Xaviers!

Shane suddenly found himself stripped of anything not part of his main body and his form returned to its most human state. This latter part was especially problematic, as he had taken to simulating his clothing. So he quickly covered himself with his hands.

"What in the holy hell?"

"A lunatic who had us prepared for this situation," Quinn said, snapping his fingers and vanishing.


...It turns out, those injections that the Prefects were getting? Were to inoculate them against the effects of the gas.

"Okay, fine! Bloody fine! Vanish and bleed somewhere else while I'm trying to make sure you don't die!"

Robin suddenly finds her legs giving away, but not to worry, she'll just cushion her fall by turning all... wait... what?

She faceplants straight into the ground, only not injuring herself because she lands in soft grass. It still hurts though. It hurts. And she feels stiff.

Even sitting up is a weird kind of effort and when she looks down at herself she finds herself wearing a fancy X-Men uniform she hasn't seen in a while. And she's filling it out pretty well, pudgy as she is. She looks down at her kind of stubby hands and the brown hair that falls in her face and she screams.

"Mother fucking...

He's probably back in the god damned lab," Will groaned, slowly climbing to his feet.

"Oh good lord, everything hurts."

Tosh, as Bruce, had been racing to join the others when he suddenly found himself human again and the sudden, unexpected reversion sent him flying ass over teakettle.

Bruce?

Bruce! Answer me!

Ennio?! Kabuto?!

"No! No no no!" he cried out in a panic.

"You're hurt? I'm the one who got stabbed by you and your bloody new friend."

"Did they not give you the happy juice they were giving the rest?"

"Hey, if you hadn't started a fucking massive crowd protest, maybe I would have had time to figure out what they were doing and shut it down!" Will groused back.

"And you're welcome by the way, for the help not to succumb to the calming ray. No, no need to thank me, it's quite alright."

"They can't do this, how can they do this? I'm gonna, I'm gonna..." Robin starts as she gets up way too fast and promptly lands back on her butt when her head ends up spinning. What even is a circulatory system? Or extremely out of shape muscles. "Why's it so hard to breathe!? This sucks!" she whines.

"Oh I'm sorry, were we supposed to assume you were on our side and not brainwashed? Because there's a bloody lot of brainwashing going on here, apparently!"

"No, I don't suppose trusting me is in your particular wheelhouse at the moment, is it, Sam?" Will shouted, out of frustration. "Best keep things in private, was it? Sounds like a plan to me!"

"Stop fighting, you two!" Robin says. God, even her voice sounds wrong.

Tosh got up and trudged over towards Will and Sam. He was alone in his head for the first time in years and it was God damned depressing. He felt small, weak, and empty. He looked defeated.


But, hey, nice X-belt!

"The young Stanton is right. Yelling at each other is solving nothing." Chisaki offers.

She seemed pretty calm for the situation. But she also didn't randomly grow lungs ssooooooo.....

Will sighed, his shoulders slumping.

"We'll get 'em back, Robbie. I promise you, we'll get 'em back."

"'They're gone... all of them..." he muttered as if dazed.

"...Will, I understand being an absolute bell-end is a thing you're experimenting with, but you didn't end up at Muir because we didn't trust you coked to the gills on MGH."

"It was because we didn't trust Ballinger bloody Lippincott with you coked to the gills on MGH."

"Now why wouldn't we trust him? It's escaping me right now."

Will sighed.

"Yes, yes, I can see where you're coming from," he said, pinching his nose. "You're wrong, but I can see where you're coming from."

"After you told Lippencott and I to talk to one another, I'll admit, I bought in. He gave me a purpose, and he understood me, what made me tick, what I wanted. He offered me a place to belong, and I bought in. I took the damn classes, I did the damn work. It didn't hurt that the calming ray made some of the pain I'm in go away, because I certainly haven't found anywhere to relax over here. That was all me.

But then things started not adding up, with the prefects and what not misusing their power. I brought that up to Lippencott, and he assured me that everything was under control, that it was part of a plan. And when I pushed back, he made it clear that things would get worse for the people I loved if I kept at it. Sending you back to Ireland. Sending Robbie to Antarctica. And by the time my addled brain put two and two together, he was using me for surveillance; something he injected me with sending data back to him.

And before I could figure out a way to raise the red flag discretely, you, Acala and Tosh decided to lock me in Muir. So trusting the three of you seemed right out.

So I joined in. Went full Prefect. Tried to figure out what was going on from the inside. I gave Miriam a hint to try to keep her out of the brainwash, and was going to try to tell her more, but we never got a chance before everything went south.


So, if you want to hit me, then hit me, and then maybe we can figure out how to solve this fucking nightmare, yeah?"

"So what, Will? You expected us to read your mind and then sit back and do nothing?!" Tosh suddenly snapped.

"Yes! I know! I'm terrible! I fucking get it," Will said, storming off towards the Point.

At some point a haggard-looking Miriam arrived at the fringes of the group, wandering around looking confused but... oddly serene. At Tosh's and Will's outburst she walks over just in time to wince at Will storming off.

"Good job, dummy." she says to Tosh though she's missing a lot of the sarcastic bite that'd usually tinge her voice.

"Fuck off," he spat.

"I swear, next time he needs someone to clean up after his idiotic antics I'm not doing a damn thing! Because one mistake later, I'm suddenly the worst friend ever anyway!" he vented.

"This is pointless. I know who I want to punch," she says, heading after Will.

"Yeah, well, let me figure out a way to Lippencott, then you can wail on my all you want," Will grumbled.

"I could never get down to the third sub-basement of the Point; I can only assume that's where he's got everything locked away."

"Not you, him."

Toshiro Narumi wrote:"Fuck off," he spat.

"I swear, next time he needs someone to clean up after his idiotic antics I'm not doing a damn thing! Because one mistake later, I'm suddenly the worst friend ever anyway!" he vented.

"He's allowed mistakes too. I should know, I'm the nation's fore-runner in terrible decisions. People make awful, awful mistakes when they're scared or alone."

"Guys... guys... damnit, wait up..." Robin wheezes as she runs after Sam and Will.

Tosh took a deep breath and counted to three.

"Damnit... I suck," he sighed before jogging after the others.

"Right. Priorities"

"My brain still works. So electronic locks won't be a problem."

"Well, we'll need a plan. They have a magician, and a speedster, and a...

...you know, I never DID figure out what was Ghost's deal...

...and all the defenses of the Point.


I don't suppose the Morrigan has any ideas on tactics here? I've killed one headmaster, I suppose I can go for two."

"You think MGH would punch through whatever he's done?"

"I mean, I'm not a scientist. Tosh's the scientist.

Maybe we go back to his lab and talk this over? Lippencott's probably sealed himself off for a while; a bunch of humans aren't a threat."

"Yeah I'm in, like, no shape to punch anybody. Tosh is freaking out almost as much as me."

"And Sam is bleeding through her shirt." Miriam points out. Keeping pace with an out-of-breath flabby former-shapeshifter wasn't hard as Miriam apparently followed Robin.

Will swore. "Fuck, yeah, that would be me.

To be fair, I tried to punch you in the jaw," he said. "That would have had the dual benefits of clearing your head from the calming ray AND feeling really good.

Y'know, like, therapy-wise."

"I don't suppose you figured out how to turn yourself into mist, Miriam?"

"And I really need trousers!" Shane called out from way behind, covering himself with a piece of fern.

Leo Eskandari wrote:Leo stumbled and nearly fell, losing some of his strength. He was still a seven foot chimera after all.

When Lippincott's words sunk in, he started to sob.

Unfortunately for Leo, Ainsley had no words to console him. He was still mute, and now he couldn't even speak to Leo in their secret language.

The best Ainsley could do was wrap his arms around the other boys neck and hold him close.

"Werewolves and vampires aside, we have one thing," he said, tapping his belt buckle. Who wears a belt over a X-Uniform?

"This should nerf the mood rays in an area around me."

Samantha McManus wrote:"I don't suppose you figured out how to turn yourself into mist, Miriam?"

"Best I can do is not be a bitch, sorry. I... uhm... I mean it. I'm sorry. For... a lot of things."

Ainsley Green wrote:Unfortunately for Leo, Ainsley had no words to console him. He was still mute, and now he couldn't even speak to Leo in their secret language.

The best Ainsley could do was wrap his arms around the other boys neck and hold him close.

Leo shuddered, but slowly calmed. "Guess I should go make myself useful, huh?" he sniffed.