[Disclaimer: I don't own X-men Evolution. I do own Paul/Surge]

It was a full three days before the either Scott, Kurt, or Evan saw Surge again, but

on that lazy Saturday afternoon, when most of the Institute's students were out enjoying

themselves, a single teenager showed up at the gates, Surge. Surge had exchanged his all-

black attire from the football game in favor of khaki shorts, a red sleeveless shirt, and

sneakers. He wore no chain this time, but still wore the sunglasses. The electric blue

lenses flashed in the sunlight from beneath his jet-black bangs. Surge stood at the gate for

a full three minutes after ringing the bell, leaning against a glossy black motorcycle with

his large military surplus-issue duffel bag at his feet. He glanced up at the camera above

the gate, which finally rotated to look at him. "Someone will be with you in a second."

Came a pleasant woman's voice from the small speaker that sat beneath the camera, and

in a flash of light and puff of smoke, Kurt was sitting casually atop the wall, startling

Surge to the point he nearly fell backwards over his bike with a cry of, "Holy Crap!"

"Oh, sorry about zat. My bad." Kurt said apologetically as he hopped off the wall, at the

same time the gates swung open. "Vow. Nice bike, what kind is it?" Kurt asked as he ran

his hands lightly over the bikes surface in a mix of awe and appreciation. "Custom-built

Yamaha YZF R-1. I call it Saber." Surge replied with a tinge of pride in his voice. Kurt

was busy looking at the helmet, jet-black like the motorcycle, but it had an electric blue

flame design on it. "Very nice." Was all Kurt could say. "So. are we gonna stand out

here all day or are we gonna go inside?" "Of course, let me take your bag. Just drive up

to ze front steps." Kurt said, before grabbing Surge's bag and disappearing in a puff of

smoke. Surge looked around, shrugged, then he donned his helmet and mounted his bike,

riding up to the front steps. Xavier and Ororo were waiting for him there. He dismounted,

removing his helmet and carrying it under his arm. "Greetings, you must be Paul." Xavier

said, holding out his hand. This caused Surge, or Paul, which was his real name, to falter

as he walked over, but he seemed to recover gracefully. "How did you know my real

name?" Paul asked. "A simple tap into your mind. My name is Professor Charles Xavier,

this is my fellow professor, Miss Ororo." Xavier introduced, and Paul shook hands with

both of them. At that point, Kurt zapped back downstairs, appearing behind Ororo and

Xavier. "His things are in his room, Professor." Kurt said. "Thank you Kurt. How about

you show Paul around the Institute this afternoon?" Xavier asked. "Of course." Kurt said,

with a mix of cheer and gloom in his voice. "Follow me." Kurt teleported in short hops

along the edge of the Institute until they reached the garage. "Wow, for a school you guys

have some VERY nice wheels." Paul said, admiring the variety of vehicles in the garage.

"Yeah, I guess." Kurt said. "What's wrong dude, ever since the Professor asked you to

show me around, you seem kind of down." Paul asked. "Vell. its just that I got this new

game I wanted to try out, but its ok, I can play it later." Kurt said. "Why later? How about

right now?" Paul said with a smile. "Ok, grab my shoulder. I can get us there faster if we

teleport." Kurt said. As Paul hesitantly laid his hand on Kurt's shoulder. "So how does it

work? Do you click your heels together or something like th-" At that point, they

disappeared and reappeared in the Institute's TV/Video Game room. "Have you ever

played, Soulcaliber 2?" Kurt asked. "I played, and ruled, at the first one." Paul replied,

flopping onto the couch. "Ah, a challenge." Kurt said, handing him a controller. Paul

chose to play as Nightmare, while Kurt chose Link. Three hours and nearly a hundred

battles later, they both sat back with a sigh. The record stood as such: Paul won 50, Kurt

won 50. They looked hard at each other, before saying simultaneously,

"TIEBREAKER!" at that point, a few other Institute students, namely Scott and Evan,

walked in. The battle raged on, first Paul winning a round then Kurt winning one. It was

the final battle, and both warriors were down to only a sliver of health apiece when

Bobby ran in out of breath. "Red alert. she. got it?" He gasped out. "Huh? Who got

what? Spit it out dude!" Evan said. "Its Kitty, she got the DDR pads!" Bobby said.

Instantly they all froze, remembering the horrors of Kitty's last 'game night'. They had

all been challenged to, and lost at, a karaoke contest. "What's the big deal? So its DDR,

it's a fun game." Paul said. "No man, you don't get it. Kitty is UNBEATABLE at DDR,

and this is her opportunity to get us back for all the times we kicked her butt at those

first-person shooters." Evan cried. "She's coming down the hall now, we gotta hide!"

Bobby yelled. Instantly, Scott, Paul, Evan, and Bobby grabbed Kurt and all five of them

teleported away moments before Kitty walked into the room. "Huh, I could have sworn I

heard the guys talking in here." She said, confused.

* * *

The five of them ended up hiding in Paul's room, due to the fact nobody else

knew he was there yet. "So, Paul. What's your power man?" Bobby said as they lounged

around on the floor. "Electricity." Kurt replied. "Eh, its not truly electricity, its more like

plasma." Paul replied. "So, whose in for poker?" Paul asked as he removed a deck of

cards from his bag. They all instantly agreed, and sat around in a circle. A surge of

plasma emitted from Paul's hand, enveloping the cards and with tiny tweaks of his

fingers, the plasma-charged cards started to shuffle themselves before dealing five cards

to each player, at which point they became normal again. "Cool trick." Evan said. "That's

nothing. Once I went into a hardware store and lit up all the light bulbs." Paul said with a

smirk, causing everyone to laugh and pick up their cards.

* * *

After several games, Paul glanced at the clock. "So, how long until we can be free

again?" He asked. "Well, Kitty won't stop until somebody beats her, which is near

impossible because she's like, amazing at dancing." Evan replied. "You never know, she

might have tripped and lost." Paul said with a shrug. "Yeah, Paul's right, lets check it

out." Scott said. Kurt teleported them to the hallway outside the TV room, and they all

peered into the room. Several people were in there, watching the current match of Jean

against Amara, yet Kitty was nowhere to be seen. The reason for that was apparent when

she phased through the wall behind them and yelled, "GOTCHA!" They all jumped at

least six inches in the air when she yelled and then fell down. "Ok Scott, you guys have

tried hiding long enough. Its time to do battle." Kitty said. "Fine. Team battle, five on

five, girls against guys." Scott said. "Agreed." Kitty replied with a smirk. The guys team,

unsurprisingly, consisted of Scott, Kurt, Evan, Bobby, and Paul. The girl's team was

Amara, Kitty, Jean, Tabitha, and somehow Rogue. Scott, predictably, lost to Jean by a

wide margin, as Bobby lost to Amara. Then Evan and Kurt pulled out a narrow victory

over Tabitha and Rogue, despite the fact Tabitha tried to throw Kurt off balance with

several energy balls, but Paul used his plasma energy to throw them out the window.

Now, with the score standing at 2 to 2, Paul was up. His opponent, Kitty. "Oh great,

we're dead." Several guys moaned. "I just have two requests." Paul said. "Name them."

Kitty replied with a slight smirk, thinking he'd attempt to get a handicap. "No cheating to

try and win, and no crying when you lose." Paul said, grinning slightly. Instantly several

of the guys yelled, "BURN!" inciting a shouting match between the two teams, which

was laid silent when the music started. Kitty's feet moved around effortlessly, touching

each arrow at the perfect time. She glanced over at Paul, believing him to be clumsily

stumbling along. That was not the case, however, for Paul was going through each step

fluidly and without flaw. Slightly unnerved, Kitty performed a complicated foot-switch

as she continued, then glanced over to see Paul match it perfectly. Not to be out done,

Paul did a single break-dance helicopter move, but when he came up, he spun and slid

slightly to the right in order to hit the arrow. Kitty attempted to copy it, but when she

came out of the move she was off balance and stumbled, falling off the pad. The song

finished moments later, but the guys' cheering drowned it out. Paul hopped off his pad

and walked over to the fallen Kitty. She looked up at him as he squatted next to her and

held out his hand to pull her up. "Great game." He said. "You too." She replied, smiling.

Then a chime sounded, "Dinner!" Kurt yelled, and instantly every guy made a teleport

chain by grabbing onto Kurt and they all teleported into the dining room. "Mm. pasta."

Kurt declared as they dug in. After dinner, the guys literally 'took over' the game room as

they hung out, playing video games and pool until Logan came in at past midnight, and

with a single word they all went to bed, except for Paul. "So, you're the new guy?"

Logan asked. "Yeah, that's me." Came Paul's slightly hesitant reply. "I saw your bike in

the garage. The Yamaha YZF R-1, pretty fast. How'd you come by it?" Logan said,

leaning against the pool table. Paul reached out with his plasma energy, racking the balls

into place and setting up the cue ball. He bent over, lining up his shot. "I used to work at

a salvage yard. One day, while on my break, I found a beat-up Yamaha in one of the piles

waiting to be processed. So I pulled it out and stowed it at the place I was staying, then I

gradually built it up until it was better than new." Paul said, firing his shot. "Not a bad

rebuild job. I couldn't even tell it was a rebuild until I saw some of the nicks on the

engine block." Logan said, taking his own shot. "Yeah, that was when the salvage yard

owner tried to lay claim to it. I wouldn't let him have it, so he tried to ride away on it. He

had no clue how to handle a bike like that, he almost immediately over- accelerated and

fell over." Paul replied, frowning. "Tough break kid." Logan said. The rest of their

conversation revolved mostly around motorcycles as the game went on, until Paul lost the

game by hitting the 8-ball into a different pocket than when he called it before going to

bed.

[To be continued]