A League all its Own
A/N: Uh, bear with me on this one. I absolutely love the idea of our favorite team as a superhero team. This will be majorly AU. I tried to base the moods and interactions of the team like they were during Emily's leave, extrapolated a little bit. Some characters I have a really hard time writing with, so if you feel anyone is OOC, please tell me and I will do my best to fix it. The same goes for any typos. Thank, you, and please enjoy!
Summary: A dysfunctional group of troubled super-humans are pushed together to form a super team to save the world—highly improbable, considering they can barely save themselves. AU. Starring superhero!BAU
'Thoughts'
"Talking"
Chapter One
In 1968 on a top secret government lab in the El Muertian desert, a classified project commenced. Under the authority of the government branch known as the BAU, some of the most brilliant scientists and engineers of our generation strove to make a superhuman serum to better combat the rising forces of evil. They succeeded. However, several undercover spies from a competing nation tried to make off with a vial of the substance. The faithful guards protecting the project refused to allow that to happen. They pursued and eventually cornered the spies. The spies knew that they had failed the mission, but they had planned for this situation. In case their mission was compromised, they had planted several bombs on crucial parts of the structure's foundation and on the three giant vats holding the reserve superhuman serum. With the single press of a detonator button the entire building, laboratory, and the three giant vats exploded in what has been nick-named "the Big Bang". But the outcome of the explosion was far better than anyone could have imagined. During the explosion, the contents of the three vats were superheated and thrown into the atmosphere in a gaseous form. This vapor form of the superserum mixed with the various water droplets, ice crystels, and dust that make up clouds, forming so called SuperStorms that would dump active superhuman serum on the earth. In the aftermath of this incident, hundreds have reported extraordinary abilities- some minor, others major (suspiciously all reports came in after some sort of rain storm). But not all of these "superhumans" used their new-found powers for good. In order to fight these new super-evil villains, the BAU recruited a number of incredible individuals to protect innocent civilians and the world. They are known as the X-League. These are their stories…
Because I'm just an ordinary person that did some extraordinary things. ~Donna Summer
Aaron Hotchner tossed and turned in his bed, the sheets tangling around his legs and waist, dragging him down.
…Elle's smiling face as she joked off with JJ…
He was wet with sweat and breathing heavily, as if he had run a thousand mile race.
…Gideon's half-hidden smile of fatherly pride as he watched the team he had built working together…
The world of dreams couldn't rescue him from the nightmare of real life. Even in this peaceful sanctum the horrors of reality prevailed.
… Jordan's seductive smirk as she flirted with Morgan…
His world was filled with fire and heat-
…smiling faces turning into masks of horror…
-a scream ripped out of his throat-
…pain tearing apart his body…
-as everything he knew-
…fire, consuming everything in its path…
-was destroyed with the single press of a detonator button-
Reality and nightmare blended together with the sound of one terrible explosion.
Aaron Hotchner shot straight up in his bed, panting for breath. After a few seconds of deep breathing he looked around. He was home.
In his bed.
With Jack sleeping safely in the room down the hall.
He was awake.
Hotch put his head down in his hands and began to weep.
.
.
"Dr. Reid?"
The doctor in question didn't even glance up from his work.
"Spencer?"
Yup. Completely oblivious to anything happening outside of his little world of chromosomes and ribozymes.
"Hey, kid!"
Spencer jumped up, popping his head up from his work so fast that he lost his balance and fell off of his chair, dumping the papers covering the table onto the floor.
Clyde Schacht, a fellow employee at Biotech Industries, laughed broadly and helped the clumsy scientist on the floor pick up the papers.
"You ok?"
Spencer nodded, dusting off his rumpled lab coat and adjusting his glasses from their crooked angle. He looked over to Clyde and his eyes grew wide at the sight of his papers in his friend's hands. He quickly snatched up the files, acting flustered—even more so than normally.
"Erm, yes… what was that you, ah, wanted?"
"Nothing important, Doc, just wanted to see when you were heading out."
"Oh, yes! Er… I'll probably be staying a little bit later… there are some things that I must finish, then I'll be out." He stopped shuffling the papers on his desk and looked at the guard with a peculiar half-smile."You don't have to wait for me. I'll close up after I'm done here."
"Another late night at the office? No hot dates you gotta get to?"
"You could say that. And seriously, me with a hot date?"
Clyde laughed again and clapped a big meaty hand on Reid's shoulder. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you never left the building."
"How are you sure you don't know better?"
The burly man left the lab chuckling to himself."Drive safe, kid!"
"I'll do my best!"
Spencer turned back to his work, marveling over his lucky break. He took a quick scan over the papers in his hands. How was it that Clyde hadn't seen these? He carefully stowed the files stamped "CLASSIFIED" away his messenger bag. He secretly smiled to himself at the multiple lives he led. Socially awkward genius by day…
…renowned superhero in one of the most crime-ridden cities in America by night.
.
.
Morgan knew he had anger problems.
If he wanted to go easy on himself, he would say he was just over-protective.
If he wanted to be truthful, he would admit he had issues.
But right now, he was past angry. He had left that point a long time ago. Right now, he was fuming.
There were several different branches that operated under the protection of the BAU, the most renowned of them being the X-League. But the BAU sheltered various vigilantes, mutants, and other extraordinary beings all over the country. In every major city across America, superhumans of every shape, size, species and ability defended the city in their own special way. It was how Derek Morgan had gotten recruited for the X-League. He had been a warden for the city of Chicago for too many years then he wished to remember, so when two agents had appeared in his house with black suits and sunglasses asking if he wanted to join the X-League, he snatched the offer up right away. There were too many memories in Chicago. Too many nightmares he couldn't leave behind.
He remembered his first day on the team. The agent before him, David Rossi (aka the Don) had retired –sadly uncommon in the world of superhumans. Thus his welcoming was a little warmer than it would have normally been. In the eleven going on twelve years he had been on the league, there had been no changes. Sure, there were substitutes—even superheroes could get sick, but no real casualties. But this time, this time was completely different. Three members of his family were killed. Three! And Morgan wasn't sure he was ready to let them go. And here Strauss just wanted them to forget about their losses, forget about their family, and let some strangers barge into their unit!
By the looks of the faces around him, he wasn't the only one shocked. In fact, Hotch was the only one without his jaw scraping the floor.
"…David Rossi has graciously offered to be taken out of retirement to assist you, but we are still missing two more agents." She laid some files on the table.
"Here are some individuals with some promise, I would like you to look at them and decide which ones you would like to join your team so-"
"Wait, wait, hold up." Morgan held up his hand." Half of our team just died, and you want us to pick some strangers to replace them?" His incredulous tone barely masked boiling rage.
Strauss looked mildly ruffled. "Well, yes. This team needs to be assembled as quickly as possible. Crime won't just take a break because you need time to mourn."
Ouch. She had touched a nerve there. Morgan (rage now fully obvious in his eyes), leapt up from the table, but Hotch jumped in before his subordinate could be charged with assault.
"Fine," said Hotch.
"These two."
He grabbed two files from the stack at random.
Strauss frowned. "Are you sure you don't-"
"Yes, yes I'm sure." Hotch spoke in a short, brusque tone, which was better than anyone else on the team could have managed.
Strauss, incorrectly assuming that Hotch might be easier to persuade, softened her voice and spoke with a compassionate tone.
"Aaron, I realize how hard this is for your team, but you just don't understand how imperative it is to get your team back in the field and-"
"No. You don't understand. Look, Director. We'll make this simple for you. Three of our family members just died. We haven't even buried their bodies and you want us to replace them like they never even existed. Forgive us if we're not exactly sunny side-up, happy-go-lucky, ah-well-the-world-won't-end. But that's what we feel like right now."
A rebellious Penelope Garcia stood in front of Strauss, her head held high defiantly. Overcoming the shock that their usually optimistic tech kitten was behaving so impudently, the team leveled Strauss with their own insolent glares.
Knowing when to yield, Strauss picked up the rest of the files and left the room.
The team kept up the appearance of obstinate insurgency until Strauss's back had disappeared out of the bullpen and into her office. Then Garcia's shoulders slumped and she gave a little sniff. JJ immediately went over to give her a caring hug and Morgan rubbed her back with a soothing hand.
"I hate this." JJ declared.
Morgan sighed. "So do we Jayje, so do we…"
.
.
In a plane somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, a woman wept.
She was glad that her seat partner was asleep- she had taken all the necessary precautions to make sure that the stranger knew she did not want conversation: headphones in, nose buried in book, armrest up in a makeshift barrier between her and the rest of the world. But now that the plane was dark enough to hide her tears, she allowed her stoic expression to crumble and let herself cry. She cried for her friends—now ten feet under thanks to a man's thirst for revenge. She cried for innocence lost and the weight on her shoulders that wouldn't go away. Yes, she even cried for the man who caused all these tears, because it wasn't his fault at all—it was hers. But most of all, Emily Prentiss cried for herself.
Eventually she ran out of tears and her sobbing dwindled into quiet sniffles. She dug in her notoriously messy purse for some tissues to wipe away the evidence of her weakness. Lipstick, wallet, a pen, phone, a book, a—wait? What was that? She pulled out a folder that she was sure she hadn't packed. Carefully, she flipped it open. Her eyes flitted up to the title stamped on the front. Her mouth dried and her heart stopped. She took a careful glance left, right, and behind her before glancing back at the folder to make sure her eyes had not mistaken her. Yes, there it was in big, black, capital letters. Her pulse started racing. Yes, this could be exactly what she was looking for- a fresh, new start, with people who accepted her for who she was. Yes, this could be it!
In bold letters, the folder that brought her so much hope proclaimed "THE X-LEAGUE INITIATIVE."
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