(OOC: Preceeded by "Mansion Grounds -> Front Gate")

Rayne parked her car outside the garage, not wanting to take up any extra space than necessary. Since she found herself on the road a lot, either picking up or transporting some kind of critter or another, she kept a ‘survival kit’ stocked with anything she could possibly need, including several sets of spare clothes. She retrieved her overnight sack from the storage bin in the back of her Expedition, locked the doors, then headed back inside.

She followed the stairs up to the second floor, and made her way down the middle hall, as she’d been told. She looked at the many doors, and suddenly her shyness returned. Most of the doors were closed. She had no way of knowing which rooms were occupied and which weren’t. She wandered down the hall, wondering if she should just start knocking. Eventually, toward the end of the hall, she’d almost worked up enough nerve to go door to door, when she passed an open room that looked empty. Cautiously she opened the door wider.

The bed was neatly made, with a dresser in one corner. The closet was empty of clothes; there didn’t appear to be any personal items anywhere. So she set her bag on the bed. There was a small bathroom through one door. The thought of a hot shower really appealed to her, so she locked the bedroom door, and the bathroom door. She turned on the shower, as hot as it would go, and shed her clothes.

A sparkle of color in the mirror made her pause. She stared at the woman in the mirror. Dirty blond-brown hair styled short and wild, eyes the color of a stormy sea, skin darkly tanned from working in the summer sun. She was bit flatter in the chest and hips than she would have liked. With the exception of various scars from claw and bite marks, Rayne was a fairly attractive woman.

For the most part.

She turned around, back to the mirror, and looked over her shoulder. At first glance, she felt that she was looking at an ad for a human Bedazzler. The stones sparkled brightly. Aquamarine, Tanzanite, Onyx, Gypsum, and, directly in the center, Opal. That’s what Tia Carol had called them. Each one beautiful in its own right, and each one able to turn Rayne into a completely different person.

She looked up, into the reflection of her eyes, thinking for a moment. Then she closed them. In her mind’s eye she pictured the Tanzanite, twinkling like a purple star. Her lower back began to burn and itch, and then her right hand. An odd calm washed over her mind and body. She opened her eyes and eyed her reflection in the now fogged mirror.

The blond hair and gray eyes had vanished, replaced by dull violet. The nervous look in her eyes was gone. An easy-going smile lit her face. She walked over to the shower, pushed aside the curtain. She held out her hand, palm up, now graced by the pale purple gem. The water ceased its downward fall toward the drain, and reversed direction. It leapt out of the stall, and began floating about the room in winking droplets. She waved her hands, and the water followed them. She wrote her name in the air, and it followed, leaving her name flashing beneath the light. She pulled it into larger form, two orbs, and she pretended to juggle them. The steamy liquid obediently did as she asked, as if its sole purpose was to please her. Rayne smiled deeply, and moved her fingers in circle, like a little tornado. The water followed her motion, dancing around her in a wet whirlwind, tickling and caressing her skin. Her grin widened, and a giggle escaped her throat.

The sound of her own voice was like a shot in the dark, startling her out of her reverie. She swept her hand back toward the shower, and the water rushed back with a loud splatt!! Rayne closed her eyes, focusing again on the stone. The burning and itching returned, and a moment later she felt a veil lift from her mind. The reflection that stared back through the fog was the Rayne Belamount everyone else saw. With a sigh, she stepped to the tub to take a proper shower.

The shower had restored a bit of Rayne's balance. New people and places often threw her off at first, especially nice ones, since most that she encountered were less than friendly. She felt a bit more at ease here, now that she'd been able to relax a bit. And the thought of pushing her limits without fear also excited her. Maybe someone here could tell her what she was doing wrong, give her a clue about how to control herself better.

She gave her hair a final swipe with the brush, and pinned back the sides out of her eyes. Not exactly a flattering style, but practical. She put her wallet in her pocket, stuffed her bag in the closet, and stepped out into the hall. She headed off to find the practice room; Tricity had called it the 'Danger Room'.

Hmm. Not a comforting name, she thought to herself.

(OOC: Continued in Danger Room -> Newcomer Training Session (Open))

(OOC: Preceeded by Danger Room -> Newcomer Training Session (Open))

Despite her stomach’s rumblings, Rayne made her way to her room first. Her first session in the Danger Room had been intense, and she was beat. Another hot shower was more important than filling her belly, though she did munch on a power bar before stepping in.

After the shower, she plopped onto the bed and pulled out her cell phone. She considered calling Tia Carol to let her know what she’d been up to, but decided against that. Her guardians constantly worried about her as it was. Telling them what she’d just spent the last hour doing probably wouldn’t be good for their seventy-plus-year-old hearts. Better wait on that. Instead she called the Ranch, to be sure things were being handled at home. She knew her assistant, Shelly, could run the Ranch just as well as she could, but it put her own mind at ease. As Shelly was also the Ranch’s gossip center, Rayne spent well over an hour on the phone. Finally her stomach refused to be ignored, and she ended her call before Shelly was finished, after promising to call again right after she ate.

Rayne stood up, stiffly, and rummaged around in her overnight bag, pulling out two pears and a bag of chips, and a bottle of water. While she munched, her mind began to wander back over the events in the Danger Room.

The co-op had reminded her a bit of a dog fight, actually. Each side trying to find the weak point in the other, trying to use it to bring their opponent down; each side doing everything in its power to destroy the other. A dog fight was mindless and pointless for the dog, merely a power struggle that could only be won through blood. It knew nothing of the greed that kept it in the ring, nor did it care. The only thing it cared about was the next opponent, the next victory, the next death. While the co-op had been a bit more complicated than a dog fight, Rayne had helped bust enough of the latter to see the basic ‘survival of the fittest’ similarities, and it made her a bit......uneasy.

Rayne only knew a little bit of the history behind Xavier’s Institute, and even less about the X-men. But she did know about the anti-mutant attitude that seemed to rule the general public. It was like a landmine; it wouldn’t take much pressure to set off a major explosion. There was a very active group right in her own hometown. She was fortunate to have been able to avoid them for so long, but she didn’t take her safety for granted. It was almost guaranteed that she’d be discovered someday. She wondered if she had what it would take to survive, or to protect those she cared about, when the inevitable happened.

“Not if you don’t learn a bit of control first,” she muttered aloud to herself. Perhaps she would try out the sparring program in the Danger Room next time.

Her stomach rumbled again. The snacks weren't doing it, so she headed back downstairs, then out to her truck. She pulled a TV dinner out of an ice cooler, then went back inside to search for a microwave.

(OOC: Continued in "Hallways-> Evacuation")

(OOC: Preceeded by 'Danger Room-> Evacuation to the Danger Room')

Rayne sat on her bed, thinking. Some of her excitement at being allowed to stay had ebbed, when she realized that she’d have to find a way to explain it to her workers without them making the mutant connection.

She pulled out her overnight bag, and rummaged around in it, before pulling out a second cell phone. Turning it on, she hit the speed-dial and called an unlisted number. A voice picked up on the second ring.

“Iris? Why are you calling this line? Are you hurt? Are you sick? Take the gum outta your mouth and start talkin’ girl!”

Rayne bit her lip to keep from laughing. “I’m not chewing gum, Tia. And I’m just fine.”

“Carol is that Iris?” Another voice in the background spoke up. “Put her on speaker phone. It that little button on the side of the phone.”

“I know how to work a cell phone Max. Don’t get your shorts in a twist. And of course it’s Iris. Who else would be calling this phone.” There was some fumbling and muttering on the other end, then, “There we go. Can ya hear us sweetie?”

“Yes Tia, loud and clear.”

“Then speak up girl! If you’re not in trouble, why didn’t you use the land line?” Her guardians, brother and sister Maxwell and Caroline, lived in the Rockies. They donated a large area of their land for Rayne’s animal ranch, and ran an animal-themed shop at the property’s entrance, with all proceeds donated to run the shelter. Also they were the only ones who new she was a mutant, and the cell phone was only used when something mutant-related had happened. So it was natural that they’d be worried.

“Really Tia, I’m just fine. It’s just that...well...I need some help. Well, not help help. More like...advice help.”

“Well spit it out child! I thought you were just doing a parrot run.” Max sounded curious, as opposed to Carol’s worry. Rayne explained what she’d been up to for the past day, skipping the intruder part to spare them worry, and her current dilema.

“Xavier’s school? You’re there now? Oh, honey!” Carol’s voice wavered. Then she burst out laughing. “I told you she’d heard us Max. She’s smart as a whip and sharper than a needle. I knew we couldn’t keep that letter hidden from her. Honey why didn’t you tell us earlier?”

“Well, I didn’t want to worry you. Then one thing kinda lead to another, and...well...” Rayne shrugged, even though they couldn’t see her. “I really like it here, Tia, Tio. I’ve already had a training session.” She purposefully did not tell them the details. “And I’ve met several neat people. And no one here is afraid of what they are. Or ashamed. I really want to learn more. But the Ranch--” Her voice trailed off.

“See,” Carol interupted, “I told you you needed to take more vacations. No one would think twice about you leavin’ if you took more vacations.”

“Oh leave the girl be, Carol. She’s a grown woman, for Pete’s sake.”

“I’m only sayin’ that it wouldn’t be so obvious if she didn’t work so much, is all. Calm down before you give yourself a heart attack.”

“Leave me heart out this, woman. I’m in perfect health.”

Rayne shook her head, grinning from ear to ear. Her guardians were twins, but anyone looking on would swear they were married the way they snipped at each other. Finally they returned to the problem at hand.

“Sweetie are you sure this is what you want?” Max asked.

“Definately Tio.”

“Then you leave everything to us. Keep close to your phone, but don’t call the Ranch just yet.”

“But the Quakers,” Rayne started to say, but Carol interupted.

“We’ll handle the parrots, sweetie. You just enjoy yourself, and we’ll take care of the rest. Oh, and let the lady there–You said her name was Tipper? Let her know that you’ll be expecting some packages within the next day or so.”

“Packages?” Rayne raised an eyebrow. “What kind of packages? What are you going to do?”

A happy chuckle answered her. “It’s been lovely talkin’ with you sweetie. Call us tomorrow, ‘kay? Love you sweetie.”

“Take care darlin’,” Max added. “Go easy on ‘em there. Love ya.” Then the line went dead.

Rayne stared at the phone, a bit bewildered. What in the world were those two planning? She had hoped for a suggestion for her problem. She wasn’t expecting a solution. If she didn’t know better, she’d have thought they’d planned this from the beginning. But they couldn’t have.

Could they?

(OOC: Preceeded by Infirmary -> "A Night In The Infirmary")

Iris paused at her room door, and turned to Deathstar. "Um, wait here, just a second. I've got to....uh....warn Eb." She slipped carefully into the room, closing the door behind her.

Boxes were piled in one corner, rather haphazardly. Apparently Chip and his buddies had decided to drop their cargo and run, rather than risk being recruited again. Iris began checking her room carefully, expecting some kind of prank or surprise somewhere. But the only thing she found was a very, very, very irritated ball of brown and beige fur grumbling under the bed. Ebony seemed to be content to stay where she was, but wasn't sure how long she would stay that way.

She pushed everything into one corner, furthest away, before opening her door to let Deathstar in.

"Sorry, for the mess. I haven't had a chance to move in properly yet. And Eb is under the bed, so watch your feet."

Deathstar walked along side the tall stoic Iris, with her napsack on her shoulder and hair pulled back into a ponytail. "Um, wait here, just a second. I've got to....uh....warn Eb." Iris said as she walked into the room Stopping Deathstar dead in her tracks, "Okay!, just make sure she doesn't bite or I will have to give her the Nika treatment" she says sarcastically joking hoping Iris wouldn't take it too serious. As the door closed, a moment of thought took over Deathstar's mind, "Do I really belong here?, it seems to be a challenge everywhere I go, and...." thoughts cut off sharply as Iris returns and opens her door.

"Sorry, for the mess. I haven't had a chance to move in properly yet. And Eb is under the bed, so watch your feet."

Deathstar walks into the room, gazes around for a moment, and then burst out in uncontrollable laughter, "Your room looks just like mine" she says trying to control her laughter, she throws her sleeping bag on the floor and walks around the room admiring her decor. Wearing a rock band T-shirt and boy shorts, Deathstar got real comfortable for the occassion. "First thing first we gotta get one hellish scary movie to watch" she says while she looks at Iris DVD collection hoping to find something that will peak her interest.

"Well, if you want scary, we may have to raid the TV room." Iris turned slightly red. She wasn't used to all of this 'girl stuff'. Most of her DVD collection was either nature-based or James Bond-type based. She loved spy movies. Come to think of it, there weren't even any good 'chick flicks'. Romance was something she tended to shy away from. Most men she knew were not exactly mutant lovers.

"So, I'm embarrassed to say this, but I haven't been to a slumber party for.... well, a long time. Aren't we supposed to have... I don't know... snack food or something?"

When she looked back later, Iris would be amazed how different of a person the Mansion was making her. Perhaps her mutation control was still.... uncontrolled. But her personality was drastically changing, mostly for the better.

"Well, if you want scary, we may have to raid the TV room."

"We can head downstairs, takeover the television and watch whatever......Um! how about Final Destination thats my fav" she responds as she returns Iris DVD's to her collection.

"So, I'm embarrassed to say this, but I haven't been to a slumber party for.... well, a long time. Aren't we supposed to have... I don't know... snack food or something?"

"I never had a party either, but how about we order out and play pranks on the other students" She says while a smirk crawls on her face getting ready for a whole night of fun.

"Sounds good. I think..." The movie name was unfamiliar, but she was up for something different.

"I never had a party either, but how about we order out and play pranks on the other students."

Iris chuckled quietly. "Ordering out sounds good. Pizza? Chinese? Anything else good? And, umm....what kind of pranks?" She made a mental note to keep Deathstar and Chip apart. They'd be bad influences on each other, for sure. Being new still, the thought of prank pulling wasn't exactly high on her list. She hoped Deathstar would eventually forget that part.

"Ordering out sounds good. Pizza? Chinese? Anything else good? And, umm....what kind of pranks?"

"Uh!....mexican food, I gotta taste for some Nacho's" she says while rubbing her stomach. "But as far as pranks how about we scare one of the new girls, sort of like an initiation" Deathstar excitement seem to be bursting from inside her. "You aren't scared are ya?" she ask still smiling from the thought of torturing her housemates.

"Mexican?" Iris grinned and handed Star the phone. "I hope you know who to call then, cause I have yet to find good mexican food in New York. If so, see if they have chili rellenos. I love those!"

Iris wasn't exactly for playing pranks on the other girls in the mansion, but she did have an idea to get around it. "You know, come to think of it, ever since I got here there is this group of boys, thirteen and forteen I think, that have been constantly pranking me. I think a little payback is in order." She had no qualms about payback on Chip and his friends, though she'd probably regret it later. "Only question is, how do you play a prank on a telekinetic genius?"

((ooc: We interrupt your regularly scheduled timeline to bring you a Cat on a Mission. Posted here with Iris' permission; continued from “First Missions and Explode-a-Kitty collars”.))

The first thing Calley thought as he slid between the boy’s legs into the room: Whoof; that’s ripe. Someone’s litter box hadn’t been changed today, that was for sure. And in a relatively small room like this... it was getting a little potent. The boy in the Hans Solo shirt seemed to agree: he wrinkled his nose, and said conversationally: “I get to change that. Hurrah.” The kid slumped. “I’ve got to work on Crystal’s personality... She should not be blackmailing her creator.” He said it in a way that made Calley think this Crystal would be perfectly in the right if she blackmailed anyone else.

Calley peered under the bed, fanning his whiskers. The pair of blue eyes under the bed stared unblinkingly back. The queen Siamese didn’t twitch so much as her tail until a happily familiar noise turned both of their heads: the sweet, sweet tinking cascade of dry food into a kitty bowl. They were both at the bowl in a flash of fur and legs. The Siamese eyed Calley warily. Calley eyed her back. Hey—he hadn’t eaten since that morning. And he happened to have an acquired taste for the dry stuff.

“You two aren’t going to make kittens, are you?” The boy asked suddenly, in an eww sort of voice. Obviously this one hadn’t quite discovered the allure of the opposite gender just yet. And he couldn’t be further off base. The Siamese started talking: mew, mew, merr, mew, mew— Calley sat down with an indifferent air, and began grooming that hard-to-lick spot on his back. The queen gave a sophisticated murr, and claimed the contents of the food bowl as her own. Pssh—fine. He hadn’t wanted it, anyway.

He jumped onto the neatly made bed as the boy stared in helpless defeat down at the Siamese’s litter box. He sniffed at a pillow—the Siamese had slept here last night, but her owner hadn’t. Maybe for more than a night. Hmm. The room was pretty undecorated, and a bit on the messy end: it didn’t feel quite settled into yet. A new resident, then. He leapt easily from the bed to the desktop, and started poking his nose around. There were a few nicely framed photos, carefully turned this way and that so that she could either see them from her bed or see them while she used her computer. He gave them a quick glance over, certain that the bell camera was immortalizing their images on film, anyway. A young woman posing with the queen Siamese, a parrot, and a chameleon; the same young woman standing between two nice-looking older folks; the young woman again, standing outside of some sort of animal shelter-type affair. Then his gaze snapped back: that young woman looked familiar. He sniffed the frame, committing her scent to memory, and linking it up with another memory: the videos of what the Order had been doing over at good ol’ KP. This woman was one of their test subjects. Huh. Obviously not their hacker, then—guess this was the wrong room, after all. But still... it was an interesting bit of trivia. He hadn’t told Hunter about the Order’s fun little experiment just yet. For good measure, he sat down, and gave a quick glance over the papers on her desk. A pile of credit card offers and junk mail gave him what he needed: the name Rayne Belamount was repeated on all of them. With various junk mail misspellings, of course. Rain, Bellmud, Ryan... but Rayne Belamount was the most common.

The Siamese had finished downing her food. She sprung lightly to the surface of the desk. They touched noses briefly; then they enacted a mutual clause of ignoring-each-other’s-existence, and watched the kid struggling with the complex task of litter box changing. He made funny noises.

Finished with the place, Calley went to the door, and started up his best Siamese imitation: Mew, murr, meow, merrow, merr, mip— The queen took offense at his horrible accent, and started correcting him from the desktop: Mew, mew, mew, merr, mew, mew, mew—

With that semi-terrified expression of someone who wasn’t used to cats at all, the boy hesitantly opened the door. Calley slipped out into the hallway. He prowled along slowly, waiting for Hunter to yell at him to go into the right room. When no transmission came, it registered in his head that a room whose occupant was M.I.A. was probably the perfect place for a hacker to work out of—even if they got traced to the Mansion, it would be nearly impossible to pin down which resident was the culprit. No one had said the room’s owner was their target, after all. He set off down the hall. Next stop: the jeep. Four blocks away. Great.

As he made his way down the staircase, he could still hear the Siamese talking, all the way back down the hall and behind a closed door.

((ooc: We now return you to your regularly scheduled slumber party, already in progress. Continued in "First Missions and Explode-a-Kitty Collars"))

((ooc: I lied. No slumber-party-return-to shall have you, not yet. Continued from the mission again.))

Calley sauntered up the stairs to the second floor--as a human, this time around--walking like he owned the place. Two years as a cat meant he had that attitude down to an art. He looked like nothing more or less than a sleep-deprived seventeen-year-old boy. In other words: he was obviously in the right place. He set off down the middle hallway without looking around in the least. He looked like he knew where he was going. He did.

He passed a boy in a Hans Solo T-shirt coming down the hallway going in the other direction, holding a black trash back out in front of him like it was a plague monkey. Calley's shoulders instinctively tensed as the boy stopped and stared at him. "Nice necklace," the kid said.

"Come again?" Calley parroted the raccoon girl from minutes before. Then he had the sense to look down. Oh, Doc Jimmy. You closet gamer. Around his neck was a short silver chain that was proudly holding up a Triforce pendant. "Oh, right. Thanks," he answered the kid, with a smirk. "Nice shirt."

"Thanks," the kid grinned back. Then he seemed to remember that he was carrying a trash bag full of ripe kitty litter. With an eww face, he kept hurrying towards some far-away trashcan. Calley continued down the hall without a hitch. Miss Rayne's doorknob was just as easy to turn as the kid had made it look earlier. He shut it behind himself. The Siamese hid under the bed as he took out Doc Jimmy's mystery bag. What did we have here, now? He seemed to remember a mention of spy cameras. Cool. But where exactly did the Boss Man want them placed?

((ooc: Take it away, Boss Man!))

(OOC: I’m glad you appreciate your new cat name ;D)

Hunter watched as Calley strolled in as a human. He went unchallenged, but as the school was meant to take in students he was not surprised. The adrenaline shot worked, but as this was another shift in what had been a long day of shifting it was beginning to take its toll on Calley. However he was almost finished.

“First, the small disks in the bag, each about 3 millimetres across, are spy cameras. The silver side is adhesive. I want one in each ceiling corner, in the top corners of the closet, on one of the bed legs giving a view of anything under the bed and in each corner of the bathroom ceiling.”

Also in the bag was a tiny chip that once placed inside a phone under the battery would ensure that all of the cell phone activity would be monitored, as well as allowing complete access to everything on the cell phone. Once placed he could determine the cell phones owner, their recent activity and monitor any further activity without alerting anyone.

As no computer could be seen he presumed that the cell phone had been used, however he wanted to be sure. If it wasn’t the cell phone he could watch and wait until the hacker returned. However, Calley had to place the camera first.

((ooc: ..."appreciate" is certainly one word for it... Oh, Doc Jimmy. You have to sleep sometime...))

Calley placed the cameras as directed, humming the James Bond theme song to himself as he worked. Now this part was fun--sort of like reverse trick-or-treating. Here, Miss Rayne's bed leg--have a camera. Aww, you feel left out, closet? Have two! The bathroom bit made him feel a well of sympathy for this woman; it wasn't her fault the hacker had picked her room. Now, if she managed to get out of the KP testing, she'd come back to a room that Doc Jimmy was constantly peering in on. He shuddered a little as he stood on top of the toilet to reach one of the ceiling's corners. Poor lady. At least none of her cameras came with explosives. Planting the chip in the cell phone cheered him right up again--this was real spyin', this was. He might even like this job if he wasn't too tired to think of all the horrible ways Doc Jimmy could be getting into a car accident right now. That made it official: he was almost too tired to function.

He tapped the Triforce pendant once the little black bag was empty, listening to how it didn't chime or tink or make some equally cute noise. "Anything else, Scary Boss Man?"

...He'd just said that nickname out loud, hadn't he? ...Definitely too tired to function.