February 5th, 3:45pm.
Somewhere in the Mountains
No-Name was lifted from the darkness and brought out to see a very bright light. He shielded his eyes as the world came back into focus. He was in the palm of the blue woman… Mystique. He looked up to see her looking off in the distance. No-Name followed her gaze and surveyed his surroundings.
The room he was in was larger than he had imagined--almost as if it were a giant cave. In the center of the room was a large mammoth tower that seemed to be made of junk, but based on the activities taking place around it, it was clear that this wasn’t true. It seemed to be some sort of training platform.
All over the tower, people ran across it, apparently trying to get to the top. Buzzsaws, androids, machine guns, lasers, and all sorts of other traps seemed to try and prevent them from completing this task. A man in a trench coat with black spandex on stood atop the tower, looking somewhat impatient.
“Come on, come on, we don’t got all day,” he said in a thick Cajun accent.
“Shut it, pretty boy,” shouted a man with red hair shooting fire at the ground to propel himself upward and dodge several laser blasts. He spoke with an Australian accent.
“Not my fault you’re slow,” the Cajun said with a smirk.
Suddenly a large chunk of the tower flew overhead, and where it once was, stood a gargantuan silver man in a red, yellow, and black spandex outfit. The chunk hit the Cajun and sent him down to the bottom of the tower.
“When you mock teammates, bad things happen,” the silver man said, his thick Russian accent cutting through each word.
“Sonuva--holy shit,” the Cajun shouted, running away from a flying buzzsaw.
“Welcome to my temporary base of operations,” Magneto said, floating down in front of Mystique and No-Name, looking down at the tiny figure in Mystique’s palm. “These are my Acolytes.” Magneto gestured behind him, outstretching his hand and forming a fist. Immediately the giant tower ceased to function. The Acolytes stopped in mid-fight stances and looked up, noticing Magneto and Mystique. There was a semi-collective gasp, and then they all began making their way up to them. The first one there--who seemingly appeared out of nowhere--was a thin boy with white hair.
“Heydad,how’sitgoin’,what’sgotyoubacksosoon--”
“Pietro, slow down,” Magneto scowled.
“Sorry,” he said. “You’re back early.”
“Our latest Acolyte was easier to convince than I had anticipated.”
“New Acolyte--where, I don’t see him,” Pietro asked, running to different locations around the base, stopping for a few seconds at a time to look around.
As Pietro showed off his ADD, the other Acolytes arrived. Some guy with a mullet and a dome helmet, a short hopping kid with greenish skin, a fat guy with a mohawk, a goth chick, a creepy looking british guy with big eyebrows, scruffy hair, and a trench coat. They were shortly followed by the Aussie, the Cajun, and the Russian. A red headed tomboyish woman, and two Asian women appeared shortly thereafter.
Magneto outstretched his hand and Pietro stopped in his tracks before being pulled to join the group. Magneto then dropped Pietro to the ground.
“Now that you are all here, I would like you to meet our newest brother,” Magneto said, stepping aside and allowing No-Name to be seen. “State your name, brother.”
“I have no name--I’m sure I did once, but that was long ago. If you must call me something, call me No-Name,” he said.
“That is what you were called when you were out there--part of a world that rejected, detested, and even hated you. Here, you are among brothers. You are family, and shall take a new name to start your new life. You shall be called Micro,” Magneto said. No-Name wasn’t too fond of that codename, but he said nothing. “Meet your brothers. Avalanche, Toad, Blob, Master Mind, Pyro, Gambit, Colossus. They are my Acolytes.”
Mystique began speaking. “And now, meet my students. Once we were known as the Brotherhood, but now we too work with Magneto and his Acolytes again.” There was some rough air left over from previous encounters. The Acolytes were formed, after all, because Magneto felt the brotherhood was incompetent. “Amelia Voght, Nocturne, Blindspot, Mastermind’s daughter--”
“Martinique Jason,” Mastermind’s daughter said indignantly. Mystique went on as if she didn’t hear her.
“The Scarlet Witch, and last but not least, Skids. They are my pupils, and your sisters.”
(I’m not going to bother describing all the aforementioned characters. I specifically used characters who are somewhat well known so that even the not so die-hard Marvel Comics fan will be able to tell what they look like for the most part--however, if you still have no clue who’s who, there’s always Google and Wikipedia. I will admit that it was hard to find famous female members of the brotherhood, so some of the members are less than well known. i.e. Blindspot and Skids. -- FB the Comic Nerd)
“Hi,” No-Name said, not knowing what else to say. The other Acolytes waved or muttered some other greeting, not really knowing what to make of this rather shrimpy addition to their roster. There was a long pause.
“Well, I think you should get back to your training,” Mystique said, cutting in. “When you’re done, one of you will show Micro the ropes.”
The Acolytes nodded, Magneto started up the tower again, and the students returned to their training. Mystique left the main training room and went into what looked like a room in a doctor’s office. She placed her hand on the counter, and No-Name took his cue to step off her hand and onto the counter. Mystique sat down in a chair near the counter.
“Magneto has big plans in the works. He has a lot of faith in you. You should be honored. Some people work for him for years and don’t receive the trust he has bestowed upon you.”
“Say again,” No-Name said, quirking a brow. Before Mystique could, Magneto walked into the room.
“Micro, I hope you did not find the reaction from the Acolytes to be offensive. They are tired, but they are tired because they are dedicated to our fight. It was not a reflection of their opinion about you,” Magneto stated.
“No worries,” No-Name said, shrugging it off. “Warmer welcome than I get most places I go.”
“Quite. Anyway, on to business. I will need some information from you--roughly how tall were you before your mutant powers kicked in?”
“Don’t know.”
“What blood type are you,” Mystique asked.
“Search me.”
“How long ago did your mutant powers kick in,” Magneto asked, frowning.
“Don’t know--but it had to be more than 4 years ago.”
“… Micro, we are opening our arms to you. We want to provide you with food, shelter, and a family--but we can’t do so without said information.”
“I’d give it to you if I had it, but I don’t. I don’t remember anything prior to four years ago--at least anything about my personal life. I suffer from amnesia, you see, and--”
“Damn,” Magneto said. “Guess we’ll have to find out for ourselves. Mystique, you know what to do. I’ll be back after finishing the necessary preparations.”
“Wait, what?”
“Yes, sir,” she said. Magneto left and Mystique’s yellow eyes were again cast down at No-Name. “As I was saying, he has put a lot of faith and trust in you. If our plans are to come to fruit, he needs you. Don’t let him down… or I’ll kill you myself.” Her tone was cold and calculating--very foreboding. There was a beat or two of a glare matching her words, and then she smiled down gently at him before giving him a light pat on the head. “I’ll be right back, I just need to get some of my tools before we can get the genetic information we need.”
No-Name just quirked a brow as she left. He was beginning to question the sanity of his decision to come with this Magneto person… and even more, whether he really had a choice to begin with. Before he could dwell on these thoughts further, Mystique returned with a large hypodermic needle, a pair of tongs, and what appeared to be an examination bed.
“Uhm… Mystique--it’s Mystique, right?” Mystique nodded. “Ok, good. Mystique… what are you planning to do with those?”
“I just need a blood sample--and possibly a tissue sample. At worst we’ll need a tooth to examine, but I doubt it’ll come to that. Now hold still.” Mystique’s hand--needle and all--advanced on No-Name.
No-Name was many things, but good with sharp objects he was not. He made a break for it. Knowing this would happen, Mystique had the tongs ready in hand, and No-Name was quickly caught between the cold metal. He wriggled and squirmed, but Mystique kept the tongs tightly on him--almost to the point where his lungs couldn’t expand.
“Don’t worry, I’ll make this as painless as possible,” Mystique said in a sympathetic tone. “Just try not to struggle too much.”
No-Name continued trying to wriggle free, but it was to no avail. The needle pressed against the calf of his leg. Mystique pressed it and it still wouldn’t puncture. She frowned and tried again. No-Name winced in pain, biting down on his lip to keep from screaming. The needle continued to press into his calf, harder and harder until he could bear it no more. He let out a howl of pain, and finally Mystique pushed forth with all her might and broke the skin. She probably punctured a few muscles, but it was nothing they couldn’t fix later. She drew a small amount of blood, then placed No-Name on the examination bed.
“There, that wasn’t so bad, now… was it,” she cooed.
No-Name just lay there, panting as tears streamed from his eyes. She placed his blood in a small vial and put it in a protective case where a computer would analyze it. She went back to No-Name, who was now curled into the feeble position, bleeding profusely from his leg. Mystique ran her finger from the top of his head to the base of his spine.
“Relax, you’ll be fine,” she said, running her finger up and down. “Just a little blood.”
No-Name shortly lost consciousness thereafter--from blood loss and from the mind numbing pain surging through his leg.
Giantess World
Author's Chapter Notes:
Enter Mt. Magnus