Chereads / Empathic Mimicry: Copying Apocalypse's Powers / Chapter 2 - Mystique's, Nightcrawler's, and Quicksilver's ability

Chapter 2 - Mystique's, Nightcrawler's, and Quicksilver's ability

"The first step in understanding one's power is learning the extent of it." Said Charles while wheeling down with his wheelchair through the backyard of the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.

"Only then can we begin the process of teaching you how to control it." Charles then stopped his wheelchair and then looked towards the small synthetic river they had.

"Why don't you take your bandages off and we can have a look at what we're dealing with here?" Charles said to Scott who was on the right side behind him.

"Alex, would you line him up? Face him in the right direction, as it were." Asked Charles while Scott was taking off his bandages.

"There is a target just across the water. When you open your eyes, try and hit that." Charles then pointed at a target that was across the water from where they were.

"You can open your eyes Scott, there is nothing to be scared of." The moment that Charles said that Scott immediately opened his eyes scaring Charles by the sudden blast.

Scott who opened his eyes, couldn't see anything so the only option that he had was to keep looking straight by doing so he ended up cutting the target in half, and then his laser eyes went beyond that and ended up cutting a tree in half, it was until then that he closed his eyes.

This sudden action not only scared Charles and the rest that were near Scott, but it even scared the kids that were playing far away because of the blast of the laser eye from Scott.

After all this Charles laughed and said "That tree was planted by my grandfather when he had five years."

As he said this the tree started to fall and set on free from the burning effect of Scott's laser eyes.

"I used to swing on that tree myself. I think that was my favorite tree." Said Charles while looking at the fallen tree that was on fire.

"Does that mean that I'm expelled?" Said Scott after hearing Charles saying that this was his favorite tree.

"On the contrary. Your enroll." Charles then turns towards Raciel.

"Let's see what you have in store, Raciel."

"All right, I just do the same." Raciel then positions himself next to Scott and then looks towards the fallen tree.

"What do you mean by that?" After Charles said that he got scared once again by the sudden blast of laser eyes that came from Raciel.

Charles, Hanks, and even Alex were surprised at the similar ability of Scott that Raciel displayed.

"How's that?" Said Raciel after closing his eyes again and then opening them.

"Why do you have the same ability as Scott?" Asked Hank confused at the sudden similarity of ability.

"Do you guys have the same abilities? But it's not possible because he can see without any problems of his abilities going out of control." Added Charles trying to figure out why they had similar abilities.

"Scott and I don't have similar abilities. The ability I used and Scott used are the same because what I used was Scott's ability." Said Raciel to Hanks and Charles inquire.

"How is that possible?" Scott was stunned after hearing everything that was said here.

Although he cannot see he can still hear and feel, and he feels the same heat that his ability produced when he used it.

"It's simple really, I can mimic all abilities that I am near off." Said Raciel.

Raciel then continues to explain his abilities "That's why I need help in controlling my ability."

"My ability is like a sponge, it can copy or more like absorb any ability that I got closed by." Raciel then started demonstrating the telekinesis from Jean by lifting a few rocks.

"Because it absorbed any ability near me I can have everyone's abilities without them knowing because for me to use it I need to manifest the absorb ability." Raciel then proceeded to say all this in the minds of the professor and everyone near him.

"And that's where the problem arises. I am constantly absorbing the ability of everyone and I don't need to even know if the person next to me has an ability I will still absorb his ability." Raciel was going to continue when Charles suddenly interrupted him.

"But you wouldn't even know you have the ability of that person." Charles immediately knew what was the problem.

"Yes." Raciel nodded.

"No matter if I don't know the ability as long as I don't have control and I face dangers unknown abilities may manifest and I would probably end up hurting myself and everyone else around me." Raciel then stopped to use the abilities from Jean and all the rocks that were still floating fell off.

"That's why I need your help, Professor. I want to learn how to control my ability to stop absorbing the abilities of others around me." Raciel said this in his real voice without any telepathy.

"I see, well you are in good luck because in here we can help you with that." Said a Charles.

Charles then shocked Raciel's hand, "Welcome to the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters."

"Thank you, Professor." Raciel said while shaking Charles's hand.

While inside Raciel was overjoyed, thanks to being close to Charles he now had the powerful ability of Telepathy and at the same time, he could also get close to other powerful mutants like Magneto or Apocalypse.

Meanwhile, in another country, a girl is rescuing a fellow mutant. After she saved the mutant she headed towards a hidden alley where sometimes a few people come and go.

This girl was the one and only Mystique, she had just saved a mutant from a fighting ring. This mutant like other mutants was being used to earn money by fighting, and this unique mutant is Nightcrawler.

At the same somewhere else around the world, Moira is following a group into a dark cave. When she was going down towards the cave because she didn't cover the hole some sunlight went into the cave, igniting the strange patterns from Apocalypse's pyramid.

Due to this a sudden earthquake occurred, at night in New York, and the whole of Xavier's school shook. Raciel who was in bed at the school knew that Apocalypse woke up.

"Looks like the event of Apocalypse awakening just happened." Raciel then stood up from his bed and got out of the room.

Outside most of the kids were whispering and complaining about how Jean once again had an attack. Raciel then from afar saw how Professor Charles was coming near.

"Back to bed, please, everyone." Charles then started to signal the kids to go back to their rooms.

"Professor Charles, What happened?" Asked Raciel to Charles after coming closer to where Jean's room is.

"I don't know but I think it was Jean." Said Charles.

"This has happened a few times before." Charles then got into Jean's room.

Raciel knew that it was time to act, "I don't think she is the cause."

"When I was close to her and my ability mimicked hers, it also let me feel that she had something else inside her body." Raciel then proceeded to explain what he understood about the Phoenix Force.

"It felt like what she has inside her is a rule of the universe, like the ruler of destruction and creation." Raciel then pauses.

"It's almost like… I know I Phoenix."

"In some places and religions, the Phoenix is like the representation of life. That is where life flourishes after something else dies." Raciel then gives Charles an example.

"When a forest fire happens it destroys almost all the trees in a zone killing them, but it also lets new trees grow in its place essentially letting new life strive."

"That's what whatever is inside her feels like." Raciel then looks at Jean.

But at this moment Jean is groaning like she's seeing a nightmare. So Charles decided to wake her up.

"Let's hope that what you said is true." Charles then gets close to Jean.

"Jean." Charles tries to get closer until he suddenly feels an incredible headache.

Raciel was surprised at this, he didn't think Charles was going to immediately try to use telepathy to wake up Jean until he felt an incredible headache too.

At this moment Raciel knew that it wasn't Charles who used telepathy to wake her up, but Jean herself subconsciously used her Telepathy to communicate with the strongest Telepath nearby.

Charles and Raciel were the closest ones, Raciel and Charles started to see visions like an apocalypse. It was pure destruction, chaos, and even death.

Raciel already knew the plot so he understood immediately what these visions Jean was transmitting to them, but Charles had a pretty hard time understanding them.

"Jean." Charles called out to the sleeping Jean but she didn't wake up, and this moment the visions were getting umberables.

"Jean!" Charles had to yell at Jean to wake her up, he couldn't handle the visions anymore and Raciel at this time was on the floor kneeling from pain.

Raciel may have gotten the telepathy from Charles and Jean one of the strongest ever telepathic mutants but he didn't have any training on this ability much less having control over his mind, so he was the one who suffered the most from this vision.

"Uff, Uff, Uff… I thought I was going to die there for a moment." exclaims Raciel while trying to prop himself up.

Although Raciel has watched the movie, he didn't think that the scene where Charles was seeing the same visions as Jean was going to be that painful.

"I will go towards my room." Raciel then stood up and while touching a side of his head left the room of Jean.

He wanted to rest, all this made him too tired. When Raciel arrived at his room, the moment his head touched the pillow he fell asleep.

Somewhere in the world, Magneto is grieving the loss of his daughter and wife. With rage, he uses the medallion of his wife to kill all the group of officers that came to his house.

In Egypte, Apocalypse just turns Storm into one of his Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse after learning about this world through a TV. Mystique just met with Caliban to get an identification for Nightcrawler, here she learns about Magneto and she decides to go and meet Charles in New York.

The next morning in New York, Raciel is together with Hank while he is giving Scott the new glasses he made.

"The lenses are made of some ruby quartz I had lying around." Hank was explaining to Scott the properties of the glasses he made.

"They should be able to refract your optic beams and keep them contained within their own vector fields." Hank gave him the last detail about his glasses that would let him see again.

"You should try them on." Said Raciel.

Scott hesitated a little bit on whether to put them on or not, but what Raciel said gave him the little push he needed, so he took off his blindfold and tried the glasses on.

Hank even breathed in a little, wishing in his mind that these glasses that he made would work.

"Now, go ahead." Hank told Scott to open his eyes.

"Wait, turn him around." Raciel said knowing that they were kids in front of Scott.

"Yes, Yes. Wait." Hank then moved Scott to where there wasn't anything or anyone in particular.

"Now?" Asked Scott not sure if he could not open his eyes.

"Yeah, you're good." Assure Hank.

"Whoa." Scott was amazed after opening his eyes.

"I can see. Thank you, professor you're a genius." Scott was grateful to Hanks for making these glasses.

"He is indeed a genius. To create a tool to help you with only things he had lying around is really impressive and only a genius can accomplish that." Said Raciel while sighing at Hank's intellect.

If Hank's ability were his intellect, Raciel would be more than happy to mimic his ability but sadly that's not his ability but evolution on his feet.

"Who is that?" Asked Scott after seeing Jean.

"I believe you two have met before, that's Jean Gray." Said Hank.

"You bumped into her when he arrived here." Said Raciel.

"That's her?" Asked Scott perplexed.

Scott stared for a while toward where Jean Gray was amazed at her beauty. Raciel knows that this is the moment that Scott falls for her, so he gives Scott a little push.

"Go talk to her." Said Raciel after giving Scott a little push.

"Yeah." Said Scott instinctively, he was so mesmerized by Jean's beauty that he didn't even hear what Raciel said.

"He likes her." Said Raciel to Hank.

"Who?" Asked Hank while leaving this place.

"Scott! The moment he saw her, he was infatuated." Raciel said while also following Hank.

"Is that so? I didn't notice." Said Hank.

"Don't tell me you didn't notice. He had practically his heart flying all around him." Raciel was shocked at Hank's naive.

"Sighed." Raciel sighed.

"Sometimes I wonder if this timeline is better than the last one." Said Raciel.

"What do you mean? What other timeline?" Asked shocked at the mention of a timeline from Raciel.

"Yeah, I talking about the timeline that you guys change." Raciel said while looking at Hanks.

"Don't tell me you don't remember. It was when you all change the future for a better one in which robots do not chase mutants anymore." Raciel explains after seeing the confused look of Hank.

"How do you know about that? That wasn't divulged and the only person that knew about it isn't here anymore." Asked Hanks surprised and confused as to why Raciel knew about these events.

All this is part of Raciel's plans, thanks to him knowing the plot of the movie and having seen movies before the X-Men Apocalypse he knew how to give a few surprises to the X-Men.

"Ah! That is because a long time ago I mimicked the ability of someone to see the timelines. That's when I saw changes in the timeline and learned that it was all due to a future consciousness coming to the past." Raciel gave Hank his thought-up reason.

"I mean, even all that is going to happen is due to having messed up with the timeline." Raciel tried giving a spoiler to Hank.

"What do you mean?" Asked Hank hearing what Raciel said.

But Raciel didn't say anything more and just pointed towards the front because he and Hank just arrived at the middle stairs from Xavier's mansion.

Seeing Raciel was pointing towards somewhere, Hank looked where he was pointing until he saw someone familiar.

"Raven?" Hank exclaims.

He was surprised to see Mystique once again ever since the events of Magneto attacking the president.

"Hello, Hank." Mystique then got closer to Hank.

"Wow, I…you're…" Hank was speechless as to what to say to Mystique

"Not blue? Looks like we have that in common." Said Mystique.

"No, no, I meant… You're back." Hank changed his words at the last second.

"I never thought I would see you again." Hank is reminiscent of the past.

At this moment, Raciel who was close to them couldn't be more excited. At this very moment, he felt how he just mimicked Mystique's and Nightcrawler's ability.

Raciel then lifted his hand and with a thought, his hand started to morph. It changes from a man's hand to a woman's hand, and from white to black.

Raciel's hand morphs into different hands until he is satisfied and then he stops. Mystique who was close to Raciel when that happened was surprised.

"You're like me!" Mystique was surprised to see her ability in someone else's.

"No, sorry. I just copied your ability because you're near me." Raciel said trying to explain what his ability was.

"Does that mean that you can copy mine too?" Asked Nightcrawler.

"Yes, what's your ability?" Asked Raciel faking that he didn't know what Nightcrawler's ability was.

Nightcrawler immediately responded, "I can teleport to wherever I have been or I can see."

" I will try." Raciel concentrated on feeling Nightcrawler's ability.

When Raciel felt this ability, he opened his eyes and he suddenly teleported behind Nightcrawler, leaving just a train of blue smoke where he was before.

"That's a little bit disorienting." Said Raciel while trying to regain a little bit of balance.

"But this is fun." Raciel then took Nightcrawler's appearance.

Raciel then changes his appearance back to his original form.

"Well, I will leave you to do your thing. Also, Kurt you should befriend Scott and Jean, they will make good friends." Raciel then left.

Nightcrawler was confused, he never told them his name, "Wait, How do you know my name?"

"I can read minds too!" Raciel then used Nightcrawler's ability to teleport from there.

Raciel left for two reasons, one because he had gotten the abilities he had thought about from the X-Men. The second reason is to start the second phase of his plans.

It could also be said that he wanted to leave Hank and Mystique alone so that they have their weird moment looking at the Blackbird and he didn't want to be there when it happened, he also didn't have any reason to be there.

"It's time to look for Quicksilver." Though Raciel while outside of the Xavier School.

Although Raciel didn't know exactly where Quicksilver was, he did have a mental image of his place. That's when Nightcrawler's ability comes into play.

Kurt's ability lets him teleport to any place he can see or has been, the important part comes into the has been. This means that he just needs a clear mental image of the place for it to work.

For Raciel who has seen X-Men Apocalypse and X-Men Days of Future Past, it was easy to remember the scenes where Quicksilver appears. So Raciel pictures in his mind the place that Quicksilver is always at, he pictures the basement with sofas and games.

After having a mental image of the place, Raciel used Kurt's ability, "Let's hope it works or else I will have to revise my plans."

Raciel then teleported leaving behind a blue smoke. He suddenly appeared in a basement full of stuff and in front of him was a guy with gray hair.

But the sudden appearance of Raciel surprised Pietro, "Who are you? How did you get here?"

Pietro then disappeared from where he was and Raciel felt a flash, then he was stuck to the wall of Pietro's basement with tape.

"Calm down, Pietro. I came here in peace. I think I have something that you need." Raciel tried to entice Pietro, he just needed a little bit of time until his Empathic Mimicry finished copying Pietro's ability.

"What could that possibly be?" Ask Pietro.

"Is about your father! He needs help and you are someone who could help him." Said Raciel.

"Why would he need my help? He probably doesn't even care about me." Said Pietro feeling resented that he never has met Magneto.

"That's why you are wrong. He never even learned that you existed."

"That's worst, why would he need help if he never knew about me?" Said Pietro while he took a card from his pockets a kept glancing at it for a while.

"Because knowing about you is going to be his salvation!" Said Raciel.

"What do you mean?" Ask Pietro confused but intrigued by Raciel's answer.

"That's easy! What do you know about Eric?" Asked Raciel.

"That he tries to assassinate the president, and that he has done some terrorization before, and that he is a bad guy." Answer Pietro.

"Sorry, this is my fault. Let me ask again." Said Raciel knowing the error of his question before.

"What do you really know about Eric? After all what the news says about someone may not be always the full story or truth." Raciel rephrases the question.

This question stunned Pietro, he had never even thought of it like that. So after thinking for a while, he noticed that he never even really knew the real Eric.

"Nothing." Admitted Pietro.

"Well, let me tell you a little bit about him." Said Raciel.

"He more than anything loves family. That is the most important thing for him after having lost his mother early because someone wanted him to show his mutant ability." Raciel started to explain what he knew about Eric Lehnsherr.

"That's his core personality. After having completed his vengeance against the one who killed his mother the only way to keep going was to try and protect his other family." Raciel then was interrupted by Pietro.

"Mutants!" Said Pietro, feeling like he understood a little bit about his father.

"That's why he tried everything he could, in the way he knew to protect and bring a safe environment to mutants and that was until the assassination attempt."

"Having failed because of another mutant made others realize that mutants weren't that bad. So he lost his other purpose to live, and that's why he escaped that was until he finally found something else."

"A family." Said Pietro not letting Raciel finish.

"Exactly!" Said Raciel.

Pietro was enlightened but he still couldn't understand why his father needed his help, "But Why does he need me?"

"Because he lost his whole world again, his family. A baby not born, a daughter and a wife by the arrow of a human who was scared of him." Said Raciel.

"That's why he needs you. He has lost so must that he has lost himself in grieves, and in that grieves a man that wishes to destroy the world and rebuild it anew is trying to use him to bring enormous death." Raciel then told Pietro about what was going to happen in the not-distant future.

"When he learns that he still has one more family, he will come to his senses. After all, you are something that he desires the most, a family." Raciel did everything he could to convince Pietro, that if nothing worked he would have to live and let time work its magic with Pietro.

Pietro stayed silent for a moment thinking, after a while he lifted his head and a determined face appeared on his face, "What do I need to do to help him?"

"Go to the Xavier school and meet with Professor Charles and the rest, and tell Raven who you are and who's your father." Said Raciel with an excited face.

"Alright, Thank you."Said Pietro.

"You're welcome." Said Raciel.

Suddenly Pietro was a little embarrassed, he had let all this time Raciel stock onto the wall with the tape, "Let me help you off the wall."

"You don't have to I can get out myself." Raciel then teleported in front of him leaving behind the tapes where he was before.

"Wow, How did you do that?" Asked Pietro seeing Raciel disappear and appear like magic from one place to another.

"I teleported, now forget that you should hurry up. The earlier you arrive there the better." Raciel then using Quicksilver's speed suddenly brought a bunch of stuff to Pietro's hands.

"What… How did you…" Pietro was confused as to why Raciel used just now his abilities.

"Well, good luck with all that. See you later, I have a bunch more stuff to do." Raciel then teleported from there leaving Pietro stunned.