You know, you'd think that summer vacation would make it easier for a high school author like me. But it's not, because even though I have more time on the computer, I have more distractions, and I go on more trips. That's my excuse for taking so long to update. Gomen, gomen.

BTW, occasionally the twins (and sometimes Takuya or Logan) will speak in Japanese. When that happens, it will be shown with /speech like this/.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or X-Men: Evolution. I'm just obsessed.

The X Evolution

Chapter 2: Introductions

Normally, a flight from Tokyo to upper-state New York would take at least twelve hours, if not more, no matter which direction you flew in. However, the Institute's Blackbird was no ordinary jet, and the estimated time of flight was easily reduced to five hours.

Kouichi watched the crystal blue ocean stretch endlessly out below the window, clutching the fully-stuffed back pack in his lap. Behind him, Kitty and Kurt were chatting away in English…they had removed the black translator chips from their temples, leaving Logan, the only one of the bunch who actually spoke both languages, as the translator for the twins.

Kouji reached over from his seat and squeezed his brother's hand comfortingly. /Nii-san? You okay/

Kouichi turned and smiled a little at his brother, returning the comforting squeeze. /Yes, I'm fine./ he whispered as well, shaking his head as though to get water out of his ears. /I'm just…a little nervous, that's all./

Kouji squeezed again, a tad bit harder, and looked about to respond when Logan cut him off, turning back in the co-pilot's seat next to the Professor. /Relax, kiddo. Nothin's gonna get'cha once we get to the school./

Kouichi was startled, but nodded in understanding and thanks. Kouji, on the other hand, scowled at the man in stubborn annoyance. The older brother cocked his head at his twin. /Kouji, what's wrong now/

/He speaks in Kansai./ Kouji muttered, sounding annoyed.

Kouichi smiled a bit, hiding minute giggles behind his hand. Kouji gave him a slightly put-off glare as well, crossing his hands over his chest. /It's not funny…/

Their conversation was cut off by an announcement from the Professor, translated by Logan for the new student's benefit. "Please be seated and prepare for accent as we enter past the coastline. We will be reaching the Institute in one hour…"

( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Ororo Monroe, a.k.a. Storm, heard the sirens and whistles that accompanied the return of the Blackbird to its hanger, but refrained from rushing to greet the new arrivals. Instead, she headed to the infirmary to don a white lab coat for their preliminary physical…as the only resident currently holding an MD, the task naturally fell to her.

About five minutes later, Logan appeared at the door, leading an almost-identical pair of teenage boys. The white-haired African woman smiled warmly and motioned for them to come in

"It's nice to meet you." she gave a slight bow, as was polite custom in their native country. "My name is Ororo Monroe."

Logan muttered a stream of unfamiliar to the boys, and Storm remembered that these boys spoke Japanese, not English. The shorter-haired of the two muttered something that sounded like, "…Ololo-san." which she could only assume was her name.

"Ah…right." Ororo turned suddenly and opened a certain drawer, taking out two small, black computer chips. She came to the longer-haired of the boys…Kouji, according to the records…and reached to brush his hair clear…

The boy yanked his head away, glaring fiercely like a cornered wolf. "It's all right." she sighed slightly, letting Logan mumble a translation. "These are just small programs to help translate into a language you understand."

The long-haired boy pulled back further, still untrusting. Ororo sighed, then moved to his brother instead. "Look, see?" she positioned the tip against the skin of the elder twin's temple. "It'll only hurt for a bit…"

The boy let out a small cry as several small, sharp metal spikes pierced his skin at once. His brother stiffened, this time protectively, as he grabbed his twin by the arm and glared at Ororo savagely.

"It's all right, it's all right." Ororo soothed as Logan growled. "Look, see, it's all in place."

Kouji turned to his brother, who was blinking around as though waking from a dream. Ororo smiled at him, leaning down to look him in the eye. "Can you understand me?"

The boy…Kouichi…blinked, then nodded. "…Yes."

"Good. Then it's working just fine." Ororo picked up the other chip and positioned it at Kouji's temple as Logan held the boy still by his shoulders. Before he could really react, she had snapped it into place.

"Ye-OW!" the boy exclaimed, snapping his hand to the point. "That hurt!"

"I'm sorry." Ororo grinned, standing. "But the translation is working very well." She smiled up at the burly man in her door. "Thank you for your assistance, Logan."

The feral man grunted in response. "Call me if there's any trouble." He grumbled and left, shutting the door smartly behind him and leaving the three of them alone.

Ororo cleared her throat. "Let's try this again, shall we? My name is Ororo Monroe…But you may call me Storm, if you would prefer." She smiled warmly. "You're Kouji…and Kouichi. Correct?"

The boys nodded in turn. Ororo smiled a bit wider. "Now, I'm just going to be conducting a simple physical evaluation, just to check up and evaluate your health and abilities…"

The 'exam' lasted less than an hour. She examined each boy separately, checking their breathing and heartbeat, looking over medical records and asking for very small demonstrations of power.

"Interesting…Very interesting…" she muttered, making notes as Kouji toyed with a small ball of light. "Complete control of light particles without a neutrino of harmful radiation. And this other power…Entirely contradictory, yet somehow related…Very interesting, very interesting indeed…"

She made a few more notes, then set down the clipboard and smiled once again. "All right boys, all done. Someone should be here soon to show you to your room…"

There was a loud series of raps on the door and she sighed. "Speak of the devil… Come in, we're ready!"

The door opened.

Kouji had been expecting another adult…Logan, or the Professor, someone like that. He had not been expecting a boy about his age, with brown hair and eyes and lightly tanned skin, grinning wildly from ear to ear. There was a yellow baseball cap on his head, backwards, covered slightly by a large, gleaming pair of square-shaped goggles. He smiled up at Ororo almost cheekily. "Hey Storm!"

"Hello, Flare." The woman sighed, smiling, and motioned to the twins. "This is Kouji and Kouichi, respectively. I need you to show them to their rooms, if you would."

"Sure!" the boy…Flare?…turned to the others and grinned impossibly wider. "Hey! My name's Takuya, Takuya Kanbara. You're from my neck of the woods, right? Tokyo?"

"Um…yes." Kouichi blinked, then smiled. "Are you from Tokyo as well?"

"Yup!" Takuya grinned, tapping the small, black chip by his temple as he lead them out into the halls. "Born and raised, 'til about six months ago…"

"What happened six months ago?" Kouji asked bluntly.

"Ah…my power sortta 'woke up'." Takuya rubbed his head sheepishly. "And, well, I kinda burned down a portable classroom…"

"You WHAT!"

Takuya stopped, pulling out a lighter from his pocket and snapped it into the life. Then he raised the other hand and snatched the flame into it, forming into a ball of fire that hovered on the tip of his fingers.

"See? This is my power. I control fire…not too original, I know, lots of people around here can do it. And see, my history teacher was real fond of scented candles, you know, the strong-smelling kind. And it was hot and talking about the War of the Roses and all…I guess fell asleep…and next thing I know, three desks had caught and it just went downhill from there…"

The twins stared at him blankly, as though unsure whether to laugh or not. Takuya grinned and doused the flame. "Yeah, I know…stupid, huh?"

He cleared his throat sheepishly and pointed towards a door on the hall. "This is the room Professor X had set out for you. I take it you don't mind sharing."

He opened the door, revealing two single beds, a wide window, two desks and a bookcase, along with a small door that lead to an adjoining room. The window overlooked a nicely-done back yard, complete with a pool, basketball court, green house and enough lawn to play pro football, which would have been more normal than whatever it was the kids were playing. The grass around them occasionally caught fire, to be doused by a number of heat-triggered sprinklers, as both the players and/or the ball disappeared and reappeared at random intervals.

Takuya grinned at them, pointing to the second door. "My room's in there. Just knock if you ever need anything…at least, after 7 and before 10. Otherwise, the roomy gets a little annoyed." He turned back to the beds, where two suitcases and a few other small bags had been set up at the separate bases.

"The Professor said he wanted to give you the rest of the day to settle in." He said brightly, a wide grin forming over his features. "But tomorrow's your real welcoming."

"And that is supposed to mean…?" Kouji prompted, raising an eyebrow.

A wide grin worked it's way across Takuya's face. "Well, the Professor wants to see your powers in action, and there's only one thing for that."

"Which would be…?"

"The Danger Room, of course."

( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Logan rolled his eyes at Takuya as he entered to command room, the large doors sliding shut behind him with a metallic swish. "What exactly did you tell the newbies, fireball?"

"Just the truth." Takuya shrugged, a slight grin on his face.

Both of them were dressed, as was the rest of the group, in their separate 'uniforms', as was required when they worked in the Danger Room. Most of them had the base of skintight black body-suits, though several of the more 'active' X-Men had their specially-made designs. Takuya's, for example, had a low-slung, curved orange X across his chest, coiling around his arms and legs, while Kurt's had a large streak of red covering his torso.

Logan narrowed his blue eyes down at the grinning boy. "What part of the truth?"

Takuya grinned slightly wider, rubbing the back of his head in a fake-sheepishly manner. Logan growled slightly under his breath, though most of the other boys were laughing behind their hands.

Jean sighed, shaking her head. She was getting a few small glimpses of Logan's 'pep talk' with the twins, the incident floating at the top of his mind. For one thing, there appeared to be quite a lot of tension between 'Wolverine' and the younger of the boys, Kouji. And apparently, Takuya's 'truth' hadn't skimped on any of the Danger Room's details, making an explanation of the X-Men's…extracurricular…exploits quite a challenge.

The large doors to the men's 'locker room' slide open, ushering in a slightly nervous-looking Kouichi and a scowling Kouji, both dressed in the plain black-with-X-shaped-shoulder-pads that most of the 'in-training' students wore.

They were approached almost immediately by a tall high-school boy with dark red-brown hair, wearing a thin visor over his eyes. "Hi." He smiled, offering his hand. "Scott Summers. Nice to meet you."

Unused to the customs, it took just a moment for the twins to figure out what he wanted, first bowing, then reaching out to shake his hand. Scott nodded in understanding, giving a small bow of his own. "I take it Takuya and Logan gave you a decent run-down of what we're going to be doing today."

Kouji muttered something under his breath in Japanese, which caused his brother to elbow him in the side, turning the light shade of pink usually worn by mothers when their young children say something highly offensive. Takuya burst out laughing and Logan barely let a smirk slide across his lips.

"I believe we should take that as a yes." The Professor said softly, wheeling himself forward. He turned to the boys with a slight smile on his face. "I assure you, despite the name, you will be in no real danger during our simulations. This is just to make sure that if something does happen in the real world, you will be prepared to counter it."

The expressions on the twin's faces read that they understood. The Professor didn't press for a vocal recognition, anyone could tell these were two very private people.

"All right then." He smiled a bit wider, turning to address the entire group as well as the twins. "For this exercise, we will be entering the Danger Room in teams of five. Scott, you'll take Takuya, Bobby, Kitty and Kouji. Jean, your team will consist of Rouge, Kurt, Evan and Kouichi. Agreed?"

"Yes sir." Scott piped, saluting brightly. Jean nodded as well.

Storm, Logan and 'Beast'… the ever-blue and hairy Dr. Hank McCoy…took their separate places at the various monitoring panels within the control room as Scott's team gathered in the elevator. The Professor could feel Kouji's reluctance…not about going into the Danger Room, because it seamed that he was actually exciting at the prospect of trying out his powers…but he was more than a little disinclined to the idea of his brother going in without him.

"Team One is standing by in the entry bay." Storm reported, typing in a fast code on the keyboard she manned as the second 'team' crowded around the window to gaze into the Danger Room.

"The suit's status monitoring is on-line." Hank added, bringing up several different screens. "Heart beat, respiration and nervous system functions are normal."

Logan glanced at the window, putting in a code on the keyboard. "Roger. Ready to load training program…"

Team One: Cyclops, Flare, Iceman, Shadowcat and Minamoto Kouji

Kouji picked at the skintight black outfit in annoyance. "Do we have to wear these things?"

"It monitors your heartbeat and other vitals." Scoot shrugged, adjusting the visor over his eyes. "It's how the Professor and the others can tell if something goes wrong."

Kouji raised an eyebrow. "I thought you said there'd be no danger."

"With our kind of powers, anything can happen." Takuya grinned, glancing at Bobby Drake. "Right, roomy?"

"No duh." The blonde rolled his eyes in a joking matter, stretching his arms.

Scott glanced back as the light above the door turned yellow. "Okay everybody. Quick check: Flare, Iceman, Shadowcat…everybody ready?"

"Ready!" the three reported in a chorus.

Kouji's eyebrow raised slightly higher. "What the hell?"

"Oh yeah." Takuya rubbed his head sheepishly. "When we're in the Danger Room, everybody's got another name…"

"Why? Just to be cool?"

"It's to get used to it." Kitty nodded, jumping in. "When we're out dressed like this, we can't just be calling each other by the same names…That'd give the Institute away."

"Besides, these names suit us better." Bobby grinned, pointing to himself. "You could almost say they're our real names, deep down."

Kouji looked about to say something, but the light above the door suddenly turned green with a loud shriek, just before the doors slid open. "And here we go!" Takuya sparked eagerly, pulling the lighter out of his pocket and somewhat dragging Kouji by the arm into the room.

A hologram had been activated so that the room looked like an abandoned construction site. Well, except for the hovering probes that were flying everywhere, scanning with bright red beams and firing what seamed to be paintballs.

"You get hit, you're dead." Scott said simply. "Think of it as a game. And we're here to play rough."

As though for an example, he opened the visor over his eyes and shot out a bright red beam at the nearest probe, bursting the silver casing and sending it spiraling to the ground.

"You better jump in fast, buddy." Takuya grinned, taking off with Bobby through the twists and turns. The blonde was freezing everything that came along.

Kouji paused and turned at a sudden pressure on his arm. He turned to find Kitty… Shadowcat…whatever…grabbing on to him. He glared at her, until he realized that several bright red paintballs had just gone straight through them both.

"You gotta be careful!" The girl insisted, pulling him through a near-by wall. "After all, we're here to test you out!"

She released his arm and disappeared, this time jumping up to pull herself to a second 'level'. Kouji watched her disappear with mild interest, then started to make his way down the tiny, thin hall.

"'Test' me, huh?" He smirked a bit, feeling the familiar heat as he drew small beads of shining light from the hologram masking the wall. "I'll give 'em something to test…"

One of the hovering paintball-bots appeared, focusing its beam on him. The light in his hand automatically curved around and solidified, becoming a small ball of its own seconds before he threw it. It collided with the 'bot and burst into a blaze of light, leaving a harsh shell to fall to the ground.

…

"That's some explosion." Evan, a dark-skinned boy with dyed blonde hair, whistled as he pressed his hands against the glass.

"No kiddin'." Kurt, now without his hologram, twitched his ears in interest as his tail swished back and forth. There was a second wave as another 'bot exploded with a flash of light.

Rouge 'hm'ed to herself, brushing back the white bangs from her dark eyes. The long-haired boy seamed to be…almost enjoying himself. At least, that's what she hoped that smirk read as he swept through several tentacles with a sharpened version of his initial attack.

She turned slightly and looked at the second twin, Kouichi, whose eyes were trained on his brother with a kind of awe. "So, are yeh able to do stuff like 'im?"

The short-haired boy was startled at her voice, but dropped his eyes down shyly as the simulation began to wind down. "I guess…you could say…" He shrugged shyly, turning back to the window to watch his brother reappear from the fading hologram. "…Something like that."

Team Two: Jean Grey, Rouge, Nightcrawler, Spike and Kimura Kouichi

The second team's simulation was a jungle mod, the holograms and platforms creating mountains and living vines. The red paint balls flew around them every few moments, generally being defended away by Jean's force fields and Spike's stone…well, spikes.

Kurt…Nightcrawler…had Kouichi by one wrist and Rouge by the (well-covered) other, helping them out of the way by Bamph'ing whenever it got out of hand. Rouge's powers weren't of much use here, as the only mutants she could 'borrow' powers from were her own team.

"Man, this bites." The blue-furred mutant muttered in annoyance, dodging another wave of 'bots by ducking behind an extra-large tree. "Vhat are we supposed to do?"

Rouge rolled her eyes as they bamph'ed again, this time to relatively sheltered, temporarily peaceful clearing. She glanced in Kouichi's direction as the Japanese boy brushed himself off anxiously. "Ain't we supposed to be figurin' what you can do?"

Kouichi jumped slightly, startled, then glanced off to one side awkwardly. "I…I…"

Kurt cocked his head. "Vhat is it? Are you scared?" He grinned widely. "It's just a simulation, you know. You can veally get hurt."

The new student shifted slightly, making Rouge think he was hiding something, but before anyone could say anything more, two bots suddenly appeared on their left and right sides, scanning the clearing with their bright red beams.

"Bamph us, Blue!" Rouge exclaimed, gripping Kurt's wrist perhaps a bit too tightly with her glove.

"Vhere!" Kurt insisted, snapping his head around as the tentacles reared up from the remaining two sides.

Kouichi took several steps back, backing them under the dark shade of the nearest tree as the paintball guns lowered to aim at them. He closed his eyes tightly and braced himself as five guns fired at once…

The red paint balls splattered against a thin wall of black and slid harmlessly to the ground.

…

Bobby blinked stupidly, pressed against the glass with the others. "What did he do?"

"Beats me." Takuya shrugged.

Scott turned to Kouji, who had been expertly hiding his nervousness since the simulation had begun. The other twin was wearing a very small smirk. "Do you know what's up with that?"

Dark blue eyes turned to him coldly. "They're standing in the shade."

"So?" Kitty blinked.

"It makes a thin covering when hardened around the edges." He turned back as Kurt bamph'ed the trio back with the rest of the group. "Just hard enough to block those stupid paint balls."

Hank frowned slightly, gazing up at the screen read-outs thoughtfully. "Well… That's interesting."

"Something on your mind, Hank?" The Professor asked softly, wheeling over to look over the blue mutant's shoulder.

"Well…It's just something in the read-outs from Kouichi's suit." Beast tapped the upper-left-hand screen in example. "His breathing and heartbeat quickened right here…"

"Nothing unusual, given the situation." The Professor nodded. "After all, he'd just activated his power for the first time in this simulation."

"True. But his brother's stats never changed this drastically while using his power." Hank scratched his fuzzy chin contemplatively. "But here's the clincher, Charles… These read-outs are of the two minutes directly after Kouichi's power was activated, and remained for several minutes after it was deactivated.

Professor X furled his brow slightly with a small frown. "I don't quite understand."

"To be honest…" Hank shook his head, clearing out the screens as the simulation ended. "It's a bit like…I dunno, Charles, like he was scared or something. Just for about five minutes there…like he panicked…"

He shrugged again, this time with a smile. "I guess it's just nerves. Since nothing else happened, it's really nothing to worry about…"

TBC…

Gah…Sucky ending. I hate that.

Kansai - The southern region of Japan, stretching down from Osaka and (I think) Yokohama. The accent is similar to the Southern U.S., though it also has several different words than Tokyo-style Japanese. It's common for some characters to have Kansai accents, such as Kero from Card Captor Sakura, and Sumiyoshi from Excel Saga, so it's not unusual for most people to know both 'dialects'. However, Kouji (in this story) is one of those who has a hard time picking up differences in language, so the Kansai accent annoys him.

Kouichi and Kouji will have their 'mutant nicknames' by the next chapter, don't you worry. I just felt like holding it out for a little while. From the looks of things, this particular story will be about four or five chapters long.