I lay in the icy stream watching Jubilee's distorted image leaning over the bank peering into the water.

"Ison! I know your in there!" she calls out as she sends a shower of sparks into the stream. They crackle as they hit the water several feet downstream from my position.

C'mon Lee...just a little closer... I think as she begins walking along the shoreline. At her pace, she'll be right beside me in about ten seconds. I've been under for three times that.

I'm out of the water in a flash, sending an ice beam in her direction. She saw me coming and I was met by a hundred tiny explosions of multi-colored light around me. The sparks don't stop even when I punch her square in the jaw. She returns with a blow to my chest, however it's mostly absorbed by the ice that surrounds me. It does, however, manage to throw me off balance.

("Ok, girls, lets stop using the powers for a while.") Ms. Frosts mental voice rings in our minds as we groan in unison.

I shift to my human form, and barely dodge Jube's leg as it swings toward me. She's more aerobic than me, giving her the advantage.

Right now she's busy shootin' her mouth, like she usually does when we fight; she knows its distracting. Her next smart remark is met by my fist. She didn't have time to avoid it, but she was able to swivel around so that it glanced off her shoulder. She drops to the ground and swings her leg up, hitting me behind the knees. As I fall, I grab a fist full of her trademark yellow jacket, and pull her down. I jump to my feet, and quickly push, dumping her right into the stream. As she falls, she grabs onto my belt.

We plunge into the icy water, she cries out as it rushes over her. Even without directly using my powers, the cold doesn't bother me. The current begins to move faster, not doubt Ms Frost is messing with the Biosphere controls to..."help us out" a little. We're both carried downstream as the current rushes on faster than before. Thankfully, I haven't swallowed any water yet, but I'm not sure how long that will last. Even as I rush down the river, my hands are grabbing allong the bottom, searching for something to grab onto. For a moment, I'm holding a root or something, but I'm moving to fast and it is violently ripped from my hands.

As I push up from the bottom for air, I feel something wrap around me, and then it pulls tight. I'm lifted out of the water, then back, and up into the air. Yards of gray skin are coiled around my waist as Angelo hauls me up out of the water. I look up to see him sitting on a tree branch that reaches out over the stream. He smiles, the grin stretches from ear to ear...literally.

"Hold onto the branch, chica," he instructs.

"Yeah?"

"I'm gonna let go now."

I feel his hold loosen and watch for a moment as his skin relaxes into its normal length. I swing back and forth, and then pull myself up onto the thick branch. I grab onto his arm to steady myself, and then take a deep breath and cough a few times.

"Where's Mondo?" I say after a few moments.

Angelo jerks his thumb towards the tree, which bulges and momentarily reveals Mondo's form.

"Mondo? Listen up," I say quietly. "Before me and J started goin' at it, I saw Jonothan...he's about forty feet upstream from us, behind the big boulder....I'm not sure where Husk is..."

"Paige is over by one of the solar collectors, towards the pond," said Angelo.

"And is Ev still 'in jail'," I state.

Then Mondo said, "No, Paige got him out about fifteen minutes ago, probably before Skin saw her."

"Ok...what happened to M?"

"She's on her way here, bonita, Ms. Frost called her powers off so it'll take her a few minutes to get here."

Bonita? "Has everybody gone through the right amount of attacks?" I ask.

The two nod their heads. We were in the middle of a "Beta" training session. Each person is placed somewhere in the grotto, an equal distance from everyone else, and Ms Frost telepathically informs us of who our team mates are. After that, she tells us how many "attacks" we have to make, which is usually about five, so we can fight each member of the opposite team. Every now and then, she tells us we can't use our powers, to make things interesting. If we use our powers before she calls them back on, we're sent to a "jail" whose location is unknown to our team mates. So, the basic goal of these sessions, is to meet the number of required attacks; make sure all of your team mates our out of jail, (which is difficult when you don't even know when someone is in jail) get your entire team together, and then to "tag" Banshee, ending the game. All of this was a heckuva lot easier than an "Alpha" training session.

"Your powers are off?" Mondo half asks half points out. They guy has an incredible ability for stating the obvious, since I'm sitting soakin' wet, hair and clothes plastered to me on a tree branch trying desperately not to loose my balance.

"Yeah, but so are Jubilee's." I try not to snap at him, it's been one of those days all week. I was ten minutes late for class today, which was the start of a perfectly terrible morning. The only redeeming quality for the day that I could find is the fact that we're going to the mall later this evening.

"Hey," begins Angelo, "There's M, c'mon."

Angelo swings out of the tree and waits for M. The two talk for a moment, then Skin stretches his hands up to lift me down. On the ground, Monet is finishing up whatever it is she was telling Ange. I carefully balance myself against Angelo, then started listening.

The trunk bulges and then ripples as Mondo steps through.

"...Chamber is in jail, and his team knows it, Ev saw it happen. He was my last required attack, after Ms Frost declared 'no powers' he must have forgot, because he tried to blast me..." Monet paused, took a deep breath. "So, if we get moving, I think we might be able to win this round."

I sighed, Banshee was on the other side of the 'sphere. "Ok, let's go."

We made it about half way there without incident, and then we saw Husk about ten feet past us.

"She's bound to see us, we should just confront her and get it over with," said Monet.

"I'll go," said Angelo.

"No, Monet or I should go, that way Frosty can't call your powers off," I said.

Mondo grinned, "I'm thinking of a number between one and ten."

Monet rolled her eyes, "Four. Summer?"

"Seven."

"It was two."

"Bye, Monet," I said.

"No, you go, I was closest, so I get to stay."

"She's right chica."

"Ok, ok, I'm going..."

I walked out into the clearing where Paige was.

"You know what this is, you know what to do."

She shakes her head and laughs, "Perfect, Ah was just lookin' for one of ya'll."

"Glad Ah could be uv servus," I said drawling out my own Kentucky accent, mocking hers.

We slowly circle each other, knees bent, head down, eyes up. From the looks of her, she probably had husked only a few minutes ago, a few sickly looking shredded pieces of skin were hanging from her arms. She was in her ever-popular steel form.

This is going to be fun...the woman of steel vs me.

She lunged forward, I dodged her easily. She probably was as tired as I was. I normally wasn't able to dodge her without using my powers. She rolled to her feet, and we began circling again. I jumped towards her, ducked down, and came up behind her. She spins around, her leg high in the air. I caught it with my arm, and tried to knock her off balance.

("Summer, you can use your powers now.")

I didn't say anything, I'm sure a psi of Ms Frosts calibre could feel the gratitude in the air. I iced up, feeling more energy than before, a boost that normally accompanied the use of my powers. I created an ice platform directly beneath Husk, lifting her high into the air, she rolled off and tumbled to the ground. She was up faster than I could have imagined and kicked me solid in the ribs. A chunk of ice as big as my fist went flying from my side.

"Thanks Paige, that'll be real fun to take care of later," I mumble.

I sent an ice beam plowing into her back, the force slammed her into a tree. The beam shattered and covered the ground. She fell back from the tree to the ground and moaned softly.

"I win."

"Good for you. Sorry 'bout that." She nodded towards the hole in my side.

"Yeah well, Miss Toes of Steel, I'm sure you couldn't help it."

That is going to hurt later. It wasn't the first time in the year n' a half that I had been here that I had lost a piece of me in a fight. And it wouldn't be the last. I retrieved my missing piece and re- absorbed, then stumbled back to my waiting group.

"You're back already?" asked Mondo.

"Yeah, we thumb wrestled, ok?" I snapped. Most attacks usually took much longer than that, some lasted for eternities.

Angelo fingered the hole in my side, "That's gonna hurt."

"I know. But you're ready to be the sympathetic boyfriend, right?"

"Something like that anyway."

"Lets go," Monet said impatiently.

Then Angelo said, "Sled?"

I nod.

I started an ice sled, and began ascending. Angelo had a hold on M and me while Mondo absorbed the sled to travel with us.

"Um, guys, heads up," Mondo's voice cracked through the ice. Down below us, the other team was coming up towards Sean.

"Down!" M yelled. I brought the sled down fast so Mondo would have time to absorb into the ground. Angelo took a better hold of M and in one fluid movement, swung her over his shoulder and jumped off, running towards Sean. I followed, leaving the sled behind. Mondo appeared behind me, slung me over his shoulder, and caught up to Angelo and M. M looked over at me from Angelo's shoulder.

("Do you think they forgot we could run?") She sent.

I smile. She meant it as a joke, which is almost as surprising as the fact she sent it telepathically.

"Mondo," I said, "Put me down, You'll be able to run faster."

"Nonsense!" he huffed "Its...nothing."

M was now running beside Angelo, apparently she had more luck in persuading her carrier to let her down. I desperately covered the ground ahead of the other team in ice, a few slipped, while others used their momentum to slide along with it...into an ice wall. We reached Sean a few seconds before them and theoretically we won; not that any of us felt like celebrating.

We lay on the grass in a semi-circle around Sean and waited for Emma to join us. Everyone was preoccupied with getting themselves together. Paige had slipped on a new uniform to avoid returning to her natural state in well, her natural state. Jono had taken off his water soaked jacket and lay it on the ground to dry. Jubilee was already cracking the gum she had just popped in her mouth and Ev was sitting beside her. Monet was more or less in a catatonic state while Mondo was leaning against a rock with his arms crossed behind his head. He looked for all the world like a beach bum soakin' up the rays. Beside me Angelo lay on his back, sides heaving letting his skin relax despite Jubilee's protests. I traced a finger across his forehead before closing my eyes, taking my ice sled back up, but remaining in my ice form.

I watched Jono, who was sitting a few feet from me. I really needed to talk to him. Whatever went down in LA had remained a total secret between him and Angelo. I had tried bringing the subject up with Ange, but he always found a way out of telling me. He had also prevented me from talking to Jono alone, and I wasn't about to bring it up in front on anyone else. I'm gonna have to talk to one of them soon...

Back to reality, here comes a speech.

Sean, who seemed infinitely patient with us, began rambling on about the session. Most of us let our eyes glaze over and would nod periodically to give the effect that we were listening. Emma however, was not as tolerant. Despite the fact that only days ago she was flinging almond rocha ice cream all over campus in a good will attempt, she brutally pointed out every mistake and a way to improve in a million ways.

"We love you too, teach." Jubilee muttered.

Emma stopped talking and looked at Jubilee, "Young lady don't you..."

"Emma, lass, the children are tired, ye could go a lil' easier on them," Sean hissed.

"How dare you undermine me in front of them!"

In a matter of moments the two were going at it full force. We were very used to this situation. On days like this, it was pointless to go to class, they wouldn't be there, they would still be arguing. So, we did as we always did, we left.