"I, uh... I call it Cerebro," Hank said as the group all stood inside the small dome shaped building that was supposed to help them find more mutants. "You. . ." Charles chuckled softly.
"As in the Spanish for 'brain,'" Hank explained once he saw the confused look on the twins faces. "Yes," Charles said as he looked around in amazement.
"Okay, so, uh, the electrodes connect Charles to the transmitter on the roof," Hank explained as he pointed towards the helmet in the middle of the room that had a bunch of wires connected to it. "When he picks up a. . ." Hank cleared his throat. "Mutant, his brain sends a signal through a relay, and then coordinates of their location are printed out here."
"You designed this?" Raven asked. "Yeah," Hank breathed out. The twins smiled widely. "You're so cool!" Andrew exclaimed making Hank blush slightly. He wasn't used to so much attention and the fact the twins seemed to love him was something he was definitely not used to.
"Can I try?" Jennifer asked. Hank chuckled and looked down at the girl. "Let's let Charles try it out first, okay?" Hank said. Jennifer frowned, but nodded her head. "Okay," she whispered.
Jennifer turned and watched as Charles pulled the Cerebro helmet down onto his head. "What an adorable lab rat you make, Charles," Erik told him. "Don't spoil this for me, Erik," Charles said. "Oh. I've been a lab rat. I know one when I see one," Erik replied.
"Okay. Great," Hank muttered as he checked the helmet on Charles' head. "Are you sure we can't shave your head?" Hank asked. Jennifer let out a small snicker at that while Charles frowned.
"Don't touch my hair."
"Okay," Hank walked over to one of the panels on the side of the room and pressed some buttons while Charles closed his eyes. The lights in the room began to dim and Jennifer hesitantly brought a hand up before placing it one Charles' arm. She closed her eyes as well as Charles allowed her to see into his mind and see what he was seeing.
Charles and Jennifer's eyes both shot open at the same time as they let out a loud gasp. Andrew was by his sister's side almost instantly but she waved him off. Her eyes were flickering all around her as she stared off in a daze.
She could see everything that Charles was seeing and the sight of all of the mutants who were just like her and her brother was enough to make her smile with tears in her eyes. Her parents had made them feel awful for being different, but seeing that there were so many like them out there made some of that pain go away.
"It's working," Jennifer whispered out while they all looked to her and Charles. She slowly brought her hand down and blinked away the fog from her eyes as she turned to her brother and Erik who was standing behind him.
Her eyes flickered between the two before she said, "There's more of us." She reached out and gripped onto her brother's hand. "We're not alone."
- - -
After having received a list from Cerebro of all of the mutants that Charles could find, him and Erik left to go and recruit as many as they could. The twins hadn't wanted to be left behind, but after much discussion and Charles assuring them that Raven and Hank would watch over them, they agreed to stay.
Raven and the twins grew pretty close over the time that Charles and Erik were gone. Andrew even got to the point where he didn't even try pretending like he hated her and would crack a smile every once in a while, something that he only ever did around Hank and, on occasion, Erik. Jennifer loved the blonde and the fact that all of her visions were staring to come true made her the happiest that she had been in a long time.
After a week of finding different recruits, Charles and Erik finally returned with four other mutants, all of whom Jennifer had seen in her visions that she had had before finding them.
She hadn't gotten to officially meet them yet seeing as the adults had been trying to keep them out of the way. Charles and Erik had already made a point to tell the twins that they weren't going to fight, so they thought it would be best for them to stay out of the way.
Jennifer and Andrew weren't too happy about that, but didn't object due to the fact that they had just started to like being here with the others and didn't want to be kicked out. So Jennifer and Andrew spent their time in the room they were given or out on the lawn and would hang out with Hank and Raven every once in a while before Charles and Erik spent the evenings with them.
It became a small routine and Jennifer didn't necessarily hate it. She just wished she could meet the others.
It didn't help that she couldn't see when she would be able to meet them. Ever since she had helped to save Erik that one night, Jennifer hadn't been getting visions. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, she wasn't really sure. She just tried not to think much of it.
"Jen," a voice said snapping Jennifer out of her thoughts. The red head looked up from where she was sitting on the lawn of the government property to see her brother standing there. "Oh, hi, Andy," she greeted as she gave him a small smile.
Andrew smiled softly and walked over to her. "Raven and Hank told us to come on inside. We get to officially meet the other mutants today," he told her. Jennifer's face lit up at that. "Really? But Charles and Erik-" she started.
"According to Raven, Charles and Erik aren't here," Andrew said with a small smirk. "She wants us to meet the others while we have the chance. Apparently they've been dying to meet us."
Andrew then held a hand out for his sister. She grinned and took his hand as he helped her up off the ground. "You think they'll like us?" Jennifer asked. "How can't they? We are Jennifer and Andrew Mills," Andrew told her. Jennifer rolled her eyes with a small chuckle as her and her twin made their way across the lawn and into the building where Raven was waiting for them at the entrance.
Jennifer smiled at the sight of Raven and gave her a quick hug in greeting. "Jennifer," Raven said. "Excited to meet the others?" "You bet!" the red head exclaimed happily making Raven chuckle.
"Good. They sure are excited to meet you especially Sean. Said he wants to meet his fellow red heads," Raven told her. She then guided them down a few hallways and into a courtyard. Jennifer could see the group of mutants sitting with Hank through a window on the other side of the courtyard.
She felt Andrew's hand lightly grab onto her wrist before a wave of calm washed over her. "Thanks," Jennifer whispered as she gave her brother a small smile which he returned.
Raven stopped by the door that led to the room before making sure that the twins were behind her. As soon as they had caught up, she gave them a reassuring smile and opened the door.
"Look who's here," Raven announced as she walked into the room with the twins trailing behind her. All eyes were then trained on the twins and Jennifer gave them all a nervous smile as she waved.
"Awe, aren't you two just adorable!" the only other girl in the room besides Raven and Jennifer exclaimed as she waved them over. "I'm Angel Salvadore," she greeted.
Andrew glanced to his sister only to find her standing there nervously. He knew it probably had to do with the fact that she hadn't been able to see the outcome of them meeting, so he went ahead and spoke for them. "I'm Andrew Mills," He said. He then gestured towards Jennifer. "This is my sister, Jennifer."
"You two are twins, right?" a voice asked and they looked to see another red head sitting on the couch and practically bouncing up and down in joy. "Yes," Jennifer replied nervously. "Cool! And red heads! We should make a club," he told them. "Oh, I'm Sean Cassidy by the way."
"They don't want to join your stupid club," an African American man told Sean as he chuckled softly. He then looked to the twins. "Ignore him. I'm Armando Muñoz, but everyone calls me Darwin."
Jennifer smiled before looking to the last person in the room, a blonde haired man who looked rather grumpy. He merely nodded his head slightly in greeting before saying, "Alex Summers."
"And you already know me and Hank, so that's everybody! Jen, Andy, why don't you two go ahead and sit down and we can talk and get to know each other?" Raven suggested and everyone nodded. Andrew took the seat next to Hank while Jennifer sat down next to Sean who high fived her.
"Okay, so I was thinking," Raven began. "Uh oh," Andrew muttered jokingly. "Little dangerous, don't you think?" Jennifer asked as she smiled.
Raven sent a playful glare in their direction while everyone else chuckled. Well, everyone except for Alex whose only sign of amusement came from the corners of his mouth turning up slightly. "I like these kids already," Sean said.
"As I was saying. I was thinking and we should think of code names," Raven told them. "We're government agents now. We should have secret code names. I want to be called Mystique."
"Damn! I wanted to be called Mystique," Sean whined making them all chuckle. "Well, tough. I called it," Raven said. Then, before anyone knew what was happening, the Raven they knew was replaced by another version of Sean. Sean let out a shriek of surprise while everyone else watched in amazement.
"Whoa!" Jennifer exclaimed as she looked back and forth between the two Seans. "And I'm way more mysterious than you," Raven said in Sean's voice. Sean instantly began to clap while the others joined in.
"Darwin, what about you?" Raven asked. "Well, uh, Darwin's already a nickname, and, you know, sort of fits. Adapt to survive and all. Check this out," he told them before he stood up.
They watched as he walked over to the fish tank in the room before putting his head in the water. Fish gills suddenly grew on the side of his head and Jennifer's jaw dropped in shock.
"Whoo!" Sean yelled out. "Whoa!" Raven said before they all began to cheer and laugh. "Thank you. Thank you," Darwin said as he pulled his head out of the tank. "Yeah, I think Darwin works," Andrew said making the others laugh.
"That's incredible," Sean complimented. "What about you?" Darwin asked him "I'm going to be. . ." Sean trailed off as he looked at the ground. He thought about it for a minute before smiling and saying, "Banshee."
"Why do you want to be named after a wailing spirit?" Hank asked. "You might want to cover your ears," Sean said. He then looked to Jennifer and pointed a finger at her and she quickly put her hands over her ears with a smile. He then looked to Andrew who did the same thing.
Sean stood up from his seat and walked over to the table in the center of the room. He then bent down and in front of three glasses while the others covered their ears. He did a quick whistle that was loud and high pitched, but the sound missed the glasses and instead hit the window behind them making the window break almost instantly.
Everyone laughed while Sean stared at the window confused. "How'd I miss that?" Sean asked. He then shook his head and looked to Angel with a smile. "Your turn."
"My, uh, stage name is Angel," she said as she stood up. She took her jacket off and they watched as wings appeared out of her back. "Kind of fits."
"You can fly?" Jennifer asked excitedly. "Uh-huh. And, um. . ." Angel then spit a fire ball from her mouth which hit the statue outside. Everyone laughed while Darwin muttered, "I'm turned on and disgusted."
"What's your name?" Angel asked Hank. Andrew sat up at that and was practically bouncing with joy as he said, "The name has to be super cool to match Hank's mutation!" Hank, who had been a little embarrassed, calmed down at Andrew's excitement for his powers and smiled at the kid.
"How about Bigfoot?" Alex asked. Hank's smile disappeared while Andrew, Raven, and Jennifer glared at the boy. "Not funny," Jennifer practically growled at the guy.
"Well, you know what they say about guys with big feet. And, uh, yours are kind of small," Raven retorted making the twins look at each other confused, not undertaking what she meant by that. "Okay, now," Darwin said while Alex looked embarrassed.
Alex then winced as he felt like he was in pain. his head was throbbing and he had to close his eyes for a second, but when he opened them he noticed that Andrew was still looking at him. As soon as Andrew looked away, the pain as gone. "What the hell did you just do?" Alex asked both in anger and in fascination.
"I can manipulate emotions which includes pain," Andrew said with a small shrug. He then looked to Alex. "Say something rude to Hank again and you won't just feel the pain of a small headache, got it?"
"Ooooh," Darwin said as he and the others laughed. "A nine year old just told you off," Sean laughed. Alex just rolled his eyes before taking a sip of his drink.
"So you can manipulate emotions?" Sean asked the boy. Andrew nodded. He looked to Angel and before anyone knew what was happening, she was crying hysterically. Then, as soon as it had started, the crying stopped and Angel was smiling again. "Well that was a rollercoaster of emotions," Angel muttered. "Literally."
Andrew chuckled and gave her an apologetic look. "I can also control the air and I'm pretty strong," Andrew told them. "How strong?" Alex asked curiously. Andrew smirked and stood up. They watched as he walked out into the courtyard before he used the air to lift himself up off the ground.
He then fell to the ground and punched it causing the ground to practically break under his hand until there was a huge dent. The whole floor shook and they all tried to steady themselves before looking to the kid in amazement.
"How come the kid has cooler mutations than me?" Sean frowned.
Andrew just smiled and glanced at his sister before nodding at her, a signal for her to tell them about her powers. "I. . .I'm a telepath?" Jennifer said as she looked to Hank to make sure she had used the right word. He nodded slightly and she smiled and looked to the others.
"You can read minds?" Darwin asked. "Yeah, and right now, the loudest mind is Sean who keeps thinking about how he wants to get t-shirts for our red head club," Jennifer said while Sean suddenly looked at her with wide eyes. "Oh my gosh, you can read minds! Sean exclaimed.
"I can also see the future," she told them. "Can you see when the girl I met at the aquarium will call me back?" Sean asked. "Dude, she's not calling," Alex said making the others stifle back a laugh.
"Oh, and I can do this," Jennifer said before she held her hand up and shot a blast of red energy at the statue, instantly knocking the head off. Everyone's jaws dropped and they turned to see the girl who had red energy swirling around her hand. The red disappeared and they all clapped.
"Both of them have better powers than me!" Sean whined. Raven rolled her eyes before saying, "Ignore him. I think I have the perfect names for you two. I was thinking Omen for Jennifer since she can see the future and stuff and then Empathy for Andrew since he can manipulate emotions.
"Omen and Empathy," Hank muttered. "I like it." The others all nodded their heads in agreement. "What do you two think?" Raven asked the twins. "We love it!" Jennifer exclaimed, voicing both her opinion and her brother's opinion which she had been able to hear.
"Alex, what is your gift? What can you do?" Darwin asked. "Uh, it's not, um. . .Um, I just can't do it. I can't do it in here," Alex told them as he scratched his neck nervously.
"Can you do it out there?" Darwin asked as he pointed towards the courtyard. "Why don't you just do it out there?" Raven asked. "Andrew did it," Sean pointed out.
"Come on," Sean and Angel both said. "Alex," Darwin said as he began to clap. The others then joined in in chanting Alex's name. "Alex! Alex! Alex! Alex! Alex! Alex! Alex!" They exclaimed, each time getting faster.
Alex sighed and got up from his seat. "All right!" Sean exclaimed. "That's the spirit," Darwin told him as the boy walked by. Jennifer frowned when she saw the not so pleased look on Alex's face. "Get down when I tell you," Alex muttered as he walked away. He looked angry and tense and Jennifer frowned before putting a hand to her temple.
"No need to be afraid. It's a cool power," Jennifer whispered into his mind. The blonde looked back at her and she gave him a small smile. To her surprise, he smiled back before turning back around, this time less tense.
"Get down when I tell you," Sean mocked Alex. "I would listen to him," Jennifer said in a song song voice as she grabbed her brother and brought him over to the window.
They peaked their heads out, the others joint them. "Get back," Alex told them. They did as he said and leaned back only to peak their heads around the corner a moment later. "Get back!" Alex exclaimed. They didn't make a move and the boy huffed. "Whatever."
They then watched as he was suddenly surrounded by red rings. He moved his arm forward and the rings flew threw the air and sliced through the statue. Jennifer threw her hands up in the air and yelled, "Whoo!"
Alex smirked slightly while everyone else seemed to blink away their shock. Andrew was the next one to join in on the cheering despite not particularly liking Alex at the moment. The others quickly joined after that and Alex smiled at that fact that they seemed to like his powers.
The events that happened after that were a blur and soon enough they were all dancing and having fun while testing out each other's powers. Alex was busy slamming chairs on Darwin who kept adapting and preventing the chairs from hurting him. Angel flew around in the air while Hank was hanging upside down from the lights and Raven danced on the couch.
As for the red heads, Andrew was busy controlling the air so that it would hold Sean up in the air while said boy acted like he was flying through the air. Jennifer was giggling and kept sending small blasts at the boy while Andrew flew him around to avoid it.
Everyone except for Andrew and Jennifer, for obvious reasons, were drunk. The twins didn't care though since it just made the adults more fun to hang out with. Alex had just started hitting Darwin with a bat when they heard someone yell, "What are you doing?"
Everyone instantly fell quiet and the twins jumped around in surprise. Andrew lowered his hand, forgetting about Sean who fell to the ground with a groan. Andrew and Jennifer winced before looking back at Sean. "Sorry," Andrew whispered as they all turned back to who had just yelled at them.
Moira stood there angrily with Erik and Charles on either side of her. "Who destroyed the statue?" Moira asked as she pointed at the statute.
"It was Jennifer and Alex," Hank said almost instantly while the little girl and Alex turned to look at Hank in shock for having ratted them out. "No. Havok and Omen. We have to call Alex Havok. That's his name now. And Jennifer is Omen," Raven told them.
She then looked to Charles. "And we were thinking, you should be Professor X," she told him. Raven then looked to Erik with the same smile on her face. "And you should be Magneto."
"Exceptional," Erik muttered. His gaze fell on Andrew and Jennifer who instantly winced. "Andrew, Jennifer, let's go."
The twins sighed and nodded before starting to walk over to Erik. They looked back at their new friends who all gave them small sad smiles. "I'll send you two your t-shirts," Sean mouthed to them and they would've chuckled if Erik hadn't been looking at them with such disappointment.
They reached the man who then nodded his head towards the door. Jennifer and Andrew trudged behind the man until they entered an empty hallway. Erik then stopped and turned to look at the two with his arms crossed in front of his chest.
"We're sorry?" Jennifer whispered questioningly. Erik gave them a look and they looked to the ground. "You two were supposed to be in your room," Erik told them. "I thought Charles and I told you not to distract the others." "But we weren't!" Jennifer argued. Erik raised an eyebrow and the girl thought about it for a second before saying, "Okay, so maybe we were, but they were distracting us too!"
"We don't want to be pushed aside like we're anything but normal kids," Andrew suddenly blurted out. Erik looked down at the boy who was staring back at him angrily. "We have every right to talk to them if we want to."
"You don't even know them," Erik said. "We do now! And we wouldn't have if we stayed in the room like you wanted us to. We aren't just two little kids, okay? We're mutants, Erik, and we've been living on our own for over a year now. I think we know how to handle ourselves."
"Yeah, cause that's what that was out there," Erik muttered sarcastically. Andrew frowned and Jennifer winced at all of the harsh thoughts running through her brother's mind. "I think Charles and I are going to start keeping you away from Raven and Hank since it seems like they are helping feed the problem."
"You can't take away Hank and Raven from us," Jennifer frowned. "And you can't take away the others either. They are supposed to be our family just as much as you are."
"We're not your family," Erik reminded her and Jennifer visibly flinched at those words. "We're just some people that you met a week ago. You're not our responsibility and we are not a family."
Jennifer took a step back at that and Andrew could feel the sadness radiating off of her. His sister looked down at her feet and let out a small sniffle as she wiped at her eyes. Erik softened at that and a look of regret washed over his face. "Jen, I-" he started to say, but the girl had already rushed by him and down the hallway to who knows where.
Erik sighed and looked over at Andrew who was practically shaking in anger. "Andrew," Erik began, but the boy stoped him. "Don't," he said before he began to storm past him. "Andrew," Erik said more insistently as he grabbed the boy's arm.
"You're not our family, remember?" Andrew spat at him. He glared at the man before him and looked him up and down. "And you are definitely not our father." He then ripped his arm away from him. "So quit trying to act like you are and leave me and my sister alone."
And with that, Andrew went after his sister and left Erik standing by himself in the hallway.