"I'm sure you'll love it here, Evan. Kitty is around your age, and there are plenty of teenagers. This afternoon I'll take you to the institute to meet the rest of the students," Ororo, also known as Storm of the X-Men, told her nephew.

"Uh-huh," Evan muttered, looking out the passenger's seat window. They were coming up to an average-looking house in a nice neighborhood, surrounded by trees and flowers. Nothing like home.

Ororo parked the car, before sighing and looking over at her nephew. "Evan, I know you're upset..."

"What did you expect, Auntie O?" Evan snapped.

"Let me finish," Ororo told him. "Evan, I know you probably feel abandoned by your mother and father. But they still love you- your powers won't change that. But you need to learn control, Evan." She smiled. "Think of it like going to college."

"I was hoping to put that off until I was through with highschool," Evan smirked. "Thanks, Auntie O."

"Alright. Go inside and introduce yourself- I'll get your things."

Evan stepped out of the car, walking towards the house. It was now or never. He walked inside, being greeted by the sight of three teens sitting in the living room. There was a brunette girl with her hair in a ponytail dressed in shocking pastels, another, paler, girl with red and white hair, wearing tons of makeup and with nearly all of her skin covered by green and black, as well as a boy wearing a long coat with a hood that was now pulled down. His appearance was shocking-his hair was blue, his eyes were yellow and glowing, and he was covered in blue fur. The brunette waved him over.

"Hi! You must be Evan!" She grinned. "I'm Kitty. It's nice to meet you."

Lance walked into the kitchen, looking sullen and angry at the world. Which he was.

His current foster parents gave him odd looks. They always did that. It enraged him to no end...

Are you going to let them get away with that? a little voice said. You don't have to take this, Lance. You know it. Bury them!

He didn't know why- it's common knowledge that you shouldn't listen to the little voice in your head- but he did just that. His eyes rolled back as the ground started shaking. He wished that he could see their faces, but right now he couldn't see anything. After a few moments, the rumbling stopped and he could see. The house was nothing but rubble now. He had just killed his foster parents.

Again.

He stared in shock as a shadow appeared over him and landed. He looked up to see a man dressed in purple and red armor of some sort and a blond woman wearing nothing but white standing in front of him.

"You have a great power. Join me, Lance, and claim your rightful place above the pathetic humans who have tormented you!" The man spoke. Lance found himself nodding and stepping into a metal sphere, which closed behind him.

Magneto and Emma Frost turned back to the rubble. From underneath it, an elephant suddenly reared up, shoving off the rocks, before turning into the form of Mystique. Next to her Sabertooth, no longer being cloaked by Emma, threw off the rubble burying him.

"Well done," Magneto told them. "Avalanche is now on our side." He turned to Emma. "Of course, we owe the success of this mission to you, miss Frost."

"Of course, Magneto," Emma stated. "I was more than happy to help. After all, the more soldiers you have, the better chance we have of capturing the Phoenix."

"So, you guys are going to the Institute too?" Evan asked the others.

"Yea," Kurt replied, "Kitty can phase, Rouge can..use other people's powers, and aside from the obvious I can teleport."

"Cool. I can make spikes," Evan stated, demonstrating by spiking up his arm. He focused and managed to retract them. "Nothing special."

"I think it's pretty cool," Rouge told him.

"Yeah, better than permanently looking like a freak," Kurt said in a tone that was both annoyed and depressed, a sharp contrast to the usual cheerful attitude they had seen him have before.

"Yikes, and people say girls have mood swings." Kitty winced. "What happened to you to make you think you look like a freak?"

"Kitty," Kurt gave her a look. "I have fangs, my eyes glow, I'm covered in fur, I have a tail and my hands and legs are completely deformed." In response, Kitty met his look with a glare. Kurt sighed. "Fine, fine. I may have had a nasty encounter with a few people back in Germany." Kitty continued to glare at him. "Maybe more than a few people...okay, a small mob." Kurt winced as Kitty's glare intensified. "Fine! The entire village got together and tried to burn me at the stake because they thought I was a demon."

Kitty nodded. "That's better. My parents were killed in a freak fire."

"Kurt's parents adopted me when they were forced to move to America."

All eyes turned to Evan, who held up his hands. "Sorry, but I don't really have that dramatic of a backstory...I never lived in the sewers or ran away from home or anything. Hey! Don't give me that look! I did know a kid who's sister was put in an alysum, but I haven't seen him in years."

The Brotherhood house was a wreck, but of course, that was normal. Todd was sitting on the couch with Tabitha, watching the TV looking bored. Piotr was in a corner drawing in a notebook, and Remy was watching St. John stare at a flame on his lighter with a look of extreme concentration.

"Come on...come on..." St. John glared at his lighter. Nothing happened.

"It ain't gonna work, St. John!" Remy snapped, rolling his eyes. "Give it up!"

"Can you blame me, mate?" St. John asked him. "I've had my powers for ages, but they still won't work!"

"He's got a point, yo," Todd spoke up from the couch. "Everyone else's powers work just fine, and we haven't had ours for as long as he has."

"See?" St. John said, waving a hand in Todd's direction. "Even the new guys have their powers! Even the Toad has his powers!"

"Hey," Todd protested half-heartedly.

"Comrades," Piotr started, "Did Magneto not tell us that we would be receiving a new team mate?"

"Hey, yeah." Tabitha noticed. "Where is he? This sort of thing normally doesn't take that long."

"Yeah, I heard from Freddy that Bucket-head has Mystique and Sabes helping him out, and even called in a favor from Frosty the Ice Queen!" Todd added.

"What makes this guy so special, hm?" Remy wondered. At that moment, the sound of a door opening and closing caught their attention. All heads turned to the entrance, where Lance stood staring right back.

"Hey, it's the new guy!" Tabitha cheered. "What's your name?"

"Lance," he stated simply, before going upstairs. Tabitha frowned.

"Well he's a regular ball of sunshine..."

In a room upstairs, Pietro and Fred were studying a variety of maps. Pietro had a strange looking string with a crystal on one end sitting next to him.

"How about here?" Fred asked, bringing over a map of a city. "It's near the last place you noticed."

"It looks good enough," Pietro stated, picking up his crystal and string by the end without a crystal. He closed his eyes and tried to focus. The crystal shuddered and glowed a bit, before starting to swing around the map.

"I'll never get used to that," Fred stated, blinking. "That crazy scientist guy may have been a nut, but it's still impressive that he managed to give you a bit of your sister's powers."

"Yeah," Pietro sighed. The crystal stopped moving. "Wanda isn't in this town. We'd better keep looking."

"Thank you for coming on such short notice," Magneto told the pale, red-eyed man with him. "I'm afraid Mystique refused to return to the Brotherhood home after an...incident with Toad and Quicksilver."

"It's no problem at all, Erik." The man stated. "I'd love to work with your children and recruits again. I'm sure it will prove quite enlightening."

"I figured you would be of that opinion," Magneto said, "Mr. Sinister..."