Mystique

Mystique always kept her ear close to the street. In their fight for mutant supremacy, the brotherhood always needed new members after all. And it was her job to sniff those members out. A thief who wasn't applying their gift to its full potential. Some young mutant whose powers went haywire upon activating and was in need of a place they could call home. It didn't matter who it was. If they sounded like a good addition to the brotherhood, Mystique had her ways of discovering and tracking them down. So when several reports came in of people "losing track of time" and feeling as if they had been "frozen in time", Mystique could already guess a mutant was involved. And she was correct. Within a few weeks of investigating, she had already found the culprit. Jamie Brooks. An 18-year-old who seemingly had the mutant ability to freeze people. And he wasn't afraid of using it. Amateur. Abusing his power so casually. If Mystique had tracked him down in such a short time, then it was only a matter of time before law enforcement caught on. Or worse, those damn X-Men. If the X-Men managed to get to him first, he'd surely be an annoying thorn in her side and a hinderance to the brotherhood's greater plans. But if she could convince him to join the brotherhood, he could be a powerful pawn against the mutant do-gooders.

Her sights set on recruiting the young mutant, Mystique put her plan into action. She would infiltrate the school, corner Jamie whilst he was alone and then give him an offer to join her cause. And if that failed... well she could always just knock him out and take him with her. A few nights spent in the brotherhood's cells would surely be enough to make him have a change of heart.

Infiltrating the school was child's play. No surprise as the normal human faculty stood no chance against the well trained shapeshifter. After taking out one of the teachers, Mystique assumed her identity and went about tracking down her real target.

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Jamie held his head high as he walked through the school corridors, whistling a joyful tune to himself. With these powers, he felt like a god in mortal flesh. As he sat in class, he didn't pay attention to a word his teacher said, instead daydreaming of what he could use his talents for after school. Maybe he could go after the swim team leader Cindy? He knows she usually stays behind in the pool after the rest of her team goes home. Perhaps Sarah? She took a pretty secluded path home after school. Maybe even that new teacher's assistant. She usually stayed behind late to do the work none of the other teachers wanted to do. He could just sneak into her office, say those magical words, and then...

"Mr. Brooks!" Jamie's fantasies were interrupted as he was rudely pulled back to earth by his teacher, Mrs. Wood. "Could you please repeat what I just taught the class?"

"O-Oh! Uhm... you said uh... you were telling us how..."

Mrs. Wood got an annoyed expression on her face as Jamie stammered through a response. "That's what I thought. No day dreaming in my class, mister! As punishment, you can stay behind after class for some, apparently much needed, reprimanding. Understood?"

Jamie gulped audibly, only responding with a meek nod. Satisfied, Mrs. Wood walked back to the front of the class and resumed teaching. Man! This sucked! He was gonna use his powers to have some fun after school, and now he would instead spend it getting lectured by some old bat.

As school let out and all of his classmates headed home, Jamie sulked down the same corridors he had stridden through so confidently mere hours ago. He took a deep breath, entering Mrs. Wood's classroom. "Mrs. Wood, I just want to say I am so sorry." He began as soon as he stepped through the door, hoping the instant apology would lead the stern teacher to showing him mercy. "It was disrespectful of me to not pay attention in your class. And I promise from now on, I'll-"

"It's fine Jamie. I'm not upset." Wait what? "I know school isn't the most exciting thing for young people, and it can be easy to drift off. Just make sure it doesn't happen again in the future."

Jaime stood confused. This was weird. This wasn't at all how Mrs. Wood usually acted. She prided herself on how hard she worked to whip her students into shape. There's no way she'd let a student off with just a slap on the wrist.

Suddenly, Jamie heard a strange sound coming from the nearby closet. Then moments later, it pushed open and out came... Mrs. Wood?! Tied, gagged and completely knocked out.

'Mrs. Wood' let out a sigh, deciding to drop the act. "Well, I guess I don't have to pretend anymore."

Before Jamie could even ask what the hell was going on, Mrs. Wood began to transform right in front of him. Her long dark hair that had started to grey turned a short, lively red. Her brown eyes turned into purely yellow pupils. Her slightly sagging skin turned into a smooth dark blue. Even her clothes changed. From a boring blazer and dress pants, into a tight fitting sleeveless white leotard that hugged her toned body. Before him now stood not Mrs. Wood, the middle-aged, plain-dressed school teacher. But a complete and total bombshell.

Jamie nervously stepped back a little, putting some distance between him and this stranger as he tried to figure out what the hell was going on. "W-Who are you?"

"My friends call me Raven. But you can just call me Mystique." she leaned back against the wooden desk. "I know what you are. I've been watching you for a long time. Seeing what you get up to using those powers of yours." Mystique lifted her gaze, seeing the fear flash across the boys' face. "Don't worry. I'm not here to hurt you. In fact, I'm here to make you an offer." She stood up to her full height, approaching Jamie slowly. "I'm from a group of people just like you. The brotherhood of ev-" Mystique quickly caught herself, deciding the full name might not be appropriate for a first time introduction. "The... brotherhood of mutants. And I want you to join us. I've seen what you can do, and I think you would be a worthy addition to our fight." she extended her open hand towards him. "So, what do you say?"