Chapter 41: School for Gifted Youngsters

Back in the United States, in a large mansion which sat on an even larger estate, surrounded by a large brick privacy fence that spanned the whole estate, several dozen children spanning various ages ran along the grounds playing.

On the main entrance gate, a large bronze plaque that reads 'Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters'. This was a haven for young mutants. Where the children were taught not just skills they would use within society, but also how to control their mutation.

The school was led by Professor Charles Xavier, he studied mutations and was the leading expert on the subject. He too was a mutant, in fact he was one of the strongest mutants on the planet. He has beaten the Hulk many times, not in physical strength, but with his mind, literally. He was one of the strongest telepaths on the planet.

He could shut down his opponents mind, freeze them in place, or even possess them, he could implant thoughts or strip away everything in their mind. He could literally control people on a whim, especially when he used Cerebro.

It amplified his powers onto the Global scale, built under the mansion, hidden from the younger students and the public, the X division, or X-Men facilities, were under the school.

Using Cerebro, Xavier would search the planet for mutants, helping those that were alone, thrown out into the streets by their parents or loved ones out of fear, fear for their powers, he took them in and cared for them. Those who were more fortunate, that had a loving family, he would invite to the school as well.

Currently deep underground the mansion, within a large round room with metallic panels covering the walls, floor and ceiling, a bald young man in a wheel chair was being helped by a blue furry man, he had fangs and a large muscular frame, his fingernails were sharp claws, he looked more beast than man, he was handing the man in the wheelchair a glass of water and an aspirin.

"Here Professor, this will help with the headache." The blue beast of a man spoke.

"Thank you Hank. Just the water is fine though, the pain is already going away." The man said as he thanked Hank, taking the glass of water and gulping it down.

If Adam was here he would instantly recognize the two, this was Professor Charles Xavier and Hank McCoy, or better known as Professor X and the Beast, these were from their versions from the X-Men First Class universe.

"This world isn't the same Hank, so many things are the same but yet different. SHIELD is no more, hell most of the government is almost no more from what I saw in the minds across the world. I don't know how we got here, but there is a mutant, or at least I think he is one, I think he is the key." Charles said as he rubbed his head to clear away the residual pain from Adam's last push.

"Who? And what do you mean the same but different?" Hank asked as he pulled out a pad to write, it helped him to brainstorm. It also helped him feel more human.

"Aliens are amongst this world. SHIELD has become another organization called the UNSC, this Earth is at an interplanetary stage. But many of the same businesses such as Stark Industries, Oscorp and others are also here amongst many others, so I recognize the world, but at the same time I do not." Charles explained what he saw as he scanned the minds on the planet to try to get an idea on how they got here.

Before arriving they were teaching their classes, when suddenly everyone felt weird, they felt nauseous and dizzy before returning to normal. However nothing felt normal after it was over, the feeling was hard to interpret, so many of the younger students just brushed it off.

To them, it was similar to going on vacation, and when going to bed, sleeping, then when you first wake up, that initial daze of 'where the hell am I?' until it clicks 'oh yeah, Im on vacation in a hotel', kind of feeling.

However to a mutant like Charles Xavier, Jean Grey, Emma Frost and other telepaths would definitely feel much more than others. Telepaths interacted with the world as a whole, on levels that would be hard for non-telepaths to imagine.

They saw the world not just with their eyes but also their minds, nature is alive, there are trees and plants that are proven to be able to communicate with one another, for example, they warn each other of danger and even share nutrients during hard times. They use a variety of methods such as chemical, hormonal and slow pulsing electrical signals.

Telepaths, especially very powerful ones, feel the world talking, not in language per say, but they could have a feel for the state of the area they are in. Not only was nature alive, but obviously other humans as well, they touched the minds of the people around them constantly, knowing words didn't always mean truth.

So Charles knew something wasn't right, so he dismissed his class and came down to scan the world with Cerebro, to confirm his suspicion. Not only did he find a very different world than what they were in, he saw the Skrull, the UNSC and inadvertently Adam.

His fear only grew as he thought about the changes in the world, mutants were always hated and discriminated against, they had very hard lives, if they weren't being tortured and killed by mobs, they were being tortured and experimented on by the government or other organizations.

This was why Professor X and Magneto originally built the school, however, over time Magneto became more and more hateful towards non-mutants, and it wasn't without reason, the things done to mutants were extremely cruel.

Governments and various organizations experimented on them heavily, those that survived the cruel experiments, were turned into brainwashed or programmed weapons. HYDRA was known to kidnap mutant children and brainwash them, just look at Wanda and her brother, HYDRA killed their mother and took them in and told them Tony Stark was to blame. This was why they started off against the Avengers.

Charles feared in this new world, it could be much worse for them, after all, this world was interstellar, the technology gap between their old world and this one was too great. His Blackbird went from being one of the most advanced aircraft on the planet, now it was like a tricycle compared to the UNSC.

After a few moments, Charles thought hard on what to do, deciding it best to gather as many mutants as possible within his school, so that he could better protect the young mutants. Soon that fear turned into determination.

"Hank, call the others. Logan and Erik too, it's time we move past our slight differences. This world has many dangers, I know Erik only wants to protect mutants, we both want the same thing, we just could not see eye to eye on how to accomplish it. He feels war with humans is the only way to carve out a place for us, while I partly agree, I don't agree on segregating mutants. We can achieve cohabitation, but using violence, it rarely will achieve your intended goals, unless the goal is violence itself. But, this new world gives me much pause, we need to gather the others quickly. You call Logan.." Charles moved his wheelchair back towards Cerebro and began putting on the helmet which connected him to the device, "I will contact Erik myself, we have other things to discuss." Charles then closed his eyes and used his mind to reach out to his good friend Erik, who was also his enemy known as Magneto.

Hank was stunned by this, he was a scientist himself, in fact he is in the top ten smartest people on the planet. His intelligence was up there with names like Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Bruce Banner, Hank Pym, Shuri and Peter Parker. So like Tony, his intrigue for new science stimulated his excitement.

Unlike Charles and Erik, Hank was a man of science, he felt knowledge and science was the key to peaceful coexistence. He saw the truth behind what was done to his fellow mutants, humans were jealous and greedy, jealous of the powers granted by some mutant powers, greedy for it themselves.

Most experimenting done on mutants was to try to extract or copy the powers, they removed organs and blood, bone marrow and anything they could think to try to take powers that didn't belong to them.

If you create technology that could grant similar abilities, what use would they have to take from the mutants? In a sense this is quite accurate in fact, if you live in a bad area and criminals have machine guns, you would feel a lot safer if you had one as well, or at least something matching it to defend yourself if you were attacked.

The governments were able to do what they did and get away with it because they fueled the fire of fear to the public, if they can demonize mutants, turning the general population against them, making mutants less than even animals, since even animals had more rights than mutants in the comics, the governments and organizations from around the world were able to pretty much do as they pleased.

Eliminate the fear, you solve many issues, without fear, those same organizations can't just do as they pleased. They could possibly gain public support, gain rights, but first came the knowledge, Hank had faith in this new world. If aliens from other worlds were here, why couldn't mutants?

As Hank was contacting his buddy Logan, who just up and left to who knows where, in typical Wolverine style that is, back on the astral plane Adam found himself in a personal conundrum.

Adam had calmed his mind, cleared the doubt and fear, to process all the information he has received in such a short time.

He began to see the changes in himself he hadn't noticed before, rather than only defending he was becoming more aggressive, actually planning to conquer if need be, each refit station had many other capabilities than what he let on. Although refit and resupply was a use, its main ability was defense, but more along the line of thinking, the best defense was using the best offense.

Adam remembered reading in his file that he had various DNA besides the Ancient Human, he just couldn't believe it was actually Didact's DNA. It explained his pension for war, his DNA is in a feedback loop, strengthening his Forerunner DNA, which were highly susceptible to mutation.

The changes his body and mind were going thru was easily felt by Adam, his body slowly gained size as his muscles and bones condensed even further, his muscles and bones grew harder, more durable.

His eyes went from a bluish green color to now a deep red. Six Inches in height and 250 pounds of body mass was gained, this made Adam now just over seven feet four inches tall and he now weighed about 500 pounds without his armor.

As Adam thought about what was said, and what he knew of the races with Halo, Adam became a little worried, 'Damn, I don't know if this is good or bad, does this make me a mutant? Wait, Forerunner DNA is highly adaptive, their DNA was able to mutate and change even in adulthood. What would happen if I isolate the X-gene of a mutant, and introduce it to my own? Would the Forerunner DNA within me absorb the gene and grant me their ability?' Adam's eyes flashed with realization.

He definitely could be considered a mutant, not a regular mutant per say, but more like a mutant codex of sorts. Forerunner DNA was not only susceptible to mutation, it also could hold within it large amounts of information. So in theory he could mutate various times, just because one X-gene was introduced it wouldn't lock the DNA, he could take in more and his DNA would accept it.

'The real question now is what do I do about my aggression, now I know why my attitude towards war and battle isn't normal, when I first came here I just wanted to establish myself, maybe be a hero, who hasn't at some point ever dreamed of being a hero, but slowly it's become more about domination, I am gearing for war, not out of fear but out of excitement. Like I want the war, do I embrace this? Or should I do as it should be and remove myself from Command? I would have to follow orders, like a normal SPARTAN?'

Adam thought to himself, it was true SPARTAN soldiers only held command over teams, not armies, unless the situation called for it.

'Yea, screw that. Even if I made it back to the Halo Universe, no way will I hand my ship back, I just need to change some of the protocols within the ship so that UNSC High Command wouldn't be able to forcibly take over if I ever ran into them. Besides, sure I'm planning to conquer the universe now, but there is more than one way to conquer, you don't have to conquer thru bloodshed alone.' Adam thought as his eyes shined with renewed determination, he would see just how far he can go.

New plans began to form as a smile slowly formed within himself. The new abilities granted to him thru his Forerunner DNA were just too good to not utilize, and thanks to the stability of human DNA, much of the worries that faced the Forerunners during and after mutation is practically nonexistent.