Gifted Universe

by MutantsAndMasterpieces

Gifted Universe explores the life and growth of the Xmen, drawing from a healthy blend of the comic cannon, the animated series Evolutions, and the films. With few new characters, we focus on the old favorites and their adventures facing a dynamic world. They'll face prejudice, battles, love, politics, and most of all... themselves. Watch the story unfold in all unique Episodes!

1. Chapter 1 - Gifted

Episode 1: "Gifted"

The campus was quiet, but in that silence it was as majestic as Kurt Wagner knew it to be. "Do not get too used to the calm," he told the young Brazilian girl in his thick German accent. After a few years in America it had diluted only a little. "When everyone is back for school there will be friends for you everywhere." He smiled warmly, pleased he could do so without hiding his blue furred skin, expressive yellow eyes, and slightly pricked canine teeth.

The girl smiled back.

Professor Xavier rolled along in his wheelchair on the girl's other side. "Kurt is quite right, Amara, you will be joining a very…" he chuckled, "energetic community of friends and companions who share gifts like yours."

Kurt had to watch her mouth and turn his head to catch her timid speech. "They too make the earth to open?" she asked, not looking at either Kurt or the headmaster.

The Professor put his hand on the girl's small brown one. "No, but yours is just one of many wonderful gifts that can be found here. Several are just as powerful as yours, but in different ways."

Kurt was always impressed with his kindness and the talent Professor Xavier had for saying the right thing at the right time. When the girl met the Professor's eyes and her smile cautiously returned, Kurt was reminded of his own arrival.

The professor returned the smile and laid Amara's hand under his on the arm of his chair as he continued the tour.

Kurt happily followed them through the two levels of the double winged mansion, through the spacious public ground floor with its dark wood paneling, wrought iron fixtures and chandeliers giving off warm orange light, and comfy sitting areas decorated with provoking art from original paintings to china vases to fine sculpture.

"Everything you see here is for you," the professor said, showing Amara everywhere she'd soon learn to visit regularly. "When school begins again, you'll be living here with several others and still more will come after your classes from attending the high school."

"… The one they burned down?" Amara asked guiltily.

The Professor lowered his voice and rested his soft blue eyes on her round face. "Whoever put you in that gym wanted you to be blamed for the damage, but you were not at all to blame. We're still working on making contact with your parents, but until then you need to be strong with us. Can you do that?"

She slowly nodded and the Professor held her hand tighter.

"Come, I'll show you to your room."

Kurt followed them into the elevator in the middle of the first floor and rode up with them. He wished he could give the little girl some comfort, but he felt terribly inadequate to relate to her experience. He had been the one to discover her screaming in the corner of the collapsed and burning remains of Baywood High School's main gym. Thanks to his mutant talent of teleporting, he was able to snatch her from under the bleachers before they collapsed on top of her. The look on her face had been haunting and he stuck around to help her calm down not just to follow through on the rescue, but to be sure the expression was gone for good.

Amara looked around at the warm halls and peeked into the rooms with awe. "I have never seen such a lovely place…"

"It's your home now," the Professor said kindly. "And we will continue the tour of the grounds tomorrow." He pushed a door open. "This will be your room. There will be two more girls to share with you, but until then it's all yours. You can leave the light on and I'll leave someone outside your door to make sure no one can get you."

Kurt could see the girl's anxiety lift significantly. She suddenly hugged the Professor tight.

Kurt smiled at his hero and Xavier chuckled, once recovered from his surprise. He hugged her back. "Now you can draw a bath and get ready for bed. It's very late. You'll find some night clothes in the dresser."

Amara, thrilled and with a spring in her step, immediately ran into her room to search the dresser drawers.

"Kurt," the professor said privately while they watched the preteen press her cheek into the soft night gown and warm socks, "I'll be posting Jean as Amara's guard tonight, so you're free to return to Warren's. She's on her way back from Baywood."

He turned away from the girl's room. "What about the rest?" He hated to leave his friends at the flaming structure to bring Amara back and he felt out of the loop. "What have they discovered?"

The Professor took a moment, using his powers of telepathy to check in on his vigilante team of mutants. "Not much yet. Not even a source for the fire. Warren wants you to be careful on your way back home. The humans somehow got wind of Amara despite our best efforts. It's being considered a mutant attack."

Kurt's heart sank. "An… attack? Will Warren be alright?"

"They'll be fine, Kurt. For now, you need to get back to the Worthington estate and look after Piotr and Anna. Until this blows over, stay indoors as much as you can." He smiled a little to soften the blow. "Think of it as a rainy day."

In addition to Kurt's fur, glowing eyes, and pointed ears, he also sported animalistic legs and a spade tail which drooped now with regret. "Anna is not going to like that, sir. She hates board games."

The Professor smiled sadly. "Do your best, Kurt. If anyone finds out what you three are, you will be in a great deal of danger out on the streets. Stay at Warren's as a personal favor to me if nothing else."

Kurt sighed and nodded. "As you wish, Professor. Good night."

"Good night, Kurt."

In a cloud of blue sulfur smoke and with a loud "BAMF", Kurt disappeared from the hall in the manor and reappeared in a tree several hundred yards outside the regal, vine-wrapped mansion house.

After another moment, he bamfed again and reappeared in the grounds of a neighboring estate. To seek his next landing place and potentially his target, Kurt gave an acrobatic leap and swung with great skill from his tree to a taller one nearby, silent except for the rustling of a few leaves and the soft whip of his tail that balanced his landing. Like a true creature of the night, Kurt shuffled up the tree with sure hands and feet, peering into the distance toward another large estate and bamfed three more times. Once he reappeared on a diving board of an Olympic sized private pool and amused himself with a spring loaded leap before teleporting again. He wasn't so lucky that time. He landed on a garden fence right in front of a guard dog's weather-proofed kennel. The animal barely had time to bark before Kurt disappeared, leaving the bewildered beast to the scolding of a sleepy master.

When he reappeared a split second later, Kurt landed on a fountain carved with angels and crouched there, a demon, peering up gratefully at a house lit up and bright with light from inside which streamed out through huge glass windows everywhere they could be fit in. Kurt bamfed inside the main foyer and straightened up, dusting off leaves and some dust from his adventure on the way back.

All through the house the ceilings were high and the staircases as open as they could get. Kurt could hear a piano concerto echoing through the vaulted halls and rooms and he quickly looked at his watch. There was a clock on a small table right next to him, but he wasn't checking the time. With a quick adjustment, the watch whirred and clicked and in a moment Kurt's devilish appearance was hidden behind a visual projection of a normal looking boy with his facial features but conventional pink skin and scruffy black hair. His clothes also changed appearance, turning his smoky, charred Institute Uniform into baggy cargo pants and a t-shirt.

At times Kurt despised his image-inducer, but on innumerable occasions he thanked God for it and the freedom it allowed him to avoid detection as a mutant in the intolerant world of ignorant and fearful humans. At this point he was grateful and he tried to speed up his walk as he passed by the music room where the piano was the loudest.

It suddenly stopped. "Oh! Hello Kurt!"

He flinched and was forced to pause and shoot a small smile into the room. "Hello, Fräulein Kate."

Kate Farnsworth stood from behind the piano, a slender and perfectly pretty blonde who stood a short 5' 4". Her hair was always perfect, no matter what, and there was something plastically crisp about her immaculate complexion, manicured nails, and multitude of domestic talents. His stomach turned to see yet another well-tailored, pressed, cotton print dress that hung perfectly, just above her knees.

She smiled at him. "Kurt, I didn't see you at dinner. Are you hungry?"

Kurt knew that although Kate cooked masterful meals, she would insist he not eat alone. He knew he could have no appetite at the table with her there, so he lied. "No, thank you."

Her pretty face fell, but a smile was soon restored itself, if a little dimmed. "Well neither were Anna and Piotr. I'm not sure where they've gotten to, but I'm glad to see you. Would you like to sing with me? I know a few" –

Kurt fidgeted. "No, but thank you. I need to… go." He couldn't look directly at her and took a step backward further out the door.

Kate cocked her head slightly and her wavy blonde hair gave a subtle bounce that infuriated him. He hated himself for it. "Go?"

He thought up an excuse and bobbed a little on his feet. "I need to go. Go."

Kate blushed and laughed. It was musical and his stomach twisted angrily. "Oh! I'm sorry. Go. I didn't mean to keep you."

Kurt bobbed his head in gratitude and hurried off as if he were, indeed, hurrying to the bathroom, but instead he waited in the hall until her concerto began again and then hurried to the big white-tiled kitchen.

When he got to the door, he faced a huge obstacle. His nearly seven foot tall friend Piotr Rasputin was standing with his back to the doorway, effectively though unintentionally blocking all possibility of getting past.

Piotr was thinking out loud, and obviously still thinking in his native language and having to channel his meaning through English. "But the woman on the television said mutants caused the explosion…"

Though Kurt couldn't see her, he could certainly hear his adoptive sister Anna as she clattered around the kitchen with her warm Mississippi accent.

"Y'don't trust news folks, Piotr!" she replied. "Think she's a mutant?"

"Well… no?"

"No," Anna said firmly. "No, because, Piotr, we don't get on the TV."

Piotr was quiet for a moment, oblivious to Kurt trying to peek around him to squeeze into the room. "But Warren is on the television all the time."

Anna sighed. "Because nobody knows Warren's a mutant. If they did, we'd be seein' his name all up on every gossip paper in the country, but never sayin' nothin' good."

Piotr's usual smile disappeared in a frown. "There is nothing bad about Warren!"

"That's exactly what ah'm sayin', Piotr," Anna said, nodding. "News folks always pick out the worst in people, 'specially us."

He nodded sagely. "Yes. They should instead be talking about the bad mutant who blew up the high school!"

Anna stared at him a second in disbelieving silence. "Piotr! Weren't you listening?!"

He looked back at her innocently. "…to what?"

She slapped his arm with a dishtowel, but it was about as effective at harming him as a tickle.

Kurt, having found no way around Piotr's broad back, teleported into the kitchen.

Piotr smiled and Anna was the only one who jumped.

"Kurt!" she snapped. "Why do you gotta give me a heart attack whenever you make an entrance?" She smiled, though. She was a curvy brunette with long sleeves, grunge-style layering, and vintage gloves up to her elbows whose white color set off a streak of white hair at her forehead. "Took you long enough. What really happened at the school?"

"The news said a mutant did it," Piotr said. "We have been watching the news to see if we could see Warren at the scene."

"If we did our job right," Kurt replied, "then none of us should be on the television. Besides, I was only there for rescue, not search or investigation."

Anna took a large, full Tupperware from the refrigerator. "So there was a rescue?"

Kurt took a seat at the granite-topped island and Piotr soon did too. "Yes. The Professor sensed a mutant in the wreckage, but she was barely awake. We found her in the first few minutes and I teleported her to the van and we were driven home."

"Her?" Anna asked, dishing up generous portions of the meal on three plates.

"Did she destroy the school?" Piotr asked.

Kurt shook his head. "No. We believe she was planted there. She is hardly twelve years old. Her name is Amara."

Anna's face fell and she paused before putting the first plate in the microwave. "Oh! The poor lil' thing!"

"The last thing she remembers is being at home in Brazil, and then waking in the burning gym…"

Anna punched the numbers into the microwave fiercely. "Damn criminals, tryin' t'frame a little girl! She's just a kid!"

Piotr mirrored her angry expression, but his was colored with confusion. "Could she have been made to destroy the school?"

"Forced?" Kurt asked then shook his head. "No. She has volcanic powers. If she had even accidentally caused damage to the school, it would be through fissures and lava. This was purely flame. There was no disturbance of the ground at all."

Anna continued heating up the plates of food and the kitchen began to carry a fresh and savory smell. "What did the others think?"

"Warren did a couple of flyovers to see if he could find anyone hiding to see the outcome of the attack, but he did not find anything," he said sadly. "Storm rained out the fire so Cyclops and Jean could look for any other victims."

Piotr accepted his plate with a polite, "Thank you" before looking back at Kurt attentively. "An explosion like that could hurt a lot of people. School starts next week. If they intended to terrorize the town of Bayville, why did they not wait until the gym was full of students?" He shrugged self-consciously. "…not that it would be a good thing at all…"

"It's okay, Piotr," Anna said, bringing over her and Kurt's plates, "Ah was askin' myself the same thing."

Kurt took his fork and held it, thinking. "They might not have meant to do that much harm… The Professor says the atmosphere for us out in the city is very hostile. It could be that whoever has done this thing wants Bayville to fear us."

Anna snorted, clattering a stool as she hauled it over to sit on. "Hate us is more like. Not like they all need that much help with that!"

Kurt shrugged sadly and finally looked at his plate. "Wow…"

Anna sighed and took a bite. "Yeah. Coque au Vin. Ah texted Remy t'ask what the hell it is. Says it's chicken."

Piotr already had his mouth full and he swallowed, smiling. "I like it! Ms. Kate is almost better in the kitchen than my mother."

Anna glowered at him, picking at her plate. "How dare you, Piotr? She's a human."

"My mother? Of course she is."

"No! I mean Barbie Kate!" Anna snapped.

"Oh… But she is very nice. And she makes delicious food. And plays beautiful music."

Anna frowned more. "Careful, Piotr, or ah may think you're goin' to the dark side."

Piotr swallowed with difficulty, looking away from Anna's livid eyes.

"She really is not a bad person, Anna," Kurt said slowly, staring at his meal of tender chicken and flavorful sauce. "Piotr can like her if he wants to."

She glared at him. "'Not a bad person'? Says the Preacher about the Barbie in Warren's bed."

Kurt stabbed the chicken on his plate. "Anna there is no need to be so vulgar."

"Ah could've said a lot worse than that," she smiled evilly.

Piotr made a face. "Please do not get worse."

Kurt sighed, unable to look up at his sister's face. "I cannot be upset with Warren for seeking companionship…"

"Female companionship," Anna specified. "You say you can't, but you are. And Ah think you'd be more upset if he was lookin' for another blue-furred kid to stay in his house over the summer."

Kurt dropped his fork. "I am not jealous over Warren!"

Anna smirked a little, having gotten a rise out of him. "Of course not. That'd be a deadly sin."

"Anna," Piotr said, "that is a very unkind thing to say."

She smiled innocently. "Ah'm just tryin' to make a point that Barbie could make even my sainted brother swear."

Kurt's human image flushed in annoyance, but that just made it even harder to deny Anna's point was a good one. "They have only been dating a couple of months…"

"Things work different here in New York than they do in the Bible, Preacher," Anna said. "'Round here three dates is enough."

Kurt's stomach soured and he pushed away his plate. "I just have a hard time believing she is good for him. She calls him all the time. She demands never to be alone… She is not helping him to be himself at all. She is holding him back and God forgive me if it is a sin to be concerned for my finest friend's choice in women!"

"That is not a sin," Piotr said, concerned.

Anna shrugged. "Ah'll betcha she's somethin' his snobby daddy 'Dr. Warren Worthington II' thought would be good for his shameful mutant son. What could be better for the golden son of Worthington Industries than a prissy lil' trophy wife clingin' to his arm? Might be to take people's eyes off his bulky back under that silly lookin' trench coat hidin' his wings."

Kurt stared at her, hating how much her guess made sense. Warren's father made his living trying to contain, and/or cure the growing mutant "problem" as politicians had been referring to it, and, being the head of a billion dollar company, it was a constant struggle for him to keep Warren's angel-wing mutation a secret.

"But," Piotr said, "this summer we have seen Warren smile a lot more. And she would not still be here if he did not like her. She is very pretty… and close to him. They are definitely good friends."

Anna suddenly sat up and pointed at the windows behind them. "He's home!"

Kurt turned just in time to see Warren, his wide white wings spread in the moonlight, glide past the large bay windows of the kitchen. With two powerful wing beats, he gained altitude and disappeared out of view. "He is going to the back door!"

"Bet he can tell us more 'bout the school!" Anna said and they scrambled to get the dishes into the sink and rinsed.

It was in times like these that Kurt wished he could teleport around the house, but with Kate there, power use was off-limits so she wouldn't see them. They rushed as fast as they could to the back door, but by the time they entered the hall, they could already hear they'd been beaten to him.

"Warren!" Kate's voice was saying, full of concern. "Look at your clothes! Are you alright? You weren't anywhere near that attack, were you? You could have been hurt! Or attacked! You could have called me!"

Anna peeked around to spy on them despite Kurt poking her with his tail. "That is rude, Anna!"

She slapped his tail spade away. "Since when has that ever stopped me?"

Kurt was about to reply, but instead joined her at the corner, taking a place just under her while Piotr peeked curiously out from a spot on the corner above both of them.

Warren had found time to put his street clothes on over his uniform, but his white shirt had soot on it from the fire, as did his folded wings and blonde hair. He held Kate's narrow shoulders and made her look at him. "Katie! I'm alright, see? I'm fine. I wasn't hurt, or attacked. I was at the lab, just like I said." He smiled, a handsome smile by any standard.

She didn't buy it for a second. "You smell like fire. And you look like you've been cleaning a chimney, Warren. Please don't lie to me."

He sighed and let her go. "Fine. I might have, maybe, gone to look over the school… But I didn't do anything more than that. And I was perfectly safe."

Kurt watched Kate sigh and finally smile just a little. "Fine."

"And yes, I could have called and I didn't," Warren said, pleased to see she wasn't upset anymore. "I'm sorry for that. I figured you'd be alright with the kids here with you."

"They don't like me at all, Warren," she said.

Anna smiled.

"Except Piotr."

Piotr smiled and Anna elbowed him, but he was unaffected.

"You don't know that, Katie," Warren said, hanging up his coat. "I told you, they're just teenagers. They don't like anyone."

Kate folded her arms. "They love you. They really don't like me." She put a hand up to stop his reply. "Please, Warren, I don't want to argue about this. This wasn't the point." She smiled a little, gentler. "I just mean it gets lonely, even when the kids are here. But I appreciate you not leaving me alone. It means a lot."

Anna mumbled under her breath venomously. "Look at her, just reelin' him in… Playin' all of those mind games…"

"She went to school for psychiatry," Kurt reminded her, bothered too.

Piotr was confused. "But she is just being nice… Should not everyone be that understanding?"

Kurt didn't like to hear that. It got him wondering how badly he was behaving.

Warren, not hearing them, nodded. "I'm sorry, Katie… I'll do what I can to keep in better contact, but I can't be on call all day. I have too much to do."

"I'm not asking to be on speaker phone with you all day," she said sarcastically. "I just want to hear from you at lunch, and to know when you're coming back. That's all. I'll try to handle it the rest of the day."

"Deal."

Piotr whispered again. "Have they kissed yet? Or have we missed it?"

Kurt looked at him in surprise. "Piotr!"

"I just have not seen a couple not kiss in greeting, especially when she was worried."

Anna agreed. "If they're really all hot on each other, he'd be practically sucking her lips off."

Kurt made a face. "Just because you wish Remy were here and that he could do that does not mean anything."

"They just don't look in love, Kurt," Anna snapped defensively. "That's all Ah'm sayin'."

"Anna," Piotr said, "they have finished speaking…"

Kurt looked back and sure enough Kate left Warren's side heading toward the kitchen, and Warren immediately turned to look at them. Kurt's heart sank. "He knew we were here the whole time…"

Anna quickly pulled out of view as Warren started to walk over. "Well he knows you were here!" She started to sneak off, but Warren's voice stopped her.

"Anna, I know you're there!"

She stopped and sighed, folding her arms over her chest to face him as he stood in front of them. "So what?"

He was a relatively tall man and his large, furled wings thickened his lean silhouette. "'So what'? 'So', I didn't leave you all at home to ignore Kate. Didn't you eat with her?"

"No," Piotr said.

It hurt Kurt to see Warren's expression and he hung his head.

"How many times do I have to explain that she is monophobic?" he asked. He didn't usually get mad, but Kurt's chest got tight and he couldn't make words for how badly it felt to have a man who was so much like family show disappointment in him.

"She's just clingy!" Anna retorted.

"She is not," Warren said. "She is diagnosed and everything. She needs people around, and not people who avoid her!"

Anna sulked, but kept quiet.

"But I do know that she needs some things that make it hard to deal," Warren admitted. "But you all only have a week left before you'll be moving back into the Institute for school."

"Bayville will still open on time?" Kurt asked, surprised.

"Yes, they're just shutting down the main gym until it can be fixed," Warren explained. "The school board was planning to renovate the gym anyway so at this point they're just planning to move up the renovation schedule."

Piotr smiled. "That is good, then!"

"That's the school's way of staying out of the mutant question," Warren said. "The city is in an uproar. It's not safe for any of us out there. It's being advised to everyone to stay indoors and not to leave for anything just in case they're mistaken for mutants."

Anna glowered. "Great! Now we're stuck here!"

Warren smiled wryly. "At the beginning of the summer you begged to come here."

"That was before she found out she is ordered to stay," Kurt said. He smiled at his sister.

She frowned and rolled her eyes. "Fine. Whatever."

Warren caught and held their eyes. "This is not a 'whatever' situation. This is serious. If you go out there, you will be hurt. Others will be hurt. And, worse, you may give away the whole Institute."

Kurt stared, sure he hadn't ever seen Warren looking this serious.

Warren made sure each of them could understand. "If that happens there won't be anywhere for anyone to go. You stay inside. Professor Xavier's orders."

Kurt nodded with Anna and Piotr. He intended to listen, too. He fully meant to stay out of the way, to keep busy, and to just keep his head down with the others until the end of the week when they could pack up their things and move into the Institute where all of Charles Xavier's hand-picked mutant children stayed for the school year.

Anna, however, got cabin fever after the first day and was testing their 'prison' by the third.

Kurt kept a close eye on her and reminded her of the dangers whenever she started to nonchalantly make for an exit, or try to convince Piotr to help her break out. Thankfully Piotr had no interest in doing anything against Warren and the Professor, so she usually ended up in the garden or up in her room on the phone complaining to someone who'd listen.

It was hard for all of them, Kurt was sure. Well, not quite sure. Piotr seemed almost to be enjoying himself. Warren had given him as many blank canvases and paint as he could ever dream of in his small farming town in Russia and he seemed to have more inspiration than he knew what to do with. Painting upon painting came from his brush and he spent hours in the garden with his tall easel, canvases, and palate.

Kurt had a view of the fruitful garden from his own personal sanctuary; a large out-building that had been converted into a gym. It was huge with high ceilings, built initially for Warren to practice taking off and landing away from prying eyes. Kurt's favorite things about it were the several hundred different hand and foot holds all over the walls and ceiling.

Where Piotr had been brought to the United States only a year before, Kurt had been there for two. He'd left behind Germany and an adoptive family in a famous circus. It was there he'd developed his acrobatic talents, and he worked hard to keep them up. Not only for the circus, but also for whatever might be asked of him at Xavier's Institute.

He was just finishing an ambitious routine, his image inducer off. He noticed Anna had stopped working with her heavy punching bag and was staring out the door of the gym.

He bamfed down to look over her shoulder. "What is it, Anna?"

She pointed, frowning. "Look at that…"

Piotr wasn't alone in his garden. Kate had joined him, all dressed up for an event she and Warren were going to later. She was even leaning in to apparently compliment his brush strokes.

Anna wasn't pleased. "Look at him… Totally sucked in."

Kurt sighed, tail swishing uncertainly. "Well he is nicer to her than we are. We cannot blame her for warming up to him."

To Kurt's discomfort, Piotr was smiling and Kurt saw all the signs of his friend's simple bashfulness coming out, even from a distance.

Anna took off her workout gloves and pulled on her long elbow gloves before marching out toward them. "Well, enough of this."

"Anna? Do not do anything stupid! Anna?" Kurt turned on his inducer and hurried after her.

As they both got closer, they could hear Kate and Piotr talking and laughing. Kurt could see it infuriate Anna more, and he couldn't deny he felt protective of his closest companion.

"Hey!" Anna shouted, interrupting their discussion.

Kurt saw Anna get mad pretty often, but she was the kind that made a big deal when she got a little mad and was harder to defend against when she was really mad. It scared him to see that she wasn't advancing hunched over with fists clenched like a mad dog, but instead walked confidently forward with an unreadable, even expression.

Piotr looked up in surprise and even smiled and waved. "Hello, Anna!"

Kate, however, paled and took an uncertain half-step backward as if she could see right through the calm before the storm. "Hello, Kurt. Anna."

Anna smiled stiffly. "You a painting expert, Barbie?"

Kate frowned. "Anna, that is not my name."

"You ain't gonna answer my question? How rude…"

Piotr looked between them, nervous.

Kate cleared her throat. "Yes, I spent some time in art classes, and I like to visit galleries when I"-

"But are you an EX-PERT?" Anna interrupted, stepping forward, filling Kate's personal space.

Piotr looked at Kurt, afraid, and Kurt tried to quell his small thrill of enjoyment at seeing the apparent expert on everything put to the fire in order to realize Anna could do real damage. As mad as she was, Anna's powers would make a simple push, brush, or touch level the petite psychiatrist into deep comatose.

"No, I'm not an expert…"

Kurt began to squirm inside and he opened his mouth to intervene, but he didn't have to.

Anna grinned, opening her mouth to let fly something vicious, but her smile disappeared as Warren approached.

"Kate, are you ready to" – he paused, seeing them together. "What's going on?!"

To Kurt's surprise, Kate smiled as if nothing had been going on. "Nothing, Warren, it's alright. Yes, I'm ready. We can"-

Warren looked at them all, frowning. "No, it's not nothing. What did I tell all of you? Did I mumble?"

Piotr fiddled with his paint brush. "No, sir, you did not mumble."

Kate held up her hand only slightly to Piotr with a soft shake of her head.

"We didn' do nothin'," Anna said, throwing up a solid wall of denial.

Kurt couldn't even look at Warren. Warren was like an older brother to him, and Kurt had never had Warren mad at him this often ever.

Warren opened his mouth to confront her, but Kate caught hold of his elbow. He settled with a slow sigh and shook his head. When he looked at them again, he smiled almost wearily. "Nevermind. Just nevermind. We should be celebrating."

There was something odd about the expression on Warren's face and Kurt stared into it, worried. Anna blinked in confusion. She'd been prepared for a fight and was still flushed, frowning.

"What are we celebrating?" Piotr asked, relieved at the broken tension.

"Kate got a job!" Warren smiled, putting a hand on Kate's shoulder.

She was wearing the same smile as Warren and Kurt now watched her with interest. It had to be something she had done… Warren was acting far too strangely.

Piotr grinned. "Congratulations, Ms. Kate."

Anna glared at him.

"Thank you," Kate said. She looked up at Warren. "We should go or we'll miss the dinner."

"Right," he replied and hooked her hand onto his arm. "Remember, guys, stay here. Order pizza, set up a movie, whatever you like."

Piotr waved, smiling. "Enjoy your dinner."

Kate smiled warmly. "Thank you, Piotr."

Anna glowered as they left; Kate in her elegantly simple dress of fine fabric and Warren in his fine suit with his wings hidden effectively by their restraining harness and covered by his large coat. "Who the hell does she think she is?"

"Why must you dislike her so much?" Piotr demanded indignantly.

Anna whirled to face the nearly seven-foot tall artist, turning her ire toward him. "Do you see what she's doing to Warren? She's a damn shrink! A human shrink! She's got her twisted lil' mind tricks goin' in both of you! Y'think she actually cares about us?"

"She told me she works with mutant children, like us," Piotr said. "She wants to help others like us…"

Anna's fists clenched. "She can't! She ain't got no right t'even talk t'us, Piotr! She's just a damn do-gooder who thinks we're a problem they gotta solve!"

Anna's words appealed to Kurt as an explanation for the suspicions he had of Kate, and he felt himself wanting to believe the rest of it too.

"Well, there ain't no way Ah'm lettin' her have a night out, keepin' us inside," Anna fumed, marching back to the house.

"What?!" Kurt bamfed in her way. "We cannot go outside the estate!"

"Who says?" Anna demanded. "Warren. For all we know, its Barbie tellin' him t'tell us t'stay inside. She might be studyin' us like her lil' lab rats."

Piotr came over in concern. "She does not know we are mutants, Anna…"

"We don't know that!" Anna snapped. "Ah'm goin' to the movies with or without you two goats!"

Piotr blinked. "'Goats'?"

"Anna, please do not go out."

"You're not gonna stop me," Anna snapped, marching toward the mansion.

Kurt sighed. "Well in that case, I am coming with you. You cannot go alone."

"And I will not let the two of you go without me," Piotr insisted, quickly cleaning up his painting supplies and following them inside.

Anna was the only one of them who had a driver's license and had the nerve to "borrow" a car from Warren's garage without permission. Kurt made her swear it would return in perfect condition before he or Piotr got in. He made an amendment to the oath when Anna took them through a drive thru for cheeseburgers. If there was one thing Kurt had wished for while they were stuck on the estate it was a cheeseburger. That was one bribe he couldn't resist.

He was, however, observing the city as they passed. Bayville was a quiet, well-to-do town. It wasn't large, and very young in its population. Usually the night life was high for a town its size, but as they drove toward the mall on the other side of town, heading for the theater, the only people walking around were in groups of three or four and they all lurked in the shadows or scurried from streetlight to streetlight. There were no other cars on the streets. It worried him, but after the double-deluxe bacon cheeseburger with curly fries Kurt was far more open to discussing what movie to see.

With a whole theater nearly to themselves, a large order of popcorn for each of them, and an explosive adventure movie, Kurt was easily swept away. He was a movie-buff. He could quote from all the classics, and often amused himself reenacting epic scenes of heroes old and new using props and what costumes he could put together for fun and to make his friends laugh. The greatest thrill was to be sucked into the film to the point he felt a part of it.

In the middle of the climax, Kurt's tail (the only part of his anatomy that couldn't be hidden by his inducer, and had to be tucked away out of sight) slipped out to wave behind him happily.

As the lights finally came back up and the handful of other people in the theater began to leave, Piotr shook his head. "That seemed very unrealistic."

"Of course it did, Piotr," Anna said, smiling, "it was a good movie. If they made all movies realistic, there would be only one interesting thing happening in a whole lifetime of nose-pickin'ly boring everyday stuff."

Kurt stood after Piotr and Anna started to walk out the aisle. He stretched, grinning, unaware his blue, spade tipped tail was still out of hiding for all to see. "I think they should make a movie about us!" He said, a spring in his step as he followed them out.

"Us?" Piotr asked, confused. "Why? We do not do anything interesting…"

Anna grinned. "Not yet we don't. Well, not yet YOU don't. You think it wasn't interestin' t'go check out a burnin', exploded school gym? T'rescue a scared, defenseless girl?"

Kurt puffed out his chest a little. "You make it sound like I was a hero rescuing a damsel in distress!"

"Which, by definition, you did," Anna replied.

Kurt waved his arm around like he held a sword, imagining his adventure in a new and wonderfully theatric light. "Wow! I did!"

Anna smiled and looked at Piotr. "You've only been in the Professor's school a year, Piotr. You ain't seen nothin' yet."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Piotr asked.

"It means, Piotr, that PE at XI don't exactly mean ugly gym shorts, awkward locker rooms, and dorky exercises like jumpin' jacks and pushups."

Kurt walked between them, oblivious to the pale stares and vicious whispers of onlookers, as they left the mall to go toward the parking lot. "This year you will likely go into active training!" He looked at Anna, tickled at his dramatic new revelation. "So we are like the people in the movies and TV, then?"

"Sure we are," she replied, "as long as you push all the long practices, broken bones, sucky high-school life, and how much everyone hates us out of it, we could look a lot like them guys in the movies you like so much."

"So," Piotr said thoughtfully, "we are to become heroes?"

"Yes!" Kurt proclaimed, striking another pose. "The finest heroes in the world!"

Anna didn't share his vision. "All depends on how you look at it, Piotr. Or who's lookin' at it to be more precise."

Kurt jumped up onto the hood of a car, standing straight, tall, and proud. "We are looking at it, friends! We are looking and we are the only ones who decide whether we will be men, mice"- he looked at Anna and paused –"or women."

The expression on her face turned to horror and she looked around nervously. "Kurt! Git down right now!"

Piotr's eyes widened and he grabbed Kurt's arm, pulling him down. "Hide your tail!"

Kurt's heart sunk down so low he knew it had plunged straight down through his feet below the pavement. He hastily started tucking his tail away, but tall, broad shapes came out of the shadows between the cars in the lot.

Anna backed up close to them, fists clenched and glaring defensively. "Too late…"

Kurt watched as men came out of the darkness, grown men with everything from vicious scowls and gnarled fists, to righteous resolve and tire irons in their hands. They didn't look like thugs or gang members. What really unnerved Kurt was that most were regular men who looked like they had solid jobs, families, and responsibility in the community.

Piotr apparently saw this too. "We do not mean any harm," he said, attempting a smile to them.

"We?" A man stepped out of the circling mob, speaking for all of them. He was a tough looking man, someone Kurt judged to work a manual job that required muscle and authoritative thinking. "You protecting that thing?" He pointed to Kurt who by now had tucked his tail out of sight, but they'd all apparently seen it.

Anna glared at him. "Yeah, what of it?!"

The mob tightened their circle around them and Kurt whispered at Anna. "Please, do not anger them! Ask them what they want and we will give it to them and be on our way." He swallowed miserably, wishing they'd never left the estate, but at least they hadn't seen all of his mutation. That was proven to bring out torches and pitchforks in even the most urban of places.

Anna frowned, but addressed the leader. "What the hell d'you want?!"

That wasn't how Kurt would have had her phrase it.

"We want him and his kind outta this town!" the man shouted and the crowd roared in approval.

Piotr seemed torn, but he was a solid wall blocking them from Kurt and he wasn't about to let anything move him. "He has not done anything to this place!"

Voices from all around the circle roared in response. "He blew up the school!" "They're threatening our kids!" "They're a danger to the state!"

This was more than what Anna could put up with. "Like hell he did! He's a good kid and doesn't go sneakin' around ambushin' kids half his age in a public parkin' lot!"

The leader's face hardened angrily. "So what? Are you saying he's like your pet? You keep him long enough, something like that's gonna bite."

Anna glared right back at him as he advanced. "You get up in my face, Ah'll bite too."

He grinned, baring his teeth. "Not surprised, since you talk like a southern hick. You want to go back to your backwoods hole, little girl?" He reached out to shove her aside on his way to grab Kurt.

Anna grabbed the front of his shirt, hauled him in front of her and landed a hard right jab directly on his nose. The muted crunch of the small bones breaking set everyone off.

All of the men suddenly descended on Anna who spit, snarled, and swung with all her might. Some of them remembered what they'd come to do in the first place and went straight for Kurt.

All Kurt saw was Anna beset by ten men grabbing at her fiercely fighting arms and legs and he suddenly bamfed out from behind Piotr onto the shoulders of two dark men, slamming their heads together hard, severely reducing their willingness to continue fighting. "Anna, get out of there!"

"Like hell!" she yelled back, a wicked grin on her face as she kneed a tall man in the crotch before swinging him around by his belt to gain momentum, letting him go to knock down two others nearby. She immediately pounced on a man with a scruffy mustache and fought to get him in a chokehold.

Kurt was more a strike and dodge fighter. He bamfed from one group to another, dealing sharp, carefully placed blows to sensitive targets while constantly keeping out of the eye-to-eye range of the attackers' simple fist and foot attacks. He soon noticed, however, that for every man they ran off, more joined the fray. He bamfed a few feet above the fight in the air to see how this was happening and was dismayed to see and hear some who had run away crying out for help against a mutant attack. Younger, stronger men were running towards them, armed with real weapons. They looked like the anti-mutant gangs that had been on TV the last few days and Kurt's heart began to pound in fear as he rejoined the fray.

"Anna!" he called out hoping she'd hear him. "We need to get out! There are more coming!"

A huge arm suddenly cleared four men, shoving them forcefully out to the perimeter of the fight. Piotr pushed and shoved threats away from his friends, but Kurt could see the big Russian boy was close to losing his temper. He picked up a new arrival and flung him along the ground like he was skipping a stone. "Leave my friends alone!"

Anna's laugh surprised Kurt. "Get 'em, Piotr! You show 'em who they're dealin' with!" Kurt caught a glimpse of her and was startled to see she'd earned a split lip, but he knew the man who'd dealt the blow would be on the ground somewhere twitching long after the fight was over.

"Be careful, Piotr! Do not hurt them," Kurt said, bamfing onto Piotr's shoulders to catch a small breather.

"Do not worry, my friend," Piotr said, "I will not hurt them…" He hurled one onto the hood of a car whose alarm went off at the impact which dented the metal. "…not too badly."

As Kurt attempted to leap off of Piotr's shoulders, he felt a forceful yank on his tail that felt like it might pull it clean off. He yelped and attempted to teleport, landing on top of a tall truck cab. He looked back only to see a couple of men had succeeded in climbing onto Piotr's back. A younger one clung to his back like a tick where Piotr couldn't reach to pull him off and was attempting to choke him out.

"Anna! Piotr needs"- Kurt gasped. He was going to ask for help, but his blood ran cold to see Anna had her arms pulled back uselessly and there were more assailants attempting to grab hold of her ankles. She bit and snarled, but they had their window of opportunity and were making full use of it.

Kurt's feet suddenly slipped and he looked down around the truck to find eight of the gang members trying to dislodge him from the cab roof by rocking the tall truck as hard as they could. "Stop it! Stop! I have not hurt anyone! Let us go and we will not press charges!"

They only laughed, cursed, and doubled their efforts until all Kurt could do was cling to any possible grip he could get on the cab.

Piotr fought to get to Anna, but as his parasitic attacker succeeded in distracting him more, he couldn't fight off others who soon started to advance with their weapons at the ready.

As Kurt slipped and slid from one side of the cab roof to the other, he started to hear something rumbling under the shouts and cheers of the mob celebrating their oncoming victory. He listened harder and chanced a glance up at the lot entrance. He saw the two lights first, then focused and waved frantically. "Over here! Please, please, over here!"

The leaders of the group were smart enough to look up too, but not very fast. By the time they did, a huge motorcycle roared straight toward the middle of the mob and almost half took off running, afraid to be identified in the bright, chic headlights.

Those left, the most aggressive, seemed confused, staring at the wicked looking bike as it shot right into the middle of them and whipped around in a tight turn with screeching tires, the rider sitting low and revving the engine.

Piotr and Anna were not stunned, however, and the distraction was enough for them to gain the upper hand. Anna flipped the man holding her arms up over her head and onto the ground where he scrambled to rise and get out of there. Piotr slammed his clinging opponent against the truck Kurt was on and Kurt joined his friends in running off the last of the men.

"And stay the hell away!" Anna yelled after them, throwing a tire iron which fell short of their rapidly retreating backs. She touched her split lip and grimaced at the blood left on her glove. "Damn…"

"Are you alright, Kurt?" Piotr asked seriously.

Kurt was watching the rider dismount the bike and puff cigar smoke out like a raging furnace stack. "Better than I will be…"

Anna stood with the two of them while their rescuer marched over.

"Of all the goddam stupid things that coulda made my night any worse," he roared at them as he came under the street light. "What the hell did you think you were doing, huh?! I thought you was smart kids!" The light threw dark shadows over the rough angles in his face, catching on his thick sideburns, black hair, and deeply furrowed brow. He gestured violently with his thick, half-smoked cigar, spreading ashes over the oil stained asphalt. "Didn't Warren tell alla you to stay inside?! As far as I know, he don't stutter! His damned rich daddy spent too much damn money on him to have him not be CLEAR!" He shoved the cigar back between his teeth and put his fists on his narrow hips, looking like either a tall murderous dwarf or short homicidal giant.

Kurt couldn't look at him and struggled to hide his tail again.

Piotr wrung his hands in front of him nervously, unable to look at him either. "Mr. Logan, we"-

Jim Logan pounced on the opportunity and stood right up in front of Piotr, short enough that he could look right up into his face. "Don't you give me an excuse, you hear me?!"

Piotr yanked his chin up and looked straight ahead, humiliated and full of reproach.

Logan grunted and stood in front of Kurt. "You put that thing away before anyone else sees it," he growled, gesturing at his tail.

Kurt, his heart in his throat, fumbled to do so and his face burned miserably. "Yes, Herr Logan."

In another two steps, he stood in front of Anna who stared fiercely right back at him, blood clotting up on her bottom lip. He took the cigar from between his teeth, tapped the ashes off against his leg, and blew out a lungful of smoke. "This thing has you written all over it, Rogue," he said, low and menacing. "You think the Professor tells you not to do something just because he thinks it's funny?"

"It ain't fair!" she said, her tone not quite up to the spirit in her words.

His eyes widened at her nerve. "'It ain't fair'?! You know what ain't fair? Life, you little punk! You keep fighting it and you'll end up a loser like me. Now one more fit outta you and you're gonna find yourself in a hell of a lot more trouble than you were just in. You know why? Because you won't have nowhere to go that'll look after you and all the grief you cause people who care about you, y'hear me?" He took a long pull at his cigar and blew it out over his shoulder, looking her up and down. When he spoke again his voice was lower. "Listen, alla you get back to the Worthington place. Professor knows you've been giving him grief and the pretty boy might just toss you out on your ass if he has to handle any of this tonight, so you be good from here on out and we won't tell him."

Kurt looked up at him. "Really?"

Logan nodded, stomping out the stub of his cigar on the asphalt. "Yeah, really. But from here on out, you better get it. …We'll finish this at Warren's. Anna, if you so much as speed"-

"I won't, okay?!" she snapped.

He pointed a cautionary finger at her. "I'll be right behind you the whole way." He went over to the big sleek bike and got on while they got into Warren's car and the rumble of the bike took the place of any conversation that might have been made between the three of them.

Once at the house, quiet but all lit up like Anna had left it in case Warren came back before they did, Logan shoved them all into the kitchen so he could have a beer while he resumed his tirade.

Anna pushed her chair back a whole foot when she collapsed herself into it, folding her arms and scowling. Kurt (who had turned off his image inducer as soon as they were indoors) and Piotr took chairs more humbly, watching while Logan opened a bottle and sampled it, leaning against the granite-topped island.

He swallowed and looked at the label, then swung the bottle by the neck as he looked at them. "Even though we're keeping this quiet from the Rich Boy, Cyclops sent me out to get you outta your scrap."

Kurt moaned and slumped.

"Damn right," Logan grunted. "You think I like when he sends me to bail anybody out?" He took a swig of his beer and put it down again. "Thing is he chewed my ear off on how serious this is, and I think you need to know too." He ticked them off on his fingers as he proceeded to list the charges against them. "You disobeyed an order. You stole a car." Here he paused. "I don't wanna hear anything about 'borrowing' because you didn't do any of that. You stole."

Anna grumbled, but a glare from Logan silenced her.

He went on. "You let the whole city know Kurt's a mutant and at least got yourselves branded sympathizers, which around these parts is about as dangerous."

Kurt's heart sank way down. "I am known…?"

"Damn right you're known," Logan said seriously. "Baywood High is gonna be hell for all three of you now that this story's been blasted all over the 11:00 news as a highlight story. Some of those guys had cameras in their phones, hats, hands, wherever the hell they're sticking cameras now. Seem to think it's their duty to out all of us." He leveled a look at Kurt. "And they got you."

Anna's face paled as she looked at Kurt. "I… Kurt…"

Kurt shook his head and smiled at her sadly. "I know you did not mean to, Anna."

He felt Piotr's hand on his shoulder. "We will not abandon you."

Logan grimaced. "You better not. All three of you have one more charge coming. And Ole Blasty Eye about tore his hair out before shouting it at me to tell you."

Piotr blinked. "What is it?"

"If you get too much attention with this stunt and too many folks start looking into the fact you're living at the Institute, you may have given up the whole operation!"

"What?!" Kurt's eyes widened and his tail twitched fearfully.

"The whole institute could be found out, if the Professor can't find and close down anyone who comes sniffing after the trail you'll leave," Logan said, "and then there won't be nowhere for everyone else to go. …and you can kiss the precious X-men goodbye."

That made even Anna pale.

Logan swigged off the last of his beer and took the bike keys out of his pocket again. "Stew on that. I gotta go before Rich Boy gets back." He grinned with a note of menace. "Can't wait to get you three back in training. Enjoy your last few days of summer."

He left the kitchen and before long he was gone.

Kurt looked at his friends. "You know what? I do not feel much like a hero anymore."

"Ah'm sorry, Kurt," Anna said slowly, not looking at him. "Ah didn' think it'd be so serious… ah ruined everythin' for you."

"Hiding who I am is not everything, Anna," Kurt said.

Piotr sat in his chair, frowning to himself. "Those men… I cannot understand them."

"Don't try," Anna said, getting up and throwing away the bottle Logan left on the counter.

Kurt stood too. "They believed they were protecting their home. Well, the first group did at least. We would do the same in their place."

"No," Piotr stood and towered over his blue furred friend. "We would not. They were not noble men. If they were brave, they would go after the mutants who use their powers like weapons, not after those of us who use our powers for good things, for their benefit." He shook his head. "They were irrational and violent, and more a menace to their city than us."

"This," Anna said, walking with them to their rooms, "is why we gotta stick together. Ain't no one gonna understand us unless they're one of us."

Kurt shook his head, rubbing where he was struck once on his shoulder in the fight. "That is not true. I hope it is not true."

Piotr smiled at both of them. "We have friends. We are friends. And we will have our friends at the Institute. We have family there."

Kurt smiled and nodded, feeling a little better. "Yes."

Anna grinned with some of her fiery confidence. "And we'll fight to keep those friends too, no matter what."