Chapter 10: The Brotherhood
I awoke with a start, rising slowly to my feet. My head throbbed and my legs felt like rubber, I scanned my surroundings, trying to figure out where I was, but a thick bank of fog obscured my vision aside from a few trees. The grass felt wet beneath my feet, and the light in the sky indicated that it was probably early morning, just before complete sunrise.
"Hermes" I heard, in a soft male voice from what sounded like all directions. I whirled around, looking for the source of the voice but couldn't find anything. Shaking my throbbing head, I curled my tail back around my waist, and began to make my way slowly forward, away from the highway, or so I thought.
"Hermes, what are you doing?" The voice said again, another soft whisper that seemed to echo around me.
"Who's there?" I said, stopping in my tracks, which proved to be difficult considering my disorientation. I looked around again, searching for an answer from whoever it was. A figure caught my eye in the bank of fog ahead of me, walking slowly in my direction. Backing away a few steps, I prepared for a fight, dropping into a low stance that would allow me to fight or flee if I became outnumbered or worse. As the figure drew closer, I aborted my instinct to fight and my mouth dropped in awe, as he emerged from the fog. The man in front of me towered over me by at least a foot, was dressed in a casual business suit, grey, his light blue eyes and bald head were unmistakable.
"P-professor?" I said, Xavier smiled.
"Yes, Hermes, its me. What are you doing?" He asked, a look of concern crossing his otherwise stony features.
"I'm going after Magneto." I responded, my eyes flashing with rage.
"You won't find what you are looking for, son."
"I have to, he humiliated me, threw me around like a Frisbee, I have to get him, and I have to bring him back to the mansion." I said, not even caring that there was a ghost standing in front of me. He moved forward as though to try to comfort me, and I stepped back, keeping the distance between us.
"Eric has lost his powers, he is no longer a threat and he's living the worst life possible for him to imagine." Xavier chided.
"What do you know? You're dead!" I shouted angrily, turning on my heel and running in the opposite direction. The fog closed around me, making any type of navigation near impossible, and I had only made it a few feet when I sprinted full force into a thick oak that sent me splaying onto my back, unconscious again.
I stood in front of a warehouse that looked abandoned, gang symbols and other spray painted images littered the sliding aluminum doors, it was one symbol that caught my eye, though that led me here. The initials "BH" with the H written into the B, was etched into the concrete, almost as though it had been there forever.
Pulling the fedora on my head lower over my eyes and the collar of the long trench coat I was wearing further up around my neck, I hesitated for a moment, contemplating the dream that I had earlier that day, the fog, the professor, it had all felt so real. But the professor was dead, it couldn't have been real.
Interrogating had been the easiest part, mutants with marks on them, indicating that they had been a part of the brotherhood, were much easier to find than I thought they would be, and they all acted so tough, until the only other way out was death. The final mutant had put up a good fight, a young man who called himself Quicksilver for his lightning fast speed. But he had figured out very quickly that it was hard to run when his feet were trapped in a solid puddle of Adamantium, and easy to talk when a razor sharp spike was rising from the middle of it, threatening to impale him.
Anger welled up inside me, again. I felt like I had finally been accepted into something, finally been viewed as equal, even if it was only by a select few people, and Magneto had ripped that from me, he was definitely going to pay. Clearing my throat, I pushed the thought away and chuckled outwardly at my appearance, picturing myself as my favorite comic book hero from my childhood, Detective Dick Tracy. Although he had always worn a yellow trench and yellow fedora with a red feather in it, I hadn't had time, or the money to be that picky, and had simply stolen the first fedora and trench coat I came upon. Both dark black with no special adornments or weaving, just...black.
I stepped up to the doors and debated for a second on knocking, but decided against it. If Magneto was in there, I would have to surprise him in order to capture him. I didn't have a plan, I just hoped that I could get to him before he found me, and put a blade through his chest.
To one watching, it might look as though I simply melted into a puddle of liquid goo, my arms and hands dripped into the puddle that was once my feet, and I slowly sank into it. Slithering forward, and keeping an eye out behind me to make sure I wasn't followed, I slipped between the cracks in the door with little effort and found myself in a large room, completely lined with metal plating, a solid metal desk with a young man sitting behind it, the same firestarter that had been at the bridge incident, sat at the other end of the room, several sets of benches that looked like church pews had been set up in front of the desk, enough room for hundreds of people to sit. Just in front of the desk stood a large metal podium, the word 'homo sapien' etched into the front of it enclosed by a circle with a line through it.
I decided quickly it would be best to remain unseen until I at least found Magneto, and slithered up the wall next to the door, staying in the shadows and out of the light, able to grab onto a high rafter just as I felt myself sliding slowly back down the wall. I lay there for a minute, watching as Pyro snoozed behind the desk, thundering footsteps coming from a room off to his right causing him to stir ever so slightly.
"Did you find him?" John asked as a very large man wearing a thick stone helmet emerged from the shadows.
"No, haven't been able to, he just dissappeared from the face of the planet." The man growled, an Australian accent dominating his speech.
"Damnit!" Pyro said, slamming his fist down on the desk, his hand erupting in a ball of flame. His movements were precise, and quick, and in seconds, he was holding the fireball underneath the larger man's chin. "HE HASN'T DISAPPEARED, JUGGERNAUT, YOU FOOL, THAT'S WHAT HE WANTS YOU TO THINK." He screamed, turning and then lowering his hand, the flames extinguishing. "Now get out there, and find him. Or I'll fricassee you like tomorrow night's dinner." He finished, moving back to the desk, speaking sweetly as though he were telling a child that he could have his desert once he finished his brussel sprouts. Juggernaut growled angrily.
"Why the hell are you looking for him? He lost his powers, he can't do anything anymore." Juggernaut retorted. Pyro looked at him angrily, clenching his teeth.
"Don't question me, you worthless piece of shit, I said go find him." Pyro responded, ending the conversation there, the larger man turning and making his way out the back of the warehouse. I couldn't help but wonder who they were talking about, my thoughts flashing back to the dream I had earlier, Xavier warning me that Magneto had lost his power. A female voice wrenched me from my thoughts.
"Do you think he'll find him?" A woman asked, emerging from the shadows on the other side of the desk, her form much like mine, only much more voluptuous. Dark red hair over blue skin that was covered in barbs of some kind, her voice was strange, sounding almost like many voices speaking all at the same time. She moved slowly, as though she were in pain or discomfort, every simple wrong move bringing a grimace of pain to her face and causing her to...flash...I guess was the only word for it, into another human form and back again. Pyro himself had to look away from this even as his own face was duplicated on hers.
"I don't know, Mystique, I don't know." Pyro said looking up to her, a myschevious grin crossing his face.
AN: Thanks for the reviews, all... I really wish I could get a few more readers, I even changed the summary! *sighs* if anyone can help, please do.
MysteryHunter: Wait until you see what happens next.