body link=##FF3300 body vlink=#660099

X-Men: Evolution of the Heart: Chapter Seven

Author's note: This chapter takes place a year after the previous one. The ages are as follows: Scott and Jean are both 18, Kitty is 15, Kurt is 16, Evan is 14 and Rogue is 17.

Life on the Streets

It had been a full year since the paths of six lost souls found each other in their darkest hours. Scott Summers, Jean Grey, Kitty Pryde, Kurt Wagner, Evan Daniels, and Rogue had become a makeshift family. They were alone, hungry, and had nowhere to go. Every day was struggle for survival. Raiding through garbage cans and begging had become a way of life. The lack of food, money, and shelter had taken a toll on all of them. They were forced to wear old, dirty clothes that came mainly from charities and their constant lack of food had reduced all of them to bare bones. It was made even more difficult by their strange and unusual abilities that they all still struggled to understand and many times they found them difficult to control. They often tried to seek solstice in homeless shelters or with the authorities, but they were always kicked out when these powers showed themselves. The police and social services had completely shut them out and left them on the streets to suffer. They would always tell them that they had no use for 'freaks'. This did little to boost their hopes of finding a home.

Scott had quite possibly the worst situation with his powers. The deadly, uncontrollable blasts from his eyes and the blindness that came with it had hindered his ability to function normally. He was also the one who had been on the streets the longest. He had struggled on them since he was ten. Despite being blind he had adapted his senses well enough to a point where he could see to a livable extent. To some it was a sixth sense, to others it was just pure adaptation. It was still hard though. With his talent for music, he was able to keep both his and the others' spirit from sinking completely. Scott made his contributions to his friends with his skill on the guitar and was able to bring in some much-needed money by playing for peoples' loose change in the streets. The money wasn't much and Scott didn't always have the strength to play because of the chronic lack of food, but whenever he felt like stopping, Jean Grey would always push him on.

Jean Grey's powers also had terrible side effects that made her life more painful than it already was. She constantly suffered severe headaches and surges in her powers that caused objects to fly and the ground to shake. They always seem to get worse; but every time she had one, Scott was always there by her side to calm her down with his gentle words. Jean often found herself seeking Scott's warmth and seldom left his side. She had also become Scott's working eyes and sometimes was able to allow him to see ever so briefly when she used her powers. For these reasons, Scott Summers and Jean Grey were very close in many ways.

Kitty Pryde's powers had their own set of problems. It became a given that if Kitty fell asleep on one floor she would sometimes wake up on another. Her abilities were hard to control whenever she was startled or stricken by panic. She spent a lot of time trying to manage her abilities through concentration, but her lack of knowledge gave her limited results. Many times she became frustrated by this and often cried because of it. However, she had managed to deal with it to a certain extent thanks to her best friend Kurt.

Kurt had the misfortune of looking completely inhuman to the outside world. He was afraid to even walk in front of a window sometimes. His image inducer helped him walk freely among others, but it still left Kurt isolated and anxious about it. When people got a glimpse of his real form, they often screamed in fear. Events like that bought back old memories of lynch mobs back in Germany when he was growing up. They were hard to deal with, but his best friend Kitty always kept him sane. She helped him and he helped her. It was because of this, Kurt and Kitty shared a bond similar to Scott and Jean's.

Evan was fiercely independent compared to the rest of the group. He was never afraid to defend himself with his powers even though he didn't quite know how to work them. His tough nature did help ward off would-be attackers. Street thugs and gangs never seemed to leave them alone and Evan was usually the most aggressive when it came to defending his only friends. He had made it clear that he would not loose the only family he knew now and was aggressive in defending them. However, the rest of the group kept him from letting his emotions get too out of control. For reasons like that he always stuck by them and did as much as he could to help them. Despite the occasional barrage of spikes caused by sneezes and other startling things, Evan found a deep friendship with these fellow runaways. However, Evan still couldn't forget about his Aunt Ororo. It had been so long since he had spoken to her and he still tried to contact her every day, but the result was always the same. He felt that if anybody could help him and his new friends, his aunt could. Rogue was the quietest member of the group. She kept to herself most of the time, but she always stuck by these people who were the only friends she ever had. Even if she didn't talk, they still treated her with kindness and respect. Despite being the most isolated, she never liked to leave the company of her friends for very long. It bough back too many bad memories of being so alone. Rogue would talk on some occasions, but she was always more of a listener. The things Kurt, Kitty, Scott, Jean, and Evan would say helped keep her spirits up. She needed to be kept lively, for her powers were a frequent source of depression. Over the months she had accidentally come in to contact with some of her friends and they were knocked out for hours on end because of it. Whenever she touched them she grew dazed, confused, and scared. However, her friends stayed by her side and helped her through such ordeals. Rogue was always amazed how they could let somebody who could potentially kill by touch stay with them. For that she was very grateful and she stuck by them.

***

It was a balmy spring day in the city of Bayville. The six teens had recently taken up residence in the inner city area after being forced to leave Rochester because of lynch mobs that were bent on killing the 'dirty freaks'. Not that they couldn't blame them, but it only made life harder than it was. Scott had been sitting on a street corner playing his guitar for hours. It was around 3:00 PM and there weren't many people passing by. It was a given that there were never many people out and about on a Sunday afternoon. Yet, Scott still played his guitar for the people who were out. Jean, of course, was by his side and sang on occasion when Scott's voice became too tired. Rogue was also there as well and she sometimes sang too.

"Get a job...Worthless bums," said a man as he walked past them. Scott kept playing, but he could sense the hurt Jean and Rogue felt from that comment. Scott had been on the streets the longest, but he still could never quite block out comments like that.

"Don't listen to him..." said Scott as Jean leaned against him for comfort. "He's right though...We are worthless bums," said Jean solemnly. "No...Don't ever let yourself think that Jean...Never."

Rogue watched this scene unfold before her and couldn't help but tear up slightly. Words like those were common to her, but they still hurt. She was, however, very good at keeping her emotions bottled up...But Jean wasn't. She didn't know if it was good or bad for her.

Just then Kurt, Kitty, and Evan approached them and Scott stopped playing for a brief moment.

"Any luck contacting your Aunt?" asked Scott even though he knew what the answer was probably going to be.

"Nope," said Evan as he shook his head, "But we did scrape but some food in a dumpster. We saved you three some."

With a small smile Jean, Scott, and Rogue ate what Evan had bought. They were just a small bag of soggy French fries from a fast food restaurant, but when you're starving all of the time pretty much anything will taste good.

After eating what was there, the three other teens took a seat next to their friends. They leaned against the wall while they listened to Scott play again. Nobody said much except for some causal comments here and there. There wasn't much to talk about; everybody was just too tired. Recent nightmares had reeked havoc on their sleep. Some were about violence, some were about torture, and others were even about rape. All in all, nobody in the group was sleeping particularly well.

"Maybe you should take a break, Scott," said Kurt, who had his inducer on. "You've been playing almost non-stop since 9:00 AM."

"I can't Kurt...We still need money. We've been running really low lately," replied Scott.

"We always run low," said Rogue.

"Yeah...I know," said Scott with a sigh as he continued playing.

Suddenly, they heard loud noises in the distance. It sounded like police sirens and they were getting louder. Most of the people around them made their way away from them, but the young teens quickly got up and ran towards them as curiosity took over. Then, in the distance over bridge they saw two speeding vans that looked like armored cars fleeing from a large cluster of police cars. As they got closer, gunshots could be heard from both of them and they seemed to be firing back at the police. They caused some other cars belonging to innocent by-standards to swerve off to the side. As the six teens watched with amazement, they saw the two cars exit the highway and speed down towards them in the inner city roads.

"Oh no, they're coming this way," said Jean.

"Vell, vhat do ve do?" asked Kurt as they got closer.

There was a brief silence between them. Even though common sense said to get out of the way and let the police handle it, it seemed that the police weren't in any position to stop them. Over the voice of common sense was a nagging feeling that urged them all to do the right thing. In the end, the voice of heroism won.

"We do...Whatever we can," said Scott.

Getting the message, Evan nodded and stepped in to the middle of the street where the armored cars were heading. Even though they were acting on an impulse, the group didn't falter. There were no people near, for they had fled upon seeing the cars coming their way. Now, only the six teens remained. As the cars came in to sight, Evan concentrated and tried to do the same thing he did a year ago back when he fled his home. Soon he felt the strange bony spikes pierce his skin and line both of his arms. Then, the young boy closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and fired each of the extensions from his arm like rockets. The projectiles soon made contact with the tires of the armored cars.

BANG!

The tires exploded after coming in to contact with the razor sharp projectiles and the first car began to swerve off on to the sidewalk...Right toward two unsuspecting pedestrians that appeared out of nowhere.

"Kurt! Over there!" yelled Rogue as she saw the armored car skidding towards them.

"I've got them!" said Kurt as he closed his eyes and concentrated.

Immediately, he disappeared in a cloud of smoke and appeared behind the two pedestrians that seemed paralyzed by the oncoming vehicle. Suddenly, Kurt appeared right behind them, grabbed each of their shoulders, and promptly teleported them out of there with less than a second to spare.

The other car drove past the wreckage of the first car undaunted, but they didn't get too far. Scott, who had been waiting on the side of the road, stepped up. Using his acute sense of hearing he determined where the car was coming from. Then he swiftly lifted up his blindfold and unleashed a very strong blast from his eyes. The beam of bright red light made contact with the van and tore through it like a hot knife through butter. This van as well skidded off towards the sidewalk and like the previous one...It was heading right towards a mother and her infant baby.

"Kitty!" began Jean, but she was already gone.

"I've got them!" said Kitty as she ran as fast as she could towards the paralyzed figures.

The mother's legs had been frozen in place and all she could do was shield her child with her body. Kitty, pushing herself beyond her normal limits, leaped towards the innocent pedestrians and grabbed hold of them. The deafening crash that they had been bracing for never came...The van had passed right through her. As the lady regained her composure, Kitty made her escape by phasing through the wall behind her.

The five men had been driving the armored cars then gathered in the streets armed with automatic weapons. They were all equally dazed by what just happened.

"What the hell happened?" yelled one of them.

"I don't know...But it's every man for himself now! So just grab some money and RUN!" yelled another.

As the men tried to grab what money they could, they were being watched by Jean Grey from behind a corner. She took a few deep breaths and tried to concentrate. The pressure in her head increased as she felt her powers inside her grow. Suddenly, as the men were scrambling for scattered money among the wreckage they felt their guns mysteriously yanked from their grips by some unseen force.

"Huh?!" yelled one of them.

The guns were flung in to the distance and the five men stood dazed. Suddenly, three of men floated off the ground.

"AHHHHH! What the hell is going on here!" yelled the hapless would-be crooks.

The other two stood dazed, not believe what they were seeing, but seeing it none-the-less. Then, the three floating robbers were flung against one of the armored cars and knocked out cold.

"Shit! What do we do now!?" said one of the terrified crooks that was still standing.

"You gotta ask?" said the other as they both started to run away.

They ran in to a narrow alley where they hoped to loose the police.

However, they were soon confronted by Rogue who had been hiding behind a dumpster.

"Lights out boys!" said Rogue as she put her bare hands on their faces and knocked them out.

Police sirens were getting closer and it was now time for the six teens to make their escape. Kurt made a few quick trips via teleportation and soon bought each one of them back to their makeshift home in the basement of an abandoned apartment building that was nearby. They hadn't wanted to stick around for the police to find them. They knew all too well what they might do so the group had to wait out the whole thing. However, upon returning, it appeared Jean was unable to subdue her powers.

"Is she okay?" asked Evan as he saw her clenching her head.

"No, I think she's having another one of her seizures," said Scott in a worried tone.

Soon, the others gathered around her. They knew they had to calm her down somehow or she might draw the attention of the police outside.

"Can you calm her down?" asked Kitty.

"I think so," said Scott. He had done this many times before and this was no different. "Jean...Jean can you hear me?"

Jean simply groaned in pain as she squeezed her eyes in an attempt to make the pain go away. Scott then took her hand and began to gently calm her down.

"It's going to be okay Jean...You can do this. Just calm down...And listen to my voice," said Scott softly.

The other four teens watched anxiously as Scott kept trying to help the young redhead. They didn't do anything to startle them, for they knew that Scott was the only person who could help Jean Grey. They had a good idea why that was, but they didn't say anything. After a tense few minutes, Jean finally started to calm herself down and the whole group breathed a collective sigh of relief.

The events of the day had tired them all out and all they could do was collapse to the ground and rest their tired bodies. Scott was still holding

Jean's hand as her strange seizure finally past.

*Thank you Scott...* said Jean through her thoughts as she rested her head against him.

*Anytime Jean...Anytime,* responded the blind teen.

As the hours past by and the police activity ceased, the group finally began to talk about what had happened just hours ago.

"You know...Stopping those criminals back there...It kinda felt right," said Scott.

"Yeah...It did," said Kurt in agreement. "Vhat do you think it means?"

"I don't know...Maybe it means we just did the right thing," ventured Kitty.

There was a brief pause between them.

"I don't know if it means anything," said a dazed Rogue.

"Well, meaning or not, I think it was right," said Jean, "I mean...Those guys would have probably gotten away if we hadn't done something."

"I guess so," said Rogue in agreement.

The rest of the group tired to take in this new information. They had never used their powers like that before. They had never been given the chance. Now, there was a new purpose in their lives. It felt strange...But it also felt right.

"So what do we do now?" said Evan, "Form our own team of superheroes?"

"Yeah right," said Rogue sarcastically, "What are we gonna call ourselves...Teenage mutant superbums?"

The rest of the group couldn't help but laugh at that idea. There was still a lot of uncertainty about what had just happened. But there was no doubting it...This day was a turning point. They had discovered something unexpected and strange. It was scary and exciting at the same time. However, it did give them hope. It made them believe that maybe...They weren't so worthless after all.

***

Later that evening, the TV broadcasted the story of the big bank robbery all across the state.

"Our top story tonight, a major bank robbery was stopped by unknown forces.

Earlier today, five men armed with automatic weapons entered the First Bank of New York in downtown Bayville and robbed it of over $10 million in cash. The daring robbers then fled in large armored cars and made their escape. Over a dozen police cars pursued the two vehicles on a dangerous high-speed chase through the city. Several cars were forced off the road, but fortunately nobody was injured. The armored cars then made a daring getaway in the inner city area where the police nearly lost them. However, upon following them in to the narrow city roads, the police found the two armored cars completely wrecked near the highway overpass. Reports are still unclear, but it has been confirmed that nobody was hurt. The police have yet to determine the reason for the stoppage of these heavy-duty vehicles and witnesses have been giving very strange accounts. A local couple in the area speaks of being mysteriously transported out of harms way when the vehicle crashed and a young mother also talks of some mysterious force causing her to pass right through one of the cars as it was speeding towards her. Again, the police aren't saying much about such accounts, but a mysterious video from a local news chopper has recently surfaced clearly showing a strange red beam stopping one car and mysterious spikes from an unknown source stopping the other."

The TV then showed a brief, obscured video of spike-like projectiles shattering the tires of the leading car and a bright red beam stopping the other.

Not far from Bayville in Westchester County a mysterious man in a wheelchair watched the strange news report with great fascination. He was known as Professor Charles Xavier and the strange accounts of mysterious saviors both disturbed and intrigued him. Even though it was said the cause of the events was still being investigated, he had a feeling that he knew what it was. As the mysterious man continued to watch the story, a tall African woman with shining white hair entered the room.

"I take it you've heard Charles," said the woman.

"Yes...I have Ororo. And I think we may have to take our plans to the next level."

"Are you sure we're ready?" asked Ororo.

"I fear we don't have a choice now. If we don't act, then...He will."

chap eight

back