psinex@yahoo.com Inverse Polarity: Strange Attractors 0 by Phil Hartman DISCLAIMER: They're all Marvel's. Please don't sue. -------------------------------------------------------- NOTES: -------------------------------------------------------- In yet another of those pesky alternate timelines ... ... Erik Magnus Lehnsherr was never reaged following his deaging at the hands of Alpha the Ultimate Mutant. Erik has since grown up a ward of Moira MacTaggart and later Excalibur. Meanwhile, Jean Grey escaped her cocoon shortly before Dark Phoenix ate D'bari, confronting the cosmic menace and forcing it to discorporate. Reunited with Scott, Jean married him and had two children, Rachel and Nathan. The Summers setled down in Anchorage, but returned to the States to found X-Factor in order to provide a stable base for the New Mutants - who, without an adult Magneto, were left temporarily teacherless when Xavier left for space. Unfortunately, Apocalypse still managed to kidnap and infect Nathan with the technoorganic virus - but Rachel saved her little brother, helping him manifest and control his powers, keeping him in his hometime. After the Muir Island disaster of 1996, X-Factor and the X-Men (who did "die" in Dallas in this timeline) reunited. Havok, Polaris, Strong Guy, Madrox, Siryn and Quicksilver formed the second X-Factor. The New Mutants graduated, but foreseeing the geopolitical situation, went rogue and became X-Force - with far more global operations, thanks to the continuing presence of an adult Illyana Rasputin. They are wanted criminals here, and have crossed lines not even their canon versions have. Excalibur maintained their independent operations, but have much closer ties with the American X-teams. Generation X formed, but without the devastation to the X-mansion which the Phalanx caused in the canon timeline. Unfortunately, the absence of Magneto has not meant an easier threat level for the X-teams. Without a mutant figurehead, the majority of the rising mutant populace has degenerated into savage "genegangs." The X-Men are facing street warfare instead of the "organized" threat of the traditional supervillain team. Indeed, many of the older villains are DEAD. This infighting amongst mutantkind has forced Xavier's children into different, often more violent tactics than they are accustomed to. Individual weaponry is as often found even amongst the original X-Men as it is in Bishop's, Shard's, or X-Force's gear. On a positive note, other superhero teams are facing the same problem, and accord the X-teams (excepting X-Force) the respect and camraderie lacking in the canon timeline. The government has also acceded to Xavier's vision, realizing that the "mutant problem" is best dealt with by mutants and parahumans alike. But the average human is feeling pinched ... ... and there are those who seek to fan that discomfort into a flame. Into this arena - four years down the road, in 2003 - come the next generation of heroes. The sons and daughters - or in some cases, siblings and other relatives - of the legends have come into their powers. The question is, will this next generation restore the glory to the heroic ideal, or will they be forced to take up arms ? And who seeks to profit from the carnage a genetic war would bring ... ? -------------------------------------------------------- PROLOGUE: Mass. Acad., Snow Valley, Mass.: Cerebro Chamber: 8/3/2003: -------------------------------------------------------- She sat in the scanning chair, donning the old, now-comfortable helmet, and powered up the array. "Voice commands," the middle-aged woman called. "Global scan: identifaxed potential students. Initiate locus lock and informational download." [INITIATED,] the artificial intelligence replied. A holographic globe of the planet appeared, with a multitude of nexii clustered in the northeastern portion of the United States. The woman nodded once, then said, "Proceed." One by one, each of the nexii grew into a full-body holographic representation of the entity being scanned, with a data readout of their vital specs. As they were printed out, the holo would fade out, allowing the next to appear. -------------------------------------------------------- PSI-LORD: Richards, Franklin Benjamin AGE: 14 BIRTHDATE: 1/1/89 HEIGHT: 5'4" WEIGHT: 110 lbs HAIR: Buzzcut blond EYES: Blue POWERS: Omega-class mutant psion: ACTIVE: Astral projection, healing (self and others), precognition EMERGING: Telepathy, telekinesis, electrokinesis LATENT: Teleportation (chronovariant ?) PROFILE: The son of the Fantastic Four, Franklin has a strong stated commitment to using his powers for the common good. However, psych tests have shown serious underlying anger, which Franklin has admitted in therapy stems from feelings of rejection from his family, especially his father (CROSS-REFERENCE: FF/01-/04), over the extent of his powers. Continued therapy and a close watch are recommended, although he does have sincere concern for others' welfare. Franklin is, unfortunately, not a likely field asset unless he gains more self-esteem ... and far more control over his powers. PHOENIX II Summers, Rachel Sara AGE: 13 BIRTHDATE: 3/1/90 HEIGHT: 4'6" WEIGHT: 87 lbs HAIR: Shoulder-length red EYES: Green POWERS: Alpha-class (?) mutant psion ACTIVE: Telepathy, telekinesis, astral projection, electrokinetic shielding EMERGING: Chronovariant astral projection (more ?) PROFILE: Rachel is the first child of Scott and Jean Summers - Cyclops and Psynergy (SEE X/01, X/02). Outgoing, usually friendly, but prone to fits of anger when her family is threatened. Her codename springs from the firebird aspect which surrounds her when her powers are in use - and has caused some dissent between Rachel and her parents. Rachel is protective of her younger brother, Nathan (SEE BELOW), but is realizing he needs to grow on his own. CABLE Summers, Nathan Christopher Charles AGE: 11 BIRTHDATE: 3/15/92 HEIGHT: 4'3" WEIGHT: 84 lbs HAIR: Short, brown w/white streak EYES: Blue (see below) POWERS: Alpha-class (?) mutant psion/cyborg ACTIVE: Telepathy, astral projection, electrokinesis: shielding, cyberpathy Telekinesis is active, but majority of his TK must be diverted to restraining his techno-organic infection. Nathan remains an individual consciousness, and male. PROFILE: Nathan is the younger child of Scott and Jean Summers - Cyclops and Psynergy (SEE X/01, X/02). Infected at age 4 with a technoorganic virus by Apocalypse (SEE Nur, En Sabah), Nathan barely survived the attack with the help of his elder sister Rachel (SEE Phoenix II, above). The boy's latent mutant powers were triggered, enabling him to resist the virus. He has thus gained surprising control over his powers thus far for one so young. Another pleasant aspect of Nathan is his compassion for others; he seems to genuinely care for others, and often ignores his own situation (without placing himself in danger). He is shy, but not gruff. SHATTERBOX: Bailey, Joseph David and Gailyn Elaine AGE: 14 BIRTHDATE: 6/12/89 HEIGHT (J): 5'7", (G): 4'8" WEIGHT (J): 120 lbs, (G): 89 lbs HAIR: Red (flattop for J) EYES: Green POWERS: Alpha-class telekinesis (Gamma when not in direct physical contact with one another) PROFILE: The Bailey twins are maternal cousins to Rachel and Nathan Summers (SEE Phoenix II, Cable). The Summers' mother, Jean, is the younger sister of the Baileys' mother, Sara Grey-Bailey. The twins, with Sara, were rescued from the Right in 1992 after a firebombing by Right extremists against the Bailey home. The twins and Sara then found shelter with Sara and Jean's parents, John and Elaine Grey, in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. Joseph seems excited about learning more about his powers, while Gailyn is more subdued. Both of them are close to the Summers children, in an elder-sibling sort of way. LUCKOUT AND ENTROPIST Shade, Thomas Eric and William Simon AGE: 13 BIRTHDATE: 6/21/90 HEIGHT: 5'5" WEIGHT: 113 lbs HAIR: Short red-brown EYES: Blue POWERS: Alpha-class probability alteration: Thomas, positive (good luck), William, negative (bad luck/jinx?); William is also invisible to electronic scanning PROFILE: The Shade twins are the only known offspring of a mutant and a synthezoid - Wanda and Victor Shade (SEE A/07, A/12), or the Scarlet Witch and Vision of the Avengers. The boys were decisively proven to be real entities on 10/31/91, when Master Pandemonium kidnapped them and tried to absorb them into himself as so-called "portions of Mephisto's lifeforce." The spell backlashed, leaving the boys unharmed but triggering their considerable mutant probability-altering powers. The Scarlet Witch took a ... bloody revenge upon Martin Preston (Pandemonium's real identity). The twins are close, but are not clones of each other: Thomas is outgoing, friendly and tolerant, while William is macho, almost sexist, and bordering on egocentric. MERCURIA Amaquelin-Maximoff, Luna AGE: 12 BIRTHDATE: 7/20/91 HEIGHT: 4'4" WEIGHT: 85 lbs HAIR: Shoulder-length blonde EYES: Blue POWERS: Alpha-class chronovariant with accelerative manifestations: hyperspeed (does not age her rapidly), precognition, psychometry, occasional temporal 'slippage' PROFILE: The only child of Pietro and Crystal Maximoff (SEE A/08, A/34), Luna was born literally on the Moon. She appeared human to Reed Richards' scanning (SEE FF/01), but this was later proved to be because of her chronal powers. Luna is highly outgoing, kind and almost hyperactive - she has trouble staying still. However, she is attentive in classes and often ahead of her peers. She downplays her royal heritage, seeking to remain "down to earth." BLUE Wagner, Alexa Katherine AGE: 13 BIRTHDATE: 3/8/90 HEIGHT: 4'10" WEIGHT: 95 lbs HAIR: Curly blue (covered with blue fur) EYES: Gold POWERS: Alpha (Omega?)-class teleporter, Alpha-class hyperagility, visual blending into shadows PROFILE: Alexa is the only child of Kurt and Amanda Wagner (SEE X/06, X/AUXIL/02). Born at the X-mansion, Alexa has grown into a fun-loving, friendly girl who refuses to use an image inducer. She is also beginning to attract, and be attracted to, boys - and has her father's charm and her mother's figure. Alexa is a staunch, public defender of mutant rights, but refuses to attack humanity for what she calls "the stupidity of a few people." LEECH Name unrevealed/undetermined AGE: 13 (estimated) HEIGHT: 5'3" WEIGHT: 106 lbs HAIR: Wispy black, mostly bald EYES: White SKIN: Green POWERS: Omega-class power damper PROFILE: A former Morlock, Leech was taken in by X-Factor as a ward following the Morlock Massacre of 1993. He continually refers to himself in the third person, and Leech is among the kindest souls a person could meet. He is best friends with Arthur Maddicks (SEE below). BIG EYES Maddicks, Arthur AGE: 13 BIRTHDATE: 5/12/90 HAIR: Bald EYES: White SKIN: Pink POWERS: Alpha-class psionographic projection; limited telepathy PROFILE: The only son of Carl Maddicks, Artie turned bald, mute and pink shortly after his second birthday. When his father kidnapped the Beast (SEE X/04) to use Henry McCoy as a guinea pig for a method to revert Artie to "normal," X-Factor intervened. The elder Maddicks was killed in the ensuing fight, and Artie was taken in as a ward of X-Factor. He remains mute, but is continually working to master his powers, and is gentle and kind. "MARROW" Sarah (last name undetermined) AGE: 13 BIRTHDATE: Undetermined HEIGHT: 4'5" WEIGHT: 79 lbs HAIR: Short pink EYES: Blue POWERS: Alpha-class bone growth/shaping/regeneration; healing factor PROFILE: Sarah was another Morlock rescued from the 1993 carnage of the Morlock Massacre. She was taken in as a ward by X-Factor, and considers Leech (SEE above) her sibling. Sarah is surprisingly outgoing and happy, although direct mentions of her powers will render her temporarily brooding. These episodes are beginning to increase in frequency. TEMPLATE Mahn, Leong and Nga Coy AGE: 13 BIRTHDATE: 4/12/90 HEIGHT (Both): 5', WEIGHT (L): 105 lbs, (N): 89 lbs HAIR: Short black EYES: Brown POWERS: Alpha-class healing; flesh reshaping (only active when in direct physical contact with each other) PROFILE: Leong and Nga are the last surviving family of Xi'an Coy Manh, AKA Karma of X-Force (SEE XF/01). They escaped communist Vietnam via a boat, but their parents were brutally murdered before their eyes, and Xi'an was violated. The twins were later held hostage by their uncle Nguyen, who used Xi'an's twin Trahn as a willing accessory to his criminal schemes. After Xi'an finally rescued the twins, they remained with Father Michael Bowen in Manhattan during Karma's tenure as a host body for the Shadow King. Later still, Karma and Magik (SEE XF/09) saved the twins from the Marauders, and Leong and Nga were essentially raised by Karma after she left the New Mutants for her job as the current administrator of the Xavier Institute. Both twins are thus psychologically stable, although Leong is more boisterous than Nga. Neither of them enjoy violence, however. CUMULUS AND FLORA Guthrie, Lewis Jacob and Naomi Eliza AGE: 13 BIRTHDATE: 3/23/90 HEIGHT (L): 5'6", (N): 4'8" WEIGHT (L): 116 lbs, (N): 90 lbs HAIR: Short blond EYES: Blue POWERS (L): Alpha-class weather control; (N): Alpha-class floropathy, florokinesis, plant growth stimulation PROFILE: The youngest siblings of Samuel (SEE XF/05) and Paige (SEE GX/04) Guthrie, Lewis and Naomi are both relatively stable, friendly children of the South. However, Lewis's powers leave him somewhat cowed, while Naomi has had more and more frequent spells of sitting and talking to flowers. She also reacts violently to gross abuse of plants - not actual harvesting, but destructive waste of plant life. MERGER St. Croix, Nicole Marie and Claudette Elise AGE: 13 BIRTHDATE: 7/15/90 HEIGHT: 5' WEIGHT: 95 lbs HAIR: Shoulder-length black EYES: Brown POWERS (N): Hyperstrength, durability, flight; (C) Alpha-class telepathy, teleportation (pandimensional); (BOTH): Physiomorphic merger into a single entity with all powers and combined mass/intellect. PROFILE: The St. Croix twins are the youngest children of Cartier St. Croix, a Moroccan businesman. Their elder sibling, Marius, a crossdimensional teleporter, sought to use the family's mutancy as a stepping stone to individual power, and using possibly demonic means, became the life-sucking demimutant Emplate. He vengefully transformed his sister Monet (SEE GX/03) into the entity Penance, and stole her away to feed upon. The twins, grieving, morphed into a duplicate of Monet which was blasted apart during Operation: Zero Tolerance's attack upon Generation X in 1997. The twins then used their biomorphic power to free Monet from the Penance form, and assumed it themselves - later escaping its' curse during Generation X's graduation on 6/2/99, when Monet successfully forced Marius to undo his damage. The twins have shown a mutual aversion to bodymerging ever since. Nicole is haughty, although less so than Monet, while Claudette is introspective and gentle - and, mysteriously, no longer autistic like she once was. MAGNETO - FILE CLASSIFICATION ERROR - DELETE CODIFAX - MAGNETITE Lehnsherr, Erik Magnus AGE (physiomental): 14 "BIRTHDATE": 1/2/89 HEIGHT: 5'8" WEIGHT: 119 lbs HAIR: White EYES: Blue POWERS: Omega-class magnakinesis; Alpha-class telepathy, astral projection PROFILE: Born in 1928, Erik Lehnsherr (and this is strongly believed to be a pseudonym) was reportedly a Gypsy somewhere in Germany. When he was 14, he and his family were herded into Auschwitz, where his parents and sister were murdered by Nazis as part of the Holocaust. Erik's latent mutant power of magnetic control manifested, allowing him to survive the bullets and subsequent burial. He worked in the camp for at least two years, eventually escaping - possibly with the mother of his future children, Pietro and Wanda Maximoff (SEE A/07, A/08). The rest of Magnus' early years are lost to his memory, for he later surfaced without any family in Tel Aviv, Israel, and worked as a nurse - and Nazi hunter. There, he met Charles Xavier (SEE X/00), a fellow mutant who was dedicated to peaceful coexistence between man and mutant. Magnus and Xavier disagreed, especially after surviving an attack by the early HYDRA, but remained friends despite their disagreement. This friendship was sorely tested over the years, most especially when Xavier's first pupils, the original X-Men, fought Magneto and his original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in the early 1980's. In 1989, Magnus was deaged to infancy by Alpha, the Ultimate Mutant (SEE ?/00) before the United Nations, and has since been a ward of Xavier's various students. Erik has grown up into an outgoing, kind young man, but is subject to crippling flashbacks about his past. His adult children know who he is, but so far have had little contact with him, other than pleasantries at Avengers-X-team social events. A close watch is mandated to see if Erik could become another Magneto ... although at this point, greater concern is recommended for Franklin Richards (SEE above). -------------------------------------------------------- END SCAN -------------------------------------------------------- The woman powered down Cerebro and removed her helmet, nodding as she examined the scan readout. Finally, she stood and stretched, smiling faintly at her fellows. "A fresh start," Emma Frost said softly. "T'will be interestin'," Sean Cassidy agreed. He glanced at his wife, Moira, who just smiled and said, "Well, when d'we begin ... ?" -------------------------------------------------------- NEXT: Orientation and: THE ACOLYTES !? -------------------------------------------------------- end _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com