NOTE:~ means telepathic communication. * means personal thought. [ ] means cyberpathy or computer-generated speech.

08/26/2006: Lexington, Kentucky: 08:49:54 hrs CDT

Lucas boarded the bus, waving farewell to his mother and three younger siblings. *Ah'm the latest one t'leave,* he thought mournfully. *Sam an' Tab're off in Salem Center w' Zach, Paige n' Jono're in Seattle w' the X-Men Black Team, Josh married Lila an' they're tourin' the galactic rim, Joelle's in Atlanta, an' Caleb's Lord knows where. At least Ma's got Delilah, an th' twins Zeke an' Ruth t' keep her company. They won't cause th' crops t'go nuts, anyhow...*

His blond head bobbed as he cringed, remembering the way his "headaches" two days earlier had driven the pumpkin patch to mature months in mere seconds. His mother had agreed the 13-year-old was old enough to take the bus to Snow Valley, and his power was too dangerous to the crops for him to wait for Sam or Paige to come pick him up and take him to the Academy.

*What's worse is how ah HEAR th'plants,* Lucas thought. *Who'd a' thought grass screamed when ya cut it? Or flowers, when y' pluck 'em ? It's 'nough t' drive a body nuts. An' ah thought all ah'd have t' deal with when ah started gettin' mah growth was stayin' cool 'round girls...* He let the singsong rhythm of the bus engine and the rumble of the wheels rock him into restful sleep, dreaming dreams of ancient greenery ...

Another potential student of the Academy stirred from her woozy state and looked around the Sh'iar-tech-studded medbed she found herself upon. *Well, if this one of the hells, it's awfully modern,* Soraya thought wryly. *Let's see ... I get attacked by a Kali cultist, call on the shadows to save me and I end up on an American lawn in daylight. With a white-haired boy calling for help without speaking. And now I'm in a hypertechnological room? Whoever's got me isn't restraining me, so maybe I should play it cool...*

She looked about, to see a red-headed woman sitting at a desk typing away upon a computer while a small boy sat at her feet. The boy looked up from his blocks and smiled shyly, tugging at the woman's coat. "Ma?" he said. "Th' lady's 'wake."

*English-speaking, but what is that accent? Wish I'd stayed in school ... * Soraya thought. "Excuse me, ma'am -- where am I, please?" she said politely. *I hate the 'whiny invalid' routine, but if she brought her kid in here she's probably not going to torture me or imprison me. Looks like a doctor.*

The woman stood and smiled. "Ye're in the infirmary at the Massachusetts Academy, Snow Valley, Massachusetts, USA," she said. "I'm Dr. Moira Cassidy, the school's medical teacher and chief medical officer. We dinnae mean ye any harm. This is m' son, Gareth -- Gary, love, get yuir daddy an' Miss Frost. Tell 'em our guest is awake."

Gareth ran off, allowing Soraya to look appropriately shocked without embarassment. "I guessed the U.S. from the change from night to day as I 'traveled' through whatever that black place was, but ... man, am I glad I took those English classes," she said. "I'm Soraya Haspurinam, from Bombay, India. Ex-trophy-fiancee and schoolgirl, most recently street thief and dodger of my fiancee's family's hired skip tracers. And, I'm guessing, a mutant, since I got here under my own power...?"

"Aye, ye're a mutant," a red-headed man with an eyepatch said, entering the room with Gareth and a blonde woman in far too little clothing for Soraya's taste. "'M Sean Cassidy, th' headmaster here at th' Academy, an' this is Emma Frost, th' headmistress. We're mutants, like ye, lass - "

"Soraya," the girl interjected. "Sorry for interrupting. Look, I appreciate the treatment and the place to gather my wits, but I'm really not big on school or saving the world. Whatever power I've got, I'd just as soon forget it; mutants get the ..." She was about to say "shaft," but sensing Gareth's wide-eyed gaze upon her made her remember her own younger siblings. "... short end of the stick almost everywhere these days," she concluded.

"All the more reason to learn about your powers and use them for defense, Soraya," Frost said. *Haughty sow! Probably English-descended,* Soraya thought angrily.

~Actually, yes. But the Frosts made their fortunes in America, not the East India Company,~ Frost said INSIDE Soraya's mind. The girl jumped with a cry and glared at Emma.

"You're probably a blast at parties," Soraya growled. "Next you'll make with the 'mutants have to stick together' riff, right? Well, where were you freeedom fighter types when India's greatest mutant got axed by the Genoshan 'Liberation Front'in Kashmir!? Commcast called the X-types for help, and all he got was jack!"

"The X-Men tried to help Commcast, but the Genoshans were too well-armed and too powerful," Emma retorted. Her eyes took on a glaze of pain as she looked away and muttered, "They lost friends that day as well ..." *Five years and it still hurts ... DAMN you, Drake,* she thought. *You had to push yourself too far...* She remembered the pain of waiting at the altar in Salem Center, only to be greeted hours later by a tearful Henry McCoy ...

Sean coughed, desperate to break the tension. "Ye're free t' go, lass, but remember, we're always open t' young mutants who need help," he said.

Soraya cocked her head and looked oddly at Frost. "This school's free to those who need it? And you wouldn't call the INS?" she asked.

"N ... no," Emma said, drying her eyes. "We can create perfect documents for you, and the government need not be involved. There are certain conditions attached to enrollment, of course -- your criminal tendencies will have to be set aside, and you will have to room with others your age or close to it. But we will not brainwash you, abuse you or throw you into superpowered combat. This is supposed to be a school for power control, not necessarily a training ground for X-Men."

Sean nodded with a smile. "The Academy is seperate from th' Institute f'r a reason, lass," he reassured Soraya. "Our students' safety t'is our first concern."

"Well, you haven't been anything but polite to me since I got here ... and India's not exactly my first choice of locales," Soraya said. "So what's my power --HEY!?"

A tendril of shadow extended from her right hand, disappearing as soon as Soraya yelled. She concentrated, and the tendril reappeared. "Shadow control?" she asked, her look of panic turning to a tentative smile.

"Darkforce generation and manipulation," Moira said. She wrote in a dossier and asked, "What codename would ye like? It's nae a commitment t' be an X-Man, just a way f'r ye t'get used t' those students who're plannin' t' join th' team when they graduate."

"Kali ... the Dark Mother fits my personality and background," Soraya smirked. Moira wrote:

"So how powerful am I, anyhow? I gotta have some serious genewattage if I jumped from India to the U.S. in one shot," Soraya grinned.

She rose from the bed, while Moira said, "Ye're most likely an Alpha-class mutant -- the most powerful power class most folk'll encounter. Epsilons are the weakest -- they have th' occasional bit o'deja vu, or they dim streetlights as they walk past 'em. Deltas know they've got somethin', but it's often weak or impractical as a combat power -- telekinetic dishwashin', or th' power t' teleport change outta th' couch. Gammas're combat capable, but have limits, an' often tire easily after a few moments. Betas have one strong power an' several weak ones, an' Alphas have several strong powers. There's Omegas ... but they're extremely rare. Only two are known t' us ... an'a third, deceased one." Moira sighed heavily as she thought about the "deceased one," and hugged Gareth tightly to her. *Thank ye, Lord, f'r this wonderful, healthy boy,* she prayed briefly, smiling at last as Gareth returned the hug.

"Wow," Soraya said. "Well, what now?"

"Now, you may go meet the other students - and take this charge card to the Snow Valley Mall and buy yourself a wardrobe," Emma said. She pulled a platinum MasterExpress card from her jacket pocket and said, "Just don't break me?" with a wry smile.

"Do I look like somebody who'd max out a charge card? My folks were Untouchables -- we thought a car was a sign of luxury," Soraya joked. "Actually, Dad is a fairly big shot in the local gravediggers' union - an office job pays decently, even in a nation of a billion people." She thanked the adults, waved to Gareth and headed for the girls' dorm after consulting a campus map on the wall.

"I could get to like her," Emma said. "She has an attitude, but she's not intentionally abrasive, either. Reminds me of Jubilee, actually."

She exited the room, leaving Sean to raise an eyebrow and tell Moira, "Emma made a favorable comparison between Soraya an' Jubilee? I think I smell flyin' bacon ... "

Tom Shade stuck his head out of his room, checking for any others near the room. *Good,* he thought, ducking back inside. *Bill, Chuck, Joe and Nate're going to meet Gailyn, Luna and the new girl and go to town, Illyana's off who-knows-where, and Frank and Ray're in the pool. I'm sick of meat-contact ... *

He switched on his computer, allowing his consciousness to enter the cyberplane. [Off to the Palace,] he thought. The 'Net reminded Tom of a starfield, with the blackness of the inter-web-site void filled with bit-stars and the occasional cyberwanderer. [The other guys like to joke about how I 'love' machines. Well, bozos, you've got it half-right ... it's who I MEET on the cyberplane that keeps me coming back.] He chuckled at Charles' off-color joke a week earlier about the difference between a toaster and a Playboy.

The iconographic symbol for the Palace D'TechnoMedievial arose before Tom's "sight." His icon, that of a technoknight, knocked upon the castle "door." He pronouounced a combination of syllables which, if said vocally, would have made no sense. [Here, it's a perfect password,] he thought. The door opened, admitting him to a velvet-draped bedroom.

A voluptuous redhead in an evening gown lay upon a bed, motioning him to sit beside her. [Cybermancer... I've missed you,] the "princess" sent with a small smile.

[The move to the Academy took up a lot of my time,] Tom sent. He removed his "helmet" and kissed "Aunimal," as the redhead gave her netname. She returned the kiss, but looked unsettled.

[What's wrong?] Tom sent.

Aunimal pulled away and sent, [My reality's ... changed, 'Mancer,] she sent. [I'm ... a mutant. A 13-year-old mutant in Cheyenne, who can read animals' thoughts and control them.] She looked up and dissolved, revealing a digitized image of a Native American girl in jeans and a "Lila '05" T-shirt. [This is my real self. If you don't want to see me again...] she sent, crying.

[Are you KIDDING?!] Tom sent with a huge grin. [The Academy is a school for mutants to learn how to control their powers! This ROCKS! Come here, and we can be together for real at last!]

Aunimal looked up and smiled widely, sending, [You're a mutant, too?]

[I can project myself into the 'Net mentally, and control computers with my mind,] Tom sent. He kissed Aunimal again, but something felt... different. The teens gasped as an electricity flickered across them -

and Tom snapped back to physical reality. He fell backwards, still linked to the cyberplane, and spasmed as a hole appeared in his computer screen. [What the hell?!] he thought. A figure began to emerge from the portal, which rippled as it emitted Aunimal's physical form.

The computer exploded, but the portal absorbed the flames and the machine while Tom recovered. He shook off the shock and smiled deliriously to see his girlfriend in the flesh, while the portal snapped shut.

"Great Spirit ... " she muttered, standing. She grinned to see Tom, and took his hand as she said, "Cathleen Daystar."

"Tom Shade," Tom grinned back. "Well ... I guess this means we're going steady," Cathleen said. "I'd better call cousin Dani and tell her I'm joining the X-Men ... she's been my guardian since '01."

"Another family tradition? My folks're Avengers - I can sympathize," Tom smiled.

"Oh, shut up, you goob --we've shared so much already," Cathleen grinned again. She caught Tom off-guard with a kiss--

--only to gasp again as the door flew open. A stunned Bill stood in the doorway, his jaw hitting the floor. "I'll never tease you about all that 'Net time again, bro'," Bill muttered ...

NEXT: Mall tripping (by the girls), fast-talking (by Tom), and comparing notes (by the Baileys and Summers). Plus: part two of Lucas' roadtrip ...