Chapter 40

When Craig

Met Paul

Disclaimer: This should be a fun chapter and as mentioned before, one that L1's kinda helped shape together too for that matter. Thanks, buddy! And thanks again once more for the use of your characters and as well as having introduced me to Clara, her history, and the First Line's from the comics! There's also some re-written sections/new scenes as well!

About A Week Later

A week later would see the day when Craig would finally meet the mysterious Paul Stanley Starr since the guy had insisted on traveling by car to reach the Institute. Something about letting the anticipation of the meeting rise to epic heights or some weird crap like that. The week had also seen Craig stay in the medbay to recuperate since Lifeline had healed his internal injuries to a certain degree that he wasn't liable to end up dead thanks to Harpoon's attack on him. Harpoon's body also hadn't been recovered by the Police or otherwise and it was assumed that either he had survived getting hit by an SUV or that Sinister and Arclight had come back for him. Craig also had had to speak with not only Xavier, but Hawk and Director Cooper as well over what he knew in regards to Sinister and the rough and gruff teenager could honestly admit that he was thankful as Hell for the fact the medbay had been sound proofed considering the craziness that tended to occur in the Institute!

Which during that week had seen the first ever Pogo Stick Race and would even learn that on the other side of the road opposite the Mansion, that there was several Food Trucks that were often around. Ones ran by those who'd seen an opportunity to make some money off of hungry Protesters and didn't necessarily have problems with Mutants themselves. He'd also learned the hard way to NEVER eat anything Kitty Pryde makes and was another reason he had a long stay in the medbay. Albeit, said craziness was apparently on a lower decibel at the moment thanks to Jean's family being there since Xavier and the other adults didn't want them even more stressed out. Jean had told him that Xavier had even threatened to send the kids to some Joe base known as the Slaughterhouse for some training there in order to make them keep the crazy down. Craig had even met a few of the Joes and the Misfits as well during his time in the medbay and occasional trips outside of it and found he liked them quite a lot.

A lot more than most of the Institute kids anyway since a number of them rubbed him the wrong way and flat out told Rogue at one point to quit moping about her situation and do some research of her own to overcome her situation instead of relying on others to do it for her. Something she had slapped the Hell out of him over for that matter as well before storming off but he hadn't given a damn in the slightest. For Harpoon's attack on him, Pryde's cooking, his adoptive father, and some of the stuff he got involved in back when he ran with the West Coast Warlords had all been far worse then her slap. Craig had even nearly gotten into a full on fist fight with not only Gambit over that but Berzerker, Sunspot, and the Icekid on a couple of occasions. Though he did find something of a kindred spirit where Skullfire's concerned and naturally, Elaine had taken to lightheartedly teasing him about making new friends.

And while he wasn't a fan of the teasing, he knew Mrs. Grey needed to do something like that in order not to focus on what Sinister had tried on her and the others. A part of him even liked it since it was a Hell of a lot more than his own mom ever did but he'd only admit that after hours of heavy torture. Jean, he could tell was happy to be back at Xavier's, even if there was some tension with her being back. Even having finally apologized to Kitty, Rogue, and even Gambit for her actions towards them months ago and neither had yet to accept her apology and while it hurt, Jean did understand. Though she had admitted it hurt even more that her ex, Scott, hadn't shown up to see how she and her family were doing. Or even call for that matter, of course the fact he was somewhere out in the ocean dealing with some troublesome Pirates trying to steal from the cargo containers on their way to Hawaii did have something to do with it. But it still bothered Jean none the less and he had graciously offered to beat the guy up for her if they ever crossed paths.

Something that got an exasperated eyeroll from the girl but Craig could tell it had amused her somewhat. Sara of course still wasn't talking to him but he wasn't going to push the issue and would just let her come to him in her own time. During Friday night, Craig would even try to leave the Mansion and head into town for some fun as he needed to de-stress but considering he was still healing and Elaine had managed to talk him out of it, had ended up not doing so. But then the big day finally arrived on the following Saturday when Paul finally arrived and in style in the form of a double decker tour bus with a number of Rock band logos all over it much to the surprise of everyone else minus the Misfits as they were back at the Pit. "That thing is an eyesore." Muttered Roberto in distaste with a few agreements from the others.

"I dunno, looks pretty cool to me." Dead Girl said and got a few agreements herself.

Craig started towards the bus as a figure came off and would get the surprise of his life when he saw that the figure looked like his own personal twin! Albeit, said twin had longer dark hair, his star birthmark was purple, and dressed like a combination of the 70s and the 80s. He wasn't the only one surprised as those at the Institute and the figure himself were quite surprised as well! "Huh, well this is unexpected." Declared the figure in surprise.

"I'll say, Paul?" Craig asked somewhat uncertainly.

"That's me!" Paul told him cheerfully despite the wildness of the situation as two other figures got off the bus.

One being a short Blonde haired woman with a small burn mark on the left side of her face and a milk white left eye and the other figure was a male with wild collar-length brown hair with green tips on the ends and unlike the star shaped birthmark on Paul and Craig's, his is an 8 pointed blue colored one on his right eye and his eyes are a chocolate brown. And where the Blonde woman was dressed conservatively, the man wore boots, ripped blue jeans with a chain on one side, a studded black leather jacket, and a faded Iron Maiden t-shirt under it. "I think we've found another member of the Starr family, Ma!" The figure said in surprise and happiness.

"The what now?" Craig asked as several other figures began to get off the bus.

One being a tall green skinned woman for crying out loud! "Why do I feel reminded of the Hulk with that girl?" Wondered Wolverine somewhat tensely.

Especially feeling that way because the Blonde woman felt familiar to him somehow! The fact she narrowed her eyes at him only strengthened that feeling of familiarity as well while Charles went up to greet the newcomers. "Welcome to the Institute, I am Professor Charles Xavier and I must say it is quite the surprise to see that young Mr. Allman here apparently has a twin."

"You ain't lyin' about that." Muttered Craig off to the side as he and Paul stood awkwardly around one another.

The blue star figure stepped up to Charles with a serious look on his face. "I'm Ace Starr and its a privilege to actually meet you in person. What you're doing here is damn good work, even if others don't necessarily see it that way." Ace told him while somewhat lying as he felt how the Professor was and wasn't handling things could've been a lot better in a variety of ways.

"Thank you, I appreciate being told that. More than you know. Come, I'm sure you all must be hungry."

"This Gammazon could eat!" Chuckles were had.

A Little Bit Later

Once everyone had gone inside and the newcomers had gotten something to eat, everyone had gotten to properly know the newcomers such as 18 year old Jake 'Red Dragon' Wildfire, 19 year old Jennifer 'She-Hulk' Walters, who as the Institute kids learned, has goals to become a Lawyer, is the Hulk's Cousin, became the She-Hulk thanks to a blood transfusion, and is Jake's girlfriend. There's also Bryan and Hannah Dawson, both of whom are a brother-sister duo and were also known as Bulldog and Lionheart respectively, in their 30s and formerly of Her Majesty's Armed Forces. With them was Bryan's Bulldog Davey Boy and was absolutely loving the attention he was getting. Clara Starr, the Blonde haired woman with a burn mark on her face and making for a tense Wolverine where she was concerned, had immediately gone off for a private talk with the man after some initial confusion on his end since she apparently knew him but he didn't remember her one bit thanks to his memories being like they were.

Last but not least was 16 year old Vincent 'Virus' James, whom had a little bit of arrogance to him and seemed really interested in meeting Althea for some reason none of the others could quite fathom. There was also of course Jake's brother Kyle and Jason 'Foxfire' Fox but Jason had remained back in Lansing while Kyle was at the Cleveland School. And aside from Jennifer and Davey Boy of course, every one of the group are Mutants. "I tell ya, growin' up was rough since we Mutants were rare as Hell and Ma and I just kinda thought we were freaks of nature. Or… At least I felt that way a lot of the time." Ace told them while Craig and Paul were down in the medlab with Hank as Craig wanted a DNA test done to confirm the family connection.

"Of course, it didn't help that elements of the Government not just in America but outside of it were so damned deadset on keepin' us a secret." Continued the Cat like Mutant with a frown on his face.

Long having been part of the Anti-Establishment due to his hate for the Government and The Man. "I do not believe the General Public would've been ready for the revelation of Mutants among them, especially in the early decades of the 1900s, Mr. Starr." The Professor told him.

He and the others having been quite surprised by Ace and even his mother's apparent longevities since they didn't look like they were older than their mid 20s respectively! Ace snorted at that. "Maybe, maybe not but it would've at least meant Humanity would've had a lot more time to get used to us bein' out there. Things likely wouldn't be as bad as they are now if we had been revealed years ago. Hell, it aggravates the *$(# out of me, especially considerin' the First Line have been forced to stay in the shadows for so damned long and have never gotten an ounce of credit for their work. Another reason I don't much like the Government!"

"The who now?" Wondered Kurt and he wasn't the only one aside from the newcomers.

Whom, thanks to Paul, Jason, and Jennifer, were known as the Fabulously Fab and tended to roam the Country helping out where needed when a situation cropped up. Of course, whenever Ace and Jason got bored, they would go over to Detroit for awhile and cause a lot of problems for the Criminal element there. Ace scowled briefly before speaking. "One of the first super teams in existence for about 3 decades but they weren't ever allowed to be out in the open for dumbass reasons. Nixon tried to screw 'em over but it didn't work out in the end for him." Ace told him and the others with a fangy grin.

Ace had grown up on stories of the First Line and had met the members over the years. Even though sadly, a number of them were dead by this point after having stopped an invasion back in the 80s. Needless to say, the residents of the Institute were surprised by what they had just learned. "Y'know, the Government's also why the Cleveland bunch hadn't revealed themselves until this year." Added Ace seconds later.

Though that moreso had to do with Fury back in the day and Ace wanted a chance like nothing else to have a word with the man over that and other things. The Professor frowned at the mention of the Cleveland Jammers as he always had wondered why they hadn't gone and revealed themselves like they intended too after the fallout between himself and them and now he knew. "Yeah, Acey boy here found out about that when Jake and Clara admitted Kyle to their school. Even fanboyed over the Blue Marvel teachin' there!" Declared Jennifer amusedly, prompting Ace to stick his tongue out at her.

"The who now!?" Jubilee wondered and she wasn't the only one!

Prompting Ace to go into full on History mode where the one and only Blue Marvel is concerned!

Meanwhile, Down In The Medbay

A dinging noise sounded in the medbay and making Craig and Paul eagerly look its way as Hank went over to collect the print out from it and quickly read it. "Well, boys, it appears you two are twin brothers indeed." He declared to the two much to their shock.

Of course, the shock quickly morphed into full on happiness for Paul as he also blessed the fact that the Institute's tech advances made it so that DNA testing for various things was a lot quicker than it normally is in the outside world. "Huh…" Muttered Craig to himself and wondered who the Hell the asshole was that was responsible for separating him from Paul and their parents!?

"Someone needs a serious ass beating." Growled the teenager seconds later and then grunted and tensed when Paul hugged him.

"This is totally awesome, bro! Clara and Ace are gonna be seriously happy about this once we tell 'em!"

"Yeah… Great."

I get the feeling Mrs. Grey's gonna be over the Moon about all this. But… I guess in the long run, its good to know I have more family out there in the world. And didn't seem to be as crap as his so called parents were.

Meanwhile, Somewhere Outside

Logan stood where he was, stunned as could be over what Clara had revealed to him about their past, more specifically, their shared family history and its twisted, sordid affairs. The fact he and Victor are half brothers was going to take a long while to get used too in addition to Clara being a half sister as well. That their family had essentially been torn apart years ago by greed, jealousy, and Victor's growing viciousness. Viciousness that Clara had been a victim too and was why her face was still healing even after all these years and was still blind in one eye as her healing powers weren't as strong as Logan and Victor's are. Viciousness that he'd essentially inherited from his father due to how he'd treated him growing up. That his real name is James Howlett was another shock to the system and part of him wasn't a huge fan of the name since he felt it wasn't all that impressive. Does explain why Steve has that tendency to call me 'Jim' or 'James' though…

But why the man hadn't thought to tell him more on that was beyond him though! "We've both lived long lives, Jimmy, and I just want you to know I no longer hold any ill will towards you for what happened all those years ago with Saul. I've learned to forgive and move on and maybe we can have a second chance at being in the other's life in some form again." Clara told him truthfully.

While also feeling quite bothered by the fact that Jimmy's memories had been horribly screwed with and wondered if she could help him find a way to get them restored since he didn't deserve to be without them. "I… Uhh..." Was all Logan could say thanks to how he was feeling.

Causing Clara to understandably smile sadly at him.

Author's Notes: I got the idea of the West Coast Warlords thanks in part to Rapper Ice Cube's tendency to refer to himself as the West Coast Warlord. And if Marvel, the films, and RW herself can have their fun with the backstories of Creed and Wolverine, then by golly, so can I! Which means that in this, the Starrs, Creeds, and the Howletts are all related in some way. Oh my!