Okay, I'm supposed to be studying but I'm procrastinating because I don't want to. So here's another chapter. And I'm not sure if I'm entirely happy with it but as my updates are usually really infrequent I thought that, considering I'd written it, I should post it. Besides, that cliffhanger I left you lot with was just cruel of me.
It was the ending of this chapter I struggled with, I just wasn't sure where to cut it off. But I hope where I've chosen works.
Please let me know what you think of the story. Really, your reviews are what keep me wanting to write. It was because of your reviews for the last chapter that I churned this one out so quickly.
Enjoy!
Lorna yawned as she fully awoke. She rubbed her eyes tiredly, remembering Peter picking her up and carrying her, dumping her on her mum's bed. But before that, Mr Magnet – no, Erik he'd told her to call him – had come into the room. He had looked mad, really mad, and she knew something was wrong. So Lorna slid off the bed, ignoring her mother's protests and wiggling out of Magda's grip each time she tried to stop the eight-year-old. She could hear the fighting going on and ran along a ground floor corridor towards it as fast as her legs could carry her. Her bare feet pattered on the ground and her breathing was heavy, she knew they might hear her coming but she just hoped they were too busy fighting to notice her. She could hear her mother running down the corridor behind her, calling – no, screaming – out her name. But Lorna refused to listen, she had to help Peter. She had to help Wanda. She had to help Erik.
But upon reaching the foyer Lorna realised she was too late. Reality rushed cruelly back to her, reminding her harshly that there was nothing she could do, she was just a kid. Her eyes widened and brimmed with tears as she watched a man kneel down on Erik's chest and press a gun to his forehead. She watched the metal wrap around the other man's body but as more and more of Erik's blood pooled on the floor the weaker his grip on it was becoming. She could feel it; she could feel his hold over the metal ebbing. And then she saw Stryker's finger twitching over the trigger. Fear and panic washed over her and she ran out into the foyer.
"NO DON'T!" she screamed and a magnetic pulse exploded from her body with a resounding boom, rippling through the entire mansion, causing the very building to shake. Every single person dropped to their knees, Raven tumbling down the stairs she had been halfway down; Charles slumping forwards in his chair; Peter dropping to his knees and falling face first to the ground before he could reach Erik; Stryker collapsing, limp, over Erik's still conscious body.
"Lorna…" Erik breathed, turning his head to look at her before shoving Stryker's limp form off him, wrenching the gun out of his hand as he did so. His shoulder still ached, yes, as did his head, and he still felt woozy from blood loss. But the pulse of magnetic energy… it suddenly made him feel so alive, so energised, as powerful as he would be were he uninjured. He turned his head to look back at the metal that had been wrapping around Stryker's body and concentrated on it. "Look away Lorna." He instructed as the metal tendrils easily morphed into razor sharp ropes that wrapped around Stryker's still form as though they were trying to mummify him before he caused them to sharply shoot away. Stryker's skin was sliced open all over as the metal made its retreat and blood began to pool out onto the floor, mixing with Erik's bloodstains and turning the once pristine ground into an ocean of red. Reaching out a hand towards Stryker's body, Erik concentrated on the iron within the blood. It wasn't moving. Stryker's heart had given up. He was dead.
Only after this confirmation could he turn back to face Lorna. She had her back to him, her hands held up to her eyes – still following his instructions to not look. Erik pulled his aching self to his feet and walked over to her, slowly. Her shoulders were trembling and tears were spilling out from between her fingers. He placed a gentle hand on one of her shoulders and crouched down in front of the little girl.
"I'm sorry…" Lorna sobbed, lowering her hands from her eyes, "I didn't mean to hurt anyone… I'm so sorry Mr Erik."
"Lorna." Erik shook his head, looking around at the limp bodies, "Lorna it's alright. You didn't hurt anybody. In fact, had it not been for you, I'd surely be dead."
"They're just a-asleep?" Lorna asked, lower lip trembling as tears still flowed freely from her eyes.
"They are." Erik confirmed, "If you concentrate very hard on their hearts and the iron in their blood you'll be able to see that they are all perfectly alright."
"I don't know how to do that…" she mumbled.
"You'll know how to one day. I was not born knowing how to control my powers, and I think your power has the same ring to it as mine." He told her gently.
"But I don't know how to use it… what if I hurt someone? What if I hurt Muma or Wandy or Petey?"
Erik shook his head, "You won't. I couldn't control my powers when I was your age, but I learnt how to, and as it came to me it will come to you. Just give it time. But do not, Lorna, for a second, fear your power. Had you not used it just now, well, let's not think of what could have happened." In truth, he wasn't sure if Lorna's powers were the same as his or not, he'd never sent out an electromagnetic pulse but, then again, he'd never tried. But he could tell that despite her inexperience, her bond with the magnetic field of Earth was strong, not as strong as his own, but strong none the less. And he couldn't help but be intrigued by the presence of another mutant like him, he had thought he was the only one for so so long.
Lorna sniffled and nodded before wrapping her arms around his neck and squeezing him into a tight hug. "Thank you Mr Erik."
"I should be thanking you." Erik told her, smiling a little. He'd never been hugged by a child before. He'd never though creatures so young and innocent could even consider stepping near his broken and corrupted self. But here they were, and she wasn't afraid of him. She was being kind towards him, worrying over what he thought of her not over what she thought of him.
Erik sat back on the ground, Lorna sitting down beside him with her eyes roaming fiercely protectively over her elder brother and sister. Erik took care of his shoulder, ripping off fabric of his sleeve to wrap around it in a bandage. It was by no means perfect, but it would do. The bleeding seemed to stop soon after, although the entirety of his shirt was stained deep red. They sat there beside each other for two hours, Lorna's eyes never leaving her siblings whilst Erik bound the hands of all the unconscious men with the strips of bloodied metal that had taken Stryker's life.
"What happened to your shoulder?" Lorna asked him after a while.
"I was shot." Erik replied calmly, "But it isn't life threatening."
"It looks bad." She frowned, pouting worriedly at the blood.
"It looks worse than it is." He assured her, "It's like when you cut your ear; there's a lot of blood but the wound is only a little scratch."
Lorna nodded slowly, "I cut my ear once. Well, I don't remember it really. But Wanda likes to bug me. See, Mr Erik, I'm not very good at being careful. And I was even more bad at it when I was littler. Pete was painting the house but, when he finished, he didn't tidy. And my foot got stuck on a rolly paint brush and I fell into the telly cabinet. There was loads of blood. Loads and loads."
Erik chuckled, "Well then, this shoulder shot is just like that. Lots of blood, but no real wound."
Lorna nodded, placing her chin back into her hands and resuming her watch over her siblings.
"Can you keep an eye on everyone, Lorna?" Erik asked her as he stood up. She seemed to have calmed down a lot from her outburst but he didn't want to leave a dead body in the room any longer, "I need to take care of something."
She nodded, a smile crossing her lips. She was being trusted to do something important and was determined to not mess it up, "Yeah!"
"If any of the soldiers begin to wake, come and find me as quickly as you can." He ordered and moved over to Stryker's body. Frowning down at the bloodied corpse, he reached out and grabbed him under one arm. Erik didn't want to strain his power too much, and neither did he want to strain his wounded arm; so he had to resort to dragging the body with one hand out of the main door and into the driveway.
Stryker was dumped unceremoniously onto the gravel, head lolling uselessly, before Erik stalked back into the house and began to drag Alves' limp, unconscious but still living, form out of the front door. She was dumped right beside Stryker and Erik, holding out a hand towards her, unwrapped the metal that bound her wrists behind his back. He knew Charles wouldn't approve and so he was thankful Charles was still out cold. The metal sharpened into a viciously sharp triangular blade and hovered in the air for the briefest of seconds before Erik send it so burrow straight into her heart.
Taking a step back, he ran a hand through his hair. It almost seemed surreal, but there they were, the people who had tortured his kind and tortured his son, dead. Now all that was left was to take care of the bodies. He hoped Charles wouldn't mind a burnt patch of gravel on his drive.
A half hour later, Erik returned, leaving the fire roaring healthily outside as it consumed the corpses of those two brutal beings.
"What did you do?" Lorna asked, looking up at him as he re-entered the building.
"Made sure that the people who hurt your brother will never be able to hurt anyone again."
Despite Lorna not knowing quite what that meant, she was happy enough that it meant Peter was safe, "Good." She nodded and Erik sat down on the ground beside her once more, "How long 'til they awake up?"
Erik shook his head, "I have no idea."
It took two hours.
After those two hours of almost complete silence, Peter began to stir. "Oh shit!" he yelped, jumping to his feet. He'd fallen asleep? How in hell had that happened? "Lorna?" Peter asked, eyes as wide as golf balls when he saw her and he quickly moved over to her and picked her up in a hug, "What the hell are you doing here little one?"
"Saving the day." Lorna replied smugly, wrapping her small arms around him in a tight hug.
"Huh?" he frowned down at her, confused, before glancing at Erik, "I'm… wait…what? I thought you were a gonner… Sorry, man, I'm really confused. Like really confused. Like more confused than anyone is when they're watching a Clint Eastwood film and trying to figure out if it's a sequel or not."
"I'll explain when the others awake and the remainder of these men are taken care of." Erik replied calmly, glancing out over the sea of, now groggily groaning, bound bodies.
The rest awoke slowly, a lot more slowly than Peter had. But within an hour, everyone was awake, Magda included and the mutants who had been asleep upstairs included. Wanda and Magda were sat with Peter and Lorna – who was smiling to herself as she braided Peter's hair – all were whispering gentle words of comfort to each other in both English and Romani. Raven and Hank had the trussed up men grouped together in a corner. The other mutants that had been rescued from the facility has snuck down to take a look at what was going on but all been hurried off to bed by Charles.
Erik? Charles called into his mind, asking permission before entering.
Yes, Charles? Here to scold me for killing Stryker? Erik replied, glancing up at his old friend who was still sat in his wheelchair on the balcony overlooking the foyer.
No. Not this time. Charles replied, shake of his head implied by the tone of his voice. I wanted to let you know I'll wipe the memories of the soldiers… and I wanted to tell you that I'm pleased you're not dead. For a moment there, I was worried you would be and I would have been sitting there useless to stop it from happening.
Erik looked down at the bloodstained floor and his bloodstained self, Thank you for your concern Charles. I'll admit, because I can't hide anything from you whilst you're in my head, that I feared I may have been breathing my last breaths.
Charles was about to reply when Peter appeared beside him in a rush of wind and dramatically leant over the balcony, "Romeo, wherever art thou Romagneto?" he called, unable to contain his snickers. He moved away from the balcony and clapped a hand on Charles' shoulder "Sorry, JulieX. Had to." He smirked and with that, was gone again and back with his family at the foot of the stairs.
Charles blushed a furious red, finding himself about to reply to thin air for about the thousandth time after meeting Peter. Instead of bothering to reply, to spare himself further embarrassment, Charles set to work. Fingers pressed to his temples, he delved into the minds of the soldiers, erasing their memories of mutants, of Erik and Peter, of the mansion. Directions to the bus station appeared in the minds along with a false story explaining what they were doing there. Charles nodded to Erik and, sure enough, the metal-bender – who looked just as embarrassed as Charles – dropped the metal from the men's wrists.
One by one the soldiers stood up and filed out of the door. They didn't register the blood on the floor or the mutants in the room. Their minds were set on making it to the bus station to go back to their old lives before they'd joined Stryker, before they'd joined the efforts in hunting down mutants. As the last man filed out Magda spoke up.
"Okay. I… sorry if this is a bad time but could someone please explain to me what happened?" Magda asked.
"Erik?" Charles prompted and Erik shared a glance with Lorna before stepping into the middle of the foyer. The young girl nodded her head and sent him a small but brave little smile.
"Lorna isn't human." Erik told them, though his attention was directed purely at Magda, "She's a mutant. I don't know what she was doing down here but mere moments before Stryker pulled the trigger she stepped up, very bravely so might I add, and sent out a magnetic pulse that knocked everyone unconscious."
"Except you?" Hank asked.
Erik nodded, "I'm sure you'll have fun formulating a theory as to why not, Hank." Hank's brain was already whirring over everything he'd ever learnt about magnetic fields, electromagnetism, EMP generation. Like charges repelled, it could be something along those lines... he really would have to look into this.
"Have you ever emitted a pulse like that, Erik?" Charles asked, curiosity creasing his brow.
"Never." Erik shook his head, "But I haven't ever tried."
The telepath nodded his head slowly, "And Stryker?" he asked, frowning at the bloodstains on the floor.
"And the psycho Doc?" Peter piped in.
"I took care of Stryker. And of the Doctor."
"You killed in front of her?" Magda asked, fury clouding everything else she'd heard.
"Not really." Lorna piped up, wriggling out of Peter's grip and pattering over to her mother, "He told me to look the other way."
"Oh, you think that makes it better do you Erik?" Magda snapped, slapping his hard on his wounded shoulder causing the man to hiss sharply in pain.
"Of course it doesn't. But you cannot stand there and tell me you would not have done the same thing had you seen the man and woman who attacked our son lying there, unconscious, on the floor."
"No! No I wouldn't have!" Magda yelled, "Not with Lorna in the room."
"Here we freaking go." Peter grumbled to his twin over the yells of their parents, "You know, I'm surprised the punches haven't started flying yet. Mum's got one hell of a swing. And Dad's, well, Dad."
"Pete," Wanda glanced at him.
"What?"
"Shut up." She smirked and whacked him on the back of the head.
It was Raven who interrupted the Maximoff-Lenhsherr argument, slipping into her blonde form and stepping over to the pair. And Charles couldn't help but feel proud of her assertiveness, of her strength, despite her unorthodox method. "Look. You're both tired. You're both stressed. So can you just quit the snapping and let's everyone go to bed. We should be celebrating that that bastard is dead, not arguing. And I swear if either of you argue back at me I will knock you both out and leave you to sleep on the floor whilst I sleep in a comfortable bed."
"I'd like to see that." Peter snickered as Wanda beckoned Lorna over.
"Yeah, I think they'll now all be wanting to clobber you over the head." Wanda smirked, "Let's go sleep."
"Night Muma, night Mr Erik. Night Miss Lizard. Night Bearman. Night Professor X. Night anyone who I forgot." Lorna listed off as she linked hands with both of her siblings and the Maximoff trio made their way down the corridor towards the bedroom they had all insisted upon sharing.