Title: Evolution
Author: Nodakskip
Beta: Theo
Disclaimer: I don't own anyone mentioned in this fic, that's FOX and the WBs stuff I'm playing with

Author Notes: This was the third in my Cordelia as Marvel Style fics. It was just listed as number 3. And I did write a follow up that was forgotten about. But Theo yelled at me to finish it since my postings have been sparse at the moment. So here is old part one and new part two.

Cross with X-Men: Evolution. Part two mentions parts from the XME episode "Blind Alley."

Summary: One Mutation can really change things.

---

Deserted Science Building, Sunnydale High, Sunnydale CA
Friday, September 12th, 1997
8:05 pm

"Hurry up, Xander!" Cordelia Chase yelled, as she struggled to get free.

"They're locked down!" Xander yelled back, as he tried to undo the straps holding the cheerleader down for the Frankenstein brigade. "I need a knife-"

"Where the hell are you going?!" she screamed in sudden fear, as the big dweeb turned to leave.

"They have to have the key or a knife around here somewhere!" Harris told her.

"Don't you dare leave me!" Cordelia yelled, as the flames shot up all around them. She had to squint to see him, wondering if it was the heat. But for the past hour, something had been hurting like hell inside her head...

"I can't just push you though towards the door, it's too risky!" Xander said, as he turned back. "Don't worry, Cordelia, I won't leave you here-"

He didn't get the rest out, as a flaming part of the ceiling fell almost directly upon him.

"XANDER!!" Cordelia yelled in horror, as the boy's body crumbled under the rubble.

---

Outside the Building
The same time

Buffy Summers looked around, concerned. "Willow, where's Xander and Cordelia!?"

"They must be by the ambulance," Willow Rosenberg said, pointing to the large white vehicle next to the first fire truck.

---

Back inside the Building
The same time

Cordelia yelled in fear and desperation to Harris, as her panic grew more and more. "Xander!!" Her eyes were now squeezed tight in fear and pain. Ever since she had woken up on this damn gurney, she had
felt it.

"Xander, please!" she pleaded. "I don't know if you can hear me, but we have to get out of here!" Her voice grew softer. "Xander, please for God's sake, wake up! I even promise to flash you if you just get
me outta here!"

When no response came, the cheerleader took several deep breaths. "Okay...he's out of the equation...I have to do this myself..."

The brunette girl lifted her head and opened her eyes, to look at the thick leather straps holding her arms in place. "Oh dear GOD!" the girl yelled, when all she saw was red...everything was red. She could feel something building inside her head.

And before she could even say anything, Cordelia Chase felt her eyes nearly explode with pain and energy.

---

Outside the Building
The same time

The Scoobies were getting desperate. "What do you mean, he's still in there!?" Willow demanded, almost hyperventilating.

By now, the entire single-storey building was on fire. "I have to get in there!" Buffy shouted before a cop stopped her. "My friends are in there!"

"They know!" The cop told her. "They're trying to get in, but it's blocked. I-"

Everyone who saw it during the next instant was amazed and terrified. A thin band of red energy shot out from the inside of the building, tearing a massive hole open as it went.

"Damn!" the cop yelled. "What the hell was that!?"

---

Back inside the Building
The same time

Cordelia didn't know what the hell was going on, but whenever she opened her eyes... SOMETHING shot out of them. The first shot had just missed cutting off her own left hand. And what was worse, she just couldn't shut it off...whatever it was.

It had taken a lot of effort, and several misses to finally cut the bonds that were holding her down. The buxom cheerleader and socialite then kept her eyes shut tightly, as she crawled slowly towards where she had seen Xander go down. Her hand lightly searched the pile of rubble, till she came up with something soft.

Slowly, she felt it and found...a face. A male one too, judging the slight stubble.

"Xander!?" she called to him. "Wake up!" She lightly slapped him. "Come on!"

"Wha..."

"Oh, thank God!" Cordelia yelled as she heard his voice. "I can't see. Can you get us out of here?"

"I think so, I...AGHHH!"

"What?" Cordy asked, panicked.

"My arm is definitely broken!" He used his other arm to grab a hold of the ledge of the doorframe. Slowly, he pulled himself out of the pile, flames still all around them. After he was able to climb up, Xander looked towards her and said, "Cordy? You said you can't see, uh - why are your eyes shut?"

Cordelia turned her head away from him, and opened her eyes.

"Yikes!" Xander called out as the red beam erupted from her eyes, and blasted a hole right through the concrete wall. "Well, that's new-"

"What did those freaks and geeks DO to me?!" Cordelia demanded, as she tightly shut her eyes again.

"How about we not burn to death before we figure that one out?" Harris suggested. "Come on..."

---

Outside the Building
The same time

"So far, no names have been released," an attractive Asian correspondent reported into the camera. "It's believed two teenagers are still in the building..."

"GET DOWN!" a firefighter yelled, as the wall in front of him blew outward.

"Ladies and gentlemen...there has been some sort of explosion inside the entrance to the building-"

"Look!" a girl shouted. "There they are!"

"Get the shot, Ronnie!" the news reporter yelled at the cameraman as he zoomed into Cordelia and Xander helping each other out of the newly-created opening.

"Xander!" Willow yelled from behind the yellow police lines.

He didn't hear her over the roar of the fire and the babbles of the other voices, as the paramedics came rushing to them. "Sir, are you okay?"

"Can you open your eyes, miss?" another asked.

"NO!" Cordelia yelled at him.

"She's got a specialist medical problem..." Xander yelled above the noise. "Just leave it alone for now, okay guys!?"

---

Sunnydale General Hospital, Sunnydale
Saturday, September 13th, 1997
9:03 am

"How the hell did this happen?" Charles Chase demanded. "Red energy beams coming out from her eyes?!"

"I don't understand it either," Dr. Vanhensen told him, with a small shrug. "No medical condition I know of or have ever seen can explain this...because the human body simply can't do this!"

"Well, she's doing it anyway!" Charles yelled. "My daughter is in that room with her eyes bandaged shut, so she doesn't open them and destroy this entire damn hospital!"

The doctor got up and closed the door. He said hesitantly, "Mr. Chase...there may be one thing that I've heard of that could explain this. But up till now, I thought it was just an urban legend-"

"And what would that be?" Charles demanded.

"I was at a conference last year, there was a man called Charles Xavier. He said...well, just as we're different from our caveman ancestors, he speculated that sometime in the future, human beings
might evolve and develop new...abilities."

"Such as what?" Charles asked.

The doctor sighed. "There was no hard evidence to back it all up, but he claimed to know someone who could control any sort of metal with his mind. And another that could change physical appearance, at
will."

"I've never even heard of any of this before in my entire life," Charles shook his head.

"Unsurprising. Many, almost all of the delegates didn't bother attending his lectures," Vanhensen replied. "I was one of the few who heard him - more out of boredom, than anything else. But Xavier theorizes that humanity is at a stage where we might soon evolve to what he calls...the next level."

"Like what?" Charles asked. "Like the goddamn aliens on Star Trek?"

"I don't know for sure," Vanhensen said. "I only sat in on the first twenty minutes of his lecture...I had an early flight to catch, after all. But as far as I know, he is the only person that ever even suggested stuff like this. And thus, the only one who might be able to assist in your daughter's...situation."

Charles let out a deep breath. "Somehow, I don't think a teenage girl shooting laser beams out of her eyes was in his speech, was it?"

"No. But as I said, it's all we have at the moment," the doctor told him. "Quite frankly, I can suggest no way to stop this, or help Cordelia become who and what she was before yesterday. The pain your daughter said she had at first is now gone, but the beams are still active. We either call Xavier, or your little girl will be forced to keep her eyes shut for the rest of her life..."

---

Cordelia's room, Chase Mansion, Sunnydale
Wednesday, October 1st, 1997
4:48 pm

"Knock, knock!"

Cordelia picked her head up, morose and sulking after weeks of enforced blindness. "Xander? Is that you?"

"Yep. Thought I'd come by and see how you were doing," the class clown said cheerfully, as he came into her bedroom.

"Oh, just great!" Cordelia snorted. "Hey, wanna hear something funny? My mom didn't believe me about the eye thing, and I had to take out the gardener's lawn mower to prove it to her!" She felt around for the edge of her bed to climb down. "And you want to know the best part?"

"Sure, hit me..." Harris said, as he moved to help her to a chair.

"My mom freaked out so much, she suddenly had to head off to the Hamptons," Cordelia said with badly-hidden sadness. "She can't take it that her baby girl's a weirdo freak now!"

"You're not a freak!" Xander told her at once. "Look, Cordelia, I know we don't get along normally...but please believe me. You're not a freak or a weirdo-"

"Gee," Cordy said sarcastically. "Coming from a guy who fights demons on a daily basis while lusting after Buffy's ass, that's such a big comfort!"

"Fine, let's be all moody now..." Xander grumbled. "And by the way, have you forgotten about Buffy's little mating dance at the Bronze last month?"

"Oh, don't you bitch at me Xander Harris...I had to save your lousy life that night!" Cordy ranted.

"Hey!" Harris yelled back. "I'M the one who got you out of there!"

"But I'm the one who knocked the wall out!" Cordy pointed out smugly.

"Fine. God, but you can be such a self-centered snob!" Harris bit back.

"Well, at least I don't dress like a drunken spaz!" Cordelia shot back. Oddly, this little war of words had made her feel better than she had in days, however...

"Cordelia?"

"Daddy?" Cordelia asked, knowing her father's voice.

"Can you come downstairs, sweetheart?" Charles asked. "There are some people here who I'd like you to talk to."

"Who?" Cordelia asked, a little timid and not wanting a lot of people to see her like this.

"They're the experts we called," Charles responded. "They say they might be able to do something to help." He looked to Xander. "Uh, it's Alexander, isn't it? You can see yourself out, can't you?"

"Ah, yeah...I guess," Xander said. "Okay, bye Cordy-"

"Xander?" Cordelia called to him.

"Yeah?" he asked, looking back.

Cordelia felt for his hand, and took it in hers. "I just wanted to say thanks for coming here, and for keeping an eye on me," she told him with more than a little emotion. "Oddly enough, you're the only one who's bothered to come around ever since IT happened..."

Xander looked at her, shocked. "Really? Well, uh, don't mention it...so, do you want me to stop by tomorrow?"

Mr. Chase cut in at once, "There are things Cordelia needs to discuss downstairs first...I'll let you know when she'll be free for visitors. Just leave your number with the maid before you go."

"Okay," Xander said as he moved Cordelia's hand to her father's. "Not sure what I can do to help, if anything, but just call me if you need me, Cor..." Xander said as he left. He hated to admit it, but his feelings for the ice queen were changing at seeing her so...distraught like this.

As he crossed the front foyer, the high school junior spied two people waiting in the sitting room. A white, bald-headed old man in a wheelchair, and a tall white-haired beautiful black woman.

---

Sunnydale High, Sunnydale
Thursday, October 2nd, 1997
1:56 pm

//Alexander Harris to the principal's office. Alexander Harris to the
principal's office at once!//

The gang looked up in surprise, from the couches in the student lounge. "Since when does Snyder want to target me for something?" Xander wondered as he got up.

"Well, Xander," Buffy said. "He tried to screw me over with the parent-teacher thing, so...I guess tag, you're it."

"Great..." Harris sighed.

A few minutes later the balding little man opened the outer office door, to find Xander standing by the large front desk. "Ah, Harris..." the troll-like administrator groaned. "I can't tell you how...nice it is, to have to talk to you."

"Oh, gosh, Principal Snyder sir, stop!" Xander said back sarcastically. "I can just feel the love. Should we hug?"

Snyder frowned at him in disgust. "Smart-mouthed little punk teenager..." He pointed to a meeting room. "In there, now!"

Harris was surprised that Snyder didn't follow him in. "What's going on?"

"I asked to see you."

Xander turned to see Cordelia, her beautiful features now minus the eye bandages. She turned to face him directly, and the boy saw how she was wearing a stylish pair of sunglasses...that were made of some solid red material.

"Cordy?" Xander asked in confusion

Cordelia closed the door, before she silently hugged him.

"Cordy?" Xander repeated, more than a little surprised that she was hugging him. "What's wrong?"

The Chase girl sniffled a little, as she let him go. "I'm leaving town."

"What?" he asked, surprised.

"Daddy says he's not sending me away...but, uh," Cordelia wiped a tear away. "The people who came to my house that day - they say they can help me deal with...this," she said as she pointed to her eyes.

"Just putting on sunglasses stops it?" Xander asked, amazed and thinking of all the destruction he'd seen.

"Ruby quartz," Cordelia informed him. "Everything I see is in red, but if I took these off..."

"It's bye-bye school wall," Xander finished for her.

"Right," the cheerleader said emotionally. She then handed him a slip of paper, "This is my new addresses, I wanted to ask you to write me...please."

"Yeah, okay..." Xander said in confusion, seeing the emotion on her face. "I promise...but, um, Cordy...why me? Why isn't Harmony in here? She's your best friend, isn't she? Ever since we were in
kindergarten-"

Cordelia looked away. "No, Harmony Kendall is not now nor has she EVER been my friend! Xander, right now she's busy spreading rumors that I got a venereal disease of some sort! With me gone...Harm's
the queen bee around here. That's what she's working towards, and any so-called friendship isn't gonna get in the way of that!"

"Damn, but that's cold," Xander whispered, seeing the mask of fury on the former cheerleader's face. "I'm sorry-"

"Whatever. Look, when we write I'll send you the phone number there, okay?" she said.

He looked at her sadly. "Cordy, you know what my family's like. I can't really afford long-distance calls to..." he looked at the paper. "Bayville, New York?"

"I'll call you," she quickly said. "This guy Professor Xavier is rich, and he claims they have a good communication system. I've already got the library number, too...God, since you and those other
tweakos seem to practically live there and all!"

"Look - maybe you don't have to go," Xander told her, amazed at himself for saying this. "It's not like we're living in the 1950s anymore, where a girl gets sent away if she-"

"Don't worry," Miss Chase said firmly. "If I don't like it there, I'll come back. I mean, someone has to teach you how to dress properly one day!" she laughed lightly.

----

The Library
Half an hour later

"Xander?" Giles asked as he came in. "Did Snyder try to blame you for what Spike did, the other day?"

"No, G-man," Xander sighed. "I just said goodbye to Cordelia, oddly enough."

"Goodbye?" Willow asked as she came over. "She's going somewhere?"

"Her dad's sending her to a school that could help her...supposedly," Harris said with a shrug.

"With her eye thing?" Willow asked.

"Yeah, with the eye thing," Xander replied, before the conversation moved onto more Hellmouth-y matters.

---

Xavier Institute, Bayville, New York
A month later

Cordelia had to say - she was having a much better time of it than she'd thought she would have.

The Institute put her home in Sunnydale to shame, no doubt about it. She had her own room, a very healthy clothes budget from her father, and she had easily become one of the most popular girls at her new
school.

Bayville High School.

She and her new best friend, Jean Grey, had both seemed to simply just take over the leadership of the popular crowd, when they'd started school at the same time. Jean also lived at the Institute, so they both grew together fast.

The only things that were different between the two were that Jean had long red hair, and could move things with her mind. And since she was more of a jock than Cordelia, Jean quickly became one of the
co-captains of the girls' soccer team.

Well, Xander Harris didn't seem to mind getting a copy of the pictures Storm had taken, of Cordy and Jean in their bikinis by the pool. In fact, the guy had asked in one of the phone calls if there was anything more to show him, so she and Jean were kicking around the idea of making a teasing videotape to send to the horny little dumbass.

"Here, try this," Professor Xavier said, as he came over in his wheelchair.

Cordelia closed her eyes, took off her newest pair of ruby sunglasses and put on the new ruby visor. When it was fully on, only then did she open her eyes. "Well, at least I can see," she told him.

Xavier turned to the stack of concrete bricks at the other end of the underground room. "Do you think you can control it enough to hit the target?"

"Through the visor?" Cordelia wondered.

"It's less dense than the glasses," Xavier told her. "Just try."

Cordelia looked and concentrated as hard as she could. She hardly even felt it as the energy blast flew out of the visor, and cut a clean hole through the bricks.

"Damn!" Cordy said, amazed. "It worked."

"Yes, so it did," Xavier said proudly. "And if you'll notice that the beam was only the width of the visor opening..."

He rolled back slightly. "Now that we know it can work...let's try to see how much time must pass before you can recharge, shall we?"

"Okay, Professor," Cordelia Chase a.k.a. Cyclops said, as she started letting laser blasts fly at the target in rapid fire.

----

Empty Field Outside of Sunnydale, CA
Friday, May 22nd, 1998
1:35 pm

Xander paced around, wondering why on earth Cordelia had told him to meet her here of all places.

Harris had been glad to leave town, actually; and now that Angelus was roasting in Hell, maybe Buffy could finally get her mind back in the game. But honestly, what had his former hero been thinking
lately?

That stupid last-minute soul curse hadn't worked, the glass cue ball had exploded when Willow had gotten the herbs or whatever wrong, almost straight out of her coma...so it was lucky he had lied to Buffy about what his best friend had been planning to do, in his opinion. Otherwise, Xander suspected there was a good chance EVERYONE would have paid the price for trying to get Soul Boy back, and not just Kendra the Slayer.

Banishing such thoughts, Harris dropped his bag with a week's worth of clothes on the ground. The closest road was a ways back - the cab had refused to go onto the gravel road, so he'd had to hoof it for about half a mile.

Xander plunked down onto a large rock to wait. "How the hell is she even supposed to find..."

He was cut off, as the boy suddenly heard a loud whining noise. Xander looked up, and was shocked to see a jet that looked like a modified SR-71 Blackbird was hovering above the field and slowly descending to land...straight down.

"Didn't know they could do that," was all Xander could think of to say, as the black jet landed about a little way from him.

He watched a door open in the back, and a figure in black emerged. "Hey, Xander!"

"Cordelia?!" Xander grabbed his bag and ran to meet her. They hugged briefly, before he looked her over. "Interesting outfit, I have to say..."

Cordelia did a full turn for him. She was wearing a version of her X-men uniform. Black spandex with a large yellow X going across her chest, the yellow going all the way down to her boots. A thin red visor covered her eyes, as he'd expected from the latest phone call.

"So what do you think?" she asked him, as they walked towards the jet's door.

"I'm definitely not minding you in Spandex, Miss Chase. Although your latest bikini is what truly does that body justice," Xander grinned at his pen pal.

"Figures, you little pervert!" Cordelia said with a faux scowl, as she lightly punched him in the arm.

As they boarded the plane, Xander saw the black woman he had seen at Cordy's place the year before. She was in the pilot's seat, and a dark-haired younger girl came up to him. "So this is Speedo Boy, huh?" the female teen asked with a grin.

"Speedo boy?" Xander asked in confusion, as Cordelia stowed his bag in a bin.

"She saw your swim team photos...and so did Rogue," Cordelia teased him. "Believe it or not - you've got a fan club in New York, Harris!"

"Really?" the male teen asked, surprised.

"Yep," Cordy said, as they sat down and buckled in. She looked at the younger girl. "If you're good, Kitty, I'll get him some Speedos for the pool when we go looking for a tux!"

Kitty grinned at Xander's look.

"Yep. So glad I started working out last year," Harris whispered to himself.

As the jet took off, Xander looked over towards Cordy. "So, you picked out your Prom dress yet?"

"Sorry, Xander," Cordelia teased him. "No information on that till tomorrow night...but I'm definitely going to knock your socks off, pal!"

"Me? You mean...you don't have a boyfriend to take you to this thing?" Xander asked in confusion.

"No," the merriment seemed to dim a little with Cordelia's facial expression.

"Well, then, Miss Chase, pen pal of mine. The nastiest girl in Sunnydale's history, and the one person who I can't believe I've sorely missed for the last nine months. May I have the honor of escorting you to the Prom?"

The woman now known to some as Cyclops unleashed a classic megawatt smile, unfettered by the visor she wore. For as much as she hated to admit, Cordy had missed her old sparring partner as much as he had
missed her. "You may, Xander!"

The jet quickly got enough altitude and activated the radar jamming, before it roared off for New York.