Introducing the Class of '24 | X-Men: Graduation

#fanfiction

”X-Men: Graduation” is a series with 24 planned issues. Of these, 3 have been released. It is part of a shared universe between me and my friend Luke: Marvelium. Here’s the first issue, if you’d like to read it.

In-universe, the class of ‘24 is composed of 5 (previously 6 individuals, but the remaining one, Luna Alexander, will be the subject of another introductory blog). They are the graduates of Xavier’s Institute for Gifted Youngsters in the great 2024, and they are plunged into more than they bargained for, testing the limits of their emotions, their powers, and their minds… Without further ado, here they are…

Credence Lockheed

Codename: Valedictorian

Creed notoriously doesn’t speak much about his past before the Institute. Having shown up there beat up and battered at the age of 14, only Xavier knows his full past, having accessed it with full permission from Creed.

Creed was never too complicated or stubborn. He’d always been looking to make friends, but having lived as a child in a very isolated household under the reign of terror of his father, he never could. Running away was the bravest thing he’d ever done, but making new friends proved to be equally daunting.

He came to become a particularly close friend of his classmate, John Doberman, who at the time was dating Luna Alexander, and needed someone to constantly vent to due to her highly emotional outbursts, leading them to connect, as Creed proved to be an excellent listener.

Creed came to love intellectually challenging himself during his time in school, studying subjects such as history, reading both fiction and non-fiction, and solving puzzles, as well as playing chess against another classmate, Michael Quinn.

He accidentally burned down the Institute’s toolshed in his senior year, as well as a large portion of the surrounding forest. But aside from that, Creed’s time in school was relatively uneventful. He never got to close to Luna before she left, despite being his best friend’s girlfriend. He did get close to Amani Bahati, however, who Creed liked to talk to a lot, much like John liked talking to him because he listened well. So did Bahati.

His abilities presented themselves in seemingly random outbursts, leading to uncertainty of how much of his true potential has actually been demonstrated, but his main abilities have been narrowed down to emotional stabilization, flight, and the ability to manipulate energy into weaponized beams or defensive shields, as well as telekinesis to a certain degree.

Michael Quinn

Codename: The Gunshifter

A survivor of the Weapon Plus program, where he was experimented on, he left during the government’s raid of the facility. He hitchhiked across the nation from the base in Washington State, seeking refuge in Xavier’s Institute. He became enrolled in his sophomore year, where he kept mostly to himself. He had a pretty surface-level relationship with his classmates.

He enjoyed playing chess and other board games with Creed, who he never beat, and John, who he always beat. Xavier helped him master his abilities. Quinn became close friends with Anastasia Dunkirk, his classmate, who called his abilities “biomechanics.”

Quinn’s abilities remained random and unmoderated, much like Creed’s, but they were more easily deciphered. Quinn had the ability to turn any limb of his into anything made of metal. Whether that be a gun, a canon, a hammer, anything. He also has an enhanced healing factor, much like many of the Weapon Plus survivors.

Being an artificially created mutant, Quinn lacks the mutant gene, making him more susceptible to telepathic manipulation from an unstable student in Xavier’s Institute, known as Aston Keller, an orphan, who Quinn accidentally kills.

Quinn, overcome with grief, abandons the mansion for some time, but later returns, and graduates with his class, and the sees that the school had forgiven him, and no one had ever really been fond of Keller’s antics.

Anastasia Dunkirk

Codename: Hydrogirl

Anastasia Dunkirk entered Xavier’s Institute as a child, alongside Luna Alexander. Her powers were always clear: she is able to manipulate water in any of its forms. She can manipulate ice, vapor, and liquid water by telekinetically moving them or making them switch (ex: freeze water into ice, condense vapor into liquid water, etc.).

She only ever got truly close to two people. Having received a fair amount of attention as a child, she didn’t feel the need to look for it in everything she did. Instead, she’s always been searching for meaningful connections and relationships that could last years. Throughout her time in the school, she believes she only met two people she got truly close to: Luna, her childhood friend, and Quinn, the troubled survivor of Weapon Plus.

She’s never shown interest in any romantic relationship, though she’s always very loving to the people around her, and appreciative of the wonders she encounters. She tends to have a very optimistic attitude, which leads some of her classmates, particularly John Doberman, to consider her as naive and foolish.

Amani Bahati

Codename: Vita the Witch

Amani’s name in Swahili means “peace.” Her codename, Vita, means “war.”

Bahati, originally from Mozambique, has an unstable but loving relationship with her family. After her family was persecuted following an incident involving a power outage, blamed on Amani, who was called a “witch” after confessing she’d done it, they migrated to the United States. Here, they learned of Xavier’s Institute, and she began attending at the age of nine.

In the Institute, she had trouble making friends for a long time, and her powers remained unstable. Luckily, Xavier quickly deciphered that they were a form of naturally-acquired magic, which he’d observed in other students before. Xavier took her in and gladly let her live on the premises, as her family hardly had enough money to keep themselves afloat, excluding the costs of Amani living with them.

Bahati found herself in a small class of 6 students, where she befriended Creed and John Doberman, who seemed to align more with her personality than the other girls, Anastasia and Luna. The former was far too energetic, and the latter far too unstable. More unstable than Bahati’s powers.

Bahati came to master her powers by the junior year, but it came to Xavier’s attention that when she became too emotional, her powers seemed to amplify themselves exponentially. This was demonstrated when she nearly killed another student in a situation which started as a friendly brawl.

When Quinn arrived, and accidentally killed Aston Keller, Bahati was able to help him, relating to his experience to a certain degree. Bahati and Quinn became friends shortly after his return from leaving the Institute temporarily.

Vita the Witch, codename derived from what she was called in Mozambique, is a form of defiance against her oppressors back home, taking pride and what they had tried to turn into mockery and hate.

John Doberman

Codename: The Animal King

Last but not least, the Animal King. John Doberman, with the ability of communicating with any and every organism. Doberman has a short temper, but is heavily interested in learning psychology and manipulation tactics, since he learned early on that, despite being able to talk to animals, he has no influence over any of the intelligent ones—the ones who could actually be useful in combat, like apes, tigers, and the like.

Doberman was the romantic partner of Luna Alexander until she left. Doberman had a relatively normal childhood, and grew up in Xavier’s School, but his world plummeted downward in his junior year. His family went to live in a ghetto built by the government to be a safe haven for mutants on the East Coast, about an hour from Xavier’s Institute.

However, an “accidental” gas explosion from two of the local gas stations led to the death of over 5,000 of the 6,000 inhabitants, including Doberman’s parents and two little twin brothers. Doberman was deeply grieved by it, but thanks to Creed, who was able to control his emotions, and Xavier, who isolated Doberman to have time to think rationally, he did not become destructive in his rage.

He kept telling himself it was an accident, but his girlfriend wasn’t convinced, and left the School, ing Magneto’s Brotherhood when she saw that nobody else saw eye-to-eye with her on the subject. This seemed to hurt Doberman even more, because Luna had been the last family he seemed to have, aside from his uncle Lance, who moved to Russia and who he never saw again.

The end.

Thank you for reading! Some of these character bios were very sudden and not thoroughly planned out, but regardless I hope you enjoyed.

X-Men: Graduation #4 is currently in development.

’Til next time!