A/N As promised here is the prequel to my other X-men story.
Disclaimer: I do not own X-men.
Ding! "Order up!" Sherry yelled. I dashed to the she-chef and grabbed the plate of flapjacks, eggs sunny-side up, and bacon. I then carried it to my best customer, Mr. Elewise.
"Here you go, sir," I said cheerily as I placed his food in front of him.
"Thank you Rachel," he said as I refilled his coffee.
The tinkling sound of a bell alerted me to new customers. Two men sat down at the counter. One was short with brown hair and crystal blue eyes and a happy, trustworthy smile. The other was far more serious with brown hair and eyes, he seemed almost haunted.
"Good morning, fellas. What can I get you?" I asked as I took out my pad and paper as I put a strand of mahogany hair behind my ear and fixed them with my green hazel eyes.
"Actually we'd like to speak with you, Ms. Anderson," the kind looking one said. I looked down at my name tag, it only said Rachel. 'How does he know my last name?' "We're like you Rachel. Erik?"
The hard faced man held up a hand and the metal napkin holder shot into his hand. I gasped and closed my eyes to take a breath. "Sherry," I called to the chef. "I'm gonna take a break."
"Okay hunny," she answered as I took off my blue apron. I followed the two men to a table in the back corner.
"Well, Ms. Anderson, my name is Charles Xavier. And as you were wondering earlier, I know you're last name because I can read your mind," the kind one, Charles said.
"It's nice to meet you. I didn't think there was anyone else like me," I muttered causing Charles to smile.
"Rachel, if you don't mind, we'd like to see what you can do."
"Hurry up, Charles," Erik told him.
Charles sighed, "Please?"
I nodded and pointed to the juke box making it change songs again and again and again. "I can understand and control technology," I stated causing Charles to beam.
"Splendid. Rachel, the world is in danger and we need your help."
"Me?"
Charles nodded, "Yes, you and others like you can help save the world."
"What do I have to do?"
By the following morning I had packed up most of my apartment. Even though I was only nineteen, I've lived on my own for almost a year. Charles and Erik picked me up and drove me to an airport. After the plane landed Charles and Erik took me to a CIA building and into a room with six other people. Everyone's eyes were on me.
There were four guys and two girls. There was an African American guy who seemed really nice. There was a geeky looking guy with brown hair and glasses but he appeared really sweet. The next guy had fire red hair and had a mischievous look in his blue eyes. The last guy was tall, muscular, and blonde but he gave off this angry aura.
The first girl was blonde-haired and blue-eyed, she smiled at me kindly. The other girl looked Hispanic and wore skimpy clothing; she was maybe an inch taller than me. Yeah, I'm really short.
"Everyone this is Rachel. I trust you will make her feel welcome. Erik and I have to leave," Charles announced. 'What? They're leaving me?'
The blonde girl waved as Charles and Erik left. Hi, I'm Raven."
"Hi," I said shyly.
"That's Angel" the Hispanic girl. "Hank," the sweet nerd. "Darwin," the nice African guy. "Sean," the redhead. "And Alex," the hot guy. Raven dragged me over to sit next to her on the couch. The silence was deafening. "I think we should have code names," Raven announced excitedly. "We're government agents now, we should have secret code names. I want to be called Mystique."
"Damn!" Sean complained, "I wanted to be called Mystique." 'I knew he'd be funny.' We all chuckled at him.
"Well, tough, I called it." Suddenly blue scales waved across her body and I was sitting next to a clone of Sean. Raven then used Sean's voice, "And I'm much more mysterious than you." A bewildered Sean began clapping as did the rest of us. Raven changed back, "Darwin, what about you?"
"Well, 'Darwin', is already a nickname, and you know, it sort of fits. Adapt to survive and all. Check this out." As Darwin spoke he walked over to the fish tank and dunked his head in. In a flash he had gills on his neck.
A simultaneous "Whoa!" came for the rest of us as we clapped when he sat back down.
"That was incredible," Hank said.
"Thank you," Darwin said as he pointed to Sean. "What about you?"
Sean thought for a moment, "I'm going to be… Banshee."
"Why do you want to be named after a wailing spirit?" I asked.
Sean got up and knelt at the coffee table full of glasses, "You might want to cover your ears." We all followed his instructions as he let out an ear piercing screech that shattered not only the glasses but the glass pane window wall. Everyone's mouth dropped as we clapped.
"What about you, Rachel?" a deep voice said near my ear.
I jumped and saw Alex smirking as Raven turned to me. "Yeah, Rach it's your turn." I smiled at her nickname for me.
"If anyone's afraid of the dark, brace yourself." I snapped my fingers, turning off the lights and then turned them back on. I then pointed at the pinball machine in the corner and it lit up and started playing itself.
"Wow!" Angel said as they all clapped for me. "You should be Techna."
I pointed at her, "Your turn."
She stood up and took off her leather jacket, "Well, my stage name is Angel." Sean whistled and I rolled my eyes. "It kind of fits." Suddenly, her tattoos turned into wings.
"You can fly!" Raven exclaimed as Angel hovered in the air.
"Uh-huh. And…" she trailed off and spit an acid ball at the head of the statue outside. The top of the head caught fire for a second before smoldering. We all laughed and clapped. Angel nodded to Hank. "What's your name?"
"How about Big Foot?" Alex suggested. Hank's face fell as I slapped Alex on the back of the head. He glanced at me but I only shrugged. I had no idea what they were talking about but I knew he was making fun of Hank.
"You know what they say about guys with big feet," Raven quipped smirking. "And yours are kind of small."
Sean and I said simultaneously, "Ooh."
Darwin quickly became the mediator, "Okay now. Alex, what is your gift? What can you do?"
"It's not… I just can't do it. I can't do it in here," Alex declined.
"Can you do it out there?"
I gave him my best puppy dog look, "Please?"
"Why don't you just do it out there?" Raven suggested.
"Come on!" Sean said.
We all started chanting, "Alex! Alex! Alex!" Alex got up and we cheered. He quickly walked outside through the broken window wall. We all rose as well and went to watch.
"Get back when I tell you," Alex told us. "Get back." We leaned away from the window before leaning out again. "Get back!" We didn't move. "Whatever." He then started twisting and rings of red light flew towards the statue, two of them missed but one of them split the statue in half.
All of us clapped as I shouted, "Havok!" Alex came back inside. The ice had been broken.
I turned on the music and we all started dancing. Hank took off his shoes and revealed his hand-claw like feet and grabbed onto the chandelier with them. Darwin had made his whole body be kind of metallic and scaly. Alex and Sean were hitting him with stuff to see how durable his skin was.
Suddenly, an authoritative feminine voice broke through our party atmosphere, "What are you doing?" We all froze when we saw Charles, Erik, and the agent they had mentioned earlier, Moira MacTaggert. 'Oops!' Hank hopped down as Darwin changed back to his normal skin. "Who destroyed the statue?"
"It was Alex," Hank snitched.
"No, Havok," Raven corrected, "We have to call him Havok. That's his name now." She then approached the three on the other side of the broken window. "And we were thinking you should be Professor X." She pointed at Charles before pointing at Erik, "And you should be Magneto."
"Exceptional," Erik said sarcastically as he and Moira left. Charles stared at Raven.
"I expect more from you." And then he left as well. We were quiet and ashamed after that. We eventually adjourned to our rooms for the night.
Later that night I ventured out of my room for a midnight snack. I turned a corner and nearly ran into a water-soaked, half-naked Alex. My jaw dropped as I stared at his muscular upper-body. A deep chuckle made me look up at his smirking face.
"See something you like, Rach?"
I shut my mouth and steeled myself up, "I've seen better." He glowered at me, challengingly.
"Sure you have." I rolled my eyes and walked around him. I didn't even look back. But I could feel his eyes following me.