"Puff, puff... Hmph, hmph—huh? Huh?!"
At Howlett Superhuman Evolution Academy on the outskirts of New York State, Laura Howlett was dozing off in arithmetic class. Her head rested heavily on the arm of her deskmate, Jean Grey, and her drool had soaked through the cuff of Jean Grey's cream-colored sleeve.
When the arm beneath her suddenly moved away, the little wolf girl lurched forward and woke up with a snorting, gurgling sound.
"Jean, is class over? I slept that long? Then why is Mr. Hett lying on the blackboard without moving? Hey! Where are you all going?!"
Desks and chairs scraped noisily across the classroom floor, mingling with the constant sound of footsteps.
All the students, except for the ordinary mathematics teacher they had hired from outside—a man with excellent teaching skills—were pushing back their chairs and filing out. The teacher stood blankly before the blackboard, tirelessly drawing circles over and over again.
"This isn't right, this isn't right... Kurt, come back! Huh? You dare ignore your aunt now?!"
Laura watched her nephew, the little blue demon Kurt, walk out with several of the other children. None of them responded to her calls. Their faces were blank, their eyes unfocused as they followed the crowd away.
"I'm fine... Mind control? Charles did this? That shouldn't be possible... Kurt, stop right there. Oh, come on?"
The little wolf girl grabbed Kurt's arm. Without looking back, the little guy struggled forward and actually shook off Laura's grip, bursting into a cloud of dark blue smoke before vanishing.
Her chubby little face turned especially grave as she followed all the mutant students down from the school building.
From afar, among the sparsely gathered crowd, even several mutant teachers—including the acting principal, Ms. Kayla, "Silver Fox"—were being controlled by an unknown force and walking