Immortalis

DISCLAIMER

I do not own the X-Men, the characters, or the universe itself. Morgana is mine and that's about it. Please don't sue me, Stan Lee.

Chapter One

Morgana Watson had gotten very used to being on her own, thank you very much. She would happily disagree with anyone who told her that no man was an island; perhaps that just proved that women were indeed the stronger sex. She had been on her lonesome for the past two years and she was managing quite well.

Well, perhaps "quite well" was an overstatement. Being homeless and making your way across the country by yourself as a young woman was not the easiest or safest feat to accomplish. Certainly full meals were hard to come by when you had no money and she didn't stay in one place long enough to get a job and make any money. But she could usually get enough work during the day to pay for a small meal at night and her clothes to be refreshed before she moved on to the next town.

She never stayed in one town too long. That wasn't safe and besides, her restlessness drove her onward. Morgana had managed to get from one side of the country to the next and halfway back again in the past year with hitchhiking and walking. She didn't exactly have any set destination…was she searching for some place in particular? She didn't really know. All she knew was keeping on the move meant relative safety and so she kept on her solo journey, back straight and head up every step of the way.

On this particular Thursday morning, she was making her way through crowded New York City. Crowded cities were her absolute least favorite place to be but it was also easy to lose herself in the crowd and pretend for a little while that she was just another body moving in a giant sea of bodies moving along their way. It was kind of a nice feeling for a little while, just to be another person in the crowd…almost like, briefly, she belonged.

Of course she didn't belong but it was still nice to pretend for a little while.

It was around lunchtime and already there was a heavy chill in the air. It was the end of August and that meant that colder weather was well on it's way. Morgana also detested the cold and figured that meant it was time to make her way towards the south. Nothing much left up north except for colder states, more snow, and besides she wasn't going to north Canada at the beginning of winter.

Been there, made that mistake.

Stepping out of the crowd, Morgana hefted her backpack higher up on her shoulders and moved to stand in a narrow alleyway to observe the crowds. She worried her lip with her teeth as she tried to decide what she should do. Stay in the city to try and find work or try to catch a ride for the suburbs? She could probably find a farm that might need some work done for the day, enough to put a good meal in her stomach and a barn full of hay to crash in for the night. It would be warm, certainly, and she hadn't had a good, long night's sleep in quite a while. It didn't sound like a half bad idea….

Morgana had made up her mind and was just about to step out of the shadows and off the sidewalk to pursue finding someone she could bum a ride from when something inside her stopped her. She had been blessed or cursed with fantastic natural instincts and she had learnt the hard way during the past two years to always listen to her gut. So far, it hadn't been wrong and it was screaming at her not to move, to stay pressed into the shadows.

Wait.

In near slow motion, the ground in the middle of the busy street suddenly exploded open. People who were walking back and forth flew backwards, some of them flying straight in the air. The sound of the ground exploding was deafening but the shrieking and shouts of everyone in the area seemed to blot out any other form of noise.

Morgana hadn't been near enough to the blast to be knocked over but she stumbled backwards further into the alleyway. She nearly tripped over her feet and fell backwards but shot her hand out to grip at the wall to steady herself. The sounds of screaming echoed from the street along with other smaller sounds of explosions.

Even though she was sure her instincts should be telling her to turn tail and run through the alleyways to find a viable escape route, somehow Morgana found herself cautiously inching forward to the mouth of the alleyway. Even though it could have been a gas pipe explosion or something of the like, something told her something big had caused that explosion. Something not quite natural.

How right she was.

Clutching the side of the alley, Morgana crouched down a little and peeked out. She would watch the chaos from a safe distance and the second things got too hot, she was out. No heroics.

Well, the sidewalk was completely demolished. There was now a massive hole where people had been walking and people were either laying sprawled out in awkward angles on the sidewalk, moaning loudly in apparent agony and injury or else they were screaming and running from the chaos. But what was truly terrifying was the figure floating above the hole.

He was clad in some kind of armor, a brutal mixture of blood red and royal purple. A cape billowed out behind him in the breeze and his face was partially obscured by a metal helmet; all you could see was his eyes, two green orbs glowing in a feverish light as they swept back and forth to observe the pain and fear stretching out before him.

It seems he was the cause of the explosion. Morgana wasn't sure how but she was very certain based on the fact he was floating above the hole that he was the cause of it. The floating thing alone was enough to freak her out.

Obviously he was a mutant. That fact alone didn't bother her much – it instantly put her on edge because mutant usually meant the normal people would be antsy and fights could happen – but the explosions were definitely a buzzkill for anyone.

Morgana was just about to decide she had seen enough and that it was time for her appearance in New York to meet a hasty end when a red blast shot from the crowd somewhere and hit the floating mutant in a brilliant display of color and energy. The screams which had soften slightly built up again as the floating figure was knocked backwards out of the sky.

Morgana held her breath, wondering if that was the end of that. But suddenly, the figure shot back up in the air and he did not look happy at all.

"Cyclops, what a rude introduction. I was hoping for a little more civility." He spoke loudly enough that Morgana could hear from where she was crouched in hiding. His voice had a slightly foreign accent to it and he didn't sound too terribly angry for someone that had just been blasted from the sky with an energy beam.

He just sounded a bit disappointed, as though with a child who just displayed a shocking lack of manners and decorum.

Morgana twisted her head around and realized the crowd had parted and she could finally see more of the action. Standing on the sidewalk about 30 feet from where she hid was a small group of people. They were all dressed in similar black uniforms and standing at the front of them was the apparent leader, a tall and lean man with a red visor covering his eyes. He seemed to be the "Cyclops" that the floating man had addressed.

This was all starting to get weirder and weirder as the moments ticked by but there was something familiar about it all….

"Magneto, I am asking you now to stop. We know you were visiting the Murdocks and we're not going to sit ideally by if you're going to threaten a peaceful community of mutants." Cyclops shouted up at him, his voice laden with authority.

"My dear Cyclops! Who was to say I was threatening anyone? I was just paying them a little visit to express my concern about their horrid living conditions, that's all." His voice was too pleasant, dripping charm and manner. Morgana figured he was lying about his good intentions, based solely on how he didn't seem to mind his explosion from underground caused massive damage and injury.

Something inside her brain clicked together. Magneto…Magneto…wait just a damn minute, she knew that name! Everyone who watched even the smallest amount of news knew that name. He was a famous mutant terrorist who was constantly making demands of the government, random terrorist attacks, killing innocent people in his bid for superiority of mutants over humans. He was a major player in the small war between the humans and the mutants, one of the main reasons the government distrusted the mutant movement so much.

And based on the fact the small handful of uniformed stood in apparent opposition of Magneto, they practically screamed that they were the famed X-Men. The heroes of mutants everywhere and the good guys who tried to keep the crazy mutants from causing too much trouble.

Basically, it was like a horrific news scene come to life and Morgana was right in the middle of it. Almost literally.

She decided this was definitely not someplace she should be and if they started fighting, people could be injured accidentally very easily. And injuries meant traveling would be very uncomfortable and screw that happening. Looks like it was time for her to find a quiet moment to slip through the alleyways and find some poor uninjured sap to give her a ride out of the city. Pronto.

"My dear X-Men, I would love to stay here and chat but I find myself needing to rest after this long day. I will be departing but never fear! Some of my followers have delightfully volunteered to stay behind and chat with you all for a while longer." Magneto announced regretfully and spread his arms, slowly starting to rise higher above the sidewalk. As he talked, out of the hole he hovered above, about 10 figures began to climb out, some of them very obviously mutant with tails and claws and one with a long forked tongue that he used to propel himself forward.

Those must be members of the "Brotherhood of Evil Mutants". Yep, this was definitely turning into a news story Morgana was not willingly to be featured in. It was most definitely time to exit.

"Not so fast, metalhead!" One of the X-Men growled suddenly and launched himself forward. He was smaller than Cyclops and when he leapt forward into the air, three pieces of metal shaped like blades suddenly expelled from between his knuckles on both hand. They were like massive claws and he pointed them straight at Magneto as he snarled a wild battle cry.

As he went to attack Magneto, the rest of the Brotherhood reached the other 5 members of the X-Men and the battle commenced. It suddenly became pure, unadulterated chaos.

Perfect time for Morgana to make her escape while they were all distracted. And she was just about to turn her back on the fight and slink through the shadows to escape when the small figure suddenly stopped in midair.

Magneto had a hand raised and somehow, that stopped the smaller X-Man and suspended him in midair in front of him.

"Oh Wolverine. You poor, simple-minded creature. Haven't we danced this dance before? I really thought better of you." The villainous mutant sighed and the X-Man – Wolverine, it seems? It fit his claws, that's for sure - snarled in apparent fury and pain. He looked so desperate to reach just an inch or two out to slash at Magneto but something kept him suspended. But not for long.

Magneto waved his hand to the side and Wolverine slammed into the building next to the alley Morgana was hiding in, slamming hard enough into the cement wall to leave a dent before crashing hard into the ground. He definitely wasn't moving and there was too much chaos with his teammates for them to come check on him even though they definitely saw him attacked.

Morgana froze.

This was still the perfect time to leave. No one was paying attention to her and really, why stay? The X-Men were famous for handling these situations, the Brotherhood hated normal humans, and Morgana didn't have any kind of super awesome ability that could prove useful to either of them in this case. Saving her own skin definitely made sense.

Though she was worried about that Wolverine….he wasn't moving and no one was paying him any attention…

Never mind, never mind! We've gotta run. We're all we have and thus we're most important.

Morgana shook her head and turned for a third time to leave when she realized that the X-Men were so concerned with taking out the rest of the brotherhood that they hadn't noticed they were missing one. Slithering his way up to Wolverine's prone body was the creepiest of the Brotherhood. He was tiny and had sickly yellow skin, a little bit of green tingeing the side of his face. Out of his mouth hung a massive tongue that he used to lick the air and help propel him forward as he slinked his way along the sidewalk.

He looked like a disgusting, human frog. What a terrible curse of a power, to be sure.

"Oooh, lucky day for Toad! Wolverine is all mine…the boss is gonna be so happy with me! Finally, I might get some praise." He croaked – yes, he actually sounded like he was croaking when he talked – and he practically rubbed his hands together in glee. He reached out with his hands and leaned forward, probably intending to strangle Wolverine before he came back to life. At least he seemed like he'd strangle him with his hands and not his giant tongue because, really, that would truly be the worst way to die.

Morgana snarled quietly in her head.

He isn't your problem! I'm sure his friends will notice soon. Right? RIGHT? You are NOT going to play the hero! You have no useful power and you can't fight. This is stupid!

But her eyes had cast on a rather large hunk of sidewalk rubble sitting at the mouth of the alleyway and for whatever reason, she just couldn't make herself turn around and run. It's what she should have done and nothing bad would probably happen to Wolverine if she did run. He was a big boy and he'd either wake up or his friends would rescue him. He was not her problem and she wouldn't be a help to anyone.

So, naturally…she reached down, grabbed the rock, and moved stealthily towards the Frog Man to save the day.

A/N:

Good first chapter, I hope! I have about 19 more chapters currently written so expect pretty frequent uploads once I edit them :)