New Arrivals Beijing

Mutant Forger and Gaia waded through the masses of Chinese men and women assembled in the marketplace. The two aforementioned mutants were here to find one of these people in particular. He was an ex-Triad assassin on the run. His name was Red Lotus, he was 22, and he was a mutant.

"Wouldn't it just be easier if you parted these people like the Red Sea or something?" Gaia asked referring to Mutant Forger's powerful telekinesis that came from the 100 telekinetics he had created during a dire situation in his home dimension.

Mutant Forger gave Gaia a stern look and replied, "That is not my way Gaia."

"And why the heck not? I mean if these powers are gifts why the heck can we only use them in major situations? Why can't we use them just like people use their sight or their hearing? Isn't it the same thing?" Gaia prodded.

"Yes it is, but we first must gain man's trust. Just using our powers carelessly will only lead to mistrust and hatred. Two things which already exist on this world in spades," Mutant Forger answered as he spotted the mutant they were looking for in the crowd. With his telekinesis he reached out and held the boy's feet.

"Well then-"

"Not now Gaia! Not now! We've found our target!" Mutant Forger said pointing to where Red Lotus was. Gaia nodded and began to weave her way through the crowd as quickly as possible. She was using her reality altering abilities to make her slightly intangible so moving through the gathered people wouldn't be quite as hard. She wasn't able to make her entire body intangible, but only certain parts of her body. Though with more training she'd get the hang of it.

Finally reaching her target an exhausted Gaia put her hands on her knees and sighed. With an exasperated tone she extended her hand and said, "I'm Gaia. I hear you're a mutant. Oh by the way nice to meet you."

"Who sent you? Why can't I move my feet? Who are you?" Red Lotus asked trying his hardest not to panic. The last thing he wanted to do was to draw attention to himself.

"We came on our. You can't move your feet because of me. I'm Mutant Forger and the lovely lady is Gaia. We're the Exiles and we're here to make you an offer I'm sure you won't refuse," Mutant Forger said as he walked up to Red Lotus.

"Try me," Red Lotus said snidely.

"Let's put it this way. We can make the Triads leave you alone…permanently," Mutant Forger offered knowing he had caught the boy's interest.

Red Lotus laughed, "And I'm suppose to believe that because?"

"Because we're the guys who put the Tans out of commission," Gaia exclaimed jumping up on her feet. Her statement made Red Lotus's eyes go wide and his shoulders perked up. He looked like he was ready for a fight.

Mutant Forger put a hand on Red Lotus's shoulder to calm him down, "As I've said before we're not here to fight you. Only to help you. Will you give us that chance?"

Red Lotus breathed deeply as he thought over his options. Finally he let his shoulders slump and said, "If you guys could defeat the Tans the way you did then just maybe you can get the Triads off my back."

Norfolk, Virginia

"So where's this Hope girl at?" Legolas asked as he looked out into the many people crowded on the beach. He saw plenty of girls that caught his eye, but after his drinking binge not too long ago he wasn't too keen on having relations with a female. The last one he had been with he had used. He wanted to make up for that so bad that it hurt. It was like a fire inside of him consuming everything in its path. He had to extinguish that fire before it burnt him too bad.

Star Prophet pulled out what looked to be something in the shape of a compass from her pocket, but the object was square and had a bunch of red dots all over the glass surface. Looking at Derrick she said, "The Astra part of me had a mutant ability exactly like Forge's though his is on a higher level than Astra's or should I say mines. Either way though I'm still pretty dang good when it comes to machines and building stuff so let's just say we're going to find Hope."

"Well, I would hope so. And please ignore the pun. Too corny even for my tastes," Legolas grinned. Star Prophet returned his expression with a stare of cold seriousness. Derrick sighed to himself. If this had been just Fontanelle she would probably be cracking even cornier jokes than he was at the moment. Now though something was mixed up with Fontanelle and she even had a new body to boot. Quite the sexy body, but he could never quite look at her that way. After all she was still Fontanelle in a way.

The object in Star Prophet's hand began to bleep and each one of the red dots began to vanish one by one until only one was left. Star Prophet pointed straight ahead and said, "She's over there! Only a few hundred feet away. Don't bum rush her, but don't let her get away either."

"Yeah I got it covered. Hold up I sense something coming from her. She's frightened of something. I think her powers are about to flare out of control. We gotta move in quick!" Legolas said as he leaped up into the air over hundreds of people. He didn't care who saw him, because if he didn't get to Hope in time all these people would be techno-organic statues.

"Murphy is alive and well," Star Prophet sighed as she took off in a run trying her best to keep up with the fast moving Legolas.

Exiles Base

"So Exodus is out on another date with Crystal huh?" Vyper asked as he dodged out of the way of a spinning blade. Above him watching the training exercise was the mutant teacher known as Ever.

"Yea he did, but I think you should be worrying about those blades flying at you. They don't look too pretty," Ever warned as he upped the training level a bit. Vyper was doing too well on the present level of training.

Noticing the visible change in the training program Vyper exclaimed, "Hey man take it easy! All I did was ask if he went on a freakin date!"

Norfolk, Virginia

Legolas saw Hope and she was only a few feet away from him. Her hair was a light purple color that matched her two-piece bathing suit perfectly. She was holding her hands to her temples and was in a knelt position. The girl's eyes were scrunched up and she was trembling. Derrick saw only one way to stop her powers from lashing out like they were about to.

When he was only a few feet away from Hope he leaped up and in mid-air kicked his feet out knocking Hope back a couple of yards into the sand. She was unconscious and Derrick would just have to pray that her powers didn't work in her sleep.

"What the hell was that?" Star Prophet asked as she finally caught up to a much faster Legolas.

Derrick glared at Star Prophet, "I did what I had to do. Her powers would have flared out of control."

"And man I'm just sooooo sure she's going to want to join the Exiles now," Star Prophet complained.

"Could you just cut the bull? I did what I had to do. I rather lose a potential student than a bunch of innocent lives. Wouldn't you? Or maybe Astra is more dominant up there than we thought," Legolas sneered.

Star Prophet's face turned red and she spun around landing a roundhouse right in Legolas's jaw. Her student went falling into the sand and she was on top of him before he even had to time to flinch. Star Prophet pushed her hair out of her face, leaned in close to Derrick and said, "Let's get one thing straight here. I won't have you doubting me anymore. I'm not Astra and I'm not Fontanelle. I'm Star Prophet. Remember this and I might not kick you in the balls next time."

"Fuck you," Legolas spat in the woman's face.

"Well, I just hope you aren't any influence on the next six students we pick up," Star Prophet mocked as she wiped away Derrick's spit from her cheek.

Two Weeks Later

Ever walked up to the wheeled seat and sat down in it. He hated doing this, but every time new students came on it was his job to put them in the computer database. Maybe he can pass this job off to Colossus. The Morlock always remembered Colossus being kind enough to take a load off somebody else's back.

Red Lotus

Real Name: Zao Zhung

Age: 22

Powers: Unable to be defeated in hand to hand combat, super strength (Thing level), and blood that is like acid.

Location Recruited: Beijing, China

Hope

Real Name: Hope Middleshine

Age: 20

Powers: Able to create techno-organic constructs and infect objects with the techno-organic virus. She maintains control over all things she creates and infects.

Location Recruited: Norfolk, Virginia

Downtime

Real Name: Sarah Pollard

Age: 21

Powers: Capable of slowing time down around her.

Location Recruited: Honolulu, Hawaii

Amun

Real Name: Josh Kenney

Age: 18

Powers: Able to absorb the DNA of anything he touches and become that thing for a period of two hours.

Location Recruited: Albany, NY

Phaser

Real Name: Tony Crosby

Age: 19

Powers: Capable of turning anything he touches into its solid, liquid, or gas form.

Location Recruited: Denmark

Crywhip

Real Name: Thomas Franzoni

Age: 17

Powers: Can create whips composed of 'emotional energy'

Location Recruited: Atlanta, Georgia

Rubber

Real Name: Jason Shirely

Age: 18

Powers: Can turn his body into organic rubber

Location Recruited: Dayton, Ohio

Impervious

Real Name: Adnan Ingram

Age: 23

Powers: doesn't need to eat, sleep, or get rid of waste. He can survive in temperatures near absolute zero and as high as 45,000 degrees Celsius. The boy is immune to any type of psionic attacks as well as mystical ones. He is also an External like Legolas.

Location Recruited: Tajikistan

Over Mars

"The time to strike is now my brothers and sisters! This Earth will fall to us as has so many others," Ramses Xavier yelled to the army before him on this massive space station he called home. Next to him was his generals; New Son, Jadianna, Ptah, and Seti. They were just as anxious for the battle ahead as he was.

And he could feel the same thrill of excitement from his warriors by the sound of their war cry. His army included mutants, Neo, and Inhumans so it was quite diverse, but one thing united all of them as one cohesive force. They loved to kill and conquer.