Scott stumbled out of the elevator, visibly trembling, though his face remained as stony as ever, he carried the shield as he stumbled back to his room and spent the next few moments in an absolute panic attack, hyperventilating as he dropped the shield on his bed, pulling out the Silver Skull Implant and Loki's spear tip shard and the Uru Skull Implant given to him by Beast. He fought the panic down, got ahold of himself, forced down his suspicions about who Cable was for another time, trying to deal with the thought HE, of all people, was a Superhero in the future.
He didn't want to be a Hero. All he wanted was to find Essex and put her in chains, drag her before a court of law, and see her prosecuted as the mad dog psycho he knew she was before they locked her up and threw the key away. Or kill, her, if he was left with literally no other option. But giving her the beatdown of her life before either was an absolute given.
He shoved the Silver Implant and the spear tip into a drawer and finally fought the trembling in his hands down as he picked up the golden implant and steeled himself for another run in with Mystique. Just because he didn't exactly fear her didn't mean he didn't regard her as an abomination.
Scott finally got the courage to go looking for Mystique and grabbed the Shield, left his bedroom and went looking for her. He stopped Ororo, wearing a black denim jacket and jeans with sneakers. Her jet-black hair was a messy mop of a pixie cut, and due to her glowing red eyes subtly arcing with crimson lightning, it gave ger the appearance of constantly having a death glare which Scott found...intriguing...
"Ororo," he greeted respectfully.
"Storm," she replied.
"Hmm?" he asked.
"My Mutant name...is Storm. I decided on the name last night," Storm replied, her Kenyan accent poking through. "Everybody else here was running around with freaky codenames, didn't make sense being left out."
"Mutant Naming thing's overrated, if you ask me," Scott replied with a shrug. "It's only really good if you need to operate in a clandestine manner, like we have to. Whatever we do next is bound to be illegal to somebody, somewhere. A Codename is a laughably poor barrier to the enemy finding out more about you or the rest of us if you get pinched, but it's better than just going around using your real one. Might as well just give 'em your social security number while you're at it..."
"So why do you walk around constantly using your codename?" Storm questioned, hands going to her hips. She was a great beauty, he noted distantly. And she was the same age he was. If only he didn't have freaky death rays in his head.
No, he thought suddenly. He would never be normal. Ororo probably wouldn't ever be normal either and he shuddered inwardly at the thought of accidentally hurting her with his eyes if he ever got close. He would never forgive himself if that happened.
"Because I intend to disappear when this is over. If I can't remove my mutation, it's not safe for me to be around society."
"I see. You're scared."
"I'm being responsible. It's too dangerous for me to live in a populated area," he insisted quietly.
"Do you believe that applies to me?" Storm asked.
"It's only takes someone innocent dying because of your gifts once," he pointed out. "By the way, you seen...her?"
"You mean Mystique? She's in some kind of training room a floor above us...why?"
"Gotta drop something off," he replied heading up nearby steps and going. "You have a nice day, Storm."
The upper floor was just as opulent as the lower one and seemed to be a tiny museum displaying Hank's prototype devices.
He went looking for this training room and saw a thick steel door with red lettering that said DANGER ROOM V-0.5
Scott strolled to it apprehensively. and hit a switch on its left that opened the door, and he walked in to find Mystique fighting what appeared to be ninjas. The crimson skinned, wrinkled, bald Mutant was utilizing brief bursts of superhuman speed to dodge the sword attacks of the two ninjas engaging her. The elderly looking Mutant with distinct barbie doll like anatomy had grown two long, sharp claws on both hands, as well as one in between the toes of her feet, retaliating just as quickly as she was attacked but it was clear she was tiring, and only barely managed to decapitate one of the ninjas, while the other was gaining ground, getting closer and closer to her wrinkled red flesh with every sword swipe she dodged.
Scott fired a weak, bolt like burst of red light from the right lens of his sunglasses, where the firing mechanism was located, smacking the ninja and exploding its head in a shower of sparks, revealing it to be a robot.
"Ah, Herr Zyklop!" Mystique said warmly, waving at him as he stepped in.
"Cyclops?" he heard Xavier say over the P.A. system. He spotted Xavier in another chamber behind safety glass close by.
"Hello," he said to them both at the same time in an incredibly stony manner.
"Welcome to the Danger Room, Cyclops," Xavier said speaking through a microphone as he took notes while typing on a computer.
"I've seen places like this before..." Scott admitted as he walked inside.
"Why does Doctor McCoy have this?" he asked.
"The Danger Room was a proposal to the U.S. Army from Hank that never got off the ground. Hank built this chamber as a proof of concept, essentially. It functions as a gigantic example of what he calls a '3-D Printer'. Raw materials are processed in exceedingly complex devices underneath the manor and then molded, shaped, and programmed to specification, resulting in the relatively primitive Life Model Decoy's you see here," Charles answered. "Unfortunately, the army was never willing to fund the research, due to the costs of repairs."
"Essex had a set up a lot like this..."
"Did she?" Xavier inquired.
"Yeah..."
"What do you remember from those tests, Cyclops?" Xavier asked.
"Drugged. So not much," Cyclops said. "But I think some of what I was forced to learn is starting to poke through."
Mystique's face twisted in sympathy. "This Essex woman is as without a soul as Raven to torment one so young..."
"I thought you were telling everyone to take it easy today, Professor."
"Turns out for Cassandra, this IS taking it easy. And my way of taking it easy is taking notes. Besides, I'm as completely baffled by her genetics as I am by yours and Ororo's, so I thought 'why not run some tests?'" Xavier answered.
Scott gestured to her. "What have you learned?"
"Cassandra is, essentially a psionic Gene-Morpher. She has the potential to rewrite her own DNA structure to unlock its untapped potential. But so far, she displays only a rather limited use of such an amazing capability. It apparently requires kick starting from physical trauma or emotional stress of a level much higher than I am willing to induce without considering it a breach of medical ethics where superhumans are concerned. So, I am currently putting her only through what I am certain she can survive without lasting psychological stress."
"How's she able to survive getting shot so many times?" Scott asked.
"As it turns out, I am composed of a singular mass of psionically linked Super STEM Cells." Mystique boasted proudly. "I form organs, bones, muscles, nerves to simulate biological processes in order to replenish myself. Due to my inherently psionic nature, I am able to heal from lethal wounds to these things while remaining active."
"I suspect that the reason Loki provided her a cranial shield, was because damage to her Brain takes longer...much longer...to heal than the rest of her..." Xavier surmised, going through his notes, smoking out of a white, curved meerschaum pipe that had the stylized carving of an old man's bearded face.
"But completely destroying her brain won't kill her."
"Not a chance." Mystique replied. "Oh, it would take me a long amount of time, but eventually I would grow it back."
"It's like trying to attack silly putty. Or clay. Except its alive...and it's got a memory..." Scott realized. The wheels started to turn. You killed her down to the very last cell or she would eventually come back. And doing that would be IMPOSSIBLE to ensure. You could never ever be certain Mystique was dead.
"Utterly bizarre...completely defies all known laws of physics, just like you, Cyclops."
"Why does she only have the strength and stamina of an eighty-year-old woman?" Scott wondered.
"I suspect that is a result of her 'losing the battle' as she put it, with her host. It permanently damaged all the parts in her DNA responsible for the shapeshifting, aging, and cellular power output in the formation of muscle mass and energy storage for physical activity beyond ultimately limited bursts, causing her to take on a permanently decrepit appearance with matching level of strength and physical stamina regardless of what other powers she acquires or how healthy her cells actually are. The Implant compensates for these damaged parts of her DNA. By the way...do you have it? Beast told me you were coming along." Xavier stated.
Scott pulled out the Golden Skull Implant from his pocket. "Catch." he said to Mystique.
"Danke, Herr Zyklop!" Mystique said catching it.
She placed it on her head and her very thin but nevertheless athletic muscle mass for someone who looked to be in her eighties swelled slightly.
"You can feel the change instantly, Professor!" Mystique remarked before turning to Scott. "What say you, Cyclops? Care to test your wits?" Mystique challenged.
"The Implant boosts her Stamina to a level approaching that of Captain Rogers," Xavier chirped over the speakers.
"But it doesn't increase her strength?" Scott asked.
"Not at its base level, no, it just allows her to use her superhuman speed for extended bursts without tiring and protects her brain," Xavier answered.
"You aren't chicken, are you, Herr Zyklop?" Mystique playfully teased.
"How interesting you should mention chickens when I'm thinking about eggs..." Scott thought in regard to his recent time displacement thirty thousand years into the future, and then four hours before he technically first met Loki, and then back again.
"Huh?" she questioned.
"Never mind. You're on," he replied, brandishing his shield.
"Cyclops, I really think you should take the day off-" Xavier protested.
"Tried to. Didn't work." he replied.
"Very well. Have at it."
Mystique came at him like greased lightning, and despite having the shield, her leaping somersault drop kick sent him flying backward, forcing himself to orient himself so that when he hit the wall it was shield first. It still hurt like hell, but he managed to be coherent enough to roll out of the way so that he could avoid the axe kick she tried to deliver to his gut. His fingers went to his sunglasses and another globule discharge of red energy smacked into Mystique like a heavy punch, making her whole body ripple as she was staggered backward. She cartwheeled out of the next few blasts however, and Scott dialed it to a slightly more powerful setting as he anticipated where she would cartwheel next, and he got her square in the chest as he moved, sending her flying as she impacted against the wall herself, turning into a red, sludge-like mass that slid down the wall, reforming her decrepit barbie doll anatomy body almost instantly.
"Highly resistant to pure blunt force trauma. Unsurprising, since it allows the cells to mostly stay together," Scott observed.
Mystique somersaulted over his blasts as she got closer and closer, to the point he was forced to use the shield again to take the blow of a kick that sent him skidding across the ground. Scott wondered if he even needed the shield due to how much punishment he had taken from Cable, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
The veins in his arms glowed red as he bodied the kick this time, slamming her backward, but she was as graceful as she was an acrobat and quickly corrected with a ballet like twirl in midair.
"You're more confident than yesterday..." Mystique observed.
"I've had time to adjust," he muttered, thinking of Loki.
"The data is incredible..." Xavier noted.
Mystique beckoned. "Bring it, Herr Zyklop!"
Scott charged in this time, deciding to go for a battering ram approach when Mystique somehow became intangible and phased right through him, making him double over as a sensation of cold hit him everywhere.
"My God..." Xavier said, doing a double take.
Scott scrambled away from her.
"You couldn't do that before..." Scott noted, shivering, covering his arms, as he stood up, prepared to attack her again.
Mystique looked just as surprised and shrugged.
"I've never been hit by your eye blasts before. It seems my cells adapted by adding a Mutation that allows me to turn intangible at will..." she added, panting in exhaustion. "But it drained quite a lot out of me...I...I need rest before I try that again..."
"That's enough for now," Xavier said, who had allowed the bout to continue as much as he ethically dared to. There was also the fact that he genuinely feared inducing another mutation in Cassandra by accident. It was clear her adaptability was off the charts...what if they made her too powerful to kill by accident?
Mystique bowed humbly at the still shivering Scott.
"Thank you, Herr Zyklop, for the bout."
"No problem..." he said, wondering just how powerful Cassandra could become and actively dreading it like he dreaded the strength of his own power.
...
Later on, Scott walked into the very large, well-stocked kitchen with his new sunglasses and saw Power Princess, still in her full revealing costume, examining a bottle of orange juice when she noticed Scott and smiled warmly.
"Cyclops...it's good to see you," she said, putting the bottle down and floating to him, developing a look of concern.
"Good morning, Zarda," Scott replied with barely a hint of genuine greeting back, going to the fridge and pulling a soda out to wake up, icy terror creeping into him over not just Loki, but Mystique as well.
"Are you alright?"
"Why do you ask?" Scott inquired, taking a slow sip, wondering just what would be required to permanently kill Mystique if it came to it...perhaps he should ask Loki.
"I'm an empath, Scott. Love requires empathy. As I am literally powered by the Love Stone, I can naturally feel the emotions of others nearby. I felt your distress as you woke up...and as you came out of the elevator from Beast's lab."
"I'd rather not get into it." Scott answered neutrally.
Zarda nodded. "I understand, Cyclops. I won't pry any further on the matter."
"I'm just waiting for those Akkaba freaks to show up," Scott muttered, taking another sip. "Take my advice, start memorizing the exits."
"I don't think they want to draw attention to themselves like that. At least, not yet," Zarda surmised, her beauty making Scott suppress a wince at how she was so beautiful it was almost ugly. Almost.
"Always plan for the enemy to do the opposite of what you expect. You stay alive longer."
"Cyclops...if it isn't prying too much, may I ask you a personal question?"
"I don't see why not. If you can't trust something made by an Avenger, what CAN you trust?" Scott replied emotionlessly.
"Well...do you have any family?"
"I did," was all he answered at first. "Then there was Essex. Then there was this."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Zarda replied.
"I've got bigger problems than the dead," he answered back. "So... the Love Stone...how was it made?"
"It's the condensed remains of an Interdimensional Alien's soul..." Zarda answered.
"You're separate from it?"
Zarda made a minor see-sawing gesture with her hand. "Loki's enchantments give the Uru Tiara I am wearing the 'Coding' for the personality talking to you. The Vambraces are controlled by the Tiara, which in turn holds the body together, all psionically linked to the Love Stone. The Clay my body is made of channels the Love Stone's powers. As long as at least the Tiara remains, and it can draw from the Love Stone and a suitably enchanted clay of an acceptably sized mass, this particular 'me' you are talking to can be recreated over and over, albeit from suitably less high-quality Clays than Asgardian, which is extremely difficult to destroy."
"Can your Tiara be destroyed?" he asked, immediately remembering the exact circumstances of Loki's death thirty thousand years from now.
Zarda nodded. "It's hard to do, but it's been done before. It'll be done again. Even an Uru Tiara won't save a Power Princess when their time is up. When the Tiara is split perfectly in half, or is otherwise de-atomized, that version of Power Princess is permanently dead."
"This doesn't bother you?"
Zarda shook her head. "As Mystique would put it, I do not make the rules. I am simply their result."
"This Alien you mentioned...who were they?"
"She hailed from a dimension known as Olympia..." Zarda replied. "Your culture would know her as Aphrodite."
Scott raised an eyebrow. Zarda only chuckled at this.
"What was she like?"
"A strange being who felt an overwhelming need to love others, be loved in turn, and to foster the spread of people's ability to feel love for one another throughout the known universe. This desire was so overpowering it mutated her cells at the Psionic level to constantly project this emotion. She was so powerful she was able to end all wars happening across entire galaxies in an instant simply by exuding this emotion, until her cells became indistinguishable from the physical manifestation of this energy itself. She was unstoppable."
"So how come we aren't all holding hands?" Scott asked, skeptically.
"The Celestial known as Arashem the Judge had to intervene. Using the entire might of his own dimension he struck down Aphrodite at her stronghold of Ancient Greece, from which she secretly ruled this very galaxy from and converted her very soul into what is now known as The Love Stone. Its power is so dangerous that Arashem altered the very nature of the Stone so that it can never leave Earth. Meaning anyone who wants to assemble all six Infinity Stones HAS to come here," Zarda affirmed, folding her arms.
"Why didn't Arashem just destroy her if she was that dangerous?" Scott asked.
"Because Arashem judged that Aphrodite, despite the scale of her crime, was not evil. She merely wished to create universal peace through love. Had there been even a hint of craving for power, pleasure in manipulating others, or delight in conquest, Arashem would have obliterated her entirely without a second thought. Instead, he allowed her to exist on as a shadow of her former self, her near limitless power confined in the crystal forged from her very soul. Whether Aphrodite herself is still conscious in some way, even Arashem could not tell you."
Scott took a moment to process all this, filing each scrap of information away meticulously for future reference. He did not allow his emotion to cloud his assessment, the rocking revelations that might have floored him not six months before, comparing it to what he had learned at Loki's prophesied death.
"Do you know what she looked like?"
"Every Power Princess knows what Aphrodite looks like. In fact, taking her form is one of the single most powerful ways a Power Princess can use the Love Stone."
"Could you show me?" Scott asked.
Zarda frowned. "I could but I must warn you...not many mortal minds can withstand even this small projection of her true might. Some can be incapacitated for days at the shock of a Princess manifesting Aphrodite. I will do it for only a few short seconds if you are truly curious, but be prepared for an emotional shock...are you ready, Cyclops?"
"Go for it."
Zarda closed her eyes, and her features began to warp and change all over her body, golden hued light coming from everywhere that enveloped a body that rippled like liquid, the golden glow becoming brighter and brighter.
Scott grunted in shock, stepping back as the light revealed a fair skinned woman of absolutely impossible beauty with sharp yet pleasing features and multihued eyes that bled kindness, with long flowing curly golden hair that went down to her back and a muscular hourglass of a body in a skintight golden leotard studded with red gems at the center, which formed a Heart Shape. Scott forced himself to keep staring, teeth clenched in an open snarl, even as a part of him wanted to double over and weep at the sensation he felt of being absolutely, genuinely, loved by another, fighting off the tear that threatened to escape his eye when she smiled at him, the very sound of her breathing sounding like an impossible melody and traveling into his soul. His hands trembled, a tremble that soon spread to his whole body. But he did not go to his knees. Nor did he cry. He just stared right at the impossible, loving, smiling face of Aphrodite, which troublingly reminded him in some ways of Loki.
The entire area around him was nothing but golden light. He felt like he was falling.
He refused to blink. He stared into her face, held her serene, smiling gaze. His brain rang with impossible sounds, each more beautiful than the last. He refused to turn away from her stare.
"Astonishing..." The manifestation whispered, even the whisper threatening psychological shock at how beautiful it sounded.
Scott's hand reached up, and he removed his sunglasses, and the manifestation's face as it stretched into surprise made his nervous system start doing cartwheels, making him take only a slight step back. But he would not blink.
"I... am... The Cyclops..." he hissed, the tiny pinprick of golden light at the exact center of his pupils the only hint of the terrifying power of his mutation.
"I...do...not...blink..." he struggled, her multihued gaze threatening to make him melt on the inside.
"I... make...others...do...the...blinking..." he snarled.
Aphrodite's form vanished back into Golden Light which spread out everywhere, becoming large and small piles of wet Asgardian Clay which splattered everywhere, her body having been broken down not by one of his eye blasts, but by his will overcoming the temporary Manifestation of an Abomination from an altogether different reality.
The Love Stone hovered in the middle of the kitchen, still emitting a now golden glow, Zarda's tiara and vambraces clattering to the floor below it, each bent and twisted, but then they began to self-repair and straighten out before hovering in the hair, the Tiara encircling the Love Stone as the vambraces glowed, calling every Atom of Asgardian Clay back to the center, reforming Zarda's body, who stumbled back, coughing and in shock.
"Beyonder's Ambitions, you've withstood what Galactus himself couldn't!" she proclaimed in shock as Scott gripped the table, coughing violently.
"Well...that was traumatic..." he muttered sarcastically.
"Are you alright? Are you in pain?"
"I'll live." he grunted picking up his soda and taking a sip, but his hand had the tell-tale tremble of fear.
Zarda seemed saddened by his response.
"Forgive me, Cyclops."
"Don't worry about it," Scott replied, steadying his breathing slowly but gradually.
"So..." he stopped to cough violently. "...how many Power Princesses have there been? And why did I find the Love Stone in Rama-Tut's chamber?" Scott wondered as he was reminded of earlier circumstances, struggling to get his bearings after witnessing something that should not be.
"I can't tell you the answer to the first question, because I don't know how many there will be, which ties into your second question..." Zarda trailed, doing her very best to simplify it as she offered the shaken teenager a nearby bottle of water, which he snatched from her hand, on the verge of hyperventilating.
"Every time a Power Princess has the current Tiara destroyed, the Love Stone gets transported back or forward in time, like all the other Infinity Stones. There is only one Love Stone technically, but it is not unusual for the Love Stone to have appeared in two separate places in the same time period, and thus producing two separate Power Princesses. This typically happens only in the direst of circumstances, however..." she said as he rapidly chugged the water down.
"I couldn't honestly tell you how far I am along the line. I could be the very first Power Princess on the chronological scale, or the three thousandth and thirty first..." she confessed with a thoughtful chin rub. "I try not to think about it too much. The mind tends to twist into knots trying to consider it. In the end, only Loki knows, as she is present for the creation of every Power Princess. And she certainly isn't telling."
"Damn...and I thought I had problems..." Scott snorted, chugging another bottle of water, thinking of Loki's circumstances the whole way.
"So why me? Why did I happen to be the one to spot the Love Stone?" he asked, finally calming down.
"I'm sorry. I can't tell you how to find them. I myself only know because my power comes from one..." Zarda answered carefully.
"Hmmm...how many stones in total?"
"Six. The Love Stone, The Body Stone, The Knowledge Stone, The Lockdown Stone, The Phoenix Stone, and The Point Stone," Zarda answered.
"Annnd, with that, my capacity for weirdness is momentarily exceeded," Scott replied. But he was not afraid.
After all. If a being as mighty as Aphrodite could be struck down, then surely Essex would not prove so daunting a task in comparison.
"See you later, Zarda..." Scott said. He picked up his sunglasses, the one thing he had dropped in his defiance of Aphrodite's visage.
"Where are you going?" Zarda asked.
"Out. Need some air."
"Of course, Cyclops. Stay safe."
"Thank you Zarda," Scott replied, his face an impassive mask once more as he turned around and left the kitchen.
As he headed for the front door, he noticed Ororo, wearing her biker gear, stumbling around in the antechamber, red electricity arcing between her fingers as she clutched her skull.
"Did...did you feel, real weird, like, almost nausea, but not quite?" Ororo got out, her nervous system completely disrupted.
"No. How are you?" Scott asked.
"Like I've been hit with a baseball bat, but in my mind."
"Pretty bad, Listen, I'm heading out, you wanna come with me? If Akkaba attacks, there will be strength in numbers."
Ororo stared at Scott's stone like expression with her own forever electric red eyes.
"You're a cold bastard, aren't you?" she accused, her Kenyan accent creating interesting and memorable inflections in his ears.
"It's nothing personal, I promise," Scott assured, trying not to think about how pleasant sounding her voice was. "But we all grew up in that desert when we got attacked by freaks who can turn their arms into cannons and lived. If you can't handle what's going on, then it's time for you to split."
"Is that what you're doing?"
"No. I'm in this until Essex is captured or dead."
"Same here. Y'know Cyclops..." she staggered towards him, still scrambled despite being far away from the Aphrodite manifestation.
"You and me...we got a lot in common," she said, gesturing between her and him.
"As I suspected."
"Do you trust Loki?"
"I trust she has a reason for giving us this stuff, and that we are meant to use it. As for whether I trust her motives...well...she HAS saved the world at least four or five times all on her lonesome. But saving the world doesn't necessarily mean saving Mutants," he replied.
Ororo glowered.
"I'm not even certain we SHOULD be saved..." she admitted in a soft voice.
"Then hand Essex the knife and let her do the cutting..." he replied coldly. "Maybe some mutants really aren't meant to make it. Maybe some of us don't deserve the powers we were given. Maybe a good number of us SHOULD be depowered, for the good of the world. But that doesn't mean we have to do everything possible to prove all the maybes. If we can't get rid of this, then the least we can do is not be a willing monster."
Ororo stared at him.
"I like you," she admitted. "Munroe."
"Hmm?"
"Munroe. It's my last name."
"Summers." Scott replied, in spite of himself, and his earlier admonishment to her.
Ororo managed a smile, but the constant pain in her terrible red stare remained.
"Pretty name," she said.
"Thanks." he replied quietly.
The pair left for the front door...
Meanwhile, on the upper floor of the Manor, where Mystique had been admiring Hank's personal collection of paintings when Zarda had created the Aphrodite manifestation, was writhing on the floor, her crimson flesh bubbling as it struggled to process and metabolize the psionic energy that had hit it when Zarda had done so.
The Skull Implant on her forehead glowed as she writhed, until her flesh stopped bubbling and she rose up, panting. If she hadn't been wearing the Skull Implant on her bald, wrinkled forehead she might have been knocked out cold.
The Mummudrai searched her DNA looking for any changes and smiled as she found some.
She held out her hand and the Skull Implant was plucked off her forehead, and as it left the surface of her skin, her overall muscle mass decreased slightly. She looked at the golden implant as it floated in her palm and hair thin tendrils of her flesh snaked upward, merging with it on a molecular level, her now technology compatible cells improving its power output, and reworking some of its very mechanisms at the atomic level, making its eye sockets glow with faint golden light when she was done...as well as some of the enchantments from the Asgardian Magic in Zarda's Clay.
Mystique telekinetically floated the Implant back on to the middle of her forehead, and her muscle mass swelled to a level slightly more muscular than Zarda herself. The bottom of her heels grew red spikes, making it seem like she was wearing stilettos. Ever her facial features changed, with sharper cheek bones and a thicker chin and a wider jaw.
"Wunderkind! Now we are cooking with gas..." Mystique said slyly, the tissue still in the implant ever more merged with her molecular structure. She had Psyonically absorbed some small understanding of Asgardian Magic and decided now was the time to test it.
So she decided to do something out of curiosity and cast a searching spell. It was something she had been desiring to do since being completed...find the place where her son's remains were in the river in Germany he had been thrown into...and got the shock of her life as the spell casted manifested as map of Germany.
And the spot where it showed her son was NOT at the bottom of a river...but in Berlin.
"Mein Gott. He's alive..." she said in a whisper...
Her heart fluttered. How? How could he have survived all that rushing water?
It didn't matter. She was going to get him. This had gone from one final act of closure before pursuing Raven to a full-on rescue mission.
But she would need at least one person to go with her. Someone she could trust...someone who might be open to trying to help her reach Kurt emotionally.
Mystique teleported to Toad, who was playing basketball by himself, tossing the ball unerringly into the hoop with his tongue.
"Herr Toad, would you be interested in going to Germany with me?" Mystique asked.
Toad stopped as he heard the dreaded Mummudrai's German accent, staring at her.
"You look different. What happened."
"Ah, I thought it was a bit odd you were just playing! You must not have been close enough..." Mystique noted.
"Close enough to what."
"Don't worry about it. All you need to know is that I am new and improved..." Mystique replied.
"Uh, Ok...Yeah...sure..." Toad said nervously.
Mystique raised an eyebrow. "You are nervous. Why?"
"It's just that...well...you stick out like a sore thumb, Mystique. No offense. I mean, so do I, but at least at a long distance, I can pass. You? No way."
Mystique scoffed. "I am not ashamed of what I am or who I am. If someone stares, let them, I say."
Toad thought about it a moment.
"Your funeral. Alright. I'm game. So, where are we going?"
"The place in Germany that I remember the most..." Mystique trailed. "Donaueschingen..."
"Huh?"
"A town in the Black Forest..." she elaborated. "The source of the Danube River. From there, we cast the net out to pinpoint someone I am looking for...my son..."
Toad's eyes widened.
"Uh, Mystique...are you really sure that's a good idea? Just...showing up unannounced?" Toad asked as politely as he could. "I mean...if it's your son, and he's alive...he's gonna have a ton of perfectly reasonable questions to ask. Questions it's gonna be very, very hard for you to answer in a way that won't scare the hell out of him. And if you go telling him all that Mummudrai stuff you can forget about him trusting you. I mean, I saw, with my own eyes, you get created by an Avenger and I can barely bring myself to trust you."
Mystique rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
"You might have a point, Herr Toad. What would you recommend?"
"He needs an easy, palatable, digestible history, Mystique. But I can't decide what that is. Only you can."
"My...this might actually be more difficult than I thought...hmmm...and you say I would stick out like a sore thumb?"
"Pretty much. You might wanna start with, oh, I dunno, not looking like you stepped outta fire and brimstone hell..."
"Hmmm," she pondered, before shifting her whole flesh around to that of a bald but middle aged and hourglass figured woman with fair skin and green eyes in a dark blue dress. The Skull implant was still visible, however.
"Uh, Wrinkles?" Toad said, pointing to his own forehead.
Mystique felt the implant and muttered something in German out of embarrassment, closing her eyes, concentrating. The Skull Implant receded and vanished into her forehead. With additional concentration, she grew a large fluffy coif of blond hair.
"Is that better, Herr Toynbee?" she asked.
"Well, he won't run away. But you need a new history too, like I said. Cassandra Nova Darkholme will set off too many red flags if your old host catches on," Toad pointed out.
Mystique rubbed her chin.
"I got it! Emma Grace Frost!" Mystique said. "How's that for an Alias?"
"It'll pass...I hope..." Toad muttered. "Listen, if we're gonna go to Germany, let me get Loki's Tiara in case we need it..."
"Of course. And thank you, Mortimer...I really do appreciate your willingness to help an old woman find her son."
"I only wish MY mom had been so dedicated..." he trailed, hopping away. from her as he somersaulted into the mansion through and open window, landing daintily and heading upstairs to his guest room. No one was present except him in the passageways as he headed to his room...until he spotted golden haired Loki in her Tiara coming out of Scott's room, clutching her Tiara that she had given him months and months earlier from her perspective, and holding the shard tip of her spear from thirty thousand years into the future.
"Hello, Mortimer," she said sweetly to him.
"Q-Queen Loki-!"
Loki pressed a finger to his lips.
"Shh. No one can know I am here. Mortimer, I have a very special task for you. Will you please help me?" she asked politely.
"Uh...sure! What do you need?" he asked.
Loki smiled, handing him the Spear tip shard from the future.
"I need you to take this with you to Germany. Be sure to bring it back to me. More when you get there..." she said, handing him the Tiara he had come to get.
Toad nodded, took the spear shard tip and the Tiara of her past and hopped away.
"What a sweet boy." she remarked, vanishing into golden light...