I hope everybody had a supremely awesome Christmas. And I hope everybody's holiday spirit is still strong enough to enjoy the X-men Supreme fanfiction series. For the X-men, it has been anything but festive. The Cambrian has ravaged the planet and the X-men, the Brotherhood of Mutants, and the governments of the world are still dealing with the consequences. As the world recovers, the X-men are trying to deal with some of their own personal issues. The departure of Rogue and Nightcrawler along with the arrival of Colossus has caused plenty of drama throughout the team. But the biggest issue that has been festering for a while has been the health of Professor Charles Xavier.
When I started the X-men Supreme fanfiction series, there were a number of things I wanted to do to make it truly unique. One of those things was Charles Xavier's backstory. In the comics and movies, the story of how he became confined to a wheelchair is pretty varied. But I wanted something that would humanize him in a profound way. Cancer is something that is very real and something that affects millions of people in the real world. I thought that by having Xavier deal with cancer and losing his legs over the course of his battle with this disease, it would do more than humanize him. It would make every second of his life more precious and help fuel his determination to build the X-men. Well now that time is about to run out.
Not long ago in X-men Supreme, Charles Xavier admitted that he knew he was on borrowed time. And he has been lying to his X-men the whole time as the cancer has returned. This time, he's not even fighting it. He has resigned himself to his fate. This comes at a very difficult time for the X-men and the world of X-men Supreme. Can there be an X-men without Charles Xavier? That's something they'll have to figure out soon because the next arc, which I have dubbed "Starcrossed," will force Charles Xavier to confront his mortality. And at stake is the life of the woman he loves, Lilandra Neramani. In the same way he has kept secrets from his X-men, Lilandra has been keeping secrets as well. It all starts to unravel in the first issue of this emotional arc. I've prepared an extended preview of this issue that will offer a hint of what the X-men are dealing with.
“Explain it to me again, Miss Maximoff. This time ditch the subtext. You know how much I hate to beat around the bush.”
“I’m not being coy here, General! I’m telling you exactly what I know. That anomaly you detected came from a mine on the west side of the island. It was an old project of my father was forced to abandon so I sent my brother to check on it. Needless to say, he screwed something up.”
“Now you’re just dancing around the truth and doing a very bad job of it I might add. Not to be disrespectful, but your father was a much better liar. Probably a better poker player as well.”
Wanda Maximoff hid her frustration in a stoic glance. This was why she despised politics. She hoped she would never have to do it again after her father took over. Since his mental health was still questionable, she was the only one on the island who could handle this fragile incident.
It was an incident that Pietro, Lance, and John were supposed to prevent from happening. They were supposed to bury that alien ship so nobody could ever get to it again. Somehow, they found a way to make it an international crisis. As soon as that ship took off, it left a trail that nearly every country in the world with halfway decent space monitoring systems could pick up on. Since then Wanda was having to constantly reassure international leaders that it wasn’t another weapon of sorts. She tried to explain it away as some bizarre accident involving some of her father’s old equipment. It wasn’t the best cover story for an alien ship so it came as no surprise when General Grimshaw didn’t buy it.
“Allow me to share with you some of the facts from our end. Our people at NORAD detected this so called project the moment it took off. It shot out of the ground at speeds exceeding Mach 50. To give you an idea how fast that is, the space shuttle’s top speed is Mach 25. It was only on the radar screens for a few seconds, but in those few seconds it radiated with enough energy to power the entire Western Hemisphere for a month. Now are you going to sit here and tell me this is something we shouldn’t worry about?”
“You’re assuming I know more facts than you do, General. This was a product of my father…not the nation of Genosha. If I could have him explain it to you, I would.”
“Right…because he left too much of his sanity inside the Cambrian to tell the truth.”
“If you’re trying to get me to cooperate, insulting my father isn’t winning you any leeway!” said Wanda firmly.
“Seeing as how I was the one who contrived the cover story for the Cambrian, I think I’ve earned that right. Your father would have been executed by now had the other half of the truth come out. I may value peace more than vengeance, but I’m not above using leverage. So work with me here and make this easier on all of us.”
Wanda scolded General Grimshaw over the encrypted video screen. This man was difficult to deal with. He was no anti-mutant crusader like President Kelly. He wasn’t even a typical Western war-monger. He was reasonable to a point while having an extremely low tolerance for nonsense. If they were to avoid a major incident, she had to compromise.
“General, you have every major army in the world walking the streets of our country,” Wanda explained, “You’ve intruded on every aspect of our society, combing through all our records and taking all our technology for yourselves. I shouldn’t have to tell you how much tension that’s causing with our people.”
“You’re getting off topic, Miss Maximoff. I don’t much appreciate having my time wasted.”
“Then I’ll cut to the chase,” she said stoically, “If you really want the truth, don’t settle for my word. Go ahead and send your forces into the mines and investigate yourself. I’ll even provide you with the coordinates and a schematic that should make your job easier.”
“That’s generous of you, but it’s still dodging the question.”
“I’m sorry, General. But I have too much pride to just sit here and squeal on every little detail. I’m not your puppet even if I have to behave like one. You’re people are clearly smart enough to figure it out. For all I know, you’ve already picked up rumors. Don’t make me humiliate myself by just reinforcing what you already suspect.”
They were stern words from someone who wasn’t in a position to debate. General Grimshaw’s gaze hardened over the video screen. Wanda matched him every step of the way. She may have little regard for politics, but she understood the value of appearing strong and competent. That was the only thing men like General Grimshaw respected.
“I’ll relay your message to our Special Forces units. They’ll make their way towards the mines and conduct a covert investigation. This all, of course, is contingent on you providing me and my soldiers the information you promised.”
“Can I take that to mean we’re ready to compromise, General?” said Wanda.
“Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves, Miss Maximoff. Compromise requires sacrifice from both sides and neither of us is sacrificing nearly enough. You’re smart to assume that my people know more than our competence shows. For instance, I know the advanced technology your father has been toying with didn’t just come from his brilliant mind. I also know that this planet has encountered extraterrestrial beings in the recent and distant past.”
This revelation surprised Wanda, but not overwhelmingly so.
“So you know about that too? Should I assume you’ve known much longer than my father?”
“Assume what you want. The only detail you need to know is that very few people are aware of this other-worldly issue so to speak. And if it’s all the same to you, I would appreciate it if your people don’t blather it to the public.”
“That won’t be a problem, General. Very few people know about it on my end as well and I’ll see to it the truth doesn’t get out.”
“I appreciate that. I would appreciate it even more if I discovered you’re father wasn’t hiding a cache of alien hardware and using it against us, but we both know how unlikely that is.”
With this post, X-men Supreme will be done with 2013 and move forward in 2014. It has been an amazing year with many major developments for the X-men Supreme fanfiction series. In both X-men Supreme and the comics, the X-men celebrated their big 50th anniversary. So many changes took place and there will be plenty more changes in the coming year. And I always strive to make every year better than the last. But do this, it's incredibly important that I continue to get feedback for this fanfiction series. So please take the time to post your comments in the review section for each issue or just contact me directly. Either way is fine. Thanks again to all those who made 2013 such a great year for X-men Supreme. Again, I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and on behalf of X-men Supreme, I wish everyone a happy New Year! Excelsior!
Jack
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