dedicated to the wonderful, savage, amazing, and all around lovely spiderlad who inspired me to keep up with this book <3

(PS : I use the word dexter in the next chapter hmm I wonder where that's from)

ALSO HOLY SHUCK THIS BOOK REACHED 1K READS THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU 

have an extra long chapter yay!!

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Scott ran across the room in a panic. He wished he had tried harder in PE back at high school.

"Scott, you gotta stop running! Haven't you ever heard of a thing called 'helping'?!" River yelled at him. He rolled his eyes and ducked as Ororo struck the walls with lightning.

"I'm busy, Riv!" he yelled back. He looked behind to see that a Sentinel was still running after him. Ugh.

"Ooo couple fight!" Jubilee teased then yelped as a Sentinel almost picked her up. She sent up sparks into the air, which exploded in its face. "Hey, my fireworks are working correctly! Finally!"

"They claim they aren't a couple, Jubilee!" Jean shouted. She swung her hand, and the Sentinel that was chasing Scott flew to the side. "You're welcome!" She rolled under the foot of another Sentinel that was about to stomp on her.

"You two can't fight again! We talked about this!" Peter said in Scott's ear as he sped past with a grin.

"Remember what Mystique said about team fighting?" Kurt said quickly. He then bamfed away.

"Easy for you guys to say; you can actually run away from these things," Scott muttered. He stopped, panting, and looked behind him. The Sentinel was back on its feet and was walking towards him. Come at me. Scott pushed a button on his visor, something he was still getting used to, and a controlled blast of red cut into its metal body. The Sentinel fell over with a crash.

"Good job, Scott! Kurt, work on going closer to them! River, what are you doing?! Keep going everyone!" Mystique said over the PA. She was in another room, one with cameras and a loudspeaker system. Hank and her switched off, and it was her day inside the PA room. Scott ran off to help River and saw Hank climb onto one of the Sentinels, growling.

"Scott! Your girlfriend's in trouble!" Ororo shouted.

"We are not dating guys, geez!" River yelled.

"Yeah right," Jean said over the noise of Jubilee's explosions. "Nice, Lee!" Jubilee grinned and then ran off. Scott sprinted over to River. She was stuck, back against the wall. The Sentinel right next to to her, trying to hit her. She ducked and yelled out for help as its fist came close to her, missing.

"I'm coming, Riv," Scott mumbled. It was about to swing at her, when he jumped and grabbed her, pulling both of them to the ground. He pressed his visor and blasted the Sentinel away. Two down, loads more to go. They stood up together.

"Finally!" she said, exasperated.

"Oh shut up! Why don't you just use your wind stuff?!" They both took off towards the rest of the group. Scott looked to his left and saw Jubilee doing gymnastics to evade the Sentinel.

"You know why I can't, Summers! Ro! Rain please!" River looked up at the white-haired teen who was flying high above them. Ororo nodded and put her hands up, summoning rain above River's head. River reached up, and the water swirled around her fingers, growing and collecting water from the air. "Thank you!"

"Who should we help?" Scott asked. They looked around the team quickly. Peter was fine, speedily punching a Sentinel and then running off on the walls. Kurt was the same - he would teleport on top of a Sentinel and undo some of the wiring or break something in it and them bamf off. Jean was telepathically slapping Sentinels away and also was working to keep Hank in midair; he was basically ripping out metal plating and parts. Ororo kept blasting her Sentinel with lightning, busting its circuits. Jubilee was gleefully sending fireworks and explosions into a Sentinel's face, making it confused about where she was, then trying to take out its legs.

"Well..." River looked up, and Scott followed her gaze. A Sentinel had appeared in back of them. "Maybe us?"

"Sure. Tag team?" She grinned.

"You got it, Summers." She paused. "Now!" He jumped into the air, and she made a burst of water, the top of it partly solid (something new she had learned), pushing him higher and higher so he was staring at the Sentinel. It swung its fist by his face, but he ducked and pressed a button. Laser disks came out of his visor and lodged themselves into the Sentinel's chest. It took a step back but then regained its balance. He pressed another button, and his lasers blew the Sentinel even more back.

"Down!" Scott shouted. He felt himself slowly get lowered down. All of a sudden, he saw motion in the corner of his eye.

"Scott, watch out!" yelled River. Before he could turn around, he felt the Sentinel smash the watery platform. He felt himself fall down - a long way down. Sentinels were very, very tall, and Scott thought about this as he dropped. This'll leave a pretty big bruise. He put his hands over his neck to brace himself, wind filling his ears as he fell and fell. All of a sudden, it stopped and he felt cool air rush around him. He opened his eyes and saw that he was in midair, still in the curled up position, but in midair. He shakily stood up and realized he was standing on a swirling circle of wind somehow. River? He looked over and saw River putting her hands up with her head ducked down.

"Riv! I'm ok!" She looked up and grinned.

"Look Summers! I got my wind thing back!" He rolled his eyes, not that she could see them though. "Behind you!" He ducked again as the Sentinel shot at him. River raised her other hand and blew the bullets away into the wall. "Hold on, Scott!"

"How?! I'm literally on air!" He gestured to the non-existent ground beneath him.

"Just uh...I don't know! Get down!" Scott kneeled down and felt himself being pulled downwards even though everything was transparent. This feels so weird... He luckily didn't fall midair but tumbled off as the wind got closer to the ground. "Sorry for the landing."

"It's fine," he panted. There was a loud alarm, and Scott and River covered their ears. It stopped, and all the trainees sighed with relief; training was done for the day. The Sentinels walked backwards into an opening in the back wall.

"Meet me in the room," Mystique said over the PA.

"Thank god we're done," Jubilee said, running up to River. Scott laughed but nodded. "My legs are on fire!"

"I agree," Jean grinned.

"Hey, we did a pretty good job today though," River said.

"Wait till the Sentinels change towards your specific mutations," Hank cut in. They all groaned.

"It won't be that bad, right?" Peter said behind them. Scott shrugged, and then Kurt bamfed next to them.

"Jesus, Kurt!" The phrase had become a normal saying around the mansion.

"Sorry," said Kurt, who was used to scaring Scott. "I'm sure we'll be fine. We aren't that terrible, right Hank?" Hank made an "eh" motion. "Well, we'll work on it." They all laughed.

"Thanks for the rain, Ro," River said. She and Ororo high fived. Scott noticed that they had become pretty decent friends, even though River was still deathly afraid of lightning.

"You're welcome. You should thank your boyfriend for saving you, though," Ororo grinned. River groaned, and Scott looked down to hide his slight blush. The rest of them smirked.

It had been a month from what the mutants called "Apocalypse" - the catastrophic event in Cairo. A very peaceful month, in fact. A few days after the mansion had been rebuilt, Mystique and Hank put River, Jubilee, Jean, Peter, Ororo, Kurt, and Scott into training in the downstairs lair for the future. Mutants were becoming more and more discriminated against because of Apocalypse, even though mutants had also saved the world. There were even rumors of terrible things happening to mutants - killings, kidnappings, beatings, etc. - and maybe another war. The teens now called themselves the X-Men, based off of the last team of mutants from twenty years ago. The new X-Men even had special suits molded around each individual's mutations.

For example, Ororo's had capes connected from her wrists to her back that helped her levitate when she used her wind powers. Her suit was able to take lightning shocks and could produce electricity if she needed it. Peter's suit had his signature goggles and was able to withhold under immense speeds. Kurt, Hank, and Jean's suits were pretty standard because their mutations were flexible with any clothing. Jubilee had a suit that was flexible for her gymnastics. She also had fire-proof fingerless gloves with little rings in the middle to help her fireworks. She insisted on wearing her classic yellow jacket over it, despite Mystique's protests. River's suit was completely waterproof (even though they didn't go into water much), but also had small pop-out wings for whenever her unpredictable wind powers decided to show up and help her fly. She had gloves that helped her concentrate water from the air into her palms.

Scott's suit was normal, but he now had a special visor that could control his lasers. Hank was very proud of it, considering he made it in approximately two days and it actually worked. It had a knob that could control different variations and degrees of his lasers. Scott only used it for training though. He usually wore his glasses and then a blindfold when he slept.

The X-Men had training every other day but still had classes every day, except Peter of course. The teens were all almost done with their classes as they were all almost 18, however the professor insisted on giving them "college" classes unless they wanted to go to a real university.

"Did you guys finish the reading for the week?" asked Ororo. Kurt, Jean, and Jubilee nodded, but River and Scott shook their heads. They had all been assigned to read a part of theTale of Two Cities.

"That book is killing me," River said theatrically.

"Hey, you're the one who likes English! And it's not that bad, Riv," Jubilee rolled her eyes.

"Jean, can you help me? Please?" River pleaded.

"Again?" Jean raised an eyebrow.

"Please? Last time?"

"You said that last time," Peter interrupted. Even though he didn't take classes (he was a 28 year old after all), he hung out with the teenagers enough to know their class struggles.

"Fine," Jean sighed. River hugged her.

"Thank you so so much! Scott and Kurt, you can join us if you want. Study session in the parlour after class is done!" River announce. The teenagers had deemed the upstairs room where they had first went to the mall their specific parlour.

"Ok good because I also didn't read. It's too boring," said Ororo. They all laughed.

"You kids need to do your homework," Hank said. Scott had forgotten that one of their teachers also trained with them.

"We are!" River said. Hank raised a blue eyebrow.

They reached the PA room. Scott reminded himself to suggest that they should give an actual name to the PA room later. Mystique was writing on some papers, and she gathered them up as they all filed in. She turned to face them. She had a suit of the same style as Hank as her mutation let her transform no matter what she was wearing.

"Ok, listen up!" she said in a commanding voice. They all immediately straightened up. One of the inside jokes was that they were in the army, and Mystique was one of those really strict generals. "Nice fireworks, Jubilee, and Ororo, the electricity was smart. Kurt and Peter, you're fine." She took a breath. "We only have one problem: we need to work on working together! As a team! Good job to Jean for helping practically everyone out. River and Scott, good teaming up in the end." She glared at the last two.

"Uh...Raven, you don't look happy about us working together," River said. She was one of few who had the courage to speak back to Mystique.

"Because you two are always fighting," said Mystique, throwing her hands into the air.

"Told you she'd get mad eventually," Jubilee whispered to Schott.

"Yeah yeah," he muttered back.

"Why were you two arguing this time?" Mystique demanded. The cameras she looked through in the PA room didn't have the best audio.

"Um..." Scott tried to think of a good reason. He came up blank. "Nothing really." She narrowed her eyes.

"It can't happen again, understand?" she said. They hung their heads.

"Yes ma'am," they both mumbled.

"Training dismissed." Mystique waved them out, and they all filed out of the room. Hank stayed behind. The teens walked through the silver-plated hallway, laughing and talking about training.

"Meet you in five minutes?" Scott asked River as they reached the lockerrooms. Hank had turned some of the non-used downstairs rooms into lockerrooms because the teens had complained about walking back up into their rooms in their suits.

"Your room," River grinned. She went into the girls' lockers, and Scott smiled as he watched her go and then walked to the boys' afterwards.

"Are you guys going to make out later?" Peter asked. Scott shook his head.

"Hell no, Maximoff! We aren't dating!" He walked inside, but Peter sprinted in front of his and grinned as he leaned on the doorway. "Peter, c'mon. Get out of my way."

"You like her, don't you?" Peter grinned even more.

"No, I don't. Leave me alone." He pushed past the older boy away and went to his cubby, taking his glasses out. He slid off the visor with his eyes closed and put the glasses on. He heard Peter go into one of the stalls to change.

"You do hang out with her a lot, Scott," Kurt said. He had already changed. He usually bamfed into his room and then bamfed back to put his suit away.

"So?" Scott pulled his clothes out. "You hang around Jubilee a lot."

"That's different," Kurt protested.

"Stop denying it, man," Peter said, coming out in normal clothes. He stuffed his suit into his cubby sloppily and adjusted his goggles. "You like her. She probably likes you too."

"I'll see you guys later," Scott said, walking towards the changing rooms. Peter laughed and then ran out. Scott heard Kurt teleport away.

A few minutes later, Scott walked back up to his room, his leather jacket snug around him. Even though it was summer, he still wore it like how Jubilee always wore hers. River joked it was his security blanket. Scott smiled as he thought about her. She's just a really good friend. That hangs out with me a lot. And gets like all of my jokes. And helps me with homework. I don't like her. Right?  He shook his head, cutting his own thoughts off, and saw her leaning on his door, reading a book. She was wearing a blue flannel, a tanktop, and her favorite jeans.

"Hey, Riv," he waved. She looked up and waved back, closing the book.

"Hey, Summers. What kind of trouble should we cause today?" He grinned.

"Not sure. Want to go to the lake and figure something out?" She nodded.

"We have uh," she looked at her watch. "An hour. Let's go!" They walked down the stair together.

"That book any good?" Scott asked. She showed him the cover of the book, The Outsiders. He vaguely recognized it as the movie everyone in his old school had been raving about a couple months ago. "Oh didn't that movie come out earlier this year or something?" She nodded.

"Yep. I saw it with Jubilee and Jean in March, and now I'm reading the book. It's pretty good. Much more interesting than Dickens." Scott laughed.

"I mean, once we analyze it, it'll get more interesting." River shrugged. They reached the bottom of the stairs and headed outside.

"Maybe. I'm sure Charles will 'enlighten' us," she laughed. The professor didn't like to use the word "learn" and preferred to use the word "enlighten." Scott had always assumed it was an Oxford British thing.

"Aren't you not supposed to make fun of your parents?" he said. She shrugged again.

They walked towards the lake, seeing various students studying, playing sports, or just relaxing on the soft grass in the shade of the big trees. Scott smiled as he remembered when he first came and destroyed one of the trees in the yard. It was also when he met River. Alex was there too. He pushed away the thought of Alex. It had become a habit - whenever he thought of his late brother, he would just push away the thoughts.

"You ok, Summers? You're looking a little pale," River remarked. He nodded.

"I'm good." They reached the lake and sat down under one of the trees right next to it. River put her book beside her and looked out onto the water.

"Wanna see something?" Scott nodded.

"Sure." She swirled her fingers in the air, and some water came up, dancing around her hand. She spread out her hand, and the water went toward Scott. It went around his head, doing mini gymnastics and getting him a little wet. River pulled her hand back and towards the lake. The water burst into little bubbles and plopped back into the lake.

"Ta da," she said with some jazz hands. Scott clapped.

"Amazing," he complimented. She smiled.

"Nah. Not nearly as cool as your mutation." He scoffed.

"You really want lasers coming out of your eyes, Riv?" he asked. She shrugged. "You know I'm basically hiding nukes behind my face."

"Better than my sucky wind control and very uncool water control." Scott laughed.

"Oh yeah. Try that right now. The wind."

"Now?"

"Yeah. Why not?"

"It won't work, I swear. Something Charles said about new powers or whatever." River closed her eyes and opened her hands, concentrating. Scott waited for any sign of wind. Nothing happened. She sighed with frustration.

"Hey, it's ok. Was worth a shot." Scott moved over to sit next to her. She leaned on his shoulder. "I still like your water tricks." She laughed.

"Thanks, Summers."

~

"Took you two long enough," Jean muttered as the two cousins walked up. Scott looked and grinned as he saw River nudge Jubilee.

"Hey! It's wasn't my fault I was confused about geometry!" Jubilee protested. "Hank really is no help in tutoring." River rolled her eyes.

"I can help you if you want, Jubi," Scott offered. River sat next to him, Jubilee next to her.

They were upstairs in the parlour as class had ended ten minutes ago. They had all been waiting for River and Jubilee to show up. Kurt sat on the couch, sipping tea and reading more of theTale of Two Cities. Ororo was on the other side of the couch, trying to focus and take notes. Scott could tell she was really just doodling. Peter was on the floor, polishing his silver sneakers. Jean had spread out all of her stuff on the coffee table and had been helping Scott already. River pushed some of the papers out of the way and plunked her own stuff onto the table, making Jean glare and Scott laugh.

"That'd be amazing, Scott!" Jubilee replied happily. "Hey, could I talk to you for second? Over there?"

"Uh..." Scott looked at River, who shrugged. She started showing her annotations to Jean, who sighed slightly at the lack of effort compared to her own annotations. "Sure?"

"Ok, come here." Jubilee stood up, her pins jingling, grabbed Scott, and dragged him a bit aways from the group.

"What's going on?" he asked. She stopped.

"If you are dating Riv, you better tell me now." 

"Uh..."

"Also if you hurt hurt her, I will set fireworks into your room and destroy everything you have." She put up her palm. "Deal?"

"I don't like her!" He raised his hands in surrender. "We're not dating, I swear! Why don't you ask her?" Jubilee raised an eyebrow.

"Ok fine. But if you start dating," she grinned at him, "I get to be the first to know. And she likes chocolate. And books. And vinyls. And the mall." She walked back to the group. Scott stood there and shook his head. We aren't dating! We don't even like each other, geez.

"You ok, Summers?" River said as he sat back down. "I know Jubi can be threatening."

"Hey!"

"What? You once said that if I didn't clean up my side of the room, you would set sparks into my notebooks!"

"That was once!" Jubilee said. Jean laughed.

"Ok, let's get to studying."

The rest of the study session was filled with laughs and "focusing." Which was basically Jean telling at the rest of them to focus.

~

Scott saw a blonde facing the doorway to the war plane on the other end of the silver hallway downstairs. His tan jacket and worn jeans looked familiar...

"Alex!" Scott cried with happiness. Alex turned around with his signature grin. He ran towards his little brother with enveloping arms, but then Scott noticed a flame. Orange fire came out from the door. "Behind you!" Scott tried to move but found his feet stuck to the ground. "Alex! Watch ou-" He was cut off by the door blowing open. 

He saw Alex run but then get swallowed by the fire. Scott covered his face from the hot flames. 

When he opened his eyes, the whole hallway was gone, turned into ashes. Small fires were everywhere, spitting yellow sparks. He saw someone lying facedown on the floor. No no no, oh my god, no no... He ran over, finally able to move his legs. 

"Alex! No!" he screamed. Scott reached his brother, kneeled down, and felt hot tears stream down his face. "No...please..." He sobbed. "Alex...come back..."

~