Chapter 6: A Stark Past

When I came to, it felt like waking up after a particularly terrible night of drinking. My head was pounding and it hurt to open my eyes. I didn't dare sit up just in case it might cause me to puke. Remaining on my back, I could feel the chilly air around me, making my whole body shake. The ground was soft. Something firm and cool was poking me in the face too. I cracked my eyes open and looked up into the night sky. I was laying in dirt, surrounded by plants. I slowly bent my legs and arms, making sure they worked properly, and clenched my hands and wiggled my fingers.

I sat up too suddenly, all the blood rushing from my face. The stone! It was gone! Fighting the funny feeling in my stomach, I got on my hands and knees and started frantically searching for the orange gem. Among the brown and green it couldn't be hard to find a glowing orange gemstone!

"Who goes there," a voice called out. I stopped digging around and fell flat on my stomach. A light came on just above where I had been. I tried to inch away from it.

"Sir!"

I cursed and started searching the dirt again, not caring if I was caught. I just had to find the stone and figure out how to get away. As I looked around, my hand landed on something leathery. Then I felt the cool barrel of a shotgun under my chin. "Don't move," a male voice grunted. "Or I'll be forced to shoot."

Against my better judgement, I looked up. Standing in front of me was a man who looked to be in his mid-to-late twenties. He was in a dressing gown style not worn after the 1950's. He had a nice face with dark hair, dark eyes, and full lips. Above those lips sat a mustache that reminded me of the billionaire Tony Stark.

"You have got to be kidding me," I groaned. That interview I had been at, before I was kidnapped, was for Stark Industries. There had been a large portrait of the founder behind the desk of the woman who was interviewing me. This man was Howard Stark, Tony Stark's father.

"Who are you? Did the government send you? Did the Germans send you?" I gasped, trying to think of something to say. I must have looked awful. Peter's blood still coated my clothes and hands, dirt was smeared all over my exposed skin, and my hair was sticking up in odd places. Howard Stark shoved the gun harder under my chin. "Speak!"

"Okay! Okay," I held my hands up. There was no way in hell this was going to go well. "My name is Macie Mitchell. I'm a doctor – a new doctor – medical – I just got my degree…" I was rambling, "I – I came from the future…I think…"

As expected, he did not look convinced, "You think?! You expect me to believe that? Spy!"

"No! I'm not lying! There was a gemstone. An orange stone. I touched it and it brought me here! I swear!"

"Still not convinced, dollface."

I pushed the barrel of the gun out of my face and took a deep breath. I hoped those notes I took on the company would help me out. "You're name is Howard Stark. You founded Stark Industries. You're a scientist, a businessman. You design and build weapons."

"Anyone who picks up a paper would know that."

Shit. "You're working on reversion technology," I tried to remember facts about him from the history class I took with Charles. "You show it off at an expo or something! I don't think it worked. You're creating something secret for the SSR. Please, you have to believe me. I have to go back to my time! Someone I care for is hurt. Please help me."

Howard Stark pointed his gun at the ground. His eyes lost the fire and took on a more sympathetic shine. But then, "Mr. Stark! I've found something!"

I looked away from Howard Stark with wide eyes. Before he could do anything, I was off in the direction of the other voice. Around the corner, a tall man in a suit was bending down to pick up something orange. "Don't touch that," I screamed. I threw my body into the man and we went down hard. He wrestled with me, trying to catch my arms behind my back. I elbowed him in the nose and scrambled away. Howard Stark was in front of me as I slammed my hand on the orange stone with so much force, I thought it would go right through me.

Nothing happened.

There was no intense pain. No splitting feeling. Nothing. Horrified, I lifted my hand and slammed it on the stone again. Still nothing. I started crying in frustration as I felt myself being pulled away from the gemstone by the tall man. I didn't struggle as Howard Stark walked up to us. I looked at him pathetically. The stone didn't work. If it didn't work then I couldn't go back. Howard Stark's eyes were full of anger as he took the shotgun and slammed the handle into my temple and I fell into darkness again.


When I opened my eyes again, instead of the night sky above me, a silk canopy and a high white ceiling took its place. Instead of dirt, I was laying on a soft bed. Instead of leaves poking me in the face, the barrel of a shotgun was pressed against my cheek. I found my left wrist was also cuffed to the metal bed frame. Howard Stark sat in a chair, staring at me with an unreadable mask. He started talking the moment I looked at him.

"Your wounds healed. On their own. I watched it happen. How did you do that?"

I rolled my eyes and looked back up at the bed canopy. "The future, apparently," I muttered.

"Oh still on that story, are we?"

"It isn't a story Howard Stark. It's the truth."

"I don't believe you."

"You wouldn't. You wouldn't believe anything out of this world unless science could explain it."

"And that gemstone of yours is out of this world?"

"Yes. Maybe. I had only ever seen it once before. But I know, if it literally ripped me away from my time, then it's powerful. It sent me here, to your present, with one touch."

He was quiet for a few minutes. He removed the gun from my face, placing it across his lap. His tongue jut out between his lips as he frowned in frustration, "What are you?"

I sighed. I looked at him again with sad eyes, "I am a mutant. We are evolved Homo sapiens, if you will. A new normal in the future. There are many of us. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if there were many of us here too. Most of us can blend in. Others, their mutation is external and they are forced to hide from the world. A world that hates us. A world trying to destroy us." I had to look away again as tears silently slid down my face. "We are feared. The world is full of fearful people. And people try to rid the world of things they fear."

It was quiet again. I didn't know if he believed me. Frankly, I didn't care. I was stuck. I touched the stone and it didn't work. Peter and the others could be dead at the Brotherhood's hands in my present. But here I was. Wherever here was. I remained still as Howard Stark rifled through his pocket and procured a key. He leaned over and unlocked the cuff from around my wrist. I just let it fall limply by my head.

"I don't know if you are telling the truth or not. But what I saw you do, it wasn't natural. I may be a science man, but I do believe in seeing something to believe it. Now, I may not trust you. But you look like hell and wouldn't get far not knowing where or, as you say, when you are. Clean yourself up and rest. I want to hear the full story in the morning before I decide what to do with you."

With that, Howard Stark left me alone. I stared up at the canopy long after the man left. I couldn't stop the tears. I didn't want them to stop. Crying meant I had feelings. I wasn't an unfeeling mutant robot to be used again. But I felt like a robot as I got out of the bed and made my way to the bathroom. The old fashioned bathroom didn't faze me as I quickly figured out how the tub operated, filling it with scalding hot water. It would sting but not hurt me. Nothing could, not really.

As I sat in the water, I thought about the X-Men. From what Magneto told me about the stone, as you are in one time, your original time moves on with or without you. I thought about how fast or slow time was moving. Did they miss me? They must have if they came to save me from the Brotherhood. My mind wandered to Peter. Was he alive? His dried blood was still caked on my hands. I grabbed a bar of soap and furiously scrubbed my hands, making the water turn a rusty red-brown as it mixed with the dirt on my skin. I felt more disgusting.

When I finished cleaning myself as best as I could, I sat on the rim of the tub, watching as the rusty water drained away and left a red-orange ring around the inside. I wrapped myself in a soft robe that was hanging on the back of the door and looked out the large window into the darkness. From what I could tell, the property was huge. Probably as big as Xavier's. It made me wonder if Tony Stark used this place in my time. It'd be such a waste to leave it empty. My heart felt a stab of pain again just thinking about the man who took me in. I watched enough Sci-Fi to know that I might as well be stuck here.