With Hickman rebooting the X-men, I started wondering how I’d kickstart the X-men, without creating another universe or anything ridiculous like that, just launching a new era of X stories. I’ll post the first two. If people like them I’ll post more. Originally posted in May on School for the Gifted Podcast Facebook page.
The sky above the juvenile detention center known simply as “The Yard” was filled with the presence of a large ship. It was a vessel the size of a house, with engines roaring as if they were trying and failing to push it up into orbit. An assortment of machine guns and laser turrets fired up from “The Yard”, blasts easily being absorbed into the force field wrapped around the ship. The Yard was a juvenile detention center for youth who had been identified with mutant powers, and thus had a unique collection of security features. Despite this, they called in for backup. All the kids were being brought into cells, the building was beginning its lockdown procedure. Above, in the ship, the career criminal Nanny was eager to create a jail break.
Unknown to her, a portal opened inside of her ship. It was a swirl hanging mid-air, steam slowly rising from it. The Blonde Russian warrior covered in mystic armor was Illyana Rasputin, code named Magik. Erupting from the portal Magik pulled forth her Soulsword and brought the massive weapon down on the engines inside the ship, sending it crashing down from the sky. She slipped into another portal, easily escaping.
By the time she fell back into her portal, Jean Grey, one of the most powerful psychics on Earth and the leader of the X-men used her telekinesis to push the ship’s fall into the parking lot rather than into “The Yard” itself. She was certain that there might be a lot of resurfacing for them to do later, but no one would get hurt in the process. She had been on some form of the X-men since before she could drive, and now she was the leader of one of the most powerful groups of superheroes on the planet.
As the ship crashed to the ground, her team pounced on the vessel. Nanny was a mutant like Jean, but her powers were much weaker. She was a telepath who could make you pliable to her will if you were weak willed. She tended to use her powers on children, attempting to create a child army that she would raise in a “safe environment” away from others. A place like “The Yard” would be a gold mine for her.
The hatch of her vessel blew open, revealing the blue armor of the one child she had managed to hang onto in all her years of fighting. Contained, like Nanny was, in a powerful cybernetic suit of armor, he had taken the name Orphan maker, and was often the warrior that let Nanny enact her plots. The suit kept him from aging, and Nanny kept her boy in a perpetual state of youth, fighting to help her recruit more children.
Hisako Ichiki, was one of the first to charge the vessel. Under the code name Armor, she had a psionic exoskeleton that provided her with super strength and Neigh invulnerability. Today she was quite lucky for the armor that glowed around her as Orphan maker raised his cannon. The blast sent Armor hurling through the air. Wolverine, who had been her mentor, was a tiny monster of a man. He charged low, eager to get a one two punch on the Orphan maker. The two had fought many times in the past, but something seemed a bit wrong to him. While he’d never seen Orphan maker fire his cannon at Armor, he’d seen that gun used before, and it seemed much stronger than he remembered.
Bringing his razor-sharp claws up towards Orphan maker’s cannon, Wolverine figured it was best to take the enemy’s largest weapon out of combat in order to make sure all his allies would have an easier time of attacking. Orphan maker simply pointed his palm at Wolverine, and blasted him with a weapon that had never been a part of his armor in the past. While Wolverine had the power to survive most assaults, that blast, drove him through the streets and into the sewers, filling the air with the putrid stench of charred flesh.
Two allies falling so quickly was too much for Jean, who used her powerful psychic ability to speak into everyone’s minds at the same time. As long as he was there, the team would be able to move as one unit without giving any clue of what they were about to do to their enemies. Orphan maker was dangerous, and Nanny could easily turn one of her teammates against them if she took them by surprise, so they had to be careful.
Trinary, a young technopath from India, touched the hide of the ship. In this past, this was the sort of action that would give Jean, and thus the entire team a map of the enemy’s lair while turning over all of the weapons or other systems to Trinary’s control. This time, Nanny was prepared. Rather than triggering a trap, that Trinary would see coming and turn off, Nanny had the hull of the ship electrified, then created a system that would shut that off. That system shut off for a half a second when Trinary took control, but that was more than enough time for that shock to run into her body, knocking her out from the charge.
From the skies, Bobby Drake, Iceman curled around on a frozen slide he created and road around the fallen ship. He quickly scooped up the injured X-men, making they were pulled away from combat. As one of Jean’s oldest friends, he could anticipate many of the command’s she’d give before she gave them. Havok had known Jean seemingly for forever as well, but he was a very different person. Blonde hair hanging out, he carried such a destructive force within him, that he had to wear a containment suit to stop it from rushing out of him too quickly and endangering everyone around him. It was rare that he had the opportunity to relieve his body by pouring that energy out of him at an enemy. For most, that would be a death sentence, but Orphan maker’s robotic suit was proving to be the sort of target he could let go on, so he did. The energy roared out of his chest, flew from his hands, with the sound of a jet engine. The blast pinned Orphan maker down against the ship. The armor didn’t break apart, but he couldn’t budge under the assault.
With Orphan maker contained, Jean took the time to reach out with her mind into the ship. Nanny could try and hide her presence from Jean, but it didn’t last long. Soon Jean shared Nanny’s presence with her teammate best suited to take advantage of that situation. A collection of storm clouds in the area, swirled together, just in time to tear the top of the ship off with a mighty lightening bolt. There in the skies, flew Storm, also known as Ororo Munroe. The winds, the rains, the clouds, all of the weather of the earth bent to her wishes. As a younger woman, she was worshipped as a goddess, and anyone looking up as the sun shined across her stark white hair, her ebony skin, would easily know why.
Below, with the hull of her ship missing, the strange egg-shaped suit that had become Nanny’s trademark had been exposed. She fired repulsor beams up into the sky, hoping to knock storm to the earth. Trinary, who was just waking up from the surprise Nanny had for her earlier, was easily able to identify those beams as old Stark technology. While Nanny had been able to create her egg-shaped suit, she had nowhere near the knowledge needed to create the sort of weapons Iron Man made. Now some of those very weapons were in her suit. It seemed like both Nanny and Orphan maker had updated their suits dramatically from their last encounter with the X-men.
At this point, Iceman had circled back towards the ship, and Nanny, had given up on shooting Storm out of the sky which sent her running further into her ship. The Orphan maker, figuring out after a couple moments that Havok would keep blasting him till his suit broke into shreds, retreated into the badly damaged vessel as well. Through the voice of Jean in everyone’s mind, Trinary warned the team that the ship was full of defensive traps and areas for the villains to hide behind. She was sure they were trying to regain the advantage by pulling the X-men inside into a dangerous situation.
After feeling that blast mangle his form, leaving him to heal in the sewers from the sort of visage that would give nightmares to war zone photographers back into his normal self, Wolverine was eager to enter a “dangerous situation.” Using his indestructible razor sharp Adamantium claws, he tore up into the hull of the ship. He wasn’t the only one itching for action. His young Japanese protégé Armor was equally pissed off about having been knocked out of combat unceremoniously, charging into the ship. It served as a rallying cry, pulling most of the team in towards their enemies. Jean asked Storm to remain outside, just in case they had made a mistake. Someone had to keep an eye on things.
Further in the ship than the others, Wolverine was the first to find Nanny. He hurled himself at her robot suit, claws sinking into it’s egg shape, deeply enough he might have torn through the systems and actually hit the woman hiding inside. That’s when it made a strange humming noise. Wolverine’s entire body slammed into the suit unable to move. He cursed both whatever magnetic device she had added to her suit, and the metal that coated his entire skeleton leaving him helpless against her assault.
Luckily for him, her magnetic device didn’t take into account the strange weapons of Magik. As the only member of their team who was both a mutant and steeped in magic, she wielded a large magic sword called the Soulsword. It was unphased by the magnetic field. She swung, leaving a large gash in Nanny’s armor.
Trying to reach Nanny, Orphan maker found himself running from a snowy avalanche. Iceman was hot on his tail and he was hoping to reach Nanny in time. Soon, the ship released a foam. Orphan maker was surprised that it fired the foam at him instead of the invading X-men. Trinary was only going to be fooled by their trick once. This time she was ready for the trap. This time she took over the damaged ship and was using it to the X men’s advantage.
Storm reported that the police were arriving and there appeared to be some sort of commotion in the prison yard. She flew over to inspect it only to find a familiar blast fire into the sky. It was Cyclops and his team. It had been about a year since the X-men suffered a split down the middle. Cyclops, Jean’s ex husband and the first leader of the X-men, and everyone who left with him decided to keep the X-men name, but adopted the moniker the Blue Team. Jean Grey and this unit was the gold team.
These days , Jean felt that Cyclops and his team were much more likely to crack “The Yard” open and let all the juveniles out than they were to fight the good fight. The Orphan maker was contained and Nanny would be taken down shortly. Jean told Illyana to get everyone out of the ship and into the yard of the juvenile detention center. When she gave the command, Nanny’s armor had been shut down.
Soon, the Gold team: Jean, Storm, Illyana, Wolverine, Armor, Iceman, Havok and Trinary were all in the yard ready to square up against Cyclops and his Blue team.
Cyclops looked at them, police cars lining up around the block outside, prison guards armored up and unsure of what to do. Cyclops glanced over at Pixie. She was a member of Cyclops’ team. She was the same age Cyclops and Jean Grey were when they first became X-men. She had large insect wings, pointed ears, with reddish pink hair, and softer pink skin. Her eyes looked black as night, but despite all this, she was barely sixteen. Before Jean Grey could open her mouth to ask what was going on, Pixie spoke “Sihal Novarum chinoth!” With those words, the Blue team was gone. Jean brought her team back out of “The Yard” ready to turn Nanny and the Orphan maker over to the police, only to discover the Orphan maker had somehow slipped away.
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