Charles Xavier–
He, Hank, Logan, and Ororo all sat in his office, watching the live feed from the visitor building they recently built, which was built to host any government officials or any other diplomatic members they might get in the future. He had hope that it would be used to amend Eric's current status as a terrorist, for starters, but he never thought he would have to use it for a newfound mutant.
A mutant that does not act like a new mutant. He acts confident, cocky, self-assured, actually not self assured but assured in something.
"I don't like her," Logan spoke up for the first time since they had all gathered here, after he instructed Scott to give them a tour and then escort them to the new and more importantly, empty building that they could use to isolate them from the students in case a fight broke out.
After Hank gave him a look, Logan grunted and explained his reasoning, "She smells dangerous. I don't think anyone here, save for maybe Chuck, can take her." That was not enough for Hank, but they accepted the explanation nonetheless, knowing that getting anything more from Logan was impossible.
He nodded thoughtfully as well. Though Logan was thinking less of himself and Ororo. Even a split second opportunity was enough for both of them to do some massive damage to most mutants. Though, he did agree with Logan's assessment here. The woman was the one who had concerned him the most of those two.
She was the main reason why he was still hesitant about housing both of them in the school. He didn't think that Mike himself realised just how big a target he had painted on himself when he revealed his powers to them. Futures predicting the future, even with little accuracy, were either coveted or hunted down for nothing was scarier than knowing the future and having the ability to affect said future.
After all, how would you know if your current actions were actually yours or something premeditated by someone with precognitive powers, who aligned the dominos just right so that they fell in the exact pattern they wanted them to? It was sobering, and yet, he was a little more informed than the average person, so he knew that powers that acted on such absolutes and affected the world at large were practically impossible to exist.
No power, no matter how strong, would even compare to the sheer energy needed to calculate something like that at scale. It would leave even Logan dead, as all that energy has to come from somewhere.
Now, if someone had literal infinite energy to do that and were attuned to the concept of time, they could maybe pull that off, but even then, he believed that nothing was fixed, that Fate was something that they made of themselves and not something that was pre written. So, a precognitive power was dangerous in the wrong hands, yes, but not to the point that most people will paint them as.
"I agree that loser observation is necessary. At least until you can dig deeper into Trask Industries." Hank agreed as the holo screens in front of them showed a veritable black hole of information when it came to Bolivar Trask. On paper, they were a defense contractor that provided parts for other robots and did some biological research.
But he knew how the government worked, and he knew for certain that all of that was a smokescreen, to deflect any undue attention on a company that had invested over 10$ Billion Dollars into a single line research item, with their Pentagon's contact being just over 12$ dollars, with no other discernible source of revenue and all of this was just information that was readily available.
It was possible that this was yet another of the US government's research projects that did not lead anywhere important, but it could also be as Mike predicted it to be. After all, Billions of dollars was a lot of money, and it could legitimately be used for anti mutant weapons. He knew that the military was working on them, but he thought, no, hoped that they were just figuring out mutant suppressors, energy disruptors, and long term stasis chambers, not a mutant hunting weapon.
He sighed, hoping that he was right, and gave the order to Scott to lead them to the building behind them. The tour was mostly done anyway, and since they were not going to be shown the main dorms and the classrooms, it was better for Scott to take them straight to their accommodations.
They all traded amused looks when Mike began inspecting the room, likely for bugs, but that amused looks were wiped off their faces as Logan stood straighter from his leaning position, as Mike took something out of his pocket and jabbed it towards the bathroom door. A large white portal opened up in front of them as Mike and his companion just jumped through, the portal closing up behind them, leaving behind the ordinary bathroom door.
His last words echoed in his office as Hank replayed the video along with the data he must have received from the host of sensors that monitored everything that happened inside the school property. "Don't worry, I'll be back soon. In this exact place."
He looked at the paused video, of the white portal appearing in place of the bathroom door, after Mike had used what appeared to be a key.
"So, the kid's got strange powers, then," Logan said, actively fighting the urge to go to their room to track them down, stopping only because of his orders.
He shook his head at that, "I don't think that's a power, Logan. I believe Mike there used an item, something that allows him to open that portal. Technology….or something else."
Logan snorted at his statement, Hant too busy diving into his sensor data to refute his claim, "You think this is Voodoo magic?"
"No," He then zoomed to the key, the ornate gold shining, "But I believe this is something none of us has encountered before."
___xx___
Pocket Beach Dimension
–Mike–
His eyes snapped open, the familiar shade of the tarp greeting him as he grunted and got up, stretching to get the kinks out of his body. Despite all these abilities, he was yet to get something that would help him overcome the decidedly mortal limitations of his current body. For Pete's sake, he could now cover his skin in tone and become partially bulletproof, but still had to deal with the consequences that came with sleeping slightly wrong.
He got out of the small shelter they'd built for him and Alcina, to see the two Deathclaws eating raw fish that Gama poured into a pile. Gama then began shoving the same fish inside himself as well. He felt the Cottonmouth somewhere on the small island slithering, but no sign of Alcina, though that was not unusual, as she went somewhere away from them to enjoy her unlimited human blood drink.
Just as he was about to head inside to eat some of the cookies they had stored, he paused, feeling a ticket incoming.
For delaying Trask's Sentinel Program by proxy(Magneto destroying a shared government research base), Gold Ticket, Silver Ticket X1
He sighed, his palm meeting his face as he realised what had happened outside. It had barely been three hours since he came here, and maybe an hour spent travelling. Somehow, in that small time period, Magneto did not just track down a research base that had something to do with the Sentinel Program, but also destroyed it in a way that delayed the Sentinel Program, which was good.
But this method of destruction was not going to get the government to mothball the project. In fact, actions like these were only going to stoke the flames inside the government, to show even more people who were until now on the fence, about the so-called Mutant Menace.
After all, most people, even the ones in power, will never know what was happening inside the base. Most likely, Magneto found some mutants in bad shape inside the base and snapped, destroying the entire base out of anger.
After all, his flawed decision making and inability to look at the bigger picture aside, the man was a legitimately terrifying foe to even consider fighting, especially in the modern world, where everything could be used as a weapon by him.
All of this without taking into account the heights he could reach if he reached his full potential. He shuddered just thinking of the damage Magneto could do if he ever reached the level comic book Magneto reached, to the point that affecting Earth's magnetic poles, flinging coins as railguns, and full spectrum EM wave manipulation was possible by just one man.
Shaking his head, he wondered what he could do to rein in some of the sheer stupidity both the factions displayed because he'd realised that he was now firmly in the mutant category, placed there by SHIELD and the government after seeing his abilities, irrespective of him being a mutant or not.
And he would love not to be hunted down by the government in the foreseeable future. And no, hunkering down in this dimension was not an option. He was given this opportunity, and he was going to make the best of it. He hadn't even covered all the US states, let alone all the countries on the planet and under the water, not to mention the rest of the galaxy and then the wider universe.
Safe to say, he had plans to satisfy his wanderlust, and entering the hunt down on sight category was not going to be the way to do it. For that purpose, he had to do something he absolutely hated doing.
Work towards something that is hard to achieve.
Ugh. Rolling the Silver Ticket he got, he hoped for it to be something good, to offset the upsetting actions that Magneto took and was sure to take in the future, not unless someone or something reigned in the traumatised man within the scary Leader of an entire faction of mutants.
[Doppelganger]
|Rare Ability|
Allows you to produce a seamless doppelganger of yourself that you can control with your thoughts, but does not possess any of your abilities, the amount of Doppelgangers you can have is equal to your ability slot count.
TING! For having 10 abilities, you have unlocked the third ability slot.
He smiled at that. A nice ability, on top of a third slow, and one that increased with the number of ability slots he had. Immediately slotting in Doppelganger into the third slot, he smirked as he realised how it worked. Very useful, especially now that he had decided to meddle in the mutant affairs. Getting ready to head out, he called out for Alcina, knowing she heard him and went back into the tarp, to get a change of clothes. Might as well bathe, change clothes, and then go out to meet Charles. After all, the next couple of hours he will be spending in that place are going to be more or less an interrogation. Might as well dress nice for that.
Picking up the nice three piece suit that he had saved for a special occasion, he smiled, looked at himself in the mirror, and decided that he looked too good in it. He supposed that even without a trait or ability enhancing his physique, he was fine looking. Being in his 20s and being fairly active should do that.
__xx__
You know, he never understood how people could spend not just ours but their entire workday, trapped in these suits, and not just sit in one place and work on their computers, no, they walked around in this atrocity of a clothing piece. Maybe his was just not fitted properly and/or was cheap?
Shaking his head, he immediately changed and got out of the tarp camp, seeing Alcina standing there with a murderous expression on her face. Immediately raising his arms in surrender, he apologised, "I am sorry for the delay. We can go now."
After double checking everything and reinforcing his orders on not breeding with the Deathclaws, he opened the portal and had Alcina go through before he went ahead. If he had any male ego, it would have grated on it to send a woman ahead for his safety, but since he was pragmatic, he just shrugged that off and moved ahead to an empty room.
Huh, he half expected Logan, with his claws half out, just leaning on the wall to "invite" them to Charles' office, but unexpectedly, nothing. It was almost evening now, and he was getting a little hungry as well but he expected to go through an epic back and forth with Charles before it could be decided whether he got the food at the school or not.
Pressing the button Scott showed him earlier, he sat on the bed, Alcina sitting on the chair nearby, as he kept his senses peeled and, to his confusion, felt no energy signature nearby. In the short amount of time he had the sensory trait and his short exposure to mutants told him that all mutants have a certain energy signature, big or small, it does not matter.
Even Logan, with his mutation being entirely physical had some energy signature, as all that energy spent for regenerating entirely new organs had to come from somewhere. It was his theory that all mutants had was a gene that allowed them to use energy from some other source.
The source of the mutation was the gene that acted as the gateway to the source of an energy that did most of the heavy lifting when it came to the abilities themselves. He likened mutants to a one trick pony Sorcerers. Where Sorcerers from Kamar Taj could use multiple energy sources from multiple dimensions, mutants with their mutant genes could only access one of them at a time.
Ofcourse, there were outliers in every situation. Mutants with reality warping powers, mutants being avatars of extra dimensional entities, like Jean Grey, or mutants whose mutation was to either rob or copy other powers, granting them the energy connection. He had–
His neck snapped to the side as he felt it. That source of lasers headed their way. Scott Summers.
As expected, after a minute, someone knocked on their door as he shouted, "It's open."
Scott's head peeked into the room, "Hi! Dinner will begin in an hour. Any dietary restrictions?"
Huh, who would've thought it would be something so mundane?
"No. No allergies here."
Scott nodded, "Alright. Once you're ready, just come to the main building's cafeteria, you can't miss it."
"Thank you."
___xx__
It happened as they were eating food. Seated with no one but Alcina, he ate the food, kind of sceptical to eat it because no one else was eating it, but even if something were to happen to this doppelganger, nothing would happen to him. The real him, stored away safely inside the Pocket Beach Dimension.
It was odd at first, but apparently, getting a trait early on that changed some part of his brain also allowed him to get used to the secondary senses with ease as well. If he tried to replicate himself three times, then he might be in trouble but for a single clone? He was fine, with his senses working at optimal levels, which he realised was not the best thing in the world.
He felt hungry as he all but drooled at the food his doppelganger was eating with gusto, but due to safety reasons, he did not want to go out right now. Who knows what some variant of Charles Xavier might do, when armed with his X-Men and in an environment he controlled?
He was ninety percent sure that he was safe, but you never know.
And what do you know, he was proven right.
It began as a slight tremor at first, a subtle sensation that had Alcina pause her eating and look outside, straight towards the building that housed the rest of the students.
He was about to ask her what was wrong, only for alarms to start ringing all around the property. Exchanging looks with Alcina, he instructed her, "Make sure to save any children first. Prioritise them." Damn, even if just traits were available to this clone, it would have been awesome as he would have been able to sense the people coming towards them.
Alcina nodded, getting the instructions as they ran towards the main building. He had no abilities whatsoever when he was in his doppelganger mode, and while the cost of maintaining one was negligible, the cost of keeping all three active at the same time was definitely noticeable. He did not want that drain on his body while he had to move about if someone had attacked the school, which was looking more and more likely as the students ran in droves behind them as they ran towards the entrance.
Within seconds, the area was void of students, most likely headed to the bunkers. The process was likely seamless because of how often this happened here. He noted the X-Men standing in line, looking straight ahead with Charles absent, which made sense since the old man was most useful hooked up to the Cerebro.
The area around the school was mostly dense trees, with a path cleared through them for the entrance to the school. Right now, he could see trees in the distance being felled, likely because something was barrelling straight through them.
Who was it that was attacking?
Friends of Humanity?
Sublime?
US Military?
AIM?
HYDRA?
He had no answer, which is why he was back in his pocket dimension, coiled and ready to jump out at a moment's notice, because this was his opportunity to gain some trust in a high stakes scenario and get those sweet, sweet energy abilities.
But before he could jump in, he needed to know more about the situation. He didn't want to risk himself, reveal his new cloning ability, only for the X-Men to easily defeat the threat. The threat had to be real, for them to trust him and his ability.
Naturally, this would also elevate his threat rating, but at this point, he did not care. Getting more and more abilities and jumping into more and more danger was the point, so he kept his eyes peeled, both his and the doppelganger's, quite easily getting used to the dual sensory inputs he was getting right now.
The experience from the Sensory trait was coming in clutch right now.
Word Count - 3180