Prompt Post: ROUND ONE
ROUND ONE
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OVERFLOW AND UNFILLED PROMPTS POST
Rules post.
Flat view.
Round One: Fills Post (completed Fills only)
Round One: Updates Post (WIPs only)
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IS CLOSED
| ALL ROUNDS | ROUND TWO >>
OVERFLOW AND UNFILLED PROMPTS POST
Rules post.
Flat view.
Round One: Fills Post (completed Fills only)
Round One: Updates Post (WIPs only)
damalur's firstclasskink on Delicious.
Volunteers always welcome.
Note: Please use the Discussion Post if you want to talk about community alterations or get ( Read more... )
Five years ago, war broke out between humans and mutants. The conflict spread throughout all corners of the universe, both sides suffered massive casualties. In the end, much to many peoples’ surprise, the humans prevailed. By a stroke of luck, one of their own developed a weapon, a pulse that could be fired in short bursts which would temporarily rob the mutants of their powers.
It was enough. The humans had soldiers and the mutants, who relied heavily on their abilities, were not.
The humans banished the mutants to the Outer Rim, and the few who managed to escape the battlefield fled. But they bide their time and plan, for the next stage of evolution was upon them and even if Homo sapiens did not go quietly, their time was coming to an end and they would go nonetheless.
//
“We shouldn’t take too long, plan on leaving again in three hours,” Erik told his crew as they docked on Persephone. He turned to Sean. “Grab any supplies we’re low on, fuel her up. Beast, keep Havok out of trouble. Wolverine, if you get into another bar fight I’m not letting you back on my ship. And Angel…”
“Yes, yes, I’ll find us some passengers,” Angel said. “Don’t forget-“
“I won’t forget your compression coils.”
Apparently satisfied, Angel grinned, pulled out the bottom of her lounge chair, and began her wait. The first one that catches her eye is a young man carrying all his worldly possessions on two dollies, who didn’t care much for the destination as he did the ship that was carrying him. His name was Darwin, and he was a man of faith. “You’re a little contradiction, aren’t you,” she teased. When he smiled back, she knew they were going to get along just fine.
The second one she calls over is a well-dressed young man who has considerably more luggage and a large crate which would take up some room in the cargo bay, which the Captain wasn’t going to like, but he looked like he was made of money. There was a third man too, who called himself Stryker, but the second man had captured her attention.
“Captain,” she said, three hours later, “this is Mystique.”
He looks the man up and down. Quite a feminine name for such a masculine person, he thought, but to each their own. “Welcome aboard,” he said at last.
“Thank you,” Mystique replied stiffly. His voice was low and gruff. “I have many items in transport which are quite…delicate, Captain. I need to know
“We have the smoothest ship and the finest pilot in the ‘verse,” Erik retorted swiftly. “Your belongings are safe on this ship.”
//
“The trip should take us about three days,” Erik said to the three guests. “I am the Captain of this vessel, my name is Magneto. That over there is Havok, he’s my First Officer. Banshee is our pilot, Angel’s our mechanic, and Beast is our Doctor-he doesn’t come out of the bay much, but if you need one, he’ll be there.” They each gave a little wave as he said their names.
“Who’s that fellow over there?” Stryker asked, gesturing to the man in the corner.
“He’s Wolverine,” Erik said sharply. “And he’ll be on his best behavior for the duration of this trip.”
Logan looked up and flipped him the bird.
“What does he do?” Mystique asked.
Erik stared at him. “I’m not quite sure why we keep him around at all.”
//
“Someone went up to communications and hailed the closest Coalition’s cruiser,” Sean said, panicked. “They must know about that other stuff we brought onboard. I don’t know how this happened.”
In the lineup of suspects, Erik thought, it could only be the one who kept sneaking into the cargo bay.
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“What the hell?” he sputtered, holding his cheek. “What’s your problem?”
“Apparently, you are,” Erik growled. He grabbed the front of the other man’s shirt and lifted him forcibly to his feet. “What did you tell him?”
“Tell who what?” Mystique protested.
“You’ve got the wrong man.” Erik glanced over to where Darwin had appeared from the shadows. And then he turned around to see Stryker holding a gun. Goddamit.
“Raven Xavier, codename Mystique, you are ordered by Coalition Law to stand down,” Stryker said, edging closer, the gun in his hand never wavering. “Get on the ground, now. You too, Captain Magneto, for harboring a Class S mutant fugitive.”
“Are you pointing a gun at me on my own ship?” Erik asked dangerously. The gun began shaking, much to its owners confusion, and suddenly it was pointed at the man whose finger was still on the trigger. “Now,” Erik said, “let us begin this conversation again.”
“You’re a mutant too?” he asked, horrified. Angel and Havok have stumbled upon the action and were closing in now too. Beast appears from the top deck, disturbed by the commotion. “No, no, this entire vessel is infested--“
“Careful there, Stryker,” Erik said quietly. “Wolverine hates the smell of mutant-haters.”
Stryker sneered at him, imprudently brave for someone who was pointing a gun at his own head. “Or what,” he spat. “You’ll turn me into one of you freaks?”
There is a rustling of metal and it takes Stryker a few moments to process that there are three steel knives embedded through his chest.
“The hell would we want you,” Wolverine growled, retracting his claws as Stryker fell to the ground gasping. “All you humans think everyone wants to be just like you. Got news for ya, bub.”
//
Beast and Havok tossed Stryker’s body out the airlock disposal.
Erik walked over to the crate Mystique kept checking. Sensing his trajectory, he threw himself at Erik. “No!” he cried, easily subdued by Wolverine. “Don’t touch that, you don’t know what you’re doing!”
“I didn’t throw you out with the human, because you’re one of us,” Erik said. “Don’t push your luck.”
“You’ don’t understand,” he insisted. For a Class S mutant, he wasn’t very strong. The rest of the crew had found their way to the bay and were watching silently. “Please, let me explain.”
“Now,” Erik said, ignoring him. “Let’s see what’s so goddamn important you nearly sicc’ed the humans on us.”
He kicked the top off the crate and it let out a hydraulic hiss as copious amounts of smoke poured out of the container. When enough of it had dispersed, Erik peered over the edge.
There was a person inside, and it was naked. Erik stared, dumbfounded. The smoke cleared to reveal the body of a young boy, curled into a tight fetal position. He looked back and forth between it and Mystique. “The hell is this?” he asked, disgusted.
“Let me go!” Mystique struggled, but Wolverine’s grip was stronger. “I need to check on him.”
The boy in the crate suddenly opened his eyes and let out a piercing scream. Immediately, everyone in the vicinity collapsed, feeling as though someone with Herculean strength was pummeling them in the head over and over again. The Class S mutant that bounty hunter he was talking about, Erik thought too late, wasn’t Mystique. It was the boy.
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“Drop it,” Erik said sharply. She glared at him. The boy in the crate continued to howl. “Drop it, right now.”
She threw it at him, morphed into a serpent, and slithered out of Wolverine’s hold toward the boy, who was now crawling out of the crate. “Charles!” she cried, morphing a third time into a decidedly more ordinary form. “It’s okay, calm down, I’m here.”
The boy stopped screaming. He blinked at her, panting heavily. “R-Raven?” he whispered. She smiled tremulously. “Raven, they-they talk to me, they keep asking me, they…hurt my head. My head hurts, everything hurts-“
“Shh, it’s okay,” she crooned, patting his hair and rubbing his back. “Don’t worry, everything’s okay, we’re safe now.”
A silence descended in the cargo bay. Beast approached with his lab coat in hand, prepared to cover the boy, but no one spoke until Erik unceremoniously broke the silence. “What the hell is going on here?”
Raven stared at him defiantly. “This is my brother.”
//
Charles was fast asleep in the infirmary and the rest have gathered in the dining hall, eager to hear Raven’s explanation.
“We were born in the Inner Rim. He adopted me after he realized we were the same…” she laughed self-consciously. “I was stealing food from his house. His parents were both human, we never told them. He went to college a year before me-I was older, but Charles is smarter. When his letters stopped coming, I thought he was just busy. He had a lot of ideas on human-mutant relations. I don’t know. He’s so smart, but he was so stupid at the same time.
Then a few months later, I started getting all these weird dreams. Like, I would fall asleep in the middle of the day and I would have someone screaming for help, and I’d wake up like it was a daydream but I was so sure I was asleep. And then I got a letter from Charles that made no sense at all, talking about conversations we’d never had, lines from books we’ve never read, and jokes we’ve never made. When I finally managed to decode it, it read: ‘SOS HELP ME, THEY’RE HURTING ME’.
It took me a year, but I finally managed to track down other underground mutants. They helped me break him out and told me to take him to Persephone. Now here we are.”
“It’s a very touching story,” Erik said. “But you’ve brought a lot of trouble to me and my crew. What’s to stop me from dumping you on the next power station?”
“Charles is a telepath,” Raven said, glaring at him. “The humans at the Coalition were using him to hunt down and kill other mutants. You sure you wanna let them get their hands on him again?”
He scowled at her, but she did not back down.
“I think you should listen to her, Captain.” Surprisingly, the one who spoke up was Angel. “After all, you did hit a girl in the face.”
“And mutants should stick together,” Banshee added helpfully.
“A telepath could be pretty useful onboard a ship like ours,” murmured Beast.
“Shut up, all of you.” They clammed up. Erik rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I’ll make a decision after we deliver the goods to Whitefall. Until then, both of you will stay in your room, I will tie you up if I have to. And I’m keeping this,” he said, pocketing the Disruptor.
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Oh, and Darwin as the Sherpherd? Inspired.
Can't wait for more!
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The boy was lying on one of the beds in the infirmary, limp from heavy sedation. He was probably only a few years younger than himself, if Raven’s timeline was accurate, but he looked so much younger. Thin from malnourishment and a sickly shade of white, the humans had done a number on him. There was nothing in his eyes when he opened them.
“I am the captain of this vessel, ” he began. “My name is Magneto.”
“No it’s not,” Charles said dully, with all the intonation of a privileged and cultured upbringing. “Your name is Erik. You’re a mutant just like me.”
“Yes, I am,” Erik said, narrowing his eyes. Names were not given out easily, not in this day and age. He was beginning to understand what made this boy so valuable and at the same time, so dangerous. Not to mention, irritating.
Charles looked at him as if he was seeing into his soul. “You’re not a good person either. They took your mother because she gave birth to you, but you won’t do anything about it. You hate them but you don’t want to resist either, you stay here in your little piece of heaven (but really it’s hell) and run away from everything, running running running.”
Something twisted violently in his chest. He reached out and grabbed the boy’s arm, anything to shut him up. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he snarled. Startled by the touch, Charles recoiled. Erik’s head began to throb again as Charles twisted futilely, trying to escape.
“Let go,” he whined. “Let go of me.”
The pounding worsened and Erik was suddenly treated to images flashing before his eyes, memories he knew did not belong to him. The sensation of being trapped, a large metal helmet blocking out every one of the senses, information being forced from the back of his brain; it hurts so much but he knows they won’t stop even if he begged because he was just a instrument. And tomorrow it would be the same, always be the same, day after day after day and he wants to just lay down and die but they won’t let him because they need him so they’ll keep him alive and he’ll suffer every single day for the rest of his-
(Hank had to dose the boy with twice the normal amount because his heart rate wouldn’t return to normal otherwise, but still he could do this much damage.)
Erik fumbled for the Disruptor in his pocket and pressed it. The images faded from his sight and he dug his fingers even tighter into the struggling boy. “Don’t do that again,” he growled. He pulled away and, caught off balance, the boy tumbled off the side of the bed. He made no effort to get back up. When Erik reluctantly reached down to help him back on the bed, he was pliant but did nothing to help himself.
“Charles?” Raven was in the doorway with Angel and Hank, and she looked stricken. “What did they do to your legs?”
“Broke ‘em,” he said matter-of-factly. “Said I didn’t need them anymore. Cut the nerve endings. Can’t even feel them. Go on.” He jerked his head at the array of sharp medical instruments on the operating table. “Try it. I won’t feel a thing.”
Raven’s face crumpled and she burst into tears. Angel gently guided her away from the infirmary, looking back over her shoulder at Hank with an unreadable expression on her face.
“I didn’t mean to make her cry,” Charles said, somehow remorseful despite his flat monotone. He turned to Erik. “Can you tell her that I’m sorry?”
Every second he spent with the boy only proved to confound him more and more. “I’ll tell her that,” he said slowly, motioning for Hank to come in and take over. “You should get some rest.”
“You shouldn’t go to Whitefalls,” Charles yawned. “There are bad people there.”
“I’m a bad person.”
“No you’re not,” Charles murmured drifting off as the sleeping drought finally took effect.
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“No you’re not,”
That exchange was perfect.
This story is going to be amazing. I know it.
...
But what happens next?
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“I believe you,” Angel said soothingly, brushing Raven’s hair to the side. “It wasn’t your fault that this happened, and it’s not his fault that he has those abilities. It’s the Coalition’s fault, it’s all them.”
“What am I going to do if he decides to throw us out at the next planet?” she mumbled.
“The Captain?” She smiled. “He puts on a tough exterior, but he’s a big softie. He won’t throw you out.”
“How can you know that for sure?”
Angel cocked her head. “He hasn’t gotten rid of Wolverine,” she said. “And he’s done way worse stuff than give everyone a little headache.”
//
“You’re the same as me.”
Logan glanced at the kid seated at the opposite end of the table: pasty, small, and thin like a reed. “Yeah, we’re like two peas in a nice snuggly space pod,” he grunted sarcastically.
“They hurt you too, the way they hurt me.” The rag on the gun stilled. Charles continued. “But they made you stronger. They gave you a weapon. Why didn’t they make me stronger too?”
Logan stared at him. Then he reached out and ruffled the boy’s head.
“You’re something else, kid.”
//
The transaction at Whitefalls is an unmitigated disaster, but Erik walked away with full payment (plus some) so he chalked this one up as a victory.
“You’re welcome to stay,” he announced to Raven. “Both you and your brother, so long as you both agree to train along with the rest of us to control and perfect your power.”
Raven regarded him suspiciously. “In return for what?”
“Having a telepath and a shape-shifter could yield great benefits to a smuggling operation like ourselves,” Erik said, ignoring the loud cough from Hank. Sometimes we require a lighter hand in dealing with our…clientele. And,” he added for Angel’s benefit, “mutants should help out each other in times of need.”
Raven still didn’t look as though she trusted him, but she reached out and shook his hand.
//
“I didn’t think you’d come for me,” he whispered, looking as though he still couldn’t believe this wasn’t a dream.
“Well,” Raven said after a long pause, “you’re a dummy.”
omfg I love this prompt
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I am so happy you're filling this too! And so, so excited that you're going for the whole 'verse! I really wanted to see it, and now it's here!
I love Angel as the little Kaylee, and Raven is so loving and brilliant. That little moment where emotion was just sucked from Charles was so good! Really looking forward to more of this!
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