Diana Prince came awake in the dark and nearly got out of her bed as if she was already in a battle. Then, she realized that she was sleeping in a luxurious hotel room instead of the battlefield. Her dreams felt so real as if she was reliving those moments. But, it became difficult to tell which war she dreamt about. Each of the wars that Diana fought in were almost identical besides its locations and reasons why it began. All of them caused so much suffering and loss regardless of justified cause. She could have listened to her husband and lived a peaceful life after fighting in both world wars.

But, the world needed Wonder Woman.

And for seventy-four years, she started a new battle against the development of nuclear weaponry and the rising military-industrial complex. With help from her husband and the squad, the World Veterans Federation was founded with the goals of promoting world peace and protecting veterans. But it still wasn't enough. The greatest superpowers of the world during the Cold War nearly destroyed the world a few times. She wanted to do something before man did something incredibly stupid like nuking the entire world. However, her husband wanted to live his remaining years in peace and quiet with the woman she loved. So, she did.

Diana's train of thought was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Diana, are you awake?" a familiar voice was heard on the other side.

She got out of her bed and went over to the wardrobe room in order to change into her dress. Today was the day where she planned on giving a speech at the twenty-ninth general assembly of the WVF. Once she was done with the dress, she told the person to come on in while she walked to the bathroom to do clear up a little. Etta Candy, Diana's personal security, walked into the room with a little grin on her face. Despite being the cold hearted badass of the group, she loved to travel around the world principally Paris. "Are you ready for the debrief, madam?" Candy asked Diana while scanning the bedroom.

"Everyone's already here?" Diana asked confusedly while she was picking out the earrings.

"Of course, madam. It is an important day after all." Etta answered with a smile on her face before she straighten up when Diana came out. She looked beautiful as always, she thought with her eyes looking at the dress. She responded with a cough and said, "It looks good."

Before Diana could thank her security chief, she saw that her secretary had been staying there with her arms crossed and a grin on her face. Alana Dominguez was pretty damn good at her job given she was made responsible for most of the administrative work and decisions. Dominguez had served in the US military before going to school and getting her associate's degree a few years ago. Diana saw potential and hired her to be the new secretary. "Told you that dress looked good on you." Dominguez remarked.

"Well, good thing that I listened to you." Diana gave her a light-hearted smile before walking out of the room with Candy and Dominguez following behind. She knew that it was the same procedure year after year with a few minor changes here and there. Until she found that her chief legal officer, Rachel Keast, had the entire conference room to herself. Without any warning, Diana dismissed both Dominguez and Candy before walking into the room. She knew that something serious was going to happen if Keast was in Paris instead of the United States. "It will be only a few." Diana gave a forced smile before closing the door on them.

Then, she turned and looked at Keast trying to find the right words to say.

The X-Men are a team of mutant superheroes that fight for the rights of mutants and to protect both mutants and humans alike. Led by Scott Summers -- AKA Cyclops -- and founded by Professor Charles Xavier, the X-Men are a newly christened team of young but fiery heroes looking to prove themselves to a cynical and bigoted world. They're based out of a manor in Worchester County, New York affectionately referred to as the 'X-Mansion,' an old estate that's been in the Xavier family for generations.

They've been in operation for a little over a year now, working from the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. It's little more than a simple mansion with a fancy title at the moment so that Charles has some excuse to live with his 'students.' Some moves have been made to potentially open its doors to other mutants in need, but they lack the proper facilities or staff to do such a thing.

In their short time as heroes, they've earned themselves a number of enemies. From the vengeful Magneto to the anti-mutant Senator Robert Kelly and the fire-and-brimstone preacher William Stryker and his cult of Purifiers. They've made plenty of friends in that time, too. Many a mutant has the X-Men to thank for saving them from some injustice. The X-Men have made something of a habit of rubbing shoulders with other, big time superheroes, hoping that their popularity might rub off on the team and help their perception in the public eye.

I want to create a cornerstone of the Absolute Comics universe. The X-Men often either don't show up at all or are pushed into a rather minor role in these games, and I intend to change that. Though we're starting from the beginning, the plan is to explore the world of mutants in the context of a combined DC/Marvel world and to bring about the creation of the proper Xavier's school, and perhaps even bring up a new age of mutants sometime in the future.

The X-Men and mutants as a whole experience a great deal of prejudice and bigotry for being born different. They're going to experience the full brunt of this xenophobia, from both the world at large and many individual characters alike. They'll face hardships no ordinary heroes will face, and they'll have to tackle problems unique to their being mutants.

The X-Men seek to bring about equality for mutant kind and to foster peace between mutant and humankind. Each of them has individual goals of their own, such as Jean's desire to control her abilities and leave her trauma behind her, or Bobby's goal of acceptance and camaraderie.

T H E X - M A N S I O N

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^{8:00 a.m. | Salem Center, Worchester County, New York}

Charles Xavier always felt a sense of satisfaction at the sound of chalk moving across a blackboard. Every stroke invigorated him like a shot of dopamine, and he found himself turning away from the board with a content grin on his aging face. "Genosha," the professor stated, tapping the name he'd just written in large, bold letters. "Does anyone know who first founded it?"

His question road like a wave across the makeshift classroom, which was little more than a sitting room with the chairs all turned to face forwards and a blackboard rolled in front of it all. Bobby Drake had made sure to occupy the furthest seat from the board, the hood of his jacket drawn down juuust far enough to hide his eyes as he tried to catch up on missing sleep. Movie night with Kurt had run a couple of hours too late. How was Drake supposed to know the marathon lasted that long? He regretted not checking the clock or something, 'cause being reminded by the sun coming up hadn't been very fun.

Kurt, to his credit, hadn't quite passed out yet. His head was resting in his palm, his three fingers running through the blueish fur on his cheek. His eyelids kept trying to clamp shut every few minutes, only for Wagner to lurch awake in a violent and distracting display that would keep him lucid for a couple of minutes before it all repeated again. If he ever tried to answer any questions it came out in unintelligible German.

Two pencils went soaring through the air like a pair of shurikens, one striking Kurt in the forehead and the second bouncing off of Bobby's nose. Both boys were thrown wide awake by the sudden attack, with Bobby nearly leaping out of his chair in surprise and Kurt vanishing and reappearing right back in his seat in a puff of black smoke. They shared a confused glance with one another seconds before realizing where the attack had come from, their heads turning simultaneously to glare in the direction of Scott Summers.

Scott crinkled his nose incredulously at them- even with his eyes hidden behind his crimson visor it wasn't hard to tell he was glaring. Sweat glistened off of the young man's forehead, still clinging to him after his long and exhaustive morning run. After making sure the two troublemakers were thoroughly and silently accosted for sleeping through the lesson he returned to looking in Xavier's direction, unable to muster an answer to the question. This was the first time they'd broached the subject of Genosha, and Scott wasn't too confident he'd be able to even point it out on a map.

The Professor pursed his lips, his eyes slipping between the three of his students as he seemed to contemplate how to deal with the brief interruption. The look lingered on Scott, giving the team's leader his own look of quiet admonishment before Xavier shifted his attention fully back to the lesson at hand. "Anyone?" Charles asked with a raised brow, "Hank?"

It wasn't until he heard his name that Hank McCoy even seemed to notice there was something going on around him. His pencil was rapidly shortening as he ran the tip of the graphite against his notebook full of crazy ideas and half-finished schematics. The current drawing before him was a series of functional upgrades to the team's costumes. Their current suits, aside from being a little tacky, didn't have any kind of temperature control, built-in communications, armor or other crucial parts to any superhero uniform. Hank blinked, pushing his nose up his glasses as he looked up to the Professor and then at the blackboard. "I'm sorry, uh, could you repeat the question?"

"He asked who founded Genosha," Jean Grey cut in before Charles got a chance, speaking in a very matter-of-fact tone as she looked down at her notes, "and you're gonna say the British first declared the colony in 1901, but there was actually activity from various colonial powers going as far back as the 16th century. And..." She stuck her tongue into her cheek, her brows furrowing a little. "Something about making the suits out of a carbon fiber mesh?" Jean leaned over from her seat and attempted to get a look at whatever it was Hank had been doodling on his notebook. "-Are you making us new costumes?" She asked curiously.

"Hey!" Hank practically tore the book off his lap and slapped it up against his sprawling chest. "No mind reading!" He huffed, clearly caught off guard at having his thoughts so casually spoken aloud for everyone to hear.

Bobby was out of his seat and leaning over the back of McCoy's chair as quick as the word 'costumes' had left Jean's mouth. He grabbed both of Hank's shoulders and attempted to drag himself up high enough to see the notebook in his big friend's hands. "We're getting new costumes?!" He inquired with an energetic excitement that had seemingly spawned from thin air. Kurt shared his enthusiasm, popping up on Hank's opposite shoulder in a puff of dark smoke and trying to leer down at the page. Hank didn't take well to the intrusion, trying to buck the duo off and keep the sketches hidden against his chest at the same time.

Jean's face grew beet red the instant she realized what she had done. "I- I didn't- I mean, it wasn't on purpose-" She stumbled and stuttered, retreating behind her red locks as she bent her head low in shame at her actions. Reading minds came to her as easily as actual hearing did. It was hard for her to decipher what were thoughts and what were words, and sometimes it all got so jumbled that she got her own thoughts mixed up with someone else's. "I'm sorry." She muttered.

Hank, still busy wrestling Bobby and Kurt into submission, paused long enough to listen and reply. "Its okay." He assured her. "I'm not- hey!" He started, only to be interrupted by Kurt slipping underneath one of his arms and getting a hold of the notebook.

Nightcrawler slipped right away from the beast of a man's grip, vanishing out of the classroom and appearing in the hallway. He held the picture up in the light, a bright grin spreading across his face. "I look awesome!" He laughed.

"Lemme see!" Drake whined, jumping over chairs and racing over to catch up to Wagner. "When do I get to wear mine?!"

Hank, hot on Bobby's heels and having completely forgotten what he was going to say to Jean, was quick to shout after them. "Its just a drawing! We aren't even in the prototype phase!"

The lesson thoroughly disrupted and Jean left in her silent shame, Charles let out a quiet sigh. Kids, he thought with a shake of his head. No matter what kind of amazing gifts they might have, it was hard to forget that these five were still all children at heart. He placed the chalk back down on the tray and moved his hands onto the wheels of his chair, planning to go to miss Grey, as he had many times before. But he paused, not all that surprised to see that Summers had already moved to her side. He had a hand around her shoulder and he was trying to say something that might've been vaguely wise had the boy any idea how to say it. It brought a smile to Charles's face.

"Come on back, my students, there'll be plenty of time for that later! Our lesson's only just begun." Xavier called out to the wrestling trio in the hallway. They all seemed to look at each other and hold and a wordless conversation for a few seconds before deciding to call a ceasefire and return back to their seats. They spent a little while putting everything back where it was before and getting themselves seated, but their attention was eventually given back to the professor. Even if they bickered, fought or messed up in some fashion, they always seemed to land back on their feet. Always seemed to orientate themselves to point north again, even if it did take a bit of time. Charles let his hands come to rest on his lap as he waited a moment, making sure everyone was ready before he continued. "So, as Jean said, Genosha was founded in..."

The phone was ringing.

The phone never rings.

I stepped out of the bathroom and slid into my shirt, sitting down in the chair behind the desk. Grabbing a slice of pizza from the box I had just ordered, I took a bite before taking the phone. "Yeah?" I asked around a mouthful of pepperoni and cheese.

"Are you the hunter known as Blade?" The voice was an older sounding guy, kinda creepy too.

Hm. Guy knows my name. Doesn't seem like I should hang up on him. Still, dude was missing something... "Password?"

"I was told it was 'jackpot'."

I grinned. About damn time. "Haha, finally! Last coupla weeks I've only gotten calls from people who didn't know wh-"

"I'm going to drop off a gift for you."

I knitted my brow in confusion. "A gift, eh?"

"A gift from the supernatural underworld of New York. We don't like hunters." The line went dead.

With a snort, I threw the phone back onto the receiver and stood up, finishing my pizza as I walked around to the front of the desk. "Sounds like trouble. Man, it's always one thing after anot-" Before I could finish my sentence, I felt a sharp pain through my back, as though something had stabbed me. A man walked around from behind, holding a blood coated dagger.

I needed to get to my sword. So, I promptly fell over as though defeated. "Hmph. Thought this would be harder." It was the voice of the man on the phone, and I could see the unnatural yellow glint in his eyes.

A vampire.

I sprung up to my feet and backflipped behind my desk, grabbing my sword off the wall. My body was already healing, the meat beneath my now ruined shirt knitting itself back together. The vampire paled. "N-not possible! The blade is silver!"

I chuckled. "Sorry, bro. Might have all the neat powers of a vampire, but I don't have a single one of their weaknesses." Raising the sword, I pointed the blade at him with a grin. "So come on, bloodsucker! Let's dance!"