MiMi: See, chapter 5 came quickly enough. And I did laugh though when you told me you cried. Sorry.

Rustic Dragonfly: Ah yes, there are a lot of new characters, but that is what makes the story original. Any one can write a story where one mutant joins the X-Men, and often that mutant is all-powerful. But how many stories do you know of that can keep 13 mutants, each with their own unique mutation and personality?

ldypebsaby: That is funny that you have a brother with the same birth date. I picked that day because Mike is such a romantic that it just seemed fitting that he be born on Valentine's day. And as for Kurt and Jessica... well... just read and find out.

Mark C: No, the people that are after James didn't cause the heart attack. It was partially caused by wear from his mutation, each time he shifted into a metal form it did damage to his heart, and his past lifestyle. But to find out what that past lifestyle was you're going to have to read and find out.

Chapter 5: Heart Trouble

James awoke to the sound of beeping monitors and hushed voices. He opened his eyes only to be blinded at first by the great overhead light in the infirmary. He turned his head to see Rebecca sitting next to his hospital bed, holding his hand, and his sister sitting next to her against the wall, both sound asleep. He looked up to the clock above his sister and noticed that it was mid-morning, about ten-thirty; his sister and Rebecca had probably been up all night.

Outside he could hear three voices, two of which he recognized as Dr. McCoy and the Professor, but the third he had never heard before. He looked around a bit and noticed that he was hooked up to a lot of machines, but the patient's gown he wore covered up from his neck down. He thought for a second about sitting up, but he realized that it wasn't such a good idea, so instead he merely closed his eyes again and listened to the voices in the hall.

"The device is working perfectly." The voice he didn't recognize said. "You let me know right away though if anything goes wrong."

"Of course." Xavier said. "I'm just disappointed that we had to resort to such drastic measures."

"Well there wasn't much else we could do professor." The voice James recognized as Dr. McCoy said. "The Aorta burst and there was so much damage done already that we had no conventional options left, we had to replace it."

"Yes, that I understand." Xavier's voice said. "But what caused all that damage in the first place?"

"Could be any number of things. Genetic disorder, hereditary disease, lifestyle, drugs, alcohol, STDs, or it could even be a side effect of his mutation, perhaps it was weakened by his shifting into his metal form." Beast said from down the hall.

"How will we know for sure?" Xavier asked with a hint of curiosity evident in his voice along with his usual touch of concern.

"A little bit of testing, and asking. We can ask him for any information he might be able to give us when he wakes up." Beast Answered.

"When will he wake up?" The voice James didn't recognize asked.

"Any moment now, could be within the next few hours, but by the latest he should be awake by tomorrow morning." Beast answered again.

"Okay, well I'm going to get back home, but here's that holo-watch you wanted professor." The mystery man said as James heard something being almost slapped into the professor's hand.

"Thank you Forge. I'll give this to her once she wakes up, I'm sure she'll be quite happy." Xavier said as the mystery man 'Forge' left the hall.

"Should we check on him?" Beast asked as James heard footsteps coming towards the door.

"You go ahead, I'm going to see what's going on upstairs and check on the other students." Xavier said before the two of them said a brief 'see ya, and Hank came into the room where James was lying on the hospital bed with his eyes closed, appearing to be asleep, or unconscious.

MEANWHILE

"So where are they?" Jean asked as most of the X-Men gathered in the kitchen with the exception of the adults.

"I think they all went out shopping." Scott answered as they all sat down.

"I think I saw that Mike kid go into the library a little while ago." Kitty said as she picked up a piece of fruit from the bowl in the center of the table.

"And Jessica is in the infirmary vith her brother and Rebecca." Kurt said as his tail also grabbed a piece of fruit from the center bowl.

Their talking was suddenly interrupted as a boy that only Scott and Rogue recognized came into the kitchen. He was dressed in full gothic regalia, so much so that he made Rogue look like a wanna-be. He wore a long sleeve fishnet shirt under a black t-shirt that had a graphic display of a dead clown on it, and two black gloves were on his hands which rested near his baggy black jeans that had more chains than you would've thought possible. His skin was dark, and it had a lot of piercing in it, all over his face he had rings and studs. A few on his eyebrows, one on his nose, a few on his left ear, and even a few on his lower lip. "Don't stop talking on my account." He said as he went over to the fridge.

"Oh, Jean, Kitty, Kurt, Evan, this is Nathan. Nathan, this is Jean, Kitty, Kurt, and Evan. And of course you already met Rogue and I." Scott said making the semi-formal introductions.

"Yeah, nice to meet you." He said as he opened up the fridge and began looking around in it.

"So uh... What's your power?" Kitty asked, somewhat friendly, and somewhat in a scared tone. There was something about this kid that just plain freaked her out.

Nathan stood up and walked over towards the table, holding something that resembled a slim-fast shake in his hand. "I kill things." He answered seriously as he took a seat and opened the shake.

"Excuse me?" Jean asked with a brow raised.

Nathan sighed as he took off his right glove. "Kitty right? Pass me a piece of fruit, but be careful, don't touch my skin."

Kitty picked up a piece of fruit and carefully, gingerly dropped it into his hand. At first nothing, but then towards the bottom a blackness seemed to creep over it and rapidly decay it, until nothing was left of the apple but black dust which rested in his hands.

He put his glove back on as he explained. "When I touch something, it dies. My skin creates these chemical toxins that automatically attack, destroy, and vaporize any organic material that they come in contact with." He said as he took a sip of the shake. "Can't eat organic foods, can't touch anyone's skin, can't touch any plants or animals, I can't do a lot of things, but I can kill things."

"That's... that's so sad." Kitty said with pity in her voice.

"Why? You shouldn't be sad. You didn't cause this, it's not your curse, not your problem." Nathan said as he fell silent again and took another sip of his shake.

"Well you seem tah be in a more sociable mood than you were yesterday." Rogue said, which somewhat surprised a few of the others.

Nathan shrugged. "Yesterday was a special day." He said as he stood up and began to leave, shake still in hand.

"Oh yeah? What was yesterday?" Evan asked just before Nathan made it out of the door.

Nathan stopped and seemed to hang his head a bit. "None of your business." He said simply and left.

"That was weird. He creeps me out." Jean said after he left.

"He is kind of creepy... but I don't know... he'd be cute without all those rings and stuff." Kitty said as she looked towards the door that Nathan had just left through.

Before any of them had a chance to say anything they were interrupted again, the others were back from shopping. In came Joe with a bag in each arm, and John and Will following close behind. "We're back. Well at least one car load of us is." John said as they all set the bags on the counter.

"We got the stuff for tonight." Will said with a smirk as he began to unload some of the bags.

"What all are you planning for tonight?" Jean asked looking to them.

Joe smiled as Will answered. "Oh you Bayville folk are in for a real party. New York City style." He said with a smile to Jean as he picked up a few paper plates and spun them on the tip of his finger like a basketball and set them down. "Hope you guys are in the mood for a party, it doesn't end until midnight."

Joe smiled somewhat. "Will's really gone all out on this one. This is going to be better than some of the parties he threw back in the city."

"Oh no." Elise said as she came in from the doorway. "I hope you don't destroy anything." Evan and Kurt laughed a bit.

"Oh come on. That was one time! And it wasn't my fault. Besides, there are gonna be chaperones at this party, what with the professor and all, and that Logan dude. Something tells me he's not going to be the definition of a 'party pooper'." Will said as he pulled out some sodas.

Kitty smiled. "He's alright. You just have to get used to him."

John smirked. "Well I don't think anyone really has to worry, I'm keeping an eye on my brother, nothing is going to get out of hand."

"You and that Logan fella should start a club." Will said as he, Evan, and Kurt laughed. Apparently they were the only ones that got the joke quickly.

MEANWHILE

"Hey, Doc. is it serious?" James asked as Beast stood studying his charts, which he had been doing for the past few minutes.

"Ah you're awake." Beast said with a pleasantly surprised smile on his face. "Well it's not serious any more. But there's something I must tell you. I'm afraid you won't be up for any strenuous physical activity for quite some time."

"Ah (bleep). Did I lose a leg or an arm or something?" James asked quietly, so as not to wake Rebecca or Jessica.

"Something..." Beast said cautiously. "You lost your heart."

"Uh..." James started.

"Let me explain." Beast began seeing the confused look on James' face. "You see just after you finished the danger room session, you shifted back into your normal physiology. Your skin became skin again. My theory is that all these years each time you shifted back into your normal form your heart took some damage for the transformation. That combined perhaps with the wrong kind of diet or lack of high-density-lipoproteins, ended up giving you a massive heart attack, which in turn caused heart failure and burst your Aorta."

"So what happened? You fixed it?" James asked concerned.

"Well not quite. You see your heart was so badly damaged that it was far beyond repair by the time you had the heart attack, we had to transplant you a new one. But because of the urgency of the case and other factors we were forced to use some unconventional methods and..." Beast paused.

"AND?!?!??" James shouted now, rousing Rebecca and Jessica.

"We had to transplant a machine created by a mutant named Forge that basically acts as an artificial heart. But you have to take it easy because we don't yet know the extent of control that your body has over the device." Beast said quickly.

James felt the left side of his chest, sure enough, he felt a few bumps, he removed part of his gown and saw a large scar just above were his heart would be, with a little bit of circuitry coming out of it and being graphed to his skin.

"You're awake!" His sister shouted as she woke up from James' shouting. "Rebecca! He's awake!" She said shaking Rebecca.

Rebecca awoke to see James up and feeling his chest were the circuitry now was above his heart. He looked down to her and smiled. "Guess I'll have to take it easy then until we find everything out." He said looking back up to Dr. McCoy. "How long until I can get out of this hospital bed though?"

"I want you to stay here until at least tomorrow. I need to monitor you for a bit to make sure you're going to be all right. But I see no reason why you can't be up and about by as early as tomorrow morning. With proper pacing of course." Beast answered.

"Yeah, yeah, you make me sound like an invalid." James said with a shrug. "I guess this puts an end to my weight lifting carrier."

"I've been meaning to speak with you about that. To be honest I'm amazed that this didn't happen much sooner than it did, but I need to know, where you ever on any drugs for enhancing your weight lifting performance?" Beast asked.

"You mean steroids? No. I never did steroids. But back when I lived in Chicago I did do drugs. I was involved big time with a local gang, but don't worry. I went through rehab and all a few years ago when we moved to New York City and Thomas found us." He said.

Beast looked to Jessica and she gave a saddened nod. "Okay then." He said marking a few things down.

Rebecca hugged him softly and sat back down. "It'll be okay." She said reassuringly. "Except for the weight lifting I don't think you'll ever notice the difference between now and before."

MEANWHILE

"Ah, Nathan there you are." Professor Xavier said as he wheeled into the room with Nathan sitting at the windowsill, looking outside towards the grounds. Logan was walking behind the professor but stayed silent for now. "This is Logan, he'll be your teacher in self defense, art, training, and he'll also be your counselor during your stay here." Charles said making the introductions. "Logan, this is Nathaniel Albarran."

"Nice to meet you kid." Logan said somewhat gruffly.

Nathan at first didn't respond but turned his gaze back towards the window. "Same here." He said finally. "You know if James is going to be okay? I heard about what happened in that danger room session."

"Yes, Hank says that he'll be fine, we're just waiting for him to wake up." Xavier said with a side-glance to Logan.

"Hank?" Nathan asked not recognizing the name.

"Yes, Dr. Henry McCoy, who I believe you met on your tour when you first arrived." Charles said politely.

"Yeah I remember, he's the one that was stupid enough to challenge Mike to a game of chess yesterday." Nathan said turning back towards them. "You must be the idiot that destroyed his book." He said looking to Logan.

"I'm getting the kid a new one." Logan mumbled in a growling tone.

Nathan smirked a bit and then turned back towards the window. A few seconds of silence past. "Why are you still here?" He asked turning to see the Professor and Logan still there looking at him.

"Nathan. I want you to know that any time you want to talk, you can come to either Logan or I." Charles said peacefully. "And nothing you have to say can be too gruesome or abnormal for either of us to handle. We're here to listen and to help you."

Nathan turned back to the window. "Help somebody who wants it. Can you remove my powers?" He paused and looked at the professor with a dead on glare that even the professor had to stop from shrinking away from. "Than you can't help."

"Very well Nathan. But we are here if you need us. We'll see you at Will's party tonight. Correct?" The Professor asked as he and Logan began to leave.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be there." Nathan said turning back to the window, right now he just wanted to be alone.

MEANWHILE

"I want to know why Xavier's brats where there!" Magneto slammed his fist against his desk. "You'll find out why." He said turning to the shrouded figure before him.

"Of course I will. It is what I said I would do." The man answered.

"How will you do it?" Magneto wanted answers, and he wanted them now. "A direct attack on Xavier's is not a good idea." He warned.

"There are ways of gathering information that do not include violence." The man answered. "Although I have nothing against it, I will find out the information you seek without killing or attacking anyone. I give you my word."

END

Author's Note: REVIEW!! REVIEW!! REVIEW!! REVIEW!! Please? I hope you guys liked this chapter, it was kind of the lull before the storm. The next chapter will have plenty of plot and action. I mean after all, it's a party.

Coming Soon... Chapter 6: New Year's