#mutant powers

Pairings: Avengers x Reader (Namely, Steve, Natasha, Tony)

Summary: A duffel bag appears in the middle of Times Square with a single instruction attached: "Call the Avengers." Inside, they find a woman with no name, no fingerprints, and no memory of how she got there. Her combat instincts rival Natasha’s, her adaptability confounds Tony’s diagnostics, and every attempt to trace her identity comes back empty… Until Dr Cho turns on the blacklight… Across her back, bioluminescent tattoos reveal three names:

Rogers.

Romanoff.

Stark.

And the more they dig, the stranger things become…

Themes: amnesia · self-discovery · fractured past and hidden agendas · slow-burn romance · power / control / autonomy · experimentation and weaponisation · government secrets · mutants vs humans · segregation and discrimination

Warning: This story leans heavily toward mutants in power and human experimentation during South Africa's Apartheid era. So expect violence, torture references and imprisonment, psychological manipulation, body horror, racial trauma, and war crimes. These elements are presented as part of the dystopian world-building and are NOT intended to romanticise or trivialise the real historical trauma of Apartheid or racial discrimination.

Chapter Two Recap: The Package (Part 1):

The Avengers searched high and low, but there was no trace of any package. Still, they couldn’t help but revel in the adrenaline of it all. The way being back together felt so right... And then there was you... Stuffed in a duffel bag. The zip scratching against your ear with every bump and turn. You tried to command your fingers to move, but they remained traitors to your will. Only your consciousness had begun to return, forcing you to experience every excruciating second of your helplessness.

Word Count: 84.5k and counting

Status: WIP

Read the full story here:

Ao3

Logan "Wolverine" Howlett x GN!Mutant!Reader

Platonic!!!

Written 2024.08.11 - 2024.08.24

After the death of your mother and the appearance of strange new powers brewing inside you, you decide to go to America in search of your father and the answers he could give you, but maybe you find something better.

Ch. 1

Crack

“Not gonna grab much with that hand anymore will you now?” you let out a dark chuckle at the man laying in the dark alleyway on the ground in front of you.

A weird kind of buzzing has taken over your mind and you aren't completely conscious of every movement you made as you kicked and slashed him.

To be fair he deserved it. You just wanted to go to the grocery store but this bastard decided to get all mouthy and handsy with the high school cashier running the midnight shift. So here you were now, in the pouring rain with the man laying lifeless, his skull smashed in. Shit. You hadn't exactly mastered your newfound powers in these last few months you had them. You always have been a bit stronger than your peers, but everyone just accepted that you got the lucky genes from both your mother who had always been a hardworking woman and your father who was said to have had “superhuman strength”. Jokes on you seems like his strength is not the only superhuman thing he passed down to you.

You stepped over the man, you needed to find your father fast before these little…moments, you had hurt an innocent, but for now the most important thing was getting home without catching a cold, you took off in a small jog leaving the body behind to be discovered in the morning.

_______________________________________

“Four men were found dead thus far. They all lived in the same area, frequented the same places and were described as unpleasant and outright aggressive.” The professor slid the crime scene pictures on the table. “The police are convinced they were attacked by mountain lions, except no mountain lion has ever wandered that deep into the city so i have my doubts, mainly because…” he put one more picture on the table. It was frame from some security camera footage of the last victim of this series of murders leaving a store with a shorter figure clad in black tailing right behind him.

Logan looked over the pictures with a frown. They sure seemed like animal attacks at first sight but the longer he looked at them the more the scenes reminded him of the ones Victor used to leave behind when they used to fight together. Vicious, bodies torn apart like someone tried to cut them up into fine pieces with a dull knife then left the bodies on the street to bleed out.

“Do we have a suspect?” He looked at the professor who turned his head towards Ororo, the woman stepped forward.

“Yes, a pretty clear one, it was actually weirdly easy to find out who our suspect is as they go to the same store in the middle of the night once or twice a week, and the cashier saw them every night before a body was discovered.” She said, arms crossed. “Nineteen year old ____ ____, seems to be squatting in a nearby apartment building with a few other young adults, from the information we gathered they seem to be a foreigner who arrived a few months ago and had been moving around the country since then.” She concluded, looking around at the people in the room. Jean and Scott were still looking at the pictures on the table, Logan was staring out the window, not looking at particularly anything.

“So why call in all of us?” Scott took the words straight out of Logan's mouth. “This is a pretty straight forward situation, we go there and bring the kid here no issues.” He said looking at the Professor who just shook his head with a smile.

“Well yes, but I was hoping that Logan could maybe do us the honor of going to fetch this young mutant as he has experience with these kinds of powers.” The Professor looked at Logan with a strange glint in his eyes. He had to notice the similarities too to what Logan had told him about his brother and what these murders looked like.

Logan sighed, he really didn't want to play babysitter but was also a bit curious about this mutant. “Alright, but someone has to come with me or this might end ugly.” He looked at the Professor.

A few hours later he and Ororo were standing in front of the aforementioned building looking at a piece of paper with a door number scribbled on it that a teenager gave them after they described their suspect and offered him a cigarette. They walked up the creaky old stairs that were definitely a safety hazard until they arrived at their destination. Ororo knocked on the door and after a few moments of awkward silence a young woman opened the door.

“What?” Lovely attitude

“Hello does someone named ____ ____ happen to live here?” Ororo asked with a smile to which the woman looked her up and down then answered with a click of her tongue.

“No.” She tried to slam the door but Logan was faster and put his foot in the way, blocking her.

“No need to lie, we know they live here, we just asked out of politeness.” He glared at the woman with a fake smile. She frowned at him and after a few fruitless attempts at closing the door opened it again.

“We don't speak to cops.” She stated to wich a genuine smirk crept up on Logan's face.

“Well then it's a good thing we aren't cops then, lead the way.” Ororo stepped into the apartment making the woman scoff and start slowly walking away, motioning them to follow her.

The apartment was decently sized, it must have been quite the luxury accommodation before it got abandoned and repopulated by squatters. The woman led them to a living room where a few other people were sitting, chatting and playing cards.

“____!” She exclaimed to which a younger looking person who was sitting on the ground playing some faded card game snapped their head up. They made a questioning hum and the woman gestured at Logan and Ororo who were standing behind her. “You have visitors.” She said then turned and walked away, sending a side-eyeing glance at Logan.

“Are you ____ ____?” Asked Rororo in that same sweet but firm voice she had been handling this whole situation in. The kid stood up from the ground and stepped closer to her, defiantly.

“Depends on who's asking.” They said with a smirk, slight accent bleeding into their words.

“We are.” Logan snapped, “We have some questions for you.” The kid sized him up, familiar gray blue eyes narrowing.

“Ask away then.” He looked back at Ororo, annoying grin still on his face.

Logan saw Ororo look at the people still in the room, some had gone back to their own conversations but it was obvious that everyone was listening to them.

“I don't think you want to discuss this here.” She looked back at the kid “It's about a few…unfortunate deaths that have happened in the area recently.” she explained. The young mutant's body visibly tensed, nose scrunching up and unnaturally sharp canines peeking out from under their top lip slightly.

“I needed a smoke anyways.” They rushed past Logan mumbling, walking out the door then down the stairs, not checking if they were being followed. Outside the building they sat down on a curb and lit a cigarette, exhaling smoke through their nose. “So what do you want from me?” They asked looking up at the two mutants standing above them.

“You killed four people ____…but we are not the police, we aren't here to arrest you. We can help you, you could learn to control whatever it was that made you do that.” Ororo reached out a hand towards the young adult sitting on the curb finishing the last of his cigarette with hurried breaths.

“And what if I say no?” They tossed the slightly burnt filter that was left between their fingers.“What if there isn't a thing that's making me do this, what if they simply deserve it?” They stood up looking at Ororo with a frown. The sun was going down and people were slowly retreating to their homes. Logan could swear that the kid had orchestrated this whole thing, making sure noone was there as witness in case of a fight.

“I don't think that's the case.” She tried to put her hand on the kids shoulder but was quickly shrugged off as they flexed their hands, sharp, strong nails growing longer.

“We'll see.” They growled and swinged, Ororo stepping out of the way with practiced ease and a sigh.

“Your turn Logan.” She said distancing herself from the soon to be fighting ring.

Logan smirked, he had waited for this ever since he saw those pictures, but seeing the actual perpetrator he unwantedly let out a soft laugh. This kid was about half his size in all dimensions, slight almost unnoticeable tremors running through their body as they took up a fighting stance. He wouldn't use his claws, he decided. Let's see how the kid does first.

The young mutant growled and kicked his food off the pavement launching himself towards Logan who dodged without even blinking. This seemed to enrage the other as they flung their arm towards him. Logan thought about catching their wrist but their movement suddenly stopped and their other hand plunged in his abdomen. Logan grabbed his opponents neck by reflex but they just squeezed something inside him then put both their legs on his chest and kicked Logan away, freeing themselves from his grasp. Logan quickly snapped out from the surprise that overtook him. The kid was standing a few meters away, quickly fading bruises on their neck and their hand tightly clutched around a piece of Logan's liver they just ripped out.

“Alright kid, done playing. You're not the only one with fancy claws here.” He clenched his fists, adamantium claws unsheathing. The other mutant's breath staggered for a second before he took up a fighting position once again, he wasn't going to let down just like that.

While Logan had underestimated the young adult at first they were definitely no match for him, overpowering them in minutes with sheer strength and fighting experience. They now lay face down on the pavement with Logan kneeling on their back, claws impaled into the ground on one side of their head. Both their clothes were sporting a few holes here and there but Logan made sure to not nick the kid too much, already feeling the scolding he, a grown adult, would have gotten if he hadn't held back in this fight.

“Are you done?” He asked the kid wriggling under him. He sent him a sharp look then nodded and Logan let him go. “No reason to fight it Bub, you are not beating me any time soon.” He tried to give the kid a hand but got promptly ignored.

“Give me an address.” they said to which both Logan and Ororo gave them a confused look.

“What do you need that for?” She asked.

“To go to your child soldier factory where you want me, so i can tell whoever sent you to fuck off and leave me alone.” The previous cockyness was completely gone, replaced by pure annoyance. Storm smiled at them which seemingly disgusted them even more.

“We have a car, if you pack your bags now we can take you there, no need to go all the way yourself.” She offered and got a snort out of the kid.

“Yeah no, that's how people get trafficked. Either give me an address or fuck off.” They were one to talk about trafficking. Logan was sure they had used that little organ snatching number before. Ororo sighed and nodded and soon they were on the road, driving back to the school empty handed, only bringing back the promise of a murderous nineteen year old that they would actually show up, yeah sure.

Ch. 2

“And you believed them? That's low even for you.” Scott followed Logan in the hallway whisper-yelling at him as they were walking to the Professor's office. He had been waiting for them at the door, appointed to show the new student their room and quite annoyed that he had to stand outside for nothing.

“I-look I know an honest kid when I see one.” He retorted, emitting the information that he had doubts about your honesty and didn't understand himself why they let you go in the first place. No issue, the Professor would read his mind anyways so there was no way out of this.

“You are on point Logan.” He heard a voice in his head and could almost feel the old bastard smiling as Scott opened the door to his office.

“They let the kid go.” Cyclops exclaimed as he stepped inside, a short “I know” ringing in their ears soon after.

“If Logan believes that our young recruit will come here themselves then I believe it too.” Logan had wanted to die many times before but never would he have believed that it would be out of embarrassment.

That's how he ended up at four in the morning getting on his motorcycle with no sleep in him ready to come find you and bring you to the school no matter what.

_______________________________________

“You can still stay with us you know, just because your mother is gone we won't kick you out.” Your aunt said while helping you fold the little clothes you had. After your mothers early death you knew you had no place in this shared family home anymore so you decided to flee the country and somehow get to America to find your father. Easy enough in idea, a bit harder to do in real life. You would have wanted to stay, you really would but something had changed inside you and you could feel that something bad was approaching, you couldn't let your family be hurt by it. So you left. You packed essentials in a backpack and left everything else in your dresser, telling your aunt that she could sell or gift them away if she so wished. She swore she would never do something like that.

Getting out of the country through the forest was relatively easy, so was finding a guy who was willing to sneak you on a boat to America for some favors and your mothers jewelry. What wasn't easy was your first night on that boat.

You woke up in a pool of cold sweat, hair sticking to your skin making you shiver. Your mind felt like it was wrapped in a winter blanket, muffling the sound of people walking around and making you feel like you were overheating. The man who helped you get on the boat slowly creaked the door to the storage room you were hiding in open and you closed your eyes, acting like you were asleep. The smell of years of alcohol abuse and lack of hygiene filled your newly heightened senses as he approached your sleeping form and crouched down next to you. Only a few more weeks and you would be there, only a few nights you had to endure this. When the ship docked you would kill him. You promised yourself as you bit into your own arm to silence a growl that was emerging from deep within your chest, canines feeling sharper and drawing blood for the first time, but not the last.

_______________________________________

You were actually crazy there could be no other explanation to why you were currently on the side of the road walking towards the address you were given, instead of doing what you should have done and skipped town immediately. You were crazy, the change of scenery and the blood had gone to your head and you have actually lost it. You were angrily mumbling to yourself, dim streetlights and the pale moon being your only source of light, yet you couldn't get yourself to stop, to turn away, to do what your brain was yelling for you to do.

A car whizzed by you, then another, then a motorcycle. You weren't paying much attention until the sound of the motorcycle shut off and you could see a dark shadow on your bath only a few steps ahead of you. You didn't slow your steps and didn't look up, whoever stopped couldn't even touch you before you cut them up.

“Need a lift Bub?” A familiar voice. You looked up to see the man who had beaten you with annoying ease only a few hours ago looking at you with no venom in his eyes. Oh you needed a lift alright, preferably to heaven, or hell. It didn't really matter at this point.

“I don't have a helmet.” You threw him a lazy excuse and he scoffed.

“I'll drive slow.” He told you in a mocking tone and you sheepishly approached the motorcycle he was sitting on. Getting on with some difficulty and holding onto the man in front of you while touching him as little as possible.

That went out the window the moment he revved the engine and took off as you let out a yelp and gripped him for dear life as he started driving at a speed that you couldn't believe anyone to consider slow.

The trees on the side of the road flew by you at lightning speed as you drove down the forest road, you were squeezing the man in front of you while holding onto your bag by curling around it, a small tiny tear bubbling out from the outer corner of your left eye and flying off your face a moment later.

Soon you arrived into a more populated area and as the rising sun slowly crept up the horizon you could feel the man in front of you slow down gently. He turned his head slightly towards you and asked.

“Are you hungry?” You took a few seconds to get your ears to stop ringing and make sense of what he said then without lifting your forehead from where it was pressed into his back you nodded. Yes, you were hungry. You hadn't eaten something proper in a few days as your funds extended to a maximum of one pack of biscuits per week. You did some odd jobs here and there since you arrived in the country but that money dried up quickly when you were on the move. You felt the motorcycle pull to the side and stop soon then a hand grabbed your arm half-gently, snapping you out of your head. You quickly let go of the man with flaming embarrassment and jumped off the motorcycle. You were in the parking lot of some stereotypically american mom and pop restaurant that you had only heard being talked about before you arrived. You and the man entered the establishment and sat down at one of the strangely sticky booths. Soon a joyful middle aged woman came up to you with a notepad and a smile that was brighter than the rising sun.

“What can I get for you tough guys?” She chirped and the man looked at you. You looked back at him, having no idea what you could even get in a place like this. He snapped his eyes away from you and looked at the woman.

“A glass of whiskey for me and some pancakes with orange juice for them.” He ordered and you couldn't help but feel a bit infantilised as those you imagined were considered the kid menu option. The woman scribbled down something on her notepad and looked back with an apologetic smile.

“I'm sorry dear but we don't serve whiskey in the morning.” She tapped her pen on her notepad as she looked at the man sitting in front of you, he nodded and spoke with a sigh.

“A coffee then, as strong as possible.” The woman nodded and walked away, leaving the two of you in awkward silence.

You sat face to face but not looking each other in the eyes until you couldn't do it anymore and decided to break the silence.

“I didn't get your name yesterday.” in the midst of trying to rid him of his lungs it slipped your mind to politely ask for his name so he was currently stored in the ‘nameless weirdo’ section in your brain.

“Logan.” Came the short answer. You looked up at him, studying his face for a moment.

“Fitting.” You mused out loud, half caring if you actually said it or not.

“What's that supposed to mean?” He asked, but you just shrugged humming, he just looked like someone with that name, no deeper meaning than that. The food he ordered for you quickly came, probably due to not a lot of people being in the diner at five thirty AM. You silently thanked the woman with a nod and started to cut up your pancakes.

As you ate slowly Logan spoke again.

“Where are you from?” He asked before sipping his coffee, but never looking away from you.

“Eastern bloc.” You stayed vague, he wouldn't know the difference between the countries anyways.

He hummed like when someone doesn't really listen to what you are saying but still wants to contribute.

“And what would bring someone like you to cross the ocean just to come squat in abandoned buildings here?” He put his mug down holding eye contact with you. You stopped chewing and swallowed your food before answering him.

“A family friend lives in the area and I'm trying to find them.” You half-lied.

“And is this man more family or friend hm?” He cocked his head to the side immediately clocking your lie, somehow he even knew it was a man you were looking for. You continued to chew on your food, averting your gaze and focusing on the few people populating the diner. As you looked over the place you half heartedly decided to ask him a question.

“Were you born like that?” You looked at Logan from the corner of your eyes. “With the claws?” You clarified. He laid back in his chair looking out of the window and at his motorcycle making a few faces before he answered.

“I was, but they used to be just normal bones.”

“Hm” you nodded, finishing your plate. You sat in awkward silence for a moment until he stood up and walked towards the counter to pay. After he was done you both left and walked back to his motorcycle.

“Ready?” He laughed at you, pictures of your terrified face during your earlier ride probably popping up in his mind. You hummed and put on your backpack, clutching it to your chest as you got on.

_______________________________________

“Logan is bringing in the new student.” The Professor said as Jean walked in his office, the woman looked out the window not yet seeing anyone approach but knowing that you would arrive shortly.

Ch. 3

Living at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters - which was truly a mouthful of a name - was not as bad as you first expected. Having done all your schooling back home and being quite older than the other students there made you a bit of an anomaly amongst anomalies, as you didn’t attend any classes and just hung around the property while the X-Men were trying to figure out what to do with you. It was nice, you had three meals a day and you were free to roam around the garden to read and draw all day long. You could have gotten used to it, but the rational part of your mind knew this wouldn't last forever. You still needed to find your father to learn to control your episodes of rampage that you luckly hadn't had any of during your stay yet and you knew you couldn't just stay here all your life, you needed to decide on what you wanted to do.

“Stargazing?” The sound of Logan's voice snapped you out of your thoughts, you had put down your book and had been staring at the clear blue sky for the past twenty minutes at least.

“Very funny.” You smiled sarcastically and let him pull you to your feet, holding onto his arm. He wasn't the asshole you thought he was at first, you realized as you got to know him this past few weeks. I mean, he was an asshole, he just had a few good qualities to him that you could appreciate. He also seemed to give you special attention, not like you had an issue with it. You didn't exactly have friends yet so you were happy to have someone to play cards or silently stare into nothingness with. When you talked you felt like he was truly listening to you and you felt more and more comfortable telling him things about yourself, even though you still tried to avoid the topic of your father and your goals to find him as it seemed to be an uncomfortable spot for him so you let it be.

He started walking away and you followed him wordlessly. He led you to the gymnasium and instructed you to put on boxing gloves.

“I'm going to teach you how to properly defend yourself Bub.” He entered the ring.

“I really don't think that's necessary, you know that.” You chuckled at him, letting down your hands in disbelief. You had just fought a few weeks ago, he couldn't really believe you were defenseless.

“You don't want to kill people every time you fight them, and the way you fight you might do just that to a normal person, but-” he approached you and started to guide your body into a defensive position. “-you’re not nearly good enough to beat a mutant.” he raised his hands to fight and clicked his tongue. “Come on Bub!”

The night air hit your face refreshingly as you walked out of the gymnasium and into the garden. The night sky was beautiful, stars more visible without the light pollution of the city. You started to walk towards the end of the property when Logan stopped you.

“Where are you going?” He questioned, hand on your shoulder. He has been watching over your every move, you knew, you heard him and the other teachers talking about you and your father in hushed tones but decided to not listen in. Professor Xavier would know anyways if you did and you tried to force yourself into blissful ignorance for as long as possible. So you smiled at him.

“I left my book in the garden earlier, i'm just gonna go get it.” It was half a lie. While you did leave your book in the garden, getting it was not the only purpose of your walk. You had made sort of a routine of sneaking out of the school's garden and into the forest at night. It wasn't for anything nefarious, you just felt more free. While staying at the school was great, knowing that there were at least two people who could read your mind at all times was making you uneasy so you took these little nighttime trips to think about stuff you didn't want anyone interrupting on.

The old stone of the garden wall scraped against your palm as you scaled it, strong nails digging into it and helping you stay up but any cuts it made started healing instantly, not nearly as good as the healing you have seen Logan do, but a fun little piece of your power that only recently manifested. You made a less than gracious fall on the other then got up and tried to get off the dead leaves that clung to your clothes. Freedom at last. You took off into the forest, zipping up your hoodie and putting one hand in your pocket while you made small scratches on the trees you passed with the other one. The forest was mostly calm, silence interrupted by a few gusts of wind and the sound of nearby nocturnal animals here and there, but that was just the sound of nature so you calmly continued your walk.

This reminded you a lot of the summers you spent going out into the forest to look for mushrooms with your cousins after rain. You play fought and chased each other around, then as you grew transformed it into banter and friendly conversations as you looked for mushrooms for the entire family. Here you didn't recognise any of them, some little features always different from the ones you saw at home so you never dared to bring back any to the school.

You crouched down next to a mushroom, you couldn't make out the color of it in the dark but you admired the sparkling drops of dew in its wide cap.

“Make sure to not eat any that's poisonous.” A man's voice spoke behind you and you jumped up, stepping on the mushroom as you turned around. An old man was standing in front of you, cane in hand and hat on his head, looking like he just stepped out of a silent film. You looked around and took a big breath through your nose but couldn't see or smell any human other than you in the woods. You narrowed your eyes at him and took a step back, ready to run or fight if the need arose.

“Can I help you?” You asked, voice unkind, bordering on accusatory.

“Oh no I doubt it right now, but I think I might be able to help you ____ ____.” He smiled at you and you hardened your expression, claws slowly creeping out without your permission. He chuckled and walked over to a nearby tree stump where he sat down.

“You know you look a lot like him. Well not anymore, he has changed quite a lot, but you look a lot like him when he was younger.” The man looked up at you, staring into your eyes.

“Who are you talking about?” You asked, cautious of every movement he made.

“Sabertooth, your father of course. You've been looking for him, haven't you?” Your eyes widened at the mention of your father and you stepped closer to the man.

“Who are you?” You questioned, looking down at him.

“My name is Magneto, I can bring you to your father and make you into the best version of yourself.” He stood up forcing you to take a step back. You looked back in the direction where the school was. “You don't need to decide now.” He put his hat that was previously resting in his lap back on. “Find me when you have made your decision.” He said then walked away. You watched him melt into the darkness of the forest, footsteps and smell slowly fading away as silence took over the area. There was no wind, nor animals making their nightly rounds, just you, your heart beating so fast you were sure it would rip out of your body.

After a few moments of this you decided to go back to the school, scaling the wall again and grabbing your book on the way back. As you looked up you noticed that the Professor's office still had the lights on, one curtain lightly moving like somebody had just been there. You sped up the stairs and straight to your room. That night you didn't dream, you didn't do anything, just floated in your sleep and complete silence.

Ch4.

Next morning you woke up with your head pounding like it was going to blow up. You stood up, pain making you dizzy and forcing you to sit back down. As you sat there you thought about last night's events, for a second you would have thought it had all been a dream until you lifted your eyes to your book, pages slightly warped from being left out in the night.

“Uh fuck me.” You groaned, chugging down the glass of water that was on your side table hoping it would help dissipate the pain.

It didn't. After a few minutes you decided, headache or not, you were going to get on with your day and do something productive, though what that was you weren't sure yet.

Leaving your room after a quick morning routine to make yourself presentable you were walking down the hallways, passing by classrooms where you could hear different kinds of classes going on - you really had overslept. You decided to look for Logan but the sound of his voice found you first, you approached the open door of the teachers break room and listened.

“The most important thing is that we keep them away from Sabertooth, and then we are good no?” Asked Cyclops.

“That's not exactly a solution-” you heard Logan sigh “I can already see Victor in them, and not just their face but the way they fight and act. My brother-” you took in a sharp breath and snapped your eyes wide “-was always unpredictable, and I believe that without proper training so will be ____, and that could be a real danger to all of us.” You clenched your fist hard, holding back a dry sob and replacing it with a scowl. You walked away, hearing the two men continue their conversation but deciding to not listen anymore, you had heard enough. In a rational part of your mind you knew that everything that Logan said was the truth and not meant as an insult, but to hear him say it out loud made you want to tear your skin off and scrape any resemblance you had to your father. It hurt to hear him talk about your father and you like that, and it hurt to know he had hid your relation to each other for so long. Why? Were you not good enough a fighter or an intellectual? Those were things that could be changed over time but you knew what couldn't be changed is you being your fathers child. If his reluctance to reveal your family connection came just from the bad history he and his brother shared then that was just too bad for you. You were seething as you stomped back to your room, you decided to go read in the garden as usual to calm down, maybe if you got lucky the grass and flowers would absorb you and you wouldn't end up disappointing everyone like you always did.

Reading did help even if the main storyline was quite boring and you were only still putting up with the annoying main character to get to the end of the side story that was actually interesting. Whatever that's not important. As you laid on the grass reading, you heard unfamiliar steps approach you.

“Whatcha readin’ tiger boy?” Suddenly your book was snatched out of your hands and lifted up to the stranger. It was one of the students, a few years younger than you like most people here. He had a smug look on his face as he gave you small side eyes while reading your book.

“Can I help you?” You stood up from the ground towering over the boy by quite a bit.

“Yes, you can tell me how you killed those guys downtown a month ago.” He smiled up at you, white teeth almost sparkling in the sun. You frowned down at him in disapproval and took the book out of his hand.

“I don't know what youre talking about, little boy.” You snorted as you packed your stuff away, muttering about not letting yourself be bullied by a literal child. He grimaced at the name and took a step closer to you.

“You really are useless without the Wolverine ordering you around aren't you?” He spat with venom in his voice. Your light annoyance quickly transformed into boiling rage, familiar buzzing in your head slowly muffling the logical part of your thinking.

“Mind repeating that?” You snarled, nails growing as you walked closer to him.

“You're just like a dog, doing what others tell you.” He doubled down and you let out a low growl. You tried to hold yourself back knowing that you would only end up hurting the kid but when he laughed at your inaction, the last thread of your self control snapped.

You pushed him back with force making him fall on the ground with a yell that made some other students look in your direction. You crouched down over him swiping a clawed hand over his chest, ripping his shirt and flesh, as he tried to get out from under you.

“Not so brave now.” You smiled and grabbed his hair to pick his head up from the ground.

“Please-” he hiccuped, previous cockyness completely gone. You would have laughed at him but the sound of someone running towards you made your head snap up just in time to see Logan tackling you off the boy and onto the ground.

“What are you doing!?” He yelled at you and held you down by your shoulders as you struggled to get out. You were only seeing red, thrashing like a wild animal caught in a trap. “What. Are. You. Doing?!” He asked again, showing you against the grass to punctuate every word. You snarled at him.

“Why do you care? In your eyes I'm just like my father anyways!” You lifted your head closer to his face, voice dripping from venom and anger.

“What are you talking about?” He backed up, confusion apparent on his face as he held you down.

“You don't think I know? You can whisper all you want with your little X-Men friends but the truth was going to come out eventually!” You finally wriggled out of his grasp and kicked yourself away. “I'm not your brother! So don't think that ‘saving’ me was going to be some kind of redemption for not being able to do the same for my dad!” You yelled, Logan dumbfounded and stared at you. “And you couldn't even tell me to my face that you were my uncle! Are you ashamed of me? Am I not good enough for the Wolverine?!” You could feel tears gathering in your eyes but you would not let them fall. The sadness you felt as the seconds passed without Logan answering you washed away your red, hot rage leaving you feeling betrayed.

“That's what I thought.” You said quietly, a single tear rolling down your cheek. You turned away and started to run towards the direction of the garden wall. You could hear Logan call out after you but you didn't care, you wanted your mother and you wanted to be normal. As you left the garden and ran into the forest you finally let your tears fall.

After walking around in the forest for close to an hour you felt calmer but not any less hurt. You thought about going back to the school, but knowing you would have to face Logan after all the things he said made you continue walking away. A tree branch snapped and you quickly whipped your head around to see the old man from before standing behind you.

“Do you always hang around in the forest looking for mutants to reunite with their fathers or is it pure coincidence that we meet again.” It came out meaner than you intended, nerves still tight like a guitar string from your earlier confrontation. Magneto laughed, a low chuckle that resonated in your bones.

“Believe me, that our meeting here was not planned at all.” He said before looking at you with a strange glint in his eyes. “But maybe not a coincidence either.” You frowned slightly, not completely getting to what he was trying to tell you. “Have you made your decision?” He asked you and you took in a sharp breath. You have completely forgotten about yesterday in the heat of today's events. You thought about it for a minute. If you stayed you could continue to ignore your problems and act like all was well, but if you went with Magneto you wouldn't have to face Logan and you could potentially get answers on your mutation, not to forget meeting your father, the man you came here to find in the first place.

“I'll go with you, if you take me to my father.” You finally answered. Magneto smiled and put his hand on your shoulder as he led you away deeper into the forest than you ever have been. You looked back towards the school feeling unease rise in your gut but stomping it down as quickly as possible. This is what you wanted, what you came here for.

Professor Xavier stared out of his office window towards the forest. He could hear your thoughts get farther and farther away until they slipped from his grasp. He sighed looking at Logan who was trying to look unbothered as he looked for small details all around the room, quieter than usual.

Ch5.

“I would like the eggs and the flour please” you were younger, almost didn't reach the counter yet as you slid the money your mother stuffed into your pocket towards the cashier. The shop was small, not much bigger than your living room and cramped full of all kinds of food and sweets you knew you were not allowed to buy. It was alright, your mother promised to make your favorite for dinner after you came back from the store so you easily tore your eyes away from the various rooster shaped lollipops.

“Here you go.” The older woman gave you a bag and gently tugged your hat on your head to make sure it covered both your ears. Yout thanked her and said goodbye to her and another shopper who had arrived. As you left you noticed your shoelaces were untied so you put your bag down and bent over to start tying them, accidentally leaving the shop door slightly closed.

“What a shame…” you heard the other womans voice filter out. “For such a beautiful woman to have whored herself out to that foreigner.” Your movements froze. It wasn't the first time you heard people talking like this about your mother but every time they did you felt so ashamed, like you had taken something from her.

“Watch your mouth now!” The shop owner snapped. “Things like this happen even to the women of the highest class, you should be ashamed of yourself speaking like this about one of your own.” You finished tying your shoes, the conversation in the shop slowly fizzling out in the wind as you walked home. Despite your satisfaction that the shop owner defending your mother brought, you couldn't help but feel the shame of being born eating at you. You were the only proof of your mothers brief relationship with that man, if you hadn't been born then she would already be married and happy by now.

“I'm home!” You exclaimed as you kicked your boots off. You waddled to the kitchen where your aunt and mother were preparing dinner already and put the striped plastic bag on the table. You stood there for a moment, hesitant to ask the question that had been bothering you ever since you left the shop.

“What does ‘whored’ mean?” You asked. Your mother and aunt gasped in unison and turned otowards you. You knew it was a bad word, you saw how people reacted when someone said it and you knew it had something to do with you being born but you never dared to ask.

“Where did you hear that?” You mother crouched down to you looking scandalized. ‘Where didn't you hear that’ was a better question, your family wasn't known for talking like aristocrats, but somehow any kind of swearing had become forbidden when you were around.

You tried to answer her but your tongue felt like it was made out of lead and your thick coat started to suffocate you, the edges of your vision becoming fuzzy as you struggled to get out the words. You suddenly felt cold and then,

You woke up.

Groggy as every other morning you opened your eyes and stared at the cold metal ceiling of the place Magneto had brought you to. He told you all about some kind of brotherhood and all but in the emotional state you were in you didnt care to listen much. The place was freezing and looked like the places you slept in during your first week in America. You missed the warm bed you woke up in every morning at the school, but this was for the best, you rationalized in your head. Back there people saw you as a threat, like all the people here, you would fit in soon enough you just needed time.

Adjusting to the other mutants of the brotherhood was one thing, adjusting or at least trying to adjust to your father was completely different. It wasn't all happy tears and long lost family connections that you hoped for in your dreams. You two didn't talk, at all. He was there standing behind Magneto during his grandiose speeches and he was there sitting at a corner table when you ate lunch but he didn't seem to care much, and you were way too scared of his hulking figure to make any more of a first step than introducing yourself. When you watched him go around his day your mind often wandered back to Logan. Before you often imagined your father by filling in the empty space with your uncle, american movie stars or male teachers. Then you met Logan and for a bit didn't feel like thinking about your father. Then finally when you found out he was your uncle you started to see a faceless Logan filling the role of your father in your dreams. Now you had a face to tie to your father, you had claws much like your own, voice cruff and unwelcoming and eyes that never even looked at you. You felt lost and envious for the life you could have lived at the school but you knew that you had made your choice, and Magneto knew too.

“There is an anti-mutant protest tomorrow.” He approached you, seemingly stepping out of nowhere. “Important heads of these groups who seek to destroy us will be present-” he looked at you, waiting for something “-I presume we can count on your talents?” He narrowed his eyes at you, question not leaving the space for a no. You nodded your head and whispered an ‘of course’ wich seemed to satisfy him as he left you alone. This was it. This was what you had chosen and you were going to stick with it no matter the consequences. You weren't going to back down just because this life isn't rainbows and sparkles like you have expected.

The next day arrived quickly and you were instructed to blend in the crowd of protesters as one of the less easily identifiable mutants. You had two boxes of metal wire in your bag that Magneto planned to use to immobilize individuals. When that was done your job was to track down a specific talking head and ‘deal with him’. Magneto was vague in his commands but you knew he wanted you to kill the man, to show where your loyalties lie.

All was going according to plan. You were in the front third of the crowd, silently moving forward between people who were chanting and screaming for the death of all people like you. As you passed a church you looked at the clock, thirteen fifty nine, you reached into your bag and lifted the coils of thin metal wire up above your head as the clock struck zero and the coils flew out of your hands. The yelps quickly turned into screams as people fell to the floor and all hell broke loose. You continued advancing towards the podium where your target was standing, halfway through his speech confused on what was going on. Suddenly the two body guards standing next to him collapsed, this being your sign you lept on the podium and tackled the man who let out a pained yell as you sunk your claws into his neck, pinning him down but not killing him just yet. Magneto arrived, taking the place of the man you had on the ground. He was looking down at you eyes not disappointed but promising to be if you didn't do what your job was. You gulped but decided to stay right as you were for the time being.

Magneto spoke with the voice of a king who was holding his own head, yet still alive. He radiated the feeling of superiority even as the people he caged to listen to him shouted and spat insults at him. Most of the protesters had wire around their necks, not painful or uncomfortably tight, but present, there as a promise to people of the consequences if they as much as moved in the wrong way.

The sky suddenly darkened and thunder rang out as the only warning before the X-Men arrived. Magneto made an uncaring gesture with his hand towards a few of his men before continuing on talking to the crowd held hostage. As the X-Men approached and a few individual fights broke out Magneti sighed and looked down at you.

“Kill him. We are leaving.” He ordered. Your nails were still dug into the man's neck from earlier leaving him shaking and weakly begging to be let go for the past twenty minutes, he yelped and continued on louder and more frantic. You looked down at him, hatred all gone from his eyes and replaced with fear. For a moment you felt pity, but you wouldn't be fooled, people like him either live heroes or die martyrs in the eyes of their followers. You slowly retracted your nails from his neck and lifted your hand. You paused for a second then, grew your claws out again stronger than before. You striked, but before your claws could dig into the man's throat you were kicked away and almost off the podium.

“What the fuck?!” you yelled at the blue man who had just tackled you. He smiled and in his moment of distraction you kicked him in the face.

Magneto scowled and with a flick of his wrist let go of the protesters who started to scatter, causing chaos.

“You hesitated.” He looked down at you then the blue man who was holding his head from your kick then stepped down from the podium and disappeared into the crowd.

“Wait!” You yelled as you got up but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Scheiße~” you heard the man groan behind you. In a panic you quickly looked for Magneto in the crowd once more then when you realized you have been truly left behind you bolted. You ran trough the fleeing crowd and into a small alley. You scaled a dumpster and a fence before half elegantly falling on the other side.

You ended up on a narrow street, shops all closed and noone in sight. You stopped to catch your breath and crouched down slightly for a moment.

“____!” A deep voice calling out to you. Your head snapped up.

Logan was standing on the other side of the street, breathing slightly labored and looking as pissed as ever. You let out your claws and growled at him as you squared up.

“You don't want this. Come with me, we are going home.” He huffed and walked closer to you to wich you let out a warning noise.

“Fuck you!” You spat as nothing came to mind.

You wanted to go home to the school and you wanted to go home to your family but you were mad. You were mad at Logan even though you knew it was unreasonable. You were mad at him for finding you, you were mad at him for bringing you to the school and you were mad at him for discussing you with others just out and about, if he hadn't done all that you wouldn't be here, you wouldn't have been disappointed by your father and you wouldn't have disappointed Magneto. You knew that it wasn't truly him you were angry at, but from behind your rage you had a hard time seeing reason.

Ch. 6

Before he could get another word out you launched at him, trying to get a few quick blows in to surprise him before trying to actually take him down. He was heavy and short making him quite literally an unmoving force for someone like you, much weaker and lighter than him. Your best bet was tiring him out and then bolting, as during your weeks of training with Logan you had learned that healing factor here or there, his skeleton looking like a malnourished tin man made him remarkably slower than you, and with enough effort even he would start to get tired, mentally if not else. So you ran at him, slashing at any exposed part of his body to let out your frustrations, then kicking off and putting some distance between you two. You went at it for about ten minutes, becoming sloppier and sloppier with every attack until, you left an opening and Logan punched you in the gut making you fall on the ground a few meters away. You winced in pain and spat some bile that had arose from your stomach on the ground but got back up as quick as possible. Logan stalked closer to you, expression unreadable.

“We don't have to fight kid, I don't want to fight you.” He said, tone firm but unmistakably sad.

“Well I do.” You snarled at him as you resumed your well practiced fighting position. He sighed deeply and squared up. You hesitated a few moments then lunged at him again, only this time he wasn't playing easy with you anymore and slammed you into a nearby brick wall.

Sweat dripped down from behind your ears as you could feel his knuckles touching your forehead, two of his claws deeply embedded into the wall on the two sides of your head, one move from him and you would be dead immediately.

Logan didn't want to kill you though, he wanted at first, thinking it would be easier, but the dreams he kept having about it made him realize the mistake he would be making.

“Stop already! I. Don't. Want. To. Fight. You.” He said every word separately, like someone would to an unruly toddler and you felt pinned in place, literally. Like a butterfly in a display case, vulnerable. You scrunched your face up, holding back tears.

“Did you mean it?” You asked, voice wet from the approaching tears.

“Mean what?” Logan let go of his grip on you and looked at you in confusion.

“That I was a danger to all of you.” You quoted his exact words.

Logan took in a deep breath and looked towards the street where the protest had happened a mere half hour ago. He stepped away from you and dragged his palm down his face sighing.

“The only person you are a danger to-” he narrowed his eyes at you “-is yourself. But that, you are constantly.” He chuckled and you couldnt hold yourself back anymore. You rushed him and buried your face in his chest, sobbing and squeezing him to yourself. He made a startled noise at first, then gently hugged back, though a bit awkwardly.

“Easy, easy.” He shushed your cries as you shook in his arms. You stood in the street, Logan gently holding you while you cried and hiccuped. Finally after about ten long minutes you finally seemed to calm down and lifted your face from his chest.

“I want to go home.” You whispered, voice hoarse from all the crying.

“I'll take you back to the school, c'mon.” He started walking but you stayed in place.

“No. I want to go home to my aunt and uncle.” You said, few new tears rolling down your cheeks. Logan stood there for a second, then nodded.

“Well talk to Wheels, hell figure something out for you.” He pulled you with him as he walked, presence reassuring.

Less than a week later you had said your goodbyes as you boarded your plane to go back home. The Professor had told you, you were always welcome at the school and gave you a small card with just the schools name and banner on it, he said they would help all they could. Logan didn't say anything. He didn't have a phone or a plan of what he was going to do in the future so he just told you, you would find each other when you needed to. You were going to miss him you knew that, by the time you landed you already did. And you knew that one day you would find eachother again.

Seven years later you moved to America in hopes for a better future and maybe finding Logan. This time around you had promised to keep in contact and send frequent updates to your family and had a shared apartment and a job pretty quickly after your arrival.

You tried looking for Logan and even ended up at the school to ask for any leads, only to find out that most of the people who had saved you back then were gone, including Logan. You didn't leave your room for a while after that. You felt wrong for grieving, you felt like it wasn't your place as you didn't know him for very long even if he was your uncle, but the weight and pain in your chest you felt every time you thought about him being gone had paralyzed you just like it had with your mother.

Time passed nonetheless and slowly you got back out. You went back to your job at a very sketchy local butcher shop and even made friends, your biggest pride being the ‘will they won't they’ relationship you had with a bartender who worked in an equally sketchy pub across the street.

It was seven thirty and you prayed for time to go just a bit faster so you could close up shop for the night and go to sleep already when two men entered the shop. You half-heartedly greated them as you continued to stare at the telenovela that was playing on the tiny tv next to the cash register(due to your boss’s obsession, you ended up horribly addicted to the messy tv dramas)

“Hey sorry, do you have any recommendations?” You looked up at the guy who was talking to you, hood pulled up on his seemingly bald head, the rest of him looking like he had made out with a kitchen fire.

“Eh, yea sure. What are you cooking?” The guy made a noise like he wanted to talk before and incredibly familiar, gruff voice cut him off.

“It's for a dog's birthday.” you looked up and nearly dropped the steak knife you were holding. Logan. You gotta be kidding me.

Hi, sorry to make yet another OOC post but this is extremely important to me. Over the last 48ish hours, since I refused to answer the anthrax ask, my ask box has been flooded with violent asks, towards mostly Molly and Jasper. Theres been a lot of it, and it's making me extremely uncomfortable, and some of it is kind of triggering. I'm very close to turning off Anon, which i don't want to do since its how most of the good asks are sent in. But I do not want ANYMORE violent asks for now. Please.

I've had Jasper's room bombed, Molly's throat has been slit. Its nuts. And I am NOT okay with it. I'm going back to my old rules.

So we all know Matt Murdock became blind because of unknown chemicals.

We can also see in the first Deadpool movie that they used chemicals to unlock Wade's mutant powers.

Which made me think that the chemicals that spilled into Matt's eyes were the same as the one from Deadpool and therefore unlocked Matt Murdock's mutant powers: heightened senses except for his vision as the same chemicals blinded him.

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Can you guys actually believe it?

This month marks an entire year since I started my fanfic series, "X-Men: The Next Mutation"!

It's been a wild ride doing this series!

And I couldn't be more thankful for all of you who read it sticking with me through eight action-packed episodes!

You've seen the mutant teens face against an unstoppable foe from the past, a ravenous race of aliens, an animal-morphing hunter, a disgraced geneticist, a crazed religious zealot, and a fun-loving madman.

And there's certainly more to come!

So in honor of my series officially turning 1-year old, I wanted to share with you all the story of Next Mutation.

How i came up with the idea, my reasons for a lot of the choices made in this series, my ideal vision if it was an actual animated series, and even plans for the future of the series!

So sit back, grab a snack, and follow me as I take you all on a journey into the making of X-Men: The Next Mutation!

The Premise, The Team, Tone and Style:

The concept for X-Men: The Next Mutation dated all the way back to 2023.

I initially worked on the series in order to commemorate the 60th anniversary of The X-Men.

When coming up with the concept, my biggest inspiration was Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Which saw the titular heroes getting special new powers and becoming the most powerful we've seen them before.

I've always been fascinated by what that series did and I wanted to see something similar to that done with other famous fictional characters.

And among those characters were The X-Men.

And how would they become more powerful?

SECONDARY MUTATIONS!

And so, I decided to have Secondary Mutations, in stark contrast to the comics, be FAR more common among mutants.

Another aspect about this version of The X-Men was to have them in a world where mutants were far more socially accepted.

Not only because I felt that it would allow for the focus on the new powers to truly flourish, but also because let's be real, I think we're all starting to get burned out by seeing The X-Men being hated by all humanity and on the verge of extinction for the umpteenth time.

And after coming up with those aspects, I immediately came up with my roster.

This version of The X-Men would've consisted Cyclops, Jean Grey (who would be going under an actual codename: Psyche), Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Shadowcat and Lockheed, Rogue, Iceman, Beast, Gambit, Nightcrawler, Angel, Thunderbird, Sunfire, Emma Frost, Psylocke, Banshee, and Xavier.

And I had already had their Secondary Mutations in mind.

And so, with all my basics down, I realized something....

I wasn't able to come up with any stories or episode ideas.

So I decided to scrap the project.

But with the impending release of X-Men '97, it gave me the encouragement to do my own X-Men series.

So I decided to revive the project, but with some changes.

I decided to scale down the roster, only keeping Cyclops, Psyche, Beast, Storm, Angel, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Iceman, Wolverine, Shadowcat, Lockheed and Xavier.

I wanted the starting roster to be a mix between the First Class and Giant-Sized cast.

I also decided to age down the cast as well.

They were originally gonna be around the same ages as in the comics.

But I aged them down to be teenagers and young adults instead.

And this ties into the main reason why I couldn’t think of any episodes for the original version.

The X-Men were already gonna have their Secondary Mutations from the start of the series.

And I felt that wasn't a good idea, as it would essentially make the series feel pointless.

So I figured it would be best to focus on The X-Men getting their new Mutations and seeing them gradually get use to them.

Hence why I made them so young.

As for the depictions of the X-Men themselves, there are two members I specifically want to highlight: Angel and Xavier.

Angel because in contrast to the comics, adaptations and even most fanfictions......he's a female here.

This was heavily inspired by the artist oni18064, who in his Marvel AU, had made Angel a female by the name of Wren Worthington.

I found the concept rather intriguing and I'd decided to adapt the idea into my series.

I had this idea in mind even for the original version of Next Mutation.

As for Xavier, I kinda wanted to help him out.

I've already gone on record about this, but it does bare repeating.

The comics have not been kind to this man for the last 20 years.

Constantly revealing tons of shady and terrible things he's done.

Going so far as to RETCON them during major events in The X-Men's early years!

I get that Xavier is not suppose to be perfect, but this movement of just tearing him down and revealing that he's a horrible person has become OVERKILL!

And having The X-Men (or anyone as a matter of fact) gradually wanting nothing to do with him anymore.

And they're still doing it to this day!

I swear to God.

90% of the horrible things that happened (or have happened) to The X-Men, Xavier is usually somehow involved in it.

And this has done so much damage how many people view him.

So many fans tend to view Xavier in an incredibly negative light and see him as a let's be real, the fucking Anti-Christ!

And I don't know why the comics became so obsessed with making Xavier into the true villain of this entire series!

But from what I've heard, this can largely be blamed on the original Ultimate Universe.

Where everyone was literally the worst versions of themselves.

Xavier in The Ultimate Universe was incredibly manipulative and was clearly shown to use his powers to get what he wants.

Also, he had the hots for Jean.

Apparently the reason why he's like that is because the Ultimate Universe had the basis of taking the negative traits that many of these characters briefly had and just made that their entire personality.

And Xavier did display a few moments of manipulation and having an interest in Jean in the past.

So they basically made that his entire personality.

Though I must ask why they decided to bring that over from the Ultimate Universe?

If they did that, why didn't they bring any of this as well?

(P.S.: Firestar in that panel is about 15 years old)

So for this series, I wanted to......not do that.

I wanted show while he may not be perfect, Xavier is a genuinely good person.

Along with that, I wanted to fix many of the major criticisms levied against him

In the comics, it's been shown that Xavier has used his powers to manipulate and tamper with the minds of others, specifically the original five.

Here, while not shown yet, The X-Men all joined Xavier by their own free will.

I really want his relationship with The X-Men, especially Cyclops, to feel much more genuine.

Not only being someone they can truly look up to and look to during their tough times, but also being someone that is truly their friend.

Another major complaint is that he never really helps out, using sitting on the sidelines while his band of child soldiers basically risk their lives for his goal.

So I decided to make him a more active player in The X-Men's adventures!

This aspect was heavily inspired by, of all characters, Joe Swanson from Family Guy!

Before he became a total joke, Joe was portrayed as not only a very competent cop, but also a surprisingly tough fighter, in spite of the fact he was stuck in wheelchair.

And So, I decided to have Xavier's fighting style being a mix between his psionic powers and his combat prowess.

Remember, the guy is canonically an Army veteran.

One thing to note about this version of Xavier is his ideology.

It's essentially the same as Cyclops' in the comics.

He believes that while mutants and humans can peacefully co-exist, but he knows that not all of them are willing to.

And that mutants should be allowed to have rights and defend themselves from prejudice.

One last thing to note about Xavier is his racial background.

In contrast to most other iteration, Xavier is of mixed heritage.

With his father being Caucasian, and his mother being African-American.

This was heavily inspired by lot a recent fan interpretations of the characters.

Which themselves were inspired by the popular fan casting of Giancarlo Esposito as Xavier.

So I decided to adapt that aspect into my fanfic and made Giancarlo the voice of the character.

Sidenote: I'm actually kinda surprised that none of readers have made any Breaking Bad jokes yet.....

Speaking of voices, when casting The X-Men, I already had who I wanted in mind.

And the choices I had were already recurring VAs for the characters.

Scott Porter as Cyclops, Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey, Danielle Nicolet as Storm, Liam O'Brien as Nightcrawler, Chris Cox as Colossus, and of course, Steve Blum as Wolverine.

But for the others, this where things get interesting.

For Angel, I already had Grey Griffin in mind for her.

Same goes for Dee Bradley Baker as Lockheed.

As for the other three X-Men.....

I choose Jason Marsden for Iceman, as I felt that he would make for a pretty solid new voice for the character.

Plus, he's actually voiced Iceman before!

That being in the video game, X-Men Destiny.

It was admittedly a little tough to find a voice for a younger Beast.

But in the end, I settled on Yuri Lowenthal.

The reason why is actually an Easter Egg.

One of Yuri's most famous roles is of course, Ben Tennyson.

And several times in the series, we've met future versions of Ben, going by the alias Ben 10,000.

And the in the original series, Ben 10,000 was voiced by Fred Tatasciore, who's basically been the penultimate voice for Beast since Wolverine and the X-Men.

So basically, Fred is gonna be how Beast will sound like when he gets older.

But the hardest character for me to find a voice for was Shadowcat.

Since I wanted to give her a new VA.

But it was so damn hard.

So much so that I even considered giving her one of the prior VAs like Danielle Judovits or Kath Soucie.

But in the end, I settled on Jennie Kwan, who you'll know best as Chun Li in Street Fighter 6 and Suki in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

For the team's outfits, I used the exact same ones done by TheScarletMercenary.

I wanted to give the team for this first season matching uniforms.

And essentially, these outfits are like a modernized version of the original, First Class outfits.

The only exception with this is Wolverine, who's wearing the same outfit also done by TheScarletMercenary.

Which itself is pretty much a modified version of his classic outfit.

For the tone and style of this series, I wanted it to be a callback to a lot of the teen-focused action shows a lot us grew up with.

Teen Titans, Alpha Teens on Machines, Ben 10, Totally Spies, Danny Phantom, and even X-Men Evolution.

With a lot of action, a lot of adventure, a lot of comedy, and most importantly, a lot of heart.

One thing to note is how this series isn't really as heavy with the themes like most other X-Men series.

That's because I kinda wanted to avoid that.

Sort of....

I know how important they are to the identity of the brand, but I've always kinda had the fear that The X-Men could only be used as just for allegory and commentary and.......literally nothing else.

But even then, those themes are still there, just little more low-key.

In episode 3, "The Beast Within", we get to see Beast's childhood and the struggles he faced due to his animalistic appearance.

And in episode 5, "Flight of The Thunderbird: Part 2", we find out how Edwin Martynec's experiment had turned the residents of Camp Verde into anthropomorphic animals.

Another thing to note is how you hardly see The X-Men in their uniforms.

Like, they've only been in the damn things for two episodes.

This essentially ties into the more slice-of-life approach to this series.

Given that's something we hardly see from The X-Men nowadays.

Hell, in the little downtime they get, they're always usually still in their uniforms.

It reminds you that in spite of their extraordinary powers, they're still just normal people with their own hobbies, dreams and interests.

But real talk though, this might be the X-Men fanfic version of Regular Show.

Like, we usually start off with these guys doing normal, everyday stuff and then BAM!

They suddenly find themselves thrusted into a world of insanity with whatever villain of the week they're facing.

Though they haven't reached this level yet.....

One major aspect of this series is its world building.

Particularly when it comes to Mutations.

I already mentioned how Secondary Mutations in this world are far more common.

But I also gave the Mutations their own system.

As stated in the series, Mutations are divided into six classes.

Energy: The mutants in this class possess the ability to manipulate some form of energy.

Mental: The mutants in this class possess various psychic capabilities.

Feral: The mutants in this class have Mutations that involve the transformation into or the obtaining of physical traits of members of the animal kingdom.

Elemental: The mutants in this class possess some kind of manipulation over the forces of nature.

Molecular: The mutants in this class have the ability to manipulate and alter their own bodies in some way.

Hybrid: The mutants in this class possess a set of Mutations that don't exactly fit into one specific class.

This system, along with the Mutations having actual names, was inspired by the Quirk system from My Hero Academia.

I also wanted to fix a major issue that's been plaguing X-Men stories for a long time....

Being that they've kinda made mutants a lot less interesting.

One thing that was cool about them was that not all of them were connected to The X-Men and many of them were doing their own thing in other parts of the world.

But with everything that's happened to them, they've unfortunately been reduced to being huddled and grouped together.

So for this series, I wanted The X-Men to have allies who while mutants, are usually off doing their own thing.

Like with Thunderbird, who's based down in Arizona.

And lastly, I want to talk about what this series would be like it if was animated.

The character designs would be Jeff Matsuda, who's famous for his work in comics and animation, especially the latter!

He did the character designs for Jackie Chan Adventures.....

The Batman....

And TMNT.

And he already has experience with The X-Men thanks to their comics.

As for the animation, it would be done by Flying Bark Studios, the animation studios behind Rise of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Glitch Techs and LEGO Monkie Kid.

Like, you’re telling me you wouldn’t want a X-Men series animated like this?

Well that was part 1!

Part 2 will be going into detail on the X-Men’s Secondary Mutations and the inspirations for them, their supporting cast, and even their villains!

So stay tuned!

But until then, let me know what you guys think about this behind the scenes feature.

AO3

Masterlist

Characters: Mutant!OC, Logan Howlett, Jean Grey, Scott Summers, Hank McCoy, Charles Xavier, Kurt Wagner, Wade Wilson (mentioned)

Tags: Catholic Guilt, Catholic Imagery, Awesome Hank McCoy, Charles Xavier is a manipulative bastard, The Ends Justify The Means, Logan Is A Sweetheart, jean's a little OOC (Sorry), Logan and Kurt are best friends, past trauma, Mutant Powers, the OC is REALLY hard to get along with, no relations just money, Kurt is a good man, someone give him a hug, past trauma x2, Body Horror, insect monster, past trauma x3, kurt is THE good man, Self-Worth Issues, Attempted Seduction, Failed Seduction, Charles Xavier is bullied and he deserves it.

Words: 5,978

Chapter One / Chapter Two / Chapter Three

—You can do it. I’m not that new here to not know what Professor X is capable of. After all, you tried to talk to me when I was four states south.

The man had the decency to look embarrassed, even if it was just a flicker —that was something. Obviously, she wasn’t going to get an apology for what she liked to call a lack of telepathic etiquette. She understood that even if she herself gave a warning before trying to connect mentally (emotionally) with someone, that was just a courtesy she had decided to implement, not a written rule among mutants. That lack of tact was right up there with someone trying to talk to you while you still have your headphones on, without even waiting for you to take them off. Rude.

—I must admit this matter requires... delicacy.

She looked at the man across the desk. He looked imposing, educated. Just like her former college dean –except Xavier actually made baldness work– Suddenly, she remembered she used to have a bit of a problem with authority figures back in her student years. You can take someone out of public university, but you can’t take public university out of someone.

—I think you’re... you all are —she addressed the four people in the office— giving me way too much credit. I already told you, I’m just a white mutant —she felt their confusion—... Ugh! What system do you use in this country? Umm... Delta? Epsilon?

{An AU that takes place around six months after X3 timeframe (alternate universe so all the people are alive). Erik, Charles, Hank, and Raven are in an experiment that causes their age to go back to that of a month after First Class. Peter Maximoff was brought back to his age in Days of Future Past. Alex is revived and is his age in Days of Future Past. Erik and Raven agree to stay at the school and help them after getting their memories back and realizing that their method did nothing to help mutants. And Peter tells Erik he's his son because it's bullshit that he doesn't in the canon movies.}

Erik Lehnsherr’s first successful mission with the X-Men. Erik’s phone starts ringing as he walks away from the X-Jet. 

He flips it open and answers. “Hello?” 

“This is the Westchester County Hospital. We’re looking for Erik Maximoff. Is this him?” the voice on the other end of the phone asks. 

Erik’s heart stops for a moment. Anyone looking for him with that name means they’re looking at Peter’s paperwork. 

“Hello, sir?” 

“This is he,” Erik answers. “I’m Erik.” 

“We’re calling about your son. I’m sorry to inform you that he’s been shot today.” 

“What happened?” 

“He had a run in with the police. I don’t have the details, but he came in escorted by an officer. If you could get here…”

“I’m on my way. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” 

“Thank you, sir.” 

Erik hangs up and after changing, heads to the hospital. The drive is quiet but takes longer due to work being over right about now. His heart pounds and he fights the urge to fling cars out of the way to make this trip quicker. When he gets there, he heads straight to the ER desk. 

“I’m looking for Peter Maximoff. I’m his father.” 

“Yes, I just talked to you on the phone,” the man on the other side of the desk says. 

“I have my ID.” 

Erik hands the guy his ID and after comparing it to the paperwork, he hands it back. 

“I’ll get a nurse and they’ll talk to you about his condition. That’s the officer right there if you want to talk to him first.” 

Erik walks over to the officer. 

“I’m Erik… I’m Erik Maximoff. You just came in with my son earlier. What happened?” Erik asks. 

“While I wasn’t there, I arrived on the scene after it happened. He got caught stealing and got violent with one of the officers,” the officer answers. “He was armed and after he refused to stand down, they shot him.” 

“Erik Maximoff?” a nurse asks. 

Erik turns to the nurse so he doesn’t take the officer’s head off with sharp metal. “Where is he?” 

“He just got out of surgery. He’s been moved to a room. I’ll take you there.” 

The nurse takes him up to a room. “The doctor should be with you shortly.” 

Erik sees Peter and feels somewhere between crying and committing a heinous crime. 

How could someone do this to Peter?  

“Mr. Maximoff?” 

It takes Erik to remember that they’re talking to him. “Yes?” 

“I’m your son’s doctor. The nurse told me you wanted to talk about his condition.” 

“Yes, I would like that.” 

“There were two injuries, both sustained from the bullets. One missed anything important and he lost blood because of it. The second injury is more difficult. I’m sorry to tell you this, but there was damage to his spine.” 

“Like he can’t walk?” Erik asks, panic surging through him. 

“The damage isn’t permanent. He will be able to walk again after physical therapy,” the doctor says. 

It takes everything in Erik’s power not to send the one or many of the medical tools into this man’s head. It’s not the doctor’s fault. 

It’s those cops’ fault.  

Erik forces his attention back on the seemingly endless stream of information that the doctor is giving him about how Peter’s recovery may look. It’s all speculation right now. 

“I’ll be back to check on him in a bit. Just call the nurse if you need anything.” 

Erik nods, so the doctor leaves. Before he even has a chance to get in his head, he hears the familiar sound of Charles clicking his tongue. Erik looks up and Charles is rolling in. 

“You’re making the metal vibrate, Erik.” 

“Is that what you were clicking your tongue about?” Erik asks as he forces himself to shut his power off completely. 

“No, that was about the rather rude nurse that said I don’t look close enough to you to be related. She then got embarrassed when I said that my family adopted you because you lost your family.” 

“Is that the story?” 

“It’s close enough. How is he?” 

“Stable.” 

“State?” 

“He won’t be able to walk when he wakes up,” Erik says. 

Charles opens his mouth, then closes it. 

“It won’t be permanent, but he’ll have to go to physical therapy.” 

“I’m sorry, Erik.” 

“It’s not your fault, Charles. The blame lies with the person who did it.” 

“I think someone needs to explain to you the reasons people say ‘I’m sorry’. I’m not guilty, I’m giving my condolences for your situation. I can imagine how hard this is for you to grasp and deal with.” 

Erik nods. The monitor starts beeping, drawing Erik and Charles’ attention. Peter’s heart rate’s up. Peter opens his eyes, then blinks at them. 

“Hey,” Erik says, leaning closer to Peter, but still keeping a respectable distance from Peter. 

“Hey,” Peter mumbles. “I’m awake.” 

“I can see that,” Erik replies. 

“Oh, that makes sense,” Peter says, a goofy smile on his face. “There a reason we’re in a white room?” 

“We’ll talk about it later.” 

“Okay, Erik. I think I’m gonna go back to sleep.” 

“Go ahead. Don’t let me stop you.” 

Peter closes his eyes and falls back asleep pretty quickly. 

“At least he seems alright,” Erik says. 

“It’s a good thing,” Charles replies. “We should probably let Hank and Raven know, at least so they can prepare for us emotionally when we get back.” 

“You can tell them, I don’t care.” 

Charles nods. 

Charles and Erik are silent as Erik contemplates what to do. 

Do I go back to the school? Do I take him somewhere else? He has friends here, I can’t just pull him away from the only people he knows.  

Charles’ phone rings, so he looks at it. “Do you mind if I take this?” 

“You can take it in here or in the hallway. I’m not going to snap and destroy the hospital,” Erik answers with a small smile. 

Charles shakes his head, then rolls out of the room. 

These damn humans. They shot him. What am I supposed to do with that? I know I can’t kill them, but there has to be punishment. 

“Hey Erik, I think your powers are vibrating the bed,” Peter mumbles. 

“Sorry. Did I wake you up?” Erik replies. 

“Maybe a little.” 

“I didn’t mean to wake you up. My apologies.” 

“It’s fine. What’s wrong with my legs?” 

“Can you feel them?” 

“Yeah, some. I just can’t really move them.” 

Erik sighs and looks at his hands. 

“You’re kinda scaring me,” Peter says. 

“I’m sorry,” Erik says, then takes a deep breath. “You’re… temporarily paralyzed.” 

“So like… I can’t walk?” 

Erik nods. 

“But not forever?” 

“No. You’ll have to go to physical therapy for a while, but you’ll be able to walk again.” 

“Sorry for being a problem,” Peter says. 

“What?” Erik asks, looking up to meet his son’s eyes. 

“I probably worried you and now we’re in this situation. And this can’t be a good situation for you with your feelings on humans and the issues going on with that right now.” 

“Peter.” 

“Yes?” 

“You don’t need to apologize. You wouldn’t even need to apologize if the injury was your fault. You’re my son and I’ll be here, regardless. Your worth isn’t dependent on how convenient it is to have you around.” 

Peter squirms, but nods. 

“Feelings are icky, aren’t they?” Erik asks. 

Peter nods. “They make me uncomfortable.” 

“Same.” 

“But thanks,” Peter says. 

“Anytime. Now we’re going to give us both a minute to cool down because when Charles comes in, it will be nothing but emotional.” 

“Oh, that’s true. Where did he go?” 

“To take a call outside. He may have to go back to the school to deal with his children considering how long he’s been gone.” 

“That would be timing right there.” 

Erik laughs. “Yes, it would be.” 

Peter flashes Erik a quick smile. “I’m hilarious.” 

Erik nods. 

A couple days later, Peter gets released. He’s in a wheelchair and less than thrilled about how slow it is, but he’s on his way back to the school with Erik. They’re met by Alex, who’s sitting on the steps. 

“What do you want, Alex?” Erik asks as he gets out of the car. 

“Charles told me that you were on your way back and figured you might need assistance. Even if it’s just me taking the car back to the garage,” Alex answers. 

“That’s…” Erik trails off, not sure what to say. 

He helps Peter out of the car and into his wheelchair. Peter immediately starts rolling around trying to see what speed he can go at without tipping the wheelchair. 

“Look, I know I’m a bitch. While you do kinda deserve it, you have enough to deal with without adding my bitching to it. Take the help or don’t, I don’t care either way. I’m just not gonna be a hindrance.” 

Erik tosses the keys to Alex. “Thank you.” 

“You’re welcome.” 

Peter’s wheelchair starts to tip and Erik stops it with his powers, then rights it. 

“Thanks, Erik,” Peter says before racing up the ramp. 

Erik jogs after him. 

Hydrokinesis stimboard