"Jimmy, can you pass me the syrup?"

As the little boy handed the syrup to Mike, it began to 'leak' out the top, forming a glob of syrup floating in midair. As the kids laughed and watched, the syrup blob formed itself into a little stick man, walked across the table onto Mike's plate, and discorporated itself all over his pancake.

Even Daria had to laugh and shake her head. She smiled over at Mike and was lost in thought for a minute until she felt the chair beside her scrape the floor as a younger child pushed it over. A little girl who had the most brilliant blue eyes Daria had ever seen climbed up necxt to her and pursed her lips.

Daria smiled at the girl who smiled back keeping her eyes focused on the top of Daria's hair. Daria knew that stare all too well but it was a child this time, she meant no harm and she was only armed with the naivity and curiosity of a five year old.

"Kitty.." the girl said softly and reached up to touch Daria's ears. Daria winced at the word and the girl retreated her eyes widening as if she'd done something wrong.

"It's okay" Daria said softly wiggling her ears as she spoke. The girl quickly moved to touch the soft fur and Daria immediatly began to tickle the child with her tail. The girl laughed gleefully and her blonde curls bounced with an equal joy.

"Jimmy, no playing with food please."
*tricity said as she walked in on the scene and sat back down, pouring herself more orange juice. she sighed and gulped the whole thing. after tricity put more pancakes on her plate, janie ran up and plopped on her lap.*
"OW! I think you must weigh a hundred pounds!"
janie: "NAHUH! I'm just a little girl!"
*tricity smiled and poured some syrup on her pancakes.*
janie: "You've been eating a lot Ms. Tipper!"
"Yes well, it's cause you kids stress me out!"
*she answered, tickling janie. trcity looked over at mike since he also knew why she was eating more than usual.*

Mike was reading the news on his PDA... or at least he was pretending to. He smirked slightly at the mention of Tricity's increased eating, but it wouldn't register as anything unless someone was in on the secret already.

Another syrup-man walked across the table to splatter all over Jimmy's freshly-served pancakes.

"Yeah, Jimmy, stop playing with your food," Mike reiterated, winking at the boy.

Daria stopped tickling the little blonde girl and took another sip of her milk as the girl walked over to sit at another table.

"What is it like to work with the children?" She asked Tricity. "Do they all know they have powers?"

"It's insane!"
*tricity said, over the loud noises of the children.*
"When I first came to the school, being in charge was definitely not on the top of my list. But, I've been here for so many years, that I fell in love with them all and have this obligation to help them."
*janie phased through tricity and ran around to the table to grab her sausage before phasing back through the table and onto her lap again.*
"They all know they have powers. They usually come here when they first discover their powers and their parents don't know what to do. It's like the parents just dump them here because they are so scared of what they don't understand. All humans are like that. Always afraid of what they don't understand..."
*tricity said, looking down the long table of children.*
"It seems mutation is showing younger nowadays. Sometimes we even get babies on the steps. Mutation was usually seen during puberty, but...I don't know. It looks like the future is changing."
janie: "Ms. Tipper? Whus pubity?"
*tricity looked down at janie and tugged her pigtail.*
"Nothing you need to worry about for a while, kid. How'd you guys hear about the school, anyway?"

Daria thought for a moment. The details of the story were a bit personal and not good breakfast conversation.

"Word spreads. I've been in countless states over the last three or four years and you hear things. When i finally ended up in new york some mutants who weren't students here told me about it. I had meant to ask them why they didn't come here. They mumbled something about how it was impossible for humans and mutants to live in peace. And mentioned some pretty other choice words about 'goodie two shoes mutants'. I had came here originally just to check it out."

"A nurse told me when I was in the hospital after I got stabbed during a session of 'beat the mutie,'" Mike said casually, at the same time tweaking the children who were listening so that they wouldn't be interested in what he was saying at that moment. A cup of coffee floated over to him, followed closely by a blob of cream that flowed out of the cream cup. Much to the amusement of the children, the blob formed itself into a crude airplane and 'crash landed' in his coffee.

*the coffee splashed out over the table and some of the kids shrieked in excitement.*
"Yea, that's all we need is another one of our famous food fights."
*at that moment her cell phone rang and she picked it up, putting one finger in her ear to hear over the noise.*
"Hello?"
voice: "Sounds very busy. Are you sure you can handle all those children, Delilah?"
"Who is this?"
voice: "A friend, interested in some information. Please, come outside."
*tricity looked out of the large window that lined one of the walls in the kitchen. there was nothing directly in front, but as she turned her head to the left, tricity saw General Whitmore stepping out of a helicopter. she hung up and watched him standing there, smuggly.*
"Shit..."
*there was a resounding 'ooooo' as tricity cursed. she turned to johnathon and asked the older teen to watch over the children.*
"We have a visitor..."

Mike narrowed his eyes, looking out the window to where she was looking. "He looks like he has an entourage," Mike said, gathering the gist of what was going on from Tricity's mind, "Maybe you should have one too."

Daria's ears perked up. Several of the kids had been playing tag with her tail and they stopped now as the tension in the room rose. She could smell a feeling in the air that made the milk in her stomach curl. She waited to see what was happening.

Mike nodded as Tricity left the room with just a shake of her head. He shrugged and picked up his orange juice to take a sip.

Damn, now the kids are spooked...

"Well, now that Ms. Tipper's gone..." he said, not lifting his gaze from the news. Instantly, syrup began squirting into the air, forming into a fleet of airplanes that began straffing the children's plates with syrup bullets, until finally crash landing onto various plates.

Gotta keep the mood light...

Mike stood up suddenly. "Daria, get the kids out of here, get them anywhere away from a window. I'll call fo ryou when I need you, and I'm sure i will, but right now I really, REALLY need you to get these kids out of here. I'll explain in a bit."

At that, he strode purposefully out of the room.

Daria gathered the kids casually and took them to the main living room. She got them in single file and paraded them as gleefully as possible off the premises

*Tricity came into the kitchen with the laughing, yelling, and running around of the mutant children having a good time making breakfast. She reached over the children at the island while they dunked their french toast in the batter. After grabbing some pots and pans, Tricity started cooking the bacon and sausage to go along with the french toast. Some other children began squeezing oranges to make juice and grabbing plates to set the tables in the kitchen and dining rooms.*
"Ok guys, be careful! We like to keep the breaking of dishes to two a day!"