"It gives a very echo to the seat Where love is throned."

"Thou...dost speak masterly. My life upon...it? Uh...young though...thou art, thine - is that even a word?"

"Rainbow, please stop questioning Shakespeare's lexicon and read the lines." Amber was starting to get wound up.

"What's a..." I began.

"A lexicon is a catalogue of words, now can we please..."

"Ok! Ok!" I threw up my hands up to ward off her anger, but I was smiling. I couldn't take Amber seriously when she went all prima donna at me - which happened a lot now she'd landed the part of Viola. I cleared my throat and began to read as over-dramatically and loudly as I could.

"Too old, by heaven! Let still the women take An elder than herself: so wears she to him; So sways she level in her husbands heart: For, boy, however we do praise ourselves, Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, More longing, wavering, sooner lost and won, Than women's are."

People had turned round to stare at us, and Amber had begun to laugh so loudly that Miss Stevens, the librarian, had poked her head around the nearest book shelf and given us a glare that could have melted iron. Amber clapped her hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter.

"Sorry!" I whispered loudly at her. She rolled her eyes and disappeared again. I smirked at Amber, who punched me in the arm.

"OW!" I yelled, then clapped my hand over my mouth too.

"Shh!" She hissed, and we both tried to laugh as silently as we could.

"Thinking of upgrading from Stage Manager to stage star are you Rainbow?" came a voice from behind us. We turned around to see the twins, Kara and Maria, heading towards us, arm in arm. It was Kara who'd spoken.

"Actually, I was trying to get on with some work when our leading lady here begged me to practice her lines with her." I said, waving my Mutant Sociology folder as proof.

"Cassie booked the drama studio out all day for her stupid sorority meeting tonight. It didn't start until 8, but she'd been in there for hours - how much preparation does she need?" Amber said, sulkily. She hated the idea of anyone tainting her precious space.

"It takes a lot of effort for her to look that bad." Maria said, and everyone laughed.

"Anyway, we came here to invite you to our birthday party in our dorm on Friday, the 13th of December..." Kara began, but Amber cut her short.

"Birthday party?" She was using her stage voice. Maria and Kara shushed her frantically.

"It's a secret!" Kara hissed. "If the teachers found out we'd be in a lot of trouble. Anyway, do come it's going to be a lot of fun, and invite Kat, Holly and Joe too. Especially Joe..."

Suddenly, Maria jabbed her sister in the ribs. "Shut up!" She hissed.

"What?" Smiled Kara, "It's not like you were going to say anything. I'm just doing you a favour in making sure the boy you like is..."

"We'll make sure we invite them, don't worry." I said, trying to spare Maria the embarrassment her sister was laying upon her. She was blushing fiercely.

"See you later guys." She mumbled quickly, before half running away, dragging Kara, waving and smiling, behind her.

"I knew it!" Amber exclaimed, the minute they were out of sight. "I knew she had a crush on him!"

"You? I was the one who mentioned it in drama class A!" Amber shrugged. "I still totally knew it though. We HAVE to drop the hint to Holly, this is the motivation she needs to tell Joe..." But she saw me shaking my head.

"No way. I am so done with messing in other peoples relationships, it only ends in tears. We can both vouch for that." Amber looked a little downcasted, but I knew she was admitting to herself I was right.

I hadn't seen Sam for weeks. He'd been on a two week training program with some of the older students at an Academy in the US. I was glad in a way. Seeing his face, and him not seeing mine made my heart sink to the bottom of my stomach. This time away had given it the chance to rise up a little again.

"Fine. I see your point. Ok, I'm calling it a night - I've got PD first thing with Eldrin, and trust me when I say intense doesn't even start to...what?" I was giving her a look.

"Uh, hello? You're talking to the girl who has PD with mad Motus?"

The extra sessions Fulmen had scheduled for me with Motus were, to put it lightly, not my favourite part of the day.

Amber gave me a pained expression. "Sorry Rainbow. See you later if I'm still up when you get in. If not, wake me and I'll kill you!" She said cheerily, and floated off through the book cases and out of the library.

I wanted nothing more than to join her, but I was due to pitch my Sociology project to Fulmen first thing tomorrow morning - and I still hadn't found the mutant rights activist I wanted to study yet.

Books have never been my thing. Especially books of the big, thick and heavy variety. Unfortunately, the Academy library only stocked books of the big, thick and heavy variety, three of which were sat on the table in front of me - untouched as they had been for two hours. I sighed heavily and heaved one of them towards me. I read the title: For Equality: Mutant Rights Activists of the 20th Century.

Yawn.

Why did these people have to make something so ground-breaking, important and exciting so...boring? I couldn't connect with anyone's story's. It was all facts and figures and glorious transformations from human-haters to human companions. Sidekicks to great political leaders - a great achievement in it's own right, but to me it was just a reminder of mutant inferiority. These people gave up their morals of mutant equality the moment they were offered a position next to a powerful human - that wasn't something to be celebrated, it was a sign of weakness.

Suddenly my head gave a twinge of pain. It was surprising - I hadn't had a headache since the episode in the city, my sessions with Motus had been good for something at least. Then it happened again, a two second flash of dull, deep pain. It was far from the pain I'd experienced before, and by the third flash I was growing accustomed to it. I blinked, and realised something was different. I looked down and realised I'd closed the book in front of me. When had I done that? Another flash, and I was walking through the library, towards a shelf I hadn't been to. My hand outstretched, I picked up a book and walked back to my seat. The headache was becoming a constant, quiet pain. I didn't recognise the title of this book - it wasn't on the reading list, so how had I known to pick it up? Nevertheless, something guided me through to the chapter entitled: MRG - In the beginning: The real story. This, sounded more promising. I blinked, and saw that my finger was pointing to a certain section, a certain name.

Adam Wycaster.

'Adam 'Lothar' Wycaster was one of the founding members of the Mutant Rights Group - or MRG, alongside Harold 'Sprint' Wardley-Smith and Amelia 'Enigma' Jenkins - who remain the two figureheads of the MRG's rise to fame.'

Sprint and Enigma, as they named themselves were names I'd read and heard a hundred times in connection with the MRG - but if this 'Lothar' was one of the founders, why hadn't I heard of him?

'Though quite possibly one of the most important mutants in history, Lothar has been shunned out of the history books by his peers and their followers. Why? For not giving in.'

This was it. This was what I'd been looking for. Lothar's story started out just as the others had done - campaigned for rights, joined the war effort, fought valiantly but taken prisoner and experimented on. Lothar was a regenerator, meaning he was subjected to hours, weeks, months of ceaseless torture to test his regenerative limits, as well as being put through agonising experiments from the Nazi government to try and extract his ability, in the hope of creating an ultimate weapon. They failed of course, and eventually removed most of his brain and left him for dead in a concentration camp.

For most of the activists I'd read about, that was where it ended. But Lothar's brain regenerated, and so did his memories. He killed every Nazi guard he laid his hands on, and escaped with the other mutants in their capture. Together they fought as Mutants, for Mutants. There was no England vs. Germany for them, they did what they thought was right for the better of mutant-kind. It wasn't glorious, but it was real, and it meant something.

Yes.

I felt a fire burning through me as I read Lothar's story. He and his group were captured and punished for crimes against humanity, by the very mutants they'd fought for. Lothar himself was imprisoned for life - all because he didn't give up his morals for a shot at fame and fortune. It was wrong.

I'd found my muse, at last.

I spent the next few hours pouring over the chapter - the only book which even mentioned my new hero. I'd have so much to tell Fulmen tomorrow, I could barely contain my excitement. This was the first time I'd really felt something since we'd first learnt about MRG, that first Mutant Sociology lesson when I'd felt the blood and fire and noise that connected so clearly with Lothar's story. The anger shared with thousands before me. Blood and fire, and a cloud of red smoke. My head throbbed.

Then I walked straight into him, and everything vanished to the pit of my stomach.