Look! I finally posted something! This is a prequel to ChronicleX, and happens in the same universe before that story and X2: X-Men United but after the movies Chronicle and the first X-Men. So it is AU. It would be good to read ChronicleX before reading this, but not necessary. I will upload this story of about 7k words in 4 chapters over the next few weeks. I promise the other chapters will be longer than this one.

Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men or Chronicle. If I did, Chronicle would have a sequel and I would know Dane Dehaan and Shawn Ashmore. But alas, the world is a cruel place and I'm stuck here writing fanfiction. There are some OC's in this story though. I own them. Like that guy mentioned in the first paragraph, Daniel Rees. I won't own them anytime soon, but if I gain the rights, I'll tell you.

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"Sir, this is a restricted area," Daniel Rees, an exasperated and exhausted police officer of the city of Seattle, Washington, said to the graying man wearing a suit in front of him. His entire force had had a very long night, and they had lost at least 4 officers to the unexplainable threat. Now he had to deal with keeping dozens of reporters and curious citizens away from the site where one of the two—at least they were pretty sure there had been two—fighter's dead body lay.

The man in front of Officer Rees flashed a badge so quickly that he couldn't even tell which acronym organization he was from. The older man pushed past him and walked towards the body with a sense of authority.

"Sir! May I see your badge again?" Rees called out to the man, not wanting to get in trouble for letting someone with a fake badge into the area—he'd seen his fair share of reporters try that trick even though it was a federal offense.

The man stopped and turned around, glaring at Rees with a cold stare. "I am from a branch of the military you have never heard of and never will, so let's leave it at that."

What, was he from the Men in Black or something? Rees wondered. He wanted to protest again, but the sheriff caught his eye and shook his head before turning to the man and shaking his hand.

The mysterious man thanked the sheriff before bending down to inspect the body. It was a Caucasian male with brown hair who appeared to be in his late teens. The boy was wearing a hospital gown and he had severe burns all over his face and arms. There was a long stone spear—about twenty feet long—through the boy's abdominal area. Looking around, he noticed that there was a statue nearby of a large man with an empty hand held above his head. Obviously, this was where the spear had originated from; therefore, he concluded, the other perpetrator had either telekinesis or super strength.

"Colonel Stryker," the sheriff said, "is there anything we can help you with?"

The military scientist thought for a moment before ordering, "Yes: clear your men out of here and move all reporters and civilians back at least hundred yards. This is now a matter of national security, so I will need you to confiscate all videos and photos of the incident."

The sheriff looked shocked, but quickly regained his composure. "Okay, men, new orders!" he yelled to his officers. "We are moving the line out fifty more yards! The FBI will take over this case, so our job is to keep civilians out of the way! Also, detain any witnesses and confiscate any footage or evidence!"

Rees and the other officers of Seattle had no choice but to obey orders, as strange as they were; that man did not strike Rees as a Fed.

No more than five minutes later, a helicopter landed in the no-go zone. A Japanese woman exited the helicopter and Stryker told her, "Trim this spear down for me, Yuriko, then load him up. Be careful not to damage the body any more than it already has been." The woman nodded and her nails shot out to be almost a foot long.

Ten minutes later, the helicopter took off with the victim of what would soon be known as the Seattle Incident, an event that the government was already trying to cover up.

-x-x-

He could feel his body for a few minutes and felt a slightly painful tingling sensation around his stomach. All he could hear was an incessant beeping and the faint sound of rushing water. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move any muscles or open his eyes, so he drifted back into the nothingness.

-x-x-

"Anyways, so I had my girlfriend hang all of the posters for my election campaign, and she came up with a really great idea for a promotional video. Would you film it for me, man?" Steve asked as he ate a sandwich.

"Of course," Andrew replied, happy that his friend was letting him help. He looked around, wondering where his cousin was, and why he wasn't eating lunch on the bleachers with them. But as he looked around he noticed that the people walking by were blurry and faceless, and the food he was eating had no taste or texture.

"I'm dreaming," Andrew realized. He turned to Steve. "Of course I am; you're dead." Andrew knew that he should feel guilty for what he did to his friend, but in this dream he was strangely calm and emotionless.

"Yes, Steve Montgomery is dead," Steve said, but his voice didn't sound like Steve's; it was monotonous and echoed strangely. Also strange was the fact that his eyes were glowing with a harsh reddish-white light. "But you are not yet. You are still needed."

"Needed for what?" Andrew asked.

The fake-Steve ignored his question, and continued, "Your body is still healing, and it will take another week for you to fully regain consciousness. You have already built up partial immunity to the sedative, but it has slowed your healing process. If you had received these injuries any earlier in your development, there is a 92% chance that they would have proven fatal." Pseudo-Steve shook its head, as if disappointed. "If you clash with your cousin again, it will prove disastrous."

Suddenly, Pseudo-Steve vanished without as much as a puff of smoke to suggest that he was even there.

Andrew found himself drifting into a different dream.

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Thanks so much for reading! Reviews are nice XD