"So, you guys train a lot?" Kitty asked, wanting to know more about the secret part of the ‘school'. "The Danger Room looked wicked!"

"It's a blast, kicks ass better than any school sport ever could," Adam said while trying to read the labels of two bottles of different strength acids, his tinted sunglasses making it difficult.

"Yeah, and it's a great workout. And I can't begin to explain how much it has helped my powers!" Frances said, keeping her hands away from the plants and chemicals.

"It looked kinda dangerous though . . . Ya know, that big spiky ball thing . . . "

"Ah, nothing we couldn't handle!" Adam said, still checking out the labels. He turned his head a little bit and saw Freddie out of the corner of his eye. Freddie was staring right at him, then turned away.

"Damn."

"What's the matter, Adam?" Frances asked.

"The weird kid, Fred or whatever . . . I think he knows ‘about' me . . . "

"What?" Kitty asked, a little fear in her voice.

"Before, when he bumped into me, he sort-of knocked off my glasses . . . I think he saw my eyes. And now, he just keeps on staring at me . . . and they call us freaks?"

"Should we go to the professor?" Kitty asked.

"No way . . . We should handle this on our own," Adam started. "We can't keep on going to the ‘adults' for help."

"What do you mean? This has happened before?" Kitty asked.

"A few months ago, Adam was having a little trouble controls his powers. In the middle of a boring bio class, he turned into the Reptilian form, smashed his desk into pieces."

"No way! But everyone had to see . . . "

"Yeah! But just seconds before it happened, Jean used her powers to change what everyone saw. What everyone thought they saw was the desk break and Adam fall to the ground, than he ran out of the class in embarrassment. It was hysterical!"

"No way!" Kitty said, giggling.

"Yeah, very funny . . . It gets funnier every time Frances explains it to someone . . . Ha Ha Ha . . . " As Adam finished, one of the bottles slipped out of his hand and smashed on the counter. It quickly ate through all of the plant samples and notes. "Crap."

A few hours passed and the last few classes ended. Freddie was in his room, "surfing" through sites on the Internet about "beast" people and freaks known as mutants. His eyes were stuck to the screen as he read about these "dangerous" killers and outlaws.

'Oh my god! He hangs out with Frances, what if he is plotting to kill her or eat her or something??? I have to do something to stop this!'

"I can't believe Jean is making us redo the whole Lab!" Frances said as she sat back in her seat.

" . . . 'us'?" Adam asked, while he and Kitty were working on the set-up and writing notes on what they found. The rest of the classroom was empty.

"Well," Frances started to explain, "you guys are the smart types, you don't want me messing up stuff . . . Ya know, we don't want to have to do this Lab for a third time or anything!"

"Yeah, oooky. Can ya at least get me that ruler over there?" Adam asked.

"The metal one?" Frances asked as a smile formed on her face.

"Yeah," Adam said, not even lifting his head from the work.

"Wait, Frances . . . You shouldn't use your powers this much in the open . . . Right?" Kitty asked.

Frances looked around, but saw no one. "Nah, it's fine, no one's around to see me!"

Frances pointed her hand in the direction of the ruler, than concentrated really hard. A split-second later, the ruler shot across the room and into Frances' hand.

Outside, peeking through a window was Freddie. His jaw dropped as he saw the ruler fly across the room. He took a few steps away from the window with out looking and tripped over a bush, falling face first into a mud pile. As he started to get to his feet, three of the starting members of the "Institute's" football team were passing by: Chip Sliver, the starting QB; Bryan Parks, a starting receiver; and Stephen Oyster, an overweight linebacker.

"HA, hey lookie over here . . . Thomas is playing in the mud again! HAHA . . . Loser!" Chip started.

"Yeah, what a loser!" Bryan continued after Chip's lead.

"Ha . . . Yeah . . . Ha . . . Yeah . . . Um, what a . . . Loser, yeah!" Stephen said, confusing himself in the process.

" . . . ass . . . " Freddie whispered to himself.

"What did you say?!?" Stephen said as he pushed Freddie back into the mud. "HAHAHA . . . Um . . . "

Freddie had other things on his mind though, that now there was at least two of the killer mutants in his school, and maybe a third.

Freddie was able to get mostly cleaned up, still some mud here and there. He was now following Kitty, Frances and Adam around. Nothing special happened since earlier though. Freddie was almost ready to call it quits, when he saw the three walk into an old storage closet. Why would they be going there?, he thought to himself. He waited a few minutes, then tried to open the door, but it was locked. He took out his pocketknife and was able to pick the lock. The door opened, but instead of the supplies and boxes that he though would await him, there was an elevator. He entered the elevator, and looked at the control plate. There were at least 7 different floors, basements and one red button labeled ‘Danger Room'. Of course, he pressed the red button. The elevator slowly made it's decent, stopping and opening to a long metallic hallway, with a door label ‘Control Room' on one side and a large window on its far end. Freddie took off his coat and placed it between the elevator doors, to ensure that they wouldn't close. He quickly made his way to the large tinted window; he got close so he could see through it. The room had to be the size of a football field, and there was Adam, Kitty and Frances, all in red and black uniforms. A few seconds passed, and it was amazing, the room around them transformed into a Jungle. Half bird/half men were attacking them. Adam stepped in front of Kitty and Frances, and his body grew much larger, his skin turned into green scales. A Monster? Freddie now knew that what he read online was true, that the mutants were monsters! Next, Kitty held her hand on both Adam and Frances, the half human/birds flew right through them. Frances concentrated and used the birdmen's metal weapons on themselves, than tied them up with metal wire, which was lying on the ground. Next, more birdmen came, Adam stood his ground and fought hand to hand with them, taking most of them out. It almost seemed like they were advancing towards a small jewel on the opposite end of the "room". A few minutes passed and they got it. The Jungle surrounding faded away and a voice went over a loud speaker, it was Ms. Grey's voice.

"Good job, guys. There will be a 5-minute break before the next Training session. I'll be putting you guys up to level 6, so stay alert!"

Freddie though to himself, Training? Ms. Grey? The institute is training mutants in secret??? I have to get help from somewhere!

Damn, I tried the police, they hung up, said to stop pranking. The state house, they said the same thing. My parents wouldn't even believe me, they just think that I'm making up another excuse to get out of this "school", yeah, it's a school all right! Now, I'll do the only possible thing to get people's attention, post the info on my site. I get a few 1000 hits a week, maybe someone will notice what's going on. He clicked on his word processor, and began to type.

Adam was in reptile form. Robots were coming at him from all ends. With powerful lefts and rights, he cleared his path, walking forward and never looking back. He reached some sort of clear glass and lifted both arms high into the air. Bringing them down like a ton of bricks, he crashed right through the glass. Metal tentacles extended from the wall and pulled him backwards, but he held his ground and took another step forward, extending his arm, and finally grabbed the small red stone. The robots shut down and the landscape around him disappeared. He wiped the sweat from his head and dropped down onto his butt. A door opened and Kitty and Frances entered.

"Yeah, way to go!!!" Frances said, a smile on her face.

Next, Jean Grey entered.

"Yeah, good job Adam. But I wouldn't exactly call it a win. Two out of three members of the ‘team' were eliminated, in real life, they would be dead."

"Oh, yeah . . . heh." Frances shrugged her shoulders.

"Adam and Frances, both of you have been doing very well alone, but you guys have to work on your teamwork. That is the key to ‘winning' any battle, others to rely on. Kitty, excellent for your first day of training. You have great control of your powers, a control that we will hopefully be able to help you expand."

Adam, Kitty and Frances put their ‘normal' clothes back over their uniforms and stepped out of the Danger Room and into the hallway to the elevator. They stopped in their tracks when they saw mud prints across the hall. They remained silent as Jean entered.

"Guys," Jean began, "would you like to explain whose prints these belong to? Or should I find out for myself?"

"Um, yeah." Adam brushed his hand through his hair. "I think I should tell you something . . . "

Freddie is typing away at his computer, posting a news article on his web site. The article is titled Mutant High. He smiles as he finishes typing, and presses the spell-check button to proof read his work. A few seconds later, he sits back in his chair and places his hands behind his head, closing his eyes to get the full effect of being in total relaxation. As he slowly opens his eyes, he notices something is wrong. The room is in total darkness, the lights are out. His eyes open wide when he sees what is in front of himself, the computer had shut down, and deleted everything that he had typed. The Institute must have had some sort-of power surge or something.

His door is open, and from the hall, Frances says "Hi."

"Oh, hey Frances."

"What's wrong, Fred?"

"Oh, the power surge we had a few minutes ago wiped out all of the work I put into my term paper in the last few hours. It's going to take me forever to fix it all!!!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. If you need any help, just let me know," Frances smiles as she leaves the room.

"Yeah, thanks, thanks a lot!" Freddie says, then with a sign he turns his computer back on . . . To work on his term paper again.

Jean stood in front of Adam and Kitty. Frances entered the room, "He doesn't know a thing, the amazing Jean to the rescue!"

Jean cracked a half smile. "Guys, why didn't you just come to me when this began?"

"Well, we . . . I didn't want to hassle you with this stuff, I wanted to handle it by my self, you know, fix my own mess . . . " Adam said, not looking Jean in the eye.

"We do like to see you guys thinking for yourselves, but when something like this occurs and threatens the rest of your ‘classmates' and the institute, then you should come to us. We are here to help, not punish!"

"Oh, good than. I better get some sleep, we got a test in social studies and stuff . . . " Adam said, while trying to step away from Jean.

"And you will all be having detention Saturday afternoon."

"Awww, yeah, cool. Heh . . . Um . . . " Adam looked at Kitty and Frances, who just starred back at him coldly.

"Hey, it wasn't just my fault!"