...He found it really odd but also quite exciting that the guys knew he wasn't really a girl, but still reacted towards him as if he was. It was a different kind of attention that he was completely unaccustomed and unprepared for, but it also felt really nice too.

---

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I acknowledge Marvel Entertainment's ownership of the distinctive characters and names within this story for which they hold Trademark(s) and that the inclusion of said characters within this story does not imply any authorization, support or agreement with Marvel Entertainment. This story is purely written under the Fair Use Clause for the purposes of Fan-Fiction and is not to be sold or distributed in any way that would constitute an infringement of Marvel Entertainment's undisputed ownership of any relevant elements for which they hold copyright.

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As promised, early the next morning Chris found himself being gently shaken awake. With his foggy, half-asleep mind he experienced a brief moment of confusion upon opening his eyes while he tried to remember where he was. Above him, the smiling face of Ms. Munroe greeted him.

"Good morning, child. I trust that you slept well?" she asked him gently.

He nodded mutely in response and smiled at her. Actually, he had slept well. Very well, in fact. He sat up and gave his arms a comforting stretch.

"Mr. McCoy and the Professor are waiting for us in the lower levels. I've brought you something to wear for the first part of the testing."

She placed a small bundle of clothes at the end of his bed and then told him she'd wait for him outside while he changed.

As soon as she'd closed the door behind her, Chris threw the covers back and moved to the end of the bed to examine what she'd brought him. He had been half-expecting to find another white patient's gown but, much to his surprise, he discovered that he'd been given a loose-fitting T-shirt, a small pair of track pants and running shoes. Not wanting to keep Ms. Munroe waiting for too long, he quickly grabbed a pair of white socks out of his drawer and got dressed. Everything fit him perfectly!

Curious, he paused for a quick look at himself in the full-length mirror. Other than his hair looking a little dishevelled, he looked a lot like a young girl ready to go out for her morning jog. He didn't really have the time to brush his hair out, so he opted to simply tie it back into a ponytail. His hair was definitely getting quite long!

He joined Ms. Munroe out in the hallway and she complimented him on his appearance while she led him to the main foyer.

"I am pleased that those clothes fit you so well. I apologize if they seem a little embarrassing, but you will find them to be very practical for this morning’s tests."

They were descending the grand staircase when he casually asked, "Why would I find these clothes embarrassing?"

Ms. Munroe flushed slightly before answering, "Well... they belong to Kitty, actually."

Chris surprised her with a small laugh.

"I thought that they looked a bit feminine, but figured I was just imagining it. They do seem to fit really well, though."

He followed her back into the recreation room and watched her open a small, concealed panel in a wall nearby the hidden elevator. She entered a code onto the keypad and the door slid open to reveal the elevator waiting for them.

They entered and rode the elevator down in silence. On the lower level, she led him down the long hallway in the opposite direction from where he'd been the previous day.

"Uh... Ms. Munroe?" he asked tentatively, "I meant to ask before, but why is everything down here hidden? Is there some secret government research going on down here?"

She glanced at him and gave him a reassuring smile.

"Of course not, child. The government has no knowledge of this aspect of the Xavier Institute. Much of what is hidden is done so out of necessity, but Professor Xavier will explain more of that to you later."

Finally, they arrived at a set of heavy steel doors that opened for them as they approached. Beyond them was a huge open room with metal plating all along the walls. High above, Chris could see what appeared to be an observation room set just below the ceiling. The room had been set up with an assortment of gymnastic equipment including rings, uneven bars, a balance beam and a large tumbling mat. Awaiting them near the center of this large room was the Professor, Mr. McCoy and Mr. Logan.

"Ah, good morning Chris!" Xavier said cheerfully. "Are you ready for some exercise?"

"Uh...I guess," he answered quietly and glanced around the room at all of the apparatus. He was a little concerned about what they might be expecting from him. While it was true that he'd performed some pretty fantastic physical manoeuvres over the past few days, he wasn't really very athletic.

"Professor, I'm not really a gymnast. I don't actually know how I did those moves before..."

"That is one of the things we're hoping to find out, Chris," Xavier answered him reassuringly. "We're not going to have you do anything that you aren't comfortable with. Essentially, we want to measure your performance while Mr. Logan directs you through a few simple exercises."

Mr. McCoy, who was wearing the largest lab coat Chris had ever seen, summoned him over to a side table that was loaded with all sorts of strange-looking equipment. He had Chris remove his T-Shirt and then proceeded to attach a series of small sensors to various parts of his body. As soon as he was finished, they were ready for him to do whatever it was that they'd planned for him.

Mr. Logan began the exercises by first having Chris do a few laps around the perimeter of the large room. Each time Chris passed him, he was told to try running a little faster. Eventually, Chris' lap times got slower as he began to tire out. Mr. Logan seemed satisfied by the results and allowed Chris to sit down on the mats to catch his breath while he discussed a few things with the other faculty members.

Next, he had Chris try some simple tumbling exercises, followed by some work on the balance beam. He didn't do nearly as well on the latter and fell off a few times. Chris was finding the exercises extremely difficult to accomplish and was worried about what he was going to be asked to do on the more complex equipment. He was relieved when Mr. Logan told him that it wouldn't be necessary for the time being.

Mr. McCoy summoned Chris back to his table and took a series of readings from him: temperature, blood pressure, reflexes and a few others that were a complete mystery. When that was finished, he apologized that he required a blood sample from Chris before they could continue with the next phase of the testing. Chris absolutely hated needles, but managed to hold still long enough for Mr. McCoy to draw a small amount out of his arm. Despite his huge hands, he was incredibly gentle and Chris hardly felt any pain at all.

Just as he was finishing up, the Professor wheeled himself over to them and simply looked at Chris in silence for a moment.

'Chris, the next thing we're going to do will undoubtedly seem a bit unorthodox to you, but I assure you that it is perfectly safe.'

Chris heard the professor's voice, but was surprised that his lips didn't seem to move. Suddenly Chris clued in -- the Professor was talking to him in his head again, just as he had the day before!

"Wow... that's really amazing how you can do that," Chris said aloud with a touch of awe in his voice.

'While you are still able to hear me in this manner, I would like to guide you through a few simple mental exercises,' the Professor’s voice in his head continued. 'I am hopeful that we will be able to raise your awareness of your mutant abilities to your conscious mind. Close your eyes, take deep breaths and try to relax...'

Chris did as he was told and immediately felt an odd buzzing sensation in his head. It felt weird, but not entirely unpleasant. He found that he was physically spent from the exercising Mr. Logan had him do so it was very easy for him to allow himself to relax. With each breath he could feel himself drifting into a near trance-like state.

Without warning, his tranquility was abruptly shattered when a very distressing memory re-surfaced and forced its way into his conscious thoughts. In his mind's eye, he was replaying the entire incident at school earlier that week when he'd been attacked and beaten by Robbie and Stan. He found himself reliving the pain, anguish and shame of the last few moments when Robbie was trying to force Chris to give him a blowjob. He felt ill and tried to recoil from the memory.

'Chris, this isn't real,' he heard the Professor's calming voice echo in his mind. 'This is in the past. It can only harm you as long as you keep it buried in your memories. You must see beyond the fear and the pain and discover what you've been unintentionally hiding from yourself.'

In his mind, Chris looked back at the frightening memory to see what it was the Professor was trying to show him. He cringed as he remembered the pain in his arms and the terror he'd felt about what Robbie was trying to force him to do. Just as it had been before, the sensations built up and threatened to overwhelm him, but then suddenly there was something else he'd overlooked: it was that tingling sensation he'd felt throughout his body. He'd felt it a few times since then, but it was only at that very first time, woven into this painful memory, that he'd remembered exactly where that sensation had come from.

In his mind, it suddenly felt as if a large switch had been thrown. That sensation flooded through him again and at the same time Chris was aware that the Professor was no longer in his mind with him. He opened his eyes and saw the Professor and the other adults standing next to him staring intently back at him.

"Did you find it, Chris?" the Professor asked him verbally.

Chris took a few more deep breaths to calm himself down. Facing that memory so abruptly was almost enough to make him start to cry again. Oddly enough, he was able to keep his emotions in check. The unpleasant memory was already beginning to fade, but the awareness he'd discovered seemed to be growing stronger by the minute.

"I... think so. Something's different now. I can't really describe it, but... I can feel it." Chris answered slowly.

Xavier nodded to Henry, who then handed Chris a small device. It looked similar to the battery & meter combination that the Professor had shown him the day before back at his home. As soon as he'd touched it, his hand glowed for an instant and the meter on the device dropped to zero. Mr. McCoy nodded and muttered something to himself as he took the device back and starting making notes on a clipboard.

"How are you feeling at this moment, Chris?" the Professor asked him.

He closed his eyes for a moment and concentrated on all of the strange sensations he was feeling.

"Actually, I feel pretty good," He answered.

"That's good. If you feel ready, Mr. Logan would like you to run through a few more exercises."

With a small groan, Chris returned to the center of the mat with Mr. Logan and resumed the same exercises he'd completed before. This time, however, he noticed that he seemed to have a little more spring in his step than he’d had before. He wasn't sure, but it also felt as if he was running faster than he had the first time. After a few laps around the room, he was directed through some more tumbling exercises on the mat. They felt a lot easier this time, and when he tried a few walks on the balance beam, he didn't fall even once. On a whim, he dismounted the beam with a back flip and landed perfectly on his feet, which earned him some applause from the adults -- except for Mr. Logan who only seemed to nod his approval.

He was summoned back to Mr. McCoy, who handed him a long cable and told him only to hold it for a minute. It looked a lot like a heavy-duty power cable of some kind, which made Chris a little nervous. Sure, he knew that his ability had something to do with electrical power, but wasn't this over-doing it a bit?

"What we have been able to ascertain," said Mr. McCoy's deep voice, "is that your physical stamina and reflexes seem to increase when you absorb electricity. The first device I gave you was only a capacitor with a moderate charge. Now, we'd like you to try to control your ability to absorb energy from a continuous source. Specifically, this power cable."

Chris looked doubtfully at the cable he was holding. While the idea sounded logical enough, the fact remained that it would still be him who had to put the theory to the test. What if he wasn't able to stop and drew too much power? Would he then explode or something? Still, he supposed if it got to be too much for him, he could always just let go of the cable. He looked back at Mr. McCoy and nodded silently to him. He reached back into himself and mentally turned his ability 'on'. Nothing ventured, nothing gained as the saying goes.

Mr. McCoy turned on a control unit at the other end of the cable and Chris momentarily cringed as he imagined a large flash or a 'zap' sound of some kind. Surprisingly enough, nothing obvious seemed to happen outwardly. Internally though, Chris could feel his own power as it interacted with the energy he was drawing in. It felt really good! He extended his awareness back through the cable he was holding into the unit that was generating the power. It was working too slowly, Chris thought. He wanted more. For an instant, the unit, the cable and Chris were all emitting an aura of blue-green light... then there was a soft 'pop' sound and the unit shut down.

Probably blown a fuse, Chris thought to himself.

He let the inert cable fall to the ground and looked down at himself. He was awestruck as he examined his arms and the visible blue-green glow that was now surrounding his entire body. The feeling was just... incredible. He felt so alive... so full of energy, which was probably true both in the literal and figurative sense. He wanted to... no, he needed to do something with it.

He looked quickly at the un-even bars and without a second thought he ran extremely quickly towards them and leaped up to the top bar. Purely on instinct, he performed an impressive series of alternating spins on both bars and then dismounted in a spinning somersault to a perfect landing.

Without pausing for a reaction from the adults, he charged towards the balance beam and propelled himself up on it. He performed a few cartwheels back and forth, some backward walkovers and some back flips. He dismounted in another back flip when Mr. Logan approached and beckoned him to come down.

"Pretty good, kid," he said with a satisfied nod of his head. "Now, try a few more laps for us and then ya can call it quits for now."

Chris took off like a shot and easily ran several laps around the room. He guessed he'd performed three times as many circuits around the room as he had before, and in much less time. Before long, he was being waved back to Mr. McCoy and the others. Reluctantly, he slowed his pace to a walk and returned.

After all that exercise, he noted that the glow he was projecting around himself seemed to be a little dimmer. He could still sense that he was holding a significant amount of power, though. Something then occurred to him that made him a little worried.
"Uh... Mr. McCoy," he said nervously, "I'm still feeling 'charged'. What happens if someone accidentally touches me? I could seriously hurt them!"

"Perhaps at present, that could very well be true," the blue giant told him gently. "In time, we are hopeful that training will enable you to control your power so you'll be able to control the discharge of your energy. In the meantime, we'll find safer methods for you to release it."

Chris noted with some interest that Mr. McCoy had donned a pair of heavy-duty insulator gloves. He carefully drew another blood sample from Chris and then offered him another cable to hold onto. This one ran into what appeared to be a large battery of some kind. Mr. McCoy explained that they were going to try to collect and measure his output, so they wanted him to try and release his energy gradually through the cable until he felt comfortable enough to stop.

Unfortunately, once he started to allow himself to 'let go', most of the energy poured out of him and fried the battery at the other end. Chris looked nervously from the smouldering battery to the faces of the adults. Much to his surprise, they actually started laughing.

"Sorry about that," he said sheepishly. "It kind of got away from me."

"That's quite alright, Chris. I'm sure that you'll get better with practice," the Professor told him with a bit of a chuckle in his voice. He glanced down at his watch and then added,

"In the meantime, the other students will be waking up soon. If you want to have a shower before breakfast, you'd best hurry so that you can go first."

Chris peeled off his T-shirt so Mr. McCoy could remove the various sensors that had been placed on him. As soon as that was finished, he hurriedly put the shirt back on. Oddly enough, he found himself feeling really self-conscious about having his chest bare.

Ms. Munroe offered to escort him back to the elevator, but he politely declined her offer since he already knew the way. Besides, he was still aware of a residual 'charge' remaining within him and he felt a desire to run some of it off. As soon as the professor dismissed him, he sprinted off towards the door, taking the opportunity to tumble across the mat on his way, and then disappeared down the hallway.

"Well Henry," Xavier asked after Chris left, "what do you think of our newest student?"

"She's quite remarkable," he answered without realizing he was still referring to Chris in the feminine. "She managed to burn out some of the sensors I'd placed on her during her high-energy workout. I expect the data they had collected up to that point should make for a fascinating study."

"The kid's not outstandin’ physically until she... uh, I mean, he... energizes himself," Logan pointed out. "His reflexes, runnin’ time and sense of balance got pretty impressive after that."

"Now that our young Chris has found the control for his mutant power, we can start his training. I see no reason why he shouldn't be able to master it before long." said Xavier.

He paused as he thought of what he'd found in the boy's memories while he was helping him to find that control.

"The boy has had some particularly bad experiences that threaten to undermine his control, though. We'll get him past them eventually, but we'll have to proceed carefully in the meantime."

---

Chris had returned to his room after his brief shower and was carefully patting himself dry while thinking of his recent session in the lower levels. Out in the hallway, he could hear some of the other students' voices as they opened their doors and made a mad dash to the bathroom. He laughed out loud as he listened to their muttered curses when they'd discovered the door was already locked. It seemed that Kitty had taken a special shortcut through the walls and beat the rest of them to it. Well, almost everyone. Apparently Kurt didn't know that she was already in there when he’d teleported in, but the loud shriek that Chris heard all the way back to his room had probably sent Kurt on his way in a big hurry! Chris was thankful he’d followed the Professor’s advice and showered when he did.

He looked over his clothes that he'd packed away and was a little dismayed at the limited selection. Although it had never really bothered him before, he was now a bit irritated that he only seemed to have jeans, T-shirts and a few long-sleeved shirts to wear. He grunted with discomfort as he pulled on a pair of jeans. It was not his imagination -- they definitely didn't fit him properly anymore. He pulled and stretched the fabric as best as he could to try to make them a little more comfortable. He pulled on another T-shirt and then spent a minute combing out his long, wet hair. There certainly seemed to be a lot more of it now. It was considerably longer than he'd ever worn it in the past, but he found that he really liked how it felt.

He stepped out into the hallway and noted some of the other students waiting for their turn at the shower. They immediately noticed his wet hair and realized that he must have been up for awhile already. Rogue, who was next in line, briefly paused her impatient pacing in front of the bathroom door to look Chris over.

"Ah guess you've already been down fer your first tests," she said to him. "How did it go?"

"It was kind of weird, but also a little fun," he answered. "Mr. Logan had me work out on some gymnastic equipment. I didn't do very well at first, but it got really easy after I’d energized myself a little."

He thought about the battery he'd fried when he tried to safely discharge the excess energy.

“I still have a long way to go for controlling how I release the extra energy, though."

The other students started to get into the act and asked him all sorts of questions about the kind of things that went on during his test. He still found it hard to believe that anybody would ever find him interesting enough to talk to for longer than a few seconds. More to the point, none of them seemed to be behaving any differently towards him since they'd discovered the truth about his gender the night before. He'd half-expected them to be a little repulsed and want to keep their distance but they now appeared to be even more interested in him.

After a few minutes, Kitty phased through her bedroom door out into the hallway. She suggested to Chris that they both go hang out in the rec room for a while until everyone was called down to breakfast.

He had no sooner agreed when she abruptly took him by the wrist and phased him directly through a nearby wall. Kitty always seemed to prefer taking the most direct routes possible whenever she went anywhere. Although it was exciting, it definitely caught him by surprise and he let out a gasp when they suddenly found themselves on the upper landing of the grand staircase. For a moment he’d felt his power begin to surge up, but he was able to stop it and lock it back down before he accidentally zapped Kitty again. He was suddenly stunned that he'd actually managed to exert control over it.

Kitty was completely oblivious to the daze that Chris had temporarily fallen into and continued to prattle on about all sorts of things as she led the way to the rec room.

As he had the day before, he let Kitty do most of the talking. It wasn't as if he really had much choice. Internally, though, he was feeling an immense amount of pride and relief over his progress in gaining some control over his new abilities.

After a few minutes, some of the other students began to trickle into the room. Everyone seemed pretty relaxed and laid-back, so they lounged about on the various chairs and sofas in the room and talked amongst themselves for a little while until they were summoned to the dining room for breakfast.

The adults were already seated and waiting for the rest of them when they'd entered the room so they all simply found their seats and began passing the various trays of food around to each other. Everyone assumed the same seats as they had the night before, so Chris opted to sit next to Kitty again.

Kurt arrived a few minutes later in his trademark puff of smoke, whereupon he looked over at Kitty and mumbled an apology to her for his 'intrusion' earlier. She nodded in acceptance and gave him a small wink before turning back to Chris and continuing her one-sided discussion.

He tried his best not to laugh and keep an otherwise straight expression on his face, which was considerably difficult with Rogue rolling her eyes and making funny gestures from behind Kitty where she couldn't see her. Much to Chris' relief, she discontinued when the Professor narrowed his eyes at her in silent reprimand.

As before, the table conversation was varied and relatively light. A few of the students brought up the topic of Chris' first testing/training exercise and were eager for some details. Chris knew that there was more to those tests than he was aware of, but until the adults shared their findings with him he didn't know much more than he had the day before. The other students had all seen his enhanced physical abilities, though -- Scott and Rogue in particular, so he talked a little about that part of the test. He decided to hold off on discussing his attempt at discharging his energy since he wasn't very confident about his ability to control that yet, despite his brief success with Kitty a little earlier.

After breakfast, the rest of the students quickly dispersed. Chris, who had quite a few questions on his mind, decided to stay behind to try talking with the Professor. The adults were still seated together over coffee and seemed to be discussing a general assortment of things regarding the Institute and scheduling for the students. Chris hesitated, as he didn't really want to interrupt them. He quickly changed his mind and decided that his questions could wait. Just as he turned to leave, the Professor spoke up.

"Chris, was there something you wanted to ask?" he asked in his usual friendly manner.

"Uh... yes, I was kinda curious about a few things," he answered as he tried to think of the best way to put what was on his mind into words.

"I've been wondering about why there's all that space hidden underneath the mansion. Ms. Munroe told me this morning that it was a necessary secret. I guess what I'm asking is... who exactly are you people? What's really going on here at the Institute?"

The Professor regarded him thoughtfully for a moment before answering.

"I must apologize, Chris. I should have discussed this with you a little sooner. Perhaps it would best explain our purpose if you were to observe the other students in one of their training exercises."

"They should be finished suitin' up shortly,” Mr. Logan said with a quick glance at nearby clock. He looked over at Xavier and raised an eyebrow. "Do you want me to have 'em prepare for a full simulation?"

"No, I doubt that should be necessary today, Logan."

He looked over at Mr. McCoy and added, "Henry, perhaps you could program something a little more diverse into the equipment today. The students are used to improvising and it should make for an impressive demonstration."

The large blue giant nodded politely and then left the dining room. Mr. Logan got up and followed him out, leaving just the Professor, Ms. Munroe and Chris.

"We'll give them a few minutes to get everything prepared," said the Professor. "While we're waiting, I'll explain a little more about us."

They adjourned to the recreation room where the Professor explained a little more about human mutations and the difficulty that the greater numbers of 'normal' humans had in understanding or accepting them. Chris, who’d had first-hand experience in that regard, definitely understood that problem. For comparison, Ms. Munroe spoke of a few examples that she'd been aware of that had resulted in serious injury -- both to the mutant in question and to several bystanders. Chris was starting to get really concerned. As frightening as his own experiences had been, it hadn't occurred to him that they could have been much worse.

After a few more minutes, they entered the hidden elevator and rode back down to the lower levels. This time, the elevator opened on a different level that Chris hadn't seen before. They stepped out into a shorter hallway with only a few doors staggered down its walls. At the end of the corridor was a large steel door that slid open as they approached.

Inside, the room was filled with the most sophisticated computer equipment that Chris had ever imagined, let alone ever seen. There were consoles and monitors along just about every wall, except for the far wall which had a large vista window down its entire length. Mr. McCoy was seated in a large chair in front of one of the consoles nearby and tapping deftly at a keyboard with his large fingers. He turned towards them as they entered and addressed the Professor.

"Everything is ready, Charles. Shall we begin?"

The Professor gave a slight nod back to Henry who then leaned forward and spoke into a microphone.

"Team exercise: 'Gauntlet', begin!"

The Professor and Ms. Munroe moved over beside Mr. McCoy and beckoned for Chris to join them. Curiously, he looked out the window and saw that he was looking down into the large room that he'd been in earlier that morning. The mats and gym equipment had been cleared away and replaced with an assortment of strange-looking pieces of machinery. The large door to the room opened and Chris saw the other students walk in. They were all wearing strange, form-fitting, dark costumes.

It appeared as if everything had been arranged to form an obstacle course of sorts around the perimeter of the large room. The students were expected to make their way through it all to where Chris could see Mr. Logan waiting for them. As soon as the door behind them closed, the lights dimmed slightly and strange machinery in the room came to life and started to attack them!

What the hell is this all about?! Chris wondered.

Some of the machines were shooting various projectiles at them. A few others shot nets and others still had long, mechanical tentacles that reached out and attempted to ensnare them. As he continued to watch, he was amazed as the students worked together as a team to bypass each of the obstacles. Jean used her powers to levitate herself and Rogue past one obstacle, while Kitty and Scott phased through another together. Kurt and Evan teleported ahead to the next obstacle, then Evan shot a line of bony spikes into it to form a ladder to the top.

It went on like that through the various obstacles, with each student using their abilities to help the others get through. Rogue was surprisingly agile in dodging some of the flying projectiles, but then Chris figured she needed to be since her own powers wouldn't be of much help to her unless she encountered an actual opponent. Much to Chris' surprise, Rogue got the opportunity to do just that when Mr. Logan suddenly appeared and started to attack them. From the looks on all of their faces, it was evident that they hadn’t been expecting that.

They seemed reluctant to use their abilities against their instructor, who took advantage of their hesitation to knock a couple of them down with a few martial arts manoeuvres. Finally getting the idea, they used their powers to keep Mr. Logan distracted and gave Rogue the opportunity to get close enough to touch him.

Chris was fascinated as he watched Rogue's hand and arm glow slightly, then Mr. Logan dropped to his knees. So that was what it looked like when Rogue used her powers. The other students worked their way past the last obstacle that was firing large spheres at them and Rogue, who now appeared to have assumed a more aggressive posture, jumped and tumbled through after them with significantly greater agility than she had shown so far. Scott made an impressive display by blasting a few of the projectiles with energy beams from the strange visor he was wearing and Evan deflected the others aside with more of his flying spikes.

As soon as they'd reached the finish line, all the machines in the room went dormant. All in all, the entire exercise probably took less than two minutes. Chris was very impressed!

Professor Xavier moved his chair forward so that he could speak through the microphone.

"Well done, everyone! Good teamwork! Mr. Logan will continue your instruction for the next two hours, after which you will be free for the rest of the day. Try to use your free time wisely, as I understand a number of you have essays due this week at school."

Chris was surprised to see that Mr. Logan was already back on his feet again. He approached the students with a scowl on his face that Chris was able to see even from way up in the control room and presumably began to give them evaluations on their performance during the exercise. Didn't that guy ever smile?

"As you can see, Chris," said the Professor from behind him, "the students are trained not only to control their abilities, but also to apply them constructively under trying circumstances. This combative approach is regretfully necessary and I suspect will be more than justified in the future. Human society's acceptance of us will be slow in coming, but I strongly believe that it will happen one day. In the meantime, this team has been formed to meet whatever challenges may come. I call them, The X-men."

Wow, Chris thought. A teenage gang of super-heroes!

As impressed as he was after seeing them in action, he had serious doubts that he'd ever be able to do the sorts of things that he'd just seen them do. They were all so... cool, and he was just plain old nerdy Chris. Chris the jinx and, with a quick glance at his faint reflection in the observation window, Chris the freak.

"What is wrong, child?" asked Ms. Munroe's kindly voice as she gently laid a hand on his shoulder. "Does all of this frighten you?"

"No, it's just that... I could never do any of that! I'm not like the rest of you..." he answered with a slight quiver in his voice.

Damn it, he thought to himself. Why is it that I always seem to be ready to cry so easily?

"That is something that only you can decide, Chris,” the Professor said meaningfully.

"Each of those students you see below have all felt the same as you now do. They each had their fears and doubts, but in time they learned to overcome them."

"And," Ms. Munroe added purposefully, "Never doubt that you are like the rest of us. With a little faith, you may surprise yourself with what you can do."

---

Later that afternoon, Chris sat in the recreation room with his book but made no real attempt to read it. Some of the other students were lounging in the room with him and he couldn't help but to stare at them. It was truly amazing the sorts of things that they were capable of, yet one wouldn't know it to look at them. They certainly seemed to act like normal teenagers for the most part.

"Hey Chrissy!" said Kitty's voice, seemingly out of nowhere.

Chris glanced quickly around the room and was only mildly surprised to see just her head and shoulders peeking out of a nearby wall.

"Oh, hi Kitty," Chris answered softly.

It didn't appear as though Kitty was going to completely enter the room, so he got up and went over to see what she wanted.

"Just 'Chris' will do, thanks. What's up?"

"Come on," she said while beckoning to him with an arm phased through the wall.

"Jean's waiting for us upstairs. We need to put a few outfits together for you for school."

Without waiting for his response, she seized him by his wrist and pulled him through the wall with her. Although Chris still found this to be a rather odd way to travel, he was starting to get used to it.

He allowed Kitty to lead him back up the grand staircase and then directly through her closed door into her room. Laid out on Kitty's bed, Chris saw an assortment of different clothes and Jean was currently in the process of sorting through some of them.

She waved at them as they entered and looked Chris over again in an appraising manner. Kitty dove back into her closet through the closed door and Jean began to hold up various articles of clothing against Chris while she tried to visualize how they'd look on him.

"If you really are changing into a female, perhaps you should consider letting the Professor register you at school as one. It would probably spare you a lot of hassles from the other kids at Bayville High -- especially if you're going to keep wearing Kitty's clothes!"

Chris flushed a bit as he thought about the clothes that Ms. Munroe had him wear that morning.

"Um... that wasn't really my idea, you know," he said quietly.

"Hey, like... no worries, Chris!" came Kitty's slightly muffled voice from somewhere inside her large closet.

"Once you start building up your own wardrobe, you can let me borrow some of your stuff from time to time and we'll call it even."

She phased back through the door with some more clothes in her arms and deposited them on her bed.

Chris thought briefly of his experience the other day when he'd gone through his mother's closet. As enjoyable as the experience had been, he felt a little uneasy at the thought of doing more dressing up for an audience. However, it didn't look as though he had much of a choice since both Jean and Kitty were acting as though the possibility of him saying 'no' hadn't even occurred to them. Besides, there was a certain amount of logic to it considering his already-feminine appearance.

It turned out that both Kitty and Rogue shared the big closet, which was logical since both of the girls were roommates, but it was pretty clear that Kitty laid claim to most of it. She had a lot of clothes! Remembering some of the dinner conversation from the night before, Chris wondered why Kitty needed to borrow any of Jean's stuff when she already had such a large wardrobe herself.

Jean seemed to be taking the lead in that 'big sister' sort of manner that she had. She selected a few blouses and some pairs of Capri pants, then piled them into Chris' arms and sent him off to the bathroom to try them on. Still feeling a bit odd, Chris simply complied with her request and tried not to think too much about it.

As before, Kitty's clothes fit him extremely well. The girls were quite impressed with his appearance and adjusted each look slightly with various accessories such as necklaces, bracelets and a touch of makeup. After a few more changes of clothes, they had selected a modest assortment of items for him to use that week in school. They weren't the most 'femme' clothes that Kitty owned, but on Chris they made any assumption that he was really a boy impossible. Despite everything that the Professor and Mr. McCoy had told him about his gender changing, he was still amazed by his appearance in the mirror.

It was getting close to dinnertime, so Chris helped Jean and Kitty straighten up everything in the room. Just as they were finishing up, Rogue returned and nodded with approval at how Chris looked. Jean and Kitty had even teased his hair slightly, so the image that was presented to Rogue was quite astounding.

"Not bad at all," she finally said. "Ah think you probably look even better in those things than Kitty ever did."

Kitty only frowned and stuck out her tongue at Rogue in reply.

"Why don't you come down to dinner like that instead of changing back into your other clothes?" Jean asked. "That look really does suit you much better."

Chris thought it over for a few seconds. He really did enjoy the look and feel of the new clothes, but he was worried that he might be rushing things a bit. It was still only his second day at the Institute and only three days since he'd tried dressing up for the first time.

"Uh, won't everyone else think it's really weird? I mean, I may look like a girl but everyone knows that I'm not one… at least, not exactly."

"Weird? At this place? We're all mutants, remember? The whole point of this place is to learn more about ourselves and to be comfortable with who we are. At least, that's what the Professor keeps telling us," replied Jean in her best-sounding 'big sister' mode.

"Besides," Kitty piped in, "since you are changing, you'll have to get used to seeing yourself as a girl sooner or later."

That had pretty much settled the issue for Chris. He had already decided earlier that it would be far more practical to be registered at the local High School as a girl. He'd learned a fair amount of stuff from Jean and Kitty that afternoon about dressing like a girl, but he still had to work on acting like one. He was going to be spending most of his time with the other students of the Institute for the next few years, so it made the most sense that he should start practicing his 'look' with them first.

The girls were looking forward to seeing the reaction of the boys when Chris arrived in the dining room that night. They decided to wait upstairs until everyone else was seated and then go down together to surprise everyone.

Before long, they could hear the boys' voices in the hallway and down the grand staircase as they made their way to the dining room. Chris and the girls waited another few minutes to give the Institute's staff time to settle in and then finally headed down together.

As they reached the main floor at the bottom of the grand staircase, Chris felt another wave of anxiety surge through him. He could feel himself starting to tremble, so he quickly grabbed hold of the railing to steady himself.

"Um, Chris... do you know that you're kind of... glowing, right now?” Jean asked him gently.

"S..sorry!" he stuttered. "That happens sometimes when I'm really n..nervous!"

Jean stepped in front of Chris and crouched a bit so she could look into his eyes.

"Listen very carefully to my voice Chris. First, close your eyes. Next, take a couple of slow, deep breaths and let them out gently."

She paused as Chris did as he was told. Slowly, the glow from his face and hands faded until there was no trace of it.

"There's no reason to be nervous. We are all a family here and you are one of us now. No one is going to make fun of you, I promise. When we walk in there together, you'll see that I'm right. Please trust me, okay?"

He opened his eyes and looked deep into hers for a moment. Those large, doe-like eyes of hers continued to silently entreat her request: to trust her. Chris was awestruck by the level of sincerity that he saw.

Internally, he fought a decisive battle with his emotions. She was probably the first person in years to actually ask that of him. Most people usually behaved as if Chris' trust wasn't an issue so long as he simply complied with whatever they wanted of him. The few exceptions were his mother, the Professor and Ms. Munroe. Each of them had earned his trust to varying degrees, but Jean was the only one who'd actually asked for it -- and she'd asked as though she understood just how hard it was for Chris to give it.

In an instant, his inner turmoil subsided. He felt his spirits lift a little and nodded to Jean, who promptly put a reassuring arm around his shoulders. Kitty and Rogue joined them on either side and they all entered the dining room together.

Just as they'd planned, everyone else was already seated and patiently awaiting them. There were a few quiet conversations making up the bulk of the ambient background noise of the dining room that abruptly stopped the instant that Chris entered with the girls. For a moment, no one said a thing but simply stared at the image before them. The boys were not only staring, but also allowed their mouths to hang open a bit.

Xavier cleared his throat loudly to break everyone out of their temporary enchantment.

"Ah, there you are girls... we were just starting to wonder what was keeping you. Please, take your seats."

Chris noted with surprise and a certain amount of satisfaction that the Professor had grouped him in with the other girls. Still, he was reluctant to make eye contact with anyone as he followed Kitty to their usual seats. So far Jean had been right about how everyone else would react, but he was still afraid he’d lose his nerve and bolt back up to his room.

As things turned out, dinner was a pretty normal affair as much as any other gathering in the dining room. Everyone seemed to take Chris' overtly feminine appearance in stride and didn't act as though there was anything out of the ordinary -- except for Scott, Kurt and Evan, that is.

The three teen boys were uncharacteristically quiet through dinner and spent much of their time gaping at Chris. Whenever Chris asked for something to be passed to him, the three of them practically fell over each other in their eagerness to fulfill his request. It was all Chris could do to maintain a straight face and not laugh at their foolishness. He found it really odd but also quite exciting that the guys knew he wasn't really a girl, but still reacted towards him as if he was. It was a different kind of attention that he was completely unaccustomed and unprepared for, but it also felt really nice too.

After dinner, the Professor reminded everyone about school the next day and advised them not to stay up too late before dismissing everyone. He suggested the same to Chris, even though he wasn't going to be joining the other students at school until probably the following day. They hadn't had the opportunity to properly register Chris as a student at Bayville High yet and they wanted to use the next day to run some more tests on him while the other students were all off at school. That was perfectly fine by Chris, who wasn't looking forward to being the 'new kid' at a strange new school.

The official plan for the remaining hours until lights out was for all the students to lounge around in the rec room and watch some movie from the video library. The girls had made it very clear that they were expecting Chris to join everyone, so any attempt he might make to bow out would be futile.

As they were all filing out of the dining room, the Professor asked Chris to remain behind for a quick discussion.

"I must say Chris, I'm very pleasantly surprised," Xavier said with a kindly smile. "You really do make a beautiful young girl. I was surprised that you had allowed the others to persuade you to dress like this so soon."

"I'm kind of surprised too," Chris replied with a small laugh "but it didn't seem as though Kitty or Jean would take 'no' for an answer!"

"It does bring me to my main question, though I suspect that I already know your answer. How do you wish to be registered at school, as a male or a female?" Xavier asked carefully.

"Definitely as a girl," Chris answered without the slightest hesitation.

"I've been thinking about it for a while and after the way that things have gone today, I know I'd be a lot happier as a girl. Besides, it's hard enough convincing people that I'm a boy right now and I'm guessing it'll be nearly impossible in the future."

Xavier nodded his head in approval.

"Well, if you're absolutely certain then I'll make the necessary arrangements. I'll see to it that you'll be exempted from physical education classes at school, as that would likely be the only place where your apparent gender might be compromised. In the meantime, enjoy your free time with the other students. Remember not to stay up too late and I'll see you for testing tomorrow morning."

Chris flashed a radiant smile back at Xavier and then hastened off across the grand hall towards the rec room.

Xavier noted with some interest that Chris' stride seemed to be developing a very feminine sway as he walked. He watched until Chris was out of sight and then turned his wheelchair towards his study. He was pleasantly surprised to see Henry waiting at the opposite end of the dining room.

"It appears that she can move like a female as well as look like one. Has she decided to register as a girl for school?" Henry asked.

"Indeed, 'she' has," Xavier replied.

"I'm quite relieved at his decision as I wasn't looking forward to having to suggest that it was the best option if he'd decided to go the other way. He does seem to be taking his gender shift quite well."

Henry nodded in agreement.

"That is fortunate. It will make her transition and subsequent acclimating much easier, particular since it appears that her recent changes in behaviour are likely biologically motivated."

"Have you made any more discoveries from your test data?" Xavier asked.

"The presence of her ovaries was a particularly surprising and intriguing part of the puzzle, so I did more extensive DNA testing with the blood samples from earlier today. The results indicate that Chris is actually a Tetragametic chimera."

Xavier raised his eyebrows in surprise at that revelation, but said nothing. It went without saying that the Institute’s newest student was even more unique than they’d originally thought.

"Additionally, I discovered something interesting when I compared the two separate blood samples I’d taken from her this morning. The sample I took from her after she'd energized seemed to confirm my theory of her bioelectric charge neutralizing her male hormones. When the charge is high enough, her white blood cells are just as empowered as the rest of her and they become very efficient at eliminating foreign agents in the blood. This condition would suggest that she is probably highly resistant to illness and infections. Judging from the speed at which her tissues seem to heal themselves, it is also likely that her regenerative processes are enhanced as well."

He paused as he noted the look of surprise on Xavier's face. He didn't need to be a telepath to guess what he was thinking.

"...Not quite like Logan. His mutant ability in that area far exceeds hers and in her case, her healing factor is likely dependent upon the level of charge she is holding."

Xavier smiled and gave a subtle shake of his head.

"Despite all the work that we do working with human mutations, I still find it amazing at times some of the abilities that these young people possess. I only hope that in the case of our newest student, we'll be able to guide, ah... 'her', to use them properly."

---

Early the next morning, Chris awoke to the sounds of the other students moving about through the hallway as they got themselves ready for school. He was grateful that he didn't have to go to school with them that day so he wouldn't have to rush out to join the usual long queue for the shower.

He got out of bed and walked over to look at himself in the mirror. He noted with a touch of amusement that he'd been taking a greater interest in his appearance as of late and seemed to be spending a lot of time in front of mirrors. Frowning at the dishevelled state of his hair, he retrieved the chair from his desk and sat down in front of the mirror to work a comb through the tangles.

He was convinced that it wasn't his imagination: his hair definitely seemed to have a lot more body than it used to.

After he'd worked the tangles out, he picked up a brush that Jean had given him and decided to give it a try. Normally he'd never bothered with a hairbrush since it had always seemed too impractical in the past, but with each stroke through his hair, he was surprised at just how good it felt.

After a few minutes, he noticed that the sounds of the other students outside in the hall seemed to be diminishing. Undoubtedly they were now starting to head down to the dining room for breakfast so he tossed the brush aside and went to select some clothes to wear so he could join them.

Although he'd only known them for a couple of days now, they'd all been very nice to him so far and he wanted to spend at least some time with them before they had to leave for school. The staff at the Institute was really nice as well, but he felt more of a sense of belonging with the other students. That in itself was both new and thrilling to a boy who had spent most of his life being treated like a social reject. Besides that, most of his day was going to be spent wrapped up in further tests so he suspected this would probably be his only chance to relax until the end of the afternoon.

Out of habit, he grabbed a pair of jeans and one of his T-shirts. He frowned as he noted the slightly uncomfortable fit around his waist and hips. With a glance in the mirror he confirmed his suspicion that not only the jeans didn't fit quite right, but now they also didn't look right. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something looked a bit... off. He made a mental note to bring it up with the girls when they got back from school later and quickly donned his running shoes before rushing downstairs.

On weekdays, breakfast at the Institute was a much more casual affair to accommodate the relatively tight schedules of both staff and students. The dining room was set up like a buffet and the students were in the process of filling up their plates with typical morning fare when Chris arrived. The seating arrangements at the large table weren't as formal, either, and they simply grabbed whatever seats were closest.

Ms. Munroe was the only faculty member in the dining room at the moment and she seemed preoccupied by some paperwork that she was working on; pausing only to take a sip of her coffee now and then.

Despite her presence, it appeared as if the more casual atmosphere of weekday breakfast was the accepted rule so a few of the students would often use their mutant abilities in an effort to get through breakfast a little faster. Kitty would phase right through the table instead of walking around it, Kurt would teleport between his seat and the buffet (which he did often!), Jean would often levitate objects instead of physically passing things around by hand and Evan would sometimes use long quills from his fingertips to serve himself instead of the provided serving utensils.

It almost looked like a small circus was going on in front of him and he found it much more fascinating to watch instead of eating his own breakfast. He was a little surprised that he didn't have much of an appetite anyways. Come to think of it, his appetite had been really low for the last few days. He made another mental note to bring that up with the Professor and Mr. McCoy later.

At the pace they were going, it took very little time at all for the rest of the students to finish up breakfast before they stampeded out of the dining room in a rush to retrieve their school bags. Chris went to the door of the dining room to watch them as they all came back down through the main hall and headed out the front door. They all waved and said goodbye as they passed by him and then they were gone.

"Quite a crazy bunch, aren't they?" said Logan's deep voice from behind him.

Chris turned to see Logan shaking his head with only the slightest hint of a smile on his face.

"They may seem odd, but you'll get used to 'em. Maybe before long you'll be just as quirky as the rest of ‘em, eh?"

The Professor and Mr. McCoy arrived a few moments later and they all went over to the window to watch as the other students left the grounds via the main gate. Chris got the impression that they did this often. It was very similar to how his own mother often watched him leave for school each day. It was a very... parental sort of thing.

"You have hardly touched your breakfast, child," Ms. Munroe spoke up at last. "You really should try to eat something as I'm certain today's tests are bound to be exhausting for you."

"Well, I'll try. It's really weird, but for the last few days I haven't really been all that hungry." He looked over at Mr. McCoy's large blue form and added, "I wanted to ask you if my 'changes' might have something to do with it."

Henry looked thoughtful for a moment before replying.

"Intriguing. It's possible that your metabolism has realigned itself to accommodate your mutant abilities. I'll run a few tests later that might shed a little more light on the matter."

Chris was sent back upstairs to have a quick shower and to change into more suitable clothing for the physical aspects of the tests that were scheduled for that morning. He was pleasantly surprised to see that big-sister Jean had laundered the workout clothes of Kitty's that he'd used the day before. As he was changing into them, he thought about the strange costumes that he'd seen the others wear during their team exercise. They looked pretty cool. Maybe they'd have something like that for him one of these days.

After getting changed, he hurried down to the recreation room where he found the elevator already waiting for him with its door wide open. As he rode down to the lower levels he realized that he was feeling a sense of eagerness to start the testing. In fact, he was actually looking forward to it. At some point over the past few days he'd not only gotten past being scared of his abilities, he'd now become quite comfortable with them and accepted them as a part of himself. It had probably happened when the Professor had entered his mind and helped him to discover his mental 'switch' for controlling his power. Now that he knew where it was, he was constantly aware of it and his awareness made him eager to experiment with it.

He'd entered the large training room to see that it was set up nearly identically to how it had been for his tests the day before. He looked a little more carefully at the various closed panels in the floor and around the room while remembering the sorts of machinery that he'd seen come out of them during the team's workout. Clearly, the room was full of many interesting surprises.

The adults were all waiting for him over by the workstation that Mr. McCoy had set up with more of his strange pieces of monitoring equipment. He waited patiently for the few minutes it took for Mr. McCoy to attach more sensors to him, and then he was finally ready to go.

As it had been the day before, Mr. Logan had him run through a series of physical 'warm-up' exercises before sending him back to Mr. McCoy so he could re-energize. He was given only a limited amount of energy to draw at first and then sent out to the exercise apparatus to work it off. When he'd run himself down to 'normal' levels, he was sent back to charge up again.

The cycle repeated itself several times and each time he went back to absorb more energy, the Professor would connect with him mentally and try to help him focus his awareness of how he was drawing it. With the growing awareness also came a limited amount of control and after a while he found that he could do it with surprising ease. Once he had demonstrated reasonable control of his drawing ability, the Professor began to work with him on using the energy more efficiently.

When they all took a break for lunch, they talked about some of the data that Mr. McCoy had been getting on Chris during the tests. Apparently he was showing a tendency to use up the stored energy he was collecting practically all at once. This was probably why at first he'd been subconsciously drawing and storing larger amounts of energy so that it would last longer.

For the rest of the afternoon, the Professor had him practice holding smaller charges and trying to get the most mileage out of them that he could. By the time the other students were starting to return from school, he'd made some progress but found that the mental effort was pretty exhausting. The Professor assured him that it would get easier with time and lots of practice. For the time being, the best that Chris found he could manage was to store the energy and simply keep it locked away. It didn't seem to do anything at all when stored away like that, but it did allow the Professor to communicate with him telepathically. He also felt much more confident that he was less likely to shock someone accidentally when he touched them.

Due to his extensive physical activity throughout the day, he was excused from that afternoon's martial arts training with Mr. Logan. All the students usually had such training scheduled every other afternoon and were starting to arrive in the training room wearing Judo dougis just as Chris was finishing up. He was invited to stay and watch their class for a while, but he left shortly before they finished so that he could beat everyone else to the shower.

He was surprised at just how stiff and stretched out he felt. All of his limbs and joints were aching, but not too painfully. He had never been very athletic, but Mr. Logan had made it clear that all of the students, including him, would need to be in excellent physical shape to better prepare them for their 'special' training. By that, Chris had assumed he'd meant the dangerous stuff that he'd seen the rest of the students doing when all that strange equipment started attacking them. He thought about his own abilities and wondered just what he might have been able to do if he'd been down there with them. Initially he'd had his doubts, but after the two training sessions he'd had so far he was a bit curious. What could he do, exactly?

---

A smartly dressed woman in a business suit stood at the large window of her office as she often did and looked down at the now-empty front entrance way of Bayville High. Except for a few stragglers, the majority of the students had long since departed to undoubtedly engage in the various disreputable things that teenagers often did.

She really despised her job. However, it was necessary to keep up appearances and also to keep an eye on her 'special' students. While she didn't particularly care for them one way or another, they served their purpose. They were especially effective in keeping that meddler Charles Xavier and his group of students on their toes; even though her own students often ended up getting bested by Xavier and his X-men.

She scowled as she thought about Xavier and his altruistic ideals. He and his students were such short-sighted fools. They were completely dedicated to wasting their time trying to promote acceptance amongst normal humans. It was not only futile, but also unworthy of such talented mutants. These 'normal' humans were nothing more than sheep. Their acceptance of mutants was not only unlikely but also unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Mutants were the future of this planet and were destined to rule over it. People like Xavier were only delaying the inevitable.

She sat down at her desk and glanced through a new file folder. It seemed that Xavier had another late-registration transfer student he was enrolling at Bayville High. Undoubtedly another mutant.

Xavier had too much of an advantage with that special computer he called 'Cerebro'. With it, he seemed to always be one step ahead of her when it came to recruiting new mutants. Well, finding them first didn't necessarily mean that they'd automatically join his team. She winced inwardly as she thought of her initial success with the girl Rogue and then her subsequent failure to keep her amongst her own students.

There was very little in the file that would give any hint as to what sort of person this new student was, let alone what sort of mutant abilities she had. 'Christy McGee'... the name sounded pretty hick. She was probably a really simple and naive girl. If she couldn't be persuaded to join her special group, then perhaps she could be intimidated enough so that she wouldn't be of much use to Xavier and his people, either.

Principal Darkholme smiled to herself as she ran though a few scenarios in her head. The first day at a new school can be really difficult on new students. Perhaps tomorrow it will be interesting to see how Xavier's newest student will cope when it's especially difficult.

---

Later that evening, the girls were having Chris model some more outfits for them in Kitty & Rogue's room. Jean and Kitty were especially excited that Chris would be registering as a girl for school; whereas Rogue only casually commented that it would be 'neat'. Still, she insisted on having some input into the sort of look that they were making Chris over in. Rogue was adamant that Chris not be made out to be another preppy little mall-rat like Kitty, which prompted Kitty to throw a large pillow at her head. The reality was that until they were able to take Chris out shopping for clothes, the only choices he had for feminine attire would mostly come from Kitty's wardrobe since they were both very close in size.

It finally took Jean to settle a compromise in which they fashioned an image for Chris that was a cross between both Kitty and Rogue's styles. Chris said very little throughout the entire ordeal and found it hard enough just to keep from laughing. His situation was so absurd that it was pointless to question it. Here he was, a boy, and being argued over by a couple of girls who are trying to decide how to best turn him into a girl. He caught himself in that thought and tried to keep the advice that the Professor had given him earlier in mind.

Just after dinner, the Professor had taken him aside and confirmed that he was now registered at Bayville High as Christy McGee, a freshman transfer student from Michigan. He would be going to classes with the rest of the Institute's students the next morning... and he would be going as a girl. It was suggested that he try to start thinking of himself as a girl so he could get himself into the proper mindset. While it was true that he was changing into a girl, he had been living as a boy for his entire life. There was a lot more to being a girl than simply looking like one; he also had to learn how to think like one.

That would take a little while for him to do comfortably, but in the meantime the girls seemed more than eager to help. As soon as he'd confirmed his registration status at school with them, they immediately started to refer to him with female pronouns. It was a little weird at first, but as the night wore on he got used to it.

The girls had finally settled the issue over Chris' clothing and were now starting to argue about his hairstyle. On this topic, even Jean seemed to be unwilling to compromise and the debate would have surely lasted until morning if the Professor’s telepathic reminder that it was a school night hadn’t interrupted them. Chris, who had kept his mutant ability locked down since the end of the tests that afternoon, jumped a bit when he suddenly heard the Professor's voice in his head. The other girls were already accustomed to hearing the Professor in their minds, so they'd looked at him curiously.

"You heard that?" asked Rogue. "Ah thought that your power blocked the Professor out."

He told them about the sorts of things he did that afternoon and how the Professor had helped him figure out a way to lower his 'shield'. Apparently it drew a lot of his stored energy to keep it up all the time, so he was trying to find a way to do that shielding thing only when it was necessary. Needless to say, he was still unaccustomed to having someone speak directly into his mind without any warning.

"Wow, thanks for the tip!" said Jean. "I wouldn't want to try to project into your mind and accidentally scare the crap out of you. We've seen what happens when you get startled."

They all enjoyed a quick laugh at that and then Chris and Jean each returned to their own rooms. Before they parted company, Jean told him to set his alarm an extra hour earlier so that she and the girls could make sure he looked 'just right' for his first day at school.

Chris carefully hung up the clothes that Kitty had given him in his closet and glanced over at the bedside table. The Professor had thoughtfully provided him with a wind-up alarm clock to ensure that he wouldn't accidentally make himself late for school.

After setting the clock as per Jean's instructions, he turned out his bedside lamp and crawled into bed. He was both excited and nervous about facing his first day at school, so he stayed awake for a while. He thought back to his strange dream days ago when he had been a pretty girl that was liked by everyone. Now he had a chance to start over at a new place where no one had known the geeky little misfit that he'd been before. He had originally dismissed that dream as fantasy, but now it seemed that he had a chance to actually make his dream come true. For the first time in years, he actually felt a sense of hope for the future and finally drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

---

To be concluded in:

The XX-Factor: Chapter Six - The Evolution of Christy McGee