Biosphere.

As I stepped into the grotto, I was met by a blast of warm air. The doors closed behind me and I walked across the tile floor of the vestibule and then thorough the next set of doors. Now I was standing in a large clearing that, except for the silver-gray wall behind me, looked like it was straight from the pages of "National Geographic".

Now that the sun had set it was dark inside, not having any major lighting system, the only light came from the occasional lamp post, which seemed like something from "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." But the darkness itself was pleasant and made the whole experience seem like a real get away from the world.

A few yards away, I could see the faint glow of the luminescent strips that were behind the waterfall. When I was almost there I could hear the usual pool sounds; splashing and Jubilee's laughter being the loudest of all. As I arrived, M was in mid-flip off the top of the falls, putting all Olympic divers (past, present, and future) to shame. She was wearing some sort of metallic silver swim suit that sparkled in the pale light of the falls.

"She was flyin', it doesn't count," I heard Paige say to Mondo, who as always looked impassive.

It looked as though a diving competition was in progress. Jubilee was standing on the edge of the falls ready to jump. She flicked two fingers into a peace sign in my general direction before she jumped. As per usual, a trail of fireworks followed her until she slipped headfirst, almost without a ripple, through the surface of the water.

Everyone looked relaxed for the most part. Mondo and Paige were reclining at the edge of the water where some stone, or a remarkable facsimile, formed an underwater bench. I walked to where the two were. The nearer I got, the more unfamiliar the scene looked. As it turned out, by no trick of the light, Paige's skin was a light shade of purple and her hair had a silver look to it. When I looked closer, I saw that she also was equipped with webbed fingers and gills. I don't think I had ever seen her change in that way.

"Well don't you look...purple. Its a nice touch Paige, really."

She looked a little teed off. "It was a complete accident," she said. "When I dove it, my skin husked right off when I hit the water. My body was just reacting to the change in environment, but its my fault. I hadn't husked since after training, if I had done it before, this wouldn't have happened. "

Now that came as a surprise to me. If anyone had their powers down pat, I would have said it was Guthire.

Everett was at the top of the falls now, though I couldn't imagine him doing much more than a simple dive. He leaped off the edge, a rainbow trailing him until the last moment when it enveloped him as he disappeared into the water. When he surfaced, it was only a few feet from where Paige and Mondo were.

"Where're the kids?" he asked glancing around.

"In their tree house, if I remember correctly," Mondo said.

I volunteered to get the two and in a matter of moments I was at their fort.

"Artie? Leech?" I called, looking up into the tree house. No answer. I climbed up the ladder and peered in.

The two boys were huddled over a piece of paper, a box of crayons spilled out on the floor beside them.

"Whaddaya doin', guys?"

Artie flipped the paper over, and Leech turned around, "Nothing."

Sometimes, when someone did something for Artie and Leech, they'd get all excited and draw a picture or something, I think this particular project had something to do with Ev bringing them ice cream yesterday.

"Well, since you're not doing anything, would you like to go swimming with the rest of us?"

Artie beamed and a question mark floated in the air, directed towards Leech, who looked doubtful.

"Its ok, " I told him, "We aren't going to use our powers anyway. 'Sides you're doin' real good with 'em and ya don't turn our powers all the way off."

"One moment," said Leech.

I climbed back down the ladder and waited. In a few minutes, two inflatable toys flew out of the window, followed by a snorkel and swim fins. Then the boys climbed back down, wearing swim trunks.

Just how much stuff do they have up there!

The two picked up their toys and followed me to waterfall. Leech held my hand while Artie skipped a few paces ahead of me. When we got there the two jumped without hesitation into the stream. In no time, Jubilee was trying to coax Artie out of his inflatable duck-thing.

After that I climbed to the top of the falls and was getting ready to dive. Not having any extraordinary ability at any such thing, I simply tossed myself down in a sailors dive. I emerged from the water in time to watch Jubilee, equipped with the inflate-a-duck, jumping from the falls. Artie and Leech followed her down a few seconds later.

Angelo stood at the top of the falls and was wearing a pair of black trunks that were about as spartan as Mondo's were flamboyant. As he jumped off, his fingers shot out to an overhanging tree branch. He swung out Tarzan style before letting go and splashing, rather unceremoniously into the stream.

After several unsuccessful attempts, Ange finally convinced me to go off the falls with him. I climbed on his back piggy-back style and he used his extra skin to hold on to me. In the end, we found that it was most decidedly not a good idea. The flying-through-the-air part was great, but as we fell, I panicked and switched to my ice form, consequently, numbing his back. We splashed in the stream in a horrible tangle of limbs and skin and it took the better part of ten minutes to get separated and back on our feet. Around midnight, I gave up on our "pool party" and went to my room to try and get some sleep before Beth came in the morning.

A little before 9:00 AM.

"Ok, the black leotard with the red CK sweatshirt, or the green leotard with the black sweater?" I asked Jubilee, holding the two different outfits up.

"What about the white vinyl pants with alien shirt?" she suggested.

I shook my head, "It's short sleeved."

"Whadda you care? You're the Ice Queen."

I hesitated, feeling slightly guilty. "Well, I...it's just that it..."

"Well," she said, waving her hand in a gesture for me to continue.

"It's Kris," I blurted. "He's kinda like you're friend, Rogue, you told me about. Knowing a persons thoughts from a touch? I mean, like when I used to hang with him, I had no problem with him walkin' around in my head. I mean, we were on the road like, all the time, and I didn't have anything to keep from him. But now, I have this life of my own, and I don't feel quite so willin' to share my thoughts. Ya know?

"But I don't want to be like, 'hey, don't touch me man, I don't want you in my head.' So I thought I could give a subtle hint my not exposing any skin."

"Oh. Well...yeah, you could do that it. Ok, then the black leotard and the sweatshirt." She seemed entirely indifferent to the subject which had be so stressed, maybe I was blowing things out of proportion.

I tossed the outfit on the bed and put the other one back. After slipping on the leotard, I pulled on a pair of high topped sneakers. I took my brush from the bedside table and combed my hair while Jubilee and I talked.

We left shortly after that it, and I pulled the sweatshirt on as walked out the door. Jubilee mad her way down the steps carefully, since she was wearin' blades and when we got downstairs, I noticed an in-wall computer screen flashing, and checked for a message. It was from Banshee; Beth and Kris were here.

I stood in a stupefied silence. They were, like, very early. I had planned on having some time to warn Angelo about any stunts Kris might pull, but it looked like I was going to have to wing it. I decided that I'd better get their reasonably quick and made an ice sled, leavin' Jubilee bladin' down the path.

I didn't go high, in fact, my sled was in constant contact with the ground. I did have to be sure to take the sled back up almost immediately behind me, so I wouldn't be making hazards for others. When I finally reached the main building, I saw Kris' nondescript gray car parked out front. Apparently they had all gone in.

At this point, I thought it was safe to assume Angelo was toast and hurried inside. I opened the door quietly and de-iced in the foyer. I walked across the paneled wood floors and into the den where I saw Kris and Beth talking to Sean. I had a chance to watch them for a moment, myself unobserved, and smiled to myself.

Kris hadn't changed at all. He was wearing a pair of black jeans and some heavy duty stomping boots. I had a feelin' Beth had cleaned him up for the trip, he was clean shaven and he was made oddly conspicuous to me by his lack of a baseball cap. His inky black hair was a little longer than it was the last time I saw him and was parted down the middle and reached a little past the top of his ears. He had a goatee that looked a little like someone had glued a poor little black hamster to his chin...but I wasn't saying it looked bad.

Beth was wearing a pair of light blue jeans and a tan cordory jacket over a tan shirt. Beth, wore her hair in two pig tails, both tied at the base of her neck and streamed down to her waist. Her lips were a thin slash of iridescent pink that were curved upward, ever so slightly, just hinting of a smile.

I nearly jumped out of my skin (no pun intended) when Angelo came up behind me and looped his arm around my waist. Wonderful..Kris'll love this.

"Hey," he whispered in my ear, "are you just going to stand there all day?" He gently bit my ear and nuzzled my neck. I had the strange feeling he liked getting so close to trouble.

"Ange," I hissed, "Kris is right there! Will you stop?" I tried to sound serious and not giggle. It was funny, but Kris would absolutely freak.

I twisted in his grasp to face him. I was definitely surprised. He was wearin' tan slacks and a hunter green sweater that I faintly recalled seeing Everett wear. His hair still hung in his eyes and down to his shoulders, but it looked cute so I didn't mind. At any rate, he looked great he had shaven and didn't even smell a bit like a cigarette. In fact, he smelled like...

"Will you quit sniffin' me?" he joked.

"My bad." I smiled. "You do smell nice."

"Yeah, well, don't expect this all the time."

I nearly screamed when I felt myself snatched away from Angelo and twirled around a few times, but a hand was clamped over my mouth.

("Kris!") I yelped telepathically. He let me go and turned me around to face him. He only seemed mildly surprised that I spoke to him telepathically, but I was shocked when he answered in the same manner.

("You better believe it. Makin' out with your 'friend' while I wait ever so patiently for you.")

I made an effort to keep the last part of the conversation non-vocal. ("Kris Alder! I was not makin' out! You're here for all of five minutes and you're already pointing fingers!")

I hugged him tightly and then he held my hands and gave me an appraising look. I winced when he realized I was gloved and immediately felt guilty for wearing them. I mean, the guy based his whole life on readin' people through physical contact, and here I was denying him even that! I gave him another hug and kissed him on the cheek. He could process information incredibly fast, and by the time I withdrew, only a few seconds later, he had probably digested my surface thoughts, recent conversations, and the general feel of my past week.

Then, almost setting me aside, he turned to Angelo. He looked like the friendly next door neighbor type, and wore a broad smile as he said, "Ah, so this is Angelo."

He was so slick. He didn't extend his own hand, but waited for Ange to. If it wouldn't have been so obvious, I would have shmacked my forehead.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, sir," Ange said, shaking hands with Kris.

Kris nodded, while he continued to shake Angelo's hand. "Yeah," he said slowly, "A pleasure. So, you an Summer are the big item on campus?"

I wanted to bury my face in my hands. Oh, lord, by now he probably knows more about Angelo than I do.

"Uh, yeah," Angelo said, looking a wee bit nervous.

"That's just great," Kris said, but his voice hinted that he thought no such thing. Ok, like enough is enough!

"Kris," I hissed and froze his boots.

He gasped and then smiled innocently, withdrawing his hand. I glared at him and reluctantly defrosted his shoes. He had an extremely dazed look on his face ("Your friend better be glad that I don't speak Spanish. But I got a lot of images! I can't believe that you actually...")

But thankfully, Beth chose that moment to intervene.

"Emily!" she exclaimed, coming from behind Kris and thoughtfully placing herself between him and Angelo. We hugged and then entered high-speed talk mode, fast enough to rival Jubilee on a caffeine high.

"Ohmigosh you've changed so much! Look atcha!"

"You cut your hair!"

"Where did you get that jacket?!"

"Have you lost weight?"

"No. You are like so tall!"

Of course, that was only a fraction of the conversation, but you get the idea.

Then Sean, who I had all but forgotten about, stepped rather awkwardly into the group.

"Well," he said, rubbing his hands together in a friendly sort of way, "why don't we find ye all a place t' sleep. Emma had the guest cottage cleaned, I'm sure Summer will be glad t' show ye the way."

"I'll come see ya tonight," I mouthed to Angelo as Kris, Beth and I left the main building.

He nodded and gave a quick wave good bye, apparently not willing to chance a kiss with Kris acting so...fatherly. Outside the three of us got in Kris' car and I showed him the way to the cottage. It was very close to Proudstar Hall, a little down from the boys dorm near a creek. Kinda a scenic place, really.

Kris parked in front of the building and he took his luggage from the trunk. Beth, being the independent sort, took her things herself. I trotted up the path and stood on tip toe to take the key from its perch above the front door.

I had been only vaguely aware of the hired hands that roamed campus unseen, but they had obviously attended to the guest house. Inside, the air was fresh, curtains drawn, flowers in vases and the refrigerator stocked. I showed Kris and Beth the two bedrooms and they unloaded their stuff.

For a moment or so, while Beth ran to the bathroom, it seemed like it was just me and Kris. Ya know how ya start reminiscing about things? Anyhow I was totally lost on memory lane and almost didn't notice when Kris spoke.

"Summer...I worry about you. Be careful around what's-his-face--"

"Angelo."

"Around Angelo," he amended. "He's just a kid and--"

"He'll be twenty in February," I added.

"He's still a kid. Anyhow, I want you to know I didn't take much information from him. I didn't even go farther back than last week. And while I can't say I trust they guy, I at least know he is sincere when he says he cares for you.

"That's what I needed to know, you're like my second daughter. But I do want you to be careful, he's got his share of secrets, I could sense that much when I realized I couldn't understand anything he was thinking. I don't deal well with images and emotions, which is all I got, and they weren't all pool parties." He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows as though he knew something that I didn't...which could in all likelihood be true.

I shook. "Kris you're unbelievable."

When Beth came back, we changed the subject to something more neutral and continued to talk until Kris pleaded fatigue and went to take a shower. Beth and I left the cottage and went outside. From her previous, intangible visits, Beth had received a "virtual tour" of the grounds so none was needed now. In my room we sat down and talked late into the evening.