The Children's Crusade (Part Two)
By TheLostMaximoff
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. R/R.
Noriko Ashida stared at her shaking hands and then looked at herself in the dingy, grimy mirror as she stood in the bathroom of the bar she currently worked at. Her trembling fingers barely managed to unscrew the cap on the bottle of pills she held before she poured some of the pills into her other hand. She cursed herself as a few of the capsules slipped from her hands and tumbled down the drain. She grabbed the bottle of alcohol she had brought with her off the top of the toilet and downed the pills followed by a swig from the bottle. Nori felt the constant buzzing and tingling of the electricity in her body momentarily subside and she checked herself in the mirror before stuffing the pills back in her purse and walking out of the bathroom. She headed back behind the bar and continued polishing a few glasses. Business was slow during the day, the real fun waiting until nightfall.
"Forget your gauntlets?" asked an unfamiliar voice. Nori's blood turned ice cold as she glared at the man in a business suit sitting at the bar. Her gauntlets had been damaged about a month and a half ago. After she was unable to contact Forge, Nori had given up wearing the things. Unfortunately, that meant she had to resort to the old methods of controlling her power.
"You obviously know about me," said Nori as she leaned over the bar and put herself in the man's face, "If you don't leave this place in two seconds then I'm going to show you exactly why I needed those gauntlets in the first place."
"You shouldn't threaten me," replied the man coolly, "It's very unladylike especially when I can give you everything you need."
"What I need is a cheaper way to score drugs," retorted Nori, "Unless you're a dealer I really don't think you have anything I want."
"I deal in all manner of things," assured the man, "I can give you an effective, healthy, more pleasant-looking way of controlling your power, Noriko. I can also fix your ruined relationship with Mr. David Alleyne."
"What's the catch?" asked Nori quietly.
"You'll have to do something for me," said the man, "Julian Keller is starting up the junior squad of X-Men again. I know because he came to me about funding, which I took care of once he had performed a few tasks. He's going to try to recruit you."
"I fail to see why you should give a damn," said Nori.
"I have a client who wants Julian's plan to fail," explained the man, "That's what I do, Noriko. I am but a humble dealmaker. I help people help themselves."
"So what do you want me to do?" asked Nori.
"You will be bait for the trap," assured the man, "You help me complete my obligations with my client by delivering him Julian Keller and in return I will use my connections to help you fix your problems, starting with that nasty pill addiction you've developed."
"And if I say no?" asked Nori skeptically.
"I leave this bar and this conversation never happened," replied the man simply, "So there's really only one question you should ask yourself, Noriko. Do you want to play the game?"
XXXXX
"You sure we should be doing this?" Julian Keller wasn't really sure about a lot of things but he knew this felt right. They were about to do a good thing and he wasn't going to let the rest of the world tell him that it was wrong to try and be a hero.
"You made the commitment, Megan," reminded Hellion as he looked at Pixie, "You're the one who works with this guy. Is he or isn't he?"
"I've seen the wristband he wears," assured Pixie, "From the way he talks, he's definitely part of the Stryker Crusade. I thought all those jerks would crawl back under their rocks once Stryker was gone."
"There's that old proverb about cutting off the snake's head," reminded Anole, "It's too bad groups like these are more like hydras than snakes. You cut off one head and about five more will pop up."
"You guys gonna talk about this all night or are we gonna beat the snot outta someone?" asked Rockslide nervously.
"Some of us have a flight to L.A. to catch," reminded Hellion, "We'll take care of this quick and quiet."
"Which means I get stuck doing the dirty work," said Anole, finishing what his apparent team leader was about to suggest. He quietly began climbing up the side of the building, using his camouflage power to keep anyone from noticing him. Most of the windows in the abandoned warehouse were already broken. It was an easy matter for Anole to slip inside the building and start scouting around. There were rows and rows of folding chairs that were occupied by people of various ages, races, and social backgrounds. Anole could see a large banner with the logo of the Stryker Crusade on it hanging behind a makeshift stage complete with a microphone. Victor clung to the inside wall, wedging himself in the corner where the wall met the ceiling.
"Brothers and sisters," said a voice as a man in his twenties took the stage, "I greet you in the name of our God and in the name of our holy Reverend William Stryker." Victor felt his stomach turn as the man continued with what was apparently a sermon. He wasn't going to wait around listening to this garbage. Anole stuck his arm out of the broken window and waved to his teammates below. He winced as Rockslide promptly punched through the door. That was his cue to start a preemptive strike. Anole quickly slid down the wall and leapt towards the stage to take out the man who was the leader.
"Boy, if you thought Jehovah's Witnesses were pushy then you must really hate us," said Rockslide as he smashed his way into the room, "Hey, do you guys do the 'free food' thing at these meetings? I could go for something to eat right about now." The congregation of people did what most large groups of people would do in the current situation. There was mass panic and hysteria on all fronts. The poor, brave souls who decided to combat the mutant scum rushed headlong at Rockslide.
"How come I'm so popular with the dudes all of a sudden?" asked Rockslide as he barely felt the blows from the panicked rabble, "I thought that was Vic's thing."
"I heard that," assured Anole from across the room as he continued making his way to the preacher for tonight's congregation. He saw the young man trying to duck out of the back. Anole wasn't going to let him even get as far as the door.
"I always hate this part," muttered Anole before his tongue shot out of his mouth and wrapped around the man's ankles, effectively tripping him and sending him to the floor. Anole began reeling his tongue back in like a fishing line, dragging the man towards him.
"You want me to really hurt them?" asked Rockslide as he harmlessly tossed aside his assailants.
"I got it covered," assured Pixie as she flew overhead and let out a shower of her hallucinogenic dust, "You might wanna cover your mouth unless you always wondered what it was like to drop acid." It took mere seconds for the crowd of angry racists to become spaced-out zombies lost in a world of extremely bright rainbows and disgustingly sappy unicorns. At least that was what Pixie hoped would occur. She couldn't always control what her dust did to people and after her trip through Limbo the people who inhaled it hadn't always experienced such happy visions.
"This the guy?" asked Hellion as he gestured to the man Anole was taking care of.
"Yeah," replied Pixie, "Don't hurt him a lot though. He's a good kid, really. He's just . . . you know."
"Trent, Trent, Trent," said Hellion with a sad shake of his head as he floated over to the man and looked down at him, "I hear you have a problem with mutants, Trent. I hear you're pretty vocal about it too."
"This is a total violation of our rights," protested the man, "All of you freaks will be hauled into court once I dial up SHIELD!"
"Take your time," suggested Hellion as he flashed the fake SHRA card at Trent and then telekinetically lifted the man up to his level so he could be eye to eye with him, "You wanna hear a little story, Trent?"
"I don't want to hear anything from you," assured the man, "This is exactly the kind of morally bankrupt behavior I would expect from your kind. Harassing innocent people is a crime."
"Oh, Trent, we do need to talk," said Hellion as he grabbed the man's collar, "Let me tell you about your pal, William Stryker, and his buddies. They blew up a bus containing forty-two ex-mutant children. I lost my best friend in that explosion, Trent. In fact, this crazy cyborg chick almost killed me on the orders of whoever leads your little Crusade. So you can see why watching you people gather and preach your hate speech upsets me, Trent."
"None of that has to do with me," stated Trent.
"You happen to work with a good friend of mine," said Hellion, "Don't worry; you'll see so much weird crap tonight you probably won't remember this meeting at all. You'll probably chalk it up to some sort of transcendent experience you had with God while you were here telling all these people about how the muties will burn in Hell."
"What do you want from me then?" asked Trent.
"I got a message that needs delivering," stated Hellion viciously, "You go tell your Crusade buddies here in Seattle and in D.C. and in New York. You go tell whoever's higher on the ladder than you in this little club and you make sure they spread the word. The X-Men are still standing, Trent, and we're pretty pissed off. If you think you can take us down then come and try. If not then do everyone a favor and lay off the hate speech against mutants." Hellion shoved Trent away.
"Seriously, if I still was able to I think I would've just soiled myself," said Rockslide.
"Dust him," ordered Hellion as he looked to Pixie, "Sooraya and Cess are already at the airport waiting on me. We'll get Nori back while you guys take care of this mess."
"I'm really sorry about this," apologized Pixie as she blew a cloud of her pixie dust in Trent's face, "Trust me, you so got off easy." Trent's eyes glazed over as he became lost in whatever fantasy world his mind could come up with as a result of the psychoactive chemicals in Pixie's dust.
"Is this really how we're going to make it safe for mutants again?" asked Anole as he walked away with Hellion, "All the other kids always said you were a young Magneto but I never put too much stock in it until now."
"You know what the Stryker Crusade did to us," retorted Hellion with venom in his throat, "That guy's lucky I didn't put him in the hospital."
"I understand all that," assured Anole, "You've seen where I grew up. I lived in a town that slowly started to become full of people like him but we can't go around threatening whoever we want."
"I know," admitted Hellion as he turned back and looked at Anole, "It just pisses me off that those people can get away with everything they've done to us. I've put everything on the line for this, Vic, and it's because I don't want to see the same thing happen to you guys."
"We're not going anywhere," assured Anole, "You want this team to stand for something and it does. Just make sure you know what it stands for."
"I've got a plane to catch," said Hellion as he rose into the air, "I promise things will get better, Vic. We just have to find a system that works."
XXXXX
"Where did you get these things?" asked Mercury as the trio of young mutants exited the airport.
"I had someone make them," replied Hellion, "We've got enough problems without getting hassled by The Initiative every time we go out. I just figured this would be the safest way to avoid that."
"They must've cost a fortune," said Mercury skeptically, "How much was in that trust fund of yours, Julian?"
"Not important," replied Hellion dismissively, "Sooraya, where are we going?"
"When Megan and I lived with her, Nori worked at a bar," explained Dust, "I believe it was called 'Rockwell's' or something like that."
"It's downtown," assured Hellion as he raised his hand for a cab, "We'll start from there and see where we go. You can tell me exactly what went on with her on the way there."
"I would rather not discuss it," admitted Dust as the three of them got into the cab. The driver gave them an odd look.
"Rockwell's," ordered Hellion as he pulled out a sizeable amount of cash, "Don't ask any questions." The cabbie nodded and pulled away from the curb.
"You could've just gotten your parents to send us a limo," reminded Mercury.
"My parents have no clue what I'm doing," replied Hellion, "I think we have an unspoken arrangement to keep it that way. Sooraya, you need to explain what's going on."
"Noriko is . . . hurting," attempted Dust quietly, "We tried as best we could to help but she refused it. It is the only regret I have about coming to Seattle and living there."
"You said you tried to get her to come too," said Mercury.
"Nori was unmanageable," admitted Dust, "She still had issues with David and their relationship and her behavior was more erratic by the day. Her gauntlets broke and she had to resort to other methods to control her power."
"Which were what?" asked Hellion.
"Numerous quantities of pills," explained Dust, "Sometimes they were mixed with alcohol. Megan and I never asked where she obtained these things. As I said, we tried to help her but it became too much. Moving to Seattle was a way for us to escape."
"It's been rough on all of us," assured Mercury as she held Sooraya's hand, "We'll talk some sense into her."
"One can only hope," replied Dust sadly.
XXXXX
Noriko Ashida didn't like this. Of course there were a lot of things she didn't like. She didn't like the fact that she had shot herself in the back concerning her relationship with David Alleyne. She didn't like the fact that she had to resort to a fistful of pills as a way to keep her power in check. She didn't like the fact that she was going to sell out her closest friends in order to fix all of the other problems in her life.
"Right on time," said Surge to herself as she watched Hellion walk into the building while she was wiping down the bar, "You'd probably feel more at home if you came back on Friday night. We get a lot of drunk frat boys that night." Nori wondered if Hellion had been foolish enough to bring some of the others along. She couldn't believe he had the nerve to try and reform the team. Couldn't he see what wearing the X had cost them? Couldn't he see how screwed up they had become because of their affiliation with the X-Men?
"I'm gonna cut to the chase," said Hellion as he took a seat at the bar and stared at Surge, "Sooraya and Cessily are outside waiting for me. We want you to come back with us, Nori." Surge felt her teeth grind together in a most unladylike manner as she attempted not to laugh at Hellion's proposal.
"I have to close up," said Surge, "I'm not coming back with you, Julian. Wearing those uniforms has screwed up our lives enough as it is. Why would you want to go through all that crap again?"
"Tell me your life is better now," countered Hellion, "Tell me you like popping pills and drinking yourself to death every night just to keep yourself under control. Tell me you like your life now and make me believe it because right now I'm calling you a liar."
"What I do with my life isn't your business anymore," stated Surge as she walked around the bar and stood toe to toe with Hellion, "You're going to get someone killed, Julian. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but some day somebody is going to die because of this. After watching so many of our friends die, how can you even dare to put the ones we have left through this again?"
"The adults are gone, Nori," said Hellion, "They just gave up and thought that the world would be a better place without the X-Men. They're wrong, Nori, and I'm gonna prove it to them. You wanna tell me you don't want to rub it in Miss Frost's face?"
"It's not worth dying for," assured Surge as she turned to walk away, "Leave, Julian. Just turn around and go home. I'm not going to be polite again."
"I don't even get a goodbye kiss?" asked Hellion as he grabbed her wrist to keep her from leaving.
"I was feeling kinda bad about doing this until you said that," admitted Surge as she turned to look at Hellion with lightning crackling in her eyes, "You never did know when to quit." Hellion felt the electricity suddenly course through his veins. He let out a cry of pain before he fell to the floor.
XXXXX
"We should be in there with him," said Mercury.
"Julian is adept at taking care of himself," reminded Dust, "Nori will not harm him." Cessily wasn't exactly so sure of that. Surge always had a quick temper and Hellion was known for rubbing people the wrong way. Putting the two of them together often made for explosive situations. Mercury was the first to hear the cry and feel the electricity in the air. That was all the evidence she needed that something was wrong.
"Did you . . .?" began Dust.
"I heard it," replied Mercury hastily as she ran into the building. She cursed her recklessness as a lightning bolt suddenly hit her and her body quickly lost its humanoid shape. Mercury screamed as her body dissolved into a puddle on the floor after another bolt. A miniature sandstorm suddenly blew into the room and shrouded everything inside in a thick layer of sand and grit.
"I don't want to hurt you," assured Surge as she shielded her eyes from the hail of sand, "but I have a deal to complete." Surge let out a wide-range attack with her lightning. The bolts leapt from her body in wild, jagged arcs that scorched the walls of the building. The lightning did far more than that. She knew enough basic science to know what happened when lightning struck sand. Surge steadied herself against the bar as the sandstorm turned into a shower of glass and she saw Dust on the floor struggling to rise to her feet. Sooraya barely managed to scrape together enough dust to reform her body without part of it being turned to glass due to the heat of the lightning strike. She clawed at the floor in an effort to find something to help her get back to her feet.
"It's nothing personal," assured Surge as she looked down at Dust, "A man came to me and told me that he could give me my heart's desire. The only thing I had to do was deliver Julian to him. You and Cess just get to come along for the ride."
"Traitor," hissed Dust as she struggled to remain conscious.
"There's nothing left to betray," retorted Surge as she hit Dust with a low-level shock that knocked the Muslim girl unconscious.
