Chapter 1: The Back-to-School Mixer

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Thirty Years After The Conclusion of the TV Show "X-Men: Evolution"

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The school year started like this.

Kitty "Shadowcat" LeBeau started up a Back-to-School student mixer to help the returning students and new students settle in and meet. The party started with a bang; literally. Nicholas "Nix" Drake, son of Bobby and Emma, entered the room with a quick "playa" introduction to himself while creating an ice sculpture of a stag. Said sculpture was soon destroyed when Nix's best friend Chayse "Cajun" LeBeau, Kitty and Gambit's son, phased his arm in to the chest and charged a small portion of it. For a brief moment, the ice deer looked like it had a glowing heart, and then it exploded. The bits of ice scattered around the room like a gentle snow storm.

Meanwhile, Chayse used this opportunity to phase in to the floor unnoticed while Nix walked over to one of the new students. Lia, daughter of Multiple Man and Magma, had just arrived at the institute three months earlier, but she was still shy and hadn't spent much time getting to know the year-round students. Nix apologized if his flirtatious attitude made her uneasy, but before he could make any further moves on the girl, Chayse phased through the wall she was leaning against, startling her. Very suavely, Chayse introduced himself and asked Lia to dance. Nix, seeing that he was beat to the punch, laughed and moved over to the refreshment stand.

A little bit awkwardly, Lia introduced herself. She started to blush and her newly-formed powers easily started to overtake her as her emotions ran wild. As lava started to flow under the surface of her skin, her blushing literally glowed. She demonstrated her nervous twitch of playing with a lock of hair while biting her lower lip, but Chayse was sweetly persistent. A moment later, she caved, and Chayse gave a wink to his father who was running the DJ station. Slower music started and the two young teens began dancing.

Over at the refreshment stand another year-round student Draco, son of Deadpool and Boom-Boom, casually watched the festivities. After seeing Chayse blow up the deer, he was itching to blow something up too, even after Shadowcat requested that the powers be kept in check. He formed a throwing dagger in his hand, twirling it between his fingers before Nix walked up to him. With a smirk he held the dagger out to his classmate and asked him if he'd hold it. Nix shook his head and accepted the dagger, instantly freezing it and throwing it up to the ceiling just before it exploded. He jokingly asked why Draco is always trying to blow him up. To which Draco just laughed and replied that he just didn't want to hold the hot dagger any longer.

Their conversation was cut short when Kitty requested for Toad, the janitor, to come in to clean up all the snow on the floor as it was starting to melt. Draco's secondary mutation of partially breaking the fourth-wall still confused him since he still doesn't quite comprehend that there's even a fourth-wall to break. However, as Toad entered the party Draco heard the theme music that always played while Toad was on screen in the X-Men: Evolution cartoon. He's the only one – including Toad – who can hear the music, and it confuses him that no one else seems to know what he's talking about.

As a mini-prank, as well as an offer to help, Nix froze the water on the floor back in to snowflakes as Toad tried to mop it up. With a quick twirl of the snow around Toad, it all drifted out of the open window. Since no one knew what he was talking about, Draco covered up his confusion over Toad's theme song by harassing Toad about someone so unhygienic being ironically in charge of cleaning the campus. The two of them started arguing, and Nix quickly tried to jump in to break up the fight.

Back over on the dance floor, Chayse pulled Lia in close. She's only fourteen and never had a boyfriend before since her father generally chased any interested boys away. So the minimal personal space excited her, but also made her nervous and a bit uncomfortable. Blushing even more, her powers became stronger and she started radiating heat; her Brazilian-tan skin took on a glossy-black sheen to it. With a loud swallow, she closed her eyes to listen carefully to Chayse as he leaned in to her ear.

"Is that your dad?" Lia's eyes bolted back open as Chayse asked her the last question she was expecting. With a quick turn in Chayse's arms, she spotted Jamie walking across the dance floor. The shock quickly quenched her powers and she reverted back to normal; cool body temperature and matted tan skin. Once Jamie reached the couple he instantly whipped out a camera, took a picture, and warned Chayse to be a gentleman. Mortified, Lia asked her father what he was doing at the school. She thought she'd be able to be away from her over-protective parent, finally. Jamie explained that he just couldn't be away from her, and so he signed up to be the new librarian (as well as general Jack-of-all-Trades since he could literally be in multiple places at once) for the school.

Storm and Nightcrawler's son Luke made his entrance by teleporting in to the room. He walked past Nix beside the refreshment table, picked up a drink, continued a few more steps forward, and then teleported himself on to one of the chairs. He casually sat in one of the recliners, sipping his drink, and took in the new recruits to the school.

Seeing the display, Nix chuckled and called Luke a show-off. He then turned to see that Jamie had demonstrated his powers to Chayse by creating two dupes; the three of them staring down the sixteen-year-old. Attempting to help out his best friend, Nix started towards the dance floor. He reassured Jamie that Chayse would never make any advances on Lia, and swore that Chayse "never even touched her butt." To which, Chayse verified that he never looked at "her cute petite butt" even though he thought it was very nice.

Dumbfounded, Lia screamed at her father, telling him how much he was embarrassing her by calling her "princess", taking pictures, and attempting to intimidate yet another boy with the "my three fathers" routine. She then turned on Chayse and yelled that neither he nor Nix was helping matters at all. She then stormed off towards the refreshments.

With a few fake coughs, Chayse pretended that he was "parched" and hurried after Lia. She quickly turned and stopped him with her hand on his chest. She started berating him about how embarrassing everything has been already that evening and how he wasn't making anything better with his comments and chasing after her. She repetitively poked him in the chest as she yelled. He didn't seem to mind. He smirked as she continued to rage, and in a blink he phased so her hand and arm went right through him. He started walking forward, through her, only stopping long enough to steal a quick kiss before phasing through the rest of her and continuing to the refreshments.

A wave of mixed emotions hit Lia as Chayse not only stole their first kiss, but her first kiss ever. She was enraged, shocked, excited, elated, flattered, and a bit violated. The conflicting thoughts again unhinged her control on her powers. Her skin once more grew a black and glossy shine just under the surface, glowing with the bubble of lava running through her veins. Her body heat increased to the point where it radiated out a good two feet away from her.

Nix spotted Lia's transformation as he caught up to Chayse, telling him "Could have told you she was a fiery one." Lia then overheard Nix tell Chayse that "she'll get over it", and ask "who the goons were" (in reference to her dad and his dupes), making her more and more infuriated. With a huff she stormed out the large bank of French doors leading out to the patio. With each stomp she kicked off her shoes so she could feel the earth against her feet (it always calms her to be connected to the ground like that). This time, however, the usually soothing effect ended up empowering her even more. With an angered cry her entire body burst in to flames for a second before cooling in to her powered-up form: obsidian skin, lava eyeballs and blood, and flame hair. With another yell the ground vibrated with a mild earthquake as four softball-sized geysers erupted out of the ground around her.

While Lia was literally fuming outside, Joyce entered the room, making sure her father Toad is no longer around. Years of being with her mother Scarlet Witch had made her embarrassed to be seen anywhere near Toad. Seeing a new face, Nix instantly eased next to the green-skinned eighteen-year-old and introduced himself. As he did so, Luke's half-brother William casually walked in to the room, a large book tucked under his arm. It was blatantly apparent William wasn't planning on doing any actual socializing.

While Joyce was introducing herself Nix smirked. Watching William getting himself a glass of water, Nix nudged Joyce, "Check this out." He froze the entire cup of water so William couldn't drink any of it. Chayse joined in with Joyce and Nix in laughing at the prank. William, on the other hand, doesn't enjoy any form of immaturity and started yelling for Nix to "fix this"; shaking his glass of solid ice at the teen.

As the geysers and Lia both calmed down she stared at her naked body. She muttered about "losing more outfits that way" and sheepishly walked back in to the room, remaining in her obsidian form to keep a hint of modesty. As quickly as she can, she sprinted through the crowded party and up the stairs leading towards the dorm rooms.

Joyce cocked an eyebrow, pointed towards Lia, and asked if she wanted to know. Nix stifled a laugh and nudged Chayse, making sure he also caught sight of Lia. "Waste of a good dress," Nix joked, but then added that "You can have dibs. I can't handle 'em when they run that hot." Joyce shook her head while sarcastically commenting about how classy Nix was. Chayse relayed over to Joyce how Lia got embarrassed, and then excused himself as he chased after Lia in order to apologize. Joyce muttered about how her father could be more embarrassing before walking over to one of the chairs.

William again angrily shook his drink, drawing Nix's attention back to him. Nix sighed about the older teen not having any sense of humor before melting the drink back in to a "perfect mix of water and ice cubes". The two then began arguing. William wanted Nix – and the rest of the student body – to stop with their "shenanigans" and start acting more mature. Nix commented that they're kids and should live it up. William rebutted that he enjoyed his studies, and wandered over towards a chair to continue his reading, meanwhile Nix huffed about how he'd prefer actually doing things than reading about them.

The two continued their banter, whipping insults at each other in between trying to hold conversations with the other students. Nix inquired Joyce about her comment about her father, but she changed the subject by pointing to Deadpool standing outside the window by the refreshment stand. The mercenary-turned-security-guard was tapping on the glass and asking people if there were any chimichangas among the provided food. Nix laughed and tossed a few over to Deadpool as if tossing treats to a dog. Just like a dog, Deadpool proved to be super grateful before being chased back on duty by Iceman.

As Luke and William exchanged odd brotherly pleasantries about their day, Warren "Angel" Worthington and Rachel "Phoenix" Grey's daughter Annika casually entered the party. She seemed bored as she flopped in to a chair, as if both she and William were obligated to attend the party. Seeing his true romantic interest – contrary to the flirting he had done throughout the night – Nix left Joyce's side to welcome Annika to the soiree. She instantly called him out about his flirting, but he assured her that he truly only had eyes for her. He then asked her to smile for him and drew up a bit of punch from his glass. He froze it in to a small rose the size of a quarter. He told her that he and his father had developed a way for them to form ice similar to making glass: Perma-ice. Therefore, the rose would never melt nor shatter. It was a cheesy gesture, but it got the results Nix wanted. Annika smirked before accepting both the rose and the date offer. She then excused herself for the refreshments.

Up in the dorms, Lia finally got rechanged and started to head back to the party, only to run in to Chayse waiting for her in the hallway. She held him out at arm's length and told him not to dare to phase through her again. He agreed, apologized for before, and then asked her to pick a card from his fanned out deck. Hesitantly, she complied. He closed the deck and commented "Don't need to do the rest of the trick to know that you took my ace of hearts." Lia was surprised to see that he was actually right. She smirked at his smoothness and offered him back his card. He told her to keep it as payment for the stolen kiss. Accepting the gift, Lia forgave Chayse and the two went back to the party.

In the meantime, Luke became bored and teleported outside where he surprised Deadpool. Although Luke ignored the insane guard, Deadpool continued yelling and poking at Luke. Joyce, trying to find anyone besides "Cheesy pick-up lines Nix" to talk to, stumbled upon the two battling in a nearby tree. She chuckled and hopped up to a low branch where she and Luke begin to talk. He was surprised she wasn't shocked by his demonic appearance. She responded that she has green skin, grew up in NYC, and has lived her whole life watching the Avengers and Fantastic Four, so a demonic-looking mutant was nothing at this point.

Seeing the party start to die down and everyone pairing up, Nix went out to the courtyard to wait for his date with Annika to start. After dropping the Perma-ice rose off in her room, Annika joined Nix in the courtyard, confused as to why he was smiling at her "like that". She admited she never really understood the point of dating as she found it better to just be closed off. Nix commented that he got what she means, but she still intrigued him and he still wanted to get to know her better. Removing all suave, playboy masks, he calmly and humbly re-introduced himself to the girl he'd been wanting nearly his whole life. She did the same and agreed on a single "actual" date. Having what he desired for so many years, Nix commented about needing to be up early the next morning and bid Annika goodnight with a soft snowfall, the gentle chill of the flakes feeling good with the still warm and humid summer air lingering. Nix went back inside so he could also say goodnight to Chayse and Lia; creating a chilling aura in the room as he passed. Lia snuggled closer to Chayse for warmth, causing Nix to smirk at his intention getting the desired results. Lia, realizing what Nix did, started to playfully yell at him. He smiled and continued up to his room.

Back up in the dorms, Kitty showed the newest recruit to his room. Devon, unknowingly the son of Brotherhood members Mystique and Pyro, was just brought to the institute as an alternative to him being in juvenile detention for another year. Shadowcat informed Devon of the party currently going on downstairs before heading back down herself. Devon debated going before climbing out his second-story window and climbing the brick down to the ground. He snuck around the grounds before opening the window Deadpool previously begged for chimichangas from. With a smirk, he climbed in to the party, startling Lia as she grabbed some food. Chayse, on the other hand, casually welcomed Devon and introduced himself.

Devon introduced himself as well in between furious bites in to the provided food, as if he hadn't eaten in a week. He then asked about the "demon in the tree and [the] crazy dude in spandex poking him." It was explained that the "demon" was Luke and the "crazy dude" was Deadpool. At the combined response from both Chayse and William, coupled with the random chill in the air, Devon mused that it was going to be an interesting stay at this institute.

The shock of Nix getting her to go on a date with him wearing off, Annika zipped back in to the party and begged Lia, her roommate, to help her out with some "girl advice"; quickly feeling embarrassed that a seventeen-year-old had to ask a fourteen-year-old about dating. After quickly introducing herself to Devon and getting a sweet "thank you" back from him, Lia followed Annika off to a corner for a bit more privacy. The older teen poured out her concerns and Lia chuckled at how flustered her roommate had become. She reminded Annika that she had only known Nix for a few months – few hours, officially - whereas Annika has known him nearly her whole life; if anyone would know if he's someone she should date it would be her. Lia then added that she thought that Nix was a pretty decent guy (for a "groan-inducer"). Annika took it all in, calmed herself, and decided the date wasn't such a bad idea after all. She thanked Lia for the advice, and then headed off to work on her motorcycle to help her think things over some more.

As the mixer began to wind down, Chayse casually talked to the Brooklyn born-and-bred Devon, and asked if he was up for some fun. "I need to go 'buy' a dress," he explained; a replacement for the one Lia burned off while pissed off at him and her father. Instantly knowing what Chayse meant by "buying" a dress, Devon smirked and agreed. With a nod Chayse got his dad to "run the secret mission" as long as Kitty didn't find out about their "family outing". As the trio headed for Gambit's car Chayse grabbed Lia's hand and pulled her with the group; ignoring her quandaries of where they were headed.

As the mixer concluded, Devon, Chayse, and Lia all piled in to Gambit's Escort as he drove them in to the city. Having her questions ignored, Lia eventually just stared out the window and watched the scenery pass. Around two in the morning they finally arrived in the city. After a bit more driving through the still bustling streets, they pulled up to a store with multiple "No Muties Allowed" signs pinned up in the windows. With a smile, Gambit turned to his "squad" and declared that "this looks like a good place, no?" He told Devon to stay with him as a lookout while Chayse brought Lia inside to find a dress.

Still confused as to what was going on - and a bit sleepy - Lia dazily allowed Chayse to phase them in to the building and over to the Petite section. The couple spent the next half-hour sifting through the racks, the entire time Lia muttering about how stealing wasn't right. Finally, after finding a dress that she liked, Chayse convinced her that stealing the one dress – which no one would know about – was payback for the bigoted ignorance the owners were displaying by preventing any mutants from shopping there. Reluctantly, she allowed Chayse to phase them back out of the shop without paying for the new dress in her arms.

The kids were all asleep on the drive home; Lia leaning on Chayse's shoulder and his arm wrapped around her. When they finally made it back to the mansion it was already five in the morning. Still tired, the teens all stumbled out of the car, only to be greeted by an angry Logan. Lia tried to hide the dress as Gambit claimed the "mission" was his idea. Wolverine didn't care; he stated that the children were old enough to know better and still needed to be punished. The trio sulked back in to the mansion knowing they all had a "special" detention lined up with Lucas Kinney that weekend.