Mutant Crush

The day after Rogue joined the team...

It was early in the morning beneath the mansion. Rogue, Kitty and Kurt, who were all in uniform dragged themselves out of the Danger Room. Rogue had chosen a black bodysuit with a green plastic-reinforced chest plate as well as yellow boots and yellow gloves on her hands.

'Oh, Gawd,' Rogue thought, 'suddenly gettin' recruited by Mystique is startin' ta look pretty good by now.'

"Mein Gott," Kurt lamented, "zat session vas a killer...even my tail hurts..."

"Why does Logan have these so early in the morning?" Kitty wailed.

"And whah didn't Clark join us?" Rogue asked.

The three walked through the doors and passed Bishop, Gambit and Colossus, who were heading towards the Danger Room to begin their own training session.

"He ran his simulation last night." Bishop informed the three, then stepped through the doors with Colossus and Gambit. The doors shut behind them.

"Not bad, you three." Wolverine said as he walked up to the three.

Within the hour, the three had showered and changed into their regular clothes, and were sitting at the kitchen table for breakfast with the others...except Clark.

"Where's Clark?" Kitty asked.

"In the hangar from what I can hear." Thunderbird answered. "From what I was told, he's working on something in there."

"He's been working on it ever since he got back from his patrol." Jean added, munching on a piece of toast.

"Vat project?" Kurt inquired.

"All he said was that it was a 'family heirloom' that he was repairing." Ororo said, as she sat down.

Rogue arched an eyebrow. It was a fact – although an amazing one – that Clark was actually an alien; what kind of 'family heirloom' could he be fixing up?

After breakfast, Rogue headed up to her room – her and Kitty's room, she corrected with a sigh. The Professor had decided to give her a roommate to help her adjust. 'More lahke drive meh nuts.' she thought. Kitty was a sweet girl, no argument there. Rogue's main beef was that she was so different from her; Kitty listened to upbeat, 'girly-girl' type music...which drove Rogue nearly insane when she was trying to listen to Evanescence. She chewed bubble-gum and read all sorts of 'teen magazines' and was always filling in the magazine quizzes...and always asking for her opinion, most often when she was trying to read her latest Stephen King novel.

And, dear God, with her it was always 'Superman' this, and 'Superman' that. Clark was a hero, Rogue admitted; he used his incredible power for the good of all humanity, while taking zero credit for it. Rogue couldn't help but admire him.

But listening to someone go on and on about it...it got old fast.

As she was about to head out, Rogue saw Kitty and Kurt head in the opposite direction...towards the elevator to the underground floors. "Where are ya goin'?" Rogue asked.

"We're just going to see what Clark's working on!" Kitty said. "I bet it's really cool!"

Rogue rolled her eyes. 'Shoulda known.' she thought."Did it eva occur to ya two that he might want some privacy?"

"Oh, come on, Rogue! Maybe we can help him!" Kitty said.

"Ja!" Kurt agreed. "Aren't you just a little curious about vat he's vorking on?"

Rogue sighed. "You're goin' no matter what Ah say." she muttered.

Kitty and Kurt nodded. "Are you coming?" Kitty asked.

"Fahne." Rogue said. "But only ta keep ya both from pesterin' him ta death." With that, she followed the two to the elevator, and they took it down to the hangar floor.

"So, did you both hear?" Kitty asked. "Logan and Jean went on a recruiting mission, yesterday; they were gonna try to recruit some mutant with super-strength, or something." She sighed. "But Mystique totally got to him first."

"Looks like zhe Brotherhood is trying to match Superman." Kurt said. "It's bad enough zat zhey transferred to Bayville High."

Kitty beamed. "Good luck!" she gushed.

Rogue rolled her eyes. 'Here we go...'

"Superman's the strongest guy in the world!" Kitty squealed. "He can probably chew up and spit out that guy if Mystique and the Brotherhood send him after us!"

By then, the elevator had reached the hangar floor, and the three young mutants stepped out onto the metal floor. There, next to the Blackbird...was a fairly small, sleek, almost torpedo-shaped, silvery-metal craft, with powerful thrusters at its stern, and a cockpit that looked large enough to hold a single person...and it was hovering there, of its own power.

And there, underneath it, with a silvery metallic box of glowing crystals and unrecognizable electronic tools just within his reach, was Clark, in a white t-shirt and blue jeans, tinkering with it.

Smiling, Kitty ran over, stopping a few inches away. "Hi, Clark!" she said.

"Hey, Kit." Clark replied, never stopping from his work.

"Ah'm sorry, Wonder-Boy. Ah tried ta stop 'em." Rogue said.

"No problem, Rogue. I figured someone was going to get curious about my little project, sooner or later."

"Vhoa..." Kurt murmured, his blue face a lighter shade, "...is zat..?"

"Yep." Clark said. "This is the Trans-Warp ship that my father used to send me here. I'd been meaning to try and get it back into flying shape for a while, now."

"You know how to repair it?" Kitty asked, amazed.

"I took a crash course from the Fortress' knowledge-chamber; I drop by there every once in a while." Clark replied, reaching for a small scanning-tool and a glowing gold crystal from his toolbox. "I also picked up the equipment I needed to fix it up."

Rogue blinked.

"'The Fortress'?" she repeated.

"Huh?" Kitty said.

"Oh, sorry; I never told you guys about that, did I?" Clark said, pausing. "I was talking about my second base, the Fortress of Solitude. It was built from a nano-crystal that my father put in the ship, to teach me about where I came from. It contains all the knowledge of Krypton and all the worlds it had contact with; it was where I lived and trained for four years before I assisted the team."

Rogue smiled.

'Fortress of Solitude. Wish ah had one.' She thought.

"So...vat exactly are you doing, now?" Kurt asked.

"Well, to be honest I was going to keep a eye out for trouble." Clark replied as he inserted something into the ship he was working on.

"How far away was your home world?" Kitty asked.

"Over two billion light years." Clark said.

"Whoa!"

"Yeah." Clark agreed before turning the crystal that was inserted. "My father designed the Trans-Warp drive to use seven Cells in series, one taking over as the previous one was used up, and automatically adjust power consumption as each cell was being used up. As a result, as I insert the Cells, I have to precisely calibrate each one before I completely insert it into the drive-core." Checking the instrument once more, he then tapped the crystal, and it fully inserted itself, beginning to glow even brighter. "I also plan to re-model the cockpit, as I've grown a bit since I last used it. As well, I hope to install an enhanced cooling system, to better bleed off the excess heat during reentry." He chuckled.

"My plan is to test fly in between work at the Daily Planet and my patrols."

"Wow..." Kitty murmured, "...well, good luck!"

"Thanks." Clark replied.

"Well, we'd better get goin'; Scott's waitin' for us." Rogue said. "Later, Wonder-Boy!"

Clark chuckled. "Later, Stripes!"

"Auf wiedersehen, Clark!" Kurt said.

Clark chuckled. "Auf wiedersehen." he replied. Then, the three headed out, letting their friend repair his spaceship.

Bayville High School

As the first class bell rang, 16-year-old Fred Dukes wandered the halls, looking for his classroom. Fred was big, he admitted. He was much taller than most other students, and he was fat – no sense in mincing words. He had light skin, brown eyes, and a mostly bald head with a dark blond mohawk. He wore his usual clothes: a light green, extra-large t-shirt under his extra-large jean overalls. Normally, the fact that he was so big would've bothered him...but not anymore.

He was a mutant, unlike most of these students. His weight gave him incredible strength, and a near-immovable mass. He also remembered that blue lady, Mystique – who was really the principal – mention something about a "uni-directional gravity field" that he generated, making him almost impossible to move.

Something would have to hit him with more force than a bazooka to budge him...and that fact, after so many years of being laughed at or made fun of, gave him some pride.

Still, he was having trouble finding his next class. He grabbed one student as he passed – a tall, blond-haired, green-eyed jock in a letterman jacket. "Hey, you." Fred said, gesturing to his schedule. "Where should I be?"

The jock smirked. "Try a freak show." he said.

Fred saw red. His face twisted in rage, his fists clenching. The minute he'd found out what he really was, he'd sworn that nobody would ever make fun of him ever again.

With a loud roar, Fred shoved the guy against the lockers, sending him sprawling. He walked over and grabbed the row of lockers, about to topple them and squash this jerk...

"Stop!"

Fred stopped, looking up...and saw the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. She had long red hair, and glittery green eyes. Fred momentarily forgot how to breathe. 'Wow.'

As the guy recovered, the girl looked at him. "Duncan, you'd better go get to class. I'll meet you later, okay?"

"Ugh...okay, Jean." the guy – Duncan – said, before walking off.

The girl – Jean – smiled. "I'm sorry about Duncan." she said. "He's not all that bad a guy, once you get to know him." She held out her hand. "Jean Grey."

"Fred Dukes." Fred replied. "Hey...are you...like me?"

Jean nodded. "I know we're not exactly on the same side," she said, "but that doesn't mean that we can't be friends, right?"

Fred blinked, and then smiled. "Sure." he replied.

"Your class is just down the hall, the first on the right." Jean said. "Later!" Then, she walked off.

'Oh, yeah! Fred Dukes is the Big Man on Campus!' Fred thought. Finally, things were going his way.

And they were going to stay that way.

It was lunchtime at Bayville High, as Kitty sat down with Rogue and Kurt, with his image-inducer active.

"Ugh...Ah think mah lunch just moved." Rogue muttered, looking at her tray.

"Yet another reason I'm glad I'm a vegetarian." Kitty said, taking out her salad and veggie-burger.

"Vhoa...is zat zhe guy zat Jean und Logan tried to recruit?" Kurt asked, pointing to a big guy in the lunch line.

"Yep." Kitty said. "I think Jean said she was going to talk to the guy, try to patch things over."

By then, the guy had loaded up his tray with sloppy joes, and was walking to a table...when he slipped, sending his tray flying...

...right into the lap of star-quarterback, Big Man on Campus Duncan Matthews.

'Oh, this so will not end well.' Kitty thought.

His green eyes narrowing in cold fury, Duncan stood up and threw one of the sloppy joes back at the big guy. The guy managed to duck, and Duncan's throw hit someone else.

In seconds, a full-scale food-fight had broken out.

"Okay, I'm out of here!" Kitty exclaimed.

"Same here!" Rogue agreed. "Fuzzy?"

Making sure no-one was watching, Kurt 'ported himself and Rogue out of the cafeteria, while Kitty discreetly phased through the floor, into the empty girls' locker room below.

It was after school, as Jean was walking home with one of her friends, Taryn Fujioka. Taryn was a 16-year-old Japanese-American girl, and around the same height and frame as Jean was, with long, dark brown hair, dark eyes, wearing her usual short blue-green dress under her light blue button-up sweater. Like Jean, Taryn was one of the "popular" students; she was on the soccer team with Jean, and the two had a fair bit in common.

Jean inwardly sighed; today had been a heck of a day. First, she'd averted an angry Fred Dukes from pounding her boyfriend, Duncan. Then, several hours later, she'd had to calm him again during that food-fight...after Scott had almost turned his optic-blasts on Fred. They had been lucky that everyone had cleared out at that point; they had to watch themselves for near-misses like that.

'Now I know how Clark feels.' Jean thought, remembering the several times that Superman had been partially photographed. 'I wonder if Superman has days like these.'

"So, Jean, did you hear? There was another Superman sighting!" Taryn almost squealed. "Someone in Japan almost got a full photo of him! My grandfather says that he's going to try to buy a copy of it for me!"

Jean had to suppress a smile; almost all the girls at Bayville High were talking about Superman, now...with Taryn included.

"Oh?" Jean asked. "Someone saw him?"

"Well, someone saw something flying away from that sinking cruise ship off Japan's east coast." Taryn said. "But who else could it be?"

Jean had to fight to keep from smiling knowingly.

"So...he saved everyone?" She asked.

"Totally! The ship's boiler had blown out, and it damaged its hull, causing it to take on water! The ship was so far out that no rescue vessel could reach it in time!" Taryn said. "Why won't he show himself, though?"

Jean shrugged. "Who knows?"

Just then, Jean saw Fred start to walk up to her.

"Hey, Jean?" He asked. "Can I talk to you?"

"Sure." Jean replied. She nodded to Taryn, who went on ahead. "What is it?"

"Can I show you something?" Fred asked.

"Okay." Jean agreed, and she began to follow Fred.

Europe, a few miles off the coast of Latveria

Superman was flying home at top speeds, heading back from a successful mission. He'd had to drop his repairs on the ship as he'd heard that airplane send out a distress call over China. He'd helped it to land and flown off without anyone seeing him, unlike that cruise-ship incident near Japan. These incidents were getting a bit more frequent, now...and it was starting to worry him.

Suddenly, Superman heard the tell-tale sound of engines blowing out...only this time, it wasn't due to simple mechanical failure.

This plane was being shot down.

Instantly, Superman altered course, flying towards the falling craft at speeds over Mach Four. He found the craft crashing towards a small island, just off the coast of the country of Latveria. It wasn't a commercial craft...but a VTOL craft with a A insignia on the wings.

Curious, Superman used his X-Ray vision to look inside...

His eyes widened in awe. 'No way.'

Instantly, Superman dove beneath the craft, he was helping level it off alongside a brown-haired young man, to land safely on the sandy beach. As the ship touched down, he walked to the hatch, to greet its occupants...

'Brace for impact.'

Aboard the jet, a twenty-year old man tried to steer the dying craft into a stable landing.

"How's it going Cap?" Someone asked.

He had short blonde hair, a black and purple sleeveless shirt, a pair of purple sunglasses on his face and a container filled with arrows on his back.

"Pym, Barton get that engine up and running!" Cap barked.

"We can't." Hank "Yellowjacket" Pym replied. Hank, in his early thirties, was tall and lean, his black and yellow suit and goggles hiding his hair and eyes. Hank had the ability to grow to well over sixty feet tall, or shrink to less than the size of an ant.

"Cap, we're going to hit in less than a minute!" Janet "Wasp" Pym exclaimed. Janet was in her twenties, with short ebony hair, light skin and dark eyes clad, in black tight pants and a yellow-and-black striped sleeveless top. Janet, Hank's wife, had the ability to shrink to insect size, growing a pair of insect-wings, which enabled her to fly, as well as the ability to fire bio-electric "stings."

"This is gonna hurt." Clint "Hawkeye" Barton mumbled.

Before the Quinjet struck the ground, it began to level off.

Hawkeye opened his eyes and was surprised that they hadn't crashed.

"We're...leveling off?" Wasp stammered, confused.

"Thor, are you doing this?" Cap asked.

Thor Odinson, who thought of himself as the Norse thunder-god – a claim that got harder and harder to dispute, the more Cap got to know the guy – shook his head. Thor was tall, even more so than Cap, and built like a tank, with long, blond hair, and a trim beard around his mouth. He wore a dark blue, mail-like vest with four silver circles reinforcing its front side, with black tight pants, and steel-toed boots, carrying a weapon that was a cross between an axe and a war-hammer – "Mjolnir," he called it.

"Was not I, Captain." Thor boomed.

The Avengers then saw a green energy hand through the windows of the Quinjet. A brown-haired man floated past the window and descended towards the ground.

Then, the gun-ship landed, shakily but safely, on the beach. As the hatch opened, Cap and the other Avengers darted out, ready for whatever was waiting for them...but they were surprised.

Standing outside the ship was a twenty-four year old man. He then walked towards them, smiling pleasantly. He was tall, only a few inches shorter than Cap, and with an equally strong frame, maybe stronger, for his age. He had light skin, short black hair, slicked back with a few tufts arcing over his forehead, and piercing blue eyes. He wore a blue bodysuit with a red cape, red boots, a yellow belt, red tight shorts...and a stylized red 'S' in a red-outlined yellow diamond on the chest.

"Who's this guy?" Hawkeye asked, pointing a arrow at him.

"Hello. I heard your ship's engines blowing out and decided to help out." He replied.

"Well...thanks." Cap replied, lightly smiling. Then, to his teammates, he said, "Let's go, people – we have a job to do."

"Right." The other Avengers nodded.