It was just after dinner when the teenagers got together and headed for Scott's office. They knew he'd be there, marking papers or making grand decisions or something else suitably headmasterly. The door was open when they arrived, so Gemini poked her head inside to make sure Cyclops was there. Scott looked up from his desk and waved her inside, "Come in, Alexandra. Are the others with you?"

"Yeah, we're all here."

"Sit down please, all of you."

The four young people took seats in front of Cyclops' desk and waited to hear what he wanted to say to them. Briefly surveying the group through his ruby glasses, the headmaster began, "All right, I think you probably know why it is I've asked you to come see me. In case you don't, it's quite simple. I've been speaking with the other senior X-Men and we'd like to invite each of you to become fully-fledged members of our order. I believe Helios called it 'going full-time'."

Gemini or Vertigo must have been about to speak, because Scott put up his hand to forestall them, and continued, "Now I realise this is a big decision. I'm talking about committing your lives to striving for peace between humans and mutants on a world-wide basis. It isn't something that should be underestimated, taken lightly, or entered into half-heartedly. It isn't a decision one can make in five minutes, and I'm not asking you to do that."

Gemini nodded. That made sense to her.

"So, here's what I'm proposing," said Cyclops. "We'd like you to accompany us on a mission, to give you a flavour for the kind of things you can expect if you do decide to join us. Consider it the very final stage of your training."

"What's the mission?" asked Atlas.

"You'll receive a full briefing before we leave, but here are the basic details: as you may know, Oculus has recently been appointed as the UN's Special Ambassador for Mutant Relations. He's organised a conference, to take place this week in New York, to discuss the issue of mutants receiving recognition in the UN's Charter for Human Rights. In many countries mutants are unfairly treated because the law doesn't recognise our human rights. The goal of this conference is to get that to change."

"Where do we come in?" Gemini asked, with just a hint of impatience in her voice.

"I'm coming to that. The obvious problem is that there are still many people, in America and other countries, who don't agree that mutants deserve equal treatment with humans, and who will do whatever they can to disrupt or even sabotage the conference."

"Surprise…" Vertigo said mockingly, slouched low in his chair.

The leader of the X-Men ignored him, "Clearly it's essential that security at the conference is at the highest level. Oculus has requested that the UN allow a special group of mutant security personnel to join the UN's own special forces teams. The UN have agreed, and we are going to provide that mutant security force."

"When do we leave?" asked Gemini.

"Tomorrow. Report to the briefing room just after lunch. We'll be splitting into a number of groups and taking up different assignments around the conference centre. Your group will be headed by Crusader."

He paused for a moment, glancing at the clock on the wall, "She should be here any minute. She'll want to discuss the mission with you in more detail."

As if on cue, they heard footsteps in the doorway, and the teenagers turned round to see Annie Rosiçky hurrying into the room.

"Annie," he said. "I was just telling them that you're going to be leading one of the security teams in tomorrow's mission."

"Sorry, Scott, but I'm not going to be there," she shook her head. "Something's come up."

"What?"

"There's been another killing in Israel. I have to get out there and try to stabilise the situation and find out what's going on. I'm sorry this is such short notice, but we really have no choice."

"Understood. Leave whenever you're ready."

Crusader nodded, and left.

"What's that all about?" asked Gemini curiously.

Scott sighed, "A bit of a crisis, I'm afraid. During the last few weeks, several leading Israeli figures have been murdered in Jerusalem. The Israelis are blaming the Palestinians, and the Palestinians are insisting that for once they've got nothing to do with it."

"What does it have to do with us?"

"Israeli intelligence believes the murders to be the work of a single man. So far he's managed to evade capture by their security forces. In fact, nobody's managed to catch even a glimpse of him."

"And you people think he's a mutant?" asked Vertigo.

"Yes," Scott answered. "The evidence points to one single, deadly Islamic mutant assassin."

Chronos shrugged, "So what? Why do we – why do you care?"

"Because the Middle East is highly unstable at the moment. Actually, it's highly unstable all the time, but now it's worse than normal."

"Why?"

"Well, as you know, Israel possesses nuclear weapons. But recently, it's been rumoured that some have gone missing."

"Missing?" said Atlas.

"Believed to have been captured by the Palestinians. Israeli sources won't confirm or deny either way. Anyway, the UN are worried that there may be a nuclear attack from either side. They're desperate to keep the region as stable as possible until the missing nukes can be tracked down. That's why they want this assassin to be stopped. They've agreed to Oculus' suggestion that we send someone to hunt down the killer."

"But why one of our – your people?" Chronos repeated.

"Because it's what we do. It isn't only humans who stand in the way of peace. There are mutants who don't want it either. It's our job to make sure they don't succeed. It isn't simply a case of waiting for the humans to stop hating us. We have to sort out our own problems as well."

Atlas nodded. Gemini got back to the original thread of the conversation, "So Crusader isn't coming with us tomorrow?"

"Not any more. It's a pity. We wanted to give her some experience of leadership. But no matter. We'll work out something else instead."

"Is there anything we can do to prepare?" she asked.

"Not really, other than get a good night's sleep and don't fall over and break your leg or anything like that."

"Is my dad coming with us?"

"Pyro? No. I've discussed it with him, and he said he'd like to sit this one out."

"Does he know you're asking me to go?"

Scott raised his eyebrows, "I haven't mentioned it to him, but I'm sure he's aware of it. There isn't much that escapes his notice. Will it be a problem?"

"I don't think so; I was just wondering."

"All right. Well, that's all for now. I'll see you at the briefing tomorrow."