Blob is causing problems

|two weeks later|

Jean is walking through school, headed for her first class of the day when she sees a giant teen holding a locker over himself, threatening Duncan who's cowering in fear.

"Uh Hi, you must be new here. I'm Jean Grey." She says, recognizing the teen as the mutant she and Logan tried to approach a few days ago at a monster truck show.

"Yeah I am. New I mean." He says and puts the locker back where it was, going over to her.

"I figured, so what do your friends call you?" She asks him.

"Don't know, never had any friends. My name is Fred, Fred Dukes." He replies shyly.

"Nice to meet you and sorry about Duncan he can be a real jerk sometimes, hey do you need help figuring this out?" She asks picking up a schedule.

"Yes, please." He says.

"OK, your first class is right over there and don't worry first day is always the roughest." She tells him pointing in a direction before heading to class herself.

In Scott's drama class he gets paired for a drama exercise with another new student. Rogue, who only arrived little over a week ago, having been approached by the principal to join the school and accepted the offer, since staying in her former school wasn't an option.

At lunch Fred gets himself an overfilled plate and sits down at a table but the chair breakes and his arms pull the table down sideways as well, causing his food to come flying at the jock's table.

A huge food fight then breaks out because the other students laughed at Fred and he went crazy, swinging a table around by it's leg and Jean who tries to calm him down slips on one of the food bits and lands at his feet as he rears back to hit her until Scott shoots the table down and Fred cleans his face, being able to see now again.

"Jean?" He asks confused as Scott kneels by her side protectively.

"Back off Scott, I'll handle this. Everything will be fine." She tells him, sending him away.

"They shouldn't have laughed at me!" Fred yells angrily.

"No they shouldn't have." Jean agrees.

"It's just when they laugh at me I kind of explode inside you know." Fred tells Jean.

"I understand Fred but you've got to learn to control yourself. You can get training." She offers.

"Yeah right, where?" Fred asks disbelieving.

"I learned to control my gifts at the institute." Jean explains.

"You have powers too?" Fred questions surprised.

"Yeah, watch." Jean tells him and uses her telekinesis to throw a chair against a wall.

"Wow, you could really pound people with that." Fred says impressed.

"No Fred, that's what we learn not to do, that's what the Xavier Institute is all about, staying in control. Think about it, I know the Professor would like to meet you." Jean explains and leaves the cafeteria.

As Scott left the cafeteria he bumps into Rouge who is impressed that they are so protective over each other and agrees to meet him later at the park for their rehearsal.

|Later that day|

Fred approaches Jean after school when she is going to the library and asks her "Hey Jean, would you like to… get a soda or something?"

"No sorry Fred, I have some stuff I gotta do." She says and keeps walking to the library.

"Stuff huh? That's the best you can come up with?" He asks accusingly.

"Look Fred, I like you and all but I have responsibilities and that means I can't go with you right now." She tells him.

"But you're my friend." He says grasping her arm.

"I thought so, but friends don't hurt each other now let go of me." She tells him trying to free her arm to no avail.

"Just let me talk to you for a second in private." Fred says and drags her behind the school where some repairs are being done.

"Let go of me Fred, I have to go home." Jean tells him.

"You can't you've got to go out with me." He demands.

I don't have to go anywhere but home." She tells him and uses her telekinesis to try and get him to let her go but the whole construct collapses on them and she gets hit in the head, getting knocked unconscious. Fred then carries her body to a hideout near the junkyard, ties her to a chair with a metal bar and prepares a dinner setting with candles and waits for her to wake up.

"Wakey wakey sleeping beauty. Your table is ready." Fred greets her once she opens her eyes.

Jean calls for help with her telepathy, alerting the professor that she was kidnapped.

In the meantime at the Xavier Institute Kitty, Kurt and Ben are playing a game where they have to capture a football and keep it away from the other two.

Kitty is currently leading the chase, carrying the football and phasing through trees while Kurt teleports after her and Ben runs after the both of them in his human form, his task being to stay human while playing the game.

Kitty phases through two more trees and looks back at Kurt, running into a branch from another tree and gets knocked down by it, losing the ball in the process.

"Hah it's mine now Kitty." Kurt taunts her, holding the ball.

"Give me that." Kitty yells and runs at him, only for him to teleport away.

"Watch where you're porting." Logan grunts from the sidelines, watching them with the professor and Kurt falls from the tree, because the branch brakes. Kitty uses her chance and jumps at Kurt while he's falling and snatches the ball from him by phasing through him.

"Haha." Kitty laughs while Logan slaps his head asking "What kind of move is that?"

Ben who's been trying to catch them off guard since this is his only real chance at getting the ball uses Kitty's moment of triumph to come out of his hiding spot behind a tree just behind Kitty and runs past her, knocking the ball out of her arm and catching it before dashing away.

Kitty and Kurt quickly begin their chase of him but once they reach an area where the trees are far closer to each other they lose sight of him because he ran between them so quickly they couldn't keep up. Unknown to them Ben actually only ran past three trees and then hopped into a small bush close to where they are searching for him right now.

"Where the hell is he? Couldn't have gotten that far." Kurt asks porting on an branch to get a better view.

"I have no idea." Kitty says herself and goes around the trees, checking if he's hiding behind them like he did earlier.

At that moment the professor receives Jean's distress call and alerts Logan that Jean's been kidnapped.

"Quickly, Jean's been kidnapped. You ghost get Cyclops, I'm riding ahead." Logan informs his students, using his nickname for Ben. After leaving his students to get ready Logan quickly puts on his suit and then takes his motorcycle to start his search for Jean.

Ben coming out of his hiding spot throws the ball at the professor while asking the other two teens where Scott is and they inform him that he stayed behind at the school.

"Alright, get ready I'll be back shortly." Ben replies and thinks about what form he wants to use and shifts into XLR8. He has gotten a fair amount of control over the time he studied under Storm and this was actually supposed to be hid test to see if he can keep his powers in check while at school.

Ben then takes off towards the school, arriving there around three seconds later and quickly locates Scott and Rogue sitting at a table behind the school, going through a play.

"I can not tell what is like me." Rogue says reading the line.

"An angel is like you Kate and you are an angel." Scott reads his line.

"The girls are right, you are a charmer." Rogue says amused.

"Look I'm just reading the lines OK?" Scott replies.

"Yeah I know it's just sometimes I wish…" Rogue says.

"Wish what?" Scott asks interested.

"Wish I could get close to somebody but you know what happens when I do." She tells him.

Ben arrives at that moment, skidding to a stop next to them.

"Bad timing? Sorry to interrupt, but Jean's been nabbed." Ben tells them, shifting back to human so Rogue knows it's him.

"What?" Scott yells angrily

"Chill, Logan is already on her scent and I'm supposed to collect you." He informs the glasses wearing teen.

"Uh! If Jean's hurt I'll… Do you know anything about this?" Scott accuses Rouge, who's looking to the side hurt.

"No and even if I did I wouldn't tell you." She replies angrily.

"Then I hope you can live with your conscience." He tells her.

"Shut it Red eye, sorry for him he gets all crazy when it's about Jean, nice to see you made it to town." Ben tells Rogue before shifting back to XLR8 and slings Scott on his back since he's taller than Ben. Ben gives Rogue a salute goodbye and takes off arriving back at the Institute a few seconds later.

"That makes me remember, I still don't know what happened when I touched that guy." Rogue thinks out loud.

Shortly after Logan arrives at the school on his bike and sniffs the air around the former construction site and starts to track Jean by scent.

While Logan is following the scent the professor debriefs the other teens about the current situation after they've changed into their mission suits.

"I've been in contact with Jean but all I know is that she's somewhere around here with Blob holding her captive." The professor informs them.

"Alright let's move." Scott says and everyone gets into the x-van while Scott takes his own car.

|with Jean and Fred|

"Fred this is all wrong. You can't force someone to like you." Jean tells him.

"Why not? I'm stronger than everyone." Fred says cockily.

"Being nice usually works better." She tells him.

"Oh yeah, I just remembered I've got a surprise for you." He tells her and leaves the small room.

Logan arrives at the abandoned factory Fred's using and tells the others where exactly Jean is but charges in by himself ahead of them.

Charles relays the information to Scott who drives over to him as well with the others having a longer route since they looked in another area.

"Ben would you mind going ahead as well, I don't want Scott to be left on his own against Blob, form what Logan told us Scott stands no chance against him." Charles asks the brown-haired teen.

"No problem." Ben replies and takes on his ghostfreak form, phasing through the car and then turns back into XLR8 and takes off in a blur.

"Why did you send him ahead without us?" Kurt asks confused and slightly hurt.

"He is the only one of us who should be an even match for Blob, both of you don't have enough offensive abilities to take him down, I believe that Ben does however. Now the only question is will he be able to keep his control." Xavier explains.

At the factory Logan slashes through the door, making Blob look at him surprised. Logan jumps at him and tries to overpower the teen but Blob easily throws him off himself and then rips out a huge tank, throwing it at Logan but he doded and leaped onto the railing above and jumps at Blob only for him to catch him by his clawed arms and throw himself down on the older man with his heavy body.

Logan loses consciousness, not being able to breath with the heavy weight on him.

Scott arrives and fires his laser, alerting Blob to his presence.

"We're here to give Jean a way out, through you if necessary." Scott yells firing at the large teen.

Blob blocks his beam with his arm and picks up Logan with his other hand, throwing him at Scott, who stops his laser and gets knocked out by Logan's weight crashing into him.

Ben arrives upon this scene as does Rouge, to his surprise.

"Came to help out?" He asks her with what she assumes is a grin on his blue alien face.

"Just this once, don't think too much into it." She tells him and touches Scott's face, absorbing some of his power.

Meanwhile Blob went back to the room Jean is in and opens the door only to get a locker thrown telekinetically at his face.

"Nobody respects me and you're the worst. You pretended to be my friend." Blob shouts, throwing the locker at Jean who manages to catch it the last second with her telekinesis.

Blob walk out and rips a huge generator out of the floor, preparing himself to throw it at the room Jean's in.

"Can you distract him while I'll get her out?" Ben asks Rouge, getting a nod in return and says "Thanks." Quietly while he's turning into ghostfreak and turns invisible and intangible, flying right through Blob over to Jean while Rogue fires her Laser eyes at Blob's back, making him drop the generator and shift his focus onto her.

"Leave her alone you Jahoo." She warns Blob.

"What you gonna do to me? Make me wear bad make-up?" Blob taunts her.

"Didn't mystique tell you what my power is?" Rogue asks him, going over to him slowly.

"No cause I don't care." Blob replies and tries to hit her only for her to grab his arm and absorb some of his power.

"My power is your power and I can take more than one." She says and throws him into the air, blasting him with her laser eyes midair.

While she's doing this Ben grabs Jean whispering "Don't worry, it's me." In his alien voice but Jean recognizes it, having heard him in this form quite often. He then grabs Jean and phases her out of her confines, before putting her over his shoulder, making her protest quietly but Ben ignores this and turns the both of them invisible and intangible again, phasing right out the side of the factory and flies them to where Scott and Logan are lying. "Take care of them." Ben tells her, letting her down and flies back in the factory, landing near Rogue.

"You don't have enough power. No one does, I'm the Blob." Fred shouts at her and jumps at her from the pile of metal he landed on.

"Not so fast buddy." Ben says, quickly turning into what looks like a dinosaur (humongasaur) and catches him in a hands lock mid air and they try to overpower each other once Blob has solid grounds under his feet again.

"Hah, whatever you are you're no match for me." Blob shouts, being eye to eye with the dinosaur look alike.

"Spoke too soon." Ben tells him and grows in size, now barely being able to fit inside the factory and grabs Blob in one hand, lifting him up and throwing him through the roof, breaking it in the process. With his other hand Ben forms a small dome over Rogue so she won't be hit by the roof coming down.

After Blob went flying Ben shrinks again and transforms back into his human appearance, not having much trouble staying in it by now other than when he gets hit by strong emotions.

"You OK?" Ben asks Rogue, walking over to her and dusts off her top.

"What are you doing?" She shouts panicking.

"Sorry, I just thought you'd want a clean shirt." Ben replies shocked by her reaction.

"Thanks, but it's better you don't touch me, otherwise one of us will end up unconscious or worse." She tells him saddened.

"What do you mean?" Ben asks.

"I absorb people's powers and they always get hurt and lose consciousness by it, only when you grabbed me that one time my powers actually backfired and I think you overloaded me so to speak." She tells him.

"Sorry I didn't know, I thought you were unconsciousness because of Rogue's power and I didn't know that you can't turn it off and on." He apologizes.

"It's OK just don't touch me so casually." She replies and they walk out of the factory.

The others have arrived by now and Scott and Logan are awake again but still getting their Barings.

"You should be OK, I only took a short term power." Rogue tells Scott.

"You are like an angel Kate." He says recalling the line of their play.

"My name's not Kate and I'm no angel." She says downcast.

"But you helped us, why?" Jean asks.

"I don't know, I just don't know." Rogue says and runs away with Jean trying to chase her but Logan stops her telling her "She ain't ready."

"Professor, do you mind if I see if she's alright? And can I talk to you later?" Ben asks him.

"If you think you can help her, go after her and I'm always here for you." He replies, getting a thankful nod from Ben who then turns into ghostfreak again and flies after Rogue invisible.

"Hey where is Ben?" Kitty asks noticing that he disappeared moments later.

"He had something to do." Xavier answers.

"Is he alright?" Kitty asks worried.

"It seems so, he may be even ready to join you at school soon." Xavier informs the group, making Kitty smile to herself.

Ben soon catches up to Rogue, who's walking down the street headed to her current home.

"Hey, mind if I give you some company?" Ben asks dropping down next to her in his human form.

"As long as you keep your paws to yourself." She tells him dejectedly.

"You mean these?" Ben asks concentrating and turning his hands into furry orange paws, making her chuckle in response.

"Sure, those especially." She tells him.

"Sorry if the others don't trust you or something, since I'm not in school yet I don't know what your guys relationship is." He tells her.

"They are scared of me, as am I of them." She replies saddened.

"Are you scared of me?" Ben asks her.

"Do you want an honest answer?" She asks.

"Yes." He replies.

"I'm scared of you, but with you it's more about what your powers do to me, not you yourself." She tells him.

"Good. I Don't want pretty girls to be afraid even of the human me." He tells her.

"Aha, that's why you couldn't keep your paws to yourself, you find me attractive." She teases him.

"I won't deny or confirm these accusations." Ben says playfully.

"But on a serious note, I wanted to ask you something." Ben says.

"And here it comes." Rogue sighs annoyed.

"Huh?" Ben asks confused.

"Here comes the I'm not like the others and you can trust us speech, trying to lure me to your headquarters so you can capture me." She says.

"Actually, I was going to ask if you want to see if we can touch, maybe the Professor can tell me why I'm overloading your powers and we can try to work something out, only if you want to though…" Ben offers.

"Seriously? You want to be able to touch me, why?" She asks stunned.

"I've been on the run for a while because of what my powers did to me, Kurt was also ostracized because of his powers, I'm trying to find a way to help you not suffer from yours anymore." He tells her honestly.

"Plus, such a beauty going un-kissed is a waste if you ask me." Ben teases her laughing at her expression.

"Anyways, all jokes aside what do you say?" Ben asks her.

"If you really think you can do it, then try but don't get my hopes up for nothing." She tells him, wiping the small tears threatening to come out of her eyes away.

"I'll do my best, but we may have to try some stuff out and I can't promise that you won't get overwhelmed again." Ben tells her honestly.

"As long as you promise not to do weird stuff to me when I'm out, I'm OK with it." Rogue agrees.

"Great, I'll see you around then." Ben says, turning into his blue alien (XLR8) and runs off, headed for the Institute.

That evening Ben approaches the professor and asks him to meet him in his office.

"So what did you want to talk about Ben?" Xavier asks the teen.

"I wanted to ask you if you can help me help Rogue. She told me that when she touches anyone they fall unconscious or worse and with me she said that I overloaded her causing her to fall unconscious meaning I should be able to touch her but I have to limit my powers for that to work." Ben says.

"Ben, I'm happy that you want to help a fellow mutant feel normal but I'm not sure how I can help you with that." Xavier replies with a thoughtful expression.

"I already thought about that, with a little help and I remembered that you told me that my power is somehow channeled through that planet you saw in your mind." Ben says, turning into his crab form.

"Yes." Xavier says wanting him to continue.

"I want to ask you to teach me how to filter out the energies, so I can maybe block some and reduce my powers to a few other forms and thereby not overwhelming Rogue." Ben explains.

"I see, yes well we can try this, however it might be painful and unpleasant for you because I would have to look into your mind and through it for the energies leaving a huge strain on your mind." Xavier explains.

"Yes, but I think in this form I should be able to handle it, though we'll have to wait and see I guess." Ben tells him.