Kevin Grey didn't know how many hours had passed since he originally made his way from the train yard to the darkened streets New York City was famous for. His head was beginning to pound and he hoped that it would stop soon. Usually when he got these headaches, it would result in something bad happening. His bright blue eyes tried to focus but he was tired, hungry and thirsty. He couldn't stop now, not when he finally got here.
"Jean…" he whispered. "Gotta…find Jean."
Soon, the pain in his head was too much and he fell to his knees. He clutched at his throbbing skull in an effort to alleviate the pain but it was no good. He soon felt a surge of power rush through him and didn't know what to do with it. It was too much to hold in and Kevin thought his head was about to burst. He wasn't sure how but he found a trigger in his mind.
Without any hesitation, he pulled it and felt an immense surge of relief…until everything in his immediate vicinity was being thrown around with violent force.
Scott and Jean's first date was coming to a rapid end. They didn't even get to see the number one movie of the week, even after spending almost twenty dollars for tickets. It was one disaster after another and they had the markings to prove it.
Scott had to replace his shades with one of his spare visors when he tried to stop a fight that had broken out in the theater lobby. The end result was he got a black eye and a shattered sunglass lens. Caught by surprise, he accidentally fired a single burst of concussive energy that blew apart a soda fountain. Thankfully no one actually saw it or cared to notice. Jean on the other hand got covered in one of the spectator's lukewarm Coke and popcorn saturated with butter and salt.
They were traveling in silence, not even bothering to turn on the radio. Jean sighed and glared lazily out of the car. Scott kept his eyes on the road ahead, not bothering to ask her how she felt.
"Could've been a lot worse," Jean commented.
Scott sighed. "Yeah, but you gotta admit, it was fun."
Jean couldn't help but smile. "Up until I got doused by that guy's drink."
Scott chuckled. "Wait, was that before or after I blew apart the soda machine?"
Their conversation was cut short when they saw a smashed apart garbage can fly overhead at an incredible speed. The mutant teens looked to their left and saw a jagged, discarded hubcap fly at them. The metal disc hit with enough force to imbed itself in the car's hood. Breaking glass and splitting concrete surrounded them and it seemed to be emanating from a back alley.
"Déjà vu," Jean commented.
Scott pulled out his phone and hit a speed dial number. The line was immediately picked up. "Professor, I think we got a problem," he said flatly. "How fast can you get here?"
Spider-Man found himself in a relatively rare position: immobilized to a wall by use of resonating energy spikes. His head was hung and he groaned slightly. As far as Harpoon and Hairbag could tell, the hero was out cold.
"So the boss wants us to blow up the building?" Hairbag asked, his usually gruff voice suddenly hoarse. Other than a few singe marks on his fur, from Harpoon missing, he didn't show any serious injuries.
"Yep," Harpoon responded, despite his bruised and swollen lip. "We set the charges, retreat to the basement, head into the sewers, and wait for the big boom."
"Cool."
Harpoon pulled out a small remote and pressed the big red button on it. Suddenly, little red lights came to life that almost encompassed the entirety of the hallway they were in. The energy-spear throwing mutant pressed a few smaller buttons on the remote and yellow, L.E.D. displays reading 2:30 appeared below the red lights.
"Think we used enough bombs?" Hairbag asked.
"I hope so," Harpoon replied, stashing the remote.
"Think we got enough time?"
Harpoon was pensively quiet. He exchanged a nervous glance with his comrade and they ran. They made their way through the pre-planned evacuation plan in record time and came upon their leader, Mister Sinister, deep in a service tunnel underneath the hotel.
"Hey Boss," they both said.
"Hello, boys," Sinister said. "What's the status of our bug?"
"About to be blowed up," Harpoon answered, mimicking a Texas accent.
"Very good. Did you get a good look at him?"
"Some doofus in a red costume with big, bug eyes," Hairbag replied.
Sinister's interest seemed to pique. "He didn't by chance…stick to the walls, did he?"
Harpoon and Hairbag looked at each other, completely blown away.
"Uh, yeah, he did," Harpoon nervously answered. "Mean anything?"
"Not right now but perhaps soon." Sinister directed his gaze to the tunnel that stretched for miles underneath Bayville. They began to march with a cautious step. "I have to warn you, though. We may be passing through Morlock territory."
Harpoon made a disgusted sound. "You say the word, Boss, and I'll gut every single one of 'em."
"Tempting, but not right now," Sinister said.
The trek was carried out in relative silence.
Kevin couldn't keep his focus straight. His headache seemed to go away for a while but started up again when he tried to stop the flow of weird energy racing through him. Everything was being smashed into little bits around him, or tossed away from him at frightening speed. He ran down an alley to try and limit the things he was mentally tossing around. After a few minutes, he was starting to feel better. His headache was lessening, as was this strange power coming from him. He began to feel more tired than before. He wasn't sure what was happening but he didn't like it.
He heard someone coming. He looked around and saw a bald man in a wheelchair approach him. Kevin was a bit apprehensive as the whirring of the wheelchair motor came closer and closer.
"Hello, Kevin," the bald man said.
Kevin's eyes shone with puzzlement. "How do you know my name?" he asked, his voice more scratchy than usual.
"I know many things, Kevin. My name is Professor Charles Xavier and I want to help you."
"Why?"
Xavier sighed. "Kevin, I have made it my life's mission to help young people, with gifts as unique as yours, to understand how to fully control and use their abilities."
"Can you help me?" Kevin asked, worriedly. "My 'gifts' seem to be uncontrollable."
Xavier wheeled himself closer to the young mutant. Kevin became increasingly nervous. Dented trashcans, rusted-out Dumpsters and a few shards of glass levitated into the air in response. Xavier fixed his gaze upon Kevin and the boy's blue eyes closed and all of the items under his unwilling control fell to the floor. He then collapsed into Xavier's outstretched arms.
"Everything will be all right now, Kevin," Xavier said.
Scott and Jean came down the alley with nervous looks on their faces. Jean was the first to speak.
"Is he all right?" The worry was evident in her voice.
Xavier smiled. "Kevin's just fine, Jean. Want to check for yourself?"
Jean was a bit perplexed at the question. She only knew of one Kevin in her life and had seemed to loose touch with him after her powers first awakened. She examined the kid in Xavier's arms and her eyes shot wide open. The rusted-out Dumpster was suddenly crushed into a small cube.
"Kev?" she near-shouted, completely astonished. "What are you doing here?"
Scott started to feel a little left in the dark. "You know him?"
"She should," Xavier replied.
"Kevin's my cousin, Scott," Jean said, almost reassuringly to herself. "But how or why is he here?"
"That's a good question, Jean. We'll have to ask him when he wakes up." Xavier pressed the comm.-link button on his chair's armrest. "Hank, bring the van around."
The X-Van slowly backed into the alley and the rear doors opened. Scott helped Xavier lift the unconscious Kevin into the vehicle and strapped him into a seat.
"Good thing you got here so fast, Professor," Scott said. "If he lingered out here for another hour or so…"
"I know, Scott," Xavier responded. He maneuvered his wheelchair around and locked into place on the van's floor. "Sorry your date didn't go as planned."
"That's all right, Professor," Jean said. "Just make sure he's taken care of."
Xavier smiled and nodded. Scott climbed out of the van and closed the rear door. The armored vehicle slowly rumbled out of the alley. Scott and Jean exchanged a few words before heading towards Scott's Corvette a few blocks away.
Spider-Man felt a steadily growing buzzing at the back of his skull. He didn't pay much attention to it as his consciousness kept drifting further and further away from the present. The last thing he recalled was taking a heavy blow to the face by Hairbag, shortly after he smashed his fist into Harpoon's lip. The buzzing increased slightly and became more intense as he began to open his right eye. He couldn't open his left, possibly from it being swollen shut.
"What the hell happened?" the hero muttered groggily. He looked around, seeing himself pinned to a wall by blue spears of energy. "Could be worse." He took a better look at his surroundings and saw several yellow lights ticking down from ten. "Aw, crap."
…9…8…
Spider-Man freed himself from the wall, with surprisingly minor damage to his costume.
…7…6…
The wall-crawler made a made dash for the open window at the end of the hallway.
…5…4…
He fired a web line and used it to pull himself through.
…3…2…
Spider-Man was closing the distance between the abandoned hotel and the condemned building across from it.
…1…0.
Spider-Man felt his spider-sense skyrocket. A thunderous explosion reverberated in his ears and the force and heat of it catapulted him into the condemned building across the street. The hero hit with a hardened impact that rattled his teeth. He shakily got up and looked out at the hotel he just exited.
The brunt of the explosion was confined to the floor he fought those two mutants. After a few minutes, the structure began to give and the building collapsed in on itself. It settled into a dust cloud of rotten brick and ancient wood.
Spider-Man shook his head. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. And I was really lookin' forward to stayin' there. Oh, well." He picked a direction, fired a web-line and swung back to the Institute.
He managed to get back into the more populous section of the city in record time. Spider-Man managed to get his other eye open. From the difficulty, he knew it was going to be a real shiner. He leapt over a billboard, advertising the Bayville Gazette, and slid down the building it was fastened to. Ducking quickly into the alley, he found a set of clothes, and a denim jacket, sitting on top of a heap of white dust.
"Maybe I should start wearing a back pack when I do this," Spider-Man muttered.
The shirt and jeans easily slid over his costume, as did the sneakers over his boots. He scooped up the jacket and hid his mask and gloves in its inseam. Peter Parker slowly scanned the outside of the alley and found it clear. He walked out into the sidewalk and took a quick glance in a nearby store window. His left eye was barely visible beneath a big, black bruise.
"Whoa. Last time I had a bruise like that, me and the Goblin went at it." Peter lightly touched the black area around his eye and let out a pained gasp. "Pain. Pain is bad."
The young superhero picked a direction and started walking.
Xavier and Beast looked over their latest patient in the infirmary. The young Kevin was drained of energy and almost looked dead from his pale complexion. Jean could only look in on him from the observatory window. Scott was by her side and hadn't left. Jean had informed Scott on what she knew of Kevin, but it had been a while since last she saw him.
"So, these headaches he has, are they life-threatening?" Scott asked worriedly.
Jean sighed. "No, Scott, but usually when he would get them, the lights would flicker. Now it makes sense. He's a psychic."
"Who's a psychic?" came a voice. Jean and Scott turned around to see Peter, with a massive black eye, sticking to the nearby wall.
"Jean's cousin," Scott explained, taking note of the new guy's bruise.
"I wouldn't be too sure that he truly is psychic, Scott," Xavier stated as he and Beast came out of the infirmary to greet them. "I've run a preliminary diagnostic on young Mr. Grey's powers and he appears to be a raw telekinetic." Noticing the blank stares from Scott and Jean, he elaborated. "Meaning the only psychic talents he appears to display is telekinesis. His headaches are the result of him trying to unconsciously focus and harness it. This is very draining on him because he has no other psychic power to temper it, unlike you, Jean."
Peter seemed to digest this information the quickest. "So, because he doesn't have any other psychic talents, he'll have a harder time trying to control it. That right?"
"In a nutshell," Beast replied, adjusting his glasses.
Xavier sighed. "In any event, we'll have to contact his family and let him know where he is. Jean, can you think of any reason why he ran away from home?"
The redhead shook her head. "None that I can think of."
"Hmm." Xavier seemed to be deep in thought. "Jean, when he wakes up, he should see a familiar face. You don't mind, do you?"
"Mmm, no," Jean answered with a shake of her head.
Xavier nodded and wheeled himself back into the sick bay, followed by the red-haired psychic. Beast let out a primal yawn and headed for his room with a slight wave.
"Night, guys," Hank said before disappearing down the hall.
"Bye, Doc," Scott and Peter said with a wave. They then turn their attention to the small group inside the infirmary. After a while, Peter releases his grip on the wall and moves to the window for a better view.
"Think he'll be all right?" Peter asks.
"I hope so," Scott answers. "Well, aren't you gonna ask?"
"Dude, you're wearing your visor and Jean smells of soda and popcorn," Peter stated. "I think that sums it up."
Scott chuckles.
"And to top it all off, you run into her cousin who could potentially pull a Carrie if he ever wakes up."
Scott glared at him.
"Hey, I calls them as I sees them," Peter said, adopting a typical New York accent.
Scott sighed. "I didn't see any of the others when we got back. What happened?"
The new guy cleared his throat. "Kurt and Kitty got bored and started to imitate you guys before Drake started tossing snowballs at 'em. That's when the big, bad Wolverine huffed and puffed and sent 'em to bed. Too bad I missed it, but Jubilee says she got it on tape, that is according one of Jamie's clones." Peter smiled, as did Scott. "Y'know, now that I think about it, this kid may be just like you."
Scott was perplexed by this comment. "Really? Why?"
Peter shifted his weight and shrugged his shoulders. "All that power he can tap into and only one outlet? Sound familiar?"
The X-Man heaved a sigh and fingered his visor for a bit. "Yeah, it does. I just hope he's not at the mercy of his powers like I am."
Peter looked to the visor-wearing mutant with newfound respect and understanding. I know what you mean, Scott, except something had me and my powers at its mercy. That black ooze can change a man. Peter let out an involuntary shudder at the thought.