"So let me get this straight . . . we went up against some top secret, covert, black ops organization, got ourselves into a fire fight, risked our lives, meaning we nearly got killed, and then turned our tails and ran . . . for nothing?"

Captain Britain was angry. But then again, he was almost always angry. He was British, though . . . what do you expect?

"Not for nothing," Pete Wisdom was quick to defend himself. "We made an attempt, right? We found out what Black Air is made of, right? And I did get some files . . . "

"We were found," Tinya Wazzo reluctantly came to his defense. "We probably could have gotten more information if we had had more time."

"It was a set-up," Pete shrugged. "They made the computers very easy to access, yet at the same time they tried to take us down, but without succeeding. I'm betting they were sizing us up as much as we were them . . . only they weren't giving us their all, and we were. And they also made these files on the Neo rather easy to get and decrypt, too."

"So it was a trap?" Meggan asked.

"Maybe," Pete shrugged. "But what's really important is that we got the files! These Neo are the most dangerous thing since Hitler, or, I'm guessing, Brian's morning breath."

Brian fumed.

"You'll have to explain again what these Neo are," Meggan said, curiously.

"Later," Pete said. "I'll go over all the information from this disc, and tell you everything I know. And there are others here, aren't there?"

"Yes," Tinya replied. "You guys go meet up with Moira . . . I'll help this dumb Brit access a computer, and Lockheed and I'll keep him outta trouble."

"Oh, goody," Pete said with a roll of his eyes.

Brian nodded and exited, with Meggan walking behind.

Pete waved to Meggan as she left.

"Don't even think about it, buddy," Tinya shook her head.

"What? Are you jealous?"

"Don't flatter yourself. Just keep walking, I'll direct you to the nearest computer. Come on, Lockheed."

"Does the bloody dragon have to come?"

"Consider him your bodyguard."

Lockheed puffed.

"I'm sorry, Lockheed . . . but just go with it?"

"Bloody hell . . . "

"We've tried it three times now," Moira MacTaggert frowned. "She's nae registering."

"I thought you said this thing could locate any mutant?" Kurt Wagner asked. "Why can't it find my Amanda?"

"There could be any number of reasons," Piotr Rasputin shrugged. "She could be outside it's range . . . she could be blocked somehow . . . perhaps Cerebro itself is malfunctioning . . . "

"She could be dead," Moira shrugged.

"That's not helping," Piotr frowned.

"I'm sure she'll turn up, Kurt," Rahne Sinclair said, reassuringly.

"No luck?" Brian asked as he and Meggan entered.

Piotr shook his head. "You?"

"Maybe," Brian replied. "We'll see . . . I still don't trust this Wisdom fellow."

"Is he staying?" Moira asked.

"Seems like it," Brian frowned.

"He wants our help dealing with someone called Neo," Meggan replied.

"We'll give it to him," Moira replied. "Kurt, I'm sorry, but we've exhausted all our resources for now . . . we'll keep checking, but at the moment there's nothing more we can do."

Kurt nodded. "I understand. Perhaps she has gone looking for her mother, as well? She was missing before . . . "

"I'm sure that is it," Piotr replied with a smile.

"When Wisdom is done analyzing his information, he wanted to meet with all of us," Brian said. "Sort of a general meeting for this . . . 'team.'"

Moira nodded. "I was plannin' on callin' a meeting anyway. Just let me know when."

Muir Island also served as a rehabilitation center for 'evil' mutants. It currently held two prisoners: Vanessa Carlysle, the shape-shifting Catseye, and the young girl Rogue. Doctor Rory Campbell was in charge of their rehabilitation. Some patients went better than others. At this time, Catseye was still giving him trouble, while Rogue was quickly coming around.

"Okay, Vanessa," Campbell said, punching in a code that opened her cell. "You're up for today."

"Goody," she frowned.

Rory sighed. "Come on . . . "

As he and Vanessa left to the 'conference' room, Douglas Ramsey entered.

"Uh . . . Rogue?" he asked, somewhat nervous.

"If you're lookin' for the doctor, he just left," she replied from inside her cell.

"No, actually, I was, uh . . . I was looking for you," he said. He approached the cell and pulled some flowers out from behind his back. "These are . . . well, for you . . . to make you feel more comfortable inside that cell . . . "

"Fer me?" she asked, surprised. "Ah . . . well, you better just . . . leave them on the food tray there . . . "

"You don't need to . . . be afraid of me," he replied. "I'm only trying to help you."

"Ah'm not afraid of you," she answered, sitting up in her bed. "And Ah appreciate the help . . . but you should be afraid of me. All Ah gotta do is touch you and you're unconscious . . . "

"You can't control your power?"

She shook her head. "Magneto thought that . . . well . . . by absorbin' some o' his powers, I might be able to project some magnetic fields around myself, to keep me from actually touching anyone . . . but it didn't work. Ah mean, it did come with some bonuses . . . like Ah can control his powers enough to let me fly, to be kinda invulnerable, and even to have super strength. Ah kinda figured he was a little upset that Ah was using his powers in a way he never really thought about . . . "

"Well, flying's gotta be cool, right?"

She smiled a little, but quickly replaced it with her usual grim look. "Ah guess."

Doug smiled back. "Well, if you don't mind . . . I can always . . . keep you company. At least a little bit, here and there . . . "

"You'll probably get in trouble."

"Maybe . . . but I don't care."

Rogue shook her head. "Ah'm an evil mutant, remember?"

"No you're not," Doug smiled. "I read your file . . . and I've been talking to you. I know you're not evil."

"Douglas Ramsey!" Moira MacTaggert yelled from the doorway to the brig. "Get out of there this instant!"

"Moira!" he exclaimed. "I wasn't doing anything . . . "

"Please, Dougie, this is nae a place for you."

Doug looked back at Rogue, who had quickly covered herself again with her bedsheets, avoiding Moira. "Fine . . . "

Everyone had gathered: Kurt, Brian, Piotr, Peter, Meggan, Tinya, Moira, Rory, Rahne, Doug and Lockheed.

"Okay," Wisdom said. "Now, I'm going to tell you all everything that I know about the Neo."

"This better be good," Brian frowned.

Wisdom frowned back. "Okay . . . the Neo are, like, another branch of mutants. They're more powerful, by far. But they're severely underpopulated in comparison to us regular mutant joes. They used to live in seclusion, but some recent event has driven them out into the real world . . . and they've declared war. They're figuring that the world isn't big enough for all the divergent species . . . humans, mutants, Inhumans, Eternals, Deviants, Neo and whatever else. So they're gonna try and commit some serious acts of genocide, starting with Homo Sapien superior, whom they figure will be their greatest challenge."

"So how do we figure in?" Kurt asked. "Why did they attack us, specifically?"

"I couldn't tell you," Wisdom shrugged. "Black Air never determined a pattern to their attacks . . . they seem random. They have teleporters amongst their kind, which allow them to strike anywhere, anywhen. Maybe you were just at the wrong place at the wrong time? Beats me."

"So what do we do about them?" Brian asked.

"We need to take the fight to them," Wisdom decided. "Show them we won't be pushed around, and beat them back to their homes . . . "

"Couldn't we just convince them that there's no reason to fight?" Tinya asked.

"Well . . . " Wisdom pondered. "They're sort of out for blood . . . but we could try, I suppose."

"Do we know their base of operations?" Kurt asked.

"Not exactly, no," Pete shrugged. "But I do know of some of their hot spots for activity."

"Okay," Kurt nodded. "We'll keep that in mind. But before we decide anything, I believe we need to discuss this whole 'team' thing . . . "

"Aye, we do," Moira stepped forward. "I was plannin' on discussin' that anyway. Most of you are here because of one man: Professor Charles Francis Xavier. He's an American . . . at one time, we were in love . . . but even after that ended, we remained friends and colleagues. He was a mutant, the most powerful telepath alive. He discovered his powers at a time when the mutant population was still very small and generally unknown. The first mutant he encountered besides himself was another telepath who used his powers for evil. It was there Charles decided that he must always use his powers for good.

"So he used his family estate, a mansion in New York, to begin bringing in young mutants to help train them in the use of their powers."

Kurt nodded. "He had approached me once."

"Myself as well," Piotr nodded. "I respectfully declined, deciding I was needed more on my family's farm in Russia. However, when he returned years later for my sister, Illyana, I encouraged her to accept his offer. She deserved better than what she had been born into."

"Illyana?" Doug asked. "She was Magik, right? A member of Xavier's 'New Mutants' project?"

"Aye," Moira nodded. "Charles had tried to put together a team of mutants to be a task force . . . a prototype for what we're doing here, if you will. He started with five, and eventually had seven, mutants that ran around in uniforms flashing 'X' symbols and fighting evil mutants. It was all in the name of his dream . . . a dream of a world where humans and mutants could live together in peace. However, when one of his New Mutants, a young boy named Garth, was killed in action, Charles swore he would never endanger another mutant child again. The New Mutants were disbanded, and the remaining children went their separate ways. Sam Guthrie and Illyana joined up with Young Justice. The others, I don't know about."

"But he's obviously changed his mind about endangering mutants, eh?" Wisdom asked.

Moira frowned. "Charles told me about his experiences with another mutant, a very powerful man named Eric Magnus Lensherr, the man who would become Magneto. Magneto believed that the only way mutants could know peace would be to usurp control of the world from humanity . . . crush them underneath his boot heel and what not. Just so long as mutants were on top. Charles knew a war was coming . . . a war that would not just be fought between man and mutant . . . but between man, and two sides of the mutant coin: one wanting peace, one wanting war. So he began to gather his former students back to his school, along with some new ones."

"Like myself, Kitty and the others," Doug said.

"Exactly," Moira continued. "He also had me start to prepare even more. I had had contact with other mutants recently. Meggan, Lockheed, and Rahne were living her for awhile before Charles asked for my help. I had been in contact with Brian and Tinya, and I asked for their help. Piotr's too. The setup for Muir was perfect: an island researching mutation, and one providing rehabilitation for mutants."

"But he needed more than that, right?" Brian asked. "That's why you had me infiltrate the Hellfire Club in London . . . because there are powerful, evil mutants in there. And that's why you had Tinya running a dozen secret errands for the man."

Moira nodded. "Charles sent Doug here because he feared the war would start in America . . . and Doug's mutant power doesn't provide him much of an advantage in a fight . . . he wanted to protect him. Here at Muir, I was to form a team of mutants . . . a back-up to the team he was planning on forming. A team that never got formed."

"Eh?" Kurt asked.

"Professor Xavier is dead," Moira said quietly. "Magneto killed him. He had his own team of mutants, which our Rogue was a part of . . . though not on the mission where they killed Charles. But he is dead . . . his mansion is destroyed . . . and as far as I know, all of his students are dead as well."

" . . . " Doug didn't know what to say. If he hadn't been sent to Muir . . .

"My God," Brian was shocked.

"That is why this team must be formed!" Moira exclaimed. "Charles may be dead, but his dream lives on in my heart. We must make the world a safe place for mutants to live in . . . and we must keep other mutants from using their powers for evil. We must be the champions of his dream. That is why we must form Excalibur."

"I'm all for it," Tinya said.

"I, as well," Piotr replied.

"Me too!" Rahne exclaimed.

"Nae, girl," Moira said. "Rahne, you and Doug won't be a part of this team. You're too young . . . I'll let ye train with them, to learn to control your powers . . . but there's no way I'm putting your lives on the line."

"Well, you've got Apparition and Colossus," Brian said. "And you've already named me Captain Britain, so I'm in."

"Me too," said Meggan.

"You brought me here for a reason," Kurt shrugged. "I might as well get involved, eh? But it seems I need a codename . . . "

"How 'bout Nightcrawler?" Tinya asked.

"Nightcrawler, eh?" Kurt raised an eyebrow. "Works for me. Then it's the five of us?"

"Well, what about Peter?" Meggan asked.

The smoking British man turned around from where he had just lit his cigarette. "Me?"

"Him?" Brian asked.

"The offers out there," Moira said. "Besides, you were the one with all this information about the Neo."

Pete shrugged. "And besides that, I don't have anything better to do. Alright, I'll join this little group . . . but don't even think of giving me one of your silly little codenames."

"Whatever," Tinya replied.

"Alright," Moira said with a smile. "So here, on this day, Excalibur was formed! Let the fight for the dream . . . begin!"