Author's note: And now, the end is near, and so we face the final curtain... the last chapter is up for your (I hope) pleasure.
Cortex 21: The Case Concludes
Things were not going so well for the would-be captors of Mr Negative. It turned out that what had looked like a secret escape route had in fact turned out to be merely one of several interconnecting passages, indicating someone had put a lot of thought into the architecture of this place. Unfortunately that didn't make their job any easier and although Logan could easily smell their target's trail it took more time to navigate the labyrinth than any of them would have liked. Guido sensed they were getting close though when he heard a familiar voice shouting triumphantly and a meaty thwack as something fleshy was punched very hard.
"Monet's up ahead!" He called elated, and the group accelerated, cheered by the good news. Unfortunately for them, and even worse for Monet, Negative also heard the victorious cry and redoubled his efforts, knowing he had to finish Monet quickly before the others caught up. He managed to dodge a punch and launched one of his own, catching Monet in the stomach. She coughed and staggered backwards, leaving herself open to a haymaker from Negative, who put channelled all his aggression and determination into the blow. In her dazed state, Monet was smashed off her feet and onto the floor. Negative grabbed her by the throat and slammed her into the wall so hard the wall cracked around her. Her powers protected Monet somewhat from physical impact but could do nothing about her breath being choked off and as she gagged Negative punched her repeatedly, a vicious glower on his face. He let go and she slid to the floor, where Negative grabbed one leg and used it to swing her into a wall before hurling her like a human javelin down the corridor. The others arrived just in time to see Negative disappear around a corner and something somehow hard and soft at the same time hit Guido in the chest. He suffered no physical damage from the attack but his heart sank as he recognised the projectile: Monet, looking as beaten up and battered as he had ever seen her. They rounded the corner to see Negative looking triumphant. His suit was torn and ragged and his hair a wild tangle but there was no doubt about who had come off better in his little tussle with Monet.
"He's going down," Logan growled, brandishing his claws and advancing on the Chinese gangster.
"Race ya," Guido countered, starting forwards too and with his longer legs quickly overtaking the short Canadian. Both of them stopped in their tracks though when Negative suddenly pulled something small and black from a coat pocket.
"Step any closer and the whole place goes up," he warned them.
"Not much of a threat when facing us outside the building," Guido pointed out, but didn't make any move towards the criminal. He doubted someone smart and resourceful enough to make it to the top rung of the criminal underworld would rely on something as improbable and unreliable as remote explosives.
"Think of all the destruction it could cause to the surrounding buildings," Negative pointed out. "And all the people still inside... you want their deaths on your conscience?"
It was a stalemate, and they all knew it. Negative began backing away holding the remote protectively close, and although Remy produced and charged a deck of cards he had no way of knowing whether he could do enough damage in time to stop the Chinese gangster blowing up the building. Remy spat disgustedly. "What kind of person puts explosives in their own damn building?"
"Oh, it wasn't me," Negative said. "People I'm working for like their fail-safes to be definitive. They don't even know I knew about their little bombs, but they don't shut me up that easily..."
"Who are 'they'?" Logan demanded. He didn't expect an answer but the gangster was visibly unravelling and breaking down before their eyes, it was worth taking the chance that he would be unstable enough to let something slip. Besides, the fact that someone who had had he, Remy and a SHIELD-sponsored investigative agency all running in circles now answered to someone even more powerful and shadowy was not good news by anyone's standards.
"They are way out of your league, Wolverine," Negative sneered. "They're beyond any of you, SHIELD, X-Men, all of you are little children fighting giants."
"We're children with a pet dog," a voice suddenly said behind him. Something furry and muscular growled as it bowled into Negative, who dropped the remote as he tried to keep slavering jaws from closing on his neck.
"That was so lame," the same voice said, but apparently from a different direction. The Cortex team looked at each other in surprise, but Logan sniffed the air and scowled menacingly.
"What the hell?" He asked. Negative managed to dislodge his assailant, which as far as he could tell was some kind of massive wolf creature, but as he staggered upright he was tackled back off his feet. He grabbed his latest attacker, a kid who could not be much older than fifteen and laughed, sounding more than a little deranged. This was the secret agent sent by SHIELD? He would soon make them pay for their insufferable arrogance, starting with the death of this little toy. He threw the boy into a wall, but his injuries and exhaustion robbed his muscles of their strength and it was not the fatal attack he had expected. Even more surprisingly, when the boy hit the wall an identical clone suddenly popped into view, then both of them ran towards the aghast Negative. A third, seemingly identical to both of his attackers, appeared from the entrance of the alley and ran to where the wolf-creature was lying, wheezing painfully. No matter how many of the little irritants Negative managed to brush off, more and more appeared until he finally managed to swing his arm in a huge arc and throw every single one of them flying. He didn't have any time to enjoy the small success though; three adamantium claws suddenly pricked the soft flesh under his chin and a huge hand grabbed his head from behind, holding him in place.
"I'd stay real still if I was you, bub," Logan warned him. He could see the fallen Jamie-dupes starting to get back up and merge together in the background. "What're you and Rahne doing here, squirt?" he demanded.
"They're with me," a new voice broke in. "Or at least they were supposed to be, before they ran off on their own..." Colonel Nicholas Fury strolled into view as if apprehending insane, explosive-wielding gangsters was the most normal occurrence in the world. In his line of work of course it really wasn't anything surprising. His customary cigar jabbed in his teeth, he looked around curiously. "All of you still alive, huh? You've done better than I thought."
"What are you doing here?" Logan asked the question on behalf of everyone present.
"Cooper here dropped us a line when Maddox didn't show on time," he explained. "We went by the Cortex place but the only ones we could find were your little students here. Luckily Ms Sinclair managed to follow your trail here." A SHIELD agent wearing shades and with an army-style cap pulled low over her eyes hovered in the background, apparently watching her leader's back. Something about her made James uneasy, and in fact even some minor detail of Fury's explanation didn't sit right with him. He was no master detective, but he was more than good enough to work it out almost instantly. "Who did you say tipped you off?"
"Cooper," Fury replied. "Your liaison... if you'd bothered to actually liaise with us as agreed."
"As in Val Cooper?" James pressed. Fury nodded, but he seemed slightly unnerved himself. Either something was niggling at him too or something about James' intense tone was making him uneasy. James pressed on. "That would be this Val Cooper, then. The one Li abducted a month ago." He stepped aside to show Fury the thin, malnourished form of his employee and operative. Fury's one eye widened in shock as behind him the female agent sprang into life. She moved so quickly her hat flew off and the shades shattered on the floor. The agent looked identical to the Val Cooper who had just been rescued, albeit better fed and in good shape. Fury spun in shock only to have a fist smash into his jaw and spin his head back the other way. The New Cooper pulled a pistol from its holster and fired three quick shots. One caught Logan in the shoulder and sent him stumbling backwards, the other two hit Negative- one in the chest and one in the forehead. The mutant crime-lord's cranium blew apart in a cloud of bone fragments and blood. Guido dropped the body in shock and even as Logan recovered and started to chase the fake Cooper, she ran to the entrance of the alley and vanished out of sight. He looked around but could not see her anywhere amongst the people milling in the street. In fact he couldn't hear her either, or even pick up a trace of her scent. She had to all intents and purposes simply vanished into the ether without any clues left behind. Logan growled in fury but turned and stomped back into the alleyway. He arrived just in time to see a tall, dark young man appear out of the concealed exit of the corridor carrying a limp blonde girl over one shoulder. The blonde girl did not appear impressed by her treatment, but when she was put down she simply stood in place, apparently awaiting new developments.
"The gang's all here then," Julio observed. Fury had quickly got over his surprise, or at least put it aside in order to deal with the situation better. Jamie had absorbed all his dupes and was holding the hand of Rahne, back in her human form and seemingly recovered from the beating given by Negative. Monet too was back on her feet and glowering at the world for the indignity she had suffered. Logan was scowling at the two young X-Men-in-training.
"What are you doing here?" he grunted.
"We were just trying to find James," Jamie said. "We wanted to find out what was going on."
"And be glad they did," Fury put in. "Without them Negative might have got away."
"What did you want with Maddox?" Logan said, ignoring Fury's placatory tone. Rahne took over the explanations.
"When we were trying to find out about these Cortex people, we ended up finding information about him, and a picture, and it's just... he just looks so much like Jamie, we wanted to know why."
Logan looked at James, then Jamie, then back again and grunted. He had to admit, the resemblance was uncanny, even to his enhanced senses. That didn't mean he would let them get away with blatant breaking of the rules of Xavier's Institute but at least they had a reason, even if it was kind of lame. James for his part seemed to bear no ill will, advancing on Jamie and holding out a hand.
"Well, I appreciate your help anyway," he said warmly. Jamie looked surprised to be treated so respectfully by an adult, but pleasantly so. He reached out in turn and the two shook hands. Suddenly James cried out in agony and a split second later Jamie shrieked too and both of them began to convulse and twitch, still howling in pain. There was a flash of light; it was similar to the flash when Jamie absorbed a dupe but on a much larger scale, a lighthouse compared to a firefly. When the light faded there was only one man still standing, and then only for a moment before he choked painfully and keeled over. Rahne knelt at his side, looking panicked and the others closed in around them. Lying there was a figure somewhere between Jamie and James in age, and with the exact appearance either of the pair would have at that age. Fury pulled out his cigar and contemplated the prone body.
"Well, shit."
It was agreed that the best place to treat the casualty would be the Xavier Institute. It was in fact Logan that made the agreement on behalf of everyone else, but Fury seemed to agree and that was good enough for the Cortex operatives. James/Jamie had been rushed to the infirmary where Xavier and Hank had immediately begun treatment, Hank dealing with the physical effects while Xavier used his powers to try and discern what exactly had happened. The bald telepath rolled backwards, looking slightly drained. Whatever had happened to the pair- or was that now person?- it had clearly been something extremely unusual.
"What's the matter with him?" Logan said with typical bluntness. All of James' team-mates had gathered in the infirmary, as had Fury and Rahne. Layla had also somehow managed to inveigle her way in and was wandering around the medical facilities curiously, examining the strange devices and machines. Xavier sighed.
"As far as I can tell, Jamie has undergone some kind of, well, identity crisis for lack of a better word," he explained. "When the two bodies merged, so did their minds, but no human brain should be capable of that. Just as the two bodies have somehow come together and combined, when Jamie recovers it is likely that his new mind will be somewhere between the two as well."
"So it's Jamie there?" Teresa asked. "Not James?"
"Not necessarily," Xavier conceded. "I refer to Jamie as I knew him as Jamie- as to which of them will be the dominant psyche I don't know, or even if one will emerge as in control at all. It's quite possible that what will result is a new personality entirely."
"But how is it even possible for them to have merged anyway?" Logan asked. "Far as we know, the squirt can only absorb his own dupes, and this guy was older than he was, no way was he a dupe."
"I don't know," Hank took over. "But it seems that Jamie and, uh, James were even more closely matched genetically than appearances suggested. They were so close that Jamie must have subconsciously tried to reabsorb him, or it might even have happened without him knowing or trying."
"But he will be okay won't he?" Rahne asked anxiously. The two scientists looked at each other.
"I can't honestly say," Xavier admitted. "This is not like a telepath linking to another mind, the two have literally become one. I've never seen anything quite like it. But his mind is functional- it just appears to be in some kind of coma. There's no reason why it shouldn't stabilise."
"It's a similar situation physically," Hank concurred. "Two different bodies, with two different genetic structures combining, it's one of the most powerful and dangerous reactions I can think of, I doubt that if they weren't so similar to begin with he would be dead already. As it is, I can only think that the body is now repairing itself and getting used to the new situation. Like Charles said, there is no reason why he shouldn't recover completely... I just don't know when it will happen."
"But what's going to happen to us?" Teresa asked. "To Cortex Investigations I mean? If... whoever that is... wakes up and it's not..." she sniffled but made a valiant effort to keep her composure. "If it's not James, then what do we do?"
Maybe it was her superhuman senses, maybe it was good old-fashioned feminine instinct, but something about Teresa's tone of voice struck home in Rahne and she understood in ways she could not name that this girl was in almost the same situation as Rahne herself. She had been very close, maybe even loved, one of the two people who had so bizarrely been taken away from them. For all either of them knew, one or both of those boys was now dead as surely as if taken by a bullet or a knife. For a brief second the two girl's eyes met and they shared their symbiotic sorrow and understanding.
"Far as I'm concerned, you still work for me," Fury said brusquely. He was about to light up another of his cigars when he found his hand throw it over his shoulder; he stared at it in confusion but it refused to move. He found Xavier looking at him intently, the normally kind eyes now warning.
'Don't push your luck, Colonel,' the professor said telepathically. Out loud though he simply said, "I think that this shows the benefits to both groups if we could join forces on occasion, or share resources. My wish is of course for humans and mutants to work together but mutants working with other mutants is of course equally desirable."
"I agree," Fury said. "But if this is going to be a new start, can I suggest a new name as well? Start this whole thing from scratch."
"What about... X-Factor?" Guido suggested. "Cause we've got the magic touch, sort of va-va-voom, you know... also the X sorta helps with the whole working together thing."
"I'm not working for any team whose manifesto includes the words 'va-va-voom'," Monet said bluntly. "But I suppose as names go it's not too bad."
"Sounds fine to me," Teresa agreed.
"Whatever," Julio just shrugged. He didn't much care what the others called themselves now; he fully intended to find Domino and if that meant leaving the team that would not bother him in the slightest. His surliness did not faze anyone; in fact it was practically expected by now. Fury seemed satisfied at any rate.
"The other question is what to do with Layla Miller," he broached what he suspected would be an awkward subject. He was not surprised, although he was taken aback by just who was the first to react strongly.
"The petite can stay here with me," Remy said. "I mean us. I said I'd look out for her and this Cajun is a man of his word."
"We rescued her, we should probably be the ones who look out for her," Teresa disagreed. Monet just sniffed.
"I think we should just throw her back into the orphanage and let her look out for herself," the beautiful telepath said dismissively. Xavier stepped in to conclude matters.
"This Institute was built to help mutants who need it," he said. "It is probably the best place for her, at least until she's older."
"I agree with the Professor," Fury interjected. "Besides, if you're all going to be working together anyway I'm sure you'll see her soon enough."
"Fine," Monet butted in before her team-mates could argue the point.
"We'll meet again, lots of times," Layla told a complicated-looking device of some kind. They realised that the comment was actually addressed to them. Fury was amused by the confidence in the young girl's voice.
"You seem pretty sure," he observed. Layla simply smiled.
"I'm Layla Miller," she said. "I know stuff."
Xavier was glad the situation had calmed itself down and his innate diplomatic skills rose to the occasion. "If we are to agree to some of the finer details, can I suggest we do it elsewhere? I'm sure Dr McCoy would find it easier if he was alone with Jamie."
The others couldn't argue with that point and traipsed out. Rahne hesitated at the doorway.
"I don't think I will be able to do much," she said nervously. "I think I will... I mean... I should... probably stay here instead."
Xavier smiled at her gently. "I quite understand," he assured. "I'm sure your presence here would be of great comfort." He left the statement deliberately vague and wheeled after the others. Rahne made her way over to where Jamie was lying on a bed unmoving. She pulled up a chair and sat beside Jamie's bed, taking one cold hand in her own. Hank suddenly found some very pressing matters to attend to elsewhere and hurried into his little office area. Rahne did not appreciate his gesture, but only because she did not notice as she was gazing sorrowfully at the boy who had so suddenly touched her in ways she could not understand... and now she might not ever comprehend.
"Come back to me soon," she whispered. "Please, come back to me."
Elsewhere, Bayville
Agent Valerie Cooper made her way through the streets of Bayville, walking casually and apparently unworried, making sure no-one's suspicions would be raised by her suspicious behaviour. As she approached a hotel, she ducked out of sight into a dark alley. The woman who emerged in her place could not be further from the sleek, professional-looking agent; this woman was timid and shabby-looking. Mallory Brickman made her way into the hotel and approached the desk. The receptionist raised an impeccable eyebrow at her dishevelled appearance but as long as she paid the money, she was as entitled to stay there as anyone. Brickman picked up the keys and made her way to the elevator.
Moments later, she sat in a near-empty room, deprived of all but the most basic comforts. She sat on the plain bed with a sleek, high-tech phone pressed to one ear. As she waited for the connection, her mousy brown hair shortened and a red tinge spread from her scalp. Her skin similarly changed colour, becoming a dark blue. Her face rearranged itself too, cheekbones and jaw restructuring as her eyes changed from a warm brown to yellow, leonine slits. Within seconds, Mallory Brickman had vanished and in her place sat Raven Darkholme, known and feared as one of the world's best assassins and spies under her codename of Mystique. The phone was answered by a gravelly, clearly distorted voice.
"What news, Blue Knight?" it demanded.
"Martin Li is dead," Mystique said. "His organisation is even now being restructured and reassigned to more reliable and trustworthy allies."
"And the girl Miller?"
"Unfortunately my cover was blown before she could be retrieved, Black King," Mystique admitted. "But her rescuers are on the verge of breaking. Richter is still a wanted fugitive and mistrusted by the others, Maddox is believed dead and the Cassidy girl too distraught by his death to be of any threat."
"Your main target was Miller, Blue Knight," the distorted voice said reproachfully. "Only your success with the secondary aims will stay my hand this time."
"Rest assured her retrieval is still available," Mystique insisted. "I know of her current location, the Xavier Institute. With sufficient planning I can still get her back from there."
"And sufficient funding, no doubt," the Black King said with dark humour. Mystique very sensibly said nothing to that. Her employers had more money than any other organisation on the planet, including governments, but their patience was not as endless. She had proven her worth repeatedly and did not particularly fear their reprisal but took the warning as intended.
"She will be retrieved, Black King," Mystique reiterated.
"Of course she will," the voice said. "No-one can resist the Hellfire Club."
A/N: And that just about wraps things up. Well not entirely of course but I can't resist the odd sequel hook or two. James/Jamie will be explained and more about Hellfire and it's nefarious schemes will come to light eventually. On which note I know there are black or white circles, but not a blue one, but Mystique is blue, so artistic license wins out. I hope everyone enjoyed reading, if you did let me know please, if you didn't you can go and- erm, let me know. I'm always open to constructive criticism... Exit Author, pursued by bear.