Generation Gap (Part Three)
By TheLostMaximoff
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. Happy (belated) Fourth of July to all my American readers. R/R.
"What do they do to you in there?" asked Alani. Elixir slowly opened his eyes and looked into hers. His body still hurt from the tests but he knew he couldn't tell Alani the truth. Gyrich had told him that what went on in that room was top-secret and Elixir had promised long ago to stop breaking the trust others had in him.
"I'm really tired right now, Lani," said Elixir, "I can't talk about it right now."
"You never can," said Alani as her fingers entwined with his, her nails scraping against his golden skin, "Josh, I really don't like this."
"I don't either," confessed Elixir, "What happens in there isn't something you want to know, Lani." Alani's eyes moved to the black tar staining Elixir's skin and noticed that it seemed agitated about something.
"Do you have to kill people?" asked Alani.
"Not people, no," replied Elixir, "They want to see my limits, Lani. It's the same thing we had to do at Xavier's."
"Cyclops and the others never beat you up this bad," countered Alani.
"The more I know about my powers, the better I can use them," stated Elixir as he moved up to press his lips against hers, "You didn't use to worry this much." Alani sighed as she kissed him back. She couldn't just let this slide though. She had come to Camp Hammond thinking that it was the perfect place to be safe. She couldn't believe how naïve she was even after everything she had seen at Xavier's. Camp Hammond was just another place to turn kids into soldiers while promising them the illusion of safety.
XXXXX
Pixie's eyes slowly opened as she felt someone touch her head, the fingertips running gently through the pink and black strands of her hair. Her body ached all over as if she had just completed the Danger Room session from Hell. She reflexively moved away from the touch until she realized the fingers belonged to Rahne Sinclair.
"Megan?" asked Wolfsbane, "Ye awake?"
"Yeah," replied Pixie as she tried to sit up, "Is it really you, Miss Sinclair?"
"Ye can call me Rahne, Megan," reminded Wolfsbane with a smile, "It's me, lass. What happened to ye?"
"I don't . . . I don't even know where to start," admitted Pixie as she sat up and pulled her knees to her chest, "I mean it's such a long list."
"Start with how ye got here," suggested Rahne.
"Well, we had to leave Seattle because the Initiative came for us," explained Pixie, "So I teleported us and we ended up in Vegas. We spent a couple days there watching Julian and Nori cheat the casino out of money then this morning we left. We landed in Colorado and we were attacked by these people. I think they're called the Thunderbolts or something. I had to teleport us again and the only thing I could think of was how much I want things to go back to the way they were. I think that's why I brought us here . . . because it's where you were."
"How are ye able ta teleport, lass?" asked Wolfsbane, "Before ye touched down, I smelt something, a scent I havenae come across in a long time. Ye smelled like Illyana Rasputin."
"We got trapped in Limbo," explained Pixie, her eyes starting to water at the memories of all the horror she had witnessed, "Magik . . . Illyana . . . whatever she was, she tried to make a Soulsword from my soul but she didn't finish the job. She took a piece of my soul and it got replaced with something else . . . something I don't understand and I don't think I ever want to understand."
"Oh, Megan," said Wolfsbane as Pixie buried her face in her former teacher's shoulder, "I had no idea things were that bad."
"Why did you have to leave us?" asked Pixie tearfully, "We looked up to you, Rahne. We trusted you." The trauma was starting to catch up to Megan and Rahne could see it quite clearly. So many nights, Rahne Sinclair had stayed awake and asked herself the same question. She still hadn't found a satisfactory answer.
"I never meant ta hurt ye," whispered Wolfsbane as she hugged her former pupil, "I never wanted any o' this fer ye or any o' tha others, Megan. I'm so sorry."
XXXXX
"How have you been holding up, Noriko?" asked Dani Moonstar as she and the co-leader of the New X-Men both turned away from the scene with Pixie and Wolfsbane to give the two girls some privacy.
"I get by," replied Surge as she stretched her arms and winced as she heard something pop, "Things were bad when I first got away from Xavier's but I think I'm okay now . . . as okay as any of us can be anyway."
"This isn't what any of us wanted for you, Nori," assured Dani.
"No, it probably isn't but it's what you trained us for," corrected Surge, "Not that you're holding all the blame. Miss Frost tried to stop us a month or two ago but we told her off. Not exactly our brightest moment."
"I think I would've enjoyed it," admitted Dani with a grin.
"I did get some personal satisfaction from it," assured Surge as she returned Dani's grin, "So now we're on our own and on the run. I guess we're lucky that you guys were in the area."
"We weren't here by accident," assured Dani, "I need your help with something, Nori."
"What's up?" asked Surge with a quirk of her eyebrow.
"Josh and Alani are at Camp Hammond as you probably know," explained Dani, "Gyrich won't let Josh go until I bring you and the others to him. I was hoping you'd be up for changing his mind."
"Oh I think we can work something out," assured Surge as electricity wickedly crackled from her eyes, "I'll have to run it by our co-leader but I doubt he'll mind."
"I forget how young she is," said Dani as she looked back in Pixie's direction, "I forget how young all of you are."
"Were you any younger?" asked Surge in return, "The day we put on the X was the day we signed away our innocence. It was true for you and it's true for us."
"That doesn't mean it was a good idea," reminded Dani as she and Surge walked through the foyer and stepped through the front door. The noise of Cannonball's blasting echoed through the air.
"Boys never get tired of fighting it seems," said Surge as she watched Hellion and Cannonball engage in a friendly dogfight, the two of them zipping through the air like crazed fireflies as they traded blows.
"I got five bucks on Julian," said Rockslide as the two girls joined the rest of the New X-Men, "You want in on this?"
"Pass," replied Surge as she shook her head, "Miss Moonstar needs our help. You looking for a fight, Santo?"
"Best thing 'bout wearin' an X is that I never hafta look," replied Rockslide with a smirk, "Please tell me we get to take another shot at the Initiative."
"Wish granted," assured Surge, "Tell those two up there to quit horsing around. We've got some work to do."
XXXXX
"I heard ya told Miss Frost 'xactly where ta get off at," said Cannonball as he roared towards Hellion. Julian could barely hear Sam's voice over the noise of his powers. He put a telekinetic wall between himself and Cannonball, letting the older mutant bounce off of it. Cannonball hit the wall, changing directions like a swimmer would when hitting the wall of a pool. He zipped down and then around Hellion, coming up behind the New X-Man with the quickness of a hummingbird.
"Something like that," assured Hellion as he twisted sideways to avoid Cannonball's next charge, "You gonna give me a lecture on being too impulsive?"
"Ain't been too long since I did somethin' like that," assured Cannonball as he righted himself and hovered in front of Hellion, "Me an' tha others, we started gettin' a different view on things. Cable came along and we decided tha mansion wasn't tha place fer us anymore. We wanted ta try a new way o' doin' business."
"Not exactly the same," corrected Hellion as he blocked another of Cannonball's charges, "You chose to take yourself out of the school. We just got kicked out."
"Everybody's gotta grow up some time, kid," assured Cannonball, "Ya stood up ta Emma same way I stood up ta Xavier. At some point, all kids gotta decide whether or not they wanna be their parents fer tha rest o' their lives."
"You were the leader of the New Mutants, weren't you?" asked Hellion.
"Sometimes," replied Cannonball, "Dani did most o' tha work. I just got tha glory."
"What do you do when you feel like you made the wrong decision for the team but you can't take it back?" asked Hellion.
"Ya just hope that ya get tha chance ta choose again so ya can make tha right choice," replied Cannonball with a shrug, "Yer friends look up ta ya, Julian. Maybe sometimes they shouldn't so much but yer a good kid. Maybe ya did steer 'em wrong but they're still alive and yer still together. At tha end o' tha day, that's what's important."
"So what exactly did you tell Xavier?" asked Hellion as he saw Surge wave at them to come down.
"Lordy, I don't remember," said Cannonball with a sigh, "Basic jist o' it was that we were old 'nuff tha drive tha car ourselves and we were headin' down tha right road even if it was a diff'rent one than what he wanted."
"I went with the whole 'taking your ball and going home' thing," explained Hellion.
"Nice," admitted Cannonball with a grin, "Hafta remember that one some time."
XXXXX
Even though Serotonin was currently powerless, it didn't mean he was helpless. He knew that Alani would come to him again. All it took was the first meeting for him to place the seed of doubt in her mind. It wasn't as if he had lied to her. From what he could gather, the things that the Initiative did to Josh Foley in that room were cruel and inhuman. Serotonin could guarantee with absolute certainty that those experiments would stop if Alani and Elixir helped him escape his current predicament. However, he couldn't guarantee that what happened next would be better.
"I assume you tried to phase through the door," said Serotonin as he heard the click of a keycard in the lock of his cell. The door slid open and Alani Ryan entered the cell, quietly placing the keycard back into her pocket.
"It hurt," replied Alani, "I did sneak into Gyrich's room and get his keycard though. It's night right now so there's less security. Come on."
"Where would you have me go?" asked Serotonin as he followed Alani out of the cell.
"Josh needs a little more persuasion," explained Alani, "He thinks all of this is for the greater good. I figure if you and I can get some proof that it's not then maybe he'll help me escape."
"And what about me?" asked Serotonin, "I'm currently powerless."
"Let's hope it stays that way," said Alani, "You're free to do whatever you want but I'm not helping you get your powers back."
"Fair enough," said Serotonin as he watched Alani use the keycard to unlock the door to the testing room, "I suppose I can't really expect you to trust me." Both of the young mutants entered the room and looked around at the mysterious mechanical equipment. Alani didn't know what she was looking for exactly but she knew that they had to keep records somewhere of what Elixir did while he was in this room.
"None of this looks very friendly," said Alani as she looked at the machinery in the room.
"There're a few offices that shoot off of this room," stated Serotonin as he maneuvered his way to the far side of the room and studied the door, "You should use the keycard first and save your powers as a last resort."
"You seem to know a lot about this place," said Alani skeptically.
"They kept me here for a while," replied Serotonin as Alani opened the door with the keycard, "Before they put me in my cell, they kept me strapped to a gurney in this room. That's when the shot me full of their S.P.I.N. tech and took away my powers." Alani moved into the room and quickly began to rifle through the drawers in the desk. She knew she shouldn't help Serotonin but she figured as long as he was powerless he didn't have the ability to hurt anyone.
"I know why you're helping me," said Alani as she pulled out another drawer.
"Do tell," prodded Serotonin.
"You think Josh can use his powers to get their tech out of your system," explained Alani as she looked at Serotonin, "I'm not going to let you get anywhere near him, Trent. You're going to be normal for the rest of your life."
"Normal is a matter of perception," retorted Serotonin. Alani knew he had something up his sleeve but she was busy sorting through the files in the file cabinet. She began putting some of the folders in a stack on the desk. The Initiative was interested in Josh but they never told him exactly what about him they were interested in. The files told Alani that the government wanted Elixir for the two very different sides of his power. If the Initiative could isolate the chemical compound that let Josh heal and hurt people then they could synthesize it and use it to create the ultimate cure-all, a panacea that would fix any wound and purge any disease. However, that wasn't the only project in the works. If they could synthesize Elixir's abilities, the Initiative could also create the deadliest biological weapon on the face of the planet, a lethal virus that could kill any living thing in a matter of seconds no matter how advanced its immune system was.
"He's a lab rat," whispered Alani as she kept looking through the files, "They just keep taking DNA sample after DNA sample, reading after reading. They've had him kill bacteria cultures, plants, even small animals. They've even tried to have him hurt himself and then heal himself. I didn't even know if that was possible."
"It appears it is," said Serotonin as he looked over Alani's shoulder and read the files in her hands, "Gyrich has put a lot of time and money into your boyfriend. I almost feel jealous."
"I have to show this stuff to him," said Alani as she gathered up as many of the files as she could, "He has a right to know exactly what they're using him for."
"This is a bit too big for your hands, Alani," admitted Serotonin as he grabbed a paperweight from the desk while Alani turned her back on him, "I'm afraid this will have to be taken care of by someone else." Alani didn't have time to phase as Serotonin hit her in the back of the head with the paperweight, knocking her out instantly. Alani's limp body hit the floor as Serotonin gave it a satisfying smirk. He knew there was more to this project than just the files and, as he took the keycard from Alani, Serotonin knew he would find it.
Serotonin exited the office room and managed to break into one of the other rooms that shot off of the testing room. He knew exactly what this room was. It was the room where they analyzed Josh Foley's DNA in an effort to make their miracle cure and their biological weapon. Serotonin had seen references to it in the files he had skimmed through. He knew enough to know that the Initiative had developed what they hoped to be a working synthesized version of Elixir's healing ability. Serotonin looked at the wall that contained the biological samples, all of them in air-tight compartments that slid out of the wall.
"Interesting," said Serotonin as he studied a portion of the wall, "You have a vault within a vault, Gyrich. That can only mean you're trying to hide something that you definitely don't want anyone else to find." Serotonin swiped the card through the reader but it seemed that the lock in question had more security than he could get through. He saw what looked like a retinal scanner and palm-print reader. He realized that only Gyrich himself could open the thing and returned to his original goal. It wasn't long before he found exactly what he was looking for.
"They had to test this eventually," said Serotonin to himself as he pulled out the vial of liquid and stared at it, "I believe it's time to do my service to my country and to the cause of science." Serotonin drank the entire contents of the vial and then waited to see if it had any effects on him. At first, he couldn't feel anything happening inside him but slowly and surely he felt a tiny spark of something. The chemicals in his brain began churning and frothing, covering his thoughts in a delicious cloud of delirium that he had missed so dearly.
'You know what you must do, my son,' said the voice inside Serotonin's head, 'Make them suffer for their sins. Make them scream in agony and confess their transgressions. Punish them for their disbelief!'
"Oh I will, Father," assured Serotonin with a cruel, capricious smile as his illusionary powers reached outward towards anyone and everyone in the immediate vicinity, "I won't disappoint you this time."
XXXXX
Henry Peter Gyrich woke to the sound of gunshots outside of his door. It sounded as if a full-scale war was happening out in the hallway. Gyrich fumbled for his glasses and scrambled to make himself look decent before someone burst through his door.
"What the hell is going on out there!" shouted Gyrich over the roar of the fight.
"I can't be sure, sir," explained the soldier shakily, "He . . . he's done something to them."
"What the hell are you babbling about, soldier?" asked Gyrich as he quickly grabbed his pistol and checked to make sure it was loaded, "Who's done what?"
"The illusion-caster, sir," explained the soldier. The soldier couldn't explain anything else because something came through the door and slammed him into the wall.
"William Trent Kline," stated Prodigy as he entered the room, pointing at Gyrich while the rest of his Initiative teammates flanked him, "You're under arrest."
"I'm Gyrich!" snapped Gyrich as he pointed the gun at Prodigy, "All of you are being manipulated by the real Kline!"
"No, you're not Gyrich" said Serotonin as he stepped through the group of Initiative agents, "I am!" None of the Initiative agents heard Serotonin's mad cackling as they quickly subdued Gyrich, falsely believing that they were capturing their enemy. It would only take a matter of minutes for Serotonin to take over all of Camp Hammond and he would use the Initiative's own agents to do it. All it took was the proper motivation and manipulation for Serotonin to amass an army of super-powered beings that would do whatever he wanted them to do.