As a note for people who've asked - Yes, Logan knowing Japanese is relatively cannon. You see, he's got a 'girlfriend/acquaintance' who is from Japan. (Lady Deathstrike… They didn't know each other in the movie, but in the comics they had a history.) Also, it's said by the creators that in Logan's mysterious past, he was a failed samurai. So it makes sense for him to know Japanese.

Before I get into this, here's a little note on the grade levels for this fic:

Scott - Senior

Fred (Blob) and Jean - Juniors

Kitty, Kurt, Lance (Avalanche), Takuya, Kouji, Kouichi and Rouge - Sophomores

Evan, Bobby, and Todd (Toad) - Freshmen

As a note: This chapter is about a week after the Danger Room simulation.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or X-Men Evolution. So sue me. No wait…don't.

The X Evolution

Chapter 3: Yin and Yang

"Look out!"

"Watch the corner!"

"Dammit, Summers! If Ah survive this, yer DEAD! Yeh hear me? DEAD!"

Gripping the handle of the door for dear life, Kouji was rather apt to agree with Rouge's frantic scream there at the end. Whoever had given Scott his license needed to be checked for intoxication on the job. The teen seamed to be trying to take every turn possible at fifty miles an hour, racing red lights, and playing chicken with large trucks.

At the moment, the passengers inside the car were cursing their lot at not drawing the 'short' straw like Kitty and Evan, thus earning themselves a complementary 'Bamph' to school from Kurt.

Though they were all thoroughly belted in, it didn't stop them from grabbing desperately onto anything they could get their hands on. Jean was riding shotgun in the red convertible, using one hand to hold her bangs out of her face and the other to grip the door handle desperately. Kouji, on the far right side of the back seat, had both hands latched on his door, his feet looped firmly behind the seat supports beneath him to hold balance. Bobby was on the other side in a very similar position, occasionally shouting a desperate warning on one of the wild curves. Rouge, next to Bobby, had her hand buried up to the first knuckle in the upholstery of the chair. She was sharing a seat belt with Takuya, who was almost surgically attached to the back of Jean's chair. Kouichi, on the other hand, was mostly affixed to Kouji's left arm, his eye lids squeezed together tightly. Kouji was loosing the feeling in those fingertips, but as that meant his brother hadn't fallen out yet, he was fine.

"YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO STOP AT THE RED LIGHTS!"

Ten hectic minutes later, the red convertible screeched into the parking lot of the high school. Scott drove up to the front of the school, sliding to a stop and grinning broadly. "Well. Here we are."

"Finally…" Bobby whimpered, crawling out of the back seat. Rouge and Takuya followed him, as Jean staggered out of the front seat. They were all rocking back and forth haphazardly as they walked, out of breath and ever so slightly hoarse.

Kouji hissed through his teeth as he opened the door next to him, undoing the seat belt as he did. He looked over at Kouichi, who was sitting up a bit blurrily, disoriented.

"Nii-san." He said softly, catching his attention. "You okay?"

Kouichi shook his head, trying to realign his senses. "I'm fine. Jut a little…unbalanced."

"Better get a move on, you two." Scott turned back in his seat, thumbing towards the school. "You need to check in at the main office some time before first period."

"Yeah, yeah." Kouji muttered in annoyance, taking his brother by the arm to help him out of the red chrome vehicle of death. Scott zoomed away towards his assigned parking spot.

It took a moment for Kouji to steady himself, and Kouichi a few minutes longer than that, but eventually they were both a bit more oriented and headed for the main office.

Kouichi sighed, rubbing his temples in a somewhat pained manner. Kouji frowned, recognizing the strange vibe that practically radiated from his twin's expression. He put a hand on Kouichi's shoulder, gently, but it still caused his brother to jump. "Nii-san, what's wrong?"

Kouichi smiled at him, but it was fake and troubled. "Nothing. Just a little…shaken up, that's all."

Kouji's frown deepened almost accusingly. "That's not it." He snapped, making his brother wince slightly. "There's something else you're not telling me."

"Kouji…" the slightly elder of the two sighed, looking away from his brother guiltily. "I'm sorry…But it's nothing, really. I just had a…weird dream last night."

Kouji sighed, shaking his head and letting go of his shoulder. Every now and then, Kouichi was the victim of rather fearsome nightmares, most often when something was weighing on his min. It bothered them both, but as Kouichi refused to describe them, there was nothing Kouji could do about it.

"All right, then." Kouji sighed, opening the door to the office. "Let's get this over with…"

( - ) ( - ) ( - )

When Lance Alders, a.k.a. Avalanche, was bored, it was usually bad news for somebody. Usually, the 'somebodies' were students of Xavier Institute, but he wasn't above tormenting the so-called 'normal' students when ever the mood struck him.

At the moment, he was crouched in a small space between two of the school buildings, known generally as 'Smoker's Ally', since it was the best place to sneak off to if you needed a lightly. Lance wasn't smoking…he may have been a delinquent, but he wasn't stupid…though he was throwing small pebbles at the passerby. It was almost a game, and no one had noticed him yet.

He tossed his brown hair out of dark eyes, blowing up his bangs and taking aim at a stupid-looking football jock who was showing off to his girlfriend. There was a noise like rushing wind, following by a blue-gray streak before his eyes, and quite suddenly a certain silver-haired boy was leaning down to look him in the eye. "Hey Lance. What'cha doin'?"

Lance growled, straitening as he glared at Pietro Maximoff. "What's it to you?"

"Woah, woah, chill." Pietro, also known as Quicksilver, always spoke at an annoying fast rate emphasize his hyper-fast metabolism. "Lemme guess: bored, right? You always get testy when you're bored."

Before Lance could respond with a typically biting comment, he was cut off by a loud, semi-deep voice accompanying a noise vaguely akin to stampeding rhinos. "Hey guys, wait for us!"

Fred Dukes, a.k.a. 'the Blob' was pounding his gargantuan way up the side walk, leaving several shallow craters as he did. Along side him, hopping along on all fours, was Toad Tolanski, most often called 'Toad', his long-fingered green limbs gripping the walls and ground as he went.

Fred stormed up to them, coming to a stop and leaning over to catch his breath. "No fair…leavin' us behind…Pietro…"

"Yeah, Speedy." Toad grumbled, dropping back to fan himself with one hand.

"Hey, you gonna run with me, you gotta keep up." Pietro grinned almost crazily.

Lance rolled his eyes, glancing at the silver-haired mutant in annoyance. "So what do you want? You're as bored as I am."

"Maybe. But there's something new up." Pietro rattled off.

"Like what?" Lance glared at Fred, who was still trying to catch his breath.

"Like a couple'a new X-jerks."

That got Lance's attention. New mutants at the Xavier place? Pietro said 'a couple'. So, more than one?

"How many?"

"Two of 'em. And here's a kicker." Pietro pulled out a granola bar from his pocket and nearly swallowed it whole. "They're twins. You can tell it in their faces."

"What, identical?"

"Duh."

Lance scowled, but he was thinking. Twin mutants, huh? Interesting, very interesting…

"So what'cha think?" Toad asked, eyeing a fly that was hovering not far away. "You wanna mess with 'em."

"First of all…" Lance waited until Toad's mutated tongue snapped out to snatch up the 'snack', then he grabbed it in mid-air. "Don't ever do that in front of me again, it's disgusting."

"Sah-wee." Toad mumbled. Lance released the slimy appendage, causing Toad to fall over backwards.

Lance tossed his hair out of his face, smirking as he turned and placed his hands in the pockets of his coat. "Now then. Whattya say we go give the newbies a decent welcome?"

( - ) ( - ) ( - )

It was lunchtime. Usually, this should be relatively uneventful.

Kouji and Kouichi were sitting outside, in the back of the school, sharing a bench with Takuya and Bobby. Iceman had your standard sandwich brown-bag, while the other three were enjoying something more to their group cultural taste…bento boxes, with rice, vegetables, some sort of meat and small wooden chopsticks from a local Chinese restaurant. Storm had thankfully prepared and chilled them the night before. None of them were willing to try the hot lunch today, as the electric blue color was kind of a turn off.

"So, how'd it go, you two?" Bobby asked with his mouth full.

Kouji glared slightly over his chopsticks. "How'd what go?"

"You know. 'First day of school' and all that." Takuya winked with a slight smirk. "I hear you're already catching the girls' eyes."

Kouji growled a little under his breath like an angry wolf. Both he and Kouichi had attracted an unusual number of the feminine population upon arriving at their first class. Actually, most of them had flocked around Kouji, the few mothering types drawn to Kouichi's gentle nature.

Kouichi smiled very softly. "They were…very nice."

"They were annoying." Kouji sniffed. Kouichi hid small giggles behind his hand. His twin glared at him sourly.

"We should all have such annoyances." Bobby sighed, shaking his head in dismay. "What a waste…"

Before Kouji could lash out, a loud voice suddenly interrupted them. "Well, look it what we have here."

Though the twins simply glanced up, Takuya and Bobby were almost instantly rigid. They had been addressed by a tall boy with longish brown hair and darkish tanned skin, dressed in very earthy tones. Standing behind him was a huge mountain of a blonde boy, tubby arms crossed over an even tubbier test. On the left of the brown-haired boy was a silver-haired young man, dressed in blue, who looked perpetually windblown. On the other side was a boy crouched low to the ground, whose skin and hair held a vaguely greenish tint.

"So, there're the new kids, huh?" The first boy smirked. "Don't look like much."

"Shove it, Lance!" Takuya snapped.

"Yeah, get lost, Alders." Bobby glared at the new comers fiercely.

"Oooh, hostile." the silver haired boy spoke very, very quickly, as though on 'fast forward'. "Gettin' a bit of an attitude there, Popsicle Stick."

Kouji narrowed his eyes at the four. "Who're these losers?"

"Losers!" The huge one exclaimed, apparently deeply offended.

"They call themselves 'the Brotherhood of Mutants'." Bobby muttered calmly, standing "They're a bunch of juvenile delinquents."

"Basically, they're the Institute's dropouts." Takuya smirked. "Couldn't handle it."

Lance growled low in his throat. "Handle this, Sparky." He snapped, gripping his hand into a fist.

The ground began to shake beneath them, accompanied by a low rumbling noise. Kouji leapt up unsteadily. "What the…?"

"Earthquake!" Kouichi gasped, barely keeping his place and catching his brother haphazardly as he fell over.

"Dammit, Alders!" Takuya shouted, keeping his balance just enough to pull out his lighter, summoning up a small ball of fire. An unsteady pitch lit Lance's jacket aflame. The long-haired brunette cried out, breaking his stance quickly to douse it. The moment he unclenched his fists, the tremors stopped.

Bobby regained his center of balance, glancing back at the twins. "You two okay?"

"Oh sure, peachy." Kouji grumbled sarcastically. When he'd fallen, he'd landed on his brother, knocking him down from the bench and leaving them both in the same heap on the ground they were recovering from now.

Takuya looked about to speak, but he was suddenly knocked flat by a pale blue blur. "Can ya keep up, Kanbara?" Pietro's voiced laughed out from it. He lashed out again, and from the sudden lack of breath one could only assume Takuya had been kicked in the stomach. "Can't hit me if ya can't see me!"

Bobby spun around, aiming a shot of ice just in front of the speedster. Pietro paused only a second to leap over it, then went back to running rings around them full-speed. "Dammit." Bobby hissed, firing more ice.

"Hey Drake." The blonde barely had time to turn before he was nailed in the face by a blob of disgusting, gooey, sticky green slime.

Toad grinned, wiping a bit of 'Sticky-Spit' from his lip. "Ah…feels good to get that off my chest."

"Gross…" Kouichi groaned, and it looked like Bobby shared his sympathies.

The blur that was 'Quicksilver' changed his course, running fast loops around the still-grounded twins. "What's a'matter, newbies? Can'tcha handle it?"

"They look about ready to run home to mommy." Bobby laughed.

Kouji growled low in his throat, then noticed the shaded area extending from the school building…the one most of the Brotherhood was standing in.

"Kouichi." He hissed, catching his brother's attention. A glance between them and a nod to the shade was all it took to communicate the plan. Momentarily, Kouji thanked whatever god was up there for their connection as twins.

Kouichi looked a bit concerned, his face reading an uncertain, "Are you sure?"

Kouji nodded quietly, conveying his own message. "Don't worry. It's a small trick. Everything will be fine." With that soft note, he pulled his hands close, gathering sunlight between them.

Pietro smirked, looking down at the two kids in the center of his tight circle. "Shows ya not to mess with us, huh?"

Kouji snapped his head up, standing suddenly to place himself firmly in the speed demon's way. Pietro noticed the challenge and picked up the pace. "So that's how you want it? Ha! I'll knock you flat, hot shot!"

A smirked crawled over Kouji's face. Just as the blur reached him, he opened his hands and engulfed the delinquent in a huge blast of light.

It cleared in an instant, leaving Pietro knocked flat on the ground, clutching his face. "Argh! My eyes! My eyes!"

"Uh-oh." Toad commented. "Looks like they got Speedy."

Lance scowled, gripping his fists again. "I'll get 'em." He growled, stepping forward…

And discovering, to his shock and horror, that some kind of pressure on his whole body was holding him firmly in one place. "What the…?"

Toad and Fred seamed to be suffering from a similar ailment. "Hey hey! I'm stuck! I'm stuck!" Toad exclaimed, trying to jump but latched firmly to the ground.

Blob, the Immovable Blob, was held firmly in place. "I can't move either!"

Lance snapped his head up fiercely. The other twin, the quiet one, had knelt down and placed his hand on the shadow the building cast over them. His eyes had the slightly glazed-over, meditative look some mutants got as they used their powers.

"Dammit!" Lance shouted, pulling at his feet and arms as the darkness looped over them, holding him in place. "What the hell did you do, bastard?"

Takuya burst out laughing. "Sa-weet, Kimura!" He exclaimed, patting Kouichi on the back. "How long can you keep that up?"

"It won't last after I move." Kouichi whispered softly, still in a somewhat mild trance.

"No problem." Bobby grinned, turning from where he had covered Pietro in a thin layer of ice. "I'll take it from here."

He quickly iced over the remaining Brotherhood members, holding them in place even as Kouichi stood and that shadows slipped away. Takuya was bent over with laughter now, and even Kouji looked amused, though Kouichi still seamed to be halfway sleepwalking. A loud bell rang over the grounds, signaling the end of the period.

"…Is it okay to leave them there?" Kouichi asked softly as the four headed for their next class.

"Sure." Takuya grinned broadly. "They'll defrost in about ten minutes. This was just teaching them not to mess with us."

And back in the fading shade, still covered in ice, Lance Alders growled softly deep in his throat.

( - ) ( - ) ( - )

It was 5:37 exactly when Ororo came to get the twins. They had previously been in the living room, hanging out with Takuya, Bobby, Evan, Kurt and Kitty. Evan and Takuya had been playing a rowdy fighting videogame, as Bobby and Kurt cheered in the background and Kitty tried to get Kouichi interested in the fashion magazine she was reading. When Ororo appeared suddenly at the top of the stairs, dressed in her combat uniform, the twins were the only two who didn't know what was going on.

Without changing, they were quietly ushered into the control center of the Danger Room, where Professor X was working on one of the data banks. Jean, Scott and Logan were there as well, all in their standard uniforms.

"Ah, boys." The Professor smiled warmly, turning to face them. "Come on in, don't be shy."

The two shuffled in somewhat cautiously, the doors closing behind them. Kouichi glanced around nervously. "Um…Professor, we're not even…"

"Don't worry." Jean flashed them a dazzling smile. "We're not here for a simulation. We've got something to show you two."

"Something like what?" Kouji asked suspiciously.

Once again, the X-men smiled at each other calmly as Scott pressed one of the buttons on a smaller control panel. Across the room a machine whirred and hummed as a small metallic compartment opened, revealing a pair of glossy new suits on display on basic mannequins, as though they had just been rolled off the proverbial presses.

"We'd like to make sure the fit before we get you into active duty." Scott grinned cockily, and quickly ushered the boys into the men's changing room.

The suits were unique, as Takuya and the others had told them, but they were also identical. The looked somewhat like their old school uniforms, only skin-tight, with long sleeves and high collars. Kouichi's was black, with a single stripe running vertically down the front as though hiding a zipper and a circled X on each shoulder, all done in about 40 percent tone gray. Kouji's had the same pattern, only reversed, with the tone gray as a base and the black in the lining.

As they stepped somewhat hesitantly back into the control room, they were greeted with a small chorus of cheers. Kouichi in particular flushed hotly as they looked around at the gathered Institute students. Takuya and Bobby were whistling in celebration, as several of the others hooted and clapped.

Professor X wheeled forward, a pleasant smile on his face. "Well." He chuckled softly, lacing his fingers thoughtfully. "I see they fit just fine."

Kouji tested the outfit experimentally, glancing at Kouichi. His brother smiled at him, looking embarrassed, but content.

"All that is left is to find another name for the both of you." The Professor nodded softly, gazing over steepled fingers. "We've discussed it several times, and we think we've settled on a good choice…"

"How do Yin and Yang sound?" Logan mumbled softly, glancing at Kouji. "Huh, flashbulb?"

Kouji wrinkled his nose slightly at Logan's nickname for him, but Kouichi laughed softly and smiled at his brother. "I like it." He nodded warmly. "What do you think, Kouji?"

The long-haired boy 'hm'ed softly, shaking his head, then grinned. "Huh…Sounds good to me."

TBC…

I have a friend who drives like Scott did here. I was never so eager to have my own license that after going with her on an 'errand' to drop off her little sister.

Oh, and I left out the 'Evil' in the Brotherhood of Mutants, just because it seams to defeat their purpose. After all, they really think mutants DESERVE to be superior, right?

And if you notice, the concept of Yin and Yang is a recurring theme with me. The subject itself fascinates me, and I love the symbolism between the twins in particular. So expect it to crop up a lot over the course of my stories.