Chapter 4

Wow another chapter done in like what a couple of weeks. I am on fire even if the story isn't lol. But anyways ya next chapter.

To answer a few questions and I mean just a few.

123coldsunishere I never really thought of that. I mean maybe it is possible old Matting to join up. Investing money in Stark Industries after the whole no selling weapons anymore. I clearly remember the stock falling had opening the door for others. And didn't Oscorp Industries face a similar fall at some point?

RoyalTwinFangs I can honestly say its nice to see you like this story to. And dom will not be going anywhere. At least I don't think so.

The Seabass thank you happy you like.

Evil279 I don't see him joining at any point myself but who knowns.

Now with questions answered on with the story and like always leave a review if you love, hate or have any ideas to add to the story. Also remember this story is not following any story line, moive or show to the letter. This is a whole different world where somethings over lap and others don't so feel free to shout out any ideas you have or PM me.

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I knew the day would come, when I would be pulled into the bullshit that was the Marvel Universe. Didn't matter where or which one I was in; it was an inevitability from the start. We have all read those stories where the MC tries to stay out of it just to whine and complain about shit when it happens. For me it's like okay fool you were reborn or transferred into someone else's body. What the fuck made you think you could avoid all the shit. No, you had to accept that it was going to happen and move on. Try and prepare like I was.

I did my research. I looked into everyone I could think of that wouldn't get me pinged by Shield. So, I knew quite a lot at this point. Mutants were not a thing yet or at least known by most. Little more than an urban legend at this point but little else. Charles Xavier was little more than a well-respected doctor with degrees Genetics, Biophysics, Psychology, Anthropology and Psychiatry. Magneto was well. I couldn't really find anything on him except for a few pictures with Charles, but what I did learn was they both looked a lot like their movie counterparts. So, hello Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian Murray McKellen. As well as Hugh Jackman who I found in a history book at the library in a picture standing side by side with Chris Evans and the rest of the cast of Captain America: The First Avenger.

Fyi in case you were not keeping up this meant I was fucked as far as knowledge went. Too many inconsistencies were popping up for me to count on any of my knowledge being worth anything. To give you more examples I found one of my favorite superheroes Peter fucking Parker and he was too old to be the MCU character and looked way too much like Tom Holland to be the one from the 2002 movie with Tobey Maguire. If I had to guess from the picture in the local paper, he was about 12. Things just kept going downhill from there, but I think you get the point.

Anyways with my knowledge more than shot to hell I was trapped doing prep work for things I didn't know would happen and I stopped reading the comics long ago. Now I did actually think of killing Peter and pretty much anyone else I thought I could find before shit hit the fan, but like I said I didn't know what would happen if I did that. Plus, I couldn't kill Peter. Well, I could, but wouldn't I liked Spiderman after all and was more than happy to butt heads with him down the line if it came down to it. That was only one of two reasons, however. I had many reasons like if I killed him how did I know Norman wouldn't still become the Green Goblin or that Doctor Octopus wouldn't come around. Two characters who I knew could crush me like a bug if they put their minds to it. So, I needed Peter as a deterrent till I was strong enough to make them think twice before crossing me.

On a side note, I found 3 of the Fantastic Four. Now I couldn't place which ones I was dealing with but I was hoping prime earth. I knew them best but I had my doubts seeing as Reed Richards looked pretty young. Perhaps early 20's while Sue and Johnny Storm were both still in their teens. As for Ben, I couldn't find him, but I that could be because he was still in the U.S. Air Force, and I wasn't about to poke around there. This meant they were not yet the Fantastic Four, but I had read a paper on the Marvel-1 Reed was building. So, it wasn't too far away at this point.

Anyways with all of that I realized how unprepared I truly was to deal with any of this. I was still small-time and in no way ready to deal even with even a young X-Men team. But I had little choice seeing as they were coming one way or the other from what Dom told me about his little meeting with them.

-March 3rd, 2000-

It was early in the morning at the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and Jean Gray had just gotten ready to head to school. It was a nice day out; the sun was shining, and she was excited that today was the day of the school field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was not like she hadn't been there before, having gone several times with her parents before her powers had manifested themselves but each time, she went it was just as wonderful as the last. And was why she was so excited to be going again.

"Jean, will you come to my office please." She heard the professor call out to her with his telepathy.

"Be there in a moment, professor." Jean says back to him with her own mind and starts to head for his office wondering what this is about.

Her and the rest of the team had already been given the speech about behaving themselves on their school trip. So, she honestly had no idea what this was about when she walked into the office. Spotting Scott sitting in a chair and Logan standing off to the side with Ororo she takes a moment to take them all in starting with Scott. Poor Scott she knew he had a bit of a crush on her ever since both of them had arrived at the school all those years ago. But while he had grown up to be pretty cute in his own way she found whole thing self-imposed leader of the team to be suffocating sometimes. He met well but he really needed to relax.

Next was Logan and what could she say about Logan other than he was the personification of manliness and masculinity. Often coming off as angry she had learned since their first meeting that he was in fact a very sweet person. He was also very handsome in a rough macho kind of way. Not her type seeing as she wasn't into older guys especially when you factor in, that he was a lot older than he looked. Like old enough to be her great grandfather if not older.

Then there was Ororo, her fellow student and kind of big sister. While Ororo kept of her past to herself, she was one of the few older women Jean could honestly say she looked up to. And whenever she had questions or needed advice about anything Ororo was the one she went to. Even if she was just a few years older than her. After all while only a few years older than her Ororo had seen more of the world and had lived out in it.

"Good morning, everyone." She says to all of them.

"Good morning, Jean," They all say. Well almost all of them. Logan just gives a small nod of his head with his typical grunt of acknowledgement.

"So, professor, what's up? Why do you call this meeting?" Scott asks with respect for their teacher.

"Ya professor, what is going on? We already had the talk about behaving ourselves on the school trip already." Jean says to him.

Smiling at both the impatient youngsters, Charles replied, "I have located a new mutant."

With eyes opening widely and with a smile on her face Jean asks, "What? Really professor?"

She always did like meeting new students and while some were better than others, she could honestly say she liked her fellow schoolmates and would be happy to add more to that number.

"Yes Jean, well not new really. In truth I have been tracking this young man for some time now but hadn't been able to fully locate him till now." Charles says to her, getting some surprised looks on everyone's faces.

It was a well-known fact to everyone in the mansion that with Cerebro the professor could locate nearly any mutant in the world with almost pinpoint accuracy unless they were shielded like Magneto. The fact that he couldn't with this one said something about his powers. But it was only Logan who wondered if that meant something more than what the kids were thinking.

"Is that good for us Chuck or bad?" Logan's gruff voice asks.

Looking over at Logan, Charles answers, "Honestly, Logan I am not sure. Even with the help of Cerebro I was not able to read much of anything from the young man's mind. All I was able to get from him was a feeling of extreme hostility and several repeating words."

"How many words were you able to get and what were they?" Logan asks, looking to get as much information as he could.

"Not many sadly and as for words themselves they were Irish, Russians, Job, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boss." Charles answers.

"That is not much to go off of Charles." Logan says as he thinks about what those words could mean. While the kids didn't know much about what was going on in the outside world, he kept his ears to the ground. He like Ororo and Charles watched the news. So, they knew about the gang war going on in New York City between the Irish and the Russian mobs. Things had calmed down somewhat, but it went without saying that the kid's field trip was almost cancelled because of it. The only reason it wasn't was because the Mat was in the Upper East Side while the gang war was happening in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.

This begged the question was this kid Charles was tracking involved in the gang war. There had been rumors courtesy of Evan of a new gang making a bid for power in Manhattan. Logan couldn't recall their names right now, but perhaps this kid was a part of this gang. Or perhaps he was making a mountain out of a molehill. Looking over at Ororo, she was having similar thoughts. It was too bad neither of them were going on this trip. Ororo had already graduated from Bayview High School last year and he hadn't volunteered to chaperon the brats. Though that didn't mean he could follow along anyways.

"Regardless of what these words stand for seeing as you will both be at the museum for the better part of the day there is a slight chance you could run into him. In which case if that happens I implore you both to introduce yourselves cautiously to him and see if he would like to join us here at the mansion." Charles says to the kids.

"Yes Professor." Jean and Scott say to him then get up to leave.

Once they exit the room Logan speaks, "You sure this is a good idea, Chuck? To send them to find whoever this kid is?"

"What do you mean Logan? What is there to worry about?" Ororo asks before Charles can answer.

"Logan, my dear is worried about the possibility of this particular individual being in some way involved in the current gang war in Manhattan." Charles answers

"Oh, I see." Ororo says now that Charles mentions it. For the last two years that had been all over the news and while it had died down somewhat over the last few months that is mostly due to what her cousin Evan had told her was because of the rise of a new gang from Hell's Kitchen. Their name escaped her right now, but according to him they had slowly been taking over the streets as of late despite nothing being said about them on the news.

"I understand your worries Logan and share them but the child will be at the Mat not in Lower Manhattan so they should be fine." Charles says to him

"Maybe but perhaps, it would be best if I follow along. If this kid is involved with the gangs, he could be dangerous." Logan says to him.

Charles understands all too well what Logan means even without reading his mind. While the chances were remote that they would even run into him the fact remains this mutant was an unknown element. And if he was involved with the gangs he could in fact be a killer. Something he felt the kids were not ready to deal with.

"Perhaps that would be best, but if you run into him don't confront him unless absolutely necessary. After all, you can be a little intimidating." Charles says with a smile on his face which makes Ororo and even Logan laugh a bit.

Later on, while in the Met, Jean is walking around looking at the many exhibits that were on display at the Met this month. But while she was doing that she was also keeping her mind open for the person they were looking for. According to the professor, even with Cerebro his mind was incredibly hard to read. That meant a naturally strong defenses brought on mostly likely by his powers. So slowly she scanned the minds of anyone who seemed to be at least a bit suspicious but had no luck so far. Till she entered the landscape section of the Met and came across a young man looking up at the View of Toledo panting by EL Greco.

She didn't know what it was, but something about the young man in front of her told her he was the one they were looking for. Perhaps it was just the way he was dressed in his black jeans and hoodie that coved what she could just make out was a lean build. A build that was meant more for speed than power. His black hair she could just make out from under his hoodie along with what she could guess was a cute boyish face. He seemed to be in his own little world as he didn't take his eyes off the painting and didn't move a muscle. Taking a moment, she tries and scans his mind but all she gets is nothing in return. Trying to read his mind was like trying to look into a dark cave with no light and in fact if she couldn't see him with her own eyes, she would have believed he was not there at all.

Not knowing what to do she quickly uses her power to call out to Scott and the others, "Guys I found him. Come to the landscape exhibit quickly."

It takes them a while but soon she is joined by Scott, Rogue and Evan but not the others.

"Jean, we are here. So, what do we got?" Scott asks, in what Jean has learned to recognize as his leader voice. Which wasn't that much different from his normal voice really.

"Where are the others?" She questions first.

"I told them to hang back. If what the professor told us earlier is true, then this mutant could be hostile." Scott says having picked up on some same worries Logan had.

Nodding her head at this Jean thinks that was a good call. They didn't know how this person would react so best not to have too many people with them when they go over to say hello.

"So, who are we looking at Jean?" Rogue asked in her deep cajun accent.

Pointing her finger at a young man with his back turned to them Jean says, "That is him over there."

"Are you sure?" Scott asks taking a look.

"Yes, it was like the professor said I can't ready his mind at all. Whenever I try to even skim his thoughts all I get is a whole lot of nothing in return.

"Did you try pushing a bit harder?" Scott asks. While he wasn't alright with the reading of other peoples minds with out their permission, he felt it was needed in this case.

"I did but even than all I could get was a lot of static like a bad Tv set." She says to them as they all look over at him.

When Evan's eyes land on him he leans back and says, "Well that isn't good."

"Whats wrong Evan?" Jean asks him.

"I know that symbol on his back." Evan says to her.

"Huh?" Rogue says, then looks at what Evan is talking about. "What about it? You see it all the time during Mardi Gras."

"She is right Evan, what is the big deal? We have all seen that symbol used at one point or the other." Scott says.

Not able to keep from sighing Evan says, "Really guys you all need to get out of the mansion more often. That symbol on his back is the one used by the Saints of Hell's Kitchen or just the Saints for short. And he is wearing their colors out in the open which means he is a full on member."

Seeing the blank looks on their faces he knows they don't have any idea what he is talking about so he elaborates, "They are like the biggest gang in Manhattan. They basically run everything in Lower Manhattan. Gambling, loan sharking, prostitution, even drugs run straight though them. Well not drug so much as I heard they don't really push that so much some reason. But you get my point right?"

All of them get the same oh really look on their face showing ya they had no idea what he was talking about, but they got it just the same.

"Okay so how do we approach this Evan and how do you know so much?" Scott asks.

"You guys forget I am from Manhattan. Well Upper Manhattan but still from there and have some friends who lived in Hell's Kitchen. I keep in touch, and they tell me all the news from the street. As for how we approach this, I don't know. The Saints are still thought of as small-time gang and working for the Irish, but the thing is a lot of the small gangs and their leadership have been going missing as of late and rumors say it's the Saints who are behind it. Seeing as they are now the biggest gang in Manhattan you can understand why most believe that." Evan tells them.

They all take a moment to process that. It didn't need to be said what Even meant going missing, but just to be clear Scott asks, "Evan how does someone go about becoming a member of the Saints?"

"No idea Scott. I know about them, but not how they run things inside the gang, but if I had to guess it would be the same way other gangs do it." Evan says to him.

"And that would be how?" Jean asks not believing she will like the answers she will get.

"Well, I know of three ways but that is only going by what I heard about other gangs. One way is being jumped-in which is just basically being beaten to an inch of your life and if you don't die, you're in. The 2nd way is to be blooded in. I don't think I need to say what that is." Evan tells them.

'Indeed, he doesn't,' Jean thinks to herself, but wait Evan said three ways. "What was the other way?" She asks him.

Before Evan can answer her, Rogue thankfully does so for him. "Sexed in honey." She said bitterly.

"What!" Jean nearly exclaims completely disgusted by what she had just heard and looks at Evan for answers.

"Hey, don't look at me I don't come up with that shit and Rogue how do you know about that?" He says defensively.

Looking over at him like he is the scum of the world Rogue says, "I may not be from the street, but I know a few things about gangs."

What she didn't what to say was that do to her isolation as a child she was kind of an outcast even back then. So, she hung around with a rougher coward who had connections to gangs. Which allowed her to learn a bit about them even if she never took part or really interacted with them.

Before Jean can say anything else Scott steps in seeing as if he didn't Evan my end up on the receiving end of the feminine fury, "Guys let's not lose focus here. We still need a way to approach this."

Hearing this Jean puts her disgust and anger to the side and says, "You're right Scott. So, any ideas guys?"

"Ah why don't we just go up to him and say hi. I mean we are in the middle of a museum so I don't think he will be looking to cause trouble." Rogue says.

They all look at her like she is being stupid for a while and Evan is about to say something to that point before he gets a thoughtful look on his face and says, "That…that my actually work."

"Are you guys being serious right now?" Jean asks not believing what she is hearing.

"Yes, I mean think about it, he hasn't moved from that painting since we got here. So he is clearly here for enjoyment." Evan points out.

Jean still can't believe that was the plan they had come up with but before she can say anything Scott speaks up, "They are right Jean. He hasn't moved yet and if he was going to do anything he would have done so already."

"Scott, you can't seriously be agreeing with them. Now is this a good idea?" Jean asks, not liking this plan one bit.

"Sometimes the easiest solution to a problem is also the simplest." Scott answers her.

Giving up with a sigh Jean says, "Fine. So, who is going to go say hello?"

At her question they all look at her.

"Seriously?" Jean asks.

"Well, you are the most disarming among us, sweeting." Rogue says somewhat mockingly.

"Unbelievable. Fine I will go say hello, but you guys are coming with me." Jean says then starts to walk towards the individual.

-Moments later Dominic POV-

Letting out a sigh I could tell they wouldn't leave me alone till I said something back. Their body language said as much. "What do you want?"

The red head just stands there for a moment seeming to wonder how to answer him. "Well, we just wanted to ask if you have noticed anything different about yourself lately? Perhaps some odd things are happening around you that you can't explain."

Dom shows no visible change on his face as he hears her ask this. What a strange question to ask someone or at least that is what most would think. But the Boss had told him that people would sooner or later come around asking about his powers. It was an inevitability he said, and it was during those times he had to be at his most cautious. Some would look to recruit him for whatever cause they had at the time. Others would look to kill him or capture him both in fear and a desire to understand and steal his power for themselves.

While he may not like the Boss all too much he knew he could trust him to do what was in his best interest and what was in his best interest was for him to know about any potential threats he could face. Yet his girl didn't seem like a threat of any kind, but looks can be very deceiving. He could count on one hand how many people he killed with the help of his boyish good looks.

"No." Is his simple answer and he turns to walk away.

"Wait, listen we mean you no harm. We just want to help." Dom hears her say to him.

Turning around for a moment Dom asks, "And what would you help me with exactly?"

Looking a bit nervous, he watches as the girl and her friends look around. "With things like this."

She then to his mild surprise takes a coin from her pocket and lifts with some kind of invisible force while the blonde, black kid grows small spikes out of his hand. But he does not show this surprise and instead just says, "What do you want? An applause or a tip?"

His lack of surprise takes them all a bit aback, but it also lets them know he has powers too. Something Jean already knew for sure but was now clear to the others who were not so sure themselves.

Seeing that they are all at a loss for words Dom says, "Listen I don't have time to stand around and pretend like I give a fuck about what you're selling. You have already interrupted my personal time so let me just say fuck off and leave me alone."

He then walks off and they watch as instead of walking towards the exit he walks to a corner that is covered by a slight shadow and watches as he seems to meld into the shadow and is gone.

"Well, that could have gone better." Evan says.

- End Dom's POV-

That was basically how the meeting had gone according to Dom and Jean who I would meet later on. Not a bad first meeting if you ask me and definitely better than quite a few of my own meetings. Though, I had to keep myself from laughing when Dom asked me if he should be worried about them. If only he knew what he was facing he would be more than scared when it came to Jean.

I knew I sure as hell was and am in many ways. I mean who won't be scared of the host of an oversized firebird with the power to destroy planets and change reality at will. Lucky enough from what I knew the bird needed to obey its own set of rules passed down by the big, big guy, thing, whatever. It needed a host and so I couldn't just be crush by it out of the blue.

Whatever the case, the bird wasn't the problem at the time. No, the problem was Professor X himself and how to deal with him. I had to spend quite an amount of time thinking about that before I came up with a solution, but I will tell you more later.

As for the hit I put Dom on well if you were keeping up then you know how he and by extension the Saints worked. He didn't tell me the full details, but the news outlets painted the picture pretty clearly. I can still remember the headline.

"Mob Massacre, on March 9th, 2000 the gruesome remains of 23 high ranking mob members were found shot to death in a warehouse just outside of New York City limits. While police have yet to speculate it would appear that members of both the Kitchen Irish and Russian Mob were meeting to put an end to their two-year long gang war that has left a staggering 300 dead and a number of missing persons. When they were suddenly and deliberately ambushed by an unknown party. Again, while the police have yet to comment on who they believe had done this, according to locals no gunshots were ever heard around the area at the supposed time of the death 6 days ago. Yet our inside sources are stating that a staggering 500 rounds were fired inside the warehouse. Including one round to each of the victims head for extra measure."

Got to hand it to Dom he really knew his business even back then.