Chapter 9: Chapter 9
{A/N: I felt like doing some different perspectives.}
3rd Pov – Jean Grey
Weaving through the streets of New York a woman could be seen crying as she tried to get away from something. Jean Grey liked to consider herself a simple woman, she was happy with what she had and she worked to protect it. That's why it hurt her so much to catch her boyfriend of two years cheating on her, on their anniversary no less.
Rushing around a particularly wide man, she wasn't able to see the woman behind him and crashes headfirst into her. Groaning Jean rubs her head and looks at the woman in front of her that felt like a brick wall. Angrily looking down at her for less than a second, the woman sighs and extends a hand to Jean to help her up.
Instinctively taking her hand Jean accidently probes her mind with her telepathy only to be assaulted with thousands of thoughts flying faster than she can comprehend through this woman's mind. Pulling Jean to her feet the woman seems to check her over, asking if she's ok. After a brief back and forth Jean learns the woman's name is Morgana or Morgan for short, and needing a distraction from the days events agrees to get a coffee with Morgan.
Walking down the street Jean started enjoying herself, making casual conversation with Morgan. One detail that stood out to Jean was how quiet Morgans mind had become, from a young age since she awakened her powers Jean had never been able to filter out other people's thoughts. Always knowing exactly what someone thinks of you and being drowned in the thoughts of all those around was painful.
But with Morgan there seemed to be a zone around her that blocked all the stray thoughts she received and it was incredibly peaceful. Initially when Jean had bumped into Morgan, she could hear all her thoughts even if she couldn't understand them, now though something seemed to have changed with Morgan and she couldn't get anything from her.
Occasionally Morgan would let out a stray thought that Jean was able to read but most were random nonsensical and alien maths equations. Confused by how Morgans mind worked Jean became more interested it getting to know this strange but beautiful woman she had run into. It also helped she could occasionally get some thoughts from Morgan so she wasn't fully cut off from a sense she'd trusted her whole life.
Interrupting Jean talking about her classmates Morgan points out a Café at the corner of the street up ahead and suggests they go there. Jean agrees with her choice and they enter the building, inside the Café Morgan points out a seat so, Jean goes over to it to hold the seat whilst Morgan grabs some menus.
Sitting down Morgan hands Jean a menu and taking it, she looks through it, after a few minutes of looking through the menu Jean makes her choice and puts the menu down. Starting some more casual conversation between them Jean enjoys the quiet around Morgan.
Interrupting their conversation a waiter comes over to take their orders, and after finishing ordering they continue their conversation. Jean finds out Morgan has come from Australia, and not minding her weird phrasing focus's more on Morgans large claims of fixing the city.
Throughout their conversation Morgan talks in depth about her plans on building robotic aids to clean and maintain the city, and Jean a telepath occasionally receives vivid images of the robots Morgan is describing.
A curious thing Jean noted about receiving images from Morgan is they aren't forced upon her like so many other people's thoughts and instead metaphorically float around Morgan like slides Jean can look at if she chooses.
Happily chatting it gets to the point they are almost finished their food when Jean can't hold it any longer and tears up telling Morgan about her shitty boyfriend, soon to be ex-boyfriend Jean had decided.
After gently helping Jean regain her composure Morgan hands her a napkin to wipe her eyes with. Gratefully accepting the offered napkin Jean wipes her eyes and spends a minute regaining her composure.
As they leave the store Jean notices Morgan paying for her food and drink and is shocked by Morgans kindness. As they walk Morgan points out a phone shop and mentions losing her phone, suggesting she get another while they walk. Nodding along Jean follows after Morgan, turning to her as they walk and asking about her eyes.
Since the first time Jean had looked into Morgans eyes as she was helped to her feet, she had been curios if they were real. Jean had assumed Morgan had some contacts in at the beginning but after watching her slit pupil's contract and expand as they talked and seeing the colours swirling around her iris and sclera she had to know.
Looking at Jean with a playful smirk she stated proudly that they are real, and that she also has a tail, wings, and horns. Shocked Jean falls behind a bit, she doesn't want to believe Morgan with her playful smirk, but after seeing her odd but elegant manner of dress, her eyes, and her sharp talons on her hands Jean feels compelled to believe Morgan is being truthful.
Thinking deeply about it Jean is interrupted by Morgan poking her shoulder and pointing at the store they stand in front of. Following Morgan into the shop Jean continues her interrupted thoughts. To Jean if Morgan says she has all the additional body parts that can only mean she's a mutant, but if she's a mutant why would she so easily tell Jean, a stranger, the truth.
Snapping out of her thoughts Jean decides the only way to know for certain is to ask directly, and so she hesitantly opens her mouth intent on asking Morgan, only to get interrupted by the clerk coming back to the front of the shop.
Watching as Morgan pays for the new phone Jean sighs and decides not to worry too much about whether Morgan is a mutant or not, after all she herself is a mutant and wouldn't like to be asked by a relative stranger.
Turning her focus back to Morgan, Jean see's her holding her phone out asking for her number. Smiling Jean happily puts her number in Morgans phone, only to then blankly stare at Morgan for the weird nickname she used in her message.
Checking with Morgan if she has any plans, the two of them decide to look for accommodation for Morgan. Easily finding a hotel Morgan rents the penthouse shocking Jean at her blatant use of money.
After that, the two walk back to Jean's car and seeing no other chance Jean broaches the conversation she was thinking about for a while now. Nervously turning to Morgan, Jean asks her opinion on mutants. Seeing Morgan think for a few seconds Jean's nervousness grows. Opening her mouth Morgan explains she's fine with mutants and considers them as just another human.
Though she does get Jean thinking when Morgan mentions her hate for the term mutant and instead suggests the term meta-human. Considering the pros and cons to the name Jean can't believe anyone hadn't come up with it before, of course humans are going to hate and want to get rid of those with the X-gene if they call themselves mutants.
If you tell people eventually everyone is going to be mutants, you will doom a race with your actions. Humans have been suffering from horrific mutating diseases like cancer for centuries, telling someone their kids will be mutants is naturally going to make them think of cancerous and unhealthy things. Because even in nature most mutations have horrifying results on individuals.
If you instead tell someone their child will be a meta-human, a meta-physically empowered human capable of amazing feats, they will celebrate and try and help their child reach their full potential. It was such a simple conversation and with a single word Morgan was able to change Jeans entire world view.
Jean now with more confidence in her answer asks Morgan if she herself is a meta-human, almost positive Morgan will be. Only to get stumped when Morgan easily denies being a meta-human with zero hesitation.
Opening her mouth to ask Morgan another question, she is interrupted by said person asking her own question. Mirroring the style of Jean's earlier question Morgan asks her with a straight face what she thinks of aliens.
Seeing the symmetry between their questions Jean instantly thinks of all Morgans inhuman feature, her weird phrasing when asked where she comes from, and her weird mental bubble. Instantly Jeans brain puts together the pieces shocking her, turning to ask Morgan for confirmation she sees the alien woman already at the end of the carpark.
Turning back to Jean, Morgan shouts a goodbye before disappearing around a corner. Leaving Jean alone with her thoughts and the now muffled thoughts of all those around her.
3rd Pov – Natasha Romanoff
When asked how hard most people would think it is to find a over 3 metre tall humanoid shadow alien, most would say it wouldn't be too hard. Natasha's current situation was proving to be proof those people where wrong, Natasha had spent two days trying to track down this alien and contain them but was always a few steps behind.
So far Natasha had been able to confirm the alien was incredibly intelligent and capable of shapeshifting, she knows this because she was able to retrieve a video of said alien interacting with and tripping the fuse on a camera's system. This was in the closest large city to the alien's crash site over 500 kilometres away.
The video she was watching came from a small hidden camera the hired guard had installed to make sure he wouldn't get caught unawares. By now Natasha had already paid the man an immense amount to keep quiet about what he saw, she may have used some more violent persuasion but her report says otherwise.
On the video the alien could be seen mimicking the appearance of a book to hide from the guard, once the guard passed the alien returned to its original form as a slime like goo. The video then proceeds to show the alien climbing over the roof before shutting the camera off and dropping to the ground.
The part of the video that worried Natasha the most though was the speed the alien went through the books on the first floor, Natasha's running theory was the alien was using the books to learn about humanity for some reason. The alien was then seen extending itself across the room to interact with a computer, at the moment Natasha hasn't been able to figure out what the alien was doing and hence sent both the video and computer back to America to be studied by the scientist there.
At the moment Natasha was following up on a potential lead, not knowing where the alien went after leaving the library she scoured the police records looking for any weird reports. With a bit of intuitive thought and tracing a line between the crash site and the library Natasha was able to narrow her search. After hours of searching Natasha was able to find a interesting report from a police station in the suburbs of the city following her traced line.
Sitting in front of Natasha was the young aspiring police officer Leon S. Kennedy who filed the report. Natasha had to admit she was impressed by the young man's resume and had already forwarded it to her boss in SHIELD, at the moment Natasha was trying to get as many details about the incident as possible.
From what she'd pieced together so far, the woman currently sitting handcuffed to a hospital bed on the other side of town had been attempting to rape a young boy when a figure appeared and tore her off the boy. After this Natasha wasn't able to find out anything else about the incident as the boy passed out at this point and the woman's speech centre was scrambled, but she was able to find out the aftermath from the officer in front of her.
Leon recounted to the woman in front of him how he and his partner had been inside the station filing documents when the printer turned on and a knock was heard at the door. Cautiously Leon had approached the door only to find a woman lying in the gutter making grunting noises and not moving, and a young boy leaned with apparent care against the doorframe.
Natasha watched as Leon seemed to rack his brain for more information, before gasping and addressing her.
"I remember! At the moment I thought it was a trick of the light but I remember seeing a woman's silhouette about 172cm tall turning the corner." - Leon
Hearing this the blood drained from Natasha's face, if this was the alien as she thought it was based on analysing the distance between the crash site, the direction, and the times. Then this information likely meant Natasha's worst fear came true and the alien was able to mimic humans. If this was the case the chances of finding it just drastically dropped.
The only saving grace from this situation was the aliens apparent empathy or sense of justice. If the alien went out of its way to help a child this could drastically improve Natasha's opinion of it.
Receiving a call Natasha excused herself and left the room, answering the call the voice of her boss echoed through.
"Natasha, the IT department was able to make some progress with the computer you sent. It seems the alien was using the internet to access maps and airport timetables. At the moment the IT apartment isn't able to draw anything else out of the computer, but the logistics department was able to link the alien's computer time to a few flight bookings. All the flights were headed for America, two to Washington and three to New York. What have you got?" - Fury
Processing the information given to her Natasha got a sinking feeling her hunch was correct, if the alien got onto a flight, it could be anywhere by now.
"Sir, based on a firsthand report from a suspicious encounter I put right on the alien's route based on the available information, I believe the alien is able to mimic a human form. I also believe if this incident was indeed the alien that it has some sort of empathy or sense of justice." – Natasha
Finishing her sentence Natasha waited in silence for a bit as Nick Fury processed her report.
"Good work Natasha, I'm restationing you back to New York to continue your assignment. Hopefully, we can find this alien soon, though your report does give me a little hope." – Fury
Saying this Fury hung up the call leaving Natasha standing with the phone to her ear. Sighing Natasha placed her phone back in her pocket and made her way to her car. She had a quinjet to catch.
As for the alien giving the largest intelligence agency in the world a headache, she was resting comfortably on her bed in her penthouse overlooking New York.