June, Year 4

The Seed, Planted

By Will Short

Jenny Livenhill has rarely felt such a rush, a feeling of total abandon and freedom, in her life. Two large, purple robots that Jean had called "Sentinels", or something like that, chase her through the dark streets, firing glowing beams of pure destruction at her.. They miss frequently, mainly due to the luck abilities she is currently "copying" from Longshot. Her eye even glows, like the former Mojoworld inhabitant's, as she makes use of this ability.

She knows it is the only thing standing between her and the bolts from the huge robots, and the borrowed luck still leaves the possibility of being hit.....and she loves it.

But a young woman such as Jenny can only run for so long before fighting back, and for her, that is probably even better than the risky chase.

Turning suddenly and leaping into the air, the thin material of her black body suit rips, revealing the metal wings that she is sprouting. Jenny can feel the skin tightening on her body as her muscle mass increases and the already small amount of fat on her body burns away. Even her eyes adjust, letting her see her foes more clearly as she flies over the robots, doubling back around them and facing them from behind as the two take their time turning..

Jenny observantly notices a slight imperfection in the leg of one of her enemies, and while still in the air, she fires a few deadly blades from her new wings, hitting near the spot, but not directly.

"Stupid wings...why can't the blue guy have a wider range with his powers? I need something more direct....." Jenny says to herself, and as the robots slowly lumber towards her, she uses another power.

A crimson blast more dangerous than the Sentinels' comes forth from Jenny's eyes, uncontrolled and raw with power while tearing through a robot's torso. The spent and useless being of metal circuitry falls to the ground helplessly, leaving Jenny only to worry about its cohort. She can hear that the downed foe has been hit, so she shuts off her optic firing quickly to avoid unneeded blindness.

"That's it, Jenny...now take care of the other."

Jean Grey's experienced voice encourages the new recruit over the intercom, as she watches down on the Danger Room scene playing out.

"She has even better control over those optic blasts than I do." Scott Summers, Cyclops, says while he watches on with his wife.

"Very impressive." She agrees.

Meanwhile, back on the fighting floor, Jenny disables the other Sentinel easily by changing her powers once again, using Iceman's frosty powers to freeze and, ultimately, destroy the robot.

Proud and perhaps a bit zealous, Jenny turns and looks to the otherwise misplaced long window that shows the watching faces of Phoenix and Cyclops above.

"Well?" Jenny says to them loudly, "What do you think?"

"You're doing good so far, Jenny." Phoenix admits.

"So far...?"

"So far..... but don't turn your back on the battle unless it's done." Cyclops advises her, and Jenny looks into the distance to see a small fleet of Sentinels approaching her, in a much larger number than before.

Many people, even experienced heroes, would have some sort of negative feeling about this sight, but Jenny sees it as an opportunity to flaunt some of her other skills.

"Looks good to me, Cyclops...now you and Jean can see what all I can do!" Jenny claims, and before the group of oncoming Sentinels come much closer, Phoenix and Cyclops watch in amazement as Jenny transforms from the young, attractive blonde into an exact copy of the very model of robot as she was just battling.

"What the...?" Scott wonders aloud, his eyes widening underneath his ruby quartz glasses, and turning his head from gazing at the surprise to Jean, she does the same to him.

"I don't know, honey...we don't have any shape-shifters in the building, or even on the team." She says to him, and he smiles.

"Looks like Jenny has some other abilities that we didn't know about." They go back to watching the battle.

As the programmed Sentinels, part of the Danger Room program, land, they look at their false brother, or rather, sister.

"This unit was called for back-up by other units." One of the robots says monotonously. Jenny tries to make her voice deeper and in the same vein as her counterparts'.

"Um.....The girl is around this area. She is very powerful, so we must all look for her." She says unconvincingly, but the Sentinels do not notice.

As they walk past her, Jenny sees her chance to really impress the others..

"Units, I sense the mutant nearby..." a Sentinel begins to say.

"Behind you!" Jenny yells in her normal voice, and now back in her normal form. As the Sentinels look up from their hopeless searching, a red shield of energy forms and closes in around the group of robots, gradually growing smaller and smaller until the creatures of machinery are crushed under the weight of the shield.

"Is that all you have for me, g.....Jean? Cyclops?" Jenny is ready to brag, but she sees no one in the window, as she did before. "Where'd you go?"

Clapping from nearby startles her, and turning around, she sees Jean and Scott as the source of the applause.

Jenny smiles. "You like?"

"That was very good, Jenny...I had no idea you were a shape-shifter, too!" Jean says, obviously impressed, but Jenny shakes her head.

"Not a shape-shifter...at least, not the way you mean. I can make everyone else think I look like something or someone that I've seen, but when I look at myself, I look the same."

Cyclops frowns, without explanation for her powers, and speaks. "It may be a mental trick more than something physical...we'll check into that later."

"Later? So that means I'll be staying?" Jenny says, her eyes bright with excitement. The two elder X-Men have rarely seen anyone so excited to join their misfit group.

"I think so...Scott?" Jean says wondering, and looks at her husband with encouragement.

He answers without much though. "I think Mirror would make a fine addition to the team...but, there is the matter of talking to your parents."

Neither Scott nor Jean notices, but Jenny becomes a bit stiff.

"Um...well we don't need to worry about my folks real soon. By the way...I don't much like the name that that creep Mojo gave to me*. It sounds stupid, and it's not mine."

(* Mojo gave Jenny the codename "Mirror" back in X-Men #79. -Will)

Oblivious to Jenny's avoiding of a certain subject without a mindscan, Jean thinks for a moment. "A new name, hmm? Well...let's see....."

"Jean, there's always Calvin's old name..." Cyclops suggests, and Jean smiles.

"Mimic? I think that's a good choice...what do you think, Jenny?"

Jenny nods her head and smiles. "Anything besides Mirror is fine with me....but who's Calvin?"

Cyclops explains. "Calvin Rankin was a member of the original X-Men a long time ago, with the name Mimic*...he had similar powers to yours."

(* The original Mimic, Calvin Rankin, supposedly died from radiation poisoning, but lives once again in the pages of Cloak and Dagger. -Will)

"Sounds cool to me. So are we over for the day?" Jenny asks, ready for more exploring of the mansion, but Cyclops makes her halt with his words.

"Not quite yet, Jenny. You did well today, there's no doubt about that. You're good at adjusting to new powers that you've hardly ever used before...but you kept switching from power to power, without exploring them at all." Cyclops explains to her, and she wants to say something back in her defense, but he does not leave her much of a window to.

"It's good to stick to powers that you know and can use well, or at least to try and keep with one or two you can adjust to easily. When you used Archangel's wings, your maneuvering was good, but it seemed like you weren't very comfortable with the offensive aspect of Warren's powers."

Teenagers are easily offended, and Jenny is no exception. Still, she knows that she must learn to take criticism.

".....okay, boss. You got it." She answers, and Jean smiles at Jenny.

"I think a new name requires some sort of costume, Jenny...would you like to look at some old designs and pictures we have?"

This certainly interests Jenny. "My own costume? Of course!"

And so the two women walk away to the other sections of the mansion, while Cyclops goes back up to the Danger Room control panel, rebooting the system and watching as the environment below changes back to the normal plain steel surfaces.

Scott opens the door and sticks his head out, seeing Blockade and Moira in their chairs kissing passionately, apparently grown bored with waiting. Scott almost laughs out loud, but holds it back and calls to them.

"Um...Barry? Moira?" Scott asks, and they stop abruptly and look at him, with even redder faces than usual.

"Oh.....haha, uh..." Barry laughs uncomfortably, standing with Moira's hand in his.

"Don't worry, Scotty...jus' a lil' public display between two lovers." She says with outgoing friendliness, leading Barry into the control room with her.

"Hey, none of my business." Cyclops says, smiling, as Moira takes a seat where Jean sat before, and Barry goes down into the blank pallet of Danger Room below. Yelling from the room, Barry smiles, not as shy anymore.

"Let's get this show on the road, Scotty!"

"You got it, Barry."

Meanwhile in the dusty compartments and vents making up the X-Mansion's air-conditioning system, two unknown visitors watch over their hosts from the usually empty area.

Speaking quietly, one says through what sounds like a small speaker, "She is not here. We will look around the rest of the mansion."

Iceman, Bobby Drake, and Shadowcat, Kitty Pryde, have been the youngest of two separate generations of X-Men. Both of them have been used to the lesser expectations from older members, even if the age difference is but a few years. And while Bobby is a number of years older than the former Excalibur member, the two cannot help but feel a shared kinship between each other.

"Today's been the most boring day we've had in a long time." Kitty says between panting breaths. Some would be surprised how much of a sweat one can work up playing foose ball, especially as spirited and as long as Kitty and Bobby have been.

"It's better than having Scott watch us in.....Wait? What was that? GOOOOOOOL!" Bobby interrupts his own sentence as he spins the handle and knocks the small ball into Kitty's goal, winning the game for him.

"Okay, that's it! I'm done." Kitty exclaims, and walks away from the table to sit down on the couch nearby.

"C'mon, Pryde...I know you have at least five more games in you." Bobby, a gamesome young man, is very persistent.

"We've had at least sixteen games, already, Frosty."

"That's true.....but it's better than being tested like a guinea pig in the Danger Room." Bobby sits on the other end of the small couch, close and yet far away from Kitty at the same time. She leans back a little so she can face Bobby while speaking.

"I dunno...no, I take that back. You're right. When I was new, I was in that thing more than I was out of it." Kitty jokes, remembering her time as a new X-Man.

Bobby's face turns to a look of playful disgust. "You had it tough? Believe me, sweetheart, there's no way you could've been tested more than me. The Professor was very interested in using his new playroom when the X-Men first got together."

"Maybe so...still, we both know what it's like to be the young one needing to be tested." Kitty admits.

"Good thing we're both old enough not to have to take that kinda crap now....and besides, now we have Jenny to take the hazing."

They laugh, and then stop. There is a short, comfortable silence, and Bobby searches for something to talk about.

"Seems like the mutant family is growing bigger everyday, with new members and all..." Bobby tries to start a new subject, and Kitty throws out the first piece of trivia she knows.

"Forty-three percent of all children born are mutants, and that number's growing every year."

"Oh....I see....." Bobby doesn't really know what to do with that, so he continues his own conversation from before. "There were a lot of people at Jean and Cyke's wedding*, and almost every one was a mutant. Plenty of them out there...you were there, right?"

(* Phoenix and Cyclops were hitched back in X-Men #30. -Will)

"Their wedding...?"

"Yeah."

"Of course!" Kitty exclaims, "I wouldn't miss something like that, and even if I was going to, Rachel wouldn't have let me."

"Rachel?" Bobby does not recognize who Kitty is referring to, and she reaches out to hit him on the arm playfully.

"Phoenix, Iceboy! You know...member of Excalibur...Jean and Scott's daughter from an alternate future.....trapped in her own future because....." Kitty trails off, her carefree disposition fading with her speaking, as she remembers her closest friend from Excalibur, now gone from our timeline once again**.

(* Phoenix and Cyclops were hitched back in X-Men #30. ** Rachel Summers, Phoenix II, gave up her place in our time so that Captain Britain could return in Excailbur #75 -Will)

Bobby quickly notices the change and instinctively takes Kitty's smaller hand into his, comforting her.

"You alright, Kitty? You don't look so great.....or at least, not as gracefully beautiful as usual." He says, trying to get into her head while attempting to cheer her up all at once.

She raises her head from nearly crying, the tears almost welling up, and she smiles warmly at the man of ice.

"Haha, oh Bobby, you don't have to lie just to make me feel better.....I guess I've just been cooped up in the mansion too much lately. I really only leave on missions, since the Professor began his campaign. And then with Kurt and the others leaving...things have just been fluxing." She answers him.

"Hey it's no lie, lady, you always look great...and maybe I can convince Scott to let you out for a little, if things stay as slow as they have today.."

"Thank you, Bobby. And that would be great, if Scott lets up at all....."

Bobby smiles at her boyishly. "I think I can coax him into it, since I'm such a big wheel on X-Men and all" he jokes, "But you'll have to let me come along with you, if I'm the one asking Scott for some time out."

Bobby feels that nervousness that takes your stomach and the back of your head and neck for a ride, the nervousness that comes from laying your reputation out for all to see, specifically for someone you may care for. But he has not felt that for a long time, and he almost enjoys it.

"Of course...I'd like that, Bobby." Kitty answers, and nervousness is replaced my joy and excitement as the reason for Bobby's feelings.

As if from nowhere, they both realize that Bobby is still holding her hand, and they draw their hands back quickly, not offended...just not sure of what to do. Bobby is the first to speak, and he does so awkwardly.

"Uh...well, I better go see if there's anything that needs to be done around these parts." It is uncharacteristic of Bobby to actually search for work, but he will take just about any chance to end the awkward moment. Kitty realizes that, and she almost laughs at their childlike shyness.

"Well, don't have too much fun without me." She replies as the Iceman gets up to exit the room, and he looks back at Kitty as though he has something to say...and maybe he does. But he loses it, and just nods and smiles, and then leaves the room, closing the door behind him.

Bobby leans against the wall outside in the hall, wiping his head and exhaling. He stays like that for a few moments, when Archangel walks by, his blue skin revealed by the tank top and athletic shorts. Bobby realizes that he has not seen Warren all day until now, and it looks like he has had quite a work-out.....

"Hey Bobby," Warren says, gasping only slightly for air and stopping in front of his old friend.

"Hi Warren...looks like you got nice and sweaty from you six hour work-out there, huh?"

"Maybe so, but how about you?" Warren asks, pointing at Bobby. "You look pretty sweaty yourself."

Bobby grimaces, a bit embarrassed even if Warren does not understand why his teammate is in this state.

"Yeah...well, I've just been running around looking for things to do."

Warren laughs at that, but a little stiffly. "Well, I was going to go do my laundry, so maybe we can check if anyone else needs some help?"

"Sure...yeah, that'd be good."

Back in the recreation room, Kitty is still sitting on the couch, facing the television. It is on, but she is not really focusing on the mindless images. She isn't really sure exactly what she's thinking about.....as she put it, "Things have been fluxing."

Shadowcat is so caught up in her thoughts that she does not hear the slight stumbling above her, coming from the vent.

A blue-armored figure looks to the egg-shaped one, and she speaks quietly.. "No, she is not the one. Let us continue."

And so they do.

"Allison, you must have something for her.....you're the Dazzler, for God's sake!"

Jean jokes, but means what she says, with the singer-turned-hero, the flashy Dazzler, who lives up to her name quite truly, in many cases.

"Well, I don't have a whole lot of pieces sitting around...but I do have a few old extras, and some designs I was actually working up myself." She answers the Phoenix, and then looks Jenny, newly renamed Mimic, up and down.

"Yeah.....a lot of my things should fit you. These girls keep on getting more and more mature younger and younger....." she mumbles almost to herself, and continues as she goes to her closet and begins rummaging through her packed boxes of luggage.

"I was thinking of something like a female version of the Mimic's original costume..." Jean suggests, and not having seen the costume, Jenny agrees, not really assured.

"Uh...sure, that'd be fine."

Allison's head appears back around the side of her open closet door with a mixed expression of surprise and amused disgust.

"Girl, don't agree to anything unless you've seen it. And Jean...I can't believe you actually tried to put this young X-Man into a fashion trap like that."

Jean laughs. "Allison...I like the old-fashioned look."

"Yeah...I can tell." The Dazzler responds, and begins looking through the closet again.

Jean does not like the sound of that, much. "What was that supposed to mean, Al?" Jean asks, smiling a little slyly as she walks over and looks around the closet door.

Still rummaging, the Dazzler speaks. "Nothing personal, Jean...I like your costume. But you did get it back in...what, seventy-something? Eighty-something?"

Jean laughs dryly, and dismisses the out-dated she has.

A knock comes on the half-open door leading to Dazzler's room, and Allison yells from the closet, "Come in!"

Rahne walks in, her pleated skirt and short-sleeved collars-shirt making her look as though she were still in grade school.

"Hello, Rahne. We were just having a little girls' get-together in here. Care to join us?" Jean says happily, and Jenny follows. "Hey there, uh...Wolfsbane."

"Thank ye, Jean. And ye dinna need to call me by m' codename here, Jenny. Jus' Rahne is fine." She says, standing a bit uncomfortably in the middle of the room. Dazzler stands from her bent over position in the closet, and walks over with a few assorted articles of clothing.

"Hi, Rahne. Was there something you needed?" Allison asks, and almost sounds uncaring to the answer. Still, the lupine mutant answers.

"Actually, Allison if I could ask ye for.....,well, a few fashion tips?"

"Uh, I would Rahne, but it seems that someone got my luggage mixed up with someone else's, so I can't help either you or Jenny, right now."

"Oh...alright....." Rahne says passively.

"Can I just ask you guys one question, though? Why does everyone always come to me for fashion stuff? Not that it's an insult or anything....."

And as the four female X-Men speak of sweet nothings, the two figures occupying the vent watch on. The egg-shaped pale-armored sits silently, and apparently in concentration as the chunky blue-armor sits, still as though not occupied.

".....wait....." Jean says quietly, feeling as one might at night, sitting alone in bed at home and hearing a small, strange noise in the distance. An intruder...?

Jean stands straight and looks disturbed.

"Jean?" Allison notices first. "What's wrong, hon?"

"Someone is...trying to invade my mind.....someone inexperienced....." Jean says, and then turns to the vent on the wall. "I know you're in there...show yourselves!"

The white armored character turns to the other, and speaks aloud. "Well, Peter...this is the One. We cannot fail, for the sake of the children....."

And with that, a portion of the wall blasts out from the inside, an explosion leaving dust and debris all over the floor and on the Dazzler's bed. Jenny screams, while Jean, Allison, and Rahne get ready for battle.

As the dust clears, two short bodies garbed in thick armor can be seen coming into view.

"Who...?" Jenny asks, a bit frightened, the eerie vision of small figures, one egg-shaped and one sharp and dangerous very odd to her.

"Nanny and Orphanmaker.....although they've managed to keep from being this direct before." Jean says, a fair amount of psychic power appearing on her forehead as she readies for a battle.

"Jean Grey..." Nanny, the egg-like midget, says through her mouth-piece. "...You must come with us."

"Why should I? You've never proved yourselves any good before...do you really expect me to come with no explanation?"

Orphanmaker, the thickly armored counterpart to Nanny, raises his gun and points it at Jean, but Nanny raises her short arm and lowers her partners' firearm.

"No, Peter...not with violence. We cannot give that impression to the children."

Orphanmaker nods, and lowers his gun, putting it back in his holster.

"Please, Mrs. Grey..." Nanny begins.

"Mrs. Summers."

"Oh yes, how could I forget? Mrs. Summers...we wanted to do this as quickly and as silently as possible, but since we cannot fight the X-Men ourselves, I will tell you why we are here. But you must promise to come with us, once I do."

"I won't promise that, but we will hear you out."

The door suddenly flings open and Longshot, drenched and dressed in only a towel, appears in a fighting stance.

"Allison? What's going on up here? I heard someone scream, and I came as soon as possible..." he stops talking as soon as he sees the four beauties in front of him, along with the destroyed wall and the two small bodies of armor.

"Just put on some clothes and get downstairs, babe...we have some guests, and I have a feeling that we're going to have a meeting." The Dazzler says, and Jean calls out to her husband and the other X-Men.

And so...

"I dinna understand this," Barry Fitgurd, Blockade, says, standing and walking around the two guests restlessly. "Ye two have a secret orphanage o' mutants that yer raisin' ta be th' next generation o' society?"

Nanny replies. "Yes. There are many young ones, and it is getting harder and harder to take care of the large number we have."

"Where do you keep these children?" Jean asks.

"In a warehouse."

"That's inhuman!" Archangel bursts out, and Cyclops agrees.

"Warren's right...we can't stand for that. Where's the warehouse?" the X-Men's leader asks.

"It is in New York, but if we go, we must take Phoenix with us." Nanny states.

"Yes, and why is that? What do I have to do with this?" Jean asks, confused, just like the others.

The X-Men can hear Nanny sigh through her suit, and she turns to the Orphanmaker, also standing before the team in the meeting room.

"Peter? Remove your helmet."

And on command, Orphanmaker takes off his iron mask just as Nanny flips open her top.

Nanny, a plain looking brown-haired woman with streaks of grey and glasses, reveals her face for the first time. Oprhanmaker, also known as Peter, has a lighter brown hair, and looks to be no more than ten years old, or so. He has freckles, curly, uncut hair, and is skinny. Nanny speaks again.

"Mrs. Summers...Mr. Summers.....allow me to be the first to tell you that Jean is pregnant."

"P.....pregnant?" Jean murmurs.

"Pregnant."

And less than an hour later, in what used to be mainly the domain of Henry McCoy, the bouncing Beast, Moira McTaggert, Jean Grey-Summers, and Scott Summers all stand, waiting anxiously and tensely.

"Well?" Scott asks, impatiently, as Moira looks over the results. It is imperative that this situation is resolved as soon as possible.

"Hold on, Slim..." Moira says, and picks up a small flask, pouring it onto a sheet of thick, paper-like material. A spot on the material appears, the color blue.

"It turned blue..." Jean says. "What does blue mean?"

Moira turns around, looks at Jean and Scott, and then hugs them both at the same time.

"Congratulations, Summers.....ye're havin' a baby."

Elsewhere, at a Chicago train station, a beautiful young woman with wild, curly red hair stands in line, her turn nearly come. When she does finally approach the desk, she shows her driver's license to the cashier, paying for the single ticket that she needs.

Smiling, the cashier looks over the license. It looks new, almost spotless. The cashier has no knowledge why this is, or when the license was created......but it makes no difference to her.

"Okay, Ms. Summers.....let me just put you into the computer here, and you're done. One ticket to New York City, coming up."

The customer receives her ticket, and smiles back at the cashier, handing her the required money.

"Thank you very much."

She waits for the train, and watches the world of nature outside.

NEXT ISSUE: The orphanage revealed, and another big announcement.

For any of those who said that my X-Men stories seemed to lack a little in the way or direction.....well, just read the above issue. If Marvel isn't going to make a mess to solve a bigger one, then I will. Two letters this month, one from ol' Steve Crosby, and another one from Sam Everett.

"I must say Will, you sure know how to get the sparks flying between a team. I love your portrayal of Cyclops, that bastard. He just can't accept anyone usurping his authority. He goes out of his way to get Nightcrawler to leave the team, since Kurt once led Excalibur pretty well. He shows no concern for Storm, most definatly because she was beat him like a little girl. Even his old rivalry with Wolverine was due to Logan being a loner who didn't need a leader, yet was a good leader when he had to be. The only thing I missed was that during his little discussion about commitment, nobody brought up Scott leaving his wife and son! I would have loved it if that happened.

As far as the rest of the roster, I was still mostly right. For some reason I forgot all about Rahne, or I'd have put her in as well.

While I admit that I don't enjoy this series as well as Greg: Sorceror Supreme, I still think it's better than the swill at Marvel. I realize you have a lot of continuity to deal with, and I can't wait to see it really pick up.

Steve"

"X-MEN #80-81 (Will "The Realuh" Short)

http://redrival.com/bigcheese/mv1/xmen/index.htm

The Premise: A break-up in the team, and a crack-up in the Mojoworld!

The Good: You can tell Will's imagination is always running on all cylinders. As evidence, check out all the little things in the Mojoworld, where an observant reader can have a field day--check it out to see what I mean. On the opposite end of the spectrum, we've got drama comin' in all kinds of flurries (name THAT song lyric, folks... : ) ). Will's a lot of good stories going on right now, I can tell. And it's all leading to something. Also, seeing how Scott handles the team without the Prof. looking over his shoulder is nice.

The Bad: In what seems to be a weekly ritual for the X-Men here at MV1, the team :::gasp::: breaks up! Not that it's Will's fault--he's the current writer, and nothing says he should be constrained by a past writer's roster. But still, it would be nice to see some stability on the team. Of course, like I said, it all seems to be leading somewhere. My other complaint is that the characters are too much like cardboard cut-outs. Yeah, Scott's a brainless piece of corn in the Professor's stool, but in these issues, EVERYthing he says and does reflects that, to an almost ridiculous degree. Same with Jean's level-headedness, and Warren's temper. And if a character doesn't have a stereotypical demeanor (like Moira MacTaggert), then he/she ends up with no personality at all. Some more dimension to these characters in the coming issues would be nice.

Ladies and gentlemen, 3.5 out of 5 Roos for X-MEN #80-81!

Sam Everett"