X-Men: The Next Class

"Are you sure you're ready for this, Hope?"

"Yes."

"Dylan?"

"Yes, sir."

I looked over at the boy who stood right beside me and raised an eyebrow. It was just like him to mind his manners with his elders. It was endearing, but slightly annoying. Did he really have to one up me?

Yesterday, after the session I had with Aiden and the Professor, I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with Aiden, Ryan, Dylan, and Mina. Others came and went, but those four stayed by my side constantly through the night. It was the most fun I've had since I've been at the mansion and I learned more about each of them, from their personalities to their powers. It was enlightening, to say the least. For the first time since I've been here, I didn't feel like a freak. All of the mutants that I've met seemed… well, normal.

So when Storm knocked at my door this morning to invite me to a training exercise, I jumped at the opportunity. Who knows, maybe it would be fun?

"Hope, focus."

I turned my head back to face the center of the danger room and apologized to the Professor.

"This room will help you realize ways to use your x-gene's powers in perilous situations. Remember, self-preservation is always a must but working as a team is always our goal. We work together and we will achieve more, understood?"

Dylan and I nodded. I was trying not to be so terrified but I could feel my hands starting to shake.

"Storm will lead you in this session and I have asked Ryan and Mina to join as well, just so you get a feel for how things work. You'll be teamed up, paired against each other. I will be up in the control room manipulating everything and making sure all goes according to plan. I'll make this one easy since it is your first, but don't expect them all to be so simple."

The professor stayed for a minute longer, silently communicating to Dylan specific instructions. I learned the look of focus on his face that indicated he was using his telepathic ability on a specific person. Aiden helped to point it out to me. Dylan nodded seconds later and then the Professor turned his focus on me.

As for you, Hope... Dylan can freeze time, but he too has his limits. He can freeze one person, but can he focus enough to freeze both Ryan and Mina while keeping you on the move? He'll need your help on your team. If he's not on your team, well… he can freeze you, but what's going to stop him from freezing your animals, which are beings of a different time-space dimension? Just a thought.

The edges of my mouth turned upward slightly. I nodded in understanding of the Professor's instruction. He left the room and then Ryan and Mina joined us. Mina smiled encouragingly at me and Ryan, who acknowledged Dylan with a slight up-nod, winked in my direction. I simply rolled my eyes and smiled. Storm joined us and then the lights went out. Everything was silent except for the whirring of machines somewhere in the room.

"Ryan, can't you turn the lights back on?"

He chuckled. "The simulation is preparing itself, they'll turn back on automatically. Besides, I need to save my energy for the main event."

Right.

I could almost hear the smirk forming on Dylan's face so I casually pushed him with my right arm. He was thrown off balance a little, but he hardly moved. Regardless, it made me feel a little better.

Then, the lights went on. In the middle of the room was a massive black octagonal column. It had several different levels so it seemed like a stack of octagonal-shaped blocks, like one of those stacking toys you give to little kids with the peg and the different sized rings. The structure was gigantic, and even if I tilted my head back as far as it could go, I couldn't see the very top.

Large bars stuck out of some of the walls while ladders were embedded in others; ropes draped down some of the sides and there were platforms staggered at different levels. My mind drifted to the wooden dummies that mixed martial artists used. If this quest was to get to the top, it sure as hell wasn't going to be easy.

"Alright," Storm said, coming toward us from the opposite side of the room. "First pairing is Ryan and Mina versus Dylan and Hope. Two of you will start from the other side of the platform. You'll have one minute to strategize and then the horn will sound the start. One teammate will go first. A minute later, another horn will blare, indicating the second teammate can follow. The objective is for both teammates to get the flag from the pole at the top of the platform. Mina, Ryan… if you'll move to the other side, please."

As soon as they were a good distance away, Dylan started to reassure me that he had a foolproof plan to get the flag. He was going to freeze everyone until he got to the top.

"That's great and all, but were you expecting to carry my frozen body to the top? Storm said both teammates had to reach the top and get the flag."

"Maybe if I concentrate hard enough, I can keep us both unfrozen. I can control those that I'm aware of."

"Well then we've got a problem since Mina's power is invisibility."

"Bloody hell, Hope. Do you have anything positive to say?"

Just then, a horn blared through the arena. I smiled.

"Keep your chin up, love. It's going to be a bumpy ride."

I ran full speed at the rotating platform and hopped up on to a rope ladder that was rooted somewhere on the fourth or fifth platform; I proceeded to climb. Dylan followed suit a minute later, but was taken in a different direction by the turning rings of the platform; his rope ladder was shorter and was rooted in the first platform. By the time I had reached the top of the rope, I realized I had to wait for the opportune moment to ascend further– the ladder that led to the top of the platform was rotating a different direction, as was the platform below me that could have offered me a reprise from holding on to the rope. For the time being, I was stuck.

"Think fast!"

I turned to see Mina on my left, fist recoiled and ready to deal a serious blow. I squeezed my eyes shut in anticipation of a brutal hit. To my surprise, nothing came. I opened my eyes and saw Mina frozen on the spot. I looked around and saw Dylan below me, climbing a rock wall just two octagonal blocks down from where I was. I looked up and noticed I was only three blocks away from the top. Maybe Dylan and I could pull this off after all. I concentrated on jumping up at the right moment and caught the ladder by the last rung.

"How are you doing, Dylan?" I shouted down at my teammate. I had lost sight of him since I jumped.

"Where's Ryan?"

I didn't have time to respond to Dylan's question since I felt the metallic rungs of the ladder heating up. Before long, they were shocking me.

"Oh, hell no," I muttered to myself, wrapping my legs over a rung. The fabric of my jeans protected me from the static, but it wouldn't last long. I needed to stop Ryan from conducting electricity through the ladder, and I knew just how to.

Sitting up straight on the swirling ladder proved to be a challenge, but I accepted it. I pulled off my shirt, allowing my torso and its portal to be wide open and available for my defense. I was wearing a sports bra, so I wasn't too preoccupied about coverage. Not that it mattered to Ryan, whom I spotted one platform above me. He was still entranced regardless. I wasted no time in wrapping my shirt around one of my hands and continuing to climb the ladder single-handedly.

Use your powers, Hope. Not just your physical finesse. The Professor's voice resonated in my head.

Well, Aiden did say Ryan was afraid of snakes…

I thought long and hard about any type of snake and before I knew it, a coral snake was slithering up my body and along the length of my arm. I smiled. I almost fell off the ladder out of sheer surprise when the snake launched at Ryan of its own accord. Ryan screamed and let go of the wall, trying desperately to get the snake off of him. I seized the opportunity to hurriedly climb the rest of the de-electrified ladder and reach the platform safely.

"Dylan?"

"Yeah, I'm right behind you," he called, sounding closer than he did before.

I was brought back to the present by a tingling up my spine. I turned back to Ryan and found my coral snake electrocuted on the floor. I gasped.

"How dare you! You don't know how deeply that life form is connected to me!" I shrieked at Ryan, staring at the dead snake. I felt an anger well inside me that I never knew existed. My powers were still largely untested– where does he get off killing something that could have been tied to my life force, too? Ryan seemed taken aback, as though remorse weren't part of an ordinary training exercise (to be fair, it probably wasn't. I was definitely throwing a curveball at him).

I kept subconsciously urging the dead coral snake to rise, as if it would come back from the dead for me. I thought it was a pointless task but, considering the unbelievable things I have witnessed in the past few days, I thought it was worth a shot. When nothing happened, the anger in me boiled over. Suddenly, I shouted out, "Why don't I give you something you can't electrocute?"

Instantly, an electric eel shot out from my torso and latched itself on to Ryan's arm. Ryan stumbled backwards and unwittingly fell off the platform. My eyes widened and I ran to the edge only to find that he fell straight onto a platform a few blocks under. Letting out a sigh of relief, I went back to the ladder and found that Dylan had just finished climbing up. Now we were both only one block away from the top. We did it. We were so close to winning.

I led the way, jumping onto the rock wall that composed the eighth block. I was near the middle of it when I felt someone stomp down on my right hand, causing me to groan in pain and stumble back. Mina. She must have become unfrozen when Dylan lost focus. My left hand received a similar blow just moments later. I mustered up another coral snake, hoping it would launch itself at her like it did to Ryan. I was not disappointed. She turned visible as soon as the snake struck, and had to jump off the rock wall in order to maintain composure. Dylan and I scaled the wall as quickly as we could from that point.

Dylan reached the top before I did and offered me a hand up. I gladly accepted it and he pulled me up to the top of the platform.

"Together?" He said, holding out one hand to me while hovering his other hand just over the flag pole.

"I guess," I replied cheekily, slipping one of my hands into his while grabbing the pole and lifting it from the platform with my other hand

He merely chuckled and held on to the pole as well, smiling down at me from his 6'1 viewpoint.

"We make a pretty good team, Hope," he whispered to me, staring off to the edge of the room where Storm was talking to Professor X. I merely gave his hand a little squeeze in response.

Though I'd never admit it to him out loud, I couldn't agree more.

"Alright, Dylan and Hope win this round. Let's pair Ryan and Hope together, I want to see more electrical sparks flying," Storm said, ushering us all back into the center of the room. I raised an eyebrow as I met Ryan's gaze. Unfortunately, he didn't seem phased by Storm's phrasing. Instead, he looked rather terrified of me.

"Hey," I whispered to him once we were walking toward our starting point. "No hard feelings."

"I'm sorry I could've killed you, I didn't think– I didn't know you don't know about your powers as much yet. I forgot–"

The horn blared.

"Don't worry about it," I reassured him, as I made my way toward the tower. "Let's just kick some ass."

He nodded before shooting his signature smirk at me. I turned around and sprinted full speed ahead at the wall of swinging rope ladders.