Primus Scholae: Part Five

by Phil Hartman

CEREBRO FILES:

COLLECTIVE CODEFAX: NEW MUTANTS II

FILE 07:

CODEFAX: Uplink
REAL NAME: Shade, Thomas Daniel
AGE: 13
DOB: 8/14/87
HEIGHT: 5'3"
WEIGHT: 107 lbs
HAIR: Red-brown
EYES: Blue
POWERS: Alpha-class cyberkinesis

FILE 08:

CODEFAX: Domino
REAL NAME: Shade, Beatrice Diana
AGE: 13 DOB: 8/14/87
HEIGHT: 5'
WEIGHT: 97 lbs
HAIR: Black
SKIN: Chalk-white
EYES: Purple
POWERS: Beta-class (?) probability manipulation (unconsciously active)

FILE 09:

CODEFAX: Wastrel
REAL NAME: Shade, William Alan
AGE: 13
DOB: 8/14/87
HEIGHT: 5'3"
WEIGHT: 107 lbs
HAIR: Red-brown
EYES: Blue
POWERS: Alpha-class entropokinesis (entropy generation/projection)

9/7/00: Massachusetts Academy Danger Room: 08:00 hrs EDT:

"JESUS CHRIST !"

Beatrice's oath barely fazed the boy firing greenish bolts of energy at her, which she nevertheless dodged with an amazing display of acrobatics.

"What the hell got in your shorts, Bill !?" his fraternal triplet sister demanded, almost taking Bill's head off with a well-placed kick.

"Just keepin' you on your toes, sis," Bill grinned, blocking Bea's first kick but taking her second in his stomach. The siblings struggled, but Bea grinned when the greenish glow surrounding Bill started to die down.

Then the room flickered, and they started floating.

"TOM !" they both yelled, glaring at the control booth from amidst a sea of stars.

[Sorr-ee,] Tom's mechanized voice replied with a note of haughty disdain. The gravity returned to normal, as did the environment, and Bea helped Bill to his feet.

"I'm not the living embodiment of thermodynamic decay my esteemed twin is, Bea, nor am I the ass-kicker you are," Tom replied, a little miffed, as his siblings entered the control booth to wait for the rest of their classmates.

"No, you get to look normal and have a useful power, while I look like a geisha on crack," Bea snorted, falling into a seat in the corner of the room. "Love those synthezoid genes ..."

"Mom does," Bill grinned. The others' glares made him relax - a little - before he replied, "You guys have no sense of humor at all ..."

"'Humor' means there's something to laugh AT, Bill," Bea muttered. "I don't want to think about Mom and Dad like that."

"Like - EWWW ! I was being sweet !" Bill said, gagging. "Someone's a little too hot for Natey-Nate."

"Shut UP," Bea growled, blushing - which, for her, meant her skin approached a state something akin to normal flesh color.

"Well, we ought to be thankful," Tom said, resetting the Danger Room. "We're not the poster children for acceptable friends of humans OR mutants, after all -consider our family tree, and Bill's 'tude."

"What, I've gotta kiss hume ass just 'cause I'm not tryin' to rule their sorry waste-of-protoplasm-butts !? NOT A CHANCE !" Bill yelled. "So I don't wanna waste humes - I'm homo superior, buddy boy ! I don't hide or back down for ANY human !"

"And your chances for breeding are slimming by the hour because of that," Tom muttered. "Of course, we're all hybrids, so we're probably not fertile anyhow ..."

"You're getting dark yourself, Tommy," Bea growled. "Why the sudden black-cloud ? Your server crash again ?"

Tom sighed and said, "Computer: File FOHMEGA. Holo-display."

The other Shade kids watched, aghast, when a brown-haired Caucasian man with thinning brown hair appeared from mid-air, standing behind a podium.

"It's not - no way," Bill demanded.

"It is. Voice-print, rhetoric - it's Graydon Creed, alive and unfortunately well, in Idaho," Tom said, scowling. "Somehow, he survived the '96 assassination attempt the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants pulled on him, and he's rallying a third-party vote. The scary thing is, he's got majorities in a number of western states, and he's eyeing California ..."

"And we're watching him, Thomas," Emma said, entering the control booth with a critical eye. "You should be more worried about your studies."

"I REFUSE to turn a blind eye to politics which affect me and mine, Ms. Frost. We're not living in a vacuum here in Snow Valley," Tom replied, surprising his siblings with the anger in his voice. The holo-recording of Creed's campaign speech faded, but a cold light gleamed in Tom's eyes.

"The Kelly Act was a bone thrown by the government to parahumans after O:ZT failed," Tom continued, his voice falling back to mere civility instead of anger. "If we're foolish enough to think the feds are just willing to let mutants live peaceful lives, we deserve whatever they're cooking up. Not me. Someone has to watch them, and if it's me, fine."

He started out of the room, stopping inches from Emma when she blocked his way.

"You sound determined to do whatever it takes to protect your loved ones," Emma said in a soft tone.

"I wouldn't be standing here now if history had claimed my grandfather," Tom said in the same soft tone. "Good or bad, Erik Magnus Lehnsherr's existence means I and my siblings exist, Ms. Frost. We might not follow his path of action, but we owe him - and the other victims of that last nightmare - our vigilance.

"'Never again' applies to each and EVERY member of the House of Lehnsherr. It has to, or we're not worthy of our power and blood."

Emma stepped aside, watching Tom leave, followed by an unusually silent Bill and the half-frowning Bea.

#At least they're not rampaging,# Emma thought with a nod. #But how far does that 'power and blood' extend from Magnus ... ?#

***-

"Nice speech," Bill said, checking his uniform for tears as he and Tom waited for the rest of their male classmates to get changed.

"I meant what I said," Tom replied, meeting Bill's gaze in the dim light of the Ready Room halogen. Bill looked back in surprise, watching Tom pace before his twin met his gaze again.

"You talk about superiority. Fine. Be better than humans, Bill - use that almighty power of yours to help make a better world for everyone !" Tom whispered, suddenly insistent. "I KNOW why you're really so angry, so distant -"

"You know squat," Bill insisted, turning away.

"My crack about our probable sterility was out of line," Tom said apologetically. "You're the least machine-like of any of us, bro - you're passionate, strong, outgoing, but you don't have to have that shell."

"THAT'S ALL DAD IS, ISN'T IT ?"

Tom took a step back, wincing at the green fire blazing from Bill's eyes.

"He. is. a. MACHINE," Bill snapped, biting off each word. "A damned ROBOT - Mom would've been better off with -"

Tom's hand clapped over Bill's mouth, and he whispered, "Don't complete that. We know who she really married in her heart. But like it or not, Victor Shade's synthezoid pseudo-DNA is what makes up half our bodies, Bill. Just remember, you're not just pain. You can't be, or your power'll eat you up inside. And HE'LL get loose."

Bill blanched, tearing Tom's hand from his lips, and he wheezed, "You're not serious !"

"You should've shown superphysical powers, or maybe an energy-manip power," Tom insisted. "But instead, you're an entropokinetic, who's invisible to most forms of electronic scanning. A living chaos engine. And we know where Mom got her hex powers."

"I wouldn't - Tommy, I -" Bill said, bringing shock to Tom's face as he realized Bill was approaching tears.

"Hey - I'm just warning you," Tom said, clasping Bill's wrist. "I'm not trying to scare you."

"What, Billy boy's scared ?" Joe snorted, entering the room with Nate and Jesse close behind. "Just proves MY point - what Gail sees in you -"

They all leapt back when the psimitar shoved itself between them, glowing.

"Quitcher bitchin'," Nate growled absently, opening the door to the Danger Room. "We don't have time for you two to kvetch. Either beat the crap out of each other, or swallow it - just settle your problem, once and for all.

"Things are getting close to hitting the fan."

The others watched Nate grab his psimitar and enter the Danger Room, walking over to talk to Bea.

"You ever get the feeling he's not telling us everything ?" Bill whispered to Tom, following the other boys into the room.

"Probably. But consider his family. If we knew every secret of the Summers clan, we'd probably tear out our eyes and run screaming off a cliff," Tom tried to joke.

***-

"They suspect something - Tom's probably the brightest one here," Bea said, stretching for warmups for her gymnastics routine.

~So ? What can your brothers do to me ? I've had my TK ever since I was a year old, and my psimitar since I was 7,~ Nate replied shortly via his telepathy. ~Besides, most males in the House of Lehnsherr'd be just as happy if I croaked taking out -~

~Get OUT of my head, and don't you even damn well JOKE about that - that obsession of yours !~ Bea demanded, slamming her psi-screens over the tepe-channel. Nate's presence left her mind, his hurt disguised with a look of ennui as he refocused on his psimitar.

"Oh hell - stop frigging well shutting me out, Nate," Bea demanded, running fingers through her close-cropped raven locks. She grabbed the psi by the arm and leaned close, whispering, "One precog-flash doesn't mean -"

"It. DOES," Nate hissed back. "You weren't staring down a damn Dark Rider at age 7, Bea. You weren't almost kidnapped by that assbag Nur, wondering what Foxbat meant by 'the ultimate host body.' If I hadn't gotten Forge to make this thing for me, I'd still be a damn novice with my powers !"

"Weapons are a crutch. Remember that," Bea said, a little louder. A split-second flash of actual fear and concern crossed her features before the frown returned, and she said, "Yeah, your TK is pretty kickass. But you really think that alone is gonna protect you if you ... ?"

"Jesse is NOT going anywhere near that ancient bastard. And Ray ... I'm not letting her risk turning the Phoenix loose, even if tearing Apocalypse to pieces would settle the score for D'Bari 4, IMO," Nate whispered. "I'm the Dayspring - or something, the damn dream wasn't that clear - but what I DID see was that I shouldn't be some 13-year-old kid, Bea. I oughta be 50-something, a walking ammo dump, ready and willing and trained to kill Apocalypse. Instead, all I am is a 13-year-old kid with giant-ass psi-powers, a big pointy stick and more secrets than the frigging NSA -and I'm the only one who knows just how damn dangerous Apocalypse IS."

He wheezed, as Bea chuckled, "Your lung capacity needs work. Just remember - if you sneak out of here to face Apocalypse, and don't take me, I'LL kill you."

"Why else would I tell you about my dream instead of my sister or brother ?" Nate replied, grinning. "I knew you felt something for me."

"Yeah - your pulse," Bea mock-growled, walking away with a smirk.

[next part]

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