(NOTE: Thanks for taking time to read the first fic in my X-Men: Evolution series! First, though, before I get started, a few notes/warnings on what to expect from this series.
First, if you only want to read a series that brings X-Men: Evolution as close as possible to the “classic” X-Men continuity, then this series is NOT for you. I am going to branch out in any direction that I feel is appropriate, and anything—yes, ANYTHING—that does not directly contradict Xavier’s visions at the end of the TV series is possible. Now, this is not to say that I WON’T take anything from the comics—but I will pick and choose what I feel will work the best, and manipulate those events to fit the story.
Also, this is going by the assumption that the final group shot in the last episode of the series was done as a “good-bye present” to the fans. Thus, I am not automatically assuming that X23, Gambit, Angel, etc., have all suddenly joined the X-Men for no apparent reason. What happened to them after “Ascension,” you will find out… eventually. >:)
And finally, this is NOT a series that is high on romance (though I don’t necessarily have a problem with those). Yes, relationships will be addressed, but they will take a back seat to the plot arcs and action—must like they did in the TV series. Now, on with the fic!)
 

 “This is SO lame. I feel gypped.”

 “Aye, I know,” Rahne said, sighing as she looked at all the New Mutants gathering on the stage. Well, almost all of them—Rahne and Jubilee were stuck watching the celebration instead of participating in it. “If only our parents hadn’t pulled us out of Xavier’s earlier, we could’ve gotten credit for savin’ the world, too!”

 “Hey, at least they let you join again after really seeing what the Xavier Institute is all about,” Logan cut in, coming up behind the two teens and placing a hand on each of their shoulders.

 “But it’s not fair!” Jubilee protested. “We joined at about the same time as Bobby, Jamie, Ray, and the rest! How come THEY’RE getting a ceremony making them official X-Men and everything, while we’re stuck just watching?!”

 “Because they showed that they can handle tough situations under pressure,” Logan reminded her. “They’ve come a long way from their earlier days here.”

 “But we could’ve helped out as much as they did!” Rahne countered.

 “Maybe,” Logan admitted, “But you have to understand where the Prof is comin’ from with all this. He wants to make sure you kids are in situations that you can handle—these guys have proven themselves ready, whereas you haven’t yet. I’m sure your time’ll come eventually.”

 “It better come soon,” Jubilee muttered under her breath.

 The massive backyard of the Xavier Mansion was packed with people—all the relatives of the former New Mutants had driven in to see their kids on this momentous occasion. A few others, such as Havok, Boom Boom, and Angel, had decided to hang around the Mansion for a few more days before they were finally to head back to their homes. It had only been four days since the near-apocalypse, and since they had been called to help the X-Men on their important mission anyways, they decided to make the most of it and socialize with their fellow Mutants for a time. The weather was perfect for the celebration—the forecast had actually called for severe thunderstorms, but Ororo had kept that from being a problem.

 “It’s almost time to start,” Jean said as she hurried up to the gathered soon-to-be-X-Men, standing and talking with each other. “Are you guys ready?”

 “More than ready!” Bobby grinned, flashing a thumbs-up to the young instructor. “Man, this is so awesome… I love the new duds!”

 As part of their becoming bonafied X-Men instead of just Mutants-in-training, the former New Mutants had all gotten their choice of customizing their uniform, instead of just sticking with the standard blue-and-yellow outfit. Some had only changed their uniform little, only adding a decorative flare or variation. Berzerker had only added a lightining bolt pattern across his chest, leaving the rest of his costume the same. Cannonball had added an X-shaped sash across his chest and made the shoulder pads of his costume bigger, in a manner similar to Cyclops’ costume. Multiple and Sunspot, neither of them particularly creative individuals, had decided to just stick with their old uniforms. Iceman, always wanting to be the center of attention, had spared no expense. His costume was now mostly icy blue, a color similar to that on Quicksilver’s costume, though the gloves, boots, and belt were dark blue. He also sported icy translucent shoulder pads. Magma had also modified her costume substantially, having added a red stripe down the center of her outfit, while changing the base color of her costume to black, in a design akin to Shadowcat’s.

 “Alright then,” Jean nodded. Closing her eyes and concentrating, Jean sent out a quick telepathic message to everyone at the ceremony that things were just about to start, and within a few seconds everyone settled down and took their seats.

 Stepping up to the podium, Jean began her opening speech.

 “Thank you all for coming. I understand that these past few weeks have been difficult times, but as many of you out there have seen, the New Mutants endured it tremendously well. That is why we are here today, both to commemorate their achievements by granting them the status of official X-Men, and also to welcome a few new faces here at the Institute…”

 Beast, still listening to Jean’s speech from the midst of the audience, glanced over at Xavier sitting next to him. Hank had noticed that Xavier, after the thank-you speech the professor had given soon after the victory, had been mostly silent. Hank had sensed that something was wrong, but he had figured that whatever it was, Xavier would’ve gotten over it by now—dwelling on something like this was just not like the man. Even now, on a day that should have made the professor delighted with the progress he had made with the New Mutants, Xavier looked rather troubled. And was that a tear streaming down from one of Xavier’s eyes?

 “Charles, what’s wrong?” Hank whispered, laying a hand on the professor’s shoulder. “This should be a great day for you. Just look at how much you’ve helped out these kids in gaining control of their powers.”

 “I… I’m fine. Thank you, Hank,” Xavier said, wiping his face with the back of his sleeve.

 Hank noticed that even as Xavier wiped his sleeve, the man’s gaze seemed fixed on someone of the stage. Following Xavier’s gaze, he saw that it was focused on…

 “It’s about Jean, isn’t it?” Hank asked. “What’s going on?”

 “It’s…. it’s just something I saw in my glimpse of the future via Apocalypse, Hank,” Xavier said in a low tone. Shaking his head, Xavier sighed. “Jean does not deserve that… she, of all people…”

 “What? What will happen to her?” Beast said, his voice slightly more urgent.

 “She… we’ll discuss it later, Hank. Others might overhear.”

 Beast wanted to press the Professor more, but he knew Xavier well enough by now to understand when the conversation was finished. Sighing, Hank turned his attention back to Jean, who was finishing up introducing the New X-Men and their (mostly) new costumes.

 “…and finally, Sam Guthrie, code name Cannonball!” Jean said, prompting the audience to cheer and clap as the final New X-Man stepped onto the stage, waving shyly.

 “And, as some of our New Mutants graduate to become X-Men,” Jean continued, “we have a few new recruits as well to fill the Institute’s ever-increasing enrollment list. I’d like us all to welcome our newest members, Danielle Moonstar, code name Moonstar, and Piotr Rasputin, code name Colossus!”

 The hulking Russian dwarfed the Native American by comparison as the two stepped on stage, even though Moonstar was of roughly average height for her age.

 “Danielle will be joining as a New Mutant, while Piotr will become an instructor-in-training here at the Institute. Now, we’ll break for a few hours before the celebration party tonight, so feel free to talk to whomever you’d like or roam around the Mansion. Refreshments and snacks are on the rear patio. Let’s give our New Mutants and New X-Men a final round of applause and congratulations!”

 “Fury,” Logan said, his eyebrows arched in surprise as he recognized the gray-haired man with an eyepatch walk past him. “I’m surprised to see you here, of all people.”

 The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent stopped and turned back to Wolverine, taking the ever-present toothpick out of his mouth. This was the first time Logan had ever seen Nick in anything but a S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform. Fury looked almost funny in a regular button-down shirt and jeans.

 “I convinced my boss to give me a day’s leave, Logan. Being here for this is the least I could do, after seeing how you guys collectively pulled our butts out of the fire… not to mention saving the world and all that. Though… I’d appreciate it if we didn’t talk business here. I don’t want anyone here from the general public to overhear about… well, everything I’m involved in, really.”

 “Gotcha,” Logan said, smirking. “So…. how are the wife and kids, then?”

 “Heh,” Fury said, eyeing some of Cannonball’s many relatives as they passed by. “Yeah, the uh… wife and kids. They’re doing alright. Johnny got all A’s on his last report card, and Mary landed a part in the school play.”

 Logan laughed harder than he had in years.

 “So,” Piotr said as he settled down at a small table next to the tennis court with Storm, Jean, and Cyclops, “How much… work is involved in this? I am willing to work hard, you understand, I am just wanting to know.”

 “Oh, some of them can be a real handful sometimes,” Scott said, glancing at Ororo and Jean, who smirked, “But… you get used to it. Eventually.”

 “Watch out for Bobby, though,” Jean said. “He’s gotten a little better since he first joined, but he still has a definite show-off side to his personality.”

 “I will keep that in mind,” Piotr said, nodding. “What will I be teaching here?”

 “Mostly combat exercises, since your Mutant ability seems to be tailored to that,” Storm answered. “Unless that’s a problem…?”

 “No, not at all. I was just thinking that I should probably start to draw up some lesson plans.

 “Listen…” Piotr continued, sighing. “I just want to thank you for letting me teach here. Even after all that I have done against the X-Men.”

 “Hey, don’t worry about it, Piotr,” Jean said. “It wasn’t your fault, Magneto forced you to work for him. Besides, we got your family to a safe place after we found out Magneto wasn’t killed by Apocalypse. You don’t need to worry about their safety.”

 “Yes… thank you, again. I am in your debt,” Piotr said, bowing his head slightly. “I will still be able to visit my family occasionally, however?”

 “Yeah, sure,” Scott answered. “Around Christmastime most of the students and instructors here go home for the holidays, so you’d have time to visit them then. Spring Break they also have off, and during the summer classes are less frequent, so you could take a few days’ leave then, if you wanted.”

 “That is good. I will probably do so then,” Colossus said, smiling.

 “It’s very nice of you to let me share your room, Kitty. Are you sure it’s not a problem?”

 “No problem at all,” Kitty grinned as she helped her best friend unpack her things in their bedroom. “I talked to the Professor about it beforehand, and he was fine with the arrangement. Besides, my former roommate Rogue moved out of here and into her own room a few months ago, so it’s not like you’re displacing anyone else.”

 “Why did Rogue change rooms? Do you two not get along or something?” Moonstar asked.

 “Well, we didn’t at first,” Kitty admitted, “but after the whole Mutant thing went public, all of us here at the Institute became a little closer, since we lost most of our friends at school. Birds of a feather flock together, y’know?”

 “Yeah,” Moonstar replied. “But you didn’t get to my question-- why did Rogue decide to change rooms?”

 “Oh, right. She went through some… tough times a little while back,” Kitty sighed. “All those people she had absorbed stayed inside of her head, and she had to have all of them driven out by the Professor, and then she had to deal with a host of other problems… it was rough on her, to say the least. She needed a place to herself.”

 “I can imagine,” Danielle said as she hung up the last of her clothes. “There, all finished. Again.”

 “Yeah, it does feel a little like déjà vu,” Kitty giggled. “Even if the first time you ‘came’ to the Institute, it was all just in our heads.”

 “At least this time, I don’t have any problems with controlling my powers. Professor Xavier really helped me to control them with regular sessions, which is what convinced my grandfather to allow me to come--- AH!”

 Moonstar yelped and stumbled back as Kurt popped into existence right in between the two.

 “Don’t worry, you get used to it. Sorta,” Kitty said to Moonstar, who was trying to calm her thumping heart down.

 “Oh, sorry,” Kurt said, turning from his position facing Kitty to look at Moonstar. “I didn’t know you were in here.”

 “It’s—it’s alright,” Moonstar said, regaining control of her composure.

 “What is it, Kurt?” Kitty asked.

 “Lance is at the front gate,” Kurt said. “He wants to talk to you.”

 Kitty sighed.

 “Lance? Who’s Lance?” Moonstar asked.

 “A member of the Brotherhood of Mutants,” Kurt answered.

 “But… why is he here? I thought the Brotherhood were the bad guys…”

 “Sort of,” Kitty said. “Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t. Which is exactly what I need to talk to Lance about…”

 “Um… okay…” Moonstar said. “I don’t really know what’s going on, but I guess it’s none of my business…”

 “Don’t worry, I’ll be back in a little bit,” Kitty said. “Kurt, would you mind porting me out there?”

 *BAMF!*

 “You want me to stay here?” Kurt asked Kitty. “I can pop over and get the others if there’s any trouble.”

 “I’ll be fine, Kurt,” Kitty said off-handedly, eyeing Lance who was waving to her a couple dozen yards away from the other side of the entry gate.

 “Okay….” Kurt said before he ported away, though from the tone of his voice he obviously wasn’t convinced.

 “Hey, Lance…” Kitty said as she walked slowly up to the gate. “Um… what do you want?”

 “Hi, Kitty,” Lance said cheerfully. “Hey listen, I know you’ve got a party going on there now, but after it’s over tonight, did you want to go to a movie or something? Y’know, it’ll be kind of our own little celebration for showing Apocalypse who’s boss.”

 “Listen… Lance…” Kitty said, sighing and rubbing the back of her neck as she looked at the ground. “I don’t… I don’t think we should see each other anymore.”

 “…What?” Lance said, furrowing his eyebrows. “Why the heck not?”

 “You’re just not… I don’t know if I can trust you.”

 “Have you lost it!? I just freaking saved your life a few days ago!” Lance yelled.

 “Yeah, after you, like, tried to kill me and my friends a bunch of times beforehand!” Kitty shouted back.

 “Yeah, so I have an anger problem! I’m working on it!”

“Lance, yelling at someone for no reason qualifies as having an anger problem. NOT trying to kill someone’s friends! You’ve also trashed the school parking lot, threatened to kill Principal Kelly, and almost killed a whole group of soldiers!”

“You never had such a big problem with this before—I thought you forgave me for that whole parking lot thing! And why the heck were you hanging all over me after the fight with Apocalypse if you hate me so much?!”

“Because… I was grateful when you saved my life,” Kitty said, her tone softening. “And I wanted to show you it. And that’s why I was with you for so long… I saw a side of you that I really liked, and I thought… I thought maybe I could help you get rid of your… violent side. But after that fight in the school parking lot, I realized that you’re refusing to let yourself change.”

“Yeah, right,” Lance said, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, I’m just one evil SOB, aren’t I? After all, only a member of the eeeevil Brotherhood could stop an exploding train from taking out an entire city block. Better lock me up.”

“There, see, that’s exactly what I’m talking about!” Kitty said, exasperated. “You KNOW much of the stuff you’re doing is wrong, because you recognize when something you’ve done is right! But you still do whatever you want to most of the time—including being responsible for that very disaster, I might add! And now that anti-Mutant hatred is, like, skyrocketing, that’s the last thing this city needs! All of this is why I didn’t want to be your girlfriend anymore during that fight in the parking lot last spring, and why I don’t want to be your girlfriend now!”

“Yeah, whatever,” Lance muttered, turning away from Kitty and starting to walk away. “I said it before, and I’ll say it again—I’ll never be good enough for you and your goody-goody friends.”

“It doesn’t look like it,” Kitty said softly to herself, turning and walking quickly back towards the Institute with her arms crossed across her chest, tears flowing down her cheeks. “But you could’ve been…”

 “Hey man, you sure we can trust those two police guys? I mean, if they spill the beans and the whole department finds out what’s going on here, we all could be in the slammer for a long time…”

 “Don’t worry about it—I’ve known Mr. Spear for a long time,” Spear’s personal assistant said, ushering the man who was questioning him as well as the long line of other visitors in line behind him to take their seats. “If he trusts those two, it’s good enough for me. They’ll keep a lid on this, sir, I assure you.”

 “Well… okay…” the man said, eyeing the two policemen guarding the door, who smiled in return. Slowly, the man found an empty seat near the far end of the large warehouse room and took a seat, with dozens, even hundreds, of people filing in behind him and taking their seats, eyeing their surroundings.

 The warehouse was a mess. A few large vats still stood in one corner of the room, and judging from the bubbling sounds coming from inside them, they held some kind of liquid. There were several other vats in the room, but they had all been overturned long ago. There was also lots of other damage in the room, such as large chunks taken out of some of the walls, smashed processing equipment, and the like. The room looked like it had been recently cleaned, though anyone there could see that a lot more cleaning still needed to be done—for one thing, the floor smelled funny and was tinted an odd maroon color…

 Once it was clear that everyone that was going to come to the gathering was here, the two policemen closed the doors and a young, brown-haired man in a suit walked onto the hastily-built stage in front of the audience. Stopping in front of the podium, he tapped the microphone twice to make sure all the equipment was working properly, then began to address the audience.

 “Thanks for coming, ladies and gentlemen—as many of you probably already know, I’m Guy Spear. You probably remember that sports drink that hit the market for a few weeks late last spring, Powr-8. Well, as many of you probably DON’T know, the reason it was pulled was because it was poisonous to Mutants, and ONLY Mutants. It obviously didn’t cause any negative effects in humans.

 “Even though I said publicly that I shut down production of Powr-8 immediately to get the government off my back, I, like the rest of you, was a concerned citizen. Concerned about Mutants going to school with OUR kids, working at OUR workplaces, and eating at OUR restaurants…”

 Guy Spear was interrupted by a few cheers and shouts of approval, but after a couple of seconds, he continued on with his speech as the shouts and cheers continued and grew louder.

 “…And I, like the rest of you, have witnessed their destructive powers! A small group of them nearly destroyed my entire manufacturing facility, and I’m sure you’re all aware of the recent near-disaster that almost ended life on Earth as we know it!

 “And why? All because of Mutants! If the government won’t stand up and defend us from these dangerous freaks of nature, then we’ve got to take it upon ourselves to do so! And I realized that, through this strange chain of events, I was in a unique position to do something—to help us fight against these Mutants and WIN!

 “That’s why I’ve manufactured more Powr-8!” Guy Spear said, motioning towards the large vats behind him. “This liquid can severely weaken and even kill any Mutant through skin contact! With this unique weapon in our hands, we can make our communities safe again! Our schools safe again! And we can keep our KIDS safe again!”

 By now, the audience was worked up into an absolute fervor. Guy Spear had to practically scream to be heard over them.

 “So I’m offering this Powr-8 at a low cost, just enough to cover the production expenses! Who will take up the fight and send these dangerous Mutants back to where they came from? Is thirty dollars for a gallon of Powr-8 too large a price to pay for your children’s safety!?”

 As a deafening cacophony of negatives assaulted his ears, Guy Spear smirked and started to take the fistfuls of money that went up throughout the audience.

To be continued…

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