Hands of Blue - Prologue

They first heard about the telepath through Shaw's Network. It was always the first to know, any new power, new development, new mutant that was discovered, word always reached the tendrils of information gatherers Shaw put in place.

Of course, now Shaw was killed by Erik's own hand, it was now just The Network, underground mutants keeping in touch with each other through tenuous links of communication.

The Network began in the Hellfire Club. Shaw had people under his thumb, a demonic looking teleporter and the first telepath, Emma Frost. They increased in number, slowly, first an "exotic dancer" with dragonfly wings, a teenage delinquent fresh out of juvie and the government plant, a genius with hidden feet.

It was through the last one, a mutant codenamed Beast that was hiding in the government's staff, that word spread through The Network that a branch of the government had a telepath.

All mutants fear telepaths. They are the freaks among freaks. Telepaths can rat you out to the government by little more than passing you on the street. Anonymity is every mutant's first line of defence, and telepaths strip that from them, leaving them exposed to anyone and anything.

Erik was the only mutant who kept an association with a telepath – Shaw's former right-hand, the White Queen of the Hellfire Club. It made him the ultimate threat, that he could control a telepath. He was protected by the helmet he always wore, the one he pried from Shaw's still warm corpse. Either from fear or respect, Erik was the head of The Network. He didn't control the mutants, they didn't owe him anything. Mutants just exist, independent from each other. Aware, but alone.

All records of the telepath referred to it simply as X.

It could be a number, or just identification, Erik didn't know. All he knew was that the government had a very powerful weapon, and if he couldn't control it, then he would destroy it.

NOPLEASEnotagaindon'tI'-

Silence.

Inspired from a prompt on the 1stclass_kink meme here: .?thread=103206#t103206

Inspired by X-Men: First Class and Firefly/Serenity. AU in which Charles and Erik haven't met yet.

Please review! I'd love to see what you think of this Prologue.