Chapter 1
Transferring squads had been good for him.
Upon switching with Jay, Kevin had learned a secret the Hellions had managed to keep from the entire school- they actually cared about each other. They cared about each other a lot. Like, Julian always made sure to get Brian dinner whenever he was too nervous to leave the dorm, and Cessily always had her arms around Julian because he was so goddamn touch-starved even Kevin felt bad for him, and Santo spent a solid week in the library trying to research ways to help Sooraya out after she told them about her problems with staying solid during nightmares (he ended up using some of his own money to get her a weighted blanket), and all of them, God bless them or God help them, accepted Kevin as one of their own within half a week of him joining up.
The New Mutants were all nice enough, friendly, maybe once in a while saying hi to him, trying their best to include him- but this was a whole new level. This was Julian, shirtless at three in the morning, coming into his room to make sure he had brushed his teeth. This was the wall between Julian and Kevin’s room and Santo and Brian’s being knocked down because they wanted to hang out and had a trigger-happy telekinetic (Cessily notified Kevin that he could go into her dorm, seeing as she was Julian’s unofficial roommate and her old dorm was currently empty, but he didn’t really mind the constant noise from his squad mates. Not that he’d ever tell them, of course). This was absolutely none of them commenting on the picture of his dad he kept on his bedside. This was Santo slinging a casual arm around him, waiting carefully to make sure Kevin was comfortable with it before continuing. This was Cessily coming in at midnight and bunking with Julian (and not being at all surprised to find Brian already there, being the big spoon he was born to be).
This was every single member of the Hellions agreeing to come with Kevin to check out an art camp in upstate New York for no reason but to hang out.
They had gotten permission from Emma and decided to make a weekend out of it, hitting the city and then driving up to NYU to check out the program before Kevin decided whether or not he wanted to try it out. The camp was for painting- his favorite medium by far- and he was excited as they drove along, squished next to Brian and Cessily. Santo, curse him, took up an entire row, and Sooraya had control of the passenger’s seat by superior music taste alone.
He flapped his hands a little and Cess schooched over so he would have more room, waiting until he finished to shift back next to him. “You’re excited, I see.”
“They’re gonna have teachers! Real painters! It’s gonna be so great.”
Santo laughed. “Ford, you’re being optimistic about something? Nerd.”
“Aw, let him be excited, San, this is gonna be sick.” Julian had one hand on the wheel and the other on the volume control, cranking up whatever song Sooraya had chosen. (He was way too young to be driving. What did he do to convince Emma this was fine?)
Kevin settled back into his seat as Brian began a particularly awful rendition, burying himself in his coat to hide his smile.
-
New York was cold.
Laura was hungry.
Weapon X (the man, not the company; Logan, Logan, Logan) had sent her running and they had not caught her. They had not taken her. Captain America, with his gaudy colors and skewed sense of judgement, had not taken her back to SHIELD to be Weapon-X-23 again. But now she was alone on the streets of New York.
She had met up with a group of teenagers- Kiden, and Tatiana, and Bobby-Soul- but she had left them, safe and far away from the terror of being a fugitive from the Sentinel of Liberty himself.
The art school had been a perfect way to blend in and take a rest. She went in, took a paper, didn’t write a word; just watched, and listened, and allowed herself to breathe.
-
The girl across the room was staring at them again.
Something about her face was familiar; something in the way she held herself. Something in her eyes, wide and an unnatural green. Something in how she looked- just a little Wrong, her muscles a little too taunt and her teeth a little too sharp, hair shaggy around the ears and barely covering her neck. Kevin wasn’t even quite sure she was a girl, but he figured it was safe to assume; and, anyway, if they talked, he’d just ask for pronouns in private.
His optimism really was jumping out today, but maybe he’d make other friends here. Nothing to replace his team, but nice people he could joke with, maybe even ones who would hold his (fully-gloved) hand and not be weird about it.
Christ, he really was touch starved as hell.
The talk was fascinating, and he filled in his application paper happily, slipping copies of a few of his own art pieces into the envelope they gave each hopeful camper. He passed it in and went back to his friends, real smile lighting his face up.
And then, as Santo was asking when they could go eat something, a man clad in black walked in calmly, a posse of soldiers surrounding him.
“If you’d all remain calm,” he said, teeth like nails as he smiled, “this’ll be done fast. We’ll just need the mutants in the room to get on their knees and let us ask a few questions.”
Kevin sighed, preparing for the worst. Preparing for it to be about him again. He started to drop to his knees.
But apparently Kevin wasn’t the target. The main didn’t even glance at him, just gave a sickly grin to the corner of the room.
The wide-eyed girl bolted.
Julian noticed first, swearing loudly and sprinting after her.
What else was there to do but follow?
-
Julian and Kevin sprinted off, and Cessily sighed, giving a glare to the man before putting her hands in the air.
Sooraya, bless her, had dusted away the second the man came in, but she, Brian, and Santo were going to get hurt if they tried to chase after the boys.
But the man, not even glancing in their direction, just ran after the two boys and the weird girl, not even sparing a glance behind him.
Sick.
-
A thing not many people knew about Brian Cruz- his anxiety disorder was off the rails. There was a reason he asked the Kingmaker to let him keep his friends; a reason he was so ready to use his powers to protect them.
He was terrified to lose them. Always. So when Julian- dammit, Julian, Julian with his stupid pretty smile and his stupid face and his stupid Julian-ness- had sprinted out of the room, Kevin close behind, Brian started to prepare for the worst. He figured he’d need to drag the both of them out of whatever mess they had gotten themselves into.
So he tagged the guy in the black suit, he grabbed Cess’ hand, and he ran out after them.
-
Laura crouched behind a dumpster, listening intently and barely breathing.
Two pairs of feet, both sprinting. One was winded. One wore sneakers, another what sounded like boots, and they both smelled of sweat and hail gel.
“Hello?” One stage-whispered. Their voice was pitched low, a California accent bouncing around the edges of it.
“Julian, we gotta go back in, we gotta go get the others-“ This one sounded out of breath, their footfalls heavy as they walked into the alleyway.
She curled tighter in on herself and prayed they would pass.
-
“Hello? Hey, we’re not gonna hurt you, we’re mutants too- we can get you out of here, if you want..” Julian’s voice trailed off and he grabbed at Kevin’s hand, giving an apologetic smile as Kevin glared (but didn’t try to get out of his grip). “I mean, I’m a mutant, won’t speak for Kevin.”
“You just said my name, dumbass-“
“Hey, you called me Julian when we got here-“
A crunch of gravel came from behind them and both boys whipped around, Julian’s hands already glowing, to find Brian with a finger on his lips, Santo and Cess right behind.
“I tagged the guy, it’s not gonna last long, we gotta go!”
“We can’t leave the other kid-“
“Not gonna have to.” Brian gave Julian a smile (Julian’s stomach flipped and his face flushed against his will) before turning to his left. “Soor, if you could sweep the area, please?”
Sooraya reformed for just a moment, waving, before dusting off again.
-
The girl made of sand appeared next to Laura.
Her first instinct was to stab her, but-
She smelled familiar; mostly of earth and books, but within that was the same wood she had smelled on Weapon X.
And that could only mean they were X-men.
She blinked at the girl, who was sitting across from her.
“Hello. My name is Sooraya.”
Blink.
“You’re a mutant?”
Nod.
“Okay. Do you want to come with me and my friends to a safe place?”
Another blink.
She smelled of Weapon X, and Weapon X said he’d get her somewhere safe, and that meant that she could trust them, right? Right?
She was so tired. She gave Sooraya another nod. Sooraya reached out her hand.
She took it.
-
The girl’s hand was warm. It fit into Sooraya’s hand perfectly. Sooraya tried not to dwell on it.
She led the new girl out to the others, feeling her face go red when Cessily gave her a Look (a Look that said, in total, oh my god, Soor, it’s been five minutes.)
“We gotta go home to Xavier’s- Emma might be able to help, right?”
“Well, first we have to get back to the car.”
-
Julian and Sooraya walked back to where they parked as naturally as possible, grabbing the car and swinging back into the alleyway, the others jumping in and Julian flooring it.
The new girl ended up stuck on Sooraya’s lap, hands clasped around her ears while they speeded along. Julian noted down likely sensory issues on his Big Brother List Of Mental Help and gave the newb a smile.
“Hi, I’m Julian, sorry about this-“ a screech of metal as he turned on a dime, cutting through a backroad, “Just a sec, gotta make sure we lose them, Santo, check the back!”
“Clear!” Santo responded, sitting up as tall as possible to peer over the other three’s heads.
“Oh thank god,” Brian muttered. “Julian, please stop going a hundred in a thirty mile lane.”
He slowed and they all turned to glance at each other, the girl in Sooraya’s lap curling up into herself and not looking up.
Kevin pulled himself up off of Brian and buckled his seatbelt, glancing next to him to make sure Cessily and Brian were unharmed.
“Kev, I’m sorry that we had to leave so fast, but you turned in your portfolio, right?” Cess looked at him, concerned, and Kevin almost laughed. She was so worried about him being happy while they had just ran out of a building being chased by the government; it was endearing, though, and Kevin gave her a smile.
“Yeah, I gave it to the director, don’t worry.”
Silence fell as they drove along, the music turned off for the benefit of the new kid. Sooraya had her arms around her, humming a little, and eventually she perked up enough for Julian to speak up.
“Hey, what’s your name?”
No response, just a tensing of shoulders.
“I promise we’re not with those bastards. We’re with the X-men, we help mutants, promise.” Julian turned back to the road as he very nearly rammed into a sign, and Sooraya sighed, muttering out a prayer and sending Cessily a wide-eyed look.
Cessily shrugged, unbuckling herself to play backseat driver. “Jules, watch the road-“
“I’m watching it!”
“No, you’re not-“
“My name is Laura,” the new girl whispered, suddenly, softly. As Cessily and Julian stopped squabbling to glance at her, she blinked at them again, biting her lip. “Please call me Laura.”
“Oh! Cool! Cool, yeah!” Julian said, breaking into a beaming smile. “I’m Julian, that’s Cessily, I guess you already know Sooraya, and back there in the coat is Kevin, the rocky dude is Santo, and Brian’s the hot one.”
“Oh my god,” Cessily groaned. “Stop it. Stop it and go make out already-”
They resumed fighting, Laura shooting a confused expression and a small smile to Sooraya before settling back into her lap.
It can’t really be too comfortable, sharing a shotgun seat between two people, but neither of them particularly seemed to mind.
-
Emma Frost had sent her students off with a warning to be careful and a van she trusted Julian to drive mildly well.
She got them back with a wrecked van, nervous expressions, and an entire new child.
“Honestly, what did you expect?” Scott asked her, watching the Hellions stumble inside on shaky knees. “They all take after you.”
-
The only reason Laura has not bolted into the trees yet was Sooraya’s hand still resting in her own.
Emma Frost (White Queen, formerly, not currently), Cyclops (Always Cyclops), and Weapon X himself had assembled in the mansion’s office along with the new children Laura had run with (Julian-Cessily-Sooraya-Kevin-Santo-Brian), and all of them kept staring at her, disbelief painting their faces.
“Jesus, X, you ran?” Logan asked, after a bit more staring. “Rogers let you go?”
She shook her head. (Her voice was stuck in her throat; it was all she could do to stay upright, looking at the man she had been built to be.) “He is. After me. I was. Hiding.”
“We were at Kevin’s art thing, and this dude came in and was like hehehehe mutants come with me and we were like shit and I was gonna get Kevin out but then Laura bolted so we ran after her and then we drove back and the car’s a little destroyed but like it’s fine-” Julian always rambled when he was trying to explain things, and Brian grabbed his arm, giving a winning smile to the adults.
“What he means is, we saved this kid and apparently you guys know her, so it works out great!” Brian said. “Speaking of which, how do you know her again?”
Seven children turned to stare at Logan.
“She’s my clone,” Logan sighed. “And a damn good assassin.”
-
Laura’s face crumpled as Weapon X spoke. For twenty-five minutes in a car ride that was so dangerous she almost died, she had been at least a little safe. No one had known.
And now she would be X-23 again. And they would not trust her, and-
“Oh, sick!” Santo said, giving Laura a craggy smile. “Dude, that’s so rad, you’ll fit right in!”
She blinked at him. “What?”
“We’re the Hellions. We raise hell. And we don’t have an assassin, so, like! Cool, dude!”
“I mean,” Cessily added, “every third person in this house is related to Logan, so don’t worry about the clone thing, either.”
“I’m sorry,” Cyclops said, sitting down at his desk and crossing his arms, “when did we decide that- I’m sorry, it’s Laura, right?”
“Yes.”
“When did we decide Laura was joining your team?”
“Like twenty minutes ago, Mr. Summers. Once someone experienced the hell that is Julian’s driving, they’re a Hellion by default.” Brian glanced at Laura, eyes shining. “If you want in, I mean.”
“What?” She asked again.
“You can join up with us! It’s good, we all room together and we don’t actually go on missions or anything, we just fight off the New Mutants- they’re dicks, you’ll meet them soon- and it’s real good and I think we’re all in if you are?” Julian talked just fast enough for Laura to struggle to keep up, but she managed.
Logan- Logan, across the room, staring at her- had said this was safe. She liked them, Julian-Cessily-Sooraya-Kevin-Santo-Brian; she liked their smiles and their jokes and their care, given freely and completely.
“Okay,” Laura said, and it didn't feel like quite enough, did it, not quite enough to say thank you, but that was alright. “Okay.”
-
Emma was going to kill Logan.
But first to get the children situated.
They seemed to be handling themselves. Julian wrapped an arm around Laura’s shoulders and she flinched, tucking her arms to her chest- Julian, bless him, waited for a minute, and then when she leaned onto his shoulder he smiled, guiding her out of the room. Sooraya, Kevin, and Cessily followed suit, speaking in happy whispers.
Santo put his fist out and Brian hit it, the latter throwing a peace sign at the teachers before they tumbled out after their friends.
Emma turned to Logan. Scott turned to Logan.
Both began screaming at the same time.
“They made another one of you? They made a kid?”
“There is a clone of you now on my children’s team?”
“You didn’t tell us?”
“Look, what was I going to say?”
“I don’t know, Logan, but you should have told us, who even did this?”
“Weapon X, Slim, who else?”
Emma sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, sorting through the new mental input. All six Hellions were excited. Laura was nervous. Sooraya was very nervous. (She’d have to check that out later). No one seemed to be in any imminent danger.
God knew how long that would last.
-
Julian threw open their dorm door, spreading his arms. “Home sweet home!”
Kevin didn’t waste a second before face planting on his bed, throwing his blankets over himself, and passing out. Santo followed suit. Brian pecked his boyfriend on the cheek and stumbled into Julian’s bed, giving a tired smile. “Sorry, babe, I know we have cool Hellions Things to do, but your driving knocks me right out.”
“I got us home!”
“Barely,” Cessily teased, sitting down on Sooraya’s cot and swinging her legs as Julian pouted. “Come on, J-boy, we got a whole teammate out of it, don’t be mad you can’t drive.”
“I’m too gay to know how to drive.”
“I know, Jules.”
Laura was still standing in the middle of the room, and the three still-awake others looked to her, Sooraya finally letting go of her hand. “I have to go to my dorm, I think. It is late.”
“Flip off Ashida for me!” Julian said, Cessily rolling her eyes.
“Night, Soor. Love you.” Cessily responded, shoving Julian on the shoulder.
“You as well,” Sooraya said, turning and giving Laura a little wave before walking out.
Laura’s face went bright red against her will. Julian laughed.
“Sorry, I just- oh my god. Okay. Okay,” Julian grinned. “So. Do you want to bunk with us, or do you want your own dorm? Soor doesn’t sleep here because she doesn’t take off her niqab in front of dudes, but she’s usually here most all the time, if you’re worried about her.”
“And since Bri and Jules are apparently sharing tonight, you can take Brian’s bed, if you want,” Cessily added. “But, really, if you want your own dorm, just let us know.”
Laura stared at them. It had been ten minutes since she had gotten to Xavier’s School, and they were expecting her to make her own choice? Who did they think she was, a person, ready to make decisions?
Her throat closed up, and her hands clenched, and she forced words out. “I will stay here if you so prefer.”
“Yeah, that’s okay with us!” Julian looked worried, but did not make any move to ask her about it. She was grateful.
Cessily went into the bathroom to change, Julian (with very little warning) throwing off his shirt and tucking himself in bed next to Brian. “G’night, Laur.”
“Good night.”
(A nickname! After an hour!)
(She was beginning to like these children.)
-
The Hellions weren’t at breakfast.
Nori was suspicious. Usually, they were first in line, being obnoxious. Today, though, the line was bright-red costume free, and Dani had no idea where they were.
Nori ran her plate back to the New Mutants’ usual table, skidding down into the seat next to David.
“Did you see Sooraya this morning?” He asked, before she even said a word.
“No. She left super early; I woke up and she was out.”
“Well, none of them are here, so-”
“Not our problem,” Josh replied between bites of toast. “If the losers decided to sleep in a day, that’s just more time for us to get stuff done, right?”
Jay was quiet next to him, so Laurie was the first to reply. “Yeah, I guess. Did you guys do Mr. Summers’ homework?”
-
(A note about Jay Guthrie: he did not work well with the Hellions.
It made him too homesick to be in a family again; and, really, they were obnoxious. Just in a loveable, slightly endearing way.
A note about Jay Guthrie: he switched, and he didn’t dispute the bad boy persona, because he still respected his former teammates.
God, they were nerds.)
-
Santo had to carry in the new cot, Sooraya sitting on it, reading a book and giggling at him.
“You’re not even heavy, Soor, this does nothing.”
“Nothing stops Rockslide, ladies and gents,” Brian faux-boomed, swiping Cess’ brush to use as a microphone. “Not even five-foot tall teenage girls!”
Santo waved him off, setting the bed close to the window.
“There you go, Laura, one whole school-issue bed. It’s not that comfy, but, like, it’s good enough, I guess.”
“Good for bouncing,” Cessily piped up, standing up on Santo’s cot and beginning to jump. Julian dragged himself up next to her and grabbed her hands, spinning her around and making and absolute mess of Santo’s bedspread. Sooraya got on her own cot and bounced a little. “Cessily is right.”
Kevin and Brian started jumping on their beds, Santo rolling his eyes. “Nerds. I mean, how old are you, nine?”
“You’re just sad we’re taller than you!” Brian said, bouncing so high his head almost dents the ceiling. “Come on, Laura, you look bouncy enough.”
He reached out his hand and pulled her up, letting go without being asked (Laura appreciated that) continuing to bounce so fast the springs squeaked. “Just jump! It’s great! Hell yeah!”
Santo groaned. “Guys. Really. This is dumb.”
“Come on, Vaccarro, these beds can hold your weight. What are you, scared?”
“I’ll show you scared-”
Shrieks and peals of laughter came from the Hellions’ hideout for the next hour, resulting in blackmail videos on Julian’s phone and incredibly rumpled bedspreads. None of them really minded, least of all Laura, who was taught how to pillow-fight (the first time she ever got to hit people with soft objects for fun, rather than- well. She did not want to spoil her good mood with thoughts about That.)
-
The first glimpse the New Mutants got of the new kid was off Cessily’s phone, mistakenly left in Hank’s class. The background had been changed to an incredibly blurry photo of six figures engaged in a pillow fight, pixelated faces recognizable- Keller, Vaccarro, Cruz, Qadir, Ford- except for one. Black hair, freckles, square jaw.
When Cessily came back for it, no one asked, but David gave Nori a questioning look.
Time to investigate.
In the next five minutes, Nori got a bathroom pass, walked as slowly as she could to the girl’s room, and then sprinted to the Hellions’ dorm.
(They only had one, the weirdos- only Sooraya slept outside of it.)
The door was locked, and Nori peered through the keyhole, prepared to take off at a second’s worth of trouble. She could make out Julian, shirtless (ugh) on his cot, engaged in conversation with an unseen figure.
“Yeah, the classes rock. Miss Frost is our advisor, she’s nice once you get to know her, and Miss Moonstar runs the New Mutants- they’re kinda our rivals? I mean, we don’t actually hate them that much, but they’re the second-best squad in the school, so we have to beat them, you know? And Mr. Summers teaches English, and Logan does the Danger Room.”
An unheard reply.
“Logan’s pretty cool, honestly. Maybe that’s where you get it from. I mean, I guess you get everything from him, but- still.”
An unheard reply, again, but this time Keller sat up, dragging on some shirt that definetely did not belong to him.
“What do you mean, someone’s- what?”
Mutter, mutter, mutter.
Julian made his way to the door and Nori bolted, landing in her desk in Hank’s class, breathing hard.
“I think Logan has a kid,” she hissed to David.
“Doesn’t he have like fifty?”
“Not those, though- there’s a new kid on the Hellions, you were right! And Keller said-”
“Miss Ashida, do you have something you’d like to share with the class?” Hank asked. Nori leaned back in her desk.
“Nope.”
“Please refrain from conversation, then.”
David passed her a note under the desk the second their teacher turned around.
Meet me in the records room at four.
-
The records room held every file ever collected on the X-men. It was enclosed, encrypted, and made completely unhackable.
But David, god bless him, had stood in a room with Kitty Pryde and proceeded to write down every password and code he found in her head.
They were in the folders after two minutes. David pulled up Logan’s and Nori leaned over his shoulder to see- most of it was redacted, but David scrolled and scrolled and-
“Holy shit,” Nori whispered. “David. If Logan’s got a clone and said clone is aHellion-”
David finished the sentence for her. “We’re fucked.”
-
Nori assembled the troops and banged on the Hellions’ door twenty minutes later.
Julian opened it, eyes narrowed. “What do you want, Ashida?”
“We know you’ve got a newbie and we know they’re Logan’s kid, Keller, you can’t do that-”
“Why not?” He asked cooly. “Who said we got a newb, anyway? You weren’t spying, were you, Nori?”
“Shut up. If you’ve got seven, our teams aren’t matched, that isn’t fair and you fucking know it-”
Cruz came up to the door, cocking his head. “This isn’t on account of fair. It’s on account of our friend needing a squad. That’s it.”
“Bri!” Julian whined. “I was trying to convince them we didn’t have a newbie, come on-”
“Like that secret’s gonna last long, anyway. Come on, let’s just get it over with.”
“But Laura’s barely managing with just us-”
“I know, but, like-”
They seemed to have completely forgotten about the New Mutants, engaged in a squabble of half-sentences and complicated looks. Jay coughed into his hand and they both looked up.
“Fine,” they chorused, Brian stepping forward and grabbing Julian’s hand. “Give us a second.”
The door closed in their face.
A couple minutes later, Cessily opened it- had all the Hellions been there the whole time?- glaring at them. “Come in.”
The wall had been broken down in the middle of the room, leaving enough room for six cots in total. Santo was sitting on his own, keeping an eye on them; Kevin, Brian, Cessily and Julian remained standing; Sooraya and the new kid sat on the one farthest from the door.
Damn, they looked like Logan- wide eyes, choppy hair. The only difference was their height- they were a full head taller than Sooraya, hand clenched in hers.
“Laura,” Cessily said, leaving the door an inch open, “these are the New Mutants.”
-