X-MEN FORGED: TO BE HUMAN

By Jason de L'Epee

FOREWARD: Did you honestly think I would keep you waiting that long? Hell no! Now, this being a new work, there will be changes in the structure. Because of the episodic structure that is X-Men Evolution, my chapters will structure more to be like episodes, where each chapter is a mini-plot as a part of the overall plot, much like how The Writer With No Name does his work with the Marvel/DC crossovers—which you should take the time to read. That being said, many of the chapters themselves will either be adapts of choice episodes of the show, or original that borrows elements from episodes. Either-or, it really doesn't matter. All I know is that it's going to be fun with all the creative license I have access to. Of course, as a consequence, updates will be bigger but longer to update.

I will say that because of the demands of the other fanfiction realm I contribute to (Sonic the Hedgehog), updates may be a bit slow as I have left Sonic in a fight with Metal-Sonic in my other work "Shadows of Doom: Night of the Hunter." Ideally, I hope to come with an update with chapters for both. Whether this will work in practice is another story.

Besides that, there isn't much to say. Enjoy part 2 of 4: To Be Human.

PROLOGUE:

"Take me away from time and season
Far far away we'll sing with reason
Prepare a throne of stars above me
As the world once known will leave me
Take me away upon a plateau
Far far away from fears and shadow
Strengthen my heart in times of sorrow
Light the way to bright tomorrows
Answer our call in desperate hours
Shelter our fall from earthly powers
Temper our souls with flame and furnace
Bear us toward a noble purpose
Heaven hides nothing in its measure
Mortal men blinded by false treasure
Formless and vanquished we shall travel
Shield and sword will guide our battle…"

"Take Me Away" – Globus © 2006


"Do you believe in destiny? It really doesn't matter if you do. If you don't believe in something, does it mean it does not exist? Perhaps it's time for you to believe, young one…" A voice dripped in the darkness. Each syllable seemed to stir the dark mist of the land. Whom was it talking to?

"You are destined to become something more than human. Why settle for mere existence when chance has dealt you the winning card of history? You can feel it in your fingers, surging through each fiber like lightning. You command that power. Use it."

As the mists stirred from the doleful tones of the voice, a shadowy figure leered through the mist, tall and imposing.

"You are destined to become one of the most powerful beings in existence, young one. I can show you the way, young alchemist…" It rose a hand, offering. "Join me!"

Jason's eyes snapped open, the dawn's early light banishing the dream from existence. Not daring to move, his eyes scanned where he was before he relaxed. He was in the back of the family van, cruising down I-35 at a relaxed pace. Jason sat up in his seat, rubbing his eyes as he slowly woke up. Judging by the sunlight on the horizon, they had to be getting close to Dallas.

"You already awake, son?" whispered a gentle voice from the driver's seat.

Jason looked to see his father, and smiled. "No thanks to your driving, yeah…" he replied the same way.

His father laughed quietly. "So you did miss me…"

"Not to be a little kid…" Jason rubbed his eyes before continuing. "…but are we nearly there?"

Patrick chuckled. "We're getting pretty close to the airport now. Good thing too; your flight leaves at seven."

Jason had to breathe a bit. They've been preparing for this day for a few months now, but it wasn't any easier. Only a few months before, Jason had been discovered as a mutant, but after a deadly ordeal with nature that nearly killed Jason as well as his father. The incident had somehow triggered a powerful presence of alchemic energy within Jason's body to the point that his fingertips were almost constantly twitching from the overload. If his hands joined together at all, the energy builds to a critical point, and with it Jason can change just about anything into something else, providing he knew or guessed correctly what it was made of.

During the months, Jason had been practicing the use of his power in secret in the basement of the house, taking wooden blocks from the garage and transmuting them into various other shapes, trying to refine his attention to detail and trying to get a grasp at what his limits really are. He remembered that night on the rooftop of the hospital clearly, and Magneto had stated that he was the closest thing being a god. Jason had tried to see where his boundaries did lie, but he couldn't tell. When he was free, he tried the library, but nothing had anything about alchemy besides on what he already heard in school in world history, which was good as nothing. The only way he could find his limits would be to go all out, but he couldn't do that while escaping notice.

"Here we are…" Jason heard his father say. "…the airport." Jason couldn't help but notice a sigh in those words.

Almost on cue, his mother, asleep in the front passenger's seat, began to waken, due to the slowing of the van no doubt. "Oh, are we here?"

"Yeah, we just got here." Jason said, and found that he couldn't say anything else. What more could be said. The moment he both looked forward to and dreaded had finally arrived.

The whole family was quiet as they found a vacant parking space, and walked the long road towards the terminal. Even nearly 7 AM in the morning, DFW International was still bustling, a perfect madhouse as hapless travelers were either coming in to board, or leaving the terminal after a long flight. Jason found himself among the former and with growing apprehension he led the way towards the front desk to get information about his flight. As it turned out, the flight was briefly delayed ten minutes because of early bad weather along the flight path, but was expected to clear quickly.

Jason was thankful for that. This year had been nothing short of scary with its weather. A few days after he met with the X-Men, the sky simply exploded over Oklahoma. It was bad enough to hear of the tornado outbreaks that happened in the south and in nearby Missouri, killing hundreds, but having another violent outbreak so close to home was almost too much for Jason. While no violent tornadoes came close to Red Rock, the howling wind and pouring rain brought fresh the fateful night of April 15th. Being raised in Oklahoma, he was no stranger to thunderstorms and tornadoes, and before he always shrugged at them while at the same time taking them seriously. All that changed that night. Jason now grew nervous at the discussion of storms, and when a particularly bad one rolled through, he took refuge in the basement automatically and completely withdrew away from friends and family when he did.

Jason shook the brooding thoughts out of his head as he wordlessly placed his luggage on the conveyor. As he watched his belongings disappear into the labyrinth of conveyors beyond the walls, he thought about the summer that had gone by at what some may call an uncomfortable pace. Most of the time, Jason was at home. When he wasn't, he was with his parents talking to the school regarding the transcript transfer to his new high school, as well as doing the necessary paperwork that the Professor of the Institute would need to have custody of him in New York. Moreover, he had to repeatedly go to Oklahoma City to visit both a neurologist and a neuropsychiatrist. That was an experience to remember, to be sure. The neurologist wasn't too thrilled for Jason to relocate to New York, but in the end, he recommended the Neurological Institute of New York, in the event that Jason did indeed have Charcot's.

Every time Jason thought about his doctor visits, he would have a brief glimpse at his mortality which depressed him, however reassuring the doctors were. The tests showed nothing to indicate he had Charcot's, but at the same time, there was no improvement in the traumatized regions of his cerebrum where the obvious scarring from the tornado and Magneto have remained. Jason doubted they would ever heal, ever deepening his sense of mortality.

"Are you all right, son?" his father's voice drifted into his dark thoughts.

Jason looked up, slightly jumping at hearing his father's voice. "Yeah…just recollecting this summer."

Patrick, Jason's father, understood. "Yes, it certainly has been eventful."

Jason allowed himself the luxury of a smile. "I can safely say that I never imagined my junior year to start like this."

Patrick smiled as well, placing his hand on Jason's shoulder. "Neither did any of us."

Jason looked at his father, eyes lingering on the wheelchair that bound him. While Jason had received critical brain trauma, his father had lost the use of his legs when the car they were in had been dropped on Patrick's unconscious body, specifically, on the lower back. Despite the fact Jason was severely injured, Jason had tried to get the car off of him, and as he too drifted out of conscious, his powers plied the car back on itself; crude, but efficient.

Patrick noticed Jason's look at his wheelchair. "I consider myself lucky that this is all that happened. I heard about what that tornado did. Four died that night, and we could have been among them."

Jason looked away. "Yeah…"

"And then there…" Patrick had to stop.

Jason saw where this was going, and looked down. Tragedy had not ended on that night. On May 24th, two days after they met with Professor Xavier, another deadly twister had gone through some rural areas near Guthrie, Oklahoma. Nine died, and one was an old friend. From April to May, there has been so much death from tornadoes and it impacted so many. Hundreds; hundreds were killed in a month's time. It was a terrible, terrible spring.

"And there I go again…" Patrick said, his eyes wet.

Jason shook his head. "It's just too much…it's just feels too much to be natural. What the hell did we do to piss off God?"

"Nothing more than what we have already done," Patrick said calmly. "We live in a world where things must cycle. We have peace; we have war. We have day; we have night. We have good; we have evil. It will be like this until the world finally has had enough."

"Yeah, and God help the poor saps who will be around on that day."

By this time, Susan, Jason's mother, had returned from a visit to the lavatory. "Did you hear any other delays since I was gone?"

Jason shook his head. "I haven't heard anything. Looks like it will be on schedule…or rather on the new schedule."

Susan looked apprehensive. "Oh, I hope we remembered everything."

Patrick smiled. "I'm sure we did, Susie..."

"I don't want Jason flying over Kentucky and suddenly realizing he left his toothbrush on the counter back home."

Jason pursed his lips. "I'm fairly certain I packed that in the duffel."

"That's not the point!" Susan exclaimed, but sighed. "Yes, we did pack everything. Oh, Jason, I'm going to miss you so much." Susan gave her son one firm hug out of the blue.

Jason had to keep his balance on the chairs, but relaxed. "Yeah, I love you too."

Patrick reached over and took Jason's hand. "As do I, son, and I'm very proud of you."

Jason blinked and smiled. "Yeah…"

Then, over the intercom rang out a voice: "Attention all passengers. Flight AA-1107 to New York is now boarding at this time. Please proceed to Gate 3 for boarding. We repeat. Flight AA-1107 to New York is now boarding at this time. Please proceed to Gate 3 for boarding."

Jason's heart began to race. "That's my flight," he said, standing up.

"Jason, wait…" Patrick reached up to him.

Jason looked down at his father. "What is it?"

"We know that things might be tough at the Institute, and you might get homesick when things get rough on you. Which is why, we…the family…got together to get you something so you can reach us at any time."

Jason looked at his mother, who took out a small object that resembled a miniature laptop from one of her bags. "It took us a bit to find one that looked good, but thankfully, we did…"

Jason took the thing in its hands to inspect it. It was really a very small laptop computer, not much bigger than a typical high school math textbook. It had a built in webcam and wireless internet access so that he could video chat with anyone, more importantly his family. Jason looked at his parents, a fresh wetness to his eyes. "I love it. Thanks…" Jason packed it in his carry-on backpack.

"Now, I expect to hear from you a lot," Patrick said, somewhat sternly. "We didn't give that to you so you could play games or have it sit on your desk." He calmed some. "Just let us know you're all right once in a while."

"Please," reiterated Susan.

"Don't worry, I will."

The intercom sounded another announcement for passengers to board the plane for New York. Jason's heart skipped again. "Hey, tell Beth that I love her and I hope to play with her again. Damn, I wish she was here…"

Patrick smiled. "Don't worry, we will, son. Now hurry, you'll miss it!"

Susan had to will herself to not cry. "Please be careful, son."

"Write to us a lot!" Patrick said. "I mean it!"

Jason nodded. "I love you both." Jason gave his Mom and Dad a quick hug. "I'll…I guess I'll see you later."

"We know, son." Patrick nodded. "Now go!"

"Ok!" Jason hoisted his backpack over his shoulder and headed briskly for Gate 3, but not without several glances over his shoulder to his parents, who were waving back at him. Soon, too soon, Jason lost eye contact with them and suddenly felt incredibly lonely. Walking deliberately, he headed through the terminal, through the loading gate which led straight into the massive jetliner now parked along the terminal.

Jason was incredibly thankful that the Professor had funded this ticket, and more importantly, he did it first class. Jason had never flown before, and he felt better he would handle it in first class than in economy. That didn't ground the butterflies in his stomach though, and he looked out the window as he waited for the plane to take him away to a new place and a new life. Jason looked around the cabin but didn't really see it; his thoughts were far away. He thought about the life he was now leaving behind, and the life that he was just hours from beginning. It was like going to high school all over again, only a little stronger. He hazarded a thought that this must be what the first day of college would feel like.

He espied the seatbelt light come on and wordlessly secured himself in, awaiting takeoff. His thoughts immediately switched track as his apprehensiveness gave a new face. He never flew before, and while he heard that travel by flying was statistically the safest, flight accidents were definitely among the more devastating.

"First time?" said a voice beside him.

Jason looked to see a flight attendant that was handing out chewing gum—to ease the pressure changes in the ear as the plane rose from the ground. Jason gave a quick nod. "You can say that." Jason regretted grabbing a soda from the fridge before getting into the van early that morning; that caffeine hadn't washed out yet.

"It happens to all the first-timers, although not very many first timers get to fly first-class off the bat. Someone pulled some strings to get you on here."

"Having an apparently rich Professor does help," Jason thought with a smile.

"Anyway, just relax, sir. Have some chewing gum."

"Thanks." Jason took the chewing gum and popped it into his mouth. As he chewed, he pulled out a stress ball for each of his fidgety hands from his backpack, thanking whatever luck allowed his backpack to be used as carry-on. Airport security was more paranoid than a hospital full of schizophrenics, and he was sure he would have had to do something creative to get it on. Heck, he was more worried about the backpack than the potential pat-down.

He found himself finally relaxing as the polyurethane balls rolled about in his hands. He remembered his first attempt at stress balls in the hospital. He had triggered his alchemic powers to cause the balls to melt over his hands, burning them. It wasn't one of his favorite memories, but it was the one that brought to his attention there was something different about him.

Then, he felt it. That subtle vertigo when the plane just begins to move, then the slight pulls of the G-forces from the acceleration, then the feeling of sinking as the plane left the ground. Jason scarcely breathed as the plane climbed miles into the air, and he was sure his eyes were bulging. Finally, the plane leveled off, and the motion discomfort faded as it did. Daring to breathe, he looked around the cabin, seeing that no one else save himself had really seemed affected by the plane's ascent. "Great," Jason thought with an inward sigh. "I just managed to make myself look like a complete idiot. Smooth move, knucklehead."

Spitting out the gum into the wrapper, he looked out the window and marveled at the view. He always enjoyed clear days, but seeing it from up here was sublime. If he guessed correctly, he would be looking northwards all the way up. He would see the Great Plains in all their glory…loosely speaking.

As he leaned back in his seat, he began to realize that there was no going back now. He was on his way to New York, and a new life as a mutant. He had a feeling things were going to be tough…but at the same time, he guessed this next semester at least would be very interesting. He remembered talking to Jean about the Institute, as well as the telepathic conversation he had with the Professor. But most of all, he remembered Piotr. They guy looked big and strong enough to lift a safe without a sweat, but inside beat the heart of a person that would do anything to protect those he cared about. Last time he checked, Piotr had only confided his deepest darkest secrets with him and his father back at that hospital. Jason could only wonder if Piotr had opened up to the Professor or not. He would have to ask the next chance he got.

Jason smiled. Man, he still has seven hours on this flight and he was already excited for his arrival. However, he knew he would miss his family dearly. Tonight would be hard, being so far away. Now he saw the importance of the gift he got, and he would certainly use it. Hopefully before tonight he could set it up. His heart fluttered a bit at the thought of being so long away from his family. All summer he questioned whether he was ready for this; he doubted he ever would be...but maybe, that was the adventure of it.

It would certainly be quite the adventure, he figured. Summer was officially over, but now the real adventure was about to begin; it was time to test his mettle. And from there? Well, that's was just part of his new adventure.


Well, there we have it. The Prologue to what just might be one of my biggest works yet. One thing you need to remember about this as well as remembering the one before is that the last one is really a giant prologue to this new fic. Yeah, an 80,000 word prologue. The real story is about to begin.

Here's a preview of what is to come of Chapter 1: First Day:

Jason has arrived at the Insitute, along with the spirited group that would come to be known as the New Mutants. After some rigorous testing to see how his mutant abilities have manifested, it is now time for Jason's first day of school at Bayville High. Will his first day be relaxing, or will a certain hoppity punk stink things up for him? Find out next time!