As the weeks passed, the group began to become closer and closer in their friendships. Danielle was put in the same room with Mary, Sam, and Caileen. She was also given the code name of Firestar. Daemon was put with Lucas and Steve and given the code name of Demon. The seven of them had class together, ate together, and spent much of their free time together. After a few weeks of training, Steve had gained enough control over his powers to show his face in public, literally. They became more and more of a team. It was found out that Daemon's mutant powers were metamorphic in nature. He had changed into the demon form when he was younger. His scales were fairly dense, providing a natural armor that could at least resist bullets. He possessed the ability to control the fire that he breathed, a form of pyrokenisis. Another odd ability was the fact that Daemon's mind was as armored as his body. Not even Professor Xavier could enter Daemon's mind. It was too well blocked. Danielle could also control the fire that she created from her hands. Her mind was also well blocked. This made it very difficult to find them when they wandered around the school.
The only other team of young mutants in the school was Generation X, a slightly more advanced class that even went on missions from time to time. Mary noticed that they were given harder simulations in the Danger Room, a holographic training area where any situation could be simulated with complete believability. Mary didn't understand how the thing worked. All she knew was that it was built from alien technology. She guessed that the technology had been a gift or something from Professor Xavier's love, Queen Lilandra, the queen of the Shi'ar Empire.
She constantly asked Professor Summers if they could train like the other team, but he constantly answered that they weren't ready for that yet. He reminded her that Generation X had been at the school for several years now and were quite advanced in their training. Mary couldn't help but feel that her and her team were being coddled. She thought that it might have something to do with the fact that her team had been named the New Mutants. There had been a previous team of New Mutants years ago. They had had a lack of training before going into dangerous situations. One of those situations resulted in the death of a member of the team, Douglas Ramsey. Mary wondered if maybe the professors were worried that they might fall under the same fate unless they were trained to the max before they ever saw combat.
Six weeks after the events in the Morlock tunnels, Mary was sitting under a tree in the lawn on a Saturday reading a copy of Plato's Republic for her philosophy class. Scott walked up and sat down next to her.
"You know, I never could get all that philosophy stuff. Jean even tried one time to telepathically put it into my head, but I guess that I'm just too stubborn."
"I wouldn't feel too bad about it" Mary said. "I barely get the basics of it."
Scott nodded and then continued. "Mary, you've lately been complaining that we don't treat your team like we treat Generation X. You've wanted to go on missions and such. How does the rest of your team feel about it?"
This line of questioning surprised Mary. She thought for a moment before answering. "We've talked about several times. As far as I can tell, they want to go just as bad as I do."
Scott nodded again. "Well then, you should gather your team and have them suit up and meet us in the Briefing Room downstairs. We've got a mission that we feel you would do well in." Finishing his sentence, Scott stood up and walked back to the mansion. Mary jumped to her feet so fast she accidentally smacked her head into a tree branch. Rubbing the spot where her head had hit, she ran as fast as she could back to the mansion to tell her friends the good news.
A few minutes later, the New Mutants were sitting in the Briefing Room three floors beneath the school. They all wore the black uniforms with matching masks. Danielle had been given a uniform to match everyone else's. Daemon's had no mask or gloves or boots, as he did not need to hide his identity and his claws had torn through the material. It also had two slots in the back for his wings.
As they waited anxiously to see their first mission, Scott walked into the room followed by Professor Xavier, Jean, Logan, and Hank. Scott stood up in front of the group.
"Welcome to your first mission briefing. Don't get your hopes up that this will be some action packed thrill ride. This is a very low key mission with little or no danger at all." The group's muttering was quickly quieted by a stern look from both Scott and Logan. Scott continued. "This is a rescue mission. Six few weeks ago the Sentinels captured a mutant. The reason it took so long for us to find him is that the organization that has him has kept him so drugged up that he has very little conscious brain activity right now. These people are breaking with the Supreme Court decision that all captured mutants get a fair trial before being sentenced or imprisoned. So, if we go in and take the mutant, we doubt very much that they will report us since that would be admittance of their crime. Also, today being a Saturday, we don't expect there to be many people, so this should be uncomplicated.
"The New Mutants are to provide cover, if needed, while Wolverine, Beast, Jean and I enter the facility and get the mutant out of there. Like I said this will be low key. Hopefully we will be able to get in and out within a few minutes and no trouble. Any questions?"
Steve raised his hand. "So, what are we going to be needed for again?"
Scott gave him a contemptuous look. "You're coming along for the experience and to provide any extra muscle that we may need. If you don't feel that you can handle this, you're more than welcome to stay behind." Steve sunk lower into his chair muttering that it was ok. Scott looked around and said, "Good. Then everyone head for the Blackbird."
The Blackbird was the X-Men's private jet. It was a modified SR-71 jet that could accommodate various people when there was a need for a crowd, like today. While the New Mutants had all been in various simulations to learn how to fly it, none had ever actually ridden in the Blackbird. After seeing that everyone was settled and strapped in, Scott launched the Blackbird and set a course for Austin Texas. Using Shi'ar cloaking technology, the Blackbird was undetectable. Within an hour, the ultra fast jet landed at the edge of a clearing.
After everyone disembarked, Scott had the New Mutants set up a perimeter on a hill overlooking a large office complex. With everyone lying on the hill on their bellies, Scott looked at the building and turned to Lucas. "Psycho, can you sense anyone here?"
"Yes," he answered. "There are a few humans all centered in the lounge on the north side of the building. The mutant is there on the south side. It doesn't seem like anyone knows we're here."
Looking at Jean, Scott saw her nod her head. "Good" Scott said. Scott and the others got up and ran for the south side of the building while the New Mutants stayed where they were.
"So, we just stay here, huh?" Lucas asked Mary when the X-Men had gone out of sight.
"Yep."
They watched as the X-Men entered the building and went out of sight. Caileen cocked her head to one side as if she heard something. Looking up to the sky she was suddenly filled with horror. A computerized voice filled the air as it said, "HALT, MUTANTS!"
Inside, the X-Men quickly found the lab where the mutant was being kept. He was restrained on a table with various needles in his arms and a neural inhibitor placed on his shaved head. Jean sighed when she saw it. "This is why we couldn't find him. But, I wonder why we could find him now?"
Hank walked over to the computer and began to deactivate the inhibitor while Jean and Logan pulled the needles out of the mutants' arms. As Hank finished with the computer, the inhibitor fell off. Scott touched his visor and activated a new feature. He took a scan of the mutant and his powers. "That's odd. His mutation isn't all that much, just a level one energy wielder, telekinetic and telepath. He probably couldn't even hear thoughts outside this room."
"Well, it doesn't matter," said Logan as he used his adamantium claws to cut the mutant's restraints off. "I don't like these places, let's get out of here."
As they walked outside, they were horrified by what they saw. The New Mutants were running towards the building with three twenty-foot sentinels standing behind them, blocking the way to the cloaked Blackbird.
Scott called out orders. "New Mutants, make a path to the jet! Now!" Hank grabbed the mutant who had begun to revive and threw him over his shoulder and began to carry him towards the jet. Daemon turned and spread his wings lifting off the ground. As he flew towards a sentinel, he breathed fire right at the chest of the center sentinel. The fire scorched the metal behemoth and caused a few sparks to burst. The sentinel did not stop however. It opened its hand and blasted at Daemon using its palm mounted laser cannon. Daemon avoided the blast but temporarily lost control and tumbled to the ground. Scott opened up his visor and fired a full blast at the already damaged sentinel, but it still did not stop.
As the mutants tried to get around the sentinels to the jet, Hank noticed his passenger waking up.
"No," the mutant groggily said. "Leave me here. It's not safe. I'm not safe."
"What are you talking about?" asked Hank.
The mutant struggled and jumped off Hank's shoulder and fell to the ground. Scott turned to see what the commotion was when his visor picked up an energy build up. He didn't understand why the kid was trying to build up an energy wave; it wouldn't do much good with how little power he had. Then he noticed what his visor was telling him. The mutant wasn't registering as a level one anymore. He was registering as off the charts. He saw raw energy crackling around the mutant's body. He watched in horrid fascination as the mutant's eyes began to glow bright white. As he watched, the mutant's entire body started to glow white-hot. He could almost feel the waves of pure energy coming from the mutant. He knew what was coming. He knew that they only had one chance. They had recently obtained body-sliding technology from Scott's son, Cable. He had hoped the sentinels would never know that they had it, but he had no choice. He touched a control on his communicator and suddenly, everyone was inside the Blackbird. He quickly activated the jet's alien shields.
Logan looked confusedly at Scott. "What's going on? We left that boy behind!"
"We're not leaving him, but I don't think this will be a safe place in a few seconds."
"What are you…?" Logan's sentence was cut off when a bright flash of light filled the jet's windows and a shock wave rocked the area around them. Scott noticed that the shields barely held. After a few seconds, the light faded and everyone left the jet.
Climbing the hill towards the facility, they only found a large crater where the facility was. Everything was gone, the buildings, the people, and even the sentinels. Hovering over the crater was an energy sphere that was reshaping itself into human form. When all the light faded, the group saw that the energy became the mutant they had wanted to save. He floated above the center of the crater for a few minutes and then fell to the ground, unconscious. Not waiting for more sentinels to show up, Jean telekinetically lifted the mutant out of the crater and back into the jet. Everyone strapped in in silence. The silence remained as the group flew home.