A/N: Here it is! After a really, really long wait, I give you the second chapter! The third chapter is already started, so unless I die somewhere in the close future, it should be up in about a week or so. Shout out to reviewers time!

The Inner Titan: Thank you! I hope this chapter keeps it at ten.

IcyJade2007: Thanks! Random fact: Raz's powers came from a dream.

Dragoncat: Here it is! Thanks for reviewing!

Penelope Anne Neptune: Thank you! I took your advice and added the line.

kitawolf12: Thanks! I'm sure you could do great!

Hskcqzmxbkldpyrs(Guest): Thank you!

Disclaimer: Amazingly, I'm not the owner of Marvel. Therefore, I'm not the owner of the X-men, or the Brotherhood, both of which will show up sometime in this story. Promise.

(Continued in Raz's PoV)

I wake up in a warehouse, curled beneath a thick comforter that I managed to grab on a 'trip' to my old house. For a moment I lay there in the stillness. Then Sam stirs somewhere off to my right and the quiet is broken. My brother croaks, "Water."

"Nope." I reply. "We've got soda."

I pull a rugged stainless steel bottle out from a hole I had found earlier and hand it to him. He pulls a face. "It's flat."

"Get over it." I sigh.

"But it tastes horrible!"

"It's that or nothing." In response he grumbles a bit, but seems content to take tiny sips of the flat soda. I lean against the warehouse wall and sigh again. The sounds of the city seep through the thick wooden boards. Cars zip past on the asphalt, people jog down sidewalks, chat on cell phones, complain in offices. Sam has dozed off again, and I glance over at him. His six-foot frame is stretched out in a ragged sleeping bag, his face hidden by one long arm and a few shaggy curls of black hair. I sweep a curtain of black behind my ear, feeling the scar that runs along my jaw line. It's little more than a long, thin, white bump now. I remember when I first got it two years ago. Sam had panicked and almost started a fight with my father until I had convinced him that it was an accident. Not to say that my brother's overprotective or anything...

I jolt out of my daydreams. Sam pokes my arm again, grinning like an idiot. I slap his hand away and hide a smile.

"Stop it," I protest.

"You zoned out for, like, half an hour." He responds.

"Did not. You exaggerate too much."

"So maybe five minutes. But you zoned out!" Sam raises his hands in the universal 'I surrender' position. I laugh at his puppy dog face.

"We should get moving." I start to grab my stuff. Sam clamps a hand around my wrist, shaking his head slowly.

"Maybe a bit longer?" He asks, nodding subtly to the small side door. I tilt my head as if in thought. Someone is breathing quietly outside the door. Mentally I scream at myself for getting slack on my watch.

"I really think we should go back home. Mom's going to be crazy by now." I answer.

"Oh, come on. You're no fun. We haven't even had ice cream!"

"You and your stomach." I roll my eyes at him, shoving his shoulder. At the same instant, the door swings open. It would have been silent to normal people. Sam laughs, his eyes sending me a concerned look. I shake my head. Wait.

I listen as the steps come closer. Sam is rambling about something relating to motorcycles and ice cream. I make a face at him, more for show than anything else, flicking my right hand. Most people would see it as a dismissing gesture, or a spasm of nervous energy. But for us it has a different meaning.

When our bulky stalker springs from the shadows at Sam's right, my brother is already moving. The stalker - a boy - lands heavily on his knees where Sam used to be. I gather my stuff in one hand, using the other to push myself up.

"If you wanted to talk, you could've knocked." Sam drawls.

"I don't talk to mutants - I catch them and bring them in!" The boy snaps in response. He sounds almost desperate.

I lean against the wall. "And how, exactly, do you do that?"

He looks confused for a minute. Sam calls his bluff, saying, "If you're catching mutants, wouldn't it do you some good to have cuffs? And equipment?"

The boy begins to turn a deep shade of red.

"Unless..." I begin.

"I'm not a mutant." The boy snaps.

"But you just-"

"I didn't read your mind!"

I manage to keep a straight face, but just barely.

"I'm just-" the boy falters as I raise my eyebrow at him. "...reading your mind."

I nod once. "So, not-a-mutant mind-reader, would you care to tell us why, exactly, you're turning your kind in to the cops?"

"You aren't my kind," the boy spits out. "I am a human."

"And so are we. But you seem to want to have our blood on your hands." Sam puts in. The boy begins to look panicked until, finally, he stutters something I can't understand and hurries away. Sam and I exchange looks.

After a pause, he says, "You're scary."

I can't help but laugh at that, and soon we are leaning against each other, laughing hard.

~~Line!~~

An hour after that incident, Sam and I are wandering down the sidewalks. We keep our heads down and laugh occasionally to look more normal. At one point I catch a glimpse of a television broadcast.

"In other news, two mutants were spotted yesterday afternoon." The reporter was saying. The screen flashes to a brief clip of me and Sam on our bikes. An unidentifiable wave pulses from my hands and slams into the man chasing us. Now that I see the full picture, I see a glitter of blue around Sam's hands. I don't dare look back at him. I know his face will be turned away from me anyway.

"I wonder how they're going to catch those mutants." Sam says from over my shoulder. I flick a glance at him.

"A lot of looking. And a bit of finding." I say slowly.

"The father of these children was willing to speak to us on the show. Mr. Callahan, how did you first find out your children were mutants?" Sam almost drags me away from the T.V.s. We walk in silence after that. My mind is going a mile a minute. Dad? On television? I can't help but wonder how he managed that. My father isn't the most likeable man. Unconsciously my hand drifts to my scar. With that motion I push my hair away.

A voice shouts, "It's the mutant girl!"

Okay, random question time: If you could have an unusual or totally made up superpower, what would it be? Mine would be Raz's. Because I could use some quiet in my life! XD