Something Spooky This Way Comes (Open to all at Xavier's)

[hauntingyou]

It had been a long journey, but finally, she was here. She wasn't tired, exactly, she wasn't sure she could get tired now, at least not in the same way as before. But, she was mentally weary and glad to have reached her destination.

She passed through the metal gates protecting the entrance and paused to admire the random and colorful pattern that appeared on the monitor embedded into one of the posts. She stuck an intangible finger through the screen and dragged it around, watching the pixels swirl and follow. It was pretty. Much prettier than the considerably lower tech ATM she was playing with... when was that? It was so easy to lose track of time, now. That ATM had bleeped and blooped and spat out a snowstorm of twenty dollar bills. Pity she couldn't use them now, or even touch them, but it was fun to watch the crowd of people scrambling for them.

She drifted away. The monitor flickered and flashed, then displayed a rebooting sequence. She moved further in to the mansion grounds, invisible and intangible. There were people here. Maybe she could make one of them see her.

Comments

[marvel_boy]

Topher was sitting in the library, his laptop open to a few different screens. School had barely just started, but he was already getting a head start on all of the classwork. First up, this meant a research paper.

Although, maybe not something about Apocalypse now? he thought as he frowned at one of the articles about him. Someone, somewhere, was theorizing that Apocalypse was somehow related to the Summers family. Nope. Not in my family tree. Not in this universe.

He'd sooner have preferred to be related to Adam X the X-Treme.

Which still isn't happening.

He leaned back and rubbed his eyes.

Dullsville. I need some excitement.

But the kind that didn't involve an attack on the school.

Ugh. What do?

[hauntingyou]

For a place that had gotten so much news coverage the grounds had been surprisingly empty. Julia didn't know what she'd expected, maybe people flying all over the place or kids shooting laser beams out of their eyes on the lawn? But, whatever she expected, she hadn't found it. All she'd managed to do so far was spook some horses. One of them was seriously big and had wings, so maybe she was in the right place after all.

She drifted towards what she thought were the main buildings. She sifted through the wall and looked around. Books! Books everywhere, this must be the school library. And a person! She drifted over and hovered in the air in front of him.

Nothing.

Ok, she'd just have to try harder. She waved her arms, bobbed up and down, and made faces.

This wasn't working very well.

Julia had discovered she could sometimes move things if she concentrated hard, so she tried that. staring at a stack of papers on the table.

Move. Moooooove...

The papers rustled, flew up in the air, and fluttered to the floor.

[marvel_boy]

Given that Topher had no mystical inclination, at first, he didn't notice anything. No hand waving, no face-making. It was really just him, his books, his laptop, and his papers.

His papers which were rustling and flying about. Topher blinked. Okay. The windows were closed, but the school was filled with telekinetically-inclined mutants.

Oh god. Please don't let it be-

"Dolemeck?" Topher stood up. "Ilya?" He bent down to pick some of those papers up. "Uh. Anyone?"

[hauntingyou]

Ilya? That was kind of close to "Julia", if you stuck your fingers in your ears and hummed!

In any event, she had his attention, and that was progress. She concentrated hard, again, and his chair wobbled and slid backwards a few inches.

[marvel_boy]

Topher breathed in deeply.

Don't freak out.

This could be anything. It could be anyone.

Do we even have any invisible mutants at the school? Topher wasn't sure.

"Rachel. This isn't you pulling some prank, right?"

[hauntingyou]

She had his attention, but she wasn't getting her message across.

Julia waved her arms in frustration. When her hand passed through his laptop it began playing "It's A Small World".

[marvel_boy]

"Gah!" Topher yelled. Okay. No. That was not right. He'd been listening to the Bangles. "It's a Small World" had never been covered by the Bangles.

Ever.

Deep breath. Deep breath. Deep breath.

He closed his laptop shut with a quick movement.

Deep breath.

"Uhm. Halp," he whispered.

[hauntingyou]

This was not going as planned. Julia stamped her foot, and of course, it went right through the floor, but there was an alarming cracking sound from the old rafters in the library ceiling.

She threw up her arms and thought "Aargh!" Unfortunately, that came out as audible. It was a hollow sound, like an old stretched out cassette tape varying in speed and pitch.

"AaaaaaAAAAAAAArrrrrrrrRRRRRrRrgh-h-h-h-h-h-h"

[marvel_boy]

It's cool. This was the Institute. He'd grown up here. He could leave his stuff in the library and come back for it in the morning.

That was fine.

What wasn't fine was the thing in the library.

The thing that Topher was running from.

Because he'd totally just lost his cool.

"Ghooooooooooooossssssst!"

[hauntingyou]

Julia watched him run, her invisible lips twitching. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

That really hadn't gone well at all.

[iced_cherub]

Topher wasn't the only one working on school work. Bobbi was stuck on her math though and was searching out her namesake genetic donor to see if he could help her figure out the calculus that she was stuck on.

"Mr Drake? You in here?" She knocked lightly on his office door having a feeling it was a lost cause, but hey she could hope right? "I was wondering if you had time to help me with some of this..."

[hauntingyou]

She hadn't gotten very far in the library, but Julia wasn't giving up. She drifted down the hallway aimlessly, flipping random pictures hanging on the walls in frustration as she went.

Another person! Another chance! Julia took a deep breath - metaphorically speaking, of course, this whole not breathing thing was really weird, anyways. She rushed forwards, a little too fast, and passed right into the same space as Bobbi.

[iced_cherub]

Bobbi felt a cold chill, which was weird since she was one of the coldest in the school.

"Professor Drake, I really don't think that freezing up the library would be a good prank. Rachel would be pissed at the water damage." She turned looking for the other Cryokenetic...

And nothing there...

"Okay?" She went back the way she came trying to find Bobby, or whatever caused the chill. Setting her books on a table she decided to have her hands free just in case. "I'm warning you Professor I can drop lower than you and I don't like it when someone tries to scare me."

[hauntingyou]

I'm not trying to scare anyone! Is what Julia thought to herself, but what came out was a faint, echoing sound. Like this:

"Ooooooooooowooooooo"

Yeah. Ok. That wasn't helping.

[iced_cherub]

She heard the noise and tensed a moment. "Okay even Professor Drake isn't that lame for scaring people. Where are you?" She's thinking it's one of the new students playing a trick on the little innocent angel.

She walks into the book stacks.

[hauntingyou]

Ok. She needed to try and NOT think, because that wasn't working too well so far.

Don't think, Julia... don't think, Julia... dammit, my head is killing me...

And what came out was:

"Doooooooon't.... oooooooleeeeee.... ooooooooooleeeee.... kiiiiiiiiiiill"

Shit.

[iced_cherub]

Yeah disembodied voice... Bobbi stood perfectly still.

"Okay I know threatening to kill is totally not allowed on school grounds." Though she was trembling slightly. "Where are you? Show yourself."

I can handle this... I can handle this.... Don't run away Bobbi, don't run away...

[hauntingyou]

Show myself? I wish! This is so frustrating. Aargh!

"AaaaaaAAAAAAAArrrrrrrrRRRRRrRrgh-h-h-h-h-h-h"

Shit. Times two.

[iced_cherub]

Yeah, that yell... you have a four year old running for the doors thanks.

[eidolon34]

The student lounge was where Richard preferred to do his academic reading, which was extremely difficult since he had been told to read it. He strongly disliked books being forced upon him as homework, and any distraction would have been welcomed at that point to alleviate him of such a boring situation.

"Of course, I don't think that a bunch of people are going to wander in here to watch television again," he muttered as he flipped the page. Who knew that reading a novel about a guy trapped on an island could make him want to fall asleep?

[hauntingyou]

Since her previous attempts at communication had gone so spectacularly well, Julia decided to be more cautious this time. She hovered, examining the room and the boy with the book.

He looks like he's killing time... no! Don't think the K word! That's bad!

"Baaaaaaaaad-aaaaad-aaaaad-aaaad." The word echoed softly through the lounge.

Oh no!

"NoooooOOOOOOOooo...."

Quick, think of something nice! Puppies! Lots and lots of adorable puppies!

Julia didn't know it, because she no longer had a sense of smell, but the aroma of wet dog wafted through the lounge.

[eidolon34]

"What the...," he muttered as he looked up from his book. Richard could have sworn that someone had said something, but there was no one around to do it.

Returning to his book, a second noise was made, and this time he was sure that it had happened. "Alright, whoever is there had better show themselves right now."

Of course, he still couldn't see anyone, which meant that either they had camouflaged themselves or he was losing it.

Then the stench filled his nose, and he quickly covered his mouth and nostrils. "Great, I'm hearing voices and someone left their wet socks lying around."

[hauntingyou]

Smell? Oh my God, did she smell bad? How totally gross and embarrassing.

Dead people smell bad. But I'm not dead? I don't feel dead...

Julia thought of the summer that they found the dead raccoon under the porch. The aroma she remembered drifted through the room, replacing Eau de Wet Dog.

Oh God, am I gonna start craving brains next?

"Brainnnnnnnnns..."

Julia flailed helplessly. Her arm passed through the TV, turning it on. Despite being an LCD flat screen, it displayed old school static. The speakers hissed.

[eidolon34]

The smell was getting much worse in the room that it was starting to make him gag, and Richard wondered what foul thing could possibly be emitting such a stench. It wasn’t like the institute wasn’t cleaned so someone had to be playing a joke on him.

Then the eerie voice started saying brains in a foreboding tone of voice. “I don’t know who you are, but if it is brains you are after then I think you may have picked the wrong guy. Mine isn’t the best one to choose.” It was sort of sad for him to admit that, but things were getting sort of creepy.

His eyes shifted to the television screen that was acting odd, and then when the speakers went off he quickly covered his ears while he rose to his feet. “What is it? Who is there?”

[hauntingyou]

Me! I'm here!

"EeeeeeeeEEEEEEeeeeee..."

I give up. This isn't working.

The TV crackled. From the speakers came a distorted sound: "Give up."

Julia flipped the TV the ghostly bird.

[eidolon34]

"E? What is this Wheel of Fortune or something," he asked. Richard wasn't a fan of guessing games, and this one wasn't even fun.

Then the speaker asked him if he gave up, and under normal circumstances he would have gone with 'no'. These were hardly normal by any standards.

Grabbing his book, he looked at the television. "Yeah, I give up," he said before turning into vapor and drifting out of the room.