AUTHOR: Jamie August

SUMMARY: Um. The X-Men run into a mutant whose powers make them all switch bodies! It gets especially interesting when the Brotherhood gets involved . . .

DISCLAIMER: If they were mine, I'd be a whole heck of a lot richer. Amanda is mine; everyone else has to go back to Marvel when I'm done. Boo. Also, just so I cover every base here, I was already a chapter into this thing when I decided to check and see if anyone else had written anything similar, since body-switching isn't exactly the most original concept in the world (I, in fact, got this idea after watching an episode of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids where everyone ended up in someone else's body. Every TV show has done this at some point. I have a list! I think my personal fave was Farscape. Really, Chiana in D'Argo's body was absolutely hilarious . . . but I digress.). Anyway, imagine my horror when I found a story called "So Into You" by InterNutter (I think) where Kurt and Kitty switched bodies! Eek! But after reading it, I realized mine was different enough to proceed with. (I hope.) Anyway, I just wanted to make it known that I didn't intentionally rip anyone's idea. This just proves two points: 1) Great minds think alike, and 2) There really isn't anything new under the sun!

FEEDBACK: My back is starving! I still answer all email! [email protected]

A/N: For some reason, FFN isn't registering my italics or bold print. Therefore, everything I would have normally italicized is now underlined instead. If anyone has any theories about why FFN is wiping out my italics in every single format (even HTML), email me and let me know.

SWITCHED!

Chapter 1: "The Nightmare Begins"

It was nighttime in Bayville. The woods were quiet, disturbed only occasionally by the croak of a frog or the hoot of an owl. Suddenly the peaceful night air was broken by footsteps crashing through the woods. A young teenage girl ran into a clearing and paused, listening for footsteps behind her. In a tree above, an owl hooted. The girl jumped, startled by the sound, and a shimmering bubble of light shot out from her. The giant bubble passed through the tree and hit the owl, along with an unfortunate frog that had hopped to the base of the trunk. Without a backward glance, the girl took off running again.

The owl and the frog looked at each other.

"Hoo-hoo?" questioned the frog.

"Ribbit!" replied the owl.

X X X X X X X

"Hey, wait a minute!" Evan yelled, jumping over a fallen tree limb. "Come back here! We're on your side! We want to help! You're a mutant and so are we!"

"You might want to work on your sales pitch, Spyke," Kitty panted as she ran past him.

The rest of the teenage X-Men followed close on her heels, chasing the new mutant Cerebro had detected just that night. The professor's mutant detection system had informed them that the mutant's name was Amanda Jensen, and she was fifteen years old. Unfortunately, that was all Cerebro had been able to tell them. They had no idea what her power was. And since she'd taken off running as soon as she'd seen the X-Men, it didn't seem they'd be finding out any time soon.

"She went this way!" Scott called. "Come on!"

Now in front, Scott led the others on a zig-zagging course through the woods. They ran into another clearing. It was surrounded by dense forest and huge fallen tree trunks. On the far side of the clearing, Amanda was searching the underbrush for a passable escape route. Not finding one, she turned and glared at the X-Men.

"What do you freaks want with me?"

Jean stepped forward. "We just want to talk to you. We're from a place where you can learn to develop and control your powers."

"Yeah, whatever they may be," Rogue muttered.

"I don't need your help!" Amanda yelled. Another shimmering bubble formed around her and then traveled toward the X-Men. Not caring to watch the damage it was about to cause, Amanda ducked under a half-fallen tree and disappeared into the woods once again.

Before the X-Men had a chance to react, the bubble crashed into them with a bright flash of light. A cloud of dizziness and disorientation settled over their heads, knocking them to the ground. As he landed, Scott's visor flew off.

The X-Men were out cold.

Rogue was the first to recover a few moments later. With her eyes still closed, she rolled over on her side and tried to shake the weird feeling from her head. She could hear the others beginning to stir around her, so she opened her eyes.

A laser-bolt of red light shot out in front of her.

"Scott!" someone exclaimed. "Close your eyes; your shades fell off!"

Was that my voice? Rogue wondered. She knew she hadn't spoken, but it had sounded an awful lot like her own voice!

"Scott!" the voice that sounded like Rogue's shouted again.

"What?" Jean's cranky voice responded.

Beginning to get a horrible idea of what might be going on, Rogue closed her eyes and waited until she felt a pair of shades being slipped on her face. She then opened her eyes and squinted through the red tint at her own face staring down at her.

"Oh, no," she moaned. "Who are you?"

"Uh-oh," the person who looked and sounded like Rogue said. "Guys, I think Scott has amnesia."

"What? No I don't," Jean said. "What are you talking about?"

"Nevermind!" Rogue grabbed the shoulder of the person who looked like her. "Just tell me who you are, all right?"

"I'm Jean."

Evan laughed. "Yeah, right. Have you, like, looked in the mirror lately? You're Rogue."

"What? No, I'm -" she stopped as she spotted Jean's body a few feet away. "No! That's not possible! Who's in my body?"

"In your body? What are you talking about, Rogue? I'm Scott."

"She's not Rogue! I am!"

Jean's eyes widened as she saw Scott trying to climb to his feet. "No! What are you doing in my body?"

"Hey, wait a minute!" Evan interrupted, staring down at his arms. "Am I Evan?"

"No, I am!" Kurt exclaimed, then stopped cold. A puzzled look crossed his face. "Hey, why do I have a German accent?"

Evan zeroed in on Kitty. "You! Who are you?"

"I'm Kurt." Kitty looked down at herself, taking in the tight-fitting X-Men uniform. Her eyebrows shot nearly off the top of her head. "Or maybe not."

"Oh, no." The X-Men stared at one another. Each one was staring at one person more intensely than the others. The common thoughts running through their minds were, What's going on? How did this happen? And, Is that really what I look like?

Finally the shocked silence was broken by Jean (or was it really Scott?). "Well, now I guess we know what Amanda Jensen's power is."

X X X X X X X

"Hold it. Let me see if I've got this straight." Back at the Institute, Logan shook his head and pointed at the teenage X-Men. "You're telling us this kid can make people switch bodies?"

They nodded miserably.

"And all of you have, in fact, switched bodies with one another?" Professor Xavier asked.

They nodded again.

"And I'd like my body back sometime soon, if that's okay!" Evan stamped his foot and a spike flew across the room, impaling an innocent sofa cushion. "Oops."

"Which one are you again?" Logan asked.

"I'm Kitty!"

Logan raised an eyebrow and looked down at the professor. "Maybe we should make them wear nametags."

"What would they say? 'Hello, I'm Kurt, just ignore the fact that I look like Kitty'?" Kitty joked.

"This isn't funny!" Another spike shot across the room, this time killing a poor, defenseless lamp. "Oops. Sorry, Professor. Hey, Evan, how do you control these spikes, anyway?"

"It's kinda hard to explain. Just think of un-spiky things," Kurt replied.

Logan blinked. "This'll take some getting used to."

The professor hid a smile. "Perhaps the nametags would be a good idea."

"Excuse me, but this isn't permanent, is it?" Scott asked.

"And you're really . . . ?"

"Rogue. Don't take this the wrong way or anything, but I really don't want to spend the rest of my life as Scott!"

"No offence taken. I'm not exactly looking forward to life as Jean."

"Hello! What about me? I'm used to walking through walls, not shooting bony spikes out of my body every time I move!"

Xavier and Logan exchanged a glance. "I told you not to let them go out recruiting by themselves, Charles."

The professor wheeled himself forward. "I assure you, we will get this straightened out. However, it's too late to do anything about it tonight. Go on to bed, and we'll locate our young friend Miss Jensen tomorrow after school."

"Whoa, wait a minute, Professor," Scott-in-Jean's-body said. "You don't really expect us to go to school like this, do you?"

"That's right!" the real Jean exclaimed. "We can't pretend to be each other. I have soccer practice tomorrow. Do you really want Scott in the girls' locker room?"

"Yeah, and while we're on the subject, I don't want Jean prep-ifying me while she's in my body," Rogue complained.

"You mean I have to stick with your goth-wear?"

"Yes! And remember not to touch anyone!"

"Professor, I really think we should all stay home tomorrow. This is just too weird."

"No, Je - Scott. It might arouse suspicion if so many students from the Institute were to stay home. You must all go to school tomorrow and do the best as the person you now are. Then we will see about finding a way to reverse this . . . situation."

"Yes, Professor," the X-Men chorused with varying degrees of enthusiasm. The conversation ended, the two adults left the room and the kids began trudging toward their bedrooms. Suddenly Kitty stopped and looked down at herself in Evan's body.

"Uh, guys? Whose rooms are we sleeping in tonight? Our own, or the person whose body we're in?"

Jean thought about it for a minute. "Well, it doesn't really matter except for Kitty and Rogue. I'm in Rogue's body, but Kurt is in Kitty's, right? So I don't think it would be appropriate for us to share the room. I think we should all get what we need for the night and go back to our own rooms."

"Ooh, I just thought of something!" Kitty exclaimed. "You guys need to promise not to peek."

"Huh?"

Kitty turned to Kurt and Scott. "Well, I mean, you two are in girls' bodies now, and I know you're going to have to change clothes and everything, so I think you need to promise you won't, you know," she blushed, "peek."

Scott gazed down at Jean's body and started to grin. The perks of the situation hadn't occurred to him until that very moment. "What, you think we'd do that?"

"You'd better not," Jean replied.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Kurt asked. "Close our eyes in the shower?"

"What?!" Kitty shrieked. "You are not showering in my body! No way!"

"Come to think of it, Kitty, you and Rogue are in guys' bodies. How do Evan and I know you girls won't 'peek'?"

"Right, like we would," Rogue muttered.

"Yeah, you know, we girls actually happen to have some degree of self-control, Scott," Kitty added.

"And we don't?" Kurt asked in an injured tone. "Kitty, I won't peek. I promise."

"Good."

"Well, Scott?" Jean demanded.

"What?" he asked innocently. Even with Rogue's face, she managed to throw him a pretty good Jean look. "Okay, I promise. As long as Rogue and Kitty promise, too."

"Personally, I think everyone should promise," Rogue commented. "I mean, we're all entitled to our privacy, right?"

"Yes," Jean agreed. "Let's all promise to respect the bodies we're in and agree not to . . . not to . . ."

"Not to completely wreck the life of the person we've been thrown into?" Rogue suggested.

"Right."

The X-Men agreed, and went from room to room in pairs, gathering up what they needed for the night and the next morning. When Rogue and Scott were alone in his room, she turned to him and tried to remind herself it was really Scott and not Jean she was talking to.

"So, what do you do about the shades at night?" she asked, touching the glasses self-consciously. "I mean, I don't want to wake up in the morning and end up blowing a new skylight through the ceiling."

"Oh, yeah. Hold on." He rummaged through a drawer on the nightstand and came up with a pair of what looked like red-tinted suntanning goggles. "Here you go. They're not the most comfortable things in the world, but they won't fall off during the night."

"Thanks." Rogue took the goggles and the stack of clothes Scott had picked out and began backing toward the door. "Well, uh, goodnight."

"'Night. Tomorrow I'll fill you in on everything else you need to know."

"Okay." Rogue could already tell tomorrow was going to be a very interesting day. She didn't know whether to laugh or scream.

to be continued . . .