Evolution: Tale of the Untold
Disclaimer: I do not own any content of the Marvel Universe. As a matter of fact, a great deal of the story line is of my own creation.
Hope you enjoy!
Abstract:
There once stood three extraneous pyramids created by a man of outlandish powers placed in the mark between life and death; homo-sapiens and homo-superiors. Out emerged the saviors of humanity; a union of both mutant and human associations alike; united by a common goal. Though despite their genuine intentions, the mutant factions later suffered indictment purely for the threat that they posed to homo-sapiens. They were forced to accommodate to The Mutant Registration Act, the new regime of their home land. The mutant faction had to endure a national "sweep" where every mutant had to re-register citizenship as an 'Alien'. Mutants in an approved residence in society were to be, those souls who refused registration, or were homeless, incompetent, uneducated, or jobless were forced into concentration camps to become an efficient member of their nation. Fear overwhelmed the majority rather than opportunity. For a while, tensions caused people to walk a polarized path; paths were clean and clear; either one was a human supremacist or a mutant supremacist. However there are those who deviated from those paths. No, not just the X-men, who preferred coexistence and peace, but those who chose the path of no clear purpose.
Chapter 1
Most people have misapprehended Lance Alvers from the start. Hell, even he misapprehended himself, he is a felonious delinquent. When he was a teenager, he just thought he was blamed for everything. He just happened to be that one kid around garbed in punk wear with his mark attitude and a skin darker than most. He thought people just loved to pluck him out of the crowd, to harass him when things went wrong, and to isolate him and fellow noble delinquents. Lance grew adept at being a paragon ring leader, finger-puppeting around the aspirant delinquents to do petty crimes, not harmful, never harmful, but nevertheless petty. He found himself maturing when he discovered his Geokinetic mutation, and how it intertwined so much with his emotions. He matured ever so much more as he got caught up in a widespread mutant crusade, one that landed him in places he'd never thought he'd be in. Despite initial observances from the eldest, he realizes he is still no more than just a delinquent. He finds his mind still wandering to juvenile inclinations such as theft, manipulation, sex and drugs he had when he was younger, those very inclinations he and his peers shared during his stay with the Brotherhood. Now officially a nameless assembly and loosely attached to S.H.I.E.L.D's Freedom Force program, the "Brotherhood" is nothing more than just the average mutant recruits to join S.H.I.E.L.D's curriculum. They are still way too immature to ever be real factor in this crusade, Lance believes. He doesn't even know why they were targeted. The brotherhood, with the exception of Wanda, are like locusts, compared to the brute eagle force of the X-men. This was true when Mystique had assembled them. Magneto eventually assembled a new team because the Brotherhood was too unripe. Now at the established age of nineteen, Lance stands with indistinct, less subjective wear. His independent attitude swollen into a discontented demeanor while the hair on his body thickened and lengthened to a flowing barbaric elegance. He is no different than the cumbersome child he once was, only he shields his tendencies better. Where ever he goes trouble still follows. Literally. He doesn't even know why Director Nick Fury, the man admired by many marvelous mutant and human soldiers alike, has taken time out of his hectic schedule to personally appreciate his progress.
"Very clever performances, Mr. Alvers, I must say. Please sit," Fury inquired sitting on the edge of his desk, nibbling submissively on a toothpick.
With a slight sigh, Lance did as asked, ignoring the abrupt pains from the training sessions as he maneuvered to the seat.
He looked around. Not many mutant recruits was able to see Fury's workplace. They'd might get a glimpse through the tele-communicator, but to ever be invited physically into his office was considered an honor by many. But Lance in particular could care less.
"What are you talking about? We fucked up. We didn't follow the group's decision. They wanted to defuse the bomb, we wanted to kick some ass. That bomb detonated, took the rest of the group out, and we just so happened to defuse a separate bomb. Big deal, it's just a training simulation anyways." Lance replied grimly, folding his arms.
Despite Fury's seat of command, Lance is permitted to use foul language in his company under his grace. Fury understands it's one of Lance's healthy outlets to release tension. It's the only personal connection the two shared.
"That shouldn't be categorized as clever. It was luck. No need for the gratitude."
Fury replied with a smirk, followed by a soft chuckle.
"Crystallized Intelligence, son. You and your little friends back there are the only mutants here experienced in working as a team. The only ones that have experience operating independently from the ordinary establishment of common people. Sure, your intentions may have been defiant and maybe immature, but your independent nature proves of a great strategy when combined with moral purposes. When has it ever failed you?"
"…"
Fury adjusted his position to center with Lance. A dark tranquil eye met with auburn distressed sets. "The bomb Alpha and Beta teams discovered was a decoy, not the real hydrogen bomb. The test was to understand that coordinates sent from anonymous sources can't, for obvious reasons, be trusted. Everyone had two choices: Take out the base as a group, or defuse the bomb as a group. You and your friends chose neither, and instead split, to amuse yourselves with mindless violence. You've managed to hold your own against hundreds of simulated enemies with uncoordinated tactics you most certainly didn't learn from the training sessions. Your team found the master controls and ended up disabling the second bomb. Very creative, good job."
Lance's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"Hold up, my team? You had Cassidy assign Pietro as field team leader, for whatever reason. And why are you just telling me this anyway?"
"In time, you'll understand why that decision was made. But for now understand this; people accustom to certain leadership skills. He has his set and you have yours," Fury said reaching into a drawer in his desk and retrieving a badge.
"Which is why I chose to talk to you," he muttered, stamping a badge engraved with a thick black arrow pointing in one direction and a joint smaller golden arrow pointing in another. Lance stretches it from his black S.H.I.E.L.D trainee uniform and studies it.
"Deviation?"
"Precisely. Tell the others I commend their efforts equally. Dismissed." Lance eyed the commandant, absorbing his officious front in its entirety before leaving as quickly as he could.
And like that, his delinquency is mentioned yet again, even in his adulthood, even employed in the most disciplined agency nation-wide. However, this time he was praised for it. He still didn't understand why Fury thought it was intelligent though, it was an ignorant move that if copied in a real situation, could've ended the lives of their teammates.
He knew that the Alpha and Beta team members, the wannabe soldiers that they are, would agree that their decision was a great example of self-regarding idiocy, and would jump at the opportunity to threaten the Brotherhood's very existence with penetrating glares they give when huddled at their little group tables tossing gossips around like they make their salads. They didn't like the brotherhood when they first joined S.H.E.I.D and they undoubtedly will hate them now.
The Brotherhood members themselves were a little upset, when Lance came to their compartment and told them what happened, though for different reasons. Todd was the only one satisfied with the meeting.
"Yo, that's awesome," he said with a content grin, while manipulating components of a cell phone on the edge of his bunker. Lately he's developed a habit of toying with electronics, creating very arbitrary gadgets, though sometimes they become very useful.
"We turned that simulation into a playground and got praised for it! Those other bastard trainees are going to be so pissed."
"No, no, no!" Pietro scoffed, appearing in between Lance and Todd in a blur.
"All of you totally disobeyed my direct instructions! We've discussed our plan before the mission started in the debriefing room. I told you to follow the group, but no, you all just enjoy pissing me the hell off!" His effeminate yet slightly matured cerulean eyes are swallowed by annoyance as prances back and forth in front of his companions.
"How are we supposed to make it in here if we can't function like an actual team?!"
"Oh shut up, Pietro," Wanda spoke up from her bunker that was separated from the rest of her teammates' bunkers.
"No one gives a damn about you being field leader. I don't why you all put so much effort into this debunking agency. Remember that we are all involuntarily put in here, meaning it's here or its back to the concentration camp," she said with a roll of her eyes.
"Quiet you," Pietro retorted at his twin. "Just because we're forced to be here doesn't mean we can't make the best out of it," he said before swiping his elongated bang in frustration.
"Oh, really? Then why did you follow us?" Lance asked, frustrated himself.
"You could've joined the others but you went with us. If we all should "follow the rules" then why didn't you? Do busy swinging on our balls now are you?"
Pietro scornfully retorted in an offended manner, "Well I thought we were a team."
Wanda huffed at his statement from behind a book she picked up from underneath her bunker.
"So why did he call you in there Lance, why not all of us?" Fredrick finally gabbed from the spare couch in the corner, idly nibbling on a nutrition bar he recovered from the fridge.
"And why don't we have a shiny badge?" Todd asked, his newly invented gadget emitting a green light.
Pietro disdainfully waited for his reply, slumping in annoyance on his bunker.
"I don't know and I don't care. So wipe that silly look off your face Pietro," And that was the truth, Lance didn't know. Fury gave him a sort of literary speech about leadership and he knew he was supposed to figure out what he meant. But Lance didn't want to. He didn't want to be called in the meeting. Hell, like Wanda, he doesn't want to be here. He couldn't beg no harder to the "Force Almighty" that he wants nothing more than a stable life. It seems like ever since he'd join the Brotherhood, his life has been anything but stable. He should've just called that arrogant bastard Pietro in there. Anything but dragging him in the middle of drama again.
"Gah! Whatever," Pietro started, walking through their little huddle. "You losers keep being losers. I'm going to find my way up the ranks and out of this shithole. Hope to see there…" And Pietro was gone in his blur, presumably to the cafeteria. He was the only one who can make associates here. Most of the other mutants here, are mutant supremacists, and with Magneto as his father, Pietro made fast friends among the mutant community, and his dedication earned him respect within the ranks.
"What an asshole," Lance sighed sitting on the couch next to Fred and earned a chuckle from Todd.
"Hey, isn't your birthdays coming up soon?" Fred hesitantly asked Wanda.
"Yeah, so what? We'll just go over to my father's like we always do," she replied nonchalantly.
"Oh, I was just thinking that maybe they can let us take a vacation off or something, since it's an occasion. You guys seem to need to a break." He said with an honest shrug, finishing off his snack.
"Yo, that's not a bad idea. It's been a while since I let the sun's heat absorb in my scales. Oh, and how long has it been before we had real food? Shit, sign me up! What do you say sweetums?" He asked her, not with one of his infamous flirtatious smiles that always gets him hexed, but rather a genuine smile that caught Wanda off guard. Her features to soften a bit.
"I guess it doesn't sound too bad."
"Great!" Todd exclaimed gleefully, flipping onto the ceiling in excitement. "This is gonna be an awesome eighteenth birthday!" Todd continued. "There's going to be cake, presents, possibly booze-"
"Two cakes, Pietro can eat as much as I can. He just hides it better," Fred queried. "Maybe three…"
"Give me a break, you men are just greedy bastards," Wanda sighed turning back to her book.
But Todd and Fredrick went on with a list of hopes. This is surprisingly one of the rare progressive conversations they shared in a while. Even Wanda's eyes seem to glimmer in the thought of being free again, just like the old days. Unfortunately, the only freedom days she'd ever had were with the Brotherhood. And to this day, she still doesn't know her past. Poor girl.
Misfortunes aside, and despite always being the center of drama, the Brotherhood of Mutants always had their lustful juvenile intentions engrained into their minds as sort of a failsafe when life just doesn't seem to go their way, whether it be for survival or just for pure amusement. Sure, it made them disliked, and at times isolated. But they sure had a hell of time doing crazy things together. And crazy the twins' birthday parties will be, as soon as they got approved for their 'vacation'. Maybe they can go back to their old crabby home and celebrate.
Lance in particular could care less about a birthday, but an opportunity to leave this facility made him as optimistic as Fredrick and Todd. His birthday passed a couple of months ago and he has to admit, he'd never thought he'd ever spend his adulthood this way. He had to spend his nineteenth birthday surrounded by alpha team members on combat grounds and endure a hell of a beating as he tried dearly to defend himself. He still even have the marks.
"Only one more month," he heard Wanda say to herself as she searched under her bunker, presumably for another book. Yes indeed, only one more month before our membership expires, join the club Wanda, Lance thought. He watched her, her shoulder stretch dark curls has been pulled into a bun and she wore her required white t-shirt, grey cargo pants and boots. Though she stills finds a way to put on her makeup, for whatever reason. The look is the agency's attempt to teach her discipline. She looks so different, Lance isn't sure if the look suits her or not. She's always been so liberated and yet dominating, just like her father. Lance doesn't know what to think of it, they've always been such a weird family with strange tendencies and Lance just could never figure any of them out, though this look is just not in her nature.
The Freedom Force program allowed for mutants to be involved in a militant program or a politics program as an alternative to the concentration camp sentence. Lance can't really see her in either, but she is most certainly not militant or disciplined. Both of them dislikes this program equally, and yet she doesn't even try, and you have to try in order to graduate. Lance contemplates what job she would choose if she graduates from this place, since that too is also required. Even though she wouldn't admit it, she'll probably follow wherever the group goes. Hell, she followed them into the militant program. It's almost admirable, how the brotherhood end up together no matter what. A group of felonious delinquents that bonded because each had no one else to bond too, for the most part. They'd gotten evicted together, clustered at the camp together, signed to the program together, and even before that they'd fought together, gotten beaten together, and huddled when times gotten rough. But when they're together, it seems times are always rough. He is even contemplating just reentering the concentration camp, endure the labor and inhumane treatment, and be done with it all. He doesn't want to serve the nation, constantly be in tough times, or anything. He for once admits he just wants to be alone.
Though maybe not completely alone, he'd love to be involved yet again with Kitty Pryde. Their relationship has been on sort of a standby since the act was passed, and he is almost desperate to touch her again. He has been communicating with her via telephones since she and those X-nerds have been considered proficient for the nation. She's been telling him all about how the X-mansion is now a school and they are extending their bases and resources with the help of that maniac, Magneto. Lucky bastards. Those lucky fucking bastards, they are sitting on their asses studying crap while the Brotherhood manor is probably being sold. He remembers when he told her they signed out of concentration camp and into this program and she was so delighted for him, that she was "so happy you're turning your life around." In other words, his "delinquency" is getting stale and its time to grow up. However, it seems as if his old ways never allude him. Life sucks for Lance right now, and the only thing keeping him going is the anticipation of seeing her again. He wishes to see how she spends her adulthood and if she misses him as he does her. He hadn't seen her in person in months, and he could surely use her company right now. She just doesn't know how much he wants to touch her, and take his frustrations out on her when it's time to get intimate, if she finally permits him to.
Ignoring incoming contemplations over his earlier meeting with the director and the thought of Sean Cassidy coming over to their compartment and annoying them with more training sessions, Lance took refuge on a spare chair away from his companions.
"Only one more month," he said, folding his arms as tilted his head back in his chair attempting to catch as much rest as he could before he would be bothered yet again.
A/N: Freedom Force program is a program designed to be an alternative option to concentration camps, hence the "freedom" name choice. Mutants had to endure months of militant training or politics program and serve any branch of the military and/or government organization for their required amount of time. It was implemented alongside the mutant registration requirements.
I have to admit it's going to seem a little messy at first, since I just plucked out a random timeline to write about. I'll try my best to make it easy to understand and center around the Brotherhood as intended.