Future's Children (Open)

[dagger]

This thread is for a future universe approximately 32 years in the future. The mortal heroes of this time are no longer able to don cape and cowl to protect the world.

It falls on their offspring.

Unlike some science fiction writers had thought of the future. There is no nuclear holocaust or world war three.

Instead everything is nearly perfect. Everyone, mutant, human or mutated is treated the same - exactly the same - and those with radical beliefs such as the Brotherhood are severely suppressed. Everyone believes the same and lives the same. Same house, same car, same type jobs.

Talents are discouraged as they make everyone unique and the world treasures perfection and sameness.

Some fight to keep the rules and the unity of mankind. Some fight to disrupt the status quo. And others are sick of being treated the same and are willing to take from others so that they and theirs might increase.

[dagger]

An old woman sits on a park bench. She hide her hand in her tattered coat. Young people, brightly colored and all matching, wander past. They talk, they laugh.

Human spirit cannot be crushed.

At least at that age.

She shifted, her faded vision blurring for a second. Her eyes were changing as she aged. Practically ancient now and legally blind, she is now being forced to use her powers to see. Brights stabs of light instead of physical form. Gaping blackholes of darkness instead of middle-class workers.

Dagger slowly got to her feet, shuffling back to her dwelling. A cheap apartment shared with other aging women without family or importance.

Once she'd been unique. A hero. A beacon of hope and light and purity. Now she was old and faded and useless.

When she died, she would only be mourned until her position in the apartment was filled by another unfortunate soul.

She'd heard it said it wasn't easy getting old.

It was true.

[cloak]

Tyrone finished baging the groceries. His shift was done and he couldn't wait to get out of the store. He punched out and hurried out the door.
The air was cool and crisp, Ty took a deep breath, that store always made him feel like he was suffocating in florescent light. He walked along the street, a small blue car pulled up beside him.
"Hey Punk, want a ride?"
Tyrone laughed, at fifty one he didn't see how he could be a punk. "No thanks sweetie, I'll walk. Tell your Momma I'll be home soon."
The bright eyed teenager nodded, her afro hair hitting the ceiling and her intensely green eyes smiling. "Yes Sir!" She drove away quickly, taking the corner with a loud screech of the tires.

Tyrone sighed, he hadn't had children until late in life. Now he regretted that. Of course Powers for a long time had made it unsafe for him to marry.

So, he settled for a hotshot daughter and a soft spoken wife. He picked up his pace, his wife said this morning that they were having guests over. He hadn't gotten a chance to ask her who though.

He half wondered if it was Hot Shot Teisha's new boyfriend. He hadn't gotten to meet him yet, but Teisha claimed he was wonderful.

Ty turned the corner and tugged on his coat, the cold was a little nippier then he would have liked.

[Vulcan]

Gabriel thought back to the events that had unfolded. He had been back on earth now a year to the day today.

He'd left the earth again after failing to conquer it some twenty-five years earlier. He'd spent those years growing in power and control. He had seen so much, and absorbed so much in that time. For soem time, the earth didn't even seem like home anymore. It took him a long time to feel at ease again. He'd learned to blend in with the people of earth now, an average joe. There was no need for superheroes, and mutants were tolerated, but discouraged from using their powers. Gods on earth forced to be as men. It still made him sick. But he had little choice. He'd made quite a name for himself in the cosmos, and a good number of enemies. Staying on earth seemed the only answer. He couldn't alienate himself from his homeworld for a third time.

He was in his mid-fifties now, more like Magneto than Xavier. He could shake the very planet into pieces, but why? He was now leading a humble life. The same as many others. He walked now the street thinking about these things.

[erin]

Rogue pulled on her bright blue jumpsuit. It was scratchy and uncomfortable. The kids who wore it had known nothing else but even her X-Uniform had been preferrable to this modern horror.

She looked up, seeing former heroes and villains wandering the modern clean streets of the city. They looked worn and depressed. Subdued and cowed.

She was old too. But she didn't look it. Before Wolverine had ran away to Canada, he'd forced her to absorb a good deal of his healing abilities. She'd felt his fear of being the only X-Man alive pounding in her head during the whole absorption.

She had no idea where he was now. Perhaps it was best that way. He was a loner and she was too.

Rogue sat down on a bench and peeled back the wrapper on her lunch. She saw an older gentleman passing and wondered if he looked vaguely familiar.

[Vulcan]

He looked down at the girl on the bench as he walked by. He immediately recognized rogue. He remembered fighting her almost twnety-five years ago, when the X-Men threw of his final attempt at ruling the world. He'd killed both his brothers in that last attack. He'd also inujured a good number of X-men before they drove him off.

His power had grown ten fold, but his ambiiton had fallen greatly. He wondered if Rogue realized who he was, if she would attack him. she hadn't aged a year by the looks of it. He looked like he could've been her father. He was infact, yougner than she was, but due to the Shi'ar accellarated incubation, he was made a young man in months rather than years. Now he was feelign the ache of age. Though his powers greatly supplemented his health and stamina.

This time, he opted to pass by the girl without making a scene.

[erin]

Rogue leapt from the bench. A sudden memory flashing in her head. Vulcan laughing as the X-Men fell.

She ignored the whisper of caution in her head and launched herself at him. Bone claws jutted from between her knuckles and she roared, "You killed mah family!"

[Vulcan]

In a flash, he'd erected a field of solid energy between himself and the girl. As she jumped at him she ran right into it. He looked at her as the energy shield flipped about and became a solid energy bubble.

" No child, today is not you're day. " He muttered quietly as he began to flood the bubble with radiation. He knew Rogue had absorbed wolverines healing factor, so she would survive this. But she had dared, he would put hte hurt into her. After a bit of radiation buring, he dropped the bubble. He watched her carefully.

[erin]

Rogue hurt. Her skin burned and her eyes watered. She looked up at him and tightened her jaw. She might be crying because she had no choice but she was not going to be cowed and crushed in front of him.

Whatever he did to her, she couldn't have let him walk past unchallenged. He'd ruined her life and the body count that trailed behind him had rivaled anything Magneto had done.

Rogue forced herself to her knees and then her feet.

"What you're not going to kill me?" She swore, "Ah'm not worth your bother?"

Rogue retracted her claws, calling to herself Shiro's fire. The comforting swelling heat of flame surrounded her.

"Your mistake, you dirty rotten...'cause Ah don't have anything worth living for...so ya wanna kill me go ahead. But Ah ain't goin' down like a whipped dog."

She hurled a fiery ball at him.

[Vulcan]

The ball of fiery energy flared and disapated right in front of Gabriel. HIs left eye glowed with energy. He knew he could end Rogue's life with little more than a thought. But his heart wasn't in it.

" You live, you have power, but nothing to live for? People die, things change, but you live on. Your time will come, but not today, and not by me, young Rogue. "

He turned and just looked at her for the moment, his defenses up, he was confient she wasn't getting through them.

[cloak]

Ty glanced at the tiff as he passed the two people. It wasn't totally uncommon for some former hero's to get on ego trips and battle each other. The police would come and put an end to it if it went to long.
Tyrone thought about putting a stop to it right now. Draw them into the dark realm, yell at them then drop them off in different counties. But, they can settle it themselves, I don't have to get involved.

Ty did pause to see the confrontation though, he couldn't help but feel a little jealous that they were using their powers. It was stupid, but, he almost missed having something strange about him. He had mastered his power years ago, but, he never used it now, there was no reason to. And the suppression of it was draining at times.
The annoying sounding Brunette seemed to be the next one to decide if the fight would go on.

[erin]

(OOC: If you have to kill Rogue in this future, I will forgive you. She'll still exist elsewhere.

Rogue knew Vulcan wanted to leave her with some dignity and some self-confidence but he'd taken everything else...why not those as well?

She slipped her hand behind her back and removed her glove. She had one more power, and if it failed, it failed. She wasn't letting him get away. She'd hound him until one of them killed the other.

It was revenge. It was a final battle. It was her last stand.

She wasn't wearing a uniform, but she was an X-Man. The other X-Men had warned her she was reckless and much too stubborn, they might have convinced her to back-down. But they weren't here.

Thanks to him.

Rogue leapt for him, her bare hand outstretched. She gritted her teeth. It was doubtful this would work. Whatever happened, she knew it would hurt.

[Vulcan]

He reaction was quick and lethal, he knew she was a dangerous opponent. She wouldn't leave him be. As she tried to touch him. he looked at her. Two beams of red energy shot from his eyes. They struck her in the chest, and proceeded to tear right through her at this distance. It literally tore her in half.

He knew her body would be evidence used against him. So he prepared to take a moment to indistegrate her body parts... even if she was regenerating.

[erin]

Rogue screamed. She tasted blood in her mouth and fire leapt through her chest. She barely noticed she had been repelled and fallen to the pavement.

She couldn't remember being in this much pain ever before. She'd been stabbed, shot, crushed and anyother number of things during her time as an X-Man. But this was incredible, the only thing she could relate it to was Wolverine's hazy memories of getting his adamantium skeleton.

She couldn't feel her legs. Her spine was tingling as it tried to knit itself back together. But staring down at the holes in her body, her legs barely attached to the rest of her.

"Reckless." She smiled bitterly. "And all for nothing."

Her body continued to heal.

Vulcan was coming.

Maybe she could heal herself enough to dodge but she didn't bother dwelling on it. This would be her end.

She saw herself reflected in his inhuman eyes.

"Well," She offered him a indomitable smile, "Ah always thought Ah'd die in battle. Looks like Ah was right." She raised a weak arm, streaked crimson and pointed at him, "Ah had something worth dying for."

Her vision grew blurred with tears. She recalled each of her family's faces before her, Mystique, Aunt Carrie, Papa, the faint fleeting image of her mother, Destiny, Gambit, Nightcrawler...remembering the life she had lived and the people she loved.

She looked up at Vulcan, jutting her chin out. "And you'll never have that."

[Vulcan]

With but a gesture, the lower half of her body turned black and smoked, it very quickly burnt away, disintegrated by high level concentrated radiation.

He looked down at her with a look of pity and disgust. " you had power beyond many of our brethren, and you wasted it, Rogue. You could have been a queen among these insects, but you chose not to. Your life is pathetic, and now forfeit. "

He didn't even touch her. He hadn't even up to thiis point. His powers had progressed so far that he could even manipulate the bio checmial energy signals within another human body. What he did was simple, and incredibly cruel.

He cut off her autonomic response. He basically paralyzed her from the neck down. He then super fired the energy to her nerve receptors, so that the pain would increase ten fold. He even manipulated her brain energy so she would not pass out or die for a bit. He let her suffer greatly.

He was not without compassion though. He halted the sound of her screaming so that no passers by would have to hear her anguish as he slowly began to boil her blood within her body.