The SuperStarr Chronicles
Disclaimer: "My God. That's a lot of bananas." - Greg Wilmot, The Completionist
Author's Note: This storyline takes place at the same time as "The Phantazia of the Rock Opera" storyline. The scene with Xavier and Scott takes place after the X-Men returned from Cleveland, and the Brotherhood returned from Scotland.
Chapter 12: Night of the Daemons, Part 1
A SHIELD facility, location unknown
Phil Coulson walked up to the chamber. Accompanying him was what looked like a Native American teenager. Coulson was clad in his usual black suit, and the teenager wore a gray SHIELD t-shirt and a black leather jacket with blue jeans and brown boots.
"So, what is it you wanted to show me?" Forge asked the agent.
"Right here is a project a couple of members of my team have been working on, Mr. Lone Eagle." Coulson said. "Tell me, have you heard of...Captain America?"
"You mean, the Captain America?" Forge asked. "Of course I have, dude! He was the leader of the Invaders in World War II. I remember hearing about him in school, man."
"The same man." Coulson said. The brunet man typed a keycode into a control panel next to the door. He then swiped a card, and placed his hand on a panel with a white hand on it. The panel scanned his hand, and then more scanners examined his eye and body.
"Biorhythms confirmed. Welcome, Agent Coulson." The panel said. The door opened, and the two walked inside. The main centerpiece of the room was what looked like a block of ice. And inside the block of ice was a man. A man dressed in a costume based on the American Flag.
"Whoa..." Forge whispered in awe. "I...I had heard he vanished shortly before the war ended. But then he appeared again for a little while. Then he returned in the 50s...and went crazy."
"This is Steve Rogers. The original." Coulson explained. "There were a couple other men who briefly wore the suit after the war. William Naslund wore it for a very short time."
"Who?"
"You ever heard of the Spirit of '76?"
"Yeah. He was, like, one of the Crusaders, right?" Forge recalled. Coulson nodded. "Yeah, I heard you mention them once. They helped defend the UK during the war."
"Yup." Coulson confirmed. "William Naslund was one of them as the Spirit of '76. He sadly was killed in his first mission as Cap, and then another man took up the mantle: Jeffrey Mace, aka the Patriot."
"Oh yeah, he led the Liberty Legion." Forge recalled.
"He did indeed. He retired in 1949."
"He passed away years ago, right?" Forge asked.
"In 1983. Of cancer." Coulson explained. "The First Line were pallbearers at his funeral."
"Dude, I still can't believe the First Line are gone." Forge shook his head as he looked at the body of Steve Rogers. "So, neither of them were the Cap that went crazy?"
"No, that was William Burnside." Coulson said. "He went crazy because he took an experimental super-soldier serum. Him and Jack Monroe. They're in stasis now at another facility. Trying to cure them. Under heavy guard, of course."
"You think they will?" Forge asked.
"Hope so." Coulson said. He looked sadly at the superhero in the slab. "But I am hoping to cure Rogers. In this age of heroes, they could use a man like him. Imagine if he led the First Line. Maybe...maybe they'd still be around in some form today."
"Maybe." Forge agreed. The two stared at the body of the ice-encased Sentinel of Liberty for a short time. Coulson then looked at his watch.
"We should get going, son." The elder agent said.
The Xavier Institute
"You wished to see me, Scott?" Xavier asked as Scott walked into his office.
"Uh, yeah Professor." Scott nodded.
"Well, my ear is open, as they say."
"Yeah." Scott took a seat. "Remember that talk we had about being more public?"
The bald telepath had to rack his brain for a moment, but it came back to him. "Ah, yes. I remember that. You still think that the X-Men should go more public?"
"I think so." Scott said. "Look, I get that there are going to be people who won't...understand us. But when we were in Cleveland, I talked to one of the cops that helped us save Miss Harsaw. Sorry we weren't able to recruit her for the school, by the way."
"It's alright, Scott." Xavier assured. "Not everyone will want to come to the Institute. It's perfectly understandable, considering what Miss Harsaw went through."
"Well, at least her parents will let her come visit us to help her with her powers." Scott said.
"Indeed." Xavier nodded. "But if she has no desire to join the X-Men, then we should and must respect that."
"Yeah, I don't blame her if she doesn't want to be a part of this team." Scott agreed. "But still, Polanski was right. She's not going to be the last mutant. We can't keep doing this. We're going to have to reveal ourselves in the future. We can't hide this forever."
"...you do have a point." Xavier admitted. "I fear that doing this may cause more problems, though."
"What do you mean?"
"You see, we are not like what most 'costumed heroes' or 'superheroes', as some would call them." Xavier explained. "Superhumans, despite their high profile, used to be rather rare in number compared to supposed 'normal humanity'. But as our swelled student body has established, not to mention Miss Harsaw, it's clear that the number of mutants is increasing."
"That's the point." Scott argued. "The number of mutants is only going to grow. Harsaw in Cleveland, the Brotherhood got a bunch of new members...Hell, how many mutants are out there that we don't know about? For all we know, there may have been mutants among the First Line and nobody realized it. Not even the Line themselves."
Xavier thought about Cerebro's archive. "Indeed." He nodded. The bald telepath then leaned back in his seat. "Cerebro cannot detect them unless their powers are actually being used. And as the whole thing with Miss Harsaw and the Brotherhood proves, not all of them will want to come to the Institute, for various reasons."
"And also..." Scott added. "Polanski and Briscoe didn't seem to have any issue with us. So, maybe not all, well, 'regular people' for lack of better terms will have any issue with us."
"True, but those two police officers seemed to be familiar with Kid Razor, yes?" Xavier asked.
"Yeah, they seemed to know each other pretty well." Scott said.
"Polanski and Briscoe are likely much more used to the...more fantastical part of the world thanks to that. But the vast majority of humanity..." Xavier shook his head. "Most of them have had no regular contact with that sort of thing."
"Yeah, well a lot more 'regular' people are going to end up meeting the fantastical at the rate things are going." Scott warned. "Polanski is right. We have to do something."
"So, you think we should...make ourselves into celebrities or something?" Xavier suggested.
"Well, maybe..." Scott admitted. "I mean it's not like we can just call a public relations firm and tell them about us."
"True..." Xavier nodded. He eyed a magazine nearby sitting on a chair. The title of it clearly indicated that it was one of those magazines that covered teen idols. Likely one of the female students accidentally left it there. And on the cover was a teenage blond young man. He was smirking and giving a thumbs up...and his hand was on fire. Xavier noted the blurb on the cover.
Johnny Storm! Exclusive interview with the Fantastic Four's hothead hottie on superheroism and exploration!
"Hmmm..."
"Professor?" Scott blinked.
"I wonder..." Xavier rolled over, picked up the magazine, and showed it to Scott. "Maybe we can find out who handles public relations for the Fantastic Four."
"Of course!" Scott smiled, snapping his fingers. "The FF are celebrities! It makes sense that they'd have a PR firm working to maintain an image! Unless they somehow are doing it themselves..."
"We'll have to look into this." Xavier agreed.
The skies over the Atlantic Ocean.
As the Blackbird flew off towards the Forest City for their meeting with Eileen Harsaw, Clara's spaceship streaked through the sky in the opposite direction, on its way to Scotland. On the bridge, Clara Creed sat in the captain's chair. Sitting next to her was Lance Alvers, the earthquake-generating mutant known as Avalanche. The brunet teenager frowned at the feral blonde. Lila Cheney was piloting the ship.
"How we doing, Lila?" Clara asked.
"Smooth sailing so far." Lila announced. "No turbulence, proceeding at full impulse."
"Very good, Mr. Cheney." Clara smiled. Silence then reigned on the bridge for a brief moment. The blonde Canadian mutant woman started bobbing her head to a beat only she could hear. She then started tapping her fingers on the armrest. Lance watched the feral woman with a frown.
"Okay, why us?" Lance asked.
"Hmmm?" Clara mumbled, Lance's voice knocking her out of her reverie.
"Why us?" Lance repeated. "Why did you want us to come with you to Scotland?"
"Because Meg asked for you guys to come with me."
"What I'd like to know is how this 'Meg' person knew about you all." Lila frowned, still keeping her eyes ahead.
"She has her ways." Clara smirked.
"Who is this Meg person, anyway?" Lance frowned.
"Her full name is Lady Megan Daemon." Clara explained. "We first met during the war." She noticed Lila shudder slightly at the mention of the name. The blonde feral smiled in amusement.
"The war. As in WWII, right?" Lance deduced.
"Yup." Clara confirmed with a nod. The brunet mutant's frown at the long-lived feral woman deepened.
"...I thought you spent the war in Canada. With the Home Guard."
Clara nodded. "I did spend most of the war in Canada as part of the Home Guard, yes. But I also did do a few missions outside the country for the Canadian government during that time." The blonde clarified, waving her hand around. "One of those missions involved me taking down a Nazi cell in Scotland in..." Clara scrunched her face in thought. "...1942, I believe. It was there that I first met Meg. She was helping protect Scotland during the war. Her sister Alisabeth had been helping the Nazis there. They were working on a ritual to summon a bunch of demons called the Outer Dark."
"...seriously?" Lance asked in disbelief.
"Really." Clara nodded. "The Nazis were obsessed with the occult. It made sense they'd team up with Alisabeth. Woman was always a power-hungry lunatic."
"So, it was like, good sister, evil sister?"
"Yup." Clara said. She then smirked. "You ever heard of the Hindenburg?"
Lance thought about it. "You mean the big ol' zeppelin that blew up the 30s? 'Oh, the humanity'?"
"Hey, you know a little history. Very good!" Clara grinned in pride. She patted Lance's head, making him frown. He then shrugged it off.
"I saw a thing on it on TV once."
"Well, then you may know that the cause of the Hindenburg's destruction was never truly found."
The geokinetic did not need to be a genius to realize exactly what the long-lived Canadian had meant by that. "Let me guess. Meg did it."
Clara winced a bit. "...not exactly." She sighed. "Alisabeth wanted to use the passengers of the Hindenburg as sacrifices to let the Outer Dark reach our world. Meg...tried to stop it and...yeah. She managed to stop the Outer Dark, but the battle caused the Hindenburg's destruction. It's..." The blonde feral shook her head. "It's...not something she brags about for understandable reasons."
"Wait, so you're telling me that the Hindenburg was destroyed...by a magic battle?!" Lance yelped in disbelief.
"It's not as weird as you think." Clara said. "You can cause earthquakes, remember? And you're talking to a woman who was born in 1885, and yet is not only still hale and hearty, but also looks like she just entered her 30s. The world is a lot crazier than you think." Lance's eyes widened.
"Sweet baby Jebus..." The earthshaker muttered. Lila, who had been rather quiet the entire time, had decided to speak up now.
"Hell, considering that America alone is known for its long history of costumes, it's weird that this freaks you out." Lila said. The dark-haired girl frowned. "I'm also not surprised that it turned out a bloody Daemon is behind the Hinderburg's destruction."
"Not a fan of Meg's?" Lance asked. Lila smirked.
"You are not British, so I can understand your not knowing about them." Lila said. "Back home in the UK, the Daemon family is rather...notorious. They have a bad reputation. Hell, I've even heard whispers of them being devil worshipers!"
Clara burst out laughing. "Yeah, a lot of that is...as the kids would say today, a lot of hype."
"Alisabeth Daemon tried to summon demons!" The British-Indian interstellar teleporter countered. "And she worked with the bloody Nazis! You just said it yourself!"
"Well, yeah." Clara shrugged. "Alisabeth was a psycho. That's no surprise." She rolled her eyes. "Trust me, guys. Meg's nice. You'll like her. I haven't seen her in what...eight years, now? God, where does the time go?" Pietro walked in, brushing his hair and checking out his face in a small pocket mirror. "Whatcha lookin' at, Petey?"
"Just making sure everything is perfect. And of course, it is." Pietro smirked smugly as he closed the mirror's lid and put it in his pocket. "I just want to make sure those bonny Scottish lassies get a nice treat when they gaze upon me."
"Oh, brother." Lance muttered and rolled his eyes.
"We should have left Mr. Ambigious over there behind." Lila sneered. "Or at the very least, tied him to the outside of the ship." Pietro zipped up to her.
"Awwww, what's gotten you down, Lila? Not being able to spend some time with that X-Geek?" Pietro teased.
"His name is Sam." Lila growled.
"Yeah, I don't get why you're so fond of the hayseed."
"He's not you, for one." Lila answered.
"Pietro, I think you need to find yourself a hobby." Clara snorted. "Are the others alright?"
"Yeah, Fred and Todd are hanging out in the kitchen." Pietro said. "I have no idea where the others are, nor do I care."
"He's scared of Craig." Lance whispered to Clara. Don't blame him. That dude has problems... True to Pietro's statement, Todd and Fred were indeed sitting in the ship's kitchen area. Fred was raiding the fridge, and making himself a sandwich. Todd was sitting at the table, playing a video game.
"Yo, Toad. You wanna sandwich?" Fred asked.
"I'm good, yo." Todd held up his half-eaten peanut butter sandwich. He took a bite, still concentrating on his video game.
"What're you playin' there?" Fred glanced at the Nintendo Switch in Todd's hands.
"CrossCode, yo." Todd explained. "It's this old-school style RPG that Paul got me into."
"Oh." Fred nodded. "Hey, Todd?"
"Yeah?"
"You know anything about this Scotland place?"
"Not a lot, why?"
"Well..." Fred rubbed his head. "I figured you might know somethin'. You're Scottish, right?"
"Naw, I'm English, yo. On my pops' side, at least. Have no idea what my mama is." Todd shrugged. "And it don't mean I know anythin' about England. Where you from?"
"Uh, Texas. I think." Fred recalled. "At least, I was found there."
"Found?"
"Yeah." Fred nodded. "I was found by a circus in Texas as a baby."
"You grew up in a circus. That sounds awesome." Todd grinned.
"It was alright. They were good folks." Fred said. "...I was always a big kid. But when my powers showed up, the ringmaster said I should use them to do some tricks. Like, pulling tractors and stuff."
"Yeah, I saw a strong dude pull a truck on TV once." Todd recalled. "It was really cool."
"Yeah, but still..." Fred sat down. "I still felt like a freak. And I was friends with the circus freaks." He ate his sandwich. "Didn't help that I had no idea where my powers came from. I mean, I'm no science guy or nothin'..."
"Hey, I'm there, yo." Todd chuckled. "I mean, I can tinker and stuff. But genetics? That's..." He whistled and made a gesture of his hand going over his head. "Ya might as well ask me to read Greek, man." The two noticed Craig walk in. "Yo, Darkstar!"
"What?"
"What you up to?"
"Not much, really." Craig said as he went into the fridge, and fished out some cheese sticks. "What're you two up to?"
"Why you wanna know?" Todd frowned.
Craig shrugged. "Humor me. I need something to keep my mind off killing Pietro."
"What did he do?" Fred asked.
"He exists." Craig muttered, biting into one of his cheese sticks.
"Yeah, I actually don't blame ya." Todd said. "Pietro's...a jerk."
"What he needs is to be thrown out of an airlock." Craig muttered. "So, what you two up to?"
"Just having a sandwich." Todd said, then took a bite from his peanut butter sandwich. Craig eyed Fred's sandwich, and he blinked at the sheer height of it.
"That's not a sandwich. That's a skyscraper."
"No, it's a sandwich." Fred blinked.
"What's LA like?" Todd asked.
"Huh?" Craig blinked.
"What's LA like? Your brother said you were from there. I always wanted to go there, yo."
"It's not all glitz and glamor, I can tell you." Craig muttered. "LA has a hell of a seedy underbelly."
"Ya know, you and Paul are real different." Todd pointed out. "You sure you two twins?"
Craig frowned at the amphibious mutant. "We look alike, don't we?"
"The stars on your faces are different colors." Fred noted.
"Yeah, I have no idea why that is, nor do I care."
"But you two don't seem very alike." Fred noted.
"He and I...were not together for a lot of our lives." Craig explained. "We...grew up in different places. We only ended up meeting because of our powers."
"Yeah. Your powers..." Todd muttered, remembering when Paul put him to sleep with his hypnosis. Craig noticed this.
"Still a bit sore about Paul taking you to Dreamland?" He asked.
"Yeah..."
"It wasn't anything personal, Frog." Craig assured. "He doesn't hate you. He just didn't want to beat you up." He took another bite of a cheese stick and swallowed. "He's like that."
"So he decides to give me a nap."
Craig shrugged. "Basically. Paul's not a fan of using his hypnotic powers. He finds being able to hypnotize people creepy. Don't blame him, really."
"He had no problem using them on me." Todd muttered.
"He didn't want to hurt you, Frog. He figured that life did that enough."
"Thanks." Todd rolled his eyes.
After his little conversation with Clara on the bridge, Lance Alvers had felt in the mood to explore the ship. His mind was somewhat reeling from what he had learned. The teenage mutant's life had already veered away from normalcy the day his mutation had emerged. He remembered when Mystique had recruited him, telling him there were others like him...and they were the future.
Since the incident at Asteroid M, Lance had found his life taking a turn for the weirder. A spaceship crashing down, the Brotherhood having some...unlikely new members and an equally unlikely new leader. And now, he was on said spaceship on the way to Scotland. And all on the whim of a doddering old woman who was old friends with the new leader.
It was enough to make the geokinetic's head hurt. This old Scottish lady was involved in the destruction of the Hindenburg. And she was a magician. Not the kind that did sleight-of-hand tricks at children's birthday parties, actual magic. The world evidently was much weirder than he imagined. As much as he hated to admit it, Lila Cheney had a point about that. How had he ignored it for so long?
Lance continued to walk down one of the ship's halls when he heard the sounds of someone playing a guitar. He recognized the riff from the Kiss song "Strutter". The geokinetic followed the sound to a white door. He noted the purple five-pointed star spray-painted on the door, making him smirk in amusement.
Must be Paul's room. He deduced. The brunet mutant knocked on the door, but the playing didn't stop. Lance knocked harder, but still nothing. The young mutant scowled, but then noticed a small control panel on the wall next to the door. He blinked at it, then pressed a green button. He heard a sound vaguely like a doorbell chime.
"Come in!" Paul called from the other side of the door. The door opened, revealing Paul sitting on his bed. In his lap was a purple guitar, a flying V with a silver fretboard. "Hi, Lance!" He waved.
"Uh, hey." Lance said. He pointed at Paul's guitar. "You play?"
"Yup!" Paul nodded. "Been doing it since I was four."
Lance blinked at that. "Whoa."
"Yup." Paul smiled and patted his guitar. "You see, I had once saw a Kiss music video on TV. I don't quite remember which one it was. 'Turn on the Night', I think. Anyway, when I saw that video, it blew my mind."
"Really."
"Yup." Paul nodded.
"I don't blame ya." Lance snickered. "Those old music videos are good to watch for a laugh."
"Yeah, true." Paul smiled. "But still, when I saw it, I had this...revelation. I saw my destiny right there."
"Your...destiny?" Lance smirked in amusement.
"Yup!" Paul nodded. "From then on, I always wanted to be a rockstar. I believe I was born for the stage." He looked at Lance's hands. "You play, too?"
"Yeah, I do a bit."
Paul nodded. "I can tell. You got a musician's hands. You play long?"
"For a couple years." Lance answered.
"Neat!" Paul grinned. "We should jam sometime!"
"Jam?"
"Yeah, play together." Paul nodded. "You ever jam with anyone before?"
"Not really." Lance said. "It's not like I ever found anyone to play with."
"That's a shame." Paul said. He perked up. "But now you do! Maybe one day, we can form a band!"
"A band." Lance repeated.
"Yeah, a band." Paul nodded. "I mean, Craig and Lila are musicians, too. Craig can play a mean bass, and Lila loves her keyboards. We busked to make money out in space."
"Yeah, I think you mentioned that."
"All we need is a drummer, really." Paul shrugged. "I think it would be really cool to form an all-mutant rock band."
Lance rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure that'll go over like gangbusters."
"You never know until you try."
"Heh. You are a weird guy, Starr. How it you and your brother are twins, and yet completely different?"
"We didn't grow up together, sadly." Paul sighed. "We both led different lives before meeting each other. Heck, I only learned I had a twin after my powers manifested."
"How did your powers manifest?" Lance asked.
Paul's head dropped. "I...I don't like to talk about that."
"I don't blame you." Lance admitted. "I...I don't like talking about how my powers came about either."
"Guess we're not really that different, huh?" Paul said.
"...maybe." Lance said. The two were silent for a moment. "Can I ask you something?"
"Shoot."
"...how did you meet Clara?"
"That's quite a story." Paul said. "Craig and I were just walking down the street one day, and we just..." He waved his hand. "You ever see Star Trek? You know when the characters use the transporter?" Lance nodded. "Well, that's what happened to us. We found ourselves in this column of light, and before we knew it, we were on some kind of...well, a space lab, for lack of better words."
"A space lab." Lance repeated in disbelief.
"It's not that crazy." Paul shrugged. "It was run by this big alien dude calling himself 'The Stranger'."
"The Stranger." Lance laughed. "God, that sounds like something out of a 1960s comic book."
Paul shrugged. "Reality is, no pun intended, stranger than fiction. Anyway, the Stranger kidnapped us so we could be control mutants."
"Control mutants?" Lance blinked in confusion.
"Yup." Paul nodded. "He had wanted to compare us to two mutants he had found running around in space."
"Lila and Clara." Lance deduced. Paul nodded.
"Yup. It's how Craig and I first met them. Lila had been traveling for a while beforehand, and Clara was also captured by the Stranger. She had ended up in space thanks to helping out a friend of hers. I think his name was Will, and he was supposedly half-alien. She didn't say much about it."
"Did he...experiment on you?" Lance asked.
"Nothing...painful, if that's what you mean." Paul said. "At least...not yet. Craig and I were scanned, but that didn't hurt." He smiled. "In fact, it tingled. Long story short, the four of us managed to escape together by causing some chaos in his labworld. And the ship is one that Lila had...obtained in the past."
"She stole it."
Paul nodded. "That's easy to assume. Lila stole to survive, but she liked the thrill of it, too. We used that ship to escape, and them we flew around space. The four of us flew around space for a while, trying to find a way back to Earth. To make some extra credits, we busked."
"So...what about Bounty and the gem?" Lance asked.
"Blame Lila for that." Paul explained. "This rich Shi'ar guy..."
"Shi'ar?" Lance blinked.
"They're these...bird-like aliens." Paul said. "Gold skin with black feathered plumes for hair. Many of them have the feathers in the shape of an arrowhead, but I did see some with the feathers puffed out on the sides and flat on top."
"Ah."
"Anyway, this rich Shi'ar guy wanted us to play music for him. In the past, a lot of Shi'ar tend to view the arts as a sign of insanity as most of their race can't dream." Paul explained. "It's...lessened quite a bit since then, but native artists still have to deal with stigmas." He shook his head. "It's kind of sad, but it could be worse. In the past, Shi'ar who could dream and had talent in the arts had to hide it...or die."
"So, if these aliens didn't like artists very much, why did this guy want you all to play music for him?"
"As I said, he was considered a bit odd. K'Thalon, I think his name was." Paul recalled. "Lila had heard through the grapevine about him having this massive vault in his palace. She saw an opportunity." He ran a hand through his hair. "After our performance, Lila took advantage of a rest period to break into his vault and steal one of the gems there. A big red one, the size of a football."
"Like, a soccer ball or the pigskin?"
"American football." Paul clarified. Lance's jaw dropped.
"Holy cow, that chick has some guts."
"And skill. K'Thalon never realized it was missing until some time after we left." Paul shrugged. "According to Lila, the man's vault had tons of gems, and just one of them would have had gotten us enough credits to put us on Easy Street. K'Thalon sent some ships to go after us, and we fought them off. The ship took a blast to the engines, and that's how we ended up crashing on your front doorstep." He noticed that Lance seemed distant. "You okay? You with us?"
"Yeah, I'm good." Lance shook it off.
"What you thinking about?" Paul asked. "It's Clara, isn't it?" Lance frowned at him. "I don't get why you don't seem to like her much. Is it some kind of alpha male thing?"
The geokinetic rolled his eyes. "No. I mean, she crashes down and she wants to play den mother to us. And now she just off and drags us to Scotland."
"She brought us to Scotland because a friend of hers asked her to bring us." Paul reminded. He then thought about it. "Well, I think it's one of two reasons."
"Really?" Lance muttered dryly.
"I think when she saw you and your friends, she saw a bunch of kids in need of some guidance. That's what she saw in me, Craig, and Lila."
"We were doing just fine."
"You all were living alone in a beat-up house. What did you expect her to do, leave you to your own deivces?" Paul reminded. He then snickered. "I think Clara wounded your pride, man."
"My pride." Lance sneered.
"She did hand you your butt when you two fought not long after we arrived."
"...She got lucky."
"I'm just saying." Paul said. "I think that's why you don't like her. She managed to one-up you. You seem like the type that's used to being..." The dark-haired rocker waved his hand around as he tried to find the words he was looking for. "...the top guy, as it were."
"What're trying to do, be my psychologist?" Lance grumbled.
"Just trying to help, man." Paul shrugged. "I don't think it would hurt you to give Clara a chance. She's a nurturer at heart. She likes taking care of people, and I think that's what she sees when she saw you and your friends. A group of kids needing guidance."
Lance chuckled in amusement. "So, she wants us to become a happy little family."
"Who wouldn't want that?" Paul said. "I know I would like to have one again. Wouldn't you?"
Pietro played on his phone as he sat on one of the seats next to the captain's chair, which was occupied by Clara Creed.
"Are we there yet? I'm bored." The speedster announced.
"We'll be there soon, speedy." Clara assured.
"Shut up and keep playing on your phone, Mr. Ambiguous." Lila snorted, concentrating on the controls on her console. "You can download a bunch of Final Fantasies on the bloody thing, go amuse yourself."
"I tried playing an RPG once, but it was so boring." Pietro rolled his eyes. "So much grinding. Grind grind grind grind grind grind grind." He shook his head. "I have no idea how nerds like that Torque kid play those things."
"...Torque kid?" Clara blinked.
"Ah, he's this redheaded kid always hanging around the computer lab in the school." Lila explained. "Guy's obsessed with video games. Everything from RPGs to first-person shooters. Calls himself 'Arcade'." Pietro added. Clara nodded in understanding.
"Bayville certainly has its fair share of eccentrics, eh?" The feral woman grinned.
"Certainly seems that way." Lila agreed. She smirked wickedly. "Mr. Ambiguous there definitely counts." Pietro zipped up to her.
"Eccentric? Moi? I'll have you know that I'm the reason Bayville has any class at all." The silver-haired speedster bragged. Lila scowled.
"So Bayville is low-class." She mocked.
"Oh ho, I like you." Pietro grinned at her. Lila sneered. That grin made her want to break his jaw, but she had to concentrate on the controls. Luckily, someone was able to give Lila a hand. "Gwak!" Pietro yelped as he felt a hand grab his ear and twist it. "Agh!"
Craig Starr sneered as he yanked on Pietro's ear. He dragged Pietro to one of the chairs next to Clara's. "Sit down and shut up!" He snapped at the speedster as he shoved him down into the seat.
"Ow! What's your problem, man?!" The silver-haired mutant screamed as he rubbed his ear.
"Learn to back off." Craig grunted as he took another seat next to Clara. Pietro glared at him briefly, then at Clara.
"That guy is a psycho!" He snapped at Clara.
"He doesn't like it when boys don't take the hint." Clara explained.
"We're coming up on the coordinates Lady Daemon provided." Lila announced. "Thank God..." She muttered under her breath. "Preparing for a landing." Clara pressed a button on the armrest in her chair. A ping noise indicated that the ship's intercom was activated.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. We have arrived in the beautiful Sutherland Highlands of Scotland. Pack up coats, it'll be quite cool here. We wish to ask you to buckle your seatbelts, put your trays back in the upright position, and remain until your seats until the ship has made a complete stop. Thank you for flying Creed Starlines, we hope you enjoyed your trip and wish to fly with us again."
"This chick has issues." Pietro muttered, shaking his head. Craig scowled.
"You try and live over a century while barely aging the entire time and see if you don't have any 'issues'."
"Wait, what?" Pietro blinked.
"Cloaking device online." Lila announced. Thank God that didn't get wrecked... "...and we have landed."
"What?!" Pietro yelped as he was still processing what Craig had said.
"Okay!" Clara grinned. "Let's go." She, Lila, and Craig rose to their feet and left the bridge. Pietro was left still sitting in his chair, blinking in shock.
"...what?" The speedster said.
"Come on!" Craig grumbled, grabbing Pietro and roughing dragging the silver-haired mutant behind him. The group emerged from the ship, and found themselves looking around at a grassy mountainous plain.
"This is it?" Todd frowned. "Where is everybody?"
"This area of Scotland isn't known for being the most populous, Todd." Clara said.
"They also say this area has some...bad juju connected to it, for lack of a better term." Lila shuddered slightly. "That's no surprise. This is Daemon Clan territory."
"Daemon...Clan?" Lance asked.
"Yup." Clara nodded. "Meg is the current laird of the Daemon lands."
"Does that mean she's like royalty?" Todd asked. Clara shook her head.
"Not really. More like a prominent landowner." The blonde explained. "The Daemon Clan are one of the oldest families in all of Scotland." She smiled in amusement. "I can still remember her statement of the family's age..." She started imitating a Scottish accent. "Before the MacKay, Cutherland, Sinclair, before Danes and Gaels and Picts, before the Lairds of Alban, from a time when the dark Caledonian forests covered the moors, we were!"
"I take it that's old, right?" Todd asked Lila.
"Yeah." The English-Indian girl confirmed with a nod. "Real old."
"Excuse me?" A voice with a Scottish brogue piped up. The group turned and saw a smiling man wearing a chauffeur's uniform standing in front of a limousine. "I have been asked to take you all to Castle Daemon."
"Where'd he come from?" Lance asked.
"I got a bad feeling, yo..." Todd shuddered.
"You ain't alone there, Kermit." Lila agreed.
"Hey, we're arriving in style." Pietro grinned. He then looked at Fred. "Wait, can he fit in there?"
"Lady Daemon made arrangements with Mr. Dukes in mind." The chauffeur assured.
"Whoa. He knows my name." Fred blinked in awe.
"Of course he does." Clara smiled. "Lady Daemon is expecting us. Let us not keep her waiting." The group entered the limousine.
"Whoa..." Fred mumbled in amazement. "I fit."
"It's a miracle." Pietro said. "Agh!" Craig slapped him upside his head.
"This is freaky." Lance said as he took a seat. Paul noticed a small fridge, and he opened it up.
"Hey, at least there's drinks." Paul grinned, holding up a plastic bottle of chocolate milk. He held a can of soda out to Lance. The blinking geokinetic took the soda and looked at the label.
"This is my favorite soda." He glanced at Clara. "How...?"
"Meg has her ways." Clara said.
"What exactly do you mean by that?" Lance asked.
"Her family's been accused of devil worship and witchcraft back in the day." Lila smirked. "What do you think?"
"Wait, witchcraft? As in, double bubble boil and trouble, that kind of thing?" Lance gaped.
"Meg's not the type to wear the pointy hats and make grand dramatic gestures in front of a boiling cauldron." Clara smirked. "And you really think magic isn't real?" Smirk still on her face, she leaned forward. "I've seen stuff that'll turn you white." Lance's face paled, and Clara's smirk grew more wicked. "Welcome to the circus, Avalanche."
Todd looked at Craig nervously. The mutant was reading on his phone. "Uh...Craig? Can I ask you something?"
"Shoot." Craig didn't look up from his phone.
"Are...are we gonna die, yo?"
"I don't know. Possibly." Craig answered honestly.
The limousine continued on its way until it reached the front of a large craggy castle, made of cold gray stone. The Brotherhood emerged from the limousine, and gazed up at the castle. It didn't quite fit the Brotherhood's idea of a stereotypical castle. There was a large gate, but there was no moat. There were no large towers with crenellated tops. The castle resembled more a three-story mansion.
"Whoa." Todd blinked.
"Wow." Fred said. "I can imagine you can keep a lot of stuff in there." He grinned. "If I ever get a monster truck, I'm gonna put it in a garage like this."
"This place gives me the creeps." Lila shuddered.
"Don't you worry, Lila. Meg doesn't bite." Clara assured. "Let's go in. We don't want to keep her waiting."
"Why did she want us, anyway?" Lance asked.
"I have no idea. She didn't say in her letter." Clara answered. She gave it to Lance. "Read it for yourself." The brunet mutant did so.
"Huh." He noted. "Let me guess, she'll tell us when she meets us."
"Yup." Clara rolled her eyes. "That's sorcerers for you. Always with the drama."
"Uh...guys?" Fred blinked. "Where did the limo go?" He noticed the vehicle and the driver had vanished.
"God, this place..." Lila shuddered.
"I'm with you, girl." Todd agreed. "I think we're gonna die. This Daemon chick's gonna sacrifice us to Cthulhu or somethin'!"
"You mean Alisabeth. Come on." Clara waved.
"Who's Alisabeth?" Todd asked as the group passed the gate.
"I have no bloody idea." Lila answered. The group continued into the castle. They found themselves standing in a large room. The far wall had a large stone staircase that split into two at 45 degree angles. There were paintings on the walls of various people that the group did not recognize. On the wall that had the staircases was a large diamond-shaped coat of arms depicting a unicorn fighting a dragon.
"What's that?" Fred pointed at the coat of arms.
"That's the Daemon family coat of arms." Clara explained. "Well, this is a simplified version."
"Why is it diamond-shaped?" Todd asked.
"In British heraldry, women have diamond, or lozenge-shaped coats of arms because coats of arms originally were displayed on shields, and since women didn't generally fight in wars way back in the day, their coats of arms were on other shapes."
"Ah." Todd nodded in understanding.
"So, what do we do? Just...wait?" Lance asked.
"I hope we get out of here soon. This place gives me the creeps..." Lila shuddered, rubbing her arms.
"It doesn't seem so bad to me." Craig shrugged.
"Does nothin' scare you?" Todd asked in disbelief.
"Nope." Craig said.
"You freaked out good that one time we saw a demon in LA." Paul recalled.
"Shut up Paul!" Craig hissed angrily, glaring at his twin brother.
"So, is the demon lady here or not?" Pietro demanded impatiently.
"Greetings." The group turned and saw a smiling woman standing on the stairs. She was a blonde, her hair in a short feminine cut. Her appearance suggested she was in her 30s at the youngest, but her green eyes shone with wisdom and time far beyond that. She wore what looked a green business suit with a gray blouse. Around her neck was what looked like a cat's skull. Her outfit was completed by a pair of sensible green shoes. Accompanying her was a handsome auburn-headed hazel-eyed man. He had broad shoulders, and powerful-looking hands. He wore a green sweater and brown slacks with polished black shoes. The two walked down the stairs together and approached the group.
"Meg! Ian!" Clara whooped. The feral Canadian ran up to the two Scots and grabbed them in a big hug. The two chuckled.
"Good ta see you again, Clara dear. Far too long." Ian MacInnis said. He noticed the Brotherhood. "I take it that they're the Brotherhood of Mutants?"
"Pretty much." Clara nodded. "Kids, meet Megan Daemon, laird of the Daemon Clan. And this is Ian MacInnis. Royal Scots Borderers, retired."
Yeah, Chris Claremont's original outline for Forge intended to give him a birth name: Daniel Lone Eagle. So, I thought it would be neat to make that his real name here.
William Naslund/The Spirit of '76 and the rest of the Crusaders first appeared in The Invaders #14 (March 1977). He took up the mantle of Captain America in What If? #4 (August 1977)...and died in that same comic. Jeffrey Mace would take up the mantle of Captain America afterwards. In this universe, the Crusaders continued being heroes during WWII, unlike in the mainstream comics.
Jeffrey Mace first appeared as the Patriot in Human Torch Comics #4 (March 1941). And he would become the third Captain America in What If #4 (August 1977). His dying in 1983 in this universe is a nod to Captain America #285 (September 1983).
Jack Monroe, the third Bucky, first appeared in Young Men #24 (August 1953).
And finally, Lady Daemon and Ian MacInnis. They first appeared in Bizarre Adventures #25 (March 1981). The original story they appeared in was in black and white. Lady Daemon did appear in color on the cover of the magazine, but MacInnis did not. I saw an image of him in Lady Daemon's entry in the Marvel Appendix website, and I imagined him having red or auburn-colored hair. Also, I can imagine Lady Daemon's name being pronounced "Day-mon".
