X-Men Issue #3: Line in the Sand (Patreon)

Ororo Munroe decided to do use her term as school leader and leader of the famed X-Men, whom many mutants at the school wished to join, to run a bit of a training exercise in the Danger Room.

The giant silver room was one of the most technologically advanced places on earth. It was massive, the size of an aircraft hangar and looked empty, but thanks to help from a lot of technically minded mutants it could create any environment. She planned on using that for exercise.

She waited in the control room for all the participants to arrive.

The students marched either as solos or in small groups. First in the room were Jean Grey and Rogue. The red headed mutant and the southern goth walked in discussing recent events. Jean, besides being one of the students to live at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters the longest was also the resident RA for the college aged students.

Jean was wearing leggings and a t-shirt, her “lazy” Friday clothes though her hair was immaculate and her makeup perfect. Rogue’s hair was not as immaculate but her dark brown hair and the one white streak in it looked nice enough. She was dressed in black jeans, a black metal baseball tee with a few chokers and her black gloves to finish the look off.

The past few months of new students had brought her in contact with three very specific ones. Lorna Dane, a green haired mutant nicknamed Polaris with magnetic powers, and Alison Blaire, a mutant nicknamed Dazzler who could control light. The pair had quickly bonded and enjoyed bullying Jubilation “Jubilee” Lee, a shorter Asian American mutant who could fire off plasma fireworks from her hands. They had bullied the poor girl for weeks, but three weeks ago something changed. Jubilee had joined the clock of Lorna and Alison.

Jean didn’t trust it but was thankful she didn’t need to be called to unhook the black-haired mutant’s underpants off a wall. They chit chatted as a new student entered. He was a skinny black kid with bleach blonde hair. He wore a hoodie and jeans that could only be described as skinny with a hole in the right leg.

“Sup?” He said to Jean and Rogue, who both gave him a friendly smile.

“Evan, right?” Jean asked, though she was ninety nine percent sure.

“Yeah....” It was clear he didn’t know her name.

“Jean and this is Rogue.” Jean said making introductions.

“Do you know why... she called us here?” Evan asked. The mind-reading mutant knew there was some connection between Ororo and Evan from their files, but she forgot what it was. She could tell right off the bat that Evan had mixed feelings about Storm to say the least.

“No idea.” Rogue said as Scott and Bobby walked in.

Scott Summers was the apple of Jean’s eye. She had a crush on him and only Rogue knew about it. He was athletic and decently tall. His brown hair was preppy to go with his cargo shorts and crew neck t-shirt. The only way you’d know he was a mutant by site was he always wore either red lensed sunglasses or his visor that had one long red lens that led to his nickname Cyclops. He needed that to control the blasts of red energy his eyes emitted.

He was with Bobby Drake, the Iceman. The blonde-haired blue-eyed mutant was wearing a sleeveless shirt and a pair of black gym shorts. He clearly was ready to go out to the courts and shoot around, but Storm’s plans threw that off. His ability was to form ice from his hands making blasts of ice, freezing things and he even once claimed to turn to ice though no one actually believed him.

The last to arrive was the new trio of best friends. Lorna Dane, the green-haired magnetic mutant, was just wearing a spaghetti strapped black tank top and a pair of jean short shorts. Alison Blaire, the blonde light controlling mutant and singer, was wearing a white t-shirt and beige pants. They walked with Jubilee, their former victim turned friend not that anyone outside the three of them knew why. The Asian American mutant who could fire plasma fireworks from her hands was wearing a pair of black gloves, which she found helped her mutant abilities, a black t-shirt and knee length blue shorts. The trio was gossiping as they came into the Danger Room.

The young mutants made small talk as none of them knew why they were there. Another few minutes passed before they slowly quieted down. What quieted them down was the sounds of heels clicking on the floor that led to the Danger Room.

Turning the corner was Ororo Munroe, arguably the most powerful mutant at the school and currently the head administrator in charge. Her white hair was tied back in a bun and she was wearing her glasses. Her dark skin was flawless thanks to her morning routine. She wore a long black dress that showed just enough leg that Bobby blushed.

Her mutant name was Storm and for good reason. Ororo did just that, she controlled the weather. When she walked into the room, she always gave it a slight breeze to let everyone know she had arrived.

“Good morning, everyone.” She said with a smile. The gathered students all greeted her back. Except for Evan who just gave her a glare. If Ororo saw, she made no reaction to it.

“I’m sure you are all wondering why you are here.” She said looking at the gathered mutants. She already knew Scott, Jean, Rogue and Bobby were future leaders of future teams of X-Men. Right now, they were all members, but junior at best with limited field experience, outside of Jean who had been here long enough that she had lots of field experience but was still growing into a leadership role.

She hoped to see those same things in these new recruits. Something had already bonded the trio of Alison, Lorna and Jubilee. Storm had been worried she’d have to step in if the hazing continued. A little bit was okay, but it was getting out of hand. Evan hadn’t bonded with the team yet, but she knew he was up to the task. She had faith in family.

“We will be doing a traditional battle. I will set the Danger Room and two teams will face off last team standing wins.” She said looking at the groups. The students who had been around looked okay with it but the newbies looked a bit nervous.

“This is just a practice battle. Your goal is to make your opponent submit or render them unable to continue. The room will be monitoring everyone’s health, and we will be keeping this safe.” She said sternly. Storm didn’t play when it came to student safety. She also allowed them plenty of room within the boundaries to get their aggression out.

“The teams will be Jean, Rogue, Scott and Bobby against Lorna, Jubilee, Evan and Alison.” Ororo said she always loved the old students vs new students format. As she said the ceiling of the Danger Room lit up showing eight pictures of the eight mutants taking part broken up into their teams.

“I’ll give you thirty minutes to converse and then we shall begin.” She said she was excited for the game.

“Shouldn’t we, I don’t know get changed or something for combat.” Alison asked, looking at everyone wearing normal clothes.

“You won’t always have the chance to be in comfortable clothes. You have to be ready to fight in anything.” Storm said walking away to the control room. “Or nothing.”

The two teams groups faced off for a moment.

“All in good fun, right?” Scott asked, trying to look as harmless as possible.

“Easy for you to say.” Lorna said with a bit of an attitude. It wasn’t lost on her that all the experienced students were on one team while all the newbies were on the other.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He asked taking a bit of offense with her attitude.

“All of you have done this before and we have barely run drills, let alone together.” Lorna said as her team formed up behind her.

“It isn’t about the experience it is about the heart.” Scott said trying to inspire the opposing team. He viewed everything as some sort of test for his future leadership. The newbies weren’t having it.

“Says the guy who can shoot lasers out of his eyes.” Lorna said stepping up to Scott. “You’ve done this enough I wouldn’t be surprised if you just blasted us as soon as it started.”

“One, I don’t need my powers to beat anyone.” He said his voice getting a bit deeper. “And two, are we going to pretend your powers aren’t good? Correct me if I’m wrong, but we’ve seen your dad do plenty of damage with it.”

Lorna’s face turned red, and Scott struck a nerve. She turned and marched off, her team following her. Jubilee and Alison sneered over their shoulders at Scott, while Evan just followed having picked a side by default as a newbie.

“Way to go Scott.” Bobby said the sarcasm dripping off him.

“What?” He asked, embarrassed about what he said.

“You crossed a line, Scott.” Jean said disappointed in her crush. Rogue said nothing, just looked disappointed at him.

“Can we just come up with a plan?” He asked hoping to get the topic off himself.

While the old students conversed about different strategies to use, the new ones were still trying to figure out what to do. Unlike their more experienced counter parts, they were nervous and pissed off.

Lorna was seething at what Scott had said to her. She hadn’t given him much thought beforehand. He was just a boy around the school, alright looking but she could barely see his face with his glasses or visor on.

Now, they were enemies.

“Evan, right?” Jubilee asked, not focusing on her friend’s new annoyance.

“Yeah.” He said not really opening up. Lorna was still seething and Alison wasn’t sure what to do. It was easier to focus on the new person.

“You know Ororo?” She asked, picking up on the obvious as he glared at her.

“She’s my cousin.” Spyke said, giving Storm a stank eye. She was his older cousin and took advantage of that a lot when he was younger.

“Ah, makes sense.” Jubilee said as it was obvious Evan and Ororo had some unresolved issues. They stood around for another moment, Lorna seething at Scott from across the massive room before Alison couldn’t take it anymore.

“What did he mean about your dad?” Alison asked Lorna. They hadn’t spoken much about family as Lorna had never wanted to discuss it. The blonde just assumed her friend just had an uncomfortable home life because of normal parents, a lot of mutants had those kinds of issues. The green-haired mutant’s look softened for a moment as she realized Alison wasn’t messing around. The blonde truly had no idea about Lorna’s parentage.

“My dad’s Magneto.” Lorna admitted. Jubilee and Spyke gasped but Alison looked confused.

“Uh, refresh my memory.” She said and Lorna couldn’t explain. The green-haired woman turned away and wrapped her arms around herself. Jubilee took over the explaining.

“Magneto is a mutant with powers like Lorna’s and he is like sworn enemy of the X-Men and humans in general. He kind of wants to rid the world of regular people and is in prison right now.” Jubilee spit out in a whisper as Alison realized why Lorna was so tight lipped about her family.

“I’m sorry.” Alison said, her voice somber.

“It is alright, I’m used to my dad’s actions following me around.” Lorna said, blushing a little as she looked away.

“No.” Alison said, and the group looked at her. “I’m sorry Scott was a jerk like that, you don’t deserve that, and we are going to make them pay.”

“Yeah.” Jubilee said in agreement.

“How? They have all the experience?” Lorna asked as she was right, they were a bit out matched when it came to teamwork.

“Might I offer a suggestion?” Evan asked, feeling a bit more comfortable with them now. All three ladies looked at him.

“As a team they are good, but if we separate them, I think we can take them. Keep it one on one and keep them from grouping up.” Evan said and all three nodded as it was a good sounding plan.

“I want to crush them.” Lorna said. Jubilee and Alison nodded in agreement, no one messed with their friend and got away with it. Evan wasn’t as gung-ho about it but he wasn’t going to roll over and accept defeat, especially not in front of his cousin.

Across the room the more experienced students weren’t taking it as seriously. Rogue and Jean were still chastising Scott, who was now embarrassed but dug in refusing to apologize.

Bobby was the only one looking to come up with a plan.

“What’s the plan? Go easy on them or knock them into the ground?” Bobby asked.

“We’ll be fine. We got this.” Scott said between getting yelled at for being rude to Lorna.

“The games will commence in five.” Storm said over the Danger Room speakers as the doors closed and the lights dimmed.

“Four.” The holo-projectors hummed to life and the room was scanned.

“Three.” Outlines of trees became visible as the room was filled in with hard light construct.

“Two.” The newbies did what they planned and split up before the game even began. The experienced students saw this and before Bobby could point out how it was a trap, Scott went one way, Jean went another and Rogue went straight ahead.

“One.” The constructs filled in and Bobby was alone in a very realistic-looking jungle.

“Let the battle commence.” Storm said over the loudspeaker.

“Crap.” Bobby said as he began trudging through the jungle alone.

Jean wanted this to be over as soon as possible. She was annoyed at Scott, but also the Danger Room was kind of a drag. The four of them had gone undefeated against every difficulty setting and it was obvious to her the newbies weren’t going to be much of a problem.

She stopped in a small clearing of fake jungle and opened her mind. She figured she could reach out mentally and figure out where her team was and where the enemy was. It wasn’t her primary mutant ability and took some focus to really get going, but it proved helpful far to often to be ignored.

Jean closed her eyes and concentrated.

Only to feel a sharp stinging sensation in her left butt cheek. She opened her eyes and looked down to see a small spike embedded in her butt. It went right through her leggings and would leave a tiny hole, which was also annoying.

“Ow.” Jean said as she reached back and pulled the tiny needle from her butt.

She turned to face where it came from, not letting her guard down. She put up a telekinetic barrier just in time to catch another dozen needles all aimed at her legs.

“Nice.” Evan said stepping out of the woods. He had rolled back his sleeves and spikes; some the size of thin needles and some the size of arrows were poking out of his forearms.

“You shot me in the butt.” Jean said, a bit annoyed that her butt was the target.

“It was funny at the time.” Evan said smirking.

“Oh, it is on.” Jean said as she blasted back the needles towards Evan. He blocked himself but most of them missed as she didn’t aim them like he did. He fired back with a barrage that kept Jean on the defensive and her barrier up. The red headed mutant was already impressed and could tell Evan would be a good teammate, even if he was a bit immature.

Speaking of immature, Jean thought she decided to bust out a new technique she practiced. She kept her barrier up with one hand and with the other concentrated on a specific area of Evan’s back. His wave of incoming needles abruptly stopped and there was a sound of fabric being stretched. Evan’s hands went to his crotch as he collapsed on the ground.

“Did you just give me a wedgie?” Evan asked as he slowly got to his feet. After using her powers to give Rogue one, Jean had been keeping it in her back pocket to use. She hadn’t had the chance to practice, though she had debated on using it a dozen times now.

“You shot me in the butt, seemed more than fair.” Jean said with a smirk of her own as Evan awkwardly stood up. He didn’t get a chance to adjust his boxers, which Jean could see were black with the white Avengers logo on them. She shook her head; they would merchandize anything.

She blasted Evan off his feet and used her powers to pin him to a tree. He struggled but she had him pinned there well with her telekinesis.

“Since I have you here why don’t I get to know you better?” Jean asked and before Evan could do much, she used her psychic powers to see into Evan’s mind.

“Spyke? Not bad and fits your powers.” She said seeing what Evan named himself. He blushed as he hadn’t told anyone what mutant name he wanted yet. She kept sifting around to see what music he liked, what movies, hobbies, sports, anything.

He felt his world laid bare and was a bit embarrassed by it, but Jean offered no judgements till she came to memories. Memories of Evan growing up with Ororo. He blushed as Jean couldn’t help herself, she wanted to see what a younger Storm was like. She got a full blast.

“Oh, my god. Storm really did that to you?” Jean asked laughing as she began to explore Spyke’s memories. His face grew hot as Jean had picked a particularly embarrassing memory he had buried down.

He had buried it so deep that Evan’s mutant defenses kicked in and Jean only had a second before he exploded out a thousand quills. She gave up her mental link and brought up her telekinetic barrier. These spikes were bigger, and Jean knew she had crossed some line or hit some button in his brain that triggered it. Her barrier held but the force of the blows threw her back.

Jean slammed into the construct of a tree. With no barrier to protect her, she smacked into it hard and was knocked out. She landed in a heap on the ground. She’d wake up with a headache.

“Sorry?” Evan said to her unconscious body as he wasn’t sure what to do. He walked off to find either his teammates or next opponent as the automated system said Jean had been eliminated.

Lorna couldn’t believe her ears. She expected one of her team to be the first ones down, but it was Jean and Jean was a badass, not that anyone admitted it. The green-haired mutant was also happy that it wasn’t Scott. She wanted him for herself.

His words shouldn’t have bothered her, but they did. She tried really hard at school and yes, she had been a jerk at times specifically to Jubilee but that didn’t give him the right to speak to her like that. She walked further into the jungle, it was so realistic and thick she barely had time to react as she walked directly into Scott.

The two mutants walked right into each other. Scott, being a bit taller and thicker almost knocking Lorna down.  She managed to stay on her feet and they looked at each other for a moment before she began breaking off pieces of metal from the floors and walls, that neither of them could see till she had broken them thanks to the holograms and began chucking them at Scott.

To his credit, he managed to blast them all out of the air as Polaris sprinted away. She needed space and time to think. Cyclops lowered his power settings to only sting Polaris when he hit her. He chased her, firing blasts. He was trying to hit her, but she was good, far more athletic than one would have guessed.

Lorna eventually hit the biggest problem with the Danger Room, a wall. She almost ran straight into it as it looked like a river painted on. She realized she was trapped. Scott walked out trying not to look cocky.

She did not want to lose to him, but one blast and she was sure she’d wake up in the infirmary. If she was going to go out, she was going to go out swinging. Scott took a different approach.

“Listen, I don’t want to fight you.” Scott said as he kept his visor aimed at Polaris.

“I wouldn’t want to fight me neither.” Polaris said. She had her hands raised and could feel the metal of the Danger Room around them. She couldn’t see it, but she could feel it, including some chains and a hook in the ceiling that could help rearrange the room after some battle configurations.

They stood for a moment. Scott knew he couldn’t trust her, not just because of her parentage. They were in a simulated team battle; she was the enemy. He also knew taking her prisoner would be better than actually beating her.

“This is stupid.” Lorna said, lowering her hands. She sounded tired and it took Scott off guard.

“Why don’t you give up then?” He asked. This was turning out easier than he thought. It would look good on his records to capture an opponent instead of defeating them and deep down he liked the idea of knocking Magneto’s daughter off her high horse and in effect the whole family.

Polaris on the other hand had no intention of giving up. Instead, she was buying herself time. She needed to move carefully without using her hands to direct her powers. The hook and chains in the ceiling were a long way away but perfect for capturing the boy blunder before her. She just needed to keep him talking.

“Why would I do that after you were so rude to me?” She asked.

“I didn’t mean to be, but if you give up, we can work this all out. If you don’t I have to blast you.” He said touching his visor. The hook and chain were just within reach and Polaris put out her hands, like she accepted being handcuffed.

“I surrender, I guess.” She said, which still took Scott by surprise, but a win was a win in his book. He took a step forward and felt something cold and metallic slip into his shorts.

Cyclops realized it was all a trap, but it was far too late. Her magnetic powers sent the hook flying into the air lifting him off of the ground by his green and blue plaid boxers. Another chain wrapped around his arms, pinning them to his chest. He was forced into the air with all his weight on his boxers causing immense pain.

“Ugh.” Scott kicked his legs as the hook held him aloft a few feet off the ground. He felt stupid and embarrassed and worst of all pain in his butt as his boxers were not of a stretchy variety. Lorna smiled at him.

He fired off a blast with his visor but missed as Lorna walked under him. Her hand tickled his leg as she spun him in the air. Scott knew he had been beaten.

“Why don’t you.” Polaris said as she grabbed both of Scott’s legs. “Hangout.”

She pulled down and Scott let out a muffled scream as he tried not to show weakness in front of the green haired woman. It failed as he could taste the polyester blend of his boxers. She laughed as she let go letting Scott bounce before walking off.

Lorna couldn’t wait to tell everyone how she beat the great Scott Summers. He hung there and heard his name called by the automated machine as the next eliminated.

Across the Danger Room Bobby said some unkind words. He wanted a game plan and instead everyone ran off on their own because they underestimated the new kids and now, they were down Jean and Scott. He waited to hear Rogue’s name, but none came.

The jungle opened up to a field that seemed to stretch on forever, but Bobby knew it only went on for a few dozen feet before it changed or hit a wall. There was rustling behind him, and he caught a flash of white as Alison stepped out of jungle and blinded him with her powers.

It wasn’t permanent but Bobby would need a few minutes to recover. He felt a little pain from the blinding light and started to rub his eyes. He wasn’t having a good day, and this just made it worse.

“Really?” Bobby asked as he rubbed his eyes. While he didn’t know her that well, they were all on the same team and it wasn’t a true fight. He felt he could voice his annoyance.

The ice powered mutant was blinded as Dazzler moved in.

“You’re friends with Scott. Scott hurt Lorna’s feelings, so I am going to make you pay.” Alison said as she stepped up behind the blinded Bobby.

He felt his gym shorts get yanked to the floor. He felt his face grow hot and red, knowing she had just pantsed him. He moved his hands from his eyes and opened them in the bright sun, readying to pick up his pants.

“Got a nerd alert.” Dazzler said laughing and stepping back to admire her handiwork. She almost doubled over seeing Bobby’s boxer-briefs.

“You and Lorna would have a lot in common but come on dude. Really?” Alison asked. Bobby was wearing a pair of white boxer-briefs with a black waistband. Adorning the white fabric was ice cube designs.

“Are you going to do this in the field?” He asked as clearly Alison wasn’t taking this seriously. Not that any of Bobby’s teammates had either.

“Yeah, maybe I will.” Alison said as she circled the still blinded Bobby. He was getting disoriented from her words coming from different directions and losing sight. He almost tripped over his shorts but decided to fix that.

Bobby bent over to pull up his shorts and paid for it.

He got the shorts mostly back into place when Alison moved in again.

“Wedgie.” Alison said as she grabbed the black waistband and yanked up on Bobby’s undies. The blonde didn’t hold back as she pulled on her fellow Xavier student’s undies. She had thought he was cool when she learned his nickname was Iceman, but now she felt like it was more due to mocking.

Bobby had been given many a wedgie as most sporty guys had endured. This was just the first from a hot chick that he could remember. It didn’t help she was good at it. The boxer-briefs were up to his shoulder blades and he was on his tippy toes. Alison was laughing in his ear as she yanked up on his undies.

She shoved him forward and let go, letting Bobby wobble off balance as the waistband slapped against his back. Of all the things he expected of this training engagement, this was not it. He was flustered to say the least.

“Really?” He asked fixing his wedgie. “This is supposed to be a combat scenario.”

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist.” Dazzler said teasingly. She giggled at him, and he blushed. Bobby was a bit thrown off his game as this cute girl was basically bullying him. His vision was mostly back, which was helpful.

“Now let me finish pummeling you and my team can get back to winning.” Alison said as she marched towards him. Bobby had no idea what she was going to do next, but he knew it wouldn’t be pleasant. He waited till she was a little bit closer before he made his move.

Alison was not prepared as Iceman blasted her with a blast of frozen air. It wasn’t his best move, but it was a forceful gust that spun the blonde away as she wrapped her arms around herself to try and warm up again. For her it went from comfortable to below freezing.

Her teeth chattered as Bobby decided if she wasn’t going to take this seriously, neither would he. Bobby marched up behind her and reached into her beige pants, feeling a waistband right under it. He wrapped his fingers around it as Dazzler was still chittering her teeth and trying to warm herself up.

“Turnabout is fair play.” Bobby said as he pulled out Alison’s white bikini briefs. The white cotton panties made it to mid back and leg holes were out as Bobby got some sweet revenge. He didn’t make it a long one and gave Alison the same treatment. Letting go while pushing her away.

She stumbled forward, her almost freezing forgotten as she turned to him mouth agape.

“You’re one to talk about people's underwear choices. You wear almost all white everything.” Bobby said pointing out Alison’s choice of colors. Her face went red as now she was mad.

“You can’t wedgie a girl.” She said as she didn’t even fix her wedgie, she began summoning light to her hands. If he thought the first blinding was bad this is going to be worse, Dazzler thought as she summoned more light.

Her head was already dancing with ideas of how she was going to make Bobby pay. She was going to strip him to his ice cube undies and hanging from a tree. That would show him for giving her a wedgie.

She never got the chance as Bobby saw this coming. He unleashed an avalanche from his hands. A few hundred pounds of snow rushed out blasting into Dazzler. The light in her hands dissipated as she was knocked to the floor.

Bobby let go of the stream of ice and snow to see Dazzler had been buried. She had been left under a pile of snow and unable to pick her wedgie. Her lower body was exposed showing off her legs and bunched of bikini briefs and her head was free so she could breeze. Bobby was glad she looked like she was cold, but besides that, she was unharmed.

He moved on hoping to find Rogue before she was eliminated. The automated voice called out Alison’s name.

Rogue wasn’t having the best of luck. She had found Jubilee and the younger mutant had already started in the fireworks. She rolled dodging another of Jubilee’s plasma fireworks. She knew the younger mutant was pulling her punches, but they looked like they’d hurt if hit.

“Come on, Rogue. This is supposed to be a fight.” Jubilee said getting a bit to into the spirit of the games Storm had put together.

“I don’t want to hurt you.” Rogue said dodging another attack from the smaller woman. This might have been a battle, but it was a friendly game, and Rogue’s powers were anything but friendly.

Rogue got to her feet to find Jubilee almost on top of her. The Asian American mutant was going to deliver a backhand to the goth. Everything slowed down for Rogue as she wanted to warn Jubilee, if they made skin on skin contact the younger mutant would be in pain and more than Rogue wanted for this test mission. The goth moved to dodge.

As the hand grew closer Rogue realized her mistake in trying to dodge the blow. She was going to be short, and Jubilee was still going to hit her, but more importantly Jubilee was wearing gloves, which meant she could touch Rogue.

Jubilee landed a smack to Rogue’s cheek.

It hurt a lot as Rogue grabbed her face. She didn’t have much time though as Jubilee threw a few kicks at her midsection. The smaller mutant had learned some new moves and was putting them to work.

Rogue had to defend herself and threw a few punches, but the blow to her head slowed her down just a bit. If someone had asked her earlier, Rogue would have thought Jubilee was a push over. Rogue hadn’t expected much fight from Jubilee, and she was paying for that thought.

The goth was on the defensive blocking punches and kicks as best she could. In the back of her mind she wondered how Alison and Lorna had bullied her, she was an asskicker. Rogue put that thought to the side as Jubilee sent her palm for the goth’s stomach. Rogue prepared to block, but Jubilee pulled the blow, and her hand began to glow.

A blast of plasma firework smacked Rogue in the stomach and she flew backwards. Her legs went out from under her, and she landed on her wounded tummy, the wind knocked out of her. The goth groaned; she was down but not out as Jubilee walked over.

“Sorry, Rogue it isn’t personal, but Scott crossed the line, and we need to whoop all of you.” Jubilee said as she stood over Rogue bending down and reaching for the goth’s waist.

The smaller woman reached into the back of the goth’s pants. Rogue was only vaguely aware of what was happening as she felt Jubilee’s gloved hands toucher her skin as they wrapped around the waistband of her boyshorts.

The younger mutant couldn’t help but smile. Her hard work in training had paid off and she was going to make her new friends proud, but also it was fun to be the aggressor in battle.

“This is so much fun.” Jubilee said as she was finally the bully in the situation. She Pulled back and stood up straight bringing Rogue’s undies with her. The sound of stretching fabric filled the area followed by Jubilee’s laughter.

Rogue regained enough of her senses to know this was the most embarrassing situation in her life.

Jubilee stood over the downed Rogue, who was laying on her stomach. The goth’s face was one of confused pain as this was the third time she was getting a wedgie and the first time someone was actually pulling on her undies and not Jean’s telekinesis.

Rogue’s white boyshorts with yellow rubber duckies on them were pulled to their limit. Jubilee laughed and Rogue was sure the laundry day defense wouldn’t work here. It might have been the first wedgie the black-haired mutant ever gave, but it was a good one as Rogue wanted to bury her head in the fake dirt. She also blamed Scott at making this personal for the trio of female mutants and hope he was paying the price like her.

The goth was sure her undies were either going to end up over her head or ripping from Jubilee’s pulling, but luckily for her the Asian American mutant let go and the boyshorts snapped back against Rogue’s lower back.

“Ow.” Rogue said as she slowly got on all fours.

“Give up?” Jubilee asked laughing at seeing the white boyshorts with rubber ducks bunched up out of Rogue’s all black outfit. The goth was glad no one else was around to see this, it would seriously ruin her credibility.

Her credibility was about to take more of a hit as she didn’t respond to Jubilee fast enough. The smaller woman leaned down and fussed with Rogue’s hair. The goth wasn’t powerless to stop her, but she was a bit out of it to say the least.

She didn’t realize what was going on as Jubilee made her next move. The Asian American mutant slipped off her left glove and stuck her pointer finger in her mouth. She had only seen it done in cartoons, but she was going to enjoy doing it. She pulled it out with a wet pop, and with her gloved hand she moved Rogue’s hair who was dimly aware of what was going on.

“Wet Willy!” Jubilee cried as she jammed the spit covered finger in Rogue’s ear. The goth winced at this disgusting feeling and for one brief moment Jubilee was smiling.

Then the pain began. Jubilee felt her energy drained and couldn’t understand what was going on. She didn’t know what had caused it, not realizing she had accidentally triggered Rogue’s powers. It happened so fast the Jubilee was falling to the ground already fading out of consciousness as her finger slipped from Rogue’s ear.

“Gross.” Rogue said as she began cleaning her ear. She knew what had happened as soon as she felt the skin-on-skin contact. Everyone was affected differently, and Jubilee didn’t stand a chance as she was now face down in the dirt. Rogue got to her feet and shook her hands.

Plasma fireworks shot out of them as she did. She had absorbed Jubilee’s powers, which would come in handy. She made sure not to trigger the fireworks again as she slowly plucked the wedgie out between her pale cheeks. The last thing she wanted to do was to blow a hole in her butt.

She looked down at Jubilee as the automated voice said she was out. She knew her powers wouldn’t kill the younger mutant and she was defeated, but she also humiliated the goth and that couldn’t get out.

Rogue kneeled down and undid Jubilee’s shorts. Without any resistance, Rogue pulled the blue shorts right off the unconscious mutant and used her stolen powers to burn them up in her hands. She looked down and figured this was enough embarrassment to Jubilee to make them even, leaving the knocked out mutant face down with her big, yellow briefs exposed.

Rogue quickly rushed off to hopefully find Bobby as he was the last member of her team.

“What an odd bunch.” Storm said chuckling as she watched the battles taking place. They were having a bit more fun with it than she expected.

Bobby and Evan had already run into one another. There were a few seconds of a stare down before both opened fire. Spyke launched his spikes as he ran for cover, while Iceman formed a shield of ice with one hand and fired a blast of ice with the other.

Rogue could hear the sounds of battle as she approached. She began summoning the plasma to her hands. She hadn’t taken power in a while, but Jubilee’s came naturally to her. She was going to knock someone on their ass with this one. As she approached, she could see Evan blasting spikes at Bobby, who was maintaining a good wall of defense but not offering much to push Evan back.

She decided to take advantage of the situation.

Rogue sent the blast of plasma fireworks forward, expecting to blast into Evan knocking him off balance at least. Instead, a metal sheet from the floor appeared, broken and disrupting the hologram. The metal sheet caught the explosion and blocked Evan from taking the hit.

“I got you.” Polaris said to Spyke as she joined the fray. She had been watching like Rogue waiting to make her move. He gave her a slight nod and continued the assault on Iceman.

Rogue liked Jubilee’s powers as she could control how powerful the fireworks, she shot off were, but she realized in a room full of metal Polaris reigned supreme. Though the holograms made it look like a jungle, everything was made of metal and there was no rule about taking the room apart.

For every piece of metal Rogue blasted back with her stolen powers, Polaris ripped two more off the floor or walls to throw at her. The goth is soon overwhelmed with metal as multiple sheets are wrapped around her like a blanket, her arms are pinned to her chest and Rogue collapses in a metal straight jacket.

Iceman was not fairing any better. Spyke never gave him an opening for an offensive move. Anytime Bobby tried to make any move to make any progress, Evan fired a spike with dangerous accuracy. Bobby was vaguely aware Rogue was battling Polaris, but he wasn’t sure how that was going as his ice shield kept him pretty blinded. It kept him so blind he didn’t realize that he was surrounded until a metal band wrapped around his arms.

Bobby was caught off guard and not prepared as Spyke appeared on top of his wall of ice. Evan raised his arms and fired two-foot-long spikes at Bobby’s feet. The ice powered mutant closed his eyes expecting to feel spike through flesh and bone, instead he toppled over as spike had pinned his sneakers to the ground.

“We have a winning team.” Storm’s voice echoed over the speakers. It was easy to tell she was smiling. The holograms dissipated and the remaining students waited where they stood. Two side doors opened, the infirmary and waiting room after elimination for both teams. Scott and Jean walked out not to worse for ware, though neither looked at each other, Jean looked very annoyed.

Alison and Jubilee walked out of the other. Dazzler still looked chilly and her top looked damp. Jubilee was leaned up against the taller blonde, still out of it with a towel wrapped around her waist to hide her lack of pants. Jean and Scott raised an eyebrow at Jubilee’s outfit but didn’t say anything.

They all joined the other students and Ororo joined them, looking very pleased.

“Lorna, if you don’t mind.” The older woman said pointing to Rogue and Bobby. Polaris undid her metal binds, and both got up, Bobby after he pulled the spikes from his sneakers. The Iceman tried not to be mad, but his shoes were basically ruined.

“That was a great show by our new students, and I hope it taught you all something.” Ororo said looking to Scott and Jean, who both looked annoyed.

“I think next time we run this exercise we may change up teams, but you all did wonderfully if unorthodox.” The weather controlling mutant said as she looked at the students, who all knew it wasn’t a normal fight.

“You are all dismissed to go about your day.” She said as the groups began to leave.

“And don’t worry I have copies of all the battles.” Storm said smiling. That stopped a few of them as they blushed or awkwardly looked away. Lorna was the only one who looked extremely happy at Storm looking over their battle.

The groups split off with the experienced students heading off, while the less experienced students hung around for a moment. The experienced team made it down the hall before the arguing started.

“That could have gone better.” Was all Scott could say.

“You think?” Rogue offered as she started to feel the firework powers dissipate. She’d hold onto them for a few more hours, but they would grow weaker and weaker.

“I tried to come up with a plan, but everyone ran off.” Bobby said, which was true. He was the only one who tried to come up with a game plan.

“We might have done better if someone didn’t piss off one of them and rally the team behind her.” Jean said staring daggers at Scott.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He asked, annoyed that he was being blamed again.

“Exactly what you think it means.” Jean shot back. She was very annoyed. She was a good student, and the Danger Room was something she tried to excel in, to lose to newbies stung.

“Say what you mean.” Scott said. He knew he messed up, but he was doubling down

“I blame you.” Jean said as she and Scott got into a bit of a tiff.

“Me? What did I do?” He asked.

“You gave them extra motivation to win and now we, the experienced students, look like losers who couldn’t beat the newbies. Most of them never even used their powers in a combat scenario.” Jean said as Rogue watched nodding along.

“It is totally Scott’s fault.” Bobby said as he stepped up behind his friend.

“Not you too?” Scott asked, feeling a bit hurt as he cast a glance over his shoulder.

“You made us look bad.” Jean said, getting Scott’s attention. The visor wearing mutant threw his hands into the air and Bobby decided to reduce some of the tension between them. With Scott’s hands in the air, his shirt had risen exposing his boxers once again. Bobby decided to steal a move from Dazzler’s playbook.

He grabbed his friend’s boxers and lifted them. Scott went to his tippy toes as his already slightly stretched boxers made their way back up his back. Rogue laughed at seeing this as she also felt a lot of this was Scott’s fault and enjoyed his embarrassment. Even Jean went from mad to laughing at Scott.

Bobby held on for a moment longer before dropping Scott as the three laughed at him. He blushed and wasn’t happy with Bobby doing that, but it broke the tension and got the subject off of how he messed up. That didn’t stop them from leaving him there to pick his wedgie.

Back in the Danger Room, Storm had gone back into the control room to watch the tapes. She also planned on making a fun reel for their graduation.

“I’m going to take her to bed.” Alison said as she pulled Jubilee’s arm over her shoulder to help keep the weaker girl up.

“Okay, I’ll see you later. Feel better Jubilee.” Lorna said as the Asian American mutant gave her a weak thumbs up. Alison and Jubilee walked off leaving Lorna with Evan.

“Thanks.” He said as they stood there awkwardly. She had saved him from getting jumped.

“That’s what teammates do.” She said brushing back a few loose strands of green hair.

“We make a good team.” She added, looking at the ground.

“Yeah, we should do it again some time.” Evan said also looking away. The pair blushed and stood for a moment longer before leaving the Danger Room.

“See you around.” Lorna said.

“Yeah, see you around.” Evan replied and they went their separate ways.