Post by adrini on Feb 1, 2015 3:10:34 GMT -5
X-factor Chapter 7
Unseen Danger
The light flashed briefly in the alleyway and a few moments later footsteps could be heard. Standing where the light had come from two people were checking their clothing and looking at the scene outside the small area."Car models are right, clothing styles," said the young woman, tall and thin with red hair and vibrant green eyes, she looked tired and worn. "I barely remember this place like this, you?"
"A little, but not much." Gruff and severe for his age of just over 30 the man next to her settled into his leather jacket and adjusted his sunglasses. "It was among the first areas to be taken out. There's a park I remember, went there a lot. Small kids’ museum. Nice place."
Entering the traffic on the sidewalk the two, who on closer inspection did share a strong resemblance, tried to blend in. Spotting a small apartment complex they crossed the street and the young woman went inside first. The man waited outside, appearing to be on full alert.
This was Old Earth, he supposed. Earth before they even knew the dangers they were doomed for. The people here were soft, weak, but he couldn't really blame them. They had no reason to be strong yet. If he and Rach did this right they wouldn't have to learn.
It was surreal being here, even after all the prepping and plotting to make it happen. In the older corner of his mind he saw visions, for him past, for those here to come. Visions of aunts and uncles taking him and his sister to the ice cream place across the street to give their parents a break, of his dad taking him to the movie theatre on the corner for "dad and me" days. Rach had loved the kid’s boutique and its twirly dresses. All memories of better times that ended all too soon.
He shook away the phantoms as his sister appeared around the corner and nodded inside.
"I got us a room, direct view. Papers worked." She said and he followed, protective. She had been through enough. "Spot anything?"
"Nah." He said, and followed up the stairs. Once in the room he and Rachel looked out the window. She sighed as she looked at the people below.
“Were we like that once, Nate?” She asked, smiling at the people and families going on their way. “You know, before?”
“Dwelling doesn’t help, Rach.” He said, though gently. “Focus.”
“I am but – please Nate. Sometimes I think I remember, but then it fades away.” She spotted a woman and little girl and her eyes got moist. “I need to know if we ever had this.”
“We did.” He sat down next to her and looked out as well. She had been barely five when they were taken and separated. “We didn’t get out much but when we did this was it. Things were nice, before.”
“So the memories?” She asked and he nodded. “Good. I wanted them to be real, they were so nice. I remember ice cream and dresses and there being Mom and Dad, Uncle Alex, a lot of people who loved us. And this pale peach wall.”
“Your room.” He filled in. “Mom decorated it for you, it was peach and tan. You loved it.”
“I want this.” Rachel said, hot tears now starting to fall. Not of rage but of grief. “I want this life, not that hell. I want that room back.”
“Then we have a job to do, it’s time we got started.” Cable, once known as Nathan Summers, said and stood up. Rachel had pulled out a bag and with what little hope she was able to summon was looking at it. “Comon.”
-X-Factor-
At the computer Bobby was looking over information and learning information for his role to play. The young man had yet to develop his new personality but Emma’s erasure was complete. He, like he needed to be, was single mindedly focused on adding more numbers to their team. Moreover he was good at it, looking over the records and finding those he thought might be of particular use. Shaw had to say he was impressed.
Emma, however, was now more frustrated than ever. Her last connection to the new telepath, a back door as it were, was suddenly blocked. More than that it was masterly block from a person far better trained then she was. It didn’t have the raw power of the girl, but it had the will. She was already lost with one rival, and she had somehow found a second one.
The sound at the door meant that the muscle had arrived and it was time to start the job. Showing weakness in front of Shaw wasn’t an option, it was just time that she stopped playing.
-X-Factor-
Slowing walking in the hallways of the back entry the members of X-Factor were careful to be as quiet as possible. While it was true they were a licensed group within SHIELD they also technically didn’t exist, it was a situation that tended to get complicated. The warehouse was standard military fair, puke green stucco walls and pale fake wood accents. Within the structure the young mutants were held in various areas. Being so spread out was always something they knew might be the case did make the job more difficult.
No signs of cruelty or pain, which is good. Jean said over a group link. But a lot of abandonment. These kiss were just dumped.
In the back of the line Rogue bristled at the information, knowing she would Jean looked back for a moment and motioned to calm down. Rogue forced herself to try, while her passions might demand more flamboyant action the team counselor and telepath was right. The only way to make life better for the kids here was to get them out and someplace better. Or in other words continue with the mission, even if she did want to track down the asshole parents who walked out on their kids like that.
Like we practiced it, go. She said to the others. This is the reasons we’re here.
Rogue saw Cyclops, Phoenix and Havok run in the left tunnel and turned to Piotr and Jubs, they nodded and hurried to the center passageway.
“Time.” Rogue said as the three passed the administration offices, the turn was coming fast.
“Right on it, so far so good.” Jubs was deadly serious, Rogue had forgotten that she had also been left behind. It was a wonder the team had any cheer at all.
They reached the office records and security and Jubilee hurried to the computers while Rogue carefully removed her glove and drained the guards. It was a light touch so they would be out for a time, but not harmed. Poitr was looked over paper records and filling his bag with anything deemed to be important. For them the mission was, so far, going to plan. As she would soon learn that was never actually a good sign.
-X-Factor-
Alex, in joining X-Factor, had first had to come to terms with several things that had been challenging to accept. In true X-Factor fashion the hardest had not been those he had to accept for himself, the hardest had been what was required of those around him. Two members so new to the field that they had no business being out were currently doing everything in their power to gather information from honorable service men and woman. They would do everything their power not to harm anyone. However being so badly trained there was no guarantee that would be the case.
The thing that bothered him most was the dirty secret of the team, the kindest saint was also the most dangerous force. His new sister-in-law was easily the most ethical and soft-hearted person he knew. Having suffered hatred and cruelty herself so fully she had an aversion to treating others with the same. Yet that was a line that regularly needed to be crossed, despite her open aversion to the experience.
Jean, albeit temporally, erased people. That was overstating it. She locked up any distrust, any fear, any reasonable questions and hid them away so that the person in question would follow her at her word and do exactly as she suggested at the moment. In the field she did this to get young mutants out of harms way and into the jet that much more quickly, but it still bothered her. What she truly dreaded, and what he hated to see, was when she was called on to fully erase the mind of a mutant that had been deemed ‘unsavable’. By order of SHIELD she was called on more often then he wanted to think about to snuff out terrified, scared, helpless human life. She was, tragically, very good at it. Though Alex knew it left a terrible scar each time it happened.
Like both Jubilee and Rogue before she had been told in no uncertain terms to use whatever means were needed to get the kids out of this building and onto the jet as fast as she possibly could. As per usual the reason was a good one – they were in danger here. Where they were going they wouldn’t be. It made perfect logistical and military sense, which was why his brother and Jean’s own husband ordered it. Alex just wondered how much longer the telepath would put up with it even from him.
They ran into a room, they seemed to be separated by age, and Scott gave the nod. Barely hiding a sigh Jean knelt on one knee and looked at the kindergarten age kids.
“Hey guys.” She said in her best mothering voice. The two caretakers were suddenly stone still. “Mind if I play with you?”
The kids, instead of running from the strange woman, beamed. They suddenly saw her as the mother they had lost. Standing and watching Alex worried that Scott had no problem with this, but that was an argument he had already lost several times.
Sitting with them Jean tossed a ball from to the children and smiled at their conversation.
“I know a place with all the toys.” She said as a little girl climbed into the lap and settled in. “But it’s just us and we have no kids to play with, it’s very lonely.” She sighed just enough to get the kids to become concerned.
They volunteered to help her play, of course, and she smiled at the two caretakers.
“That’s wonderful, thank you. I have a big, pretty plane! It’s just outside and your sitters will get you there, okay?”
The two women, who were suddenly okay with this, led the kids out the door and to the back halls. Standing up Jean brushed off the concern and they walked to the next room. Nature of the beast, as it were. This was just how things were.
-X-Factor-
“As many as you can. You all have your lists, go.” Shaw said, sending out the muscle. The men, all burly and large, hurried through the front door not really caring what happened to the service members they came across, most of them ended up shot.
Last to the door Emma Frost walked with Bobby who was at the moment connected with her link.
“Go on, pet.” She said, sending him the location of his target. She had other work to do.
Walking through the halls she saw the men find and round up the teen population of the building, any younger and they were useless. She knew the woman was here – the line of happy little kids filing into the nearby woods was an easy tell. Now it was just a moment to find her.
The hired help went stiff suddenly, dropping their guns, and Emma knew she was close. She was here. Locking into one of the guards she followed the link to the back hallway, and felt her eyes narrow. The girl had gotten even stronger.
A red light appeared out of the hallway, and shortly after the floating form arrived. The young red head, in a tactical SHIELD battle suit saw her and landed just a few feet away. She said nothing.
Emma smirked, it was kind for the woman to arrive for her own execution. She gathered her energy, this was going to be short, when she felt the attack blocked. The red head wasn’t blocking it, it was that third source again. Instead she got hit with a whole new experience.
Memories, a sea of memories. The bitch wasn’t attacking with pain or erasure, she was attacking with memories. Emma found herself living hundreds; attacked, killed, tortured, raped, left behind, or simply ignored. It felt like hours, days even and the figure was still floating like a ghost of sins past when she opened her eyes again. Worse the bulk of Emma’s power had been blocked, she could undue it but it would take time and meditation she couldn’t have here.
Around her the remaining team had taken out the hired help and pulled the teens to the back halls, they were lost. The score had failed.
Lastly the figure squinted her eyes and Emma was hit with the most vivid memory yet. Screams of parents as they died, the pain of being beaten and torn apart, the grief of knowing that one’s world was gone forever. It was a strong power, but barely controlled. At any moment it could explode and they would both be gone. The White Witch was actually afraid, then she was felt herself fade.
-X-Factor-
In the van parked outside Skye was furiously hacking the databases and watching the progress in the building. She relished the thrill, the feeling that she was seeing something that was completely wrong. It was the best part of her day.
The team, marked only with an ‘X’ on their sleeve quickly moved around the building and started moving kids outside. They were SHIELD, very SHIELD. She knew those pattern, those uniforms, they were an alpha team of some kind, in this case mutant.
The man had a form of optic blast and he was using it to disable the guards and thugs inside, not kill, point SHIELD. There was a second team, varied powers including one girl who had taken out the main grid and made her life that much more interesting. The others were impenetrable and had some kind of vampire touch – it was hard to tell.
Another agent was literally shaking the ground he stood on and she did not envy the thugs he punched. That would hurt for awhile. But the greatest showdown was more of a catfight.
There were two, mentalists. One was in a white suit and had starkly pale blond, she was older. She was very confident and for a moment Skye was worried for the younger challenger. In her late teens the redhead was a ranking officer like a few of the others and looked to be more frail then battle ready. But Skye saw her notice something and all that changed – she glowed.
A few moments later she had the first mentalist in some kind of mental grip and was obviously throwing something around as the blond was thrashing on the floor and soon after feinted. Skye made a note not to mess with this person.
The others soon arrived and gathered the last of the kids, except for a teen who had managed to pull a couple from the pack. As far as victories went this was near complete, and she leaned back in her chair and clapped a little.
“So I need a buried SHIELD team with about seven members, including a scary mentalist.” She said as she turned to the computers. “More than enough to find you with.”
-X-Factor-
The plane, just as quiet as he remembered, flew into the wooded area and landed in the ever so secret landing pad under the foliage of the nearby forest. The two siblings barely glimpsed the sliver of the metal doors before they closed again and the plane was removed from sight.
“That was the big rescue, right?” Rachel asked, leaning on him. “Mom, Dad, Uncle Alex, Aunt Jubs, Aunt Rogue and Uncle Poitr. And there’s the base. Score one us.”
“She could have handled it.” Cable said, nodding. “She’s a big tough fighter in her own right, you didn't need to protect her like that.”
“I did, for me.” Rachel offered no excuse, looking at the now hidden door. “I felt her mind again, Nate. It wasn't only a memory, it was real.”
She closed her eyes and shared the impression, even he had to grin a little, that was the warrior woman he remembered.
“Ready for the next step?” He asked and she nodded, happy. “It won’t be easy.”
“It’ll be worth it.” The woman said and grinned.
"We get to go home."