Title: Babel Fish
Author/Artist: Blue Stem Cell
Universe: Marvel (Alternate Universe)
Rating: 16 +
Genre: Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot
Summary: "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?
Disclaimer: I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.
Note: I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.
Edited on 21/08/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up.
Chapter 10: Sciento-Magician
"What's the problem then?" Emma stood with her feet apart with her hands on her hips. They peered up and down the warehouse in front of them. It was a large brick building, one of several on a disused industrial estate. Leeland's father was, presumably, hidden inside the one directly in front of them. However, they were not permitted to step inside without Tony's permission. The White Queen was having a hard time being told "no" and was even more disgruntled considering the situation was not even a life of death matter.
"Magic." Came Tony's rather sparse reply, causing Emma to frown and then inwardly groan. "Intel says he had a partner years ago, a warlock but any records of him died about fourteen year's ago."
One of the S.H.I.E.L.D soldiers moved forwards and nudged his hands up against the brick wall of the destitute building. A shock of bright blue and purple light struck him, hurtling him backwards several feet into a small army clad heap on the ground.
"Well…" Emma started. "You might want to re-check your records."
"Emma." Scott placed his hand on his wife's shoulder and peered down at her. "Maybe this should be a full team effort?" He questioned, all about ready to jump back into the jet to change into his infamous head to toe covered uniform. Shaking her head, Emma stepped forward with a smile over her shoulder to both men. "Oh please. We don't need the full entourage down here just to talk to one man…he's not that dangerous."
xxx
Leeland had not moved from Victor's room but the papers where back in his hands. No longer on the bed, he had slipped down onto the carpet, knee's still painfully tucked up against his chest. It was nothing against the hurt he was feeling inside, the numbness that washed over his very being.
It was peculiar because the boy was rather sure there should have been some kind of rage pouring from him. Part of him wanted to scream and shout, demand answers from people who knew no more than he did. Instead, a strange sort of calm had washed over him. That he had been correct all along. All that niggling in the back of his mind that he was not who every one told him he was. That his father was not his father, he couldn't be and now there was proof in his hands.
The door clicked open and slowly closed behind. Victor entered his own room looking sheepish and out of place. In his hands he held two glasses of apple juice. Knowing he was hopeless at making tea, he'd gone for the second option instead. Not that he would be surprised if Leeland simply left it, it didn't really matter. For some reason it seemed important but the green hued boy could not help this one with food like he could with Nick or candy with Megan.
Sitting down in front of the blonde, he set both glasses of juice to the side and regarded them for longer than he meant too.
"Who else knows?" Having not expected Leeland to talk, Victor peered at him with a bewildered expression before staring down at the ground. Playing with a loose strand of carpet, he composed his thoughts.
"Nicky found them, showed them too me. I…I wasn't sure what to do and Laura knows more about this stuff than, well, any of us. We went to ask what she thought…and Julian was there." He murmured, feeling Leeland's piercing glare upon him.
"Great." Said the blonde quietly. "So everyone else knew before me?" It came out through gritted teeth and closed eye's making Victor frown as two separate feelings clashed together inside his mind.
"It might not even be you Lee! We-it might be a big-wait…what are you doing?" Leeland had pulled his jumper over his head and threw it to the side of the room. Then he started on his shirt, moving the fabric across his painfully thin frame. At first, Victor had mused that the rather emancipated form of his new friend was simply in his genes, now he was not so sure. It seemed as if something darker was going on with the boy's body.
There, on his left shoulder was small blotch of orange tinted skin. A cluster of tiny little freckles made up a small birthmark, so insignificant that it had previously gone unnoticed.
"Now tell me who it is."
On the slightly grainy photo, upon the infants shoulder was the same little band of freckles. It was Leeland, there was no mistaking it.
"That's why ah know." The blonde let his head fall back onto the bed, the pieces of paper clutched loosely in his hands. He was tired and the ache behind his eyes had returned ten fold since his trip to the astral plane.
Victor did not know what to do or how to go about anything. Instead, he picked up his own glass of juice and held it between his knee's, waiting for Leeland to decide.
"Yah found it in Frost's office, right?" He finally asked and Victor nodded. "Nicky was digging outside, said they blew out of the window." He frowned at this, wondering how several pieces of paper managed to blow out of one window and conveniently into a waiting child's arms. But he could ponder about that some other time. Right then, he needed to watch Leeland. Not that he didn't trust him but Nicky was right; what if he did go on some kind of rampage?
"Right then." The blonde got to his feet and struggled back into his t-shirt. "Then'll ask the rest of the staff. Ah knew they were 'iding summat from me. Ah knew it!" And with that, he stalked over towards Victor's bedroom door leaving the green hued mutant still sat upon the floor.
The apple juice lay forgotten. It was Paras' favourite, he would not have forgotten it.
xxx
"Come along Johnny, we're all big boys and girls here let's play fair." Emma called to the building, the glint of Tony's red and yellow suit shone in the corner of her eye. Not that she was paying too much attention to the men now. They could debate and argue amongst themselves for the best strategy, but she already had one.
The walls spat again but Emma merely tutted as her skin and hair turned to shimmering diamond.
"Kwon Sier, is that you?" She smirked, setting her hand up against the brickwork and watched as the magic tried to remove her. It spat angrily but Emma refused to budge, after all, you cannot hurt what cannot feel.
"Oh I shut the feeling out long ago magic man, so let me in." Still not budging, Emma found herself frowning in frustration. Never before had the pair been so difficult so she decided to use a tactic she was not best pleased about.
"We have Leeland, Johnny. He's safe." She stood back and watched as the magic died down around the building and the S.H.I.E.L.D operatives prepared to make their move. However, Tony held up one iron clad fist and the men stopped in their tracks. "Wait for my order, we'll take it from here for now. Team one, you're with me. I want guns on stun, men."
As they where about to embark into the warehouse, Scott came from behind and took a firm grip on Emma's elbow. Holding her back from the on storm of the building, he hissed into her ear. "What are you playing at Emma! Making deals with Stark that know one else knows about?"
Wrenching her arm from his grip, she scowled at her husband before turning away from him. "It was the only way I could get his help. I needed Stark to find his father."
"So you lied? You keep on lying Emma-to me." Scott shook his head and she knew the emotion upon his face, it was pity. He pitied her and she hated him for it, in fact she hated her self more for it.
"And one day I'll cry Wolf! Wolf! And no one will come running. Yes, yes darling I've heard it all before. But we're on a mission here, we are not a married couple here." She turned on him. "Here, we are partners."
"So start acting like it." Scott retorted through gritted teeth and stalked on past her into the depths of the warehouse.
Team one charged the building with Tony and Scott up front and Emma brining up the lonely rear. That irritated her but she was sure it was nothing compared to the annoyance both her former and current lover would feel soon enough.
No secrets. If their relationship had one rule it was that there were no secrets and no shame.
Unfortunately there were plenty of both of those to go around.
The warehouse was made up of old industrial wooden crates and the odd barrel here and there. What was conceived in those barrels? No one was in a hurry to find out. It was a large place to hide, even bigger to get lost in. Out in the open, they all stood like sitting ducks waiting for one rather dubious man to make his appearance. However, Emma knew that was not about to happen. They had let them in; it was their way of replying to her tactic about the boy. Apart from that, they were all certainly cannon fodder.
Leeland's father was nowhere in sight and neither was his dubious partner in crime. Though Emma had a strange feeling that perhaps it was not Kwon Sier causing the magical disturbance. She called it a hunch but she decided to conduct her own sweep of the building.
Placing her hands upon her temple, she closed her eyes and sifted through the mass of thoughts that swam around the open space of the dusty building. There, amongst the confusion she spotted two forms, one of them unknown to her yet familiar at the same time. The other she knew in and instance but he was rather good at warding off psychic attacks, even a mere sweep that usually went unnoticed.
Click…
To late, she was too slow.
A round of gunfire was let off close to her head, causing her to break her concentration. It was painful to let go of something she had already attached herself to, a metaphor she had used more than once. In a desperate attempt to find Williams/McCorby before the S.H.I.E.L.D agents she rounded on one of the crates and lifted it quite easily into the air. Ahh yes, the advantage of a second mutation, super strength and boy did she need it right then. Without batting an eyelid she heaved the wooden frame up into the air and watched as one single shot fired at it. The agents had watched her do it…Leeland's father hadn't.
"Letting your guard down already Jonathon, you've gone soft."
What Emma was not prepared for was the reload of the semi automatic behind her.
Click!
"Emma, I always did picture you covered in diamonds. Looks like money really is in you genes after all." An Irish accent spoke behind her, the cold metal of a gun pressed up against the back of her neck. She smiled and kept still as the S.H.I.E.L.D solders turned their guns towards her with a click and rupture of shouting.
"PUT THE GUN DOWN! YOU HAVE ONE WARNING BEFORE WE TAKE ACTION! NOW!"
Emma raised her hands in front of her. "There'll be no need for that, gentleman." The smile would not fall from her face; in fact it seemed to grow when Scott looked upon her, fear radiating from him. After all the years of fighting, she was glad there was still something inside that could scare him.
"Where's my boy Emma?"
"You mean the child you placed in the metal institute?"
"Cut the bull, Frost! He was admitted to A & E and you couldn't wait to get your hands back on him. We had a deal."
"And I kept that deal!" The smile faltered, her teeth gritted as she frowned. She wondered if a bullet really would penetrate her diamond form from such a close range. He was so close behind her that she was sure that if it were not for the diamond hard skin, she would be able to feel his breath upon her. "I've stayed away for almost fifteen dammed years and this is how you repay me? Drugging him….of all the things you could do-"
The gun clicked again, the safety was off.
It happened in a flash of red light. The gun was knocked from the assailant's hand and Emma watched as it slid away and behind her. Next came the swarm of bullets that soared towards her. If they hit her, she had no recollection…after all, wasn't she a heartless unfeeling bitch? Ah yes, she would never forget those three little words. One for each of the years she visited a tiny little blonde child whose face would brighten with delight each time.
He was a mummy's boy after all.
xxx
"Leeland! Leeland wait up!" After pulling himself up off the floor, Victor had sped after Leeland as fast as he could run. "What are you going to do, what if no one knows anything?" Pleading seemed to be the only tactic that would come to the green hued mutant. Short of holding him back, or knocking him unconscious, there was not much more he could do.
"Oh they know." Said Leeland with a firm nod. "They know all this shit about me already, didn't even need me to talk to 'em." He turned in his fast pace walk and tapped the side of his head. "Don't know 'ow they did it but ah know they got inside. I know it!" But he was only deluding himself and when he turned around, the anger left his face and was replaced by something softer, a little more timid and frightened. But the boy ploughed on, knowing he had too and the pair of them made their way down to the subbasement.
"And what are going to say, what are you going to ask?" Victor frowned, his arms crossed over his chest as they stood in the elevator. The blonde was a twitching mess, writhing his hands back and forth in front of him, pulling at each and every digit painfully. "Dunno but ah'm pretty sure ah'll think of summat." He mumbled, the papers safely tucked under his arms. He no longer wanted to look at them even though it was the cause of his frustration. Nausea crept into him slowly and he began to feel both warm and cold at the same time but the boy pushed past it.
"Leeland think about this! They're good people. Sure they fuck up but they don't know any more than you do." He tried to reason with him, went as far as to place his hands upon his arm. It stopped the boy for a moment or two and he regarded that green hued hand for longer than he was supposed to. "You said it yourself. Kid's come 'ere to be protected, yet you've got a graveyard behind the basket ball court." He shrugged the hand away and made his way down the metallic corridor.
Victor simply stood there, his hand lowered to his side. As much as he hated him for say it, Leeland was right. How could the X-men claim safety at the school when nearly all he knew was loss and death? Still, that didn't mean the teachers knew…they couldn't! …Could they?
As he hung from the rafters with a paper file in one hand, a pen in the other, Beast pondered on just when Emma and Scott were going to check in with them. They had, of course, all opted to go but Emma had made it quite clear that only the two of them should head out. In fact, he was rather sure that she had not even wanted Scott there. But then again, Emma always had been the strange one of the party. No one knew whether or not she could be yet trusted but they were all free men and woman. They could come and go as they pleased but no one had yet stormed out due to the White Queen so all was rather quiet on the western front.
BANG!
Well, there went his peace and quiet. "Coming, coming." Muttered the large blue mutant, making his way down and towards a more civilized position.
When he turned, the great Beast had not expected Leeland to be stood there with his features contorted anger. It looked as if his face had not been quite made for the emotion. There was a paper file clutched in his hands.
"Lee-" The man started but the blonde simply threw the file on his desk and raised his eyes towards the man. "Go on then, spill it. What else 'ave yah been keepin' from me?"
xxx
Leeland's father was a big man; at least that was how Scott would describe him. He was built the same way Peter was, tall and large. Stocky, not fat. Apart from the height, there was nothing else that would indicate that this man was the father to the English boy sat back in his home country. They had him bound in one of Starks electronic handcuffs and with enough guns pointed at him to take out a small village.
Despite this Emma knew the dangerous one was still out there in the depths of the warehouse. There was simply no point sending out a team to look for the assailant; magic users were good at slipping from the radar.
"Alright Jonathon…I'm waiting." Emma pulled up an old broken crate and perched herself on it. Legs crossed neatly at the knee she waited patiently for the man in front of her to begin his pleading, but he only glared at her with his grey eye's. "Where is he Emma?" He asked through gritted teeth.
"Safe." Came her reply. "More than I can say for the situation we found him in."
"Why did you put him in the metal ward? With strict instructions to let no one see him?" Questioned Scott but the reply he received was not what he had been expecting. The man let a smirk cross his features before he began to laugh.
"What's so amusing?" Tony asked. He had been rather quiet apart from the odd bark of order at a solider here and there. After all, he was merely along for the drama…never could quite get enough of that.
"As well as your uniforms, quite a few things. I never put him in the hospital." He frowned at Emma, tilting his head to the side. "You haven't changed." He told her, but she remained silent.
"If you didn't put him in the hospital, than who did?" Though the question was directed at Williams, Scott turned his attention towards Emma who simply shook her head. "I can't read his mind Scott…he's too good for that."
"The same way you can't read the boy's?" He asked, but she shook her head silently. "Did you teach him, or did you put the block in there yourself."
"Ahh." Started Jonathon. "You two a couple, hmm? I wasn't sure at first, what with the Campbell's soup can over here?" He grinned, tilting his head towards Tony. "But I bet she hasn't told you."
Scott frowned. "Told me what?"
"Stop it." Emma said quietly.
"No." Jonathon snapped his head towards Emma, a scowl set on his old face. "You broke our deal Emma. It's only fair I get to do it as well." Pettiness seemed to be the game of the hour.
"Emma…?" Tony stepped forward but she waved her hand at him, dismissing his concern. "Send your men out Stark." She sounded tired.
After the S.H.I.E.L.D men were sent to join the two other teams to sweep the parameter, the four of them stared at each other in silence. Emma kept herself to herself, hands clutched to her knee's with her head bowed, like a naughty child seeking redemption.
"Get on with it then you smarmy little insect." She spoke through gritted teeth.
"I raised that boy for near on eighteen years…and I'm the insect? I used to tell him he was lot like his mother. Same attitude, same stubborn streak that always assumes it's right." Jonathon turned towards Scott. "Didn't she tell you? Emma and I have a son."
xxx
The blue beast frowned at first before taking the papers in his own hands. Amber eye's scanned across the pages but the expression upon his face was not what Leeland had expected. There was clearly shock etched onto his cat like features but the blonde frowned; he simply wouldn't believe that they didn't all know.
"Is this it! Is this what yah do! You're keeping me 'ere an' away from everyone else 'cos you know'll ah'll do summat! What if ah was on that drug to keep people safe an' you…yah took it away." In frustration he grabbed the side of his head, fingers entangled in his hair. The pulling and tugging took away some of the pain inside his head but caused a firm sting to run across his scalp. "I…ah can't…ah can't do this." He muttered, the tremble in the top of his legs now affecting his knees. It only took a second, but he let himself slip down to the ground without a care for his well-being.
Arm's grabbed him from behind, encircling themselves around his chest. When he fell to the floor, Victor came with him holding him tight and shielding him from the harsh impact of the floor. Oh he was going to feel it in the morning where the floor crashed hard into his knee, but it really didn't matter right then. Holding Leeland with one firm arm, he brushed his fingers through his unruly hair and stared up at the stunned blue mutant.
The boy was still clutching to his head, resting it upon Victor's chest. There was only so much one person could take in one day alone.
"Leeland, where did you find these?" Beast asked, crouching down in front of the two teens but he only received a firm shake of the blonde's head.
"I…I gave them to him." Victor answered instead and amber eye's where turned on him. "Nicky found them outside Miss Frost's office."
"And you didn't think to bring them straight here?"
Victor frowned and pursed his lips. "No. When you find something that belongs to someone, you give it back to them." The boy continued, ignoring his teacher's slightly shocked expression. "He thinks you all have something to do with it, that you hid it from him."
"I can assure you I knew nothing about this." But of his fellow X-men and friends, he was not so sure.
"What are you going to do?" Victor asked as the Beast straightened himself up, keeping a firm grip on his file. "If it wasn't so urgent to find your father Leeland, then I'd call them both back. As it is…we need him."
"I don't." Leeland muttered, hastily whipping at his eyes, he was not crying. "He lied to me, drugged me. What do yah need him for?"
"To find out why. Now come on, up you get."
Victor got to his feet, bringing Leeland with him but the boy was like a heavy led weight in his arms. He had half a mind to tell him to pull himself together, but the look on the taller boys face made him press his lips shut.
"What are yah gonna do?" Leeland asked in a quiet voice and Victor mused that he had never seen the Beast so stern looking before. Angry? Yes, anger was an easy emotion but to will it into something quieter and more deadly was a skill, or so the boy believed.
"I'm going to get this bottom of this, I promise. You'll have your answers by tonight."
The blonde bowed his head, he wanted to apologise and say thank you all at once to the blue furred man but nothing coherent would come to mind. So he stayed quiet and gave a tiny nod of his head. He was still annoyed, of course and a part of him still believed that Beast might know something. Then again, anybody could know anything it was just finding out which person had the information you wanted.
Before anything more could be said, there was a high keening from the entrance. All three of their heads turned and were met by the winged form of Megan, holding up a shredded torn knee with her hands pressed against the door frame. Blood had dripped and mingled into the knee and shin of her jeans and great big tears swam down her tinged pink cheeks.
"Megan…" The Beast sighed but smiled warmly at her as she hobbled into the room. Behind her, two more faces appeared, as if scared they where going to take the blame for their classmates injury.
Leeland was the first to catch both sets of eyes as Victor helped the bubblegum haired girl up onto one of the medical beds.
"I didn't do anything!" Nick protested his innocence but in doing so he revealed his partial guilt. This only made Leeland smirk and shake his head, all angry thoughts slowly melting away as something more trivial took its place.
The girl next to Nick frowned but she caught Leeland's eyes at a glance. At first, when he had met the twelve year old called Ernst, he was not quite sure what to make of her. A quiet girl, she was suffering from the disease Progeria. It was an extremely rare genetic condition wherein symptoms resembling aspects of aging were manifested at an early age. It was, in simple turns, a mutation of her genes turning weeks into months and months into years but she was also a full-fledged mutant. Ernst was a very rare little thing in deed.
"If you'd have caught the ball like you were supposed to." Nick fairly whined, hanging from the edge of the bed with a scowl, making the situation that little bit worse for himself.
"What happened?" Beast frowned as he fetched some antiseptic wipes to clear up the girl's knee. It wasn't too deep a cut, but he was certain it was the shock of blood that had caused all three of the children to panic.
"Nothing!" Protested Nick.
"We…we where playing on the b-basket ball caught a-and Nicky threw the ball too hard." Said Megan through little breathless sobs causing Beast to smile affectionately at her before assuring the girl that there was going to be a tiny sting on her knee.
Ernst still clutched to the doorframe, as if afraid to step into the rather clinical looking room.
"You wanna see?" Leeland asked her with a smile and the tiny girl nodded her head of thinning grey hair before holding up her arms too him. The girl weighed next to nothing and sat quite comfortably in the crook of Leeland's arm while they watched both Victor and the Doc clean up the young mutants knee.
"I don't really like hospitals." The girl whispered quietly and Leeland was not so sure he had heard her at first. But then he smiled and nodded his head in agreement. "Me neither." She wore a t-shirt with bunny rabbits on it and her trainers where the kind that lit up when you walked. It was cruel, that she may not even see her 13th birthday and the boy thought she had the youngest looking eye's he'd ever seen.
It was then that he realised that the world did not revolve around him. Of course he knew this already but there was more people in the school, certainly the world, that where dealing with things far beyond his own trivial turmoil's. He'd had a good life, hadn't he? His father was the best he knew even if he had lied to him. But then he supposed he knew nothing more than he did that morning. That perhaps he had been an experiment once….once.
"There, good as knew but I'm not so sure about your jeans Miss. Gywnn. I'm not sure even Miss. Pryde would be able to stitch them back together." Beast grinned down at the bubblegum haired girl who beamed back up at him before gently pressing her fingers to the small bandage now wrapped securely around he knee.
It was only then that Victor realised whom Leeland had cradled in his arms and on approaching them, he tickled the girl softly in the side of the stomach. "How'd you get up there, climb him?" He grinned, causing her to giggle. Her body may have been old and frail but her laughter certainly was not.
"Mr. Gleason, if I have to tell you about rough housing anymore, we're going to have to send you to Dog Borstal." Beast warned sternly with a wag of his finger, but it was clear he was simply joking around. The look of Nicholas face suggested he thought Beast was being rather serious and made a point to stand up straighter. "I won't do it again, I swear!"
"Well all right then, if you promise."
"I promise!"
"Good." Beast grinned as he straightened up. "Now let's help Megan off the bed."
"I can do it." Megan smiled and gave a small flutter of her brightly coloured wings, her feet never touched the ground. Leeland shook his head and tilted it to the side. "Yah know if yah don't move it, it's gonna go stiff." He warned. Looking up at the tall blonde, Megan made a point to bite her lip and frown. "But it stings." She said quietly. "Yeah, it'll sting for a bit but that just means it's gettin' better. If yah only use your wings then you'll rely on them too much. An' your legs…." He leaned down, his arms still wrapped around Ernst. "They'll turn to jelly an' fall off." He whispered with a grin in her pointed elf like ear.
When he straightened up, the boy didn't know whether to laugh at her or look sheepish for telling her something rather actually horrifying. Megan looked shocked before a determined streak ran across her features and with a small hiss of pain, she made her self stand on both legs. A little wobbly, but with Nicky's help, she was able to hobble over to the door.
"HEY! That's my fur!"
"S-sorry…"
With a little help from pulling the small wolf child's skin, of course.
"Thank you!" She called.
"Children." Beast gave a small shake of his head and began to clear away the small first aid box.
"You know." Started Victor, shoving his hands deep down into the pockets of his shorts. "You didn't talk too her in Welsh." He smiled up at Leeland.
"I didn't?" The boy asked and it was only then that he realised he still had Ernst in his arms. Setting her down gently, she beamed up at him and laced his fingers with her own before attempting to pull his towards the door.
"Wait a minute Ernie…" He turned towards the Beast who was busy washing his hands at one of the sinks. "Oh." Said the Blue furred man, peering over his shoulder, his eye's lingering upon the discarded file on one of the sides. "Don't worry about that."
"What are you going to do?" Victor asked, watching as the man pushed his rounded spectacles further up his nose. "I'm going to gather the remaining staff and see what their thoughts on the matter are. Then we're going to find out what Miss Frost has been hiding."
xxx
"What…" There was always the possibility that what Emma was hiding was perhaps a child, but even that seemed too big, even for her. Out of everything he thought possible, he simply knew that that couldn't be true but he didn't hear Emma deny the charges either.
"Emma, tell me he's making this up."
"Why would I make up something like that?" Jonathon questioned. "There's nothing to gain by it other than your own…well…you should see the look on your face Mr. Summers."
Emma sat silently, never looking once at either one of her comrades but neither did she let her eye's leave Williams. If she wanted to, she could wipe all their minds there and then but she supposed that would not be in her best interest. Besides, taking a memory meant making one to fill in the space and she simply didn't think she had the energy for that.
"Let me guess Tony, you knew?" Scott frowned beneath his visor and Tony lifted the head from his iron suit. "Hmm, well I was the one in charge of finding his father. But…you're not his real one are you?"
"No." Said Jonathon quietly. "Biologically speaking that is. But I raised him, he's my son and I want him back."
"No." Said Emma. "You relinquished any rights you did have to him when you put him in that hospital."
"I told you, it wasn't me! I don't know what happened to him after the college rang me. Telling me about some kind of gas fault and that he was in the hospital. By the time I got there…He'd gone and I thought…." The man trailed of, bowing his head slightly before turning his eyes back towards Emma, glaring at her.
"Oh don't look at me like that McCorby."
"Like what. You abandoned him Emma." He turned his attention back towards Scott. "Shall I tell you the story of a pretty little blonde girl begging me to find her baby? Well, it goes a little like this…"
xxx
"I knew we should have never trusted her." Kitty pursed his lips and shook her head of brunette hair. It was true, that she and Emma never really saw eye to eye but she was apart of the team now and that gave her a little leeway every now and again.
"Katya…" Peter sighed and patted her shoulder. "Always quick to judge." He shook his head slightly and peered up and around Cerebro, then back down at the Beast. Behind him stood the triplets, their identical heads in identical helmets. Was it such a good idea to let Emma's clones find her and all her secret little lies? Actually, it had been the triplets who suggested such a thing and the remaining X-men could do little more than accept their offer. Short of ringing Emma and demanding the truth, this was the best method they had.
"They have found his father…" The girls said in unison.
"Oh….it is story time." They added, causing the three adults to frown at them with bemused and puzzled looks. "You'll want to here this."
1989
L.A California
Downtown L.A was very much like any other down town Johnny McCorby ever had the fortune of visiting. It was usually the misfortune of others that he had to visit them but now he was seeing it through different eyes. This time, the place was his own and he supposed he was going to be rather happy at the little "shop" he had set up.
Barely twenty-five years old and he was already the most sort after mercenary in the world. Maybe a secluded warehouse or an underground cave would have better suited him better? The young man scoffed at himself, this was real life not a dammed comic book. He needed a room with cheap rent and no one asking questions. He also needed to persuade a certain someone to go home.
"I'm telling you Johnny boy, married life is…is…" The young man pottering around the office scratched the side of his head and attempted to brush a stray dreadlock from his eyes. It was a tradition that all Siers carried but it didn't half make the man's head itch.
Johnny peered across at his friend and frowned before a smirk crossed his features. Kwon was tall and pale, the slant of Asian eye's making him seem far more mysterious than the warlock really was.
"A pain?" He helped causing his friend to scoff and delve into his denim jacket pocket. "No, baby's are a pain…woman are…nope, the words are there but I'm afraid one of the fairer sex may have her ears pressed up against the wall. They bug places like this you know?"
"Who, woman or the general public?" Johnny snickered; moving across the office and stepping past a pile of books he was yet to place into the miss matched shelves. Oh he could have had a big luxurious apartment, but then who would hire a mercenary splashed across tacky tabloid magazines?
"Don't get cute with me tough guy, deep down you're just mush and gush like the rest of us. Look, doesn't this make you go weak at the knee's?" At this point, a picture of Kwon's crawling nine-month-old son was produced, jet black hair and deep blue eyes. He was also drooling and podgy and though Johnny held affection towards his God Son, he was certainly not just ready for his own little clone.
"No." The Irish man frowned. "No it does not. Look, you're plane is heading out in two hours, you need to be at the airport and I have an appointment." Johnny tried to shift his friend from one of the ledges he needed to retrieve his appointment book from, but Kwon only smirked and dug his heels into the floor. "Pff, the plane can wait. I might be a family man now, but the dangers still there man. Come on, let me tag on this one."
"No." It seemed to be his favourite word of the day. "You said it yourself Kwon, a family man. You want me to ring Josie one day, tell her that Brian's not got a Daddy coming home anymore. Nah, I don't think so. Nice of you to Visit, now move." His tone was deadpan, it always had been and he wondered for a while if it would be like that in twenty years time.
Kown flicked his hand behind his back and clicked his finger. The appointment book came to his hands and he grinned as he began to flick through it. "You know…you really shouldn't leave this hanging about."
"Kwon, give me that back or I-"
"Oooo Frost. Sounds Mysterious…" He teased in a singsong voice, causing Johnny to frown. He had half a mind to slap him up side the head, either that or produce his Firestar, all compact 9mm of it with it's 7 shot magazine. But he knew there was no use producing a gun against a warlock. Besides, annoying as he was, Kwon was his friend…his partner. Unfortunately, a partner with a family and something he couldn't really have hanging on top of his head.
"If you must know-" Johnny seized the appointment book. "The Frost's are a rather upstanding family from Boston. Their kids don't have to work for their scholarships. Emma is the 3rd child out of four, the second girl out of three…a dancer for the Hellfire Club, an underground elite society-"
"Ooo swanky and sexy-"
"And a mutant."
Kwon fell silent, stroking at his beard with his long spindly like fingers that reminded Johnny of bones.
"Is that such a good idea, boss?"
Johnny knew it was serious when Kwon ever called him "boss" but he simply could not let the smile falter on his face. "Why Mr. Sier, are we being a little prejudice, hmmm, witch."
"I'm not a girl." Kwon frowned before his expression became serious again. "Hmm, suppose you're right. No harm in meeting her, besides, an exotic dancer-she's probably sweet as-."
"Ok." Johnny had had enough. "You're leaving."
But as the two scrambled behind the door, one of them trying to pin the other's arms behind his back there came a delicate yet firm rap of knuckles against the frosted glass in the door. Johnny froze upon the spot; he had not expected her until two. What time was it, had he lost track or was she early?
"Looks like I'm staying." Kwon grinned and very nearly leaped for the door with his long legs. He got to the door before Johnny even had time to think about answering it.
It opened, revealing a woman no older than twenty, with eye's older than her body was letting on. A short crop of nearly white blonde hair fell at her shoulders and she moved past Kown as if he were mere furniture.
"Why hello-" The taller man started but the woman merely scoffed and held up one delicate white hand. "Oh please save it darling. You're married and I am certainly not interested in that."
She turned her pale blue eyes back towards the room and Johnny's waiting grey ones. "Mr. McCorby I presume."
"Yes, Miss…Ms. Frost?" He stepped forward, business face on and extended his hand. "Please, call me Emma. I don't have much time so I'll be quick. I need a favour from you and fast."
Johnny nodded and Kwon closed the door, looking ever so slightly downtrodden, yet intrigued.
"What is it I can do for you today Emma."
"My son." She said flatly. "I need my son."
And that, as they say, was the beginning of the end for Johnny McCorby and his neat little mercenary business.
TBC~