Disclaimer: The characters you don't recognise are mine, the ones you don't aren't but I do take some kind of foolish delight in torturing them…smiles brightly please don't sue me!
Ok I realise this isn't normal Retribution X, but it derived from an inspiration to see what the gang could really do in a tight spot!! A character will be dead by the end of this extremely long work. I commend you if you stay with us until the end and hopefully you will have a better understanding of the characters, or have just enjoyed me writing something other than weirdness.
Thanks again to my faithful reviewers NcsGirl, ZilentZombie, DarktheDestroyer and Xx-Disturbed-xX, your constant support and enthusiasm for what I do spurs me on a lot!
Also many, many thanks to Oracles Maiden for helping out a desperate friend in need, she helped me out of a huge jam and backlog when I was let down by the ever faithful, yet slightly unreliable Red Haired She Devil. Thanks also go to Red Haired She Devil for giving it a go and for the brilliant bouts of inspiration she gives me! Red Haired She devil when (or if you read this) please, please carry on with that Chapter you showed me, I was in hysterics just don't lose your focus (note to Oracles Maiden remove all sharp, pointy or shiny objects from the near vicinity). Many thanks and kudos to you all!
Author recommendations: Check out ZilentZombies Bobby Drake serious they are absolutely hilarious, they have fab pranks and brilliant consequences!! Trust me I was gasping for air after reading them, they are fabtabulous! Go read one after you've read this…
Also I really recommend NcsGirls Children of the X story coupled with her Xmen revisited one they are highly addictive! So go read em!
Retribution X: The End?
I leant back against the door frame and exhaled. I couldn't take it in, I just couldn't! My whole body felt like lead. I needed time to get my head around this before I told the others. I'd decided to wait until the academy's 'recruitment' day to tell the other member's of my team I thought as I walked to the paddock where the school's horses were kept (including my own).
I climbed up on the gate and I was reminded of my last visit home to England where I had on the hill by my house and watched the sun descend upon the river, and thought, for hour and hour's I thought, I grew up, I found myself.
I found it strange to think back on that hard time on my life probably one of my defining moments, survive, grow be strong, or whither up and die in everyway a human can die without actually ceasing to exist. But now things were different I was sure, for the first time in my life, I knew who I was, were I had come from and where I was going. But in the space of 2 hours everything had changed again I was in turmoil, the very fabrication of my being was now different to me some how, alien.
I felt bruised inside; she had lied to me for so long, all my life in fact, why? To protect me? How many of the others knew of this secret? Was they all in on it? How would the others react? All these questions were undefined to me as I sat in the last of the sun's golden glow. Suddenly my future was so unsure.
Recruitment Day
I don't know what I was more worried about, the new mutant's that would now be coming up through the ranks and joining our team or the exposure of this new twist to complicate our lives!
"Ground control to Major Tom!" Jubes waved in front of my face "Helllooo!"
I snapped my attention out of my reverie, well if that's what you would call it my thoughts were not of a pleasant nature.
"Sorry!" I muttered sipping my coffee, trying to push down the sick feeling in my stomach "What were you saying?"
"The Professor gave you a list of the people that we're keeping an eye on for our new member's right?"
"Yes" I got up and routed about in the odds and ends draw before waving a crumpled piece of paper aloft
"Who's on it then?" Evelyn asked licking donut glaze off of her fingers
"Mmm…well there's the one known only as Bounce, we all know her, um…" I peered at the sheet trying to make out Xavier's cryptic scrawl "…a guy from England, Tristan Davies, codenamed Pitfall, we've never met him before but I believe he got our number from Excalibur reminants. We also have that cow Sally Henderson, known to us as Virago; she's been in Rogues class for the last few years. There's another guy called Richard Levis, he's known as Vermiform among his class mates. Others may turn up as well but those are the one's Xavier's been watching and thinks has a firm enough grip on their powers to join us"
"Why do we need new people? Ain't we good enough anymore?" Kat asked sadly
"Think about it Kat we're getting harder missions nowadays and all these other mutants need a team to join right? And we're the only ones who need some more back up!" I looked at her none of them seemed convinced "I know it will be hard, it always just been us gals but think about it this way it is now less likely that we will get injured during a mission!" I tried a joke but it fell flat.
Jubilee had that I'm about to whinge glint in her eye
"Why do we have to have guys in the team, we're female superheroes…." We looked at her "…oh and Wolvie!"
"So how much fresh blood have we got to recruit?" Ev asked
"Three minimum." Everyone looked sad
"It's the end of an era!" Jubes sighed heavy heartedly
Truth is none of us were happy about these proposed plans to extend Retribution X, why fix something that isn't broken? Problem is I knew why this was happening, and I was less happy about it then I was showing.
"Come on gal's chin up and let's give these guys a warm Retribution X welcome!" I said putting my cup in the sink
The opening of the doors
Kat was on welcome duty it seemed the safest thing for her to do, there wasn't much scope for disaster there…but then again this is Kat that we're talking about!
Ev and Jubes were on tour duty and helping out the general new student side of stuff.
Mel was preparing the danger room so we could see the prospective new recruits in action.
Me, I was running around like a blue arsed fly trying to sort out these new peoples paper work, there interviews and putting them through there paces in the danger room.
Where's Wolverine while all this is going on you might ask, well he's done one of his flits back to Canada and we weren't expecting him back any time soon, which was kind of sad because when he came back the team would be changed forever. And so it was with a heavy heart I carried out the tasks of the day.
Interview 1
"Hi there, please take a seat" I indicated at the chair. "Richard is it?"
The guy nodded running a hand through his short black hair, he had a very serious face and had to be at least 4 years older then me, I was surprised he'd been kept in the classroom but then again his note said something to the effect of him being a late developer.
I went through the mutant number (this only applies if they are registered), date of birth and all that formal gumph before getting down to the good stuff.
"Okay so how would you describe your mutant ability?" I knew what it said on the piece of paper the Prof had given me but he always explained stuff all wrong and with long words, that no sane person (exception of Mel, Beast and Evelyn) could understand.
"Well basically as my codename implies I can take the form of….a worm. Lame I know!" The kid scratched his head with an apologetic grin
"Not at all! So how can you actually use your power to the benefit of the team?" I asked trying not to giggle
"Well I can stretch to a maximum length of 20 metres and I can get chopped up while in this form without dying as long as my head end remains intact I'll be fine" He said it all so matter of factly that his power wasn't as funny as it had first seemed.
"Okay" I was trying to keep these interviews quick then we could get down to the danger room session "Right if you wouldn't mind being at the danger room for about 2 hours time that would be great!" I stood up "I'm sure Jubes or Ev will give you a grand tour, just find them and tell them to do their job or…" I trailed of god this guy had no sense of humour!
Interview 2
The next guy seemed like a good prospect, he was the complete opposite to Vermiform, he was funny, upbeat and although older (he was 21) he seemed to be fine with taking orders from someone not only shorter than him, younger than him but gasp! Horror! Female.
"So Tristan it says your known as Pitfall, is that due to your power?"
His green eyes smiled playfully "Mmmm…you could say that!"
"Are you going to tell me what your powers are, old man!" I teased "Or do I have to speak up!"
He smiled an uneven but sparkly white smile "It's kind of hard to explain! You see I can make people like fall through objects, mostly the floor and I can do it myself like that charming girl that was in Excalibur: Kitty. But I mostly use it against others; it's kind of funny when you stick them in the ground with only their head stuck out! But you do have to be really careful not to release them when their in the ground because they kind of…" he blushed "…get crushed because the particles…"
"Okay I'm a dumb when it comes to all that sciency stuff so spare me the explanation!" I rolled my eyes, I felt so easy with this guy, he definitely seemed like a ladies man though, Remy might get jealous!
"Great well I'll see you in the err…danger room later then!" He got up with a grin and held out his hand which I shook
"Yep I'll see you later" I grinned back, I would defy anyone not to like this guy (Wolverine probably wouldn't on second thoughts!)
Interview 3
"Hey ya Bounce long time no see! Where you been hiding yourself!"
Bounce smiled that ever ready smile "Me I've been working hard with Mr Summers to try and get promoted!"
"We'll have to see won't we and by the way if you get promoted it will no longer be Mr Summers…" I looked at the bubbly girl of Kats age seriously "…It's Dickhead okay!"
"Aye Aye Captain!" Bounce mock saluted
I just had a general chat with Bounce us Retribution Xers had known her quite while, she was in the same class as us in our first year before Wolverine had become our form tutor.
Bounce, her leg muscles were so strong and well defined that she could jump to heights of 20 metres from a stand still. She could kill some one with just kick, it was amazing! She was such a bright bubbly personality that she lived up to her name Bounce she was always full of it. Even her dark brown hair was coiled into bouncy ringlets.
I had a good feeling about Bounce she would be an excellent addition to the team, in fact we had expected her to have been in the team when it was formed, but she still had issues about controlling the power she applied to her kicks/jumps, she wasn't very good a judge as to how much power certain manoeuvres needed. Mind you I was like that when I came here, I had trouble controlling the voltage I emitted from my body and always applied to much to a bolt aimed to 'stun'.
If only I could feel a little happier about my next interviewee!
Interview 4
I looked at Sally suspiciously she had always been in the rival class to Retribution X, we didn't like her and often dubbed her and her classmates 'the tarts', why she wanted to join us was beyond me!
"Sally" I nodded curtly maybe even stiffly.
Sally was known as Virago due to her super strength (a power I have always envied!)
"Ashley" she nodded back equally as crisply
"What brings you here?" I couldn't help keep the bitterness out of my voice
"I'm fed up of being in the kiddie class and Rogue agrees its time I moved up!" She stuck her chin out defiantly
I glared at her and began to think of ways to torture her in the danger room session.
The danger mile…sorry room
I watched the newbies closely, barking orders at them to see how well they followed them and watching to see how well they worked as a team. Mel was up in the control room ready to shut down the simulation at the first time of trouble and also preparing herself to shield them in a force field.
I watched critically: Bounce was working well as I had expected, Vermiform was having a little trouble following orders and unsurprisingly Virago was trying to take over. I watched as Pitfall saved Vermiform's back by dropping him through the floor and then pooping him back up again, he then phased through some of the robots shorting them out. Pitfall I decided was definitely going to be one of the new team members he seemed to have total control over his powers and was a good team player, unlike Virago.
I signalled Mel for the end of the simulation "Okay guys that was just to get an idea of how you work within team now we're going to do some individual exercises and see how long you can last without me or Mel bailing you out, the current Retribution X record is an hour but don't worry we expect those of you who haven't undergone this kind of training at this higher level to last that long! Each simulation is specifically catered for your powers!" I paused and looked round the room "Okay who wants to go first?"
Virago confidently walked into the danger room
"Okay you time starts now!"
I watched as she ducked and dived and broke the various enemies that faced her. She was quite impressive really much as I disliked her, I jumped quickly. Zzzzzz Crash
"Okay that was just over a minute, very impressive just remembers to keep watching around you, remember you should never forget the danger an enemy poses once you've gone past them, and remember you are unshielded from behind!"
Sally looked angry that I of all people had had to bail her out.
Pitfall was next up and he went for the all out offensive style favoured by myself. This guy was really good; he must have done something like this before he did everything so gracefully and swiftly with the seemingly minimum amount of effort. He lasted for a total of 15 minutes before he began to get sloppy.
Vermiform was the most entertaining to watch as he wrapped his self around mechanical arms in the manner of a boa constrictor, and then stretched himself to reach hooks so he could swing along the ceiling before dropping and landing in his human form, he really was fascinating to watch but I felt he would probably need encouragement and some private tutor ledge in order to get the most out of his powers. He lasted for 3 minutes and looked absolutely knackered.
Bounces turn was nothing new to me I knew what she was capable of and she reacted well to the dangers around her and prioritised them in dangerousness, she was quick and nimble and something about her style reminded me of Hank. She too lasted just over 3 minutes.
Later that evening
The 'recruitment' day was over and the team had decided unanimously that the new members should be Bounce (no surprise there), Vermiform (even though Kat thought he was, and I quote 'icky'), and Pitfall.
Now it was the part I wasn't looking forward too, I called a meeting in the kitchen and called Kat and Mel into the study.
I sat on the edge of my desk and sighed.
"What's wrong Ash?" Mel asked brow knitted
"Is it because I set fire to that lady?" Kat asked (putting her on door duty wasn't as good an idea as it had first appeared!)
"No, but there's something that it is my sad duty to inform you, I only wish that it wasn't me but you really need to know…."
In the kitchen
"Ash what the hell's going on? We never have proper meetings like this where you drag people in to the study?" Jubes asked getting up as she looked at Mel's pale drawn face, and Kat too, looked dazed.
"Jubes sit down there's something I think that we have to explain to you" I said seriously "Today as you know we were recruiting new members for the team, unfortunately that is not all these new people are…" I paused and licked my lips with my dry tongue
"Yes" Ev prompted confusion all over her face
"Today we were not only recruiting new members for the team…" I began again, damn why was this so hard? "…but we were recruiting our new replacements!"
Ok the end of chapter 1, so what did you think?? My muse wants answers and he wants them now…or he'll…er…shoot you with this potato gun he points potato gun at you and mutters in german about looking ridiculous
Me: Don't worry, that Stetson looks adorable…besides if you don't like it, I'll give it to my new but not improved muse that should be arriving mail order any time now.
Kurt: Mumbles in German
Me: Whaps him with Jane Eyre Don't be rude at least speak in a language we all understand
Kurt Bamphs off in a huff
Don't worry he'll be back after all I hold the biscuit strings in this house!!
So don't sit their rolling your eyes at me REVIEW!!