Saturday evening.

"Oh... my... GOD! He-he's dead! THEY-THEY... KILLED HIM!" Jubilee screamed in anger. "HOW COULD THEY DO THIS?!"

"ALRIGHT, NOBODY MOVE!" An officer called out.

Husk-in a teal, slimy form-merely knelt over the teenage mutant's body, crying her eyes out.

Jubilee's fists were shaking as small sparks triggered unconsciously went off as she ran towards the police officers. "What? Are you going to kill us like you killed him? This is insane! Its murder is what it is! Cold-blooded murder!"

Skin grabbed her before she made a bigger mess out of the situation. "No, Juby, we gotta go home to the teachers. There's nothing more we can do."

"Shut the hell up, Skin! I'm tired of your 'This happens all the time back in the 'hood' crap! Let me go!" Jubilee protested.

M lifted up the boy's body away from Husk. "He's right Jubilee."

Paige sniffled and looked up with swollen eyes. "Wha-What are you doing with him, M?"

The officers got more tense. "Step away from the body. I repeat..."

"We can't expect these people to give him a proper burial." M said in monotone.

Jubilee still struggled with Skin holding her. "Hey big guys! You can't even hurt us anyway! We all got ultra-derma-flexibility! We're rubber and you're glue! Your bullets bounce off us and stick to you!"

Chamber looked over at M. "Yeah. Then we get blamed for not taking him to proper medical facilities."

"You think its better to leave him here?"

Chamber looked down. "...Of course not."

Synch stood up. "Guys, can we go before they get S.H.I.E.L.D. on our asses!"

Husk wiped her eyes. "Everyone, we need to cover for M, and stick together. We can lose them in the sewers..."

M dove gracefully into a nearby manhole with the boy's body. The others followed behind her.

Earlier that day

"Ahhh! I hate this stupid computer!" Angelo yelled as he bashed at the keys.

Everett looked over with alarm. "Ang! You almost hit the G2 key!"

Angelo's face got tight with frustration. "What? What the hell IS the G2 key?! AND DON'T TELL ME ABOUT THAT R.T.F.M.* CRAP AGAIN!"

(* Read The F-ing Manual--Mikey)

Everett walked up to the keyboard and pointed out the G2 key. "Well, since your arc-lock was on, an emergency shutdown of the current program you're in would have occurred. You'd lose all your work for the day."

"This is confusing as hell." Angelo said wearily.

Everett walked back to his project. "Well, you gotta get used to it, man. Winblowz isn't everything."

"Yeah, but I'm more of a hardware guy anyway." Angelo complained. "I hate all these protocols and commands."

Everett tugged at a few cables on the monitor he was fixing. "And I hate hardware, but you know Mr. Cassidy's stupid assignments. 'Ye have te immerse yeself in what ye don't know boyos. Keeps ye well rounded!'" he mocked.

Angelo looked at the keys with aversion. "I always get paranoid on this thing. It's too flimsy and I'm never sure if I'm doing stuff right. This thing needs a better interface or something. Whoever put this together wasn't able to translate the Shi'ar language right."

"I know, there's a bunch of stuff in there that isn't perfect, but Forge made some good notes on it. It's good training, too Angelo. It teaches you how to make due with what you have I guess. You'll never know what kind of position you'd be in as an X-Man." Everett paused for a moment to think. "I guess that's why the Bansh wants us to be proficient in everything."

Angelo began to tap at the keys again, "Right."

A short silence as the two busied themselves with their work.

Suddenly, a loud spark was heard followed by a loud profanity. Angelo began to laugh uproariously at Everett.

"So, you want to tell me why you were speeding, son?" the officer asked.

Scott Reinbeck was really nervous. He should have known not to be drinking and driving. Especially since he just got his license a month ago. But at least he wasn't as bad off as his other friends in the car; Dustin, Raven, and Jerad were TOTALLY hammered.

"Uh, well, sir..."

"Cuz he's wearing my platform shoes!" Raven yelled. Dustin and Jerad started laughing hysterically.

Scott rolled his eyes. "Oh boy..."

"Lemme see your license, son." The officer asked.

Suddenly, Scott became very dizzy and hot. "Oh, uh, sure officer... uh, hold... on a min... ute..."

"Son, I'm going to have to ask you to step out of the car."

"Oh man, I don't know if I'm going to barf or wha..."

Suddenly Dustin started yelling out "BARF! BARF! BARF! BARF..." all the others except for the officer joined in.

Scott screamed out in anguish. A flashing pink aura began to form around him. The yelling stopped.

"Holy... God..." The officer stared, dumfounded.

"He's a mutie." Jerad muttered.

Raven's eyes grew wide "A MUTIE? Oh my GOD!" she frantically reached for the handle.

"Open it! Open it! He'll fry our skin off!" Dustin yelled.

"I'm trying--there!" They all burst out of the car.

Scott squirmed out, reaching for the officer. "h-help..."

The officer nervously went on his radio. "I need some backup here, we got a mutant here, with what appears to be a Level X power."

The radio squawked back. "Get out of there, Luis, we'll have some people down there soon!"

"Right." He started his car in a frenzy and sped off.

Scott watched the officer leave, tried to regain control of his head and got back into his car.

Paige sat cross-legged in the Danger Grotto with her laptop. She loved being outside with the sounds of the forest echoing. She knew they were artificial, but they were relaxing nonetheless. She brushed her long blonde hair behind her ears as she put her reading glasses on. She was researching for a report that was assigned in Miss Frost's Philosophy class. A six-page research paper on Freidrich Nietzsche's theories and how they affected humanity. She silently agonized over the small return that came back on her "neitzche" search. This meant that she would be searching the school's library for most of her information.

Suddenly, she heard the pitter patter of small feet running up to her. "Paige! Paige! Look what we drawed!" Leech begged, flopping the newly created masterpiece.

Paige took it from his small green hands. It was a simple, but somewhat impressive drawing of Flute from FireBall X. "Oh, how cool! Why don't you draw more, guys? Like that one guy, Boko."

"BokU!" Leech corrected.

Paige smiled and rolled her eyes. "Riiight. Well, get to it! I wanna see you guys REALLY impress me this time! And remember, the longer you take on it, the better it turns out!"

":)" said Artie.

"Alright! Lets go, Artie-san!" Leech giggled.

Paige smirked and turned back to the computer screen.

"Huh?" Jubilee thought, as she wandered around a dark environment.

"h-help..." a tired voice called out.

"Well, where are you?" she asked.

"here." A light shown a boy, he appeared to be around 16 years old. He was gripping his stomach.

Jubilee walked up to the boy. "Are you okay?"

He looked up. His tears were mixed with blood, as was his drool.

"Oh jeez, who did this to you?" she asked.

He revealed the gaping wound on his stomach.

Jubilee cringed. "Ugh, we need to take you to a hospital."

The boy shook his head slowly, still keeping the same haunting look on his face.

Suddenly, he shot up in the air and hung there as if he was on a crucifix.

"Oh my God!" Jubilee cried, waking up from sleep.

M looked up from a book she was reading. She was dressed in a pair of shorts and had her hair up. "Dear Lord, girl. It's a quarter 'til two in the afternoon! Did you have a bad dream?"

Jubilee looked at Monet and didn't say anything. She got up and went into the bathroom.

Jubilee stared at herself in the mirror. "Well, what the hell was that?" she thought.

Chamber hung upside down on the school's gymnastics set with his eyes closed. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes, swung himself a bit to gain some momentum, and released his hold on the bar. Once on the ground, he ran toward the springpad and vaulted into the air. As he attempted to grab the rings ahead of him, he missed one and lost his grip on the other. He went limp as he fell on the soft mat.

"Man, I can't believe how far behind everyone I am at this thing. Jubilee even mastered it her first try!" he said.

Mr. Cassidy offered him a towel, "Keep at it lad, ye think ye got another go in ya?"

"Sure, why--" he began, but was interrupted by an alarm. "Er, too late."

"Get suited up. Fast."

The students gathered around their smaller version of Cerebro as Emma gave them guidelines.

"Okay students, field trip. There appears to be a teenage mutant male whose powers have just developed in Tampa, Florida. He can't comprehend what's happening, but Cerebro tells me that he has a psychic aura around him that's making all that go near it experience strong emotions of fear."

Synch raised his hand. "Yes, Synch?" Emma asked.

"Kind of like my powers, Ms. Frost?" he wondered.

"Yes. His power seems to be triggered by consumption of alcohol. Some of you who haven't taken any of my Psychic Physics classes, I'll be protecting your minds from his powers. Of course, if there are any of you that have taken the class but are still having a bit of trouble with your psychic block, tell M and she can help you out on the way there. However, you may want to take a remedial course. Cerebro tells me that his particular awakening is quite a painful one, as the aura is generating a lot of heat in his cellular structure. Raven and Banshee are staying here to prepare the Med-lab for his arrival. Now, if there aren't any more questions, we'll be departing in the plane immediately."

Scott's forehead was sweating as he drove deeper into the city. It was taking all his concentration to keep on the road and remember where he was going. He thought if he could make it to the hospital in time they might be able to do something about it. He didn't want to be a mutant; everything was going perfect in life. Now this had to come along and screw it up. This kind of thing was only meant to happen in New York or some such area. Now he would be ostracized for it the rest of his life. He could barely stand his best friend calling him a mutie and running away earlier. He just wanted this to be over.

A loud horn was heard as Scott looked up to see he was running a red light. He panicked and swerved to the right, only to hit a car waiting in the left turn lane head on.

Ten minutes later...

He awoke staring at a car he had just hit. There was a woman who had hit the windshield. She looked as if she was in her early thirties. His eyes began to water when he saw a hint of a car seat in the back. He opened his door, and dropped out of the car. There was the sound of several guns cocking. Surrounding him was a large group of police officers. All of them were more than ten feet away from his aura, which had grown significantly.

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" the lieutenant yelled.

Scott was terrified. He trembled as he stood up.

"I SAID HOLD IT! WE DON'T WANT TO HURT YOU!" the lieutenant yelled.

Scott put his palms against his face "Do it!" he cried. "Shoot me!"

"STOP USING YOUR POWERS, WE CAN HELP YOU!"

"I don't know how! What's happening to me?" Scott screamed. "Please! Help me!" he slowly walked toward the men.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!"

Scott, dumbfounded, continued to walk.

"EVERYONE, KEEP AWAY FROM THE AURA!" the lieutenant commanded. "THOSE IN BACK, MOVE FORWARD!"

Emma peered out the plane's window. "Okay, there he is. I'm going to give Synch the map and you can get past the guards through the sewer system. Good Luck!"

Scott stopped walking. He knelt on the ground and cried into his hands. The officers in front stopped backing up and the ones in back stopped advancing. Scott felt scared. He wondered why no one was helping him, all these people around him, and not a single one trying to understand him. He was human an hour ago, isn't he still now? Finally, he understood. He finally understood the X-Men he saw on TV. He understood Magneto in Genosha. He understood everything. He didn't like what he had become, but he didn't like what he used to be, either-just another ignorant soul. He was angry. He screamed.

The officers gaped. The aura was spreading. They didn't have time to act, it had enveloped them. They all became fearful, and hateful. Several of them opened fire.

Fin.