Autumn in New York

[Dusk]

Samuel pushed shut the door of the taxi, adjusted the strap on his shoulder and took a step forward. Paying his fare to the driver, he gave his thanks and turned to face academy. The taxi drove off, and Sam stood for moment, regarding what he would now have to call "home".

Setting off forward, he made his way past the security gate and up towards the main entrance. His parents waited two years to send Sam to a place like this, a place to fit for a mutant son. Apperently he was here to become a reformed person. Having finished his secondary education back home in England, now seemed a good time to start fresh here.

At first he had been shocked to hear he wasn't the only one of his kind, but after a lot of thought, it settled in him comfortably. It was reassuring, as well as logical.

Pulling his shirt straight, he pulled on the main door, and before him was revealed his new home. Stepping inside, he gazed around at the entrance hall, looking over the bustle of students and teachers.

[Anja Drake]

She hadn’t even set foot into the building and she already had someone nearly run her to the ground. For some reason she knew it would be like this, especially with new people and them not knowing you or your ‘disabilities’. She supposed it was understandable for these people to rush around and not pay attention but still, for the love of all things holy she wasn’t even in the school yet. She managed to find the door and slip inside without much trouble, considering her near face plant moments ago.
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The moment Anja looked up she nearly gasped in shock, there were so many people that it made her head spin in frustration. Yeah, she was blind, truly clinically blind. No color ever existed for her, no shape, no texture…nothing. But for her, God worked in mysterious ways; she couldn’t see but she could sense. Sense the people around her, sense the objects; they were all white, black, or grey figures projected by her mind to sort of direct her. At least that’s what she thought it to be.
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Anja found herself staring in awe at all the busily moving images. Out of all of them there were mostly grey figures; all varying shades, some dark some lighter and at the corner of the hall a lightened figure stood, possibly observing. Anja pulled at the sleeves of her black leather jacket in nervousness; maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to come. She wasn’t willing to move until light grey figure bumped her to the side.
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“Guardarlo!” Anja hissed at the figure in her native tongue as she caught herself on the wall. Her eyes flashed blood red for a spilt second before returning to their normal darkened gold-brown color. She steadied herself quickly; there was no reason to get upset; she would just have to be more aware than usual.
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Drake put her duffle bag on the floor at her feet and leaned against the wall. She sighed as the sea of moving bodies hurried around the hall; getting used to this place was going to be hell.

[Dragon]

For John Rhee, running was meditative. It linked body and breath into a single, hamonious rhythm, enforcing discipline on the physical self while at the same time setting it free. It demanded effort without creating turmoil, determination without conflict. Meanwhile the vibrant redwood forest passing around him with its centuries-old sequoias reminded him that while life moved forward, it was also cyclical and eternal, and that he, too, was a part of it, as it was a part of him. There was wisdom in the wood, and it was when his body and soul were striving and unified that he could see it so clearly.

In fact, he was so deeply unified that he didn't notice for a moment when he was no longer running over dirt and pine needles but over seashells. He skidded to halt, nearly slipping in the surf that washed over his sneakers.

"What-- Max!"

A penguin waddled up from the water and looked up at him quizzically. Then a blizzard rolled over the beach like a tidal wave.

The Korean mutant clutched his arms fiercely and shouted over the wind, "Max! Something's not working right!"

Two figures garbed in ninja attire dropped out of the sky on either side of him - he barely rolled out of the way of a scything sword and, rising, laid the first out with a stiff blow to the solar plexus. He spun to kick the other in the jaw, but his foe flickered and his foot passed harmlessly through him. John tumbled off-balance back into the snow.

"Ha! I am too match for you!" the ninja crowed in a high, tinny voice.

"End!" John shouted. "Exit! Control-alt-delete! Something!"

Suddenly, the wind stopped and the ninja evaporated, followed by the snow, the water, and the sky. All that was left was a large, domed room with an observation window on one end. John, still wet and shivering, picked himself up off the floor.

"I think there's still some bugs to work out, Max," he said. "I got to go. Classes starting soon."

Five minutes later, John Rhee was riding the elevator up from the subbasement with a towel draped over the back of his sweatshirt. The elevator door opened to reveal a corridor already full of students - some were faces he'd seen before in his four-year tenure at the school; a surprising number were new. Ethan's influence was helping to get the word out about this place, and it showed.

John Rhee edged his way through the crowd until he came to someone harder to edge around - then he realized it was the other John. Johnathan Parker had been one of the first mutants he'd met after coming over from Korea, other than Ethan, of course, and the older man had always made him feel at home.

"Lots of new students this year," he said, coming alongside the school's caretaker. Absentmindedly, he rubbed some snow out of his hair.

[Tess Abrahams]

"Oh nonono, I don't want that kind of help--not that I have a problem asking for help or with people getting that kind of help, group counseling is a great tool--it's just that I don't need that kind of help." She laughed nervously before barelling on. "I just thought that you meant, you know, were offering and..." Tess closed her mouth quickly before she made herself look completely idiotic and placed the crinkled flier back on top of the pile, smoothing it with a palm. The coltish girl clasped her hands together and sighed.

"Yes, I'm new and I promise I'm not usually this... taxing. It's been a long day, my luggage--" The sentence slowed to a stop as Tess gaped at the... bat... boy.

Certainly she'd known she was going to meet some pretty surprising folk. Of course many of them would manifest physical mutations but it was one thing to see a scaled fellow-mutant on the 6 o'clock news and quite another to be standing not two feet away.

Hola gorgeous, welcome to the freakshow."

Tess nodded openmouthed and then smiled, grinned even. For the first time since leaving Portland she felt relieved. Not fitting in anywhere else was what made you fit in here. "Thanks. I'm Tess."

[Dusk]

As Sam scanned the hall, his attention was grabbed by an odd exclaimation.

“Guardarlo!”

Turning to face the girl, he eyed her over, looking down at her bag and back up to her unusual eyes. Taking a few steps to close the distance between them, Sam adjusted his bag-strap again.

"Some people, eh?" he said with a strong English accent.

He looked back down at her bag again.

"Say, you new here too? Any idea where we're supposed to go?"

[Locksmith]

John glanced down past his shoulder to see his friend, John, standing next to him. He swore, he could never hear that guy coming, and it sometimes creeped him out. Glancing back over the new crop of students, and the familiar ones, the larger John replied, “Yep, more and more every year. Your martial arts class is probably going to have a waiting list, I’d wager.” Then with a laugh he added, “I might get lucky and have a student actually voluntarily sign up for my classes. Danger Room running all right? Still having issues with the AC system cooling down the new computers, but I’m working on it.”
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A young lady apparently made up of shadows passed them by, and despite all the weird things John had seen, he still saw some mutations as absolutely incredible. Lowering his voice, the large man whispered, “See any potential troublemakers yet? Ethan wants us to keep an eye out for them, y’know, so things don’t get out of hand early on and whatnot.”

[Dragon]

John Rhee resisted the urge to comment on the Danger Room - he'd been skeptical since Ethan had shown him the blueprints Dr. Cullen had drawn up years ago. Technology had finally caught up with the old man's dream, and Ethan had poured substantial funds, substantial even by his standards, into the project to get it up and running for the school year. It was an impressive piece of hardware, but John couldn't help thinking of it as a shortcut around developing real training and teamwork.

"Hard to say from here," he replied, scanning the crowd. "Except of course... that one." He pointed very directly to Carlos and grinned.

But he looked over the students in earnest, feeling out the energies in the room - he was nowhere near as psychically sensitive as Francoise, but his ch'i still provided a reliable sixth sense about some things. There were two new students slowly making their way up from the entrance - a tall boy with long hair and a pale-looking girl - he sensed conflict in both of them. But then, that was nothing unusual. Many of their students had scattered backgrounds. Most of their teachers, too, for that matter--

He glanced back up at Johnathan. "Oh, sorry, did you say something?"

[Locksmith]

"No," John replied. "But I was about to suggest we remind them all that classes are going to start, shortly, and nobody likes tardy students, even on the frist day."

Pausing to look over all the teenagers milling about, John mused, "You know I had to hide my differences when I was their age. Mutants weren't really accepted and all that. Had to bulk up so that when I knocked something over, people just thought I was big. Would've loved to be like these kids, able to show others just what they can do, and not be afraid of it."

Suddenly clapping his hands together before him, the large man known as the Locksmith to some, spoke out the corner of his mouth with a slight grin, "Well, you want to do the all-call this year, or should I?"

[Batdude]

Hola gorgeous, welcome to the freakshow."

Tess nodded openmouthed and then smiled, grinned even. For the first time since leaving Portland she felt relieved. Not fitting in anywhere else was what made you fit in here. "Thanks. I'm Tess."

"I'm Marty, but youse can call me Bat Dude & stuff."

Marty gave Carlos's shoulder a squeeze.

"Livin La Vida Tongue-Tied over here's Carlos."

"Guardarlo!"

The sudden outburst made Marty grit his teeth and cup his hands to his oversized ears.

"Yo, I got no idea what the hell she just said, but somebody needs to tell her to put her library voice on."

Recovering, he looked back at Tess, and to Carlos.

"Any of youse hungry? I can't sleep with all this noise goin on so I say what the hell."

[Carlos Calaveras]

Carlos smirked at Marty's introduction. His eyes wandered a bit, wondering who had just given a yell, when he spotted John Rhee pointing right at him, a suspect grin on his face. When Marty proposed a trip to the cafeteria, Carlos breathed a sigh of relief. “Anything to get out of this.”

He abandoned the student group pamphlets, no doubt to a fate of becoming paper airplanes and crumpled projectiles, and motioned for the other two to start walking. “We can get you checked in later, Tess... I'm sure the staff won't mind, right, Marty?” Calaveras asked, as a young mutant he was passing tripped over himself and scowled in Carlos' direction.

[Maxine Flannery]

:: Max was still in the Danger Room, loading in the revised scenarios her duplicate had just given her ::

* Night of a Million Zillion Ninja
* Mars Attacks
* Zombies
* Destroy all Monsters
* Killer Clowns from Outer Space

"Killer Clowns???"

Max gave her dupe a dubious look.

"Hey, it could happen." the duplicate replied.

Max shrugged.

"I'll catch you later, I've got students to greet."

[Veritas]

Near the front entrance of the school, Henri was having his morning coffee and a cigarette, sitting on one of the large concrete steps leading to the front door. His walking cane rested nearby, near the thermos he brought his morning caffeine in. He watched the other students and potentials arrive, extending a curt "Bonjour" to the faces he recognized. The ones he did not, he made a special point to remember. At odds with Ion, Henri had expressed misgivings about being so open with new arrivals. The bigger a place such as the academy grew, the more risk was taken of infiltrators. It may have been his former police upbringing, but it was blunt-nosed pragmatism for Henri.

[Ethan Daniels]

"Fluffy," he lied.

He watched the small creature patrol the desk, sniffing here and there. It approached Mister Daniels with apprehension. The headmaster held out his hand and at first the chinchilla backed off. Duncan stared intently. Slowly, it approached, it's nose twitched. Mister Daniels brought his hand gently down upon its head and its ears lowered. But when he stroked the little thing, it didn't move. It was perfectly relaxed. Duncan grinned and perked up.

"So, Mister Daniels, what you're really trying to say is that this is a school for..."

'Fluffy' was so soft, and well fluffy, that it took Ethan by surprise. This was the first time he had ever pet a chinchilla. It was adorable. He also didn't want to scare the poor thing too much and backed off, allowing the little guy to roam about his desk freely to sate its curiosity.

"... People like you and me." The Headmaster picked up right where Duncan had ended. With the rumors and stories mulling about back in Duncan's home, it was obvious that he was a mutant. Gauging how comfortable around others with that fact had yet to be established, but Ethan was quite certain that the man sitting across from him was just looking for a place to belong.

"You don't have to hide anymore." His smile was one of understanding and empathy. Ethan knew how Duncan felt to a certain degree, but he would not be so arrogant to presume he knew exactly. Ethan could hide his mutancy easily from the public at large. The same could not be said for Duncan.

[Pan]

A broad smile stretched across Duncan's face. The man sat before him was special, he had to be, not just anyone can be the headmaster of a school for people like them. He pulled his hat off revealing to small horns.

"Well, when you put it like that, Mister Daniels, allow me to introduce meself a bit more proper like."

He pulled the blanket from over his lap, revealing a kilt and two furry legs with a pair of hooves. He stood up with an unmistakeable clip-clop.

"As ya know, the name's Duncan MacLaverty, although some people call me Pan. I don't know why this is but I am known to act the goat from time to time."

Now clearly amused, Duncan didn't hesitate and nodded at the little chinchilla which was now sat on the edge of the desk looking up at him.

"And this little fella is Robert Shaw, also known as Uncanny. Say 'Hello', Robert."

He threw the thick blanket into the air.

[Ethan Daniels]

His smile broadened as a deep chuckle rose from his throat, pleased that Duncan allowed to show his true self. The wheelchair was nothing more then a prop, which didn't surprise Ethan in the least. He had seen similar attempts of mutants hiding their features when arriving at the school. Seeing Duncan so relieved like this reinforced that the school was living up to its purpose.

"Well, I am very pleased to be meeting you and Robert properly. As you will learn, we encourage everyone to be expressive about their talents, however they take form. This is a haven for all mutants that want to walk around without fear and to learn how to use their abilities safely. I would welcome you to be a part of that if you wish, Duncan."

[Francoise Dupont]

Near the front entrance of the school, Henri was having his morning coffee and a cigarette, sitting on one of the large concrete steps leading to the front door. His walking cane rested nearby, near the thermos he brought his morning caffeine in. He watched the other students and potentials arrive, extending a curt "Bonjour" to the faces he recognized. The ones he did not, he made a special point to remember. At odds with Ion, Henri had expressed misgivings about being so open with new arrivals. The bigger a place such as the academy grew, the more risk was taken of infiltrators. It may have been his former police upbringing, but it was blunt-nosed pragmatism for Henri.

Francoise was on her way to the dining hall when she spotted a figure that made her face light up with a smile - Henri. Excusing her way through the busy crowd filling up the main entrance, she found herself at his side. “Bon après-midi, inspecteur.” She smiled, a little coyly. “Spotted any interesting new arrivals?”

[Veritas]

"Non."

Henri offered his compatriate his coffee as he exhaled smoke from his nose.

"A young woman with dark hair looking agitated." He said, in reference to Anja Drake. He shrugged the girl off casually.

"Nerves on a first day are nothing of consequence."

His brow furrowed.

"The morning is cold, and my knee is stiff. Are you comfortable Madame?"

[Dusk]

Dusk's attention was once again caught, this time by another woman. He watched as a red-haired woman came into the main hall from one of the many sets of doors.

"She looks like she knows what's going on..."

Looking back to the girl leaning against the wall, he gave a smile.

"Excuse me. I'll come say hi if I see you around."

Pulling on his bag again, he turned and strode off towards the red-head, his eyes wide and looking a little lost.

"Pardon me, miss. I'm one of the new students here, and I'm rather confused as to what I'm supposed to be doing. I don't suppose you could help, could you?" he asked politely, smiling.

[Tess Abrahams]

"Great, I'm starved." Tess made a face, "Did you know they make you pay for food on planes now? Not even hot meals, we're talking pre-packaged processed crap that's still half-frozen from the coolers. It's appaling."

The staff probably would mind if they took off and, judging from the overt looks that Carlos had been getting back in the foyer, would probably mind more than a little. At the moment it didn't matter because for once she was actually having normal interaction with two people her age that weren't related to her. The thrill of gallivanting around a school with a couple of teenagers was exhilerating.

Tess strode between Carlos and Marty, lugging her bag in front of her so that it padded against her knees softly with each step. "So," she yanked off her knit cap, leaving the top of her head fuzzy with flyaways, "You guys been here long?"

[Robert Shaw]

"And this little fella is Robert Shaw, also known as Uncanny. Say 'Hello', Robert."

He threw the thick blanket into the air.

As he did so, the chinchilla formerly known as Fluffy propelled itself through the air, thanks to a magnificent little set of hind quarters, and made contact with the tartan blanket. The creature then spun, wrapping the blanket around its little grey body. As it did so, its body seemed to swell and grow. This all happened very quickly, since there was nothing wrong with gravity in the office. After what was little more than an improvised somersault, a pair of human legs and a human body emerged from the blanket, which was now being worn as a kilt by a young man with black hair and a cheeky grin. He extended a hand out towards Ethan.

"Alright mate. Nice to meet you sir!"