Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 435 LESS THAN CIVIL WAR

My ears were still ringing as everyone gathered. Wolverine had not gone easy on me, but I was recovering. Mutants all around me the air was filled with fear, an almost infectious feeling that spread from person to person. 

“Stop being such pansies,” I barked at those nearby. My voice echoed loudly in the warehouse. A good five hundred mutants around me, all wore the black ARMIS suits Gwen had supplied me. The future mutants of course knew what they were. The famous strengthening suits, they had asked how I got them, but I just told them I stole the suits. Able to make them ten times stronger and take a lot of blunt damage, they would be needed today.

“Calm it down, kid,” Wolverine said. He was wearing his flannel and jeans still. A few blood stains on them, I had still gotten my ass handed to me. “This is a pretty big fight, and you haven’t told anyone the plan.” 

“Last time we had a plan the one angel in our group exploded,” I said. “I don’t trust any of you with all of it.”

“At least tell them how many reinforcements we have,” Scott said. He was sober. Having kept the beard he had a huge following of past students that looked at him like the messiah come back from the dead. 

“A few thousand,” I said. I monitored their Haki. None acted scared by the number, but rather excited. 

“Seriously?” Emma Frost asked. She was in the custom skintight white ARMIS suit I requested. She had refused until she saw how well it showed off curves. Her bosom hiked up, she was gorgeous in the suit. 

“Yes,” I said. “I called in a lot of favors. But there is a plan. Trust me. We are more of a distraction for the real event.”

“Fuck kid, who knew you had so many friends,” Wolverine growled.

“Honestly, you’re right,” I said. “I’m surprised I haven’t pissed off more people. Maybe that’s part of my charm.”

“I don’t think that’s charm,” Kitty said. 

“Shut it, kidnapper,” I said. She frowned, then remembered how she got me. Her eyes widening, she stared at the others, making sure they didn’t know I wasn’t the right Weston. Sometimes I forgot I wasn’t from this time either. 

An alarm went off and I looked at the door. “Alright, it’s time.” The nondescript man by the door nodded. The large overhead door opened to a white expanse. I stepped outside of it first into the real world. His mutant power was making a movable subspace. Really hidden away inside his body it was like Capone’s power in One Piece. The man shipped us across the city, keeping everyone safe as we traveled. 

Stepping out of the warehouse I was in front of the man. Walking forward, more appeared behind me as they stepped out of his warehouse mutant power. I continued forward. Nothing but frozen dirt at my feet I looked around to see there were no trees around us. Only a hill in front of me, I began to walk up it. Everything around me dead and destroyed the air felt wrong, as if the world knew what went on here. 

Wolverine, Cyclops, Kitty, Emma Frost, Ice man, and many other mutants behind me, I walked up the short hill to see the biggest internment camp in the world. Stationed in New Jersey, I didn’t think the place could get any worse, but it did. The internment camp was one of many locations they kept the mutants of the world. 

Large bunk houses in front of me it looked distinctly like concentration camps from WWII. “Getting flashbacks?” I asked Wolverine.

“Fuck you,” he said. I could tell that seeing them was hurting him. His mouth open, he wasn’t able to hold a cigar; that was sign enough that it was bad. 

Surrounding the camp was a large razor wire fence, a trench, and many watch towers manned with men and guns. Man sized Sentinels also patrolling around and in the camp I could feel the sorrow of the place from half a mile off. 

“Fucking hell,” Cyclops said.

“See, he cursed,” I told Wolverine.

“Not the time for jokes,” Wolverine said. Then he sighed. “But fine, I owe you $5 after this.”

“Goddamn, I should have charged you more,” Cyclops whispered. I needed to remember to steal my money back from him before this was over. 

Then Cyclops became the leader. Turning around he faced everyone. “I know it looks bad, people. But this is worth fighting against. Unlike with Xavier, we are going in there with a mission. Kill all that stand in our way.” The men and women behind us were more than happy to do that. Having lived under the boot of the government for so long I hoped this didn’t give me the Anti-hero role, but if it did, I had a Get Out of Jail Free Card. 

“Five minutes,” I said to people. They waited. 

“Should we hide or something?” Wolverine asked. 

“No, we are the bait,” I said as the first massive Sentinel landed. 100 feet tall it landed just outside the camp in front of us. Like a mountain falling, it hit hard and caused us to stumble. Then another dozen landed in front of it. Making a wall between us and the camp. The fear of those around me and from the camp only grew. 

“That all you got?!” I yelled. “Send a fucking million!” I was ready for this. Still a little dark yet I could feel more coming and only smiled wider. Another two dozen appeared. All landing between us and the camp, they were an imposing sight. I secretly prayed that was all of them. They were so much taller than me, and I hadn’t fought the giant ones yet. I wasn’t exactly positive I could destroy them. 

“You better fucking have a good plan, kid,” Wolverine whispered. 

“Oh, that’s not all of their reinforcements,” I said. My eyes wild with excitement. “I gave them plenty of headsup we would be coming. They still have their precious Avengers.”

“Fuck! You warned them?!” Wolverine yelled. 

“Damn right I did,” I said, still ready to fight. I turned to face all of those that followed me. “How the fuck are you going to break away from them unless we remind them right here, it’s not profitable to mess with mutants! How can any of you sleep well at night?! I know I couldn’t. Beaten and broken. At the whim of someone else! That’s no way to live! That’s how you die. Me!? I plan to win today. I don’t give a shit what happened years ago. This is where it turns around. For all of you! This moment. This fight. This one chance! I can lead us to victory people. I know it! Just trust me!” My voice had turned a slight Scottish at the end, channeling my William Wallace a little bit, but I reigned it back into my normal accent.

Their Haki was mixed, but I didn’t care. I looked to each of them, showing them as much confidence as I could. I’d fought a man of steel and survived. I’d be damned if I was scared of a few robots.

“Rousing speech, Weston,” the Iron Sentinel said, her voice cutting through the morning air like a fart during a speech. She was standing on the head of the lead Sentinel. As the sound of her voice echoed from speakers on her body more fear crept into people. I turned back to face her. This world’s version of the Avengers were below her. At the feet of the Sentinels. 

“Peter Parker!” I yelled to the man in black. “Your Aunt would be pissed if she knew you were fighting for the bad guys.”

“Did you just announce my secret identity?!” The man yelled from the Venom infected spider suit. 

“If you’re on the bad side you don’t get a secret identity,” I said. “You owe me for saving your life. Stay out of this.”

“We will not,” a darker voice came from him. 

“Shut up, Venom,” I yelled back.

“Don’t tell us to shut up. You shut up,” he yelled. 

“Banshee, you’re on the black suit guy,” I said. I pointed for the red headed once teacher. He nodded. Venom was weak to sonic attacks, and those were Banshee's specialty. 

“Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm,” I yelled to the Fantastic Four members below. “I am Weston Walker. I pulled you out of your little science experiment that made you the way you are today. You owe me too. Stay out of this fight.”

They looked confused at one another. None happy to be there, but willingly following orders. “How can we know that?” Reed asked.

“Ask Fury, I’m sure that other one-eyed asshole is running things,” I said. Reed actually talked into an communication device in his ear.

“Who else?” I asked myself as I looked through the others. There was no Thor, but I did see Hawkeye and this world’s Black Widow. “Yelena! Any way to talk you out of this?”

“No, Mr. Walker,” she said with a sad smile.

I nodded. “Nightcrawler, Beast, I know those collars on you make you follow orders. We will have you free soon enough!” I assured the two mutant members of the team. There were another few dozen mutants with similar control collars on. “Hisako!” I yelled to the crying Japanese girl. “I mostly forgive you.” 

“Enough!” Iron Sentinel yelled. The once meek Morgan opened her mask again. “Weston, we came to your stupid school house fight! Why did you want to do this?!”

“To fight! Like in my message. It said “Meet at the Internment Camp Sunup!” Was that not clear?” 

“That’s not how you fucking declare war on someone,” Wolverine growled.

“They got the message,” I said, pointing at the army in front of me. 

“Weston! Stop this bullshit,” Morgan yelled. “Your people have lost. No one wants them here. They were a mistake. All of them. We are just trying to keep the majority safe.”

“What?” I asked.

“We are just trying to keep-” 

“What?!” I yelled louder. “I can’t fucking hear you through all this crap! Morgan! You were my friend. I thought you were at least. But no, if you’re willing to do this. I don’t want to hear from you. Actually,” I said, acting like I had a fantastic idea. “How about you and I fight?! Mano y womano. Winner takes all. I win, you all let my people go, and if you win, you can have me as your reluctant but proficient sex slave.” 

“What the fuck!” Emma laughed. “Who says that?”

I barked a laugh and a few others did too. “Stop with the games, Weston,” Morgan said. Her face got serious as her mask dropped down. “By order of the government we have full legal right to-” 

“Morgan, one last thing!” I yelled.

“What?!” She yelled.

“I told you I’d attack at sunup,” I said, pointing to the sun. “That was like five minutes ago.” She stared at me for a moment and then an alarm from the camp sounded behind her. The Hand ninjas having already infiltrated the place they were releasing prisoners as we spoke. As she turned I summoned Tabi. 

The cat lit up in blue flames as she landed onto me. Her physical form absorbing into me, chakra filled every ounce of my body. I cast a huge shadow clone jutsu. White smoke poured out of me as five hundred of me appeared in front of us. I wasn’t done though. Flying straight up I began pouring chakra into huge condensed balls in front of me. 

Most everyone distracted by what was happening in the camp. The Sentinels stared at me unmoving. No orders to follow. I made the chakra orbs bigger and bigger. At least twenty feet tall the three orbs shot away from me like bullets. The Sentinels raised their hands to block them but they were an unfamiliar energy to the robots. 

The balls tore through them like a bowling ball through toy soldiers. Metal arms and heads flung everywhere as they toppled over this way and that. Actually exhausted from the expenditure of chakra, Tabi pulled away from me. Over twenty Sentinels taken care of with the one move I yelled, “Now!” 

Illyana hidden in our group, opened a portal. It wasn’t long until green, red, and yellow demons flew out of the hole like flies out a window. They poured out like locust all roaring in triumph as they flew at this world's version of the Avengers.

“How’s that for a fucking plan!?” I yelled down to Wolverine.

He growled a nod and his claws came out. Not leaving his fighting to a bunch of other world demons he wanted in on the action. Others from my team did the same. Scott leading the charge he roared and they followed. I looked at the glorious fight as the Iron Sentinel hit me like a freight train. 

The wind knocked out of me she hit me with another one of her sound moves. Covering myself in Nen and Spiritual energy, it wasn’t enough as I felt like my bones were rattling. Hitting me into the ground she pulled her metallic arm back and punched me. “Fuck!” I said after the hit. “Fight fair.” She roared from behind the mask and hit again, I blocked her this time. 

“Morgan! Come back to yourself!” I yelled. “This isn’t-” 

“Shut up!” She yelled and a blast of energy left her hand, throwing me back again. I caught myself, sliding on the frozen mud. I extended my hand out, summoning my Soulsword. The white glowing blade practically thrummed with power as I stood.

“Morgan, I only have so many wake up calls for you,” I said. “If I start using this, that means I’m serious.”

“I’ve sent so many to death!” She spat. “So many of your people. You really think there is a way to wake up from this? Are you stupid?” 

“Yes,” I said, with all the seriousness I could muster. “I am stupid. I am fucking mentally challenged. I never have, and I hope to never have to kill someone I made out with, Morgan. I’m not even supposed to be here! I’m supposed to be in the past right now. But no, I got pulled to this bullshit. This crap hole of a timeline that you helped make because your dad died?!” 

I stared at her, rage filling me. “Are you fucking kidding me?” I asked. “You know my parents are dead right?” I asked. “I assume you had me looked into. You’re rich, you still remember me after all these years. I was probably a google search away. My entire fucking family died. And yeah, I was pissed. But I didn’t go out and kill everyone involved. Hell, I didn’t even kill the one person responsible. What you’re doing is not fucking normal. This right here, is not a normal reaction. This right-”

“Are you really from the past?” She asked, her anger slowly leaving her. 

I stopped my tirade, confused by her reaction for a moment. “Yeah, I’m from six years ago,” I said.

“No way,” she said, and for the first time since I saw her again she was the young blonde I met at private school. “Weston, you have to tell my dad. Make an Iron Man suit immune to magnetism.”

I paused for a moment. My anger ebbing and dying slowly. I let out a long sigh of relief. “Finally,” I said. “Jeez, I’ve been trying so hard to get people to give me hints about the past. It’s nice to finally get a straight answer.” I looked at her. “Wait, you believe me?”

“Yeah,” she said without hesitation, her face mask opening to reveal the young blonde. “This suit has a lie detector. There was no deception at all. How are you from the past?” 

“Long story,” I said. “So if I tell your dad that, you’ll stop this whole thing?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “What happens to me if you change the past?”

“I don’t know that,” I admitted with a shrug. “I’m pretty sure this timeline goes on like it is. But then if I change stuff a new timeline forms. So hopefully in my timeline your dad would be saved.”

“Shit,” she said. “That’s less worthwhile.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I mean you could like cease to be if you wanted. Since I’d be rewriting your history and changing who you are.”

“That sounds more depressing,” she said. “But…fuck fine. You get my dad that message, and I’ll stop.”

“How will he know it’s from you in the future?” I asked. 

“Tell him- no wait. Tell me about this. She will believe you. She can get him to do it,” she said.

“You’d believe me even then?” I asked, a little touched by that fact.

“Well yeah…you were my first kiss and all,” she said. “You kind of had a power over me.” 

“Nice,” I said. “What about current you-” 

“Oh my god, not the time for this,” she said, but I could almost feel her blush. “Oh and Ultron too.”

“Ultron?” I asked.

“Yeah, I saw Hope in your group. She didn’t tell you?”

“No, she doesn’t know I’m from the past.” An explosion happened behind us, yelling and screaming going on. We ignored it all as we continued. 

“Oh, well she kept a piece from Ultron from that Limbo world,” she said. “Her dad studied it and Ultron attached himself to some tech a few years back. He was like the first real threat where the Avengers were formed.”

“Fucking hell. I knew that would happen. I checked her,” I said.

“Not well enough,” Morgan said.

“Fine, I’ll beat her up when I get back,” I said. Another explosion happened. “So uh, should we get back to it?”

“I’m not helping you,” she said.

“What but the-”

“You guys are illegal,” she said. “It’s against the law to be a mutant. You’re all considered terrorists. I’ll step back but I can’t help you. I have to live here still.”

“Fuck, fine,” I said and flew off. She wanted to say more but I ignored her. Etching what she said into my memory I flew back. The battle was going better than expected. A few hundred flying demons using melee weapons on building tall Sentinels heads, another few hundred mutants fighting them and the Avengers, I flew over top of them to find the true prize. 

Casting my Haki out there were plenty of people free inside. Wolverine was slicing his way through human-size Sentinels. Cyclops was blowing them away with his optic blast. So many people fighting down there, I skipped the mini-battles and headed right for the boss. 

Still carrying my Soulsword I was ready to use it. Her haki was like a beacon in the night for me. I dropped down to the building below me. Bursting through the roof she was strapped to a table as a man in a lab coat was about to put on one of those exploding collars around her neck.

I didn’t hesitate. Shooting forward I cut his head off. The man didn’t have time to scream as he fell. The collar clattering to the floor I felt something click inside the collar. Draping myself over Anne I extended my nen out to protect us as the explosion rocked the room. Her eyes wide she slowly recognized me, her face creasing up into a smile as the room around us was destroyed instantly. 

“You came for me,” she said. Her eyes tearing up. 

“Like there was a different option,” I said. Kissing her she moaned as her chest pushed up into me. I eyed her hands shackled to the erect table. “Should we uh…make use of the-”

“Stop, oh my god. I’m not having sex where they almost enslaved me,” she said.

“Wh-that’s what you think I meant? You’re sick,” I said as I broke one wrist restraint. 

“You were totally-” 

“Don’t blame me when your brain goes to sick places, my love,” I said as I broke the other. Her hands free she latched onto me, kissing me hard. The kiss was less than fantastic since they apparently used some type of medication on her that made her breath taste awful. In all honesty I didn’t care though. Kissing her back, she moaned in my mouth as it got more heated. But as it did she winced in pain. 

Pulling back I assured, “Plenty of time for this later.” Picking her up I lifted off into the hole I had made in the ceiling. Landing on the roof of the large building I showed her all I had done for her. 

“Is that…demons fighting Sentinenls?” She asked. 

“Yep, and a lot of mutants, and ninjas too,” I said. “All for you.”

“And how were you the one that saved me?” She asked, disbelieving me. “Did you ask to make a dramatic entrance?”

“Just because dramatic entrances happen around me, does not mean I plan them,” I said.

She laughed. “God I love you,” she said.

“Good,” I said. We stared at the battle happening in front of us. Freed mutants joining in on the fight I felt it was a forgone conclusion. At least until Rogue pointed North.

“They called in more giant Sentinels,” she said. There was a massive wall of them flying our way. 

“Shit, I’d hoped they would send them all earlier,” I said. “How many of them do they have?” 

“A few hundred of the big ones,” she said.

“Fuck,” I said. “Well let’s start getting the people out of here.”

 
“Did Emma find a home for us?”

“She did…with my help,” I said. “Turns out Magneto faked the whole leaving Earth thing. He had a Plan B the whole time. He built a massive utopia under Genosha. It spans for way farther than the real one did.” 

“I thought they nuked Genosha,” she said.

“They did, but underneath is fine,” I assured. “He was pissed I showed up, but when I told him what I was doing he offered everyone a place to stay.”

“Damn,” she said. “That’s great.” 

“Then why do you sound so sad?” I asked.

“Because you’re leaving,” she said. “Weston, this is exactly what I wanted, but you have to go.”

“I know, and I’m sorry,” I admitted. We stayed like that for a moment. Both watching the massive Sentinels heading toward us. Somber in the fact that our time was limited. Then an explosion happened. Not close, it was one of the small dots of the far off Sentinels. Then another exploded, and another. 

A massive spaceship swooping in from the clouds it began firing on them one at a time. The Sentinels flew up to it but the ship simply fired more and more until they were all destroyed.

“Is that your doing?” She asked.

“I don’t think so,” I admitted. “Maybe I pulled in aliens too, somehow?” The space ship flew closer to us. The air getting pushed away it hovered a few hundred feet in the air then dropped down to overtop of us. A hatch sliding away someone began floating down from it.

“What the fuck is going on here?” I asked, or well he asked. 

“Me?!” I yelled. “See! I fucking knew I lived?” Overhead, floating down toward us was the future version of me. Long dark hair with a curl to it, chiseled jaw, tan skin, black armor with Watanabe hearts printed on it, it really was me.

“Are you me?” The other me asked. “Weston, er my Gemini?” He asked. 

“No, I’m Easton, Kitty Pryde brought me from the past,” I admitted. 

“Seriously?” He asked as he looked around. I could almost feel his Observation Haki kick in as he learned everything going on around us. “Shit, I get pulled away from Earth for a few years, and the place goes to shit.”

“Yeah, I was fixing it too, but-”

“Weston?!” Rogue yelled, ecstatic and angry to see her time’s version of me. I dropped her.

“Hey Anne. Couldn’t wait for me? You needed a younger version?” 

“No-I-”

We both laughed, and she frowned. “Shit, I feel strong,” I admitted to future me and I did. My future self’s spiritual energy was like the sun itself. “What have you been up to, future me?” 

“This and that,” he said. “Hey, never thought I’d meet my younger self, but whatever you do, don’t-” He cut off and it all turned black.