I suck, I know. Real life is a bitch.
However, here is a new shiny chapter, so forget that you're mad at me and read it and feel the love I send to you through the crazy writing!
New Glee tomorrow! YAY!
The chapter title is taken from "Stop in the Name of Love". :D I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Misfit Toy Hero Squad
Chapter 53 – "Stop in the Name of Schue"
Mentoring is a very difficult and often thankless task. 14 out of every 17 mentors often feel that they have made little to no difference in the lives that they touch. It's an understandable conclusion to jump towards when you're dealing with teenagers. Because it is basically an accepted theory in the scientific world that teenagers possess so many chemical imbalances that they literally take every suggestion thrown at them and do the exact opposite at every turn.
If a mentor is truly lucky, the best they can hope for is that they live long enough to witness their former mentee's undergoing the same torture that they once dished out by the bucketful.
"Eagle Eye to Mamma Bear. Come in Mamma Bear."
"Sam, you are not on Top Gun, please refrain from filling my head with such silliness," Rachel sighed out loud as she and Puck surveyed the view from the hotel room that the Gleek's had commandeered for the day.
The view they currently had was that of Monte Carlo. They were twelve stories up and their room overlooked a beautiful bay where the servants of the rich and bored were currently docking the expansive and opulent yachts. The sun glittered off of the water as it slowly sank into the horizon. They had all longingly looked out at the beautiful city they had teleported to earlier in the day but had no opportunity to play, as the mission they had accepted from General Kate Benson earlier in the week had monopolized all of their time.
"Puckerman, your spawn is sucking all the fun out of Rae-rae," Sam pouted.
"Report please, Sammy," Artie demanded as he helped Brittany with her scribblings that she had deemed important scenematics.
The most important thing that Brittany and Rachel had discovered was the wonderful and useful combinations that they could figure out, blending the powers of the other Gleeks in a variety of successful ways with each successive mission that they had been on. It helped that Rachel could conjure every one of the other powers, save for Mercedes' image control.
That was a sore spot for both Rachel and Mercedes at the moment. They understood that Rachel gained access to the other powers if she truly felt a connection or felt loved by the other Gleek's. She could do anything they could do just as well as they could and blend anything together easily. However no one really understood why Mercedes was the lone holdout except for Puck. Puck knew it all came down to Finn.
He wasn't worried about Rachel still having a thing for Finncredible Hulk. This was all Mercedes. Rachel wasn't the one holding up the process by refusing to acknowledge how much Mercedes loved her, because when it came down to it, Puck just knew that although Mercedes like Rachel a heck of a lot and respected her, that unconditional love that had been free flowing through the rest of the team was not there when Mercedes was concerned. He didn't have the brains Brittany and Rachel shared between them, but he also theorized that it was due to the fact that she had no shared genetics with the original powers. He didn't have that benefit either, but thankfully he was her reincarnated soulmate and the Puckerone all at the same time, so he didn't have to worry about connections. They were 1000% connected as far as he was concerned. But Mercedes wasn't. Not even close.
Which was why she was in the hotel room with Puck, Rachel, Brittany and Artie as the rest of the team was outside doing what they had to do to complete another of the their missions. She was currently projecting an image and sound of whatever the Gleeks out in the field were seeing, as Rachel beamed it directly to her.
Their mission? Three American teenage girls had been snatched while backpacking through Europe and were going to be sold that very night to the highest bidder at a human auction. This was probably one of the toughest missions they had been given thus far. Mostly it had been zipping into a location and zipping right back out with their human cargo.
General Benson hadn't had details or coordinates of the girls, just the knowledge that there would be a human auction in Monte Carlo that night, and that the CIA or FBI or whatever government agency that couldn't get the job done at the moment, had concluded that the girls would be at that auction.
"I don't like this," Puck whispered gruffly as Rachel leaned into him, placing her head against his chest. He instinctively wrapped his arms around her still perfect waist and pursed his lips, "I've got a bad feeling here, Sparky."
"I know, this is a lot more difficult than what we've previously dealt with, but we'll be okay," Rachel insisted softly. "We'll all be okay."
"I know. That tiny badass baby boy of mine makes you super powerful," Puck smirked arrogantly. It disappeared immediately and he shrugged, "Still nervous. I just hate being fucking nervous."
Artie shook at his place at the large oak meeting table in their room and Rachel closed her eyes as she intercepted his vision. Her eyes flew open in shock as Brittany quickly translated Artie's soothsaying. The blonde pushed Artie's chair towards Mercedes and called out an anxious order,
"Sam DOWN!"
Rachel stayed silent as she gripped Puck's hand and made her way to Mercedes as well. They connected hands and the quintet blipped from the hotel room just in time. Their feet were on solid, physical plane of existence ground again just as Sam touched in the sand under the dock landing that the other Gleek's were waiting under in anticipation of the start of their plan.
"What the hell, Sparkplug?" Santana furrowed her brow in confusion. "The plan was you keep your hot ass safe in the hotel room!"
Rachel shook her head and gripped Mercedes' hand tighter conveying the live feed of their hotel for the rest of the Gleek's. They watched with annoyed curiosity at first at their kick ass hotel. Their expressions quickly changed into horrified surprise as a flash of purple light swooped in a graceful arch towards the hotel, aiming directly at the twelfth floor and encasing what they correctly assumed was their former room. Former room because the moment it became encased in the purple light it melted. Concrete, steel and wood simply oozed down to a viscous puddle, leaving a gaping hole in the façade of the building.
"Holy shit," Blaine breathed. "What the fuck was that? That wasn't…Britt? Can machines do that?"
"No, I haven't invented anything like that ever and no one is smarter than me," Brittany carefully concluded.
"So if it wasn't a weapon that's a machine…"Kurt said slowly.
"There are other powers," Rachel concluded easily, taking a look to Brittany for confirmation. She could only nod.
"That sucks, I thought I was totally part of a baker's dozen special," Santana grumbled. "What's God thinking just handing these things out willy nilly?"
"We're going to need backup," Artie said carefully. He looked at Rachel and shrugged slowly and reluctantly reminded her, "You saw the vision, Rach. You must like, zip him here or something."
"I did," Rachel bit her lip, closing her eyes in annoyance. Before anyone could ask or dissuade her otherwise, she gripped Puck's hand and clued him in on her actions milliseconds before she enacted them.
A quick and intense burst of white light caused the other Gleek's to squeeze their eyes shut as wind whipped around them suddenly and violently. When they blinked their eyes open, they all looked between the new arrival, Artie and Rachel with perfectly identical masks of amazed incredulity.
William Schuester stood in front of them with a reluctant yet still defiant expression on his face. He glared openly at Rachel, who looked back at him with a careful, emotionless mask on her usually expressive face.
"I didn't sign up to be a whore for the government," Schue said evenly.
"Watch your tone, Schue," Puck practically growled, squeezing Rachel's hand as he felt his skin heat up. It was like the old soul that had walked the Earth with Schuester hundreds of years ago never wanted to stop punching the ex-choir director in the face.
"You'd think you'd be happy to be let out of your box," Quinn arched an appropriately annoyed eyebrow.
"You would think that you guys would be grown up enough to not get in over your heads for a couple of government perks," Schue shot back.
"Because you're so grown up," Sam laughed. "You signed up for the government when you were like, one hundred and four years old."
"Not exactly a spring chicken," Kurt scoffed.
"And we're not doing this for the perks," Tina argued.
"We're doing this for Artie," Mike said with a fair amount of pride. "The people we're helping don't deserve to be hurt and we're helping them."
"Only a fetishy sicko would want three perfectly nice girls being sold to some fetishy sicko," Santana shrugged. She smirked and leveled her best bitch face at her former teacher. "If the old man sweater vest fits, then wear it, Leatherface."
"Mr. Schuester," Rachel said evenly, and the rest of the Gleek's dropped their immediate plans to further verbally harass the original Immortal. Her tone meant business.
"Yes, Rachel?" Schue said with the practiced annoyed ease that he had thrown her way constantly since he had taken over the Glee club.
"Please don't make me force you," Rachel said with quiet strength.
Her tone alone made Santana, Blaine and Puck share a quick look that somehow managed to combine fear, lust and respect. Schue's annoyance slipped a bit as he stared back at Rachel appraisingly, his eyes drifted towards the smallest of baby bumps that was barely visible on her lower of abdomen. They all knew that with Rachel's current state there was no way he would be able to stave off her attempts at mind control.
For once, please do what is right, Mr. Schuester.
Her voice in his head was still alien to him. He had spent so much energy and time blocking the original Mind's voice out of his brain. To have that lilting comfort in his brain filled him with a warmth that he was beginning to both despise and look forward to. It filled something up inside that had been missing for nearly four centuries.
…He hated it.
"What am I supposed to do?" he asked gruffly.
"Take bullets, hopefully," Tina smirked evilly, hoping that her physical pain would lessen if her great grand ancestor had to feel the burn too.
"Do you know about the other powers?" Brittany demanded, unable to keep the harshness out of her tone as she stared at Mr. Schuester with open dislike.
"What?" Schue's brow furrowed as he looked at Brittany with familiar curiosity. He knew that the girl had inherited the powers of the Stone, but he had spent far too many moments having his brain fried from her words and statements in the past. He looked to Rachel and Puck for explanations and demanded, "What's she talking about?"
"We just saw something…someone, turn our hotel room into a pile of goo," Puck gruffly explained before his annoyance at Schuester's confused face made him rage inwardly to the point where no more words would leave his mouth.
"You've been around for like half a century, it stands to reason that you might know something about other people having powers besides us," Blaine continued Puck's thoughts effortlessly.
"Or you know, felt them up cause you're a pedo-whore," Santana mumbled while rolling her eyes.
"This is really not good, guys," Schue shook his head slowly.
"Did he always use to say stuff that was kinda obvious and annoying?" Finn whispered to Mercedes, who could only snicker under her breath.
"Incoming!" Sam said, looking to the sky.
"Got it!" Quinn threw up a shield for them as the purple light streaked through the sky towards them again. The bubble held but the effort she put forth was tremendous as the ground trembled beneath them. She looked back at Rachel in a panic, if another round came at them, she would need backup.
Rachel nodded at her and did one better. She gripped Puck's hand with a sudden ferocity as she squeezed her eyes shut. Schue looked at her in wonder, recognizing her intense concentration, not from the original Mind but from the one and only Rachel Berry. She looked as if she were taking one small moment before letting loose with a ridiculously strong, clear belting note. He found himself waiting for the glory note, and instead he saw the bright light that had brought him here and the gush of wind.
A young man looked absolutely shocked and astounded to see his surroundings change so suddenly. He brought his hands up for an offensive strike when suddenly he doubled over, clutching at his stomach as he wretched the contents of his stomach onto the sand at his feet. From what they could tell, he was around their age, Caucasian, with sandy hair that fell evenly around his head in a bowl cut fashion. His clothes were plain, simple blue jeans and a gray hooded sweatshirt.
"Disinpirating SUCKS!" Blaine laughed. "OW!"
Finn scowled at Blaine after he smacked his step-brother's boy friend against the back of his head with a portion of his strength.
"I'm going to have to read the books again, aren't I?" Blaine whispered to Kurt, who only nodded with an amused smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.
"Who are you?" Rachel demanded of the still vomiting boy. She wrinkled her nose in disgust as her stomach was still easily upset by certain smells. Now she knew the morning sickness would rear its ugly head with just sounds.
"Who are you working for?" Puck demanded.
"Why is your hair so stupid?" Santana sneered at the young man's ridiculous bowl cut hair style. "Seriously, I thought they stopped making flowbees?"
Rather than answer any one of the millions of questions the Gleek's could throw at him, the man who had been intent on melting their hotel room and their liason spot under the pier simply held one hand up, placed it against his chest where his heart lay and as Rachel took a step forward with the orders on her lips for him to stop, a burst of purple light left the palm of his hand and went right into his chest, killing himself instantly.
Santana flinched and screamed, "Jesus, take a joke, bowl cuts are totally fashionable!"
Thoughts? Theories? Questions?
Sooooo...new developments here. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks for all the love and the pokes and prods for me to write another chapter more promptly. I'll try to be a nice and good fanfic writer from here on out.
Next up...Chapter 54 - "Why you being a dickhead for? You're just melting up the situation."
