AGE OF XAVIER
CHAPTER 1: CRISIS
Chicago Illinois. New Years Eve. 2016.
The streets are buzzing with activity in Daley Plaza underneath the towering rusted out Picasso. Mutants of every size, shape, and description hover in the sky, slither on the ground, or stumble around looking for fights. They drink and level buildings with their concussion blasts. They fly through the upper floors of the Willis Tower and down into lower Wacker Drive. It's a night for celebration.
The submissive humans limp along like zombies, serving drinks and picking up after the mutants. They get on their hands and knees by the hundreds and scrub up the urine and vomit that floods the streets. They walk for miles to bring food from desired restaurants, and get murdered for their trouble. A mutant named Forest Fire sees a human feebly picking up trash in the middle of Washington Blvd, and stumbles towards him.
"Hey Human! Need some help?" mocks Forest Fire.
"No sir. I serve at your pleasure and convenience."
Forest Fire stands over the human. "No no no, cleaning all that shit's gonna take forever. I aint got that kinda time. Lemme help ya out."
Forest Fire stares into the lowly human's vacant eyes until he spontaneously bursts into flames along with the trash. He runs shrieking and flailing as the mutants gather in small groups, laughing along the way until he throws himself into the river, which is met with a raucous cheer.
The humans slump along unaware. They live only to serve the mutants. They know only servitude. They cannot feel excitement or fear. They do not know happiness or misery. They know only to serve and drool.
A commotion stirs near the south wall of the Daley Center, as a bright screen flashes on, taking up the whole side of the twenty story building. On the screen appears Dr. Henry McCoy aka The Beast. The crowd goes wild.
"Good evening, and a very Happy New Year to you all. My mutant brothers and sisters, tonight is a very special night indeed. even beyond the changing of the calendar year. Tonight as you well know, marks the tenth anniversary of our ultimate triumph over the the human race." The crowd lets out a thunderous cheer as Beast continues, " It is my great hope that we all remember on this splendid evening, the sacrifices made by our grand and glorious leader. The man who brought us out from the darkness. The man who made us proud to call ourselves mutants, and to see humans as nothing more than an inevitable casualty of evolution. And as our society thrives and blossoms, it is of the utmost importance that we remain forever grateful for the sun under which it grows, our Father, Charles Xavier. For though he could not be here to celebrate with you, remember that he is always with you."
The crowd throws up their arms and collectively crosses them into an X over their heads.
"And so it is with that in mind that President Summers and I extend to you all our deepest wishes for a happy new year, in a happy new world." The screen goes back to insane techno music and lighting as the mutants explode in celebration. Two young human girls are carrying a pitcher of drinks and bump into a large mutant named The Giant. The Giant turns around and kicks both of them with one foot, sending them flying several feet. He then stammers over to them and holds his foot over their heads as if he's going to crush them like bugs.
"Say friend, you don't want to get blood all over those new boots do you," a voice calls out. The Giant turns around to see Victor Creed, aka Sabretooth behind him chomping on a cigar and handling a bottle of bourbon. "Especially since it's going to be your blood."
The mutants look at Sabretooth with disdain. He is one of the few remaining mutants alive who lost the battle for human rights. The commander of the winning army, Logan aka Wolverine has decreed that Sabretooth not be persecuted out of respect. Not that many would choose to persecute him anyway, out of fear for their own lives. He lives now as a drunk and a wanderer, looking for fights and standing up for the helpless humans when he sees them being abused. The smart mutants do not challenge him. The dumb ones do not get a chance to learn from their mistake.
Sabretooth helps the two humans up and sends them on their way. The Giant looks at Sabretooth with a mix of hatred and fear as he draws closer and closer until Sabretooth is nose to nose with giant, his alcohol fueled breath overwhelming his senses.
"Looking to pick on someone weaker than yourself huh big guy? Good cause so am I."
The Giant reluctantly backs away into the crowd. Sabretooth takes a swig of bourbon and passes through the crowd bumping into mutants as he goes. He passes into an alley and falls down next to a dumpster. The crowd is beginning to count down in the distance. "Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One!" At exactly midnight, the dumpster he is resting his head on flies into the air and Sabretooth flops over and hits his head on the ground.
"Who's the dead man?" Sabretooth screams as he looks up into the sky. There awaiting his gaze is Magnus, aka Magneto. He is old and looks physically weak, but his powers are as strong as ever.
"You're the one who looks dead Victor," calls out Magneto.
"Mangus? What are you doing here?" asks Sabretooth, rubbing his head.
Magneto lowers himself to the ground as Sabretooth gets up and the two stand face to face shaking hands.
"I need your help,".
"I hope it's with killing a bottle of Jack," jokes Sabretooth as he picks up the bottle of bourbon with barely a sip left, which sucks down immediately.
"I'm afraid not,"
"Well I guess Jim Beam will do but I'm not happy about it."
"I need you to help me free the Humans, immediately."
Sabretooth laughs boisterously as he rummages the ground full of empty liquor bottles, looking for one with some booze still inside. "Well old buddy, I'd love to help if it were possible. But unfortunately it isn't. You sealed the fates of every human being on the planet when you compromised with Xavier, remember?"
"It was the only way I could keep them alive Victor, you know that. Xavier was going to kill them all, or don't you remember that?"
"Alive?!" screams Sabretooth as he points at two humans stumbling down the alley in their zombie slave like state. "You call that alive? Under Xavier's mind control. Living in a sick dream state. Bouncing off walls until they find another mutant they can serve. You and I have a very different definition of the word alive. I think they'd rather be dead."
"I know how upset you are about Barbara…" begins Magneto until Sabretooth cuts him off.
"If you ever mention her name again I'll be picking you outta my teeth like yesterday's lamb chops."
Magneto looks at Sabretooth with somber seriousness. "If we don't free them now, they are all going to die. Barbara included"
"What makes you say that?" scoffs Sabretooth as he spits out rain water from a Vodka bottle.
"Because," replies Magneto, "Charles Xavier is dying."
New York City, New Years Day, 2017
The World Conference of Mutant Leaders is held annually on New Years Day. It commemorates the anniversary of the forming of the World League of Mutant Leaders and is an extremely opulent affair that is unofficially closed to the public. Attendees mingle nervously along the grand ballroom eating caviar, sipping drinks, and trading favors. The President of The United States and Canada, Scott Summers aka Cyclops, is by far the most important man in the room.. He has a direct line to Beast, which means he has a direct line to Xavier. As everyone moves their way around the room, he is the ultimate destination. At present he is speaking with Storm, the head of the African Union A human brings her a wrong drink order and she summarily drops the drink, and kicks the human to the ground to grovel on the broken glass. The European leaders squabble amongst themselves at the bar. Colossus: the Premiere of Eastern Europe, Nightcrawler; Prime Minister of Western Europe, and Banshee of the United Kingdom barter information and take digs at each other over drinks and lines of Mirophane, the high-end street drug that enhances Mutants' powers.
Into this scene enters the Joint Commanders of the Global Mutant Army. Wolverine and Rogue are two of the most respected Mutants on the planet, but Wolverine has become something of a tragic figure as of late. Overcome with depression at having no more battles to fight, he has taken to drinking highly concentrated quantities of liquid Mirophane, which has the opposite effect of weakening a Mutant's powers. After living and fighting for some two-hundred years, it seems that he is very publicly trying to cure himself of immortality. He is a mere figurehead now, as Rogue maintains the responsibility of running the Mutant army behind the scenes. Wolverine falls over himself and Rogue moves quickly to pick him up off the ground.
"What a disgrace," Cyclops whispers to Storm as he heads over to greet the Generals. "Welcome Generals! Logan, Rogue, it's great to see you!"
Wolverine ignores Cyclops and walks over to a chair in the corner where he plops down and takes a shot of Mirophane.
"How are you Rogue?" asks Cyclops
"Trying to keep busy, Sug. Not much to do these days except breaking up fights. Spend most my weekends human huntin outside of Shreveport. I guess that's a good thing. Can I ask you about the rumors I've been hearing about… " She looks uncharacteristically worried.
"Let me stop you there Rogue. All I've been told is that Beast is going to address everyone's concerns during the official conference tomorrow. Let's just enjoy ourselves tonight. Like you said, there's not much to worry about these days."
As Cyclops walks away, Rogue's eyes blink from normal, to full yellow, and then back to normal again. "Nothing at all, Sug."
The Official WCML Meeting, January 2.
The most powerful and feared Mutants in the world sit around a table on a private floor in an undisclosed New York highrise. Any Mutant with any sway over global policies is in this room. Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Rogue, Archangel, Banshee, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Sunfire sit arguing as they wait for Beast's video link-up.
Colossus is berating Cyclops and pounding his fist on the table. "I know you've seen Xavier, Cyclops! There is something you're not telling us! If Charles Xavier is sick, the Mutants of Eastern Europe have a right to know!"
"Isn't that just like you Eastern European Mutants," chortles Nightcrawler, " going on and on about what you deserve, and contributing nothing useful in the way of a solution." Colossus turns himself metal.
Cyclops chimes in. "Guys, let's not lose our minds over something we don't know. I haven't seen the Professor, I assure you. As I understand it, the early tests are positive, so let's not lose our heads here."
Wolverine sits looking catatonic next to an animated Storm. "But we have to face the fact that Xavier is not going to be around forever. This situation only demonstrates our over dependence on him. We should be exterminating the humans, and not relying on his mind control to keep them in line!"
"Listen!" Cyclops screams, "whatever happens with Xavier, we have already won. There is no one, human or Mutant that can overthrow this government. There is nothing to worry about."
"Magneto is still alive," chimes in Rogue.
Everyone in the room bursts into laughter. "I think someone wants to beat up an old man!," jokes Banshee.
The screen on the wall adjacent to the table flashes on and Beast appears on the screen. The room falls deathly silent.
"I won't waste any of your time ladies and gentlemen. I respect you all far too much to beat around the perviable bush. Yes, the rumors are true. Charles Xavier has brain cancer."
NEXT CHAPTER: THE PHOENIX PROBLEM