Disclaimer: I do not own the X-men or any other Marvel characters. The only thing that is mine is the plot.
A/N: Three more months have passed, and Scott is still Captain America. He has been using his free time to look into his past, in hopes of finding out about his family. This story will tell the tale of a new origin for the X-Men's first leader, the man known as Cyclops.
The Makings of a Hero
Chapter.8. – Sinister Happenings
A car turns down a dirt road, and approaches a rundown house, surrounded by tall, uncut grass. The car comes to a stop, and Scott gets out. He looks at the house and sees that most of the windows are boarded up, and that it is in a state of disrepair.
Jennifer steps out of the passengers side, and asks, "Is this the right place?"
Scott walks over to the porch, and picks something up off the ground. He brushes off the dirt to reveal a sign reading *The State Home for Foundlings; est 1963*. "This is the place." He replies, looking back at the house. "But it looks like no one has lived here for years."
Jennifer walks over to stand beside him. "Maybe they moved to a new location?"
"No. This is the address I got from the registry; it hasn't moved." He says, taking a cautious step up onto the porch.
Jennifer places a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "Scott? What are you doing?"
He looks back over his shoulder at her. "What does it look like? I'm going inside."
"But..."
"Look Jen, we have a court order saying that we are allowed to enter the premises and inspect their records; and that's what I intend to do. Odds are the records have all been removed, and are stored somewhere else; but maybe there's a clue as to where that might be inside." Scott says, taking her hand.
Jennifer nods, and steps up onto the porch with him.
Scott reaches for the door handle, certain that it's locked; but is surprised when he turns the knob and pushes the door open.
If the outside looked bad, it's nothing compared to the inside. A thick layer of dust covers everything, and spider-webs hang like curtains. It is also apparent that most of the furniture and decorations are broken. The picture frames are scattered about on the floor.
"How long has it been since you ran away?" Jennifer asks, being careful not to step on anything.
"I ran away when I was fourteen, so almost ten years now." Scott says, picking up a picture off the floor, and dusting it off. "Why?"
"Because this place looks like it's been abandoned for a long time." She looks at the picture Scott has. "Almost as long as you've been gone."
Suddenly Scott stands up straight and takes off running down the hall. He turns left at the end, and runs up the stairs. Jennifer is right behind him, as he crashes through a door, and into a large room. "No. It can't be." Scott says, coming to a stop in the middle of the room, and staring at a huge hole in the wall and ceiling.
"What happened here?" Jennifer asks, as she survey's the damage. "It looks like something took a chunk out of the house."
"Not something; someone." Scott says. "I did this."
Jennifer turns to look at him. "What?"
"You remember that I told you I'm a mutant, and that I shoot powerful beams of concussive force from my eyes, unless my eyes are closed or I'm wearing some kind of protection; like my glasses." He says, tapping his ruby-quartz glasses. Jennifer just nods. "Well, when I was fourteen, my mutant power manifested, and I did that before I could close my eyes and stop it." He says, pointing at the hole.
"Wow." Jennifer says, looking at the hole again.
"That same night, I ran away; but I always assumed that they had repaired it, and gone on being an orphanage." Scott says, as he walks over to a bunk-bed near the window. He reaches down and runs a hand over the bottom bunk.
"Was that your bed?"
"For almost three years."
Jennifer places a hand around his waist, and he pulls he into a hug. "What do you suppose happened?" She asks.
"I don't know; but I intend to find out." He replies, turning them towards the door, taking her hand, and leading her back downstairs.
They stop at a closed door, about halfway down the hall. Scott reaches for the handle, while Jennifer reads the name on the door. "Dr. Milbury."
"If there are any records left, they'll be in here." Scott says.
The room is like the rest of the house, covered in a layer of dust, except the furniture is still intact. Scott sees some filing cabinets near the back wall and says, "Over there. We might as well start with those."
They make their way over, trying not to knock anything over in the cluttered office. "So where do we start?" Jennifer asks.
Scott looks at the four cabinets and says, "You take the right, I'll take the left, and we'll work our ways towards each other." He opens the top drawer, and starts searching the contents.
Jennifer does the same on the right side, and asks, "So, what are we looking for?"
"Anything labeled Summers, Scott, Alex, or dated from around the time of the plane crash up until I arrived." Scott replies, flipping through the folders.
Jennifer busies herself with reading the folder labels, and is halfway through the second drawer when Scott shouts, "What the fuck!" She looks over to see him pulling out folders, opening them, and then tossing them over his shoulder.
"What's wrong, Scott?"
"The folders...they're empty. Well not empty, but full of useless papers. It's like as if someone just put a bunch of random medical printouts in the folders." He replies, tossing more folders down in disgust.
Jennifer takes a folder out of the drawer she was going through, and opens it. Sure enough, the folder labeled 'Smith, Tabitha', is full on computer printouts. She grabs the next folder, 'Sontag, Philippa' and finds that one to be full of printouts too. "This doesn't make any sense." She says. "Did someone remove the actual files and then fill the folders with this?"
"Or were there ever any files to begin with?" Scott adds.
They both get back to the filing cabinets.
Not long after, Jennifer says, "Hey, this drawers locked."
Scott looks over to see her on her knees, trying to pull open the bottom drawer. "Need a hand?"
"No...I...got...it." She replies, yanking between each word. Finally, with one last pull, the lock pops, and the drawer slides open.
They both look inside, and see that it is almost empty; a small lockbox sits on top of several folders. Scott grabs the lockbox, and tries to open it, while Jennifer takes the folders, and reads the labels.
"Oh my God; Scott, we found them." She says. "Look at these; 'Summers, Scott' and 'Summers, Alex'." She holds up the folders so that he can see the labels.
He takes the folders, handing her the lockbox, and opens the one with his name on it. "It's real. Everything is in here; from the day I woke up at the hospital, until the day I ran away." He says, closing it and opening the other one. "This one too."
"So are these two." Jennifer says, having checked the other two folders. "Nathaniel Essex, and Remy LeBeau. Those names ring a bell?"
Scott stands up, and is silent for a few moments, before taking the four folders and the lockbox, and saying, "I'm going to go put these in the car; I can read them back at the hotel."
"Scott, I..." Jennifer starts to say, standing back up.
"Look, Jen, I know what you're going to say, but look at this place; something fishy is going on here, and I'm not willing to risk losing these now that I've found them."
"You're right." She replies. "I'll keep looking through the rest of the folders until you get back; maybe I'll find something else."
Scott turns, and walks away. He makes his way down the hall and out the front door, but has a feeling that he's being watched. He pops the trunk of the rental car, and uses the fact that his glasses hide his eyes to scan the building. He notices some movement behind one of the upstairs windows, but isn't sure if it's his imagination getting the better of him. Just in case, though, he takes out his artists portfolio, which contains his visor and Captain America's shield.
He makes his way back inside, and as he approaches the office, he notices that it's quiet; too quiet. He doesn't hear the sounds of papers being shuffled, or even metal drawers being opened or closed.
He steps into the open doorway, and sees a large blond man holding up an unconscious Jennifer by her hair, with one hand, while his other hand is hovering in front of her throat, with, what looks like claws, millimeters from her jugular.
Before Scott can even think about moving a muscle, let alone utter a single word, something hits him in the neck, and his whole body is shocked with an electric current.
No longer able to control his body, Scott falls forward and to his left, hitting the floor with his shoulder. Luckily, his glasses remain on; so he can see as another man walks into the room from behind him. This man is large, with long black hair, and a mustache; his clothes seem to be covered with bits and pieces of machinery.
He bends down to inspect Scott, and notices that he's still conscious. "Would you look at that; he's still conscious." He says in a deep voice. "That shot should have been enough to knock out anyone." He glances over at the blond man. "Well, anyone that isn't you Sabretooth."
He looks back down at Scott, then removes something from his left hip. "This'll knock him out long enough." He says, pressing the device against Scott's neck, and pushing a button.
Once again, Scott feels an electric current course through his body, until, eventually, he succumbs to unconsciousness.
A/N: That's it for this chapter, hope you enjoyed it. Reviews are always appreciated.
In the next chapter: Sabretooth? Can Mr. Sinister and the rest of the Marauders be far behind?
Text in *Italics* represent thoughts.