SUMMARY: In the beginning, there was a team of scientists who worked for a secret government organization and twelve healthy babies. Each born with the x-gene, and each with their respective number permanently inked onto their right forearm.
But as the years passed and the experiments became harsher, those twelve babies turned into ten toddlers which turned into seven children which in turn became five teens; all "in the name of science."
Eleven was not about to let her legacy be science. She was going to be free, no matter what
When Peter Parker brought the sopping wet mute girl up to his apartment he had expected his best friend Ned to have some reservations about it; not tell him to "Put her back where you found her or so help me."
"I can't do that," Peter said, leading the bald girl to the kitchen. Despite quizzing her on what her name was and where'd she come from she hadn't spoken a single word.
Maybe she was deaf and couldn't lip read. Maybe she couldn't speak. Either way Ned did not want her in the apartment with them.
"And why not?" Ned wondered following them into the lilac colored room.
"It's raining outside and she's hungry," Peter explained in an 'isn't it obvious' tone of voice. He sat the dripping girl on one of kitchen stools.
"So; Peter didn't May ever teach you about stranger danger? Especially weird mute strangers who look like they just escaped from a hospital?" Peter rolled his eyes.
"Be nice," Peter told Ned, who in turn poked his tongue out in Peters direction.
"Okay how about this?" Peter sighed, "Once she's all dried off and has eaten something we call the police and explains that we found her; does that sound okay?"
"No." Both Ned and Peter looked at the girl with wide eyes.
"Did you-did you just speak?" Peter asked after a moment. The girl, wordlessly, nodded.
"I think the better question is what do you mean no?" Ned asked placing his hands on his hips.
The girl, looking Ned dead in his eyes, once again said "No."
"Peter!" Ned yelled; though the web slinger ignored him, instead, with a perplexed look on his face, Peter bent his knees so he was eye level with the girl.
"Why not?" He wondered softly, ignoring Neds hiss of 'Who cares?' When he had found the girl behind the dumpster she had reminded him of a scared dog, now she reminded him of him after uncle Ben had died, so scared and unsure.
The girl blinked and seemed to chew her words for a moment, "Bad," she told him, her dark brown eyes locked with his, "Bad men."
Both he and Ned seemed to freeze. "Bad men?" Peter repeated. The girl looked at her balled up hands and nodded.
"You ran away from these bad men?" Once again, still looking at her hands, the girl nodded.
"And if they find you they'll hurt you?" Peter continued.
"Bad," she whispered.
"They'll hurt you real bad?" Peter expected her to nod again, only instead she looked up at him with the same scared brown eyes from when she'd came out from behind the dumpster and whispered a shakey "Yes."
"Peter," Ned hissed, pulling Peter away from the girl and into the corner of the kitchen, "You cannot actually believe her!"
"And why not?" Peter hissed back, "There's no way you can fake that fear!"
"Well maybe she's Poe-ing you," Ned instead. Peter cocked his head to the side and knitted her eyebrows together.
"Poe-ing?" He repeated. God his friend was weird.
"As in being an unreliable narrator," Ned explained, his eyes flickering to the the girl across the room. "Maybe she is from a hospital and I don't know, genuinely thinks that doctors are 'Bad men'," Ned said, using air quotations over 'Bad men'.
"Still doesn't make sense for to be that scared of doctors."
"If they make her take her medicine sure it is." Peter pressed his lips together.
"Lets ask," Peter offered.
"And you think she'll tell the truth?" Maybe.
"Come on," Peter muttered, pulling Ned back over to the girl. Peter kneeled down next to her.
"I need you to tell me the truth, Okay?" Peter asked with a soft smile. The girl nodded, "Thank you."
"Now are these bad men, are the doctors?" The girl pressed her lips together and thought it over before nodding.
Peter saw Ned shoot him a smug look.
"What do the doctors do?" There had to be a reason she was so scared. There had to be. So maybe it wasn't his spidey senses telling him that there was more, but deep down in his gut he knew something fishy was up.
The girl squared her shoulders and looked down at her right arm. Slowly she pulled up the sleeve of her scrubs to reveal the number eleven tattooed on her forearm.
Peter shot Ned- who looked at the tattoo somewhat worried and a little bit amazed -a look that clear read as 'I told you so'.
"Can you tell me why they did that to you?" Peter wondered. The girl nodded. Her eyes quickly looked around the room and settled on an apple May had left on the counter.
Slowly the apple levitated in the air. Both Peter and Ned stopped breathing as multiple thoughts raced through their minds.
While Ned thought that this was awesome and Peter couldn't think anything other then oh my god; they both quickly came to the same realization.
This girl was a mutant and the bad men she was running from were, without a doubt, not just doctors.
ΔΔΔ
Miles away in upstate New York a woman with blonde hair was lead into the office of none other then Tony Stark.
"Jeanie," Stark greeted from behind his large desk, "It's great to see you again." The woman shook his hand and noticed that it was much more calloused then the last time she'd seen him.
He had grown up; had turned from a spoilt party boy into a superhero with a super ego.
"Now," he wondered offering him a seat across from his desk, "What's the problem?" She had called him two hours ago, out the blue, demanding to meet with him, claiming that there was a serious emergency.
"As you know I work with mutants," Tony nodded, "Well tonight we experienced complications in one of our research facilities."
Tony leaned forward with a frown, "What kind of complications?"
"The kind that endanger everyone. Sentinel Services has already been altered but they're dealing with a situation down in Atlanta-"
"What kind of situation?" Tony repeated.
"All of our project CLASS subjects escaped earlier tonight." He blinked.
"I hope you know I can't do anything without the UN's approval," he told her bitterly. Though he'd rather drop dead then admit it Steve had been right about the accords, the UN didn't just want to over see the Avengers, they wanted control.
Jeanie reached a hand into her purse and pulled out a large stack of papers.
"Which you have. Now, are you going to help be find these mutants before they hurt someone?"
"I wouldn't be a superhero if I didn't save the general public." Pepper was going to kill him.
CHAPTER TWO!
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