A cold wind blew across the shore of a beach in Hawaii as storm clouds started to form up above in the sky.
Scott and Danny were sitting on the beach with Scott, watching a news report on his laptop.
"A winter storm warning has been issued for the Hawaiian Islands, with northwest winds currently reaching sixty miles an hour." The weatherman stated. "This is a big one, so for all you surfers out there, have the good sense to stay out of the water."
The two had been invited down here to surf by Alex. For Scott, Alex wanted to reconnect with his brother, while Danny was invited because Alex wanted to apologize for the incident back at Asteroid M.
The surfer boy knew of the weather report, but he ignored it as he was in the waters with his board, which had a waterproof camera attached that was connected to Scott's laptop.
Danny shook his head at Alex's decision to keep surfing. "Your brother's a dumbass, you know that, Scott?"
Scott ignored him as he watched his brother on the computer.
"Waves are prime, man!" Alex proclaimed confidently. "Fifteen-footers, easy! Maybe twenty! How's the feed, bro?" He adjusted the camera a bit.
"Clear video and audio on this end." Scott replied. The two boys looked up as thunder cracked and rain started to fall. "Okay, last one, Alex. Weather's turning against us."
Alex shook his head at Scott's anxiety over the weather. "Spoken like a true mainlander. Listen, bro, big storms equal massive breakers!"
"And massive drownings." Danny muttered as they watched Alex surf on a wave that formed.
"Yeah!" Alex cheered at his own skill before he fell off his board, and the wave engulfed him.
Scott threw the laptop aside as he and Danny ran to the shore, but they couldn't see any trace of the young boy.
"Alex!" Scott shouted, hoping for a response. A joke. A quip. Anything. "Alex!" But no response came, so he tried one more time, praying to whatever god was out there that his brother was okay. "Alex!"
"Scott!" They heard Alex's voice over the laptop.
The two raced back over to the computer.
"Alex!" Scott set it on his lap. "Man, you freaked me out."
Alex chuckled. "Yeah, so much for my highlight reel, huh?"
"Yeah." Scott agreed. "Hey, where are you? I don't even see you out there."
"Uh, got a little problem, bro." Alex answered. "I'm stuck in a rip tide, and it's pulling me out to sea."
"I'll call the harbor patrol." Scott told him, but Danny shook his head.
"No." Danny looked at Alex over the computer feed. "Alex, light up a flare, and I'll get you."
"Alright." Alex shot out a beam of energy as Danny transformed into his ghost half and flew off into the sea.
He flew for a couple of seconds before spotting the flare.
"There you are." He made a dive to save Scott's brother when a stray bolt of lightning struck him.
"Ahh!" He cried out in pain as he transformed back into his human form and plummeted into the water. Thankfully, he landed near Alex, who pulled him up on his surfboard.
"Scott, something happened to Danny." He said to his brother.
"Is he okay?" Scott asked in concern.
"If you call getting struck by lightning okay, then yes." Danny said sarcastically. "I'll just fly us out here and..." He tried to transform back to Phantom, but as the rings came out, they fizzled out and died, leaving him stuck as Fenton. "I can't go ghost." Surprised by this development, he tried again, but it still didn't work. "The lightning must have shorted them out."
"I'll get you guys." Scott raced down toward the boat rental shop, which was closed. Using his optic blast, he broke through the lock and through the shack as he borrowed a speed boat, which he used to head towards Danny and Alex.
"Scott?" Alex called out to the camera. "Scott, are you there? Scott!"
"I'm here!" Scott's voice said over the camera. "I borrowed a boat. Can you see me?"
"No." Alex replied.
"We can't even see the shore." Danny added.
"Don't worry, guys." Scott assured them. "I'll find you. Just send another flare."
Alex closed his fist and shot out a beam of red energy into the sky. As Scott was searching through the waters, he spotted it on his left.
"I see it." Scott cried. "Again!" He saw another flare. "Gotcha!" He turned the boat in that direction. "I'm on the way. Come on, Alex, just a couple more." Scott ordered as the flare disappeared.
"I'm spent, man." His brother responded tiredly. "If I do, I'll lose it. I'll go under."
"You don't, and we still go under." Danny pointed out before the image on Scott's computer started to buffer.
"Alex, Danny, I'm losing your signal." Scott informed them, but he got no response. "Alex! Danny!" He then spotted the radio and decided to call for help. "I need the harbor patrol."
At the harbor patrol, multiple responders were dealing with several calls.
"Multiple storm fronts." One called.
"Wind direction west-northeast, eighteen knots." Another droned on.
They've been swarmed with calls due to the weather all afternoon.
One was responding to Scott's response for help. "Harbor patrol." He said. "Call letters, please. Hello? Is anyone there?"
"Hello?" Scott called as he heard his voice over the radio. "Are you there?
"Is anyone there?" The respondent asked, but only got static.
"Mayday!" Scott called out, but there was still static on the other end. "Mayday!" Finally realizing that it wasn't working, he threw the radio aside in anger and continued speeding through the waters.
Alex and Danny were anxiously waiting for Scott to arrive and save them.
'Oh, god, hurry up, Scott.' Danny thought worriedly.
Back at the institute, Rogue was in her room reading her book when she heard her boyfriend's voice.
'Oh, god, hurry up, Scott.'
"Danny?" She looked around, but he wasn't in the room; only Kitty was there as she read a magazine.
"Did you say something?" Kitty asked, not glancing away from the article she was reading.
Rogue shook her head, feeling silly. "No. I thought I heard something."
'I don't want to die like this.' Danny's voice came again.
"Danny?" She held her arm out to try and feel him, thinking that he was playing some invisible prank on her. It wasn't the first time he did it.
'Rogue?' Danny responded from Hawaii. He must be going crazy if he was hearing her voice in his head. 'Is that you?'
"Danny?" Now Rogue wasn't sure if this was just some kind of prank.
"Who are you talking to?" Kitty asked, looking at her roommate strangely.
Danny, realizing that somehow Rogue could hear his thoughts, decided to call for help. 'I'm stuck in a massive storm, waiting for Scott to save my ass. My powers were short circuited.'
Her eyes widening, Rogue went off to get the professor. "Hang on, Danny, I'll get help."
Kitty shook her head at Rogue's sudden exit when the phone rang. "Hello?" As she answered it, she was greeted by the sound of Lance's voice. "Oh, Lance." She then heard Bobby's snickering over the phone. "Hey, I got it, Bobby. Get off the phone." Bobby did just that, leaving her alone on the phone with Lance.
"Sorry." She apologized. "So what's going on?" She heard Lance ask if they could go to the mall. "Oh, yeah, right." She scoffed. "I could totally see us walking around the mall together. What makes you think I'd wanna go?"
"Hem Hem."
Looking at her door, she saw Kurt in his true form standing in her doorway; only he was built like a bodybuilder.
"Hey, Kitty, how's it going?" He said trying to sound like a tough guy.
"Uh, hey, let me think about it." She said to Lance. "I'll call you back." Hanging up the phone, she giggled at Kurt's form. "What have you done to yourself?"
"I've been working out." Kurt started flexing. "Can you tell?" He then suddenly changed back to his regular form, revealing it to be a trick made by his watch.
"Oh, bummer!" He exclaimed in disappointment before leaving the room.
Kitty chuckled. "You shouldn't be messing with your image inducer, Kurt."
Walking through the halls, he started tampering with his watch as his appearance changed, making him look fat.
Evan was leaving his room when he saw the obese Kurt walk past him. He shook his head. "Dude, you really gotta lay off those burger bombs."
In the kitchen, Jean was sitting at the table, listening to the weather.
"Where high and low pressure systems collided, adding to an already entrenched subtropical trough below the jet stream." The TV reported. "This impressive storm is making landfall in Hawaii as we speak, with both harbor patrol and coast guard spread too thin for the many rescues."
"Hawaii?" She heard Kurt's voice beside her. "Isn't that where Scott and Danny are this week?"
"Yeah." Jean answered, her eyes still glued to the screen. "I'm sure they aren't dumb enough to go surfing, though. But Alex? I wouldn't doubt it if he was right out there in it." She turned around and let out a small scream. Kurt's head was gigantic. At least five times bigger than the usual size. In her shock, she fell back on her chair and hit the floor.
A wave splashed over Scott as he decided to give the radio one more try. "I repeat, this is Scott Summers. I'm about three miles off Fin Ridge Point searching for my brother, Alex Masters, and my friend Danny Fenton."
"Scott Summers, confirm position." Someone replied before it went to static again.
"Hello?" Scott said. "Hello?"
"Scott?" He looked over to his laptop to see that the image of his brother and Danny had returned. "I'm gonna try firing off another one. Look for it."
"Okay, I'm ready." Scott looked up at the sky, where he saw the flare. "You're close! Here I come!" He floored it when he heard Danny and Alex scream. Looking at the computer, he could only see the camera picking up water. "No!" He panicked. "Alex! Danny!"
As Scott was still searching, a rescue helicopter was also on the lookout.
"Kona Tower, 0124." A pilot said over the radio. "Visibility: two miles. Current heading: vector 013 off Fin Ridge. Still no sign of the vessel."
Another wave splashed on Scott as he honked his horn. "Alex! Danny!" He honked it again. Behind him, Alex and Danny popped out of the water and swam towards the boat.
"Alex! Danny!" Scott shouted, unaware that the two were right behind him.
"Over here, Scott." Danny replied weakly as he held onto the boat with one hand while the other hand was wrapped around Alex.
Scott went over to bring the two onto the boat. "Gotcha!" He pulled Alex up first before helping Danny get on next.
"Guys." He said in relief. "Man, I don't believe it. I was starting to lose hope."
"Yeah, well, I was getting tired of waiting for you to find me." Alex joked in an attempt to lighten the mood.
Danny, however, made his way to the wheel and started the boat back up. "Can we save the heartwarming confessions for when we get to shore, please?"
"So much for a nice, relaxing visit." Scott said to his brother as Danny drove the boat.
"What, you're not having fun?" Alex quipped.
As they were driving, a wave appeared and splashed them.
"Hang on!" Danny warned them as he kept trying to navigate through the difficult waters.
At the institute, the new mutants were having a snowball fight as Jean and Beast watched from the front steps.
As Bobby dodged a couple snowballs thrown at him, he summoned one in his hand and threw it, only to jump back as a ball of fire was thrown at him along with a spark of lighting, destroying his snow fort.
Bobby shot an ice beam at the three attackers, who jumped out of the way as stalagmites formed. Amara then threw another ball of fire, while Ray and Jubilee fired lighting and fireworks, respectively.
Beast shook his head in amusement. "People, people! That's not how you have a snowball fight." He passed his cocoa over to Jean and used his feet to make a snowball before dodging one of Bobby's ice beams. Using both of his feet while keeping himself up with his arm, he made a bigger snowball and threw it at Bobby. "This is how you have a snowball fight."
"Yo, Jean!" Jean turned to Evan, who was leaning out the front door. "You better come in here and see this."
Underground in the computer room, Xavier, Storm, and Rogue were all watching the news report on Cerebro.
"Again, with only a few hours of daylight left, the search continues for three lost teenage boys." The reporter said. "Alex Summer, Daniel Fenton, and Scott Summers."
Jean gasped as she entered the room, but Rogue's attention was piqued by another name.
"Masters?" Rogue repeated before glancing at Xavier. "You don't think?"
Xavier, who was also suspicious, started typing on Cerebro before it showed an image of an old newspaper and its headline.
Millionaire Vlad Masters Adopts Orphaned Boy
"Oh, dear." Xavier said in worry before turning to Storm. "Storm, prep the X-Jet. I fear that the storm is not the only danger for those three."
"Woah!" The three boys exclaimed as the boat rode down a wave. Danny saw that the engine was giving out and looked at the fuel tank to see that it was empty.
"No." Danny said in irritation. Of all the luck.
Another wave made the boat rock as the three tried to keep it steady.
"I thought I heard a chopper." Alex said.
"That's the engine cutting out." Danny replied. "Check the holds for a gas can."
While Alex was looking under the seat, Danny and Scott were struck petrified by a massive wave coming towards them. Thinking fast, Scott pulled off his glasses as his optic blast shot through the wave, splitting it in two and saving them.
The optic blast was spotted by the nearby rescue helicopter.
"Is that them?" One pilot asked as they saw the red light. "What kind of flare is that?" They made their way towards the source of the light while the X-Jet soared through the skies to find their missing comrades.
"Danny, please be all right." Rogue said to herself as she rode the Blackbird with Xavier, Storm, and Jean.
"We're drifting sideways!" Scott said as Alex kept looking for another gas can.
"Found one!" He pulled it out as the boat was being pulled by another wave.
"Get ready!" Danny warned them.
"This is a big one!" Scott shouted as the force of it knocked the three of them out of the boat. Alex managed to cling to some debris to keep himself afloat, while Scott started to sink.
"Scott!" Alex called. "Scott, where are you?"
Narrowing his eyes, Danny dove underwater and found Scott before grabbing him and bringing him back up. "Scott, I'm right here." Danny brought him over to where Alex was hanging on. "Just hang on to this." The three boys held on for dear life as the storm raged on.
Alex then heard some noise. "Huh?"
Looking back at their boat, they saw it sink.
"That's not a good thing." Scott said worriedly.
"Yeah." Alex agreed. "You know something? You stink at rescues."
Danny didn't find this funny as he slapped Alex. "Shut up! This is all your fault." He raged. "I told you not to go surfing. I told you that the weather may be a problem, but no! And now here we are. You and your fucking big storms equal massive breakers. Is this massive enough for you?"
Another wave splashed them as they tried to stop themselves from letting go.
"Alright, I'm sorry." Alex apologized. "I'll never do something like this again. You're right. Every time we meet, I end up causing trouble." Alex looked down, feeling guilty. "First that asteroid, and now this. I'm sorry, Scott. You too, Danny." He sighed as he thought about what he was planning on telling Scott after they were done surfing before this whole storm got in the way.
"You know, I was thinking about attending the institute." He admitted. "And having my name filed back to Summers."
"Wait, your name was changed?" Danny didn't know about that. "To what?"
"Masters?" Alex answered, making Danny's eyes widen.
"Masters?" He said in disbelief. "As in Vlad Masters?"
Alex nodded. "Yeah, he adopted me."
Danny and Scott shared a look.
"Oh, shit." Danny said.
"What?" Alex asked.
"Vlad Masters has powers like me." Danny told him.
"He's caused a lot of trouble back home for us." Scott added.
"Wait, really?" Alex found that hard to believe. Sure, he wasn't close with Vlad, but he never came off as the kind of person who caused trouble. But he never knew Scott to lie.
"Wow." He said. "I guess it was a good thing that I was planning on leaving, huh? Though I don't think we'll make it."
"We'll get out of this, Alex." Scott said confidently. "I promise. For all we know, a rescue chopper could be here any minute."
A light then shined on them as they looked above to see a rescue chopper.
Danny chuckled and patted Scott on the back. "Nice one, Clockwork."
Up above, the pilot gave his partner a nod as he lowered down a harness. Scott grabbed it and put it on Alex.
"You've been in the water longest." Scott said. "You're going up first."
Alex tried to disagree. "But-"
"Shut up, and let them save you!" Danny yelled.
Alex was slowly being lifted up when lightning struck the tail of the chopper as it started to lose control.
"Kona Tower, 0124, I am in total system failure, and I'm declaring an emergency at this time!" The pilot reported frantically over the radio as the chopper started to fall. Scott, seeing that it was about to fall on him and Danny, used his optic blast to push it away as it started to sink down below.
"Alex, take the harness off!" Scott ordered as he saw his brother still had it on. "Take it off!"
"What?" Alex said dazed.
"Take it off!" Danny cried as the two boys swam towards him. Before Alex had a chance to remove it, he was dragged under. Danny and Scott dived underwater to go after him as Alex kept struggling. Desperate, he made his hand glow red and tried to cut the cord, but he was too tired, and the energy soon gave out. When all hope seemed lost, Danny got close to him and removed the harness before bringing him back up.
As the three boys were taking gasps of air, the two pilots who escaped the chopper floated in the water. One pressed a button on his wrist.
"A cutter should be locking onto our position." He informed his comrade.
"Yeah, but I don't see those boys." His partner worried.
As the Blackbird was flying, Storm was listening to the frequency of the harbor patrol.
"The rescue chopper went down." She told them. "No word on Scott, Alex, or Danny."
Rogue was getting more worried when she heard Danny's voice again.
'How are we gonna get out of this one?'
"Danny!" Rogue cried as her boyfriend soon picked up on her thoughts.
'Rogue, is that you?' He asked.
"We're coming, sugar." Rogue told him. "Just light up a flare, and we'll rescue you."
Back from where he was, Danny turned to Scott. "Scott, the X-Men, they're coming. Light up a flare."
"On it." Scott fired his optic blast into the sky when, out of nowhere, fog started to cloud around them.
"What the?" Danny couldn't believe how much the weather seemed to want them dead. It was as if it had a personal vendetta against them. "Where did the fog come from?"
The Blackbird was still trying to find the trio when they noticed the fog.
"Storm, the fog." Xavier said.
Storm nodded. "I'm on it." Using her powers, she made the fog dissipate, allowing them to see.
"Wait, what are those?" Jean pointed to the giant columns of air in the distance. "Tornadoes?"
"Funnel clouds." Storm clarified. "They shouldn't be a problem unless they touch down in the water."
With the three boys, Alex was having trouble trying to keep himself from passing out from exhaustion.
"Hey, hey!" Scott shook him awake. "Alex, no snoozing. Come on, stay alert."
"I am wiped, man." Alex said tiredly. "I am so out of it."
"Just hold on a little longer." Scott urged. "Hey, for all we know, a rescue chopper could be here any minute."
Another light shined on them again, and they looked up to see another chopper.
"Holy shit, it worked." Danny said in amazement.
In the chopper were four men. The two pilots and the two men from the previous chopper who had been rescued.
"There they are?" One pilot cried before the chopper was struck by lightning, causing this chopper to fall into the ocean as well.
"Oh, come on!" Danny complained. "How is that even possible?" This couldn't be coincidental, and just then it hit Danny. He turned to Scott's brother. "Alex, did you tell Vlad you were surfing with us today?"
He nodded. "Yeah."
"It's him." Danny said to Scott. "He's doing this."
"What do you mean?" Scott asked, finding it hard to believe.
"Think about it, Scott. Mother nature has been out to get us since we got in the water." He explained. "And you know the saying that lightning doesn't strike the same place twice? Well, it's certainly fucked us over three times. The first was the one that short-circuited my powers, while the other two struck the choppers. It's Vlad. I know it. But how?" He asked himself. "He can't control the weather."
"You're right, I can't."
The three looked up into the sky to see Vlad in his ghost form, smirking down at them.
"Vlad!" Danny and Scott cried out.
"Vlad?" Alex took in his new appearance. "That's you?"
"Ah, Alex, my dear boy." He greeted. "I must thank you for inviting Daniel here. It gave me the perfect opportunity to bring him back home."
"You used me?" Alex said, feeling a little betrayed. They may not have been close, but he didn't expect his foster father to manipulate him like this.
"Don't be surprised, Alex." Vlad told him. "I merely adopted you for good publicity. I never thought that your existence would ever come in handy. It was a good stroke of luck, I must admit."
"But how are you controlling the weather?" Scott asked.
Vlad pulled out a device that looked like a thermometer. "With this?" He held it up above his head as it shot a beam into the sky. He then offered his hand to Danny. "Now come, Daniel." He pointed to the funnel clouds as they touched down in the water. "Unless you want to drown with your friends." Before Danny could say anything, Vlad was struck by lightning. "Ahh!" He shouted in pain as Danny's ghost sense went off.
"What?" Danny exclaimed as they all saw another ghost come down from the clouds. He had a strong body with a tail that looked like a tornado, along with spiky hair on his head. He wore black armor and had red eyes that glared with hate at Vlad.
"I've had enough of your orders, you speck!" The ghost shouted. "I shall unleash my full fury on this planet."
Vlad narrowed his eyes as he pointed the device at the ghost. "You forget your place, Vortex." He fired it at Vortex, but this time the beam bounced off his armor and reflected back at him, destroying the device.
"Butter biscuits." Vlad swore as Vortex smirked.
"Heh, heh." The ghost laughed. "Now no one can control me."
Vlad, in response, pulled out a Plasmius Thermos. The main difference from the usual Fenton Thermos was that it was pink. "Good thing I always have a backup plan." Vlad said, before the thermos was blasted out of his hands, where it landed in the water next to Danny.
Vortex cackled with glee before he summoned a whirlwind that carried Plasmius away, leaving just the trio and the weather-controlling ghost.
The ghost looked at them threateningly. "Now to take care of you three." As Vortex was about to attack, he was hit in the back by an ecto-blast. With a snarl, he turned around and was confronted by Rogue, in her ghost form, glaring at him.
"Rogue!" Danny said happily.
"Here's the weather: cloudy with a one hundred percent chance of pain!" Rogue then fired a ghost ray at Vortex, knocking him into the water.
"Rogue, use this!" He pulled the lid off of the thermos and threw it to Rogue. "Aim it at him and press the button."
Rogue did just that as a blue beam of light came and sucked Vortex in. "Woah, cool." Rogue commented as she caught him. With Vortex captured, the weather instantly turned back to normal.
Rogue smiled at the three as the Blackbird floated above them in the distance. She flew down and brought them on board as they flew home, passing the coastal guard in the distance, who successfully managed to rescue the pilots from the two downed choppers.
"Are they all right?" Storm asked as she looked over the three.
"They're gonna be fine." Jean put a blanket over Scott and Alex, while Rogue did the same for Danny.
"Scott, you kept me alive out there." Alex said gratefully. "If it wasn't for you-"
Scott placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, we brothers gotta stick together. Besides, I'm sure you'll be returning the favor someday. But for now, welcome to the X-Men, Havok."
"I'll contact search and rescue and let them know the boys are safe." Xavier said to Storm as they headed home.
"Thanks for saving me, Rogue." Danny thanked. "How did I hear you in my head?"
"The professor told us we have a telepathic link." Rogue explained. "He said he'd help us control it."
Danny nodded. "Well, that's good."
Rogue raised an eyebrow teasingly. "Why? You got some thoughts you don't want me to see?"
Danny avoided her eyes. He didn't want her to know about him. "Something like that." He then changed the subject. "So how did you feel about capturing your first ghost?"
Rogue chuckled. "It was pretty fun." She looked over the thermos, and strangely, she saw that the side of the thermos said that it was empty. Even weirder, there was a sticky note on the side of it. "Huh, what's this?" She read the note. "Thank you for capturing the escaped prisoner." She looked at Danny. "The note's signed by somebody named CW. Who's that?"
The hybrid smiled. "An old friend."
Beast looked over the exhausted mutants, all tired from their snowball fight. He observed the smoking holes that they made in the snow. "Well, so much for our winter wonderland. I can see now that teaching mutants will require entirely different skills." He headed back inside as the other mutants giggled.
Meanwhile, Kurt was standing outside the infirmary when Xavier came out.
"Are Scott and Danny up for visitors?" He asked the professor.
"Yes, Jean and Rogue are in there with them now." The professor answered. "Oh, and, Kurt, I've repaired your image inducer." He handed him back his watch.
"Great!" Kurt said gratefully. "I'm sorry about messing with it, professor. I won't do it again, I promise."
"Yes, I know you won't." Xavier said as he left.
Kurt activated his disguise as he prepared to greet his friends.
Jean sat by Scott's bed as she held a bowl of porridge in her lap. She scooped some up with a spoon and held it out to Scott. "Here you go. Open wide."
"Hey, welcome back, sailors." Kurt greeted as he walked into the room.
Danny looked up from his bed at Kurt before snickering. "Nice rack."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kurt asked before looking in the mirror. It turns out that his disguise was that of a woman. "Ahh! Professor!"
Xavier rolled in. "I'm sorry, I couldn't resist."
They all laughed at the joke. Even Kurt couldn't resist chuckling.
Danny looked over to Rogue, who was sitting beside him. "You know there's been something I've been meaning to ask you, Rogue."
"What's that?" Rogue replied.
"What do you call your ghost half?" He asked interestedly. "I call mine Phantom, and Vlad calls his Plasmius. What do you call yours?"
Rogue looked down at her hands. "Well, since I'm kind of an energy vampire, you can call me Vampira."
"Vampira." Danny repeated. "I like it."