FoH: Forgotten Offspring Hidden
The X-Men Belong to Marvel Comics and are used without permission. No money is being made from this story, I'd loved to be hired by Marvel so I could but like that will happen… right. Graydon T. Creed Jr. is my Baby, So if you want to use him please ask, submit a blood sample and write a 1, 000,000 word explanation on what you want to do with him and then I might let you borrow him.Note: I've always wanted to write an FoH fic, I finally found the right story drifting around my mind and typed it out. I may have some more FoH fics later on.
(After a little research I found that Creed is an English and Irish Surname. Origin: English. Coat of Arms: An ermine shield with three gold leopards faces on a black chevron engrailed. Crest: An oak branch with a dove. Origin: English Spelling variations include: Creed, Creede, Crede, Cread, Creade, Creeds, Creedes and many more.
First found in Cornwall where they were seated from very ancient times, some say well before the Norman Conquest and the arrival of Duke William at Hastings in 1066 A. Some of the first settlers of this name or some of its variants were: Penelope Creed who arrived in New York in 1820; Jonathon Creed arrived in the Barbados in 1679 with his wife and daughter; Edward Creed settled in Virginia in 1663; John Creede, his wife Mary, son John, and servants arrived in the Barbados in and others. )
FoH: Forgotten offspring Hidden
By DelCreed (griffincreed@hotmail.com)
Started on: October 19, 2002
Finished on: October 20, 2002
New York:
The sirens screamed loudly along 5th Ave. as more police joined in the fight where Men dressed in outlandish clothing were firing on their fellow officers from behind barricades, with strange beams, rays and lasers of all colors. The battle between these mutants and the NYPD was heating up when a young Officer saw a chance to stop two of the lead attackers. The officer was a rookie just out of the academy, he crept up on the two exposed men only to be taken out by a third he hadn't seen and the three strangely dressed men closed in around him.
"This the guy?" One asked as his cohort turned the young man face up to look down at the Officer's name tag and face.
"Ya this is the man we were sent for, grab him and signal the others to beat it back into the sewers. After we get away set off all the flash bombs to buy us some time." The Officer was lifted onto the burly man's shoulders and carried down into the city's sewer system.
*
X-Mansion: Later the same day.
The X-Men sat watching the news reports for the day on the large monitor in the War room; seats were limited with most of the X-Men there, with some of the members of the visiting group X-Factor joining them too. Creed, in his inhabitation collar, sat slumped in his seat next to Forge still sulking because of his inability to get a rise out of the runt and he'd been trying ever since he'd gotten to the mansion an hour ago for the cookout that was starting later on. Jubilee had taken Wolverine aside earlier and asked him to ignore Creed, she'd said that if he ignoring the savage mutant it would ticked Sabretooth off even more, and as time went on Logan saw she was right so it got easier for him to keep his promise. Scott turned up the volume and Forge hushed Creed's grumbling as a breaking news report started.
:News report:
"Today a confrontation between police and a group of unidentified mutants culminated in the detonation of several flash bombs that aided the mutants to escape from the scene." Footage caught on security videos and bystanders of the battle was spliced together to show some of the confrontation. "After the confusion was over the disappearance of a 20 year old rookie officer, Graydon T. Creed Jr., was discovered by his partner." Another block of footage showing the after affects of the battle took up the full screen of the monitor, and a man of about Scott's age was the camera's focus, he was yelling at the other officers.
"I'm telling you the kid was right beside me all the way till he saw a little girl crying for her mother out there in the open and he ran out to get her to safety, then those mutants tried to use them both for target practice. Toby had to duck behind a dumpster, that's the last I saw of him till he rushed an opening in one of the barricade and got knocked out from behind. I'm telling you they took him with them when they disappeared." The other Officers tried to calm him down. "Calm down, that's my partner who's missing!" The news anchor was back on screen.
"Our research has revealed that Officer Creed is in fact the biological son of Senator Graydon Creed," A campaign photo of Senator Graydon Creed's smiling face appeared on screen followed by some footage of him shaking hands with the president. "Sources within Senator Creed's entourage confirm that Graydon Jr. was born to a former lady friend of the Senator, who'd never reveled her pregnancy till she was diagnosed with terminal cancer when the boy was 14. After her death Senator Creed assumed custody of his son and Graydon Jr. was sent to a boarding school and later graduated top of his class at the New York police academy." The Photo of a serious young man with short Blond hair and gold eyes, took up the screen. He was formally posed in a policeman's dress blue uniform holding a cap against his chest. "No word or ransom demand has yet been received." Photos of a police station then appeared. "Shortly after the disappearance of officer Creed flags and flowers started to appear on the steps of the 9th Station. Senator Creed will be holding a press conference to respond to the kidnapping of his son, which he insists goes to prove that his stand on the dangers of mutants among us is one everyone should be embracing." The War room was silent till,
"Wow he looks like a normal skin colored, guy version of you Mystique, but with 'Tooth's coloring." Bobby pointed out in a surprised voice as he turned to the look at the stunned woman near him.
"He has a son." She whispered in shock, "But this would mean I'm a-"
"Grandma and that means Sabretooth here is a grand-" Bobby stopped what he was about to say when he found himself looking down the barrel of a laser pistol.
"Don't ever call me that again or you'll be margarita ice." Mystique threatened. Murmurs broke out in the room as everyone started to discuss what they'd just heard. Sabertooth for a change stayed silent.
'Another Creed and I'm his Grandpa… I'm some kid's grandpa. That was my grandson Graydon Jr. no his partner called him Toby, ya Toby that's a grandson kind of name.' Sabretooth shifted trying to absorb it all. 'And the kid's a cop to boot. Officer Creed, nice ring to it.' But another thought nagged at him. 'He could be dead now, and if that no good son of mine raised him he's gota be a mutant hater like his old man.' Creed shuttered like someone had walked over his grave.
"A press conference? What kind of father uses his son's kidnapping to further his stand against mutants?" Jubilee asked. Scott jumped up and slammed his fist into the open palm of his other hand.
"That it Jubes just hit the nail on the head, Creed lives to show mutants in a bad light. Mutants kidnapping 'his' son is a really good way for him to get more support for his twisted view across, but I'll bet you that those weren't mutants we saw… it was the FoH posing to look like mutants." Scott hurried to call up the footage from the battle.
"Someone having a Sherlock Holmes moment much?" Jubilee whispered to Logan. Wolverine grunted.
"ol' one-eye has a point." Logan pointed out. Soon the footage Scott had called up was being slowed down and magnified.
"Look here." Forge pointed at a burst of fire. "That's a flame thrower not a mutant manifesting his power." The others gave their comments and soon it was easy to spot the set up as a fake. "I'll email this to Agent Cooper and she can get the word out to the media, can you call up a bird's eye view of the street Cyclops? We need to figure out how they got away." Scott soon had it on screen. "Perfect, now overlay where the 'mutant' pockets were barricaded." The two maps gelled together. "Where could they have run off to hide after setting off those flash bombs?" Forge wondered a loud. Sabretooth looked at the screen and leaned closer to see the little yellow circles that appeared inside every one of the barricades.
"They didn't run off after the flash bombs, they ran down before they went boom." Everyone in the room turned to look at him.
"Ran down? What do you mean, they ran down, to where." Bishop asked. Creed smiled and looked at Gambit and Angel.
"We've all been there, haven't we boys. You both know where they went just as well as I do." Remy stiffened in his seat and Warren frowned, his hand unconsciously going behind to stroke his newly feathered wings.
"The sewers." Both men whispered in unison.
""Ya the sewers." Creed confirmed. "So now what are we going to do about it." He asked. Scott sat and started giving out assignments,
"Logan you and a small team will go to 5th Ave. and follow the fake mutants to find out where they excited the sewer system, once you reach the end of the trail call and the rest of the team will join you and-" Sabretooth cut him off,
"That's my grandson I'm the one going in there after him." Everyone was shocked, then Mystique stepped forward.
"I'm in on this too, I'll trust Vic's nose before I'd trust his." She pointed at Logan. "They have too much history between them for me to trust that he won't seek revenge by conveniently not finding any trace of that young man." Jubilee jumped up.
"Hey, Wolvie isn't like you. He has his honor and even if it was Graydon himself that got taken Wolvie would save him anyway." She defended. Forge stood,
"Enough, this arguing doesn't help save that Officer." He looked at Scott and the other man nodded. "Fine Creed and Raven will join Wolverine and whoever else is assigned to the sewer recon, any problems and you will both be pulled back." After that planning was stepped up.
****
Somewhere dark:
Toby Creed opened his eyes, but saw nothing, the room or wherever he was, was too dark for anyone to make out how it looked , he could still smell the sticky sweetness of the chloroform that had been used many times to keep him knocked out.
*flashback*
"Hay not so much, that stuff will kill him…" a voice warned.
"We aren't aloud to kill him…" Another confirmed.
"Not yet anyways." A third voices had said as he'd been dragged along someplace that smelled so foul his nose blocked up, and wherever they where it had a strange echoing sound that made their footsteps ring with every step. "But we are aloud to mark him up. It will make better pictures the boss said." Toby felt the lower part of his uniform soaked from the knee down, he groaned then and his head spun faster, but the sweet smell joined the foul again and he slipped back into darkness.
*Flashback end*
Noises came from around him and he shifted, his own groan, scurrying little feet, squeaks, and chains rattling... Chains? He slowly flexed his body. Both his wrists were heavy with metal and a tight band bit into his neck. He got to his knees and explored with his fingers, the chains attached to the wrist cuffs were bolted to the stone wall behind him, about three feet up the wall, the collar's chain was attached to the wall about a foot higher, the chains themselves were about five feet in length and left him only a little slack to be able to lay down on the rough concrete and dirt floor, there was no blanket or mat of any kind nearby and the room… cell actually, was cold and damp as if it was underground. Suddenly a bright light hit him in the eyes and Toby flinched.
"I thought I heard you moving in there." A bolt being thrown back was heard and the squeal of a rusty metal door filled the silence. Toby was shivering, his wet cloths and the chill in the room was seeping into his bones. The man, who was wearing brightly colored cloths and a full face mask, saw the shivering. "Cold hu?" Toby nodded stiffly. "This should warm you up, nothing like a good fight to get the blood flowing… ha that's a joke." Then the man's fist slammed into him and Toby hit the floor.
"Please, why are you doing this to me?" Toby asked the man who hit him several more times before he answered.
"Because I'm a mutant and I'm better then you." The man grabbed Toby by his hair and lifted his face to the light to look at the swiftly forming bruises. "Ya that will look real good." He said cryptically. "Still cold well getting out of those wet things will help you warm up, here I'll even help you." The man took out a knife and started cutting off Toby's uniform, it was difficult to work in the light form the single flashlight and Toby fought him, but after a time the uniform lay in shreds around Toby and there were many bloody cuts left behind to testify as to how the task had been done. "There no more damp cloths to chill you." The man laughed before leaving the cell and slamming the door behind him. Toby tried to collect the scraps of fabric around him but there wasn't much left that could cover anything.
'I promised mom I wouldn't do it anymore… I promised her.' Toby kept thinking over and over to himself, but the cold was worse now and he could feel the heat leaving his body. 'Mom wouldn't have wanted me to die.' He tried to reason, 'She'd understand that I need to live.' With that thought Toby did something he hadn't done in six long years … he started to used his mutant powers.
**********
The Sewers:
The small group stumbled along searching for any signs of the imposters and the missing officer.
"I got something here!" Logan called out as he held up his hand. Sabretooth bounded over and looked at the object… a hat, a police officer's cap. Logan wasn't sure but he thought he saw Creed's hand shake as he took the cap from him and hold it to his nose to try and get a sent from it.
"Irish Spring and old Spice." Creed murmured. Logan nodded.
"Ya, cop's pay doesn't buy a guy that Calvin Kline junk." Logan watched Creed stroking the cap unconsciously.
"Lets go, I got a whiff of chloroform off this way." Creed said briskly after a moment of scilence. The group moved on down the tunnel.
"Mamma," Rogue, who'd insisted on helping to look for her 'Nephew' called out to Mystique, "Cyclops says Creed is about to start his press conference, he'll patch it in on our com-links so we can hear it too." Mystique nodded but kept her eyes trained on their mission.
********
The Press conference:
The reporters jostled each other for the best positions around the platform. Graydon Creed Sr. peeked out from behind the curtain before turning to look at his assistant.
"Bates, you know when to interrupt right?" He asked the distinguished looking black man standing beside him.
"When the Q & A gets too sympathetic for the 'innocents' among the guilty mutants or things get too sticky, I'll rush in and pull you aside." Bates confirmed.
"Perfect, I think they've waited long enough." Creed started to move off, but stopped. "Bates radio Carlos and have them see to it that the bastard is photo ready for when we go in and get him out." Bates nodded as he watched Creed walk out onto the platform.
'Bastard, man from where I'm standing you're one of the coldest I've ever seen.' Bates thought before he put the call in to his buddy Carlos. "Make the kid look real good for when we come for him, I give you the signal right before we get there." Putting the cell phone away Bates went to stand behind Creed and wait for his cue.
*
"…no demand has yet arrived, but I have some of my best men out looking for my son, not to forget the fine man and women of our very own NYPD." Creed let the crowd applaud for a time, "Mutants are calculating and heartless, my son was taken from me as a pressure tactic to make me drop my position on the threat mutants mean to our lives, our families and our world. I won't be forced by this situation, if one hair has been harmed on my son's head I will call for the full extent of the law, the law that my son defends as an officer in the NYPD, to be used on his kidnappers." More cheers rang out and people started to hoist FoH banners around the conference hall. The reporters became animated.
"Senator Creed, aren't you afraid that your words might insight the mutants to harm your son even now?" One asked and then the questions started to come, inside Creed smiled as everything fell right into place as planed. That is till Agent Valerie Cooper walked in and asked him,
"Senator Creed, are you aware that the so called 'mutants' involved in this morning's confrontation weren't really mutants at all? That analysis of the footage shows it was nothing more then a light show with some flame throwers and grenades thrown in by men dressed as mutants." Creed frowned for a split second.
"Miss?" He inquired.
"Special agent Val Cooper, liaison officer to X-Factor." She smiled, "Before you even say anything about them being mutants, the video has also been examined by the FBI and they are in complete agreement that those mutants were fakes." Creed nearly growled he was so angry.
"Then where is my son?" Before Cooper could open her mouth Bates stepped up, "Yes Bates what is it?" Bates whispered into his ear. "They have!" Creed exclaimed as he hugged the man and turned smiling to the crowd, ignoring agent Cooper. "Word has just reached my assistant that they have located my son, so if you'll excuse me I must go to him." Creed rushed off with Bates next to him. As they sat alone in the car he hissed, "That bitch and her big mouth, she ruined everything. Well lets go get him, a touching family reunion just might salvage some of this fiasco."
*********
The Sewer:
"They found him! Lets get out of here… I want to see my gran- um kick Graydon's ass." Sabretooth headed for the closest manhole, and the others followed him eagerly as Logan radioed their position in to the mansion for a pick up. Within a half hour they were on their way back to the base to get cleaned up. The funny thing to Logan was that Victor still had the cap clutched to his chest… much like the kid had held it in the photo they'd all seen.
*********
In the Dark Place:
The door was still locked but the cell no longer contained a shivering member of the NYPD, in his place a sleek Lynx restlessly tried to paced the confines of the cell. Toby had shifted into the cat shape for warmth and had found that the cuffs on his wrists had fallen off easily, but the one around his neck held fast till he realized he'd have to shift into a smaller creature to remove it, the memory of the rat's surfaces and he stared to shift down. Just then the sound of foot falls reached his ears, the man was coming back and Toby decided he wasn't going to stick around to be beaten again, he finished taking his rat form and hurried to hide in the darkest corner… where he found a hole in the wall. From there he watched as two men come into the cell.
"Officer Creed we're here to rescue you." One of them said as he pointed a light at the wall then at the floor and the empty cuffs, before turning to his friend, "Carlos, where is he?" Both men flashed their lights around the cell, it was empty. "Look the boss is going to be here any minute we have to make this look good and he's gone!" The other man, Carlos, Looked everywhere.
"Hey I left him right there after I beat him dressed in those stupid 'mutant' cloths, I never unlocked the chains and I even cut his cloths off him… cut him too so he'd look real good and I never even got around to give him the second beating Creed wanted him to have so the blood would look fresh for the reporters. How the hell do I know where the guy went?" They yelled back and forth about how everything was going to blow up in their faces. "I'm not going to stick around for when the shit hits the fan." Carlos yelled and ran out fallowed by the other man. After a moment Toby scurried out of the hole, he was shocked. His own father had planed all this. In anger his concentration forgotten Toby took his true form, yes it was that of officer Creed so he stood 6.7', his gold hair longer then it had been in the photo fell in curls hiding his pointy ears, his fingernails were normal enough till he extended them into 3 inch long claws when he flexed his hands, and angrily slashed the stone wall leaving deep claw marks behind.
"My own father did this to me after I hide my powers away all these years to try and make him love me, like mom wanted me to." Finally he let his tail grow back to it's full length of five feet (Okay so he is kinda like an older Griffin but he can only shift into male animal forms, completely or partially, and they can be real or fictional creatures). Toby looked at his tail, it had been so long since he'd last seen it. That's when shouts of,
"Freeze NYPD nobody move." Reached his ears from the hall, with a sigh of relief Toby slipped back into his chains and shifted his tail away again as he curled up on the ground, there was dirt and dried blood on him but for some reason not a single cut or bruise marked his skin. From before he could remember Toby had always been a quick healer and his mother had often boasted how he never got sick like other children. The voices were closes now and suddenly,
"Dame it kid… kid you okay? Talk to me partner." Shin Taro Murphy was there pulling him up into his arms and fussing over him. "Shit he's nearly frozen." His partner said pulling off his coat and wrapping it around Toby's torso. "Somebody get these fucking cuffs off him and get a stretcher down here." Toby opened his eyes.
"My father did this to me… Murphy he planed-" Toby tried to say more but an other officer was there taking off the cuffs and collar, paramedics were there then taking him away from Murphy and covering him with blankets. "He did it." Shock took over and he started to shake as he was wheeled out.
"Don't worry kid I'll be right here with you." Murphy promised him as he followed behind.
*
Outside:
Reporters were being held back by police and when the two men were lead out cuffed to each other they started yelling questions.
"Is Officer Creed alive?"
"Why did you do it." And a still clueless one asked,
"What are your mutant powers?" The two men started yelling that Senator Creed had planned the whole thing and that they were pawns in his plan to show mutants as the evil they were. This was greeted with disbelief from most of the listeners and acceptance by few, only to have Creed himself step forward and look into the closest cameras to say,
"Would I really hurt my son, my only son, for what is a known fact? I ask you, who do these people think they are, who will take the word of two criminals over mine." The noise level rose even higher as the stretcher carrying Toby came out of the old abandoned church that had been around since pioneer days. "Tobias!" Graydon called out sweeping away from the camera to reach his son's side just before he could be loaded into the waiting ambulance. "Is he unharmed?" Creed asked one of the attendants, as Toby flinched from the bright lights of the cameras.
"There doesn't seam to be a mark on him sir, nothing a good shower and a lot of rest won't cure." For a moment Graydon frowned. Unharmed but how was it possible he'd been told by Carlos that he'd been beaten and marked up really well earlier. He leaned over Toby and looked closer, could his son be like his own father… No! That thing was not his father, but if Toby was like 'that man' Graydon would find out and if he was he'd take care of the situation himself.
"Son, I swear I'll see that you are well taken care off." Toby looked up into his father's golden/brown eyes.
"I know what you did, I heard them talking… you planed all this and I-" Toby took a breath, "I never want to see you again Mr. Creed." Graydon reeled back from the hate in his son's eyes, hate he'd only ever seen in his own eyes when he'd thought of his father. "Never." The word hung in the air between then as Toby was loaded into the ambulance, when Graydon was about to climb into it with Toby, thinking of how the reporters would lap it up, he was stopped short by a strong hand on his shoulder.
"Your ears not working Mr. Creed? Toby said to get lost, and I'll be right there to see to it you never get a second chance to finish what you started here." Officer Shin Taro Murphy leaned forward, his Raven black hair and tilted eyes stamped him with his mother's Japanese ancestry, but the streaks of white at his temples, white skin, his green eyes and 6 foot 5 frame backed up her word that his father had been an American. Graydon looked into the younger man's eyes and could have sworn that the left one flashed with a gold light for a second before the officer whispered. "You may be able to worm your way out of any charges for this, but I know what you're thinking and I'll know when you're coming cause I can hear your thoughts a mile away… literally." Then an invisible hand closed around the back of Senator Creed's neck and pushed him away from the ambulance as Murphy jumped in beside his partner and said, "Kid it looks like I'm going to have to teach you a few ground rules about being a mutant in Manhattan." Murphy saw Toby gasp and look frantically at the medic beside them. "Don't worry I'm blocking him out, he thinks you are resting comfortably and he can't hear a thing we're saying."
"Murphy? How did you know? Why-" Toby started to ask.
"Because I'm a mutant too, and I read your mind the first time we met."
"Is that why you finally said yes to me being your partner? Was it because you realized I was a mutant too?" Murphy looked surprised. Toby smiled, "I've got good ears, heard you yelling about being assigned a partner from across the station."
"Ya you got good ears and they're as pointy as your little head kid. Let's face I knew you didn't know the first thing about using your powers the first time I saw you, you were repressing them and I thought I could help you to learn to accept yourself. Now your old man is just figureing out that you're one of the enemy, don't worry I know you'll turn out just fine with some help." Toby frowned.
"How do you know that?"
"I'm psychic." Murphy said simply, Toby looked at his smiling partner and rolled his eyes as he lay back down.
"Ya right."
The end for now.
See FoH: Murphy's Law for part 2.