Disclaimer: Okay, okay, OKAY! I admit it. They aren't mine! They're Marvel's. Well, all but the main character, Logan, Peggy, and the twins. You can't have them! The island of Guam is a U.S. territory.
Heir
She was exhausted. They had found her, and she couldn't let them take her family from her. She was the eldest, sworn to protect them by her brother's death wish. And they had been found.
She stood in the mouth of the cave, her clothes dirty and torn, her siblings threatened into obedience under the watchful eye of her younger brother Logan, the second oldest. He had them playing the quiet game, something she had been taught when she was their age, and her older brother watched her and her younger brother while their parents talked over what to do next. The others hadn't been born yet.
It was the perfect game for them, the quiet game. The object was to be the last one not moving. You could go into whatever position you felt like, eyes open or closed, and the person that was it tried to make you move. You couldn't so much as smile at anything the it person was doing. She had mastered the game years ago, and nothing could make her move if she chose it, eyes open or closed.
Now, as she guarded the opening, dusk began to fall. Outside, the men that pinned them there waited and watched. They had no guns, for which she was thankful, but they wanted them to come out. To come out and be caught. To be caught and to be killed.
Her thoughts moved sluggishly and a haze filled her mind. They had been nearly twelve hours in this cave with no food or water. They had no light, and it would be easy to sneak up on them in the dark. All day she had pondered what to do. If they were taken by force someone might get hurt. If they used their Inheritances, they might get caught. If they surrendered, they might get separated. Right now, surrendering sounded like the best idea.
She had often heard her father's lectures on their Inheritances. In fact, she and her brother who was only four years younger than her had been trained in how to use them without hurting themselves or others. However, only they and her older brother Jacque had that expert training. The others had been born too late, and only had what meager help she had been able to give with their Inheritances.
Things had been different since they went to Uncle Xavier's funeral. Mother had not wanted to go, Daddy cajoled her into it. Mother didn't like her Inheritance. She hated it. She didn't use it at all anymore, not since Jacque had been conceived. Not since she had learned how to control it. She didn't want to be reminded by all her old friends what she had once been, what she really was. She knew, Mother had told her, confided in her because she was a big girl of ten. She had liked it, liked that Mother talked to her like an adult. Now the secret weighed painfully on her, as it had since Mother died with her old friends at the funeral. Big robots had come from the sky and destroyed everything, including the beautiful big mansion that the funeral was taking place in.
The rest of her family had escaped by default. They were at the hospital to get baby Peggy, born premature two weeks earlier, released to Daddy. They were to go up to join Mother in thirty minutes so she could have some quality time with her old friends. When they went up to the mansion, it was gone. There was just one big, black hole.
Daddy took them away, made them move to an island in the Pacific Ocean. They had been on airplanes for hours when they reached Guam. Daddy worked at a local convenience store and they slept by the beach in two tents. It was always warm, so sleeping outside was no problem except when a typhoon came along. Then they moved into town and rented an hotel room. It was cramped but better than being blown away by hurricane winds.
A part of the reason she was having trouble thinking straight had to do with the fact that her dear Daddy and older brother Jacque were dead. It was hard for her to believe, but she had seen them die for herself, Daddy throwing the decks of playing cards he always carried, using his Inheritance on them so they exploded in the faces of the police, Jacque grabbing Peggy and yelling at them to leave, thrusting the youngest child in her arms and shoving her away, shouting at her to take care of them, Logan leading the twins and her following, looking back, seeing Jacque join Daddy with his own Inheritance, watching the police spray the area with bullets where the two men covered their retreat.
She shuddered, wrapping her arms around her shoulders. It got cool at night, seventy degrees, a sharp contrast to the daily eighty plus. The men were setting up lights.
The cave was damp and they had no food or water inside it. She made a mental note to herself to never hole up in a cave again unless it had a few creature comforts.
Again she shivered and Logan came out to stand by her. He put his arm around her shoulders and she leaned into the crook of his arm where it was warmer.
Logan was four years younger than her, tall and handsome with his father's dark hair and mother's green eyes. He was young and vulnerable, she thought looking up at him in the dusk, we all are. We have to make it out of here. I have to give them a chance to live free.
It had been her Daddy's dream. To live free. He taught them to steal. He taught them to move soundlessly. He had taught them to pick locks. He had taught them to use their Inheritances. Daddy had taught them how to survive.
She knew why he had brought them to this island, but at the moment she cursed it. He had thought that the robots wouldn't ever reach here. He had thought that they could perhaps follow the dream. It hadn't worked. He was dead. Jacque was dead. She had to lead the family.
And she was trapped because she didn't have space to go anywhere. The airports were watched, anyway she didn't have any money to buy plane tickets with or their passports. The island was only ten miles by thirty. Most of it was uninhabitable jungle. She had to be near people and civilization for food and water. She felt like the mother in the what if question. What if you had three children ages eight, five, and one. There was a fire and you could only save one. Which would it be?
The jungle was soon to be lit up. She looked up at Logan again and whispered, "What about the children?"
"They're sleeping," he answered.
She sighed. Trapped, trapped and hunted like animals. With her Inheritance she could sense them out there, waiting.
"Come with me," she told him. He nodded, his face just a dark blur, and they went inside.
"Brian? Megan? Wake up," she said. She felt the ground for their bodies. Finding one of them she shook it by the shoulders, knocking the other twin off of its pillow. "Mmmph," moaned both children. "Brian, wake up. It's important. Megan? Get up, sweetie. "
The last word reminded her painfully of her mother. Mother had always said "Sugah." Blinking back unexpected tears, Mother had died three years ago, she continued.
"You both up?" With muttered affirmations, she moved on. "Logan, listen up. We're going to go out and give in to the bad guys. Do not use your Inheritance no matter what. Do not. They will kill you if you do."
She knew for certain they would, or worse, if they found out what the family was. They had done it to Daddy and they wouldn't hesitate to do it again.
"I need you two to listen carefully. Daddy is not coming back. He's dead."
She hadn't told the children before because she couldn't bear it. She had skirted the edges, and now as she said it she wished she hadn't. Logan had known, but the others hadn't. Tears flowed down her cheeks as two small hands gripped her own and she leaned down and hugged them both.
"They killed him. So keep quiet and don't use your Inheritances at all. Even if we get split up, I'll get us back together, so don't worry. Okay?" They murmured yes. "Where's Peggy?" she asked.
"I have her," Logan said.
"Okay, let's go and remember, stay quiet. Do not answer any of their questions, even if you're alone. Come on."
Bravely she stepped into the bright searchlights outside, one twin on each hand, Logan at her shoulder holding a sleeping Peggy. Nearly blinded, she moved away from the mouth of the cave, scanning with her telepathy Inheritance but sensing nothing useful. The twin crowded her and Logan was nearly touching her from behind, he was so close. Her head ached and her legs trembled. Still, she had to be calm and lead the others.
"Um, can you help us? Our Daddy's dead," her voice broke and she started to sob softly. She projected the words just in case they hadn't heard her.
Here her acting classes would come into play, but she wondered how much would be acting and how much would be real. She allowed her knees to collapse beneath her, her dark skunk striped hair falling in her face and covering her black on green eyes.
The twins immediately crouched beside her and Logan stood at her back, all of them silent but worried. She hadn't told them about this part. She knew she looked the part, they all did, of grief stricken and worried and frightened.
"Please," she called, "We're sorry for hiding, but we were scared."
Out of nowhere came black blurs, gathering the twins off to one side, Logan and Peggy to the other and focusing on her, poor collapsed her. She sobbed harder, real tears running down her cheeks, shivering violently so that her teeth chattered. Her Inheritance started to get out of control and she couldn't stop it. Thoughts that weren't hers filled her head.
They put her in an ambulance and took her to the hospital. She kept acting the entire way. It felt good to be warm and in the light and on a soft bed. Once in the hospital she was examined by a doctor, but by then she found that she couldn't quit crying. She knew she would really make herself sick, but that didn't matter. They gave her some drugs, and she fell into a drowse, her Inheritance impressing on her what was going on around her.
It was bad. Real bad. They knew, or they guessed from the passports left in the tents or one of the children had talked. They were to be sent to another island called Genosha, or something like that. It was bad. She couldn't do anything about it. They knew that her family were mutants, that she was a mutant. Her parents had been famous, her Inheritance told her through dreams, and all of them looked too much like her dead folks to be anything but their children. The children that had inherited their parents' genes.
She came alert enough to notice when a big heavy collar was snapped around her neck, then her Inheritance stopped working. It was as if she had been blinded. She realized that she used her Inheritance heavily unconsciously, perhaps more heavily than she should have. She moved to take it off, but she was given more sedatives and fell into darkness, darkness that plagued her the rest of her life.
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Heir
She was exhausted. They had found her, and she couldn't let them take her family from her. She was the eldest, sworn to protect them by her brother's death wish. And they had been found.
She stood in the mouth of the cave, her clothes dirty and torn, her siblings threatened into obedience under the watchful eye of her younger brother Logan, the second oldest. He had them playing the quiet game, something she had been taught when she was their age, and her older brother watched her and her younger brother while their parents talked over what to do next. The others hadn't been born yet.
It was the perfect game for them, the quiet game. The object was to be the last one not moving. You could go into whatever position you felt like, eyes open or closed, and the person that was it tried to make you move. You couldn't so much as smile at anything the it person was doing. She had mastered the game years ago, and nothing could make her move if she chose it, eyes open or closed.
Now, as she guarded the opening, dusk began to fall. Outside, the men that pinned them there waited and watched. They had no guns, for which she was thankful, but they wanted them to come out. To come out and be caught. To be caught and to be killed.
Her thoughts moved sluggishly and a haze filled her mind. They had been nearly twelve hours in this cave with no food or water. They had no light, and it would be easy to sneak up on them in the dark. All day she had pondered what to do. If they were taken by force someone might get hurt. If they used their Inheritances, they might get caught. If they surrendered, they might get separated. Right now, surrendering sounded like the best idea.
She had often heard her father's lectures on their Inheritances. In fact, she and her brother who was only four years younger than her had been trained in how to use them without hurting themselves or others. However, only they and her older brother Jacque had that expert training. The others had been born too late, and only had what meager help she had been able to give with their Inheritances.
Things had been different since they went to Uncle Xavier's funeral. Mother had not wanted to go, Daddy cajoled her into it. Mother didn't like her Inheritance. She hated it. She didn't use it at all anymore, not since Jacque had been conceived. Not since she had learned how to control it. She didn't want to be reminded by all her old friends what she had once been, what she really was. She knew, Mother had told her, confided in her because she was a big girl of ten. She had liked it, liked that Mother talked to her like an adult. Now the secret weighed painfully on her, as it had since Mother died with her old friends at the funeral. Big robots had come from the sky and destroyed everything, including the beautiful big mansion that the funeral was taking place in.
The rest of her family had escaped by default. They were at the hospital to get baby Peggy, born premature two weeks earlier, released to Daddy. They were to go up to join Mother in thirty minutes so she could have some quality time with her old friends. When they went up to the mansion, it was gone. There was just one big, black hole.
Daddy took them away, made them move to an island in the Pacific Ocean. They had been on airplanes for hours when they reached Guam. Daddy worked at a local convenience store and they slept by the beach in two tents. It was always warm, so sleeping outside was no problem except when a typhoon came along. Then they moved into town and rented an hotel room. It was cramped but better than being blown away by hurricane winds.
A part of the reason she was having trouble thinking straight had to do with the fact that her dear Daddy and older brother Jacque were dead. It was hard for her to believe, but she had seen them die for herself, Daddy throwing the decks of playing cards he always carried, using his Inheritance on them so they exploded in the faces of the police, Jacque grabbing Peggy and yelling at them to leave, thrusting the youngest child in her arms and shoving her away, shouting at her to take care of them, Logan leading the twins and her following, looking back, seeing Jacque join Daddy with his own Inheritance, watching the police spray the area with bullets where the two men covered their retreat.
She shuddered, wrapping her arms around her shoulders. It got cool at night, seventy degrees, a sharp contrast to the daily eighty plus. The men were setting up lights.
The cave was damp and they had no food or water inside it. She made a mental note to herself to never hole up in a cave again unless it had a few creature comforts.
Again she shivered and Logan came out to stand by her. He put his arm around her shoulders and she leaned into the crook of his arm where it was warmer.
Logan was four years younger than her, tall and handsome with his father's dark hair and mother's green eyes. He was young and vulnerable, she thought looking up at him in the dusk, we all are. We have to make it out of here. I have to give them a chance to live free.
It had been her Daddy's dream. To live free. He taught them to steal. He taught them to move soundlessly. He had taught them to pick locks. He had taught them to use their Inheritances. Daddy had taught them how to survive.
She knew why he had brought them to this island, but at the moment she cursed it. He had thought that the robots wouldn't ever reach here. He had thought that they could perhaps follow the dream. It hadn't worked. He was dead. Jacque was dead. She had to lead the family.
And she was trapped because she didn't have space to go anywhere. The airports were watched, anyway she didn't have any money to buy plane tickets with or their passports. The island was only ten miles by thirty. Most of it was uninhabitable jungle. She had to be near people and civilization for food and water. She felt like the mother in the what if question. What if you had three children ages eight, five, and one. There was a fire and you could only save one. Which would it be?
The jungle was soon to be lit up. She looked up at Logan again and whispered, "What about the children?"
"They're sleeping," he answered.
She sighed. Trapped, trapped and hunted like animals. With her Inheritance she could sense them out there, waiting.
"Come with me," she told him. He nodded, his face just a dark blur, and they went inside.
"Brian? Megan? Wake up," she said. She felt the ground for their bodies. Finding one of them she shook it by the shoulders, knocking the other twin off of its pillow. "Mmmph," moaned both children. "Brian, wake up. It's important. Megan? Get up, sweetie. "
The last word reminded her painfully of her mother. Mother had always said "Sugah." Blinking back unexpected tears, Mother had died three years ago, she continued.
"You both up?" With muttered affirmations, she moved on. "Logan, listen up. We're going to go out and give in to the bad guys. Do not use your Inheritance no matter what. Do not. They will kill you if you do."
She knew for certain they would, or worse, if they found out what the family was. They had done it to Daddy and they wouldn't hesitate to do it again.
"I need you two to listen carefully. Daddy is not coming back. He's dead."
She hadn't told the children before because she couldn't bear it. She had skirted the edges, and now as she said it she wished she hadn't. Logan had known, but the others hadn't. Tears flowed down her cheeks as two small hands gripped her own and she leaned down and hugged them both.
"They killed him. So keep quiet and don't use your Inheritances at all. Even if we get split up, I'll get us back together, so don't worry. Okay?" They murmured yes. "Where's Peggy?" she asked.
"I have her," Logan said.
"Okay, let's go and remember, stay quiet. Do not answer any of their questions, even if you're alone. Come on."
Bravely she stepped into the bright searchlights outside, one twin on each hand, Logan at her shoulder holding a sleeping Peggy. Nearly blinded, she moved away from the mouth of the cave, scanning with her telepathy Inheritance but sensing nothing useful. The twin crowded her and Logan was nearly touching her from behind, he was so close. Her head ached and her legs trembled. Still, she had to be calm and lead the others.
"Um, can you help us? Our Daddy's dead," her voice broke and she started to sob softly. She projected the words just in case they hadn't heard her.
Here her acting classes would come into play, but she wondered how much would be acting and how much would be real. She allowed her knees to collapse beneath her, her dark skunk striped hair falling in her face and covering her black on green eyes.
The twins immediately crouched beside her and Logan stood at her back, all of them silent but worried. She hadn't told them about this part. She knew she looked the part, they all did, of grief stricken and worried and frightened.
"Please," she called, "We're sorry for hiding, but we were scared."
Out of nowhere came black blurs, gathering the twins off to one side, Logan and Peggy to the other and focusing on her, poor collapsed her. She sobbed harder, real tears running down her cheeks, shivering violently so that her teeth chattered. Her Inheritance started to get out of control and she couldn't stop it. Thoughts that weren't hers filled her head.
They put her in an ambulance and took her to the hospital. She kept acting the entire way. It felt good to be warm and in the light and on a soft bed. Once in the hospital she was examined by a doctor, but by then she found that she couldn't quit crying. She knew she would really make herself sick, but that didn't matter. They gave her some drugs, and she fell into a drowse, her Inheritance impressing on her what was going on around her.
It was bad. Real bad. They knew, or they guessed from the passports left in the tents or one of the children had talked. They were to be sent to another island called Genosha, or something like that. It was bad. She couldn't do anything about it. They knew that her family were mutants, that she was a mutant. Her parents had been famous, her Inheritance told her through dreams, and all of them looked too much like her dead folks to be anything but their children. The children that had inherited their parents' genes.
She came alert enough to notice when a big heavy collar was snapped around her neck, then her Inheritance stopped working. It was as if she had been blinded. She realized that she used her Inheritance heavily unconsciously, perhaps more heavily than she should have. She moved to take it off, but she was given more sedatives and fell into darkness, darkness that plagued her the rest of her life.
What do you think? Read and Review!