A New Age. A New Team
Chapter 1: Dark Angel Defeated by a Different Angel
The glorious buildings of Toronto, Canada once stood proud but now many of them had been reduced to rubble. While most of the buildings still stood and there was still grass in the local park, there still was pieces of buildings lying on the sidewalk and patches of grass burnt. The city looked high tech, but at the same time, it looked like it had been through a war. The air of the city reeked of sulfur and death.
The people of the city didn't go outside of their houses much, and when they did they hurried along the street, avoiding talking to anyone, and they seemed to fear every living thing around them. In this high tech war zone, there was fear everywhere. Anyone who walked into the city could smell the fear all around the streets. Though the highly advanced machines that stood as tall as twenty feet, called Sentinels, guarded the people of the city, they still feared what they had been fighting for years…Mutants.
Right after the Age of Apocalypse humans and mutants had found a way to coincide with one another, in peace, but one man and his army of mutants rose up and declared war on all humans and all mutants that associated with humans. The humans had gone straight to work on building some weapon that would save them, or protect them. They used the old blueprints of the olden day, also known as the Golden Age, Sentinels and created a new type of Sentinel that detected a mutant anywhere in the city, detected their powers, and then destroyed them.
The Sentinels of the Golden Age were maroon and purple with a peach face, but the new age Sentinels were all black with silver faces. They were nicknamed "Dark Angels" or "Death Angels" by the civilians of cities guarded by them. While they stood alone on the feared streets ready to destroy any mutant, they still made the people fear them too. For once during the Golden Age, a mutant by the name of Magneto used his power of magnetism to rewire the Sentinels to seek and destroy humans. While humans feared the Sentinels, they had no other choice but to have them, to take the chance of history repeating itself, because the Sentinels were all the citizens had to protect them. Tank, guns, and bombs couldn't stop the mutants. The closest way to stop the mutants was with Sentinels.
They were positioned in various parts of the city and they looked as though they were sleeping on the job, but the truth was they were constantly scanning the city and every person to find a certain gene in their DNA: the homo superior gene. When a Sentinel sensed the gene, their eyes would flash on and glow a brilliant red, almost signify the hatred of mutants or the blood that the Sentinels were programmed to spill. Their eyes were their signal to the people to hide because a mutant was near and soon the Sentinel would be attacking that mutant. Many humans hid in their homes, but they all knew that weren't safe even there, because the Sentinels would stop at nothing to carry out their program.
On Alvin Avenue, the eyes of a Sentinel turned on and began to glow a brilliant red. The people around the area scrambled to get into their houses, as the Sentinel began to walk down the avenue towards the corner of Glen Elm Avenue and Alvin Avenue, making the ground shakes as it walked. There was a mutant near.
A young girl, who was wearing jeans and an over-sized t-shirt and looked no older then fifteen, ducked into an alley huffing and puffing. Her skin was a very light caramel and her dark brown eyes flickered around the alley, trying to find a way to escape…There was nowhere to run.
BOOM! BOOM!
The ground shook, as the Sentinel grew closer to the girl. She pressed up against the alley wall and looked around.
"Come on. Think D. Think!" The girl, presumably named D, told herself and then she gasped as an idea came to her.
She slowly crept to the edge of the alley and looked down the street. There was a cemetery to one side and an empty street, where the Sentinel was coming from, to the other. Alright. One shot. I can do this. She told herself.
She closed her eyes and thought of bombs. Her eyes flashed open and she flung her hand out and out of thin air bombs flew out of her hand, landing on the street. She bent her knees slightly and pushed off the ground. She took flight into the air and flew as fast as she could, which wasn't too fast, towards the cemetery.
As she flew over the gates of the cemetery, she heard a loud explosion. My bombs. She thought in relief. She sighed but as soon as the air had escaped her lips for the sigh, she felt something wrap around her waist and squeeze tightly. She let out a gasp in pain as the pressure around her became tighter and tighter.
"Homo Superior captured." an electronic voice said from behind the girl.
D felt her breath slowly slipping away from her as she tried to hold onto it was all her might. She was forced to turn around and face the Sentinel that had been chasing her.
My... Bombs... Didn't… Work... She thought as she felt the grip of the Sentinel grow tighter around her small body. "Ahhhh!" She let out a loud cry.
"HEY CHICO!" A female voice yelled.
D felt her head going light and she managed to look behind her to see a woman standing in front of the Sentinel on the ground. The woman standing before the Sentinel was wearing dark blue jeans and a crimson red tank top. She had shoulder-length brown hair and she looked like she was Latino.
"Homo Superior detected." The Sentinel said as it stepped closer to the woman.
"Sure ya wanna play like that?" The woman said in a thick New Yorker accent. The Sentinel stepped closer to the woman, who wasn't budging. "I see ya do wanna do this the hard way." She smirked and then held out her hands.
D slowly blinked her eyes as the woman held out her hands and when she opened them she found herself lying on the ground, but it wasn't the ground. All around her was blackness, and underneath her was blackness, yet D wasn't falling.
"Welcome to ya personal hell," D heard a voice say. It sounded like the woman's voice.
D slowly sat up and looked behind her to see the Sentinel tied up and the woman standing in front of it. The woman a small black gecko on her tailbone, What's with the lizard? D thought as she looked at the tattoo.
She watched as the woman floated into the air and waved her hands around as if conducting a symphony, but instead large floating tools began to disassemble the Sentinel. D watched in shock as the Sentinel slowly fell apart and the glowing red eyes disappeared.
D gasped, S-She… beat the Sentinel, she thought as she just stared at the strange new, obvious, mutant.
Her brown eyes flickered all around this strange place as the blackness faded and they were back in the cemetery, and the Sentinel was still standing. The woman walked over to D and offered her a hand. "Need a hand?" The woman half smiled, half smirked.
D took the woman's hand and slowly stood up. "Um… Thanks, but the Sentinel…"
"Oh that estúpido robot?" She smirked and pulled D up. "Don't worry bout it." Right as the woman said 'it' the Sentinel fell to the ground in pieces.
D watched the Sentinel fall to the ground and then looked back at the woman, as she slowly backed away. "What… Who… Who are you?" She stuttered. Though D was a mutant herself, she had only just found out about her mutation that day, while this woman destroyed a Sentinel by herself.
The woman stayed put. "Ya afraid of me?"
D stood up straight. I could take her…easily…. D thought, I think. "No. Just not sure I can trust you."
"The name's Saria Williams. But ya can call me Switch… and I just saved ya life so I think ya can trust me." She smirked in a challenging way, as if asking D to retort back.
"My name's Dawn Kent. But you can just call me D, if you want." Dawn stepped towards Saria, knowing now it was all right.
"Well what's ya codename?"
"You mean like my nickname?"
Saria shook her head with a small laugh. "No. You're a mutant. All mutants have codenames… It's the name the mutant goes by when they're fightin', instead of their real name."
Dawn opened her mouth and looked down, "I don't have one." She said a little disappointed she didn't have one, but she looked back up at Saria.
"Ya don't have one? How can ya be a mutant and not have a codename?" Saria chuckled while she looked at Dawn as if she was short a few screws.
"I just found out I'm a mutant today." Dawn said with a little anger in her voice. She was getting sick of this older girl and her questions… even if she did save her life.
Saria shook her head and pulled out a small book and a pencil. "How'd ya do that?"
Dawn watched as Saria began sketching in the book. "Well, I, um… The short version is I was hanging out with my friends, a guy was bothering us, I wished that a snake would attack him… and it happened." She half smiled and then sighed, "But then everyone knew I was a mutant and so I panicked. I tried to runaway but instead I flew… None of it seemed real. Then the Sentinel spotted me and chased after me…"
Saria smirked as she continued drawing and listening to Dawn's story. "Well let me be the first to tell ya the number one rule of being a mutant." Saria finished drawing and put the book back in her pocket. "Never panic. If ya panic ya either lose control of ya powers or ya won't be able to use them… 'member that kid."
"I'm not a kid."
"How old are ya?"
"Fifteen going on sixteen next week," Dawn said proudly.
"Like I said… You're a la nina." Saris rolled her eyes and turned to leave.
Though Dawn didn't know a whole lot of Spanish she knew 'nina' meant kid. "I AM NOT!" Dawn shouted and then glared at the back of Saria. I'll show you... Dawn closed her brown eyes and imagined herself holding the little book Saria had been drawing in. She opened her eyes and the book flew out of Saria's pocket and into her hands.
Saria whipped around. "Give it back right now!" She shouted as she stormed over to the younger girl.
"Admit I'm not a kid."
"Are ya serious?"
"Does it look like I'm joking?" Dawn said challengingly.
Saria let out a little laugh, "Ya don't want to mess with me, chica."
"Just admit it and I'll give you your book back."
"Ya wanna know what my powers are? I can bend reality to make you believe, feel, see, smell, or taste anythin' I wish… Now, are ya sure ya want to keep testin' me?" Saria paused for a second, "Give me my book."
Dawn smirked and started to look through the book casually. "What's so important about this book anyway?" Dawn flipped through the pages seeing drawings upon drawings of fights and adventures. It was as if this tiny book told a story.
Saria jumped for the book and grabbed it from Dawn. She caught herself before she feel to the ground and she stood up. She snapped the book shut and then looked down at the worn cover of it. She ran her hand over the cover, as she seemed entranced by it. "It's my real life." Saria said softly before tucking it back in her pocket and sharply turning to walk out of the cemetery.
Dawn watched Saria walk towards the entrance of the cemetery in confusion. Her real life? Dawn shook her head and ran up to Saria's side. "You're real life? What do you mean?" She asked as she walked along side Saria.
Saria didn't slow down or look down at Dawn. "You're not goin' to leave me alone, are ya?"
Dawn looked up at Saria and smirked, "I have no one else to go to, so…no. I'm not."
Saria sighed and stopped. She looked down at Dawn, "This book," she pulled out her book, "is a collection of drawin's of everythin' I've gone through. My powers are to bend other people's reality, but at the same time it can bend my own, so a lot of the time I can't tell the difference between reality and my imagination goin' wild." She took a deep breath in and sighed, "So I use this book and draw everythin' I've ever done in it so I can 'member the truth."
Dawn looked down at the book in Saria's hands. "They're really good drawings." She said softly, not really knowing what else to say.
"Wouldn't know."
"How don't you know if they're good or not?" Dawn sounded shocked and then sighed in annoyance, "Are you one of the people who draw something and say it sucks but it's actually really great?" Dawn rolled her eyes.
Saria laughed and stuck the book back in her pocket. She began to walk out again, with Dawn following. "No. I just have never looked in the book."
They reached a dusty old jeep and Saria opened her door, got in, then leaned across to pull up the lock on Dawn's door. "You've never looked in it? Why?" Dawn asked as she got in the car. She really didn't understand why she was getting in a car with a stranger, but Saria had saved her life and was a fellow mutant, so she couldn't be all that bad…but Saria did seem a little weird, or a little different from everyone Dawn was used to.
Saria started up the jeep. "Because I'm afraid if I look in it I won't 'member what happened that day, and then I'll feel like I'm goin' insane…which I'd rather not feel." She smirked.
Dawn laughed. "So your accent…"
"New York."
"What are you doing in Toronto when you're from New York?"
Saria looked over at Dawn and smirked, "Vacation. New York is crawlin' with Sentinels and I heard Toronto was a good place." She laughed and put the jeep into drive, but did leave just yet.
Dawn laughed "I wanted to ask you… What's with the lizard on your back?"
Saria looked over at Dawn and then smirked softly, "It's been there so long I almost forgot bout it." She said as she touched her fingertips to her skin where the tattoo was. "I don't know why, I just was drawin' one day and I drew this gecko. I really liked the picture and I was goin' to get a tattoo anyway, but at first I didn't even think bout the gecko as my tattoo. The more I looked 'round in the shop the more I thought about the gecko." She let out a small laugh, "I mean geckos are like mutants. Some gecko can loose their tails and grow new ones, some change colors, some have poison… So when it came time for my tattoo I decided on the gecko."
Dawn shook her head and she chuckled as she buckled her seat belt, "So where are we going?"
Saria looked back at Dawn "Hold tight. We're goin' to Xavier's Mansion."
Dawn's mouth hung slightly open. She had heard about Xavier's Mansion in her books. It was thought to be a highly respected school but was revealed to be a school to teach mutants to use their powers. It also was the home base for a group of mutants, in this new age, which tried to protect humans, even though humans still feared them and wanted to destroy them.
"X-Xavier's Mansion?" Dawn stuttered. She had always wanted to see the school. I wonder if it's still standing… Maybe we. I mean the humans attacked it. Or maybe the Sentinels did. Just the name 'Xavier's Mansion' had sent Dawn's mind racing a mile a minute. I wonder if they still teach new mutants to use their powers…
"Yup." Saria smirked. "You'll go there to learn how to control and use ya powers." Saria smiled.
"They're still teaching?" Dawn asked a little surprised. That question's answered. "I mean haven't they been attacked yet?"
"Yup. Now no more talkin'. It's Sublime time." Saria laughed as she took her foot off the brake and pushed it down on the gas as she turned up the CD player so it was blaring 'Santeria' by Sublime.
The back tires of the jeep swung back and forth on the road, but it didn't seem to bother either girl. Saria was too busy singing along to the music, while Dawn was drumming the beat on the side of the car. In a matter of moments, the jeep was flying through the streets of Toronto towards the highway that would take them to the Xavier Mansion.