AMP ARC

it had been a long few days. everyone had felt it. and things were, amazingly, starting to get boring for zachary. so it was time to show his face. there had been hundreds of thousands- maybe even approaching millions- of dollars of property damage and looting, dozens of people in icus across the city and even a handful dead, along with the hundreds of people with minor injuries. 

but even blood was getting boring. people seemed to have ignored, or perhaps forgotten, the fact this was for mutants. he wanted to make things better. maybe he’d been a little heavy handed- but then, daken had taught him that the best entrance was a big one. 

he found his way to times square. most people were ignoring him, a youngish teen, in decent clothes, keeping to himself? in all this panic, that was practically a saint. until the people causing the fuss over a woman’s handbag noticed him and stopped, coming over. 

‘boss?” one of them said, folding his arms over his chest.

‘yes. it’s time. take the fight right to them.”

When you search for the cause of this, the strange figure, the one who’s given you this power boost, who’s orchestrated the explosions and the attacks... At first, you find nothing. It’s not like there’s a block- since his words, you’ve found there are few blocks that can hold up against the might of all four of you. He’s just... not there. 

But you breathe, as one, and you focus, and... he’s there.

It’s hard to get a read on him, even now, with your powers- there’s something not blocking you, but confusing things. The picture in your heads is almost distorted, like a fuzzy TV screen, the cable not quite connected, and then you all breathe again and it’s clear.

He’s young- surprisingly so, given what he appears to have masterminded. He’s powerful, too, Omega level for sure. You reach out and- there’s a name. Zachary. You feel like you saw this boy, a few months ago- Cerebra telling you of a new mutant emerging. But when Bobby and Kitty went to fetch him, he was already gone.

What happened to him is beyond you, however, and as you try to delve deeper- to find his motives, his plan, his next step, you get a cold feeling in your minds, and hear a voice clear as day. 

“If you want to know what’s really going on, maybe you should find the person who found me before your friends did.”