The SuperStarr Chronicles
Disclaimer: "Can we fix it?! Yes, we can!"
Chapter 5: Growing Pains Aftermath
Author's Note: Hi, there! Sorry I had taken so long to put this chapter up! You see, I had been working on it for a long time, and my computer ate it. Yeah. It ate it. Luckily, I remembered most of the chapter. It was then that I realized something. You see, the chapter that I had written had gotten up to around twenty pages long. Yeah, that's a lot. I realized I could take some of it, and make it into a sixth chapter. Which is good, as I honestly have no idea where to go next here. I do have some basic ideas, but not much "meat" to them, as it were. So, enjoy this fifth chapter! Also, this fic is on TV Tropes, yaaaay! Any additions to it would be greatly appreciated.
Bayville High School
"Yo, I don't get this." Todd muttered as the Brotherhood walked down the hall towards Principal Kelly's office.
"Yeah, I'm with Toad." Fred agreed. "What's the point of this?"
"Clara talked with Principal Kelly last night, and she said he wanted to talk to us, remember?" Paul reminded.
"Knowing her, she likely got him friggin' drunk." Craig grumbled under his breath.
"That sounds like her." Lila snickered. The group approached the office. "Here we are."
"Let's get this over with." Lance muttered. The earthshaker opened the door, and the group went inside. The young mutants then spotted the principal of Bayville High in quite the state.
"Whoa." Fred blinked.
"Heh heh." Pietro snickered. "Looks like Clara did a number on him." Indeed, Kelly was slumped over on the desk, his arms spread wide. However, the shot glasses around him, and the empty tipped-over bottle of Jack Daniel's indicated the only kind of dead the bespectacled man had gotten last night was dead drunk.
"He's not...dead, is he?" Fred asked.
"Explain the snoring then." Lance muttered. True to Lance's statement, the brunet man's back was going up and down, accompanied by some light snoring.
"Yup." Lila nodded, picking up a shot glass. "This is Clara's handiwork, alright."
"Uh, Principal Kelly?" Paul poked the snoozing man lightly. "You okay?" Kelly let out a belch in response.
"So he isn't...dead?" Todd asked.
"He wouldn't be snoring if he was." Pietro observed. Indeed, the hungover principal was lightly snoring.
"Oh, for the love of-!" Craig muttered. He pulled out an airhorn from his jacket and blasted the brunette principal in the ear.
HOOOOOOONK!
"I'MRIIIIIICHBEYOTCH!" Kelly yelped as he jerked awake. He panted fast, his face sweaty and chest heaving. "Where am I?" He looked around briefly like he had no idea where he was. "What's going on? Where's Bill?"
"Who's Bill?" Lance wondered.
"Ha, ha!" Pietro laughed. "Looks like the drunk made some friends." Craig scowled and blasted Pietro in the ear with the airhorn, making the silver-haired speedster yelp. "MY EAR!"
"Not so loud!" Kelly wailed, covering his ears.
"God, it's dark in here." Lila noted, walking over to the windows. "Let's get some light on this subject." She opened the blinds, making the principal moan.
"Oh, God! Natural liiiiiiiight!" He wailed, covering his eyes with his arms. "Why are you punks here?!"
"You asked us to come here." Todd reminded.
"Oh..." Kelly blinked. "Oh, yeah." He coughed and adjusted his glasses and tried to straighten himself up a bit. "Right. Well...ow..." Kelly winced and rubbed his head. "God, that woman can put away the drink..."
"Yeah, she wants us to give you this." Paul pulled a small glass bottle from his jacket and put it on Kelly's desk. The principal narrowed his eyes at the bottle.
"What is this, hair of the dog?"
"Nope, her own hangover cure." Paul smiled. "She invented it herself. It'll clear you up and get you feeling better than a good night's sleep."
"Just to warn you, drink lots of water with it." Lila added. "It has a kick."
"I'll...keep it in mind." Kelly said. "Now, your new...guardian and I had a bit of a conversation about last night."
"More like she talked and you drank." Craig muttered as he rolled his eyes.
"Anyway, she explained to me about your...special talents."
"You inspired us to show them off." Lance smirked. "You're the one who made that pretty little speech about them yesterday."
Kelly glared at Lance. "You were the one who nearly caused that scoreboard to fall on my head."
"Yes, he is." Craig glared at the earthshaker. "Because he's an irresponsible idiot."
"You are not going to stop going on about that, aren't you?" Lance glared back.
"Until you get it through your thick as a brick head about you using your brain when it comes to your powers, than yes, I will still go on about it!" Craig snapped. Kelly sighed.
"I didn't intend that!" Lance argued.
"Enough! My head hurts!" Kelly snapped. The two got quiet. "Look, I'm not going to mince words with any of you. You all are dangerous. I know what you are."
"You think we don't know that?" Craig sneered. "Contrary to what you think, Principal, some of us are well aware that we're dangerous. We're not like all those superheroes you've been seeing on TV lately. Our powers don't come from cosmic rays, or gamma rays, or suits of armor. Tony Stark did not have to build his armor. Those four self-proclaimed 'imaginauts' did not have to go up on that rocket. Hell, that Fabio-wannabe muscle-headed whackjob in New Mexico doesn't have to put on his winged helmet and run around in a fancy outfit and a supposedly magic hammer claiming he's Thor. But us? We have to be mutants. We're stuck with this. We got no choice in the matter."
"What my brother is trying to say is, we have no control over what we are." Paul said. "We can't help having the gifts we have. And honestly...we can be scared of what we are and what we can do, too."
"I admit, when I first discovered my abilities, it was pretty frightening." Lila added. "I take it Clara told you what we can do?"
"Yyyyyyes, she mentioned that. You...teleport, right?"
"Yup." Lila confirmed with a nod. "You see, the first time I did it, I found meself on a strange world. Nothing like anything I had ever seen. I had never been outside of England in me life. I was in this forest, full of purple trees. Looked like something out of an episode of Star Trek. But then, this creature bore down on me."
"...creature?"
"Yeah." Lila nodded. "It was like some Dr. Moreau-wannabe madman crossed a jaguar with a ram, slapped a crocodile's jaws on it, and pumped it full of steroids." She shuddered. "It leaped out of a tree and went for my head. I screamed in horror, then found myself at home. If I had tried to teleport a second later, I would not be here." A shudder went down Kelly's spine.
"I blew a man's hand off." Craig recalled. "It was in self-defense. That's all I will tell you, Kelly. So trust me on this, I am well aware of there being a dark side to what we are. Some of of us..." He shot a quick glare at Lance. "Have learned that the hard way."
"I...I see..." The principal rubbed his head. "Well, your new guardian and I discussed the issue, and I think we managed to make a compromise. I can keep quiet about your...talents, as long as you all agree to not...show them off on school grounds."
"That sounds like blackmail to me." Lance glared.
"I prefer to think of it as a reasonable exchange." Kelly said. "I have the student body to think about. Their safety, and all that. I don't care what you do outside here. You can go wreck the rest of the town for all I care. If anyone asks, I'll say I was unaware. Just show some blasted restraint here."
"Still sounds like blackmail."
"That sounds fine to us." Craig agreed.
"What?!" Lance snapped.
"What's the matter, Avalanche?! You think you can't show some restraint?" Craig taunted.
"I don't need my powers to kick your-!" Lance jumped up from his seat, but Lila shoved him back down.
"We appreciate your willingness to stay quiet." Paul said.
"Just a word of advice." Kelly said. "If I can discover what you are, others will too. I'd advise you to keep that in mind in the future." He waved at them. "I have to speak to Xavier's group as well."
"We'll get out of your hair." Lila said as the Brotherhood got up and left. She pointed at the bottle of hangover cure. "Remember, lots of water with that." The young mutants left the room. Kelly glanced at the bottle.
"Hope this stuff works." He took the bottle, opened it, and drank it. "Huh." Kelly smacked his lips. "This stuff is great! I feel a lot better already. I wonder why that British girl said it has a kick-!" His eyes widened and he clutched his throat. "OH GOD!"
Meanwhile, the Brotherhood had started to walk down the hall.
"I still feel like we're being blackmailed here." Lance grumbled.
"Clara's not a lawyer, mate." Lila pointed out. "What do you want?"
"It's not unreasonable." Paul pointed out. "All he wants is for us to not use our powers on school grounds. How hard is that to you?"
"It just sounds so hypocritical to me." Lance explained. "He does a speech about everyone having special talents. We show ours, and we get told to keep them quiet."
"I doubt he meant superpowers, Lance." Craig grunted.
"Hey, it's not our fault that we're awesome." Pietro grinned.
"At least you have a cool power." Todd muttered. The group then heard a scream from Kelly's office.
"Oh, dear..." Paul sighed.
"He didn't drink water with the hangover cure." Lila shook her head. The Brotherhood watched Kelly burst out of the office. The screaming principal ran like a bat out of hell, ears and nose (and somehow, his eyes) shooting flames.
"WATER! I NEED WATER!" He screamed. "WHY DIDN'T I LISTEN?! WHY DIDN'T I LISTEN?! WHY DIDN'T I DRINK WATER?!" He howled as he ran down the hall. He spotted a water fountain, and ran towards it. "OUTTA MY WAY! BURNING HEAD!" Kelly screamed as he literally grabbed the unfortunate student that was using the fountain, lifted him over his head, and tossed the student away, accidentally setting the poor kid's butt on fire in the process.
The Brotherhood House, later that day
Todd Tolensky sat in the engine room of the spaceship, quietly sipping some hot cocoa as he watched Lila work on the engines. The young amphibious mutant seemed lost in thought. Lila was singing along to Lisa Lougheed's "Run With Us" as she worked.
"Hey Kermit, can you hand me the laser screwdriver?" She held out her hand.
"Huh?" Todd mumbled as the British-Indian girl's voice brought him to back to reality.
"The laser screwdriver."
"Oh, uh..." Todd looked at the tools on the tray next to him. "...which one is it?"
"The blue handle with the little red button."
Todd looked over the tools until he found the item Lila described. "Ah, here it is!" He handed it to her.
"Thanks, mate." She took the tool and started using it on the engine. "You feel alright, Kermit? You seem a bit down."
"I'm alright, yo." Todd said.
"You don't sound it." Lila looked up. "You wanna talk about it?"
"...I dunno." Todd admitted. "It's stupid."
"Talking about it may help." Lila suggested. "I'll tell you what. It won't leave this room." Todd still looked reluctant. "Look, I get it. You lived with a bunch of boys, and you have to keep up the tough macho front. But you don't need to do that here with me, Kermit."
"Ya promise?"
"Cross me 'eart and hope ta die."
Todd sighed. "Alright...I was just thinkin' about that fight we had with that Bounty guy."
"Yeah, he's a bit of an arse, ain't he?"
"I mean, I didn't exactly do well in that brawl."
"To be fair mate, Bounty isn't exactly a pushover in any sense of the word." Lila explained. "Man was a powerhouse. We had to join forces with those X-Guys to drive him off."
"Yeah, yeah." Todd agreed. "It's just...I'm tired of being seen as the 'weak' one here. I mean, look at Fred. Dude's big and fat, but he's real strong and tough. Lance can bring down buildings. Pietro's fast. You can teleport. Clara is Sabertooth but with boobs and is actually nice. Paul and Craig can fire laser beams and put people to sleep. But me?" He shook his head. "I can jump. I can cling to walls. I have a long tongue, and can spit slime. Not exactly badass, if you think about it."
"We can't all have 'cool' superpowers, mate." Lila shrugged. "If it's any consolation, you've been a big help to me in fixing these engines up. I think you got a knack for this stuff."
"Heh. That's what my mama liked to say to me." Todd snickered.
"Your mum?"
Todd nodded. "Yeah, my mama. As a kid, she noticed that I would take things apart to see how they worked. She would say that I could be an engineer or something like that one day."
"That sounds nice." Lila smiled. "So, where is she now?"
Todd's face dropped. "I don't know. She was an archaeologist, ya see. And one day, she was examining some artifact they fished out of the ocean. There was like, this big explosion, and she was gone."
"I'm so sorry, Todd..."
"Yeah, wasn't your fault." Todd muttered. "Didn't really have any other family afterwards. Spent time in group homes and in the streets of Brooklyn afterwards, then Mystique found me."
"What about your dad?" Lila asked. "You must have had a father. Unless your mother had the power to reproduce asexually...which considering the world we live in, isn't completely implausible..."
Todd's face scrunched in thought. "I don't really know much about my dad. Mom never really talked about him much. Said he was some British guy, I don't quite remember his name. I think it was...Toybee or somethin'?"
Toybee? That name sounds familiar... Lila thought. She shook her head. She'd figure that little puzzle out another time. "Anyway, you got a knack for working with gadgets and gizmos like this here engine. I mean, you've been real helpful to me in fixing this baby up." The British-Indian girl then closed the panel. "And this is done."
"So, the engines are all fixed up."
"The sublight drive is repaired." Lila nodded. "Unfortunately, the warp drive is another story. It's going to need parts that..." The interstellar teleporter winced. "I don't think I can find around here easily." She then eyed a tablet. "Hello..." She noticed the image on the image on the tablet. "I think they may be helpful here."
Todd leapt over and looked at the image Lila's tablet was showing. It depicted a quartet of people. One was a tall thin man with is brown hair neatly combed with white at the temples. The second was a blonde woman with a serene smile. The third was a blond-haired man with a cocky grin. These three were wearing blue uniforms with white collars, gloves, utility belts, and boots. The uniforms bore a chest emblem of a blue "4" in a white circle. The fourth was a barrel-chested broad-shouldered bald man with orange lumpy hide. He wore a pair of long blue tights, white boots, and a white utility belt with the "4" logo on it.
"Hey, that's those Fantastic Four guys!" Todd said. "I saw them fight some guy called 'Mole Man' on TV!"
"Yup!" Lila grinned. "Reed Richards there is supposed to be some kind of super-genius. Maybe he can help me fix the ship's warp drive." Todd glanced at the Thing.
"Huh. Welcome to my world, Grimm." Todd grunted.
The Xavier Institute
Logan was staring out a window, looking out at the sky.
"Penny for your thoughts, Logan?" The Canadian mutant turned around and saw Xavier wheeling towards him.
"Just thinkin', Chuck." Logan answered. The feral found himself really wanting a cigar right now, but the thing was, Xavier forbade smoking on the grounds.
"Would you like to talk about it?" Xavier offered. "I have said that if you need a friendly ear, I am always willing to provide."
"Yeah, I was just thinkin' about that big brawl last night." Logan said.
"I bet you were frustrated you missed it." Xavier chuckled.
"I admit, fightin' an alien would've been fun."
"I have a feeling that that Bounty fellow will return. Maybe you'll get a crack at him next time."
"Heh." Logan smirked amusedly. "Anyway, I was also thinkin' 'bout that Creed woman."
"Ah, yes." Xavier nodded. "You said you felt that you may have known her?"
"I don't know how, Chuck." Logan said. "I don't remember most of my past. But seein' her on that screen...it gave me a feelin' that I did know her. Don't know from where, though."
"Have you tried simply asking her?" Xavier suggested. "She appears to be the leader of the Brotherhood now. If you two have crossed paths, maybe she'd remember it and shed some light on the subject."
"Maybe." Logan nodded. "But what concerns me is...what will she say?"
The Danger Room
Scott Summers stood in the Danger Room's control area, a clipboard in his hand.
"Okay, just check the flamethrowers..." He flipped a switch.
FWOOSH!
"Alright!" The young mutant smiled in satisfaction. He checked off a box on the list on his clipboard. "Flamethrowers are working, now to check the saws..." He pressed a button, but nothing happened. "Hmmm..." He frowned. "Looks like I'll have to get that fixed up..." He heard the hissing noise of the doors opening. A familiar Southern Goth girl walked into the room. "Oh, hey Rogue."
"Hey. Checkin' over the Danger Room?"
"Yup." Scott nodded. "Those saws aren't quite working right. I'll have to get them fixed up." He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Times like this, I kind of wish we didn't let Forge just go...wandering off. He'd be a big help maintaining this thing."
"Yeah, that was kind of silly of us." Rogue agreed. She looked down at the training area. "Scott, what is the point?"
"Point of what?"
"The Danger Room. What's it for?"
"The point of it is to help us master and control our powers." Scott explained.
"Yeah, but considering, well..." Rogue waved at the room. "Everything, Ah can't help but wonder if there's something else to it. It's like we're being trained to be superheroes or something. Like all those other ones that have been poppin' up lately."
Scott thought about this. "Yeah, it does, kind of." He then shrugged. "I think that's kind of cool."
"Really?"
"Yeah." Scott nodded. "You've absorbed my powers and mind, so you'd know that I'm rather fond of a certain superhero..."
"Ah right, yer a bit of a fanboy for that Captain America guy." Rogue recalled. "Ah don't really get it."
"Well, you likely know this already, but I grew up in an orphanage." Scott said. "It wasn't bad, but it was a bit sad. I missed my parents and brother greatly. But there was solace there for me."
"The books." Rogue deduced.
"Yup." Scott smiled. "Among the books in the orphanage's library were a couple of trade paperbacks that reprinted some old comic books. Captain America, the Liberty Legion, the Invaders..."
"They made those for propaganda, right?" Rogue said.
"Yeah, based on their actual adventures." Scott nodded. "The Invaders taking it to the Nazis in Europe, and the Legion protecting the homefront. To a little me, it was the coolest thing ever." He smiled fondly. "I've been meaning to find copies of those books. I still remember the covers as clear as day." He shook his head. "Aww, I'm getting' off track. Yeah, we shouldn't have let Forge wander off. Hopefully, he's alright..."
The Colorado Rockies
A futuristic-looking jet raced through the skies over the mountains.
"Ten minutes to target, sir." The pilot announced to the passenger. Said passenger was a non-descript white man with receding brown hair, wearing a white shirt with rolled up sleeves, and a black tie. Over his chest was a protective vest, black pants, and finely-polished black shoes. His eyes were covered by sunglasses.
"Is the cloaking device working?" Phil Coulson asked.
"Like a charm, sir." The pilot smiled. "AIM has no idea we are coming for them. That kid you found in Upstate New York is a damned genius!"
"Exactly why I wanted him on board." Coulson agreed. "Use his skills to do some good. I'll get my team ready." He removed his headset, unbuckled himself, and went to an unloading area at the back of the Quinjet. It was here that he looked over his team of agents.
The first was a tall Asian woman, wearing the standard black SHIELD bodysuit with a blue combat vest over it. She was checking over a pair of silver escrima sticks. The ends of them crackled with electricity. Melinda "The Cavalry" May nodded in satisfaction, holstering the sticks at her legs.
The second was a muscular bald black man, himself clad in black fatigues, a bandolier around his chest. He was looking over a futuristic-looking shotgun with the bayonet shaped like an axe head. Alphonse "Mack" MacKenzie took a couple of shotgun shells from his bandolier, and loaded the gun.
The third was a Eurasian girl in what looked like her late teens/early twenties. Her brown hair was in a ponytail. She wore a black SHIELD bodysuit with yellow highlights, and a chest emblem of a red seismograph line in a yellow circle. Around her arms and hands were a pair of silver gauntlets. Daisy "Quake" Johnson was patiently letting the fourth member examine her gauntlets.
Said fourth member of Coulson's team was a Native American teenager. He wore the black SHIELD bodysuit with gray armored pieces, and had on a pair of futuristic green-tinted sunglasses. Forge nodded in satisfaction.
"The gauntlet modifications are out of sight, Daisy!" The mutant inventor grinned, giving the thumbs up.
"Awesome, thanks!" Daisy grinned. "Can't wait to try out the new features!"
"I take it you all know the mission." Coulson reminded.
"Oh, yeah." Forge nodded. "Make AIM's day a real bummer."
"We gotta update your slang, kid." Mack chuckled.
"We're ready, Phil." May nodded. "We can't let AIM launch that giant mecha of theirs."
"Fightin' a giant robot." Mach shook his head. "Remember when we used to deal with terrorists and mad bombers? You know, normal stuff?"
"Normal is relative, Mack." May pointed out.
"She's right, dude." Forge agreed. "What's normal to one is strange to another. And normal can change."
"Besides Mack, you have to admit, things got a lot more interesting." Quake smiled. "And you know you love that new shotgun Forge made for you."
"Yeah, it is nice..." Mack admitted.
The Xavier Institute
"I'm hoping he's okay." Rogue said.
"So do I. I shudder to think what could have happened to him." Scott admitted. "Maybe we can look for him sometime. I've been wanting to, but things just kept popping up."
"Oh, yes." Rogue agreed. "We should've been looking for him. His inventin' power would have been real handy."
"I know, Rogue."
"He could help fix up the Danger Room."
"I know, Rogue."
"He could've helped modify the Mansion's security system."
"I know, Rogue."
"You know what else he could've done? Maybe he could have helped build a gadget that would have allowed me to touch people! That would have been nice!"
"I know, Rogue! I've been kicking myself about it ever since!"
For a bit of research for the story, I've been watching X-Men: Evolution on Disney+. The ending of "Middleverse" always bothered me a bit. The X-Men just let Forge, who had been trapped in an alternate universe since the 1970s, just...wander off. So, I figured, why not reveal that Phil Coulson found him and brought him into his crew from Agents of SHIELD? His powers would be handy to Coulson and his crew. As for Fitz and Simmons, I have a plan for them to appear as well.
Also, the Invaders and the Liberty Legion are actual Marvel superteams. The Invaders debuted in Avengers #71 (December 1969). The Liberty Legion first appeared in Marvel Premiere #29 (April 1976). Both teams used actual characters from Timely Comics, Marvel's 1940s predecessor. Appropriately enough, both teams were co-created by Roy Thomas, who is known for his love of Golden Age-era characters. And like the comics, the Invaders fought in the front lines of World War II, while the Legion stayed stateside.
I had figured that since Captain America was established to have existed in the Evo-verse, it was likely the Invaders and the Legion did as well. And since I had established that Clara Creed had been an active superheroine during WWII, it's likely that she had worked with the Invaders and/or the Legion at that time.