A/N: This is my first X-Men fanfic, and I hope that with mostly my own characters, that I will actually be able to go somewhere with this. I hope you all enjoy it, and please tell me what you think of it.

~Rylee


X-Men: Retribution

Part I: 10 Years Ago

Cori Mynor sniffled and shifted her position on the cold, hard ground. How she had got here, she didn't know. All she knew is that she had to get away, or else they would have taken her too. Cori's parents had told her to run as fast and hard as she could, only a small backpack to last her who-knows-how-long. Her parents were gone now, and she knew she had to grow up.

At six years, though, that wasn't the easiest thing. Luckily, hiding had always been easy for her. Her light brown hair was stringy from the rain that night and the alley smelled nasty. What Cori would have done to snuggle down back in her bed at home and have her father tell her silly bedtime stories. Her mother would look from the doorway with a smile on her face, and the two of them would share a look of pride. It took Cori a year or so to figure out what it was from the time she first started noticing it; it was a look of pride for her. Cori's heart twinged at the thought, and she opened her bag.

She had been on the run for three days, and she was still unsure of the whole "homeless" thing, but she wasn't kidnapped, starving, or severely injured, so Cori figured she was doing alright. Her bag held several water bottles, a change of clothes, plenty of granola bars and trail mix, and a couple hundred dollars in cash.

As the six year-old was struggling to open a water bottle, she heard a person, or more than one person, at the end of the alley, whispering to each other. Cori sunk down and back into her crevice between some boxes and a dumpster. She shuddered at the thought of bugs and animals there with her, but didn't move.

Her pulse sped up when she heard footsteps coming down the alley, and the young girl held her breath. Who are they? Her panicked mind thought. She couldn't fight or defend herself. What if they wanted to hurt her?

The footsteps stopped on the other side of the boxes she was hiding behind. She jumped at a voice calling out.

"We're not going to hurt you."

Cori felt tears prick her eyes. Of course they weren't. She didn't move.

There was silence for a few seconds, and then the second voice grumbled, "I say we just nab her. She couldn't have come to her powers yet. The Boss wants her in soon." Cori started truly panicking at those words. They were looking specifically for her. Why? And how did they know she would probably have powers?

The first voice, the kinder one, just sighed. "No, she has to come to us. Although I doubt she's going to trust anybody." He paused. "If we show you our powers and tell you where we're taking you, will you come with us?"

It was stupid, but Cori knew at least the first man was trustworthy. She could sense it. She crawled to the end of the boxes, and peeked out.

The man on the right was the taller of the two, and had blonde hair. He wore a brown coat and jeans. The man on the left had brown red hair, and was scowling. He just had a t-shirt and jeans on. Cori assumed the blond was the nice-sounding one, and the red-haired one was the grumpy one.

The nice guy saw her first, and smiled. "There you are."

The second guy sighed. "She's not going to come out until you show her."

The other man nodded, and looked both ways down the alley. Nobody was out this time of night in this part of town, and for good reason. He held out his hand and clenched it into a fist. A shiny metal gauntlet formed over his hand, as if he had armor on. Then, a plate appeared on his chest, some on his arms, and his legs. Cori's mouth fell open. Where did all of that come from?

The armor disappeared, and Cori shook it off. That didn't mean anything, though. They could still try to kidnap her or something. Especially the red-haired guy.

"She doesn't like me." The said man grumbled. "I'll be at the end of the alley." He went back the way the two of them came, and went around the corner, leaving the blond and Cori alone. Cori felt slightly more comfortable.

"Where do you want to take me?" She asked quietly. "Who's The Boss?"

The man looked at her sadly. "You've had a hard couple of days. We just want to take you to a safe place; our camp in the woods. The Boss is the current head of the Brotherhood, who fight against the humans who don't like people like us."

"Like us? You mean mutants?"

He nodded. "Yes, mutants."

"I don't have any superpowers."

"We've looked at your genealogy, and you're very likely to have powers. Both sides of your family have very strong lines of mutants."

Cori thought about it. He wasn't lying; she knew that much. She didn't know if it was a part of her power that may be emerging, or if she just had a knack for it. "I'll come, as long as you don't hurt me and your friend doesn't come near me." Cori gripped her bag. "If we go somewhere else or you do something, I'm going to call the police."

The man nodded. "It's a deal. How about you get off of the ground now, and we'll take you to the car." Cori stood up, wiped off her jeans and slung the bag over her shoulder. She kept a distance between her and the man as they set off towards the end of the alley where the other man was waiting.

"My name is Tyler, by the way. But you can call me Stronghold."

Cori looked up at the second name. "Why Stronghold?"

"Because of my power," He explained as they turned the corner. Cori puller her jacket closer to her when they saw the other guy, but he just fell into step next to Tyler, ignoring her. "Every mutant has a special name. When you get your powers, you'll get a cool name."

Cori never knew that, although she had heard of mutants calling themselves weird things, but she just assumed it was because they were bad guys and they didn't want their real names out there. "What's your name?" She asked the red-haired man.

"Fracture." He said shortly. Obviously, he wasn't going to give Cori his real name.

"What's your name?" Tyler said. "Since you know ours."

"Cori." She said. "I don't have a last name anymore."


A/N: This chapter is short; I usually try to make my chapters at least 1,500 words. Leave a review, and ask any questions, give any suggestions, or just random review.

~Rylee