November Second. Nineteen fifty-five. That was the day that everything changed for me. That was the day that I met Erick Lansheer, and that was the day that I knew for certain that I wasn't alone in the world.
My name is Charles Xavier, born with the uncanny ability to read and control the thoughts and minds of others. In the twenty-seven years it took me to meet Erick, I had been to war, I had known love, and I had known heartbreak and loss. I had lived a life up to that point, but there had always been something missing I was never able to put a finger on directly. In that fateful moment, it had all become clear. Regardless of how much money or education or notoriety I ever achieved, I had never belonged anywhere.
Erick was like me, born with a unique gift that set him apart from the rest of humanity. In his case, he had been blessed with the ability to manipulate and control magnetic fields to various effects. His life, unlike mine, had been one of absolute tragedy. He lost his family to the Nazi camps of World War Two and had bounced around Europe, a lost and wandering soul ever since. He never spoke much about his past, but every once in awhile I would catch a stray thought and could piece parts of it together. I had decided years ago to not pry into the privacy of other's minds, but sometimes they projected a little too loudly to not hear.
In the two years since meeting, Erick and I have become like brothers. I love him as much as any other person in this world with the exception of Moira, who may well be the greatest love of my life. Moira had met working at Columbia, where I was a Professor of Anthropology and she a graduate student in the field of genetics. Moira Kinross was a fiery Scottish woman. She was unlike anyone I had ever met, and I couldn't imagine not having her in my life.
And so here I find myself in the den of my Manhattan brownstone, a stiff oolong tea in my cup and a thousand questions racing through my mind. Erick and Moira sit in silence, though their thoughts are of a very different nature. Erick and I share a quick glance, both of us excited by the possibilities of what we have just learned. On the table sits a publication that has shaken the very foundation of my world to it's core. I glance at the stack of papers again, running through their contents again in my mind as I reread the cover page.
"Human Genetics and Evolution Through Mutation"
By Nathaniel Essex
"Do ya realise what this means, Charles?" Moira finally says. "If Essex is right, if there is a potential for this kind'o mutation in humanity, do ya see the possibilities? It could open up the field'o genetics in ways we never imagined."
"It certainly raises many questions," I managed to respond, glancing again at Erick as he sits in silent contemplation.
I quickly glance at my watch; eleven o'clock. "Questions for another day, I'm afraid," I comment as I send a gental suggestion to Moira that it's time to wrap up the evening. I must speak with Erick alone.
Moira is suddenly stricken with urgency. "Good lord, it's later'n ah thought. Ah'v got an early lecture in the mornin'."
Erick and I both stand to see her to the door. We quickly say our goodbyes, kiss goodnight, and she is gone. I can feel the judgement oozing from Erick.
"You still haven't told her, have you?" he asks me, picking the publication up and thumbing through it again. "This is a woman you claim to love, yet you hide so much of yourself from her."
"For her own good, and you know it. Must we have this conversation again, Erick?" My eyes fall on the newspaper on the table that had been covered. The headline is something about a missing Egyptologist. I quickly dismiss it.
"Her good, or yours Charles? Are you afraid to embrace what you are? Even now that we are so certain to not be the only two? That we aren't the only mutants in the world?"
I recoil at the term. Until now, there had never been a name for what I was, and the term "mutant" felt awfully loaded. "So you accept these findings?"
"We are the living proof of what this Dr. Essex is theorizing. Imagine it, Charles. You and I stand at the forefront of the next step in human evolution," Erick says, a flash of something going across his face as the words leave his mouth. "We are the future of humanity."
A very uneasy feeling wrenches at my gut as I ponder those words. If Essex and Erick are correct, then it means that normal human beings are being replaced by a more advanced species. I know in my heart that once this is common knowledge, it could be a very volatile situation.
"Best not to get ahead of ourselves, my friend," I say, taking another sip of oolong from my cup. "I think this Nathaniel Essex has a lot of questions he needs to answer. We should speak with him before jumping to any conclusions."
Erick plops down on the couch, running his hand through his hair. Something has him worried, but he seems reluctant to share his feelings.
"Tell me," I say.
He sighs deeply. "Charles, I have seen first hand what humanity is capable of. The horrors they are willing to inflict upon each other. If this is true, if we are the future, imagine what they might do to us." Suddenly his tone shifts and eyes narrow. "At least, what they might TRY to do to us."
I spend the next several weeks trying to locate Nathaniel Essex through my contacts in the Columbia Genetics department. Most of them are familiar with his work, but none of them have ever actually met him or know much about him, personally. Finally, through a friend of a friend of a colleague, I learn that the last anyone had known, Essex was working out of a research lab in Seattle, but it had been months since anyone there had heard from him, either.
After sharing this information with Erick, we quickly charter a plane and make arrangements for a trip. Moira protests at being left out, but I easily convince her, without the use of my powers, that an Anthropology convention would be terribly boring and that I would only be gone for a day or two. I neglect to inform her that Erick is going with me. It kills me to lie to her so much, but until I know what all of this means, it's best to keep her in the dark.
Seattle in November is a rainy and overcast place, which is the first thing I notice as I step off the airplane onto the tarmak. Before Erick and I can make it into the hangar we are drenched, much to the amusement of the employees. No one says anything, but I can hear their thoughts like a radio broadcast.
After a quick stop at our hotel, we arrive at the research center Essex last worked at, The Savat Center. A young blonde is seated behind the reception desk as we enter the lobby. "Good morning, sirs," she chirps as we approach.
"Good morning, dear," I respond, shaking the collected rainwater from my coat. "My associate and I have an appointment with Dr. Essex, I wonder if you couldn't let him know we are here."
"Well there must be some kind of mixup, sir. Dr. Essex hasn't been in the office for months."
I project my thoughts into the young girl's mind, convincing her to agree with me. "I must have misunderstood, dear. I wonder if he meant his residence, then. Could you give me the address of where Dr. Essex is staying?"
The girl starts to refuse for a brief second, then complies. "Sure, give me just a minute," she says, then disappears around a corner.
I turn, watching the various people moving in and out of the lobby area. "I don't like using my abilities like this, Erick."
"It's necessary, Charles," is all he says. Part me knows he is right, but I can't help but feel regret for manipulating someone's thoughts and actions.
The girl returns to the desk with a note in her hand. "Here you go, sir," she says as she hands it across the counter to me. "Looks like a rental house in Ravenna."
"Thank you, dear," I say as I wipe our faces from her memory.
"Ravenna isn't far from here" I tell Erick as I flip through the folding map I purchased before we left the airport. "If we hurry we can be there before it gets dark."
The drive to Ravenna takes us the better part of hour thanks to traffic, but we do finally reach the neighborhood, our cab pulling to a stop in front of the house indicated on the note. The windows are dark, the yard is unkempt, and the mailbox is overflowing. It doesn't look like anyone has lived here in at least a few months.
"Now what?" Erick asks, his frustration obvious.
"Hey, you guys getting out or what?" the cabby says forcefully.
"Just a moment," I say as I reach my mind into the house searching for an inhabitant. I can't feel a conscious mind, but something in the house doesn't feel quite right. It's something I've not ever felt before. Almost like a very dim light of thought in a void, but it isn't strong enough to a human being. Then I feel another just like it. "Yes, we'll be getting out."
As the cab drives off I measure our surroundings. The houses up and down the street are all typical in appearance with what appears to be typical people going about their lives. The sun is beginning to set now and people are arriving home from their day.
"Something strange is going on in that house."
"What do you mean strange, Charles?"
"It's almost as if something is….distorting the brainwaves of the people in the house. I can sense them, but they are dull and hazy. It's difficult to explain."
Suddenly a mind lights up like a blaze inside the house and I am almost stunned by it's presence. I prod it gently as we approach the front door.
"Wait," I say. "It's him. It's Essex. He just appeared out of nowhere."
"Is it not possible he is a mutant, as well? Perhaps that's what you are experiencing."
"No, his brainwaves are unlike yours or mine. He is human. As best I can tell, anyway."
Erick reaches out and knocks on the door and I feel Essex's mind burst with fear. His thoughts immediately go to destroying something in the basement. I open my mind and realize that the two weak signals I am feeling are located in the basement.
I quickly reach out to Essex's mind to stop him, but I can't get a hold of him. He is there, shining like a beacon, but I can't get ahold of him.
"Erick, quickly! I believe he has captives he's about to kill and I can't stop him!"
There is a sudden sound of groaning metal and crackling wood as Erick rips the door from the frame by the hinges and knob. It explodes backwards into the yard, barely missing me. Splinters of wood scatter everywhere.
Without hesitation Erick takes off into the house. I do my best to project Essex's location directly into his mind and follow behind him a few steps. There is a loud sound of a metal door slamming shut and suddenly Essex's mind becomes as hazy as the other two had been.
"Hurry!" I shout, both outloud and directly into Erick's mind.
There is another groan of metal as Erick rips at the metal door. With a loud pop the door bursts from its hinges, followed by a loud crashing sound of metal on metal. Sparks and small electrical pops erupt from something and a man screams in agony.
I arrive in the basement to a grizzly scene. The metal door had been at the foot of the staircase that led to the basement, but now there was just a splintered hole. Inside the basement, Erick stands in the center of what I could only describe as a dungeon. The door is pressed against the far wall with Essex pinned between it and some type of console. To the right are two cages, one with a young boy lying on a table and the other inhabited by a slightly older boy who is upright. The two signals. Neither of them could possibly be older than fifteen.
"You have to help us!" the older boy shouts. "That nutjob's had us trapped down here for days!"
I scan his mind. Scott is his name. I dig a bit deeper and find the name of the other boy. It's his younger brother, Alex. Now that I can read their brainwaves more clearly, it is obvious to me that both boys are mutants.
"Don't worry, Scott, we are going to get you out of here. Erick?"
Erick rips the cage doors open, then looks back at Essex. "What have you been doing to these children?" he demands.
"They aren't just children, they're much more than that! You've ruined ten years of work, you monsters! Ten years of planning," Essex says as he tries to free himself.
Erick pushes the door against him harder, and I'm pretty sure I hear something in Essex's lower body break. He screams to confirm my suspicions.
"You discover the next phase in your evolution, and the first thing you do is experiment on it?" Erick says as two bars rip free from the cage wall. "No, your planning days are over."
Before I can react, the two bars fly into Essex, impaling him through the chest and driving through him into the console. Sparks leap from the console as its power finally gives out, Essex's body goes limp. I haven't seen death up close since Korea. It takes me a minute to compose myself.
There is suddenly a low hiss coming from the opposite side of the basement, where a large what appears to be a containment device sits at an angle against the wall, almost as if it were propped there. Steam billows from its middle seam and it cracks open less than an inch. An overpowering consciousness pours from the device. Something is alive in there, and whatever it is incredibly powerful.
"Erick, we need to get these children out of here now," I say, pulling Alex from the table in his cage. "Scott, get to the street! Hurry!" I push him mentally to get himself to safety.
The containment device slowly swings open as we move towards the door. A man plops to the floor on his hands and knees surrounding by smoke. His eyes glow green with some kind of energy as his skin begins to crack and turn grey. A slow moan rises from within him, moving from human to something else entirely.
"Charles, can you shut him down?" Erick asks as we move up the stairs.
"No, there is too much energy, I can't get a clear grasp on his mind."
"That doctor did something to him. He used my brother's blood and did something to him. His name's Ahmet. He was nice," Scott says to us as we move through the house. Green energy begins creeping through the floorboards as we move through the living area headed for the door.
As we crash down the steps into the yard, I feel like I can finally catch my breath. I turn back to the house, waiting to see what will happen, but nothing does. The energy dies down and the soft glow that had begun to fill it seems to vanish. Then the ground begins to shake, the pavement splits straight down the middle of the street. Much to my shock, a massive hand erupts from the ground, easily the size of my entire body, followed by a head and shoulders. Within seconds this massive being has ripped itself free of the ground and lumbers over us, nearly thirty or forty feet tall.
The creature looks at us for a moment, then the glow behind his eyes begins to build. I sense at the last possible second what is about to happen.
"Move!" I shout as I shove Scott to one side. Erick leaps in the opposite direction. I manage to move myself and Alex just enough. A blast of energy scorches the ground where we had been, arcing upwards and coming to a stop just as it tears the front porch of Essex's house to splinters.
Without warning, Scott stands and turns to face the beast. He strains for a moment as the giant trods towards him.
"Scott, get away from there!" I shout. "Run, child!"
Then it happens. A beam of pure red energy leaps from the boy's face, striking the giant in the left shoulder and knocking him off balance. The monster stumbles but regains its footing before it falls backwards into the hole it left in the ground. Another blast erupts from Scott, this time striking solidly in the chest. However, the beast leans into the blast and is unfazed. Exhausted, Scott relenquises his attack and begins to backpedal. I can feel the fear and grief rising in the boy. I can feel his concern for his brother Alex at the forefront of his mind.
I pry into Alex's mind briefly, pushing him back to consciousness. I can tell that he hasn't realized his mutant powers yet, but somehow Essex had known and used him for some purpose. As he wakes, I do my best to see if he knows this purpose, but I can't find it.
A car door slams into the giant, flung by Erick. "Get them to safety, Charles! I will draw its attention away from you." Another car door flies towards the giant, but this one is swatted away. The beast turns towards Erick as Alex comes completely two in my arms.
"Scott?" he says with a dry mouth. "Where's Scott?"
"I'm right here, it's okay. This guy saved us from that doctor. I think he's like me, Alex. I think he's here to help." I am taken aback by this young boy.
Alex's eyes finally come to rest on the behemoth swatting away car parts as it tries to get at Erick. It unleashes yet another energy blast which Erick just manages to deflect with the hood of a Buick. I feel the absolute terror erupt from the boy, then something else. Almost like an awakening. Something building inside of him rapidly. It occurs to me that this may be what it feels like when a mutant's abilities manifest themselves.
White spheres of energy suddenly begin collecting themselves around Alex, growing at an ever increasing rate. He screams in agony as the energy swells. He's completely lost control, his powers building like an avalanche. I try to reach into his mind to help him, but I experience the same interference as I did from the giant. I can't get through it.
"Back up," I tell Scott, placing a hand across his chest as I gently move away from Alex. "Has this ever happened before?"
"No," he stammers. "Does this mean that….is he like me too?"
The beast fires another blast at Erick, this time striking him hard enough to send him backwards several feet into a pile in the grass. Then it turns to face Alex, a wash of agony spreading across its face. It falls to its knees, clutching its head as it continues to scream. It is weakening, seemingly as a result of Alex's powers building.
Finally, Alex unleashes every bit of energy he had absorbed into a massive beam that strikes the giant, the yard, the neighbor's house, and several feet of street and sidewalk. For a moment, everything goes white. I shield my eyes, certain that I will go blind if I don't.
When the whiteness fades, Alex is lying face down in the grass. I scan him quickly to make sure he is alive. He is. In a direct cone going outward from him, everything is ruined. The grass is scorched, the sidewalk and pavement cracked and broken, and in the center of this devastation kneels the giant. Only now it isn't so giant. It's skin is blackened and cracked, its eyes are no longer glowing, and it stands only about ten feet tall. Smoke billows off of his more charred places.
"Help me," it says, almost sounding human again. "Help me. Please."
I reach out for his mind, finding it this time. Whatever had prevented me from reading him before was gone. I can feel his power falling. I can feel his life force fading.
"We will help you," I say directly into his mind. "That is why we are here."
Suddenly a car door slams into the man's head, crushing it. Blood and gore splatter across the grass as he collapses into a heap beneath the metal object. My mind recoils at being connected to him at the moment of his death. It isn't the first time I have experienced this, but it is always a very difficult thing to handle.
I look at Erick in horror. "Why? He was done. He needed our help, Erick!"
" I have given him the help he needed, Charles. Whatever Essex did to him turned him into a monster. I wouldn't allow one of our brothers to live that way."
"Brothers?" I gasped, still feeling the effects of the stranger's death. "What do you mean, brothers?"
"Our brotherhood of mutants, Charles."
There had been dozens of witnesses to the events in Seattle, and it had been no easy task getting out of the city safely in the aftermath. The city had gone into a panic as words like "mutant" and "menace" began being recited in the news. We had stayed in our hotel that night so as to avoid suspicion and made a hasty exit early the following morning.
Once we returned to New York I was able to put up young Scott and Alex Summers in the extra bedrooms of my brownstone. Scott had told me of what happened to his parents. His father was a retired pilot who enjoyed taking his family on recreational flights across the northeast wilderness. One trip had gone very badly, and only Scott and Alex had survived the crash by jumping from the plane with the only parachute. They had bounced around the Washington State system for several years before Essex had found them. Their bond was strong, no doubt due to the experiences they had shared at such a young age.
Alex's condition had improved, but he seemed to have no ability to control his powers. He constantly absorbed some sort of energy. It is entirely possible that the manifestation of his abilities at such a young age had negatively impacted his control, but there was no way to be certain. My only choice was to try and keep him docile, as he seemed to absorb less energy when he was asleep or barely conscious.
Erick and I had done our best to quickly rummage through Essex's lab. The only useful thing we had found were a few detailed files about other mutants he had been aware of. A boy just outside of Chicago and another in Centerport, about two hours outside of New York City.
I knew that our current situation was, at best, temporary. The Summers brothers had nowhere to go, and I had made arrangements to have them put under my custody, which had taken a good deal of mental manipulation, something that seemed to be happening more and more in my life these days. I began to fear that now, with mutants being known to the public, there would start to be more and more need to help them.
With that idea in mind, I told Erick about my family home in Westchester in Upstate New York. It was a sprawling mansion that had sat empty for years since my step father died and I had gone off to war in Korea with my step brother. It had everything we would need, especially space, but there was still one thing that I would have to do before moving.
The Golden Cafe is Moira's favorite coffee shop in the city, so I invite her there as I have so many times before. As she sits down across from at our patio table, a well of dread builds up inside of me. I have put this off for so long. In fact, I had hoped to never do this, at all, but now I have no choice.
"Charles, why do ye look so glum?" she asks as the settles into her seat. "Did the conference not go well?"
Snow begins to lightly fall. I've been back in the city for two days, but this is the first time I've seen her. Her red hair stands out against the grey of the oncoming winter. Little flakes of snow collect on it.
"Charles, what is it?" she presses.
"Moira, there is something that I have to tell you, and I'm not sure how you are going to take it," I manage, trying to find the words.
"Are you in some kind'o trouble, love?"
"Potentially, but not directly. Moira, I didn't go to a conference in Seattle."
I gather my courage, and send the rest of my sentence directly to her mind. "But I was in Seattle."
A look of shock leaps to her face. She goes white.
"Charles, how did ye…...what are ye sayin', Charles?" she stammers.
"I have been hiding something from you since the day we met. I have the ability to…," I pause, then continue,"I can read and control the minds of others, Moira. I've been able to do it since I was thirteen years old."
"Are ye sayin'..." she trails off.
"Yes, Moira, I'm a mutant. One of the first, it would seem, but not the only one."
She sits silently, staring at the table. She can't seem to bring herself to make eye contact with me, and my heart aches at what I am doing to her.
"I want you to understand, I have always done my best to keep out of your thoughts and mind, but sometimes it isn't so easy. Sometimes your thoughts, are so...loud, and-"
"Stop it, Charles," she cuts me off. "That terrible business in Seattle. Where ye involved in that? Was that you?"
"Yes. I had hoped to speak with Nathaniel Essex. To learn what he knew about mutation. But what we found was monstrous, and the situation got out of control. It is regrettable."
"Regrettable?" she bellows. "A man died, and you call it regrettable?"
"This doesn't have to change anything between us, Moira. I still love you, and I know you still love me. I'm still Charles Xavier, the same man you have known for the past three years. I still very much want to spend the rest of my life with you. My abilities don't change any of that."
Tears begin streaming down her face and I know what is about to happen. I know what she is going to say, possibly even before she does. She stands up from the table and wipes her face with her gloved hand.
"Oh, Charles, it changes everything."
She grabs up her things and quickly walks away down the street. "I'm sorry," she says. I don't follow her, despite how much I want to. At this moment, all I can do is hope that she finds her way back to me someday.
EPILOGUE
His entire body aches as he comes to. A groan of agony escapes him as he tries in vain to move. The last thing he can remember is the sharp pains in his chest from the bars. The bones in his leg and hip breaking. He feels as if he has died, but somehow been reborn into a world of pain and suffering. He feels every bit of it, only now he doesn't die. He lives on in his torment.
"Essex, you have failed me," a voice says out of the darkness.
"Mah….m-m-m-master?" Essex manages through his pain. "Is that you?"
"Yes," the voice says, laying a grey, withered hand on Essex's shoulder. It is cold to the touch, almost like something long dead.
"You have saved me even though I failed you? Does this mean you'll give me another chance? A chance to set things right?"
The hand lifts from him and retreats back into the shadows. "I will spare you your death this time. I must sleep soon, and I need you to carry on my work. To make sure things are ready for my return."
Tears well up and stream from the corners of Essex's eyes. A brief smile stretches across his battered face.
"Thank you, master. I swear, I won't fail you again."
"Do not thank me yet, fool. I will save you, but in the end you may well wish I hadn't."
To Be Continued…