Post by thejellyfish on Aug 29, 2014 1:40:03 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #1
Dead Man Talking
By thejellyfish
Present DaySix Feet, Westchester
Charles Xavier, leader of the X-Men, sat in the chair opposite his best friend and prisoner, Erik Lensherr. Between them, a chess set with pieces scattered about across the board. Charles gripped his wooden cane tightly, trying to compose himself. Seeing his closest friend now was like looking at a monster. It was as if something had stolen Erik’s body and had begun using it for nefarious purposes.
“Are you here for another match, Charles? I’ve been practicing and I think I’m finally going to break your winning streak.” said Erik, breaking the somber silence that seemed to have settled into the room.
“That sounds fine, Erik. We have much to discuss.” replied Charles.
Charles looked to the large, black-tinted plexiglass window and nodded his head towards Hank in the control room, signaling him to reset the chess pieces. While the pieces sunk into the table one by one, Charles looked around at the strange markings on the wall, he knew what the markings meant, and it pained him that Erik had not yet let go of the Code. It was as if it was the only thing still driving his friend.
Once the pieces were finished resetting, Erik coughed, signaling Charles that it was time to play.
“So, Charles, what is it that brought you down here? You don’t visit often, so it must be important.” said Erik, moving his third pawn one spot ahead.
Charles did the only thing he could think to do, and moved his fourth pawn one space up as well. “Erik, have you ever heard of the Acolytes?”
Meanwhile
Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, Westchester
If Remy was being completely honest with himself, he missed being a criminal. He missed everything from the big heists to the odd pickpocket job. Still, being a thief was nowhere as fulfilling as being a teacher. Admittedly, he was not a very good teacher, but he finally understood why Robin Williams’ character in Dead Poets Society was so passionate about his job. The feeling he got when a child learned something in his class got him excited, and made him want to go in to work every day. ‘Damn, I’m going soft.’ thought the King of Thieves while he picked the lock on the Xavier School window.
Even if teaching did make him soft, it was good to keep his skills up, which was why he was breaking into his place of employment. He opened the window and quietly stepped into the empty study room, surveying his surroundings. Before taking another step into the room, he tossed a canister into the room, showing off the lasers that now blocked him from his target.
“You brats sure do love the classics, don’t ya.” said Remy into the comm channel he held for missions with the X-Men. He then stretched himself underneath the first laser and got to work on maneuvering over the next one.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, dear friend.” replied a voice on the other end of the line, with a small chuckle.
“Kitty, that was a pretty good impression of Stormy. Where’d ya learn ta do that?”
“Remy, why would you think I’m Kath-“
“Seriously? That you, Doug? I find that hard ta-“
“It’s Ororo.” Remy stopped his slithering under the laser for just a moment, and slapped his face with his palm.
“Damn it. Stormy, what are you doing on this channel? Only the two brats are supposed ta be on it.”
“Because I wanted to tell you that the security testing has been canceled for today.”
Remy was a little angry at this, Ororo knew that he took the security tests very seriously as they were his only way of keeping his thief skills intact. “Stormy, you know that I’m the King of Thieves, right?”
“Correct.”
“And what kind of king would I be if I never kept my skills up?”
“Remy, that only makes you a bad thief, not a bad king. Besides, I’m cancelling the tests because you got a call from your guild. And on top of that, the Danger Room is acting up today, so the students will be allowed back inside. It does this every time Xavier goes out to the lake house.”
Remy instantly perked up, despite still laying on the floor. “What kind of package are we talking about here?”
Remy could hear Ororo’s annoyed sigh on the other side of the line. “Seriously, you’re not- nevermind. Look, I need you, Doug, and Kitty to go out to the airport and pick up the package. The guild said it would be worth it to the X-Men if we do.” With that, the lasers shut down, allowing Remy to stand back up.
“Fine, but it better be worth it.” replied Remy as he walked over to the window and hopped down to the yard.
“Trust me, it is. Get to hangar eleven at LaGuardia by four o’clock, it’ll be there.”
Meanwhile
Six Feet, Westchester
Charles could tell that Erik had been frustrated with continually losing over the years. The pair had made a bet that whoever won best two out of three would get to ask a question and have it answered. Erik, lacking the tactical prowess of Xavier’s mind, lost the bet.
“I’ll ask again, old friend. Do you know who the Acolytes are?” asked the professor.
“Fine, fine. Deal’s a deal. Truthfully, I’ve heard of them. They followed my cause, but they were little more than a nuisance, rather than an aid.” replied Erik, fiddling with the knight he was about to move should Charles not have won the game right there and then.
“And who are they?”
“Joanna Cargill, Nils Styger, and their leader, Carmella Unuscione. Joanna and Nils go by Frenzy and Abyss, respectively. Carmella was never one for codenames apparently, something about her father. If you don’t mind me asking, what did they do?”
Charles hobbled over to the window, where a tray opened up and small tablet device slid through. He then returned to his seat and showed Erik the grisly photos of beaten men and a large section of streets that had been leveled.
“Some mutants attacked a group of private military contractors called ‘The Purifiers’ in Washington DC the other day. The Acolytes fit the bill.”
“The Purifiers?”
“Stryker’s men. You remember him, don’t you? He was the general that got discharged after there were rumors he was telling his troops to torture other groups of soldiers purely because they weren’t Christians. The Purifiers are all made up of people with the same beliefs as him. Not sure how he was able to pull this off, but he’s also a reverend now.”
“I don’t remember that bit of news, sorry. He sounds despicable, but the Acolytes don’t care about petty manmade social constructs like religion or politics. That was what set the Brotherhood above them. Anyways, why would the Acolytes attack them?”
Charles swiped the pictures on the tablet over and over until it got to a video showing an older white male addressing a group of soldiers and pressed play. “This is from a year ago.”
The video that started to play was taken from a phone, the holder was obviously nervous as the camera was barely in focus and shaky from the hands that held it.
It was then that a man started to speak.
“Gentlemen, as you know, I was forced to give up my job as a general in the United States military because I was trying to make the world a better place. Now, it took me awhile to come to terms with that little bit of change, but I realized that being a general is not what the Lord intended for me. So now, I am Reverend William S. Stryker, the Earthly Fist of God. The world is impure and we, as the true people of God, are meant to cleanse it. I received a vision, a long time ago, telling me of threat to humankind, a threat straight Satan himself. You know what this threat is, boys? Hmm, do you? Go on tell me.”
“The queers.”
“No.”
“The Muslims.”
“Guess again.”
“Liberals.”
“Nope. Wrong. All of you.”
There was a pause as the soldiers looked to each other in confusion, mumbling about what Stryker could be talking about.
“I’m talking about the mutants. Remember two years ago, when those freaks fought each other in Central Park? I lost my daughter that day. When I got her body back, I couldn’t recognize her anymore. Her tiny hands were missing fingers, her face was torn apart, and her legs. Even if she had survived, she wouldn’t have been able to walk again. My wife was so devastated that she took her own life. Me? I had no time to be weak in the face of demons. I had to be strong for my clergy. And that’s when my business associate, Matthew Risman, and I decided to start this here little gathering of soldiers. So, we gathered up the willing members of the clergy and moved out here to DC. We trained those clergy members into some of the best fighters this world has ever seen.”
At this moment the camera stopped shaking and was pointed directly at Stryker. A middle-aged, white male wearing Kevlar with a white cross emblazoned on it. Another, younger man, also white, stood behind him wearing the same outfit.
With this, Stryker yelled and raised his fist in the air. “We are the Purifiers! And we will cleanse this Earth!” yelled the Reverend as he looked directly into the camera.
Erik pulled himself away from the tablet. “Well, he likes to talk.”
“Yes, the X-Men see him as a potential threat to everything we have built since your attack on Central Park. It is imperative that we capture these Acolytes and bring them to justice so they do not agitate the peace we have made between humanity and mutantkind.”
“Are you going to throw them in here with me if you do capture them? You going to lie about their deaths like you did with me? It does get quite lonely in here, I wouldn’t mind some company.
“No, Erik. They will handled by the proper authorities when the time comes.”
“Then why couldn’t I be handled by the ‘proper authorities’ three years ago?” said Erik with venom in his voice.
“Because you should be dead!” Charles yelled. Charles was getting tired of the games Erik tried to play with him. After three years, Erik still would not stop pushing his buttons.
“Do you know what this complex is called, Erik? Do you?” asks Charles as he gestures to the area around him. “This place is called Six Feet and it is called that because you are dead. You are dead and you have been buried. This is not a prison, old friend. It is a tomb.”
Charles quickly rose from his seat and began walking away with his cane, heading towards the door where Hank waited. “Why am I not dead yet, Charles?” said Erik from back in the room.
“Because I would never kill my best friend. But, I'm beginning to regret that choice”
Later
Hangar 11, LaGuardia Airport, New York
“So, Remy.” said Kitty, breaking the peaceful quiet that filled the hangar. Her tone was almost flirty, causing Doug to make a soft gagging sound from the SUV.
“Yes, petite?” replied the Cajun.
“What is this package that we’re supposed to pick up?”
“A surprise, Kitty. Even Remy doesn’t know what it is.” replied Doug from the backseat of the car.
Kitty gritted her teeth together. “Thank you for the observation, Doug. We knew that already.” she said, nudging him from the passenger seat to his spot in the back.
“Then why did you ask?”
“Because I was trying to make conversation, you schmuck! Do you want to spend however long we’re gonna be stuck in here for in silence?”
“Depends, are you gonna keep <trying to flirt with someone who’s way too old for you and has repeatedly not shown any interest in you whatsoever apart from the fact that you are his student?>” Doug quickly replied, effortlessly going from English to Hebrew so that Remy would not be able to pick up on the conversation.
Kitty gasped. “I- I know you did not just go there, mister!”
“And what if I did just ‘go there’? What then?”
“I’ll- I- I don’t know, I can’t think of anything. But, rest assured, it will be terrible!”
“I bet it’ll be terrible.” replied Doug sarcastically as he pulled out his phone and began texting Julian.
Remy sometimes hated getting stuck with the both Kitty and Doug. Doug was supposed to be Hank’s assistant, but because of Doug’s close partnership with Kitty, he oftentimes found himself saddled with both of them. Remy did not mind having the two kids around most times, but times like these, where they argued like a married couple, annoyed him. What made it worse was that he knew that these arguments were often about him and that he was the only thing getting in the way of the two of them being happy. He also figured that if his engagement to Betsy Braddock wasn’t kept a secret from the rest of the X-Men other than Charles and Ororo, then Kitty’s school girl crush would never have developed past that of physical attraction.
‘Stupid assassins and their stupid rules. This wouldn’t have happened if my ex-wife would have just let Betsy and I be happy for once.’ thought Remy as he looked to the sky, noticing a familiar jet touchdown from the south.
“I know who we’re picking up.” said Remy as he pulled the necklace that held his engagement ring off of his neck.
“What? We’re picking up a ‘who?’” replied Doug from the backseat, looking up from his phone. “I don’t like this.” he added while getting out of the backseat.
“Me too.” replied Kitty as she got of the SUV as well. Remy had also gotten out of the car and placed the ring that Betsy had given him when she proposed on his finger. “Uh, Remy, why are you wearing an engagement ring?”
“Because I don’t have ta keep it a secret no more, Kitty.” replied Remy. “I’m getting married to the woman on that plane.”
“What?!” said both Doug and Kitty in unison.
The plane entered the hangar and Remy put on the biggest smile that either of them had seen since they became students at the Xavier school. The plane shut down and Remy began walking towards the door to the plane.
When the door opened, a Japanese woman was standing in the doorway, wearing a white, v-neck shirt and black pants and putting on a black, dress jacket. “Remy, is that-“
“Yeah, chere, it’s me.”
She ran down the steps and leaped into her fiancé’s arms, Remy using the momentum to lift her up and swing her around, before placing her back on her feet and kissing her on the lips. The two lovers did not care for the two young adults standing awestruck by the SUV and continued to kiss until one of the flight attendants interrupted them. “Um, excuse me, miss. Your luggage is still on the plane.”
“Ah, yes, right. Remy will you-“
Remy signaled to Doug and Kitty to approach the plane and help him with Betsy’s luggage. “You don’t even have to ask.”
Once all of the luggage was loaded into the SUV, Remy closed the trunk door and walked around to the side, where his fiancée was standing awkwardly with his former students. “Brats, this is my fiancée, Elizabeth Braddock, but you can call her Betsy. Betsy, these are two of my former students, Doug and Kitty.”
“I didn’t know you had a fiancée.” replied a heartbroken Kitty. Doug knew that, despite the fact that they had just had a huge argument not thirty minutes earlier, that she was not feeling too good, so he placed his hand on her shoulder before opening the door for her.
Once they were on the road again, Kitty’s mood worsened as Remy and Betsy continued talking about the things that they missed while not in each other’s lives. Doug recognized this and decided to be a good friend and ask about it. Doug tapped Kitty on the shoulder to get her to look at him. “Put phone on silent.” he said using sign language. Kitty nodded her head.
Doug pulled out his phone and set it to silent as well and then opened the texting program.
Doug: How ya feeling?
Kitty: I feel like shit and you’re probably happy as can be.
Doug: Look at me. Does it look like I’m happy?
Kitty looked up from her phone and saw that Doug was, in fact, not happy. He wore the same expression that she was wearing ever since Remy had revealed that he was marrying this strange woman neither of them had heard of.
Doug: See?
Kitty: Yea, I’m just bummed about all this. Why didn’t he tell us? I mean, aren’t we important to him?
Doug: We are important to him. There’s probably a reason he never said anything.
Kitty: And what reason would that be? To lead young girls along? I’m not the only student with a crush on him, you know that right?
“Hey Remy, why didn’t you tell anyone that you were engaged?” asked Doug from the backseat. Kitty was surprised that Doug would be so upfront about the subject.
“Well, it’s kind of a-“
“We met when I was a freelance assassin and when I became employed by his ex-wife, she forbade us from going through with anything. Now, I’m out and I want to join the X-Men.” interrupted Betsy.
“Okay, that about sums it up.”
Kitty was even more shocked now upon learning that Remy had an ex-wife. “When you say ‘assassin’ and ‘employed by his ex-wife’ what do you mean?” asked Kitty, hoping to learn more about the secret life of her teacher.
“Well, you know about the Thieves’ Guild that Remy is a part of?” replied Betsy.
“Yes.” said both Doug and Kitty at once.
“Well, there’s also an Assassin’s Guild that is led by Remy’s ex-wife. I worked for them to pay off a family debt.”
“You don’t think you’re over sharing at all, Betsy?” said Remy through clenched teeth.
“No, I don’t think I’m ‘over sharing.’ I don’t want any secrets between me and the X-Men. I am an open book; they just need to ask first.”
There was a slight pause in the conversation while Remy continued to drive the long distance back to the X-Mansion. It was now nighttime and everyone beginning to feel a little tired.
“You didn’t have to take some kind of oath or creed or something when you became an assassin, did you?” asked Doug, in a shy tone, knowing that his question was sort of nerdy.
“Doug, you’re such a nerd.” said Kitty as she swatted his arm and chuckled.
“I know.” replied Doug as his eyes met Kitty’s, smiling at her. Remy noticed the exchange from the front seat and smiled. He looked at his fiancée and reached out to her mind trying to get her to reestablish a mental link between them. ‘I’m so glad I can tell people about this now.’ Remy thought, nodding his head towards his engagement ring.
‘And I am glad I can be here. Period.’
“I love you, Betsy.”
“I love you more, Remy.”
Nighttime
The Outback
"Carmella, are you sure about this? I mean, what's stopping this guy from 'porting us all the way to - say - Atlanta? Hell, he could send us to space if he so pleased. Why are we doing this?" asked a nervous, blue-skinned man with spring-like appendages and a large warp hole in his chest.
"Relax Nils, we got this. This plan is gonna go off without a hitch, just you watch." replied an African-American woman with a short haircut, the only oddity of her appearance being that she had white hair on her temples despite looking youthful.
"Nils is right, Joanna. I doubt he could pull space off, no one's that powerful. He could do Atlanta no problem if he so pleased, but, thanks to our newest member, that won't be happening." replied another woman with a scoff, this one baring no physical oddities like her teammates. The desert night was cold, so they sat hunched around a fire, looking over towards where their target was located.
"Ladies, I hear ya, believe me, I do. But, keep in mind, the entire time we've been tracking this guy, our new teammate has been nowhere to be found." said Nils, stressing over the missing man from their squad. "I mean, we bust him from that joint in DC, give him a job, and the second we get here, he runs off."
"Hey, guy's been locked up awhile, probably needed to clean his gun." replied Joanna, poking the fire with a stick.
"He's setting up a trap for our target. He'll radio the location over when he's done."
"When who's done?" asked a voice.
The group turned around to see their target, an Aboriginal man, dressed in a black jumpsuit with orange-gold lines across the entire suit. He smirked and looked around at the three of them, seemingly weighing his odds.
"By the way, that space thing you guys joked about?" he asked jokingly, opening a portal behind him. The three Acolytes looked through the portal and saw that Saturn was right behind him. "I can totally do that."
Next: Transcending Dimensions