Author's
Notes
Hi, people, my name is Meg, and you can reach me at MegCA86@aol.com with
questions, flames, comments and ideas. That being said, I would like to say
that the idea for this fic kinda springboarded off of the AoA X-Calibre series.
My idea was: What would the MU be like today if Destiny and Stonewall hadn't
died at Muir? It would have major ramifications, everywhere. Mystique wouldn't
be the crazed killer she is portrayed as today, Freedom Force might still be
active, and THAT universe would be quite different than the current one.
However, since I don't feel up to rewriting about ten years of Marvel history,
I've don it a simpler way: I've resurrected certain influential people in
certain positions. However, it was for a definite purpose decreed by the Fates,
and, as you'll see, there are definite strings attached.
Continuity Notes: This takes place during the six-month Revolution gap, and
springs from there. Basically, everything up to Revolution is canon, and then I
branch off.
~Kitty Pryde doesn't meet/date Seth the Neo (in fact, for my arc, there's no
such thing as the Neo).
~The new Thunderbird, Neal Sharra, doesn't join the team.
~Moonstar is not going to college, nor does she join the X-Men.
~Domino never acquired 'Junior,' nor is Marcus Tsung after her, nor did the
botched mission happen.
~I am using Robert Weinberg's excuse from Cable #85-6 to explain how Rachel
Summers is in our timeline, hardly aged, and Illyana's excuse you will see.
~In my timeline, the Phoenix Force never left Rachel-her codename is still
Phoenix. Jean's will change.
~The "Black Sun" and "Magik" LS's didn't happen; however,
Amanda Sefton is the new Magik, guardian of Limbo, and all former Excalibur
members know it (basically, Kitty, Peter, Kurt, Brian and Meggan).
~Avalanche is cooling his heels in house arrest after his little escapade in
X-Factor #109.
~There is no new Brotherhood of Mutants run by Mystique.
~Cyclops, when he merged with Apocalypse, is dead. I have no plans now to
incorporate Apocalypse into this story arc as of now, but if and when I do,
Cyclops will be dead as a doornail.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters herein. Marvel owns them all,
although I *wish* I had these characters (the things I would do with Iceman in
particular....). I'm making no money off this, no copyright infringement
intended. However, the plot herein is mine, as are self-created characters. The
only ones that I have, as of now, are Shadow, the foot soldiers (sarcastically
named X-Pendables), and Arkanon. New characters will be noted.
Book
One: Chosen
Summary: The Chosen are gathered....
Rating: PG-13 for language
Chapter One: Nine Lives
'Shit!' Katherine Pryde, known to the world
as Shadowcat, cursed to herself. 'Note to self: next time you engage in a program
in the Danger Room when you know you're not at your peak, don't disengage the
safeties! Or at least have someone spotting you!'
Kitty snorted at that thought. She had been
trained by Wolverine, and the man worked up a sweat by disengaging the safeties.
His protege felt she could do no less.
Thoughts of her former mentor sobered her.
Though taking out her anger on one of Ogun's ninjas was fun, it was doing
nothing for her state of mind-or her emotions. Emotions that had been
precarious since Pete Wisdom had walked out on Kitty, because they realized the
relationship they had was pretty much dying.
A ninja sliced at her. Kitty, distracted,
phased through the blade. It cut her.
'What?' she though, before remembering that
she had programmed the Danger Room to try and negate any advantage her powers
gave her. Slowly but surely, it was doing so. Realizing that her shot
concentration was going to get her killed, Kitty grimaced.
"End program!" Kitty snapped,
annoyed with herself for not making it through what she would have considered a
routine program, normally.
She stalked over to the exit, not bothering
to listen to the computer's analysis of her performance (knowing that it was
gonna be sucky), grabbed her towel, and exited the Danger Room. She stomped
down the corridor and phased into the locker room. Turning on a shower, she
finally let herself react to the day's events. Hot tears splashed down her
face, but she refused to admit it to herself, insisting it was shower spray and
nothing more.
Shampooing her hair, she was momentarily
startled to find that it was about two feet shorter than normally. Snorting,
she recalled this morning's fight with Logan and Ororo.
It should have been nothing major, really.
The only ones in the house when she returned from the hair salon and piercing
place had been Ororo, Logan, Kurt, and Piotr. "Well, how does it
look?" she asked gaily, twirling around.
Kurt had looked at her, depressed, and
simply said, "It looks good, katzchen." Then, with a stench of
brimstone and a BAMF!, he was gone.
Kitty didn't blame him, really. She knew he
was still brooding over his recent decision to join the priesthood, and
subsequent breakup with his longtime girlfriend and one true love, Amanda
Sefton, or the new Magik.
Peter, on the other hand, had taken one
look at her and he had run off to his room. Bemused, she had called after him,
"Where are you going?"
Peter skidded to a halt for a fraction of a
second. Running back to her, the man codenamed Colossus grabbed her in a bear
hug. Sweeping Kitty of her feet, her whirled her around as he danced for joy.
Kitty, meanwhile, was asphyxiating. Plus,
she did a slow inner burn, as she could practically feel Ororo's, and, to a
lesser extent, Logan's approving eyes on her. She knew they still saw her,
somewhat, as the naive, shy girl who came to the Xavier Mansion at thirteen and
fell for the literal knight in shining armor. They hadn't seen her much as a
part of Excalibur, nor as Pete Wisdom's lover, and consequently, she knew, a
little part of them would always expect her with Peter.
Kitty phased through Peter's arms, purple
in the face, and demanded, "Peter?"
"You have given me back my Muse,
Katya!" he exulted. "I must record it...all the colors...." And
sprinting down the hall, Peter disappeared into his room and the waiting arms
of his canvas and paints.
Kitty sighed, facing her surrogate parents.
One eyebrow lifted in supplication. "Like?" she had half-asked, half-pleaded.
Ororo's eyebrows had raised and Logan had grunted. Kitty knew the clues well
and girded her loins for...something she wasn't sure exactly how to define.
And it had come. Shadowcat cringed.
Thinking about their fight was just too painful. The wound, only hours old, was
still raw. Their discussion had degenerated into an argument, which ended up
with Kitty screaming at them that she hated them and never wanted to see them
again, and storming off, phasing through the wall, oblivious to their hurt and
thunderstruck (Ororo) and half-angry and regretful (Logan) expressions. Some
really old bones of contention had been brought up, including the supposed
death of the X-Men at Dallas. Unknowingly, Kitty had touched a nerve, and they
threw back at her what seemed like every mistake she ever made, including
taking potshots at Pete Wisdom. Kitty became enraged, seeing this as an attack
on her independence (and in a way, it was).
Kitty, disgusted at life in general and her
own loss of control in particular, turned off the shower and opened her locker.
Dressing quickly, she pulled on underwear, a bra, faded sweatpants and a blue
T-shirt that had the X-Men's 'X' logo in the shoulder. Comfortable attire for
someone who wanted to stomp off to her room, which was distressingly empty
('Because everyone who's ever cared about you has left you,' and insidious
voice whispered inside her head) and mope around for a while.
Walking down the hall, the hair on the nape
of her neck lifted. She stopped and used every sense to the fullest, trying to
locate the source of her uneasiness. 'I know the Mansion is home and has a
perimeter line that God himself couldn't breach...so why do I feel so wary?'
she asked herself after she stood still for about five minutes and detected
nothing.
She should have listened to her
instincts...she didn't see the portal open up behind her, or the black-gloved
hands grab her and inject a serum into her veins. Blacking out immediately, she
didn't see her or her unknown assailant melt into the shadows and disappear,
with her in tow.
Chapter Two: Frost-byte
'Damn this computer!' Bobby Drake thought
heatedly to himself as the computer fritzed out on him for the millionth time.
'God, this bites,' he snarled to himself. He
had recently gone to work for an accounting firm to support his parents...and
he could admit it to himself that it was boring him to death.
'I got so used to being an X-Man-what was I
expecting, I've been a superhero almost my entire life-and I think I got
addicted to the adrenaline rush. Well, duh, Drake! You can't be an X-Man
without being an adrenaline junkie.'
Shoving appealing 2 AM thoughts of the
X-Women (and the White Queen in particular-he'd had weird feelings for her ever
since their almost kiss) in spandex out of his mind, he realized that he'd need
a new Microsoft program to continue working on the account. [Author's Note: The
almost kiss happened in GenX #57]
'You can get that at Costco, and they'd be
open now,' the workaholic part of his brain whispered, because he knew he
needed this account by 4 PM later on in the day.
Snarling, he stalked to the door. Scrawling
a note to his parents about where he had gone (it was 2 AM, after all, he
wasn't going to wake them up), he stalked out the door, into his car and was
gone. 'Damn friggin' computers,' he cussed to himself. 'I swear, if Mom and Dad
didn't need the extra income, I'd be back at the mansion helping Jeannie.'
'Jean....' and his thoughts wandered to the
flame-haired telepath who had lost half of her soul so recently. He desperately
wished he could be there to help her through her tough time, but he had
responsibilities at home.
'Even when you've had as rocky a home life
as me?' a voice whispered inside of him. He grimaced and stepped on the gas.
Driving fast and furious, he didn't see the
black portal open up under him. His first feeling was of falling-though the
car?!?!
'What the fuck?....' was all he had time to
think. He tried to ice up...and *couldn't*! 'Oh, shit....' he swore.
Then, as a black-gloved hand met the back of his
neck, he felt nothing at all.
Chapter Three: Abandoned, Not Alone
Dani Moonstar grinned and yelled in
Domino's ear. "This place is awesome!" Domino grinned in return.
"I hoped you'd like it!"
They were both at a crossroads now, after
X-Force had abandoned them, and were deciding what they wanted to do. In the
meantime, however, they had decided they wanted some fun. So Dom had taken Dani
to a popular club she knew of, hoping the Cheyenne girl would have fun. And she
was.
Dani was legal-barely-and she and Dom had
gotten by the bouncers with ease, Dom's alias her well-known Tamara Winter
persona. Now, they were dancing easily to the beat of the music, very close.
Dani turned her back to Dom and the two
mimicked the others' actions, almost grinding pelvises. Turning around, Dani
laughed as Dom swirled her around and dipped her.
Sweating and shaking, the two retired to a
back table. Dom was just having fun, sensing in Dani a bit of a kindred spirit,
and Dani was opening up in kind, surprised that Dom was being
this...friendly...but not letting the opportunity to get to know her mysterious
mentor better go to waste. 'And I'm not about to let an entirely *different*
opportunity go to waste, either....' Dani thought as she smirked at Dom. Dom
leered back, and her eyes flashed.
However, before they could talk much, a
black-shrouded man tapped them both on the shoulder.
"Come with me, Mrs. Winter and Ms.
Moonstar...or should I say...Moonstar and Domino of X-Force?" This said
low enough to only reach their ears.
Both sets of eyes, one a rich chocolate
brown, the other amethyst purple, widened. Without looking at each other, Dom
fingered a knife hidden up her jacket sleeve and a concealed gun at her side,
while Dane discreetly started to summon some quantum energy.
The man behind the black cowl didn't give
them time needed to prepare. "Move. Now."
Getting up, they followed his prodding to a
deserted corridor in the back of the club. Turning to face their assailant, Dom
began with, "Who-?" but got no further as a mental bolt robbed them
of consciousness.
The figure in black chuckled. "We have
four. Soon we will have the fifth...and then it will begin."
Chapter Four: House Arrest
Dominic Petros stretched. 'God, I *hate*
being under house arrest. It's boring. It's insane.'
'I knew the consequences. So what propelled
me to follow that bitch Raven to kill Legion? She was ever a good leader, but
still, I shoulda known better! Although it *was* fun to bait Val.'
'Damn. Raven and her damn plan for
vengeance against Legion. God, why won't she just get *over* Destiny already?
Admittedly, the two *were* head over heels in love with each other, but it had
been like a year and a half, at least! She shoulda tried to stop killing the
fucking bastard-of course, he *was* responsible for Stonewall and Destiny's
deaths. I dunno. Mystique should just move on. It earned her a stint with the
damn government's lapdogs, the assholes that made up X-Factor. That arrogant
brat Havok, his whiny concubine Polaris, the idiot Strong Guy, naive Wolfsbane,
fucking damned bastard Forge, Val, and I think...Wildchild?'
Getting up (after a year of house arrest
occasionally disturbed by missions), brooding was getting old. He was *bored*,
and sometimes suspected that was the point of house arrest-to bore the
offending parties to death. His thoughts turned to Pyro as he mechanically started
making a roast beef sandwich. 'God, I wonder how Johnny's doing. I haven't been
allowed contact with him-or any other former member of the Brotherhood or
Freedom Force, for that matter.'
Lost in his thoughts, Avalanche didn't see
the shadowy figure lurk up behind him and clobber him with a club.
The shadowy figure smiled.
Interlude: Captives
"Where the hell am I?" Avalanche
demanded as he sat up. Skull throbbing, he took stock of his situation.
He was dressed in something that resembled
a Speedo and nothing else. He was chained, spread-eagled, onto a wall. However,
he could still feel his hands and feet, which told him he hadn't been out that
long. Examining his manacle, he saw it was made of a metal he couldn't
immediately recognize.
"Nice way to wake up, isn't it?"
a sarcastic voice called from his right. Dominic looked up.
He saw four other figures chained, like
him, to the wall. The circular steel room was big enough that he could see
everyone without straining his neck. There was a cold steel floor under them,
but, even if he craned his neck back, he couldn't see the top of the
steel...'Tube, I guess is the right word for it,' Dominic thought.
'Why are the four of *us* here?' was his
first thought.
The sarcastic voice belonged to a figure he
knew well. Bobby Drake, the Iceman. Shaggy brown hair partially covered his
brown eyes. Looking to Bobby's right, staring straight ahead, he saw Kitty
Pryde, better known as Shadowcat. Short brown hair and multiple ear piercings
surprised him-it was so different from her last look-but a glance at smoldering
brown eyes convinced him to hold his tongue. To Kitty's right was an albino
woman with raven hair, violet eyes, and a black patch of a tattoo over her left
eye. She looked older than him, and dangerous. Avalanche didn't know her.
Finally, to Avalanche's left, there was another woman he didn't know. She
looked to be younger than he was, with midnight-black hair, chocolate eyes, and
skin the color of coffee with half a dozen milk packets poured in.
Naturally, all five were wearing inhibitor
collars-though he didn't know the two women, since he knew that Drake and Pryde
were mutants, he would've guessed that the other two were mutants as well. He
and Drake were wearing Speedo-style briefs made of some strange fabric. The
women were wearing the same thing, plus some things resembling sports bras cut
from the same cloth.
"Just so we all know each other,"
Kitty Pryde said. "I am Shadowcat. Clockwise from me are Iceman,
Avalanche, Moonstar and Domino."
'Clever girl,' Dominic thought. 'Trying to
protect our "secret identities."'
Three claps came from somewhere none of
them could see. "Bravo, Shadowcat," a voice said, and a shiver ran
down Avalanche's back.
The voice was silky smooth, calm, yet
malevolent. It was definitely male.
"I see that you are trying to
eliminate identification of yourselves by using your codenames. Good thought,
girl, but I know all of you already...save one."
A man fell down from the ceiling
(presumably there was one), landing softly on his feet, like a cat. A purple
tunic was splendid over a royal blue long-sleeved T-shirt. A leather belt
wrapped around his waist and held many pouches. Brown-gray wool leggings disappeared
into dark brown leather boots. 'He looks like he just stepped out of the Middle
Ages,' Avalanche realized.
Apparently, he wasn't the only one to have
that thought. "Hate to inform you, pal," Domino challenged him,
"but that style went out around eight hundred years ago, or so."
The man looked as if he hadn't heard her.
"My name is Lord Arkanon. This is my associate, Shadow."
A man dressed in all black fell as the
first man had, landing with the same feline grace. There was no part of him
left uncovered by black cloth. He looked like a grim reaper.
"Now, as to all of you...." he
trailed off. "Shadowcat-Katherine Pryde. Iceman-Robert Drake.
Avalanche-Dominic Petros. Moonstar-Danielle Moonstar. And...the mysterious
*Domino*!"
His fingers gently traced the outline of
the black dot around her eyes. She shivered. In his eyes, she saw many
different things. His touch was repelling...yet, strangely hypnotic.
"Many aliases, you know," he said
conversationally. "Tamara Winter, Beatrice, Nina, to name but a few. You
are an...intriguing woman, Domino. I look forward to getting to know you."
With that, he dropped his hand, clicked his
heels once, jumped, and kept going up. Shadow followed.
"Ummm...." Drake drawled as
everyone looked at him, beginning to realize the pickle they were in.
"There's no place like home?"