#fathomless. girders

[merriemarvels]

verses:Charlie//MAIN

[[ I've roleplayed Charlie for a really long time, but the way AoA has changed over the years kinda ruined my characterization of him (plus there's that whole... gettin' killed thing to consider) so this is basically how I explain how Charlie is alive and what's changed about him. This isn't going to be formatted in any sort of way, I'm just sort of going off the cuff to make it make sense ]]

Charlie is originally a resident of Earth-295, born only months before the discovery of Bishop and the start of the events we see play out in the books. His story is pretty much 1:1 with the comics until Uncanny X-Force 19.1, which implies that he is crushed and killed (devoured?) by Demon-Ock.

This, of course, cannot stand. What really* happened is that about a year before this event, a woman and her child arrived at the compound -- an extremely sick child in need of nigh-miraculous medical intervention. Thankfully, some of the High Evolutionary's equipment remained at the compound, and they were able to stabilize his body, though for how long, who could say?

The woman, Janet Van Dyne, though human herself, stayed on to assist the growing resistance to Apocalypse's reign, while her son, Henry Pym, Jr. -- Pymmy -- formed a fast and lasting friendship with the only other child his age, Charlie.

When disaster struck the mountain and assassins were sent to attack Charlie -- his death was not the outcome. He was protected, just barely, by a falling girder, but his mother, while trying to shepherd both he and Pym out of danger, was not so lucky.

Charlie didn't mean to blame Pymmy, but boys don't often express their feelings well.

A few years down the line, Charlie's mutation was becoming more unstable. The psionics were becoming easier to control, but the techno-psychometry was doing the opposite. The building charge could often occur even while he slept, and if he didn't remember his dampener wristlet, any touch could prove injurious to the person. He was fighting every day for control over his mutation, and it caused him to lash out -- at the only person who understood him, Pymmy. And while he was losing control, Pym was losing the fight with his own body. He needed help.

Charlie knew how to get it.

Without telling anyone, the boy snuck out one night, hitched a ride and went into the city. Henry wasn't the only Pym, and he knew (even if Pym didn't) that the industrialist was still working on his mad experiments. The same ones which had caused the boy's illness. If Charlie could get a sample, they could synthesize something to counteract it...

He never saw the explosion.

Next thing he knew was fire. Endless, writhing -- lakes and flows and geysers of fire. A laughing face, a red hand reaching, grasping his legs, pulling, trying to take him --

White. Fathomless white. Warm arms embracing him, warm arms with gloved hands and a soft voice, telling him to go. It wasn't his time.

Take his hand.

Another. Tall. Familiar. Me.

Charlie awoke in a field far from home, his clothes ill-fitting, his head throbbing. His legs were covered in scratches that were already scarred over, and all around him the grass and ground had been turned to solid steel.

He's different now. More. A merging -- the universe never wastes. Where one possibility ends, another goes on. A thread one must follow to its terminus.