X-Men (Team)

''"To me, my X-Men!" -- Professor X''

The X-Men are a team of mutants created to help foster peace and understanding between mutants and humans. The group is made up of mutants who have been trained and educated at the Xavier School for the Gifted. Their operations are funded by Dr. Charles Xavier's family fortune and the patents he has created.

Their primary goal is to help during disaster releif, to provide aid to mutants who need it, and to stop mutants who are intent on bringing harm to others. Or, as Jean Grey once put it, the X-Men "help the good mutants and stop the bad ones".

Origin
Charles Xavier had spent most of his life studying genetics and mutations, meeting a handful of mutants throughout his life. However, in 1996, he met 15 year old Erik Lensherr, a troubled delinquent in London who needed a steady hand. Xavier took the boy in and the two bonded; Xavier taught Magneto to master his powers, with the pair forming a father/son relationship over time.

The pair would talk for hours about philosophy and morality, about mutations, the relationship between mutants and human. While they shared several fundamental differences, they both strongly desired a world safe for mutants. With time, Xavier gathered a small handful of students, helping them like he had Erik--including Rahne Sinclair, Sean Cassidy, Ororo Munroe, and Raven Darkholme.

With time, the idea to make a larger group, one that could help mutants and provide a safe place for them, really took hold. On the night of September 12, 1999, the X-Men were officially born in Xavier's flat. The rest of the students, as well as Xavier's wife Moira, agreed.

Group Formation
Over the next few months, they brought together more extraordinary young people, including Hank McCoy, Shiro Yoshida, John Proudstar, Caliban, and '''Manuel Diaz. '''

The X-Men began to gain quite a reputation in the mutant underground, and the DUP certaily took notice.

In December of 2000, the team moved into the Xavier Mansion, where Charles had been raised, and converted it into their headquarters with the help of '''Forge. '''

The Early Years
The X-Men spent time traveling the country, fighting against DUP control and rescuing mutants who needed it and bringing them back to the Xavier Manor. With time, their resources grew, as did their numbers.

Despite the occasional squabble, Xavier and Erik--who were going by Professor X and Magneto by then, respectively--were the heart and soul of the team.

Schism and Disbanding
By 2007, tensions were rising between Xavier and Magneto and, by extension, the rest of the team. MacTaggert divorcing Charles and leaving the mansion to return to Scotland only further started to divide the team.

On the night of August 3, 2009, the team was responding to a notification from Cerebro that led them to Rochester, New York. However, it had been a trap. The DUP staged a brutal ambush assault, using both the newly created Sentinel Drones and soldiers armed with potent anti-mutant tactical weaponry.

The fight resulted in the deaths of a number of the X-Men's number. Magneto, in a rage, slaughtered every last DUP member in the area. Xavier confronted Magneto about that, and Magneto insisted that the Dream--the idea of mutant-human peace that had driven the team for a decade--was dead. There would be no peace, the humans had proved it that night. Magneto declared he would leave the team and a number of the X-Men defected and decided to go with him.

Desperate, Xavier tried to convince them to stay, which led to a battle between the two factions. Magneto brought down the warehouse and escaped with his people. While he thought Xavier had died, he had in fact survived, though he was now crippled from the waste down.

In the wake of this, everybody but Beast left Charles and the team itself died.

Reformation
By 2018, Xavier had been operating the Xavier School for the Gifted for three years. He'd convinced a number of former X-Men--Storm, Banshee, Longshot, Darwin, and Wolfsbane--to return as instructors. Charles had, by then, sworn to never put his students in danger again, and the X-Men were a distant memory.

However, students Scott Summers and Jean Grey were dissatisfied; they felt it wasn't right that they were safe in their mansion while other mutants were homeless or in facilities. After a number of incidents, Jean and Scott met and decided to revive the X-Men, and included fellow students Jubilee, Iceman, Cannonball, Colossus, and '''Northstar. '''At first, they trained in secret in the hopes that they could eventually prove to the Professor that they could do it.

When the Juggarnaut and the Marauders attacked the school (see here) the newly-formed team fought alongside their instructors and proved vital to stopping the invaders. In the wake of this battle, Xavier agreed to allow the X-Men to return, though there were a number of stipulations:
 * The Team is only to take on missions given to the by the Professor or one of their two field advisors.
 * Beast and Storm would accompany them on missions as Field Advisers and Senior Members of the team.
 * The team was not to go "looking for trouble"; no vigilante activity.
 * No killing, ever.
 * Team Members must maintain at least a B-average in their studies to stay on the team.

Paraphernalia

 * Blackbird Mark IV: An ultra high-tech stealth jet, in its fourth iteration. Constructed by Hank McCoy and Forge in 2008.
 * Danger Room: A training simulation room located in the subbasement of the Xavier School. Uses a complicated process of advanced technology to simulate nearly any environment or individual, allowing the X-Men to train for a variety of scenarios and opponents.
 * X-Men Uniforms

Trivia

 * The name "X-Men" was trademarked by Charles Xavier, to ensure nobody could use the name to promote causes or merchandise that the group would not endorse.