>ONE: The Team<


Tyler Grey-Summers sat, in the old, decrepit boathouse by the cove where he knew his parents once had stayed, head resting on his knees, his mess of red hair falling into his face over brown eyes, and wearing a beat-up pair of baggy jeans and a black muscle tee. He sat on their bed, feeling their presence as he sat there. Dead souls. Sometimes he used to think he felt something soft and light brushing his arm like the feathers of angel wings. But it was just the wind blowing through the emptiness. Of course, who said that his parents really were dead? Wasn't there a chance that they had escaped the hunters and were now in hiding, just waiting for the right moment to retrieve him? Or perhaps they were in Mutant City, but had managed to avoid the horrors there. Who said that they were dead? From the stories he had heard from both his parents and the Professor, he knew that they had lived through almost certain death before. Why was it this time that they were really gone?

*Scott....I mean Tyler. Call your team together to my office after dinner. We have a meeting.* Professor X's voice spoke into his head.
Sighing, he rose. He hated it when the Professor accidentally called him Scott. The father he had left at the age of nine. He knew why it happened though. Professor Xavior had lost so many sons and daughters with this outbreak. His X-Men.

Stepping out of the boathouse, he set off to look for the six members of his team, the most important team. The Neo X-Men, made entirely of descendents of those who had thought for Xavier so long ago. He hated being the leader, but he knew that it was in his legacy to lead. His dad would be proud of him. He wasn't even the oldest of the "returners", as they were called. Amit was. But Amit was no leader, even if his mother was one. He was too much like his father, wild and challenging of authority.

Amit had dark skin, was short, and extremely muscular with wild black hair. Dressed in his usual garb of a flannel shirt, torn black, baggy jeans, and in extreme contrast to his main outfit a chain with a wooden, African charm at the end of it, he sat under a tree, smoking a cigarette, staring up at sun like it was going to come crashing on them at any minute.

"Hey Amit," Tyler started to speak.

" 'Sup fearless leader!" Amit said sarcastically.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyway, Xavier wants to meet with us after dinner."

"Goddess damn it!" Amit sighed, "What could Chuck possibly want with us now?"

"I don't know...I don't know..."

"Why can't he fucking send another team out?"

"What am I, psychic? I don't know! Just be there, okay?" Tyler sighed, knowing full well that Amit would be late. At eighteen, Amit was a rebel, and a fighter. His father was the same way, Xavier had said.

"You are psychic!"

"Not when it comes to fellow telepaths!"

He made his way to the danger room, where sure enough, he found fourteen-year-old Alyce working on a one-on-one martial arts scenario, dressed in her karate robe, her blond hair flairing behind her, flying and facing her attacker. Well, today it was blond, but often times she'd die it a dark violet to remind herself of her mother.

"Hey 'Lycee!" he called, "The professor wants to have a meeting with us after dinner!"

"I'll be there," she called back, slashing at her holographic opponent with her kantana.

He found Mike Drake, the youngest on the team, right were he knew the boy would be, lying in front of the TV playing video games. The twelve-year-old prankster Euro-Asian yelled at the screen as his fingers pushed buttons with skillful speed. His jeans were covered with mud and he wore a shirt that bore the slogan "Original Prankster".

"Hit him! No! I said hit! Not punch! Not jump either! Comeon! I know I'm pressing the right button! Hit! Hit! Hit!"

Tyler tried to keep from laughing. "Uh, Mike, just letting you know, the Prof. Wants to see us after dinner."

"Not another meeting!" he whined.

"Yeah, I know what you mean."

"Wanta play two player?" Mike always acted like he drank a double mocha espresso with extra caff.
"Er...um...no thanks, gotta go find the others."

Using her heating powers to warm the air inside of her inflatable pillow enough so that when she sat on it, she hovered on her pillow above her bed, thirteen-year-old Hannah Wisdom sat in front of her laptop, which she was also hovered above her bed and was typing away at a fast-paced speed only stopping to brush a brown, curly lock out of her eye. She wore gray cargo capris and a black tank top, attempting, and succeeding in looking as precotious as her other team members.

"Tyler, let me guess. Meeting with Prof. X, right?" she said knowingly.

"Be there."

"Will be."

"Great. Now all I got to do is talk to Sabine."

Hanna sighed, "Good luck."

"Yeah, really, I'll need it."

***

Sabine Clairisse LeBeau sat on the roof of the mansion, eyes downcast and twirling the golden ring she wore on a chain as a necklace around her index finger. May nineteenth. The day she had run. Coppery curls blew in the wind, which also blew her black trench-coat around her, revealing the red tank-top with the white rose on it and dark denim jeans that she wore, as her red on black eyes flashed down to the other refugees below, all of them living in pain, but none of them knowing the pain compared to that which she felt on this day.

"Run Pet'te. Run an' don' look back!"

"But Papa!"

"Sabine, Sugah, this is your only chance."

"Maman! I don't want to go! I want to stay with you!"


Tears filled her eyes. Looking down at the ring, shattered memories fell into place. Tales of once and long ago. Dying as soon as they came. She didn't want to tell herself sweet fantasies of how maman and papa had escaped the hunters and maman had absorbed them so that they would never hurt anyone, and then banished their every memory and thought and feeling from her mind. She didn't want to tell herself that after that, maman was flying papa over her to Westchester, New York and any moment now she'd see them hovering above the mansion like beautiful, pale, guardian angels coming to take her home to New Orleans where they would be a family again and she would meet her handsome prince who would be the thief of her heat at Mardi Gras, now that she was old enough to finally go, or so she thought. She knew exactly what he would be like, from the smooth, thick Cajun accent he would have, to the way he would bend over and kiss her hand like a true gentleman and whisper, "Bonjour ma belle femme." But she didn't like to tell herself such fantasies that could never be. Maman and Papa were either dead, or almost dead, and there would be no going back to New Orleans, or even Missippi (where her parents used to take her in the summer. In truth, all Sabine really remembered about it was steam boat rides down the river, visiting elegant plantations, and smelling magnolias, but she knew that she loved it) as a second choice. There would be no maman or papa angels flying down from the sky to rescue her or handsome Cajun princes. All that was real was the Neo X-Men, Tyler, Alyce, Amin, Mike, Hannah, Professor Xavier, the mansion, Westchester New York, the suffering of Mutant kind, the hunters, and mutant city.

A lot of the members of the other teams called her depressed, and said that she took her parent's death way too hard. She knew that they didn't understand. Most of the members of the other teams were Hannah's age at the oldest, thirteen, and had been dropped off at the mansion at birth, by parents who knew it was too late for them. The Mutant Tracking act had ordered a computer-tracking chip implanted in the arm of all living mutants. Mutant parents with newborns sometimes left their child to be cared for by Xavier, knowing full well that they could never be fulfilling parents as long as they could be tracked by the chip. Those other kids who had been given up so that they may live never had a choice of their destiny, and they didn't even know their parents. Sabine had been given the choice, and she chose to run. No matter how many times people had told her that it wasn't her fault, and that her parents had told her to run, that she didn't have the choice, there was something in the depths of Sabine's mind that told her somehow she could have stayed and protected them.

Sabine had gone to get the chip implant when she was five-years old, and remembered little of it except for that her maman had told her that they were all going to get something matching in their arm so that they would always be connected. She stared down at the pale pink scar on her wrist. Intersecting it was the scar from when she had cut it out. Due to the mutant genes from both sides of the family, her power had started to show at the age of eight, the power to "pull" any object she saw a picture of into real life. When she had first discovered it, her parents had taken extra precations to hide any pictures with candy on them, as they would soon be out of the picture and in Sabine's stomach. But the power proved useful for other reasons besides midnight snacks. When Sabine had run, she had to find a way to remove her chip. Finding an advertisement for a shaving razor, it had taken all her consentrate it to move it out of the ad and into her had, and then even longer to get the courage to plunge the blade into her tiny wrist and remove the dreaded chip. It had hurt. It had healed. Now all that was left of it was another pink scar that crossed over the one that had been left when they put it in. They made a pink X on her pale right wrist.

"Sabine!" a voice called her name.

"Merde," she muttered, "Tyler." The very last person she had wanted to see.

"Sabine! We've got a meeting with the professor after dinner."

"Ah'm not coming." She didn't even look up as the sun slowly began to set.

"Sabine!" obvious disapproval shone in Tyler's voice, "You have to come! What about your responsibility! You're my..."

"Ah know, Ah know, damnent, Tyler, Ah know! Ah'm the second in command of the Neo-X-Men. Ah have a great responsibility. Should anthin' happen to ya, it is mah job to continue the mission without failing the team. Ah can't afford to put personal fears, or needs in da way!" she recited the lecture Tyler had given her all too many times before.

"If you know it so well, then why don't you ever follow it?"

She stood up, whirled around and faced him, glaring. "Do yah have any idea what day it is?"

"Yes, Sabine, I know it's the anniversary of your running away, but it's no excuse!"

Sabine turned away furiously.

"Sabine, I'm really sorry about your parents. I lost mine too. My parents fought for the cause for a very long time. My parents lived here, fought for the cause, and it is my duty to continue their legacy. Do you think I want to lead? I've made so many sacrifices in their names. I just have to remember that they died fighting for the cause."

She didn't even turn to look at him, but spoke, the wind carrying away a lot of her voice. "So did mine, Tyler. So did mine. They lived here, and they worked her, and they faced daily tidings of death just like your parents. Don't even pretend yah suffer more than Ah do."

"I'm not pretending anything, Sabs, but please, you can't spend your life up here on the roof watching time go by. You've got to let go. You've got to heal."

"Yah're one to talk, Mr. Sit-in-mah-parent's-boat-house-and-sulk! Don' pretend you don't 'ave to learn to let go."

"I never said I didn't, but I try to keep my problems separate from my duty. Your problems are brought up in whatever you do."

"Shut up! Leave me alone!" Sabine sat down and buried her head in her hands so that Tyler wouldn't see her cry.

"Bye, Sabs, see you at dinner," Tyler said gently, "or at least at the meeting. You'll be there, right?"

"Sure. Ah'll be there." Her voice was so faint Tyler could barely hear it. He turned to walk away, much to her relief. Suddenly, he stopped and turned around.

"Oh! And Sabs!"

"Yah."

"I'm sorry."

***

Before dinner, Hannah lit a candle, and then she lit another one. Neir shell zicaron. Looking up at the now dim sky, she whispered the mourner's kaddish.

Yisgadal v'yiskadash sh'mei rabbaw
B'allmaw dee v'raw chir'usei
v'yamlich malchusei,b'chayeichon, uv'yomeichon,
uv'chayei d'chol beis yisroel,
ba'agawlaw u'vizman kawriv, v'imru: Amein.
Y'hei sh'mei rabbaw m'vawrach l'allam u'l'allmei allmayaw
Yis'bawrach, v'yishtabach, v'yispaw'ar, v'yisromam, v'yis'nasei,
v'yis'hadar, v'yis'aleh, v'yis'halawl sh'mei d'kudshaw b'rich hu
L'aylaw min kol birchawsaw v'shirawsaw,
tush'b'chawsaw v'nechemawsaw, da'ami'rawn b'all'maw, v'imru: Amein
Y'hei shlawmaw rabbaw min sh'mayaw,v'chayim
awleinu v'al kol yisroel, v'imru: Amein
Oseh shawlom bim'ro'mawv, hu ya'aseh shawlom,
awleinu v'al kol yisroel v'imru: Amein

Her tears fell on the candle flames and she wished more than anything that she could stop thinking about it. The traditional thirty days of mourning had come and went five years ago. However, she could still not let go. Since there were no synagogues she could seek refuge to, she lit a memorial candle and recited the mourner's kaddish every night, in the same manner her mother, Katherine "Kitty" Wisdom, had whispered it when her father, Peter Wisdom, had been taken. His history in the British intelligence had done the opposite of what had been thought: it had made him easier to catch, considering that he had an entire file that the government could access. So Kitty had mournfully whispered the mourner's kaddish, a Jewish prayer for the dead and bereaved, and now Hannah said it for both of them.

Then, she got up and walked to dinner.

***

The six sat around their table in silence as crab cakes over salad was served, and glasses of coke were poured.

Alyce finally broke the silence, "What do you suppose the professor wants us for? Another mission?"

"I sure hope not! We just went out!" Hannah said.

"He always sends us out! Damnit! You'd think we're the only team 'round here," Amit chimed in.

"That's because we're the strongest and the best," Tyler said in Xavier's defense.

"Not this again!" Alyce sighed.

"Michael Drake! Put the Tabasco down!" Hannah cried as Mike rushed back to his seat in a flash, pretending he had never tried to poor it into Hannah's drink.

"I wasn't doing anything."

"Sure you weren't," Alyce laughed, "When aren't you doing something?"

"Hey, Sabs, what's eatn' ya?" Amit asked. He had a soft spot for the tough girl, and treated her as he would a little sister, despite the fact that she wasn't that much younger than he.

"And what aren't you eating?" Hannah pointed at the untouched plate.

"Ah'm not hungry," Sabine spoke up for the first time during dinner.

"Oh Sabs, don't be silly! They're good!" Alyce said, speaking of the crab cakes, "And spicy too. You'd love 'em!"

"Sabs, you've got to eat something!" Tyler cried, "think of your health!"

"Non! Ah'm not hungry!"

Amit gave her a serious look. He had noticed the barely eaten breakfast and the single bite of sandwich for lunch. "Sabs, you're eatn' dat or I'm shoven' it down your throat!"

"Ya wouldn't dare!"

"Like hell I wouldn't!"

Tyler simply smiled and used his telekinetic power to move the crab cakes up off her plate. Sabine closed her mouth in stubborn pride, but it was no match for psychic powers.

"Through the teeth and past the gums look out stomach, here it comes!" Mike grinned as Tyler used his power to force Sabine to chew and swallow.

"Ah don't believe you're making me do this!" she muttered.

"Now Sabine, it's rude to talk with your mouth full," Tyler laughed.

"I thought you were a real Southern Belle!" Hannah laughingly chimed in.

"A perfectly-mannered lady!" Alyce giggled.

"Actually, these are pretty good," Sabine admitted reluctantly between swallows. She was eating by herself at this point, and actually laughing along with her friend's jokes. It was the first time she had smiled all day.

The others were relieved, but Amit and Tyler still looked at her with worry.

"Sabine. You can't afford to starve yourself. Anorexia isn't any picnic. Think of your team! Your responsibility! What would we do without you if you were to get sick!" Tyler blurted out almost subconsciously.

"No, Sabs, don't starve yourself, not 'cause we'll all be upset if ya hurt yourself. Don't do it because you'll be really upset if ya hurt yourself. If ya do hurt yourself, you'll feel like ya made the biggest mistake of your life." Amit said, glaring all the while at Tyler who seemed to shrink under his glare. Tyler sighed. Amit had just said exactly what he had meant to say...it just had come out...completely, and utterly wrong.

"Thanks Amit," Sabine said, also glaring at Tyler, "Ah'll remember that."

Ice cream sundaes were served, which everyone ate with gusto, including Sabine, much to everyone's relief. When dishes were cleared, the six Neo-X-Men made their way to Professor Xavier's office.

Waiting outside the office was always a tension-filled moment for them, as they knew what awaited them inside. No matter how many times they had seen it, they were always shocked at the disquieting display of their leader. When they went in for the interview sessions, which he made them do periodically, it felt strange, and a little frightening to be in with the professor alone.

Telepathically, the door opened, and the six stepped in.

"Sit down, all of you, and thank you for coming." The voice boomed from all around. They sat in the semi-circle of chairs that had been set up for them. In front of the semi-circle, a computer monitor lowered itself with the head of an elderly, bald man appearing on the screen.

"Hello my children," the face on the monitor spoke.

"Hello professor," they said in unison. The man whom their parents had known was now merely machine. When it seemed that he was dying, Professor Charles Xavier with help of a former X-Man named Hank McCoy, may his memory live on, develop a way to save himself. His memories, personality, thoughts, and power were downloaded onto software making him a living computer program. It never failed to awe the students when the electronic eyes that were placed around the study crept over and examined them, or an object in the room moved due to telekinesis. Professor X had become, frightening, yet still respected and perhaps even admired by his students.

"Are we all here?" he asked, "First in command, Tyler Grey-Summers, aka Telepath."

"Here sir."

"Seccond in command, Sabine LeBeau, aka Hera."

"ici."

"Amit, aka Sparx."

"I'm here, Chuck."

"Hannah Wisdom, aka PyroKat."

"Right here."

"Alyce Worthington, aka Shugotenshi."

"Here."

"Michael Drake, aka Fire Cracker."

"Ready steady."

"Excellent. I've called you all here today because I have a new mission for you all." His explaination was met with groans all around.

"But Suh, we just got back," Sabine sighed.

"Can't ya let another damn team take this one?" Amit nearly yelled.

"No, I'm afraid not. It seems that there has been an increased amount of hunter activity near the old thieves' guild headquarters. I want you to get a look at it."

"Yah don't mean the one in N'awlins, do ya?" Sabine sounded hopeful.

"Yes, the one your father was the head of years ago, but Sabine, I want you to focus. I was struggling with the decision to leave you home for this one. No visiting your old home. No straying from the group. No picking up any more mementoes than is necessary. We don't know what sorts of tricks they might have."

"But suh..."

"No buts, Sabine. Stick to the mission."

"Alright Suh."

"And I mean it, Sabine," the professor turned to Tyler, "I'm holding you personally responsible for making sure Sabine stays focused."

"What the..." Sabine muttered the rest in muddled French cussing that was truly incomprehensible.

"Ya trust Sabs here to be the second in command and then ya but her under surveillance," Amit spoke up.

"I'm just trying to make sure that everything runs smoothly. I don't want any accidents. This is a very dangerous mission. Anyway, you leave tomorrow at seven o'clock sharp. Be ready. This will be a very difficult job, but I have faith in you. Now go get some sleep, you have a big day tomorrow. Dismissed."

He watched them all leave, the six of them. How he saw his X-Men in each of them! Tyler, the leader who took responsibility for everything and everyone, so much like his father it was hard not to call him Scott. He had a bit of his mother in there too, calm and sensible. Amit was the spitting image of Logan, but with a bit of Ororo's sense that shone through his gruff words. Oh and Hannah, computer wiz tough yet sensitive, with her precotious nature, he professor could just see a little Kitty Pryde move every time she did. Who could disagree that Mike had the fun-loving, joking, energetic ways of both Bobby and Jubilee? And then Alyce, with her polite ways, but obvious spirit, and facitiy for martial arts, there was a little Warren and a little Betsy in her too! Then there was Sabine. So much like both of them. Both of them were often very stubborn, and dark, sometimes having to deal with deep depression that Sabine let show through more than either of them did. Her craftiness, and temper, her mixed Cajun-Southern draw, she truly was a picture of both of them. Not to mention that each of them looked so much like their parents it was almost as if they were with him again, and everything was normal.

Their powers even reminded him of them in some ways. Tyler's great psychic powers were not surprising, and Hannah's fire power could be attributed to her Father's "hot knives". Professor Xavier was almost certain that Amit's electric powers were directly decended from Ororo, and Mike's "fire works" definitely came from Jubilee. Alyce's super strength and Sabine's powers came seemingly out of nowhere, which was fairly common studies showed.

It was hard for him sending these teams that were so young out on missions such as these, but it was hardest to send the Neo-X-Men out to battle. He felt as if he had Jean, Scott, Remy, Rogue, Logan, Ororo, Warren, Betsy, Jubilee, Bobbie, Peter, and Kitty all back again, and then was sending them off to die, and leave him again. All these kids had lost his parents, but he had lost his children. His adoptive children. His X-Men.

***

Mike read his comic books, sighing slightly as he flipped through the pages restlessly. Not another mission! It wasn't easy being the youngest of the Neo-X-Men. No one expected him to live up to anything, or do much of importance. He was just...the prankster. That's all he felt like. Not that he didn't mind being known for his sense of humor, but he was sick of trying to prove himself to the rest. Sick of being lil' Mike.

Being little meant a lot of things. It meant that he knew his parents for the least amount of time...he had left when he was six. Didn't even remember how he got here. It also meant he wasn't as strong as the others, nor even had tiny glimpses of life before the Mutant Tracking Act. He had been two when it passed (young enough for his parents to know that it was best to hide him. The feds didn't even know he existed), and then three years after that, the hunters had come. No childhood. Many of the team was surprised that one who had to grow up so fast was able to laugh and joke like Mike. But Mike had a good reason for it. None of the other, older boys on the team cried. They didn't need to. Tyler could hide behind his leadership and responsibility. Amit hid behind his toughness, and strength. Mike, however, was too little to be very strong or intimidating, and he was no leader. So he hid behind his laughs. That was how he took the pain away. It was a little like drugs, except it didn't hurt him...except when his jokes got a little too out of hand. That was why he was a prankster. The jokes made him laugh. The laughter took away his emptiness.

Alyce crept up behind him. The fourteen-year-old had always watched over him like a little brother.

"Who knows, this mission could be fun!" she was trying to be optimistic.

"Sure."

"Think of it this way, we can watch Sabs and Tyler blow up at each other the entire time!"

Mike giggled, shutting his comic book, and then moved closer to Alyce as she scooted next to him.

" 'Lycee, do you remember your parents?"

"Very little. My parents actually were some of the first to disappear. I was on the streets for a while before I came here."

"What doya remember?"

"Well, dad was an angel, and mom had violet hair. They were quite a pair."

"That's why you dye your hair purple a lot?"

"Well yeah...thought everyone knew that..."

"Geez! No one tells me anything 'round here anymore!"
Alyce hugged him. "That's because you're our little brother. Now ya better rest a bit. We've got yet another mission on our hands tomorrow. Bet ya anything that Amit's gonna drive Tyler nuts before five minutes is up!"

Mike giggled, "That is, if I don't get to him first!"

"Right. Night Mike."

"Night 'Lycee!"

She shut the door and turned out the light, decided to go on a moonlit walk to clear her head. Perhaps of all the Neo-X-Men, she was the best at hiding her fear and sorrow over the loss of her parents. Never-flinching, cool, and collected Alyce managed to keep a straight face through the tears. Somehow, by some blessed gift, she could keep it all in, unlike Sabine who didn't seem to have that talent.

Sure, the memories haunted her: her mom clinging to her dad like a lost soul clings to her guardian angel, crying, and then scooping up Alyce, then eight, and putting her in the automatic transport. As it left, she had looked out the window at her parents. Then, a dark cloud appeared. Through the dark cloud, the men dressed in black came, through the bleak smoke. Then there were the weapons, metal gleaming in the sun. Papa angel had scooped mom up in his arms and tried to fly away, but hadn't gotten very far when the men shot a net out of the bands they wore on their arms.

Young Alyce had buried her head in her hands, not wanting to look. The automatic transport had taken her out of the city, but then had run out of gas. That's when Alyce was really alone. Her dad had been her "Shugotenshi" which was Japanese for guardian angel. Often times, when she was little, she had walked around the house calling him "tenshi (angel)" instead of "dad". And she had worshiped her mother in ways that could not be described. Perhaps that's why when she got into her dorm that night, after pondering those thoughts, Alyce, the fourteen-year-old sixth child to return, went straight to her bathroom and took out a bottle of violet hair dye....