I'm Back! Sorry for the lack of updates, it's just that i've been really busy with schoolwork lately, so i was mostly focused on that. Plus, i haven't felt that motivated to continue writing recently. But don't worry my friends, i have summer break now and i still intend to continue with these stories.
Before we start, i just want to clarify the ages of our main characters since, let's face it, it's hard to tell a cartoon characters age unless they state it. so here are the ages: Jean/Scott-17, Wanda-15, Laura-14. if you have any suggestions/issues regarding the characters ages, please mention it in the review section.
Anyway, last time on X-men: The Next Evolution, we saw Wanda settling in at the Xavier Institute, and after having a nightmare, she got comforted by Logan and Laura. So now, let's jump forward a few years to see how she's getting along. This is...
After All These Years (Part 1)
3 Years later (2000)
It was a sunny morning at the institute. In one of the bedrooms, one person was sleeping soundly before being woken up by a buzzing noise. Groaning, the person reached out her hand in an attempt to hit the snooze button and stop the annoying sound. After a few tries, the person succeeded before sitting up and revealing herself as Wanda Maximoff. She was currently dressed in a large red oversized T-shirt that, when she stood up, went halfway down her thighs. After yawning and stretching she got out of bed and sat down at the vanity mirror and looked at herself.
Wanda had changed a lot since she came here. She wasn't the small and weak girl she had been when she first came here, but was now a tall punk rocker teen. And whereas before she had long black hair, now it was shorter and went down just to her chin level at the sides and back. Although right now, it looked really unkept.
Wanda looked at herself and decided to take a shower before worrying about her hair. She walked out of her room and down the hall to the bathroom and started showering. After about five minutes, there came a knocking on the door followed by a voice in her head asking, "Wanda, is that you in there?"
Recognizing Jean's voice, Wanda smirked a little and thought to herself, "Why do you ask questions to which you already know the answer?"
"Very funny." Came Jean's reply in her head. "Just hurry up, will you? I have to get ready as well you know."
"Okay, I'm coming." Wanda replied before turning of the shower. After drying herself, she walked out of the bathroom and saw her longtime friend Jean Grey. Jean had also grown up a bit over the years. Now she was taller than Wanda and had more of an athletic figure. Her red hair was now longer and reached her shoulders. She was currently in a white nightgown and holding a white towel. Wanda said to Jean "Just don't take too long this time." before giving a short laugh as she ran back to her room before Jean could comment.
When she came back to her room, she quickly put on some clothes. Now she was wearing some black leather pants and a loose red T-shirt that fitted her a lot better than the one she slept in.
After putting on these clothes, she went to her vanity mirror and pulled out a silver cross necklace. It was something that she had come across on a shopping trip with Ororo one time shortly after she moved in to the Institute. After Ororo had explained what the cross symbolizes, Wanda couldn't stop begging for it and Ororo was more than happy to buy it for her. During her first few months at the Institute, she would always keep it close by her as a way for her to find comfort, especially when she had some really disturbing nightmares. Nowadays, Wanda thought of it as a good luck charm of sorts. She wasn't Christian or anything, but it was nice to have something that gave her a sense of hope.
She put it around her neck before she walked down to the kitchen. Once there, she saw Scott, Laura and Xavier at the table while Ororo was at the stove. Xavier was the first who notices her arrival.
"Ah, good morning, Wanda. Did you sleep well?" Xavier asked kindly.
"Yes, I did." Wanda replied while taking a seat beside Laura. "So, is breakfast ready yet?" She asked Ororo.
"Almost finished." Ororo replied as she was making some English breakfast.
"Is Jean finished yet?" Scott asked Wanda curiously. He had also grown over the years. He has a very tall and lean frame (which had earned him the nickname "Slim" from Laura) and he has become very masculine with a V-shaped torso, broad shoulders, square jaw and clearly defined muscles. Scott has clean-cut brown hair as well as his trademark glasses. Right now, he is wearing a blue sweater over a pale-yellow shirt, tan pants with a brown belt and light brown shoes.
"Not yet." Wanda answered before smirking at him. "You know how long she takes to get ready."
Laura laughed and said, "Oh yeah, 'Little miss perfect' has to look her best after all." Laura had grown a lot as well. Her dark brown hair now reached around her mid-back and she let it hang loose as she had always done. She also had an athletic and well-fit physique due to the training her dad made her go through. She was currently wearing a pair of black leather pants and a black leather jacket over a white shirt.
"Laura, please don't make fun of Jean." Xavier said calmly.
"Besides," Ororo said while she began serving everyone, "you know what Logan would say if he were her right now. Just because he's on a trip doesn't mean you get to make fun of others without consequence." After she had served everyone, she gave Laura a stern look. "He's still mad about your little 'mishap' a while back."
Laura rolled her green eyes and said, "For the record, I didn't start the food fight, I ended it." A laugh came from the door and everyone turned to see Jean standing there, now wearing a form-fitting pale purple shirt with a slight V-neck (thus exposing her naval), tan khakis pants and brown open-toed sandals. She was currently holding her right hand to her mouth in a vain attempt to stop laughing and she wasn't the only one. Scott and Wanda laughed out loud at Laura's reply, though Scott's laugh was a bit more reserved. Xavier and Ororo just shook their heads at her response.
"Oh, yeah, you ended it alright." Wanda said with a smirk while Jean sat down in the chair next to Scott. "You ended up throwing some food right at Principal Darkholeme and ended up with detention for a week."
Laura groaned and said "Don't remind me." Before she started wolfing down her breakfast.
Xavier turned his attention to Jean and said; "Ah, Jean, good morning. I trust you slept well?"
"I did." Jean replied before she began eating her breakfast, although slower and with more restraint than Laura.
"So, are you guys coming to the game tonight?" Laura asked her three friends in excitement.
"Well of course I'm coming." Jean said. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."
"I still don't see how you can get excited about a game you won't even be taking part in." Wanda told Laura.
"Just because I'm not competing doesn't mean I can't be excited about it." Laura explained as she finished her breakfast before standing up and leaving the room. Wanda shrugged at her response before digging into her breakfest.
An hour later at Bayville Highschool
Wanda was at her locker getting her books for her classes. While she may not be all that great at school, she still got decent enough grades and she still enjoyed coming to school. It was safe to say that she had few things she disliked about the place.
"Hey sweet cake, what's happenin?" came a voice from behind her.
Key word being few. "Oh god no. Not him again." Wanda thought to herself. She turned around and saw Todd Tolansky standing a few feet away from her. He was very short kid with messy light brown hair, yellow eyes, a greenish complexion and yellow teeth, and even a green tough. He also seemed to be standing in a permanent slouch as Wanda had never really seen him standing straight. He even smelled bad and she and several others had almost mistaken him for a hobo. Ever since he came to the school a month ago, he seemed to have developed a fixation with Wanda and had been 'stalking' her ever since.
"What do you want Todd?" Wanda said in an annoyed tone as she but her books in her bag before closing and locking her locker. As she started walking off to her first class, Todd walked up beside her and tried to put on a 'charming' smile, which just exposed more of his dirty teeth.
"What? Can't a guy come and visit the girl he loves?" He replied, causing Wanda to clench her fists, trying as hard as she can not to lose control of her powers. Although the thought of sending Todd up into space was starting to sound appealing.
Wanda stopped walking and turned towards Todd with very hard glare, causing him to take a step back in partial fear. "I'm warning you Todd, one more word out of your mouth and I swear I will make sure you never use it again." she threatened him in a low voice as she got in his face.
"Eh, haha, you're kidding right?" Todd asked nervously.
"She's not kidding." came a voice from behind Wanda, causing both of them to turn and notice Laura standing with her arms crossed and glaring at Todd. "And even if she was, I don't you should push your luck."
Todd glanced back at Wanda and, seeing that the next word he said would probably lead him towards a dimension pain, wisely kept his mouth shut and quickly walked away from the two.
Laura smirked at Wanda and said, "You know I would have hurt him if you wanted too."
Wanda rolled her eyes and smirked back at Laura before they both started walking towards their class. "Tempting, but I'd rather not get my best friend in trouble so early in the day."
Laura shrugged. "Oh well, maybe after school I can hurt him a little bit."
"We still have to get to the game, remember." Wanda reminded her as they had just reached their classroom.
"Oh, I remember, I just really want to hurt Tolansky for perving on you constantly." Laura said as she clenched her fists.
Wanda smiled thankfully at her and said, "Thanks, but I can take care of myself. And besides, we have better things to spend our time on."
Laura sighed disappointedly "Yeah I guess you right." before walking inside.
Later that day
Scott, Laura and Wanda sat on the bleachers and watched their school football team playing a game against another school. Laura seemed the most excited to be there, whooping and cheering along with the crowd whenever their school scored a goal. Wanda wasn't the biggest Sportsfan, but she wanted to be with her friends and support Jean who had come to the game to get some good pictures. Scott wasn't really that interested in the game and just sat watching in boredom while flipping around a quarter with his fingers. Laura and Wanda sat next to each other, while sitting one step down from them sat Scott, along with his best friend, Paul Haits.
Paul was one of the few friends the students had outside the Institute and he was especially close to Scott as they had shared the same classes for the majority of their time at Bayville High. Paul was 18 years old with blonde hair and brown eyes and he had a similar physic to Scott, though Paul was a little shorter than Scott and didn't have as many muscles as him. Paul didn't know that Scott and the others were mutants though as that information would be very dangerous to share. Still, he was very close to Scott and at least very friendly with the other students from the institute and a decent enough guy, even if he could be a little oblivious at times.
As for Jean, she was standing near the field with a camera taking pictures. She had started taking an interest in photography and wanted to get a few action shots of the game. Of course, another reason she had come was due to her boyfriend, Duncan Matthews.
Duncan was kind of the stereotypical jock: one of the in-crowd and the star of the football team. To be precise, he was the team's quarterback. And if one were to look at him, it wouldn't be hard to guess why. He was very tall and very fit due to his constant exercise on the team and could no doubt hold his own in a fight if he had too. Although he was very popular at school, he is very arrogant and rude to those weaker or not as popular than him.
Jean had started dating him a few months ago and while she knew he wasn't the greatest person; she has helped to temper his less-than-likable traits. Of course, the other Xavier students (Scott in particular) couldn't stand Duncan, only putting up with him at Jean's insistence.
Wanda turned her attention away from the game and asked Laura, "So, are you enjoying the game?" Already knowing the answer.
"Hell yeah!" Laura exclaimed in excitement as they made another goal.
"Yeah, that's what I thought." Wanda said while smiling at her friend's enthusiasm.
Right now, the home team was on the lead with 49 on their side to the visitors score of 17, making many believe that it was going to be a clear victory for the home team. After calming down, Laura gave a side glance to Wanda before lightly elbowing her and saying, "Come on, where's your school spirit Wanda? We're winning."
Wanda threw her head back and groaned, "If by 'we' you mean 'Duncan' is wining, then yes, I guess you're right."
Laura grimaced and Scott stopped flipping the quarter and narrowed his eyes at the mention of that name.
"Well... I mean..." Laura said, unsure how-to respond. "Duncan isn't the only player on the team and..."
"But he is the most valued member." interrupted Paul causing the three mutants to give him soft glares. Paul chuckled nervously and pulled on his collar. "For better and for worse."
"I'd say it's mostly worse." Scott said with contempt in his voice, not even hiding the fact that he couldn't stand Duncan. Wanda and Laura always liked to gossip about the fact that Scott hates Duncan because he's dating Jean but Scott would quickly deny it any time it was brought up.
Laura glanced back up and noticed that Duncan and two of his pals that she didn't know the names of started walking towards the back of the bleachers. Laura elbowed Wanda and pointed this out to her, with both girls wondering what was up.
Before she could comment on this, Scott dropped his quarter down under the bleachers. "Aw man, my cash." he said in dismay.
As Scott tilts his head to see where it landed, he noticed a hand reach trough the bleachers towards the back pocket of a man sitting a step down from them.
"Hey, check it." Scott said to his friends and gestured towards the hand, which had just plucked the man's wallet from his pocket before withdrawing back under the stand.
"Looks like someone is taking up a collection" Laura said as she started to put the pieces together. She and the rest of her friends recognized that hand and the person who it belonged too.
"Should we call the cops?" Paul asked.
"Hold that option open." Scott responded as he got up. Just as he was about to go behind the bleachers, Wanda grabbed his hand and said, "Be careful, Scott." Scott looked at Wanda and nodded before she let go of his hand and made his way behind the bleachers.
Laura leaned over and whispered to Wanda, "When you said 'be careful' to him, did you mean in it in a 'don't get hurt way' or...?"
"I meant it in a 'don't blast Duncan with his eye beams way." Whispered Wanda back, knowing full well that Scott would blast Duncan if he could. While both girls wanted to see Duncan get some form of comeuppance, they don't want him dead or for their secret to be revealed to the world that way.
"What are you girls talking about?" Paul asked the two. "And shouldn't we be more worried about Scott going to confront Tolansky?"
"I would be more worried about the fact that Duncan and his two pals down there before Scott did." Said Laura while she gestured down beneath the seats.
Paul's eyes widened before looking back at the field to see if he could find Duncan but he could not. "Ooh, this won't end well." he said while shaking his head. "Duncan's going to clobber him."
While both girls doubted that would happen, they were still concerned for their friend.
Jean had just taken some more pictures of the game when she noticed that Duncan was nowhere to be seen, not even with the substitute players. Wondering where her boyfriend could be, she started walking back to the bleachers to ask the coach when she noticed Scott going down under the seats.
Curious, she walked over to investigate. She had gotten close enough to the bleachers before Todd Tolansky ran out from under the seats, followed by two other football players. Before she could think about what just happened, she heard the signs of a struggle under the bleachers. Walking over, she saw Scott and Duncan brawling.
"Scott, no!" Jean screamed at her friend, distracting him long enough for Duncan to deck him hard enough to knock him back into a pillar and making his glasses fall off.
When Jean first saw Scott's powers, she was in total awe of the sheer, raw power he displayed. Here, she was in awe but also filled with dread as she witnessed his eye beams hit Duncan, knocking him unconscious, before continuing out under the seats and hitting a propane tank at a nearby, unattended snack bar.
The tank exploded, blowing up the snack bar and attracting the attention of every person around. This, of course, resulted in a panic as people rushed to and fro, hoping to get away from the explosion. Laura and Wanda, immediately upon hearing the explosion, leaped down under the bleachers to check on their friends, where they found Jean, still in shock over what happened.
"What happened?" asked Laura as she looked at the destruction that had happened.
"Scott and Duncan were fighting and I called out for them to stop and..." Jean began to explain
"Somehow, his glasses got knocked off and caused the explosion." Wanda finished.
"Yes." Jean confirmed, feeling a little guilty. If she hadn't called out for Scott to stop, he wouldn't have been distracted long enough for Duncan to punch his glasses of and thus cause the explosion. Jean knew Duncan wasn't the best guy around, but she wanted to give him a chance and hopefully curb some of his less than likable tendencies.
"Well, one thing's for sure." Laura said, looking back over to the explosion. "Someone's getting trouble for this."
Wanda and Jean's eyes widened as the realized that, indeed, The Professor wouldn't like this at all.
"Come on." Laura said before going down under the seats to help Scott, with Jean and Wanda following a few seconds after. Their first priority was making sure their friend was safe, they'd worry about their possible punishment later.
And that's a wrap. So now we have gotten to the proper series and frankly, i'm excited for it. I have some huge plans which i'm sure will surprise you guys. Hopefully i will be able to get the next chapter up a lot sooner this time.
Well that's all for now, until next time, Excelsior!