The Point
Get to It
Chapter One

The city was filled with sounds. Cars stuck in traffic and screaming taxi drivers that all spoke different languages; hawkers hawking; business men and women talking loudly on mobile phones, trying to be heard over one another.

"I'm huuuuuuungy," said a teenage girl as she walked along the sidewalk between two young men approximately her own age. She was dark-haired with a flat face, her skin lightly tanned and smooth. Wearing reflective black sunglasses made it impossible to tell the color of her eyes or the shape. A hand in need of a manicure rested over the flat stomach shown between the gap of her tied-back sunshine yellow shirt and low-rising dark blue jeans. The young men dressed just as casually. They walked comfortably, their lazy pace suggesting they really had nowhere to go. Passing a hawker's cart selling hot dogs, the girl threw it a longing look from behind her sunglasses.

"Use your r's," snapped a darkly brown-haired young man that bore a striking resemblance to the girl. They were exactly the same height, which was average for their late teen years, and his face was just as flat. His skin was a hint paler and a wide slicing scar cut up through his right eyebrow, down through the right eye that was covered by reflective black sunglasses, and hooked over the Asian-like nose mid-cheek to end beside the boy's left ear. He wore a maroon tee shirt that seemed too small for him and dark denim pants that looked too big, but there was no tuft of boxers or underwear, which suggested he wore none.

"I'm huuuuuuungry," said the girl, throwing the boy a look that made her own Asian-like nose scrunch up.

"Well, eat your words. You never seem to shut up, so that should hold you over."

"That's harsh, man," said a boy whose white-blond hair was in newly dreaded dreadlocks grown past his ears. As he wore no shades, his big and oval eyes were revealed to the world. Those eyes were mostly blue, but with rings of green, and nearest the pupil there might have been a hint of red, but that was only if you looked closely and didn't mistake it for brown. He was taller than either brunette, which made him look older. His skin was evenly tanned a lightly beige hue and his face sharp-boned. In either ear were at least three piercings each, as well as a silver barbell in his full and pale lower lip and a sapphire stud in the skin over his right nostril. He was dressed in black slacks and a collared dark blue dress shirt that buttoned up the front. "Your sis has a point, anyway," he continued, sliding a glance at the shorter boy. "We haven't eaten in three days…"

"We don't need to eat," snapped the brunette, sending his fair-haired friend his sharpest look.

"You and me don't, but Isis does. She's a halfie, remember? You're twins, but she didn't get as many extra chromosomes as you, Oz."

From just over the lenses of the sunglasses, Oz looked at the blond boy, revealing slits of almond-shaped red eyes. "Theo," he started, a charge of anger in his voice. Unbeknownst to the trio, black thunderheads began to gather overhead. "Do you want to die a horrible death?"

Theo smiled. "Not particularly," he said.

"Then shut up."

Isis turned her head away from the boys, looking in the windows of shops they passed. "Can't we—" But she didn't get further than those two words.

"No," snapped Oz.

She sighed loudly. Then she stopped walking, staring fixedly at the window of a store that was closed and the armored blinds within drawn. Then she looked up at the sky. "Osiris," she whispered. "Theseus… Look up." The young men stopped moving and glanced over their shoulders, then one looked down and the other looked up. Looking at the sidewalk, Theseus saw the shadows of the thunderheads. Looking up, Osiris saw the black clouds. "We've got to get these people to shelter."

"There's too many," replied Osiris, murmuring. By the laws of human nature, standing ten feet apart and whispering, the brunette boy and girl shouldn't have been able to hear one another. But, apparently, these laws didn't apply to them. People in business suits flooded around them, separating the twins further, talking loudly on mobile phones; proving there was definitely something not quite human about these three if they were really able to hear one another over this noise. "Theo, can't you—"

"We didn't even sense it," murmured Theseus. "This isn't a natural storm. All I could do is stave off the rain anyway—but I don't think it's rain we need to be worrying about."

"Isis?"

The girl was already shaking her head. "It's not an electrical storm," she said, volume barely above a breath. "But I can tell you what's up there, and it ain't thunderclouds."

Comprehension dawned on Theseus first. "Insects," he whispered. "Hundreds of millions of billions of insects! Shit!" He looked at the shorter brunette boy for guidance. "How are we gonna defend the area against bugs without revealing ourselves? I can't summon enough rain without drowning the human population, and if I create a blizzard in the middle of July…"

Osiris and Isis hadn't taken their eyes from the sky. So as the hundreds of millions of billions of insects began to descend, they said together, "Time's up." Then Osiris shot his blond friend a quick and angry look. Once they had eye-contact, he said without moving his lips, "Call up a downpour. There's going to be fire and we'll need the water, and Isis can use it as a conductor. Then go find the mutant controlling this and take care of him."

Expression worried, Theseus raised his face and palms above and closed his eyes. He felt a tremor run through his body like a gust of wind from within, and he concentrated on pushing that personal wind out- and upward. Behind his closed eyes he imagined waves of turquoise water churning, foaming, tossing and turning. Keeping track of the personal wind's progress, he waited until he felt it breeze across a substance he knew instinctively as water, and he called the draft back. Just as the first dozen people began screaming, a raindrop kissed Theseus's upturned nose. And suddenly he was soaked as the previously blue sky-gone-gray opened up and released loads of water. He opened his eyes and felt chilled at the site.

It was as though the lower level of hell had ascended to earth.

People running, screaming, using their briefcases as shields. Black patches covered their faces, their arms, anywhere there was bare skin, and mounds of gray matter that were moths covered and took care of cloth. Most of the insects were impervious to the water, no matter how much. Worse, the rain seemed only to give these bugs new vigor. Cars had stopped on the road and the people within watched in horror as clouds of black covered their windows, or they screeched and jumped out of their cars scratching at their fronts and backs and faces as insects attacked through the air vents. A woman across the street in a black business-style dress collapsed. Theseus had felt useless before, but never like this, never to this degree. He had started across the street before he heard Osiris's voice like thunder rumbling in his head.

"You heard me! You're of no use here! Let Isis and I hold down things here. You find the mutant!"

Fisting his hands in frustration, but resolved to obey, Theseus circled about. He hated turning his back on the injured woman. Back on the reverse sidewalk, Theseus locked gazes with Isis. She had removed her sunglasses, revealing almond-shaped eyes so red and large there was no mistaking them for any shade of brown. "I got it," he heard her voice like a flute in his head. "Just go. Quick. You can do it, Theseus. Go save the day like you always do."

He closed his eyes then, concentrating. The private wind stirred within him again, and he pushed it out, but instead of up he forced it in a sonic boom surrounding him. Close, he thought. He has to be close. The breeze surged down streets and through walls of buildings, disturbing nothing in its path. Images came to Theseus's mind's eye. Cubed offices where heads bobbed frequently; families preparing dinner in their small apartment kitchens; hundreds of people in the streets running and screaming, trying to escape the insects. Though it took only an instant to accomplish, it felt like an eternity to the blond boy with the big heart. Finally, as the wind picked its way through the suburban border, a solid picture built in Theseus's mind. A darkened bedroom with a small curtained window, where a girl sat looking out. A girl, thought Theseus. A little girl. She can't be older than nine. With a young face, a young body, dressed in light jeans and a pink tee shirt, Theseus was sure of it. Her expression was bored in the picture built in his mind, but her eyes were sharp and alert, glittering with malicious glee.

Theseus pinpointed the location in his mind, and just as Isis looked away from her friend he was already gone from sight.

-

A/N: CLIFFHANGER! Sort of. I know it's short but the other chapters will be longer. Anyway, this is my first fanfic, so please be kind. OH! And if it's not too much to ask, could someone please give me the names of all the Xavier kids and a list of their powers? I seem to be blanking out on at least half of them; there's Scott and Jean and Rogue and Kurt and Kitty… that's as far as I ever seem to get. And McCoy's real name (oh my god, is his code name even Wildebeast?)—all of a sudden I just couldn't think of it. Then is Magneto, Mystique, Pietro, Lance, The Blob and Todd, Wanda, sometimes Tabitha for the brotherhood… Remy who's allover the place...(What's wrong with my head? My memory is going! Help me!)

Disclaimer: I own all Original Characters and this plot. My words are my own. Marvel Comics owns the rest.