[OT] Ministry of X [Archive]

DominicHargan

05-04-2009, 06:52 PM

Chapter 1
-Broken Wing-
It was a cool, crisp day at the Massachusetts Xavier Academy where outside Eddie Montez, A.K.A. Wing, and Joshua Foley, A.K.A. Elixir, were focused on a one on one game of hoops. The sweat glistened down both of their faces as Eddie held the ball. “Now remember, we agreed that no mutant powers would be used during this game,” Josh reiterated as Eddie began to dribble the ball.

“Sure thing,” Eddie said as he took to the key, making it all the way to the basket before allowing his mutant power of flight to kick in. It propelled himself towards the rim for what was about to be the inevitable dunk. As he rose off of the ground, Josh tried his best to remain planted on the ground. The force of Eddie’s flight knocked Josh onto his back, and Eddie quickly placed the ball into the hoop with a thundering sound.

“Hey, what gives? We agreed that we wouldn’t use our mutant powers during the game,” Josh asked in slight disgust as Eddie helped him back up. The minor scratches that he had received from the fall instantaneously vanished, due to Josh’s mutant power of healing.

“Sorry dude, but everyone knows that you are way better at hoops than I am, and if I’m going to have any chance of winning, I have to resort to cheating,” Eddie replied with a slight smile. Before they had a chance to continue their game, a voice rang out inside both of their heads.

Eddie, Josh…Report to the hanger immediately.

Without question, both Eddie and Josh made their way over to the hanger bay doors before heading inside. What they found was Professor Charles Xavier, or Professor X as they called him, as well as their teammates Davis Cameron, A.K.A. Slipstream, his younger sister Heather, A.K.A. Lifeguard, Julio Richter, A.K.A. Rictor, Alexandra Rourke, A.K.A. Siryn, and Alani Ryan, A.K.A. Loa, all waiting for them. “So, what’s up Professor X?” Josh asked out of curiosity. The Professor just stared at each and every one of them before speaking.

“It seems as though Ord of the Breakworld has surfaced again, and is threatening mankind as we know it. I want you seven to intersect him and stop him from causing any further destruction,” Professor X replied.

“Sure thing,” Davis said bravely. He then turned towards his fellow teammates. “Let’s load it up.”

Heather, Josh, Julio, Alex, and Alani all entered the steps to the X-Jet, where they all took their seats, with Heather at the controls. Due to her mutant power, she could adapt herself for any life-threatening situation, and in this case it allowed her to gain knowledge of how to fly the jet. Eddie, due to his power of flight, and Davis, due to his power of “surfing” through the spaces in between the spaces went separately, receiving the coordinates from Davis’ sister Heather before heading off.

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By the time that they had arrived at their destination, most of the city had been laid in ruins and undistinguishable, burning in a cloud of smoke. As soon as the X-Men exited the Jet, they spotted Ord, alongside a few of his minions. They quickly engaged in combat, each taking on one of Ord’s minions. This left Eddie to fight Ord one-on-one, and Eddie figured that the only way he was going to beat Ord was if he was able to get Ord high enough in space that he ran out of oxygen. To do this however, would require massive pressure and stress on Eddie, a chance he was willing to take.

Without thinking, he flew straight at Ord, grabbing him around the waste before hoisting him up into the air. They both continued to fly higher and higher up into the atmosphere, almost to the point where the oxygen level began to drop. It was at this point that Ord stuck one on his hands into Eddie’s side almost like a needle, and in that instant Eddie felt like he no longer had control over his power as Ord let him go, causing Eddie to tumble back down towards the ground as Ord managed to stay in flight.

Noticing this, Heather ran in his direction, hoping that her mutant power would kick in, allowing her to adapt to Eddie’s current situation. “Eddie!” Heather screamed as she began to transform and her body became a large mass of energy that quickly absorbed Eddie’s fall from the sky. Eddie was unharmed, albeit drained of energy. It was at this point that Ord decided to retreat, taking his minions with him. When the others ran towards where Eddie and Heather were, they were all curious as to what had transpired between Eddie and Ord. They then loaded him onto the Jet before heading back to the Mansion.

When they arrived, they sought out Professor X, hoping that he might have some insight as to what happened to Eddie. When Eddie regained consciousness, he explained what had happened between himself and Ord, and that he felt like he had no control over his powers anymore. He tried to levitate himself, but nothing happened, He tried again, and still nothing. It was at that point that it all made sense to Eddie; He was powerless, a baseline human. He was no longer like any of his fellow teammates, and that fact alone made him despondent. He quickly ran upstairs to his room and slammed the door shut. He just wanted to be left alone for the time being so that he could take it all in.

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“How could this have happened?” Alani asked the professor as he showed up in the foyer. “I mean, is it true? Is Eddie really a baseline human?”

The Professor just looked at the six of them with a solemn look on his face. “I’m afraid so. It seems as though Ord has found a way to extract mutant abilities through physical contact, and now he has absorbed Wing’s mutant ability of flight,” he explained. “Now just because Wing is no longer like us does not mean that he is any worse than we are. We will treat him the same as we always have, mutant powers or not.”

“He sure seems to be taking this pretty hard,” Julio exclaimed. “Somebody ought to go talk to him.”

“I will,” Heather exclaimed. “I’m closer to him than anyone else here.” With that, Heather walked up the stairs towards Eddie’s room, leaving the others behind in the foyer. By the time she arrived up there, she found Eddie’s door to be completely closed. She quietly knocked on it.

“Eddie, I know you’re in there. Open up please,” Heather asked.

“Go away,” came a voice from inside Eddie’s room. Ignoring Eddie’s request, Heather opened up his door and found Eddie lying face up on his bed, staring at the ceiling.

“Listen, I know losing your ability is a hard thing to take in, but…” Heather began to explain before being cut off by Eddie.

“WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT LOSING YOUR POWERS? HUH? YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M GOING THROUGH!” Eddie screamed at Heather, almost to the point of losing it. “My powers were all that I had to live for. Now that I’m a baseline human, what good is that anymore?”

Heather slowly made her way over to Eddie, and placed her arm around him. “You’re right, I don’t know what you’re going through. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you go through it alone!” Heather exclaimed as she placed his head next to hers. “I’m always going to be here for you, no matter what.”

Eddie turned his head slightly and looked up at Heather. “Thanks,” Eddie said as a tear ran down his cheek. “You truly are a friend.”

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An hour later, Heather returned from Eddie’s room, finding her remaining teammates all sitting down on the couches that were strewn about the foyer. “So, how’s Eddie doing?” Alex asked Heather, hoping for some good news.

Heather just stared at the group, trying to hold back whatever tears came to her face. “Eddie’s taking this whole baseline thing pretty hard. We all need to be there for him, to support him, but we also have to realize that despite the current situation, our first and foremost priority is to the people, and that will always take precedence over Eddie,” Heather responded. “So let’s get back to work, and figure out how to stop Ord whenever he decides to attack again.”

The rest of her teammates agreed, and began doing some research to figure out how Ord was able to extract Eddie’s power, in order to prevent anyone else from suffering the same fate as Eddie did.

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While the team began researching how Eddie’s incident happened, Eddie decided to go to the Danger Room and escape his current situation. He figured that in a holographic world like the Danger Room, he might be able to forget about his lack of a mutant power, but this unfortunately was not to be the case.

As soon as the Danger Room simulation program started up, Eddie found himself wishing that he did in fact have his mutant power. The black, empty room suddenly turned to a green hillside, and Eddie found himself standing on the edge of a cliff overlooking a rock quarry down below. As he sat down to lament his lost power, Heather showed up, sitting down next to him.

“Hey there Eddie, what are you doing?” Heather asked, the wind blowing her blond ponytail behind her.

Eddie turned and looked at Heather. “I just can’t seem to stop thinking about being a baseline human,” Eddie replied, re-focusing his attention towards the quarry.

“I know. It must suck not being able to have an ability, not being able to call yourself a mutant like the rest of us,” Heather said.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Eddie exclaimed, tossing a rock into the quarry.

“Then what is there left for you to live for?” Heather asked. “I mean, you said it yourself. Being a mutant was al you had. Now you don’t even have that.”

Eddie turned towards Heather, tears filling his eyes. “I don’t know. I just don’t know,” Eddie exclaimed as the tears slowly trickled down his face.

“I know what might fix this. Jump off of the cliff,” Heather exclaimed.

“What? Are you crazy? I can’t fly anymore, remember?” Eddie asked in bewilderment at such a statement.

“Trust me. After all this is only a simulation. I’m sure we can program the simulation to allow you to retain your mutant ability,” Heather explained, helping Eddie up off of the ground.

“Are you sure about this?” Eddie asked, warily.

“You’ll be fine. I’ll even bet that this might become your new escape from the reality of being powerless. So what do you say?” Heather replied.

Eddie looked at her, drying as tear from his eye. “I guess it’s worth a shot,” Eddie said. And with that, he took two steps before jumping off of the cliff.

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Meanwhile, back in the lab the mutants were feverishly looking for some answers as to how Eddie became depowered and how they could prevent it from happening to anyone else.

“Hey, guys. Have any of you seen Eddie?” Heather asked the group.

They all turned towards her direction. “No, can’t say as I have. Why do you ask?” her brother, Davis replied.

“Because he’s not in his room, and I don’t know where he is. I’m afraid that something bad has happened to him,” Heather explained.

“Don’t worry. We’ll go find him as soon as we’ve found some answers here,” Josh exclaimed as his eyes scanned the monitor.

At that point, a voice rang through all of their heads. It was Professor X. I’m afraid that we may have bigger problems to deal with right now. Come to the Danger Room at once.

Without hesitation, the six of them made their way as quickly as they could to the Danger Room, where they found Eddie’s body strewn about on the floor like a piece of furniture surrounded by a pool of blood. “Eddie!” Heather screamed as tears began to run down her face.

Josh quickly ran over to Eddie’s body and hugged him, hoping that he’d be able to use his mutant healing factor to save Eddie. All he could hear was Eddie’s faint heartbeat as he slowly faded away into nothingness. Tears began to slide down Josh’s face as well as he hugged Eddie’s body as tightly as he could. “No…” Josh cried in anger as he watched Eddie die in his arms. “NOOOOOO!” Josh screamed out.

“How could this have happened?” Alani asked as she dug her face into Julio’s chest.
“I’m afraid that the Danger Room has become self-aware,” Professor X exclaimed as he entered the room.

“What are you trying to say?” Alex asked the professor.

Professor X just looked at the students with a solemn look on his face. “What I’m saying is that the Danger Room is alive, and it has just claimed its first victim…”

-End of Episode/Chapter 1-