The Red Tide Virus

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~Bayville High~

The drinking fountain burst all over Lance Alvers the minute he bent down. He lifted his head and wiped the water off his face and pushed his dripping hair out of the way. The kids around him stopped and laughed. He growled. "Ha ha...very funny." He looked both ways down the crowded hall. He walked down the hall, pushing past the kids and walking to one locker. He folded his arms and a girl turned around to look at him. She snorted and turned around to keep herself from laughing, but then burst out with laughter.

"Have a little accident at the fountain, Lance?" She snickered as the bell rang and the halls cleared.

"Yeah, and that little accident seems to be following me everywhere I go today."

"You should know by now I always get my revenge."

"Yeah, that hot sauce in your cereal this morning was genius." He grinned with pride. "Where do I come up with these things?"

"Don’t ask me...I don’t know either...you’re definitely not capable of thinking of stuff like that by yourself." She rolled her eyes. Ms Darkholme walked down the hall and rolled her eyes.

"You two? Again?"

"She started it."

"No I didn’t! You did!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"GET TO CLASS THIS INSTANT!" Darkholme shouted. They both looked at each other then bolted for class.

~After School~

Lance started up his car, and then turned and glared at Ruby in the back seat. "Don’t drip in my car." She was still wet from her swim meet and only felt like putting her shorts on. She flipped her hair, causing drops of water to fling on his face, then stuck her tongue out at him. He rolled his eyes and they drove back home. Mystique was at a computer. She sighed and stood up, shaking her head.

"I just can’t seem to get into it..."

"Get into what, boss?" Ruby was drying her hair with a towel. She was only halfway interested in what Mystique was doing. She was trying to figure out how to pick on Lance again. He walked in and she got a small idea.

"I could have sworn that that fountain water would have washed that awful stain away. I can’t believe you walked around with it all day." She sniggered.

"What stain?" He raised an eyebrow. She walked over and pointed to the middle of his shirt.

"That one." The minute he looked down, she flipped his nose. "Ha! I’ve always wanted to do that. I just needed to find somebody stupid enough to fall for it."

"I so hate you..."

"I know. Now, what were you complaining about, Mystique?"

"Are you finished?" She folded her arms. They looked at each other. Ruby nodded.

"For now."

"The X-men have a master mutation tracing system called Cerebro. It’s why they find more recruits. While we have to wait for Magneto to find mutants for us."

"Oh...and let me guess, you’re trying to screw up Cerebro so we have more of an advantage against the X-geeks?"

"Precisely. But they have highly advanced security systems for it. Password protected and all."

"Can I mess around with the computer?"

"I don’t know if you can handle such a complicated machine..."

"Shut up, Lance. I know how to work a computer."

"Sure." He rolled his eyes. "I’ll believe it when I see it."

"Fine then." She sat down and began typing and studying the screen. "Time to create a virus..." She kept typing and a variety of letters and numbers appeared on the screen.

"Where did you learn all this?"

"Ever hear of that hacker who messed up all the computer systems in the United Nations capital? He’s my oldest brother. He taught me everything he knew before they stuck him in the slammer."

"Oh." Lance quit talking and stared at the screen. After awhile, he said. "So what kind of virus is it?"

"One that will confuse Cerebro and mess up mutant files. Anyone with the mutant gene will still be detected, but all the files on the person will be scrambled. And it’ll create enough false alarms to drive those X-dorks crazy. Since there are rare cases of mutations, there will be a lot of false alarms."

"Hmm...it probably won’t work."

"Yes it will, now all I need to do is send it over to them."

"You mean like an e-mail?" He took a chair and sat down with the back of it facing him. He rested his arms on the top of it.

"Not really. All computers have at least one wire that has no real use. Something so simple that it normally is disregarded."

"So you’re not quite as dumb as you look..."

"Oh my God...Lance did you just give her a....compliment?" Pietro stood in the doorway, with a shocked expression.

"It took more effort than you think. Don’t get used to it."

"Well, what are you up to?"

"I’m about to destroy Cerebro’s main database." She kept typing.

"Awesome." Pietro sat down and called for everyone to come into the room. Toad sat the closest to Ruby, until she shot him a ‘get away from me before I pound you’ look. He moved back slightly.

With one final tap of the ‘Enter’ key, she leaned back and cracked her knuckles. "Okay, I sent it through a simple Internet connection wire. Once they connect to the Internet anywhere in that house, the virus will immediately make its way to the core."

"You’re a genius, Ruby." Pietro smiled. She smiled back.

"I know. Now that that’s settled, we just wait for the fun to begin."

~Xavier Mansion~

Kitty sat down at her laptop in her room, and plugged in the wire for the phone line. She connected to check her e-mail. Her laptop surged for a microsecond. "Like, that’s weird. Must have been a power surge." She shrugged and began typing to her parents again.

The virus went through the wires and cables down into the master control room. Professor Xavier sat quietly and waited for any new mutant signatures. Soon Cerebro flashed.

MUTANT SIGNATURE FOUND NAME: JACOB MCWARNER AGE: 19 CURRENT RESIDENCE: CORPUS CHRISTI, FLORIDA.

"Hmm." The professor shrugged and checked the map, the double-checked. "Wait. Corpus Christi is in Texas, not Florida. Must be a small bug."

~Three weeks later~

"Ruby, I’d like you to stay for a moment." Said the algebra teacher. She nodded.

"Uh, sure."

"Busted..." Lance whispered as he walked past. She threw a paper ball at him. After all the kids left the room, the teacher walked up to her desk. She handed her last week’s test.

"You made the highest score in the class again. If you perhaps improved on your attitude, you would make an excellent scholar."

"Nah, I like me just fine. I love my rotten attitude. See ya, teach." She stood up and left. The teacher sighed and shook her head as she returned to her desk.

~Lunch~

The X-men were all sitting at their table with Kitty’s laptop open. She sighed and kept typing, then shrugged and put it away.

"Like, I just don’t get it. We’ve had like, six false mutant alarms in the past two weeks."

"And each false alarm gets more and more messed up." Scott said. "I mean, our latest file was a sixty three year old guy who lived in the Sahara Desert."

"I vonder vhy ze files have been so strange lately..." Kurt thought out loud.

"It’s like, got to be a virus, but like, how did it get into Cerebro, and like who could put it on?"

"Ah think that new girl has something to do with it, we’d better keep an eye on her." Rogue turned around and looked in the direction of the Brotherhood’s table.

"You mean, like, spy on her?"

"She’s the captain of the swim team, right?" Jean asked. "Maybe one of us can follow her back to their home and see if we can get any info on the virus."

"Right. Kurt, I think you should go. If any trouble starts you can port on out of there." Scott said.

~After the swim meet~

Ruby got out of the water, dried her hair, and got dressed. After hopping in Lance’s car, they drove back home, with Kurt secretly porting behind them. He hid under the outside window as they walked inside.

"I told you my virus would work, those X-losers are going nuts."

"Yeah, but I bet they’re looking for answers now."

"The answers have been right under their noses all along."

"What?"

"That’s also how I create my viruses. To where the answer arrives just as simple as the problem. The virus itself is so small, it can be saved to a little floppy and thrown in the trash. Simple as that. But since today’s viruses are so complex, the idea won’t come to them."

"Hey, look what I found." Pietro zipped into the room holding Kurt.

"Hey, that’s that furry blue dude." She raised an eyebrow. "So, the X-men sent a spy to find out about my virus. Well, now I guess you know." She sighed. He nodded and smirked.

"Ja, and now I know how to get rid of it."

"But you don’t know how I put it on, and you don’t know where the virus began. It will continue to spread until Cerebro faces a complete and total core meltdown." She smirked. "Unless you can find the core of the virus first. You’d have better luck finding a yellow needle in a haystack."

"Ve’ll see about that..." He ported out.

"We really need to up our security around here." Ruby looked around.

"Well genius, what do we do now?" Lance glared. "Professor X is telepathic, he could easily find out where the virus is."

"And while he’s busy doing that, we sneak in and destroy the thing ourselves."

"And how will we do that? In case you forgot Ruby, they have major security around the area." He folded his arms.

"Not when my virus has been stuck in there. I told you, if Cerebro is the main system behind all the machinery, then it all should be messed up. We could walk in there without worrying about the security system."

"Uh, hello? Did somebody forget about the X-dorks?"

"What’s the matter, Lance? Afraid of them?"

"No way!"

"Great, then we go now." She walked out the door and the others followed. Except Lance.

"Since when did you start giving out the orders?" He called out.

"Since everyone else listened to me!" She called back. He groaned and followed reluctantly.

~The Xavier Mansion~

Everyone was standing around Cerebro while Professor X searched for the virus. Suddenly the wall fell down as Avalanche created an entryway. There stood the Brotherhood.

"Well, well, well. Looks like your computer’s sick. I wonder how that happened?" Lance smirked. The X-men turned around and made a human wall in front of Cerebro.

"Keep them away from Cerebro!" Scott called.

"We’re gonna finish that machine off, X-losers...and then we’ll be unstoppable!" Toad grinned.

"Vell, you’re going to have to get through us first!" Kurt said.

"Our pleasure!" The fight began. Quicksilver tried to run his way past the X-men, but Spyke made a wall of spikes in front of him.

"You’re not going anywhere, Quicksilver!"

Avalanche stomped his foot and the ground cracked underneath them, making it’s way to Cerebro. "Then let’s rock it from underneath..." Jean and the Professor joined their powers to stop the ground. Lance groaned.

"Watch and Learn, Avalanche." Tidal Wave raised her hands and summoned the waters in the lake from behind the house. They smashed in the wall and began to flood the floor. Cerebro began to throw sparks. The professor turned his thoughts to the water and levitated them out of the house. By now, Cerebro was pretty damaged and one of the wires snapped. It wrapped around Ruby’s ankle and she immediately fell. She clutched her stomach and groaned, the electricity was surging through her body.

"Ruby!" Lace shouted. He raced over and picked her up. "Let’s get out of here. This isn’t over X-men. You haven’t heard the last of us. We’ll be back." They all retreated back to their house.

~Back in the safety of their own house~

Ruby lay cringing in her own bed. The electricity had conducted all through her body. She had been treated and now was resting. Lance was leaning against the doorway, but she didn’t see him because her back was facing him. After staring at her awhile, he cleared his throat.

"You know...I’m not gonna have any fun for awhile. I mean, you’re such an easy target that it just isn’t fun to pick on you. Like Pietro would say, where’s the challenge in that?"

"Shut up, Lance." She muttered.

"What are you gonna do from over there, spit on me?" He smirked.

"Don’t tempt me..." She sat up and concentrated. The ground shook slightly as a mini wave raged it’s way to the house. He quickly walked over and pushed her down by her shoulder. She fell back and the shaking stopped.

"Not until after you recover. Now lay down."

"You can’t tell me what to do. And I’m not a dog."

"Yes I can. Now lay down and shut up or else you’ll never get better. Now stay." She slapped his arm and he smiled.

"I’m just fine."

"You just had your nerves fried. You’re not fine."

"I am too."

"No you’re not."

"Yes I am."

"No you’re not."

"How do you know how I feel?"

"I just do."

"What, like you’re telepathic now?"

"Do you ever shut up?"

"Only when I feel like it. What about you?"

"I hate to interrupt..." Pietro stood in the doorway. "Can I come in?"

"Sure, since you were nice enough to ask." She glared at Lance and he stuck his tongue at her. Pietro shook his head and walked in.

"Feeling better?"

"Yeah, but Lance thinks he’s my doctor and he says I should rest. I think he’s up to something..."

"He probably is. Anyway, I just wanted to check up on you, see how you’re feeling. Bye." He waved and left as quickly as he had come.

"I’m not up to anything."

"I think you are."

"Well, I know I’m not."

"And I know you are..."

"You seem well enough to argue..."

"Good, can I get up?"

"You’re asking my permission?"

"Good point." She sat up again and then stood up. She still felt a little weak. He took her hand and pulled her back down.

"No, you’re still too weak." He forgot to let go of her hand.

"I’m fine, really."

"No you’re not."

"Yes I am."

"No you’re not...!"

"Yes I am...!"

And so on and so forth.