A/N This is a sort of Xmen, Avengers and Fantastic four all in one, but as in the awesome Marvel comics, they are all allies, I dont think it counts as a Crossover. Please let me know what you think. This particular story will be mainly Xmen though.
This is set plot wise in First Class, but in the 21st century.
I own nothing, and everything belongs to other people.
I hope you like this, I have been planning it for a while. I would love to hear what you think, so let me know! :-)
Geeky xx
Chapter one - Ties to Seattle
Hank joins up another pair of wires, then flicks a couple of switches. Cerebro clunks and hisses, roaring into life.
Charles closes his eyes, preparing for his mind to search for the last mutant to join the new team they are gathering to defeat Shaw. Could he possibly be more nervous, even after all the other fantastic people they have recruited?
Erik leans against the stair rail.
'Make it a good one Charles. Find somebody who can really help us.'
'Yes, thank you Erik.' Charles snaps.
Despite his clear irritation, inside he is excited. Cerebro has given him that chance to wield his powers like never before, has given him the chance to be free. If only his happy thoughts weren't clouded by the reason they had to search for these mutants.
Hank lets out a long breath.
'Ready when you are, Charles.'
Charles opens his eyes, and lets his mind escape.
His keen mind rushes through the fog, searching for colour amongst the grey. He sees a young child, dressed in blue. A few teenagers, standing over a small child bursting with light.
Then he sees her. The power radiating from her is blinding, her mutation is so strong. This is the one. He searches closer, and hears in the distance the coordinates being printed. Yes!
Before he goes back, he looks at the girl again. She looks about his age, mid twenties, with long brown hair falling to her shoulder blades. He recognises something about her, and she reminds him of a friend, something he can't quite place.
Charles finds it difficult to stop looking at this beautiful, beautiful girl, and retreats back to where his friends are waiting.
Once the helmet is off his head, he dashes over to the coordinates printed on the thick CIA paper.
He recognises the coordinates. Seattle. A department store. Somewhere he hasn't been in a very long time.
Hank coughs, and Charles hands him the paper. Erik looks worriedly at him.
'Something wrong?' He says. Charles denies this, but then says,
'I need to find this one on my own.' None of them understand his links with Seattle. Not even Raven.
Erik looks blankly at him. They have always done this together. It shocks Erik, almost like a betrayal. But something in Charles' reaction to the coordinates, and whoever he found, makes him just nod curtly.
Without a word, the three men walk across the green lawns, and inside to where Moira and Raven are waiting.
Charles walks straight past them, muttering something about needing to pack.
Moira raises her eyebrows at his retreating figure, then turns to Erik. Raven takes the same reaction as Erik did, and Erik can see she feels betrayed by Charles' lack of response to the questions she fired at him when he came through the door. Then, like Erik, she swallows her upset, and concentrates on something else.
Erik gestures for the girls and Hank to follow him into the room leading off from the narrow hallway they are currently standing in. They do so, then settle themselves in armchairs, looking expectantly at the tall man.
'He said he had to do this one alone.'
'Why?' This question from Raven doesn't surprise Erik in the slightest.
'He didn't say.'
Moira speaks up next. 'I suppose we let him do it then. I don't suppose he is going to come to any harm.'
Erik is ready to tell Moira that she can go put that thought somewhere, when a look from Raven stops him.
She says she agrees with Moira, as she knows Charles, and believe he won't do anything stupid. Erik believes this as much as he believes that the world is flat, but now he is outnumbered. Anything else he says will just be ignored.
Charles leans back against the cold wall, head in his hands. He knew this would come back to him.
Seattle is the base of the Fantastic Four. His friends who always admired his mutation. His friends he encouraged to take a flight that led to the rearrangement of their atoms such that it gave them powers, powers like those born with mutations.
This Charles will never forgive himself for. He did this, he had a part to play in the harming of his friends. It's his closest guarded secret.
Even Raven doesn't know of his involvement with the Fantastic Four. Whatever the girl has to do with the Fantastic Four, whatever happened to her is probably his fault.
He supposes he should pack something, but he can't imagine what he will need. His wallet is his pocket, money for the train fare and anything else he might need. It will be an overnight train to Seattle, so better take a jacket to use as a blanket. Apart from that, he doesn't want to take anything that might slow him down. In case he needs to run away.
But this girl, he hasn't met her but he already knows he will do anything for her.
The sense of urgency he feels in connection to finding this girl, and finding out who or what she is inspires Charles to do reckless things. As he walks quickly away from the base, without telling a soul of his departure, he feels a smidgen of guilt.
He leaves a message for Raven that will only register once they realise he is gone. Which, considering it is the the middle of the night, will not be until he is safely on his way to Seattle.
Charles purchases the ticket then sits down in the waiting area, checking the clock nervously. He's been monitoring the thoughts of his friends ten miles away, and they might be close to waking now. They could realise his absence any time now.
The train will arrive in ten minutes, a voice over the crackly intercom tells him. But Charles has learned never to trust train timetables. When they say ten minutes, really they mean fifteen.
These fifteen minutes are the worst of his life so far. He can only sit there are he senses his friends waking, then the panic afterward. Even the message he left with Raven doesn't calm them.
When the voice tells him the train is here, he is out of his chair like a cork out a bottle, and soon he is boarding the empty train to Seattle.
His head rests against the faded green seat, his blue jacket over him.
Charles looks at the blank ceiling, and remembers another blank ceiling.
But those days are gone,he tells himself. Sleep.
And he does.
Charles is woken by the soft humming of the train as it speeds into Seattle. As he sits up, and opens his eyes, the light blinds him ,and he groans.
Someone laughs. 'Rough night?' A man sitting near him asks. Charles can see the man is most definitely not sober, and now he realises it, the whole carriage stinks of alcohol.
Thank goodness the train is pulling into the station.
He wanders the streets aimlessly. He knows exactly where he needs to go, but needs some time before hand. In all of his desperation to find this girl, who haunted his dreams last might, he never really planned what he was going to say when he got there.
To find this girl, he would most likely have to speak to Reed or Sue Richards, or maybe Jonny or even Ben. Either way, they would be her employers, so he was going to have to speak to them.
He knew they held no grudge over what had happened to them, but it didn't make it any easier. When he saw his old friends, all he could think of was the young people he had encouraged into their doom.
Charles' feet stop in front of the door to the department store. It has been successfully run by the Richards for years, and only about 10 people know of the secret house and base behind the slippers on the second floor.
This is where Charles heads as he guides himself through the maze of items.
When he enters the base, he is met by someone he didn't expect to see. The girlo stands in front of him, holding a clipboard.
She's small, and in person she looks quite fiesty, Charles can see a determination that he assumes is always present in her green eyes. These eyes examine him from top to bottom, before she smiles.
Charles dips into her mind, but is almost hammered out again immediately. Her smiles turns to a frown and she throws 'Stay out of my head!' Mentally at him.
Charles blushes, astounded.
'Telepath?' He asks, impressed.
She smirks. 'Amongst other things.' She walks off, and some how he knows to follow her. It's like he's known her for years.
Eventually she knocks on a door bearing the name of Reed Richards. This is is Charles, he thinks.
The girl looks worriedly at him, before he throws his shields up, blocking out her curious mind. She smiles , then pushes open the door.
Reed Richards, genius and millionaire at only 27, looks up, and freezes when he sees Charles. It's been two years since he saw his friend, and it's fair to say he is more than a bit surprised.
Charles explains the nature of his coming. The girl stays, sitting in an armchair. Charles knows she is listening to very word.
Reed smiles when he hears Charles' news.
'There's something very special about this girl, Charles, something even I don't understand.'
The girl snorts at Reed's words, rising from her chair then standing behind Reed.
The resemblance between the two people in front of him hits Charles like a snow plough.
'This is Eleanor. Or Lena. Lena Richards. She's my daughter.' Reed says this as though it is the most casual thing in the world.
'How?' Asks a confused Charles. 'You are the same age?'
'Yes.' Says Lena. 'Well, I am sorta his daughter. A few years ago, as you know, he created am alternate reality, similar to this one. But time in that universe moves faster than it does here, and I am the daughter from the alternate reality. But my mum dropped me into this reality when I was ten, meaning I grew up with the original version of my parents. Confusing, I know.' She smiles, crossing her arms.
'What can you do? Your mutation allowed me to find you, but I assume they aren't the only powers you have.' Charles tells her.
She smiles again. 'You are correct. I inherited my elasticity from my father( she reaches across the room ,her arm stretching) and my invisibility and power with force fields from my mother. I was also born with the mutation to copy other mutants or 'special peoples' powers and use them as my own. This was first recognised when I met you Charles, when we were small. It was a future you, but I manage to copy your powers. You retained them, as what I do involves my atoms copying the DNA required to make the mutation possible. Using this, I have some of the powers of the human torch, and also super human strength given to me by Captain America in my time in the Avengers. I was trained in combat by Clint Barton, and he has been my friend since I arrived here. I didn't really feel like staying with parents the same age as me, so I sought a friend.'
Charles stares at her. If he can get this girl on his side, Shaw doesn't stand a chance.
