Age Of Magneto

When Heroes Conspire

The reports were still coming in hard and heavy well for weeks after Avalon fell. Though Magneto was gone, his followers on Earth were still stubbornly sticking to Erik's hard line. They were attacking concentrations of humans - wreaking havoc where they could - and terrorizing anyone that stood against them.

Which was why Scott and Steve were again putting their heads together strategizing. They had to figure out how to best build their teams to fight back - and the need to properly mix mutants with non mutants was something that had to be addressed. A united front protecting both mutants and humans was the only way any of them could see peace happening. Of course, being sure to add Magneto's children to the roster was equally important. A way to show that even Erik's blood was convinced of their father's descent into madness - which , of course, they did agree on.

But it was Charles that suggested they use Erik's best recruiter against his agenda. "We'd need her to agree, of course," Charles said. "And then, we'll need to see what she's capable of."

"I thought you'd fought her," Steve said, frowning . "Shouldn't you know that already?"

"Well ... I'm not entirely sure that when we found her at that Weapon X facility killing scientists that it was a fair estimation of what she is capable of," Scott agreed. "If she's anything like Logan - and ... by the fight they had, it's probable- it might not have been a great measure."

"Yeah, he loses his temper and forgets most of what he was trained for," Steve agreed.

"And she had absolutely lost her temper by the time Logan tried to stop her," Scott said.

"So," Steve said before he drew in a deep breath and looked between Scott and Charles. "Who asks her to join?"

The three of them shared a look for a long moment. "I think Tony's the obvious choice," Steve said. "Seeing as they started up their relationship where they left off, I think it's safe to say she'll go along with just about anything he wants her to do." He was shaking his head as if he clearly couldn't believe Tony's luck.

Charles smirked and shook his head. "She has no trouble telling him no - rather creatively, if what I've seen is accurate."

"Then ..." Steve turned to Scott. "I don't know. Pretty sure she won't listen to me."

"And I'm not the right one to talk to her," Scott said. "Not considering everything that happened."

"You think she'll ... what? Turn you down for the hell of it?" Steve asked.

Scott frowned, and the corner of his mouth tightened. "No. I just think after everything that happened on Avalon, it's a different dynamic if I were to ask her," he said, obviously choosing his words carefully.

Steve frowned, but nodded. "We'll need to figure it out quickly if she'll have any impact on Magnetos followers. The longer we wait .."

"Then you'll need to pick someone," Charles said. "As much as I'd like to be the one, her outlook on telepaths is particularly bleak and she is barely holding herself back from growling when I enter the room."

"Considering who she had as reference..." Scott said darkly.

"Yes, well. It wasn't just Miss Frost that left a bad taste," Charles replied. "There were others."

Scott nodded at that before he tipped his head at Steve. "She went out of her way to save your team at the tower. I'm sure there's someone she's not sleeping with you can pick to talk about team matters."

Steve let out a sigh at that. "And normally, that'd be me. But ... you didn't see her. She was ready to break my wrist for it being there," Steve said.