The calm before the Storm.

XxX- Will represent a change of time our location.

Waking up this morning felt great. I sat up in my bed and started stretching all of my arms together, the popping noises coming from my joints sent shivers of relief up my body causing me to yawn. I swung my legs out of bed and got to my feet. I then started going through my morning routine, I started by brushing my teeth first. I leaned into the mirror and smiled, taking the time to observe each of my pearly whites.

After that I reached into my nightstand and pulled out a pair of clean under wear and a clean shirt. After washing up and gathering my gear and get ready to leave. Before I walked out, a thought ran into my head. A mischievous smile flashed across my face as I turned to my sleeping roommate, Kubark. Around here he's known as Kid Gladiator, but his bodyguard, the sexy Warbird Ava'dara Naganandini, calls him Prince Kubark. As much of a loudmouth as he is, he's quite strong.

" You know, I could mess you with you. But I feel like letting you miss class will be funnier." I told the sleeping boy. I then walked out of the room and made my way to my first and my worst class.

" UGHHHHH! MATH!" I groaned loud enough for everyone in the class to hear.

" What are you groaning about man, math is fun." Victor whispered to me.

I immediately turned in my seat and stared at the boy in shock. It wasn't his fault he was wrong. It just surprised me to hear someone actually say they enjoyed math.

" Dude, math of any kinds that involves Letters is not fun. When did letters even become a part of Math?" I asked

" How about you pay attention and maybe you'll find out." I heard our teacher Bobby Drake yell at me from the front of the room. I turned towards the man with a roll of my eyes and focused my attention back on the board.

I listened in as Professor Drake continued his lecture.

I'll just sit this out, dude I hate math so much. I raised one of arms and placed it on the desk and used it to hold my head up as I stared at the board.

XxX

" And for homework, I want you all to complete pages 45 and 46. If you want you can do it in groups, but you have to show your work." Bobby told us.

I groaned loudly and got up from my chair. I walked out of the class and walked over to the main hub.

" Hey, Shiva!" I turned towards the voice that called out to me and saw that it was Evan who had called out to me.

I dropped my bags on the nearby bench and turned towards the boy.

" Yo what's up Evan." I asked

" Not, much. Just wanted to see how you were doing." he said.

Evan was a nice guy. He's a little timid, but he's got a great big heart and I love him for that.

" Oh, Still worried about the Dr. Starblood thing? Oh, don't sweat it man. Everything worked out in the end. Ms. Pryde is still getting treated. Kubark is back to normal. So, all is good in my book." I raised my hands and just shrugged my shoulders at the boy.

" Glad to hear that everything is okay." He replied.

Things didn't slow down, just as Evan and I had finished chatting, another one of the boy's showed up. It was my little man Broo. Of course, with him, not too far away was his closest friend and I swear his crush, Idie Okonkwo.

I looked up at the two and waved.

" What's going on guys? What's got you running around?" I asked them.

" Friend Shiva, I wanted to warn you, the kid Gladiator was late for class and said something about making you pay for it." Broo told me.

I jumped at the news as even I didn't expect that. " Is he seriously gonna attack me because he overslept? No, come Broo. He's not that dumb." I eased back on the bench and kicked my legs out. Suddenly I felt a hard impact on my back. " Ugh!"

" You bastard! I was late because of you!" Kubark yelled at me.

" Ugh! You bastard! You wanna fight?" I reached up and grabbed Kubark's Mohawk and pulled him down. I rolled over and landed on top of him.

" What's this?" Just as I was about to punch Kubark, I heard a voice to my left. When we looked up, we all saw Quentin Quire walking our way. " Hey, if you guys want a good fight. Why don't you come with me on a little trip? I'm sure it'll be a blast."

Kubark and I looked at each other momentarily and though I knew Quentin was most likely up to no good. I decided to just roll with it.

" So, where are we going?" I asked and Quentin's only response was to smile

Quentin led all of us, including Warbird who joined along the way, down into the sub-level where the hangar was just in time to see Angel storming towards the Ships.

" What do you want?" Angel asked Quentin.

" I know where you're going." Quentin answered.

" Good because I do not." Angel replied.

" Reading your mind makes me want to kill myself. How do you stand having thoughts so incessantly... Decent?" Quentin asked.

" Do not try and stop me, fellow students. I am on a mission from god." Angel explained.

" Dude, I'm not trying to stop anything. We were promised a good fight." I told the boy. But he seemed to just brush me off. That arrogant pigeon, I outta tear his wings off.

" Heh! For what you're planning, you're gonna need to skip class, steal a spaceship and likely spark an intergalactic incident. Who wants to stop you? I want in." Quentin told Angel.

" Um, Friend Quentin, you did not say this off-campus excursion was to be unsupervised." Broo spoke.

Well, Broo what Quentin told you was completely different. But maybe I shouldn't voice that.

" I believe what I said to you, Broo, was go away and die, alien Pogue." Quentin told the boy.

Ooooh!

" Yes, but you say that to me constantly. I had assumed it was some sort of involuntary verbal tick." Broo replied.

Never change Broo. Never change. You're too good for the world buddy. I reached down and place a hand on Broo's shoulder. " Never change buddy."

" Change what?" Broo asked and I laughed.

" This is a bad idea my lord." I heard Warbird tell Kubark.

" I haven't punched anyone in anger in almost three whole days, Warbird!" I heard Kubark tell the woman.

" Hey, jackass you did exactly that too me earlier!" I shouted at Kubark.

" That doesn't count!" Kubark shouted back.

" How does it not?!"

" You wanna go again?"

" WHAT?! LET'S GO!" I lunged at Kubark and tackled him into the wall, and we started to tumble around in the hallway, slamming each other into the wall and punching each other when we had the chance.

" Will you two knock it off?" Quentin asked us. We both looked at Quentin. Kubark had one of his fingers pulling on my mouth and my eyes, and I had him in a head lock and had his tongue in one of my hands

" He shhhhtarted it."

" He shhhhtarted it."

We both replied.

Kubark and I let each other go and continued on with our walk towards the hangar.

" Hey, I never did ask, where are we actually going?" I asked

Quentin turned to me and smiled. " You'll see."

XxX

A few hours later on Planet Sin, the same place where Logan's legs were miraculously broken.

" HAHAHAHA! Is this all you weaklings got?" I asked. In my hands were four of Plandanium nugget casino's security guards. I held them by their throats, and I could feel each one clawing at my hands to try and get free. But no mere man can hurt me. Compared to that energy Exodus hit me with these weapons of theirs feel like feathers on my skin.

" BORING! DULL! YAWN! Is there any creature in this casino actually worthy to battle a prince of the Shi'ar?" I heard Kubark shout across the room. When I looked over at him, he had two unconscious men in his hands.

" Kid Gladiator! Serves up!" I shouted to Kubark. I threw one of the poor men at Kubark and Kubark spiked him into the floor causing the casino to shake.

" This is the best field trip ever." I grabbed two of the men and slammed their heads together before tossing them to the side. I then used the last guard as a weapon and swung him around, knocking the other approaching guards out of the way. " NYYAAAAARGH!" I then threw the guard in my hands so hard that he spun around violently in the air before smashing into the wall.

Kubark and I weren't the only ones wrecking the casino that harmed our teacher. Idie, Warbird, Broo, angel, and even surprisingly Evan got in on the ass-kicking.

" Don't you ever say bad things about Kansas!" I heard Evan shout. When I turned to look at him. He blasted the guards away with a big blast of energy, almost like what Exodus was doing.

" Damn, Evan. That's what I'm talking about man." I told him. Evan was usually the shy and timid one, but damn did he pack quite the punch.

" This Kansas... Suddenly I would very much like to go there. " Kubark told Evan.

" Thank you." Evan replied seemingly to both of us. " Me too."

I looked at Evan and smiled. Looks like he's starting to find his place. That was all nice but damn I have to admit.

" RAAAAGH!" I watched as Warbird used her sword to cut multiple guards down in one strike.

" You are one bad woman, Warbird. I like it." I told the woman honestly.

"You are a fine warrior yourself. But you are too young. When you become an adult, I will gladly welcome you in my bed." Warbird replied before walking away.

I shook my head and leapt back into the fight. " HAHHAHAHA!" I laughed like a maniac.

After a rather exciting albeit short rampage in the middle of the casino, Angel eventually found the object he had been looking for.

" Come on." Angel spoke.

" What? Are we done already?" I asked.

" Yes, I have what I need." Angel told me.

I looked at the lantern in his hand and felt completely stumped by what it meant. " Uhm, what exactly is it?" I asked

" It's a matter transmutation device. It will help fix Professor Logan's legs." Angel told me.

" OOOOOOH! Okay, because that's what broke them in the first place right. " I slammed my fist into one of my other hands as the realization dawned on me. " Okay, besides." I said as i took a look around at the devastation we left. " I think they have just about enough. For today." I clarified.

Me and the others all quickly made our way back to the ship and began our trip back home.

" Hey, Shiva. How many did you beat?" Kubark leaned over and asked.

I looked up and grinned at Kubark. " At least fifty." I told the boy.

Kubark looked up and scoffed. " Ha! I beat fifty-one."

" I meant I beat fifty-two." I replied.

" That's fine. I meant fifty-three."

" Fifty-four!"

" No, Fifty-five!"

" Fifty-six!"

" Fifty-seven!

" Fifty-eight!"

" Fifty-Eight!"

" Fifty-nine!"

" Fifty-nine!"

" Sixty!" We both shouted over each other and continued increasing our body counts.

" YOU WANNA FIGHT?!" We yelled in each other's faces.

" Not on the ship!" Quentin Shouted at us from the pilot's seat.

I scowled at Kubark and he did the same back all the way until we finally returned to the school.

XxX

We walked off the Ship, I was still glaring at Kubark but our attention was quickly gained by the three teachers waiting for us.

Waiting at the end of the ramp were Rachel, Bobby, and Logan.

Oh shit, this does not look good I thought to myself.

" I hope you kids had fun. Because you're all spending the rest of your lives in detention." Logan told us.

" Don't blame them. This was my idea, sir." Angel spoke up.

I blew a mental sigh of relief and made a mental note to thank Angel later.

" Mind telling me what you thought you were doing here, Angel?" Logan asked.

" All I want is for you to believe." Angel told the man.

" In what? More of your stupid miracles?" Logan asked.

" No." Angel replied. He then pulled out the device and handed it to Logan. " In me."

When Logan laid eyes on the device his eyes turned into saucers. I would laugh but I think he's just waiting for an excuse to stab me.

Angel looked back at Logan as he flew out of the room and got in one last snide comment. " In all of us. We are the miracles."

Logan watched in silence as Angel flew awya.

I walked up behind the man and leaned down just close to his ear. " Looks like he got one over on you teach!" I shouted.

Logan jumped in his chair and swiped at me with his claws.

I took off running and I swear I could hear Logan behind cursing. " YOU GOD DAMN KID! COME BACK HERE SO I CAN GUT YA!"

The only thing he got in response was the sound of my magnificent laughter. " HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

XxX Bonus: The next day.

Today was a boring day and now look at me. Stuck in front of almost the entire class all because of a stupid bet.

" What's going on?" Logan asked as he rolled up next to Rachel and the other teachers.

" Julian, goaded him into performing for the school. Said he couldn't actually play the drums or something like that." Rachel told the man.

Logan laughed and then turned towards me.

" I couldn't hear them all that well. But I could tell from his face he was happy to see me make a fool of myself. Too bad for him, that I'm awesome." I said to myself. " Now, I just need to pick a song." I sat in silence for a few seconds contemplating my song of choice and then it hit me.

[ Simple Plan-Take my hand.

" What are you scared?" I heard Julian shout.

I scoffed and I made a selection.

The crowd was silent, and Julian looked at me as if he had won. And then it happened I hit that first roll and the guitar kicked in and everyone started jumping in excitement.

I was enjoying the jam so much I decided to sing along. " Sometimes I feel like everybody's got a problem. Sometimes I feel like nobody wants to solve them. I know that people say we're never gonna make it. But I know, we're gonna get through this."

" Damn, listen to him go man." Santo exclaimed.

It was elated I could both hear and feel the entire school bopping along with me, following along with my Rythm. I had them eating out of the palm of my hand and then it came time to slow it down a bit. I raised my hands and my drumming stopped to allow the vocals to carry for a bit.

" Take my hand tonight. Let's not think about tomorrow. Take my hand tonight. We can find some place to go." I twirled the sticks in my hand and started drumming once again, the tempo of the sound was picking back up and I didn't miss a note. " Cause our hearts are locked forever. And our love will never die. Take my hand tonight one last TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME! Take my hand tonight! Let's not think about tomorrow! Take my hand tonight! We can find some place to go. Cause our hearts are locked forever. And our love will never die. Take my hand tonight! ONE LAST TIIIIIIME ONE LAST TIME! ONE LAST TIIIIIIME!"

I was having the time of my life and for a while thing seemed to be looking up. If only we all knew at the time how chaotic things were about to become, maybe we would have spent more time like this instead of at each other's throats.

None of us could have been prepared for the return of the Phoenix.