r/FanfictionHype • u/BlackDenisV313 • 8d ago
ongoing fic Ultimate X-Men from M2K
Come check out the currently ongoing and brand new series from Marvel 2000: ULTIMATE X-MEN!
Here's a short synopsis and a sneak peek: As Senator Bolivar Trask’s Mutant Defense Bill unleashes mass-produced Sentinels, a new generation of students at Lox University enters the front lines of the mutant civil-rights movement—and must decide how far they’ll go to survive.
Scott looked up from his copy of Malcolm X's speeches, which he was studying, when he felt his phone vibrating against his desk. He looked absolutely elated when he saw the name and picture on the caller ID and snatched it up hastily.
“Hey, man! I was wondering when I would hear from you!”
“Yeah, sorry, big brother. Things have been kinda upside down around here lately. They're talking about when the first sentinels will be deployed to Ohio.” Alex Summers replied over the phone. “How’s school been? I’m sorry I’ve barely been texting back. You get that redhead to spend the night in your twin yet?”
Alex knew his brother was probably turning red from miles away, even if he couldn’t see him. “Alex! It’s not even like that; she’s just one of my best friends since I got here.” Scott explained quickly.
“Yeah, whatever you say, man,” Alex replied sarcastically. “I saw her Twitter when you first told me about her; you really always had the best taste.”
Scott shook his head at his brother’s comment while leaning back in his desk chair. “How’s senior year going? Have you gotten your cap and gown yet? Hear back from any schools about being their backup QB next year?” Scot peppered his brother with questions, eager to see how he was enjoying his last year of high school. To his surprise, there was a tense silence, then a heavy sigh from Alex Summers. “Alex? What’s wrong? It’s not Mom, is it?” Scott worried, sitting back up straight abruptly.
“Nah, nah, she’s fine. As far as I know, at least.” Alex replied.
“What are you talking about, ‘as far as you know’? You see her every day!” Scott replied, trying to hide the concern festering in his tone.
“I don’t…I didn’t know how to tell you this. But I’m just going to say it, alright?” Alex took a deep, steadying breath before continuing. “I dropped out of school after football season ended. Mom was pissed, as I’m sure you can imagine, and I've been moving place to place ever since.”
“Alex, god damn it. What the hell is the matter with you?! Why, how could you do something so incredibly–”
“Who gives a damn about school or football or any of that crap when people like us might not even be allowed on the streets soon, Scott?!” Alex shot back, silencing his brother’s anger momentarily. “I watch the news, man; I’m not your little idiot brother anymore. You’re right there with those genocide machines flying back and forth over your head, ready to wipe you off the face of the earth if they deem you as stepping out of line. And they are about to send those things here.”
Scott sighed. He couldn’t say he didn’t understand what his brother was feeling. It was because of that that it made it all the more painful to hear those frustrations coming from someone he loved and protected all his life.
“Alex…we don’t know what the future for Mutants is going to be like. But I’m here trying to make it a better one for me and you. And you can’t do that–”
“I’m not you, Scott. I can’t do that in a classroom, and once people would have found out about my abilities, you really think they would have let me step on the field anywhere ever again?” Scott couldn’t help but let his mind wander onto what Jean had just gone through during the soccer season, and even the oppression Rogue and he dealt with simply trying to work on the school paper. “Look, I gotta go, I’m sorry to drop all this on you. I promise I’ll call again soon, okay?”
“You better keep that promise, Alex,” Scott told his brother.
“Actually, I go by Havok now. Be safe, big bro. Love you, man.”
“Love you, too.”
The call ended, and Scott set his phone back on the desk next to his book, his heart heavy. He tried to refocus on his reading and quickly snatched it up. An explosion lit up the neighborhood just a couple of miles away from the campus. The force of the backdraft was so powerful that it knocked Scott’s chair backward and sent him sprawling end over end onto the floor. Scott pulled himself back to his feet and leaned over his desk out the window to get a better look at the blazing fires tearing through a couple of homes in the distance. Sirens started to blare in the distance faintly, and then came a sight that filled Scott with a sense of dread he’d never felt before. The school rocked once again as a fleet of sentinels flew over the campus, heading directly towards the area of the explosion.
Scott watched as the sentinels slowly descended towards the ground and out of sight. An urge began to gnaw at his gut. With the words he exchanged with his brother still fresh in his mind, Scott knew he couldn't ignore the sense of duty tapping at his consciousness. Unsure of exactly what he was going to do, he snatched up his favorite bomber jacket and the key to his room before hurrying out of the dorm.
He hurried out of the elevator; the lobby was already filled with worried students trying to speak with security to find out what was going on. Scott pushed through the throng of students until he reached the atrium, then quickened his pace toward the entrance/exit doors. To his immediate surprise, as he crossed the quad, Rogue, Jean, and Hank were already gathered and in the midst of a heated discussion.
“Let me guess, you all saw they were headed that way, too?” They all nodded. “What do you think it was that caused the explosion?”
“Doesn’t matter what we think. We KNOW they’re gonna assume it was mutant-related the way they just rolled out there.” Rogue suggested, her arms crossed as she turned to look in the direction they were talking about.
“What are you saying?” Scott looked between all of them. “They’ll pin it on the first mutant they find?”
“They could, Scott. Look at the way the government has been moving when it comes to us. Is it really that crazy of an idea?” Jean reasoned with him. Scott looked at her and bit his lip. He could see the passionate expression on Rogue’s face even though her head was turned away slightly.
“I also highly doubt that the Sentinel pilots will be concerned with evacuation and aiding the civilians clearly affected by this catastrophe,” Beast told him.
“So, what do you guys want to do?” Scott asked the trio. Jean smirked.
“The same thing it looks like you were about to do,” Jean replied. Scott smirked and nodded at Hank.
“My car’s in the student lot,” Beast told them before leading the way.
A couple of miles away from Lox University, Marrow stood in between a pair of homes for sale, watching the explosion created by Mystique’s bomb. Pyro was a couple of blocks away, making sure the blaze spread fast so they could use the chaos as cover. The ground rocked as sentinels stomped through the streets, scanning for mutants. Marrow was disgusted as she watched them; they didn’t even care if any people were hurt or trapped; they just wanted to hunt mutants. “Marrow, are you in position?” Mystique checked in over the two-way radio she had on her hip.
She snatched it up and put it to her lips. “Yeah, I’m ready.”
“Then teach them a lesson their grandchildren won’t forget.”
Mystique’s words were all Marrow needed to galvanize her further. As she listened to the frantic screams of people fleeing their burning homes, Marrow strided from her hiding spot, her eyes locked onto the back of the titanic robot that was marching in the opposite direction. She used her ability to pull a long bone out of her left elbow that was the length of an Olympic-sized javelin, but twice as tough due to Marrow fortifying the density of her bones. She clutched her self-manufactured weapon tightly and planted her feet in the middle of the street. She took a running headstart and, as she had been practicing over the last few weeks, launched the bone javelin just as the sentinel turned in her direction.
“MUTANT DETEC–” The robotized voice of the pilot coming through the speakers inside the head of the sentinel was cut off abruptly by the javelin impaling itself through its eye.
Marrow smirked with glee as the sentinel rocked back and forth on its feet, sparks flying from its wound. “Batter up, Avalanche.”
Avalanche stepped out of a pickup truck a block over, where two sentinels had just landed. He balled his hands into fists and concentrated as hard as he could. The ground rocked and cracked as an earthquake shook the entire neighborhood, sending the sentinels crashing into each other before they toppled onto one another in the street.
Inside the Alpha Sentinel he was piloting, Lieutenant Glen Talbot smashed his hand against his console in frustration. “Squadron Beta, we just lost two sentinels and another one might be on the way out of commission! Find the threats and eliminate them!”
“Guerrero here, lieutenant. I have engaged a mutant; it's managed to impale my cockpit with some sort of projectile. All controls are currently inoperable, and the enemy is advancing.”
“Michaels, Hart, get your asses over there! The rest of you, this can’t be the work of a lone mutant. Find its accomplices!”
“Yes sir!”
Marrow rushed towards the struggling sentinel. She was eager to put the pilot out of his miserable life. Hopefully his dying thought would be how foolish his career choice was. She skidded to a stop almost cartoonishly in her black Chuck Taylors as another sentinel landed directly in front of her. Marrow scurried backward as the sentinel laid eyes on her.
“MUTANT DETECTED.” The pilot echoed the statement for the entire neighborhood to hear.
Another sentinel landed directly behind her, its eyes lighting up as it prepared an attack. Before it could unleash the laser blast it had squared on Marrow, a massive, volcanic rock mashed into the side of the sentinel’s head. The lasers deactivated immediately as the sentinel crashed through a two-car garage, setting off both vehicles' safety alarms.
“Michaels is down!”
The pilot called Hart, informed his team and superior. Marrow used his distraction to launch another javelin spike directly through the chest of the sentinel. The pilot watched as power waned inside the cockpit. Frustrated, he fired off a missile from the sentinel's hand at close range.
The missile didn’t hit Marrow directly, but the street in front of her. The blasts tore up the street, sending concrete and even Marrow herself flying. Magma leaped off the vehicle she was standing on and fired another volcanic-charged stone, this one smashing into the chest of the sentinel and sending it into its own fiery explosion. Magma hurried down the neighborhood block that looked like a condensed warzone. She knelt next to Marrow’s body, worry spiking through her as she tried to rouse her closest friend.
Marrow gasped as she snapped awake, her eyes bulging wide as she realized she wasn't under attack and that Magma was holding her. Magma smiled widely, relief washing over her. She helped Marrow to her feet and pulled her radio out of the back pocket of her blue jeans.
“We’ve got a few of these things turned into scrap metal. But I need to pull Marrow back; she’s hurt.”
“No!” Mystique bellowed over the speaker. “If she can walk, we need all hands on deck. They’re putting boots on the ground now; this is our chance to let the streets run with THEIR blood the way they have done to us countless times.
Marrow gritted her teeth, inspired by Mystique’s statement. She pushed Magma away slightly and forced herself to ignore the pain racking her body. “What’s ETA on these soldiers running through the streets, boss lady?” Marrow grunted into the two-way radio.
“They’ll be right on top of Avalanche in less than eighty seconds. Give him some backup, but don’t worry, I’m sending Sabretooth into the fray. He’ll keep a lot of guns off your backs.” Marrow nodded and led Magma in the direction Mystique had instructed them.
Professor Xavier rolled through the hallways of the David Styles building faster than he usually tended to move. As he passed the student lounge, he tried to ignore the newscast that was playing on every television in the room. His concern grew with every passing second as he tried to stifle the thought that his worst fears were coming to fruition. From the moment news of the explosion caught his attention at the mansion, Xavier had spent the last hour trying to get back to LU as fast as he could. He’d probed around the entire campus the entire ride there and hadn’t stopped searching since he’d arrived, both physically and mentally.
But, much to his dismay and climbing fear, he had been unable to sense the minds of four of his students. Knowing them as well as he liked to believe he did and considering the time that he had spent with them since the school year began, he knew that perhaps after the conversation they had in the last group meeting, the urge to no longer stand on the sidelines would be too great to ignore.
He burst out of the building in his chair, heading towards the student parking lot. He prayed silently to himself that maybe his abilities were out of sync, that maybe his own emotional turmoil was clouding his mental probes, and that’s why he was unable to locate Scott, Beast, Rogue, or Jean. When he couldn’t spot Beast's Ford anywhere in the lot, an icy fear gripped his heart.
“I hate to break the bad news to ya, professor,” the Cajun slanged drawl of Gambit caused Professor Xavier to whip his chair around. Approaching him in the middle of the parking lot while chewing on a toothpick was the card-shuffling student. “But they den already flew the coop. Rogue left a note on my door.”
The color drained from Charles' face immediately. He looked back toward the blaze engulfing the neighborhood a couple of miles away. He tried not to think of what could happen to the four of them smack dab in the middle of that chaotic situation. “My god…what have they gotten themselves into?”
“C’mon now, professor. You may preach the path of least resistance, but everything you do is anything but, even still.” Gambit leveled with him, catching the professor off-guard with his blunt honesty. “All of us have been listening to you yap since we got here. What did you expect them to do? Shit, you know I’m only out here cause I’m fixing to haul tail after em’.”
Charles looked at Gambit, a bevy of complicated emotions tossed and turned inside him. He opened his mouth to reply when a horn squawked at them. They both turned toward the sound and saw a gray Chrysler van pull up to the curb a couple of feet from where they stood. Gambit couldn’t help but chuckle when the passenger window rolled down and revealed none other than Iceman behind the wheel. Gambit looked back at the professor and smirked, a toothpick dangling between his lips with the gesture.
“Looks like we got ourselves a ride, Professor X.” Gambit got behind his chair and pushed him over to the van quickly.
In the very suburbs that were ablaze, Beast whipped his Ford through the busy streets as citizens of the neighborhood fled on foot and by car. Scott looked out the window at the pandemonium surrounding them. He snapped his head forward and tapped Beast on the shoulder as he pointed. “Check it out!”
Beast pulled the car to the side off the road and shut off the engine. All four of the college students got out of the car and stared up in complete awe as a sentinel stomped down the block in front of them. A handful of armed soldiers were on the ground flanking it, a notion Beast immediately found absurd. As if those monstrosities needed any sort of additional support. The sentinel turned its head in their direction, half of its face completely blown off. Still, its scanners were functioning at optimal levels.
“MUTANTS DETECTED!”
The soldiers surrounding the sentinel all whipped their weapons in the direction of Scott, Beast, Jean, and Rogue. Scott looked back at Jean, who he could see was trembling with fear. He turned back and stared up at the sentinel, realizing that his life was about to change one way or another for good.
Miles above the earth, an asteroid floated just outside of the reach of any satellites that could detect it. Hidden inside the monstrous space rock was a base built from the same metals used on Roxxon and NASA shuttles. Sitting in a lone chair on the command deck with a view of the world below in front of him was Erik Lehnsherr. His hand under his chin and his protective helmet on the floor at his feet, his attention wasn't on the beautiful view before him, but on a small monitor at the center of the control console.
The monitor showed grainy news footage from a live Roxxon News broadcast. Erik leaned forward as he watched a frantic field reporter deliver live updates on a neighborhood fire blamed on mutants. Civilians fled in the background of her shot as Sentinels stomped around the scene, searching for mutants and caring little about the safety of the humans they were supposed to be there to protect. Erik sneered as the reporter mentioned soldiers being on the ground. That sniveling president was trying to set an example, good, Erik figured to himself. The pompous fool and his cabinet of yes men had no idea what type of mind they were up against in Mystique.
Erik sat back in his chair, his fingers interlocking. He felt more than confident that he would be able to bide his time even longer before deciding to return to Earth. Things were more than handled under Mystique’s capable command. A gust of wind blew through the room as a silver and white blur whizzed to Erik’s side. Pietro stared at the screen his father was focused on for a long moment, then turned to him anxiously.
“They have the apes running amok. Mystique’s plan looks to be working seamlessly.” Pietro remarked with a condescending smirk.
“Yes, better than even I could have anticipated, it seems,” Erik replied leisurely. “I only hope Charles is down there somewhere comfortably watching. I want him to see and finally understand what it takes to make true change come about.”
TO BE CONTINUED
