X-Men Evolution: Rogue Evolution

Blood in the Mud 13.2

"Factoid! Which US president was in power when we entered the Second World War?" Mr McCoy strolled up and down the front of the classroom with one arm behind his back. His hand, armed with his glasses, was poised to pick a raised hand. "Anna!"

"Um -" The answer was at the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't quite remember which three-letter president it was. "JFK!"

Mr McCoy tapped the arm of his glasses against his lower lip and smiled. She could hear her classmates 'oh' and groan.

"Wait! Everyone shut up, I know this!" Anna rapped her knuckles on her book. "FDR!"

"That's it! For extra points, can you list what other major event he was in power for during our history?"

"The Great Depression!"

"And so great, or should I say, not so great, it was. Well done, Anna!" McCoy tossed her a box of raisins, which she caught with an open palm.

"Teacher's pet..." Anna heard from Tyran Smith from across the classroom. Anna turned in her chair and made a jerk-off motion with her hand.

There was a knock at the door that gave the classroom pause. Mr McCoy was already walking in its direction when the door creaked open and another teacher appeared, whom she recognized as Mr Joe, her algebra teacher. The two men whispered something between them for a long enough time that she heard her peers around her begin to talk.

"It's on the news right now!" She heard Mr Joe say in a strangled whisper to her teacher.

Mr McCoy held a hand to the man's chest, "I understand -"

Mr Joe pushed past McCoy and sought out the TV remote resting on the lip of the whiteboard. He clicked the TV on that was mounted in the top right corner of the classroom, and flipped though inputs on a bright blue screen till eventually a cable feed popped up.

"Joe," McCoy stood between the man and the TV, "I don't think this is appropriate -"

The other man punched in the numbers 43 into the remote and swapped the channel from a show about endangered animals to a network news station.

"Approximately 40 injured and counting says police on scene at the Atlas production plant," Says a woman in a bright red power suit and matching lipstick. "Proceeding the power reactors' meltdown, it's said that the private militia stormed in through the loading dock. Witnesses testify that the attackers were swift, well-organized, and demonstrated extraordinary abilities similar to those witnessed in Bayville, New York, just weeks prior."

Anna felt her stomach fall through the floor as the camera flipped from the anchor at the station to an on-site correspondent.

"We have Rebecca Chambers at the Facility. Good morning, Rebecca."

There was a slight pause before Rebecca answered. "Good morning, Jannice. I'm here with a security officer who was present at last night's attack." The camera zoomed out just enough for a man in a gray cap reading 'ATLAS' and matching jacket to enter frame. His eyes squinted against the sun, and his lips were without color. "Mr Munroe, you're a security expert here at the building, correct?" She pointed the microphone towards the man's mouth.

"I don't know about - uh - expert." He paused. A gust of wind slapped the ID card fastened to his breast pocket against his chest. "I cover the night shift. There are about six of us and we work in pairs. It was me and another guy last night."

"And what happened to your partner?"

"Well..." the man looked somewhere where the viewer couldn't see beyond the cameraman's shoulder, like the answer to the anchor's question was in the building next door. "I was on the feeds, feeds is what we call the camera room. You see, someone needs to be on the feeds at all times. So I was on the feeds, and Andre was on patrol. I picked up this strange... raddle or squeak... something metal sounding in the docks. I told him to check it out..."