Xaviers!

Will leaned into Miranda's ear, and gave a stage whisper. "She's a dog person here."

"Anyway," Sam says with a blush. "Where were we headed?"

Sam gets the distinct impression she's being looked at without Miranda turning her head. "We built an annex onto the mansion to house the Institute students. Reinforced walls, extra-sturdy but easily-replaceable furniture. But they really don't make building codes for these sorts of events."

"Tell me about it. I've occasionally subbed in when we had a particularly disruptive high school student until proper equipment could be manufactured. The amount of 15 year olds who will blow up computers or desks can not be counted by modern mathematics."

"Okay so... which side of the manor would it be on?"

"Should be on the left and a bit back, the entrance is attached to the cafeteria hallway." Her jaw tenses for a moment and then she puts a hand to her temple, "I keep trying to see where it should be and it just makes my head hurt."

"Well, let's try some actual eyes for a bit, and maybe that will work a little better. You're probably getting all sorts of vibes from different...dimensions.

If you need a cool compress or something, let me know," Will said, guiding her duo of McManii down the hallway.

"Okay so, we go around that side and see if any part of it's... well, stable."

"Sounds as reasonable as we're likely to get for now," Miranda says, leaning on Will a bit.

The hallways were mostly as Sam would remember them -- and not too far from how Miranda would remember them, though newer and lacking some modern features -- but every so often, a curveball would come in their way. A wall would be there that shouldn't be; a corner would loop back into an alternate version of itself, a doorway would connect to a different building entirely.

They could make their way to the other end of the building with enough effort, but there didn't appear to be a sign of the Institute Annex just yet.

"If it's... not here, then is that a good thing? Because that means it's where it should be on your world, right?"

"I hope so. We have a teleporter and I'd hate to see her involved in this sort of incident."

"With the rate things are changing around here, though, who knows how long it could last. Any of us could disappear at any moment."

She wrapped her arms around Miranda and Sam a little tighter.

"Are you the only one from your world that's shown up so far?"

"The only one I'm aware of. There was a Will from another time... and... someone who looked like Ryan Gabriel, just younger."

"No, no, NO!" shouted a high-pitched, probably young voice. As they rounded another corner they saw a girl practically stomping her foot in frustration as she stared, wholly unaware of her surroundings at a smoking cell phone.

"Daddy is gonna FREAK! And I didn't even break this one with my fucking brain!"

She looked very familiar but...much younger to Samantha.

"Did Haley... shrink?"

"Someone must have put her through the wash too many times."

"Oh FUCK off, I am so fucking sick of the short jo--" Haley snapped before she found the source of the voice and turned white as a sheet as she saw one of her teachers coming around the corner.

"Prof-professor McManus. Oh gosh. I'm so sorr...wait. You look... really different...you sound really different," she stammered blinking her eyes and scrunching up her face.

"And how the hell did I get from my room to... here? Where am I?"

"...okay, is she one of the kids you're looking for?" She asks Miranda.

"I'm almost sixteen, damnit!" Haley stomped her foot and promptly shattered the two closest windows.

She winced. "...sorry."

"No, our Haley is older," Miranda says, letting go of Will and holding out her hands to Haley, "But that's okay, we can still help here. Are you hurt?"

Finally, someone who wants to fucking talk *to* me instead of about me right in front of me...

"I'm fine..." she said meekly. "But my phone is busted and I...where the hell am I? This doesn't look like anywhere I was walking, and who are all you people?"

"Okay, don't panic but... I don't think you're on your world anymore. And you're definitely not the Haley I know. She's my age."

Miranda nods in confirmation of Sam's statement, "My name's Miranda. There's something going on. We're not sure what, but people are looking into it."

Haley was, most definitely, panicking, though she was trying to put on a braver face.

"There...there's a ME, here?"

"At least one. She's my classmate."

Miranda is trying to radiate a soothing comfort, burying her own emotions for the moment.

Will hadn't let go of Miranda, just stretching his arm out longer to give her more slack to walk around with.

Miranda's efforts did seem to be working, the girl's surface thoughts no longer going quite so fast nor generating quite so much unpleasant mental static.

This universe's Haley was not great at telepathy. The younger one was *atrocious * at it.

"I can't believe I'm... She's ? the same age as my headmistress."

"A lot of things are kind of confused at the moment, but as long as we stay calm, we can get this figured out, right?"

"Okay look, I'm not anybody's headmistress, I'm not anybody's mum. You can just call me Sam."

"... Ok. Um. Sam..." she replied hesitantly.

Don't have to be a bitch about it, jeez. Wonder if other me likes her.

"So. Where are we going?"

"Any recommendations, Uncle Will? My foresight isn't working right now."

Will thought.

"If the building keeps shifting around, maybe it's safer to get out? Like, into an open space, where nothing is likely to change?

Or we could continue to look around and try to find people in here. I'm holding on to everyone, so even if the floor were to vanish, I'm a safety rope."

"There could be a building appearing around us even if we're out in the open."

"There's that worry-tendency. Dimensional constants," Miranda says to Will. "Outside would probably be good though."

"Maybe there, we can find the rest of the pack, and get some protection from whatever is causing all this. Put our heads together.

Or maybe we can go away from campus; see how far this is spreading. If we drive far enough away, we should be able to get out of the focal range?"

"If we get out of the area of effect, how do we know they'll stay with us?"

Will frowned. "We wouldn't want that, would we..."

"Uncle Will" was being more indecisive than Miranda was used to, though that could be chalked up to the situation.