"Victory!" I raised both arms.
Arrayed around me, the groaning forms of four different mutants were slowly recovering from our little spar. I hadn't wanted to risk actually hurting them, so I settled for catching each of them and spinning them around until their bodies remembered nausea existed.
Super speed truly was the most bullshit power ever.
There really wasn't much anyone could do when someone moved faster than they could even react.
"Red card…" Kitty muttered from where she lay on the floor. "Totally illegal moves…"
"Don't hate the player, hate the game." I grinned.
That earned me a groan from Kitty Pryde as she weakly gave me the finger.
"I can still…" Bobby tried to push himself upright, one hand raised as cold vapor gathered around his fingers. The beam of ice hit the wall, sputtered, and died almost immediately. "Ugh. Nope…"
He collapsed back onto the floor with another groan.
Jean and Kurt were in relatively better shape, mostly because they had given up pretty early in our little spar. All of them seemed relatively novice with their powers, or at least that was the best word I could put to it. Even accounting for my sheer speed, there was a certain clumsiness in how they used their abilities.
It was fun to play around with, sure, but it only left me even more confused about what iteration of the X-Men I was dealing with.
"A good showing," Charles said, his smile a little strained as he looked over his students. "You have my thanks for the rather… educative experience you've given them."
Logan snorted from behind him.
"Anytime." I raised a thumb.
"Now, I believe I've occupied enough of your time as a guest." Charles motioned toward the door. "How would you feel about continuing our discussion over lunch?"
Before I could answer, Kurt groaned from the floor. "Man, I'm starving."
"Then you should work quickly," Charles said smoothly.
Charles gave the room a pointed glance, taking in the damage left behind by several panicking teenagers with superpowers and poor restraint. I hadn't really done much to the place myself, but the students had not been nearly as restrained. Several metal wall panels were frozen over or partially ripped from their frames.
Charles smiled.
"Seeing as all of you were so desperate to use the Danger Room, I trust you can clean up after yourselves."
A chorus of miserable groans filled the room.
I snickered.
"Shall we continue our discussion, then?" Charles asked, turning back to me. "Our in-house barbecue is quite good."
"Sure." I glanced at the fallen mutants and grinned. "I can eat."
"Come on, yah idiots," Logan chuckled, leaning against the wall as the students dragged themselves upright. "If you hurry, maybe there'll still be some barbecue left."
—
Lunch was surprisingly… normal.
Well, as normal as discussing conspiracies and potentially world-ending threats could be.
I wasn't fully sold on this Xavier, but giving him more detailed information on threats like the Purifiers or Sublime seemed harmless enough. Even now, I wasn't completely sure if half of these threats actually existed in this world.
My inability to pin down what iteration of the X-Men I was dealing with still irked me, but it also gave me a little hope that some of the more batshit comic nonsense wouldn't become an issue here.
The conversation ran long, but I felt it had been productive.
At least, I hoped it had.
The Professor had offered an extended stay for Jean and me, but I quickly rebuffed that. There was only so much time I was willing to spend at the X-Mansion, even when it wasn't currently exploding.
Thankfully, the man didn't seem put off by my refusal.
So I couldn't help the faint disbelief sitting in the back of my mind as we left the X-Mansion unharmed.
It didn't even explode.
"What's with that look?" Anna asked, raising an eyebrow at me from where she was draped over a couch.
"I was just thinking that maybe there really are miracles in this world."
"You're being dramatic. We literally just had lunch." Anna giggled.
"You don't understand. The curse of the X-Mansion is too strong." I raised two fingers. "There was a time a plane crashed into it twice. Twice. That place is cursed with misfortune, I swear."
"Like magically?" She tilted her head, genuinely curious.
"No…" I paused. "You know, it's kind of fucked up that I actually can't discount that."
"That's how I feel about half the stuff you tell me about, shug." She poked me in the side. "Now what's the plan? Why'd we come to the New York Sanctum? Thought you were the one who told me this city was crazy town."
"It is." I looked out the window of the Sanctum.
The window on the Sanctum's upper floor looked out onto the simple, ordinary streets of New York City.
No hint at all of the sheer batshit craziness this place held beneath the surface.
"But…" I sighed. "After meeting the X-Men, I need to double-check some things. I told you, right? Half the stuff I know are what-ifs, but the degree of trouble attached to those what-ifs can vary a lot."
"Bad fates?" she asked, her smile fading a little.
"Too many to count," I nodded.
There were a few things I wanted to nip in the bud.
Jessica Jones and that whole bastard Kilgrave situation deserved to be cut off before it ever got started. The Punisher technically shouldn't exist yet, but if one quick warning could prevent Frank Castle from becoming the Punisher, then I had to try at least.
Even ignoring the bad fates I wanted to prevent, there were also things I needed to confirm.
A quick lookup showed that the Baxter Building existed in New York City, but there was no mention of the Fantastic Four.
Still, this was risky, to say the least. SHIELD and Hydra obviously had a strong presence here, and there were potentially other conspiratorial forces lurking around as well. Secret labs, hidden cults, ancient ninja bullshit, corporate supervillain nonsense—at this point, I didn't really want to discount anything.
Even if I was deeply, spiritually, and professionally loath to enter New York, I couldn't keep putting this off.
The butterflies from my actions might accelerate key events, or they might erase them. There was no real way to know until something went wrong, and I preferred not to wait for the wrong part.
So getting a better grasp of the scene was a must.
"So what do we do first?" Anna asked.
I grinned. "You ever been to Stark Towers?"
Comments and Thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Likes are like a drug to me and boost my creative juices.
I have advanced chapters on Pa tre on/daisyberry if you wanna read ahead.