Chapter four: The New Brotherhood
A week after the new mutants had been put through the danger room for the first time the members of El Ninio were relaxing by the Institutes pool, The Corsairs were inside watching TV and Strike Force X and the Wildcards had gone into Bayville for the day. Sarin, wearing a pair of white swim shorts and his amber pendant, was in the middle of the pool, laid out on a dark blue lilo, soaking up the sun. Zander, wearing a pair of light blue swim shorts was also soaking up the sun, hovering a few feet above the pool, laid out on a white cloud. He noticed how Sarins amber pendant was glowing yellow as it absorbed the sunlight and decided to ask Sarin about it.
"How come your necklace is glowing like that?" he asked him.
"It glows when it's absorbing sunlight, it can store it until I need to use it to turn into white fire" Sarin replied.
"Where'd you get it, what sort of gem is is made from?" Zander asked him, Sarin shrugged.
"Beats me, my parents said they found me with it" he replied.
"They found you with it? You're adopted?" Zander asked, Sarin nodded.
"Yeah, my parents said they found me when I was a baby in the field behind their home, they took me in and adopted me, the only thing that I had with me was this pendant, I've worn it for as long as I can remember" Sarin replied.
"You mean they're not your real partents, I mean your biological ones" Zander said.
"No, they're my real parents, my biological ones just ditched me in that feild, my mom and dad took me in and raised me, as far as I'm concerned, they are my real parents" Sarin replied, laying back on the lilo.
"My parents are pretty cool as well, they own one of the biggest aeronautical companies in the country and my familys pretty rich so I grew up living the rich life in Silicon valley and when my powers kicked in they sent me here" Zander told Sarin.
"Do they mind that you're a mutant?" Sarin asked him.
"Not really they're both into flying planes and now I can fly as well, my family kind of has its head in the clouds" Zander replied, Sarin laughed.
"My parents don't mind either, I found out about them when I was getting some fireworks with them for the 4th of July, I set off every firework in the store, it was like the 4th of July and new years at once, afterwards, we agreed that I should come here" Sarin told Zander, noticing Dana, who was sitting near the pool wearing a black one piece swimsuit reading a magazine, he waved at her and after she noticed him, waved back timidly.
Inside the mansion the Corsairs were all in the lounge, watching TV. Taser was channel surfing using her powers, Rust and Fathom were sitting on the sofa fighting over the remote and Taipan was sitting silently in a nearby armchair. The Professor came into the lounge and handed Tai back his holo-inducer
"Here's your inducer Tai, try not to let it get damaged again" he told the student
"I won't Professssor" Tai replied, putting the holo-inducer back on as the Professor left the lounge
"You really like having that thing don't you?" Taser asked Taipan
"Yesss, it letsssss me live a normal life for a change" Taipan replied
"What was your life like before you came here?" Taser asked him
"That'sss not a happy ssssubject for me" Taipan replied solemley, showing he didn't want to discuss it any further, Taser stared at her teammate sadly, her own life hadn't exactly been pleasent before she'd come to the Institute, she couldn't imagine how hard it must have been for Tai, looking like he did.
Meanwhile in Bayville the Wildcards and Strike Force X were making the most of their day out, Jamie, Rahne, Kitty and Rogue had decided to accompany them into Bayville and all the mutants were hanging out at the mall.
"You like Christian rock?" Bryce asked Rahne as she was reading the back of a chrisitan rock CD in the malls music store
"Yes, m'family's really religious, this's the only sorta rock music I'm allowed to listen to back home" she replied, Holly noticed the small crucifix Rahne was wearing round her neck
"You're catholic?" she asked her, Rahne nodded
"Aye, all of ma hometown back in Scotlands catholic" she replied
"So's my family" Holly said
"Mine too" Bryce added
"Where're ye from?" she asked them
"Basalt Ridge, Montanna" Holly said
"Poland but my family emigrated here to America to live in New England when I was little" Bryce replied, Rahne smiled faintly, her religious beliefs often kept her back, now it seemed like she was finally making friends at the Xavier Institute.
A few stores down Illustrati was with Rogue, Jamie and Kitty, stocking up on art supplies, he ran his hand along a shelf full of paints, pulled one out, held it close to his face to check the colour, frowned, put it back, picked up another, peered closely at it, smiled, placed it in the basket with the other art supplies and turned to look at Rouge and began signing
"Err, what're ya saying?" Rogue asked, not knowing any sign language
"He's asking if he could borrow some money, he left his back in his room" Kitty said, translating for Illus
"Oh sure, here" Rogue said, handing a few bills to Illus, who smiled and went to go pay, passing Jamie who tripped over, knocked over a nearby easel, causing it to fall and drenching him in paint, just as he created a row of doubles, all of whom got drenched as well. Rogue and Kitty both groaned, despite everything they'd all been through earlier that year, some things never changed.
Meanwhile Wolverine, who'd been chaperoning the two teams had left his team, keeping an eye on them from a distance, wanting to see how they'd get on when they were on their own, Strike Force X were hanging out at the fountain in the middle of the food court. Drac was busy finishing a hamburger full of ketchup, which stained his face and fangs, making it look like he'd just been drinking blood, Katie was sitting on the edge of the fountain on her back, reading a magazine and Destiny was sitting quietly next to her teammates, listening to the peaceful, soothing sounds of the running water and resting her hand in the fountain. She suddenly had a vision and turned to Drac just as he opened his mouth to ask her a question.
"You were going to ask me where I am from were you not?" she asked him, he nodded, dumbstruck, shocked that she'd known exactly what he was going to ask her.
"I get that a lot, I can see into the future remember?" she said to him
"Oh yeah I forgot, where are you from?"
"Cechnya, just above the Caucuss mountains in Russia" she said
"What's it like there?" Drac asked her, when he saw how she was trembling as she replied he regretted asking
"It is…not pleasant, I grew up in Grozny, the capital, it is little more then a bloodstained warzone" she said, obviously distressed at remembering her past.
"Hey, you're not there anymore, so don't talk about it you don't want to, we won't ask you about it anymore if it upsets you so much, kay?" Katie told her
"Very well then" Destiny said, standing up, intending to go get something to eat, as she tapped the floor with her blind stick it accidentally connected with the leg of a teenage boy about her age, sending him flying, the tray of food he'd been carrying splattered all over his front. He picked himself up and glared at Destiny, the P.O.H insignia on his jacket marking him out as one of the group who'd given them students trouble the last time they'd been at the mall.
"Watch where you're going in future mutie" the boy snarled, stepping forward towards Destiny aggressively, who took a step back.
"I'm am sorry, I will pay for it" she said quietly, not seeming intimidated by him at all.
"Too right you will freak" another boy sneered, it was the same one who'd damaged Tais holo-inducer the last time they were at the mall. Drac and Katie quickly got up and moved to stand next to Destiny, backing her up.
"Everything O.K here?" Wolverine said, walking towards them to stand in-between Strike Force X and the boys, locking eyes with them. The boys knew who Wolverine was and didn't feel like picking a fight with a mutant who they knew would give them one.
"Yea, we were just leaving, muties put me off my food anyway" the boy who'd been knocked over by Destiny said, turning and walking away.
"You kids O.K?" Wolverine asked them
"I am fine, I have faced far worse then petty mutant haters before" Destiny told him
"Mister Logan" Drac asked Wolverine
"What is it kid?" he replied
"I noticed something, when Destinys stick hit that guy it barely connected but he went down like someone had broke his leg, he did it on purpose"
"He was just lookin for an excuse to beat on a mutant, don't worry about it, I'll tell the Professor when we get back, he'll take care of it" Wolverine replied, not noticing who was walking towards the two boys who'd threatened Foresight. He noticed a few seconds later, when one of them spat a blob of disgusting looking green goo at one of the boys faces, who fell back, his screams muffled by the goo.
"Hey, no-one gets to beat on the X dweebs but us pal" the person who'd spat the goo said, leaping up to land on a nearby table. Wolverine groaned as he heard that, he'd recognized ho it was almost immediately and knew any hope of having an incident free day was once again gone.
"I thought you guys were on our side now" he said before he'd even turned around to see who he was talking to, when he did he saw Toad, Avalanche, the Blob, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, the Brotherhood of Mutants. There were also several more teenagers who'd come to the scene with the Brotherhood but were hanging back, as if they were waiting for a signal.
"Yea right, we only teamed up with you guys cause we didn't wanna loose to Appocalypse, now he's gone we're back to being your worst nightmare" Quicksilver said
"Kid, you're nothing like what's in my nightmares" Wolverine said, chuckling sarcastically.
"Whatever furball, we're not here for you" Quicksilver replied, shooting forward and slamming into Wolverine, sending him flying through the air and crashing into one of the food courts support pillars, he slid to the floor, out cold.
"We're here for the newbies" he finished, running to stand in front of Foresight, who suddenly had a vision of the others appearing to help them.
"I'm Quicksilver, guess they've already told you all about me huh?" he asked her, pointing a finger at The Wildcards, Kitty, Rahne, Jamie and Rogue who were running through the food court to the others, having heard the sounds of the disturbance from the stores they'd been in.
"I'm afraid not, with a name like Quicksilver are you perhaps some kind of sneaker mascot?" Foresight replied, Quicksilver glared at her
"No, I'm Pietro Maximoff, the son of the most powerful mutant in the world, Magneto" he snapped, all traces of humor now gone form his voice, Foresight still looked unimpressed
"But wasn't Magneto the name of the mutant who failed to defeat Apocalypse?" she asked him, at that Quicksilver lost his temper and ran round and round Foresight to try and create a whirlwind, intending to show her how the Brotherhood had gotten its reputation in Bayville. Foresights expression still didn't change as she calmly stuck her blind stick into the wall of the forming whirlwind and heard a cry of pain, surprise and anger as Pietro fell to the ground, a bright red mark across his face from where Foresights stick had connected with it.
"GET HER!!!" he yelled at the other members of the Brotherhood.
"You can have first pick of X-men babycakes" Toad said to Wanda. The Scarlet Witch glared at him and blasted him with a bolt of her hex power, causing him to fall off the table and land face first in a bowl of chocolate pudding someone had dropped on the floor.
"Whoever said love hurts was right" he croaked, slowly pulling himself to his feet.
As the Brotherhood and X-men engaged one another Foresight found herself facing Wanda. Foresight drew the blade hidden in her blindstick but Wanda merely sighed and sat down at a nearby table.
"You are not going to fight me?" Foresight asked her, puzzled
"They want to fight you, I don't" she replied simply, picking up a magazine that was on the table and starting to read it, Foresight shrugged and turned to find another opponent.
"Don't take this the wrong way Kitty, we're just on opposite sides, that's all" Avalanche said, slamming his fists against the floor, causing the entire food court to shake
"When this is over, you and I are SO OVER!!!" Kitty snapped at Avalanache, phasing through the pieces of debris falling from the food courts roof. At this people spilled out of the mall, leaving a clear battlefield for the Brotherhood and the X-men.
Blob picked up a table, took aim at Rahne and Katie and hurled it at them. Rahne saw it first and quickly turned into her wolf form and leapt out of the way, when she turned around she saw Katie hadn't moved at all and the table was still hurtling through the air at her. Blob smirked as Rahne barked frantically at Katie, wondering how she couldn't notice the half ton table which was about to crash into her and crush her to a pulp. A second later Blobs smirk was wiped from his face as Katie turned into her mist form and the table flew right through her and shattered into toothpicks on the support colum behind her, Blob gawped at her, being so shocked that he didn't notice Illustrati scribbling on his notepad, a giant boxing glove appeared from thin air right in front of glove, pulled back, then sent him sliding along the floor like a runaway freight train before it faded away from sight, straight at Wanda. The Scarlet Witch looked up, apparently unconcerned and calmly blasted Toad with her hex power again, resulting in Blob immediately changing course and smashing into Toad and ending up knocking over another table, resulting in the tables contents being dumped on their heads.
"Pietro, we're getting creamed here, bring out the new guys" Toad told Quicksilver, wiping green jello from his eyes
"Guess it couldn't hurt to let the newbies have a shot at the X-dweebs" Quicksilver said, putting two fingers to his lips and whistling. The Brotherhoods new members darted forwards into the fray, eager to prove themselves
Rogue removed one of her gloves, intending to steal Avalanches powers when she noticed the shadow of a nearby table beginning to move oddly, it kept expanding then contracting, then it began to move over to where she was standing. When it was a few feet from her the shadow stopped and a girl rose up from it, the girl was dressed all in black and Rogue could do nothing but stare at her, stunned by her appearance, then the girl delivered a spinning kick to Rogues leg which brought her back to her senses. Rogue snarled in anger and dived at the girl, intending to drain her of her mutant powers but the girl sank back down into the shadows she'd appeared from
"What the hell was tha…" before Rouge could finish what she was saying, the girl re-appeared from a shadow behind her and gave her a sharp shove, Rouge tumbled forwards, arms flailing for support, her ungloved hand caught ahold of something, steadying herself, Rougue looked up to see what she'd grabbed hold of and saw that it was Katies arm. Katies eyes rolled back in her head and she slumped to the ground as Rogue pulled her hand away too late, she'd stolen Katies powers. She looked down to see she'd turned into a green mist like version of herself and cursed under her breath, she had no idea how to control this power and when Avalanche ran through her, she realised she was out of the fight until Katies powers wore off.
"Ye're not so though now are ye toady?" Rahne said, partially turning into a wolf as she advanced towards Toad, flexing her claws and smiling widely, showing the mutant her long, pointed fangs. Suddenly she stopped and sneezed, then she sneezed again and started coughing violently.
"Ack, what th'hells goin on?" she spluttered between coughs.
"That'd be me wolfy" said a voice behind her as Rahne looked down to see her hand was covered in blood, her eyes rolled back and she slumped forwards and began to shiver violently, coughing up more blood.
"You O.K?" the boy said, walking towards Toad and helping him up
"Yeah, thanks newbie" Toad said
"Thanks, I prefer Typhus to newbie though" Typhus said, opening his left hand, a swarm of small blue flies appeared around Rahne and some flew back into his hand and dissappeared.
"Hold still, this'll probably hurt" Bryce said, unwrapping the bandages around his left hand before lunging at Quicksilver, who was being help in place by a pair of manacles Illustrati had drawn. From out of nowhere Bryce saw a fist slam into his stomach, knocking the wind out of him and bringing him to his knees. He looked up to see a tall red haired boy standing in front of him
"Bet that hurt" the red haired boy said, cracking his knuckles
"Yea, but not half as much as this'll hurt you" Bruce said, clamping his unbandaged left hand onto the boys right forearm.
"Sorry, but it won't" the boy said, pulling his arm away, when Bryce looked down he saw red crystal where there'd previously been tanned flesh
"Looks like you're not the only one with a special power here" the boy said before extending a long thin crystal spike form his arm and raising the arm above his head, intending to skewer Bryce with it. Then three very familiar adamanteum claws were pressed against the boys neck
"These claws can cut through anything, wanna try your luck bub?" Wolverine said, slowly scraping the claws across his neck, leaving three small scratches.
At the same moment a rat that had emerged from underneath a nearby table expanded and grew. It turned blue as it grew and Wolverine quickly realised that it wasn't an ordinary rat
"Back off Wolverine, how about we just both take our students and go on our way?" Mystique asked, at her appearance all the Brotherhood and X-men stopped fighting and fell silent, waiting for Wolverines reply, he retracted his claws and shoved the boy towards Mystique.
"Works fine for me" he replied before turning and walking away, the other students got the message and quickly followed him. Wolverine stopped to pick up Katie and Rogue followed, half walking and half floating. Drac helped Rahne to her feet and helped her hobble after the others, the worst of the effects of the blue flies slowly wearing off
As they reached the gates of the mansion Wolverine stopped and looked at the students
"I didn't get to see much of you fighting but ya all did good work today, working together as a team and looking out for each other, keep it up" he told them before heading up to the mansion, the young mutants looked at each other and Rogue and Kitty both smiled to one another, it was rare for Wolverine to compliment anyone and seemed like life at the mansion was certainly going to get more intresting with these new mutants
Meanwhile at the Brotherhood boarding house Mystique was letting the Brotherhood know just how displeased with them she was.
"A trip to the mall! Now you can't even go to the mall without picking a fight with Xaviers students, what is wrong with you?!" she snapped
"Well actually they started…" the boy with red hair said
"Be quiet!" Mystique screeched and the boy shrank down in fear
"I don't care! You should have restrained yourselves, now Xavier will know all about you and your powers, our advantage is gone, all because you were too impetuous to just walk by the X-men and ignore them, you're all banned from going into Bayville for the rest of the week, now get out of my sight" she snapped, turning her back on the Brotherhood and marching up to her room
"Nice one Cassius" Avalanche grumbled as Toad hopped onto the arm of the couch to sit next to Wanda
"Looks like we're gonna be spending the rest of the week together huh babycakes?" he said, smiling widely. Wanda growled and blasted him with her hex power, Toad fell off the couch and landed flat on his face.
"I get to spend a week with a toad, lucky me" she muttered loudly before standing up and stalking towards her room, glaring at anyone who made eye contact with her
"She'll warm to me sooner or later, the ladies can't resist the Toadster" Toad said, catching a fly with his tongue.
Back at the Xavier institute the Professor sat quietly in his room, looking out at the town of Bayville as the setting sun cast waves of crimson and purple into the darkening sky, it seemed like the Brotherhood had reformed and was now stronger than ever, he wondered what they could be planning but had no idea of the problems the Brotherhood and other forces would pose for his students when the summer ended and they all went back to school.
Next in X-men: The Next Evolution: The Patriots Of Humanity – The new school year starts and the new X-men meet Graydon Creed, the new student body president and head of the Patriots Of Humanity, the worst mutant haters in Bayville
To be continued in The Next Evolution: Back To School, please review