Julian Keller at twenty-four chews peppermint gum like a maniac.

It's a trick –a coping mechanism –in a third attempt to kick smoking for good. He's had several telepaths offer to help him quit but no, he says; he's gotta do this the hard way.

As it is, the gum chewing has its downsides.

"Will you stop?" Cessily hisses through the comm link.

Julian is pressed into a dark corner of the hall of an underground bunker. "Sorry," he says, making conscious effort to silence the squelching of gum and teeth.

"Target C is in position," Laura mutters. "I'm moving in; hold positions."

There's the muffled sound of her knocking someone out, and then Laura says, "Proceeding downstairs. Mercury, take the vents and scout the lower floors; Cuckoos, broadcast room, prepare Pixie and Rockslide for teleportation,"

Julian listens to these instructions and hears the affirmatives of the other team members.

From Greymalkin, one of the Cuckoos acts as their mouthpiece through Cerebro; "Pixie and Rockslide are on standby," she declares, "Waiting for further command."

There's a brief silence on the comms and Julian remains where he is, chewing gum silently and waiting, unmoving –hoping…

Laura has a certain habit of not swearing –it's something about not believing in having to say more than necessary –but she still sounds pissed when she says, "Pixie: teleport to Hellion's location," at around the same time an alarm begins to go off and shouting can be heard in the distance.

A flash of magenta signals Megan and Santo's arrival and Julian steps out of the shadows to greet them just as a squadron of the latest threat of uniformed goons march around the corner, guns blazing.

Julian shields them from the first rounds of gunfire, blocking the hall entirely to prevent the soldiers from advancing. Some of them fall from their own ricocheting bullets.

Megan teleports herself and Santo to the other side of the shield, appearing behind the small army to surprise them with a counter attack. While Santo smashes through the forces with a swing of his granite arms, Megan teleports back to the safety behind Julian's telekinetic shields.

With the soldiers distracted by Santo, Julian lets his shields and instead focuses on grasping every automatic weapon in the room and yanking them out of the hands of the enemy.

Pixie then sends out a wave of pink dust that blows toward the men and has them collapsing with dopey smiles on their faces.

Santo alone remains standing, blinking in mild confusion. "Cool," he decides. He steps over a body and joins Megan and Julian. "Anyone else around here?"

"That should be initial back-up," Julian says, shaking his head, "Their manpower will be spread out, so we shouldn't be expecting anyone else unless they figure out ahead of time that we've taken out the guys over here." He turns on his comm link to tell Laura, "West wing threat neutralized; proceeding downward."

Laura makes a noise of acknowledgement. There's shouting in the background of her line and Cessily is shouting things like, "Three men approaching from your seven, X! Five coming around the corner!"

Julian turns down the comms and says, "Alright, let's go."

The facility they've infiltrated is a one of the many distant branches of the F.O.H that have been cropping up across the world lately. In conjunction with S.H.I.E.L.D and the Avengers, the X-Men have been sending teams out to deal with certain facilities. This is the third facility Laura's team has been assigned to within the year, and while they haven't found much in the facilities besides signs that the FOH are arming themselves and setting up labs for unknown purposes, S.H.I.E.L.D has been increasingly insistent that the facilities be found and crushed.

The standing theory (or at least the one with the most bets in the X-Men's pool) is that the F.O.H has gotten their hands on S.H.I.E.L.D data in some way and is planning a large event of nefarious nature in the future.

Julian leads Megan and Santo down the halls, guided by the patchwork blueprint the Cuckoos have broadcasted to everyone based on the various team members' exploration of the facility, and though Santo's footfalls are thunderous, no one comes running.

"X-23," Julian says, "Can we get an update on the situation here?"

"An equipped lab has been found on sublevel three," she says, "It appears empty. There are only guards here. Unloaded boxes in the labs indicate the arrival of scientists is expected but has not yet occurred."

"There's nothing here?" Megan says from behind Julian.

"We can still press them with illegal arms possession and intention for mutant exploitation," Cessily says over the comms, "Some of these boxes have some pretty nasty files –uh, hold on, I've got something that'll get up for good."

"Pixie, join us in the labs, we need to get these boxes to evidence," Laura's disembodied voice says, "Cuckoos, organize a sting operation with S.H.I.E.L.D to apprehend the scientists are supposed to arrive. If we keep this operation out of the press for a few more days, we'll have them with no complications."

Megan teleports Julian and Santo down to where Cessily and Laura are standing in the middle of yet another generic empty laboratory. There are a couple of men strewn across the floor, some moving feebly, but most out cold.

"Pixie," Laura says from where she and Cessily are moving metal and wooden crates into the middle of the room so that they can be teleported away later, "Take Rockslide to the north entrance; make sure no one manages to escape before we can get reinforcements to round them all up. Let's finish this operation neatly."

Julian's got nineteen missed calls on his answering machine (because he has a very strong belief in landlines) when the team returns from the sting operation four days later.

It's five-fifteen in the afternoon and he's exhausted, but Julian goes to the cupboard, picks out a stick of gum from a tin in the corner, and then crosses over to the living room to take a seat on the couch.

The first message on the machine is innocuous enough: a message from the Xavier Homeless Youth street program reminding Julian that he's promised to volunteer for an upcoming event. The second message from Eliza is a reminder that they're supposed to have dinner on Thursday with her parents.

Julian groans and cringes as the next message is her wondering where the hell he is.

It goes on; Eliza's messages become increasing urgent, then disappointed and outraged ("I called the headquarters and Victor said you'd gone on a mission in Texas –in goddamn Texas, Julian? And you know you're really unlucky Victor can't lie for shit, because it wasn't even an emergency and what, you forgot you had a girlfriend? Who would actually be worried if you fell out of contact? Christ, Julian, I know you've got this X-Men thing, but you said it wasn't going to be your entire life…").

Finally, it turns to resigned; "Just… call me whenever you get back, okay?" the last message says, "We can meet up and talk."

"Fuck," Julian groans, scrubbing a hand over his face. He stares at the ceiling, contemplating this predicament, before calling Eliza. It goes about as well as he could hope:

"Julian," Eliza says stonily.

"Jesus, Eliza, I don't know what I was thinking"

"-well, you can say that again. My parents think you're total shit now. I mean, seriously, Julian –they were already on the edge with you being an X-Man"

"—I'll make it up to you, I swear," Julian says, "Look, I just got back –can we meet?"

Eliza sighs heavily. "Sure. Starbucks where we met. Fifteen minutes." She hangs up.

"Shit," Julian mutters. He hauls himself off the sofa and takes a quick shower before flying over traffic to the Starbucks in question.

Even so, when Julian gets into the café, Eliza is already there.

"Hey," he says, a little out of breath as he slides into the chair across from her.

"Hey,"

Eliza looks away, down at her coffee. Her dark curls are messy today, framing her face, which appears hidden behind the thick black frames of her glasses.

Staring at her now, Julian remembers the day he first saw her, standing in line with her hair braided and piled on top of her head in a bun, a colorful cloth tied around her head. She'd been wearing loose, billowy pants and black short-sleeve shirt that had exposed the smooth, dark skin of her abdomen.

They'd stood next to each other while waiting for their orders and Eliza had said out of nowhere, "Ask me my number."

"What?" Julian had said, startled.

"You're staring, so you might as well ask. I've got Friday night free."

Julian grinned. "What's your name?"

"Eliza," she said.

"Julian,"

They shook hands and Julian had cackled at the astonished look on Eliza's face when he let his gauntlet go and she thought she'd pulled off his prosthetic.

They went to dinner that Friday, and the Sunday after.

That was years ago.

Now, Eliza sighs. "Julian," she says slowly, "You know I…. worry about you."

"M'sorry,"

Eliza shakes her head. "I know you are, hon," she says. "But, I haven't seen much you lately."

"I… there's this operation," Julian tries to explain, "It's going to take a while."

"Here's there the thing," Eliza says after another silence, "We've been dating for two years…"

"And three months,"

Eliza smiles a little, but it's subdued. "I just –Julian. I gotta know how invested you are …in us."

He frowns. "What do you mean? 'Course I'm invested. We're dating."

"I asked you to move in with me seven months ago and you said you'd have to think about it. Then you said you liked your space"

"-You like your space, too," Julian protests, "I thought we were better that way"

"-Julian," Eliza says flatly, "You have commitment issues."

He gapes. "I do not"

"-Honey, yes you do," she says, "You're distracted and I wonder if this isn't about –about …him."

Julian clenches his jaw. "Eliza," he says stiffly.

"Seriously, Julian,"

He reaches out, to take her hand on the table and says firmly, "Eliza, I'm with you and I like you. A lot."

"But do you love me, Julian? Do you?" she asks, pulling her hand away from Julian's. "Am I wasting my time, trying to make this work?"

"What's that supposed tomean?" Julian demands, feeling something akin to a stone (or perhaps his heart) drop into his stomach.

Eliza bites her lower lip for a moment. "We're falling apart," she says finally, "And… I think we need to take a break."

"A break." Julian repeats, shocked, "We're… breaking up?"

"It's for the best," Eliza insists, standing. "I'll call you later, okay? Julian?"

Julian takes a moment to respond. "Alright," he says quietly.

"Take care of yourself," Eliza says.

He doesn't watch her go, just stares at the table in front of him until he's sure she's gone.

Santo looks surprised when Julian sits down next to him on the couch in the Staff Room, which is probably a statement on what a shitty friend Julian has been since high school.

Even though most of the X-Men aren't teachers at Jean Grey's School beyond the occasional leading of training room sessions, they still invade the Staff Room as their new Recreation Room away from the younger students.

"Where's Victor?" Julian wonders.

Santo shrugs. "On a date or something. He's a total douche."

"Vic or his date?" Julian says.

"Both of 'em." Santo grumbles. He looked over at Julian, squinting a little, "What's up with you?"

"What?" Julian scowls.

"Well, you're here." Santo says, "And no offense, dude, but you're usually off doing –fuck, man don't blow bubbles in my face,"

Julian snaps the gum back into his mouth with a shrug. "Eliza broke up with me," he says casually.

Santo lets out a guffaw, "She dumped your sorry ass?" he booms, slapping his knee with a force that makes the couch shake a little.

"Laugh it up," Julian mumbles.

Santo's laughs subside. "For real, dude, that sucks."

Julian shrugs. "I'll… get over it. I have to, I guess."

"Yeah."

They fall into silence and Julian takes a closer look at what's playing on the television. "Is this Project Runway?"

"Yeah," Santo says unashamedly.

"Cool."

They fall quiet once more.

"Make it work," Tim Gunn says.

Julian buys a pack of Camels on his way back into the city and puts them on the kitchen counter when he enters his apartment. He's been living here for almost three years and it's never felt more lonely. He lights a cigarette (with a match; he doesn't have lighters around anymore) and goes to the answering machine, but there are no messages waiting, so he sits silently on the couch, chewing slowly on hours-old peppermint gum and letting cigarette ash drop into the carpet under the glove that's holding it.

The skies grow dark outside the windows and the room falls to shadows.

Julian doesn't move.

The Xavier Homeless Youth street program holds an event in mid-November to connect with street kids in need of shelter for the winter.

Julian talks with a couple of displaced teenagers –ones he recognizes –who are looking for a new shelter after feeling too uncomfortable in their old one.

These kids are all guarded and weary of the world and they range from ages thirteen to nineteen. The bulk o the kids are sixteen, and have either run away from home or have been kicked out. They don't want to go into any foster care programs, and are wary with the X-Men and other volunteers initially, not giving out names and looking around with suspicious eyes and defensive stances, ready to run if they feel things are going south.

Some of the kids Julian talks to are recently eighteen and are trying to get their feet on the ground and build something for themselves. For these people, the street program offers help finding jobs or getting scholarships to enroll in community colleges or simply to finish high school online.

There's one kid –a pasty, skinny boy in an oversized hoodie –who lingers on the edges of the room in the Stark Civic Center where the event is being held, and is dragged over to where Julian is momentarily unoccupied by a tall Latino teenager wearing a parka. She looks Julian up and down and then blurts out, "Is there a thing for, like, addicts?"

Julian flies a pamphlet from a table across the room. "There's a couple of programs to help treat various addictions. There's a popular rehabilitation program…"

"Do we gotta pay?" the girl says, "We ain't got a lot o' money"

Julian nods, "Well, the program includes three stages. There's detox and then behavioral rehabilitation. The third stage is about giving back to the community. For those who need financial help, this stage is what helps cover the cost of the program." He pauses, then adds, "We get a lot of donations to the program, too. People want you guys to get better."

The girl gives a pointed look to the boy, who looks jumpy and… in stages of substance withdrawal. They turn away from Julian to argue in whispers.

"If you want, I can take you to meet some of the program's directors who are here today," Julian offers, "You can get started right away,"

"Yeah?" The boy speaks up in challenging tones, "You know anyone who's done this thing? How do we know y'all ain't just gonna screw us over –make us some sorta slaves of the system?"

Julian looks him over, this guy who looks both old and impossibly young. He can't be over eighteen. "You've already screwed yourself over," he says, crossing his arms, "What harm can a little help do?"

"See?" the girl mutters to the boy, "Jorge, c'mon. Please." she turns to Julian, casting an earnest gaze upon him. "Where do we go?" she asks.

Julian smiles a little and sends them in the right direction.

"How's it going?" Cessily says when they find themselves taking a short water break at a table in the corner.

Julian shrugs. "There's a pretty good turn out," he says.

Cessily nods. "The kids from last year spread the words," she says, "And we've got one or two journalists here today, but Kitty's got 'em on a leash so they don't scare everyone away."

Julian throws back the water in the small paper cup he's filled. "What time are you taking lunch?"

"Half an hour," Cessily replies. "Hey, Victor was looking a little swamped earlier. Xi'an left a couple of minutes ago and Jean-Paul won't be here till after lunch. You wanna go help him?"

Julian glances over to Victor's corner, where he Victor does, indeed, look a little weary. He's teamed up with Santo to speak with LGBT*QIA youth, but it looks like Santo is only being about as helpful as Santo can manage to be and there's more kids lingering in Victor's corner than two people (or perhaps, just one, considering Santo is only entertaining people by crumbling and rebuilding himself every couple of minutes) can handle. "Sure," Julian says, "Why not?"

He goes over to Victor under the pretense of wheedling some chewing gum out of him, which is a good move, because Victor doesn't feel insulted that Julian has come over and has lingered to help out, and Julian gets a stick of Trident.

"Everyone, this is Julian, aka Hellion," Victor says to the group, "You can begin directing some of your questions toward him… We're just talking about the support groups and stuff," he adds to Julian.

Julian turns to the kids, the closest of which is a gangly girl with faded blue-dyed hair and two eyebrow rings. She looks at him suspiciously and then says quizzically, "Who are you supposed to be?"

"Julian," he says.

"What's wrong with your hands?" she says.

"I don't have any," Julian responds flatly, holding up his gauntlets pointedly.

"For how long?"

"Not very concerned with manners, huh?" Julian says, narrowing his eyes.

She shrugs. "Not interested in subtlety. What's it, then? Or will I have to imagine a creative backstory for you?"

"Six." Julian says.

"What?"

"It's been about six years," Julian says, "Would you like a pamphlet, maybe?"

The girl eyes him with equally narrowed eyes. "Already have one, thanks."

Julian nods. "Alright. Do you have any other questions that you haven't found answers to in the pamphlets?" he says, using the sort of voice that he hasn't used in years –the one that's pleasant and polite but leaves the person being addressed feeling like maybe they've been insulted somehow.

"No, I'm good. 'Cept, maybe… do you wanna go out sometime?"

Julian stares.

She stares back, unnerved, but eventually adding, "I mean, unless you're totally gay. Then forget I asked."

"Uh," Julian says, "No, it's just… had a break-up recently. Not looking for a relationship right now."

"That's cool," she shrugs, "I'm Sarah, by the way."

"Julian," he says.

"You got any more gum?"

"Not on me right now" –Julian is thankfully distracted from this increasingly strange conversation by Megan, who is approaching the group, much to the delight of the teenagers gathered.

"Yo, Julian," she says after humoring the group at large with a wave, "Logan's called to say S.H.I.E.L.D's requesting you,"

"For a mission?" Sarah interjects interestedly.

Megan offers her a conspiratorial grin "Maybe," she says, waggling her eyebrows.

"They want me?" Julian says in surprise.

"Looks like," Megan says, cheerfully taking his arm and shouting, "See you all later –fantastic work, Vic –Sihal novarum chinoth," before another word can be said.

They appear in front of the building's doors in the midday light of Manhattan.

Julian blinks a little, disoriented by the sudden natural light, and Megan shoves him toward the doors. "Go on," she says.

"You couldn't have gone an extra inch?"

Megan throws her head back and laughs, "The first and only time I did that, I almost got shot and then some scary guys yelled at me for a while." she says, "When they're done with you, page me, yeah?"

Julian nods. He spits his chewing gum in a trash bin on the way in through the S.H.I.E.L.D headquarter building doors, which are ridiculously tall and tinted and also probably missile-proof.

Inside, the lobby looks like that of any office building; men and women in business attire cross the linoleum floor at varying speeds, some alone, and some in massive groups. There's a desk across from the doors that looks reasonably official, and since Julian's never been inside the building, he heads toward it, clearing his throat loudly before he even makes it.

The receptionist glances up at him, then down at something behind the desk. "Hellion, aka Julian Keller," he says, "Agent Wang of the Department of Mutant Affairs will meet you on the seventh floor. The elevator will open for you. Have a nice day."

Julian stares at him for a moment before he fully comprehends what's been said. "Uh, thanks," he says, heading past the desk.

He ends up in an elevator crowded with about a dozen other full grown adults. When the elevator reaches the seventh floor, Julian has to fight his way to the front of the group to get out, and almost leaves a gauntlet behind as the elevator doors start to close.

A petite woman is waiting in front of the elevator, clearly Agent Wang.

Julian raises his eyebrows but doesn't comment on the titles, "What do you want from me?" he says.

"We're working on a case," Wang says, "That we could use your help with. If you'll come with me?"

Julian follows her down the main hall and then down a side hall and into a large conference room. A conference room that happens to be occupied by four very official looking agents.

They all turn to stare at Julian when he and Wang walk in and Julian is acutely aware that he's wearing a navy blue shirt with gold print that says 'XAVIER S. FTW'.

"Anyone gonna tell me what this is about?" Julian says stiffly, crossing his arms over the words.

A man at the head of the table opens a folder sitting on the table in front of him. "Julian Keller, age twenty-four, alpha-level telekinetic, team co-leader of X-Men roster Codename Young X-Men," he says.

"I know." Julian responds tersely. He glances at Wang. "You said you needed to me for something? I can't imagine what I could know that S.H.I.E.L.D wouldn't. You're, like, the C.I.A on steroids."

"Mr. Keller –hello. My name is Agent Higgs," The man at the head of the table says loudly to change the direction of the conversation. "Now, you were arrested four years ago in Chicago as a suspect in the Darren Jurney case. At the time, you were living with Joshua Foley, alias Elixir, an Omega-level healer."

"What's this about?" Julian snaps, taking one step back without thinking about it.

A screen behind the table turns on and an old New Mutants group photo appears.

"Foley was recorded to have been able to exert precise power over human biology; he could regrow limbs and cure the Legacy Virus. Would you say that he was targeted for his powers?"

Julian stares at the man with narrowed eyes. "Oh sure," he says bitingly, "I mean, there was a particular psycho who was inspired to kill a couple of people over him. What the fuck?"

Higgs puts up his hands in a placating gesture. "Allow me to continue," he says, "Earlier the same year, you two were involved in an incident with four members of a self-proclaimed chapter of the Friends of Humanity. Three men were originally killed by you in self-defense and a fourth was neutralized by Codename X-23."

"Is there a point to all of this?" Julian demands.

"Jeremiah Sanders, one of the men that was killed that day, was the younger brother of Gideon Sanders, a research scientist whom we believe is working for the Friends of Humanity in developing some sort of bioweapon." Higgs says.

One of his colleagues speaks up then; "We believe that, although you were tracking down these men at the time, they were following something else."

"Those idiots didn't have the ambition for whatever you think it is they were trying to do." Julian snorts.

"I agree," the second agent says, "However, S.H.I.E.L.D believes that Gideon Sanders is leading a project to use mutant genes to create a bioweapon, and that his brother's group were the ones tasked with obtaining the genes. They may have been targeting Elixir for their project."

Julian purses his lips.

There is silence while the S.H.I.E.L.D agents stare at him, waiting for something, and he closes his eyes, blocking them all out for a moment.

When he finally speaks, his voice is a harsh whisper. "And why," he says, "Does this matter now?" He opens his eyes, expression hard. "Considering that he. Is fucking. Dead."

"S.H.I.E.L.D would like to formally request your team's assistance as a strike team for"

"-you're asking ahead of time? And you're asking me? Co-leader is a title." Julian laughs. "You should be talking to X-23 and you know it. What the hell are you playing at?"

"Mr. Keller," Higgs says, "We're telling you this now because we need your cooperation when the time comes"

"-thought you said you need our help." Julian says, raising his eyebrows. "Gonna need you to make up your mind."

"There is going to be a certain aspect of this particular case," Higgs says, "That is going to require mutant expertise."

"Your expertise," Wang says from Julian's side. "I suggest you sit down, Julian,"

He eyes the open seat at the table in front of him and casts a final glare at everyone assembled at the table before he sinks into the chair.

Higgs clears his throat. "We believe that the F.O.H may have targeted Elixir to use his X-Gene for a bioweapon, but as of late, we have reason that they were targeting him and that they succeeded somehow in…" He clears his throat again, glancing at the files in front of him before looking Julian in the eye and saying, "We had Joshua Foley's grave at Jean Grey School for Higher Learning exhumed earlier this week. The body in the coffin does not appear to be his."