Gather The X-Men

[superkamiguy1]

[superkamiguy1]

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"Mutation: it is the key to our evolution. It is how we have evolved from a single-celled organism into the dominant species on the planet. This process is slow, and normally taking thousands and thousands of years. But every few hundred millennia, evolution leaps forward. Mutants, born with extraordinary abilities, and yet still, they are children, stumbling in the dark, searching for guidance. A gift can often be a curse. Give someone wings, and they may fly too close to the sun. Give them the power of prophecy, and they may live in fear of the future. Give them the greatest gift of all, powers beyond imagination, and they may think they are meant to rule the world."

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Our classroom is where we come to learn how to learn, to ask questions, to be curious. Sure, there's still philosophy, but other than that we build our own projects and follow computer programs at our own pace. There are so many plants in here it's almost like being in a little jungle at times but I love them. The chairs and tables are all ergonomic, comfortable, though often we choose to sit on the floor mats at the low tables, or on the couch.

Every room has a learning guide, a teacher, who's job it is to inspire and guide us when we ask for help. But there are some students that even the teachers of Bayville High, NY, aren't completely qualified to help, such as 15 year old Scott Summers. Scott Summers closed his eyes tightly as he felt an all-too-familiar headache forming at the bridge of his nose. Since he was about 10, he had known he was…different somehow. He had headaches, and sometimes his eyes would burn. After accidentally putting a hole in the wall of the house he lived in at the time, he learned to keep his eyes shut whenever another headache began, lest he do serious damage to something--or someone--else.

The bandages around his eyes were a source of mockery by certain peers of his and had lead the faculty to believe that he was blind, which he rolled with, it was easier than admitting that he was hiding a laser cannon behind each eyeball.

He'd tied them firmly around his head, ensuring that he wouldn't accidentally blink, or let his eye twitch, for any opening, however small, was taken advantage of.

He only hoped the headache would end soon as he tried to pay attention and follow the lecture while trialing his fingers over the braille in his textbook. Learning braille was exhausting but it helped keep up the masquerade and he was functionally blind anyway, so might as well.

In the front of the classroom, the history lesson droned on.

Across the room, Duncan Matthews watched the teacher intently. Once he turned his back to write on the board, Duncan threw a paper airplane at the back of Scott's head and hit him dead on.

Scott sighed and brushed it aside as Duncan and his gang of idiots snickered at him.

Scott didn't even need to hear him to know who threw it: The local asshole. Scott ignored him and went back to his book and Duncan narrowed his eyes, if there was one thing he hated, it was being ignored by his chosen victims. Scott knew that he was going to be attacked by Duncan's gang later for this great crime, but he didn't care, he'd take his victories where he could get them.

Eventually, the bell rang, which didn't do Scott's headache any favors, and he quickly closed up his books and felt around for his bag before stuffing everything inside and zipping it shut and heading towards the door. Unfortunately, Duncan was waiting for him in the hallways and stopped Scott. "Where you think you're going freak? Huh?" Scott brushed his arm aside and tried to just walk away but Duncan shoved him backwards. "What's wrong freak? Cat got your tongue? Think you're too good to talk to us? Huh? I'm talking to you!"

Scott doesn't need his eyes to know that his fellow students are walking right past all of this. "Hey? Hey, can you hear me? Huh?" Duncan asked and slapped Scott's ear and shoved him against a wall. Duncan and his gang laughed and looked back at the other students who just minded their own business. Satisfied, Duncan turned his attention back to Scott. "So what's up freak? You deaf now too?" He pushed Scott back and leaned in close. "Because damn man, if you're this screwed up, I can't imagine how fucked up your parents were!"

Scott lost his temper and kneed Duncan in the groin as hard as he could. Duncan's mouth opened wide and he backed away and held his balls but Scott wasn't done yet. He clenched his fist, a vein popped out of his forehead. He swung his arm, it was a sloppy punch since he was guided by Duncan's voice alone, but his fist landed on the side of Duncan's face and he spit out saliva as pain hit Scott's knuckles and shot up his arm. Ignoring it, Scott grabbed and shoved him aside as hard as he could before running down the hallway and pushing past several students while laughing even while Duncan's friends picked him back up. "You're a dead man Summers! Do you hear me?!"

Scott knew he was going to get the beating of his life for this but dammit if he couldn't help but kick the bully while he was down. As such, Scott turned around and raised two fingers in the air.
"You got your ass kicked by the blind kid, Matthews!"

"YOU LITTLE SHIT!"

Scott resumed running and trying to push past the other students even with the bullies hot on his heels shoving the students out of their way. He tripped and stumbled and he had no idea where he was going but he was not going to stop running. He knew they would catch up soon however, but if his guess was right, he wasn't too far from the bathroom. Scott stumbled towards the walls with his hands outstretched in front of him and they pushed against the wall and he ran forward with his hand trailing alongside the lockers as students got out of his way. Thankfully, his hand slid alongside the door to the men's room and Scott shoved it open and stumbled inside and he slammed it shut behind him.

"Summers? That you? What's up? You got an emergency or something?" A student asked him while washing his hands.

"Hi. Duncan. Crazy. Run." Scott said in between breaths.

"...How badly?"

"Bad. Run. Now. Get the Principal. Go."

"Okay, come on, we'll run together."

"No...no, I'm the one Duncan's after. You. Go." Scott told him and felt along the walls as he walked to the back of the men's room.

The student was about to respond when Duncan smashed open the door. "GET OUT HERE SUMMERS! GET OUT HERE AND GET WHAT'S COMING TO YOU!"

"Hey you! Get the fuck out!"

The student backed up and crept alongside the walls before running out. "Watch the fucking door, make sure nobody comes in." Duncan told one of his friends and he started kicking open the stalls as he looked for Scott. He came to a back corner where Scott was waiting. To his left was the wall. To his right was a stall. It was a narrow gap so if Duncan wanted to fight, his movement would be limited compared to the smaller Scott Summers. More importantly, Duncan's friends would be bunched in if they tried to come at him all at once, so at the very least, they would need to come at him one at a time. And with the narrow gap, they could only come at him from one direction, so even if Scott was trapped and unable to see them, he would at least know which direction they were coming from.

"Took you long enough Matthews. All those steroids slowing you down?" Scott joked, trying his best to hide how worried he was.

"Yeah real funny Summers. You get one lucky shot and think that makes you a fighter? You that makes you a man? Looks like I'm going to have to beat some sense into you."

"Then bring it chicken wuss." Scott put up his hands. "I'm ready for ya."

Duncan's gang burst out laughing at him. "Hey man can you believe this? Huh? Look at him! Eyeless wants to be a fighter!" One of Duncan's lackeys mocked Scott.

"Oh shove it. Fighting means you could lose. Bullying means you can’t. A bully wants to beat somebody, he doesn’t want to fight somebody." Scott taunted right back.

"YOU LITTLE SHIT!" Duncan grabbed at Scott who pushed his arms away and leaned against the wall and kicked at him but Duncan stepped back and punched at Scott again, catching Scott on the face. Scott fell back and the bully advanced on him and then Scott leaned down and charged him and punched at Duncan who just took it and punched at Scott's head and grabbed him and he shoved Scott against a wall. Duncan punched Scott hard in the stomach and knocked the wind out of him and then Duncan threw Scott to the floor and he started stomping on him. Scott coughed and hacked and put his arms over his head to shield himself but Duncan just kept it up, laughing all the while with his lackeys. Not done yet, Duncan reached down and grabbed Scott who struggled against him and then he shoved Scott against the wall. "What's wrong Summers? Huh? Not talking shit now are you? HUH?!" Scott swung wildly, grazing his jaw but then Duncan punched him right back. Duncan scoffed as Scott fell down and blood dribbled from his mouth. The bully then kicked him in the ribs and scoffed. "Pussy." Scott fell down, holding his stomach and coughing. Suddenly, red lights started shining from Scott's face and his bandages started burning.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Duncan and his friends backed away from Scott.

"What? No. NO DON'T! DON'T!" Scott grabbed his face and squeezed his eyes shut. "G-Get away. Get away from me. Now!"

Duncan was about to respond when he heard the door slam open. His friend went to stop the interloper but there was the smashing of fist to flesh and his friend dropped like a sack of potatoes. The new arrival calmly stepped over him and rolled up his sleeves and rubbed his knuckles. The student is powerfully built with unusually long arms and legs, and unusually large hands and feet - a rare although not unique case of mutant powers manifesting before puberty. His bodily proportions are comparable to those of a gorilla, resulting in him receiving the bizarre nickname on and off the field of "Magilla Gorilla".



"Say what you want about the man, but it seems Johann Wolfgang von Goethe had a point when he said that 'The coward only threatens when he is safe'."

Duncan and his thugs backed up. "T-this doesn't involve you...Hank. So just back off!"

"See, that's where you're wrong. You are here and you hurting my friend. I'm involved on principal."

"Yeah? W-well what are you going to do about it huh? We've got you outnumbered man!"

Hank ignored the idiot and called out to Scott. "Hey Scott. How are you holding up?"

"You....are...late."

"A thousand apologies. I'll wrap this up quickly."

"Oh cram it! There's four of us and one of you!"

"Yes, but I can't exactly wait around all day for more of you to show up, I have things to do. So why don't you neanderthals apologize to my friend and promise to drop out of school and we can resolve this peacefully. Sound like a deal?"

"D-Duncan?"

Duncan spit on the floor and walked out with his gang. "Fuck him up."

Hank just rolled his eyes. "Neanderthal was right on the money it seems."

The first of Duncan's bully friends ran at Hank head on only for Hank to calmly sidestep and grab and throw him through the air. He smacked into a wall and fell to the floor and groaned in pain.
He would be sore for a few days but he'd be fine.

The next two attacked him at the same time and Hank responded by dropping down on his hands and kicking up his feet, kicking them both in the stomach and launching them backwards right past Duncan. They smacked against the walls and dropped down.

Before Duncan could respond to this, Hank sat down in a crouching position and sprung up into the air and flipped over his head and landed behind Duncan and then Hank picked him up by the back of his shirt, carried him into a toilet stall, shoved his face in the toilet water and flushed it to the bully's dismay.

Hank then tossed him out of the stall and the bully landed hard on his back, coughing and sputtering, his face and hair dripping wet.

"I gave you a chance to apologize you know. It isn't too late Duncan."

"S-screw you Hank!" Duncan spit on the floor and he got up and tried to punch him again only for Hank to calmly catch it and shoved him backwards and into a wall. He impacted against it and slid down to the floor. Duncan fumbled around with his hand and grabbed onto the wall trash can and pulled himself up, groaning in pain. "Please stop embarrassing yourself." Hank insisted.

Duncan started towards him again but Scott lunged at him and punched Duncan as hard as he could manage. With Duncan already off balance, Scott's punch knocked him to the floor and Scott fell with him, still keeping his eyes squeezed shut. Hank ran over to his friend. "Scott. Scott, are you alright?
"
"Been better..."

Now that Hank could see him better, he saw that his friend had bruises and blood on his face from the beating he'd just taken. From his ragged breathing, he'd taken hard hits to the stomach as well. It took every ounce of Hank's self-discipline not to do the same to the bully who'd hurt him. Restraining himself, Hank nevertheless turned to face Duncan. "One moment Scott." Hank walked over to Duncan and picked him by his shirt and knocked him out with a punch to the face before dropping him to the floor.

He then pulled out the paper towels and wet them in the sink and crouched down next to Scott and he began wiping his friend's face. "Come on now, let's get you to the nurse."

Just then, the Principal walked into the bathroom and he was utterly baffled by the scene before him.

"What on EARTH has happened in here?!"

Hank helped Scott to stand. "Duncan...Duncan....attacked me. Hank saved me. Simple."
"Is this true Mister McCoy?"

"It is sir. I heard about what was happening and I rushed in to help my friend. When I arrived, these men attacked me so I defended Scott and myself. I am well aware that fighting is against the rules here, but considering the circumstances, I believe that an exception should be made. especially considering that my friend has a note, from his doctor, that his eye condition requires that he wear these bandages around his face to protect his eyes and that he is functionally blind because of this...and yet, you can see the damage he's taken for yourself. So you can punish me if you want, but I stand by the fact that I would do it all again if it meant saving my friend."

The Principal sighed and crossed his arms. This whole thing was a giant mess for sure, but the evidence spoke for itself.

"...Alright, let's get everyone to the nurse. I'll make some calls and once Mr. Matthews is feeling better, I'll interrogate him regarding his role in this disaster. Mr Summers, I will contact your teachers and tell them that you're excused from your classes for the rest of the day. Your parents will be notified as well."

"Thanks." He rested his head as Hank escorted him out of the bathroom and the Janitors soon filed in to help pick up Duncan and his gang and get them to the nurse as well.

The Principal rubbed his face with his hands and looked over the bathroom. It didn't take long for him to see the blood on the floor and he took a picture with his phone. It was all the evidence he needed. Mr.McCoy would be given a slap on the wrist, Mr. Summers a vacation and anything else he wanted and Mr.Matthews and his friends would be questioned and then suspended for a good long time, followed by a year's worth of detention once they came back. He closed his eyes and backed against the wall to think.

Sir? You okay?" A janitor asked.

"I'm worried about the kid. That's all....let's get this room closed off and the area around the blood taped off. I don't want anybody except the police in or out until they've finished looking it over."

"Can do sir."

[superkamiguy1]

Hank helped Scott to walk down the hallway and Scott leaned against him. "Hey man, are you gonna be okay?"

"Fine once I get a few days of sleep."

"That's the spirit." Hank looked around before whispering. "...Why didn't you use...that?"

"I might hate Duncan but not that much and I'd rather not vaporize somebody."

"You're a good man Scott Summers."

"I guess...nice timing back there."

"I was in the neighborhood."

Scott nodded and cringed from the pain in his body but nevertheless forced a smile.

Scott...Scott...Can you hear me Scott? I want to help you.

What? Who's there?

My name is Charles Xavier. I am speaking to you telepathically. I apologize that I could not reach you before now but I would like to help. I can reduce the pain that your mind feels from your altercation until you are feeling better. With your permission, I would like to do so.

I-I can't see you. Where are you?

I am on the way to your parents' house actually. I know about the gifts that you and Hank McCoy posses and I would like to help you to hone them.

My gift? You mean my eyes?

Yes. It is a very unique gift Scott and I believe that I could help you to control them.

Do you mean it?

Yes. I will do everything in my power to help you.

Well...I guess you can start by numbing the pain I'm feeling.

Happily.

It happened gradually but soon Scott realized that despite the beating he'd taken, he wasn't feeling it at all anymore. He didn't feel numb either, he just felt fine.

"Xavier..."

"You say something man?"

"I...Hank, I want you to do me a favor. Look up a guy named Charles Xavier for me."
"I think I've heard of him. But what for?"

"Let's just say...it just popped into my head."

Hank McCoy looked up Charles Xavier on his phone. "Here we go. Charles Francis Xavier was born the son of nuclear researcher Brian Xavier and his wife Sharon. Following her husband's accidental death, Sharon married Brian's colleague, Kurt Marko. Cain, Kurt's son by a previous marriage, came to live at Xavier's Westchester Mansion Shortly thereafter. Following their mother's death, a fire in the family home took Kurt's life, leaving the stepbrothers alone....

He entered Bard College in New York at age 16 and earned his bachelor's degree in biology within two years. He was then accepted into the graduate-studies program at Oxford University, where he earned degrees in genetics and biophysics and he joined the military after completing his studies at Oxford.

Charles quickly became something of a legend in the area of search and rescue until he lost his brother Cain in a cave in.

Charles next traveled to Israel where he got into some kind of trouble with a man named Erik Magnus Lehnsherr. Details are sketchy though.

Xavier later got into an accident in the Himalayas that broke his legs and he had to be air lifted out.
Charles resumed graduate work at Columbia University in New York, and after receiving a Ph.D. in anthropology he spent several years in London earning a M.D. in psychiatry. There, Charles renewed his friendship with Moira, who had married Joe MacTaggert and was now a renowned geneticist and they've funded a school for gifted students here in the States."

"Yeah, that's him." Scott rubbed his head. "I'm not sure why but his name popped into my head and I wanted to know about him. Right about the time I felt the pain leaving me."

"Hmmmm.. He's had a hard life. The poor man. I can't believe any one man could go through all of this. However." Hank set his phone down and looked at Scott. "You said his name popped into your head and the pain left your body right? What if...what if he's...special? Like you?" Hank whispered the last part.

Scott response was a short laugh. "I have my doubts about that." He tapped his eyes. "Pretty sure he isn't a walking laser cannon." He laid back down on the bed. "Anyway, I'm going to take a nap. Wake me up if anything exciting happens or my parents show up, cool?"

"Cool man. Get some rest."
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"Mr.Summers? Mr.Summers?"

"Scott! Hey Scott! Wake up buddy!"

Scott groaned and woke up in the bed, doing his best to keep his eyes closed still.

"Whaaa? What's going on?" He asked as he felt the rag on his head.

"Your dad's here."

"D-dad?" He looked around for him.

"SCOTT?!"

"DAD?!" Scott looked over towards his direction and Jack Winters ran over to his bedside and hugged his son. "Scott. Oh God, son, we drove straight here when we got the call. Oh God. What the hell did that maniac do to you?"

Scott drooped over his dad's shoulder and he hugged him gently. Scott had never seen his adoptive father but from his figure and his voice he could tell that he was a strong powerful man with a full powerful beard and a voice that commanded attention. "Just a few scrapes. Few dozen maybe. I'll be fine in a few days maybe. Give it a week. Maybe two at most...."

"As long as you need son. We'll be here for you." He gently held his son for a few minutes and he looked at Hank. "Thank you Hank. Oh God Bless You."

"I was just in the right place at the right time. I'm just glad I was able to help him."

"You saved our son's life." Jack told him.

"You really did man. Thanks again."

"No thanks required. I'm just the bodyguard, bro."

"Well listen Hank. Anything you need, and I mean anything, you come talk to me and we'll help in any way we can." Jack assured Hank. He helped his son lay back down for the moment and then he turned back to the nurse. "So tell me: Where's the punk who hurt my son?"

"Currently in a different nursing office. We have a few here. We thought it best to keep the kids separated for awhile. For legal reasons however, I cannot tell you which ones the children are in right now.

Jack took a few deep breaths to calm himself down and then he replied to the nurse. "Okay. That's fair. I would like to take Scott home now."

"Of course. Please be careful with him Mr.Winters. He's going to need plenty of bed rest for the next few days.

"Don't 'worry, we'll take care of him." He told the nurse and helped Scott up and out of his bed and out of the room.

"Hey dad?" Scott asked him. "Where's mom?"

"Well you know your mother Scott." Jack smiled.


"What kind of joke of a school are you running here?" Crystal Winters shouted at the principal. "My son is HANDICAPPED! He has notes from his doctor for his eye condition! That's why he wears that's thing around his eyes in the first place! And yet I get a call from the nurse about some coward attacking him and beating him up for no damn reason?! What are you going to do about this huh? I want those psychopaths EXPELLED and a full apology from the school for what's happened here today! AND I want them to pay for any and all medical bills we could build up from this!"

The Principal held up his hands defensively as he waited for her to finish. "Please Miss Winters. I assure you that we're doing everything in our power to resolve this crisis but this has all happened rather suddenly for all of us. I have several students in the nurses offices who might need to go to the hospital, police investigating a bathroom brawl and the entire affair is rather chaotic. Unfortunately I only have the statements of two students to go on at the moment. Normally we would've brought the other students in for questioning but they're unconscious at the moment. You must understand this places us in an awkward position. Believe me, once they're feeling better and able to answer questions, we will get their side of the story. It is only fair that they can give their own version of what happened. We will launch a full investigation into this matter and once its done we will make our decision. For now I believe the best thing to do would be for Mr.Summers and Mr.McCoy to both return home to rest. If we require a follow up statement from them we will call you. Any homework they miss will be delivered to their houses."

Crystal fumed but relented. "You just keep those delinquent assholes away from my boy and out of this school." She stood up and walked out of the principal's office.

She met Scott and Jack on the way out and she rushed over to hug them. "OH HONEY!"

"Hi mom." Scott said quietly while he hugged her back. "Can I go home now? I hate it here."

"Sure baby. Come on lets get you out of this madhouse." She whispered back and she and Jack escorted Scott out of the school.

They helped Scott into the car and he buckled up and relaxed in his seat and he slowly drifted off back to sleep.

They let him relax and they got into the car. There was a period of silence between them as they drove home until Crystal began to cry. "Our boy Jack. Our baby boy."

"It'll be alright honey. It'll be okay. We'll get him home and it will be okay."

"He can't go back there. It's not safe for him. Those mongrels tried to kill him Jack. If we let him go back one of their friends will try to finish the job. He can't go back there."

"I know....maybe....maybe we should give Xavier's a chance after all."
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Scott ran down the hallway as fast as he could past the unmoving statues dressed like his students. He couldn't stop! He couldn't stop! They were going to kill him! He pushed past the statues while screaming out for help but nobody came to help him.

"HELP ME! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME! ANYBODY PLEASE! SOMEONE HELP!" He screamed down the hallway. His voice echoed down the hallway endlessly but nobody came to help him. The statues just closed in around him. He had to squeeze past them to get through. The monsters were still coming! He could hear them rampaging down the hallway smashing through the statues in their way to the screams of the students. Scott ducked down and squeezed through a gap of student statues but then he fell down on his face. He pulled himself up to his feet and tried to keep going but he bumped into a statue. He tried to go left but he bumped into another statue. He tried to go right! He tried to go down! He tried to go back! He was trapped in a circle of statues closing in on him. The screams grew louder as the monsters rampaged down the hallway growing closer and closer.

"NO! NONONO!" Scott frantically pushed and shoved against the statues. "No! Please! Help me! Someone help me!" He slammed his hands against a statue and suddenly fell forward and landed on his face again. He coughed and spat out dirt and dust. He rolled over on his stomach and looked around for the monsters but for his shock he discovered he was laying in a field now. The hallway was gone. The school was gone. The monsters were gone and he was alone in a field of flowers. "Uhhhh what? Huh? What? Hello? Anybody? What's going on?"

"I was hoping you could tell me. What are you doing here new kid?" An angelic voice asked from behind him.

Scott scrambled to his feet and then he turned around to see a redheaded girl in blue jeans and a black t-shirt looking at him with her head tilted.

"Huh. You know, you're actually kinda cute. What's your name new kid?"

"I-I-I-I uhhh I-I'm....I'm uh...ahem!" Scott took a deep breath and exhaled and stood up straight. "Right! I'm Scott. Scott Summers. What's your name and uh, where are we?"

The redheaded girl giggled and offered her hand. "I'm Jean Grey. Welcome to The Field Of Dreams."



"Wow. Hi Jean." He shook her hand happily. "Nice to meet you' They shook hands and Jean walked with him through the field. "So, uh, where is this? How'd I get here?"

"Yeah, I'm not gonna lie Scott, I'm as surprised as you are. Assuming I'm not just dreaming you, I must've dragged you in here. It happens every now and then but this is the first time it's happened to someone I've never met. Anyway, I call it The Field Of Dreams because I came up with it whenever I daydream and when I'm actually dreaming. I've dragged other people in here on accident before but, you know, it's usually people who are close by. This is pretty random to me." She stopped and turned to Scott and leaned forward slightly with her hands held coyly behind her back and her head tilted slightly. "Hey do you have a power too? I'm a psychic."

"I...uhhh…" Scott hesitated in telling her briefly before deciding to just come out with it. Odds were that this was all a dream anyway so there couldn't be any harm in it. "I have an eye condition and by eye condition I mean I shoot laser beams from my eyes. Really powerful laser beams. I'm a walking laser cannon."

"Are you serious?" Jean laughed and turned him to face the distance. "Can you show me? How you do it?"

"Well, I mean, I don't think I've done it in a dream before and it has been awhile since I've done it in front of another person but usually I just, you know, open my eyes and-" Scott was cut off as a massive red laser erupted from his eyeballs and fired off into the distance with energy crackling off of it as it ionized the air! The blast eventually hit something off in the distance apparently and exploded. Jean yelled out and fell on her butt. Scott finally managed to close his eyes and he clenched his hands into fists until the red lights turned off and he was able to open his eyes again. "And that happens. I'm not entirely if this really is a dream but, uh, in reality? I have to keep my eyes closed. At all times. Or...bad things happen." He rubbed the back of his head. "This is honestly the first time in years I've been able to open my eyes and see the world." He smiled. "So thank you, Jean." He offered his hand to her.

"Holy cow....that's terrible." Jean took his hand and hopped up to her feet. "I mean the laser was cool but that's terrible."

A pair of chairs appeared behind each of them and Scott and Jean sat down.

"If it makes you feel better, I have power problems too. I hear everyone's thoughts. All the time...they're not always pleasant."

"Woah...so....thoughts? Like, what's going on in here?" Scott asked as he tapped his head. "A friend of mine told me about it. That's what people call our inner voice?"

"That's about right. You see, uh, the way I understand it, is that our thoughts are mental cognitions. Our ideas, opinions, and beliefs are about ourselves and the world around us. They include the perspectives we bring to any situation or experience that color our point of view. But, while our thoughts are shaped by life experiences, genetics and education, they are generally under our conscious control and kept private in our heads....bbbuuuuut….yeah. I can hear those. All the time. Everything people think about me and other people. At all times. I mean I go to an all girls school and there are still some seriously disturbed people there!" Jean threw up her hands. "It's...why I made this place. My little get away so I don't go crazy. Or break something. Or both"

"Both? How?"

"I'm a psychic Scott. Reading minds and...what would you call this anyway? Uhhh let's call it...dream walking, yeah, dream walking, are just the tip of the iceberg. I can move things with my mind. I'm still working on controlling that but sometimes, if I lose control or my concentration, I can have a flare up moment and stuff breaks."

"Oh man. Oh Jean, I'm sorry."

"Thanks Scott. You have no idea how much it helps to be able to talk about this with someone my own age with the same problems. Well, not, same but you know."

"I know right? If it wasn't for my friend Hank I don't know where I'd be...probably in a gutter somewhere."

"What was that?"

Scott rubbed his arms. "There are some lunatics at my school too and I'm one of their favorite punching bags."

"Oh God, Scott. I-I'm sorry to hear that. But, like, aren't you technically blind? Why would they go after you?"

"Because they're a bunch of cowardly jerkwads." Scott shrugged. "Best I can give you. Could've potentially wasted them but...no. No that's that's just not me."

Jean reached out and held his hand. "That's how you gotta be Scott. Don't let some idiots drag you down to their level. Just be better than them."

"Thanks Jean. If-if you don't me asking?"

"At my school? Nah, nothing like that. They just ostracize me. They think I'm a witch or something. Except for the goth kids. They like me and they're kinda cool. Need to stop smoking though."

Jean and Scott laughed. They weren't even sure why they were laughing. They just felt so happy to find someone so similar to them who had super power problems.

"Oh man Scott. This feels good. It feels good to finally meet someone I can talk to about this."

"Believe me I know the feeling. I have got to introduce you to Hank sometime. You guys would get along great and Xavier!" Scott suddenly remembered. "Hey, Jean, earlier, when I was in the nurses office, a man spoke to me in my mind. He said his name was Xavier. Professor Charles Xavier. He said he runs a school for gifted students. I-I think he runs a school for people like us. I didn't think of it at first but meeting you it's all clicking into place. He contacted me and he did a psychic something to my brain and all of the pain I'd been in just died down and I was feeling a lot better. You're a psychic, he's a psychic, I shoot laser beams, Hank has super strength, I think, we're the gifted students he was talking about."

"Professor Xavier? Oh yeah we watched a video about him in one of my classes because our teacher didn't wanna teach that particular day. He's a genius in the study of mutations and genetics."

"Exactly. Mutations. I can shoot laser beams from my eyes and you have psychic powers and so does Xavier. I have a friend who's super strong and super smart. That's four. There could be more of us and he could help us figure out our powers. Figure out what we are."

"I think you're right. I'll have to give him a call later."

"Hey that reminds me. Shouldn't you be in school right now?"

"I had a headache." Jean joked. "What about you?"

"I'm pretty sure I passed out on the car ride back home." Scott admitted sheepishly.

"Oh. Oh Uh....I-I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's alright. I'm gonna be fine. I think."

Jean clapped her hands together. "Heeeeeey! I've got an idea! Wanna kick their asses?"

"Nothing would make me happier but I'm pretty sure they're under lock and key right now."

"No silly! In here! A Lucid Dreaming Ass Kicking!"

A big wide smile slowly spread over Scott's face. "You are a Jeanius."

"Oh please do go on." Jean replied in her faux-haughty tone.

"So how do we do this?"

"You envision the school and then we go there and beat up the bullies."

"Ah. Well, like, I haven't really seen the school per se buuuut I did see some sitcoms back when I could see. So I guess those'll work."

"Okay. Now just picture that in your mind really hard."

"Okay okay. Got it." Scott thought all the way back to those school sitcoms he used to watch until they finally popped up in his head and how the schools looked in them and the school sprang up around them. It was a messy hodgepodge of schools all mixed together but it looked close enough to work.

"Wow. You go to a weird school, Scott."

"Blame the architects." Scott joked back.

"So where are the idiots?" Jean asked him.

A door was knocked down a couple of monsters stumbled out of it dressed in preppy clothes and letterman jackets.

A frankentsein, a wolfman, a gill monster and a mummy.

Jean looked back at Scott in confusion.

"In my defense...I've never actually seen their faces only had them described to me as butt ugly." Scott confessed.

"Okay that's fair." Jean cracked her knuckles. "Let's Mambo!"

[superkamiguy1]

Jul 8, 2024 1:02:23 GMT superkamiguy1 said:

Hank helped Scott to walk down the hallway and Scott leaned against him. "Hey man, are you gonna be okay?"

"Fine once I get a few days of sleep."

"That's the spirit." Hank looked around before whispering. "...Why didn't you use...that?"

"I might hate Duncan but not that much and I'd rather not vaporize somebody."

"You're a good man Scott Summers."

"I guess...nice timing back there."

"I was in the neighborhood."

Scott nodded and cringed from the pain in his body but nevertheless forced a smile.

Scott...Scott...Can you hear me Scott? I want to help you.

What? Who's there?

My name is Charles Xavier. I am speaking to you telepathically. I apologize that I could not reach you before now but I would like to help. I can reduce the pain that your mind feels from your altercation until you are feeling better. With your permission, I would like to do so.

I-I can't see you. Where are you?

I am on the way to your parents' house actually. I know about the gifts that you and Hank McCoy posses and I would like to help you to hone them.

My gift? You mean my eyes?

Yes. It is a very unique gift Scott and I believe that I could help you to control them.

Do you mean it?

Yes. I will do everything in my power to help you.

Well...I guess you can start by numbing the pain I'm feeling.

Happily.

It happened gradually but soon Scott realized that despite the beating he'd taken, he wasn't feeling it at all anymore. He didn't feel numb either, he just felt fine.

"Xavier..."

"You say something man?"

"I...Hank, I want you to do me a favor. Look up a guy named Charles Xavier for me."
"I think I've heard of him. But what for?"

"Let's just say...it just popped into my head."

Hank McCoy looked up Charles Xavier on his phone. "Here we go. Charles Francis Xavier was born the son of nuclear researcher Brian Xavier and his wife Sharon. Following her husband's accidental death, Sharon married Brian's colleague, Kurt Marko. Cain, Kurt's son by a previous marriage, came to live at Xavier's Westchester Mansion Shortly thereafter. Following their mother's death, a fire in the family home took Kurt's life, leaving the stepbrothers alone....

He entered Bard College in New York at age 16 and earned his bachelor's degree in biology within two years. He was then accepted into the graduate-studies program at Oxford University, where he earned degrees in genetics and biophysics and he joined the military after completing his studies at Oxford.

Charles quickly became something of a legend in the area of search and rescue until he lost his brother Cain in a cave in.

Charles next traveled to Israel where he got into some kind of trouble with a man named Erik Magnus Lehnsherr. Details are sketchy though.

Xavier later got into an accident in the Himalayas that broke his legs and he had to be air lifted out.
Charles resumed graduate work at Columbia University in New York, and after receiving a Ph.D. in anthropology he spent several years in London earning a M.D. in psychiatry. There, Charles renewed his friendship with Moira, who had married Joe MacTaggert and was now a renowned geneticist and they've funded a school for gifted students here in the States."

"Yeah, that's him." Scott rubbed his head. "I'm not sure why but his name popped into my head and I wanted to know about him. Right about the time I felt the pain leaving me."

"Hmmmm.. He's had a hard life. The poor man. I can't believe any one man could go through all of this. However." Hank set his phone down and looked at Scott. "You said his name popped into your head and the pain left your body right? What if...what if he's...special? Like you?" Hank whispered the last part.

Scott response was a short laugh. "I have my doubts about that." He tapped his eyes. "Pretty sure he isn't a walking laser cannon." He laid back down on the bed. "Anyway, I'm going to take a nap. Wake me up if anything exciting happens or my parents show up, cool?"

"Cool man. Get some rest."
_______________________________________________________________________________

"Mr.Summers? Mr.Summers?"

"Scott! Hey Scott! Wake up buddy!"

Scott groaned and woke up in the bed, doing his best to keep his eyes closed still.

"Whaaa? What's going on?" He asked as he felt the rag on his head.

"Your dad's here."

"D-dad?" He looked around for him.

"SCOTT?!"

"DAD?!" Scott looked over towards his direction and Jack Winters ran over to his bedside and hugged his son. "Scott. Oh God, son, we drove straight here when we got the call. Oh God. What the hell did that maniac do to you?"

Scott drooped over his dad's shoulder and he hugged him gently. Scott had never seen his adoptive father but from his figure and his voice he could tell that he was a strong powerful man with a full powerful beard and a voice that commanded attention. "Just a few scrapes. Few dozen maybe. I'll be fine in a few days maybe. Give it a week. Maybe two at most...."

"As long as you need son. We'll be here for you." He gently held his son for a few minutes and he looked at Hank. "Thank you Hank. Oh God Bless You."

"I was just in the right place at the right time. I'm just glad I was able to help him."

"You saved our son's life." Jack told him.

"You really did man. Thanks again."

"No thanks required. I'm just the bodyguard, bro."

"Well listen Hank. Anything you need, and I mean anything, you come talk to me and we'll help in any way we can." Jack assured Hank. He helped his son lay back down for the moment and then he turned back to the nurse. "So tell me: Where's the punk who hurt my son?"

"Currently in a different nursing office. We have a few here. We thought it best to keep the kids separated for awhile. For legal reasons however, I cannot tell you which ones the children are in right now.

Jack took a few deep breaths to calm himself down and then he replied to the nurse. "Okay. That's fair. I would like to take Scott home now."

"Of course. Please be careful with him Mr.Winters. He's going to need plenty of bed rest for the next few days.

"Don't 'worry, we'll take care of him." He told the nurse and helped Scott up and out of his bed and out of the room.

"Hey dad?" Scott asked him. "Where's mom?"

"Well you know your mother Scott." Jack smiled.


"What kind of joke of a school are you running here?" Crystal Winters shouted at the principal. "My son is HANDICAPPED! He has notes from his doctor for his eye condition! That's why he wears that's thing around his eyes in the first place! And yet I get a call from the nurse about some coward attacking him and beating him up for no damn reason?! What are you going to do about this huh? I want those psychopaths EXPELLED and a full apology from the school for what's happened here today! AND I want them to pay for any and all medical bills we could build up from this!"

The Principal held up his hands defensively as he waited for her to finish. "Please Miss Winters. I assure you that we're doing everything in our power to resolve this crisis but this has all happened rather suddenly for all of us. I have several students in the nurses offices who might need to go to the hospital, police investigating a bathroom brawl and the entire affair is rather chaotic. Unfortunately I only have the statements of two students to go on at the moment. Normally we would've brought the other students in for questioning but they're unconscious at the moment. You must understand this places us in an awkward position. Believe me, once they're feeling better and able to answer questions, we will get their side of the story. It is only fair that they can give their own version of what happened. We will launch a full investigation into this matter and once its done we will make our decision. For now I believe the best thing to do would be for Mr.Summers and Mr.McCoy to both return home to rest. If we require a follow up statement from them we will call you. Any homework they miss will be delivered to their houses."

Crystal fumed but relented. "You just keep those delinquent assholes away from my boy and out of this school." She stood up and walked out of the principal's office.

She met Scott and Jack on the way out and she rushed over to hug them. "OH HONEY!"

"Hi mom." Scott said quietly while he hugged her back. "Can I go home now? I hate it here."

"Sure baby. Come on lets get you out of this madhouse." She whispered back and she and Jack escorted Scott out of the school.

They helped Scott into the car and he buckled up and relaxed in his seat and he slowly drifted off back to sleep.

They let him relax and they got into the car. There was a period of silence between them as they drove home until Crystal began to cry. "Our boy Jack. Our baby boy."

"It'll be alright honey. It'll be okay. We'll get him home and it will be okay."

"He can't go back there. It's not safe for him. Those mongrels tried to kill him Jack. If we let him go back one of their friends will try to finish the job. He can't go back there."

"I know....maybe....maybe we should give Xavier's a chance after all."
______________________________________________________________________________________________________


Scott ran down the hallway as fast as he could past the unmoving statues dressed like his students. He couldn't stop! He couldn't stop! They were going to kill him! He pushed past the statues while screaming out for help but nobody came to help him.

"HELP ME! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME! ANYBODY PLEASE! SOMEONE HELP!" He screamed down the hallway. His voice echoed down the hallway endlessly but nobody came to help him. The statues just closed in around him. He had to squeeze past them to get through. The monsters were still coming! He could hear them rampaging down the hallway smashing through the statues in their way to the screams of the students. Scott ducked down and squeezed through a gap of student statues but then he fell down on his face. He pulled himself up to his feet and tried to keep going but he bumped into a statue. He tried to go left but he bumped into another statue. He tried to go right! He tried to go down! He tried to go back! He was trapped in a circle of statues closing in on him. The screams grew louder as the monsters rampaged down the hallway growing closer and closer.

"NO! NONONO!" Scott frantically pushed and shoved against the statues. "No! Please! Help me! Someone help me!" He slammed his hands against a statue and suddenly fell forward and landed on his face again. He coughed and spat out dirt and dust. He rolled over on his stomach and looked around for the monsters but for his shock he discovered he was laying in a field now. The hallway was gone. The school was gone. The monsters were gone and he was alone in a field of flowers. "Uhhhh what? Huh? What? Hello? Anybody? What's going on?"

"I was hoping you could tell me. What are you doing here new kid?" An angelic voice asked from behind him.

Scott scrambled to his feet and then he turned around to see a redheaded girl in blue jeans and a black t-shirt looking at him with her head tilted.

"Huh. You know, you're actually kinda cute. What's your name new kid?"

"I-I-I-I uhhh I-I'm....I'm uh...ahem!" Scott took a deep breath and exhaled and stood up straight. "Right! I'm Scott. Scott Summers. What's your name and uh, where are we?"

The redheaded girl giggled and offered her hand. "I'm Jean Grey. Welcome to The Field Of Dreams."



"Wow. Hi Jean." He shook her hand happily. "Nice to meet you' They shook hands and Jean walked with him through the field. "So, uh, where is this? How'd I get here?"

"Yeah, I'm not gonna lie Scott, I'm as surprised as you are. Assuming I'm not just dreaming you, I must've dragged you in here. It happens every now and then but this is the first time it's happened to someone I've never met. Anyway, I call it The Field Of Dreams because I came up with it whenever I daydream and when I'm actually dreaming. I've dragged other people in here on accident before but, you know, it's usually people who are close by. This is pretty random to me." She stopped and turned to Scott and leaned forward slightly with her hands held coyly behind her back and her head tilted slightly. "Hey do you have a power too? I'm a psychic."

"I...uhhh…" Scott hesitated in telling her briefly before deciding to just come out with it. Odds were that this was all a dream anyway so there couldn't be any harm in it. "I have an eye condition and by eye condition I mean I shoot laser beams from my eyes. Really powerful laser beams. I'm a walking laser cannon."

"Are you serious?" Jean laughed and turned him to face the distance. "Can you show me? How you do it?"

"Well, I mean, I don't think I've done it in a dream before and it has been awhile since I've done it in front of another person but usually I just, you know, open my eyes and-" Scott was cut off as a massive red laser erupted from his eyeballs and fired off into the distance with energy crackling off of it as it ionized the air! The blast eventually hit something off in the distance apparently and exploded. Jean yelled out and fell on her butt. Scott finally managed to close his eyes and he clenched his hands into fists until the red lights turned off and he was able to open his eyes again. "And that happens. I'm not entirely if this really is a dream but, uh, in reality? I have to keep my eyes closed. At all times. Or...bad things happen." He rubbed the back of his head. "This is honestly the first time in years I've been able to open my eyes and see the world." He smiled. "So thank you, Jean." He offered his hand to her.

"Holy cow....that's terrible." Jean took his hand and hopped up to her feet. "I mean the laser was cool but that's terrible."

A pair of chairs appeared behind each of them and Scott and Jean sat down.

"If it makes you feel better, I have power problems too. I hear everyone's thoughts. All the time...they're not always pleasant."

"Woah...so....thoughts? Like, what's going on in here?" Scott asked as he tapped his head. "A friend of mine told me about it. That's what people call our inner voice?"

"That's about right. You see, uh, the way I understand it, is that our thoughts are mental cognitions. Our ideas, opinions, and beliefs are about ourselves and the world around us. They include the perspectives we bring to any situation or experience that color our point of view. But, while our thoughts are shaped by life experiences, genetics and education, they are generally under our conscious control and kept private in our heads....bbbuuuuut….yeah. I can hear those. All the time. Everything people think about me and other people. At all times. I mean I go to an all girls school and there are still some seriously disturbed people there!" Jean threw up her hands. "It's...why I made this place. My little get away so I don't go crazy. Or break something. Or both"

"Both? How?"

"I'm a psychic Scott. Reading minds and...what would you call this anyway? Uhhh let's call it...dream walking, yeah, dream walking, are just the tip of the iceberg. I can move things with my mind. I'm still working on controlling that but sometimes, if I lose control or my concentration, I can have a flare up moment and stuff breaks."

"Oh man. Oh Jean, I'm sorry."

"Thanks Scott. You have no idea how much it helps to be able to talk about this with someone my own age with the same problems. Well, not, same but you know."

"I know right? If it wasn't for my friend Hank I don't know where I'd be...probably in a gutter somewhere."

"What was that?"

Scott rubbed his arms. "There are some lunatics at my school too and I'm one of their favorite punching bags."

"Oh God, Scott. I-I'm sorry to hear that. But, like, aren't you technically blind? Why would they go after you?"

"Because they're a bunch of cowardly jerkwads." Scott shrugged. "Best I can give you. Could've potentially wasted them but...no. No that's that's just not me."

Jean reached out and held his hand. "That's how you gotta be Scott. Don't let some idiots drag you down to their level. Just be better than them."

"Thanks Jean. If-if you don't me asking?"

"At my school? Nah, nothing like that. They just ostracize me. They think I'm a witch or something. Except for the goth kids. They like me and they're kinda cool. Need to stop smoking though."

Jean and Scott laughed. They weren't even sure why they were laughing. They just felt so happy to find someone so similar to them who had super power problems.

"Oh man Scott. This feels good. It feels good to finally meet someone I can talk to about this."

"Believe me I know the feeling. I have got to introduce you to Hank sometime. You guys would get along great and Xavier!" Scott suddenly remembered. "Hey, Jean, earlier, when I was in the nurses office, a man spoke to me in my mind. He said his name was Xavier. Professor Charles Xavier. He said he runs a school for gifted students. I-I think he runs a school for people like us. I didn't think of it at first but meeting you it's all clicking into place. He contacted me and he did a psychic something to my brain and all of the pain I'd been in just died down and I was feeling a lot better. You're a psychic, he's a psychic, I shoot laser beams, Hank has super strength, I think, we're the gifted students he was talking about."

"Professor Xavier? Oh yeah we watched a video about him in one of my classes because our teacher didn't wanna teach that particular day. He's a genius in the study of mutations and genetics."

"Exactly. Mutations. I can shoot laser beams from my eyes and you have psychic powers and so does Xavier. I have a friend who's super strong and super smart. That's four. There could be more of us and he could help us figure out our powers. Figure out what we are."

"I think you're right. I'll have to give him a call later."

"Hey that reminds me. Shouldn't you be in school right now?"

"I had a headache." Jean joked. "What about you?"

"I'm pretty sure I passed out on the car ride back home." Scott admitted sheepishly.

"Oh. Oh Uh....I-I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's alright. I'm gonna be fine. I think."

Jean clapped her hands together. "Heeeeeey! I've got an idea! Wanna kick their asses?"

"Nothing would make me happier but I'm pretty sure they're under lock and key right now."

"No silly! In here! A Lucid Dreaming Ass Kicking!"

A big wide smile slowly spread over Scott's face. "You are a Jeanius."

"Oh please do go on." Jean replied in her faux-haughty tone.

"So how do we do this?"

"You envision the school and then we go there and beat up the bullies."

"Ah. Well, like, I haven't really seen the school per se buuuut I did see some sitcoms back when I could see. So I guess those'll work."

"Okay. Now just picture that in your mind really hard."

"Okay okay. Got it." Scott thought all the way back to those school sitcoms he used to watch until they finally popped up in his head and how the schools looked in them and the school sprang up around them. It was a messy hodgepodge of schools all mixed together but it looked close enough to work.

"Wow. You go to a weird school, Scott."

"Blame the architects." Scott joked back.

"So where are the idiots?" Jean asked him.

A door was knocked down a couple of monsters stumbled out of it dressed in preppy clothes and letterman jackets.

A frankentsein, a wolfman, a gill monster and a mummy.

Jean looked back at Scott in confusion.

"In my defense...I've never actually seen their faces only had them described to me as butt ugly." Scott confessed.

"Okay that's fair." Jean cracked her knuckles. "Let's Mambo!"

"Don't you mean dance though?"

"Same thing!"

"Right. Mambo it is."

"Well rlook who it isz! Simpering sucmmers wour favoartie punfching bag!" The werewolf growled out drunkenly. "You resady fotr your dailzy asvs whoopings?"

"Wow. You really don't like these guys do you?"

"Not in the least."

"Oh well. You know what they say about slaying your inner demons." Jean shrugged.

"Who vare qyou taelking to little cgirl? Doyn't oyou know wwho I ma? I'm Duncan Matthewfs and I cabn tdo whatevre trhe jhlel I wantl! Sgo shut yourr damn mouth beforpe I vhsut int for you!"

"Right now I'd settle for subtitles." She joked.

"Wolfie's mine." Scott said firmly as he stepped up.

"Dibs on fighting gills and the mummy then."

"Then I'll take Franky. Lets do this." Scott ran down the hallway towards the laughing monsters and he leaped into the air and drop kicked the werewolf and sent it flying down the hallway. He landed on his feet and he turned around and smashed a haymaker punch into the Frankenstein that broke it through the wall. "WOOOHOOOO OHHHH MAN THAT FELT GOOD!"

"Told you you'd enjoy this!" Jean called to Scott as she ran past him and bodyslammed the mummy and threw it down the hall where it landed next to the werewolf. The gill monster roared and tried punching Jean but she easily blocked his punches and then socked him across the jaw. "For the record, I actually liked Shape Of Water, but you're not my type!"

Scott walked into the room and approached the Frankenstein monster as it was getting up. "You know, all those times you guys were beating the daylights out of me, I had a lot of thoughts running through my head but the biggest one was: If only I could see, I would kick the shit out of you losers. Because guys like you, who need to gang up on the blind kid to win? At the end of the day, you're just a bunch of cowardly bullies. And you know, now that I can see, in this dream? Even if it's not the real you, I just want to say, you're every bit as pathetic as I imagined."

"Shut up! You srhut tuhe khlel qups! Gyou're nloht cookler twhna usg! You're jqust a blidn zbeta bitch cucki! Cyou're qnot coool liewk us yxzou blind fkaggot bitchn!"

The Frankenstein shouted back as it staggered to its feet and began flailing around with blind punches at Scott who easily fended them off and punched the Frankenstein hard in its stomach repeatedly and then he kicked it in the balls to make it double over and punched it in the head and then he threw it across the room. The Frankenstein broke through the wall and was buried under the rubble.

Scott dusted off his hands while the werewolf barged into the room. "SSSUUUUUUMMMEEERRRS! I'LLLLL KIIIIIIIIIILLLL YOU SUUUUUMMEEEEERRRRS!" It bellowed out as it lunged at him.

Scott turned around, grabbed it and slammed it down onto the floor. "Which brings me to my next point. Despite how pathetic and petty and cruel you jerkwads were, I would never stoop to your level in the real world. Because I'm not a monster like you. But we're not in reality right now, Dumbkin. Which means I don't have to feel bad about doing THIS!" Scott whipped off his glasses as the werewolf was getting up and jumping into the air. A bright light consumed Were-Duncan and blasted him out of the school and up, up and away into the sky where Were-Duncan exploded into fireworks.

Jean walked dragging the other two monsters behind her with one hand. "Fireworks. Nice touch man."

"Thanks. I figured it was a festive occasion." Scott joked as the school changed to another field at night. The monsters vanished and were replaced by chairs. The fireworks burst in air above them and seared brilliant light and vivacious colors into their retinas. Each one drew a pattern of gorgeous colors into the sky. Each one equally beautiful and breathtaking, never to be repeated no matter how many are ignited and sent to their sky-bound destiny.

As they stared up at the beautiful flashing lights in the sky exploding above them, Scott found himself tearing up. It was slow at first but they slowly overwhelmed him and Scott started sniffling and then the floodgates broke down and Scott broke down crying. Memories flooded to the surface of sitting at a barbecue with Alex and his parents. Laughing and pointing at the fireworks exploding above them while eating hot dogs and burgers. The powder from the fireworks mingling with the delicious barbecue's scent and the wonderful aroma of the flowers. Scott sitting on his mother's lap and looking up at her beautiful smiling face and then back to the fireworks lighting up the world. They were just so beautiful!

"Scott? Scott are you okay?" Jean asked him.

"I-I'm sorry. I'm sorry it's just....it's just....I haven't....I haven't seen the world in years and it's all just so beautiful!" He sobbed. "Thank you...thank you Jean. Thank you. You don't know what this means to me."

Jean smiled and she leaned over to hug him. "Shhh it's okay man. It's okay. You're with friends here."

Scott nodded and let his emotions flow out of his body while the fireworks exploded in air until it was finally all out of his system.

"Hey, uh, th-thanks. You know, thanks Jean. A lot. I'm sorry about all that."

"It's okay Scott. It's just us in here. There's nothing wrong with being human. We might have powers but that's all we are in the end that lives in a society of people who, sadly, perceive sensitive people as weaklings or damaged goods. To feel intensely is not a symptom of weakness, it is the trademark of the truly alive and compassionate. It is not the empath who is broken, it is society that has become dysfunctional and emotionally disabled. There is no shame in expressing your authentic feelings. Those who are at times described as being a 'hot mess' or having 'too many issues' are the very fabric of what keeps the dream alive for a more caring, humane world. Never be ashamed to let your tears shine a light in this world. Never be ashamed of letting your emotions out. Never be ashamed of being human. Leave that macho, hide your feelings bs back in the 80's where it died out."

"Yeah, you're right." Scott chuckled. "You really are amazing Jean."

"Right back at you Scott. Shall we drink on it?" Jean asked as she raised her hands and a wine glass and wine bottle appeared in her hands.

"Uh, wait, what? Is that even legal?"

"Find me a law that says you can't drink in your dreams and I'll gladly stop." Jean joked and poured a glass for herself and one for Scott. She handed it over to him.

"That's fair. So, uh, will this really taste like alcohol?"

"I dunno. I've never had any."

They laughed with each other until Scott raised his glass. "Then I shall propose a toast: To the coolest redhead in the world and pleasant dreams. May God grant you many years to live, for sure he must be knowing, the Earth has angels all too few and Heaven is overflowing!"


Jean raised her own in response. "A thousand welcomes you will find here before you, and the oftener you come here the more I'll adore you! May we one day hone our gifts and use them to bring light and joy to the world!"

They clinked their dream glasses and chugged them down. Neither of them ever tasted wine before so they just imagined it as Cherry Soda. It worked well enough. They sat back down to enjoy the fireworks in between sipping their drinks and singing.

"
"Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"
"WHOOOOO!"

JEEEAAAAANNNN! JEEEEEAAAAAN! JEAN!


Jean stood up as she noticed the voice echoing around them. "Ah, that would be my wakeup call. Sorry Scott but I gotta cut this short. Thanks for coming Scott. This was a lot of fun. I really liked hanging out with you."

"Hey I'm not gonna complain. I haven't had this much fun in years Jean and I finally got to see the world again. Well, the dream world, but all the same I had a lot of fun. This was awesome."

"I'd really like to meet you again Scott. Whether in here or in person." She twirled around and leaned forward with her arms behind her back. "Until then Scott Summers, you're my secret boy! Ciao!" She turned around and hopped away.

"A secret boy huh? Wait, is that as in a boy...friend?" Scott asked as he stood up and watched her go.

Jean giggled and skipped away as light washed over them.

Scott just smiled and closed his eyes.


When he finally woke up he was back in his room. Scott touched his face and noticed he had a new bandanna around his eyes and an ice pack on his head. Scott smiled and relaxed in his bed. He had to keep his eyes closed in reality anyway so he might as well.
________________________________________________________________________________

"So yeah, sorry dad but I had to step out today. I had one of my headaches again and you know how bad it can get when I have those."

"Hey don't worry about it Jeanie. I completely understand." John Grey told her over the phone. "But don't worry. I've been hard at work trying to find a solution and I think I've finally found the answer to your dilemma."

"You mean my problem?"

"Now now Jeanie. We agreed to call your unique talent a dilemma. Not a problem." He gently reminded her. "I've found a professional who specializes in helping talented people like you. We've set up a meeting and I'm going to be talking to him soon."

"Another professional?" Jean asked incredulously. "Alright so what's this ones story? Crystal balls? Tarot cards? Is he a guy or a-wait, wait wait wait!" Jean sat down on her bed and ran her fingers through her hair as she remembered her Dream Walk. "Wait...dad...this guy you're meeting with, is he Charles Xavier?"

"Charles Xavier! That's right! How'd you know? We're not even in the same room."

"Well...I Dream Walked again."

"Dream Walking? That's where you do that thing where you go into folks dreams right? However that works?"

"That's right and I drew in someone new. A kid from very far away. His name is Scott Summers and I think he might be like me. But instead of psychic powers he has laser eyes."

"There are kids with laser eyes now?" He asked in disbelief. "Wait you met a boy?"

"In my dreams, yes." Jean reminded him.

"Uh huh. Alright tell me about him."



"And that's about when I woke up." Jean finished.

"I see, I see. Sooo. Laser Eyes. Is that right?"

"That's right. Super Powerful Laser Eyes. Like Superman!"

John Grey finished writing this down. "I see. Okay then. I suppose there's nothing wrong with that so long as it's just a dream but if you ever meet this kid in reality, I want you to be extremely careful. Laser Eyes is uncharted territory for us and we're still figuring out your Psychic Powers."

"I know dad. I get it. Just remember to keep this between us okay?"

"I will honey. I've kept your secrets haven't I? You just focus on resting up Jeanie-bean. I'll let you know when I meet with Xavier and keep you updated."

There was a knock on the door. "Just a minute! Sorry dad, I have to go. I love you."

"Love you too Jeanie."

They hung up and Jean pocketed her phone. "Yeah?"

An attractive, dark-haired half-Japanese girl with brown eyes stepped into the room carrying a stack of papers. "Hey Jean! You feeling better?"

"Feeling a lot better Taryn. Been one of those days you know?"

"Oh trust me girl, I completely understand. I've done the same." Taryn Fujoka joked and joined her on the bed and handed her the papers. "I brought you the work you missed."

[superkamiguy1]

Jul 8, 2024 1:44:04 GMT superkamiguy1 said:

Jul 8, 2024 1:02:23 GMT superkamiguy1 said:

Hank helped Scott to walk down the hallway and Scott leaned against him. "Hey man, are you gonna be okay?"

"Fine once I get a few days of sleep."

"That's the spirit." Hank looked around before whispering. "...Why didn't you use...that?"

"I might hate Duncan but not that much and I'd rather not vaporize somebody."

"You're a good man Scott Summers."

"I guess...nice timing back there."

"I was in the neighborhood."

Scott nodded and cringed from the pain in his body but nevertheless forced a smile.

Scott...Scott...Can you hear me Scott? I want to help you.

What? Who's there?

My name is Charles Xavier. I am speaking to you telepathically. I apologize that I could not reach you before now but I would like to help. I can reduce the pain that your mind feels from your altercation until you are feeling better. With your permission, I would like to do so.

I-I can't see you. Where are you?

I am on the way to your parents' house actually. I know about the gifts that you and Hank McCoy posses and I would like to help you to hone them.

My gift? You mean my eyes?

Yes. It is a very unique gift Scott and I believe that I could help you to control them.

Do you mean it?

Yes. I will do everything in my power to help you.

Well...I guess you can start by numbing the pain I'm feeling.

Happily.

It happened gradually but soon Scott realized that despite the beating he'd taken, he wasn't feeling it at all anymore. He didn't feel numb either, he just felt fine.

"Xavier..."

"You say something man?"

"I...Hank, I want you to do me a favor. Look up a guy named Charles Xavier for me."
"I think I've heard of him. But what for?"

"Let's just say...it just popped into my head."

Hank McCoy looked up Charles Xavier on his phone. "Here we go. Charles Francis Xavier was born the son of nuclear researcher Brian Xavier and his wife Sharon. Following her husband's accidental death, Sharon married Brian's colleague, Kurt Marko. Cain, Kurt's son by a previous marriage, came to live at Xavier's Westchester Mansion Shortly thereafter. Following their mother's death, a fire in the family home took Kurt's life, leaving the stepbrothers alone....

He entered Bard College in New York at age 16 and earned his bachelor's degree in biology within two years. He was then accepted into the graduate-studies program at Oxford University, where he earned degrees in genetics and biophysics and he joined the military after completing his studies at Oxford.

Charles quickly became something of a legend in the area of search and rescue until he lost his brother Cain in a cave in.

Charles next traveled to Israel where he got into some kind of trouble with a man named Erik Magnus Lehnsherr. Details are sketchy though.

Xavier later got into an accident in the Himalayas that broke his legs and he had to be air lifted out.
Charles resumed graduate work at Columbia University in New York, and after receiving a Ph.D. in anthropology he spent several years in London earning a M.D. in psychiatry. There, Charles renewed his friendship with Moira, who had married Joe MacTaggert and was now a renowned geneticist and they've funded a school for gifted students here in the States."

"Yeah, that's him." Scott rubbed his head. "I'm not sure why but his name popped into my head and I wanted to know about him. Right about the time I felt the pain leaving me."

"Hmmmm.. He's had a hard life. The poor man. I can't believe any one man could go through all of this. However." Hank set his phone down and looked at Scott. "You said his name popped into your head and the pain left your body right? What if...what if he's...special? Like you?" Hank whispered the last part.

Scott response was a short laugh. "I have my doubts about that." He tapped his eyes. "Pretty sure he isn't a walking laser cannon." He laid back down on the bed. "Anyway, I'm going to take a nap. Wake me up if anything exciting happens or my parents show up, cool?"

"Cool man. Get some rest."
_______________________________________________________________________________

"Mr.Summers? Mr.Summers?"

"Scott! Hey Scott! Wake up buddy!"

Scott groaned and woke up in the bed, doing his best to keep his eyes closed still.

"Whaaa? What's going on?" He asked as he felt the rag on his head.

"Your dad's here."

"D-dad?" He looked around for him.

"SCOTT?!"

"DAD?!" Scott looked over towards his direction and Jack Winters ran over to his bedside and hugged his son. "Scott. Oh God, son, we drove straight here when we got the call. Oh God. What the hell did that maniac do to you?"

Scott drooped over his dad's shoulder and he hugged him gently. Scott had never seen his adoptive father but from his figure and his voice he could tell that he was a strong powerful man with a full powerful beard and a voice that commanded attention. "Just a few scrapes. Few dozen maybe. I'll be fine in a few days maybe. Give it a week. Maybe two at most...."

"As long as you need son. We'll be here for you." He gently held his son for a few minutes and he looked at Hank. "Thank you Hank. Oh God Bless You."

"I was just in the right place at the right time. I'm just glad I was able to help him."

"You saved our son's life." Jack told him.

"You really did man. Thanks again."

"No thanks required. I'm just the bodyguard, bro."

"Well listen Hank. Anything you need, and I mean anything, you come talk to me and we'll help in any way we can." Jack assured Hank. He helped his son lay back down for the moment and then he turned back to the nurse. "So tell me: Where's the punk who hurt my son?"

"Currently in a different nursing office. We have a few here. We thought it best to keep the kids separated for awhile. For legal reasons however, I cannot tell you which ones the children are in right now.

Jack took a few deep breaths to calm himself down and then he replied to the nurse. "Okay. That's fair. I would like to take Scott home now."

"Of course. Please be careful with him Mr.Winters. He's going to need plenty of bed rest for the next few days.

"Don't 'worry, we'll take care of him." He told the nurse and helped Scott up and out of his bed and out of the room.

"Hey dad?" Scott asked him. "Where's mom?"

"Well you know your mother Scott." Jack smiled.


"What kind of joke of a school are you running here?" Crystal Winters shouted at the principal. "My son is HANDICAPPED! He has notes from his doctor for his eye condition! That's why he wears that's thing around his eyes in the first place! And yet I get a call from the nurse about some coward attacking him and beating him up for no damn reason?! What are you going to do about this huh? I want those psychopaths EXPELLED and a full apology from the school for what's happened here today! AND I want them to pay for any and all medical bills we could build up from this!"

The Principal held up his hands defensively as he waited for her to finish. "Please Miss Winters. I assure you that we're doing everything in our power to resolve this crisis but this has all happened rather suddenly for all of us. I have several students in the nurses offices who might need to go to the hospital, police investigating a bathroom brawl and the entire affair is rather chaotic. Unfortunately I only have the statements of two students to go on at the moment. Normally we would've brought the other students in for questioning but they're unconscious at the moment. You must understand this places us in an awkward position. Believe me, once they're feeling better and able to answer questions, we will get their side of the story. It is only fair that they can give their own version of what happened. We will launch a full investigation into this matter and once its done we will make our decision. For now I believe the best thing to do would be for Mr.Summers and Mr.McCoy to both return home to rest. If we require a follow up statement from them we will call you. Any homework they miss will be delivered to their houses."

Crystal fumed but relented. "You just keep those delinquent assholes away from my boy and out of this school." She stood up and walked out of the principal's office.

She met Scott and Jack on the way out and she rushed over to hug them. "OH HONEY!"

"Hi mom." Scott said quietly while he hugged her back. "Can I go home now? I hate it here."

"Sure baby. Come on lets get you out of this madhouse." She whispered back and she and Jack escorted Scott out of the school.

They helped Scott into the car and he buckled up and relaxed in his seat and he slowly drifted off back to sleep.

They let him relax and they got into the car. There was a period of silence between them as they drove home until Crystal began to cry. "Our boy Jack. Our baby boy."

"It'll be alright honey. It'll be okay. We'll get him home and it will be okay."

"He can't go back there. It's not safe for him. Those mongrels tried to kill him Jack. If we let him go back one of their friends will try to finish the job. He can't go back there."

"I know....maybe....maybe we should give Xavier's a chance after all."
______________________________________________________________________________________________________


Scott ran down the hallway as fast as he could past the unmoving statues dressed like his students. He couldn't stop! He couldn't stop! They were going to kill him! He pushed past the statues while screaming out for help but nobody came to help him.

"HELP ME! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME! ANYBODY PLEASE! SOMEONE HELP!" He screamed down the hallway. His voice echoed down the hallway endlessly but nobody came to help him. The statues just closed in around him. He had to squeeze past them to get through. The monsters were still coming! He could hear them rampaging down the hallway smashing through the statues in their way to the screams of the students. Scott ducked down and squeezed through a gap of student statues but then he fell down on his face. He pulled himself up to his feet and tried to keep going but he bumped into a statue. He tried to go left but he bumped into another statue. He tried to go right! He tried to go down! He tried to go back! He was trapped in a circle of statues closing in on him. The screams grew louder as the monsters rampaged down the hallway growing closer and closer.

"NO! NONONO!" Scott frantically pushed and shoved against the statues. "No! Please! Help me! Someone help me!" He slammed his hands against a statue and suddenly fell forward and landed on his face again. He coughed and spat out dirt and dust. He rolled over on his stomach and looked around for the monsters but for his shock he discovered he was laying in a field now. The hallway was gone. The school was gone. The monsters were gone and he was alone in a field of flowers. "Uhhhh what? Huh? What? Hello? Anybody? What's going on?"

"I was hoping you could tell me. What are you doing here new kid?" An angelic voice asked from behind him.

Scott scrambled to his feet and then he turned around to see a redheaded girl in blue jeans and a black t-shirt looking at him with her head tilted.

"Huh. You know, you're actually kinda cute. What's your name new kid?"

"I-I-I-I uhhh I-I'm....I'm uh...ahem!" Scott took a deep breath and exhaled and stood up straight. "Right! I'm Scott. Scott Summers. What's your name and uh, where are we?"

The redheaded girl giggled and offered her hand. "I'm Jean Grey. Welcome to The Field Of Dreams."



"Wow. Hi Jean." He shook her hand happily. "Nice to meet you' They shook hands and Jean walked with him through the field. "So, uh, where is this? How'd I get here?"

"Yeah, I'm not gonna lie Scott, I'm as surprised as you are. Assuming I'm not just dreaming you, I must've dragged you in here. It happens every now and then but this is the first time it's happened to someone I've never met. Anyway, I call it The Field Of Dreams because I came up with it whenever I daydream and when I'm actually dreaming. I've dragged other people in here on accident before but, you know, it's usually people who are close by. This is pretty random to me." She stopped and turned to Scott and leaned forward slightly with her hands held coyly behind her back and her head tilted slightly. "Hey do you have a power too? I'm a psychic."

"I...uhhh…" Scott hesitated in telling her briefly before deciding to just come out with it. Odds were that this was all a dream anyway so there couldn't be any harm in it. "I have an eye condition and by eye condition I mean I shoot laser beams from my eyes. Really powerful laser beams. I'm a walking laser cannon."

"Are you serious?" Jean laughed and turned him to face the distance. "Can you show me? How you do it?"

"Well, I mean, I don't think I've done it in a dream before and it has been awhile since I've done it in front of another person but usually I just, you know, open my eyes and-" Scott was cut off as a massive red laser erupted from his eyeballs and fired off into the distance with energy crackling off of it as it ionized the air! The blast eventually hit something off in the distance apparently and exploded. Jean yelled out and fell on her butt. Scott finally managed to close his eyes and he clenched his hands into fists until the red lights turned off and he was able to open his eyes again. "And that happens. I'm not entirely if this really is a dream but, uh, in reality? I have to keep my eyes closed. At all times. Or...bad things happen." He rubbed the back of his head. "This is honestly the first time in years I've been able to open my eyes and see the world." He smiled. "So thank you, Jean." He offered his hand to her.

"Holy cow....that's terrible." Jean took his hand and hopped up to her feet. "I mean the laser was cool but that's terrible."

A pair of chairs appeared behind each of them and Scott and Jean sat down.

"If it makes you feel better, I have power problems too. I hear everyone's thoughts. All the time...they're not always pleasant."

"Woah...so....thoughts? Like, what's going on in here?" Scott asked as he tapped his head. "A friend of mine told me about it. That's what people call our inner voice?"

"That's about right. You see, uh, the way I understand it, is that our thoughts are mental cognitions. Our ideas, opinions, and beliefs are about ourselves and the world around us. They include the perspectives we bring to any situation or experience that color our point of view. But, while our thoughts are shaped by life experiences, genetics and education, they are generally under our conscious control and kept private in our heads....bbbuuuuut….yeah. I can hear those. All the time. Everything people think about me and other people. At all times. I mean I go to an all girls school and there are still some seriously disturbed people there!" Jean threw up her hands. "It's...why I made this place. My little get away so I don't go crazy. Or break something. Or both"

"Both? How?"

"I'm a psychic Scott. Reading minds and...what would you call this anyway? Uhhh let's call it...dream walking, yeah, dream walking, are just the tip of the iceberg. I can move things with my mind. I'm still working on controlling that but sometimes, if I lose control or my concentration, I can have a flare up moment and stuff breaks."

"Oh man. Oh Jean, I'm sorry."

"Thanks Scott. You have no idea how much it helps to be able to talk about this with someone my own age with the same problems. Well, not, same but you know."

"I know right? If it wasn't for my friend Hank I don't know where I'd be...probably in a gutter somewhere."

"What was that?"

Scott rubbed his arms. "There are some lunatics at my school too and I'm one of their favorite punching bags."

"Oh God, Scott. I-I'm sorry to hear that. But, like, aren't you technically blind? Why would they go after you?"

"Because they're a bunch of cowardly jerkwads." Scott shrugged. "Best I can give you. Could've potentially wasted them but...no. No that's that's just not me."

Jean reached out and held his hand. "That's how you gotta be Scott. Don't let some idiots drag you down to their level. Just be better than them."

"Thanks Jean. If-if you don't me asking?"

"At my school? Nah, nothing like that. They just ostracize me. They think I'm a witch or something. Except for the goth kids. They like me and they're kinda cool. Need to stop smoking though."

Jean and Scott laughed. They weren't even sure why they were laughing. They just felt so happy to find someone so similar to them who had super power problems.

"Oh man Scott. This feels good. It feels good to finally meet someone I can talk to about this."

"Believe me I know the feeling. I have got to introduce you to Hank sometime. You guys would get along great and Xavier!" Scott suddenly remembered. "Hey, Jean, earlier, when I was in the nurses office, a man spoke to me in my mind. He said his name was Xavier. Professor Charles Xavier. He said he runs a school for gifted students. I-I think he runs a school for people like us. I didn't think of it at first but meeting you it's all clicking into place. He contacted me and he did a psychic something to my brain and all of the pain I'd been in just died down and I was feeling a lot better. You're a psychic, he's a psychic, I shoot laser beams, Hank has super strength, I think, we're the gifted students he was talking about."

"Professor Xavier? Oh yeah we watched a video about him in one of my classes because our teacher didn't wanna teach that particular day. He's a genius in the study of mutations and genetics."

"Exactly. Mutations. I can shoot laser beams from my eyes and you have psychic powers and so does Xavier. I have a friend who's super strong and super smart. That's four. There could be more of us and he could help us figure out our powers. Figure out what we are."

"I think you're right. I'll have to give him a call later."

"Hey that reminds me. Shouldn't you be in school right now?"

"I had a headache." Jean joked. "What about you?"

"I'm pretty sure I passed out on the car ride back home." Scott admitted sheepishly.

"Oh. Oh Uh....I-I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's alright. I'm gonna be fine. I think."

Jean clapped her hands together. "Heeeeeey! I've got an idea! Wanna kick their asses?"

"Nothing would make me happier but I'm pretty sure they're under lock and key right now."

"No silly! In here! A Lucid Dreaming Ass Kicking!"

A big wide smile slowly spread over Scott's face. "You are a Jeanius."

"Oh please do go on." Jean replied in her faux-haughty tone.

"So how do we do this?"

"You envision the school and then we go there and beat up the bullies."

"Ah. Well, like, I haven't really seen the school per se buuuut I did see some sitcoms back when I could see. So I guess those'll work."

"Okay. Now just picture that in your mind really hard."

"Okay okay. Got it." Scott thought all the way back to those school sitcoms he used to watch until they finally popped up in his head and how the schools looked in them and the school sprang up around them. It was a messy hodgepodge of schools all mixed together but it looked close enough to work.

"Wow. You go to a weird school, Scott."

"Blame the architects." Scott joked back.

"So where are the idiots?" Jean asked him.

A door was knocked down a couple of monsters stumbled out of it dressed in preppy clothes and letterman jackets.

A frankentsein, a wolfman, a gill monster and a mummy.

Jean looked back at Scott in confusion.

"In my defense...I've never actually seen their faces only had them described to me as butt ugly." Scott confessed.

"Okay that's fair." Jean cracked her knuckles. "Let's Mambo!"

"Don't you mean dance though?"

"Same thing!"

"Right. Mambo it is."

"Well rlook who it isz! Simpering sucmmers wour favoartie punfching bag!" The werewolf growled out drunkenly. "You resady fotr your dailzy asvs whoopings?"

"Wow. You really don't like these guys do you?"

"Not in the least."

"Oh well. You know what they say about slaying your inner demons." Jean shrugged.

"Who vare qyou taelking to little cgirl? Doyn't oyou know wwho I ma? I'm Duncan Matthewfs and I cabn tdo whatevre trhe jhlel I wantl! Sgo shut yourr damn mouth beforpe I vhsut int for you!"

"Right now I'd settle for subtitles." She joked.

"Wolfie's mine." Scott said firmly as he stepped up.

"Dibs on fighting gills and the mummy then."

"Then I'll take Franky. Lets do this." Scott ran down the hallway towards the laughing monsters and he leaped into the air and drop kicked the werewolf and sent it flying down the hallway. He landed on his feet and he turned around and smashed a haymaker punch into the Frankenstein that broke it through the wall. "WOOOHOOOO OHHHH MAN THAT FELT GOOD!"

"Told you you'd enjoy this!" Jean called to Scott as she ran past him and bodyslammed the mummy and threw it down the hall where it landed next to the werewolf. The gill monster roared and tried punching Jean but she easily blocked his punches and then socked him across the jaw. "For the record, I actually liked Shape Of Water, but you're not my type!"

Scott walked into the room and approached the Frankenstein monster as it was getting up. "You know, all those times you guys were beating the daylights out of me, I had a lot of thoughts running through my head but the biggest one was: If only I could see, I would kick the shit out of you losers. Because guys like you, who need to gang up on the blind kid to win? At the end of the day, you're just a bunch of cowardly bullies. And you know, now that I can see, in this dream? Even if it's not the real you, I just want to say, you're every bit as pathetic as I imagined."

"Shut up! You srhut tuhe khlel qups! Gyou're nloht cookler twhna usg! You're jqust a blidn zbeta bitch cucki! Cyou're qnot coool liewk us yxzou blind fkaggot bitchn!"

The Frankenstein shouted back as it staggered to its feet and began flailing around with blind punches at Scott who easily fended them off and punched the Frankenstein hard in its stomach repeatedly and then he kicked it in the balls to make it double over and punched it in the head and then he threw it across the room. The Frankenstein broke through the wall and was buried under the rubble.

Scott dusted off his hands while the werewolf barged into the room. "SSSUUUUUUMMMEEERRRS! I'LLLLL KIIIIIIIIIILLLL YOU SUUUUUMMEEEEERRRRS!" It bellowed out as it lunged at him.

Scott turned around, grabbed it and slammed it down onto the floor. "Which brings me to my next point. Despite how pathetic and petty and cruel you jerkwads were, I would never stoop to your level in the real world. Because I'm not a monster like you. But we're not in reality right now, Dumbkin. Which means I don't have to feel bad about doing THIS!" Scott whipped off his glasses as the werewolf was getting up and jumping into the air. A bright light consumed Were-Duncan and blasted him out of the school and up, up and away into the sky where Were-Duncan exploded into fireworks.

Jean walked dragging the other two monsters behind her with one hand. "Fireworks. Nice touch man."

"Thanks. I figured it was a festive occasion." Scott joked as the school changed to another field at night. The monsters vanished and were replaced by chairs. The fireworks burst in air above them and seared brilliant light and vivacious colors into their retinas. Each one drew a pattern of gorgeous colors into the sky. Each one equally beautiful and breathtaking, never to be repeated no matter how many are ignited and sent to their sky-bound destiny.

As they stared up at the beautiful flashing lights in the sky exploding above them, Scott found himself tearing up. It was slow at first but they slowly overwhelmed him and Scott started sniffling and then the floodgates broke down and Scott broke down crying. Memories flooded to the surface of sitting at a barbecue with Alex and his parents. Laughing and pointing at the fireworks exploding above them while eating hot dogs and burgers. The powder from the fireworks mingling with the delicious barbecue's scent and the wonderful aroma of the flowers. Scott sitting on his mother's lap and looking up at her beautiful smiling face and then back to the fireworks lighting up the world. They were just so beautiful!

"Scott? Scott are you okay?" Jean asked him.

"I-I'm sorry. I'm sorry it's just....it's just....I haven't....I haven't seen the world in years and it's all just so beautiful!" He sobbed. "Thank you...thank you Jean. Thank you. You don't know what this means to me."

Jean smiled and she leaned over to hug him. "Shhh it's okay man. It's okay. You're with friends here."

Scott nodded and let his emotions flow out of his body while the fireworks exploded in air until it was finally all out of his system.

"Hey, uh, th-thanks. You know, thanks Jean. A lot. I'm sorry about all that."

"It's okay Scott. It's just us in here. There's nothing wrong with being human. We might have powers but that's all we are in the end that lives in a society of people who, sadly, perceive sensitive people as weaklings or damaged goods. To feel intensely is not a symptom of weakness, it is the trademark of the truly alive and compassionate. It is not the empath who is broken, it is society that has become dysfunctional and emotionally disabled. There is no shame in expressing your authentic feelings. Those who are at times described as being a 'hot mess' or having 'too many issues' are the very fabric of what keeps the dream alive for a more caring, humane world. Never be ashamed to let your tears shine a light in this world. Never be ashamed of letting your emotions out. Never be ashamed of being human. Leave that macho, hide your feelings bs back in the 80's where it died out."

"Yeah, you're right." Scott chuckled. "You really are amazing Jean."

"Right back at you Scott. Shall we drink on it?" Jean asked as she raised her hands and a wine glass and wine bottle appeared in her hands.

"Uh, wait, what? Is that even legal?"

"Find me a law that says you can't drink in your dreams and I'll gladly stop." Jean joked and poured a glass for herself and one for Scott. She handed it over to him.

"That's fair. So, uh, will this really taste like alcohol?"

"I dunno. I've never had any."

They laughed with each other until Scott raised his glass. "Then I shall propose a toast: To the coolest redhead in the world and pleasant dreams. May God grant you many years to live, for sure he must be knowing, the Earth has angels all too few and Heaven is overflowing!"


Jean raised her own in response. "A thousand welcomes you will find here before you, and the oftener you come here the more I'll adore you! May we one day hone our gifts and use them to bring light and joy to the world!"

They clinked their dream glasses and chugged them down. Neither of them ever tasted wine before so they just imagined it as Cherry Soda. It worked well enough. They sat back down to enjoy the fireworks in between sipping their drinks and singing.

"
"Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"
"WHOOOOO!"

JEEEAAAAANNNN! JEEEEEAAAAAN! JEAN!


Jean stood up as she noticed the voice echoing around them. "Ah, that would be my wakeup call. Sorry Scott but I gotta cut this short. Thanks for coming Scott. This was a lot of fun. I really liked hanging out with you."

"Hey I'm not gonna complain. I haven't had this much fun in years Jean and I finally got to see the world again. Well, the dream world, but all the same I had a lot of fun. This was awesome."

"I'd really like to meet you again Scott. Whether in here or in person." She twirled around and leaned forward with her arms behind her back. "Until then Scott Summers, you're my secret boy! Ciao!" She turned around and hopped away.

"A secret boy huh? Wait, is that as in a boy...friend?" Scott asked as he stood up and watched her go.

Jean giggled and skipped away as light washed over them.

Scott just smiled and closed his eyes.


When he finally woke up he was back in his room. Scott touched his face and noticed he had a new bandanna around his eyes and an ice pack on his head. Scott smiled and relaxed in his bed. He had to keep his eyes closed in reality anyway so he might as well.
________________________________________________________________________________

"So yeah, sorry dad but I had to step out today. I had one of my headaches again and you know how bad it can get when I have those."

"Hey don't worry about it Jeanie. I completely understand." John Grey told her over the phone. "But don't worry. I've been hard at work trying to find a solution and I think I've finally found the answer to your dilemma."

"You mean my problem?"

"Now now Jeanie. We agreed to call your unique talent a dilemma. Not a problem." He gently reminded her. "I've found a professional who specializes in helping talented people like you. We've set up a meeting and I'm going to be talking to him soon."

"Another professional?" Jean asked incredulously. "Alright so what's this ones story? Crystal balls? Tarot cards? Is he a guy or a-wait, wait wait wait!" Jean sat down on her bed and ran her fingers through her hair as she remembered her Dream Walk. "Wait...dad...this guy you're meeting with, is he Charles Xavier?"

"Charles Xavier! That's right! How'd you know? We're not even in the same room."

"Well...I Dream Walked again."

"Dream Walking? That's where you do that thing where you go into folks dreams right? However that works?"

"That's right and I drew in someone new. A kid from very far away. His name is Scott Summers and I think he might be like me. But instead of psychic powers he has laser eyes."

"There are kids with laser eyes now?" He asked in disbelief. "Wait you met a boy?"

"In my dreams, yes." Jean reminded him.

"Uh huh. Alright tell me about him."



"And that's about when I woke up." Jean finished.

"I see, I see. Sooo. Laser Eyes. Is that right?"

"That's right. Super Powerful Laser Eyes. Like Superman!"

John Grey finished writing this down. "I see. Okay then. I suppose there's nothing wrong with that so long as it's just a dream but if you ever meet this kid in reality, I want you to be extremely careful. Laser Eyes is uncharted territory for us and we're still figuring out your Psychic Powers."

"I know dad. I get it. Just remember to keep this between us okay?"

"I will honey. I've kept your secrets haven't I? You just focus on resting up Jeanie-bean. I'll let you know when I meet with Xavier and keep you updated."

There was a knock on the door. "Just a minute! Sorry dad, I have to go. I love you."

"Love you too Jeanie."

They hung up and Jean pocketed her phone. "Yeah?"

An attractive, dark-haired half-Japanese girl with brown eyes stepped into the room carrying a stack of papers. "Hey Jean! You feeling better?"

"Feeling a lot better Taryn. Been one of those days you know?"

"Oh trust me girl, I completely understand. I've done the same." Taryn Fujoka joked and joined her on the bed and handed her the papers. "I brought you the work you missed."

"Ohhh you are a lifesaver." She flipped through the homework. "Alright this looks easy. Want to collaborate?"

"Always but first...I found something fun that I found on the Net that I have got to show you." She rubbed her hands together. "I have found the perfect man for you Jean!"

"It's not another jock is it? Because the last guy didn't work out. I'm pretty sure he's still running from me."

"Oh don't worry Jean. This guy is nothing like that guy. Literally the exact opposite!"

"Oh really now?"

"Oh yeah." She began going through videos on her phone. "Alright! Found it! Check it. The man of your dreams!" She hit play on the video. After two sets of 30 second ads, which Jean just muted, the video proper began with a quick AMV of eating scenes set to Weird Al's Eat It before the video really began and the AMV faded away to reveal...an outrageously, morbidly fat teenager sitting at a giant table full of a wide variety of foods. Jean's face went pale as Taryn cracked up next to her.

"Welcome back to the channel everybody! Today, The Blob Man, has another Mukbang video for you! If you're new here and you're wondering just what a Mukbang is, here's the skinny, the only one you'll find around here, a mukbang, also spelled meokbang and also known as eating show, is an online audiovisual broadcast in which a host consumes large quantities of food while interacting with the audience. That's you guys. We're talking Smash Hit!" 'The Blob' droned on about this until Jean hit pause just as the feast was starting in earnest.

"Taryn?"

"Yuh huh?"

"Fuck you."

"I'll think about it."

Jean tossed her the phone and she caught it. "Too hot to handle?"

"That was disgusting and you know it."

"To be fair, I didn't lie about him being the opposite of the last date I set you up with. He's certainly got more money."

"How could that slob possibly have money?"

"Video Revenue and Ads. Dude makes at least 10k or so a month from his videos."

"I call bull."

"No bull, Jean-Bean. People have been doing it over in Korea for years. Besides, I haven't even showed you his best trick."

"I don't want to see it."

"Oh trust me you'll like this one." She switched to another video, muted the ads and waited until it started up. "Lets see....yeah, okay, here we go. This is the real reason he became a star."

"I don't want to see it."

"No trust me, you'll want to see it." She showed her the video. "Dude eats metal."

"Oh please like that's even possib-" Jean trailed off as she saw the giant teen dip a ball of metal in pasta sauce, pull it out and toss it in his mouth. He began to chew it! outright freaking chew it! His teeth were chomping and grinding and biting down on the metal without a problem until he swallowed it all.

"....The hell?"

"Ever hear of Michel Lotito? He was a French gourmand famous for eating indigestible objects. They called Monsieur Mangetout. "Mr. Eat-All". He's eaten, among other things, 18 bicycles, several TV sets, a coffin and even an airplane. Apparently, Mangetout also had a unique digestive system, with much thicker walls to his stomach and intestines and far more potent stomach acid than normal, which meant he could actually digest that stuff. It's probably the same case with this guy."

"Even so...how are his teeth not broken?" (Either that metal was fake or he's a....hmmm....I guess the word would be...Gifted? Like Scott and me?) She took another look at the video and watched the metal scene in slow motion. As gross as it was, there was no doubt that the metal was real. "Now how on Earth do you even do that? Swallowing it would be freaky enough but how on Earth do you get your teeth strong enough to eat metal?"

"Milk. Lots and lots of milk. Judging by the size of him, I'd bet he chugs it by the gallon."

"And we're done here." She tossed her the phone again. "Come on. Lets go to the library before I puke."

"I still say you'd be a cute couple." Taryn teased.

"Beep Beep Taryn."

The pair soon arrived at the library and Jean Grey took a breath before entering and the wave of internal chatter washed over her.

I am soooooooo bored!

I need to get out of here so I can hit the treadmill already!

Am I the only one who finds the teacher hot though?

Randomly hearing your favorite song on the radio is more satisfying than playing it directly from your ipod.

"Go to bed, you'll feel better in the morning" is the human version of "Did you turn it off and turn it back on again?"

Maybe plants are really farming us, giving us oxygen until we eventually expire and turn into mulch which they can consume

Theme parks can snap a crystal clear picture of you on a roller coaster at 70 mph, but bank cameras can't get a clear shot of a robber standing still.

If my calculator had a history, it would be more embarrassing than my browser history.

Lawyers hope you get sued, doctors hope you get sick, cops hope you're criminal, mechanics hope you have car trouble, but only a thief wishes prosperity for you.

As a kid my parents taught me to not believe everything I see on TV, now I have to teach them to not believe everything they see on Facebook.

The Olympics should have a 'For Fun' section at the end of all the games so all the athletes can try different sports.

What if Earth is like one of those uncontacted tribes in South America, like the whole Galaxy knows we're here but they've agreed not to contact us until we figure it out for ourselves.

If someone offered to pay for my food and rent for the next 18 years, I'd do anything they ask of me. But I complained every time I took the trash out while living at my parent's house.

Vehicles today can surf the web, link to your phone, stream music and videos, etc.. but they still can't perform a simple database lookup to tell you what the check engine light is on for.

When I bake bread, I give thousands of yest organisms false hope by feeding them sugar, before ruthlessly baking them to death in an oven and eating their corpses.

Damn! Jean has a nice ass! A random girl noted.

These were but a few of the internal monologues she heard chattering away in her head and the more pleasant ones at least.

Oh good the freak's here!

Why is she always squeezing her eyes shut like that? It's creepy!

Jean's hot sure but she's just so weird!

Why the heck do they let her keep skipping classes like this? It's setting a bad example!

What is wrong with her?

Such a freak.

Jean squeezed her eyes shut in a desperate bid to block them out and quiet her mind. She began repeating the first song that popped into her mind over and over in her head to drown it all out while she built up 'The Walls' again to block out the chatter brick by brick by brick she built it up around herself to mute the world.

Frère Jacques
Frère Jacques
Dormez vous?
Dormez vous?
Sonnez les matines
Sonnez les matines
Ding ding dong
Ding ding dong
Are you sleeping
Are you sleeping?
Brother John
Brother John?
Morning bells are ringing
Morning bells are ringing
Ding ding dong
Ding ding dong

She repeated this inside of her head over and over until The Wall was built up around herself and she could think again.

"Jean? Jean are you okay?" Taryn asked her.

"I'm fine. Sorry. Just one of those days. Don't worry about me. I'm going to be just fine. Come on. We have a lot of work to catch up on."

They found themselves a table in the library and got to work on the assignment: Geomoetry, Biology, Astronomy, Art History, Music History and Theory, Renaissance Literature, Latin, Calculus, Psychology, Sociology and a few other varied subjects.

The work wasn't too hard thanks to their teamwork. There was a lot of it but they managed it just fine. After they completed the paperwork assignments, it was time for the computer assignments.

"Oh man. Ohhh man. That was a brain buster. They listen, Jeanie, I need to use the ladies room, are you going to be okay here?"

"Just fine. I'll get started on the assignments and catch you up when you get back." They high-fived and Jean grabbed her bag and walked to the computer lab while Taryn hurried over to the ladies room.

While she was gone, Jean got herself set up at a computer and on the internet and she decided to use this chance to see if her dream was real or not. So she typed in 'Scott Summers' into the Search Engine.

It took only a little bit of searching before she struck paydirt and found the boy of her dreams.

"Scott Summers. First son of Christopher and Katherine Summers. Brother to Alexandria Summers. He lost his family in a tragic plane crash and he was found washed up on a shore barely alive with a traumatic head injury. After recovering he spent time in an orphanage, The State Home For The Foundlings, before it was shut down for abusive behavior towards their wards...oh Scott...oh buddy...shuffled to another orphanage...adopted by the Winters family. There's nothing in here about Eye Lasers but I wonder if his injuries from the plane crash and whatever the Orphanage did to him could be the reason he can't properly control them...it does say he could have eye problems...

(My powers are Mental after all and they're hard enough to control. If, heaven forbid, I suffered injuries like that, then they could go out of control as well. That would explain Scott's current condition. However, if Scott's real, then so are his powers, which means that Fatso's Metal Eating could be a Power as well. Then so could Xavier's! Which means...which means...which means!) She closed the browser and buried her face in her hands as she started quietly cry laughing. "It means...I'm not alone. I'm not alone. There's others. I'm not alone."

She shed tears of joy for almost a full minute before she sat up and wiped her eyes with a tissue and she relaxed and smiled. She wasn't alone.

There were others like her.

(I have to meet them. All of them. Scott and Hank and Xavier and...hell with it, even Blob! Sure, why not? Lets meet him too! Just to confirm if all of our Powers, our Gifts, are real. The more of us there are, the easier it'll be too figure out our gifts together. If we all have Powers, then there has to be a reason. Something linking us together. And we owe it to ourselves and each other to figure out what it is!)

The two girls worked together in the library to complete their schoolwork in Physics, Science, Psychology and Math for a few hours straight only breaking to go get some food.

"Hmmmmm! Man! That felt great! My head is swimming but that was fun! I love it when we get to work together." Taryn high-fived Jean.

"Developing your brain is much like physical exercise. The more we train our abilities, the stronger they become. The difference is that, unlike the body, when it comes to training the mind, there is no limit to how far we can go." Jean pointed out to her. "Train your mind, pay attention in class and expand upon your knowledge pool and there's nothing you can't do."

"Is that why you're always getting those headaches? Your mind is too strong?"

"Heh, you're more right than you know." Jean joked. "I could bring the whole world down if I ever used my secret mind powers."

"Oh really? Are you going to go all Matilda on the world? Chronicle?"

"The former is more wholesome but I'd probably end up like the latter." Jean confessed. "In fact..." She looked around before looking back down at Taryn. "Taryn, hypothetically speaking, what if I were to tell you that I did, in fact, have real life psychic powers? Just you know, for kicks. Assume that I could lift things with my mind and read other people's thoughts. You know, stuff like that. Hypothetically."

"Wow. Really? For real Jean?"

"Just as a what if you know." Jean assured Taryn.

"Well....I think that would be badass! You could do basically anything with Telekinesis and it would be super cool to see it in action in real life." Taryn reasoned. "Buuuut...I don't know about Telepathy. It feels like that would be like a major breach of privacy. Think about it: What is the most private thing in the world that anyone and everyone possesses? Your thoughts. You are, in fact, your thoughts. You inner mind is who you are. It is everything you are. Your core. Your mind, your thoughts, are your inner self. You are your thoughts. If they exist in someone else, then they contain everything that is you and you become the other person. Thus, you would cease to exist."

"...Wow. That's actually a really good point." Jean relented. "Okay, yeah, those are some really good points. I'm going to need to think about this."

"Stick with me kid and I'll never steer you wrong." Taryn laughed with Jean while dragging her towards the food court. "Why do you ask anyway?"

"Well...I looked into the big guy a bit more and I saw a video of him lifting a truck."

"The big guy?"

"You know...Blob."

"Ohhhhh? So can I pick them or what?" Taryn teased wickedly.

Jean responded by ruffling her hair. "Don't get it twisted. I just wanted to research something." She let Taryn fix her hair while she looked for the video again on her phone. Once she found it she skipped ahead and showed the relevant part to Taryn. "Look."

Taryn watched the video. "That's...a 2021 Nissan Titan! 1,699 lb payload with 400 horsepower. A ride like that can weigh up to 5,916 lbs. Which makes this...what, like, Captain America level? Spider-Bro level? But...pause...aren't those guys ripped? Captain America is,w ell, Captain America. He's a Super Soldier from WW2 who somehow survived being frozen in ice until modern day and being unfrozen and then lead a group of superheroes to fight against a Norse God and his army of aliens. But, yeah, he's like, super ripped, right? The man's built like an even more muscular Chris Evans or Jensen Ackles and he is just super jacked, right?"

"I think you mentioned that." Jean responded with an amused smile.

"But, yeah he is just...woah...and he's well you get the point. We're among polite society in school so I can't go too much further but...yeah you know what I'd do. Ahem. Anyway, moving on to Spider-Man, I don't even know how many powers he has but according to the photos he's probably pretty cut underneath that costume too, right? That Parker guy's been taking some good photos of him. Anyway, everybody's been saying that he's been doing some crazy stuff out there. So I can see him lifting up a car like that." Taryn explained. "But Blob? Like, I get it, he's huge, but he's not jacked like Captain America or Spider-Bro, or Thor, oh my God tho Thor...ahem. Anyway. I can see them doing it, for the reasons I've explained, but does Blob even have any muscles underneath all that?"

"We literally saw the guy eat metal earlier and this is weird?" Jean pointed out.

[superkamiguy1]

Jul 9, 2024 2:29:56 GMT superkamiguy1 said:

Jul 8, 2024 1:44:04 GMT superkamiguy1 said:

"Don't you mean dance though?"

"Same thing!"

"Right. Mambo it is."

"Well rlook who it isz! Simpering sucmmers wour favoartie punfching bag!" The werewolf growled out drunkenly. "You resady fotr your dailzy asvs whoopings?"

"Wow. You really don't like these guys do you?"

"Not in the least."

"Oh well. You know what they say about slaying your inner demons." Jean shrugged.

"Who vare qyou taelking to little cgirl? Doyn't oyou know wwho I ma? I'm Duncan Matthewfs and I cabn tdo whatevre trhe jhlel I wantl! Sgo shut yourr damn mouth beforpe I vhsut int for you!"

"Right now I'd settle for subtitles." She joked.

"Wolfie's mine." Scott said firmly as he stepped up.

"Dibs on fighting gills and the mummy then."

"Then I'll take Franky. Lets do this." Scott ran down the hallway towards the laughing monsters and he leaped into the air and drop kicked the werewolf and sent it flying down the hallway. He landed on his feet and he turned around and smashed a haymaker punch into the Frankenstein that broke it through the wall. "WOOOHOOOO OHHHH MAN THAT FELT GOOD!"

"Told you you'd enjoy this!" Jean called to Scott as she ran past him and bodyslammed the mummy and threw it down the hall where it landed next to the werewolf. The gill monster roared and tried punching Jean but she easily blocked his punches and then socked him across the jaw. "For the record, I actually liked Shape Of Water, but you're not my type!"

Scott walked into the room and approached the Frankenstein monster as it was getting up. "You know, all those times you guys were beating the daylights out of me, I had a lot of thoughts running through my head but the biggest one was: If only I could see, I would kick the shit out of you losers. Because guys like you, who need to gang up on the blind kid to win? At the end of the day, you're just a bunch of cowardly bullies. And you know, now that I can see, in this dream? Even if it's not the real you, I just want to say, you're every bit as pathetic as I imagined."

"Shut up! You srhut tuhe khlel qups! Gyou're nloht cookler twhna usg! You're jqust a blidn zbeta bitch cucki! Cyou're qnot coool liewk us yxzou blind fkaggot bitchn!"

The Frankenstein shouted back as it staggered to its feet and began flailing around with blind punches at Scott who easily fended them off and punched the Frankenstein hard in its stomach repeatedly and then he kicked it in the balls to make it double over and punched it in the head and then he threw it across the room. The Frankenstein broke through the wall and was buried under the rubble.

Scott dusted off his hands while the werewolf barged into the room. "SSSUUUUUUMMMEEERRRS! I'LLLLL KIIIIIIIIIILLLL YOU SUUUUUMMEEEEERRRRS!" It bellowed out as it lunged at him.

Scott turned around, grabbed it and slammed it down onto the floor. "Which brings me to my next point. Despite how pathetic and petty and cruel you jerkwads were, I would never stoop to your level in the real world. Because I'm not a monster like you. But we're not in reality right now, Dumbkin. Which means I don't have to feel bad about doing THIS!" Scott whipped off his glasses as the werewolf was getting up and jumping into the air. A bright light consumed Were-Duncan and blasted him out of the school and up, up and away into the sky where Were-Duncan exploded into fireworks.

Jean walked dragging the other two monsters behind her with one hand. "Fireworks. Nice touch man."

"Thanks. I figured it was a festive occasion." Scott joked as the school changed to another field at night. The monsters vanished and were replaced by chairs. The fireworks burst in air above them and seared brilliant light and vivacious colors into their retinas. Each one drew a pattern of gorgeous colors into the sky. Each one equally beautiful and breathtaking, never to be repeated no matter how many are ignited and sent to their sky-bound destiny.

As they stared up at the beautiful flashing lights in the sky exploding above them, Scott found himself tearing up. It was slow at first but they slowly overwhelmed him and Scott started sniffling and then the floodgates broke down and Scott broke down crying. Memories flooded to the surface of sitting at a barbecue with Alex and his parents. Laughing and pointing at the fireworks exploding above them while eating hot dogs and burgers. The powder from the fireworks mingling with the delicious barbecue's scent and the wonderful aroma of the flowers. Scott sitting on his mother's lap and looking up at her beautiful smiling face and then back to the fireworks lighting up the world. They were just so beautiful!

"Scott? Scott are you okay?" Jean asked him.

"I-I'm sorry. I'm sorry it's just....it's just....I haven't....I haven't seen the world in years and it's all just so beautiful!" He sobbed. "Thank you...thank you Jean. Thank you. You don't know what this means to me."

Jean smiled and she leaned over to hug him. "Shhh it's okay man. It's okay. You're with friends here."

Scott nodded and let his emotions flow out of his body while the fireworks exploded in air until it was finally all out of his system.

"Hey, uh, th-thanks. You know, thanks Jean. A lot. I'm sorry about all that."

"It's okay Scott. It's just us in here. There's nothing wrong with being human. We might have powers but that's all we are in the end that lives in a society of people who, sadly, perceive sensitive people as weaklings or damaged goods. To feel intensely is not a symptom of weakness, it is the trademark of the truly alive and compassionate. It is not the empath who is broken, it is society that has become dysfunctional and emotionally disabled. There is no shame in expressing your authentic feelings. Those who are at times described as being a 'hot mess' or having 'too many issues' are the very fabric of what keeps the dream alive for a more caring, humane world. Never be ashamed to let your tears shine a light in this world. Never be ashamed of letting your emotions out. Never be ashamed of being human. Leave that macho, hide your feelings bs back in the 80's where it died out."

"Yeah, you're right." Scott chuckled. "You really are amazing Jean."

"Right back at you Scott. Shall we drink on it?" Jean asked as she raised her hands and a wine glass and wine bottle appeared in her hands.

"Uh, wait, what? Is that even legal?"

"Find me a law that says you can't drink in your dreams and I'll gladly stop." Jean joked and poured a glass for herself and one for Scott. She handed it over to him.

"That's fair. So, uh, will this really taste like alcohol?"

"I dunno. I've never had any."

They laughed with each other until Scott raised his glass. "Then I shall propose a toast: To the coolest redhead in the world and pleasant dreams. May God grant you many years to live, for sure he must be knowing, the Earth has angels all too few and Heaven is overflowing!"


Jean raised her own in response. "A thousand welcomes you will find here before you, and the oftener you come here the more I'll adore you! May we one day hone our gifts and use them to bring light and joy to the world!"

They clinked their dream glasses and chugged them down. Neither of them ever tasted wine before so they just imagined it as Cherry Soda. It worked well enough. They sat back down to enjoy the fireworks in between sipping their drinks and singing.

"
"Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"
"WHOOOOO!"

JEEEAAAAANNNN! JEEEEEAAAAAN! JEAN!


Jean stood up as she noticed the voice echoing around them. "Ah, that would be my wakeup call. Sorry Scott but I gotta cut this short. Thanks for coming Scott. This was a lot of fun. I really liked hanging out with you."

"Hey I'm not gonna complain. I haven't had this much fun in years Jean and I finally got to see the world again. Well, the dream world, but all the same I had a lot of fun. This was awesome."

"I'd really like to meet you again Scott. Whether in here or in person." She twirled around and leaned forward with her arms behind her back. "Until then Scott Summers, you're my secret boy! Ciao!" She turned around and hopped away.

"A secret boy huh? Wait, is that as in a boy...friend?" Scott asked as he stood up and watched her go.

Jean giggled and skipped away as light washed over them.

Scott just smiled and closed his eyes.


When he finally woke up he was back in his room. Scott touched his face and noticed he had a new bandanna around his eyes and an ice pack on his head. Scott smiled and relaxed in his bed. He had to keep his eyes closed in reality anyway so he might as well.
________________________________________________________________________________

"So yeah, sorry dad but I had to step out today. I had one of my headaches again and you know how bad it can get when I have those."

"Hey don't worry about it Jeanie. I completely understand." John Grey told her over the phone. "But don't worry. I've been hard at work trying to find a solution and I think I've finally found the answer to your dilemma."

"You mean my problem?"

"Now now Jeanie. We agreed to call your unique talent a dilemma. Not a problem." He gently reminded her. "I've found a professional who specializes in helping talented people like you. We've set up a meeting and I'm going to be talking to him soon."

"Another professional?" Jean asked incredulously. "Alright so what's this ones story? Crystal balls? Tarot cards? Is he a guy or a-wait, wait wait wait!" Jean sat down on her bed and ran her fingers through her hair as she remembered her Dream Walk. "Wait...dad...this guy you're meeting with, is he Charles Xavier?"

"Charles Xavier! That's right! How'd you know? We're not even in the same room."

"Well...I Dream Walked again."

"Dream Walking? That's where you do that thing where you go into folks dreams right? However that works?"

"That's right and I drew in someone new. A kid from very far away. His name is Scott Summers and I think he might be like me. But instead of psychic powers he has laser eyes."

"There are kids with laser eyes now?" He asked in disbelief. "Wait you met a boy?"

"In my dreams, yes." Jean reminded him.

"Uh huh. Alright tell me about him."



"And that's about when I woke up." Jean finished.

"I see, I see. Sooo. Laser Eyes. Is that right?"

"That's right. Super Powerful Laser Eyes. Like Superman!"

John Grey finished writing this down. "I see. Okay then. I suppose there's nothing wrong with that so long as it's just a dream but if you ever meet this kid in reality, I want you to be extremely careful. Laser Eyes is uncharted territory for us and we're still figuring out your Psychic Powers."

"I know dad. I get it. Just remember to keep this between us okay?"

"I will honey. I've kept your secrets haven't I? You just focus on resting up Jeanie-bean. I'll let you know when I meet with Xavier and keep you updated."

There was a knock on the door. "Just a minute! Sorry dad, I have to go. I love you."

"Love you too Jeanie."

They hung up and Jean pocketed her phone. "Yeah?"

An attractive, dark-haired half-Japanese girl with brown eyes stepped into the room carrying a stack of papers. "Hey Jean! You feeling better?"

"Feeling a lot better Taryn. Been one of those days you know?"

"Oh trust me girl, I completely understand. I've done the same." Taryn Fujoka joked and joined her on the bed and handed her the papers. "I brought you the work you missed."

"Ohhh you are a lifesaver." She flipped through the homework. "Alright this looks easy. Want to collaborate?"

"Always but first...I found something fun that I found on the Net that I have got to show you." She rubbed her hands together. "I have found the perfect man for you Jean!"

"It's not another jock is it? Because the last guy didn't work out. I'm pretty sure he's still running from me."

"Oh don't worry Jean. This guy is nothing like that guy. Literally the exact opposite!"

"Oh really now?"

"Oh yeah." She began going through videos on her phone. "Alright! Found it! Check it. The man of your dreams!" She hit play on the video. After two sets of 30 second ads, which Jean just muted, the video proper began with a quick AMV of eating scenes set to Weird Al's Eat It before the video really began and the AMV faded away to reveal...an outrageously, morbidly fat teenager sitting at a giant table full of a wide variety of foods. Jean's face went pale as Taryn cracked up next to her.

"Welcome back to the channel everybody! Today, The Blob Man, has another Mukbang video for you! If you're new here and you're wondering just what a Mukbang is, here's the skinny, the only one you'll find around here, a mukbang, also spelled meokbang and also known as eating show, is an online audiovisual broadcast in which a host consumes large quantities of food while interacting with the audience. That's you guys. We're talking Smash Hit!" 'The Blob' droned on about this until Jean hit pause just as the feast was starting in earnest.

"Taryn?"

"Yuh huh?"

"Fuck you."

"I'll think about it."

Jean tossed her the phone and she caught it. "Too hot to handle?"

"That was disgusting and you know it."

"To be fair, I didn't lie about him being the opposite of the last date I set you up with. He's certainly got more money."

"How could that slob possibly have money?"

"Video Revenue and Ads. Dude makes at least 10k or so a month from his videos."

"I call bull."

"No bull, Jean-Bean. People have been doing it over in Korea for years. Besides, I haven't even showed you his best trick."

"I don't want to see it."

"Oh trust me you'll like this one." She switched to another video, muted the ads and waited until it started up. "Lets see....yeah, okay, here we go. This is the real reason he became a star."

"I don't want to see it."

"No trust me, you'll want to see it." She showed her the video. "Dude eats metal."

"Oh please like that's even possib-" Jean trailed off as she saw the giant teen dip a ball of metal in pasta sauce, pull it out and toss it in his mouth. He began to chew it! outright freaking chew it! His teeth were chomping and grinding and biting down on the metal without a problem until he swallowed it all.

"....The hell?"

"Ever hear of Michel Lotito? He was a French gourmand famous for eating indigestible objects. They called Monsieur Mangetout. "Mr. Eat-All". He's eaten, among other things, 18 bicycles, several TV sets, a coffin and even an airplane. Apparently, Mangetout also had a unique digestive system, with much thicker walls to his stomach and intestines and far more potent stomach acid than normal, which meant he could actually digest that stuff. It's probably the same case with this guy."

"Even so...how are his teeth not broken?" (Either that metal was fake or he's a....hmmm....I guess the word would be...Gifted? Like Scott and me?) She took another look at the video and watched the metal scene in slow motion. As gross as it was, there was no doubt that the metal was real. "Now how on Earth do you even do that? Swallowing it would be freaky enough but how on Earth do you get your teeth strong enough to eat metal?"

"Milk. Lots and lots of milk. Judging by the size of him, I'd bet he chugs it by the gallon."

"And we're done here." She tossed her the phone again. "Come on. Lets go to the library before I puke."

"I still say you'd be a cute couple." Taryn teased.

"Beep Beep Taryn."

The pair soon arrived at the library and Jean Grey took a breath before entering and the wave of internal chatter washed over her.

I am soooooooo bored!

I need to get out of here so I can hit the treadmill already!

Am I the only one who finds the teacher hot though?

Randomly hearing your favorite song on the radio is more satisfying than playing it directly from your ipod.

"Go to bed, you'll feel better in the morning" is the human version of "Did you turn it off and turn it back on again?"

Maybe plants are really farming us, giving us oxygen until we eventually expire and turn into mulch which they can consume

Theme parks can snap a crystal clear picture of you on a roller coaster at 70 mph, but bank cameras can't get a clear shot of a robber standing still.

If my calculator had a history, it would be more embarrassing than my browser history.

Lawyers hope you get sued, doctors hope you get sick, cops hope you're criminal, mechanics hope you have car trouble, but only a thief wishes prosperity for you.

As a kid my parents taught me to not believe everything I see on TV, now I have to teach them to not believe everything they see on Facebook.

The Olympics should have a 'For Fun' section at the end of all the games so all the athletes can try different sports.

What if Earth is like one of those uncontacted tribes in South America, like the whole Galaxy knows we're here but they've agreed not to contact us until we figure it out for ourselves.

If someone offered to pay for my food and rent for the next 18 years, I'd do anything they ask of me. But I complained every time I took the trash out while living at my parent's house.

Vehicles today can surf the web, link to your phone, stream music and videos, etc.. but they still can't perform a simple database lookup to tell you what the check engine light is on for.

When I bake bread, I give thousands of yest organisms false hope by feeding them sugar, before ruthlessly baking them to death in an oven and eating their corpses.

Damn! Jean has a nice ass! A random girl noted.

These were but a few of the internal monologues she heard chattering away in her head and the more pleasant ones at least.

Oh good the freak's here!

Why is she always squeezing her eyes shut like that? It's creepy!

Jean's hot sure but she's just so weird!

Why the heck do they let her keep skipping classes like this? It's setting a bad example!

What is wrong with her?

Such a freak.

Jean squeezed her eyes shut in a desperate bid to block them out and quiet her mind. She began repeating the first song that popped into her mind over and over in her head to drown it all out while she built up 'The Walls' again to block out the chatter brick by brick by brick she built it up around herself to mute the world.

Frère Jacques
Frère Jacques
Dormez vous?
Dormez vous?
Sonnez les matines
Sonnez les matines
Ding ding dong
Ding ding dong
Are you sleeping
Are you sleeping?
Brother John
Brother John?
Morning bells are ringing
Morning bells are ringing
Ding ding dong
Ding ding dong

She repeated this inside of her head over and over until The Wall was built up around herself and she could think again.

"Jean? Jean are you okay?" Taryn asked her.

"I'm fine. Sorry. Just one of those days. Don't worry about me. I'm going to be just fine. Come on. We have a lot of work to catch up on."

They found themselves a table in the library and got to work on the assignment: Geomoetry, Biology, Astronomy, Art History, Music History and Theory, Renaissance Literature, Latin, Calculus, Psychology, Sociology and a few other varied subjects.

The work wasn't too hard thanks to their teamwork. There was a lot of it but they managed it just fine. After they completed the paperwork assignments, it was time for the computer assignments.

"Oh man. Ohhh man. That was a brain buster. They listen, Jeanie, I need to use the ladies room, are you going to be okay here?"

"Just fine. I'll get started on the assignments and catch you up when you get back." They high-fived and Jean grabbed her bag and walked to the computer lab while Taryn hurried over to the ladies room.

While she was gone, Jean got herself set up at a computer and on the internet and she decided to use this chance to see if her dream was real or not. So she typed in 'Scott Summers' into the Search Engine.

It took only a little bit of searching before she struck paydirt and found the boy of her dreams.

"Scott Summers. First son of Christopher and Katherine Summers. Brother to Alexandria Summers. He lost his family in a tragic plane crash and he was found washed up on a shore barely alive with a traumatic head injury. After recovering he spent time in an orphanage, The State Home For The Foundlings, before it was shut down for abusive behavior towards their wards...oh Scott...oh buddy...shuffled to another orphanage...adopted by the Winters family. There's nothing in here about Eye Lasers but I wonder if his injuries from the plane crash and whatever the Orphanage did to him could be the reason he can't properly control them...it does say he could have eye problems...

(My powers are Mental after all and they're hard enough to control. If, heaven forbid, I suffered injuries like that, then they could go out of control as well. That would explain Scott's current condition. However, if Scott's real, then so are his powers, which means that Fatso's Metal Eating could be a Power as well. Then so could Xavier's! Which means...which means...which means!) She closed the browser and buried her face in her hands as she started quietly cry laughing. "It means...I'm not alone. I'm not alone. There's others. I'm not alone."

She shed tears of joy for almost a full minute before she sat up and wiped her eyes with a tissue and she relaxed and smiled. She wasn't alone.

There were others like her.

(I have to meet them. All of them. Scott and Hank and Xavier and...hell with it, even Blob! Sure, why not? Lets meet him too! Just to confirm if all of our Powers, our Gifts, are real. The more of us there are, the easier it'll be too figure out our gifts together. If we all have Powers, then there has to be a reason. Something linking us together. And we owe it to ourselves and each other to figure out what it is!)

The two girls worked together in the library to complete their schoolwork in Physics, Science, Psychology and Math for a few hours straight only breaking to go get some food.

"Hmmmmm! Man! That felt great! My head is swimming but that was fun! I love it when we get to work together." Taryn high-fived Jean.

"Developing your brain is much like physical exercise. The more we train our abilities, the stronger they become. The difference is that, unlike the body, when it comes to training the mind, there is no limit to how far we can go." Jean pointed out to her. "Train your mind, pay attention in class and expand upon your knowledge pool and there's nothing you can't do."

"Is that why you're always getting those headaches? Your mind is too strong?"

"Heh, you're more right than you know." Jean joked. "I could bring the whole world down if I ever used my secret mind powers."

"Oh really? Are you going to go all Matilda on the world? Chronicle?"

"The former is more wholesome but I'd probably end up like the latter." Jean confessed. "In fact..." She looked around before looking back down at Taryn. "Taryn, hypothetically speaking, what if I were to tell you that I did, in fact, have real life psychic powers? Just you know, for kicks. Assume that I could lift things with my mind and read other people's thoughts. You know, stuff like that. Hypothetically."

"Wow. Really? For real Jean?"

"Just as a what if you know." Jean assured Taryn.

"Well....I think that would be badass! You could do basically anything with Telekinesis and it would be super cool to see it in action in real life." Taryn reasoned. "Buuuut...I don't know about Telepathy. It feels like that would be like a major breach of privacy. Think about it: What is the most private thing in the world that anyone and everyone possesses? Your thoughts. You are, in fact, your thoughts. You inner mind is who you are. It is everything you are. Your core. Your mind, your thoughts, are your inner self. You are your thoughts. If they exist in someone else, then they contain everything that is you and you become the other person. Thus, you would cease to exist."

"...Wow. That's actually a really good point." Jean relented. "Okay, yeah, those are some really good points. I'm going to need to think about this."

"Stick with me kid and I'll never steer you wrong." Taryn laughed with Jean while dragging her towards the food court. "Why do you ask anyway?"

"Well...I looked into the big guy a bit more and I saw a video of him lifting a truck."

"The big guy?"

"You know...Blob."

"Ohhhhh? So can I pick them or what?" Taryn teased wickedly.

Jean responded by ruffling her hair. "Don't get it twisted. I just wanted to research something." She let Taryn fix her hair while she looked for the video again on her phone. Once she found it she skipped ahead and showed the relevant part to Taryn. "Look."

Taryn watched the video. "That's...a 2021 Nissan Titan! 1,699 lb payload with 400 horsepower. A ride like that can weigh up to 5,916 lbs. Which makes this...what, like, Captain America level? Spider-Bro level? But...pause...aren't those guys ripped? Captain America is,w ell, Captain America. He's a Super Soldier from WW2 who somehow survived being frozen in ice until modern day and being unfrozen and then lead a group of superheroes to fight against a Norse God and his army of aliens. But, yeah, he's like, super ripped, right? The man's built like an even more muscular Chris Evans or Jensen Ackles and he is just super jacked, right?"

"I think you mentioned that." Jean responded with an amused smile.

"But, yeah he is just...woah...and he's well you get the point. We're among polite society in school so I can't go too much further but...yeah you know what I'd do. Ahem. Anyway, moving on to Spider-Man, I don't even know how many powers he has but according to the photos he's probably pretty cut underneath that costume too, right? That Parker guy's been taking some good photos of him. Anyway, everybody's been saying that he's been doing some crazy stuff out there. So I can see him lifting up a car like that." Taryn explained. "But Blob? Like, I get it, he's huge, but he's not jacked like Captain America or Spider-Bro, or Thor, oh my God tho Thor...ahem. Anyway. I can see them doing it, for the reasons I've explained, but does Blob even have any muscles underneath all that?"

"We literally saw the guy eat metal earlier and this is weird?" Jean pointed out.

"Hmmmmmm."

"Well?"

"O-kay, fine, I guess it's possible if you're that huge but...if he's that strong why is he wasting his life eating all the time instead of going out and powerlifting or doing football or something? He could get freaking rich and become a star and it'd be way healthier."

"Maybe it just hasn't occurred to him. Who knows? Let him live his, decidedly unhealthy, life how he sees fit. The important thing is that his strength is real."

"And why is that important?"

"Because...well...look, I have some crazy stuff to tell and show you later Taryn, alright? But I'm going to need a promise from you that you'll keep it secret, alright? Because there are a lot of things in my life that I'm currently trying to figure out and this is going to be just one of them."

"This is big isn't it?"

"So, so big. Mind blowing. Do you promise to keep it secret?"

"I swear. I swear it, I do. I promise." Taryn held up her hands. "You know me Jeannie. I've got your back. Always."

"Alright. Thank you. I'll show you later tonight. It's going to be amazing. Come on. Lets get back to lunch."

The girls entered the cafeteria and Jean once again had to brace herself for the rush of thoughts washing over her. Thankfully there weren't as many people in here and they were focused on their own meals and interactions so it wasn't as bad. Still, Jean kept her eyes forward as they walked through the cafeteria. Jean for her part was looking to score a Fruit Parfait to relax herself and celebrate today's discovery. Once she made it through the day she could go into Dreamland again tonight and try to find Scott again or Fred or even Xavier! Hopefully all of them! She really wanted to meet Scott again and the others in person but she would settle for Dream Walking right now.

As she was standing in line however she began hearing certain thoughts again.

Oh great it's the weirdo again. She actually got off the hospital bed long enough to drag herself to graze I see. She's good looking but she's just so strange! She's always looking over her shoulder at everyone like she's paranoid, always seems scared of something, always keeping her head down and she always seems sad about something. I just don't get what her problem is.

You know, while I get that Drew Paille was an idiot, I don't get why he'd go running from Jean. She's strange but she's not scary. He still hasn't come back to his school either. Did she scare him so bad he transferred or something? Then again, she also chased off Keith Kcid, so I'm not surprised.

So she can't get off the bed to go to class but she can get up for food. Guess we know what motivates you, Jeanie.

Jean recognized the inner voice all too well as well as the others accompanying it without even needing to turn around. Camilla Buckingham, Patty Simcox and Sandy Dee.

Taryn finally noticed them and she turned around to wave to the girls. "Oh hey guys! When'd you get here?"

"Just now. I hope this day finds you both well. Jean are you feeling any better today?" Camilla asked her in a honey sweet tone of voice.

"Couldn't be better, Camilla." Jean replied sincerely. "The migraine was a bit of a pain to be sure but I'm feeling a lot better now. Lets just say I had a sweet dream."

"That's heartwarming. I think that's just what you need really." Camilla replied as she stepped up to Jean and gently held her hand. "A nice heartwarming relaxing sweet dream." She whispered.

"Ahhh...y-yeah, that...sounds good. Great. Hands down please." Jean replied as held her hand back up.

"You're right. I apologize." She stood up properly. "But in my defense, Jean, you're a real cutie and I'm sure I could show you a good time that would make all those worries wash away."

Her friends cracked up behind her. "Wow, really Camilla?" Patty asked her.

"You girls gonna need a room?" Sandy asked them.

Jean just sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. The headache was coming back. "I appreciate the compliments but seriously Camilla, you really shouldn't say things like that even to another girl. At least not in public. You need to work on your boundaries." Bad enough that Jean had to hear what Camilla was thinking but the girl seriously lacked a filter on top of it. "I am thus installing a six foot distance rule between us until further notice. Good day." She turned on her heel and walked away.

The noise in the cafeteria was giving her another headache.

Jean and Taryn sat down at a table in the back of the cafeteria. "Ohhhhh man what a day."

"Are you okay Jean?" Taryn asked her out of concern. "You want me to chase her off?"

"Resolving it with violence will only get you in trouble, Taryn." Jean reminded her. "She might be a pervy idiot but decking her in the middle of a crowded cafeteria will just make us look like bad guys." She started eating her fresh fruit cup. "Besides. There are other ways to put her in her place."

"All the same she shouldn't be getting in your face like that."

"Don't worry about her. If she gives me trouble, I can handle her." Jean assured Taryn.

As Camilla was pulling a chair away from a table to take her own seat the chair slid backwards causing her to miss the chair and fall on her butt.

Jean snickered quietly and went back to enjoying her food while Taryn enjoyed her Beef Pastrami and Swiss Wraps. "So! Change of topic! How are your classes going?" She asked Taryn.

"Oh. I'm doing great. Turning in all my work, passing all my tests, it's a lot of hard work but you know I'm managing. How about you?"

"Okay I guess. When my headaches aren't bugging me I'm at the top of my game. Still acing all of my tests too."

She whistled, impressed. "Man oh man. That's impressive Jean. I can only imagine the force of nature you'd be if you didn't have your health problems or certain dumb-dumbs bothering you."

"True but nothing takes the pain away like hanging out with a good friend." She replied sincerely. It was true in all honesty. Sure, Camilla was an idiot, but Jean had started feeling better after she finally used her power to do something and just hanging out with her friend on top of that. Jean honestly felt at least some of her stress melting away. Perhaps it was a build up of power? As if it needed to be used and released every now and then to prevent the power from building up and overloading her? If that was the case, then she had an idea on how to drain her quote unquote Super Meter and deal with some of the stress. Furthermore, if she could do it, she could very well make a believer out of Taryn and have someone who could assist in her searches. "Hey...Taryn?"

"Yeah Jean?"

She tapped the plastic fork against the lid. "If it's cool with you, I'd like to show you something tonight. In the parking lot. Uh, it'll be late, and it might be cold, so, you might want to bring your jacket."

(Woah now! This day just got a heck of a lot more interesting! What could it be? What could it be? Le Gasp! Is she going to...confess? I mean, I'm not going to say no, should I say yes? Should I ask her if it's okay if we take it slow? I'd like to take it slow. I feel like, if we're going to start a relationship, we should ease into it. That's the natural thing to do right? I think it's normal! Okay. Okay! I'll ask her then!) "Sure thing Jean. I'm in. Just know that whatever happens, I'll accept you."

"Oh good. That'll make things so much easier." Jean grinned. "Trust me. It's going to be amazing!" She enjoyed her drink. "Ahhh. But first thing's first. Lets focus on schoolwork!"

"Sure!"

The two friends resumed their conversation about schoolwork and they let their troubles fade away. After finishing their lunch and recharging themselves they returned to the library to resume their work.

Calculus, Physics, Philosophy, Computer Science, they worked on a little bit of everything. Both Jean's classes and Taryn's. It was certainly a long and arduous process but by working together they were able to not only catch up on but knock off their work and get a couple chapters ahead by putting their own together.

After completing their work they checked it over, scanned them and E-Mailed them to their teachers. The worksheets could be handed in tomorrow.

The two friends took a break and relaxed at a table on the third floor of the library looking out a window at their school "Ohhh man I am spent." Taryn admitted.

"You and me both." Jean added. "Holy cow that was a lot of work. Worth it though. We're all caught up and moved a bit ahead. We are going to kick so much butt come exams!"

They high-fived and laughed. "So what's this thing you want to show me?"

"It's ...I'll have to show you then...but Taryn, listen, hypothetically speaking....what would you say if I told you that IIIIII have...The Force?"

"The Force?"

"Y-yyyyeaaaah."

"Okay, like, as in Star Wars?"

"Basically yes."

"Well I think that would be freaking awesome really. I mean, being able to move things with your mind? Lift starships? Wield Lightsabers? Oh! Can you shoot Lightning?"

"That's a Dark Side Power, so no, but you're on the right track."

"Actually the Jedi can do it too."

"Wait, really?"

"It's called Electric Judgment if you're curious."

"Hmmmm." Jean brought her phone and looked it up. "Huh. How about that? But, ah, no. I can't do that." (I think?)

"So anyway, why do you ask?"

Jean lowered her phone and smiled. "Oh trust me. You'll find out. It's going to blow your mind."

The two friends continued biding their time and focusing on school until night fell. Then, while everybody else was turning in and gearing up for bed, Jean and Taryn snuck out to the parking lot.

Jean rubbed her hands together as she looked over the cars that were still there and she ended up selecting a 2009 Dodge Challenger. "Taryn! Over here. Do you know what this is? Do you recognize it?"

"Yeah, that's a 2009 Dodge Challenger...hey isn't this?"

"Yeah. That's Camilla's Car." Jean smirked.

"...W-we're...not stealing it are we? Don't get me wrong, I'd love to drive in one of these, and a joyride with it would be rather cathartic but it is also highly illegal. Need I remind you Jean, that theft crimes are divided into petty thefts, which are usually misdemeanors that are punished by up to one year in jail; and grand thefts, which are usually felonies, punishable by one year or more in prison. Grand theft is the theft of property worth more than a certain dollar amount, often between $500 and $1,000....and this? This is worth up $17,496.00. That's a looong time in jail."

Jean laughed. "Oh don't worry, don't worry, don't worry, I'm just using it for a demonstration. Go ahead. Look it over. Wave your hands over it. Notice anything out of the ordinary?"

She shrugged and looked over the car carefully. It was completely average. Maybe a bit tricked out beyond the norm but it was hard to tell. She walked back over to Jean. "I don't see anything weird."

"You're about to."

"...You're not going to trash it are you?"

"Hope not. Just keep your eye on the birdy. Now, I need you to promise me again, you'll keep this between us. Okay? Promise? Do you promise?"

"I promise. Whatever happens...I promise. We're friends forever. Ride or die."

"Thank you. Now stand back and watch. This car has a Curb Weight of 3858 lbs. Correct?"

"Yeah? That's 1.929 Tons."

"Right. Remember when you saw the big guy lift up a car?"

"Yeah? So?"

"Watch.This." Jean grinned and took a deep breath in, held it in, slowly blew it out and she raised her hands up and she gestured towards the car. Nothing happened. Not at first. As Jean was still gathering the force necessary.

"Uhhh Jean? I know you joked about having The Force earlier but..." She was cut off when she saw the car beginning to shake. Then it slowly began to levitate off of the ground. Taryn stared in amazement as the car rose up into the air. Taryn was in utter disbelief. It was like magic! The car really was rising up into the air! This was Yoda lifting the X-Wing! This was Superman catching the Helicopter! This was...this was completely unreal! She did a double take from the car to Jean and noticed Jean was rising up into the air! Her feet left the ground and she began to float into the air just like the car was. in addition, Taryn felt something! She felt soemthing washing over her that pushed her back a couple of feet. She couldn't see what it was, it felt like wind only it was deliberately pushing her. Her clothes were rippling in the wind and her hair was blowing. Jean kept it up until the car rose up ten feet into the air where it floated in the air. Jean then turned her hands over and she slowly lowered her hands down and the car with it. She squeezed her eyes shut in concentration and grimaced. The car eventually touched back down on the ground, shook a bit and was then still. Jean floated back down and opened her eyes and gasped. She knelt over and took a few breaths before she straightened up.

"Wow. Haven't done that in awhile." She laughed. "You know? They make it look a lot easier in Chronicle. But that's Hollywood Magic for you, am I right?" Jean looked over at Taryn who was still in utter disbelief of what she just saw.

"So? There it is. That's my...big secret." She gave a comical shrug with her hands up.

"I have Super Powers. I am Psychic. As far as I can tell, I have Telekinesis and Telepathy. Like in Comics and Books and Movies. I've had it since I was a little girl. Accidents happened. I'm still learning to control it. That's why I get the headaches. Because of my powers acting up. No matter where we go I...I can hear people's thoughts. The thoughts of everyone around me. What they're thinking in private. All their little secrets. Who they are inside. All the time. Super Powers are real Taryn. I'm living proof. I think that Fred Dukes guy might have powers too. And I met another kid who could use powers in my dreams and he might know another kid with powers."

She gave Taryn a minute to let this all sink in before she stepped closer to her friend. "Please say something?"

"Um...um...okay...can we go sit down for a second?"

"Yeah, sure, there's a bench right over there. Sitting down would feel good right now."

They walked over to a bench and sat down so Taryn could process all of this properly.


"Okay. So...what's your story?"

"Well, like I said. I've had them since I was a kid. I haven't always been able to control them as well as I do now. I still don't have the best control of them. Accidents have happened. I...I don't like to talk about it. I've been to a few different schools until I came here. Heh. Dad thought it would be less stressful for me which would make my powers easier to control. It hasn't been perfect here but I have had less accidents."

"So wait. That time with the drinking fountain bursting all over everyone?"

"Y-yeeeaaaahhhh that was after some pressure build up. Sorry."

Taryn cracked up laughing. "Oh you have nothing to be sorry for. That was hysterical! You managed to get Victoria, Chloe and Mr.Jefferson all in the same burst! That was one of the best laughs I'd had in a long time!"

"And a few other students too! Not to mention making such a big mess. It really wasn't all that funny." Jean reminded her with a smile.

"Oh come on! It was a little funny. Come on. Admit it."

Jean tried to keep her composure at first but it quickly gave way to barely contained laughter and then full on laughs. First from Jean and then Taryn and then both. They just sat there doubled over laughing over Jean's psychic shenanigans and the results of them. Jean was also laughing out of relief. It felt so good to finally talk about her powers to someone. Like a large weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. Finally! Finally she had someone she could confide in about them besides her dad! Two people counting Scott and if Professor Xavier and heck even Dukes panned out she would soon have more people out there she could talk to about her powers! A whole new world was opening up for her!

"Ahhhh that felt good. That felt really, really good, Taryn. Holy cow did I need that. Whoo! Oh man I'm feeling good!"

"Hey anytime Jeanie! But, uh, why didn't you just tell me earlier?"

"I...I was scared." Jean admitted. "I didn't know how you'd react to learning I've got powers."

"Okay I guess that makes sense but I just want you to know I'm cool with it. You're cool. Having powers is cool. It's just so awesome. I actually know an honest to God, Superhero!"

"Ahhh that might be stretching it a bit. I'm not a superhero."

"Yet. If Movies and Comics have taught me anything it's that sooner or later the man or woman that wakes up that morning with super powers decides to put on a wacky spandex costume and run around the city fighting crime."

Jean laughed again. "Okay that's fair. But I'm going to need a lot more practice with them before I get around to crime fighting." She stood up and offered a hand to Taryn. "I can fly though."

"You can fly?!"

"Kinda."

Taryn stood up and took Jean's hands. "You're going to want to hold on. Tightly."

"Alright."

Jean took a deep breath, closed her eyes and relaxed herself as she focused her powers beneath their feet and pushed upwards. Taryn felt the wind blowing around them and looked around them as she felt the ground beneath her feet give way to empty air. Like the car before she began levitating into the air and they began slowly floating and spinning around in the air!

"Who-ho-ho-HO! Jean this is incredible! I mean look at this! Look at this! Look at you! Look at me! We're flying! We're spinning! We're twirling! JEANIE!"

"Yeah...it's cool isn't it?" Jean floated them back down to the ground. "It's kinda hard to concentrate though."

"Oh shoot! I'm so sorry! Was I talking too much?"

"Nah. You were great Taryn. You were doing just fine. I'm just not used to having a passenger with me. That's all." Jean then stepped forward and hugged her. "Thank you, Taryn."

Taryn lifted up her hands and hugged her back. "You're welcome, Jean. Rest assured. I'm here for you. Whatever you need. Whenever you need to talk. I'm here for you. And if this whole super powers thing pans out and the Professor really can help you and those other kids have powers too? Then I'll be right there with you there too Jean."

"Thank you."

"So? What would you like to do next?"

"Hmmm. Would you like to come to my room?"

"Oh Jeanie! Naughty, naughty, naughty." She teased.

Jean laughed. "Right, right, phrasing, right. Ah, but, I'm going to try and make a psychic call and I'd like you to be there with me. It would just make me feel a little less weird if there was someone in there with me in my corner."

"Sure thing. Is there anything I need to do?"

"Nah. Just being there will be enough." Jean assured Taryn and they walked away.


The girls returned to Jean's room and she closed the door and locked it. Then she walked over to a scented candle jar and took off the lid. She waved the scent towards her face, smiled and then she sat down on her bed and she began performing breathing exercises.

"Okay, so, what now?"

"Now I have to get in the zone and go into a state of relaxation, rest my body and let my mind...go. It's weird to explain but I picture them in my mind and if I can focus enough and find that state of pure relaxation then I can send my mind out and observe places that are far away from me and observe the area around me while I look for the person I was reaching out to. It's a real out of body experience. I guess the proper term for it is Astral Projection. I sometimes do it my in dreams but it's completely random. So this is better."

"Coooool. So, what should I do?"

"Don't worry about it. Just having you here is enough." Jean assured her. "Now then." She resumed her breathing exercises and then she took up the lotus position for meditation and gradually relaxed her body and let go of everything. She just let her whole world fade away and set herself free. Before long she found herself floating out of the room and through the ceiling and out of the building and through the air. She couldn't feel the wind around her per say but she still laughed and twirled around in the air as she flew away towards her unknown destination. She felt so free! Free of herself! Free of school! Free of responsibility! Free of worry and doubt and fear and the whole world! When she was doing this and she let herself go it was the most liberating feeling in the world. She felt so free up here! So happy! So amazing! Like she could go anywhere and be anything! For now though she had a mission to meet a particular man. As much as she wanted to see Scott again and how curious she was about Fred, there was one man above all others she had to meet beforehand.

She soared across the country en route to her destination until she found herself flying down towards a limousine which was driving through the streets. As she passed through the roof a bald gentlemen in a blue suit looked up at her smiled. "Hello Miss Grey." He spoke to her with a kind and fatherly reassuring tone of voice. "How are you this evening?"

"You can...you can see me?" Jean asked in amazement. This was the first time that had happened!

He chuckled good naturedly. "Yes I can. You see I am a psychic like yourself." The limo faded away and gave way to the setting of a fancy looking mansion where they were sitting at a table with tea all set up. Jean looked to the windows where there was light shining in through the windows and birds flying and chirping and a beautiful backyard garden. "I thought you would appreciate a change of scenery. Please take as long as you need to get accumulated. Time is not of the essence in here."

Jean looked around the mansion for a moment before she settled in. "So...you're him? As in, really him? And you're like me?"

"Yes Jean. Yes I am. My name is Professor Charles Xavier and it is a pleasure to make your acquittance."