Tales of a Young Mutant

Tales of a Young Mutant: Senior Year 5

Disclaimers: This story, though probably not in all chapters, will definitely have celebrities in it. I don't know what they're sexualities are, and this is not meant to imply them, either. If you are not of legal age in your area, or are not interested in this type of literature, then GO AWAY!!

The X-Men, Spiderman, Blade, the Fantastic Four, Mutant X, and all associated characters are the property of Marvel Comics.

Batman and all related characters are the property of Dc Comics.

Charmed is owned by Warner Brothers.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and all related characters created by Joss Whedon. Copyright 20th Century Fox.

Hercules and Xena are owned by Renaissance Pictures, I think.

Email all comments to me at redrealityranger02@hotmail.com or jercolap@hotmail.com.

And please read the `brother' story to this one, Tales of an Immortal, chronicling Kevin Munroe's life. It's in the Sci-Fi Fantasy section of the archive. Here's the link: /nifty/gay/celebrity/tales-of-an-immortal/

Thanks, and on with the story:

Senior Year of a Young Mutant

Chapter 5: Family Reunion

The war room was a bit crowded, with my team, Generation X, and members of the senior team, Cyclops, my boyfriend Wolverine, Storm, Beast, Phoenix, Beast, Bishop, and Rogue, both crowded around the table. We were of course missing Nightcrawler, which was what the meeting was about. Xavier even called Havok and Iceman into the meeting from their ‘team detention’, as this was crucial to all of us.

“I still don’t understand why Mystique would want Nightcrawler,” Pietro said. “After all, if she were to kidnap any more of us, I’d think it would be either Josh or myself. If Magneto were planning to use anyone in his schemes, it would be either ‘the Fabled One’, or his own son, right?”

“I’m not sure at this point that Magnus is even involved in this,” the Professor said, “but I do think that this is a family matter.”

“What are you trying to say, Professor?” asked Rogue. I knew that she was Mystique’s adoptive daughter, so this would concern her more than the others.

“I’m saying Rogue that Kurt is Mystique’s son, and your adoptive brother.” At hearing this, there was a unified gasp from everyone assembled.

“How can this be?” Storm, my mother, asked.

“Mystique had lived many lives, Storm. One of those was as a noblewoman in Germany. She married a nobleman and had a child with him, Kurt, her second son.”

“Wait, how do you know all this?” asked Cyclops.

“Cerebro not only acts as a global mutant GPS, Scott, but also acts as a DNA analyzer. Upon detecting a mutant, it also analyzes their DNA and compares it against others, allowing us to show relationships with other known mutants. The first time I found Kurt, it also showed his lineage to Mystique.”

“Whoa...wait a minute, you said second son? Who was her first?” I asked.

“Her first born, Graydon, was from one of her off-and-on flings with Victor Creed, Sabretooth.”

“Hold on a sec, Graydon Creed? As in leader of the New York Friends of Humanity chapter?! Up for presidential election Graydon Creed?!” cried Kitty in surprise.

“The one and the same,” replied Logan. “Seems we don’t have much to choose from. Kelly hates mutants, Creed hates mutants. We’re screwed.”

“How can Creed run the F. O. H. and have mutant parents?” asked Bobby, changing the subject back. I was surprised that he was being so serious.

 “It’s highly likely that he was deserted, same as Mystique must have done to Kurt,” I replied. “His adoptive family was very likely anti-mutant, and when he discovered who his parents were, it made him even more distraught.”

“Precisely,” answered the Professor. “Graydon was turned into an adoption agency after Mystique paid a visit to the Morlock Callisto. Callisto’s ability to sense the X-gene did not trigger a response from the child at all, no trace of X-gene, so she and Sabretooth turned the child in to an adoption agency. From there, Graydon was sent from foster family to foster family, with the agency keeping his name in the records, and finally Graydon was adopted. As many adopted children do, though, Graydon became curious as to the identities of his parents.”

“And when he discovered who his real parents were, it made him hate himself and his real parents even more, thanks to the teachings of the afore-mentioned mutant-hating parents,” finished Havok.

“And I thought I was telepathic,” replied the Professor, nodding in the affirmative.

“So why kidnap Kurt? It doesn’t make any sense. If Creed’s out to destroy his family, why not let Kurt stay here, where it’s safer?” Storm asked..

“Because she doesn’t care about his safety!!!” shouted Rogue. “I know her! And I know what she plans to do!! Oh my god! Kurt’s in trouble, Professor!!”

“Calm down, Rogue, you can’t know that!” Jean said.

“I know her, Jean!! She’s probably made some sort of deal with Graydon! To leave the rest of us alone, she’ll offer up Kurt on a platter, after all she gave him the least care out of us all!! We gotta find him!”

“Wait Rogue!! We have no way of contacting him! His communicator has not been putting out any sort of signal, Mystique destroyed the tracer in his uniform, and I cannot find him telepathically, meaning that I cannot find his location!” Xavier cried.

“Hold on a second!! We already know we can’t find the Brotherhood, as they’re hideout is cloaked, right?” I asked.

“Joshua, this is not the time for simple restatements of the obvious,” Hank said.

“Hear me out,” I said as I began pacing, voicing my thoughts aloud. “We know that we can’t find the others, right? And we also know that Mystique is gonna do an exchange. And there’s no way in hell that she’ll do that from her hideout, right?”

“Yeah? What’s your point?” asked Rogue.

“Instead of trying to track and pinpoint the Brotherhood, we pinpoint Graydon. He’ll eventually lead us to where we need to go.”

“Wait a minute!! How do you suppose we find Graydon?” asked Cyclops. “Without any of the telepaths here having tapped into his mind before, we won’t know where to look!”

“Because we can set Cerebro to lock on to Graydon’s DNA signature. If Mystique’s just captured Kurt, knowing he’s been at Xavier’s as long as she has, then this plan of hers must be going down very soon. Therefore, she will be leaving her hideout soon, and so will Graydon. We may not be able to access Graydon’s mind, but we will be able to determine his location, or where he’s headed to.”

“What makes you so sure that Graydon will be anywhere near what goes down?” asked Cyclops.

“It makes psychological sense,” Jean replied for me. “Graydon will want to see personally in the torture and/or execution of Kurt. He also is likely to request that Mystique come alone, without any Brotherhood assistance, although he’ll bring back up.”

“Exactly. We need to find Graydon’s location and get there before something bad happens to Kurt.” I said, nodding to Jean.

“I will get to Cerebro at once!” Xavier said, his hoverchair moving toward the Cerebro chamber.

I nodded at Xavier as he left, then looked to the others and noticed that eveyone was staring at me, some in awe, my mother with a large smile on her face. “What?!” I finally said aloud.

“Impressive planning,” my mom replied. “I couldn’t even come up with that.”

“I agree!” said Beast, “Great job, Joshua! You’re excelling as a leader already!”

“Yeah, maybe some day he can take One-Eye’s job permanently,” quipped Bobby.

“Um, not looking to step on toes, and I really don’t think that’s gonna happen,” I replied.

“Damn straight,” said Scott, “but I think that the idea of you leading your own real team of X-men some day is really possible.”

“Hey! What do you mean real team?” Kitty demanded, crossing her arms at Cyclops.

“Adult team, then?” Scott said, rephrasing it. “You guys are a team, and you are doing well. After this guy whips you into shape, maybe all of you will become X-men under his leadership. Then you guys can get individual uniforms like the rest of us,” Scott replied, slapping me on the shoulder. And holding it just a little too long.

“Thanks, I guess,” I replied.

Logan noticed this, and I walked away from Scott, next to him, and Logan put his arm around me.

<You get so jealous sometimes,> I told him mentally.

<Not jealous. I just don’t trust everyone. Especially Scott. Something about him is off, his scent’s different lately.>

<You’re just being paranoid,> I replied. But inwardly I had noticed Scott acting different lately. I wondered what was going on.

<Yeah, whatever. But they’re right. Hell, I wouldn’t mind being lead by you every once in a while.>

Soon, Xavier returned. “Irony of ironies, Graydon Creed is in Genosha.”

“The ex-mutant slave camp?” asked Storm. I looked at her, as she tried to hide a visible shudder.

“Not any longer, I’m afraid. This is not good. Not good at all. Kurt may be in even more danger than I thought.”

“What’s up, Professor?” I asked.

“There have been rumors. Very disturbing rumors, that Magneto is actually organizing a group, a nation if you will, of mutants on Genosha.”

I kept noticing the visible shudders of my teammates. I had heard of Genosha from before I joined the team, before I ever even thought of being a mutant, but I never paid too much attention to news reports. I heard that it used to be a slave camp for mutants, but by seeing the reactions, especially from my mom, I understood that some of them had spent some undesired time there as well.

For the benefit of the younger members, Xavier expanded on what he said. “As most of us know, Genosha used to be a mutant slave camp until they captured Storm, Jubilee, and Gambit.” At the mention of his name, came a grunt from several of our gathered members, including Logan and Rogue. They still hadn’t gotten past Gambit’s history with the Marauders and their part in the massacre of the Morlocks.

Xavier continued, “The X-men made a rescue mission and retrieved our captured comrades, as well as freed the rest of the Genoshan slaves. It was our assumption that the mutants would simply leave the island, but a great number decided to stay, living on the part of the island that was away from humans. Humans, out of fear, either left the island or stayed to the already human-side of the island. But of late, it had been discovered that Magneto has been building a nation of mutants, where mutants will finally be able to live peaceably. And, while Creed will likely be meeting in the human sector, with Mystique’s off-and-on comraderie with Magnus, it may be possible that she won’t be alone.”

“So we’re going to have to stop anyone from either side from killing each other?” Rogue asked.

“Precisely. You with Scott’s team will be leaving in 15 minutes to Genosha to retrieve Nightcrawler and stop any other violence from occuring.” Professor X replied.

“But Professor, shouldn’t we go? Kurt is on the Gen X team, we should help!!” I asked.

“Josh, your team is not prepared yet,” he replied. “As I understand, you had to bench two team members for being too immature to ‘settle their differences like adults’?” At saying this, both Iceman and Havok looked to the floor, embarrassed at themselves.

“True...but I still have 4 other team members,” I argued. “And we all did well against the Brotherhood.”

“Understood, but Joshua, this is a more intense situation. I’m seriously not sure that you and your teammates are ready for this.”

“Actually Professor, they have demonstrated their ability to work together as a team. And all of them save Polaris have worked with the adult teams at one time or another.” Scott said, surprising most of the assembled X-team members, including me. “And Nightcrawler is on his team, making him his responsibility. I say at least give their team a shot.”

Xavier sat massaging his head, apparently trying to come to a decision, which finally he agreed. “Alright, you can go with them to the site. But I want it to be known that this is a very dangerous mission. Wolverine and Shadowcat, you will stay behind with Storm to help Psylocke, Angel, and Emma defend the school. I am also temporarily putting Iceman and Havok on duty to help patrol the school, though the two of them will be closely watched.” While saying this last part, Professor looked directly at Logan, who nodded in approval.

<Don’t kill them,> I warned him.

<No need. They’ll be on their best behavior. Or else,> he replied. I shuddered, thinking of the treatment that the two would get if they didn’t fall in line. Then again, both were scared of Logan anyway, so it didn’t matter.

Professor X continued giving out the assignments. “Cyclops, you will lead a team with Phoenix, Rogue, Bishop, Firebird, Polaris, Colossus, and Quicksilver. Your mission is the rescue of Nightcrawler and the prevention of death from either side. X-men and Gen X, good luck.”

“All right people, let’s move!” Scott shouted, and we all complied, hurrying to the hangar to board the Blackbird. Cyclops and Phoenix took their seats in the pilot and co-pilot chairs, while the rest of us filed in behind, me seated next to my father, Bishop, Quicksilver seated next to Polaris, Rogue next to Quicksilver. Everyone mentally prepared themselves for the mission.

As we neared the island nation, Phoenix used Cerebro to pinpoint the location of Graydon Creed, and found him at the airfield on the human side of the island. She also detected the DNA-signature of Nightcrawler and Mystique.

“Creed’s there. But so is Mystique and Nightcrawler. And....Oh God! Scott we need to get there now!!”

“What’s wrong?” Scott asked, but as we approached, it became apparent. Scott brought up a close up of the image on a monitor in the Blackbird

Two sentinels and a squad of about 100 men were on the ground circling a very frightened, collared Nightcrawler and a very pissed-looking Mystique.

“This is gonna suck,” voiced Jean.

************

Of course the plan was a bust, a trap, thought Mystique. She had done exactly as Graydon asked, brought Kurt here alone, and, as a precaution and part of a grander plan, she also sent a message to Magneto for help, which he had gladly obliged over the communicator. Only now, he was nowhere to be found after her eldest child had turned the deal sour, and trained guns–legacy virus guns-on she and her youngest child, who now could not teleport away.

“Like mother, like son, eh?” Kurt said mockingly at her. As much as she wanted to backhand the little brat, he had a point. This entire mess was her fault, and now she had to find a way out of it.

She didn’t have to wait long, as a by-now familiar looking force beam seared off the head of one of the sentinels, and a second force beam, which she knew to be an optic blast, seared off the head of the other. Mystique and everyone else fled, avoiding being crushed by useless sentinel bodies, and pulled Nightcrawler behind a fallen sentinel, now able to turn off his collar.

“Not so fast mutants!” shouted a soldier who had followed them behind their cover, aiming his legacy gun at Mystique.

“No!”Kurt shouted, teleporting behind the man, disarming by pulling the gun away with his tail. He then knocked him out by slamming his head against the fallen sentinel.

Mystique looked at Kurt in shock. Her elf-like son had no reason to save her. Kurt gave her one last look before teleporting away.

***********

“Josh!” Kurt said, almost surprising me when he appeared next to me. We were all behind a shield that Phoenix had erected to stop these crazy darts the men were shooting.

“Nightcrawler!” shouted in surprise. “Good to have you back!”

“Good to be back! We can’t let any of these darts hit us! They’re all full of Legacy Virus!”

“Figured as much. Josh, see if you can destroy those guns!” shouted Scott.

I nodded and concentrated with my telekinesis to raise the guns into the air. A little more concentration and the guns were shattered into useless pieces.

“Done,” I said. The men began to run in retreat.

“Fools! Ingrates! Get your asses back here!!” yelled a very angry Graydon Creed.

“Your troops are gone son. You’d might as well give up,” said Mystique, walking from behind her hiding place behind one of the fallen Sentinels, her white high heel boots clicking along the pavement.

“Don’t you ever call me that!” Graydon yelled, pulling some sort of laser weapon from a holster at his side. He aimed and fired at Mystique, who barely had time to dodge to the side, the blast leaving a small crater in the ground. She morphed into a bird and flew away.

“Firebird!” shouted Scott. I nodded and tried to grab the gun. Only–

“Son? What’s wrong?” asked Bishop.

“I can’t grab it! It’s like my telekinesis passes completely around it every time I try!” I shouted in frustration.

“I’ll take that then,” said Polaris, who tried grabbing the metal gun away from him. However, she grunted in frustration as well as her own magnetic powers had no effect either.

“Well, I see the government’s new toy works very proficiently. Introducing Vibranium, the one metal that cannot be affected by mutant powers. Not enough yet for mass production, but perfect for jobs like this.” Graydon said with a smirk. As he said this, he trained the gun on us. Jean erected a shield as Graydon fired another laser.

“Argh!” she shouted in pain as the laser blast grazed her shoulder, passing through her shield.

“Jean!” Scott shouted in concern.

“I’ll be fine. That gun will be the death of us if one of us doesn’t disarm him! It’s laser runs on a frequency that can avoid any mutant power!” Jean warned before she fell unconscious.

Our team scattered, with Scott getting Jean out of harms way, while Creed commenced blasting at us. Colossus morphed into his armored form and clasped his fists together, slamming them to the ground and knocking Creed flat on his back. Kurt teleported and as he stood back up, Nightcrawler appeared next to him, kicking the gun from his hand. Creed pulled out what appeared to be a night stick, but at the push of a button it began to crackled with electricity. Kurt ducked under the first swing, but was hit with the second and shocked violently.

“Nightcrawler!” shouted Cyclops, blasting at Creed, who blocked with the stick. Apparently it was made of Vibranium as well, because the optic blast bounced back and hit Cyclops, knocking him down and out.

“Damn you, Graydon!” shouted Rogue as she flew full speed at Graydon. Graydon pressed a button on the stick that caused it to blast electricity at Rogue and, even with her invulnerable skin, this blast knocked her on her back, it’s energy on the same frequency as the laser gun.

Suddenly, I had an idea, which I relayed to everyone involved, since Cyclops was out cold. <Colossus, pound the ground again. Quicksilver, if he drops the stick, pick it up. Then Polaris, you detain him with a magnetic field. Dad, if he tries to hit anyone with anything else, you get him with a stun blast, alright?> Everyone nodded.

Colossus slammed the ground again, forcing Graydon to fall. But this time, he held tight to the stick. Bishop aimed a stun blast at him while he was still incapacitated, hitting his hand, causing him to drop his weapon. Pietro picked it up and began to run back to us, but the stick’s frequency for short out mutants was still on, causing him to run at normal speed. This didn’t matter, because Polaris surrounded Creed in a magnetic field.

At this point, the other members of the team began to revive. “Good job, team,” said Scott. “Now to get this asshole back to where he–“

BLAM!!! Our team looked in complete shock to see Creed’s body, with a sizeable hole where chest and heart should have been. Polaris released her hold on him, and his lifeless body slumped to the ground, revealing Mystique holding Creed’s Vibranium mutant death ray in one hand, a legacy automatic weapon in the other, one that must have been dropped by a soldier when he saw me destroying the rest of them. The laser beam she had used of course to blast Creed, even through the magnetic field generated by Polairs. She now both trained on us.

“Mystique! Drop the weapon now!” warned Cyclops.

“Uh, let’s see...no?” she replied. We all became wary. Which was nothing compared to what happened next. The sentinels began to come to life again as the heads reconnected and melded themselves to the robot bodies. Then they aimed their wrist lasers at us. Mystique didn’t even flinch, though, and the reason why became obvious as a man, clothed in a purple, tight-fitting bodysuit walked–actually, no, he floated!– forward from behind the sentinels.

“Magneto,” growled Cyclops under his breath.

“Greetings X-men. I cannot tell you how pleased I am that you would assist my dear Mystique.”

“You’re late, by the way,” Mystique said, guns still aimed at us, not even looking behind her.

“Sorry my dear, was a little busy at home. Another attempted revolt from the humans,” Magnero replied.

“We didn’t come here for her. We came for Nightcrawler!” shouted Rogue.

“Yes, well in any case, I hope you’ve had a pleasant stay here, because it is now time for you and your team to go home. Leave my island at once.” replied Magneto.

Rogue began to advance forward, but Cyclops grabbed her shoulder, stopping her. “No, Rogue. We are greatly outnumbered here.”

“So we’re gonna just let them get away?” asked Rogue.

“Yes. Because we have no choice.” Scott replied as he began to walk back toward the Blackbird, the rest of us reluctantly following.

“Not all of you,” Magneto called. “I’d appreciate it if my son and daughter stayed behind.”

“I’m no daughter of yours!!” shouted Polaris, surprising all of us, as she also sent a blast of magnetic energy at Magneto, who easily blocked her field with his own.

“Well, remember, daddy’s here if you ever change your mind,” replied Magneto with a smug smile as we boarded the Blackbird.

The seating was almost the same as before, except this time I sat next to Nightcrawler at the back of the jet, apologizing for what happened.

“Joshua, please, it’s okay,” he replied.

“No it’s not. I put you in danger, telling you to get Polaris and take her to the car--”

“Josh, it comes with part of the job. Sometimes the mission doesn’t go as planned. But you guys came and you rescued me. And I’m alright,” he replied.

“Good. So–about Mystique? With all that she did...I saw what happened. Why did you save her?”

“Because we’re mutants, yes, and X-men, and some of us may not look it, but we’re still human as well. It was the human thing to do. The right thing to do,” he answered. “I hate it. Having her as a mother,” he said, turning to look out the window. “But I thank God that I wasn’t raised by her. Who knows what I would have ended up as.”

I nodded, thinking it over. I was happy with what he said, and grateful that at least none of my parents were evil...well, at least while they were raising me.

Then I thought of how hard things must have been for Polaris, and a thought struck me. If Magneto wanted her with him, then why was Polaris left behind when Kurt was taken? Shouldn’t Pyro have kidnapped them both? I began to wonder, as I saw Pietro talking to his ‘long-lost’ sister, just how trustworthy either of them really were, the children of Magneto.

The ride home was a silent one. So much to think about. Mystique killing her own son. Polaris being Magneto’s daughter. What slowly began to bother me even more so was the fact that Mystique escaped with mutant targeting weapons. What did she need those for?

*********

“They had no choice! With no psychic to help them, they had to escape as fast as possible!! Pyro was lucky enough to get Kurt without the cops catching him!”

“Oh I understand that, Raven,” said Magneto. “What I fail to understand is why they would take your son, Kurt, instead of Polaris rather than take my daughter first.”

“The deal would have gone sour without Kurt! You know that!!”

“No, what I know is that now as a result of the failures of your team, I have neither my daughter nor your son to show for it. But we will worry about that later.” Magneto was getting angry. He wanted his children back with him, the home, the nation that he was building for his family. His other daughter, Wanda, was running with the Avengers, stubborn as ever, not wishing to “become evil like her father”. None of his children understood the labors that he endured for them, the benefits of all mutantkind. He would protect mutants. No matter what the cost.

“Are you almost finished, Brainchild?” asked Magneto, averting his attention to his other minion, a man the height of a child, with a head the size of a grown man, with a rather large cranium. They were at Brainchild’s makeshift lab in Genosha, on the mutant side, where Magneto ruled the nation. It may have been acquired by ill-gotten gains, but the nation of Genosha thrived now. Mutants lived peaceably among each other. But no one new the plan that their ruler, Magneto, had in mind.

“I am finished. The legacy strain that our dear Mystique brought me was excellent to study–“

“Get to the point!” Magneto shouted impatiently. “Did you find an antidote?”

“Unfortunately, I haven’t come anywhere close to an antidote. But what I have found, I think you’ll find just as intriguing.”

Magneto looked over Brainchild’s shoulder at the screen, and his eyes widened at the readings. Mystique, seeing Magneto frozen, joined him next to the computer and stifled a small gasp, before asking, “You’re sure this is going to work?”

“One way to find out,” he replied, breaking into a fit of maniacal laugher.

Magneto’s lips curled into a maniacal grin, looking to Mystique, who sported a grin similar to his own_. Finally_, he thought to himself, a thought echoed in Mystique’s mind, finally they’ll get what’s coming to them.

************