---

Official Disclaimer:
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.

The author maintains creative ownership of the story itself and grants BigCloset TopShelf permission to post it online for free viewing by this site's visitors.

There was quite a chill in the air that morning as Christy walked to school with the rest of the students from the Xavier Institute. She reached up and tried to close the collar of her coat even tighter against the bitter cold. It seemed to help a little, but there wasn't much that could be done for her legs. Despite the tights she was wearing, it felt as though there was a layer of ice forming on her knees. Although she'd been wearing dresses and skirts for nearly two months now, it still took some getting used to in the colder weather. She glanced over at Jean and Rogue and noticed that they seemed to be much more comfortable wearing pants. Not for the first time she wondered why she'd allowed Kitty to talk her into wearing a skirt that morning.

It was now late November in Bayville, and although the brilliant fall colors had long since disappeared with the leaves on the trees, the scenery was still quite beautiful. Although winter had technically already begun, there had only been one or two light snowfalls so far which hadn't remained on the ground for very long. Along the route they usually walked to school, Christy noted that some of the Bayville residents had already started to decorate their properties with Christmas lights. She was really looking forward to seeing how Bayville would look once everything got blanketed in snow.

As they all approached the front entrance of Bayville High, Christy thought she caught a glimpse of Principal Darkholme in her office window, but the figure seemed to disappear just as she'd stopped for a closer look. That woman really gave her the creeps! After the encounter that the Principal had orchestrated between Christy and her 'special students' earlier in the semester, Christy couldn't shake the feeling that woman was watching her. Not that she’d actually seen the principal around. In fact, other than on her first day at Bayville High, Christy hadn't run into her in the hallways even once since then.

Christy and Kitty parted company with the rest of their group and headed towards their lockers. Christy had managed to get assigned a locker that was only two doors down from Kitty’s, so along with their similar class schedules the two of them were almost always together at school. Kitty was chattering away non-stop as usual while they hung up their coats in their lockers. Christy was getting a little better at following the speed at which Kitty liked to talk, but she still sometimes missed bits and pieces.

"... So, like, then Cassandra said, 'Like, no way! I'm totally not going out with him'... and then, I'm like... 'Why not?' and she's all, 'He's way too retro for my tastes', so I said..."

Kitty was suddenly interrupted by a large gust of wind which sprang up and hit her and Christy from out of nowhere. Instantly the girls dropped their books to the floor and grabbed the hems of their skirts to prevent them from blowing up and providing any bystanders with a nice underwear display. Christy and Kitty both frowned and exchanged knowing glances with each other. In this weather, there was no way that there'd be any windows open nearby, so that meant...

"Hey there, Hot Stuff!" said Pietro from behind Christy. "How's it going?"

Christy and Kitty both turned around to see Pietro leaning casually against a nearby locker and grinning stupidly at them. While he had no reservations about using his mutant powers in public, the Professor had made it very clear to the Institute's residents about how important it was to keep their abilities hidden. Other than the odd rumours or some ridiculous headline in the tabloids, mutants were still pretty much unknown to the general public and everyone at the Xavier Institute was in agreement that it ought to stay that way -- at least for the time being. The general public simply wasn't ready to learn about mutants, so they all had to be very careful about when and where they used their powers. Not that any of the 'Brotherhood Boys' cared very much about that, but at least in Pietro's case he usually moved fast enough so that other people wouldn't notice.

"Why don't you take a hike, Maximoff?" said Kitty irritably. "Or are you hoping that we'll do something so your favourite Principal can hand us another detention?"

"Hey, chill out, Mall-Rat! I only came by to see how Christy's doing."

In the blink of an eye, Pietro quickly scooped Christy's books up from the floor, arranged them in a neat stack and then presented them to Christy with an almost gentlemanly sort of bow with his head. He did not pick up Kitty's books, however.

"Uh... thanks, Pietro," Christy answered as she raised her eyebrows in surprise.

It wasn't really all that surprising, though. The Brotherhood Boys, the other group of teenage mutants at Bayville High, seemed to be paying a lot of attention to Christy lately. They kept turning up just about everywhere she went and at times it was kind of annoying. Scott and Jean had suggested that they might be watching her on orders from Mystique, Principal Darkholme's alternate identity, but Christy got the impression that it was a little more than that. Pietro and his somewhat repulsive friend, Todd 'Toad' Tolensky, both seemed to have developed an infatuation with her.

"So, you wanna come out and do laps with me sometime, Christy?" he asked in his usual hyper-sounding tone of voice. "Not that you have any hope of out-performing me, but you're probably the only other person around that can move fast enough to make it interesting."

"Gawd.. like, don't you ever quit?" said Kitty as she knelt down to recover her books from the floor. "After you and your pals attacked Christy, you expect her to forget it and start hanging out with you? As if !"

"Hey, don't get your panties in a twist. That wasn't my idea! We just wanted to see what your cousin here was made of. I was impressed to see that she had both the moves and the looks!"

"Well, thanks for saying so," Christy said with a slight blush, despite her best efforts not to.

"... but you guys quite openly trashed a large section of a public street and nearly got your friend killed in the process. You're all just a bit too wild and reckless for my tastes."

"Hey, lots of girls say those are some of my best qualities!"

He paused for a moment to quickly glance at his watch.

"Well, time for class. Gotta go! I guess we can talk about this another time..."

In a flash, he suddenly caught Christy in both of his arms and planted a quick kiss squarely on her lips. Before she could react, he gave her behind a playful squeeze and then made a mutant-powered exit down the corridor.

"Holy shit!" said Kitty as she covered her mouth with one of her hands in surprise. "Did he just do what I think he did?"

"Yes, he sure did," replied Christy as she blushed even harder. "I think his interest in me is definitely more than 'professional'."

"I wonder how he'd react if he ever knew that you were..."

Kitty caught herself and stopped before she finished the sentence. She gave a nervous glance at Christy and was relieved to see that she didn't seem to be upset about what had almost slipped out.

Christy, knowing exactly what it was that Kitty was about to say, chuckled a bit as she considered it.

"No doubt he and his pals would react a lot like the rest of you did when I’d told you. They probably wouldn't believe me, and these days there's only one way to prove it to them... and there's no way that I'd ever do that!"

Both girls had a quick laugh at that and then hurried off to class together.

Christy often found herself amazed whenever she paused to reflect upon how much her life had changed in such a short time. As she and Kitty sat through their classes that morning, she found that even a boring subject like Geography was even more enjoyable in her life as Christy than it had been when she was just nerdy little Chris. Back then, every aspect of her life was miserable. She wouldn't even be able to sit in class without being harassed or teased by the other kids whenever the teacher's back was turned. Now the only thing she usually worries about in class is if one of the boys gets her in trouble with the teacher by constantly trying to talk to her and drum up the courage to ask her out for a date.

At first, the mere idea of dating a guy freaked her out. There were a lot of years of living as a boy that were still influencing her psyche, but lately the idea had become a lot less absurd than it had been before. Mr. McCoy had mentioned that her hormone levels were bound to be having some influence on her and that she should just trust her feelings and go with whatever feels right. She thought back briefly to the kiss & grab she had received from Pietro in the hallway earlier that morning and blushed again. She'd been caught completely by surprise at the time, but now that she’d had some time to think about it... she realized that she'd actually liked it.

Not long after Christy had first come to the Institute and officially joined the 'team', the Professor and Mr. McCoy had a long talk with her about the possibility of surgery to correct the only remaining aspect of her old life that contrasts with her feminine appearance. Specifically, all that remains of her origin as a male. While she had accepted the truth of her rather bizarre physiology, it was still a big decision to make. After all, she'd been a boy for nearly all of her life. She knew that eventually she would have to have the surgery at some point, though. Perhaps after the end of the school year so she would have the entire summer to recover. There was no hurry for the time being, though. The Professor had arranged for her to be exempted from Phys Ed. class so that she wouldn't 'surprise' any of the other girls in the change rooms.

On the plus side, once she did have the surgery and became all-the-way female, she'd be free to join any of the school's teams. It wasn't something that she'd ever tried at her last school, particularly since she'd been so miserable then that it had never occurred to her. Ever since her mutant powers had fully manifested, she'd become a lot more athletic than she'd ever been in her life. On top of that, there was Logan back at the Institute who insisted that the entire team was in top physical shape. He tended to work them all harder than any Phys Ed. instructor ever would, so naturally they were all pretty well-toned.

She'd mentioned the idea about joining a school team in passing to Jean once or twice before and she'd seemed pretty enthusiastic about it and encouraged her to go for it. Aside from being a mutant, Jean was an all-American kind of girl that seemed to be good at everything. She was beautiful, popular, got really high grades and was also a star player on the school's soccer team. The entire Institute group usually came out to watch her play whenever there was a game -- including Rogue, surprisingly enough.

While it went without saying that Christy would do very well in Track & Field, she found herself leaning more towards the idea of joining Bayville High’s fledgling Gymnastics Team. Thanks to her mutant powers, she could imbue herself with amazing levels of speed, endurance, agility and balance. While it was a lot of fun to perform at those levels, she would feel guilty if she used her powers to compete against other school teams. She'd discussed it with the Professor during one of their mental training exercises and he'd agreed that it wouldn't be fair to use her powers at competitions, but joining the school's team would provide an excellent cover for her should anyone accidentally witness her using her powers in public. If she already had a reputation as a gymnast, then it might not look as strange if anyone were to see her using her enhancements 'off the matt'. All she'd need to do would be to use her powers sparingly to qualify for the team and then eventually she might not need them at all after she trained long enough.

At Lunchtime, all the gang from the Institute was gathered together for their usual noon-hour hangout session in the school's cafeteria. They were all feeling a little frazzled from the heavy school workload that always fell on them at mid-term, but for the time being they were focusing their attention on the upcoming Thanksgiving long weekend. For the most part, Christy was content to simply listen to everyone as they discussed their holiday arrangements.

The Professor and Mr. McCoy were planning a rather substantial Thanksgiving dinner at the mansion over the holidays for the Institute residents who were staying in Bayville over the weekend. It wasn't all that surprising that Scott and Rogue would be remaining at the mansion, but Christy was a bit intrigued that Logan had apparently decided to stay as well. According to the others, Logan usually took off during most holidays but this time Mr. McCoy had managed to convince him to stay. Apparently Logan was a big fan of football and it had been made clear that, aside from the big Thanksgiving dinner, watching the game on the big screen was going to be a priority event. Additionally, it was rumoured that the Professor might even make an exception to his 'no alcohol' rule and allow a few beers for the time-honoured tradition of watching the Detroit Lions game. Rogue wasn't entirely thrilled that she'd be the only female at the mansion for the duration of this testosterone-fest, but she’d confessed that even she had a bit of a liking for the game -- something she said she’d 'picked up' from someone right around the time her mutant abilities had first manifested.

As for everyone else, they were all returning to their respective families for the holidays. For Christy, this presented a certain amount of excitement and nervousness. While it had only been a couple of months since she'd last been back home in Michigan, so much had happened since then that she felt as though she were returning after an absence of several years. She had written home frequently during that time and had done her best to keep her mother up to date on everything that was going on, but she figured her mother would still be in for a surprise as soon as she returned. She absently glanced down at her slender, feminine legs; from the hem of her skirt down to her stylish 3-inch heels. While she'd done the ‘girl look’ quite effectively in those few days before she'd left home to enrol the Xavier Institute, now there was a lot more going on than just her appearance.

No doubt the neighbors will be a little confused trying to figure out who the new girl is, Christy thought to herself with a little smile.

While she was really looking forward to seeing her mother again, she was also a little excited at the prospect of seeing her home town again... and being seen by her home town. This would be much different than that one time she'd gone out dressed en-femme, because back then the fear of discovery had added a sense of danger which had made the expedition that much more thrilling. This time she knew she was not that same frightened young teen and cared very little whether or not anyone remembered that she had been a boy before. During the brief time she'd spent at the Institute, she'd developed levels of pride and confidence in herself that she previously would not have imagined in her wildest dreams. She had no intention of spending the entire long weekend hiding out at home and was determined to go out and maybe do a little shopping while she was in town.

She'd been shopping with the other Institute girls on a few occasions, but she was really looking forward to going out shopping for clothes with her mother. God, how she missed her mother! It would be their first mother-daughter outing together and Christy was looking forward to it so much that she wasn't even aware that her eyes had begun to moisten until Kitty spoke up.

"Hey Christy, like... are you okay? You look like you're about to ruin your mascara. What's up?" she whispered quietly.

"Oh! Sorry," Christy answered quickly as she fished a Kleenex out of her school bag and then carefully dabbed at her eyes. "I was just thinking about going home this weekend."

"You aren't, like, worried or anything, are you? Didn't you say that your Mom was cool with how you've, uh... changed?"

Christy smiled and nodded her head.

"Yes, she is. She is so anxious to see me again that she even offered to drive all the way out here to Bayville to pick me up on Wednesday, but I told her I'd be fine taking the train. I guess I'm just really happy that I'm finally going to see her again."

Scott, who had just picked up on the last part of the conversation, frowned slightly as he glanced across the table at Christy and Kitty.

"Uh, Christy, are you sure it's wise for you to be traveling back home alone? For your first visit back, I mean? If you were to accidentally run into..."

With a dismissive wave of her hand, Christy quickly cut him off. She knew exactly who Scott was thinking of and part of her was almost wishing that she would run into him again. It would be extremely unlikely though, and probably just as well since public displays of mutant powers were to be avoided whenever possible.

"Robbie probably wouldn't recognize me now. Even if he did, Mr. Logan has taught me enough about how to handle myself in a fight that I probably wouldn't even have to use my powers. It'd be his bad luck if I was to run into him again."

Rogue gave a quiet cheer and a 'thumbs up' salute from across the table.

"Ya! That's the spirit, girl! Ya'll don't have ta take crap from the likes of that creep, that's fer sure!"

Scott gave Rogue a disapproving look and mumbled something about how she shouldn't be encouraging Christy to be reckless, but decided to let the matter drop.

A few minutes later, the bell rang to announce the end of the lunch hour so the Institute gang all split up to return to their afternoon classes.

---

"I am very disappointed with you, Mystique," said the deep voice coming from the cloaked figure that stood in the corner of her office. "This new student of Xavier's has been right under your nose for nearly two months now, and yet you still have very little to report about her."

Raven Darkholme crossed the room to her desk and gracefully sat down in her large chair. She moved so smoothly that she was certain that her surprise 'visitor' couldn't tell just how nervous and intimidated she actually felt. She'd had a lot of harsh experiences throughout her life that had eventually toughened her up to the point where it was nearly impossible for anyone to instil fear in her. Eric Lensherr, otherwise known as 'Magneto', was one of the few exceptions.

"There hasn't been much to report since that incident on her first day here at school," she answered carefully. "I've got the boys keeping an eye on her, but as usual Xavier has her hiding her powers as much as the rest of his students do when they're away from the Institute."

Eric strolled purposefully to her large window and looked wordlessly down to the street below. He said nothing for several minutes while Raven held her tongue and waited for him to continue the conversation. Being that he was one of the most powerful mutants on earth, he wasn't someone whom she wanted to interrupt if he was having some sort of private reflection.

"What about her background, then? What do you know of her before she came here?" he asked in a quiet tone without even bothering to turn away from the window.

Raven swallowed nervously. Her efforts to date had been less than encouraging and she knew that Magneto wouldn't be terribly happy about it.

"Well... I've been having some difficulty with this one. It appears as though Xavier had fabricated her background information when he’d registered her for school here. She's supposedly a paternal cousin of the Pryde girl, but I'm not buying it."

She paused briefly in an attempt to gauge how Magneto was taking the news so far. The man, however, was still standing motionless at the window with his back to her and not displaying any body language whatsoever.

"Continue," he said tonelessly.

Raven shook her head slightly and tried harder to steady her voice so she wouldn't sound as nervous as she felt. Magneto was a real piece of work. He had a very dangerous and powerful presence that you could feel just being in the same room with him and that wasn't even taking his formidable mutant powers into consideration.

"There has to be something special about this particular mutant, because Xavier hasn't ever tried to make up a phoney background for any of his other students yet."

"As far as you know," Magneto added dryly.

Raven flinched slightly at the comment but continued on with what she hoped Magneto would find interesting.

"Clearly, all of Xavier's students are in on the deception regarding this girl because they're all maintaining that she's the Pryde girl's cousin. I've assumed the form of various anonymous students over the past several weeks in order to get close enough to eavesdrop on their conversations and they're all sticking to the same story. I did overhear something today that might present us with an opportunity to learn more about this girl, though."

She paused again to see if Magneto would show any interest or anticipation for her news, but he remained as still as a statue at the window. Damn him!

"Most of Xavier's students are returning to their respective families for the holiday long weekend, including the McGee girl. This will be an excellent opportunity to learn more about her without any interference from the rest of the X-men. I’ve already made arrangements for a couple of our boys to follow..."

"No," Magneto suddenly cut her off and finally turned to face her.

"I want you to follow her. If Xavier is keeping this girl's real identity hidden for some reason, he might be expecting us to try something like that. Those buffoons of yours are too careless and clumsy and will probably be spotted long before we can learn anything useful."

With a casual gesture of his hand, the arms of the chair in which Raven was sitting suddenly twisted themselves into restraints and pinned her arms down. Before she could even register her surprise, the entire chair then lifted into the air and settled itself down on the surface of her desk. Magneto then rose slightly into the air and hovered at eye-level, mere inches away from Raven's face. Despite her efforts to maintain her composure, she could feel a few droplets of nervous perspiration begin to bead up on her forehead.

"I shouldn't have to remind you that I'll be very... displeased... if you screw this up. A mutant with the potential for manipulating high levels of electricity would be of particular use to my future work, so be sure that nothing happens with this girl that might jeopardize that."

Magneto then glided across the room to the door and touched down onto the floor. Without so much as a backwards glance, he went through the door and closed it behind him, leaving Raven pinned in her chair.

It would be a considerable embarrassment to her if the secretary were to come in and find her like that, so Raven had to shapeshift to free herself. She then lifted her twisted chair down onto the floor and pushed it into her closet. She had been particularly fond of that chair and was more than a little annoyed that she now had to order another one. She seemed to be going through an awful lot of trouble over this McGee kid. From what little they'd seen of her powers so far, she didn't seem all that remarkable for Magneto to make such a fuss over her. Still, if that irritating Xavier went to the trouble of making up a bogus past for her, maybe there really was something special about her. Whatever the secret, she was determined to find out what it was.

---

Later that day, the Institute’s students were all relaxing together in the mansion's rec-room after a particularly exhausting martial arts class with Logan. As soon as they'd returned from school, they'd only just set their school bags down in their rooms when the surprise class had been announced. Typically, they had their martial arts training every other day. Since they'd already done their rounds on the mat with Logan the day before, it caught them all off guard when he'd summoned them down for yet another class. With the holiday long weekend approaching, Logan was concerned that the team might get too 'slack' if they missed their regularly-scheduled sessions in the Danger Room, so he decided that they'd make up for it on the mats before everyone took off for the long weekend.

Christy sympathetically looked around at her team-mates while she energized herself slightly to alleviate some of her physical exhaustion. While none of them were allowed to use any powers for those sessions on the mat, at least in Christy's case her abilities were ideal for restoring her stamina afterwards. She absently stretched out her arms and felt the familiar tingling in her limbs from her mutant power as it started to heal her aching muscles. She couldn't heal as fast as Logan did, but she knew that she'd be back to normal by the next morning -- which was a lot more than what could be said for the rest of the team. Everyone except for Rogue, that is.

She and Christy had a special arrangement that they'd use after particularly brutal workouts. Since Rogue could temporarily absorb other mutants’ abilities, Christy would let her 'borrow' hers later so that Rogue could completely heal herself by the morning as well. It would have to wait until the end of the night, though, since Rogue had a tendency to render people unconscious whenever she touched them.

Christy did feel a little guilty that she couldn't help the rest of the group in the same way, but they were all good sports about it. It went without saying that Rogue had a much more difficult time with her powers, so this wasn't an advantage that any of the team would begrudge her. Rogue was seated on the sofa across from her and gave her a knowing wink, which Kitty noticed and caused her to frown slightly and shake her head. Christy knew full well what Kitty was irritated about and managed to stifle a small laugh.

One aspect of Christy's mutant abilities was a noticeable glow around her that was sometimes difficult to conceal. The last time Christy had allowed Rogue to borrow her powers; she had returned to their shared room glowing like a neon lamp and kept Kitty awake for half the night. Rogue had claimed that she couldn't help it, but Christy suspected that she did it on purpose just to tease Kitty. Rogue and Kitty seemed to be a lot more like sisters than either of them would ever dare to admit.

"Oh man, I feel totally shredded," said Evan with an exhausted sigh. "I don't know if two days is enough time to recover before I head back home with Auntie O. this weekend."

"Ya... vhat vas Logan trying to do to us?" Kurt added, wincing slightly as he gently prodded his tail with his fingers. "Even my tail is aching!"

"You know how Logan is," Jean answered quietly. "He really enjoys the physical workouts and doesn't always remember that we don't have the same endurance that he does."

"... or Christy either," Kitty threw in softly with a wistful look at her.

Not knowing what she could possibly say in response, Christy simply shrugged her shoulders innocently and put on her best 'who, me?' expression. Kitty gave a small laugh at that and threw one of the sofa cushions at her.

Eventually the other students managed to find the energy to drag themselves back to their rooms so they could change for dinner. Kitty ended up walking the 'long route' with everyone else through the hallways, since she was too exhausted to use her phasing ability to take her usual shortcuts through the walls.

At dinner, the adults were mildly amused by how quiet the table conversation was that night. Thanks to Logan's gruelling workout, most of the students hardly had the energy to sit up straight, let alone summon up the energy to engage in any vibrant conversation. The Professor seemed mildly concerned that Logan might be pushing them a little too hard, but the physical conditioning of the team was Logan's department. Although the students were all exhausted, the workout didn't seem to do them any real harm so Xavier didn't feel the need to voice his concerns yet.

Later that evening, it was a very tired Rogue who had finally managed to drag herself to Christy's room before lights out. Christy practically had to help her move across the room to her bed, where she sat herself down at the end of it while Christy got under the covers.

"So, you're really goin' ta head back home fer the holidays?" Rogue asked. "Are you sure you're ready? It really hasn't been all that long since..."

She let her voice trail off without finishing the sentence, but she didn't need to. While she shared some of the concern that Scott had expressed at lunch that day, she typically didn't like to give Scott the impression that she agreed with him so she didn't say anything at the time. Rogue was also worried about what Christy might have to face during her return trip home.

"Don't worry, Rogue. I'll be fine," Christy quietly assured her. "It isn't as if I'm going to go looking for trouble while I'm back home. Besides, it's my Mom that I'm really dying to see again. I really miss her, so I'm going to spend just about every minute with her that I can."

"Well, you might not be lookin' fer trouble, but Ah've sometimes found that trouble can have a way of findin' you when you least expect it. You be careful just the same, okay?"

"Thanks Rogue, I'll be careful. Anyhow, you'd better tap me soon because you look like you're about to fall over yourself in another minute or so. Remember to turn out the lights for me on your way out... and try to keep the aura toned down this time! I don't think Kitty's buying it anymore that you can't control it well enough."

Rogue chuckled as she removed one of her thin satin gloves that she usually wore to bed.

"Ah think my roomie's so tired that she wouldn't even notice a truck drivin’ through the room, but Ah'll keep it turned down anyways. Thanks again, Christy."

Christy smiled back as she held out her arm towards Rogue, who then reached out with her own hand to touch her. Once again, Rogue felt the instantaneous rush as Christy's mutant power flowed into her. Christy quickly collapsed backwards onto her pillow and Rogue gently pulled the blankets up to cover her. She then turned out the lamp and headed back to her own room. Already she could feel some of the soreness of her aching limbs start to fade away as the tingling of Christy's mutant power began its work to repair them.

Damn, she thought to herself. Christy's power sure is useful!

---

For Christy, who was so anxious for her return trip home for the holidays, it had felt to her as though that Wednesday couldn’t come soon enough. When the day had finally arrived, she awoke feeling an excitement that reminded her of how she'd felt the day she'd left home to come to the Xavier Institute. She quickly jumped out of bed, donned her bathrobe, and then hurried out of her room to get what she hoped would be an early place in the morning queue for the bathroom.

When she got out into the hallway, she was pleasantly surprised to see that the only person waiting outside of the bathroom was Scott.

"Mornin’ Christy. Why are you up so early?" he asked her.

Being that it was a regular weekday, she was a little confused by his question until it suddenly occurred to her what he'd meant. Since most of the Institute's students were traveling home for the holidays, the Professor had gotten them all exempted from school for the day so that they could make their trips home. Everyone except for Scott and Rogue, that is. Since they were staying in Bayville for the holidays, the Professor didn’t feel it would be appropriate for them to miss classes if it wasn’t necessary. As the rest of them didn't have to go to school that day, they were all probably sleeping in a little longer since they didn't have to rush through their morning routine as much as Scott and Rogue would.

"Uh, I don't know. Force of habit, I suppose. Did Rogue beat you to the washroom again?"

Scott gave a small laugh and nodded his head.

"Yep. It doesn't seem to matter how early I try to get here. One of you girls always manages to beat me."

Inwardly, Christy felt a slight flush at Scott’s reference to her as one of the girls. While she'd become accustomed to this truth about herself over the past couple of months, it still gave her the occasional jolt whenever Scott or the other guys commented on it. Scott in particular was well aware that she hadn't started out as a girl, and in at least a couple of ways she still wasn't completely female... yet. All of the guys at the Xavier Institute had been really supportive of her and never once treated her as if she was anything other than the female that she appeared to be. Scott's casual reference was yet one more thing that reminded her how much the Institute and its people really meant to her.

At that thought, she felt her emotions surge to the surface again and she had to fight off the compulsion to throw her arms around him and give him a big hug. While she sensed that he probably wouldn't mind such an affectionate display, she suspected that Jean might be a bit miffed over it if she heard about it later. Even though neither Jean nor Scott would admit to or acknowledge the obvious attraction between the two of them, the rest of the Institute students and even a couple of the staff were starting to take bets on how long it will be before the two of them work up the nerve to finally go out on a date.

"So, uh... I guess it's just you and Rogue here with the adults this weekend, right? Mr. Logan won't try to make you two do any training without the rest of us here, will he?" Christy asked.

Scott shrugged.

"He doesn't usually hang around during the holidays. I doubt he'll try to get us into any kind of Danger Room workout, but he's probably irritated enough that our training schedule's been 'disrupted' by the holidays that he might treat Rogue and myself to another workout on the mat."

Just then, Rogue stepped out of the bathroom wearing her large bathrobe that was a couple of sizes too large for her (so that it covered as much of her skin as possible) and her wet hair wrapped in a towel.

"Ah hope yer wrong about that, Scott. If Logan tries ta work out his frustration with us on the mat this weekend, Ah think Ah'd rather hang out with my old Brotherhood pals where it'd be safer!"

Christy was speechless and could only stare back at her with a shocked expression on her face as Rogue continued strolling casually down the hall to her room. Surely Rogue wouldn't really leave the Institute to rejoin the Brotherhood, would she?

"Relax, Christy," Scott said aloud as though he could hear what she was thinking. "Rogue was only kidding."

He then excused himself and stepped into the bathroom for his own shower. After another minute or so, Christy was only mildly surprised by the familiar form of Kitty phasing through a nearby wall. She yawned and gave a short wave of greeting to Christy.

"G'morning, girlfriend. Why are you bothering to line up this morning? It totally sucks to be Scott or Rogue today, but at least the rest of us get to take it easy. C'mon we can have our showers later. Let's go hang out in your room."

Kitty then grabbed Christy by the wrist and abruptly pulled her in tow behind her as she led the way back to Christy's room. Predictably, she didn't bother opening the door and the two of them phased through it instead.

"So, like, are you all excited for the train ride back this afternoon?" Kitty asked as they sat down on the edge of Christy's bed together. "I totally love traveling by train! It takes a little while, but it's a lot more comfortable than a car or a bus... and a lot less freaky than flying in the X-jet."

Christy was in complete agreement. Except for the initial and nearly disastrous flight that had brought her to Bayville, she hadn't been on any other trips in the X-jet. With the Professor's help, she'd been able to develop some pretty decent mental control over her mutant powers since then. Now that she was less likely to endanger the aircraft's operations during a flight, she knew she'd eventually have to fly in the jet again at some point but in the meantime it was completely fine with her to stick with ground-based transportation.

Since Kitty's family lived in Illinois, the two of them were scheduled to travel together on the same train, with Christy getting off earlier in Michigan. From her very first day at the Institute it was obvious that she and Kitty would be good friends, so the long train ride together was sure to be a blast for the both of them.

"Yeah, this is going to be amazing!" Christy agreed. "I only wish that there'd be time for you to meet my Mom when we get to my stop in Michigan. I know she'd really love you."

"Hey… no worries, girlfriend. I'm sure I'll get to meet her some other time."

Kitty suddenly jumped off the edge of the bed and charged towards Christy's walk-in closet. As usual, she phased through the door and immediately started to go through Christy's modest, but growing collection of feminine clothing.

"Hey Christy," she called from behind the closet door, "have you decided what you're going to bring to wear home this weekend? You'd better not even think about packing any of your old boys' clothes!"

---

By late-morning, the homeward-bound students of the Xavier Institute were ready to depart. Jean's family lived in a town that was only a few hours drive away from Bayville, so she was the first to leave when her folks arrived to pick her up. Before she left, she went into her best 'big sister' routine and spent some time fussing over Christy and Kitty. With both Christy and Kitty being among the youngest members of the team, naturally there was some concern about the two of them traveling 'alone'. Normally Kitty bristled at such domineering attention from Jean but she simply went along with it, knowing that sometimes it was simply better not to argue with her. Finally, she gave them each a sisterly hug and wished them both a happy Thanksgiving before getting into the car with her parents.

As they were driving away, Christy noticed Kurt suddenly appear out of the corner of her eye. Always the jokester, he had reverted to his natural blue-furred form and was hanging by his tail from a nearby tree branch while making silly faces at Jean from where her parents couldn't see him. Both Kitty and Christy could see Jean's annoyed expression glaring back out at him from the rear window of her parents' car as they drove away, and they both burst into fits of laughter.

Jean's parents were a bit uncommon as far as relatives of Institute residents go since they were still unaware of the existence of mutants. Jean had been very successful in keeping her abilities hidden from them over the years. As far as they knew, the Xavier Institute was just another prestigious private boarding school. Needless to say, Jean was clearly quite annoyed by Kurt's little visual tease, which ended abruptly when the branch he was hanging from 'mysteriously' snapped and caused him to fall out of sight into some bushes below. Afterwards, it had taken Kurt nearly an hour to pick all of the burrs out of his fur, so the adults didn't scold him as much as they otherwise would have for earlier display.

After he'd gotten himself straightened out and had re-activated his image inducer, Kurt was the next student to depart. Originally, Kurt's adoptive family had lived in Germany, but shortly after Kurt came to the Xavier Institute they'd emigrated to America so they could be closer to him. Even so, they still lived a considerable distance from Bayville, so Kurt typically took a flight whenever he went home for the holidays. He got a ride to the airport with Logan, which made him more than a little uneasy after his recent tree stunt.

Evan and Ms. Munroe were spending the holidays with their relatives in New York City and as it was on their way, they gave Christy and Kitty a ride to the train station. While they were waiting for their train, Ms. Munroe took a few minutes to remind the two of them to keep out of mischief during their trip and to be careful. Christy got the impression that the latter part of that was directed more at her than at Kitty, and not for the first time she wondered why everyone was suddenly so concerned about her. Evan, who was only slightly older than Christy, had also assumed an uncharacteristically serious attitude and advised her to 'watch her back' while she was home. They waited with the girls right up until they'd boarded their train and then waved goodbye to them from the platform as the train pulled away. The girls waved back from their window until they were out of sight, and then settled themselves in for their long journey.

For the first little while, Christy simply sat quietly and looked out the window at the landscape passing by. Ever since she'd mentioned that she'd decided to go home for the Thanksgiving holidays, everyone at the Institute seemed to develop all kinds of serious concern for her. She got the impression that everyone felt she needed to be guarded or something and finally commented on it to Kitty.

Kitty simply shrugged and replied that since Christy was the newest and youngest member of the team that everyone felt a little more protective of her. She also pointed out that despite the training she's had so far, she's hardly had any real experience in dealing with trouble compared to everyone else. Christy conceded that she had a point and decided not to dwell on it any further. There were much better things to occupy her mind with, and lots of time to hang out and chat with Kitty in the meantime.

For the first few hours Christy and Kitty played cards and chatted about all sorts of things — or more accurately, Kitty did most of the chattering and Christy did most of the listening. Kitty sometimes got so caught up in whatever story she was telling that once she'd forgotten herself and used her mutant ability when she'd paused to retrieve something from her travel bag. She was a little embarrassed when Christy gave her an urgent wave and pointed to her hand while it was in the process of pulling something directly through the bag’s exterior. Fortunately, no one nearby noticed and they'd both enjoyed a bit of a giggle over it.

A while later, Christy was walking back to her seat after a trip to the washroom when she passed by a nice-looking couple who were traveling with their daughter, who Christy guessed was around six or seven years old. She slowed her walk as she noticed that the little girl had a few tears in her eyes and tried to listen to what her parents were saying to her. Apparently the little girl had a portable game with her that her parents had given to her to help pass the time during the trip. From what Christy had been able to overhear, the little girl's father had forgotten to properly charge the batteries for the unit and unfortunately there weren't any batteries for sale on board the train. Her father was therefore apologizing profusely to her and trying his hardest to cheer her up.

Christy looked at the little girl's sad expression and her heart went out to her. Then, an idea occurred to her -- one which she guessed that Professor Xavier probably wouldn't approve of, but she found herself unable to resist. It was such a small thing, anyways, and it would mean so much to that little girl. She casually turned back towards them and gently cleared her throat.

"Excuse me," she said politely. "I'm sorry for intruding, but I was just passing by and I couldn't help overhearing. Perhaps I can be of some help with your daughter's toy?"

The look of surprise on the young girl's parents was nothing compared to the wide-eyed hopeful look from the little girl.

"I think I have some spare batteries in my bag back at my seat that are already charged. If you like, I can exchange them with yours so your daughter's toy will operate."

The little girl's father looked up at her gratefully.

"That's very kind of you, Miss. If you're absolutely sure that you don't mind parting with them, we would be incredibly grateful!"

She assured them that it would be no trouble at all. The girl's father then removed the batteries from his daughter's game and handed them back to Christy.

When she got back to her seat, she picked up her own travel bag and pretended to rummage around in it while at the same time checking to see if anyone nearby was watching her. Other than Kitty, who was looking at her with a puzzled expression on her face, no one seemed to be paying any attention to her.

After one last careful glance around them, Christy held each of the batteries between her thumb and index fingers of each hand. She then drew upon a smaller portion of her energy that she was currently storing and used her mutant power to begin recharging them.

As the familiar blue-green aura began to form around her hands, Kitty quickly looked anxiously around to see if anyone nearby had noticed.

"Christy!" She said in an urgent whisper, "what the hell are you doing?!"

"Just a small favour for a little girl a few rows back," she answered quietly.

She paused as she sensed the current storage level of the batteries and frowned when she realized that it was charging far too slowly. She was concerned that if she took too long, the girls' parents might decide to head back their way to find her. Thanks to her extensive training at the Institute, she knew how to modify the amplitude of the energy wavelengths she was using so she could finish the job at a much faster rate, and without burning out the batteries in the process. Unfortunately, the level of concentration she'd need to do it was liable to cause more than just her hands to glow.

"Listen Kitty," Christy said quickly, "I'll explain everything to you in a few minutes. Until then, what I'm about to do might make me a little... noticeable. This will only take me a few seconds, so please keep an eye out and warn me if you see anyone coming."

Christy then closed her eyes and concentrated. Almost immediately, her entire body was completely surrounded by the soft, blue-green glow.

"Oh shit!" Kitty said and started to look around nervously.

She got out of her seat to stand in the aisle — partially to get better warning of anyone's approach, but mostly to obstruct Christy from view while she did whatever it was that she was doing. As she stepped into the aisle, she nearly tripped over something down by her feet. When she looked down, she was surprised to see a wide-eyed little girl staring back at her, or more to the point, slightly past her towards where Christy was sitting.

"Umm... hi," Kitty began awkwardly while she tried to pretend that there was nothing out of the ordinary going on right behind her. "You must be the little girl that my friend was just telling me about."

Upon hearing this, Christy immediately opened her eyes and her aura quickly disappeared. She looked at the little girl, who simply stared back at her with something of an amazed expression on her face.

After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, the little girl's tiny voice finally asked, "Are... are you an angel?"

Christy looked up at Kitty for some sort of visual cue, but Kitty only shrugged helplessly. Not knowing what to say, she looked back at the little girl, who had proceeded to climb into Kitty's empty seat.

"What makes you think that, sweetie?" Christy asked innocently.

"I've heard in stories that angels are really nice, very beautiful and sometimes have a glow around them, like you."

This could definitely be a problem, Christy thought to herself.

While she was certain that no one would believe a girl as young as this if she ever told anyone about what she'd seen, she also didn't want to screw around with whatever the girl's religious beliefs might be. She recalled reading somewhere that children can be far more logical and understanding of things than adults tend to give them credit for, so for a lack of anything better to say she decided that she'd tell the girl the truth — albeit a watered-down version of it.

"No sweetie, I'm not an angel. I'm an ordinary person just like you."

"But... how come you were just glowing like that?"

"That's kind of hard to explain. Can you keep a secret?"

The little girl nodded her head enthusiastically.

"I didn't exactly tell your Daddy the truth," Christy began carefully. "I don't really have any other batteries. What I'm really doing is putting the energy back into your batteries so your game will work again."

The little girl looked quizzically at the batteries in Christy's hands and then met her gaze again.

"How can you do that without plugging them in?"

"Well, that's the secret part. I'll show you, but remember you promised not to tell anyone."

Behind the little girl, Kitty was shaking her head disapprovingly but continued to keep watch down the aisle.

"Hurry up, Jynx!" she whispered urgently, falling back to using Christy's codename. "Her parents are bound to come looking for her any second!"

It was a standard precaution amongst members of the X-men that they would use their special codenames when any of their mutant powers were being used in public. Already, this was a little more 'public' a display of her powers than Christy had originally intended, but she'd deal with that after she took care of the situation with the little girl. She then closed her eyes and concentrated once more on finishing the task of recharging the batteries. The glow of her aura returned briefly for a few moments and then disappeared just as quickly.

"There," she said as she handed the batteries back to the little girl. "All done."

"How did you do that?" The girl asked with a touch of awe in her voice.

Here goes nothing, Christy thought to herself.

She took a deep breath and then continued in what she’d hoped was a serious enough tone in her voice.

"It's a special talent that I have, but it's a secret talent. Most people don't know about it and I could be in a lot of trouble if anyone did. If the wrong people found out, they'd take me away so they could try to find out how I'm able to do it. If that happened, I might never see any of my family or friends again. That's why it's very important that you never tell about what you saw, okay?"

Christy held her breath in anticipation while the little girl thought about what she'd just been told. After a brief but agonizing silence, the little girl solemnly nodded her head.

"Okay, I understand. I won't tell."

The little girl paused and continued looking into Christy's eyes. She then looked up at Kitty and back to Christy again.

"There's more people like you, aren't there?" she asked. "Like your friend here. She's like you too, right?"

Kitty abruptly turned around and looked down at the girl in shock, which only served to confirm the little girl's insightful assumption. She crouched down so that she was eye-level with the girl and gently took hold of one of her small hands.

"Yes, we both have secret talents." Kitty answered quietly. "Mine is a little different from my friend's, but I'd also be in the same kind of trouble if anyone ever found out."

By means of a quick demonstration, Kitty phased the little girl's hand so they could both pass their hands through the arm-rest of the chair and then back out again. As soon as she released the little girl's hand, she giggled and clapped her hands together with delight.

"In a few years from now, when you get a little older," Kitty said to the little girl, "you might discover one day that you also have your own special talent. Hopefully if and when that day comes, you might not have to keep it a secret like we do."

Both Kitty and Christy sensed that they'd gotten the point across and the little girl understood the importance of keeping their secret. Kitty lightened the mood a little by changing the subject and chatted the little girl up about other things. Christy found it both surprising and amusing that the little girl seemed to be almost as much as a chatterbox as Kitty was.

A few minutes later, the little girl's mother came over to see what her daughter had been up to. Christy introduced Kitty to her and they exchanged brief pleasantries.

"Look Mommy!" the little girl said as she showed her the batteries. "Now I can play my game, right?"

"Yes dear, you be sure to thank these nice girls for trading their batteries with us."

The little girl and her mother both thanked them again and then politely excused themselves to return to their seats. As they were walking back down the aisle, the little girl looked back over her shoulder at Christy and Kitty and gave a conspiratorial wink.

As soon as they were out of sight, Kitty breathed a sigh of relief. She sat back down in her seat and the two of them looked at each other in silence for a few moments.

"You know Christy," Kitty said quietly, finally breaking the silence. "We're probably going to have some explaining to do when we get back to the mansion on Sunday night. Cerebro is bound to have picked something up on both of us just now."

Cerebro was the name of the highly advanced computer system back at the Institute that the faculty used for a number of complex research projects studying human mutations. One of its primary tasks was to scan the world through a variety of satellite uplinks for mutant power signatures. That was how the professor had initially discovered Christy as well as most of the other residents of the Institute. Kitty's brief use of her mutant ability wasn't likely to cause too much concern back at the mansion because she was typically very subtle with its use and usually went unnoticed unless she did something really obvious right in front of someone. Christy's ability, on the other hand, was often quite a bit more noticeable than Kitty's.

"I know. I guess we'll have to deal with that when we get back. I know I probably shouldn't have done it, but I couldn't help it. It's a long trip and that little girl was so unhappy..."

Kitty reached into her bag and retrieved her emergency COM link to verify that it was still turned on. Each member of the X-team often carried one of these when they were away from the Institute for extended periods, but it was only to be used in emergencies.

"Well, they'd have tried to contact us by now if they thought there was a problem, so that's a good sign, I suppose."

She returned the COM link to her bag and added, "just the same, it's probably a good idea for us to keep a low profile for the rest of the trip."

Christy couldn't argue with that logic, so they changed the subject to more mundane topics. As usual, Kitty could always be counted on as a limitless source of distracting conversation. Within minutes, they were laughing together and sounding pretty much what anyone would expect of two young teenage girls traveling together. Neither of them suspected that although they appeared to be normal teenagers, they were both being carefully observed by someone nearby who knew otherwise.

Hiding in plain sight was one of Mystique's many talents, for she had many years of experience in espionage. Add to that her mutant ability to shapeshift and she was virtually impossible to detect unless she actually wanted to be noticed. She took a noted interest in the incident with the little girl and continued to watch for anything else she could use. She still didn't understand why Magneto had such an interest in this new student of Xavier's, but for the time being she would do as he'd ordered.

---

By late-afternoon, the train had finally arrived in Battle Creek, Michigan. It was the closest stop along their route to Lansing where her mother would be waiting to pick her up. Christy was so giddy about finally seeing her mother again that she could hardly keep still in her seat.

"Oh wow! I can't believe that I'm almost home!" Christy bubbled with excitement.

Kitty had gotten uncharacteristically quiet during the ride through the city limits, but she gave her friend a warm, reassuring smile just the same.

"I'm sure that you and your Mom are going to have a great time together," she said quietly.

Christy eyed her quizzically for a moment.

"What's wrong, Kitty? Is there something bothering you?"

"Well... kinda. I guess I'm just a little worried about you, that's all," she replied.

Christy sighed wistfully and then leaned over to give her friend a reassuring hug.

"Listen Kitty, I really do appreciate the concern... but honestly, I'll be just fine. A lot has happened in the last couple of months and I'm not the same person that I was before..."

She paused as she released her friend from the embrace and gestured down at her attire.

"...in more ways than one!"

She winked slyly at Kitty, which finally broke her friend out of her sombre mood.

"Well, be sure that you keep your emergency COM link with you all the time, just in case."

"I will. I promise."

The train, which had been slowly coasting along the tracks as it was pulling into the station, now came to a gentle stop. For a moment, neither teen could think of anything to say so they simply looked at each other in silence. Finally, Kitty leaned forward to give her friend one last hug and wished her good luck.

As she was disembarking, Christy caught sight of her own reflection in one of the windows. Her winter clothes were still a touch on the androgynous side, but there was no mistaking her feminine appearance. She had learned her lessons of proper hair care from Jean very well, and as a result her hair was now silkier and shinier than it had ever been. Its auburn shade contrasted nicely with the soft, pastel-coloured beanie she wore and fanned out down her back slightly as it partially covered the top of her backpack. With her matching gloves and scarf set, she had every appearance of being the petite young teenage girl she had long since accepted that she truly was. She was still in the process of getting to know that girl, but she definitely liked the person she saw.

With a quick shake of her head, she snapped herself out of her momentary trance and stepped down onto the train platform. She walked back along the length of the passenger car to wave goodbye to Kitty, who enthusiastically returned it, and then she headed toward the passenger lounge where she knew her mother would be waiting for her.

As Christy came through the door, she saw her mother in an instant. Her mother was looking around at the various passengers that had disembarked along with her. Christy saw her mother's gaze sweep over her briefly, but then returned to searching the faces of the other passengers.

Have I really changed that much? She thought to herself.

With a gentle smile forming on her face, she walked slowly towards her mother and held in check the compelling urge she’d felt to run and throw her arms around her. As she approached, her mother took another brief glance at her and started to return to her scanning of the crowd when her eyes suddenly snapped back to Christy with an incredulous stare.

"Oh my..." her mother said as she raised a trembling hand to her mouth. "Chris, is that really you?"

"Hi Mom," Christy answered softly. "It's me, but I prefer to be called Christy now."

"Christy..." her mother said in a quiet voice as she tested the sound of the new name. Of course, she'd already known that her child had been using that name since Professor Xavier had kept her well-informed of her child's progress at the Institute. This, however, was her first opportunity to actually use it face-to-face with her neo-daughter. She then reached out and gathered her child into a tight embrace as a few tears formed in her eyes.

"Oh, my baby... I've missed you so much! I'm so glad that you're finally home!"

"I've missed you too, Mom," Christy answered in a choked whisper.

For Christy, the embrace had dispelled a background fear that, until that moment, she hadn't even been consciously aware of. The fear that her mother might reject her for some reason now that she'd changed into what she knew was her true self. Instead, she could feel her mother's intense love for her flowing out of her and washing any remaining doubts from her soul. She knew then that she really had come home.

That evening, Christy bubbled with enthusiasm as she talked about her experiences of living at the Xavier Institute in Bayville. Starting from the instant they'd gotten into their car at the train station, Christy had been chattering away with a speed that even Kitty would have been impressed with. As much as she wanted to divulge everything, she had already decided earlier that there were some parts of her life in Bayville that would be best left unsaid.

Generally speaking, the immediate family members of Xavier's students all knew the truth about the existence of mutants -- with Jean's family being among the few exceptions. As such, Professor Xavier left it up to each student how much information they wanted to share with their respective families. Although he didn't come right out and say so, everyone knew that he had reservations about disclosing the existence of the X-men and any of their related training. As a result, everyone tended to be pretty tight-lipped about that aspect of the Xavier Institute. Besides that, Christy had no desire to worry her mother needlessly, so she stuck to the more 'safer' topics.

"It's just so amazing there, Mom!" Christy said again for the umpteenth time.

"They're all such fantastic people there! Even after living there for just two months, I feel like I've known them for years!"

Christy's mother smiled as she continued to listen to her child chatter away. It was almost as if the girl was trying to condense the last couple of months into words and was relaying them as fast as she could. Eventually, her over-enthusiastic child began to calm her rapid speech down to the point where her mother was finally able to actually get a few words in.

"I've spoken to Professor Xavier several times by telephone about your progress there and both he and I are very pleased. Your school grades have never been higher, and this is the happiest that I've seen you in a long time."

She paused as she considered the astounding physical changes in her son since she'd last seen him. Professor Xavier had kept her fully informed about what had been discovered about Chris' unique biological makeup, so she knew that in truth her son was really her daughter. They had talked at length about the realignment of Chris' gender identity and they were both amazed at how well Chris had adjusted to his now-female psyche. Over the past few months, she'd read a number of case studies about parents with transsexual children. She'd even seen several examples of 'before’ and ‘after' photos, but nothing could compare to the image of her own child before her. Chris had always been a bit effeminate as a little boy, but now there was no denying the teenage girl that he'd become.

"And how about the... other things?" Christy’s mother asked delicately as she considered the other unique aspects of her child. "Your... mutant abilities? How do you feel about them now?"

"Much better now, Mom," Christy answered without hesitation

By means of a quick demonstration, Christy unlocked some of her energy and formed her blue-green aura around herself. She then held up her hand and beckoned for her mother to hold her own palm up against it. She hesitated only briefly and then gently pressed her hand against Christy's.

Nothing happened.

"I've learned how to focus and control the energy that I collect," Christy explained softly. "It was really hard at first because I was so afraid of it. But the single most important thing that helped me overcome my fear was realizing that I wasn't a freak and that I wasn't alone. Once I got past that, the rest was simply a matter of practicing. I can use the energy in many different ways, but most importantly... I've learned how to keep it from hurting others."

As she'd said the last part, Christy's voice had trailed off into a barely audible whisper. The memory of the one time she'd accidentally hurt her mother was what had made her decide to go to the Xavier Institute in the first place. While she had long since accepted that it had been an accident, it still brought a couple of tears to her eyes whenever she thought about it. Without a word, Christy's mother drew her child into her arms in a reassuring embrace and gently stroked her hair.

"Dear... you really need to stop fretting about that. We both know that it wasn't your fault, and it wasn't even all that serious," Her mother told her in a soft but firm voice.

After another minute or so, they both separated and Ms. McGee shook her head slightly in amazement as she looked back at her beautiful child.

"What's the matter, Mom?" Christy asked.

Wordlessly, Mrs. McGee reached over and gently caressed Christy's cheek.

"I've missed you so much over these past few months that I still can't believe you're finally home... even if it is only for a few days," she said with a deep sigh.

The thought of her child's inevitable departure at the end of the holiday weekend saddened her, but she was determined to enjoy every moment until then as much as possible. Her eyes brightened as another thought occurred to her. She got up off the sofa and beckoned for Christy to follow her.

"I have a surprise for you, dear. Grab your things and come upstairs."

As soon as they'd gotten inside their house, there was so much that she'd wanted to tell her mother that she didn't even want to pause long enough to bring her knapsack up to her room, so she'd simply dropped it in the front hallway. After she'd hastily retrieved her bag, she rushed up the stairs to where her mother was waiting just outside of her bedroom door.

At least... she thought it was her bedroom door. As soon as her mother had turned on the lights, Christy was a momentarily puzzled and wondered if they'd walked into someone else's room. It quickly dawned on her that it was her room, but it had been significantly re-decorated.

The first most noticeable thing was the large canopy bed that stood where her old one used to be. Next to it was a matching vanity table and chair set which occupied the place where her desk once sat. Her old dresser had been replaced by a slightly larger but shorter one that was painted in a soft ivory color. The entire room had been re-painted in a sort of lavender theme that matched the coverings for her new bed and she could even detect a slight scent of lilac in the air. It was a very beautiful girl’s room.

Christy had stood frozen in the doorway for so long that her mother started to worry that she might have actually pushed her child a bit too much with so drastic a change to her room. During one of her recent telephone conversations with Professor Xavier, he had recommended that she help reinforce her child's female persona while she was home for the holidays. She had started with only a few subtle changes to the room, but as she progressed she found that her enthusiasm seemed to take off and she ended up changing everything from the carpet to the curtains.

"Don't... don't you like it Christy?" Her mother asked nervously.

Christy turned to her mother with happy tears in her eyes and threw her arms around her.

"Oh Mom... I love it! Thank you so much!"

She held onto her child tightly, and with joyful tears forming in her own eyes, she softly replied,

"Welcome home, my daughter!"

---

To be continued in:

Chapter Two - Welcome Home, Christy!

---

Author's Foreword:

A combination of real-life priorities and my muse influencing me towards other writing projects has caused this story to remain on indefinite hiatus. Though this story hasn't been abandoned, I must apologize to my readers who have been waiting so long to see the next part of Christy's tale. I'm hoping that my muse will be a little more flexible in the new year, but for now... here's an early seasonal gift to you all.

Official Disclaimer:
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.

The author maintains creative ownership of the story itself and grants BigCloset TopShelf permission to post it online for free viewing by this site's visitors.

Author Note: Please message me for permission before posting this story to any other site. Posting to a pay site is prohibited.

---

After their heart-warming reunion of the night before, Christy and her mother were content to spend quality mother-daughter time together. Being that it was Thanksgiving Day, they stayed at home and spent a lot of time going through Ms. McGee's wardrobe. Both Christy and her mother wanted to get a feel for the sorts of clothing that they would be looking for when they went on their planned marathon shopping expedition the following day. Christy's Mom was so thrilled to see how well the female clothing suited her new daughter that she had Christy try on practically everything she owned.

In the early afternoon, they both descended upon the kitchen dressed in similar dress-and-apron outfits and spent the next few hours preparing dinner together. Ms. McGee noted with interest that in the past Chris had often helped in the kitchen wherever he was asked but hadn't really shown any interest in it. As Christy, her daughter now literally attacked every task she was giving with great enthusiasm. Her mother was amazed with the speed at which Christy could cut vegetables. It wasn't until she occasionally noticed the faint aura of blue-green light around her that she'd realized that her daughter was probably tapping her mutant abilities to move so quickly. And Christy hadn't even noticed until her mother had pointed it out to her. She blushed a bit and then for the rest of the afternoon she seemed to be making a conscious effort to slow down.

Though it was only the two of them sharing the holiday dinner together, when they finally sat down to eat, Christy was humbled by how much she found herself to be genuinely thankful for. In only a few short months, her previous unhappy life had been transformed into one filled with never-ending wonder and adventure. Where there had been scorn and rejection from others in the past, now she had true friends who not only cared for her but also accepted her for who she was. Her mother had always loved her, but now that love had become even more special since her homecoming and their bond seemed even stronger then it ever had been before.

Thus, when it came time to say grace, both mother and neo-daughter shed tears of happiness when Christy revealed those feelings aloud. For the McGee household, it truly was a time of Thanksgiving.

---

The next morning, both mother and neo-daughter enjoyed a quick breakfast before heading out for their long overdue mother-daughter shopping extravaganza.

Dressed in a stylish blouse and a pair of form-fitting denim jeans that displayed her curves nicely, Christy wanted to look as feminine as she felt. She had been mildly disappointed that the weather had turned too cold to get away with wearing a skirt, but after checking her appearance in the bathroom mirror she was satisfied just the same.

After they drove to the mall, Christy and her mother spent the morning exploring every clothing store they could find. Christy had begun to develop a little fashion sense thanks to the other girls of the Xavier Institute and some of their previous shopping excursions. She was eager to learn more about her mother's style and tastes. Sure, she'd gone shopping with her mother plenty of times in the past as Chris, but this time the feeling was almost magical. For her mother's part, she was probably enjoying the experience even more than Christy was. Together, they'd made several purchases -- including a few matching outfits -- and would repeatedly make trips back to their car to pack everything inside. By the early afternoon when they'd finally stopped for lunch, Christy found herself wondering how much of her new wardrobe she was going to be able to carry back to Bayville with her and how much she'd have to leave behind until her next visit home.

After lunch they had just finished browsing what had to have been the 7th or 8th shoe store when Christy spotted a certain establishment that she'd just as soon never have seen again. It was the electronics shop where she'd been attacked by a certain unpleasant, mutant-hating store manager. She glanced over at her mother nervously, but before she managed to vocalize her thoughts, her mother saw what she'd been looking at and a thoughtful expression formed on her face.

"That reminds me," she said to Christy, "I'd never gotten you a proper 'going away to school' gift when you'd departed so suddenly for Bayville. Maybe we should look into getting you a notebook computer for your studies?"

With that, she grasped her daughter's hand and started to lead her towards the store. Christy tried to gently pull her mother back and lead her away.

"Er, maybe it'd be better if we tried to shop somewhere else, Mom," Christy said nervously.

It occurred to her that although she'd told her mother the story of what had happened here just over two months ago, she hadn't actually told her mother which store was involved.

She leaned closer to her mother and said, "Do you remember that problem I'd told you about that I once had with a store manager? Well, let's just say that they don't like umm... my kind in that store."

With the other mall patrons around, it was a little too public a place for her to get into any more details and she hoped that her mother took the hint. She did, but unfortunately when the realization hit her, she started to overreact.

"Is this the place you'd told me about, darling?" Her mother asked in what was probably a little more volume than she'd intended.

The angry tone in her voice was apparent to anyone who happened to hear it. They'd stopped just in front of the store's entrance and she glared at some of the store employees that were in view.

"This is where that ignorant prick works? Can you point him out to me dear? I believe I would like to have a little chat with that gentleman."

Christy tensed as she saw her mother's temper start to gear up. She started to back away from the store's entrance and tried to gently coax her mother to come with her. Her training at the Xavier Institute had conditioned her to be cautious as well as to avoid any situations where being a mutant might be called into issue. While she wasn't about to start displaying her mutant powers in public, there was still a good chance that the store employees might recognize her. Undoubtedly a few of them remembered well what had happened the last time she was there.

"Come on Mom, it's not worth it. Please, let's just go, okay?"

Christy quietly pleaded with her mother while she continued to gently pull her away from the front of the store. Ms. McGee looked into her daughter's eyes and paused for a moment before her anger subsided. She gave a deep sigh and then nodded her head.

"I'm sorry dear, you're right of course. Well, that store certainly won't be seeing any of my business in the future -- or that of any of my friends either."

Christy was relieved that they'd managed to avoid a potentially disruptive scene, but her relief was only temporary. Just as the two McGee women had turned around and begun to walk away, Christy accidentally bumped into someone who was walking rapidly towards the store with a cup of coffee in his hand. Though the impact was relatively light, it was enough to cause the person to spill a little of his coffee onto himself and he cursed loudly.

"What the F... why the hell don't you watch where you're goin', ya idiot?!"

Christy took a step back and began to apologize to the guy but suddenly froze when she looked up into the face of someone she’d hoped she wouldn't ever see again, or at least not so soon. It was none other than Robbie.

He was wearing the uniform shirt and name tag of the electronics store, clearly indicating that he now worked there. As he'd been expelled from school for attacking her months before, it made sense that he had time for a job now. She thought wryly that he and that store's bastard of a manager probably got along quite well with each other.

"McGee?!" Robbie exclaimed as he stared incredulously at the person before him.

"Holy shit! The little mutie freak is back in town!"

Christy winced at his words and glanced around nervously as several nearby mall patrons suddenly looked over at them.

"I can’t wait to finish what we ... urk!!!"

Robbie suddenly gasped as he found himself mere inches from Ms. McGee's furious glaring eyes. For the moment, he hadn't seemed to notice Christy’s mother standing right next to them as he had been focusing all of his malevolent attention on her child. That changed quickly when she grabbed him by his necktie and yanked him around to face her just as he was about to shout more of his verbal abuse at Christy.

"So," Ms. McGee said through clenched teeth as she grabbed the knot on Robbie's necktie with her other hand and yanked it viciously tight. "You're that vicious little bastard who attacked my daughter?"

Robbie gave a strangled gasp and dropped his coffee onto the floor. He frantically reached up with both hands to free himself from Ms. McGee's grip on his tie but instead fell to his knees when she kneed him in the groin.

Christy was stunned by her mother's actions and could only stare with her mouth hanging open while her mother pressed her advantage. Though taken by surprise, Christy knew that Robbie was a tough brute and could quickly turn the confrontation around. She quickly snapped herself out of her temporary trance and started to coax her mother to release him so that they could get out of there. Already they'd attracted far too much attention to themselves and that was precisely what she'd hoped to avoid.

After a few moments of throttling Robbie with his tie and hissing expletives at him which Christy was surprised that her mother even knew, Ms. McGee finally came back to her senses and released her hold on him. With her anger somewhat spent, she suddenly became aware of the gathering crowd of mall patrons around them and decided that it would probably be better to leave as her daughter was frantically urging her to.

Glancing over her shoulder, Christy winced as she saw the manager of the electronics store come out to see what the commotion was all about. He took one look at his employee on the floor and then looked up at Christy and her mother. For a moment, he had a curious expression on his face which rapidly changed to one of recognition, surprise and then finally anger.

"You!!" he snarled through his teeth at Christy. "You're that mutant freak from before! Now you're even attacking my employees!"

His face turned a bright shade of red and he started to stalk menacingly towards Christy. Though she wasn't anywhere near as afraid of him as she had been that first time, she felt that retreat would be the better course of action at the moment. It also didn't help that he and Robbie had just announced to everyone within earshot that she was a mutant, and the last thing she needed was to be caught in some situation where she'd be forced to prove it.

"Time to go, Mom!" she said urgently and quickly led her mother by the arm as they fled the scene.

Since running would look too suspicious, they maintained a brisk walking pace as they withdrew from the scene before the confrontation could escalate. Fortunately, the surrounding crowd of people was a bit too stunned by the scene they'd witnessed to even consider stopping them from leaving. Mall security had probably already been notified, and a confrontation with them could lead to a bunch of questions that Christy wouldn't be able to answer.

Christy and her mother decided to take a roundabout way through the mall corridors before heading back to where they'd parked their car. Thanks to the spectacle in front of the electronics store, they wanted to first ensure that they didn't have an entourage or any mall security following them before they went outside.

Since they’d draw less attention individually as opposed to being together, at her mother's urging they temporarily split up to further throw off anyone who might try to follow them. After twenty minutes of occasionally ducking into stores to see if anyone had been tailing her, Christy met up again with her mother. They quickly left the concourse via an exit on opposite side of the plaza from their car. As they looked around to get their bearings, they discovered that they'd exited into what looked like the shipping & receiving docks for the mall which, due to the holiday weekend, had no activity at the moment.

They both breathed a mutual sigh of relief to finally be away from the crowds and outside in relative peace and quiet. Their brief calm was quickly interrupted by a series of angry shouts from behind them.

They both turned around to see that several of the electronics store’s staff had just come through the same exit from the mall. Most notably Robbie, the store’s manager and a few of the other salesmen. The group quickly fanned out and encircled the two McGee women, cutting off any opportunities for retreat. They slowly rotated around their trapped prey and gradually tightened their circle to draw closer.

Christy quickly took stock of the situation and noted the angry looks on all of their faces. That, unfortunately, was normal. What wasn't normal was that now they were all wearing what appeared to be thick, insulated gloves that extended midway up their arms almost to their elbows. On top of that, each of them was aiming small black devices at them that resembled small guns. Through her mutant senses, Christy could feel the high electrical charge that each was carrying and immediately deduced that they were probably stun guns. Thanks to the nature of her mutant abilities the stun guns didn't present any danger to her, but the fact that their opponents were also wearing those gloves indicated that they were prepared to raise the game to a physical fight as well.

Fortunately Mr. Logan had been training her well back in Bayville with the rest of the team. Additionally, after her infamous encounter with Principal Darkholme’s ‘Brotherhood Boys’, she had confidence that she could prevail against this group of normal humans provided that she kept her wits about her. They’d be a bit of a challenge for her by herself, but unfortunately she wasn’t alone. Now her mother was at risk as well and she had to make sure that her mother didn’t get caught up in the fight that was about to begin.

"Mom, I'm going to try to keep them busy while you get out of here. I won't risk you getting hurt because of me." Christy said quietly but firmly to her mother.

"Christy, no! There's too many of them for you to deal with. Besides, they're probably just trying to scare us. They wouldn't dare attack two unarmed women," her mother answered back.

"Mom.. they already know that I'm a mutant. By now they either think that you are too or they just don't care. You did try to strangle one of them, after all."

With that, Christy turned her attention towards the manager.

"I'm the one you want, so let my mother leave. There's no need for her to get involved with this!"

Several of their opponents just laughed in response. The manager growled back at her.

"If she's your mother, then she’s probably another mutie freak like you! And if she's not... well, maybe we'll just teach her a lesson for not drowning you like a rat when you were young as she should have, you mutant filth!"

"Besides," said a voice from behind them that Christy knew came from Robbie, "I got me a score to settle with that bitch, and here's some payback!"

In that instant, Christy heard and sensed Robbie's stun gun as it fired its electrodes. To her horror, she suddenly realized that she wasn't the target.

Before she could react, her mother let out a short, painful scream and then collapsed limply to the pavement. Christy was momentarily frozen in disbelief at the sight of her mother on the ground. She quickly knelt down next to her and verified that she was still breathing.

"You're partly right, freak," said the store manager with a maniacal laugh. "We aren't really interested in her, but we don't need any witnesses to the fun we're about to have with you. It’s too bad you freaks are still covered by the law, but that's gonna change real soon!"

The manager, who had circled around to stand closer to Robbie, continued to monologue like some two-bit villain from a bad sci-fi movie.

"The world's going to know about you freaks soon enough. This government cover-up that keeps you hidden won't last forever, and when the word gets out to enough people, we'll be able to cleanse the world of mutant filth like you! After we’re finished dealing with you here, we'll have what's left of you as proof of what you are and maybe then everyone will finally see the truth. They won't be calling us crazy anymore!"

Christy slowly rose to her feet with her hands clenched tightly at her sides. Her anger that had been building up had boiled over into rage over what they'd just done to her mother. She stood before them with her head bowed as she fought to maintain her self control.

"You're crazy anyways. Proof of mutants isn't going to stop anyone from saying that you're nuts. You people are psychotic." She answered in a quiet, icy voice.

"Brave talk, freak!" Robbie snarled in reply. "I don't see any of your mutie freak pals here to save your ass this time!"

"Yes..." Christy agreed, in a soft, faraway voice. "That is too bad... for you. If they were here, they would hold me back from dishing out the world of hurt that I'm about to unload on you."

Her voice changed back to its previous quiet, icy tone as she finally raised her head to look straight at the manager and Robbie.

"Let's dance," she said with a menacing glare.

They had been slowly advancing towards her and suddenly froze in their tracks as she displayed a pair of glowing eyes at them. Instantly, a bright blue-green aura of light surrounded her. She assumed a martial arts stance and electricity bean to arc angrily from her fingertips. In moments, she'd gone from a somewhat harmless-looking female to something extremely intimidating, and it caused everyone to involuntarily back a few steps away from her.

After they'd gained some distance, they seemed to recover some of their resolve and spread out again to surround her on all sides. Since Robbie had already used his stun gun, he backed off a bit and figured he'd let the others try to bring the little freak down before getting in closer. Though he'd only seen the kid use whatever his mutant power was once, his new boss and a few of the other sales guys had told him about how the kid was more dangerous than that. Hence the heavy gloves, as he sure as hell didn't want to end up feeling like he’d stuck his finger in a wall socket when he pounded the crap out of the sissy freak.

As Mr. Logan’s training kicked in, Christy’s mind began to analyze the situation tactically. She guessed that they'd try their ranged attacks on her first, so she calmly held position in the center of their group while she waited for them to try.

She didn't have to wait long, because at a signal from their manager the guys on either side of her simultaneously fired their stun guns at her. With her mutant powers ramped up to their current level, not only could she easily sense the electrical attack as it came in, but her enhanced speed and reflexes enabled her to easily back flip out of the way. The two unfortunate guys who'd discharged their weapons at her had stupidly aligned themselves in each others line of fire and promptly took themselves out of the fight.

Robbie, the manager and the remaining salesman stared at her with dumb looks on their faces for a moment before shaking themselves back to reality. The manager called the remaining salesmen over and whispered some quick instructions to him, after which the two of them separated and then took opposing positions around Christy. This time they took care not to stand in each others line of fire.

The sales guy shot his stun gun at her and again she jumped to avoid the electrodes, but while she was in the air the manager fired his own at her thinking that she’d be unable to dodge it.

Though dodging in mid-air was more difficult, Christy still had more than enough speed and reflexes to do it. Instead of dodging, however, she decided to play up the intimidation factor a bit more and give these idiots a taste of what they were up against. With that thought, she effortlessly caught the manager’s electrodes in one of her hands and absorbed the discharge. She landed perfectly on her feet again and then simply smirked at the astonished expression on the manager's face when she didn't seem to be affected by the stun charge. That expression quickly turned to panic when she sent a blast of energy back down the electrode lines at him and caused his stun gun to explode in his grip. Lucky for him he was wearing those heavy-duty insulator gloves or he might have suffered some lasting damage to his hands.

"Is that all you've got?" Christy asked in a bored tone of voice. "If so, please don't waste any more of my time.”

Her casual dismissal of them had the desired effect of enraging them further. As one, they all charged at her and attempted to dog-pile her. Since they had seen her demonstrate her ability to dodge, they tried to tackle her from different heights. What they didn't expect was for her to rush forward towards the manager before he could completely close distance with her and then use his body as a springboard just as he was diving towards her legs. The impact forced him face-first into the ground and knocked him out cold while she performed a back flip and landed harmlessly behind the pile of three guys. Robbie got up to his feet and noticed that he was the last of his team since he'd landed on the other sales guy and knocked the wind out of him.

"I guess that leaves just you and me doesn't it, Robbie? Are you sure you're up for this, or would you like me to wait for you to call in more of your thugs to help you fight me?"

Robbie growled and slowly advanced toward her. He smacked his fist menacingly into his palm, thinking mistakenly that it would intimidate his opponent.

"I don't need nobody’s help to handle you, freak! I beat your ass before and I'll do it again. After I'm finished with you, this time you won't be runnin’ off to the cops afterwards, neither!"

Christy narrowed her eyes a bit at his words and could easily see the murderous intent in his eyes. For the first time, she found herself wondering about the Professor's ideals of coexistence with humans. It was a noble concept, to be sure, but she found it difficult to imagine being able to reason with someone like Robbie. Was coexistence even possible with people like him? Time will tell if the Professor is right, she supposed. In the meantime, she had this sorry excuse for a human being to deal with.

A small, dark part of her mind briefly considered that the world might be a better place without Robbie in it, but she figured it was just her anger talking and brushed the thought away. Despite what that violent, psychotic son-of-a-bitch had done to her and now to her mother, Christy wouldn't bring herself to kill him. That wasn't the sort of person she’d allow herself to be.

She was going to hurt him, though. Nothing permanent, but she'd see to it that he'd remember this encounter for a long time to come.

"Bring it on then, Robbie," she finally said as she calmly dropped back into a defensive combat stance that Wolverine had taught her.

Due to her thin stature and light body weight, Logan had emphasized aikido in her training regimen as her primary martial art. Though Robbie had more weight and strength than she did, she could use her speed, reflexes and lower center of gravity to maximum advantage. Even though she'd only been training for a couple of months with Logan, he’d had her put in a lot of time on the mats to help her catch up to the others on the team.

Robbie wasn't much more than a clumsy brawler and she was fairly certain that she could probably take him with martial arts alone. Though she could easily just zap the asshole if she had to, it wouldn’t be anywhere near as satisfying.

Being a big, stupid brute as well as sadly predictable, Robbie charged towards her with a punch aimed for her face. She easily dodged around it, seized his wrist and then used his inertia to throw him several feet away where he landed painfully on his back.

That had to hurt, she mused to herself.

After a few moments, Robbie staggered to his feet and charged at her again. This time, he tried to throw a low punch to her stomach. Again, she dodged around his fist, reversed direction and seized his wrist to put him into a painful submission hold. While he was caught off guard by her maneuver, she stepped forward and dropped into a crouch while using his trapped wrist to throw him onto the ground again. That time, it looked like he'd landed on his face.

This went on for a few minutes as Robbie continued to throw clumsy punches and kicks at her, all of which were easily dodged or used to throw him repeatedly and painfully to the ground. He was getting progressively slower after each attack, though it wasn't certain if it was because of injury, fatigue or a combination of both.

Finally, Christy was actually starting to feel sorry for the big idiot since he obviously didn't have the sense to recognize that he was outclassed. She was certain that she'd dislocated one of his shoulders and cracked a few bones in his fingers and wrist joints. She'd decided it was enough, and on his next attack she put his wrist into a painful submission hold which she'd used to force him to the ground. She twisted his arm behind him and braced it against her knee. She then leaned forward to put painful pressure on his arm and held it for a moment before easing off slightly.

"Have you had enough yet, asshole?" She asked him.

He let of a series of alternating curses and painful grunts, which changed to yelps as she added more pressure to his trapped arm.

"Alright, I give! I give!! Lay off!" He yelled frantically.

With that, she released his arm and watched as it fell limply to the ground. Eventually, he rolled over onto his back and painfully pulled himself up into a sitting position against a nearby wall. In the meantime, Christy was relieved to see that at some point during the fighting her mother had recovered from the shock she'd received earlier and was sitting on the ground a few feet away looking at her with a wide-eyed expression on her face.

"Th..that was incredible, sweetheart!" her mother said as she accepted her daughter's assistance to stand up.

"I had no idea that you were so skilled a fighter. Was that part of your mutant powers?"

"Er, no... that was just some of the fighting techniques one of my instructors has been teaching me," She answered with a slight blush. "I'm not very good since I've only been studying for a few months now. I was able to beat Robbie so easily because he's a clumsy and stupid fighter."

Robbie suddenly shouted angrily back at her.

"Bullshit, you little freak! There's no way you could beat me without usin' some kinda mutie ability on me! Well, it won't help you this time!"

Christy had turned around just in time to see Robbie swing at her head with a length of pipe that he must have found lying nearby. She quickly pushed her mother out of the way of the swing and then ducked under it. She opened up some distance between them and then shook her head in disgust.

"You just don't have enough sense to stay down, do you asshole?" Christy snapped back at him.

"Let's see you try to beat me now! You can't use your powers on me if I'm wearing these gloves, and you can't get close enough to pull any of that sneaky Jap-shit on me while I've got this!"

Robbie swung the pipe through the air a few times to emphasize the point.

Christy was through fooling around with this guy. She used her powers to boost her speed and reflexes, and then charged under Robbie's guard. She delivered a point-blank shock to his solar plexus at roughly the same volts that his stun gun had put out.

Robbie collapsed instantly to the ground and managed to croak out, "H..how?"

"Those gloves only protect your hands, you moron. I could've taken you out anytime I wanted to, but I wanted to show you that I don’t need my powers to beat you."

Her expression changed from anger to one of pity and mild disgust.

"I'm done with this, Robbie. Do you hear me? You aren't worth the effort. You're just a pathetic bully... and to think that I actually used to be afraid of you."

She crouched down and extended an electrically-charged, sparking hand towards him and he tried as best as he could to cower away from her.

“You're stupid, Robbie, but even so I hope that at least you'll remember this lesson today. Don't force me to put you down permanently like some rabid dog. You lay off me, and you lay off my family. You got it?"

Despite the residual effects of the shock she'd given him, he managed to give a jerky nod of his head. In addition, Christy noted with some amusement that there was a growing puddle forming underneath him on the pavement. She was satisfied that she'd made her point.

Just as she was heading back over to where her mother was waiting for her, Mall security had finally managed to locate them and came charging into the area. Christy groaned and wondered if the day could possibly get any worse.

"Go, dear!" Her mother quickly said to her.

"I know you're fast, so just run as fast as you can and I'll meet you at home later. Don't worry about me. I'll stay here to talk to the guards and file assault charges against that group of self-righteous pricks," she said as she nodded towards the bodies on the ground that were slowly starting to move again.

Christy hesitated, uncertain about leaving her mother behind.

"It's okay, sweetheart. It'll be okay. Just go!"

"Okay Mom," Christy answered reluctantly. "If you're sure you'll be alright."

She gave her mother a quick hug, then charged herself up and took off in a speedy blur out of the area.

Just to be on the safe side, she'd decided to take a less direct route home to ensure that she wasn't being followed so she plotted an elaborate route through many side streets and a few parks before returning home.

---

When Christy finally returned home, she paused just inside the front door and finally let the floodgates loose. She was glad that she'd been able to keep her emotions in check for as long as she had, but now she was ready for a good cry. She remembered her conversation with Rogue earlier that week and conceded that she'd been right. Trouble does have a way of finding you, whether you go looking for it or not.

Even so, she hadn't imagined that it'd be this bad for her back when she’d originally been looking forward to her first trip home. The Professor's policy on the use of mutant powers in public not withstanding, Christy above all else had hoped that she wouldn't ever have to put on such a display in front of her own mother. She knew that her mother loved her regardless, but such displays were bound to make her mother feel uncomfortable around her and that was something that Christy wanted to prevent as much as possible.

She sat down in the living room and cried for a little while. It was such a great emotional release. Before she became Christy, she'd always been too afraid of the 'boys don't cry' stigma to ever properly take advantage of its therapeutic value. In the past she had a tendency to keep her unhappiness within her, but right around the time that her mutant abilities started to manifest, her emotions became much more difficult to suppress. Although she tried anyways, the other girls at the Institute had noticed this habit right away and chided her about 'still thinking like a boy'. Jean had explained to her that it was unfortunate how boys were conditioned not to show such feelings, because it often puts a large strain on them. Girls tended to be more emotionally balanced overall because it was more acceptable for them to let it all out when they really felt the need.

Already, Christy was starting to feel a lot better. She'd have a good talk with her mother when she got back and then the two of them could enjoy the rest of the long weekend without giving that day's mishap another thought.

Speaking of her mother... where was she? Christy wondered why she was taking so long to return to the house. She waited for a few more minutes before getting up and turning on the living room stereo for company. Over the past few months she'd gotten used to the general boisterous mayhem that was a daily component of life at the Xavier Institute. Now, sitting by herself in an empty house, she really missed it.

Just then, she'd heard her mother's car pull up in the driveway. She waited until her mother had made it into the house before she threw herself at her and gripped her in a tight hug.

"Oh Mom... I'm so sorry!" she said softly.

"Whatever for, dear?" her mother responded.

"For the trouble today... the things that I did. I'm really sorry. I wanted to have a normal visit with you this weekend and the last thing I wanted was to remind you that I'm a mutant."

"Christy dear, don't you worry at all about that. It didn't seem as though you had much choice in the matter. They got what they deserved. Besides, with a little luck those assholes might learn something valuable from the experience and keep their distance in the future."

Christy's brow furrowed a bit at her mother's words. She sounded a little harsher than she usually did, but perhaps she was still feeling some residual anger. After all, she had been on the receiving end of a stun gun attack earlier that afternoon.

Her mother's expression brightened and she changed the subject.

"Well! Let's not spoil the rest of our time together this weekend by dwelling on any of that. Let's unload the car, and then after that.. would you care to help me get dinner started?"

Christy smiled and followed her mother back out to the car. After they'd brought all of that day's purchases back into the house and put them away in their respective closets, Christy joined her mother in the kitchen, where they spent the next hour or so chatting while they prepared dinner together.

Her mother seemed to be really interested in the Xavier Institute and spent a lot of the time asking her all sorts of questions about it. While Christy was certainly eager to answer any of her mother's questions, she was starting to feel a little nervous. Some of the topics were coming uncomfortably close to the nature of the X-men and her own involvement as a member of the team. She had already decided earlier that she would only tell her mother what was necessary, but her mother seemed determined to hear more details. Christy deflected most of those questions by implying that the 'special' training at the Institute was simply a sort of sparring, but sometimes they'd use their mutant abilities to make things interesting. Still, the questions persisted and eventually Christy finally decided a change of topic would be safer.

"Say Mom," Christy said in what she hoped was a joking tone of voice, "I'm supposed to be on a break from the Institute, but I'm starting to feel as though I never left! How about we talk about what your life's been like for awhile? I haven't seen you in two months, after all!"

Her mother simply looked at Christy in silence for a moment with a totally unreadable expression on her face. Finally, she nodded gently and sighed.

"You're right, dear. I'm sorry. We shouldn't waste our time together on such things. It's just that I missed my little girl so much while you were away..."

She sniffed a bit and wiped away a tear that was forming in her eye before continuing.

"I guess I just wanted to know as much as I could about your new experiences at that Institute. Today, when those awful people tried attacking you, I got really worried. I don't know what I'd do if anything was to happen to you..."

Christy smiled back at her reassuringly.

"It's okay Mom. I promise that everything's okay. The professor and the others take really good care of me in Bayville, and they're also teaching me to take care of myself as well."

Her mother gave an amused laugh at that.

"Yes, you certainly proved that this afternoon! I'm quite impressed with how you're able to handle yourself now. Even so, try to remember that no matter how much you seem to grow up, you'll always be Mommy's little girl to me."

For a moment, Christy felt a brief… something, but it passed just as quickly. There was something strange about the way that her mother was talking to her, but Christy couldn't quite put her finger on it. In fact, she’d been having the sense that something was a little off with her mother since she’d arrived home. Perhaps she was still a little unsettled by what she'd witnessed that afternoon.

"... Tomorrow," her mother continued, "I was thinking we could spend the day together here at home. Since it'll be your last full day before going back to Bayville, I thought we could pass the time doing all sorts of fun things together like we did when you were a little girl."

Christy's heart skipped a beat.

Say what?! She thought to herself.

Warning bells started ringing in her head and she gave an uneasy glance at her mother who was working at the kitchen counter with her back turned away from her.

"You're awfully quiet all of the sudden, dear," Christy's mother said as she started to turn around. "Is there anything wr..."

She was interrupted by a powerful electrical jolt that caused her legs to collapse beneath her and she sank to the kitchen floor. She looked up to see her daughter standing over her with a grim expression on her face. She was holding one of her hands outstretched towards her and it was glowing with an intense blue-green light.

"Wh... Why?" She stammered weakly. "What did you do that for?"

"I don't know who you are, but you're not my mother," Christy told her evenly. "Who are you, and why are you here?!"

Her 'mother' started to laugh and she smiled back at Christy with an amused expression on her face. It was a strange, malevolent sounding laugh that gave Christy the creeps.

"Well, well... it seems that you are a lot sharper than I gave you credit for."

The person before her began to change and within moments Christy's 'mother' had become a lean, blue skinned woman dressed in a long, white form-hugging dress with open slits down the sides of the skirt to allow for plenty of movement. A really gaudy outfit, Christy thought to herself. Although she hadn't seen this particular form before, she had a pretty good idea who this mutant was.

"Principal Darkholme," Christy said flatly. "We're a long way from the hallways of Bayville High. Can I assume that you're not here on official school business?"

Mystique rose gracefully to her feet and Christy carefully retreated a few steps to keep some distance between them. She assumed her defensive posture and charged herself up. Her opponent took note of Christy's stance, as well as the bright aura of energy she was generating. Being a highly skilled martial artist herself, she sized up her smaller opponent with a smirk.

"This can go easy or hard, McGee. You caught me by surprise just now, but I'm really curious to see just how much Wolverine has taught you. And you can be sure that I won't be as easy to defeat as those fools you fought earlier today. I hadn't expected getting a workout when I came here, but since you insist..."

She suddenly lunged at Christy and started throwing a rapid series of punches and kicks that her quarry dodged with incredible speed. Mystique intensified her attacks, but she was unable to land a single blow against Christy's mutant-enhanced speed and reflexes. Christy continued to dodge her for a couple of minutes until Mystique began to tire, and then she moved in and landed a hard, open-handed strike to her midriff. Upon contact, she'd also discharged another hefty electrical burst which blasted Mystique out the kitchen door and sent her sprawling out on the dining room floor.

"This can go easy or hard, Mystique," Christy said in a deliberate parody of Mystique's own words.

Under any other circumstances she might even have enjoyed the irony, but Christy was in no mood for playing around at the moment. She wasn't sure how long Mystique had been impersonating her mother, but it was a good bet that she'd hidden her mother away somewhere in order to pull it off.

"I don't know why you're here, but I know you've done something to my mother. I don't want to hurt you, but you'd better tell me where she is or I'm likely to do something that we'll both regret!"

Mystique shifted her form into her Principal Darkholme identity and then slowly pulled herself up from the floor. Her hands were shaking slightly, but whether that was from anger or the residual effect of the last electrical shock, Christy didn't know.

"I guess you aren't quite the little mouse that I thought you were. I see those fools at Xavier's precious Institute have taught you well. Too bad you and the others insist on wasting your potential on Xavier's short-sighted ideals. You saw it yourself when you battled those barbaric simpletons this afternoon. Tell me, McGee... can you honestly see Xavier's notions of a peaceful co-existence working with ignorant fools like them?"

Raven Darkholme drew herself up into the familiar imposing figure that Christy knew well as the strict dictator of Bayville High. Christy almost laughed at such a petty display of intimidation, but she kept her face as expressionless as she could while waiting for Mystique's next move. Mystique might be a certified whacko, but she was also extremely dangerous and was not to be underestimated.

"I'm sure you're aware that not all mutants share Xavier's views about normal humans. In fact, among the mutant population, Xavier and other mutants who think like him are in the minority. The rest of us work towards the promise of a future where all mutants can live without fear of these lesser humans and assume our rightful place as the next dominant species of the planet. You are young, but your mutant power has great potential — a potential that you will surely never realize under the tutelage of that fool Xavier!"

Christy shook her head slightly as she listened to Raven's tirade. She'd heard a much more watered-down version of this mantra a few months back when she'd had her initial encounter with the Brotherhood Boys, but she found it a bit unsettling to hear it spoken so clearly by a much more sophisticated and powerful mutant like Mystique. Although Christy was still pretty new to the world of mutants, she understood enough not to buy into the renegade philosophies of mutants like Mystique and her Brotherhood Boys. Just the same, a mutant like Mystique couldn't be discounted out of hand as she usually did with Lance Alvers and his cohorts. She needed to proceed carefully, especially since she didn't know what or if Mystique had done anything to her mother.

Mystique took advantage of Christy's seeming lapse of attention to jump towards her and launch another series of strikes. Despite the business attire she wore in her Raven Darkholme persona, her hand-to-hand combat skills were still extremely fast. The two combatants continued their high-speed sparring session for another minute or two until Christy disengaged by performing a gymnastic back-flip and landed in a defensive stance on the top of the dining room table.

"I'm sure you didn't come all this way just to give a speech and to spar with me. What do you want, Principal Darkholme?" Christy said evenly.

Raven gave a short laugh and replied, "I work with a group of mutants that has a greater interest in your development than Xavier does. My... 'employer' wants to meet with you personally, so I have come to invite you to attend an interview."

She then jumped up and attempted to sweep Christy's legs out from under her with a spinning kick, but Christy easily dodged by flipping over her. She landed just behind her, where she quickly spun around and hit her opponent with another electrical discharge. Raven immediately collapsed to the floor in a heap and groaned slightly.

"Thanks, but no thanks. You can tell your friends that I'm not interested."

She took a couple of steps back from her and added a little more intensity to the glow around her to make herself look more threatening to her temporarily winded opponent. The effect was mostly for show, but Raven wouldn't know that. Despite the fact that Christy seemed to be holding the upper hand in this little duel, she wasn't going to let her guard down for even an instant.

"...I'm afraid that wasn't a request." Raven answered once she caught her breath.

She slowly rose to her feet and brushed herself off, then withdrew something from her pocket and tossed it towards Christy. She caught it easily and felt her breath catch in her throat as she examined what she held in her hands. She was holding a photograph of her mother, who had been stripped down to her underwear and was lying hogtied and gagged on a bed in what appeared to be a typical hotel room.

"You.... you bitch!" Christy hissed at Raven.

She suddenly lunged at Raven in a blur of motion that would have impressed Pietro Maximoff. Before she could even react, Raven was shoved hard up against the wall and held at bay by a sparking hand that was held mere inches from her face. She noted the lights in the house started to flicker as Christy drew more power from her surroundings.

"WHERE'S MY MOTHER?!!" Christy shouted. "The last few shocks I gave you will seem like nothing compared to what I'll do next if you don't start talking!"

Slowly, Raven formed a wicked-looking grin on her face.

"That won't get you anywhere, McGee. She's hidden away where she isn't likely to be found for days. If you cooperate and come with me, then I'll make a phone call and have her released. If you refuse, well... we can continue our little match here until one of us wins, but it'll only make things worse for your mother."

There was a long, uneasy silence as Christy tried to consider her options. The truth was that she knew she didn't really have any options. She thought back to something that Scott had once told her about Mystique during her first week at the Institute. Mystique was like a kind of serious card player, and one that has no problems with cheating to win. Her mother was Mystique's trump card, and she'd played it well.

She sighed deeply and then took a couple of steps back from Raven. Her aura quickly dimmed out as she brought her energy levels back down and stored them away.

"You win," she said softly.

Raven gave a satisfied nod.

"Smart choice, McGee."

Raven carefully withdrew a small tube from her pocket and cautiously stepped towards Christy. It wasn't until she held it up that Christy could see it was a small aerosol device of some kind. Probably a tranquilizing agent, Christy thought.

"How do I know that you'll keep your word, Mystique?" Christy asked as she eyed the device with a bit of apprehension.

"Our interest is in you, not your mother. As an ordinary human, she has little value to us. We have nothing to gain from harming her, particularly since you'll have no reason to cooperate with us if we did. Now, hold still..."

Raven discharged a gentle mist into Christy's face which took effect almost instantaneously. She collapsed forward into Raven's arms, and was gently lowered to the floor by her sometime-school Principal. Raven casually withdrew a cell phone from her pocket and hit her speed-dial. A deep voice answered almost immediately.

"Well?" The voice asked expectantly.

"I've got her. She saw through me a little faster than I'd anticipated, but even so I'm sure she'll cooperate with us for the time being."

"Good. Bring her at once, then. We have to get her away from there before Xavier and his people can respond -- it's unlikely that Charles would fail to notice all of the recent 'activity' in the area. I'll be waiting for you at the municipal airport."

Without waiting for a response from her, the line went dead and Raven glanced at her phone in mild irritation. She sighed and made another call to the nearby hotel's front desk.

She placed a room-service order to the suite in which she'd left the girl’s mother and asked that the order be brought directly into the room, despite the ‘do not disturb’ sign she’d hung outside. She quickly ended the call and smirked a bit as she thought of the surprise that some hotel employee was about to get when he delivered that order. Maybe he'd jump to the wrong conclusions and assume that particular guest was interested in some kinky 'play' before being untied. Well, if that was the case, she wished her former captive lots of fun.

Shifting back into her guise as Ms. McGee, she gathered Christy up off the floor and quickly carried her out to the car. Magneto was not the sort of man you wanted to keep waiting.

---

---

To be continued in:

Chapter Three - Christy's Challenge