Wow, it's been over a month since I've last updated! I've just been having a lot of stressful days at the summer camp that I'm working at (cleaning up diarrhea is NOT FUN!) . I feel extremely bad, but I'm glad everyone still likes this story. I hope this chapter is up to everyone's expectations, and I'd love to hear what you all have to say about it!

CHAPTER SIX;
THE CODENAMES PART 1

There were seven of them, all of them sitting in the Rec Room. Night time had fallen, and although Effie wanted nothing more then to curl up in her hardened bed, and sleep, early that afternoon, Charles had talked her, and the others, into spending quality time with each other, to help work as a team.

Effie was currently sitting on the far end of one of the sofas, curled up with her sketchbook and color pencils. Raven was sitting next to her, with Hank on her other side. A blonde boy – Alex, Effie remembered – was sitting on the other side of her, in the chair, while the red headed boy – Sean - sat across from him, and Angel, & Darwin were sitting on the other couch. Effie hadn't had much contact with the others; she had only been there for a day, and most of the time was spent in her own room, or when she was forced to be social, she talked with Hank and Raven. She had talked with Mari once, but they hadn't talked much. As soon as Charles and Erik had arrived to the headquarters with Mari in tow, Charles and Mari had gone off. Erik had told her and the others that it wasn't anything serious; Mari was just another telepath, and Charles was helping her block out 'all the voices in her head,' and that they weren't to be disturbed. In fact, Effie had probably seen Mari for a total of an hour that day; Charles was eager to help Mari control her powers, and learn at least the basics. Mari was at a disadvantage – while the others could at least control their powers on the basic level, Mari seemed to have no control. It was like a whirlwind in her mind; Effie had actually woken up once or twice the night before, because of Mari's wild projections into others minds. So yes, Effie hadn't really gotten the chance to talk to the raven-haired girl all that much.

But now, here she was with the rest of them, drinking coke and root beer, talking about nothing in particular. If you had just happened to be passing by, you would've thought they were a group of friends, catching up with the hustle and bustle of every day life.

"We should come up with codenames," Raven said, causing Effie to look up at her, "we're government agents now. We need codenames."

"I want to be Mystique," she added with a raise of the brow and a smile.

"Damn," the ginger – Sean – jokingly said, "I wanted to be called Mystique!"

The blonde shape shifter gave a coy smile as she crossed her legs, blue pin like things traveling all across her body as it transformed. Everyone laughed and clapped in awe as the watched her body, finishing it's transformation into the same red head that had been poking fun at her moments before. It was a perfect copy – the same shaggy red hair, cocky smile, and relaxed attitude the actual Sean had been wearing.

"Tough luck," Raven replied in the same, husky voice that Sean had, "I called it. Plus, I'm way more mysterious then you are…"

The applauding continued as she shifted back into her normal form.

"Alright, Darwin," Raven said, looking over at the taxi driver, "what about you?"

"Well, Darwin's already a nickname," he said with a smile and a shrug, "I mean, adapt for survival and all. Here, watch."

Effie watched with curiosity as the man walked over to the fish tank behind the couch. She grasped as the man dunked his head into the water, and she had to bite her bottom lip to keep herself from saying something. However, after watching gills grow on his neck, she instantly relaxed. Actually, she was rather impressed; these other mutants were turning out to have pretty cool powers.

"I want to be Banshee," Sean called out as everyone calmed down from the excitement of Darwin's powers.

"Why do you want the name of a wailing spirit?" Hank asked. A small smile appeared on Sean's face.

"You might want to cover your ears," he said as he got up from his seat, and knelt down to the table, where two empty glasses were sitting. Instinctively, Effie brought her hands up to her ears. However, the others were more reluctant then she, though they did it all the same.

Sean took a deep breath in, looking at each of the other mutants with a small smirk. He looked back at the glasses just for a second, before he let out a high-pitched scream. Startled, Effie had jumped a bit for the second time that night.

But, instead of hitting the glasses like everyone had thought, he directed his voice to hit the large, glass window, shattering it into a million tiny pieces.

After applauding Sean's performance, they all silently looked at Angel; apparently they were going in a row, and it was her turn to go.

"Well, my stage name is Angel, so..." the African American girl said as she stood up. She quickly took off her small jacket, revealing the tattoo on her shoulders and upper arms. She stood there for a moment, before the tattoo started to come to life, turning into actual wings. She started floating the top, her wings flapping furiously.

"You can fly?" Raven asked in astonishment. Angel nodded with a playful smile.

"Yeah, but that's not all."

The young, flying mutant turned towards the now opened window, and decided to spit towards a golden statue a few yards away. Effie's eyes got big as the spit made a sizzling noise, burning part of the statue's head. Acid spit. What a peculiar talent.

"What about you, Hank?" Effie asked, looking over at the boy on the other end of the couch. She knew he was super strong, and that his feet weren't like most others, but other then that, Effie had really no idea what his powers meant.

"We should call you something like Bigfoot…" Alex replied.

"Well," Raven said, sarcasm dripping from her voice, "you know what they say about guys with big feet, and um… yours look kind of small…"

Everyone started laughing at Alex's expense, but even Alex had to admit that that was kind of funny; never had he met a girl like Raven, who had enough guts to say something like that to him.

"What can you do, Alex," Darwin asked, looking over at the blonde haired boy sitting in the chair. His smile faltered, and he looked down at the soda in his hands.

"It's nothing, I mean, I just …" he stammered, "I can't do it in here…"

"Well, then," Darwin stated, gesturing to the broken window, and the statue that now had acid spit on his head, "do it out there."

Alex said nothing, but shook his head and continued to look down at his soda. But that didn't stop the others from starting to chant his name over and over again, each time louder then the one before. Even the meek and mild mannered Effie couldn't help but join in on the chanting, letting all the tension and worry go. She could finally feel like a normal person, something her powers had kept her from doing for a very long time.

Finally, Alex rolled his eyes, and got up, heading over to the window, where he climbed out, and went to one side of the yard. All the other mutants made their way to the window, where they poked their head out to get a glimpse of what he was about to do. Effie managed to huddle in between Raven and Angel, getting a good spot so she could watch what was about to unfold.

"Get back," Alex growled. And for a few moments, they had all listened to him. Though, after a few moments, all the other mutants stuck their heads out again to see what was going on.

"I said get back!" Alex barked. Although this time, no one seemed to really care enough to listen. They all stayed right where they were, as if they were statues in a park. Alex just rolled his eyes.

"Fine, whatever." He mumbled, aiming his focus back onto the statue. He took a deep breath. He started to move his hips and arms in rhythmic circles. Red energy started circling around his body, and after a few seconds he threw his arm out, and the circles of red energy left his body, shooting out in all directions. There were three rings; the first two went off in some odd direction, cutting off part of a tree, or grazing the edge of a bench. The third one, however, sliced the golden statue in half, the top of it sliding down onto the ground like a pancake falling off a spatula.

Everyone stared in awe as he climbed back into the room. Effie, however, went a bit pale; while everyone's power seemed dangerous, Effie could tell Alex's power was … raw. And she was extremely scared of that. It was obvious that he still had a lot to learn, but she could tell that there was much more then that. He seemed to be afraid of himself, and all the havoc he could create. She questioned herself; why trust a boy who can't even trust himself?

"So, what about you, Blondie?"

Effie looked up at Alex, who was now standing next to her; his typical bad boy smirked was plastered on his face. Her face got bright red, and she sat back down in the couch. Her sketchbook was lying on the ground, in between the couch, and the chair that Alex had just sat in.

"My powers are nothing, compared to you all…" She mumbled, looking down at her hands.

"Oh, come on, Effie," Raven said as she sat, "your power's are pretty kick ass."

"Yeah," Hank replied, "your powers are extraordinary!"

"Come on, Effie," Angel pleaded, "show us what you've got."

A small smile played on her face as her face got even an even brighter shade of red. She quickly reached down, and picked up her sketchpad. She silently flipped through the pages of her book; she wanted to impress her new friends, and she wasn't quite sure how to do it.

Finally, she flipped to a page with a picture of a field of purple flowers. She closed her eyes, the picture of the flowers at the front of her mind. She took a breath in, and opened her eyes; the flowers were no longer in the picture in front of her, but instead they were actually real.

Purple flowers flooded the room; they were all over the floor, and on top of the furniture; everyone else seemed to be holding at least two dozens of these flowers. They were everywhere.

"You can … make flowers appear," Alex sarcastically asked. Effie rolled her eyes.

"No, I can make my art … come to life; it's called 'art animation,' I think… At least, that's what Charles says it's called. I really don't know much about it… I try not to use it, if I can help it," the young blonde replied with a shrug.

"Well, we should call you 'Paintbrush' then," Sean said with a goofy smile. Effie thought about that for a moment, before deciding that she liked it. It had a nice ring to it – at least it was better then something like 'Pencil' or 'Sketch-Pad' or anything like that, so she figured she lucked out with the name.

Effie had never been the 'nickname' kind of girl; her name had always been short enough, and those who did want to be clever, called her Eff, like the letter 'F.' No, Effie did not particularly like the nickname though, and thought nicknames in general were a bit pointless… But, she had to admit, for a codename, 'Paintbrush' was an all right nickname.

"And Alex can be Havoc," she said instantly, looking over at the blonde haired boy, "Except... I think it should be spelled with a 'K' instead of a 'C.' It ... feels right to me if it's spelled that way..."

"Havok with a K," Alex replied with a smile, "I like it..."

Okay, so, again, the ending seems a bit rushed to me... BLECK, I'm to tired right now to fix it, but one day when I have enough time, I'll go through this, and edit it. Don't forget the two questions; 1.) If you were to cast two people for the roles of Mari & Effie, who would you pick? 2.) What would you guys think if I put the first two chapters together?