Maureen sat in between Raven and Angel as Hank and Sean sat across from them; Alex and Darwin were busy playing pinball. Maureen could hear them saying things such as, "Jesus, man, you're killing me!" from Darwin and Alex replying with, "Don't beat yourself up; I had a lot of spare time." (Maureen wanted to know what Alex meant by that, even though she had a theory or two.)

After Erik, Charles, and Agent Moira MacTaggert—Hank had informed her who she was— left, all of the mutants pitched in and helped clean up the destruction they had made. It was only right, since they were the ones that caused it. Many of the agents gossiped about them afterwards, Maureen was sure of it. Some people would say she was paranoid but wouldn't you be too if you saw people staring and pointing at you, then whisper to their friend about it? Maureen found herself in that situation a lot when she was in school, and it felt like it was happening all over again. It was a vicious cycle in life.

Maureen found herself comforting Raven after Charles had left, reassuring her that her brother wasn't really mad at her. He'd forgive her, Maureen was sure of it. That's how siblings worked.

Maureen sighed, her brother coming to mind. She missed him and their mother.

Before Maureen could get more homesick, she saw from the corner of her eye that two agents appeared at the newly replaced window. Great.

"Oh, I didn't know the circus was in town!" One of the agents said. Oh no. Maureen was feeling dread and then there was that empty feeling in her stomach again.

"Hey come on honey," he acknowledged Angel (did they even know their names?); doing a poor imitation of what she could do with her wings. "Give us a little. No? Come on let us see the foot," he directed the latter to Hank. His partner was standing by him, saying nothing. He was as bad as the agent who was speaking, if he wasn't doing anything. He wasn't trying to stop his partner from calling out the mutants, which made him bad.

Maureen felt her anger rising as those men were standing there and making fun of her friends. Before she could get her anger under control, something in the courtyard she couldn't see blew up. Alex and Darwin turned around at the noise and everyone stared at her.

Great, oh great, Maureen started to panic and if she panicked, something would blow up again or she would end up freezing everyone. Or blow up everyone. Now that was bad. She couldn't revive them if she did that. How would she explain to Charles that she killed everyone because she got angry?

Keep control, keep control, keep control.

The agent that could just not keep his mouth shut looked at her.

"Oh, you're blowing things up now? That's fantastic!"

That tone of voice the agent had used reminded her of her father and she could feel herself turning red in anger. He was mocking her.

Hank noticed the tears that threatened to come out of the angry teenager's eyes. He got up from his spot and walked over towards the big window where those two agents were.

"There it is, come on Bigfoot!"

Maureen felt sorry for Hank. These were people that he had worked in the same building with, and this was how they treated him? It was disappointing. She watched the brilliant young man pressed a button that allowed green curtains to block their view from the courtyard, where those jerk agents were standing in.

"Hey. Hey, come on! Hey."

Hank walked back over to the group that was sitting down.

"Thank you Hank," Maureen said quietly, her voice hoarse.

"You okay?" Sean asked with concern in his voice.

Maureen angrily wiped away a tear that slipped out. Everyone felt sympathetic for her. She could feel it and she didn't want it.

"It's...I need to control my temper. He reminded me of my father," Maureen's admitted quietly. She hated her father and how after all these years, he still affected her.

No one in the room knew what to say to that, sensing it was a sore subject for the girl. Maureen glanced over towards Alex and Darwin, who were watching her. Alex saw in her eyes that she didn't want the attention so he turned back to the game, Darwin following suit

"They're just guys being stupid," Raven tried comforting her friends, placing a hand on Maureen's shoulder as she noted the look on Angel's face as well.

"Guys being stupid I can handle, okay? I've handle that my whole life," Angel said, "but I'd rather have a bunch of guys staring at me with their clothes off than the way these guys stare at me."

"At us," Raven added but it was useless. No one was going to feel better any time soon.

A moment later, there was a distant thud sound. Sean, Raven, Hank, Angel, and Maureen all shared a look with each other to confirm that they had all heard it.

Thud.

"What was that?"

Maureen turned to look at Darwin. He had heard that one, but Alex's eyes were still glued to the pinball machine. He hadn't noticed it yet.

Then was another heavy thud.

"Something doesn't feel right," Maureen nervously informed her friends.

Darwin gave the girl a look and walked away from the pinball machine, getting Alex to join him. The mutants that were sitting down got up and all of them walked over towards the window that the agents were bothering them from just moments earlier. Darwin pushed a button and the curtains swished away so the mutants could see the courtyard once more.

The loud thuds continued as they mutants peered through the window to see what was going on, but they couldn't see anything.

Suddenly, there were two figures that were in the starry sky and appeared to be in front of the moon.

"What is that?" Darwin asked, but no one knew the answer.

They all watched as one figure let the other one go, as it too flailed to the ground with a loud scream and thud!

It was an agent; the one Hank had said that he supported mutants.

And now he was dead.

Raven, Angel, and Maureen screamed as everyone except Maureen jumped back from the window when they saw his body hit the floor, Maureen was the loudest. They all realized that those thuds were the sounds of agents—people—dying.

There were more thuds, more bodies falling from the sky and hitting the floor, the rooftops, whatever surface there was. It scared Maureen and the others. She and Raven were starting to hyperventilate, or were going to soon.

"They're dying!" Maureen cried, stating the obvious. "They're dying because of us!"

Then there were more agents running in front of the window, having large guns in their hands.

"Get back! Get back! Do not leave that room!"

Someone went up to Maureen and roughly pulled her back. She gasped and she received a vision.

Alex was using his ability, red rings appearing around his body.

He aimed one of them at a tall man that Maureen could not identify—she did not recognize him.

The man seemed to collect Alex's energy ring in his hand changing it into a small red sphere in his hand.

The man said something to Darwin, who was caught in the man's hold, and pushed the red ball of energy into Darwin's mouth.

Darwin turned and held his hand out, but he seemed to be frozen in his spot, unable to move. Maureen could feel his fear even in the premonition.

The young man seemed to change into some type of metal and he exploded as if Maureen blew him up.

Maureen snapped out of her vision and clung desperately to Darwin. He was the one that had pulled her back. There were tears streaming down her face, and Darwin kept a tight grip around his young friend. He thought she was just scared. Everyone did when they noticed the young distraught teen. But then again, who wasn't scared at that moment?

How could Maureen tell them that she just saw their friend dying? She tried but no words came out of her mouth. Then out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a man that suddenly appeared behind the men that were trying to protect them. The man had deep red skin with black hair and he appeared to have a tail, but Maureen couldn't be so sure if she was seeing correctly or not as her tears were blinding her.

All of the mutants desperately pointed the men who were trying to help, trying to warn them of the man that just appeared out of nowhere.

"Behind you! Behind you!" they all cried desperately.

"Shoot! Shoot!"

The men started to shoot at the man with the dark red skin, but he disappeared and reappeared behind one of the agents. He turned the agent towards the rec room and every mutant got behind one of the sofas for protection as the bullets broke the newly replaced window. Darwin was squatting and deflected a few bullets. He was protecting them, and Maureen couldn't help but think about his death that she had foreseen. She desperately wanted to warn him but before she could, she heard the sound of a whirl. All of the mutants looked towards the other side—the one with its window still intact—and they saw a tornado whirling in. Maureen couldn't exactly recall that they were under a tornado watch.

Darwin glanced at the door that was near them all. He needed to get them out of there.

Maureen heard a poof! sound, and she turned around to see that the red man (who she was sure that he could teleport by this point) murdering the people who were desperately trying to protect them. She felt her blood boil as she and Raven both watched in terror of what that terrible man was doing.

"Stay here, my ass!" Darwin shouted, taking charge. "Let's go!"

The others followed his lead as they ran out of the room and down the hall, where more guards were in.

"Get back!" one of them yelled and continued to.

"We can help! We can help!" Darwin protested, but the guards were holding them back.

"We can help!" the mutants were yelling at this point, but it was no use. The agents would not let them.

Then suddenly there was a loud, bright and fiery explosion from the end of the hallway. The mutants all let out screams and shouts, running back to the rec room that they had just escaped from.

When the mutants returned, they all saw that the red skinned man—mutant, Maureen silently corrected herself—was still killing agents. Maureen was terrified out of her mind, was he going to kill them to?

Of course he would, or one of them will, a voice whispered in the back of Maureen's mind. They kill Darwin.

Maureen suddenly found herself that she could speak. "Darwin, I got to tell you something..."

"Not now!" Darwin interrupted her, as they all straightened themselves, bracing for whatever it was to come. They watched as the red skinned mutant killed one more agent, when they heard a scream and the whirling of wind.

The tornado, Maureen remembered, as the mutants turned just in time to see an agent caught in it. He went through the remaining window and it shattered, his body falling to the ground.

There was a groan and the mutants turned back to where the red skinned mutant and one remaining agent was, and he stabbed him in the back. Maureen felt the hot tears streaming down her face as she and Raven clung to one another, terrified.

There was a crunch of glass, and the mutants turned back to the other side to see a young man who seemed to have a Hispanic heritage in a blue suit walking in on them.

Oh, God.

Maureen's eyes flickered to see the other red mutant walking in on them too.

Oh, God.

Maureen was shaking; she realized it after a long while. She was shaking and she was scared. She was going to be sick. She wanted to throw up. They were going to die.

Then there were more gunshots, and every (good) mutant turned their eyes to the door that was shut.

"Wait! Wait!" the last remaining agent on the other side cried. "You want the mutants? They're right through that door. Just let us normal people go..." Maureen felt her heart shatter in heartbreak and disbelief. "We're no threat—"

There was one more gunshot, and Maureen knew the agent was dead. After a moment, the door opened and a man with a helmet came in.

It was the man that had murdered Darwin in her vision, she was positive about it.

Maureen's eyes widen even more if it was possible. Everyone in her group was all frozen in fear, most likely. That was what was radiating from them, as much as Maureen could collect as she had one hand tightened around Sean's arm, gulping.

"Where's the telepath?" the man asked the other two mutants. Maureen assumed he was talking about Charles.

"Not here," the mutant that could teleport answered. He had an accent, but Maureen didn't know it was Russian until very much later.

"Well, at least I can take this silly thing off," said the man in the helmet, who Maureen or the others never took their eyes away from. No one in the room could read his mind, but one of them could read his emotions and she knew that he was bad news. Maureen was certain that this was the man Charles and Erik had told them all about.

The man took off his helmet. Maureen had to admit, he looked ridiculous in it. Why was he wearing it? Was it to protect himself? To protect his thoughts from telepaths like Charles?

"Good evening. My name is Sebastian Shaw," he introduced himself. The man was tall and thin. He was old, possible in his forties but edging more towards the fifties. He had brown hair, and there was danger radiating from him; anyone could feel that. No one needed to be an empath to know that. "And I am not here to hurt you."

Maureen's eyebrows knitted into a scowl as he took a couple steps closer to the group, closer to her. She didn't like him at all. She wanted to hide behind Sean, Hank and Alex, the ones closer to her, but she wasn't going to. As much as Maureen knew that she was fidgeting and shaking (hopefully no one noticed), she would not let that man or his cronies scare her. She needed to be brave.

"Freeze!" a voice yelled. It was another agent. Maureen didn't have the heart to look over to where he was, because she knew that he would be killed too.

"Azazel," Shaw commanded. The red mutant disappeared and Maureen heard him reappear in front of that agent, taking his sword and stabbing his victim. The agent's lifeless body fell to the ground.

Shaw, who was watching the red mutant who he identified as Azazel, grinned and turned back to the group.

"My friends, there's a revolution coming," Shaw began, as he handing his helmet to the mutant that could create tornadoes. "When mankind discovers who we are, what we can do. Each of us will face a choice," Shaw looked over at all the mutants, who seemed to be standing their ground. Maureen told herself she will not falter when he looked at her.

"Be enslaved," Shaw continued. "Or rise up to rule. Choose freely, but know that if you are not with us, then by definition you are against us."

Shaw stared at Maureen. Maureen stared back in response. She wasn't going to let him manipulate her.

"So, you can stay and fight for the people who hate and fear you, or you can join me, and live like kings," he looked at the group altogether once more before staring down directly at Angel and offering her his hand, "and queens."

Angel hesitated for a long moment before putting her smaller hand into his larger one. Maureen felt like she was about to be sick as she watched them walk away.

"Angel," Maureen heard Raven's voice that was filled with disbelief.

"Are you kidding me?" Sean couldn't believe it either.

"Come on," Angel tried to persuade them. Her voice was filled with hurt. She felt hurt. "We don't belong here, and that's nothing to be ashamed of."

Darwin offered her his hand as if he was trying to get her back, but she ignored it and continued to walk away with Shaw into the courtyard, the mutant that held on to the helmet was behind them.

As Maureen watched them walk away. She didn't know what to think.

"We got to do something," Raven insisted.

Darwin watched Angel and Shaw walk away from them for a moment before turning back to Alex. He had an idea.

Oh no. Maureen knew what he was planning on doing. She watched as Darwin hit Alex. Alex hit him back. Darwin hit Alex again before Alex gave one last shove Darwin walked away.

"Stop. I'm coming with you."

Maureen's eyes widen. She had to act fast. She couldn't let Darwin die. She had to try.

"Darwin, before you do anything—" she tried to warn him, raising her hand in caution, but Alex hushed her.

"We're leaving," he whispered to her very quietly, glancing at the rest. "Now."

Slowly, the group walked towards the center of the room, observing the scene in the courtyard. Shaw and Darwin were now face to face.

"Good choice," Shaw was happy with Darwin now. "Tell me about your mutation."

"Well I adapt to survive, so I guess I'm coming with you," Darwin explained.

"I like that," Shaw nodded, gesturing for Darwin to stand next to Angel. Darwin nodded and took his spot.

"Alex!" he yelled, grabbing Angel and he shifted.

"Get out!" Alex yelled at the group and they all ran out of the room, except for Maureen.

"Alex, no!"

"Do it!" Darwin shouted.

"Get out!" he yelled at her, roughly pushing her back. She stumbled and Hank caught her. She watched in horror as Alex took a few steps toward the antagonizing party.

"No!" Maureen yelled as she struggled in Hank's arms as he was pulling her away.

"He's going to kill him!" Maureen shouted. "Let me go!"

"We have to get out of here!" Hank said, not registering what Maureen was saying.

"I said no!" Maureen shouted back, as Hank dragged her along. Trying to act quickly, she bit Hank's hand hard and he let go as he let out a yell.

"Ow!"

"Maureen!"

"What the hell are you doing?"

Maureen quickly slipped out of Hank's grip and ran back to where Alex was.

"Maureen!"

"Get back here!"

Maureen wasn't listening as she skidded to a halt when she entered the rom. Alex was frozen in his spot.

"No..." Maureen whispered to herself and ran up towards the blond. "Alex?"

When he wouldn't respond, Maureen looked out to into the courtyard. She too froze in terror as she saw that her vision was becoming very real.

"Adapt to this," Shaw said, and he popped in the red ball of energy into Darwin's mouth. He walked over towards Angel, Azazel, and the other mutant that were watching this all happen. The four of them clasped hands together and they vanished. The teleporter had took them away.

Alex and Maureen both watched in horror as Darwin turned to face them. His body was rapidly changing, trying to survive to what was happening to him.

Darwin reached out for them—for Alex—before he combusted in to ashes.

Darwin was dead. Maureen's vision had come true. She started to cry as Alex stayed still next to her, most likely in shock. She could feel his guilt, anger, and sudden grief that was hitting him all at once, and at her too. Then suddenly, Alex sprinted out of the room, not looking back.

Maureen didn't follow. She knew that he needed time for himself.

"Alex? Maureen?"

It was Raven's voice. She had came back into the room along with Hank and Sean.

"What happened?" Sean asked.

Slowly, Maureen turned around to face her friends. She was crying freely with her eyes rimmed red, her face must have been covered in blotches of red too. Her cheeks felt itchy and she was trying to calm herself down before she gave her answer.

"Darwin's dead."