Author's Note: Hello readers both old and new. My name is Punisher and this is my story. Some of you may know me from Young Justice: Beta and some of you may not know me at all. Hopefully, when you read this, you'll become a fan of mine. Anyways, this is a new story of mine. Inspiration hit while reading X-Men comics both new and old so I came up with this story. This story will be about a team of teenage mutants told from the perspective of their leader. You'll get to know these characters. Some of them you know, some of them you don't. There will be OC's in this story, but I won't overburden you with them because, for some reason, people don't like OC's in stories on this website. I hope you enjoy this story and stick around for what's to come. Make sure to show your love in some way. Whether it's reviews, follows, favorites, etc. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for reading my story.

Issue #1: Origins

My name is Jason Velasquez and I'm a mutant.

I remember the day I discovered I had powers, the day I was officially declared a mutant. I wonder if Spider-Man or the Fantastic Four were once considered mutants when they discovered their powers. If not, what's the difference between us? I get my powers when mutants are appearing throughout the world so that instantly makes me a mutant. They get their powers via some freak accident and BLAMO! They are loved and worshipped. Well, Spider-Man has his days when nobody shows love for the web-head. My point is, we all have powers, so what makes them better than us mutants? Because we have a specific gene within us, that's what makes us different from them? Is the X gene the reason why so many people fear and hate us? Why?

I'm sorry, I got sidetracked. Almost bursted into a whole rant about the ignorance of Homo Sapiens. Don't even get me started on those anti-mutant a-holes. As I was saying, I remember the day I found out I had powers.

It was March 24th, 2014. Obama was still in office, it was Spring time in Los Angeles. Overall, it was a good day. Until I kinda-sort-of burned my school down. Okay, okay, maybe I'm getting a little bit too far ahead of myself. I didn't burn my school down. But... I did scorch the halls and may have injured/killed a few people. Accidentally, of course. Listen, I know this sounds insensitive, but it happened a long time ago. I've moved on from that and I've done things to make up for that dreadful day. I still remember seeing their scared faces. Sometimes images of people burning because of my powers still haunt me. But I'm over it.

It was a surprisingly chilly day in Los Angeles, forcing parents to force their kids to wear a sweater of some kind. Some didn't own sweaters. California was usually a state known to be freakishly hot. I was in my 8th Grade science class sitting next to my friend Eddie. We sat in front of shiny brown rectangular tables with our science equipment displayed in front of us. We sat in the front of the class on the right side of the somewhat small room. Behind us and to our left were shiny brown rectangular tables. I'm sure you get the picture. The smell of sweaty gym socks plagued the room, leaving most of the students with a sour face. Our school didn't have showers and Gym class was the period before our Science class.

As our teacher went on and on about chemistry and how it's essential to our lives in some way, I studied the fire displayed in front of me. Above it was a beaker with some water within it. Something about blue fire always fascinated me. Probably because blue is my favorite color. But, to me, it always looked cool.

My friend Eddie, who looked like he belonged at the beach instead of school, elbowed my arm and nodded toward the teacher who stared directly at me.

"What's so fascinating about the fire, Jason?" My fresh-faced teacher asked, the kids behind me chuckling whenever one of their peers got caught dozing off.

"Sorry." I apologized and he went back to doing what he did best, putting half of the kids in the classroom to sleep.

Yet, he only cared when I didn't pay attention. Probably because it was a rare occasion and the fact that I was one of his best students. Only because the other students didn't even bother trying to get a grade above their C average, or even a B. There were others in the class that got an A, but they were the minority. I was just a B to B+ student doing what I was meant to do in school. Learn. I always liked to learn. Who doesn't? Sure, school can be tiring and boring at times, but sometimes you need to stick with it. You know? Anyways, I digress.

Now, as to what happened next, I still don't understand to this day. From the stories I've heard from other mutants, mine is kinda up there in the weird department. If such a thing exists, that is. I began to feel a burning sensation within me, not the good kind either. At first, it started deep within my chest and it spread like wild fire to my arms and legs. As I felt this heat within me, I began to sweat profusely. I unzipped my sweater and let it fall on the back of my seat.

"Is it hot in here or is it just me?" I whispered to Eddie while my teacher's back was against us.

"Shouldn't you be using that line on Paige?" Eddie joked with a sly grin. Of course he had to mention my crush, who was sitting directly behind us and could hear us. Yes, my friend Eddie made it much more worse for me.

Eddie chuckled at the look of embarrassment plastered all over my face, but his face contorted to a worried look as he noticed how much I was sweating.

My teacher seemed to have notice as well. "Jason, are you okay?"

I wiped some of the pile of sweat off my face and looked up to him. "I don't know."

"Is there something wrong?"

All I could say was, "I don't know."

"Jason, you're not exactly helping."

"I know. I'm sor-" My apology was interrupted by the overwhelming pain I felt within me. The burning sensation turned into sharp pain all over my body. I cringed as if I was stuck on the toilet after eating a bad taco.

I had to get up from my seat. I thought walking around would make it go away or something! As I was in pain, I could hear my classmates talk amongst themselves, declaring that my little stunt was a way for me to get out of the quiz my teacher was about to give before the end of class. Believe me, I would have come up with something a little bit painless as an excuse. Their conversations soon ended and now I heard most of them gasp, most of them swear, and a girl or two shriek.

"Jason, your arm!" Eddie pointed out as he slid his chair as far away from me as possible.

I opened my eyes to see my right arm was completely engulfed in flames. From the corner of my eye, I could see my teacher reaching for the fire extinguisher that was in the room in case there was some emergency. I stared at my arm in fear and started to freak out. I jerked my arm like some cartoon character as I tried to get the fire off me. It got off me and landed on to Paige (Can that day get any worse?!) and her best friend who was sitting next to her.

My teacher rushed over to put the fire out on my arm and my crush. As the smoke cleared, I got a good look at the faces my classmates had, faces that would be around for the rest of my life. The look of dread, of fear, of hate. Even Eddie, my friend since 5th grade had that look on his face.

"Eddie, I-" I tried moving toward him, but he got up from his seat and dashed over to the other end of the room where the windows were at so he can hop out if shit hits the fan.

I looked at the others once again. "Guys..." I said rather sadly as I began to grow nervous. They all moved their chairs as far away from me as possible. It was then, that I knew, that I was a mutant... It was then that I knew I would be feared for the rest of my life.

I didn't wish for it. I didn't pray to God to bestow me with the powers I have. God decided to give me these powers. What he gave me was a gift and a curse. Something mostly all of my kind know about.

"Jason, you need to get out." My teacher finally spoke up, equally as scared as his students.

"W-what?" Of all the things he's ever said to me, that was the one statement I couldn't comprehend.

"For the safety of us all, you need to get out of this school." He clarified. He didn't say it in a mean way if that's what you're thinking. He was genuinely concerned for his students.

Though his tone was somewhat calm, something within me just snapped. I was too emotional. I was too nervous and just mad. Mad that it had to happen like that. By complete accident, because I had no control over my powers, fire started bursting out of my body and onto the clothes of my fellow classmates. Onto the shiny brown rectangular tables and the random skeleton body in the front of the room. Onto one of my favorite teachers. Seeing the chaos I caused, I ran out of the room, not wanting to harm anymore people. As I ran, the fire continued to burst out of me unbeknownst to me. I didn't feel a thing. The burning sensation, the sharp pain. All of it gone. Now my powers were just out of control because of my emotions.

I finally got out of the school and continued to run for my dear life, as if the fire was going to burn me next. After making it across the street and in between two buildings inside of a alley, I turned around and saw the destruction I created. I watched as my school was on fire, the people within struggling to come out. My eyes were as wide as they could be as I watched in terror. I looked at my hands, completely normal now. I had the power to burn buildings.

Sirens from the local police, fire trucks, and ambulances snapped me out of my wacky thoughts. I had to run. People inside of that school knew who started the fire. There was no way of explaining it to anybody. They would call me a mutant, say I willingly caused that mayhem at school with a giant smile on my face and send me to jail. Maybe I was over exaggerating, but I couldn't take any chances. I was too young to go to jail. I didn't have what it took to survive in that place. I swiftly turned around and booked. I couldn't run home because that was the first place they would check. As I ran, I just wondered how my parents would take this. Hearing that their little boy was a mutant menace, burning down buildings and such.

I had been walking around for a hour, occasionally running away whenever I heard sirens. I didn't want to take any chances. I was in a junkyard hiding out. Having crushed cars around me was slightly comforting for some reason. The good thing about it was that the guy who ran the place was on his 1:00 lunch break. I sat on a crushed car with my arms hugging my knees, wondering what I was going to do next. That was when I met the X-Men for the first time.

Now, I've seen them on TV a couple of times and read some newspaper articles about them. Some say they were as bad as Magneto, which is kind of a joke. Others say that they have the interests of both humans and mutants in mind when conducting their missions. I like those other people. I respect what they do, I'm a fan of their work. But in the condition I was in when I first met them, I was in no mood to ask for autographs. I was more in the condition of wanting to shit my pants and pinch myself constantly to see if it was all a dream. The team they sent after me was Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Angel, and Beast. Now, they've had many costumes over the years, so I'll let you pick your poison when it comes to that. Other then that, I'm sure you know how they all look. And if you don't, there is this thing called Google that you can use... I'm sorry, that was kind of rude. But I'm sure you get the gist of it. If I could, I would have put a smiley face at the end of that last sentence. But this isn't a text message. This is the real thing. This is what I lived through.

"Jason Velasquez, we are the X-Men." Cyclops stated the obvious with the kind of confidence I wish I had.

You're probably wondering how they know my name. Well, my handsome (I'm not that handsome) little face was plastered all over the news. A brown skinned, brown eyed boy with black spiky hair set a school on fire. Of course that would make the news. And they just had to use one of my cheesy pictures from Facebook, too. The nerve of those people!

Where was I? Oh, yeah. "We're here to help you." Cyclops continued and I didn't believe him.

Here's why: I was scared shitless. My name and face was all over the news. Now, I knew the X-Men were the good guys, but I thought that they thought that I was the bad guy. That I set the school on fire for some sick, twisted reason. Probably to start some homework revolution or some shit like that. Yeah, F the establishment and all that jazz. Also, did I mention I was scared shitless? So, yeah, I was extremely paranoid that day. I thought everyone and their grandmas were against me.

So, after Cyclops informed me of his intentions, I automatically, without a single thought said, "No!" I remember crawling off the car like some toddler trying to safely get off their parent's bed. I now stood in front of them and I said, "Stay away from me! I know you're here to turn me in. I don't want to go to jail!" Who does?

They noticed I put my hands up in defense. Heh, as if I stood a chance.

"Jason, we wish to help you. Not to fight you or do you any harm." Storm's pleasant tone would have relaxed me if I wasn't fueled with Adrenaline and Fear. Even her posture with her hand out for me to grab was nice. But I didn't give a shit.

She tried moving forward and I unknowingly blasted her with fire. I don't know how it happened, but it just came out of my hands. She used her power of weather manipulation to get a gust of wind to blow away the fire on her. Surprisingly, she didn't seem mad. I mean, it was a pretty weak attempt on my part. But, you know... Stuff.

I -and ya should have seen my face when nothing came out- tried to do what I just did to Storm by accident again. Yeah, it didn't work out so well.

Cyclops noticed I was trying to attack them... and fail. "Jason, we want to help you. Just please, end this now before things escalate."

Escalate, how? I asked myself. I didn't want to find out, so I turned around and started running away. They followed me as I ran around the maze that is a junkyard. They even managed to corner me. Cyclops, Jean and Angel were behind me while Storm and Beast stood in front of me. And I gotta say, for the record, that looking at Beast for the first time scared the crap out of me. He was so blue and so furry and his eyes were kind of weird looking. He looked like something you would cuddle with at night to fall asleep faster, but also something you didn't want to wake up next too in the morning.

They slowly, cautiously approached me, not wanting to hurt me, but I couldn't register that at the moment. I wasn't thinking rationally. All my mind was telling me was for me to run. They got closer, so I had to do something! I closed my eyes and waved my arms around like a mad man, hoping that would help. I prayed to the All-Mighty one that when I opened my eyes, things would be better. And they were! Some way, somehow, I managed to create a ring of fire that trapped the two separate groups. That allowed me to run out of the junkyard and towards my parents house. Because all I wanted at that moment was to see my parents.

Just as some children who got into trouble, I wanted to go to my parents. Not because I was a baby. Not because I was some wimp. I went to them because they were reliable. Because they were a constant in my life. I loved my parents and they loved me. They may have been hard on me, but they shaped me into the man I am today. They taught me values. They taught me that Honesty, Respect, Kindness, Cooperation and Generosity was essential. They taught me to respect those that show respect. To be kind to anyone, anywhere. That being honest was the best policy and would get you somewhere in life. Their values, which was past down to them by their parents, is something I hold close to my heart. Especially after that day...

I ran and I ran, knowing the X-Men were close behind. From the shadows formed on the sidewalk in front of me, I could see that the X-Men capable of flying were high above me, keeping a watchful eye on me, making sure to not lose me. I knew I wasn't going to escape them. But, I just had to see my parents one last time before the X-Men send me to jail. My house wasn't that far from the Junkyard. It was practically on the border between Los Angeles and Compton. That meant that my house wasn't that fancy. My father was a construction worker and my mother was a maid. So you know the house wasn't that great, but it was my home. My sanctuary.

I ran to the front door of my small two-story home with my keys in my hand. I tried to rush in and much to my dismay, my keys dropped onto my front porch. I scrambled to pick them up and now all of the X-Men were behind me. I ignored them and finally entered my house.

"Mom, Dad?!" I called out, hoping to hear them debating about what to cook for dinner or about some Spanish TV show they liked to watch together. But it was complete and utter silence.

At least the X-Men were kind enough to leave me be for a couple of minutes. I instantly ran up the stairs to see if they were in their bedroom, but they weren't. I went back down the stairs, sweat trickling down my face, my hands shaking in fear. When I needed them the most, they weren't there. I didn't bother checking the living room, but to this day, I regret ever going into that room.

I entered the room, the back of my father's recliner facing me. On the arm rest laid a familiar hairy brown arm. I thought to myself a rather idiotic idea. Maybe my father was asleep on the recliner, like he usually was after work. Sure, he was a heavy sleeper, but because I used to cry a lot when I was a baby, he always woke up whenever he heard my voice. He wasn't waking up now. I began to pant, tired because of the events that occurred that day, but also because adrenaline pumped through my veins as my fear began to kick in once again. I slowly walked toward the side of my father's recliner, hoping the scenario that was playing through my head wasn't true. Unfortunately, it was. My father was laid out on the recliner with his eyes and mouth open and a bullet lodged into his forehead. I took a step back, covered my mouth and began to cry. Because next to him, on our little sofa, was my mother in the same position as him. Both of them... shot in the head. No respect for their bodies whatsoever.

When I began to cry, as loud as I ever had before, the X-Men entered my house to see what was wrong. Tears fell down my cheek, my eyes red and puffy. My head hurting, unable to comprehend what I saw with my eyes. The burning sensation returned, but I ignored it. I was too preoccupied with the fact that my parents were dead. They were innocent people! Hard-working people! And somebody just walked into my house, posing as cops and just... just... killed my parents. Because I was a mutant! My powers were the reason why my parents died! Of course, I wouldn't find that out until later on. I wouldn't find out who did it or why until later.

"Dear God." Jean Grey commented as soon as the X-Men entered my living room and saw what I wished wasn't real. My dead parents.

"Poor boy." Beast added sympathetically. The X-Men had seen people die, but to see someone grieving in front of them with the dead bodies in front of them was something they hadn't gotten used too.

I finally stopped crying, but still full of powerful emotions. My back was facing the X-Men, my head down, my eyes staring at the ground, making sure to not make eye contact with my dead parents.

"Th-they were innocent people..." I finally spoke, my voice low.

"Jason... We will find who did this. I promise." Cyclops stated. I didn't know whether to believe him or not. But I wasn't really paying attention to him. I was still in shock.

"They were innocent people!" I roared loud enough for the neighborhood to hear as both of my arms were engulfed in flames.

"Jason, calm down!" Storm pleaded, but I ignored.

All I remember was roaring as my body was on fire in the inside. Then I blacked out. From what I heard, I exploded. I destroyed my house and burned my already dead parents. Jean had protected her teammates using her telekinetic powers, but my explosion overwhelmed her. They were thrown back, but weren't in as much danger or pain as they would have been hadn't Jean protected them. After getting back up, checking for any injuries, and dusting their leather costumes off, they looked for my body and checked to see if I was still alive. There was some debris on top of me, but nothing enough to kill me. My powers made sure to not kill me so easily. As if I still wanted to live after everything that transpired that day.

I woke up several hours later in the med bay inside of the X Mansion. I opened my eyes slowly, but the bright light directly above me blinded my eyes, making it hard for me to see anything. I quickly shut my eyes and put my hand above my face to shield me from the light. I opened my eyes once again and they slowly began to readjust. Still on a metal bed with minimal cushion, I began to look around the room. My bed was placed against a wall in the middle of the room. To my right were medical cabinets and to my left, to my surprise, was Professor X. The light from above reflected on Professor Xavier's shiny bald head. To be honest, it nearly blinded me.

"Where am I?" I inquired as I continued to examine my new surroundings.

"Greetings, my name is Professor Charles Xavier. Welcome to The Xavier Institute For Gifted Youngsters." Professor X greeted with his soothingly calm voice that could make a rampaging elephant relax.

I lowered my head into my hand as my head began to ache for the hundredth time that day.

"Please tell me this is all a dream." I replied with a shaky voice.

"I'm afraid not." I turned to look at him and there was a frown on his face. "I'm sorry for your loss..."

Him saying that triggered something within me. I began to weep for my loss, my powers, due to my emotions, began to go out of control once again. I looked, once again, in fear as my arms started to flame on. Just like what happened before the explosion. Professor X grew nervous, I knew it. He didn't want to get blown up.

He placed his hand on my head and said, "Jason, relax. Calm yourself. Do not let your emotions get the best of you."

Professor X offered his advice, but I didn't take it. However, my body and my mind began to relax. His power to enter my mind and even command me allowed him to calm me down. I'm grateful I didn't blow up that day. But, after calming down, all I could do was sob at the thought of my dead parents.

I'm Jason Velasquez... And I'm a mutant...

In the next issue of X-Men: New Mutants...

Jason must move past the events that unfold in this chapter. But that's easier said than done. Jason must grow accustomed to his new life at the mansion and as a mutant. He's given a test by Wolverine. Will he rise to the challenge? Tune-In and find out.