Russia
After they had gathered enough young mutants for their team, they left them all in one room to meet. They were not that many since some mutants simply turned their offers down.
They did not pressure them, and instead, the trio continued to locate and track the others. They had ended up with 6 mutants so far, including Hank and Mystique.
All of them were young, close to the same age except for Darwin, being the oldest.
Yet, Melinda believed they would all be great friends and teammates. They all had in common the need to hide their powers, having faced discrimination from humans and also having felt the loneliness of thinking you are the only ones out there.
Now, they could all be together. They had a chance to find someone else like them, support each other, and make them feel prouder about their gifts, about being Mutants.
The healer took a deep sip of her whiskey as she leaned on the black couch in Erik's temporary given room.
The said mutant sat not that far away from her, holding his glass. He had his one ankle propped above his knee, one hand spread on the back of the couch, and he leaned without a care in the world.
Yet, his eyes betrayed his constantly working and self-torturing brain of his.
"We are one step closer. Soon, we will have taken down, Shaw, " she suddenly said, making turn his steel grey-blue eyes look from his glass at her.
She gave a small comforting smile, having her legs crossed one on top of the other, but her whole body was sideways so she could face him.
"True question is, how soon?" He asked, taking another sip from his glass. Melinda did not say anything since she had no answer, and in a way, she knew his question was rhetorical. He scoffed faintly at her silence before he noticed that faintly amused smirk on her face. "What are you thinking about?"
Melinda shook her head slightly and could not help but chuckle, both hands holding her glass. "Just... you know...how everyone thought we were a couple..."
A very ghost smirk formed across his face, looking at her. He recalled those cases where they had been mistaken for a couple and how she had reacted each time.
For someone confident with words and a handful of hidden skills, she was quite sensitive over such matters.
"We are a man and a woman together. It is normal to think of us as a couple, " he replied simply, taking another sip from the strong alcohol. He then looked at her by turning his head fully to her side. "Yet, you were taken aback by such ideas."
A faint pink hue spread across her cheeks, making her glance at the brown alcoholic liquid in her glass. "Well... I mean...it was surprising to me...to think of us...as you know... a couple, " she tried to explain, mastering the courage to look at him only to see him lifting one eyebrow.
The shadows cast by the small light behind him sharpened his facial features and gave him a much darker look. His stance radiated power and confidence as he looked at her unaffected. His black turtleneck stretched over his muscles.
"You do not think we would ever be a couple? You can not tell me you had never been with someone and have received the same comments. " her silence and her sudden need to advertise her gaze away from him, gave all the answers he needed.
He was not fully surprised to learn that thing. She had shown since the very first day they had met that she looked after Raven and Charles more than she looked after herself. She would not risk getting closer to someone, most likely a human.
Yet, he felt a personal satisfaction at that idea. She had an exotic beauty of her own, features and body that were out of most men's league.
No... she was out of any human man's league. She was too good, too special to ever be stained by a racist human.
His thoughts formed a side smirk as he started to stare at her intensely.
Unlike her, he had his fair share of night experience with human women but only for his pleasure. He never harboured and would never catch feelings for any human.
He had a mission to finish and revenge to extract, and after that...he would never let the superiority of a mutant fall for the inferiority of a human
"...Erik....?"
Her voice calling out his name made him blink and refocus on the current situation. He relaxed his clenched jaw as he realized he had been intensely staring at her, which seemed to have sparked some worry about him.
For she had moved closer to check on him, but still kept a small respectful distance between them, for personal space.
"Better," he exclaimed and emptied his glass by tossing his head back.
"I am sorry?" She repeated, brown eyebrows frowning.
Erik stared at the now empty glass of his before he moved his head to look at her once again. "I said, better. Humans are not worthy of us, and they would never truly appreciate you as much as you deserve"
That caused her lips to part faintly, shocked by his words. They were compliments...compliments about her.
Her cheeks got a much redder hue as she did not expect him to say such things. She did not ever truly feel special, and she knew he was saying those things because he mistrusted humans and his feeling of mutant superiority.
She knew he felt that way cause they had that talk a few times during their trips to and from potential mutant recruits. It surprised Melinda to see a mutant who felt as superior to humans as humans felt to them.
Yet, at the same time, that sparked interesting conversations regarding ideals and the bloody history of humans so far.
While Charles was educated and had his doctorate, she did not always have the chance to have such conversations with him. Since he was keener and focused on coexistence between the two species and only spoke of humanity with admiration.
Accepting the fact that everyone made mistakes and no one had a clean history.
She had not realized that she had moved her head to glance at the space between them and that she had gone quiet until she felt those rough fingers of his under her chin. They were gentle and yet kept a grip as he guided her face to look back at him.
He was quiet and was just staring at her with interest and something more. He had yet to move from his position, taking his time to admire and observe every single feature of hers with inner satisfaction.
She was left locking eyes with him, feeling suddenly exposed under his gaze as he had pulled her slightly to lean more towards him.
Whatever they had at that moment felt strong and almost intoxicating. Just them in silence, staring at one another with only but a small gap between them.
Her lips parted faintly in response and his gaze involuntarily fell on them, temptations growing strong in his mind.
The distance between them was now much smaller, their faces quite close and both seemed to share the same thoughts. Although Melinda still had that small hesitation, Erik seemed to be fully confident in what was about to happen.
However, it never did for they were quickly interrupted by a knock on the door.
"Erik, Melinda," Charles' voice was heard behind the closed door. "I know both of you are in there. Moira has requested us in her office. She has a lead on Shaw's"
They waited for the sound of steps to get fainter, ensuring Charles had left. They looked at each other, and Melinda gently withdrew her head back, Erik holding no resistance.
She cleared her throat as she left her glass on the table and stood up, fixing her black cargo pants and her plain dark purple long-sleeved t-shirt.
"We should..." she cleared her throat again. "We should get going. As I said, we will get Shaw soon. " she smiled at him.
Erik stayed quiet for a moment, his face once again serious at the mention of Shaw. "Go ahead. I will be right behind you. "
Melinda did not question anything. Instead, she gave a nod. Heading for the door, she glanced at him above her shoulder as she saw him just sitting on the couch. Her brown eyes grew softer, realizing how much Shaw must have harmed him in the past.
She closed the door gently behind her and walked down the corridor toward Moira's office. Just as she took a sharp right, she was met by her adopted younger brother, who had that smirk on his face.
"Don't say anything," she warned him, one finger pointed at him as the two of them walked.
He kept that smirk, lifting his hands innocently in the air. "I wasn't going to," she gave him a side glance. "Okay, okay. I might have wanted to say something, but I won't, " he chuckled.
Melinda rolled her eyes, sometimes finding it unfair that Charles had full access to her thoughts. Even though he had promised to stay away from her head, he could not always help it.
The thoughts of everyone were loudly echoing in his head, and he did not always have the best control in silencing them.
"Good. Or I will start with Moira, " she said, smirking.
Charles was surprised, looking at her as they stopped in front of the said door. "Wow. Look at you. Spending some time with Erik and you already blackmail your brother. "
It was his turn to smirk and for her to look at him, with her mouth open slightly at how he just threw hints at her like that.
Before she could think of a comeback, the door opened, and Moira glanced at the two of them.
Her eyes stayed more on Charles for a moment, both subconsciously giving a faint smile to one another before the agent cleared her throat to regain her composure. "Come inside, you two. We only wait for Erik"
The two siblings walked inside, finding their friend in black already having taken a seat and waiting for them. They chose to sit on the couch and wait patiently for Erik, who did not take long to arrive.
After Erik arrived, Moira was fast to fill them in. There had been sighting of the pretty blond telepath that acaccompanied Shaw in Russia.
The female agent had already asked and gotten permission from her director to bring along the mutants in this mission, for they were the only ones who could stand a chance against their latest enemy.
That, and also the fact that the mutants had originally been gathered for the very same reason.
Although, once the news was given to the three leaders, mixed expressions appeared on their faces.
While Charles was ecstatic and ready to lead the team, Melinda was worried. They were still kids and, frankly, quite untrained when it came to their powers.
Erik seemed to be thinking the same, although he mostly wanted to ensure that the newbies would not ruin his chance for revenge
Before any of them could truly protest, Agent Moira stood up and started to walk away.
The three friends quickly followed her suit, and Melinda would agree that the woman was fast despite the heels she was wearing.
"Plane leaves for Russia, in an hour," she informed them as they rushed to catch up to her.
"I am telling you, these kids are not ready for Shaw," Erik commented and glanced at Melinda. "Back me up here, will you?"
Before the young female mutant could say anything, Charles interfered and interrupted her. "I think they will surprise you. They are a bunch of exceptional young people..."
Taking a turn to the right, they exited the main garden only to hear the sound and cheers of the youngsters.
They were pretty loud, but that was not all.
The main statue of the founder of the CIA had been cut in half, and there seems to have been damage around it as well,
If that was not all, as they walked further outside, they had a clearer view of the chaos that had erupted.
The giant glass window that showed inside the room where the young mutants were had been shattered, and small pieces of glass were scattered everywhere.
Loud music was playing, Raven was dancing on the couch, and Angel was flying/dancing across the room.
Hank was hanging from the spinning ceiling fan with his feet while Sean grabbed a chair. He then slammed it on Darwin's back, said mutant, having already changed his skin to something extremely hard that resulted in the chair breaking instead.
Alex appeared out of nowhere with a piece of metal pipe and started to hit Darwin's hard skin, while the mutant was shouting 'Harder' again and again.
Melinda stared at the chaos of the slightly drunk Mutants that were unveiled in front of them.
For a moment, she glanced at Charles, who had just called them exceptional young ones. He was not happy about it at all.
Instead, he looked very displeased with the situation and disappointed.
A glimpse at Erik, and you could see how unimpressed he was. A part of him, maybe even expected it. He was done with the young ones, and he had lost any little faith Charles had persuaded him to have in them.
Moira looked pissed, her hands on her waist, and she was not sure how to draw their attention.
Melinda, already getting a migraine from everything, let out a sigh and placed her fingers in her mouth. She let out a very loud whistle, immediately drawing everyone's attention.
Erik glanced at her impress, not having her capable of producing such a loud sound, but he did not comment on it since there were more important things at hand to deal with.
"What are you doing?!" Moira asked, literally gumming. Everyone stopped and immediately dropped whatever they were doing, looking like little kids that got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. "Who destroyed the statue?!" she asked next, one finger pointing behind her at the destroyed object.
"It was Alex," Hank suddenly said, making everyone look at him.
The other boys were not pleased that he had snitched the boy out, while Angel was trying her hardest to contain her amusement.
Raven popped up, obviously affected by the alcohol. "No, Havok,"
Melinda crossed her hands in front of her chest and lifted an eyebrow at her younger adopted sister. "Havok?" she questioned.
The shapeshifter gave a nod to her head, keeping that smile of hers. She took a few steps forward. "Yes, we have to call him Havok. That's his name, now. " she came to a halt and started pointing at each one of the adults, starting with Charles."We were thinking that you should be Professor X" she then pointed at Melinda. "...you should be Doc..." last, she pointed her finger at Erik. "...and you should be Magneto"
None of the adults seemed to share her excitement about the new codenames they had come up with.
Erik, especially, whose face said exactly what he was thinking about it. "Exceptional" was all he said.
Without another word, he walked away, and Moira followed suit, also in disbelief at everything.
Heartbroken, Raven looked at Charles for support, but even he was not going to share her mood. "I expected more from you," he said and walked away, leaving her with tears in her eyes.
Melinda let out a heavy sigh, her shoulders tense from everything. She passed a hand over her hair and looked at the emotional Raven. A part of her wanted to go and embrace her, but she couldn't.
There was no time and also, and the younger girl had to learn to face the consequences of her actions.
"We have to leave for Russia to find Shaw. We hope to be back soon. Please, look after one another and..." she looked around the destroyed room, trying to think of words without hurting them. "Don't destroy anything else. Darwin, you are the oldest, so I am putting you in charge. "
The man lowered his head in shame and gave a nod. "Yes ma'am"
Melinda shook her head a few times and walked away, taking the same path the others had. There was a plane heading to Russia that they had to catch if they wanted perhaps to put an end to all of this.