Tangled Web - 5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

::Wolf in the Fold::

* * * * *

Life changed considerably, once again, after that fateful day in Team Skills. The word had spread like wildfire that some new kid was able to take out Spartan in combat. Which, of course, was a gross exaggeration. I’d gotten lucky, plain and simple. But like it always happens in every high school throughout the world, once something gets in the rumor mill, it’s nearly impossible to stop.

It didn’t help that Peter was telling everyone he saw about his badass friend, the Scarlet Spider. And…you know…maybe I kind of liked the attention. It’s not every day you have a rumor going around that you’re a . At least it never happens to me.

But it also made me a target. Some people I’d never even seen before were glaring at me like I’d punched their grandmother in the face, which let me tell you, is not a pleasant look in the slightest. I’m just glad that the huge guy I’d run into…literally…my first day here hadn't come looking for me.

“And then he did a spinning drop kick combined with a lateral roundhouse kick taking out fifteen guys!” Peter said, causing me to stare at him dumbfounded. He was talking to a group of about five other students.

“Peter! What the hell is a spinning drop kick? And for that matter, you just made up the ‘lateral roundhouse kick’!”

“He’s just modest,” he said to the students.

“No I’m not!” I said to him incredulously. I looked at the students. “Really, I’m not.”

“I forgot to tell you about the Godzilla punch!” he said to them excitedly.

I shook my head, grabbed him by the ear, and pulled him away.

“Owowowowow!” he complained.

“Okay, this needs to stop,” I said to him quietly. “The other day, there was a posse waiting for me out by the basketball court.”

“Owowow!” he said again. I released his ear, and he started to rub it. “That really hurts!”

“Peter, did you hear what I said?”

“Yes! How do you even know they were waiting for you?”

“Uh, because when the leader saw me, he yelled, ‘There he is!’. I had to run like mad to get away!”

He grumbled for a minute under his breath, then looked up at me, seeing my stern look, he had to fight to hold back a grin.

“You ruin all my fun…” he grumbled jokingly.

“Shut up, Dodge-ball.”

“Whatever, Scarlet nincompoop,” he said, and I laughed out loud.

“That’s my word!” I complained.

“Come on, we’ve got five minutes to get to Political Theory,” he said, causing me to groan.

“I hate that class! I swear, Mrs Daniels has it out for me.”

“Benny, she’s a former member of the X-Men, a mutant rights activist, and former senator! She’s not that bad.”

“When she tries to kill me, you’ll see,” I said, conspiratorially.

“Don’t be absurd! She’s so kind and gentle, how could you even say such a thing?”

I shook my head at him, and we headed out the door.

We arrived to the class in a fairly short amount of time, and took our seats. Mrs Daniels insisted upon keeping the seating arrangement in alphabetical order, so Peter and I couldn’t sit next to each other in this class. Since our last names were so close together, we weren’t exactly that far apart, but still, it sucked. I liked being able to talk to Peter during class, but couldn’t in here.

I don’t know what I’m complaining about. Most kids in most schools have to go through the same thing, but aside from this class, that just wasn't the case at Xavier’s. Most of the teachers here are former students themselves, and they set such a casual atmosphere in their respective classrooms that when it’s taken away and feels like regular school, it seems so much worse.

“Seems the majority of you did well on your exam, but unfortunately there seems to be a few of you who’ve decided they don’t need to study,” Mrs Daniels said as she passed back our tests. She stopped at my desk.

Looking directly at me, she said, “Some of you did so dreadfully poor that I’m not sure you should even be in this class.” she slammed my test down in front of me. Failed.

I grabbed the test and looked over the questions I got wrong. I was more than a little pissed off, because I’d actually studied very hard on this test. The ones she marked wrong she didn’t even give an explanation for, just marked them with a red “X”.

I read my answers over carefully and my anger simmered just below the surface. Some of them were nearly identical to the textbook answer, and yet I was marked wrong. I glanced over at another student’s answer to the same question, found it to be completely incorrect, and he’d gotten half credit. Next to where she marked the “1/2”, she wrote, “Good effort!”.

I glared at her. She glared back.

“Is there a problem, Mr. Parker?” she asked in her condescending tone.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” I said icily. I glanced over at Peter and found him staring at me intently with a quizzical look on his face.

“As I was grading this test, it became quite apparent that some of you are obviously cheating,” she said to the class. Her eyes settled back on me. “If you had a correct answer marked wrong, it is because of this.”

I decided I wasn’t taking this any longer. I stood up, gathered my things and strode to the door. Then I felt a pull on my body, and could no longer move forward.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Let me go.”

“Not until you answer me.”

“What will Mr. Summers think of this?” I said with as much anger in my voice as I could muster. Then I felt a tightness spread throughout my body and found it getting harder to breathe.

“Let me go…can’t…breathe…” I said, not much more than a whisper.

“I think not…” she whispered from right behind me. She was so close I could smell the cheap perfume she wore, the faint trace of cinnamon on her breath.

My vision started to go cloudy, black along the edges. I was losing consciousness. I couldn’t even speak anymore, let alone fight back. As quickly as it came, the tightness vanished and I was shoved out of the room, crashing into a drinking fountain across the hall.

I righted myself, struggling to my feet while taking in large gulps of air, and looked back at the door to the class. Inside the room, everyone was sitting calmly, diligently working on classwork. It was as if they hadn't seen anything. Even Peter was engrossed in his book. Mrs. Daniels grinned at me, then slammed the door to the classroom.

I went to the library. I knew that I could go see Mr. Summers at any time, but what would that make me look like? Always running to Mr. Summers when I couldn’t handle my own problems? I wouldn’t put that kind of target on myself. Not again.

The air conditioning in the library felt good against my skin and sent a chill up my spine because of the chilling sweat on the back of my shirt. I went over to the sci-fi section, chose a book by one of my favorite authors, and sat at one of the wooden tables near the back.

I’d been sitting by myself for not three minutes when someone occupied the chair in front of me.

“That’s a good one,” Kyle, A.K.A. Alchemist said, pointing to the novel I was reading.

I smiled. “I know, I’ve read it twice already.”

“What’re you doing in here? I thought you had political theory this period?”

“What, did you memorize my schedule or something?” I said with a grin. I’d only meant it as a joke, but by the way his face turned red, it looked like I struck a chord.

“I…uh…well…” he stammered. I laughed at the look on his face.

“I’m only teasing you,” I said to relieve his tension. “So what do you know about Mrs Daniels?”

“I had her last year. She was one of the nicest teachers I ever had. She never so much as raised her voice to anyone.”

The look on my face must have given me away, because he raised an eyebrow and looked at me funny.

“What, you don’t like her?”

“There’s something very strange going on with her. She hates me, and I have no idea why.”

“Don’t be absurd! She’s so kind and gentle, how could you even say such a thing?”

The skin on the back of my neck prickled. Peter had said this exact thing to me when I said something to him about her. Something was strange about the way they’d said it too. I don’t know what it was, but it felt as if it wasn’t something they would normally say.

“Kyle, she verbally berates me during every class, and just now when she kicked me out of class, she tried to strangle me with her power, then threw me into a wall. But the funny thing is, no one in the rest of the class seemed to notice it.”

“Don’t be absurd! She’s so kind and gentle, how could you even say such a thing?”

Whoa. Right there. His vocal inflections were exactly the same as the last time he said it. Sounded almost…robotic.

“She’s a bitch,” I said, testing him.

“Don’t be absurd! She’s so kind and gentle, how could you even say such a thing?”

My father had told me about this kind of thing. It was a big reason that he didn’t trust telepaths unless he knew for sure that they were a good person. He trusted Rachel Grey Summers and Emma Frost because Professor Xavier had trusted them when he was alive. As much as I didn’t like the idea of going to Emma Frost about anything, it looked as though that was my only option.

“Come on Kyle, we’re going to the front office.”

“What? Why?”

“You’ll understand when we get there.”

I grabbed him by the hand and pulled him out of the library. I rushed down the halls, which were mostly deserted because classes were in session at the moment, and headed to the front.

“Benny, slow down!” Kyle complained. I didn’t listen. I pulled him along faster.

Finally we reached the office. I opened the large wooden doors and walked in, dragging Kyle along.

Rachel and Scott Summers were in the lobby area, and they looked at us funny as we walked in. it struck me that I hadn’t realized until this moment that they both had the same last name. I idly wondered if they were related.

“In another timeline, he’s my father,” Rachel said. I looked at her strangely for a second, thinking that was probably the weirdest thing ever. Weirder than my father having a clone.

“What can we do for you guys?” Mr Summers asked.

“Is Ms Frost in?” I asked. “I need to speak with her right away.”

“She’s in her office. Go right in.”

Kyle and I walked in her office, and found her waiting behind her large oak desk. Her fingers were interlaced in front of her, hands resting on the desk. She looked at me expectantly. I’d thought she would be reading my mind from the moment I walked in, but I didn’t feel the familiar itch. I guess she could still have been doing it, seeing as I barely felt anything when Rachel did it a minute ago.

“Yes?”

“Don’t you already know what I’m going to say?”

“In fact, no, Mr. Parker,” she said. “You don’t like it when I read your thoughts without permission, so within reason, I won’t. Now what did you need?”

“There’s something strange about Mrs. Daniels,” I said.

“Are you sure? I haven’t heard anything but praise from nearly every student she has. She’s one of our most popular teachers.”

I turned to Kyle.

“Mrs Daniels is mean.”

“Don’t be absurd! She’s so kind and gentle, how could you even say such a thing?” he said robotically.

“She hates me.”

“Don’t be absurd! She’s so kind and gentle, how could you even say such a thing?” he said once again. I glanced at Ms. Frost, and saw her eyes go wide. Then I had an idea.

I walked over to the door. “Mr. Summers, can you come in here?”

He walked in, and asked what was going on.

“Mrs. Daniels is a bitch,” I said to him.

“Don’t be absurd! She’s so kind and gentle, how could you even say such a thing?” Mr. Summers said, just as robotically as Kyle.

“Son of a bitch,” Ms. Frost said, rising to her feet. “Psychic projection. She has to be a much more powerful telepath than I thought.”

She closed her eyes, and I felt that itch in my head again. Then Kyle and Mr. Summers clutched their foreheads in pain at the same time.

“Ow!” Kyle exclaimed.

“Yeah,” Mr. Summers agreed. “Emma, that really hurt.”

“Serves you right, you idiot. Don’t you have enough experience with telepaths? How could you let yourself be fooled by her?”

The look on Mr. Summers face would have been comical in any other circumstance. He looked like a thoroughly chastised child.

Ms. Frost looked over at me and raised an eyebrow.

“You weren’t effected by the psychic projection,” she said. “That’s strange. Nearly everyone in the school was effected. I’d like for you to come and see me after your classes tomorrow.”

Great. I already didn’t like her, now I had to spend extra time with her. Terrific.

She looked at me kind of angrily.

“I am a telepath, you know.”

“Sorry Ms. Frost,” I said sheepishly. You bitch, I thought to myself before I could stop it. She glared, and I sighed and looked away.

“Anyway,” she said, still glaring at me. “We’re going to have to move fast if we’re going to catch her to question her.”

“And with half the school as her zombies, that’ll be even more difficult,” I said.

“No, I’ll be taking out the psychic projection all over the school as we go. To make that strong of a projection, she’d need a strong connection, like face to face. She must’ve been doing this for a long time.”

“Let’s go,” Mr. Summers said. I looked over to him and saw that he’d switched out of his normal red sunglasses and put on his visor. I wondered if I should call him Cyclops.

“Doesn’t matter,” Ms. Frost said to me, then walked out the door with Mr. Summers following. I glanced at Kyle, shrugged, and we followed them out the door.

I really hate telepaths.

We rushed down the hall, following Ms. Frost’s lead. She turned left at the next hallway, where we were joined by two other X-Men. I hadn’t met either of them before, but one of them was without a doubt Angel, because of his huge angel wings, and the other was smaller, blue, and had a pointed tail. Had to be Nightcrawler.

“This is so exciting! Like we’re going on a real mission!” Kyle said happily.

“Don’t get too excited Kyle, this is for real,” I said. “There’s no safety precautions in real life like there is in the Danger Room.”

As we traveled down the hall, we passed the occasional student. As Ms. Frost passed them, they’d suddenly stop in their tracks and clutch their foreheads, like Kyle and Mr. Summers had done.

Ms. Frost reached Mrs. Daniels’ room, and kept going. I looked at the door, seeing everyone inside except for Mrs. Daniels herself. Peter locked eyes with me, so I decided to drag him along with us. I entered the room.

“Peter, come on,” I said as I walked into the class. “I’ll explain on the way.”

He stood and walked over to me. I turned to the door, seeing that Kyle had waited there for me, and was about to walk out as Peter’s hand fell on my shoulder. I looked back at him and he punched me in the face.

He punched me in the freaking face!

I staggered back a step or two as Peter dropped into an offensive posture. The other students in the class didn’t even react, as if this was a completely normal, everyday occurrence. I could feel warm liquid pouring out my nose but there was nothing I could do to stop it as I was a little busy fending off Peter’s attacks.

“Dude! Snap out of it!” I yelled, trying to break Peter’s concentration. It didn’t work at all, I actually think he attacked harder.

Kyle came rushing in with a slightly misshapen baseball bat, one he’d obviously created himself. He swung the bat aiming for Peter’s head, but instead connected with his fist. Peter grunted in pain and held his hand for a second. I gripped his shoulders.

“Peter, you have to snap out of this! You’re stronger than her! Come on!” I yelled while shaking him.

“Benny?” he asked timidly.

“Yes! I knew you could do it!” I looked over at Kyle, who was still brandishing the baseball bat like a samurai warrior would a sword. I laughed and told him to put it away.

“You sure? He still looks kind of vicious.”

To me, Peter looked like a lost, scared puppy.

“I think we’ll be okay.”

The three of us walked outside the room. The locker next to the classroom was missing a door, so I looked at Kyle quizzically. He held up the baseball bat. That explains it.

“Come on! We need to hurry!” I shouted as I grabbed both Peter’s and Kyle’s hands. Then, as I reached the door, the logistics of three people walking out the door hand in hand, side by side just didn’t match up, so I pushed them ahead of me. We rushed down the hall toward the direction that the others had gone in pursuit of Mrs. Daniels.

We finally caught up with them in the literature wing. They were standing in the hall, near the room where my English class takes place, talking amongst each other. It looked as though the battle never even took place.

“What’s going on?” I asked as we got to Mr. Summers and Ms. Frost.

“Huh?” Mr. Summers jumped, startled by our sudden appearance.

“She’s gone,” Ms. Frost said. “We just missed her. She got to the side door over there and was met by two men wearing masks. They vanished as she exited the school.”

“Who was she? I mean, who was she really?” Kyle asked. It was a good question. Obviously she was more than she appeared to be.

“Whatever she was doing here it can’t have been for the good of the school,” Mr. Summers said solemnly.

* * * * *

When the school day was over I went back to the dorm and just crashed. Peter said he was going to meet up with Antoine and Kate, but I was so wiped I just didn’t feel like being social.

I decided to call my dad. We’d been keeping in touch through e-mail, but neither of us had much time to talk lately. He’d been under fire lately because while saving the lives of about two hundred people from the Rhino and Vulture, a major politician’s house got destroyed. This politician was trying very hard to have my father arrested. Luckily he has one of the best lawyers in the city, Matt Murdock.

“Hey Benny! How’s life?” he said when he answered.

“Hectic as usual,” I replied. “Loretta Daniels was trying to control all the students in the school. Apparently she’d been working on it for quite a long time.”

“Really? Wow. Did they catch her?”

“No, unfortunately. We found out she was doing it because she could control nearly everyone, but couldn’t control me. Any idea why that is?” I asked. It was a question that had been on my mind lately.

“Huh. Do you think she might be the one who sabotaged that robot?” he said, ignoring the question. I frowned, this was really odd, he never kept things from me.

“Well, that’s what I thought at first, but Dr. McCoy doesn’t think so. He’s been looking into it, and the evidence just doesn’t match up. But…you didn’t answer my question, dad.”

“Hey, I’m sorry Benny, but I have to go,” he said, confusing me even more. “We’ll talk more later. And I’m coming to visit you really soon, as soon as this nonsense clears up.”

“But dad…”

“Bye Benny, talk to you later.”

He hung up the phone. I screamed at it for at least five minutes. I paced the room, pondering just what in the world was really going on. Nobody seemed to have any ideas, and now my father was being cryptic with me.

After about an hour I flopped down on my bed, intending to just pass out and deal with it later. A few minutes after that, Peter came back into the room.

Wearing clown makeup.

I raised an eyebrow and had to struggle not to just lose it and laugh in his face. Well, at his face.

“Don’t ask. Please don’t ask.” he said.

Laughing, I rolled over and tried to get some sleep. I was not looking forward to meeting with Ms. Frost tomorrow.