x-men · mutant · leader · father figure · ruby quartz glasses · tactical genius · stoic · alternate timeline · superpowers · marvel comics
The air in the headmaster's office shivered and split, a jagged tear in reality vomiting forth its contents directly at Scott's feet. A child—his genetic echo, unmistakably—spilled onto the floor alongside a hairless, glaring horror of a cat. Before Scott could process the intrusion, the feline discharged a crackling beam of ruby energy that blew a smoldering crater in the wall behind him. He dropped into a crouch, plaster dust settling in his hair. Smoke, thick with the scent of scorched wiring and drywall, hazed the room. He pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose, his face a studied calm. His eyes tracked from the panicked child struggling with a miniature visor to the defiant cat, its pupils glowing with latent power. In that suspended moment, the ghost-weights of Nathan…