Days of Future and Past<BR>
by Zaxxon<BR><BR></CENTER>
Part 9

[=== From Part 8 ===]

     ## I heard that, ## Nick telepathic replied with a laugh.
     Natalie hoped that Wolverine was with the Beast and Blue Team
otherwise... Wolverine does *not* like vampires, not at all. Even
though Nick was a 'partially-cured' vampire, he was still a vampire. Of
course, how a vampire could be 'partially-cured' by Magic/Mysticism
was beyond her since she liked to believe in things things she could see
and touch, like aliens, the Shi'ar, living Islands and Planets,
and other things that she encountered as an X-Man. It took a moment
for her to realize that Nick did not know where to go. She smiled and
said, "This way."

[== End of Part 8 ===]

     "Okay, I'm here" Natalie said to the group of people in the
study. "What's up?" 
     Natalie, of course, recognized the Professor and Magneto. It took
a moment to recognize Emma Frost and that Jean Grey-Summers was in the
the room. The other four was a mystery to her, although the tall fellow 
with white hair fitted SHIELD's description of the mysterious 'Cable.' 
She knew that Cable was wanted by various govornment agencies for 
questions in a number of cases but those same agencies were not trying 
that hard to find him, in fact, they seems to 'overlook' him a lot. 
Natalie knew that the X-Men had tried to search Cable once. It happen
after she had left the team but she kept in touch. She also knew that
the X-Men, X-Factor, and Cerebro could not find a trace of him. The 
search was called off by Jean, who claimed to have 'talked' with him.
     "Nat, who's your friend?" Erik asked interupting Nat's thoughts.
     "Huh?" Natalie was confused a moment until she remembered, "This
is Nicholas Knight, Crusader of Code Alpha. He's the one that got me
here so fast."
     "Nice to met you," Erik said to Nick.
     "Thank," Nick said as he gripped Erik's hand. "And it's nice to
met you, Professor Magnus. Professor Xavier."
     At their raised eyebrow Nick said, "I know what Professor Xavier
looks like from his television appearances and you, Professor Magnus,
from a wanted posted that came out nine years ago. I was a detective 
for the Toronto Police Department then. That's how I met Nat."
     Natalie forgot about those wanted posters. // Was it only nine
years ago? // Natalie thought to herself. // I had been with the team
for only about four months when the X-Men and Spider-Man had to battle
robotic Hindu gods in New York city. Not all the damage was our
fault. //

     "From the Future?" Natalie exclaimed. "Like Bishop?"
     Having already been through this before, Ivanova, Garibaldi, and
Bester, all simply nodded.
     "That's what they claim," Erik said with a touch of suspicion.
     "And that's why you're here," Charles continued. "Cable says that
man called Bester is a descendant of our Emma Frost. You're here to
prove or disprove the claim."
     "Okay," Natalie said. "I'll need samples from 'Bester' and Emma."
     "How long is this going to take?" Nick asked Natalie.
     Natalie replied, "A few hours. Remember you *wanted* to come."

     "It's pretty amazing," Natalie said to everyone. "Of course, I
would like Hank to double check me but now, I'm certain of *two*
things."
     "Oh?" Charles Xavier asked. Both he and Magnus's eyebrows were
raised.
     "First, as incredible as it seems, 'Bester' is the
eleventh-removed grandson of the White Queen," Natalie answered.
     "And the other?" Magnus asked.
     "That I've found proof of Hank's theory since Bester is a telepath, 
but has no x-factor," Natalie replied.
     "How is this possible?" both Xavier and Magnus asked together.
     "I don't know," Natalie began. "I ran the test twice to be sure,
but, the test came back negative. In fact, I double checked it against
Emma's X-Factor, and discovered that it was misidentified her
x-factor as alpha-class, when in fact it's gamma. Dormant."
     "But..." Charles started.
     "Telepathy and the X-Factor have nothing to do with each other,"
Garibaldi said simply.
     "What?" the group said together.
     "Telepathy is a natural occurance," Bester put in. "It's just a
recessive trait that takes generations to produce useful telepaths."
     "Then what about Charles, Miss Braddock, and Jean, all register as
alpha-class mutants by Cerebro," Magnus asked.
     "Miss Braddock is part-alien. Her father came from another
dimension while her mother was human, so that why she registers on
Cerebro," Cable explained. "And like Emma, Charles is a gamma-class
mutant, if you will. The X-Factor is present, but not active. And of
course, Charles used himself as the template to compare others to when
he created Cerebro. As for Jean, she is a mutant. Telekinestics is a
x-factor, her telepathy is just a bonus."
     There was a beep from the wall monitor. Everyone stopped what
they were doing and looked around. Both Magnus and Bester noticed the
momentary puzzlement on both Charle and Cable's faces and then their
slight smiles. Magnus and Charles both nodded at the same time.
     "What was that?" Nick asked.
     Natalie looked nervious but took a breathe to speak. But it was
Magnus that spoke, "It was Cerebro noting the return of the Gold
Team."
     Natalie let out a small sigh that Nick noted in puzzlement.
     "Professors, we have company," came Storm's voice over the
intercom.
     "Since my office is getting crowded, why don't we all move 
into the Briefing Room," Magnus said.

     The Briefing Room was a conference room that had in its center a
round table. In the middle of the table was a holo-projector. Each
seat had a computer access pad to allow anyone to use the system. More
importantly, the room had enough seat to sit everyone adn some more.
The room had been created to allow all four X-Teams, the Blue Team, 
the Gold Team, X-Factor, and Excalibur, and some others to discuss the
current crisis in relative comfort or simply be configured for a single
team pre- and post-mission briefing. 
     Currently, the room was set up for the sixteen people that were
present. As the people entered the room, groups were formed.
Bishop immediately joined Garibaldi and after introduction they
talked about the X.S.E. in their respective times, the responiblilities 
of command, and the various cases they have had. After a few moments, 
Bester joined them as they sat down together. Next in was Cable with 
Phoenix on his left arm and Ivanova on his right. Next, Xavier and Magnus 
entered. Both taking note of Jean's attention to Cable and Bishop's 
acceptance of Garibaldi. 
	It surprised Erik to see both the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver,
both were members of the Avengers, although Quicksilver started out as
an X-Man and joined the Avengers to be with his then-girlfriend,
now-wife.  While Erik was happy to see his children, he was slightly 
disappointed when only Quicksilver came over for a quick hello. His 
daughter was still avoiding him. Erik had only called her husband a 
machine, which was what the Vision is, a synthoid, but Wanda had taken 
the innocent statement as criticism, about her life, her choice of 
joining the Avengers instead of the X-Men, her marrying without telling 
her father, and her study of the mystic arts. // Pietro had made an 
effort to make amends between me and my daughter but Wanda didn't want
peace, // Erik thought sadly.
     Archangel, Crusader, and Iceman entered, talking about sports.
Although Nick was new to them, both Bobby and Warren accepted him
since he was Natalie's friend. Inferno, Storm, Spider-Woman, the White
Queen were the last to be seated. The four were discussing the latest 
movie that had come out.
	After everyone had seated Xavier began, "It would seem we have
*two* crisises at hand." Looking at both Spider-Woman and the Scarlet
Witch, Xavier asked, "What can we do for the Avengers?"
	Without looking at her father, Wanda directed her response to
Xavier, "Twelve hours ago, I and the West Coast Avengers responded to
a sheriff department call for help. When we got there, we saw three
gunmen attacking a house. US Agent, in his usual mood, asked why where
we were called for, for three mere gunmen. At the time, I had to agree
until the three began to fire on us too. After the first volley of
fire from thos 'gunmen', US Agent's energy shields were destroyed, War 
Machine's systems disrupted, Hawkeye rendered unconscious, and
Century confused. Spider-Woman's psi-webs and my hex-bolts were
stopped by something, I don't know what. But what ever it was, it
destroyed three sheriff's cars, imperious to bullets, and
undetectable.
	"It was obvious we were over our heads, as team leader I called
the East Coast Avengers for help. Within thirty-minutes of my call,
Captain American and his team arrived. Like US Agent, the Black Widow
wondering why we where having so much trouble. Her answer came when
Sersi began screaming in some ancient language and charged with a
psinoic sword in her hand into what looked to us like an empty field.
Only it wasn't empty. Her sword hit something, a bunch of things.
Still speaking in that ancient language, Sersi summoned Thor and
Hercules to her side. From the battle it became obvious that there was
six invisible creatures helping the gunmen. With three of our
strongest members engaged the rest of us went after the gunmen.
Without their invisible bodyguards and a better understanding of their
high-tech weapons. We, Avengers, were able to close in on them. When
we got within eight feet in them, we got another surprise and the
reason we're here. All three of the gunmen were telepaths.
	"Despite our mental disciples and the actual confrontations with
telepaths, Black Widow, US Agent, Hawkeye, and War Machine fell under
their 'control' and helped them to escape along with their invisible
friends. Iron Man, Captain America, Vision, and Crystal were injuried
during the fight. Doctor Pym is taking care of them at West Coast H.Q..
Sersi, Thor, and Hercules, three of the Avengers most powerful members, 
stand with the Sinclairs to protect them."
	"Do you know what you have encountered?" Cable asked into the
silence that fell after the Scarlet Witch stopped speaking.
	The Scarlet Witch nodded towards Spider-Woman, who inserted a
disk into the data system and said, "What you are seeing is a
recording taken from Iron Man's sensors. The creatures are invisible
for the entire spectrum of raditations, colors, infrared, microwave,
etc." Images of Sersi, Thor, and Hercules attacking thin air appeared
in the holo-projectors. Only sounds of the three Avengers speaking in
the ancient language and an occasional high-pitched buzzing sound come
be heard.
	After hearing the high-pitched buzzing both Ivanova and Garibaldi
both said, "Shadows."
	Spider-Woman nodded at the two and said, "Yes, that's what Sersi
called them, after the translation."
	"And the house being attacked was owned by the Sinclairs, right?"
Garibaldi asked.
	"How did you know?" the Scarlet Witch asked.

[=== End of Part 9 ===]