X2: Survivors
Trisha had never been known as a very courageous person. Sure, she had been one of the Seekers not long ago; it had been a 'nut up or shut up' kind of job, and she'd managed well among them for the sake of her teammates and for mutants in need. But that didn't mean that her gut didn't always twist almost painfully when she plunged into danger. Even now, with the sharp snap of material filling the room as she prepared for the mission, her hands were shaking as she pulled on her fingerless gloves and buckled on her belt. This time though, the fear was nothing. It didn't matter what awful possibilities lay before the Coverts tonight. Gina was finally within sight, within reach, and Trish wasn't going to give up on her.
The creak of footsteps just outside the spare room caused Trish to turn. Rachel was waiting there, already dressed in her own silvery uniform.
"They're almost here," she said quietly, staring at Trish softly. "You ready?"
Trish squared her jaw, reaching down to collect her weapons, two daggers and a handgun. "I'm more than ready," she said.
Rachel nodded, giving her a small smile, before leading them out of the room and down the stairs of the boarding house. It was very quiet now, both because of the late hour, and the very few remaining residents. Over the months Trish had been among the Coverts, the number of dwellers in the boarding house had steadily decreased as the Coverts had found safe passages from the city, and Lupus had led the mutant children to safer refuges. Only Rachel and Cody lived in the house now. The silence in the house was oppressive, turning the usually safe, cozy place into something much gloomier.
Cody was waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs, nervously pushing his glasses up his nose and checking what little equipment he carried at the moment.
"They're parked two streets over," he said, glancing up at them.
"Then let's go," Trish said, steeling herself and becoming more a Covert, more Pause, and less of herself, less worried and scared. She grabbed a long coat from the rack by the front door, one that would conceal her uniform from sight for the short time it would take to meet up with the rest. Acorna and Chatter followed her lead, grabbing their own coats as Pause opened the door. They slipped out in quick succession.
It was a simple thing to walk along casually. Technically they weren't supposed to be out after curfew, but it was not uncommon for people to sneak out anyway for a late night party or get-together. As long as they acted somewhat natural, no one would pay them any mind.
Acorna jutted her chin, pointing out an idling grey van along the sidewalk. They sidled up to it, checking up and down the streets for passersby. Upon confirming the street was empty, the trio zipped across the street and into the van.
"About time you showed up," Flashfire said as the door slid shut. Pause looked around. Almost all of the Coverts were there, most in the back, while Luck was up front in the driver's seat. There were no seats in the rear of the van, and it was pretty crowded with small shipping crates.
"Here, help me load these up," Flashfire said, pushing an M4 rifle into Pause's hands. The girl stared at the large gun in her hands. The nausea in her stomach started up again, a little more insistently this time.
"Is it likely that we'll use these?" she asked unsurely, her eyes rather wide.
Flashfire grunted, his blue eyes flicking up to hers as he worked on his own gun. "Let's hope not. These are for last resorts," he said, waving his own semi-automatic for emphasis.
Mainframe nodded, before reaching into his own mission pack. He withdrew a plastic baggy, opening it and pulling out dark colored squares with small circuitry visible on one side.
"Everybody take one and stick it on you somewhere you can easily reach. They're a new design, so they can go on top of your clothes." All the Coverts got ahold of one. Pause briefly examined hers before she slapped it over the left sleeve of her black jumpsuit. Mainframe turned to Luck, who was just applying her own flesh-colored patch, and nodded to her. She started the car and pulled out, rumbling through the mostly empty streets of Boston.
"Won't we be spotted?" Pause asked, nervously glancing out the small back windows of the van.
"If we get stopped, we have an alibi," Replica said. "At least, Luck will. The rest of us plan on keeping quiet."
"Okay," Mainframe said. "The patches you're wearing are new design image inducers, as some of you know. These ones aren't for changing your appearance, though. Watch," he instructed. Placing a finger on his own patch, the team watched as, with an easy few swipes of his finger, Mainframe began to fade from sight, blending chameleon-like into the grey wall of the van.
"Sweet," Chatter said as Mainframe reappeared.
Mainframe indicated his patch. "Chatter and I already programmed these things to blend with your surroundings once scanned, so all you really need to adjust is the shade depending on the lighting. To start the scan, just peel up the left bottom corner, press on the inside, and wait for three minutes. After that you should be able to activate them. In the meantime, everyone can get ready."
Pause followed along with the rest as they lifted their patches and started the scan. Then she sat stiffly. She felt no need to prepare herself; she preferred smaller weapons, therefore leaving the large rifles where they were, and she'd already gotten everything in place before leaving the boarding house. Instead, she watched the others. Mainframe and Replica went through the motions like clockwork, Mainframe with focused efficiency, and Replica with the thrill of danger speeding her movements. Nyx clapped in the last cartridge in his gun, blowing out a breath as he mentally prepped. Chatter did a brief run through on his equipment, diligently rechecking everything for perhaps the third time tonight. Acorna leaned back against the wall, unmoving like Pause, and bounced her leg against the floor. She chewed at her lip, a nervous light in her eyes. Lupus and Ashcloud displayed no such trepidation, snapping their weapons into readiness and adjusting their uniforms until everything was right. Flashfire was fingering his gun leisurely, and Luck up front was beginning to adjust her own patch, which changed her appearance like normal, unlike the rest of the teams' inducers. Sentry, the last, was leaning forward over her knees as she sat against the wall, forehead rested on her kneecaps. The deep breaths and almost motionless figure appeared asleep to Pause.
A brief wolf whistle from Replica had everyone stilling. She motioned around. "Turn your patches on. Things are gonna get sketchy soon."
One by one, the Coverts faded into their backgrounds. Unless one of them made a sudden large movement, the back of the van appeared empty of any passengers. From that point onward, no one spoke.
Pause glanced around silently, not quite able to spot any of her teammates, aside from Luck, who was now driving in the form of a tall, much older Asian woman in what seemed like some kind of standard uniform. As the van weaved through mostly empty roads, and as the mass of lights of Boston began to grow dimmer, Pause had to struggle to remain calm and still.
Slowly the darkness began creeping into the van as they exited the city proper, moving westwards.
Having patrolled a few times out here, Pause knew the security measures placed around roads, and in open land. Even so, she'd never had to pass through one of those measures.
Light, red and white, shone through the windshield. Pause may not have been able to see her teammates, but she could tell that they'd all tensed, just like she had. Unknown to each other, everyone's fingers went to their patches. Pause held no envy for Luck, who was going to be trucking their little farce and hopefully selling it as well. Still, she had her powers on her side.
A flashlight beam cut through the van's interior. As the beam passed over them, each Covert manipulated their inducer patches to compensate for the light change. The light returned to the disguised Luck in the driver's seat.
"Identification," said a harsh female voice. Luck handed over her fake ID, impeccably crafted by Mainframe, even if he had been rushed in his work. The hidden team waited breathlessly as the security guard scanned it, grunting when she seemed satisfied. "What's your business and under whose authorization?"
"Ration supply delivery to the western sectors, under the Regional Internment Bureau," Luck said smoothly. Pause crossed her fingers, hoping that Luck would live up to her codename and powers.
"We're going to have to check your van," the female guard said, still sounding harsh, but at least not suspicious.
"Go ahead," was the casual reply.
Neither of their leaders needed to tell the Coverts to freeze. Every last one of them grew as still as stone, not a breath to be heard.
The van doors swung open swiftly. Pause resisted the urge to flinch away, her invisible eyes widening behind her glasses.
The female guard, with another man behind her, walked up to the back of the truck, reaching for the first crate, cracking it open, and checking the contents. One of the brown sealed packages was lifted from the box, opened, and examined to make sure the contents were legitimate. The clap of footsteps was heard as Luck rounded the back doorway as well, gazing blankly into the rear of the van.
"We have to check all of the crates," the guard said, waving her flashlight about. Luck nodded compliantly, hopping into the back of the van.
Pause almost flinched again when she saw Luck about to step right where Acorna should be. Miraculously, Luck avoided the probably very near miss, making her way unimpeded through the van, pushing crates back to the two guards to be checked. Breath was held for what felt like endless minutes as each crate was opened and scanned.
At last, the female guard looked up, nodding in satisfaction. "All clean. You can proceed."
Luck nodded, hopping out and moving back to the driver's side door. The door shut with a snap, the engine revved, and the car was waved through the metal gate that had blocked their way through the checkpoint. As the vehicle rattled over the speed bump, several audible sighs of relief rose in the car. Luck peered into the rearview mirror, flashing them a smile. "Relax. My luck held out," she said with a chuckle.
"We've got some miles to go, so relax while you can," Replica's disembodied voice said.
The quiet journey along an empty freeway was a short interval of artificial peace, but Pause wanted nothing more than for it to be over with, for this mission to be over with. She had been seeking this goal for so long, she couldn't stand a moment's more of waiting.
There was a grunt from the other side of the van. Pause looked up, listening. Another groan sounded, sounding almost fearful. It seemed like it came from where Sentry should be.
Pause swallowed heavily, something cold settling in her stomach. Scooting from her position along the floor of the rumbling van, she made her way toward where her teammate supposedly sat.
"Sentry?" she whispered as quietly as she could. Even so, she believed the others were watching and listening. Pause reached out, grasping what felt like a shoulder. "You okay?"
The silence stretched so long that Pause thought that maybe she'd been mistaken, when a breathy, trembling voice spoke up.
"Pause…I see smoke and fire. Something's wrong."
"What? What's wrong?" Pause asked, her whisper breaking, becoming louder.
"It's been like this all day," Sentry murmured. "I've been keeping my vision watching the future of our mission, but this is something else. I don't know what."
"What do you see?" Mainframe's voice asked urgently.
"Smoke and fire," Sentry repeated. "And the shadows of people, lots of them. And I can hear guns, and screams, and crashing. I…I can see some people clearly. A man with blue arms. A girl with fur on her limbs. A blonde girl, a boy that changes into a lion. They're all surrounded by the fire and destruction. I can't see any escape."
Pause felt her mouth go dry, and her eyes grow wide. She knew at least one of those described. Blue arms weren't common.
"It's already going dark," Sentry said despairingly.
"There's nothing else?" Replica asked. The steadfast humor in her voice had gone cold. It sounded suspiciously close to fear now.
"No," Sentry whispered. "It's all black now. I can't…I can't usually tell when or where an event takes place, but this felt very powerful. Something about it was significant. I think we might already be too late to help, to stop it. To do anything, really."
Pause choked. Her mind, which had been set to one, relentless track for months, now stuttered to a halt. Donovan was in that vision, and for all she knew, the rest of her former team. Her friends.
Trish felt her heart splitting, divided two ways, torn in a way that made her feel what she had sworn not to feel as she relentlessly sought to reunite with her only family. She felt unsure.
"Too late?" she repeated. Hopelessness resonated through the deathly silent van.
She couldn't see Sentry, couldn't see her expression, or whether she shook her head or nodded. But the words that followed were heart-wrenchingly grim.
"I don't know."
Stacy could tell they were slowing down. The landscape below them was going from a blur to defined structures whipping past them.
"Will they be able to tell we're coming?" she asked into the fiery swirl around her.
"Yep," Evangeline said. "They've got some radar in there, and probably plenty of mutants that could spot us from miles away."
"From where? All I see are rocks and dirt," Kota growled. Stacy couldn't see her, but she could imagine her craning her neck around, trying to spot any kind of hiding place or adequate shelter.
"Down there," Evangeline said moments before their trajectory changed, blasting them downward. Stacy and Kota gasped as the ground rushed at them, Stacy throwing up her hands in front of her face before they impacted.
Heat blossomed around them, spreading outward and away, leaving the cooling air of a desert twilight in its place. Stacy and Kota staggered upward from where they'd landed on the dusty ground. Evangeline didn't turn to them as they made it to their feet, trekking up the hill without any outward regard for her two teammates. Kota's ears laid flat as she loped up the hill to follow, Stacy limping a bit behind. The landing had been rather rough.
On top of the hill, Evangeline was kneeling in the dirt, scraping away the covering of what looked like a shoddy trap door.
"They're not going to be too happy about us just busting in," Stacy commented.
"They can live with it," Evangeline grunted as she heaved the entrance open. "They'll know who it is anyway. They'll probably appreciate us using the front door at all."
Kota and Stacy threw each other looks. This would be their first close encounter with one of the other X2 teams, and from the ambiguous relationship reportedly shared between the Seekers and Outcasts, they didn't know what to expect once they got down there.
The three girls slid through the uncomfortably tight passage, a faint flicker of fire coming from Evangeline's hand lighting the way. No words were spoken, so it wasn't long before they began to hear the noises of life coming from deeper within the ground.
Evangeline didn't doubt that there would be someone waiting for them at the end of the entrance tunnel. It was the particular persons standing there that gave her the unpleasant surprise.
"Shazma and Danish," she said, slipping out of the tunnel with all of the sarcastic enthusiasm she could muster spitting from between her falsely smiling lips. "You know, I should have seen this coming. Whenever something goes bad, you two pop out of the netherworld to join the mayhem. How's life been?" She asked, crossing her arms, cocking her hip, and smiling acidly.
Shazma let a downward twitch of her full lips show her dislike. "It's been as good and as bad as it gets. You're still as pleasantly social as ever," she said. Danish, of course, said nothing, merely staring with narrowed eyes at Evangeline.
A faint clatter of rocks alerted them as Kota and Stacy slid from the tunnel. Danish shifted to the side, his shoulders squaring defensively. Stacy, being the first out, held up her hands in the universal signal of surrender, a nervous smile on her face trying to convey her friendliness.
Kota wasn't as calm. A growl slid past her teeth the moment she saw Danish's hostile posture. Then she grew still, her eyes narrowing. She stared intently at him, before she growled out a low statement.
"I've seen you before."
Danish straightened a bit, surprise flitting over his face before he narrowed his own eyes, apparently trying to figure out if he knew her also. He couldn't place her, but Kota only took a few seconds to match his face to memory. Her snarl grew wider, and her features became distinctly less human.
"You were there, in Lincoln. You helped start all this shit," she hissed, advancing in a predator's prowl. Danish stepped up to meet her, his own type of growl beginning to rumble in his chest like boxed thunder. Stacy grabbed onto Kota's arm, flinching back when Kota actually barked in anger, rounding on her with blazing eyes.
"Back off!" Shazma demanded angrily, stepping up to her teammate's side.
"Hey, HEY!" Evangeline yelled. "I'm not the only one under behavior mandates! If I have to keep a lid on it, so do you!" she snapped, pointing at Kota.
Kota's ears laid back. A barked command of where Evangeline could shove it was barely held back. No matter how much she longed to take a snap at the redhead, her rational side knew it was pointless. "Fine!" Kota spat, wrestling herself from Stacy's grip. "We're wasting time anyway."
"And what exactly is this all about?" Shazma questioned, turning back to Evangeline. "I assume you didn't come down here for a social call."
Evangeline smirked. "We'll talk about it to the whole team or none. We're not going to wait here while you pass messages back and forth between me, Kai, and James like first graders."
Shazma blew out a frustrated breath before nodding her head down the tunnel. "Come on," she said sullenly. She led the way down the passage, Evangeline following behind her, Stacy and Kota behind her, and Danish backing up the rear.
There was only a short expanse of passage before the cavern truly opened outward. Stacy's eyes widened, and Kota's nostrils flared. There were many mutants here, moving around even at this late hour. Maybe an equal amount compared to the residents in the Seeker base lived here, maybe more, maybe less. It wasn't the population that surprised them so much as it was the dwellings. Stacy leaned over a bit as they trekked a path that skirted the upper walls of the main cavern. They had to be several stories above the sandy floor. Several mutants looked up, catching sight of her. Stacy ducked out of sight, nervousness filling her stomach again.
Shazma stopped, peering down herself. She turned to her fellow part-time Outcast. "Take them somewhere a bit more private. I'll get the others."
Danish nodded, guiding the Seekers down a side passage. There was a much smaller cave at the end of it, no bigger than a large living room. The four waited there in silence, agitation filling the room like choking smoke.
It was mere minutes later that Kota and Stacy got their first clear glimpses of the Outcasts' leading team. The first to enter was a tall girl with copper and white hair and one clouded eye. The next was a tall young man with dark hair and a cold glare set on his face. Behind him followed a bug-featured mutant, a girl with pale blonde hair and silver eyes, a long-haired older teenager with a scruff of facial hair, a young woman with dark hair and brown eyes that darted about, and a girl that looked uncannily like Jump. A few more trailed in, with Shazma at the rear.
The Outcast leaders stood forward, shoulder to shoulder. The young man still had a scowl fixed on his face, so the girl spoke first.
"What are you doing here, Evangeline?" she asked. The tone wasn't really hostile, nor was it particularly welcoming. It sounded wary, more than anything else.
Evangeline's lips twitched and her displeased frown grew larger. She seemed to take a moment to compose the words, or to actually force them up her throat and out of her mouth. "We…The Seekers need your help."
A leer couldn't be held back from the male leader's face. "Oh wow, that's revolutionary."
"Shut up, dickhead, this is serious!" Evangeline barked back almost instantly, before snapping her mouth shut, frustrated. James merely smirked wider at her, and Evangeline could be seen making a visible effort to ignore the baiting. Kota, however, didn't feel like letting the childish rivalry slow them down. She shot forward, almost shoving her face in James's own.
"Whatever kind of bullshit you two teams have on each other, I don't give a flying fuck about it! It would make asking for help with something YOU helped cause a lot easier if you'd quit being a smug jackass!"
Sharp nails dug into her arm. Kota's head swung to meet silver eyes, as a lovely face became feline, lips curled back over sharp teeth.
"Back off, bitch!" Spice hissed. The rough shove backward sent her stumbling for a mere moment before she righted herself.
"Make me, whore!" Kota growled, her own face shifting. Tension shot up as everyone in the cave began falling into stance, glares turned up and even some weapons brandished.
"STOP!" The booming command had everyone cowering back, covering their ears. Kai was glaring furiously.
"You're all being idiots when something serious is happening! Why don't we stop acting like brats and just get this out of the way! And James," she said, rounding on him, "she's right." She pointed at Kota. "You know better than anyone that Evangeline can't button her lip; are you trying to start something?!"
"Thanks Kai," Evangeline muttered, much to her regret a second later when Kai turned on her.
"Shut it, Evangeline! You're eighteen, not thirteen! Start acting like it!" Satisfied that all deserving parties had been adequately scolded, she turned to Kota. Her gaze was sharp and stern, and her demanding inquiry left no room for hemming and hawing. "Now what's going on?"
Kota bared her teeth, but didn't dare attempt any insolence. Nevertheless, she focused her glare back on the other Outcast leader, James.
"I'm an escapee from Lincoln, Nebraska; the Outcasts attacked it back in January. I've been with the Seekers ever since. Earlier, Evangeline got a telepathic message from a mutant I knew in Lincoln. They went into revolt and now they're going to die for it," Kota said darkly. "I swore I'd go back and help them, and the Seekers intend to help me, but we're not nearly enough to save them. The Outcasts have enough willing members to give us a chance."
There was the briefest of pauses before Evangeline spoke. Unlike before, her voice was a good deal calmer now, and the tone was icy. "It would be pretty out-of-character for the Outcasts to stay out of something like this, what with the whole salvation of mutant thing you've got going," she said, waving her hand airily. "Plus, any responsible liberation force would probably find it their obligation to respond to the repercussions of their actions." The words were emphasized almost painfully, Evangeline's burning gaze fixed on James very firmly. His face grew stonier at the familiar phrase, and his fists clenched.
Stacy had remained silent up until this point, but the sudden dark tension caused her to let the first words that came to her mind enter the air. "Is an argument really important right now? We all protect our kind, and now some of them need our help."
An obvious statement, but one that effectively cut through all crap and laid the cards out as they were: for the moment they shared agendas, and it was better together than alone. Kai gave her a nod, turning to the rest of her team with a pointed look. She made no decisions yet, glancing at James. He huffed, crossing his arms. Even so, his scowl disintegrated and was replaced by a look of determination. He nodded.
"Spread the word around," Kai said to the senior team. "Anyone we've passed through training is on our strike force, and get all the transporters up and ready to send us out as soon as possible."
Kota felt a sudden relief of pressure, like she could finally breathe. She drew herself up straighter as all of the Outcasts nodded obediently with their leader's commands, flowing out of the small cave and back into the main areas of the hideout. James and Kai remained.
"You got weapons?" James asked shortly as the two leaders and the Seekers exited last.
Evangeline nodded. "Enough for our team. We're not gun-heavy, though."
"We can cover that," Kai said. "We need to get the plans from the January mission, figure out how we'll approach."
"However we do this, we're out front," Evangeline said stubbornly, motioning to herself and her teammates.
James rolled his eyes. "You're loud, you rush things, and you have the finesse of a wrecking ball. We weren't exactly planning on putting you in the reserve team."
Kai shot him another pair of dagger-eyes, but Evangeline waved it off. "As long as he agrees, I don't give a damn what he says," she said derisively.
"What time can we be there?" Kota asked, the growl returning to her voice. She'd had enough waiting.
Kai glanced at her, growing serious once more. "It's around midnight now. If we rush it, we can have everyone on our side there by three. When we'll be getting out depends entirely on what happens once things get started."
"I can work with that," Kota said with a dark, toothy grin.
A/N: You ready?
I'd like to thank Arian Eripmav, Seeds of Destruction, dawnoftheceruleansky, Rex123, , KA, Raxius, and Obsidian the Ghost Faced for their reviews.