Back Again... (Open to All)

Sam felt the wind rushing against his face as it ran through his hair. It was autumn and a perfect day out, the sun was high in the sky and there weren’t a lot of clouds insight. Sam tightened his body to pick up speed as he rounded a corner and was coming to a loop.

“Best idea I ever had,” Sam said as he hit the loop. Sam spent the last two hours creating a giant ice slide in the courtyard, completed with loops turns corkscrews and tunnels. The best part about this was Sam finally could goof off, it had been a while since he cut loose out in the open and what better way than to attract a lot of attention with a giant slide race course made of ice.

Coming to angled jump Sam lifted his arms up and did a summersault in the air and then a small turn resulting in him landing on his stomach, now he was finally a penguin. Sam continued to pick up speed as he turned his head back to see his competition in the race, “How you doing back there?”

You know what wasn't good for science reports on the adaptation of deep sea marine life to utilize light in hunting? GIANT ICE SLIDES. The Italian teenager had his back pointedly turned on that scene as his hand scribbled notes. The notes slowed. Slowed. Slooooowed. The scrawny eighteen year old refused to go inside. Not while it was this beautiful. But... GIANT PENGUIN ICE SLIDE. He shook himself, and kept writing. Writing. Wriiiiiting...

One might think, at first glance, that this particular teenager was made of sterner stuff: that he was not so easily distracted by trivial matters as GIANT ICE SLIDES OF FUN. This particular teenager, after all, was reclining quite easily against a Bengal tiger. A rather large Bengal tiger. Rather larger than the teenager himself, actually. The tiger didn't seem to much mind; it lay quite contently in the sun-baked grass, its neck held at a dignified arch as it studiously looked down at an object balanced atop its paws: an open text book. A textbook with a few large creases in the preceding pages, where heavy paws had managed the trick of turning pages. The tiger was not, was not, was not looking at the GIANT ICE SLIDE OF FANTASTIC AWESOMENESS BEYOND THE CAPACITY OF THE HUMAN MIND TO HOLD (though maybe not beyond a tiger's).

Calley's new power growth was splintering. He was able to become more than one of his forms, at the same time: hence the teenager-splinter and the tiger-splinter, both diligently at work. And it would really be a great power for multitasking, if there wasn't the small issue of the ICETASTIC SLIDE OF TEMPTATION. He would not give in, he would not give in, he would not--

The tiger's nose twitched; then raised, with a curious sniff. The teenager mirrored the motion, even if a human nose wasn't up to the task. That's how Calley first became aware of the woman's return. Mrs Tipper. Alias: Tricity. Recently a mother. Captain of the X-Men. Headmistress of Xavier's Sister School for Gifted Children. The last time he had seen her, he'd been grooming himself as a housecat outside of a certain door. The door may or may not have been labeled "War Room", and he may or may not have been video taping the faces of every X-fool that went in or out of the room. That was back when King Pharmaceuticals was the hot thing, and none of them were thinking far enough ahead to see the Registration Act about to crash down on their collective heads. He'd started as a student at the Mansion while she was still around, but never really met her. And after the Camps, she'd apparently taken herself on a well-earned vacation. Not that Calley was the sort of person who poked after information like that. At all. No, Calley was sure-as-sure just a happy little Mansion resident, studying on the lawn, and refusing to take part in the silliness of an ICE SLIDE SO BEAUTIFULLY FANTASTIC THAT HE MIGHT JUST CRY.

The tiger's ears flicked backwards as the woman started talking. She was really back, then. Not just checkin' in. Which left Calley in an interesting situation: he knew the woman, but the woman probably didn't really know him. Awkward. As her suit cases rolled by on their way to the front door, the tiger stared up at her and the teenager turned his head and gave a wave.

"Hi," Calley said simply. "Welcome back, Mrs Tipper." He had the good grace to blush. "Umm, sorry--I was kind of eavesdropping," he apologized, pointing to his tiger splinter. The tiger twitched its ears dramatically. "My name is Calley. I don't know if you, ah, know me. I moved in right before the Stalker raid. It's good to have you back. I've heard a lot about you."

His teenage self stood up, one bare foot carefully keeping in contact with the tiger's fur as he tucked his notebook under one arm, and stuck out his hand with a small, I'm-in-the-presence-of-a-legend smile.

"Back where?"

Sam frowned as Ghost shot past him, “Hey that’s cheating,” still frowning and feeling like a little kid, Sam said “Oh so we can use our powers then huh?” concentrating Sam created a small ramp off of a turn. Sam jumped the ramp and free fell for a second only to shoot across the race track only to land several feet in front of Ghost. Sam’s attention was distracted for a second as he saw a tiger a boy and a lady that looked familiar, thinking to himself, ’Why does she looks so familiar, I don’t think I ever met here before who is that?’ turning his head as he continued to speed along in front of Ghost he asked her, “Who was that?”

>> "A pleasure to meet you Calley. And it's just Miss Tipper."

"Ah! Sorry!" Calley burst out with. His eyes very prudently did not flick down to the little bundle of baby flesh sitting in the car seat. And this answered one of his questions: why he hadn't really heard anything about a 'Mr Tipper'. Not that he had anything against kids born out of wedlock, or anything. It was just, umm... a back step into awkward territory. And not the familiar awkward territory that cropped up around the Mansion, like "Where did you get that scar?", "Do your parents love you?", or "So, how 'bout that Registration Act?" It was a whole new kind of awkward. He couldn't quite help himself: though his human self kept looking at Miss Tipper, his tiger self slowly stood up and curiously nosed a large head towards the baby's car seat. Its ears swiveled forward; golden eyes blinked twice. Tail curl. Whisker fan. He'd never actually been this close to a baby before. This one wasn't crying as much as he'd expected. It didn't even smell that bad.

>> "I've missed this place... How do you like it, Calley?"

At that, Calley could give an honest grin. "I like it a lot." He bent down to scoop up the textbook his tiger self had left on the grass, and gave it a little wrist-shake. "Umm, except for the homework overload. It's like they're trying to cram enough into our heads to make up for all the schooling we missed while the Mansion was shut down. But yeah... this is probably the best place I've been." Another thing he couldn't help: his human self wasn't looking at Miss Tipper anymore. His blue eyes had focused past her, on something that was a lot cooler and distinctly more awesome than she was--no offense to the Headmistress, but it was a giant ice slide. And on that ice slide were two little penguins. Penguin Number one, a certain young lady he'd only formally met as a cat, was about two seconds away from giving her friend's legs a seriously lesson in smackage. Calley hadn't ever personally met Penguin Number Two, but ten percent of the money sitting in his Swiss bank account courtesy of Mondragon Labs said that the guy was an ice manipulator.

"Wow. That's not going to end well." The eighteen year old was not easily distracted. There was nothing easy about an Antarctic ice shelf imported and polished, sitting in the middle of the lawn.

"Tipper... Isn't that the name of the headmisstACK!"

Sam felt Ghost run into him from behind as he rolled forward as best he could to avoid it but it was to late. Sam tumbled twice trying to regain control but needed up rolling twice more before he came to a stop.

"How ya doing? Everyone still in one piece??"

Sam looked over to ghost who was now all hazy and no longer solid, “Well I am still in one piece.”

Sam looked up to see the face he had seen a few times in various portraits throughout the mansion. “Y-Y-Y-You’re the headmistress!!” Said Sam in both shock in disbelief. He never before met her but he heard nothing at good things about her. Not only was she an art teacher and headmistress but she was also the leader of the Xmen. Sam grinned as he stood up and dusted himself off trying to make a good impression.

"I'm sorry to cut the introductions so short. I think it's best I get settled in and have a chat with Neena about all the happenings since I've been away. It was great to meet you three."

Sam could barley let the words escape from his mouth as he said “B-Bye.”

"So..." "Giant ice slide. How's that goin' for you?"

He looked to the one called Calley who had his hand attached to a tiger. “Cool.” Said Sam as he jumped off of the slide and got eye level with the tiger, “Haven’t seen one up closes in a whil…” Trailing off Sam noticed there was something off about this tiger, he couldn’t place it but most tigers seemed a little different, this one almost seemed to smart… Then realizing he had been seaming extremely rude Sam cleared his throat and held out his hand to Calley and said, “Names Sam.” Then answering his questions, “ I think it’s going pretty well…” he looked to Ghost for her answer and then looked back to Calley, “you know if you want you can get on as well, don’t even have to ask really.”