It felt good to be home, here, at the X-Mansion. Jean hadn't been here for a few good months now. Not since they had captured her in that egg when the Phoenix had resurrected her, and even then, she really didn't feel home. And even after that, when she had returned, she had returned to some sort of island that was supposedly home to all mutants in the world, or at least, the majority of them. When she was on Utopia, she never really felt like that was a home. She felt that it was more like a prison.. She barely ever interacted with anyone, and when she did it was really only Hope and Betsy.

Sighing a bit, Jean stood on the balcony that was right outside of the headmistresses office, that was overlooking the courtyard of the newly rebuilt Academy. There was a large 'X' in the middle, for Xavier. Jean sighed, she remembered all of the good old days. Back when it was only Charles, Henry, Scott, Warren, Bobby, and Jean herself. It seemed like so long ago that this had happened, however, she knew that is hadn't. It had only been slightly over a decade since the X-Men were first established, and since Xavier had taken in his first class of students. Since then, so many things had happened. So many, very unexpected things.

Such as enemies joining the team, like Emma Frost had, to other things of the like. Jean had heard that Danger Room had gained sentience in the form of an entity that was known as "Danger". This 'Danger' had fought an entire team of X-Men, and won. She wasn't sure where it was at the moment, but she had seen it on Utopia a couple of times. Not quite often, but she HAD indeed seen it. Sighing a bit, Jean turned back towards the double doors to the office and went in. Perhaps she should check Cerebra? That was something that could keep her attention for at least five minutes, and she wouldn't be reminiscing about the old days -- and depressing herself in the process.

Gently shutting the doors, Jean looked around. The room looked exactly like it had the last time she had laid eyes on it. It was truly marvelous what some decorating could be.. And how little money it took to actually recreate this place, with only one, very minor difference. And that wasn't even in the interior of the school. Soon, the school would being welcoming students once again. She was an educator, among other things, she absolutely adored teaching children. That was one thing that Jean was always known for, of course, some others weren't as good. Jean blinked and looked around at her surroundings. "Seems I've gotten myself lost in my thoughts..."

Jean was now in the sub-basement, and nearing Cerebra. It would be less than two minutes before she was sitting in that chair, with that helmet over her head.. And searching for any mutant activity throughout the entire globe. Sitting down, Jean placed the helmet over her head. The first thing that she noticed was the fact that there was something going on in New York, and it involved mutant abilities. Jean wasn't sure what could be going on... Hell, she wasn't even sure if this was a new mutant signature or an old one that Emma had skipped over, or even Scott. She truly wasn't. All she knew was that it was mutant activity, and the X-Men had to act.

Throwing the helmet aside, Jean quickly sprang up and headed towards the hangar, a bit of a sigh in her voice. :: I need you to meet me in the hangar, asap!:: Jean basically shouted into the minds of four of her colleagues. Betsy and Hope would definitely be enough to hold the fort while the group went on a mission, Jean was sure of that. Especially Betsy. She was, arguably, one of the better fighters here at Xavier's. Especially physically. Even if she was, now, back in her British body, Betsy was still Betsy. There was a time that Betsy was a psychic ninja, quite literally, and in Kwannon's body. It was all so very, very, confusing. But Jean wouldn't contest the fact that it happened. Jean herself had died and came back, as well.

After waiting about fifteen minutes, the group that she had summoned had arrived. She had known these two for a considerably... Short amount of time. Though, out of the group, she had known of Aubrey and Craig the most. This was from the time that they had been in Earthbound, a group that was founded by Magneto. An ally, and enemy, of the X-Men. She wasn't sure what had happened to him, though... One day, he just stopped showing up to meetings of Earthbound and everything. It was upsetting, because he actually seemed to be taking a turn for the better. Jean sighed a bit and boarded the X-Jet, and her outfit quickly changed from normal, every day, clothing to her green and gold uniform, the one she wore as the Phoenix, in the blink of an eye.

The red head looked towards the other skilled X-Man, the other one that had been with them for years now. "Rogue, you pilot. Our destination is set into the X-Jet's GPS via Cerebra." Jean said, taking a seat in the front of the X-Jet, beside Rogue. Someone had to be a co-pilot, and she hadn't given Craig, Aubrey, OR Dred the knowledge on how to fly. They'd only been X-Men for a few weeks now. "Now -- the reason that we're here is because there's a mutant signature showing up on Cerebra, and it seems to be in trouble. I'm not sure if it's newly manifested or what.. All I know is that there seems to be a mutant in trouble with the law," wasn't that always the case? Jean figured that it was, "and they need our help."

Jean glanced back at the other three. "I know this is basically your first mission, however, I also know dreary and dull it may seem to you. I apologize in advance for that. Hopefully, something more fruitful will come of this, right?"

Dred felt a telepathic message from one of his teammates flash through his mind. I need you to meet me in the hangar, ASAP! Putting two and two together, Dred figured he was about to embark on his first true mission for the X-Men. He had been recruited just recently, for his desire for justice and equality as well as his firepower. A connection to two of the other new members, Aubrey and Craig, didn't hurt either. The Nightwatch hadn't really gotten off the ground, unfortunately, but Dred had a team now, one that had some actual backing, and he was going to do the best damn job he could to help make a difference. Jogging his way down to the hangar, he slipped inside.

There, Dred found four other X-Men. Two of them he was already familiar with - Aubrey and Craig, ever the interesting pair. Aubrey, the southern tough girl. Craig, the wisecracking jackass. Then there was Jean Grey, who had helped recruit him originally, doing some psychological evaluation of him to try and calm him down. It had worked. Dred felt less like he was on the verge of clawing someone's eyes out if they so much as gave him an aggravating look. Finally, there was Rogue, the girl with the abominable Southern accent. "Interesting crew," he muttered, listening as Jean explained their mission.

"A mutant in trouble with the law, huh?" he said after she had finished. "Nothing new there. Still, I'm sure this'll be pretty damn exciting, and hopefully something will come out of it."

It had been a few weeks now, ever since Aubrey packed up and stepped out of her old apartment to live in the X-Mansion; safe heaven for mutants, as some would call it, where every one of them would be accepted with open arms. It had been a few weeks, but she remained to be struck in constant awe whenever she walked down past the spacious halls, through the very well-organized decorations and exquisite views. This place is amazing, she would always thought with either a broad and joyful grin or heart beating fast in pure fascination, or both. She wouldn't lie, upon being thrust the offer to join X-Men back then she was a little suspicious and reluctant; she wasn't really good with teams, look at Earthbound for example, not to mention she didn't really trust any of them. But at the end of the day the eventually convinced her to at least try, thus she did. And now the Texan was glad she had made that decision. These people here were kind and indeed welcoming, the place was beyond great, and the food were amazing.

Oh, the food. Aubrey was digging through the kitchen, contemplating between ice cream, cookies or cakes when she suddenly heard a female voice, speaking inside her head. Uh, something to get used to there. Anyway, it was Jean. Jean Grey; one of her teammates. She wasn't too familiar with the older woman but she seemed like a pretty neat person, so. She listened to the short, telepathic message, basically telling to meet her in the hangar. "What, now? oh, come on! Can't you wait for a bit? I'm just about to get my snack here," the fire based mutant protested in semi-shout, though uncertain if the red-head would be able to hear her. Probably not. Oh well. Shrugging with a slight shrug, she decided to take one small pack of Oreos and stuffed it into her pocket before scurrying off towards the hangar. There she found another pair of her teammates; Craig, Dred and fellow southern woman named Rogue. She tugged the small corners of her lips and sent a smile along with a small wave to greet them. When Dred remarked about how interesting the current crew was, she smirked, indeed it was interesting. This is going to be fun.

Actually, this was the first time she ever stepped into the jet, and once again for a brief moment she was caught in awe. Though it didn't last long before she finally seated herself down, kind of bouncing a little in anticipation. First mission! now she was beginning to feel excited. Aubrey leant backwards, resting her back against the cool metal while snapping her thumb and index finger out of habit, creating little flames in the small air, watching them flicker and dance wildly with amusement. She didn't stop even when Jean started to speak, and she responded to the other woman with a mere shrug. "Oh, I have a feelin' it will," she said, her lips forming a little smirk as the flame now had curled into a ball of fire. She started to juggle and roll it with one hand in casual manner, but then all of sudden she remembered the Oreos in her pocket. She pulled the pack out, tore it open, took and pushed one halfway into her mouth before waving it, the pack, around - towards her other teammates, "want some? it's yummy."

Craig sat in his room tuning his guitar. As he picked the last string, it sounded off in response. A little sharp. He thought, turning the peg to loosen the tension on the string. He tried again. The sound of an E note rose to his ears. Perfect. Craig smirked as he played a little freestyle.

He was bored in just a few minutes. Gently placing the guitar in its case, Craig flopped back on his bed. He stared at the ceiling until he got lost in his thoughts. Something about being the newest recruit to the team was a little stressing. He wasn’t even sure how he managed to get recruited anyway. I guess I made a lasting impression. Wasn’t it only one meeting? Though it was obvious, she did- wait, that was a dream. Doubting thoughts began to flow into his mind. Do I deserve to be on this team anyway? What good can I do? The only thing I’ve ever done with my life was play guitar and get drunk. I’m no hero… Hell, I’m not even a good role model… Craig tried to shake these thoughts, but they still lingered. The quiet of the dark room and the comfort of his bed convinced Craig to drift into sleep.



That was a rude awakening. Craig jumped so high he almost crashed into the ceiling. Hearing someone else’s protests, he pulled himself off the floor. “No need to yell!” He shouted back, doubting that they would hear him. Mumbling unintelligibly, Craig dragged himself out of his room.

Coming to the stairs, he stood and pondered his options for a minute. Following the first impulse that came to mind, he sat on the banister and slid down to the first floor. The railing abruptly stopped and sent Craig sprawling to the floor. Dear god… even the floors are comfortable. He yawned and just laid there half asleep. Remembering what he was doing, Craig reluctantly crawled to his feet and continued on… at least until he hit a fork in the hall. He scratched his head; he was a little too tired to remember where exactly the hangar was. Shrugging, Craig turned left. He should have turned right.

Miraculously, he found the hangar. “Sorry I’m late, I got lost…” Craig tried to explain. Yet he was the first person summoned that was there. “Well imagine that…” The others weren’t too far behind him. Craig rubbed his eyes, trying to shake his remaining fatigue. He blinked, making sure that his eyes weren’t fooling him. His new teammates… were Aubrey and Dred. “Is this a pyro convention? I think I left my fire in my other pants…” He joked. “Interesting isn’t the right word for it… Sick McNasty McNasty describes it better.”

He yawned, joining the others inside the jet.The first thing he did was find a seat toward the middle of the jet. Craig wasn’t much of a fan of flying. Not that he was totally afraid of it; he just preferred to keep his feet on the ground. He nervously tapped his fingers on the seat ahead of him. “Sounds all fine and dandy. Can we just… um… go? Wake me when we get back on the ground.” Craig attempted to relax. He slid his back into the seat and closed his eyes. Craig’s hand turned to solid rock as he fell back to sleep. Rest wouldn’t last long...

Rogue looked at the X-Mansion from the pool, back at its home and completely rebuilt.Thank god, felt wrong it being on the island ironically called Utopia. I understand why but felt wrong, and made us feel more like a private army than a family. Her green eyes looked up as she wore her outfilt, the typical green and white that helped mark her throughout the years.

Jean has returned, hopefully a good sign or a bad sign. I don't understand why now she reappearred. But maybe I can move forward, me and Gambit parting ways was so hard on me and him but I just feel like I lost all touch with him. A gust blew and she stood up and started to stretch, and proceeded to walk around the pool.

I need you to meet me in the hangar as soon as possible.

Rogue jumped as she heard that and yelled,"Ah heard ya Ah am coming. Damn, sometimes Ah hate it when ya do that. " She then ran towards the hangar and saw Dredd, Aubrey and Craig headed that way. "Hey Ya, so ya coming along? Ah think this should be fun, some ones Ah don't know as well." She smiled a little as she headed up stairs. Well, this outta be fun. Craig, who you can tell unsure if he is hero material, Dredd, unsure what to call him, rebel or hero but seems like a good guy. And Aubrey who has some sass and some sweetness.

"Hey there, Jeanie, so what we up to? Mutant, Ah wonder what is happening with this one. And well, good for a new mutant to appear and all. Means our species aien't going extinct at least or Ah hope so." Rogue then walked forward and got into the pilot seat. "Ya are young so be warned if ya eat and we come under some fire, ya may lose ya'll lunch. And remember, ya are new but don't misbehave or ya may have to spend an hour with Emma and trust mah, nobody wants that."

The first to arrive was Craig Daniels. A Geokinetic that Jean had had sessions with back when she was still working as a therapist in New York. He thought he was late, which was actually very funny. Shortly after, the group was all present. Admittedly, Dred was right. It was an odd group -- not to mention it consisted of three pyrokinetics. Something that was considerably odd in the eyes of probably most of the mutants that were present, other than Jean herself. She had a method behind it. Because the X-Men didn't have something that would be referred to as a tank, someone like Cain Marko or Piotr Rasputin, to plow through the enemy they would have to take the next best thing; fire power. They were useful, definitely in the eyes of the Phoenix, which used flames to cleanse worlds it deems unworthy.

Shortly after telling the rest of the group what their objective was, Jean turned to Rogue. “You’re up for this, right?” She whispered. She knew that Rogue had, more recently, lost control of her power again. This is something that gave her a death touch, once again, which wasn’t a good thing. Rogue had lost the control of her powers, and that wasn’t good. It wasn’t good at all. The X-Men, after relocating here from Utopia, had two people in charge; Jean Grey and Elisabeth Braddock. Phoenix and Psylocke, respectively. And though this may sound shallow, Jean thought that this was arguably the best team set-up that they could see. It reminded her of the Blue and Gold days, though not as.. What was the word? Turbulent, that was it.

As Rogue walked towards the pilot seat, she asked Jean what the plan was. She looked towards Rogue as she mentioned something about what she thought this one was up to. The sides of her lips curled into a bit of a smile. “Given that they passed the SHRA, I have a feeling we’re going to be dealing with a few SHIELD officials.” Jean said, then taking her seat in the co-pilots seat. It wasn’t going to take long for them to get to New York, Salem Center wasn’t that far away from New York. It was a two hour drive, so it would probably be about a twenty minute flight as long as Rogue was capable. Jean took a deep breath and glanced back towards the rest of the mutants.

“Okay, just to get this out of the way.. Our job is to get the mutant, and get out of there. We don’t want to get in trouble with SHIELD; that’s never fun.” Jean said, then glancing back at Aubrey as she waved the pack of Oreo’s. “Careful with those, you might lose ‘em when we’re trying to get this mutant.” She teased, then turning back towards the windshield. They were already nearing the large city. That was good.

Pondscum had gotten himself into a terrible, terrible situation.

Like most situations, it had all started with some sort of soft drink - in this case, a Pepsi. A large and red-faced police officer had passed by a building that Pondscum was lurking on. Pondscum, always one to irritate the living hell out of law enforcement, had shaken up the Pepsi he had stolen from a vending machine, opened it, and pelted the officer with it. Needless to say, things got very, very messy and did so very, very quickly.

The officer had called in back-up, to bring in this renegade mutant who matched descriptions from a couple museum robberies. Pondscum had kept them at bay with a release of noxious swamp gas and then made a break for it. But now the cops were on his trail, and he was going to have to think very fast if he didn't want to get hauled off to jail. If he was really lucky, somebody would show up to help him out...but that seemed unlikely...

Dred snorted a bit at Craig's pyro wisecrack and his description of this team being "Sick McNasty McNasty". With him on this mission, it was bound to result in an interesting day. And possibly a stop at a bar. And getting shot at by police. That just seemed to be how most situations turned out when Craig was involved. Dred plopped himself into a chair and relaxed, listening as Jean gave orders.

"Gotcha," he said. "No screwing around with SHIELD." Admittedly, Dred didn't really have a problem with fighting law enforcement, but he was going to try and make his first mission go smoothly. He sank back into the chair, kicking his feet up and feeling the jet rise into the air and shoot across the sky.,

(Lame post, sorry. Couldn't really think of anything.)

Aubrey craned her neck and tilted her head slightly, scanning over the inside part of the jet with again, intrigued expression until the rest of her teammates finally plopped into their seats. Jean and Rogue were piloting the jet; Aubrey gave an inward shrug, sounded fair enough. They were the veterans of this team, pretty certain they could handle this thing. Craig looked a little nervous, Dred was neutral and seemed more relaxed, as usual. It was kind of amusing to watch their expressions, to be frank. Her hand and fingers remained to hold the gentle grasp on her pack of mini-snack, she waved it once again towards them, though they didn't seem to be interested. "No? oh-kay fine with me," the blond merely shrugged, snatching another one from the pack and chewing it on delightedly.

Upon hearing the brunette's warning and red-head's teasing, she curled the corner side of her lips into another smirk. "Do not worry, my friends. They'll be safe.. in my stomach," she retorted, outstretching and waving her hand in dramatic and joking manner. Grinning, she leaned back into her seat and propped her right leg over the other knee, taping its feet against her thigh. "Alright, got it. Grab the mutant, stay out of trouble and flee," that actually sounded like a complete bore in her mind, but oh well. Hopefully she wouldn't get out of control again, just like that day when she, Craig, and Dred had first met. That was one heck of a mess.

She could feel the jet shaking as it flew high into the sky, there was a smile hanging on her lips; her enthusiasm brewing higher and higher, her heartbeat began to pace rapidly in anticipation; excited, she was. Kind of obvious now. Leaning her head to the side, she took a breath and randomly sang out, "I'm leeeeaaavin' on a jetplaneee, don't know when I'll be back agaaaain, ooohh~" couldn't help it, really.

Craig’s eyes shot open. The engines were ear-splitting when they’re fired up. He growled in anger. What does a guy have to do to catch some rest around here? It wasn’t that Craig was trying to get some beauty sleep; he didn’t need it. Craig was trying to get some “mellowing” sleep. People really did not want to see him cranky.

He tried to fall asleep again, not wanting to freak out on his teammates. Craig slipped into a brief half-sleep. A dream about how he first met Aubrey and Dred flowed into his mind. Who honestly would have thought that a bar, a lost wallet, a pool table, and the New York sewers would be… important in their meeting? Craig would often wonder about the fourth guy: Leonard Mane. Did he end up dying from blood loss? Was he thrown in jail after his visit to the hospital? Or did he just plain old up and disappear? No one could know.

Craig continued to dream about the bar fight in his sleepless stupor. It was honestly funny. The pyros pulled Craig into things. He wasn’t the one who started the brawl. He didn’t set police cars on fire. The most Craig did was launch a couple of pool balls at Dred’s face. Where’s the harm in that?

The plane hit some turbulence, waking Craig yet again. He was getting tired of being woken up (no pun intended. Angrily mumbling unintelligibly to himself, he rolled away from the aisle of the plane. He didn’t think he could manage to fall back to sleep.

He did.

Dreams of the second time they managed to be in the same bar at the same time entered his brain. It wasn’t Dale’s, but things ended up the same. Getting shot at was a specialty, and this time it wasn’t even any of their faults. Someone really likes to torture them. Enter Persephone. She is… was another mutant who could throw people around like rag dolls. Even with her powers she still managed to get her brains shot out by…

Aubrey’s singing was the straw that broke the camel’s back. He was tired and cranky, and his team was about to see his bad side. He took a breath and shouted out “For god sakes! Are we fucking there yet?!”.

He couldn’t help it, really.

"Ah sure am. No problem sugah." Rogue smiled. Thankfully, that was a momentary lapse of power. Understand why she would be worried. Thankfully just a mental lapse. Rogue then made sure every thing was in check and started the jet with Jean.

She glanced back and noticed Dredd putting his feet up nonchalant. Glad to see somebody is relaxed. Rogue wondered what was going through his head as he adopted the relaxed pose. Wonder how he can be relaxed? Who knows what we can run into? Could be sentinels or worse. Her eyes looked out the window and saw beautiful clouds floating through the skies.

She heard singing in the back and looked back at Aubrey and turned and paid attention. Her eyes noticed she was still eating the snack cakes. " Ah warned ya, just
try to contain it and keep singing, music never hurt anybody. Glad to see Ah am not the only one who is a southern belle." Glad to see these are so happy. And relaxed.

She heard Craig yell and looked back and said," No need to get an attitude, let them enjoy themselves, and if ya want, there are some headphones. Who knew it was gonna be a guy who is the drama queen? " Her eyes looked back, and a smile came across her face." So Jeanie, any details on our precious mutant? Ah hope not some crazy one. And any idea how to engage him?"

Jean nodded her head as Rogue commented that she was ready. That was good. They needed to get off of the ground and out of the mansion as quickly as possible. "Thrusters ready." Jean commented, glancing back at the group of mutants that were now known as the X-Men. Craig had fallen asleep, Aubrey was still holding the pack of Oreo cookies that she undoubtedly found in the kitchen cabinets. Jean made sure they were stocked with things that she knew they would like, because almost everyone in the world that she could think of liked them. Plus, they had four teenagers here. Five including Rahne, who was just on her way back.

Jean sighed a bit. She'd wished that she would have been able to welcome back the lupine mutant to the institute. But, she wasn't able to.. Which actually made her kind of sad. Rahne was in the second group of students that the institute had after the first class. So evidently, the original five felt something in common with these other five students. Jean sighed at the thought that she wouldn't be there.. However, that would be something that she would have to deal with. She knew that Betsy would be handle to greeting someone of her stature, Betsy had been there almost as long as Rahne. Probably give or take a few months up to year.

"Craig." Jean said, in response to his outburst, Rogue had gotten to correcting him first, but Jean was the team leader, she had to correct him as well. "They're just trying to have fun.. I understand you were trying to nap, but in all seriousness... We're here." Jean was interrupted in her lecture as the GPS made a 'ding' noise.

Pondscum delivered a powerful kick to the face of a police officer that had gotten far too close for comfort. It was just his luck, you know, that this had to happen while he still needed to meet up with Red Goblin and Duela, to continue their investigation of that messed up cult. Granted, this had all started because of a stupid decision on Pondscum's part, but that wasn't the point. What was the point, he wasn't exactly sure. What the hell am I...thinking...about... he...thought...irritably to himself as he bounded away, pulling a small lighter from his pocket.

He whirled around as an oily substance began to leak from his pores. Letting it drip onto the ground, Pondscum bent down to it, and with a wicked smile, set fire to it. A flame roared up and sent a lot of the cops reeling back, but a few made it through. Pondscum kept moving.

A taser barely grazed his arm, forcing Pondscum to ninja-kick his attacker in the stomach. "Don't tase me, bro!" he shrieked, combat rolling away. Suddenly, some sort of jet descended from the sky, and landed very closely to the chaos. "What the hell is that..." Pondscum said to himself quietly. Hopefully it was someone that could help out, and not some sort of super-cop. Although that would make an epic comic book. "Super-cop, super-cop, does whatever a super-cop can, can he tase a homeless man, yes he can, cause he's a cop..." he sang at the top of his voice.

-----------------------------

Dred was startled from his rest by Craig's angry bellow. "Chill out, dude," he said, a bit weirded out by the outburst. Craig had always seemed like the mellow guy. Dred was the one who was supposed to flip his shit. But at that moment, he felt the jet land on the ground. "Let's get moving," he said, tying a bandana around his face and pulling on his black skull cap. Tucking his hair under the cap, he hopped out of the now-open jet door and into the fray.

Flames sparked in his hands as he looked around. There was a fire, not his or Aubrey's. There were a bunch of angry cops. And then there was a green-skinned man prancing around and beating the snot out of any cop that tried to attack him. "Hey, you!" he shouted over the noise, moving towards the green-skinned man. "What the hell is going on? You alright?"

Pondscum glanced to this new guy. "Well, I kind of angered the police," he replied. "But outside of that, I'm just dandy."

"Ooooh, babe, I hate to gooo. I-"

“For god sakes! Are we fucking there yet?!”

And suddenly her singing was interrupted; her mouth still hung open, eyes half-closed, and body stiffened in brief shock. Er, what the. With slight irritation boiling in her chest, the fire-based female mutant leaned back slightly thus she could glance over at Craig, who was looking very cranky. That was rude! and kind of odd, frankly. She'd never seen him this upset until now; he had always been the relaxed and laid-back person. Narrowing her eyebrows and pressing her lips into an almost childlike looking frown, she crossed her arms and spoke out, "They're right; calm down, dude. What is wrong with you?" she considered of setting his pants on fire, though somehow restrained the idea and instead she spilled the rest of her Oreos into her lap, crumpled the now empty pack into a ball, and then tossed it hard and straight towards his head. "That's for bein' rude."

Satisfied, she sat back down and returned to her previous position; one leg crossed over another, arms folded over her chest and fingers tapped eagerly. Hearing Rogue, the fellow southerner's comment, the blond grinned; her irritated mood faded and lighten up slightly. "I know, right? howdy," she made a small motion with her thumb and index finger over her head, as if tipping an imaginary cowboy hat. And then there was a "ding" noise etching her ears, and her grin widened further in realization. They had arrived. "Alright! let's do this."

Looking over, she could see cops lining up over a green-skinned man hopping and kicking all over the place. Oh, there he was. Aubrey tucked her long and slightly untidy blond locks before she plopped up, approaching the jet's exit, though stopped upon seeing the fire blazing nearby. Her glance shifted into a long stare, her eager smile faded; the orange flames licked the thick air, dancing wildly and restlessly, somehow appearing as if it was taunting her. As if tempting her. Its graceful crackling sound reaching into her ears; it seemed to trigger something in the back of her mind, something dark.. something violent.

Burn.

She shook her head immediately; oh no, no. Not going crazy again. No. The blond Texan shut her eyes for a moment, attempting to focus and regain her composure. She walked over towards the commotion, Dred had begun talking to their current target; she glanced at her other teammates, tilting her head slightly. "I'll take care of the fire," she muttered in almost a whisper, eyes shifting into dark red. She outstretched and lifted her arms slightly; the brewing flames halted, slowly but surely dissipating into dusts and ashes.

Craig could only growl as he got reprimanded by… everybody. Even the Rage King Dred said something. Craig didn’t flinch as an empty Oreo bag hit him square on the forehead. He was surprised, Aubrey could do so much worse. He picked it up and stuffed it in his pocket. “Someone’s not eco-friendly” He shot in his bad-tempered tone.

Craig was still seated when he watched Aubrey just stand there at the plane exit. She had this gleam in her eyes that Craig had seen before. Not on any of their dates… fortunately. His mind flashed back to Dale’s and her... violent outburst there. “Crap.” He muttered under his breath as he dug into his pocket. Finding it, He threw the crumpled up Oreo pack at the back of Audrey’s head. “Chill… Only one of us gets to be pissed.”

Who said that he wasn’t a good guy? Unfortunately, Good guys finish last…

He was the last off the jet. Craig surveyed the situation. Police were after this frog like guy whom seemed awfully familiar. He recognized the face and suprisingly remembered calling him “Dr. Kermit”. Must have been drunk… He thought, shrugging his shoulders. He looked at his teammates. They all did something special. Rogue and Jean were in their uniforms; Dred and Aubrey hid their hair in their own special ways. Craig, on the other hand, didn’t do anything. He was wearing his street clothes and didn’t even try to hide his identity. He was too tired. Besides, what’s the worst that could happen?

---

A police officer lined up the shot for Pondscum. He pulled the trigger. Luckily for both Dred and Pondscum, the guy was a horrible shot. He missed completely, hitting a building. The bullet ricocheted off the bricks…

---

Craig heard the sound of the gun going off. “Gun! Hit the-!”He suddenly lurched forward. A sharp pain interrupted his train of thought. He looked down. Blood began to stain his shirt. “God damn it.“ He collapsed to the ground, his face disorted in pain. “I didn’t even get do anything yet…” He managed to sputter out before his world turned black.

Rogue shook her head up and down as things were explained." Ah like to think of this as our extended family, sometime will drive ya nuts but good. Like family." After Rogue said that, she noticed they landed. " Jeanie, ya ready? The members seem to have left." Rogue then jumped over the seat and followed the others.

A flame was headed towards them but Aubrey stopped it. " Ah think it is good that we got here when we did. Guns plus mutants always equals damn disaster." After she said that, her eyes noticed the mutant. A frog like mutant, as long as not Toad and try to flirt with me, fine.

After the thought she heard a gun shot and ducked but heard something from Craig." DAMN IT! Ah will keep him up , Jeanie, we may need ya right now." She ran over and started to try to keep him up with CPR. Damn, no wonder he was in a bad mood. Had a feeling something was gonna happen today.

She kept the count of compressions in between his breaths and timed the mouth to mouth to keep him going. She noticed several police men headed towards her and laid another mouth to mouth and absorbed Craig's powers and knowledge of how to use them but gained some of his memories as well." Ah sorry, no can do." Her eyes glowed and stalagmites appeared in front of them.

They landed, and Jean happened to be one of the first ones to get out of her chair. There was already chaos going on, and Jean could see that when they had landed. The mutant was amphibian in nature.. And had gotten himself in trouble with the local authorities. This seemed to be happening a lot lately. Betsy had told Jean about what had happened when she had went to recruit Rogue.. And it wasn't good. The authorities had been called on them because of Rogue slipping up -- speaking of her powers frivolously in a time such as this. That would be like speaking of them when the MRA was still active, the only difference was you wouldn't be killed. Only taken to jail.

Jean was the first one out of the X-Jet, and she'd ignored the fire that was raging inside the store. She knew that Aubrey or Dred would take care of it.. At the moment, her top priority was getting to the mutant and getting out of there before there were any causalities.. Well, it appeared that that wouldn't happen as soon enough, Rogue had shouted to Jean about Craig having been shot. "God damn it.." Jean growled under her breath, as Aubrey took care of the fire. Jean didn't want to have any causalities.. But apparently, that wasn't an option. She really hated what the government had become. Just shortly after the MRA had been taken care of, they got the SHRA.

Jean glanced towards the mutant and then back at the authorities. "I am Phoenix, of the X-men. I demand a cease fire, or we will have to take action." Jean said, in a demanding tone. The authorities seemed to be shaking in their boots -- not. The sergeant that was commanding the group seemed to be the most unaffected... As he had fired a round of shots from his machine gun at Jean. Jean stopped them with her telekinesis, and with a flick of the wrist they fired back at about half of the platoon; embedding themselves in non-lethal, but crippling, parts of the body. They'd be fine. She hadn't hit any major nerves or arteries. Just their knee caps.

Jean glanced back towards the mutant again, and lifted herself off the ground. The sergeant grimaced as he saw her start to fly. "DIE MUTIE!!!!!!!!" He said, prejudice evident in his voice. Jean looked towards the man and stopped flying, and landed on the ground. He had fired the gun once again, aiming at Jean. They seemed to know that she was really the biggest threat here at the moment... He must have been around for everything about the X-Men. There were only two that were recognizable to him, the others were new. The bullets collided with the neon sign that was on the front wall of the store, and stated the name of the establishment.

Bullets hit the ground and sparks flew. Jean looked towards the mutant once again.. It was now or never. ::Don't be alarmed. We're here to help.:: Jean spoke directly into his mind, and then restrained the sergeant of the platoon in place with her telekinesis, leaving the other for Aubrey, Dred, and Rogue to deal with. She'd have to check Craig when the mission was done and over with. With a click-click the bullets in the machine gun that the sergeant was holding fell to the ground -- now the gun was empty, and Jean could more than likely let him go.. And she would do so after they left, so that they could lick their wounds. Jean sighed a bit.

She'd have to wipe their minds after this all was over with. Jean then approached the amphibian mutant, who just couldn't seem to stay still. "Hello.. That was me speaking in your mind. I'm Phoenix, and we're," Jean then motioned to the rest of the time, "the X-Men.. This might sound absurd, but Cerebra - our mutant finding telepathic machine - spotted your signal. We're here to... Let's say, recruit you. As you may, or may not, have noticed the streets aren't really.. Safe. Especially not in New York city. I'm here offering a bit of... Sanctuary, to you. The government has orders not to deal with the X-Men, as we remain neutral towards the SHRA. As for tonight's... Incident, I can make it so that they remember nothing."

"I can see that," Dred smirked at the amphibian. "What exactly did you do to piss off the cops?"

"I pelted one of them with a Pepsi that I shook up," Pondscum replied, grinning weakly. "Admittedly, it wasn't my best plan, but I went for it anyways."

Both mutants whirled around when they heard Craig cry out. "Shit!" Dred cursed, moving towards the geokinetic. He glanced back at the amphibious mutant. "Stay here, and stay safe. I'll be right back."

"Gotcha!" Pondscum replied, backflipping out of the path of an officer's bullet. Meanwhile, Dred moved towards Craig - but it seemed that Rogue already had some degree of control over the situation. Hoping that he'd be okay, Dred spun around and headed back towards the potential recruit.

While Dred had been going to check on Craig, Jean's message had flashed through Pondscum's mind, scaring the living daylights out of him. "What the hell was that?" he said, looking around to see who might be responsible. He spotted a redheaded woman, who had just practically taken out the entire group of police by launching their bullets back into their kneecaps.

"Good work," he muttered as Dred ran up to him. With the fire extinguished by Aubrey and the sergeant restrained by Jean, the conflict seemed to be resolved. One of the few officers that was still standing attempted to attack Dred. In response, the pyrokinetic delivered a quick uppercut to the jaw and knocked the cop out cold.

Jean had walked over to Pondscum and began to explain what was going on. The amphibious mutant listened intently, interested in what she had to say. A sanctuary...that would be nice. "You don't have to ask me twice," he replied. "I'm in."

"Ow," Aubrey blinked, feeling a small, harmless weight connecting with the back of her head. She glanced down to see the curled pack of Oreo on the floor, then look up at Craig, the one who had thrown that little object to her. "What you talkin' about? I'm chill," she responded simply, huffing out a soft and vague sigh under her breath whilst stepping down the large jet. Alright it wasn't true, she wasn't chill- after that brief and odd eye-contact with the raging fire, there was a slight nerve brewing inside her. The situation was more intense than she'd thought, she realized, what if she lost control again? No. No, she wouldn't. She would make sure of it; all she had to do was keep her temper in line, and everything would be fine and dandy. Right, easy-peasy.

But then a gunshot rang loud in the air, and all hell broke loose. One of the officers had fired his gun, the metallic and sharp bullet pierced Craig's clothe and flesh. There was a very short moment of pause, her eyes went wide in shock as she stared at her fallen and unconscious teammate, until she heard Rogue's loud "damn it!" and watched as the brunette started to do the cardiopulmonary-resuscitation, aka CPR. Biting her lower lip to the point that it almost bleed, she attempted to remain focus on extinguishing the fire while holding back her slowly-but-surely rising anger and violent desire to incinerate the officer alive. Relax, take a deep breath- focus. She lifted her fingers, more flames began to die down and dissipate.

Thankfully Jean was there to take care of the now awry situation; though it didn't seem to work well, seeing the sergeant remained in his offensive stance, even though the red-head had used her deep demanding tone. And then he yelled the word. Mutie. Which seemed to anger her even more; she despised those five letters word. It stirred something in the pit of her stomach, it was a surprise that she had managed to keep herself calm this far. More bullets wheezed towards them, though, they bounced off as they connected with Jean's telekinetic barrier. The red-head seemed to deal with the sergeant well; but the remaining officers were still attempting to attack them. "Fuckin' idiots." yup, gone the bubbly and enthusiastic Aubrey, she was now angry.

Glancing over, she managed to get a brief look of Dred knocking out one of them; nodding to herself, she approached another, the one whom had shot Craig in the chest. He, of course, began to panic and reload his pistol with more bullets, but was interrupted when Aubrey's hand snaked and gripped his wrist, tight and hurting. His eyes were now almost filled with tears of fear as they locked with her own. "You," she almost growled, eyes lighting up red. "you don't mess with us," he screamed in agony as he felt his skin being slowly burned, the pistol dropped to the hard ground, parts of it had melted. The fiery mutant sent a hard blow into his chest, and then knocked him down with a punch to his right cheek. More officers hopped to assist- turning around, she hurled two streams of fire to their torsos, sending them to the hard-cold walls. They screamed, attempting to take out the dancing flames that clung on their uniforms. Her attacks seemed to be more lethal, especially when her temper was flaring like this.

Still with the glowing red-eyes, she cocked her head towards the other; Jean seemed to be successful in recruiting the green-skinned troublemaker, while Rogue.. she looked up at the brunette and the laying body of Craig, eyes furrowed. "How is he doing?!" she shouted, strolling over to them.

Craig quietly contemplated what he was doing. He stared at the piece of paper sitting in front of him. The room was filled with leeches and vultures. The only one on his side was his agent Abigail Rand, and he couldn’t trust her as far as he could throw her. Craig was positive that he was her big break into the business. She made it seem that they needed each other, but Abigail needed him more than he needed her.

“Craig, do we have a deal?” The company executive sat across from him, attempting to read Craig’s blank face. Craig sat quietly, scanning quickly through the contract. He could feel the beady eyes of corporate America pierce through his skin. The pressure was unbearable.

“Tell me again what I’m get…?” He began. Craig found himself quickly being interrupted.

“You’ll get a five record deal, which we can extend at anytime; you’ll be able to use our state of the art recording facilities; our marketing team will spread your name across the world; and you’ll become fabulously wealthy”

“And I imagine you get something out of it?”

“On top of your bubbly personality, we’d get 20% of your profits.”

Craig’s head wrapped around what he just heard; not even a few years ago he was learning guitar and a little… special talent of his. He had a blank expression. “15% or I walk.” Abigail gave him a warning glance as the “leeches and vultures” huddled together.

“17%.”

His agent nudged him in the arm. “Fine… Deal.” He scribbled his name into the contract.

“Welcome to the Faultline Music family.” The two men, Craig and the Executive, shook hands.

---

“You sure you’re ready?” The stage hand asked Craig, drowned out by the thousands of screaming fans in the stadium.

“What could I do if I wasn’t? The fans would riot if their superstar didn’t go out there!” Craig shouted back. It was, what seemed to be, his hundredth concert this year alone. He was pretty used to it. After all, he was young, the best in the business, and already reached the top. Craig rushed out on stage, met by the roars of the crowd. “How are you all doing tonight?” The microphone carried his voice to the farthest reaches of the stadium. The crowds answer was carried back to him. Craig smiled.

What could be better than the top of the world?

---

Craig came back to the painful world of reality. He was never unconscious or anything. He only decided that being shot would give him a good excuse to take a nap. Is that so wrong?

Craig blinked. For some reason he woke up to Rogue giving him mouth to mouth resuscitation. Of all the people who could have given him CPR, the "power taker by touch" person was giving it to him. Though it could have been worse, Frogger was giving him the looks earlier.

Craig tried nodding his head. He couldn’t move… well, anything. Craig gets the ladies even when he sleeps. Aw yeah… His adrenaline was really, really high. If he could move, he would probably be jumping off of buildings right now. So, doing the only thing he could do, Craig began to rate his team mates by their looks. Let’s go alphabetically; Aubrey: easily an 8 or 9. Dred: a 2. I’m too straight for him to be any higher. Frogger: -10. There is nothing appealing about a frog. They just pointlessly hop out into heavy traffic for absolutely no reason at all. Jean: 9. I hope she hears this. He tried nodding again. No avail. Rogue: I would say 8, but she cannot kiss to save a life… For some reason, he began picture himself as the comic motorcyclist in A-Ha’s Take On Me music video, running through nonsensical hallways and getting into pipe wrench fights. Suddenly he found himself able to move.

“Take on me, take me on. I'll be gone. In a day or two!” He belted out as he sat up.

Adrenaline is fun.

“Well he’s doing fine for being randomly given CPR, still bleeding out, and still being tired. He’s a little weirded out by the first one; He’s upset that his favorite shirt is blood soaked and ruined; but Craig’s doing dandy!” He swung his bad arm and hollered in pain. “Oh damn… there’s a hole in there…” He looked at his shoulder. Luckily for him, pain endorphins hadn’t kick in yet and Craig was running on Adrenaline. Unluckily for him, it wouldn’t be long before they did. “If you excuse me, I’ll be going to the jet-plane now.” He stepped inside the plane, clutching his bloody shoulder.

---

If you listen closely, you could hear him finishing the rest of the song while screaming in pain.

Rogue heard Jean approach the amphibious mutant. But first she talked to the officers till Jean heard the word mutie. " Ah feel sorry for the cops...." Rogue shook her head as Jean stopped the cops. The city seems on edge for mutants, why? She continued the CPR and felt a pulse start up.

Dred helped stop the flames as Rogue stayed near Craig to make sure he was okay. " Ah see everything is being handled. Just wish we would have came in with a plan of attack. " She smiled as obviously Pondscum accepted the offer. The disaster was handled but still not good press Gonna make us look like terrorists.

Aubrey finished settling the fire but Rogue noticed she let the anger get the best of her and she lost control a little bit. We may need to help her with that. Not good. She grimaced a little from the smell of burning flesh. " Ah think he is fine, thinking he is just in shock or something. Ah think best if we hurry up and getta our asses gone. Shit is about to fly." Rogue looked around with her green eyes and hoped no camera was caught. IF so, we were screwed.

As she said that, Criag stood up and acted fine. Rogue shook her head and said," Ah hope ya appreciate that, whether you are okay or not, ya put on a good show and if are okay, ya owe me fo' that. If ya were sleeping, Ah think ya need some detention, or some punishment. Also, ya may feel a little weak, Ah stole some of ya powers. Also, would it hurt ya to buy some mouth wash? Ah felt like Ah just kissed Maggot." Her hand then wiped her mouth to get the taste out of it. Really disgusting taste. He better of not of been faking it.

Rogue then walked towards the frog mutant and said," Hi, nice to meet ya. Ah think best if we all go. Maybe we can keep some of this quite. Ya remind mah of an mutant Ah once knew, well, ya aren't as ugly or disgusting as he was." A smile came across her face as she said that and then she said," Ah am headed to the Blackbird. Ah will see ya there, Jean do ya have any gum on ya or mouthwash?"

Craig had been shot - but he was stable and not critically injured. Jean didn't have to take care of him, the new mutant had needed more attention than Craig did. Or at least Jean thought so; especially since the remaining amount of the police force had just bolted in the opposite direction. That wasn't going to be good; however one good thing was made of this. The mutant had decided that Jean's offer was good.. And she couldn't be more glad. "Good to have you... David is it?" Glancing up towards the now night skies, there was something that was shining.. Brightly. Not as bright as the sun, but definitely brighter than what one would normally call a 'normal' star.

"Oh God damn it!" Jean snapped, looking around at the group. Aubrey was sitting near the hatch and Craig had already gotten himself seated within the black bird. "No Rogue... You're not." She said, then pointing at the now shiny and metallic floating thing.. It was a SHIELD helicarrier. They couldn't be serious... They really couldn't. Jean sighed a bit, it was best to leave Craig to his injury.. And by extension, to his song. "Aubrey! Come here, quickly!" She said, and soon there seemed to be parachuting SHIELD agents.. Even some repelling down the side of the helicarrier. "Brace yourselves... This is gonna be one hell of a first mission, David."

Each of them were well equipped with multiple things; there was no telling if each and every one of them had a psychic dampener on their helmets, but a few of them sure did. Jean couldn't coerce this group this time... Perhaps some of them, but otherwise her telepath was moot. "Rogue - Pondscum, Flamethrower, Stonehenge." She said, hoping she knew that she meant to collect their powers. That would be their trump.. If anything. One thing that Jean was puzzled about was that it only took a few moments for an ENTIRE HELICARRIER of SHIELD agents to start storming the area.. Shit.. Did they call before they had even gotten there?

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Jean was starting to panic.. But she wasn't going to show it outwardly. Dozens - no, more like hundreds - of boots began to hit the pavement and start running towards them. As they stopped dead in front of them, their guns cocked. This wasn't going to be good. "STAND DOWN, X-MEN!" Bellowed the commander of the group, Jean crossed her arms over her chest. "And if we refuse?" The commander, who was in his own 'row' so to speak glanced towards Jean. "And who are you to speak for them, Red?" Jean smirked a bit. This guy was.. Clueless. "Phoenix. I'm the leader of this squad."

"Well, that's not good enough. Stand. Down." Jean stood her ground. "No. X-Men --- attack!"

Pondscum watched as the dreadlocked guy and the blonde girl went to check on their injured teammate. He hopped over there as well, shooting a curious glance at Jean, who had somehow known his name. More of that telepathy shizznit? Whatever it was, Pondscum wasn't overly fond of it, but if he was going to be part of this crazy group, he'd probably have to get used to it.

As Dred and David stepped over to Craig, the geokinetic suddenly sat up and burst into song, startling Dred and causing him to stumble backwards a few steps. "The hell?" the pyrokinetic said, glaring oddly at his teammate. Meanwhile, Pondscum had joined in with Craig's singing, to the terrible luck of everyone in the immediate vicinity; and, indeed, within a five mile radius.

"OH THE THINGS THAT YOU SAY, IS IT LIFE OR JUST TO PLAY MY WORRIES AWAY!?!" he belted out off-key, shortly before Dred walloped him in the back of the head. Craig pranced his way into the jet plane, where he could be heard faintly screaming pain.

"Well, that was fun," Dred muttered sarcastically. Meanwhile, Rogue had approached the amphibious mutant and greeted him, saying that he looked somewhat like a mutant she knew, only not as ugly and disgusting.

"Nice to meet you, too," Pondscum grinned in return. "And I appreciate that." Suddenly, the redhead cursed in anger, causing Pondscum to whip his head around in concern. Apparently, he was already on his first mission. Glancing up to the sky, he spotted some sort of helicarrier descending upon them.

"Dammit," Dred spat in irritation, watching as the government agents began to swarm the area, looking on with hatred burning in his eyes. Pondscum, too, had a look of rage upon his face.

"I liked it better when we were singing," the green mutant murmured. And, again, the telepathic redhead knew his name - only this time it was his codename. Very, very freaky, that telepathy shizznit.

Pondscum and Dred watched the exchange between Jean and the SHIELD officer. It didn't last too long before the mutants were ordered to attack. Claws slid out of Dred's hands as he rushed forward, burying them into the arms of one of the SHIELD agents. Meanwhile, Pondscum had launched himself into the air, bounding across the heads of the agents before delivering a rather unpleasant body slam into several of them.

Aubrey quirked a thin eyebrow, seeing Craig awake and belting out a song, A-Ha's song. Right that moment, she recognized that he was doing fine with just a bleeding injury on his shoulder like he said, though she still mildly pondered how deep the bullet had pierced his skin. Oh well, atleast he was alive. She was also awed by how fast he recovered, able to not only stand but stroll into the jet, and sing aloud although his voice was laced by agony that made her cringe. Huffing a faint sigh she plopped herself down, sensing that her anger was fading, which was good; turning berserk in this situation would not be a good idea, she could injure her teammates and those innocent crowds nearby. The green-skinned mutant, whose name was mentioned as David by Jean, joined Craig's joyful singing with a loud and off key voice, before Dred shut him up. She could only smirk at the dreadlocked mutant. "What are we? Glee club?" she muttered, inhaling another breath and stretching her arms slightly. She just realized how tight the uniform was..

And suddenly Jean cursed aloud; resulting in her blinking twice in confusion; what happened, did someone get shot again? Oh, if that was the case then she would- her skimming thoughts were interrupted by loud flapping noises of helicarrier's rotors and engine. She looked up, and saw agents sliding down from it, heavily armed. "Good lord," she murmured, wide-eyed. She had expected something like this to happen, especially after her slight and short outburst to the cops, but still. Aubrey heard Jean's voice calling and demanding her to come to her side, which she contemplated for a second, but eventually obeyed. The blonde pyro stood straight, witnessing as numerous of agents landed with clicking noises as their feet connected with the hard and cold pavement. So many of them. Instead of becoming afraid, her heartbeats picked up in anticipation.

"Rogue - Pondscum, Flamethrower, Stonehenge."

It took a moment for her to realize that Jean was calling them by their codenames, and she nodded slightly, eyes furrowed and locked straight on the seemingly endless agents surrounding them. One demanded them to stand down, but was refused by the red-head who stood beside her; she sent a quick glance and smirked, knowing well that she, and the entired team would never back down that easily. And then it was out, the battlecry rang and flouted through the air, this is it.

Aubrey lunged, eyes burning red and arms spread wide to the side, its palms were covered with brewing flames before she outstrected them forward together; sending a blazing ball of medium sized fire to one direction. Some of them, the agents, flew and collapsed to the ground as if they were pins being rolled down by a bowling ball, whilst they howled out in agony after feeling their uniforms and skins were burnt. Turning aside, she tossed one arm and sent another burning stream, torching up bunch of empty vehicles and causing them to explode, its force sending more agents to fly and collide with the nearby walls and windows. She couldn't help the grin that slowly beginning to etch on her lips.

Feels so good, doesn't it?

Craig stumbled around the plane. Seeing as this was his first gun inflicted wound ever, he was taking it like a champ…

He was screaming his head off.

Craig continued to scramble around, looking for anything that could get the damn thing out. He didn’t want a bullet in his arm. Do you know how hard it would be to get past airport security? Though the scar would make an excellent story for the ladies…

“Where’d I get this scar? I got shot in the Gulf. It’s not a big deal. I only saved my commanding officer… not a big deal” Seeing as Craig was about five years old during the Gulf War, you could see how well that line would pay off.

Finding a set of needle-nose pliers, Craig let out a cheery “AH-HA!”. He stuck it in the wound, trying to fish out the bullet.

Like I said, this was his gun inflicted wound ever…

The good news: the bullet went clear through his arm, missing all major ligaments, tendons, muscles, and bones. The bad news: The pair of pliers are all bloody and dirty for no reason what so ever.

“CPR is for choking people! I’m not choking! I can breathe perfectly fine!” Craig called out of the plane, pressing his shoulder to stem the bleeding. “It’s called applying pressure to the wound! Any fifth grader that watches extremely violent TV could tell you that… Besides the point I have excellent dental hygiene! You’re just jealous.” The last part was hard to hear through the plane. “You think you had it bad? I’ve met rocks that kiss better than you!” Craig defended himself. It wasn’t his fault he got shot; it wasn’t his fault that she “needed” to give him CPR; it wasn’t his fault he had rock hard abs. Wait… the last one was his fault…

Exactly the same time the bleeding stopped, he heard Jean swear at, what he gathered, someone else getting shot. Craig hurried to dress his wound.

Hearing Jean call for the team, Craig stood as still as a statue. “There is no Stonehenge… only… FAULTLINE!” He could have sworn that he heard thunder in the background. Craig stumbled outside. With a glare in his eyes, Craig shielded his eyes and looked up.

Craig whistled at the sight of the giant, flying air-craft carrier. “THEY SANK MY BATTLE SHIP!” SHIELD soldiers began to flood the area, carrying big guns. Suddenly, Jean ordered them to attack - to fight without a reason. I mean, yeah, they had guns, but still.

“Wait a minute…” Craig somehow managed to snap out of his blood-loss induced stupor. “You want to fight them? Isn’t that defeating the purpose of the X-Men? We are not supposed to fight, we are supposed to protect…” Craig walked toward the middle of the carnage. “If we attack, we are no better than those who attack us. We inherit the role. The X-men are protectors of the innocents, champions of the just. What makes us unique is our ability to show restraint.” Craig let a single tear fall to the ground. He hadn’t planned to give a heartwarming speech today. Hell, he hadn’t planned on getting shot today. “We peacfully solve…” Craig suddenly stopped and whipped his head around. Some jackass went ahead and tried shooting him while he was giving his speech.

---

If you learn two things about Craig today, it will be the following: Never wake him up from a nap, and Never. Ever. Interrupt him.

---

Craig had enough. He was already in a bad mood, and now he was pushed over the edge. Craig clenched his fist and gritted his teeth. Violence could only be met with violence.

Craig suddenly let go. A wave of self control washed over him. If his words were to mean anything, he would have to lead by example.

Deeply inhaling, Craig focused his energy throughout his body He exhaled, feeling suddenly calm. He inhaled again, focusing all his energy at the point where he met the ground. A smirk crept across his face as he began to feel connected with the Earth. Craig threw his arms apart. The ground followed the motion, creating a rift between the two factions. He lifted his arms. There was definitive strain on him. You could see it. A rock wall shot out of the ground, complying with Craig. Separating the two for even the slightest second could prove beneficial to both sides.

“As I was saying, We peacefully solve conflict.” He saluted Jean and proceeded to pass out. The combination of blood loss and strain put him over the edge.

And no... he doesn’t need CPR.

As Rogue was about to head onto the Blackbird she heard Jean say something. She looked up and saw an Helicarrier with several of agents surrounding them." DAMN, Ah think this was some type of trick. Maybe just mah being paranoid after being nearly killed so many times over the past weeks.Got it Jean." Rogue then prepared herselves to start absorbing the name powers, which would be risky. Rogue then went towards Pondscum.

As she heard Pondscum say thanks and start after the agents," Ya welcome and sugah, gonna have to catch ya and borrow some of ya powers." She flipped over one of the agents and touched him on his neck causing him to pass out and continued to move." Jean, somebody knew we would react. This was planned, aiming fo' all high level priorities, aka ya sugah. All of those with high power levels. Can't go after ya while ya at the Institute, classified as some type of asylum. Only fo mutants though.Jeanie, just be careful when ya go out to help mutants. Maybe if we cause enough damage to there toys, they will not follow and chase ya."

She then dashed into a sprint and reached Pondscum and lightly touched him and felt her body become more amphibious and did a backflip towards to where the blackbird was as firing acidic slime that melt through the psi blockers of some of the agents. She then proceeded to trip some of them with her tongue and shook her head." Ah really don't like looking like this." She then shook her head as Dred went all berserker and assaulted them.

Finally, she found Cassie who had went a little crazy herself. Wow, what happened to our new southern belle? This needs to be checked on. KIlling is not A okay for X-Men. Bad PR incoming. She then hopped on over to Aubrey and said," Ah am sorry sugah but ya need to calm down." A tongue shot out as Aubrey was about to leave and wrapped around her arm. Rogue then focused and drained enough to weaken Aubs down to a lesser form." Ah think ah will take over and sorry hons, let me cool ya off." As she said that, the soldiers who were on fire were put out. Why stop that? Keep it going, they deserve it. Whoa, not my thing to hear voices. Well, not recently. Shut up.

The men were safe and here came the Drama King who started lecturing. You are no Kurt, I can go ahead and say that. He doesn't taste like swamp water. And speeches much better. Rogue just shook her head as a rift was made and he fainted." Casanova, you fainted. And yes, Ah stopped the bleeding. Ah think Ah will be taking ya powah a little." She then touched his forehead and absorbed a portion of his power and proceeded to step on his left knee." Fo calling mah a bad kisser. Ah no Ah am not."

As she walked forward she pulled a large portion of earth and coated it in methane gas. She then shot it forward inbedding it in the helicarrier and shot a fireball into the helicarrier causing a minor explosion." Ah think ya should leave. Otherwise ya may not live." Some of the soldiers fired shots at her only for her to spit up the acidic mucous which dissolved the mucous. "Idiots..."Her hand then lowered causing the ground to collapse under the soldiers and then enclosing on them." Ah think time to stop." A barrage of fireballs emerged from Rogue's fists as she melt several of the high priced guns.

Jean, in most cases, was a pacifist. Especially when it came to cases such as this.. She'd rather be civil than fight, but she knew that if she were to stand down Osborn would have her taken in, interrogated, and more than probably killed. The times weren't good, at all. And Jean knew that.. She could see that. And she didn't know how to fix it. There was always the option of going up against Norman Osborn.. The director of SHIELD, but she knew that wasn't a good idea. The world trusted him again.. But he was the Green Goblin. Through and through, Jean was there first thing when he went back to his roots and took back the Green Goblin mantle. She regretted it.

Her first patient since returning to.. Well, this reality in general, was a teenage girl that went by the name of Stacey. Stacey didn't make it through that day, and partially because of the fact that Jean was a mutant and the fact that the goblin's laughing was virtually antagonizing, Stacey committed suicide. Jean knew the girl wasn't in her right mind, but what she didn't know was if she wanted to commit suicide.. Or did it because she was in the presence of a mutant, or maybe the fact that her parents knowingly decided to send her to a mutant psychiatrist, and the fact that she was prejudiced.. Or afraid, of mutants. Jean couldn't save her, though she wished that she would have been able to.

And now, SHIELD was attacking them for virtually no reason what so ever. They hadn't done anything other than protect themselves, and Jean actually knew that it wouldn't sit well with the new recruits that they had to fight what was arguably the biggest government agency in the world, because of some dumb law that was known as the 'Super Human Registration Act'. That law wasn't any good.. Didn't they learn anything when the MRA was nullified? It was basically the same thing, except it had more of a broadened attention, less robots, and there were actual heroes that agreed to it. It made Jean sick, especially considering that one superhuman that agreed was a dear friend of hers.

Overhearing the conversation that was going on between Rogue and Craig, Jean couldn't help but to chuckle at Rogue's audaciousness. "Actually, Rogue... It wasn't fatal to begin with, and the bullet that's still lodged in there stopped the bleeding for now. Don't get to cocky." She said, when all the while she had been deflecting bullets as often as she could, trying to keep them from colliding with her. She didn't want to cause pain to any of them.. But... She couldn't see how that she wouldn't have to. It seemed necessary. Thinking back to Rogue's comment that they knew they were coming, Jean shook her head and did a quick mind scan. "No.. Rogue, that's wrong."

She began. "In actuality --," Jean began, only to be stopped when a bullet whizzed past her and directly into the store clerk's shoulder. The clerk had been hiding behind the counter, why did he have to go and get himself shot by revealing himself? "Now that's it. Hurting innocent bystanders..... What happened to SHIELD and their morals? Tell me," Jean said, lifting off the ground and towards the lieutenant. Osborn had only been in charge for week or so now and the changes were radical. When Victoria Hand -- or no, Alex Mercer was it? Was in charge, things were much more docile and kind. Calm.. Everything. The works. But now..... It was quite the opposite,

"it was only a week ago that you were under different command. How is it so different now?" The lieutenant scowled at Jean's words. "A weeks a long time, lady. Thing's change. Osborn's back in control and there ain't nothin you can do about it." Jean rubbed her temples and her emerald hues stared at the man, who obviously was afraid.. But didn't want to show it. Jean had heard Craig's speech.. But even if this sounded a bit shallow, she didn't care at this moment. He was a good soldier.. No. They weren't soldiers, that was what Scott had thought. They were friends. They were a group. Even if most of them didn't even know each other.

"::Listen to me. All of you SHIELD agents! None of this happened tonight! Leave! NOW!::" Jean shouted, she was damn near close to just forming a telepathic Phoenix raptor and getting in the Blackbird, but leaving the hatch open and thrusting it out of the jet and into the metaphorical faces of the entire group of SHIELD agents aboard and off board the helicarriers. But that was less humane, so she wouldn't. It would probably hurt them a lot more, and could potentially cause them to forget anything they'd seen there tonight, and a lot more. They'd more than likely forget who they were, that they had families... Everything. Jean wasn't going to make them suffer like that.

"Everyone. Let's go." Jean said, blatantly. She didn't care for this situation, she just wanted to get out of here before the agents woke up. She side and boarded the black bird, telekinetically carrying Craig with her.

The rest of the team sprang into action as well, even Craig, who had attempted to deliver an inspiring speech about the values of peace and nonviolence. Dred was sure it would have been a great speech, had it not been offset by someone attempting to put Craig underground. This resulted in the geokinetic causing a wall of rock to erupt from the ground for a moment, before he passed out. In the meantime, Aubrey was torching some SHIELD agents while Dred smashed in their faces and clawed at their armor.

Pondscum was having a blast, bouncing around, punching people, and making his usual wisecracks as he did so. He then heard the girl with the white streak of hair say something about borrowing his powers. "I'd really rather you didn't," he replied, turning and raising his hands in an attempt to prevent that from occurring. Unfortunately, that just made it easier for her to utilize his mutant powers. "Dammit..." he muttered as Rogue leaped through the air, firing acid slime and waving her tongue around. "I feel so unoriginal...also, that's incredibly creepy to see...does it look like that when I do it?"

Rogue then attempted to halt Aubrey's rampage, irritating Dred. "Now is not the time to be trying to keep everyone else in check, Rogue!" he snapped at her, brutally pummeling a soldier while he spoke. Pondscum had also spotted Rogue's slowing down of Aubrey, using her tongue to grab the blonde's arm. "Um..." he said, raising an eyebrow. "That would be hot...were it not so disturbing..."

All at once, SHIELD agents began to collapse left and right, presumably because of something Jean had done. Dred shot her a thumbs up, and Pondscum began to bounce towards the jet. "So...I guess that's wrapped up, huh?" he said, kneeling besides Craig and poking him in the ribs. "Is this guy gonna be okay?"

Aubrey went into abrupt halt -- teeth grit and eyes narrowed upon sensing slimy and sticky object circling itself around her right arm, preventing her from assaulting the heavily armed agents further. The first culprit that flashed across her mind was David, for he seemed the be only one capable of doing such act, but she was wrong. Tilting her head towards the direction of the source, her eyes bulged after realizing that it was Rogue. “Ew! Geez, what the hell are you--” her words were cut. Eye color blinking and shifting rapidly from red, to bright red, then regular brown-ish hazel, she felt the fellow Southern woman beginning to absorb her strenght, and abilities too, it seemed. The feeling was kind of.. no, it felt horrendous. Even worse than the feeling of being teleported by someone. Her figure weakened, knees dropped to the ground, eyes roaming around as they merely witnessed the veteran X-Man bounced around in her Pondscum-like form. “What.. ever..” she responded faintly to her statement of “cooling off”, or something. She could barely hear anything. One of the disarmed agents, seeing this as an advantage, picked a fallen baton and charged towards her.

Oh, great.

Awful, stinging pain was all the blonde could feel as he swung the steel object and slammed the right side of her face. Her head flung aside, crimson liquid sprouted from her lips -- another swing followed, wounding her forehead and resulting in a huge red, deep bruise. Collapsing to the cold ground she inhaled a sharp breath, attempting to regain all of her strenght and defend herself from being beaten up. Man, this hurt so freakin' badly. The dizziness after being "absorbed" didn't help either. Sucks. Come on. The agent prepared for the last strike, but much to her delight, she had managed to gather enough strenght to move her feet -- and aimed a strong kick to his crotch, causing him to howl in agony which made her scrunch her face into a grimace. Must be hurt. He fell, and she let out a long breath of relief. As she did so, she noticed that majority of the agents had fallen down as well. She assumed it was Jean, she appeared to be the only mutant capable of doing that. She briefly wondered what it was like to be a telepath or had a telekinetic ability -- bet it was cool.

The bickering between Craig and Rogue also slipped to her ears. It managed to tug a small smirk to her lips, she was used to Craig's overdramatic actions and speeches and what not, but the other belle seemed to be stressed or angered out by it. Eh, she'd get used to it too. Finally enabling herself to skim out of her thoughts, the blonde pushed herself into sitting position, eyeing one innocent figure was down after being shot. She scowled. She would go and attempt to cauterize his wound, like what she did to Leo at Dale's, but she wasn't fully recovered herself. Not to mention Jean was already ordering them to flee -- thus she could only wish the ambulance would arrive soon, or the wound did not get too deep into his flesh.

Aubrey stood up, swaying a little due to the throbbing headache then trudged back towards the big black jet -- tongue flickering to swipe the blood off her lower-busted lip. Gazing at the rest of her teammates, she nodded her head in affirmation, letting the messy locks of her hair to fall over her eyes. “Mkay, let's go,” she muttered half-exhaustedly. The small sound of ribs being poked caught her attention, she glanced down to see the unconscious form of Craig, standing beside him was Dred. The blond chuckled faintly and shook her head. “I think he's going be to fine,” she swatted his forehead in playful manner, not hard enough to wake him up. Strolling over to one of the seats, she sat, sinking and letting her head to fall back slightly -- in attempt to relax herself down.

Rogue sighed a little as the fight was ending as Jean was ordering them and they were planning the retreat. She felt the powers still surging. As Jean was explaining her thoughts, a cashier was shot. Rogue glanced over and shook her head. " Ah REALLY don't like it when innocents get hurt." Her eyes turned bright red as the voice came back. [color=orange] Unleash the rage, let it burn them.[/color[ Stay focused, you have had plenty of voices in your head before, and one was much more loud and annoying than the present one. Her eyes returned to the normal green color that they are normally as she fired several mucous shots covering the faces of the soldiers.

As that happened she hoped over and cauterized the wound of the cashier with some fire and noticed majority of her friends were getting ready to retreat and heading back to the blackbird." And yes, David, ya do look like this. Well, Ah may be a slight more pretty than ya but still, warty and green. Dred, the X-Men aien't killers, us killing them as much as they deserve would get us some serious bad press, and would lead to even more harsh policies on us mutants." As she looked around, noticed that most of the team was on board. "Jeanie start the engine, Ah will be up in a little, gonna distract 'em so our expensive ship doesn't get shot down."

I hope everybody is okay. Why did this go the other way around? Really annoying. Simple rescue went wrong. Hope Aubrey is okay. Took a major blow and looked hurt. Really did not like doing that to her but had to be done. Her eyes found the opportunistic bastard who nailed Aubrey and did a leaping kick directly to his crouch and a backspin heel kick."Ah thanks it is rude to attack a girl, and awful to hit em across there face. Shitty too, would hate to see ya on a date." As she said that she heated up the ground using Aubrey's and Craig's powers turning the asphalt back into tar and jumped onto the bottom of the Blackbird to provide coverage in case of rockets and such.