Enter the Darkness

by

Morpheus

 

Part Two

 

I hate tests. But unfortunately, my whole day seemed to be dedicated to them. I'd already spent half the morning taking the placement test for Ms. Beltrane and was now back at the Big House and in costume for some more testing with my powers.

"You can't fully control your powers until you know exactly what they are," Avalanche had told me when we started.

For the last half hour, I had been doing some exercises with my powers, mostly just summoning small amounts of darkness and dispelling it. It was getting quite easy to do and I was getting a little bored. But then Avalanche suggested that we try something different.

"You said that you managed to teleport through your darkness once before," Avalanche told me. "I'd like you to try working with that..."

"I don't know how," I admitted.

Avalanche just frowned. "Remember what you were thinking when it happened the last time. Try remembering what it felt like."

"I'll try," I whispered, not wanting to think about it...not wanting to remember. My own dad had been shooting at me and I had been scared shitless. That was the one point in my life that I wanted to remember the least, but also the one that I could never forget.

With that, I closed my eyes, grimacing as I pulled the darkness around me. I remembered the last time that the darkness had been so...intense. I remembered falling through it... And though I wasn't sure what I was doing, I tried willing myself to go deeper into the darkness.

Suddenly, I could feel it. The darkness increased around me, growing even deeper and darker until even I couldn't see anything around me. My heart raced in fear as I saw nothing but pure darkness in all directions...yet strangely enough, I realized that I could sort of feel it...feel through it as well. It was almost as if the darkness was a part of me.

Just a moment later though, the darkness faded a bit and I was able to sense...and then see things around me again. I hadn't moved a step, yet it was obvious that I was not standing where I had been. And as the darkness faded away from me entirely, I gasped in shock, realizing where I was at.

"I'm home," I gasped in disbelief, staring around my own back yard. And then I stared at the very house which I had barely managed to escape from just days earlier. "Home..."

I was both excited and scared at the same time, not sure what to do. My heart pounded in my chest, and for a brief moment, I even thought about going in and trying to explain what had happened to my mom. She was at least a little more reasonable than my dad.

But then, the back door opened and my brother Percy stepped out. He didn't see me...at least at first. However, that changed in just a moment as he caught sight of me. His expression went to shock and horror...and then hatred.

"MUTIE!" he screamed out, though whether as an insult to me, a call for help or a warning to anyone else nearby, I wasn't sure.

"No," I winced at the sheer hatred in his face. And before he even took his first step towards me, I was taking a step back and summoning the darkness at the same time. This time though, I was summoning it intentionally...and trying to teleport a way.

Once again, I was once again falling into the deepest darkness, which I now realized was actually the darkforce dimension that my darkness came from. I was actually going into that dimension when I teleported.

"Oh shit," I gasped the moment that I came out of the darkness, once again finding myself in the boys locker room of my old school.

There were several screams, yells and curses as the various boys who were in there, in various states of dress and undress saw me. The fear, anger and confusion were so thick that I could nearly choked on it. And before anyone had a chance to yell, "Kill the mutie," I jumped back into the darkforce dimension.

When the darkness passed again, I collapsed to the ground in exhaustion, barely aware that I was back in the bedroom that I shared with Rose. I just sat there for a few minutes, trying to catch my breath and steady my nerves.

"I can't believe it," I whispered, both afraid and in awe of what I had just done. I had just gone all the way back home...and back again in almost no time at all. It was frightening...and exhilarating at the same time.

Finally though, I realized that I had probably get back to the Big House because Avalanche might be worried about me. I smiled nervously, deciding that I had better walk this time. I didn't want to accidentally end up back in my OLD bedroom the next time.

When went back to the Big House, I gave Avalanche a nervous smile, "I accidentally went back to my home town..."

All that he said to that was, "You'll do better with practice."

I wasn't sure that I was ready to practice teleportation again, but he insisted. "Focus on your destination... Concentrate on where you wish to go."

"Okay," I told him, taking a deep breath before summing the darkness and stepping through it into the darkforce dimension. I knew that I could do it, especially since I'd already managed to get back to the school that way. So it wasn't any surprise when I stepped out of the darkness back into the room I shared with Rose. "YES." Still, it was a relief.

After a moment to rest up and catch my breath again, I returned to the Big House, this time using my power. It was getting easier to control now that I was beginning to understand what I was doing. I even managed to arrive just several feet from where I'd left a few minutes earlier.

"Very good," Avalanche told me.

Avalanche was just beginning to tell me to try it again when Pete Wisdom came over. "I think it's time for a little game of tag," he grinned to me.

"Tag?" Avalanche frowned.

Pete just grinned, "Trust me..."

It turned out that what Pete meant by tag wasn't exactly the way that I'd always played it before. He had all of the students go out into the woods, each of us with a ribbon tied to our belts. The goal was for us to all separate and then try sneaking up on each other and steal the other person's ribbon, knocking them out of the game. The last person standing was the winner. I grinned a little as he explained, thinking that with my powers, I was guaranteed to win.

However, I as we played, I quickly learned three valuable lessons. The first was that creating a darkness field in the woods so that I could hide inside was not necessarily a good idea. A huge spot of pure darkness kind of stood out and let everyone who saw it know where I was at.

The second lesson that I learned was that I could not keep my darkness field up forever, and when I eventually dropped it, I became quite visible again.

And the final lesson that I learned was that I should look up, because you never know when a cat girl may jump out of the tree from above you. I think that Catseye left me with a pretty good bruise when she tackled me.

When the game was over and Catseye had been declared the winner, we all gathered around in the outside training field behind the lodge. We were all joking with each other about how close we had come to getting away, or how close we had come to taking someone else out.

"At least I wasn't the first one taken out," I muttered to myself as my only consolation. That honor fell to Timelapse, though I hadn't been far behind.

"Now let's try it again," Pete announced, "This time you'll divide into teams..."

When Pete chose the teams, I ended up with Catseye, Jessie and Puffer. Salamander, Rose, Silence, Timelapse and Surefire were on the other team. I didn't think that it was quite fair that they had five people while we only had four, but Pete said to deal with it. But I glanced over at Catseye and grinned, thinking that we couldn't lose. With my darkness and the two of us being able to see in the dark...

As soon as the game began, Jessie and Puffer went after Timelapse and Salamander, while I pulled up a darkness field which covered Silence, Surefire and Rose, as well as Catseye and myself. I was sure that we had the advantage.

But Catseye immediately yelled, "What the hell? I can't see..."

"I thought you could see in the dark," I exclaimed.

"NORMAL dark," she shouted back angrily.

But suddenly, everything went quiet. Extremely quiet. There wasn't a single sound anywhere. Even as I tried yelling to Catseye, I realized that this was the world of Silence, using her second power. The power to absorb sound. I also realized that at the moment, she was the only one of us able to hear, just like I was the only one able to see.

Then there was the smell... The horrible, awful smell which made me gag and nearly vomit. There was absolutely no doubt where it had come from since only a skunk girl like Rose could make something smell that bad.

Then while I was distracted by the silence and the horrible smell, I forgot that Silence could hear me retching and yelling, while Rose could smell us. I didn't remember until Rose charged me and said, "Sorry," as her hands dug around my belt and pulled out my ribbon.

And at the same time, Silence was following the sound of Catseye's choking and trying to take her out. Fortunately...or unfortunately, Catseye was fast enough to scramble for her ribbon as well. They each managed to get each other's ribbons about the same time, taking them both out in a tie.

"I can't believe it," I groaned in disgust at myself while dropping my darkness field, "I'm the only one who can see and you took me out like nothing..."

"Only because you weren't focused," Rose told me with a giggle, "I couldn't have done it if you weren't so distracted..."

"God that stench," I grimaced.

"Is this better?" Rose asked as it started to smell like roses again.

"Much," both me and Catseye said at the same time.

Then I glanced over at Catseye and realized that she looked pretty bad. She actually had emptied her stomach while I'd only come close. And she looked absolutely miserable.

"I ought to skin you alive for doing that," Catseye spat out at Rose.

"Her enhanced sense of smell makes her more susceptible to my smells," Rose giggled.

"Like my eyes are more sensitive to light," I thought aloud. Then I blinked, "Then why weren't you hit by your own smell?"

"Strong smells don't bother me," Rose shrugged. "It's something with my powers... No matter how strong the smell or how bad it stinks...I can handle it no problem. In fact, that smell doesn't bother me any more than smelling apples. As far as I'm concerned...it's just a smell."

"You're lucky," Catseye growled.

"Don't forget the game," Pete called out.

However, Pete's warning was too late as Jessie took advantage of her own distraction to suddenly land next to her and grab her ribbon before she realized what had happened.

In the end, it was my team that won, but only barely. No one had been able to touch Jessie or Puffer since Jessie could stay out of reach by flying and Puffer kept blowing up like a puffer fish so no one wanted to get close. But the final thing in our favor was that Salamander's own ribbon accidentally came loose and fell off on its own. Otherwise, we might never have been able to get close enough to snag it.

"Game over," Pete shouted to us. "Time to hit the showers..."

Avalanche had been watching the whole thing without a word, but as I walked past him, he told me, "You need to pay attention to your own teammates and their abilities so that you don't trip them up that way again."

Then as he was about to add something else, I sighed, "And I need to focus..." I let out a sigh at that, especially as he nodded.

I grimaced and shook my head in self-disgust as I made my way back into the Big House, and then into the locker room where I'd changed into my uniform. Without a word, I stripped out of my costume and climbed into the showers, letting out a sigh as I did so. It felt kind of nice.

Just a minute or so later, I heard something and turned to realize that the girl...the other girls were in the locker room with me. I gasped in embarrassment and instinctively caused the darkness to form.

"Hey," Salamander exclaimed, "Cut that out... I can't see..."

"Sorry," I apologized, pulling the darkness in closer to myself so that they could all still see...just not me.

"What the hell are you doing that for?" Catseye demanded, "It's not like you have anything we haven't seen before."

"But," I stammered, the darkness fading around me. "But I'm..."

"Oh yeah," Salamander shrugged, "that thing you said at lunch."

"I don't care if you're a lezzie," Catseye snorted, "Just don't hit on me and we'll get along fine..." And then, as if to prove her point, Catseye finished taking off her own clothes right in front of me. She even seemed to be almost inviting...even daring me to take a good long look.

Salamander shrugged, "What the hell..." And with that, she took off her own clothes as well.

Rose, the only other girl who was in there at the time gave me a knowing look, and blushed just a little bit before she took began taking off her clothes. She had apparently decided that the fact that I was really a guy, or at least had been, didn't matter in a situation like that. And I guess she didn't mind the possibility of my oggling her, though I made a point of looking away, in spite of the fact that I really did want to look.

"Nothing I haven't seen before," I muttered to myself under my breath, thinking of every time I looked in the mirror.

I sighed and finished up with my shower, trying not to look at any of them too obviously, but it was pretty damn hard. Somehow I managed though, and got dressed. It was strange to realize that this whole situation was going to be the norm from now on.

"Being able to go into the girls locker room is every guys dream," I told myself with a long sigh. But of course most guys don't realize that they'd have to become a girl in order to do so. "Lucky me..."

When I left the Big House, I found Ms. Beltrane out behind the lodge, working with Tantrum...Nita, trying to teach her how to control her powers. Normally it was Avalanche or Pete who did all the teaching about powers, but since Ms. Beltrane's powers were so similar in nature to Nita's, that made her the logical one.

Then I noticed the cute little 10 year old girl who was sitting off to the side and watching the two of them silently. It took me a moment to realize that this was Timelapse at a new age. I hadn't seen her become so young before since she usually seemed to prefer being older than she really was rather than younger.

""You can do it," Ms. Beltrane told Nita in a gentle tone, "Just be calm and let your mind feel the rock..."

"She won't be able to do it," Salamander...Sally quietly told me as she came up beside me. She glanced at me and said, "Tantrum can't really do anything with her powers unless she's angry, and then she can't control them." She chuckled at that.

"Ms. Beltrane seems to think she can," I pointed out.

"Yeah," Sally nodded, "But they also say that Nita is a real strong psychokinetic and might be as powerful as Magneto some day." She shrugged at that, "I'll believe it when I see it."

I just nodded at Sally's comments, feeling a little less skeptical about Nita's abilities than she was. I had a feeling that Nita could be capable of doing a lot more than just destroying everything around. She just needed to learn how to control her powers first. And as she struggled with a rock, even causing it to wiggle a bit where it sat on the ground, I could see that she was beginning to learn.

After watching Ms. Beltrane and Nita practice for a few more minutes, I turned and went inside. As interesting as it was to watch the little girl TRYING to move objects with her mind, I'd already had more than enough with practicing powers myself for the day.

When I got to my room, I stopped to look at the new clothes that I'd bought the night before but still hadn't bothered to take out of their bags. I hadn't thought about it until it was too late, but I didn't actually have any money to buy anything with. Thankfully Pete had been real understanding and had even paid for everything himself.

"I guess I should put this away," I sighed as I dug through my new clothes.

It didn't take me long to get all my clothes put away, then I sat down to read through the book that Bobbie had given me. But after awhile, I grew tired of that.

"How much sex ed can a guy...girl take?" I muttered to myself. I knew that it was important, but I could only handle taking so much of that stuff at one time.

Then I decided that perhaps I hadn't had too much training with my powers after all. Since I didn't see what else to do at the moment, I began practiced my teleporting a little bit more. I didn't do much though, only going between the lodge and the Big House, which was just enough to build up my confidence in my abilities.

The rest of the day passed pretty quickly, and I was feeling fairly satisfied with how things had gone, or at least how well they'd gone after the morning practice. I still felt a little bruised due to Catseye's ambush.

Later that night, as I lay curled up in my bed, covered by the comforting blanket of night, I glanced over at Rose who was already asleep on the other side of the room. I could see her just as clearly as if it were light out, except that it was in the strange black and white vision which was becoming more familiar to me.

Then I let out a sigh and closed my eyes, unable to get the image of her naked body out of my mind. I couldn't help thinking of earlier that day in the locker room, when I'd gotten a very good look at not only Rose, but of Catseye and Sally as well. It had been very...interesting.

As I lay there, I became aware of the fact that my body was responding to my thoughts. My charcoal gray nipples were becoming hard...and very sensitive. And at the same time, the sensations that I was getting from the new equipment between my legs was indescribable. It was all warm and gooey and tense at the same time. It felt sort of like an erection...but completely reversed. I wasn't sure how to describe it, even to myself.

"Wow," I whispered, thinking that it felt a little similar to what I used to feel when I got turned on as a guy, yet at the same time, completely different.

I felt a little hesitant as I began rubbing my nipples, gasping at just how well they responded to the touch. They felt even better... And after a moment, one of my hands slipped between my legs, rubbing at my equipment down there. It was all moist...and felt incredible.

After playing with myself for awhile, the pressure began to really build. It didn't feel nearly as insistent as it had as a guy though. Then I paused, realizing that I could smell myself. I gulped and quickly pulled my hands away, grimacing as I did so. I REALLY wanted to keep it up, but I knew that if I could smell that, then Rose most definitely could. Sure she was asleep, or at least I thought she was, but I didn't want to take the chance that the smell would wake her.

"Damn," I muttered to myself, feeling frustrated as I clenched my hands into fists at my side. Just when I had finally found something good about my new body, I had to stop it. "Maybe later," I told myself silently, knowing that there would have to be time when Rose wasn't around.

And with that, I rolled over and closed my eyes, trying not to think about those sensations that I had felt and was still feeling to a large degree. It wasn't easy, but I did eventually get to sleep.

I let out a long sigh as I sat down on the couch in the large common room, turning my attention to the big screen TV. It had been a long day and I was ready to do nothing but watch a movie and veg out a bit.

It had been a week since I had come to the school, and I surprised myself a bit with just how much I was getting used to it in that time, and with how much I had already learned to control my powers. In fact, while I had been doing my training session that morning, I had even discovered a whole new use for my power.

When I summoned my darkness, it was basically pulling a part of the darkforce dimension into our own. And when I teleport, I was basically just stepping all the way into the darkforce dimension and then stepping out in a different place.

During my training session that morning, I had been standing next to one of the walls of the 'gym' while I spread out my darkness field. My darkness field had actually gone right through the wall behind me... And when I sensed my field, I could sense through the wall as well. It had been an act of curiosity when I stepped through the wall...as though it wasn’t even there.

Pete Wisdom had told me that my newly discovered ability to walk through walls was pretty much like my ability to teleport. But instead of going all the way into the darkforce dimension, I was only partly in it...and out of phase with most matter in our own dimension. It didn't really make much sense to me, but there was no doubt that it worked.

Unfortunately, the rest of my day wasn't quite as successful or as productive as my training session, at least not to my perspective. The rest of my day had been spent in class, listening to Ms. Beltrane talk about English, the Civil War and how it related to the current situation between humans and mutants, as well as a few other subjects. But at least with just a couple of us, it was easier to actually learn anything than back in my old school.

But after all of that, and another game of Pete's version of tag that afternoon, I was ready for some good quality mind numbing TV. And it looked like I wasn't the only one with that idea as the other students were gathering around there as well. One of them even brought a horror movie to watch.

We had been watching the movie for about half an hour or so when Puffer exclaimed, "Man she's hot," referring to the hero's love interest.

"Yeah," Ryan responded, "But she's a total bitch..."

"What?" Jessie asked in surprise. After all, that actress had a reputation of being nice. She almost always played a really nice girl.

"I met her a couple times," Ryan shrugged. "She might usually play heroine roles, but in real life she is a total bitch. You wouldn't believe what a snob she is..."

"Really?" Sally asked, seeming rather amused by that.

Then as the main villain came on screen, Puffer said, "Well I bet that guy is a total freak in real life..."

Several of us nodded at that. The guy was playing the main villain really looked the part, which wasn't surprising as he played a villain in just about every movie that I'd ever seen him in.

"Actually, he's pretty cool," Ryan grinned. "He played the villain in one of my movies, and he taught me a couple of card games while we were on the set."

We laughed at that and Ryan told us about some of the other famous people that he knew from his years doing TV and movies. There were even a few big named celebrities on that list.

Then the movie got to the point where the main villain summoned a demon. I wouldn't have thought much of it, except that Puffer exclaimed, "Hey, that thing looks like you Ness..."

I stared at the screen and gasped as I realized the resemblance. The demon in the movie had dark skin and hair, as well as pointed ears and solid black eyes. Just like me. Then I gulped, feeling a cold chill run down my spine.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Sally asked me after a minute.

"Leave me alone," I muttered, wanting to just curl up into a ball and vanish.

"Ness?" Rose asked gently.

"What's wrong with you girl?" Puffer demanded.

"I'm a freak," I spat out bitterly.

Over the past week, I had thought that I was getting used to it all, that I was adjusting to my new life. But all of a sudden, it had all hit me again. I was just like that demon in the movie... I was a freak who couldn't even go out in public without a disguise. Even among the other students I was a freak. I was a freak among freaks.

But it was more than just being a freak. I couldn't help remembering that I had lost my entire life, my entire identity and sense of self. I had thought that I was adjusting to being a mutant, a freak and a girl...but now it looked like I hadn't adapted as much as I'd thought.

"You're not a freak," Sally tried to reassure me, though she didn't sound all that sincere.

"LOOK AT ME," I jumped up and gestured down at myself. I stared down at my breasts, which I had gotten so used to over the last week that I often forgot just how strange they really were to me. "Just two weeks ago I was normal," I spat out. "I went to bed as a normal person and woke up like THIS."

"It can't be that bad," Jessie said, "So your skin changed color..."

If only it had been just my skin changing color. I think that it might have been easier to handle. But it was more than that...much more. My entire life had been torn away because of that little X factor in my DNA. My very sense of identity.

"You don't understand," I spat out at him, "When I went to bed...I was a GUY." I knew that it was a mistake as soon as the words slipped from my lips, but it was too late. And as they all gasped in surprise, all but Rose, I sneered, "Do you have any idea what it's like having an overnight sex change?"

"Whoa," Puffer exclaimed, staring at me in disbelief. "You're a guy?"

"No way," Catseye said, staring at me intently, "I saw her naked and I can tell you that she's all girl..."

"She WAS a guy," Rose said quietly. "Her mutation changed her..."

"You KNEW?" Sally stared at Rose with almost as much surprise as she had just been staring at me. Rose only nodded, not saying a word but giving me a reassuring smile.

I grimaced in mixed anger and embarrassment, fighting back the urge to call up the darkness and vanish into it. But I knew that I wasn't angry at them. They had been nothing but nice to me since I'd arrived. Even though I looked weird, they had all welcomed me, treating me like I was one of them. And as uncomfortable as revealing the truth made me, I figured that I at least owed it to them.

"I...I was a guy," I said more quietly, sitting down again and clenching my hands. "I...I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but it's just..."

"Too weird?" Puffer responded.

"I think she means it was personal," Rose said, putting a hand on mine and giving me an encouraging smile.

"Well," Sally said, "We already knew you were...well...gay, so I guess this isn't much different..."

"She's a transvestite," Puffer snorted.

"No. That's a cross dresser," Sally said, "And she's a girl, so that means she's not a cross dresser..."

I just took a deep breath and held it, hoping that they wouldn't all freak out on me. It was hard enough as it is, but I was a freak, even among the freaks. There would have to be a limit to how much weirdness they could accept from me, and I hoped that this wasn't it.

"Okay, so you were a guy," Catseye snorted, "Can we get back to the movie already. I can't hear what they're saying..."

Puffer just crossed his arms and muttered, "I can't believe I was hitting on him..."

"Her," Rose pointed out.

"You don't mind if we still refer to you as HER do you?" Jessie asked a little cautiously.

"That's fine," I told him with a sigh. "I think its better that way..." It would help me to get used to my new gender. I had been trying, but I guess I needed to try a little more.

We talked about this for another couple of minutes before we went back to the movie, but I knew that the others were still thinking about it. I caught just about all of them glancing at me when they didn't think I would notice. Fortunately, none of their looks seemed hostile...only curious. And thankfully, none of them seemed really all that freaked out by my revelation.

"I guess being weird makes you more tolerant of other people's weirdness," I quietly mused to myself. And being so weird myself, I guess I didn't have much room to be judgmental of other people either.

However, the night wasn't out of surprises just yet. A short while later, Mr. Monroe came in and called for our attention. As I turned, I was a little startled to realize that he wasn't alone. There was a woman standing next to him. She looked to be in her thirties, had brown hair and glasses, which along with her suit made her look quite conservative.

"Everyone," Mr. Monroe announced, gesturing to the woman beside him, "This is my co-founder for this school. Let me introduce you to....Ms..."

"Corvax," she said announced, "Sonja Corvax..."

The whole room went silent as we all stared at the newcomer, the woman whom Mr. Monroe had just introduced as Ms. Corvax, one of our school's founders. She just stood there, silently staring back at us with an unreadable expression.

"It is a pleasure to finally meet you all," Ms. Corvax finally said.

I know that I wasn't the only one who was surprised by her presence. Mr. Monroe had said that his co-founder wanted to remain anonymous, but it looked like she had changed her mind for some reason. I wasn't sure what that meant.

Ms. Corvax slowly walked closer, giving us each a closer look. However, her eyes stopped on me and she looked at me with just a little more curiosity than she had shown the others.

"So you are Nestor," she said. "I understand that your mutation has been somewhat...unusual."

"I..." I glanced at the others, then back at her, "I go by Ness now..."

"Oh yes," she smiled with some amusement, "Dark Ness."

"Ms....Corvax," Mr. Monroe glanced at her, "is here to see how the school is coming... Please remember your manners."

And with that, Ms. Corvax took another look at all of us and then left the room with Mr. Monroe. It wasn't until she was gone that I suddenly remembered that Mr. Monroe had told me that not only did his co-founder want to remain anonymous, but that she was a mutant as well.

"I wonder what her powers are," I mused aloud.

Neither Ms. Corvax nor Mr. Monroe had made any mention at all of what her powers were, which seemed somewhat odd to me. Just about every other mutant that I'd met had been introduced with their powers along with their name.

"No idea," Sally responded. No one else had any ideas either, so the subject was dropped for the moment.

When the movie was over, I sighed and started walking towards my room, surprised by all of the events of the day. I had discovered a new power, revealed my secret to the other students and had even met the mysterious other founder of the school. It had been a busy day, but even busy days have to end.

But as I was going down the hall, I heard a little girl’s voice exclaim, "Turn that light off... I can't sleep if you keep leaving that stupid light on every night..."

"But I can't sleep when it's all dark," Nita's voice quickly followed.

And as I stood there, Nita came out of her bedroom, dressed only in a pair of pajamas. Another little girl about the same age, also wearing only pajamas followed her, hands on her hips and scowling. I thought that it was somewhat amusing that Timelapse and Nita were roommates, but I guess it made sense since they were the two youngest kids at the school.

Timelapse scowled in annoyance, growing bigger and older right before my eyes. She aged several years, until she looked to be about 11 years old, but with her pajamas so tight that they were ready to burst open. She finally noticed this and then became younger again, stopping at the age of about 9 or so where her pajamas were a bit loose on her.

"I can't sleep if you keep leaving that light on overhead," Timelapse grumbled.

"But I'm afraid..." Nita whined.

"Hey," I called out to them, causing them both to jump as they apparently hadn't noticed me in the hall. "So you're afraid of the dark," I looked down at Nita.

Nita gulped and took a step back away from me. I hadn't realized it until then, but she'd reacted like that just about any time I got too close to her. But now I guess I could understand why. With my power to call darkness, I had to represent everything that she feared.

"I am...I was afraid of the dark too," I told her gently.

"YOU?" Nita gasped in surprise, looking kind of doubtful.

"Sure," I grinned, "I couldn't sleep without a night light... But I grew out of it..." I just didn't mention that this was only a week earlier, or that the only reason I no longer needed the night light was that now I could see in the dark.

"That's funny," Nita giggled, apparently no longer quite so threatened by me.

I just smiled down at her, then on an impulse said, "Maybe you should use a night light." I glanced over at Timelapse, "You can have a bit of light but it won't be enough to bother her..."

"Do you know where I can get one?" Nita asked hopefully.

"Yeah," I responded without thinking about it, "I can get you one..."

I gulped as soon as the words were out of my mouth, but it was too late. I'd already said that I would do it, so now I would have to.

"Just a minute," I told Nita.

And with that, I stepped back away from her, summoned just enough darkness to cover myself and then jumped into the darkforce dimension. My heart was racing by what I was about to do, though whether out of fear or excitement I didn't know.

"I'm home," I said as I stood right outside of my house. Or at least my old house since I knew that I couldn't very well call it home anymore.

For a moment, I just stood there, looking at the night sky and then the windows that had the light coming from them. My dad was in there... Percy was in there... And after what had happened, I knew that this wasn't my home anymore. They would NEVER accept me as I was.

Then, I thought of my mom, who was inside that house as well. I hadn't really given her much thought since she was always in my dad's shadow, following his lead. She wouldn't try to kill me like dad or Percy, but knowing what a hypochondriac my mom was, even if I did manage to somehow convince her of who I was, she would just think of my mutation as some kind of horrible disease which could be cured if I only went to the right doctors or took the right medicine. But after my time at the school, I had come to realize that being a mutant wasn't a disease. It was a part of who I was...like it or not.

I frowned nervously as I stared at the dark window to my old bedroom, knowing that I should have just teleported directly there. Then taking a deep breath, I extended my shadow and walked through the wall, which was pretty much the same process as when I teleported except that I didn't lose my connection to the real world while I was doing it.

As soon as I was inside of my bedroom, I froze, feeling my heart race. I was more than a little afraid that Percy or my dad would hear me and come barging in again, so I made sure to be VERY quiet.

The first thing that I noticed was that my room had been cleaned up a bit since I had last seen it. Not only had all the stuff that had fallen on the floor been put away, but my bed had even been made as well. I knew that I had my mom to thank for that as I didn't think either my dad or brother would care about the mess.

After a moment of just looking around, I reached for my night light, which had been pulled out of the wall and was now sitting on top of my dresser. Then I took another slow look around, gulping as I did so. When I'd left there earlier, it had been with nothing. Not even any clothes. And since I was there, I figured that I might as well pick up a few other things as well.

For the next minute, I looked through my room for anything that I wanted to take with my. My old clothes were completely useless to me now, and as I thought about it, I realized that I didn't really have a whole lot of other things that I cared enough about to bother with. I grabbed a couple of personal possessions and tossed them into my old book bag, feeling a little disappointed that I didn't really have anything more.

Just then, I heard a loud gasp, which was followed by a blinding light as someone flipped the light switch. It took me a moment for my eyes to shift over to my normal vision, but for that moment, I was nearly blind.

When I looked up a few seconds later, I gulped at the sight of my mom standing in the doorway. That was the first time that I'd seen her since the night before everything had happened to me...since before my mutant power had manifested and turned me into a girl and a freak. And at the moment, she was staring at me in fear.

I grimaced at the way she was looking at me, though it wasn't a new experience. It'd gotten that look from other people, though at least it was a little better than the hatred that had been in dad and Percy's eyes. And, at least she hadn't made any move to run or scream for help.

"Who...who are you?" my mom finally gasped out. "Why do you keep coming here?" Then she gulped, "What did you do to my son? Where's Nestor?"

I could only stare at her for a few seconds before looking down at the floor and quietly responding, "I'm Nestor..." And as I looked back up at her, I added, "Or at least I was..."

"Do you think I'm stupid?" she glared at me, looking more angry than afraid, though there was definitely still some of that in her face as well.

"I'm not lying mom," I snapped back, a little more loudly than I intended. I was beginning to cry as I told her, "I woke up like this in the middle of the night..." Then I gestured down at myself and spat, "and while I was freaking out...dad and Percy came in and tried to kill me."

Mom just stared at me in disbelief, "No..."

"It's me," I told her quietly, too embarrassed to look at her. "I'm a mutant..."

"You can't be...," she gasped. "Nestor wouldn't..."

"You think I wanted to turn into this?" I grimaced as I looked down at myself. "I didn't... But I don't have any choice in it... I am Nestor...or at least I was." I gave her a weak forced smile as I added, "I'm called Ness now..."

For a moment, she just stared at me, then I saw her visibly gulp. "Is...is that really you?"

I could only nod weakly at that, "Yeah..."

"You're a mutant?" she started cautiously, unable to keep the...displeasure from her voice. "Maybe a doctor can fix you..." She stared at me intently, "We can get you plastic surgery to make you look normal..."

I just stared at her, letting out a sigh as I did so. It was about what I would have expected from her. And if I let her have her way, I'd spend the rest of my life going from doctor to doctor trying to find a cure for something that couldn't be cured. There was no way that I could live my life like that.

"It doesn't work that way," I told her quietly, grabbing my bag and taking a deep breath. "Maybe... Maybe I'll send you an e-mail..."

And with that, I took a step back and called the darkness around me, vanishing from that room and returning to the safety of the darkforce dimension. Then from there, it was only slight effort until I was back at the school, just down the hall from where I had left Nita.

I let out a sigh as I thought about what I had just done. I hadn't thought that I could go home, and this recent trip certainly proved it. My mom didn't hate me like my dad and brother, but it was also obvious that she wouldn't accept what I had become either.

"What's done is done," I told myself halfheartedly

Then with a sigh, I reminded myself of why I had gone through all that trouble in the first place. Or at least, I reminded myself what the rationalization I had used was, as I wasn't sure that some part of me hadn't wanted to go back and had just seized on the opportunity.

"I'm sorry for the wait," I told Nita as I handed her the night light, "I had to go pick it up."

"Oh wow," she grinned, surprising me by throwing her arms around me in a hug, "Thanks..." And without another word, Nita turned and ran back into her room...to try out the night light no doubt.

I smiled faintly as she ran off, then summoned the darkness and teleported myself out to an area by the lake. It was all dark, with the only light being that which was coming from the crescent moon, and the glowing smile which came from the metallic face of my companion.

"Do you mind if I sit here with you for awhile?" I asked Engine.

Engine just nodding, giving that twisted metal groan of his and turning his attention back to the lake. I sat down on the ground beside him, feeling absolutely tiny in comparison. It was strange, but as noticeable as he was, I hadn't really seen him around much since I'd come to the school. He avoided all normal classes and most training sessions, preferring just to sit off by himself most of the time.

After remaining with Engine for awhile, I decided that it was getting late and that I should probably get going to bed. I said a quick good-bye to Engine, who didn't seem to need sleep...nor food or much of anything else for that matter, and teleported back into the main house.

I let out a yawn as I walked through the dark hallway, smiling as I knew that everyone else had probably already gone to bed and turned off all the lights. I felt a faint bit of pride in the fact that I could see without any light whatsoever.

"Maybe I should have just gone straight to my room," I thought aloud, but I actually preferred the solitary walk through the dark halls.

But then I saw the light up ahead of me through a crack in the door to Mr. Monroe's office. And as I got closer, I could hear voices. I could hear Mr. Monroe and Ms. Corvax talking.

"I am quite pleased to see you here," Mr. Monroe was saying, "But I must admit that I am somewhat startled. I had thought your intentions were to avoid the school entirely..."

I knew that I shouldn't be listening in, but I was curious as to what they were taking about so moved closer, even looking at them through the crack in the door. I got a pretty good look at Ms. Corvax but then nearly let out a gasp as her whole body shimmered and changed. A moment later, she looked absolutely NOTHING like what she had. She had BLUE skin and red hair. The clothes that she was wearing were something like my own costume, being black pants and top. And as she turned, I could see that she had yellow eyes.

"I haven't been avoiding the school by choice," Ms. Corvax...or the woman she had turned into said. "But for necessity. I have a number of enemies, and my...employer keeps close watch on me. I was able to slip away for several days, but I don't dare stay any longer."

"Whatever your reasons Mystique," Mr. Monroe told her, "I am thankful that you finally came to see the school you helped open."

"I helped you open this school and asked Avalanche to teach here for a reason," Ms. Corvax...or Mystique as Mr. Monroe had called her responded thoughtfully, "You were right about the need for a safe place for young mutants to learn to control their powers. Xavier had the right idea of that. But Xavier is a fool." She gave Mr. Monroe a cool look and continued, "As you humans say, don't put all your eggs in one basket. Xavier's school has already been attacked several times, and by Magneto no less... It is only a matter of time before the students there are killed."

Mr. Monroe nodded understanding. "Still, I wish that you were able to stay. Your experience could be invaluable to these children."

"Perhaps once circumstances change," Mystique told him, though her tone indicated that she didn't have much hope of this.

With that, Mr. Monroe poured a couple drinks for Mystique and himself, then held his glass up for a toast. However, Mystique didn't bother wasting time with the formalities and quickly drank half her glass in a single gulp.

I watched them for a few seconds more, feeling incredibly curious about this Mystique person, especially since Mr. Monroe had been so secretive about who it was that had helped him found the school. But then my manners finally caught up with me…as well as fear of getting caught listening at the door. And with that, I quietly backed away.

Then feeling a little guilty, I made my way back to my room. Rose was already in bed and asleep, so I was careful not to make any noise as I went in. At least I didn't have to worry about having to turn on the light and possibly waking her.

And as I lay in bed, drifting off to sleep, I couldn't help thinking about Ms. Corvax...and the strange way that she looked after she had changed. Mr. Monroe had called her Mystique, but that didn't tell me who she was or what all the mystery around was about. Maybe I'd find out later. Maybe.

The next morning, I thought of telling Rose about Ms. Corvax, as well as what I had seen and heard. However, that would have meant admitting that I had been snooping and listening at doorways, which was something that I didn't want to do. So that meant keeping quiet about it...for the moment.

When we went down for our training, Ms. Corvax was there, looking like a normal person again. I couldn't help wondering if this was something to do with her powers or if it was something else. Specifically, I was wondering if it might be something that I could use to look more normal myself.

"Okay kids," Avalanche called to all of us as we sat out in the open field behind the lodge, "Why don't you all give our guest a little demonstration of what you can do. Darkness...you start."

"Okay," I sighed, taking a deep breath.

Using my powers wasn't that big of a deal, but being the center of attention like that was kind of embarrassing. I tried not to think about that as I summoned the darkness and spread it around me, just a short bit at first, but then far enough to cover Ms. Corvax as well. I figured that she'd get a better understanding of my power if she got a first hand dose of it.

After cutting my darkness field off, at least long enough for Ms. Corvax to see me, I called it up again, this time only long enough to step into the darkforce dimension and then back out a few dozen feet away. That seemed like enough of a demonstration for the moment and seemed to satisfy Avalanche.

"All right Ness," Salamander grinned at me. Then before Avalanche could say anything, she announced, "I'm next..."

And with that, Salamander stepped forward, smirked a little and then put her hand to the ground. An instant later, the ground around her hand burst into flame, and then a stream of flame shot out along the ground, making a wide circle around all of us...and then going out as she pulled her hand away.

"Reminds me a little of Pyro," Avalanche commented, seemingly to Ms. Corvax though he didn't really look directly at her.

After this, the others began giving demonstrations of their powers as well, much as they had when I'd first come to the school a week or so earlier. Ms. Corvax didn't say much, only watched with interest and nodded a bit. I wondered if she was going to demonstrate her powers as well.

But then, there was a sudden crash of lightning, which was shocking in that the sky was fairly clear. A moment later, a short distance away, the air began to shimmer and ripple. A dark blue...bubble appeared in the air and quickly grew. It grew until it was probably about 10 yards across, then just...popped.

However, when the bubble vanished, it left something behind. Or more specifically...5 somethings. People. And people in costumes at that, though I wasn't sure that one of them could really be called a person since he was about 7 feet tall and seemed to be made of gray stone with all sorts of dents and craters in his body.

One of the people who had suddenly appeared was a big blonde man wearing a brown and tan costume. He looked pretty mean as he snarled, "Where the hell are we Bubbles."

"Please don't call me that Sabertooth," a skinny guy with glasses responded. "My code name is Orb. And as for where we are, I have no idea. All I know is that I teleported to where our target is located. At least assuming that the hair sample that you gave me is from the target..."

"Crater," the one called Sabertooth snarled, looking up to the big rock man, "Don't lose focus." Then he turned his attention to a large, bald black man in a red and black costume, "And you'd damn well be as good as promised Barrage."

"I'll do what I was hired to do," the black man...Barrage snapped back, "Same as you."

Sabertooth nodded at that and glanced at the last member of their group, a man in green and dark gray armor. "You'd better not get in my way Delay."

Suddenly, Sabertooth turned to face us, his eyes going narrow as he took a couple of sniffs in the air. "Raven," he growled, looking towards our group, "I can smell you so you might as well come out. Don't make me come over there to gut you..."

Just then, Ms. Corvax changed, turning into that blue skinned woman that I'd seen her turn into the night before. All of the students stared at her in shock, though Avalanche didn't seem the least bit surprised. She glared at the intruders and snarled, "What are you doing here Sabertooth?"

"We're here for you frail," he smirked, "We've been hired to take you out... And I'm going to enjoy it..."

However, it was at that moment that I noticed Cateseye... She was staring at Sabertooth with a look of shock...and absolute hatred. It wasn't until that very moment that I remembered what she had told me awhile back... That her 'dad' was a mutant called Sabertooth...

"Oh shit," I gasped.

And at that very moment, Catseye charged straight at Sabertooth, shouting, "YOU FUCKER!"

Before I had even fully absorbed what was going on, Catseye was on Sabertooth, slashing at his throat with her claws. He staggered back a little, blood gushing out, and with a snarl, slashed back at her, catching her on the chest and knocking her away.

"Feisty little girl," Sabertooth snarled, his voice gurgling a little until he spat out a bit of blood, "I'm gonna enjoy gutting you... But just out of curiosity....why so personal?"

Catseye just snarled, "Because seventeen years ago...you RAPED my mom...DAD." The look on Sabertooth's face was one of complete surprise, a fact which Catseye took advantage of to charge at him with claws slashing again.

At the same time, Ms. Corvax...Mystique...or Raven...whatever the hell her real name was, pulled out a gun that I didn't even know she had and began shooting at the five intruders. She had a cold look on her face as she did so. And without a word to Avalanche, just a glance, he turned and sent a wave of dirt and debris towards them.

"Don't forget the target," Delay yelled to his teammates.

"And the kids?" Barrage asked.

"Casualties," Sabertooth snarled, too busy with Catseye to do more than give the order.

"Move kids," Pete Wisdom yelled out, "Get to safety..."

"The hell with that," Salamander snarled, "They ain't gonna make me no casualty..." And with that, she sent a stream of fire towards the invaders, almost along the same path as Avalanche's dirt wave. However, the invaders were already scattering all over the place.

I saw the big guy made of rock, the one they'd called Crater. He was slowly coming towards us, walking right through Salamander's fire as though it wasn't a problem. Surefire shot him with an energy blast though it only caused the big creature to pause for a moment.

But then, a great big crater in the middle of Crater's chest began to glow red. And an instant later, a ball of red energy shot out of the crater and hit near us, exploding and causing us all to run and scatter. The hole charged up for another blast, this one being aimed straight at Mystique, who was saved only when Avalanche sent a wave of dirt up in front of her to block it.

"Stupid gits," Pete growled, suddenly firing a bunch of white hot energy knives from his fingertips... They hit Crater and seemed to do some damage, but not enough to stop him.

"Get out of here," Mystique yelled out as she fired several more shots, "You kids shouldn't get involved... It's too dangerous..."

It looked like Timelapse had taken the hint because I didn't see a sign of her. Jessie was in the middle of trying to get Nita out of there as well, but she was yelling and screaming. I'd never seen her get angry like that before. And just a moment later, I saw why she was called Tantrum.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake, but this time it wasn't coming from Avalanche. Rocks and debris around the yard all began to lift up into the air. Several of the rocks even started to explode. And Nita...Tantrum stood there with a pissed off look on her 10 year old face. Her eyes were glowing white...

"Get away from her," Jessie yelled as he flew up into the air, "She can't control her powers..."

I already knew that it was definitely a good idea to keep back from Tantrum while she was throwing one of them. She was too dangerous to get close to because her psychokinetic powers would throw anything...and anyone around.

At the same time, the one called Barrage opened up with his powers. He held out both arms, and suddenly started firing energy blasts. But it wasn't just a single blast... Instead, hundreds...thousands of tiny red energy beams were shooting out of his arms like some sort of machine gun. Or like a gattling gun. He was mowing down trees, and probably would have gotten all of us if Salamander hadn’t sent a wave of fire right at him.

Just then, I heard the roar of twisted metal. And following that was Engine, running across the yard, making huge dents in the ground with every footstep. He wasn't really moving all that fast, but I knew that he was moving real fast for him. His eyes and mouth were both aflame and he looked pissed....or at least as much as his expressionless face could.

Engine's attack caused Barrage to turn and open fire on him, though it didn't seem to do much to the large metal mutant. A moment later, Engine attacked Crater... It was quickly obvious that Engine was not only larger than his stone counterpart, but stronger as well. He picked crater up and tossed him into the forest, through several trees.

With a loud roar, Engine turned his attention to Barrage, who opened up with more of his gattling gun energy blast attacks. Engine slowly stepped forward, causing Barrage to look quite afraid.

But then Crater climbed out of the trees, firing a blast of red energy from the crater in his chest. It hit Engine, knocking him back just a little. It was enough to draw Engine's attention, and keep him paused long enough for Crater to charge right at him.

I know that I wasn't the only one to freeze and stare at the two giants fight. They threw punches at each other and then I realized that Engine was taking damage. His metal skin had dents and scratches all over it, and there was even a small crack with reddish orange energy leaking out.

Just then, the one called Delay went running right up to where Engine and Crater were fighting. And in what I thought was an act of stupidity, he actually grabbed Engine... His hands glowed green... Then Engine glowed green... And suddenly...Engine vanished.

"Damn," Delay growled as he shook his hand, "I burned myself. That metal bastard was hot..."

"What the hell?" Salamander gasped out in shock.

Pete snarled, "What did you do to him you wanker?"

Delay just turned and laughed, "Don't worry... All I did was send him an hour or so into the future. In fact, he's safer than all of you... By the time he comes back, you'll all be dead and we'll be gone..." Then Delay smirked, "Unless we stick around long enough to kill him when he pops back..."

Without a word, Pete threw up his hands and fired a bunch of his white hot energy knives straight at Delay. But Delay just held up his hands and the energy blades froze in mid-air, covered with a blow glow. And while we were all staring in surprise, Delay took several steps to the side, just in time for the energy blades to continue flying forward...missing him by at least five feet.

"Damn," Pete growled.

But as Pete got ready to throw another burst of energy blades, Delay had a look of intense concentration and pain on his face and then he held out his own hand. A wave of blue light shot from his hand, and as it caught Pete, our instructor vanished...to what I assumed was the same fate as Engine. And from the look of it, it seemed that doing that from a distance took a lot more out of Delay than it did by touching them, such as he had with Engine.

Then, as if things weren't bad enough, I looked over and was horrified to see Sabertooth standing over the motionless body of Catseye. He smirked, licking the blood from his fingers.

"A regular daddy's girl," Sabertooth laughed cruelly, almost sounding a little proud at the same time. Then he looked towards all of us and asked, "Who's next?"

I stared in horror at the sight of Sabertooth standing above my friend, his hands covered with her blood. What was even worse than the realization that he would do something like that to my friend, and to his own daughter at that, was the look on his face which revealed just how much he had enjoyed it.

And as I stared at Sabertooth and then the empty spots where Engine and Pete Wisdom had been standing, I finally screamed out "RUN".

It was obvious that I wasn't the only one had been thinking that very thing. Even though Tantrum was in the middle of throwing one of her tantrums, Jessie grabbed her and flew up into the air, obviously deciding to evacuate the youngest person first...even if that was also the most dangerous to him.

Salamander grimaced and sent wave after wave if fire at our attackers, creating a massive wall between them and us. And at the same time, Surefire was firing his energy blasts through the fire, hopefully to hit them on the other side.

"Take advantage of this distraction to run," Mystique ordered us, "It's me they want...not you. GO."

Salamander and Surefire both let out another attack before turning to run towards the Big House. However, Mystique started running in the opposite direction, towards the woods. Without really thinking about it, Rose and I both started after her.

"I hate running," Mystique snarled furiously.

When we got to the edge of the trees, Mystique stopped and turned to us, "You two kids should go the other way. Sabertooth will track my scent and you do not want him to find you with me."

"Your scent?" Rose asked, then began to grin. "No problem." And with that, Rose held her arm out and sprayed Mystique with a fine mist. "That'll cover your scent... Now you smell just like a deer..."

Mystique frowned as she sniffed at herself. Then she had a thoughtful expression, just before her whole body started to shift and change. A moment later, she looked like someone else entirely. In fact, she looked like a teenage girl.

"Wow," Rose exclaimed, "How'd you do that...?"

"It's my mutant power," Mystique stated grimly, "I'm a shape shifter."

All that I could say to that was, "Oh..." I was a little disappointed to realize that her trick to look like a normal person was part of her mutant power and not something that I might be able to use for myself.

But just then, Sabertooth arrived. He came up a few dozen feet away, sniffing at the air before snarling, "You know better than to think you can trick me like that Mystique... I can SMELL you..."

And with that, we all started to run, but it wasn't Mystique that Sabertooth went after...but Rose. As soon as I realized this, I stopped and stared at the forest that she had disappeared into, gasping in horror.

"Rose," I gulped, realizing what must have happened. She must have changed her own scent to Mystique's in order to throw Sabertooth off the trail of the real Mystique. I had to help her...

But before I could think of how to help Rose, Barrage showed up and opened fire, his energy barrage tearing through all the trees behind me. I gasped in fear and finally thought to use my powers, spreading a thick layer of darkness around me.

"Just because I can't see you doesn't mean I can't hit you," Barrage shouted out, firing right into my mass of darkness.

I wasn't sure exactly how it happened, whether it was my subconscious mind using the same trick that I used to walk through walls, or if it was just the nature of my darkforce field. But when Barrage's energy bursts hit my darkness, they were absorbed into the darkforce dimension rather than hitting me. He fired and fired into my darkness, while I remained perfectly safe inside of it.

"Come on out where I can see you," Barrage snarled in frustration.

However, I didn't think that it was a great idea to remain there as his target and stepped all the way into the darkforce dimension in order to escape.  Since I could only teleport to places that I've been, or to where I knew I was going, I couldn't go help Rose, no matter how much I wanted to. But there was someone else that I was dying to know about.

"Catseye," I gasped as I appeared next to my fallen friend.

She was on the ground, her whole body covered with blood. I could see all sorts of gashes in her skin. And with a horrible feeling, I reached over to feel her pulse. I closed my eyes, terrified that it was too late.

But then Catseye groaned and rolled over, staring up at me and blinking a few times. "Ness...?"

"You're alive," I gasped in relief.

Catseye nodded and sat up, grimacing badly as she did so. "Hurts like hell," she spat out, "But I'll heal..."

"Did you see where everyone went?" I asked her, glancing around nervously.

"Sorry," she groaned, "I was too busy bleeding for that..."

Suddenly, I heard a familiar rumbling sound and looked over to see Avalanche sending a wave of dirt and stone at Crater. Crater just smashed through it and started moving towards my teacher.

"I guess that answers that question," I muttered.

A moment later, I heard Puffer shout out, "You want a piece of me punk?"

I was a bit startled at that as Puffer had been one of the first to take off when the trouble started. But now he was back, and puffing himself up. Somehow though, I didn't think that it would do much against Crater. And when he 'popped' and had all of his spikes explode outward, even having several of them hit Crater, nothing happened. Crater didn't seem to be bothered by them.

However, the fight was far from over as a moment later, a wave of fire shot out at Crater as Salamander came running back, followed by Surefire who shot out an energy blast. The blast missed Crater by several feet but then did a U turn in mid-air and came back...hitting the stone mutant right in the back. And it looked like that one hurt him good.

"Take this," Surefire yelled, firing a second energy blast at Crater.

This time, Surefire caused the blast to change direction at the last moment and hit him right in the middle of the crater his chest. Crater went flying backwards, letting out a hell of pain. And when he stood up again a moment later, there were several cracks around his chest.

And as if that wasn't enough, Silence went charging forward. She had vanished as soon as the trouble had started too, but it looked like she hadn't been able to stay away. In fact, I hadn't really even noticed that she'd been gone until then. But with someone as quiet as Silence, that wasn't much of a surprise.

"Look out," I called to Silence, seeing the glow in the center of Crater's chest, which indicated that he was about to shoot another energy blast from it.

But Silence had seen the glow as well and jumped out of the way in time, then charged at Crater, picked him up over her head and tossed him straight at Delay, who was standing a short distance away. And in what was either an instinctive act or just one of self-defense, Delay caused Crater to suddenly vanish.

"Damn," I gasped as I watched my friends fighting the invaders. I felt a surge of jealousy as I saw them using their powers. I kind of wished that my powers were a bit more aggressive like that. But as it was, my powers were more for running and hiding than they were for fighting.

"The target," Orb yelled out, "We have to get the target..."

"Sabertooth is taking care of her," Delay snapped at him. "We just need to keep these kids from interfering..."

Just then, Barrage came into view and yelled, "Leave that to me..."

And without another word, Barrage opened fire. Avalanche responded by sending up waves of dirt and stone to block the attack, but he couldn't stop it all. Several of the pencil thin energy pulses got through, and one of them hit his leg.

As Avalanche went down in a scream of pain, I jumped up and spread out my darkness, thinking that if I covered us all up, then Barrage wouldn't know where to shoot. I just hoped it would work... Unfortunately, the others weren't close enough for me to protect them all. I was only able to cover Catseye and Puffer...both of whom cursed at suddenly going blind.

"Fucking darkness," Barrage yelled out, opening fire again, this time shooting his energy blasts wildly. He was shooting all over the place, not even looking where he was shooting. Even while down, Avalanche was able to throw up a bit of a dirt shield to protect Silence, Salamander and Surefire, though it looked like it was taking everything that he had.

A moment later, Barrage's wild shooting backfired on him as his energy pulses ripped right through one of his own teammates. Orb let out a scream as his body was riddled with energy bursts. He was thrown back, obviously dead unless had had some sort of super strong healing factor. And even then I doubted he could survive that.

"You idiot," Delay yelled, "You just aced our transportation out of here..."

"He got in my way," Barrage snapped back.

I was terrified as I stared at Barrage, knowing that at any moment he would turn his barrage of energy pulses on us again. And at that moment, I realized that I was the best hope my friends had of surviving him. I'd already shown that I could absorb his energy pulses into the darkforce dimension, so all that I had to do was get between him and everyone else.

"I'll be back," I told Catseye as I got up and charged towards Barrage, spreading my darkness field out as I got between him and the others. I was going to absorb his pules... I was going to keep any of them from being hurt...

"Fucking darkness," Barrage spat out again, opening fire right at me. I grimaced and hoped that the darkforce dimension could keep absorbing the pulses as it had before. And at the moment, it seemed to be working pretty well.

When Barrage stopped firing, I took a deep breath and tried pulling my darkness closer to myself. I wasn't even sure exactly what I was doing, only that I wanted to be seen while keeping the protection of my darkness at the same time. And in a moment, my darkness was spread over my body, covering just my skin but not extending out any further. I looked down at myself and realized that I had to look like a living shadow...a patch of solid black in the shape of a girl.

"Interesting," I commented as I held my hand out in front of me. I imagined that I had to look quite strange indeed at the moment. However, I couldn't hold the darkness that close and concentrated about me for long... Not long at all.

Barrage just stared at me for a moment, then opened fire again...right at me. But as when my field was spread out further, I was able to divert his energy pulses directly into the darkforce dimension, while I was safe within the folds of my darkness.

"What the fuck are you?" Barrage gasped as he stopped firing.

I paused to smirk, then responded, "I am Darkness..."

Then before Barrage could do anything, and because I couldn't hold it any longer, I spread my darkness back out, catching him within it. He was rendered completely blind by the all consuming darkness while I was still left with the ability to see.

I was a little startled to see Barrage look afraid. After all, I certainly wouldn't have expected someone like him to be afraid of the dark. But then again, he was in a place where he couldn't see, and with an enemy that he didn't know much about. But instead of laughing at that realization, I took the opportunity to rush up to him and punch him as hard as I could in the face.

"DAMN," I spat out, clutching my sore hand. I'd hurt myself with that punch more than I had him.

But Barrage had heard my voice and now had a better idea where I was at. He came towards me and I took a deep breath. Before he even touched me, I felt him doing the same thing that I did when I teleported...shifting over entirely into the darkforce dimension. He let out as scream as he fell further and further into the darkness, into an empty void that had absolutely nothing save the dark. I could feel him floating away from me, further and further. Yet I could still feel his presence. I could still find him...and even pull him back if I wanted to.

"But I don't want to," I grinned as I dropped my darkness, now standing in the grass with no sign of Barrage near me at all. I could go back for Barrage later, but at the moment, it was much more convenient for me to leave him trapped in the darkforce dimension where he was helpless and harmless.

"What...what did you do to Barrage?" Delay gasped as he stared at me, the fear clearly visible in his eyes.

"I ate him," I grinned, giving him my most evil looking grin. I wasn't sure how good it was, but with my odd features, it seemed to be effective.

"Well isn't that great," another voice said. I turned around and gasped at the sight of Sabertooth, standing there with a satisfied smirk on his face.

"The target?" Delay asked.

"Terminated," Sabertooth told him, sending a cold chill down my spine.

"Rose...," I squeaked out, the tears beginning to form in my eyes.

"We have three losses," Delay told Sabertooth, glancing to where Orb was splattered along the ground, "Including our exit..."

Sabertooth nodded at that and responded, "Good."

Then before I realized what was happening, Sabertooth slashed out with his claws, catching Delay right in the face and sending him flying back. And before Delay had even hit the ground, Sabertooth started to shift and change. A moment later, Mystique was standing in his place, with a gun pointed at Delay's forehead.

"Mystique," I blurted out in surprise.

She took one look at me and then the other students then frowned. She looked as though she was debating something with herself and then lowered the gun, firing two shots, one into each of Delay's knee caps. Then she pressed the gun right into his crotch.

"I'm letting you live this once," she hissed at him coldly, "But if you EVER dare come after me or these kids again..." She pressed the gun into his crotch, eliciting a gasp of fear. And from the look on her face, I had absolutely no doubts that she would eagerly go through with her threat. Or worse.

I let out a sigh of relief that it had been Mystique and not Sabertooth, and that our attackers were taken care of. Until I remembered Rose and let out a gasp of terror.

"ROSE," I blurted out, immediately jumping into the darkforce dimension and teleporting to where I'd left her by the edge of the trees. "Come on..."

I just prayed that Rose was still alive, that Sabertooth hadn't caught up with her. Then I ran into the trees as fast as I could, hoping that I could catch up with them in time, that she had been able to avoid him long enough for me to get there and help.

But before I had gone too far into the trees, I was hit by a horrible, gut wrenching stench that caused me to stop and empty my stomach. I clenched at my mouth and nose, cringing at how bad my eyes burned. And I took several more steps forward, terrified that this was some sort of last defense of Rose's, or something that had happened upon her death.

However, what I saw was definitely NOT what I had been expecting. Sabertooth was on the ground, curled up into a ball and looking unconscious. His whole face was badly torn up and slashed, as if he had been tearing his own face apart with his own claws. And spread around him were several patches of vomit.

"Oh my God," I gasped out, having to fight back another wave of vomiting myself.

"Kind of sad isn't it," Rose said as she stepped out from behind a tree.

"You're all right," I sighed in relief.

Rose just nodded and gestured to Sabertooth, "Sensory overload... His enhanced sense of smell couldn't handle my powers..." She smirked at that.

I just stared at Rose in amazement, hardly able to believe that she'd taken him down single handedly, not even laying a finger on him. And then I let out another sigh of relief as I realized that he had been the last of them. It was over.

Since I didn't know what else to do about Sabertooth, and I sure as hell didn't want him suddenly jumping up to tear out my throat, I dropped him into the darkforce dimension the same way that I had Barrage. I figured that it was a lot safer having him there. And after we returned to the join the others, I did the same for Delay as well.

Once things were safe, everyone started to gather around to see what was going on. I was relieved to see that no one had been hurt too badly. Sure, Catseye had been pretty torn up and Avalanche had been hit in the leg, but she was already almost all the way healed and he wasn't in too serious a condition. The only other injury than besides theirs, other than a few bruises, belonged to Jessie who had broken his arm. But ironically, his injury had come not from our attackers, but from Tantrum's power while he was dragging her to safety.

"I can't believe it," Mystique muttered to herself, shaking her head in disbelief, "Sabertooth was taken out by a skunk..." She gave a quick snort of laughter, obviously amused by that fact.

"You...you two seemed to know each other," I said cautiously.

Mystique scowled, then nodded her head faintly as she admitted, "We have a...history together." Then she added, "But I don't know who the others were..."

"What I'd like to know," Salamander exclaimed, "Is who the hell you are?" She was staring at Mystique suspiciously.

Mystique gave Salamander a cool look and simply stated, "My name is Mystique."

"And she is the one who helped me open this school," Mr. Monroe said as he came over. He gave Mystique a careful look, then looked around at us, "We thought that it would be best if you did not know who she was just yet." That didn't sound quite like what he'd said the night before, but I figured that he was trying to save face.

Then Salamander turned to me, "You didn't seem very surprised when she changed..."

I frowned, then admitted, "I wasn't..." And at Salamanders disbelieving look, I added, "It wasn't my secret to share..."

Salamander didn't look too happy with that answer, but Mystique gave me a look of interest, looking just a little surprised as well. She was probably trying to figure out how I figured out her secret, or maybe wondering if I was just bluffing.

But then before anyone could say anything more about that, Mr. Monroe looked around and said, "We have two missing..."

"Delay hit them," Surefire told him. "He said that he sent them an hour into the future..."

"I certainly hope that is the case," Mr. Monroe finished, looking less than pleased.

We waited around a little bit, and then suddenly Engine appeared...in the exact same spot that he'd disappeared from an hour earlier. And he seemed confused as he looked around, apparently wondering where Crater and the other attackers had disappeared to. A few minutes later Pete Wisdom returned as well.

"What the?" Pete gasped as he popped back into place, "Where did those bloody wankers go?"

"The fight's over," Mystique told him. Then she looked to Avalanche, who was sitting down and keeping off his leg, "It appears that you taught the students well." However, Avalanche only grunted at that, though he did look somewhat pleased.

But while everyone was starting to fill Pete in on what had happened after he had vanished, I remembered the third person that had been jumped forward in time...if you could call Crater a person. I made sure to be in place for when he popped back, then immediately snatched him into the darkforce dimension before he barely even had a chance to realize he was back.

However, now that I had all of our attackers trapped within my darkness, that only left the problem of what to do with them next. I certainly couldn't leave them there forever, though Mystique seemed to think that this was a good idea. In the end, I knew that I had to let them go. They'd all die in there if I didn't. But since I could only teleport to places that I had been to before, that definitely limited my options.

Then I suddenly remembered a very long and very boring car trip that I had taken with my family about a year and a half ago. We had driven across Utah, which had miles and miles of just empty nothing. And with that, I teleported into the middle of nowhere, smiling as I saw that there wasn't ANYTHING nearby at all. And with a bit of a laugh, I opened my darkness field and just dropped them onto the ground before immediately teleporting away.

When I got back to the school, the others were in a big talk about our attackers, or perhaps it was more of an argument about what to do next. Several of them looked afraid while a couple others seemed almost frantic.

"What if they come back?" Puffer exclaimed, "I thought this place was safe..."

"They didn't know where they were," I pointed out, having paid a bit of attention to their teleporter since his powers were similar enough to my own. "Orb said that he didn't even know where he was...."

"They don't know where we are," Pete pointed out with a scowl, "So we're still safe enough." He glanced to where Orb's body was still spread out on the ground, not needing to point out that they only found our school because of a teleporter, and one who was now dead at that.

"They came here after me," Mystique said grimly, not looking happy at all. In fact, she looked pretty pissed.

"It's not your fault," Mr. Monroe told her, trying to be reassuring about it.

"It's not safe for me to stay here any longer," Mystique told him, reminding me of what she had said the night before about why she had stayed away so long in the first place. It looked like she had been right. It was dangerous, but I still kind of hoped that she'd stick around a bit.

"What are you going to do?" Pete asked, casually lighting a cigarette.

"I'm going to find out who sent them," Mystique stated, "Then I am going to make them pay..." She said it in the same kind of tone that most people said that they were going to go to the store for groceries. Yet somehow, I believed her.

"Need a hand?" Avalanche offered.

"No," she shook her head. "I'll take care of this on my own. The students need you more..." Avalanche just nodded at that, not seeming all that surprised.

Within the next hour, Mystique had returned to her Sonja Corvax form and left the school, having given a vague promise to return once things were safer. I didn't know how much longer that might be, but I had little doubt that we would see her again.

After she had left, I just shook my head, muttering, "What a weird day..."

The truth was, the day was only half over, but it was already busier than most entire weeks. And as I thought about the events of the day, I couldn't decide whether to be horrified by them...or excited. Then I couldn't help wondering if that was how things were for the X Men.

It had been a week since the...incident. A week since the school had been attacked by those would be assassins, a week since we had managed to fight them off. Yet in that time, I still couldn't stop thinking about what had happened.

The whole event had been so exciting yet extremely frightening at the time as well. I suppose that those two things always went together. That was something that I'd never really thought about until recently. But I guess that is what makes haunted houses and roller coasters so fun.

Right after the fighting had ended, I had been a little surprised to notice that the scratches and dents in Engine's skin were fading. They were all healing up, even the gash that had been leaking energy. And within an hour or two after the fight, his metal skin looked as good as new.

Surprisingly, Catseye actually seemed really pleased with herself, even though she had lost the fight with Sabertooth and gotten torn up pretty badly. I guess that just being able to finally confront her 'father' and get all of that pent up anger out of her system was somehow therapeutic, though I didn't quite understand how.

And even now, Pete Wisdom was still fuming about how they had avoided all of his security around the perimeter of the school by teleporting right into the middle. Now he was looking to upgrade the security to make sure that something like that didn't happen again. I certainly hoped that he succeeded.

As for me, the fight, and the way that I had been able to handle Barrage had given me a lot more confidence. The way I figured it...if I could handle a life and death situation like that, I could handle almost anything.

A moment later, I shook myself out of thoughts of the past and looked down at the letter that was opened up on my bed. I had been a little surprised to get a letter from Bobbie, especially since she could have used a phone or E-mail to talk to me instead. But I had also been kind of excited.

"Cool," I grinned as I picked the letter up, thinking about what Bobbie had said in it.  She told me that she was going to be coming to the school for a visit next week, and I could barely wait. But she'd also said something about there being something important that she wanted to tell me. I just wondered why she had to do it in person when she could have told me in the letter. "It must be something important..."

Then as I put the letter away, I turned and caught sight of myself in the mirror that Rose had hanging up over her makeup stand. The sight of a gray skinned girl no longer surprised me when I looked in the mirror, and it was getting more and more familiar with every passing day. I couldn't help wondering if the day would come when I would no longer even remember what my old face had looked like.

"Not too bad," I said, not referring to my face in the mirror, but to the black dress that I was currently wearing.

Rose and Sally had both been trying to talk me into wearing a skirt or dress for the last couple days, and I had finally given in. I figured that If I was going to be a girl, I might as well accept it and at least try to act the part. Sure I felt a little self-conscious in the dress and low heels that they had given me, but I had to admit that they weren't quite as bad as I would have imagined.

"At least they didn't make me put on makeup," I grinned to myself in the mirror. Of course, they probably would have tried talking me into it wasn't for the fact that my skin was gray and not exactly suited for makeup.

Then I reached up to my pointed ears and chuckled, knowing that in just a few hours I'd have them both pierced. Sally had been quite insistent about it, and I had to admit, at least to myself, that I was kind of looking forward to trying that out. If was going to be a girl, I was going to at least try being a decent looking one. I was even thinking about getting a navel piercing like Sally had suggested.

I smiled a little as I thought of my new friends. Rose, Sally and Catseye had all been helping me out quite a bit since learning that I had been a guy, and they had all become good friends. I'd never had friends as nice as them when I had been a guy. In fact, as a boy I hadn't had many friends at all.

However, thoughts of my new friends also brought a slightly nervous feeling as well. I had been with them all in the locker room a number of times, and had even seen all three of them naked on most of those occasions. But strangely, the sight of their naked bodies was becoming less and less interesting. In fact, I was becoming increasingly sure that I was less and less attracted to girls in general.

I let out a long sigh, wondering if this was some sort of side effect of my turning into a girl. Perhaps it was all the girl hormones that were now rushing through my body. I didn't know. I only knew that I was losing my interest in girls. And I was a little nervous that this might mean that I would soon start finding boys interesting instead.

"If it happens," I told myself, "It happens..."

One thing that I had learned since my awakening as a mutant...and a girl, was that people change. Whether you like it or not, everyone changed. And the only thing that you could do was fight who you are and end up miserable and bitter...or go with the flow. I had made a conscious decision to go with the flow. If I did start liking boys, it would be strange, but I would deal with it.

But there was one thing that I wasn't sure that I could deal with. And that was my family. I frowned as I remembered their reactions to me, even the look on my mom's face. It was hard enough for me to accept myself as I now was, and I wasn't sure that any of them ever would.

"Maybe I'll send mom an E-mail," I mused quietly.

Maybe I would try to contact my family and see if we could work things out. However, after a moment, I decided to hold off on that for now. It was still too soon, and the hurt was too fresh. Maybe later when I had a chance go get over it a bit more, when I had accepted myself a little more, then I might be able to get them to accept me as well. It wasn't too likely, but it was possible. Anything was possible.

"People change," I smiled weakly, hoping that this could even apply to my mutant hating family.

Of course I myself had changed. In fact, I had changed more than any person had a right to. I had changed from a human, or so I'd thought myself, into a mutant. I had changed from a boy into a girl. I had changed from Nestor...into Ness.

And, I thought to myself with a bit of pride, I had changed from someone who was afraid of the dark, into someone who had the courage to face the darkness within himself...herself. I had the courage to even face being girl and a mutant freak.

"I was afraid of the darkness," I proudly announced as I turned to go join my friends in the common room, "Now...I am the Darkness."

 

THE END