ISSUE #9

Today's the day, Professor Xavier is finally opening the school to humans. I honestly didn't think he would. But here we are, preparing for opening day. We were inviting humans into the school for the first time. And I was given the honor by the professor on joining him and the stepford sisters as well as the staff in welcoming them.

I'll admit, at first it didn't seem smart, but then I thought about the advantages this could bring. Giving Human children our age the chance to learn from us and see that all mutants aren't big and scary like Magneto or apocalypse. Really this was a chance for us to finally win over the people. To gain their trust.

I feel like things are finally looking up for us.

" I must say, you clean up well Mr. Lance." Miss Frost told me.

I looked down at the yellow pin-striped suit with a white overcoat, with yellow shoulder spaulders, I also had a green undershirt on with a purple tie. My hair was slicked down and I have to admit, I kinda dig it. Thankfully Miss Frost was around to help me she and the girls had been the ones that picked it out for me and smiled. " Thanks, Miss Frost. I couldn't have done it without you guys help." I told the woman.

" Of course, Darling. This is supposed to be a wonderful day for us. We can't have you running around and greeting people in a black t-shirt and jeans. Something sophisticated is perfect for this kind of day." Miss Frost explained.

" Well, while I'm grateful, did we really need to buy the same suit four times?" I asked.

" Consider them a gift. My girls tell me you've been helping them immensely with their training. I can feel that they've gotten better." Emma replied.

" Well, thank you very much. And might I say you and the girls look absolutely beautiful." I told the woman.

" Why thank you, David." The Stepford sisters all replied. They of course were all wearing matching blue dresses and blue shoes.

" All right, everyone. It is time to begin." Miss Frost spoke. Me and the Stepford sisters followed Miss Frost out of the car we were waiting in and towards the institute, with the humans who were coming for the event standing around the building.

As I looked around at all the people, I noticed the professor wasn't around.

" Miss Frost, where's the professor? He was supposed to be here for the opening." Sophie asked.

" He likes to make an entrance, dear. I'm sure he's racing against the clock to powder his head just for the--" Miss Frost was speaking.

Our attentions, however, were soon drawn to the huge crowd in front of the school.

" Professor X is our hostage! We're hijacking the corrupt and reactionary Xavier Institute!" I looked up and saw Quentin hanging out a window with a megaphone and glared at him.

What is this idiot doing? He's going to ruin this for everyone.

" We demand nothing less than year zero for mutantkind! Try the humans for their crimes! School's out! RIOT!" Quentin shouted out the window.

" What is this idiot doing?" I asked aloud.

" Ruining everything we've been working so hard for." Mr. Summers replied.

The other students who were blocking the entrance to the school raised their signs, each with some kind of Anti-human agenda on it and started rioting. The more the chanted the more incited they became, and things were beginning to turn violent.

" Girl's get back." I herded the Stepford sisters behind me as the rioters grew more and more aggressive with their movements.

" This protest is turning violently ugly, Henry." Emma told the man.

" They said something about the professor being involved. Get your girls out of here, Emma. Wolverine's checking on Charlie." Mr. McCoy told the woman.

" What do we do?" I ask the man.

" Try and calm things down peacefully and hope we haven't just lost any hope for this little project of ours going forward." Mr. McCoy replied.

I nodded and along with him and a few other teachers, we all began trying to calm the crowds on both sides. But as soon as things seemed to be easing down, one of the students with Quentin, Glob Herman, leaned out the window and started throwing flaming pieces of his body down at Mutants and humans alike.

I dodged out of the way of the fire balls and shoved one of the girls who was rioting aside before one of them accidentally cooked her.

" This is ridiculous. This is going way too far. I knew, Quentin had been changing but this is far beyond anything I imagined he'd do." I spoke.

" This is getting out of hand. David, help these people back to the buses." Mr. Summers told me.

I nodded and began helping the news and parents that were visiting the school back to their cars and away from the danger as best I could, trying to keep them calm and ease their worries. But I couldn't exactly blame them for being scared of me. Especially seeing that a bunch of us were currently attacking them and protesting violently against humans.

The school suddenly exploded, and shards of glass were sent flying out into the crowds. I ducked down behind one of the buses and just barely managed to avoid having a large shard of glass, the size of a pole, aimed at my head.

" Is everyone alright?!" I shouted. I looked around and saw that beak was holding the suit of dummy, a mutant whose body was turned into gas. With his suit punctured, he seeped out into the air, effectively killing him.

" Mr. Summers! This is way out of line. I'm going in and putting an end to this now." I shouted to the man. I was angry, I might not have known dummy, but he was still one of us. And thanks to Quentin he was dead. This needed to be stopped.

Mr. Summers, Mr. McCoy, and Mr. Xorn followed me towards the school.

" This out of line. Break it up now!" Mr. Summers demanded. " Lay down your weapons unless you want the Xavier teaching staff to turn this into an impromptu martial arts lesson." Mr. Summers threatened.

He was still trying to end this peacefully and I could understand why. I didn't even know where Irina was. I could only hope that she was somewhere safe and away from this mess.

" How about turning some of this big, tough, justice on the humans who killed Jumbo carnation? How about that Mr. Summers? You just gonna let humans walk all over-" Mr. Summers cut Redneck off with an optic beam straight to his face that broke his nose and knocked him to the floor.

" You broke his fucking nose. That's total assault." Tattoo another one of Quentin's goons shouted at Professor Summers.

" The next Joker gets a broken leg, Tattoo. We don't tolerate killing." Mr. Summers told the girl.

" What about Jumbo Carnation?" tattoo asked.

" Humans murdered Jumbo like a dog in the streets." Radiant another one of Quentin's men spoke.

"On the contrary." Mr. McCoy spoke. " The truth is, we've established what happened the night of Jumbo's death in some detail with help from the human police. Some humans roughed him up a little, it's true... But that's not what killed him. Jumbo Carnation died from a self-administered overdose of the drug Kick." Mr. McCoy explained to the students. " Humans aren't to blame for everything. Maybe we should all take a deep breath and calm down." MR. McCoy spoke. His words sounded like a suggestion, but his tone spoke more of an order.

Radiant approached us all and raised his arms and started emitting a bright light. " More of Xavier's lies, Dr. McCoy." Radiant exclaimed.

Mr. McCoy shielded his eyes in pain and Mr. Summers rolled out of the way.

I frowned and raised my finger and pointed it at Radiant's leg.

" What? Why aren't you blind yet?" Radiant asked.

" Nonsense, you're trying to hurt a man of light with light? Let me show you how it's done." My finger started glowing and I shot a small beam out of it and into Radiant's leg.

Radiant dropped to the ground screaming and holding his leg. " AHHHH! MY LEG!"

" Off, Student performance evaluation... Grade: Poor." Mr. Summers joked. However, in his brief moment of relapse he didn't see Tattoo sneak up behind him. She stuck her fingers through his head and Mr. Summers grunted.

Her ability allowed her to phase through things. And if she solidifies, Mr. Summers would die.

" Ooh, big man. Evaluate this, mister one-eye. I solidify you die." Tattoo told the man.

" Two can play this dreary game, dear." Miss Frost told the woman as she stuck her hands into tattoo's head, threatening her the same way Tattoo had threatened Mr. Summers.

" You solidify, you die too. Now... Remove your hand VERY gently from Mr. Summers head." Miss Frost ordered.

It seemed that things were finally getting under control, but before I could breathe a sigh of relief, Glob Herman came running out of the school on fire.

" I'm the INHUMAN TORCH!" Herman shouted as he ran past the front gates of the school.

I looked and saw that he was chasing a bus full of humans towards Salem center.

" One of the students is aflame, Xorn. And chasing a bus full of Humans towards Salem center. There are cameras everywhere." Mr. McCoy told the man.

Xorn nodded and started chasing after Herman.

" The open day is now an unqualified disaster, Scott. Unless we salvage this situation and redeem the image of the staff by effortlessly tackling the problem as though it were a demonstration of mutant teaching skill." Mr. McCoy spoke.

" I'm a suicide bomb! Kill the humans! Kill the humans!" Herman chanted as he chased the human bus.

I sighed and rubbed my temples as the boy was just recorded threatening a terrorist act.

" I don't know how, but you make this all sound so simple. Mr. McCoy." I spoke.

" It's a part of my charm dear boy. Now, let's hope these people are swayed by it as well." Mr. McCoy replied. " Scott and I are going to go with Xorn to stop Herman, I need you to help Emma with putting an end to this."

" Yes sir." I replied.

Both Mr. Summers and Mr. McCoy hopped in a car that Xorn had pulled up to the gate and drove off after Herman.

I turned back to the school and began helping evacuate the students and the people. The smoke and flames were still burning and that meant that they were still endanger as long as they were close to the building.

" So much for the dream! All my life I've waited for this dream to come true! We were promised peace and security! All my life! Where is it?" Quentin who had come running out of the burning school shouted out loud.

That ignorant bastard.

" This was our chance to earn it!" I shouted. " This was our chance to make things even. To earn everyone's trust. But you went and burned it all down you obnoxious mutant piece of trash."

Quentin looked at me and smiled. " Ah, Lance, the freak attraction. I've been waiting for this. I'm going to turn your mind into putty." Quentin threatened.

I braced myself as I felt Quentin trying to enter my mind. He was getting in, but not as easily as he thought he would. Gotta thank the Stepford sisters for the help.

" No, Quentin. You won't be doing anything else." Professor Xavier suddenly appeared behind Quentin; his mouth duct taped. But his mind still transmitting to us all.

" The helmet you trapped me in was as flimsy as your plan. And I'm ending it now, boy." Professor Xavier spoke.

" Big joke. I can see all around your thoughts from every angle, professor, I know I've made you question all those big assumptions you just take for granted." Quentin replied.

" You've caused some property damage and hurt some people, but it's over now... The revolution lasted minutes, Quentin. These drugs you're taking are driving your thoughts too hard and too fast." The professor explained.

" Hand over the school to the students. We don't need the kind of education that turns us into victims." Quentin replied.

" Perhaps it is only you who feels like a victim, Quentin." Xavier replied. His eyes suddenly went wide, and he grasped at the tape on his mouth. " GIRLS!" Xavier shouted telepathically.

I turned to see what he was looking at and saw four of the Stepford sisters walking towards, Quentin. While Sophie appeared to be using Cerebra. All of their noses were bleeding profusely, but Sophie's was worse than the others. Whatever she was doing was hurting her badly.

" Sophie, stop! You're hurting yourself!" I shouted.

The girls smiled, each of them and continued walking towards Quentin.

" I suppose you think this is some big fight between... NGH! Between youth and experience?" Sophie grunted through her question. Her face contorted in pain. The veins on her face bulging as her astral projection drew closer. " Anarchy and authority? People like you always miss the point, Quentin Quire."

" It's all about in vs out." The stepford sisters all spoke.

" I started up my own movement and everything... So, you'd look up to me." Quentin spoke.

His reasoning for all this wasn't to make us stronger. It was so, the girls would like him? Are you SERIOUS?!

" EWWW!" The girls replied. They then hit Quentin with some kind of telepathic wave that sent Quentin crumbling to the ground, leaving him a twitching mess.

" UGh! UNNGH! I didn't mean it... I just wanted to change things... And be famous or something... Because I was adopted and... I don't even know anymore." Quentin spoke.

I see now, this was more than just his hots for the Cuckoos. It was a cry for attention. He's lost his self-image and is trying to find himself. But by doing what he's done, the only thing he's succeeded in doing is losing everyone who has ever had his back. I feel sorry for you Quentin. but you made your bed. Now it's time to lie in it. You sad sad fool.

" I don't know... I didn't want to hurt anyone..." Quentin spoke.

" Then you didn't think this through at all? Did you Mister Quire?" Miss Frost came walking out of the school carrying Sophie in her arms. The girl's eyes completely white and blood trickling out of her nose.

" SOPHIE!" I shouted. I ran up to Miss Frost and grabbed one of Sophie's hands. I squeezed it tightly but... She was gone. In her attempt to stop Quentin, she killed herself. I took, Sophie from Miss Frost's arms and cradled her in my own. My tears further staining her pearl-like skin. " Damnit, Damnit. DAMNIT! This wasn't supposed to happen, not to you Sophie. You saved us and yet. You're the one who suffers the consequences?" Miss Frost leaned down and gently placed her hand on my shoulder. The look on her face was one that I hadn't seen from her before. A look gloom and sadness. It was her daughter I was holding Afterall.

I stood back up and handed Sophie back to her mother, I then turned around and, in my anger, kicked Quentin across the school yard. Quentin's body disappeared in a flicker of light and reappeared smashed against the school's walls.

Sophie and the rest of the stepford sisters were some of my only friends. I've never been angrier in my life. He was supposed to like her. He cherished her so much that he tried to overthrow the school. yet he killed her.

" David." The professor placed his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. " That's enough for today."

I nodded and grit my teeth and looked out at the smoldering fields of the institute and cried a single tear of light streaming down my face.

XxX

Thursday.

A few days later, after cleaning up, tending to the wounded, and a lot of PR work the professor had gathered most of the student body in the yards of the institute to make an announcement.

" Quentin Quire was liberated from his physical cocoon and born into a higher world at exactly 4:32 this afternoon." The Professor spoke.

Damn it, another one of us gone. I hated Quentin. I still do for what he had done. but I didn't want him dead. I wanted him to pay for what he had done, to atone for it. Now, he's been let off easy.

" I know how ridiculous that sounds, but in this case, we believe it to be the literal truth. My goal is integration with humankind, through peaceful coexistence and mutual self-development. My methods are non-violent and require time and patience." The professor explained. " In light of recent events, I'm willing to consider that my approach may be in error."

I definitely didn't like where this was going.

: You're free to continue this protest for as long as you have the inclination, bearing in mind that the school will be closing for the summer in exactly six days. Following the break, i will be stepping down as headmaster." The professor declared.

I was visibly shocked by his declaration. i couldn't believe it. I've had the pleasure of staying here for a few months and I'd grown fond of the professor. I admit that his ways may not be what we need. But his goals, his aspirations, they are exactly what we should strive for. Unity among the people of earth. All of us sharing one banner and not dividing ourselves.

" I hope to see you all at the prize ceremony." The professor finished his speech and walked back into the institute. And for the first time since I got here, I questioned what my place at the school would be after the summer.

XxX

Another few days have gone by, making it a full week since the riot and tonight was the night that the professor would be giving out prizes to the students that excelled during the school year.

I was wearing the suit once again; I wasn't sure who all would be going. I know the remaining Stepford sisters left. And with some of the students still protesting, I was wondering if it was even worth going. I questioned myself for a good five minutes, but in the end, I still decided on going. I wanted to show my support to the professor as best I could.

The event was going to be held outside, in the tents, since the school was still being rebuilt.

I stepped towards the tents but before entering I was stopped by Irina who, thankfully had gotten off the campus before the riot had started.

" Hey, you look nice." Irina spoke.

" Thanks, you too." I replied. She wasn't the kind of girl to dress up super fancy. Neither was I really. The only reason I even wore one of the suits Miss Frost got me, was for Sophie. She had been adamant about me getting the thing in the first place.

" You doing alright?" Irina asked me.

" Yeah. I'm still a little drained by everything that's happened. But I'm alright. You ready for this event?"

" Yeah, come on let's go." Irina spoke. She pulled my arm and we both walked into the tent. And I was surprised to see that a good handful of the students and staff had been there.

Irina and I found our seats and listened in as the professor went through his speech once again, going over why he built the school and its purposes. And what he hoped not just to achieve himself. But hoped for all of us to achieve our dreams. Once he was done, food was passed out and the banquet began. A little after that, the professor began handing out the awards.

The first ones up were a bit of a surprise. It was the Stepford sisters, who I had heard had left the school. I guess they stayed long enough for this. Honestly, they deserved more. They all did.

" For outstanding achievement in the field of telepathic communications and for exceptional bravery in defense of the ideals of the Xavier Institute. The Stepford Cuckoos." The professor spoke.

The four girls all lined up on the stage and each accepted their award. A final one was given to girls as memorial for their lost sister.

From their it was all about the class courses. I had done well, but I still came in at the end of the semester practically. So, I didn't really pay much attention.

" And now, the special award is for outstanding achievement in heroism and honors our future potential X-Men of the future. Barnell Bohusk Aka The beak-- Angel Salvadore. And David Lance." The professor spoke.

Oh, Barnell and Angel got an award. Wait? What? I jumped in my seat and looked at the man who was smiling at me in shock. I couldn't believe it. I know I had fought, and that is an extreme hyperbole, Gladiator and I did help out at least a little with Cassandra. But all I did during the riot was keep the people safe.

I got up from my seat and walked onto the stage. The professor smiled and looked around for Barnell and Angel but got no reply. So, he continued on.

" Congratulations Mr. Lance. A job well done." He told me.

" But professor, I didn't do much at all." I told the man.

" Maybe, but even the smallest gesture can save a life. And that is what you did. You saved lives. Now, keep your head high and continue to be a bright light for your peers. I'm sure they'll need you in the coming days." The professor spoke.

" I promise not to let you down professor." I bowed to the man and walked off the stage with my award. When I got back to my seat Irina jumped up and high-fived me.

For the first time since the riot, something felt right. Something felt good. I just whished it would last. That was my only wish. How foolish I was for believing it could be possible.