Chapter 59: X-Treme Consequences

In Bayville High, things were buzzing thanks to the Spear Sports skateboarding competition which was supposed to be held to promote their newest energy drink: Power-8. Of course, due to the new mandates, the judges were appointed and hand picked by the SHIELD supervisors of the event to ward off any form to discrimination against possible Mutant participants.

Right now, however, Scott was looking out of a classroom into the warily, looking for someone he's currently avoiding at the moment. Seeing no sign of the person, He walked out with a sigh of relief. As he turned a corner, he bumped into Jean, causing both to let out surprised gasps.

"Scott, what's wrong?" Jean asked.

"It's Kitty." The male teen explained simply in a nervous tone.

"What about her?" The redhead asked with a raised eyebrow.

"She got her driver's permit." The shaded teen replied, causing Jean to go pale.

"Run, run now!" The telepath told him as they bolted. Kitty then rounded the corner looking for them, and then saw Gavin and Rogue who were walking in her direction, the pseudo vampire having his right arm around his girlfriend's waist.

"Quick, let's warn Gavin and Rogue!" Jean urged. Scott nodded as they approached the couple.

"Gavin, Rogue, run!" The brown haired laser shooter urged in a panicked tone, much to their confusion.

"Why?" The horror aficionado asked.

"Kitty's got her driver's permit!" Jean told them, causing the two to stiffen in fear.

"Oh no… Run!" Rogue exclaimed in fear. The four then made a mad dash for their next destinations.

(Later)

In the school parking lot, Gavin was about to give Rogue a ride home when Kurt suddenly teleported on top of the car's hood, startling them.

"Damn it, Kurt! Don't do that!" Gavin scolded the blue boy.

"Hey, have you heard? Kitty's got her learners permit." Kurt told the two.

"Oh, trust me, we know." Gavin groaned.

"She is not getting behind this car's wheel." Rogue added.

"She's also been looking for someone who's eighteen with a license." Kurt continued.

"We know." The two interjected in deadpan tones as Kurt got off the hood and Gavin stepped on the gas.

"Professor Xavier might ask one of you to supervise her!" The teleporter called out as they drove away.

"We know!" The couple called back in annoyance as they rolled away.

(Elsewhere)

At the Institute, Xavier was in the process of calling Jean, Scott, Gavin and Devin to his office for something, though they were unsure as to what.

"What is it you need done, Professor?" Devin asked.

"Well Devin, seeing as that you four are currently the only eighteen year olds with licenses, I'm hoping that one of you will help Kitty with driving practice." Xavier explained.

"I'd honestly rather not." Gavin confessed.

"I'd prefer not to die at eighteen, thank you." Jean stated.

"Same." Scott nodded.

"I would like to continue living." Devin declined.

"Okay, what's all this talk about wanting to live? Something we should know about?" Chelsea asked as she and Logan walked into the room.

"Kitty needs someone to help her with driving practice." Gavin told them.

"Oh, sounds dangerous." The scraggly mutant said in an almost teasing manner.

"And here I thought you had more balls, since you've literally stared death in the face and spat at it." Chelsea said, rolling her eyes before turning to Charles. "I'm actually needing something to give me an adrenaline rush, so why don't I go?"

"Not without me, I'm keeping a close eye on you remember?" Logan told her. "Besides, could be fun."

"Okay okay, Logan. Seriously, I keep telling you that I don't need or want to feel like I'm being controlled, so stop babying me." The blonde chided him.

"Oi, I'm trying to protect you, not control you. There's a difference." Logan retorted indignantly.

"Whatever." The Dragoness said, rolling her eyes. "So, where is she?" She asked. Right at that moment, Kitty walked in, and as if on instinct, everyone else but the two older Mutants cleared out.

"See ya later!" Scott told them.

"Just know that you owe us." Jean added.

"Good luck." Added Devin.

"And say your prayers, you'll need 'em." Gavin finished as they all left.

Logan and Chelsea could only blink owlishly in confusion at the Shirakumo twin's words.

"The hell do they mean?" The blonde whispered to her boyfriend, who shrugged, feeling just as clueless.

Oh, how they would find out soon enough…

(Elsewhere)

Evan was currently being cornered with another kid by a group of juniors who were harassing them both, which only got worse when the kid he was with chose to try and use Evan as a bodyguard.

"You want me to fight your fight? No way. I'm outta here." The skateboarder scoffed as he turned to leave, but was then cut off by two of the juniors.

The spiky Mutant deployed his spikes to try and scare them, but instead of the spikes scaring them, it was the *click click* sound of a gun being loaded that scared them. Everyone then turned to see Johan standing there, who had just gotten back from helping supervise the setup for the skateboarding competition.

"You know damn well what this routine is by now, punks. No racism allowed!" He growled with a glare.

"Come on, let's get outta here!" The leader said as they ran away. Johan then glared down at the kid who Evan was with.

"If there's one thing I hate more than racism, it's using others for personal gain." He snapped at the boy. "You make me sick." He added with disdain in his voice. The boy quivered under his gaze before he broke and ran off. Scoffing, Johan turned to Evan. "You okay, Evan?" He asked.

"I'm fine." The boy told him angrily.

"Come on, let's get you home." The eldest Sever sibling told him as he led him home.

(Elsewhere)

Gavin was with both Beast and Sampson Marks in the Institute's med bay, and currently he was testing something.

"Okay, now hand me that eye dropper with the Power-8 in it." Gavin said as he put a blood sample from Laura, Peter, and Sampson under a microscope.

"Here." Sampson said as he handed the boy the sample requested. Gavin put a drop on the human and mutate samples first, getting no reaction, but when he put it on the Mutant sample his eyes widened in horror.

"HOLY SHIT!" He yelled.

"What is it, Gavin?!" Beast asked in alarm.

"Power-8 is a fucking Mutant poison!" He replied in horror. "At first I thought I was going crazy when I noticed I kept getting a rash from even touching the stuff, but now? I'm starting to see: this stuff will kill you if you're a Mutant."

"What should we do? Spears Sports is holding their skateboarding competition tomorrow." Beast stated. "And Evan was really looking forward to it, too…"

"Screw Spears! This is a biohazard to all Mutants, including Evan. We gotta do something about this, NOW!" The pseudo vampire told him.

"I agree. As a doctor, I must insist that we prioritize the safety of the Mutant public." Sampson nodded.

"Then we must report our findings to the Sever siblings at once. They should be able to intervene." Hank agreed.

(Elsewhere)

Evan was now in his room and he finally managed to retract his spikes, but then he gasped in shock when he saw that his back now had spiky and bony plates lining it.

"What the-? What's going on?" He gasped at the sight of the plates.

Meanwhile, Kitty was finally driving back to the Institute after going with Chelsea and Logan, and the X-Van was in horrible shape. There was a wrecked newspaper holder that was dropping out change and there were two signs skewered near the back of it, and the wench on the bumper was broken.

The two older Mutants got out, and both looked traumatized from the experience. Logan even had to help Chelsea pry her currently draconic hands from inside the dash and the handle.

"... Logan?" The Dragoness began shakily.

"Yeah…?" Her scraggly boyfriend responded in a shaken tone.

"Never let me be in any car with Kitty at the wheel ever again!" She squeaked in fear. "I like an adrenaline rush as much as the next person. Roller coasters, Horror movies, ATV races, you name it. But… Having to ride in the same car with that ditzy psychopath, was downright terrifying!" She added, her hands immediately checking her unborn child. "... Phew, the baby's safe." The blonde sighed in relief before she felt nauseous. "But my lunch isn't!" She said before she started bolting inside.

Kitty then got out. "Man, I can't believe how many reckless drivers there are on the road. Am I right?" She asked Logan, hands on her hips.

'What the-?! There's the pot calling the motherfucking kettle black! Were you literally unaware of what you were doing?!' Logan thought in sheer, absolute disbelief.

(The next day)

The next morning everyone was at the Spears Sports skateboarding competition, and currently Johan was explaining to his fellow supervisors of the discovery that the X-Men had discovered about Power-8 and its effects on Mutants.

"Okay, this is alarming. Anyone got any suggestions on what we should do?" One of the supervisors asked.

"My best suggestion is to confiscate all Power-8 drinks until further notice." Another suggested. "I mean, we can't exactly call this thing off right now."

"That's probably our best option right now." The third and final supervisor concluded with a sigh.

"Then I'll have my guys start gathering all of it up. But for now, just focus on making sure everything goes smoothly. I'll handle dealing with Mr. Spears." Johan told them.

"Yes sir." The supervisors nodded. With that done, they all got to work, just as Evan went up for his turn. The blonde was without a doubt doing the best out of all the kids there, however, one in particular was so jealous that he decided to do something about it when Evan finished.

"You want me to what?!" The spiked boy growled.

"You heard me. I want you to forfeit! You used your powers to cheat!" The jealous moron shot back as one of the supervisors came up to them.

"Alright, what's going on?" The man asked, who had Katerina close behind him.

"This guy used his powers to cheat! He doesn't deserve to be in this competition!" The boy growled.

"Kid, you're an idiot. I know what his powers are, and they can't be used to do stuff like that. You just can't handle being outdone." The eldritch woman told the skateboarder with a frown, throwing the truth in his face.

"I suggest you drop this, or it'll be you who gets disqualified." The supervisor added.

"Man, you idiots are all biased in favor of those freaks. I'm outta here." The jealous boy frowned before leaving.

"No, we're just not a bunch of racist pricks like you!" Katerina called after him. "You okay, Evan?" She asked.

"I'll be alright. Thanks for that." The boy nodded in gratitude. "I'm gonna go get something to drink." He said as he walked off. But as he picked up a bottle of Power-8 that hadn't been confiscated yet, someone bumped into him, causing it to drop out of his hands.

"Poison." He heard the person say.

"What the hell?" The boy said as he glared back at the person. "... Jerk." He said before he got another bottle before the supervisors could get to it, and started to open it, but not before Johan saw him.

"Evan, stop! Don't drink that!" He called as he dashed over to him. But unfortunately, he was too late, the skateboarding loving boy already drank a quarter of the bottle. Suddenly, he groaned and his vision began to swim before he accidentally sent out several spikes from his body at high speed. Johan ducked under a few while some of them hit the legs of the billboard,causing it to start to fall on the bleachers. The audience started to panic as it leaned forward, but Ororo was quick to make a strong wind gust to keep it from falling while Bobby used his powers to fix the damage.

Johan ran over to Evan and grabbed him as the boy started to sweat. "Get the paramedics! This boy's been poisoned!" He barked. Though as the men did so, the same person from before, a woman with an eyepatch, started walking towards him. On impulse, he drew his Smith and Wesson pistol and pointed it at her.

"One more step, and you're dead." He told her.

"Whoa whoa, easy!" The woman said as she held her arms up placatingly. "I'm just here to take him to some people that know how to help with Power-8's effects on mutants." She told him, though the eldest Sever sibling didn't look convinced.

"I don't hate Mutants, but I don't trust you. How do I know you're telling the truth?" He questioned with narrowed eyes.

"Because she's a member of the Morelocks." They heard Gavin say as he walked up to them with Ray in tow. He also had a small girl with rather large hands by the back of her shirt collar. "This, little mink is one of them too. She tried to paralyze me and Ray when we tried to get to Evan. And it really pisses me off." He added as he continued to hold her up.

"Seriously?" Johan groaned before turning to the eyepatch wearing woman of the group. "Do you have no faith in the people he knows? What you tried to do is, for all intents and purposes, kidnapping. We're trying to help Evan!" He told her with a glare.

"Some help. Why didn't you warn him before he came here so he'd know not to drink the stuff?" She asked.

"Because I only just found out today." Johan stated as Gavin threw the little girl down and she ran back to the older woman.

"Alright." The pseudo vampire said as he cracked his knuckles. "I'm going to give you 'till the count of five to beat it before things get ugly. Five…" He said as his hand slowly lowered to his two guns.

The woman sighed, knowing they had to leave now. "Fine. You win. We'll go." She conceded as she and the other Morelocks that were apparently hiding nearby left.

"Come on, let's get Evan to the hospital." The SHIELD agent said as he picked the boy up.

"You guys go." Gavin told them as he watched the Morelocks leave. "I'll… Catch up with you guys later." He said as he turned himself into smoke and started following them.

(Elsewhere)

Gavin was now in his costume with both Laura and Peter with him as they watched the Morelocks going down into the sewers.

"Why are they going in the sewers? With the Mutants Equal Rights act in effect, they should be able to do stuff topside." Peter wondered as he scratched his head.

"Probably got exposed to too much discrimination beforehand, so they've opted to hide underground to get away from it all." Gavin mused.

"In any case, we'll need to get whatever kind of medicine they may have for Evan. Though I just hope we won't have to get it by force." Laura nodded.

"Same." The pseudo vampire agreed as they began entering the sewer behind their quarry. The green eyed feral mutant couldn't help but pinch her nose from how bad the sewers smelled, especially with her enhanced nose.

"God, how do they stand this smell?!" She gagged, pinching her nose. The girl was currently in her X-Men trainee outfit, which she really hoped she wouldn't have to wash when this was over.

"Ugh, feel your pain, Laura. I feel your pain." Peter said as he pinched his nose.

"Quit your bellyaching!" Gavin barked as he had them duck behind a wall as the eyepatched woman from earlier came into view. She had heard them talking, and had certainly heard Gavin's bark. Taking off her eyepatch, she looked around and narrowed her eyes when she looked in their direction.

"I can see in the dark, you know." She called out to them.

"Funny, I don't remember asking." Gavin said as the three stepped into view. "We're here for that medicine you mentioned. Give it to us and we'll be out of your hair." He told them, wanting to first be diplomatic before he did anything else.

"No offense, but it's kinda hard to do that after what happened today." The woman said as she folded her arms.

"Oh, so it's our fault that you tried to kidnap our friend?" Laura stated, arms crossed. "Wow, you guys have a lot of nerve."

"Look, we can't do much to help Evan without that medicine. Please, just give us a few samples to give to him and have mass produced to help other potential victims." Peter requested.

The woman seemed to be surprised when she saw the spider themed hero. "You're a long ways away from the big apple, aren't you Spider Man?" She asked.

"Let's just say that a few… 'events' caused me to leave in order to get away from the pain and leave it at that." Peter explained shortly with a wince. Laura gave him a sad look as she squeezed his hand to comfort him.

"Uh, we never got your name." Gavin noted, having forgotten that small detail.

"Callisto." She told them. "Follow me." She said as she led them into the hideout. When they got there, they saw a bunch of Mutants all over where they made their little home.

"All of you just live down here?" Gavin asked with a frown.

"The world isn't exactly kind to Mutants who look like us." Callisto told him.

"You guys do know that the Mutants Equal Rights act was passed for that exact reason, right?" Laura questioned.

"True though that may be, we were exposed to too much of the human race's dark side beforehand. It's instinct for us to try and get away from it at this point." The woman sighed.

"Called it." Gavin piped in.

"If some of you guys tested the waters now, so to speak, would you consider living on the surface again?" Peter asked.

"No idea. It'd have to be up to the others honestly." Callisto shrugged.

"Fair enough, I guess. Anyway, the medicine?" Gavin shrugged before getting down to business.

"Caliban!" The woman called, prompting a pale and lanky bald Mutant with pointy ears to walk up to them. He was dressed in very dingy clothes.

"Careful, this guy can sense other Mutants, and he's terrified of strong ones." Laura whispered, having heard about this particular man from Ray.

"Noted." Gavin whispered back.

Caliban looked at the three and seemed to shrink away when he neared Gavin before standing next to Callisto.

"What is it, Callisto?" He asked in a hissing voice.

"They're here for the medicine. Their friend has been poisoned by Power-8 and needs it." The woman replied.

"Of course. I will go get some, though I feel like they may want some extra ones for reasons I don't know." He replied before walking off to get what they came for.

"Thank you." Gavin told Callisto.

"Don't thank me yet." The woman told him. "Listen, I know that this may be asking a bit too much, given our first impressions of each other. But… We could really use the X-Men's help in destroying Spear's vats of Power-8."

"Why?" Peter asked. "I mean, besides the obvious." He clarified.

"Because Power-8 is being dumped into the sewers. It's poisoning everyone down here." Callisto replied, alarming them.

"Okay… We probably can't help you that way, but we certainly can't blame you for asking." Laura said with wide eyes. "I can definitely say this: When Johan gets wind of this, he'll likely force Spears to shut down Power-8 production permanently." She added.

"Be that as it may." Gavin said as he unsheathed his sword. "I think I'd prefer to see it go down personally." He added as he gripped his weapon.

(Elsewhere)

About an hour later at the Institute, Bast and Dr. Marks were in the middle of giving Evan the antidote that the Morelocks crafted, and as if by some god given miracle, it worked.

"The antidote worked. Good. Now we can mass produce it." Sampson said.

"I'll give the good news to Storm. She'll be relieved to hear this." Bast said as she walked out.

"Um, guys? Where's Gavin?" Rogue asked as she walked in. "His car is gone, and Ah can't find him anywhere." She added.

"Where could he have gone?" The Marks patriarch asked.

(Elsewhere)

At the Spears Sports Power-8 main manufacturing plant, the Morelocks and Gavin were there in the dead of night, ready to wreck the place.

Gavin unsheathed Bloodfallen before he slashed at the fence over a hundred times in the blink of an eye and started to sheathe it again. "A hundred Godspeed slashes." He said as he sheathed the sword with a click, which caused the fence to fall to pieces.

"... Wow. That's fast." Callisto commented with her lone eye wide.

"Thank you. Now come on. Let's get this done." The swordsman said as he walked into the production plant. As they did, they quickly made sure to destroy everything in sight, and of course not hurt any of the guards.

"The main vats are in here." One of the Morelocks, who had X-Ray vision, said.

"Anyone ever tell you that your powers would be perfect for rescue? Or seeing tumors, for that matter?" Gavin asked him as he sliced apart the wall.

"No, but thank you for saying that." The Morelock replied with a nod.

"Don't mention it." The boy shrugged as he cracked his knuckles. "Now, in the immortal words of Richard Branson: Let's do it." He told his new allies as they charged into the room.

Gavin disabled the cameras so they wouldn't be spotted. Then they all climbed to the top of the vats and began pouring some solution into the Power-8 to effectively destroy the liquid. As they were doing it, though, some guards they had missed barged in and caught them in the act.

"FREEZE!" They yelled before both of them got shot in the shoulders by Gavin as he dropped on them.

"Alright, quick question you two: how much is Spears Sports paying you to look the other way while he pours this toxic shit into the sewers and endangers the lives of thousands of innocent Mutants?" He asked them, boots on their backs.

"Wait, he's been doing what?!" The one under his right boot asked, instantly cluing Gavin in that he wasn't aware of what was happening.

"Shady business is definitely shady here." The pseudo vampire sighed. "Hey guys! Ya might wanna hurry, I'm starting to hear police sirens about five minutes from here and closing fast!" He urged.

"We're moving as fast as we can!" Callisto called back.

Though as they continued to sabotage the room, someone in the main control room somehow activated a manual failsafe and started emptying all the toxic liquid that was left straight into the sewers, and it was enough to be considered a small flood.

"RUN!" Gavin yelled as they bolted for the storm drain. After a bit of trying to escape the mini flood, they unfortunately came to a dead end. "... Fuck me sideways." He cursed. As it seemed like it would be the end of all of them, a blast of cosmic energy came straight towards the flood as Rogue floated down to them, which was followed by Jean and Storm as well.

Then several familiar looking spikes were shot onto the wall behind them for them to climb on. "Come on! Climb up!" Evan told them, his face covered in spikes now.

The Morelocks and Gavin didn't waste a second and began to climb as fast as they could while Gavin flew up in his smoke form. Once everyone was out of harm's way, Rogue and Jean stopped holding the flood back and came back up.

"Thanks guys, you came just in the nick of time. A few seconds later and we woulda been-" Gavin started to say before…

*SMACK!*

He was yet again slapped by his girlfriend.

"That was for doing something stupid again!" She growled.

"Is this gonna be a regular thing with you, Anna? Because-!" He started to say before she shut him up by kissing him.

"That was for saving lives." She finished with a smile. Gavin looked at her a little dazed before grinning like a fool.

"Well… I could get used to it." He said with the same grin still on his face.

"Get a room, you two!" Callisto called out in a teasing manner, getting laughs from the rest of the Morelocks and blushes from the couple in question.

"Spears is gonna have hell to pay when this is over." Johan said as he stepped forward. "Because I'm not gonna stop until this company is in the ground." He added before turning to Callisto. "I also wanted to apologize to you, Callisto. I misjudged you, and the Morelocks."

Callisto looked surprised for a moment before she smiled. "Apology accepted. And we're trusting you to put an end to Power-8. Don't let us down." She told him. The older Sever sibling chuckled.

"Trust me, I take the safety of Mutants very seriously." He replied. "And, after telling my superiors at SHIELD about you guys, we've actually decided to set up a series of shelters for homeless Mutants like yourselves to help you get back on your feet until we can help you find some good jobs." He added. "If you'd like to stay there that is."

The Morelocks looked at him with surprised expressions before they looked at one another, having a silent conversation amongst themselves. After a moment, Callisto spoke again.

"We'll take you up on that offer. It'll be nice to not have to worry about smelling like sewage all the damn time. The idea of actually putting our powers to good use sounds nice, too." She said. Johan smiled and beckoned them to follow him.

"Then come on, I'll show you where the shelter's being built." He told them as they all left.

"Ya know, you don't look so bad with the spikes Evan, just sayin." Gavin told his skateboarding friend.

"Glad to know I actually look cool with 'em." He chuckled as they went back to the Institute.

(Later)

Gavin was sitting at his desk while doing some chemistry equations and looking at each individual chemical and ingredient of Power-8 closely via microscope, when he finally found what he was looking for.

"In the words of Archamites when he found the theory of displacement…" He said as he dropped a sample of his new green soda-like liquid on a Mutant tissue sample and saw that it had no adverse effects on it, rather it energized them. "Eureka." He said in satisfaction.

"What is it?" Rogue asked as she came up behind him and hugged his neck.

"I just created my own Mutant safe energy drink." He replied with a grin as he turned around and kissed her. "I think I'll call it: X-Tremeade… Yeah, I like that." He nodded as he started working on bottle designs.

But unbeknownst to them, two people were watching Logan, Chelsea and Laura while they were in the living room, the scraggly Mutant holding his girlfriend and daughter protectively on the couch.

"Well, hello there, father." One of the figures who had a long haired mohawk said as he looked at the three through a pair of binoculars.

Bad omens were starting to show… The past was coming back to bite, with a vengeance.

Dragon Emperor0: Uh oh, this does not look good. Daken's come to town.

ThermalsniperN7: Yeah, and he's brought some company with him. Who could that be?

Dragon Emperor0: No idea… On the bright side though, looks like Evan and the Morelocks aren't gonna get screwed over this time… Hopefully.

ThermalsniperN7: If someone tries anything against them, we all know what'll happen. Anyway, it's close to two in the morning on my end, so I'm gonna go to sleep.

Dragon Emperor0: Me too. See you guys next week!