So, basically, I wrote this because a) I was a little miffed that Claremont chose to basically ignore Rogue and Gambit's daughter; b) I had this idea for a villain that just wouldn't go away on its own; and c) I wasn't patient enough to wait for the next comic arc.
Spoilers: The first 5 issues of GeNEXT. If you haven't read them, give it a shot. They're pretty good. (I'm just going to ruin the end for you, anyways...)
Disclaimer: Marvel owns everyone except Giuseppe, his parents, and Florence. Mangiafuoco and Geppetto are from The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi and belong to him; although, I'm fairly certain my Mangiafuoco is more like Disney's Stromboli. I also have no claim to any of the referenced operas. They are as follows: Verdi's "Rigoletto," Mozart's "The Magic Flute," Puccini's "Turandot," and Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci." I do, however, recommend enjoying an opera at least once in life. It's a unique experience.
GeNEXT: Puppets & Puppeteers
Part 1- The Collector
The Xavier Institute- Monday Afternoon
"Are you even listening to me?!"
It took every ounce of focus Olivier could muster not to flinch as Scott Summers' fist slammed down onto the desk in front of him. Out in the hallway, Pavel, Becka, Rico, and No-Name all jumped at the sudden noise from inside Mr. Summers' office.
"I don't care if everything turned out okay at the end," Scott continued to fume, "you had no right to put yourself or your friends in that kind of danger! It was stupid! Make that inconceivably stupid! I expect better from you..."
Oli glanced at the clock on the wall. Only 45 minutes and Cyclops seemed to be winding down. Scarcely two hours before, Oli and the rest of his team had returned to the school after an excursion to retrieve No-Name and a battle with a group thought to be dead.
'I can't believe that girl still won't tell us her name..." Oli mused internally.
"All five of you are on notice." Mr. Summers' sudden calm was more unnerving than any of the shouting. "Another stunt even remotely like this, and I will send each and every one of you home."
"But No-Name-"
"Will be handed over to the proper authorities if she can't show this school that she is serious about remaining here."
"Yes, sir." It was not at all what Oli wanted to say, but it was the response that would get him out of this office.
"One more thing," Oli paused at the door for Scott's parting jab. "You've each been assigned extra Danger Room sessions and some school community service. I'll give you the details later. I'm also pretty sure that your family would appreciate a call."
"So, what's the damage?" Rico cut right to the chase as the small group walked away from the Co-headmaster's office.
"Extra class, extra work, and the administration breathing down our necks for the rest of our natural lives..."
"I'm sorry, you guys," No-Name sighed dejectedly, "but none of this would have happened if you'd just let me go."
"We could not help it," Pavel shrugged. "You are our friend. We worry when you disappear."
"I have never seen Mr. Summers so angry!" Becka noted. "Do you think he might change his mind and expel us?"
"I wouldn't sweat it too much, girl," Rico sounded a lot more confident than he looked. "They're pretty forgiving around here."
Oli glanced back over his shoulder to see a grim-faced Scott Summers watching them. "That may be true, but the forgiving spirit has its limits."
- X - X - X - X - X -
Valle Soleda: 24-hour Grocery
Late That Night
Many large grocery chains are open twenty-four hours, but almost all of them are virtually empty after midnight. The late night stillness in this particular store was broken by an angry mutter.
"Ooh... I could just smack him!" Bekka Lebeau had spent the majority of the last several hours venting her anger at her brother's behavior.
"So you keep telling me," her father chuckled to himself as he paused to examine a display of bell peppers. Remy's own shock and anger were at least temporarily overshadowed by relief that Olivier had returned to the Xavier Institute more or less unharmed. Besides, nobody but nobody could out-lecture Scott Summers when he was in a mood.
"I mean," Bekka continued unfazed, "not only does he do something totally reckless and stupid, but then he stops by the house and doesn't even drop us a line? Not to mention using up the pancake mix and borrowing clothes! Sure I almost never wear that sundress, but I'd at least like to be asked before someone else wears it..."
"Mm-hmm..." Gambit bagged two peppers and turned his attention to tomatoes.
"He had to know we'd come out here as soon as we heard! Why am I the one who's so angry? I usually take his side!"
"Prob'ly because you're used to him being rather predictable, chérie. Suddenly discovering you didn't know him quite as well as you thought is a bit unsettling."
"Hmph."
"Why don't you go scout out the cereal aisle? Remember, no pure sugar condensed into weird but colorful shapes, d'accord?"
"Yeah, yeah. Be right back, Poppa."
Gambit steered his cart over to a display of fresh herbs and puzzled over whether he was really going to use enough within the next few days to warrant buying fresh. He heard someone approaching from behind. "Find anything good, Bekka?"
"I'm afraid you're mistaken, Mr. Lebeau."
Before he could turn around, Gambit felt a sharp pain on the side of his neck and a spreading, sickly warmth. The last thing he heard before blackness overwhelmed him was the strange voice again.
"You'll make an excellent addition to my collection."
"I know you're militantly against marshmallows," Bekka called out as she rounded the corner of an aisle, "but how do you feel about yogurt clusters? Poppa?"
The grocery cart still stood by the herb display, a plastic bag with three tomatoes on the ground nearby. Bekka looked frantically around the area but saw no sign of her father anywhere.
"Poppa?!" She fought down the looming panic creeping up on her. Maybe he had just gone around the other end of the aisle nearby. Light glinting of an object on the ground caught her eye. It was a syringe.
- X - X - X - X - X -
The Xavier Institute: Tuesday Evening
Administrative Offices
Emma Frost frowned as she slipped her communicator back into her pocket. Bobby Drake had gone on a brief vacation and hadn't been heard from recently, even though he was expected back that morning. He wasn't answering his phone or communicator, either. Iceman was known to be a bit of a clown, but he'd always been reliable.
"Scott," she stepped into his office without knocking, "you haven't heard from Robert by any chance?"
Scott had been looking over the school's finances. "No, I haven't. Should we start worrying?"
A raspy buzz interrupted the conversation. Emma frowned again. "Who would be at the front gate this late in the day? I'll go look. Perhaps Mr. Drake forgot his new security code, again."
Scott turned back to his paperwork. "If it is him, I'd like to speak with him."
Emma stepped out again and Scott was left to the number crunching that was really more the specialty of Bobby, a trained accountant. He hit a wrong button on his calculator and cursed as he had to start over. He heard the door open again.
"Was it Bobby at the gate?"
"Ms. Frost and Mr. Drake will be joining my collection. Won't you come as well?"
Scott froze momentarily at the sound of the unexpected, strange voice, and that brief hesitation was his undoing. His desk lamp crashed into the side of his head and he blacked out.
- X - X - X - X - X -
The Institute Grounds
GeNEXT had just finished their extra Danger Room for the day and were cooling off in the evening breeze. They ought to be studying for a history exam, but at the moment, it was the last thing on anyone's mind.
"Someone put me out of my misery," Rico groaned. X23 had been extra exacting.
"I did not think it was possible to hurt everywhere at the same time." Pavel massaged his right shoulder.
"I think my aches have aches," Oli agreed.
"You guys are such babies," No-Name rolled her eyes. "You don't hear Becka and me complaining! Right, Becka?"
Becka didn't answer. She was staring off into the tree-line outside the fence. Something or someone was out there. She felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. "Someone is watching us." The last time she had this feeling it had not ended well.
"I don't see anybody," Rico squinted in the fast dimming light. "Where?"
Everyone scanned the line of security fence. A few dead leaves swirled by and the breeze whispered through the treetops, but nothing else moved.
"Sorry, everyone, I guess I just-" then something caught Becka's eye. There!" Without another word, she rushed over to a shadowy section of fence where a figure had just slipped over the barrier. She dove at the intruder, but the stranger merely sidestepped at the last minute, letting Becka's own momentum bring her to the ground. She immediately sprang back to her feet and took a defensive stance.
"Becka," Oli shouted, "wait!"
"Why?" she asked. The stranger said the same thing simultaneously. Becka took her first good look at her opponent. She could instantly see similarities between Oli and his sister. The hair coloring and jawline were the same, though the other Bekka's face had softer lines.
"What's wrong with using the front gate like a normal person?" Olivier didn't look particularly happy about the surprise visit.
"If I went to the gate, I'd probably have to talk to Mr. Summers first," Bekka retorted, as though it were obvious, "and the only person I really want to talk to is you."
"Did you forget how to use a phone?"
"You're one to talk! Besides this is an emergency! I used my saved allowance money to buy a ticket on the first bus heading this way."
Olivier noticed the bags under his sister's eyes and her worried expression. "What happened?" he asked.
"It's Poppa," tears welled up in Bekka's eyes. "I think something bad happened to him..."
- X - X - X - X - X -
A Short Summary Later...
"How do you know he didn't just leave on his own?" Rico asked as he small group heded toward the school offices.
"He wouldn't do that to me," Bekka insisted, "not without leaving some kind of message! And what about the needle? Do we really have to involve Scott and Emma, Oli?"
"I told you," Olivier rolled his eyes, "I'm on probation! If I try to handle this on my own they'll kick me out. Besides, we could probably use some help on this."
His sister snorted. "So it's okay to risk expulsion to chase after someone whose name you don't even know, but you need to ask permission to deal with a family crisis? How screwed up are those priorities? Er, no offense, No-Name..."
"None taken. You have a point."
"If this had come up a week ago, it might be a different story," Oli shrugged, "but it's too soon to provoke Scott again."
"What if he says 'no,'" Becka frowned. "You know there's a lot of bad blood there. Are you going to just forget about it?"
"I am sure they will want to help," Pavel tried to be reassuring.
The door to Mr. Summers' office was closed. Olivier knocked, but there was no answer. He tried the knob and the door swung open slowly. The desk lamp and some scattered papers lay on the floor, but the room was empty.
"Something very weird is going on here," Rico observed.
- X - X - X - X - X -
Danger Room Control
After discovering that Ms. Frost was also suspiciously missing, the students were very relieved to find that Dr. Henry McCoy was still at the school. They were all gathered in the Danger Room's control room, reviewing the school security camera tapes.
"Fascinating," Hank noted the time stamp just before the front gate camera suddenly went to static. "It appears that our unknown adversary was equipped with some kind of jamming device."
A few moments later, the main entrance camera went out, then the administrative hall, and then each came back up in reverse order.
"Do you think it might be the same person that took our dad?" Oli wondered aloud.
"Well, I most certainly hope we're only looking for one perpetrator."
"What does it matter?" Becka fumed. "We don't have any clues! We have no idea who we're looking for, or where to start!"
"Not necessarily so, Miss Lebeau," Hank scratched his chin. "Didn't you mention that you had brought the syringe with you? May I see it?"
Bekka pulled a sandwich bag from the pocket of a small bag she had brought with her. The tip of the needle had been stuck into a pencil eraser. "It's just an ordinary syringe, Uncle Hank. I dusted it with talc and I didn't see any prints."
"The drug itself may provide us with a clue. I will analyze it promptly, but that is not all we have. We know that this person relies upon the element of surprise. We know he does not wish to be seen." He paused to rewind the front gate tape to the point just before it went out. "Last, but not least," he added as the front of a vehicle pulled into the edge of the camera range, "we know our foe is driving Mr. Drake's car."
"So this guy probably has him, too?" No-Name exclaimed. "We'd better check and see if anyone else is missing!"
After a quick search of the premises and a few calls, the list of the missing remained at four: Robert Drake, Emma Frost, Scott Summers, and Remy Lebeau. Hank also had the final analysis of the drug in the syringe for them.
"It's a special, homemade concoction of some kind. It would appear from my analyses that the drug is designed to suppress the nervous system of someone with an enhanced metabolism."
"So he knew Poppa was a mutant, too," Bekka reasoned. "I guess that makes sense, since he took people from Xavier's and it's pretty well known to be a mutant haven. How did he know where to look for him, though? How did he know about the school's security?"
"I think I can answer that." Rico had been checking through the school computers while the others had made their search of the school. "Someone has been hacking into the school's computer system for a few weeks, now. They covered their tracks pretty well, but now that I'm looking for it, I can see everything they did. Anything anybody could ever want to know about the school and everybody here is in the files somewhere, you just have to know where to look and have a little patience."
"Back to square one," Oli sighed. "He knows all about us, but we still don't know anything about him, or what he wants."
"I think we should all get some rest," Hank stated firmly. "We'll take a fresh look at everything in the morning. There's nothing more we can do tonight."
Reluctantly, everyone headed toward the dormitories.
"You can stay with No-Name and I, Bekka," Becka offered. "That sounds so odd... Using my own name for someone else, I mean."
"We need some way to distinguish the two of you," No-Name agreed. "I don't suppose either of you has a nickname?"
"You can call me 'B' if you want," Bekka suggested.
"Okay, then, B," Becka smiled, "you can have my bed. I'm more comfortable on the floor anyway."