This is Forever!
" Today, everything changes. No more Squads! No more field day!" Emma said to the students.
" What? You can't be serious. We won't do it!" The three stepford sisters, Emma's daughters, all looked at the woman as if she was mad. Having seen clearly in her mind what she was planning.
" You all came here to learn how to use your powers and find your places in the world. Now, we will see what you have learned and where your place is." Emma explained. " There are two possibilities-- On the battlefield or on the sidelines. You will decide which. The exercise is simple. Every man for himself. Last students standing will train to be X-men... The rest do not." Emma explained. " Wallflower, Blindfold, Nezhno, Ernst. You are all excused." Emma declared.
" What? Because of my arm? I can still-" Laurie tried arguing.
" Leave now." Emma demanded.
Three of the students who were named all immediately left the room, along with the Stepford sisters, who refused to take part in the exercise.
" Wait, Miss Frost.... What about Kevin?" Cessily asked.
" Jay Guthrie is missing as well." Sooraya exclaimed.
" I could have sworn I saw Jay earlier." Josh said to himself. barely audible so no one else could hear him.
" Right now, I suggest you focus on the students in front around you." Emma told the kids.
" This is stupid, I don't belong here. Santo was right. My powers are useless in a fight." Josh spoke. He started to walk away but was stopped by Laurie, who was still waiting behind.
" You can do this, Josh. You've worked really hard to be here. Don't give up now." Laurie told the boy. " I have faith in you."
" Thanks, Laurie." Josh told the girl. Having her support made Josh feel like he might just be able to do it. So he stayed.
" I swear if you touch me with that tongue of yours, Victor, I will crumble it." Loa told Victor.
" We'll see about that." Victor replied.
" This is the greatest day of my life." Santo said to Onyx as he fist bumped the other rock boy.
" I hear that." Onyx replied.
" Uh, hold up. I'm glad everyone seems excited about this. But are you absolutely insane?" Ian asked Frost. " At a time like this, we're fighting ourselves. How does that make sense. Why should whoever the strongest students are be chosen for X-men? And more importantly... Does Mister Summers know about this?" Ian asked the woman.
" None of that matters right now. The only thing that does is making sure that those of you who are chosen to represent the future of our race are strong enough to shoulder the burden. Nothing more and nothing less. If it bothers, you so much then you are free to leave mister Sinclair. No one has to stay. But those of you who do want to be X-men will stay. May the best men win." Emma explained to everyone present.
Ian hesitated for a moment and in that moment, almost all the students in the room turned towards him and Laura ran to his side.
" Guys, no.... No!" Ian exclaimed.
' Hellion.' Emma spoke to Julian telepathically. ' Whatever it takes, I want X-23 and Sinclair taken out first. Is that clear?' Emma told the boy.
Julian looked over at the two and then felt a slight pain in his head.
' Is that a problem?' Emma asked the boy.
' No....' Julian replied.
' What was that?' Emma asked again.
' No, it's not a problem.' Julian told the woman.
" BEGIN!" Emma yelled.
All the students who had turned their attention to the two immediately attacked them.
Ian grabbed Laura and jumped backwards to avoid the first wave of students.
" What's wrong with you guys?!" Ian asked.
" Sorry, man. No hard feelings. But I want to be an X-man, dude. And you're the biggest threat. So..." Victor told the boy. He lashed out at Ian with his tongue, but Ian grabbed it and swung victor around.
" Come on, guys. I don't want to do this." Ian said to the boy. He released his tongue and flung him across the room, making him hit the wall hard. " Shit."
Ian was immediately overcome by the sheer number of students attacking him.
Hit in the face by Match's fire. Pounding on by Onyx, Armor and Santo, and even Noriko had hit him with a large charge of electricity.
All of it was beginning to be too much for Ian.
" Fine! You want to do this?" Ian yelled. He raised his hands into the air and slammed them together creating a shockwave that sent those standing around him flying backwards. Ian stood up from the ground and looked around at the others. " Still wanna fight?" Iana sked.
The students looked amongst themselves and immediately started attacking each other. Figuring that it would be better to avoid Ian as much as possible.
" Are you okay?" Laura asked.
" No, I'm not. Frost is going to pay for this. But at least there is some silver lining... In a way, this is what I wanted. I wanted a chance to be an X-man. This is it. Can you beat them without hurting them too badly?" Ian asked the girl.
" Yes." Laura replied.
" Then do it. The sooner this is over the better." Ian told the girl.
Ian ran into the crowd of students, immediately slamming into Armor, and taking her out of the fight. His next target was Victor. He grabbed the boy by his arm and tossed him into Bing.
Meanwhile, Laura had taken it to a few of the students herself. Already having taken out both Max and Ben with a few punches and kicks to the face. She next found herself being attacked by Santo. The giant rock boy raised his arms over his head, but before he could hit Laura, the girl cut one of his arms off with her foot claw.
" Oh man. That's so not cool." Santo told the girl.
Laura tried to move away from the boy, but suddenly found herself unable to move.
' Can't move dear?' Emma asked Laura telepathically. ' That's a shame. Hellion.' Emma spoke.
Out of the corner of his eye, Ian noticed that Laura wasn't moving.
" Laura what are you doing?!" Ian asked the girl as he held Cessily and Megan at bay. " Come on, girls. I love you both so much. Please, can't you just fight each other for a moment?" Ian asked.
" Sorry, Ian, but I need to win." Megan told the boy.
" Yeah, what she said." Cessily exclaimed.
Ian looked over at Laura and saw that she was being attacked by Onyx.
" Damn, sorry girls. But my friend needs me." Ian told the two girls. He spun around, throwing both of them to the side gently, and jumped towards Laura. " Gotcha!" Ian just barely managed to avoid a collison between Onyx and Julian, as he swooped Laura u into his arms. " Hey there, gorgeous. Good day for a save?" Ian asked the girl playfully.
" Yes, thank you." Laura replied.
" What happened?" Ian asked the girl. Laura looked up towards Emma and that said enough for Ian. " I see, stick close to me okay. Don't leave my side." Ian told the girl.
" Okay." Laura replied.
Ian and Laura landed on the ground and looked around at the remaining students.
" Enough!" Emma yelled, clearly looking down disappointedly at Hellion, who had hesitated in attacking Laura. " Mercury, Dust, Elixir, Rockslide, Hellion, and Surge. You six will go on to train as the New X-men. The rest of you I will address later." Emma spoke.
" She picked four hellions... There's a shocker." Hisako stated as she got to her feet.
Ian immediately felt disrespected by how Emma had blatantly excluded Laura and himself from the pool, since they both took down multiple students by themselves. However, before he could speak his dismay, The three stepford sisters returned to the danger room with Scott summers right behind them.
" Don't you mean eight, Emma?" Scott asked the woman. " You forgot to Include Laura and Ian. Oh, and we will be discussing this later." Scott told the woman.
Ian felt an immediate pleasure in seeing Scott grill Emma in front of him. And the look on the woman's face made it all that better.
" There will be an assembly in the auditorium in fifteen minutes for all mutant students. Oh and by the way Mr. Keller.... Surge is now team leader." Emma told the boy, stripping him of his title out of rage.
" What?!" Both Julian and Noriko exclaimed.
The two looked around at their teammates in shock.
" Oh, this is going to suck." Josh complained. And rightfully so, the new X-men were comprised of the two teams that hated each other the most.
" Only if we don't work together." Ian told the boy. " I won't ask, why you attacked Laura, Julian. But I hope that it never happens again. Come on Laura. Let's go to this stupid meeting." Ian said to the girl. And Laura, of course, followed Ian out of the room. Staying as close to him as she could without touching him.
" Are you okay, Laura?" Ian asked the girl.
" Yes, thank you Ian." Laura told the boy.
" Hey, what are friends for am I right? You would have done the same for me." Ian spoke. He smiled at Laura and kept on walking.
......
Fifteen minutes later, the entire mutant student body gathered within the auditorium in front of both Scott and Emma and a few of the other X-men including Rogue, Iceman, Bishop, Colossus, Shadowcat, and Beast.
" Look around you. This is all that remains." Emma spoke. " Many of you only know the world where mutants thrived and were on the rise. Where we influenced culture, built our own cities and even a country. A world where we numbered in the millions and Charles Xavier's dream was finally within our reach... The world we knew is gone and with it most of our hope for survival. You are at your childhood's end. You are mutants in a world that hates and fears you. It's time to grow up." Emma explained. " The remaining human students that haven't left already will board a bus in forty-five minutes to take them someplace safe. If you want to say goodbye, now is your chance." Emma explained. She then stepped down from the podium and the students began murmuring amongst themselves.
.....
Eventually the allotted forty-five minutes came to pass and the students who were no longer mutants were being herded onto a bus, which was being looked after by the few X-men who were there.
" I'm going to miss you Callie. Stay safe." Ian told the former dryad.
" I'm going to miss you guys." Callie replied as she stepped onto the bus.
The next up to board was Brian, one of Ian's closest friends.
" I'm so sorry, man. I tried to fight for you guys. But Summers wouldn't listen." Ian told the boy as he hugged him.
" I'm gonna miss you guys, man. I really don't want to go." Brian told the boy.
" I'm gonna miss you too, man. I'm gonna miss you so much. Make sure you call me and let me know you guys are safe, wherever it is you're going, do you hear me man?" Ian told the boy.
" I hear you, man. I will."
Ian and Brian were both on the verge of tears.
" I love you, Brother." Ian told the boy. He placed his forehead to Brian's and spoke.
" I love you too, Brother." Brian replied.
Ian let Brian go and the boy boarded the bus, the last one to do so.
" Later Brian." Julian said to the boy.
" Later." Brian replied.
And with that the bus began to pull off.
Julian, Cessily, Noriko, Josh,Ian, Laura, and Santo all watched as the bus departed. But before they could go inside a series of loud noises rang out throughout the school grounds.
* PAFF! PAFF! PAFF!
Laura immediately recognized the noise and turned around.
" AMBUSH!!!" Laura yelled.
The entire group turned around and looked as two rockets raced towards the bus.
The students on the bus, could clearly see what was happening and all of them were terrified.
" Oh, no." Brian muttered.
Ian ran as fast as he could towards the bus, exploding forward from his position. He felt his heart pounding and his blood pumping. He could feel the lump in his throat growing and the butterflies in his stomach churning. The world around him slowed down to a single blur a second.
He jumped into the air and managed to swat away grab both of the rockets in his hands. But before he could celebrate his save another, unseen, rocket appeared right in front of his chest. Ian looked behind him at the bus as it passed along. And the last thing he saw, before the fire were the terrified faces of all his friends. And a single tear fell down his face.
* KRAC-BOOOM!
This is Forever! A Childhoods End.