Family Business
Disclaimer: Marvel comics came up with the idea for mutants and X-men. Still, my original characters are my own, just as their characters are theirs. Let's try to have a clean match, shall we?
Chapter 1: Terrible ThingsUsually, terrible things that are done with the excuse that progress requires them are not really progress at all, but are just terrible things. –Russell Baker
Malice moved furtively through the dark catacombs of the government facility. By all accounts she wasn't even sure if it was a government office, but was simply going by the intelligence, which she had been supplied. Her slender five foot ten inch form pressed carefully against the cold stone wall of the security building attached to the main facility. Her primary job: disable the two agents within by any means, and coerce the technician to disable the building's security measures. Her long black hair and wild ocean-blue eyes looked almost animalistic as she lunged toward the office, ducking under a methodically placed row of security cameras. She unapologetically slammed herself against a small statue of an eagle as she activated her communicator.
"This is Malice, who's got their ears on out there, " she said, almost playfully.
The response quickly came back: " This is Moon, how goes it?"
She was immediately comforted by the scratchy, yet soothing, tones of her twin bother. Even though he was nowhere in sight, she could picture his crew-cut black hair and ocean-blue eyes-both features matching hers as they should. Despite such an unmistakable aesthetic similarity, the mutant powers, which they had both attainted at the age of 13, varied greatly. Now, at the age of 23, they both had trained themselves with great stringency how to use their respective gifts.
"I am preparing to infiltrate. I'm going to need some cover if this is going to be a surprise." Malice could feel the anxiety within herself, as she wanted this whole small operation to be over quickly.
"Copy that. I'll cover you as soon as you are ready."
Moon, who was stationed across the street of the five-story bricked building, stood up from behind the Ford pickup that they were presently based from. His eyes narrowed suspiciously as he watched the well-lit security office of the building. Inside he could easily see the forms of three people. A African-American woman with long, dark hair, seated at the main control panel that was slightly above the rest of the glass security office; and which gave her a panoramic all-sides view of the main building, the security cameras, her controls, and the dark Los Angeles street.
Also in the room were two men dressed in white and black security uniforms. One was an intense looking Asian, whose country of origin Moon could not distinguish. The other was a plain looking Caucasian man, possibly of Italian descent. The Asian stood facing the woman at the controls. They were having what appeared to be an innocuous conversation. Little did they know that their docile dialogue was about to be severely interrupted. The other man was seated in the booth, leaned back, lazily; the two other occupants seemed to share distrust and disliking of the other man.
"This should be interesting," Moon said out loud to himself. He knew that in Malice's present position kneeled under the eagle statue that was directly in front of the security booth, she wasn't afforded the same insight into the present condition of her soon to be victims. Still, by all accounts, Moon, with his enhanced night vision, could easily make out the Malice's expression was one of satisfaction and determination-not fear. Still, he was very much concerned about his identical twin, as he was sure their other two siblings were.
Prepared to provide her with cover, he raised both of his hands in the air. Still unseen by anyone, a spectator would have noticed that his eyes were now a more intense blue; in all respects, his eyes were glowing.
"I need cover now, "Malice said hurriedly. "I am preparing to move."
Moon looked directly up at the moon, which became immediately full. With great and terrible unnaturalness, it emitted an even more great and terrible light. That light, now consolidated by Moon's will, aimed itself directly at the booth, and effectively blinded its occupants.
Seeing this as her chance to move, and knowing that her brother wouldn't long be able to hold the light, Malice leapt into action: After an impressive back flip over the statue, she sprinted like a gaze toward the building and moved rather noticeably to locked door.
Holding her hand to the door's electronic lock, a small golden ray came forth and quickly melted the device. The low powered sunbeam also melted a small hole in the door, making it that much easier for Malice to infiltrate. She quickly dashed in; the moonbeam had stopped its terrible glow, but the office's occupants were still recovering from the supernatural phenomena. Still, the two guards had enough optics to see that the black leather jumpsuit clad figure wasn't selling Avon.
Realizing this, Malice wasted no time in dispersing of the two guards. Since her primary power didn't work so well at night, she chose not to zap them with a sunbeam. The solar-based energy ray would be hard to control out of the presence of the actual sun. She could accidentally burn the whole building down, and she knew that wouldn't fly so well. Instead she used one of her cache of supplementary, yet still effective, anytime powers that she and her twin brother both possessed. Despite the primary difference in the ability to respectively control solar and lunar energy, Malice and Moon, more appropriately referred to as Gabriella Christine St. Martin and Gabriel Christian St. Martin, shared a common bond in certain abilities; namely: telekinesis and telepathy of non-mutants.
Enacting the former ability, Malice sent a psychic punch directly into the chest of the standing Asian guard. Before his compatriot in the chair had time to draw what appeared to be a nightstick, Malice removed the chair from under him with a sweep of her hand. Realizing what was happening, the woman, Karen, reached to sound the general alarm. Not to be had by the dozens of security personnel from within the building and the police, Malice sent a volley of telekinetic daggers straight into Karen's chest. It felt as if she were having a heart attack.
With Karen collapsed on the floor, Malice delivered a quick, but powerful, roundhouse kick that landed square in the Asian's chest.
The man on the floor rose and lunged at her with his nightstick. Not having enough time to gather psychic energy around her, Malice acted on impulse and did what she knew best: Used the pier of the sun. Unfortunately, with now sun shining she had little, if any control over what was about to happen next. The yellow energy that came from her hand flew all across the room. Its three targets all suffered viscously: The stack of boxes filled with food stuff on the far side of the room literally became toast; the Asian, who by all accounts was down and out, was permanently decommissioned; and the intended target lost all cool as he was almost incinerated.
"How goes it?" Moon repeated his pervious question, this time with more concern.
"Fine," Malice said pointedly, "I am about to start getting results." Ignoring the smell of burning flesh, she stepped up to Karen, who was just recovering from her would be heart attack.
"Do you see what I did to your friends here? I have no qualms about doing it to you, "she said harshly. It was in her nature to be abrasive, but she purposefully intensified the tones in her voice for dramatic effect.
"What do you want?" Karen asked, mainly out of fear of not knowing what else to say. Under normal circumstances, she would have had a smart comment to make, but she knew that this mutant woman was serious business. Thus, she kept all quips to herself.
Malice replied with no hesitation:
" I want you to immediately deactivate the buildings general security procedures for the next hour, destroy the digital copies of all surveillance feed for the next two hours, and then offer your resignation to the technical captain on duty first thing tomorrow morning. And before you tell me that you can't do any of those things, let me give you something to think about: One, I know that the facility's GSP is controlled from only two locations: here and in the primary control room, which is presently locked. Two, you can institute a protocol that will predelete any footage you tell it to. Further, you don't even have to have it on the logs-it'll look like a technical mistake. Finally, you know as well as I do that your resignation will be refused, but you'll offer it anyway and won't speak of this incident to anyone. Do I make myself clear?"
"Crystal," Karen replied begrudgingly.
"Good," Malice offered. "Let's get to it. Shall we?"
Having heard this entire interchange, Moon piped in, "Good job. Once the measures are down you should be able to slip in and out. The files are on the third floor records room, which shouldn't be locked. I have to say that I am quite impressed with your performance as off late. We've only got one more file left to go after this. You keep it up and the entire operation will be complete in no time."
"Don't mention it, " Malice said professionally. "It's all in a night's work."
The four siblings, each known by their particular power and nature, sat now in a debate of what was before them. Presently, the condition was as follows: They were all at their home, the lavish castle in the Colorado mountains that had escaped the notice of almost everyone, and which had been given the name Sanctum. Sitting in the medieval dining room that had been upgraded to be a conference room with many electronic flourishes, they discussed, at great lengths, matters of much importance. The four of them each had a different and unique air: Standing a map of North America and greatly studying it was Gabriella, Malice, who was surprisingly not tired by the night before. With the sun shining once more, all of her senses were alert and her powers at the fullest. Her twin brother, Gabriel, who preferred to be called Christian and even more preferred to be called Moon, sat at the end of the table. His head was throbbing as he pored over countless papers in the four of five files that the little party needed. With an intense look on his face he observed the remaining two siblings. The twins' younger brother, the cutup, had a look of mock pity on his face as he sat, leaned back in one of the table's five thousand dollar chairs. The particular scoundrel was by all respects an expert at any type of skullduggery.
Still his mutant abilities were more than handy. His primary powers allowed him to first of all, steal the memories of any person he made physical contact with. While this seemed pretty useless at first, it came in handy much down the road. Secondly, he was able to alter the passage of time. He didn't have full control of this ability and could only focus on particular things and people and generally, whether he slowed down or sped up time, it only lasted for a short while. Yet, he was valued member of the family team. His twin siblings junior by three years, he enjoyed being twenty, and when he wasn't busy with his job as a web security specialist, he partied as much as possible-generally he like stealing a girl's memories and then playing on their past to get what he wanted. He never felt guilty. He live by an old saying:
"Guilt is the price we pay willingly for doing what we are going to do anyway."
At eighteen years old, his younger sister was much more conservative. Already a junior in college, after early high school graduation, Valerie Amanda St. Martin, who usually went by Mandy, was young, but powerful. Having discovered her being a mutant at only six years old-younger than any of her brothers or sister-she began honing her abilities right away. When her brother Jamie, who they usually called Cronus, decided that he was steal her memories and try to blackmail her in some irritating way, she usually had no hesitation bout teaching him a lesson. Her ability to psychically create energy mirrors- either around something as a barrier or prison, or in protection of something to deflect-came in handy when dealing with her brother. At only five foot five he was like a pigmy to her, and she enjoyed it. At five nine, she was able to always get him back for his little mind tricks. One time their sibling rivalry went to far and she created a barrier around his head, which almost suffocated him. From that point on they had both been more careful: She with her powers, he with his teasing; and all was right with the world.
Generally speaking, they were a happy family. Living as normal life as they would get, they decided to stay together while the older siblings worked and Mandy, or Avalon, went to the University of Colorado.
While they sat doing their respective activities, a booming, yet familiar voice went over the dining room intercom, cleverly installed in the chandelier:
"Moon, Malice, Cronus, and Avalon: I want you all on the launch bay bridge in five minutes."
They all knew that their mother by their mother would sooner or later summon them.
"Time to face the music," Jamie said.
"Maybe this time it isn't bad," piped in Mandy, always trying to put a positive spin on a bad situation. "Maybe she just wants to see how we are coming along."
"That's the bad part," remarked Moon. As they all walked out of the dining room and got into the modern, high-tech elevator that seemed almost out of place in the ancient castle, he made a sweeping gesture of all the maps and paperwork in the dining room. "Our progress isn't coming along so well."
As the doors reopened on the launch bay, the scene set itself up. Coming out of the elevator doors the four siblings looked around suspiciously. Letting Malice take the lead, the other three quickly learned their place. They all walked into the general area of the bay, with Malice at the front and Moon close by her side. Avalon seemed to be afraid of the dark technology around them, though she had been on this docking bay at least a thousand times before. Jamie brought up the rear in a casual, almost irreverent, manner.
In rows on either side, were three specifically crafted vessels. On the right of the party were two identical silver vessels: one-person fighters that were exactly the same expect one had a blue star and the other a yellow one. The Solar Star and The Lunar Star belonged to Malice and Moon respectively. Next to these two intense looking fighters, was a softer more dainty looking jet. Streamlined and white, the futuristic passenger jet belonged to Avalon. True to her gentle nature, she had christened it Dove. On the other side of the huge docking bay, were three more vessels. The Black Warp, a fighter that Jamie personally designed and two 747-passenger jets that were extremely expensive.
All of the siblings and their mother were excellent pilots and used the vessels on many occasions. The latter, now present, appeared out of the shadows into a dramatic light. Tall and beautiful, the features of the four sibling's mother were in all four of them. Her intense eyes and matching intense look was bestowed upon the twins. While her soft features and almost infant like face had been granted to the younger sibling. Her long brown hair was the same hair that Jamie had, though his in spikes.
Surveying the scene before her Valerie Lane Marie St. Martin, the Mother, didn't need to ask questions. She never did. A mutant blessed with the remarkable ability to see the future, she always had a knowing air about her. Having earned the nickname Oracle from her mutant companions, she had learned to know the future in measured periods. It took great energy to see far into the future and she did that only out necessity. It is a far better thing to know the future and not act upon such knowledge, than to know the future and change the eventual past.
And in her knowing air of grace and dignity, she spoke. Though she was speaking to the group as a whole, it seemed as though she was talking to each one of them individually.
Her words were simple but clear, well chosen but candid, simple but intelligent:
"We need to talk."
A/n: I hope you have enjoyed this so far. I am writing in the middle of the night, so if there are any inconsistencies or spelling errors, I'll correct them on more sleep. Please review; let me know if I'm moving to fast or if you have any questions. All reviews are accepted.
Thanks,
-Ap
