Chapter 36

A large private yacht sailing serenely through the Caribbean at night. On the deck a party is being held.

Most of the party-goers were students of the Academy of Tomorrow along with some of the teaching staff.

Emma's a wonderful employer. You have to credit her.

Ok and maybe it was her trying to appear a little softer for Scott's benefit. Who knows? No-one but her she can assure you.

Mostly everyone was here. Even Ali had taken a break from her touring to enjoy some sun, surf and excessive amounts of alcohol. Like she would turn down the offer of unlimited free drink. Yeah, this is her falling back off the wagon after Emma's attempt to get her to quit. Like she gives a fuck.

Those here include 5 identical 14 year old girls who as they age seem to more and more resemble Emma herself. Emma had been meaning to check into that. The Cuckoos are her best students, though for tonight they are just acting like five 14 year old girls and partying.

They are joined by Monet's younger twin sisters Nicole and Claudette who are the same age. After what had happened to their sister they had been...well upset is a word you could use but remember despite their young ages they are St Croixes and they never show such emotion. St Croixes also carry on and survive which they have been doing. Studying, training with their powers, so next time their brother finds some way out of the hell they sent him to they'll be ready for him.

It means they haven't been home this summer. In their case it is not so much their parents don't want them but more Emma has been trying to cover up what really happened to Monet so sending them home is something she is trying to avoid as long as possible. The St Croixes are powerful, influential people who Emma would like to avoid adding to her enemy list if at all possible.

Emma had put King Bedlam in charge of making sure no-one got too carried away. Sure there were no people here that they had to be worried about but it would be no good if someone got careless with their powers and sank the boat.

Emma had delegated because she wanted to focus on something...on someone else.

Slightly away from the party, on the port side, Emma and Scott stood alone, side by side. Scott in a hideous Hawaiian shirt his brother got him and shorts. Emma in a revealing, in her classical white colour, two-piece swimsuit with a sarong wrapped around her waist. So far she would say this cruise was going well in trying to worm her way in deeper to Scott's affections.

"It's different isn't it," Emma remarks to him.

"Hmm?" Scott queries.

"How peaceful it is out here from what we face back home," she clarifies.

"Yeah," Scott agrees. "No-one calling us names, receiving nasty looks, attacking us," he lists the things he is not missing.

Emma sniggers slightly. "Yes, how did you manage to stir all that up in a very few short weeks I was away, hmm?" she asks Scott, referring back to the mayhem only the other week in Bayville, her lips quirked in amusement, trying to make light of it.

"Wasn't quite our fault," Scott defends himself and the X-Men. "Apocalypse isn't helping."

Emma's mood does take on more serious tones. Yes, the Hellfire Club was very concerned over that because for once in their lives they had no control, no influence, no idea what the ancient mutant is planning. They don't like it very much when that sort of things happens. Basically they're control freaks.

Emma places her hand over where Scott is resting his on the guardrail. "Lets us try and forget the world's troubles shall we, if only for a moment," she proposes.

Scott turns his head and finds his face very, very close to Emma's own. You can't miss how incredibly beautiful and tempting she is, especially when you're this close to her. Even her scent is intoxicating.

"I'm glad you accepted my invite," she says, her voice husky and oh so sexy.

"Y-you're welcome," Scott stutters his reply rather breathless now.

"It gives us a chance to spend some time together, alone like right now," Emma says, her tongue peeking out from between her lips and moistening them.

Very, very tempting lips.

Irresistible lips as Scott's own lips move of their own accord towards hers...

Until a couple of people giggling interrupts and Scott snaps back.

Emma frowns in annoyance. So close.

Both turn their heads to find the giggling couple of Alex and Jen walking towards them.

Alex had taken the offer of an invite from his girlfriend Roulette to spend a couple of weeks together.

"Oh sorry, bro," Alex says with a smirk.

"Oh, yes, very sorry," Jen says with the same smirk that shows they're not really sorry at all.

The two share a look and guffaw.

Emma rolls her eyes. Maybe inviting other people along wasn't her best idea but it was the only way she could think of to get Scott to agree to come. Oh well, the cruise has several days to run yet. Plenty of time to get Scott exactly where she wants him.

Tied to her bed at her mercy comes to mind.

Back at the party amongst the party-goers a certain Tabitha Smith is partying like no-one's business, currently demonstrating how low she can go in a limbo competition. True her main aim in agreeing to the invite was trying to reconnect with Mara but hey, she can enjoy herself while she's at it.

Tabby pauses. Come to mention it where is Mara?

Tabby looks around and frowns when she doesn't spot her.

Now where has that girl gotten to?

Amara is at the bow, away from the party which is at the stern. Her hand is over her stomach...her extremely queasy stomach. She's never been on a boat before. She's kinda wishing right now she had kept to that. She closes her eyes and tries not to think about anything that would cause her further upset.

"Do princesses get seasick?"

Amara's eyes snap open and there, in front of her, standing perfectly balanced on the guardrail is her God(aka Superman), his arms folded across his chest, one eyebrow arched inquisitively. "W-what are you doing here?" she asks in hushed tones.

"I was in the neighbourhood," Superman replies lightly.

Amara gives him a sceptical gaze. "No, really," she wants the truth.

"Yes, really," Superman insists.

"Why would you be in the neighbourhood?" Amara asks the pertinent question.

"Research sub sent a distress call and I thought I could help find it," Superman explains why he is here.

"Have you?"

Superman frowns. "No," he must admit, sounding annoyed at himself at his failure thus far. "The oceans are a big place and it's not where its original signal came from. I've been searching a grid pattern outward when I spotted you...and are you ok?" he asks. "You look...kinda green," he would describe Amara's colour as.

"I've never been on a boat before," she explains. "I don't think my body has adjusted yet. I'm fine though," she insists.

"Ok," Superman accepts her answer but he's still worried about her. He chooses this a moment to try and catch up with the friend he hasn't seen in several weeks. "So how are you beyond that? Life at the Academy good? Still seeing that boyfriend of yours? Is he treating you right and if he's not did you tell him about the big scary God who will break every bone in his body?"

Amara blinks. That was a lot of questions spoken rapidly. "Yes. I'm fine. The Academy's not as bad as you probably think. In fact it's pretty good. Very professional. I'm getting a good education and training with my powers. Emma's not pure evil or anything like what you may think and everything with Manuel is great and no, I didn't mention the big scary overprotective God of mine," she teases him with a smirk.

Clark rolls his eyes. She knows damn well he hates that whole thing where he's seen as a God by her and her people and yet she just can't help rubbing it in. Ok, so he probably shouldn't have joked with the concept first, he will probably concede in hindsight. That just gave her an opening to exploit. So far Clark hasn't been able to figure out a way to get the Nova Romans to see that he wasn't actually a God. It's on his 'To Do' list. "And where is this boyfriend of yours? Shouldn't he be here looking after you if you're ill?" he thinks.

"Manuel's home in Spain visiting his parents," she answers.

Course the real reason Empath is not here is that Scott would recognise him and probably figure out...or at least suspect the fact he's been manipulating Amara's emotion with his powers and continues to do so. Emma wasn't going to take that risk.

"So how are things in Bayville?" Amara wonders.

"Calmer than last week...which is not hard," Clark reflects back. "Apart from that it's just the usual...oh," he snaps his fingers as he recalls something, "the Professor got a call from his ex-wife this morning."

Amara blinks. "The Professor was married?!" she queries in surprise, her eyebrows rising in reflection of that. She did not know that!

"Once, briefly, long ago. Gabrielle Haller is her name. Called out of the blue for some reason the Professor wouldn't say. Has to be something mutant related I'm guessing since he took Betsy with him and was going to pick up Mr Cassidy, Terry and Rahne from Muir Island...and James too since he's there visiting his brother. They hadn't gotten back by the time I left to come out here so not sure what the situation currently is," Clark lays things down as they are.

"And, uh, you? How are you?" Amara asks tentatively. She flicks her dark hair back nervously. "Tabby said something about you almost dying?"

Clark waves that off with a snort and a wave of his hand. "Tabby's way off. I didn't almost die."

"Oh good," Amara says in relief because the thought of her God dying...yeah, don't go there.

Clark bursts that bubble. "I actually died. Met the Grim Reaper and everything."

Amara blinks...several times rapidly.

"Surprisingly nice woman," he reflects on her. He's reflected on her a lot. How can he not when she gave him the most incredible kiss he has ever received...but on the other hand she's a timely reminder not to dwell on one thing too long because she is proof manifest that everything ends eventually and therefore you have to make the most of every second. As for his issues with Jor-El...yeah, lets just say they're not talking very much right now. Clark can't even quite remember how their last conversation ended beyond him storming off utterly pissed at Jor-El's continuous evasiveness in giving straight answers to Clark's questions and he hasn't been back since.

Amara just has no idea what to say at all to that.

"Mara! There you are!" Tabby announces herself in her usual large, bombastic manner as she walks up. "Big guy!" she acknowledges Superman.

"Sexy girl," Superman greets her back with a wink.

"Well that is completely true," Tabby says with a huge grin. She is a sexy girl.

"You ladies getting on I hope," he says in mock serious teacher-like tones.

Tabby wraps an arm around Amara and playfully bumps their hips together. "Hey, just because we had a small disagreement over her choice to leave doesn't mean I don't still consider her 'My Girl!'."

"That's good."

"So coming to join the party?" Tabby makes the offer to Clark.

"Love to but people in danger, have to save them, you know the drill," Superman declines her offer.

"You work way too hard," Tabby jokily criticises him.

"Have to compensate for Kitty's slacking," Superman jokes back.

"Say what?" Tabby asks, confused by that remark.

"Well she's back from her parents and her and Peter are, ahem, 'catching up'," Superman phrases it, making air-quotes.

"Oh, 'catching up'," Tabby makes the same air-quotes. "I've with ya," she says with a salacious grin. Just wait till she gets a hold of Kitty and starts the interrogation.

"And you know, any excuse, not to get sucked into the Mystique/Rogue/Alicia/Domino/Kurt/Logan/Storm family drama," he adds...and that's not even close to the full list of members of that family.

"That one I would give you," Tabby agrees because it just is plain crazy and wearing to have to deal with all that.

"Huh?" Amara asks. "What's that about Mystique?" she inquires, not knowing anything about what has been going on with the currently former shapeshifter.

"Never got around to telling her about that, huh, Tabby?" Superman says with a smirk.

Tabby rolls her eyes. "It's too long a story," she whines. "And I'm on my vacation."

Superman holds his hands up and waves them a little. "Hey, it's your business," he tries to show he's not criticising. "I should really be going," he knows he's spent enough time here. He gives Tabby and Amara a little two-finger salute before diving backwards and disappearing beneath the waves.

Remember he's looking for a sunken submarine.

Amara looks at Tabby.

"What?" Tabby asks innocently.

"You never told me he died!" Amara virtually screams, hitting Tabby hard on her exposed arm.

"Ow! Hey! Watch it! You'll leave a bruise!" Tabby complains as she rubs her arm. "And he's not dead! You just saw him!"

"He said he died!"

"I know what he says...and look I don't know the whole facts, ok. I wasn't there but whatever happened has done him a world of good."

"In what way?"

Tabby shrugs. "Just his mood swings seemed to have stopped. He's been much more like...well himself since it happened."

Amara points her finger into Tabby's face. "If we're still friends, you will tell me everything," she demands.

"Ok fine," Tabby relents with a sigh.

Clark wasn't lying. Even for him the darkness at the bottom of the oceans is a big space to search for one small research submarine.

Well actually it's kinda a big submarine. It was suppose to be like a submersible lab that could perform experiments down in the oceans for days and weeks at a time.

Needing to pop back up for a breath Clark zips upward and breaks through the water surface, hovering a few feet above the waves. Even he can only hold his breath for so long.

He takes a moment to rethink his options on how he is doing this. He knows it may seem a bit out of the way for him to come all this way but heck, if he isn't going to rescue people in trouble, wherever they may be, who is?

Right rest period over. Back down he goes.

Down he plunges and then zips along, using his supervision to scan for that damn sub.

Ooh now what is that in the distance?

Could it be...?

Clark gets close enough to read the large lettering on the side of the sub.

A.I.M.

Advanced Ideas Mechanics.

It's this big Research and Development firm, a think-tank, that sort of area...and it was their sub and this seems to be it.

And Clark, sadly, can see that he's far too late to save anyone. Using his x-ray vision he can see the whole sub is flooded and the people within drowned...wait a mo.

There's an area of the sub he can't see into. Lead lined.

He doesn't hear anything but he should double check he supposes.

Clark swims to the nearest hatch and moves inside the flooded, sunken vessel. This was not how he imagined he would be spending his day at all. Moving past floating dead bodies of the crew. He reaches the lead lined area, bangs on the door and waits to see if anyone replies by banging back.

He knows it's a forlorn hope. At this close range he would pick up the heartbeats if anyone was alive.

There are none.

Well he came all this way, may as well have a look.

He grabs the locking wheel and gives it a short, sharp turn. No bubbles of air. It must be flooded too.

Clark pulls the door open and steps within.

If he was anyone else it would be pitch black. Clark's eyes work even then and what he steps into is clearly a lab with a device in the centre and bodies floating around.

Bodies in what Clark can only describe as yellow bee-keeping outfits. Clearly protective suits even if the design is a bit strange. What were they doing down here that they needed protective suits like this? That's a question.

Clark rolls one over and sees the body within through the clear window in the hood...and makes a face of repulsion.

The person within is disfigured...mutated horribly. As he examines the others in the lab they are all afflicted in such a way. The ones outside the lab weren't like this.

His only clue to what happened would be the complex looking device standing in the centre of the room.

Clark has one main question right now.

Just what the hell happened?!

A couple of days later and Amara is much, much worse. In fact in Tabby's opinion she fears her friend could possibly be dying. She basically looks like death warmed up.

A fact she is vigorously and forcefully trying to make to Emma and she almost drags the White Queen to Amara's quarters to get her to see the truth.

Truthfully Emma is not in the mood to indulge the blond girl. Over breakfast this morning a few of the students took an opportunity to mock her and Scott in a way she did not appreciate. She must remember to get the Five-in-One to give those lot horrible nightmares tonight.

The only reason she is allowing herself to be essentially dragged is that she can sense the very real worry Tabby has for Amara...and when Emma steps inside the room she can see why.

Amara is lying on the bottom of the bunk she is sharing with Tabby looking like hell, groaning in discomfort.

Emma moves to sit beside her, placing her hand on the girl's forehead and feeling her temperature. Good Lord, she's like ice. "I'll get the ship's doctor," she declares.

"I don't think that's going to cut it," Tabby objects. "Amara herself was saying she needs to be on land. I think it's her powers. She's connected to the Earth or something and she's been on this boat too long."

Emma frowns. Despite the fact Amara is her student she wasn't aware of that. She's not sure that makes sense in regards to what appears to be Amara's pyrokinetic powers...which means even Amara herself doesn't know what she truly is. To be so elementally connected to the Earth that she literally can't be separated from it for prolonged periods she'd have to be...

...can't be.

Emma will think on it later. She does need to help the child first. "Shh, Amara. It'll be ok," she promises, sending soothing thoughts into the girl's mind to ease her pain. "I'll get you to land," she vows and rises back to her feet. "I'll be back. Watch her," she instructs Tabby before striding out.

"Yes, your majesty," Tabby mocks. Like she needs to be told that.

Emma quickly makes her way to the bridge to talk to the Captain. "We need to make a stop. Where's the nearest piece of land?" she asks.

"I was actually going to talk to you about that," the Captain responds. "There's a storm coming. A big one. We need to anchor and wait it out," he informs her.

Happy coincidence. "Where?"

The Captain points at a map rolled out on the wall. "The Island of San Sebastian. It has a sheltered bay we can anchor in and is only an hour out."

"Set a course. Best speed," Emma orders.

"Yes, my Queen," the Captain replies with a bow of respect for the White Queen of the Hellfire Club.

At the Institute...

With the Professor away across the Atlantic, Storm was in charge of things around the mansion. How on Earth Charles copes she will never know. Just dealing with Mystique alone feels like it has aged her substantially.

But to be fair Mystique appeared to be behaving...though that could be due to the fact she was still healing from being shot.

The macerations of this entire family was migraine inducing. Alicia was still in a huffy, foul mood. They really need to find that girl some new focus. Perhaps Ororo can talk to Mystique about getting Alicia to join the New Mutants...or joining in the training sessions at the very least. Something for the girl to do since she didn't seem very inclined about going back to school. Frustratingly a notion Mystique supported for the expected reasons, i.e. distrust of humans.

The one bright spot; Rogue.

And who'd had thought that even a few weeks ago. Rogue was knuckling down to getting ready to take her exams so she could get back to school. She had even talked about rejoining one of the Institute's teams.

Per policy she would have to start again at the bottom with the New Mutants. She seemed to be ready to accept even that.

However that wasn't Ororo's main concern at the moment. Domino and/or Logan could handle that for now. She was more concerned with what Clark discovered a couple of days ago with that research sub.

He, Hank and Forge had been doing an investigation into what events had transpired on board. The fact they called her down to the lab in the lower levels must mean they have something to report.

She strides in to find the 3 conversing deeply. She clears her throat. "You called?"

Hank raises his head. "Yes, Ororo. We have an initial summary to report on the AIM submarine."

"Please," she asks them to continue.

Hank looks to Clark who brings up data and images on a large projection on the wall. "The device I found in the submarine," he begins. "Filtering through the data on the hard-drives I brought back and Forge's analysis of the schematics and device itself, combined with the autopsies Beast performed on several of the poor crew we've come to an idea what it is."

"Which is?" Ororo asks.

"Put simply it's a Gene Bomb," Clark gives it the name he, Forge and Beast came up with after much debate.

Ororo blinks. "A what?" she seeks a definition on what that is.

Forge takes up the explanation. "It emits a form of mutagenic radiation that can be be set to target specific unique genetic codes...or at least that's the theory."

"For what purpose?"

"To kill the people containing those codes," Beast answer gravely. "From my autopsies performed on several bodies Clark brought back it seems to induce mutation so severe and rapid the body simply cannot cope and expires under the stress."

"Targeting mutants?" Ororo queries.

"It can be set to the x-gene we believe," Beast answers. "But it can target, in theory, any racial or ethnic group."

"Genocide," Ororo lays it down the purpose of this device.

"Imagine if you ship it to the Middle East," Clark lays down an example of one of the world's most unstable regions. "The terrorists would have a field day."

Ororo shakes her head. It never ceases to amaze/horrify the level to which some people will stoop. "But why would a legitimate organisation like AIM be developing such a weapon?" she asks. It didn't make sense from everything she knew about them.

"They're not so legitimate?" Clark proposes as a possibility. He hasn't had the time to investigate that further as of yet.

"And this situation? An accident?" Ororo queries what happened to the sub.

"Most likely," Beast concedes that is what happened. "The device misfired and activated on board the sub without it being set properly killing all those contained within the lab on board. The lead lining Clark mentioned most likely contained the mutagenic field to the lab."

"But how did it sink and become flooded then?" Ororo wonders.

Clark rubs the back of his neck in his awkward gesture. "As unpleasant a task as it was I counted every body on that ship and came to 54."

"So?" Ororo asks, not seeing the relevance.

"They were 55 crew when it left dock," Clark explains the significance. "One is missing."

Ororo looks between the 3 sharing looks. "You have a theory?" she guesses from their expressions.

"The lab was flooded yet when I got there it was also locked. The only explanation is that someone opened the door and locked it behind them," Clark gives the only logical deduction there is. "Plus there is how the sub sank. There were no breaches in the hull. To put it simply someone opened the valves and let the water in."

"How could anyone survive that?" Ororo asks.

"It is possible," Beast begins, adjusting his little round glasses, "that through sheer chance someone survived the mutational event of the device. Said person would obviously be very disorientated at being changed so rapidly to say the least. That doesn't even take into account how their mind might have been altered."

"Could they still be alive?" Ororo wonders.

"Impossible to say," Beast cannot give a definite answer.

"What's the nearest land?"

"The Island of San Sebastian," Clark answers. "But that's a two day swim," he points out.

"We should at least check it out," Ororo decides. "Clark?" she ask him.

"I can scan the island. Only take me a few minutes," Clark agrees with no argument or dissent.

Storm must say it's nice to see this side of Clark again. "Very well. You'll keep in touch?"

"Of course," Clark agrees.

Island of San Sebastian...

It's a fairly typical Caribbean island. Mostly inhabited by the descendants of the African slaves brought to work the sugar cane fields. There is the inevitable development to deal with tourists who come every year to enjoy the pristine sands, the lush foliage or hike up its volcano which dominates over everything.

Away from the beaches, on the less developed side of the island a couple of young American men are planning on doing that very thing. Hike up the volcano.

They're just taking a moment to check their rucksacks for everything they need before making the assault.

It's then they hear plants being rustled, the sound of someone walking through the dense foliage. They assume it's just someone else planning to do what they are. If whoever it is good company perhaps they'll go up together.

When the person emerges it is a dishevelled looking man with dirty hair and a couple days growth of stubble on his chin. He's in some sort of overalls with a name tag on the left hand side of his chest.

A. Michaels.

"Hey man, you ok?" one of them asks.

The man waves them off. "Leave me alone. I have to find them. I have to find them," he says, not making any sense, a wild look in his eyes.

"He's out of it," the other guy whispers to his friend who nods in agreement. He must be drunk or high or something by the look of him.

"We better get him to the town. Get him a hospital before he hurts himself," the 1st guy thinks, being the conscientious one.

The other one reluctantly agrees. He guesses they'll just have to put off their hike until tomorrow now.

Both of them close in on the man.

"How about we head into town?" the 1st one proposes.

"Yeah, maybe whoever it is you're looking for is there," the other one says as both try and lay a hand on the man.

He doesn't take it well and spins round, fury in his eyes...his eyes that seem to be glowing purple. "I said...LEAVE ME ALONE!" he roars...and when he roars an enormous blast of purple atomic energy is emitted from his mouth which vaporises the flesh of the upper half the two guys down to the bone which even that becomes scorched black.

The dead corpses fall to the ground.

The man looks at them for a second before wandering off back into the jungle, still muttering about finding them...whoever them is.

Author's Note: If you were expecting a version of the Legion intro episode Sins of the Son at some point then you're going to be disappointed. It's just going to run in the background of this arc as it basically did on the show because I saw no particular reason to fundamentally change it. Hmm, now why would the Cuckoos resemble Emma? Can't imagine...and for right now neither can Emma. Though she can imagine the many naughty things she would like to do to Scott. Of course the thing about this episode is it focusses on the true nature of Amara's powers. And if you're asking what did Jor-El do to Clark this time after the last chapter, you'll have to wait and see for that one. Hey, look, AIM! Who, in this story right now, appear to be a legitimate company but as you can probably guess that's only a front for the real organisation behind the scenes. And if you know Superman's Rogues Gallery I'm sure you can guess who it is I'm introducing here at the end. If not, answers soon. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Cruise Control part 2.