Post by thejellyfish on Aug 20, 2015 1:41:51 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #8
Origins: I’m On My Worst Behavior
by thejellyfish
Los Angeles Six Years Ago
“Dad, where are we going?” asked an impatient Julian Keller. “It’s my birthday, it should be all about me and what I wanna do.”
“Julian, you’re fourteen, that’s enough,” replied his father, William Keller, in a commanding tone. “We’ll do something special when you turn sixteen.”
“Julian, this event is very important for your father. Why can’t you understand that and try not to be selfish?” asked his mother, Elizabeth Keller. Julian hung his head and focused on the dime on the floor of the limousine that was currently transporting his family to Keller Pharmaceuticals.
His older brother, James Keller, placed a hand around his brother reassuringly. “Don’t worry about them, little bro. We’ll do something together when the fundraiser ends,” he said as he patted him lightly on the back. Julian continued to focus on the dime.
The dime flipped.
Julian’s head jolted upwards, looking to see if anyone else saw the dime. ‘No one pays attention to little ol’ Julian. Figures,’ he thought, putting all his focus on the dime once more.
A green glow began to envelope the dime and he slowly lifted it in the air with a movement of his hand. His family turned to look at him. “Julian, what are you doing? Stop that this instance,” his father ordered.
Suddenly, the car stopped in the middle of the intersection and the Keller family jolted forward. Suddenly, men and women with machine guns began surrounding the limousine. Then, the window to the driver’s compartment went down. The driver turned around to face the Kellers and aimed a pistol at them. “Mr. Cich sends his regards,” he said as he fired, hitting Elizabeth in the shoulder.
Before he could fire again, Julian flung the dime with a flick of his wrist at the driver’s own wrist, cutting clean through. The driver dropped his gun and William set about applying pressure to his wife’s wound. Not thinking, Julian reached out with his mind and hands and telekinetically grabbed the entirety of the limousine.
He slowly lifted it into the air as machine gun fire began pelting the outside of the vehicle. James looked out the back window, towards the taller buildings behind the vehicle. “Uh, Jules. I don’t know what you’re doing, but you better get us out of this quick,” he said, panicking. A figure stood atop one of the buildings and fired an RPG at the underside of the vehicle, causing it to rock to the side.
Julian tried to even out the trajectory of the limousine, but instead accidentally sent it careening towards a tank of gasoline outside a gas station. Another explosion rocked the vehicle, causing the people within to spill out onto the concrete below.
Julian landed away from the tank of gas and stood to see men pointing assault rifles at him. He could hear sirens a few blocks away. Suddenly, the gas tank exploded and Julian felt a great heat envelope him, melting the flesh off of his hands.
It took a second before Julian collapsed from the pain.
Keller Pharmaceuticals
A Few Hours Later
“How are they? Are they alive?” asked a panicked William Keller. He tried to look into the rooms where his family lay broken, but could not see anything. He pulled at his graying hairs in frustration.
“Calm down, William,” said the woman as she smoothed her blouse down. “The burn damage was too great and James’ left foot had to be amputated. Luckily, we can make him a prosthetic. New prototype. Cutting edge stuff, really. Your wife, meanwhile, was not so lucky. She passed into a coma. We’re not sure if she’ll survive at this point.”
“Oh god… is she… is she comfortable?” asked William as he rubbed his hands down his face in relief. A coma is better than being dead.
William began walking off towards his office. “Sir, don’t you wish to hear about Julian?” asked the woman. William grimaced and turned to face the woman once more.
“Well, to start off with, he is also in a coma. However, we ran some tests and it seems that Julian has the… erm… X-Gene. From the footage, it looks like his abilities are telekinetic in nature. His hands completely melted off in the explosion. We’ve managed to figure out a new type of prosthetic that he can use his powers on, rather than just giving him ‘robot hands,’” replied the woman.
“That’s nice,” said William sarcastically as he turned and continued on his original course.
Keller Family Home
A Few Months Later
Julian suddenly awoke and jolted upright in his medical bed. “Welcome back, little bro,” said James, who was sitting in a chair at the opposite end of the bed. “It’s been a few months, so some stuff has changed. Just promise you won’t freak.”
Julian looked down at the space his hands used to occupy and saw the nubs left behind. “Where are my hands?” asked Julian as he was beginning to get angry.
“C’mon, what did I just ask?”
“Where are my hands?!” he yelled as he lifted his nubs up to show his brother, his powers lashed out and began tearing certain objects in his room apart. An easel flew and nearly hit James when William walked in.
William placed a box in his lap and opened it, revealing two metal hands within. William then grabbed Julian and pulled him to look at the hands. “These are your hands now. You will learn to use as if they were normal hands.” James opened his mouth to get a word in. “And that is an ORDER!” yelled William as he let go of Julian.
William began to openly weep before his sons before pointing at Julian. “You… you killed your mother. My Elizabeth is dead, and it’s all your fault,” said William as he composed himself. “Now come along James, we have to discuss you taking over your mother’s position on the Board of Directors with the rest of shareholders and what not.” And with that James and William left Julian’s room.
Julian reached out to the hands with his mind and slid them onto his wrists as silent tears fell down his face.
Los Angeles
One Year Later
“This is what your people do, Julian,” said William as his son walked downstairs from his bedroom. “They destroy, but then again, you know all about destruction, don’t you?” Julian looked at the TV and saw Central Park in ruins, a group of people fighting to save others, and a madman hell-bent on the death of humanity.
His eyes darted to the blurb at the bottom of the screen. ‘X-Men? As in the X-Gene?’ he asked himself. He then watched as one of the members of the group teleported a child out of the way of a large rod of metal and the woman used her powers to make it rain, putting out a few fires.
It was then that Julian knew what he wanted to do with his life.
Westchester
One Year Later
Julian had packed his bags full of everything he thought he’d need and left Los Angeles. No goodbyes necessary. Julian had heard that mutants everywhere were invited to join the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters and decided to make the trek across the country. He could fly, so money wasn’t really an issue for the trip.
Julian knocked on the door twice and waited patiently. After a moment, the door opened, revealing a bald man with a cane on the other side. “Ah, Mister Keller, I’ve been expecting you for some time now,” he said with a soft laugh. “I’m Professor Charles Xavier.”
“I know who you are, but how do you know who I am?” asked Julian timidly.
“Your brother called ahead. He figured out you had left and realized where you were going. He sent along all your papers so we can actually, well, teach you,” said Xavier with a chuckle. Julian walked inside and saw two other students in the halls; a young woman with brown hair and brown eyes and another male with blonde hair and blue eyes.
“We haven’t had a lot of people take us up on our offer, as you can see,” said Xavier.
“I think it’s fine.”
Julian’s Dorm, Xavier Mansion
One Year Ago, Just After Graduation
“Y’know Julian, I pity you sometimes. You can touch everything all at once, but you never get to feel it,” said Megan Gwynn as she stroked her pink hair out of her eyes, allowing Julian to see the deep black sclera that surrounded her pinkish irises.
“It ain’t so bad, nothing ever gets greasy when I eat pizza,” replied Julian with a chuckle. Megan chuckled as well and placed her hand on his arm and leaned closer to his face. Julian leaned in closer as well until their lips met and they hesitantly began kissing. The kiss became more passionate as time crept on and Megan fisted her hands in Julian’s black hair, while Julian used one hand to cup her back and the other to cup her cheek.
She shivered at the touch of his cold, metal hand and pulled her face away from his quickly out of surprise, apparently not liking the sensation. Julian looked away, ashamed. Before Megan could say anything, Julian stood. “I… I think I should… go,” he said before walking out of his room. ‘God, I’m such an idiot,’ he thought as he walked quickly down to the grounds to sit outside. ‘Of course, my hands would be uncomfortably cold to the touch.’
As he reached his favorite spot to sit and think, a tree branch on an oak tree on the outskirts of the forest that was wide enough to fit him when he lay down on it, he looked at his hands and took them off. Upon looking at the nubs that were always hidden beneath the metal hands, Julian began to cry.
Julian calmed himself down and slipped his hands back on, looking up at the sky.
He didn’t notice Megan as she floated up to meet him. She took his hands in hers, not shivering away this time, and smiling at him. “I’m sorry, Megan. I can’t do this right now.”
“What do you mean ‘this?’” she asked stroking her left thumb around his hand, showing that she didn’t mind the cold.
“Us,” said Julian, as he pulled hands away from Megan and pointed between them. Megan looked crestfallen and floated away from him. “You were wrong, I can’t touch everything. I can’t touch anything.”
Megan took a second to compose herself. “Touching is different than feeling, Julian. And I think that once you realize that, you should come talk to me, okay?” She floated back over to Julian and placed a kiss on his cheek before flying away, leaving a small cloud of dust behind her.
Julian looked up the sky once more, before launching himself off of the tree branch and into the sky.
Next Time: Pilgrims