Author's Note: Sorry this update was a little long in happening, but I had been kinda busy as of late. But here's chapter five for ya! Enjoy and review please!

Chapter 5: Crossing Paths Part 2

Lower East Manhattan

The streets were dark as the two figures walked along cautiously, as if keeping an eye out for any signs of danger. As they approached the door of a little boutique, a laser beam shot out of the dark, forcing Kacee to throw up a shield of ice to block it.

"Kacen, look out!" she yelled at her twin, as another laser beam shot out at him. He shot his hand out and, using the heat from the laser beam, redirected it back at the shooter, disabling the automaton. While he had been doing this, Kacee had turned back to her assailant and quickly shot off a shard of ice that hit the automaton in the middle of the head with deadly accuracy honed from countless sessions of training with Iceman. They hadn't taken no more than two steps when the street flooded with combat automatons that all took aim at them.

"You ready, Kacen?" Kacee asked her twin.

"Ready as I'll ever be," he replied with a sideways glance at her. As the robots all fired, Kacen shot into the air like a rocket with fire erupting from his balled up fists, and Kacee ducked down to the ground, forming a sheet of ice on the ground that spread outward toward the automatons. The automatons continued to fire off shots at the twins, but Kacee and Kacen kept up by firing off their own shots, destroying one after the other. When the last automaton had fallen, they stood together and gave each other a high-five and congratulated each other on a job well done, when suddenly the ground started to shake. As they looked around in confusion, a giant automaton came around the corner of a building.

Kacen gulped and said to Kacee, "So much for an easy simulation…"

"You got that right…" Kacee said in agreement. "We might as well go all out on it. What do you say?"

"Definitely," he replied as fire started slithering its way up his arms and legs, soon engulfing him in flames as he took on his element form, with Kacee doing the same. They got into their fighting stances as the giant robot launched its first attack.

Danger Room Control Room

Three Minutes Earlier

Logan watched as the twins expertly took down all the drones that came their way. He knew that they had chosen an easy simulation, but figured that they needed a good challenge so he raised the level from three to six. As they finished off the remaining robots, a giant one came lumbering from around the building and stood before them.

"So much for and easy simulation…" he heard Kacen state.

"You got that right…" Kacee agreed. "We might as well go all out on it. What do you say?"

"Definitely," Kacen replied, and Logan watched as he suddenly burst into flames, becoming his element, whilst Kacee did the same. They then got into the familiar fighting stances that he had taught them as the robot launched its first assault.

Second Floor of the Mansion

Boys' Wing

Dante stood in the room and looked around. It was plain. He didn't like plain. He hoped that his roommate didn't like plain either. He had already unpacked his stuff and left his personal touch to his bed, making it look a little cuter. He had also set up a few of his pictures to give the place a more lived in feeling. He was about to go remake his bed when the door opened, and in stepped the tall red guy he had seen coming out of the professor's office before.

"Hey," was all the big guy said. As Dante got a closer look, he saw that the guy was definitely built, with thick red fur over every visible part of his body. He also had gorgeous golden amber hair and deep amber eyes that were somewhat hypnotic…

"Hey," Dante responded after a quick shake of his head. "How are you? I'm Dante."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Apollo." Dante noted that there was a slight musical lilt to Apollo's voice, making his name very apropos.

"So, if you don't mind my asking, what's your mutant ability?" Dante asked in an attempt to make conversation.

"I have super strength," Apollo simply replied. "What about you?"

"Apparently I can telepathically reach into your mind and psychically manifest your deepest, darkest fear," Dante said, rather nonchalantly. Apollo gave him a look that suggested worry, so Dante calmed him down by adding, "But I don't do it unless needed or provoked."

"Oh, ok… Cool," Apollo said nonchalantly as he looked around the room. As he was surveying his surroundings, he noticed that Dante's whole side of the room was already decorated with a few things and that his side was just plain, which suited him just fine because he never really had much in the way of personal decorations growing up in the abbey. He walked over to his bed and took out his crucifix and hung it overhead and then placed the only picture of Sister Maria on his nightstand.

While Dante was observing this, he couldn't help but to think, I hope that's not all he's gonna put up… Dante's thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. When Apollo answered it, Jean Grey was standing there.

"I see you guys are making the room a little more like home," she said with a smile, "but if you guys will follow me, the professor would like to see you in the danger room."

Danger Room

Subbasement of the Mansion

Dante was now in the subbasement for the second time in one day, but this time he was going into the danger room and he was nervous. He certainly didn't know what to expect or what the professor was wanting with him or Apollo.

When they stepped in to the danger room, there were two other students standing there; a boy and a girl. They appeared to be roughly the same age as Dante and also looked like twins. The girl had long raven black hair with blue highlights throughout and the boy had short black hair with fiery red streaks throughout. They both stood in their uniforms and had stopped in the middle of what looked to be a very serious conversation when Apollo and Dante walked in.

"Hi… I'm Dante," he said introducing himself.

"I'm Kacee and this is my twin brother, Kacen," she replied, indicating her brother and herself. "And you are…?" she asked Apollo.

"Oh, I'm Apollo," he answered.

"Look all I'm saying is that next time I think that you should aim a little higher with that fireball and hit the middle of the chest and not the bottom of the ribs," Kacee was told her brother.

"But there's a greater chance for injury if I hit rite at the bottom of the ribs," he argued back.

"If you hit in the middle of the chest, you have a greater chance of breaking the breast bone," she countered.

"True, but I usually throw at an upward curve and therefore have a greater chance of making the fireball bust out of the back depending on how hard and hot I make it."

"Oh… okay now I didn't know that you did that," she said with a slight chuckle, "but I do think that you should try my suggestion sometime…" she was interrupted by the opening of the danger room door as guys walked in.

The first one she saw was damn near seven feet tall and red. He also had platinum blonde hair and golden amber eyes. He was such an imposing figure that she almost didn't see the other guy until he said, "Hi… I'm Dante."

After she composed herself and registered that there was another standing beside the giant, she calmly stated, "I'm Kacee and this is my twin brother, Kacen. And you are…?" she inquired of the tall guy.

"Oh, I'm Apollo," he said simply.

"So, what's your abilities?" Dante asked.

"Well, I'm a female version of Iceman but only in the power sense," Kacee answered.

"And I'm a pyrokenetic," Kacen said simply.

"What about you guys?" Kacee asked, looking critically at the two of them. Dante was about to answer when the door to the danger room opened and the professor rolled in followed by Logan.

"Well, I'm glad you four got to meet," the professor said.

"Umm… Professor why are we in here, if you don't mind me askin'…?" Dante questioned.

"You're here so I can see the extent of your abilities, and also to see how much training will be needed as well, as well as what kind of training that you need," he responded.

"Oh, okay. Cool," Dante said.

"If that's why they're here, then what are Kacen and I here for?" Kacee inquired.

"To act as the enemy they have to defeat," the professor simply stated.

"Okay… So why not put them into a simulation?"

"I feel that they will benefit from live adversaries."

"But I'm not sure they…" Kacee was interrupted as an explosion knocked her and everyone else down and left a crater in the wall of the danger room. Standing in the crater was a man cloaked in shadow.

"Your mother thought she could hide you from me by placing you in the past… How pathetic. Now that I've found you, it's time to take you back home, where you belong," the man said with malicious humor. Just then, there was a flash of white light that momentarily illuminated him causing Kacee and Kacen to gasp. The man standing in the crater looked just like the man that had haunted their nightmares for as long as they could remember.

"If ya lay a hand on 'em, ah'll kill ya mahself, ya crazy bastard!" yelled a woman who hadn't been there before. She had shoulder length brown hair with stark white bangs. She had on a black leather one piece outfit with silver boots and fingerless silver gloves. She also had a silver hip chain around her waist.

Logan stared for a second before saying, "Rogue?"