Unstable
Chapter 10
Recovery
"So let me get this straight." Beta-1 asked her subordinate, Aleph-2, once they were back in the warehouse that was their command post. "You only saw the target approach the combat zone but still somehow managed to shoot a mutant who not only looks nothing like the target at all but also has a metal covered skeleton, meaning, he would show up differently on your fancy little scope."
"I was only handed the scope, ma'am." Aleph-2 started "I wasn't handed a colour coded chart, how was I supposed to know that calcium was supposed to come up on the scope as a black smudge?" the two operatives stared at each other in silence, Beta-1 sighed.
"You realise we haven't got long till he relapses don't you?" Aleph-2 nodded silently, he remembered the six months of carnage.
"Yes Betsy I know but, c'mon, Gabriel was our-"
"I know, but he lost everything when he fell Tobias, his integrity, his dignity, his right to live a normal life." She paused "And he lost our friendship, he went insane Tobias, he racked up a three figure body count in six months. An animal like that doesn't deserve to live."
Gabriel's shoulder ached all through the ride to the institute, he envied Logan's healing factor and just knew he'd have to get it checked out by someone at the institute, that meant a blood work up which meant that questions would arise that he wasn't sure he could answer, he'd have to cross that bridge when he came to it.
Gabriel didn't recognise the drive to the mansion, he figured they were coming from a different direction. Gabriel checked the time on his watch: 04:37. Gabriel suddenly felt tired.
"Here we are, bub. Home sweet home." Gabriel looked to his left and saw the remains of the wall. Again, he couldn't get the magnitude of the destruction, it was immense and barely anything was standing above six feet. Which brought a pretty important question into his head as the stopped at the newly rebuilt gates, a glaring piece of normalcy amidst the debris.
"If the institute's been flattened; where in the hell are you staying?" he asked
"Shh! We've got company." He whispered and pointed to a Chevy convertible parked on the grass verge. Back in business mode, Gabriel got off the bike and walked over to the car, placing his hand on the bonnet; it was still warm. Gabriel nodded to Logan and both quickly jogged through the gate and along the cracked road towards the institute. Gabriel let Logan lead; he had a track on the intruders and was growling.
They reached the motor pool quickly and saw three shadows facing the garage door. Gabe could just about hear one of them chuckling. Logan stopped and told Gabriel to wait. He did as ordered.
"You circle left, I'll go right. Trap 'em in the middle." Logan took off and Gabriel followed suit in the opposite direction. Gabriel ran but kept an eye on the three intruders, even when a wall obscured his line of sight. They appeared again as Gabriel turned and ran straight for them, he saw a glint of light that had to be Wolverine's claws. Gabriel ran in close then vaulted at the nearest one, feet first and connected with his shoulder. Rolling backwards onto his feet and ducked the second's punch, grabbed his outstretched arm and threw him over his shoulder. The first intruder was back on his feet and tackled Gabriel and hit him against the wall, pain exploded in his back and, especially, his shoulder. Gabriel dropped to the floor when the intruder was forced away from him by a blur of blue fur that Gabriel figured was Kurt in a vest and boxers. The second intruder was up and ready again and this time tried to do a roundhouse kick while running at him. Gabe sidestepped the foot and lifted it up, unbalancing the amateur and kicked his other leg out from under him. Gabriel placed his foot on the intruder's neck and frowned when he got a look at the face. It was a blue bald demon with protruding teeth, no wait.
Gabriel bent down and pulled the rubber mask off. Under it was a white teenager with blonde hair, looking a little scared. He looked up to see Kurt crouching on the back of one intruder and Kitty and Logan, who had just ran in and hit his target only once, which was enough to leave him in a daze, standing over the last intruder; both with their masks off. All of them were teenagers and, now Gabriel got a good look at the three, all were wearing jerseys.
"What are you doing here, bub?" Logan asked them, they remained silent. Logan popped his claws and Gabriel felt the teen under his foot flinch. "I ain't gonna ask twice." Still no answer. Kitty looked up at the wall behind Gabriel.
"I've got a pretty good idea." She said, Gabriel turned and saw several caricatures of the X-men. Gabriel took his foot off of his captive and hauled him up with his good hand so he was looking him in the eyes.
"Piss off." He said menacingly then threw him to the floor once more. The teen hauled himself to his feet and ran, his two friends soon followed when Kurt and Logan let them up.
"Get lost freaks!" one said once he figured he was out of the danger zone, around four metres away. Gabriel picked up a palm-sized pebble.
"Yeah!" his buddy, the one Gabriel had temporarily underfoot "Bayville doesn't want you!" Gabriel did a few quick calculations then threw the pebble, a couple of seconds passed before he saw the guy in the lead, the one who had said the 'F' word fall over when the pebble struck him. His friends picked him up and helped him run.
Gabriel turned around and tuned into a lecture from Logan asking the two kids what they were doing outside, trampling over every attempt they made to explain, the argument, sorry discussion, ended with Logan telling them to escort Gabriel into the institute to see Xavier, who was now up, while Logan went back for his bike. Logan stalked off without waiting for Kurt or Kitty to answer. Gabriel watched the Canadian stalk off then turned back to the kids, who were looking at the graffiti on the garage doors. Gabriel placed a hand on their shoulders and led them away.
"Ignore it." He said simply and let them lead him around the remains of the building towards a stone gazebo.
"Like, how can we?" Kitty asked, "It's right there." Kurt remained quiet.
"I have a question." Gabriel said to change the subject. "The institute is nothing but rubble so where is everyone and where are you living?" they reached the Gazebo and Kurt pressed his hand into a recess in one of the pillars.
"Not all of the institute is like, above ground Shift." Kitty answered. The floor rose to show an elevator.
"I'm off duty Kitty, call me Gabe, if you want to be formal it's Gabriel." He told her as the lift descended. "What is 'Kitty' short for anyway?" he asked her.
"Katherine." She answered.
"Uh-huh." Gabriel muttered to himself, Lift rides bored Gabriel, he'd been riding these things in various military bases across the globe and it didn't matter if the ride took a minute or an hour (A Russian CW military bunker) he always had to find ways to entertain himself, one of which was moving his wounded shoulder and grimacing, seeing how bad it really was.
The lift, thankfully, stopped and all three walked out. Kurt beckoned for Gabriel to follow him.
"Go get some sleep Kitty." He advised the girl, she yawned before she could make any kind of protest and nodded sleepily. She walked in, what Gabe figured, was the direction of the dorm.
Gabriel followed Kurt through winding brushed steel corridors, which reminded Gabe a little of the Outfit HQ, until he came to a steel door that looked exactly the same as the few they had already passed except this one had a white plastic plaque with Xavier's name inscribed on it. Gabriel knocked but no answer came, Kurt gave Gabriel a weird look.
"What?" He asked the mutant.
"You didn't hear the professor?" he asked. Gabriel shook his head slowly, what he was getting was a headache. "He said to go right in." Kurt said and left Oh-kay Gabriel thought. Maybe he smells whatever it is that Logan smells off of me. He added to himself and punched the doors open button. The inside of the room was a major contrast with the hall, decked out with a plush red carpet and a mahogany desk with a matching chair facing Xavier and various pieces of artwork adorning the steel walls.
"Cosy." Gabriel noted and walked towards the desk where Xavier was hanging up the phone.
"You could call it my 'home under home'. He held out a hand, which Gabriel shook. "It's a pleasure to meet you Gabriel, at least under better circumstances." Gabriel nodded.
"I'm told that you wish to offer me a place here, as a student." He said, Xavier nodded and asked Gabriel to sit. "You see that doesn't really work for me." Gabriel continued.
"Oh really?" Xavier said with a small smile.
"Yeah, y'see I've tried organised education and it didn't really work for me."
"Yes, I'm given to understand that you got into endless fights, one of which ended quite…catastrophically." Xavier countered. Gabriel kept his face impassive.
"Where did you hear that from?" Gabriel asked slowly.
"Once I realised that you were the person I saw outside the penitentiary I decided to call your father and-"
"Have you gone bat-shit!" Gabriel shouted angrily "He thinks I'm deid, an' tha's all he's s'posed te think." Gabriel ranted, inadvertently barking in his original Scottish accent. Xavier waited for a second then answered.
"Gabriel you have to understand that Conner is an old friend. I felt it prudent to tell him his son was alive. He's mourned both you and you're mother for quite some time." The mention of Gabriel's mother caused him to go silent. He closed his eyes and composed himself. Focus is key.
"First of all professor; My faked death was necessary for me to function as a deep cover intelligence operative because of my familial connections and secondly; my father and I barely got on, in fact I don't give two shits if he mourned for me and I know he isn't still grieving for my mother, I snuck in to the church when he got married to that hussy." Gabriel kept his eyes closed.
"You mean Genevieve?" Xavier asked.
" Of course I do, unless he went and got married while I was indisposed." Gabriel was quiet for a second. "So what did the rat-bastard have to say?"
"He wants to come here and talk to you." Gabriel huffed a laugh.
"Talk? I can tell you what he'll do Xavier; he'll walk in here and rant. And after he's finished I'll probably do the same." Gabriel shrugged "Of course that's assuming you can get me and him in the same room." Xavier looked at Gabriel silently, thinking before speaking.
"We are getting off topic Gabriel but I will say one final thing on this; there will come a time when you'll wish you spoke to him, even if it's just once to clear the air and put your feelings toward him forward and I would ask that you do this, I won't force you." He paused and watched how Gabriel leant on his right arm to get comfortable and kept his left close to his chest as if to protect it. "You're hurt." He said.
"It'll keep Prof, please continue."
"While I haven't seen you use your powers Gabriel I have some idea how you would have been trained with the military." Gabriel nodded
"They concentrated on the more physical aspects, we were told that our abilities were our prerogative. The ESPers banded together and helped each other, the rest of us just dabbled and tested ourselves."
"Yes, well I wish to train you to control your powers Gabriel, to harness your full potential." Gabe sat silently and mulled this over.
"I've gotten by so far." He said slowly. Xavier gave him a careful look, one that told Gabe he knew what Gabe wasn't saying.
"I was told what happened to you on board the Velocity Gabriel, the nosebleeds are your body's way of telling you that you over-tax yourself. If you stay and learn here Gabriel there could come a time when you'll be able to indefinitely change your centre of gravity, possibly even negate it all together." He has been reading up on me Gabriel thought.
"Negate gravity? Are you talking about me actually being able to fly?" Xavier nodded.
"One day, yes. But that day will never come unless you train yourself and hone your skills." Gabriel mulled this all over; secretly he had always been envious of his telekinetic teammates for their ability to fly, or at least an approximate facsimile of it, the closest he had ever got was his flight training in a MD 500 Defender scout helicopter when he and a few colleagues had spent a month in a California airbase for assault and intrusion training (He did intrusion, everyone else, assault).
"Okay Xavier." Gabriel said after a minute "I'm onboard. But I have to warn you, I'm still on the SHIELD payroll, if they need me, I can't say no."
"I understand Gabriel." Xavier wheeled around the desk and beckoned Gabriel to follow him "Now, lets get that shoulder looked at." Gabriel got up and followed the professor out into the corridor.
Hank was in his lab preparing for a full medical for the newest recruit, he had already been told via telepathy that Gabriel was injured and would need assistance. He turned at the sound of the door sighing open and saw Xavier and Gabriel enter.
"Ah, there's my next victim." He said with a toothy grin. " So, what did you do to yourself?" Gabriel jumped up onto the hospital cot and took of his bloodstained jacket and shirt.
"Me? I did nothing." Hank took a closer look at Gabriel's shoulder.
"I'm no MD but I think it's a safe bet that this isn't a laceration." He arched an eyebrow at Gabriel, who just returned an unabashed stare.
"GSW, five-five-six, soft nose round." He said and handed Hank the bullet. "Standard issue to all NATO countries. Logan got the bullet out I just need you to disinfect and stitch up the wound please Hank, and a bandage if possible." Hank nodded and grabbed a bottle of TCP and some gauss from the medical cabinet that was nearby.
"How did you get shot?" Xavier asked him, Gabriel told him what had happened earlier from the diner to running out of the mall. "Hmmm." Xavier said
"You believe that Fury decided out of the blue to kill you and you still consider yourself on the payroll?" by now Gabriel's GSW was clean, stitched and bandaged, another scar to join the other three bullet scars on his chest and the seven tattoos; the tattoos were arranged in two rows the top was four across and the bottom, three. The tattoos were small half-inch thin lined circles with a different animal relief in each one: Gecko, Boar, Elephant, Frog, Eagle, Vulture and Bear (Top right to bottom left).
Gabriel watched Hank take out a needle full of blood and place it in a metal dish and take it to a microscope, Gabriel couldn't figure why.
"Whether Fury's hunting me or not I can't really tell, I got a good look at one of them and I don't recognise her from anywhere. I'll phone SHIELD later and ask my controller." Gabriel grabbed a small piece of gauss and pressed it to the puncture wound.
"Will he tell you if you are being hunted?"
"It's the tone of his voice I'm going to be listening to, not what he says." Gabriel answered. Hank took his eye from the microscope and looked back at Gabriel.
"You can get dressed Gabriel, we won't do your physical until your one-hundred percent, okay?" Gabriel nodded and shrugged on his shirt, wincing slightly as he rolled his left shoulder. "While the damage to your shoulder was minimal Gabriel, I want you to take it easy; no heavy lifting, no working out, no strenuous movement of any kind, Got it?" he warned the Briton.
"Got it chief." Gabriel said and hopped off of the cot.
"I'm afraid that all our beds our taken Gabriel so we have no place for you to stay until the morning when we can get another bed." Xavier told him as he led him down the corridors once more.
"Don't worry about a bed Xavier, a comfy chair will do me, if you have one." Gabriel said to Xavier as he showed him to the dining room. The room was large, and in difference to the rest of the underground complex décor, the walls were solid stone and the furniture was wood. On the opposite side of the large room were ten doors, which Xavier said, were the dorm rooms.
"We haven't at the moment but since you will obviously need to do some shopping in the morning anyway, you can order one in."
"Then I'll just find a corner and have a couple hours kip then. When's chow time?" he asked and sat on the nearest chair at the table.
"Seven, I will see you then, I have to get back to my study and sort a few things out." Gabriel nodded a goodbye and stared at nothing for a few moments, thinking over the events of the night. He fell asleep a few minutes later.
"You wanted to speak in private, Hank?" Xavier had entered his office to see Hank waiting for him with some A4 size pieces of paper.
"I need to talk to you about Gabriel's blood work Charles, Here." He handed the professor the pages and sat back in silence as Xavier looked the pages over; one of theme was a detailed work up of Gabriel's DNA and the other was a X10000 magnification of Gabriel's blood. Xavier looked at the work-up first; there was a glaring omission.
"There's something wrong with his X-gene, it seems to be deteriorating." Xavier said after a moment.
"Quite the contrary, his X-gene was artificially grafted into his DNA. In order for it to spread through his body it needed to be spliced with a virus, they used the influenza virus, which while the easiest carrier wasn't the most viable hence, the deteriorated look. It must have been horrible." Xavier nodded and looked at the picture, it had everything that should be in blood: Plasma, Erythrocytes and Leucocytes. But included in the picture were several metallic pyramid shapes. Xavier looked at the picture then at Hank for an explanation. "I'm not sure what they are, all I can tell you is that they seem to be keeping Gabriel alive, they helped coagulate his blood before shutting down." Xavier put the pages down and steepled his fingers in thought.
"We'll keep this to ourselves until we know more, in the mean time, keep studying Gabriel's blood sample." He said finally.
"I can't." Hank said "The samples been irretrievably tainted."
"How?" Xavier asked. Hank handed Xavier a vial from his lab coat pocket, inside was a viscous grey liquid. "What's this?"
"Gabriel's blood sample, whatever is in Gabriel's blood has a kill-switch. I think that once it's separated from the body's electrical current the machines destroy any trace of themselves and the bodily fluid they're in." Hank took the vial back and put it back in his pocket. "It makes you wonder what would happen if Gabriel was to die."
Gay-brie-al? A singsong voice called out in the darkness. Gabriel looked around in the dark.
"Hello?!" He called out, His voice echoed around the unseen room. Lights suddenly snapped on around him, start directly above him then spiralling out until the room was lit. The room he was in was a large grey box with rows and channels bisected by tall black monoliths. He turned a slow circle, he figured he was in the middle but it was hard to tell distances as everything but the monoliths were all the dull grey. Gabriel started to walk forward, looking around him for the body belonging to the disembodied voice.
Gay-brie-al? The voice didn't echo, but he couldn't tell where it came from either. Gabriel passed another black pillar but still saw no one. Gay-brie-al? The voice lowered, it reminded him of times his mother gently admonished him, that little disapproving tone that mothers everywhere develop. Gabriel stopped between four of the monoliths and turned again.
"What do you want?!" Gabriel shouted, still turning. A chill crept down his back and he knew someone was behind him. He turned once more, slowly this time and stared deep into the blood red eyes.
We want you.
A loud buzzing sound from a nearby PA speaker forced him from his nightmare and back into the land of the living.
"Attention every one, the younger students are scheduled for breakfast first, the rest; please meet me in sublevel seven." Gabriel sat up and stretched, he'd fallen asleep at the table and his back began to protest. He looked over at the X-men and new mutants and guessed by the confused looks on their faces that the announcement was made, really, for his benefit. They probably got them via telepathy. Gabriel stood up and stretched again, this time he felt his spine click, relief soon followed. He half heard Rogue complain about the cramped conditions and Gabriel wondered if being forced into a room with the rest would have made that big a difference. The younger students headed straight into the kitchenette and began to make themselves breakfast while the X-men headed up the stairs towards the lockers. Kurt though, grabbed Gabriel and pulled him into line.
"You can borrow one of my shirts, we're about the same size." Kurt said. "And it will stop people giving you strange looks behind your back." Gabriel turned around to see Jamie and Amara looking at him. "Vell, at your back anyvay." Oh he thought The GSW he realised, his shirt was probably blood-soaked by now.
"Thanks Kurt." Gabriel said "I'll get it back to you later." They entered the locker room; it looked like any other that Gabriel had been in. Kurt opened a locker that had his name emblazoned on the front in an acetate plate. He handed Gabriel a blue long-sleeved shirt, Gabriel thanked him again and found a free locker to change in front of. He pulled his bloodstained shirt off and chucked it into the locker, he'd get rid of it later, and felt several piercing pairs of eyes on his back. "I got into some trouble last night." He explained. "I came off worse." He shrugged the borrowed shirt on and buttoned it up then rolled up the sleeves.
"Well that explains the bandage." Evan said "But what about the scar?" Gabriel closed the locker before answering.
"Wrong time, wrong place." He said simply. "I got between a sniper and his target. Let's leave it at that." He left the locker room with the X-men and met up with the X-women, Jean gave him a weird look and Rogue simply glanced his way and made for the elevator, Kitty stayed close.
Morigan was angry, which wasn't really different from her usual grumpy disposition except that she was personal when she was grumpy but when she was angry…
She descended to street level and grabbed a passing businesswoman's cell phone with amazing accuracy and deftness and soared down the street, dropping the phone into a storm drain.
…She made sure everyone knew it.
Gabriel had telepathically communicated with her in the second he was shot, a second was all it took for the important information to come through; Gabe was being chased, he was hurt and needed her help. He hadn't sent that last part but Morigan had always figured Gabriel would be long dead if it wasn't for her.
That morning, around five am she had reached the Bayville mall, it was swarming with police and news vans and, Morigan noticed, a lone Ford Lincoln by the eastern entrance, far from the press. It was black and dusty with patches of rust; Morigan flew over it lazily, like she had nothing better to do, and perched in a nearby tree. She recognised Fury straight away but she couldn't hear him but she could tell he was angry though, he was berating one of his agents, a red-haired female that Morigan recognised also. Fury stopped in mid-rant and looked at her, first confused, then studiously. Morigan stared back in a darting fashion that all birds did. Fury looked for a few seconds then got back into the argument. Figuring it was time for her to get back to Gabriel, in case he got into more trouble, she flapped her wings and leapt from the branch and winged away.
Below her Fury watched before barking an order into his phone.
"Lyle, I am giving you twenty minutes to tell me what the hell Gabriel was doing shooting up a mall and then you'll get him down here to explain." He hung up without waiting for an answer and got back to directing the police.