The twenty first century had been tough on humanity, and even tougher on the new arrivals to the evolutionary chain; the mutants. Though earth was a cauldron of bigotry and prejudice, where mutants and humans hated each other and shunned those who tried to live in unity, there were four places that were different. These four places were G.U.N, Mutant Island, S.H.I.E.L.D, and Xavier's Institute for the Gifted.

These places and facilities shared similarities to each other; Mutant Island and Xavier's Institute for the Gifted offered safe haven and freedom for mutants, while G.U.N and S.H.I.E.L.D saw tools and numbers on paper.

They also had differences; Xavier's Institute for the Gifted and S.H.I.E.L.D train and teach those in their care to protect and preserve the delicate peace of the world, defending both humanity and mutant kind from those who would abuse and use them, namely, G.U.N and The Brotherhood of Mutants, who live upon Mutant Island. G.U.N uses mutants and humans in untold conspiracies and experiments, vying to put mankind on the galactic map with an army of mindless superbeings at their command. The Brotherhood of Mutants seeks mutant supremacy over the earth, their leader Magneto leading them with charisma and vision.

As these powers fight, the world spins to another World War, one that threatens the future of life itself on the small planet.

And it's salvation comes not in a great leader, but in the arrival of one not born of either earth or nature...

"Mutant Ball!"

With those two words, many baseball founders and legends turned in their graves. The instructors at Xavier's Institute for the Gifted put great emphasis into using the powers granted to homo sapien superior with responsibility, but the students developed amnesia of this whenever the slightest form of hot blooded competition arose amongst them.

"Batter up!" The pitcher spun his arm at super human speed before throwing the ball, taking apart the bat when the batter hit it by sheer luck.

"Strike one!"

"No way!" The batter, Kurt Wagner, protested. "I hit it!"

"Still went to the catcher." Argued Rogue from third base. "Strike One."

Kurt threw his arms up. "For the love of...! Fine, I'm getting another bat." He teleported to the sports supplies and began rummaging through the bags.

"Y'know, the Professor is losing his patience with these." Said a short brunette sitting on a bench next to the supplies.

"Yeah, yeah, we know." Kurt said nonchalantly. "And I'm losing my patience no one bothering to keep the bats in the same bag every time."

"I'm serious." She said in a more warning tone.

"Chill out, X-girl." Kurt found the bat-bag and drew one out with a flourish. "The Professor won't even know."

"Do not call me that!" She rose to her feet with a fist clenched before her. "It's X. 2. 3! Got it? X23."

Kurt turned to regard her with a compassionate face. "That's what S.H.I.E.L.D calls you. We're your friends."

"Hey! Nightcrawler!" Shouted Rogue. "Hurry up!"

"Be right there!" Kurt shouted back before turning again to X23, who had taken her seat again.

"You're part of the team now, so you should pick a name for yourself."

X23 responded with her own variant of the 'wolverine growl'.

"Okay, okay. Sheesh..." With that, Kurt teleported back to the game in a puff of smoke.

"I already have a name..." X23 sat there, arms crossed over her chest. She had been getting encouragement to choose a name since she got to the school. Not a common name, of course, that would be a stretch to choose. They meant a 'mutant name', Cyclops and Nightcrawler for instance. She hadn't picked one because she didn't see the point. She hadn't been born like everyone else on the field before her; she was a clone, Logan's clone, to be exact. This didn't make her feel less of an individual, as some might think a clone might, but it did put her perspective on the mutant-human conflict on a different angle, along with this subject.

She felt that, since she was a clone, a 'mutant name', as the term went, didn't fit her. 'X23'. A clone. That was her. She wasn't proud or ashamed, she just accepted the fact, much like every mutant accepted their standing in the world.

"Strike!" She heard for the second time, breaking her trail of thought. How they expected to have a satisfying game when they were going through bats like popcorn, she had no idea.

"Hello again." Kurt's visit this time was going to be short, as he hadn't the excuse of not knowing which bag to go to. X23 turned away from him, feeling put off by his presence. She looked to the small forest of trees that occupied the school grounds. She found it relaxing, surprisingly, as not very much calmed her down beyond physical exertion, something Logan could relate to and guide her away from. She remembered that Logan had suggested painting in an exasperated fit during one of their earlier discussions on what she should do in her spare time...

Her thoughts were again interrupted by the shout of a strike and Kurt teleporting over.

"That's it!" He sounded more outraged than offended or angry. "I'm telling the Professor" And he was gone. He wasn't going straight to the Professor's office, of course, he needed a story to get himself out of trouble, and so had teleported into the trees.

X23 put herself back to looking into the forest. She had just found her calm when Kurt came back.

"X, you have to see this!"

"Whatever it is..." Her words caught in her throat as she saw Kurt with his fur singed in several places.

"What the hell?" She said rising to her feet.

Kurt held out his hand with urgency. "Come on!"

X23 grabbed Kurt's hand, and an instant later she was standing in the forest.

"This guy. This guy here." X23 looked around for a moment before laying eyes on who Kurt was talking about; a blonde boy in a black coat lying unconscious on the ground.

There is not one 'world' that is, universe or realm of existence. There are many places, many lands and planets. There are as many worlds as there are ways to travel to them. There are those who know some of these methods, and use the ability to travel to other worlds for good or ill. Roxas, though naively unaware of it, was the latter. He was part of an organisation, one that sought to collect enough hearts together to form 'Kingdom Hearts', a great heart to complete their existences as Nobody's.

Roxas had rebelled and left for...for...someone? Something? Either way, he had left, and had gone in search of a man who was masquerading as one of the organisation, a man whom he felt largely responsible for the reason for his rebellion against the organisation. He confronted him, but was defeated when his opponent stopped holding back. He had drifted in and out of consciousness, but had come to realise that he was going to be sent somewhere, somewhere that the imposter and his accomplice, a man in red, would make use of him. He had wanted to fight, to get up and run, but couldn't. He had been powerless as they dumped him onto some contraption and made final preparations to do whatever it was that they intended.

As they typed away and remarked on their pity for him, Roxas had summoned one last ounce of will, of defiance against being used. He wasn't aware of it, but when his captors had pushed the button, he had attempted to open a dark corridor, causing their machine and his corridor to malfunction and fluctuate. Instead of being sent to where his captors wanted he was sent spiralling through the space between worlds.

Unconscious the whole time, he had been left to crawl through the mess of forgotten and torn away memories that filled his mind. He struggled to recall things that his mind said never happened, but something else in him said meant all the worlds to him. He had drifted for a long time, his body wearing out as the time went by. And then a tear in the barriers that sealed off the worlds from one another opened near him, and he was sucked in...

X23 stood in the doorway of the school first-aid room. She had no idea why, but she kept coming back to look at the boy who lay there on the sick-bed. She had told the others that she had been getting a suspicious vibe from the boy, which they bought when Logan agreed with her, but really, she had been lying. She just...felt like looking at him.

He was emaciated, probably hanging onto his life by a thread, but he looked like someone conditioned for battle. Given this and his suspicious arrival, they had only wild assumptions to run on, one of them being he was a runaway mutant from somewhere or someone. It was an exceedingly rare occurance, but not unheard of. The means by which he arrived, on the other hand...

The boy stirred, his mind trying to regain consciousness.

"Xion..." He whispered.

X23 made no move to assist or restrain his attempt to wake. She knew from her training as the new 'Weapon X' that his body was a far way off from being able to support consciousness of any sort. She instead watched the tear that had formed in his eye slide down his cheek. She felt that, whatever had happened to the boy over the course of his life, that tear was probably justified. She should know, as she had wanted to cry so many times before...

She had faked her own death once. Granted blowing up a ship while aboard the thing was a rather convincing method, but she knew better than to be complacent. She had taken to travelling the united states as a nomad, going from place to place, stealing what she needed here and there. She soon found this life wanting, and had looked around in her travels for a place to stay, a purpose to take up, but to no avail. I didn't matter what the job was, what the pay was, whether a cashier, waitress, car-jacker, mechanic, she just couldn't find it was what she wanted out of life, whatever that meant.

But her search was interrupted. She had been approached by another mutant, a pyrokenetic, one who had introduced themselves as Amaimon. Part way through his introduction, she had figured out he was an agent of Magneto, the de facto fuhrer of their day and age, and was trying to recruit her. She had turned him down and made a dash in the other direction, but the Brotherhood had stopped taking 'no' for an answer some time ago.

Much to her lasting vexation, the X-Men had shown up, Logan aka Wolverine most notably. Convinced by Logan and recent events that she was no longer safe out in the world, she had agreed to go back with them to the school, even though it meant taking sides by company in a war she wanted no part off. Add to this that S.H.E.I.L.D, Hydra, or whoever else had a vested interest in the existence of a school for mutants would learn of her presence there within a week, and you had a crappy situation.

At least there was food.

She decided she had sated her inexplicable need for the time being and headed off to her room for the night.