Another mental game

The wheel landed on a wedge labeled "Mutantdle." It seemed nonsensical.

"What did I spin?" Emma asked. She wanted to say "what the hell is that?" but apparently that was too aggressive.

"Honestly the name was a work-in-progress we never thought of something better for," Spiral said. Then she turned to the cue cards. "A new installment in the -dle craze, we will show you two mutants that were part of the X-Men. You have to guess which one joined first. Then one of them will be replace with another mutant, you will have to guess again which one joined first. The mutant we just added always stays with a new mutant appearing to compare against. We do this ten times, and if you get three or more wrong, you lose. Got it?"

"I'm a bit confused," Emma said.

"Don't be. Oh also you have a thirty second timer for each comparison," Spiral said.

"Right," Emma said.

"Go!" Spiral said. The screen above them suddenly changed. On the left side of the picture of Storm, and the right side Kitty Pryde.

"Kate joined after Storm," Emma said.

A green check mark appeared over the screen and Kitty moved to the left. The right side was replaced with someone Emma did not recognize. At first she thought it was Angel as it was a white blonde man with angel wings, but he had beastly feet, red glowing eyes, and a hand made of ice.

"Um, I have no idea. Kate came first?" Emma said. A loud buzzer noise sounded as a red X appeared open the screen.

"Ooo, strike one," Spiral said. "That was Mimic. He joined the original O5 team before leaving it soon after."

"He was barely on it!" Emma said.

"Still counts," Spiral said. "Next one!"

Kitty moved off the screen and then on came a young bald black man with a rainbow aura around him. Synch, one of Emma's old students.

"He joined long after that. Not until the Krakoa team was he on the X-Men," Emma said.

Another check mark followed by another mutant replacing Mimic. This time it was a black woman with cornrows holding up a broken piece of metal in both her hands, like a bat. Emma recognized her as Frenzy.

"I fell for this once before. She was on the same X-Men team Prodigy died joining," Emma said. "That was after Synch left the team." The buzzer came back. "What? I'm right!"

"Yes but that actually wasn't the first time she joined the X-Men," Spiral said. "She joined shortly after Legion warped reality, changing all of Utopia." Emma made an annoyed noise by blowing air through her flapping lips. "Next one!"

This time Synch was replaced by Magneto, in his purple flowing cape and red helmet.

"Magneto joined long before that," Emma said.

"Good job, you're halfway there," Spiral said.

A check mark came over the screen and it changed again, replacing Frenzy with a blonde woman in a punk outfit holding in oversized glowing sword. Emma recognized her as Magik.

"Magik was literally trained by Magneto, she came after," Emma declared. Another checkmark.

After Magneto left the screen showed a green-haired woman in a shirt that showed her midriff and arms, long pants, and a green headpiece. Magneto's daughter, Polaris.

"Polaris has been on the team multiple times, but the first time was before the Krakoa mission. This was before Magneto had his whole 'redemption arc,'" Emma rolled her eyes. "As the kids say. Or even before Colossus moved to America. She came first."

The next hero to appear was a man in an all black outfit with white circles covering it. He was unleashing a large column of blue energy.

"That's Havok," Emma said. "Ooo, they might have joined together? I'm not sure let me think."

"We need an answer," Spiral said.

"Okay then. I'm going to say Havok came first," Emma said. The buzzer sounded one final time.

"Ooo, so sorry Emma, but Polaris joined just a short time before Havok. That's the third strike, which means you lose."

"That's okay," Emma said. She had try to string bunch of profanity together but was no longer allowed to. "I'll get them next time." She once again touched her face in astonishment but she couldn't change anything.

"Now." Spiral got off a chair she was sitting on and it disappeared in a flash of light. "What is your next punishment box?"

"1," Emma said, still smiling.

Author's Note: I have to give an extra big thanks to kidwicket123 who commented some ideas on my last update. I can't guarantee I'll use them but they did get the juices pumping a lot better. If I can figure out some way to reward you I will.

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