Author's Note: You know something's wrong when your own story starts freaking you out!
Theta 'Krypto' Nigma: That's not odd. Beast would look beast in the helmet! (Sorry, couldn't help it)
Wing-Mei: Wing-Mei!
SOphIe: Consider Nightclawer done. You'll be seeing him very soon. ;^) I'm not sure how I would bring Azazel and Riptide into the story, seeing as they already refused to join, but I guess Azazel could come visit his second cousin (It wouldn't make sense for Nightcrawler to be Azazel's son in this story). I also really like Charles, but he had to go!
Chapter Seven: Sinister
"Something makes me think that this room isn't used for storage," Alex supplied, helpfully. The basement was almost completely bare, save for a sole wooden table in the middle of the room.
"I think you may be right." Erik moved over to the table and picked up the piece of paper that was pinned down onto it. There was a note written, which read:
Dearest Scott,
I have always known that you would return to me. It was my hope to stay here and wait for you, but alas, it would be foolish to stay in one place. Do not worry, for I will come back for you! I do know that you are here. I am quite sorry, but you most definitely will not find anything here.
Sincerely,
Mr. Sinister
P.S. If you are reading this, and you are not Scott, I will know!
Alex had moved until he had a good view of the note from over Erik's shoulder. "Well, this is ominous." Shifting on his feet, Alex rubbed his forehead in frustration. "What has my little brother gotten into?"
"Scott is a very special young man." Miss Ko's voice wafted down from the top of the stairs, but instead of being soft and kind, it was cold and hard—a voice that Erik recognized.
"You're Scott's monster?" He tried to activate his magnetic powers, but found that he could no longer move or otherwise access his powers. As he attempted to open his mouth, he discovered his newfound inability to speak. He still heard Miss Ko's footsteps as she descended farther into the basement, but he was unable to do anything or even communicate with Alex, who seemed similarly frozen. Alex, though, was just suffering from shock.
"Do not panic, Erik. I've merely cut off your brain signals from the rest of your nervous system. You really should have brought that ludicrous helmet of yours." Miss Ko stepped forward into the flickering orange glow of the flashlight, but it was no longer Miss Ko. It looked nothing like Miss Ko; its shoulders were broad, and it had the physique of a very tall, muscular man. Scott's monster now stood before them, its stark white skin an eerie orange because of the dim flashlight. It smiled, displaying two rows of razor-sharp teeth. The monster's piercing red eyes darted back and forth between Alex and Erik, before settling in Alex's direction.
"Alex! How…wonderful! If I had known how powerful you would become, I would have kept you too!" It eyed Alex predatorily, its teeth somehow glistening in the dim light.
"What are you talking about, you freak? I've never seen you before! I'm sure I would have remembered that ugly mug of yours any day!" Alex put on his toughest looking face and clenched his fist tightly, ready to pounce on the monster that apparently stalked his brother.
"Tsk, tsk, Alex. I care very deeply for Scott. More so than you do, apparently. You should have checked your facts before you so readily believed that your beloved brother had perished." The monster taunted Alex, moving closer towards him. "And how can you attack me, when you can't even move?"
A chill passed through Alex's body, and he found himself in the same situation as Erik was in—trapped in his own unresponsive body. He was thinking that now would have been a good time to have had a telepath with them. His thoughts first flickered to Professor X, but he instead concentrated on projecting his thoughts to Emma.
Erik, on the other hand, was waiting to join Charles on the other side. He wanted the monster to skip the evil villain speech and go right to the killing. It was good fighting the good fight—however brief his tenure was, but his was ready to see his best friend again. And he would much rather die a painful, semi-heroic death, than one of boredom. Unfortunately for Erik, the monster had other plans.
The monster chuckled as he stroked Alex's face. "Let me explain something to you—I am not what you call a mutant. I was once a normal man, but I was not happy with my pitiful existence—it was just that, an existence. As a geneticist, I had always been interested in evolution. The world is survival of the fittest, and as a mere human, I was inherently weaker than any mutant. Mutants are the next stage of evolution, and I wanted to be up there in that next stage. I wanted something greater, so I experimented on myself! I made myself into something great! I improved myself using my own genius intellect; I heightened my strength and gave myself great powers, such as telepathy and telekinesis. I was reborn as Mr. Sinister! I have other powers, but your minds are to narrow to understand them." He scoffed at the two mutants. Erik mentally begged Mr. Sinister to stop his boring speech and just kill them already. Sinister looked at Erik, smiling, his teeth as sharp as ever. "No, no. I still have use for you alive. Besides, it's no fun to kill an enemy that wants to die."
Alex began panicking. Did that weird Mr. Sinister guy-woman-being think that he was suicidal? He definitely did not want to die, not right after he had been reunited with his brother! He wondered if Mr. Sinister was just going to keep them frozen like this as trophies or something. Cringing at the thought, he resumed trying to get in contact with Emma, mentally, even though he was aware that he was well out of her range.
"Good bye, young mutants. Don't worry, we will meet again."
"Ughhh…" Alex groaned. "My head is killing me."
"You think you're head is killing you now?" Erik snapped from underneath Alex. "If you don't get the hell off of me within the next second, I will magnetically rip your head off!"
"Um…you can do that?"
Erik turned his piercing glare towards Alex, who immediately leapt off of the older mutant.
"Are you okay down there?" A sweet voice called down—Miss Ko, "I heard a loud crash!"
At her voice, Alex felt a cold shiver running through his skin, which was odd because she had been nothing but kind and courteous to them so far. He called up back to her, "We're fine! I just tripped on my way down the steps. You should really look into getting your light replaced."
Just then, the flashlight that Erik was holding flickered off, the battery dying. He frowned at the flashlight. "I could have sworn there was more battery in here before… The light looked like it could last at least a half hour."
Two new batteries plopped down next to Erik. He looked up to where Miss Ko was standing, looking sheepish. "I'm sorry! I just found them."
Erik slid the batteries in and turned on the flashlight. "This isn't much of a storage area. The only thing here is a table—nothing on it, nothing under it. I guess this was a waste of time. Let's get back to where we left Hank."
Alex nodded. "Yeah. He's probably really bored."
As they exited the orphanage, Miss Ko stood watching, her red eyes agleam.
When Erik and Alex arrived at the airfield, they found that the Blackbird was nowhere to be found. Alex let out a stream of curses, but stopped when Erik directed a hard look in his direction. Erik went inside they airport and found a pay phone.
"Hello?" Sean answered.
"Where's Hank?"
"He came back a little while ago. He's pretty mad, said you should take a commercial flight home. Um…he said that you can take a cab back from JFK, but I'll come pick you up with the car if you want…"
"It's fine. We'll survive." Erik decided to wait until he returned to the mansion to punish Hank for his rash behavior. Soon there would be two mutants benched—Emma and Hank.
Alex had been waiting impatiently for Erik to finish the call. When Erik approached, Alex was still sulking. "Well?"
"We need to take a commercial flight. It looks like there's a direct one in two hours, so we'll just have to wait."
Alex turned to Erik, surprised at his accepting attitude, and saw the glint of malice in the other mutant's eyes. Smirking, Alex knew that they were going to get back at Hank, sooner or later.
Meanwhile, in the mansion's basement, Hank shivered as he stood next to Emma, who was wearing the Cerebro helmet.
"I have my eye on this mutant." Emma pointed at a fresh set of coordinates, newly printed out. "He's a German mutant, and he has no real family. He'll probably jump at the chance to come to our mutant school in the U.S."
Hank looked at her uneasily. "Won't there be a language barrier? Are you sure we should do this without Erik? I'm not that mad at him! I mean, I've already gotten back at him by leaving them stranded in Nebraska."
"You think he won't retaliate? Right when he gets back, you're going to be the target of his fury. You, not me. The best thing to do at this point is to get out of the country as fast as you can! The farther away you are, the safer you are!"
"But Erik is the only one of us who knows German!"
"I'm sure the mutant knows how to speak English. Furthermore, Erik might not be ready to return to Germany so soon after the Holocaust. It might be in his interest for us to go without him."
Shifting uncomfortably, Hank eyed Emma warily. "How do I know that you aren't planting subconscious suggestions in my head?" He had been afraid to voice this concern for the entire conversation, but he had finally mustered up the courage to ask. Everything he said seemed more confident now that he looked like a beast, but inside, he was still the same awkward scientist as before.
"I guess the only way is to get the helmet from Sean…"
"Fine! I'll go, but only if you promise not to force me to stay in the Blackbird during the entire adventure."
"I promise. You'll fit right in at the circus anyway!" Emma giggled as Hank attempted to growl menacingly. "You're growling act needs some work. How're your cartwheels and handstands?"
"I think I'm ready to go. But I have one more condition. You can't talk for the whole plane ride, or I'll eject you. No warnings either. You only have one chance!" Hank smirked. "Okay, now I believe you. I'm definitely in control here."
Hours later, Alex and Erik stumbled into the entrance of the mansion, tired from their journey. They found Sean, Scott, and Raven sitting on the floor of one of the rooms, playing monopoly. They were giggling away, even Raven, and they seemed to be enjoying themselves.
"Oh, hi guys!" Raven called out, spotting the two male mutants standing in the entrance to the room. "Scott has houses on all of the properties on this side of the board." She pointed to one of the four sides. "He's beating us all!" She giggled and ruffled the boy's hair, careful not to disturb his glasses.
Erik smiled fondly. "I see you've met Scott." The new, younger presence was really helping everyone cope. Scott was a lot like Charles in many ways. Erik turned to the sonic mutant. "Sean, where's Emma?"
Scott was the one to answer. "Oh, Emma? She was playing with us, but she went bankrupt early on. She's really bad at this game."
"Scott's caught on to Monopoly really quickly," Raven supplied.
"Wait! You left Emma unattended? With Cerebro right in the basement? Are you crazy?" Erik exploded, and everyone other than Scott stepped away from any metal objects that could potentially maim them.
Sean turned as red as his hair and began spluttering. "But—but—I mean, w-what's the worst she could do?"
"Where's the furry blue guy? I saw him before, but he didn't want to play Monopoly with us. I think he and Emma went off somewhere, together." Everyone turned to Scott in amazement, eyes wide in horror. Scott just smiled snidely. "What? I thought we were playing hide-and-seek or something."
Author's Note: If you were confused by the beginning of this chapter, it was probably because it was meant to be a bit mysterious. But feel free to ask any questions! I will do my best to answer them, unless that requires giving something away!
