A/N: Hmm...alright I'm not going to lie here. I literally forgot I hadn't submitted this chapter. I've been busy working on the WAY later chapters of this story. Sad isn't it? I'm such a failure. T_T Well while I'm over here failing and receiving strange looks from my cat, have fun reading this chapter.

Oh, right, for those of you who read this story before: you're not going crazy. I changed Thomas' name to Terrence, because someone felt I needed to.

Chapter 3: Gaining Even More Attention!

Alex and Terrence loved to gamble. Ever since they'd been to Dave & Buster's that one time with their three other friends and had blown through all their money within an hour, they fell in love with it. Granted, the two were kicked out of casinos a lot, since Alex tended to cheat at the slots some kind of way and Terrence was known for unsystematically beating up pimps. Luckily for the teens, sneaking into their favorite casino past the guards only a few days after their escape was unusually simple. For the next three hours, Terrence found himself at a blackjack table and Alex at a poker table, both where they could easily keep watch on the other. They were both in their usual attire, save the black 'CSI' hat Alex wore and the stolen pimp's hat her friend wore.

"Excuse me, sir," Terrence looked up from his hand at the two guards and an apparent floor manager stood. From her seat Alex discreetly glanced up too, knowing this could be a potential problem.

"Can I help y'all?" he asked, assuming a Texas drawl.

"Cut the act, kid," the manager said. "We know it's you." Terrence sighed and twirled calmly around on his stool, resting his arms on the table.

"What gave me away this time?" he asked. "The hat? Or the fact I've been winning for the past thirty hands?"

"Both." He answered. The guards went on either side of him and grabbed an arm to escort him out of the casino. "Where's House?"

"I believe he still lives in Princeton." Terrence answered, earning himself some annoyed glares.

"You know who I mean. Where is she?" he casually glanced over to Alex's table, where her chair was no longer being occupied. Good, she was able to leave without being noticed. he thought to himself.

"Would you believe me if I said I didn't know?"

"No."

"I thought not." Terrence sighed again, the small group passing the front desk. They went outside through the front doors, where a handful of police cars waited.

"Aww, all this for lil ol' me? Guys, you shouldn't have…no, seriously, you shouldn't have." The captured teen discreetly searched the area to his right, seeing a silhouette of a person light a cigarette. His expression changed to one of disapproval, but quickly reverted back to his previous one to avoid being noticed.

"Where's the other?" an officer briskly asked the casino manager.

"We don't know. He's not telling."

"Don't you people think I'd tell you if I knew where she was?" He indignantly inquired.

"No." they all answered in unison. Terrence hung his head.

"That's okay. We'll find his little girlfriend." The officer then assured.

"She's not my girlfriend," Terrence clarified.

"Yeah, right." One of the guards mocked.

"She's not!"

"You wish she was!"

"I do not!" he sternly argued, beginning to blush. Suddenly several of the cop cars exploded behind them, causing the group of five to recoil. Through the fire and smoke they saw the shadow of a teenage girl leisurely strolled towards them. A cigarette hung out the side of her mouth and Terrence frowned.

"Alex House!" the officer shouted, still rattled by the explosions. "S-stop where you are! Don't come any closer!" She ignored the order and finally stopped at the bottom of the stairs, coolly looking up at her opponents and shoving her hand in her jeans pocket. Alex took a long drag before removing the cigarette from her mouth and holding it between her pointer and middle fingers.

"Stay right where you are!" he repeated. She blew out the smoke and smirked.

"I thought I told you to stop getting caught, Terrence."

"And I thought I told you to stop smoking!" Alex apologetically shrugged. The two guards tightened their hold on Terrence while the officer took up a defensive position in front of them. He slowly pulled his weapon and aimed it down at her. Alex's expression grew grim as she took one last drag and flicked the spent cigarette away. Terrence' heart skipped a beat, becoming afraid for his friend. To avoid a confrontation that might result in Alex getting hurt, Terrence shoved his foot into the officer's back and caused him to fall down the stairs. After he broke an arm free from a guard Alex made her move, shocking that guard and the manager with lightning bolts from her fingers. Terrence punched out the remaining guard to free his other arm.

"Alex!" he called, relieved she was okay. The teen glanced behind her, where distant sirens were closing in on their location. Terrence did the same once he reached the bottom of the long staircase. "Not good! Those are MRD sirens!"

"Then let's scram!" Alex advised, grabbing his wrist and pulling him through the wreckage and into a nearby alleyway.

"I thought you'd agreed to stop smoking, Alex." Terrence reiterated; she glanced back at him briefly.

"Can we talk about this later?"

"Give me a reason why we shouldn't talk about it now." Nearing the end of the alley, the two skidded to a halt, cut off by a dark green MRD van.

"That reason enough for you? Besides, it was just for dramatic effect." they retraced their steps and ran back through a connecting alley to the right. The teens dashed out of the alley and into the street, with Alex taking some keys out of her jacket pocket.

"I want to drive!" he told her.

"Geez, you really pick the wrong times to have arguments."

"If you just agree, then it's not an argument." They rounded a corner.

"Yeah, but you know I'm not going to agree. Especially when I have the keys."

"Well, it's always worth a try," Terrence stated as the two finally reached their motorcycle. Alex quickly threw her leg over the seat and started the bike. Terrence climbed on behind her and put his feet up as soon as she took off. His face discreetly flushed red again; Terrence really had no choice but to slip his arms around her middle this time, since Alex was driving extremely fast to outrun the MRD. While she certainly didn't seem to mind, and well let's face it neither did he, Terrence felt a little uncomfortable holding onto her. Granted, it was the only way to ensure he didn't fly off the bike and crash head-first into a parked car.

"Alex…!" he yelled, looking behind him.

"What?"

"We've got a problem!" Alex swiftly glanced behind her to see the four MRD vans chasing them.

"Hang on!" she deeply leaned to the right and Terrence' hold on her tightened significantly. The turn landed them on an access road and she jumped on the highway. "We gotta leave for a while!"

"But we just got here!" he loudly whined, his hair feeling like it was getting violently pulled out. "Where are we going?"

"Somewhere west!"

"Why west?"

"'Cause I'm wanted in California!" he gave her a weird look, even though Alex couldn't see.

"What in the hell did you do?" Terrence asked, casually checking on their pursuers.

"Remember that Auron figure I have?" Alex felt him nod against her back. "You don't honestly believe I paid for that, do you?" They whizzed past several cars and avoided two of the closest vans trying to sandwich them.

"What? Alex, you stole it?" he cried.

"Well why else do you think the FBI wants to talk to me so badly?"

"I can think of three good reasons.." he muttered to himself. "But seriously Alex, you had to steal it?"

"'Steal' is such a strong word.." the fleeing duo glanced up to their right as a helicopter appeared, prepared to blow them into the middle of next month. It flew next to them over the access road, and to make matters worse the vans were catching up to them again. "Alright, you're getting your wish!"

"We're going to create a civil war and take over the country? Finally!"

"No you baka, not that one! You're getting to drive!" Alex answered, bringing her left leg up and setting it on the seat. "I'm gonna try somethin'!"

"Alex, whatever it is, don't do it!" Terrence screamed, but his plead fell on deaf ears.

"Ready?"

"No!"

"Now!" Alex's body glowed white a second before she launched herself off the bike, heading towards the helicopter. Shakily flying through the air, she guided herself to the bottom and roughly crashed into the door. It opened and revealed an armed soldier aiming at her; Alex quickly fell backwards to elude being shot, her right hand hanging onto the bar. She swung under the helicopter and narrowly grabbed the other bar, pulling herself up to stand on the bar as the vehicle turned left to follow the curving highway.

"Yeah! I think I got her!" she heard an excited voice shout inside. 'Great Sherlock, now that you're up here, how exactly do you plan to get back down onto a small, fast moving vehicle?' Alex asked herself, afraid when she didn't have an answer. Feeling her clothes being ruffled violently and trying her best to quietly keep her balance, she inwardly sighed.

"I have got to stop giving in to these damn impulses." Glancing behind the helicopter she was on, the teen became aware of a local news helicopter coming in fast to catch the ongoing chase. Alex slowly grinned as her brain hatched an idea.

Xavier's Institute for Higher Learning was an interesting school. While, on the outside it seemed like a regular school, on the inside it was filled with (you guessed it) teenage mutants. Minus this rarely known fact, the commonly named X-Mansion functioned like a regular middle/high school, depending on the needs of its students. The institute was run by one Professor Charles Xavier, who, while a paraplegic and confined to a wheelchair, was one of the world's most powerful telepaths. Currently he was sitting outside enjoying the weather when a man suddenly joined him.

"Ah, Logan," Xavier wheeled around to face him.

"You wanted to talk to me?" The tall, well-built man who looked to be in his thirties said. He stood in front of the professor on the large balcony.

"I would like you to pick up a pair of mutants I've been tracking."

"Tracking where?" he asked, vaguely interested.

"Nevada; specifically in and around the Las Vegas area."

"These two know how to live." Logan commented, a mischievous smirk appearing on his face.

"I don't know about that, but they are both extremely powerful. Especially for their age."

"How old are they?"

"Seventeen." Xavier answered, earning a shrug from him.

"They're young. Probably still learnin' control over their powers."

"I thought so too," he first agreed, "but as I continued to follow them, I realized their powers have almost fully matured."

"While there's no way to tell when their powers manifested, maturation at that young of an age is pretty unusual." Logan stated, walking over to the ledge to lean on the stone rail and gaze out across the yard. "They related?"

"No, they are not related in any way." He folded his hands in his lap. "I would like you to bring them here, so we can meet them and learn more about them. These two are definitely forces to be reckoned with and I would like to talk to them about joining the X-men."

"How powerful we talkin' here, Chuck?"

"One can manipulate electricity with startling precision and the other…well, the other has a very unique ability. Simply by touching an object, he can rearrange its molecular bonds and transform it into a different substance or object." Xavier explained to the tall man, who was obviously intrigued by this time. "According to MRD's numeric standards, they are both 'Level 4' and are considered to be extremely dangerous."

"They're in the MRD database so soon?" He momentarily looked at the man as he guided his wheelchair around to the balcony ledge also. "I didn't think MRD wasn't kickin' that operation into high gear till the end of this year."

"They were detained in Austin two months ago, but within a few days broke out of the facility. More recently they were captured and contained in the Las Vegas facility, which has maximum security."

"And lemme guess," Logan began, "they were still able to break out."

"Yes. And a few hours after their escape on their way back to Las Vegas, they ran into an MRD prototype."

"Prototype of what?" Logan inquired, skeptical.

"A weapon I believe will be used to scout and capture mutants." Xavier said solemnly. "While they were able to dispatch of it fairly easily, I'm certain MRD will improve upon it so it may be widely used against mutants all over the country. Possibly even the world."

"Sounds like these two could prove to be useful in the long run." he concluded, more to himself than Xavier. A few thoughtful seconds passed and Logan briefly glanced over at him before they both glanced up at a white-haired woman who walked out onto the balcony. She was African American and looked to be in her thirties also.

"Storm. Good; I was going to ask you to accompany Logan–"

"I've found them." She interrupted. "They're still in Nevada, but moved to Reno."

"What makes you so sure?" Logan gruffly questioned.

"Come on; you need to see the headlines."