Post by adrini on Jun 29, 2015 1:04:09 GMT -5
X-Factor
Chapter 11: Fear
“Calm down, you’ll be fine,” Alex heard Piotr repeat again and Rogue continued to panic. He grabbed his attention for a moment, dodging flying game controllers, and motioned for his to get her out of there. Also grabbing Jubes, he pulled her out of the room and took her to her own. She wasn’t as bad as the others but she still needed help.
Wanda was going crazy, and the room was taking the damage for it. Being hit with remote controls, books, files and whatever else her mind was pulling into its vortex, Alex was able to get close to her for a moment before a silver flash knocked him over, pausing only long enough to make is clear that he was not welcome. The young man took the hint.
“They seem to be upset,” Piotr said as Alex retreated in the halls where we was looking after both the young women. Rogue was in the hall in a blanket. She seemed to be more oriented now. Items kept flying against the door, but behind it, the three were hoping the door was strong enough to hold.
Peeking out from the doorway Skye looked at the group, unsure of what she was supposed to do now. Alex had more than a few injuries. Piotr had used his skin to stay safe, but was looking for what to do now, and the woman in the blanket was still but still upset.
The kitchen, or what was left of it, was beyond the doors, so was the exit. They were trapped.
“We need to do something,” she said, and the other had to remember she was there. “Unless that counts as normal.”
“I can try.” Alex stood up and went to the office, shaking the door handle. Frustrated, he kicked the door and sighed. It was locked. “No dice, and they are not coming back till 0800 tomorrow.”
“We can hide in the back rooms. It should be enough,” Piotr said and got up, helping Rouge to her feet took her to her room. Skye only cursed.
“Or you can open the door,” she said and, using her watch, started hacking the lock at the end of the hall. “And we can get some help from the wonder twins out there.”
“No, if the door is sealed then no one here has the right clearance level to-“ Alex interrupted as she got the door open. His eyes were wide.
“Going to kill us,” Skye said pointing to the door where they could still hear the twins going nuts. “Need help. Nothing else to do.”
“Okay, okay.” He walked in and turned on the board, giving it a minute to warm up. “Make sure the others are okay. I’ll make contact here.”
Skye hurried to check on the rest of the team while Alex finally saw the screens light up. He had been in this room a few times, mostly for mission briefings. The controls for basic contact were easy. It just took hitting the home key to get to the main page. However, as he did so the screen gave him the option to continue reviewing the page on Agent Grey-Summers.
He knew that there was chaos outside, but if Maria was looking into Jean, this was his business by virtue of being a family matter. He took the offer and the page filled in, though not the personal page he had seen before. This one was at least four times as long and focused on containment. It got worse as he read.
He knew that Jean was strong, she always had been. But if this information was correct she was stronger than even he or Scott had guessed. This also meant that all this time Jean had wondered what her level was, they had been just not telling her, she was an Omega. No wonder she was dealing with control issues. It also made clear she was controlling much of the team, under orders. That he knew.
The rest was predictable, mostly her continued work to gain control over her powers. But at the end was a part that made his eyes flash white.
Eagerness aside, the growth in control is not congruent to the apparent growth of power and ability. There is reasonable concern about not only the safety of the other members, but the safety of the surrounding countryside and general populations if not beyond. The recommendation is that if proper control is not established within the next six to eight weeks the Agent be transferred to the elimination chambers. C.O. M. Hill.
It took time for the information to really sink in. If this had been told this by anyone else he would have dismissed it. Yet here was the proof. Behind all their backs, Hill was planning to kill Jean.
“Hey, getting kind of nuts out here. We got people yet?” Alex faked a smile. If Hill could show a false face so could he. He pressed the contact button.
“Base to Hill. Base to Hill. Emergency!” There was silence as he waited, but a voice answered. He was glad to hear it.
“Alex, what happened?” Jean’s voice asked. “Is everyone okay?”
“Not exactly,” he said and heard a fairly strong bang on the door. “The inmates have taken over the asylum.”
“You had to refocus control when-“ he heard Scott add, figuring something out. “Okay, we’ll do what we can here. Hold down the fort. We’re on the way.”
“See? We get help,” Skye said. “Now we can reinforce this door.”
“Hey, we can do that but first can you send this document to me? No trace and all that?” He asked, she raised an eyebrow. “I’ll owe you, okay?”
“Take favors where you can,” she agreed. “Sure. Just make sure there’s no death, okay?”
-X-Factor-
The mountain was about as easy to sneak out of as he remembered. They hadn’t found the door out of the practice room yet. It was something he had no problem using, though. The weather outside was chill, but not too bad. He had said he was going to work on a few things so Rachel wouldn’t be looking for him for a time. She may be right to, about being found out. Even surprise kids were barely thrown out.
But he had other work to do. The road down to the city was overgrown but still traversable. It took until about late afternoon but he made it to the street and the small house he had taken rooms in: a tiny one bedroom apartment. It was still nicer than anything he had had before. Rachel had the room, which she had painted, but the discount sofa was his.
“You sonofabitch, you would lead him right here.” Two hands gripped his collar and didn’t let go, but he knew who it was. “Isn’t it about time you outgrew Mommy and Daddy.”
“Get the hell away from me, Bishop.” He broke the hold and collected himself. “Like you can talk, all the times you went back.”
“It never worked, just made things worse. Our lives are what they are. Why the hell did you-“ The man stopped, his dark skin was scared, and he was wearing barely concealed body armor. “Rachel. Goddamn, you’re trying to save Rachel.”
“So what if I am?” He had nothing to hide. It was the right thing to do. “She ain’t gonna go back to that hell she came from.”
Leaning on the wall, Bishop looked at the man for a long moment. Cable, on the other hand, didn’t care. He grabbed a beer and looked over the information on the table. It took time but his guest came to a conclusion.
“I always tried it alone. And I failed,” he explained. He was thinking. “So fine, you do this right. I know most of it. But if we fix this you both leave. You’re screwing up the timeline being here already.”
“Sorry, I’m not taking volunteers right now.” Standing up he grabbed his bag, he had a trip to go on. “This is about me and my sister.”
“Like hell. This is about those people. Do you remember how they killed your father? I was there, they made me watch.” Bishop had moved into his face, which was slightly red. “But your mother, oh, but they had fun with-“
“WHAT’S YOUR POINT?!” Cable grabbed his collar now. He knew all too well.
“You need me, and I need you. We don’t have to like it,” Bishop said, now serious. “But people we care about pay for it if we don’t do it anyway. You want to take him out? Let’s do it, he has it coming.”
“Fine.” He opened the door and kept walking. “Keep up.”
“Way ahead of you,” his companion said, clicking a set of keys. A sleek black sports car reacted. “He’s in DC. We can slow him down.”
-X-Factor-
The figure was gold, or looked like it. It was female, moving and engulfing. Wanda could feel the warmth, and the chaos faded, lessened, and finally ended. It was time to sleep, rest, she was so tired. She had been fighting for so long, it was time to step away.
“Both out,” Scott said as he carried the teens to the sofas. “Trauma?”
“None then all at once,” She agreed. “I’m surprised the pillars are standing. Scott, can you help?”
They got the twins in their rooms, and at rest, before clearing the hallway. The room was totaled, but everyone was alive. Fury was already back at headquarters. He was going to miss some fun. The leaders took a moment to take stock. The game center was toast, and the kitchen was rubble. Wanda would need help with her control. But she wasn’t the only one, and the nearby electrical plugs were about to pay for it. Jubilee was barely holding on, sparking powerfully, leaning on the wall. Leaving the others Jean walked over to talk to her.
“You’re call, Jubes. How much do you want to keep?” Jean saw a small hand grab hers, and had to lean in to hear her speak. It wasn’t easy.
“I can’t, I just, please I can’t right now-“ The teen barely said before breaking down. It took little effort to replace the mental block, and Jubes sighed in relief and crashed. She was going to have to relearn a few things after this.
“I got it. Deal with the rest of it,” Alex said, helping the now unconscious form to her room. He took a few moments to smile at his sister-in-law. “Good to have you back.” We need to talk later, once Hill leaves. Is there a place in town?
Jean was surprised, but nodded in agreement. She sent the message to Scott who also agreed.
“You know, we just finished this place,” Maria was saying, looking at the damage before moving to the office. “I really thought it would last the month. I’ll contact the compound.”
“Wait!” The young hacker hurried over, her voice a little panicked. “Before you go, I had to hack the lock. The others were freaking out and things were breaking – we needed to call for help. I wasn’t trying to pry or anything, but no one was here that knew the code.”
“And you needed to get things under control. We should have left someone behind with access, but I understand. I won’t hold it against you, Miss Johnson, but thank you for telling me.” Maria visually didn’t like the intrusion, but had to allow it made sense. This could have been much worse if they hadn’t hurried.
“That’s about it,” Scott said as he looked around. “I vote we clean all this up and go on a shopping spree in town. Think the natives will be calm for a few hours?”
“They should be out until tomorrow. I had to do a rush job.” Jean was already moving the larger pieces of what had been their furniture into the center of the room, telekinesis came in handy. “I should be clear. Mind if Alex, Scott and I run a few errands, Maria? I can put all this in the furnace.”
“Do it, I’ll keep an eye on things here. Meeting at 1900, that’s sharp.” The C.O. was already entering the office. "Don’t go too crazy.”
-X-Factor-
“Alright, what is this about?” Scott said as the three sat in the coffee shop, away from the cameras of the base. In their civies they were posing as young newlyweds shopping with family from a few towns over. The easiest covers were the truer ones. “Can you relax?”
“Yeah, sure, relax. See how relaxed you are.” Alex had pulled out is pad and was opening a document, handing it over. “Our reward for loyal service.”
Scott positioned the tablet so he and his wife could read it, unsure of his brother’s sudden anger. It was a lengthy document, detailing pretty much everything there was to know about Jean. They both guessed this was the internal file, every agent had one, which was kept for Fury’s eyes. It took time, but the two got to the end of the information, both shocked.
“Maria-and Fury-How could they-“ Scott gave up and got out of his chair, leaning on the wall. He was still processing the information. “Fury signed off on that!”
“Omega, I had no idea. They said I was no more than am Alpha at most.” Jean’s breath was shaky. She wasn’t well, the threats that had been approved were a lot to take in. “God, I’m trying. I really am. I’m not trying to hurt anyone-“
Scott was there and put his own anger aside as he held her close, more protective then he normally was. He looked over the information again. It was dated two weeks ago, they were running out of time. There was only four weeks left in this timeline. Staying here wasn’t worth the risk and if he brought this up they would just throw charges at him for even having the information.
“The play is normal. Nothing has changed. We’ll get enough to rebuild the house, and enough extra to live up some.” Scott closed the document and put the pad down. “We’ll need enough civies to get out there for while, and covers to hide. Ideas?”
“The new girl, she can hack that stuff. Bet she can do the rest to,” Alex said, thinking out loud. “And Jubes lived on the run. She still knows how.”
“I like it. We’ll bring them in. They’ll need to go shopping anyway.” He handed the pad back. “We have work to do. More than before.”
“I actually forgot about that, though it does mean I have a chance,” Jean said, reminded of something. “It’s encouraging.”
At Alex’s blank look Scott leaned over the table, he was still unsure about how to feel about the new information. To say nothing of what it suggested.
“It’s what caused the disconnection, I was attacked by this-“ Jean searched for the words. “Mind?”
“Monster, but he gave us more information then he intended. It’s something.” Scott filled in. “We still aren’t sure if we believe it, though.”
“Why do I get the feeling I’m about to hear something goofy?” he asked, the two nodded, agreeing with the idea.
“You are,” Jean said simply. “He couldn’t find the two people he was looking for, so he decided to target us instead.”
“There is some reason to it, if you kill off the parents it will do the job,” his brother said dryly. “Can’t fault the logic.”
“Somewhere, out there-“ Jean motioned mystically with her hands. “You’re an uncle. I bet you had no idea. Neither did we.”
“Wait, what?” His brain hurt, there was no way. “How?”
“All valid questions. We’d like them answered as well. But we can’t exactly call the kids we haven’t had yet.” Scott wasn’t much more settled to this then he was.
“Worst part is we’re pretty sure they’re here to protect us from something.” Jean said. “Might be useful information. To stay protected.”
It took a moment to process the information, it wasn’t information you got every day. It also wasn’t helpful on top of everything else they had to plan around. “You know who could use protecting? You guys. I like allies,” Alex sighed. “Keep an eye out, protectors stay close. They're here, look for people who are staying close, but out of sight."
-X-factor-
The two men didn’t say much as they checked into the cheap motel. It was in the early morning hours but they were in DC. Tomorrow things would begin to change. Walking to the room along the dirty cement third floor balcony the two continued to say nothing as they reached their hideout for the night. The only question either of them were even considering was if they needed to take turns for a watch.
“I know where they are,” they heard a woman’s voice say.
Looking around the two pulled out their guns and looked sharp, the only other person there was a little girl in cat covered pattern pajamas at the ice machine, she was wearing princess clips in her hair.
“I know where the senator is, and the white lady, and your new target,” the little girl said, turning. She had flush cheeks and wide innocent eyes. “Let me in and I’ll tell you everything.”
The little girl began to change and a blue skin mutant soon stood before them, both knew who she was. It didn’t help her case. She was known for playing her own games.
“You never tell people everything. What the hell do you want Mystique?” Cable glared at the woman, who was taken by surprise at their lack of surprise.
“How-Fine, whatever. I want to get back at some old friends, so do you,” she said, gathering herself. “Good enough?”
Keep us out of your plans, leave the team out of your plans, and we’ll be fine.” Bishop was equally unimpressed, Cable was looking at the floor, saying nothing. Bishop didn't seem surprised “No games.”