Future Dreams and Foregone Schemes
By Twilight Dusk

Summary: When Mokuba tricked Bakura, Malik, and Ryou into giving him some lessons on shadow magic, they thought they only had to worry about Seto or the Pharaoh finding out. They certainly weren't expecting to show up on a computer in Bayville.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that isn't mine. Kyoko is mine! So is Bakura and Ryou's nickname.

Universal Warnings:
Timeline, What Timeline? - Um, Apocalypse, Friends of Humanity hasn't happened yet, but the X-Men's ages are probably off. I'm not changing that, I need them to be the ages I give them. The story starts immediately after Mainstream, Target X has already happened, and X23 chose to stay with Logan. In Yu-Gi-Oh verse, it's three years after Duelist Kingdom- we're assuming everything else has already happened. Ages are again, probably off and I'm not changing.

Non-Homicidal Wanda- Okay, one piece of background info. In my story, Destiny is friends with Agatha Harkness, so Agatha taught Wanda how to control her anger along with her powers. She's slightly saner (slightly), and she still wants Magneto dead, she's just smart enough to hide it- therefore, Toad, Witch, and Wardrobe never happens. Otherwise she's normal.

Pairings: ROMY, JONDA, KIOTR, TABIETRO, KURMANDA, ANGELOCKE, KUROUxKYOKO (OC), OTHERS TO COME LATER

Age Guide:
Angel, Psylocke-25
Isis Ishtar- 24
Gambit-22
Colossus, Rishid Ishtar, Sage- 20
Pyro, Avalanche, Ryou Bakura, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Kyoko Lore, (OC)- 19 Sort of Forge
Rogue, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Boom-Boom, Malik Ishtar, Anzu, Otogi Ryuuji- 18
Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Amanda Sefton, Blob, Toad, Iceman, Yugi Mutou- 17
Magma, Sunspot, Jubilee, Seto Kaiba- 16
Cannonball, Wolfsbane- 15
Multiple, Mokuba Kaiba, X23- 14
Prof. X, Magneto- 60+
Storm, Hank, Forge- 40+
Mastermind-53
Mystique, Logan, Sabretooth- Who Knows?

Chapter Warnings: Bakura/Ryou X OC, Wicked!Ryou,
Japanese Translations
Yadonushi -landlord
niisan or nii -older brother
kun -denotes a male friend of the same rank
chan -used for kids and girls it means little, when Ryou uses it, he means little, when Bakura uses it, he means little girl,
koi- means love, short for koishii
gaki-ma – gaki means brat, ma- means demon, demon-brat

Baka- stupid, in 'Kura's case it refers to Jounouchi

Please Review, flames will be used to keep Pyro entertained, and now our feature presentation

CH.1- The Cause

DOMINO CITY, JAPAN

My Kyokoi,
Everyone knows a bored thief is a dangerous thief. But I assure you, far more dangerous is said bored thief, egged on by his ex-bandit best friend and irritating, acquiescing host, being tricked into teaching a cajoling, manipulative mischievous, blackmailing, bribing, little brat shadow magic. I, who stole from the Pharaoh himself, reduced to teaching Mokuba Kaiba card tricks. That brat is far too manipulative for his own good. One of these days someone will cotton on to the mind hiding behind that "innocent" brat-face. Someone other than me, of course. I figured it out from the beginning. I just had no real reason to fight it. You dare doubt me, Notorious Thief King Bakura?! Ammemait's Breath, I sound like a card from the Baka's deck. Bloody Pharaoh. I like the sound of that. It's all his fault, him and the high priest… BAD MENTAL IMAGES!! AHH! MY HEAD, MY HEAD! YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS RYOU!

That got rid of him. Half a moment. I can still hear you 'Kura-niisan. Right, don't listen to anything he said, Kyokoi. Mokuba's not that bad. Well- most of the time he isn't anyway. He did blackmail and bribe 'Kura-nii, Malik, and I into teaching him to use shadow magic, but his means were certainly tamer than 'Kura-nii's standard. He's just angry because it worked. Besides, it isn't like we haven't been encouraging such stunts at every turn. It was fair brilliant, actually. He pestered us until 'Kura-niisan agreed just to shut him up. Then he threatened to tell Seto-kun and Yami-kun, if we didn't keep the bargain. Then, he offered to buy us new knives to thank us for teaching him. Excellent use of badgering, blackmail, and bribery techniques. He's coming along nicely. Teaching him shadow magic shouldn't be that bad. 'Kura-nii's furious because Malik managed to weasel out of doing most of the teaching by offering to find Mokuba-chan a focus. In any case, it's about time we went to meet them.
Aishiteru Kyoko,
Ryou
I love you, my Kyokoi,
Bakura

P.S. I got a chance to review those drawings you sent me. They were fantastic. You should talk to your friend, what's her name, Betsy about getting started. I'm sure she can help you. I've really got to run now; at the risk of sounding like an American, "I have a bad feeling about this."

Tomorrow, Kyokoi,

Kurou

SEND

"Yadonushi," Bakura growled materializing next to Ryou, and promptly banging his elbow on the door. Largely due to the fact that Kaiba Corp.'s marketing department was still dragging its heels on the production of Monster Wars, Ryou could not afford a spacious apartment. The apartment he could afford was basically a closet with a bed and a desk, a bigger closet with room for TV, table, and cushions, and a kitchen.

"Yes, Kura-niisan?" Ryou answered calmly, turning from the computer to his Yami. Three years had softened the ancient thief and strengthened the quiet, hesitant, and naïve boy-host into a confidant, cynical, master thief, albeit a soft-spoken one. He knew he no longer need fear the Thief King, and could hold his own against his yami in any case. The two argued constantly, fought for control, and sabotaged each other, but, as Malik often mentioned, thereby causing knives to fly at his head, they were partners now. (Ryou and Bakura would never use the word partners to describe themselves; it's the word Yugi and Yami use.) Brothers describes it better. Ryou even calls Bakura 'Kura-niisan.' Their girlfriend, Kyoko Lore, insists the two are simply halves of a whole and refers to them as Kurou. Sometimes, it can be hard to tell which is which.

"What, in Ra's name, did I do to deserve that?" he spat at Ryou, shuddering.

"Deserve what?" Ryou inquired innocently. "Although whatever it is, I'd say random knife wounds, sealing my friends' souls, and torture cover the deserving part," he added thoughtfully. He can even joke about that now. Bakura tries not to wince. He hasn't completely put it behind him, but he presses on.

"You put a fuc-" Ryou cut him off.

"I didn't go that far, they were only kissing." Ryou drawled, amused by Bakura's indignant outrage.

"Only kissing! You call that only! It was damn disgusting. The Pharaoh and the High Priest frenching! UGH! That imagination of yours is too damn vivid for your own good! One of these days you are going to get us into trouble, and that's my JOB!" he ranted into his host's smile.

"Are you finished, Kura-nii? We're going to be late for Mokuba-chan's lesson." Bakura sulked.

"It was easier when you were afraid," he grumbled without meaning it. "Serve the gaki-ma right anyway, stupid little- Hey! Ryou!" The spirits of the millennium items can't really go more than 3 meters or so from their items or their hosts. Unfortunately for Bakura, Ryou and the Ring he was wearing had just walked out the apartment's front door. Being pulled through a wall is not a pleasant sensation. "Yadonushi!" By this point, Bakura's voice had been reduced to a sort of semi-threatening whine. Ryou just smirked and headed down the stairs, incidentally dragging his yami through the floor.

Ryou took pity on Bakura and stopped on the street long enough for the Thief to catch up. Said thief, after reattaching the chain and several fairly important wires, kicked their bike into gear and, with a wicked grin, proceeded to avenge his discomfort on his host. Ryou liked the motorcycle. When driving he could even be persuaded to perform a few stunts. What he didn't like was the way Bakura drove it, which involved convincing every cop in Tokyo to chase them. The cops can't really be blamed for this, since Bakura usually started the chases by popping a wheelie on a police car's roof. It seemed the thief couldn't go anywhere without irritating somebody, and if his favorite targets weren't available, (Yugi, Yami, Seto) he made up for it by spreading and enlarging the irritation.

"Of course," Bakura laughed; he'd been eavesdropping on his host's speculation. "Irritating the Pharaoh and the Priest's reincarnation is an art form. This-" he said, simultaneously lifting a hand to take in the sirens, shouts, and multilingual curses (especially the curses) and revved the bike taking them over a cop car, under a clothes line, and onto a second story balcony. Ryou banged his head against the door of his soul room. From the balcony, the Thief King took the bike on a convoluted route which included: three semi-trucks, two more police cars, a pedestrian overpass, another balcony, and four Kaiba Corp. limos (Including one containing Seto who completely ignored the thud in favor of his laptop. He knew perfectly well who it was. Seto knew his driver wouldn't react either; he'd fired four chauffeurs before he'd found one who would ignore the eccentricities of his master's definitely not friends. No Japanese drivers qualified; he'd had to hire one from London), but somehow managed to completely miss the road. Ryou sighed.

"Is it really necessary to arrange for every cop in the city to chase us?" he asked Bakura.

"No, just the female ones," he replied, reaching up to unbutton the top two buttons of his shirt and raising his visor to wink at the female motorcycle cop approaching them. She blinked, gawked, and fell behind. Ryou just shook his head.

"Kura-nii, we are going to be late- no we are late, and I'm fairly certain that last limo was Seto-san's Will you please lose the cops and take us to meet Mokuba-chan already?" Ryou demanded.

"Lose the cops?" Bakura repeated, a slow wicked smile spreading across his face. "I can do that."

"Oh no, Bakura, please don't."

"Too late, Yadonushi, you asked for it." He sent the bike into a slide, bringing their body nearly parallel to the ground, enabling them to slip under the bridge's guard rail. The harbor bridge's guard rail.

"Kid, don't!" Bakura laughed maniacally as the cop tried to follow him and grab him before he went over. He failed. Bakura and the bike tumbled downward through the air, plunging straight into the shadow realm. The darkness wrapped around them just before the bike hit the water. Unscathed, the thieves continued their journey, one smirking and one cussing.

"Pillock. I hate heights. And that poor cop's going to have a mental breakdown when he sees us on the road tomorrow. Besides, you know the shadow realm adds at least five-hundred miles worth of wear and tear to the bike. I always have to retool the wiring after a trip through here," Ryou complained between cuss words.

"Stop whining, Ahou. If you'd just gold plate the wiring, it wouldn't be a problem. Did you see the look on that guys face?"

"You do know how much gold plate costs, right?"

"Are you a thief or not?"

"Bakura!"

"What?" Neither paid much attention to their surroundings. The shadow realm welcomed them. Bakura was as much a part of the shadow realm as he was its master. Therefore, he could, and did, use the realm as an express way. Their bickering gradually subsided as they continued, and Bakura ceded control to Ryou as they left the shadow realm and drove the last few minutes to their destination

He spent the time gleefully replaying his memory of the chase scene on his soul room's television. The SMRP ( Soul-based Memory Recorder and Player) had been Ryou's innovation. He'd snuck the recorder into the thief's soul room, a fairly simple task; the thief preferred to spend as little time in there as possible. He didn't want to remember. Ryou had thought to use it to find out what his yami was up to and fill in the irritating gaps in his memory. It didn't work as well as Ryou would have liked. If Bakura was really concentrating on keeping Ryou out, the memory disks were password protected. When the two had essentially declared truce, Ryou had set one up in his own room and showed Bakura how to work it. In return, Bakura had given Ryou the password, Rena. The word resonated in the ancient thief's mind; it was written on a silk screen in every language he knew, but he had no idea why it was important to him.

At the moment, however, Bakura wasn't particularly concerned with his wall hanging. He was far more interested in watching the female cop gawk at him. Who cared about a mysterious word, or the fact that they'd arrived at the meeting place or that both Malik Ishtar and Mokuba Kaiba were glaring at his host?

And they were glaring. Mokuba's glare was a study in irritation, while Malik's was frozen halfway between amusement and annoyance, but they were both glaring.

"You're late, Ryou," Malik observed semi-cheerfully. "I got here ten minutes ago." Ah, the reason for the glare. Ryou winced. Malik loathed waiting, which is why he always arrived late.

"I'm really very sorry, Malik. The parasite insisted on prolonging the chase until we'd hit Seto-san's limo." Malik's eyes gleamed with cruel mirth. In his mind, and in Bakura's for that matter, irritating the priest's reincarnation was one of the reasons for their existence.

"Forgiven," he said with a grin. Behind him, Mokuba gave a slightly derisive laugh.

"Didn't do you much good this time did it?" he smirked. "Seto's new driver is from London," he informed Ryou smugly. That roused Bakura from his entertainment.

"What?! That's-" he trailed off. He was supposed to irritate Seto Kaiba, not the other way around, and there is nothing more irritating to a prankster than being ignored. London chauffeurs and taxi drivers did not react. The thief had spent enough time trying to cause havoc in his host's home city to know that. He retreated to sulk in his soul room, muttering. Now it was Ryou's turn to glare.

"You didn't have to tell him that, Mokuba-chan," he said mildly. Mokuba's eyes flashed slightly at the epithet, which was the reaction Ryou had intended. Luckily for Mokuba's mental well-being, he chose to eschew the argument in favor of getting on with the lesson. He carefully pulled two sets of very nice, very practical, and very, very sharp daggers from his messenger bag and handed them to Malik and Ryou.

"There," he said quickly, hoping to avert Ryou's ire. "Now can we get on with the whole teaching me shadow magic thing. Malik and Ryou traded glances, then slid the knives into boots and belt respectively.

"Fine by us, Mokuba-chan," Ryou acknowledged, smiling irritatingly at the younger teen. He turned, "Malik?" The blond grinned, holding up something that glinted in the sun's rays.

"Right here." He tossed it at Mokuba's head, fast. The target ducked instinctively, but also brought his left hand up to catch the gleaming missile. He felt the heavy weight and smooth texture of well-worked gold. Malik explained, "You don't need an Item to use shadow magic, but you do need a focus, and it has to be gold. Other metalsc don't hold up so well in the realm. Today's your lucky day; that's one of Saifkhan's toys. Isis found it and gave it to me before I got the rod," he said of the golden armband in Mokuba's hands.

Mokuba slipped it on; it reformed and resized itself to fit both his arm and his style, becoming alternately spiky and smooth along the edges. "Whoa. Who's Saifkhan?" he asked, looking up at them.

"Sajirek Saifkhan and his father, Rami, made the Items. Sajirek finished the item after Rami died. He didn't like the way the Items were made, but at that point he couldn't do anything about it. He'd have died had he refused to continue. He spent years afterward trying to find another way to make powerful shadow focuses. Sajirek was the best smith-mage Egypt ever saw," Malik answered knowledgably. Ryou eyed him curiously.

"How do you know so much about him?" he asked. Ryou had heard Bakura curse Saifkhan more than once, but the Thief did not actually remember who the man was. He just remembered that the he deserved cursing.

Malik shrugged, answering, "The warrens where Isis, Rishid, and I lived used to be the Forgemaster's quarters. I think my room used to be the Smith's. I found journals that I'm pretty sure are his, not to mention some of the toys. Anyway, Mokuba-chan, the focus allows you to direct your will. Basically, without it, unless you're Bakura, the shadows won't even hear you, much less obey you." Ryou took up from where Malik left off, not giving Mokuba a chance to ask about Malik's qualifier.

"The easiest thing to do with shadow magic is summon. It's also the only thing you'll be learning for now."

"But-"

"You don't have an item; you aren't technically of the royal line; you didn't grow up with the history and the magic; you've little knowledge of the gods; summoning is enough for now, understood?"

"For now- yes."

"Ambitious little brat, aren't you?" Malik laughed, "Take it away, 'Kura. Ryou. Whichever one of you two wins the rock paper scissors game you're currently playing in your soul corridor." He laughed at the expression on Ryou's face as the blank look- They had been playing Rock Paper Scissors- faded to a glare.

"Alright Mokuba-chan, first, we're going to see if you have the presence of mind to concentrate in the shadow realm. You won't actually need to go there to summon,"

"You won't be able to," Malik interjected.

"True enough. You do need to know what its like though, and it's easier to summon in the realm than in this world. Do you have a particular monster in mind? Some card that you have a preference for or that suits your personality? Not the Blue Eyes, by the way. She won't enjoy being summoned by anyone but Seto." Mokuba began flipping through his deck. Malik raised an eyebrow as the brat did so. He'd never seen Mokuba's deck before and hadn't realized that the kid had taken the best from everyone else's deck. He had, for example, both a Blue Eyes White Dragon and a Dark Magician. His deck also contained Toon World, Pegasus' apology. The flipping slowed as Mokuba reached the middle of the deck. At last, he stopped, pulling out Mefist the Infernal General.

"Will this do?" he asked, showing them the card. Ryou smiled. It did fit the boy's personality, he supposed.

"Yes, now then, be ready." That was Mokuba's only warning as Ryou took all three of them to the shadow realm. The realm wrapped around them gleefully. Mokuba looked around him in combined apprehension and amazement. He'd never before been there while conscious. Malik was hardly going to give him time to think. If summoning was going to be any use to him, he needed to be able to summon quickly, regardless of distractions.

"Think fast, Mokuba-chan. EXARION UNIVERSE!" Mokuba flinched as the monster came into being. His thoughts backed away, luckily his body wasn't listening to them. His hand grasped the card firmly, backing it with two fingers and flipping it to face Malik's warrior. His feet spread themselves apart, bracing his body for the force of the summon. The armband glowed as he concentrated on bringing the card to life.

"MEFIST THE INFERNAL GENERAL!" The general appeared with the smell of sandalwood, holding out one of his twin swords to block Exarion's attack. Mokuba nearly stumbled in his awe. "I did it! I summoned Mefist! Thanks Ryou-sensei!" Ryou and Malik's jaws dropped; it was the only time they'd ever heard Mokuba be polite to one of them. Malik recovered fast.

"They're equal. Congratulations Mokuba, you've created a stalemate," he drawled. "Call him off; I'll do the same for Exarion."

"Now we'll see if you can do that on earth," Ryou added, returning them to green grass and blue skies. The lesson continued as soon as they got back. Mokuba took two tries to summon Mefist outside the shadow realm, but after was able to summon Rogue Doll, Mysterious Puppeteer, and Toon World without much trouble. Bakura smashed him in a quick practice shadow duel, the prize being 500 yen, which greatly improved the spirit's mood and Mokuba's summoning skills. As they left, they did so thinking no one knew. Only Bakura's rightful paranoia had any suspicion that someone knew what they were up to. Even his well-honed instincts, however, merely attributed the feeling of watching to Mokuba's bodyguards and Seto Kaiba's paranoia. Had they known the watcher's identity, it would be hard to say who would be more shocked. As it stood, that prize went in a landslide to Professor Charles Xavier, with the Cerebro.

BAYVILLE, NEW YORK

Forge fidgeted with apprehensive excitement as the Professor lifted Cerebro's helmet interface off and rested it in its cradle. The second the Professor turned to face him however, Forge's reticence went out the window. "Did the new features work, Professor? I'm sure I got the power boost right, but I couldn't test the age features." Only Forge's hippie nature kept him from bouncing up and down like an excited child or Kitty or Kurt. Professor Xavier smiles. Forge should by all rights, be Storm's age, but because of his time in Middleverse, Forge's adult intelligence alternated with the emotions of a teen.

"It worked very well, Forge. As a matter of fact, I believe I have found three new students."

"Really Professor?"

"Indeed, Forge." He wheeled away from Cerebro's console and headed for the door. "The older two seem to have quite a bit of control over the power already. I believe they are helping the younger one to master his powers. I believe the older two have powers of the mind, I could sense their energies, but they flickered and I could not enter their minds at all. No, Forge, I am certain it is due to the boys' power and no fault of your components. You may judge for yourself when you meet them." He added as they left Cerebro and headed for the Professor's office. The look on Forge's face sent him into maniacal laughter in the privacy of his mind. Being a closet sadist was necessary personality trait for a teacher.

"Me, Professor?! Why?" Xavier paused, as though evaluating Forge. He gave the inventor a rather piercing look, opened his mouth to answer, and promptly shut it.

"You'll have to wait until the briefing Forge; I have to call the others, and I'd rather not repeat myself." // X-men, we have a new mission. Gather in my office. Rogue, please bring Jamie with you. //

Rogue was understandably a bit surprised by the Professor's request. Jamie was the youngest of the students at the mansion and had never really been included in anything before. It wasn't that she minded the tyke. Jamie was rather restful. He respected her, came to her for advice, and didn't try to lecture her the way so many others in the mansion did. Still, the inclusion of Jamie into a mission briefing was… disconcerting. She shrugged, set her book down, tugged on her gloves, and headed to Jamie's room. The mission couldn't be that dangerous if the Professor was letting Jamie come with. Not that she was worried about him or anything like that.

"Hey squirt, homework's over. The Prof wants to see us in his office," she called, opening his door and sticking her head in. Jamie yelped, attempting to quickly hide his notebook from Rogue. Piqued, she leaned over and snatched it out of his hands. "Well, well, well. I didn't know you could draw this good, Squirt." Jamie blushed, not because of the compliment, but because the drawing was of Kitty.

"Give that back, Rogue," he pleaded, lunging at it. She danced out of his way, laughing.

"I ain't done lookin' yet," she replied, grinning at him. The pajama-clad miniature seventh-grader was doing his best to glare a hole through Rogue's head as she flipped through his sketchbook. Nearly all the drawings were of Kitty, though there was also one of her, one of Logan, and one of Kurt. She hadn't been lying when she'd said they were good either.

"Rogue, please," Jamie begged, resorting to the puppy-dog look. He was getting a bit too old to use the deadly weapon properly, but his lack of height helped immensely. She smiled and held it out to him. He snatched it back, saying, "You better not tell Kitty."

Rogue's warm laugh filled the room. "If I told her I wouldn't have anything to tease you about, Squirt. Now, get dressed, Professor X wants ya at the mission briefing." Jamie's jaw dropped.

"I get to go on a mission, really, Rogue?" Jamie dashed to his dresser, grabbed a t-shirt, jeans, and socks and ducked into the bathroom to change. Whoever designed the mansion had been smart enough to include suite style bathrooms.

"I ain't sure, Squirt. All I know is he asked me to bring you with."

"If we get paired up on the mission, can we be Rogue Squadron?" Jamie asked with a grin.

"Two people's a little light for a squadron. You can be Luke Skywalker, though," she teased back.

"And you'll be Princess Leia. Hmm. I bet we could get that Gambit guy to play Han Solo for you," he tossed over his shoulder as he took off running down the hall. Rogue blushed furiously. How the hell did the brat figure that out?

"Get back here, Jamie!" she growled, chasing after him. If she did get paired up with that brat on the mission, she'd see if she couldn't find a nice, scummy pond to drop him in.

Jamie realized soon afterwards that irritating Rogue wasn't necessarily the world's smartest idea. Sprinting through the hallways without watching where you were going was another thing that wasn't really on the good list. Finally, Jamie realized that careening into Wolverine was going to hurt, badly, and not just literally.

"Alright, Squirts, whose brilliant idea was it to go running through the halls? Somethin' tryin' to kill ya?" he growled. Jamie contemplated suicide. It had to be infinitely better than A) Death by Wolverine B) Death by Rogue C) Death by both of them or D) Utter Humiliation. Actually, utter humiliation didn't really sound that bad compared to choices A, B, or especially C.

"Just Rogue, sir," he mumbled. Logan smirked. Rogue was definitely a good enough reason to be running away.

"So what did you do to deserve it? Never mind. Pull yourselves together and head in. The Prof wants to start the brief." Rogue came around the corner at full speed, but since she possessed considerably better agility than Jamie, she stopped before she barreled into Logan. He nodded, satisfied; he was the X-sensei after all. Still blushing, Rogue grabbed Jamie's shoulder and propelled him into the office. She'd get him later. Now she needed to know what this was all about.

Professor Xavier smiled faintly as Rogue and Jamie entered the room and Logan closed the door behind them. "X-Men, we have a new mission. While testing Cerebro's new upgrade, I sensed three powerful and unusual mutants. What's more, the two older boys have not only gotten some control over their powers, they have been helping the youngest to gain some control over his. I believe these three would be very valuable additions to the Institute. You are here because from what I gleaned from the youngest's mind, they and their families are both extremely paranoid and extremely skeptical. I believe that having people the same age as these boys will help ease their suspicions. The older members of the team will serve to reassure the boys' guardians. However, from our experiences with Rogue, I 've realized the full team can be somewhat overwhelming. Therefore, a seven-person team will be going. Logan and Storm will be in charge. Scott, Jean, Rogue, Forge, and Jamie will accompany them."

Kurt, disappointed in the fact that he was not going, piped up. "Vhy them, Professor. I'm friendly. I won't pull any pranks or anything. The fuzzy dude can make anyone feel velcome."

"Because of your age, Kurt. The oldest of the boys is nineteen, the next oldest is eighteen, and the youngest is thirteen," he answered simply.

"Oh, so that's why Jamie gets to go, right? 'Cause he's, like, the same age as one of them."

"Precisely, Kitty. Rogue and Scott shall partake in this mission for the same reasons. Logan and Ororo will go as valid representatives of the school; Forge will go because the youngest's guardian is very skeptical about things that aren't explained by science and technology, and Jean has the safest and most impressive demonstratable power. Also, Logan and Rogue speak Japanese."

"Whoa, they're like in Japan!"

"Exactly."

"Do we have any ideah what their powers are, Professor? And, just so ya know, my accent's atrocious."

"I was able to determine that the older boys have some sort of mental powers, but the youngest's remain a complete mystery. Any more questions?"

"I got one, Chuck. What are all these people's names?" Logan drawled from his corner.

"My mistake. The boys are Ryou Bakura, age 19, Malik Ishtar, age 18, and Mokuba Kaiba, age 13. Mr. Bakura is his own guardian, I believe. Mr. Ishtar's guardian is his sister, Isis and Mr. Kaiba's guardian is his older brother, Seto Kaiba."

"Wait. Seto Kaiba as in Kaiba Corp. CEO Seto Kaiba?" Beast's tone was almost awestruck.

"I'm not sure, Hank, why?" Professor Xavier looked puzzled.

"Good luck convincing that one, Logan. Seto Kaiba is, without a doubt, the richest, most intelligent, and most skeptical sixteen year old in existence, and if Mokuba and his friends are half as smart as Seto Kaiba, you're going to have your hands full."

"Thanks for the warning, Hank. That all, Chuck?"

"It is. X-Men, move out."