Don't Fear the Reaper
Chapter Two: Human Shield
With my sword in hand I charge at the creature painted crimson in front of me. The second he takes notice he's gone in a cloud of red sulfur. The scent overwhelmed my senses, it's strong, pungent. Memorable. So here I stand, sniffing at the air, waiting for the perpetrator to rejoin me in existence. My instincts and senses are more advanced than a regular humans, almost akin to an animal, which is were I got the code name Lioness from years prior to my skeletal mutation revealing itself. A snarl passes my lips that I didn't bother to contain. If I want to catch this bastard, I'm going to need the animal. In a situation like this, it can be very useful. Trying to sense something I cannot see, scent is what I need. There's no other option at my disposal.
Good thing I trust my own instincts above all else because the smell gives way to his appearance as I thought it would. I turn around to block an incoming blow of his blades. Shock crosses his face briefly before his tail snakes around and wraps around my ankle. As he yanks my footing out from under me I throw my weight back into a walkover and I flip over backwards, still completely in control of the situation. I crouch and run at him again only to meet the same scenario as before, his disappearance. He reappears much faster this time and I manage to side sweep his feet, knocking him to the ground. Except before he hits he's disappeared again.
This is when I feel something wrap around my neck and it throws me into the room where all of the mutants I swore to protect and analyze are cowering in fear of the unknown. They're all too young to know how to react to a unique situation as I do. To formulate plans within seconds and act them out accordingly. That means my offensive position is no longer feasible so I regain my footing quickly and stand defensively in front of them.
"Don't move and stay down if you value your life." I warn them, taking a second to gauge the shock, fear, and calamity on each of their faces.
Eventually they each give me some sound or motion of understanding so I immediately return my attention back to the teleporter. He's stepping through the broken window to the small rec room he had thrown me into, blades still ready to strike at his sides. Behind me I hear someone else, I whip my head around to see a man fixing the cuffs of his jacket while his feet crunched the broken glass he stepped on. I don't know when that window broke or when the other man arrived but I don't have time to ask those questions. The gunfire coming from the hallway required my near full attention.
"Wait, wait, you want the mutants?" A frantic voice asks. "They're right through that door, just leave us normal people alone, we're no threat -"
The voice is silenced by a single yet grotesque crack before the doors open and we're greeted by a man in a blue suit wearing a helmet, carrying a misplaced air of superiority. I snarl unconsciously because I know who this man is. Sebastian Shaw. I knew we weren't safe here.
"Where's the telepath?" He asks.
"I don't see how you're in any place to be asking questions." I retort back with added malice. I have to retain control of this situation. No matter what. And something in my bones is telling me that this man possesses enormous power and has a thing for flaunting it.
He looks at me with a smile, an overly sweet sadistic smile. "You'd think that the C.I.A. could afford to teach you some manners."
"I'm not C.I.A. I'm just as much of a mutant as these kids are." I sneer, clenching my sword tight in my grasp. He arches an eyebrow at me but he's still smiling. I then move so I'm immediately in between the man and the kids. Everything about him sets me on edge. This man tortured mutants during World War II just because he could. Nothing is beyond his depravity and I'm sure of that. Some of them were young, children. I feel my judgement - my objective demeanour - I feel it waver. Quickly I shake my head and focus my energy on something more productive.
He reaches up to take off the helmet. "I'm assuming that the telepath isn't here." He says, handing the headgear to the man I haven't had the pleasure of fighting, yet.
"Good evening, my name is Sebastian Shaw." He continues. "And I am not here to hurt you." Even as the words escape his mouth my hands are clenching around my weapon even tighter. I can smell the lie on him. He won't hurt us unless we resist. I know that for sure. From what I've heard about Sebastian Shaw, he likes to get under your skin and watch you squirm as he kills you. Not someone whose words I'll take at point face. I watch him closely as he takes steps towards us, my knuckles blanching around my blade.
"FREEZE!" A lone agent yells with his gun trained on the mutants threatening us. I look away from him, knowing he'll be dead soon enough.
Shaw turns to his associate with the blades. "Azazel?"
The man I know now to be Azazel disappears only to reappear behind the agent and he rips his blade across his throat without a seconds hesitation. The agent drops dead and Azazel returns to the room, unaffected and merciless. Behind me I hear Raven choke out a sob. I turn just enough to see if she's going to panic, she just seems so utterly defeated by what's happening, so incapable of aiding in any way. This girl wouldn't last two minutes in the field. She's someone to protect, not someone to rely on to have your back when you're taking heat. She's gentle. She has absolutely no business being in this sort of situation. And I feel as I did back in the Soviet Union. The hundreds of children that saw being milled through the Soviet Mutant Program, I feel -
I won't let them hurt you.
"Friends," Shaw begins, drawing me back to him, "there's a revolution coming when mankind discovers who we are and what we can do! Each of us will have a choice, to be enslaved," he pauses to carefully look at each of us, even me, "or to rise up to rule. Choose freely but know if you are not with us then by definition you are against us." Technically I've been against him the second he started slaughtering the C.I.A. agents. "So. You can stay and fight for the people who hate and fear you, or you can join me and live like kings." I bite the inside of my cheek until I taste the tang of blood running down my throat. And even then I don't stop since I'm watching him carefully determine who amongst us has the weakest resolve. Who is most likely to turn to his side. I can tell by the path of his gaze that he's picked out Angel from the pack. I see his aged lips contort into a smile, his eyes of ocean blue threatening to drown you as he says, "And queens."
I can taste the betrayal in the air as she mentally accepts his offer. Shaw holds out a hand to her and she gladly, if not a bit hesitantly, takes it. I have to choke back a snarl. Nothing about this situation sits well with me. Somehow things are going to get worse. With a look of victory on his face Shaw leads her over towards Azazel and out the window, followed by the one who's carrying his helmet. I feel the mutants behind me craning their necks to watch their friend walk away from them, right into the mouth of the lions den. I move so I'm in front of Darwin, still in between the immediate threat and the children.
"Angel..." Raven says, confused if not hurt by the betrayal.
"You kidding me?" The red head, I believe to be Sean, drawls, looking slightly wounded.
Perhaps it's guilt, but some force causes her to turn back towards us.
"Come on," she says, "we don't belong here. And that's nothing to be ashamed of."
Darwin extends a hand towards her, his face torn in the pain of it all. I know the feeling. Like there's an unnatural emptiness inside of you. And you'll do anything to fill it. Anything. But Angel forces herself to turn back around and the four head out towards the courtyard. I feel everyone letting down their guard, I refuse to. This is the moment, the calm in the storm, when defences fall and buildings are reduced to rubble.
Then a dangerous look crosses Darwin's face, one that usually kills more than it saves. The look of a hero. I see him turn around to face the blonde, Alex, I think his name is, with pure unadulterated sacrifice on his face. A complete willingness to give up ones own safety to save another. I've seen many men come to this. That's usually the last look I saw on their faces before they were assaulted with bullets and I was writing widows letters of condolence. Darwin speaks to Alex in muffled tones, hard for even my enhanced hearing to catch. I just know that he's planning something dangerous.
"Stop!" He calls to the others after looking Alex straight in the eye, trying to get some message across. "I'm coming with you." Shaw looks at him with a twisted smile on his face as Darwin approaches him with resolute purpose.
Then there's something odd in the air I can just barely taste. It tastes like fire. I know what each of the mutants can do and Alex has the only one pertaining to the creation of flames. His energy. I grab his arm to find it slightly warm.
"You're not doing this. Your powers are too unstable!" I hiss at him. And I know I'm right. S.H.I.E.L.D. has an eye out for all possible threats. If this is the Alex I think he is, Alex Summers, he's high up on that list in the mutant division. A threat but not necessarily an enemy.
He yanks his arm out of my grip. "So? We've got to do something." He counters with anger flaring in his eyes.
I snarl at him. "You're a fool. That attitude and bull-headed mentality of yours isn't going to help this situation at all!"
He ignores me, setting his eyes on his target and not faltering. I look back to see Darwin joining hands with Angel and turning around to face us. If Alex is going to use his powers, everyone in the immediate vicinity is in danger. I have to be prepared.
I can count the seconds before he yells, "Alex!"
"Get down!" Alex shouts and I move to throw Raven and Hank out of the room. This is when I witness Alex's powers for the first time. Distinct rings of energy that originate from his core, circling his body, and released into the distance, one grazing the building across the lot, one is deflected by one of Shaw's associates with some sort of wind or force field. And the last hits Shaw dead on. Or it should have. Shaw has both hands around the energy and is absorbing it into his skin. I'm completely unprepared for this, Shaw isn't supposed to be a mutant, S.H.I.E.L.D. has no record of it. That's why I know what's coming next isn't going to be pretty. He was ruthless enough armed with a scalpel and Nazi funding.
But this - this is going to be catastrophic.
Once the energy's successfully absorbed into his body, Shaw says, "Protecting your fellow mutants?" He shakes out his arms a bit. "Feels good."
Next to him I can see that Darwin has no idea how to react so he reacts the only way he knows how. He goes to slug Shaw with his right arm and he's blocked. Shaw then grabs his jaw with one hand and in his other I see a condensed ball of energy coming dangerously close to Darwin's mouth.
"Adapt to this." He mutters with pure malice, placing the ball past his lips.
No one knows what to do, not even myself. Shaw is gone in the next minute thanks to Azazel and we watch Darwin's body morph in a futile attempt to stomach the energy. He changes from one material to another until he settled for a concrete-like substance. The danger seems to have subsided for a brief moment. When Darwin reaches out towards us I run out in front of Alex and I place myself in front of him, using myself as a shield. I feel the explosion before I hear it. I've closed my eyes and raised my arms to prevent damage. My face and abdomen are sprayed with rubble, causing me to wince in pain. I open my eyes to see nothing left of Darwin. No evidence that he ever existed. Just a pile of dust where he once stood. I now look to Alex, complete shock plastered on his face.
"Shit..." I mutter to myself, knowing the pain that he must be feeling. Before I address this, I go to the other three. "There's a hatch in the atrium that leads down to a bomb shelter. You're to stay there until I retrieve you, understand?"
Sean and Hank nod before leaving, they can't get out of there fast enough and I can't blame them. It's Raven that can't seem to hear me. She's hysterically clutching at her scalp with tears streaking her face. These are kids, they don't need to go through this at such a young age. They're not me.
I then kneel down beside her, a supportive hand resting on her back. "Raven, you have to get up. Shaw could come back any minute and I can't have any more of you getting hurt, understand?" If she does understand me she doesn't make a point of letting me know. I have no time to handle this delicately so I grab her jaw and force her to look me in the eye. "You're going to get up and you're going to follow Sean and Hank. You're stronger than this. You're better than this. Look past the pain, look past the loss, you can survive this. Now's the time to show it." I say to her and she nods. I help her to shaky legs and she heads off after the boys.
Now all I have left is Alex.
I return to him muttering to himself and try my best to calm him. The panic in his eyes, I know it far too well. His stubbornness and his foolishness just got someone killed, someone close to him. I was a fool once, so I remember the feeling. It bites, stings, numbs, you're bombarded by emotions you think could never mix. And you're partially right, they should never have to mix. But they have, and now you have to press on. It's the only think you can do.
"Alex. Darwin's dead and there's nothing you can do now, you've got to get to safety." I say and there's even less acknowledgement on his face as there was on Raven. Again, I don't have time for this. I slap him across the face without hesitating. "Now is not the time to be acting like this. You're going to lose people, Alex, sometimes it's going to be your fault. That's just something you're going to have to deal with in your life. But now you're in danger. You've got to learn how to channel rage and self hatred into the strength to right your wrongs." I say, trying to get through to him. "So you're going to go downstairs so you can live to fight another day and take down Shaw with your own hands. You're going to come to the realisation that Darwin is dead and letting yourself get killed isn't going to make anything better."
He's looking at me now. "I killed him..."
"You think I haven't killed comrades in combat? This was an accident, a foolish mistake! And you haven't killed anyone today, Shaw used your powers to do harm onto another." I say quietly, softly before increasing the volume. "Now suck it up and get your ass down there!"
He looks at me with a hint of malice but he complies. I'm not here to be the mother of these kids, even though I'm old enough to have mothered half of them. I don't really know how to delicately diffuse a situation. I've never had to do it. I've always been the soldier, never the officer. This is a new experience for me and I really don't like it. I don't have time to think about this though. I know I have something I need to do.
I rush to the nearest phone and I dial the number of my "commanding officer". The director of S.H.I.E.L.D. The phone rings once before a familiar voice says, "S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Director Carter, it's Agent Rose. And we have a huge problem." I start. "Shaw isn't just leading the Hellfire Club, he's a mutant."
"What, you're sure? What's the assessment?" She says in disbelief.
I swallow a lump in my throat. "He's at least a level 4, energy absorption and amplification. He used Alex Summers' energy to kill Armando after Angel Salvadore swapped sides. There's a teleporter and another who has some sort of shield or wind mutation." I continue to explain.
After a few seconds I hear the Director exhale. "The girl who can fly and the man who can - could adapt, correct? And the Summers boy's powers did it?" She asks me.
"Well, yes, but-" I try to intercede.
"Did his powers kill Armando?" She asks bluntly.
I sigh and lament, "Yes."
"Then you are hereby assigned 24/7 watch, you are no longer there to make sure the C.I.A. doesn't find something they shouldn't, you're there to protect others from Alex Summers. To protect him from himself. Tread lightly, don't let them know your mission. I assume Charles would not appreciate the deception." She orders before hanging up.
Again, I sigh. I don't necessarily agree with director Carter's verdict on the situation. I saw what happened. Shaw killed Darwin. But now that I have my orders, I have no choice. I have to treat Alex Summers as a constant threat to others around him, as a threat to me. And I have to remember that he always has been. Alex Summers, my latest target. Another child I would be forced to kill if circumstances demanded it.
