Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 13
Chapter 1: The Morning After
Rogue opened her eyes to unfamiliar surroundings, and for several moments, remained dazed and confused as she gazed around her. Thoughts of the last moments before unconsciousness were a complete blur and her body ached and tingled strangely from the inside.
"Oh my god, you're awake…I thought maybe you were comatose or something…" she felt hands on her shoulders, and turned to look around, Kitty was there, looking relieved. "I'm so glad you're okay!" Kitty hugged her back.
"What's going on?" Rogue asked groggily, she rubbed her head, "what happened…where are we?" She sat up straight, beginning to feel alarmed now.
"I can't say for sure…" Kitty looked around with an expression of wonder. "I woke up in here…same as you…last thing I remember I was lying in bed…and…then I can't remember anything else…" Kitty rubbed her head. "I haven't been awake too long…" she added, sounding just as groggy as Rogue did. "I thought you were dead for a few moments, but then I saw you were still breathing, I was SO relieved like you wouldn't believe."
Rogue took a good glance around her, they were in a very small room, four smooth grey walls surrounded them, one wall had a small box like window barred up with shining metal, and opposing that wall was a large door, the same shining metal, so smooth their distorted reflections stared back at them from it. Two plain steel bunks, a small sink and a toilet were all that consisted of the room, the bunks were left without mattresses.
"Looks like a prison…" Rogue whispered, alarm settling in even more than before. "Where…where the hell ARE we…"
Kitty glanced around also, "those bars, I can't be sure but they look like adamantium…I've seen Logan unsheathe his claws enough to know the difference between Adamantium and normal steel."
Rogue ran her bare fingers across the walls, "these don't look too sturdy…" she banged her knuckle softly against it, "it's solid, but I could probably punch a hole through it…" she braced herself.
"Wait…before we start trying to escape we should probably figure out what's going on exactly," Kitty drew her breath, "what's the last thing you remember?"
Rogue sat down upon one of the steel bunks, head in her hands, "I…I don't know…it's kind of hazy…I was…watching a movie…I think it was 'Wuthering Heights', and then I…" Rogue sat up straight, "Remy…I saw him there…I went to hug him…and then…something cold against my…" Rogue touched her neck, there was something there, to touch it caused a tinge of pain to sweep through her flesh, "neck…"
"Oh my god! I remember too! Something touched my neck also…and it was hurting…and that's when everything kind of…gets hazy…" Kitty touched her own neck, "what is this?" she frowned, she tried to pull it off, a surge of electricity crackled through her and she jumped, letting go, "what the hell…"
Rogue tried the same thing, only to be electrocuted in the same manner, "WHAT IS THIS THING?" she gasped in pain.
Kitty moved closer, "let me see…" she pushed Rogue's hair away carefully from her face and stared at the device.
It was shaped like a large silver beetle. Tiny silver teeth surrounded the odd contraption and pierced into the skin so that it grasped on tightly, a glass case revealed the microtechnology inside. A small chip was connected to three wires, red, blue and brown, and they trailed down into a wire that protruded the case and left into one grey wire that was inserted beneath the skin – no doubt by an needled point. Beneath the glass case was a tiny vial of bright purple liquid that was being fed into a fine clear wire that also protruded the casing and went beneath the skin.
"Okay…it's like…definitely some kind of microtechnology, there's two wires…one is feeding some kind of glowing purple stuff into a vein on your neck…the other, is just lying under the skin, I think it's what's giving off the electrical surge…" Kitty explained, "I've NEVER seen anything like this…"
Rogue winced, "I want it OFF!" she grasped and tried to pull with all her might, the teeth of the thing seemed to bite in even harder, deeper, and the electrical currents this time were far stronger, she fell to her knees with a cry of pain.
"Whoah, you're making yourself bleed…" Kitty cringed, "better leave it, there has to be a way to disable them before yanking them off," she explained.
Rogue stared, "I'm bleeding?" she asked, she touched her neck and then examined her bare fingers, bright red blood was smudged upon her fingertips, "I…I can't remember the last time I bled…" she whispered, shaken, "I mean…in a way that's not menstrual..."
"Maybe the teeth on this are adamantium…" Kitty suggested, "You're invulnerable…but did we ever test that theory with adamantium?" she asked.
Rogue shook her head, "Logan was too paranoid to try and nick me in case he accidentally cut too deep…" she stared at the blood on her fingers in absurd fascination.
Kitty touched the adamantium door, she stared at her distorted reflection, "if we're here, I reckon the others must be too," Kitty said, "I'm still not sure if that would be a good thing or a bad though," she confessed.
Rogue shook her head, "be serious, ALL of us? In the same Prison…there's no way...it'd have to be some incredible army of super mutants to have managed that…"
"Wait here," Kitty said, "I'm gonna take a look around."
"Shouldn't I go with you?" Rogue asked, frowning at her.
"No," Kitty said, "You should wait here, I could get ambushed the minute I leave this room," she reminded.
Rogue nodded, and made herself as comfortable she could on the steel bunk.
Kitty stepped over to the wall, held her breath and rushed towards it, surprised to only slam her face into it rather than phase through it. "OW!"
Rogue jumped up, "what…?"
"I…wow…my powers…didn't work…they always work…" Kitty whined nasally, she touched her nose which had taken a bashing against the wall.
"Your nose is bleeding…" Rogue made a face.
"Terrific," Kitty said, she tipped her head back and pinched the bridge of her nose, "hurts like a bitch…"
"Let me try…" Rogue stood opposite the nearest wall, and braced herself to punch, stepping back just a little, fist in position.
"Wait!" Kitty gasped, "you could end up with a broken fist…" Kitty decided, "maybe you should test your powers first before you go rushing off and hurting yourself like I just stupidly did."
"Okay…" Rogue said, she stepped back and gave a little hop, expecting her powers of flight to carry her into the air, she had expected to hit off the low ceiling, but instead, gravity denied her that.
"See…" Kitty pointed out.
"Maybe it's just my flying powers that are affected…" Rogue reached out with her bare hand, "give me your hand."
Kitty reached out to Rogue's bare hand gingerly, and let her bare fingers touch lightly against her palm. No pain, no feeling of being pulled from the inside out. Just the cold skin of the palm of Rogue's left hand.
Rogue sighed, "terrific..."
"Looks like our powers are negated…" Kitty sighed also, "this thing on our necks is what's doing it…this purple liquid."
"Do you think its Mutant X?" Rogue asked.
"Wouldn't surprise me," Kitty admitted, "I mean it's been seven years, someone would have bound to have come up with a similar formula by now, right?"
Rogue shrugged, but decided to agree with that, "Okay, so…where do you think we are then?"
Kitty paused for a moment, "since we're in some kind of weird prison cell…I'm gonna guess we're in the mutant containment facility…" she stated coolly.
Rogue put her hands to her head, "this can't be happening…how could we be ambushed in our own HOME?! In the X-Men headquarters!? Our security is the highest in the world!!"
"You said you saw Remy…and he's highly skilled in breaching any security system. We've seen what he can do…" Kitty explained.
"But our security systems changed dramatically in the last seven years," Rogue reminded, "we used technology he probably had never even heard of yet…how could he penetrate it?"
"Because he spent time in the mansion…" Kitty reminded, "Around a week is all he NEEDS to get as much information as possible by sneaking around and locating blueprints and all the motion sensors and disarming and manoeuvre around them," Kitty explained, then stopped, "Oh my god, he totally screwed us over, didn't he? He used his skills against us, he really did steal Hank's research…oh my god…"
Rogue broke into tears, "why would he DO this to us?" she buried her face in her hands and sobbed. It was hard to believe that Remy LeBeau could do this, but she'd seen him, and she knew that there was no man on earth who could have pulled it off except from Remy LeBeau. "God…when I saw him there and he came in…I felt so relieved, he was there in front of me and everything suddenly came together and it felt like…like suddenly my luck had changed and…we would get to be together finally…and then this…GOD, that asshole, how COULD he…WHY?!" she lamented.
Kitty sat beside her and put her arm around her friend, "Revenge maybe…" she sighed, "Maybe…maybe he's just never really gotten over how we totally blamed him for Jared's death before checking the facts…or maybe he's just getting paid a hell of a lot of money to do this to us."
Rogue felt the weight of the sadness pull her down, she felt like giving up, heart sinking in her chest.
Kitty patted Rogue's shoulder, "at least we have each other…and sooner or later someone is gonna come in here to see us…guards or…I don't know, whoever wanted us here in the first place…" she said, "When that happens, we just need to use all our HUMAN skills to make sure that we take him down."
Rogue tried to wipe her face, still half sobbing, "alright…"
"And just remember…either way if all of the X-Men ARE in this place or if they AREN'T, they'll be coming up with SOME sort of plan…they'd never let us down and leave us here to rot."
"But if we're in a cell of two…they might all be the same…" Rogue interjected.
"Possibly, but we can't give up hope…" Kitty stated, "Just sit tight and wait, something's bound to happen."