Shadenfreude: Chapter Six
Kitty wondered through the isles of the library looking for her teacher. She was slightly apprehensive about all of this. After she had talked to Peter about her blunder earlier, she felt awful about exposing the letter. It was true that the letter was private, but the fact that her teacher was keeping it secret didn’t sit well. She didn’t have to tell exactly what was in it, but she could have told someone that she was hearing from him. Peter just didn’t understand that it wasn’t alright for someone to receive letters from a notorious terrorist. He tried to convince her that Magneto was harmless without his powers. She countered with a cliche about a leopard’s spots.
As she filtered through the separate rooms and cubicles, she finally found her self-defense teacher in the archives. She was about to knock on the door when he told her to come in.
“Alright half pint,” he said with his back still turned, “I need your help going through these.” He turned around with his hands full of thick photo albums which where slammed on the desk in front of her. “I need to know who is who and what they do.”
After a few minutes of flipping through the books, they heard a thrill shriek in the library.
“Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiity, damn girl where’d you go so fast? Kitty? Did you make your mind up?”
“Jubileeeeee. I’m in the archiiiiiiiives!”
Logan’s hands covering up his ears did not at all muffle the sound of the two girls to his oversensitive ears. “J-lee, get in here now! And for the love of all things holy, stop screaming.”
After a minute of scurrying feet Jubilation Lee popped into the room. “Hey there, I got some stuff I thought we’d go through.” She took out what looked to be a summer tote bag full of newspapers, magazines, and discs.
Logan cocked his head at the items. “What is that stuff?”
“This is current stuff. Newspapers and other news from the last three months. I always keep stuff like this cause it helps me keep up with current events.”
Her friend gave her a wide eyed unbelieving look. “Oh, please. All I ever see of yours is a stack of OK and People magazines. Your such a celebrity whore.”
“Nu uh. I can tell you what’s going on with the implosion of the Republican party, the unrest with the shut down of Jersey’s of state funds, how much the currency of the Zimbabwe is worth, and how Bragelina held out so that their baby photo’s could rack up multimillions for charity. Oh yeah, I’m that good.” She dug into her bag some more and brought out more newspapers. “This papers covered the events at Alcetrez. And guess who was there!”
Logan couldn’t help the grin that appeared. He was beginning to like this girl more and more.
Not wanting to be outdone by her roommate, Kitty thought of something that would score high in this impromptu ingenuity test. “Logan, I can get access to the San Francisco Times and the USA Today photo databases.”
“No ya can’t Kitty,” Logan said.
Jubilee just narrowed her eyes.
“Oh yes I can. Getting past their security isn’t all that tough. I mean how do you think information gets leaked out.”
Sensing a losing battle, Jubilee decided to cut her loses. “That would be a good idea. We can compare the shots. See if the pictorial info coincides.”
“Good job girls. Really, I’m shocked.” The compl-imsult brought beaming smiles from both students. “Jubilee, leave everything you brought with Kitty, here. Kit when ya’ve found all the info ya think is important put it on a disc.”
Kitty gave her friend a shit-eating smile and a flash of tongue.
“So what am I supposed to do?”
“Ya,” he pointed to the young Asian girl. “Are coming with me, to have a look at these old hard copy files. Ya seem to have a crazy knack for paper work. After a while this shit makes my eyes bleed.”
************
Meanwhile
************
Ororo took the stack of term papers to her office. She hated this time of year, and so did the students. Of course this showed in their work, and their grades. In this no win situation she was almost tempted to let some of the slackers slide...*almost.*
As she dropped the papers on her desk, she thought that she saw something askew. She did a three hundred sixty degree scan of her room. Nothing seemed to be a mess.
“You know, a little bit of organization won’t kill you.”
Ororo hit her head on her desk when she heard Scott’s voice. “You know brother, maybe it will. Of course not ironing your underwear didn’t kill you.”
“No, your right, that’s not what killed me.”
“O Goddess, Scott. I am so sorry.”
“Don’t be silly girl. I never did like wrinkles on my behind, so there, take that.” There was a big smile on his sister’s face.
He took a seat on the chaise under the big french window. “You look like you need some help.”
“Please, Scott.”
“So, where are the other’s.”
“Probably reeling about the merger. Scott, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with that.”
As he walked over to her he bent down to pick up something on the floor. He looked at her writing furiously on someone poor students paper.
“Hey Ro, did you see this. It looks official.”
She looked at the letter in his hand. The was a U.S. government seal on the back. The return address was from the Department of Mutant Affairs, Hank’s department.
“I think Cecilia may have dropped that this morning.”
“Is there an office romance that I am once again the last to find out about.”
Ororo choose to wisely remain silent at that remark. “Let me page her. I don’t want this forgotten again.”
She found the page button on the multi-use phone at her desk, and paged the doctor. “Cecilia, I have a letter for you that was left behind today. Are you busy now?”
“No, Ororo, I’m on my way up now.”
“Thank you.” She then turned off the pager.
While she was working the phone, Scott had taken up a few paper to start on the tedious process of grading them.
“Please do not write in *your* hand writing. The last thing these children need is to think that their grades are being done by an angry ghost haunting the mansion.”
“Angry! Ghost! HAUNTING! I am so incredibly insulted. Besides you better be nice to me or else I’ll start writing on walls.”
“Oh really, like what!”
“I could start in the boys bathroom. When all the fog gets on the mirror I could write something like: for a good time call 555-****. That is your cell phone, isn’t it.”
“You wouldn’t!”
“Or better, yet I could make a ketchup and cherry sauce solution to look like blood and write everywhere: RO HAS A LANDING STRIP. CUM THIS WAY...”
Ororo’s mouth just hung open.
Scott had his trademark smile of victory.
“Oh good lord, please tell me that’s not true, big sis.”
This was not what she needed right now. “Jean, please.”
“Alright, alright. I guess it’s better than an arrow head. So, watcha up to now.”
“Grading papers,” was the simultaneous reply.
“Ewww. I hated doing that.”
Scott bent forward to whisper in his sister’s ear, “Figures that the all powerful entity is scared of teenage term papers.”
Ororo snorted at the glaring red head, who also appeared out of no where.
Even surrounded by telekinetic fire wings and veins that stuck out in anger at being made fun of Jean couldn’t help her own laughter at the fact that they called her bluff.
That’s when they heard the knock at the door.
“Now if you two refuse to behave, I will call the Ghostbusters, or Dr. Strange, or something.”
Scott had the right mind to look at his feet in pretend shame. While Jean thought it would be funny to make angelic halos appear over her and her beloved’s head with a devilish look to her face.
Ororo just held her breath when she opened the door.
The hassled doctor strode in a threw herself in the unoccupied chaise by the window.
“You know that seems to be the most coveted spot in this office.”
“Of course girl, this seat is so comfortable. I’ll betcha the dead even miss it.”
“Actually...” She could hear snickering in the back of the room. She shot the couple a sharp glare. They stopped, for now.
“So, you said that you had something for me.”
“Oh yes, here.” She handed her the later.
“Ro, you poor thing. I think you’ve been under a lot of stress lately. I’ve already got Hank’s letter.”
“Really? Oh, that’s right. Where was I?”
“Trying to do to much at once, while trying to appease everyone on very little if any sleep. Of course having Sex-in-Denim trying to ride you can bedazzle any woman.”
“Huh?”
“Oh don’t look at me like that. Just because I spend my time in a lab, behind a book, working in some other, way shape, or form, doesn’t mean I’m completely out of the loop.”
“I feel you, Reyes,” Scott said with only Jean and Ororo as his audience. He looked at Jean. Then at Ororo. “Who the hell is Sex-in-Denim?” Jean whispered the answer in his ear. Scott then bulked, but quickly pulled it together when Jean stomped on his foot. “So when did that whole thing start?” Jean telepathically told him she would fill him in later.
Ororo still looked at her like she had three heads. Cecilia knew that this tension between Logan and his “Boss Lady” was getting a little stuffy. She thought that Xian had a finger on the situation. Well, apparently she had slacked up on it.
“Ro, I can’t believe you thought this was for me. Hank would never use government letterhead for personal use. This letter is probably for you.”
“Speaking of personal use...”
“Oh no, Miss Thang. Business first. Open this first. Then we talk about how fabulous Hank is in bed.”
“WHAT!” It would have been even funnier had Cecilia heard that it came from three different people, especially since two of them were no longer alive.
Ororo opened the letter before she’d let the mental images take over. She read it twice to make sure she got the words right. Was today the day for breaking news, or something?
“Well?” Cecilia tapped her french manicured nails.
Ororo new that she could hear the news from Hank any day of the week. It was the other people in the room that expected the news a-s-a-p. “Do you know where Bobby is? This concerns him, as well as the rest of us. Do me a big favor can you let the other faculty know that I need to see them now.”
The doctor raised a pretty eyebrow. “Ororo, is everything alright, because two staff meettings in one day is a bit rough. I’ll go get them, but don’t except an easy crowd.”
“When is it ever easy?”
“By the way, page Marie’s room. Bobby’s probably in there. You know I gotta say that I hated the idea of the cure at first, but for someone like Rogue...I think it should be up to the individual. I’m just glad it wasn’t forced.” She looked at Ororo and knew that this was a conversation that was going nowhere. “I’ll be right back.”
Ororo hit the page button and Marie’s room number. “Marie I hate to disturb you, but do you know where Bobby is.”
“Yeah, Ah do Miss. Monroe, he’s right here.”
“Bobby?”
“Yeah?”
“Listen to me, your not in trouble or anything, but I need to see you in my office right now.”
Bobby’s eyes widened, and glanced at his girlfriend as she put her top back on. People had the *best* timing around here.
He grabbed Marie’s hands as she began to work the buttons back on. She gave him a shy smile, and tucked one of her white locks around her ear. “Another time, Ah promise. This sounded real important, Bobby. Ah ain’t goin’ nowhere.”
“I will fill you in on everything when I get back.”
“Bobby, it sounds private.”
“As long as you’ve been here, you haven’t learned the number one thing yet. Here at the Institute, there is no such thing as privacy.” With that, he left to see the Headmistress.
****************
Back in the Office
****************
Ororo looked at the fair eyed boy in the chair opposite her. She had always like him, even though his taste in friends had always bothered her. Now with the absence of John Allerdyce, Bobby Drake had nowhere else to go but up. He had proved himself as an X-men many times. First when the mansion was under attack by Stryker. He may have been scared at first, but he was able to (no pun intended here) keep his cool and protect himself, others, and was able to assist in an evacuation of the mansion. He amazed his tutors again with his cool head on the Black Bird at Alkali Lake. When she heard how he calmly stood his ground at the cure lines with Allerdyce, she could not have been prouder. Then watching him battle at Alcretez, Ororo new that Bobby was a classic in the making.
Bobby looked at his favorite teacher. She looked at some kind of official document on her desk before pushing it towards him. It only took him a few minutes to completely read it.
He nearly laughed out loud at it. His whole life he had been always been average. If anyone looked up the definition of mediocre, his picture would be there. Even when he found out about his mutation, it wasn’t anything spectacular. *Oooh, awww look at me turn warm beer into a tasty cool one!* Sure it was a great party trick, but it wasn’t anything to write home about. Now the government was telling him that he was...
“Miss Monroe, what’s an Omega or a level five mutant?”
Ororo watched as a shocked Jean and a confused Scott crowded the young man to read his letter. Apparently no one had any decently around here. She coughed in her hand to let her extra guest know that that was enough.
“A few months ago, the Board of Mutant Affairs believed that classifying mutants and their abilities would be a really good idea.” Bobby got the district impression that Miss. Monroe did not agree with that. “The majority of mutants range between level one and level three. For example our self-defense *expert* is a level three.”
“What about you?”
“Well myself, Xavier, Magneto, and John are all level four mutants. Then the category of level four has another level in it called Alpha. People who are alphas have an unexplained potential.”
“Let me guess you, the Professor, and Magneto are all Alphas.”
Ororo nodded. “But you Bobby have unlimited potential.”
“Like Ms. Grey. I can’t do anything like that. She could shape the world.”
Ororo looked at her friend and sister. She just shrugged. “Jean couldn’t control it. She never could. Well, not all the way. But Bobby, your not her. You have the ability to control molecules of any substance. You can do amazing things if you can see it in your mind. Look, just take this letter and think about it, ok?”
Bobby looked at the letter again and noticed that the number said page one out of three. “Where’s the rest of it?”
“That’s all that concerned you personally. So as for now you are dismissed.”
As he walked out of the door, he ran into his other teachers. Must of them were grumbling about a bitch named Emma, another meeting, and a merger. He noticed the last person to walk into the office was Miss Coy. She winked at him as she left the door slightly ajar. He had a soft spot for her when he found out that they both enjoyed Jessica Alba and Angelina movies for the same reason.
After moving in the shadows behind the door he adjusted himself so that he could hear properly. What he heard confirmed the cryptic statement the Headmistress gave him before she left him.
“Bobby, I’ve always trusted you, and I am so glad that you could be trusted with Marie getting cured. I’m glad that Marie can too. It will be very hard for you both in the future.”
After hearing the shocked gasped and Gaelic cursing, the news became apparent. The cure was temporary.
**************
Afterwards
**************
As yet another terrible meeting came to a close Ororo heard her cell phone ring. She loved her new Kingdom Hearts II ring tone. What was this one called, again...Passions. No that was the Japanese version. Sanctuary, that was the English version.(How fitting.) She adored Hikaru Utada. Didn’t she have a tour in Japan coming up soon? While she was searching her, far to full, purse for her phone, she made a mental note to see if Xian or Jean would want to make a impromptu trip to Japan for spring break.
She really hoped that Xi would go because travel across the globe with a devilish ghost with way to much time on her hands could lead to trouble.
“Hello?”
“You sound busy.”
“Pietro! I didn’t expect you to call so soon. When will you be here?”
“I’m on my way now. I’m stuck on the bloody Jersey turnpike.”
“I didn’t think you’d drive. Taking it kind of slow are we?”
“You know that I would take anything I do with you slow. Ah, you’re blushing.”
“Am not,” she argued as she tried to contain her blush.
“I should be there in a couple of hours. Make sure your awake enough to talk. See you soon.”
Logan overheard them say their goodbyes. He swallowed his rising bile. When Maximoff got there, he would be there to listen, one way or another.
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