DISCLAIMER: Pete Wisdom, Gambit, Wolverine, Storm, the Professor, ect, belong to Marvel Comics. This is just for fun, no infringement is intended. The "Have you ever had one of those days ..." bit belongs to JB McDonald. Likewise, no infringement is intended. Rhiannon (I like that name. You never would have guessed, huh?) and Indigo are mine. If you want to use them or archive this story please ask my permission, I'll probably give it.

NOTES: Poitr isn't in the X-Men yet because he's younger than Pete and Remy, and I don't especially like him anyway (rat bastard thinks he can beat up Pete and get away with it ... mumble ... mumble ...). This is intended to be first in a series(though I can't guarantee it'll be finished) and the idea wouldn't leave my brain.

* * is telepathic speech

FEEDBACK: Send feedback and that kind of stuff to RhiannonAZ@aol.com. No flames please.

THANKS: To Nitemare Queen for bugging me to finish this part and to Kathy who wanted a sequal (but asked for it in French so I needed a tranlator ...)

At seven o'clock the next morning the Professor was in the rec room waiting for his students. Scott joined him for a few minutes and then left to go work out in the Danger Room. Seven-thirty, no one. Seven-forty-five, Logan stopped in.

He looked at the empty room and sighed, "Chuck, they're teenagers. They ain't gonna get up for a while yet. Not without some serious persuading', anyway." Eight o'clock, no one. Around eight-twenty Rhiannon came in, holding her daughter.

"I'm sorry," she said and smiled apologetically, "I got kind of lost coming from the kitchen."

"I suppose the layout is a bit confusing if you aren't used to it. You haven't seen Remy and Pete this morning, by any chance?"

"Pete and Remy? No I haven't."

Logan, who was sitting in the shadows, laughed, "Won't for a few hours if they have any say in it." He paused and grinned feraly. "Which they don't." With that he left the room thinking that this would be a perfect time to have a talk with young LeBeau.

Logan stood in the doorway of Remy LeBeau's room and looked it over. Though he had arrived a little before noon the previous day everything was still packed, what little there was of it. He obviously wasn't used to staying in one place for any length of time. And, just as obvious to Wolverine, he had woken up the moment the door had opened. "You can stop pretending to sleep now kid. I know you're awake.", he growled at the prone figure. "We need to talk."

The young man slowly got up and looked at Logan with hard, wary red on black eyes. "About, mon ami?"

'Give the kid points for being unreadable', Logan thought. "I know all about the Guild, bub, and I know the LeBeau Clan. Being as you've been on your own for a while now I can only assume that you've got trouble following you. If you're bringing it here --" He extended the claws on his right hand to emphasize his point. To his credit Remy seemed unmoved. 'Kid's got guts', Wolverine said to himself.

"It ain't like that, homme. When my powers ... manifested de Assassins were none too 'bout it, non? And they less happy about me an' Belle. I figured I should leave before I make t'ings too hot for de T'ieves. Dat an' Belle said she couldn't see me no more." Remy's voice trailed off in pain.

He was telling the truth, Logan could have spotted a lie a mile off. Not that there wasn't a lot being unsaid. "Sorry 'bout that kid ... This conversation ain't over, though. Why don't you go down to the rec room. The Professor and Rhi are waiting on you ... Actually, it would probably be okay for you to in the kitchen and grab some grub. You'll need it, and it might take me a while to get he Limey up.", he said as walked out of the room.

For the second time in fifteen minutes Logan walked into a room uninvited and unannounced. This time there were a few differences. For one thing the room's occupant reacted by burrowing in further under the covers, but was still fast asleep. Wisdom had a gift for ignoring anything meant to wake him up. It was a talent that might get him killed one day if he didn't lose it. The other was the amount of objects he had brought with him, which Logan knew from picking him up from JFK, and the beginning of a complete mess he had made in the less than twelve hours he had been there, at least of few hours of which had been spent sleeping.

It wasn't that bad -- yet -- but it was clear that within a week it would be horrendous. Bags of clothing lay where they had been thrown, a stereo had partially been set up on top of the desk, with a couple of boxes holding bits and pieces to finish it off nearby. Carrying cases full of tapes and CD's were scattered around it, along with a couple of apple crates filled with LP's. A box had tipped over and spilled books all over the floor and similar containers were clustered next to it. Logan stooped and glanced at some of the titles and raised an eyebrow. Christie Riddle's "Underhill and Deeper Still", a few pysc. and soc. textbooks (Pete had graduated college the year before and attended a year of university), a collection of Shakespeare, a worn Douglas Adams novel, "A Clockwork Orange", and an academic study on the Jack the Ripper case.

Logan shook his head in bemusment and growled at the bed, "You got thirty seconds to get up bub, or else I'm making you."

A muffled "Sod off." came from within the heap of bedclothes and must have been an instinctual reaction because Wisdom was still fast asleep.

Logan pulled at the covers and threw them to the ground. Pete, still unconscious, rolled over, pulled the fitted sheet off the bed, and curled up in it. Wolverine tugged at that and pulled it -- and Pete -- off the bed.

Wisdom was wide awake the second he hit the ground. "Wot in bloody hell! Who's the bugger with the rotten sense of humor?" His eyes fell on Logan. "An' wot the 'ell was the point of that, old man." His hand was beginning to glow slightly and his suprised exclamation of, "Oh fer Christ's sake!", made it clear that it wasn't intentional, even though he had been trying to be menacing. Pete took a deep breath and glared until his power subsided. Logan chuckled. "It ain't funny, ya toerag! Ya could o' been 'urt."

"The Professor and everyone else is waitin' on you. Better get down there fast kid."

After he had pulled on jeans, his boots, and a Violent Femmes T-shirt Pete hurried to the kitchen to grab a bite and some coffee, running into Remy as the other young man left. "Hey man, some bleedin' wake-up call, huh?" The red-eyed Cajun nodded in agreement and split. 'Not very talkative this mornin' are we? Oh well, let's see what kind of grub they got in this place.'

He was shocked and disappointed to find that there was almost no junk food. Since it was obvious that he didn't have much time he just warmed a few bagels and slathered butter, cream cheese, jam, peanut butter and chocolate syrup on them and washed everything down with half a pot of very strong coffee which Remy had made. He finished the last of the coffee in a gulp and nearly ran out of the kitchen.

Charles Xaiver smiled half-heartedly at his students. It was fifteen minutes past nine and they still hadn't started for the day. Pete Wisdom had finally shown up, in a horrible mood, Remy was watching everything out of the corner of his eye and looked like he was about to bolt, and Rhiannon was simply trying to ignore all the tension in the room and not doing a very good job of it. The main reason for that tension was standing in the middle of the room, arguing with Pete.

"Do you have any idea how disrespectful you're being? Your obvious disregard for authority is an insult to all of --"

"Oh for Christ's sake, lighten up and stop being such a tight-ass Summers. He never said when we were supposed to meet, anyways an' any normal teenager is gonna sleep a lot later than this if they got any choice in the matter. Hate t' be the one t' break it to ya, but I didn't plot this out just t' annoy you Scoot. I got better things t' do with me time." The black haired youth fished out a pack of Marlboros and scowled at them when he realized that Indigo was in the room. Not wanting Cyclops to think he was backing down he put an unlit fag in his mouth.

"Do not call me that. You will address me as Mr. Summers or Cyclops, young --"

"Whatever Scoot."

The Professor sighed and mentally called the others. *We're about to start. I would appreciate it if one of you would come and look after the child.*

*It would be my pleasure Professor.*, Ororo replied. A few minutes later she arrived. "I am here Professor."

"Thank you, Ororo. Rhiannon, we're going to be rather busy today, so I asked Miss Monroe to watch Indigo for the day." How he put it made it clear that it wasn't a request.

The young woman squirmed a bit. "Umm ... I guess that's okay." She nervously handed the child over to the African woman and began to rattle instructions. She finished and kissed her daughter on the forehead. "Now you be a good girl for Miss Munroe."

The toddler nodded solemnly and was promptly distracted when Nightcrawler bamfed into the room with a flash of light and the stench of brimstone. They had not met him the night before and the newcomers were rather startled, though Pete took it better than most. Indigo's reaction was singular though. She began to laugh. "Look, Mommy! He got blue hair too!"

The German blinked for a moment, not used to a pleased reaction to his appearance, especially from children. "I am pleased that you like it Madchen. You are Indigo, ja?"

The little girl nodded and squirmed out of the African goddess's arms to cling to the demonesque mutant's legs. "You're fuzzy!" She was clearly pleased with her new friend.

"Indigo! Behave yourself.", her mother cried, embarrassed by her child's outgoingness. "You let go of Mister ... Mister ..."

"Kurt Wagner, Fraulin. And I don't mind at all. Such a charming child." He crouched down and smiled, "I have work to do now, but I will come and read you a story later. Would you like that little one?"

The toddler laughed and hugged him and then went back to Storm, who led her out of the room.

"So, Professor, we will begin now?" Xaiver nodded and left the room. At first they explained academics and Cyclops immediately put his foot in his mouth.

"I'm sure you all have a lot to catch up on."

Rhiannon knew it was true, in her case at least, she was just surprised that he put it so bluntly. Even so, for the past five years she had practically lived in libraries. Remy narrowed his eyes and Pete stared coldly, turning to the Professor. "Yeah, I got so much t' catch up on, I better start by registerin'."

Logan grabbed Summers by the arm and dragged him aside. "Listen up Slim. From now on keep your mouth shut and stop acting so superior. The kid's starting at Columbia in a few weeks. As a sophomore." Logan rather enjoyed the stunned look on Summers face. "And as for the other two, that remark was flamin' tactless. They're smart kids, both of them, and they've had some hard knocks. Survival ranks a bit higher than education on the streets. I suggest that unless you know exactly what you're talking about you keep your mouth shut from here on out."

Somewhere along the line Cyclops had begun to take his own unhappy childhood as a right to think that the younger generation was full of slackers that were always whining about their lot even though they had it easy. Logan didn't deny that he had it rough in the orphanage, but it was time that he realized that others had it just as tough, or tougher. There'd be time enough to straighten out Scoot later though.

The tour came to a set of huge bulkhead doors. Cyclops tapped a series of commands into a panel next to it. There was a hum of machinery as the steel doors slowly separated. They reveled a huge, strange chamber, lined with metal and filled with strange devices. The new students cast a questioning look in Logan's direction. Despite the leader status of the Professor and Summers the teenagers were already ignoring them and favoring the more down to earth attitude of Wolverine. Though in at least one case the leader status was why they were ignored.

The short Canadian was about to answer when Cyclops, who felt his position was being usurped, spoke up. This is our training chamber, the Danger Room. If you would step inside please." The three teens complied, casting suspicious looks in the team leaders direction. "You will undertake a preliminary trial so that we can place your abilities. We'll have the room on it's lowest setting, of course." He tapped a few more buttons and the doors began to shut.

"Hold up Summers, you mean now?", Pete demanded angrily. "Bloody 'ell" The door closed with a resounding thud. "Lovely. Just bleedin' wonderful." Wisdom looked around, taking stock of the huge mostly bare chamber.

"You know what's going on?", Rhiannon asked.

"Not a clue luv. Remy?"

"How de hell should I know ...", the young Cajun blustered. After an akward pause he went on. "It might be, it probably is, some kind of holographic chamber or something ... I, er, heard of dem, around ..."

"Right. We'll talk later mate." Pete seemed to be taking charge for some reason. "Stick close together, at least until we figure out what's going on. Remy, if you know anything else about this, please feel free to share with the rest of us." They clustered in a tight circle with their backs to each other.

"Things'll pop up an' we'll have to fight dem. Dey might be able to hurt us."

"What kind of things LeBeau?"

"Damned if I know."

"Just perfect." As Pete spoke scenery faded in. They appeared to be in the remains of some sort of war zone. After a moment a couple of large Neanderthal looking thugs appeared. Other than large pipes they were unarmed. All three teens acted according to instinct. Rhiannon ducked behind a pile of rubble and hid while Remy and Pete hung back, evaluating their opponents.

Cyclops stood in the Danger Room's control booth. "What the heck are they doing?"

"Figuring out what's going on., Wolverine replied, approval seeping into his voice. "And you can swear you know."

Behind his visor Scott Summers's eyes narrowed.

Pete had tried to reason with them, feeling extremely stupid all the while. His attempt was completely ignored. "Okay. That was pointless."

"Your idea, mon ami."

"My idea? How the hell is this my idea?", Wisdom protested, gesturing towards the whole scene. The thugs advanced swinging their pipes.

Remy withdrew a small cylinder from his pocket and pushed a button on it. It became metal staff, which he used to block one of the pipes.

Pete, on the other hand, simply dodged. "I'm not even gonna ask what that is, 'cause I get the feeling that I ain't gonna get an answer." He avoided another blow and grabbed the man's arm, holding him in place for a wicked punch. Then he smashed the thug's hand against a wall, forcing him to drop his weapon. "Toerag." He continued to beat up the lummox.

LeBeau parried a few more swings before knocking his opponent unconscious. "Dat was easy."

"At the risk of sounding like a b-movie, it seemed a bit too easy.", Pete replied, looking around nervously.

Rhiannon came out of her hiding place. "Don't say that."

"What?"

"Don't say stuff like that. You'll jinx us. If you talk about something bad or say it could be worse or something like that, it'll happen." She shrugged at the boy's odd looks. "At least that's how it always seemed to work in the Tombs."

"Right."

"They didn't even use their powers and the girl didn't even fight!", Scott complained.

"They didn't need to." Logan sighed. Why the hell couldn't Cyke figure out that using minimum force was a good thing.

"Let's see how they handle something a bit more difficult."

"So, do you think it's over?", Rhiannon asked, glancing around.

"Nah, they would've turned it off and let us out if it was.", Wisdom replied. "And like I said, that was way too easy."

LeBeau nodded in agreement.

"We should probably stay close together and keep our eyes peeled. I don't think it's going to be so easy this time. And Rhi -- Don't go running off again."

The young woman narrowed her eyes and was about to make a come back when she began to stare at something behind Pete's shoulder. "You know how I told you not to say stuff like that."

"Yes, I heard the 'stop with the negative waves' speech."

"And you went and said it again."

"Yeah."

"I hate to say 'I told you so', but I told you so." The boys turned around and came face to face with a huge robot.

"Merde."

"Fuck."

"Unidentified mutant signatures. Terminate."

"Aw shite. Scatter!" The other two hurried to comply with Pete.

"What happen t' 'stick together', mon ami?"

"Aw, fer Chrissake, just shut up an' do… whatever the hell it is you do at the damned thing. On three."

The other two began to shift their positions.

"One."

Remy searched his pockets for something to charge and found the pack of cards that he and Pete had played poker with the night before.

"Two."

Rhiannon took a deep breath and gathered both her will and the electricity that surrounded her.

"Three."

Pete's eyes glowed as he summoned his hot-knives.

"Now!"

The robot was hit by lightning, explosions and immeasurable heat in a single instant. It hadn't had a chance. Unfortunately the same couldn't be said of the back-up it had called.

"Terminate.", three robots spoke with a single voice.

"Er ... Rhi, take the one on the left, Remy the one on the right an' I'll take care of the other one."

"We're screwed."

"What!?"

Remy and Pete glanced at each other and spoke simultaneously. "Um, good move."

The teens stumbled into the rec room and collapsed. Pete, who had claimed the couch, spoke for them all. "Dead."

Dead in both the exhausted sense and in the deceased one. Pete had slagged his opponent easily and Remy had managed his, but Rhi's had been modified and was made of some sort of plastic. Her lightning had failed to fry it's electronics and she had only scorched it a little. While the others had come to help her out another Sentinal had snuck up behind them. It had fired at them and they were thrown about ten feet. Then Summers's smug voice had came over the intercom. "If this had been real you would be dead."

"Soddin' annoyin' four eyed bastard."

"Scott, don't you think you were a little bit hard on them?", Jean asked.

"No, I don't. They have to learn how to fight."

Logan spoke up. Jeanie's right."

"What?"

"I said Jeanie's right. Ya came down way too hard on them. I've gone over the records an' they did better than you did your first time in there an' there are two less of 'em. They haven't been trained to fight either. That ain't mentionin' that you just threw them in their without an explanation."

"We needed to see how they would deal with unexpected situations and --"

"You could have gotten them seriously injured. It wouldn't have hurt anything to tell them."

"I wasn't aware you were team leader Wolverine." They walked into the rec room. "We need to debrief you and go over what you did wrong.", Cyclops ordered.

The three of them looked at each other and silently came to an agreement. The only answer he got was three middle fingers.