A/N: Okay, this idea has been eating away at my brain for a while now. It's a TF-X2 crossover, meaning it takes place right after X2 and before X3. There will also be the occasional flashback as well. May or may not be pairings in this, I guess it depends on how this progresses. If I do have romance in this, the rating is probably going to go up. One more thing, I'm going to have a profile of the characters set up shortly, and yes, the OCs are based off of real people. So I'll let everyone know when that's done.

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"The Line Between Prosperity and Superiority"

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Mutation. It is the key to our evolution. It is how we have evolved from a single-celled organism into the dominant species on the planet. This process is slow, normally taking thousands and thousands of years. But every few hundred millennia, evolution leaps forward.

Mutants. Since the discovery of their existence, they have been regarded with fear, suspicion, often hatred. Across the planet, debate rages. Are mutants the next link in the evolutionary chain? Or simply a new species of humanity fighting for their share in the world? Either way, it is a historical fact: sharing the world has never been humanity's defining attribute…

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It all happened so quickly. One moment, she was home with her family. The next, she was running for her life. Then, there was only darkness. Icy, soul-searing, painful darkness. The pain overcame her so quickly, and there was no way to escape it. She was trapped; unable to breathe…unable to die. She could only look onward as the chilling water began to take effect over her form, the temperature of it causing the agonizing numbness to come onto her even faster. Her eyes began to close in a reaction of her being starting to shut down altogether, while her thoughts consisted of regret, pain, and angst, very similar to the feeling of what her body was currently enduring. But then there was warmth. Salvation. She felt her body move in the faintest way, as if the waters around her were receding…or someone else was carrying her through the water. Whatever caused her to feel the sensation made her open her eyes slightly, as she was barely conscious now. The warmth around her continued to radiate off of the form carrying her, and as she lifted her head to see what it was, she could only see fire. No…not fire…a bird. A phoenix. She lost consciousness as she and her rescuer broke the surface of the water, but this time, the darkness was welcoming.

She awoke some time later, her eyes closed and her body curled into a ball as she lay on the surface beneath her. It was quiet where ever she was, and she relished it. For the longest time she had gone without the simplicity of silence. Now she was able to rest. She continued to lay in her position, too far-gone to notice anything, not that she was able to do much of that after what she had been through recently. Beginning to drift into sleep again, she could see a light slowly starting to illuminate the room she was in through her eyelids. She would have opened her eyes, but her exhaustion that had gone unrealized had finally taken its toll. She was able to make out only a moment of what happened after that.

"My god…" a man's voiced whispered "Scott…"

"I'm on it, professor." another man said. She could only guess that the footsteps that approached her were of the second man. After that, she could remember nothing else.

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"What just happened?" asked a rather nervous Bumblebee.

"I have no idea," Ratchet said quietly "The only thing that my scans could detect was that their minds were undergoing serious trauma, but I have no idea as to what kind it was. This is completely beyond me."

"Do you think it could happen again?"

Ratchet was unsure how to respond. He looked over to Sam and Mikaela, concerned that whatever it was that caused them to suddenly collapse in pain for moments at a time was going to come back, and the worst part of it was, the couple weren't the only ones that had been hit with the feeling. Apparently, every human in the nation had been affected by it, and if the pain continued the way it did, it would have killed everyone.

"I…I'm not sure. I intend on running a long-range scan to see if I can find anything that could've been the source of all this."

Deep down, he knew he already had his answer. He was just too afraid to admit it. The possibility of a telepath on earth caused him to shudder, horrid memories of the war passed flashing into his processor. A telepath on earth would mean trouble of the worst kind. The thoughts were quickly brushed away as more important priorities resurfaced. He would have to find of way of defending them against an enemy that had no need for physical combat.

Little did he know that another war began to stir, unaware that humans weren't the only ones that would have dominance over the planet…

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A/N: Short and illogical, I know. But the next chapter is already halfway written. So there you go. Please review if you like it. It helps the whole writing process. I'm taking suggestions as well, so I'd be happy to hear any ideas out there.