some minor bruising.” Not wanting to fire back, Ziska does take a step back towards Jono, but still out of his immediate reach.
Before
A moment behind her, a woman in a purple suit runs up and gasps. “Everyone stop, this isn’t necessary!”
“Unless you can tell us who this is, I doubt that.” Angelo yells at her.
AJ takes a deep breath. “That’s Miss Xavier!”
******************************************
“Wow.” Is all Jubilee manages to say, and Charles is equally speechless. He was concerned that since the four students were unaware that they were dealing with a person and not a hologram, that things would take a turn for the worse. To his surprise, Ziska handles herself well, the only harm done coming from Monet carelessness. Coming back to his senses, he overrides the controls, and the Danger Room turns back into its natural state. He watches as the three boys take a step back, now realizing what they are dealing with.
When Charles leans back, he notices something new on his desk. A picture frame of his daughter, holding a piece of paper on her hand, but since she was moving, the writing is obscured. Maybe we don’t have to worry about a paper trail after all. He considers.
******************************************
The now larger group of teachers
doesn’t discuss strategy as they arrive.
They’ll first need to see what they are up against. The door was forced open, and Paige is
standing there, worried sick about her teammates and terrified of what will
happen when they got back to their campus.
They are only seconds behind Rogue and AJ, and they can hear
Before they get too far, it seems like all the action is over. Rogue walks ahead with Monet, who is starting to come around. Following her is AJ, and the remaining members of Generation X are keeping a respectable distance from the other newcomer.
Next to AJ is Ziska Xavier. At least, that’s what Sean gathered of the young woman he is seeing. She has long brown hair and pale skin. She’s dressed casually, in blue jeans and a white T-shirt. She is very tall. And from the look on the boys’ faces, she is no push over. Around them, the Danger Room returns to it natural empty self.
Welcome to the X-Men, Miss Xavier.
******************************************
AJ notices that Ziska is keeping her distance from everyone, and although the hallway is large, there are a lot of people around her. But still being the new teacher, she keeps quiet. Especially since Hank, Jean and Scott seem to be quite happy keeping their distance as well.
“Let me make sure I understand what is going on.” Emma starts. “You are a… bartender?”
“Among other things, yes I am. Why?” Ziska responds.
Emma bites her lips. “It’s not what I would have expected you to be.”
Ziska rolls her eyes. “You can relax. I already have my share of college degrees, including a teaching degree.”
“Multi-tasking
much?”
“Let’s just say I have a long time to catch up with my father.”
“Are ye competing?” Sean asks.
Ziska laughs. “Not really, it’s just a figure of speech.” She looks back, and sees the three stragglers. “I take it you met Francie and Sharon?” When Hank and Scott stop cold in their tracks, she backs off. “Relax, I’m not like them. As far as I’ve cared, the original five are my siblings.”
AJ remembers
Scott meanwhile seems to have relaxed a bit. “We should get ready for your paperwork.”
Ziska spins on her heel. “What are you talking about?”
“You are from a different reality. You don’t have a birth certificate, social security number, anything. You don’t even have your diplomas…. Oh, this will be a lot of work.” Hank starts to complain.
But Ziska just smiles and steps closer to the group. “It’s taken care of.”
Hank’s eyebrows rise noticeably, even with his fur. “How so?”
“Anyone remember a bright light arcing around? The ‘powers that be’ didn’t leave me on my own. My paperwork exists.”
“So, what is your social security number? We need to put you in the system.” Emma snipes.
Before Ziska responds,
As
It is too late.
Aw crap. Ziska thinks.
To be continued