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Regina watched the few people in the pool swim around. She was exhausted from so much transporting and the new skill she had acquired. More than anything, she wanted to lay in bed for a week... But then remembered that Porter had already made plans to kidnap her the following evening.

Sighing, she gathered her night clothes and went to get a quick shower in before heading to bed. As much as she wanted to also socialize with the rest of the team in the pool... the bed just looked so much mroe comfortable.

Theresa watched as both girls took a swing at the boy, who evidently had a weakness with and around girls. SHe figures she could use this to her advantage at some point time. SHe then heard a semo worried voice behind her. She turns aorund, still looking as though she had been surpressing a loud and obnoxious laugh.

"Whats wrong you ask? Well the "Man" over there doesnt know who to keep his hands to his bloody self. And his two little firends didnt appreciate that very well." SHe giggled as she started to exit the gym. SHe then spoke up once more. "To be from the brotherhood, Magneto's own, they arent careful are they. I mean I barely had made a peep and they were out like a light. I would think Magneto would have warned them of the rest of us, who do view everything as a game. Really not a good thing at all. TO get anywhere her you need to , I mean have to be very serious..." She made her way out the door cutting off her voice as she ended her one sided conversation.

"Actually, we're splashing around like a bunch of lunatics," Penny wiped the water out of her eyes and slid up onto the side of the pool. She stood up and adjusted the partial part of her uniform she was still wearing, "There is a difference."

"Oh, excuse me," Jacen watched her walk towards the door to the Institute and flick the pool lights on. The bottom of the pool lit up with a white glow and the patio lights came on so they weren't swimming around in the dark. He tugged onto the back of her uniform when she came up to stand next to him sopping wet, "I thought you were getting out of that thing."

"I was," She looked back up at the open door from her room, "But the pool looked like a better option when I looked out the window. Didn't have time to change in between my take off and landing into the pool."

"You're absolutely crazy somtimes."

"Makes life all that more interesting," She said and grabbed him by the waist and arm to bring him back into the water with her. He was actually more of a challenge than Jamie or Kitty. Kitty phased up from the pool to give the final shove. Jacen, Kitty, and Penance landed with a huge splash sending more water onto the patio ground.

"And that, my dear, was for the ice cube," She came up for air and wiped her hair out of her face.
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Porter knocked on Regina's bedroom door as the night started to grow late and they had to leave for their reservations. He had actually shaved and made a strong effort to look presentable for their dinner. His clothes were usually tattered, comfortable, worn. But this was date, their first real date. No distractions, just them.

"Regina, you almost ready?" He asked.

ooc: we should make a fake "sign up" sheet for schedules then make schedules XD just a suggestion. *goes to post that elsewhere*

ic:

Regina opened the door and looked at Porter sleepy eyed. "Oh... that's tonight?" she asked, yawning. She winked and turned around. "Okay. But you owe me big after this." she teased. She had really been looking forward to some rest but food was also on her list and since she couldn't do both...

Quickly changing into something nice for the evening, a blue slink dress that didn't show much but gave clear definitions, she opened the door again. Porter was leaning against the wall across from her. "Sorry it took so long." she said with a sheepish grin. When in actuality she had sort of been planning her outfit out in her head for her first date. So getting it together hadn't taken all of 10 seconds.

Pietro came to a little later, and things calmed at least for a small amount of time. He spent it dusting himself off, yelling at Siryn, blowing playful kisses to the various women of the team, and basically acting entirely normal.

The next day, classes began. Rather than a large collection of students, each class was small. In fact, many of the students found themselves paired off alone with a single teacher. Such was the case with Pietro. He found himself walking for a change, travelling along the outer walls of the Seminary with Professor Porter, who was hand-picked by Magneto as the best possible candidate to win Pietro over. The man himself was not a particularly impressive physical specimen. He was a few years older than Magneto, bald as Xavier and with quite a few more wrinkles. And yet, there was knowledge behind that weathered exterior, that much was plain to be seen.

"There was a time I went through the route of the costumed super-villain," he said, reminiscing candidly. "Trust me, it was an embarassment. I honestly don't know what I was thinking in my youth, the costume alone should have been enough to make any reasonable man come to his senses immediately. And my god, I was so blinded by my ambition that I even legally changed my name to 'Telly Porter' . I wanted to make it seem like my powers were destined to some clueless outside observer. In retrospect, it was pathetic."

"Hmmph, sounds like it," muttered Pietro. "I might as well call myself 'Speedy McRunsalot'. Why the hell didn't you change it back?"

Porter laughed. "My dear boy, you must never let your mistakes define your life, but you must never forget them either. I keep the name for partially this reason, it allows me to remember my greatest humiliation and is a constant reminder never to repeat that blunder. In addition, such a 'silly' name allows those around me to lower their defenses, unsuspecting of what I might be capable of. After all, how many opponents have you bested because they underestimated what someone moving at your speed is capable of?"

"Ha! Don't get me started, super-speed is like the second-class-citizen of superpowers, even though when I hit mach 2 my punches become more lethal than ANYTHING Wolverine can--"

"Now now, don't get excited, I was simply trying to prove a point. The super heroes... what am I saying, most anyone in power in this world all seem to share the myopic view that it is raw power that allows you to get ahead in this world. But they are wrong, misguided by their positions of power. Brute force is not the key to success in this world, its knowing when, and how, to use what you've got. And once I realized this, the answer seemed clear as day. I wasn't going to become rich and powerful as a famous super villain. No... I became rich and powerful by committing crimes no one was even aware of."

"What do you mean?" asked Pietro, becoming intrigued.

Porter smiled, and a small portal appeared beside him. He reached his hand inside, and pulled out a bottle of wine. "This wine has been aging in my private vineyard in France for the past 12 years up until I grabbed it just now," he said as he handed the bottle to his student. Another portal opened, and Porter reached inside, pulling out a cigar. "Freshly rolled, from Cuba", he said, "and no nasty embargoes to deal with." He lit the cigar and took a puff, pausing for a moment.

Finally, he reached into a third portal, and from it he held a kilo of cocaine. "And this product is freshly cut from Colombia, with no need for spending precious money on smuggling, bribery, or even fuel for transportation," he said with a dark grin. "I no longer worry about trying to steal gold bars from a bank. Instead, I supply a product with infinite demand, and get the added pleasure of poisoning the wretched human population by their own will. Within two years of quitting the super villain business and starting to use my head, I owned the market in this country. After all, who else could possibly get the product into this country as fast, as easy, or as safely as I could? With a thought, I could open a portal that brings in enough product to pay off the national debt of the very countries I'm using, while the other cartels were still struggling with prop planes and dealing with drug-sniffing dogs. It was all so simple, so obvious, and yet it only came to me once I realized that a super-villain will always be pursued, but a businessman is untouchable. As far as the world at large is concerned, I'm a self-made billionaire, a genius at the stock market. And while the politicians struggle to try and bring down third-world cartels, my 'company' delivers the freshest product imaginable right to their doorstep, to feed the habit of one of their snot-nosed spoiled brats."

Professor Porter spoke candidly about his operation, despite the magnitude of his crime. He WAS America's drug problem, and yet he saw it all as enlightenment, eager to inspire the next generation to follow in his footsteps. Pietro was transfixed, eyes wide at what the man who used to call himself "the Vanisher" held in his hand, and how he had used his relatively simple powers to become one of the most powerful and feared men on the planet.

"But..." Pietro began, "If you hate 'Super Villains' so much, what are you doing here? It almost sounds like you'd laugh at what dad is doing."

"I did at first, but your father is different somehow. Perhaps a small part of me misses the old days, and perhaps there's just something about Magneto that makes me truly believe that he WILL accomplish his goals where so many other maniacs before him have failed."

He then smiled and lowered his voice. "But the businessman in me knows that my operation will profit SIGNIFICANTLY if the general human population is made to be even more miserable than they already are," he said with a darkly amused wink.

Pietro blinked, then smiled himself. "Tell me more, Sir," he said in a rare show of respect.

"Certainly, let me tell you there are people willing to pay handsomely for someone to be able to teleport some of my other products directly into their veins without having to worry about the public seeing an injection bruise..."

OOC: And with that, I conclude what is probably the most ******** up post I've ever written ^_^

She snapped out of her daze as Sonya hauled her up and dragged her to another girl. "What?" She blinked owlishly having left her glasses on the lawn where she had been sitting. "Classes...I was thinking on self defence...and maybe mechanics, I'm fairly handy with a tool box...." She squinted at the new girl...or she was assuming that it was a girl. "Hi...oh..." Her hand went to her face. "My glassess...." She got an anxious look. "Sonya...would you please go get them...I can't see anything without them....not that they help all that much...." Turning back to the new girl. "I'm Racheal...nice to meet you..."

((I have returned.))

ooc: wow... time on my hands... for a change. rp with penny...

ic:

Jonothan parked the car and made sure all twenty of Scott Summer's security features were turned on. The outskirts of Bayville where the carnival was taking place wasn't the best of locations, "And you're sure this is what you want to do?"

"Definately!" Regina grinned, looking at all the lights. "I haven't been to a carnival since I was a kid."

I have never been to one," He thought about it. Ever since he was a kid he had been in some kind of military facility.

"That's sad. Well, then I guess it's my turn to show you a good time." she said with a smile, and taking his hand she pulled him towards the lights.

"Well I guess in that light, my entire child hood is pretty sad circumstance," He looked at the place and wondered how they kept people from getting hurt. Everything, mostly the rides, looked like a death warrant.

"I didn't mean that..." she said with a frown.

He smiled, "I know you didn't, I did. And it's true so no sense in avoiding the truth. So what do you like to do here?"

"First things' first. I know we just had a fancy dinner, but the funnel cakes are just great." Regina said smiling back.

Porter really felt out of the world's loop, "What the hell is a funnel cake?"

Regina laughed and brought him over to a booth where they were making the funnel cakes. "Or they can be called elephant ears... depending."

"Hmmm," He thought and smelt what they were actually making. Sugary sweetness, "I think funnel cake sounds less... gross. Fried dough. Nice."

Yup." she nodded, watching them make it. "It's sprinkled with confectioners sugar and cinimon if you want it."

"It's up to you. I'm not going to complain. I have no idea what I'm getting into," He motioned for her to order.

Regina ordered for the both of them, watching them pile on some strawberries on one. "It's the perfect time of year..."

"This is a mess," He said and licked the sugar off his fingers.

"Tha'ts the point." she laughed and smudged some strawberry juice with the sugar

"Heh, I've missed out on a lot of this small stuff," He grabbed some napkins to wipe his hands off.

Regina shrugged and licked her own fingers off. "Sometimes the small stuff is what makes life worth living... like ice cream."

"Ice cream is always nice," He thought and looked at the ferris wheel across from them, "So do you ride those things for the sheer panic of impending doom?"

"They're actually pretty stable. Come on." she dragged him toward it

He decided to stop being so skeptical and started to enjoy Regina's enthusiasm. It was an entirely new experience for him and he joked, "Okay, but only if you hold my hand."

"If you're that worried." she teased back and headed onto the wheel.

"Nope, just a blatant ploy to hold your hand. That's all," He answered and sat next to her.

"I can deal with that..." Regina smiled at him sitting down. On the inside she was actually kind of nervous. Her logical side screamed at her about how many times they took apart and reassembled these things...

He actually felt her tense up when they got inside the seat of the wheel. It was product of his training. He put his arm around her, "Nervous from the ride or me?"

"Lil of both really..." she returned, leaning on him a bit.

"And why do I make you nervous?" He got comfortable with her

"it's not you necessarily. Just the whole situation." she admitted. "I've... never been on a real date."

"This is almost a first for me," He tried to make her feel better, "I've never really had a date where I wasn't trying to manipulate somebody for information for the government."

Regina blinked at him. "Wow. I guess I'm honored you're not pumping me for information then."

He laughed, "We're not exactly conventional people. Just relax, Regina. We've been around each other enough not to be nervous, I hope."

"We are... it's just a kind of surprise. What did ou do for a living before the institute?"

"I taught distance courses, no human contact," He answered with a sigh, "Boxed myself up in a house so I wouldn't hurt anybody else."

"your sunglasses did a decent job of that... didn't they?"

"There was always that possibility. I also had a lot of deprogramming to do... Xavier put a lot of faith in me to come to the Institute," He felt like he changed severely since being at that place.

"Deprogramming...?" she asked, curious. "I'm glad you did though."

"Brainwashing... I broke out of the hold of my employers but not all of their programming was gone from my head," He answered, "it's gone now, though."

"I'm glad about that too." Regina said with a relieved sigh. "It's much better this way.. yes?"

"Of course," He said and squeezed her arm, "I can be with you."

She smiled at him, enjoying the time. Looking over the edge she blinked. "we're at the top"

"Hey Wanda. What do you think we go out and eat for a change?" asked the blond as she walked out of her room. No response. She raised an eyebrow and looked around. No Scarlet Witch in the house. Freya sighed.

I guess she grew tired of my silence. Actually, I'm tired too. I need to do something about it.

She sat down on the couch and thought about the best course of action. She tried to make Porter spill information about Wolverine but got nothing out of him. That slightly disturbed her but didn't surprised her at all. His refusal only made it clear that the Wolverine of the x-men might be the same as the Wolverine that used to work for Alpha Flight. But she needed to be sure.

"Oh well... There's only one way to find out: sneak in and find answers!" she said with her old cheerful attitude.

She jumped down the couch, grabbed her keys and left the appartment after she wrote a little note for Wanda just in case the goth comes back before her.

----------------

"Damn...stupid...why you...argh... I hate trees!" said Freya as she finally ended her ascension of a tree near the stonewalls of Xavier's domain. Things looked very lively there. She could see lots of students outside doing what seems like summer classes or something close to that. The blond took a pensive pose.

How am I going to sneak in with so many people running around? she asked herself. She studied the environment and a wicked smile appeared on her lips.