The teacher had said that it'd just take a moment. That Ghost would be waiting with the kids for only a little while. That was an hour ago.

To be fair, the teacher had also been trying not to look down at the teeth marks in her leg at the time, so Ghost decided to forgive the woman for being optimistic. The problem was that the little ones were now getting a bit restless after an hour of "free play time."

"Can we go outside?" Rowan whined for fifteen millionth time. "I want to run and play!"

A chorus of little yeah!s had Ghost up on her feet and pacing. She tapped her forehead as she thought.

"Okay." The chorus of yeah!s turned into a louder chorus of yay!s. "But I need to count how many of you there are first and we count when we get out there. When I call, we go back inside, okay? Right away! No buts!"

Well of course they would agree to anything now that the kids were all getting their way.

Maya counted a full dozen of them. 13 once a small, pale boy with a hat hopped up from behind the book shelf. Huh. Hadn't seen that one before. He looked new.

She scribbled a quick note and taped it to the door.

Don't panic. We are outside. 13/13 children accounted for. <3 Ghost

"Everybody hold someone's hand! We're making one big, long train out of here!"

That's how Maya lead the pre-school exodus through the Mansion halls, through the kitchen, and out the back door.

The blonde yawned and stretched her arms. It had been a long few months, and she found herself yet again, around the mansion. This last week had been several trips to this place, for one reason or another. She had left over a year ago, she couldn't place a finger on why she was so fixated on hanging out there around now. Could have been nostalgia.

She wandered outside and smiled at the sunshine there was a pleasant, gentle breeze passing through. The pale blonde saw a disconcerted looking woman leading what appeared to be a class of younger children outside. She smirked and approached. It wasn't like she was a stranger to the mansion, there were one or two kids that actually recognised her from when she volunteered to help out with various things around there.

A small girl frantically waving her little arms at the blonde caught her eye. Serena's smile widened and she approached from the side and waves at a few of the young ones, giving the woman a large smile. "Hi there! If you don't mind me saying, you don't look like the usual teacher for this lovely class." She greeted in a friendly tone.

"-where I can see you! Don't go too far! Please!" The utility shed had a bubble machine, assuming it still worked. And a couple balls. That would probably keep the kids more entertained than anything she could, personally, pull off.

> "Hi there!"

"Oh. Uh. Hi! No. Uhm, that's one is mine." Maya pointed out Rowan with his greyish skin, floppy ears, and puppy nose. "Miss Sandra went to see DocProf because this little guy—" Maya stopped a normal looking young one as he ran past. He looked up at them, seemed to recognize the girl and broke into a grin that showed off his needle-like teeth. Maya let go of his shoulder and he launched a hug at the girl's legs. "— he bit her."

"Sowwy." He said, not for the first time today.

"I'm Maya, by the way." She offered a mostly solid-looking hand.

Serena smiled at the other woman, who seemed to be a few years older than herself. She was a little taken aback. She didn't know all that many women with kids, though this other woman didn't look all that much older than Serena at a glance. (Now that was a scary thought.) "Awww. That's sweet of you to watch the whole class while the teacher heads to the doc." Serena distinctly remembered several lengthy conversations with the Doc when she was younger, a mental shudder at the visit after she'd injured James.

Serena smirked at the little boy for half a second before hardening her look a little. "Did he now? That wasn't very nice of him." She responded as the little one wrapped himself around her legs. She uncoiled him gently and let him go and join the rest of the kids playing with a smile at him.

The blonde adjusted her hair as she stood back up straight and grinned as she turned and took the other woman's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you Maya, I'm Serena. Are you on the staff here, or just a parent?" She asked in an inquisitive tone.

"Don't worry, we've already been over the whole 'was that a good choice?' bit. I think he's been properly warned not to bite again... assuming he listened." That was a big assumption given the boy's age, but... yeah. What else were ya gonna do?

"Oh, I'm not on staff, but I am on the team." One of the few lonely active teammates. They were running a bit thin these days which was fine since most of the time it was the silly robots causing the issues and not a good old fashioned villain-off in the streets. Where was the classic bank robber these days? Maybe the bots were a good deterrent.

And Maya eyed Serena surreptitiously. "You don't live on campus do you?" The aeromancer was a decent judge of age given that they'd had training on noticing details like that for police reporting. Serena looked about college age— still bright-eyed and bushy tailed.

Serena shook her head with a slightly exasperated sigh. "I was never like that as a kid, I never understood other's doing stuff like that, as an adult though I feel like I understand them more than I did when I was there age." One or two kids who recognised her from helping out in various outings waved at her frantically, she smiled and gave a little wave back.

The blonde turned her head with an even friendlier smile. "Well, doubly a pleasure to meet you then. Always nice to meet more of you. I'm fairly friendly with Mirror, and some others. Sam was a huge help to me once upon a time too." She added with a grin.

Another shake of her head, with another warm grin. This one a little more melancholy. "I used to. I was a late bloomer, came here at 16 with no living relatives. I'm in Univers- College I mean." She cleared her throat, she sometimes forgot that most American's referred to it as just college, she'd spent too much time talking to James. "I go to NYU. I live near there, but I still come back to visit the mansion a lot, and I volunteer to give a helping hand wherever I can. You know, give back considering this place was home for so long?"

Fairly friendly with Mirror? Oh! Maya's eyes widened a hair. Boy, the other Maya sure got around. Not that it was any of this Maya's business.

"Sam is... Sam. Deep down he's a good guy." Maya dodged a ball that came whizzing by and after it slammed into and rattled the kitchen windows, she jogged to go fetch and return it to the gaggle of children that it came from.

No living relatives. Huh. What would that be like? "I came to the Mansion after the registration derailed my plans for college." Or should she have said university there? "It probably makes things easier to stay close to your classes, but I'm glad to see kids coming back even if it's just a visit."

Sheesh. Was Maya really so old that the first thing that came out of her mouth about a college student was that they were a "kid"?

Serena completely missed the tick that Ghost gave off thinking that her and Mirror were something more than friends, she'd used that term casually. It wasn't that there was anything particularly un-interesting about Mirror, Serena just tended to avoid that stuff.

Serena shook her head with a smile. "I didn't mean to insinuate that he wasn't. He means a lot to me, as a mentor and a friend. He's been through a lot, as you obviously know and I kind of get that." Having been in a bad state for a long time after she moved in at the mansion she really did understand but still... "He just needs to realise that he needs to get help, I don't think anybody can force him to. It's always depressing seeing your idols going through something rough." She admitted.

She sighed out loud at the comment. "When I think about it now, if I hadn't manifested when I lost my brother, I'd have probably ended up in the state system instead of here. Small miracles I guess."

The blonde blinked and turned. "I'm terribly sorry, I didn't mean to get heavy there." She smiled, trying to move the topic along. "I don't know if you can consider me a kid, I'm more mature than I look, most of the time anyway."

Finally. Someone who understood. "Yes! I've been saying so forever." That was part of the problem, though. Forever was a long time to deal with someone who refused to help himself. "If he won't change for himself, the change isn't likely to stick."

So Maya sighed and turned back to the gambol of kids to take a quick headcount. Serena sighed too.

> "...if I hadn't manifested when I lost my brother, I'd have probably ended up in the state system instead of here."

"No, it's fine. My oldest, Jude, I adopted him to get him out of the system." Her comment was somewhat distracted, though because she didn't count 13. But that was easy enough to explain away. The kids were all moving ALL THE TIME. Maya tried not to jump straight to worry and counted again.

"I'm jealous of you getting to do school, uh, college. University?" Damn that was 11 this time, which was less than her first count! "It just never worked out for me. Uh. Excuse me, but can you help me count these kids? There's supposed to be 13." Maya tapped down the garden steps and swung her head around. Rowan was there. Teeth kid. The two wavers from before... She just didn't know the children all by sight.

"Okay, kids! Who wants a snack!" She amplified her voice using her power. There was no one on this side of the Mansion who did not hear. Food was the way to get them all grouped, right?

Serena was glad that some of Sam's other friends at least agreed with her sentiment on it, Maya was probably around Sam's age if she had pinned Serena as being a 'kid', which she wasn't terribly fond of but had gotten used to. She was older than most of her friends it seemed, but there were definitely some older ones like Mirror and Sam. She hoped that Maya would fit into this category, she seemed fairly nice.

She recognised the name Jude, she was fairly sure she'd met one during the riots a few years back, though the man had seemed slightly older than her. She supposed that the woman could have adopted an teenager or something when she was a young adult, she wasn't quite sure. "The only Jude I've ever met that was also a mutant was older than me." She admitted with a smile. "He didn't seem to be the most mature though admittedly, very polite overall though."

Serena blinked and looked around as Maya pointed out that some of the kids were possibly missing. "Oh dear." She stepped forwards, glancing around the group for children, there certainly didn't appear to be 13 of them. That would be bad. This shouldn't have been Maya's responsibility anyway to be fair, the teacher should have gotten back by now. She hoped that everything was alright on that front.

She blinked and turned to look at the older mutant as she spoke out with her power. Serena was a little startled. "Well, I'm sure that got their attention at least."

"Ah, yes." Maya's cheeks flushed with embarrassment. "I made him change his age as he wasn't being terribly responsible as an adult." Bad choices all around. Children should age in the natural progression when possible.

And using her power to make herself heard was, perhaps, also a mistake since one little girl did nothing but sit down and cry.

Mostly, the children jumped up and down shouting 'Me! Me! Me!' and gathering into a mob in front of and around Maya.

1-2-3-4... 11.

"Okay, uhm. 1-2-3, eyes on me. Mouths shut and ears open! We're missing two kids. Can everyone look around and see if you are missing a friend? Who's missing? Only after we get all our friends together can we go back inside for a snack."

A little murmuring. A little time spent looked back and forth between the kids.

A little boy ventured a guess. "Wodger?"

Wodger? "Oh! Roger! The boy with the hat. Anyone else? Rowan?" Rowan? Maya spun a full circle looking for her son. "Rowan?" She would have to be forgiven for her voice raising an octave.

Serena smirked as the woman blushed. She didn't recall him mentioning much about his power, other than the fact that he was a copier, being an age shifter too was certainly something interesting. She'd met a fair few animal shifters, and even a sex shifter, but never an age shifter. Tick one off the list.

She smiled gently at the children as the use of the older woman's power seemed to upset some of them. She walked over and gave her a big smile. "There there, everything's okay, Ms Maya was just trying to get everyone's attention, she didn't mean to scare you." The girl seemed to calm down after a few seconds.

Serena turned around, looking in the immediate area for any children on the edges of the courtyard they were in, she didn't see any. She closed her eyes, trying to imagine an image of all the kids that were there when she first arrived, not to much avail. Luckily Maya worked out with the kids who was missing, and one of them sounded like it was her kid. Oh dear, not a good start.

Serena took in a deep breath. She turned to the older woman. "Okay, it's alright. They can't have gone very far." She reassured and began to glance around the corners of the area, scanning for any children's obvious hiding places.

Okayokayokay. Serena had a point. He probably couldn't have gotten far. This was a closed campus. There were walls and gates and security. There was also a lot of land. Also, Maya knew Rowan was fast when he wanted to be. And ornery enough to not come sometimes when she asked him to.

Okay? Okay. Maybe if she repeated it to herself she'd actually feel it. "I really thought that'd get them all to come out of hiding. Er. Could you look around some, Miss Serena? I kinda promised these kids something to eat."

The children took up a battle cry. 'Some-thing-to-eat! Some-thing-to-eat!'

It was hard, trusting someone else to be thorough. But Maya could get the snack started. Or maybe even distributed. And then rope someone else into watching the 11 that were left. Or maybe the teacher would be back! Yes. She just had to herd all these kinds indoors and then go from there. If she was quick, Maya would be back out in the garden in time to help the search.

Serena took in a deep breath and gave Maya a reassuring smile. "I'll find them, don't worry. Might be a good idea to send a teenage student or other staff member to grab the teacher too, if you come across any." She nodded at the older mutant and then immediately set off to try and find the two missing children. She scanned around the immediate courtyard.

She began by glancing around, and asking a few students who went past, no luck. The blonde scanned the area with a fine toothed comb. She just couldn't see them, though Serena had (obviously) never had kids, she wasn't really the type to even think about having them, but she did have a tendency to get very protective of some of the younger students that she met and befriended (like Victoria) and she couldn't imagine how much it must worry you in the situation that your child is missing.

She sighed in exasperation, stomping her foot after a few minutes searching before moving towards the nearby sheds. She couldn't see or hear any sign of them. She paced around the edges of them, the courtyard wasn't the biggest place in the world, and they likely hadn't found a way to escape, they were both fairly small and the mansion was... well, a mansion so she had a hard time to imagine them opening the doors very easily at their size.

She was about at the point of giving up when she heard hushed arguing, at just a high enough pitch to either be school girls, or children. She smirked and avoided saying anything out loud and followed the sound, it was a small space underneath one of the sheds, with some crates packed up around it, she could see little gaps in the crates and heard the faint echoes of small voices bickering.

"Aha!" She exclaimed to herself.

Serena might find them, but Maya would still worry. It was bad enough to lose your own kid, but to lose someone else's child was absolutely unforgivable. Maya worried at her lip with her teeth the entire way back inside the Mansion.

Once inside, Maya found a teen to press into service. He was supposed to check the infirmary and then the kid's classroom.

Step 1, done. Step 2 was trickier since the younger kids were like herding cats. She tried to get them all to take a seat at the tables near the kitchen, but there was always someone who popped out of their chair and tried to wander off.

Maya popped between the pantry and re-seating the attempted escapees. There was almost no brain-power left to devote to worrying about the lost kids. Almost.

"Maya. Thank you. Really." The teacher and the teen returned together. Teacher still looked pale, but she wasn't limping. The power of healing was a really useful thing to keep at the school. DocProf deserved a raise.

"Do you think you can...?" Maya was passing out little boxes of raisins. Now, with the power of food, the kids were both calmer and quieter than they'd managed all day.

"Yes. Absolutely." The teacher made a quick scan of the faces present. "But uh. Did someone's mom come early today?"

Maya didn't answer. She was already out the back door.