Days of Evolution's Past
Year 2025
Rachel was sick of everything—sick of running, of hiding, of this stupid world.
Dark, cold, and desolate is what the world is now. Everywhere you look, you will see rubble—ruins of once famous buildings. Whether buried below or lying above, there were dead bodies everywhere, all of which were mutants. There was only place left that was the same as it was, but it was only for humans. As for mutants, their only choice is to keep running. Otherwise, the Sentinels will catch up and it will be the end for them, too.
The Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, once a great school for anything categorized as abnormal, now turned into base for the Sentinels and those who created them, has become an experimental laboratory for mutants. What was once a safe haven for those who weren't human was now a prison for them.
The number of mutants in this world has been reduced to less than fifty. They were either imprisoned or on the run. Most of them were on their own, and very few had formed groups. Rachel was the latter—she formed a team of runaways.
In Rachel's group were the redhead herself, TJ the German demon-like body-possessor, Polaris the green-haired mistress of magnetism, Magik the blonde sorceress with the unique ability of teleportation, Iceman (whose name pretty much explains his powers) and his eight-year-old son, Carmen the phasing icicle, Luna the empath who was also blonde, and Shogo the human from Hungary with some wrecked-useless robotic gear.
Shockingly, it was Magik who they lost first. She'd teleported them to a wrecked McDonald's restaurant to get some food, but everything was rotten and mouldy. Then, they were brought to the French Laundry, an oddly named French restaurant somewhere in the US, which was also a pile of rubble. Carmen phased into the debris to search for any edibles while Rachel and Luna monitoring him from the surface. Moments later, he returned with a box. Inside it was stale bread.
Rachel sighed. "Better than nothing, I guess."
The bread was torn into separate chunks for the runaways, and they ate quickly so they could get out of there as soon as possible.
"Ze darn zing is so dry," TJ complained. "Has our water supply finally melted?"
Luna took out a canteen from her backpack. Inside it was half-melted ice, so she shook head. "Only half-way through," she told her cousin. TJ groaned.
Carmen himself, however, simply kept his chunk of bread into his backpack and transformed to his ice form. "If I stay like this," he said, "then I won't have to eat, like dad."
"No, Carmen," Iceman said sternly. "You're a growing kid—you need to eat. Otherwise, you won't have energy to use your powers."
Carmen frowned but turned back to normal to eat his bread. "But you're in your ice form, dad."
"Yeah, but I'm an adult," Iceman answered. "That's different."
Carmen, irritated, doesn't answer and just ate his bread.
But just as they were done, Polaris gasped. "They're here!" she cried.
As if on cue, a black ship glided through the black heaven, dropping cocoon-like figures down upon them. The runaways dodged the objects and watch with horror as the Sentinels stood before them, ready to burn their faces off.
Using her telekinesis, Rachel erected an invisible shield and ordered Magik, "Take them away! Now!"
Magik nodded, and quickly opened a stepping disk. "Go!" she told the others.
As everyone escaped, Rachel maintained her shield while the Sentinels repeatedly pounded on the invisible wall and blew high-temperature flames. Sweat beaded on Rachel's forehead. She could feel the heat and every pound weakened her endurance.
"Rachel!" Magik shouted. "Come on!"
With one hand, Rachel kept the shield up and jumped into the stepping disk. Finally, she dropped the shield, only to realize in horror that Magik wasn't with them as they travelled to their next destination. Rachel used her telepathy to find Magik, and entered her mind. She watched as Magik tried to hold off the Sentinels with her Soulsword before hopping into the disk, only to be impaled the second she turned away.
Rachel screamed in pain in Magik's place as she fell out of Limbo into her new safe haven. Thus was how they lost Magik, their transporter.
Next was Polaris. This time, the runaways needed to rest. They found a nice cosy place in the temple behind the Great Wall of China. Just as they were half-way through the night, the doors were torn open, and they woke up with a start. Polaris got up first, picking up the rusty iron doors with her metal manipulation abilities and using them stop the Sentinels' flames.
With Magik gone now, it was up to Rachel to be their transporter. Rachel would have to use the Phoenix Force to take them away. But doing so drained her, so she needed a lot of rest. It didn't help that she had to carry about six other people with her.
When they arrived at the temple, Rachel was the one who brought them. Now, with only four hours of sleep, she had to bring them out, except for the fact that she could hardly stand straight, much less focus.
"Rachel!" Polaris yelled. Her voice was strained. "Get everyone else out! Forget about me!"
"No!" Rachel cried. She couldn't lose another one of her friends.
Despite the Sentinels clawing at the doors, Polaris smiled at Rachel. "Yes, you can."
Before Rachel could protest, Luna placed a hand on her face, lending her some of her psychic abilities. The young girl's eyes glowed gold.
"We must go," Luna said sadly.
With tears pouring from her eyes, Rachel summoned the Phoenix. The blue aura wrapped its wings around the runaways, minus Polaris, and took them away.
After all the horrors they experienced, finally came some relief: Shadowcat found them, bringing Lockheed with her.
She had been staying in outer space with another superhero team—the Guardians of the Galaxy—and had returned to Earth to visit her old family, only to find everything gone in her absence. It took her a long time to find her old friends and joined them in their escapades.
"We can't keep this up," Shadowcat said as she watched Rachel slumped on the ground, panting tiredly after teleporting them away again.
"It's ze only zing we can do," TJ said forlornly.
"Yeah, the only thing," Shadowcat said angrily. "Run, hide, run, hide—that's all! We can't keep doing this. We're just delaying our deaths!"
"What else can we do?" Iceman asked. "We only have two options: One, run for the rest of our lives, or two, go get killed in the most gruesome way possible."
"Or three," Carmen added—
"Out of question, kid," Iceman interrupted.
Shadowcat ignored Iceman and knelt in front of her eight-year-old son. "What is the third option, Carmen?"
"Time-travel!" he said excitedly. "Using the Phoenix Force!"
"That is too risky!" Iceman said.
Shadowcat stood up and faced her husband with Lockheed on her shoulder hissing at him. "Yes, it is. But that is the best idea we have."
"And what if that fails?" Iceman asked. "Time-travel is too risky! What if they enter the wrong timeline? What if they fail to change the past, or even worse, do succeed and worsen things? What if nothing changes at all?"
Shadowcat slapped Iceman. "You used to be so hopeful—coming up stupid ideas, being a stupid too-dumb-to-live devil—where's that side of you gone?"
"It was gone so our son's life wouldn't be endangered!" Iceman replied.
Around the two, the others watched them like they were some intense tennis match, turning their heads left and right as they watched the argument. Between his parents, Carmen was whimpering guiltily.
"One day, the rest of us will be wiped out," Shadowcat said in a low voice. "Earth's humans are becoming dirtier and dirtier. Eventually, what're left would be the worst of them. Do you want that?"
Iceman didn't answer that question, but only said, "Rachel is the only one able to bring everyone back in time now. But she isn't like Magik—she doesn't practise that part of her often."
"She'll have her chance soon," Shadowcat said.
"Look," Iceman said irritably, "if you're so keen about time-travel, why don't you ask your Star Lord boyfriend to get that raccoon to build a time machine?"
"Don't bring Peter into this!" Shadowcat snapped.
Suddenly, there was a thunderous boom above them, shaking the cracked roof of their hideout. Shadowcat cursed. "They're here."
"How did they find us so fast?!" Shogo asked. "We just arrived here ten minutes ago!"
"And we're leaving now!" Shadowcat said. "Pick up Rachel and get out of here!"
Shogo carried Rachel in his arms and led the younger runaways to another room as the ceiling fell apart. Three Sentinels dropped in, surrounding Shadowcat and Iceman.
"Lockheed," Shadowcat ordered her dragon, "go to Carmen. Take care of him, okay?"
Lockheed made a reluctant hiss, but complied. He flew between the Sentinels, narrowly missing their claws, and latching itself onto Carmen's shoulders.
"Wait," Carmen gasped. "Mom, Dad—"
"Get out of here, Carmen!" Iceman shouted.
"No!" Carmen protested. He stayed planted to the ground. "I'm not leaving you!"
"Yes, you are!" TJ said as she snatched him off his feet and ran after the others.
"TJ!" Carmen cried. "Put me down!"
"Nuh-uh!" TJ replied. "Ve have to go! I know it's hard, but ve can't stay."
"We can't stay in this timeline," Luna said.
"I thought that plan was out of question?" Shogo said.
"But Mrs. Pryde is correct," Luna said. "We can't stay here—we'd die out!"
"But look at the state of Rachel!" Shogo said. "She can't even stand up!"
Rachel gasped. "I… can!"
"Don't force yourself!" TJ said. "Ve need you!"
"I… will…" Rachel wheezed, "prevent… this!"
Her back arched in Shogo's arms, causing him to stop in his tracks, making the others stop running. Her eyes opened wide, shining like blue sapphires. Blue aura flowed out of her, forming the shape of a majestic bird. Everybody gathered around Rachel and felt the energy wrap around them.
Outside the aura the Sentinels neared them, having dealt with Shadowcat and Iceman. Carmen looked at them with steely eyes with Lockheed hissing acidly at them, and told the metal monsters, "Too late, tin-heads!"
And the runaways vanished from that timeline.
Chapter One *END*