Where much fighting and dialogue commences. By the way, there's no slash in this in case you were wondering. And forgive my horrible/or lack of accent writing and any mis-characterizations. I haven't watch X-Men Evo recently. Oh, and in the Young Justice universe this takes place after 'Denial' but before 'Downtime'.

Disclaimer: I own a giant muffin named Giant Muffin but neither of these shows.

II.

Crazy S-Boy to the Rescue!

Logan had to admit, the chances of him being saved from a hellhound by a boy with super strength was actually quite likely considering the things he's been through. It didn't make it any less surprising. Currently, Logan was watching in a daze as the boy went after the creature, punching it relentlessly.

"Logan!" He saw the somewhat blurry outlines of Jean, Scott, and Amara running toward him. "Logan, are you okay?" Jean leaned down and helped him sit up.

His entire body jerked in pain. "Agh!" He felt like he'd been hit by a bus. How dense was that thing?

"Logan?"

"I'll be fine. Just give me a minute." Sure enough, he could feel the familiar sensation of his body rapidly healing. Boy did he appreciate his abilities. "What about the creature?"

"The creature is being taken care of by our, uh, friend." Scott was obviously talking about the new, and right now rather enraged, kid. Logan hoped he was their "friend".

"Who is he?" Amara asked. "What's he doing here?"

"I don't know, but we'll figure that out later." Logan got up, the pain subsiding and his vision was almost back to normal. "Right now let's help the kid and kill these things." He was a bit shaky, but found his footing soon enough, and his body healed. Despite no uniform, Wolverine was ready for action. "Jean, how are you feeling?."

"Better, I guess."

"Good. You, Scott and Amara go take care of the one in the ice. I'll try and help the kid."

And with that, they split off. Logan saw the three run up to the iced creature, which was currently almost out of the ice. It looked like Jean was trying to mentally bend and snap it's spine with the other two ready to help, but with it struggling like that she was having a hard time. He turned his attention to the kid, who was now taking a beating from the hellhound. Unsheathing his claws, he charged at the creature while it was distracted. A few seconds later he saw blood spurt out of the creature's side and hear the satisfying sound of it screaming in pain. Of course that wound wouldn't kill it, but at the time he was only trying to get it off the kid. The kid seemed to recover fairly quickly. Under the torn up shirt the scratches were only light red marks, and this did not deter him to continue punching the creature relentlessly, a strategy that didn't quite seem to work.

"Hey, kid!" Logan shouted after the kid punched the creature into a concrete pillar. The kid looked at him, his eyes blazing with ferocity. "Hold that thing for me so I can cut-."

"RRAAAAHHHH!" The kid charged toward the creature and, again, started beating the crap out of it. So Logan wouldn't be able to get this kid to cooperate with him. Damn. He'd have to work around him. Logan circled the battling foes and looked for any little opening to slice the thing open, but so far the kid was relentless. He's surprised the creature or the kid hasn't gotten tired yet. At the moment the kid was pushing against the creature's head, preventing it from biting him in half, if it could. The frustrated creature reared and the kid readjusted his position, now lifting up the creature by its chest as it tried to claw at him.

Perfect opening.

Logan charged towards the exposed underbelly, using all of his strength to get there before the opportunity was gone. He ducked under the creature and drove his claws deep into its flesh. Blood spilled all over him as the creature screamed one last time. Logan almost slid out from beneath the thing but didn't lose his footing, regaining his posture quite gracefully. The creature slumped and fell on its side, the life slowly draining out of it as it gave a gurgled cry. Nothing else had to be done. Logan stood up and glanced at the kid and was taken aback when the kid shot a glare at him. 'Well, you're welcome.'

A large boom startled them both and Logan realized his companions weren't where he last saw him. He took off toward the boom with the kid right behind him, then quickly catching up, and then soon overtaking him. 'Man, this kid can move.' On the other side of the huge parking garage, he could see Amara and Scott blasting the burnt-but-unfortunately-not-critically-wounded creature while Jean was struggling to hold it in place.

"Hurry guys, I can't keep this up for much longer!" He heard her say.

While all this was going on, the kid barreled his way toward the creature…and was going to run down Amara.

"Amara! Get out of the way!"

He saw Amara stop and turn to find the speeding blur coming toward her. She dove out of the way as the kid ran past her and straight for the floating creature. Logan got there a second later. "Amara, are you okay?"

"Yea, I'm…" But she trailed off, staring front of her. Logan looked up and saw the kid wrapping his muscled arms around the creature's neck, his face contorted into a snarl. The creature thrashed its head to and fro but couldn't get out of the kid's grip or Jean's physic one. The five mutants watched as gradually the kid's hold became tighter and tighter, until a sickening 'crack' echoed throughout the room and the creature's body fell.

Time seemed to catch up after that. Logan felt the long familiar rush of adrenaline and battle fade and retracted his claws. He saw that it wasn't so familiar to the others. They're whole bodies twitch as they tried to get their nerves under control and tried to catch their breaths, but eventually relaxed. Amara was particularly shaken up with her almost run-in with the kid. Speaking of which, Logan was not happy to find that the kid wasn't starting to relax like the others. In fact, he tensed up, getting ready for battle yet again, only this time it was against them.

The others noticed this as well, and started to tense too. "Hey there." Scott said, putting on his friendly face. The kid snapped his head toward him, eyes fierce. Scott cringed and stepped back.

"Thank you." This time he snapped his head toward Jean with the same look. She cringed, but didn't step back. "Thank you for helping us take down those things." Technically it was them who helped him, but Logan figured Jean was trying to flatter him, which was much better than offending him. It seemed to work as the kid's face shifted from 'I'm-going-to-kill-you' wary to 'I-haven't-decided-yet' wary. It was a start. "I'm Jean. Do you have a name?" His face remained blank. Jean took one step toward him, but he instantly got defensive. Jean stepped back, realizing her mistake. "Don't worry, we won't hurt you. None of us want to hurt you."

The kid shifted his gaze to each member of the X-Men and seemed to evaluate their threat level. Logan was last, and when his eyes reach his, Logan tried very hard to look as unthreatening as possible, which was a bit hard, considering. The kid studied him longer than the others, recognizing that he was the leader. The kid, along with being suspicious, also seemed confused, like he was trying to figure something out (the bizarre part was he was only doing this with them, not the hellhounds). But there was no trace of fear at all. Who was this kid?

Then without any hint of a warning, the kid shot across the parking lot before Logan could even blink and actually slammed through the concrete ceiling and out of the building. 'Holy shit.' Just what the hell were they dealing with?

The others were pretty shocked by the kid's departure as well. "Should we go after him?" Scott clearly sounded like he didn't want to go after a guy who can jump straight through concrete.

Logan couldn't blame him. "No. It's too dangerous with just us. Besides, we have to tell Charles about this." Plus they were all exhausted, and he really wanted a shower. Logan then heard the familiar sound of Velocity approaching before the others could. 'It's about time. What took them so long?'

"I hear Velocity coming. Let's go upstairs."

Logan came outside to see the Velocity landing in a space next to the building, as well as Bobby and Jubilee. He figured Charles had some mental barrier keeping people away since absolutely no one but them was here. Good. The fewer people who knew about this bizarre incident, the better. Charles rolled out first, followed by Ororo. The others soon came: Kitty, Kurt, Rogue, and Evan, and they all seemed rather panicked. Logan went up to them. "What happened?"

The four teenagers each took turns telling the story. First, Kitty "You're not going to believe this Mr. Logan!"

Second, Evan. "We were on our way over here, after we recovered from that blackout. That was really weird too, all the backups were out and -."

Third, Kurt. "Anyvay, ve vere almost to zhe building vhen something shot out of it and jumped high into zhe air."

And finally, Rogue. "It looked like it went straight through the building. Do yah know what it was?"

Oh yes, Logan knew. "Did you see what way it went?"

Charles gave him a concerned look. "Logan, what exactly is going on?"

Logan paused. "You're going to have to see for yourself."


"Vhoa, vat is so cool!"

"Trust me Kurt, it's not so cool when it's trying to tear you limb from limb."

"It still doesn't make it any less cool man. I'd never thought I'd see something like this!"

Scott rolled his eyes, not that anyone could see it. Only Kurt and Evan could think something that could turn you into an unrecognizable pile of organic matter was 'cool'.

"Scott's serious guys, you didn't want to mess with these things." Jean was cleaning up concrete so when the employees went to park, it wouldn't look like it was torn up by hellhounds. Or attract any attention in general.

Rogue was standing apart from the others, as usual. "What do yah think they are, and who was the boy you mentioned?"

'I have no idea, Rogue.' Logan thought as he half listened to the other group's conversation. The five kids were all hanging around one carcass, cleaning up. Kitty went back to the helicopter with the others to try and help Bobby's ankle, which was still in a lot of pain. Plus she made it very clear she didn't want to be near the carcasses. Meanwhile, he, Ororo, and Charles were over by the other corpse, with Ororo currently discussing this whole mess with Charles. Logan told them a brief version of the story, from the time of the blackout to when the kid launched himself out of the building (and Charles did probe his mind for more details later). He also found out what took them so long. Turns out the blackout not only knocked out the main power in the Institute, but also the backup generators and other technology as well, which wasn't suppose to happen.

"So, what do you propose, Professor?"

"Well Ororo, we have to take these creatures back and find out what they are. Hank would love to study them. As for the boy who ran off…you said he was dangerous, Logan."

Dangerous didn't even begin to describe this kid. "I'd definitely say so, Charles. Think of a teenaged Juggernaut complete with the temper."

"The fear for his life could explain his aggression." Ororo said. "It's not unreasonable to believe a child with such strength would respond to fear in such a way."

"No, he wasn't afraid of those things. Not a bit." The two looked at Logan, surprised. "I saw the look in his eyes when he fought those things. He wasn't fighting for his life. He was on a mission. Hell, he seemed more "afraid" of us than the creatures."

"What do you mean, "more afraid" of you?" asked Charles.

"I don't know, it's like something about us confused him, and he was…suspicious of us."

"I can't say I blame him." said Ororo. "It's possible his powers recently developed and got himself into this situation…somehow." she sighed and rubbed her forehead. "That still doesn't explain we didn't detect him on Cerebro or what these things are. None of this makes sense."

"I know how you feel."

"We'll have to figure out all this later." Charles said. "Right now our top priority is to find the boy. His powers combined with his aggression present a great danger to everyone. The problem is finding him with Cerebro temporary out of commission."

"And I doubt Wolverine could track him. Leaping everywhere wouldn't make a good trail." Logan nodded at that.

"I think I can help find him." All three turned their heads and saw Jean coming toward them. "I heard the last part of the conversation when I walked up." She smiled, sheepish. "Sorry."

"That's alright Jean. How can you help?"

"Professor, when he was, um," Jean looked particularly uncomfortable. "choking the creature, I felt his mental signature."

"And you think you can track him?"

"Yes."

Charles linked his fingers together like he always does when asking a serious question. "Jean, are you sure you can differentiate his from other people's at such a distance? It's a rather difficult task."

Jean looked determined. "I can do it Professor. Besides, his was different somehow. I really can't explain it."

Charles nodded, intrigued. "Alright, we'll explain the plan to the others on Velocity."

After that conversation, things seemed to happen quickly. Hank arrived with the X-Van to take the injured Bobby and the other two younger mutants home, as well as pick up the bodies. The rest of them went out to search for the kid. Bayville was still dark from the blackout, but Logan could still see the impressions of buildings below from Velocity's window while listening to conversation. The plan was to fly over the city while Jean searched for a trace and some indication of his direction with the Professor's help, but it was unlikely if they found him even with his strange signature. That kid was probably in a different state by now.

"So what did these creatures have to do with him anyway?" asked Evan.

Scott shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe he just stumbled onto them?"

"You sound like you don't even buy zhat explanation."

"I really don't know what to say Kurt. I mean, if he did stumble on these things by accident, then why didn't he run away? Not to mention the question of where those things came from."

"What if they were created by Magneto or somethin'?" They all turned to Rogue, even Logan. "I mean, Magneto could do something like this, right?"

"Yea," said Kitty. "He's built and performed some strange things in the past, so creating those creatures isn't a stretch."

"Do you think he was using them to capture this kid?" Evan said.

"Ya, Magneto vould vant a powerful mutant like zhat."

Logan piped in. "I don't think they were trying to capture him. Those things were mindless and only wanted to tear him apart. Not that they could, of course."

"If this kid really is as aggressive as you say," said Rogue. "then would we have to lock him up like Juggernaut?"

All of the kids looked upset about this notion. He knew the subject of locking up mutants because of danger was a touchy one. None of them, including Logan, liked when mutants had to be "locked up" because they were too dangerous. It made them feel like there really was something wrong with them. And when a mutant is deemed dangerous in this day and age, the public backlash could be crippling. If this kid was one those…

"Maybe he isn't that sort of dangerous." Scott said, a little awkward. "That fight was a heck of an adrenaline rush, so he probably calmed down after he left."

Or so Logan hoped. "But if he is too dangerous, then we'll do what we got to do."

"I found him!" said Jean. The excitement in the air turned up a notch. "He's nearby."

"Which way?" asked Ororo.

"West. But I don't know how far."

"I've locked on to his signature too." Charles said. "He's about two miles away."

Ororo turned Velocity westward. "So how are we going to handle this boy?"

"I'm not sure." Charles said. "But at the very least, I want to try talking to him first."


Superboy slouched against a building and closed his eyes for a moment, trying to figure out what was going on. It was so strange. One second he was fighting in the lab with the others, fending off two Genohounds who had tackled him, and the next he was in some parking structure with one still on him and the other running off. And then after that those people showed up and helped him for some reason. He couldn't stay there though. Leaving and finding his friends was the top priority.

Except that he couldn't find them. He looked all around the area but there was no sign of them, and the radio wasn't working. He even tried contact using Megan's telepathic link despite how unsettling it was. But there was nothing. Plus he had no idea how or why he ended up in Bayville, and there were people out there who had powers. This didn't really surprise him as there were powered people everywhere (it seemed like it anyway), but they still might present a problem. He wasn't scared by all this, but he was starting to worry, especially about his friends. Maybe they went back to Mount Justice, like they agreed to do if they ever got separated and cut off from communication.

As he was thinking he heard a helicopter in the distance, but ignored it (he was quite used to helicopters being everywhere in the city). Absentmindedly he listened as it seemed to be circling areas of the city, going in wide and small figures as it advanced in his general direction. But then something changed that got his attention. The helicopter turned and went in a straight line right toward him. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but something in the back of Superboy's mind said no. Superboy scaled the building he was under and looked out over the dark city. Sure enough, in the distance what looked like a military helicopter was coming straight for him, which meant it was time to fight. As it came closer, Superboy prepared to jump and take it out, waiting for a good striking distance. But that opportunity never came as the helicopter descended into an open lot nearby instead. With his enhanced vision, he watched as it settled on the ground and waited to see what he was up against. When the ramp lowered, he expected to see soldiers, but instead a man in a dark blue costume walked out with a bald man in a wheel chair following behind. A few seconds later, seven other people came out, all with strange but similar costumes. He zoomed in on the group and realized he recognized some of them. That guy with the visor and the red haired girl, Jean, from the parking garage were there, and that man who came out first was the clawed man.

Superboy was intrigued now. Were they out to capture him or something? They said the "wouldn't hurt him". And if they were going to fight, then why did they bring a man in a wheel chair? He listened in on their conversation and heard the bald man tell the others to "keep a non-threatening distance behind", while he and Jean went to find "the boy." The nine of them departed with the two in the lead, walking through the maze of old buildings and, again, coming straight toward him.

At that point, he had enough. He launched high into the air and landed right in front of the two, creating a small crater in the process. To their credit, the two didn't look horribly shocked when he landed, but they did look a startled. On his infrared, he saw the seven hidden others preparing to fight. That didn't matter to Superboy. He stood there, impassive. "Who are you, and what do you want?"

The bald man quickly answered. "My name is Professor Charles Xavier. Jean and I here are mutants, like you."

Superboy was confused. "Mutant? I'm not a mutant."

Both of them were taken aback by that, and seem unsure of what to say.

Finally, Jean spoke. "I understand how hard it is when your powers manifest. Believe me, it was hard for me too, but we can help you control them."

Superboy had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. "Look, I don't know what your game is, but I don't need anyone's help. So are you going to fight with me, or not?"

The two looked at each other, concerned. "No." said the Professor.

"Then just leave me alone."

Before they could respond, he launched into the air, the two figures becoming little specks in a maze of buildings.

Next stop: Mount Justice.


Longer chapter, yay!

Superboy's character is hard to write. I'm not sure what his character's like exactly since it's only nine episodes in, but I don't think he'll explode at every little thing unless it really threatens him or really pisses him off (except in Bereft, but that doesn't really count ;) ). Plus by this point he had some training to control himself and think things through by Black Canary. So, yea, just in case you're wondering why Superboy didn't bite the X-Men's heads off, here's my explanation. Nor do I think he'd trust complete strangers even if they did help him.

And I think Logan had his costume change at this point. We'll check in with some of the other YJ members in the next chapter.