AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter is set inbetween the flashbacks in the latter half of chapter 6, and fits into the week-long continuity gap Charles' coma created...

Mass. Acad. Biosphere: 08/27/2006: 08:01 hrs EDT:

The New Mutants assembled for their first power training session, despite the weight of the past 24 hours' events. "Why're we bothering !?" Bill groused to Gailyn. "Chuck's still gotta have another operation - we should be with him, not pretending life's hunky-dory!?"

~Life must go on, William,~ Emma sent in an exhausted tone.

Bill relaxed a little; he had a newfound respect for Frost since she had helped with Chuck's initial surgery. ~I know, Miss Frost... but I'm still worried,~ he thought back.

Emma smiled wanly from the control room and replied, ~He's in the hands of one of the best surgeons, and certainly the best surgical equipment, on the planet. And his condition has stabilized.~

"Now," she said over the intercom, "As with your predecessors, the first lesson will be to cross the central portion of the biosphere from the west to the east entrance. There will be, of course, obstacles suited to each of your talents. Don't be discouraged if you don't make it the first time. None of the original New Mutants, or Generation X, made it either. Who's first?"

"I'll go... if only to get it over with," Soraya mumbled despondently.

*She was really torn up when we told her who Chuck's dad was - somethin' about how she felt bad because of judging him, and then he got hurt,* Bill remembered. *It's not her fault. She's got a good attitude - I c'n respect a tough girl. Like Gailyn...*

He hid his displeasure at Joe's proximity to Gailyn, as Soraya began her walk. *How close ARE the Terror Twins, anyhow...?* The wicked thought was cut off as Bill turned to see Soraya dodge a variety of metallic tendrils. She was using her considerable acrobatic skills instead of her power.

"C'mon, Sora!" Illyana yelled. She had taken to the independent spirit of the Indian native, and they were rooming together, much to Bill's surprise. *I guess the witch-queen has a heart after all.* Soraya managed to evade the tendrils, but was captured by an energy bubble projected by a "tree trunk."

She scowled and filled the translucent sphere with Darkforce. It stretched, but didn't give, and she slowly nodded. A patch of Darkforce appeared on the outside of the bubble, and allowed Soraya to teleport free. She leapt and jumped the rest of the way to the far door, where she rested for a moment.

"Yeah!" "Go, Soraya!" "Good job!" Bill just nodded; he wasn't one for expressing himself unless he was in a mood to cut someone down.

"All right - Gailyn, why don't you go next?" Emma called.

Gailyn rose and began her walk, teke-shielding herself from some tendrils and melting others with focused heat-blasts. As she fired the bolts, however, her face was scrunched in concentration. *Gotta... be careful,* she thought. *Can't... let them get outta... control...!*

A trap door, leading to a pit full of water, opened beneath Gailyn as she escaped the tendrils. Her shriek of surprise was followed by a burst of raw flame and a gout of steam. ~BILL!?~ she mindcried.

*ME!?* Bill thought back in surprise. Joe looked stunned, as Bill broke for Gailyn in a dead sprint. He phased through the flames, allowing his decreased density to let him walk on air over the inferno. "Gailyn!! Yell if you can -huh?"

The flames went out, and a blushing, drenched Gailyn levitated out of the pool. She mumbled, "Thanks," and headed back to the others without another word.

*You're welcome... but why didn't you call for your dope brother?* Bill pondered...

The day wore on, leading to homework and subdued entertainment after classes let out at 3:30 p.m. Bill, however, was too curious to work on his algebra or sentence diagramming.

"Tom? Can I ask you somethin'?" he said.

Tom looked over from his bed, where he was writing a song for Cathy, and replied, "Sure. But if it's about how to spam Joe's computer, I'm out."

"No, not that... how'd you know if Cathy was interested in you ?" Bill asked.

Tom raised an eyebrow and said, "Well, we had kinda a weird first meeting - cyberspace isn't the same as a junior high dance or posing at the local Chez Van Dyne. It took us a while to get to admit we liked each other. Why?"

"Nothin'," Bill mumbled. "I'm gonna go for a walk. I'll see ya at dinner." He phased out of the room and descended to the common room. *I can't be... nah. Not for her! She tried to drown me last year, n' when I fought her off, Joe the Joke held me underwater f'r a minute! This is insane!* he told himself.

Bill headed out into the quad, and jumped to see Gailyn alone underneath the great oak. She turned to him and began to get up, but he thought, *Don't go! I just wanna... talk...*

She put her hands on her hips, as if she had telepathically heard him, and sent, ~About how I made an ass of myself this morning?~

She tensed as he thought back, ~No, why you mindyelled for me over your brother when you thought you were gonna die.~

They sat beneath the tree, and Gailyn snorted. "I wasn't in any danger - my fire power's more than just pyrokinesis," she sniffed. "It's genetically similar to Frank's Uncle Johnny's powers. I simply can't be burnt."

"Not even by the fires of your heart?" Bill smiled. Gailyn looked at him with a mixture of sarcasm and surprise.

"Either you're smoking something or your comeons are actually getting better," she said.

"Well, I gotta try, especially when I know you like me," Bill forged ahead. *What am I doin'!? I thought... aw, to hell with it,* he told himself.

"You're awfully confident," Gailyn replied. "You like me, Bill Shade? Prove it. Take me to your favorite crash-place and show me the town - as a gentleman would. I want to see just how romantic you can be."

Bill gulped, but said, "Here in Snow Valley, or anywhere?" Gailyn thought for a moment, then smiled. "Anywhere - we do have Illyana, after all," she said.

Bill slowly smiled and quipped, "I used to run with a genegang, the Gensturm, for a while last year. They were punks, but they took care of their own. The 'rents freaked, but they didn't force me to leave the guys, either. We had this great little dive in the Bronx..."

Illyana teleported the couple to The GeneFry Bar and Grill, and snorted contemptuously. "This is the place you like the best?!" she told Bill. "Cripes, this'd be a REDCAP bar in Limbo. Still..." She teleported after whispering to Gailyn, "If you get in trouble, just whistle. I'd love the chance to beat this pompous ass into the floor..."

"Thanks, but I can handle it," Gailyn smiled. 'Yana 'ported away, not raising any eyebrows; the restaurant was mutants-only. Bill pulled out a chair for Gailyn at a table and handed her a menu. "'Magneto Burgers'?" she asked with a small smile.

"Hey, they're pretty good," Bill shrugged. The waitress took their orders, and the kids began to share a telepathic conversation.

~I gotta admit, this is a side of you I didn't think existed,~ Gailyn sent. ~I'm... glad we're getting out and getting to know each other a little better.~

~Thanks. I can be a hardass, I know, but I got my rep to back up, y'know?~ Bill thought back. ~Even if it'd be nice t'have someone to open up to. Tom and I used to talk all the time, but he's got Cathy on the brain. I'm happy f'r em! But... I need more'n just my brother's love life to harp on.~

"Shade!? You little -!" a female voice snarled.

The kids looked up to see a girl about Illyana's age, in leather pants and tank-top, with a glowing third eye and chartreuse hair, standing beside their table. "Aw, no, not you again! Look, Trina, I said we're over, and I meant it!" Bill scowled.

"Over!? You ran and left the 'Sturm in a dead-end alley with a rogue Emplate, you little genslag!" the ESPer snarled. "We lost Booky and Shantath, not t'mention how I felt when you shut off our rapport!"

"You never told me you were running Metahype, witch!" Bill spat. "I'm not a drugrunner. No wonder I left you losers! And as for that Emplate, I was scared! You said you weren't a warpack, but you backstabbed me as much as I ran out on you!"

"No good, little ghoster," Trina hissed. Claws of psionic energy manifested from her hands, while five large, leather-clad mutant thugs appeared from the various corners of the bar.

"Um... maybe it's time to go?" Bill whispered to Gailyn.

She grinned far too widely for his peace of mind. "You mess with one New Mutie, sow, you get all of us," she spat in Trina's face, standing up. "And especially me, when you diss the guy I like."

*WHAT !?* Bill thought - and then the bodies began flying.

"NO FIGHT-URGKH!" The bartender was thrown out the front window by one of the thugs, while Gailyn spin-kicked at the slashing Trina. Bill phased through two of the thugs, knocking them out easily.

"We're gonna get expelled, you know," he yelled over the roar of the fight.

~So? Frost wants us to get real-world experience with our powers,~ Gailyn responded with a grin. She pulled Trina's hair and kneed her in the gut, then teke-tossed the ganggirl into a corner booth.

"Where'd you learn to fight like that?!" Bill yelled.

"Girl's gotta keep in shape somehow - haul it, hoserboy!" Gailyn said. Bill phased them through the back wall, while the fight began to burn itself out.

"We're on our own in the Bronx at 7 o'clock at night," Bill groused. "What're we gonna do until Illyana figures out we need a lift?"

Gailyn grabbed him by the collar and threw him against the back wall of the bar. "This," she grinned wickedly. Her lips locked onto his, as her tongue found his own. ~So... is this 'tomato' ripe yet?~ she sent with a mental smirk. The couple ignored the rising police sirens, and even the displacement of Illyana's stepping disc...

NEXT: Rhian fights alone against Emma's oldest, DEADLIEST business partner for the lives of her classmates! And even if they survive, some old "friends" of Illyana's want some payback...

Please write me! I'm interested in readers' opinions.