[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]
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]
