Welcome to Gaia! ::

OOC: Just an FYI, himezu, you don't have to quote a prior post. We're pretty good at following who is supposed to be around us for the most part smile Sorry I didn't respond to you last night. I tend to go to sleep earlier than everybody else and well, I actually fell asleep at my laptop too. Haha.

IC:

Phenix smiled. Kaede had shown some kind of releif in having a friendly face show up. Her own first day was only the prior summer so she sympathized with the girl.

"Well, here, you can be just about anywhere you want to be..." Phenix grinned and then stopped realizing that her own jokes probably weren't helping the girl out, "I assume that you'll want to talk to Xavier first. The Professor is the headmaster of the Institute. He'll give you all you need to know."

"Where can I put my things?"

Phenix motioned for her to follow as Jacen walked past them. He was preocuppied with two adults who entered the main foyer. She didn't know who they were but would ask Jacen later. She knew how he liked his own privacy and would share if he wanted to share.

"That's Jacen, one of the many students here. All of our rooms are upstairs. Girls are on this wing to the right. Boys are down that wing to the left. I'm sure you've been expected. We always are," Phenix led her down the hallway towards the empty rooms. She stopped at the one that had a training uniform on the bed.

"I'm down the hallway if you ever need me," Phenix pointed to her doorway by the stairs, "Well, lets go get you to Xavier. His office is down the wing on the left from the main foyer. Most of our classrooms are on the first level along with the kitchen, living room, and library. The gym is a level below that."

Again, she left out the Danger Room of her talk. Not her place. She tightened her robe again and led Kaede to Xavier's office. McCoy was just leaving it. He nodded his head and gave a small greeting. Phenix presumed he was going to go check on his patients from the direction he was headed.

"That's Mr. McCoy. He's one of the best teachers you can have here. He's also our resident doctor." Phenix knocked on Xavier's door, "Professor, Kaede is here."

"Kaede, come in, I've been expecting you. Phenix, come back in a half hour to give her the tour... and come back wearing pants."

Phenix grinned, "Of course."

She left Kaede and went back up to the girls' shower. On her way she hadn't noticed Kim or the multicolored new girl. She wondered if they both were okay.

"So what are your powers?"

Upon hearing just how flaky John was being, Pietro immediately raced back and slammed his shoulder into his opponent's gut, slamming him into a nearby tree.

"Back. Off," he said to the beast boy plainly, not giving any indication that he was amused. He then walked over to John, and did a wonderful Agent Smith impression as he sunk his fists repeatedly into his gut.

"John... if you want to live, you'll stop the fire and then you'll calm the ******** down," he said with similar composure, as in his mind the time for petty banter had ended.

OOC: That's probably gonna be one of my last posts for today. I'll be gone most of the night... at least till after midnight my time.

I gots a date tonight cool

Fire… there’s fire everywhere…

It’s hot… can’t breathe.

Mommy, where are you? The smoke is too thick to see.

The flames approached my huddled form as it licked away the floor, looking like it was drooling at the burnt flesh in perspective.

I cried out when it ferociously jumped on my blanket, biting into my dainty feet.

Blinding pain and then… nothing.

The fire resurrected itself and this time Yukiko was powerless to react. She was far too deep into her fear when, suddenly, something, or someone, squashed her to the floor. The blazing flames added to the human contact made the heat unbearable for her underneath this mass and after lacking too much air, she spaced out into her memories staring unblinkingly at the blazing flames inching their way towards her.

When she came to, the house was still happily being consumed as a fire camp, except she wasn’t in it. She couldn’t hold it in any longer and started crying. The girl lightly rocked back and forth in shock as she sobbed uncontrollably while mumbling nonsense.

"I'm sorry for lying on you back there. I...I didn't want you to get hurt,” came a soft voice. “Stay here.”

Although her rescuer had left to resonate with the firestarter, she kept talking, “I-I-I-I… It’s okay… hic… Thank you… It’s just t-that… I’m really… hic… scared of f-f-f-f-f-fire…” the last part came out strangled and rushed.

Her legs refused to obey her command to get up and run and she could only witness the trees around the house getting on fire. She started hyperventilating and she attempted to calm herself by gripping her chest as the fear made her heart pump painfully.

Help…

"John... if you want to live, you'll stop the fire, and then you'll calm the ******** down" John laughed in Pietro's face. "Sorry, Pietro, while that did sound cool, it can't really work as a death threat. You see, if you kill me then all you'll be doing is letting out my Ace. I've been saving it for last, and it looks like I'm gonna need it. But that's only one reason. The second one is the fact that unless I gave it my all, even I can't put out this fire. You see, in your nice little rage to throw me around this place, you've seemed to forgotten, that I only have the ability to control fire. I don't have super strenght or anything like that, so as of right now, besides getting my revenge, and taking us all to hell, the only thing I've got left in my mind is pain. And alot of it. Maybe if you hadn't sent me slaming up against for or five different tress things would be different...actualy no they wouldn't but that doesn't matter, because no matter how you look at it, this whole thing all comes back to you, and the fact that you couldn't keep the camreas off of me, when I'd actually asked you too. The one time I ask you to do something and you still can't do it. But thanks, for helping me to prove that you're an a**... But back to the matter at hand. If you want this fire gone, than you'll have to apologize to me, for not doing the one, and only thing I've asked of you, instead of telling you to do it, and for trying to take control of the house when it is I who am the leader, and for getting rid of my room and turnig it into some game room and basically... just for acting like a b***h. In other words...

"Back Off" the speed-man had said, and Ifrit obeyed, returning to the cowering girl he'd left on the lawn. The trees were starting to catch fire now, and he decided she needed to get away. This wasn't his fight anyway.

He came to her and picked her up, now again in his normal form, petting her hair and whispering unintelligible comforting things to her to try and calm her down, and he ran. He ran down the street and around the corner, not knowing how bad the blast would be.

He only know one thing. John was right. He'd come at a bad time.

"And that's pretty much the extent of this hall," Jacen said, leading his mom and dad outdoors towards the guest house. "Over there is the guest house." He ushered them along a hedgerowed path about two hundred yards.

"Have these people been taking care of you, son?," asked his dad.

"More than you know, dad."

"Who was that blonde girl who bandaged you up on the plane?" It was his mom.

"Her? That's Kim. We've...kind of been seeing each other for the past few months," replied Jacen, just a tad bit flustered at his mother's curiosity.

He could tell, even from them walking behind them that his mom was happy about that at least. After a few moments of uninterrupted silence, they had arrived at the small establishment.

"Alright, here we are," Jacen said while opening the door. The moment he flipped the light on, he saw it had two neatly made rooms. Nothing too fancy. Just a bed, some furnishings like dressers, and a washroom. "Well, I'm just gonna let you guys get some rest. I know you've been through a lot the past few weeks," Jacen said before he started to leave the cottage.

"You should get some rest too, Jacen," his dad said before Jacen had completely left the premises. Jacen nodded, then smiled when he heard his mom say, "We love you, son." It felt really good hearing his parents say that.

"Love you guys too. I'm sure we'll discuss everything about your living situation tomorrow. Good night mom. Dad." Then he walked out. When he trudged down the pathway, he smelled something completely out of the ordinary. Like burning insulation. "What the.....," he said looking to his left and noticing a portion of the sky glowing a bright orange. "Goddammit...," Jacen yelled, "Not now...." He had a sinking feeling in his gut who was the perp behind this blaze, and the sudden upswell of flames only solidified his deduction. "Damn you, John...." Then, he ran up to the house. Not in a panic, he knew this was no cause to panic, but if John couldn't be contained then perhaps the entire town would go up in flames. And he didn't really feel like jumping headlong into another situation.

When he got to the mansion's backdoor, he stopped running, straightened his clothes out, and walked calmly inside. As he came in, he did grow a bit unnerved by the silence of the Mansion. Absolutely no one was awake or moving. He didn't even see Phenix when he got to the main foyer. Perhaps everyone had gone to bed?

"Perhaps," he said to himself quietly as he made his way upstairs. Maybe this was a time where everyone would turn a blind eye to this? Maybe this was the Professor saying, "You've all been through the wringer. Take a night off." Or maybe....they weren't needed at all. Which he could deal with.

"Sleeeeeeeeeeeep," he joked around with no one in particular as he stood at his doorway, just waiting to hit the sack. Then he felt a tap on his shoulder and was surprised at who he saw.

ooc: bored and gonna post before I go on the road again. ninja

ic: Jacen was indeed surprised at who he saw wanting to speak with him. It was Scott, of all people. Jacen didn't really mind him, but he didn't care for him either. It was mainly the way he was constantly trying to do the right thing.

"Yea? What is it?," Jacen asked, feigning annoyance in hopes he could get to bed quicker. And he could sense that Scott was getting a bit tensed up.

"I was just wanting to say I was impressed with the way you handled yourself out there today," Scott said. "Even though you did what you did to Black Hole.....there was no other choice." They both eased up their stances for a second. "It's good to have you back here. Things didn't seem right without you around, making everyone upset."

"Hold that thought, did it just suddenly get warmer?," Jacen asked. He could feel a warm, flowing current around his legs. Then after a few moments of looking around towards the staircase, they both caught a whiff of food being cooked.

"I think someone's making pancakes," Scott said abruptly.

"And I think we should go check and make sure that they're up to pancake code," Jacen retorted. "Let's go." Scott had to have been used to Kurt teleporting around freely, but not to Jacen's particular style of easy mobility. Jacen reached over, grabbed the back of Scott's collar, and melted into the darkness provided by the overhang's slight shadow.

About halfway down the hall, they both re-appeared, being that there were no more areas of shadow or darkness he could swiftly travel through. Scott shook his head slightly, to lose the cobwebs. "Next time give me a bit of a warning." Jacen nodded as they walked towards the kitchen, and made a mental note to never warn Cyke about that ever. When they got to the commissary, Jacen saw the same young girl he remembered seeing in New York that one day....

So...she's a student here. I should have known. he thought as he took a seat at the nearby table.

"Hope you don't mind us coming down here," Scott half asked, half said as he took a seat as well. Jacen did well to shield his eyes though. He didn't know how that girl would take seeing him again. And his eyes would be the deadest give-away of them all.