67: The Council of Myself
Marvel Fanfic
Odd things happen. Sometimes, something goes wrong for nor reason. A mere crossed wire, and everything changes. Well, that was the fate that befell Nathaniel Essex in February of 1859. Oh, not the Nathaniel Essex you know. No, an analog of his. One who was, just a little, different.
To the outside world, not much changed. Employer of the Marauders, disgraced scientist, dead son, wife proclaiming him 'Sinister', and Apocalypse taking over his life. All the same main bones. The details, however, were rather different. You see, this young Essex was a fatalist. This led him to be rather a bit more… gloomy, but he was rather a bit kinder to his 'subjects', due to feeling rather sad for them and 'the roll they were forced to play'. Still, after the death of his wife and unborn child at the hands of Apocalypse and his wife's declaration of his evil, he was rapidly heading to become the villain that everyone in marvel (the X-men comics, anyway), knows. Then he made a mistake.
Just a little thing, really. Two wires mixed up, nothing more. As a result, the machine that would have copied his brain into the minds of his clones instead fried it. Enter Nathan Erst, a young English doctor of some note who died to cancer at the age of twenty-four in a perfectly mundane Britain in 2016. For some reason, he was SI-ed into the now-braindead body of one of the future's most deadly and evil villains with a vastly boosted intilect, perfect recall, a near-unbreakable will (all-natural), and, for no apparent reason, the ability to do the shadow clone jutsu without chakra, though it only could produce five clones at once. What did he do? Switched two wires, and fired up the machine.
Now numbering thirteen, he set out on a journey of discovery, thrilled to get such a potent opportunity in the Marvel universe. Numbers 2-4 were sent out to pursue power, with one entering Kamar-Taj under the Ancient One (and wasn't explaining his timeline divergence to miss 'I-know-every-future' just a peach!), one to K'un-L'un, and one using shadow clones (thank god they don't have souls, nor can they effect the main one's soul) to infiltrate the Hand, the Ten Rings, Hydra, and the American and Russian spy programs (building up cred for the Red Room and Shield, neither of which would exist for almost a century), which proved VERY hard with the whole 'one-hit, one-pop' thing, but he just faked it, played it smart, and lied a lot (and rapidly learned both magic and ki to make them more able to survive). 5-7 had the job of converting every bit of science, tech, fashion, food, medicine, and knowledge that Nathan had into usable, well-organized, and accurate packaging for the others to use, then creating and/or doing things based of that knowledge. 8-10 were set up to study enhancement sciences, with 8 taking genetic enhancements (or base-state boosts), 9 taking mystical add-ons (or extra-normal enhancements, including ki, contracts with various beings, and cosmic energy), and 10 taking scientific improvements (including cybernetics, serums, and other such things). Finally, 11-13 were sent to gain power through economy (11), politics (12), and popularity (13). Thankfully, the original's molecular control caried over, letting each of them change how they looked at will, even as shadow clones!
The original? He trained. Trained and trained. Every bit of new knowledge was parsed, every idea was examined, and every profession was practiced. From woodcarving to knife-work, from medicine to bombs, if it could be done, he did it, and learned how to do it WELL!
Finally, in 1940 (after helping in WW- in the trenches on the Allied side; he was a British loyalist, after all.) Nathaniel Essex-Prime entered into a tube of glowing green liquid from which he would not emerge for a decade. At the end of that time, he would exit with every enhancement, power, and boost he had, heretofore and with future knowledge, been able to give himself. Five years later, he would be up to peak fighting capacity, and seven years later the events of X-Men, First Class would begin to really heat up. What, however, was he going to do?
Whatever it was, the new Council of Thirteen was going to… change things for the Marvel Universe as a whole!