Inside a rapidly moving car, a teenager was sitting in the back of the vehicle with several burly men in suits around him. He would have resembled a young celebrity with bodyguards if not for the fact that the guns in their hands were pointed at him while the boy's hands were handcuffed behind his back.
"So..." the boy started, not sounding worried at all. "Where we going?"
The men in the car looked at him incredulously. They picked him up off the side of the street, handcuffed him, and threw him into the back of a car, and that was the first thing he said.
Not worried about who they were, why they had taken him, or what they wanted. And not even asking in a panicked tone, either.
"I'm just asking cause you guys didn't cover my head. Which means that either I'm going someplace that you guys don't mind me knowing how to get back to when I get out of this alive... or I'm not gonna make it out of this alive," he began to explain when he saw their expressions. He didn't want them to overthink.
But unlike what he had thought, his words only freaked them out more.
The man in the passenger seat was the first to regain his calm and looked back at the teen who was sitting without a care in the world.
"Benjamin Tennyson, correct?" the man in the front seat asked
"Hmm," the teen nodded to show they got the right person. "I prefer to be called Ben, if you don't mind, Scary-Guy-With-Gun."
"Ben, it is. We have been ordered to bring you to the Boss. Any guess why?" Scary-Guy-With-Gun asked, wanting to probe their target
Ben shrugged his shoulders when he got the question.
"Lots of reasons. Could be cause of my powers and your boss wants to recruit me. Could be because of my powers and your boss wants to torture or manipulate me. Or it could be because of my Grandpa or my cousin. Hard to keep track," Ben really couldn't name a reason that stuck out more than others
"Your Grandpa and cousin?" Scary-Guy-With-Gun asked in confusion
"Yeah. Been kidnapped a few times cause of my Grandpa. He used to work with S.W.O.R.D and S.H.I.E.L.D so he made lots of enemies. Cousin is a magical girl and she has stopped a few cults and evil mages. You guys could also be going after me because of her," Ben explained the man.
His first kidnapping experience happened when he was 10. After that, there was about 1 or 2 kidnappings per year. Even when S.H.I.E.L.D tried to protect him, some people always ended up getting him.
After so many kidnappings, Ben just got used to it. He was also pretty sure that some S.H.I.E.L.D agents were on the way to save him which helped keep him calm. And even if they weren't, he was strong enough to protect himself but he wanted to see what his kidnappers wanted.
"I see," was all the man could say to Ben's words. He had never met anyone who was used to kidnappings to the point that they didn't even respond to it.
Ben nodded and looked out the window to his right, noticing that they had left the city and were passing many trees.
"So..." Ben began again
Scary-Guy-With-Gun sighed as he lowered his weapon and looked out the front window.
"We aren't kidnapping you, kid. Your parents signed you up for boarding school and our Boss figured you wouldn't come peacefully," he told Ben the reason why they were bringing him somewhere else and why they had tried to kidnap him.
"Oh, ok. That actually makes a lot of sense," Ben agreed as one of the men next to him began to undo the handcuffs behind his back.
When his wrists were freed, he brought both hands in front of him and began rubbing his wrists, careful to avoid the black and green watch around his right wrist.
'Really? That makes sense to you? Your parents sent you to boarding school without a word and the headmaster of the school sent some mercenaries to kidnap you but all that is fine and logical?!?!' the men thought similar things in the car but none of them said anything.
The rest of the ride was quite peaceful as they traveled through upstate New York.
When the car began to slow down, Ben saw that they were arriving outside a large set of gates with brick walls on both sides. On one of the brick walls was a bronze plaque with golden words written upon it.
"Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters," Ben read the words on the plaque. "The mutant school?"
"Yes, sir," Scary-Guy-Without-Gun replied before stepping out and opening the door on the right side. The two men on Ben's right got out before motioning for him to follow them.
"If you don't mind," Scary-Guy-Without-Gun held out his hand, motioning for Ben to come out of the car.
Without many options, Ben got out of the car. Once he stepped outside, he took out a 20-dollar bill out of his wallet and passed it to Scary-Guy-Without-Gun.
"Gas money," Ben explained with a smirk
The man raised an eyebrow but tucked the 20 into the inner pocket of his suit before he got back into the car with the other men and they drove down the road.
When the car drove off, the gates to the school began to slowly open for Ben, inviting him inside.
"Well, no point in trying to run away. Ma and Pops will kill me if they find out that I didn't stay in school, not to mention what Grandpa Max will say," Ben walked through the gates, knowing that he would just end up back there if he tried to escape.
As Ben walked down the road leading to the school, only one thought was going through his head.
'This road is fucking long!' he complained while wiping the sweat from his forehead with his black part of his sleeve.
He was not expecting that he would have to walk so long in order to get to the school.
Seeing that the school was still a bit away and the temperature was over 90 degrees, Ben took out a D-battery from his pocket and placed it on the ground before him.
After doing so, he reached for the watch on his wrist and pressed down on it. Once he did, the screen began to glow green and a black figure appeared on the background. Ben began to twist the screen of his watch, causing the black figure to switch to a different one. He kept doing so until he reached one figure in particular.
When he got the one he wanted, Ben pressed down on the screen before a flash of green light appeared around his body. One moment, a teenage boy with brown hair wearing white and black was there.
In the next, he was replaced by a creature with an appearance is similar to an Earth dry cell battery, albeit rounded out. He was black with green eyes, a large, white lightning bolt-like stripe spanning from his neck starts to his waist on his front and back sides, and positive (+) and negative (-) symbols on his back. He also had a green hole on his head and Ben's watch symbol is located on his chest.
The creature was only about a foot tall, had small, pointy legs, and both of its arms had 3 fingers on them.
"Buzzshock!" the creature shouted with a high-pitch voice laced with static.
Buzzshock reached forward and grabbed the battery sucking up electricity from it. When the battery was drained dry, Buzzshock let out a mischievous laugh before flying into the air and toward the school building with green electricity trailing behind him.
With his enhanced speed, Buzzshock was able to instantly appear above the front door of the school. Once he got there, he flew around the building until he saw an outlet outside the house. Once he did, the creature flew into the socket as his body disappeared.
What most would assume was the creature dispersing, Buzzshock had actually transformed into nearly pure electricity and was traveling through the school through the electrical wires.
Buzzshock traveled through the school, getting a lay of the land. There were a few 'unlucky' encounters as he traveled through some bedrooms but after only a few minutes of searching, Buzzshock came across the Headmaster's office.
The creature appeared in the lightbulb on the ceiling and watched the people below since he saw one of his videos playing on the television screen.
In this video, it showed Ben transforming into Buzzshock outside a school. Once he did, he transformed into a pure electricity like he currently was and went into an outlet outside the school. A few seconds later, fire and tornado alarms began to blare before high-pitched voiced could be heard over the P.A. system.
"This is your resident savior. Due to a sudden entrance by me being way to hot and blowing everyone away, we are asking for all students and staff to evacuate the school and tuck their heads down. All exams will be postponed until tomorrow and given a 10 point curve," the voice laughed at the end of its little speech.
Soon, the person recording the video turned to camera toward the doors of the school where students began pouring out and cheering.
The cameraman then turned back to the outlet where Buzzshock appeared once more before he transformed back into Ben.
"And that's how you get out of your midterms," Ben told the camera and the video ended
The staff in the officer all had various looks on their faces. Some looked amused while others were pensive.
"Frost, this is who you invited to the school?" a man with hair that looked like horns and way too much body hair asked. He had a slight Canadian accent that was hard to hear with all the gruffness in his voice.
"For once, I agree with Logan," a boy scout looking man with red sunglasses said. "He is one of those that do anything for attention."
"Don't be like that, Scott," a young lady denied. "I watch his videos. While he does do his fair share of pranks, none of them actually are harmful. Most are dumb things like changing the lights in a building to show an image or draining the battery of a friend's phone."
"He's also popular. Even though he is openly a mutant, he is as popular as Dazzler," an African woman with white hair added on
"Plus, we've already accepted him. Not like we can just kick him out," another man with auburn hair added
"Ugh" the first two men groaned, seeing that they were the only ones who had an issue with Ben coming to the school
"Hehehehehehe!" a high-pitched laugh appeared out of nowhere
Everyone jumped to their feet and got ready to fight when they heard the laugh as they looked around to find the source.
Seeing them so on edge, Buzzshock figured he should show himself. He emerged from the lightbulb and began to float in the air above them, still giggling.
The others looked at the creature and recognized it from the video that they had just seen.
"Benjamin!" a British, blonde woman yelled. "It is rude to eavesdrop."
"My bad," Buzzshock admitted his fault before landing on the ground. A bright red light covered Buzzshock's body before he transformed back into Ben. "Better?"
"Much," she told him before introducing herself. "My name is Emma Frost. You'll be one of my personal students so I guess we will be in each other's care."
Ben smiled toward the lady and extended his hand toward her.
"Nice to meet you, Ms. Frost. Benjamin Tennyson. The pleasure is mine."
Emma shook his hand and smiled at him, glad that he wasn't as rowdy as she was expecting.
"Good. These are the other staff members and your other teachers for some subjects but for now, let me bring you to your team dorm," Emma walked past Ben and motioned for him to follow
"Team dorm?" Ben asked ass they walked out of the door
"Hmm. All students are put on different teams to train together, similar to the X-Men. Each staff member gets their own team and when we get new students, we can choose if we want them on our teams," Emma explained as they walked down the halls. "It was my turn so I encouraged your parents to transfer you over. Thanks to them, I got another strong member for my team."
"Hehe. Very clever of you," Ben admitted, not minding being chosen to make her team stronger. It just meant that she respected his skills
"Hmm. So team dorms are basically sections of halls. Each team gets 4 rooms which are divided however the teacher wants. My Hellions are all in doubles except for my daughters that share a room," the duo arrived in front of a set of 4 doors, two on each side.
"All of them are currently in class at the moment but you can head into that room. Your items have already been dropped off," Emma nodded to the left door on the right side of the hallway. "My daughters are the 15, just like you so you can just follow them around tomorrow for class. The others are all a year older."
"Will do, Ms. Frost. Any other advice?" Ben asked while looking in the room. It was much larger than he had expected.
"Not really. We have combat training at 4, though. Make sure you stretch before that," Emma advised before turning around and walking down the hallway.
Ben watched her walk away for a few seconds before heading into his room as he started to unpack the familiar luggage that his parents got him as a gift a few weeks prior.
'They really planned on getting rid of me for a while,' Ben thought wryly as he placed his streaming stuff on his desk.