Welcome to Gaia! ::

Sasha rolled over in bed. The rays of the sun shone on her face. She yawned and sat up, strechting. To her side was Pietro sleeping with little Ana in his arms. I told him to put her in her crib, she thought. She quietly picked up Ana and carried her over to the crib, and gently laid her in it, covering her with her blanket. Half of the crib was occupied by the giant bear Pietro had won her at the carnival. Sasha then slipped on her slippers and robe. She and Pietro had talked last night about Pyro remaking another mansion for the brotherhood to move into. Pietro of course, being good buddies with Pyro, wanting to move in. Sasha would have too, but ever since Ana was born, she wasn't sure. Ana had become attached to a lot of the x-men. Not just Sonya, but Cathy, Morgen, Racheal, and others. How could she just take her away like that. Ana wouldn't understand. She walked downstairs and noticed Victoria. She grabbed her bowl of peaches and cream oatmeal, and sat down next to her best friend. On the otherhand, Victoria was Ana's godmother, and Ana was attached to Wanda, Markus, and Freya. But what if Magento would return to the brotherhood. How would he take to his new and only grand daughter. So many thoughts raced through Sasha's mind.

Sonya woke up. Actually she jumped up and onto Racheal's bed. "Wakie wakie!" she yelled cheerfully, shaking Racheal's shoulders, "Tommorrow is Christmas!!!!!!" She still had to finish up some christmas shopping. "Hurry up," she said to Racheal and left to go and find Marcus. She found him in his room sleeping peacefully. She jumped onto his bed. "Wakie wakie," she said, shaking his shoulders. She then noticed that his chest was bare. She blushed deep red.

"As a matter of fact, I do know a good steak place. Better yet, no reservation or fancy attire required," Morgan replied.

I geuss Italian is a little bit cliche, huh? Other Morgan said, obviously paying acute attention to everything. Just because he was Morgan's conscience didn't stop him from goofing off from time to time. After all, he knew everything Morgan knew, seeing as how he was part of his psyche.

The restaurant he was thinking of was a simple place, nothing terribly fancy (in that standard attire was jeans and a shirt), but it served some of the best steaks in the city.

"So, what time should we head out? Does 7:00 sound agreeable?" he asked.

Finaly loosing the battle with sleep, Tetsuo lay snoozing with his head on the kitchen table beside his half-empty (or half full, depending on how ya look at it...XD) bowl of Cheerios...now mostly milk...The Raptor-boy was obviously not a "morning person"...wishing his alarm clock would burn in the deepest pits of hell for all eternity for waking him from his glorious dream involving instant ramen and giant talking frogs...Don't ask.

He was sound asleep when Sonya lept onto the bed to shake him awake. He jumped sitting up thinking something was wrong. "Wha?! Huh???" He blinked at her before remembering he was barly dressed. "SONYA!!!" He said morphing himself some pants and a shirt. "Sheesh...what's wrong with knocking?" He loved her dearly but she had a habbit of dropping in unexpectedly at odd hours.

He grunted and went with her. "Mmm....I got her a sweater..." He told Sonya. "I've only got you left to buy for and I've got your gift all set..." He only had to go and pick it up. "I loath going to the malls today...." He admitted not wanting to think about the people there as he mixed his chocolate milk.

That was weird... he didn't think any of the robbing had started yet. Usually there'd be a flame visible from the school, added to an absurdly high body count before Pyro was done. "That's fine," he said. "Robbing banks went out of style back when people rode horses. There are far more refined ways of getting rich..."

Pietro clicked on the news. Just as he'd thought, no frantic news cut-ins yet, which meant that Pyro hadn't quite put his plan into motion. "By the way," he whispered to Sasha. "Keep the news on the down-low... we don't want our buddies' covers to be blown."

It was then that a commercial began. The music was low and dismal, and images of small children were displayed along the screen. A familiar voice began to speak...

"There are some who say that mutants are just like us. Simple, normal humans with just the slightest genetic difference. Some of them, you can't even tell apart from a human even if you looked up close..."

The calm images were suddenly torn away, replaced by images of destruction, carnage, chaos in the streets. In a scene familiar to everyone, Forge's attack on the major cities of the world was recast, with special emphasis shown toward those who'd been murdered like cattle in the streets. To top it all off, the calm image of children playing seen before was now juxtaposed with the image of a screaming, terrorized child clutching the body of his mother, surrounded by dozens of other corpses.

"The time for 'understanding' is long past. For their protection as well as our own, I will no longer stand idly by while such an obvious danger to our national security is allowed to run rampant."

The dark images dimmed away, and the form of Robert Kelly finally appeared. On his suit, he wore a pin in the shape of a fist held against the American flag. In the months since Forge's attack, it had become a symbol for those humans who would stand against a mutant attack, no matter what the cost.

"My name is Robert Kelly. I once committed my life to helping children, but now I know that in order to do that, I must set my sights even higher. I promise you all that I will protect you, be your voice of dissent against those who claim that you no longer matter." (At this, a silhouette appeared in the background, one that anyone in the room would immediately recognize as Magneto). "I am Robert Kelly, I am a human, and I am running for President. In the name of the future of humanity, I will fight for you all. God Bless."

The room was silent for many moments after the commercial cut away.

"Well, he's a right a*****e," Raze said, strolling into the kitchen just in time to catch the commercial. From anyone else, this comment would have seemed natural, but Raze wasn't usually the type of person to say something like that. In the case of Senator Kelly, however... Let's just say he really got under Raze's skin.

"What? I really, really don't like that guy. Smug, ignorant son of a-" Raze cut himself off before he really got started. "Not that I'd condone this against anyone else, but I hope someone lights his shorts on fire," he finished.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What do you mean by "love" it? Should I be worried?" Morgan said, smirking. He placed his handgun back on the rack, and removed one of the larger, automatic weapons from it. "Now, let's see how this thing handles," he said, taking aim at the target.