DEPRIVATION

By Mike Rudden

The man called Sean Cassidy had taught himself long ago to go without sleep. First as a member of Interpol, then the N.Y.P.D., then the X-Men, and currently Generation X, he has gone with many sleepless nights. But none so nerve-wracking as the one at hand tonight.

“Please, Clarice. It’s late. Your cooperation would help greatly.”

Only a few hours ago Generation X had picked a fight with a new team of Hellions, dubbing themselves the New Hellions. The long-thought-dead girl known as Blink was with them. The Hellions got away with Gaia, and in return Generation X got Blink. The event seemed like days ago.

“Why should I cooperate with you? You tried to kill me… twice!” replied the soft voice of a the vulnerable girl. Sean wondered if she was just hiding behind that vulnerability. The girl he saw a few hours ago was no more vulnerable than a shark.

“I did no such a thing! I was risking my own life to save ye and the others! Ye have no right to blame me for what ye did!” He had a feeling that was exactly the response Clarice was waiting for.

“It’s quite simple, Sean. I was the only one with the power to save us all, and you knew I had the power to survive it.” Banshee found Blink’s new-found confidence intimidating. “You just didn’t want to face me knowing that I saved your students when you couldn’t.”

An angered Sean Cassidy turned away. He’d be able to deal with her much more productively after some sleep. After making sure Clarice’s restraints and power-deprivers were working, he walked out of the War Room and to his cottage.

As soon as he got there, he found a message waiting on his answering machine. He pressed the flashing red button, releasing the recording.

“Sean, this is Charles. It’s great to be home again. I wish I could talk more, but I have urgent news. I have found three new mutants with my new Cerebro unit. I have already taken care of parental approval and registration, and if all works out they should be arriving at the Academy in a few days. I’ve sent their bios over e-mail. Call me back sometime. *BEEP!* Wednesday, 5:46 P.M.”

Could he really have forgotten to check his answering machine and e-mail for two days? New students tomorrow?! Sleep, Sean. Just sleep…

Everett Thomas had always gotten a good night’s sleep. Even while attending Xavier’s School, he found he could get to bed at a regular time. But he didn’t sleep at all last night. Why? It could be because he watched as the New Hellions kidnapped his girlfriend. He didn’t know where she was, how she was feeling or if she was even still alive. But he did know somebody was going to pay. But at this moment, he was trying to stay awake by Banshee’s daily briefing.

“…And there will be a quiz in social studies on Tuesday. You will have to know all fifty states and all fifty capitals. Half and half doesnae work, Angelo.”

“Me?” inquired Skin.

“I said what I said. Oh, and I was just told that three new students should be arriving… hopefully sometime today.”

“Yes, Charles also told me.” Emma seemed eager this morning. “Kurt Pastorius and Arlee Hicks are both from the Florida area… Miami to be precise. Kurt has sporadic eye illumination powers, and Arlee could snap any combination of our necks at once. The third is Alexander Roberts from Detroit. Unexplored atomic emanation powers.”

“That should be interesting.” Monet seemed to be the only person who knew what that meant. She received an evil look from Jubilee.

“Any other business?” sighed Sean.

“What about Gaia?” Synch tried his best to sound confident. It seemed like he was the only person who cared about the girl.

“What’s that, lad?”

“Well, we’re adding three kids to the roster… shouldn’t we try and find Gaia first?”

“Everett…” Emma handled this one, “…we have to work at the priorities at hand. These children were scheduled to come here long before Gaia was kidnapped. Right after we get the roster organized, our first action will be searching for…”

“That’s it? Three new kids who we don’t even know will stay are going to be here instead of searching for someone who might be dead by now?! We’re the only ones she’s got!” Everett stormed out of the room.

“Sean… should I…?” Emma was never very close to Synch.

“No, Emma… I think Jubilee should handle this one.”

“Me? Why me?” asked Jubilee.

“We all know that you and Ev are close,” called in Husk.

{Go and get ‘im, tiger.} Jubilee had hardly noticed Chamber was there as she walked like a zombie out of the room.

“Well then, I guess this meeting is adjourned. Be back by noon for our training session, and hopefully the new students will be here by then.”

The students then scrambled out of the room, Paige and Jono were the last ones out.

{Well, gel… how’s the farm?} Chamber asked Husk.

“Excuse me?”

{Nothin’, just trying to make an opening for conversation, I guess. I was thinkin’… maybe we could go somewhere and talk?}

“Well, Jono, actually…”

{What is it, Paige?}

“Ange and I are kinda… going into town.”

“We’d have invited you, but we know you don’t like public appearances, hombre.” Skin backtracked to join the conversation.

{Yeah… you got it right. Cheers, mates.} Chamber stood still as he watched Husk and Skin walking ahead, chatting and laughing, like a couple of careless teenagers.

Did Jubilee get a full night’s sleep last night? Sure. She was used to the weekly battles, as part of both the X-Men, Generation X, and especially as Wolverine’s sidekick. However, it wasn’t good sleep, as she was startled when her best friend, and current crush, Ev Thomas, was officially dating fellow teammate Gaia.

Now Jubilation would gratefully take that miserable sleep instead of her current mission… to figure out what was bugging Synch.

“Ev… you there?” She hardly tapped on the door, praying that he wasn’t.

“Yeah… Jubes… come on in.”

Jubilee entered the unlocked room, and found Everett cleaning up. Not that it needed cleaning, it was perfectly organized, dusted, and vacuumed. The floor was spotless, and all his clothes lay neatly in his closet.

“So… long day, huh?”

“It’s nine a.m., Lee.”

“Yeah, it was kinda a joke…”

“Funny.” He hadn’t even looked at her yet, as he was organizing his CD collection.

“Look, Ev, why don’t you just tell me why you’re flipped out?”

“Isn’t it obvious? My girlfriend was kidnapped by a group of psychos, and now we’re enlisting three new students to replace her!”

“I guess the fish theory comes into play here, hey?”

“‘Fish theory’?! What am I supposed to do, pretend she was never here?! Just because she’s not here anymore, not responding to me, doesn’t mean she doesn’t still care about me.”

If Jubilation Lee ever witnessed irony, this must be it. “Ev, you hardly knew anything about her. She could have been a member of the Brood, or a psycho, or the mind-wiped leader of an alien race…”

“You know what? Screw you, Jubilee. I don’t need this. If you would, please kindly remove yourself from my room…”

Jubilee looked down at her feet, and turned around. “If that’s what you want, Ev…” Jubilee knew any chance of a romance was gone, but now their friendship was cancelled, also.

Monet St. Croix wasn’t even dented after the previous evening’s battle. She always goes out of her way to get a good night’s sleep, no matter what. Right now, she was a little less than bored as she was the only one in the Danger Room, waiting for her training session. With her enhanced senses, she easily heard the truck pulling into the driveway. She flew outside to see who it was.

Driving was a blond boy, wearing thick sun glasses. He wore an old suit that looked like it had been slept in a couple times. He was of medium build, about five foot eight. Next to him was a muscular girl, with short, curly blonde hair and brown eyes. She wore a pink mid-rift top, and tight blue jeans. In the back, obviously disincluding himself from the group was another boy, of a non-muscular build. He had naturally black hair which had been dyed over blond on the top, three ear piercings, and needed to shave.

The boy with the sunglasses parked and then jumped out of the truck, as did the girl, enthusiastically. The boy put his arm around the girl. Great, a happy couple.

“Hi,” said the girl, reminding M of Paige, “my name’s Arlee. Arlee Hicks.” M shook hands with her, and squeezed as hard as she could. Arlee didn’t even flinch.

“And I’m Kurt Pastorius, nice to meet you.” You could tell they were from sunny Florida. “And that guy in there is Alex Roberts. That’s pretty much all he told us from Boston to here.”

“Yes, I’m Monet. Please call me M.” Monet was much more interested in this Alexander boy. He seemed to be looking her over as well.

All of a sudden, Banshee jogged out of the main hall. “Welcome to Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters! I see you have already met Monet, my name is Sean Cassidy, co-headmaster of the school.”

“Hello, sir,” Kurt replied.

“We’re about to all meet in the gym, we’ll get ye introduced in there…”

After everyone was introduced, Sean handed out codenames. Kurt was Refrax, Arlee was Buff, and Alex was Nuclear. After everyone got settled in, he dismissed the new students to get unpacked and the team started their daily training.

“Who are you, you freak?” Clarice Ferguson was getting nervous at the sight of the twin girls known as Penance. “Don’t you talk?”

Oh, no. Just a burden of their brother’s curse.

“I don’t remember you… are you new here?”

You don’t remember them, Blink? You should. They remember you.

Yes, you are the girl who saved them from the Phalanx. Of course, they were composed as Monet St. Croix back then. But they still remember you… and they’re thankful. If only they could explain to you their gratitude for letting them live…

“Port, you here?” Buff whispered as she made her way through the War Room. The voice scared Penance away.

“Yeah, it’s about time. Get me outta here,” Blink said to her ally.

“Just let me figure out these alarms, if I set them off we’re all finished.” Buff looked over Blink’s shackles, not recognizing the Shi’ar technology. She also didn’t recognize the green boy known as Leech entering the room. He was dressed in a relatively long trench coat and a detective’s hat. He was spying on the new kid, training to be a hero.

“It’ll be okay, Clarice. You’ll be out of here and back with the New Hellions in no time.” Leech gasped as he flashed back to when Emplate and the Hellions first attacked the school. He had defeated the one called Bulwark by leeching his power. He didn’t recognize Buff or Blink, but he knew he had to go get Mister Banshee and Miss Emma fast!

Artie was having fun. He may have been unable to voice his pleasure, but he was having loads of fun. He was playing with his best friend, Leech. They were pretending to be detectives and spying on the new kids. Artie found one of them, the blond one with the sun glasses. He was talking into some kind of cell phone. Artie was using his plastic telescope to spy on him, from about ten feet away…

“Yeah, Fatale, we’re on top of it. We’re in and they don’t suspect a thing. Buff’s working with Port right now… any difficulties? Just one. Another new kid came here with us. Don’t worry, they won’t find out. They’re all training right now. We’ve got the entire mansion to ourselves. The New Hellions will be back together by morning.”

The Hellions? Yes, Artie, you remember them. You remember them and the other bad guy, too. You don’t remember this blond boy, or the girl, or the other new kid, or Fatale, but you remember the Hellions. You remember the teachers weren’t here for a long time after they were here. You remember the kids weren’t happy when they were here. But now they’re here again… yes Artie, you probably should tell the others.

“Leech, please… you’ll like the new students once you get to know them. I very much doubt they’re spies.” Emma almost burst out in laughter. Sometimes these kids were hilarious.

“But Leech saw. The new girl was talking to the other girl, the one in jail,” Leech claimed, in his usual third person style.

“Buff stumbled onto Blink?”

“Leech thinks they knew each other. Leech remembers them talking like friends.”

“How could Arlee possibly know Clarice?” Banshee broke in.

At that moment, Artie ran into the room. He projected images to Leech, which seemed to be their secret language.

“Artie says he saw the new boy talking on the phone. Artie thinks he was talking to Fatale.”

“Fatale?!” Emma and Banshee exclaimed in unison.

“Show them, Artie.” At that request, Artie used all his might to replay the situation from memory. Although the images were good, they didn’t have the benefit of sound. It definitely showed Refrax talking in a cellular phone… nothing like Sean or Emma owned… obviously talking comfortably with someone.

“Artie… he could be calling his family or his friends. Emma, there’s only one way to settle this… ye know…” Banshee said unconvincingly.

“Sean, you very well know that my powers don’t work when Leech is around.”

“Emma, you very well know we have some power-dampeners in the school. Hold on a bit while I fetch them.”

Later, after Leech’s powers were being dampened, Emma did psi-scans on both Artie and Leech. She found that both situations contained the new students talking as if they were members of the New Hellions, Refrax calling Fatale and Buff trying to break Blink out. “Let’s move, Sean, the new kids ARE traitors!”

“Wait, Emma. Ye know these kids have firepower. We have to do this stealthily. I’ll call a meeting, we’ll contain them there. You alert the rest of the students about the situation using your powers. Artie, Leech… back to the attic.”

The meeting was set. Emma had informed all the kids about the new students. Now the ball was in Banshee’s court.

“…And the last order of business… new students, admit to being traitors and ye won’t be hurt!”

“Excuse me?!” yelled Nuclear defensively.

“You heard the Irish dude, dude!” Jubilee yelled out as she hit Alex with her pyrotechnics. Nuclear countered with his own powers, which was a straight line of green energy coming from his hands. Jubilee narrowly missed the energy, which went right through the painting behind her.

After that, it was all-out chaos. Nuclear’s energy, Buff’s incredible strength, and Refrax’s eye-beams were outmatched by the others. In the middle of the fight, a sparkle began to form in the middle of the room. The sparkle started to form in bandages, which formed into what looked like a mummy. It was Murmur.

“Hello people, we won’t be staying long.”

{Blast the heathin’ jockey!} yelled Chamber.

“I wouldn’t do that. If I don’t come back, Gaia will be dead for sure.” Nothing but silence.

“She’s… still alive?” stammered Synch.

“Yes. And Fatale has an ultimatum.” Refrax and Buff stood behind him. “It’s quite simple. Join us in our quest to bring mutants to power, or die. You will have little time to think about this.”

With that, Murmur, Refrax and Buff were gone, teleported to who-knows-where, leaving Murmur’s words to echo throughout the room.

“Well… that was a little chilling, wasn’t it?” Paige broke the silence.

“But I believe Murmur didn’t go bye-bye with all she came for, hey chica?” Skin turned around and looked at Alex Roberts. Alex was roughed up, and leaning on a corner wall, wondering why everyone was looking at him.

“I… I’m not with them…” Nuclear stammered.

“Sure ye aren’t. Emma, do ye have anymore power dampeners?” Banshee asked suspiciously.

M didn’t know which side to be on. She found Nuclear so sincere when she first met him, and he didn’t seem be in cahoots with Refrax and Buff. There was only one chance to save him before the others took him down. She had to reach out with her newly regained psi-powers.

After quickly scanning Alex’s mind, she found all the pain and sorrow of his life. She found that he had a hard life in Detroit, getting mixed up with gangs. She found out that he was very shy and rough, but also had sensitive, poetic side. She also found that he didn’t know Refrax and Buff before meeting them in Boston, and had never heard of Fatale.

“Wait! Nuclear’s not with the New Hellions!” Monet screamed out at the last minute.

“How do you know this, Monet?” Emma asked, trying to stay calm.

“I scanned his mind.” M cracked a crooked smile.

Emma gave Alex a quick mind-scan. “Yes… she is correct.”

“I guess we owe you an apology, lad,” Banshee said, a bit disappointed at not being able to see this on his own.

“I guess you do,” Nuclear said, unimpressed.

“I hope you’ll still be staying with us.”

“After what happened today? I’d be a fool not to,” Nuclear said, limping off to his room.

“Well… that was interesting,” said Jubilee, looking at Monet. “Reminds me of Jono when he first came here…” she mumbled.

{I heard that!} Chamber telepathically yelled.

“He’ll fit right in,” Angelo chuckled.

NEXT ISSUE: A field trip to the X-Mansion! Nuclear’s past is questioned, Blink’s future is pressured, and Banshee resolves his feelings of the X-Men’s break-up! Plus, Emma’s past comes back to haunt her! Guest-starring Iceman, Storm, and Professor X!