"This story begins strangely," the special agent began. The lobby of the Institute was dead silent. "Jacobey and Anya – short for Anastasia - were both born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the same hospital, on the same day, at the same exact time. I guess you could say that's why they're so connected. However, while Anya was a happy healthy baby, Jacobey was born sickly. The boy was born with Newborn Jaudice, a liver problem, and he was to remain in an incubator for several weeks. When the kid's parents were driving home from the hospital, a drunk driver hit their car. Both of them died upon impact. Three days into life, and Jacobey was an orphan."

Kitty gave a sad, small gasp, but the rest of the room was silent. Michael was always so quite, so angst-y, so serious with no reason to be. Now they find out that he had a perfect reason.

"Jacobey was unlucky enough to never get completely better," Agent Burke continued. "He was deaf in his left ear, practically blind in his right eye, small, skinny, and had several severe allergies. No one wanted to adopt him. No one wanted to be the parent of a dying boy.

"The same day Jacobey's parents died, Anastasia Gustastopilous was coming home from the hospital. Anya was the illegitimate daughter of a German woman named Gretchen and a Russian-Greek father. She had a half-sister, too- Elsa, who six at the time. When they got inside the apartment, Gretchen found a note from her boyfriend: he was leaving because of Anya. Gretchen was never the same after that. She began drinking, and hated Anastasia with a passion. And then, when the hated girl and the sickly boy turned four, they- how do I phrase this -mutated."

"Four?" Scott, Evan, and Wolverine exclaimed at the same time. It was obvious that everyone, with the exception of Kurt, was utterly shocked about the age Emili and Michael mutated. It seemed like Kurt was the only person that Emili and Michael told about their premature mutation. Kurt wondered if they told any of the others about "riding the wire."

"Yes, four," Carl said slowly. "Why?"

"It's just. . ." the professor started, ". . .it's just that four is a bit early to begin mutating."

"Yeah," Wolverine growled. "Early by ten years."

The agent was shocked, and was silent. Impatient, Evan said, "Well? What happened after they mutated?"

"Well," Agent Burke said, coming out of his stupor, "Jacobey, well, changed. Physically, I mean."

"Yeah, we know that," Scott explained. "We've all seen his arm."

"Not just his arm," Burke said. "His entire body. Like I said, the boy was small, skinny, sickly. Deaf and blind. Do you see him like that now?" One or two of the X-men slowly shook their head. "Exactly. One of his roommates in the foster home heard him scream during the night. They said he ran into the bathroom, and when the kid came out, he was taller, stronger, walking perfectly without his glasses. And, yes; he was half a robot.

"Anastasia's discovery was during the day, in the middle of her apartment. Gretchen was in the corner, drinking, and Anya and Elsa was fighting over the remote for the T.V. Elsa pushed her sister into the television, and she, just well, fell into it. You know, she . . . became one with the T.V.

"Anastasia, well . . . she was only four. She thought it was a fun little joke. She came out of the television, and started laughing. Then," Carl paused to sigh, "her mother got a gun.

"Gretchen was heavily intoxicated. That probably saved Anya's life, because police reports show that the only bullet hole in the house was a good ten feet from where Anastasia and Elsa were. Then Gretchen started to point her gun at Elsa, and Anya, bless her, ran to her mother and tried to pull the gun away from her mother, and, in return, absorbed the gun. With the gun out of their mother's reach, Elsa ran to the phone and called the police. Gretchen was arrested, and Anastasia and Elsa were put into a foster home. Bet you could guess who else was there."

"Micha-" Jean started, then stopped herself. "Jacobey?"

"Bingo, kid," the agent said. "Reports say they were inseparable the entire time they were in the home, then, one day, Dom Marco walked into the foster home. He said he wanted to adopt two kids who were different. He got a couple of mutants."

"Dom Marco . . . zat's Michael and Emili's foster fazer, isn't it?" Kurt questioned. Finally, the man behind the stories had a name.

Agent Burke nodded. "He said he had a brother was a mutant, wanted to help the kids feel accepted, the whole bit. I think the home was just happy they were able to get rid of two un-adoptable mutants. The kids kind of hopped off the radar for a while, then, when they were near five, they were back on the radar, robbing banks."

"Bank robbers?" Evan blurted out. When the agent nodded, Evan looked like he was about to die laughing. "Those two are not bank robbers. Emili can't even fighting anyone. How can you expect her to try and rob anything."

"Honestly," Kitty said. "Emili wouldn't rob anyone. And even if she did, Michael would zap her so hard she-"

"They have stolen," Jean said. Everyone stared at her. "Remember," she said, "their first day of school? When we were warning Emili about Lance? She said, 'Lord knows Michael and I have stolen a lot of stuff,' or something like that."

"She probably meant food and stuff," Kitty tried.

"Or money," Scott said quietly. After a few moments of silence Scott said, "Please continue."

"Well, that was that, really. They kept robbing banks for six years, then they turned themselves in when they were eleven. Got bored of it I guess. The two of them = were in prison for a year when they broke out."

"How'd they manage that?" Wolverine asked.

"A part of Anya's powers allow her to travel using electric wires. She found an electric outlet , then got herself and Jacobey the hell out of there."

"Vat happened to zeir foster fazer?" questioned Kurt.

"He was arrested along with the kids. Then he said they forced him into it and wanted nothing to do with them any more. He got all the papers necessary to make sure the kids were no longer his problem, posted bail, and was never seen again," Carl explained, a bit angrily, as though he hated what Dom did to Emili and Michael. And, his face becoming soft again, said, "Listen: none of us want Jacobey and Anastasia arrested. We all think they're good kids. Confused and misguided, but good kids. But they did break the law- multiple times- and the fact is, they have to be taken back to prison. They have to accept their punishment."

By now, everyone in the Institute was deep in thought. They felt bad for Emili and Michael, or Anya and Jacobey, or whoever, but they were also angry. They were the X-men, they fought for truth and justice. They accepted these kids into their home without a second thought, and those kids can't even bother to tell them they were wanted criminals? Scott, who hated anything off the path of good, was especially angry. He tried warning Emili and Michael against bad guys like Lance, when, in reality, these two were much, much worse.

Breaking the hard, awkward silence, Xavier said, "What can we do to help you?"

Agent Burke sighed, as thought he felt bad for telling them Anya and Jacobey's story. Then he said, "I need to see their rooms."