Liquid Metal: An X-men & QuickSilver Novel

Chapter Sixteen: Daddy Issues

Updated May 31st 2016

"Is that name supposed to mean something to me?" I asked this so called "Erik" person as I crossed my arms. I'll admit his face did seem familiar but I did not know why.

"Well, I believe that you should know that answer." He said in a quiet voice, cocking an eyebrow at me and I frowned. I hated cryptic answers. I also wondered how he knew what my mutation was.

I turned my whole body to face him now, narrowing my eyes as I stood there hesitantly probing about his mind and his past, afraid of what I might find. I saw the horrors this man had seen in his life. Images of a brutally murdered family member, scenes of torture and suffering mixed with flashes of angry, scared and sorrowful emotion threatened corrupt my strictly kept rigid stature.

"Horrible, isn't it?" Erik asked with a light smirk.

"For someone who advocates for mutant rights and recognition, you sure made it clear we were welcomed kindly." I said rather bitterly.

His sharp gaze flicked away from me to the others that he had gathered and he clasped his hands behind his back. i scoffed, he got a statement he did not like therefore he simply ignored me.

"Like my dear Josephine so kindly pointed out, it would be safe to assume that you're all wondering why you're here." He began and paused a moment as if waiting for a reply. "All of you have a close connection in some way or another to a rather old friend of mine." I was beginning to get annoyed by the dramatics this guy was putting on. "Professor Charles Xavier." A younger boy next to me shifted rather uncomfortably on his feet.

"And what do want us to do?" I heard someone say. "Kill him?" I turned my head to see a woman in her mid-twenties a few people down to my left. She had an arrogant eyebrow raised and was leaning on her hip while she watched him.

"In a way, yes" Erik replied to my surprise. I instantly felt my stomach plunge into a bucket of icy water. I knew that their history was mutual, I mean, didn't Charles save his life once?

"Dude, you're crazy" the girl said with a dismissive attitude and a cold laugh. "He's got the fuckin' government to trust him."

"Is that so?" Erik asked. "Then why have you all been negated access to public places? Why are families afraid to let you near their children? The human race uses these false weapons to lure in those who are too afraid to stand for justice. What do they have that we don't?" He asked intending it to be a rhetorical question, but I answered anyway.

"They have machines that can only target mutants" I said. "That just so happens to be us if you've forgotten."

"They have been destroyed."

"They can rebuild them" I snapped, "just because you destroyed a whole fleet of them doesn't mean that the blueprints aren't still out there" I shot back bitterly.

He must have known arguing with a person like me would just turn into a game of tennis with no winner so he elected to ignore me for a second time.

I knew what he was doing. I knew that the words he used were specifically chosen to alter ones mindset and get them to follow his word rather than their own. so instead of listening to his whole propoganda rant and instead let my mind wander about the pasts and descriptions of those around me.

The man to the right of me apparently dropped out of high school his senior year and only until his parents knew about his mutation, were they furious. A person a couple people down from me turned out to have been a classmate of mine who I never had the chance to meet before now. Then I saw a haze of someone I recognized in the cloud of memories and information from those around me that swirled around and fogged my brain.

I traced the tendril of the memory back to the person it belonged to, learning that it came from Erik. I didn't want to know why because some things are best left alone. Yet once I felt Peter's name get tossed into the mix I had no choice but to hesitantly probe the recently resurfaced memories in Erik's mind.

Part of me knew the answer to my curiosity or at least guessed it before I actually confirmed it. Images of burning buildings and hate-filled people mingled with happy sights and emotions of a new family, love and a baby girl. All these images began to tell a story in my mind's eye. The sounds of a screaming child echoed around my mind and and swirled together with the sound of a mob and crackling fire. The man who stood before me used to have a family. He had a wife and daughter, but the sudden loss of his little girls life caused him to seek revenge and use his mutation against the humans who were responsible.

When that fire had broken-out in the Inn that he and Magda were staying in his daughter, Anya, was trapped on the upper floor and a mob of angry and panicked people prevented Erik from rescuing her. Enraged, Erik's powers manifested. He uncontrollably, killed the men holding him from reaching his Anya, as well as the crowd that stood nearby watching. He also slaughtered a large section of the city of Vinnitsa where they had staying. Magda fled from him after being traumatized by both her daughter's death and Erik's new powers, discovering months later she was pregnant again. After giving birth to the twins, Peter (originally named Pietro) and Wanda Maximoff, under the care of Bova Ayrshire on Wundagore Mountain. She raised the two on her own. forgetting about the man she was once married to.

This dark and brooding man was Peter's father.

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A/N: I'm really sorry for the delay and the fact that this chapter sucked and it was short.

-lots of love

Em