New Orleans, Louisiana

It is the beginning of the end of a pleasant day in the streets of Louisiana. But there is more to this area than one can think of. It is more of a war zone than a land full of peace and posterity. The war, it is between the two rival groups: the thieves guild and the assassins guild. Men, women, and children walk through the streets as the day is almost over and we spy upon a hand exiting the back pocket of a well-dressed man.

The figure that grabs the wallet than turns into the nearest alley. "Heh, heh, heh, mon ami. I am richer now than I was five minutes ago." Chuckles the young man known to himself as Gambit. "What the hell does me think I am doing? Is this really my life? There must be more to it." BAAM!

A bullet comes flying as if out of nowhere hitting Gambit in the left shoulder. "Aaah, who shot me?" As if in response to the question, an awesome looking figure steps away from the shadow.

"I am the greatest assassin known to this world, being second to none. You can call me Bullseye. I have been hired to track you down and have finally done so. Now, before I kill you, let me get a good look at your face." As the assassin comes closer, a hand grabs his leg putting a huge shock through it.

"Yes, and I am the greatest energy wielder ever known to my dear self. Now if you excuse me, while I take of the leather strap covering my shoulders, mon ami, I shall kick you this once as I make my getaway." Doing as told, Gambit then leaps onto the building using the pipes in the alley and then makes a safe getaway.

Using the secret entrance to the Thieves Guild Headquarters, the raging Cajun makes his way into his home. The whole group of people stand before a single person sitting in the command chair. This man is no other than Jean Luc LeBeau, the grand leader of this guild.

"Father, I have what you need. This man seems to be a government agent trying to frame this guild. And, hehe, he had bread as well in it."

"Ha, good job, my son. I knew I made no mistake relying on you. Come, eat this great feast."

"No, thank you, father. I need time alone, outside." He leaves the meeting as he tries to figure out who hired the assassin to track him down.

Leaving the guild headquarters, Gambit perches on his favorite spot on top of the tallest building in New Orleans.

"Why so frightened, little one?" Gambit gets a little moved.

"Who - who said that?"

"You have nothing to be scared. I’ll give you all the answers you want about what all happened today. But first, you must tell me how you are different from the others in your guild. I know there is a difference, you cannot hide that from me."

"I know nothing of my real family, as my dear father tells me, I was practically found on his doorstep. He figures that my real parents abandoned me because I seemed to be a living virus. Everytime I touch something with intense feeling, it starts to energize."

"And you probably think that assassin that tried to kill you today was employed by someone that hates mutants, am I wrong?"

"No, and, do you seem to have a clue as to who wants this Cajun dissected permanently."

"I’ll tell you who. It isn’t a mutant hater. To be frank, except for your father, no one really knows that mutants exist among them. The man that plotted against you is a mutant that betrays the rest of us by siding with the humans. By killing you, he would have accomplished two things. He would have killed a dangerous mutant that would have been more than a match to him, and finding your dead body, he would prove that humans were trying to destroy mutants one by one because they were so dangerous."

"I’ll kill that man. Give me the name, the location, give me any damn information as to who he is. I’ll get him for this."

"I don’t know much about him, but I can give you one name. Xavier."

"Thank you, I don’t know how to thank you."

"Don’t worry about it, young man. Doing what you are planning to do is good enough for me." Gambit takes one last look at the mysterious figure and then leaves the scene.

"Ha ha ha, the young fool. Come, Mastermind. Out of your hiding place. Good job on creating that illusion of that assassin. Your part of the deal is complete. Now this young mutant will finish the rest of the assignment." Pushing his hood back, the villain reveals himself to be Mesmero, the mutant mind controller who was successful in defeating the X-Men in their first and last confrontation.

Westchester County, New York

In the Xavier Institute for gifted children, lies the lethal danger room, the training room of the secret team, the X-Men. In a training session, Wolverine leads a group of young teenage mutants consisting of Spyke, Rogue, Iceman, Nightcrawler, and Shadowcat.

"Ok, Porcupine, first step is up to you. After that, everyone take your places." Cracked the unaged Wolverine. Spyke aimed and shot spikes at the entrance door that stood in front of them. Then Nightcrawler grabbed him and teleported them in as Shadowcat grabbed Iceman, Wolverine, and Rogue and phased them. Just as all this happened, a missile came and went through them. Nightcrawler and Spyke reappeared and entered with the rest of the group. Then a huge alarm sounded. "No, the system is overheating. Iceman where are you?" Bobby Drake, the common flirt, was making an ice jack in the box trying to impress Shadowcat.

"What, oh no, I completely forgot." BOOM! "Great, I wrecked it again."

"You sure did, bub. You should consider yourself lucky you still have food to eat and a bed to sleep in this mansion." growls Wolverine, leaving the danger room.

Everyone leaves Bobby by himself except for Nightcrawler. "Don’t worry about it, mein freund. We were all clueless teenagers once upon a time. Ha ha." Then he teleports out of the danger room.

Bobby closes his eyes hoping for it to all end soon as he hears the sound of a wheel chair approaching. "Those people are no better at their powers than you are. You have the potential of being a very helpful mutant only if you stopped slacking off. You would have been put on the team a long time ago if you just focused. Now go up to your room and you will be expected at the dinner precisely at 7:00.

"Yes, professor." Bobby leaves the danger room. Presses a couple of buttons accessing the elevator, taking it up to his room. Entering his room, he entered a space that seemed to be empty of people. But there actually was another person that stayed in this room, but instead of sleeping on a bed, this mutant preferred to hang upside down to have his rest.

"Aah, hello young Bobby. How was your session today?"

"Do you really want to know? Right now I feel as stinky as a person stuck in the dumps."

"Ho ho ho. Though not intelligent, that was a good one. Forgive me if I ever use that in your presence. About your session, we all have bad days."

"Right now, I feel as if you are the only friend I’ve got in this place."

"Well, I know it’s not meant to be said like this, but thank you. Like I always say ‘a compliment or two a day, keeps the enemies away’."

"Beast, you know that you are weird, don’t you?"

"Hey, at least being in the negative temperature zone isn’t normal for me."

"Yeah, well at least not having fur is abnormal for me." And with that, they both laugh enjoying each other’s company.

Elsewhere in Westchester County, Scott and Jean enjoy an afternoon snack at the local diner. "You know, Jean, I wish every weekends were like this. You and me are always so busy to spend time like this together."

"You know, Scott, I couldn’t have put that in a better way." A girl in the diner comes with the check. "For saying that, Scott, the check if for me to pay. Or in teenage talk, it is on me."

"Wow, Ms. Grey, you like you’re on the roll. First you start taking rides from Duncan, now you insist on paying for my lunch in hope for forgiveness."

"Oh, shut up. Here you go, Miss." Giving a ten dollar bill to the young girl, Scott and Jean get up to leave as they notice their younger friend, Bobby, ordering a couple of meals to go. "Hey, Bobby, planning to take that to the mansion. I’m betting you took the bus to get here. Scott will be more than willing to give you a lift to the mansion."

Bobby turns around with his bag of food. "Thanks. Let’s go." The three of them got into Scott’s convertible and they drove home.

"You know, Bobby. Being a sophomore means you’re going to learn how to drive soon. Though I’m still mad at you for wrecking all our vehicles that one time, but I’m not that angry as to pass on one of my favorite tricks to a new recruit. Logan taught me this one." Grabbing the clutch, Scott puts it into the fourth driving mode and steps on the brake really hard, causing the back end of the car to go up a little.

As they were doing this on the street, the girl with the check watched as she slowly morphed into an awesome blue figure. Mystiche.

Nightcrawler just finished his first burger bomb as he was about to start on a second one. "Kurt, you’re the only one in this household who doesn’t worry about what he eats. As you know, you are what you eat." Kurt turned around to see Shadowcat, the mansion’s "brainiac".

"Oh, Kitty, come of it. You know they don’t affect me in any way. I do a lot of soccer practice to make up for it."

"Yeah, only to celebrate your exercise, you eat more burger bombs."

"Ok, miss smarty pants. How many have I eaten in the past week? Let me see you figure that out. I’ll tell you. I’ve only eaten burger bombs for the past three days. Before that, we were stuck in the boot camp only eating rice and beans."

"Yeah, you have been eating for the past three days. More like three each day. Kurt, you’re the only one in this mansion who doesn’t care about what he eats, and as a fellow student, teammate, and friend, I’m going to make sure you have a proper diet. I happen to be doing just this in Foods class."

"Oh, boy. I can see why your parents are glad you’re an only child. All right, ‘mom’, what would you like me to do?"

"Wolfsbane! Come here." A dog leaped into the kitchen as Kitty picked up the second burger bomb and tossed it into the air. "Good, I have just found another use for your mutant power. Now, Kurt, you are not going to eat that burger bomb."

"Aaw, Kitty. You know I’m going to get you for this."

"Yes, my birthday is some time next month. I’ll be expecting what I want with a thank you card. Now, ta ta, my very own elf to call my own."

"Ha ha. Hey, Kurt. Boy, do I pity you."

"I think she hates me." DA DA DA!

Logan comes running into the kitchen. "Kurt, Evan. Cerebro has detected a mutant in this state. I want you two to gather Rogue and Kitty and meet me in the Blackbird."

As everyone enters the Blackbird, Wolverine starts the engine and takes off away from the Xavier Institute. Professor Xavier and the Beast walk to the front door as Scott brings his convertible to the front steps.

"Scott, I’ll need you and Jean to patrol the streets of Bayville in search of a mutant."

"Yes, you two go. Come, Bobby, into the mansion with you."

"But can’t I go? It’s just a patrol."

"No, I’m sorry, Bobby. We can’t afford to put your life in danger." The Professor turns into the house as Bobby steps out of the car.

The Beast gives a small chuckle. "And we can’t afford for you to put theirs in danger." A fry comes flying in the air, hitting Beast in the face.

"I got your favorites. You can also have mine, I seemed to have lost my appetite." Bobby walks away from the mansion to be by himself. He goes into a deserted alley where he and his two buddies, Cannonball and Sun Spot, usually go to have their own share of fun.

This time he came there to be by himself. He decided to play ice solitaire as he tried to think why he wasn’t qualified to be an X-Man. "Hey, those are some nice tricks there, mon ami." Bobby turns to see a bum standing there.

"Who are you?"

"Oh, don’t worry. I’m a mutant just like you. I think I really need some help. Can you help me?"

"I can’t, but my professor can. He has an institute that helps mutants. Here let me give you the address." He whips out an ice paper and starts writing ice letters and numbers.

"Thank you, but can I ask a favor? Please don’t tell anyone that me is coming. I don’t want anyone to get all excited and start dressing nice and putting on nice smells. Dey are not so nice smells."

"I know what you mean. Scott, another citizen of the mansion, wears that stuff all the time. I think he’s trying to impress a girl in the mansion. He he he." Bobby starts laughing expecting Gambit to join him.

Gambit instead, just stares. "Remember, I want to introduce myself. Adieu, mon ami." Snapping his fingers, the lone figure disappears. Now away from his bad mood, Bobby runs home thinking he has done his good deed for the day.

Kurt brings the Blackbird to a landing inside the hanger bay of the Xavier Institute. He teleports himself out of the humongous jet as the others walk out.

"Sorry, Charles. We could find no sign of the mutant. I’ll prep the Blackbird tomorrow and go searching again."

"No, Logan. That isn’t necessary. We’ll be back on our guard when this mutant shows any sign or problems. Until then, we can go back into minding our own business."

"Aah. I for one am glad that this run is over. I am starving."

"Yeah, Kurt. I have already fixed you a salad. After that, you can go up to your room and see the present I got you. Actually, Lance had given it to me, but it reminds me so much of you, I’ll give you the pleasure of keeping it."

"Kitty. You’re all heart."

"Yes, I had a feeling you’d think that."

Later in the night. "Ooh, there goes my stomach again. I really need to eat some real food" Just as soon as Kurt gets out of bed, a whole bunch of chains come jumping out, grabbing his arms and legs.

"Ha ha ha, young Kurt. You should know that this trick will not work."

"Aah, the blue stuffed animal talks."

"No, Kitty just made that story so that I can keep an eye on you. She told me to make sure you don’t eat any of that junk food in Professor Xavier’s kitchen."

"Oh, boy. Rely on Kitty to use her intelligence on my health."

Outside the mansion, the lone figure watches the almost quiet mansion in the middle of the night. "Heh heh, Charles. We shall meet soon." Says Gambit as he puts his binoculars away and continues to stare at the mansion.

To be continued.