Xavier's Campus for the Gifted – Horizon City
It started in whispers.
Weapon X shutdowns. Vampire sightings. Black file chatter about governments drafting "contingency measures" for anyone with powers.
Jake felt the weight of every whisper as he walked with Rogue across the courtyard. Mutant students hunched together in groups, their voices sharp, distrustful. Horizon students looked over their shoulders more often, eyes flicking toward glowing hands or telekinetic gestures.
"People are sayin' Xavier sold us out," Rogue murmured, keeping her voice low. "That he's lettin' Horizon keep us under a microscope."
Jake frowned. "You don't believe that."
"Ah don't want to. But…" Rogue's eyes drifted to Jean, sitting alone at a window bench, her shoulders tight.
Jean didn't speak aloud. She didn't need to.
The dream is fracturing, her voice brushed against Jake's mind like glass splintering. He's doing what he thinks he must, but dreams don't survive cages.
Jake swallowed hard, static buzzing faintly under his skin. Too much energy. Too many secrets.
That was when Alloy spoke, his voice lower than usual. "I've been scanning Horizon's networks again. There's noise in the system — like someone else is piggybacking off the grid."
Jake stopped. "SHIELD?"
"No. Not their signature. Not HYDRA either. This… feels older. Colder. Whoever it is has been studying mutants way before Horizon ever broke ground."
Rogue shivered. "Studying? Like… labs?"
Alloy hesitated, then added, "I keep detecting echoes. Stasis signatures. Like pods. Someone's been storing… people."
Jake's chest tightened. "What kind of people?"
"Mutants. And others. Hard to tell." A beat of silence. Then, with unusual hesitation, Alloy muttered: "One of the signatures even reminds me of you, Jake."
Jake's stomach sank.
Later – Horizon East Lecture Hall
The biology wing smelled faintly of ozone and old books. Jake slipped into his seat, still unsettled. Rogue leaned close, whispering, "New lecturer today. Transfer from Cambridge. Supposed to be some kinda genetics genius."
Jake glanced toward the podium.
The man who stood there was tall, pale, with sharp features framed by neatly combed black hair. His suit was immaculate, his posture military-straight. When he looked up from his notes, his eyes caught the light — gray, but almost red if you stared too long.
"Good morning," the man said smoothly. "I am Dr. Nathaniel Essex. I will be instructing advanced genetics this semester. My interest lies in… evolutionary deviation. The steps nature takes when it wishes to improve itself."
Jake's skin prickled. The name. Essex.
As the man's lecture flowed — effortlessly weaving between gene therapy, mutation vectors, and "the inevitability of forced evolution" — Jake barely heard the words. He could only think about the encrypted message. Seek Essex.
Beside him, Rogue frowned. "He's givin' me the creeps," she whispered.
Alloy buzzed quietly from Jake's bag. "Congrats, Jake. We've officially entered the 'mysterious professor' arc. Please collect your bingo cards at the door. Next up: he'll assign a paper on gene splicing and then stalk you in the library stacks."
Jake forced himself to scribble notes, even as every instinct screamed that the man at the podium wasn't just a professor. He was something else. Something watching.
And maybe… something waiting.
Deadpool meta-cut: "Oh look, kids, a new teacher! Totally normal, right? Nothing weird about his name, his cheekbones, or the fact that he talks about 'forced evolution' like it's a TED Talk. Nope. Nothing at all. Definitely not the setup for a sinister reveal three chapters from now. Heh. Sinister. Get it? You'll get it."