AN: This story is set in an alternate universe to the X-Men movies. I've created an entire cast of new mutant characters and this is just one story concerning a particular character of mine. Please read and review and enjoy!

(I do not own the X-Men or any of Marvel's characters mentioned in this fanfic, only the characters I have created).


Kyra Mayton was late.

She was late because her mother had another argument with her stepfather and took at least five minutes to immigrate to the car therefore costing Kyra the first ten minutes of history class and that ten minutes could mean the difference between freedom and the next two periods in detention. Therefore, she was late.

Situations like this really frustrated Kyra, her stepfather was expecting an A from this class and turning up late like this did not exactly help the situation at all. She was running down the school corridor, Billabong bag swinging dangerously from one shoulder, her books and notes held loosely to her chest and her violet shrug hanging scruffily from her forearms. A sweat was also raising from her forehead making her grunt tiredly.

Swinging around the next corner, Kyra sighed loudly then bravely opened the first door to her left with a free elbow.

"...correct Emily. Could anyone tell -" Mr Gravley paused as his beady little eyes swept to the flustered teen stood transfixed at the doorway. Kyra looked instinctively down, feeling her cheeks burn wildly. Strands of her blonde hair fell across her shrug. A few of the girls sniggered and whispered something Kyra couldn't hear making her blush a violent shade of magenta.

"Ah ha. Miss Mayton. It's my utmost pleasure for you to join us today. Please, by all means, take a seat." Mr. Gravley hissed, his snaky voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Mr. Gravley, I'm really sorry, I mean me and my mom we got held up and -"

"Me and my mom got held up!" Mr. Gravley mimicked, in a high and simply humourless tone. "Save it Miss Mayton. I don't wish to hear you're excuses sit, now!"

Kyra immediately obeyed, bowing her head even further. She closed the door and took her seat to a ripple of talk amongst her classmates. She could feel, like piercing lasers, every single pair of eyes upon her whilst Mr. Gravley observed her like a preying lion would a grazing antelope.

"Miss Mayton would you like to answer my question?" Kyra nodded meekly as her teacher scratched his head thoughtfully and pulled the most grotesque expression which everybody assumed was a smile. "Ah, now, whom was the political advisor to President Abraham Lincoln while he was in power as possibly America's most successful president?"

Kyra knew, for one thing, that she didn't know the answer and this infuriating fact really played like a charm on Mr. Gravley's twisted face. Kyra narrowed her eyes and pasted an expression of deep thought.

"I -" Mr. Gravley raised his eyebrows as if he actually contemplated on the teen knowing the answer, "have no idea."

Mr. Gravley grinned, his rounded glasses glimmering in the sunlight, his eyes bright like burning coals. "Tut tut Miss Mayton. I think that's a detention tonight. Here, straight after school."

The class sniggered as Kyra felt a scrunched up paper ball bounce off the back of her head. She sighed and rapidly wiped her forehead, as Mr. Gravley, oblivious to Ashleen Bigg's launching of the paper ball, turned to the blackboard. Kyra, defeated and irritated, placed her bag on the floor and opened her history book to last nights studying pages.


"I absolutely hate Mr. Gravley. In fact, I don't hate him, I despise him." Kyra snarled, attacking her macaroni cheese.

She had recovered from her history teachers slow and painful torture for the rest of the period and was the first out of the class without a backward glance when the bell rung signalling the next period was to start. But she spoke true words, out of all of her teachers, she really did despise that short, balding, bespectacled -

"Kyra! Calm down!" Andy Martellis reassured, pulling away Kyra's plate to avoid more ejection of her lunch. "Okay, so he's extremely screwed up on the whole, torturing tenth graders but so what? Just ignore him, okay? Or even better, skip his class."

Kyra snorted. "You must be kidding. My stepdad would kill me and I mean literally kill me. Decapitation and all..."

"Pah," Andy sighed, eyeing Alicia Colbert as she strutted past, "if he wanted life in prison and all the lovely quirks to go along with it, I doubt he'd even touch you."

"Okay, now you're kidding. You don't even know him like I do," Kyra shivered, "he's capable of more than you think Andy."

"Hey there losers." Came a snide voice to Kyra's right. She rolled her eyes and turned to her side.

Stood with her hands on her hips and surrounded by the usual posse of prim plastics, was Ashleen Bigg, Kyra's self declared enemy. Andy took a sip from his coke and sighed tediously.

"Get lost Ashleen we can't be bothered with your pathetic insults and oh so charming attitude to the basics of life." Andy said. Ashleen giggled girlishly then swung her long curtain of brown hair behind her shoulder. She advanced by a few steps, every eye on her, then crouched to Andy's eye level.

"Personally, Andy, I believe that my 'charming attitude to the basics of life' is quite accurate therefore I suggest the next time you try to insult me, please do it with a little more," she picked up Kyra's bottle of orange juice and tipped the contents all down Andy's head and face, "Oomph."

Andy gasped and stood to his feet, his eyes piercing through Ashleen's. "What the hell do you think you're playing at?"

Kyra jumped to her feet and stood between her best friend and Ashleen. "Alright Ashleen you've gone too far, just leave."

"Not until I've said what I need to," Ashleen hissed, eyeing Kyra nastily. "I see you've actually decided to stand up to me. Care to take this a little further?"

Kyra's heart began to beat in her chest as she stared right back into Ashleen's narrowed, misty eyes. She could feel an energy pulse through her fingertips...'No,' she thought, 'not now...'

"I thought not," Ashleen smirked and with that she rapidly raised her left hand to strike, but Kyra's blossoming mutation reacted faster. From within her hands and arms a shimmering fuchsia coloured shield erupted outward in the millisecond before Ashleen struck. The shield rippled in front of a bewildered Kyra overturning the wooden bench they were sat at and launching Ashleen six feet backwards, crashing into her group of screaming friends. The shield slithered into nothing as quick as it had come.

Kyra fell to her knees and stared at her hands, horrified. Andy scrambled away, running up into the school entrance, screaming for help. What happened next came as a massive blur to the shocked teenager. Ashleen was helped to her feet by the large crowd of students which had gathered around the scene all shouting and yelling. Ashleen was screaming something Kyra couldn't hear due to the deafening sound of blood pumping in her ears, but she lip read it was something like 'freak.' And that was when Kyra realised what had happened.

It was her mutation, why did it happen here? It had happened before, once before, but here? She slowly stood to her feet and looked around at the large circle of faces sneering and leering at her. Kyra stood shakily to her feet, pushed past a few gathered people and grabbed her bag. With one last glance to an outraged Ashleen, Kyra ran through the swarming people, tears streaming down her face. She ran across the courtyard, heads swivelling in her direction, people whispering and talking. She ran to the toilets, pushed the door open and sealed herself within a cubicle.


Kyra slowly opened the door of her house and slipped inside.

Her eyes stung and were red and her cheeks were sticky from the ridiculously large amount of tears she had cried over the past three hours. Kyra placed down her bag next to the shoe rack down the small hallway then listened carefully for any sign that her parents were at home.

"Kyra?"

The teen jumped. It was Jason, her stepfather. She dreaded coming home some afternoons and this afternoon she was petrified. Principal Berkeley had negotiated her out of the toilets and she was taken to his office then suspended. Kyra knew it was partly to do with her being a mutant, it had to be. But she had also damaged school property, and her principal wasn't happy. By the time she had walked from his office sobbing, school had ended and she took the hellish ride home on the school bus.

Kyra inhaled deeply then walked through into the living room. Her stepfather was sat with his back to her on his armchair, watching the almost inaudible television. Just the tone of Jason's voice indicated to the teen that she was in serious trouble and the atmosphere was as tense as the final as American Idol. Wow, Kyra silently said, I really love that show.

"So, you're a freak." Jason said, turning to face his stepdaughter. His face was grave, yet shaded with disappointment, an expression that increased the ashamed factor to Kyra by around a hundred percent. "I see and now you're suspended. I really hope your happy."

There was an awful silence, punctuated slightly by the noises of cranes and machinery on the documentary on TV. Kyra looked guiltily to her feet then glanced back up. Jason had rose from his seat and was looking out of the window.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for it too happen. It's happened once before I swear. I didn't even think it was true."

Jason turned. "Save the apologies Kyra. All I wanted was for you to do well, and now this. Why? Why have you screwed your chance for education?"

"I – look, I -"

Without sudden warning, Jason ran forward and grabbed Kyra's neck shoving her into the wall. Kyra's eyes flitted over her stepfather's which were alight with anger like flaming coals.

"You stupid, little, bitch! Look what's happened and you're one of them! A damn mutant! I don't want you here at all," spat Jason, "so pack your stuff and get the hell out."

Kyra could feel the tears welling up in her eyes as her stepfather loosened his grip then let go and slumped back to his seat. Kyra began coughing loudly, gasping for air. She turned on her heel and ran to the hallway then bolted up the stairs. She couldn't believe it, she was a mutant. There was always that nagging thought in the back of her head but always denied it. There was so much bad media surrounding mutants, and she did not want to be a part of that.

Kyra pushed open her bedroom door and sat on the bed, tears now cascading once again down her face. She had to go and get away, do something at least and she didn't know what her stepfather would do to her if he stayed. That was the first time he had ever grabbed her and she was terrified. His eyes, his piercing eyes... But where would she go? A place where she would be accepted. Like a sudden light bulb had lit above her head, she thought. The institute up state...Xaiver's Institute! That was up state in Westchester and there were trains running every half hour. They specialised in mutants, it was a school for them.

Kyra smiled, the first in a long time, and thought. Maybe she would be safe there and no-one would care if she was a mutant or not. The teen reached over to her bedside table and overturned her little piggy bank. Luckily, she still had some birthday money left, around fifty dollars she quickly counted. If she wasn't welcome in her own home then she would go, to a place where she could be accepted.