Short but early chappie since I'll probably be super busy these next few weeks. Let me know what you think? Hopefully I'm doing the scene justice.
Enjoy!
The man who stepped into the room wore a helmet. Any other moment I would have found that a bit ridiculous. It covered his entire head, coming down the sides and obscuring most of his face. I wondered if I could get away with a snotty comment.
The old Az would have laughed. I wasn't too sure about this one.
Shaw's eyes scanned the room, and when he spoke my back straightened involuntarily. There was just something about his voice – like it could command your attention whether you wanted it or not.
"Where's the telepath?"
From the corner of my eye I saw Az shake his head. "Not here."
Shaw frowned for a moment, before his face smoothed out in a pleasant expression. "Too bad," he said. He reached for the helmet, tugging it up from his face. "Well, as least I can take this silly thing off."
With his helmet finally off, I finally had a good look at the man Erik had dedicated his life to kill.
Shaw wasn't what I expected.
The charming grin caught me off guard.
As did everything else. He was a handsome man. Older, but still in his prime. The way he stood made it seem like his very presence filled the room. He would be impossible to miss. Anywhere.
"Good evening. My name is Sebastian Shaw. And," His eyes roamed over us, his surprisingly pleasant voice rumbling through the room. His eyes paused on me, and I fought the urge to look away. "I'm not here to hurt you."
He walked into the center of the room, and with every step he took, I could feel the shadows along the wall shift as they sensed my mood. I imagined that this is what it would feel like to be in the presence of a very hungry wild animal. It was strutting before me, showing off, but I knew it would eat me the moment he decided he was bored with me.
"Freeze!" A new voice yelled.
A man stood on the courtyard, pointing a gun in Shaw's direction. For a moment, nobody moved. Get out of here you idiot human, I thought.
"Azazel." Shaw drawled out the word like the very name was a command.
The red mutant looked at me, and for a moment, the second we looked at each other stretched into a lifetime.
For that brief second, I would have given anything to go back, back to when Azazel snuck me out of the orphanage and would teleport us to the roof of one of the office buildings. He had been nineteen, a year since he'd been released from the orphanage. I was seventeen, only had a few more months left with the nuns. He and Cassie visited often, and though Cassie was my best friend, Azazel's visits were often more thrilling. He always brought a box of beer with him, and we'd drink and talk for hours, watching the cars and the stars from our own little rooftop.
That Azazel, the one that smiled every time I told a bad joke, had to be there still, hiding behind those somber eyes.
But the moment ended.
I reached for the shadows right before he teleported. We materialized behind the agent with the gun, and I made sure to step right between them. Azazel would have to get through me first if he intended to do the man any harm.
The agent whirled around, the gun still drawn and loaded. The back of my head heated up with the awareness that the gun was essentially aimed at me now.
Azazel's eyes flickered behind me, his eyes narrowed, but he didn't make a move. He might be fast enough to dodge the bullet, but I definitely wasn't.
My eyes didn't drop from Azazel's. "Run," I told the agent. "Your gun won't do any good."
After a brief, endless pause, the man turned on his heel, and started to make a run for it.
Azazel shifted, and I mimicked him. "You teleport," I said. "And I'll be right behind you."
A deep laugh broke the tension between us. Chills ran down my back, and I turned half way, cursing myself for giving Shaw my back. His eyes were zeroed in on me, a half smile playing on his lips.
"And who," he said, his words dragging out just slightly. "Are you?"
I shot one last frown at Azazel before stepping back into the shadows and emerged from behind the couch. I stepped back again next to Raven.
Shaw's eyes jumped back over to me.
"None of your business." I said.
Azazel teleported himself back into the room. We both refused to look at each other.
Shaw shook his head just lightly. "Ah, but it is. You see, my friends," he continued with an easy smile, like we weren't surrounded by utter chaos. "There is a revolution coming. When mankind discovers who we are, what we can do, each of us will face a choice," He paused, eyes glinting in the light. "Be enslaved, or rise up to rule.
"Choose freely," he said. "But know that if you are not with us, then, by definition, you are against us." The mutants shifted behind me, unsettled by the threat. "So, you can stay and fight for the people who hate and fear you, or you can join me and live like kings and queens."
He was too close, and his voice too gentle, too reasonable. I wondered if that was the same speech he'd given Azazel. If it had spurred all the death and destruction around us.
The silence stretched, and it wasn't until I heard a shuffle from behind that my heart sank. The dark-haired girl with the wings of a butterfly stepped forward. She took hold of Shaw's offered hand, his face twisted into a pleased smile.
"Angel?"
"Are you kidding me?"
The other mutants were at least as appalled as I was. We watched as she stepped up next to Shaw, taking up a new place amongst his ranks.
"Come on," she said. "We don't belong here. And that's nothing to be ashamed of."
Raven grabbed my arm, and I followed the motion, watching as her hand flexed over the sleeves of my jacket.
"We have to do something," she said.
She looked at me, like she expected me to know what to do. I stared back, helplessly. I was just a bartender, one whose life had been turned upside down in a matter of days. I'd watched mutants do extraordinary things, but I'd also seen corpses, people one of my closest childhood friends had probably killed.
I was completely out of my depth.
The dark-skinned mutant turned around, meeting one of the other kid's eyes. "Follow my lead," he muttered. Then he pushed the kid and, surprised, he pushed him back. Then he turned around and followed Shaw and the other mutants out into the courtyard. "Stop! I'm coming with you."
Shaw's smile turned smug. "Good choice." He waited as the dark-skinned mutant approached him. "So, tell me about your mutation."
"Well, I adapt to survive. So I guess I'm coming with you."
Shaw nodded, pleased. "I like that."
"Alex!"
What happened next happened so quickly I barely had time to react.
The dark-skinned mutant grabbed the girl, shielding her with his body. One of the younger mutants yelled something intelligible, and the other mutants beside me ducked, like they knew what to expect. Raven's hand grabbed unto me, pulling me down with her. I was tired enough that the mere pull of her arm sent me toppling down to the ground.
The young mutant, Alex, twisted, and from his body several sets of red rings appeared, twisting and sliding over his body. With a grunt, they flew off towards Shaw.
I'd asked Erik what Shaw's mutation was before, but no explanation would've prepared me enough for the real thing. I watched as his very form blurred as the red rings impacted around him, and he seemed to absorb them into himself.
Where there should've been smoking remains of an evil mutant, Shaw stood, a half smile on himself and trails of smoke coming off from his body.
"Protecting your fellow mutants?" He crowed, stretching and moving his shoulders with a contented sigh. "Feels good."
At a last-ditch effort, the other mutant tried punching Shaw. The older mutant didn't even flinch. He blocked the punch, and with a smile, he raised a red orb and forced it into the other mutant's mouth.
"Adapt to this."
Shaw joined hands with the other mutants. Azazel met my eyes, and with a sad tilt of his head and a solemn expression on his face, he teleported himself and the rest of his team off the complex.
A grunt pulled my attention back to the dark-skinned mutant. I scrambled a few steps back, dragging Raven with me, and I watched in horror as he convulsed. His skin warped and changed, going from metal to rock to fire in a matter of moments. With a final creak of stone, the mutant exploded.
The shockwave sent us hurtling back. My head must have hit a table or a corner. I only felt the sharp bite of pain on the back of my head a second before darkness descended, and I passed out.