USE THE ROD, BEAT THE CHILD

By George Cameron and Ryan Krupienski

Student Lounge; Xavier Institute

“Santo Vaccarro. Brian Cruz. Come here.”

The Hellions known as Rockslide and Tag stood from the couch where they were seated, watching a little late-night UFC on SpikeTV. The two of them turned to face the voice they knew quite well: the imperious, no-nonsense voice of Amara Aquilla, the Xavier Institute’s Latin teacher, swordfighting instructor, and the X-Men’s Magma. Arms folded across her chest, she was most certainly not pleased.

“What’s up, Miss Aquilla?” Santo asked. Though he actually dwarfed his advisor by several inches and dozens of pounds, he was still quite intimidated by her. Tag, for his part, wouldn’t even look her in the eye.

Magma skewered Rockslide with a penetrating glare. “That is not how you respond to a summons, Mister Vaccarro.”

Rockslide sighed, and nodded dejectedly. “What can we do for you, honored teacher?”

Magma nodded. “Better. Now, I want the both of you in my office now. It appears we have much to discuss.”

Danielle Moonstar’s Office; Xavier Institute

“An’ that’s how I found him, Dani!” Wolfsbane practically sobbed out her story. “The poor wee lad!”

Moonstar herself couldn’t even begin to respond, lost in her own turbulent thoughts. Karma had her hands on Wolfsbane’s shoulders, steadying her friend. Also joining them were Beast, Cyclops, Domino, and Cecilia Reyes-McCoy, who had just finished performing her own examination on the remains of Liam O’Keefe.

“How could this have possibly happened?” Moonstar asked suddenly, regarding Cyclops, Domino, and Beast in turn. “This is supposed to be a safe place for the children!”

“I’m not entirely sure this was something done to him, Dani,” said Dr. Reyes-McCoy. “From what I can tell, Liam O’Keefe immolated himself.”

“How is that possible?” Karma asked. “Wouldn’t he be immune to his own power?”

“Not necessarily,” Beast answered. “This isn’t the first case ever encountered of a mutant’s own mutation resulting in injury or even death to the mutant directly. But it is unusual for this to have occurred at this point in time.”

“What do you mean?” Karma asked.

“What Beast is saying is that if Liam were going to burn himself to death, it probably would’ve happened sooner, like when his power first manifested and he had no real control over it,” Domino answered.

“Could this have been deliberate?” Moonstar asked Beast. “Could Liam have done this to himself on purpose?”

“Why don’t you tell us, Danielle?” Cyclops asked cryptically.

“What do you mean?” Dr. Reyes-McCoy asked.

But Moonstar lowered her gaze. “He wants me to use my power and ‘recreate’ what happened.”

“Well,” Karma began, “it would qualify from an emotional standpoint, wouldn’t it?”

Moonstar nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, it would. It’s just…”

“Just what?” Cyclops asked.

“It’s not like pulling images out of someone’s mind, Scott,” Moonstar answered. “If I were pulling an image out of your mind, it would work through your mind to give it the emotional impact that it had for you. To recreate an image left behind in a place, it would have to be an incredibly powerful event… and to create it, I would have to channel that emotional energy through my own mind.”

“You would feel what they felt,” Domino said.

Moonstar nodded solemnly. Then, she raised her eyes to meet Cyclops’s gaze, such as it was. “But I’m not afraid. I’m pretty well acquainted with death and with what it feels like.”

She looked at her two best friends, and nodded. “Shan, Rahne, you’re with me. Let’s do this.”

Hedge Maze; Xavier Institute

Milkshake took a step back as the villainous teenage girl known as Southpaw raised her trademarked weapon for another strike. Before she could unleash another extraterrestrial assault, the girl known as Ebony suddenly leapt over the hedge where she’d been hiding and toppling the Latina soundly. Ebony’s skin had gone from a dark brown to an oil-slick black, and her eyes were glowing with a hellish light. Her strength, which had allowed her to leap so high and so far, had increased by a factor of ten, easy.

Grabbing a handful of Southpaw’s hair while her other hand was holding Southpaw to the ground by her throat, Ebony snarled in the girl’s face. “Whatchu got to say now, bitch, huh? What? You ain’t nevah met no one like me, bitch! Nevah!”

Chicken Head, for her part, came barreling through the hedge and toward Excavator, stopping only long enough to pull back her hair (she’d just got it done). “I’m comin’ fo’ yo’ ass, boy! Whatchu got to say, boy? What?”

But before Chicken Head had even a chance to demonstrate how she’d earned her codename, Excavator gestured to one of the smooth rocks that had been used as landscaping in the hedge maze, and the rock shot up from its place on the ground to collide soundly with the girl’s forehead.

Chicken Head clutched her forehead for a moment, and Excavator grinned. But that grin faded just as Chicken Head looked up at him, murder in her eyes. “You know somethin’, white boy? You hit like a bitch!”

And with that, she was on him like Velcro.

Amara Aquilla’s Office; Xavier Institute

“How dare you two ridicule Boyd Larraby for his sexual proclivities! And in so public a manner! You disgrace yourselves and the rest of the Hellions with your immature and crude behavior!”

Magma had become so angry with her two charges that both of them had begun to notice the room growing warmer. Rockslide had the good sense to keep his mouth shut, but Tag… he apparently wasn’t so intelligent.

“C’mon, Miss Aquilla, I didn’t do anything! It was Santo! I was just there, alright? Damn!” His tone was nothing but wheedling, flowing smoothly into disrespectful. And it pushed Magma right over the edge.

“No, it is not alright!” she spat mercilessly, underscoring her final syllable with a vicious slap across Tag’s face. Rockslide stared at her, completely dumbfounded… and completely terrified.

As Magma continued to berate her charges, her eyes began to glow with a fiery light. “You will not make another student feel so ashamed and humiliated at this school again! This school is a haven from hatred and intolerance, and I will not see you soil that with your actions!”

Magma leaned forward then, her face almost touching Tag’s. He couldn’t help but flinch slightly as she drew close to him. “Do I make myself clear, Mister Cruz?”

All Tag could do was nod his head quickly, too terrified to do anything else.

“Miss Aquilla, you can’t—” Rockslide began.

Magma turned her attention on Rockslide with inhuman quickness. “Would you compound your error by showing me and the school further disrespect, Mister Vaccarro?” she asked almost menacingly.

Rockslide shook his head. “No, honored teacher.”

Nodding, Magma took a step back from her students. “I would not have you shame yourselves by apologizing to this student, as much as you owe him such, but do not make the mistake of shaming him again. For I have no tolerance for troublemakers.”

Breakstone Lake; Xavier Institute

Ahmed al-Rashid, the New Mutants’ Sirocco, found the complete solitude of the shores of Breakstone Lake to be soothing and relaxing. The moon already hanging over the lake in the night sky, he could just sit out here and get away from all of the perplexing, materialistic, infuriating Americans he’d had to deal with since his personal heroine Sabra first brought him to the Xavier Institute. And while he knew this was the place that he really must be in order to learn how to control his terrible legacy, he most certainly did not like it.

{It could be worse, y’know,} said a familiar female voice. A voice that only he could hear, and only in his mind.

Sirocco stood up then. “Who is there? Show yourself!”

And with that exclamation, she did indeed appear. Sophia Frost, the New Mutant known as Fusion, manifested an astral image of herself before Sirocco’s surprised form. The image was slightly translucent, and seemed to glow with a soft, white light all its own. {Hi there.}

“Fusion?” Sirocco asked. “How are you–?”

{Telepathy,} Fusion replied. {It’s a wonderful thing. Especially for multitasking.}

Sirocco nodded. He knew what telepathy was, and he also had an idea of just how powerful this young girl was. Even the Xavier Institute’s resident telepaths, including Miss Jason and Miss Bloom, weren’t on her level. Sirocco found that to be quite impressive, that she’d taken her own genetic legacy and turned it into something wonderful for her. A part of him envied her for that.

“What can I do for you, Fusion?” Sirocco asked. A small part of him was not used to girls being so forward, but that was merely one aspect of his cultural upbringing that he’d fought against back home.

{Well, I couldn’t help but notice your little spat earlier with Air Force,} Fusion replied.

Air Force. Boyd. Sirocco couldn’t even begin to gather his thoughts regarding that young man, mostly because he didn’t know how he felt about him.

{I bet I could help you with that.} Fusion obviously caught his thought process. {It’s not terribly difficult to figure out, y’know. You like him.}

“What?” Sirocco asked, a rhetorical question if ever there was one. “I do not like him! He is arrogant and self-centered… he is very American.”

{You haven’t even bothered to bring up the worst thing about him: he’s a man. Doesn’t that go against what you believe as a Muslim?}

Sirocco thought for a moment. “Yes, it does. Where I come from, people would do far worse than call him harsh names for being so open about his sexuality. I do not understand him.”

Fusion nodded. {I bet there are a lot of things you don’t understand about him, because you haven’t had the same upbringing that he’s had. You learned to hate what you are, because of how you were treated. He’s learned to take pride in what he is, because of how he’s been treated.}

Sirocco looked up at Fusion then. “Are you saying that I am ashamed of who I am?”

{Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m saying.}

“So what do you suggest I do about it, then?” Sirocco asked.

{You aren’t here just to learn how to control your powers. You’re also here to learn that there is more than one way to see the world. You fought against that sort of narrow-mindedness back home. Here, you can enjoy the rights and freedoms that you fought for. So enjoy them!}

Sirocco smiled, regarding Fusion with a newfound respect. “You are very wise for your age, Fusion.”

Fusion returned his smile. {My mother’s influence, I’m afraid. She does have her good qualities, although you won’t hear anyone around here agree with me.}

“So what should I do now?” Sirocco asked.

{I think you know.}

And with that, her astral image dissipated into nothingness.

Hedge Maze; Xavier Institute

“Get off me, fat ass!” Excavator shouted as he finally got his feet into play, planting him into Chicken Head’s stomach and kicking the bigger girl off him viciously. She went sprawling into the hedge, knocked out of the fight for the moment.

Southpaw, however, was still struggling with Ebony. While her alien artifact gave her a level of strength that very few beings on the planet could rival, she couldn’t quite get a hold of Ebony to crush her. The other girl’s grip was vise-like, and it was all Southpaw could do not to scream as her hair was being pulled with a measure of super-strength.

“Yo! Ricky!”

Excavator’s eyes were drawn toward Milkshake’s voice, and she just grinned at him. “You know why they call me Milkshake, don’tcha?” she asked him.

He sneered at her. “Yeah, I heard. And I’m not impressed.”

Milkshake just sneered right back at him. “You oughta be, cracka… ‘cuz my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.” With that, she began to shake her ass a little, to whatever tune happened to be rolling around in her unfathomable excuse for a mind.

For his part, all Excavator could do… was stare. His eyes almost seemed to glaze over, and his mouth wouldn’t stay closed as he watched her gyrate. To the side, Chicken Head could only sit and snicker, even as she cracked her knuckles and geared up for a triumphant return.

“That’s it!” Southpaw shouted, as without warning, a solid construct of topaz energies that took the form of a giant hand emerged from her own alien weapon and grasped Ebony firmly. The other girl screamed, more from fury and frustration than any pain or discomfort, and struggled helplessly against Southpaw’s grip.

Even as Excavator found himself laid out on the ground of the hedge maze due to a timely right cross, Chicken Head and Milkshake turned to look at the source of the scream. “Ebony!” Chicken Head shouted.

“Put her down, bitch!” Milkshake shouted.

“Or what?” Southpaw asked, a snide grin plastered on her features.

“Or I’ma fuck you up, that’s what,” Milkshake replied.

“Bring it, then,” Southpaw challenged the girls.

Breakstone Lake; Xavier Institute

Air Force found himself doing something he hadn’t done since he left his old high school in Buffalo: jogging. Even he found it a little amusing that he was still somewhat into it, especially since he always preferred the swim team to the track team, but he seemed to be good at it. Tonight, he’d decided to take a jog around Breakstone Lake, as he enjoyed a little moonlight run around a lakeshore… he appreciated the beauty, to be certain, but also the solitude. His turbulent thoughts were enough to keep him company.

I’m actually attending the Xavier Institute, he thought to himself, and people still fuck with me. I thought it would be different here. I thought these people were more progressive than that. Maybe I was wrong.

{Or maybe not, Boyd.}, came the telepathic voice of his squadmate, Fusion.

Air Force stopped running, taking a moment to wipe the sweat beading on his forehead away and sitting down next to a tree. “Yeah?” he said to the girl that he knew would hear him, no matter how far away she was. “This is just like my old high school, except with powers. That’s the only difference.”

{Oh, I think you’re wrong about that,} Fusion replied. {There are other people here going through the same thing you are, you know.}

“Oh, yeah?” Air Force asked. “Do you even know what I’m going through?”

{I’m the most powerful telepath at this school, Boyd, of course I know. Not only are you a mutant, but you’re gay.}

“Yeah, well, I’m not trying to be all woe-is-me about it,” Air Force replied. “Believe me, I can deal with it, and worse. I just don’t think I should have to, y’know?”

{Yeah, I know,} Fusion replied. {But hey, at least you aren’t dealing with what Sirocco has to deal with.}

Air Force laughed snidely, remembering his conversation (or lack thereof) with Sirocco earlier. It had been that conversation that had really hurt his feelings, and he couldn’t quite put his finger on why. Rockslide and Tag, and the rest of the morons on the Hellions squad didn’t bother him in the slightest. But for some reason, Sirocco did. And he wanted to know why.

“Oh?” Air Force asked rhetorically. “And what’s he got to deal with?”

{Well, he’s a mutant, a Muslim, and gay,} Fusion replied, much to Air Force’s surprise. {He’s living in a country that he was raised to hate, practicing a religion that puts him at odds with his heart, and he’s been through trauma that you could only guess at. So maybe you should stop feeling sorry for yourself, okay?}

Air Force was completely taken aback. He had no clue that Sirocco was gay, and his gaydar was usually running at one hundred percent efficiency. It just didn’t seem to add up to him, especially after their dinnertime encounter.

More to the point… “Why are you telling me this, Sophia?” he asked.

{Well, let’s just say a little voice in my head likes the idea of the two of you together. And I kinda have to listen to her.}

{Damn right you do!} came another voice, which sounded the same, yet… different, somehow.

“Who was that?” Air Force asked.

{I’m Terra. Otherwise known as Fusion’s sensual side.} Air Force thought that she sounded like Sophia, but with a more… well, sensual quality.

{You mean slutty side,} came a third voice, this one sounding the same yet haughtier.

{Hush it, Rebecca!} Terra replied.

{Enough, you two,} Fusion stated. After a momentary pause, she continued. {I just thought you might want to know that, Boyd. He really has no one to talk to here, and while he comes off as a bit of a jackass, he really is terrified and lonely. So cut the guy some slack, okay?}

Air Force just nodded, letting it all sink in, even though he wasn’t sure if Fusion would even know. Somehow, though, he knew she would. “Thanks, Sophia.”

{Hey, what are squadmates for?} Fusion replied.

“I think we’re all trying to figure that one out,” Air Force chuckled.

Hedge Maze; Xavier Institute

Southpaw dropped Ebony from her enigmatic construct, her hateful eyes now locked on Milkshake. While Chicken Head moved at a crouch to get to Ebony, Milkshake suddenly rushed at Southpaw. “Yo’ ass is mine, bitch!”

But before she could even get to Southpaw, the girl’s construct had balled up into a fist, and before Milkshake could slow her roll, Southpaw had punched the girl with such force that she rocketed through the air like a grand slam in a ballpark.

“Fo’ a skinny white bitch, you sho’ hit hard!” exclaimed Ebony as she got to her feet, already gearing up for another go.

“Yeah… and you’re about to find out just how hard!” Southpaw replied angrily, taking a step toward Ebony.

“Don’t even, bitch,” shouted Chicken Head, pursing her lips together.

Southpaw sneered at the bigger girl. “What are you gonna do? Blow me a kiss?”

Chicken Head smirked. “Funny you say dat…” And with that, Chicken Head unleashed an incredibly powerful blast of wind from her lips, a wind that rivaled Hurricane Katrina in pure destructive force. It caught Southpaw completely unawares, picking the girl up off the ground and flinging her through the air like a ragdoll.

Smiling down at a confused Ebony, Chicken Head quipped, “Told ya I could blow.”

Slowly getting to his feet, Excavator rubbed at the sore spot below his left eye. “Goddamn, bitch, you fight like a dude,” he said to Chicken Head. “Then again, so do I.”

Raising his hands as a means of focusing his power, several more of the smooth rocks artfully placed in the hedge maze rose from the ground, and began to rocket toward the three girls just then. But unbelievably, all of them missed their mark!

Excavator’s eyes widened. “What the hell? No way!”

“I guess luck just wasn’t on your side today,” came a new voice.

Jinx emerged from the hedge maze then, her hands balled into fists. At her side was Vixen, who looked more amused than anything else. They moved to stand next to Milkshake, Ebony, and Chicken Head, staring daggers at Excavator. Milkshake grinned at their arrival.

“Oh, even the skinny white bitches want a piece of yo’ ass,” she taunted.

Excavator smiled an oily smile at them. “All these ladies, fightin’ over me… Dad would be so proud.” He balled his hands into fists, and the ground below him ripped right out of the earth, forming an airborne platform. “I think there’s enough of me to go around.”

“Right here with you, baby,” came the voice of Southpaw, who had chosen that moment to leap over one of the tall hedges and land on the platform next to Excavator. “Let’s take these whores down.”

“I don’t think so,” said a very firm, commanding voice.

All eyes turned to see Danielle Moonstar, standing at the entrance to the center of the hedge maze, a psychic arrow already notched and pointed right at Southpaw. Flanking her were Karma and Wolfsbane, who had shifted into her lupine transitional form, her lips bared in a feral snarl.

“Get back, girls,” Karma said. “We’ll deal with this.”

“You heard her,” Milkshake shouted at the others. “Move yo’ asses!” Ebony, Chicken Head, and Jinx did as they were instructed. Vixen hesitated long enough to scoff snobbily at Milkshake before she did the same.

“Ricky,” Moonstar stated. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Excavator put his fists on his hips aggressively. “Just a little recruitin’ drive, Miss Moonstar. You didn’t really think I wanted to go to this lame-ass school, didja?” he asked.

Southpaw draped an arm over his shoulder. “The D-Generation has better things to do than hang around you buncha losers.”

Karma chuckled. “I’ve seen you before, on the news. You’re just a bunch of punk kids who think you’re real supervillains.”

Southpaw nodded. “We don’t have to think, lady.”

“No kidding,” Karma muttered.

“You can still turn this around, Ricky,” Moonstar said, never once lowering her weapon. “Just come back to the school, and we can talk about this.”

“Nah, I don’t think so,” Excavator responded, his rocky platform already beginning to ascend into the night sky. “Oh, and one more thing…”

“What?” asked Moonstar, who’d already resigned herself to letting him go. If he really wanted to leave, she couldn’t hold him against his will.

“Clean house before someone cleans it for you,” he replied. “Or you might lose more than two students today.”

And with that, he and Southpaw soared into the sky, rapidly shrinking from view.

Milkshake looked at Moonstar then. “What’s he mean, two students? That bitch don’t go here.”

Moonstar, who’d disposed of her psychic weaponry, regarded Karma and Wolfsbane in turn. “Come inside, girls. We need to talk.”

Breakstone Lake; Xavier Institute

“Boyd?”

Air Force looked up from where he sat to see someone he certainly didn’t expect.

Sirocco.

“Yeah? What?” he asked, a little more harshly than he intended.

The Saudi boy lowered his eyes for a moment, reminded again of his own unwarranted harshness toward Air Force. “May I talk to you for a moment?”

Air Force hesitated a moment before nodding. “Yeah, sure. What about?”

Sirocco took a tentative step forward. “About what I said to you. It was uncalled for, and I want to apologize.”

Unable to contain himself, Air Force suddenly stood up and grinned. “So does this mean I can court you now?”

He didn’t think it was possible, but Air Force could’ve sworn Sirocco actually darkened a bit, instantly averting his eyes from Air Force’s own penetrating gaze. “Fusion says I should try to understand you, but… I cannot.”

Air Force raised his eyebrows in surprise. “She’s been giving you the pep talk, too, huh?”

Sirocco nodded. “She says you take pride in who you are, in what you are, but…”

“But what?” Air Force prodded.

Sirocco looked up then, meeting his gaze. “How can you be proud of being an abomination?”

At that, Air Force grinned crookedly. “Oh, you mean being a mutant? Or being a fag?” Despite his offhandedness, Air Force was actually a little offended. It wasn’t every day that someone called him an abomination and actually literally meant it.

Sirocco shook his head. “I did not mean…” He seemed to gather his thoughts for a moment, then he began to turn away. “I am sorry, Boyd. Perhaps this was not a good idea.”

Air Force stepped forward suddenly, and grabbed Sirocco’s hand, forcing him to turn. And even as Sirocco turned awkwardly to face him, momentarily unable to even keep his balance, Air Force leaned in close and planted a quick, yet surprisingly gentle, kiss on his lips. Just as quickly as he did so, however, Air Force pulled away, releasing his grip on Sirocco’s hand.

A moment later, Sirocco stared at Air Force, complete shock evident on his face. “Why—why did you do that?!”

“Because I knew you wouldn’t,” Air Force replied.

Sirocco took a step forward. “Do not ever touch me again, you filth,” he spat, injecting every word with loathing.

Air Force raised his eyebrows, and put his hands on his hips. “Why not? You certainly seemed to enjoy it.”

If it was possible for Sirocco to turn red with rage, he definitely did so. “I did not enjoy it!”

“Oh?” Air Force asked, his eyes drifting downward momentarily. “Your mouth says no, but other parts of you seem to disagree.” It was all he could do not to laugh, although he didn’t bother to hide his mischievous grin.

Fortunately for Sirocco, he was saved from his frustration and inability to argue with Air Force by the sudden intrusion of Fusion’s astral form… accompanied by the astral form of her five “sisters.” Each of them wore the same bland, neutral expression, which signaled to the boys that something was up.

{Get back to the school, guys,} Fusion implored the pair. {Headmaster McCoy just put the school on lockdown.}

“Why?” Air Force asked. “What’s going on?”

{They found Liam O’Keefe earlier tonight, dead. And Doctor Reyes-McCoy believes it was murder.}