Chapter Notes

Just to make it clear: Deadpool is not in this fic (yet)! He doesn´t fit in my precious timeline (yet). Hell, he isn´t even Deadpool yet! To the best of my (google-)ability, the movie takes place some time after 2013, still way off.
Al is just recognizing Pjotr from the Deadpool movie.
More fight scenes in this one! Yay!

Chapter 7: Resolving conflicts with violence – but, like, a gentle kind?

I´m not sure if being in the same universe as Deadpool was a good thing. I mean – he is fun to watch? I just hoped he would be relatively close to the movie version. Still R-rated but contained at least.

My head was still spinning when Pjotr led me through the garden. He was talking lively, and I pretended to listen with a friendly smile. Would Deadpool still do some form of 4th wall breaking?

It was lunchtime by now and the courtyard was filled with kids. I saw Lara with a group of girls, showing off her new butterfly. She jumped up and waved at me when she saw me. She gestured wildly while talking to her friends, who turned in my direction with curious looks. Lara turned to me too but with big pleading eyes. I snorted and gave in. This time I send a couple of bird constructs her way. They landed on her shoulders and started grooming her hair. I heard the coos of the little group from dozens of meters away. Pjotr had watched the exchange and laughed.

"It seems you have already made yourself a friend here!"

I smiled at him and told him what had happened earlier.

"You should have seen Mr. Summers´s face, it was priceless."

His chuckles stopped abruptly when the screams started.

We both followed them hurriedly to the over side of the courtyard. Children were running in the opposite direction to reach the mansion. The source of the commotion was a group of clearly adult mutants, one of which was interrogating a scared teenager with rapidly changing skin color.

When he saw them, Piotr immediately turned rigid. I recognized some of them and was surprised.

It was the brotherhood, Magneto and Mystique were easily identifiable.

Mystique was discreetly moving between the teenager and her frantic seeming teammate, a slightly older man with broad shoulders, whiskers and yellow eyes. He was erratic and clearly enraged. Magneto stood back silently on one side an average man with a slight build and gray hair, on the other a man dressed in green hocking on the ground. Slightly behind them like he wasn´t all that interested was someone I identified as Sabretooth, a big man with wild hair and a feral look even though he was completely calm.

"What are you doing! Let the boy go!", Pietr´s voice boomed over the yard. I wanted to know too. The iterations of the brotherhood I was aware of, wouldn´t attack Xavier´s school and especially the kids out of nowhere.

"Where are they?!", the furious cat-mutant screamed. "Where are those SHIELD assholes? This is for your own good, when they get you, they will-"

"Enough.", Magneto interrupted him. I exhaled a relieved breath when the man stepped back from the boy on the grass and visibly fought to calm himself down.

"I understand your anger Marcus, but we have a goal here.", Eric continued and turned towards us. "We are here because we received notice that a representative of SI would be here today, a company owned by one of the founding members of SHIELD, an organization that has been hunting mutants since its conception. We came to warn you."

I raised my eyebrow feeling tension and confusion settling in. That raised as many questions as it answered. How did they know about Howard's involvement in SHIELD? How did they know about me being here? At least they didn´t want to attack the students.

Before Piotr could do something, I raised my voice: "How about you let the boy join the others inside and then we can talk about this."

I did my best to appear non-aggressive while suppressing my rage when I saw the boy´s tears. He was very distressed. Marcus became agitated again, but Magneto rooted him to the spot with a look and gave a slight nod. The boy took that as his cue to run like hell.

When he was safely in the mansion I could see the first X-Men from the meeting arrive.

Good. I still wasn´t sure we could resolve this peacefully. Marcus was after more than a warning, that much was clear.

"So, why did you all come? This more than a warning, isn´t it? After all Charles would have been able to tell if an agent entered the school.", I asked with narrowed eyes. That set Marcus off again.

"After what they did to me? I´m gonna rip them to shreds!", he screamed, eyes flashing bright. He bared his teeth.

"What if that SI worker has nothing to do with SHIELD? You could just out yourself and the school.", I said forcibly calm.

Personal revenge, that was what this was about. Marcus scoffed but Mystique hurriedly spoke before he could go on a rant: "We would interrogate them, there are ways to hide info even from Charles. If they are truly innocent, there are ways to erase their memories too."

She tried to sound reasonable. It was quite clear though that she was brushing over how they wanted to obtain that info even Charles couldn´t get – torture. They wanted to torture me. The slight man in the brown trench coat was smirking. Clearly, he was supposed to make it happen.

I snarled, unimpressed. Call me sensitive but I didn´t take to well to their nonchalance. No matter how much I had sympathized with Raven or Eric in the movies, these were real people. Real people making real choices, leading them to think any of this was ok. Needless to say; I was pissed. And I wasn´t the only one. Behind me Wolverine let out an angry growl and I could see Jean clench her fists out of the corner of my eyes.

I signaled Pjotr and the others to stand down and stepped forward.

"Well, interrogate away then.", I said with an impassive face. "For the record: I am in no way, shape or form associated with SHIELD and have never even met a mutant before today, at least to my knowledge. I came her to represent a different group of enhanced humans."

"Liar!", Marcus screamed and pointed at me accusingly. Eric narrowed his eyes at me and made a minute gesture with his hand. Next to him the mutant with the trench coat made wild motions with his hands, like he was throwing something at me. Sabretooth finally paid attention now that it had come to a fight.

I would have activated my ring, but I was too confused. Behind me, I heard the X-Men ready themselves and Jean calling out: "It is just an illusion!"

I looked around and then back to the trench-coat-mutant.

"Is something supposed to happen?", I asked, feeling weirdly left out.

The man was baffled and froze. Magento raised an eyebrow high enough that it disappeared under his iconic helmet and murmured something that sounded like "Interesting.".

The lull hung in the air for a few seconds before Sabretooth unsheathed his claws and lunged forward, followed by the man dressed in green and Marcus. Magneto started to hover, raising his arms in preparation.

I activated my suit and raised a shield construct multiple dozens of meters in length between them and the X-Men and the school. On the construct were golden shining runes of durability, reflection and strength – a product of my experimentation with combining runes with my ring.

I wanted to end this fight quickly while they were still surprised by my sudden powers. One of my main weaknesses involved fighting against a group, because I could lose track of them and they could land a surprise hit.

As soon as the attacking mutants clashed against the shield and were thrown back different distances dependent on their attacking power, I sped through my shield and tackled Sabretooth to the ground. While his limbs were spread, I bound him down with stone gates I conjured up.

I dodged Raven´s kick to my head with a roll backwards, pushing off the grass as I landed and hit her with my trusty bo staff construct before she could react. She adapted quickly and went with the hit, landing on her feet and regarding me cautiously.

Marcus was less careful, he jumped at me with cry of anger. His moves were clumsy and uncoordinated. I didn´t have much of a problem with stepping aside, out of the reach of his lunge, and taking ahold of his outstretched arm. Using his momentum, I spun him around to get a good grip before wrapping him up in strings of eldritch magic until he couldn´t move anymore.

I dropped him to the floor and looked up. Just in time too.

Without either my fight-training in Kamar Taj or Ree´s constant battle analysis I would have not been able to react to the small balls of metal in time.

I reared back and took off to the air again. I had to take Eric out now or he would get me. Attacking from above was the best way, on the ground Raven would try to keep me occupied and I couldn´t let that happen.

I returned fire with small bolts that Eric dodged without breaking eye contact while I flew towards him. I smirked. The bolts exploded directly behind him sending him spinning towards me. Before he could stabilize again, I landed a strike against his protected head and caught him by his cape. Didn´t want him to break his neck by landing wrong. The strike had been carefully calculated by Ree, just enough power to knock him out and (hopefully) not leave any lasting damage. He would have a headache though.

I put his limp body under my arm like I was carrying life-sized puppet and looked down. Predictably, when she saw her boss out of commission, Mystique raised her hands to signal surrender.

The green guy wasn´t as smart. I admitted to being surprised by how high he could jump, but a simple shield stopped him before he could get anywhere near me. And it looked quite comedic.

I was mighty proud of myself. Since starting my training with my ring I had noticed that fighting wasn´t actually that difficult in most cases. It was difficult to do so without killing your opponents or innocent bystanders. I nodded to myself, no serious injuries, no collateral damages. Well, the garden looked a little rough here and there.

I let the X-Men handle the brotherhood in the aftermath. I was under no illusion they would suffer any kind of meaningful consequences for this. Or that we would be able to convince them of my plan. I let Charles know that I did not trust Eric or his followers one bit.

The story of why this happened was found out quickly. Marcus had been one of the mutants captured by Shieldra 25 years ago. He managed to escape but not before being tortured and experimented on. When he got free, he stole some files. In these files Howard was mentioned. Therefore, Marcus had been incensed by finding out a SI rep would come to Xavier´s school. I wanted to know how exactly he came to know about my visit but on that topic, he clammed up.

When we went inside, Logan came up next to me and smirked.

"Not bad."

I snorted.

"Thanks."

He patted me on the back and disappeared around a corner, probably to get himself a beer.

While Summers, Jean and Storm herded the brotherhood into the cellar of the mansion, the Professor, Hank and I went back into the office.

They told me about some of their concerns and worries but agreed to an alliance.

We made plans for the first raid in two weeks. It was one of the few Hydra-bases I had been able to find. Key was to let Jean look into the minds of the most high-ranking members there, so we could build up our knowledge over their network.

When we were finished with our arrangements, I assured them that the charity work I had originally called in for was very much real. Should they need something, they only needed to call. I even proposed an intern program, as it would often be difficult for them to find secure intern placement elsewhere. That suggestion delighted Hank in particular.

After another hour of talking, I was quite exhausted and ready to go home.

I sighed.

"Well, I think we have everything for now. You have Mr. Murdock´s number, you have mine. Ah, before I forget, I have a request. You have quiet some experience with treating people in extraordinary circumstances for injuries and sicknesses by now, right? So, I could bring people here for help, if a normal hospital isn´t an option?"

Hank was the one to answer, he looked surprised but not against the idea.

"We can´t guarantee to help but we have treated quiet a few medical emergencies here, that is true. Just make sure they are safe to come here."

I nodded happily at that. I didn´t really have a concrete scenario in mind, however it was good to be prepared. Hank was going to lead me back to my car, when Charles called me back.

"I just wanted to say thank you.", the telepath said with a meaningful smile. I didn´t know how to react to that so I send him a thumps-up and waved as I closed the door.

Awkward. I let out a breath and hurried to catch up to my furry guide.

Until it was time for the raid, I focused intensely on my studies. My constructs were great but limited on how long I could concentrate on them. I could not use them reliably to subdue and fight with over a longer time. I experimented with simple but sturdy shackles out of plastic and metal that I modified to no end with runes. Protection against heat, durability and a slight paralyzing effect were the main features. I manufactured them carefully so I would have them handy any time they were needed.

My second project were collars with varying strengths of paralysis runes. I was confident that the basic ones would put any baseline human out of commission for at least three hours painlessly. The stronger ones were safe too, I just couldn´t test them properly without a volunteer. Even so, the worst that could happen was that an enhanced just feeling a little sleepy.

Thinking about the possibility that these collars could be used by Shieldra or others, I built in a self-destruct sequence. Ten minutes after activation the collars would dissolve. I wasn´t all that crazy about the collars anyway. They were just the most convenient solution. I tried to use paper to produce seals I could just slap on but could not get them to work (yet; I will fulfill my inner weeb´s wishes eventually).

As prepared as possible, I created a portal to land in Xavier´s office, startling everyone badly. I grinned sheepishly.

"Did I not mention I could teleport?"

Logan, Jean and the Professor looked amused after getting over my surprise entrance. Summers not so much. Sheesh, cheer up buttercup. Definitely not my biggest fan.

"No, you did not. But it will make things quite a bit easier, I should say.", Charles said with a bemused smile.

"The team is already at the jet. I´m told you are going to take the lead?", Summers asked in a sceptic tone. I suppressed my urge to roll my eyes. Logan didn´t. Jean elbowed them both.

"Yeah well, we will be relying a lot on my skills, so…", I said and shrugged. He hmphed.

Our group went to the jet. It was an impressive piece of technology, but I had practically lived in Tony Starks lab for months, so it didn´t faze me much. The infiltration team consisted out of Logan, Jean, Cyclops, Storm and Hank. Small but all we would need.

I gave them earpieces that were connected to Ree (thanks Tony). Normally they would have been able to use Jean´s powers for that but my immunity to telepaths threw a wrench in that.

We flew an hour before landing the jet in what felt like the middle of nowhere. The base was mostly underground. The only things visible were a couple of generic industrial facilities. They were surrounded by high fences and circa 200 meters of flat land before the forest began. To the back of the facility was a big lake.

By now it was dark, and we could approach without fearing to be seen. As soon as we were close enough, I let Ree close off all communication to the outside.

I left the X-Men behind and flew off in my night-mode. Ree fried all cameras I came across and I successfully incapacitated every guard on the surface with my basic collars. There were only six of them and while they had machine guns, they were not very aware of their surroundings – we were in the middle of nowhere after all.

I hovered them all in one room and bound them together with tape.

Humming I opened the front gate for the others. We took the elevator to the ground level in two groups, first Logan, Storm, Cyclops and me, then Jean and Hank. The last two weren´t here to fight. They were only taking care of the prisoners and the investigation later.

The elevator opened up to a pair of guards. I shoot forward, prepared, and slapped two collars on them before they could react.

There were no more guards in sight for now, however the underground facilities were big and they should notice by now that something wasn´t right. Our first priority was the control room. From there we could secure the prisoners and close off the barracks so there would be no reinforcements.

I led the charge, following the instructions of Ree. We took out three more guards on our way there. They were carrying their machine guns ready to shoot now, they had definitely caught on. Their alarms seemed silent as to not warn the intruders.

In the control room were another three guards and two unarmed workers. It came to a short and loud skirmish. They had fired half their magazines before they ended on the floor with a collar around their necks. One of the workers tried to hit a button but Cyclops shot a beam to destroy the control before he could succeed.

Probably a shut-down signal, that would have trapped everyone in their sections until it was answered from outside the facility.

I gave Summers a nod and collared the workers too.

I gave Storm a big bag full of shackles and she went off in the direction of the barracks. Logan and I started our way into the laps where the mutants were kept. Summers would stay in the control room to open the doors for us and keep an eye out.

The rest of our mission went by smoothly. We freed 7 mutants of various ages, the youngest 14 and the eldest 42. They were still sedated and tied down in separate rooms when we found them. Hank took a look at them after arriving. He said he would have to find out what had been done to them first but for now they were fine.

Then Jean´s part came. Scott led us to where the commanding officer had taken refuge and opened the door remotely. The man scrambled to point some sort of weaponlike contraption in our direction and fired while snarling: "You filthy mutants!"

I raised a shield, entirely unimpressed.

"Really? Asshole and cliché, man. Was that one in the textbook in "How to be a villain"?", I asked rhetorically while observing what his thing there had done.

Apparently, it fired a capsule that released a gas. I turned the shield into a bubble around our little group. The Hydra crony didn´t seem all that effected, so it most likely had a compound directly targeting mutants? They were experimenting on them after all.

I hung the man from the ceiling with a quick construct and gagged him so Jean could work. She was somewhat reluctant at first but going by her increasing rage, he was not endearing himself to her.

When we had everything we needed, we horded all of the workers and guards in one room, shackled. Every mention of mutants was erased from the servers and all paper trails burned. It was still more than apparent though, that this facility had housed experiments on humans. In approximately two hours multiple news reporter and journalists would arrive here to find everything wide open.

This was the compromise we landed on. Just raiding the bases wouldn´t lead to much. We couldn´t exactly go to the authorities with evidence. These Hydra-goonies would walk free. I had contemplated killing them, however in the end it didn´t sit right with me (aka I chickened out). The least we could do was make sure Hydra faced some uncomfortable pressure from the public´s attention. We also collected the names and photos of the faces of everyone that had been present.

The others left in the jet after I promised to come to a debrief tomorrow. I watched the jet disappear in the sky and turned back to the facility. I smirked. A quick portal later and I had a couple of teal spray-paint-cans in my hands. I put my symbol as big as possible above the entrance door and then left a trail of paint to all interesting points in the base.

Satisfied I left the way I came, taking a last look at my work. Who would have thought constructs would be so useful as impromptu stencils?

Chapter End Notes

Very X-Men heavy chapter, next one we are back to Stark (which is going to be very obvious by the chapter title :P)
Also:
Xavier: genuine expression of emotion
Al:...
Al: *thumps up*

Btw: the Brotherhood mutants here do exist (except Markus, he´s an OC) in the comics, although I kind of forgot their names? I wrote this part months ago, so...