They had done it. For years people were in fear of what men that held power but didn't hold brains would do. They had pressed the button, and the entire world retaliated. Not many people left who could recount what happened to the world, or the people who had the damned misfortune of living when it happened, and the even more unfortunate who lived afterwards. Not even the people known as the "World's Greatest Heroes" could do anything to stop it. The entire world had been blanketed in nuclear fire. The Earth was all but dead and the people left behind weren't much different, they just happened to still be walking and didn't have the fortune of death, so now they live.
It was at least 50 years by now. 5 decades had passed since the missiles launched and turned the once beautiful blue planet they called Earth into a wasteland. All technology they could have used to leave the planet in search of someplace else to call home was destroyed within the first day of nuclear war. Many of the Earth's greatest heroes and minds were either killed during the initial strikes or didn't survive the nuclear fallout after the blasts. 48 hours is all it took to destroy everything that was and ever will be.
In all unlikeliness, the people that had done the best for themselves and had survived en masse was the mutants. They had a leg-up genetically speaking already, and the radiation in the atmosphere had mutated them further, made their numbers higher, and each individual mutant became more powerful. There weren't many others that had survived, there were rumors that the Hulk had been sighted several times, but those rumors sound more like the sasquatch or the lockness monster. It was also possible that The Sentry, and other Omega class meta-humans were able to survive the blasts and the radiation. Sadly, many other heroes and villains did not make it out alive. The bomb that hit New York was especially devastating, according to several accounts the very first hero to die was Spider-Man. He was sitting down in an outside restaurant with his aunt and step uncle, the nuke landed 3 blocks away. There was nothing he could do. Other people who didn't make it were the likes of Daredevil, Iron Fist, and even Captain America.
Captain America was a definite. Considering the people that were left had found his shield laying over a skeleton of a woman and a child, even when he knew they would not survive, he still tried to save them. Now there were a large group of wastelanders calling themselves, "Children of the Star." They had found the shield of Captain America and dedicated an entire religion to the artifact, a joking man would find it ironic that Captain America, who touted liberty and freedom, became a tool of worship and adulation.
"Wake up, Aiden. Wake up, come on. You need to go help your father carry the water back from the river." The sunlight was stinging with its incredible brightness. The thin bed stank lightly and Aidan's sweating back made it stick to the dirty mattress.
"Ok, mom. I'm getting up now." Aidan had sat up slowly, his exhaustion had made his body feel like it weighed 1,000 pounds. He slowly forced himself up off the bed. And walked into what was supposed to be a living room. Their "house" was several tin plates welded together into a cube shaped building, the roof leaked, it could get to be scorching hot or icy cold, depending on the time of year. There was one light bulb hanging from the ceiling, flickering an orange light across the room. Aidan sat at the dirty table as his mother put a dinged metal plate with some fried egg and bacon on it.
"The chickens are doing ok, so far. But we're getting short on hogs. The goddamn radiation, it makes it hard for these damn animals to mate. They get pregnant and spawn out mutated monsters." Aidan's mother and father weren't the type to observe decorum, nobody really was anymore. The population at large had tried to maintain some semblance of civilization of old but the new norm of life was what most people knew.
"So, how many pigs are left?"
Aidan's mother had sat down and started eating some egg.
"A couple dozen left, but that's going down before you know it. It could last us maybe the rest of year before we have to find something else to keep us fed, we can't live the rest of our lives eating eggs. You know Aidan, did I ever tell you the time your grandfather met Reed Richards?"
His mother had told this story 100 times, it was the only part of her grandfather she had left. She tells this story to anyone who will listen and sometimes late at night she tells it to herself, perhaps to keep her from going crazy.
"No mom, please tell me."
Aidan's mother finished her eggs and caught her breathe.
"Well my grandfather was a local scientist, working on agriculture stuff. He worked in a very small lab at the local college and one day there was like this huge outbreak of this virus. It was making people in the town drop like flies and nobody knew where it had come from. It got to the point where it was national news and these super people called the Avengers had actually come, I couldn't believe it. I was a little girl at the time standing behind my mother's leg. I saw Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor all standing in room together drinking coffee like it was the most ordinary thing ever. They had brought it Hank Pym and Reed Richards and my father worked with them because he was the first person to actually get a sample of the virus. 48 hours and my grandfather, Hank Pym, and Reed Richards had not only made a vaccine but a cure that actually made people more healthier than they were before they got sick."
Aidan just let her finish the rest of the story, he tried to be an at tentative son but sometimes mom's Avengers story just got on his nerves but he understand it was her only connection to the old world. She had Aidan very late in life, her early 40s and now Aidan was an adolescent. A young man now of 18; Aidan put his and his mother's dinged up metal plates into the washing basin and walked out the front door made of wood and held together with duct tape. He walked down the lane to go meet his father who most likely waiting on his favorite rock. The town he lived in was usually called different names but the one that Aidan had come to know and the one he liked the best was Tin City. The name was appropriate considering most of the town was comprised of Tin and metal shacks. There were several small outdoor restaurants with broken chairs and tables that were missing one leg, the people sitting down at them eating their fried squirrel stew or vulture fricassee.
There was a small school in the remnants of some old building from the old world, a lot of people thought it was maybe a small clinic or hospital at some point, there were no medical supplies of any kind though, anything in there that would've been of any use was picked clean from the floor to the ceiling a long time ago. Children of all ages went in every day for their lessons until they reached the age of adulthood in the community, 16, then they would go to work with their parents. They didn't have a choice, either they became a productive member of society or they'd be asked to leave and not come until they had something to offer the community. It was a hard life, but people found small pleasures where they could. They would hold small dances and parties every other week, alcohol and food would flow and people would dance the night away as bands played on hand made instruments. Drinking and eating, dancing and smiling, the smiling of people who had forgotten their troubles and for one night…felt like their lives weren't so bad.
Aidan had crossed the fence that signified town limit and walked towards the river where he found his father waiting.
"Father, sorry I'm late." His father stood up from the large rock he fancied to sit on whenever he was out here. He walked over and put a hand on his son's shoulders.
"I know you're not rushing to come out here and help your old man carrying buckets around, but it's something we got to do. If we don't get this in the town's water still everyone goes thirsty for the week and we're the ones to blame for it. You have a responsibility to this town, everyone is everyone's family." Aidan nodded. He never liked when his father started with his whole responsibility and family speech, it made him feel that his father was so disappointed in him. Nothing else was said between them as they started loading up carts pulled by donkeys with giant containers of water. There was at least 1000 pounds on each cart, each pulled by several donkeys. Poor animals, having to work so hard like this, several donkeys in the past couple had keeled over and dropped dead from exhaustion and malnutrition.
Before they knew it, the entire day was over and the sun was setting.
"Aidan, I'm going to go ahead back to town, make sure the donkeys are put back in their stables and fed. I don't trust that Jim Henderson, he eyes those donkeys in a way I don't even want to think about." Aidan nodded and waved his father goodbye. It only took an hour at best before he was finished, the donkeys were feeding and watered and corralled into their pens safe and sound. He closed the large tin door to the old shed that used to wooden but was patched up with tin sheets and tarps. He had walked over the hill leading the main road to Tin City.
He saw the smoke first, the screams came later. The next thing he saw was the fire, bright and painting across the night sky. They must have been several stories tall, plumes of red and orange dotting across the clearing. The screams were the last thing he heard, there were many and they were loud. Aidan's first thought was of his parents and darted off at full speed to rescue them. It wasn't long before Aidan had gotten into town; he stopped, gasping for air in between his shouts for his mother and his father. Aidan had never seen a dead person before…well a dead person that wasn't killed by some kind of radiation related illness. What used to be a person was ripped in half and laid on the ground to bleed to death. Aidan wished he spare the time to try to help but his parents were priority number one to him.
He made it to their small tin house, only to see it housing a large fire shooting into the sky. Aidan then saw them out of the corner of his eye. His parents lay dead on the floor, motionless, and mangled apart. Aidan fell to his knees in front of them.
"No…how could this happen…what happened…?"
Aidan couldn't control the tears streaming from his eyes and didn't hear the footsteps coming up behind him.
"Just what the fuck are you crying about kid?"
Aidan was kicked to the floor, his face in front of his mother's. The expression of fear and panic as she died, the last face she ever made as she took her last breath was only a breathe away from Aidan's face. He darted back around and to his feet to the person who had kicked him. He wasn't alone, there were several of them, and all dressed similar in salvaged clothing and armor made from wood and tin. Their leader stepped forward towards Aidan with a small grin of satisfaction on his face.
"Did…did you do this? Did you sack this town? WHY!?"
The attacker chuckled to himself and his cohorts; they all started laughing as well.
"Why? We were just looking for a good time. We weren't planning on causing trouble; we just wanted some food and some girls…the younger the better. They denied a nice little 10 year old and I obviously wasn't going to let that disrespect go. I was honor bound to kill everyone in the whole town, I suppose those 2 down there are your parents. I have to commend your father kiddo; after I killed your mother your father actually decked me in the face. See?"
The raider turned his face to show a black eye and a small cut across the side of his face. He looked Aidan right in the eyes with a piercing gaze, as if he had just impaled his soul on a spit.
"Are you going to kill me?"
The raider turned towards his friends and started running away.
"Nah. I actually usually leave one or 2 alive on purpose. So they could tell the story of the Iron Runners, my little group of rebels. Oh, by the way my name is Maven. If you ever want to join my little merry band or make an attempt of revenge which I'll tell you is a very bad idea…either way. You have a nice day kid."
Aidan was overcome was frustration and rage and charged Maven, not even realizing he was outnumbered and outclassed but he didn't care, this man killed his parents and everything he ever knew. Dying trying to exact revenge felt like a good idea at the time.
Aidan launched himself to get some momentum but was stopped in mid-air by Maven's finger. He held him in the air and grinned that sickening grin again. Aidan was awestruck as he would held still in the air, the fires roaring around them, lighting up Maven's scars on his face, his dark hair and muscular build.
"You…you're a…a…"
Maven smiled.
"A mutant. Say it with me now."
Maven threw him into a small barn, crashing it around him. Maven walked over and picked him out of the rubble. He then delivered several punches to the face and mid-section while he lay defenseless. He then used his powers again to send him flying across the clearing grinding into the ground the entire way. Maven slowly but surely briskly walked to Aidan and with his finger suspended him back into the air.
"Now I got to tell you kid, you got balls, brass balls but you had to realize that wouldn't work out for you right? Look what I did to your town. You think my friends helped? No…no just me. I did this all by myself and they watched."
Aidan tried to reach for Maven's neck but his arms were restrained back to his sides.
"Well, you were fun kid. I told you that you could've lived, but you made your choice so far be it from me to deny you the prize you won."
Maven reached up to his neck and Aidan felt himself choking, the air being sucked from his lungs. His vision started to blur; the air started to get cold.
"So this must be what death feels like. I'm sorry mother, I'm sorry father. I'm sorry I let you down."
He felt the grip easing up on his neck as he fell to the ground. He didn't really here the screams coming from Maven's group. Aidan oriented himself and looked up, Maven was launching several wooden beams and other detritus at…something. He stood up and saw several of the raiders impaled clean through with giant metal spears.
"What…the hell?"
Aidan heard one of the raiders say something, he didn't make it out. He didn't know if it was because he was almost choked to death, or the fighting was loud, but he could swear it sounded like he yelled, "X-Men"
"We'll finish this another day, killer. See you soon."
Maven ran away past Aidan, with what was left of the raiders of Tin City. Aidan got his feet and saw them running like the devil was at their heels.
"I'm sorry I didn't get here faster."
Aidan turned around and saw a younger looking man, platinum hair peeking out under a helmet that protected his head. He wore a uniform that was dark red and blue with a large red letter "X" over his heart.
"Who…who are you?"
The young man stepped forward and shook his hand.
"Well my birth name is Martin. Martin Lensherr but most people call me by my grandfather's old codename: Magneto."
Aidan looked down at the ground unable to look Magneto in the face.
"My parents. They were all I had. They were all I had in this world."
Magneto walked over and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Look, there's place I can take you. It's a place that's especially for displaced people like you, people that have lost their family to sickness or…mutants. I hate sharing people like that with my race. All they do is hurt others with no regard for human life, which when you get down to it, it's all we are. We're all the same and there's a place I can take you where there will be other people like you. Would you be interested in something like that?"
Aidan thought it over for a moment but he knew deep down there was nothing for him now in Tin City or rather what's left of Tin City.
"Yeah. Yeah I'd be interested. Just let me have a few hours to bury my parents ok?"
Magneto agreed and waiting at the entrance to the town, a path that Aidan walked just that morning when he thought his life normal but now in the span of a day his life has become anything but the normal life that he used to know. Aidan sat down in front of his parents' graves that he dug himself and just played with his thoughts. He knew that it was time to go, he didn't want to leave Magneto waiting for much longer. Aidan placed his hands on his parents' grave markers.
"Mom…Dad. I promise I'll never forget all the things you taught me. I'll…," tears started welling in his eyes, "I'll never forget you. I promise."
Aidan turned away and grabbed whatever possessions he had that were salvageable and put them in a rucksack, throwing it over his back he left what was left of his house. He met Magneto at the entrance; he was waiting just where he said he would.
"You ready to go?"
Aidan nodded.
"Yeah. So…where are we going?"
Magneto stood up from the wooden fence he was sitting on.
"A place that the X-Men created as a sanctuary to not just displaced mutants but whoever would need asylum from forces that would otherwise…well…"
Magneto pointed his head at the town, the smoldering smoke from the previous night's events.
"Yeah ok. So what's this place called?"
Magneto turned back at Aiden.
"It's based off an old sanctuary type place mutants had created before the bombs fell. It's called New Utopia."
Aidan nodded and motioned for them to get going. It was a long trip ahead of them and they weren't going to get there sitting down twiddling their thumbs.