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"DON'T FORGET MONDAY'S HOMEWORK is our playing test, so practice your piece as much as you can this weekend!" Olivia called to her fleeing students as they rushed to dinner. She sighed, leaning onto the chalkboard. Her final class of the day was finished and she was exhausted.

"Permission to enter?" Olivia smiled at the sound of Hank's voice as he knocked softly at the door.

"That depends," She chuckled. "What's the password?"

Hank groaned quietly. "Olivia is annoying because she won't let me in?"

"Ha! Not even close!" She skipped to the door and leaned on its frame. Hank shook his head and smiled. "Whatcha need?"

"I just need a few more blood samples to run my tests if you don't mind?" He said sheepishly.

As much as Olivia despised needles and getting her blood taken, and how much she wanted to say no, she took one look at Hank's face and caved. "Sure. I got nothing else going on."

"Great!" Hank clapped his hands the two proceeded down the hallway. A few students every now and again would say hi, some smaller ones would even hug Olivia — she had quickly become the school's favourite teacher.

When they reached the lab, however, the entire team was there waiting. "I thought you needed blood work?" Olivia raised her brow accusingly at Hank.

"Thank you, Hank," Charles wheeled over, excusing the man. "We couldn't risk the students overhearing. I apologize, Olivia."

Looking around at the others, she nodded slowly. "It's...fine. What's going on, anyway?"

"There is a hostage situation at a Roxxon warehouse in Buffalo and the X-Men have been requested to intervene," Charles explained.

Olivia tilted her head. "Why would they need us? There's systems in place for these kinds of things."

Charles sighed. "It's because the hostiles are mutants — four, to be exact."

"Oh," Olivia huffed. She was exhausted from her day of teaching, but duty called.

The team suited up and boarded the new X-Jet, as Hank dubbed it. Olivia strapped in next to Peter, who smiled down at her. "Come here often?"

Olivia snorted and shook her head. "Is that your best pick up line?"

"You don't like it?" Peter smirked. "I got way more where that came from,"

"I'm sure you do," Raven chuckled as she passed them. "Just...try to keep it in your pants for the remainder of the flight. Okay, tiger?"

Olivia burst out laughing as Peter's face turned bright red. "Whatever, grandma!" He rolled his eyes and turned back to Olivia. "How are you?" He asked.

She sighed and rested her head on the cool metal of the jet. "Tired. I was looking forward to sleeping in. I guess being an X-Man means I have to ready to be called on at all times,"

Peter nodded, resting a hand casually on her thigh. "Well, if you mess up, I got your back," He smiled widely.

Olivia smiled softly. "Thanks, Speedy,"

The flight was relatively short — Buffalo wasn't far from Rochester, after all. "Alright. Olivia, Peter, and Jean, you're with me," Hank explained as they filed off the jet. "That means Raven, Kurt, Ororo, and Scott go together. You will take the front and we'll take the back. Watch each other's back, one of the mutants can turn invisible."

They split off, Olivia leading the group behind Hank. "What are the three other mutations?" She asked as they crept around to the back of the warehouse — it was dark and had started to drizzle.

"Light projection, kinetic energy conversion, and precognition — the ability to see into the future," Hank responded.

Olivia's blood ran cold. If that was the case, there was no way anything they could do would work if one of the mutants was always ten steps ahead of them. She shook off the feeling and continued on. She felt Peter place a hand on her shoulder for comfort. "It's okay, we got this. We're the X-Men." He smiled.

She tried to return the smile, but she wasn't as optimistic as him. The warehouse was eerily silent. The only sounds were of the creaking ceiling lights and the wind from outside. The lights flickered as the power struggled to stay on. "Liv, you think you could do something about that?" Hank pointed to the lights in question.

Olivia smiled and cracked her knuckles. "It would be my pleasure,"  Raising her hands, she felt for the electricity in the air. Once she felt the spark, she was able to push the power into the lights, illuminating the hallway in front of them. "Ta-da!" She clapped.

Hank chuckled quietly. "Great job. Let's keep moving."

They walked shoulder to shoulder, no one took an eye off of each other. A clanging sound in the distance made them freeze. "Jean..." Hank whispered. "Can you sense anyone?"

Jean's eyebrows knitted together as she concentrated. After a few moments, she huffed, frustrated. "No! Something is blocking me,"

"Blocking?" Olivia whispered nervously. "None of them have a telepathic mutation."

Hank shivered. "That we know of,"

A chill sent a shiver down Olivia's spine. She had an odd feeling that they were being lured into a trap. None the less, the team pushed on. Olivia found herself shoulder to shoulder with Jean, gaining comfort from know she was there, that she was safe. 'Are you okay?' Jean's voice echoed in her head.

'Not really,' Olivia internally replied. 'This feels like a trap,'

''My thoughts exactly,' Jean agreed. 'But even if it is, we have to save the hostages,'

Another horrid thought crossed Olivia's mind. 'If there were ever any to begin with,'

Jean drew a blank. There was a high chance Olivia was right. All of this seemed too easy — there was no way they could just walk in and grab the hostages. Something was wrong.

They continued walking until they came upon an inner section — three hallways diverged. "Hank, do you know the layout of the building?" Olivia turned to the blue-furred man.

"Of course," Hank scoffed quietly.

"Where do you think the hostages would be kept?" She asked.

Hank paused for a moment, thinking. "I..." He suddenly froze, his jaw slacked and his eyes glazed over.

"Hank?" Olivia waved her hand in front of his face — nothing. No reaction. She turned to the others. "Jean, Peter, somethings wrong with..." She trailed off, however, at the sight of the others. Their expressions were exactly the same as Hank's. "Guys?" She reached out to touch Peter's arm but in the blink of an eye, the three were gone, a breeze blowing Olivia's hair into her face. Peter had ran off, but how? They were frozen just a second ago.

"Well, well..." A new voice, deep and southern, startled her. Olivia turned with a jump, her hands immediately sparking. The man was tall, with light scruff and shaggy brown hair. His most noticeable feature was his glowing purple eyes. "Woah there, darlin', no need for that," His eyes trailed to her electric fingers. "We're just here to talk."

"We?" Olivia took a step back, slamming into someone. She let out a startled gasp as man chuckle was heard but no one was seen.

"Look how scared she is," The body-less voice materialized into an even taller man with piercing blue eyes and scared skin. "So small..." His eyes trailed up and down her body. His gaze made Olivia feel dirty.

"Oh, stop it, Chase," This time, a woman's voice. "You're making the poor thing uncomfortable," A beautiful dark-haired woman stepped out of the shadows next to the first man.

"W-What do you want?" Olivia scolded herself for stuttering as she took a hesitant step back.

"Aw! Are you starting without me?" A fluttery voice giggled. Fast footsteps ran right past Olivia over to the woman.

"Of course not, Angie," The dark-haired woman patted the younger girls red hair.

The southern man huffed. "This is taking too long, Constance. Hurry it up,"

Constance rolled her eyes. "Patience, Remy," Her piercing gaze turned to Olivia. "You are Olivia Peters, are you not?"

Olivia gulped. "Who's asking?"

The woman chuckled. "As you heard, I am Constance. This, is Remy," She pointed to the man next to her, "Our big friend over here is Chase and this little one is Angie."

She was so calm it was creepy. "Are those names supposed to mean something to me?" Olivia muttered.

Remy laughed loudly. "Look at you, trying to be all intimidating," He huffed and rolled his eyes. "But you're also stalling. If you're not willing to talk..." He glanced at Chase then back to Olivia. "We'll just have to do this the hard way."

In a split second, everything went to shit. Chase was gone in the blink of an eye, Remy began to emit a purple glow as playing cards hovered in the air around him, and Angie opened her palms to show a glowing light. Panicked and desperate to protected herself, Olivia absorbed all of the electricity in the surrounding area. The lights flickered then went out as the energy flocked to her — she wasn't going down without a fight.

She could hear footsteps around her and luckily the glowing purple of Remy's kinetic energy made her surroundings somewhat visible. Loud, charging footsteps began coming towards her, but she couldn't see who it was — the big one, the invisible one. He rammed right into her, knocking all the air from her lungs as she flew across the hall and landed on the cold tile floor with a wheeze. Olivia struggled to regain her strength as several cards began flying at her with so much force that when they hit the wall or ground behind her they would stick.

Randomly shooting a blast of electricity in the mutant's direction, she stumbled to her feet and ran. The plan to stand her ground and fight flew out the window as soon as Chase sent her flying. "Oh? We're running now, are we?" Remy's voice echoed and was soon followed by three pairs of footsteps.

Olivia picked up her pace, shooting a few more blasts here and there in hopes to deter them. Her throat and lungs burned as she continued to run — there was no time to stop and rest. A few more cards flew past her, all narrow misses. This guy sucks at aiming, she laughed in her head as she roughly turned a corner. And almost as if jinxing herself, a card sliced past her and skimmed along the side of her neck. Crying out in pain, Olivia stumbled and tripped over her feet as her hands moved to clutch her now bleeding neck.

She hit the floor, slamming her head in the process. She as seeing stars as she crawled backwards, her electric blasts now mere sparks from her fingers. She was losing consciousness — she could feel it. Even with her blurry vision, she could make out the shapes of the four mutants, with Constance clearly in the middle. 'That's it. Just give in and you don't have to fight anymore,' A smooth voice echoed in her head.

"No!" Olivia cried out as she continued to stumble backwards. Her arms and leg grew tired and soon she was attempting to slither across the floor, anything to get away from them. A large boot came down on her stomach, stopping her for good. Olivia wheezed, her fight against the shoe useless.  She blinked rapidly, regaining a small amount of her vision. The four stood over her, all wearing the same satisfied grin.

"The boss will be so pleased with us," Chase, who stood over Olivia, cackled.

"As long as I get paid, I'm happy," Remy huffed as he stuffed his playing card back into his trenchcoat pocket.

They began shuffling around Olivia, bringing out bags filled with ropes and a power-dampening collar. Restraints, Olivia cursed. She looked around wildly, hoping to find a way out or to see Hank, Jean, and Peter coming for her. "It's no use, Chère," Remy came into view. "Just let us do our job and you won't get hurt,"

"A little late for that," She spat at him, moving her neck to show him the still bleeding cut. She winced.

"Remy," Constance scolded. "Go get something to clean that with. The boss will not be happy if she comes to him injured,"

Remy sighed and rolled his eyes. "Right,"

Constance came over and looked down at the still struggling girl. She held the collar in her hand as she bent down. "This will only give you a mild headache — uncomfortable, but bearable,"

No matter what, Olivia could not let that collar be put on her or she would be a goner for sure. "Please, you don't have to do this," Her first tactic; begging.

Constance knelt down and shook her head. "I'm sorry, my dear, but I do. We don't want you causing a short-circuit, now do we?" Her hand inched closer and closer to Olivia ever so slowly — as if time was slowed.

Tactic number two; struggle. Under the weight of Chase's boot, she began to thrash and scream, kick and smack, but Constance clearly had the patience to wait out her temper tantrum. Olivia was becoming desperate. She didn't want to go with them, she couldn't. Her breathing became quick and shallow as she continued to fight. She didn't notice the emergency lights as they started to flicker. Constance continued to slowly bring the collar closer and when Olivia felt the metal just barely graze her skin, it happened.

All of the power she had within her expelled in a light show of explosions and sparks. She screamed, the expulsion unnatural and painful. She could feel the weight of Chase's foot release from her stomach and suddenly air flooded back into her lungs. Constance and Angie were also tossed aside, but the powerful storm didn't stop — she couldn't make it. In a moment of panic and desperation, all of her power was expelling itself from her as a means to protect her. She trashed and screamed as the electricity continued to leave her body and when it finally subsided, she was exhausted. Barely able to keep her head up, Olivia felt a breeze and a hand cup her cheek just before she passed out cold.

AUTHORS NOTE
so...welcome to the second part of this here book. Number one — yes, I put Gambit in my story because I love him. Number two — this plotline for this section of the book will be all completely me, with no movie or comic to follow. And three — I LOVE ALL OF YOU LOVELY PEOPLE WHO READ THIS BOOK!!