A soft breeze blew through the trees, rustling the new spring leaves. It blew down a small hill, the jade colored grass shining brightly in the sunlight. The breeze blew across a serene meadow to a large, well-kept garden.
In the center of the garden was a fountain with a large statue of an 'x' surrounded by a circle. Crystal clear water flowed down the silver 'x' and merged with the water below it only to be sucked into pipes and flow over the figure again. Sitting on the fountain's edge was a woman in her mid thirties, reading "Irish Rogue" by Emma Jensen. Her left hand drifted lazily over the water's surface as a breeze blew her flaming red hair around her head. Her emerald green eyes moved back and forth over the pages reading of Ailís O'Neill, daughter of a gentleman farmer, and Christor Moore, the Earl of Clane. She seemed so engrossed in the book that she didn't notice a man moving towards her until he sat down next to her on the fountain's edge.
She looked up from her book and smiled at her new companion. He smiled back, with warmth that she imagined would reach his eyes, if they weren't covered by a pair of red quartz glasses. She reached up to brush his brown hair from his face when the two heard the sound of laughter coming towards them.
Running around a corner came a small girl, cheeks flushed and chocolate brown eyes shining in merriment. She giggled as she ran to the couple, her brown pigtails waving behind her. She smiled at the two, and then turned her head around suddenly. Hearing footsteps she started laughing again and ran in the opposite direction she had come.
Seven years ago life, even for a mutant, was joyous and filled with everyday worries, and only everyday worries.
It was the picture of perfection in near Peach Lake that day. People were enjoying the wonderful weather, relaxing at the lake, sitting in the outside seating of the One Twenty One Restaurant, and walking down Peach Lake Road and the roads forming from it.
However, one person was not enjoying this beautiful day. Walking out of Peach Lake Market on Dingle Ridge Road, a man angrily whispered words like 'beschissen' and 'Zum Donnerwetter!' and 'gemein' at his wrist. His small bag of groceries swung on his arm as he pressed all the various buttons on his watch, trying to fix some unknown problem. After moments of fiddling with his watch, it started flickering, the light slowly fading from its face. He swore as it turned off entirely. Suddenly the man's brown-eyes turned yellow, pupils all, and his tan skin seemed to grow a light layer of blue fur. People watched as the man turned from something normal and everyday to a veritable demon. They quickly cleared a path, and the man started to walk forward. But he stopped, and in a split second, was gone in a puff of black smoke.
There was still hate, which will probably never go away. Human nature is funny like that.
The man appeared in the entrance of a large manor almost as quickly as he had disappeared. A group of teenagers around him glanced his way, but their attention was soon back to their conversation, as if his appearance was the norm. The man stomped his way up a large path toward the doorway of the manor, a small child ran out, straight through the great oak doors. She looked much like the man, skin covered with velvet-like indigo fur, yellow eyes shining with joy, and mouth opened in a grin to reveal sharp fangs where her canines should be. The young girl ran to the man and, in a small puff of blackened smoke, gently fell into his arms. 'It was strange,' thought the man, 'how such a small and innocent child could make someone forget all their worries.' With a laugh, the man carried the small girl inside.
But we were so close to the dream of peaceful coexistence.
Professor Charles Xavier, the founder of the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters and the X-Men, sat in his wheelchair looking around the park he currently resided in. He spotted another man, whose white hair made him look older than he was, play Frisbee with two small children. The white-haired man felt someone looking at him and turned around to notice Xavier. He leaned over the children, handing them the Frisbee, and walked over to the crippled man.
The white-haired man stared at Xavier, a look of deep thought on his features, "Hello. Have we met before?"
Xavier shook his head, "No, I don't believe we have." The white-haired man continued to look at Xavier, but soon gave up the futile effort of figuring out who the man was. As he walked back to the children, Xavier smiled at him and whispered, "It's good to see you again, Erik."
Years earlier Charles Xavier had made a man named Erik Lensherr forget his life as the criminal Magneto. In doing so Xavier had rid the world of an evil man, while still abiding by his rule of no killing unless absolutely necessary. He had thought that he would slowly rehabilitate Lensherr and eventually the world would not fear the power of Magneto, master of magnetism, but cherish it.
'It was the battle of the century,' thought a helmeted man as he watched from the sidelines. One side, the X-Men, seemed to be winning, but with battles like these you could never be sure what the other side had up their sleeves. The X-Men were confident, but the other side, The Brotherhood of Mutants, had the upper hand, they just had to use it. Next to the helmeted man, stood a blue woman, rich red hair falling over yellow eyes, a sinister grin on her face. She looked up at the man, "Are you ready for your grand entrance?"
The man nodded, and the metal disc the two were standing on floated down toward the battling groups. As if on their own, large pieces of metal from nearby buildings were ripped apart and molded into chairs, which moved themselves behind the X-Men. Screams were heard as the buildings fell, large gaps where the metal was torn from them collapsing. The X-Men gasped in surprise, for they knew only one person who had the power to do such horrible things. The watched as the helmeted man gently floated to the ground, violet cape moving harshly in the wind.
"I'm back." Was all he said, with a background of screams.
And then Magneto returned. The Brotherhood had somehow found out about Xavier's plan and returned Magneto's memory. The man, who was the largest threat to all baseline human kind, was back.
The day after Magneto's grand return, people were protesting outside the White House in Washington, D.C., holding signs that read 'It's not murder if it's a mutant!', 'God did not make mutants!', and 'Genetic Cleanliness begins at home! Have your babies tested now!' Uniformed guards exited the White House doors, positioning themselves to the sides of a large podium facing the large gates. Soon after, Henry Guyrich, President of the United States of America, walked out, followed closely by his vice-president, Graydon Creed.
Guyrich walked to the podium, brushing his bright red hair from his, and began to speak, cameras set up all around him, "My fellow Americans, it is my duty as President of these United States to protect my people. And, after the events of last night, I believe we have a great threat among us. They call themselves Homo Sapiens Superior, but they will be superior no longer. We all know that they are mutants, freaks of nature, and they aren't human so they don't deserve the God-given rights that us, as humans, get!" Everyone cheered, and Guyrich continued, "And, to protect ourselves, our children, and our future, I have decided to set up camps to hold the mutants, so we never have to worry about them again!" The crowd cheered, and Guyrich smiled to himself, feeling proud of the reaction. He turned his head to his vice-president, who grinned in response.
When people found out what Xavier had done, they started to think, 'If the X-Men can't be trusted, then what mutant can?'
A large group of mutants were crowded in a small train car. Many were crying, most were scared, and all were defeated. Each had just been taken from their homes, work places, or places they had once felt safe. They were taken from their lives, all because each and every one had an active x-gene. One little gene, one little difference in their genetic structure and they were deemed less then human.
With a jerking lunge, the train car stopped. The car door opened, shining bright light into the dimly lit train car. Uniformed military personnel strode into the car and started pulling mutants out. Jostled out into the sunlight many looked around for freedom, to see if this was all a big joke. It wasn't. The train had stopped in front of a large iron gate, 'Camp Prime' written above it in the same dark iron. In front of the gate stood another military personnel, but someone obviously higher in status, a general perhaps. He looked evil, especially to the mutants just moved from the train. The gates slowly creaked open, and the mutants were pushed through them. As the gates closed behind them, the group heard, "Welcome to the rest of your lives." Some turned to see the general grinning at them, and then they were shoved out of sight.
That's when most countries of the world built modern concentration camps to hold mutants. Everyone with an active X-gene was soon locked away.
Deep within a military base, in the middle of the United States, was the most advanced technology Homo sapiens had ever seen. Created by Reed Richards and Anthony 'Tony' Stark, both geniuses in their own right, was a massive computer. On the largest monitor, the computer was hooked up to many, were pictures of various mutants. In front of the many smaller monitors were people imputing information of mutants in military custody and mutants not.
A large man walked up to the large monitor, and shouted, "Get me the X-Men!" A small man started to type furiously, and soon another group of mutants were put on the screen. 'Few of them had been captured, and that was only because the mutants were surprised,' thought the large man as he stared at the screen, 'What we have to do is take them at home, but we need a list of the students before we can.' The man glared at the other people in the room, 'These are supposed to be the brightest minds when it comes to computers. If that's true, why don't I have a fucking list yet!'
Almost as soon as the man thought it, a yell of joy was heard. Running to area the yell was heard, the man saw a geeky little man, gleefully giggling, "We can finally get out of here." He turned to the man behind him, "Sir, I just hacked into the student database! We have a list of all the students!" The large man leaned to look at the monitor, then, seeing the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters student database, ginned and joined the smaller man in a laugh.
It seemed no mutant was overlooked. A United States government facility even hacked into the Xavier Institute student database. Luckily, they weren't able to access the Xavier Protocols, a database with all known mutants and how to fight them.
It was a quiet night at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters, like it usually was in Westchester County. By now, as it was very late in the evening, the student body and most of the staff were sound asleep. One staff member, a young brunette, was still awake. She sat in the Xavier Institute Library, reading one of the various novels. Hearing a small bang, she got out of the comfy red chair and walked toward the window. She saw little green lights on the grounds, and her first thought was, 'Night-goggles'.
Sprinting to the door, the young woman ran right through, and down a darkened hallway. She soon entered the sleeping quarters of the headmaster, Professor Charles Xavier. Waking him up, she explained the situation, mentally of course, and soon the entire school was awake, thanks to a psychic shove by Xavier. But it was too late…
The next morning on the 7 O'clock news, a male newscaster said, 'Last night the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters was raided, and all staff and students were taken to various camps around the states. None were left behind."
Xavier's mansion, the building which housed the Xavier Institute of Gifted Youngsters, was eventually raided; no student or staff member was left behind.
The Xavier Institute seemed empty. Nobody was in the dorm rooms, or the library, or any other room in the Institute. The military that had raided the Institute the previous night had searched all the rooms. However, there was one that they hadn't searched properly. One major piece of technology the Xavier Manor housed was called Cerebra. Any properly trained telepath could use it to enhance their telepathy tenfold. Underneath the walkway in the room that housed Cerebra, Xavier had built a small compartment. When Xavier had woken up the student and staff of the Institute, various members had moved six small children, whom were not staff or students, into the enclosure and there they stayed until the assorted technology informed them that all humanoid life was off the property.
Slowly, a previously unseen hatch opened from the floor of the walkway. First a young, blonde girl popped her head out of the hatch, then, when she had checked to see if the coast was clear, pulled herself out of the compartment. Once she had two feet firmly on the group, she kneeled before the hatch and pulled out another child, a slightly younger, brown-haired girl. The brunette sat against Cerebra, as the blonde pulled four more children through the hatch.
The six children slowly wandered to the upper levels of the Xavier Institute, only to find it in ruins. The building itself still stood firmly, but furniture and other assorted items were broken or overturned. The brunette started to restore the furniture to its proper positions, each piece floating in the air as she used her telekinesis. Another girl, a brunette with blonde bangs, helped the first right furniture, although using unseen muscle mass to do so. The blonde stared angrily at the area, before punching one of the walls, causing a large dent to appear. This caused the other five children to look her way.
The brunette walked over to the older girl, "It's going to be okay, Erica."
Erica looked at the brunette, and her head fell on the smaller girl's shoulder, "I know, Anna...it's just..." She trailed off and the two looked toward the other three children.
One of the boys, a dark-skinned, white haired boy, found a working computer and started to check for viruses and such on the network. He swiftly typed in a user name, MichaelMunroe, and a password. This brought up many programs and he went to work.
The other boy, a brunette, was holding the blue-furred girl as she broke down crying. Anna walked over to the two and placed a comforting hand on the blue girl's shoulder.
The blue-furred girl looked up with tearstained bright yellow eyes, "They're all gone, Anna. They took everyone."
Anna shook her head, "They didn't take everyone, Kauli. They didn't take us."
The military personnel who were sent to capture the students and faculty were uninformed of the six non-student or faculty mutants that were in the building. So they forgot us.
Slowly the manor was restored. The six young children seemed to be resourceful, and powerful. Anna sat in the middle of a room, and all of the overturned items were restored to their proper positions. Each item had a reddish glow around them as they moved, and the young girl had a bright phoenix symbol over her left eye. Helping Anna was the young girl with the blonde bangs; she moved swiftly from room to room carefully fixing the little objects, the ones that could be repaired at least. She found a broken picture frame and carefully pulled the picture out of it. The photograph was of the young girl and the brown-haired boy at some sort of carnival. On the back read, August 17th, 2020, Coney Island, Daniel and Jaclyn age 6. Jaclyn hugged the picture to her chest and softly cried. Erica had quickly disappeared to the lower levels of the Institute. There she worked at restoring the automobiles and the Blackbird that the military personnel had taken it upon themselves to destroy. Moving around the manor with a checklist, the brown-haired boy, Jaclyn's twin brother Daniel, grudgingly checked off all the items that could not be fixed. The last two, Kauli and Michael, were trying desperately to fix the Institute's assorted technology, such as the Danger Room and the school's network.
We are the first known mutants born from two mutant parents
The Danger Room was one of the most important pieces of technology in the Xavier Institute, and one of the hardest to fix. So, instead of using it, the children practiced their powers outside, although away from prying baseline eyes. Anna telekinetically lifted plastic discs into the air, so Michael could practice his control of the electric energies his body formed. Daniel fired spikes of ice and balls of fire at Kauli, who teleported away from some and phased through others. She then returned fire with bright blue 'hex bolts' so Daniel could work on his dodging. The last two girls, Jaclyn and Erica, were fighting each other, practicing the martial arts that all six had been required to learn.
We've all been mutants our entire lives, so we never had a chance to live a baseline existence, not that we would want to.
A young woman who bore a strong resemblance to Anna, although at least 10 years older, stood in front of Briar Cliff College in Iowa. She seemed unsure of herself for a moment, but soon she lifted her head, determined, and walked through the campus. A surge of power moved through the campus, the satellites far above the campus performing a mutant search, and a young man fell to the floor in pain. The young woman calmly walked toward him, placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. As soon as she had touched him, the pain the man was feeling had stopped. He looked up at the woman, confused, and then returned the smile. A group of uniformed 'Mutant Catchers' moved passed the two, as the young woman lifted the man up and placed a watch on his arm. They looked suspiciously at the two, but moved on their way. The young woman smiled once again at the man, and walked away without a word. The young woman disappeared in the crowd, and once the crowd dispersed, the woman was gone. He watched as a young girl walked to the edge of the campus. The little girl turned around and waved.
Having out mutations since birth, of course, works to our advantage.
Four years after mutants all over the world were put into concentration camps, Daniel walked up to a heavily guarded building. He walked up to the door, only to be stopped by one of the guards. Daniel looked up at the much taller man and pleaded with him, showing him a bag of medicine from the local drug store. The guards glanced at each other, looked around to see if any of their superiors were there and let Daniel through. Once inside the building he put a hand to his ear, listening to something. He nodded, walking to a set of elevators, and pushed the up button. As he waited for the elevator to arrive, he tossed the bag of medicine, which actually contained an empty pill bottle, into the trash. When the elevator finally came, he walked in and tried to tune out the lousy music as he pushed the button that read '15'. Looking around the elevator for some sort of camera and not finding one, Daniel lifted his hands, which now contained a ball of fire in one and a ball of ice in the other, and started to juggle them with practiced ease.
The balls disappeared as soon as the elevator door opened and Daniel walked out. He quickly made his way towards room 1528 and tried to open the door. When it wouldn't budge, he reached for his ear agina, this time whispering, "Ankaa, they either blocked the door or one of them is a telekinetic. Can I have help?" A response came swiftly as Anna and Kauli appeared at his side. Anna nodded to Kaulia, who disappeared again in a puff of smoke.
"Why couldn't we have just done that in the first place?" Daniel asked, as Anna tried to open the door. She put a finger to her lips, and then tried to open the door telekinetically. The door finally opened and the two walked inside.
They were greeted by a young boy holding a knife, "Come any closer and I'll stab you!"
Anna just smiled, and the knife floated out of the boy's sweaty grip, "You don't want to do that. We're here to help." The boy didn't seem to believe her and ran to two other young children, standing between them and Anna.
Daniel looked at Anna, "I don't think he believes you." Anna glared at him and returned her gaze to the young boy.
"We want to help you. We have someplace for the three of you to go and be safe." The young boy didn't look like he was going to give up that easily so Anna walked over to him, "Look, you're not safe here. The 'mutant catchers' are going to be up soon, so you just have to trust me." She walked back to the door, "Let's go." She walked out the door. Daniel looked at the three children, and after a second they decided to follow. Daniel hurried them out the door and through a back entrance where Anna waited for them.
After four years of 'mutant free' existence, we started 'saving' new mutants from getting imprisoned in the modern day concentration camps.
The siblings looked on in shock as a large mansion slowly came into view. The car they were currently in passed by the manor's large iron gate and stopped in front of the its grand front doors. The three siblings piled out of the car, followed by Anna and Daniel, and watched as the car drove itself into a rather immense garage. Daniel opened the front doors of the manor and the three children ran inside. When the two X-Men made their way inside, they saw the children standing in awe as they looked everywhere. Anna nodded to Daniel and walked away, waving the group off.
"Welcome to your new home." The three siblings continued to look everywhere, making Daniel think they weren't paying attention. But he continued to talk, "You are now in the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters."
They eldest boy looked up in surprise, "Isn't this place supposed to be gone? I mean, all the X-Men were taken to the camps, weren't they?"
Daniel nodded, "They were, but they missed us."
The middle child, a tall girl, looked at Daniel suspiciously, "What's so special about you?"
Daniel laughed, "Well…probably the fact that my mother is Rogue and my father is Iceman." The three children gasped in surprise, and Daniel realized he finally had their attention. He took the siblings for a tour of the building and explained their new lives at the Institute.
"But remember," Daniel told them, "You have to refer to it as Meadowlark's Institute for Higher Learning."
We reopened the Xavier Institute, under a new name of 'Meadowlark Institute for Higher Learning', thanks to Evaleen Meadowlark, a president of a prominent electronics company, when we 'saved her son.
Daniel walked down the white corridor, which lead to all of the 'X-Men' facilities, and shivered, as he always did when he walked down the hospital-like hallway. He saw Erica walking ahead of him and ran to her.
"Hey, Erica." He greeted when he finally reached her. She looked at him and nodded her own greeting before returning to the book in her hand. Daniel gave up on a long, interesting conversation with her, and the two walked into a room currently occupied by Anna, Kauli, and Michael. Jaclyn followed behind Daniel and Erica.
Daniel placed his arm on Jaclyn's shoulder and grinned, "Hey, Jac." Jaclyn moved, causing Daniel to become unbalanced and fall towards Kauli. Kauli ended up phasing out and Daniel hit his head on the table she was working at. Anna covered her mouth to hide a giggle as Jaclyn and Kauli 'high-fived', both laughing.
Daniel got up, rubbing his head, and muttered, "I hate you all."
This only caused Jaclyn and Kauli to laugh harder, and Anna to respond with, "We love you too, Daniel.
Daniel glared at his twin and the blue-furred girl, "Shut up." This only caused the two to laugh even harder.
And thus Generation Xtreme was formed