I woke up in my bed and looked to the ceiling, and then as something came to my mind, I smiled. I got dressed and I went down the stairs as every other day of the week, and as I was walking I smelled bacon. Oh god, how I loved my mom.

"Mom! I'm coming down!" - I yelled enthusiastically as I accelerated. "Little Cub, come here and give me a hug." - As I arrived to the first floor I saw her bright smile and I gave a wry smile as I approached her.

"Mom, I'm already twen-UGH!" - I felt my air escape my lungs as she hugged me with her amazingly incongruent strength.

"Of course you are! Today's your birthday isn't it?" - She hugged me a while longer and then guided me to the table to eat my breakfast.

sigh I really missed her...

[Wait, why would I miss her? I see her every day.] - I blinked surprised at my own thoughts, but I sent them to the back of my mind with all the useless thoughts. As I finished my breakfast and was about to stand up and prepare to go to college I saw her smiling mischievously as she approached me.

"Today we'll be having a special day, so of course you're not going anywhere." - When she was the one who said it, it almost seemed the natural thing to do.

"Mom, I have to go, you know I can't miss school." - I endured the somewhat sad face of my mom. - "We'll go this Saturday, ok?"

Her face brightened as I said those words, and that made my heart warm. - "I'll take your word about it, so no going back." - The mischievous smile she held after those words made me think that maybe that was her plan all along. I can't understand how she can manipulate me this well.

After taking everything I needed I went to college. When I was taking the train, I felt a somewhat strange pain in my heart, and I didn't know where it came from. Either way, I ignored as I went to class, today was exam day, so of course I couldn’t miss it, else I would fail.

After studying at the library for about an hour, I entered my classroom, took a seat and waited for the exam to start. I was really ready for the exam, so I was pretty sure it would go well, but it was a difficult exam, so I would have to take my time.

The exam was about 2 hours and a half, but when it was about an hour into the exam someone entered the classroom asking for me.

“Lyon? Lyon Ironblood?” – The guy had a somewhat plain face, with a slightly crooked nose and a face full of acne scars.

“It’s me. What do you need?” – I asked and looked worried; I didn’t want to fail the exam, and unless extraordinary cases happened, I wouldn’t get a redo.

“You need to come with me. Don’t worry about the exam, you’ll have another chance.” – He looked at me with a somewhat pitting gaze, and I didn’t like the feeling I was getting. The heart ache I got in the morning was coming back, and harder.

I stood up and got my bag, then walked towards the guy. When I reached him he turned around and got out. I followed him until we got to the street, a police car was parked there, and two cops were standing outside it.

The first one was a somewhat chubby but corpulent cop, with a chubby face, he seemed someone who wouldn't hurt you, but that would beat you badly enough if he wanted to. The second cop was a tall woman, even more corpulent than the man, but with a pretty face, though she had a sad face and an even more pitying gaze than the guy who came to look for me.

"Lyon, right? You have to follow us, something has happened to your mother." - The man said to me, and I felt that my heart stopped beating.

"W-what has happened to her?!" – I couldn’t help myself; if something happened to her I wouldn’t forgive myself.

“She’s in the hospital, she’s been beaten by some thief, I’m sorry.” – The woman seemed truly sad, but that didn’t help me at all. [Whoever did it, I’ll kill him with my own hands.] I didn’t notice, but I was so angry that my face showed it, and the cops shivered.

“Let’s go Lyon, we’ll take you to her.” – The man said to me and then opened the car door. I entered the car, but I was still thinking about the guy who hit my mother, and how he would suffer.

As we approached the hospital, I got more nervous and nervous. When we finally reached I almost jumped out of the car, and then I urged the cops to walk faster. She was at the ICU, so we didn’t need to walk too much, but still felt an eternity. When I saw her I felt my heart break, as if nothing could ever repair it.

“M-mom! Are you ok?!” – I was scared, more than I’d ever been, and I couldn’t help but hate myself for what had happened to her. I was supposed to be with her, we should’ve gone out to some kind of celebration, but I had to go to the stupid college to do a stupid exam of a stupid subject of a stupid degree I didn’t even like. And after all that, my mom ended suffering.

“I’m o- *cough*, okay, Lyon” – She smiled, even though she was full of bruises and her eyes were purple and her lips broken and bleeding. She smiled even though she could hardly breathe, I can’t understand how can she be so strong. I felt pain all over my body, a pain I had never felt, something different from physical pain, something deeper. Then I heard a voice in my mind.

[[WAKE UP YOU BLOCKHEAD!]] – The voice sounded strangely familiar, but unfamiliar at the same time. I thought maybe I was hallucinating from the shock, but then I heard it again. – [[WHAT HALLUCINATION WOULD SOUND LIKE YOUR OWN VOICE STUPID BLOCKHEAD?! WAKE UP AND STOP MOURNING! YOUR MOM DIED YEARS AGO! YOU ALREADY MOURNED HER, YOU CAN’T MOURN HER ALL YOUR LIFE DAMN BASTARD!]]

“What the hell?” – I unconsciously voiced out my question, and so the cops looked strangely at me, but I shook it off me and thought deeply. – [Who are you?].

[[Well, at least you can hear me now, it’s been a month of mourning already, and I was getting tired. To resume, you’re not there, you’re hallucinating, but not me, you’re hallucinating all else in the room, you’re standing there without moving, you’ve been doing for two months already, and I, your soul, have been looking at the pathetic you mourn hours and hours, one day after the other.]] – The voice seemed angry, very angry, but what he was saying made no sense.

[[Ok, let’s sort this out. I know you’re in pain, but remember that time when you were 15, and you went out? You came back late and that son of a b*tch had killed our mom? You killed him, and I was so proud of you… Whatever, you already mourned her, so now it’s time to stand up and go ahead, your life is not over, you’ll live to the fullest and do whatever you want, making sure no one close to you dies again.]] – What he said struck me hard, too hard, actually, and I started remembering all, not only when my mother died, but also the two months I had spent here, looking my mom die and be beaten and raped, and all kind of painful stuff. I suffered so much.

But not now, I knew she didn’t feel that, that was all me, it was my mind, and I owned my mind, so it would not hurt me more. As I felt my thoughts going straight, the world lighted up, it all turned to white light, and then I woke up.

--- --- --- ---

When I came to myself, I was in the very same room where I started, but this time there was no desk. In front of me there was a giant person? I don’t know how to describe it; he was 6 m tall, had 4 arms and had no eyes. His face was just a smile, the biggest and strangely comforting smile I’d ever seen.

“Congratulations Lyon, you’ve completed the last of the trials, and with a surprisingly good score. In the soul trial you’ve achieved the 2nd position out of the 13712 participants who ended the trials. It’s surprising, as humans are one of the weakest in terms of will and soul, yet you, a human, scored 1st in the will test and 2nd in the soul one, it’s amazing!” – The big man said this while laughing, which caused me to shudder. His laugh was like a thunder.

“Who are you, if you permit me to ask?” – I asked him while trying my best not to show my fear for him.

“That is a good question, and it shall be answered. I am Khan Zha’Kul, guardian of the trials. I’ve guarded the trials since the moment of my birth ages ago. But since the trials are so dangerous not too many people tries their luck in here.” – So he was the guardian. That explained quite a few things, I guess. If he had access to my soul, how would he not know my name?

“Then, what now? Have I passed the trials?” – I hoped that was all, the pain I suffered while inside my soul was not something I could suffer again.

“Indeed, you have passed, and so you shall receive your powers. You have an astounding will, but a not so astounding skill. You, different from others to pass the trials, has not been prepared to do so, and so you had difficulties. But I see your strengths, which are not in your speed, or skill or strength itself, but in your will and soul. You have an unlimited potential, not because of your body, but because of your soul, where your will resides.” – The guardian spoke solemnly, and I felt an impending need of staying silent.

“What you shall receive is a system, a type of magic that assists the user to develop into higher realms. The system you will receive is based on something from your world. A series named X-Men. You will be able to take upon their mutations, though they will start from scratch and grow upon your hard work.” – As he said those words I felt my jaw almost hit the floor. Kronos said that I would receive the powers that were more apt to me, but to think I would get to be like the X-Men. That was awesome! Maybe I don’t show it, with all my grim thoughts, but I love X-Men, it was one of the few things I liked of my life.

“Now, usually you would have to work on them from scratch, as any other, but due to your scores, as a 1st scorer and a 2nd scorer in two of the tests, you will be able to select two of the mutations from the system. Before selecting them I will explain the system to you. The system is based in tiers. There are basically 4 ranks, low rank, mid rank, high rank and top rank. Nothing higher should worry now. Each of these ranks is further divided alphabetically, from lower to higher would be G, F, E, D, C, B, A and S, after S you would upgrade a rank.” – The guardian explained all of this with a smile on his mouth. Seeing a face without any kind of human parts except a mouth was disturbing, but I had to listen to him and make sure to remember all.

“All powers you will acquire will start from the low tier, though some will start at G and some at B or even S, as you can understand, as higher it starts, more it will cost you to ‘buy’ it. The points system will be explained in the future, for now just understand that the reward would be poor if I gave you a simple G power, so any two powers u choose, will start at G mid tier which is an amazing empower. Low tier represents undeveloped powers, for example, Rogue(1) didn’t develop her powers until she was 13. Her powers, though, improved from G low tier, which is actually not awoken to G mid tier, which is awoken and in their standard. Higher than G mid, the mutant would have to work and develop its powers, making it the result of hard work other than just luck.

You will be awarded two G mid tier powers, so any power u saw in the series or in the comics, you can count it as G to C mid tier, I will lower the power of any mutation higher than G mid tier to be of the correct power. Now, tell me the two you will choose.” – He finally asked me! Oh god, I knew exactly which powers I wanted to start, it wasn’t even a question to me.

“I want the powers of two of my favorites mutants, I want the powers of…”