Thanks to Jessica and icanhearthedrums for the reviews! You guys are awesome!
See long note at the end for details on comic and cultural references. They're fun, I promise.
Chapter 4: Seek and you will find (Matthew 7:7)
Alex, Sean, and Charles arrived at 295 Forge Avenue at exactly 1 pm. A well-built college-aged boy answered the door. He immediately honed in on Charles.
"You must be Professor Xavier."
"I am," Charles replied as he shook the boy's proffered hand. "Nathaniel Grey I take it?"
"Everyone calls me Nate. Come on in."
The house was well decorated with the exception of a stack of pizza boxes.
"Uh, right, sorry," he said as he pushed the boxes out of sight. "My parents aren't around and it's exam time. You run a school. I'm sure you know how it goes."
"Actually, Charles doesn't like the whole pizza-eating culture thing," Sean said. "He prefers the students to stress-drink tea."
Nate raised his eyebrows. "Seriously?"
"Please, I keep you all very well fed. Healthy habits are nothing to scoff at."
Alex rolled his eyes while Sean shook his head behind the professor's back and mouthed something about tyranny. Nate bit his lip to hold back a laugh, though he couldn't stop from smiling.
Charles scowled with a touch of fondness. "Alright, enough of that. Alex, Sean, now that you've been introduced, why don't you two wait outside while I talk with Mr. Grey."
"But, Professor-"
"Car. Now. You can discuss the indulgences of life outside the mansion if Nathaniel joins us."
"Fine," Sean pouted. Alex grabbed his arm and they marched out of the house with a wave to Nate.
Running a hand through his chestnut hair, Nate sat on the couch across from Charles.
"Mr. Grey-"
"Nate," the boy interrupted.
"Nate," Charles acknowledged, "you know why I'm here and where I'm from. I'm representing a school for…talented individuals such as yourself."
"You know, I'd think you were crazy if you hadn't talked in my head the other day. How did you do that, by the way?"
"A machine called Cerebro. But we're not here to talk about me. Why don't you show me what you can do."
Without pause, a copy of Nate appeared on the other side of the room. A grin spread on the telepath's face.
"Astral projection. What a fantastic ability. I must admit, I've dabbled in it myself."
The copy disappeared. "You can astral project?" Nate asked in awe.
"Well, I'm nowhere near as talented as you. I'm a telepath before anything else, but the scientist in me can't help but want to learn more. From what I sensed from you in our initial encounter, I'd say you're considerably more talented than I am. You aren't holding back from me, are you? There's no need to be modest."
Nate smiled and looked to the floor. "Well, I can astral project, but sometimes, if I focus enough, I can create an actual physical form."
Something sparked behind Charles' eyes. "Now that is something I've never seen before. I don't suppose I could have a demonstration, could I?"
Nate squeezed his eyes shut in concentration. Not two seconds later, a solid form appeared next to Charles. Charles touched it with something akin to glee. As soon as the form appeared, Nate had relaxed. Charles pulled his reverent gaze from the form at his side to the actual mutant in front of him.
"It takes a great deal of concentration to do this, correct?"
"Yeah, but once it's formed, it's not that much trouble to hold it."
"Absolutely brilliant. Now, Nate, as I said, I'm a scientist. I love seeing how things work. Would you mind letting me into your head while you do that again? I promise not to go poking around where I'm not wanted."
"Uh, sure, I guess."
"Excellent. Whenever you're ready."
Charles followed every mental move the boy made. Another solid copy appeared and Charles grinned from ear to ear.
Alex pushed off the car where he'd been leaning as soon as he saw Charles exit the house. Sean was in an epic battle with his cup-and-ball he'd snagged from the school before they left. Charles moved to pair with ease.
"So, is he coming?" Alex asked. Sean fumbled the cup-and-ball and recovered enough to pretend he wasn't playing with a children's toy.
"I'm afraid not. He said he had his own studies to worry about. Once he's finished, perhaps he can join us."
"Aw, I liked him," Sean said. "Maybe if Alex and I talked to him-"
"No," Charles cut in. "I'm sure his mind is made up for the time being. There will be other boys with whom you can discuss the merits of the consumption of mass quantities of pizza. For now, we need to be on our way. I have an interview to prepare for, if you recall."
Both of the boys slouched in disappointment but made no further arguments. After getting Charles settled in the car, they drove away without a backwards glance.
When Raven had come to check Magneto's progress and found an empty room, it only took a few seconds to realize where he was. A quick glance at a clock confirmed it. She sped towards the living room cursing. The living room was, in reality, just a largish room where they'd set up a small television and some furniture. They had to keep up with newcasts after all. The room was almost full to capacity when she arrived. All the senior members of the Brotherhood had their eyes plastered to the screen, which wasn't all together unusual except for the varying expressions of surprise on their faces.
Mystique maneuvered herself behind the couch. She'd already missed most of the interview. On the screen, Charles sat perfectly composed in his wheelchair across the table from a not so perfectly composed man in a uniform. It was part of some national talk show. The Brotherhood only found out yesterday that Charles would be on and, whether they saw him as a former ally (Magneto and Mystique), a puzzle to be figured out (Emma), or a nemesis to be evaluated (everyone else), the Brotherhood was very interested in what he might have to say. The professor was supposed to serve as the counterpoint to one of the more outspoken anti-mutant officials, a man named Donovan Zane. Even on the black-and-white screen, Mystique could tell Zane was red in the face and huffing over whatever Charles just said. Charles, on the other hand, wore a vague smile and sat with his elbows propped up on the armrests of his chair so that his hands pressed together at the fingertips.
"They are a danger to society! They should be registered at the very least!" the other man shouted, pointing a pugnacious finger at Charles with every word.
The host somehow managed exude neutrality despite the animosity of his guest. "Thank you, Mr. Zane. I'm afraid it's time for our closing remarks. Dr. Xavier, do you have a rebuttal in the time we have left?"
"I do have one note I'd like to add," Charles began, addressing the huffing man across from him. "I know it may intimidate you and it may frighten you, but you cannot stop mutation. It is a part of the natural order." Something in the air changed. Even the viewers sat up a bit straighter as Charles leaned forward minutely, barely enough to be noticeable. The telepath was meeting the Zane's eyes straight on. If not for the wheelchair and her brother's nature, Mystique would've been certain the telepath was about to get up and crawl across the table just to see the other man squirm. The change happened in a split second, taking just long enough for Charles to inhale and continue. "Your ideas of registration and…beyond…sound quite familiar. I believe a man put forth a similar proposal in Europe about three decades ago."
Zane flinched and blustered, "That's not-"
"Your intention? Of course it isn't!" Charles finished, making no effort hide his patronizing tone. "Even so, you must be aware that if you do try to stop mutation, if you succeed and manage to commit genocide against the mutant race, you will doom not only the mutants you deem a 'threat', but all of humanity with them. Without mutation, the human race will become stagnant. Their inability to adapt will lead to their extinction. The past has shown this to be the case."
"That sounds like a threat, Dr. Xavier," the man replied, unable to keep the wobble from his voice.
"Does it?" Charles questioned. The air snapped back to its former pleasant neutrality as the telepath leaned back in his chair, congenial as ever. "It was merely a statement of scientific fact. The way you talk, as if mutants are a scourge to be wiped out, isn't what humanity should stand for. You could be so much better than that with all your minds in the right place. Besides, why would I threaten you when nature and evolution appear to be doing such a good job of it on their own?"
"Uh, I- I'm afraid I'll have to cut you off there," the host chimed in, wide-eyed and rattled before putting on a rickety smile. "That's all the time we have for today. I'd like to thank Dr. Charles Xavier and Lieutenant Colonel Donovan Zane for joining us."
Someone turned off the tv. The picture faded out on a frame of Charles' now polite smile, but Erik didn't notice. Charles' closing remarks echoed in his head.
You could be so much better than that.
Just like that, a wall crumbled in his mind.
"Erik, stop!"
"If you do this, you'll kill, widow, and orphan hundreds of men, women and children for not other reason than for being different that you."
"This isn't who you are! Death and destruction? You're so much better than that!"
"Please, Erik! Please don't do this!"
Screaming resounded followed by darkness. As it began to recede, he heard an uproar of familiar voices around him.
"Magneto!"
"Is this a relapse?"
"What's happening?"
Erik snapped back to reality. Only then did he realize he was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, hands clawing at his helmeted head. He blinked and sat back up, inhaling a few times to steady himself against the pounding in his head.
"Magneto?"
Golden eyes full of worry appeared in his line of sight.
"He was there," Erik croaked.
"Who was where?" Angel asked from somewhere off to the side.
"Charles. Charles was there the night the machine failed. It was him."
Mystique was virtually periwinkle. "What? But...how..."
Emma was the only one to remain unshaken, at least to the naked eye. "I don't know much about Charles Xavier, but from what I do know, I think I can safely say that the person on that program wasn't very much like the good professor."
"Unless the mirror universe actually exists and infiltrated ours," one of the younger members interjected.
"Shut up, Toad! Not everything needs to be a Star Trek reference!" Angel hissed with a please-don't-smite-him glance at her leader. Erik and Raven, though, tensed for a different reason and glanced at each other. Fear flickered over Raven, but Erik kept his jaw clinched and remained unreadable.
"How long did you say Charles has been acting strangely?"
"Since the machine," the shapeshifter replied. The woman who had been leading the Brotherhood for the past half year was nowhere in sight. Instead, she was radiating misery like the sun gave off heat.
Magneto nodded. "I think it's time we drop in on Charles and his X-Men."
Comic and cultural references:
Nate Grey: Poor Nate Grey. I butcher him and the idea of astral projection. Nate Grey has this massive storyline involving an alternate timeline and super intense psionic abilities (which I know of only through Marvel's wiki page). I'm reducing him to a lowly background character and only giving him astral projection, then probably butchering what astral projection actually is. But I took his name and purpose from the comics, so there it is. Oh, and his address is a reference to his comic background. He's from Earth-295 and his surrogate father figure was Forge. I might have forced it a little bit, but whatever. As for my (incredibly limited) knowledge of astral projection, this is my universe and astral projection works however I say it does. So there. Marvel at how drunk I am on power!
Cup-and-ball: Cup-and-ball is that game with a stick that has a cup and a ball attached by a string and you try to get the ball in the cup, in case you didn't know. It was on Family Guy. And Wikipedia. And, you know, childhood.
Donovan Zane: Leader of the Friends of Humanity following Graydon Creed. This is literally all I know about him. I'm not making Friends of Humanity an official part of this story and him being military is my own thing.
Mirror Universe: Refers to the Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror", which aired in October 1967 (and, interestingly, again in April 1968, which is about when I estimate the machine incident took place...funny how things turn out sometimes). In a nutshell, everyone is the opposite of who they are in the real universe, so good people are bad or at least morally ambiguous. Also, there are more goatees. Because only evil people and Tony Stark take the time to carefully manicure their facial hair.
I think those are all my references besides the lines I took from Two Roads.
Next chapter is…well…things happen. I'll leave it at that. Honestly I think I have too much happening right now and need to cut it down, but I'll have it up within a week.
