Question Sted X1 - Roommates

All rights reserved, except for those ceded to the Whateley Academy Author’s Group.

This is fan fiction for the Whateley Academy series. It may or may not match the timeline, characters, and continuity, but since it's fan fiction, who cares?

This is an out-of-continuity story about Sted "Ponygirl" Lancaster. The entire series, at least at the present time, is:

*Pegasus (v4)
* * * Deleted scenes
*Welcome to Whitman
*Fragment from It's A Bird!
*To Train a Ponygirl
*Aftermath
*Ponygirl's Combat Final (game to come)
*What I did on my Christmas Vacation (second edition)
*Lizards (in preparation)
*Fashion Note
*Aspidistra (Version 2)
*Wine Dark Sea

Out of continuity:

*Roommates <<<=====

This is a quick scene that takes place right after the Birthday Brawl. It’s absolutely guaranteed to have nothing whatever to do with either the canon continuity or the continuity in the rest of the Sted stories.



January 28, 2007 5:30 PM

The unmarked Boston Police Department car bounced along the rutted dirt road. Vamp scowled at the snow-covered trees which were all she’d seen for the last couple of miles since they’d gone over the covered bridge leaving the sad excuse for a town. Then she noted a blue Regional Trauma Center sign with an arrow pointing to a turn-off.

That turned out to be a modern, or at least reasonably smooth, two lane blacktop.

“How much longer?”

“Last leg,” Sgt. Snodgrass said. “It’s only a couple more miles.”

Vamp’s eyes widened. “What was that?”

“What?”

“Something felt ... strange. Just a moment.”

The sergeant shrugged, not taking his hands from the wheel. “Dunno. Briefing said this part of the country is weird. Looks like it.”

“Should be.” The road went through a tall stone fence with, of all things, watching blank faced gargoyles.

The sergeant pulled up a copied map. “Should turn here and now here. Looks like the picture. You’ve got the folder.”

“Yeah. You know where to dump the bags.” Vamp got out of the car and slammed the door. The sign said “Shuster Hall”, just like it said on the instructions.

Administration was easy enough to find. When Vamp walked in, the place was almost empty except for two girls standing in front of a railing where a hatchet-faced woman sat behind a desk.

One of the girls was about five feet tall with spiky jet-black hair. Her jacket and slacks looked like they’d been tailored just for her, and looked like they covered a body that no high school freshman should have. Even from the back, she looked somehow familiar.

The other girl was about 5’ 6”, with a blazing red mohawk, horses ears and a tail. She wore the same jacket with a knee-length black pleated skirt that had to be a school uniform. The western style leather boots that came up to her knees, on the other hand, couldn’t possibly be regulation.

Neither could the lizard that sat on her shoulder, head poked back to look at the new arrival.

The two girls turned to look at her, separating so she could walk up.

“Miss O’Brien,” the woman behind the desk said. “I’m Ms. Hartford, the Assistant to the Headmistress. You’ve got the paperwork?”

Vamp handed her the folder. Ms. Hartford flipped through it rapidly.

“Good. Here’s your welcome packet. Ms. Goodkind is on your left; she’ll show you around and introduce you and take you to dinner. She lives on the other side of the corridor from you. Ms. Landcaster is your new roommate. She’s just moving from another cottage. She’ll get the room ready and make sure your stuff is there.”

“Hi.” Vamp said. “Do I know you?” she asked the smaller girl.

“We haven’t been formally introduced,” Phase said. “The first time we met, I pounded you into the ground with Matterhorn. Yesterday I managed to clock you right away.”

“Scat.” Ms. Hartford said.

“Just a sec,” Phase said.

“Now what?”

“Do we know if the Admiral is going to want her in Team Tactics for the debrief tomorrow morning?”

“Why ... Good thought.” She turned to her computer. Her fingers blurred, the keyboard making a sound like a buzz saw.

“Now, scat!”


“So this is Sky High,” Vamp said as the three girls walked out.

“Since I’m supposed to show you around, no, this is not Sky High,” Phase said. “I’ll leave the speech for your counselor tomorrow. For right now, the Administration is adamant that Whateley Academy is to train young mutants in the use of their powers and how to survive. It is not a superhero training school. It’s supposed to be neutral; most of us are not going to be heros or villains when we leave.”

“Yeah, tell me another one.”

The other girl laughed. “It’s true. You just walked into it. Team Kimba,” she jerked her finger at Phase, “is notorious. With two exceptions, they’re also the only kids on campus that are properly deputized police auxiliaries.”

“The others?”

“Me.” She jerked a finger at herself. “I’m Ponygirl. From Topika. The other one is Carmilla.”

“You met her the first fight we had,” Phase said. “She’s the one that put you out.”

“She’s the Necromancer’s niece?”

“Yep,” Phase said. “Deep One on his side, Great Old One on her father’s. She’s got her own worldwide sex cult under the name of The Kellith.”

Vamp gulped.

Phase led the group out toward a statue in the middle of the quad. “There’s got to be a law that every school has to have a statue of the founder. This guy is Noah Whateley, who founded the school back in the 19th century. It collapsed in the early 60s for lack of interest, and never turned out anyone notable. A consortium of superheros and supervillans took it over, and here we are.”

“Has anyone done anything with it?”

“Not that I’ve heard,” Phase said.

“It’s warded to a fare-thee-well,” Ponygirl added.

“We’ll skip the Homer Gallery. You’re supposed to see it your first day, but unless someone comes in to open it we’ll wait for tomorrow.”

“Won’t Lord Paramount object?” Ponygirl asked.

“He can take it up with the Headmistress.”

“Lord Paramount? What’s he got to do with the school?”

“He’s one of the major donors,” Ponygirl said. “You’re supposed to see a picture of him posing like Napoleon and looking up at a bust of Dracula on your first day.”

“Oh. Kay. Where is everything?”

Ponygirl took a quick look at the flagpole. “It’s a green flag, so I can take you up — if you don’t have a fear of heights.”

“You can take me up?”

“Yep. Grab my hand and don’t let go.”

A moment later the two of them fell into the sky, and then stopped about a hundred feet up. Phase drifted up next to them.

“You turned up the heat?”

“Hey. I’m a mutant.”

“Just north,” Phase said, “that big geodesic dome thing is the Crystal Hall. It’s normally the school cafeteria, but right now it’s closed for renovations.”

“Everyone who can get a pass to go to town does,” Ponygirl added.

“It’s that bad?”

“The Crystal Hall is excellent,” Ponygirl said. Phase snorted. “Dunn Hall over there is crowded like a peddler’s pack. That big building that looks like it’s got to be an out of place hospital is one. It’s Doyle Medical Center, and it’s the regional trauma center. I’ve never figured out what it’s doing here.”

“And,” Phase continued, “that cylinder thing is the observatory. Next to it is Kane Hall, with Security, labs and classrooms.”

“Looking south,” Phase said, “That first building that looks like a hotel is Melville cottage. That’s where the kids with delusions of being upper class live. Too much money, not enough class.”

Ponygirl laughed.

“Delusions?” Alex asked.

Ponygirl pointed with her free hand. “Ayla bought Marvel Comics last Monday. The whole company, movie rights and all.”

“Shit!”

Phase laughed. “South, nestled in the hollow, is Poe Cottage. You and Pony have a corner room on the second floor.”

“Cold much?”

Phase laughed. “If you’ve got the money, we can fix it up.”

“Not to worry,” Sted said. “The fact that I’m weatherproof doesn’t mean I like being cold!”

“Moving on,” Phase said, “The building behind it is Hawthorn Cottage. That’s where all the kids that need medical support, or are a danger to themselves or others, live.”

“Oh. Kay.”

“It’s also where they send you for detention if you’re caught fighting,” Ponygirl added. “You can get major cred with the Admin if you want to be a big sister to some of them.”

“Does anyone?”

“Phase’s entire team. I do. A couple of others. Most kids think detention there is somewhere between Purgatory and Hell.”

“That’s deliberate,” Phase said. “Now to the Northeast we’ve got the girl’s wing. The first cottage is Dickinson, the second is Whitman. Moving right along, to the northwest we’ve got the boys’ wing. The first cottage is Emerson, the second one is Twain.”

“The inner ring is for the pretties,” Ponygirl said. “That’s kids that look normal, or close enough. The outer ring is mixed pretties, GSD and others.”

“Poe is actually more pretties than otherwise. We’ve got several mild GSD cases on the floor, but Ponygirl is going to be the most extreme.”

“Mrs. Savage mentioned something about a change in the wind when she told me I was moving. Didn’t say what.”

“Just as well, there’ll be enough questions at the house meeting tonight,” Phase said. “That’s enough for right now. We need to get to Kane Hall so Security can make her tunnel pass.”

“OK. Down we go.” Ponygirl and Vamp dropped like a rocket assisted rock.

Vamp gulped and turned green. “Did you have to?”

“Hey, that’s Verdant’s color,” Phase said.

Pony laughed. “I’ll make sure our stuff is in the room. See you at dinner or after.” She shimmered a moment and vanished.

Vamp took a deep breath to steady herself. “What’s with her?”

Phase shrugged. “Kids with GSD deal with it in one of two ways. Either they try to hide, or they’ve got a lot of At. Ti. Tude.”