Author's Note: Some of you might be curious why I deleted Superman & the X-Men, and the answer is simple: spite. It's the same reason I'm making this fic, which is an alternate version of Superman & the X-Men with some of the changes I've been contemplating to myself over the past several years. There was a part of me that wanted to tell a story in this kind of setting with the main character able to take part in the high school plotlines the X-Men do while still retaining the spirit of the story's premise.

Therefore, there will be no Superman at first. Don't worry, he'll come along eventually. In the meantime, I'll be introducing you all to Eloisa Lane, an amalgam of two versions of Lois Lane with my own twist thrown in... a twist that should be clear soon. Also, I'm posting this first chapter here and on Archive of Our Own to build up hype. I'm not sure how long 'til the next chapters, but I'd at least like to get ahead by a few chapters before I begin posting.

For now, I hope you enjoy, and please follow and favorite if you want more of this. Standard disclaimers apply as I'm neither Marvel or DC.

Cape Citadel, Delaware; September 14th

Breaking into an Army research base is a lot easier than it ought to be. Eloisa Lane - Lois - thought to herself as she slipped through a gap in the chain link fence. She then pulled the newsboy cap out of her pocket and placed it on her head to obscure her curly brown hair and face from cameras. Not that she'd actually need to.

Lois was a mutant; a technopath in her case. Capable of controlling and manipulating most forms of technology, which allowed her to hack into just about anything with a CPU... and render herself invisible to electronic sensors.

Slipping into the nearby building to avoid spotlights, Lois found her sense of manipulatable technology assaulted as she entered what appeared to be a normal storage room. Finding the function that was on-off, she reached out with her power to activate it, revealing as secret door behind a heavy shelf at the other end of the room, which lead to a stairway to the basement. Lois walked down the stairs, making sure to close the door behind her, and found herself in what was obviously a secret lab... one with a functioning computer. She quickly moved toward the monitor, her desire for answers coaxing the files on the computer's hard drive to display on screen.

Definitely not the answers she was looking for. She'd apparently pulled up the private files of a Dr. Maru, with mentions of her father (who was the commander of this particular base) and his part in a Project: Red Tornado and its designed role as the 'first in a line of defenses against the threat of mutant kind'. Nothing explaining her father's weird behavior earlier that afternoon, when he came home from work and poured cereal as though he was getting ready to go back to work. Before she could learn more, she felt through her electronic senses the hidden door opening once more. In a panic, she swiftly shut off the monitor she was reading on and shuffled into what appeared to be a cylindrical closet to hide.

"... electromagnetic interference shouldn't have harmed the project, but as for the amnesia, it's likely a mutant plot to hide what they stole from us," came the voice of the person who entered the lab. Lois suspected it to be Dr. Maru.

"Let's hope the project wasn't harmed, doctor. Otherwise our funding will go to Trask and his Sentinel Program." That voice was familiar, and hearing it now almost startled her to the point where she would have revealed her hiding place in the 'closet'. It was her dad, Brigadier General Samuel Lane. She definitely didn't want to be found here by her Dad, and so she moved behind the... whatever it was that was hanging in this closet.

"I'll run a diagnostic to be certain," Dr. Maru proclaimed as Lois heard typing on a keyboard. A ping went off in her mind as she sensed she was about to be exposed by the closet door opening, which gave her enough time to send a signal to counter the opening sequence. "Strange, the capsule's door is jammed. Have to try manual." Panicking, Lois reached out with her power for any way to stop this, and found herself apparently swapped with whatever she was behind... and somehow taller. The capsule opened and Lois extended her arms, triggering a defense system that blasted both her father and Dr. Maru with a strong gust of wind, knocking both of them out.

"OH, CRAP!" exclaimed Lois before realizing her voice sounded like she was speaking through a phone. She looked down and noticed her arms were now a red, hard plastic as she apparently possessed some sort of humanoid drone. "OH, CRAP! I'M A ROBOT,NOW!" She squirmed a bit as she realized the drone was hanging on a set of hooks attached to its shoulder blades. She pulled the drone off and looked behind her to find her own body slumped against the back of the capsule. I can fix this, but not here. I just need to get my body out of here. She thought as she grabbed her body and ran, only just noticing Dr. Maru regaining consciousness to trigger the base alarm.

As she exited the building, the base alarm blared out and the searchlights began to move quickly, looking for signs of an intruder. Instinctively, Lois searched the drone's databank for a quick way out and found that this drone was apparently capable of flight; achieving it via the same system used to blast her father, but channeling it through its legs instead.

Okay, what now? Lois thought as she was probably about a half mile away from the base heading toward Midvale while having an out-of-body experience. She started becoming aware of other systems on this robot... like the tracking device, which she was able to deactivate immediately, and the tactile senses of the drone feeling something warming up in its arms. Her perception then shifted between her own body and the drone's sensors as she and the drone began to freefall.

Lois scrambled to keep control of the robot in an attempt to land safely. The result was her being forced to use the robot to protect her body as she crashed into a sign a few miles away from the base. Fully returning to her own body, Lois realized she was feverish as she attempted to get her bearings. The sign she crushed was a cardboard one that read 'Go Hax!' Clearly, she'd landed somewhere on the Midvale High campus... and the pep squad seriously messed up. But at least she had a plan.

There was an abandoned shop classroom close by that she could stash the drone in until she figured out what to do next. And so she set out, the drone surprisingly light weight for being 6 feet tall and shaped like an adult male, to hide her stolen bounty at her own high school.

Xavier Institute, Midvale, Delaware

Professor Charles Xavier received the notification of a mutant's powers activating just as he was about to turn in for the night. Time was of the essence, as there was only one mutant who he had programmed Cerebro to notify him of their powers activating at this time of night. For the past 4 years or so, a mutant has been appearing and disappearing from Cerebro's sensors, which was an impressive feat, considering very few mutants could elude its detection.

Xavier placed the headset, which was made of an unusual metal that had first been used by an Egyptian pharaoh named Khufu, atop his bald head and focused on the details of this mutant that eluded him for so long: Eloisa Lane, age 16, powers include technopathy and invisibility to electronic sensors, currently attending Midvale High. Rather convenient for us, Xavier thought to himself as he resolved to let one of his students know in the morning. Perhaps Jean or Ororo can speak to her at school.