First Day at the Institute

We were led back down to the basement. Bobby and I were told to enter one room, while everyone else continued on to an observation room.

When we walked in, we found an empty room entirely composed of metal awaiting us. Glancing up, we could see a glass window where everyone else was watching us from below.

"We'll start with Bobby. Casper, if you could stand off to the side. We want to get a handle on how much control you have over your powers. Just try your best to remain in control and not let them run wild." Xavier said through the microphone.

I stepped back while Bobby stood in the center of the room, looking nervous. Frost started to form around him as his stress caused his powers to act out.

"You'll do fine. Just think of it like a video game. You've got to clear all the enemies and dodge the obstacles." I said to him.

"Huh, alright. I can do that." Bobby said, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath as the frost receded and disappeared.

In front of him, the walls of the room opened up and let out various humanoid robots.

"Bobby, just go ahead and try to destroy the robots in whatever way you can," Xavier said.

Bobby nodded and held his hand up. Ice coats his hand and out of his palm shoots a bolt of ice. It impacted the robot and froze part of its chest.

"Cool," Bobby said.

He held his other hand out and started to shoot bolts of ice from his hands at the robots. They varied greatly in size because Bobby's control wasn't all that good of his power yet, but he was managing to make sure he didn't freeze things on accident.

Once all of the robots were frozen solid, the floor of the room moved like a conveyor belt and removed them from the room.

"Excellent. Step back and let Casper go now." Xavier said.

Bobby nodded and walked towards me while I did the same.

"Nice," I said giving him a high five.

"Thanks, try to keep up," He said, laughing as he walked to where I had waited while he went.

Walking to where he was standing, I watched as more robots emerged from the wall. Reaching down the ground, I absorbed the metal floor of the room, coating my body in it.

Running towards one of the robots, I punched forward, my fist piercing straight through its chest and coming out the other side. Pulling my fist out of it, the robot fell to the ground. Holding my hand out, I tried to concentrate on changing my hand's shape, but I could barely get its form to ripple before returning to normal.

'I've got to work on that.'

I continued to destroy the robots by punching them. Once they were all destroyed, I let the metal disappear from my body.

"Good work Casper. Next, the two of you will run through an obstacle course. Bobby if you would."

Bobby switched places with me and watched as an obstacle course appeared in the room. There were swinging sandbags and a rolling wooden cylinder.

Bobby took off running and tried to dodge the sandbags, but some of them managed to hit him, disorienting him for a second. He started to get annoyed by them hitting him and the next one that came, he reached his hand out and grabbed it, freezing it solid.

From then on he continued to freeze the obstacles that got in his way. Once he reached the spinning cylinder, he took a step and froze it so it would stop spinning, walking across and to the finish.

"Ha, beat that Casper."

I switched places with him and the room shifted, replacing the obstacle course with an identical one.

I absorbed the metal floor again and coated my whole body, taking off running as I dodged around the obstacles. Any that hit me just fell to the ground due to how tough my body was, but I managed to avoid a majority of them. When I reached the spinning cylinder, I reached down and broke the axis, stopping it from spinning and walking across.

"How's that?" I said.

"It was alright I guess," Bobby said.

"We'll be down there in a second," Xavier said.

I walked over to Bobby and he gave me a high five.

"That's pretty impressive. Not as impressive as my power, but it's alright I guess."

"Uh huh, well try not to freeze my drinks popsicle."

The people from the observation room entered the room after a minute.

"You both performed well today. Casper, you seem to have a good handle on your power. Bobby, you need to work on controlling your power so if you feel strong emotions it doesn't act out. You both also chose the most destructive route possible through the course." Xavier said.

"I mean it worked didn't it," I said.

"That it did." Xavier agreed.

"I'll work on controlling my power more," Bobby said, rubbing the back of his head.

"I'm sure you'll make progress quickly. That'll be all for today, you'll have training in the Danger Room on Monday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday. Feel free to go explore more of the school, everyone else get suited up for a Danger Room session." Xavier said.

Bobby and I nodded and walked towards the door.

"You guys did great. I'm sure you'll like it here." Jean said.

"And maybe you'll start going on missions when you're ready," Scott said.

"Thanks, we'll look forward to it," I said and Bobby and I walked out of the Danger Room. Walking down the hall and up the stairs, Bobby asked me "So what are you going to do now?"

"I think I'm going to go get something to eat. I'm starving." I said.

"Yeah, I could use some food."

We both walked into the kitchen and grabbed snacks to eat. While we were eating, Ororo came in.

"What do you two think of the school so far?" She asked, sitting down at the table across from us and making herself something.

"I like it. The Danger Room looks like it will be a lot of fun." Bobby said with his mouth full of food.

"Swallow before speaking, but yes, the Danger Room is the part most people like the most. How about you Casper?"

"I like the Danger Room as well. I'm excited for combat training."

"Just make sure you don't slack on your studies," Ororo said. Bobby and I nodded and finished our food, excusing ourselves from the table and walking back to our room.

I laid down in bed, while Bobby sat on his and pulled out a tablet to mess around with. He busied himself watching a YouTube video, while I focused inward.

Surveying my body with the power I absorbed from the man who attacked me, I manipulated the nutrients from the food I had just eaten to strengthen my body. It was a minimal effect, but it would build up more and more.

'The first person I should try to absorb is Wolverine. His healing factor is important if I want to stay alive in this world. Storm's should be avoided for now, it's too obvious and if my emotions change the weather they'll figure out I can take powers. Cyclops is similarly flashy at the moment, so I wouldn't be able to train with it at all. Jean's powers are a must-have along with Kitty's and Kurt's, but I could get his physical appearance which would be too obvious.'

"I'm going to go take a shower and brush my teeth," I said, getting up from bed and looking through the closet, finding a towel.

"Oh yeah, if you need some clothes, you're about my size," Bobby said, getting up and opening his bag to hand me a shirt and pants.

"Thanks, appreciate it," I said, taking the clothes from him.

"No problem."

I walked to the locker room and took a shower, enjoying a hot shower before getting dressed in the clothes Bobby had given me. Taking my old clothes, which were pretty dirty from lying in that alleyway, I put them in the hamper in our room.

Bobby was passed out, apparently tired from the stress of the day. I laid down in bed and closed my eyes, falling asleep as well.

----

The next morning I woke up to find Bobby still fast asleep. Getting out of bed and walking down the hallway to breakfast, I found only Ororo there. She was sitting at the table eating breakfast while watching the news on a TV on the wall.

"Good morning Casper. How was your first night here?" She asked me.

"It was good, nice to take a hot shower for once," I commented, sitting down and making myself some breakfast.

"What do you mean?"

"I've spent the last six years living on the street. Doesn't make it easy to find a hot shower."

Ororo's face didn't take a look of sympathy but understanding.

"I have some experience with that. I spent much of my childhood on the streets of Cairo, Egypt."

'I forgot she was homeless for a while.'

"Huh, I guess you do. What was living on the streets in Egypt like?" I asked.

She went on to explain what it was like to grow up in a thieves' den. It was interesting to hear about first hand, her experience in Egypt learning to pickpockets. Our conversation winded down as everyone else began to wake up and make their way into the kitchen.

"This was a nice conversation Casper, but I need to get ready for class," Ororo said, standing up.

"Yeah, I enjoyed it," I said as she walked out of the room.

"What were you and Aunty talking about?" Evan asked.

"The past. So what are all of you doing today?" I asked.

"It's Tuesday, so we have school. The Professor will probably get you and Bobby registered as well." Jean said.

"Sounds like a drag. I'm not looking forward to that." I said.

"It's important to get your education, Casper," Xavier said, rolling into the room.

"So when do I start this school then?" I asked

"In a couple of days. I'm ironing out everything with the principal for you and Bobby to attend."

I nodded and finished eating, standing up to leave the table when Bobby came in, yawning as he walked.

"Morning," Bobby said.

"Morning. Do you want to work on our powers today? The Professor said we don't have to go to school for the next couple of days." I asked Bobby.

"Actually, I said you don't have high school. Ororo is teaching a language class this afternoon. It's important to be able to speak with different cultures." Xavier said.

"Alright. Let's work on our powers while we have the time, just let me eat." Bobby said.

"Oh yeah, Professor would it be possible to get some clothes?" I asked.

"Of course, what size are you, I'll make sure to get some delivered here," Xavier said.

"Thank you."

Bobby finished his breakfast and the two of us walked down to the Danger Room.

"I want to work on shaping my hands into weapons when I absorb a metal," I told Bobby.

"You can do that?" He asked, surprised.

"I think so. I can get it to ripple, but shaping the weapon and holding it is hard. What do you want to do?" I asked.

Bobby thought for a few seconds. "I think I want to try to shape things out of my ice."

"Okay, then if either of us figures out a good method to shaping something we can help each other," I said.

I reached down and absorbed the metal of the ground, while Bobby started to leak frost from his body.

I focused on my hand, trying to change it into some kind of weapon, but it would just ripple.

'Alright, maybe I need to completely focus on what I'm trying to make first. I'll get a clear image of it in my head and once I do I'll try to do it.'

Taking a moment, I pictured my hands turning into a machete. I pictured the flat side and the curved edge of it. Concentrating on that image, I focused back on my hand and watched as it slowly shifted, becoming the image I had.

"That's awesome. Look at mine." Bobby said. Looking up from my new machete I saw Bobby making a small dog run around his hand.

"That's detailed," I commented, ignoring the fact that he was better than me at shaping matter. His powers lend themselves more towards that, so I assumed he would be better at it.

"Yeah, I just thought of my old dog I used to have and tried to make my ice look like it. Now I'm going to try to make a life-sized version."

Bobby refocused on making a block of ice and shaping it. Meanwhile, I continued to mentally picture different weapons Kevin had formed in the series, creating a catalog of the images. With my eidetic memory, I would always remember them and it became much easier to form the weapons without needing to form the image over and over again.

Bobby and I spent a while in the Danger Room, just working on our ability to shape the aspects of our power. I moved on from just my hands to trying to make spikes erupt from my body. It took a lot of focus since I was trying to shape multiple parts of my body at once, but I made good progress on it by the time we decided to stop.

Bobby had managed to make his life-sized version of his dog and had it running around the Danger Room, chasing after him or he chased after it.

Once we were done we walked out of the Danger Room and back upstairs. Bobby went to eat, while I went to our room for a little while. Once I was in our room, I began to concentrate on the power I had absorbed from Bobby. Ice began to form on my fingertips, coating them in ice.

'I can't make big constructs or even produce as much ice as Bobby can yet, but I'll get there.'

I spent the next hour working on trying to produce ice and shape it, forming simple constructs like a ring on my finger and a basic knife. Nothing was as complicated as even Bobby's smaller version of his dog, but it was a good start.

Once I was done I walked into the kitchen to find Bobby still eating. Sitting down, I made some food for myself and we ate in relative peace until Xavier came in.

"Ororo is ready for your first language lessons after you two are done eating."

Once we finished we made our way to the room designated as Ororo's classroom and walked in. She was standing at the front of the room when we got there. There were a lot of seats, but we sat in the two at the front since no one else would be there.

"Room for future students?" I asked as Ororo.

"Yes, Charles hopes to find many future mutants to enroll at this school. So do either of you have any experience with a language other than English?" She asked us.

Bobby had a little experience with Spanish from high school, so he continued with that and I decided to just go with Spanish as well since it was as good a place to start as any.

Ororo gave us both Spanish 1 textbooks and went over the alphabet for the language. With my eidetic memory, I remembered everything she was teaching us. After class was over, we were dismissed and walked out of the room.

"You think everyone else is back yet?" Bobby asked.

"Probably, we'll see in a second," I said.

We walked into the entrance hall to see everyone coming home from school.

"Oh good, you two are here. We were thinking about going bowling, to celebrate the two of you joining the institute." Scott said.

"Sounds fun," Bobby said, while I thought about it.

'I need to get powerful as soon as possible, but a majority of the major threats don't happen until later in any Marvel Timeline. The Avengers aren't a thing yet, and I don't want to spend the entirety of this new life trying to get stronger and ignoring everything else. I'll work hard to get stronger, but I'm not going to neglect everything else.'

"Sure, we going right now?" I asked.

"Yeah, let us just put our bags in our room and we can go." Jean said.

The group went and put their bags into their rooms before coming back to the entrance hall. We walked to the garage, where several cars were parked. We loaded into a van and pulled out, heading to the bowling alley.

Once we got there we paid for shoes and a lane and started bowling. I had money from using my powers on ATMs, but I'd never bothered to buy all that much stuff since I moved around so much.

"So what'd you do all day?" Jean asked.

"We spent some time in the Danger Room and had language class with Ms. Munroe" I answered.

"Oh really, how was language class?" Jean asked, glossing over the Danger Room.

'I guess we're not supposed to talk about it outside of the Institute.'

"Well I know nothing about any other language. We'll see how well I pick it up." I said. When it was my turn to bowl I went up and rolled it, hitting a strike.

Sitting back down, Jean asked me "You bowl often?"

"Nah, never really found the time for it. It's fun though." I said. The reason I was good is that my hand-eye coordination was perfect, so I could roll the ball easily.

"My turn" Jean said and went up, rolling the ball to get a strike as well.

I talked with all the members of the group and got along fine with most of them, although Rogue tried her best to ignore me. Scott seemed alright, not the asshole from the comic books, but it remained to be seen if that would change. Kurt was alright. He made a lot of jokes, but I didn't mind and some of them were funny. Kitty seemed to be a ditzy girl, but she wasn't annoying so it was fine. Evan was laid back and I got along well. Jean and I also kept getting strikes, which led me to realize something.

"You're using your telekinesis." I said.

"Of course not. I would never do that." Jean said, keeping a straight face.

"Uh huh, I'm sure. Well this is the last ball anyway." I said and hit another strike. Jean went after me and held the ball and rolled it forward. While it was rolling, I said "Hey is that the Professor?"

Jean turned to look and the ball rolled into the gutter. She turned to me and said "Oh, now who's cheating."

"Still you" I said.

We finished our food and walked back to the car, getting in and riding back to the Institute. Everybody headed to their rooms for the night.

'That was fun, but tomorrow is the day we have another Danger Room session. Logan should be teaching it, so I can absorb his power tomorrow.'