Pitch Me A Story: Zaladane & the Savage Land Mutates

[Shadowcat]

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Welcome to the first ever Pitch Me A Story thread

Starting now, until Sunday, May 3rd, 4:00 pm US EST you have the chance to submit your storyline on what you’d like to see with Zaladane and the Mutates. You must: pick the cast of the book, give us a very thorough outline and summary of your story, and we’ll go from there. This is my first attempt at organizing a thread of this scope, so I’m sure we’ll be going through some growing pains, so have patience with me. Post your stories here, post POSITIVE CRITICISM of others stories, but you may not edit your story once it’s posted. If I see a story has been edited, you will be disqualified from the content. If you vote for your own, you vote will be disqualified. As much as I want to, I will not be submitting my own stories to keep it as impartial as possible. I also will not vote for my favorite either.
DO NOT POST YOUR CHOICE FOR FAVORITE STORY IN THIS THREAD.
PM me your choice of winner once submissions are completed. If my PM’s are full, message me on Twitter @BeRadtz. Voting ends at 11:59 pm Monday May 4th, US EST. So please, have fun, get creative and enjoy!

[Nyssane]

The Savage Land Mutates haven't been used for a while, so my pitch is a bit unconventional:

Plot:
Zaladane has returned to life under mysterious circumstances. Her resurrection has left her temporarily feeble, and the Sun People (worshipers of Garokk) have driven her out of the Savage Land, fearing her rise to power would once again lead the Savage Land into war. Only her most faithful Savage Land Mutates remain with her now as they reside in... Clearwater, Florida. Luckily, Zaladane has enough residue power to mystically (and temporarily) "morph" the Mutates back into human forms. Biding her time and building her strength, Zaladane hopes to once again conquer the Savage Land, all the while putting up with the antics of her subjects in this tropical locale filled with party-goers and the elderly.

Characters:

• Zaladane - The Savage Sorceress. She craves power. She also has a vendetta against major X-Men: Storm, Magneto, Polaris... she wants 'em all dead. Even though this story has a lighter tone, she is still as maniacal as ever, and wants to be the badass female villain the X-Men deserve.
• Worm - Zaladane's right-hand man. He's gross. Maybe he admires his mistress a little too much... but she's repulsed by him. The ultimate incel neckbeard mutate. His "human form" would be appropriately pathetic.
• Amphibius - The Twank. He loves living in Florida and getting all the cawk he wants. Unfortunately he has a bad habit of reverting back to his frog form mid-coitus.
• Vertigo -The Emo Girl. She's had dreams. Nightmares, really. Of another life. Who are the Marauders? Vertigo wants answers, and will do anything she can to find out who this lookalike of her is. (This would be a chance to finally explore how Mister Sinister's clones work.) She's having an identity crisis, obvs.
• Lorelei - The Sweet-Lovin' Siren. In the Savage Land, her songs woo'd all the menseses. In Florida, however, she finds herself more content with eating pastries. She's the plus-size gal with a heart of gold (jk, she's evil AF and also kind of pissed at Magneto for ditching her).
• Barbarus and Whiteout - The IT Couple. No, seriously. Zaladane puts Barbarus's four arms to use and has him get her smartphone up and running. And his doting girlfriend Whiteout better get that Wi-Fi hooked up. They may even have a bun in the oven.
• Brainchild - The Annoying Hipster. Think Kid Omega except bigger head. He's there for sassy quips and clapbacks.

Guest Stars & Antagonists:

• The X-Men - The X-Men are shocked to find a new mutant pop up on the radar: Zaladane! That's right, Zaladane is a tried and true mutant, and Lorna Dane's half-sister after all! In fact, Polaris would be the primary "antagonist" of the series, wanting answers from her older half-sis.
• Magneto - His connections with Zaladane, Amphibius, and Lorelei are all pretty complex, but all of 'em hate him and wouldn't be sad to see him go.
• The Marauders - Vertigo's quest for answers leads her directly into the clutches of the Marauders. Will she be able to survive the encounter?
• Ka-Zar and Shanna - That's right, Zaladane still has a special place in her heart for her original archenemy.
• Garokk - Garokk, the High Evolutionary, Sauron... Zaladane is tired of playing second-fiddle to lesser villains. She wants her former patron god dead and to claim his powers for her own.

[houndsofluv]

lol I’m not sure where this would fit in terms of continuity but here’s what I came up with

Zaladane has long since returned under unknown circumstances and spent her time in obscurity developing a career as a businesswoman, gathering assets and such while nurturing her power-hungry impulses. Her eyes are now set far beyond dominance of only the savage land..

The general public knows her today by her civilian name Zala Dane, girlboss extraordinaire in the vein of Elizabeth Holmes meets Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Sun Sorceress Inc (yeah...maybe just bear with me on this one loll) . She’s renowned for promoting youth leadership + entrepreneurship, specifically through her app know as the Socially Unified Network. Think Tik Tok meets LinkedIn. Targeted towards a young adult audience, the app identifies various characteristics of the individuals that make up its user base such as physical fitness as well as the more abstract qualities you’d share in a job interview – these attributes are all filed away for the purpose of generating data-based profiles on an individual basis. The most important attribute to Ms. Dane is the possession of the X-Gene.

Sun People Inc. holds frequent workshops open to any youth interested – they are invited to stay at the company’s offices for up to weeks at a time, housed in a pleasantly Jetson-core compound below-decks while shown the full behind the scenes experience of working under Ms Dane’s tutelage. Those who have been noted to test high in aptitude by the app and do not possess the x-gene are lured yet further behind the curtain and shown the company’s true purpose: building an army of young mutates in peak-condition to eventually overtake … well, the rest of the human population. Love a cliché. Zaladane has somehow taken Garokk hostage, siphoning energy out of his eyes to power her current operations – including the tech responsible for the mutating business. She’s already worked her magic on a good deal of unsuspecting victims.

In order to attract an even wider young demographic, Zaladane reaches out to Alison Blaire, global pop sensation, aiming to enlist her as a brand ambassador. Ali is aware of the woman’s history w/ the X-Men and takes the job after discreetly informing them of the offer, planting herelf as a sort of double-agent. The X-Men send Strong Guy and Monet to pose as her security detail.

Polaris eagerly offered to join Ali as well , though the rest of the team believed her public identity as Magneto’s daughter as well as her alleged relation to Zaladane would make her too obvious and blow whatever scraps of cover they had. Itching to know more about her supposed sister (and prove her competence), Lorna strikes out on her own and finds herself on an impulsive stealth op, sneaking into SP Inc.

The X-Men’s actual course of action is to insert a team of younger members into one of the company’s workshops to gather information and take action if necessary. This group comprises of

Surge (Leader)
Prodigy
Pixie
Cipher
Graymalkin
Anole
No-Girl providing a psychic link between the team and the rest of the X-Men

This team is unaware that another group of older members is simultaneously inserted, their only directives being to take action if the other group is compromised:

Dani Moonstar (Leader)
Sunspot
Husk
Synch


Hijincks ensue as each group uncovers individual aspects of Zaladane’s operations before they are ultimately brought together, as is inevitable. It becomes clear that Zaladane had hoped for Dazzler to alert the X-Men; specifically, she had hoped for Polaris to be drawn in so that she could harness her raw power.

During a climactic action sequence Polaris and the metal she has under her thrall are thrown into Garokk, the heat coupled with the electromagnetism causing them to somehow merge (hooray for science). Zaladane has control over this new iteration of her, to destructive results, until the combined efforts of Pixie, Moonstar and Synch are able to alter Lorna’s perspective. Victories are had, mutates are liberated and Lorna is seemingly separated from Garokk - although we see a fiery glint in her eye in the final panel..

Ideally I’d want this to have a sort of over-the-top campy psycho-thriller vibe, equal parts gritty and cartoonish. Vibrant colours abound, minimalist bakgrounds…I love the idea of playing around with the dramatic irony of multiple sub-teams unaware of each other though working towards similar goals. Anything to cram as many of the characters I like into a single pitch lol

Thanks for putting this together Shadowcat! Fun way to channel the energies of my overactive brain into something productive on a sleepless night

[CRaymond]

Title: The Long Night
Concept: Game of Thrones in Jurassic Park

Team: Storm, Colossus, Bishop, Wolverine, Barbarus

Barbarus the mutate is welcomed to the Quiet Council of Krakoa and petitions its leadership for allegiance to the mutant state. During summer months, the Mutates and Fall People of the Savage Land have occasional conflicts with their neighbors, the Saurian Hauk'ka nation. These territorial conflicts usually die out during the winter, when sunlight diminishes and the Saurians retreat to their citadels for annual hibernation cycle. But instead, there has been increased aggression and patrols along their borders. A team is scrambled to assess the situation in the Savage Land and seek peace. Magneto elects to go himself, but Emma suggests Storm take point.

Upon arriving, it's discovered the Mutates have not told the entire truth. They've been growing Krakoan flowers in bio-luminescent caves, employed by the Hellfire Trading Company, and compensated with snack food and high-capacity weaponry. Brainchild defends their pact with the HTC.

Storm, Colossus, and Barbarus venture to the Saurian capital to speak with the Hauk'ka leadership. The Hauk'ka people are sluggish, exhibiting signs of normal hibernation sloth, but their armies are spastic, with heightened aggression. They admit to raiding the Mutate's flower caves, as they are aware the HTC is arming them. The flowers are also performance-enhancing and addictive to Saurian physiology, and they want to grow their own Krakoan drugs.

Meanwhile, Bishop mind-links with Sage and Beast to discover the flowers are a completely new strain. Bishop and Wolverine follow the spore residue to a small pool between mutate and saurian territory and encounter human-looking people in strange garb setting up explosives around the pool. Despite the two X-Men attempting to disarm the bombs, it goes off. The pool is now five times its original size, and they watch in horror as something massive, armored and furry emerges from the water.

End of Act 1.

Factions
Savage Land Mutates
Hellfire Trading Company
The Hauk'ka
M'Rin's Skylords
Zaladane's Army
Cult of the Returning Sun

[Shadowcat]

I’m digging all of these submissions so far! Great job, guys!

[Grapeweasel]

A touring rock and roll band with Magneto as their stodgy, exasperated manager and Sauron as their snarky, talking dinosaur roadie.

[Shadowcat]

3 more days, everyone! Get your submissions in!

[Sutekh]

Set in the Savage Land, an alliance of tribes has formed against the threat of a group of Pterans, the elite of whom have seized control of the machines Magneto used to create the original Savage Land Mutates, creating their own half-dozen strong group of Pteran mutates! Strangely enough, these Pterans are allied with Shanna the She-Devil, whom they call 'Without Wings, Touches the Sky' as she 'flies' a crude but effective hang-glider contraption to strike alongside them!

Zaladane, clad in bulky (and yet strangely sexy) armor and wielding an improbably large metal maul, that are supported magnetically, since she's not strong enough to lift them normally, and the traditional 'Swamp People' Savage Land mutates are at the head of this alliance of tribes, and fighting off the seemingly uncalled for raids by the Pterans and Shanna. She retains only a fraction of her original magnetic powers, but it's enough to affect her armor and weapon at close range, which she needs since her foes use so little metal in their own weaponry (and she can't figure out how to use magnetic 'force fields' to protect against flint arrowheads or wooden spears! So, armor!).

It it revealed that Zaladane, through Worm, has bound the tribes together under her will, and silenced any real opposition by sacrificing them to a volcanic pit in a ritual that creates fire elementals she can send to attack her airborne foes, trusting to sorcery to make up for any loss in magnetic power. Brainchild is her second, bound to her will by Worm, since she doesn't trust the too-smart little creep not to scheme against her if left to his own devices, but she has overlooked the second-smartest Mutate, Barbarus, whose four-armed body *also* has two brains! (To better control his four limbs, but also making him unnaturally clever, and clever enough to have kept it secret, since Brainchild is super-jealous (to the point of murder...) of anyone impinging on his niche as 'the smart guy.') Shanna knows only that she and her Pteran allies occasionally get information from inside Zaladane's 'empire,' but has no idea that Barbarus, one of Zaladane's 'big dumb brutes' is the source!

Big fight ensues. The mutate making machine is destroyed in an attempt to recapture it from the Pterans (which was Shanna's plan all along, to lure them out of Zaladane's center of power, high in the Pteran cliffside realms, and to get rid of the machines which she thinks are destabilizing the Savage Lands, even if her Pteran allies would like to keep them and make more mutates...), and Zaladane's forces are beaten back after Worm is hurled off a cliff to his death by Barbarus, freeing those forced to serve her.

Zaladane is prepared to make a last stand, hurling curses and dire promises at her fleeing army, when she's thrown back and pinned to a wall by her own armor. A pair of figures emerge from the shadows of the cavern, and it's Lorna (who brought daddy Magneto along!), called by Shanna to deal with Lorna's wayward sister once and for all. They take her back with them to Krakoa, as she's simply too much of a disruptive influence to allow to stay in the Savage Land, and the sun sets, as Pterans, Swamp people, etc. get back to their fragile co-existence.

As Zala's led away to the X-jet, Magneto mutters, "So much fire, such spirit, just like her mother..." and both Lorna and Zala's eyes widen in surprise. And scene.

[Veitha]

Sorry for the English mistakes and the excessive lenght, but I got carried away. This is what starts as an investigation story but ends up being full of magic, zombies and weird cults. It's set in the Krakoan era and I've used Zaladane more as a vessel of the Sun God.

Dawn of Zaladane

Brief Synopsis: Krakoan flowers have been missing in the Savage Land factory, and the Quiet Council has decided to investigate. A team led by Bishop is sent to the habitat, where some New X-Men are in charge of keeping an eye on the production and protecting the factory from the sporadic wild dinosaur. But soon, what had begun as a simple investigation turns out to be a much darker situation. Deep into the Savage Land, the Sun People have been ammassing the flowers around the tomb of their priestess Zala Dane, getting ready to use mutated Krakoan flowers, ancient Atlantean magic and the tech originally used by Magneto to create Mutates to bring back to life the former Empress as an Avatar of the Sun-God Garokk. Bishop and his team will have to face dark magic and old foes from the Savage Land brought back as worshippers of the Sun-God to prevent the Sun People from conquering the Savage Land. But little did they know that they had brought the Sun-People exactly what they needed: the sister of Zaladane, the last ingredient to bring her back from the dead.

In-depth plot:
Bishop and his team arrive in the Savage Land, where they start the interrogation of all the mutants of the habitat. The young mutants have been witnessing flowers disappearing for weeks now, but at first they thought it was just a matter of some flowers not surviving the production process.

In the meantime, the Sun-People have been planting Krakoan flowers in the ground where Zaladane is buried. The tomb of the former priestess is a grotesque mix of technology, flora and ancient magic effigies carefully put together. While the X-Men are investigating, we witness a repetition of the ritual that has been going on for weeks now. The former Mutate Lorelei is brought in front of the tomb, tied-up and crying, visibly shook, where a priest awaits for her. He starts to chant a prayer to the Sun-God and then sliths her throat. As soon as her body falls on the ground, the earth upons up beneath her and swallows her whole, revealing the decayed corpses of the other Savage Land Mutates, with Krakoan flowers blooming from their rotten flesh. The ground closes on them, and the magic letters written on the tomb glow, but then become dark again.

Bishop decides to send a reconnaissance team around the habitat to see if they can find any traces of whomever has been stealing the flowers. Polaris, Monet and Moonstar roam the jungle, with the former two trying to use their psychic powers to find clues before something attacks Monet, knocking her out of the sky. Polaris and Moonstar rush towards her, only to find out that a zombiefied version of Sauron is leeching her life force. The 3 X-Women fight and kill Sauron, but as soon as he dies his body starts to decay and decompose into a myriad of Krakoan flowers. While examining the weird event, the wounded 3 are attacked by the Sun-People, who are able to kidnap Polaris. Monet sends a telepathic distress call to Bishop, but he and the New X-Men arrive too late.

Polaris is brought in front of the tomb of Zaladane. She's the last ingredient for the resurrection: they plug her into the machine used by Magneto to create Mutates and her powers immediatelly go crazy. Enormous amounts of magnetic energy flow into the tech plugged into the ground. While Polaris body starts to collapse under the enormous stress, the Krakoan flowers begin to flourish around the tomb and the magic sygils written on the ground start to glow. As Polaris exhales her last breath, completely drained of energy, the ground explodes. Zaladane rises, glowing of green magnetic energy and with her skin turned into stone as the Avatar of the Sun God. Alongside her, the zombified versions of the Savage Land Mutates rise from the earth, their decaying bodies full of flowers and glowing of green energy.

The energy wave generated by the ritual reaches all corners of the Savage Land, disabling the Krakoan Portals and leaving the team stranded there. As Triage helps them with their wounds, Dr.Nemesis uses the still operating Krakoan tech he had brought to analyze the flowers they took from Sauron's body, finding out that they have been mutated by the Sun People (using Magnetoìs tech) and that they've become some kind of parasitic entity feeding off of energy like Sauron.

The team is attacked by the Mutates. Pixie is taken down before she can teleport to Krakoa, so the team is stuck there. There's a big battle before Zaladane shows up. She's much more powerful than anyone on the team, having both enhanced magnetic powers and magic powers from the Sun God. We have a big epic fight, but in the end she's able to defeat everyone, but Surge, Moonstar Monet and Dr.Nemesis are able to escape thanks to Mystique sacrificing herself (let's throw in a redemption arc).

Bishop and the rest of the New X-Men kids are brought to the Temple of the Sun God, where they see what happened to Polaris. Zaladane arrives and she explains that they're going to be used in the same fashion as the other Mutates, as zombies whose energy will be used to fuel her God powers. And after that, she'll get to Krakoa where they will corrupt the whole island like they did with the stolen flowers.

Luckily for them, Dr.Nemesis has been reverse engineering the flowers they found on Sauron. He believes that, should the flowers on the zombified Mutates be all destroyed, Zaladane's power levels would drop drastically, since they're what's providing her the energy to survive being the Avatar of Garrok, by leeching off the energies of the Mutates.

After some thinking and some hiding from the Sun People, the four strike the temple of Zaladane. Monet engages Zaladane one on one while the others free Bishop and the New X-Men and fight the Mutates. As the fight rages on, Zaladane is able to make short work of Monet but the distraction was enough to let Nemesis do his homework. The team attacks Zaladane to give him a chance to shoot her with anti-Krakoan tech, pretty similar to what Hordeculture and other enemies have deployed against them. As soon as she's hit, all the flowers (and the Mutates) to which she's connected start to decay. While she's getting weaker and weaker, Pixie uses her Souldagger to sever her connection to the Sun God, reducing her almost powerless. In the end, Bishop drains her of the remaining energies, making her body finally decay and collapse.

The Sun-People are still not happy. They've not only killed the Avatar of their God, but they've also taken a piece of the Savage Land without asking. The Great Captain agrees to let a Krakoan Diplomatic team reach to them and solve their issues, but in the meantime they take whatever tech was left there by Magneto and all the remaining flowers.

On Krakoa, the Quite Council reluctancly agrees to revise their colonialistic tendecies starting from the Savage Land, while the Resurrection Protocols bring back Polaris and Mystique. But something is still wrong with Lorna, as the shade of the Sun God might be lurking inside her new body.

The mini ends with someone walking towards the tomb of Zaladane. At first we can only see his silhouette while he lowers himself towards the ground, to pick-up something. Then we see his face: it's the Great Evolutionary and, with a smirk on his face, he's looking at one of the mutated petals of a Krakoan Flower.

To be continued in the next event...

Characters:
Savage Land X-Men team:
- Anole
- Pixie
- Surge
- Rockslide
- Triage

Investigation team:
- Bishop as the Detective
- Polaris as the... plot device (sorry, Lorna)
- Monet/Penance as the Bruiser and the Telepath and Snarky Commenter #1
- Dr.Nemesis as the Science guy and the Snarky Commenter #2
- Mystique as the reformed villain whom no-one trusts but we like them in our Krakoan books
- Moonstar as the level headed one and the strategic leader.

The Quite Council

[Shadowcat]

Tomorrow is the last day, guys! Keep them coming.

[blinkingblah]

The Savage Games brought to you by MojoTv. Pretty much Mojo turns the Savage lands into the Hunger Games. Every man, mutate and Sorceress for themselves.

[Shadowcat]

The Savage Games brought to you by MojoTv. Pretty much Mojo turns the Savage lands into the Hunger Games. Every man, mutate and Sorceress for themselves.

Wanna elaborate a little?

[Shadowcat]

13 hours to go until voting starts. Get those submissions in!

[H-E-D]

Zaladane as Polaris's Mummudrai, a la Cassandra Nova.

[Shadowcat]

Zaladane as Polaris's Mummudrai, a la Cassandra Nova.

Anything more to add to that?