I do not own claim to any of the X-men (only my girl Mimik), and make no money from this. Please let me know what you think so far and I hope you enjoy the read.

I wake to the sound of Taps being played (Wraith's little joke) and over the loudspeaker I hear, "Rise and shine muties, it's time to start your first day of training!"

I slowly stand up, the pain is almost gone. I brush off black flakes and realize that I've shifted back to my green self. I look around and realize all eyes are on me, oh well they were gunna find out eventually.

Nightcrawler walks over and stares, "You… are just like me!"

"No bub, we're nothing alike. Now come on, if we aren't all awake and waiting for him by the time he comes by, you're not gunna like the consequences…"

I walk over and stand by the cage and the others follow suit, looking tired and scared. I hear the door open and smell the stench of another pain in the ass. Sabertooth walks right up to my cage and grins at me showing off his sharp teeth.

"Oh look kids, the cleaning lady has showed up. Get tired of licking Wraith's boots?"

He chuckles, "Cute, but who's in the cage? I'm here to take you all to training. You're to look at the files we have on them and memorize them because you only get to see them once."

"They need to eat first; they can't last as long as I can without food. If they don't eat then they'll be useless on the field…"

Sabertooth frowns, "Wraith didn't say anything about feeding these little maggots."

"Well unless you want them all dead by the end of the week I suggest you get them some food, or at least take 'em to the cafeteria. It's not like they'll run away, you did insert the regulation detonation implants in their heads right?"

Sabertooth growls, "Of course I did! Fine then all of you follow me and don't try anything or else I'll press a little button and the bitch here will have to mop your little pieces up off the dirt." And he points his finger at me, "And if you try anything I'll press this other little button which will make you into a deep fried snack for Wraith."

I roll my eyes and he walks back towards the door and then all the cells pop open. Beast leads Cyclops out of their cell and I finally get a look at their other two team mates, a scrawny little mousey haired kid and a tall muscular guy with dark hair. I flick my tail and grab the scrawny one's arm as he goes to use his power, his fist becoming covered with ice.

"If you wanna live you better not do that."

He pulls his arm away and then looks at the ground with what looked like tears in his eyes. These kids aren't fit for this place… I was raised to take the punishment, but I doubt they'll even be able to handle today's training. We follow Sabertooth as he leads out of the barracks to the cafeteria. We're stopped outside as he sends some men inside to clear it out and we enter, watching some angry soldiers leave their breakfast, glaring at us.

He turns to us, "Go ahead, you got 15 minutes and then we're off. Except for you..." He points to me, "You don't get anything; you gotta look these over."

He waves the files at me and points to a chair next to him. I walk over and sit down and he tosses the files down on the table.

I look up at him and ask, "Is my file in here too?"

He laughs, "Do any of them look big enough to be yours?"

I glance down at the seven thin folders and sigh. So much for hoping… I open up the first one and quickly read through them all as well as the brief summary of all of them that one of the lab boys provided.

Brief Overview

Scott Summers

Alias: Cyclops

Mutation: Emits powerful energy beam from the eyes. Uses a ruby-quarts visor to control optic blasts

Team leader of the mutant team known as the X-men; level headed in combat, selfless, ethical, strong tactical and strategy skills

Jean Grey

Alias: Marvel Girl

Mutation: Telepathy and Telekinesis

Member of the mutant team known as X-men; caring, selfless, strong belief in the good of others

Dr. Hank McCoy

Alias: Beast

Mutation: Ape-like superhuman physical strength and agility, and heightened senses. Physical mutations include; blue fur covering entire body, overly large hands and feet, sharpened teeth, and claws

Scientist and medic of the mutant team known as the X-men; he is a well known authority in biochemistry and genetics, as well as proficient in mathematics, English literature, and politics

Ororo Munro

Alias: Storm

Mutation: Weather manipulation, flight, energy perception, resistance of effects of the weather

Second in command of the mutant team known as the X-men; excellent leadership skills, independent, strong willed, proficient lock pick, protective, was once considered a goddess among her tribe in Africa

Robert Drake

Alias: Iceman

Mutation: Can lower his body temperature rapidly, emanating cold directly from his body, can resist sub-zero temperatures, cryokenetic where he can manipulate water molecules around him to create various forms of ice, can also change his entire body into ice, maintaining mobility as if he were human.

A member of the mutant team known as the X-men; he is honest, brave, impetuous at times, but a team player when the need is called for

Piotr Rasputin

Alias: Colossus

Mutation: Can transform his body into an organic, steel-like substance granting him superhuman strength, the ability to resist extreme temperatures and ballistics, as well as enhanced speed and endurance

A recently recruited member of the mutant team known as the X-men; reason for allying himself with the X-men is unknown at this time, quiet, honest, artistic, reluctant to use his powers for combat, physically he is strong and imposing without the use of his powers

Kurt Wagner

Alias: Nightcrawler

Mutation: Can teleport various distances with various additional masses with him, also has superhuman agility, "adhesive" hands and feet, and a mild invisibility when in deep shadow. Physical mutations include; a fine dark blue fur covering his entire body, two fingers with an opposable thumb on each hand and only two toes, each longer than a normal human being's, on each foot and a third toe-like projection on his heel, as well as pronounced, fang-like canine teeth, yellow eyes, pointed ears, and 3.5' long prehensile tail that can support his own body weight

A rogue mutant captured in Germany; extremely religious, merciful, humorous, spontaneous, hero-like image of himself, and entertains the thought of being a "swashbuckler"

I've only skimmed through the sections detailing their entire known life's history, but shit... I've been pinned with the Brady Bunch...

After the fifteen minutes of ravenous silence were up Sabertooth rounds up the X-men, Nightcrawler (who looked very sad to not be able to finish his food) and I and marches us out to the training grounds.

He looks at me and says, "You're to begin training them as you would your previous unit, prepping them for any scenario that may happen on one of your missions. The grounds have guards all around it and you still have the detonation implants to worry about. So have fun freaks, I'll be back when Wraith says it's your bed time."

"You know, I can't wait for the day when Wraith decides he no longer needs you anymore and throws you into the cell right next to mine."

He growls and walks away. Someday I'm going to kick his ass so hard… Beast clears his throat to get my attention, Oh right… This gunna be a little weird being in charge of a mutant team…

"Alright guys, line up!"

I wait and they all just stare at me, I flick my tail, "Look we may very well have all day, but I'm not the patient type, so line up now."

Iceman looks at me annoyed, "So you aren't gunna help us escape then?"

"No."

He starts to get teary-eyed again and so I rush up to him and grab the collar of his black uniform, "Look kid, you need to grow a pair 'cause this ain't the sissy real world you used to live in anymore. This here is hell and if you all don't start listening they're gunna remove me from being in charge and put someone like Sabertooth as your leader and I don't know what you know about him but trust me you wouldn't want that."

I toss him to the ground and Colossus helps him up, "Now look, if you guys want to survive for as long as possible in this place, then you need to listen, take orders, and do what must be done. When we are out here I am no longer your friend or whatever, I am your leader and boss and what I say goes. Understood?"

I glare at them and they mumble their agreement.

"Now you, Cyclops, you're gunna need these."

I toss him his visor that Sabertooth handed to me before he left. He smiles as he puts them on and looks around and then stares, smiling at Jean.

"Alrighty, I was informed that you are to be trained as a whole and as separate groups and so I am putting Cyclops, Iceman, Nightcrawler and Beast into one group and the other will be Marvel Girl, Storm, Colossus and I."

Nightcrawler meekly raises his hand. "What?" He stammers, "Vell ve vere all hoping you vould tell us vhat exactly you're mutant abilities are?"

"Well, I guess that's fair enough. Basically I'm a shape shifter with the ability to mimic your mutant ability as you saw with how I copied Cyclops' power back in the barracks. I also have enhanced senses and the ability to rapidly heal myself as you can see."

Jean speaks, "Then how did you instantly teach Kurt how to speak English?"

"As I said ealier I had disposed of a mutant with the ability to translate any language he came in contact with and was able to allow others the same luxury. I think he called himself Babel or what not... I just used his powers on blue-boy over there." She frowns obviously displeased with my answer.

"Now I don't know if you saw before, but I also have these." I hear the snikt, snikt as my claws emerge. "They are made out of-"

Beast interrupts me, "Adamantium, yes Wolverine has the same amazing metal covering his skeletal structure as well."

"These aren't 'covering' my bones bub, they ARE my bones. The good doctor did a complete surgical swap, when I was about… seven, I think."

They all looked horrified and some gasp, saying things like, "Dear God" and "Holy shit."

"Ok, ok, enough about me. It's nearly 7am, we're losing precious daylight." They all start bitching and I sigh, this is gunna suck…

.

I begin their training with a quick warm up, watching how they use their powers to traverse the obstacle course together. Then I set them off to achieve specific goals set throughout the courses.

They seem to already have quite a bit of combat training under their belts with Nightcrawler quickly picking up on how they do things. Even though they seem combat ready I don't think they can be trained to kill.

It's like being do-gooders is in their blood or something. But I'm sure if Wraith has anything to say about it, that blood will be quickly drained right out of them.

The weak link seems to be Iceman, he seems to be a noob even for their standards and for that I'm afraid for him…

At the end of one of their sessions I stop them, sweating and already tired.

"Take a quick ten minute break and then back to training."

Storm speaks up for what the others were thinking, "Don't you think you're being too hard on us?"

"No. I don't. You don't know Wraith like is like, I do. He'll push you ten times harder, he doesn't care if you live or die. You are just pawns to use in his little anti-mutant war. In order to keep you alive I need to teach you to be merciless, ruthless, to forgo things like food and sleep, and to be able to kill someone now and feel bad about it later. And I'm sorry but until we figure out some way to get out of here for good, I need to continue pushing for your own good and for mine."

Cyclops balls his hands into fists and says, "You're asking us to become monsters? To just kill innocent people? That is not what the X-men stand for! We fight for equal rights for humans and mutants alike."

"Oh to live in the sweet delusional world that you live in… Like I said, I'm sorry but I got as much of a choice in this as you do…"

Jean walks up to me and puts a hand on my arm, "How many people has he made you hurt?"

I laugh coldly, "Hurt? I couldn't even begin to count, but kill? I've killed a lot of people, mutant and human, good or evil, willingly, or unwillingly. My memories have been toyed with and altered, but I still see every single face every day."

I push her back, "And I don't need your or anybody else's sympathy. I live with my nightmares and soon you'll learn to live with yours. Now back to training! We'll use the holographic simulators and test your mettle as killers."

They all begin to argue with me, except for Colossus and Nightcrawler who just stand there with sad eyes for me. I get angry, how dare they feel sorry for me? And how can they argue about simple training that I had to cover when I was six? They got to get away with their cushy little lives only having to deal with zits when I had to deal with fear of being whipped as punishment for failure.

I shout and then shift to a mutant I recently terminated. His mutation caused him to become a large blue dragon-like creature. They instantly shut up.

"Now you pathetic little excuses for mutants stop bitching and get back to training! I am not going to be accused of failure because of you!"

They all slowly walk out towards the simulation field, except for Nightcrawler who looks at me and says, "Remember fraulien, God is always wiz you and loves and protects you no matter vhat." Then he ports and joins the others.

I slump and shift back, what more could go wrong this week? Suddenly it begins to downpour and I look up to see a tiny raincloud centered only above me. Storm… Great…

.

By midnight Wraith sends his goons to bring us back to our cells. None of the others are even speaking to me now seeing as I forced each one of them kill at least 3 people each in simulation. There were a lot of tears and shouting and anger, but they did it at least.

As we reach the barracks the others get taken inside and I get pulled aside. It was Sean Talbot, one of the nicer men from my unit, or what was MY unit.

"What's up Talbot?"

He looks at the ground and says, "Wraith wants to see you… In the interrogation room…"

"Interrogation room? Why? What did I do wrong?"

He shakes his head, "I don't know, I was only told to come get you."

He heads off towards the main building and I follow.

The interrogation room is actually just Wraith's torture room. Whenever he's called me in there I end up not being able to walk for three days.

As we approach the door I begin to tremble slightly and I can smell the fear, blood, and pain coming from that room.

Talbot stops and then looks at me as if saying sorry and then opens the door for me. I hesitate and then walk in…

.

The room was just how I remembered it, dark, with chains on the floor and walls, scratches and stains that look suspiciously like blood.

The only thing reminiscent of an actual interrogation room is the desk with a folding chair on either side.

The doors slams shut and I jump.

At that desk was Wraith whose eyes lit up at the site of me shaking in my boots, "Ah, Kim, so how's the teaching job treating you?"

He sits forward eagerly waiting for my answer.

"I've been trying but they're stubborn, they refuse to hurt anyone. I've forced them to do simulations but they seem set in their ways and I can't break them. They are quite battle ready though…"

He laughs, "Being a bunch of goody two-shoes huh? We can soon fix that, I'll have each one give me a little visit here and-"

"No! I- I mean… I don't know if they could handle a visit here quite yet… I was thinking maybe some live action training. Maybe a mission I could take them on so maybe we could get their killer instincts in gear?"

He stands up and I flinch, "That's my girl! You've grown up so fast! I like this idea and I think I have the perfect mission for you all."

I let out a sigh of relief.

He walks around the desk and says, "But what if they refuse to kill? Hmm, how should we prove to them that we mean business? What do you think Sabertooth?"

I go wide-eyed and see Sabertooth come out of the shadows in the corner, how did I miss him?

He grins and says, "We should show them an example of what will happen to them if they don't listen."

Wraith gets this malicious smile and says, "Excellent idea."

I back towards the door, shaking in terror as I see Sabertooth toss Wraith his favorite toy, a barbed whip.

Wraith then pulls out his remote and presses a button. I fall to the floor in painful spasms and Sabertooth walks over and picks me up with rubber gloves on and then hooks me up to the chains on the floor. My ankles and wrists chained up as I sit on my knees on the floor.

I wrap my tail around my leg and shift ever so slightly so there is a mouth guard protecting me from biting off my own tongue. I've done that before and it wasn't too pleasant re-growing it.

The pain from the electricity is a welcome numbing now, so maybe I won't feel the full affect of the whip.

I guess Wraith was thinking the same thing because suddenly it stopped…

And then I heard a crack and let loose a muffled scream as the whip came down hard against my already scarred back. I can already guess the pattern he'll go for…

Sabertooth walks around into view and then kneels down in front of me, grabbing the sides of my face, "Fix it, now. I wanna hear you scream."

I reluctantly shift back and he smiles and stands, nodding to Wraith. I hear another crack and I scream…