Jaicen Prologue

Somewhere, an alarm sounded. A loud, pulsating, firehouse alarm that shook the walls of the room Jaicen was sleeping in. Jaicen groaned in frustration and reached over to slap his hand down on his alarm. His hand waved through nothing but air. One eye opened slowly and looked around the pitch dark room. He caught a very distinct smell of eggs, sausage and bacon and orange juice. He swung his legs down and sat on the edge of the bed trying to remember the night before. New Orleans. Out with his brother partying and celebrating Al's 21st birthday. So where was he? Was this a hotel room?

He stood slowly and realized he didn't have a hangover, which was good considering how much he had drank the previous night. But what was the last thing he remembered? He remembered shots of something blue sent over by the bar and then nothing else. He hoped Al could clue him in a little more on what was going on.

Just then the door of his room swung open and there stood a white hair dark skinned woman that looked to be in her 40's. She was dressed in some sort of work-out gear and seemed a bit stressed. Jaicen could smell the sweat coming off her body which made him shudder a little.

"Logan, get up, there's been an attack," the woman said in an accent Jaicen couldn't quite place.

"I… what?" Jaicen could only mumble.

"Logan, let's go," she said and turned, stalking out.

Logan? What the hell? His brain was a little fuzzy from the night before, but he was positive his name was not Logan. He heard a commotion out in the hallway and listened intently.

"My name's not Scott!" he heard someone proclaim. "I don't even know who you guys are, or where I am."

Jaicen moved to the door and peeked out, seeing a brown-haired pretty boy with shaded glasses being berated by the same woman he had just had burst into his room. Jaicen supposed the two had seen each other when she left his room. The woman had her arms crossed and was clearly not amused, the air crackled with energy as she spoke to him.

"No time Scott," she said. "I realize that times have been rough on you, but you're the leader and you need to show it."

With that she turned and stalked off.

"I... I'm not Scott!" He yelled back at her even though she ignored it.

The man looked around in frustration and noticed Jaicen. For a long moment they just stared at each other awkwardly, unsure of what to say, sizing each other up.

"If you're not Scott, who are you?" Jaicen asked curiously.

Scott thought better of the question and turned to walk away, but Jaicen stepped to him quickly and grabbed him by the wrist. He moved quicker than he remembered being able to.

"Look, I'm just trying to figure out where I am too," Jaicen said. "If you're not who they say you are and I'm not who they say I am then maybe we can help each other figure this thing out."

"I don't know who you are, or what's going on," said the man. "My name's Al and I woke up in this house after a night of partying with my brother and now I don't even look like me!"

Jaicen took a step back in surprise. The story matched up with his own, but how could that be? The man, Al, turned to walk off and Jaicen went after him grabbing at him again. Al spun away from him, turning to face him and Jaicen caught a reflection out of the corner of his eye. He turned and saw a mirror and looked at himself. As he looked at the mirror and Saw Al/Scott's reflection, for the first time he realized how short he truly was. Jaicen was average height normally but right now he looked to be the average height of your average woman. Al/Scott on the other hand towered over him, with nearly a foot in size difference between the two. On top of that, Jaicen was ripped like he's never been before.

His muscles were bulging out of a white tank top, his arms cut and hairy. He wore tight jeans that showed the outline of his muscular thighs and calves, which if his arms were any indication, were most likely also hairy. The face is what was the most jarring though. Jaicen was normally completely clean cut with short well groomed hair. The man he saw in the mirror was anything but that. His face was grizzled and old looking, maybe in his forties with thick muttonchops extending down to just above his chin. His hair was flat in the center but sticking up on either side to give the appearance of an extra set of bat-like ears. Jaicen looked so familiar to himself, but he couldn't quite place it and his brain was too abuzz to sit and think about it.

"Who are you?" Scott/Al said, seeing the look on Jaicen's face upon seeing his own appearance.

"I'm," Jaicen paused. "… not sure I even know…"

Jaicen and Al were lucky that the rest of these strangers, especially the woman, were apparently in a rush to get to where they needed to because the two weren't hounded again. Jaicen and Al were also not expecting the loud earthquake that accompanied the group leaving but they recovered themselves relatively quickly and retreated to Jaicen's "room" to speak. They locked the doors and sat down on either sides of the bed, periodically glancing to each other while looking around the room. Neither seemed willing at first to speak, both seemingly lost in their own thoughts. Al was the first one to break the silence.

"I don't remember everything," he said quietly. "But I do remember that my name is Al, not Scott."

"My brother's name is Al, I know that much," Jaicen responded. "And I don't know who that guy in the mirror was, but I know my name is Jaicen."

"Well, I don't know what's going on," Al said slowly. "But Jaicen's my brother. And I don't look anything like I remember either."

Al put his head in his hands and went to rub his temples when his fingers touched the shaded glasses he forgot he was wearing. He idly grabbed the glasses and pulled them off his face, his eyes directed towards Jaicen. Something that shocked both Jaicen and Al then happened. An orange optic beam exploded out of Al's eyes and connected with Jaicen's chest, throwing him across the room where he exploded through and out the wall of the mansion to fall twenty feet to the ground, landing on his back with a thud. Jaicen grunted in shock more than pain and rolled around for a moment holding his chest. He recovered relatively quickly, the pain subsiding momentarily despite the fall and he sat up looking up to the large hole his body had made in the side of the mansion. Al was looking through the hole, his glasses having being replaced, a frantic look of shock on his face.

"Are you okay?!" Al cried out hoarsely.

"What…" Jaicen mumbled and furrowed his brow. "What the hell was that?!"

"I… I don't know!"

Jaicen slowly stood up and looked around at the debris caused by his unceremonious exit from the mansion. The first thing that was alarming to him was that the man who was most likely his brother had just shot some sort of laser beam out of his eyes. The second and possibly more alarming thing at the moment was the fact that he had just fallen twenty feet through a solid mansion wall and landed on his back with not even a scratch to show. Something about this scenario was familiar to him but he couldn't put a finger on it. He knew his name and his brother's name but little else. He remembered Vegas and the party but not much after that. What was happening to himself?

The two eventually made their way to the entrance of the mansion with Al meeting Jaicen at the door. Al tried to apologize but Jaicen shook it away as a non-issue.

"Does any of this seem familiar to you?" Jaicen asked.

"Familiar, I guess," Al replied as they made their way through the mansion back towards Jaicen's bedroom. "But not familiar in a way that something like this has ever happened to me personally. More like I've seen this before or read this before. But hell, I don't know what else to tell you because besides my name, I can't even remember my birthday."

"July 23rd" Jaicen replied distractedly.

They both stopped and looked at each other.

"How'd you know that?" Al asked.

"I don't really know," Jaicen said, rubbing his head. "I guess I really am your brother. Beats me why I would remember that particular fact."

"I remember I love chicken fajitas," Al said to no one in particular.

They looked at each and shared a genuine laugh before going into Jaicen's bedroom. Jaicen surveyed the damage done to the wall while Al walked around the room looking at different things periodically, trying to put any bit of evidence together but eventually coming up with nothing. Suddenly, the door opened and a bald man in a wheel chair entered. He looked at the two of them, and his face darkened.

"You're not Wolverine and Cyclops," he said quietly. "What are you doing in my mansion?"

There was a long silence between the three in the room as the man's eyes seem to bore into their brains.

"Listen, we don't even know where we are," Jaicen said slowly, not necessarily scared of the man in the wheelchair but knowing they were intruding.

"Yeah and sorry about your wall," Al added quickly.

The man's face softened a little and his wheelchair rolled, no, glided further into the room. Jaicen perked an eyebrow and shook it off. After all, he had just seen someone shoot a beam out of his eyes; floating wheelchairs were the last of his concern.

"My name is Charles Xavier," the man said only slightly more warmly. "And this is my school for the gifted. I'm less alarmed that you managed to get in here and more worried about how exactly you inhabit the bodies of two friends and colleagues."

Jaicen looked at Al and then back at Charles, really unsure of himself. The man wasn't wrong. Jaicen and Al were essentially trespassing, even though they weren't entirely sure how they had gotten there. The inhabiting someone else's body was a more spectacular concern.

"We want to get answers just as much as you," Al finally said. "We're just as much at a loss as you are about this whole situation."

Charles paused for a moment and looked at the two of them before turning his wheelchair and heading to the door.

"Maybe I can help with that," he said vaguely. "Come with me."

Jaicen and Al were led to a relatively large room that looked more like a recreation room than anything else. There were multiple chairs and a rather large table in the center of the room. Al and Jaicen sat next to each other and Charles pulled his wheel chair up on the other side of the table across from them.

"I get the feeling you two have yet to realize who, or what you're inhabiting," Charles said.

"You said you could help," Jaicen said, getting a little annoyed with the vague speak.

"I have a very special ability," Charles said slowly. "I'm a mutant."

Charles paused when he said this as if it should have some affect on Jaicen or Al but they just stared at him blankly.

"I can read your minds," Charles continued. "By rule, I don't like to do it unless absolutely necessary or with permission. In this case, I know there's more than meets the eye and I think maybe I can get to the bottom of it, if one of you would be willing to serve as guinea pig."

"Even if we believed a word you say, we don't remember anything," Al said quietly, as if that was enough to deter Charles.

"You may not remember, but the memories are still there," Charles said. "While you may be tentative, I think you may be more apt to believe me after what you've seen already. So what do you say?"

There was a long pause as the two looked at each other and then back at Charles. The request was an odd one, but so far it had been a odd day. Jaicen felt like he had nothing to lose at this point.

"What the hell, you can do me," Jaicen said finally. "I wanna know what's going on and if this is the easiest way, the hell with it."

"Good, now just relax," Charles said, putting his fingers up to his bald temples. "You may feel a little itchy but I promise it won't hurt."

It happened relatively fast. The itching was a bit more than Charles had originally said. It felt more like someone was digging into his brain slowly, but less painfully. Jaicen grimaced and Al put his hand on Jaicen's shoulder but Jaicen just shook his head to show he was okay. Charles rubbed at his temples watching Jaicen for a long moment before dropping his hands down to his lap.

Jaicen looked at Charles and realized he shouldn't have been so ready to give up so much of himself. He now felt a little more vulnerable as he realized Charles may have been able to see things no one had seen. Jaicen didn't know what he had seen, but he felt embarrassed for it.

"Jaicen, don't worry," Charles said, as if he was again reading his mind. "I only dug as much as was absolutely necessary."

Jaicen hated Charles right then. Later, he could convince himself it was for the greater good, but right now he would give anything to punch Charles in his face. Instead, he turned away and seethed to himself. He wasn't sure if he was more mad at himself or at Charles.

"I got enough information to know that you're very far away from your home," Charles said slowly. "Jaicen and Al. Brothers from another world. Strangely, not even you know how you got here Jaicen. You woke up in Wolverine's body just as Al woke up in Cyclops body. So while I've got a little better idea of what we're dealing with, I don't have very good answers about how you got here or how to get you out."

"You haven't told us anything we haven't figured out on our own!" Al said annoyedly, clearly distressed by Jaicen's reaction to the probing.

"I know a bit more," Charles said. "But I may need to do a little more digging."

"No way," Al responded immediately, motioning to Jaicen who had since stood up, rubbing at his own temples. "Look, we'd rather just go on our own. We'll figure this out by ourselves."

Charles shook his head and wheeled his chair around to the other side of the table.

"I apologize for not being quite as forthright about what exactly that would feel like Jaicen," Charles said slowly. "But, I need to be able to get to the bottom of this. A friend of mine is coming by a little bit later. He's a scientist of sorts. If we can get to the bottom of this, he can help you get back into your own bodies. All I ask is that you just don't make any hasty decisions. Go back to Sco… Al's room. Think it through. If you still feel the same way by dinner time, then we'll discuss you leaving further."

Al opened his mouth to speak but Jaicen put his hand on Al's shoulder.

"We don't know where we are, or what's going on," Jaicen said quietly. "It wouldn't hurt to just think some things through."

With that, Charles led them back to Scott/Al's room where they sat down on Al's huge king sized bed. Jaicen walked around the room slowly, picking up a picture of Scott with his arms wrapped around a fairly gorgeous redhead. Jaicen put the frame down and looked over to his brother that looked nothing like himself.

"I don't like that guy," Al grumbled as he slowly walked around the room he had been in when he woke up.

"I'm not a fan either," Jaicen replied. "Which is why I think we should get out of here."

Jaicen made his way to the only window in the place and opened it. He looked at the jump, about twenty feet and then looked back to his brother. Al didn't need be able to read people's minds to know what Jaicen was thinking. He went to the chair by his desk and grabbed a jacket, throwing it on and hearing the jingling of keys.

"Let's do it," Al said quickly.

Jaicen leapt out the 20 feet, landing lightly on his feet with not so much as a grunt. Al followed quickly after, dropping down next to Jaicen. There were relatively large hedges surrounding the mansions as well as a large fence. Jaicen motioned Al to follow as he made his way towards the front of the mansion in hopes of finding a gate.

As they made their way to the opening gate, Al noticed an open garage just to the side of the mansion but independent of it. Al grabbed Jaicen by the arm, stopping him and reached his hand into his pocket, fishing for the keys he heard earlier. He held it up to Jaicen and the two shared a grin.

They both ran into the open garage, which was massive. Inside the garage was roughly 20 different vehicles of different years make and models. The two looked at each other, both of their mouth a little open. They walked up and down the aisles and Al hit the unlock button on the key set until they found their car.

The car was small and sleek. A silver 2008 Toyota Spyder convertible that looked like it was in immaculate condition.

"I think the eldest should drive," Jaicen said.

"Not a chance," Al replied, opening the driver's side door and hopping in.

Jaicen went to the passenger side begrudgingly and slid in. The engine started with a roar and Al looked around to make sure he knew how to operate the car. Jaicen found the button to retract the roof. Al pulled out of the garage and as they neared the gate, the gate opened automatically.

They shared a holler as they pulled out onto a windy road and took off towards the highway. As they managed to find the highway, Jaicen turned on the radio, turning it up as high as he could to combat the whistling of the air around them. Tom Petty's "Free Falling" was playing.

The two looked at each other, high-fived and began to sing at the top of their lungs as the sound of the Spyder's engine roared along to the tune, away from the mansion and away from Charles Xavier.

End Jaicen Prologue