AN: Well, readers, we've come a long way. In 18 chapters, I covered about 3/4ths of the first season and got 100k words out of it. So I'm shooting for another 100 by the end of this season. And maybe less of it will be author's notes and more awesomeness. A little forewarning though. Some characters from the series have been plucked out because either I don't like them that well or because I have them busy doing something else. You'll see what I mean by the end of the chapter I hope. Disclaimer: I don't own X-men Evolution. Dang it. And I only own a copy of Asura's Wrath, not any actual licensing. Double dang it!
Chapter 19
Won't Back Down
The yard was full of kids. Too many kids. Powers were flashing all over the place as a makeshift play battle erupted with no sides and no victors. It was a mere game between kids. A fun, supernatural, and possibly fatal game between kids who were coming into their own respective talents. Talents like sending beams of ice that flash froze any surface, speeding up one's body to the point of becoming an uncontrollable wrecking ball, or creating small spheres of explosive energy.
Logan didn't like it. The yard was full of kids. Mutant kids. There was no order, no discipline in them. They didn't have the slightest of a clue what they were doing really meant.
"So those are the new recruits? Hmm, looks like we've got our hands full."
Xavier answered as calmly as ever, looking out of his office window alongside his old friend and instructor, "Yes, they sure are a lively bunch. It'll be even more of a challenge than normal to keep a lid on things and maintain our secrets."
"And maintaining the buildings too. We're definitely gonna need more instructors." Logan stated, turning from the window as he felt someone's presence near the office door.
"I do believe that's where I come in." The voice was matched by a young woman that was ever so familiar to the two men. She stepped into the office and walked to the Professor and gave him a small hug, before patting Logan on the arm in a warm gesture.
"Rebecca! How nice to see you gain. To what do we owe the pleasure?" Charles asked, not wanting to probe into her mind for the answer even though her excitement made it hard not to pick up on the thoughts.
"Yeah, I thought you had some cushy job teaching kids out in the sticks? What're you doing back up here for?" Logan furthered, not sure how to take the woman's presence. He didn't have a problem with old students, but this one had left on a bitter note. Rebecca was Logan's and Storm's first real student and she had left both of them sourly.
Rebecca's smile slipped a little, which meant she must've heard something behind Logan's voice, but she strengthened it and came back with a cheery reply "I'd like to enroll as part of the Institute's staff, if you'll have me. I spent enough time away from here to get my head on straight and realize I wanted to teach on a more personal level with people I could connect with better. And who better to teach than the people I see at their fullest and where better to teach than right here at home?"
Xavier chuckled as he folded his hands across his lap and looked over to Logan, saying "And to think you were worried. It seems we've got capable hands eager to guide our new recruits after all."
Before Logan could respond with anything more than a grunt, Storm walked in and immediately stopped in her tracks at seeing her old student standing in the office. Storm didn't seem to know what to do for a moment, but Rebecca scurried over to the white-haired beauty and wrapped her in a tight hug, before letting go and squealing "Oh, Mrs. Ororo it's so good to see you! I missed you so much. And you haven't changed a bit either!"
The weather witch almost looked baffled for a moment, but the elder woman put her hands on Rebecca's shoulders to hold her still and look the woman over.
"Oh my, how you have grown, child. I've missed you dearly as well."
The two wrapped in another brief hug before separating and Storm looked to Charles for an explanation.
Charles obliged and gestured with his hand "Ororo, meet your newest fellow staff mate. Rebecca here has asked to help instruct our new recruits and as such I'm sure you'd love to spend some time with her and show her a few things. As a matter of fact, I'm sure they would all enjoy being introduced to the kitchen area sometime soon after we finish talking."
The two women nodded, before Ororo remembered why she had come into the office. "Professor, I believe you may want to look at this."
Storm walked over to a small monitor on the wall and cut it on, showing the local news. The station was broadcasting a small bridge in the downtown area, where some car had broken through the side railing and was teetering dangerously on the edge. The car eventually tipped over and nose-dived straight towards a school bus beneath it, filled with children. But before it could reach the bus, the car suddenly altered course and landed nose first into the hard asphalt below.
The car was ruined beyond a doubt, but the supposed driver stumbled out from beneath the shadows of the bridge and was immediately handcuffed by a nearby officer. Thee rollback on the footage stopped as the anchorwoman began to comment on the mysterious circumstance of the accident and the adverting of a disaster.
Storm cut the TV of and the Professor began to think out loud to himself. "This was definitely mutant involvement, but it seems that the mutant never revealed themself to the public, fortunately. But who could've averted such a thing? Prophetess, did you pick anything up on the accident when it happened?"
Attention shifted back to Rebecca as the woman began to sift through past foresights, back to anything related to what she had seen. It was straining on the woman, but under the pressure of her old mentors, she had to do it. She found what she was looking for amid all of the flashes and began to explain what she could, making sure not to lose focus lest she slip back into the vision.
"What I saw was similar to what you all saw, but from a different perspective. The vision didn't show the driver making it out of the car, rather, he died in the accident but still avoided the bus. The whole vision was offset by some sense of relief. It was almost as if the mutant was in pain but interfering with the accident helped. Weird."
The three older instructors shared looks, trying to piece together more from what they had learned, but none of them came up with much. A shout from somewhere inside the mansion caught the attention of the staff and before long, Scott, Kurt and Kitty all came rushing into the room.
"Professor, have you seen the news? There was a car wreck that was real bad and these kids were gonna get hurt but, like, something stopped the car while Kurt got the driver out and no one saw us or anything but it was so weird. That car just got pushed through the air or something!" Kitty spouted out, not taking a single breath during her entire story telling. Then, after a few brief seconds of eye-contact, the girl noticed that there was a new person in the room.
Kitty slapped her hands over her mouth and was terrified for a moment before she noticed nobody else freaking out and decided to relax a bit. The normally impatient girl finished calming down and waited for someone to explain to her why there was a stranger in the room.
"It just finished airing Kitty. We all saw it and were wondering who could've caused it. Thank you for trying to inform us of this matter, anyways. But since you three are here, I'd like to introduce you to one of my older students and your newest instructor, Rebecca."
The strange new woman stepped forward and shook hands with Kitty and Kurt, before stopping in front of Scott. The tall teen sensed that something was about to be said and stooped down a little due to how short the woman was to him. As he did so, Rebecca reached up and stood on her tip-toes to ruffle the shades wearing teen's hair.
"I bet you don't remember that much of me, huh hot shot? Oh, you were a little squirt when you first got here. You always ran behind the Professor's chair when anyone else came around, but you had the strangest sense to practice using your eyes on shiny stuff. I'm sure you've changed a lot now that you're all grown up."
Scott stood rigid for a moment before scratching the back of his head a little. "I don't really remember you. Sorry. I can't say it's nice to meet you since you already know me, but I'm glad that you're back at the institute. I think we'll need you now more than ever."
Rebecca turned and gave a pointed look to Charles before smirking "You sure do have one heck of a boy scout here. What did you do to him when I left, put him in boot camp?"
A faint proclamation of "Hey!" came out from Scott while the others laughed, but Xavier decided to shift out of casual conversation and more towards business.
"Storm, why don't you take Rebecca down to go gather the new recruits into the dining room and tell them to prepare for dinner. Afterwards, Rebecca, take them down the Danger Room and let them get to know each other in a more team-oriented way than redecorating my front lawn."
With a nod, the two women left the office to go get the new kids. The three X-men followed shortly afterwards, waving the Professor and their instructor goodbye as they went to go enjoy their afternoon.
Insert Line
Rebecca was irritated. And rightfully so, if you were to look at her condition when Storm left her alone with a group of teenage mutants inside an incredibly dangerous room. Somehow, along the way from the dining hall to the room they were currently in, she had acquired frost on her shoe, a small burn on the sleeve of her shirt, and every now and then she would shudder and resist the urge to fall asleep. All the while, a girl followed her every step, begging for the chance to help fix things all the while breaking vases and knocking paintings off the wall.
Currently, her young charges were lined up side by side in a straight line, wearing similar training uniforms and fidgeting around nervously. Rebecca fought the urge to clutch her head at all of the visions flashing in her mind, but oddly enough, she didn't get the normal headache from multiple visions.
"All right then, now that we've all gathered here, why don't we all take the time to get to know one another. I'll start. My name is Rebecca Anderson and I'll be your main instructor until you move up to the actual X-men. My powers allow me to see brief visions of future uses of mutant powers, so yes, that does mean I'll know when you use them to try and break the rules. When I was a student here myself a few years ago, my codename during training was Prophetess, so you may address me as that or Mrs. Anderson if you like. Any questions or comments?"
One brown haired boy raised his hand in the air before asking, a small smile forming on his face "So do you have visions of yourself having visions?"
A small spike in blood pressure and a few calm breaths later, Rebecca promptly replied "No. Now if you would, go ahead and introduce yourself to the rest of us and let us know what you can do."
The kid shrugged his shoulders and said "My name is Bobby Drake and I'm super cool."
Another boy farther down the line snorted, saying "Oh yeah, you don't seem all that cool to me."
Bobby gave the boy that spoke up a look before holding his hand out and shooting an crackling ice blue beam at the boy's feet, leaving them incased in ice, much to the boy's displeasure. A small volt of electricity jumped from the boy's hand and to his feet, melting the ice and shattering it all over the floor.
"I'm Ray. And I can shock stuff real good. Especially jerks and pretty boys." Ray had balled up his fists and small bolts were jumping off of it, as well as running through his spiked blonde hair.
Bobby stepped up, pointing his hands to himself "Oh, you think you want some of the Iceman big guy? Well step on up and see how much static you can make when you're a human popsicle."
Another girl stepped up, a tall, light brunette. She flung her arms out in between the two boys and shouted "Cut it out you guys! We can't fight on the first day. They'll kick us all out." While she said that, the two boys swayed on their feet as silly grins crossed their faces. The girl shrieked, before jumping back into line and started to drill holes into the floor near her shoes.
Rebecca just stepped forward and began snapping her fingers in front of the boy's eyes, getting them to focus. Once they were back in reality, she stepped over to the mollified girl and put her hand on her shoulder, gently voicing "It's ok. They're fine. You didn't do anything wrong, sweetie. They're perfectly ok. Why don't you tell us your name and what you did? It seemed like it made those two feel a lot better towards each other, so you did us all a favor. So come on. We're all friends here."
Being in close to the girl made Rebecca realize why her headaches were gone, even though she had visions flashing away in her mind. The girl had an aura about her that made pain go away. Everything around the girl felt…better. It was incredible.
The girl lifted her head and looked into the eyes of her new teacher, emotion wavering in her watery blue eyes. "I'm Katie and my powers take away people's sense of feeling. I can't stop no matter how hard I try. People get around me and they go numb. And after that, they start acting weird, like nothing can hurt them."
Rebecca took another step forward and hugged the girl, who was tall enough to still look over the woman's head at the others. "You'll be fine here. We'll take care of you."
The next girl in the line turned to Katie and introduced herself "I'm Amara. All I can do it burn things and turn into molten lava. I wish my powers helped like yours did."
Katie brightened a little, but didn't say anything else. Rebecca could sense the budding friendship, but moved on down the line anyways, past ray and onto the girl who had been persistently pestering her early about fixing things. Now that Rebecca wasn't ignoring her, the teacher noted how accident prone the girl seemed. There were small holes and stains all over her clothes and her hair seemed to further promote the notion. It was a assortment of multiple colors all dyed at random, it seemed. Green, the most prominent color, seemed to match her eyes.
"Hey! I'm Marley. My parents always say they never named me after the singer but I'm not sure. I think I found one of his old records in my parents room before though. So anyways, my name is Marley, like I said, but I can fix things. I can change them back to what they were before. Watch!"
The girl stretched her hands in front of her, palms out towards her instructor. Before the woman could say anything to dissuade her pupil, a yellow beam shot out of her hand and hit the woman before erupting in a bright light.
The other students watched in shock and a bit of apprehension as the light faded. Some expected to see nothing left of the woman but a smoldering pile of ashes. But the woman did emerge, although nothing seemed different. Marley didn't see it this way and began to jump up and down in one spot.
"See! I didn't kill her! She's all fixed now! Look at her shoes."
Everyone did and saw that they had indeed been repaired from the frosting that had covered them before. Rebecca cleared her throat and diverted the attention off of her feet and back to her.
"Let's get back to introducing ourselves, shall we? And no more power demonstrations on people without explicit permission. We're trying to keep this first session as safe as possible."
Ray had already introduced himself and his powers, so the next new mutant was a younger boy, the youngest of the entire group, who smiled cheerily at his teacher before introducing himself.
"I'm Jamie! And I can make copies of myself."
"Really? Well that seems quite useful. Would you care to give us a demonstration?"
Jamie's smile faltered as he began to rub on his shoulder and muttered out "Well, I can't exactly do it on purpose. It happens on accident."
The other kids all snickered at this, laughing at the younger boy's inability to control his powers, even though it was doubtful they had control of their own powers, let alone at Jamie's age.
"That's perfectly fine, Jamie. That's why we're all here. You'll figure it out soon enough. Now you last two, move it along. We've got to get you all started before it gets to late into the night."
The last two looked at each other, before the girl nudged the boy forward and muttered "Well go on, hick."
The boy winked at her and said "Ladies first."
With a sigh, the girl began to introduce herself "I'm Tabitha and I like to make things go 'Boom' if you know what I'm talking about." A small marble sized sphere of yellow energy grew in her palm and with a flick, the ball was sent rolling along the floor where it detonated in a boom that left scorch marks on the floor. Rebecca didn't need her foresight to see that the girl would be a lot of trouble, but welcomed the girl regardless. If she could handle public school students, she could handle a few high school students with super powers.
The last boy pointed his thumb into his chest and said "I'm Sam. How're all y'all doin'? I'm real glad to be here with y'all at the institute." Correcting grammar was a habit that died hard, and dear lord did she want to, but Rebecca pushed down the notion and let him finish. The boy was good natured and meant well, but that accent and the poor grammar made Rebecca not like him. It wasn't something that could be avoided, no matter how much Rebecca would deny it later. At least the boy was overly polite and sweet.
That reminded her of how exactly opposite he was of how Luke was. Luke. She hadn't seen him around, surprisingly. She figured that karma or Murphy's Law or something would force the two to meet up. She wasn't looking forward to it at all. She just knew he would say something about changing careers just to be around him.
Focusing back on her actual students instead of her old one, she was about to give them instructions to get ready for warm ups, when a strong vision overtook her senses. Even though there wasn't the normal pain from it, it was still disgruntling and as she closed her eyes, she felt herself slipping into a new environment.
She was in a green field, surrounded by stands. There were bright lights shining down on her and the field began to shake and quiver before splitting into a ravine. There was a blur running around a man, going so fast the wind created by the speedster picked the man up inside a vortex. She watched as a frog boy shot his absurdly long tongue out and latch onto her wrist, then her perspective changed.
She was hovering in the air, well above a sports field. People below her were scurrying about, running around like chickens with their heads cut off. A few figures were out and battling and she recognized the red beam that was Cyclops's signature. From her spot in the air, Prophetess saw arms outstretch and grip at something in the air, before dragging together. Below on the ground, the football field mended itself and pulled back together, throwing all of the combatants to their knees.
Marks were left on the turf, and from the sky, it looked like they were fingerprints dug into the ground, as if a giant hand drug the ravine shut. Then, the figure began to leave. He turned to float off, but another figure was waiting on him, cloaked in darkness and indiscernible. All around the figure, metal objects began to float around in a whirlwind. A powerful force, power incarnate, began to resonate through the sky as the figure spoke.
"Where do you think you're going? You still have orders. Now go down there and wipe them all out!"
Rebecca's perspective changed and returned to the field. She was seeing things from a seated position, leading her to believe that she was seeing Charles' view. Faintly, to the side of her peripherals, she could see a news van fold up into one twisted metal ball, but that was insignificant. Because out of the visitor's field emerged 4 figures and even through the vision, Rebecca could still feel how upsetting that was to the Professor. Something was bad wrong. This couldn't happen, or the whole world would be exposed to mutants, not just to the shadows hidden in dark places.
Rebecca felt the floor come back beneath her feet and her knees go weak, but as she opened her eyes and saw her students all staring at her with concern, she knew that something must be done.
"Stay here! I'll have Logan run your first session for you, but do not leave the mansion and do exactly as he says. I've got to go see the Professor."
The woman turned to leave, but Bobby asked "Didn't the Professor already leave to go to some soccer game? I don't even think he's at the mansion right now."
It took a great deal of professionalism to keep from swearing in front of her kids, but Rebecca left the Danger Room without cussing once. Once she did, she broke out into a run and made for the elevator to the garage. The long hall gave Prophetess the time to regret falling out of shape, as her legs began to protests the strain after only being used for standing instead of running for so long. When she reached the elevator, she could feel the seconds tick by as it came down to get her, then carry her back up. When she reached topside, she began to shout out for her fellow instructors.
"Logan! Ororo! We've got a disaster on our hands. I need some help."
Logan's came out of the kitchen immediately, claws outstretched and at the ready.
"For crying out loud, you've only had the kids 15 minutes. What've you done?"
"There's gonna be an attack at the game. I need you to watch the younger kids while me and Storm go to warn the Professor."
The look on Logan's face showed he instantly disagreed, but Prophetess didn't have time to argue with the stubborn man. Storm poked her head over the balcony, already suited up and ready to go. The white-haired woman floated over the railing and landed in the foyer below, setting a brisk walk to the garage.
"Come on, child. Logan will watch the children while we take care of this new development. Maybe along the way you can explain just what you saw."
Rebecca followed, shooting a look of thankfulness at the already leaving Logan before entering the garage.
It was bigger than she remembered, which meant it had probably been expanded to make room for the mansion's vehicles as well as the multiple personal vehicles. Logan's bike was parked in one corner, alongside another motorcycle that was more of a street bike than a Harley. While she slipped into the passenger seat of a the mansion's X-van, she idly noted "I guess Logan invested in a back up bike in case he crashed his first toy, right?"
Storm waited for the garage to open before she gunned the acceleration pedal, getting her passenger to buckle up quickly and grab on the door handle securely. After she made it outside of the mansion gate, Storm looked over to her passenger and said "That's one of our student's. Logan would never dare drive something that small. It upsets his masculinity or something like that."
Prophetess weakly chuckled as she clutched her eyes shut as Ororo went through a curve. How could she forget her promise to never get in another car with this woman? Rebecca loved Storm like a dear older sister, but the weather mistress just couldn't drive safely.
When the two women finally made it to the game, they left the car and hurried over to the Professor, who was seated near the edge of the bleachers due to his disability. It didn't take but a moment to wheel the man off towards a more secluded area, while everyone was so distracted by the game.
Xavier reacted well, inquiringly calmly as to why two of his staff had come to him. "What seems the problem that you would've left the younger students with Logan to come see me? I'm sure it must be serious."
Rebecca took a moment to take a deep breathe, before concentrating. "It'd be better to just show you. I'm sure you could make more sense of it than I could."
So the Professor took a more subtle approach than grabbing her head like he normally would do, but gripped her wrist and began to close out his other senses while extending his mental one. He connected with Rebecca and pushed aside any personal thoughts of hers, leaving her thoughtless as he drew her memory of prophesying back to the forefront of her mind.
The scenes came rushing through her mind again, slower than before as the Professor took the time to sort through every moment. And the sensations had changed. Before, there was no slime wrapped around her wrist or a numbing pain encasing her hovering form. Now, without the presence of Katie, the vision explained even more.
The Professor broke contact after finishing the vision and turned back to the game, calling out telepathically to his students, warning them to get to the Brotherhood before it was too late. His warning was in vain. Xavier watched alongside Ororo and Rebecca as Lance Alvers exposed mutants to the world by splitting the soccer field in half, sending two girls plummeting down. One caught herself, the other wouldn't have been as lucky if not for Jean's extended hand.
Chaos was born. A bright flash of red erupted from the stands, knocking Lance off of the announcer's box and into the stands where he tumbled down in a painful mess. The X-men left the stands and split up, Kitty and Evan going after the news van to sabotage it, but as they arrived, the van began to fold itself up into a giant metal ball. The people inside barely made it out, screaming their heads off in fright.
The Blob trudged his way up the stands, leaving a trail of destruction behind him as he reached to grab the new Bayville mascot, a flaming hawk. The gargantuan teen tore it off of it's stand and turned to the field, aiming to throw it, only for it to be pulled out of his hands by some unknown force. Fred looked up to see a few faint figures in the sky above him and shouted, pointing a large meaty finger.
"Magneto! He's here. Springload, do something!"
Terrence looked up from his spot in the stands where he was watching Quicksilver torture his principal in a vortex of speed, spotting the floating figures. Charging his powers for a moment, Springload smashed the wooden seat beside him and broke off a large chunk of wood. No metals on that. Cocking back his arm for his throw, he felt his throwing arm get jerked back behind him, contorting it to a sickening angle and making him drop the makeshift projectile.
A better look at the floating targets made Springload stop and reconsider his entire game plan. He and the guys had just planned on terrorizing the game to get some respect, to set themselves apart from all the other losers in town. They didn't expect Magneto to show up. And especially not with that guy as backup.
A shout of warning from Crystal rang through the stands, causing every hair on Terrence's body to stand on end. Instinctively, his muscles clenched and released as Terrence back flipped over a flying sphere of yellow fiery energy. It collided with the stands and shredded the wood, but Springload was too busy cursing up a storm to care about the innocent wood. What were these guys doing here too?
From the visitor's side of the field came 4 figures and Springload recognized all of them. Three of them were Network mutants that were at the lab out in the woods up north. It was the leader, still completely covered from head to toe, the brightly colored Asian man, and the most fashionable of the bunch was the one dressed in mostly black and with goggles strapped to his head. The last one was that damned mutant from Denver, now dressed in a padded leather uniform that was dark green in color. It was a fair guess to say he had been recruited to work with those guys, seeing as they were standing side by side in the middle of the field.
The Brotherhood and X-men had stopped their fights and turned to see the newcomers, everyone now targeting them. Those guys were the serious threat out of all the madness that was going on, after all. Amanda turned from fighting Rouge to grow a patch of sharp, piercing crystals in the midst of the four, but the attack as a whole failed.
The illusionists vanished from sight, never reappearing as his image dissolved around the spikes imbedded in his limbs. One just simply began fighting Nightcrawler and Spyke, shooting white shrapnel from his fingertips to return fire at Evan while Kurt moved the two around evasively. The wounds from the crystal impalements showed to be only flesh wounds as they never pierced bone for some reason, so the sniper was hardly bothered, let alone disabled like Crystal had wanted.
The scariest of the four, the one from Denver, merely shattered the crystals as they came at him, breaking them with a sharp set of martial arts before tunneling back in on Springload and firing off more blasts of various colored energy. The agile acrobat avoided all of them successfully, but was in no position to counterattack until Jean started helping, flinging various debris at the game channeling mutant.
The last of the four to be hit by crystals was the most affected, physically anyways. The mutant dispersed into a giant puddle of water before reforming away from the crystal. The body then began to attack Amanda, dissolving part of it's hand in order to shoot a wave of water at her. Halfway there, the water reformed into an oversized fist that was opaque, but still harmful looking. Kitty tackled the blonde cheerleader out of the way and phased her to safety as the fist crashed into the turf, tearing it up even further and leaving a puddle that slowly reformed and gathered to the original body.
Scott and Lance went back to fighting, mostly using their physical strength rather than just powers. Cyclops couldn't use his optic beams due to his hands being tied from opening his visor while he was locked in his tussle with Avalanche. The rock shifting mutant couldn't focus enough to use his powers, otherwise he would have a definite advantage in the struggle.
Quicksilver and Toad were being tricked into fighting each other and Rouge as well, but soon realized it when Rouge called out to the Brotherhood boys for a truce and explained that she wasn't Mystique like they saw her to be. Mentally, Rouge was thanking the Professor who had told her what was going on, but she didn't hear a reply as she began to protect herself from false, illusion animals while trying to find the illusionist himself.
The Professor stayed connected with Rebecca in order to see what was going on during the fighting all at once. The poor woman was having a fit dealing with all of the visions happening at once and while he tried to ease that, he was also using it. His main concern was the two mutants hovering in the air. He knew one was Magneto and he had his suspicions of the other mutant with him. Xavier began to expand his mental senses upward, to get a better feel of the two, only to be stopped by the same mental presence that he had felt before in the labs.
'Charles, it would seem that we meet again. Only this time, I would say the circumstances are much less in your favor. I believe it's time for us to discuss a few things, don't you?'
'What do you want? Why have you interfered with this game? What do you gain from fighting my students and a group of outcast mutants?'
'This isn't entirely for you.' The mental voice seemed to chuckle at the suggestion. 'While you were my squad's primary objective, new data has made you a secondary priority. No, we are here for him.'
The implication behind the statement was obvious to Xavier as he looked up to the two floating figures above the field. It seemed that the two were locked in an argument, but Xavier didn't dare expand his consciousness more than he already had with another telepath around. Magneto needed to be warned, that much was certain. Whatever this man wanted with Eric would not be good.
"Storm, go warn Magneto. Tell him he's been tricked into coming and that he should take his friend and leave. Now."
Ororo left his side, taking to the air with the winds lifting her, rising to the level that the two mutants were on. As she got closer, Storm realized that the figure arguing with Magneto was someone she knew. Someone she had taught. Someone she had treated like family. What was Gyro doing here?
"Luke? Child, what are you doing here? How are you even flying? Magneto, what have you done to him?"
The master of magnetism turned away from Luke to focus on Storm, looking her over for moment to judge her intentions. After a moment, an invisible tension slipped away and the man began to explain.
"I've taken Luke farther than he ever would've gone before. And now he's working out his service for me. But enough of that. What does Charles want? Hurry up and be out with it, as me and the child still have bugs to squash."
"Xavier sent me to warn you that you've been tricked into coming. There are men down there here for you, Magneto, and Xavier believes it best for you to leave. You can't beat them by yourself, Magneto."
While Storm was saying this, she was trying to make eye contact with Luke, to make some kind of connection to the otherwise silent teen. A fear began to creep into Storm that something was indeed wrong with Luke. Mental interference wouldn't be that far of a stretch for someone like Magneto to get his way and the man certainly had the resources.
Magneto chuckled out loud, before pulling on the metals beneath him and lifting a majority of the stands. The metal began to creak and groan as the mutant compressed the metal down into a dense ball of silver metal the size of a basketball. With a flick of his wrist, he sent it hurtling towards the ground below, and at one person in particular.
The metal sphere hit the ground with enough force to rattle the field and interrupt all the others fighting on the ground. In awe, most of the teenagers saw the gaping hole in the cloaked man's chest, large enough for them to see each other clearly through. And then, as the body began to fall, it turned back to water in a puddle on the ground. It slithered away and began to reform, hovering as a giant sphere of water in the air as it began to take the human shape again.
Magneto scowled from his spot in the air and ignored Storm's cries of protests as he turned to the teen beside him. "I want you to contain the body while I seal it. Then, I want you to teach them all what it means to cross the savior of mutant kind."
Luke gained some sense of awareness when spoken to and talked back, surprising Storm.
"I'm not gonna fight my old team. And there's no sense in me challenging the Brotherhood. They aren't our reason for being here."
"You will do as I say, Gyro and you will do it without fail. Now go!"
Storm watched in horror as Luke turned to the ground beneath him and drew his hands back before slamming them together in a clap. The woman could feel the power unleashed as gravity doubled down over the soccer field, knocking everyone face first to the ground. The body of water seemed to defy the wave of gravity, but Storm saw the reason for that.
Gyro had one hand out in a clenched fist, forming a pocket of gravity around the water to keep it from escaping. His other hand was still outstretched in an open palm, steadily applying pressure to the field and the people below.
Storm couldn't bear to watch her makeshift family below being smothered and she flew over to Luke, trying to talk him out of his offense. "Luke, please, stop this! You're hurting your own friends! There's no sense to this. Why are you working for Magneto? Come back to the mansion. We've missed you."
Luke never faltered in his oppression as metal molded around his pocket of the atmosphere, forming an airtight seal around the water body. Once that was done, the metal began to compress down even smaller than before, shrinking down to the size of a baseball. Luke unclenched his fist and thrust his hand out in a palm thrust, sending the metal ball deep into the earth and out of view in a hole.
After this was done, the teen turned to his old teacher, a look of sadness and remorse covering his face. The direct eye contact made the wind rider realize that Luke changed. If anything, his skin had taken a much paler tone, almost looking gray. Storm's mind pushed it aside as the teen seemed to talk again, struggling to spit a few words out, as if something was opposing the action.
"I've missed you guys too. But I can't stop. Get the team out of here in case I actually do hurt one of them. I'm sorry."
Then, Luke's body locked up and began to move almost robotically, going through the motion of thrusting his fist out in a punching motion. For a split second, Storm saw the regret on Luke's face, but that moment ended when she was caught up in a car wreck of blunt force that flipped the woman's world. Ororo began to free fall until Xavier jolted her consciousness so she was aware enough to land much more gracefully than splattering on the hard earth.
Xavier sat in his chair, stone-faced as he clutched onto Rebecca's wrist. He was wiping out what minds he could in the civilian population still around, trapped in by Magneto so they could witness the event, while also fending off the probes the foreign mind of the Director sent at him. It seemed that even without his body near him, the mind could still operate fully. How troublesome. Stretched out as he was mentally, he couldn't comfort Storm like he wanted to, but the chance arose when the X-men found themselves pinned.
He broke off connection to any strange mind and told Kitty to gather them all up so they could retreat if need be. It seemed that the option seemed more viable by the minute. Then, he turned his focus towards Storm. A quick mental tap was all he needed for the woman to show him everything that had happened in the air. When he finished watching it all, Xavier gripped his wheelchair armrest even harder than before.
"Storm, get our kids and make sure they all stick together. I'll need you and Rebecca to help me, but I'm going to attempt to free Luke from whatever Magneto has done to his mind. Something around him is generating psychic static right now. Bring him down here where I can push through it. And we'll need to get rid of the Network team so this Director mind will retreat. Coordinate the team to push the three back and the mind of the leader should follow."
Storm nodded in understanding, leaving her position on the sidelines and flying off towards the field to rally the team. Dark clouds gathered as she flew and thunder rumbled ominously near Magneto and Gyro, who were still hovering well above them all, with Luke still pressing down on the field. Lightening lashed out at the most prominent source of attraction, Magneto himself, but the man sent a piece of his plate armor off to conduct it for him at a safe distance away.
Scott must've fought the intense gravity and rolled over to press his visor, as a red beam lit up the sky and nearly hit the two mutants, only for it to warp and deflect off of an unseen force when the beam came close. Gyro doubled down from his position in the air, pressing even harder on Cyclops to nullify the future threat, but using his powers so much had left his muscles weak. After a moment, the weight on the field lifted as Gyro recovered his vitality and let his muscles regenerate. That moment was all Snipe needed to roll over and take aim, zooming in with his advanced vision in order to take precise aim on the most dangerous threat to his squad and primary objective.
Right as Luke began to press down on the field with his powers, Snipe shot. His aim rang true, as after a moment to aim and fire, a small bone the size of his fingertip but as hard as steel shot through the air faster than a bullet as it pierced through Gyro's chest and out his back. Storm was the only one close enough to see what had happened, but her scream of horror echoed along with Prophetess as Luke began to fall through the sky, lifeless.
For the X-men, the gravity that had oppressed them earlier vanished, only for something much worse to take it's place as their missing teammate fell through the air, being caught by a random assortment of metals and lifted back up towards Magneto.
From the air, the now angry man called down bellow "You think you've won this war? This has just started. You and all of yours will crumble beneath my might and no hiding will save you! But this battle is yours. Charles, clean up this mess for the sake of your precious secrecy. I'll leave it your capable hands."
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Xavier hardly heard his old friend speak as he went from mind to mind, wiping out what he could of the recent memories of the small mutant war that had taken place on the soccer field. He just focused on his task at hand and ignored his mental contacts that were all in emotional turmoil at Gyro's fate. There would be time to deal with that later.
As the powerful telepath began to feel the strain from wiping so many minds, he felt some of the pressure ease, much to his surprise as he finished up. Another telepath must've wiped the other civilians already. But the only one here with enough skill to do that was…
'It is not in my or the Network's interest to go public, especially in a manner like this. Do not mistake this as an alliance, but merely a security measure. My mission with Magneto has been successful and my objective with you is inevitable to avoid. I will give you the chance to comply, so you and your students will save yourselves the pain of defying me.'
'Just what exactly do you want from me and my students? You will never get us to swear fealty or align ourselves with a hidden society of criminals and sociopaths. Tell me your intentions and we may be able to help each other, or at least avoid conflict with one another.'
Xavier was running a risky gambit, but he had little choice. His team was wrecked at the moment, most of them hadn't even peeled themselves off of the turf yet. The Network team had assembled and rounded the Brotherhood into a small cluster. They looked defeated as well, but maybe they could be worked with to drive back these contracted criminals.
'I've been given orders to wipe every memory you have of Network contact. Any resistance must be met with oppressive force. Our security must be impeccable, after all.'
Xavier didn't even respond to the mental voice, knowing he couldn't agree to having his memory tampered with. He certainly couldn't let Network operatives into his head, much less his students. He couldn't dare trust them that much. But it seemed he didn't have to. The voice vanished, as did the mental pressure the Director had when Xavier searched for him.
In the cornered Brotherhood group, Avalanche shook his head as if to clear out stray thoughts, before focusing his powers. Snipe took aim at the boy's head, having no way to miss from only a few feet away, but he was nudged by Gameboy to holster his finger.
The Brotherhood didn't know what was going on when Lance suddenly started using his powers, causing the earth to raise and buckle beneath them. All of them rode of the seismic waves while trying to get an answer from Lance, but when the metal orb that contained the Director's water body came back to the surface, Avalanche turned to his team and said "Lance is out for the moment. Give him a second and he'll be back with you."
Lance's body crumpled over as if it lost it's pilot, but Toad and Pietro caught him before he hit the ground. Ass the ground-shaking mutant came to, Springload began to shake his head just like Lance had done earlier. The spring muscled teen walked to the metal orb before cocking his arm back and holding it there for four seconds. The muscles in Terrence's arms could be seen tensed up as hard as they were, up until he let go and his fist smashed through the metal and leaving a hole in the side of it. Water dripped out as Terrence brought out his now broken and mangled fist.
Amanda shuddered in disgust at how obviously broken Springload's hand was, but kept quiet. They were still surrounded by dangerous men, after all. Springload soon crumpled over, hitting the ground and cussing profusely as water gushed out of the metal sphere and took the cloaked form of the Director, as ominous as ever.
"Charles, I'm waiting on an answer. Will you submit you and your team to being wiped? I can't promise that it won't hurt. I can promise that it'll feel like paradise compared to what you'll feel otherwise."
Xavier didn't bother to answer, merely crossing his arms and connecting his mind and mental defenses to everyone of his students as well as the Brotherhood. They would need it in order to avoid being possessed again. Even if they didn't fight with the X-men, it would still be better for them not to be used against his team.
Gameboy must've noticed the shift in the Brotherhood mutants his squad had surrounded as well as the X-men that had now surrounded them. The teen began to crack his knuckles as he began channeling his game of choice again, feeling anger stir up within himself as his skin darkened into a deep red. He felt his own physiology change, his height shifting and his muscle mass swelling. He was taking on more traits of his selected character than he normally did, mostly because this was the main playable character of his selected game. While not a popular or spectacular work, Asura's Wrath was exactly what he looked for in a game to mimic.
The Director took note of his subordinate changing form and called out one last warning to his fellow telepath. "Do you really think you can resist this, Charles? Gameboy wiped all of this riffraff out by himself and would've taken your team out with them if they hadn't of fled. But this time you have no where to run and I have two more of my squad with me."
Xavier's face grimed and he replied with steadfast determination. "I have faith in my students to what must be done, as I always do. Even if that places them against unseemly odds and against an organization such as yours. This is your chance to abort your mission and merely take what success you have with Magneto and leave."
The director chuckled as he raised his hand in a signal to his squad to attack. At the signal, every single Network agent on the field vanished. Xavier instantly knew what had happened and let out a pulse of psychic energy to wipe the illusion being cast over his team. As he did, the illusion shattered, but it was already too late. In the moment they were gone, the squad had already gotten themselves in perfect position to attack.
Xavier had spotted the Director first, standing directly in front of Nightcrawler with his arms crossed. The man uncrossed them in a wide manner before regurgitating a blast of water directly into the blue elf's face that sent him skidding across the field, soaked. In return, the Director's body was blasted apart by a red beam, some of the water composing it evaporating in the process.
As the Director reassembled himself, Xavier spotted the much larger and redder version of Gameboy unleash what would've been a debilitating blow at Shadowcat, but thankfully the girl was aware enough to phase through it and drag the monster of a mutant through the ground. It wouldn't hold him for long, but it gave the girl a moment to regroup with her still conscious teammates.
From what he saw through his contact with Rebecca, he knew that Snipe had reappeared between Crystal and Spyke, firing off bone fragments at the two. Thankfully, both of them had plated themselves in armor through their powers and returned fire. But Snipe was no slouch and was one of Network's best for a good reason. He rolled under Evan's spikes and away from Crystal's prisms and rose in a strong uppercut that knocked Evan off his feet, before getting steamrolled by a telekinetic smash from Jean.
Rouge had been set upon by the foreign illusionist, who appeared behind her and punched her in the sides before ducking her retaliatory kick and landing one of his own on her knee, sending the over extended girl to the ground, where she rolled over and launched herself in a tackle at the man. The man simply dissolved into feathers before her eyes and she was sent to dream land by a sneaky chop to her neck to the reappeared, illusionist.
The man then sent a widespread illusion to the guys of the Brotherhood, who were trying to make their way off of the field and get away from all the fighting. The group stopped, so Xavier assumed the illusion must've taken hold. He expanded his consciousness to try and wipe the illusion from them, but as he did, the mind of the Director attack, much more viciously than before. Xavier held his own, helped by Rebecca's predictions of when and here the mind would strike against his mental defenses. But Charles was weary and tired. He had spent a majority of his strength on wiping out so many minds from remembering all of this, but it seemed that the Director didn't tire.
It was truly marvelous, that seeing as the mind was outside of the body, the Director must've never experienced exhaustion mentally. There was no strain from such a burdening body as his own. So that meant that the Director could keep going strong for much longer than Charles could. How unfortunate. It seemed the Brotherhood would have to sort the delusion out on their own while he tended to the orchestrator of such a troublesome night. And to do so, he would have to drag the mind into the Astral Plane.
It was a very risky plan, because if he lost to the mind while inside that plane, there was a very likely chance he would never make it back out. But the plan had very many benefits that outweighed the risk. If he succeeded in dragging the mind into the Astral Plane for combat, then the Director would be stuck there. It was doubtful that a telepath of his limited skill even knew that the Astral Plane existed, which would only benefit Charles more as a veteran of several intense battles on that plane. One more bonus was that the Director's aquatic body would likely disperse. Even if the Director could control it while projecting his mind completely, the chances of him doing it from the Astral Plane were minimal. Entering the Astral Plane put the telepath's body in a coma-like state and that was another proof of the danger the plane posed.
But it had to be done. Xavier relayed his message to Rebecca telepathically, shielding the message from being received by the Director, who would likely turn tail and run if he heard it. He also told her to contact Jean, who was the only hope the Brotherhood would have to sort out their sanity while he was away. The woman gave her consent, but the man could sense her discomfort with letting her idol slip of into another world.
He pushed it aside and gathered his strength, launching his first real mental attack onto the Director's mind, which quickly went defensive and tried to slither away like a snake. But Xavier's skill as a telepath was not unfounded and the man found a sure grip on the Director and began the telepathic pulling needed to enter the Astral Plane. This would all be over shortly, one way or another.
Rebecca was forced to let go of the Professor as his body went rigid and his signs of life went dim. She expected it but it still unnerved her how unnatural it looked. But the woman had a job to do. The woman quickly spotted Jean across the field while other battles still raged, mostly the large red mutant attempting to demolish everything his hands touched.
With a sigh that belittled her actual determination, the woman complained to herself "I wish I was still in shape." before sprinting off of the sidewalk towards Jean, avoiding what she could of the other fighting. She had made it halfway across the field, head swimming full of visions erupting in her mind's eye, but one stood out that made her stumble to a stop. A small whizzing sound filled her ears, showing how close a small bone came to piercing her abdomen, but the more concerning problem to Prophetess was falling. If she fell, she saw a vision of herself being shot in between the shoulder blades. Wanting to avoid that fate, Rebecca did the best she could to cartwheel, hearing another whizzing sound as a bone went by her face and nicked her ear.
The woman ignored the flaring pain as she started running again. "My thighs are gonna be killing me in the morning." The woman finally reached Jean and explained to her what the Professor wanted. Jean nodded as she looked to disengage from blocking Snipe's bone bullets with a telekinetic shield. Cyclops stepped in, as his earlier opponents had either run away or dispersed into a puddle, and having over heard the message gave her a reassuring tap on the shoulder. The redhead girl dropped her shield as Scott fired his optic beam, making the sniper mutant dive out of the way before returning fire with his index finger extended.
"Move left! Now duck and roll right! Shoot at his left arm!" Prophetess began calling out directions to Cyclops, who promptly complied and obeyed, landing a grazing his on Snipe's shoulder and knocking off his aim. The Network was at a marked disadvantage now, as all of his shots were being predicted and warned of by the power-sensing mutant. That, and the bright red flashes of Cyclops' optic beam made it foolish to zoom in his eyesight on his targets, less he be blinded.
Cursing at his soured luck at hitting his assailant, Snipe soon switched over to firing bone shards at Rebecca, who had a much harder time maneuvering herself to avoid the bones than Scott did. Even as Scott began to open fire more and more with his beams, the assault was steadily getting closer and closer to Rebecca either grazing or nearly grazing her. Finally one connected with the woman' leg, causing her to collapse in a scream. Cyclops opened his visor to the maximum at the now vulnerable Snipe and plowed him into the dirt, leaving a trench that had been dug by the Network agent's body.
Turning to tend to his instructor, he was waved off by the woman, who merely said "I'll be alright. Go help the others. Kurt will port over here in three seconds to move me and the others who are hurt out of here. Help Jean free the Brotherhood and you may have a chance of taking down that monster. Hurry, while Spyke, Crystal, and Storm keep him busy. They won't last long without help."
Cyclops accepted the orders and took off, leaving the woman to choke on a cloud of dark smoke as Kurt arrived, still wet from his earlier dousing. "Anyone want a ride?"
Rebecca chuckled as she held out her hand and before she knew it, she was gone.
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Terrence was in very bad shape in a very bad way. His right hand, his dominant one, was completely busted and all but unusable. He couldn't even straighten it back out from the fist it was in. And while having a throbbing, painful useless hand sucked, seeing things made it a hundred times worse. Between nearly breaking his neck avoiding imaginary attacks and trying to attack the man responsible, Springload was wearing himself out. He couldn't keep it up for much longer. Fortunately a voice in his head told him that she could help. Unfortunately, hearing voices in his head made him not want help.
Terrence didn't know what to do, but eventually his eyes adjusted to a bright light and refocused. He was back on the football field, but there weren't any crazy people attacking him from his blind spot. The other guys on his team were snapping out of their delusions too, it seemed. As they regrouped and surveyed the area, they couldn't spot anything other than the large red monster attacking Crystal and two other X-men.
"Where's the damn runt that did this to us? I gotta introduce his face to my foot a few times before we go."
Jean and Cyclops both looked at each other before Jean sent out a psychic pulse. All of the teens turned to look as a voice began curse loudly in what they assumed was Japanese over the sudden severe headache. Cyclops quickly fired a short burst in the area and it connected with a body, making another illusion drop that was cloaking the man as he snuck away. Quicksilver ran to him in the blink of an eye and buried his shoulder into the man's gut, sending him tumbling over to the ground. Toad scurried over and hacked up a huge amount of sticky green spit that glued the man to the grass beneath him.
"That's for making me give myself a black-eye, you lame loony bin. And you got the color scheme completely backwards on Jason's outfit from Friday the 13th. Go rewatch the movie a few more times before you imitate it."
With that, the Brotherhood turned to leave, only for Jean to protest. "You guys are just gonna leave after we saved you? We could use your help dealing with that guy smashing everything into pieces."
Avalanche looked back and asked "Why would we help you losers? Thanks to you guys, nobody respects us. They all saw us get beat by you. Nobody will respect us and stay out of our way. We'll be the laughing stock of the entire town!"
Cyclops shot back "Nobody will remember this Lance. The Professor wiped all of the memories of this. And you're gonna leave your own teammate behind because you guys got your butt kicked by this guy before? Fine. I just didn't realize that all of you little boys were such chickens."
All of the Brotherhood were riled up at this and turned face in order to charge back into the fight against Gameboy, who had knocked Evan across the field, where he lay motionless. The group pressed on, Cyclops firing full force at the red mutant and knocking him away from Crystal. The red mutant turned to see his newest victims and began throwing an insanely large volley of yellow energy at them, which Jean fended off with her mind.
Avalanche sent seismic waves that threw the red mutant off balance and onto his back. While he was down, several crystal shards grew and stabbed into his arms and legs, trying to pin him down. The rock formations soon shattered like fragile glass as the Asura wannabe stood back up, weaken, but also angered enough to overcome his wounds.
In a scream of rage, the red mutant lunged forward, ready to smash the girl that had been annoying him the entire fight. But mid lunge, he was knocked away by a hard punch that rattled his body and stood him midair, courtesy of Springload, who had intercepted him along the way. Blob charged from behind, barreling into the red mutant and sending him face first into the ground, leaving a small trail in the dirt with his face. While he was down, Quicksilver ran over and began doing rapid stomps on the back of his head, trying to knock the mutant out while he was down.
He soon had to flee in order to avoid being swatted aside as the red muscleman swiped at him with a hulking arm. Missing, Gameboy tried to push himself up only for lightening to split the sky and center in on his back, causing him to shout in pain as he was electrocuted. His muscles twitching and not responding, Gameboy collapsed, feeling more pain than anger at the moment as his characteristics he copied from Asura faded.
The Brotherhood let out a resounding cry of cheer as they celebrated their payback to the guy who destroyed them in Denver. The X-men merely picked each other up and began to move towards the others X-men waiting beside Xavier's chair. The man himself was still not back in his own body, but as they all made it to him, Rebecca drove up to them in the X-van.
"Load Professor Xavier up, we can't afford to wait. I'm seeing an attack on the institute and they need our help. Let's go.
And with that, the X-men pushed aside all weariness and loaded the unconscious and their professor into the X-van. Cyclops drove the others back as they headed to defend their home. They still had a long night ahead of them it seemed.
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AN: Well? I think this was a pretty good season intro. It was one big fight that turned out well in my humble opinion. A good bit happened, I killed my OC and life goes on for the X-men having to deal with their problems. The Brotherhood got payback, I got to reference Asura's Wrath, and I may have made a few witty lines somewhere in the chapter. So let me know if you like the season intro and I also want to invite any fan of video games to offer up suggestion for Gameboy. I'm limited on what all he can copy, due to the fact that I don't play fighter games and I'm trying to only use games that would make sense for him to imitate and that fit within his power's guidelines. Read his profile on my profile to get an idea of what I'm talking about. In fact, read everybody's profile, as a few of them have been upgraded at the start of this season. Song title comes from Eminem's Recovery album. Be sure to review or send me a PM on game suggestions! Farewell and until next time, BigWillis, out!