Disclaimer: Everybody except Dawn and Glenn belong to Marvel Comics. Glenn and Dawn are mine, and so is this story. Since I have no idea what the people down at Marvel are thinking and/or planning don't be surprised if this story is wildly inaccurate. You have been warned.

Author's Note: Guess who? Yep, it's me, I'm back. Hope you've liked the previous three chapters, cause it was fun writing them. (Sorry this was kind of late, I live in Missouri and there was this huge storm that blew out the electricity from 9:30 Sunday to 1:20 Monay, but I figure mailing a few extra chapters will make up for it.) If you're waiting for something interesting to happen this is the chapter, because it get's a little surreal. By the way, in case you're wondering, Jonothon blew up the girl's dorm in issue six, when Paige got drunk (after only one bottle of beer; if you want to see something funny, check out a drunken hayseed) and tried to kiss him. As always,comments are more then welcome. (Also, if anyone could tell me when the next chapter will be added onto the X-Change student story I'd appreciate it very much...) Special thanks to those of you who have written me and hisses to those who haven't. Come on people, I know you're out there! Oh yeah, yesterday I finished chapter 12 (the last chapter) and started on the Askani Wars story line. However, I can't post them all at once because I have to transfer them from MY computer (which takes days) so what you see is what you get.

When Glenn and I got back to the Rec Cottage Sean was still trying to revive Monet, but without much success.

"Uh, are we interrupting anything?" Glenn asked.

Sean sighed as he inspected Monet. "Not really. What c'n I do fer ye?"

"Well..." Glenn started.

"We'd kind of like to know where we can get some food," I finished for him. "Also, we don't seem to have any rooms to go to, so..."

Sean slapped his head with the heel of his hand. "What was I thinkin'? O' course ye'll be needin' rooms! Tis a good thing the girl's dorm has been rebuilt or we'd have t' move ye into Emma's cottage. Jubilee?"

Jubilee, who had been lounging on a couch, jumped up immediately. "What?" she asked.

"Show Dawn to a room," he instructed her. "I believe the one next t' Monet's is still available. Everett?"

"Yes?"

"Will ye show Glenn t' a spare room?"

"Sure," he said. He grabbed my friend's hand and dragged him out of the room promising lunch afterwards.

"C'mon," Jubilee chimed as she took my hand. "I'll show ya the room. It's all right, but I'm gonna warn ya right now that the hayseed plays her Cindy Crawford workout video at five a.m. sharp every morning, and ya can hear it from anywhere in the wing."

"Thanks for the warning," I said. "Maybe I can make her turn it down."

"How? I've tried everything!"

"I'm a telepath. I might be able to 'convince' her."

"Oh. Ohhhhhh, I get it," Jubilee laughed. "That is, like, so rude... I LOVE it!"

We chatted for a few more minutes until we reached the girl's dorm. The rooms were bigger then any of the rooms in my house, and they put the room I'd had at the boarding school to shame.

"We've gotta take you shopping tomorrow," Jubilee announced when I'd settled in. "After yer trainin' session, of course."

"My what?"

"Training session. Y'know, where you test the limits of your powers and other natural talents." The way she was said it suggested she was quoting a brochure of some sort. I sighed mentally and unpacked the few belongings I had taken with me. "Well," Jubilee said, "See ya later. I'll be right down the hall if ya need me. Oh yeah, and lunch is in an hour." She left the room, her trench coat making a faint swishing noise.

The next day I was awakened promptly at five o'clock by the sound of a female voice saying, "One two three FOUR, one two three FOUR, one two three FOUR. All right! You're doing great! Left side!"

Jubilee had been right about the Cindy Crawford tape after all. I considered killing Paige, but decided that would be too merciful. Well, I could at least give her a warning before I did anything TOO drastic.

:Paige Guthrie, if you don't turn down the @%$!& tape down this instant I will personally take over your body and walk you off a cliff!!: I sent with as much force as I could muster at that time of day. Then, as an afterthought, :Sorry about that, but I'm not myself until I've had my coffee. I apologize for snapping, but I'd still like for you to turn it down.:

I could feel shock and embarrassment as the volume dramatically decreased.

:Thank you,: I sent gratefully.

:Thanks Dawn!: Jubilee thought in my direction, not without a bit of amazment. :Whatever you did sure worked!:

:It's a gift,: I sent graciously. :Now shut up and let me sleep.:

I woke up again in about an hour and a half later and got dressed. I met Jubilee in the hallway and she reaquainted me with the way to the kitchen.

I stumbled into the building and almost tripped over Angelo, who was sitting closest to the door.

"Good morning, chica," he said, grinning at my clumsiness as I almost tripped over the rug.

"Hi," I said shortly. "Any coffee?"

He pointed to a pitcher full of said beverage, and then used the skin on his fingers to grab it and hand it to me without getting up.

And he was four feet away.

I stared, which made me feel like a complete moron. I hadn't even thought to ask the others about their powers; it simply hadn't occurred to me. I now felt twice as stupid as before and I almost spilled my coffee in my lap.

After the second sip or so I felt considerably better and made myself a breakfast of donuts and Lucky Charms. Not the most nutritious thing in the world, but you make do with what you've got.

"How do you like it here so far?" asked Mondo over a grapefruit.

"I think it's pretty nice," I replied as I scooped up a spoonful of marshmallows. "Nicer then the other boarding school I was in." Of course, THEY had wanted to use me as a human lab rat, but that was beside the point.

"Dinna ferget, ye're havin' yuir first trainin' session today," Sean reminded me as he entered the room. "I've put a spare uniform in yuir room so ye c'n change after breakfast. Trainin's at eight, so be prepared, all o' ye." He winked at me encouragingly. "Yuir friend's turn is tomorrow, be sure t' tell him." He smiled at me and left the room.

"What exactly am I going to DO in this training session?" I asked.

"You get to go up one on one against us," Everett told me cheerfully.

My jaw dropped. "ALL of you?!" I repeated. "But I'm a telepath, what am I supposed to DO? I don't have any physical powers!"

Monet smiled. "Are you sure?" she asked. Apparently she had recovered from her 'spell' from the other day (a fact that might not necessarily have been a plus.)

I looked at her. "What are you talking about?" I asked. She smiled again and said nothing. She was really starting to make me nervous, because when she looked at me it was like she knew everything about me. It was... unnerving, to say the least.

"M, this isn't the time to be mysterious," Jubilee put in. "YOU may not have any compunctions about beatin' her to a bloody pulp without a fair chance, but I DO! She's ten and a half times cooler then you AND Paige put together and I for one don't want her to turn into a stain on the lawn!"

I was a little startled by Jubilee's speech (in fact I wondered if she was on a sugar high of some sort) but gratified all the same. Monet, however, took it all in stride.

"Why, Jubilee, wherever did you learn a word like compunctions?" she asked with a superior smirk. "I thought your species had a vocabulary that only consisted of three syllable words. I'm impressed."

Jubilee's eyes narrowed and multicolored sparks began flashing around her hands. I took half a step back, not knowing how dangerous they were.

"I'LL show ya my species'!" she exclaimed as she raised her arms and aimed the sparks towards Monet.

:Stop it, J,: Jonothon sent as he walked in, Paige in tow. :Yer know Monet's baitin' yer on purpose, this is exactly what she wants yer to do.:

"And YOU would give lessons on maturity?" Jubilee demanded. "I'M not the one who blew up the girl's dorm, AM I?"

I could sense his growing embarrasment when Paige stepped in. "For the record, Jubilee, it was MY fault," Paige interrupted. "I made a few mistakes, and, well..." she trailed off and grinned at Jonothon. For the life of me I couldn't figure out what was so funny, and I didn't want to pry. Everyone else looked equally amused and/or curious, so the feeling must have been mutual.

Just about then Glenn chose that moment to stumble through the door and trip over the rug...
...And land in Mondo's lap.

Our laughter could probably be heard anywhere between the main building and the coast of California. Hey, if YOU saw a guy sprawled across another guys lap with coffee, cereal, and grapefruit rinds on his head wouldn't YOU laugh too? Agility wasn't Glenn's strong point, and he was even clumsier when he hadn't had his morning coffee.

"Oops," Glenn said as he pulled himself off of Mondo awkwardly. "Sorry about that."

"It's all right," Mondo said graciously. "We really must move that rug."

Glenn picked a grapefruit rind out of his hair and flipped it into the trash can. "Guess I need another shower," he sighed. Without another word he headed back to the dorm, still dripping coffee.

About twenty till eight I hiked back up to my room and discovered a yellow and blue uniform with a red belt adorned with an X on the buckle neatly laid out on my bed. I held it up and looked in the mirror. Were they kidding? The thing was more like a leotard then anything else, what kind of school hand THIS kind of uniform? Then again, this was more of a combat situation, not a regular class, so I guess it made sense not to have loose clothing on.

Finally, after ten minutes of debating the pros and cons of the situation I donned the uniform. It didn't leave much to the imagination, and I thanked God I'd kept myself in good shape. Now you've got to know that I'm the type of person who wore skintight things for comfort (I do have SOME degree of modesty) so it was making me turn red just looking in the mirror. Of course, I guess super heros can't afford to be modest, so neither could I (assuming I wanted to be one, that is.) Still, there was no way on earth I was going out there with just that on, so I shrugged into my leather jacket, which made me feel much better.

After dealing with that little crisis I made my way on over to the Bio-Sphere for training. Most of the others were already there, and they were all wearing red leotards.

"I'm sorry we had t' give ye the old version," Sean apologized. " Twas all we had left." He looked at me and smiled ever so slightly. "I see ye took no time in improvising," he observed, meaning the jacket.

"Well, I'm still not used to this mutant riff," I retorted, a little more sharply then I meant to sound, "so you'll excuse me if I still have SOME modesty left." Jubilee laughed and I could see the others were trying to stiffle giggles, including Sean.

"I know how ye feel," Sean said with half a smile. "And I will admit, it does feel a bit silly t' be runnin' about in this kind o' thing when yuir my age." He indicated his own attire, which looked very similar to mine with the exception of some sort of stripped material attached to his arms and the sides of his legs (think hypnotist's wheel when you stare at it too long.) I did smile a bit at the remark, though. Sean was probably in his late thirties or early forties, and it DID seem a little ridiculous (especially on a headmaster). I wondered what the headmistress dressed like.

"Shall we begin?" Sean suggested. I nodded and he opened the door to the Bio-Sphere--or, as the others had dubbed it--the Danger Grotto. It would probably have made more sense to me if I had known more about their predecessors, but it didn't really matter anyway.

"Ye get thirty seconds t' get ready an' then the others are comin' after ye," Sean told me. He stood aside and I walked up towards the door. "On yuir mark... get set... begin!"

I was off like a shot and quickly blended into the underbrush. My black jacket helped conceal me, because it covered most of the bright yellow of my costume. As I was darting behind a tree I heard Sean opening the door for the others and saying, "Go easy on the lass, this is her first time, ye know." After a chorus of yesses I heard them take off in hot pursuit.

Now my telepathy became invaluable. I didn't stand much of a chance against them physically, but I just MIGHT be able to take them psionically. I DID have one asset they didn't know about, though, namely my judo training. I'd taken it a few years ago and had a phenomenal talent for it. I had gone from white to black belt in the space of only two years, which was theoretically impossible. I knew so much stuff I couldn't remember the names of all the throws and holds anymore, but it didn't matter as long as I could use it to my advantage.

Suddenly I felt a touch on my mind. I believe it was Monet and Jonothon working together to find me, and I quickly concentrated on being invisible to their scans. It must have worked, too, because they didn't find me right away.

Then I sensed something with my own telepathy. It was Paige, and she was nearby. I peered through the bushes and spotted her. At least, I THOUGHT it was her, anyway, but I couldn't be too sure. That was because about half a second after I saw her she reached up to her face... and tore her skin off! Underneath there was a form of stone that faintly resembled a grey version of Penance. It suddenly dawned on me why her code name was Husk.

Okay, I was in trouble. I couldn't really hurt someone made out of stone, so I tried something else. I sent her the mental version of a kick in the gut and she was out for the count.

Of course, I should have realized that Jonothon would be close by, since they were 'involved' and all that. When he spun around to check on Paige I was shocked to discover that half of his face and chest were just... GONE, replaced by a ball of energy. Now I knew why he bandaged his face and talked telepathically. This team was getting stranger all the time.

:Paige?: he sent, but he was only slightly worried because he knew I would never have caused any permanent injury to her. He took off his own leather jacket, rolled it up, and placed it under her head like a pillow. I smiled, knowing he was a very nice person, but preferred to keep up the 'angry young man' facade in front of the others, totally wasted on an empathic telepath. Wait, where had I picked up a word like empathic? I thought back, trying to place it. Suddenly I knew: I had picked it up from Monet's mind. I could barely receive whole thoughts from her, usually just single words. Also, she was pretty much immune to any telepathic scanning for some reason.

:Yer let yer guard drop, gel,: Jonothon sent. :Not the smartest thing t' do in the middle of a fight.: He sent a relatively gentle blast of psionic energy in my direction that flung me into a nearby tree trunk.

:Point taken,: I muttered mentally as I scraped myself off the tree. :Now eat psionic backlash, O mighty teacher.: I absorbed the left over psionic residue from his blast, used it to supercharge my own telepathy, and rechanneled it back to him.

:Urrrkkk,: he managed to grunt as he passed out. I ran over to check his pulse, but realized that a) he might not even HAVE a pulse since he didn't have much of a chest anymore, and b) all I needed to do to see if he was alive was check the energy in his chest. It was still strong, which meant he was only stunned.

Unfortuantly, five grey THINGS grabbed me from behind and spun me around before I could complete this thought.

"Hola, chica," Angelo called. The 'grey things' were the skin from his fingers, which he had used to lasso me. He drew me closer to him and started to wrap his other hand around my stomach. I grabbed him by the arm and flipped him into a tree.

Just then Monet made her appearance. She flew at me at top speed from behind, but I managed to duck just in time. Unable to stop on a dime, she flew right into the tree behind me. She crashed right through it... and the next... and the next... and the next... and the next. I winced and said, "Ouch. That's GOTTA hurt."

"Dawn, look out!" Jubilee cried. I whirled around to discover the first tree Monet had collided with was falling... right onto me. It was too late to dodge, I just stood my ground and flung my hand over my head, wishing desperately that I had the power to make it disappear.

Then I felt a surge of warm, raw energy wash over me and the tree landed in kindling around me. I hadn't even touched it, and now it was match sticks. What had happened?

As I struggled to my feet I saw Angelo and Paige stagger over, still dazed. Then both their jaws dropped as they saw me.

"What is it?" I asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"

As soon as the words left my mouth I knew there was something wrong. When I spoke it was like two people speaking at once; me and someone with a soft, timid voice. I looked down at my hands and gasped. They were LAVENDER. A strand of hair fell in my face, and it too was lavender. I turned to see Sean standing about ten feet away, frozen in place. Evidently he had been coming to help me. His eyes were wide with shock. I knew exactly how he felt.

"Wh-what happened?" I asked. "What's happened to me?!"

Sean's mouth opened and closed a few times, and finally he stammered out something that was barely audible. "C... Clarice?"

"Who? Come on, will someone please tell me what's happening?!" I was starting to panic, and Sean's behavior wasn't exactly reassuring.

"Dawn?" Paige finally blurted out.

"Yes, Dawn!" I screamed, now really scared. "Who else?!"

"You look... you look..." she started.

In desperation I looked into the reflective observation window--and gasped. I was indeed lavender, my hair more so then my skin, and my pupils were GONE. Just... gone. A diamond shaped tattoo had appeared on my forehead, and two triangles over each of my eyebrows. Another lavender shape had surfaced under my left eye, and my ears were pointed and elfish.

That was it, I panicked. The power flowed through me again, and the glass disappeared only to reappear elsewhere. This was just too much for me to handle; I fainted.

TEASER: heh heh heh. Pretty strange, ain't it? Well, it's going to get stranger. I always wanted Marvel to bring Blink back, but they ignored me (as well as everybody else who asked) so I did it myself. Sort of. Well, you'll find out exactly what I did next chapter, titled Pearly Gates and Revolving Doors,' which is appropriate in more ways then one, as you'll soon find out. Bye for now.