An Aztrentian year had passed, two months for those still left at the school and hings had been quiet without the twins around. Although somewhat productive it was still too quiet. Waya had sort of completely taken over as leader, making sure danger room session, security diagnostics and flight simulations where at least ran once a day. Rhydian was now fully certified in flying the Thunderbird while Jeremy had become quite adept in programming the danger room. Junior had taken over the kitchen duties and this left the team missing the twins even more. They might have been destructive but they where damn good cooks.
With the Skrull invasion having recently been subverted the first thing these kids needed was a good meal.
"God I hate Skrulls."
Waya said as she came threw the door. She was covered nearly from head to toe in a foul smelling greenish slime. "When are they gonna learn that Earth is not an incubation ground for their rotten little army?"
Junior came threw the door, likewise covered in slime "I bet it's in their genetic makeup, like how carrier pidgins know how to return to where they where hatched. I bet they've been here before, like millions of years ago."
"They've been coming here a long time, at least that's what all the records indicate."
Rhydian said as he walked in after them, strangely not covered in slime at all.
"Well they need to stop."
Waya said She'd pooled her shadow at her feet to prevent from getting any of the slime on the carpet of hard wood.
"Has anyone noticed how everything we seem to fight recently winds up with us being covered with slime?"
Eliza groaned as she rung out her hair slowly, spattering the floor with goo.
Jeremy gave a small groan and rubbed his head, entering the Skrull's bodies was like smacking your face against the wall repeatedly.
"In don't know about you guys but I'm gonna go take a shower."
Waya said
Everyone generally thought that this was a good idea so they left to get rid of the Skrull goo and reconvened in the hall about an hour later. They'd all traded their uniforms in for more comfy attire like pajama pants, sweats and slippers.
"I certainly feel better."
Junior said as he came down the stairs two at a time. He'd opted for black pajama pants and a towel around his neck substituted for a shirt.
Since
Jeremy arrived in very little clothes he'd had to borrow some, and the only pair in the school small enough for his thin frame belonged to an almost anorexic looking girl. That is why he currently stood in bright pink kitten pajamas and paw booties. "I need new clothes..." he groaned.
Eliza pulled at her baggy blue clothes, stre-tching slightly and letting out a small groan. At least the twins had left, they'd never be able to do this with them around.
Rhydian couldn't help but chuckle at what Jeremy was wearing. "I think we're gonna have to make a shopping trip one of these days man."
"Check the dorm closets."
Waya advised. "I bet some of the students left stuff when they left."
"This is the stuff they left, the only one that was small enough for me not to get smothered in it as I slept!"
Jeremy groaned, flapping his slightly short pink sleeves desperately in the air "I hate my powers."
"Hey hey hey, calm down."
Waya told him "Try the Twin's closet, they won;t be back any time soon any way."
"We can always hem stuff anyway, Jeremy."
Rhydian pointed out, surprised that nobody had apparently thought of it before for the poor guy.
A loud rumble could be heard outside. The team's combined experience told them all that it was a helicopter.
"Hey, that's a helicopter!"
Waya announced a few moments before the sound could be heard by everyone else. Pajamas and all she went outside to investigate.
"It is!"
Junior said looking out the window, then quickly followed Waya.
Rhydian didn't waste any time in investigating before running out the door.
Waya came back in a few moments later carrying a suitcase "I think we've got a new member." She told the others "Eliza, could you prepare one of the neural implants for the newb?"
"Ah... oh"
Eliza patted herself down slightly as if searching for something to do it with "I'm afraid I don't have it on me right now..."
"The lab."
Waya reminded her "Hanks EMH can walk you threw it."
Junior came threw the door carrying one of Phinagan's bags. "He certainly brought a lot of luggage."
Phinagin followed Waya into the school. Upon entering the school, Phinagin nodded slightly in approving. It wasn't nearly as bad as he thought it was going to be.
"Everyone, meet Phinagin Carlyle the third."
Waya said introducing him.
"Fourth."
Phinagin corrected without missing a beat. He then turned his attention to the rest of the group. "It is nice to meet you all."
Rhydian walked in after the introductions had been concluded. The remainder of Phinagin's luggage trotted in behind him on bizarre and yet oddly natural looking legs of their own. There was a rather pompous smile upon his face as he displayed his powers.
Phinagin watched his suitcases walk in and he had to work to refrain from shuddering. He also couldn't help but think how good this child would be as a butler.
"Hello!"
Jeremy said, waving his skeletal green hand cheerily at Phinagin as the bright pink pajamas flapped around his eerily thin form. It'd be nice not to be the new guy.
"Ummmm.. yes"
Eliza said, scratching her head and walking off towards the lower levels and beasts' lab... She didn't really want to do this.
"Mr. Carlyle if you would follow Liz we can go get that implant."
Waya said and led him towards the
lower level infirmary
Rhydian smiled as he brought the luggage to a stop. "Once you get the implant, you can pick a room and I'll have your stuff moved there. Trust me, you're going to love it here. Rarely a dull moment."
Phinagin nodded in acknowledgment as he followed Waya down to the infirmary.
Waya came back up from the lower levels and gave a thumbs up to the others to indicate that Phinagin had taken the implant, she was also explaining the danger room to him "I can't use it because my powers don't work in the absence of shadow, seeing as how the simulations are comprised of hard light holograms. We thank the Shi'ar for that technology, they are among the few alien races we can consider our alies. They don't come around very often though, not as often as the Aztrentians."
"So...how many alien races have you encountered exactly?"
Phinagin asked, "And how good is a hologram at training mutants to use their powers?"
"Earth has been contacted by at least 30 different species of alien races since the whole Roswell incident back in the 20th."
Waya explained "Two of our members are actually half Aztrentian and half human but they're off gallivanting around the universe with their uncle." To change subjects she decided to answer his question about the danger room "The danger room has been training mutants for" She breathed a sigh as she waited for her mind to collect the data using her neural implant "Forty years and that was before the first official X-Men team. It's been modified and upgraded since, about thirty years ago the Shi'ar technology was implemented, which made it a more successful teaching device."
"It's a whole lot easier than trying to make your own training equipment. You simply tell the computer what your abilities are and it'll come up with the perfect scenario for you to train with."
Rhydian added as the luggage paced around him, wanting somewhere to go with their newly formed leg.
"And you never shared this technology with the world?"
Phinagin asked incredulously.
"We share what is needed, but can you really trust some people with this kind of technology? I mean think what could happen with a hard light hologram if someone really wanted to hurt someone? Even stabilization is hard, we need an entire room after all... and it is kinda rude to give away alien technology without their permission"
Eliza sighed as she emerged behind the two others.
"If you only look at the bad side of inventions and discoveries we would still be in the stone age."
Phinagin said. "You must always weigh the pros and the cons."
"It's like with the chip."
Waya said "If someone where to get their hands on it they would have the capabilities to control anyone who has it in their head. Dr. McCoy and Dr. Richards made it with the intent of it being mass produced but there is no way to safeguard against someone reverse engineering it to figure out how it works. " She suddenly had a thought and found a pen and piece of paper to scribble it down and then stuffed it in her pocket.
The two doors opened, revealing two identical, familiar faces.
Jaden and Jayden walked in wearing proper Aztrentian outfits and hair-dos. They had spent an entire year on their Mother's home planet. It seemed that being there boosted them through some sort of alien-related puberty. The skin around their eyes seemed to have tinted itself a light purple-blue color, accompanied by a few matching speckles on their cheeks. Their hair was slicked back, very gentleman-like but back to a point in the back, tilted up. They bowed for a moment and smiled, their usual smile. "Greetings." they said together.
"I am guessing they are the half aliens you referred to earlier."
Phinagin said low to Waya as to try and keep the two from hearing.
"Welcome back guys!"
Rhydian told them with a smile. True it had been a little boring without them around. Not to mention the food was back to being made by the tastebud-less automations.
"Hey you're alive!"
Eliza said, grinning at the twins as they appeared; annoying at times yes, but they were still her cousins "Looks like the trip did you good."
They nodded, "Thank you!"
Jaden gestured an arm, "Turns out however- our Uncle wasn't in fact any uncle of ours.
"Merely a con man,"
Jayden stepped in, "But it's ok, he's done now."
"How was your year?" they asked together, all prim and proper.
"It's been two months."
Waya said "Are you guys still stuck on Aztrentian time?"
"Mr. Phinagin Carlyle IV, meet Jayden and Jaden Relman."
Junior said helpfully introducing them "He's filthy rich, they're the heirs to an alien empire."
"So Phinagin, may I call you Phinagin? Just what is it that you can do? I mean you wouldn't be here if you weren't a mutant."
Rhydian asked him curiously, the boy they had seen in the papers and on tv sure didn't seem like your average run of the mill mutant, but then again most didn't
The twins raised a hand and said plainly, "Yo-" They both looked at their friends and a big bright smile came onto their faces as if they were holding something in. A twin ran and gave Eliza a hug while the other hugged Waya. "We missed you guys!" They switched and hugged both Rhydian and Jr afterward. Feeling as if they were ignoring the new kid, Jayden and Jaden leaned in towards Phinagin. "So, what's your sexual preference?" they asked.
Eliza hugged the twin back and laughed slightly, then as soon as they said those words she turned slightly red in the face "Guys! Jeese you haven't changed at all have you!"
"Oh, on the contrary, darling."
Jaden smiled, raising a finger.
"We've become fine gentlemen."
Jayden added.
"Can't you tell?" they asked together, raising a brow and grinning handsomely.
"Put a pig in a suit, it's still a pig."
Waya said to herself then suddenly realized "Did I say that out loud?"
"Yes but it was spot on."
Junior said and turned back to the twins "It's been so boring around here without you guys."
Phinagin wasn't sure what he should be more offended about. The question about his sexual preference or the pig in a suit comment. Deciding his best course of action was to ignore both and answer Rhydian. "Here." He said simply holding out his hand. From his the palm of his hand a small lump formed and, with a slight wince of pain, popped through the skin forming a flat tablet, made of bone, that gave a full description of his powers. Snapping it off he handed it over. "That should explain it for you."
"Oh come on.. did you really not miss us?"
the twins asked, both wrapping an arm around Waya's shoulder. Their attention glanced at Phinagin and the bone tablet. "Ew..."
"If I admit that I missed you will you let go of me?"
Waya asked somewhat stiffly.
"I missed you, until you came back"
Eliza huffed, taking the bone tablet quickly and examining it minutely. She flexed it between her fingers slowly as if testing it's durability.
"Don't worry, I drank my milk when I was a kid"
Phinagin said, seeing Eliza testing the strength.
The fingers around the disk began to swell, thickening and elongating until they looked like they belonged to a gorilla more than the smallish
Eliza With another small grunt she began to bend, before snapping, the piece of bone "Tough stuff..."
"Thank you"
Phinagin said. "I can transmute my bones into anything and everything, as long as I know what it looks like. I also heal so I'm not covered in bandages and I have increased strenght which enables me to snap off the bones for increased usage and more impact when I land a hit."
"Course."
the twins smiled, keeping their half hug around Waya. She was always the most fun to tease.
"You seem to have pretty good contorl over it too. Serviced a while ago, did they?"
Rhydian asked him, "I mean, I don't intend to pry, but generally one doesn't have such control over their powers unless they've been training for a while."
"I missed you."
Waya said dryly. It was true she had missed things about them in the two months while they where gone, their cooking topped the list above all others but since she was the sort of person that she was she wasn't about to make a list of things she missed most about the twins.
"Well I discovered my powers later then most, but when I found out the extent of them I immediatly began testing them to the limit."
Phinagin explained. "That and when your confined to the house for the remainder of your days for safety, you get a lot of free time."
Jaden and Jayden smiled and released their arm from her shoulder. "That's better." they winked. "So- who's hungry?" they asked together and clapped loudly, not caring that Phinagin was in the middle of a conversation.
"You were confined?"
Rhydian asked rather shocked by the statement. The boy had a physical mutation,y es but not a clear one in his appearance. Why in the world would he be confined??
Quickly catching the concern and shock in the boy"s voice
Phinagin quickly corrected himself, "My parents were concerned for my safety after the...incident
, and for the safety of those that may interact with me. So to ensure no other incidents they pulled my from school and hired a whole slew of private tutors. I was rarely able to leave the house and even then not without a large following of bodyguards."
"And how did you find out about us?" Waya asked. It was true that many students had walked threw the entrance hall doors but all had a basic sense of security. Hell, even Magneto kept this place a secret.
"Good idea." Junior replied to the Twins "Shall we move this into the kitchen?" He asked everyone "You've not lived till you've tasted what these two can concoct."
"Alright!" a twin said, grabbing Jr and bringing him along.
"That's better!" the other said.
"I was sorting through a database at my house and I stumbled upon an old newspaper clipping about an attack on a school for mutants." Phinagin explained, "I looked up the address and found it was still around and decided I would do more research." He finished, as he made ready to follow the others.
Waya held out her hand to signify the door to the school kitchen "It was in a paper?" She asked "Really?"
"I didn't say that it was a front page article now did I?" Phinagin said with a smirk as he headed into the school kitchen.
Eliza had been half listening, half concentrating on the conversation going on the in kitchen... Shrugging she followed them in.
Jeremy pulled at the pink cloth irritably as he followed everyone, feeling just as invisible as his ghost for sometimes.
A little while later
Rhydian came storming out of the school kitchen, a smug look on his face for having 'belted' the twins again. He looked around for Waya, wanting to know what that flash was all about in the first place. He had thought they were hooking up...
A few minutes later Phinagin walked out of the kitchen. Spotting Rhydian he walked over to him. "Um, excuse me...Rhydian was it? Could you tell me which way my luggage went?"
"Oh. Hey Phinagin." Rhydian said, looking over to where he had left the luggage. "Right where we left it, well actually it's a little to the left. You ready to pick out a room, I take it?"
"Yes, and to break in the room by taking a much needed nap to absorb everything that has happened." Phinagin said. Then he leaned in closer,"Is it normal to be mentally bombarded and then watch a kid get possessed all within the first hour of arriving?"
"It does happen, but not usually. This is the first time in a while we've had a telepath in the school and I believe that Jeremy is kind of a rarity as far as powers go. Weird stuff happens alot here, always has too." Rhydian explained, stretching ah and out and causing the luggage to grow appendages once more. "Shall we find you a room then?"
"Lead the way." Phinagin said.
Breaking the fourth wall by doing so, Rhydian remarked simply, "We aren't nearly as complicated at room picking as previous years. Come on I'll take you right to Phinagin's Room"
The twins came in together. Jayden looked at his brother and placed a finger on his forehead.
Jerking back, Jaden knew what Jeremy did. "No wonder he was staring me down like that." They headed to the rec room
Eliza popped a door open with her hip, speaking as she came through "Like I said, I was fishing for parts and I find that the infirmary lets me think better, I think it's because I'm surrounded by pieces of equipment my parents helped design. Lets me think a bit like them so I can invent things myself." She scratched at her ear and let out a slight sigh "I hate these chips, honestly, takes away interaction with people when learning."
Jayden and Jaden walked into the room with their hands in their pockets lazily. "So what do you guys do for fun around here?"
"Don't let our ADD kick in or we might find our OWN fun." a twin said, almost like a playful threat.
Waya was right behind Eliza, likewise carrying a large box of very retro looking things. Her hoodie snagged on the door knob and puled off her hood, the neural inhibitor on top her head was blissfily keeping everyone elses thoughts out of her head. She glared at the twins as she set her box down "Why don't you two go make yourselves useful and get the rest of the boxes from the infirmary." She sat her box down and added to Eliza "Maybe we can find some clothes for Jeremy in all this crap?"
Just then Junior appeared threw one of the other doors, he froze in his tracks not sure wether to phase out again instead of dealing with what happened earlier.
Almost as if sensing bad stuff going down, Jeremy opened the door of the kitchen and stepped out. He settled down against the wall and watched everyone with interest, his eyes locked on the twins as he leant against the wall; he was waiting for them to do the right thing.
"What's in the boxes?" Junior's voice squeaked and he cleared his throat. "Ahem, what's in the boxes?" He asked again, more normaly.
"Lost and found stuff" Eliza answered, shaking it slightly and trying to grin naturally. She wanted the twins to go... now, before someone injured them.
The twins glanced over the box Waya had before she barked an order at them. Before saying a witty remark, they noticed Jeremy's hawk-like eyes staring them down. The two looked at one another, unimpressed. Sliding their hands into the pockets of their white Aztrentian clothing, they turned and headed for the infirmary without saying anything. Although they weren't even accepted into their own family palace, they sure acted like stuck-up princes.
"Some of this stuff is really old." Waya said pulling out an old GameBoy. "Really really old."
"Which is why I needed it to pick to pieces. Sometimes the inventors of the past had great machines, but they didn't know what things could do to their full capacity. Pick something old to pieces and you might find a hundred useless bits and pieces but one really good one." Eliza replied, grinning slightly and spotting Jeremy, still wrapped in hot pink pajamas. She glanced down and began to search for anything that would actually fit him.
The twins into the room a few moments later with three boxes hovering behind them like train cargo. They were set down next to Waya and Eliza before the tops opened. Jaden and Jaden glanced in as they stood. "Who would keep all that junk?" one asked.
"This was a school, we have several lost and found boxes. This junk just gets lost over the years I guess" Eliza sighed, bowing down slightly and fished in a second box. There was a selection of small pieces in this, a couple of broken watches and a tub of some strange gel; the gel had a scrawl of "Failure" in red marker on the plastic.
Jeremy's eyes never left the twins, watching them as they went and watching them when they returned. He was going to keep doing this, he'd even do it in the night if he had to; these two had to learn some humility, at least in front of everyone else.
Waya was doing her best to ignore the twins. Silent treatment, if preformed properly might actually make them apologize. "Hey!" she said pulling out an old dusty cowboy hat. It was a bit big but it did cover the neural inhibitor. "What do you think?" She asked Eliza.
Junior gave a sort of sideways glance at the twins, the prospect of going threw the boxes seemed more fun than just stalking off silently so he pulled one towards him and sat down to inspect the contents.
"They sure lost a lot of rubbish didn't they? I mean where did this thing come from?" Eliza said, trying to cut a grin in the tension flooding the room. She was holding small pieces of metal, they looked like a puzzle that fit together over time; little did she know they had once been Waya's mother's skeletal coating.
"Huh." Waya said finding another one of the puzzle blocks "Maybe it's some Shi'ar game board or something?" She found a pair of girl's blue jeans with a hole cut out in the back and the name Relman#3 written on the tag. "I think these may have been your Mom's."
Eliza seemed to freeze, turn slightly and take the jeans carefully from Waya. She spent her time now, rapturously examining the jeans and poking her finger through the hole in the back; she seemed fixated with finding something that belonged to her mother, personally and suddenly like this. Like an old relic dug up.
"Ooooo." Junior said digging out a green sock cap, there wasn't a name on the tag but the edges had been singed and their where black spots on the inside. Figuring who it must have belonged to, Junior handed it over to the Twins.
Jaden took it from Junior. "What happened to this thi- Hey!" He turned and showed it to Jayden, "Do you think this is Dad's old hat?!"
"Wow!" Jayden exclaimed, suddenly becoming a lot more interested in these old boxes. "What else are in these?!" he slid onto his knees and started to rummage through them with the others.
Jaden smiled down at the hat and even sniffed at the burnt fibers. "Heh...reminds me of the time we used Dad's old skateboard as part of our tree house."
"Oh yea! He was so mad, he almost burned the whole thing down!" Jayden chuckled from his box.
Junior refiled threw his box and came upon a fringe suede jacket that looked like it was cut for a woman "Who guesses who this belongs too." he said tossing it to Waya.
Waya caught the coat and looked at it in much the same way Eliza was examining her mother's pants. Now if she could only find something of her father's.
After a long moment of silent reflection over the trousers in her hands, Eliza seemed to wake up and chuckle "Darn, she was skinnier than me back then! Look at these things, could be used as drainpipes." She folded the treasured clothes over slowly and began searching again.
Rhydian came downstairs with Phinagin in tow. He arched an eyebrow as he saw everyone digging through some old boxes. "What's goin on?"
"Waya-"
"And Eliza-"
"found our parent's lost and found box!" The twins said together.
Phinagin followed Rhydian into the room. He looked around at all the boxes and stuff strewn about the room. "This looks like something I've read about before.Just can't remember what it was called." He said as he stroked his chin in thought before he snapped his fingers in inspiration. "Yard sale! That's what it was called...heard of them?"
"Hey!" the twins barked at him. "Easy there powder puff. May we remind you that our parents vanished months ago." They weren't necessarily angry, just more so at the concept of selling their parent's treasures.
Phinagin turned to the twins with a controlled voice he said, "You cannot remind someone of something they didn't know. And next time you call me powder puff you will not like me. I was not implying that you were selling your parents belongings, just that the general layout of the boxes reminded me of a yard sale." having said his fill he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, he began counting from one to ten under his breath before beginning again. "What happened to them?"
It usualy fell on Waya to explain the events surrounding the former team's disapearance but she folded up her mother's coat and sat it next to her, more interested in finding something of her father's rather than explaining the whole hard story again.
"All accounts are rather sketchy but they went to stop a mutant who was zapping whole city blocks into an alternate dimension." Junior said finding a camera and tossing it to Phinagin "The best we or anyone else can figure is that they got sucked in when the guy did. His name was Spot right?" he asked Eliza.
"Or Abyss, or any of the other hundred mutants with that power on the archives. We just hope they landed somewhere nice, no one knows where they really dissapeared to after all." Eliza sighed, scrabbling through the boxes slowly as if peering around for forgotten treasures.
The twins gave one another a quick smirk before digging into the boxes once more in search of something of their Mom's.
Rhydian knelt down in the group and started looking through the boxes as well. He hadn't lost his parents, he had lost his entire family. The X-men had taken him in when no one else would. They had given him a home, and anything of their's would be a great treasure to him. He opened a box and started pulling random things out. There were scraps of aged paper, a ratty looking mask, and then he saw it. He pulled it up slowly and shook the dust from it. He let out a low whistle as he looked at the long black trench coat in his hands. "Waya? You may want to see this."
Jeremy blinked slightly as he pulled back from his own searchings in a box, holding what looked like a small blue blanket. He wrinkled it slightly, sniffing it to see if it was clean; thankfully it was. What he didn't know was that it belonged to this twins, their mother having bought it for them when they were babies.
Waya's attention was directed at Rhydian and she realized she'd not spoken to him after the incident earlier, with a little pit of dread in her stomach she asked "What is it?" then saw the trench coat.
"There's no holes, no signs of wear and tear. Either this coat has been in suspended animation all this time, or it's classic SHIELD-WEAR." Rhydian told her as he looked about the fabric. There wasn't so much as even a single scratch on the entirety of it. "Man...they make some good stuff. I've said it before, they ought to think of making a clothing line, but you know, they don't take advise from kids."
"Why's it got your dad's name written on the bottom?" Eliza asked, raising an eyebrow and pointing to a very small, quite faded "Kurt" written just inside the hem of the jacket.
The twin's attention went to the trench coat as well. "Did you know that he worked for that place?" One of them inched closer, "Does it have a year on it somewhere?"
Phinagin found a clear spot near the group. He dusted it off and sat down, watching the rest of the students go through the boxes to find their parents stuff.
"As far as our records show, Mr. Smith never worked for SHIELD. This is weird..." Rhydian said, looking over to Waya, hoping to get some sort of confirmation about the coat from her.
Just then- the front door creaked open and a young girl peeked in. She had short, brown hair that curled up near her ears. On her head, she wore a yellow sun hat to match the dress she had on. On top of this was a long-sleeve, maroon colored sweater. With the door open all the way now, the others could see that she had a suitcase, a birdcage with a slip over it and some soft of instrument case. Maribel stared wide-eyed at the group of people(and creatures) huddled in the middle of a dusty room as they rummaged through filthy boxes. She definitely had the wrong place. A little scared, she took a step back.
Being the only one not reminising Phinagin heard the door creak open. He quickly turned around and saw the girl at the doorway as she began to retreat. Not knowing if it was a student, potential student, or SHIELD, he got up quickly and dusted himself off. He cleared his throat before saying under his breath, "Waya? We have company."
Jeremy blinked slightly and looked up, still examining the blue blanket in his hands. He waved it in the air and grinned at the new girl "Hey there!" he called out cheerily "Who are you?"
Maribel hesitantly took a step in and smiled a bit awkwardly at the crowd staring at her. She set her luggage down except for the bird cage and waved a little. Slipping her hand in her purse, she pulled out an old pamphlet of Xavier's institute for Gifted Youngsters. It surely didn't look like the place in the picture- but it had to same name. Holding it up, she hoped they would tell her she was in the right place.
Eliza got up very slowly and made her way over towards Maribel, something wasn't right with the girl she could tell that... She simply took the pamphlet carefully and read it over, a small grin spreading across her face, then a look of surprise and slight joy. She smiled openly at Maribel "Yes. This is the place. You're a mutant like us right?"
Maribel smiled and lifted her hand and made a fist. She bent her wrist, letting her fist bob up and down. It looked like her fist was nodding. She was so proud that she was able to understand what they were saying fairly well.
Eliza blinked adn watched her fist, not understanding for a moment before she let out a loud "OH!" Comprehension dawning on her face she turned back to the others "Ummmm... Waya? I think we need your new... talent. I don't want to try and translate everything she says, you can get into her mind."
Maribel shook her head with a worried expression, not liking this idea. She had read a little about telepaths in the pamphlet. Quickly, Maribel took out her wallet and handed Eliza her ID. On it, one could see that she was 15, from France and that her name was Maribel Aiton.
"Ok... French, 15" Eliza scanned over her body as if saying really? mentally "Her name is Maribel Aiton and probably quite scared of telepaths... The pamphlet's kinda old after all."
Maribel rolled her eyes and smacked her forehead before taking her ID back. She chose not to rebuttal about the 'fear of telepath' thing and just let it be. So this was the right place? Good. She picked up her things once more and awaited some sort of suggestion from the other students for what to do.
Waya wasn;t exactly listening as she placed what she'd found in a box by it's self and set it away from the others. She did however catch Eliza's last comment "What? Look, I don't wanna go poking around in anyone's head till I get this thing figured out." She stepped between the boxes and mutants to get closer to the door so where the others where standing and took the card from Eliza "Maribel Aiton?" She said reading what appeared to be a student visa. "It says here that you're mute?"
The twins headed over quickly with Waya. Together, they bowed like true gentlemen.
"HELLO. MY NAME IS JAYDEN!"
"AND MINE IS JADEN!" The two spoke loudly, thinking she couldn't hear.
"WE ARE PRINCES OF AZTRENTOS. LET US HELP A LOVELY YOUNG ROSEBUD LIKE YOU TO YOUR PRIVATE QUARTERS?!" One twin took her luggage while the other took her birdcage and instrument case.
Maribel's eyebrows flared, looking at the odd brothers as if they had something mentally wrong with them. She could hear perfectly fine so the loud speaking was unneeded but on top of that, they were weird as heck. Then again- it wouldn't be the first time that her "condition" was misinterpreted. She looked at Waya and nodded 'yes' It was always an awkward thing, informing people you can't speak...
Slowly, almost like the ghostly form he took at times, Jeremy drifted into the twins' view and stood there, arms crossed. He was trying to tell them with his gaze that they were being an ass again, and that he was still expecting an apology to magically spring to their lips about more than just treating the new girl as if she was stupid.
Waya pushed the two rejects from Aztrentose back sever paces after they where done yelling "She's mute not deaf you morons." she turned back to Maribel and handed back her visa. "Don't mind them, they're just ... well actually you might wanna keep your guard up." it was sort of a delicate subject but questions needed to be asked "So do you speak with sign language or use a note pad? I'm afraid we all probably need a refresher course on sign language but by tomorrow we should all be able to understand each-other fairly well."
Maribel smiled and pulled out a little pocket notebook. She flipped over the sheet on top that had directions to the school for the cab driver. Taking a pen out of her other pocket, she wrote something down and showed it to Waya and the group. 'Yes, I use ASL. Thanks for being so helpful.' Maribel paused, rethinking something to write before inscribing on another sheet, 'You will know it by TOMORROW?'
"Yeah, we'll all be fluent by tomorrow." Waya told her "We don't have any traditional teachers here, so we all have a neural implant that download educational information while we sleep. We can program the implants to download specific things if we want. We'll skip Latverian history tonight so we can boost up on our sign language instead. If you want the implant we can go down to the infirmary and pop one in your head real quick. there aren't any negative side effects really, other than weird dreams or spontaneous bursts of info in occasion."
"Well that's not intimidating at all!" Jayden said sarcastically. He swung the instrument case around carelessly.
Maribel lifted a brow and cringed, swipping back her violin case. Quickly she shook her head and brushed it off. She had been hiding it in, but these people sure looked strange. Waya looked like a vampire right out of the story books and the twins looked like two elfish creatures with troll-like hair. But- they seemed nice enough anyway.
"Phinagin did it, seconds after he walked threw the door." Junior said "It's not dangerous, as a matter of fact we think it's gonna be the next big thing in education."
Maribel's eyes scanned the students. By process of elimination, she guessed which student that was and looked at him for anything to add about the transplants.
Phinagin stepped forward and extended his hand while introducing himself. "I am Phinagin Carlyle IV and the implants arent that bad. As long as you dont mind exceptionally large needles and having a microbe lodged in your brain." he said with no hint of joking.
Maribel gulped at the sound of long needles and curtsied after Phinagin introduced himself, placing her hand into his.
"It's not too bad, they don't even need to put you to sleep for it" Jeremy said, scratching at the spot where his had been implanted. "It doesn't make you feel... smarter either. You just KNOW things, instinctly, cause it's in your subconsious."
Maribel shrugged her shoulders and nodded, agreeing with this admission. She had to admit that she was getting a little sick of being the center of attention right about now. Taking the notebook, she wrote to the others, "So now what?" she asked, pointing to her bags and luggage that the twins were holding
"We can put this up in an empty room for you while you go get the implant." Jaden said.
"Since we are the only ones at the school we are all on the 2nd floor." Jayden added, peeking into the birdcage. There was a small squawk that startled him away.
"Oh a Yellow-Crested Cockatoo, originally from Australia, diet consists mainly of seeds, buds, fruits, nuts and herbaceous plants." Waya said automatically slipping her fingers up to the cage to inspect the bird. "That's not from the implant or anything," She said "I just like animals."
Maribel smiled. As an attempt to be friendly, she opened the cage as one of the twins held onto it. A large white bird with a yellow crown and black beak quickly stepped onto her hand as it was being pulled out. She hoped this would break from of the ice between her and the group. Maribel signed something to the bird. It turned it's head up and said, "Anabelle! Ana-belle! Ana!"
"Oh he's a smart fella isn't he." Waya said using the back of her hand to stroke the bird's chest. Her other arm she held up just like Maribel was holding her bird and a shadowy example of Maribel's cockatoo appeared perched on her arm "I could never do one of these before." The bird responded like it was real but it was unable to make any sound due to the fact that it was made of shadow and not feathers
"Nice bird" Eliza said, smiling slightly as she watched the soft bobbing of both the real one and the shadow bird in front of her "You're lucky it's only us here, I don't know how the teacher's would have reacted to pets..."
"From what I remember they didn't really mind so much as they where taken care of and not an overabundance." Junior said eying the bird, "But then again not many kids brought their pets with them."
"Oh yea- we forgot to mention." a twin said.
They spoke together, "Our parents compose most of the staff hree and they have been MIA for months. We haven't had contact with them since. So- we sort of sun the place."
Maribel She stared at the shadow bird, in awe at this girl's mutation. Anabelle tilted his head at the other bird. He flapped his wings quickly, as if defending himself. Maribel then blinked at the twins. She placed a finger to her lips, wondering about the situation. She reached forewards and put the bird on Phinagin's shoulder before looking to Waya. Writing something down, she showed it to her, 'I came here to learn how to control my defects. I can't do that here with no teachers.'
Phinagin looked at the bird, making eye contact with it. He gave it a look that was unmistakable, "Do anything to ruin this suit and I will have no problem turning you into finger food."
Rhydian shrugged, swinging the great black trench coat onto his shoulders, it was a little long on him. But he figured he looked pretty cool. As the others were absorbed in the new girl and her bird, he started to look through the hidden pockets of the coat
Since Waya seemed to be caught up in her own shadowy bird, Eliza peered over her shoulder at what Maribel had written on the pad. She immediatley let out a soft huffing noise as if not liking what she saw "Mutation" she said softly "Not defects. None of them are defects, in fact they make us better. You wouldn't call human beings defected monkeys would you? And we can help you control, trust us."
The twins lifted what luggage she had and went to Phinagin. "May I?" one inquired, bringing his arm up to the parrot. After the bird stepped onto his shoulder, him and his brother walked towards the staircase. "We're gonna put this stuff into Maribel's Room."
Maribel took another last glance at Waya's shadow bird before signing 'Thank you' to the twins. Unfortunately their backs were to her. But she shrugged and looked to the other students. Submitting to Eliza's comment, Maribel bowed a bit and pointed to her temple. If she was going to join this school, she wanted to be done with the whole- 'transplant' bit.
"It's not that bad" Eliza tried to reassure her "Means you have more free time really... and you still get taught. If you want really complicated stuff you'll have to read up on it though, the teachers thought it best not to let everyone know everything, unfortunatley that includes building a portal to another reality. That I'm learning myself." She sighed and took Maribel's hand, leading her down towards the lower level laborotries.
The second the bird left his shoulder Phinagin set upon inspecting his suit. Nothing major, just some little holes and rhose were fixed by him rubbing his shoulder to put the threads back in place. That done he walked over to Waya, "Im glad she got a warmer reception then I did or she might have took off."
Waya shook her arm and the bird dissolved "Yeah well big and rich is more unusual than mute and French. Besides, we ponied right up to you once you took the implant. If you'd not have then we'd be more suspicious, same goes with her though. Once we can all understand each other a little better she'll get the same third degree you did."
Maribel and Eliza walked back in. She had gotten the shot but it made her a little whoosy. Maribel had her arm around Eliza as she was helped out of the elevator.
"Just a liiittle disorientated" Eliza explained "I'm taking her to the kitchen for some food." She turned slightly and lead Maribel off towards the kitchens.
By this time, the twins headed back down the stairs with the parrot still on one of their shoulders. "Did someone say- kitchen?" they asked.
"Oh and the bird won't stay in the room."
A week had passed, Maribel and her bird had been settled in nicely especial after everyone knew how to properly understand sign language. They found that she was a quiet and pleasant addition to the group. Phinagin was being welcomed into to the fold rather nicely after he insisted moving his things into a larger (former teacher's) room to accommodate his stuff. Waya had stopped wearing the neural inhibitor a few days earlier and aside from the odd accidental glaze she found it relatively easy to keep everyone else's thoughts out of her head. In the boxes of discarded clothes they'd found a more suitable wardrobe for Jeremy, that was blessedly void of pink or flip-
flops. The Twins had been general subdued since their return, whatever had happened on Aztrentose had instilled in them a new sense of honor and the others hadn't found them particularly annoying for a few days. The whole Waya, Rhydian, Junior love scandal seemed to get burred under emotional baggage instead of the two boys dealing with it.
It was 8:00 am on the dot, far too bright and early for the teenagers who inhabited the former school, but there was a knock on the door. One that sounded precisely military and relentless to leave.
Waya was usually the first up but 8am was an ungodly hour for anyone with a "teen" in their age. She bounced off the wall sleepily as she pulled on a t-shirt over her top and jeans, barefoot she rubbed her eyes as she answered the door.
"Miss Smith, good morning." Agent Coulson said on the other side of the threshold "May I come in?"
"No." Waya growled, unhappy to see that her slumber was interrupted by a SHIELD dweeb. "What do you want?"
"As direct as always." Agent Coulson said with a slight smile, taking a device from his pressed suit pocket. "It has come to our attention that two new students have joined the school."
"We don't have any new students if that's what your asking." Waya said angrily "We don't have any teachers."
"Which is precisely the point Miss Smith." Agent Coulson droned on "If there are no teachers why have more students joined the school?"
"Do your homework." Waya barked "Both are adults, Phinagin is 18 and Maribel is an adult by Europe's standards, both have a right to be here if they want to be."
"That may be the case but Shield has asked me to express their feelings on the apparent recruitment of new team members." Agent Coulson replied.
"Look Agent Coulson-" Waya started "The X-Men are dead and I don't appreciate you coming to me and accusing me of recruiting new members. They came here ok? In no shape form or fashion have we attempted to recruit anyone got it? No one is being taught anything by anyone other than sign language. This isn't a school any more understand?" by the time she'd finished her rant her voice had elevated into quite a hot shout, loud enough it should have stirred a few sleeping heads from upstairs.
"I understand Miss Smith." Agent Coulson said, maintaining his robotic cool "I guess that will be all, we look forward to your monthly reports as always. Have a good day and thank you for your time."
Waya slammed the door in his face and replied under her breath "Fuck you too." but the end of it was overtaken by a yawn and wasn't as emotionally settling as it would have been if she'd said it to his face.
There was a second slam, this one from a lift door as Eliza rammed back the automated door before it even finished opening for her. "Who the hell was that, calling this late" she checked her watch "early?" She seemed just as testy as Waya this morning, though it was placed down to the fact she'd been pulling a lot of all nighters down in the lab recently and the coffee machine had broken two days ago. She wouldn't have minded quite so much if the piece she'd been wanting to take from the machine hadn't been the thing that had broken. So occasionally she arrived from the lab, irritable and twitchy until she passed out on someone or something.
"Stupid Coulson again." Waya said stretching, she was forced to be awake now, she'd never get back to sleep after this. "He thinks we're recruiting members for a new team." She shuffled her feet towards the kitchen where food waited to be prepared. "I'm not waiting till noon for the Twins to get up and make breakfast. You wanna give me a hand?"
"Yeah... whatever" Eliza mumbled, walking after Waya towards the kitchen "Just don't be surprised if I start trying to count the voltage of pickles or fall asleep and wind up burning myself." She'd done it before... but not to such a degree it did major damage, just a little singe of her palm on a hot plate.
Phinagin came down the stairs slowly, having heard the shouting he wanted to make sure that he wouldnt be caught unawares. With everything clear he found himself a nice spot and sprouted a nice violin from his hand, then he pulled a box of violin strings and begun stringing and tuning the instrument.
Maribel followed. She had at least taken the time to dress herself properly. At first, Maribel didn't notice Phinagin. She walked all the way down the stairs, looking around the room until her eyes met with Phinagin at the bottom of the steps. Maribel's eyes widened and she clapped excitedly to get his attention. Running up to him, she pointed to his violin. Lifting her hands, she signed, 'I play the violin as well!'
Phinagin heard the clapping and looked up to see her signing. He paused for a second looking as if he was thinking before he signed back. "I had assumed so, I saw the case when you came in last week and hoped that's what it was." There was another pause before he added, "Did you bring it down or is it still in your room?"
Rhydian. came down, rubbing his eyes and yawning wide. "Anybody know who was at the door? It's only 8am..." He looked around the hall and saw only Maribel and Phinagin. His head cocked to the side as he noticed the bone violin that Phinagin had obviously made. He shrugged, having not known that the guy could play
Maribel turned before she could answer Phinagin. She lifted her shoulders and arms, letting Rhydian know that she had no clue. Unable to contain her excitement, Maribel jumped back at Phinagin and signed, 'No, it's in my room.' She eyed up his instrument, 'What brand is that? It looks strange.'
"Its custom made, no brand. If you would like I could get you one just like it, or close." Phinagin said as he drew the bow across the strings causing the to let out a long eerie note as. After that he nodded in satisfaction.
Junior poked his head out over the staircase and noticed that people where up. Drearily he came down the stairs "What's goin' on?" He asked "Waya making us do drills again?"
Maribel tilted her head when she heard the strange sound. Without asking, she swiped the bow from his hand and examined it closely. She grabbed a ball of air above the strings-at least that's what is looked like. Maribel pulled up but nothing happened. This wasn't made of hair.
Phinagin sat in astounded silence as she swiped his bow. After a few seconds he said, "Ok, it couldnt have sounded that bad." Seeing her examine and pull at the violin he added, "What, may I ask, are you trying to do?"
'This is not horse hair.' Maribel quickly signed, sitting on the step with the bow in her hand.
With a smile Phinagin said. "That is true. As I told you, it is custom made."
Remembering to answer Junior, Maribel quickly signed to him, 'We heard knocking but no one is here.' She looked back to Phinagin, a little more curious now, 'I don't understand.'
"Let me show you." Phinagin said. He reached out and gently took the bow away from her, then with a swift motion he snapped the bow in two and threw it behind him. It hadnt even hit the floor before he had grown and new one from his palm. Snapping it off he handed it over to Maribel.
Maribel gasped and grit her teeth in shock, jumping away quickly. She hadn't seen his or much or anyone's abilities quite yet. The way the bone pushed out of his palm gave her the shivers. Gulping, she signed, 'You need to use horse hair- not...that.'
"I dont know about that." Phinagin said as he sat back down and began playing again. This time instead of just one note he played a sad slow melody that seemed to resonate through the nearly empty hall. As he played, he spoke. "I have never had any complaints before. In fact most people prefer the sound of my violin over the sound of a regular violin." Then he added. "But then again, 'most people' were usually the hired help."
Maribel frowned when Phinagin described his violin as being superior to regular violin. She began to roll her thumbs together awkwardly as she listened to his playing. Finally, she asked, 'Why are you so sad?'
Phinagin stopped abruptly in his playing causing the violin to let out a small screech. "Sad...I dont think im sad, I just dont know any fast lively songs. The slow sad ones are more emotional, more powerful."
'I disagree. Fast playing is just as emotion driven as slow songs are. I can teach you if you want.' Maribel signed before moving some hair away from her eyes. 'I play to tell a story or to show how I feel since I cannot speak. It's one of my only ways of expressing myelf.' In all honesty, it wasn't the only way she could express herself, but she felt that it was the only way people would be close to understanding her. 'Hands and expressions can only do so much.' Maribel's smile fell a little but she quickly disguised it as a smile, 'Do you
enjoy listening to opera? I used to want to be an opera singer when I was little, how silly is that?'
"I dont see it as humorous." Phinagin said "I once wanted to be a professional body builder like Arnold Swartzeneger. I can thank my father for shooting down that dream, I can still lift cars, just dont have much to show for it." Realizing that he was rambling he stopped and started anew. "I would love to learn some new songs, if you are willing to put up with teaching me."
"Wha's 'at about liftin' cars?" Jeremy mumbled from the top of the steps, yawning widely and stretching out in his new Pajamas. He was much happier with these ones, though they were blue and were a little off his skin they made his eyes seem even more red. Still... they weren't pink. What was the label he'd found in them? Property of... Mortimer? Jeremy wondered how thin this guy must have been in order for it to fit normally on his own small frame.
"We were just discussing tempo preferences and past career ideas." Phinagin said to Jeremy. "Nice PJ's by the way."
"Yeah... cept they've got acid burns on the sleeves" Jeremy grumbled slightly, tugging at them with a green hand. "I don't know anything about tempo and stuff" he admitted, walking down towards the two figures at the bottom of the stairs and passing Rhydian on the way "Why don't you just play how you feel?"
Maribel stayed quiet(as if she had a choice) and waited Phinagin's reply.
"As I told Ms. Maribel here I am limited in my selection of songs. I was only taught some of the slower songs, but she has offered to teach me some happy songs." he said the last part as he gestured to Maribel to make sure Jeremy knew who "she" was.
"M'kay... buh-but" Jeremy stiffled a yawn, gripping onto the banisters to keep himself still "You could try... making something up on the spot? I mean it might not be Bach but if you wanna try a faster song... just fiddle with your violin." He scratched his head sleepily and looked around, wondering where the twins were, and if he still had to stare at them; had they appologised? After all he couldn't tell whether or not they had, he didn't follow them around. Perhaps he should enter their minds when they were sleeping.
Rhydian yawned and shook his head, heading towards the school kitchen, finding himself in great need of coffee.
Maribel krept forwards while Phinagin was distracted. As he chatted, she swipped the violin out of his hand and examined the bone. She looked closely at the surface, noticing the small holes in it. Maribel had never seen anything like it before.
"Fiddle?" Phinagin said, raising his eyebrow in confusion. "I hope your not refering to the redneck violin knock-off." the sound of his voice showed a distinct dislike of the idea.
This is...real bone Maribel thought, running her finger down the face of the violin. It wasn't the same as real wood- thus why it sounded strange to her when Phinagin played it. Not to mention- he wasn't using real wire or hair. She made a twisted face. Sure this was unique and a one of a kind- but the sound wasn't ideal for a violin. In her mind at least.
Seeing as how no one was paying attention Junior caught the subtle scent of bacon frying and hopped over the railing to investigate breakfast in the kitchen.
"Fiddle, the act to play, tease, toy" Jeremy reitterated to Phinagin "Not fiddle as in the instrument. It was a play on words. To 'fiddle' with your violin." Oh what a comical genius was lost on the world...
"Oh, I understand now." Phinagin said feeling slightly foolish. "I never liked the idea of hitting random notes , hoping that it makes a tolerable tune." Even though he was a little shocked at Maribel's straight-forwardness he let his violin go willingly.
Not bothering to ask or let them know what she was up to, she stood up with the violin in hand. She ran up the stairs into maribel's room
Phinagin watched as as Maribel ran away with his violin. He knew he could just make another one, but it just boggled his mind. "Did she just run off with my violin?" he asked Jeremy, just to make sure he wasnt losing his mind.
"You mean the one you can make at a whim because you can litterally grow them out of your hands? Yeah. She left with that. I think she's going to get her own though, she'll be back" Jeremy noted, nodding slightly and watching Phinagin. "Have you seen the twins anywhere?" he asked, going to scratch his forehead but stopping when he noticed his nails would have given him a labotomy.
"No, I havent seen them yet." Phinagin said, "Unless the were up before me and are cooking breakfast." he added as he pointed to the kitchen which currently had a lovely aroma wafting from it.
"Eh, I'll catch them later" Jeremy said, shrugging slightly and flexing his fingers "So how are you settling in?"
"Surprisingly well considering the alarming lack of butlers and/or assisstants." Phinagin said with a smile thats showed he was kidding. "I mean, I actually have to dress myself now."
Maribel walked down the stairs with Phin's violin and bow in one hand and her violin and bow in the other. She figured no one even saw her leave.
"Ah! The violin thief returns." Phinagin said as Maribel came down the stairs. "Did you like my violin that much?"
"It also seems to have reproduced, perhaps she is some sort of violin mid wife and recognised the signs" Jeremy chuckled, running his long fingernails among his equally long locks of hair and only getting them caught twice.
She handed the bone violin over to Phinagin so she could sign. With a mocking face, Maribel gestured, 'Ha-ha-ha...' She rested ger violin down, needing two hands, 'Your violin doesn't have a crisp sound like it should. The bone absorbs it more then is ideal. And-' she lifted her bow, 'horse hair is better.' she smirked. If it was one thing she knew all too much on, it was violins. Perhaps she was even a bit stuck up about it as well. 'If violins were meant to be made from bone, they all would be-' she paused, 'and they would be way too expensive.' Coming from a lower class family, she knew of the hardships of money.
The twins finally made it out of bed. They were lazily walking down the stairs, rubbing the sleep from their eyes.
"Well, I prefer my violin over the others that I have used." Phinagin explained. "I only use the wooden ones when the situation calls on it. And mine doesnt cost horses anything."
Wanting to avoid an awkward situation, Maribel handed the violin back to him. She looked over at the twins for a moment and signed, 'The others were looking for you. They are in the kitchen.' Her attention went back to Phinagin, 'Sorry.'
The twins groaned and headed in that direction.
"Oh, there's no need to apologize." Phinagin said quickly. "As the old saying goes: To each their own." Taking the violin back he set it down next to his seat before standing up and stretching.
"Ummmm... I was looking for them" Jeremy said slowly, waving a thin green hand in the air just to test if he'd suddenly gone ghostly again. He hated being mister invisible.
"Come on babe-" the Twins wrapped their arms around Jeremy's shoulder and lead him into the kitchen with the others.
Maribel felt set her violin down next to his before signing to Phin, 'Since we are taught from the implants, what do we do all day?' she asked, even though he was new too, maybe Phinagin knew?
"Don't call me that. No one who looks like the boogey man's cousin should be called that" Jeremy said flatly, but moved along with them anyway. Hmmm... this was probably the very WRONG way to go right now... "See you guys" he said, waving off towards Phinagin and Maribel as he went.
Phinagin waved at Jeremy as he was dragged off before answering Maribel's question. "Well, nothing really. Whatever you feel like doing. Sometimes Waya has something planned though."
'Everything is so different then my old school in Paris. Not to mention a bit of a culture shock.' Maribel signed, 'I'm very thankful that you all can easily understand me, otherwise I might have to leave.'
"Believe me, I understand better then you think." Phinagin said with a sigh of remembrence, "Let me just say that I bought this suit before i came to this school with part of my weekly allowance."
Maribel looked his suit up and down. 'Ha-ha-ha' she signed with a very sarcastic face. Was this guy trying to show off or something? She was a little confused on how it related to understanding her.
All im trying to say is that I was used to having everything done for me, and then when i came here it was the exact opposite." Phinagin said having the feeling he was failing at getting his point across. "I do realize that your shock is greater then mine, however."
Maribel lifted her head and lowered it as if saying 'Oooohh...'. She contemplated his living standards. This guy had to be loaded. Maribel was starting to feel a little embarrassed with her own style and clothing. She was lower class and figured he probably thought she was stupid or something. Maribel bit her lip and let her eyes dart to the ground, at her violin.
"Are you feeling homesick?" Phinagin asked as he saw her change in facial expression.
Maribel shook her head, 'No, not yet. I talked to my Dad last night. I'm still not used to the time zone switch. I only got a few hours of sleep before the sun came up.'
"You could go back to sleep." Phinagin said trying to be helpful. "No one would care if you slept in."
'I'm not tired right now. I'm hoping it will catch up to me tonight so I can adjust my sleep schedule. Thanks though.' Maribel signed with a kind smile. She sat herself down on the steps, 'So what's this about their parents being all gone?"
"From what I've heard it was a mutant gone crazy." Phinagin said with a sympathetic tone, "The Xmen, their parents, went to stop the mutant from teleporting everything to some parallel dimension and ended up getting sucked in as well after stopping the guy. Now Eliza spends almost all of her time trying to find a way to get them back."
Maribel frowned, 'This is a strange country...'
Phinagin chuckled. "Oh believe me, the strangeness isnt just in the USA. If you only knew the kinds of things my father and his scientists where asked to create for other countries, you would probably cry."
Maribel tilted her head and looked at him. 'Are you serious or are you making this up to show off?'
"Oh god no!" Phinagin said quickly, "I had no intention to show off, and no im not making this stuff im. Im not prone to lying and I dont plan on becoming so."
'Sorry.' Maribel signed plainly. 'It must be exciting to have a father that is a scientist. My dad-' she stopped and placed her hands behind her back, never minding what she started.
Phinagin, not catching the hint, said. "Your Dad...what?"
Oh great... Maribel thought before signing, 'he is a farmer...' It was a give away that she wasn't coming from a wealthy family like Phinagin. 'But...I went to an all girl's school?' Maybe that wouldn't make it awkward.
"Farmer...farmer...OH! ok I know now." Phinagin said as if he just had an epiphiney. Even though he had a very good education, he wasnt exposed to that sort of stuff constantly so it wasnt something that he remembered. "What crops did he grow?" he asked curiously.
Maribel felt a little uneasy with Phinagin all of a sudden. Not only was she embarrassed about her family's wealth compared to his, but she was worried that he saw her as a 'commoner'. In truth- she was, but it was still saddening. 'Livestock. Goat and Sheep...' she signed.
Phinagin nodded his head, "I dont think I've ever seen those in real life...only pictures." It was a few seconds before he asked another question. "Why did your father send you to an all girls school?"
'It was the best school in the area and even though my Father had to raise me alone, he was always trying to make sure I turned out how she would've wanted.' Maribel explained, 'My mother used to play violin and that's why he taught me to.'
"He sounds like one hell of a guy." Phinagin said with a smile.
'Don't tell him that...it'll go straight to his head.' Maribel joked, smiling as usual. She paused and stretched out her fingers. She sure was chatting a lot with him and it was cramping her digits a little, 'So why the fancy suit? I thought all we did here was hang around?'
Phinagin looked down at his suit, "Well, around my house this is casual wear." he said as he picked a bit of lint off his leg. "And when your the son of a man like my father then everyone expects you to look profesional and business-like."
Maribel rubbed her chin and glanced again at his 'casual' wear. 'But aren't you a little young to be wearing suits all the time? It ages you 20 years...Don't get me wrong, it's nice. But a little off putting.'
"I've been wearing these suits for so long that anything else just doesnt feel right." Phinagin explained. "That and the only clothes in my wardrobe are suits."
'Would you wear a sweater? I know how to knit. I made this one here actually with wool from my farm.' Maribel placed her hands to her sides so he could see. She offered this on reflex but after rethinking it- Phinagin didn't look like someone who would wear something so silly as a wool sweater. Her expression faded a little.
"Thanks for the offer, but I must decline. Its nothing against you, I just cant wear clothing like that. It drives me crazy."
'A scarf?' Maribel asked, making one last attempt. If she didn't have any classes- Maribel had to do SOMETHING.
"When it gets colder I will gladly wear a scarf." Phinagin said, giving in.
Maribel smiled and clapped slowly, pleased that he might wear something she made. She figured she would change the subject, 'Does it hurt when they come out?' she asked, regarding his bones.
"A little bit." Phinagin said looking at his palms. "Thats why I usually start forming stuff with a small needle-like protrusion. In an emergency situatution I usually skip the small needle step."
Maribel was quite interested in his abilities. 'How big can you make things?'
"I've never really pushed the limit on that." Phinagin said thinking, "All the furniture in my room is made from my bones, so..." he tailed off as he didnt really know where to go from there.
'Amazing!' Maribel signed. 'Can I see it sometime?' she asked, hopeful. She then clasped her hands together and backed her eye lashes.
"I would be glad to show you." Phinagin said happily before switching tones to one a bit more serious. "You do realize though that me taking you to my bedroom would just start the rumor mill turning."
Maribel was in the middle of signing 'What-' but stopped halfway through when she realized what he just said. She shook her head and signed, 'Why are you worried? It won't start anything.
Just be a quick peek, ok?'
"Oh, believe me. It would start a lot of talk, especially with the twins. And the last thing i want to have to do is spear the twins." Phinagin said without a hint of sarcasim. But then he thought about it and, with a sigh, he added. "But maybe I will show you after breakfast."
'You are right, they DO seem like the people to say things like that. And I just got here!' Maribel laughed, though no sound came out but air. She picked up the violins and handed Phinagin his.
"Thank you." said Phinagin as he took the violin back. He set it in its case and closed it up. Standing up he picked up his violin case and then offered his hand to Maribel to help her stand up.
Maribel smiled at how gentleman-like he was. Placing her hand in his, she let him pull her up. Having forgotten the case in her room, she just held onto her violin and gestured to the kitchen.
Following her gesture he turned and went into the school kitchen.
There was a knock on the door.
Waya emerged from the kitchen, mumbling something to herself about if it was Coulson again she'd have no issues showing him his own spine. She'd just reined a stream of expletives before she opened the door to reveal their new guest.
"Darling Shadowshift, all goes well as the school's new Headmistress I hope?" The man standing in the doorway was a bit tall and broad, dressed from head to toe in a very fine cranberry colored suit. As he removed the fedora from atop his head a shock of white hair was revealed. He was old, in a distinguished sort of way but the years in his face didn't accompany his posture or make him seem feeble in any sense. "Are you going to leave an old friend to shiver on the stoop?"
Waya was of two minds about the subject. She knew she'd never be able to stop him if he truly wanted to come in and in the past he'd been a reliable friend to the X-Men, on occasions where their goals mirrored each other. She'd planned on a more curtious statement but her mouth blurted out "What the hell do you want?" instead.
"Very forward, just like your mother." Magneto said with a smile, "I've come to offer you and the inhabitants of this fine establishment an opportunity. It would be easier to address your team as a unit, rather than explaining myself several times. I smell coffee, you wouldn't begrudge an old man a cup would you?"
Waya stepped out of his way and closed the door behind him. She let him to the kitchen, a thousand and one questions running threw her mind. Namely how to properly send a telepathic spike seeing as how he wasn't wearing his helmet. She was always on the defensive.
The shadows in the room were drawn to the area in front of the door and the team appeared a second later. Waya hadn't teleported so many people so far in a long time and she staggered, bouncing into Jayden.
"Oh- careful Petal." Jayden said, scooping his hands under Waya's arms.
"Damn good job you did too." Jayden added, looking around and seeing that they were in the mansion.
Waya recovered "There used to not be so many of us." told him. They had once only been six, then five, then four and now seven. She'd gotten used to teleporting only four of them.
Maribel let a sigh out when she saw they were back at the school. She was extremely exhausted and her throat was still sore, but she had never been so thankful.
Eliza, suddenly sullen, stuck her hands in her pockets and nodded to the others. Without a word she turned around and headed towards the stairs which would take her down to the labs; she felt the urge to be alone. Or in other words, she felt the urge for someone to come down and put up with all the crying and possibly throwing of things she was about to do.
Rhydian didn't wait around after they teleported, he knew that the others would want an explanation, but he wasn't really prepared to give a thorough one. They'd have to settle for what Jeremy had gotten from him earlier. He headed down the stairs after Eliza. He owed her a great apology after all of this.
Phinagin watched Rhydian skulk off and scowled. He was going to keep a close eye on that guy from now on. "So, how does everyone feel about getting some pizza?"
"I'm up for whatever" Jeremy said honestly, because right now he didn't care if he got pizza, beaten across the head with an iron bar or anally raped by the Pope. Just getting his mind away from that horrible place was enough to make any experience enjoyable.
"Pizza?" the twins repeated. Before they were about to rant on about how their home cooking was better then any pizza they were to order, they remembered that no one here really liked them to begin with. Exhaling through their noses, they said, "Yea sure.." before going back to Waya's aid.
Maribel lifted her hands, "What ever is the fastest." she said plainly. She truthfully just wanted to go to bed but after all that has happened and the therapy she would need....Maribel figured the best thing was to cope with friends.
"Alright." Phinagin said as he separated himself from the others to place their order.
Waya pushed pass the twins and headed upward, taking the stares rather than traveling by shadow as she was so accustomed. She was tired and doubted they'd even come when she called any way.
Junior opened the draw of the table that adorned the center of the entrance hall. From the drawer he removed a good old fashioned phone book and flipped to a dog eared page. Pizza had been the food of choice when the twins had been absent and he found the parlor's number with little trouble. "So what's everyone want?"
'Anything is fine with me.' Maribel signed, not too picky when it came to pizza. She just wanted it here fast. Her eyes wandered down to the summer dress she had just bought this week. It was torn to shreds on the bottom with a few burn scorches on the side. Maribel sighed and looked at Junior, 'Do these sort of things happen a lot?'
"Sometimes, we usually only order out if the twins are awol though." Junior ordered six different pizzas in all. One cheese, one meat lovers, a combination, a peperoni, a veggie and anchovies with olives, thinking that Maribelle might like it since French people ate snails and things like that.
"Depressingly often enough" Jeremy said in responce to Maribelle's question to Junior "Which is why this place usually offers suits to wear that are mostly indestructable. The betrayal thing... that's new though."
"We're standing right here, you know." the princes said in regards to Junior's comment with disapproving faces.
Junior was still relaying instructions over the phone and held up his finger to the twins, ignoring them.
Now that they were all home, safe and sound, Maribel was starting to feel a bit of regret. She glanced over to Phinagin and asked, 'I didn't hurt you too badly, did I?'
The twins looked at one another and waited for Junior. It seemed everyone was slowly leaving the room and it felt right that they should to.
Junior hung up the phone and relayed the message "It'll be half an hour. Enough time to get a shower and out of this uniform."
Phinagin shook his head with a reassuring smile. "Believe me, its going to take a bit more then a slap to hurt me." he said.
Maribel was about to sign something back when her sore throat came back. She turned away from Phinagin and bent at the knees. Although her voice was inaudible, bursts of air surged out of her mouth. She grabbed her throat worriedly. Was this really just a sore throat after all?
Phinagin closed the distance between the two of them quickly. "You alright?" he asked concerned.
Little did he know, she had been spontaneously coughing since Decay and her first REAL near death experience. Maribel gasped for air and coughed a bit more, unable to answer Phin immediately. Her hands felt the front of her throat, tracing over the bump in her esophagus. It was tender and when she applied pressure, the coughing got worse.
Jeremy frowned and moved to Maribel slightly "Wasn't Eliza going to have a look at that?" He looked around, she'd dissapeared a little while ago and he wasn't sure where she'd gone "Should we go look for her?"
Maribel gathered herself a bit to sign, 'Can it wait until tomorrow? I just want to relax and sleep.' Clearing her throat for another moment, Maribel straightened up, 'It is probably just a sore throat or a cold.'
Since no one was really talking to Junior he took the time to return to his room, change out of his shredded uniform and into the shower.
"Did you want us to cook you some soup instead?" the twins asked, stepping closer to the group. "Maybe some Nyquil?"
"No thanks guys" Jeremy said, gazing at Maribel and frowning slightly in worry. "Alright, we can rest tonight, but tomorrow your should get that checked out. And... if it gets too bad you know where her room is right?"
'I believe so.' Maribel signed before adding, 'Actually, I wouldn't mind some medicine to dull down this cough.'
"Ehhh, I might not be good at a lot of things but I can find medicine" Jeremy said carefully "Come on down to the infirmary and we'll see if we can't find some cough syrup."
'Thank you.' she signed in response, straightening her back.
Jeremy nodded adn patted Maribel's shoulder, waving for her to follow as he walked down the same way Eliza had moments before.
Phinagin wasnt sure what was going on, but at the mention of Eliza taking a look at it he figured it wasnt something new and eased a bit.
"So- you feeling alright?" the twins asked Phin, stepping forward with insecure hands in their pockets. "Seems like you guys went through a lot of shit too."
Junior came back down stairs, this time with a towel around his shoulders. His hair was still damp and he was wearing a pair of Iron Man pajama pants. "Has the pizza arrived yet?" He asked as he descended the steps.
Maribel and Jeremy returned to the entrance hall, curious to the pizza status as well.
There was a ding dong from the door. The twins perked up and hustled to the door. "You sure you're not psychic, Jr?" one of them asked while the other opened the door. They hadn't realized that Junior had ordered six pizzas and didn't have enough to pay the man. "Hey- Phin...wanna help us out here?"
"Pretty sure." Junior said and slipped in to help unburden the delivery man.
"Mmmm... pizza" Jeremy muttered to himself as he moved over to spy on the others lifting the pizza away. Delicious delicious cheese and tomato dough.
Smiling, Phinagin moved over to the door and quickly paid the delivery man, giving him a substantial tip. He was glad that the pizza arrived when it did so that he wouldnt have to talk about "How he was feeling."
The twins carried the pizzas across the entrance hall, towards the The Rec Room. "Come on lads and lassies." they smiled, pretending these people still liked them.
Maribel's stomach churned from the smell of the sauce and melted cheese. She was damn near starving. Her throat seemed to be getting better as well. At least she hadn't felt the need to cough since they arrived upstairs. She hurried after the twins into the rec room.
As Junior followed them to the rec room he snickered to himself. He'd given the pizza place his card number for payment. The delivery guy had gotten a bigger tip than Mr. Fancy Pants had intended.
It had been a week since the incident on Asteroid-M and aside from Maribelle and her case of sniffels nothing out of the ordinary had happened since. That was until the bell at the front door rang and continued ringing intermittently.
"Hello?" Waya called as she came into the entrance hall. "I can't be the only one who hears the door!" But she doubted anyone was interested in listening to her complain so she headed to the door and opened it, revealing a very unwanted guest.
"Good afternoon Miss Smith." Agent Coulson replied once Waya had opened the door. "I trust all is well with you and yours?"
"What the hell do you want?" Waya asked, hanging within the door so Agent Coulson couldn't really enter without her moving.
"Perhaps this is best explained to the rest of your team." Agent Coulson replied. "I would hate to repeat myself."
The twins walked into the entrance hall from the kitchen. They were wearing frilly pink aprons and oven mits. They had been baking all morning. They stood in the middle of the hall and looked at the two of them as if waiting for someone to explain something.
"Good morning Mr. Relman, Mr. Relman." Agent Coulson said cheerfully, still keeping his usual straight face. "I would shake your hands but I seem to be stuck in the doorway."
Waya sighed and moved out of his way rather reluctantly and closed the door with a sharp slight slam once he'd cleared it.
"Oh you're just in time for pie!" the two exclaimed, trying to distract the Agent from Waya's crankiness. "It's pumpkin!" one said.
"Would you like whipped cream on yours?" asked the other. Jayden and Jaden both smiled their usual cheeky way.
"I would enjoy that very much." Agent Coulson said, smiling... sort of.
Waya looked at the twins threw squinted eyes and gave them that look of hers that stated "You aren't helping."
"Goodie!" the two mused, scampering back into the kitchen to prepare the plates.
Agent Coulson followed with that "sort of" smile on his face.
Waya seethed at the door for a moment before sending a small telepathic signal that told everyone they had company.
Phinagin came down the stairs with a deep frown on his face. He had only one reason to dislike this SHIELD organization, but it was large enough in his eyes. "What do they want now?" he asked as he saw Waya.
"He hasn't said yet but I doubt it's a social call." Waya told him.
"We should really up our security at the gate." Phinagin said as he stepped off the stairs and into the hall itself. "Should cut back on visits greatly."
"Doesn't he get sick of being the baby sitter for a bunch of kids? Seriously..." jeremy had entered the room to see what all the commotion was about and just caught Coulson retreating into the kitchen. You usually heard the twins having arguments down the hall but all this commotion would bring people from across the school. The very empty school.
"Shield isn't going to rest till they have us on their payroll." Waya told him. "We've our own problems without them shoving missions off on us like we belong to them..."
Eliza emerged, that is the only way to describe how she seemed to drag herself from the downstairs area and up. She hardly spoke anymore, she didn't even tell the Twins to stop acting up. She barely even recognised Waya was there half the time, and she was only seen occasionally when she surfaced for food and drink.
"What's going on?" Junior asked as he came out of the rec room just about the same time Liz appeared. He was going to have to talk to her later, she'd been far too mopey for his taste and he couldn't let his cousin continue to be so dreary.
"You could just tell them no." Phinagin said as he found himself a nice spot to sit. "They cant force you to do missions."
Eliza took barely a moment before heading towards the kitchen, she didn't care, she was going to get something to eat. If Fury tried anything she knew what the reply would be, and she would use it every time she was asked.
"Shield here again?" Junior asked, gathering from the context of their conversation.
"Us, Mr. Fancypants." Waya said correcting Phinagin. "You seem to always forget you're part of this too." She had no intentions of letting SHIELD push them around again. Asteroid M had been a fluke, they'd sort of fallen into that one, but SHIELD could have handled the Skrull invasion without their help. She wasn't going to let him force another mission on her team, they had more important things to worry about.
Rhydian came up from the danger room when Waya sent out the telepathic warning beacon. He was drenched in sweat and didn't really notice any of the others as he headed straight for the kitchen. It was just luck she called when she did, he was needing a break anyway, but reluctant to give himself one.
<Hr>
"That's everyone, come on, lets get this over with." Waya said heading into the kitchen behind Rhydian.
Jeremy skulked after them, wondering just what the guy was here for. It was usually never a good thing, and he was sure Coulson wasn't here to break that streak.
Junior followed also, always curious in the various ways Shield could screw them in their collective anuses.
Phinagin smiled and shook his head as he followed them into the kitchen.
Rhydian walked out from the kitchen. He opened the drink bottle in his hand and took a long sip. He hated early morning meetings like that, but since the events of Asteroid M, things have grown even more tense than before. He knew he was on thin ice with everyone because of what he had done, but nobody could understand....how could they even begin to think that they could?
Back inside Waya's chest rose and fell rather rapidly. She'd never had a panic attack before and wasn't sure if that's what was going on now. Stupid sentinels... Put her up against an army of Skrull and she doesn't bat an eyelash. Introduce a couple giant wind up tinker toys and she nearly pisses herself out of fear... Woah... why was she light headed all of a sudden? Oh yeah, she was hyperventilating. She placed her hands on the hall table and tried to steady herself. This was stupid, they were on their side... it's not like they still had their Master Mold programming like they did before SHIELD took over the program... but she didn't trust shield any more than she could trust a big sentient robot factory that spit out mutant killing machines. Everything grew fuzzy for a second and before she knew it she was on her knees in the floor, trying desperately not to pass out.
A hand was on her shoulder. Eliza's hand. It squeezed her shoulder gently, then carefully picked up Waya and stood her up on her feet, trying to support the girl alone. "Waya?" Eliza said firmly into the darkening spectrum of Waya's senses "Waya, snap out of this ok?"
"I... can't... breath." Waya gasped, holding onto Eliza's shoulders. A moment ago she'd had far too much breath, now she couldn't catch it. Her eyes were glassy and she could only take in short breaths. Snetinals were nothing compared to Rakus and she'd handed him his ass on Asteroid-M, so why was she freaking out about four robots with human pilots?
"Slowly" Eliza gripped Waya firmly, making sure she could see Eliza "Slowly Waya. In... out..." she was breathing with her slowly "In... out... clear your mind Waya, you know how to do this. Come on, just breathe."
Waya began to mimic Eliza's movements, trying desperately to take in deep slow breaths. At first she wheezed, as if her throat had closed up, then after a few she began to breath more steadily. Finally it looked as if she;d gotten a hold of herself. "I don't know what's wrong with me..." She told Eliza. She didn't usually like appearing weak in front of anyone, but Liz had known her as long as the twins had and as far as the score went, Liz had been the last one to break down.
"Nothing..." Eliza said slwoly, patting Waya on the shoulder before looking past her to the door out to the grounds "But... I think we should go grab something to eat. What about you? I think there's some chocolate cake in the fridge."
Waya didn't really feel like chocloate cake, but she knew Liz was only being Liz. "Alright."
Chocolate cake wouldn't happen, Eliza knew that, but she gently put one arm around Waya's shoulders and moved towards The school kitchen.
Phinagin came into the hall with Maribel along with him. "Well, it's still in one piece."
That was definitely a good sign. Maribel kept her hands behind her back as she walked. She still didn't see anyone else in here. Then the twins came through from outside.
"Hey you two." one said, waving. The other shoved his hands in his pockets and stayed quiet. The twins seemed to be looking around the room a bit, "Seen Waya? She disappeared."
Phinagin shook his head, she stormed off before I did. Maybe Eliza or Rhydian know.
"Hmm...."
"Well what have you two been up to? Despite, you know... the robots, we are bored shitless." a twin said, undoubtedly Jayden.
"We talked." Phinagin said, having a growing feeling that there was soon going to be a rumor circulating around the small student body about him and Maribel.
"Ah, we see..." the two began, placing their hands behind their backs as they approached Phin and Maribel.
"I didn't know this was your type, Phin."
"Seems you got on that pretty fast."
"Not that we blame you." The twins grabbed both of Maribel's hands and stroked them gently, holding them up to their chests.
"Something kind of kinky about it." they said together, "What with the new appendages and all." A twin poked at the little arms coming out of her neck.
Phinagin sighed, "Why is it that you automatically assume that we had sex?!" He said angrily, "I was contemplating putting Rhydian's head through a wall and she came up and talked me down from it and then I talked to her about dealing with her physical mutation."
Maribel lifted her hands out of the twins and waved at them while shaking her head. These two had it all wrong.
"'Dealing' with her physical mutation?"
"Is that what the kids are calling it these days?" they teased, elbowing Phinagin playfully in the sides, as if congratulating him.
Phinagin grabbed a hold of the arm that elbowed him amd held on. He pulled that twin over infront of him and looked him in the eyes letting him know that the joke was not funny. "Nothing happened, but if you dont stop then something will happen that you're not going to like."
Despite his threatening stare, the twin in question smirked.
The other placed a hand on Phin's shoulder, pulling him away from his brother. "Relax man- it's pretty obvious you wouldn't go for a 'commoner' anyway." he looked over at Maribel, "No offense, tulip."
"You two just can't help but be insufferable dicks can you?" Phinagin said with a glare.
"We just calls-em as we sees-em." a twin shrugged his shoulders with a grin.
"Why so serious, Phinny?" asked the other.
"I wonder. Did you guys miss the insufferable dicks part?" Phinagi said, "No wonder no one likes you here, you have to annoy everyone to the very edge of their patience and then you give them a bit more. On top of that your insensitive asses who think its fun to spread rumors of people who are already dealing with major shit in their lives because you dont give a damn!" He added, not caring about the low blow.
A twin leaned over towards the other, "Guess they don't teach 'inside voices' in his old, fancy pants school."
The elevator door opened and Waya stepped out. She'd heard their infernal bickering two floors down. "You two," She said looking at the twins. "Stop... whatever it is, just stop. And you." She looked now at Phinagin. "Your a little new to be barking orders at anyone. Especially those of us who've grown up here." Was she really defending the twins just now? "Just because you're rich doesn't give you the right to be a dick too."
"Oh, I see." Phinagin said as he looked over to Waya, "So I'm just the rich new kid. What gives them the right to be dicks? Just because they have been here longer then me and Maribel?"
Maribel was on Phinagin's side. The twins really were inconsiderate just now, but she assumed that's just how they usually were. Everyone else seemed to ignore it. She placed a hand on his shoulder and shook her head at him. Getting all worked up over their stupidity wasn't worth his energy.
"I just told them to stop." Waya told Phinagin. "Or where you not listening?" For her, anger was better than revealing how scared shittless she was that there were four sentinels outside. She is why she might have been a bit harsh with Phinagin. She turned to the twins. "Go find something inanimate to annoy for now and leave everyone else alone."
"You seem a bit more-"
"-uptight than usual." the twins said back and forth.
"Fuck off." Waya snapped at them. "I'm not in the mood to go around breaking up fights, not with..." She trailed off. "Not with Sentinels on the grounds." Was what she would have said, but didn't.
"-Not with what?" the twins asked together forwardly, leaning to one side. Something was a bit off about her, they couldn't place it though.
Waya ever stoic and unrevealed of true emotion left their company for the kitchen. She didn't know why she;d chosen the kitchen, it just happened to be the most direct rout away from everyone at the moment.
Phinagin watched as Waya walked off into the kitchen. Something was bothering her, he thought he had an idea, but wasn't sure.
"Pardon us, lovebirds." the twins smiled and bowed before hurrying after Waya in somewhat of a skip.
Maribel let go of Phinagin's shoulder now that the fight seemed to subside. She knew Waya could probably handle the twins on her own just fine.
"I have no idea what is going on in this school." Phinagin said with a shake of his head. "This is the most frustrating thing ever."
'We can't be too harsh on them, they've lost their parents.' Maribel explained, 'It can mess a kid up.' she explained.
Junior completely oblivious of everything that had recently happened, came through the hall seemingly without a care in the world. "So Rhydian get the pilots sorted out yet?" He asked, having grown somewhat bored with all that earlier, he'd left and now had a game controller in his hand. He opened the drawer on the table in the center of the room and began rummaging through it in search of batteries.
Stumble!