Disclaimer: I have to make some things clear before you read. First of all, I don't own the X-Men, Brotherhood, or any of the X-Men Evolution universe. That all belongs to Marvel. However, I do own the new character and the plot and events in this story. In addition, I also have altered to storyline of the true series a fair amount to fit my story so please bear with me on that and don't sue. This is my first attempt at an X-Men fic that contains an original character. This story contains much romance and emotion-filled moments. It contains mentions of pretty much every couple mentioned in the series. Other than the new couple that will be the center romantic focus of the story, Scott and Jean are mentioned the most often because I think that as the epitome of X-Men love, their feelings and influence on the new romantic attraction I will create is essential. PLEASE REVIEW! I must see you opinions and what you think!

Author's Note: For those of you who read this and a story I recently had on this website called "The New Mutation" in the past, you will probably see that they are the same story. Well that's true and also not true. This story will have the same new character, but the plot and storyline has been reinvented. I recieved several reviews for "The New Mutation" that indicated that it left much to be desired. So I am currently rewriting it in this form, with different events and different details, among other things. The title has also been changed, which is something fanfiction writer Agent-G suggested that I do. I hope you arn't too confused by all this. If you are confused feel free to Email me on this. I will happily answer any questions you may have!

CHAPTER 1

Unknown Mutant Signature

The sight of the street ahead at night was hardly something to consider worth spending time to look at, regardless of who would even take the time to look at it with any real interest of its features. There was nothing even remotely interesting about it at all; garbage cans lined up near a wall on one side, a dumpster and a fire escape walkway on the other along with plenty of graffiti, courtesy of those who couldn't care less about defacing public property.

But for the one person who happened to be on that street that night, it did provide something useful. It provided a space where one could spend time alone without much worry of being interrupted. A tall, intimidating, blond boy of nineteen walked past the backdoors of the buildings along the street. His green eyes missed nothing, his walk flawless in its movements-almost like the programming of a robotic creature being carried out with optimal efficiency. The expression on the boy's face would clearly indicate to anyone that he was beyond the mood for talking. Not that he wanted to talk to anyone anyway.

The boy's name was Simon Peter Valley. Simon Valley was by nature someone who kept to himself. He did have friends, but for the most part, he was a loner. He didn't place much trust in people other than himself and those he was really close to. Pretty much all his life, he had been that way; hard to get close to, a self-sustaining loner of the highest order, and one to whom amusement and happiness did not come easily. Five years ago however, he became even more extreme in that way of living. For it had been then that he had discovered he had secret, a very deep, dark secret.

During a hike up in the mountains of Oregon five years ago, Simon found out he was not normal. In fact saying he was not normal by ordinary standards would be the biggest understatement that could be said in his case. He had some type of power; a power that, he soon learned, was so powerful that he had to stay alert at all times to keep in under reps and out of sight. While hiking on a trail on a camping trip, he had come across a young teenage girl who was being attacked by four motorcycle thugs who happened to be in the vicinity for some reason or another. The four thugs were getting ready to commit things that would haunt the young girl for the rest of her life. Simon had become enraged at it, and then demanded that they let her go, the bikers got ready to rough him up. When he had brought up his hand, ready to fight back when they attack him, Simon saw his hand glow a fierce blue and release bolts of energy that sent the four bikers shouting and falling to the ground as they were zapped with intense electrical energy. The young girl, who saw the whole thing, then became more afraid of Simon that she had been of the bikers, and once Simon's eyes rested on her after he had recovered from his total shock at what he had just did, she had shouted "STAY AWAY FROM ME!" and fled. Left with nothing but his own amazement and the spasm-moving bodies of four fallen thugs, Simon could do nothing but return to his campsite with his mind awash with confusion and fear.

Practically every day since then had been a struggle to keep his bizarre power under tight supervision. Simon had decided that telling his parents right away would not be the wisest of choices. Letting himself figure out what was going on first was a better course of action. Think it over first; figure it out, first things first. Revealing his discovered power to his parents was among the hardest things he could have ever done in his life. Every single minute of that time was as fresh in Simon's mind as if it had been yesterday. He could never forget that day, even if he wanted to. He parents had been totally astonished by it, surprised, confused and shocked beyond comprehension. Just as Simon had feared, they had been frightened. That was the only word that could describe it, as bad as it may have sounded. Luckily, however, they soon recovered from their shock and they had managed to talk things over. Not having the slightest knowledge behind this newly discovered power, Simon's parents and himself agreed to keep it secret as best they could. The outcome of revealing his powers to his parents was not as bad as Simon had thought. So at least Simon had his parents to turn to in times of need.

Simon's family was very wealthy and well respected throughout Moonriver Falls, the mountain city where he lived. His father, Dr. Nicholas Valley, was a geneticist and biology researcher for a genetic research organization. His mother, Dr. Hillary Valley, was both a psychiatrist and a mental health specialist. Having parents with such high paying jobs like that, many citizens of Moonriver Falls' population of about 55,000 said that Simon had been raised in extremely privileged surroundings his whole life. And in many ways that was true. But Simon was far from being spoiled. All his life, he had never really demanded or asked for anything much in particular, only what he needed to live; clothes, food, supplies for school and life. In fact, he usually asked the servants at his parents' house to just let him take care of his own room and responsibilities. He worked hard to earn money and saved it up as best he could, spending it on things to entertain himself only occasionally. Being the loner type as he was made finding satisfaction with life in only himself a necessity.

But ever since that fateful day five years ago, Simon became even more distant that he had been prior to discovering his power. It had scared him half to death when he had first found out about it, and he still was, even now, five years later. He tired to understand his power as best he could, either by trying to harness it or ignore it. Ignoring it however seemed to be a bad idea. So he then persisted in trying to discover how to harness it. Hours spent in lonely locations in the mountains revealed more abilities still to him and as he learned more and the more about his powers and what he could do, the more cautious and disturbed he became. He had soon learned that there was more to his powers than simply electrical lightning. He had discovered he could make his energy do a variety of effects, like smashing a target, melting a target, pulverizing a target into little bits, even exploding a target in a fiery blast. He could even fly and even mold himself into all sorts of shapes. The list of abilites his energy granted him was indeed a long one, even though he discovered he could only do so many feats at a time, each for so long a time.

The primary rule Simon had set for himself was to never use his power in view of the public, or anyone for that matter unless it was a life and death situation. As crazy as it may have seemed to others, Simon set lots of rules for himself regarding his powers. In many movies, television shows and literature, he had encountered many stories involving characters with super abilities, even though they were none like his own, the Jedi in Star Wars, the Prime Directive in Star Trek, the list just went on and on. Along with those, there were rules followed by heroes and how not following such guidelines created villains who did horrible atrocities. Even though these stories, characters, powers, and villains were fictional, Simon couldn't deny that they held a great amount of truth. Following strict regulations could help keep one's power from going out of control. But even more importantly, it kept others safe and kept one's power from going to his head. Things like that could drive a person to do things beyond forgiveness.

Having all that inspiration of what was right and what was wrong regarding those with special abilities, Simon created a strict code of rules for himself to follow. He had to use his powers carefully, never really expose them. If he did, there was no telling what could happen or who would become involved. He sometimes had the crazy notion that if the U.S. government discovered his power and its amazing variety of abilities, strengths, and capabilities, they would probably do what they did in the movies and the like, move him to a research facility, study him, poke and probe him, see if they could do the same to others, cage him like a lab rat. He would never do that in a million years.

Even though Simon did want answers for the reason he had these unique gifts, he was too afraid to go to any doctor or scientist to look for them. Even his parents had agreed with him that he not go to anyone to reveal this. Over the years, Simon had thought endless lists of possible explanations to his power. He had never seen anything that was like his powers in anything that was natural. Maybe he was cursed or because of some alien experiment on him. Eventually, he didn't call it magic or anything that was explainable. Heck, Simon just couldn't guess for a logical explanation, for as far as he could tell, there wasn't one. Walking up and down the streets of the city was beginning to grow tiresome for Simon. Although he was a very athletic teenager who had ablack belt in tae kwon do and a few other forms of martial arts, even he had his limits. He wondered if he should be getting home about now. His parents had a limit of staying out until one in the morning, no later.

Simon looked at his watch. He'd been walking since 10:15 and it was already fourteen minutes to midnight. Did time and walking mix together to create a fast-forwarding of time effect? Probably no, though Simon, but I might as well get back to my house. Anyway there was nothing new to see or do in Moonriver Falls in this part of town this time of night. Nodding to himself, even though no one was present, Simon turned and started to walk back the way he had come.

Jenny Courtney and Annie Howardson were disappointed more than anything, but not angry. They'd both been wanting to shop till they dropped that night. There was nothing the two of them liked to do more than shop in their favorite stores on Friday nights, which was pretty much they're favorite day of the week. Fridays meant the weekend, and the weekend meant fun and games, no school for two whole days.

But now, they were not shopping till they dropped or anything. They were driving in Jenny's 1996 Thunderbird down St. Alexander Boulevard toward another section of Moonriver Falls, for the new dress store they had hopped to shop at was closed. Now they had to find something else to occupy themselves with.

"Man, this stinks," groaned Jenny, "I thought that new store would be open tonight."

"You said it. What kind of store is it that closes at 7 p.m. on a Friday night? It's a rip off," agreed Annie, "I was looking forward to this all week."

Jenny couldn't agree more. New clothes, new store, closed by 7 p.m. on a Friday. Talk about a bad combination.

"Well, I guess we'll have to find something else to do," said Annie, "Any ideas?"

"We could see if they're any cute guys around?"

"Sure is worth a try. But we might find some cool arcade or something as well."

"Well then, let's go."

The girls continued to drive around downtown Moonriver Falls. Since it was Friday, there were plenty of shops all about that were swarming with customers and shoppers. Looking this way and that, they saw all types of things that were their interest. Music, movie theaters, book stores, even a pet shop or two here and there. But what Jenny and Annie really wanted was some excitement, some action, some adventure. It was getting late, but they were night people, and one of the disadvantages of being a night person was the fact that some big adventure was sometimes hard to find. But that didn't stop them from looking at least.

"Hey, Jen, how 'bout some music?" asked Annie as they turned to a lonely part of town, where there were not many around and about.

"You go, Girl," Jenny grinned.

Annie switched on the radio and started to surf the frequencies. She continued to fidget with the knob until she found "If You Were A Woman (And I Was A Man)" by Bonnie Tyler. "This is a good one," said Jenny.

They listened to the song for a while. The way Bonnie Tyler said the words and the words themselves really had an effect on the girls. It made them want to prove their equality to males, even though they both had proved it on many occasions. Unfortunately, their music was interrupted suddenly. "We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you this news bulletin. Five armed suspects have robbed the First National Bank in downtown Moonriver Falls of over 50,000 in cash. Suspects fled the scene of the crime under five minutes ago in a stolen armored transport car. Police are in pursuit going down," Annie turned the radio off.

"Wait Annie, why'd you turn that off?" asked Jenny, suddenly a little afraid by what she had just heard. They were in downtown Moonriver Falls and were fairly close to the bank that the radio announcer had mentioned. Her caution mode was not up and running in full throttle, adrenaline surging through her.

"That idiot radio reporter just stopped out music when it was in chorus," Annie protested, "So what if the bank was robbed. We're not involved so we have nothing to worry about."

But Jenny was not so convinced. "Anne, look we're in the same part of town as that robbery. I know it's not likely but," Jenny never got the chance to finish her sentence. Suddenly up ahead of them, a huge pair of headlights, in high-beam mode, blinded them both, glaring with blazing brilliance.

Jenny was suddenly paralyzed with fear and confusion. A car was coming straight at them. And from the look and sound of it, it was coming up at least 70 miles an hour. Jenny recovered as quickly as she could to get her car out of the way. She was so shook with fear that at first she didn't know whether to turn the car right or left.

"JENNY!" Annie wailed from the passenger's seat, covering up her head with her hands. The sound of Annie's cry may have made a switch in Jenny's head click. She suddenly chose left, for no apparent reason, and swerved the Thunderbird with a quick swing of the wheel. But she did it too much too soon. She car suddenly tipped onto the driver's side and started to roll. Jenny and Annie continued to scream as the vehicle rolled like a toy. It crashed to a stop against a street lamp, the force of the crash bending the pole.

When Jenny finally opened her eyes, she was upside down, still in her seat, seat belt buckled. The Thunderbird was lying on its roof, upside down in the most extreme sense. Jenny could only look to see if Annie was till alright. Annie was struggling to get herself out of the seatbelt and out of the car. The windows were shattered, so at least there would be any trouble getting out once she was free. Jenny realized that she had to get moving herself. After a minute or two of struggling, she had unbuckled the seatbelt and crawl out her driver's side door. She was just about to get up when she saw that she was lying at someone's feet. Then something cold and metallic was in front of her forehead. It was the muzzle of a revolver. She looked up to see a tall man in a black outfit and a black ski mask covering his face standing over her. This was clearly not a good situation. "Don't move girly, or you'll have a little hole where your skull is," said the man in a dangerous voice. Jenny was so terrified that she didn't even move.

"Looks like we got ourselves another hostage," a voice came up from beside the man. It took Jenny a fair amount to work up the courage to look at who had spoken. But somehow she did. She saw Annie in the arms a huge bear-like thug dressed the same way the man in front of her was, holding Annie in a headlock with a semi-automatic assault rifle aimed at her head. Annie was whimpering, tears running down her cheeks in fear of being shot. Jenny didn't dare move, for it might put her friend in danger. The next thing she knew she was being hauled to her feet by the back of her neck. The man was strong, much stronger than she was. The pull was merciless and powerful, forcing Jenny to stand before she even knew she was doing it.

The armored car parked nearby came to her attention. On its side it read in large yellow letters FIRST NATIONAL BANK, MOONRIVER FALLS, WASHINGTON. All hopes of safety turned to water in Jenny's mind. As circumstance would have it, the robbery was involving them.

Simon Valley moved along the sidewalk down the street with an almost tank-like tread. Even though he was not the heavily armored army assault vehicle with enough firepower to turn a building into flaming rubble, he did indeed have an imposing presence to him in a way that could be compared to a tank.

After leaving the empty ally he had stopped at over ten minutes ago, he had walked down the street for over five blocks. Still, he had over forty minutes of walking to do before he reached the road that led up to his parents' mansion that was about two miles out of city limits. Simon walked fast, for he walked that way a lot. Covering distance with speed while not running was a good way to go.

He continued on his walk, passing parked cars, garbage cans left outside for the sanitation department to pick up, and stoops, some of them occupied. Ahead of him, he saw a stoop where four girls were sitting. There were two bottles of wine at their feet and he noticed that they were all smoking. Simon didn't see any good value in either drinking or smoking. He had heard well enough what those things did to a person's health and he wanted to remain the healthy young man who he was. But that didn't really bother him. The girls, he noticed, were dressed in party cloths; flashy skirts, party dresses, spaghetti strap tops, and ridiculously high-heeled shoes. They were pretty enough, but Simon was not interested in pretty girls at the moment. He just hoped that they wouldn't give him any trouble when he walked by.

Continuing his pace, he moved past the group without so much as noticing it. So far, they weren't giving him any trouble.

But when he was no more than a few meters from the stoop, he heard a high squeaky voice behind him. "Hey, you. Aren't you going to say hello to us ladies?" a girl's voice asked in a teasing, slightly seductive manner. Simon stopped walking and turned his head to face the group. All of their eyes were on him, twinkling with mischief and some delight. They were also grinning.

"You look like a real lady's man, Stud," said one of the girls, a short, grinning blonde in a scarlet tank top wearing thick makeup, "Want to party with some real party girls?"

I hate girls like this, Simon thought, trying to get guys to do things for them so they can rip them off. Simon didn't say anything out loud, nor did he flinch or blink. He stood there, looking at them nonchalantly.

Suddenly, one of the girls' eyes widened, as did her grin. Simon recognized her. It was Jessica Garfell, a junior at the school he went to. Rumors had it she was a girl who took boys for only a little while and then threw them away like they were worthless. Simon had made an oath to himself to not be swindled or anything like that by the opposite sex. "Whoa, girls, check it out. It's Simon Valley," Jessica said with glee, her eyes sparkling with excitement which Simon found irritating. The other girls' smiles and eyes perked up as Simon's name was mentioned.

"The rich stud muffin you've told us about?" asked one next to her, smiling wider than before, "Hey, he's cuter than you said."

"A lady's man with lots of green," said Jessica, "I admire that in a man. You want to have some fun with us, Simon?"

Simon's annoyance was growing by the minute. If these girls were trying to sweet talk him into doing something, they would have to do a lot better than that.

Jessica led the trio with her down the steps of the stoop and started to proceed towards Simon. He didn't move an inch from where he was standing.

"Come on, sir. We'll have lots of fun," one of them urged.

"Yeah, let's party all night long."

Simon had finally reached his limit for pitiful excuses of attempts to sound like great women. The four girls finally stopped several feet from him, grinning like there was no tomorrow.

Simon's expression went from blank to annoyed. And then he did something he almost never did in front of another person. He let his eyes glow.

The smiles on the girls' faces suddenly vanished. Fear, shock, and confusion replaced their excitement and hope. Their eyes widened. Simon's eyes, which were usually bright green, where now glowing. Instead of being the fierce emerald green, they were now a vivid electric blue. It was almost like blue light and electricity was building up inside each orb and radiating the brilliance that came with it.

The girls took a step back. They started to tremble. "You girls are getting on my nerves," Simon said flatly, his eyes still glowing blue.

"Look, Simon," Jessica stammered, "we're sorry. We just wanted to have fun and we were just hoping you could lend us a buck or two."

How pathetically predictable, thought Simon.

"We just spent all our money on the smokes," said the blonde, shivering at Simon's eye radiance, nervously smiling as sweetly as she could to get him to lighten up.

"You're all overpaid as it is," Simon replied coldly, "Hit the road."

The girls turned and fled as Simon spoke those words. He watched as they vanished up the street. His eyes stopped glowing and became their usual green. In spite of himself, Simon smiled. That felt good. At least they wouldn't try to sweet play with him anymore. He didn't have to worry about the strange phenomenon. If they told anyone about how his eyes glowed, no one would believe them. He hadn't used any major power or anything. It would pass soon enough.

He turned back the direction that he was headed before and walked on. At least there weren't any more problems that might cause him disturbance. He walked on down the sidewalk, his golden blond hair glinting in the light of the street lamps. A cool breeze blew through the air, feeling good on Simon's face. He licked his lips to moisten them.

As he passed a closed drug store on a street corner, Simon noticed something that caught his attention full blast. Several figures in black were holding two teenage girls captive in their custody at gunpoint. They were also carrying several large bags of cash with them. Simon could tell the girls were frightened beyond comprehension. Tears were flowing down their cheeks, their bodies limp in defeat. They weren't even struggling. They were too frightened to try anything, which was probably wise, for if they did, they may be shot. As Simon watched the group from a distance, they disappeared into an abandoned building nearby.

Simon didn't move from where he was until both the thieves and their hostages were out of sight. Once they were, he emerged from around the corner to investigate further. An armored car was parked right in the middle of the street around the corner, doors open, lights still on. On the sidewalk was a totaled Thunderbird lying upside down against a lamppost that had been bent into a funny shape. The condition of the vehicles and the recent events he had just witnessed made what was going on crystal clear for Simon.

His mind began to tumble with what he should do. The authorities wouldn't be much in the way of help once they arrived, for hostages were present. Plus lives may be lost. Heck, it seemed that no one could pretty much do anything with this except make it worse. Simon almost sighed at what he chose to do. If there was anyone present who could stop the culprits and save the hostages, it was him. His mystical powers could aid him. In fact, he often thought that his powers made him unstoppable, even though he never really tried out anything to see if that assumption was correct. But he quickly put that thought aside. He needed to act quickly.

Making sure no one was around or watching him, Simon slipped into a dark alley between two buildings. The alley was darkened with being narrow and shadowy as well. And because Simon was all dressed in black, it would make him even less visible to civilians. Simon looked up towards the tops of the buildings on either side of the ally. He needed a place where no one would see him to carry out something before he entered the abandoned building. The rooftop of the building would be ideal.

Simon's eyes started to glow blue again, but the glow this time was brighter, more brilliant, and more electrical than before. Soon his eyes became featureless with the power, the color hiding all traces of his eyes in human form. He raised his arms and reached upward toward the sky. His body began to glow blue like his eyes, his fierce energy outlining him in sheathing. Theabilities of the blue energy began to go to work. Simon's body was being lifted off the ground, the nature of the power detaching him from Earth's gravitational pull. Simon rose straight up toward the top of the buildings like an elevator. Higher and higher he went, not afraid of the increasing altitude.

Finally the top of the building came into view and Simon maneuvered himself over the edge and onto the roof. As his feet met solid matter, he canceled the energy out. The blue glow faded from him and gravity regained control, but as Simon was already touching the roof, he didn't fall an inch.

Once that was done, Simon got ready to perform what he considered his "armor spell." From what he had discovered about it, it not only hid his identity, but also armor him with some indestructible substance. And because he was going to take on five thugs armed with assault rifles and rescue two innocent civilians, he had to protect himself from the gunfire and hide his identity so that no one would recognize him. If he was recognized while using his powers, his fate would be sealed.

Simon stood statue still where he had set himself down. He closed his eyes and concentrated. Performing this feat took a lot out of him, but while it took a lot of strength from him, it actually returned that lost strength to him tenfold after the transformation, for he also gained increased strength, speed and agility with this spell.

Suddenly the transformation began. Simon's solid body began to change. Light enveloped him and his body transformed. He flashed with brilliant blues, whites, and silvers,the intense colors flashing as his body morphed from its solid form into pure energy. His bones, flesh, organs, blood, cells, and tissues transformed into pure energy. Then, starting at his feet, shimmering blue light began to move up toward his head, over his legs and up to his torso, then to his arms, and head. As the light traveled up in a line, it left behind the armor. As soon as it went over the last part of his skull, he entire body, now in its energy form, was encased in some sort of shell-like protective outer sheathing that was stronger, more resilient, and more resistant to damage than reinforced titanium steel armor. Along with his new armor and body composition came enhanced strength, speed, agility, and reflexes. In this form, he would be virtually unstoppable on the battlefield and totally resistant to any gunfire than would come his way. But more importantly, no one would know his true identity.

The strength and other enhanced abilities surged through Simon, filling him with energy that would put the power produced by an entire thunderstorm to shame. The feeling was incredible; it was like his body was being energized by a nuclear fusion reactor instead of food nutrients and metabolic chemical reactions. He had never felt this alive, this energized.

He turned his eyes, now featureless,glowing spheres, to the abandoned warehouse. He clenched his now armored fist.Blue thermal energy surged through his energy-composed flesh and over his armored exterior in glowing rivers of light and glowing specks, making his hand flare with the intense heat like a gas flame.

Simon canceled the energy he had started. He couldn't do any attacks out in the open. That would attract attention. And the fewer who saw him in his armored form the better. His glowing blue eyes flared. Then, his entire armored body was outlined in the radiance like before. Simon walked quickly to the edge of the roof, scanning the street below for any observers, which he didn't want to have. Seeing he had none, he leaped off the roof, but instead of falling, the blue energy held him up in the air as if he was weightless, and then he flew. Flight was the action's name. He was flying over the street in a quick attempt to reach the rooftop of the warehouse before he was seen. The whole act took only two minutes. That was it. Simon reached the roof and let his blue energy fade away.

So far, everything was going perfectly. Now all he had to do was to get inside and finish the job. He noticed a skylight near him. He walked over to the glass and looked down. Even though his eyes were now pure energy and not solid in any way, Simon could still see as well as any human being, better in fact. The building was an old warehouse, old crates and boxes stacked high and all about down below. There were cranes, pulleys, and rusty pipes going up and down the walls. The two girls were in a corner huddled together. Two of the thugs were guarding them, guns ready to fire. The other three were pouring out the stolen money onto a bare wooden table in the center of the room.

Simon never expected this task to be easy, and it was confirmed that his assumptions were correct. With his magical alien powers, he could do anything. But he had a high sense of honor and self-disciple, which prevented him from causing harm or for using it for personal gain. First step was finished. Time for step two.

If there was anything more terrifying in the world, Annie would be surprised that it was possible. The armed thieves were holding them captive, had forced their custody upon them. What could possibly be more frightening that having a gun, armed and loaded, pointed at you a little more than a few feet away? Pretty much nothing was.

"Please, let us go," Annie pleaded, "We haven't done anything to,"

"Quiet, honey," one of the thugs snapped suddenly, "You keep your pretty little words to yourself. If you attract attention, I'll keep you quiet with my little silencer here." He pointed to the silencer on the end of the barrel of his pistol.

Annie quieted down, tears welling in her eyes. He knew exactly what he meant by keeping her quiet with his silencer.

The three thieves at the table started emptying the bags of cash onto it. Huge bundles of dollar bills were soon piled high on the table. They began to start sorting through them. "Man, we're loaded here," said one of them excitedly.

"You said it, bud," said another.

Annie was quivering with terror at the current situation, but Jenny seemed a little more determined to show that she was fearless, or at least pretended to be. "The cops will catch you jerks," she said defiantly, "You'll be hauled off to the slammer before you can even get out of town," The leader of the group suddenly drew up his attention from the piles of money on the table. His eyes narrowed with fury through the holes in his mask. "You have a lot of mouth for a little girl," he said dangerously. The tone of the man's voice portrayed its message as clearly as if he had said the message word for word. Careful or you'll be hurt. Annie and Jenny grew pale at the man's words. Annie grabbed onto Jenny for protection though, it was obvious to both for them that they would need more than that.

The gang leader left his position at the table and walked over to where they were sitting. His presence presented a scary figure and shadow that really intimidated the two teenagers. Werewolves were a pretty good resemblance to the figure he presented. He looked down on the two youngsters, regarding them as weak, foolish and insignificant. Being under the man's shadow seemed to evaporate Annie's last bits of courage she had left.

The man knelt down slowly. His gaze went from Jenny to Annie to Jenny. Finally, his gaze rested fully on Jenny. Jenny was so terrified she didn't even breathe. She prayed the man wouldn't hurt her.

Without warning, the man's hand shot up to her jaw and seized it. Jenny suddenly found herself caught in a jaw-grip. The man was clearly stronger than she was and it seemed like he could rip her mandible bone out of its hinge if he wanted to . "You be quiet or I'll use Mr. Steel to do it for you," he whispered dangerously. He reached for a sheath in his belt and drew out a long stainless steel combat knife. Light glinted off the jagged blade in sharp pins. Raising the blade up to Jenny's cheek, he dragged it lightly across her skin. The sensation made Jenny wince. Being wounded as a mere inch away from her.

Then she heard it. It was a thud, like something heavy landing on concrete. It jerked her to attention even more. At first she thought that maybe she was hearing things, but then she realized that the gang members were looking around as well. Where had that sound come from?

"What was that?" asked one thug, "Is someone trying to mess with us here?"

The man with the combat knife rose from his kneeling position near Jenny and Annie. He now held the knife in a battle-ready grip incase someone tried to mess with him. Annie was wondering just who or what was causing that noise. Was someone coming to their rescue? But how could that be possible? No one had been around when the had been captured by the five bank robbers. How could anyone possibly be coming for herself and Jenny? But maybe she was wrong. She didn't, however, want to get her hopes too high. Chances were they wouldn't make it out of this. At least not without getting hurt.

"Are you sure no one was out there?" asked the gang leader to a thief who was armed with an assault rifle.

"I'm positive," he replied, "I didn't see anyone out there when we snagged these kids and ditched the armored car."

The overhead light bulb in the ceiling suddenly flashed brightly and then burst into dozens of tiny sharp splinters, leaving the room dark.

"Hey what gives here?" one gang member demanded.

"This is too weird, guys," said another, "I say we split."

His words drew the gang leaders attention. Although Annie, couldn't see the man, his words made his emotions clear. "Split? No way, we've been planning this robbery from months now. We're not chickening out right here."

"Jenny," whispered Annie to her friend, "What do we do?"

"I don't know," she replied.

Just then, a faint whisper-like sound reached Annie's ears, followed by a loud thump on the concrete floor.

The robbers' attention perked up instantly. "There's someone in here," the leader stated, "get ready to fire on him if he dares show his face."

The thieves brought up their weapons and got ready to fire.

Having been armed with heavy weapons as these gangsters were, Simon wouldn't have stood a chance if he was mere flesh and blood. But he wasn't. He was phantom energy and armored shell. He had taken out the overhead light using his power to create crushing stress on the bulb. Now the room was dark, save for some windows of the light that were present resulting from the faint yellow light pouring into room from the street lamps on the corner.

Ordinarily, Simon wouldn't have been able to see well at all in darkness like this, but in his newly transformed state, he could see as well as if he were in broad daylight. It was almost like a bat's senses. He could tell which red humanoid shapes were the girls and which were the robbers. In fact, all of their features were as distinguishable as if seen by normal human optical organs. The only real difference was that they glowed with a fierce red aura. It was almost like infrared/ultraviolet vision, with purple and white energy color signatures mixed in for more in-depth perception. Stranger still, he could actually feel the people move. Even stranger, he saw people's blood and muscles move in their bodies while he was in his current form, but whenever there was movement, he could feel it, either if it was in the air or the ground. It was like he was totally connected to any movement, sound, or source of heat or energy in his surroundings.

Either way, he was in position and all. Nothing could stop him now. He had to make this as subtle as he possibly could. He had discovered that using his plasma or electricity attacks, could create massive explosions easily. Blasts like those were more than possible. In fact, they were guaranteed. He had to do this without drawing attention. This would basically be a stealth and hit operation. Use small power and armor to keep safe and identity secured.

The quiet thud of his armored feet hitting the floor was his next cue. The thugs heard him hit. Power superiority over machine obsoleteness was about to prove itself one more time.

"Come on out you freak!" the gang leader shouted angrily, "We know you're in here somewhere!" No response to his demands.

Annie and Jenny huddled close together hoping that the thugs wouldn't notice them, but they didn't dare try to make any sort of escape attempt. Annie silently prayed that whoever was in the warehouse would take the thugs down.

"Jerry," the gang leader ordered one of his men, "go check out behind that stack of crates will ya?" The man he had called Jerry nodded. He raised his assault rifle and made his way toward a tall wide stack of crates that was at the far side of the room. Slowly, slowly, he approached it, peeing ever so slightly around the corner. Raising his rifle and turning the safety mechanism off, he pounced around the corner. He couldn't see anyone in the shadows behind the crates.

Annie and Jenny were watching the entire scene with frightened eyes. Annie was clutching Jenny tightly, afraid to let her go. She wanted her friend to be close to her. As Annie watched, she noticed something move in the corner of her eye. It was hardly noticeable, but noticeable. It was almost like a small swish the shadows. But then it was gone, as if nothing had been there. I must be going crazy with fear, Annie thought.

Jerry turned his head back to meet the others. "There's no one back here," he said.

One of the others started to back away slightly, as it he was afraid of what was going on. He stopped near another huge pile of old crates.

"Are you sure?" asked the gang leader.

"As sure as I can be," answered Jerry, "It's hard to see anything in this darkness." He turned to look again.

A loud OOOFFFF! made all the gangsters snap around. All of them raised their weapons, ready to fire. What they managed to see made their eyes widen. The one who had backed up against the other pile of crates was lying facedown on the floor, unconscious. Before anyone could recover from the sudden discovery, he was dragged away into the shadows behind the crates, as if by an invisible hand. Within a few seconds, he had vanished from sight.

Annie and Jenny's eyes grew two sizes larger. Something was defiantly going on. Something big. And it scared them to death. This was defiantly something big. Someone was in the warehouse with them. Someone who was amazingly skilled with stealth moves and attacks.

"JOE!" called out the leader of them all. He turned to face the others. "Fan out!" he ordered. The others immediately complied. The began to move away from each other, but reluctantly. Adrenaline was surging through their bodies like water through a pipeline. This was getting bigger and bigger by the second.

A few seconds later, the remaining four thugs had spanned out across the room. All of the robbers had their weapons ready. They were going make sure that whoever was doing this crazy ninja act wasn't going to make it out. One of the thugs disappeared from view behind some tall piles of crates at the far end of the room. The others tended to keep out in the open. Being out in the open would give them an advantage, for the attacker would have to show himself to get close. But then again, it was fairly easy to get close enough without being seen in this darkness.

For a few moments, there was nothing but silence in the big room. Then, without warning, a bright flash of blue light exploded from behind the loading crane on the left-hand side of the room. Everyone's eyes turned to see what was going on. Not a moment too soon they did it. Just as they looked at the direction of the flash, the gang member who had been looking in that location was over five feet in the air and was flying straight towards the wall. From what Annie could tell there were what looked like bright blue lightning bolts snaking over the thug's body like tentacles in a electrical current. The man was flying through the air so quickly that Annie could only glimpse the fact that he was flying as if thrown and the energy before he slammed into the wall he was sailing towards before crashing into it with a hard smack. Then the man fell to the floor unconscious. The force had been so great it had knocked him out cold.

"WHAT THE?" yelled the gang leader.

"LET'S SPLIT GUYS," Jerry called, "This is too weird."

Jerry was about to go on, but his words were interrupted when a swish of color, a glint of light and brilliance leaped out from behind the crane and landed snap dab in the middle of the triangle that was formed by the bodies of the three remaining bank robbers. In the darkness Annie could not see what the shape was, it seemed to be humanoid, but she couldn't be sure. She thought she could see strange blue patterns like glowing crystal. In fact, they actually seemed to pulse to some kind of internal beat. The effect was chilling.

No sooner than the person wearing the flashing colors landed on the floor than the three gunmen started open firing with their guns. All three thugs fired simultaneously. Bullets smashed and crashed into the floor full force, chipping the concrete and sending sparks flying. Annie and Jenny both screamed. Whoever has wearing the eerie pulsing colors was to die right now.

Annie, almost had to cover her eyes from the carnage, but she couldn't find the strength to lift her hands to do the job. She couldn't even move her eyes to look away. Sights like this could paralyze her with fear, as it was right now. To her surprise, the man-shape didn't fall dead to the floor. Instead, it bent its body to one side and cartwheeled toward one of the firing robbers. It moved with a fluidic-like grace, almost like it was built for such movement. Its speed surprised Annie too, it was so quick.

Once it was near the gunman, it stood straight up again. Since Annie was directly behind the thing, she could get a better glimpse of it now. She really did see the body structure of a human now, but nothing else new other than that. The man-thing delivered a swift backhand blow to the thug's head, making his head snap backward. Even before the being finished making that move, it was making another one. It seized the rifle in the robber's hand and threw it away like it was a toy. Even then it made another move. It bent down as quickly as an eye could blink and did a low sweeping kick to the thug's knees from behind, making the masked gangster fall to the floor. A swift kick to the side of the skull put the gangster's lights out.

The two remaining thieves turned their guns on the glowing man-shaped pattern of lines and started firing. Both were certain they would kill this maniac now. The bullets hit their target, but there was no sound of metal puncturing skin into flesh, no sound of blood splashing from the impact. Instead, there were bright sparks flying off the shape as if spark-filled bubbles were popping on its exterior. The shape didn't fall. Didn't even miss a beat.

Since the thing's back was to them, none could see its front. But then, a brightlight suddenly flared, creating a silhouette. It was now confirmed that the shape was a man's, but there was something else too. From what Annie could see, the exterior of the man thing was shiny, for it gleamed under the fierce blue light. In addition, she saw what looked like some sort of horn like crest curving over the top of the thing's skull. Just what was this thing anyway?

Almost like a wheel spinning, the armored, line decorated man swirled around and let loose the source of the blue light. The light was so fierce, Annie had to squint. It looked like he was holding a blue ball of pureenergy, as large as a mini-soccer ball. Annie soon realized that the man was actually throwing the ball of blue energy at one the robbers. The man-thing's aim was perfect. The glowing blue sphere hit the gunman right in the center of the chest. Once it struck, the ball exploded into a cloud of phosphorescent gas and sparks, casting a quick flash of luminance over the entire room. The thug was then off his feet, flying backward from the energy blast momentum. He crashed into an old wooden box resting against the wall. As soon he hit it, Annie could hear the sound of wood breaking and splintering in her ears. The blast had been so strong that it had actually caused the man to break through a wooden box.

Now, only the gang leader remained. "I'm gonna take you down!" he roared at the strange being. Now that the being was facing the leader, Annie could see the front of the creature. She looked at its face and gasped. Where a man's eyes would normally be, she saw two giant glowing eyes, without irises or pupils, flaring a fierce, vivid blue. There appeared to be a glow of the same color in the mouth of the creature, but it seemed to be coming out from the inside of the mouth for some reason. But how was that possible? And those-those, TEETH! Giant fangs like those of a saber-tooth tiger! Sharp and pointed.

The alien-like being kept its gaze on the leader, who had drawn his combat knife. Neither Annie nor Jenny could really see well in the darkened room, but they did see the outline of the knife's jagged blade. Their eyes turned back to the alien to see how he would react.

The gang leader charged at the being with murderous intent. But before he could get any closer, the being let loose twin blue blast beams from his eyes. Theenergy beams flashed with bright energy and light, lighting up the room. They hit the gang leader in the torso, sending him flying back. He slid along the floor with the force of the eye beams. He thumped against the wall and lost consciousness.

Jenny and Annie were both screaming through all this. But theflash from the beams made them scream even louder. They held onto each other, too afraid to look. The stayed that way for a couple of seconds. Annie shut her eyes as tightly as she could. She couldn't do or say anything at all. Her heart thumped in her chest like a hammer on an anvil. She could only guess as to what was to happen next.

Her shoulder shaking brought her out of her frightened trance. "Annie, Annie," she heard Jenny's voice saying. Annie was wondering how Jenny managed to open her eyes. Was this being friendly? Annie somehow found the courage to open her eyes. Slowly, she opened her eyelids. She saw Jenny holding her hand as she opened her eyes. Jenny had a concerned look on her face.

"What happened, Jen?" she asked wearily.

"I don't know," said Jenny, "That weird thing is gone, but all these goons have been taken care of. It was so weird. It was like it vanished into thin air."

"Who was that?" asked Annie.

Jenny only shrugged. She didn't know anymore about that ghost guy than Annie did.

Annie looked around the room. As far as she could tell, all the thugs were down for the count. But she saw no sign of the mysterious being anywhere. She saw the three near them all lying on the floor or some momentum-bashed up crates.

Just then, they heard the sound of police sirens outside. The sound of wheels pulling to a stop and car doors opening and closing reached her ears.

"The police are here," said Jenny, "But how do we break this news to them?"

"Haven't a clue," said Annie.

The doors on the far wall of the warehouse opened and three uniformed police officers stepped inside. They were carrying flashlights and had their guns armed. "Police!" one of them shouted in high authority.

Jenny and Annie walked forward carefully. "Wait. Don't shot. We were hostages," Jenny stammered. One of the officers took in their appearance.

"Are you alright?" he asked, lowering his revolver.

"Yes, but," Annie started to talk, but was cut off.

"Hey Johnson," a female officer called. The officer who had been talking to the girls turned as he heard his name. "Look at that."

The officer had her flashlight on one of the fallen thugs. The officers noticed that he was lying on the floor as if knocked out. Near him was what looked like a rifle, but it was partially melted.

The officers took into the sight for a minute or so. Their expressions looked surprised. The woman officer looked at Jenny and Annie. "What happened here?" she asked. Annie and Jenny exchanged glances. How would they break this out?

The authorities had arrived. They could take care of things now. Simon's task had been done. Now he had to leave before anyone discovered he was in the warehouse. He couldn't be in the warehouse, or anywhere in the surrounding vicinity. He knew the police would question all who they could to get answers as to why the armed criminals had been brought down so completely.

The increased speed and durability of his armored mode had allowed him to move undetected. While the intense flash of his eye beams had stunned the two teenage girls, he had quickly slipped away into the next room. They hadn't seen his armored face, which was a good thing. The sight of his face in armored form would terrify anyone who saw it. Simon remembered being terrified the first time he had seen his face while he was in armored form. He had sneaked unnoticed into the next room.

Ever so quietly and ever so quickly, he moved across the warehouse floor to the loading docks on the other side. Even though his armored feet would normally make the loud clanging sound of metal on metal when he walked, his used his abilities to quiet his movements. Now his footsteps were whisper soft.

He carefully maneuvered his way toward the loading docks and out an empty loading door. Stepping off the high dock, he landed on the pavement below. He looked around. Police cars and news vans were arriving and were parked at the main entrance of the warehouse. Officers were talking to each other and holding back those who happened to be attracted to the commotion.

Simon's enhanced hearing picked up the questions of the officers to the two girls he had rescued. Even though he had no distinguishable ears while in his armored form, his hearing increased dramatically. From what he heard, the two were shaken and totally mystified. He listened for a minute. He heard nothing except the mention of strange flashes of light and color and of a weird shape taking down the men. Simon let out a sigh of relief. He hadn't been seen.

Taking a look around to see that no one was near or coming in his direction, Simon moved, to a dark alley nearby. He slipped inside. He had to act quickly to keep his alien-seeming armored form and the strange light concealed as much as possible.

He silently ordered his body to assume its human composition and form. No sooner than he did, when light moved down from his head to his feet, canceling the armored exterior out, leaving his energy composed body in full view. Just as quickly, his body changed and became solid. The immense energy and enhanced strength, speed, agility, and senses faded away. His now solid bones supported him again. His bloodstream reacquired its fluidic structure and flowed through his newly reassembled veins and arteries as it had before. His cells reassembled at an amazing rate. Within a matter of seconds, the change was complete and he looked human again, flesh and blood and not alien in the least sense.

Simon looked around again to see if anyone had noticed his transformation. No one had. Now he had to get out of here as fast as he could. He left the alley and proceeded down the street, heading towards, his house that was not too far off from here.

Simon turned his blond head back towards the warehouse district where the acts had taken place. No one was coming after him and in addition, no one seemed to notice him at all. This was the perfect chance. Simon then hurried off. Since everyone was so distracted by police and reporters that no one noticed the single teenager hurrying away. No one would even know he was there. No one would ask why. He was as good as never being there to begin with.

Far, far away on the other side of the United States of America, thousands of miles from where Simon Valley had successfully rescued the two teenage girls from certain doom and not having revealed his identity or anything else for that matter other than a few flashes and unavoidable light displays, a signature was detected.

Deep inside a mansion, in a large, hidden, globe-shaped room, on the outskirts of Bayville, New York, a massive state-of-the art computer system detected the signature of mutant power, brainwaves, and DNA. Through the most expertly crafted circuitry imaginable, the magnificent machine immediately began comparing the signature with the information it had acquired through previous detections, comparing, contrasting, seeing if it matched anything that it had detected before.

On the massive main screen of the computer, the word ALERT appeared in flashing red. "Alert, Alert," the computer announced to the current operator in its feminine voice.

Mutant Signature Detected

Location: Moonriver Falls, Southshore County, Washington, U.S.A.

Professor Charles Francis Xavier sat before the computer in a wheelchair. On his head, he wore a strange looking helmet, wires trailing out of the helmet's circuitry and linking it to the mainframe's system. He looked over the data coming up across the screen in lines, moving at rapid speed, yet he could follow it as easily as a normal person would read a book. Maps came up, scanning programs traveling over a map of the North American continent, zoning in on the location of the signature's origin, narrowing the range of possible location to absolute minimum.

Xavier's intelligent brown eyes never missed a thing. But yet, he was not really using his eyes that much. His telepathy power was hard at work, the helmet on his head enhancing his power many times its normal capacity. The information going the computer, known as Cerebro, went into Professor Xavier's brain.

Mutant DNA Identification: Positive

Extrapolation: Complete

Identity: Confirmed

An image of a nineteen-year old teenager appeared on Cerebro's overhead display, showing a tall boy with gold hair and green eyes. Cerebro then began to both lay out the vital statistics of the boy and speak them out loud.

Name: Simon Peter Valley

Gender: Male

Race: Caucasian

Nationality: American

Age: 19

Height: 5' 11"

Weight: 150 lbs

Hair: Blond

Eyes: Green

Residence: Moonriver Falls, Washington.

Mutation: Primary and secondary of unknown type

Wait a minute. Unknown? Why was that? Something wasn't right here. That much was clear. And really, there was nothing much to go on it yet either. Cerebro was not analyzing this as it normally did. This called for really in depth research and investigation. The professor focused even more. He had a lot of work to do.