The New Exiles

By The Uncanny R-Man And Agent-G

Shout Outs-

Winblades: Thanks for being honest with the last one, I guess we just needed someone to tell us to get us to try a little more harder. I know it was cliché but it works, and you got to love some of them

Fire inu: Yeah we wanted to change it and make it more interesting.

Ruby631: No we pulled the old one, and starting over but with a few new twists.

celtcath74: Yep he'll still be in this.

Chapter 2: Going Home

The woods behind the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning-

The woods around the Xavier Institute were lit up as a portal appeared in the air. Several figures appeared out of it. Blink, Morph, Sasquatch, the three remaining members of the time-tossed adventures known as the Exiles. Also with them was Barnell Bohusk, aka Beak, and the mysterious figure known only as the Guardian.

"Well here we are everybody." The Guardian said to them all. "This is the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning."

"What, again?" Morph groaned. "We never stop coming to this frickin' place!"

"We've only been here twice before Morph." Sasquatch corrected him.

"Is this really it?" Beak asked hopefully. "I can finally go home?" He looked hopefully at Guardian.

He smiled down at the young teen. "Yes." The Guardian replied. "You are free to go."

"Sweet!" Beak grinned. With no further ado, Beak let out a squawk of happiness and ran down the hill towards the mansion hoping to find his girlfriend and kids, he had missed them so much and wanted to find them as fast as possible.

"Wait a sec!" Morph said as he suddenly realized something. "This is the same reality that we left TJ in, right?" He said, remembering how their old friend and former teammate TJ was left in this reality not long ago.

"Yeah." Sasquatch said. "I think you're right Morph."

"I have some other business to attend to." The Guardian told the others. "Why don't you catch some rest?"

"Great!" Morph grinned. "The Timebroker never let us have any time off!"

After the Guardian had left to attend to whatever business he had to, Sasquatch looked at Blink and noticed her depressed expression.

"Hey Clarice, what's up?" She asked. "It's Cal isn't it?" Clarice nodded her head sadly, tears forming in her eyes.

Sasquatch changed into her human form of Heather Hudson and held Clarice in a hug. 'C'mon girl, let it all out!' Heather said.

Clarice burst into tears and buried her head on Heather's shoulder. Morph looked over at the two women and his heart went out to Blink. Calvin Rankin wasn't Morph's favourite person but he was a friend non-the-less. His decision to leave the tram affected everybody.

"I'll go see if TJ's still about." He said.

Inside-

Talia Josephine Wagner, the daughter of an alternate world's Nightcrawler and Scarlet Witch and the former Exile and now present member of the Uncanny New Mutants known as Nocturne, was walking through the main foyer of the mansion when she heard a knock on the door. She went to answer it and almost jumped out of her skin as she saw who it was.

"How you doin?" Someone that looked suspiciously like Joey from Friends said. TJ didn't believe it for one minute.

"Morph!" She squealed, grabbing her former teammate in a huge hug. "What're you doing here? Where's everybody else?"

Morph switched back to his normal form. "We just came to drop off Beak." He replied.

"But I thought that Beak was supposed to join you guys." TJ said. "Don't tell me the Timebroker changed his mind!"

"Not really." Morph replied. "The Timebroker turned out to be evil and now we're working for another guy that kicked his butt, so far he seems like a nice guy."

"Umm... Okay..." TJ said, kinda confused. "Why don't you come in and meet the others?"

At that moment Clarice and Heather joined Morph outside the door. TJ let out a piercing scream. "EEEEEE!'" She squealed. "You're back!"

"Jeez!" Morph winced. "Warn a guy next time, okay?"

"Warning!" TJ said.

"Huh?"

TJ let rip with another squeal. "EEEEE!" Then she noticed the absence of other teammates. "Uh guys, where's Cal?" She asked.

"H-he left." Clarice sniffed. "H-he's gone back home."

"Oh Clarice, I'm so sorry!" TJ said. "Come on, gimmie a hug!" Clarice leant into TJ's hug.

Later-

Clarice and Heather are in the rec room hanging out with TJ and the other members of the Uncanny New Mutants. Rahne Sinclair, Warlock, Amara Aquilla, Pete Wisdom, Kurt Wagner and Rachel Grey. August, the newest member is presently indisposed as she has private matters to attend to.

"So you guys are a bunch of time-tossed adventurers all from different realities?" Amara asks.

"Yup." Heather replies. "That's us."

"I've heard of a lotta weird stuff." Pete says. "But this takes the bloody biscuit!"

"Just ignore him." Amara says. "He just had a prank pulled on him a few days ago by some students here and a dragon."

"A dragon that can bloody talk!" Pete adds.

"Oh aye." Rahne says in that tone you use when you don't believe someone, while rolling her eyes. "A dragon that can talk."

"He bloody well can!" Pete replies. "Lockheed can talk!"

"Pete, seriously mein freund." Kurt says. "You need to cut back on the vodka just a little bit."

"Oh bollocks to the bloody lot of yer!" Pete mutters crossing his arms and looking like a kid pouting.

"Is he always like this?" Clarice asks. "Grouchy I mean."

"Every damn day." Warlock replies.

Meanwhile-

While Clarice and heather are hanging out with the others, Morph decided to have a go exploring the mansion on his own. This X-Mansion is different from his own as he can see, but then again it seems every version of the mansion gets trashed or destroyed from what he's heard so it stands to reason they might build it differently.

Morph stops beside a statue and look sit up and down. It is a life-size statue of the co-headmistress Emma Frost. Morph cocks a curious eyebrow at the sight of the statue's attire or lack there of.

"Jeez!" He mutters. "This Frosty must've been reeeal popular with a uniform like that! Reverse X-Bra thingie, wow!" Morph turns around and is about to walk away when he sees three identical blonde girls standing in front of him.

"Aw Jeez!" He squeals girlishly, jumping back at the sudden appearance of the girls. "You almost gave me a freakin' heart attack!"

"Hello!" The three girls say altogether in a freaky monotone voice. "We haven't seen you here before. Are you the new substitute teacher?"

"Uh... no." Morph replies, kinda freaked out at the sight of three identical blonde girls with scary glowy eyes. "I hope you don't mind me askin' but..."

"You want to know why we have scary glowy eyes." The girls say, cutting Morph off.

"How did you...?"

"Know what you were going to say?" The girls ask, cutting him off once more. "We are the Stepford Cuckoos. We can hear you thoughts..."

Morph shivers in discomfort at the sound of the girls' freaky monotone voices. "Well, it' been fun girls." He says. "But I've got to go, my house needs... washing. Bye!" With that, Morph runs away down the corridor as fast as his legs can carry him. The Cuckoos watch as he runs down the hallway and turns the corner into the rec room.

"Well that was fun." Eve says.

"It's always so much fun to freak out the new guys!" Phoebe grins.

The rec room-

Heather and Clarice look up as Morph runs in the door. "Morph, you looked freaked." Heather says. "What's up?"

Morph groans out loud and drops into a vacant chair. "Have you guys ever seen 'Village of the Damned?'" He asks.

"Ye've met the Cuckoos, haven't ye?" Rahne asks. "The three wee girls with th' scary glowy blue eyes?"

"Uh-huh." Morph replies. "I've never been so scared in my life and I've seen the Hulk naked!"

"Okay, bad mental image!" Warlock groans shutting his eyes and shaking his head.

Clarice chooses to ignore Morph's comments and turns back to TJ. "So TJ, seeing that we're a couple of members down we were wondering whether you wanted to come back an join the team?"

TJ looks at the person sitting next to her on the couch, Rachel Grey. "It's alright TJ." Rachel says. "You can tell them."

TJ takes a deep breath before continuing. "Well normally I'd love to Clarice." She says. "But... I've kinda met someone..."

"Who?" Clarice asks.

TJ links her hand with Rachel's and smiles back at Clarice. Clarice's mouth forms a small 'o' of surprise. "You two are..."

"Together?" Rachel asks. "We certainly are!"

"How did this happen?" Heather asks. "How long have you been together?"

"Well it all started after a mission to Hong Kong.' TJ replies. "We were celebrating a mission well done in our room with a few Daiquiris and well... one thing lead to another..."

"Dude!" Morph says leaping up. "You know what this means?"

"No Morph." TJ sighs. "We're not taking you to a gay bar."

"Aw nuts!" Morph pouts.

DARK CITY

Guardian is walking the streets of Dark City. It's not really a city as it is a nexus between realities. It just looks like a city. Well once that looks like a mismatched city with parts of other urban center from different time periods all forced together, not to mention what little sanitation department this city had wasn't much to talk about, so there was dirt, grim and some other things he didn't even want to think about on the streets. It looked like something from Tim Burton mixed in with Skid Row from The Little Shop of Horrors, only without all the singing. Plus the fact it was always dark in this city since it was always midnight.

"I hate this place." He muttered walking on.

All watches and clocks and other time pieces all read midnight when you entered this place. Time was stopped here, if it actually existed in this forsaken place. It was also filled with more things that went bump in the night then anywhere else you could walk through. Plus this place was dangerous, especially to tourists.

He'd already seen two killed so far trying to cross the damn street. Which was actually a bit of a surprise since normally he would see or hear four or five by the time he walked this far. There were things all around this place like a few of the cars weren't exactly cars. They were hungry and ate anyone stupid enough to try and cross in front of them.

He saw a dwarf, a real one, selling charms by the street side. They were fakes of course, but the tourists didn't know that. He saw a few of the street workers of various beings. He also saw a few demons walk by, most likely here on a day pass.

"I really hate this place."

Dark City was neutral territory, where both good and evil could go freely. There were rules that had to be followed, even him. If anyone got out of line then they would be in BIG trouble if not with the Enforcers then with the Deities. There was one place called the Tower of the Gods. And like the name says a whole bunch of powerful deities live in the tower.

You don't go there uninvited either. Now Guardian was powerful like all the other Guardians but even he wasn't a match for a whole bunch of pissed of gods. He found the alley he was looking for, it was jokingly called the rat maze because the all the twists and turns and the fact it kept changing when you moved. It took him days to find the damn place.

Luckily after he found out the secret finding the door was easy. It was just a plain door with no markings and he opened it and walked in. He had just walked into The Forsaken, a bar that he had been asked to meet someone in. The place was dank, slightly smoky with loud heavy metal playing all the time.

He could also sense them. In the corner he could sense them just like they could sense him. Darksiders. There were three of them, a young looking human boy, a female of some alien species he couldn't recall the name at the moment and a big hairy looking thing to that he'd never seen before.

Darksiders, the one thing all Guardians despise and fear. Mainly due to the fact they were a reminder of what could happen to them. When someone was given The Power, that which the source for much of a Guardian's powers there was a chance they would become corrupted over time. Since no Guardian has ever died of natural causes they lived until they were either killed, 'retired' which was giving up The Power and becoming mortal again...or turning into a Darksider.

He ignored them and walked up to the bar. "Beer." He said and the bartender gave him one. He didn't recognize him and figured he was new.

"Glad you could make it Adam." Said a voice of a fair looking man with thin features long silver hair and long pointed ears.

"Long time no see Laval." Adam said with a smile seeing his old Elf friend. He too was one of the 'wondering' Guardians. Although Adam liked the term Ronin himself.

"And for us that can say something." The elf said and both chuckled at the inside joke. "I heard what you did."

"Already! Man word travels fast nowadays." Adam shook his head, he didn't know word had gotten out already. The barman gave him his beer and he took one sip and that was it. "Oh man! Did he piss in this or what?" He asked his friend disgusted with the beverage.

"No not this time." Laval told him and Adam was wondering if he was joking or not and decided not to know. "You realize that you really are starting to piss of some powerful people right?"

"Ha, what else is new?"

"I'm serious he worked for the Dark Circle. And now that you don't have to protection of the Confederation of the Guardian Guild behind you, you're open season, there are not enough non-affiliated Guardians to help you out if you get into trouble, well when you get into trouble."

Adam smiled. "Thanks for the concern and for telling me who was behind that little bald headed menace."

"So what are you going to do with these Exiles?"

Adam thought about it. "To tell the truth I think I'll help them find their redemption and help others. I mean I can only do so much I could use the help with some of the problems in other worlds. Plus...they need a purpose in life. They need a home they need to feel like what they do matters. And it will matter too. I can see much good that can come from them and the people they can help."

"Sounds like the Confederation."

Adam looked a little more grim then. "Not exactly, one it will be on a smaller scale, unlike the Confederation I won't do things because they're in my own interests it will be because it's the right thing to do and lastly I won't impost my rule over whatever world I try and help."

Laval nodded. "Nobel goal...I hope it works out."

Adam smiled and got up and shook his hand. "If there isn't anything else I better be going. I'll see ya around."

Laval nodded. "Good fortune and long life my friend and good fortune."

The next morning-

Clarice, Heather and Morph are bidding the others goodbye. "Are you sure that you won't change your mind on the gay bar trip?" Morph asks.

"No Morph." TJ sighs. "Just go before I kick your ass, okay?"

Clarice steps up and grabs her friend in a huge hug. 'I'll miss you TJ!' She says. "You look after her Rachel!"

"Will do!" Rachel replies the red headed telepath.

Then Heather steps up and gives TJ a hug. "Seeya round TJ!" She says.

"Don't be strangers!" TJ replies.

"Bye all!" Morph says, waving goodbye.

The three heroes turn back once more as Clarice conjures up a teleportation portal and wave one last time. Then they step into the portal and disappear with a 'Blink!' to the woods to meet up with Guardian so he could take them on their next destination.

TBC...

NEXT: Meet Mayhem...