Evolution #1

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Evolution #1
Post by Meisha "Muse" Aisha on Sept 15, 2007, 11:40am

Evolution

Cover Description: A noose around an effigy of Graydon Creed, as it hangs from a tree.

***

My car pulls up into the drive in front of the reformed hotel. Even from out here, I can hear the murmurs spreading across the inside of the hotel as the collective energy of the gathering builds. That, at least, is what I'm sure the people inside would tell me about it. Me, I'm a cynic. I'm not as ready to believe what they want to pitch me.

I step out of the car, and already there's someone there, someone to greet me, usher me in. Shepherd me in, I should say, but then again, that's just me, and the cynicism talking again. I'm not really the sheep kind, though. I take the hand he extends and shake it with a nod and a subtly fake smile.

"I'm glad you could be here. Just take a look; I'm sure you'll be interested to see what's running inside."

I wince slightly; his grip's a lot firmer than mine, but I shake it off and the fake smile returns.

"Don't worry about it- I'm glad to be here. I'm sure this'll be worth the time."

He steps aside and gestures towards the hotel. "This way, then." I follow his gesture and walk inside, pushing the door open slowly, a bead of sweat running down my temple.

My name is Ben Urich. I'm an investigative journalist who works for the Daily Bugle. I'm not here on an assignment though- but there's more to journalism than that. You can't wait for stories to fall into your lap- you've gotta make them yourself. There've been quiet, hushed rumours buzzing around about this place everywhere in the lower echelons of the street snitches.

It sounded like something worth checking out, especially in the current clime. Controversy sells papers.

What's behind the door, though, takes me completely by surprise. The dim lighting hides most of the figures that loiter across and through the room, but I can see enough. The place is packed. Scary packed, like sardines in a tin. The lights go on as someone in a blue suit stands at the front; someone important, obviously. He doesn't say anything, and the murmured chatter builds up again as they glance away from him.

For the first time, I get an actual look at the place, the people in it in the light. I'm not racist. I'm not. I don't buy into any of that crap at all, but I'm still terrified when I see this. All around me, mutants. At least, I think so. That's not the part that scares me at first- it's more the appearances of some of them. Like things out of bad fifties horror movies- deformities, extra arms on one of them, the works. It's wrong of me to judge them on it, to be scared by it, yeah, but I can't help it.

And then in the exact same place are people that I could swear look like they're completely human. Nothing out of the ordinary about them all. Hell, they might even be human- who could tell? That's the scary thing; any one of them could be packing enough heat to blow my head off, and I wouldn't know. Same with anyone on the street. And people think that registration's a bad thing? How could keeping something like that in check be bad?

None of them really pay me too much attention- I'm not gonna complain about that at all. A few glances run my way, but I don't think anyone recognises me. They're more the kind of casual glance you might throw at someone who takes your interest for a split second before you get bored again.

I manage to pull my eyes off of them, and they run across the way the renovated hotel's been laid out. Not as much a hotel anymore- there're pews laid across the main lobby- the massive hall where we're all gathered. Gathered. So many mutants in one place. The time we're in right now, that comes across as real suspicious. So what could draw so many mutants to one place in a time where so many of them are scared out of their wits? When so many of them would think that doing something like this would just leave them as targets for some boogieman robot that's gonna swoop down and incinerate them.

Why're they here?

There's definitely a story here; the only question is if it's the kind that I want to run. My source couldn't really tell me anything about this place, and it's beginning to seem like more and more of a bad idea, having come here without any real idea of what's in here. They could be a bunch of Magneto worshippers, planning to knock D.C. over with the Registration legalised, for all I know.

The suit at the front clears his voice and they all settle down, the murmur dying down. He looks over them once and then his eyes glaze over and his… head… catches fire….

"Brothers and Sisters, we are all gathered here today for the one purpose. Together, we are one people. We are one body. We are one mind; we are one form, one life. We are one soul. Welcome to the Church of Evolution."

Oh, shit.


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