Title: Hero of the Day
Author: TWBasketCase
Rated: T for violence, language, drug use, and a few other silly things that I don't really find offensive but other people do.
Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men or Evolution. I do not intend to make any money off of this work. If I did own Marvel you would damn well know that Pyro would still be alive…sob. Oh yeah, I also don't own the title of this fic…Metallica does, and lord knows that they would sue a measly fan, lol. This disclaimer applies for all following chapters as well.
Full Summary: Takes place ten months after the fall of Apocalypse. Mystique is furious at the defection of Magneto to the X-Men, and decides that the road to mutant superiority is now in her hands. She recruits two of Magneto's former Acolytes to the Brotherhood, brings back Tabitha, and rescues a certain living-computer from the Hellfire Club to help strengthen the ranks of her team. When a small stealth mission exposes an anti-mutant mob known as the FOH, Mystique will stop at nothing to bring them down. But what the FOH are hiding and developing proves to be too much for the BoM, and they risk losing one of their own...and things only start going downhill from there.
Pairings: Will be Jonda, Lancitty, Romy, Polarice (or Lice, whichever you prefer :P), and Tabitha/Pietro/X-23. There will be a few minor ones as well.

Chapter 1 - Prologue

In a perfect world the sun would always be shining, the birds singing, and the sky blue. In a perfect world there would be no hatred, ignorance, or war. Would it be so strange to live a life where the world seemed so flawless and wonderful? Could mankind, for once, ever live in relative peace and accept every living being as one and the same? Maybe in a perfect world…

There was no such thing.

Except, of course, at the mansion of one Professor Charles Francis Xavier; even if the perfect weather was always attributed to a white-haired witch, their world always seemed so god damned complete. The children would laugh and frolic around in the yard. Young loves and relationships would develop and blossom. Problems would arise - wars, criminals, and death - and still, the mansion belonging to the Professor would always stand, and its occupants ensured that they would do what was right.

They didn't believe that there could be such thing as pure, unadulterated hate; they honestly believed that anyone could solve their problems peacefully amongst themselves. They believed that they could single handedly end all of hate in the world - especially that between the humans and mutants.

Mutants were a step up from humans; they had the most amazing abilities that put them in a level all of their own. There were mutants who controlled the weather - like the white-haired witch, and there were mutants who could control the psychic mind - like the Professor himself. Mutants who could control the elements of the Earth, the probabilities of reality, the life force of all living things, or even gravity itself, walked the Earth everyday amongst the humans with no powers of their own. Mutants held such great power that it terrified humans to the point of anger and hate. They did not begin to understand the magnitude that such powers held, and for that the world's population was forced to live in fear and ignorance.

So the humans felt threatened. They would stop at nothing to take their place as the dominant species of the world; they looked to produce mutant registrations and scientific experiment laboratories. They wanted to wipe the Earth clean of all those who held the X-gene; to destroy those who held such awesome power. Who was to say what some mutants could do with the power they had, and how they chose to use such power? The humans wanted to take no risk with such 'freaks', as they called them. They wanted the heads of the hundreds - or even thousands - of the Earth's mutants, how ever many there may be.

They had already tried to bring them down with secret government agencies before. A man by the name of Bolivar Trask, and an agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D. had already once - and unsuccessfully - designed a mutant killing machine known as the Sentinel to wipe out and collect members of the mutant population. Sentinels were large, robotic machines with flight capabilities, stunning lasers, deathly missiles, and a strange, green colored goo that could physically trap anything caught inside of it. The original prototype had been destroyed thankfully, but information gathered had shown that they very well could be in production again.

And as long as the humans felt threatened by the presence of the mutants' awesome power, most mutants believed that the mutant death traps would continually be produced.

Which left one to wonder why life at the Xavier mansion was always so carefree, as if there was never even a threat at all? How could an entire group of mutants not feel threatened by an oncoming war between the homosapiens and the homosuperior? Their very lives were at stake and they were all so willing to die to promote peace between both races. They believed that mutants were on the same level as humans, and their powers should only be used to assist in bettering everyone's lives.

But why would a mutant want to better the life of someone who was so willing to take their own?

That was exactly why she believed that she should lead her team to a position in the war that would prevent such a thing from occurring. Mutants were the next stage in evolution, and soon there would probably not even be any humans left, as all eventually would have a power of their own. If her stance was taken now, she could help prevent the termination of her race, which was imminently going to rule the world one day anyway. She would spare the lives of herself, her children, and her team, and continue on the quest for superiority - the next stage in evolution.

There was a great man once who had preached all of it to her. He himself had been a victim of persecution, and he bore witness to the death of his entire family. Since that time, Eric Lensherr had been adamant about preventing the same fate from happening to the mutants as well. He had made it his own personal mission to put all of the anti-mutant governmental agencies out of commission; he was partly (along with the great mutant Apocalypse) responsible for the sentinel prototype being destroyed. Eric was a man of great power, and from the day she had met him she admired and followed his every move.

She had even trusted him enough to perform experiments on her own unborn child to ensure that he would have an active x-gene at the time of his birth. Although the extent of the experiments and what he had actually done to her at that time were questionable and pretty unknown to her, she still held loyalty to him for a greater part of her teenage and adult life. He was the only born mutant leader she had ever known, and after the horror that she experienced after her initial power surge, he was the only one who had helped her, and trained her to use her powers to their maximum ability.

She felt indebted to him and took on any job or mission that he had for her. The most notable of those missions however, was the Brotherhood of Mutants. After he had felt she was responsible and capable enough, he left her in charge of recruiting a team of the most formidable mutants that she could find. She recruited any mutant that she could find - weak, strong, stupid, and crazy - and formed up her team. At first her prime initiative was to prove to Eric just how powerful of a team they were, but as time wore on she realized that her loyalty was in question when Eric had continuously made her prove her worthiness to him, when she felt it wasn't necessary.

Of course their partnership from that point on was off and on, but it never once affected the level of respect that she held for the man. She continued to lead her team, whom she had numerous problems with, but deeply admired Eric nonetheless.

Which was why it hurt so damn much for her to sit back and watch as he threw away the dream they had worked so hard to achieve.

High above the walls of Xavier's mansion, a large raven sat perched on a tree branch and watched the activities that were occurring below her. Of course the weather was perfect for the day's training, and the children were below her laughing - just like they always were. The man leading the team was the worst part; he was laughing along with the children as they showcased their formidable powers. Eric Lensherr was now a teacher at the Xavier mansion, training the do-right mutants in battle combat…combat techniques that they would use for their fight for equality.

Magneto wanted peace between the mutants and the humans.

The round eyes of the raven narrowed to small slits as she watched him; he was a damn hypocrite and a coward. He had not only abandoned her and her team, but his own children and all of the mutants out there who were ready to battle for their lives as well. She could never begin to understand his change in stance, or what had triggered it in the first place. It was the brotherhood who had saved his life from the grips of Apocalypse, not Charles Xavier. His entire stance on Apocalypse was to bring him down in order for him not to destroy any members of the superior mutant race, but to also not put a damper on his plans of mutant superiority. Eric had put his life on the line for the dream against Apocalypse, and then when all was said and done he betrayed the Brotherhood for the X-Men.

She for one would die trying. Eric had taken the easy way out and sided with Charles, but Mystique was not going to throw her life's work down the drain for an unrealistic dream. She was going to take all of her training and work to continue on the path of mutant dominance; she had already taken the first step in doing so.

The first building blocks of her team were decent at best. The mutants she had been able to recruit at first were questionable, even to her. Of course, they did have their powers and each one of them brought a unique use to the table. Quicksilver proved essential to any stealth operatives, or any last minute attack plans. His boldness and speed was unmatched to any other; however his arrogance proved to be his downfall. His judgment would often be clouded, and he saw himself in a much better light than any other. Many times his cocky attitude would be the cause of many problems that they landed in; and although he was able to quickly get himself out of the mess, he always left others to pick up the pieces. And while quick snatch and grabs tended to be his niche, his powers proved decent at best during combat. There were only so many whirlwinds and pranks he could pull on the battlefield.

Toad on the other hand proved worthy in both stealth mode and in hand to hand combat. He wasn't exactly the most graceful on his feet, but he did possess the ability to climb walls and use thievery tactics when needed. On the field he had himself a nasty tongue, and a disgusting mouth of slime that more often sickened people than scared them. And while Toad seemed to have the potential to be extremely well rounded, his inexperience always seemed to get the better of him. His constant immaturity and desire to impress his team members made him more of a distraction and a liability.

In combat, Blob was probably the most reliable source that she had. He had the ability to keep himself grounded and immoveable; even the adamantium claws of one Weapon X held no match for the big boy. His super human strength and invulnerability made him a force to be reckoned with in combat, and for that Mystique was pleased. But while his pure brute force was an asset, his lack of speed and lightness on his feet were quite bothersome. However, she couldn't expect anything different from a boy who weighed well over 500 pounds.

Avalanche was also worthy in the combat field. He was able to rip the ground out from underneath any of his foes, as well as cause earthquakes, collapses, craters in the earth, and had shattering affects on almost any inorganic object. Lance's leadership abilities and slight sense of responsibility pleased Mystique, as he seemed to be the one with the most potential to lead the team tactically and strategically through battle. If anything was in his way it would most definitely be his belligerent and stubborn attitude, as well as his love interest in the enemy. There were times that Mystique greatly questioned where Lance's loyalties lied, and for that she often had to keep a close eye on him. However, Lance was a young man of great power and was a definite asset to the team.

However, if anyone wielded an extraordinary power, it was the original team's lone female, the Scarlet Witch. The extent of Wanda's powers was fairly unknown to Mystique, but the girl had the ability to destroy just about anything that she looked at. By watching her progress, Mystique had sensed that Wanda's powers had much to do with chance and probability, but she couldn't know exactly for sure. It only figured since Wanda was the team's most powerful mutant, she was also the most mentally unstable and tended to pose a problem for the team. Wanda had very little control over her abilities, and because of that, she usually just tended to level everything in sight - including her own team members, whether intentional or not.

So while her team had such great potential, they almost always seemed to get the better of themselves and mess up. Of course, they were still only 17, 18, and 19 year old kids, and for that reason Mystique felt that she needed to add more to her ranks in order to achieve her goal. Luckily for her, she was able to come across a few mutants that she thought would be able to elevate her team immensely; one of which was trained as an X-Man and had excellent control over her abilities. Tabitha Smith had once been a temporary member of the Brotherhood, but Mystique had not been around to really oversee Tabitha's usefulness. When Mystique approached the girl once again, she was able to convince her to return (and gave up her bed in the process). She had been a prominent member since.

The other ranks, on the other hand, were a little more difficult to track down, but proved to be extremely useful assets for the team. Pyro, while somewhat insane, had excellent control over his marvelous ability, and was able to maintain his energetic focus for long periods of time. He was a convicted arsonist back in his homeland of Australia, so after the Acolytes had disbanded he didn't have much of a choice in terms of places to go. He also didn't show much in terms of initiative, but he would do what was asked of him as long as he was able to use his abilities.

Gambit, on the other hand, had proved a lot more difficult in recruitment. The man was always very suspicious of Mystique and was almost always able to pick up on ulterior motives and bad tactical advances. In stealth operatives the young man was the best of the best, and his leadership skills also proved extremely worthy. He had a good head on his shoulders, as well as an absolutely uncanny control over his explosive abilities. She had to go over many negotiations in order to get him to comply, but in the end was successful. His expert thievery, athletic agility, masterful hand-to-hand combat, and uncanny charming abilities had proven commendable of her now more powerful team.

Her growing team was her first step in continuing the fight for mutant supremacy. They had been training the past few months on working on their abilities and working better as a unit. Their work would determine whether or not her quest would be successful or not, so she wasn't taking it lightly. She had left both Gambit and Avalanche in charge of the boarding house and training exercises with the team members. She figured that being the age that they were it would lead to a few problems, but she had kept tabs on their progress and was happy overall.

She, however, had spent the past seven months doing extensive spying; gathering intelligence on government facilities such as Area 51, secret societies like the Hellfire Club, and obtaining the newest technology that would help aid her and her team in battle. Her biggest lead however had led her to a very familiar face - one that she thought she would never see again. Under the circumstances, she took the target a little more seriously than she knew she needed to. For what it was worth, he would make an excellent first mission target for her team.

She was ready to return to the boarding house on a more full-time basis to prepare them.

She took one last look down at the man that she used to know as her leader and sighed; if he couldn't find it in his guts to do what needed to be done, she was more than willing to pick up where he left off. She may not have had the amount of power that he wielded, but with the help of her new team, she knew she could manage without him - no matter how much it angered her.

It was only a matter of time that humans would know exactly what they were dealing with - and she was not going to let them win.

To Be Continued…

A/N: So that was the first chapter! It's not at all the same format that the rest of the story is going to be in, but more of a preview of what Mystique is all about now, and what she has planned next for the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood will appear in the next chapter, I will promise you that. There will also be a good amount of certain X-Men in this fic as well. So thanks for sticking through with the boring stuff, lol, and please come back for the next chapter! It will be fun, I promise!