Chain 215: X-Men Evolution

Chain 215: X-Men Evolution

Location: Bayville
Age: 18
Identity: Drop-In
Drawbacks: [+1200] The Unstoppable, Hunted: Hydra, Cellular Breakdown

[Free]      Blending In
[600/2000]  Power Surge
[600/2400]  Mutation Stipend (+400)
[1600/2400] Super Speed
[2000/2400] Duplication
[2300/2400] Gem of Cyttorak
[2400/2400] Let's Work Together: Demona and the Conspiracy

Ah, another interesting universe. Keeping my head down early on will be a useful thing, while Demona goes out into the world to distract the major players, and the Conspiracy does what they do best - infiltrate various organizations for various purposes. As for me? I'm just going to put on a different face and infiltrate a high school in order to further my ferocious, terrifying plans of overthrowing the establishment. Starting with study hall, and continuing all the way through the lunch hour.

This puts me in the thick of things for hilarity's sake, though it also means I can arrange certain after-school curricula to help students with unusual problems, on condition of them signing a confidentiality waiver; after all, others on the football team doesn't need to know what players are having problems in math or geography, and so on. And a little bit of contract magic makes them reluctant to share that information, which worked well when setting up a persona as the "tough but fair" teacher where my classroom was always neutral ground. And I always had a habit of being in the right place at the right time to break up fights within the school or on the grounds, which worked well with maintaining such a reputation.

I gave students the individual attention they needed, and helped explain concepts they aren't familiar with. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, one set of students were given two hours of tutoring in various mundane school subjects - while it was self-study, I made sure the students knew they could call on me for help. And for one hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and four hours on Saturdays (I tended to provide pizza and other lunches), another set of students were given tutoring as well. Some of them did indeed need help with school topics, but I was more than happy to help them with more esoteric problems. A couple of students expressed interest in magic, and not just being kids pretending to be Wiccans. Others had different sorts of unusual abilities.

The confidentiality agreement encompassed all of them, and so they seldom spoke of it outside of the class where anyone else could overhear, but I helped them all with their various needs. The popular kids, the outcasts, and everyone in between. The preppie kid, Scott, who had eye lasers from the punch dimension? He was recommended for advanced math class, because being able to focus them and bounce them off various surfaces could always end up being useful. The greasy frog kid, Todd? ...Well, you can bring a horse to water, but you can't force him to clean up and wear deodorant, even if you can convince him of the value of hygiene. At least I got him to shower more often, even if he refused to use soap, thanks to what he learned of biology. The kid who was caught hacking his grades, Lance? He got extra credit for geology, and learned how to use his earthbending in interesting ways, like detecting footsteps or the difference between various minerals in the earth, or putting up stone structures and putting things back in place. I often found myself on cleanup duty with that, as I did for most students.

The goth girl, Rogue? Toward the end of the school year, she accidentally-on-purpose bumped into me as she thought I was up to something with my tutoring that no one could bring themselves to talk about (and that Xavier couldn't read minds to discover). She kind of spazzed out for a minute, and ... well, I was more vigilant about keeping power negation on after I took her to the nurse's office (the nurse in question being a member of the Conspiracy). Once things calmed down, we got Principal Darkholme involved; Rogue, the nurse, the principal, and I all went to the Xavier Institute to put our cards on the table. Including my commenting that if the principal wished to wear a more comfortable face, I doubted Xavier would object, as he already knew. Mystique was perhaps less than thrilled that I blatantly exposed her, but she complied, and we all talked.

There was a great deal that came out as a result in our dialogue. Sure, Rogue had superpowers, and had a brief touch of my memory and power before I took them back. Mutants are a thing, of course - this is no surprise, considering everything. You could find evidence they fought in major past wars. Even in antiquity, some pretended to be gods, others were arguably mythical heroes. Mutants weren't the only thing on this Earth - after all, a couple of the students were being taught magic. Me? I knew the truth of all things, I told them. I saw Xavier and Mystique squirm at that, and I chuckled quietly before explaining that I was as far beyond mutants as they were beyond mundane humans, but the world was evolving and humanity along with it, so I was here to help where it mattered. Not just here, but in many places.

In some of these places, SHIELD was looking over my shoulder trying to find any excuse to detain me, owing to my activities. Occasionally they didn't bother with excuses at all, though overt action resulted in lawyers and (on one notable occasion) a senator calling and forcing my release. In others, I was rooting out corruption, fighting Hydra, as I played a cat-and-mouse game with them; they attempted to expose and hunt my various identities, while I did the same to their agents. In still others, I acted as a teacher or gave safe haven to those who needed it, much the same as they did in Bayville.

When I pointed out to Xavier and Mystique the existence of a major international conspiracy to make the acceptance of mutants more palatable to the general public, they were both boggled, though it explained a few blurbs in news articles over the last several months. Sure, there were threats to evolved humans, but there were also those who were on their side. (I politely left out my own involvement in orchestrating the Conspiracy's actions.)  And all of that said... we departed for the night as I politely declined involvement in Xavier's own little club, telling him that I already had a cause to champion, that cause being a united humanity.

Of course this all happened almost immediately before a number of mutants were kidnapped and taken to an asteroid in orbit, and in all of the confusion... I got yanked along for an adventure as well, and somehow almost no one noticed until I was already on the asteroid. Turns out that Magneto really doesn't like it when people compare him to Hitler and bring up legitimate parallels. He also doesn't like it when people steal the gem of Cyttorak that he was using to empower them, either. He REALLY doesn't like it when people tag along with him when an asteroid breaks down.

He starts liking it more when they give spoilers as to what's going on and how to deal with it as well as making mutants more accepted by normal people. Good intentions, poor execution thanks to limited resources and allies, and that was now a past problem instead of a present one.

From there... I now counted Magneto as a willing ally, and some time was spent with his aid in repairing my degrading body before we worked on other projects. Empowering mutants? Sure, that sounds reasonable, as long as it doesn't make them decay, but why would you create separate classes in mutants above and beyond what's already separating them from humans? Heck, for that matter, why not make all of humanity into mutants and call it a day? ...There's no call to say they don't deserve it, after all, it's an innate mutation. Could be fun. And while you're at it, go be a better dad to your kids since you don't have to do everything all the time, why don't you, Erik?

Sentinels? Feh. I've got Pantheon drones that can put them to shame (and did). Mutants a known thing? Suddenly there's verifiable evidence showing mutants in certain places as far back as the civil war available to the public.

Apocalypse? Sure, he briefly was a threat, when he tried to enslave Xavier, Erik, Ororo, and Raven. Briefly.

And then the Conspiracy shut down all of his technology and fixed his mind-whammy on the would-be horsemen.

And then Demona and I stole his ship.

And then Rogue borrowed my powers and punched him into the sun.

Fuck that guy.

If only getting rid of the goddamn Juggernaut was as easy...