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((I don't really mind the speed it's going; we should just play it by ear and see where the conversation leads and when we feel like moving on. What we're doing with Mickey and Aria is they're going to go and report to Magneto (telling the people here that they're going to a hotel), and then in the middle of the night Magneto's mutants will attack the school.))

Oliver sank onto the piano bench next to Anna, looking at her depressed expression and not knowing what to say to make her feel better. He felt just as depressed as she did, and neither of them had any answers, so what could they say? He sighed. "No, I haven't tried yet."

He hesitated, afraid of what the outcome would be, then stood and joined Anna at the window, looking across the yard at the flowers he'd made that day that seemed so long ago. The fading sunlight illuminated the lilac bush that had grown under the window. Oliver reached out the window and held one leaf between his fingers; he'd discovered his abilities were always more powerful when he was actually touching the earth or the plant. He stared at the little bush, envisioned another sprig of purplish-pink flowers sprouting up, and opened all the floodgates of his power, throwing them open all the way. He didn't normally open them this far, because that was what had happened in the old days when he couldn't control himself. Normally, his power would rush out so strongly that the whole lawn would soon become a jungle of plants. But now...there was nothing. He couldn't even feel his power. He searched for it, groped around in his mind for it, but he couldn't find it anywhere.

Slowly he realized that in the place of his mind where he would usually find his power, he was strangely aware of Anna's shoulder, which was only a couple inches away from his own. Why was he thinking about that? It wasn't like her shoulder was going to help him. Furiously, Oliver focused with all his mind on the single leaf between his fingers. Grow, grow, grow! he screamed at it in his mind. His face was beginning to grow hot from the effort, and he was trembling slightly, until finally the tiniest trickle of power imaginable slithered out of him, and the leaf in his hand widened to twice its width - which wasn't saying much, as it was a small leaf to start with.

Oliver released the struggle, let his mental trapdoors slam back down over the dry riverbed of his power, and sank back onto the piano bench, gasping for air. He'd never tried so hard with his power, because usually it was right there. All his efforts until today had been focused on limiting that stream of power so he could use only what he needed to, and that wasn't anywhere near as hard as this had been. Why was it so hard? He wiped sweat from his brow and looked helplessly at Anna as he tried to regain control of his breathing.

((Hmm, that's odd. Oh well! razz Sorry if I've been slow in replying lately; school's been catching up to me. Oh, and I had an idea for how they could work around the problems their powers have when they're close to each other; do you want to hear it? Though I suppose we probably want to have them running around in confusion for a while first before we give them a solution....))

Oliver sighed and nodded at her words, wiping a bit of sweat off his forehead. They were probably making too big of a deal out of this whole thing. Maybe it was like losing your voice - you just had to wait until it healed, and then you could use it again and there wouldn't be any permanent damage. He sure hoped so. Though why it would have happened to them both at the same time, he had no idea. And they hadn't even done anything out of the ordinary, either....

Standing up as well, Oliver said as casually as he could, "Yeah, I'm kinda tired too." As they walked out of the room together, he glanced over at her as surreptitiously as he could manage and wondered whether he should mention going to Professor Xavier. No, best not to seem too worried. If they were totally fine by tomorrow morning, he'd feel stupid for freaking out so much; and if they weren't...well, then he could worry about taking this up with the Professor. Still, it was comforting to know there was someone they could go to for help. None of the teachers he'd had in any of his old schools had been like that. He remembered how calm and understanding the Professor had been when Oliver had gone crazy with his powers in the office, how he'd managed to stop him and quiet him down until he could be taught how to control his powers for himself.

Oliver broke out of his reverie when they reached the foot of the stairs leading up to their rooms, and when they climbed to the top, he paused to face Anna one last time. "See you tomorrow?" he said, trying to sound casual but not managing it too well.

((Sorry for the delay - school is eating me aliiiive! gonk Okay, here's my idea. So we know that for some reason their genes are "attuned" to each other, for lack of a better term. And their powers end up nullifying each other when they get too close, right? It's like somehow each other's presence cuts them off from the source of their power. It's not that their power isn't there. They just can't access it. So maybe they could somehow access the other person's power? Either Oliver would be able to control air and Anna would be able to control plants, or it would just be a fuel source for their own power. They would probably have to be touching or something for it to work. What do you think?))

Oliver gave one final nod in Anna's direction and then headed for his room. He contemplated working a little on his homework, if only to keep his mind off his worries, but he discovered that he really was quite tired. The day, with all its worries and excitement, had truly taken its toll on him. His eyelids tugged downwards and he barely managed to change out of his clothes before collapsing into bed. His last thought was of Anna. He hoped everything would be all right in the morning.

-----

"Oh yeah, it's so different from here; it's-" But Valon would never find out what it was, because just then Mickey interrupted her. Aria suppressed a relieved sigh with difficulty; it was so incredibly dull talking to this bozo and pretending to be interested in this lousy place. Sheesh. No wonder Magneto held Xavier in such contempt, to run such a child's playhouse like this.

"Oh, gosh, you're right," she said quickly, checking her watch but not really caring what time it was. "It was really nice meeting you guys," she said, putting on her best smile for Valon so he would never guess the thoughts running through her head. "We'll have to come again sometime!"

After too many cheery farewells, after they were escorted unnecessarily back to the gate, and after Aria and Mickey had walked out of sight of the little school, Aria finally let down her facade and scowled. "What a bunch of idiots," she sneered, glancing over her shoulder. "They let us waltz right through the whole place, so we could see where all the security cams are and everything! Remind me why it's taken this long to get them?" She rolled her eyes.

((Yeah, they'd use each other's powers when they're together, but when they're separate they go back to using their own powers. It'll be fun to play them figuring that out. (Maybe sometime they could both be trying to use their powers really hard at the same time, and end up using each other's powers?) I'm not sure when we should have them realize it, though. I mean, I was thinking that this attack would lead into a longer conflict with Magneto's Mutants, almost like a war where the more experienced and older kids would help the adults fight against Magneto's people.

If you don't mind, I think I'll jump right into the attack now.))

Oliver woke suddenly, completely disoriented. He sat bolt upright in his bed, and after a moment or two he realized that it was the sound of screaming that had woken him. Scrambling out of bed, he quickly opened his door and poked his head out into the hallway. Several students along the hall were doing the same. The screaming was coming from the far end of the hallway, where several of the younger kids slept in one of the larger bedrooms.

The door suddenly burst off its hinges, flying wildly down the hallway to crash down the stairs at the other end. Oliver ducked quickly back into his room as it flew past, then peeked back outside to see a boy a year or two older than he was, dressed all in black and wearing a black cloth over his nose and mouth like a villain in one of those old cowboy movies, stepping through the doorway. He held his hand in front of him, palm out, and as Oliver watched he jerked it forward. An invisible blast of something seemed to shoot out of it, knocking a girl who had emerged into the hallway flat on her back. More people, wearing the same kind of costume, rushed out of the room.

Oliver leapt into action before he even remembered the events of the day before. There were potted plants in every hallway, and now he reached out with his power to the bush thing in the pot nearest to him. As the power rushed gloriously through him and the branches shot swiftly towards the attackers, Oliver realized with a thrill that he could use his powers again. So he wasn't useless after all!

All up and down the hall, the students were either fighting the attackers with their powers or helping the younger ones escape down the back staircase. But the attackers all had mutant powers too, and the fight was close. This was no simulation in the Danger Room. This was for real.

((I think Xavier probably has never seen anything like this before, so yeah, probably Oliver and Anna should figure their power thing out themselves. The scenario you described sounds cool; when the time feels right to start bringing that out in the story, we should keep our eyes peeled for stuff like that. It'll probably just come naturally through whatever's going on at the time.))

Xavier sat in his wheelchair on the front lawn, to all appearances as calm and unworried as if he was behind his desk in his office grading papers. Anyone who knew him, however, would have noticed the sharpness in his eyes and would have realized that he was focusing his powers on the mutants invading his school. Even so, he had attention enough to spare Professor Frost a glance.

"I have an idea of who it might be," he said shortly, "but we'll have time to discuss that later. Right now we need to focus on stabilizing the situation." He fell silent then, concentrating even harder.

-----

Oliver glanced around when he heard the voice speaking in his mind, realizing in a moment what it was and noticing that the others in the hall had received similar messages. The students began to retreat, doing their best to hold off the attackers long enough for them to get to the hidden staircases.

As Oliver backed up, making extra branches and roots grow out of the plants to clutter up the hallway and hopefully slow the attackers' advance, he passed the open doorway of a room and saw Luke out of the corner of his eye, stepping out into the hallway. Luke's room was bright and warm from his newly-purchased lamps, and the dark-skinned boy had been sleeping without a shirt. Sweat trickled down his muscled arms and chest, and as Oliver glanced up at him, he realized with a shock that Luke's eyes, which were normally warm and dark, were now glowing with a white-gold light almost too intense to look at directly.

"Look the other way," Luke quickly told Oliver as he stepped in front of him.

Oliver immediately turned away and began to run down the hallway towards the secret passageway, and he hadn't taken more than two steps when a blazing light banished all the shadows in the hall, shining from somewhere behind him. Oliver heard the attackers cry out and stumble around, one or two shouting, "My eyes!" and knew that Luke had done something.

Just as he opened the hidden panel and started down the stairs, Luke caught up with him and leapt into the passageway just as the door slid shut again. They hurried down the stairs side-by-side, and as Oliver glanced sideways again, he noticed that the veins were standing out on Luke's muscles, and they were glowing as well. They pulsed for a few moments, then slowly faded away.

A few minutes later, Luke and Oliver stood outside the school with the rest of the students who could control their powers well enough to fight. Oliver felt alive out here, with the fresh air and the damp, dewy soil and all the plants.... All his fear of being cut off from his power was utterly gone.

((Lol, Oliver would definitely think that Luke's powers are cooler than his, at least razz

I was thinking maybe we could have the battle keep going until Anna and Oliver come close to each other, so they can realize there is a problem with their powers; it wasn't just a fluke that one time. Then I was thinking maybe the bad mutants would all get outside and then the teachers (or just Xavier?) would do some big impressive attack to get them all. Also, what do you suppose Magneto's plan is for attacking the school? Is he maybe trying to kidnap the Professor or something? Or destroy the school?

Oh, and what about Mickey and Aria? Should our guys meet up with them and realize they were tricked?))

A small group of students who could fly or hover helped defend against those of the attackers who could do the same, while most of the mutants fought on the ground. As Anna fought, a familiar boy came hovering alongside her, upside-down. "Hi," Gerald said as nonchalantly as if they'd been passing in the hall. Holding his hand over his head (which meant it was pointing towards the ground), he said, "Here, I'll get them up for you. 'First star to the left and straight on till morning!'"

With that, he began lifting mutants up from the ground, one by one, letting them flail around as they suddenly found their gravity reversed. Gerald watched this all as calmly as if he was playing a boring video game.

-----

Oliver glanced up in surprise when he heard Miata's voice booming down at him from atop her gigantic teddy bear, and for a moment an image popped into his head of a skinny man calling to a fat one, "Ollie!" as they stumbled along.

He almost laughed out loud, but a miniature explosion reminded him that now was no time to reminisce about old TV comedies. "You're right about that!" he called up to Miata as he hemmed in a couple attackers with a wall of cacti. "This is nothing like training!"

All around them, students and teachers fought as best as they could. Oliver caught sight of bursts of flame, sparks of electricity, and people flying through the air either on purpose or because someone had hit them. Bart was yelling, throwing heavy punches right and left and plowing through the dark-clad mutants who didn't get out of the way fast enough. In the distance, Oliver could see a glow that he thought was Luke. Everywhere he looked, he saw the powers of students he'd come to know by sight, if not by name. Everyone was doing their part, and his heart lifted as he realized that he was too. Grinning viciously, he made a vine shoot out and trip up a running attacker. Maybe his powers were useful after all.

((No, another Cerebro (<.< that looks wrong, but I have no idea how to spell it) sounds good. It makes perfect sense why Magneto would want one, and it's not like he could just grab it out of Xavier's place. I bet Magneto would think that Xavier's too goody-goody to hurt kids much, which is why he sent them instead of his older cronies.))

"So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, good-bye...." Gerald sang cheerfully as Anna left him, then continued humming the tune as he raised mutants in the air only to let them drop back down from a greater height - not so high that they would be seriously injured, but enough to knock the breath out of them long enough so students on the ground could immobilize them.

-----

"Anna!" Oliver called out happily as he saw her floating around. He ran closer to her, throwing out an arm as he sent tree roots curling up from the ground to snare the two psychics. He was relieved to see that her powers seemed to have recovered too. So relieved that it seemed he hadn't concentrated well enough; he had intended to make huge roots that would pin them to the ground, but instead they only curled around their feet and made them lose their balance.

A broad-shouldered enemy mutant who seemed to be a girl rushed up just then, and with one swipe of her arm cut through Oliver's roots. As she straightened up again, Oliver saw that her arm, whose sleeve had ripped, looked like solid rock. The hand was fashioned into a fist, and she turned to Oliver, raising her arm and preparing to strike. Oliver tried to bring up a plant - any kind of plant - to block her attack, but with a renewed sense of panic, he realized that once again his power would not respond.

Just as the girl's fist was about to knock him flat, someone grabbed her from behind and with a mighty yell, flipped her backward onto the ground. Oliver stepped back in surprise as Bart glanced at him, but there was no time to feel awkward. The girl was already struggling to her feet, and Bart charged at her, his muscles bulging. He pushed her back, and the two of them fought fiercely.

Oliver looked down at his hands, feeling sick. It's happening again....