STORMKING MOUNTAIN

                                    

All throughout my youth I heard legends about the caves of Stormking Mountain. Appearing and vanishing in the mists with a seeming will of its own, this stony citadel haunted me for years, somehow tying its mystery to my future. Native American folklore, early surveyor maps used by Raleigh, accounts from miners and prospectors…they all made detailed accounts of the peak. There is even a colorful report that it served as a hidden base for General Washington’s rebel forces in the early days of the American Revolution. I have my doubts about the historical accuracy of this fantastic episode, but a faint juvenile tremor in my heart has always longed for it to be true.

Imagine my disappointment as a boy when I learned Stormking could not be climbed to the heights where the caverns supposedly existed. Contrast this with my odd satisfaction today landing the Double Helix in the mountain’s heart and see how prophetic my childhood visions were. If I were more of a Romantic, I would say it was the stuff of epic novels.

I take a certain pride that this base was the first all-mutant construction project ever and possibly the most efficient undertaking of its size and scope. The structural engineering alone would have taken a decade with normal state-of-the-art resources. Instead, MUTANT X was able to complete the entire stronghold in just over two years. With the heavy work handled by telekinetics, ursine ferals and a rare combusting Molecular, my blueprints quickly became the reality that surrounds us. And this reality, in turn, bound us together as a team…and a family. The final addition of our holographic entrance keeps Stormking Mountain’s enigmatic tradition alive and masks our whereabouts from the rest of the world. One day we will not have to hide but until then this ancient fortress will be our perfect home.

Ironically, there are many veins of caves here we did not have to utilize. The Tom Sawyer in me gets an occasional yen to explore them. Perhaps I’m a slight Romantic after all. I hope these rock walls hold in that little secret. Shalimar would never let me live it down.