You stood in a row, you, Charles, Erik and Raven admiring the model plane above you.

"You should see it in real life," a voice states as you watch a young man enter the room. He was quite skinny but tall, and he wore glasses. He was introduced to you four as Hank McCoy, and after a brief awkward outing, it was revealed that he was too a mutant. His mutation was that he had fingers for toes and he showed off a little by hanging upside down from the model plane.

—

Later that day, you sat and watched as Raven and Hank sat together talking. You weren't trying to eavesdrop, you were just bored.

"Hank, this cure... it won't affect our abilities right? Just appearance?" Raven asked. You knew that Raven was struggling with her appearance... but you didn't think she was going to try and change. This concerned and confused you. Why would anyone want to change their appearance? In your eyes, Raven was beautiful no matter what form she was in. So you didn't want her to change. You were soon startled from your train of thought by a deep voice behind you.

"Shame isn't it?" You flinched and turned around to see Erik stood behind you. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you,"

"What did you mean when you said 'shame isn't it?'"

"I meant that it's a shame that she wants to change herself in order to fit in," you turned back towards Raven.

"I agree,"

"And it seems that Hank is encouraging her," realisation hit you like a bullet. It was Hank. He was the one trying to get her blood to make this so called 'cure'. You began hitting the balls of your hands together.

"Yes," you glanced between Erik and Raven as you allowed your newfound realisation to sink in. "I don't want her to change," you told him.

"Oh, I can see that," he said, glancing towards your stimming. You felt embarrassed and forced your hands down. "You don't have to stop, I know you need to do that," Charles must have spoken to him. Erik crouched to your level. "I just meant that by you doing that, I could tell how much this means to you,"

"Yes," you started stimming again and felt more comfortable knowing that Erik didn't care.

"Now if you'll excuse me..." he said, standing back up. "I have something important to do," he walked away from you and towards Raven and Hank. You saw them talk briefly before he walked away again. As you saw Hank take the blood from Raven. You decided that you didn't like him. But you liked Erik. A lot.

—

"I call it 'Cerebro'," Hank proudly stated as he led you all into his contraption. It was designed to turn Charles almost into a social network. He would be able to connect to every mind around the world, rather than the minds he was near to. You thought this was exciting and allowed yourself to happy stim as you admired the machine. Charles stepped inside the machine and placed the helmet on his head. The plan? Gather mutants to fight against Shaw.

"Wow! That looks so cool!" You exclaimed as you stepped closer to him. Erik came behind you.

"What an adorable lab rat you make, Charles,"

"Don't spoil this for me, Erik," Charles quickly snapped back.

"Yeah, well, I've been a lab rat, I know one when I see one!" Erik grinned and nudged your shoulder. You glanced between him and Charles, confused.

"He's teasing, Y/n," Charles explained. Erik laughed softly as he stepped back and gently pulled you back with him. After your mental debate about Hank, you weren't sure if you could trust him.

"Will this hurt him?" You asked nervously. Hank turned in an instant.

"W-well, uh, there's no guarantees..." everyone glanced at him with unease. "B-but he should be fine," he blurted out before going back to the main console and pressing multiple buttons. You glared at him with distaste and distrust and shuffled your feet. If Charles got hurt you would never forgive him. The anxiety began to rise in your stomach once more, but Erik's reassuring hand on your shoulder allowed it to settle. Hank came back over to Charles. "Ok, we're ready," he stated, making sure he was in the contraption correctly. "Are you sure we can't shave your head?" Hank asked.

"Don't touch my hair," Charles retaliated with a calm voice.

"Ok," Hank muttered as he retreated back. The machine began to make a whirring sound which gradually got louder and louder and more high pitched. The increasing sound made you twitch before you threw your hands onto your ears. You still watched Charles to make sure he was safe. He gave you a reassuring smile which you returned before the machine fully started with an extremely bright flash of light from the helmet. The light was extremely overwhelming for a second so you quickly squeezed your eyes shut and began to count backwards from 10. The terrible sound had calmed and the intensity of the light had decreased by the time you got to 1. So you slowly opened your eyes back up and allowed your hands to slide from your ears to your sides. What you saw was delightful. You watched in awe as Charles located other mutants for your team with a huge grin on his face. "It's working!" Hank exclaimed. This went on for about another minute before Hank shut it down.

"That was quick!" Raven stated as Charles stepped down.

"That was incredible," he responded, catching his breath.

"Are you ok?" She asked, placing an arm around him.

"Did it hurt you?" You asked, gently releasing yourself from Erik's grasp and joining them.

"No, no, I'm ok, I'm fine," Charles assured. "Wow," he whispered to himself before making eye contact with Erik. "We've got some mutants to find," the two men grinned.

—

"We should have code names!" Raven exclaimed excitedly. You were now sat together in a room in the CIA facility with the other mutants that Charles and Erik had found together. "We're government agents now, we should have code names," she grinned. "I wanna be called Mystique!" She said confidently.

"Damn! I wanted to be called Mystique!" A boy sat in one of the armchairs said.

"Well, tough! I called it," she said as she transformed to look like him. "And I'm way more mysterious that you!" She said in his voice. This action was followed by an applause from the rest of the group. "What about you, Darwin?" She asked the boy opposite you.

"Well... Darwin's already a nickname, sorta fits... adapt to survive and all," he said. "Watch this," he stood up and strutted over to the nearby fish tank and stuck his head in. The sides of his head developed gills. This was followed by more applause. You used your powers all the time, you didn't understand why they were clapping so you just followed along. Darwin took his head out of the water and sat back in his seat opposite you. Next was the boy who expressed his jealousy of Raven's chosen name. He contemplated for a minute.

"I'm going to be... Banshee!" He said suddenly.

"Why do you want to be named after a wailing spirit?" Hank questioned. Banshee immediately stood up and crouched at the end of the coffee table.

"You might wanna cover your ears," you listened to his advice as he took in a big breath, tildes his head to either side, then let out a small squeal which echoed and broke the big window on the wall next to you. You flinched at the sound of the squeal and the breaking glass and began tapping your foot. Everyone applauded again as he sat back in his armchair and you slowly put your hands back down. After him was the girl who was sat next to Darwin. She stood up and turned around to reveal that her wing tattoos were actual wings.

"My stage name is Angel," she said, giving a twirl so everyone could see.

"You can fly?!" Raven exclaimed in disbelief and jealousy.

"Uh huh," she replied confidently. "And also..." she turned to the broken window and spat out a flaming ball which landed on top of the statue opposite and singed the top. The applause started up again as Hank was asked what his name would be. He didn't get a chance to think before the blond boy sat by Raven interrupted him.

"How about Bigfoot?" He teased. You couldn't help but let out a little laugh, but you were soon shushed by Raven as you realised no one else thought it was funny.

"I thought it was a joke," you whispered.

"Yeah but it wasn't funny!" Raven snapped not just to you but to the blond boy too. You became confused. A joke that wasn't funny? You finally try to understand jokes and it just blows up in your face. You decided to just shut up.

"And you know what they say about guys with big feet... and, uh, yours are kinda small..." the whole room burst out laughing. How was that funny? What did she mean? What do they say about big feet? Who's they? It didn't make sense.

"What about you, Alex," Darwin asked the blond boy. "What is your gift?" Alex shrank back a bit.

"Well... I, uh, I can't do it... I can't do it in here," he muttered.

"Can you do it out there?" Darwin prompted. Everyone else started chanting.

"Come on!"

"Alex! Alex! Alex!" The repetition began to frustrate you. So it was a relief when they stopped as Alex threw himself out of his chair and stepped out through the broken window.

"Get back when I tell you," he warned as the others leaned out the window. "Get back," he commanded and they obeyed... for about a millisecond, they all stuck their heads back out again. "Get back!" He repeated.

"Guys... I think you should listen to him," you muttered shyly from behind.

"Shush, y/n!" Raven commanded.

"Whatever," Alex muttered under his breath. He created red energy rings around him and threw two of them. One didn't hit anything and the second one split the statue in half. You jumped back at the sound but quickly calmed yourself by tapping your fingers together. Everyone came back inside and all sat back down. They decided that Alex should be called Havoc. You liked that name. As they were all sitting back down, you started pacing the room and analysing it as you hadn't been able to analyse it yet. You were so concentrated that you didn't know that you were being spoken to.

"Earth to y/n!" Raven shouted. You flinched and turned to face her.

"What's their problem?" Angel asked her. "They messed up in the head or something?" You began to feel tears pricking at your eyes.

"They've always been like that..." Raven said, rolling her eyes. Your own sister wasn't going to defend you? You forced yourself to hold back the tears.

"I'm not m-messed up in the head! I'm not! I'm not! I'm not!" You yelled. You wanted to say more but you were interrupted by Hank.

"It- It's some sort of disease that was discovered in the 30's... I- I think it was called... um..." your blood boiled as he contemplated. You were so sick of him. First he tries to take your sister away, and now he has the audacity to tell you that you have a 'disease'. Your head was so clouded with angry thoughts that you couldn't think rationally.

"It's autism! I'm autistic! And it's not a disease! You should know that since your such an oh-so-smart scientist! Or are you just trying to impress my sister!" You stepped out through the broken window and walked across the grass. Ignoring Raven's shouts. Past the broken statue and all the way to the wall opposite the others. You sat facing the wall and started rocking back and forth. Hitting the ball of your hand against your head over and over again. After a while, you heard the others blasting music really loud. You finally managed to stop hitting yourself so you could place your hands over your ears. Everything was so overwhelming, but you wouldn't let yourself cry. They couldn't see how upset they made you. They weren't allowed to know that they made you cry. They might use it against you in the future. Another short while later and a separate yell was heard. This one was closer to you. It was Moira. That must've meant that Charles and Erik were back. The music had been turned down and the yells had subsided. You slowly took your hands away and turned around to face everyone else. You saw the backs of Charles, Erik and Moira. Raven was stood at the centre facing them.

"You should be Professor X!" She said pointing to Charles. "And you should be Magneto!" She said pointing to Erik.

"Exceptional," he muttered. Moira walked away and Erik went to follow. But he stopped when he heard Charles' question to Raven.

"Where's y/n?" Raven silently pointed to you and Charles turned in your direction for a few seconds before turning back to Raven. "Why are they over there?"

"Don't be mad at me!" She snapped back. "They had a tantrum, it's not my fault!"

"But they're your sibling, Raven! And we've been over this... they're not tantrums," he glanced at you again before turning again back to Raven. "And it's your responsibility to take care of them when I'm not here! If this is what's going to happen when I leave you both alone together, I'll just have to bring them with me,"

"Fine! Take them with you! See if I care!" Charles took a step back.

"I expect more from you," he said before turning on his heel and coming towards you. He crouched down to your level. "Do you want to tell me what happened?" He asked quietly. You felt the overwhelming sadness as you relived what happened only minutes before. You couldn't hold on to the emotions anymore. You lunged at Charles and gripped him as tight as you could as the tears began to escape. "Shh, it's ok, it's ok," after a minute. You managed to gather yourself enough to tell him what Angel, Raven and Hank had said. You also told him what you had said back.

"I'm sorry I ran away from them, I'm sorry I shouted back," you whispered.

"While I agree it probably wasn't the best idea to say that, I understand why you took yourself away, and I'm glad you did that, Y/n,"

"Can I come with you and Erik, you said you'd take me with you," you begged. Charles let out a long exhale.

"I said that because like you, I wasn't thinking properly, I'm really sorry but I can't take you with us, it's too dangerous and it may be too overwhelming for you," before you could object, he gently placed his finger on your lips. "I know, I know, but you'll be better off here, I'll have a talk with the others ok?"

"Ok..." Charles instructed Erik to look after you while he spoke to the group. You both sat in the hall nearby. You didn't really feel like speaking. But another thing you liked about Erik is that he didn't pressure you to talk. He let you start the conversations. Charles came back into the hall after a while.

"They should be fine now," he said calmly before he walked back to the room with you. Everyone's eyes were on you as you stepped in. You hated the feeling of all the eyes on you and froze up. Charles cleared his throat loudly and some of the group got up and did other things. He gently turned you around. "Erik and I have to go now, we should be back in the morning," You embraced him.

"Be safe,"

"We will," and with that he left. Raven approached you.

"I'm sorry ok?" She said with a bored tone.

"Ok..." you responded, you weren't good with apologies and forgiveness. You went to the coffee table and picked up a glass of water and drank it. You held cups with both hands like a baby holds their bottle. You immediately became aware of this comparison and tried holding it with one hand instead, like they did. But you almost dropped it so you just put it back down.

"Hey Y/n!" Alex called. "We were still thinking about code names, do you have a name?" You thought for a moment.

"Umm... well... once I was reading this book in my brother's study... and I found a Japanese word that means light and dark..." all eyes were on you again. It was extremely awkward. "It makes sense..." you gave a quick demonstration of your powers. "Notan..."

"Notan?" Alex asked.

"Yes," you replied.

"I like it!" He exclaimed. "Notan it is!"