Well, I hardly need to be that mutant woman with future sight that Mystique used to bang (will bang? Hmm.) to know what is coming next. Or rather, who. If Xavier knows about me, it's almost certain that Magneto does too, and wants me into his weird club of mutant nazis or whatever the hell he was going for in '63.
I'd better not hang around somewhere as heavily populated as this city, Magneto has a real temper, and handles rejection about as well as angry loners on Twitter.
And since I haven't exactly been sightseeing around the U.S in the time I've been here, the only areas I have any familiarities with is New York and the same crappy stretch of desert where I spent my first week in this world.
So bad news, I'm right back under the beating sun in the scorched armpit of Arizona. Good news, there's not a lot of metal junk for Magneto to throw at me out here if he decides to be a dick, which there's a pretty big chance of.
Welp, might as well try and pass the time somehow. I slip off my vest, folding it neatly on a nearby rock, before I begin pulling off my t-shirt...
....
"What the hell is he doing?"
Magneto stared in bafflement at his prospective recruit through the binoculars, watching as the man stripped off the clothes from his upper body, leaving only the sunglasses and bandana covering his face, before he began doing a series of bizarre air-punches aimed at nothing in particular, followed by a few sluggish kicks.
"I... think he's doing pretend karate?" A beautiful girl with long, brown hair, dressed in a flowing red costume, said, sounding just as lost as him. Next to her, a slim, athletic young man with striking white hair, dressed in a light blue costume, scoffed in disbelief.
"A bald, fat guy doing topless fake karate in the middle of nowhere, THIS is the fabled light manipulator you are so set on recruiting, Lord Magneto?"
Magneto gave Quicksilver a withering look, making the speedster take a step back in poorly disguised fear. "Do NOT test me, Quicksilver! This man, whatever eccentricies he may have, possesses a magnificent power, one that is far too useful and valuable to simply leave allied to the human refuse of this country! We will offer him a sanctuary among his own kind in the Brotherhood, and he see the only choice is for us to join forces! The fact that he turned down Xavier and his mewling pacifism makes him ideal!"
"...you sure that's why he said no, Lord Magneto?" A simpering voice said next to him, and Magneto gave the hunched, wretched figure of Toad a disgusted look "Maybe he just doesn't want to leave the Av-AH!" Toad squaled as Magneto shoved him back with a pulse of force, slamming into the metal fastenings of his costume.
"SILENCE, you wretch! I said that the only choice is to join us. A No is not an acceptable answer..."
.....
"I already know you're there, you know." I say to empty air, or so it would look to anyone observing me. However, to someone with my powerset, the blurry figures trying to hide behind what I'm guessing is an illusion field, just looks like they're trying to disguise themselves with plastic wrap. There's a shimmer in the air as the illusion dissipates, revealing five familiar people.
"How did you know?!" says a man with black, stripy hair and a thin moustache, sweating profousely in the brown coat he's wearing which is entirerly unsuitable for the Arizona sun.
"You do realize my entire power revolves around light, right? You really think I can't just see right through a friggin illusion projection?"
"Your power is as impressive as I had anticipated" The tallest man in the group says as he steps forward. The red and purple armor should be almost cartoonishly guarded, but knowing that the man wearing it is Magneto, the Master Of Magnetism, takes most of the humor out of it. My powers to allow me to no-sell most of his, but it'd be a close thing, and I'd rather not have all the iron yanked out of my bloodstream. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Magneto, the leader of the Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants!"
...what?
"...the brotherhood of WHAT?!"
"The humans who infest this planet consider us mutants to be evil for just existing, for being different. I have dubbed my Brotherhood "evil" as a form of rebellion, to give the humans something to truly fear, if they are so intent on it! And I wish to offer you a place among our ranks!"
...no, seriously, what?!
"THAT's your sales pitch? You want me to join a club of evil mutants?"
Magneto glares at me "It is simply a naming convention, nothing more. Our goal is to claim this world for it's proper rulers, to cast aside the human refuse and take our place as masters of the Earth! We must strike first, before humanity moves to exterminate us all!"
I don't answer at first, instead moving to pull my shirt and vest back on "I have to admit, you've managed to make an impressively poor case for world domination."
There's a beat of silence as the Brotherhood simply stares at me. Magneto finally speaks "What are you talking about?"
"Well, let's see..." I say as I shrug my vest back on "Your whole thing is basically that we need to kill all humans before they do the same to us, right?"
"I have far more experience with the depthless cruelty of homo sapiens than you could possibly imagine. They will not sit silently as we surpass them as the dominant species."
I'm guessing his past as a Holocaust survivor still happened here, even though he acts like a power-hungry lunatic "Have you even TRIED? I mean, your first public outing was attacking a U.S military base! Yeah, I do watch the news! Now, don't get me wrong, I don't have any love for the U.S armed forces, but I'm not sure what you were hoping that was going to achieve. It sure didn't make the U.S more open towards mutants, that's for damn sure!"
The rest of the Brotherhood is starting to look agitated now, I'm guessing Magneto doesn't like people talking back to him "I don't have to explain myself to you!"
"Yeah, you kinda do, since you want me to join your little super secret club of mutant fascists. Sorry Mags, but I'll have to say no, I'm already part of a team, and they don't expect me to take part in genocide!"
Magnetos voice grows cold as he begins to float into the air "I had such hopes for you, when you rejected Xavier and his pathetic dream, but I see now that you are just as mindlessly servile as he is! Very well, if you're not with us, you are against us!"
"Oh yeah, that's a rational response to mild criticism."
Magneto snarls and sends out a pulse of magnetic power, trying to lock me down, but I was expecting this, and just like Xavier, his powers can only affect my physical form. Transforming myself into light allows me to simply ignore it. "Oh no, if only I had a way of knowing what your powers are, it's not like you named yourself after them or anything!"
In the corner of my eye, I see a blur of white and blue zoom toward me, which I dodge by flashing backward, extending a line of solid light, which sends the speeding Quicksilver sprawling as he trips over it. The speedster skids across the sand, looking around in confusion as he gets to his knees.
"Quicksilver, I literally move like light, I don't know what you thought the result of that was going to be. Anyone else want to give it a shot? Hot witch girl? Depressing Quasimodo guy? Creepy illusion weirdo?" Watching me outright ignore the attacks of their two strongest members seem to have zapped most of the battle morale of the Brotherhood, though I give Wanda an extra once-over just in case. Her powers were never very well defined, but considering she literally rearranged reality atleast twice, even if she doesn't have access to that level of power yet. it seems like a bad idea to turn my back to her.
When no one answers, I simply shrug "Alright then. Magneto, in case it wasn't clear, this was a firm NO to signing up with your Brotherhood. Oh, and if you don't stay the hell out of my face from now on..." I raise my hand and a thin beam of light shoots out of my finger, burning a small hole clean through Magnetos billowing cape before he can so much as twitch "...the next one will be going through your forehead, got it?"
He grits his teeth in rage "You're a fool, Sunshine! The humans are never going to accept you! In the future, when they begin herding us into camps, you're going to regret this!"
The sad part is, he's not exactly wrong, but his strategy isn't going to make things better for anyone. "Magneto, I doubt I can make you listen when Charles Xavier couldn't, but I strongly urge you to rethink your philosophy, because this isn't going to end well for anyone." I turn towards the Brotherhood "As for the rest of you, if you ever get tired of being bossed around by this jerk, there's a world of good you could do with the Avengers, I'm sure there's room for all of you." I give Mastermind a quick look "Well, except for the creep with the pedo moustache, but the other three of you, totally! Give me a call sometime! Let's do lunch!"
And with that, I zoom back towards the east coast and New York, leaving the Brotherhood behind.823