Here's Ch11 of my Xmen/Witchblade xover. I want to thank the few people who have taken the time to review this story.
Rogue is from the South (Mississippi) and has a southern accent which I don't even want to try and write. Same with Piotr and his Russian/ Slavik accent. I might give small glimpse, but use your imaginations to get the real voice.
Here's a little (lot) of Xmen Mutant history according to my own beliefs from what I've read/heard/seen of Xmen and what I want to have happened:
The one called Apocalypse was either the first or one of the first Mutants. He originated (according to XMen:Evo) in ancient Egypt. Stuff happened, he was locked away.
Various people off and on devoloped abilities beyong human norm. These were Proto Mutants and are the basis for most of the myths and legends regarding goblins, elves, vamps, weres, etc... They aren't considered homo superiors as they were genetically unstable and unable to procreate or pass on their own genes, though there might have been large numbers of individuals with similar mutations, making it seem like there were 'races'.
These PM's continued until the first Modern Mutants were born and grew. These two were Logan and Creed, with a few others not long after, but none with their longevity. What separated them from the ProtoMutants was that there were no outward signs of differences between then and homo sapien. Their genetic material was stable, and while the 'vamp' and 'were' class PM could pass on their mutations to man, their mutations were their own and could not be transmitted except through conception.
Then came several successive generations of mutants(outcasts, sterile, often driven mad by their gifts, these are the witches, madmen of the times), slowly growing in numbers until Mystique was born.
Time of Birth:
Apocalypse-3200BC
Logan(roughly)-sometime late 1700's
Creed-early 1800's mid 1800's
Mystique-1880's, first Modern Mutant born with powers instead of developing during puberty
Magneto-1925, first occurance of powers 1937
Xavier-1928, first obvious occurance 1940
Then series of births as mutants slowly start to grow in numbers to current time.
Magneto mets Xavier in 1945 at Oxford University.
Logan/Creed- meet in mid 1800's and join together, run together for years until Creed betrays Logan and they swear eternal vengeance on each other. Creed was Jack the Ripper. Stopped when Logan tracked him down after being left to die by Creed in Arctic.
Mystique (in disguise)-meets Creed in 1911. Has already had two children by this time, one of whom is Peter Parker's Grandfather(which is how he survives radioactive bite) and the other is Morph's grandmother. Travels with Creed until 1912, when they get in fight with Logan on their passenger ship that sinks Titanic
-meets Logan in 1905, stay together for 3 years until she learns of pregnancy and leaves him without telling him about child, who is PP grandfather.
-meets Magneto/Xavier in 1949 in guise of wife of a German Baron they sought funding from, she later gave birth to the Baron's child, who was born in 1953 and is known as Nightcrawler.
-1960, she, Logan, and Creed reunite and put aside differences to fight together as part of covert team. Team is called for various assignements over course of next 15 years (genetic samples and tests done prior and post each mission to all team members.) before Logan is taken for Weapon-X project in 1975.
-1977 Magneto/Xavier have fight that causes them to end friendship
-1980 Logan escapes Weapon-X facility and is found by early members of Alpha Flight. Joins for a time before becoming disatisfied with leadership and strikes out on his own.
-1981 Mystique gives birth to Marie(Rogue), gives her up for adoption as she is contacted by Magneto to aid him begin preparations for a series of crimes that fund his research, she doesn't remember anything about pregnancy except that one minute she was going to her handler to get information for a mission and the next she's giving birth and then has to give up the child.
-1995 Marie's mutation kicks in, few months later, she overhears parents talking about her and adoption, feels lost and runs
-1997 Logan runs into Marie in bar in northern Alberta. Later same day, meets Xmen.
in my timeline/verse, Mystique has had 5 children. Kurt Wagner(Nightcrawler), Marie ?(Rogue), David Parker (Peter's grandfather), Sara Jones(Morphs' Grandmother), and one other, not sure who yet.
so that's a rough timeline/history of my particular XMen Universe that I'm using. You might wonder why I took the time to write this all out, but some of it may come into play later. especially the history between Logan/Mystique/Marie/Creed. I wanna work some of that in, maybe have Irons' psychic Nottingham clone restore all of Logan's memories during a battle, making him pretty much useless for a bit. Mystique and Creed's minds are also messed with, so they show up and have their memories restored. Maybe a Mystique/Rogue moment where somehow, Rogue's shirt gets ripped and Mystique recognizes a birthmark and it clicks that Rogue is her daughter. After that, all her memories start coming back, and all the things she's done, just to find a life she could live and have a family. In my verse, her driving instinct is to protect her children. And thanks to the warped way she was raised and the time spent with Creed/ Magneto skewered her morals. She's not evil, just a person wanting to have a safe world for her children. with C.Park as the subject line.
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"So what we going to do tonight?" Logan asked as he and Nottingham sat in the darkened apartment. There was very little furnishings, most of it threadbare and falling apart. There was no electricity in the building, nor was there any heat or water. Logan had thought ahead and brought a battery powered cooler and some dry foods that they could eat while they continued their surveillance of Sara's apartment.
At the moment, the apartment across the alley was dark, as Sara and the teens had gone to bed for the night nearly an hour before. They'd gotten back a couple of hours before, had a pizza delivered and spent some time chatting and watching movies before deciding to get some sleep. Logan's mutation had allowed him to listen in on the conversation, which was less then 40 feet from the window he was looking out. He'd been surprised to find that Nottingham was also following the conversation, and had raised an eyebrow in query to the younger man, but Nottingham had simply shrugged and gestured that it wasn't the time to answer questions.
"I am going to stay here and watch Lady Sara's loft in case Irons or Dante try something." Nottingham stated in his customary dry tones. "I care not what you do, so long as you do not interfere in my duty to protect Lady Sara."
Logan snorted and moved away from the window, pausing to grab a bottle of water from the cooler. He took a deep draft of the bottle and then a wiff of the room to familiarize himself with the environment. Something about being here alone with Nottingham was bothering him and he was trying to piece together what was tickling his senses. Sara had told him that Nottingham had been raised by Irons and undergone unknown number of genetic therapy and drug enhancement proceedures to increase his body and mind's capabilities. Yet there was something wrong with Nottingham's scent.
Logan's sense of smell was more advanced then anyone knew. Not only could he track and identify individual pheromone traces, but he was able to differentiate between mutants and normal humans. There were slight differences in the odors produced by people affected by the so called X-Gene then those produced by someone without the gene. Nottingham stunk of the X-Gene, but it was not as blatant as that left by most mutants he had encountered. There was something masking the odor, an overlay of scents that he couldn't quite place. He'd been around enough artificially enhanced beings to know the most common scents of gene splicing and drug enhancements, but Nottingham smelled of nothing he'd ever encountered. It was obvious to him that Nottingham was a natural mutant, who's X-Gene had been artificially altered by some means he didn't even want to think about.
Whatever drug treaments and gene therapies Nottingham supposedly was put through, must have been designed as a cover of his mutant abilities. By forcing the young Nottingham to undergoe the treatments and proceedures, they set in his mind a sense of debt and gratitude in his developing psyche that would later on cement his loyalty to the person who had giving him his 'gifts'. Because if the abilities had been given by treatments, then there was a chance they could be taken away if he disobeyed his benefactor. Whereas if they were a natural a part of his being as his arms and eyes, then he owed the person nothing for teaching him to control the gifts and use them to enforce his other training. Make him blindly loyal and obedient to Irons' every command.
Logan snorted and wondered who Nottingham's parents must have been. His memory might be fuzzy, but even he knew that the mutant population was extremely low up until the late 70's early 80's when for some reason, mutants started popping up everywhere. Nottingham's parents, or at least one of them, must have been some of the first mutants around. He didn't really know how old he was, or even Creed, but he had learned that they'd been alive and fighting back in the 1880's. He assumed that he and Creed were among the first true mutants, at least those to survive long enough to learn what they were. He rather thought that a lot of the old stories about vampires and werewolves were simply early mutants that were somehow able to pass their mutations on through some type of venom they produced. He didn't include these protomutants when thinking of the origins of himself and Creed. Much like how modern humans didn't like to consider Cro-Magnon man as part of their family tree.
He finished his drink and tossed the empty bottle into a box they'd set aside for garbage. He studied the other man for a moment, just making an imprint in his mind of the other's body language and general physical aura. He wanted to be able to identify the man through those little physical quirks of movement and posture that every one but were different for every person. No matter how good a shapeshifter was, he'd only met one who'd ever fooled him, and he had other ways to recognize Mystique if she showed up. But he didn't doubt that Irons had enough funds at his disposal to possibly contract some of the other rogue mutants that might not be part of the brotherhood, but weren't exactly fans of the Xmen either. There were hundreds of mutants who used their abilities to make fast money and that often meant becoming mercenaries or hired muscle for the upper crust of society who didn't want their misdeeds to be broadcast.
Logan turned away and looked around. The room they were in was pretty bare, with nothing to really distract them from their job of watching Sara's apartment. The downside was there was nothing to do to fill the time. He withheld a sigh and instead tried to focus more intently on the memories he held of Sara and her father. It was rare that he came across good memories when the occassional piece of his past fell loose. It felt good to learn something good about his past.
With little else to do except relive his memories, he took out a deck of cards and started a game of solitare using the cooler as a table. He trusted his senses to detect anything unusual coming from the apartment across the short alley. Besides, he could hear Nottingham's breathing and heartbeat and if anything happened, those would increase.
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Sara sighed and threw back the blankets, giving up on getting any more sleep that night. 'Well, morning really.' she thought to herself glancing at the nearest clock which showed almost 6am. She moved quietly through the loft, not wanting to wake either of her guests. She started upt the coffee machine and rooted through the fridge for a snack, again feeling gratitude towards her stalker for filling her grocery list. She'd propably have either gained 15-20 pounds eating fast food all the time or starved to death on some unhealthy diet.
Grabbing a piece of pepporoni, she chopped a few slices onto some bread, added some salami and ham, then found some spicy italian sausage and added that. She added some spicy dijon, and topped it off with some romaine lettuce. She placed her sandwich on a plate, and took out a block of cheese. She sliced off a few pieces, and added them to the plate before placing the meat and cheese back into the fridge and grabbing a small juice box to drink while waiting for the coffee.
She turned on the radio in the kitchen, keeping the volume low not to bother anyone else. She might still be on vacation, but she wanted to know what was happening incase some of her cases had developed during her absence. There was a bit about Kenneth Irons hiring new bodyguards after firing his former head of security. Then it went into a few local news matters, mainly small accidents, a fire or three, nothing unusual for a city of several million. The national news came up next and aside from another call to have the president call for an early election, nothing stood out there. Even the international news blurbs were quiet.
She finished her sandwich and juice just as the coffee finished brewing. She heard some stirring in the living room and poured two cups just in time as one of her young guests staggered into the kitchen area.
"Morning, Pietro. Sleep okay?" she asked, silently asking him if he wanted the second cup. He seemed to hesitate for a moment, then nodded and carefull took the mug in his massive hand. Sara was amazed that someone his size was barely 17 years old, and yet without a great deal of concentration, he'd crush bone and bend steal with the simplest of gestured. His life was a model of control, as even without transforming into his metallic form he was strong enough to bench press a VW bug. He had to force himself to limit his strength while doing such every day tasks as eating, brushing his teeth, and even typing or reading were exercises in control for the gentle giant.
"Ja, I sleep well, danke." the Russian teen stated as he downed the coffee with a grimace. "Not my normal drink, but I think for today, it is good."
Sara quirked an eyebrow at the teen. "Not a coffee drinker? I'm addictied to the stuff myself. I'm usually not this coherent in the mornings without at least three cups in me."
"I prefer a cup of tea in the morning, though on the farm, I would drink coffee like all my comrades. A cup of tea with mother and Iliyana before starting chores, then coffee during the day with the other men."
Sara grinned, and poured herself a second cup, she heard the shower start up, and guessed that her other guest was feeling in need of freshining up before facing the day. "So what do we do today?"
"Are the Rangers or Islanders in town?" Marie asked, drying her hair wit ha towel and coming out of the bathroom dressed in a robe. "Logan would have a cow if I got to a game before he did this year."
Sara shrugged. She wasn't much of a hockey fan. She prefered basketball and baseball her self. "Not sure, it should say in the TV guide on the coffee table. Anyone want breakfast? I had a sandwich, but I can whip up some eggs and bacon?"
"Actually, a sandwich sounds good. Mind if I root through the fridge and fix a couple for me and Piotr? I've been in KP enough to know what he likes on his, and while I'm doing that you or he can grab a shower." Marie said, drapping the towel over the back of a stool and moving into the small space of the kitchen, automatically adjusting her body position to limit any chance contact between her and Sara.
Sara moved around the other side of the counter, giving hte teen more room to rifle the contents of the fridge. "I'll grab a shower first, if that's okay with you, Piotr? I feel a little grimmy after the circus last night."
"Ja, comrade. I shall enjoy Rogue's excellent kitchen skill and discuss with her some of the problems Dr. Grey assigned in maths before we met. I having problems with maths and sciences. Am good at arts and history, but not good at . . . vat is term?"
"not sure, sugar." Marie stated as she pulled out some ingredients and set them on the counter. "I know that you're good at remembering things and with creative thinking and stuff, but it's the others, uh, I think abstract reasoning? Math, science, stuff like that were it's more about using a set rule to find a problem than just remembering it or finding it in your own way."
Piotr just shook his head. "I just know I no understand what the professor means when she speaks of the problems."
Marie chuckled, finished making her sandwich before starting on two massive constructions for her friend. "Can't help you there, suga'. Not too good at math, maself. Not too bad at Chemistry, since you have something there to work with, but pure math? Not a chance."
"Ah vell, I just ask Kitty when we go home, ja?"
Marie grinned as the shy Russian bit into his sandwich to hide his blush. The whole school knew that the poor guy had it bad for the Chicago valley girl. The only ones who didn't seem to know where Kitty herself and Scott, who had about as much emotional sensitivity to any non Jean relationship as Logan had manners. Meaning almost non existence. Scott only noticed Jean, and those who interacted with Jean, and pretty much was oblivious to the other relationships in the mansion.
Sara finished her shower and dried off in the bathroom. She moved into her room to grab some clothes, noting that Piotr and Marie were on watching the CartoonNetwork and discussing which was the best cartoon feline. Rogue seemed to think that Heathcliff was often over looked, while Piotr seemed to be firmly in the corner of Garfield.
After finishing dressing she came out to find that the pair still hadn't settled the arguement and where giving evidence to make their case. She sighed, reached between the two to grab the remote and turned off the TV, silencing the annoying jittery animation. The two teens glared at her for a moment in disbelief as she moved over to get her coat.
Slipping it on, she sighed as she realized that they were both still there. "Look, it's 10 am. Let's get out of here for a while. We can visit a few museums or something. Maybe tour RadioCity." The two sighed and moved over, grabbing their own jackets. She ushered them out the door and locked it behind them. As she turned to lead the way down the stairs, she called over her shoulder.
"Besides, every one knows that Felix is the best animated cat. Garfield and Heathcliff couldn't tweak his whiskers. Though Jerry is a close second with Sylvester easily sliding into third." She grinned at the choked laughter that burst into the air behind her. 'Got them.'
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Logan chuckled as he listened to the debate between Marie and Piotr. He couldn't remember either of the cats they were talking about, and doubted he'd ever watched anything with them in it, though he did have a secret joy in watching the Cartoon Network and Nick at Night back at the mansion. Especially since he could chase use his rep to chase everyone out of the room with the big screen and use his hearing and to track people nearing so that he could switch to some random sporting event he didn't really give a damn about.
Nottingham frowned as the other man's laughter again interupted his attempts to connect to Lady Sara's emotional state. He could see her through the windows preparing to leave, speaking with the youths under her command, but could not quite make out what was being said. His hearing was good, and before he'd met Logan he would have said superb, but even he could not hear what was said in an apartment 100 feet away, over the noises of the street traffic and blaring televisions and radios in the apartments nearby. For the first time in his life, he felt. . . inferior. It was clear that Logan could hear what was being said by the Wielder and the youths, but he could not. He could not remember the last time he had failed to accomplish a task he'd set for himself, or had someone perform a task he could not complete.
Despite himself, he felt curiosity rise within him and was almost forced to speak. "Can you hear what the Lady Sara and her charges are discussing?" he asked reluctantly.
Logan looked over at the other man, ready to brag about his abilities while deriding Nottingham's lack there of. The tense self-loathing expression on the other man's face caused him to reconsider, not something he did often. "Yeah, but I've had a lot of years to practice. I might only really remember the last 15 or so, but I'm guessing from some of my memories that I've had at least 100 years to work on controlling them and working to make them stronger. I'm guessing that as I got older, my abilities started getting stronger. I have a clear memory of getting shot in WW1, not sure who I was fighting for, but I remember being shot. Took a few hours to heal completely. Now, I get shot, and I heal up in a few minutes, if not faster. Same with my senses."
Ian frowned. He'd noted in private a similar effect on his own gifts. His senses were becoming sharper, his speed and strength seemed to be increasing instead of leveling off, and his connection to the Wielder grew stronger. He had always though that it was simply an effect of the willing bonding of the Wielder to the Blade, but after hearing Logan's description of his abilities, he suspected there might be a different source. What if the experiments he'd under gone as a child were only the beginning and that he would soon undergoe another 'puberty' as it were? He dearly wished he could find the answers, but the only answers that existed were those created and guarded by Irons, and Ian would never willfully return to that man for any thing. Even for he knowledge of who and what he truly was. Any future intercation between him and Irons would only come about if Irons continued his pursuit of the Wielder. And Irons had better hope that whatever he crafted as a replacement for Ian Nottingham know that not even death would stop the knight from protecting his lady.
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Well, I hope you're liking the story. Sorry for the long delays. Lsot my job and kinda went blah on everything for a while. Not the longest chapter, and a lot of AN at the start, hopefully some of you read it and will comment on the little 'verse I'm creating. Hoping to have some type of confrontation next chapter, not sure if Xmen/Brotherhood/misc mutant or SaraIan/IronsGroup.
