Her ears still ringing slightly from the explosion, Gemini wasn't at first aware that the communicator by her ear was buzzing, "Gemini, report. Gemini! Are you there? Are you OK?"

Suddenly realising what it was, she hurriedly replied, "Gemini here! What's going on?"

"Gemini – Shapeshifter here. Are you guys OK?"

"Yeah, we're OK! What's happening?"

"You tell us! Two explosions have been reported at the rear of the building!"

The girl looked around her frantically for some sort of indication of what was going on, and why the explosions had happened.

"We don't know! It happened without any warning! Then another one just a few minutes later! We've tried to help get people to safety, but I think there have still been casualties, I don't know!"

"OK – try to stay calm. Just keep doing what you can to help out. It's chaos over here too – one of us will be round as soon as we can."

"OK!"

She looked round once more. There didn't seem to be anyone else in immediate need of help. The emergency services seemed to have taken charge of the situation. Atlas was moving rocks and rubble out of the way to help the ambulances get through. Vertigo was standing staring at the building, perhaps trying to work out what had happened. Chronos was crouched in front of two small girls, who appeared to have become rather attached to him.

Gemini noticed a small group of what appeared to be senior police and fire officers not far away. Maybe they knew what was going on. Maybe they could tell her how she could help. She hurried over.

"What's the situation?" she asked.

There was no response. A couple of them glanced at her, seeing only a seventeen year old girl who was small for her age, and ignored her.

"Hey, I'm trying to help!" she said, trying to keep her patience. "Can you tell me what's going on?"

One of them turned to snap at her, "What's going on is that we have over a dozen people dead and hundreds more injured, and we don't need our time wasted by kids who are obviously too stupid to understand the words 'get behind the security cordon'! Go on, get out of here!"

"Listen, you don't understand!" she snapped back. "I'm with the UN team! The X-Men? I'm one of the – one of the X-Men!"

For a second the words had caught in her throat. Was she really, finally, calling herself one of the X-Men? What would Dad think if he heard her saying that? What would Mystique think? She forced herself to put it to the back of her mind. She didn't have time to worry about that. Other things were more important right now.

"The mutants?" one of the cops spat. "Get out of here, you little freak! We don't want any help from you!"

"Jameson, that's enough," a senior officer barked. "Our orders are to co-operate with the mutants – they're vouched for by the UN."

"But sir – "

"Those orders come from the highest level, Jameson, so put your prejudices on one side and let's take whatever help we can get! Just check her name is on the list."

The senior cop then turned to Gemini. "What's your name?"

"Gemini."

"Real name?"

A few years ago she'd have burned with anger at the question. Gemini had been the only name she'd answered to when Pyro had rescued her and she'd joined the Brotherhood. Now...now there was still a twinge of impatience and annoyance, but she answered calmly, "Alexandra Allerdyce."

She'd started using Pyro's surname as her own two years ago when he had finally gotten around to "doing the paperwork", as he put it, and making her adoption as his daughter official and legal. She had abandoned the name of her human family. Melody had been upset by this at first, but she could understand why Gemini didn't want the reminder of her mother or their other sister.

"OK, you're on the list," said the officer. "Here's the situation as it stands. Two explosives have gone off so far, and unknown others could still be inside the building. We've already evacuated bystanders to a safe minimum distance, but there are still hundreds of people inside. We need to get them out by a route that's safe."

"Do we know what caused the explosions?"

"No. Our best guess is mutant terrorists."

The cop named Jameson looked angrily at the girl, "Yeah – know any?"

Yes, I do, actually, and if you knew them too you probably wouldn't be able to sleep at night, was what she wanted to retort, but she managed to keep herself under control.

"Has anyone made contact?" she asked. "Any ransom demands?"

"No, nothing."

"What can we do?" she asked. "We're here to help."

"Nothing until the bomb squad arrives. We can't evacuate until we know a path out of the building that's safe."

"How long will that take? Couldn't another bomb go off any second?"

"Do you have any better ideas?" Jameson snapped.

She met his angry stare and replied coolly, "Yeah, I do. Watch this."

The next second her twin was standing by her side. As the identical girl materialised into existence beside her, several of the officers jumped slightly in surprise. One or two of them looked uncomfortable. Jameson looked disgusted.

"That's a real nice trick, kid," he growled. "How does it help us?"

"Re-spawning duplicate," Gemini indicated the twin with a jerk of her thumb. "I'll send her in to look for explosives. I've had some bomb-disposal training."

"Yeah, right! If you think we're sending in a mutant to 'dispose' of bombs left by mutants in the first place..."

"That'll do, Jameson!" his senior officer interrupted. "All right, Miss Allerdyce. I don't think you look old enough to know what you're talking about, but the UN's recommendation takes precedence over what I think. Go in there and do what you can."

"Right."

None of the other cops objected. Perhaps they felt the situation was desperate enough to warrant trying just about anything. Part of her also suspected that some of them weren't really that bothered about the safety of a mutant girl. She tried not to think about what Vertigo would say if she admitted that particular suspicion.

She tapped her communicator, "Iceman? Chris? Anyone there?"

"Fliss here."

"It's Gemini. Listen, I've been speaking to the cops. They want to evacuate the building but they need to clear out any other bombs that might be in there. They've agreed to let me send my twin inside. I can look around and try to defuse any other bombs."

Fliss hesitated for a second, then said, "Sure, sounds like a plan. Be careful though! There are hundreds of people still trapped inside!"

"Do they know what's going on?"

"No – the police have cooked up a cover story of some kind. We doubt it'll last, though. The sooner we get them out the better."

Another voice spoke into her ear, "Gemini, this is Iceman. If you find any explosives but you don't have time to deactivate them, let me know their position and I'll try to get inside and ice them."

"Will do."

OK, she thought to herself, let's do this.