South East England - Morning - February 3rd, 1958
Standing in a posh apartment living room in England, Erik stood confused and scratched a hand through the back of his short hair. Not too long ago he had been inside of his own apartment in Berlin, Germany and about to take a shower when suddenly he'd appeared in someone else's bathroom hundreds of miles away within a few blinks of his eyes.
He had been promptly threatened and kicked out of the bathroom as the young man who actually lived there finished his shower. Charles hesitantly peeked around the corner into his living room at the stranger inside of his home, he was spotlessly clean, his hair brushed thoroughly and dressed in one of his usual cardigans. "You're still here..."
Turning to face the other Erik nodded, "I have no idea where I am or how I got here. I'm serious, I was in Berlin just a bit ago. Please stop cowering over there, I promise I won't attack you, I just want to figure this out." Not that he could blame the other for being suspicious it honestly surprised Erik when the young man stepped out and slightly closer to him.
Even more surprising when the other teen extended his hand politely, "My name is Charles Xavier." Extending and gripping Charles' soft hand in his own rough one he answered back, "Erik Lehnsherr." Shoving his hands into his pants pockets Erik walked over to look out the window, he definitely wasn't in Germany anymore, nothing around him looked like that type of architecture or had signs in English.
"So if you were in Berlin, are you speaking German right now?" the young scholar asked, the question perked Erik's intrigue and he was a bit impressed by it. "Yeah, and I don't know how to speak English very well but I can understand you perfectly. Safe to assume you don't speak German do you?" Charles agreed by shaking his head, a curious expression overtaking his features as he scrunched up his forehead.
Thinking the look was just a bit cute Erik stepped back over to the smaller teen, "If I'm dreaming then my mind is really playing tricks on me, first that beautiful blond and now you." The brief flirt seemed to fly right over Charles' head as he didn't react to it, "Blond? Emma Frost? I dreamt of her too actually...this all seems so real for a dream or to be a hallucination from my migraine."
"You've got a migraine too." the German stated more to himself than to Charles, "You are right though. This feels very real physically." Giving a glance towards the clock Charles swore, "Shit! I'm late!" Grabbing his packed book bag that always sat by the door he stopped and turned back, "Just...stay here I'll be back in a few hours and we can figure this out!"
Lifting up his hand Erik shook his head, "No no don't leave me here with this problem, Charles come back here!" as the other teen was out the door and gone.
FBI Headquarters, Washington D.C, US - Early Afternoon - February 3rd, 1958
Having spent the morning researching his brain to the ends of the internet with reliable and unreliable research Hank felt exhausted and finally looked at his fifth coffee and made a face before pushing it away from himself at his desk. There were millions of reports of abilities on the internet and narrowing it by what he knew from what Emma Frost had told him had only knocked off several million.
Most links and resources were completely fake or just completely unfounded but Hank now had started a bookmarks folder for links to his actual decent finds. So far there were only two links stored inside of it and he hadn't even gone through the whole articles so there was still the chance they were crap.
A migraine still sizzled throughout his mind but had either numbed enough or he had just gotten used to it where he had gone to work. Normally he would work on the computer systems all day long and fix tiny bugs or clean the systems so that they were spotless even when they could stand to be left for a week before they would actually need that sort of attention.
It was the first day Hank was almost purely neglecting his duties in favor of researching something for his own gain, questions that were running through his mind like the coffee that ran through his veins. Strong and circulating, but unlike the coffee those questions wouldn't disappear until Hank found answers to make the world feel balanced and right again.
Clicking through a few more links and skimming the articles, which were quickly discarded, Hank heard a noise. The scratching of lead against paper, then being scuffed away with an eraser before the scratching continued. Looking over from his bright computer Hank froze, sitting at the table inside of his lab that he used for spreading papers out for research...sat a beautiful young girl.
She had long blond hair reminiscent of Emma Frost, but other than that looked nothing like her. She hadn't noticed him yet and he took the time to take in her essence, her hair fell around her neck neatly and she was wearing an outfit that resembled waitressing or even a cashier. Her legs were smoothly crossed underneath the table as her eyes were very focused on writing things down inside of her checkbook.
Pushing the glasses more firmly into place on his nose Hank finally cleared his throat, "E-Excuse me...miss? What are you doing in here?" He'd never had a girl inside of his lab before.
Lifting her head quickly like she'd been slapped, her large brown eyes gazed at Hank and then the entire room before she scrambled up to her feet. "Wh-Wha...where am I!?" Opening his mouth to say something the young genius had lost all voice within himself, "I-I-..." was all he managed out.
Approaching him quickly Raven grabbed the front of Hank's shirt, she was quite a good few inches taller than him, "Tell me where I am right now! God, I'm fucking going crazy, I really did hit my head hard when I fell!"
"No, no I'm real!" he managed out, "R-Raven! Um, I'm Hank McCoy, this is the FBI Headquarters of America...My protocol tells me I should be calling for security right now but I'm so excited seeing you I wouldn't dare." a smile pulled up awkwardly on the man's lips. "How did you know my name?" the girl asked and let go of Hank's shirt.
"O-Oh-" he gestured and she sighed before flicking her workplace nametag, "Duh, sorry...Hank McCoy. I didn't mean to grab you I just freaked out a little. My house has been broken into before so my instinct just sort of-"
"It's fine!" he elated and waved his hands, "I don't blame you one bit, like I said I'm just very excited. This is just proof that the dream I had, all of the research I've been looking through this morning is real...it's the most exciting thing that's ever happened to me." It filled Hank with a shot of adrenaline like he'd never felt before.
Shaking her head Raven started to pace, holding her arms tightly to herself, "That's great that you're so excited but I am really scared right now. Burglars I can kick their asses, but how am I supposed to defend myself from this weird...mind crap going on! Why are you looking at me like that?" her voice became harsher and every word she said was a snap.
"Because I can prove that I'm real. Tell me where you live and I'll come see you, in person. That way there will be no question that we're both real and be seeing each other." Realizing just how creepy his words were sounding as Raven's expression changed into almost utter disgust she spat out, "No way you damn creep I'm not telling you where I live."
"Wait that's not what I meant-!" Taking a step closer all of a sudden Raven was gone, no fading, just a blink and the girl before him had suddenly vanished into thin air.
It had been hard to focus after that incident, first Hank had whipped out a brand new notebook and written down everything he could remember about the experience and Raven in general. Afterwards, Hank had taken his seat back at the work computer and tried to work his way through websites and articles again but his brain kept going back to that experience. The feelings had been hard to describe, like a lot of odd emotions he didn't understand trying to hit him all at once.
Fondness was the first thing Hank could think of to describe all of the feelings, he had felt no want to toss her out of his office and instead would have liked to strike up a conversation with the blond woman.
Daydreaming the genius finally snapped himself out of it as the clock turned five o'clock and he decided to head home, he would try to keep more on track with work tomorrow than he had been today. Unless of course, he got another he received another visit from Raven.
Driving down the highway towards home Hank reached to turn on the radio, flicking through until it landed on a Country station, lightly shrugging Hank left it be. "Can you turn that off please sir?" a soothing voice asked from the passenger seat, it was slow and had a British accent to it. "Ah!" Hank panicked and swerved on the road as he spotted the stranger before moving back into his lane, lucky to not have hit anyone but had gotten quite a few angry and deserved honks.
Looking to the other man, then the road, then the man and then back to the road Hank gulped, "H-Hi?" Blue eyes were boring into his side, "My name is Hank McCoy please don't freak out, I'm pretty sure this is all really happening. I met this girl Raven earlier and-and-!"
"Woh hold on there!" the other man said and reached to touch his shoulder in a soothing manner, "So this has happened to you before too? I met someone this morning myself, a man...kind of odd but..." his voice trailed off then only to come back moments later, "Sounds like you're a little more freaked out than I am right now my friend."
With shaking hands Hank swallowed hard, trying to get his body to cooperate with him as he drove more steadily, "Not really freaking out, or maybe I am but not because I'm scared. I'm so excited!" Chuckling deeply the passenger nodded, "Good then, my name is Charles Xavier. It's wonderful to meet you Hank. To be honest, I have no idea how I ended up here, the last thing I was doing was riding in the back of a taxi to get home."
"Fascinating...where do you live?" Mentally scolding himself Hank almost physically winced at his embarrassment of making the same mistake twice of asking strangers flat out where they lived like a giant creep. Charles on the other hand only kept on smiling undeterred, "In England, is this possibly America? I haven't been since I was a child with my parents."
Nodding the anxious feeling of screwing up lessened inside of the young genius' chest. "I was headed home from work." Now that he was calming down Hank sniffed the air, Charles smelled just faintly of booze and realized with the time difference that Charles had probably been out at a bar or something along those lines before getting into his taxi to head home for the evening.
"You said you visited someone else this morning also?" he couldn't help himself from asking. "Oh no, someone visited me though. His name was Erik and he claimed to be from Germany, I could understand him perfectly despite that I don't speak a lick of the language. How intriguing is that?" Starting to smile brightly Hank nodded again, he couldn't agree more with that.
"Something amazing is happening to us...I wonder how many there are of us that are connected like this." Turning off the high way Hank let his hands and mind go on autopilot to steer him home where the rest of his mind was focused on this conversation, just watching Charles in the corner of his eye to make sure the man didn't disappear like Raven had out of nowhere.
"Four of us, that's what Emma told me in a dream. I hate to assume but have you dreamt of her as well?" Charles asked.
"I did, she was very brief about everything she told me. I've just barely started researching for answers to what could be causing this, what it all means." Seeing that Charles was now more occupied with looking outside, and his blue eyes were starting to get tired and droopy Hank cleared his throat trying to keep the man's attention.
"Looks like you're about ready to leave but um...if you meet Raven at any point could you apologize to her for me? I feel like I came on way too strong and excited and freaked her out." Charles eyes gazed at Hank and took in the request, "Of course, if I see her first that is. I'd be happy to let her know. If you see Erik at any point tell him he's never allowed in my bathroom again if he shows up."
Again Hank blinked and Charles was gone from his sight, but at least this time he felt like he'd gotten a halfway decent goodbye conversation.
South East England - 1:11 am - February 4th, 1958
When Charles had returned home from classes he had found his place empty of the stranger named Erik, no sign of him whatsoever. He had even gone outside and looked around, asked a few neighbors if they had seen a man fitting his description but eventually given up. Taking his normal outing Charles had gone to his favorite bar named the Limping Coyote, whose mascot inside was a taxidermist coyote with a bandage wrapped around one of its back legs.
Drinking until his head was nice and warm and swimming Charles had spent his evening flirting with anything that had a nice pair of legs, or arms, or face, or biceps. When he'd taken his taxi home he had a nice conversation with that man from the US, Hank McCoy he could remember the name even though his head that was still blitzed away to an extent.
Charles had made himself dinner, burning it badly but still ate it, before he cleaned the house which was an odd habit he'd always done when he was a bit out of his head and alone. Drinking made his head numb but his legs and body restless, so it took more than an hour before he let himself fall face first into the comfy and clean sheets below him.
"Well well, I hadn't even asked you to bed yet and yet here you are." a deep voice emanated from the side, Charles shot up swiftly in the bed that was no longer his. The whole room around him was not his, it was dark and cold seeped through the walls as a light snow and wind whipped at the windows. Shivering Charles started to rub his arms, "E-Erik! I-I came back after classes and you were gone! I looked all around for you."
Reaching over the German clicked on his lamp so that some light shed in the room, he was shirtless despite the cold and had been relaxing in bed but now sat up to face Charles. "I'm flattered, but when you left it was like I got kicked out and I ended up back home. Did you really look around for me?" a slight smirk pulled at the corner of Erik's lips and he cocked an eyebrow up.
"I...yes." the Brit's voice was softer then as a small embarrassed shudder rocked through his chest, "I met you this last morning and not too long ago I met someone else by popping into his car somehow. His name was Hank McCoy and he also said he'd met a girl named Raven. We're all connected, I think...somehow...for some reason."
Stretching his arms up and popping one of his shoulders Erik muttered, "I could care less about that stuff. Don't go getting sentimental like that Emma woman, talking like we're family and friends. We all have either just met, or not met at all so don't go acting like we're something more."
Blue eyes softened as Charles gazed at someone he considered a possible new friend. "That's fair, but...I can't explain why but I know you can feel there's something here too. Something between all of us, for me it feels like it's emanating from here-" he pressed his closed fist against the side of his head. "As if there's a sort of string connecting me to you right...here-" moving the closed fist to press against Erik's chest where his heart was.
Clapping both of his hands over his eyes then Charles started to blush a bright flush that was hidden by the still mostly dark room, "Ah I'm still drunk I'm so sorry, I must be sounding absolutely ridiculous!" When he looked again though Charles saw Erik was touching over his own heart then and looking quite serious.
"Pretty damn ridiculous I'd say. You are sweet when you're drunk, like you've let go of any filters and just speak your true mind." Moving closer Erik invaded the other man's space, pressing his hands on either side of where Charles was kneeling on the bed. "Sorry that I barged in on your shower this morning."
"Sorry that I probably woke you up by falling into your bed." Charles apologized back. "You're very close all of a sudden, are you still trying to flirt with me?"
"Flirting and succeeding I'd say." Erik said back with confidence. Leaning closer he tried to connect his lips ever so lightly with Charles', but was caught by the chest with two soft hands keeping him at bay. The smaller man shook his head and bit his bottom lip hard, "Stop that." Lifting a rough and calloused hand to Charles' freckled cheek Erik brushed his thumb back and forth slowly.
"You're attracted to me, or you would have pushed me away in disgust forever ago. So why are you telling me no?" Still, Erik pushed no further than being close and the simple touch. When he received no answer he let out a small breathy sigh and pulled away, "You are drunk, and I'm tired. Go to sleep if you're going to stay Charles."
Pulling the covers back over himself Erik curled up back into his spot and reached up to click his lamp off and expected Charles to disappear. Instead, he felt the bed dip and shuffling before a warmth under the covers spread. The kind that reached out from another warm body being there with his own even if they weren't extremely close or touching each other.
When each of them woke up the next morning, they were in their respective beds and alone.
Southern Wisconsin, US - Evening - February 5th, 1958
She was sitting back in the place where she had never wanted to be again, especially so recently. Raven sat in a hospital bed, in a hospital gown, at least this time Raven had a friend sitting on the bed with her and squeezing her hands with encouragement. Irene was huddled close to her roommate and moved one of her arms to wrap around Raven's shoulders while the other kept squeezing warm fingers in her own.
"They said they found something on the scan, that could mean anything Rave'. It could be an error, something so minor, hell you could be a superhero." the woman tried to joke to break the tension, but only saw the fear in her dear friend's eyes. "Sorry, I was just trying to make you feel better."
"I know." was all Raven could manage as she pressed closer to her friends comforting warm half embrace.
Not long later a sullen Doctor made his way in holding a clipboard and brain scans on top of it. Coming close the man tried to adjust himself as if ready to give bad news, Raven too tried to mentally prepare herself for what she'd be hearing. The waking up in the hospital hadn't scared her much at first since it had all been allocated to exhaustion and overwork, but after hallucinating like she had Raven had all but rushed to the hospital for tests.
"Just tell me, be blatant about it." she requested.
"As you wish, there is an oddity beginning with your brain. Though I don't believe this has anything to do with your fall in the bathroom it might be best that you did trip so that we took these tests quickly and you didn't write it off. Here-" he put up one of the scans on the board and lit it up, "This is what a normal brain looks like, and you see here your frontal lobes are starting to meld together." He gave a short pause to study both of the girl's faces to get a read on them.
Having tensed more in her friend's grip Raven asked, "So my brain is fucking itself up in a way...is it fixable?"
"It is but...how should I put this.." the doctor rubbed his chin, "The region of the brain is very sensitive and not to be cut lightly. If we separate the brain normally again we could end up semi-lobotomizing you, on the other hand, if we leave it you'll be yourself but your hallucinations will more than likely grow worse. Until the point where you might not be yourself anyways but it will probably cause you pain and eventually death."
Tears started to well up in the blond's eyes, "I-I see...get out, get out of here I need to think about this." When the man didn't leave Irene half glared, "Give her some time to breathe after all of that ok? I'm sure you can understand that." That jostled the man from his little state of unresponse, "Right, my apologies. Take all of the time you need to think Miss Darkholme. This isn't an easy decision but giving yourself a day or several won't harm you anymore." before he left the room.
As the hot tears bubbled over Raven's face and Irene wasted no time pulling her close and rubbing her back and ends of her long hair. "Shhh hey it'll be alright Rave'. We'll figure this out and no matter what you choose I will be there every step of the way with you. Let's just get this all out of our systems and then we can go over the options."
Irene herself was close to tears but trying her darnedest to be strong as needed.
South East England - Late Evening - February 5th, 1958
Last night had been a doozy for the young scholar, so much had happened in a short period of time. Things that Charles had never dreamed of happening to him so they shouldn't be so easy to accept, yet meeting Erik and Hank it felt like he'd known them so much longer than just a few short conversations and eye catches. It was all still hard to believe but Charles was starting to accept that what Emma had told him might all be true.
He had attempted to drown his migraine and any worry he'd held about things with alcohol, only to return to his flat and fall into bed quite literally with Erik. He hadn't meant to, there had been a brief thought of the German but that hadn't meant Charles wanted to literally curl up in bed with him like he had. Not remembering every detail the brunette was pretty sure he'd been flirted with...and almost kissed, but he brushed those thoughts aside as best he could.
The young man had been in the kitchen making himself late night food and trying not to burn it like he did everything besides tea, when he turned around Charles couldn't help but to jump seeing Emma Frost sitting at his kitchen table. "Miss Emma! I thought...you said that you were fading away?" Had she lied?
"I did." she answered in a smooth tone, "People with powers like ours are a bit different in how we work Charles. When we eventually fade away from using too much power we do fade, but often times our consciousness and memories echo through those we spend our last moments with."
"So in other words, Raven, Hank, Erik and I might catch small glimpses of you until you fade away completely." he tried to wrap his head around the concept, if this Emma was a mere echo of her real self then how true could anything she said be?
"That's pretty accurate sugar. I don't have any of my powers anymore but I can still see some of the things going on between you four. Right now I'm just lucky I got to pop in on a few of you, Raven isn't handling all of this well. She got worried and went to the doctor, this sort of thing causes our brains to change in a way that doctors see it as a health issue. Do you see where I'm going with this?" she asked, any trace of a smile had left her face to show just how serious the situation was.
"They think she's very ill and are going to try to fix it...but it won't be fixed?" Charles asked but wasn't quite sure, he knew plenty about the brain but not a lot of the different operations that they could try on it.
"If she allows them to cut into her brain not only will she lose all connection with you three but she'll die soon after. This isn't something you can just cut out, when it develops it acts almost like a new heart, something you can't live without." She didn't say it out loud but the feeling Charles got in the air was that even if it were successful to live without it, one wouldn't want to after getting used to being so connected with their Cluster.
Setting down his fork which he'd been using to move food around on his hot skillet Charles asked, "So I should go talk to her and try to convince her that she isn't sick is what you're saying. I think I understand, but I haven't met her and I have no idea how to contact her like I have been the others. Can you help me do that?"
"You'll get the hang of it soon enough, just try to think of how much you want to help her and meet her. The power should feel that want and take you to her if you try hard enough." Emma answered back, "I need to go warn Hank as well, he might also be helpful in convincing her."
Putting a hand up to stop Emma from leaving he asked one last thing, "Oh what about Erik? Shouldn't we tell him too?"
Her expression became a tad amused, "Not sure he's the comforting type and they haven't met quite yet. But, this is your Cluster Charles, do what you feel is right." then in several blinks, the woman always clad in white was gone from the kitchen. Sniffing the air Charles gasped and turned around, "No my eggs!" they were severely burnt on one side as he grabbed his fork and moved them around. He would still probably end up eating them even with a blackened side.
Southern Wisconsin, US - Early Evening- February 6th, 1958
Raven sat at the small and roundtable inside of her apartment. She had already dealt with Irene fussing over her that morning and insisting she could stay home to help Raven with anything she needed, only to be shoed out the door and off to work. Not only that but Bobby and Kitty had made their first appearance in awhile since they'd heard about her multiple trips to the hospital within a week, after getting the low down there had been many hugs and a few glossy eyes but they too were practically pushed out the front door before they could offer much help.
She just wanted to be alone for a while with her thoughts, crossing her ankles but bouncing one of her feet anxiously as the blond tapped a pen against the fake wooden table. There sat two pages long of details, front and back, on the surgery the doctor was offering to her. It explained what the surgery did, side effects, possible problems in future life and from removing part of the brain.
There was a place to sign and date to get started with the process if she decided to go for it, she would then have to bring it to the hospital to begin the real paperwork but they couldn't do anything until Raven had agreed to read everything they had given to her so that the girl fully understood what she was getting herself into by wanting or not wanting this.
"Hello." came a deep but soothing and oddly British voice, Raven jerked around in her seat and already on edge, ready to fight off someone she didn't know who was inside of her apartment. A man with floppy brown hair was leaning back against the countertops, he was wearing a silly sweater and looked like he'd go down easy in a fist fight.
"Please don't be afraid Raven, my name is Charles Xavier. I recently met Hank McCoy which I believe you have as well? I just want to talk and see if you're doing ok after going to the hospital." Charles tried to give his best set of non-threatening puppy eyes as possible. Ever since talking with Emma in his own kitchen the man had been attempting to relax himself and think of Raven.
Harder than one would think since he knew absolutely nothing of her besides her name, but finally so long later he had been successful. "I promise not to come any closer if that makes you more comfortable. But...can we talk about those papers in front of you, please?"
Thank everyone for reading. Next chapter powers are going to start manifesting!