Kamala Khan made her way up to the mansion with a little excited skip in every step. She'd double- and triple-checked the address a hundred times just to be sure she wasn't just dreaming this up, and yep, she'd definitely been invited up to the X-mansion.

She was really, really glad she'd taken Bruno's dare to actually turn in some of her writing when there was a Hawkeye working in publishing, but she hadn't thought she'd actually hear back. It was just a dare!

And now here she was. Walking up the mansion. And trying very hard not to look like she was about to die of happiness.

When she rang the doorbell, she totally recognized the guy at the door wearing a long coat and a smirk and tried not to squee in his face. "Hi!" she blurted out quickly. "Hi — um. I have an invitation?" She held up her letter. "I'm not late, am I?"

"No," the tall man replied with a thick accent. "You early — but Miss Kate waitin' for you down de hall. Come on in." He held the door open for her and smiled down at her with red and black eyes half hidden under his somewhat messy reddish-brown hair.

Kamala all but skipped over the first step as she looked around, wide-eyed, for a moment before she turned back with a little "oh." "Um — I'm Miss Marvel," she said quickly. "I'm an Avenger now," she added, because that was never, ever going to get old.

"Gambit," he replied with a widening smile as he tipped his head to her. "I'm not. An Avenger, dat is."

"No, I know that. I mean — hey, you're not on the team with me!" she laughed. "I mean — I know who you are. Not that — I mean. It's very nice to meet you." She mentally berated herself for tripping over her words — she had meant to be cool about coming to the institute, and this was so not how she had pictured it going in her head.

"Charmed. Maybe you'd like a soda or somethin' while you wait for Miss Kate?" He gestured toward the kitchen, already leading her that way before she could answer.

"Um, okay. Maybe some water," Kamala agreed. "It's a really long walk from your driveway."

"Dat it is, petit," Gambit replied before he pulled out a bottle of water for her and set it on the counter by one of the kitchen stools. "Mebbe take a minute to catch yo' breath before you pass out. Ain't nobody gon' mind if you take a minute to breathe."

"Thanks," Kamala said. She hopped up on the stool and fiddled with the cap of the water bottle before she took a long drink.

He leaned against the counter across from her and propped his head up on one hand. "So. You gon' be de new novelist for Miss Kate?"

"I guess so?" She smiled nervously. "I mean, I've only written the one thing, but she liked it. I really write more of fanfiction — I mean, well. I'm trying other things. Just... yeah." She rubbed the back of her neck.

"What kinda stories you write in your fanfiction, petit? You ever write about ol' Gambit?" he asked with a little laugh before he just shook his head at her. "Don' worry none. You gon' be jes fine. You play it cool and you make a big splash before you know it."

"Yeah, I can do that," she said, nodding to herself. They spent a few more minutes just chatting to let a bit of time pass before Kamala looked truly relaxed and at ease and Gambit offered to take her to see Miss Kate.

Kamala was grinning as he led her through the halls and as she took in the sights of the mansion before they finally got to Kate's office, where Kate was waiting with coffee and a nervous grin of her own. "Nice to meet you," Kate said, the smile widening when she realized that Kamala was just as nervous. "Cap's told me some really nice things about you — I hope you don't mind I called him to ask about you?"

Kamala shook her head and started to grin. "What kind of nice things?" she asked.

Kate just laughed and waved her inside. "All sorts of nice things," she promised. "He was surprised when I told him you could write, though. Come on in. Let's talk about how you can surprise him some more."

Kamala nodded and looked back over her shoulder to see that Gambit was just standing nearby, leaning against the wall and grinning at her with an easy smile.

"Come on, I don't bite," Kate said with a little laugh. "Do you drink coffee? How do you take it?"

"I'm fine. I had some water," Kamala assured her as she gave Gambit a thumbs up and then closed the door behind her.

When Kamala and Kate emerged from the office, they were both grinning and laughing together, very different from the nervous little girls that they had been before. Kamala was telling Kate about her first time ever in space and how Tony Stark had written her parents a letter to invite her to a 'science symposium' so she could go — and Kate thought the whole thing was hilarious.

Kate invited her to stay for dinner, because Logan was going "all out," and she promised Kamala that it would be the best meal she'd had all week.

They were partway to the kitchen when a couple of the bamfs showed up and excitedly chattered at Kate, who just laughed at them. "Yes, this is the writer," she told them. "Say hi, Kamala."

"Hi, Kamala," Kamala said brightly as she waved at the bamfs, one of which got up pretty close in her face to examine her before they just sort of nodded at her and then turned their attention back to Kate to hover near her and more or less shepherd her to the kitchen so she could join the rest of the X-Men — and Kurt.

"Just sit wherever you want," Kate told Kamala when the younger girl seemed to pause uneasily once they got to the dining room. Kamala just stuck close by Kate and sat on her other side as Kate slid in next to Kurt with a sedate smile.

"Um — do we know what we're eating?" Kamala asked as everyone seemed more interested in chatting than anything else.

"Knowing Logan — likely either some kind of fish or venison," Kurt assured her. "It's not usually anything too terribly complex, I promise. But more often than not, it's a good night to come by."

"Sounds like I lucked out then," Kamala said with a nervous grin his way.

"Yeah, Bobby was on Saturday," Scott added with a laugh as he and Annie took a seat nearby. "You dodged a bullet."

"Oh. Oh, I really want to ask if it was a frozen dinner, but that would be bad taste, wouldn't it?" Kamala said.

Scott gave her a genuine smile. "No. Not really. Not when it doesn't matter what it is since he usually has to freeze it to put the fire out."

"Yeah. That doesn't sound like something I want to eat," Kamala agreed with a smile. "You're — you're Cyclops, aren't you?" she asked shyly.

His smile fell just a bit as he offered his hand to her. "Scott," he said with a little nod. "Nice to meet you—"

"Oh! I'm Miss Marvel," she said, positively beaming at him. "I mean — I'm Kamala. Also that. Um - are you really... I'm a big fan!" She looked very nervous again all of a sudden. "I've read all sorts of stuff about you and — and — my best friend's story about you is top-rated on Freaking Awesome and — and you're just really cool, Cyclops, sir."

"Ah, thanks ... I think," he replied, the smile easing its way back on his face.

"So cool to see you at the mansion! I mean — you're getting back in action, right? You gotta," she said, warming up again and just all but bouncing in place.

"Thinking about it, yeah," Scott admitted. "Nothing's solid yet though."

"Oooh, that would be so cool!" Kamala gushed. "I mean — the new lineup is really, really neat, but oh man — that would be awesome!"

Annie looked incredibly amused as she slid her arm through Scott's. "It would, wouldn't it?" she said in a low whisper Scott's way.

A shrill whistle split the air, and the regulars were all set to go. "Time to eat, Kleine," Kurt said to Kamala. "Don't let them fool you — Ororo and Jubilee will fight you if it's one of their favorites."

"Oh, okay," Kamala said, then smiled the slightest bit and stretched out her arms until one of them had reached behind the chairs all the way to the end of the table. "Well, it's a good thing I can reach anyplace on the table and steal the best stuff," she assured him.

While the group went to grab their dinners, Logan slipped back to the kitchen to grab the beer, and when he tossed one Kurt's way, the fuzzy Elf very nearly missed it because he was wrapped up in conversation with the sweet Miss Marvel. Kurt glared at him for just a second but laughed it off.

"You game, Slim?" Logan had almost just tossed Scott a can but stopped himself to check and see if Scott still had the good humor from the night before. "Cedar Salmon and beer. Beat the combo."

Scott paused for a moment and then hard to smirk. "Hard to have one without the other."

Logan returned the smirk and tossed the can his way — which Scott caught with a bit more ease than Kurt had.

Annie laughed at the look on Scott's face. "You love it here," she whispered to him, and the only one who could hear it besides Scott was Logan, who just quietly smirked and turned away so Scott couldn't see it.

The group all made their way to the dining room, Logan with the rest of the six pack in tow to sit down to dinner and listen while Kate told the group as a whole about her newest author — pending getting her parent's permission on her contract, of course.

"She's really talented," Kate gushed. "I couldn't believe it when she told me she was only seventeen." Kamala was blushing and looking steadfastly down at her food as Kate went on to gush about the possibilities the two of them already had in mind for a series.

Of course, once Annie asked Kamala about how she got into writing and seemed to express genuine interest in her Avengers fanfiction — well, there was no stopping her. Her earlier shyness was gone completely as she seemed eager to tell Annie everything.

Scott and Logan watched her gush as they ate, only glancing at each other now and again in amusement at her enthusiasm as they listened in silently.

They were about halfway through dinner when the proximity alarms went off, and the gathered group looked up in surprise. "Please tell me that's just a fancy way of saying dessert is coming out of the oven," Kamala said, seemingly disappointed at the interruption.

"Excuse me," Kurt said after sharing a quick look with Logan and Scott, both of whom stood up quickly even as Kurt teleported away.

"Jubes — you wanna get the students somewhere safe?" Logan called out as he and Scott headed toward the front door.

Kamala stood up quickly to try and follow after them, with Kate close behind her. "What's the alarm? I can help," she offered, even as she grew her hands into fists about the size of her entire torso.

"Don't know yet," Logan replied, and as they got to the foyer, an explosion rocked the room and Kurt teleported back into the house, not twenty paces behind them.

"Reavers," he announced. "They don't seem too happy with any of us."

"Okay, well... what do you suggest to fight them?" Kamala asked.

"Hit 'em real hard," Logan offered before Kurt teleported the two of them outside in a pouf of indigo smoke.

"You let me know if you need out, and I'll ask one of the bamfs to take you," Kate offered as she ran beside Kamala toward the doors. "I know the switch from Avenger baddies to X-Men baddies is... fun. They can be much nastier than you're used to. Never even met reavers myself."

Kamala just nodded as she looked Kate's way. "I can handle it," she said. "You let me know if you need some backup, alright, Hawkeye?" she added with a cheeky grin.

As the two girls burst onto the scene, they weren't surprised at all to see that the three X-Men who had left before them were already knee-deep in the fight — Kurt with his swords, Scott blasting through enemies, and Logan tearing them a path to just keep going leaving bits of cyborg across the lawn.

Kamala winced a bit when she saw the carnage but nodded over at Kate. "So ... these are reavers?"

"Apparently." Kate said as she fitted an arrow. "I bet they're just as smashable as the stuff you're used to, though — let's try it out."

Kamala grinned at Kate and then rushed forward to send one reaver flying backward with a punch from her oversized fist. She grabbed another one up in the palm of her hand and then shouted out in pain and surprise when he shot through her, though Kate was quick to repay the insult with an arrow through his forehead as Kamala shook out her hand with a wince.

"You alright?" Kate called out, and Kamala just nodded.

"Healing factor," she explained as she shook her hand one more time. "Just have to work through it even when it hurts. That's what — well, the other Wolverine told me."

"Which one? The older one?" Kate asked curiously.

"No, the one that died," Kamala said as she smashed her fist down on a Reaver that had been eyeing Kate and taking aim. "For a guy who lost his healing, he sure had some good tips for mine."

"This one's a pretty good teacher too," Kate said with a smirk, illustrating her point by temporarily abandoning the bow to vault into a hooked kick that brought down a Reaver near Kamala.

"Thanks!" Kamala called out as Kate saluted her with her bow and then, to Kamala's surprise, vanished in a puff of smoke only to reappear a bit further out where she could line up a perfect shot — and then Kamala noticed the little bamf on Kate's shoulder baring its teeth at the reavers and growling menacingly.

"Embiggen!" Kamala shouted, and she started to grow even more — not just her fists but her whole body, so that she could kick a few reavers away from the fight. She heard a peculiar-sounding bamf just by her ear and looked over to see Kate perched on her shoulder.

"Oh, hi there. Mind if I come along for the ride?" Kate asked conversationally, and Kamala just grinned back at her.

"Do you have them trained or something?" Kamala asked.

"We've been doing this together for a while. Actually, they're pretty easy to work with once you get a good rhythm," Kate said, ruffling the little bamf's hair affectionately before she fitted an arrow. "Look out!" she said, firing once, and Kamala looked down to see that there were about three Reaver's headed her way.

She kicked one of them, and Kate shot the other, but the third managed to get a good slash in that cut through Kamala's calf, and Kamala fell to one knee, desperately shouting, "Shrink, shrink, shrink!" as she fell in an effort to keep from crushing a wing of the school or something.

Kate and the bamf teleported away from the fall, and by the time Kamala hit the ground, she was normal-sized and looked more like herself. "You alright?" she asked as she reappeared beside Kamala in another puff of smoke.

"Yeah, just have to go back to my normal form to heal," Kamala explained through gritted teeth. "Can you buy me a minute?"

Kate nodded and strung another few arrows — the first one explosive to throw the reavers back a bit before she just started firing again. "I can buy you as many minutes as you need," she promised as Kamala nodded and concentrated on healing for a moment.

Meanwhile, the boys had been fighting more or less together and as a team until the reavers just got flat out too nasty. Scott had gotten a slash mark across his chest that very nearly went to the bone, and Kurt had been bashed back hard enough that he temporarily couldn't focus enough to teleport until just a split second before that same reaver brought down a cybernetically-enhanced fist where his head had just been.

Logan had just ... kept slashing and cutting at them as best he could — though he had lost track of where the other two had gotten off to as he did so. He was spinning and kicking. Rebounding off of one to kick another and generally enjoying himself with a little smirk as he used his momentum to tear off one of the reaver's arms as he sailed over one's head to dive into him from the other side.

He was simply too occupied with the task at hand to realize what they were doing by cutting him off from the others. But Scott was dealing with far less heat and finally — after a miserably tough fight — he looked up long enough to see what was really happening as the reavers made their move.

In a swift, coordinated attack, Logan found himself with strange cybernetic shackles on his wrists and ankles, and after stabbing the offending reavers for doing ... whatever they'd just done, an odd humming sound echoed the lawn. And just that quickly, he found himself entirely unable to move just as soundly as if Magneto himself had decided to freeze him to the spot.

Scott made a rush for him and called out to warn Kurt of what had happened just as Donald Pierce, the head of the reavers arrived on the scene. He looked Logan over with pure triumph in his gaze before he got to work — apparently just torturing their teammate while his underlings started to simply haul him off, though Scott couldn't hear what he was saying.

There was a familiar-sounding bamf, but when the smoke cleared, it was Kate and Kamala, along with a few bamfs, standing in the way of Pierce's underlings, Kate with her bow drawn and firing the arrows at the ones nearest Logan as soon as she had a good line of sight and Kamala fully healed and with her arms crossed over her chest, though she looked a bit queasy.

"I don't think I like traveling by baby demon things," she muttered to Kate before she looked Logan's way and just gritted her teeth. She reached over to knock aside some of the guards, eyeing the shackles suspiciously.

"Cut him loose," Kurt called out. "Cut him loose, and the bamfs will get you out before ... just — let him loose on them."

"Okay, let me just..." Kamala sized up the shackles while Kate kept Pierce busy with a barrage of arrows his way. She frowned at them and then grabbed hold of the connectors between them and squeezed, the cybernetics falling apart in her hands as she did so, fizzling with electricity that had her gasping but still didn't stop her from destroying the restraints.

And then — as Kurt had promised, Kamala smelled brimstone and tasted smoke before she was somewhere else in the battle entirely. It took a moment for her to get her bearings and find where she had just been so she could see what was going on:

As soon as Kamala had removed the devices holding Logan down, he burst forward and went straight for Pierce with a snarl, simply going right through anyone stupid enough to try and block his path on his way. Kate let out a little sound of surprise when she heard the snarl so close, and an instant later, she too was somewhere else entirely as Scott rushed toward the carnage Logan was working on creating.

Kurt teleported over to where Kamala was with a broad grin. "You did well," he told her with a little laugh.

"Thanks," she said brightly, still shaking out her hands. "I specialize in saving Wolverines," she teased.

"You and me both," Kurt laughed.

Kamala closed her hands back down to normal size, and when she opened them again, there was no sign of any burn from the shackles. "Man. That dinner is really calling my name right now. Do you guys always get attacked when Logan cooks?"

Kurt frowned for a moment. "No, but it does seem to happen more often on his turn. Perhaps he plans it?"