Authors Notes

Disclaimer - We do not own X-Men

Chapter 1

Lara followed Charles down the long hallway; it was dull and empty with no décor whatsoever. She was nervous, another feeling Lara never felt. She was usually a very confident girl who could be stubborn at times. She was having second thoughts about agreeing to Charles and Erik's offer. What if they hated me?

They reached the end of the hallway where there was a set of double doors. Charles placed his hand on the left, ready to open it.

"Charles, I'm not so sure if this is a good idea." Lara murmured under her breath; Charles knew what she said by what she was thinking.

Charles beamed at her, "I assure you they won't hate you." Lara felt a little annoyed that Charles was still reading her mind without her permission but she shrugged it off as he opened the door. They wondered into the games room where there were another seven people. Lara's feelings of nervousness instantly vanished. I thought there would be more people. I'd been panicking over this?

"Raven, introduce Lara to the others for me." A pretty girl looked up at the sound of her name and skipped across the room with a large grin on her face.

"You must be Lara! I'm Raven!" She looked to be in her late teens with a youthful rounded face and long blonde hair that flowed past her shoulders in loose curls. She was wearing a short black dress. "Let's meet the others!" Raven grabbed Lara's right hand pulling her along to a group of people sat down in the middle of the room, completely silent. Raven seemed very excitable, a lot more so than Lara - or any of the others in fact.

Lara was first introduced to a short, tanned girl, clad in a black dress and a leather jacket. She looked about the same age as Raven. She didn't say much and forced Lara a parting smile before she joined the others again. She was then greeted by Darwin; a fairly older looking man with dark skin. He was wearing a blue t-shirt with casual trousers and seemed a lot friendlier than her first encounter. Lastly, Raven brought her over to a blonde boy who introduced himself as Alex in a low, appealing voice. He was broad and towered over Lara; he felt a bit intimidating. Alex also seemed incredibly moody; Lara just assumed he didn't want to be here.

A ginger boy then approached with a smirk; his pupils dilated. "Hi, my names Sean Cassidy." She felt warmth emitting from him. Lara glanced at his face giving him a bleak look not knowing what this warmth was. His face was freckled; in fact, his whole body was. She'd never seen someone covered in so many. His skin beneath was clear and colourless - he was paler than her. She had to admit he was cute. She found herself gazing at his piercing, pale blue eyes and Sean's smile dropped. She hadn't realised how long she'd been staring at him in confusion to what she felt.

"I'm Lara."

Sean's face lit up, "You have really pretty eyes." He stated, suddenly.

Lara blushed, "Er- thanks? I guess." She wasn't sure how to respond, she couldn't even remember the last time she got a compliment.

He took a step forward, closing the gap in-between them. "You wanna' go out sometime?"

Lara's laugh was harsh, "Are you serious?" Sean noticed the repulsive look on the girl's face as she took a step backwards.

"Yeah, I'm serious." Sean nodded. Lara laughed again, this time louder. Sean's cheeks burnt red.

"I don't think so." She walked away from the red head towards the only person in the room she hadn't met, except a formally dressed boy who was sat quietly in the corner.

"Hi, I'm Lara. You must be Lily?" The blonde haired girl caught a glimpse of Lara, giving her a double take. She looks so familiar, where could I possibly know her from?

"Yeah." Her voice was quiet, she seemed discreet.

"She barely talks." Alex commented. Lara shot him a dirty look but the other girl just ignored him. Everyone minus Lara and Lily were now sat down in the middle of the room.

"Alex, don't be mean. Come sit down!" Raven smiled, waving her hands in the air towards her, signalling for the two girls to join the group. Lily waited until Lara wandered over to the others before following. Lara looked at the empty black, leather chair, which Sean noticed and jumped in the empty space with a grin before she could sit down. She scowled at him and sat beside Angel on the sofa, who was beside Darwin. On the opposite sofa sat Hank, Raven and Lily. Lily had her legs crossed and her hands delicately placed in her lap. Anyone could tell how awkward she was feeling. Alex sat beside her on the second black chair with a coke in his hands.

"We should think of code names." Raven broke the silence, "We're government agents now, we should think of secret code names - I wanna' be called Mystique." She stated.

"Damn! I wanted to be called Mystique!" Sean exclaimed.

"Well tough, I called it." Raven chuckled and suddenly scales of blue ran across her body before another Sean appeared in her place. Sean jumped back in his chair in amazement. Everyone else looked equally shocked and clapped. Lara and Lily couldn't believe their eyes. Another mutant? Another 6? Lily thought.

"Besides, I am way more mysterious than you." She morphed back into herself, smiling, clearly pleased with the response she got. She stroked her legs before turning her attention to Darwin. "Darwin, what about you?"

"Well, Darwin's already a nickname and you know... sort of fits." He confessed, "Adapt to survive and all." He got to his feet and parading towards the fish tank. "Check this out." Darwin dunked his head in the tank immediately growing gills on his face. He turned his head to look at everyone whilst his head was still in the water with a smile from ear to ear. Everyone laughed and clapped. Darwin removed his head from the fish tank shaking the water off his head.

"What about you?" Darwin pointed at Sean.

"I'm going to be..." Sean stared at the table in concentration, "Banshee!"

The formally dressed boy, Hank, pulled a baffled look, "Why do you want to be named after a wailing spirit?"

Sean stood on his feet, "You might want to cover your ears." He knelt down in front of the table, taking in a huge breath. He checked to see if everyone covered their ears and gave Lara a smirk. She rolled her eyes. Sean whistled, shattering the glass from the large, rectangular window into tiny pieces. Everyone laughed again whilst clapping, Sean sat back down in his seat. Please don't pick me. Lara thought.

"Your turn!" He pointed towards Lara. Great.

She knew what she wanted to be called, "I want to be Blizzard!" She grinned.

"Why Blizzard?" Darwin asked. Lara got up of the sofa walking to an empty space, behind Sean and Alex, standing in front of the window that Sean didn't smash. She took a deep breath before holding up her right hand, a cold mist escaped the palm freezing the window in an instant. Everyone's mouths dropped as they clapped and laughed. Lara felt pleased with herself, she skipped back to her seat.

"That was amazing!" Sean praised, watching her. Could he make it any more obvious? Lily thought whilst shaking her head unnoticeably.

"Thank you." Lara found herself blushing, "What about you?" Lily noticed Lara was looking at her.

She cleared her throat, "Erm-" A sudden rush of red stained her cheeks, "I'll be... air, air, air-" She murmured to herself repeatedly, "Aerial." She stated proudly.

"Aerial?" Hank asked, puzzled. Lily got to her feet and ambled to a clear space, removing her cardigan. Two small wings unfolded themselves and fluttered out. They were almost see-through with thin black rimming but as she moved, the light shone on them giving with a slight aqua glow in areas. The group of mutants clapped. "What's that go to do with Aeriel?" Hank questioned.

Without saying a word, Lily raised her hands and at once a strong gust of wind brushed past them all, taking chairs and a table with it and throwing them against the frozen window. It smashed at the contact into tiny pieces like the first. Lily smirked but it was soon wiped off as Alex snickered. "Is that it? You've got fairy wings and you can blow stuff away." Lily clenched her teeth in anger as he smirked. "Terrifying."

"What's your problem?" Lara almost yelled. It was the second time he'd said something horrible to her, she already hated him.

"I don't have a problem." Alex looked at her, his eyes like daggers.

Lily took a few steps towards him, straightening herself up as if to look more confident than she was. "Alex." She taunted. He stood up when she reached close proximity to him. "I could suck all of the air from your body right now and kill you within seconds."

His smirked slipped from his face as his mouth parted, trying to form the words of some kind of comeback. Everyone stared in shock at the scene in front of them before they began clapping with smiles. Alex coughed to try and regain composure and slumped back in his chair, and taking a sip of his coke; he looked fairly annoyed.

"What about you?" Lily asked, as she took her seat again, looking at the dark haired girl.

She stood up of the sofa, "My er-" She grabbed her jacket and pulled it off. "Stage name is Angel." Sean whistled when she turned around, revealing a tattoo of wings on her back. Sean caught Lara staring at him. "And it kinda fits." The tattoo of wings sprung out her back turning into real wings; they were much longer and thinner than Lily's. Everyone's mouths hung open.

"You can fly too?!" Raven asked, glancing between the two girls.

Angel smiled at Raven, "Uh huh and erm-" She moved the direction of her body facing the window that Sean smashed. She spat out what looked like acid. It flew outside across the lawn landing on the statue's head, sizzling. She put her jacket back on and looked at Hank, "what's your name?" He looked away in embarrassment.

"How about Bigfoot?" Alex joked. No one laughed.

"Well you know what they say about guys with big feet." Raven commented, looking down at Alex's feet. "And yours are kinda small." Everyone laughed but Alex.

"Ok," Darwin changed the subject, "Alex, what is your gift, what can you do?"

"Erm, it's not erm-" He scratched his head, "I just can't do it. I can't do it in here."

"Well can you do it out there?" Darwin pointed towards the lawn, on the other side of the smashed window. Alex shook his head. Everyone began cheering him on until he gave in. He huffed placing his coke bottle on the table and charging outside, not even noticing the shattered glass.

"Get down when I tell you." He demanded. Everyone walked over to the window, their eyes glued to him.

"You like my power?" Sean smirked at Lara.

"That's not going to work on me." She retorted, joining the others to watch Alex. Why does he keep doing this? Can't he get the message. I'm not interested.

"Get back." Everyone moved in but quickly edged above the window frame again.

"Get back!" Alex yelled. No one did.

"Whatever." He murmured, he began swinging. Large red, glowing hoops circled his body. They flew across the lawn in different directions. The kids knelt down for cover. One of the hoops sliced the statue in half that Angel had spat on earlier. The mutants applauded him, Raven and Lara jumped up and down in excitement. Hank and Lily gazed in astonishment.

"You can be Havok!" Raven told him. Alex shrugged trying to hide his smile.

Angel turned on the music player, turning the volume up high. Raven squeaked in excitement and jumped onto the sofa starting to dance with her. "You wanna' dance with me?" Sean asked Lara who completely blanked him out, she jumped on the table and started dancing on her own.

Lily looked around at everyone. Alex and Sean were hitting Darwin as hard as they could, his body adapting so he couldn't feel anything. Lara, Raven and Angel were dancing on the furniture and Hank was hanging off the ceiling. Sean ran across the room with a chair throwing it against Darwin's body, the chair broke into pieces. Lara watched them whilst dancing on the table.

"Come on, Lily!" Raven called. Lily smiled, jumping on the furniture and joining in.

Lara and Lily finally felt normal being around people like themselves; after years of thinking they were alone but the content feeling was shattered quickly.

"What are you doing?!" Moira shouted. The mutants froze. Raven, Lily and Lara jumped onto the ground. Hank fell back onto his feet, his cheeks flushed. Moira glared at them with her hands on her hips, "Who destroyed the statue?"

"It was Alex." Hank confessed. Alex shot him a displeasing look.

"No. Havok. We have to call him Havok, that's his name now." Raven corrected Hank, walking closer to the adults.

"And we were thinking," She pointed at Charles, "You should be Professor X." Moira glanced at Charles with a disgusted look. Raven pointed at Erik. "And you should be Magneto."

"Exceptional." Erik's lips quirked.