What if Charles Xavier had never existed?
What if The X-Men had never been formed to help save our world?
What if Magneto had never existed?
What if The Brotherhood had never been formed to hurt it?
What if a new threat was slowly gathering more and more power?
Can things still turn out well for both Humans and Mutants or will chaos take over?
The Year is 2016. Things are new, the battle has only just begun.
It's just another Mutant Story.
Chapter One
There was a dark-haired, somber-looking woman standing in the shadows of a large tree in Central Park, her brown eyes, brown eyes that had seen a lot of terrible things in their short existence, staring with an alert look at the crowd of innocent, clueless people only mere feet away. They were chatting, laughing, as if nothing was different. Of course, they did not know the danger that may or may not be coming.
The rain had been falling softly on all of the multicolored umbrellas, dancing in the gray sky, making the scene slightly horrific. At least, in the eyes of someone who knew what was about to happen. Rain, it had always been a strong dislike for the woman, wet, depressing, it made the world dark and miserable. As she observed the crowd, she couldn't help but wonder why anyone had bothered to attend the opening. It was actually a shame that they had, they would have been a lot safer inside, but not from the awful weather that was predicted, no, because of something far worse.
There was going to be an important change in the world before the next two hours were to be over, and whether people knew of the change or not was in the woman's hands. If she was to fail today things would be devastating for everyone. The consequences involved millions of lives. Death, suffering, loss, hatred, prejudice, those would all surface and slowly destroy all of humanity. Children would be born and raised in fear, nobody would ever be able to walk on the streets freely again. They would always be observed, treated like animals, whether they were different or not. The outcome wasn't one the woman with the wise, shady brown eyes wanted to see.
War wasn't the solution, everyone was better off not knowing, at least for the time-being. The human race just couldn't understand such a thing at this point, everyone would be much better off in the dark, and that was exactly what her goal was, keep everyone from knowing the brutal truth.
Still, there was also a chance that if she succeeded, others like herself would try even harder to ruin everything. Either way, life would definitely be different after this afternoon. The woman didn't look, nor did she feel worried, she was confident in herself, she'd dealt with other problems, maybe not as grave as this one, but she was certain she could pull it off. She had help on her side too. Maybe she would never admit it, but the help reassured her just a little.
The time was approaching fast. If she was to be more than a second late, chaos would strike. The location? It was right here in this famous New York City park, more specifically, on the raised, wooden platform a good fifty feet from the tree. Would Central Park become infamous? Would it be the scar on this earth that marked the beginning of the end?
The rain had suddenly started pouring down, making it harder for the woman to see the unfortunate target, she had to squint her eyes to see properly, and even then it was somewhat troublesome.
There was only going to be one shot to make it right, the rain couldn't affect anything now. Even then, even with the blanket of rain masking her view, she was going to make it right, she would risk her life today, but if she was to die, she simply hoped her partner would be able to finish the mission. Save the world... for now.
Deep down, she knew very well that this wouldn't be the last time. People would try until the secret was revealed, until all hell broke loose. Someday something would happen, but if that could be postponed, she would try her damn hardest to do so.
Suddenly the young woman glanced down at her watch, an impatient sigh escaping from her perfect, full lips. She then glanced around quickly, as if looking for somebody in particular. Where was her partner? He'd told her specifically not to be late, and here he was, more than two minutes late.
She waited for another five minutes before finally managing to make out soft footsteps on the grass behind her. Part of her was braced for an attack, she needed to be careful, this was dangerous, far more than anyone could ever imagine.
"Alexandra, it's good to see you." a familiar, emotionless voice whispered, soon fallowed by a tall, dark-haired, muscular man. A man covered in scars of all shapes and sizes, making him seem far more dangerous than he actually was, far more scary. One in particular stood out from the rest, a long, jagged mark slashed across his face, from the right side of his forehead, near the hairline, all the way down to the left side of his jaw. Slowly, Alexandra relaxed, but just a little bit. He was a good man, he was on her side, but there was still a slight chance that he'd been playing her all time time.
He slowly and very casually walked toward the young woman, Alexandra, his face as dark and emotionless as hers had been ever since setting foot in the park. Time was approaching fast, they needed to be ready for what was to come next.
"Likewise, Cooper." Alexandra replied in a hushed voice, nodding at the man she'd met only six times in the past, all of which in the time-frame of four months. There were some times however, where they'd spent more than three days in company of each other, planning every move of every second, making sure they had all of the information required to complete and fulfill what had to be done. One would think they'd gotten to know each other quite well. Truth is, Alexandra knew next to nothing of Cooper's childhood, what he liked, what he disliked, and Cooper knew nothing of her. It was best that way, at least until their mission was complete.
Her thoughts trailed off as another man spoke up, this time from a microphone that projected his voice evenly throughout the entire crowd, it was finally beginning.
The two strange figures, both of which clad in black from head to toe, were standing behind a crowd of at least a thousand, including camera crews and reporters. Alexandra glanced over at Cooper, trying to make out any emotion at all. Was he nervous, unsure? Was he anxious to be finished? Was he worried that he'd end up hurting all of those innocent people? Her attempt was unsuccessful though, Cooper was showing no emotion whatsoever, his right hand gripping the revolver in his pocket, ready for anything to happen. She wasn't surprised.
For some time, all the two did was watch as the CEO of the newest company, based here in New York, introduced himself, as well as Crawford Industries, to the world before him. He was the target, he was the one that needed to be saved in order to save the world. This man had no idea that his life was on the line, and that he may be the key to solve this never-ending problem. To be honest, Alexandra had no idea how exactly, and to be quite frank, nor did Cooper. They did know he was an important man though, with millions of dollars stashed away in a bank somewhere and a large estate in New Jersey where six generations of Crawford men had resided. The money mustn't be the reason why the assassins want him killed, Alexandra knew that. There was something else, something maybe they wanted that had to do with weaponry and... war. Cooper had believed that theory from the start, and to be honest, it was definitely a likely scenario.
"You remember the plan?" Cooper asked after some time, leaning in closely so that nobody would hear the conversation. It would definitely be quite unfortunate if someone on the wrong side was to overhear anything. The entire plan would then crumble into pieces.
"No killing unless absolutely necessary and no exposure, we need to keep it low." she paused for a second, "We stop the assassins, then we leave." Alexandra added, as if she'd said the words many times before, which she had.
"You did what you were required to do before coming here?" he added in the same neutral yet leader-like tone that had gotten on Alexandra's nerves so many times when they'd first met. Cooper was a strange man, handsome in spite of the scars masking most of his features, shady yet compassionate, damaged yet willing to make the world right for everyone, even those that had hurt him most. He was a selfless man, one that rarely spoke...unless it was about his job – stopping the people who were trying to uncover the largest secret in the history of humankind. He tried not to show it, and at many points in their meetings he hadn't, but he was a loving man, he just needed the right people to love.
Alexandra was keen on getting to know Cooper better, once they had completed today's plan of course. They had been working for three months on the mission, they had planned their moves by the second, it was going to be successful. No lives would be taken today, not if Alexandra and Cooper had anything to do with it.
"Yes, I did." Alexandra, slightly irritated now, said. She knew he was only being Cooper, but it was still hard on her. She was used to being on her own, relying on nobody but herself, not being controlled or ordered around by anyone. Now, she had met this man, and had embarked with him on a mission that would potentially save the world from a third world-wide war.
"You've read over the details I've sent you yesterday?" Cooper asked, yet another question that seemed to irritate Alexandra.
"Yes. I did." she repeated.
Silently and very alert, braced for anything, the pair watched as Benjamin Crawford spoke of his goals and plans for the new industry, focused on creating equipment and developing new technology for the United States Armed Forces. For almost half an hour they simply stood there, listening, observing, making sure all was well and the assassins hadn't changed their plan. Nothing was happening, but that was expected. Cooper had done his research, the assassins would only strike once, and if everything went according to the information the man had gathered over the past months, then they shouldn't attack for another ten minutes. Of course, Alexandra knew plans could change, she'd been part of a shady world long enough to know that.
She was fine with waiting a few minutes longer though, honestly, she was starting to get nervous, which, everyone that had known her these past few years would clearly agree, wasn't her style. Her strong armor, the one she'd spent weeks building up after running away from home, was suddenly weakened by the weight resting upon her slim shoulders. Nobody had ever seen her vulnerable before and she had planned to always keep it that way, but as time seemed to slowly draw nearer, it was evident that she was second-guessing herself. She was twenty-one years old, could she really save the world with Cooper? He'd been in the army for six years, he knew how to fight, he knew how to react to certain things Alexandra did not.
The man standing next to her didn't seem to have noticed the sudden emotions though, or at least, she didn't think so. She could never read him, never be sure what he was feeling, what he was thinking, what he intended to do. She was sure of one thing though, he was on the right side. The good side. He wanted the world to be safe, he wanted to keep everyone at bay, Human or not. Alexandra was like him, reserved, hard to read, yet determined to save the ones that had hurt her, scarred her.
"Are you ready?" Cooper whispered, placing a sturdy hand on his partner's shoulder, reassuring her slightly. Alexandra nodded, she was ready. They would do this, and they would do this right.
She needed to, millions of lives could be at stake if this didn't work out.
"Good." Cooper said in his usual toneless way, but as Alexandra glanced at him, she picked up something different in his dark blue eyes, an emotion she couldn't quite put a finger on.
That was when the first assassin was spotted, dressed in black clothing, but unlike Alexandra and Cooper, they also had red masks, red gloves and a mysterious symbol on their backs. It was like a misshaped human skull, with fangs, horns and a long, slithering tongue. It definitely symbolized the terrorist group quite well.
"You know what to do." Cooper whispered, and with those words engraved in Alexandra's mind, she watched as he dissolved into the crowd of people at an unusually rapid pace.
She was ready, she would do this right.