Evelyn was given an important job: be a distraction. Given her history of explosives, rule breaking, and generally being a thorn in the Mansion's side, she was more than happy to rise to the task.

For her chaos causing army, she managed to acquire exactly 289 guinea pigs. Once Sam was prepared, she set to work unleashing them. There were guinea pigs in the living room, piggies in the hallways, piggies hanging out in the library. She left them with little bowls of food and water, but made sure none of the cages were within easy reach for staff.

She was about 119 pigs into things when the first yell came from the library. That was about the point the signal went to Sam. Kids came running out, squealing happily about all the guinea pigs. Evelyn finished uncaging the last batch, and once she heard Sam had the all clear, she proceeded to sneak back to her room.

The walkie talkie use was new to her, but better not to risk having anything a phone taken away. Not that they would catch her, right? Psh, Mirror could try. They had plenty of rodents to catch first!

After all the Mansion had been through over the course of an average year, "GUINEA PIGS IN THE LIBRARY!" did not even register on the top 10 list of emergencies. Students had pets, even when they were not allowed to, and an excaped pet did not constitute an emergency. Certainly not something Gemma was supposed to deal with.

Hundreds of pigs, however...

There was a lot of squealing in the hallways; not from the piggies, but from the students who were either running for shelter, or chasing the tiny fuzzballs with obvious delight. The guidance counselor's frayed nerves were not reacting well to the sound. Looking around she tried to locate the source of the insanity. How did they even have this many guinea pigs in the Mansion?...

Was this a mutation gone wrong?...

No X-men or adults seemed to be on site. Perfect. Gemma had a hunch about where to start her investigation. Lately, whenever something went boom or splat or squish at the school, their latest devil child was at least tangentially involved.

Knocking on Evelyn's door, the guidance counselor just hoped that she'd get help, even if she didn't get answers.

"Miss Summers? Open up."

The knock on the door was sudden, and Evelyn looked up from her bed with surprise. The voice was familiar, although Evelyn had somewhat limited interactions with the owner. She did her best to never cross paths with the guidance counselor for obvious reasons. Having her brain turned off generally did not feel good. At least she wasn't as impacted as her older self seemed to have been.

"Yes?" Evelyn opened the door, looking up at the older woman. The sudden silence in her head was disturbing. She shook her head slightly as if water was in her ears. Ugh. She hated this. She made a face despite her efforts to look normal. So quiet...

Oh, there was a lot of yelling now. She blinked and looked down the hallway, actually looking genuinely surprised. It sounded a lot different hearing the noises without the echoes counting the piggies for her. "Did I miss pet day?"

Evelyn was the very picture of innocence as she opened the door. Then again, she always was. Gemma knew her powers must be difficult to lose whenever she was inside her aura, but deep down, she felt like she could do with some leveling of the playing field, whenever she was interacting with the Mansion's resident enfant terrible.

>>"Did I miss pet day?"

Oh, she was totally in on this.

"The school is suddenly overrun by guinea pigs." Gemma informed her mildly "You don't happen to know anything about that, do you?"

Evelyn was distracted by the lack of voices, which actually did help her play innocent. It was hard to maintain eye contact when she kept looking over, horribly distracted by the little noises the guinea pigs made. "They sound like zebra. I never realized they sound like zebra. Is that normal? What? Oh, overrun by pigs. No, I don't know anything. They sound like zebra!" one was wiggling closer and Evelyn leaned over, petting the fuzzy head.

"I would ask the echoes for help, but there aren't any echoes when you're around. They sound like zebra...I said that. How do people think like this?" She complained, trying to shake her head as if that would restart her powers.

Uh, guinea pigs. Lots of guinea pigs. What was she doing with guinea pigs? Her brain felt like there was a giant chocolate swamp to swim through without the echoes there to assist her. This was worse than detention. She scooped up the rodent and handed it out to Gemma. "Caught one! Uh, do we have a plan for them? I mean, assuming it's against some type of school rule to just let them all run loose."

>>"They sound like zebra. I never realized they sound like zebra. Is that normal? What? Oh, overrun by pigs. No, I don't know anything. They sound like zebra!"

Evelyn was acting weird. But then again, when was she not? When she did, it was because of the way her brain worked, or didn't work, rather, when she was around Gemma specifically. Right now, she seemed distracted by the pigs. One of them wandered up.

>>"I would ask the echoes for help, but there aren't any echoes when you're around. They sound like zebra...I said that. How do people think like this?"

Evelyn had one of the most complex, most sophisticated mutations at the school, which made it all the worse that she was currently an out of control child, and not the responsible young woman she used to be. Evelyn handed her a pig. Only about a million to go.

>>"Caught one! Uh, do we have a plan for them? I mean, assuming it's against some type of school rule to just let them all run loose."

"Definitely against school rules. We need to have them collected. And then probably sanitize the building." Gemma sighed "I'd ask if you had anything to do with this, but I doubt you'd tell me if you did. So either way, I am going to ask you to help me get this under control."

Evelyn could tell she was in trouble even without the echoes to verify it. The fact Gemma was making her help was clearly confirming that Evelyn was suspect, even if there was no clear evidence saying she had done anything. Evelyn had also failed to plan for the fact that getting corner by Gemma was ten times worse than Mirror, or Becca, or even Serena. Not having powers meant Evelyn didn't have her brain, and not having her brain made her logical excuses completely vacated from her thoughts.

Zebra. They really did sound like Zebra! She snuggled the little animal and it squeaked, while another scooted up next to them. "Well, I can only carry two. We need somewhere to put them. Do you have any boxes? But they need to breathe. Does the Danger Room have a setting for containing animals? That would be useful. Hey look, I got another one! Oh, now there is a third, I can't carry three. You have one, I have two, here, now you have two. We have 4. 289, minus 4, so 285 left. That's a lot of guinea pigs." She realized too late knowing the exact quantity of animals was a given admission of guilt. She was distracted by little rodent noses. She giggled. She wondered if maybe they would keep some of the little pigs in the end.

"Ewwwww! One pooed in the hallway!" Another kid squealed.

Okay, maybe they wouldn't let them keep the rodents. Not without cages, and litter, and proper potty locations.

"Um, cages. They had cages? If I help you get the cages can we negotiate terms of my punishment?" Evelyn looked up with whatever innocence she could muster. She would not negotiate with Mirror. She would not negotiate with Serena. But Gemma had her by the literal brain and she was more inclined to put an end to this faster if she could just to have her thoughts back. She missed the voices. It was awful empty without them.

The confused look on Evelyn's face could have been that of any child who was not too bright and probably in trouble. Except Evelyn was definitely in trouble, and usually bright, outside of Gemma's aura anyway.

More pigs materialized in the hallway, and squealing could be heard in the distance.

>>"Hey look, I got another one! Oh, now there is a third, I can't carry three. You have one, I have two, here, now you have two. We have 4. 289, minus 4, so 285 left. That's a lot of guinea pigs."

Gemma was suddenly holding two fluffy guinea pigs. One was suspiciously damp. Evelyn had just slipped up, something she would have never done outside of her aura. Gemma's eyes narrowed. She knew it, Eve knew it, they both knew it.

>>"Um, cages. They had cages? If I help you get the cages can we negotiate terms of my punishment?"

"Here is what's going to happen." Gemma said calmly "I am going to take two steps back, and you are going to come up with a plan to contain this. Then we will contain it. Then we will negotiate the terms of your punishment."

She kept her eyes on Eve as she stepped back, making sure she was just outside the edge of her aura.

Evelyn was busted. She hoped Sam had fun with the jet and that it was worth it. She wondered if she should have snuck onboard rather than staying to cause the diversion, but it was too late now. She had two hands full of guinea pigs, and had made an all too novice mistake.

Sam owed her souvenirs. Good ones.

As Gemma stepped back the echoes came back with a clamor louder than she remembered. Evelyn grimaced and the guinea pigs squeaked and wriggled in her arms. That would leave a headache later....she did not enjoy the sudden intake of information. [27 guinea pigs present in hallway, 4 captive, remaining loose. 5 children within 10 feet, 6 children.] Strategies. She needed ideas to contain the piggies. She shut her eyes and sighed.

Instead of answering outright, Evelyn raised her voice and caught the attention of the nearest child, ”Guys it’s a contest! Gemma says we get a prize if we get the most and I already caught two!” she squealed in the most excited way she possibly could.

The effect was instantaneous. Children scrambled out of rooms with laundry hampers and boxes and quickly scurried to catch the renegade animals. Evelyn looked up to Gemma and motioned down the hallway. ”I would pick a spot we will collect them before the kids start turning them in for prizes.” she mused thoughtfully.

The change in Evelyn's face as her powers returned was stunning. Without the echoes, sometimes she was just like an average child. Children, Gemma could deal with. Once she went back to mini genius, however, all rules were once again out the window. Gemma knew she might regret giving her the advantage back, but she really, really needed the - 289?... - piggies contained, stat.

>>”Guys it’s a contest! Gemma says we get a prize if we get the most and I already caught two!”

Gemma raised her eyebrows. That was... surprisingly simple. And effective. Students began scrambling immediately, turning the whole school into a spontaneous scavenger hunt.

>>”I would pick a spot we will collect them before the kids start turning them in for prizes.”

"The Danger Room is easiest to clean." Gemma sighed "We can figure it out from there." she raised her voice "Turn the pigs in at the Danger Room!"

Hopefully, no one was currently training. Gemma turned, nodding to Eve to follow, and headed to the basement.

"So, Miss Summers, care to tell me why you suddenly decided to flood the building with guinea pigs?"

Evelyn watched as children ran past them, carrying what guinea pigs they could safely manage. Evelyn scratched her own little pet behind the ear, humming to herself a little as she did. She sort of wished she could keep the little animal. She was told she once had a pet foxsquirrel, but that had vanished sometime after she left the mansion. And de-aged. A lot of things went missing when you lost several decades of your life and the memories along with them.

"I am afraid I can't tell you why I let the guinea pigs loose. That's top secret. You don't have proper security clearance for that information," she responded.

In Evelyn's mind, there was a hierarchy of authority. Sam was at the top, followed by Jude, Ami, and Gemma was somewhere below them. Mirror was down at the bottom, for personal reasons. Being a fun killer was certainly at the top of those. Gemma was a fun killer, but being an adapted made it much harder for Evelyn to outright disobey her. Evelyn was doing enough by helping recollect the rodents. But she had to make sure the stalling had done what needed, and she hadn't heard panicked reports of a missing jet yet. So, she continued with the pigs.

Inside the danger room Evelyn walked to one of the control panels and started pushing buttons before Gemma could stop her. The results was a collection of cages reappeared, stashed there...well, wherever things seemed to magically go in this room. In the process of making plans to get the jet away, there had been a bit of code clearing to get the room to hide the cages. Evelyn didn't say a word, and put her little piglets into a cage where they happily found their bowl of food to munch on.

The guinea pig scavenger hunt seemed to be working. Gemma managed to grab one that tried to get closely acquainted with her shoes, and she set off at a brisk pace to the Danger Room, along with a very sheepish Evelyn.

>>"I am afraid I can't tell you why I let the guinea pigs loose. That's top secret. You don't have proper security clearance for that information,"

"Child, I have all the security clearance in this place." Gemma clarified with a frown. It was a matter of Mansion security, her being the counselor and an adapted and a parental figure and all that. Now she had a very bad feeling about why Evelyn was flooding the place with pigs.

Once in the DR, Evelyn punched in a code, and cages appeared out of nowhere. That was more than a little worrying. Someone has to have given the child access, because Gemma was pretty sure access was changed when people started popping up de-aged.

Other children appeared too, bringing their guinea pig prizes.

"Alright, then, we are staying right here until you give me that security clearance." she concluded, folding her arms "In the meantime, you get to keep track of who brings in what. You did promise them a prize."

Evelyn couldn't resist giving Gemma a look when it was mentioned to keep track of who brought in what. She was outside the bubble of powers so the echoes were actively counting all the guinea pigs coming in. "The echoes will know who won, so long as you don't break them again," the young girl accused. She was in trouble, but she was a smart mouth still. She locked cages as checked everyone was fine before the lingering threat of the adult behind her demanded attention.

"I'm not sure I can give you the clearance though..." she stalled. Suddenly, a older student ran into the door way, and spotted Gemma.

"Someone stole the jet! We were outside, and then we saw it take off, and then I heard one of the other xmen yelling about it!"

Evelyn did her best to look innocent again. Sam better bring her something good from Hawaii.

There was a steady stream of piggies now, kids giggling and running as they brought them in. Gemma wrinkled her nose. They would have to disinfect the Mansion before Health Services decided to do a spot check and found guinea poop everywhere.

>>"The echoes will know who won, so long as you don't break them again. I'm not sure I can give you the clearance though..."

Gemma was about to open her mouth again when another student ran in, sans guinea pig, but bearing some intriguing news.

>>"Someone stole the jet! We were outside, and then we saw it take off, and then I heard one of the other xmen yelling about it!"

There was a sound of distant thunder as Gemma turned back to glare at the mini genius.

"Evelyn... mind telling me just who is on that jet?"

Evelyn could sense the rise in temper in Gemma, which was saying something. It was not every day that Gemma actually got angry. Evelyn blinked slowly, then considered the question. Actually, she hadn't been given a final head count, so she only sort of knew the 'who'.

"Well, Rime is on the jet for sure... As for who else? I did not ask. I was only in charge of guinea pigs. I call this one Nibbles!" She held up a particularly runty looking pig and wished she had more of the natural ability to look cute that some of the kids did. Her white hair and pale eyes made her look more like a horror movie casting, and that also failed to divert suspicion in circumstances like this.