MARVEL FOREVER PRESENTS
THE AMAZING X-MEN
"Previously Unknown"
By Tony Thornley
Her eyes snapped open and everything changed.
She was instantly on guard as she regarded her surroundings. The room was featureless, and bright white, almost too much so. This was some sort of ship. Something alien. Or human, but far future. She couldn't sense anything outside of the room. This worried her.
Four others were gathered around her. She only knew one of them. He looked at her as well, relief written across his face. She knew though, they were all mutants. All X-Men.
"Don't you worry young lady," said an unfamiliar voice just before they spoke to each other. The gathered five turned to see the newcomer.
"Kang," she growled.
The purple and green clad man smiled as he descended from a set of stairs that didn't exist three seconds before. The villain wasn't wearing the familiar purple helmet he normally wore. He ran his fingers through his short cropped brown hair, trying to make himself seem endearing.
"Indeed," he said. "I'm sorry for the circumstances of my… appearance, and your disappearance, but I need your help."
"Never," growled the other man, the unfamiliar one.
"I know past circumstances have driven a wedge between myself and the superheroic community you are a part of," he said. "However, there is a danger greater than any threat I pose. One that will eradicate Earth's future."
She stepped forward. "I'll tell you upfront, I don't trust you. But you're telling the truth, this time." She looked at the team of X-Men around her. "We'll help."
=X=
Wolverine shoved Rogue out of the way as a particle beam sliced through the air where she stood. The beam seared through his gut and vaporized a chunk of flesh the size of his thigh. He dropped with the pain, even though his healing factor immediately went to work.
"Logan!" Anna called in surprise. She pushed herself up to see her friend and mentor.
"I'm good darlin'!" he exclaimed. "Just need a minute for- ungh- my intestines to grow back." Rogue nodded, reached up, and tapped her earpiece.
"Pietro, Kurt, I need one of you to get Logan clear while he heals!"
"I'm there."
Rogue heard the first syllable in her earpiece, and the second by her side as Quicksilver arrived next to them. He hoisted Wolverine onto his back with a grunt.
"You're heavy runt," he said.
"And you're an ass, what else is new?"
Rogue grinned as she turned back to the threat at hand.
A small colony of superhumans near Iceland had transmitted a distress call, a simple Morse code SOS. No one knew who or what they were- mutant, inhuman, warpie, mystics, whatever. The X-Men were the first to scramble though, with Rogue's rapid response team en route within minutes of receiving the call. Logan had joined them "to see some action" without his students.
They had no idea what to expect, but this wasn't it.
Her body was quickly covered in organic steel as bone claws erupted from her knuckles and massive wings from her shoulders. She grinned.
"Ya picked the wrong gal to mess with sugar," she said.
With a single flap, she rocketed into the face of the massive android firing at her, and ripped through it.
The attackers were androids called Hunter Gatherers, manufactured by an organization called Alchemax. When they were introduced, they were supposedly supposed to be supercrime deterrent.
Now, here they were slaughtering innocent people. They were Sentinels in all but name.
"Rogue, the innocents are clear," Nightcrawler said.
"Get back here then!" she exclaimed and spun mid-air. She flapped her wings once again, knocking the headless robot forward into the ground. The androids were a polished gold enamel torso, with a tapered funnel in place of its legs which seemed to house magnetic lift generators. Before it could recover and lift back off the ground, she blasted the lift generator with an optic blast.
She drew her wings in close to her body, and dropped directly into the Hunter Gatherer's body, her steel body shattering its remaining body. As she pulled herself from the android's wreckage, a familiar sound filled her ears.
*BAMF*
"Mein gott fruelin," Kurt Wagner said. "You are as the angel of death."
Nightcrawler stood in front of the rest of the team, his sabre drawn and ready. Vance Astrovik hovered to his left, his purple telekinetic signature surrounding his body. Namora Neptunia hovered next to him, still holding a Hunter Gatherer's processing unit. Calvin Rankin stood to Kurt's right, his eyes glowing red and bone claws jutting from his fists. Longshot was just behind him, clutching a pair of his darts between his three fingers in each hand. Amelia Voght rounded the group out, as her mist form solidified.
"Thanks little brother," Rogue smirked. "Now how about we deal some death to these mechanical sons of bitches?"
=X=
Quicksilver helped Wolverine off his shoulder, and lowered him slowly to the ground. The headmaster of the Jean Grey School looked down at his stomach, which had turned from gaping hole to bloody mess in the moments it took for them get away from the Hunter Gatherers.
"How much longer do you need to heal?" Pietro growled.
"I'm okay, thanks," Logan said. "I appreciate your sympathy in my time of need."
"Don't be facetious," the speedster retorted. "These Sentinels have attacked a group of innocents, and we are needed on the field to defend…"
"Still don't know who or what these people are, do we?" Logan growled, pushing himself up into a sitting position. "I mean, they just broadcast SOS, and we see a couple of them flying when we get here, so we know they're supers. But then the Sentinels-"
"Hunter Gatherers," Pietro interrupted.
"-the Sentinels attack us, and we don't have any time to do anything to learn about them. Seems a little screwed up to me." Logan sat all the way up, and pulled his hand away from his gut, revealing translucent skin over dark muscle. Almost healed.
"You and I are both Avengers, Logan," he replied. He looked down on him with a sneer. "We both know that at time you begin to protect those who need protecting and cast aside any questions you have until the threat is eliminated."
Logan stood, and his claws popped from his left fist. "Don't question me Pietro," he said, pointing the trio of adamantium blades at his chest. "I'm a good guy, and I save the people that need savin'. That doesn't mean that I ignore the questions that need askin' while I'm at it though. We clear?"
Pietro rolled his eyes. "Crystal."
"Good," he said. "Now get us back out there. I've got Sentinels to kill and suits to track down after I finish."
Pietro grinned. "That I can agree with."
=X=
"The timeline has changed," Kang said as he paced around the small group of X-Men. "Someone has altered events that have changed my world around me. My armor has naturally prevented those alterations from affecting me."
"Naturally," she grunted. The others remained quiet around her. Her friend stepped close and patted her shoulder.
"My world is what you would call Utopia under my rule," he continued, ignoring the facetious interruption. "But suddenly it was a grungy dystopia, one ruled by greed, by money. By what they called Megacorporations. One in particular was most prominent- Alchemax."
The other man gasped. He recognized the name.
"Yes, indeed Henri." Kang smiled. "Now, I can trace the disturbance back to approximately this time. However, I cannot exit the time stream in order to correct or halt the alteration from continuing."
"But you can send us in," she said.
"Yes, I can."
=X=
Nightcrawler teleported behind the Hunter Gatherer's right shoulder and chopped his saber, quickly amputating the right arm. The android started to turn, but he had already jaunted away, this time behind the left shoulder. He sliced again, separating the left arm. He teleported away again. Telekinetically, Justice picked up a massive chunk of a disabled drone and threw it through the drone's head and torso.
Vance spun just as Kurt joined him.
"Da Mister Astrovik!" he exclaimed. "Well done!"
"Thanks!" Vance laughed. "Been at it for years, but still keep getting better. Look out!" He threw out his arms and a TK bubble sprang to life just as another drone fired on them. Before he could go on the offensive, Namora flew into its chest and began tearing it apart. The drone crashed into the ground, and she stood from the wreckage.
"Pat each other on the back when the battle is concluded," she said. "Or I will remove you both from the field myself."
"Namora!" Rogue called from nearby. "I'm team leader, let me discipline if its necessary!" Namora scowled, but took to the sky. The drones were almost completely gone now, but the remaining few had become increasingly aggressive.
Rogue spun and blasted the nearest Hunter Gatherer with a concussive optic blast. The drone staggered, but recovered and started to rush her again. Suddenly a large chunk of its torso dissolved into green mist. The dissolved components solidified as a debris field in front of Voght. Amelia smirked and Rogue gave her a nod.
Mimic and Longshot stared down the final drone. Rankin grinned as he synced with Longshot.
"Think it realizes the odds are REALLY against it?" he asked. Longshot smirked. Just before they moved to attack, a silver and yellow blur streaked onto the battlefield, and the silver stopped, sending the yellow sailing forward. Quicksilver smirked as Wolverine disemboweled the Hunter Gatherer like a massive bullet.
"I believe Logan called that a fastball special," Pietro said.
=X=
"So you're sending us into the modern day to reverse the alterations to the timeline, so you can rule the Earth again?" she said.
Kang laughed. "You make it seem so petty. This is for the betterment of all mankind. The fate of the human race. Trust me, you don't want the future to be what I've seen."
"What will we do when we get down there?"
"I have agents who have prepped for you. You have identities, costumes, everything you need."
"Are ye even going to introduce us to each other?" he said from her left.
"I apologize," Kang said. "Our twitchy young friend is Meanstreak. The young blonde lady is Spanner. The elf is Nocturne. And you three presumably know these two."
Talia Wagner looked at the two X-Men standing together in awe. She reminded her of her obvious father, Nightcrawler. Talia spoke up after a moment.
"Yeah," she said. "You're Sean Cassidy. And you… you're Jean Grey." Jean didn't know whether to be embarrassed or honored at the reverence the girl showed towards her.
Kang smiled again. "Indeed. So, to me, my X-Men."
=X=
Wolverine and Rogue stood together as they surveyed the damage.
"Two questions," Logan growled. "Who are these people that these 'superhuman deterrent' drones knew to go after them? And why did they go full Sentinel on a seemingly peaceful community?"
"I'd like to know that myself," she said. She began to take in her surroundings for the first time.
They were near Iceland, on a small island far enough out to be considered international waters. What was left of the settlement they were in was modern, with the oldest building using 1980's style architecture. The island itself was picturesque, with a large peak at its center, and evergreens surrounding them. They'd been here long enough to settle, but not a ridiculous amount of time.
"Kurt!" Rogue called. Nightcrawler glanced up from across the town square, where he was surveying one of the Hunter Gatherers. He nodded once, and bamfed away, reappearing by their sides.
He smirked at his friend and his sister. "Ja?" he asked. Logan chuckled and rolled his eyes.
"You took the residents to a shelter?" she asked.
"Of course," he said. "Buried in the mountain."
"Can you take us there?"
"Naturally," Kurt nodded.
"You go," Logan said. "I going to see if I can get Emma or Warren's help tracking down what made these drones 'malfunction.'"
"See you back at the school soon then?" she asked.
"Yeah," Logan said. "Keep in touch in the meantime."
"You know we will," Kurt said. Logan walked away towards Voght, as Kurt reached down and grabbed his sister's hand. She smiled at him. They hadn't come to consider themselves siblings until recently, but Anna had consciously decided to do. They needed all the family they could get, she told him.
"Brace yourself, schwester," he said, and they bamfed away.
She took a deep breath as the disorientation passed. The most disconcerting thing about Kurt's teleportation wasn't the bamfing itself, but the moments to re-accustom yourself to your new surroundings- new smells, sights, even differences in air pressure. She took a second to take in several deep breaths, then took in her surroundings. She saw the metal door of what was probably a bomb shelter just ahead of her. She walked towards the door, transforming into organic steel as she did.
"Anna…" Kurt admonished.
"I'm going to be gentle," she said. "Just want to make sure they hear me." She walked up to the door, rested her open palm against it and tapped her index finger three times. The taps echoed loudly in the open air. She stepped away from the door, and her skin returned to normal. After a few moments, the door creaked internally, and there was a pop. It swung open to reveal several of the settlement's residents, let by a tall, blond man. He was built like a farmer who had spent his life carrying animals and massive bags of feed.
"Hi there y'all," she said. "Just wanted to let you know we've saved your little village. Now, if you can kindly tell us who the holy hell you are?"
=X=
Kang sat in the control room of his temporal ship, watching as his X-Men were teleported away by his past self. He smiled as the next group arrived.
"Now then, remember that with great power, comes great responsibility."
And they were away…
"So then, Avengers assemble!"
And they were away as well…
"Let's hope this has the desired effect then," he muttered as he shut the screens off…
=X=
The Story Continues at .com