badforbusiness:

Esteban knew there was someone he just had to see now that he was here. Uncle Julio always said the Guthries were everything the Richters failed to be: a big, loving family that raised their kids with some actual chingaso decency. Uncle Star called it Honor. There'd been a visit or two when they were little kids, but that had been ages ago, and brief. Mostly, there'd been photographs in letters and talks on the phone.

Esteban knocked on Zak's door.

omni_absorber:

It was seven in the evening.  His target was in the kitchen, grabbing a beer.  He was on a break from training some of the other kids in the mansion, and Zak was ready to take full advantage.  He strolled into the kitchen all casual-like, trying to hide the big grin on his face.  He just watched for the moment, probably making it super awkward.

nextgen_holiday:

There were certain traditions that were kept around the holidays and then there were traditions. The annual New Year's Day snowball fight was a long standing tradition at Xavier's Institude For Higher Learning. For the past six years the girls have won the fight, but this year the boys have a new player on their side and he's one that may tip the scales in their favor.

Dawn broke over the grounds and the sun climbed into the sky. It would be a warm bright day and perfect for a snowball fight.

At high noon the players on each side gathered on opposite ends of the grounds.

next_avenger:

With Charlie gone and as a male member of the Avengers, in addition to being the leader, it was up to James to uphold a few traditions that didn't have to deal with battling bad guys. Though he had to admit that he would rather be fighting bad guys than doing this. It just wasn't his thing.

He wasn't as industrious as Anya, but James had managed to collect the necessary photos. It hadn't been easy and a part of him felt like he was cheating on Val.

Invitations were sent to the Avengers, Thunderbolts, Fantastic Four, Champions, Excalibur the X-Men and the Defenders guys.

With the help of Jarvis food and drink was laid in. James made sure they had a wide variety of pizza, chips, pretzels and drinks.

He loaded the photos in and took care of the security systems. The girls were not allowed to watch. Now all that was left was people showing up.

nextgen_citizen:

The warehouse down on the docks looked deserted and it was the perfect place to goof off and cause trouble, at least to Tommy Stackhouse and Johnny Crane. The two boys had been looking for a place to hang out for some time now and when they spotted the warehouse it looked like the perfect place.

The two boys approached the warehouse and stacked a few crates that had been nearby to get up to a window. Tommy slipped in first and then Johnny followed him. They were unaware that they had set off a silent alarm, but they were too busy staring at what was inside the warehouse.

It was Christmas, a birthday and winning the lottery all in one.

About twenty minutes later police and company security officials would arrive, but they were too late to stop twenty of the drones that had been inside from taking off and blasting through the roof.

Tommy and Johnny had ran as soon as they could and the authorities missed them by a mere minute.

marvel_girl:

Galactus was gone, Chandrillar had been saved.  The Throneworld of the Shi'ar Empire and its royals were safe.  Saved by the efforts of the X-Men and the former guardian of the M'krann Crystal, the Phoenix.

The Phoenix, bonded to Rachel Summers of Earth, daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey, the former host of the Phoenix, counterpart of another Rachel Summers who had also hosted a measure of the Phoenix's power.

The same Phoenix the Shi'ar had tried to kill or enslave numerous times.  The same Phoenix a rogue faction of the Shi'ar had so feared, they'd tried to kill the entire Grey family and would have, if not for the timely intervention of the X-Men.

As Rachel rejoined the others, still surrounded by a corona of cosmic flame, she could feel the unease from... well, virtually the entire world.

nextgen_cosmic:

Since his universe had ended and this one had begun, Galactus had fed.  His hunger had driven him, given him cause and purpose throughout the universe, in a way that the mortals who inhabited it would never understand.  He did not feed out of malice or even joy, he simply fed.  They tried to give motivations for him, but he was beyond their understanding, as necessary an element to the cosmos as Eternity and Death, the balancing point between those two extremes.

His feet touched the ground of Throneworld, and the whole of the populace seemed to tremble in fear.  Sharra and K'ythiri were called out for, but the gods of the Shi'ar would have no place here.  Here was only the Great Devourer of Worlds.  Here was only Galactus, assembling his terrible machine with which he would consume the lifeforce of the planet.

Galactus was.

nextgen_shiar:

It was a modified kjethya scoutcraft. Big enough for passengers, but still small and simple enough for one man to fly.

Or, in this case, one seventeen-year-old princeling.  His Imperial Highness Starbridge Xavier Neramani hadn't been to the planet he was now orbitting since three summers ago. Various formal duties and complications had kept getting in the way of his visits with his father.

The father for whom he was mentally calling as his ship came screeching into the upstate New York sky. Starbridge managed to land safely at the Institute's designated area, but it was close. And until he'd gotten help, nothing counted as 'safe' anyway.

omni_absorber:

Zak rolled over off of his bed, and his the floor with a large 'clunk'.  "Uhh."  He shook his eyes and opened his eyes.  He didn't really feel anything except slightly different textures, which was odd.  He didn't put two and two together yet.  It took him awhile to get up off of the floor, and he headed into the hallways and down to the bathroom.  Some of the other students gave him strange looks.  "What'chu lookin' at?" he barked.  He also gave some angry or irritated grunts.  He didn't understand what was wrong with people that morning.

And then he looked in the mirror.  "OH SHIT!!" he shouted.  He was easily heard when he shouted.  And he had every right to.  His body had taken on the properties of different objects, without his permission.  Some of the materials his body was mimicing he hadn't touched in ages, or even on the planet.  "Shitshitshit!"

notyetqueen:

Ruby rubbed the back of her head, getting up on her feet slowly. She should have gone into ruby form if she knew that she was going to trip through...a portal. That was what she'd had tripped through, right?

How else would she have gotten back to front yard of the Institute.

Anastasia looked around. Though it looked exactly the same, something felt....off. Like this wasn't the same place that she was used to. It didn't feel like the home where she grew up.

BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!

The alarms were going off?

Anastasia went straight into ruby form.

Yeah, something didn't feel right here at ALL.

ng_independent:

They had arrived at Earth and had orbited for awhile before Empress had selected her targets. It had taken some time. She didn't want just ANYONE. They had to be among the best. She WOULD win the gladiatorial games this time. NOTHING would stop her. Not even a small thing like gender.

Empress didn't care if it was cheating. The only thing that mattered was winning and she would win this time.

The teleporters were activated and the selected targets were beamed directly to the lab. There they underwent a little transformation and were given attitude readjustments and then put into a holding cell.

The men would wake up in the holding cell to find a few changes.

nextgen_misc:

The media watched the battle from the safety of Ellis Island while on Liberty Island the battle raged on.

nextgen_media:

A special report breaks in on almost all channels....


"We're here live on Ellis Island as apparently a group of mutant terrorists, known as the Mutant Liberation Front, have kidnapped a number of senators' children and grandchildren and have brought them to Liberty Island. The terrorists are holding the children in the torch of the Statue of Liberty. They have threatened to kill the children unless their demands are met. Sources have it that those demands are the immediate halt to the registration bill that is currently in Congress.

The children were abducted from their beds in the middle of the night by the terrorists and a note was left in their place. It is unclear at this time whether or not the registration bill will be killed. Congress is in session now debating the issue.

The question on everyone's mind is what is being done to save these kids? Where are the so called superheroes? Where are the Avengers? Where are the so called benevolent X-Men who want harmony between mutants and humans and fight for that?"

mishaloganovich:

Middle of the night, unable to sleep again, Misha gave up trying to rest and resumed wandering the halls and sub floors of the mansion. He only had four or five hours before he was due at his mother’s for breakfast. If he didn’t get sleep soon, she’d see for herself he lied about sleeping. If it wasn’t so cold, he’d make the rounds outside.

He ended up in the rec room and put a movie in, something from the B grade horror flick collection. Some mutant killer vegetable action was just what he needed to take his mind off things, or at least fool it for a couple of hours.

ng_independent:

The Empress was most pleased. Very pleased indeed. Things were going according to her plan. The recent fights had been entertaining and she had her champion. Now she could win the games here on her home world. Her champion would win no matter what and she now had more soldiers in her army. She was quite pleased indeed.

She was stretched out on her litter as four of her soldiers carried her to the area. It was the start of the games and by the end her champion would be victorious.

Everything was going according to plan.

nextgen_misc:

Friends, family and loved ones are bound to notice the disappearance of some females.

soothsayer:

He didn't like what had happened to the school. He had decided to go through with the outing anyways. This would be to help the students out. He had two vans ready to go with a third one if they had anyone else show up who wanted to get out. He has a clip board in one hand and a pen in the other.

Some people might notice that his shoes aren't normal sneakers. He had been wearing the ones that had a leg brace build in for one of his legs. Sometimes when he was more stressed out Ezekiel found it more difficult to use one leg so he had a brace for times like that. He didn't need a cane or anything, so long as he had a brace he would be fine.

He glances at his watch and leans against one of the vans. He would check off names and add any more to his lists. He had a feeling that there would be more people coming and he was prepared just in case. Good thing he had plenty of older students coming too.

ng_marauders:

Penny stepped out of the cab and didn't look back to see if Winterkill and Breakneck were getting out. They would follow, of that she had no doubt. They had a mission to do. Penny smiled. They'd have fun doing it too.

Penny smiled more as she practically bounced up to the gate. Makeup covered the bruise she had because of that bastard breaking her nose. Anger bubbled up, but she pushed it back. She couldn't afford to let real emotions get the best of her. She had to play a part right now.

Smiling into the security camera, Penny pressed the buzzer.

omni_absorber:

 

( Food for Thought... )

soothsayer:

The newest staffer at Xavier's had been trying to figure out how to get to know the students better without scaring them off since his truth telling ability did tend to get in the way of things. That was when he thought back on the last weekend he had with his son no matter how much the kid seemed to hate him he at least had fun with his old man. Ezekiel smirks and taps his chin thoughtfully before setting up a sign up sheet to post in the recreation rooms.

Laser Tag!

Sign up for a night of laser tag and pizza. This is for fun guys. Any questions can be directed to Ezekiel Brooks. We'll be leaving at 5:30 expect to be back by 10 at the latest.

Ezekiel gives himself a proud mental pat on his back and then sets about correcting papers in a corner as h casually pretends to not notice if anyone looks at the sign up sheet.