* DISCLAIMER *
This is a non-profit work of fan-fiction involving
characters created and owned by Marvel Comics Group.
* WRITTEN BY *
Samy <samerc@utu.fi> Merchi
* ARCHIVED AT *
http://mash.yok.utu.fi/~samerc/fanfic/index.html
* CONTINUITY *
This story takes place
AFTER the HUNT FOR XAVIER and
BEFORE the MAGNETO WAR.
* MATURE CONTENT *
This story includes:
No especial mature content
* DEDICATED TO *
Alkona Maret Alstorkoveich
Happy Valentine's Day, my Heaven!
************** * BE LONGING *
**************
***
/Bar with No Name/, Medina County, Ohio. A couple of years ago, a
massacre took place in this bar.
Enforcer. Miracle Man. Hate-Monger. Megatak. Melter. Titania.
Basilisk. Hammer and Anvil. Fly. Death Adder. Blue Streak.
Wraith.
A list of those who had fallen to the enigmatic Scourge, all over the
United States of America. Death upon death upon death. The
villainous community had been quivering with fear. Who would be next?
Nobody was safe. You couldn't take a shower without being afraid the
Scourge of the Underworld would come and end your wreched little life.
To this world where paranoia was more than justified, a rumor of hope
was introduced. The anarchist foe of Iron Man, Gary Gilbert, also
known as Firebrand, announced he was arranging a council of war, in
hopes of finding a way to end the threat of the Scourge.
A list of those who heard the call, and came. To the "Bar with No
Name", in Medina County, Ohio. Owned by Gary Gilbert, it was safe
home turf for the criminals.
Or so they thought.
An hour after the bartender revealed himself to be the Scourge in
disguise, eighteen corpses were carried off by the police to the
morgue of Medina County. Few people would ever grieve over the
massacre. More people would celebrate ridding the world of its
malcontents.
***
/Bar with No Name/, Medina County, Ohio. A couple of years later, on
Saturday night, February 13th, it serves as the site of a class
reunion of sorts.
"WHERE'S MY BEER?"
A huge fist struck the wooden table, sending the glasses upon it
jumping a few inches into the air. The dull echo of the impact rang
thruout the bar, and quickly died away.
"Really, Fred", Dominic Petros said, lowering his eyes to his mug
which had spilled part of its contents onto the table from the slam.
"Give the girl a break. In the meantime, why don't you tell me how St
John's here?" The Greek man nodded towards the blond at the bar
counter, nursing a drink and looking morose. "Last I heard, he fought
the X-Men and was taken in by SHIELD..."
"When he was on a mission from us, yes", nodded Mortimer Toynbee, as
he looked at his mug, now devoid of a quarter of its contents due to
Frederick J Dukes' enthusiasm. "When he was sent by Xavier..." The
tone of his voice started slowly slipping downwards, from moderate to
morose, and he trailed off to some unintelligible mumblings under his
breath.
"We freed him", grunted the grim, blue expression of Lawrence Tremain.
"Aren't we, after all, a brotherhood? Brothers in arms don't leave
each other." He picked up his mug, and slammed the entire contents
back down his throat.
"We used ta be, anyway", the Blob grumbled, levelling a slight glare
at Post. "Before we started lettin' in all kinds o' riff-raff..."
The Toad quickly broke up the starting argument as Post started to get
up threateningly. He leaped up from his chair, and onto the table
between the two huge men, looking almost comical crouched there like a
little insect between two giants. "I could say the same about you,
Fred. I was here before you. Before any of you. Now calm down.
We'll have a fight later tonight if you want, but right now, I want to
drink in peace! Okay??"
"Hnh", Tremain muttered, and glanced from Mortimer back to Fred
briefly. "I'm gonna go hit the can. Be back in a bit." The wooden
floor of the bar shook slightly as the blue-skinned giant started
walking off towards the back of the building.
As if to emphasize the departure, a flash of lightning blazed into
existence briefly outside, the bright glow blasting in thru the
windows, followed less than a second later by a rumbling thundercrack.
***
The shadowed figure flinched in momentary fright, and drew the cloak
tighter around herself at the sound of the thundercrack exploding only
a hundred yards or so from her, blowing a tree apart and leaving it a
smoldering cinder. Battle reflexes honed by years forced her body to
tense up, as if she were under a threat. But she kicked herself
mentally for the reaction, reminding herself that she was going to no
battle. Only to see some old...friends.
***
"Bloody hell", St John Allerdyce said, wrinkling his nose, as he
turned his head to look out a window when the lightning hit. "I hate
lightning..." he spoke, though the only one there to listen was the
barmaid who was too busy filling up new drinks for Fred to listen.
"Reminds me of that weather-witch...Storm...always putting out my
fires like I was nothing..."
"You're not nothing", the barmaid's voice suddenly said, and St John
looked up, surprised that she had actually been listening. "You're a
good man, St John. One of the best I've ever had the honor of
knowing."
"And what would you know?" Pyro asked, wrinkling his nose at the
presumptuousness of the little brat. She looked like she was barely
out of her teens, with pale skin and a short, floppy black mane. "You
never even knew me 'fore tonight."
"That's what you think", the girl smiled with twinkling, slightly
mischievous eyes. "I know more than you'd think." She shrugged, as
she finished filling a mug of beer and placed it onto a now-full tray.
She lifted the tray up into her hands, and said, "Gary Gilbert -- the
guy who used to own this place -- he was a super-criminal." She walked
around the counter, starting to head off towards the table where Fred,
Dominic and Mortimer were sitting. "And my brother", she winked to St
John as she walked off.
"What's that flippin' got to do with anyth--" the fire-manipulator
started, turning around on his barstool, but the girl had already
walked off out of hearing range. With a hmph, Pyro wrinkled his nose,
and turned his attention to his shot of whiskey. A quick motion
later, the sweetly-numbing drink was down his throat.
***
A few raindrops fell down on his beak, but he did not make a motion.
He stood atop the /Bar with No Name/, crouched on the edge of the roof
like a green gargoyle -- or more accurately, pterodactyl.
Sauron. Human/pterodactyl. Hypnotist. Life energy vampire.
Lonely.
Slowly, his head turned to look upwards, at the darkening night sky,
as clouds billowed in to obscure the bright moon. Another soft
raindrop fell onto his face, and he lowered his head again, wondering
what in the world he was doing here -- in this place -- with these
people... He didn't belong here.
"Anything interesting in sight?"
Sauron's head whipped around to look over his shoulder at the source
of the words. There, maybe ten feet behind and above him on the
sloped roof, was lying on her side a white-haired, six-armed woman.
Sauron's eyes rested on her for several moments, and then, he said
grimly, "No."
"Then why are you here?" Spiral asked, as one of her hands went over
to take off her helmet, baring her straight white hair to another of
her hands which took up stroking its fingers thru the light mane.
"Everyone else is downstairs. Inside. Warm. Quenching their
thirst."
"I have only one manner of thirst", Sauron replied with a tone that
was both dark and sharp, and bitter and sad. "And that thirst will
not be sated tonight." His head turned forwards again, looking down
from the roof and pretending to scan the surroundings of the building
while he just wanted to look away from Spiral. "The thirst for life."
"I've known people like that", Spiral answered, sitting up and
replacing her helmet on her head. "If it is lives you thirst for, I
can give you that."
Sauron perked up, and again turned his head towards Spiral. "I made a
promise to the others that I would cause no trouble tonight, to bring
the authorities down on us --"
A simple shrug accompanied Spiral's reply. "My dance can carry us far
away from here, across the gulf of dimensions if you wish. Nobody
would ever find out -- nobody would ever come after you." A slight
smirk danced on her lips. "Except me."
What passed for Sauron's eyebrows, rose slightly. Then, he stood
straight. "Let's go."
Spiral stood up, and after a brief, beautiful and frightening dance of
six arms, the two superhumans discovered in a flash of light and a
PLINK! sound.
Only moments after their departure, there was the soft sound of
footfalls as a cloaked figure started approaching the /Bar with No
Name/.
***
Silence and nervousness were both evident in Julia Carpenter's
expression and posture as she watched the Blob's bellowing from across
the bar. With a sigh, she shook her head, and took a sip from her
Coke. (( God, I don't belong here... )) she thought to herself
anxiously. (( The Brotherhood isn't a part of my past, Freedom Force
is -- and even that is so far away it's not even funny... Why did
they ever send me the invitation to come, anyway? I thought it'd be a
trap, but -- everything...seems to be...okay... )) Again, her eyes
scanned all over the bar for any signs of oddities or trouble, but
found nothing. She sighed in relief. (( Thank God for small
favors... At least they had the brains to rent this place for the
night, so there wouldn't be any trouble from any stupid racist
clientele... ))
"Excuse me? You're Julia Carpenter, Spider-Woman?"
Julia looked up to sight a woman dressed in purple and gold, with a
wavy white mane descending down to her shoulders, and lifted an
eyebrow. "Yes -- and you are?"
"My name's Eileen Harsaw -- I used to hang with the Brotherhood for a
while after their Freedom Force days..." Her head slowly turned to
glance towards the massive bulk of the Blob on the other side of the
bar, and she swallowed a bit. "Would you mind if I sat with you?
I...kind of feel like...like I don't really know anyone...belong here,
and I thought you looked a bit like you might be feeling the same...?"
Julia gave Eileen a warm smile and a nod, taking an instant liking to
the woman. "I'd love it if you sat with me", she said softly. "And
yeah, I don't feel like I really belong here either -- most of the
people here, they were crooks at one time or another -- I...well, I
never was like that..."
"That's what I thought of myself, too -- long ago..." Eileen said
quietly, as she sat down and placed a clear drink onto the table in
front of her. "Way too long ago..."
***
Large fingers placed a coin into the slot, and then pushed a few
buttons. Then, Calvin Rankin took his Rum Cola from atop the jukebox,
and walked over to a dark corner of the bar, trying to keep his wings
pulled tightly against his back so they wouldn't be hitting
everything.
"Nobody on the road
Nobody on the beach
I feel it in the air
The summer's out of reach
Empty lake, empty streets
The sun goes down alone
I'm driving by your house
Though I know you're not home."
He closed his eyes and sighed deeply, shaking his head, as he sat
down. His angelic wings brushed against the wall of the little booth,
and he lowered his eyes to stare at the drink on the table in front of
him, as if it somehow held all the answers to why his life had become
so complicated.
"But I can see you!
Your brown skin shinin' in the sun
You got your hair combed back and your
Sunglasses on, baby!
And I can tell you my love for you will still be strong
After the boys of summer have gone."
"You look like you lost your best friend."
The Mimic was awakened from his brooding by the words, and looked up
at the old white-haired man standing beside his booth, blinking
briefly at all the cybernetics that were an obvious and indisguisable
part of him. "I never had one", Calvin simply replied.
***
"-- and she's got the greatest pair of --"
"I'll be right back", Dominic said, standing up suddenly and breaking
off Fred's ranting. He grabbed his mug of beer, and sipped on it as
he started heading off towards the bar counter where his best friend
was sitting, alone, with only the barmaid to keep him company. Of
course, it's not like he'd usually mind a good-looking woman keeping
him company -- but Dominic knew St John well, and he knew the
Australian was hurting.
"You're sh*tting us, Fred", Mortimer said, wrinkling his nose
annoyedly. "I don't believe you --"
"I swear!" Frederick J Dukes said with wide, innocent eyes, before
downing another mug of beer. "She'll be here later -- she promised
she'd show up --"
"What's he ranting about now?" Post asked as he returned from the
bathroom and sat back down on his seat.
"Some girl", Mortimer said with a hurt expression, feeling his heart
wrench at the thought that even the Blob could get girls, and Mortimer
Toynbee...could not. "He says he's got a girlfriend."
***
"...so I've kind of kept tabs on the super-criminal community... Sort
of like a favor to my brother, god rest his soul... He died trying to
protect you guys, and I'd like to carry on doing his work, in a way...
I don't like psycho killers -- I wouldn't let that Carnage guy in thru
my doors, but -- well, like I said, I know a lot about people and
people who know people, and I've heard a lot of good things about
you..."
"Hey John", Dominic said, sitting down on a barstool next to Pyro.
"You doing all right?"
St John's eyes lingered on the barmaid's eyes for a moment, and saw
nothing but honesty and sincerity in them -- honesty and sincerity
which prevented him from just lashing out angrily and discounting all
of her words as lies. He sighed, and shook his head as he looked to
Dominic. "No, I'm not, Dom. I'm *dying*, you dumb cluck."
Dominic bit his lip, and placed a hand onto St John's shoulder. He
didn't know how the Legacy Virus spread, but nothing between heaven or
hell would stop him from trying to comfort his friend. The most
important thing he had left in the world. "I'm sorry -- God, Johnny,
I wish -- if there was anything..."
"There ain't, ol' mate", St John Allerdyce simply whispered, a bit of
moisture glimmering in his eyes, before he blinked it away, forcing
his macho demeanor to hold back any tears. "I'm gonna die, simple as
that. I just wish I could...do some good before I checked out...maybe
something to help you and Helen somehow --" He turned his head to look
directly into Dominic's eyes. "You've been the best friend I've had
all my life, man. I just -- look, never think I hold grudges about
Iraq, okay?"
"I had no choice --"
"I know", Pyro said, and with a soft smile, placed a hand onto
Avalanche's shoulder. "I wouldn't have made the same decision in your
place. And I'd have screwed everything up. It's because of you that
all four of us're here tonight, alive..." His head slowly turned to
look at a corner of the bar, where the Crimson Commando was talking to
the Mimic. "Or mostly alive, in some cases..."
***
"-- so I stabbed him with a knife. And..." Eileen Harsaw swallowed
briefly, her heart beating faster at the memories. "Well, I was
diagnosed as a mutant by the doctors who examined me, and as soon as
that got out, everything turned against me. Everyone suddenly stopped
considering it valid self-defense against rape, and I got hit with
murder charges and shipped off to the Vault..."
"Oh my god..." Julia whispered and held Eileen's hands in her own
hands tightly. "That's horrible -- but didn't any lawyers try to...I
don't know, shouldn't you have...won the case -- I mean, it was
self-defense, right??"
"Yeah", Eileen muttered, and downed her vodka quickly, then sniffled a
bit. "But what's one person ever been able to do in the United
States? I was just a young girl, from a poor family -- he was from a
rich family... I was a mutant, he wasn't -- I had nobody on my side,
he had EVERYBODY on his side..."
"God..." Julia whispered, closing her eyes and swallowing a bit. "I
never...I mean, I never realized how bad it was -- that's *horrible*,
Eileen!"
"It's life", Eileen answered, and took a handkerchief from her pocket,
blowing her nose briefly, and then putting it back away again. "First
people who've ever accepted me since that happened, is the
Brotherhood... They're all I have. And some of them might be jerks,
and they might all be crooks, but at least they're my *friends*..."
***
"-- it just seems like all the good days've gone, and it's all
downhill from now on... Hell, I used to lead the X-Men. And now
where am I? Among their oldest enemies..."
"I have some idea of what that is like", Frank Bohannan said, slowly
sipping a glass of what seemed like tomato juice or a Bloody Mary. "I
used to think that me, Louis and Martin were heroes, fighting for a
cleaner world -- and then all my dreams crumbled when we were judged
guilty. And then Louis died when we fought the Reavers, and Martin
died in Iraq, and I lost half my body there -- and it feels like I've
been in freefall ever since Iraq -- like there's really nowhere left
to go but down -- waiting for death and for it to be all over..."
Calvin quirked an eyebrow, and sipped his Rum Cola. "Well, I don't
quite have a death wish yet -- I'm just so...directionless. I thought
that by hooking up with Xavier again, I could find a way, but when he
and the X-Men mopped the floor with Cerebro, they just left me, Fred,
Morty and Tremain in those cocoons and went home, pleased as punch,
without a thought spared to us... I don't belong with them. Never
really did."
"But you might belong here?"
"I don't know", Calvin answered. "I know I've followed Xavier too
much. First in the X-Men, then as his Onslaught minion, then in the
Brotherhood -- and in all those, I never felt as I belonged. I've
given him three chances. I think that's enough, and it's time for me
to try something -- someone else."
Frank nodded slowly, and then downed his drink calmly. "Well, I can
only vouch for what I've seen -- but I'd be dead right now if Dominic
hadn't carried me out of Iraq. He's a good man, and he'll stand by
you until the end. Dukes is, of course, the crude one, but I'd still
let him watch my back. He's too stupid to double-play. You can
always rely on those kinds of guys."
"I suppose you're --"
SLAM!
Calvin's sentence was cut short when the front door of the /Bar with
No Name/ slammed open, and a cloaked figure stood in the doorway.
"Y'all called. Ah came."
***
Maria Muradyan, 19 years young. She has just returned to the town
where she was born and raised -- Medina County, Ohio -- from the
honeymoon of her life in San Francisco. (( "Lifeform in range.
Analyzing...humanoid...family -- Homo sapiens superior. Latent
mutant. Prepare for processing." )) She could hear the robotic
monster's words ringing thru her mind, again and again, plaguing her
without a day's respite.
She was a mutant.
Had her husband noticed? She glanced over her shoulder at him lying
down on the back seat, dozing off, and a peaceful smile briefly graced
her lips. She loved him so much. But had he heard what the robot
thing had said? Would he love her if he knew she was a mutant?? And
what was the thing the robot had lodged in her back? Some kind of
suction cup with glowing bluish light on it? She had gotten it off
her back, thankfully, but never out of her mind. Even now, it was in
her glove compartment. Still glowing that weird blue light. She
swallowed, and took her right hand off the steering wheel, opening the
glove compartment with it as she pulled down to Big Oak Road.
"What the heck are you?" she whispered quietly, as she alternated her
eyes from facing front thru the windshield, and inspecting the odd
disc. "And why have I had this weird headache ever since I met you,
you little bastard? I swear, if you're giving me cancer, I'm so going
to break you to little pieces..."
***
"Hey, Rogue!" Dominic shouted across the bar, waving a hand to the
young woman.
"Hi, Dom", Rogue answered a bit grimly, and then let her eyes briefly
look over everyone present, before she decided that the most favorable
option would really be to head over to the Greek man. She certainly
didn't intend to let Blob try to impress her with how big belches he
could let out. "Hey Johnny", she gave a half-hearted smile to Pyro,
before sitting down on Dominic's left-hand side. "What's up, guys?"
"Nice to see you too, girlie", St John muttered under his breath, and
looked over to the dark-haired barmaid. "Gimme another whiskey. As
good a pain-killer as any. Maybe better..."
Dominic shook his head quietly, and glanced to Rogue. "I'm sorry
about him -- he's not feeling too well these days..."
"That's the understatement of the year, mate --" St John grumbled.
Rogue nodded silently, and swallowed a bit nervously, feeling a fear
grip her at the thought of the Legacy Virus claiming her -- before she
ever got a chance to really build a life. "Are you getting any kind
of treatment, Johnny --?"
A snort was the immediate answer. "Constantly", St John simply
answered, and tossed back the shot of whiskey as soon as he was given
it. "Only treatment I need is forgettin' everything."
Pursing her lips slightly, Rogue turned her head away from Pyro,
wishing she knew the right words to know to make him feel better --
but she didn't, no matter how hard she wished that. So she stayed
quiet.
"I'm gonna hit the john", St John announced half-angrily, and slid of
his stool. "Just like life keeps doing, eh?" A bitter smile danced on
his lips for a few moments, before he turned and walked off towards
the back of the bar.
"God, Ah wish there was something Ah could do for him", Rogue
whispered silently to Avalanche as she watched Pyro walk off and
disappear thru the bathroom door. "He's hurtin' so bad..."
"He's dying, Rogue", Dominic answered quietly. "I don't know if I
could handle it that well -- going to bed every night, not knowing if
I would wake up in the morning..." He took a deep breath, steeling
himself up a bit. "We all wish we could do something -- but the only
thing we can do, really, is make his last days as good as we can...
Forgive him for everything we can, understand him when he snaps at
us..."
"Ah guess", Rogue nodded, and closed her eyes for a moment. "It
sucks, Dom. It sucks bad."
***
"-- I jus'...jus' wish I coulda hadda bettrr life..." Eileen slurred
slowly to Julia, and sighed, letting her forehead thunk down against
the wooden table. "But I ain't...I went down this route...can't go
back anymore, without doin' time, an' I'm not doing time...I couldn't
take it...and even if I did, I shtill couldn't get any
jobs...eksh-cons don't..." She sniffled a bit, and blew her nose
again.
"Well, that's not exactly true", Julia said softly, yet hesitantly.
She knew Eileen had a point. "I mean, Hawkeye used to run on the
other side of the law...and Wonder Man was an embezzeller...there are
a lot of heroes with checkered pasts...you can turn a new leaf,
Eileen, if you want -- I can try to help you --"
"I dunno...dunno..." Eileen sighed, and shook her head. "I'm just
sho...so scared, you know? Like I don' have anywhere to go or any
world outside the Brotherhood..." She bit her bottom lip slightly, and
started standing up. "I need to go to the bathroom", she
stage-whispered to Julia, louder than she thought, and then stumbled a
bit, but fortunately managed to catch herself before falling onto the
floor. "I'll be right back", she told the Avenger, and then stumbled
towards the bathroom door in the back of the room.
Julia sighed quietly to herself, and then ran her fingers thru her
blonde hair once. "God, how things can go to hell..." She silently
took the locket hanging from a chain around her neck in her hands, and
opened it, taking a look at a photo of her daughter. "Rachel, please,
don't turn out like that..."
***
"So where's this mysterious new girlfriend of yours, Fred?", Mortimer
asked derisively, wrinkling his nose a bit as he took a deep sip from
his beer. "She stand you up?"
"She most certainly did not", a harsh but amused female voice spoke,
like dominating gravel. Mist swirled around the brunette dressed in
black leather as she faded into view beside a redhead in blue-red
spandex. "Thanks for the lift, Amelia", she said, and then stepped
out of the mist, and over to the Blob, running her hands thru his
brown hair. "Miss me, stud?"
Amelia Voght looked at Carmella Unuscione perhaps a bit wistfully for
a moment, before saying, "I'll be back to pick you up tomorrow at
noon." Then, the redheaded Acolyte faded into mist, which after some
swirling, disappeared.
***
Rogue blinked as she looked over towards Blob's table from the bar
counter, just in time to catch Voght's departure. Her eyes narrowed
at the sight of Carmella, and she quirked an eyebrow, then asked
Dominic, "What the hell's Unuscione doing here, an' why is she all
over Fred?"
"Oh, hell", Dominic muttered, and slapped his forehead with the heel
of his palm. "Fred said he had gotten a girlfriend, but -- oh, no --
Johnny's going to go ballistic about this -- he's had a major grudge
for the Acolytes ever since they dumped him in the Savage Land..."
***
"Hunh", Frank blinked at the sight of Unuscione playing around with
Fred. "Now I've seen it all." He quickly downed his drink, and then
looked over at the sight again. "A woman after Dukes, instead of the
other way around?" He glanced at his wristwatch briefly. "11:45... I
wonder if the apocalypse's coming on the stroke of midnight..."
"You know, that's one thing the Brotherhood is kind of lacking..."
Calvin commented. "Women."
"That's true", Frank said, and stood up. "Especially with Mystique
off doing who-knows-what who-knows-where, Phantazia's the only one
left. Have a ball trying to get into her pants, kid", he said, and
patted Mimic on the shoulder briefly. "I'm going to go get another
drink."
Mimic didn't answer, just stayed silent in the booth, slowly running
his fingertip along the edge of his glass as he considered things.
***
"You're KIDDING!" Mortimer screeched. "You can't get a woman like
that! You've paid her, haven't you??"
"Oh shut up, toadie", Carmella smiled sweetly as she placed kisses
onto Fred's cheek while sitting in his lap. "If anyone's a prostitute
here -- well, I'm the one fighting for a cause, you're the one
fighting for money. Get the hint?"
"I. AM. NOT. A. TOADIE!" Mortimer shouted, hopping onto the table.
"I've LED the Brotherhood! Take that back before I make you eat those
words!"
"Hey!" Fred said, lifting a hand up to keep Toad at a distance. "You
better watch what you say to my chick unless ya don't want to be
ground into paste, Morty!"
"And so, we see a beautiful woman already coming between two old
friends before the clock has even struck midnight..." Tremain mumbled
quietly to himself, and stood up with a sigh, deciding to leave the
table and head over to his fellow rookie Brotherhooder, the Mimic.
***
"BLOODY HELL!" the shout of St John Allerdyce echoed thruout the bar,
causing everyone to turn towards the sound and see him staring at
Unuscione. Then, flame struck from his eyes, and fire started dancing
around his form.
"He shouldn't be able to do that --" Rogue whispered to herself. "He
only controls fire, not create it --"
"Apparently, the Legacy Virus has changed that", Dominic said
hurriedly, and leapt off his stool. "Johnny, no! Calm down!" he
shouted.
***
PLINK!
"That wasn't so bad, now was it?" Spiral asked with a mischievous
smile as she and Sauron appeared in a flash of light outside the /Bar
with No Name/.
"My thirst is...quenched for the moment", Sauron simply answered, and
then, with a faint sigh, turned towards the front door of the
estabilishment. "I believe I am now ready for...socialization."
BUH-WHOOM!
Both Spiral and Sauron's eyes widened as the wall of the bar exploded
outwards in a blast of flame, which kicked out of the building a
brunette ensheathed in translucent energy.
Carmella Unuscione crashed in some trees outside the bar, and hissed
sharply as she pulled back onto her feet, and charged back into the
building without so much as a glance for Sauron and Spiral.
"Hnh", Sauron said and looked over to Spiral. "And they told me to
keep a low profile."
***
"I CAN'T GET CLOSE TO HIM!" Dominic shouted over the roar of flames,
shielding his face from the blazing heat with his arms. "He's much
too hot -- out of control --!"
"Don't worry", Post said, turning towards Pyro, as one of the
techno-organic cannons hovering in the air around him started powering
up with a hum. "I can handle him."
"NO!" Avalanche shouted, and with a wave of his hand, the half of the
bar containing the blue giant, Mimic and Spider-Woman suddenly reared
upwards. The ground bucked and rose to form a barrier between Post
and Pyro. "Don't hurt him!" Avalanche yelled to everyone, and then
looked back to St John. "Johnny, you've got to get yourself back
under control --!"
"Too late fer that!" the Blob bellowed as he brought his fists down on
the floor, sending a shockwave along the ground towards Pyro. "He
attacked my chick, and I'm going to break every bone in his toothpick
body for that --!"
Irene Gilbert cursed softly under her breath. (( Good thing this
place is insured... )) she thought, and then in the blink of an eye
formulated a plan. "MIMIC!" she yelled over the chaos in an
authoritative tone that made almost everyone blink and halt. "Use
Iceman's powers to cool Pyro down and try to ensheath him in ice!
Rogue! To me --!"
Calvin Rankin stood up, and concentrated. "All right -- here goes --"
he muttered, and raised his hands in the air. The temperature inside
the building rapidly dropped a good couple dozen degrees and a halo of
ice formed around Mimic's fists.
"ARRRGH!" Pyro yelled, not from anything Mimic was doing, but from the
raging of his out-of-control powers now that he had unleashed them,
and couldn't get them back into their Pandora's Box. His most distant
flames were doused by Mimic's cold projection, and his inferno
diminished slightly in size, but an inferno it remained, at the center
of which was a man in agony.
"Ah'm here, M-- Miss", Rogue said, stumbling over her words slightly
as she leaped over the bar counter to stand beside the barmaid.
"Whatcha need me ta do?"
"There! Phantazia!" Irene Gilbert said, pointing at Phantazia who was
just emerging from the bathroom to see what the commotion was all
about. "Absorb her powers! Now!"
"But --!" Rogue argued, wide-eyed.
"DO IT!" Irene yelled. "Mimic can't hold Pyro for much longer, and
Phantazia is much too drunk to use her powers effectively! I *need*
you, Rogue!"
Rogue blinked a few times, and then flew across the room, pulling off
her gloves.
"Where is he --? Let me at him --!" Carmella growled as she stalked
into the bar thru the hole in the wall she had made on her way out.
"Calm down", the Commando said, pointing one hand at Carmella and
another at Fred. Cannons of some kind popped out of both hands,
swiftly targeting the two mutants. "We don't need any more chaos
right now."
"Says you..." Post muttered quietly to himself while glaring across
the room at Dominic, dark thoughts roaming thru his head, considering
a little payback for having been dissed with the earth wave.
"Chill, big guy", Julia said as she dropped from the ceiling onto the
floor beside Tremain, placing a hand onto his blue shoulder. "Let's
let things be cleared up without adding to the confusion..." Her head
turned towards Rogue and Phantazia.
"NO!" Phantazia screamed, wide-eyed, before slumping down unconscious
on the floor at Rogue's feet. The Southerner's eyes started glowing
with purple energy, and she stumbled a few steps backwards, taking a
sharp gasp as she saw the world in an entirely new way. A few tears
came to her eyes, but she blinked them away. "What now??" she yelled.
"Use her powers!" Irene shouted. "Disrupt Pyro's electromagnetic
field! It'll short out his powers!"
Rogue nodded, and took a sharp breath, then closed her eyes.
"ARRRGH!" Again, Pyro shouted. But this time, not from the agony
within, but instead from the wrenching sensation of the synaptic
connections of his nervous system being scrambled. He went stiff,
shuddered once, and then collapsed onto the floor, limp.
Dominic watched, wide-eyed, and rushed over to St John as soon as he
was down and out like a light. "Johnny -- damn it, man, don't you
dare go dying on me --" he whispered as he checked for a pulse on the
pyrokinetic.
"If he hasn't yet, I'll make sure he will!" Carmella growled as she
projected her psionic exo-skeleton, a translucent force field around
herself.
"Don't. Even. Think about it", came a sharp hiss, as a red
laser-pointer dot appeared without a waver between Carmella's eyes.
Irene Gilbert's eyes were narrowed on the Acolyte as she firmly held a
plasma blaster. Her form wavered briefly, and was quickly replaced by
a blue-skinned redhead.
"MYSTIQUE!" Fred bellowed while Sauron and Spiral quietly walked into
the building. "Where the hell ya been? What're you doing here??"
"Isn't it *obvious*, Fred?" Mystique hissed sharply. "The Brotherhood
is *my* team, and I take care of my own, even when you don't know it.
All of you together possess less organizational skill than a
brain-damaged chicken -- *someone* has to act the adult here. Can't
you get thru one damn night without picking a fight with each other??
This was supposed to be a reunion, and you've turned it into a war
zone! What is *wrong* with you!?!"
"She has a point", Frank said, and lowered the hand pointed at
Carmella upon Mystique's targeting the Acolyte. "You ready to calm
down, Dukes?"
"A very good point", Julia said, mostly to herself, as she walked over
to Dominic and St John, crouching down beside the two men and asking,
"Is he okay?"
Rogue, who had recognized Mystique practically as soon as she had
walked in, ignored the others for the moment and slowly tugged her
gloves back on, biting her lip as she turned her eyes to Phantazia,
who was waking up with a slow groan. "Lemme help ya up..." she
whispered to the white-haired woman. "Careful not to touch mah
skin..."
"The toothpick started it", Fred said accusingly.
"And you continued it, Fred. Please, let's not sink to juvenile
arguing here -- Mystique is quite right", Toad commented.
"It's a sad day when Morty's the *mature* one", Mystique said flatly,
keeping her laser sights right between Carmella's eyes. "So, how
about it, little miss can't-be-wrong? You ready to calm down, or do
you want to test just how resilient your force field is against plasma
bursts?"
Carmella glared daggers at Mystique for a few moments, and then
deactivated her psionic exo-skeleton, walking over to the bar. "Give
me a bottle of tequila, and I'll let it drop."
***
"-- so, you're Unus' sister?"
Carmella nodded briefly. "His younger sister", she answered Mortimer
curtly, wrinkling her nose a bit. "And no, my brother never said
anything good about you. Then again, he didn't say anything good
about anyone." She smiled devilishly, and leaned over to kiss Fred.
"Except Freddy, here...mmmmmmm..."
"'Freddy'?" Rogue giggled softly to herself. "If Ah recall correctly,
ya *hated* that name, *Freddy*."
"Did not", Fred replied after breaking the kiss with Carmella.
"Yes you did", Dominic pointed out. "Freddy."
Blob wrinkled his nose for a moment, and then said, "AWRIGHT, awright,
I HATE that name!" loudly. He snorted, and then turned towards
Carmella, rubbing his nose against hers. "But she's allowed to call
me that anyway."
"Men. So easy", Mystique commented dryly as she placed three
photographs onto the bar counter. "Give them a little sex and they're
putty in your hands."
"I wouldn't call anything about Freddy 'little'..." Carmella grinned
as she lounged in Fred's arms while tossing some salted peanuts into
her mouth.
"I don't see a picture of Mastermind", Toad pointed out as he opened a
bag of chips and poured the contents into a bowl. "Then again, I
don't see Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch having been invited
either..."
"Like I said earlier, Morty", Mystique answered amidst tossing a mug
of beer down the counter to Frank, "the Brotherhood is my team. The
first Brotherhood were just Magneto's flunkies who happened to share
the same name. They are not the same team. They were not us."
"Is there something wrong with serving Magneto?" Carmella asked with a
slight glare towards Mystique.
"For one thing, Mystique is a lot sexier."
"Why thank you, Calvin", the blue-skinned woman smiled flirtatiously
at the Mimic. "I can just tell you'll be a splendid addition to our
little family..."
"Stop flirtin', Momma. Y' have a daughter in yoah presence", Rogue
mock-glared at her foster mother, and then grinned over at Mimic. "Ya
so much as touch her, and Ah'll rip your arms off 'fore she does..."
"Ah, the problems of a bachelor in the presence of strong women...",
Frank commented while letting his eyes linger on the three photographs
on the bar counter. "I remember when me, Louis and Martin ran into
that German super-soldier Kriegerfrau -- Warrior Woman -- during the
war -- I think it was in Paris. Martin started flirting with her, and
before we knew it, he was flying across the bar..."
"Not *another* war story..." Julia sighed, rolling her eyes.
"Come to think of it", Sauron interrupted, "tonight would be a great
night to attack the X-Men. We have a great number of us together
here... We might actually win, for once." He looked towards Rogue.
"No offense meant. It just gets annoying when you win every time..."
"None taken", Rogue smiled to Sauron. "An' maybe if y'all din't make
the consequences o' losin' so severe, we might let ya win sometimes --
as it is, we cain't, or we'll get killed, or y'all will kill someone
else, or something..."
"Maybe we should have an annual Superbowl-type thing between the
Brotherhood and X-Force --"
"X-Men", Post interrupted Phantazia.
"-- X-Men, whatever. You know, every year, and stuff, just for
kicks..." Phantazia suggested. "That way we wouldn't have to take
stuff so seriously..."
Mystique took a deep breath and looked towards the ceiling. (( And
they wonder why I'm here... Maybe that brain-damaged chicken comment
was a bit harsh for the chicken... )) She stepped out from behind the
bar, and glanced at Avalanche. "You took Pyro to one of the upstairs
rooms?"
"Yeah, he's out cold", Dominic answered. "But seems to be okay
otherwise."
"All right", Mystique said silently, and then took an envelope from
inside her jacket, handing it to Dominic. "Commando, can you tend the
bar?"
"Sure thing", Frank answered. "Are you going somewhere?"
"Always and never", Mystique simply answered, as she stopped beside
Rogue and gave the girl a brief, careful hug. "Always and never", she
repeated, looking into Rogue's eyes. Then, without another word, she
disappeared up the stairs, leaving behind her a silent congregation of
Brotherhooders.
***
The silent form of St John Allerdyce lay on the bed. His eyes were
closed, he was resting. Soon, he would rest in peace for all
eternity, and he knew it. "...sleep when I'm dead..." he mumbled
quietly under his breath.
With a soft creak, the door to the room opened, and a soft, feminine
form stood in the doorway. A few moments later, the door closed, but
this time the woman was inside the room, her eyes running over St
John's body.
He didn't hear her enter. He was half-asleep and mildly delirious
with a low fever. He flinched when her soft lips touched his
forehead, and his eyes opened. "Mystique --" he whispered, and heard
how his words were a bare croak from his dry throat.
"Shhh", she murmured, and placed a fingertip over his lips. "No
words. Not tonight." Her hot breath tickled his face, and he obeyed,
not saying anything. His eyes went to her body, as she unclasped the
collar around her neck, and let her white dress collapse and pool down
at her feet.
***
"You all right?"
"Hnh?" Dominic Petros looked up from staring at the sealed envelope he
had been holding ever since Mystique had gone upstairs over an hour
ago. and into the eyes of Frank Bohannan. "I -- yeah", he nodded
slowly.
"Here", Frank said, and poured a mug of beer, then placed it in front
of Dominic on the counter. "Have a beer. It'll lift your spirits,
maybe."
"No thanks -- I'm not in the mood", Dominic replied, and with a sigh,
fiddled with the envelope in his fingers. "Do you have a letter
opener? Or a knife, anything over there behind the counter?"
"Here's a knife", Frank said, taking a knife and handing it to his
friend.
"Thanks", Dominic nodded, as he took the blade, and then started
slowly opening the envelope with it. Within a few moments, he had it
open, and a key fell out of it onto the counter. Dominic quirked an
eyebrow at the key, and then pulled an accompanying piece of paper
from within the envelope.
A few moments passed, as Avalanche unfolded the piece of paper, and
then took a look at it.
His eyes suddenly widened at the three words scribed onto the paper in
Mystique's beautiful handwriting. His mouth fell open, and his heart
skipped a beat, his head starting to feel dizzy. His gaze briefly
went over the post scriptum, and then, without a word, he grabbed the
key from the counter, and hopped off the barstool, running towards the
front door.
Frank and several others blinked at Dominic's reaction. "Hey,
where're ya --" the Blob started, but before he got to finish the
sentence, Dominic Petros was already out the front door which was left
open behind him. He would be back one day.
Silently, Frank Bohannan lifted up the piece of paper which had fallen
onto the counter from Dominic's fingers, and let his eyes read thru
the message.
/Helen has awakened./
/P.S. The key is for the Jeep outside. Happy Valentine's Day./
Outside, there was the sound of an engine roaring to life, then the
screech of tires against asphalt. Frank smiled slightly as he folded
the piece of paper back up, placed it back inside the envelope, and
listened the Jeep drive off.
***
"Wake up, Ged", Maria Muradyan called out to her sleeping husband on
the back seat, and then suddenly her eyes widened and she slammed down
the brakes as a Jeep screeched out of the parking lot of the old /Bar
with No Name/, right in front of her. She gasped in relief as she
managed to stop her Honda just barely with mere feet to spare before
it would have run right into the Jeep and doubtless killed the
reckless driver.
"Of all the stupid --" she whispered, and then quickly looked over her
shoulder. "Ged?? Ged, you okay back there?"
A faint groan was the immediate answer, followed after a few moments
by, "I'm okay, honey -- just hit my head -- what happened --?" Gedrick
Muradyan pulled himself up into a sitting position while rubbing his
head with one hand and blinking his sleepy eyes. "Are we home --?"
"No", Maria answered quietly as she stared thru the windshield. "I
almost ran into a car pulling out of the /Bar with No Name/...and
there's a huge hole in the bar's wall..."
"What?" Ged blinked and leaned over between the two front seats,
trying to see the bar thru the windshield himself. "Oh my god, you're
right -- what the hell's happened??"
***
"WOO-HOO! Way ta go!" Blob yelled.
Eileen kicked her leg up higher as she tabledanced up a storm. Her
sense of balance hadn't exactly recuperated yet, and she stumbled
every now and then, but she didn't care. She just wanted to be the
center of the attention for one night, making people smile and love
her, and that's all that mattered -- belonging.
"Get your eyes away from there", Carmella whispered into Fred's ear,
and pulled his face to nuzzle her chest with a mischievous smirk.
"You've got better things to attend to..."
Rogue sighed quietly to herself. "That girl cain't hold her
liquor..." she just whispered under her breath while watching Eileen
dance, feeling pain in her heart, out of sympathy for the blonde,
whose head she had just been in -- Rogue knew the secret pains and
agonies of Eileen Harsaw -- everything that made her do this. And
even furthermore -- Rogue knew she might never be able to be like
that.
"I think maybe she can", came Julia's voice beside Rogue. "She just
doesn't want to." Julia Carpenter touched a fingertip to the corner of
her eye, rubbing slightly. "At least she's happy."
"Is she?" Rogue asked softly.
***
"Do you feel like you belong here?"
"Don't know", Post answered. "Tough to make that call after such a
short time. How about you?"
Calvin Rankin finished his glass of cider, and placed the empty glass
back down onto the counter. "The same. They've got so much history
behind them -- like the Toad. When we were at Alcatraz, trained by
Xavier, I thought he was just a blithering idiot -- but I'm told it's
some kind of a mental condition -- he slides between a complete
imbecile and an eloquent intellectual... There's just so much that I
don't know about these people, and I feel like an outsider."
"It's always like that in the beginning", Tremain answered as he drank
from his mug of beer. "I didn't know anyone when Onslaught recruited
me. But if you let that stop you, you'll never get to know anyone in
the first place. Me, I'm ready to give these people a shot. Hell,
I'm not going to Magneto."
"Me neither..." Mimic sighed a bit, and flexed his angelic wings
slightly. "I'm just longing for some --"
"WHAT THE HELL --??"
The Brotherhood turned to look towards the front door. Gedrick and
Maria Muradyan stood there, wide-eyed and tense, gaping at this
assemblage of monsters. A fat giant. A cybernetic man. A
blue-skinned technological horror. A bearded angel. A six-armed
warrior woman. A humanoid pterodactyl. "Some kind of mutants --!"
Ged said, starting to back off slowly. "Run, Maria, I'll try to hold
them --!"
"Don't let them get away!" the Toad shouted. "If they'll alert the
authorities, we'll have Sentinels or worse on our backs within the
hour --!"
"Oh, great!" Rogue hissed, and with a CRASH!, the Coke glass in her
hand shattered into hundreds of little fragments. "Does it always
have ta be like this --!"
"They will be dealt with in 1.023 seconds", Post reported, as the
techno-organic mini-cannons hovering in the air over his shoulders
started powering up again. Then, a blaze of crimson energy erupted
from them, and towards the front door.
SHOOM!
"NO!" Rogue yelled, and jumped right into the path of the blasts. One
clipped her hip, ricocheting off it, but the other hit her clear in
the torso, slamming her backwards towards the front door. She managed
to use her flight ability a tiny bit to adjust her trajectory so she
didn't hit the gatecrashers but instead crashed onto the wall beside
the front door. "Run! Ah'll try ta hold 'em --!" she wheezed while
clutching her chest which felt like it was on fire.
"Flatscan-lover", Carmella Unuscione hissed, and pounced up from
Fred's lap, only to activate her psionic exo-skeleton, lashing out
with the translucent forcefield, shaping it like a fist and smashing
it forwards like a piledriver.
SMASHH!
Rogue was smashed out of the bar right thru the wall, landing on the
lawn outside the bar, her head spinning, her side aching like an
elephant had fallen onto her. (( This is gonna hurt -- )) she thought
while trying to draw air into her lungs amidst spitting little
droplets of blood from her mouth.
***
"Not so fast!" Julia Carpenter shouted as she leaped to the ceiling,
clinging to it with her spider-powers, and concentrated to project a
psionic web covering the front door and the two holes in the wall.
"Calm down, we can work this out without anyone getting killed!"
"That paltry web can't stop a teleporter --"
PLINK!
"Damn it! Spiral, get back here!" Commando yelled over the chaos.
"Spider-Woman's right, we won't have to kill anyone --!"
"An' if we want to?" the Blob's voice boomed as his massive bulk
suddenly loomed behind Crimson Commando, casting a shadow over the
WWII veteran.
Frank Bohannan slowly turned his head to look over his shoulder and up
at Fred's face. (( Uh-oh. This is going to get ugly. ))
***
PLINK!
"Spiral, no!" Rogue gasped desperately, forcing herself onto her feet
as the six-armed sorceress began an eerily beautiful dance.
"No to what, X-Man?" Spiral answered, as she completed her dance, and
magical energy bands materialized out of nowhere around Maria
Muradyan's legs, causing her to stumble forward and fall to the
ground. The next instant, two of her arms snaked around Gedrick's
waist, another two grabbed his arms, and a fifth one brought a blade
to the man's throat.
"Don' kill...'em!" Rogue cried out softly with the last ounces of her
strength, trying to get Spiral to talk -- get some time to clear her
head, so she could save the civilians...
***
Sauron crossed his arms silently over his chest, and simply watched
the chaos, as Commando faced against the Blob, Mimic tried to calm
Post down, Phantazia tried to clear her head from all the alcohol to
realize what was going on, and Unuscione turned her angry eyes towards
Spider-Woman. The pterodactyl-man had no intention of engaging in
pointless fighting. And then, his choice became moot anyway.
"STOP IT!" the Toad yelled as he hopped onto the bar counter, his
shrill voice ringing thru the bar. "We won't have to kill anyone, all
right? We will just hold them here until morning, and then let them
go when we leave!" His eyes turned towards Spider-Woman, and narrowed
a bit. "Is that acceptable? It'll have to be, because if it isn't,
we're going to have to fight. And you'll lose."
Julia Carpenter swallowed briefly, and then her thoughts went to the
medallion hanging from her neck. Rachel. Her dear, dear daughter.
Julia was not going to let her grow up without a mother. She wasn't
going to get herself killed, when giving up a little bit could save
everyone. "All right", she said quietly. "You promise they won't be
hurt?"
"You have my word", Mortimer Toynbee said sincerely. "Now dissolve
the webs."
Spider-Woman took a deep breath, and then looked towards the door and
holes in the wall. With but a thought from her, the psionic webs
dissolved into thin air, and she hung her head limply downwards while
hanging from the ceiling.
***
Maria Muradyan was terrified. She was lying on the ground, she
couldn't move her legs, and her husband was about to have his throat
cut by some six-armed freak. Her heart was pounding, trying to leap
out of her chest. Her blood was rushing in her ears, thick with
adrenaline and fear. Her muscles were tense, sizzling and tingling
like they were about to explode, like there was something building
within her that desperately needed release --
"You should know better than that, X-Man", Spiral sneered at Rogue.
"I don't kill without a --"
BUH-WHOOM!
Her flesh turned translucent bright glowing green, like a light-up
action figure, or an X-ray shot, with her skeleton visible inside her
glowing flesh. Vicious energy exploded from Maria Muradyan, 19 years
old.
Maria Muradyan, seamstress.
Maria Muradyan, newlywed.
Maria Muradyan, mutant.
Maria Muradyan, unconscious.
The ground was charred at ground zero, smoldering around Maria's
unconscious body. Spiral was several dozen feet away, knocked out
from the force of the explosion, lying underneath the charred remnants
of what had shielded her from the worst of it.
Gedrick Muradyan, deceased.
***
"What was that?" Calvin Rankin asked, his head snapping towards one of
the holes in the wall thru which a flash of green light had lit up the
bar momentarily.
"Rankin, Carpenter -- with me!" Commando said sharply. "The rest of
you -- stay put!" He rushed towards the door, only to stop dead in his
tracks at the sight greeting him at the doorway.
The brunette woman was lying immobile in a small crater, like a bomb
had went off right where she was. At the edges of the crater were
Rogue and Spiral, both immobile as well, and a blackened corpse atop
Spiral. Commando winced, then steeled his expression, and walked out
of the bar and towards the crater.
"My god!" Julia whispered as she made it to the doorway and saw the
same sight. "Oh my god..."
Calvin gritted his teeth and looked away.
***
"Yoah name's Maria?"
"Maria Mu--" She paused, and rubbed her reddened eyes amidst a sob.
"It's not true -- tell me it isn't true --"
Rogue looked over to Julia with an agonized expression, and received a
reassuring, sympathetic nod from the older woman that helped her go
ahead. "Maria --" Rogue bit her lip, and the rest came out in a
shuddering breath. "Ah'm *so* sorry, honey --!"
"No! No..." Maria sobbed, concealing her face in her hands as her
shoulders shook uncontrollably. "It's all my fault -- all my fault
for -- for not telling him --!"
"No, honey -- 't ain't your fault -- how could it be your fault?"
Rogue whispered as she placed a hand onto Maria's shoulder, giving a
little squeeze.
"I -- I didn't tell him I was a mutant... If I'd have told
him...maybe he'd have left me...and lived..." Maria took a deep
breath, swallowed, and looked up to Rogue's eyes as tears streamed
down her cheeks. "How'm I going to keep on going without him --??"
"I have an offer to make."
Everyone's heads turned towards Mystique as the blue-skinned woman was
suddenly sitting on a barstool, sipping a Kir. No one had noticed her
come down from upstairs. "You're a mutant", she said with a
matter-of-fact tone. "Your husband will be identified as having been
killed by a mutant. The government will find out about your powers,
and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law. No reputable
lawyer will defend you. You will be shipped off to some government
laboratory --"
"Mystique!" Rogue snapped. "What're ya tryin' ta do?! She's
terrified enuff without ya paintin' up the worst-case-scenario for
her!"
"Worst-case?" Eileen asked. "It might be 'worst-case', Rogue, BUT IT
HAPPENS!" She tossed an empty whiskey shot glass against a wall,
shattering it to pieces. "It happened to me! Mutants don't get
justice in this country, and if you're trying to pretend otherwise, go
ahead, but don't blame us for being awake and having our eyes open to
reality!"
"You're tryin' ta recruit her! That's what this is all about, ain't
it Momma?" Rogue said, taking a threatening step towards Mystique.
"Yoah tryin' ta recruit her to your dirty little Brotherhood!"
"Why you little --!" the Blob started, taking a step towards Rogue.
"Stand back, Fred!" Mystique said in a tone that could bring ice to
the tropic. Then, she slid off her barstool gracefully, and walked
towards Rogue. "You know I'm right, Rogue", she said softly. "She
won't get any justice from US law. The best -- the only choice for
her right now, is to hide from that law, at least until things cool
down."
"Hidin' ain't the answer --!" Rogue started.
"Then why are the X-Men's base and identities secret?" Toad simply
asked in retaliation. "Admit it, Rogue -- you and the other X-Men are
hiding from the law every bit as much as Mystique is offering to the
young lady here."
Rogue bit her lip, and then looked from the Toad's eyes, to
Mystique's. "Ah won't let ya take her, Momma", she said strongly.
"This isn't about 'taking' anyone", Maria interjected with a little
sniffle. "I make my own choices." She turned her eyes away as she
felt everyone looking at her, trying to stare at the jukebox. "What
can you offer me, 'Rogue'?"
"Ah -- Ah know of a place...a school...where mutants can learn ta
control their powers..." Rogue said, a bit tentatively.
Maria nodded quietly, and then looked to Mystique. "And you?"
"I can also teach you to control your powers", Mystique said smoothly.
"I also have contacts in the intelligence field and I might be able to
have the records of this incident 'disappear' after the initial heat
cools down."
"We might be able ta do that, too", Rogue said.
"If she plays a nice little thunderbolt and goes into the hero game
with the X-Men so she can get a pardon", Mystique retorted. "Nice
blackmail, Rogue. The apple hasn't fallen far from the tree..."
Rogue's expression turned angry. "Ah'm not blackmailin' her!" she
snarled. "But people cain't get pardons 'less they do something
good...Ah think."
Mystique rolled her eyes quietly, and then just turned to look at
Maria. "I ask nothing of you, Maria. No heroing around, no
accompanying me in my...line of work." She made a slight motion around
the bar, at the members of the Brotherhood. "This is the Brotherhood
that I created, Maria. If you want, you can be a part of it. If you
don't -- you are free to walk away any time you wish."
"Any time I want?" Maria asked, a bit suspiciously. "No strings
attached?"
"Ask Rogue here", Mystique smiled confidently, turning her eyes to her
foster daughter. "She was with us once. She wanted to leave, so I
let her." She held a little pause, and then asked, "Am I lying,
Rogue?"
Rogue gritted her teeth for a moment, and then turned away with a
wrinkle of her nose. "No, she ain't lyin'", she said quietly.
"She'll care about ya, an' keep ya safe, an' she'll let you go if'n ya
wanna go..." She closed her eyes, and then opened them again, turning
to face Mystique with slightly moist eyes. "Please don't do this,
Momma?"
"We both know it's the best thing for Maria", Mystique said, brushing
a gloved hand over Rogue's cheek. "I raised you well enough, didn't
I?"
Rogue took a deep breath, and then looked over to Maria. "She's
right... Just...just don't ever think that bein' with her's the only
way...there's always another way if'n ya don't want t' do what she'll
ask of you -- the X-Men..." She looked to Mystique, and asked, "Ya'll
promise to get her in touch with the X-Men if she asks?"
"You have my word, Rogue", Mystique said affectionately.
"All right", Rogue said, lowering her eyes to the floor. "Ah'm gonna
leave." She glanced towards the door, then to Maria. "Take care,
Maria." Then, her eyes went to Mystique. "Love ya, Momma." With that,
she flew out one of the holes in the wall, and within seconds was a
dot in the sky.
Mystique looked over to Maria, and extended her hand towards the young
girl. "We'd better leave, too. I know a place nearby where you can
catch some sleep."
Maria took a deep breath, and then stood up, her legs shaking
underneath her. Tentatively, her fingers touched Mystique's gloved
hand, and then their hands gripped each other firmly.
"Ya goin' already, Misty?" Fred asked, lighting a cigar.
"Always and never, Fred", Mystique replied, glancing over her shoulder
at him from the door. "I'll always be going somewhere, but I'll never
leave you. You're my team", she said, letting her eyes go over each
member of the Brotherhood. "My family." With that, she and Maria
Muradyan walked out of the /Bar with No Name/.
***
Upstairs, unaware of it all, St John Allerdyce slept peacefully for
the first time in over a year. His sweaty, virus-scarred chest went
up and down as he breathed steadily, a small smile on his face.
A piece of paper was on the nightstand beside the bed. Folded neatly
by delicate fingers and placed to stand up, it held the same beautiful
handwriting Dominic had read earlier tonight.
/I'll never see you again before you're cured or dead./
/Happy Valentine's Day./
/We'll always have Muir./
"...and the best of friends to do so with", the dying man mumbled in
his sleep as he dreamt of Reavers and deaths and blue skin and last
words and smiles.
***
As the sun broke over the horizon in the east, there was a screech of
tires as a Jeep pulled up to the parking lot of a hospital. Dominic
Petros leaped out of the car, a feverish look in his eyes as he ran
towards the front doors of the hospital. His eyes had bags under
them. His face was rugged, unshaven. His gaze, feverish, obsessed.
The security guards at the doors blinked at him. The nurses, doctors,
patients and visitors he passed in the sanitized corridors, looked at
him curiously. Cold sweat made him tense. Hyperventilation made him
dizzy. Running made his heart pound and blood rush in his ears. He
slammed the door open. "Helen!?!"
"Dominic!" The woman lying on the sickbed sat up suddenly, her face
lighting up. "Oh, Dominic! You're here!"
"I told you I'd never leave you", he whispered, a stunned look on his
face as he walked over to the bed. Then, his face constricted into an
agonized expression, and he put his arms around her, sobbing as he
held her tighter than he had ever held her. "God -- thank you, God!"
he whimpered. "I thought I'd lost you forever when I collapsed the
house on you --"
"I won't ever leave you either, Dominic", she whispered softly, and
pulled back slightly to touch her lips to his. "The doctors have told
me I've been in a coma ever since --" She swallowed a bit, and
caressed his cheeks gently. "Have you -- have you -- moved on with
your life?"
"I will never love anyone except you, Helen", he murmured against her
lips. "I have always loved you, and you alone. I always will. In
sickness and in health."
She smiled and rested her forehead against his. "For better or for
worse. I love you too, my angel."
"Happy Valentine's Day, my Heaven. You are where I belong", Dominic
Petros said as he pulled his wife into their first kiss in years.
***
Outside the hospital room, Doctor Nathan Milbury smiled to himself,
and then started walking off. (( You owe me, Mystique. And I will
come collect nine months from now... ))
