Stranger and Stranger

Attention: Generation X and their villains, as well as any other mutant mentioned in this story, is property of Marvel Comics. The character Richard Cale is named after family relations. Any other reference to anything copyrighted is a chance happening.

Reflections On The Emplate War

Chapter 1: A Savior Appears

I. Hank

It had been a most aggravating morning at the Xavier Institute. It had begun when Sean and Emma had arrived with all their charges, and given that they arrived in a rental vehicle, it was obvious that the cause was not a good one. It had been fortunate that when Emma had contacted the school as they arrived, it had been Dr. Hank McCoy who had answered the call.

Hank McCoy, also known as Beast, was one of the best minds on the planet. In fact, his scientific mind was one of the best to handle the situations that he was facing. The teenager that was now in his own office was sitting in a chair, keeping up an apparent air of defiance, no doubt due to the information he could get about the events that had happened. In fact, the suspicions that were voiced about the child being a time traveler had prompted him to request someone else to be present for when he started to find out the course of events that led to this moment.

As he looked at the young man, trying to determine what he could of the mutant that saved Richard Cale and Penance from Emplate, he did notice some details that helped him determine some facts. He was already noticing similarities in some facial features to one of the Generation X members, or at least one of the founding members of the group. He wasn't even sure if he should even broach that topic, at least for right now. In all honesty, knowing who the mutant's parents were might set in motion some drastic events.

He was brought out of this train of thought when the young man finally spoke. It was the first time the boy spoke since Emma escorted him into the room and left to deal with the possible aftermath of when Richard and Penance had finally recovered. His words, however, gave off he impression that this was possibly a waste of time as he said, "So how long are you going to keep me here? I know what Emma Frost said, if that was her, but I doubt this is going to be productive."

Hank politely nodded, and smiled as he adjusted his glasses. In part, they were more for show, but he found it comforting to have them on during these types of sessions. He then responded to the young man's statements. "Oh, we will begin in a moment. One must never underestimate the importance of learning, especially when it comes to understanding matters involving temporal displacement. We are just waiting for someone else who is familiar with situations similar to yours."

To his surprise, Hank heard the teen mention the very person with some details he wasn't aware this time traveler would know. "You're talking about Lucas Bishop, right. I know about him, but I don't know how much help he'd be. Wasn't he confused about how things were when he first arrived in this timeline? How could that be helpful to me?"

He was inwardly thankful when a deep voice responded to what the teenager said. "That is true, but I learned about this time, and have seen the effect shared knowledge has helped preserve this timeline and kept it from becoming other bad versions of this timeline." Hank hoped that those words would help get through to this young man.

To his complete and utter surprise, he heard the boy give an almost harsh laugh as he responded to this. "Your knowledge didn't end up very helpful in my timeline, unless it meant you were one of the first people to die."

He noticed that Bishop seemed both angry and shocked by that little bit of info, but it didn't stop him from responding. "Listen. I've faced things you haven't, even now that you are in this timeline. Besides, if it wasn't for my knowledge, Generation X wouldn't know much about the first Emplate." That was a very true fact, since after that one encounter, the team got a great deal of helpful information, some that might not have been easily obtained from Monet St. Croix, or her father.

Almost as a retort, but it was obviously held in check, the boy responded to that. "Fine, you had information based off the original, but the Emplates in my timeline came from a different source. You knew nothing about how they operated, and at the time, no one had seen any like them. They had caught you in a gruesome trap that no one saw coming." The statement had had an effect on Lucas, causing him to stagger back as if slapped.

Hank figured now would be the right time to get the teen to open up about the timeline he came from. He leaned forward a little, in a hope to look kindly, and said, "Then I think now would be a good time to tell us about that timeline. I will admit that I am curious about what happened there, since you are hinting it is worse than others." He thought for a moment about the timeline that had come to be known as The Age Of Apocalypse, where a darker version of himself and the mutant known as Nate Grey were from. He then amended to his statement, "Also, could you tell us your name?"

He watched as the boy sighed and sat down. The action also prompted Lucas to sit down as well, as he answered the question before telling them of his time line. "Alright. To start off, my name is Darrett Xavier Thomas. And before you ask about who my parents were in my timeline, they are two of the Generation X members. Anyhow, my timeline was pretty much decimated by an event known as The Emplate War." Just hearing that, Hank noticed another look of shock cross Lucas Bishop's face.

Hank started trying to figure out what actually cause this, and he would have to admit that it had to be Emplate who started the war, but how exactly did it happen. He even jotted it down as he asked, "And what exactly started this war, Darrett?"

He watched as the boy looked a bit haunted as he answered that question. "It had apparently started when the abduction I stopped happened. You see, if I hadn't arrived when I did, Emplate would have committed the act that caused all the chaos of my timeline. Generation X would have arrived too late to rescue them."

Hank had heard about Richard's unique powers. In fact, all of the X-Men had been made aware of the young man's power, and he could understand how dangerous that could be. He also knew that they had already gotten an idea of what Richard would be as an Emplate. It was Bishop, however, who came to the conclusion he was coming to. "So this made Emplate a lot stronger and a bigger menace." To their shock, they saw Darrett shake his head. "You mean this actually weakened Emplate?"

Darrett nodded, and Hank heard the limited response the lad had. "Yes. While my parents never knew the exact chain of events, something happened that caused Emplate to have them long enough to impose his powers on Skitz, and something made Skitz and Penance snap. The cause has been speculated to how he enthralled them, or the thought that they would be Emplates for the rest of their lives."

Hank took that information in, and internally speculated on the outcome of that sort of snap. Given what little knowledge he had of the two mutants involved, he could speculate on how it might have come about. Two lovers looking out for one another, while also holding out hope they would be rescued. Something that might have been seen as betrayal might have to trigger it. A betrayal so deep the two would declare war on Emplate and maybe Generation X. He just tapped his pencil as he said, "So, Emplate and Skitz were fighting one another then, and it affected the world."

To his surprise, he saw the young time traveler shake his head. "No. After their minds snapped, Skitz and Penance had slaughter most of Emplate's followers. After they did that, they made their way to the school and slaughtered Monet St. Croix. I never got told why, as my parents never told me. They took it to their grave. After that, they took on every group they perceived as threats to them. They had taken out the Friends Of Humanity, the Sentinels, X-Factor, and even the Brotherhood of Mutants."

Hank watched as Lucas finally spoke as he wrote this information down. "You mean Skitz and Penance were beginning to take over the world at that time?" He saw the boy nod, and he saw Lucas lower his head, shaking it as he said, "Good grief. They must have used Emplate's dimensional shift power to do that with such efficiency. We still don't know how to combat that."

He then thought about one problem that hadn't been addressed, and it would no doubt be a problem in this timeline that Darrett had come from. "What about the Legacy Virus? We still don't have a cure for it. How do they handle that?"

Hank watched as the boy thought about it for a moment. "I'm pretty certain it was cured. I remember hearing that when the cure was first discovered, it was believed that Moira McTaggart was behind it. However, once the cure was out there, and it appeared Skitz and Penance were using it to track and capture mutants. When Banshee and Generation X sought her out, they found out it was in some sort of company run by Skitz. In fact, they had put out the information to lure him in to be slaughtered. They had even made a spectacle of it."

At that moment, Hank had a good idea of how bleak the timeline was. The crazed Skitz and Penance of that timeline had thought things out. With the fact that Generation X would be more on their guard than the other groups, and the addition of a cure for Legacy meant that they were able to lure out their main threat next to Emplate.

He then wondered about the team, and he could tell that Lucas was thinking the same thing as he asked, "What happened to Generation X at that time? From what you said, they were down two people by this point, unless they took others on during this time."

He watched as the young man lowered his head, as if recalling something unpleasant. He realized what it was when Darrett spoke again. "Well, Emplate and his lover had joined the team when he realized that Skitz and Penance snapped. Some of those details are fuzzy. What I do know is that after Banshee was killed, the team split, with some following Emplate, and some staying with Emma. I think the thought process was that some would try to find a safe place for those trying to fight back, while the others thought it was possible to hide themselves as Emplates. Both were better than the idea of being like livestock."

As they took that information in, Hank realized how dangerous a foe Richard Cale could be. He realized that if the mutant population declined, or became non-existent, they would go into starvation. Also, while he was still relatively unknown as a threat, he no doubt realized enough what his parents' connections would have gotten him. He most likely taken over his parents' company in that time, and somehow came up with a cure for Legacy. In fact, he was also certain that if that happened in that particular timeline, the ability to hide would fall flat for either side. He looked at Darrett, and then said, "I'm guessing the split didn't work out so well."

He saw the young man nod. "Correct. First off, the school came into hard times. It was amazing he never attacked the school directly, but he was cutting off their finances. Emma's company came under fire, and was slowly being cut off from all there income sources. Her company was also being taken over by another company. It turned out to be a company headed by Skitz to take over the school. This was discovered when Emma was called to meet with the company head. I think besides my parents, two others were part of the rescue operation, but while those two were captured, my parents were kept out. During that meeting, Emma relayed to all of them Skitz had already taken out Emplate and his small group."

At that moment, he saw Bishop hang his head, and responded in a haunted voice, "And the Emplate hordes started showing up. They would have no way to stop them, except for killing them. No wonder they took out the bigger X-Groups. They'd either get willing people or get rid of possible threats. That doesn't answer what happened to regular humans. They wouldn't want to become Emplates, especially the ones who hate mutants."

He watched as Darrett should his head. "I don't know. There were some rumors that he found a way to change humans into mutants, but he had pretty much driven the human population to extinction. All that were left on the planet were mutants and Emplates, and the mutants were either livestock, or have made their way to the Savage Land. It was there that my parents found the unlikeliest of allies, Professor Xavier and Apocalypse."

The more Hank heard about this timeline, the more he found it disturbing. Some combination of events had turned two adversaries into allies, that being the whole situation that the mutant species was in. He thought about that, and eventually said, "Such an unlikely duo to be the bastions of hope. Using the Savage Land is also an interesting choice, given how it negates mutant powers."

He saw Lucas nod in agreement, as he said, "Indeed, and it isn't easy to see Apocalypse doing something helpful. I've seen the chaotic timeline where he achieved his goal, and he's even worse with all the power he had. It wasn't a good place."

He watched as Darrett looked at Lucas and asked, "Did you ever find out if those two were in that timeline?" When the older time traveler shook his head, he was surprised when Darrett said, "I would be surprised if they were alive. When they finally eliminated and taken over the world, they openly declared war on Apocalypse. Something about a history with Skitz's family."

Hank jotted that down, determined to start looking into the Cale family at that bit of news. He knew Apocalypse had been around a long time but were there people fighting him long before the X-Men knew of his existence, and if so, how did they keep it secret. It appeared that the Cale family had a lot more going on than Richard Cale would admit or knew about.

It was Lucas who prompted the teen to explain more, if he could. "So it was possible Apocalypse was still seen as a threat. Did those two ever have that face off?" At this point, Hank had a feeling what the answer to that question would be.

As expected, he saw the boy nod. "Yes. It did happen, and it was unfortunate for mutants. My father had gone on a mission with Apocalypse and some others to try and find some sort of weakness in Skitz's command. They had even gone to Skitz's ancestral home. When they got there, however, they ended up walking into a trap. From what my mother had told me, since they each had some video equipment with them, there was a sword surrounded by black flames. I still can't fathom how that happened, but before they could react to the strange sight, Skitz and Penance attacked. Some of the images they had gotten showed a genuine scared look on Apocalypse's face. I think at that point, my mother knew that our hideout was no longer safe, and we fled there." The boy paused long enough to look Hank straight in the eyes. "We had left the Savage Land and not too long after we left, the Emplate's invaded, and they weren't hindered by the places strange abilities."

Hank wrote that down, especially the sword. He had recalled reading somewhere about a certain class of knights that had such a weapon, but he would have to hunt for that information again. He then put his writing implement down, and said "So from that day, you two were on the run, hiding from the Emplates as best you could."

He watched as Darrett nodded and closed his eyes. "Correct. For years we moved from place to place. My own power had developed, and it was helpful to create an early warning for us. Eventually, we were able to find out about something. It seemed that things weren't far off on something being hidden at the Cale Ancestral Home, and we made our way there. We had been able to sneak in, and then find our way to the secret vault. I was amazed by some of the things I saw there, but the key thing was a small serpent-like item, eating its own tail. We had just found it when they attacked us. Somehow, someone else had infiltrated them, as someone had posed as Skitz, and it allowed me to grab the magical thing."

Hank steepled his fingers and looked at the teen. "And it was then you arrived in our time, and stopped Emplate's plan, causing him to retreat with, if I recall some things I've been told, Aura, who is an adopted cousin to Richard. You have, in essence, prevented that timeline from coming to be." Inwardly, however, he amended it since if certain theories were correct, it would have been created regardless as a parallel timeline.

He watched as the teenager nodded. "Yes, but even after the two fled, I thought I should kill them since it was still possible that they could become those evil figures. I could see the fear in their eyes just before they passed out. After that, Generation X came in, and we were all brought here."

Hank nodded once, and then responded. "Indeed. No doubt the whole experience they went through had an effect on them. That is why they separated the two."

He saw Lucas nod, as he said, "Indeed. I passed the hall with the rooms they put each on it. They are obviously not happy about it. I heard a lot of thuds and crashes coming from the hallway."

Hank stood then, realizing what that bit of news meant. "Which means they are now conscious, and aware they've been separated. A bit foolish, given their mental state, but given Richard's abilities, it is understandable. We need to get down there, and I hope a few others are on their way as well. I'm sure they both realize they are not in a familiar area, and their fear levels went up." He watched as the other two got up as well and headed for the door. There were still some questions to answer regarding Darrett, as to who his parents were, as well as what powers he may have. He had a feeling Richard's ability might be able to help find some of those answers out but hearing about the alternate timeline had provided him with some questions as well. Those, however, would have to wait until they calmed the two Generation X members down, and this event could have had some deeper psychic scars that would take time to heal. Before he left the room, however, he returned to his desk and grabbed an envelope that he would be sure Sean would be happy about.