Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or any of the characters in the marvel universe. Any characters the reader has not heard of, I probably made up. I make no money from this story, nor is this story being distributed worldwide.

Authors note: I have not picked up a comic book in years; this story was inspired by books, movies and other fan fiction. Any discrepancies with character lineage, events, and timelines I hope you will forgive.

Prologue

New York City, NY

Tuesday, 2124 7:22 pm

Brian turned off the vid-screen and set the remote down on the ornate, antique end table. He hopped down from his small, custom made chair and walked at a brisk pace on all fours toward the office at the end of the hall. Lines of worry creased his middle-aged, yet young face. The cold marble floor felt refreshing on his hands, as well as his feet, which were also hands. His long, flesh colored tail flicked nervously back and forth as his three foot frame nimbly dodged a cleaner-bot and quietly opened the office door.

"It's happening again, mother."

The woman behind the large desk in the penthouse office of Xavier Industries removed the headset comlink she had been speaking into and sighed as she tossed it on the desk.

"It is as I feared, my son." She walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows and gazed out at the evening skyway traffic.

Brian joined his mother at the window and looked upon the city. Vast columns of air cars meandered their way across the twilight in regulated traffic lanes marked by floating beacons. Though these devices had been around for some time, Brian still found the sight relaxing. Almost like watching fish in the ocean, schools floating here and there, eventually making there way to where ever their destination may be.

"We've come so far," his mothers soothing, yet regal voice pulled him gently from his thoughts, "over one hundred years since the world wide truce was made between humans and mutants. One hundred years of relative peace. The world has prospered in the absence of war, and now, out of nowhere, these attacks against humans by an unknown aggressor have just reignited the buried hate between our species."

Moira Xavier looked down at her mutant son, "You know what must be done."

Westchester, NY

One hour later

The luxury aircar floated gently to the ground and its two occupants stepped out into the cool September night. Mother and son stared at the compound with expressions that were almost awe. They had been to this place many times throughout their lives, updating equipment, stocking supplies, generally preparing for an event they had hoped would never come to pass.

Moira slid aside a fake brick in the wall outside the grounds and accessed a keypad that would open the gate and deactivate the state of the art security systems. They walked up the meandering path toward the main building of the once proud Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters. At one time the student body had been big enough that extra dormitories and classrooms had to be built to accommodate them. The one building school had turned into a college style campus. Moira and Brian walked through the charred doorway into the main hall, stepping over debris and broken glass as they made their way to one of the secret elevators. She stopped when she saw three slashes on the side of a doorway leading from the main hall. She cocked her head to one side, using her mutant power of post-cognition, reached out, and touched the past.

Images flooded her mind.

An armored soldier, one of many, made his way through the mansion, firing a high powered automatic weapon indiscriminately at anyone who got in his sights. The large strike force, accompanied by Sentinels was ordered to kill anything living in the compound. The soldier turned quickly upon hearing a whimper behind him, and saw a woman come out of a doorway. She was perhaps late twenties, early thirties, she was limping, and half of her face was burned and blistered. She took off one of her elbow length gloves and weakly reached toward him. The soldier did not hesitate to empty the last eight rounds of his clip into her chest and neck. She stumbled back against the side of the doorway, made a gurgling noise, and slid to the ground. The soldier stepped up to her corpse and used the barrel of his weapon to move the white streak of her hair to cover the burned half of her face. Her eyes were frozen open in a look of terror and pain. The soldier muttered something to himself as he reloaded and shook the woman's blood off of his boot. He peeked into the next room only to have a bloody, hairy man shove his adamantium claws into his head and pin him to the doorway. When the man removed the claws, the soldier was dead before he hit the ground.

The images faded.

Brian saw the tears in his mother's eyes as she came out of her vision. He didn't bother to ask her what she saw. He'd read enough about the attack on the mansion that started the global war between humans and mutants. Anything she would tell him would only fuel his nightmares. They made their way to the back of the decayed, gutted out library and accessed another keypad that would open the elevator leading to the subbasement.

The elevator opened into an immaculately clean and brightly lit hallway. They walked at a steady pace down the hall and into the war room. Moira went over to a computer console as Brian hopped onto a stool in front of another. He turned to her before booting the system from standby.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes," she said confidently, "It's time to reassemble the X-men."