A/N: I still don't own the X-Men!

Please, let me know what you think!

"Speech"

'Thought'

[CEREBRO]

[Telepathy]

Chapter 02: An Unwelcome Revelation

Nancy's eyes widened in fear as she watched the silver-haired teen seemingly vanish and reappear in an instant. The breeze around her told her he hadn't disappeared, he had moved, and he had moved fast. "What… What do you want?" She finally managed to gulp. She had heard whispers of people with strange abilities. Mutants. Freaks. Weirdos. Those were the phrases she had only heard, but now one of them had lied to her mother and had her alone.

Pietro stumbled back from the girl's reaction. She was so scared. He could almost feel the fear rolling off of her. "Hey, come on, chill out. I ain't gonna hurt you. I told you, I wanna be your friend." He said, zipping to her side. In hindsight, he realized that probably wasn't the best thing to do. No sooner than he put his arm around her, a sharp pain erupted in his ribs. "Oh! Come on, what was that for?"

Nancy didn't even have to remove her elbow from Pietro's side; he had already zipped a few feet away to nurse his new bruise. "Don't touch me. Ever. Do you understand? I'm not a doll and I'm not a toy you can just grab and try to take with you." She hissed. She was still scared, in fact, she was scared out of her mind, but it was nice to know he wasn't made of metal or diamonds or some crap like she'd heard they could be. He was flesh, he was bone; she could fight and hurt him if she had to.

"Hey, hey, hey, ease up, Nance. Fine, I won't touch you. I was just trying to reassure you, that's all. You didn't have to break one of my ribs."

"And stop calling me 'Nance'!"

Pietro put his hands up; he could tell that she was getting angry now. "Look, I didn't come here to scare you. I just wanted to talk to you. You're special, like me, and I wanted to get to know you better. Surely you won't hate a guy for telling you that you're special?"

"I don't need a guy to tell me that I'm special." She growled softly, fear turning to anger the more he rattled on. "What I do need is for you to leave." She began backing up, heading toward the door. The sooner she got away from this guy, the better she would feel.

"Fine, I'll leave, but I'll be around if you want to talk. Trust me, you're gonna want to talk. There will be more people, people who aren't all that great. They call themselves the X-Men, and they're bad news… and slow. That's why I got here first. I wanted to warn you about them. Take care… Nance."

Nancy sighed as she watched him disappear in a blur. To say she was relieved would be an understatement. 'Who the heck are the X-Men?' she thought as she made her way to her room and fell into bed.

[UNEXPECTED MUTANT ACTIVITY DETECTED. ACTIVITY LOCATION: LAKE PLACID, NEW YORK. ACTIVITY TYPE: ENHANCED SPEED. MUTANT IDENTIFIED: PIETRO MAXIMOFF.]

Charles Xavier sighed as he removed the helmet that connected him to the device that allowed him to discover other mutants and their locations. "How did you find her so quickly, I wonder?" He mused aloud. [Ororo, use caution tomorrow. Quicksilver has already made contact.]

The alarm screamed angrily as the hands of the clock reached half past five. Crickets and other insects were still chirping outside as Nancy groggily sat up and turned off her alarm. Groaning, she wiped the sleep from her eyes and stumbled over to the mirror on her dresser. 'I really do NOT want to go to school today…' she thought, as she danced from one foot to the other, the cold wood of the floor not agreeing with her warm feet.

Pulling her hair back into a pony, she silently descended the stairs and made her way to the street to begin her morning run. As she headed down the block, she thought back on everything that had happened the day before. The headache, the intensified feelings in class and on the track, as well as her interaction with that weird Pietro guy, all were running through her mind almost as fast as that freak had moved after she hit him. "Nothing makes sense anymore…"

"Hey, Nancy, see you out on the track today?" asked an attractive brunette as she passed Nancy's locker.

"Sure thing, Beth!" Nancy called back as she opened her locker. She was about to say something else to her teammate, but an envelope that had her name on it caught her eye. "Holy…" she whispered under her breath as she opened the mysterious envelope. She could hardly believe it. Inside the envelope were not four, but six pages of equations and a little, anonymous note that declared the author's dislike of how she was treated in class the day previous.

Nothing was going to bring her down, that much she had already decided. She even made it through Ms. Habersham's class with minimal problems. She got a funny look when she handed in the equations, and she could almost cut the surprise in the room with a dull knife, but it wasn't going to bother her. Maybe the day before had just been a dream? She had almost convinced herself of that when she saw him.

Pietro chuckled as Nancy's expression changed. It really was funny when people noticed him as if he appeared out of nowhere. He did in a way, but that was neither here nor there. "Nance! How ya doing? Teacher like those problems? I think you'll get a good grade. Don't thank me, it only took a few seconds."

Her jaw dropped. "That was you?" She finally managed to ask him.

"You catch on fast!" he cackled. Making his way over to her, he leaned against a locker. "Given any more thought to what I said? We're not the only ones, and Me and my buddies could help you train. You come back to Bayville with me, switch schools, and Mystique can fix up a room in the Brotherhood house for you."

Nancy didn't understand. Why was he coming to her, why where such strange things happening to her? "I'm not a mutant!" She hissed under her breath. She certainly wasn't going to switch schools, and she wasn't leaving home. "Go away, Pietro."

"So, you remembered my name, did ya?" He said with a wink. "Everybody wants a piece of Quicksilver. It was only a matter of time until you succumbed to my char- Whoa!"

A blur was all Nancy saw as she attempted to make her fist connect with the arrogant twit, who until milliseconds ago had been standing in front of her. He suddenly appeared to her left and she swung again – another miss. "Leave me alone…" She said, resigning herself to the fact that her connection yesterday had probably been a fluke. She threw her stuff into her locker and headed to the field; hopefully he would finally take the hint.

The clouds parted as the Blackbird touched down and a tall woman with dark skin and white hair walked down the off ramp. 'That's better' she thought with a smile. She wasn't far from the school, and could easily get there in a few minutes. Ororo Munroe had made it to Lake Placid to meet with Nancy who, she knew from talking with Xavier, was just coming into her powers.

The sun reflected off of the woman's "X" shaped belt buckle as she walked. Charles had already called ahead and gotten her a pass to enter the school, and she was made aware that the girl for whom she was looking was currently in track practice.

Ororo, or Storm as the rest of the X-Men knew her, flashed her pass. "Hello, I'm here to see Nancy DuLauncet. Where is the track field?" She asked the woman at the door.

"Ahh, Ms. Munroe, we've been expecting you. The way to the athletics field is down this hallway, left and down that hallway, and then to the right. Please, enjoy your visit at Lake Placid High."

Nancy huffed as her ear bud fell out again. She was finishing up her sixth lap and her teammates had already headed back to the locker room, but she wanted to hit ten before she called it quits. It was when she replaced her ear bud that she saw her. In the stands was a very regal-looking woman with a dark complexion. She was just sitting there, watching. It was enough to make her stop in her tracks.

Storm rose and descended the steps to the fence, watching as the teen came closer. She was wary, that much she could observe. 'If Charles is right, this girl probably already knows who I am, or at least where I am from.'

"Who are you?" Nancy asked, an accusing tone coloring her voice. "Did Pietro send you to bother me too?" She looked the woman up and down. She appeared more classy than Pietro, more refined and less full of herself, but still just as unnerving.

"No child. I am not with Pietro. He is a troubled young man, and though I would like to help him, I cannot. However, if you will allow me, I can help you." The woman replied, her voice level and containing an air of gravitas.

It was then that Nancy's eye locked on her belt. "You're with the X-Men, aren't you? Pietro told me you would come. He said you're bad news, and that I shouldn't trust you. Why can't you people just leave me alone?!"

Storm could almost feel the uncertainty, the fear, and the anger emitting from the young girl before her. "Yes, child, I am one of the X-Men. My name is Ororo, and you should trust me because I care. I know what you're going through, I know how you feel. I've been there, child, and I've come out on the other side. I am not part of the 'bad news' about which Pietro speaks."

Nancy backed away from the fence. The woman was calm, she didn't appear malevolent, she didn't feel malevolent either, but what kind of adult shows up like she did?! "N-no. I don't believe you. How did you even find me? Why did you find me? J-just stay away from me!" she shouted, turning and running toward the locker room. She had to get home. Forget ten laps, she just wanted things back to normal!

She gasped sharply and grunted as her butt hit the ground. "W-what?" she muttered as she rose. Her eyes fell on Pietro as she dusted herself off. "What do you want now?"

"I told you they would come Nance. They want you for their army. They are always attacking us because they are jealous and want every mutant to live by their rules. We just want to help you… I… want to help you."

"If they are always attacking you, why on earth would I go with you!?"

Pietro sighed. "Because you stand a better chance when you're not alone. You stand a better chance with proper training. They can't get to you if you've got friends watching your back…"

Thanks for reading!