>Hannah< I guess I've been avoiding these for a while. Knew you'd catch me one of these days. So I'll start from the beginning. Mom: Katherine Pryde. Dad: Pete Wisdom. They got my dad when I was five. I really don't remember much about him. Tiny pictures that race across my mind time to time. People used to say they didn't understand why mom married Pete in the first place. Said he wasn't the marrying type. Oh well. Love is strange. Love means letting go. That's why mom let me go and come here. Or at least that's what I had to tell myself. You remember when I came here, I thought it was because mom didn't love me anymore, like I had made some kind of mistake. Then I saw the others and realized it wasn't me. Still sometimes....never mind. Anyway, the clearest picture I have was of him was of his death. Mom had grabbed me and she dragged me into a secret trap door dad had put in the wall. I remember sitting in mom's lap, clutching her so tight, I'm shocked I didn't strangle her. We heard it, the whole shebang. But when we came out, that is what was hard. At first, mom wouldn't let me come out and see the brutalized body, but I walked out anyway. Mom was hovering over him, still trying to kiss him...I think...maybe...I don't know. I could be off, I was five, you know. After that, mom watched over me like a hawk, afraid they'd take me too and then she'd be alone. Taught me everything she knew...computers...physics...the works. At seven, I was already taking apart and assembling computers. Maybe because mom loved me so much, is why it's so hard to let go.

Hannah, you're supposed to be explaining how you got here.

>Hannah< Sorry. Sabine told me that you wanted to all the details. Well, I'm not quite sure. Obviously it took me a bit longer than the others. I was the fifth, just before Alyce. Mom had given me directions on my palm pilot, but I didn't really expect to get here. Thought I had lost my parents, I had lost their love. No one cared what happened to me anymore, so why should I care. I was constantly being chased, but I was too quick to be caught. Eventually, I used my palm pilot (which mom had programmed with lots of extra goodies) to transmit a computer virus into my chip. I'm glad I didn't have to cut it out like Sabine, could you imagine, taking a blade to your own wrist? I'm not squeamish, but I have a hard time being masochistic...not that I'm saying Sab's a masochist, but you know what I mean. Anyway, I was wandering through New York City one day, and then I saw three kids. Bullies. They were so much bigger than me...or at least it seemed that way at the time...they were prob ably only about fifteen, but I was eight then, so what do you expect? They threatened me...called me a mutant. I didn't realize at the time that bullies called all runaways mutants. I was so scared! But then, I heard a gruff voice behind me.

"Don't mess with the girl, bub!" He wasn't very tall, but he was strong. His skin was of medium tone. I guess you know who it was. Amit. The boys laughed at him, calling him shrimp, but I tell you, they messed with the wrong mutant! Amit pulverized 'em! He took me here, knowing no better place for me. I was eight at the time, and it was the year after Amit, Sabine and Tyler had come. Mike had come back three months before, making me the fifth. Soon after, my mutant powers evolved, slowly at first. Even when I was little, I was bothered by the cold a little more than most. It sounds strange, I know, that the extra heat in my body allowed me to become colder easier, but it makes sense when you know your physics. It's just like you explained it to me, Professor X, my natural body temperature is one hundred two degrees Fahrenheit. Since heat travels automatically to anything colder to try and equalize the temperatures, and my heat is so much higher than the typical temperature on earth, I loose much more heat than most people. So I colder easier. But when I reached the mansion, you see, it all came quickly. I could concentrate how much heat I gave to the air around me, sometimes so much things lit on fire! And that's how I became PyroKat. End of story. Is that all you want to know? Because I could talk more if you....

No...that will be fine. >Interview Session Terminated<

In the dark, cold, unforgiving red light, four figures sat huddled together behind a dumpster, having become slim shadows of their former selves. They gathered around a thin woman, her matted hair hanging limply around her weak body. A man with his hand on her shoulder fearfully glanced up at a small flame under glass, high up on a wall that was topped with many flames of the same kind. This flame danced and flickered weakly, as if pondering to end its struggle and burn out. A small plaque by this torch read #J2432223GS.

"Don't squander what power you have left," he whispered gently though obvious fear echoed on his face.

"I...couldn't reach him," the woman gasped, "he didn't want to be reached....he was too afraid...."

"It's alright," the man whispered, "you tried."

"How much flame do I have left?" the woman asked weak from her exertion and fear.

"Not much, I'm afraid. Don't worry. I won't loose you."

She grasped his hand, and leaned onto his shoulder. "I can feel it leaving me. If my power leaves me...then..."

"Shh...I won't let them take you."

She glimpsed back to the third person there, another man.

"You...have...a bit of psychic powers, don't you?"

"Very little," the man was looking down, sighing.

"If...if...I were to help you...would you...could you....connect with one of them?"

"Could try."

The first man looked afraid, "We can't afford to loose either of you!"

The woman stared back at them, "Our only chance is to connect."

He sighed, "Do what you must."

The third figure and the woman concentrated together, working onto the astral plane in tiny steps, due to the lack of their power flowing through their blood stream. Slowly, carefully....

One connection was all they needed. One connection could save them.

In a cold sweat, Sabine awoke, still shivering in her crimson colored sheets. A dream. That was all. There were no candle flames, no shadowy half-dead figures. It was all right. She was all right. There were no shattered memories...no more nightmares. She looked across the room at the clock. Six AM. On her day off! She cursed under her breath. She had been trying to get some sleep, but it seemed the world would not will it. Rolling onto her side, she suddenly felt a surge of pain run up her right arm. Gently, she lifted it, feeling a throbbing in her wrist. She looked wide-eyed at the scar, which had now become blood red, as if it had somehow become two crossed gashes. Her X scar.

"Maybe Ah'm dreamn' dis too," she whispered, and rolled over, falling asleep again.

"Don' doubt your path, pet't. You've been given your sign, you're where you belong."

"Papa!" Sabine was suddenly staring at a couple of angels with the visages of her parents. Or were they spirits. Wingless, clothed in torn brown cloaks, her fathers longish red hair clinging to the sides of his stubble-covered face with sweat, her mother's auburn and white-striped curls in disarray, hanging all over the place, longer than her body and drifting all over Sabine's room. Despite their state of disarray, they were beautiful.

The scar on her arm flashed red and then pink, red and then pink, burning more and more with each flash stinging like a thousand needles.

"Maman! Papa! Why does it hurt? Why does my path hurt?"

"Sugah...we'll be at the otha side. When ya get to Xavier's, your poppa an' Ah will be there. Here, take this."

"But Maman...dat's your wedding ring..." Sabine echoed the very words she had spoken when she spoke to her mother at the age of nine.

The mother spirit did not seem to hear. "Take this and don't loose it. When you need me, look at it."

Sabine subconsciously looked down at where the tiny gold band hang on its shinning golden chain around her neck, dangling just above her chest. When she looked up at where the two spirits were, she saw them fading away.

"Papa! Papa! Don' leave me alone again! Papa! Maman! Maman! Please! I don't want to be alone any more! Maman! Don't let me be alone anymore! Don't leave me alone! Papa! Maman!"

A dull, sharp pang hit her head and rushed throughout her body...

"SABINE! SABINE!" A voice called.

She opened her eyes. Suddenly, she realized she was no longer on her bed, but had tumbled down on to the scantily carpeted floor below.

"Sabine! Are you alright?" Hannah, who had the dorm right next to her, looked in fear.

"Ah had the dream again," she whispered.

"What dream?"

"Never mind! Go back to bed."

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"Outa mah room!" Sabine cried, nearly screaming in a mix of fear, furry, and sorrow. When Hannah left, she sat on her bed and cried. She didn't even think of going back to sleep.

***

The water washed around her like clean, fresh rain, and just about as cold. Hannah had little tolerance for cold. With the extra heat her body generated, allowing her to create the fire, which she wielded so proudly in battle, it was a lot easier to for her body temperature to drop, because most temperatures were cooler than normal body heat. Still, there was not enough hot water in the shower to heat the water up to the preferable hundred degrees, at least not enough for the duration of an entire shower.

Sighing, she reached a pale hand up to the metal showerhead, heating it up a considerable amount. Better. Much better. She squeezed the bottle of vanilla-scented shower gel, squirting rainbow-tinted bubbles into the air. Laughing, she popped one of them, spreading the vanilla aroma everywhere.

People often told her that she was like a bubble, a bubble of energy. She was always talking, be it on IM or in person, showing spirit. Unlike the other residents of the X-Mansion, it was not a matter of "if" they would ever defeat the hunters and start a new era of peace; it was "when". However, she wasn't always so happy. She missed her mother, and she felt bad about it. She missed her mother many more times than her father, simply because she had little memory of him, except that she had loved him. But her mother had held onto her like a prayer, and Hannah had become very attached to her mother. Too attached to let go. But in truth, she believed in the cause, and believed in its success. She believed in the Neo-X-Men. However, she knew she may not be a part of them for long. With the lack of older girls, a thirteen-year-old with the strength to lead with inspiration was valuable. Soon, she might become the leader of a new team, or an already existing team that mostly featured nine or ten year olds, like the newest one: Extreme.

Truly, she did not want to leave the Neo-X-Men, especially not Amit who had become her mentor throughout the years.

"Hannah, Sugah! Ah need some hot watah too, ya know!" Sabine, who shared a bathroom with Hannah, called.

"Sorry Sabs! I'll be out in a jiff!"

Shutting off the water, Hannah grabbed one of her fluffy blue towels and exited the bathroom, rushing quickly to her dorm to change.

It was nine thirty - a full half hour before breakfast, which everyone was usually late for on the days after missions, but Hannah was never one to sleep in. She shivered uncontrollably as she removed the towel, although the temperature of her dorm was set constantly at a temperature that was comfortable to her cold-sensitive body. Slipping on a pair of sparkling flared jeans and a tight blue shirt the had "Famous" written in silver letters across the front, she heated up the air around her head, drying her hair quickly, and then started down the stairs to breakfast.

Only she, Amit and Sabine were early risers, and they all sat together at their accustomed table for their team. Sabine wore a pair of tight, black jeans and a white tank top with a playing card in the center. The queen of hearts. Her long, freshly wetted curls were tied back in a pony tale.

"Well if it isn't the flamn' cat herself," Amit commented as she walked over to them.

"Funny. Good morning to ya too, Amit. Morning Sabs!"

"Morn'." Sabine said, still not seeming to be quite awake, "Ah feel so silly bein' up so early on mah day off."

"Join the club," Hannah said good-naturedly swinging around into the seat between Sabine and Amit.

"What's the eats today?" Amit asked.

"Think today's an oatmeal day," Hannah groaned.

"Damn! We deserve pancakes for yesterday's work!" Amit scowled.

"Ya said it, sugah," Sabine groaned.

The bowls of mush topped with maple syrup and ripe strawberries were placed before them and they ate, secretly pleased. An entire day where there was nothing to do was heaven for the eldest group. Usually, they were training the younger X-teams, training themselves, or out on a mission. Today was theirs, all theirs. They relished the very idea. Their reward for finding more on the hunters than any other team in the past six years, all on one mission.

Laughing, they clinked orange juice glasses in a toast, drinking down the fruity, pulpy liquid with relish. It was going to be a beautiful day.

***

Extreme was the youngest team of X-children. Led by a ten-year old girl Naryce, aka Mischief with a shape-shifting ability. There were four others on the team. Tamara, age nine, aka Tigress, who was born with black tiger stripes over her otherwise normal skin, in addition to some dark orange stripes on her otherwise blond hair, and had several tiger-ish qualities as well. Ten-year-old Quixel, aka Harlequin, was a boy with the power to create patterns with light, and attack with it if he desired. Finally, there were the nine-year-old twins, Muriel and Marx, aka Artemis and Apollo. Possessing perhaps the most unique power, the twins could merge together into one being they called Celestia that had twice the strength, speed, and intelligence of an average human.

Despite their impressive powers, as a team they were quite weak. They had little strength and skill because they were new to their powers and lacked the experience of age. This is why Tyler was so surprised to see that team was out on a mission, especially since Tamara was still recovering from a broken leg acquired in the danger room. They were so little. Even worse, the mission was to scope out hunter activity on the George Washington bridge, long since abandoned as a trafic route, a well-known spot for hounds. Surely Professor Xavier would not trust such young children to go to such a dangerous place. There was even evidence to suggest that perhaps the GW bridge also served as a communication center with Mutant City. It couldn't be possible. It was a job for one of the older, more experienced teams like Neo-Excalibur, Neo-X-Factor, or even the Neo-X-Men themselves, but not Extreme.

"Don't worry," he told himself, "the professor knows what he's doing."

"Hey Tyler!" Alyce called, "We're looking to play soccer against Neo-Excalibur, ya up for it?"

"Be there in a sec, Aly!"

***

"Hallo Sabine!" Viktor, the fifteen-year-old captain of Neo-Excalibur called in his typical German accent. He looked rather like a blue-skinned daemon, with a tail and all, featuring soft, extremely human, pale hazel eyes. In addition to his appearance, he had the power to make "fetches" or temporary clones of whatever he desired.

"Bonjour!" Sabine said happily, coming over and giving him a friendly hug, much to Viktor's delight. Persyltha, a blond, short-haired girl the same age as Alyce (14) with the power to control all flora, eyed her suspiciously. Sabine looked back at her and shrugged simply, as if she had committed no wrong.

Fugio, a tall, thirteen-year-old Japanese boy gifted with extreme speed, strength, and endurance, practiced bouncing the ball from knee to knee and hitting it up in the air, never missing a shot.

"Hey Mike! Catch this!" he called, as Mike headed the ball so that it conveniently landed on twelve-year-old Sylvia's head. The Latin-American girl stared at him in mock horror. "¡quitate!" she screamed for them to stop. She looked at them menacingly with her silver eyes, only part of her mutation. She could turn herself into any form of matter she chose.

Fourteen-year-old Ross giggled at her furry, only narrowly miss the soccer ball being chucked at him by a very annoyed Sylvia. He only missed due to his power of predicting the future, and thanked his lucky stars for it.

"Can we just play already?" Lance, thirteen, called out, smoothing the porcupine quills over his back.

"I'm ready!" Amit called from inside the goal, his massive stance making him a virtual wall. Sabine walked nearby, assuming her position as fullback next to Mike. There were not enough players for there to be half backs, so Tyler, Alyce and Hannah stepped to the line to play forward.

As center, Tyler stood face to face with Viktor, the captains of the teams both conveniently center forwards. To his left stood Fugio and Sylvia to his right. Fullbacks were Lance and Ross with Persyltha in goal.

Tyler kicked off as they passed to each other, rushing down the field. Hannah aimed for the goal, and missed. A mighty kick from Lance sent the ball flying down the field, Viktor now in control, Sabine charging at him, furiously kicking at the ball, but at times setting her hard boot against his shins. Finally, she made contact with the ball and passed it to Alyce who passed to Tyler, who was set up center for the goal.

Hannah whooped a wild crazy victory cry and high-fived and hugged her teammates. Mike and Sabine rushed forward and greeted each of her teammates then rushed back into position for the kick off.

Viktor kicked off to Fugio, who passed back to him. Viktor grinned deviously, and then instead of one there were two balls flying across the field.

"Hey! No powers!" Mike cried, charging at what he hoped was the real ball.

He ran into mere air, tripping in surprise when his feet made no contact. Viktor laughed as he slammed the real ball into the goal.

"Damn you Viktor!" Amit growled.

Despite the seemingly tense situation, there was no hatred or even animosity between the two teams. The "fights" were in good nature, and the spirit of friendship.

Suddenly, a voice echoed in Tyler's head *Gather the team*.

"Man! Guys, the professor wants to see us!"

"Fuck! What now?" Amit growled.

***

The visage on the computer screen stared down on them once more.

"Extreme was sent out to the GW Bridge and it seems they've encountered more than they can handle."

"Standard rescue mission?" Tyler asked.

"Yes. Hurry and god speed!"

They rushed to the room where their black uniforms sat, lined up neatly in glass tubes. As they stepped in, a curtain dropped before them, and the team skillfully suited up before rushing to the blackbird. They hurried, for although it was a standard rescue mission, something in the air told them all that there was real danger. Perhaps it was because Extreme was so young. Or maybe it was something else...

***

"Mon Dieu!" Sabine whispered as they approached the scene. Tamara, whose leg was still weak from a recent breakage, stood in the center of a ring of hounds. Her team stood on the outside, attempting to attack the beasts, but their attempts were futile.

"This is Telepath of Neo-X-Men paging Tigress! Do you copy?" Tyler spoke into his communicator. His response was a bunch of sobs.

"Don't worry! We're coming for you! This is Shugotenshi of Neo-X-Men!" Alyce said soothingly. The Neos got in attack formation, surrounding the hounds. In their typical formation, the ring of hounds was farely easy to break through and get to Tamara. Hannah and Mike had burnt their way through, with Amit's sparks and Alyce's strength keeping them at bay.

Suddenly, like a piercing cry, a gun shot rang out, as Naryce, the captain of Extreme staggered backward.

"Narcie!" Muriel screamed, momentarily forgetting to address her teammates by their code names. The frightened girl separated from Celestio and rushed over to her leader.

"Get Down!" Amit yelled at the frightened, in-experienced Extreme members.

The children obediently dropped to the ground, army crawling closer to their elders for protection.

Tyler near panicked when he looked around. There they were, the hunters, at least a hundred of them armed with guns and hounds surrounding them like grinning cats around a mousetrap. The six ducked under the ring of fire.

"Amit! Is there anything you can do?" Hannah screamed, as a cold steal bullet wizzed past her face.

Sabine shut her eyes, her chin and hands scratched by the rough pavement below. She felt so hopeless. And as in her dream, her scar began to throb.

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