July 2005

Jennie "Roulette" Stavros was sent to the mansion under an FBI witness protection program and Bobby Drake returned from a prolonged stay with his family. Monet St. Croix left to go to fashion school and Jake Gavin was summoned home by his father. Forge took it upon himself to find Catseye's true family and prove to her she wasn't a cat, with mixed results. Madelyn Bartlet and Hank McCoy's relationship progressed, including a visit to his family. Paige Guthrie emerged from her long isolation in the basement and her relationship with Angelo Espinosa ended. Scott Summers and Jean Grey continued to deal with her return from 'death' and re-establishing their relationship.

Nathan Dayspring continued to establish ties with his new-found father despite misgivings by himself and others and evidence of Gideon's involvement in mutant training camps in Africa. Moira MacTaggart's pregnancy progressed, with some unexpected turns, including evidence of the baby being telepathic; a strongly-worded request for consideration of this fact was taken badly by Manuel de la Rocha and generated something of a controversy. The news that the Askani were beginning to fade was also hard on the empath.

Tragedy struck Amanda Sefton, Forge and Remy LeBeau's friendship with Charlie, leaving them stunned and confused. Whilst still recovering form the loss, Amanda was called on to use the power of Limbo in an effort to save Alison Blaire's life after she was taken by Sabretooth. The lingering after-effects sparked a row with Dr. Stephen Strange which resulted in her firing him and Selene making her first overt move, which was turned aside. Alison discovered that magic does indeed have a price, being permanently scarred by the attack and dealing with the mental and emotional trauma.

Rescue missions were the flavour of the month for the X-Men, with flights to both Chad and Maine and a trip to Chicago to assist those in need. In the wake of the Chad mission, Domino stayed at the mansion to recover her strength, having been pushing herself too hard in the wake of Pete's defection. Nathan also returned to active duty after healing from the injuries he suffered at Youra and Bobby Drake was invited to return as a trainee. Jubilation Lee and Shiro Yoshida continued their training, with Shiro having his first Danger Room session.

Timeline

July 1 - The mansion gets a huge delivery of ice cream care of Bobby, leading to an outbreak of sugar highs, and Forge building a two-foot-tall attack robot to guard his share. Amanda passes her driving test. Alison tells Terry she needs more powers training, but Terry is reluctant to go to the obvious choice - Sean. Nathan goes for a few days in San Francisco, where Saul tries very hard to put him at ease. Hank and Madelyn share confessions and take the next step in their relationship.

July 2 - Scott and Jean have a peaceful talk about flying and what-ifs. Buy Now, Pay Later: Amanda has another meeting with Charlie, but it doesn't quite go to plan. Bobby comes home and is glomped by Terry and Kitty and dunked in the lake by Angelo. Later, he throws a movie night to mark his return. Nathan has another alarmingly normal conversation with Saul... who, an hour or so later, gets a markedly less reassuring phone call. Madelyn e-mails Nathan some pictures she took out at the settlement.

July 3 - Jubilee finishes her first hand-to-hand session with Haroun.

July 4 - Nathan has a precog dream about too many keys and not enough locks. The next day, he returns to the mansion and has a pointed talk with Madelyn. Madelyn becomes the main school doctor, for various reasons, and Carlie goes home. Terry organises a watergun battle in the rain.

July 5 - Family: Forge works on a private research project - finding Catseye's family - and makes progress; Forge gives Catseye his news, but she doesn't take it well. Bobby talks to Nathan about the possibility of his rejoining the team... and, later, runs into Jean and has a freakout at meeting someone who should be dead (especially because he initially thinks she's Mystique), until she calms him down. Nathan and Cain have a heated discussion about fathers and families over beer. Manuel and Dani go for a night swim. Lorna discovers Bobby's return, and enlists Jamie to help her prank him. Nathan returns to active duty.

July 6 - Terry and Jay relax by the pool and talk about future plans and their love lives. Shiro has his first Danger Room session, ended by a battering ram to the head. Hank asks permission to take on some of Jubilee's hand-to-hand training. Jubilee gets a rabbit called Georgina for her birthday, and asks Hank and Madelyn for help with training and career stuff.

July 7 - Lorna and Betsy meet at Harry's and talk about Betsy's new job and Remy. Nathan and Remy break into one of Saul's offices in search of answers, but find only a whole new set of questions... and someone unexpected.

July 8 - Following the events at Saul's office, Nathan briefs the team leaders on what happened. Scott invites Bobby to rejoin the team. Terry and Bobby are dorks, with UST. Manuel asks Nathan for a meeting with Lusanya, and is informed that the Askani are starting to disappear. Scott and Jean are cute, eat ice cream, and talk about the state of Jean's powers. Moira's unborn baby quickens. Jean and Betsy spar.

July 9 - Dani is stressed about school. Manuel and Bobby have an encounter in the kitchen, Manuel apologises, and an uneasy truce is reached. Cain runs the Eggshell Scenario one more time, and this time passes it. Buy Now, Pay Later: Amanda gets creative in apologising to Charlie and things are smoothed over. Alison and Haroun suffer colliding plans and minor panic, but it all works out in the end. Angelo tells Bobby what's going on with Paige. X-Men Mission: Mutant Mole People: Nightcrawler, Cable, Storm and Polaris head into the tunnels under Chicago to find several missing children and bring them home, and succeed to a point; Lorna expresses a certain distaste for telepaths following the tunnel mission.

July 10 - Family: Catseye comes back from trying to hide, and takes the first hesitant steps down a new path. Shiro requests another training session.

July 11 - Haroun and Nathan experiment with mid-air training. Betsy has a confrontation with Manuel in the garage. Moira discovers that the baby is telepathic when Rachel starts singing the Marseillaise at her and Nathan announces this to the school at large; Manuel reacts aggressively to the request for consideration. Nathan and Betsy meet outside and talk about the baby and Manuel. Nathan asks for the nursery to be psi-shielded. Amanda gets Manuel out of the mansion for a while. X-Men Mission: Richochet: Madelyn, on behalf of the FBI, brings the team in to help with Ricochet.

July 12 - Amanda goes looking for treatment and is disconcerted to find Hank the only one there, but they manage to be polite. Manuel comes for his lesson with Nathan, only to be told that Lusanya is fading and will disappear soon. It doesn't end well. Jubilee finds a necklace. Madelyn contacts Manuel to arrange treatment for his scrapes after the clubbing trip.

July 13 - Stigmata: Forge spends some time in the medlab spilling his guts to a non-responsive Paige. Lorna and Alex continue to plan for Hawaii and schedule a short trip to look at apartments. Manuel and Wanda talk, mostly about his reaction to Rachel. Betsy finds Jean at Harry's and they talk a little and play pool.

July 14 - Bobby organises the carpool for the release of the latest Harry Potter book. A Mirror Darkly: Domino e-mails Nathan from Chad asking for help, and he brings the team in on it.

July 15 - Alison finds Jubilee in an aggravated state over Manuel and Dani and helps her calm down enough to talk about it. Jamie and Kitty go camping for his birthday. Lockheed learns to breathe fire. Alex organises a pool party for those not reading Harry Potter.

July 16 - A Mirror Darkly: The team go out to Chad to deal with the mutant training camps. Jean lures Scott away from the comms for lunch, complete with introspection and teasing. Half a world away, after the confrontation with Gideon, Saul receives a phone call.

July 17 - A Mirror Darkly: Nathan comes back from Chad and goes upstairs to find a rather displeased Moira; Domino wakes up in the medlab to find Jean on duty, and Nathan comes by to check on her; Moira comes to see Domino with her psychologist hat on. Jean discusses the difficulties for telepaths in a house full of people all focused on one thing - Harry Potter.

July 18 - Amanda comes to visit Domino and they have an awkward conversation, firmly avoiding Certain Topics. Stigmata: Jean comes to check on Paige and ends up getting more than she can handle; Paige comes back to herself, and posts to the journals for the first time since her breakdown; Scott visits Paige, later, and they're generally adorable. Nathan and Shan talk about psionic mutations and parenthood. Buy Now, Pay Later: Remy has Jake track down Charlie's father and talks to him, in a very interesting conversation; Amanda and Remy go out to celebrate Strange's news for Charlie. Jamie and Kitty return from their vacation. Sam has a birthday. Jubilee is still irritated with the psis, especially the empaths. Shiro demands Harry Potter discussion from Bobby. Alison's anonymous record enters the charts at no. 27.

July 19 - Stigmata: Alison visits Paige and just watches her sleep; Forge comes to see Paige and brings her food. Buy Now, Pay Later: Charlie's father e-mails him, however, Charlie never reads it before a confrontation with his mother convinces him there's no hope and he commits suicide; Remy and Amanda find Charlie's body, and Amanda initially assumes his mother murdered him before being convinced otherwise; Remy brings Amanda home and gives Marie-Ange and Forge the bad news; Meggan comes looking for Amanda and finds Manuel with her and for a wonder, they both behave; Angelo finds Amanda in the rec room, later, gets her to talk about Charlie and lets her cry on him. Moira throws away the frozen medical instruments she was keeping for Pete, in a symbolic act. Forge and Kylun talk about Catseye. Jean wakes up to find Scott watching over her. Tommy enjoys a normal day. Monet leaves Xavier's for fashion school. Wanda discovers the usefulness of baby powder when your uniform is leather.

July 20 - Buy Now, Pay Later: After Charlie's death, Forge meditates on the work they did together, and makes a decision; Forge and Amanda meet on the back porch and try to make sense of things, with little success and Forge tells her he won't be working on the magic any more; Remy takes a couple of days away from the mansion. Alison and Lorna sunbathe and make plans for tennis. Jake is called back to Geneva to meet with his father. Haroun mourns James Doohan's death.

July 21 - Domino and Alison meet while Dom tries to sneak out, leading to tearful confessions and blinding migraines. Buy Now, Pay Later: Lorna comes to find Remy and discovers with him that answers aren't easy to find; Nathan goes to check on Amanda. He doesn't have any answers, but he does offer some perspective, and some advice. Miles and Haroun have a chat about his family, which leaves Haroun with a few disturbing realizations. Later on, he heads off to have a little talk with Alison about her own family, and other such small details. Stigmata: Jay visits Paige in the infirmary and they bond. Hellfire and Damnation: Alison is summoned to a meeting with Harry Leland and finds out something rather disturbing. Bobby organises a basketball match.

July 22 - After the last in a series of chess games, Nathan and Domino talk about her weekend plans, and manage to not-quite-talk about the subject that's really bothering her. Then Nathan is saved by the bell - except that the person on the other end of the cell phone is Saul, and Nathan finds out that GW did not, in fact, pass along that particular piece of news to Domino while she was in the Sudan. Whoops. Haroun takes a group of the kids to a rock concert - the Warped Tour festival. Dani is scared of flying.

July 23 - Dani tracks down Forge and gets him to talk, discovering that Charlie isn't the only crisis on his mind. Madelyn gets to meet Hank's parents, when they go to the McCoy farm with Dani and Forge. Hellfire and Damnation: The Professor takes steps to see that Alison's mission is completed by an unsuspecting Remy. Bad Blood: Alison heads into town with the intention of giving Pete the data from Leland but Sabretooth has other ideas; Alison wakes up to discover exactly how much trouble she's in and how much worse it can get; Scott gets a call from the police reporting the kidnapping - resulting in Charles Xavier turning to Cerebro, with Nathan's help; once they have a location, Scott rallies a team for the rescue as quickly as possible; Nathan and Cain talk, en route to Ryker's Island; Alison wakes up again and attempts to take stock; the rescue proceeds quickly, with some going in and some staying in the jet, and Juggernaut takes on Sabretooth, who leads them straight to Alison; Jean acts as medic while they take her to the nearest ER; finally, Scott calls Haroun and tells him to come to the hospital; Haroun comes and is greeted by Jean with bad news; Clarice comes into her own, fetching Amanda to perform a miracle, then going back to grab Illyana Rasputin as well; in Limbo, by a witch and its Queen, a miracle is performed.

July 24 - Bad Blood: Amanda wakes from the spell backlash and is reassured by Jean; it comes out that Manuel shared Amanda's nightmares the previous night, and is having a bad nosebleed for related reasons; Scott gets a follow-up call from the police, and Nathan and Haroun watch over Alison and, finally, she wakes up; Scott comes home and he and Jean share comfort; Bobby goes to see Scott and demands more information about the previous night's mission, but doesn't get in; Alison goes back to her quarters and learns the hard way that magic doesn't always heal all; Jean and Nathan meet out on the lawn and reflect on the events of the night before and the implications for both of them. Madelyn and Hank get the news and discuss what's to be done before settling on... nothing, for the moment. Kyle and Forge go rafting on the lake and talk about Catseye.

July 25 - Lorna sends Alison an orchid. The group return from the McCoy farm. X-Men Mission: Mercy Flight: Moira gets a call from an old patient whose powers have slipped out of control, and swings into action. Haroun and Alison have some time in the sun. Lorna comes to visit Alison, bringing news, and Alison manages to pretend the only thing wrong is Lorna's impending departure. Bad Blood: Nathan is invited for tea and a debriefing with the Professor; Scott stops by for a brief visit with Alison and they talk about nothing much; Jean tells Scott she wants back on the team; Illyana snarls at Clarice on the journals for teleporting her without permission, and lets a few things slip about what happened, getting them both called into Scott's office; Scott and Illyana then have a Talk about her failure to follow instructions, and he grounds her for two weeks; Alison finally breaks down at the realization that the scars on her back are real, and so is what caused them.

July 26 - Paige and Amanda square off and come to an astoundingly Zen solution to their spat earlier in the year. Clarice and Angelo have a talk about Charlie and his non-coping, but Angelo's still being distant. Manuel and Kitty sunbathe and he tries to make her feel better without using his empathy. It doesn't go very well. Madelyn goes to New York to meet a young mutant named Jennie Stavros and bring her back to the mansion. Nathan meets Saul for lunch, fails to hide his suspicion, gives in to temptation on several levels and makes Saul very happy. Forge gets to give Jennie the grand tour. Lorna has some questions for Haroun about Alison, and is not reassured by the answers. Terry plays music for a napping Catseye. Catseye finds Dani outside and is talked at. Jennie meets Manuel, and they get on surprisingly well. Clarice and Scott discuss her punishment for the incident with Illyana on the journals, and her problems. Dani asks Alison about getting back into Tai Chi.

July 27 - Family: Catseye finally comes to a decision, and goes to Forge with a very serious request. Bad Blood: Nathan encounters Alison face-to-face for the first time since the kidnapping, and gets her to relax a little; Alison goes for a walk by the lake, is surreptitiously followed by Terry and talks to Cain; Haroun takes some time out to try to deal with the enormity of fixing Alison, and Nathan helps as he can; Cain finds Scott in the situation room to ask why they weren't allowed to kill Sabretooth. Angelo makes a long-overdue visit to Paige, and what's left of their relationship comes to a quiet end. Afterwards, Manuel offers some sympathy and Amanda finds Angelo smoking on the roof and they talk - about his plans to leave the mansion, among other things. Still later, Meggan comes looking for him to offer fuzzy-little-girl hugs. Bobby goes down to visit Paige and all goes well until they start talking about the fact that he's living in Jono's old room. Manuel translates Baby Got Back into Latin for the hell of it.

July 28 - Bad Blood: Jean meets with her old friend David Rosenberg and they discuss their mutual patient - Alison - and miraculous recoveries in general. X-Men Mission: Mercy Flight: The team go out to pick up Amber Hunt, Moira's patient with the out-of-control powers; it doesn't all go to plan, however, as the Blackbird is hit by a freak storm and has to make an emergency landing; unfortunately, said landing breaks Amber's containment chamber and she has to be allowed out to keep her calm while Forge tries to repair it; he doesn't have as much luck as might be hoped, but Ororo is able to provide lightning for a power source; then they resume the flight to Muir, Jubilee talking to Amber and teaching her breathing exercises to soothe her; Forge meets Curt Connors on Muir and they bond on several scores; on returning, Forge immediately starts redesigning the jet. Bobby begs for an end to Jamie's pranks.

July 29 - Sam finds Domino skinny-dipping, blushes a lot, then agrees to fly her back to her window. Bad Blood: Lorna starts to learn what's wrong with Alison, and gets a look at the scars. Nathan and Moira fly off to Muir so she can help with Amber's treatment. Moira sits down with Curt and Amber and finds a relatively easy answer to the problem of the young woman's powers. Amanda and Meggan make up for a lapse in friendship by making Angelo a birthday cake for the event he missed the previous week. Nathan gets another kick in the head from his precog. Catseye and Kylun go to war against Forge and his portable hurricane generator, and the Professor gets caught in the middle of it. The mini-squid gets attached to Catseye's tail, to her displeasure. Sam crashlands on the lawn while flying.

July 30 - Alison pushes too hard at training, and this time Haroun pays the price. An Offer You Can Refuse: Amanda goes to Strange's class as if nothing happened, but he has other opinions. It's all downhill from there. And then Selene makes her an offer, which is refused. Jay decides to see if he can't help Forge deal with his issues. He doesn't really get very far, but then they go and watch movies.

July 31 - Strange comes by to give Wanda the news that he leaves for Kuala Lumpur in a few hours and to say goodbye. Paige and Alison take a moment away from the mansion, and find a balance of a sort.

Plots:

Stigmata

X-Men Mission: Ricochet

X-Men Mission: Mutant Mole People

X-Men Mission: A Mirror Darkly

Buy Now, Pay Later

Bad Blood

X-Men Mission: Mercy Flight

An Offer You Can Refuse

External Links

July 2005