Chapter Twelve:

Xavier Insitute

Outside the Danger Room, the New Mutants waited with curiosity as the Professor arrived with Storm and Logan behind him.

"With the arrival of Mr. Riley and in recognition of your own progress at this institute, a suggestion has been made and approved to form a second team of X-Men." He smiled noting the immediately heightened attention and expectation from his students. "Storm will command this team in the field and Jean will be second in command." He continued. "To this end, we will be selecting one of you to replace Rogue and Jean on the main team and three of you will begin training with the second team which we will now refer to as Blue and Gold Teams.

"To determine which of you will fill these four positions, we have decided that we will use a training competition to aid in our selections with a scenario designed by Logan and with the assistance of Jamie Maddrox. Logan?" He invited.

"We'll be breaking you into four pairs. When each pair enters the scenario, they will be competing against each other and the computer as well. "

"Please note that victory in the scenario will not be the sole basis of determining which students will be selected," Xavier informed them. "Now as to the pairings, First will be Sunspot and Berserker, next will be Jubilee and Wolfsbane, then Iceman and Cannonball, and finally will be Boom Boom and Magma."

"The first team goes in ten minutes!" Logan barked. "Now get moving and suit up!"

They watched the students hurry out to change.

"Well this ought to be interesting," Logan smirked grimly.

Xavier nodded picking up a stray wickedly amused thought from Logan. "Sentinel Hamsters?" Xavier raised an eyebrow in an almost Vulcan fashion.

"Yep!" Logan grinned. "What Jamie lacks in age, he more than makes up for with creativity!"

"Indeed." Xavier agreed to anticipate his students' performance.

Ten minutes later exactly on schedule, Ben Reilly joined Professor Xavier and the other X-Men and a very eager Multiple in the observation deck of the Danger Room as the first scenario got underway. What he witnessed left Ben very impressed... Certainly of the fertile destructive creativity of Logan and Multiple at the very least.

Danger Room was filled with traps, projectile firing devices, and mechanical dangers (such as presses, collapsing walls and the like) intended to challenge the students. Meanwhile, an observer was in the overhanging control booth, managing the room's mechanisms to oversee the exercise, while ensuring the subject's safety. The Danger Room was recently upgraded with robots for the X-Men to fight against. It was honestly a mechanical marvel, Ben Reilly couldn't help but imagine what would happen if the managed to put an A.I. as the observer instead of having it done manually.

About two hours later the last test was done with a battered Boom Boom helping a somewhat wobbly Magma into the observation deck. Amara smiled faintly as Tabby helped her sit down and they finally got a look at the others who had preceded them.

"At least we're not the worst off in this bunch," Tabby noted as Roberto held an icepack to his head and Jubilee got an extra cushion for Rahne. "I'm so sorry Rahne! I really didn't mean it!" She was profusely apologizing to Wolfsbane.

"What happened to you two?" Tabby asked.

"Sentinel Hamsters!" Jubilee answered. "There must have been thousands of them. I kinda panicked and well... " She shrugged helplessly.

"Dinnat worry bout it none!" Rahne dismissed. "It's quite understandable! I was pretty well ta freakin' out myself!"

"At least you girls got that far!" Bobby pointed out grinning at Sunspot and Berserker. "I hear that Ray and Roberto knocked each other out even before that part of the program fired."

"Indeed," Xavier confirmed. "As for the results of the test, I think that we have reached a consensus-based upon your performances, I must say that I was... generally... very pleased and impressed with your efforts but in the end... Congratulations to Bobby Drake. Based upon your performance, you will be assigned to Blue Team. And to Tabby Smith, Sam Guthrie, and Amara Aquilla. You three will join Storm, Rogue, and Ben Reilly on Gold Team. You will begin training tomorrow morning. For those of you who were not selected, I only ask you to continue training and be patient with us and yourselves. Your time will come."

Tabitha didn't really like not being selected but she understood. She was relatively new to the whole teamwork thing anyway, but she decided to work harder. The last thing she wanted was to be left behind.

Empire Lodge, Bayville

Seward Trainer was an increasingly worried man. What had started as a relatively straight forward plan had gone completely off the rails. Instead of befriending Parker, he had been forced to observe at a distance waiting for an opportunity. But now even that plan had fallen through as the real Peter Parker had gone missing. True, there were still Spider-Man sightings being reported in town but this didn't make up for the fact he lost his charge. Trainer's employers both had begun to suggest that they might not need his services, that they might choose to take more direct action.

Little did he know that these problems were small matters besides the one which was now closing on him as he returned to the shabby motel which had become his home. He wearily tossed his keys on the desk unsure of what to do about his increasingly precarious situation. He absently flipped the light switch only to find the light apparently dead. It was only after a minute he noticed the large shadowed figure sitting patiently across the room.

"Welcome home Doctor Trainer..."

"Wha?! Who is it?" Trainer said surprised by the voice that seemed to come out of nowhere. Seward froze dead in his tracks. The voice was familiar but wrong somehow. Deeper perhaps?

"Who are you?"

"Why I'm the prodigal son, doctor." His visitor said without humor. "Have you forgotten me so soon?" He took off what was apparently a mask and clicked on the lamp by the bedside.

Trainer recognized the scarred face instantly. It was the face of nightmares. "You... But Doctor Warren?"

"Destroyed me? Is that what he told you? He only wishes. I'm sure he planned to but if I'm an abomination as he claims, then one beneficial consequence of his mistake is that I'm much stronger than he expected."