*FZZZZZZZZTPOP* Cannon materialized out of thin air standing inside the front gates of the Cannon Estate. He just stood there, gazing up at the mansion stretched out in front of him. He hadn't realized how much he missed his home until just now, when he saw it at it's peak, before it was ravaged by the mutant scum of his time.

Cannon shook his head and snapped out of his nostalgia. Time to get down to business. "Computer. Hide suit." Cannon didn't need to say the command out loud, but needed to hear his own voice to cement himself in the reality that his home was indeed here and whole.

At the command, Cannon's suit retracted around his body into the simple exoskeleton that ran along the backs of his hands, arms, back, legs, top of his feet, and back of his neck. The thick metal skeleton seemed to dematerialize as it instituted it's own camouflage, so as not to give itself away.

If memory served, Jarvis, Cannon's butler, would be the only one inside the home, waiting on Darby, the driver, to be showing up late tonight with young Gary Cannon, after being whisked away from the brutal murder of his parents.

Cannon walked up to the front door, pressed his hand onto the scanner and looked into the retinal scanner in order to open the door. After a few seconds of scanning, the home security system beeped, dinged, and whirred as it unlocked the door with a click. A mechanical voice pipped up, "Welcome home master Gary."

Jarvis came barreling around the corner, a mixture of joy, concern, confusion and fear. Cannon stood just inside the door, and with his augmented hearing, could make out Jarvis' mumbling as he ran for the door. "Master Gary is here already...? Darby was supposed to call me before they got back, and that aside, they shouldn't be back for another ten hours or so...no matter. Young master is going to need all the attention he can get after what just happened. How'd they get that footage on the tele so fast I wonder...? Stay on task Jarvis my good man, stay on task." Jarvis snapped himself out of his rambling, "Oh my dear young mast..." Jarvis looked up and saw a strange man standing in the doorway. "But....the security system said it was Master Gary.... It's top of the line, so can it be wrong at all...?"

Cannon smiled at his old butler, "No Jarvis...the system is working just fine. It's me. I could show you scars on my knees and arms that you would remember....but I'd rather not..." Especially since I've gotten plenty of other scars to cris cross the old ones. Don't want to send the old man into more shock and I am doing right now. "I know it's hard to wrap your head around, but the system does not lie, and if you are still in doubt, I'll be more than happy to submit to DNA, fingerprint, iris, and dental tests to prove to you that I am who I am. That aside, you SHOULD have a letter saying that I would show up today."

Jarvis stood there a little dumbfounded as the door slowly closed. "Hrmm....why...yes...I do believe I see it. You do look like the Young Master in the face. Very much so in the face...yes..." Jarvis let out a barking laugh and shook his head. "I thought that letter was some kind of prank when I got it last month. Also, I very much doubt that an intruder would be so confident in himself to be willing to submit to such a battery of identity tests as you have suggested. Now then," Jarvis smoothed out his uniform and tried to regain his composure. "If it's not too much trouble, would you mind telling me HOW an older version of my Young Master managed to show up on the doorstep of the Cannon Estate?"

Cannon smiled at his butler, very pleased that his letter did indeed make it to his butler. "Walk with me please Jarvis, and I'll tell you." Cannon started walking around his old home wandering around aimlessly, taking in the sights, letting the memories flood back to him. Jarvis walked beside him as they perused their home. "To make a long story short, I will give you a brief overview. I did indeed come back in time from the future. The killing of my parents in that mall was part of the beginning of a chain of events leading to a horrible future. The mutant responsible eventually convinced other mutants to join his cause of mutant superiority. They would wreak havoc upon any human they came across, and when the normal people gathered to try and fight back, other mutants where driven to the cause of mutant superiority. Although humanity tried valiantly, but with the wide variety of powers at the mutant's disposal, they eventually overwhelmed the humans. After a few years of fighting, mutants had either killed or enslaved any humans that still had anti-mutant sentiments. Many humans, such as myself, had to go into hiding. Living in caves, forests, jungles, deserts, hidden shelters, anywhere that the mutants deemed that it was not worth their time to hunt us down. The rest of mankind was thrown into slavery. Used as labor and amusement for the mutants. They even went so far as to re-create a Romanesque Colosseum where they would bet and cheer as regular humans killed each other. Some mutants, the one that killed my parents in particular, liked to participate himself, and kill whatever human happened to be forced into the ring." Cannon let out a long sigh as he stopped in front of a portrait of his parents. "In short Jarvis, I came back to stop that from happening. To save humanity."

Enthralled in his tale, Jarvis stood silently beside Cannon for a few minutes digesting all he'd heard. Finally, he stirred. "Umm...sir....er...Master Gary, if you came back in time to stop such a future, why didn't you save your parents and kill that mutant?" Jarvis eyed Cannon with just a bit of suspicion and worry that his morals and common sense were corrupted or destroyed as he waited for an answer.

Eyes glistening, a tear rolling down his cheek, Cannon turned to his butler and tried to muster up a sad smile. Seeing his face, Jarvis' suspicions were blown away. "In truth, it was the hardest thing for me to do. Not save my parents that is." Cannon breathed in a heavy, trembling breath. "But...if I had done that, for one, I would not be me. I'm fueled by vengeance for the death of my parents. And...if I'd have saved my parents today, your Young Gary, would never grow up with my burden, to come back and save the parents of HIS own younger self. Time lines are funny that way. For another, I was warned by another self, a future self of me, that if I did come back and kill that mutant, I would be the one labeled as a heretic, thrown into an asylum, and would have kick started the mutant anti-human campaign years ahead of schedule."

Cannon leaned his hands on the wall under the portrait, supporting himself as he regained his composure. Shaking his head to clear it from his emotion, Cannon sniffed a few times. Standing upright, he placed his hands at odd angles and pushed in on a brick in the wall while pulling out on an old candlestick wall mount. "Anywhhhhrrmm.....harrum..." Cannon cleared his throat, "Anyway, it's time to make myself at home and start planning on what to do." A portion of the wall slid down into the ground, revealing a staircase leading down into the ground.

"But...how...when...?" Jarvis stammered. "I know every inch of this place, and there was never any secret door here..."

Cannon smiled. "Another of the perks of time travel. I commissioned the builders to put this room in when the estate was first built. I payed in gold, so they didn't care who I was, or for what reason I wanted it here." Descending into the darkness, Cannon lifted a candle out of the holder he just pulled on. Normally for decoration, this candle was going to serve as a light source today.