Galerians/X-Men Evo Crossover...eh, I thought it might fit. I'm posting it here because there is no actual category for Galerians fics...yet. Oh, and I'm changing the ending to Galerians (so there will be SPOILERS)...the most obvious being that Rion isn't going to die (otherwise this would be a pretty short fic, and I'd be shortchanging the X chars)...the less obvious being that ASH doesn't exist. And just in case anyone was wondering...I do not own Galerians or X-Men. They belong to their rightful owners.

---

Human Imitation

It all came down to this.

Rion faced a crippled Dorothy, the derranged 'mother computer' of Michelangelo City. She had expected him to be the obedient child, and obey her command of execution. She didn't seem to realize that she had no hold over him: the initial destruction of his memories had erased his subservience towards her. Once realising this she immediately turned on him, tried to strike him down, but she had greatly underestimated the ability of her creation. She was defenseless now, many of her circuits fried and her connections to the computers of the city, and the world outside the city she oversaw, were severed. It was sad, really, to see her in this condition...but sadness was an emotion that Rion had learned how to live with; if he hadn't it would have consumed him before he even made it to the Mushroom Tower, Dorothy's domain.

All that was needed now was to infect Dorothy with the virus program, and the nightmare would end. Rion stepped over to the system terminal and motioned for Lilia to come out of hiding.

"Ready Lilia?"

She stepped up beside him, eyes darting from Dorothy's writhing form and Rion's cold gaze. Once Dorothy was destroyed, everything would be right again.

"Ready."

At this, Dorothy began begging for her life, uttering out insincere apologies and empty promises. Rion simply ignored them. To him they meant nothing, not after all she had put him through. He swallowed hard. The battle had taken a lot out of him...but he had to finish it.

"Send me the virus."

Rion placed his hand on the terminal, and Lilia placed her trembling hand over his. She shut her eyes in concentration. The virus program that had brought so much pain and suffering...she searched for it through the recesses of her mind. Once found, she brought it forth, and projected it to Rion. She released his hand and stepped back. Upon receiving the virus, Rion's own programming, the launch program, suddenly flared into life. It had received the command it had been waiting for. Rion's mind was reeling from the turmoil. Both his mind and body were exhausted, but he had to focus, or all of his efforts would be for naught. His heart began to race, his head to throb, but he had to ignore that-nothing else mattered. He had to focus, to guide virus, aim it towards Dorothy.

"Goodbye...mother."

With an effort that seemed to come from nowhere, for his reserves were all tapped out, the virus program was unleashed and surged into Dorothy's systems. The psychic force of this left Dorothy screaming in agony, and Rion's power unleashed lifted him into the air. Lilia, meanwhile, had backed away from them. She knew how dangerous a Galerian's full power could be. But her speculation soon turned to horror, as she realized that Rion was out of control. Even in the violently flickering light, she could see a halo of blue around his head.

He was beginning to Short.

She could already feel his aura filling the room. Various bits of debris were being lifted into the air and exploding like kernels of popcorn. She backed away and put up her mental shields - she didn't want to end up like the guards littering the floors below. Rion's mind was so powerful...she couldn't hope to keep it up for long. She scanned the room...to find that Rion's medicine pouch had dropped to the floor. It was too near to him to be of any use, but if she could only...

She reached for it with her mind, and it slowly began to slide toward her hand. Too slowly. Rion's power was flaring, her head was beginning to ache with the effort of keeping up her shields. She had to stop him, or they would both be killed by his powerful mind. There was only one thing to do. She directed her thoughts once again to the pouch, but instead of bringing the whole thing towards her, she mentally searched for one item in particular. The little blue pill. She had to get it into Rion to counteract the effects of Shorting. She didn't have much time. If she waited too long, Rion's brain would crash. And that would mean that he'd...No. She would not let that happen.

Slowly, carefully, Lilia made her way over to Rion. It had only been a few moments...but it didn't look like he even realised that he was Shorting, or that Dorothy had stopped writhing. But his power kept growing, filling the room. The pressure was becoming too much for Lilia. Slowly, she stood, steeling herself against the waves of Rion's power.

She knew what she had to do.

She made her way towards him, against the rushing tide of power that threatened to split her head in two. She closed her eyes tight; blood had begun to seep into them. Struggling, she searched out eye of the storm. She reached up to bring his face closer with hers. She opened one eye, and slipped the capsule into his mouth. She opened the other, and was greeted by a blank stare...

...and a final surge of power that broke completely through her shields and sent her flying across the room.

Lilia was dead.

Rion's power died down, and his limp body collapsed to the floor with a thud. Dorothy was no where to be found, for the wall she was attached to had been blown away. Rain began to fall through the domed ceiling onto the devastation below. The grim grey sky let in watery light among the rubble, enough to see that one soaked body, at least, was still breathing.

---

Elsewhere...

The news was reporting power outages in all the major cities of the world. The Xavier institue happened to be near enough to one of them to feel its effects.

"Professor, what's with all the blackouts?"

"Yeah, I can't get any work done with the power going out all the time."

"What work?"

"Shut up!"

The Professor, meanwhile, was paying little attention to his students. Instead, he was focused on the computer screen in front of him. In particular, the central location of this power surge...Michelangelo City.

---

So...how'd I do? R&R Oh, and just because I killed Lilia, doens't mean that I don't like her. I just didn't think that she should have survived anyway, since everyone else Rion met while shorting, er...died.suddenly...and messily.