It’s been a few months since the original X-Men (Cyclops, Beast, Iceman, Archangel and Jean Grey) had disbanded the X-Factor team and returned to their former home, “Xavier’s Institute for the Gifted”. To cope with the larger number of superheroes Charles Xavier formed two balanced teams, the Blue Team led by Cyclops and the Gold Team led by Storm.

Despite new arrivals, such as Rogue and Gambit, and the return of the first X-Men, things have been going reasonably well at the Institute. Classes have been continuing as normal, anti-mutant sentiment is still obvious on the nightly news reports, but on the whole things have been settled, and quiet.

So obviously that meant something needed to happen to shake things around a bit. So when Saturday started out like any other Saturday, it was obvious today was going to be the day.

A bomb blast at a club in New York had caused a young mutant named Jenny to be pursued by another mutant who thought she was responsible for the incident. Jenny managed to keep one step ahead of him by teleporting towards a voice in her head - that of Xavier’s, who had recognised her as a mutant and sensed her fear.

At the same time tensions had flared for some reason between Scott Summers (Cyclops) and Logan (Wolverine). What the cause was neither of the men could be sure, but it certainly didn’t help when Logan uttered a wolf-whistle when the two men happened upon a meditating Jean Grey. The private argument nearly escalated into a full-on brawl but fortunately, before blows could be exchanged, Jean Grey split the two up and carried them to the front of the mansion where Professor X has ordered everyone to assemble.

Jenny had teleported into the fountain at the front of the house and Professor X knew that they only had a few moments before her pursuer arrived. This pursuant, in fact, was none other than Nate Grey.

Having wiped any and all memories of him on the Earth's population (mutant and human alike), it was no wonder the X-men treated him as an unknown danger. Unfortunately (for the X-men), Nate Grey remembered the X-men still and used their powers against each other in a quick series of surprising moves. He was, however, merely out to disable, not really harm the X-men ...all he wanted was to get a hold of the mutant girl whom he thought responsible for blowing up innocent lives.

Most of the X-men were disabled by Nate Grey's attacks ... until it came down to a standoff between Nate Grey and Professor X and Nate's mother. It was at this time, that something happened that would stir frightful memories in most X-men who had witnessed it the first time around ... the Phoenix Force seemed to have returned within Jean Grey... as she confronted Nate, the fiery Phoenix signature had appeared around her. (Details of the Confrontation are here.) The battle between Nate and his mother ended with Nate lying broken, unconscious and inches from death's door, Jean was unconscious and Scott was suffering from the intense pain of a psychic backlash caused when Nate struck at Jean telepathically. Xavier has since noted that Nate acted to deflect the attack away from Jean at the last minute, and ground it into himself, which is the main reason that he was so badly injured.... it was only thanks to Henry McCoy's excellent medical care that his life was saved, where Beast received helpful teleportation aid from the X-Mansion’s resident Bavarian - Kurt.

The only other to take (notable) injuries away was Peter Rasputin, who had taken the brunt of a combined assault from all the X-Men present, an assault meant for Nate Grey but he had deflected at the Russian.

The fact that Jean manifested the Phoenix Force again stunned Nate (and the rest of the X-men, as the last time Phoenix manifested, she destroyed whole suns and almost destroyed the X-Men), and the increase in Jeans telekinetic powers meant that Nate needed to strike telepathically, as he could no longer compete with Jean on a telekinetic level.

A gathering was held, after Xavier had probed Nate's mind ... Beast and Xavier had shocking news for the X-men. Nate's identify became apparent - a (genetic) child of Scott Summers and Jean Grey - whose physical body was merely seven years old ...

Nate has since awoken, with the help of the Beast and the Shi'ar medical machinery, and spoken with the X-Men about his view on things.

With the usual stubborn-ness of youth, Nate was reluctant to admit wrong in using the tactics he chose to use - as he did what he felt he needed to do to disable the X-Men without seriously injuring any of them. Nate has now joined the X-Men on a probationary status, perhaps because, in the whole world, the X-Men are now the only people to actually know who he is.

The conversations where brought to a pause when Jean suddenly lost control of her telepathy, and telekinetically shoved everyone away with a cry of “Stop It!”. She fled the room, apologetic, embarrassed and confused.

It’s from here that the game will pick up. The last few posts of this conversation will be rolled into one post, which will serve as the first post of the new game.