In Northwest Territories, Canada, 1845
In a big home, which lay close to a village, deep in the forests of Canada, a young 13-year old girl was lying in her bed, coughing. This girl's name was Amberlyn Howlett, daughter and only child of John and Elizabeth Howlett. She had blue eyes, light pale skin and long brown hair.
While taking some water from a cup, she began coughing again and put the cup down on the nightstand before covering herself with her blanket.
For nearly a whole week, Amberlyn had been feeling ill. After a doctor had come by a few days ago to check on her, doing a few tests, he believed that John and Elizabeth's daughter didn't have a common cold but a kind of illness he hadn't seen before and advised both of them to keep an eye on her daughter for any changes and to contact him again after a few more days if the symptoms remained the same or become worse.
Amberlyn was afraid, thinking that she might be going to die, but her loving father was always there for her and strongly believed that she would recover as he knew that deep down, she was a strong girl and not even a dumb disease would kill her. Thoughts ran through Amberlyn's mind, seeing in a flashback of how a 16-year old boy named Victor Creed was picking on some other boys in the village, making them scared for the heck of it.
Flashback
She remembered that he teased and picked on her too, but one day she had had enough of it and stood up for the little boy he was beating for no reason, which only amused Victor and he tried to scare her by showing his long seemingly razor sharp nails, saying he would haunt her and would delighted to cut her into little pieces. And though Amberlyn was scared at first because of his razor sharp nails, she didn't move an inch and stood her ground bravely, telling him to get lost.
But before Victor could lay a hand on her, her father came, which made Victor run away. As Amberlyn walked away with her father back to their house in their carriage, she could've sworn she'd spotted Victor for a moment somewhere hiding in the woods, making a 'you're dead' gesture with one of his long sharp nails. And not long after that event, was when she got sick.
Flashback end
Reopening her eyes, she was not able to sleep and coughed again, slowly sitting up straight. Just then, the bedroom door opened, revealing it was her father. Amberlyn smiled when seeing him, before she couched.
John smiled and sat next to her, putting his hand on her forehead to check her fever. "Any better, sweetheart?"
Amberlyn sighed and shook her head. "Still cold, Father."
John assured her. "Don't worry. It's just a mild fever. You'll be alright in the morning."
"You always say that."
John chuckled. "And you always pull through, don't you?"
Amberlyn smiled and nodded. "Yeah."
John then took a bottle. "Now, have you taken your medicine yet?"
Amberlyn shook her head. "Well, no…"
"Well, you won't be getting better on your own strength, Amberlyn. You need to take your medicine."
"I know, Father."
John put a few drops of the medicine on a spoon and gave it to Amberlyn to take it. "Come on, sweetheart, drink up so you can get better."
When Amberlyn took it in her mouth and tried to swallow it, she shivered because of the taste. "Eck! It tastes awful, Father."
John chuckled and took a small napkin and gave it to her to clean her mouth "I know. Medicine is supposed to taste. But it helps. You'll see."
Amberline then asked her father. "Father?"
"Yes?"
"Why is that boy, Victor Creed, always so mean to the other children?"
John sighed and told her. "That young man, Victor, is just going through a very rough time, Amberlyn. And the only way for him to unleash all those frustrations is when he picks on younger children."
Amberlyn narrowed her eyes and said. "But he can't keep doing that, Father. What if he would... maybe kill someone?"
John assured her. "Believe me, sweetheart, that will never happen. If he does, he's going to answer for that sort of crime." Then he smiled at her and kissed her forehead. "You're not scared of him, right?" Amberlyn shook her head. "That's good. You need to hold on to that. If you don't stop bullies now, they'll walk over you for the rest of your life."
Amberlyn nodded. But deep down, she felt she had to tell her father that she saw Victor was having these demon-looking nails, which were as sharp as Cougar claws. "Father... I-"
Suddenly, there was a heavy knock on the front door, with a man screaming out loud. "ELIZABETH! ELIZABETH!"
"Father... Who is that?" Amberlyn asked.
John frowned as he recognized that voice, having prayed that Elizabeth's former lover wouldn't have dared to come over to his house, unless he would be very drunk. "Some man that wouldn't leave your mother alone, Amberlyn."
Just then, he heard the front door being kicked open, hearing Elizabeth screaming. John rushed out of Amberlyn's bedroom.
"Father!" She called for him.
"Stay where you are, Amberlyn." her father told her and rushed downstairs while closing the door.
"Father!" Amberlyn called out while putting her blanket over her in fear at the yelling, as any child would in that situation.
"You never loved him!" The drunk man said, with Amberlyn not knowing what he was talking about despite knowing that he must be talking to her mother.
"Get off me!" Elizabeth shouted.
"I told you never to come back here!" John shouted before she heard a booming sound.
It was at that point where curiosity and worry got the better of Amberlyn and she rushed out of her room and saw her father laying downstairs on the floor. She ran down and got to her knees at her father's side. "Father!" She cried.
John looked at her daughter 1 last time and caressed her cheek. "Amberlyn." He breathed out before dying from his gunshot wound.
"No." Elizabeth cried out.
But Amberlyn looked up and saw the man who did this to her loving and caring father, Thomas Logan. "Amberlyn, don't you see? I can be a better father to you and husband to your mother." He said, drunk.
"Don't!" Elizabeth told him.
"I can be a better husband and father to you and Amberlyn! We can be a family!" Logan said louder, wanting to have a family with her and was going to take Elizabeth and her daughter by force, making them his new family.
But just then, Amberlyn felt her fever suddenly vanish and 2 strange bone claws came out from her 1st and 3rd knuckles and she was sent into a fiery rage she roared out. "RRRRAAAAHHHHH!"
And lunged at her father's killer, stabbing Thomas with her new bone claws straight into his heart, but got shot by his double barrel gun, much to Elizabeth's shock. "AMBERLYN!" She cried out.
But As Thomas died, sliding down on the floor, Amberlyn, strangely still alive, checked the wound on her belly, seeing it had, to her shock, instantly healed and didn't even hurt her anymore, as if it had never happened.
Elizabeth looked at her daughter in shock and disbelief at what she really was. "Amberlyn, what are you?" And Amberlyn, beyond scared and ran out of the house, but Elizabeth tried to call her back, but it was to no avail. "AMBERLYN! COME BACK! COME BACK!"
When Amberlyn was far enough away from anyone's hearing range, the young Victor Creed pounced on her before throwing her into a tree. "Hello, runt. It is sooo nice to see you again." He said with an evil grin.
Amberlyn got to her feet and put up her fists before her bone claws came out again. "Get lost, Creed! I'm not afraid to use these…whatever they are…on you!"
But Creed just grinned before retracting his own nail claws. "So, you're similar to me? Good. It'll be that much more satisfying when I use them to pick you out of my teeth!"
Amberlyn, still rageful at the recent event that had just happened in her home, only said. "All right, you ugly freak of a bully. You always like pushing around people smaller than you. Well I'm smaller, try pushing me!"
Amberlyn then pounced on Creed and began to stab him with her bone claws but discovered that his wounds healed as well, much like her gunshot wound, making Creed grin at her before he kicked her off him and reversed their positions, only he was bringing her claws close to her face. "How about a taste of bone claws, huh, runt? What do you say?"
But Amberlyn kicked him off her with all her strength. "We may be similar now, but we are nothing like each other!"
"RRRAHH!" Creed roared before slicing her right midsection and throwing her a few feet away from her.
But Amberlyn got back up and pounced on him, making them roll over each other for some minutes before she was on top and tried to stab his face but he grabbed her wrists and kicked her off him before getting on top of her, but she headbutted him 2 times and and threw him off her before beginning to slice him up with her claws, causing him more pain than he'd ever felt before she had enough and just stood up before kicking him unconscious.
After that, Amberlyn drew her bone claws back in her knuckles and began running as far as her legs could possibly take her until she stopped to catch her breathing and rested for a few minutes before getting back up and disappearing into the wild while mentally vowing to herself. 'From this day forward, Amberlyn isn't my name anymore. From now on, I'm… Ember. Ember… McLain, named after my first ancestor that arrived here 100 years ago.'
Meanwhile, with Victor
After the young bully boy had healed and regained consciousness, he roared out in anger, calling for the girl he now considered his rival and enemy. "RUUUUUNT! I SWEAR THAT FROM NOW ON, WHEREVER YOU GO, WHEREVER YOU ARE, I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN! I'LL NEVER STOP! DO YOU HEAR ME?! I'LL NEVER STOP UNTIL YOU'RE DEAD! I'LL TRACK YOU DOWN…JUST FOR THE PLEASURE OF BURYING YOUR BONES!"
Time skip, during the civil war
Ember, disguised as a man, having enlisted in the war under the false identity of a man to fight for the future America, as women were not allowed to fight in war, was running through the open battlefield, roaring out while using her musket to kill some of the opposing soldiers, fighting her way to an adult Victor Creed, who had enlisted in the opposite side of the war as a soldier of the Confederate army, getting to each other and beginning another of many fights between them, with Creed shooting Ember with his musket and firing a cannon that hit her.
Time skip, during World War 1
Ember, still carrying on the charade of being a man to fight in about war, saw a new biplane crash into a tower before she began moving around the war torn area around her as Creed killed many American soldiers before getting to Ember, who'd jumped into a trench and killed some of the German soldiers before Creed got to her and swiped her face with his claws, sending her on her back before she got to her feet and hit her seemingly eternal rival with her gun in the face before flipping it around and shooting her last bullet into his chest, stunning him as she rolled her eyes in anger.
Time skip, during World War 2
Ember, in her new soldier uniform, still keeping up her charade with no 1 being the wiser, gave a look to a younger soldier before putting a fresh cigarette in her mouth and loading her Tompson gun as the landing boat stopped on a beach and let her squad out, with many besides her getting gunned down as she kept running through the battlefield, shooting many German soldiers before Creed, who was still on the Germans' side, clawed 1 of his fellow soldiers for his machine gun and began shooting at Ember while grinning evilly as Ember began shooting back.
Time skip, during the Vietnam War
Ember, who was in a helicopter, was shooting at Creed, who'd enlisted in the Viet Congs, as he ran while grinning evilly with delight. "AAAAAAHH! CREEEEED!"
A while later
Ember, who's helicopter had landed, was running into the village were her squad was taking away many of its inhabitants while Creed was dragging a scared Viet Cong woman into a cot, intending to rape her, but mostly to draw out Ember before he turned and clawed a senior officer that tried to stop him.
And when Ember saw him, she became lost in her animal rage, as she'd always done whenever fighting against her eternal rival. "CREEED!" She yelled as Creed killed another of her fellow soldiers with his claws while she stopped another 1 from shooting Creed, as she'd vowed long ago that nobody but her was allowed to kill him.
"STAND DOWN, SOLDIER!" The other senior officer yelled at Ember, only for her to draw her claws and stab him through the neck, killing him before setting her sights on a delighted Creed.
Ember drew her other claws and roared at Creed as other soldiers circled around them, aiming their guns. "RRRRAAAAHHHHH!"
"RRRRAAAAHH!" Creed roared out while the 2 rivals were surrounded.
Sometime later
Ember and Creed were tied up to poles beside each other in front of a preparing firing squad as the more evil of the 2 of them grinned and leaned close to Ember. "Wake me when it's over, will ya, runt?" He asked before licking her cheek, much to her anger and disgust, as he'd done that since the 1st World War.
"Ready. Aim. Fire!" The officers ordered the firing squad.
"RRRRAAAAHHHHH!" The 2 mutants roared out as they were fired upon.
Sometime later
The door to Ember and Creed's shared cell was opened, making them cover their eyes at the light before seeing someone speak to them. "My name is Major William Stryker. You've been charged with killing a senior officer. Is that correct?"
"Apparently, we have major issues to work out." Creed said with a smirk. "Sir."
"Yeah, when 1 of us is dead!" Ember said through gritted teeth.
Stryker just smiled. "The warden tells me that your sentence was carried out by a firing squad at 1000 hours. How'd that go?"
"It just tickled." Ember answered sarcastically.
Stryker just smiled and took off his shades. "You 2 tired of running? Tired of denying your…true nature and 'working out your issues?'"
"What do you care?" Ember asked with a glare.
"Oh, I care. I care cause I know how special you are. How valuable." Stryker answered, making Creed look at him before he knelt down. "Look. You can stay here, locked up like freaks of nature. Or you can join me. I'm putting together a special team, with special privileges. Now, tell me: how would you like to really serve your country…and for the 1st time in your lives…work together to see how'd you do on the same side, and not fight each other for a change?" He offered, making Ember look at Creed with an angry face while he just grinned.
Sometime later, on a plane
Ember, who'd very reluctantly agreed to join Stryker's 'special team' over being locked up possibly forever, as well as Creed, were sitting beside each other with their teammates: John Wrath, who could teleport from place to place, Zero, who was beyond excellent with firearms, Bradley, who could control all electronics with his mind from light bulbs to planes, Fred Dukes, who had superhuman strength and durability, and Wade Wilson, who was excellent with swords, but also the very annoying Merc with the Mouth to the whole team, was flying to Lagos, Nigeria.
Wade was sharpening 1 of his swords while talking like usual. "Man, I love this weapon more than any other thing in the whole wide world, and you wanna know why?"
"No." Creed answered.
"It's memorable." Wade said. "I'm sure it's a little bulky to have to get on a plane. You whip out a couple of swords at your ex-girlfriend's wedding, they will never, ever forget it."
"That's funny, Wade. I think you confuse me with someone who gives a shit." Creed said with annoyance.
"Granted it's probably not as intimidating as having a gun or bone claws or the fingernails of a bag lady." Wade said with a smirk, making Creed grin as he retracted his claws threateningly. "Manicure?"
"Easy, Creed." Ember told her rival, on the verge of drawing out her own claws.
Wade quickly changed the subject. "Fred got a new tattoo. I'm concerned."
Ember looked at the fat on Fred's arm and saw it was a tattoo of a lady he'd met last night. "Shit, Fred, you just met her last night."
"I love her." Dukes said.
"You love her after 1 night?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"She's a gymnast." Fred explained, making Bradley grin.
"Bradley, take her down." Stryker told his employee, who did just that, taking the plane down with his power.
"Ohhh…fuck." Ember said, as she really didn't like being on planes.
"You gonna puke?" Dukes asked.
"If we were meant to fly, we'd have grown wings a long time ago." Ember complained.
"Aw, cheer up, Nancy. More people die driving than flying." Zero said with humor.
"How about from impaling?" Ember asked with a glare.
"Hey, be nice." John told his teammate. "Or be your approximation of nice. Would you like a bucket?" He asked as a joke.
"Gentlemen and lady, wheels down in Lagos in 5." Stryker told his mutant team.
Later
The team were walking through Lagos all the way to a fortress where Stryker said his target was. "Why are we here?" Ember asked with a serious face.
"All in good time." Stryker answered. "Zero."
Zero grinned and walked forward, allowing himself to be spotted by the searchlights. "Intruder! Perimeter breach! Man the weapon!" A guard ordered before the others prepared themselves. "Intruder, stop! Put your hands above your head!"
Zero compiled but secretly reached for the guns behind his back and, using his power, quickly pulled them out and shot expertly at the guards, killing them while running forward, shooting 1 of the guards that mounted the machine gun and making him shoot some of the others before he reloaded like no 1 could before he jumped over the gate, shooting the rest of the guards while landing with style.
"Victor, high ground lookout." Stryker objected to Victor.
Creed licked Ember's cheek and asked with delight. "Having fun yet, runt?" He asked a growling Ember before heading up to the building as the guard in the tank prepared himself.
"Fred." Stryker instructed.
"The tank?""
"The tank."
"Yeah, I got that." Dukes said while Creed climbed up the building using his cat like abilities before he walked close to the tank and the guard pulled the trigger as Dukes stuck his arm in the cannon, making the tank blow up when it tried to fire, much to Creed's delight before the team made their way inside the building.
But it alerted the diamond trafficking leader, who saw the team in the elevator from the monitor next to him, causing him to push the kill switch to it.
The elevator stopped and John pushed the top floor button twice, but it didn't work, causing Wade to run his mouth again. "Great. Stuck in an elevator with 4 guys and a girl on a high protein diet."
"Oh, Wade." Stryker said with annoyance.
"Dreams really do come true."
"Would you just shut it?!" Stryker ordered him, making Bradley chuckle quietly. "You're up next."
"Thank you, sir. You look really nice today. It's the green. Brings out the seriousness in your eyes." Wade ran his annoying mouth.
"Oh, fuckin' shit, do you ever shut the hell up, moter mouth?!" Ember asked with frustration at her teammate's very annoying, non-stop talking.
"No, not when I'm awake." Wade answered.
Stryker then instructed Bradley. "Bradley, top floor, please."
Bradley did as instructed, using his power to manipulate the elevator to go all the way to the top floor, which the diamond trafficking leader saw. "Cover the elevator! The elevator!" He ordered his guards.
"Time to go to work." Wade said as the elevator got to the top floor, making the others take cover by backing into the elevator walls. And when the elevator opened and the guards fired their machine guns, Wade used his enhanced mutant reflexes to reflect every 1 of the bullets back at them killing them, even cutting one in half with his katana when he saw it being fired from a dying guard and causing the cut in half bullet to kill 2 more guards at the same time before he ran forward and continued reflecting the last 2 guards' bullets before he spin jumped and impaled them with his swords, killing them before he took them out and spinning them around. "Okay! People are dead!" He called his teammates and leader.
Stryker walked up to the leader while saying and taking off his gloves. "If you didn't have that mouth on you, Wade, you'd be the perfect soldier."
The leader slowly tried to reach for his hidden double barrel gun, only for Wrath to teleport beside him and take his arm away from it. "I wouldn't do that if I was you, brother." He said while pointing his weapon at his head.
The leader, knowing that he had nothing left, reluctantly surrendered. "Take the diamonds. They are yours."
But Stryker was after something else. "I don't want your diamonds." He said before picking up what looked like an unusual rock. "I want this."
The leader was a bit surprised that he wasn't after that and not his diamonds. "That? That is nothing. A souvenir."
"Where did you find it? I want the source."
"A small village. Far inland. 3 days from here." He answered.
3 days later, in the village
Stryker held the rock in front of the leader of the villager's face, the team having rounded them all up before the Major demanded to know where the rock came from, with Wade as his translator. "Tell him this rock is more valuable to me than his life. Ask him where he found it."
Wade asked the villager in his language and he only gave 1 answer before Wade translated. "He says it came from the sky."
Ember knew that he wasn't lying, as she could easily sniff out lies thanks to her heightened mutant senses. "He's telling the truth."
"You don't know the language, McLain." Stryker said.
"It's a meteor fragment." Ember told him.
"I know what it is. I'm asking him where he found it."
"Sir. Base wants to know our location." Bradley informed his leader.
"Shut 'em down." Was all Stryker had to say before Bradley did just that with his power. Stryker then said before telling Wade while glaring at the villager. "Tell him everyone here will die unless he tells me where he found the rock." He threatened, while Ember looked at Creed, who smirked with eagerness, along with Wade and Zero.
'Almost there.' Ember thought to herself, as she'd been looking for a way to get away from Creed and this 'team' for a while, but had to wait for the right moment to do so. And with them being so distracted by a slaughter, it was the perfect opportunity.
The villager told Wade his answer before he translated it. "He says that it's sacred."
"All right then." Stryker said before putting a hand on Creed. "Victor." He said before he stood by with his back turned while Creed killed the villager by snapping his neck with his claws, making the other villagers scream and start to scatter and causing Zero and Wade to take part in the slaughter.
But in the chaos, Ember used the opportunity to tear off her tags before quickly running into the jungle as fast as she could. 'Good riddance, Creed!' She thought while running through the jungle to find transportation to get out of the country and as far away from Creed as possible.
But after the slaughter was done, Creed noticed that Ember wasn't anywhere to be seen. "Wait. Where's the runt?"
Dukes walked up to where Ember's dog tags were, picked them up and showed them to the team. "Looks like we got a deserter, guys."
Creed began to get angry at that. "Are you telling me…that just when me and her finally get a good thing going after fighting each other for 100 plus years, she's abandoning that and screwing us all over?"
"Looks like it, Victor." Zero answered.
But Creed wasn't having that. "No! She can't just fuck this up for me. Not right now!"
"I think she just did." Wrath said with a smirk.
But Creed, not liking that, began to run into the jungle to find her and bring her back. "EMBER! EMBER! MCLAAAAAAAAIN!" He roared out in the sky with rage and fury.
There you go, my dear friends, the 1st chapter of my Danny Phantom/X-Men crossover is complete. I know it's short but think of this as a prelude to the many things to come. Be sure to thank my dear friend, SreznoJIG, for helping me out, cause this is gonna be a wild and crazy ride. Especially the plans I have for Jean Grey, Emma Frost, Rogue and a certain lucky mutant. But please note that Danny won't be making an appearance until after X-Men Origins. Just so you all know. But don't worry, he will appear and play a very big part in the story as well. Rate and review, and I'll see you all next time, my dear friends.