Ororo pinched her nose, waving away the powerful smell that she did not care to identify.  The same smell that permeated every single tunnel in the sewers of Bayville.  Not for the first time, she wondered why on earth Evan and the Morlocks chose to live down here.

Because they can't live above, a voice in the back of her head told her.  They can't hide who they are, like you can.  Or even Kurt, the voice argued before she could object.  Hank proved that holowatches aren't for everyone.  And not a day went by that Kitty had asked Kurt if he really wanted to consider taking it off today, and walking to school as he really was.  And every day, Ororo had noticed, it was getting harder for Kurt to say no.

Grimacing, Ororo shook her head, clearing her thoughts and focused on her mission.  To find her nephew and the Morlocks.

Unfortunately the Morlocks were very difficult to find, as they moved through the sewers as easily as her old fellow tribesmen had through the wilds of Africa.  Thus they could be as quiet and invisible as ghosts, if they wished.  Hopefully they'd find her before she found them.

"What business brings you here?" came a cold, dead monotone voice from behind her, and Ororo froze.  Slowly she turned around, to see there stood one of the Morlocks.  The pale, bald man she'd seen before, though she could not place his name.

"I... I've come here to find Evan," she said.  "There is a sickness on the surface, we thought it best to warn..."

"Follow..." he slurred, beckoning her to follow as he turned and walked down the tunnel he'd just come from.

Ororo gently coaxed the winds to lift herself up, so she wouldn't touch her feet in the filth of this particular passageway, and floated after the strange Morlock, praying to the Goddess that everything was alright.

                                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the medical bay of the Institute, things were growing worse with each passing moment.  Green lesions were forming on yet more of the students who were quickly joining those below in the level two ward.  Body heat was rising as well for those getting gradually worse, and Bobby Drake was working full time in the lower ward to keep things cool and comfortable.  Though now, like most of the students, he'd gone off to get some much needed rest from a full day of working.  Even Roberto, with all the endless energy he sometimes had and his desire to use it, had decided even today had been enough for him and had fallen asleep as soon as the sun set beneath the horizon.

Now only Hank McCoy was awake, in the med lab, busy trying to unravel the mystery of the unknown virus.  For lack of a better term, he was using the name that had been going around the upper medical ward amongst the very cranky and sick teenagers.  Rogue had been the one who coined it, he believed.

The 'anti-mutant' virus.

A sudden ding drew Hank's attention, once more drawing him away from his work as he glanced over at the monitor of a nearby system.  Oh yes, he'd set that up to alert him when they'd arrived.  Hank turned his chair and pushed it off, sending himself across the floor.  Had he not been so seriously involving in his work, he might've enjoyed it.  He did know how to have fun, after all.  He wasn't quite the dry sarcastic teacher type that some of the students (especially Bobby) pegged him as.

Turning to activate the monitor, Hank saw, as he'd suspected, that a small charter plane had just passed over the night-lit coastline and was angling towards the Institute.  Gently he tapped in the appropriate keys, 'causing the hangar doors to open, so the small plane could gracefully glide in to land alongside its larger counterpart, the Blackbird.

"Ah, they've arrived," he said, mostly speaking to himself.  Professor Xavier had retired to bed earlier for a nap, with implicit instructions to be awakened when their guests arrived.  It seemed the time had come.  Adjusting his glasses and rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he stood up and knuckled his way out of the medical lab, putting his experiments on hold.  Once outside and safe from the hazardous materials and glass contained therein, he stretched out his great limbs and yawned, though a casual observer would've thought perhaps he was roaring.

                                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The elevators came to a halt with a cheery 'ding' sound as Beast and Professor X stepped out, knuckling or rolling their way over towards their guests.  They had just emerged from their charter plane, though Xavier could clearly hear some good-natured cursing in Scottish about how slow it was compared to modern airplanes.

Some things never change, he thought.

"Moira," he said by way of greeting, as the illustrious Dr. MacTaggert came into view.  A renowned scientist in the field of genetics, she was also one of the foremost scientists in the recent field of mutants, though she'd quickly dominated it with her prior knowledge and friendship with several mutants.  Rahne was her foster daughter, since the poor wolf-girl was an orphan.  And she and Professor Xavier had been... very close... a long time ago.  And then of course... there was her son.  But no one here had any desire to bring up those particular details right now.

Moira MacTaggert was a middle-aged woman not much older than Professor X (not that anyone at the Institute actually knew his true age) with russet-red hair that fell around her still pretty features.  Her green eyes were bright and piercing and took in everything immediately.  She was dressed much as Beast was.  Professionally in a white lab coat, no knick-nacks, no jewelry.  She was very serious about her work.

Their second guest slid out of the small plane only a few moments behind Dr. MacTaggert.  Dr. Patronete was a rising name among the circles of geneticists.  His assistance from Beast to understand the mutant community had been instrumental in his research and study.  He was, of course, using his knowledge to cure the public's fears that mutants were dangerous, and as such he was a welcome friend at the Institute, though he rarely visited.

"Good to see you're not doing sick, bigfoot," said Patronete, shaking hands warmly with Hank, who chuckled.

"Indeed.  I've been most fortunate," he said, as always ignoring the nickname that Patronete had tagged onto him.  A little reminder of their first meeting, when he and his colleagues had mistaken him for the legendary sasquatch and thrust him up in a convex reverse polarity cage.

"We should get started roight away," said Moira, as always taking charge.  "But... first I'd like to see Rahne".  Professor Xavier nodded his head, and the four of them rode the elevator up to the medical lab.  On route, the Professor told them all he knew, Hank filling in some of the more technical areas that flew over his head.  His expertise lay not in science and math, but in people.

The quarantined ward was their first visit, of course, where most of the sick lay.  Including little Rahne, who lay unconscious like the other students.  Thus far no lesions had formed, but her small form was still wracked with coughs.  And dark bruise marks had formed under her eyes and along her skin, and would soon break out into the characteristic lesions of the disease.

The med lab was quickly taken over by Moira, Patronete, and Hank, who had no end of questions and ideas concerning this virus.  Professor X felt he had done the right thing by calling them here.  Thankfully, he'd been able to ascertain, there had been no outbreaks of the virus on Muir Island, according to Moira.  That, coupled with some phone calls to Alex and Warren, confirmed that there was no outbreaks had been reported in New York City or Florida.  Thus, it seemed it was only in Bayville for the moment.  Hopefully a cure could be found before things got worse.

"Charles?" came a voice, startling him out of his reverie, and he turned to see Moira analyzing Hank's work, trying to catch his attention without turning away from the work.

"Yes?" he asked.

"I know it's a little much to ask, but do you think that you can get us some coffee?  I think jet lag is starting to catch up to me," she said, massaging the back of her neck with her free hand.

"I can handle that," stated Beast, starting to make his way to the door.  Moira grabbed his lab coat gently.

"'fraid not Blue-Boy, I need you here to understand what you've done so far.  Besides," she added with a smile towards Xavier.  "Charlie here knows how I like my coffee best."

"Indeed," replied Professor Xavier, turning his wheelchair and making his way to the kitchen.  It was the last comment he heard however, that made his cheeks flush with embarrassment.

"Charlie?" asked Hank.

                                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ororo had seen much in her life.  She had seen suffering, she had seen death, she had seen mankind's evil in almost every shape and form.  She had lived in a small village without modern medicine, where people had caught the most obscure or simple diseases and died, and her powers as a living Goddess could not save them.  But she'd been hardened by her experience, and tempered, like a fine blade that had passed through fire.  But in the quiet of the night, sometimes, she could still see all those sick people, dying, reaching out, asking her to save them.  And she had been afraid.

Now, it all came rushing back to her.

The still unnamed Morlock led Ororo to an isolated part of the sewers near the edge of Bayville.  It was a wide, older tunnel, completely dry since this part of the city was either in ruins or abandoned.  And there, lying on the ground, were the Morlocks.

And they were very sick.

Morlocks lay on the ground on makeshift and stolen sleeping bags, mattresses, pillows, whatever could be found to keep them comfortable.  Several of their number were moving to bring water from she hoped was a pure source, since sewer water was of course out of the question.  And down in the freezing cold tunnels of the Bayville sewer system, there was no protection from the ravages of winter, and many of the Morlocks were shivering, their skin pale and their teeth chattering.  Spyke was moving among them, setting up some of his trademark flaming spikes and ramming them into the ground nearby to try and keep them warm.

"Evan!" she cried out, rushing over towards him, letting the wind carry her over the prone forms of the sick Morlocks.

"Auntie O?!  What're you doing here?" he asked, as they gave each other a brief, tender hug.  It had been almost three months since they'd last seen one another, after all.  But the situation was serious and they broke their hug almost immediately.

"I came to help.  We know about the sickness..."

"It spread to the Institute?" he asked, crouching down next to a sickly woman with purple bangs and lesions already forming on her skin.

"Most of us are sick already," she replied.

"Is... is there a cure?  You guys found a cure right?  I mean, Beast is smart he must've found something by now," he said, glancing up at her.  But his hopes died when he saw her face.  Saw the little sigh that escaped her, saw the little shake of her head.

"Spyke!  I have the medicines!" shouted Lucid, appearing down one of the sewage drains.  He held in his shirt a whole smattering of pills and ointments purloined from a nearby drugstore.  He rushed over towards Spyke, but tripped and was sent sprawling, and all manner of plastic bottles and packages were scattered everywhere.

"Careful Lucid!" shouted Spyke, grabbing one such bottle before it rolled off down a sewer drain.  "We're going to need these!"

"I'm sorry," he said, subdued.  He immediately began to gather up what he'd dropped, then placed them in a small pile next to Spyke.

"Yeah, so am I," replied Evan sincerely.  "Just... you know how things have been.  Stress is getting to me."

"Evan," said Ororo.  "We need to get the sick to the Institute.  We can find a cure there, but we have to keep this contagion from spreading any further.  Where's Callisto?"

"Unavailable," replied Evan.  "I'm their leader for the moment.  I can give the order, but they won't like it."

"But you know the medical facilities the Institute has.  Better chance for them there," she argued.

"I know," he said, sighing.  He straightened up, reaching over to a nearby wall and picking up the iron staff that had been resting their earlier.  He lifted it up and brought it down with a loud iron 'clang' that reverberated throughout the tunnel.  All Morlocks instantly turned their attention to Spyke.  "Listen up!  We're moving the sick to the Xavier Institute to get them better medical care.  I know how you all feel about the surface dwellers, but these are fellow mutants.  I swear to you all you will be cared for.  And we have a better chance of beating this disease up there than down here.  Anyone able bodied, grab those who cannot walk and start heading down the east tunnel.  Calliban," he said, turning to the pale, monotone Morlock who'd first led Ororo here.  "You lead them.  You know the way.  Follow the signal of Berzerker if you get lost."

"Understood," replied Calliban dully.

And so the Morlocks prepared to head to the surface, to accept the aid of surface dwellers.  Had Callisto still been in charge, such a thing might never have happened, for the Morlocks were a proud, strong and independent people.  Her second in command was too soft, some whispered.  Though these had been the few who had not seen how he'd fought for them, against the prejudice of surface-dwellers.

"Auntie O, I need a hand," said Evan, beckoning the Windrider to follow him as he made his way further down the line of sick.  "Can you grab Torpid?  She's light, you can probably carry her on your own."

Ororo nodded, bending down and tenderly lifting up the little girl with brown hair Evan had called Torpid.  Ororo recognized her immediately, her big hands and gloves were very distinct.  She'd been at the alley fight against Duncan and the other mutant-haters.  Ororo had only caught a glimpse of Torpid's powers, so she carefully avoided making contact with her covered skin, much as she would for Rogue.  She was so terribly light in her hands.  Like all the fat and muscle had wasted away from her body, leaving only skin and bones.  Skin covered in green lesions... marks of the virus.  Evan made his way besides Ororo, carrying in his arms another one of the plague victims.

Callisto herself.

Author's Notes:

And my favorite underdog mutants, the Morlocks, finally make their appearance.  For the record, the healthy Morlocks are: Spyke, Lucid and Calliban.  All others are sick.  And yes, there's your Evolized Moira MacTaggert.  And Dr. Patronete as well.  You remember him, right?  The nice guy scientist from 'Retreat'?  Well, he did say he wanted to learn more about mutants.  More to come soon.

Todd fan: Living in Middleverse really messed the poor fool up.  Ah well.  Glad you liked the Sabertooth scenes.  He's got plenty more coming up so fret yet not.

Son of Logan and Ororo: From what I hear, he got infected and that lasted a really long time, but he died saving Senator Kelly from some attack or other.  In the comics, that's where Kelly turned around and started accepting mutants as people.  The only people I know for sure who died of the Legacy virus are Colossus and Moira.

Rogue14: Stop that!  I hate short reviews like that that just say write more!  Tell me what you like/hate!!  So I can make more meaningful author replies!

Comet-hime: Blame the mind!  My mind is scattered, and since I already know my plot I'm mixing up the timeline!  Sometimes I think I write something before I actually write it!  I'm insane!  AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!  Glad you like kick-ass X23.  More of her to come.

Snitter in Rivendell: I don't mean to brag (okay maybe a little) but you give me any character other than Jean, Havok, or Gambit... and I can make you like them.  Its all in delivery.  I can do the same with a fight scene.  Just give me two characters and the winner, and I'll write it out.  I like writing fights.  They're so much fun.

Elrohirthewriter: Also must've been before Moira met the politican husband fellow, who reminds me of Graydon Creed from what I saw in TAS.  Well thanks for the info, it clears up a few things.  I'll try and keep Moira as IC as possible, considering she's new to Evo.

Gambit316: Beyond Evolution is up, running, and open for business.  Denaill is even working with me to update the character profiles with some new (slightly less important) information.  Glad you like the story as it's going.

JustanObsessedFan: Oh don't worry, your precious Toddykins will be fine.  Or not.  Maybe I'll flip a coin, heads he lives, tails he dies.  Muwahahahahaha!  Glad you like the frequent updates.  I hope it compensates for my grammar/spelling errors and lack of meaningful content.

Optic Red: It is a good website, isn't it?  More power to Denaill and the other brilliant staff (minus myself) for creating the beauty that is Beyond Evo.  And actually I based that scene with Scott on a fan art I saw a while back, him crying crimson tears.  I wish I could find it again.

The Rogue Witch: Well sorry you didn't like X23's line but it seemed appropriate to me... at the time at least.  Ah well, my mistake if she was just a smidgen OOC.  And yeah I'm glad you recognized my efforts to make the three Weapon Xee's into reluctant comrades.  I think I remember who Cecilia is now.  She sounds kinda like someone I saw on this Spider-Man/X-Men TAS crossover episode.

Gambi316: Wow, is that all?  Well then, hmmm.  Jean'll die soon enough.  But I have plans for the redheaded bitch.  I can't just up and have lightning strike her.  As for Gambit, Pyro, and Magneto, they'll be showing up soon enough.  Next chapter, promise.  And glad you are enjoying the witty banter and camaraderie among the Weapon Xee's.