"So what now? Are we just leaving?" Clarice frowned as she looked over the shattered remains of the town. There was nothing left standing, and no signs of life anywhere in sight, making the idea of finding anyone here seem almost pointless.
"Wait," Locke said quietly, his eyes narrowing as his mind reached outward. "There are still two people alive."
His Telepathy had already swept through the wreckage, and what he found surprised even him. Buried beneath the ruins were two faint but unmistakable consciousnesses. More importantly, they weren't ordinary humans—they were mutants.
"There are survivors?" Polaris asked, her tone shifting instantly as hope flickered across her face.
"Where?" Clarice added, already scanning the debris instinctively.
"Follow me."
Locke moved without hesitation, guiding them through the wrecked streets until they reached what used to be a small house. Now it was nothing more than a collapsed pile of broken stone and twisted metal.
What stood out immediately was the missile lodged in the rubble.
It hadn't exploded.
That alone was enough to make the situation dangerous. Just because it hadn't detonated yet didn't mean it was safe.
"Stay close," Locke said, his voice steady but firm. "If anything goes wrong, I'll get us out instantly."
Polaris and Clarice didn't argue. They stepped closer to him, trusting his judgment completely.
With a slight lift of his hand, Locke activated his electromagnetic control. The scattered debris trembled, then began to rise, piece by piece, as if pulled by an invisible force. Broken bricks, splintered beams, and twisted metal were carefully lifted away, one layer at a time.
He moved with extreme precision, ensuring nothing shifted too violently. The last thing he wanted was to accidentally trigger the missile.
Finally, the unexploded warhead was revealed completely.
Locke's eyes flicked over it, instantly recognizing the markings stamped along its surface.
"…Stark Industries."
The realization made his expression harden slightly. Without hesitation, he guided the missile away from the debris and set it aside at a safe distance before continuing the excavation.
It didn't take long.
As the final layers of rubble were cleared away, two figures came into view.
A boy and a girl.
Both looked like teenagers, their bodies curled together in the corner as if they had instinctively tried to shield each other from the blast. They were motionless, covered in dust, and far too still.
"They're just kids…" Clarice's voice trembled slightly as she stepped forward.
Polaris was already moving, carefully lifting the two of them from the wreckage. She checked them quickly, her expression tense.
"How are they?" Clarice asked anxiously.
Polaris let out a breath of relief. "They're alive. Just unconscious."
Locke stepped closer, his gaze lingering on the two children.
Something about them felt… familiar.
That didn't make sense.
With his super brain, his memory had been perfectly organized and indexed. There shouldn't be anything he couldn't recall.
Unless—
A thought struck him.
Without hesitation, he activated the system.
[Ding! Has the host checked in with Mutant Quicksilver?]
Locke froze for half a second.
Quicksilver?
His eyes snapped back to the boy in Polaris's arms, disbelief flickering across his face. This scrawny teenager, covered in dust and barely conscious… was Quicksilver?
That didn't line up.
From what he remembered, Quicksilver should already be in his twenties around this time. The timeline didn't match at all.
Unless—
Which version was this?
Was this the Avengers timeline? Or the X-Men timeline?
The more he thought about it, the more tangled it became. The Marvel Universe wasn't exactly known for being clean or consistent, and now that he was inside it, the contradictions felt even worse.
But one thing was certain.
The system wouldn't make a mistake.
If it said this boy was Quicksilver, then that was exactly who he was.
And if that was true…
Then the girl beside him could only be one person.
[Ding! Has the host checked in with Mutant Scarlet Witch Wanda?]
So it really was her.
Scarlet Witch.
Locke's eyes lingered on the girl for a moment as everything clicked into place. A war-torn homeland. Stark-made weapons. Two children surviving in the middle of destruction.
It resembled the setup from Age of Ultron.
But there was a contradiction.
In that storyline, their powers came from the Mind Stone—not from being mutants.
Yet here they were.
Mutants.
The inconsistency made his head ache slightly, but he quickly dismissed it. Trying to reconcile every version of Marvel's chaos wasn't worth the effort.
What mattered was what stood in front of him.
"The system," Locke said internally, his focus sharpening. "Sign me in."
Scarlet Witch's power—her chaos magic—was one of the most valuable abilities in existence.
[Ding! Sign-in failed.]
"…Seriously?"
Locke's lips twitched in annoyance. That was unexpected.
He exhaled slowly, forcing the frustration down. Fine. If it didn't work now, it would work later.
For now, getting them out of here was the priority.
"These two are mutants," he said aloud, his tone returning to calm.
Polaris and Clarice both looked at him in surprise. "Mutants?"
"Yes," Locke confirmed. "We're taking them back to the academy first."
Clarice hesitated slightly before asking, "But… weren't we here to find someone?"
Locke smiled faintly and shook his head. "Relax. It won't take long to go back and return."
She blinked, then gave an embarrassed laugh. "Right… that was kind of a dumb question."
"It's fine," Locke replied casually. "Alright, grab on. We're leaving."
Polaris and Clarice nodded without hesitation, each holding onto one of the children while staying close to him.
In the next instant, space itself twisted.
And they vanished.
…
At the Mutant Academy, the atmosphere was far calmer than the war zone they had just left behind.
"Jean, take a look at them," Locke called as he and Polaris entered the infirmary, carrying the two unconscious teenagers.
Jean Grey turned immediately, concern flashing across her face as she approached. "Lay them on the beds first."
Together, they carefully placed the boy and girl onto the hospital beds while Jean moved in to examine them.
"Where did you find them?" she asked, her brows furrowing slightly.
"In the Gumira region," Clarice answered. "They were buried under the ruins. We pulled them out."
"Gumira?" Jean repeated, surprised for a moment before her expression softened with understanding. With Locke's teleportation ability, the distance wasn't an issue.
She conducted a quick but thorough check, her hands glowing faintly as her telepathic senses brushed over them.
After a moment, she straightened.
"They're fine," she said reassuringly. "Just unconscious from shock. No serious injuries. They'll wake up after some rest."
Relief washed over Polaris and Clarice almost instantly.
"That's a relief," Polaris said quietly, her shoulders finally relaxing.
Clarice let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding, her gaze lingering on the two kids with a mix of concern and sympathy.
....
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