"There's nothing on sonar?" Emma asked Azazel.
"Niet." He replied.
"Then we have a problem." She said as she walked through the submarine to the hidden room.
"What's wrong?" Shaw asked after admiring the nuclear reactor for a moment.
"It's the telepath, I shouldn't feel him from this distance. It's like his reach has been amplified. They're recruiting." Emma explained.
Shaw paused in thought for a moment before turning to Emma.
"You head on to Russia, I'll handle them." He said.
"How are you going to deal with the Light Mutant?" Emma asked curiously.
"I shouldn't have much of a problem with Azazel, Riptide, and me, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it." He replied.
** **
(On the steps of the Lincoln Monument)
"I can't help thinking about the others out there. All those minds I touched. I could feel them, their isolation, their hopes, their aspirations. We're at the start of something incredible Erik, we can help them." Charles said.
"Can we? Identification, that's how it starts, it ends with being rounded up, experimented on, eliminated." Erik said.
"Not this time. We have common enemies, Shaw, the Russians. They need us." Charles explained.
"How can you say that?" I asked.
"What?" Charles asked shocked I was angry.
"You know what they did to me, myself, and who knows how many others." I started to say before Charles interjected.
"That was an isolated incident with an extremist branch of government." Charles tried to defend them which actually pissed me off.
I stood up and it was only due to the sensitive nature of what I was going to say and us being in public that I didn't yell but I was definitely talking sternly.
"Don't be so naive Charles. 9 years Charles. You know what I went through for 9 years. Taken from my family under the guise of protection and training but instead subjected to what they called "tests" how could you defend them knowing what they did to me!!" I was getting angrier and angrier not realizing I shouted the last part.
"What is he talking about Charles?" Erik asked as everything I was talking about was striking a chord with him.
"It's not my place to..." Charles started before I stopped him.
"No, he deserves to know what your favorite humans did to me," I said with mirth in my voice and if I were to have looked inside myself I would've noticed the now noticeably larger ball of light (due to me getting more powerful), regain a few of the black chains on it.
"Experimented on and tortured for 9 years so they could figure out a way to make more of me to use for whatever they wanted. You try to tell Erik that they won't do what he thinks they will, when they already have! Come talk to me when you've stopped ignoring the obvious, they'll never accept us, ever." I said as I walked behind the nearby pillar and teleported back to the CIA facility.
"So, there's a lot you haven't told me," Erik said frustratingly.
"I only recently found out about it from him, I was going to tell you once we dealt with Shaw," Charles explained.
"That doesn't make it better Charles, you've seen what I went through, he was younger than I was and treated more horribly, he needs someone who understands what he's gone through and you are not that person," Erik said as he walked down the stairs to their car and just sat in the passenger seat.
** **
(Back at the CIA facility)
"We should have codenames. I mean we're secret agents right? I want to be called Mystique." Raven said.
"Damn, I wanted to be called Mystique." Banshee joked.
"Well tough, I called it. And I'm way more mysterious than you." Raven said after transforming into Banshee to the awe and praise of the other kids.
"I like it. It suits you." I said from off to the side.
"When did you get here?" Raven asked.
"And why are you by yourself, where's Charles?" Hank asked right after.
"I got here just now as for why I'm alone, let's call it creative differences," I said even though it was more philosophy.
"Who's this guy?" Banshee asked as I wasn't there for his recruiting."
"Name's Andrew Bowen, but you can call me Orion," I said then conjured a longsword made of light
"Okay, that's pretty cool," Banshee said.
"So what about everyone else?" I asked which prompted Darwin to speak up saying that the nake fit due to his powerset and showed being able to grow gills while his head was in water which we all clapped for.
I was enjoying the levity after the intense conversation I'd had with Charles.
"What about you?" Darwin asked Banshee.
"I'm going to be called, Banshee." He said thinking for a second.
"Why do you want to be called after a wailing spirit?" Hank asked.
"You might want to cover your ears," Banshee said as he bent down to the row of glasses.
"Hang on a second," I said before creating a dome of light around the group.
"Just in case," I said to the weird looks I got from the group.
Banshee finished his demonstration and hit a couple of glasses but the rest hit my light shield.
"See," I said to which Banshee nodded sheepishly and the rest of the group nodded as well.
Angel went next and showed her wings
"You can fly?" Raven said excitedly.
"She's not the only one," I said as a white aura covered my body and I floated in the air.
"Okay, that's awesome," Darwin said as the rest clapped.
"Oh, I can also do this," Angel said then looked at me who nodded and she shot her energy ball from her mouth at my shield which made a loud bang but didn't break.
"What's your name?" She asked Hank who was shy and didn't answer.
"How about Bigfoot?" Alex joked.
"How about you shut the fuck up," I said as I created a light sword and pointed it towards him and it was scarily close to his face.
"Whoa, what the hell? What's your problem?" He asked.
"My problem? What's yours? You know what we have to go through everyday just being Mutants, you yourself are terrified of hurting others so you got yourself sent to solitary confinement. Yet you're just going to turn around and treat someone else like that? What are you 10 years old? " I said airing out his dirty laundry.
I always hated how Alex was a complete asshole to Hank for no reason especially considering his situation.
Hank stood up and was going to say something until he was stopped by Alex.
"No, he's right. I'm sorry Hank." Alex said to which I dissipated my light sword.
"We are all mutants, we need to look after each other and have each other's backs because if we don't, who will?" I said.
All the young mutants nodded seriously and Alex looked really guilty but he had already apologized so I wasn't going to give him any grief unless he started taking shit again.
We then wanted Alex to show his power but he was worried about using it so we had him go outside I walked in front of him and put up a huge dome to protect the surroundings and I left a long rectangular gap from the dome so we could watch him use his powers.
"Are you sure this dome can hold?" Alex asked for the third time.
"As I said before, you don't have the power to break my construct," I replied.
"Whatever." He said pretty much saying if something happens, it's not his fault.
He then sent out his laser rings that attacked throughout the dome and at the end of it, there were large slash marks but the shield didn't break there was a crack in it however which didn't surprise me as it was a very basic shield that I didn't even bother to reinforce.
I was just a lot more powerful than him and he wasn't using the suit where it makes his lasers rings into a beam otherwise the results might've been different.
"Not bad, I didn't expect you to be able to crack my shield," I said actually a little impressed even if it was a basic shield.
Just then I received a Telepathic message from Charles.
"Alright you guys have fun, I gotta go meet with Charles," I said and quickly teleported out in a flash of light.
"That was really cool, did you guys know he could do that?" Banshee asked to which everyone else shook their heads and started laughing.