Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 431 FUTURE DAYS PAST

The silence dragged on as I flew over the Atlantic Ocean. The joy in Kitty was too much for me to want to break by talking. I could feel that she had spent a long time trying to get to this point. As the reality that she succeeded set in, she began to cry. 

I didn’t make any jokes as I normally would have. Stopping in the air I wrapped my arms around her. Though a future version of the Kitty I knew, she was still skin and bones. Her small body was racked with sobs as she held onto me tighter. 

It took time but when she finished she pulled back up to look at me. “You know, I hated you,” she said. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“I’m pretty easy to hate,” I said. I lifted her up and moved her to my back. She latched on in a piggyback ride. “Why did you hate me?”

“You left us,” she said. “Even with all the crap with Anne. And Delilah freaking out daily. You left. And you never came back like you promised.”

I remembered both girls fondly. Anne was my once girlfriend in the world, and the future Rogue. I had just seen a glimpse of her before Kitty zapped me to the future. Delilah was the young clone of Jean Grey. A funny girl that played up her amnesia. I was falling hard for her in the present. Unsure what to do I was hoping for some hints about what would and wouldn’t work in this future. 

“I don’t remember that, so it hasn’t happened yet,” I said. “Mind filling me in?”

She let out a sigh, continuing to hold onto my back as she spoke. “Head to Queens and I’ll tell you all about it.”

I went horizontal and began flying slowly towards Queens, New York. It took her time but she spoke. Much more coherently than before. 

“I can’t remember how long after I pulled you from. But most of the strong mutants get abducted by aliens,” she said. 

“What kind of aliens? Probe kind or murdery kind?”

“Both?” She asked. “I don’t know. You were all pissed because they didn’t take you.” I stopped her there. 

“The aliens didn’t take me?” I asked, genuinely upset. “I’m one of the strongest. Do they only take mutants?”

“No, a lot of strong normal people were taken too. Off to fight in some trial. Anyway, you threw a hissy fit and flew off. Saying you were going to bring them back. Well, they came back, and you didn’t. Anne said you never made it there. The aliens were called the Shitters or something?” I frowned, not recognizing the name. Still rather annoyed I wasn’t taken, I needed to be sure I was abducted if I got back to the past. Anal probe or not, I wanted everyone to know I was one of the strongest human…or was it because I wasn’t human? But a Viltrumite too? I decided to think on that later. 

“Either way, a bunch of drama happened since then. But Anne and Delilah got over it. Then about three years ago the government unveiled their new mutant fighting tech. The Sentinels.” She scoffed. “It happened after Magneto caused some shit of course. Said they were starting up the Sentinel program just in case. Since Genosha kept recruiting from America they wanted to learn all the potential powers he could have under him. So the Sentinels scanned people. Able to sense the X gene even if you didn’t know it, they would make a record of you. Then some time after that they began announcing who the mutants were. Every day people with a stupid minor mutation got kicked out of groups and families, driving more people to Magneto. The government didn’t like that so they blocked some visas. More drama, Magneto made threats. Then it was revealed the Sentinels could fight now. Some fancy new patch. They shipped out bigger ones and started killing mutants that stepped out of line. Magneto and X didn’t like that at all, so they joined forces. There was this big old war. Everyone choosing sides. And well mutants lost. Magneto left the planet with the survivors that fought with him. The rest of us were left to rot.”

“Who died?” I asked. 

She laughed. “It’s a shorter list to tell you who lived,” she said. “Some disappeared like Delilah and Jean. Wolverine too, he was saying this was all karma and just went off into the woods. Rogue made it. Forge. He’s got this plan for a new machine but we needed a part from Cerebro since he didn’t have the material to make what we needed.”

“What are you making?” I asked. 

“Our own world wide mutant finder,” she said. “We are hoping to gather those few that escaped. Maybe disappear like Wolverine did. There are plenty of countries that don’t care if you’re mutant or not. But we don’t want to pull a Magneto and leave people behind.”

“So they killed everyone?” I asked, a lump in my throat. 

“No, but they might as well be dead,” she said. “They enslaved most of us. Attached these mind control collars on them. If they try to do anything they’ll make it explode and kill you. It’s pretty gruesome. We put those we can out of their misery.”

“Fuck me,” I said. “This is dark, Kitty.”

“You’re telling me. I have to wake up here everyday,” she said. 

“What about me? I assume if I die here, I die for real?”

“Probably,” she said. “Maybe not? Before now I simply sent my consciousness back. But somehow I pulled your whole body. So you might want to watch it before you’re sent back.”

“How long is that?” I asked. 

“A day or two. No more…a week tops,” she said. 

“Great,” I said, actually meaning it. I was strong. I could help these people. I didn’t know why past me didn’t come back but I was sure it was related to my challenges. At least I hoped it was. 

“What’s plan number one?” I asked. 

“First, get this crap to Forge,” she said. “Emma can use her powers to find who we need.”

“Emma Frost?” I asked. 

“Yeah, you know-“ she said then stopped. “Oh shit. I forgot there were rumors about you banging her too.”

“There were rumors of me sleeping with Frost?” I asked, very annoyed. 

“Oh yeah. Hisako, she talked about how you had this whole thing going with her and this blind chick.” She laughed loudly then stopped. “Jeez, can’t remember the last time I laughed.”

“Well I’m glad my drama can bring you joy,” I said. Annoyed by this. I hoped when I got back that Anne hadn’t heard these rumors, but knowing Hisako, I was sure she did. We continued flying, eventually Kitty had me land. 

We walked through a checkpoint in the main part of the city. Kitty hiding inside of me expertly she passed through easily and we grabbed a cab. I doubted I would get away with flying around the city like before. With checkpoints, an increased military presence, and a lot of unknowns around me I wasn’t about to risk anything. 

When we got closer to Queens she pulled her hand out of me and signaled to stop. I paid the cabby and we got out. Currently winter out, she wore a coat as I stood in my black hero costume. Snow beginning to fall overtop of us; everything felt eerie to me. 

“How bad is it, Kitty?” I asked. 

“I already said-” I stopped her by pointing at the insides of a home across the street. A family was sitting down, watching TV. Each laughing at some stupid slapstick comedy show I didn’t recognize. Before I had only felt Kitty who was depressed, scared, and bone tired. But around me were happy families, hidden away in their little worlds. 

“It’s fucking bullshit,” she said, starting to cry again. “Just because they’re normal they get to be normal. No worrying about being raided, enslaved, raped. They all live in this little bubble. Uncaring what they do to us.” She wiped her eyes as she began to walk again. Her hands in her pockets 

“How did they justify it?” 

“Terrorism,” she scoffed. “Like we were some ticking time bomb. Some sort of error in the evolution of man that had to be purged. They say they’ve been working on a “cure” but it’s all bullshit. Normal people didn’t raise a stink so they just let it happen.”

“That is bullshit,” I agreed. Pulling her close to me she leaned her head into my shoulder. “Well, how can we fix it?”

“This isn’t getting fixed,” she scoffed. “I-I already tried. There was this government guy. Larry Trask, his brother was a mutant and killed his whole family accidentally. He made the Sentinels. Said he needed to purge us. I went back, and may have tried to you know, kill him.”

“And you failed?” 

“So bad,” she said. “I ended up saving the guy from another killer, and he was all like how did you get here, then my power swooped me back and when I got back there were more of my friends taken.” 

“Fuck,” I said. “So if I were to kill him?” 

“You wouldn’t do that,” she said, smiling. “No, I just need to listen to Anne. Accept the past. I appreciate the help though, Weston. Like seriously, we have been trying to get this for a while.” She patted her pocket. But there was nothing there. Her eyes bulging she checked the other pocket but that was empty as well. 

“Where did-”

“This?” I asked, interrupting. Pulling out the small canister to show her. “You dropped it.”

“No, I most certainly did not,” she said, grabbing it. 

“You’re right. I picked your pocket,” I laughed.

“You asshole!” She yelled, hitting me. “I’m fucking shaking I was so scared there. I fucking cannot believe you.” I laughed louder. “This isn’t funny. I tried-”

“Kitty, shut up and laugh,” I said, putting my arms on her shoulders. “I almost died once. Gave up on everything. I thought I should let it all go. My hopes, dreams, loved ones. I was just so tired. But someone brought me out of that. Saved me right before the sword. It took me a while to appreciate what they did. A lot of time to realize that it really wasn’t the end of the world to stumble. As long as you can laugh, you can get through it. So fuck all these normal people. They live and die that way. We get to be abnormal. We get to do and see amazing things. A world they never dreamed of. We get to fight with the ultimate prize on the line, our lives. So let’s fucking get this shit where it needs to go, kill a few Sentinels, probably a few bad guys while we are at it, and get the hell out of this shithole of a dystopian future present whatever.”

“You know,” she said with a smirk. “You were doing so good there till the end.”

“I was,” I said. “I’ll work on my rousing speeches.” I moved her back to walk. “Where the hell are we going anyway?”

“Just up ahead,” she said, wiping her nose. “We have a few bases, but this is our best. Don’t go blabbing about it either.” 

“Oh I’ll be sure not to tell a soul,” I said. I looked up at the falling snow. “Are there like patrols of those Sentinel guys we need to worry about?”

“No, they happen at pretty set intervals,” she said. “We should be good for a while yet.” I nodded, trying to watch everything around us. I didn’t recognize the neighborhood from the ground floor. Used to flying around all over the place, these homes in Queens all looked the same. I wanted to ask about Spiderman and Gwen, but held off. I didn’t want her depressed again. Suddenly a screen popped up. 

Recent Actions in Marvel have been reviewed.

Belated Reward:

Minor Inverse Resistance

Current Role in the Marvel Future will now offer quests.

Confused, I had only seen a notification like this once. Back when I got a World Choice after I helped Endeavor deal with a Nomu. Back then, I was pretty sure that the System wanted me to leave Manga. Which in hindsight I wish I would have done, then when I lost my Challenge I wouldn’t have lost access to the Hall. 

But the belated aspect also reminded me of when I earned the Anti-Hero role in the world. Maybe I was running off script and the System just caught up to me? Which was weird, since my body had been in the future for the last few months as I went to 300 and DC. So it was telling me that again, they weren’t watching all the time. That was always a win in my book. I was working on skills in the background that I didn’t want them to stop. We would have to see if they caught on. 

Inverse Resistance sounded odd. Usually quest rewards dealt with what I fought during the quest. Is that what the Sentinels did to counteract mutant powers? Used an inverse of the energy or something? It would be impossible to be able to fight all the different mutant powers out there. How could you fight fire and ice without some weird crossover? Maybe they cast some kind of inverse power. Which sounded pretty cool in my book. I wondered if that was something I could learn. I decided to study my screen for now though.

Name	Weston Walker
Current Quest:
World 1:	Marvel
World 1 Quest:
World 2:	Invincible
World 2 Quest:
World 3:	DC
World 3 Quest:
Passive Skills:	Memory Meld
	Dead Man Walking
	Handicap	Dismiss
	World Lasting Physique
	Gemini	Active
Summon:	N/A
Pet:	Matatabi - Level 7	Summon
1 Challenger Slot
Forms:	Viltrumite Physiology	16.59%
Usable Abilities:	Status Screen	Other
5 Challenger Slots	World Escape
	Berserker Mode
	Nen
	Spark*
	Union
	Fusion*
	Timeflow
	Rift*
Bonuses	Major Psychic Resistance
5 Challenger Slots	Medium Body Mod Resistance
	Hardened Organs
	Minor Adaptability
	Minor Radiation Resistance
	4-Leaf Clover
	Venom Resistance
	Poison Resistance
	Illusion Resistance
	Fertility Control
	Minor Inverse Resistance
Items	Gantz Armor	Stored (25)
2 Challenger Slots	Item Choice
	Bonus Copy
	Hero Costume
	Bonus Upgrade
	Door Fragment	(1/4)
	World Role Choice
Currency:	USD	$877,119
	Gold	3,514

Happy with my gains I considered using the Bonus Upgrade on the Inverse resistance, but since I wasn’t sure if I would have to fight the Sentinels, I decided against it. 

“We are here,” Kitty whispered, pointing at the large building next to us. 

I looked over, noticing that I knew the place. It was the warehouse that I had fought Lizard at, where he experimented on all those mutants. Also where Gwen and Peter had been experimenting with their web shooters. 

“It always comes back to here,” I mused, amazed at the coincidence. Then again, how many underground laboratories could you find in the city?