This is a very ambitious first attempt at a bit of fan-fiction. Any sort of input would be welcome. I have played a little fast and loose with the x-men time-line, so please bear with me. This story is directly inspired by the Archetype Association, written by James R. Mcbriarty. I have borrowed William Riley from his story; I hope that I do him justice. I have borrowed a batch of mutants from the Marvel Universe (any X-men fan will recognize them). I am not making any money off this so good luck suing. Melanie, Erick, Larry, Gayle, Anna, and Gabriel are all my own creations. Emeralda's personality is my own creation, but the character concept comes from a Squaresoft game. If you like the way they are written, feel free to borrow them for your own inspiration.
 

A Note to the Reader:

Unchained Hearts has been approved as an alternate reality 'sequel' to The Archetype Association, breaking off from the 'main' timeline of my work just after the end of Movement Two, and taking place approximately five years later. The stories should be considered independent of one another; although I am sure that Mr. Rosnawski and I may play off one another as our respective works progress.

I was very pleased and entertained by Unchained Hearts. I hope you will be, too.

Jim R. McBriarty

Chapter Three

Monet was the first to arrive to the War Room when general quarters were sounded. This was unusual for her, as she avoided missions as often as she could. But this time was different.

The attack started while she was surfing the Net. It was a habit that she had picked up from Angelo shortly after they had met. Psionic energies of incredible magnitude washed over her like a wave.

The energy was so powerful that her environment faded. She rode on a wave of anguish for what seemed like an eternity. She tried to reach out and heal the pain, but it was gone again as quickly as it had first appeared.

When she was able to focus again, she realized that a person, a person in pain, generated those psionic energies.

Jean was the one who had sounded general quarters. She looked like she had been through worse then M had. She leaned forward against a chair, a rare show of weakness from the proud woman. Jean was a full alpha-class psi, and therefore she would be much more sensitive to disturbances of a psionic nature.

Jean smiled one of her strange smiles, but she said nothing to Monet. Monet always felt off-balance around Jean. Jean was the only person that she could not hide herself from, if she had the inclination to make a direct psionic attack. But Jean would never invade her mind. Monet was always nervous around people with psionic abilities, but Jean had done more then enough to earn her trust.

The next two people to arrive were Gayle and Mister Riley. That confirmed her thought that the intrusion was psionic in nature, but they still had another problem.

"I assume that you all felt that." Jean said, turning to the map of the States as the others slowly started to trickle in.

Will looked around and noticed that they only had seven of their people there. He turned and smiled at Gayle, "emergency protocol dear. Grab them even if they are in the shower." Within five minutes, all fifteen people were in the war room.

Monet was surprised by how shaken up Jean was. She was leaning heavily against Scott for support as the others calmed down.

"This had better be good Jean. I was up by five hundred when the kid grabbed me."

"It was worth it," Gayle said in her small voice. The comment had more effect on everyone then the actual call. Gayle rarely got up the nerve to put in her own comments at strategy meetings.

"Gayle's right," said Jean, taking control of the floor. "The incident began not fifteen minutes ago. What can best be described as a wave of pain was felt by every member on base that possesses psionic potential. The wave stayed at an unbelievable intensity for over a minute, and then it just died. We have to find out who it was that did this before any of the others find him."

"Do you know where he is Jean," asked James. Jean just shook her head, crossing her arms below her chest. "The mutant is close, I know that, but using Cerebro would be a bad idea right now. If one of us were to use Cerebro and he belted out another wave like the first. Well, I would not want to be in their shoes anyway. Anna, set the scanners to pick up any signs of a massive EM disturbance. Centre it in New York and work your way outward. Will, have you picked up anything yet today?"

"No, nothing Jean just that strange wave of energy a few minutes ago. Nothing before or since. What do you think could have done that?"

"It wasn't a what Will, it was a who," Monet usually said very little in emergency situations, so she had everybody's attention. "That was done by a person in pain." Jean nodded but said nothing as she let the facts sink in for the others. Some of them were whispering among each other, while the others were waiting patiently.

Scott usually led these discussions. He had a strong commanding voice and there was a certain presence to him that demanded respect. But Jean seemed to shake off whatever was bothering her as she began to speak.

"As soon as we know where we can find this mutant, we have to go to his aid. That psi-wave is going to attract a hell of a lot of attention and I would rather find him before someone like McCoy or Sinister does."

"Were any of you able to get an impression of this person from the psi-wave?"

"No James, I think that the pain this person was under overwhelmed his senses and that's why the psi-wave was so brief."

"I've got something!" Emeralda said through the computer's speaker system. She disengaged her link to the bases computer systems, and her face lit up with the excitement that filled her voice.

"Good work, Emmy," said Jean. "Did you find anything peculiar?" Emeralda nodded vigorously, barely containing her excitement. "Yes, I found a huge area with an unexplained power outage near the centre of New York City."

Everyone was impressed with the success of her first search. She had found a viable lead in just minutes where it would have taken even the best among them at least a couple of hours to defeat the security of the government systems.

"Well Redd, you called it, you decide, who's leaving and who is staying."

Jean seemed surprised for a second, but she realized that Logan was right. She was the one that called general quarters, and the situation seemed to be psionic in nature. This was her show to run.

"I want Gayle, Hank, Monet and Rogue to leave with me. I think that the rest of you should stay behind just in case this is a trap of some sort."

Within ten minute, they were at the launch pad for the Blackbird III. The pad was empty except for Jean and Scott. Saying goodbye was hard for the two of them. Jean could always feel Scott's fear whenever she went on a mission without him, but he always tried to hide it, and he never asked her to stay behind.

"It's funny how we always end up like this!" Scott had to yell over the rising engines. Ever since they had changed their methods, Scott grew more worried over his wife every day. Their revised methods led to many dangerous situations. But he knew that holding her back would only make the two of them drift further apart.

Before Jean could say anything, Scott kissed her and left the launch pad. Scott seemed to be finally adapting to their changing methods. He had kept his peace for a long time, ignoring that little voice within that made him protest anything that didn't seem to go by the book. Things had been rough for them in the first year, but Scott had come around to their way of thinking as they began achieving better results then in the previous five years. Scott wasn't one to argue with results.

The Blackbird was over New York within seconds, thanks to one of Will Riley's Doors. They did not have to wait for the readings to come in though. Even from 6000 feet up, it was easy to spot the area of devastation. A circular area, almost perfectly centred on Central Park, and with a diameter of about two miles was totally without power. Fires dotted the area of devastation. They were lucky. It seemed as though there were no organized attempts to investigate the disturbance as of yet.

Rogue brought down the Blackbird in the middle of Central Park. Upon exiting they found many bodies. A quick check-up by Hank confirmed that they were still alive but that their minds had been overloaded. They had just dropped in their tracks, the moment that the event had occurred. Jean decided to risk a light psionic probe, and was thrust back hard. She landed about thirty feet away, but got up almost immediately. She was a little shaky on her feet, but she seemed to be unhurt.

Monet could feel the energy snap back from Jean the moment that she stopped her probe. She focussed her mind as quickly as she could, and she was able to follow the energy back to its source. While everyone went to Jean to see if she was all right, she found the source. She could feel the energy trying to escape the person's control.

The energy that the mutant put out was frightening in its intensity. As powerful as it was, there was a restrained quality to it that told her the mutant was holding back his power. All of the destruction around her came from a restrained hand. It frightened her to feel the kind of energy that the mutant put out. For the first time in her life, she truly felt quite small.

She quickly retreated back to her own mind as the energies seemed to surge. Seeing that Jean was still dazed, she quickly erected a psionic shield around all of them.

Protected behind the wall of psionic energy, the group was able to see the effect of the psionic wave first hand. There were several small explosions from the Blackbird that could be seen from where they stood. The streetlights that were still intact burst all around them, emitting showers of sparks. They could see fires forming in several places around the park. The bodies of the victims experienced convulsions as the power touched their minds

Everyone stood in awe. Even Jean had never seen such a destructive display from an emerging mutant. Jean watched as the power flowed around the shield and outward toward the edge of the destruction. What she witnessed though scared the hell out of her. The power was drawn back as quickly as it had appeared. The young mutant strained so hard that the psionic energy was almost visible. She had seen many emerging mutants put on impressive displays, but never had she seen one that was so violent. They might be in serious trouble if the mutant totally lost control of his abilities.

Jean pulled herself to her feet and moved toward one of the victims once more. They seemed to be unaffected by the most recent display, but Jean couldn't guarantee that they wouldn't be affected by another display.

Monet took a deep breath. "I know where to find the mutant," she said, getting everyone's attention.

Monet guided the group to an empty street. The street was empty because it was gone. There was nothing left of it but a hole in the ground. Will approached the hole, but he already knew what he would find.

He sighed as he turned away from the hole. The mutant was down there. He could feel the mutant's presence, dominating the area with its power. He couldn't see the mutant yet, but he could see half a dozen bodies at the bottom of the crater. He could feel no life from them. They must have been at ground zero.

There was a glow coming from the bottom of the crater. Will could hear the sounds of movement echoing towards him. He signalled the others forward and together, they carefully lowered themselves into the crater.

They found a tunnel system at the bottom. "I can hear it now too," whispered Gayle. "It sounds like someone's crying." Around one corner, they could see a soft glow. Everyone was alert as they rounded the corner. The glow did not get any brighter, but somehow, it seemed more substantial, more there.

As they rounded another corner, a field of some kind stopped them. Behind the field there lay a young man. The young man was writhing around as if in agony. At first, it seemed as if he was not aware of them, but beneath the cries, they could hear two words being murmured. "Stay away."

Will was in awe. He could see the energy swirling around the young man and gathering up inside of him. "He's trying to hold back his power," he said, barely aware of the danger that they were in.

Jean pulled Will aside as the others took a closer look at the energy field. She seemed to be as worried as he felt.

"That's why the kid seems to be in pain. Will, this is serious. Part of the kid's mind wants to cut loose with that power while another part seems to be trying to block it. If we do not help him to find a way past this, he could very well destroy himself, us, and pretty much the entire eastern seaboard."

A sudden, bright flash of light caught their attention. They watched in surprise as Rogue carried Gayle to the two of them. "Hank got her to try and teleport through the energy field, but she got knocked out by feed-back of some sort."

Jean cursed under her breath, and then checked her watch. They had already been here for over ten minutes. They had to get him out soon before the agents from other groups or the government showed up and made things messy.

Monet took a deep breath and sighed. Jean seemed to be still affected by the mutant's attack. If they wanted to get him out, she was the one who was going to have to do something about it. She calmed herself and began to focus on the energy field. She was going to try to sneak by it on the Astral Plane. She had never demonstrated that facet of her power to any of the others. Monet was naturally a secretive type, so she did not like to reveal any personal information that she had no need too.

As her focus shifted to the Astral Plane, she saw a sight that nearly made her retreat back to her body. Tendrils of energy coming from the young man were powering the field. He knew that they were there on some level and was trying to protect them by blocking them out.

On the astral plane, the energy put out by the young man was even more spectacular than the physical manifestation. Something about it reminded her of the Phoenix effect, but the sheer wild fury of the young man's power gave her cause to wonder. How were they going to help him?

She went as close to the energy field as she dared. It crackled and bulged, but remained consistent and looming. She exerted her will against the field, only to see no effect. It wasn't that she hadn't put enough effort into breaking the field. It was as though she hadn't put any effort into it at all.

Monet spent a moment gathering her will. What she was going to do was risky, but they needed to get to him right away. She pushed against the field with all of her power. She was shocked to find that there was no barrier. She couldn't stop herself as she plunged deeper and deeper into nothingness. She wasn't alone though. There was something keeping her company in the emptiness, something strangely familiar.

"What's happened to Monet now," asked Hank. She had been beside him when she had collapsed. Hank had caught her thanks to his quick reflexes.

"Why, the little witch is on the Astral Plane. How the hell..."

It all happened so quickly. Before she even had a chance to try and call Monet back, the energy field that had been keeping them away from the young man was gone. Rogue picked up the young mutant and was back by their side without any problems. There was something wrong with Monet though. Try as she might, Jean couldn't bring Monet out of her trance. She couldn't even reach her.

She had no time to really force the issue though, as she was able to feel the recovery of the people who had been disabled by the young man's power. She could feel their minds emerge from the depths at which they were buried.

Will seemed to notice the change too. He checked on Gayle and sighed. It looked like he was going to have to do the work himself. He focussed his mind and felt for the life force of the people around him. He had been worried that the young man might somehow be immune to his abilities.

The young man's power almost made him lose his concentration. It shone out to him, almost to the point of blocking out the power of his team-mates. His eyes took on a silvery glow as he prepared himself for the upcoming exertion. He tagged his friends first, leaving Monet and the young man for last. The two of them seemed to be connected somehow. He had to try a couple of times before he was able to get the two of them into the medical bay on the Blackbird.

The medical scanner in the Blackbird put out static when Jean tried to scan both Monet and the young man. "Just what was happening between the two of them," she wondered. Normally, Monet put out so little psychic energy that a medical scan had no problems looking in on her body.

Hank entered from the cockpit. The trip was so short that Will must have used one of his Doors to get them back to the mansion fast.

"Can't do a medical scan," said Jean, preparing the beds to be teleported to the Med-Lab. "The kid's putting out psionic interference a lot like Will does."

Hank groaned but nodded. They still had not been able to develop a way to cut through the interference created when Will's powers were active.

"I guess that we are going to have to do this the hard way then."

Jean shook her head. "I am afraid that doing something like that would be very dangerous Hank. The kid's powers are still operating very much at a sub-conscious level. He doesn't seem to be violent, and that's the scary part."

Hank just nodded. He had seen how much devastation that the kid had caused while trying to hold back his power. If the kid's sub-conscious mind were to find a reason to lash out now.

Emeralda stepped into the room behind Jean and Hank. Emeralda was, unique. She was a Sentinel-prototype very similar to Nimrod. However, she possessed a will of her own which made programming her almost an impossibility. She absorbed the Sentinel protocols as easily as expected. However, having her embrace them was another matter entirely.

It sometimes seemed that Emeralda's dominant character trait was an insatiable curiosity. It made sense in a way though. Emeralda was born with free will, but with no real information about the world, aside from the Sentinel protocols. When she first came to be with the team, she read everything that they had let her on base within a week.

As time went on and they became more comfortable with her presence, Emeralda finally began to experience life. Emeralda could mimic a human perfectly except for one thing. No matter how hard she tried, she could not make her hair anything but bright green. style='mso-spacerun:yes'> She could not figure out why, but for some reason she found what had happened, disturbing. Bits and pieces of the Sentinel protocols often showed up when she least expected it. But somehow this seemed different. What was going on between the young man and Monet? She could see their psychic energy approach and withdraw from each other, as if they were making contact while in this coma like state.

Before she could mention anything to the others, the young man's vital signs began to drop suddenly, for no apparent reason. The emergency alarm sounded when his vitals reached critical, before they could even enter the room to try and revive him.

He flat lined less then thirty seconds later.

However, as they were trying to revive him, Emeralda noticed something strange. The longer that the young man's body tried to shut down, the more active his mind became. The equipment began to get some stunning readings from him before it all went to static again.

Hank was stunned. He could not explain it. Before they had the emergency equipment ready, the young man somehow revived himself. His entire body arched in pain, and his mouth opened in a silent scream. His entire body took on an eerie glow that spread outward, shorting out all electronics as it progressed.

"Emmie, raise the shields now!" After what he had seen in the city, he was not going to take any chances with the base's systems.

Emeralda responded without a second of hesitation. The psionic shielding that they had developed to protect against Will's powers dropped into place, effectively sealing both Hank and Jean in with the young man.

Jean tried to reach out to Scott by the mental bond that they shared, but it was no use. It was as if the air were charged with psionic energy of such a magnitude that her call would not go through. The energy would not touch them. It was as if the young man was somehow directing the energy, using it to heal himself.

The energy faded as the young man stabilized. The scanners still wouldn't work on him though so Hank quickly gave him an old fashioned physical.

While Hank and Jean were busy, Emeralda checked on Monet. She had never really cared too much about Monet, but there was a bond of respect between the two of them that made her worry about Monet. The interaction between the two of them had died down somewhat, but that connection was still there.

Emeralda turned her attention to the computers again, to try and find some information about the young man.

Jean sighed as she left the medical room. The young man was in stable condition, but she could find no reason for his comatose state. Neither medicine nor psionics seemed able to revive him.

"We may be forced to let him come out of it on his own," she said to Hank as they sealed the door behind them.

"Yeah, I think you're right Jean, but what are we going to do about Monet?"

"The same, but I'm going to have a long talk with her once she comes out of it," Jean said sternly. "She's been with us all of this time, and she's obviously been hiding the extent of her psionic abilities."

"Not that I'm taking her side or anything Jean, but did you really expect any different from her? She's never shared anything about herself without it being dragged out of her. I think that the fact that she was willing to take the chance to contact the young man says something for her though"

"I guess your right, Hank. I sounded a lot like Scott back there didn't I?" Jean said with a grin.

"Of course not, Scott would have demanded answers right away from her, me, and probably the boy as well"

Jean gave him a playful swat. "Hey, that's my husband that you're talking about there. Only I'm allowed to talk about him like that."

Scott was there as they opened the door. His eyes were wet with tears as he looked down on his wife. Without a word, he embraced her as tightly as he could.

"What happened?" Scott asked, once he was able to form the words.

"The young man's powers flared up, so we sealed the room" said Jean, once Scott let her go. "He had a dreadful effect on the electronics aboard the Blackbird."

"Is he a psi?" Scott asked, his emotions now in check.

"I honestly don't know Scott. The kid is definitely meta-human, and probably Omega-class aside from that. His power Scott, It is so far beyond me that I can't even get a feeling as to its nature."

Scott pursed his lips, but said nothing. The kid had to have to put on an awesome show to impress his wife.

"How is Monet holding up?" Scott asked.

"Even after all of the tests, the little bitch managed to hold out on us." Jean spent a moment explaining to Scott about her little trip into the Astral Plane.

"So you think that she made contact with him somehow on the Astral Plane?"

"Right Scott. That's the main reason that I don't think that the kid's a psi. That brings up a whole new set of problems though"

"You're thinking that the kid could be omnipathic." Scott said, reading his wife's worried face. Omnipaths were the rarest type of talent. They could shape the very fabric of reality through the power of their minds. Only three omnipaths of note had existed over the past thirty years.

Proteus had been the son of Moira MacTaggart. His mother had locked him away once she had seen his power. He had escaped almost twenty years ago and he had run amok until Piotr Rasputin had managed to kill him.

Gamemaster was a very dangerous alpha-class omnipath. At almost regular intervals he harassed one of them or someone that they cared about. As far as they knew he was still hidden away somewhere, planning his next sick little game.

Franklin Richards was the final known omnipath. Aside from his great power, he was an average fifteen year old who lived with his parents. Once in a while, he went to visit them to get some tests done and to gauge the extent of his power.

And now there was a fourth in the world, and even worse, it seemed like his power was even more volatile then Proteus'. Heaven help them all.