Flasback/Dreams

'Thoughts'

"Speaking over the phone"

"Speaking"


Chapter 28: Who Can You Count On?

"So, are you nervous? 'Cause I'm totally okay with leaving if you are." Blair said as she sat on the hospital bed Serenity, but she never asked how the girl was able to pay for her eye operation.

And if Blair knew beforehand that Serenity even needed an operation she would have been willing to help out, because she took care of her friends. Well, what little friends she had anyway.

Serenity circled the bed sheet under her as she shook her head. "Of course I'm nervous, and of course I don't want you to leave. Not until they kick you out anyway." She said smirking, but it faded the next moment. "Uh, no one else is here, right? Because aside from…" she trailed off as she was about to mention telling the adults at the Institute, she remembered that Blair didn't know she was a mutant. "Just…no one's here right, since I didn't tell anyone but you."

Well, that was a lie, but she couldn't correct herself just yet. Not until she was certain Blair wouldn't freak out on her at least.

The dark-haired girl blinked. "Um, no. But why didn't you tell your mom you were having this operation anyway?"

"We had a fight." Serenity said softly. "I told her that I hated her after we tried to talk."

The other girl stared at her, before she chuckled bitterly. "Well isn't this just a cruel irony, I told my dad I hated him too after trying to talk to him." she replied and paused. "Wait, if you're mom doesn't know about this, then who authorized this procedure for you?"

Serenity bit her lip and clutched the sheet in her fist. This was the moment she'd been waiting for. It was time to see if Blair was willing to still be friends with her despite who she was related too. "My father did, my…my real father."

"You mean you're divorced dad isn't your dad?" Blair questioned and Serenity shook her head and she gaped. "Well this just keeps on getting better and better doesn't it?" she asked and the auburn-haired girl looked at her strangely. "My mom isn't my actual mom, she's my aunt."

"No way." Serenity whispered. "But then who…?"

"My father is…" Blair grimaced, her expression that of someone swallowing a lemon, "…is Tony Stark."

Serenity's eyes widened, but then she looked thoughtful. "It…would explain why you didn't like going to his company." She said. "How do you he's your dad though?"

"I'm assuming that my mother got a DNA test done somehow, cause it's not like his DNA's particularly hard to get." Blair deadpanned, though Serenity grimaced. "But…I just hope you don't hate me with what I'm about to say next. My mother is Madame Masque."

"You mean the supervillain?" Serenity inquired and Blair nodded grimly. The redhead blinked, awestruck by the trust her friend had in her, and by the coincidence that she actually had more in common with her friend than she ever thought. "Well," she said shyly, "you're not the only one with a supervillain parent as it turns out."

"What do you mean?" Blair raised a brow, but comprehension crossed her face when she thought about it. "The bandage on arm is because of a blood test too isn't it?" she gasped and looked around quickly. "You mean you're dad is really-"

"Yes." Serenity interrupted quietly.

"So he's the one paying for this operation then?" Blair questioned and her friend nodded. "Because you wanted this or he's making you get it?" she persisted as a protective edge crept into her voice.

"Sort of both really." Serenity shrugged. "We got talking after you left, and I was so terrified I just sort of babbled and it came out. Really, with how much I was talking I was surprised he even caught that." She bit her lip again. "Uh, you're on good terms with your mother right, like it is possible to have some sort connection?"

"I am; it's my dad I have issues with." Blair replied.

"Well it's my mom that I take issues with." Serenity said. "I don't want to hate her, but she's kept so much from me. My father not being father, that fact I was born to get back at my dad for cheating on her-"

"Wait a sec, does that mean your brother's not your brother?" Blair paused. "You're blood brother I mean?"

"He's not." Serenity replied dejectedly. "Over all the fighting and yelling, he was the one good thing I had growing up before my parents divorced. My mom told me Joey was born because my step-father cheated on her first."

"And I thought my family was messed up." Blair said darkly. There was an awkward paused before she cleared her throat uncomfortably. "Uh, how is this operation supposed to go anyway?"

"Well, they told me that this was a tricky thing and there was only a fifty-fifty chance of success that it would fix my eyesight, but you can imagine how they were convinced to make it 100 percent?" Serenity explained and Blair nodded. "I'll be staying in here for most of December, so I might actually miss out on Christmas holidays, but so long as the first thing I see when I take off these bandages is my Joey, I won't mind."

Blair bit her tongue to keep from saying anything. She had contemplated telling Serenity that her brother had been kidnapped apparently, but why worry her? In fact, if she told her friend now, it could end very badly. But if she held it off, there was a chance that Joey would be rescued and there would be no need to make Serenity have worried.

Before she could come to a decision, there was a knock at the door and Blair looked over at the newcomer, an older boy with short blue hair (an obvious dye job was her first thought upon seeing it) and green eyes wearing one of the candy stripers uniforms, with several stripes already on it. "Yes?"

"Sorry to interrupt," The cute boy said in a southern accent and he really did look sorry, "but the doctors said their ready to proceed, and that you'll have to leave now miss."

"Thank you, uh," Blair squinted at the nametag on the uniform, "Jesse."

The teen smiled at her. "You're welcome miss." He said before ducking out of the room.

Blair looked over at Serenity and hugged the girl. "I'll be back tomorrow, if you're up by then, promise."

Serenity hugged Blair back. "'Kay, and thanks for being so understanding."

The dark-haired girl smiled bitterly. "Hey, if we can't count on each other then who can we count on?" she questioned before sliding off the bed and made her way to the door.


"I can't believe Andrea did that to you." Yugi said staring at the red welt marring Téa's face and on her wrist. The brunette had missed school to make sure that there was nothing else wrong.

The girl gritted her teeth. "Doctor said Alexis and I were lucky, considering the damage Andrea could have inflicted on us."

"What made her so crazy anyway?" Tristan questioned.

Téa stared at them both grimly. "She was talking about how Joey was hers and she planned on killing us because she thought we both liked him."

"That's crazy itself," Tristan said snorting, "Joey can barely stand you."

"That's what I-" Téa said and paused before her face scrunched up indignantly. "Hey!"

Yugi kept the conversation on what was really important at the moment. "She sounds very unstable now, if she tried to even kill you for just being his friend. What was she going to do to Alexis?"

"I thought she was going to burn her face off." Téa said shuddering because while she certainly didn't like the blonde, she stood by what she said about no one deserving that. "And that's because she actually does like Joey, but he's-thankfully-too dense to realize it."

"Wait, if Andrea ever finds him that blindness might not be such a good thing." Yugi pointed out. "She could seriously hurt him if he didn't want anything to do with her, and she'd be able to get close enough to him because he still thinks she's his friend. And none of us even know where Joey is now."

Tristan shook his head, and spotted the T.V over by the desk and figured seeing what was on would be able to get rid of the atmosphere of dread. "Uh, let's see what's on." He said and pressed the button, only to be greeted by the sight of a news anchor. "Dude, you watch the news, why would you want to watch this?"

Téa scowled at him. "It's to keep me up to date on things." She said crossing her arms.

"….we have breaking news, viable evidence of the identities of the Avengers brought to you by an unknown source." The newscaster said before several pictures showed up.

If any of the three were drinking right now they'd have spit it out in surprise. "Holy cow, isn't that Joey's dad!?" Téa shouted incredulously as a picture of Clint appeared on the screen.

"You think Joey knew his dad's a superhero?" Yugi questioned aloud, his eyes still wide with disbelief.

Tristan blinked and chuckled wryly. "Well if he didn't he's certainly gonna know now."


"Holy crap!"

"Watch your language!" Claire admonished sternly, but couldn't keep her own surprise out of her voice.

"Sorry." Blair said absently as she sat beside her aunt, staring apologetically down at the carpet where she had spit out her drink when the news came on. "You know; if I had known that this was going to happen I'm actually kind of glad dad didn't tell anyone about me."

"So you no longer hate him then?" Claire questioned.

Blair glanced over at her. "I didn't say that, just that I'm glad he didn't tell anyone if the media frenzy that's going to happen is any indication."

"Care-Blair, he's still your father." Claire insisted.

The dark-haired girl stared at her adoptive mom for a moment before sighing. "I told him I hated him yesterday, and he's not going to want to see me right now with what's going on."

That and she was pretty sure that they were going to be busy trying to find Joey if how angry Clint looked was any indication.


"Well, this is certainly an interesting development."

Clint looked up darkly from the map he was looking at to the blonde woman in the doorway. "How did you get in here? I thought there was a media circus outside the gates?"

"Persuasion." Frost said smoothly. "Now where is Joseph, it is time for our lesson."

Clint narrowed his eyes and his unpleasant thoughts made Frost 'tsk tsk' mockingly. "No, he's not here, he got kidnapped." He said and didn't bother blocking his thoughts about who and why. Well, the why being only speculation on his part, but it was very strong speculation.

"Aw, it would explain why he seemed to keep showing up, but it would appear as though your memory has also been modified." Frost replied.

"What?" Clint questioned suddenly and remembered Joey asking him panicky over the phone if he was alright and how he couldn't answer because he didn't know what he was supposed to remember, and then when he was talking with Murdock he couldn't seem to remember. "Can you fix it like you did with Joey?"

"I could, but it would be much more damaging as your mind was not gently as modified as Joseph's was." Frost explained.

"I get the feeling I'm alive is only because Joey likes me." Clint muttered. "But now he's gone; so any ideas where he might be?"

Frost raised a brow, but with her previous associations before becoming an X-Woman she should not have been surprised he'd ask this. The blonde looked down at the map before pointing at a spot and tapping it. "You could try here; it's the safest bet anyway."

Clint stared at the spot Frost was pointing at and felt his lips thin. 'Of course she'd point to Latveria of all places.'


Joey realized something as he stared up at the ceiling, his powers were not working.

He really should have suspected that they weren't, but now that he was actively trying to use them, he found he was totally unable to use his Know-It-All ability to find a way to get out. The blond was stuck in a confinement of some kind without anyway to contact the outside world, and this was supposed to be a good thing.

Sure, he could see how some of his tendencies could be mistaken as suicidal, like foolishly fighting Sofen or trying to take on the Black Widow, and the only reason he beat them both times was because of pure luck. Well, with Widow it was because of luck, he only beat Sofen by letting her indulge in her pedophilic tendencies.

If she was always like that, he suddenly grew a lot more sympathetic to her previous victims that she made crazy.