Hard Choices

After a fast ride atop Catherine the horse, Christina reached the edge of the estate, and looked down the hill. Way out in the distance and faintly visible was the outline of the city.

"I miss it."
She held up her portable TV and placed it near a fence post.
"Pretty dirty," Max said "but it got dirtier after you were gone from it."
"Please don't tell them we talk and especially with what I'm going to tell you now!"

If he could have gasped, he would have. Was this the moment he had waited for!?
He watched dreamily as Christina leaned forward, her shoulders hunched and her breasts gently grazing the railing.

Had she put on weight?

"Alright... there's more I never told you or the others... Max, Ned Grossberg is dead... Kyle killed him, and I... watched. I just stood and watched and I didn't try to stop him... " she looked at him, her face set in a deep frown, her eyes watery.
Max sighed, reached out a VR hand, but restrained himself from reaching out; it simply wasn't the time.
"Stabbing people is wrong, Fantasy Girl."
"He used a baseball bat."
"Explains why he was never your concern after that! Guess I should have known, Heathcliff being Heathcliff and all!" he replied in a slightly grumpy tone.
"You see why I can't go back yet? I'm an accomplice to murder, and I know Mr. Bartlett would turn me in!"
"Let me guess, it gets worse?!" he demanded, though part of him didn't really want to know.
His Fantasy Girl was growing up, but seemingly in all the wrong ways.

She nodded. "Yeh, I fucked up and showed my hand... told Mr. Bartlett I knew the truth! Theora was right... they're snakes... Peller is a snake but an honest one!"
He was twirling around in the TV; his body seemingly happy but his faice told otherwise.
"Besides them having something to blackmail you with... what will you do now? Does Garth still get your support?"
"That's it, I guess... let them slap me in the face and I say I'm sorry... what choice do I have now?"
He shook his head fast, spun around again.

"My turn! Who's Donald Cochran? Does he work for Harriet?"
She looked at him for a few moments, scratched her head
"I dunno. Why?"
"Some idea Theora had. You're sure you've never heard or seen a Don Cochran. Heard of Hymes Enterprises?"
She breathed out hard, turned away from the city in the distance.
"I'm positive, Max."
She mounted the horse and plucked the portable TV from the fence. She decided not to say anything about hearing voices now. Well actually just one voice, the voice of Bryce Lynch.
"I miss Kyle so much , it hurts... Max we want to get married...if it's legal, but even if it's not!"

She glanced at the TV, then turned away.
"Max, I'm sorry!" She began to weep "I'm in love with him!

It was moments before he spoke, and when he did, he avoided looking at her.
"Cathy always belonged with Heathcliff. She died because of childbirth, but mostly because she rejected him and she couldn't live with it. And Heathcliff, he was just a haunted man after that... or not haunted... depending on how you look at it."
"Friends forever?" Christina sniffed and wiped at her tears.

"Christina, that will never change!"

X-X-X
Bryce had mixed feelings. He had made contact with Christina, and while she ordered him to shut up, it proved his machine and his power were performing at optimal. Soon he would send out a "call" to all Alters on a global level. Maybe he could convince to stand up against people like Simon Peller.
"Why so sad?" Tommy asked his new friend.
"Christina! Everything else!" he sighed as he climbed out of his machine, then stood back to admire it. "I need a portable version."
"Christina's nice!" Ben Cheviot's unknown son affirmed, as he put down the Physician's Desk Reference. "I like her a lot! Uh, but not in the way my brother likes her; we're just friends!"

Bryce was mildly amused at his innocent nature, but it wasn't enough to cheer him up.
"How much do you know about what happened?"
"With Simon Peller? He sounds like a real mean guy!"
"That hardly describes it!" Bryce moaned as he confided about all his fears, and why he had them. Then Kyle's voice came over the intercom. "Darth Peller is on his way up along with my dad!"

"HIDE!" Bryce ordered Tommy, but he was already on his way and Bryce was covering up his machine in a tarp.
It wasn't a minute too soon

"A celebration is premature, that's all I'm saying." Ben Cheviot was the first to say. "Your 5 points behind Harriet Garth."
Cheviot lit his pipe as Bryce finished tying town the tarp.
"What's that, mutant!?" Peller screeched, pointing at Bryce. His pretense was gone, he was no longer the professional polititian from days past.
"Weather machine," Bryce grumbled.
"It's a dangerous mutant machine!"
"It's only dangerous if you ignore my perfect forecast and go out without an umbrella!"
"I trust you won't go back on our agreement, Peller!"
"Details!" The mad politician grumbled.
"Amnesty for Bryce, Murray's daughter, Annie, and my son, Kyle!"

Bryce gaped. "What about Christina?!"
"She's with Garth, right?" Cheviot looked confused and tried to remember "ah, right! She's the spokesperson!" Then he shook his head. "and she's out of my hands."
"That woman is a very stupid woman, as well as, she'll lose for the second time! Besides, our deal only applies to blood relatives of some Network 23 employees, which makes my assasin-to-be exempt!" Peller said with glee and rubbing his hands together in anticipation of sending her to prison forever. Maybe even the chair!

Kyle stumbled his way into the room, off-balance by a stack of boxes balanced in his arms.
"There's nothing I can do, Bryce," Cheviot shrugged helplessly.
"Daddy help! Save me!"
Kyle dropped the boxes and threw his hands into the air in the most exaggerated dramatic fashion possible.
"Evil bad politician man wanna hurt me!" he cried out, with a definite grin on his face. He tried hard but began to laugh "do NOT let him cut me open!"
Peller watched his antics with contempt. Then he turned to Cheviot and smiled. "I'd recommend a red suit to my victory party!"
And off he went.

Bryce threw up his hands. "He's lost his mind, Mr. Cheviot! I need some coffee!"
And off he went.

Kyle went to pick up the boxes and Ben helped. "Nothing's broken. This is the light load!" Kyle promised "I just wanted him gone."
"Understandable," Cheviot said, placing a small box on top of the bigger box.

Kyle looked at the floor for a few silent moments.
"What's on your mind, son?"
Kyle suppressed the urge to smile.
"Remember when I said I didn't want your shame or mine to be made public? I'm thinking... maybe it wasn't about personal choices."

x-x-x

Christina stood/sat in a chair in front of the desk, and Harriet Garth stood behind it.
"Is it true then?" Harried asked, in a mostly firm and far less gentle voice. As the election got closer, Harriet's true colors were becoming evident; this was no longer an altruistic woman, this was just another politician. She really did see Christina as merely a puppet and a pawn.
"Honest mistake," she finally blurted out "I... almost feel like I shouldn't be blamed... buuut, there is no one else to take it. Sooo... "
Her eyes darted nervously around the room, and for a brief moment her glance fell to Mr. Bartlett.
"Sorry," was all she said, and she wasn't even sure what the man had told Harriet; but she knew they "must all be in agreement".
Not to mention she felt too emotionally weak now.

Whatever, just keep me out of prison I can't hang with going to prison!

"I just want us to have an understanding, young lady. That's all," Bartlett told her in a voice as smooth as silk "we are not out to hurt you... but we don't want you to hurt yourself."

I gave him something to blackmail me with...

"No. That's the furthest thing from my mind actually."
She smiled as the lump built in her throat, as the knot in her stomach got tighter and harder, and with an overpowering urge to crawl into a hole and die, she nodded.

"Wonderful! I'm glad we are on the same page again!"
Harriet faced her and with a new, refreshing delight in her eyes. Then she wrapped her hands over her shoulders, practically hugging herself, and sighed happily. "And I'm 10 points ahead!"

Bartlett stood now, his visage not displaying the same relief that Harriet felt.
"Too much worry and strife. Harriet, you are the one the public wants. You are the one the public will choose... and now that this little incident is behind us"

With that, he threw Christina a very cautionary glance, then turned back to Harriet "we can go ahead and get the victory party started!"

"Before I forget!" Harried said, putting a note into her hands. "This is your endorsement. Remember, you're the victim here! Follow the script and there's no way I can lose!"

What about me?!

She opened the two page handwritten note, looked at it briefly, and nodded.
"Anything you say, Harriet,"

x-x-x
Bryce was concerned. "Are you sure, Edison?!"

"No sign!" he said, leaning into the view screen as Bryce tapped nervously on the desk. Then he pulled out his notebook that was filled with mathematical equations.
"What was his name again? That guy she's doing a story on?"
Tommy slammed the encyclopedia on the counter, making Bryce jump.

"Bored now," he said "did I mention I don't want to go to daddy's party?"

"It's for Darth Peller!" Kyle corrected, sitting in a chair and sipping from a flask "and none of us are going!"
Bryce ignored them both and typed in Edison's search request for Donald Cochran. He shook his head sadly. "I can't find anything... except he was on the guest list for Peller's symposium... from about a year ago."
"When Christina attacked him," Edison recalled, anger covering his face.

There was a moment of tense silence, and then Kyle spoke up.
"With all due disrespect, Darth Peller has too much to risk by kidnapping Theora... if that's what you're insinuating."
"That's exactly what I'm insinuating!" Edison shouted back. Then he turned from the screen, his face in a tight, pained grimace.

"No worries, man. I could find out." Kyle looked disheartened and even kind of sick.

"Enjoy your time with Daddy, Tommy said. Oh wait that's right he's not my daddy. I don't have a daddy."
His voice was calm and smooth but Kyle could feel the anger like it was a tangible thing.
"Relax little brother," Kyle said

Tommy threw the book on the floor in anger. "I don't feel like relaxing. My father, he only has one son! He's not even going to acknowledge that I exist! My daddy is a horrible person!"

Bryce ended the call with Edison, then turned on Tommy with rage.

"You, stop it!" Brace screamed at him, fury overtaking him "you stop it right now!"

x-x-x
"... and all I want, all I ever want is to be a free genetic variant. It was not my choice to be born like this but I was!"
Erin sniffed back heavy tears as her friend Frankie Stood Beside her, patting her on the shoulder encouragingly.
I'm not a bad person," she went on. "Well I got a speeding ticket once... But that had nothing to do with the misuse of powers. I only want to help Humanity... And you can help Humanity to... You can do the right thing and vote for Harriet Garth.

Erin began to weep then, and Frankie put a tender arm around her shoulder.

The room was crowded with happy party-goers, and Chubb and Christina sat in an isolated corner; it wasn't enough to keep the guests from avoiding her entirely, but for the most part they were left alone.
"Don't start drinkin' kid! It's bad for you!" he ordered. Then he took another glass from the servant.
Christina noticed with some amusement that most of the guests ranged from being buzzed to fully trashed. Some even had their infants and toddlers at the party. She found it disgusting. Whatever happened to 'thinking of the kids'?!
"Oookay!" she agreed, even though it was tempting, but for some reason she was never able to drink herself into oblivion. She had tried a few times.
"You're gonna be a child psychologist? Sounds kinda noble but obsolete. Where you get the idea?"

Christina looked down into the glass, wondering if someone spiked the drinks.
"I was 8, I was at a carnival, and there was a man who stole a baby... " she shrugged "I wanted to help... "
She glanced around the room again, eager to shake the incident from her mind.
"You want me to play something? On the piano?"
Chubb was a bit shocked. "Didn't think you wanted to do a public performance."
"I'm nice to those who are nice to me. What do you want me to play?"

x-x-x

Kyle sagged against the wall. "I think we should all stop, maybe have a beer. Bryce, you want a beer?"
Bryce was on his feet now, pointing angrily at Tommy.
"You don't get it do you? Because this is all about you! Everything that happens here, everything that will happen... it's all because of Tommy Cheviot!"

"Now is not the time!" Kyle ordered him.

"I want Bryce to talk to me... but without the yelling... " Tommy insisted.

Kyle's eyes looked from Tommy, to Bryce, and back again.

"Bryce, this is not gonna turn out how you think," he said in a whisper.

Bryce begin to pace around Tommy. "What ever does?! No, I'm not finished, did I say I was finished? Because I'm not finished. I'm not nearly finished!"
"Shut... the hell... up!" Kyle ordered through gritted teeth.
"This is my lab and I will say whatever the fuck I want!"

He turned back to Tommy. "Do you want to know why your dad will not take a stand against Simon pillar?
It's because of you. It's always been because of you! It's you, who was born weak and of feeble mind! It was you who needed protection from bastards like Simon Peller, and it was because of you, Christina and the rest of us were thrown under the bus!"

Kyle got up from the chair, and staggered to the door and leaned on it.
"That was soooo stupid!" Kyle said, almost whimpering now.

"Truth is important, so is right and wrong! I learned that from Edison and Max! Ben Cheviot is not the bad person Tommy thinks he is!"

Tommy jumped up, and headed to the door. Kyle grabbed his hand.
"Don't... please don't... it's not good timing, there are guards... he was right, dad was right... Tommy, don't go to Simon's party!"

Tommy shook his head. "No, I understand now... and Bryce is right. I don't know why that didn't occur to me... but if this... all this sacrifice... is all about dad having to hide me... then I'm not going to hide."

***
The music she played was was slow, methodical, and dreamy.
"Cameras over here! Hurry!" was all Christina heard, but she could feel the prescence of everyone gathering around the piano, and her, and she played on. A brief glance ahead of her revealed a camera with a light on top and a woman behind it. She chose to ignore it.

x-x-x

They remained after Tommy left, but only for a moment. Both were stunned, but Bryce felt the worst; how could he have known that such a noble, well-intended statement would backfire so horribly?
Or was it true, that no good deed ever went unpunished?

"Kyle I am so sorry!"

"You should be."
Kyle then pulled Bryce out the door. Come on, then! We won't make him face this alone."

x-x-x

When she was finished the room broke into such a thunderous applause, that it made the piano keys vibrate.

"We're ready for you, dear," Harriet told her.
Christina just sat there, until Bartlett moved closer, nodding at her silently.

She turned away and looked at Harriet. "I'm ready," she replied, but her own voice sounded weird, abnormal. Ignoring that too, she got up, walking slowly past the others, and moved behind the podium.

She looked out at the crowd before her, the buzzed and drunk party guests, at those two other mutants, Frankie and Erin, also taken in by Harriet, and she looked extra hard into the many cameras and the world beyond.

"I'm Christina Spencer... and I'm a victim. My mutant powers were discovered by evil people. While I was sick and hospitalized, I was taken against my will and I became a victim. When Simon Peller found out the truth about me, I became the victim again. Regardless of any good intent I had, he was convinced I was a danger to society, and if elected, would do everything in his power to get rid of my kind for good."

And then she clenched the podium very hard, her fingernails sinking into the wood, and a faint cracking noise coupled with the pain of tearing flesh told her she had broken one off.

"Harriet took in me and two others, with a promise of security and protection if she was elected. I was expected to say all the right things and do all the right things and be everything they thought I should be, and I was. There was nothing they wanted that I did not give to them."

The pain in her finger soon enveloped her whole hand, and looking down, she saw blood dripping from the exposed and wounded nail bed.

There can be no sacrifice unless blood is spilled…

Her face felt wet, and she was unsure why. She felt no emotional tension; the desire to please and avoid a horrifying punishment if she did not comply, was gone from her.

"But that was a problem because I recently discovered that I am still a victim, I just never knew to the extent that it was happening. I gave it all up, but I thought I was doing the right thing. My friends, my boyfriend... my freedom. Honor and integrity. I don't have those now, and I can't even look at myself in the mirror."
It was one more breath she took in. She jerked her bloody hand away from the podium, wiping it on her dress.
"I know who I'll vote for... but you vote for who you want to vote for."

She was followed fast by both Harriet and Bartlett, as she made her way to the bathroom. As she shoved her wounded finger under the running hot water, Harriet Garth stepped right beside her. Garth's face showed nothing but hate.

"You ungrateful bitch! You just cost me the election!"

And she doesn't even offer me as much as a Goddamed band aid!

She wrapped her hand in a towel, and moved to the door. Bartlett tried to block her path, but she made it past, to a tele-screen, and cast her vote for Harriet Garth. Already Garth's poll numbers took a significant dive, enough that Simon Peller was elected moments later.
"Such a grave mistake on your part!" Bartlett told her "I'm almost convinced that Simon Peller-"
"Shut your fucking mouth!"
Then she looked right at him. The wet sensation on her face, she now recognized as her own tears. She took back her own narrative, but it still wasn't good enough.
"I told you... I'm not your lapdog!"