Tunnel Vision: The life of Moss

A/N: I've decided that someone needed to follow the less recognized characters of the X-Men verse. So I created two of my own main characters (and some minor ones) to interact with some of Marvel's "forgotten" characters. Mostly the Morlocks, Wicked, and maybe a few more, random mutants (if y'all don't kill me for not having any accurate history...I don't know everything about everyone.) And main Marvel characters will most likely have short cameos here and there. Also this is set in the near future(2015?), so after M-Day, but the mutant population is rising quickly. And I am taking a lot of creative liberties with this(i.e. people who should be 20-30-something, are still in their late teens, etc.)

Disclaimer: I don't claim any X-Men character(but I want Gambit) but I do claim Lux and Moss, and most members of Slave, so don't steal them...they are mine. (And I've never been to New York -or anywhere on the north-east coast - so don't get mad if my facts are wong.)

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He looked normal enough, greasy brown hair, green-grey eyes, and a day's worth of growth on his square chin. But Moss wasn't normal, and not just because of his name. Moss was a mutant. A mutant with a frightening ability, literally. He had the ability to mold kinetic energy into physical forms, but not without a blueprint. He got the blueprints from peoples minds, their nightmares the demons and monsters in their minds, they were his pets. Moss, or Figment as he called himself when he used his ability, was a dangerous man. But today, he walked the streets of Queens, looking like everyone else. Well, every other homeless seventeen year-old who lived in the city's underground tunnels. Not that many of the others could show themselves Topside, but most homeless people looked like they lived down there too. Ten years ago the mutant population dropped by ninety eight percent in one day, now the mutant population was on the rise again, with New York being home to the largest number of mutants in the world. Yet New York was the least tolerant of free mutants. Before what was now called M-Day, a mutant named Charles Xavier promoted peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants, now years after his death, everything was regulated and monitored. Mutants were forced to be registered with the government in order to be considered a citizen. Registering required having a name and address, a birth certificate or proof of identity, Moss had none of those things. So he didn't register.

He knew he was lucky, he looked normal enough to walk Topside and not be turned in for lack of registration ID, but he didn't feel lucky. He couldn't go to a grocery store to buy food, or a restaurant and buy dinner, instead of letting his girlfriend pay. It's not that he didn't have money- he worked eight hours a day at a comic book shop downtown- but he didn't have ID, human or mutant "Nothing can be purchased without verification of ID." Moss's Manager's words echoed in his head. Moss had gotten a break, getting a job without ID, but he knew it wouldn't have been possible if his "foster" brother, didn't know the boss's dealer. And not the kind that dealt in rare comic books. The boss was a lackey in some underground mutant service group, Shade, or Slave, Moss wasn't sure. But he did know that he wanted no part in it. But they always seemed to be around, like today. As Moss approached the shop, he saw the boss hand a roll of twenties to the dealer, a man Moss knew only as Slyp. The man supposedly worked closely with one of the three bosses of slave, and Moss tried to stay out of his way as much as possible, so he picked up the broom that leaned against the window and began sweeping. Soon the door opened and Moss realized Slyp had not been alone this time. Today he walked out, as usual, in a brown leather trench coat over a business suit, reflective sunglasses and dress shoes, but he was closely followed by a young woman. She couldn't have been more than sixteen, but she was tall, only a few inches shorter than her companion, who seemed around six feet. Her hair was black with streaks of bleach blond and crimson red, and cut in random strands of varying lengths. She wore a similar coat, but in black, as was most of her outfit. A pair of worn out Vans were partially covered by the flare of the black cotton pants that hung loosely around her waist. Moss's eyes traveled over her as the pair stopped in front of the door to argue face to face. Her burgundy halter top was almost as eye catching as the bare midriff it exposed. They were yelling now and Moss kept his head down, so as to avoid any conflict.

"Nightmare, please try to understand," Slyp was trying to be soothing but his voice reminded Moss of a chainsaw.

"Stewart gave me orders to bring you along, and keep you close. You need to learn this kind of stuff, Lux."

"I don't take orders from Stewart, Yuri. And I'm not learning your trade! I will not have any part in hurting anyone, even if they pay for it. When Wicked finds out, you're toast with butter, Slyp." she spun away and charged off in Moss's direction. Moss was still so entranced, he failed to realize he was standing directly in her path. That is, until she shoved his shoulder, and she stopped dead in her tracks. She looked at him then her hands, with a look of horror, one that was mimicked by Moss. But for an entirely different reason.

He thought he heard someone mutter a string of colorful curse words, but he couldn't be sure. Moss was no longer on a sleepy sidewalk in Queens, he was back home. Not home in the tunnels with his surrogate family, but back in Atlantic city, New Jersey with his twin brother.

"What are you? You're a freak! Get away from me!" Samson yelled as he backed away from me.

"Sam, I, I, I don't know what's going on! I didn't mean to do that, I swear!" we were twelve years old, and identical twins. Well identical, except that I was now, apparently, a mutant. I mean normal humans don't produce glowing monsters from there hands.

"You're a mutie and you just tried to kill me! You're not my brother anymore, freak!" Sam backed out the door and slammed it, just as I was about to follow. I reached for the door handle, but I heard Sam moving furniture in front of the door. I was locked in my bedroom with no idea what was happening. Sam had walked away and I heard him returning now. He was mumbling something about how "It was worth it" and that "They would understand." But I didn't understand. My mind became clearer when the air inside began to blacken with smoke

'He's burning me alive, he's trying to kill me! What did I do wrong?' I began to panic. Our parents were away at on business trip, and wouldn't be back until late that night, and the fire department would almost certainly be too late to help me. So I sat down on my bed and began to cry, all feelings of fear and panic, replaced bu self-pity and a sense of betrayal. Not just betrayal by Sam, but also my parents and even my genes themselfs. I had been raised in a community that hated mutants, we were taught to hate mutants, and now I was one of them. And suddenly, I couldn't hate them anymore. The room was now filled with black smoke, and I felt my lungs burning. It was only when the flames crept under the door and caught the rug on fire, that I realized that I could jump out the window, but to what end? My brother was trying to kill me and my parents and all my friends were going to hate me. What was the point of living. My vision was starting to blur and blacken around the edges, and my thoughts were coming as a jumbled mess. Maybe that's why there was suddenly another person in the room with me. He didn't look right though, he seemed to be made of dark blue-black liquid - kind of like the "lava in a Lava lamp- he had no features whatsoever and it took me a while to recognize him. It was a man that had haunted my nightmares for years, the X-Man, Wolverine. He was coming toward me, claws extended, but he stopped a few feet from me and charged at the window. It shattered and he disappeared, like the smoke that rushed out into the open air after him. My head began to clear, and I noticed the fire was also headed quicky toward the open window, like a vacuum effect. I knew I had to choose, die by fire, or maybe live by jumping out a two story window. I didn't want to live, I had nothing to live for, but something clicked in my oxygen-starved brain,

'The man I've feared, the most dangerous mutant on the planet, just saved my life. Or gave me a better chance, at least.' that had to be worth something.

So I ran to the window, and jumped, apparently still not thinking too clearly. I landed hard on my arm and heard my elbow crack, as it hit a slab of concrete in among the flowers and weeds.

'Well isn't that ironic? "Samson" just broke my elbow.' I looked at the concrete culprit. It was one of those things every mother had in her flower garden, a tile with her kids baby hand prints on it and something cheesy like "Mom's little helping hands" scrawled on it. Sam's hand print was on the left, with his name in the middle, mine, was on the right, but where it should have read "Elias" was a coating of thick green moss.

'I can't be Elias Carson anymore, as far as anyone else knows, he's dying in that fire right now. I'll be Moss. That's what this thing says anyway. So I'll be Moss and I'll leave New Jersey, I'll go somewhere where I can be with people like me.' so that was it. I slipped through the gate into the park and headed toward the bus stop, cradling my arm.

"Moss!" a loud, whiney, but male voice. I shook my head.

'That's not supposed to happen.' I thought. then everything faded out, and the scene around me was not a park in New Jersey, but a store front in Queens New York. I wasn't twelve years old anymore, and my boss was yelling at me.

"Moss! Boy, I don't pay you to stand there like a dumb idiot. So either, keep sweeping or get inside and do some real work. But no more staring after the girl, she's long gone and way out of your league." Vic liked to stress words he thought were important, could be a side effect of the drugs.

"What the fuck happened?" Moss asked groggily, subconsciously rubbing his elbow, having apparently dropped the broom.

"What happened is you had a run in with Wicked's golden girl, also a mutant, and she gave you a brain blast or some such and took off."

"Huh? Who's Wicked?"

"Who's- She's the leader of the Phantom branch of Slave."

"Vic, I don't know anything about Slave. Other than it's got three "bosses" and Slyp works for one of them."

"Here's not a good place to talk about Slave, lets go inside."

"I don't want to know anything Vic. The more you know about a thing the more you're involved. And I don't want to be involved."

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A/N: Ok, so... How's that? More soon(maybe) hopefully shorter chapters and more on Lux, and Slave...Did anyone else detect some foreshadowing? MWAHAHAH! Please review.

E'Nox