[IC] X-Men: The Grinder Chronicles

[Dark Eternity]

"Welcome, dear freshmen of our lovely college. Welcome to the Mutant College of Liberty and Equality." The voice of the Headmaster barked across the large hall. Interesting enough, there were no microphones near him and yet he did not seem to yell or put too much effort in speaking in such a volume. Of course those that had a chance to talk to students before getting to campus know that Mister Maikel, Headmaster of the College, was a mutant. A mutant like any other person in the college.

The Headmaster introduced the staff that was present in the large auditorium hall. Many faces to remember, many different smiles. Most will become teachers for the freshmen. Some might not show up in the time of study at all, for they were responsible for the paperwork or medical attention. While the introduction speech was short and quickly done with, many freshmen remained in their seats, talking to their neighbors and already making acquaintances. While the Headmaster was quickly off, the Vice Headmaster, Victoria Veltheim, stood with another member of the staff and chatted.

It was not too fast after the Headmaster left that some students entered the auditorium. Amongst them stood out a blue-haired girl with a baseball bat, grinning from ear to ear. "Welcome to the Grinder, kids!", she yelled into the room, throwing a ball into the air and hitting it with the bat. With a banging sound, the ball rushed off into the ceiling area and after a few bounces made its decent back to the ground. The girl stood amongst the students, laughing a little.

To her misfortune, the Vice Headmistress was on her way to the group. A few students already dashed off, the mutterings of "Shit, Vicious is here" or "Get out, V comes over" slithering between the rushing bodies. The blue-haired punk remained on her spot, still grinning and her bat casually resting on her shoulder. "Miss Jameson", Miss Veltheim spoke, which washed off the punk's grin off her face. "May I remind you that we have warned you multiple times to not abuse your powers inside the building?" The girl shook her head, to which Victoria had to chuckle. The other girl joined in for a short moment, hesitant.

"You should go to your room and think about your misdeeds. Maybe put on some clean clothes as well", the Headmistress continued, to which the punk responded with a nod. The girl turned by the twist of her heels on the ground and dashed off immediately.

One of the freshmen laughed. "So easy to stop Jackhammer", he muttered, but his voice was quickly swallowed in the returning noise of people talking...

Welcome to the Grinder, kids.

[King Kindred]

Alex arrived at the school well on time. His sixteen year old sister had taken him there since their parents didn't want anyone, including their "help", to know about what school he was going to. They would have definitely been in for a shocker once they arrived. A lot of the mutants looked like they could pass for humans. Others however were completely different and made the term mutant seem more literal than it was. He wasn't the type to judge them on their appearance though. He turned to his sister and noticed that she looked nervous. He understood why. She was a normie. That's what he opted to call non-mutants.

"Don't worry, CC. None of these kids here will hurt you or me. We're all here for the same reason." Her name was Chelsea Clarke, but he started calling her CC when they were young and it just stuck. She was one of the people he could constantly talk to about being a mutant without worrying about her judging him. He even decided that he wouldn't read her mind unless he knew she was hiding something.

She gave him a smile to show that everything was alright, but she knew that if he wanted to he could have read her mind to find out if it was a lie or not. "Good luck out there, X. We both know that your future isn't behind some stupid desk. Go and find out what your destiny is."

Alex laughed a bit and said, "Sis, you know I don't believe in destiny." He then stepped out of the car and went to the trunk to get his suitcases. He already arrived before to drop off some of the other things that he needed like some video games, books, a TV, and other things to make his stay feel more like home. He watched as his sister drove off and headed to his assigned room to drop off the rest of his things. His roommate didn't seem to be there yet, but that didn't matter to him. He had to head to the auditorium and get to meet the people he'd be spending his time with.

The auditorium scene was a bore. He found some people to talk to that seemed cool. There was no problem there. Then things got a bit more interesting. He saw someone use their powers. It was a blue-haired chick that seemed to give the Vice-Headmistress some problems. That was someone he could see himself hanging out with. She seemed to have some super strength which was pretty cool. She could probably help him out with his powers as well.

He got up from his seat and looked around. This was it. His time as a free moment. He was now able to do almost anything that he wanted to. He couldn't wait to be able to use and expand his powers. "Now what to do first?"

[HHShetland]

Sumat Sajak may have been a four-armed reptilian thing from the slums of Ludhiana, but years of life and homeschooling in the upper-class splendour of South-East England had made him a man of respectability. Thus, when he had first arrived at his new (and somewhat undersized, but he could cope with that) dorm room, he had spent a good half hour making himself presentable for the official introduction to the University.

He would have looked rather out-of-place anyway, but this decision apparently hadn't helped him much. He had come to the introduction talk dressed in a smart black suit; custom-made, of course, to accommodate his extra limbs. Due to his cold-blooded biology, this was something he reserved only for when it was necessary. But soon after arrival, he was disappointed to find that most of the new students; and all of them probably younger than him; were swaggering about in skinny jeans and band t-shirts, amongst other things. Really, he might as well have not bothered.

And that wasn't all. While he certainly found himself admiring most of the faculty's dedication to their herculean task of integrating mutants into society, from what he could tell from the students' conduct soon after they'd finished, as he sat at one of the tables, sticking out like a sore thumb... it seemed to him most of the students were more interested in developing their powers than actually trying to integrate themselves into society, which alternately made him grunt in annoyance and chuckle at their naivete.

He especially didn't like the look of that punkish-looking girl who saw fit to burst in uninvited and start causing havoc for no discernible reason. At least the staff were quick to deal with her, and alert her to her hopelessly unkempt state in the process. Once that had been dealt with, he simply chose to sit and debate over whether he should get a drink or not, occasionally shuffling about to properly fit his tail through the hole that the back of the chair mercifully had.

"Uh... hey." A rather nervous-sounding fellow Freshman uttered into his ear... or he would, if he had ears in the conventional sense.

Sumat turned his head to the left, were the sound had originated from. Of course, since the room was so lively and filled with people, he could see heat all over the place, and his vibration sense was of no use to him. Good thing the fellow freshman's voice was loud.

"Hello." Sumat replied in his impeccable RP accent. To do otherwise would be too rude for him.

"Huh... thought you'd sound different." The other Freshman, casually-dressed like most of the others, seemed to blurt out unintentionally.

"...Well, what did you think I would sound like?" Sumat asked him, in as friendly a tone as he could muster. Valuable skill when you looked like him.

"Well, uh... you're the Raja Naga! World Mutant Wrestling? I was one of those weirdos who rooted for you when I wasn't s'posed to!"

Sumat internally sighed in irritation. It had been a few weeks since someone recognised him from the last pay-per-view before he retired, and he had hoped it would be the last. At least he got out before he had the chance to become ridiculously famous.

"That was five months ago, sir." He said, bluntly. "If you are indeed a fan of the spectacle, as you imply, you should know I retired soon afterwards."

"Uh... yeah, sure, I knew that. But I kinda thought that you..."

"You didn't seriously think that was real, did you?" Sumat cut him off, albeit softly so. Another advantage of his appearance; most people would have difficulty cutting someone off with a soft register. "There's no shame in that, it is very convincingly engineered, after all..."

"Oh, no! I knew it was all an act! I mean, heh, if I thought it was real I'd have feared for my life sittin' here, heheh... uhh, it's just, y'know, I wasn't expecting your voice to be so, uh..."

"-British?"

"Well... yes, that. So the whole 'India' thing was just an act as well, right?"

Sumat chuckled slightly; he was finding this young man kind of cute, in a naive and innocent sort of way. Probably wasn't, in all likelihood, but still.

"Easy mistake to make, but no. You see, I learnt my English in the UK."

"Ohhhhhh... so what are you doing here? You're like, ten years older than most of us."

"To learn." Sumat answered duly, clasping both his pairs of his hands together. "History, Literature, things firmly embedded in the, ahem, popular idea of what greatness means, if you'll forgive me for being so pretentious."

"Oh." The other Freshman said, apparently disappointed. "What about your powers?"

"Hmph." Sumat couldn't help but make that noise. He should have seen it coming, given what everyone else was chatting about. Sumat then took it as a good opportunity to clue the young man into the phase he was going through.

"I've known how to use my powers since I was six. Didn't really get me anywhere, that's for sure. Don't get me wrong, Sports Entertainment has its place, and if you're a fan, good for you." He paused and took a deep breath. "It's just not for me anymore."

[knighthawk]

♫ I don't wanna grow up,♪ I'm a toys are us kid-♩
*Boop*
"Hello? Yeth, I'm on camputh. No, I didn't wash the assembly. I'm looking in on new-folk. Yeah, bye."
*boop*
Probably the only comp-sci teacher with a clamshell, but he knew his could take a 3 story drop if he jumped around while smart-phones break of they fall 3 feet from your pocket. At the moment, he perched over the steeple of the roof to answer his phone, tail swaying in amusement while also keeping him balanced. He looked down on the kids as he folded a piece of carbon paper with his name and teaching schedule on it into a paper airplane and tossed it to the students below. He hadn't filled his roster just yet so was looking to pad his classrooms to the brim, he did his best to make himself the 'cool teacher' for others to come to.

At 29, he was older than the freshmen but younger than most of the teachers, a fact he is often reminded of. Even if he sunk part of his twelve million into the school, some teachers thought of him as merely buying his way into the faculty. Then again, with his teachers office having a 10X10 plasma screen tv with surround sound just to play games on, some wondered if he hadn't paid enough to endure such childish antics.

He watched the paper airplane dance on the wind, completely distracted by its aerial display until it bopped someone in the head.

"...Oopth!"

[themadhatter420]

Artemis smiled as she heard the speech...but she could not believe how many people were just like her. She wondered what all powers they had as she kept her bow on her back. They wanted her to leave it in her room but she refused. She always had it with her no matter what. It was after all her only possession. She didn't even have clothes until the headmaster gave her some to wear. She saw the ball fly through the air and she laughed. At least some of them have a sense of humor... she thought to herself with a chuckle. She walked around looking at everything any everyone...almost feeling claustrophobic. She took steady breaths looking for something or somewhere to stand away from most people. She found nothing so tried to see if she could find someone to talk to that wont reject her on the spot. She had high hopes but could not see anyone.

She did find a girl with tanned skin and brown hair that looked like a nice person though. She walked closer to her to see if she could start a conversation. Her mother told her when she was dropped off that she would have to make friends...but she has never done anything like this before. She was almost about to freeze up for that matter. She managed to speak after a few moments. She decided to keep to herself until she got to her classes. She just hoped she could figure out how to do that for the matter. Maybe the headmaster can help her? She didn't even know how to ask for help either.

[Legion02]

David was already a little late. He blamed public transport for it. But in reality, he just left home too late, missed his train and had to take a later one. So he walked in the Auditorium with his bag in hand and backpack. In the Auditorium, he sat through the entire speech, which seemed rather short. Then again, David did dislike long speeches. Though right before he left he saw the vice-headmistress scolding a girl with blue hair. Though what David saw first was the fact that she wielded a baseball bat.

Paying too much attention at the baseball bat, David accidentally bumped into Alex. “Oh I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there.” He quickly said. But he did drop his bag. Though it never touched the ground. Instead there was some strange black aura around it. David’s particles in Delta-form. He just assumed it was a minor discharge and grabbed the bag.

[BranchOfSin]

Beep! Beep! Beep!
An alarm went off in a dark room. In the middle of this room was a young man wearing generally bright clothing which appeared to make the room light up.
"Ughh....Five more minutes..."
The alarm went off again a second time.
"C'mon...Just Five.."
The Alarm went off a third time, and this time the young man stood up half-asleep. A large thud could be heard from the hallway of his house, if there was anyone else but him there.
"Damm, Couldn't wait fiv-"
The young man stopped talking when he saw what time it was, and he was late on his first day.
"Oh no, Really Luke, on your first day?!"
Little did the young man know that his Clock was an hour ahead and he didn't remember. Luke rushed to his closet and picked up his favorite Orange sweater, his headphones, pants, shoes and shirt.
He ran down the stairs to his living room where the door leading outside was. He stopped in front of the tv and ran his hand through the top of it.
"Memories of days past."
A saddened expression appeared on Luke's face, signifying that this room had sentimental value to him. Luke dashed out the door before he began to cry.

"Agh. Which way was it? Better go up." Luke ran to a small alleyway where only some homeless and "Conspiracy Theorists" layed after losing everything. Huh, I can relate to them a little. After walking for a while, Luke reached a space where there was nobody around him. Luke began to do kind of like a Matrix move when Neo was going to begin flying. Luke began to ascend to the sky using Dark Flames as boosters. In a matter of seconds he began to fly through the skies.

After a few minutes, Luke was hovering above the school. He began his descent to the ground, when suddenly, the flames ran out and he began to freefall from the sky.
"Oh No! Curs-"
Luke hit a tree on his way down, but what really saved him was his reflexes. Before he became a pancake, he used his "Special Abilities" to Summon some mud to break his fall.
"Yeow...That Hurt..."
Luke got up, limping, he walked through the entrance of the school and fell down on the spot.

[Natty]

Trey Abidemi's morning wasn't that different from everyone else sitting in the seemingly newly built auditorium. With one hand he clutched his morning coffee, with the teen using the other to operate his phone in order to connect to the college's apparently top of the range wifi. Every couple of seconds, he shot his eyes up to the headmaster at the front in order to not appear rude although honestly he wasn't paying that much attention. Once the guy's speech came to a close, Trey his best to give a short round of applause like those around him, which proved fairly difficult due to the fact that his hands were full.

Coincidentally, Trey's phone now decided to finally connect to the wifi, so after pocketing it, he rose to his feet. Deciding it was a good idea to mingle, a group entered the room and started to seemingly cause some trouble. Trey eyed their apparent leader. Blue hair. Punkish clothes. Baseball bat. "Attractive." He found himself whispering that last part to himself, only to snap out of his gaze half a second later before staggering onwards.

His eyes scanned the crowd, picking out what looked to be a humongous four armed lizard. He gave the being a double-take before cautiously approaching. He milled around him as the lizard seemed to be explaining himself to another freshman. Trey didn't catch his name, but he could tell from both the accent and the suit that this guy was actually quite sophisticated. He decided to hide his surprise as the fellow mutant seemed to be having a bad enough time dealing with the constant questions from the freshmen.

Deciding to intervene he stepped forward. "Hey man, nice suit!" He gave the tall mutant a smile before continuing. "A custom one like that must have cost a fortune!"

[Dark Eternity]

A student falling down is a rare sight, even for the Grinder. Surrounding students either gasped and were shocked, or they actually began getting one of the teachers. One of the students burst into the auditorium and called out to the staff that were there that a student fell unconscious. Lucky for them, the nurse was present.

At once, the small framed figure of Claire "Toothfairy" SaintFrederics made her way through the students out of the auditorium. "Someone go and grab some water", she called out with her calm and quiet voice to the students that were leading her to Luke. Once she was by the student, there were quite a few that were backing off and disappearing. First Claire checked pulse and breathing, making sure that Luke was doing alright. One of the students brave enough to stay mentioned that they saw him limping inside, to which the nurse checked the ankles of the young man. She sighed a moment.

The young woman rubbed her hands together and then grabbed Luke's ankles. At once, the ankles were healing, the straining disappearing and the muscles getting invigorated. Immediately, the woman opened the unconscious student's mouth and plucked out some teeth that were already falling out. She placed two front teeth and a back tooth aside and made sure that Luke would wake up, or that a student would be so helpful and carry him to the medical station...

[King Kindred]

Alex looked around at all of the other Freshmen mingling with each other. He felt like he should start doing the same. But who to talk to was the question? Picking someone out required key analysis and strategy or maybe he was just over-thinking it. He could try and read each of their minds, but he would be overflowing with too many different thoughts in his mind and be put into a coma. Yeah... Getting into a coma on the first day wasn't the best idea. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how this went he didn't have to look for someone to talk to. One bumped into him. He turned his head to see the kid who bumped into and followed him with his eyes as he reached to get his bag. The bag was floating with the help of some weird dark aura around it. Maybe he was a strange form of a telekinetic. Perhaps this guy could help him extend his control over his powers. To think that the first person he bumped into or bumped into him was someone who could help him. How lucky could he be?

He fully turned to him now and said, "No worries. We can all get easily distracted. The name's Alex and you are?" Alex didn't really have problems making friends. He wasn't socially awkward by a long shot. He however was social class challenged. His usual friends were people that belonged to high-end and influential families. He knew a lot of heirs and heiresses as well as kids of politicians. He rarely however socialized with someone from the middle class or below. That was going to be a different experience. Maybe they were the same as the rich kids, but with less money and hopefully better attitudes. Of course not all rich kids that he knew were stuck up or obnoxious. Some were as down to Earth as he was. Others were down to Mars and he liked that.

He got distracted in thought and eventually that was cut off by the commotion by the entrance to the auditorium. A student came bursting in talking about how a student fell unconscious. Such excitement on the first day. The school nurse went with the student and the commotion subsided. He wanted to go ahead and check out the situation, but he was in the middle of conversation. He may have been somewhat rebellious, but he did have some manners.

[Imaginary]

Jada’s white earbud fell out. She sighed and put it back in. The subway lurched and she shifted uncomfortably. The man next to her was taking up far too much space, causing her to hold her legs together tightly and her shoulders to fold in uncomfortably. “Excuse me,” she said. It was barely above a whisper and the man clearly did not hear her. He was severely overweight and his brown, disheveled beard had bits of grey streaking through it. He coughed; clearly a smoker. “Um, excuse me please.” She said it again, this time louder. She pushed her arms out so they lay naturally. The man was like a brick wall and didn’t move. Jada gave up just as the subway came to a screeching halt. This was her stop. She picked up her soft brown messenger bag, putting away her music as she walked between the two car doors and onto the platform. She was headed to the Grinder. The lady she spoke to at church had told her so many wonderful things about a school just for people like her. This was the start of her new life and she wanted to make the most of it.

She headed up the terminal stairway. As soon as she reached the sidewalk, her eyes drew her to a small calico kitten on the ground, hiding itself in the shade of a newsstand. The woman at the stand seemed to have no idea it was there. Jada walked over and picked it up, sheltering it with the jean jacket she wore. “Hi there,” she said, smiling. The kitten was shaking, clearly afraid. Jada glanced at her watch. She had a bit of time before she had to arrive. She knew there was an animal shelter only a block from where she was. It was in the opposite direction than where she was headed but she knew she could make it there in time. She started to jog, hoping she wouldn’t be late.
-------------------------
Jada left the shelter with a smile on her face. The two women she met inside were incredibly helpful and fawned over the kitten the moment she walked in the door. She looked at her watch again. “Ah!” Time had passed faster than she had expected. She walked to the edge of the street, attempting to hail a cab. A bright yellow cab pulled over immediately and Jada hoped inside. She gave the driver the address. He eyed her suspiciously. “The Grinder?” he asked. She didn’t appreciate his tone and didn’t reply. She stared out the window the entire ride. When she arrived, she paid the driver without looking at him. He took off without a word. She turned to the school and took a deep breath. This is it, she thought, this is my new life.

She slipped in the back of the opening assembly, casually casting an illusion so that no one would notice she was there. She probably didn’t need to. There seemed to be enough of a distraction with a student playing baseball or something. Jada couldn’t really tell. She was too caught up in looking from face to face. These were going to be the people she would know for the rest of her life.

[HHShetland]

It was quite obvious that the Freshman that Sumat had just met had no intention of stopping his questions any time soon. Sumat never knew how to properly react when this happened. On the one hand, the questions being asked were all perfectly valid, nothing stupid like 'do you eat Mice' or 'do you find Cobras sexy'? But on the other hand, too many questions in a row, from the same person, and formed from a false image of him, was tiresome. He already knew where it was going to go. The child would say 'why did you come here if you don't particularly care for your powers?', and he'd say 'I already told you' and then they'd respond 'That's boring, how dare you be different from what I imagined!' and then that'd be the end of that.

It was with great relief, then, that another Freshman approached his table before the first had the opportunity to speak. What made it infinitely better was that he actually complimented him on his dress sense. That was just a bonus, though; could have been an insult and he'd still have been glad his efforts were noticed.

"Many thanks." He replied to the new figure, putting on a smile of his own (inadvertantly exposing his fangs), and chuckling slightly to emphasise the upcoming sarcasm. "I now know that my efforts were not in vain."

As is custom when meeting a new person that gives you a positive impression of themselves, he took a look at the man, noticing that there weren't many ethnic minorities in the hall at the moment. He wasn't sure if he himself counted, since his own ethnicity was hidden by all the green scales and the accent.

"You needn't worry about my funds, though." He continued, in regards to the 'must have cost a fortune' remark, and brushing his collar slightly with one of his top hands. "I have my sources."

"Yeah, y'know he's the-"

"AHEM." Sumat felt it fit to cut off the other Freshman before he ruined this so-far decent social encounter, combining it with a wave of his lower left hand in front of the other man's mouth. Hopefully he'd get the hint.

Before he could continue, he noticed, at the corner of his eye, a great mass of heat heading in the direction of the entrance, combined with a lot of vibration in the same direction. He took a cursory glance over there and noticed that people were congregating around some... injured person. This made him grunt under his breath; what was it about accidents that everyone saw fit to gawk at?

He decided he'd simply ignore it, and hoped this new face would do the same.

"My name is Sumat." He said, his native accent briefly flaring up when he said his own name. He pulled his chair in with his lower arms, resting his upper arms on the table and leaning forward as a gesture of inquisition. This new face was giving off good vibes. "This gentleman and I were just discussing why the people here have... well, come here. Tell me, why did you choose to study here, mister...?" He trailed off, gesturing for the other man to finish his sentence for him.

[knighthawk]

"Ith a barbecue bird! Ith a pyromaniac plane! Ith thuper- painful!"

Leopold watched the high octane approach with a bemused sigh. The kid would get a chewing out for using his powers outside the school, they all signed a waiver with their acceptance letter. But when he saw the superhuman faceplant into the tree, even he had to wince. The kid got up out of a mud puddle and got on grounds just to faint.

By the time the others were running to get others, he hopped down off the roof into one black disk and out another. He almost looked more like a leopard seal the way he was weaving out of the leapfrogged 'spots' that derived his namesake as he let gravity and momentum do his work for him. A 50 foot leap became a 25 foot leap which dropped to 12 then at last 6 foot popping hop to cover quite a distance in seconds with no exertion on his part. ~Maybe I should still minor in physics while he has the chance...Oh, right, kid!~ Taking out his inhaler, he breathed in the aerosol 'Ritalin' and tried to focus as Claire arrived

"Hheelllloo nurth! Whacha need?"

She sent a student away to get water while he took up the student himself, his more tightly packed feline muscles taking the boy up easily as he fell in line behind her. For a moment he wondered why he was carrying the kid if she already did her things to him, but he knew better than to question her orders. After all, the most painful thing a medic can do is not heal you.

"Tho, how did it all go?"

[Natty]

Trey was glad to see that he had managed to put a smile on the hulking lizard's face. While the fangs made him slightly uneasy, he tried his best not to show it! After all, he had dealt with a lot of prejudice about the way he looks throughout the course of his life, so Trey knew exactly how it felt. Well maybe not exactly since he wasn't a huge "monster" as one may say, but still. Trey noticed that the freshman still seemed to be agitating the big guy, although the comment he made did intrigue him. He decided not to question it for now though, as besides college was meant to be about change right?

Raising an eyebrow, Trey gave the situation that was escalating outside a quick spy. Someone was injured already? Honestly he wasn’t that surprised! A tonne of mutant young adults all gathered in one place? Trouble was bound to be just around the corner! Deciding that he could ask someone later what had happened, he turned back to the conversation.

So his name was Sumat? Honestly he had been expecting some ridiculous reptile related nickname and was happy that that wasn’t the case. Trey also caught the accent. Was that an Indian accent? Again he decided to hold back the questions, not wishing to be a pain.

“Oh, Abidemi! Trey Abidemi” he said, giving a short introductory wave with his spare hand. “Honestly, I just wanted to be fairly close to home. Just in case. Although that’s not the only reason. I’ve heard great things about this place!” Then after remembering his manors, he continued. “What about you?”

[Legion02]

“I’m David. David Flechters. I’m sorry I get distracted too sometimes. Then again, it’s my first day here.” He said while looking around. When the student fainted at the auditorium he was shocked for a second. Someone fainted on the first day already!? Another is carrying around a baseball bat like it’s nothing. And…Is that a four armed lizard man? David thought to himself, losing focus. He shook his head quickly. “Quite a lot of strange mutations. Talking about mutations, what can you do?” he asked Alex. David could be impulsive. Only now did he realize that directly asking about someone’s mutation could be very rude. What if their mutation is like carrying diseases or being a walking nuclear reactor!? Oh god, way to go David. Insulting someone on your first day! He thought. He kept a smile on his face, but you could easily see he was tensioning up.

[King Kindred]

Alex could tell that David was getting nervous without needing to read his mind. It was probably because of his last question. He guessed that he could play with him a bit. He was here to have fun as well as learn. "Oh right. I knew I was forgetting something. I have a passive ability to kill anyone I talk to for more than five minutes. I still don't get how it works. They just drop." He couldn't hold it together any longer. He started to burst into laughter and wiped away a laughter induced tear.

"I'm just messing with you. I'm a telepath and I also have this invisible aura around my body that provides me with strength and protects me from damage. You'd think it would have activated before I got this scar, but I'm not really a complainer. What can you do?" He wasn't nearly as worried about asking someone what they could do as David was. The guy seemed to be cool. He was like that almost nerdy best friend that people tended to have in High School and College. Maybe a Duff. He honestly wasn't even entirely sure what a "duff" was other than the explanation in the trailer. He thought the movie was pretty dumb so he decided not to watch it.

Right. His mind was wandering again. He needed to learn how to pay attention. He turned his attention back to David to listen.

[Legion02]

Is he joking? Surely he's joking...I mean...would they allow him to enter this school with THAT!? David thought, while blood began to drain out of his face. A quickly flash of memory passed. The girl with the baseball bat. The 4-armed lizard man. The guy that just entered and fell unconscious. Then another memory flashed by. The very first time he used his power. During soccer. He had burned a net. He could kill someone. He could be serious... what do I do? Do I run? Do I stand still? But right then Alex started laughing. And with that, all tension in David flowed out like water.

A telepath. Hmm, cool power I suppose. As long as he doesn't use it on me. Wait, does he know what I'm thinking right now? Or do i give him some sort of permission? Should I test it? Think of something...special. But what? Oh maybe think about that one time I blew up mom's dishes. No wait, that might give him the wrong impression. He kept on thinking. Until he shook himself back into the real world. "Wha-What can i do? Oh!? Euhm. Well...euhm." He never had to explain his power to a fellow mutant before. Do i go all meta-science? With alpha form and delta form? No, he doesn't look much like a scientist. he thought. Then he said: "I can sort of change the form of cosmic particles into a superheated state creating a plasma or anti-gravitons." he said, before realizing that was still way to scientific. "I mean I can sort of shoot plasma and levitate things!" he quickly added, hoping that would be a much better explanation.

[King Kindred]

Alex gave in to his inner temptations and decided to read the mind of his new friend or acquaintance. He still wasn't entirely sure what to call David. This mind reading step usually decided their potential. He just had to know what someone who was just they were talking to a telepath was thinking. The racing thoughts of David were more than funny. He didn't seem bothered by Alex's somewhat sick sense of humor and didn't really mind that he was a telepath. He just didn't know how to react to it. What made it even better was that David seemed to care about the impression that he left.

Alex nodded when David finally explained his powers. "Interesting. You're right though. I'm no scientist, but I'm not dumb either. I went to school and everything. Had tutors and the like. Which form is alpha and which is delta?" He was actually interested in the powers. He was a bit disappointed that David didn't have actual telekinesis like he originally thought, but the powers were cool nonetheless. "Oh and you don't have to worry about me always reading your mind. I can promise you that I won't read them without your permission. It's no big deal. It's just that I tend to get carried away sometimes."

[Fumari]

It had barely been ten minutes after the initial freshmen orientation and already the building was teaming with excitement. Mutants began collecting into smaller groups, some introducing themselves, others sharing abilities and stories. Some even made grand entrances, like that punk girl with the bat, or the now unconscious boy near the entrance. The whole thing had Daisy just as bundled full of energy, her lips curled into an almost permanent smile. She stood off towards one of the far walls of the building, her tail in her hands while she listened contently to the others around her—her keen ears picked up and jumped from conversation to conversation, but she made no move to join any herself.

She’s only just finished unpacking her things into her dorm room maybe an hour ago, and was adamant about not being late to orientation, because she really wanted to meet other mutants. Right now, though, she didn’t know who to approach first, and the longer she thought about it, the more hesitant she felt. Was there even any guarantee that other mutants would be more open minded than normal people? She’s always thought so, in that naive sort of way that only someone who’d never met another mutant could sum up, but after seeing so many others like her, sitting in one room, she realized that it might not turn out that easy for her. Her hands gripped her tail a bit tighter, as to keep it off the ground and away from people’s feet, and after a quick breathe of air, she sauntered into the crowds. If all else fails, simply leave it to chance, she thought with raw confidence.

~ ~ ~

You’d think that with her academic record being so shiny, she’d have been a bit more responsible when it came to organizing her schedule—this wasn’t the case for Julian, however, who’d only just arrived onto campus. She was dressed casually, with a large knapsack wrapped around her shoulders and a freshly made sandwich between her palms. She took one, giant bite and suddenly, showing up late felt all the more worth it. She made a small sound of contentment as she neared the auditorium, where orientation was supposed to be taking place without her. Maybe ten or so yards from the entrance, which seemed to be pooling with people already, something sharp nipped at the side of her head. It didn’t hurt, really, it couldn’t have, but she still felt the light object ram into her ear.

“A paper plane?” she questioned allowed before bending down to pick the folded piece of paper up, less the wind take it back again. So far, this was as exciting as the school had gotten for her, so with a small smirk, the pink haired girl quickly began to pull at the wings of the plane. It didn’t take her long to carefully unfold the neat origami, and was somewhat disappointed to find someone’s teaching schedule.

“Leopold Oromake” she said the name allowed, simply because she thought it’d be fun to say. It was, she noted with a small but content smile. Her head poked up and scanned the area a bit, now plagued with the question of who was Mr. Oromake? Her feet continued on their way to the auditorium, a bit faster paced now that she actually noted the amount of liveliness wafting through the wide open doors. The piece of paper was still in her hand, gripped lightly so that she wouldn’t wrinkle it. If she was lucky, she’d run into someone who was a part of the man’s class. There appeared to be seats left, so if she needed to, she could easily join the course a bit late.

[Dark Eternity]

Claire smiled when Leopold showed up. "He should be fine. He looks exhausted. Breathing and pulse is fine." She picked up the teeth that the student lost during her healing. A dentist would not be able to tell the difference, though. Nevertheless, Claire found it necessary for the person to keep the teeth. Something about the toothfairy myth just entices her about her powers. She also accepted the connection people made between herself and this creature.

"I suppose you can drop him off in his room or in my office...", she muttered, rubbing her forehead in an attempt to recognize the student. She smiled at Leopold and made her way to her office. Whether the feline mutant would follow or not did not change the fact that the woman already had a student waiting in front of her office, to which she paid her attention to.

-----

Amongst the freshmen, a small flow towards the exit of the auditorium began. Some decided to grab a bite, others wanted to drop off their luggage in their rooms, while others just wanted to grab some fresh air. The movement lead to people cramming together towards the exit. This lead to people bumping into one another. Even the staffmembers that wished to leave were caught up in the commotion. The Vice Headmistress did not mind it all too much. She took her time moving amongst the freshmen, her smile untouched by the events.

When a student bumped into her back, she stumbled into another. Her arms quickly grabbed onto the student she was moving into. "Oh, I am sorry", she muttered, looking at Daisy for a moment. The tone of her voice left the impression that she was not the one that should be apologizing. Nevertheless, she tried to get back onto steady feet. "I hope you are okay", Victoria mumbled, making sure that Daisy was doing fine.

-----

"Down with the mutants!" The voice of the megaphone barked into the entrance. "Registration or Concentration", chanted the group along. As if it were tradition by now, a group of redneck people gathered in front of the main entrance of the College and began their protest. Some of the "older" students gathered as well, mocking the people and making their own protests. It was growing more and more uncomfortable to watch, when some of the Mutant Registration Act supporters started throwing (even if close to harmless) plastic bottles at the mutants and they showed off some of their powers.