With this piece I declare the polls opened!!

Anyway, here is my X men Evolution story, or rather the start of it. Canon will at times be respected and mostly be ignored when it clashes with my ideas.

Aside from Rogue powers will be the same.

OCs will happen but with one exception the focus will be on the canon characters.

This will feature a lot of gray, the X-Men will not be Mary Sues, and the Brotherhood will not be mustache twirling villains. But this will not be a Magneto wank and I will not be bashing Xavier. Rather Magneto and his followers will be portrayed fairer than typical and Xavier/X Men have more issues that cannot be easily resolved. As a fan of George RR Martin I try to make an interesting tale about conflict between people rather than ideals of good and evil.

No yaoi or yuri planned but if the muse points I will follow. Confirmed heteros will stay hetero, only unconfirmed or dubious ones will be at risk so to speak. May not even happen even if it does it likely will not be prominent since the pairings I have planned for the story structure as of now are all male-female and adding another would mean changing the structure to accommodate.

Divergent X

Prologue

Butterfly Wings

Giving up on sleep he decided to get dressed. It was too early, especially for an old man.

Like most he had believed that term would never apply to him, even if he lived for a hundred years. Time may not make fools of us all, but to those who are not fools it gives a certain grudging humility.

Dreams had driven him from his sleep, and the unease that lingered in his waking made him decide trying to keep resting was a waste of time. The memory of the dream was already fading, but the essentials remained. After all these visions had haunted him most of his life.

The Camps, Hell on earth where the last shreds of his childhood and innocence had been stripped from him like the clothes off a rape victim. The place was from his past, but the people were of now. And of course his own failures, the sins that he knew someone or something would hold him accountable for made their way to the surface.

Erik Lehnsherr shook off this depression with practiced ease, turning his mind to more pressing matters.

He could guess what had caused this unpleasant relapse. Mystique, that woman was a blessing and curse rolled into one. She was a deadly weapon that could explode in his hand; John had reminded him so on multiple occasions.

Despite misgivings on his part, and the objections of more than one of his lieutenants, he had appointed her to head up the Society's new American Branch. Giving her the Brotherhood of Bayville had been a way to both fulfill her desire for advancement, and keep her at a distance from the true centers of power. He had hoped her exemplary record as an operative would translate into leadership abilities.

He had been vastly disappointed. She ruled solely by intimidation leaving her charges to their own devices unless using them. Training was loose and lacking in coordination. She had done nothing to turn a pair of delinquents into soldiers, simply augmenting their abrasive and aggressive nature with rudimentary combat skills. He doubted they even truly understood what they were expected to fight for.

And now she had the grail. The girl was calling herself Rogue, even before her powers manifested she had been an outcast, facing the pointless discrimination so called normal people practiced against those they singled out. In the coming war this angst ridden girl could very well be the deciding factor, and already matters were needlessly complicated!

Precogs, they were always right until they were wrong. They had come within a hairbreadth of loosing one of their most promising prospects to Charles. Mystiques methods of deception, while effective in the short term, could prove disastrous if exposed. Loyalty built on deception was inherently weak. Also the possibility remained that she could try and harness the girl for her own use by revealing another truth.

The man known as Magneto reached a decision. He had placed too many aspirations on the girl to risk loosing her as a result of Mystique's shortcomings. Scooping up a phone he dialed a number, it was time he called in an expert.

JFK International Airport, New York, USA

The man was of average height, but nonetheless he managed to draw attention to himself. Perhaps it was the way he carried himself, an economy of movement that some would recognize as a sign of military training. It could have been his attire, a black suit, tie, a silver cross standing out starkly against this background and gloves, offset by sturdy military boots. His suitcase was normal enough. But the reason the commuters looked at him only to avert their gaze were his burns. His face and what could be seen of his head (a broad brimmed black hat concealing some of it), was marred by burn scars. No visible patch of skin was undamaged, hairless and features reduced to a near skeletal simplicity, the lips thin with a line of white peeking out where they did not quite connect.

John Lazarus watched as the Mundani tried their best not to notice him and felt exasperation and amusement. Cowardice was more appalling than rudeness and they feared they would come off as rude so they did not look at him, which was in fact rather rude. Humans were such contrary creatures; it was no wonder their civilizations' where pointless and destructive.

Scanning the crowd he finally saw his goal, a sign marked J. Lazarus. Eager to be on his way he cut through the crowd and soon found himself looking down on the woman who had held the sign. She stood only about two cm. below him but the hat and his attire made him seem more impressive. The woman was dressed in blue business ware with a skirt that stopped short of her ankles and her reddish brown hair was pulled back into a bun. She raised a gloved hand by way of greeting a gesture he returned.

Without a word exchanged she turned to leave with him in tow.

Car enroute to Bayville

The burned man and the business woman sat in the back of a fine car as it made the journey upstate leaving the sprawling metropolis of New York behind. It was silent for the moment, but more comfortable than tense as the woman reviewed a dossier and John watched the twilight world go by through a window

"So, how does it feel to be stateside again?" the woman asked him.

"Not much different than anywhere else. I was in the city last time; this area is a different animal. Besides Frau Beseler, just because you live somewhere does not make it home. Even Canberra holds few sentiments for me these days,"

"Its Miss Beseler, I grew up on this side of the Atlantic Mr. Lazarus," she reminded him with a sigh. She finally removed her gloves and got, comfortable; her eyes truly were her best feature a sharp piercing blue, including the two that rested in the palms of her hands'.

"This country is so quick to toss aside the past, a foolish habit. It is our past that makes us who we are in the present. Even when the past is unknown it rules your future," he chuckled.

"Then call me Alice, and why don't we stay on topic? You know why you are here?" she queried.

"Yes, Lord Magneto has finally realized that the blue whore is not to be trusted with the molding of the next generation. I must say though, I did not expect to get the job. Rather than removing me from Coventry wouldn't taking Phalanx have been easier? I have been administering our British program for years, and this is the sort of thing I have been training the lad for," he speculated.

"Apparently you did not get the full briefing," Miss Beseler observed. She handed him the dossier, which he began to read.

Alvars, Lance, codename Avalanche, he stopped reading. Again the unaccounted for play on names, honestly what point to code names when they were practically your real name? Still it was better than poor Alice stuck with the codename Four Eyes. He almost groaned at Tolansky, Todd, codename Toad.

The last student was Darkholme, Anna Maria, codename Rogue. Leave it to the lasses to step out from a stupid trend.

Age sixteen the girl was raised by a back up roster operative, he recalled meeting the Precog once. Her powers had been predicted to manifest later this month but unsurprisingly the prediction was almost right while being wrong enough to cause a lot of problems. The girl was one of Mystique's children, and as usual the changeling had abandoned her offspring for someone else to deal with. Though perhaps that was a blessing, she would probably have made a terrible mother anyway.

Her mutation had been active since birth but not fully manifested. It acted more like a disease effecting her skin and endurance. Albino white skin with high aversion to sunlight and despite a lifelong physical training regimen retained piss poor endurance. These shortcomings especially her skin had made her an almost instant pariah, human tolerance at its finest. Thus she had adopted a Goth persona and started going by the name of Rouge.

Hmm, while he liked seeing people swim against the current he distrusted the pagan undertones of Goths. He had met many mutants that treated God's divine gifts like they were witchcraft or some pagan godling's leavings. Hopefully it was simply angst and playing to her circumstances.

Her powers allowed her a poison touch, any physical contact draining the victim. In the case of humans it was a portion of their physical abilities and muscle memory. It had been noted already by Mystique that the absorption process temporarily alleviated the disease like symptoms of her mutation.

Most interestingly when using it on mutants she gained their powers in the same manner. While only temporary the potential of a mutant that could wield any power excited him. Though it would have drawbacks since a power she had not trained for could make her a hazard to herself and comrades.

There had been a scare about her absorbing mental residue after this occurred with her first victim. But the effect had not recurred with the X-man she had touched or the test subjects. Hopefully it was just a fluke of the mutation awakening.

Reaching the end of the report his suspicions were confirmed. The red S told him exactly why he had been removed from such an important position to build a Yankee operation from the ground up. If Rogue was an S Class her loyalty to the cause had to be absolute, loosing control especially to the Elitists was utterly unacceptable.

"That answer your question?" Alice asked as he stared off into space.

"Yes, even Xavier and our Lord are only High A. I did not think I would witness another S class in lifetime, God is truly moving us toward a confrontation against the Mundani," he answered. Alice groaned inwardly, she did not see him winning over any teenagers with his bizarre take on religion. However he was regarded as one of the best when it came to training and indoctrination, so either it worked better than it sounded or he kept his beliefs to himself.

"She only is classified as a potential S class Mr. Lazarus. It is quite likely she will only be A, though that would still make her a major asset," Alice pointed out.

"Asset? It makes her sound like a car or a parcel of land. This young woman I think will stun even lord Magneto when she reaches maturity. In fact I believe leadership training should begin shortly, after all her intelligence and general competence is rated the highest among the three," Lazarus pondered.

"Don't you think she should follow before she leads?" Alice asked.

"She has been rather antisocial when dealing with peers in the past. The prospect of power over others can lure her in, while responsibility will force her to come out of her shell. It is always better to make them think they make the decisions, give her what she wants so she takes what she needs. I have been doing this for years remember?" he chuckled.

"Though I am uneasy about running this operation in Charles Xavier's backyard. The man is an idealist and an elitist, who is skilled in tempting and deceiving with the liberal opiates and the luxuries of capitalism. It seems to me we are smoking fags around an open petrol barrel," Lazarus mused.

"You are not the first to point that out, and I haven't heard a good answer yet. Maybe the boss hopes we will win some of them over? Or perhaps it's a test to see who can be swayed by Xavier's money?" Alice offered.

"Either way Lord Magneto must have his reasons to take such a risk. It is not our place to question his decisions. I am relieved though that it will be me rather than the Whore that will be dealing with Xavier," he smiled.

"Remember she is still technically in charge and your boss. Your position is Deputy Administrator, she is in charge of the operatives assigned to Bayville and you are in charge of recruits," she pointed out smiling.

"Thus I will be the only operative under her command while every recruit is under mine. So she is to be the queen while I am the PM," she observed.

"Well be sure to not push her majesty to far, she is a valued asset to the Society," Alice persisted.

"The presence her and her ilk only weakens us, they care only for advancing their own cause, not Lord Magneto's vision. We are the chosen race singled out by God, but Saul was also of a chosen race and degenerated into treason," Lazarus muttered.

"Keep a lid on that Blight, focus on Rogue and the other recruits not your grudge with Mystique," she ordered.

"Of course, we will both need to rest up. Tomorrow you deal with the changeling while I try and rein in a pair of delinquents and manipulate a Goth to glory. You know I do love my job," he stated.

The silver car continued down the highway one amongst many. People only meters away went about fretting over lateness, directions, or noise blissfully ignorant to the events transpiring so close to them.

Please good people of the internet, review. Also there is a poll in my profile, the outcome will determine which story among those listed will get priority in regards too updates.