Temperance jumped nimbly over a piece of heavy machinery, grunting as she hit the ground a little too hard. She rolled out of the way as a laser shot down on her former location, sweeping her hair out of her face as she jumped up onto her feet.
"Ninety pounds of pure power!" shouted Christian from across the room.
"Get down!" Temperance shouted.
Christian ducked just as an axe swung over his head.
"Watch your head, Chris," Gwen said as she raced past him.
"Yeah, yeah," Christian said, and backflipped onto the oncoming axe. Pulling a long, metal knife from its sheath on his waist, he cut straight through the metal and wires, and it crashed to the floor. "Hey, Temp!" he yelled. "Comin' attcha!"
Temperance turned and cursed, seeing several laser guns preparing to fire. Right before they could strike, she turned her body to diamond, and the lasers bounced off of her, harmlessly. "Gwen!" she shouted.
Gwen took a running start and jumped an incredible length, landing perfectly on top of it – claws shot from her hands, and she slashed the lasers.
Gwen jumped down, back to back with Temperance and Christian. Christian pulled his knife and squatted, ready to attack. Temperance remained in diamond form, and Gwen had her claws ready for attack.
"Danger Room: Simulation 228, Off Mode."
The three looked around as the Danger Room shut down around them, to see Logan standing in the door way, smiling.
"Dad!" Gwen said, running over the rubble to wrap her arms around her fathers neck. He laughed and hugged her back.
Temperance frowned as she and Christian made their way over to him. "Why'd you stop the session?" Temperance asked. "We were almost finished."
"Missed you too, kiddo," Logan said, kissing his daughters forehead. "Where's you mom, huh?"
"She's in her study. Did you talk to Jean and Scott?"
"Yeah," Logan said, turning. "I did."
"Well, don't just walk away!" Temperance said, jogging after. "What did Andi and Nick say?"
"They were shocked."
"Well, duh," Christian said, reading his father's mind. "How could they just not tell their kids about that?"
"They didn't know?" Gwen asked. "But, c'mon! Cyclopes was the team leader. Phoenix ate planets! How did they not know this?"
They all entered Emmas study, where Emma was looking quite frazzled. "Logan, I'm glad you're home," she said without looking up. "There's no way we can afford to rebuild the mansion before next month – we're going to need some serious help."
"We'll make it," Logan reassured Emma, kissing the top of her head.
Emma sighed. "Temperance, I need Dr. McCoys book from the top shelf, please."
With a wave of her hand, the book floated down towards Temperance, who moved it towards her mother. Emma took it without bothering to look up. "Thank you, dear."
"We could always use here as a base," Christian said. "Temporarily of course."
Emma smiled at her son. "That's very darling of you, my sweet, but all the X-Men living in this house alone? Our Danger Room is much smaller than the original, and I don't have Cerebro." She sighed. "Should we call Warren?"
"Maybe you should let Slim do that," Logan said. "You and him didn't get along to well last time. He didn't even show up for the meeting last week."
Emma nodded absentmindedly.
Gwen, Temperance, and Christian left their parents, heading down to the basement. Allowing a machine to scan her hand, Temperance led her siblings into the lab.
"Hey, Hank," Gwen said, sitting down next to the blue X-Man.
"Hello, Gwendolyn. Temperance. Christian," he said, looking up from his microscope.
"How's it all going?" Gwen asked, putting some papers into a neater pile.
Hank sighed, pushing away from his desk a bit. "To be completely honest with you, I'm feeling a lot of stress. Much more than normal for me."
"Ah, don't worry about it, big guy," Christian said, patting Hanks shoulder. "I'm sure you just miss Ayesha, that's all."
"When is she arriving, anyway?" Temperance asked.
"Not for another day or two, I'm afraid. If she bothers to come," mumbled Hank.
"Shall I have a word with her?" Christian asked, tapping his forhead.
Hank sighed. "No, no." He stood, pressing a button on the computer. "This is the device I've been working on – for Kurts girl. It would be dangerous for her to go out in public looking the way she does, so I've re-created Kurts original Image Inducer."
"Uncle Tonys not going to like that," Gwen joked. "Wasn't that his idea?"
Hank frowned. "Well, yes, but I've improved it!"
The three teens laughed, before leaving Hank to his work.
Temperance went to her bedroom, sighing. She stripped from her white, one piece leotard-like outfit. On the shoulder of the outfit was light blue lettering reading "Stark Industries." Along with her outfit was a pair of easy-to-move in running shoes and gloves. Chris and Gwen had the exact outfits, only Chris's lettering was in green and Gwens lettering was red. The suits were designed by "Uncle" Tony Stark, who created them to adapt to the wearers powers, much like Reed Richards FF suits.
As Temperance kicked her suit aside, she folded herself into her bath robe and pulled her messy ponytail down, her blonde locks falling nearly to her waist. She looked at herself in the mirror. Take a good, long look, Temp, she told herself. You're going to be an X-Man soon. Your life's dream. Her cobalt blue eyes looked cold and unnerving, but on the inside, she was torn apart. She was so afraid of failing, so afraid of hurting someone. She didn't quite understand why the old X-Men had picked her to be the leader of the New X-Men – sure, she was the oldest, save for Christian and more importantly, Nicolas. She admitted to herself every day that Nicolas would make a better leader – his father had led the X-Men well.
So did Mom and Dad, said a whisper in the back of her head.
Temperance sighed. Christian, get out of me head. You know how unnerving I find it when you read my mind.
Her twin laughed before pulling himself from her mind. Temperance began to pace back and forth.
Meanwhile, as Christian pulled himself from his sister's mind, he sat on the bed, polishing his knife. It was made of adamantium, with a diamond middle piece that represented his parents. Paired with his amazing reflexes and skills with his weapon, Christian had level five telepathic abilities that he had to be careful with – that was why he trained with actual weapons more than his mind. As Christian sighed, he leaned back on his bed, reaching into the chefs mind to find out what dinner was.
Gwen changed into low rider jeans and a red tube top, leaning back in her bed. Her black hair splayed out under her – of all three Frost-Howlett children, she was the only one to have Logans dark hair, even though Gwen dyed the underside of it blonde.
Gwen knew she was different from her siblings – not only was she the only one that gained Logan's looks, she was the only one that gained his adamantium claws and skeleton, therefore his healing factor. In addition to that, being the youngest of three was often difficult – since Temperance and Christian were twins, they never had issues with the whoms-older-than-whom problems. Christian and Temperance would both be eighteen in a few months, and Gwen was only just about to turn sixteen. With a sighed, she rolled over, grabbing a magazine from beside her bed.