After making sure his unusual blue patient, Kurt (Dr. McCoy reminded himself), was stable, Bones made his way to the briefing room. The self-proclaimed X-Men were already there, as was Mr. Spock.
Bones took a seat, waiting for Jim. It was just like him to be late.
As if on a cue from Bones's thought, Captain James Tiberius Kirk burst through the door with an air of confidence unmatched throughout the galaxy. "What can you tell me?"
Always one to make an entrance, Bones thought.
"First, Captain, I believe it would be in order to make introductions." Spock spoke up, ever mindful of Earth customs, even though he was a Vulcan.
Each party introduced themselves and they got down to business.
"They claim to be human, Captain." Spock stated. "Although their mutations seem to give them strange powers that are unheard of in humans."
"Mutation? Powers? Explain." Jim took a seat, looking around the room.
This time, Jean spoke. "'Mutant' is a term used to describe humans whose DNA has mutated, or changed, significantly in a short period of time. What was previously thought of as 'junk DNA', or DNA without any purpose, has begun to mutate, and in doing so giving those mutated humans unusual powers. The powers usually manifest themselves at puberty, and they sometimes include physical changes. However, in extremely rare cases, the physical mutations are present at birth, but only the physical ones. Our unique abilities have never been observed to be present at birth."
"And you are mutants?" Kirk asked.
"Yes."
"Were you genetically engineered?" Jim really didn't want a repeat of what had happened with Kahn Noonien Singh.
"No. The mutation is natural. It's simply evolution taking its course." Jean answered.
Jim allowed himself a sigh relief, but he still had some big issues to worry about. "Okay, so what kind of powers are we talking about? Are they dangerous?" he demanded. He didn't want anybody running around who could single-handedly take out a security team or commandeer his ship. He wasn't all to comfortable with the idea that his ship, his crew, could be in jeopardy from a meager group of seven.
"Well, they differ from person to person." Jean stated. "I'm a telepath." She projected the statement into the minds of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy.
"Fascinating." Spock mused.
"And I'm a telekine, meaning I posses telekinesis." To demonstrate, Jean levitated the padd sitting on the table.
Bones swore under his breath.
"What can the rest of you do?" Kirk asked, growing concerned. There were aspects of telepathy he wondered if she possessed; the ability to control minds, for example. And could her telekinesis move the ship off course?
The X-Men looked at one another. If they told about their abilities, what would happen? Would they be killed? Sedated? Imprisoned? Experimented on?
Scott looked at Jean and spoke to her telepathically. "Maybe we should trust them. If we're honest, it would give them reason to trust us."
"I agree, but the Captain is worried. He's afraid we might take over his ship and be too powerful for his crew to stop us." Jean replied.
Scott inwardly smiled, "Well, I guess we'll just have to refrain from doing that, then."
Jean smiled back, outwardly as well as inwardly. "One last thing. Spock, the Vulcan, has some telepathic ability. I sense he's more of a touch telepath, though."
"Good to know." Scott looked into her eyes, feeling a pang of sadness that he couldn't actually see their color. Everything he saw was in shades of red.
"I have optic blasts." Scott announced, answering the Captain's question. "My eyes emit beams of pure force. I can't stop it without my visor, but I assure you, I shouldn't have any other accidents like the one earlier."
Gambit took Scott's cue and decided to reveal his power. "I can charge potential energy. You see, when I touch sometin', I can change it's potential energy to kinetic. I can also supply whatever it is I'm touchin' with some 'a my own energy." He intentionally left out his other ability, his hypnotic charm. People always got nervous when they found out he could influence them.
"I'm a doctor, not a physicist. What exactly does that mean?" Bones asked, annoyed.
"Well, mon ami, it can mean many tings, but usually, it means I make stuff explode. Like the blanket from back in Sickbay."
"Great," Bones grumbled.
Jim was growing more concerned by the minute. Could he blow up the Enterprise? Just by touching it? "Could you 'charge' a person?"
"No. I cannot, but even if I could, I would not. Dat would be wrong. And messy." Remy winced as he thought about what that might look like.
Scott cleared his throat. They were going to have to be honest if they wanted these people to trust them. "Remy, aren't you forgetting something?"
Remy shot a death glare at Scott. "Oh, right." He knew better than to disobey Scott right now. If he didn't tell, Scott or Jean would. "I have what I like to call a hypnotic charm. I can influence people and their decisions. Make 'em agree with me, but I won't be usin' it on any of you." He flashed a mischievous grin that usually made the ladies melt. Too bad there weren't any ladies in here.
Jim groaned. "Okay, good. Now what about you?" He nodded towards Storm.
"I can control all aspects of weather." Storm stated matter-of-factly, her deep voice rich with her beautiful African accent.
"Then your ability won't work here in space." Jim observed.
"We don't know that." Jean interjected. "She might be able to generate electrical storms, even in space, but we've never tested it."
"Well, let's not test it. I don't want to put my ship in danger."
"Fair enough." Storm nodded.
"And you?" Jim indicated Kitty.
"Oh, I just phase through things. See?" Kitty put her hand through the table.
So no locked doors could keep her out of places she shouldn't be, Jim thought. Things just kept getting worse.
Jim looked to the last two, Logan and Rogue. Neither of them seemed to be quite so forthcoming about their powers.
Logan looked at Rogue. He knew she was uncomfortable talking about her abilities. It wasn't the most pleasant thing. Everyone else's abilities seemed kind of tame compared to hers. He decided to speak up and let Rogue be last. "I heal. Real fast."
"I noticed." Dr. McCoy said under his breath.
Logan looked at him. "And I got enhanced senses. Plus a couple other things." With a snikt, he popped one set of claws.
Jim and Spock reacted immediately, taking up a defensive position.
"Calm down, I ain't gonna skewer ya." Logan drawled. "I got two sets of these things, and the metal covers my entire skeleton."
Snakt. The claws retracted to their housings in his forearms. The cuts between his knuckles closed up so quickly, there wasn't even a drop of blood on his hands.
"Is the metal a part of your mutation?" Spock asked flatly.
"No. Someone did this to me. I really don't remember much." Logan said, anger rising within him. He thought of William Stryker, the man who had fused his skeleton with adamantium. One corner of Logan's quirked up as he remembered the satisfaction of leaving Stryker there to die at Alkali Lake, chained to a crumbling wall. The guy had gotten what he deserved, though Logan would have preferred Stryker's end to be a lot slower and a whole lot more painful.
"Do you know why?" Spock asked.
"I don't really know. I think they wanted me to be some kind of weapon. I do know that the man who did this to me was big on mutant experimentation, and extinction."
Spock quirked an eyebrow. "He tried to kill you?"
"Not just me, all of us." Logan nearly snarled.
"I gather from your rather emotional reaction that he did indeed come close. How close was that?" Spock observed.
"Close enough." Was Logan's closing reply.
Spock wondered how this man had achieved this. Perhaps these were the only existing mutants.
"Enough of that now, Mr. Spock. We were talking about powers. What is it that you do, Rogue?" Jim asked, his blue eyes boring into her green ones.
"I kill people when I touch them." She said bluntly.
The three Starfleet officers visibly recoiled.
"Aw, come on now chère. Ain't dat a bit overdramatic?" Remy asked, laying a hand on her sleeved arm.
She shrugged him off. "If I hold on long enough, I will. Don't make me try it on you, Swamp Rat."
Remy grinned. "You wouldn't. You love me too much."
Rogue held up her bare hand and wiggled her fingers at him, but he didn't flinch.
"Tell 'em what you really do, kid." Logan said.
Rogue sighed. "All right. I drain people's life force when I touch 'em. It has to be skin-on-skin contact, though. I get their thoughts, memories, powers, and abilities. Whatever you can do, so can I. It usually leaves 'em pretty drained, dependin' on how long I hold on."
"That explains a lot," Bones mumbled, thinking back to when she had touched Remy in Sickbay.
"I'd like some gloves, though. So I don't have to worry about accidentally killin' anybody." Rogue requested.
"We'll get you some." Kirk said. If they had to cross the galaxy to get her some gloves, they would do it. She was too dangerous without them.
"What about your friend, who is regrettably not with us at the moment? Is his mutation purely physical?" Spock asked.
"Oh, Kurt?" Kitty asked. "He's a teleporter, but he can also do other stuff too."
"Like what?" Bones asked.
"Well, like, he blends into shadows. I swear, he turns invisible. Oh, and he can, like, stick to walls and stuff too."
"Well, I'll be." Bones mused. What couldn't these people do?
"Are there more like you?" Spock asked.
"Yes. Mutants are still very much a minority, but the numbers are growing." Jean responded.
"And everyone has different abilities?"
"Well, no. Not everyone's abilities are unique. In fact, one of the most common abilities seems to be telepathy." Jean stated.
"Well, that's interesting." Bones mused. "We've known some humans to exhibit minor telepathic abilities."
"Indeed. It is believed that many, if not all humans, possess a latent telepathic capacity that they simply have not 'unlocked', so to speak." Spock added. His own mother was one of the few who had accessed her telepathy. It wasn't very strong, but impressive for a human nonetheless. He also recalled Dr. Miranda Jones, the telepathic young woman who was the escort for a Medusan ambassador.*
"Huh. I've never thought of that." Jean cocked her head to the side and considered it.
"So what happened to the rest of the mutants? And why didn't they know about mutants?" Kitty asked, indicating the three Starfleet officers with turn of her head.
"Well Kitty, I gathered from these men that we are in the twenty-third century now." Jean looked over at the three men, "I'm sorry for any intrusion. I left your other thoughts and memories alone."
"Quite all right." Spock answered. He would have done the same thing in her position.
Rogue's eyes went wide. "You mean we're in the future?"
"I think so." Jean nodded.
"And all the mutants are gone. Nobody even knows we existed." Rogue breathed. She felt terror rising up in her, as well as anger.
"So you're tellin' me that all we've done, all we've been doin' as X-Men hasn't made a difference? Men like Stryker and Kelly still get their way?" Logan's voice rose.
"You know what dis means." Remy said quietly.
Everyone looked at the Cajun, not following.
He lifted his burning eyes to the group. "It means Magneto was right."
That one statement hit the X-Men like a physical blow. Magneto was right. The humans did want all of the mutants dead, and they would have their way.
"Maybe, but I think what we did, or do, as X-Men has made a difference. Captain Kirk, I've taken from you that Earth is part of a United Federation of Planets. Humans and aliens are working together. Aliens with other abilities, like Vulcans, who are telepathic as well." Jean said, nodding towards Spock. "Humans have managed to overcome such xenophobia and accept others. Maybe mutants paid the price, but peace with others was achieved."
"But we didn't make a dang difference." Logan said coldly. "How could we if they don't even remember us."
Everyone fell silent as they pondered what this meant.
Kirk wondered what it felt like to know that your kind had been wiped out, and not only wiped out, but blotted out from the history books as well. That there was no record of even existing.
Spock, ever dutiful to ignore the raw emotions permeating the room, was the first to speak. "Perhaps if we could find out when you left, and even how you got here, we could use that as a reference point in history and answer some of these questions.
Scott quickly supplied Spock with the date they had left, and their location at the time. "We were coming back from a mission. A group of mutants had attacked a police station in California. The Air Force doesn't exactly trust any mutant, so they sent some fighter jets to apprehend us. We were trying to outrun them, then the next thing I know, we're all here."
"The Elf had somethin' to do with it." Logan put in.
"How do you know?" Scott asked.
"I woke up and all 'a you were unconscious. The whole plane was filled with Kurt's smoke. It was so thick I couldn't breathe." Logan remembered the overpowering stench of sulfur and how the smoke had seemed to choke him.
"But Kurt can't teleport more than three miles, and he certainly can't teleport into the future." Ororo argued.
"I didn't say I knew how, I just knew that he did. How else do you explain a bunch of blue, sulfur-smelling smoke being there? I couldn't even see it was so thick." Logan retorted.
"Maybe Kurt's power is growing. That's not entirely unheard of." Scott suggested.
"And he's the only one of us who didn't make it through so well." Logan added.
"I don't know if this'll help, but when I scanned him, he seemed overexerted, his body nearly depleted of energy. Would that tell you anything?" Bones asked.
"Yeah. Kurt's always sayin' he eats so much because it takes a lot of energy to teleport. I know he can wear himself out doin' it too." Rogue thought aloud.
"What do you think Jean?" Scott asked.
Jean didn't answer. She was deep in thought, remembering those last few moments before everything went black.
"Jean?" Scott tried again.
His voice pulled her out of her trance. "Huh? What?"
"What do you think? Do you think Kurt could have brought us here?" Scott asked.
"I don't know. I guess it's possible. I…" She trailed off as she remembered her last coherent thought. "I did." She whispered.
"What?" Scott leaned in closer to hear her properly.
"You couldn't have, darlin'. Kurt's smoke was everywhere. It wasn't you." Logan had heard her perfectly.
Spock raised an eyebrow. Though Logan had said he'd had enhanced senses, Spock was still surprised that Logan had been able to hear such a barely audible whisper.
"No, I did!" Jean said. "I-I remember Scott asked me to level the plane, so I was trying to use the Phoenix, but…but my mind started to wander. I had a thought that it would be great it if we could go to a place where people don't have this kind of prejudice. Where everyone just got along. Where we weren't hunted and persecuted even when we were just trying to help. I just wanted to disappear and reappear there. And that thought led to one about Kurt's teleportation, and then I sensed that he was about to teleport. I remember, it was like the Phoenix focused on him, and then, here we are."
"Well, if you got us here, you can get us back, Jean." Scott encouraged.
"Maybe. It takes a lot of concentration to use the Phoenix, especially something of this magnitude. That was just an accident." Jean worried, eyebrows knitting together and causing creases on her lovely face.
"What about Kurt? Getting us here almost killed him! We can't make him do that again!" Kitty's heart filled with worry for her fuzzy blue friend. She wanted to get back home, to see Piotr, but she couldn't sacrifice Kurt for that.
"Half-pint's got a point," Logan pointed out. "He ain't exactly in any shape to be teleportin' two feet, much less through time."
"Then we wait until Kurt's well enough." Scott decided.
"You'll lose him when you get back." McCoy interjected. "You better have a dang good doctor there or you will lose him. His body can't take that kind of stress."
Scott looked at Jean. "Can you handle it?"
She nodded. "I think so. Dr. McCoy, could you give me some of your medicines, maybe a couple of pointers or instructions or something so I can take care of Kurt when we get back?"
"You're a doctor?"
"Yes."
"Then, by all means!" Bones felt sure that he could train a monkey with the basics, but if the demon-Kurt--needed surgery, a doctor would definitely be needed. "It might be awhile before he's up to it, though."
"Then we'll wait." Scott was sure this plan would work.
"I don't understand why ya'll are still tryin' to figure out how to get back an' all. It ain't worth it. They'll just kill us all later." Rogue spoke up.
"Maybe we could join Magneto." Remy said quietly.
Scott's visor flared red, struggling to control the energy pulse trying to fight its way out. He lunged at Remy. "You will never say that! Magneto kills innocents! Is that what you're willing to do? Become a monster like him?"
Remy held up his hands, "I did not say dat, mon ami. But I tink da question is, what are you willing to do to survive?"
"Scott," Jean said firmly, afraid he might actually hurt Remy. A fight would get messy, and they couldn't afford to damage the ship. Those walls were the only thing keeping them from the cold vastness of space.
Scott released his grip on Remy's collar. "There's got to be a better way."
Now it was Jim and McCoy's turns to be scared. Spock simply would not allow himself to feel the emotion. These people were talking about changing the past. If they did, the present they lived in now might not exist. They might not exist.
"We'll find some way to fix this all," Jim assured them, more to calm them down than anything else. He couldn't risk having seven mutants with highly destructive powers getting upset and losing control on his ship.
"I just wonder why nobody knows about us." Kitty said, shaking her head sadly.
"A very good question." Spock observed. So far, nothing of Earth history had been edited out, at least to his knowledge. They still taught the historical horrors of the Holocaust, slavery, and the Eugenics Wars; hoping that remembering such evil would help them not to make such mistakes again. But why leave out the mutants?
"You mentioned that you were on a mission, and you called yourselves 'X-Men'? What exactly is it that you do as X-Men?" Spock asked.
Cyclops answered. "We protect humans from mutants who abuse their powers, like Magneto. He believes in mutant supremacy. He's tried to kill all of the humans before, but we stopped him. We also protect mutants from humans who would do the same thing."
Spock nodded, considering the implications of what this meant.
Kitty sighed. "Just yesterday Kurt telling me that he thought of us like outlaws, like Robin Hood and Captain Blood. I think he'd just watched an Errol Flynn movie marathon or something, because he kept talking about how we're hated and hunted even though what we're doing is good, just like Robin Hood. And Captain Blood. I swear, he loves that movie more than anything else in the world."
Remy put an arm around Kitty. The two weren't that close, but he could sense that she was extremely worried about her best friend.
Then she got an idea. "Wait, Kurt!"
"What about him, petite?" Remy asked, looking down at the tiny brunette.
"When he teleports, he travels through a different dimension, right?"* Kitty was getting excited.
"Right…" Jean nodded.
"So, if there are multiple dimensions, what if-"
Jean cut her off, "He took us to another dimension! Mutants don't exist here because it's not our dimension!"
Kitty grinned, "Exactly!"
The relief in the room was palpable as the threat of extinction was lifted from the mutants' shoulders and the Starfleet men didn't have to worry about the past being changed.
"However, this is only a theory. This may very well be your dimension as it is ours." Spock stated.
"Leave it to the pointy-eared hobgoblin to ruin the mood." Bones grumbled.
Spock merely raised and eyebrow and glanced in the doctor's direction.
Kitty leaned in to Logan, "Now he really does look like an elf."
Spock chose to ignore the comment. Typical of humans.
"I don't think Kurt would like that guy stealin' his nickname, though." Rogue grinned, keeping her voice low so Spock wouldn't hear her. Little did she know that Vulcans' hearing almost matched Logan's.
"Well, I for one, am going to believe Kitty's theory because I like it better." Remy announced.
"I agree, and until we find out otherwise, I propose that it's the theory we operate on." Scott added.
"But how could we find out otherwise? What could we do?" Kitty asked.
"I might could get in touch with the Professor," Jean thought aloud. "If I concentrated hard enough, we could possibly communicate on an astral plane."
"A what?" Bones asked.
"Kind of a telepathic dimension.* A link that can be established. I might not be strong enough to do it, but he could." Jean answered.
"Whatever works." Bones said. He was glad they were getting this mess sorted out.
A beep came from the wall. "Sickbay to Dr. McCoy."
Kitty couldn't help but giggle. It was funny that this Dr. McCoy wore a blue uniform and the Dr. McCoy she knew had blue fur. She imagined Beast in that outfit and giggled more.
Bones strode over to the comm unit on the wall. "McCoy here. Go ahead, Nurse Chapel."
"Doctor, I think the patient woke up."
"You think?" Bones asked, agitatedly.
"Well, he's gone, sir."
*Episode from Season three, "Is There No Truth In Beauty?"
*If I'm not mistaken, Kurt doesn't find out about the Brimstone dimension until much later, but I'm taking artistic license and saying that he already knows that he travels through a different dimension, but not about Azazel and all of that from the Draco storyline, which I personally don't care for.
*An astral plane is more of a spiritual dimension, but I feel this works better.
Author's note,
My apologies for not updating sooner. I had been putting off getting a new battery for my computer, due to lack of funds (thank you, college, for draining me of all of my money and time), however, my battery decided that it could not take any more and would not charge. I now have a new battery and am writing again. I apologize for the dullness and disjointedness of this chapter as I am trying to get back into the groove of this story, so to speak. Also, you may have noticed I was channeling Evolution Kitty and Rogue. I have watched the original cartoon, Evolution, and Wolverine and the X-Men, so these characters will probably be a conglomeration of their movie selves, perhaps comics selves, and animated selves. Reviews are always appreciated.