Disclaimer!
I don't own anything of the X-men or of Marvel. I claim no money from this story and the only thing I own are my OC's/Original Characters.
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Issue #2: First Mission
2nd of March/2024
Salem Center/Xavier's school for Gifted Youngsters
"Damn, dude. It didn't take you long to start getting fit, huh?" Maxwell complimented while he sat in the cafeteria next to David and sitting with them was Roxanne, Bobby Drake, Benjamin Hammil. The group had become fast friends in their shared classes despite the small rivalry the various squads had quickly formed with one another to prove that they were the best.
Bobby belongs to Storm's squad known as Cyclone squad that consists of himself, Jean, Scott, Kitty, Rogue and Nezho Abidemi. The last addition was a teen from Wakanda which gave him some unwanted attention and questions about his home that wasn't exactly welcoming to guests.
Benjamin is from Wolfsbane squad known as the Paragons and Maxwell was a part of the Corsairs squad led by Professor Logan.
"I still don't understand how your head is literal flames, but they don't burn anything." Maxwell said bluntly to Benjamin who simply smirked with a shrug of his shoulders. His mutation was fire based and his head was literally always on fire and instead of normal skin, his skin glowed a dull orange color and he even lacked pupils in his eyes. Hell, he didn't even have any hair on any part of his body, apparently his mutation burned off all his hair according to him, but that didn't make it any less strange.
"I can control the temperature of my flames. It's like having an off and on switch in my head. It's a good thing I can just shut the flames to ice cold when I go to bed at night, otherwise I think I'd have been expelled by now." Benjamin replied while munching on his chicken sandwich.
"Enough about fire. Let's talk about something that matters. Like the fact that people are already breaking off into couples and stuff even though the school year has barely started." Bobby said after sipping his cola.
"I know right. We barely know each other, but people are still trying to hook up all the time. Human or mutant, some people just stay thirsty no matter what life throws at them." Roxanne said with a groan as she saw a couple kissing nearby and gave them the side-eye even though neither teen noticed her glare.
"As long as nobody is doing anything illegal or getting pregnant. I don't see the harm. People are going to want to date and hook up with people all the time. So, why is it weird for this place?" David asked while Maxwell quickly spoke up.
"Because this is a school where we learn to control our powers. We can't be distracted."
"That's rich coming from the guy who talks about girls at every chance he gets." David replied, causing Maxwell to blush a bit before he cleared his throat.
"That's different. Guy talk is just talk instead of actual action." Maxwell argued.
"If a girl asked you out right now, would you say no?" David asked with a raised eyebrow while Maxwell looked at the other people sitting at the table for help but found none and simply lowered his head without saying a word. "That's what I thought."
"David; don't bully Quill. He's too easy. Find someone new to mess with." Bobby replied making David chuckle.
"Max knows I'm just messing with him. Besides, it's not like any of us would say no to a relationship if we had the chance. I know I'd like to have a girlfriend or boyfriend right now, but only if I knew them and trusted them." David explained before Roxanne spoke again.
"That's the whole point dude. People are getting together with strangers. I know some people might know each other from the previous school year, but yesterday I saw two different couples formed by people who just met each other. It's like I'm back in middle school."
"Sounds like someone was a bullying victim." Benjamin said with a smirk before Roxanne gave him a mild glare.
"How about we change the subject again." David suggested. "How have you guys been doing in squad training? Gambit is a bit weird, but he's not a bad teacher when you get to know him."
"Ms. Munroe is crazy smart and doesn't even have a mutation that makes her super smart. It's like she knows how to specifically train us individually and unite us during our training." Bobby admitted.
"That sounds like Ms. Munroe alright. Gambit said that without Ms. Frost or the professor, she'd be the brains for the team." Roxane said before she finished her food.
"Professor Logan is a nightmare." Maxwell said with a shudder. "Seriously, you'd think he's rough during gym but in squad training he's ten times worse."
"…That's impossible." Benjamin said bluntly. "Training with Ms. Sinclair isn't too bad. It's mainly a lot of trust exercises and working out. She doesn't have us training with our powers yet."
"Each instructor had their own form of teaching it seems. It's still hard to believe that were actually being trained to be future X-men." David said whimsically.
"Well, believe it David. This is going to be our new life for a while." Bobby said and as quickly as it started, the lunch gathering had come to an end.
5th of March/2024
Salem Center
"Why are we here exactly?" Nick asked as Gambit had gathered the Chevaliers after school let out and had them all take the bus to the center of the city within Salem Center itself. More specifically they gathered at a large shopping mall and the group wasn't complete since Sidney had to stay behind.
"This is a little recon mission, yeah. We gonna ask around about a group called the Friends of Humanity. Small time bigots, but they stirin' up trouble." Gambit explained before David saw a new quest alert appear.
[Quest Alert!
Name: Enemies of Mutants
Recently rumors about a group known as 'Friends of Humanity' have come up and this group is known to hate mutants, harm them and even kill them. You need to learn if they are here in Salem Center.
Objective: Talk to people and get more information on these rumors.
Rewards: 1,100 XP
Failure: A lot of bad stuff goes down and possible deaths could ensue.
Do you accept this quest? Y/N?]
David didn't hesitate to accept the quest before speaking up.
"Who are the friends of humanity?" Roxanne asked with a hand on her hip as she glanced over at the other people in the mall walking past while a few gave them some confused stares.
"We think they're an offshoot of dem U-men folks. Ororo's squad is helpin' us with dis mission. So, load up." Remy said before reaching into his trench coat and took out several earpieces for the group to use.
David also thought it was a bit strange that despite everyone being in civilian clothes, Mr. LeBeau still wore his trench coat. David decided to ignore the thought and simply put in his earpiece before the group split off through the mall.
Gathering information proved to be a bit difficult for David since he asked multiple people what they knew of the group and only received the cold shoulder or people saying that they didn't know anything.
"Damn it. I'm getting nowhere." David groaned before he sat on a wooden bench near a videogame store to rest his legs. "If my powers were stronger, I could read minds and gather the information, but all I can do is lift small objects and talk to people like a humanoid cellphone." David whispered to himself as he watched various people go by before he started to notice some strange people walking around.
These people are wearing green tactical vests and berets with purple fist symbols on them along with having what looks like scientific equipment attached to the vests along with holsters on their waist and one such person just pulled out the energy-based pistol from his holster and pointed it at David.
…
"Oh, shit." David cursed in realization before he got shot with some kind of energy that put him on the ground.
"Psyker are you okay?" The voice of Roxanne asked over the earpiece communication device as they were using codenames during this mission, but David aka Psyker wasn't able to respond as one of the attackers roughly grabbed him and carried David over his shoulder without ever noticing the earpiece.
1
5th of March/2024
Unknown Location/Midnight
"Ow." David groaned as he opened his eyes and found that he is inside of what appeared to be a warehouse with his hands tied behind his back and with what feels like a metal collar around his neck and across the entire warehouse were various members of the Friend of Humanity.
"Your finally awake?" A familiar voice asked, making David turn his head and see that he wasn't alone in bondage and tied up with weird metal collars around their necks were Jean, Scott and Nick.
"How'd you guys get knocked out?" David asked in a whisper.
"The mall got hit hard by U-men forces. During the panic the three of us got hit hard by the Friend's of Humanity and their power dampening tech. These collars use a unique form of radiation that isolates the X-gene and temporarily renders it inert as long as the collars remain functioning. The weapons use the same tech but to a lesser degree and focus mainly on stunning or rendering mutants' unconscious." Scott explained before a few of the FOH members walked up to them.
"Looks whose finally awake. We were worried you were going to miss the show, mutie." The leader of the three-person group said with a scowl.
"You mean the show that has FBI attacking your place for kidnapping teenagers and attacking a mall?" David asked bluntly and with a glare of disgust, but the man simply chuckled.
"Look who thinks he's smart. We've made sure to cover our tracks, and the truth is that we aren't going to simply kill you. We're going to be harvesting your body parts for our employers." The man said before Nick spoke up.
"Your goons for the U-men? I thought bigots like you would happily work together and beat each other off." Nick replied and the FOH member on the left went to strike Nick but was stopped by the leader of the crew.
"You have no clue about our organization or our goals. People might not admit it or even like it, but the truth is that Humanity fears you muties. And the Friends of Humanity is the weapon humans will use to cleanse the earth of your filth. Because the truth is that Tolerance of you mutants will only breed extinction." The leader said before he turned around to leave.
"Before you supposedly kill us, could you at least give us the courtesy of knowing your name?" David asked while maintaining his glare.
"Call me Cabera. And remember that as the last name you'll ever here before you go to hell with the rest of your kind." Cabera explained before he walked away with his goons while David focused on taking note of everything he managed to gather from the conversation and his observations.
Cabera was nearly identical to the ideal racist that neo-nazi's love to fantasize about. Tall, athletic, fair skin with blue eyes and blonde hair and the only one in this warehouse that was wearing a full suit of tactical armor and on his back is some form of large and powerful rifle.
The rest of the people here were fairly average people of various diversities, which confused David since these seemingly normal people should understand that in a world without powers, this group would be the next generation of the KKK.
"Bastard." Nick cursed as he struggled against his bindings. David looked at them and saw that the teens weren't bound by rope but instead they were restrained by scientific cuffs which acted like the collars around their necks.
"This is bad." Scott said in a focused tone while he also seemed to scan the area.
"If we could just get out of these damned cuffs and collars, we could break out of here." Nick groaned in frustration before he stopped fighting against the restraints and lowered his head. "We can't die here like this."
[Quest Modified.]
David mentally dismissed the alert and breathed a sigh of relief that his gamer powers still seemed to be working, which means that he might have some way of getting out of this mess if he had enough time to think. However, with a few FOH members grabbing surgical tools, David was pressed for time.
'Think. How can I get out of this mess and rescue my teammates? What would a videogame protagonist do?' David mentally asked himself while thinking about what he could do before a wild thought crossed his mind about a game mechanic that he never used.
"Let's hope this works." David whispered to himself before he focused on trying to mentally summon his Inventory by his hands and thankfully, he summoned it but it appeared in front of him, so he couldn't unequip the cuffs, or at least that's what he thought before he saw a question appear in front of his Inventory screen.
[Would you like to unequip the 'Inhebitor Collar' and 'Inhebitor Cufflink's'? Y/N?]
With a mental yes as his answer, he felt his wrists lose the weight that had been placed on them along with the weight around his neck vanishing, which quickly shocked his fellow teens, but he quickly used his powers to speak with them.
"Don't say anything or grab any attention. I'm getting us out of here." David quickly announced via his telepathy before he stealthily reached over and pickpocketed the cuffs and collars from his friends. Which not only created the Pickpocket and Sneak skills, but helped level them up by one during the process and the X-men trainees were freed.
They all stood up and had the FOH eyes on them as soon as Cyclops lifted his sunglasses and fired his optic blasts at the FOH members moving various medical coolers and equipment for storing blood and organs.
"Shit! Take them down!" Cabera ordered before several FOH members charged the group with bats and other weapons.
Jean did her thing and managed to telekinetically destroy the mutant harming weapons some FOH members had as if she was a Jedi or Sith in Star-Wars that crushed a blaster.
Scott, Nick and David took to fighting the FOH members. Ultimately, Logan's self-defense training was already paying off since these FOH members didn't know how to fight properly and were outclasses as Scott, Nick and David fought back with trained punches, kicks and free usage of their powers.
"Anything you want to say to my face now?" David asked Cabera after punching a grunt in the jaw, which knocked him out, allowing David to turn to the group's leader who had a scowl on his face before raising his own hands for combat.
"Yes. Despite this little hiccup, you're not going anywhere. Except in a body bag." Cabera said before charging David with impressive speed as David dodged a straight jab before getting hit in the side with a round house kick from Cabera, which knocked David down to the floor before Cabera quickly pounced and started punching David repeatedly.
David took the punches to the face as best he could before he used all his strength to telekinetically push Cabera off him, which sadly did nothing more than shove back a foot or two, but it allowed David to get up and spit out some blood before he charged Cabera.
Sadly, the short amount of time David had learned self-defense wasn't nearly enough to prepare him to fight Cabera who had clearly been trained professionally as he had little trouble putting David down on the ground again, but this time with David's left arm restrained while Cabera was kneeling on David's back and pulling his arm back in a painful arch.
Cabera didn't blink or hesitate when he pulled back hard. David's shoulder let out a loud snapping noise and David cried out in agony.
"David!" Scott shouted as he wanted to help but was still dealing with a few still standing FOH members. Nick was in the same situation, but Jean wasn't as she kept people back with her telekinesis and throwing decently sized objects at her would be attackers.
After she heard David scream and mentally felt his pain, Jean nearly froze but forced herself to act as she, raised a hand and lifted Cabera off David before throwing him into the nearby wall with a heavy amount of force.
"You couldn't have done that a second ago?" Nick asked in frustration after knocking out another FOH member with a strong punch to the nose.
"I couldn't…All this hatred and misery." Jean struggled to speak before grabbing her head in pain. The negative emotions were so strong in this place that her knees buckled, and she fell to the floor, showing that it took everything she had to remain standing and provide as much support as she possibly could.
"Jean don't force yourself. Just rest, we'll handle everything else." Scott quickly said after rushing to Jean's side with concern clear in his voice.
"You muties, haven't beaten me yet." Cabera said in anger as he stood up as if nothing had just happened before he finally drew his rifle but instead of pointing it at the teens, he pointed it upwards and fired a bolt of purple energy from the rifle that blasted a hole in the roof and helped rock the ceilings foundation, which started making parts of the roof fall onto the ground. "Friends of Humanity will never bow down to mutants. We'll be back and next time, you won't get so lucky."
Cabera warned before he was suddenly teleported away via a large beam of light hitting him from above, where he blasted a hole in the roof. Jean tried her best to keep the roof from falling in while Nick and Scott ran over to quickly help David up as the group made their way to the nearest exit.
Jean's powers gave out under the stress she was under, and the roof fell through just as soon as the group exited the warehouse. They were all knocked forwards and down onto the ground as the warehouse fell apart with a loud boom as walls and roof collapsing generated a small shockwave.
"What about the other people?" David asked weakly as he tried to get up. "We can't just leave them to die in there." David said but sadly he could no longer feel any emotions coming from any of the FOH members that were left in the warehouse as it collapsed.
"Can anyone hear me?" Ms. Munroe asked over the still working earpieces that the teens were wearing.
"We read you Storm. Were at the pier and Psyker is injured. We need an extraction." Scott replied while the teens dusted themselves off despite the bruises they had and the damage they sustained during this interaction with the FOH.
"We've got your location now. Were on our way." Ms. Munroe announced, and it took roughly forty minutes before Logan pulled up in his jeep to pick up the teens.
When they returned to the school, they were looked over by Beast and the schools nurse while also explaining everything that has transpired during their capture and how they managed to escape.
No lies were told as Scott, Jean and Nick informed Emma and Charles that their escape was thanks to David, which unfortunately meant that he needed to answer some tough questions since mutations don't work while a mutant is suffering from anti-mutation technology. David didn't have to answer the questions right away however, since he was in the middle of mild surgery for his injured shoulder.
No complications and thankfully it wasn't broken like the teens feared. It was a dislocation of the shoulder joint and a moderately sized fracture along the scapula. Painful for sure, but it was fixable.
As soon as his injury was treated, David was sent to his room and allowed to rest for the rest of the night before having to speak with Emma and Charles in the morning. It wasn't ideal, but David was just thankful to still be alive, and if that meant telling the truth about his Gamer powers, he didn't care.
[Quest Completed!
Name: Enemies of Mutants
You have been abducted by the Friends of Humanity while asking for general information about them and now you must survive and get yourself and your fellow X-men rookies to safety.
Objective 1: Talk to people and get more information on these rumors.
Objective 2: Escape your bondage.
Objective 3: Survive long enough to escape.
Hidden Objective: Defeat Cabera [Failed!]
Rewards: 1,100 XP]
[You have leveled up! Level: 3-4! You have gained 1 Perk Point and now you are able to select which perk you want to unlock.]
Once again, David ignored the game screen alert as he laid down in his bed and focused solely on falling asleep.
2
Unknown Location!
"So, the pawns have been eliminated it seems." A man said as he sat inside of an elegant looking office with his back turned to Cabera who stood across the desk while the man simply looked on at the view of Salem from the skyscraper office room, he was stationed at outside of the city itself.
"Casualties of war are to be expected, but failures of our technology shouldn't have happened senator. You promised the tech was foolproof, yet a mutant teen managed to break out of the restraints and free his friends." Cabera replied sharply while the man turned around and showed that he is none other than Senator Peter Krane.
"That should be impossible. The technology is specifically developed to prevent the X-gene's abilities to generate or use powers. Perhaps I should speak with my tech team about this little error." Krane said in a calm tone.
"We also failed to get any blood or DNA samples from the mutants."
"That is a shame. They could have helped us with the cloning process. Installing mutant DNA during the cloning process will prevent failures from occurring. Simple organ transplants have proven to be unreliable with the subjects." Krane explained before sitting down in his leather chair.
"Sooner or later, people are going to learn the truth behind our connection to the U-men and what we are doing." Cabera said while Krane chuckled.
"I've avoided disaster after disaster with the feds and I can assure you that we aren't in any danger. Simply do as your told, and everything will be fine. Now, our first mission is to spin this little problem into a beneficial news story to help make people sympathetic to the cause." Krane explained with a dark smile on his face.
END!
A/N: A bit short but whatever. David got wrecked, but this isn't an anime where you get powered up by fighting with your friends, so sadly this wasn't a match that our hero could win. Also, what does Senator Krane plan to do, and what is the truth behind the U-men and Friends of Humanity? Stay tuned to find out.
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