Three days felt more like decades of unrelenting melancholy. Allie hadn't left her bed for the majority of those seventy-two hours. Only for bathroom breaks and to grab an apple or banana to snack on as she wallowed beneath the blankets. She had no plans to interrupt her streak on that day, however her mother sulked into her room with their phone pressed against her chest, testing the limits of the spiral cord attached to it.

"Allie," She said with a voice drained of any and all energy, "This kid won't stop asking for you. You can't keep ignoring him. Just tell him to stop calling us."

The girl sighed from her bed. Peter had called her every afternoon since Saturday. She felt bad because he clearly had no idea what was going on, but Allie wasn't in the mood to talk to anybody. Not since…-

The lines of text crossed behind her eyelids, which she shut tightly to keep the tears inside her skull.

"It is with deep regret that we inform you that your husband, Captain Frank Hughes Simmons, has been reported missing in action as of May 19, 1973."

She took a deep, deep breath, not wanting to cry in front of her mother, which would send the woman into a fit of sobs, no doubt. So she kept herself together and crawled out of bed with her weak legs carrying her to the doorway. She didn't look her mom in the eye as she reached for the phone, then waited for her to walk away until raising it to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Hey!" Peter's excited voice flooded the line with static, "Why have you been dodging me?" She thought of what to say for a moment, which made him grow suspicious, "Is something wrong?"

Her stomach churned. "Everything's okay. I just got some bad news a couple days ago… Haven't really been picking up the phone for anyone." He was the only person who'd called them at all in the last few days, but she used the white lie to settle his nerves, to make it seem like everyone was getting the cold shoulder.

"Is it anything serious?" He asked, voice devoid of his usual humors, "Like anything with the, ahem, the five sided shape."

"No. Nothing to do with that. Just some personal stuff."

"Oh," Was all he said for a little while, until, "If you're up for it, I could take you out for lunch or something to take your mind off of it. We can celebrate the start of summer vacation."

"My school let out last week," She informed him tiredly.

"Then it's a belated celebration for you," He countered.

As much as it pained her, she really was just not in the mood for any of that. "I'm sorry, Peter. I'm not trying to avoid you. I just am not up for it this week."

The line grew quiet. Then he calmly said, "Okay, it's no worry. I hope you feel better. Is there anything I can do for you?"

She smiled to herself. Given the emotional state that she was in, Allie felt her eyes well up at the innocence in his offer of comfort. For someone whom she deemed only to be an acquaintance, he was one of the nicest people she'd ever come across. Still, she didn't want to be a bother to him.

"That's alright," She said, sniffing, "Thank you anyway. I'm gonna go. I'm late to a date with my bed."

"Sounds like a good time," He joked lightheartedly. After this, the two bid each other goodbye, leaving Allie to plod over and hang the phone back in its spot on the living room wall.

Back to her bed she went.

Later that day, Allie had gradually moved from her bed to the living room, where she was curled up on the couch. Being alone with her thoughts was beginning to take a toll on her, because of course, as one would, she tried imagining what had happened to her father. The letter had given a vague explanation for her to work off of.

"Captain Simmons was serving in a medical team aiding in the rescue of prisoners of war when the unit came under hostile fire. During the engagement, all communications were lost, and all efforts to locate him in the immediate aftermath were unsuccessful."

The terrible images her mind conjured taunted her. Her father was a strong, smart man. He seemed so invincible to her. He was supposed to make it through everything. She couldn't imagine a timeline in which he succumbed to anything. But the truth is, no one lives forever. And no one is immune to the turmoils of war. It made her sick to her stomach.

The best case scenario, of course, was that he was found alive and returned to them. But if he wasn't… She only hoped that he met his fate quick and easy, not that he was taken prisoner and tortured somewhere, suffering immensely in his last moments on earth.

She felt helpless. No goodbyes. No more letters from him. It was hard to hold onto hope because the sour pit in her stomach felt so sure that he was gone, she wasn't exactly sure why. Perhaps it was just easier that way. Better to get used to the cold truth rather than bank on a lie.

Nevertheless, all of those dark thoughts kept pervading her head. So she took liberty in claiming the couch, turning on the television and raising its volume loud enough so that she couldn't hear her own harrowing thoughts. Her mother was off in her own bedroom, likely doing the same thing.

Flipping through the channels didn't offer much in the form of distraction. So many of them were covering news on the war, only furthering her depression. Allie kept turning the dial, trying to find something that would take her mind off of it all.

That's when she noticed an immediate shift in the content of each broadcast. Every single one now had a grainy piece of footage playing, which featured a blue woman as its main subject. Allie's brows dipped low as she dropped her hand from the dial, letting one of the channels remain on so she could see what all the fuss was. At first she was expecting it to be a major announcement for a new film, until she realized a news anchor was taking the stage to explain what she was looking at.

"Clark Regal here with your WRC-TV, Channel Four news. We have a breaking story brought to us from France this evening and many of us do not know what to make of this anomalous situation which occurred at the, excuse my French, Hôtel Raphael. Officials have not yet given a clear statement on the footage, however thousands are pleading for an answer on what was captured. We ask that our viewers take a seat, as this is shocking footage we have here. Let's take a look."

Allie pushed close to the television, really giving her all in evaluating the footage with an observant eye.

The first thing she saw was the apparent blue woman crash out of a second story window and plummet to the ground, landing face down on the pavement. The videographer was certainly startled by what they were capturing, as the footage became jerky and hard to watch following the initial shot. After that, all Allie could see was the top of people's heads from a large crowd, until the camera settled back on the scene which just barely caught the blue woman suddenly transforming into an entirely different person. Instead of the vibrant blue flesh and sleek red hair, she now had a normal, dark complexion with entirely new features that were unlike the ones she had possessed before.

For everyone else watching, it must've looked like a piece of fiction, something out of this universe. But for Allie, she knew it to be just another mutant.

Within the skin of her new form, the woman began limping away. But then came the entrance of another supposed mutant, who levitated down from the window she'd fallen from. As soon as his feet smoothly landed on the pavement, and then the camera zoomed in, Allie's breath hitched in her throat.

It was Erik.

She continued to watch in disbelief. He raised his arm, which sent the woman down to the ground as she fought against something unseen that pulled her toward him. In the midst of her being forced to his feet, she morphed back into the bizarre blue form from before.

It appeared that they were sharing a few words, the blue woman looking to be pleading for her life, when suddenly another figure crashed into the scene, tackling Erik ruthlessly. As the camera steadied, Allie couldn't believe her eyes. Like an enraged animal, a blue and beastly humanoid figure was brawling with Erik. He grabbed the man like he was just a speck of dust and flung them both over to a nearby fountain, where the blue beast began drowning the other man.

Given what she had learned about him before, Allie could only conclude that she was viewing none other than Hank in his full form.

Just then the footage cut off, and it was back to the new station, Clark Regal looking deeply disturbed by what thousands of DC residents had just witnessed.

"I, uh," He began with a loss for words, "I do hope that with this footage being widely viewed that we will get an explanation from our nation's leaders soon. We will continue to release updates on this situation as we receive them. I suppose we will now move on to Elena for the weather this week-"

Allie shut the television off, where she then saw her own reflection on the dark screen. Wide and terrified were the eyes looking back at her. Between the profound shock of witnessing the violence conducted by those who she'd just spent the last Saturday with, one startling fact was made abundantly clear.

The world now knew about them.