Primus Scholae: Part One

by Phil Hartman

9/1/00: Massachusetts Academy, Snow Valley, Mass.: 08:00 hrs EDT: John Proudstar Memorial Auditorium:

CEREBRO DATAFILE:

COLLECTIVE CODEFAX: NEW MUTANTS (CLASS II)

FILE 01:

CODEFAX: Firewing
REAL NAME: Summers, Rachel Anne
DOB: 9/1/87
AGE: 13
HEIGHT: 5'
WEIGHT: 100 lbs.
HAIR: Red
EYES: Green
POWERS: Alpha-class psionics, pre/retrocognition

***

#How the heck did I get myself into THIS ?#

Rachel sighed, sitting at the head of the row of mutant students - #the ones who we've encountered,# she reminded herself with a wry smile - and shook out her shoulder-length red hair before looking at her fellow "special" students.

#'You have to set a good example,' Ms. Frost said,# Rachel reminded herself, nodding when her brothers sat to her left. #At least I can count on Jesse to behave - and Nate, so long as no one torques him off ...#

She nodded when her 11-year-old brother looked at her with a shy smile, then mouthed, "They really want me here ?"

~Of COURSE they do, Jesse,~ Ray sent telepathically, sensing the red-haired, blue-eyed boy's fear and excitement. ~You've got an active mutant power, and you're a great guy.~

~Thanks. I just ... everyone else's so much older than me, and I'm, y'know - deaf ...~ Jesse thought, hanging his head. He looked up, eyes glowing with hope, and said aloud, "I'll do my best."

"All anyone asks, squirt," Ray's other brother, sitting to Jesse's left, said with a grin. Nate brushed brown bangs out of his blue eyes and glanced over at the girl sitting beside him befor extending his arm around her.

One glance from the albino, purple-eyed, black-haired girl made Nate retract his hand.

"I'm the lucky one, Summers. You're not getting any," Beatrice Diana Shade - "Domino" to casual accquaintances and those friends who wanted to keep a limb - said with a cold smile.

"SOMEONE woke up on the wrong side of the cage this morning," the chuckling red-brown haired boy beside Domino snickered.

"Shove it, accident boy," Domino outright snarled at her fraternal twin brother. Bill Shade made a rude gesture, then looked at his identical twin to his left.

"Don't look at me for help, Bill. You know better than to provoke Bea," Tom Shade said, his eyes displaying 1's and 0's before he blinked them back to their usual blue.

"Tom, stay offline during Ms. Frost's discussion, please ?" Luna Maximoff pleaded with her cousin. She finished running a comb through her blonde hair, and winced when static electricity flickered among the still-drying ends.

"Ah just wonder what she'll have t'say that the brochures didn't," Lewis Guthrie said, his Southern accent setting him apart as much as his emerald green eyes and his curly blond hair.

"Mebbe she'll talk about room assignments," Lew's straight-blonde-haired sister Becky said, petting the rabbit which had followed her into the auditorium. "The wildlife's so friendly here !"

"This from Doctra Doolittle," Leong Coy Mahn grinned, drawing "EWWW"s and "GROSS !"'s from the kids in the row behind the mutants when his fingers detached themselves and started to dance.

"Leong, mon frere, put those back, merci ?" Nga Coy Mahn pleaded, white light pouring involuntarily from her hands.

"Chill, Nga. Why should we have to hide who we are ? We're protected by law," Joe Bailey grinned, his red locks starting to develop icicles.

"A law put in place by people who don't deserve to have mutant powers thrown in their face, brother dear," his twin Gailyn frowned. Joe's icicles melted when she leaned towards him, and he yelled at the wet spot on his jeans.

"Here comes Ms. Frost," Gail said, nodding as the house lights dimmed.

The students paid attention, none daring to whisper as a young-looking woman in white entered the auditorium on stage. She shook out her blonde hair and smiled.

~Hello, students. I am Emma Frost, Headmistress of the Massachusetts Academy, and a telepathic mutant. Anyone who has a problem with this is free to file a complaint as laid out in the Kelly Civil Rights Act of 1998.~

#Well, she sure lays it out on the line,# Ray thought, trying not to smirk at the shocked looks of the human students around the mutant teens. #But it's better that she gets it out of the way early ...#

"That having been stated, this school's administration will not tolerate discrimination of any kind - racial, ethnic, sexual, religious, genetic, any," Emma continued, speaking aloud. "That works both ways. No one - human, mutant, or otherwise - will have to suffer discrimination and mockery here."

She walked from the podium and turned to face the audience. "The Massachusetts Academy was among the first scholastic institutions in the country to offer classes in power control for young mutants," Emma said unflinchingly. "They hid, at first. The first class of students here were almost completly killed by a homicidal mutant - a perpetrator of the kind of racism which the Kelly Act, and this academy, stand against."

She took a deep breath and continued, "We do not stand for special treatment. We stand for equal treatment. The days of terrorists, such as the 'Brotherhood of Evil Mutants,' or the Acolytes, are done, in America at least - as are the assaults of Humanity's Last Stand. Opinions will be permitted here, but acts of violence will not. Now, on to room assignments ..."

***

"I ... just wanted to tell you that I appreciated what you said in the auditorium."

"Why, thank you, Rachel," Emma said, smiling when Ray entered her office. "Please, have a seat."

Ray did so, closing her eyes for a moment before speaking again. "I ... Ms. Frost, I - how do I say this ?" the girl asked, a pained expression crossing her face.

"I helped corrupt your mother, the Phoenix-version of Jean Grey, and you're uncomfortable with my teaching you," Emma said aloud.

Ray blushed and said, "Yes. I know you did a great job with Generation X -"

Emma laughed - a harsh, quick, bitter thing - and said, "Not so great as to keep Leech off a respirator in the medlab. Or to keep Generation X from becoming an underground strikeforce which has struck terror into mutant criminals nationwide. Remind me to tell you, when you're older, what they did to Adrienne in retaliation for Leech's crippling."

Ray shuddered and said, "I just ... didn't want you to think I ... hated you. You ..."

"I was a bitch, Rachel. Say it with me," Emma purred. "Let's get this out in the open. I tried to seduce Kitty Pryde" - she nodded quickly when Ray turned a deeper red - "and enabled that maggot Jason Wyngarde to lead the first Phoenix down the road to ruin. My hands are no less bloody than Shaw or Selene's. I just did a better job convincing the Senate Judiciary Committee that I was a young, impressionable girl who allowed herself to be fooled by a very bad man."

She shook her head and smiled bitterly, adding, "But the bitch is dead. Crushed by the deaths of the Hellions. I promise you, even if you do contain the Phoenix, I will no more try to seduce you to darkness than I will any other of the New Mutants."

"You ... know ... ?" Ray breathed.

Emma smiled at her, warmth returning to her lips. "You're the biological daughter of the physical avatar of the Phoenix, Rachel. It's no great leap of logic to presume that you're the most likely candidate for the Phoenix Force to choose for a Host. That's why I - and my fellow headmaster - chose you to lead this team of New Mutants. The distraction should help you deal with any star munchies, to coin a phrase."

Ray's eyes bulged, not only from Emma's words, but also from the voice behind her.

"Well, lass, how d'ye like the new an' blatant Emma ?"

"Uncle Sean !? Aunt Moira !" Ray exclaimed, turning around and rising to hug Sean Cassidy and Moira MacTaggart. "I thought -"

"Muir's been overrun by that abominable freak forest, lass," Moira smile-sighed. "But we did bring back someone ye might've missed ..."

PAMPH

"What, no shriek-hug-giggle greeting for the Wicked Elf-Girl of the East End ?" a blue-furred, golden-eyed girl in a red and yellow training uniform laughed from beside Ray.

"ALEXA !!!" Ray cheered, hugging Nightcrawler and Daytripper's daughter. "I thought you'd train with your dad !"

"He and Mom decided it'd be 'better psychologically' for me to come to America," Alexa snickered, a melange of German and British accents in her voice. "Meaning, I'd stop flirting with the rugby players Uncle Pete kept bringing home after he'd lose to them at poker and have to pay them pounds."

"So you can torment the boys here," Ray grinned, walking with Alexa. She turned to Emma and said, "Thanks, Ms. Frost. I'll keep what you said in mind."

"I'm sure you will, Rachel. Just don't let a certain blond swimmer overwhelm your thoughts of leadership and schoolwork," Emma said innocently.

#Darn ! She's got me figured out !# Ray thought, blushing furiously as she and Alexa headed to the girls' dorm.

"'Blond swimmer' - oh no," Alexa said, grinning. "T-minus two weeks and counting to Sydney ..."

"I know," Ray admitted, smiling. "Am I hopeless ?"

"Hey, Nate is hopeless over Bea," Alexa said, winking. "You have every right to be ga-ga over someone. And Frank's CUTE."

"'He shall be mine. Oh yes - he SHALL be mine,'" Ray intoned, breaking into giggles as Alexa rolled her eyes.

[next part]

back to Phil Hartman's stories | Cyke and Logan archive | comicfic.net