Chapter Four: Bloodshed
The pitiful gathering of twenty at the anti-mutant meeting never knew what hit them.
Sabretooth had seen to the door- rather than opening it he commenced the party by kicking it in, sending splinters of wood showering over the assembly, seated in uncomfortable brown metal folding chairs. Many of these were immediately overturned as panic ensued, but as Sabretooth mauled his victims, Toad set about securing the two entrances, Mystique covering him. The shattered door still provided enough blockage, and Toad shoved it in place. He spat a rapidly hardening substance onto the locks, and when he was finished, turned upon the crowd for his own taste of blood.
The room was small and Toad ricocheted off the walls, crushing some, suffocating others, rending cringing flesh to ribbons as the spikes on his gloves did the job he had intended for them magnificently. Mystique dispatched a few effectively with the skinning knife she had slipped into a holster on her leg, but left the main part of the massacre to the other two, who took great delight in the screams of the dying. Coolly she watched, but as Toad bounded past her, dripping with blood, eyes afire and teeth bared, she became unsettled. Was this the same mutant she had held close as he mourned the death of Jacob- a child he barely knew- those long months ago?
Apparently not. Crazed by his bloodwrath, he had become almost as manic as Sabretooth, and at one point shoved her to one side as a helpless young man stumbled dumbly past her, dazed from a blow to the head, disoriented, and terrified. Death came to him via a crushing grip around his neck by Toad- the young man died of asphyxiation as he drowned in the blood of his shattered throat. Mystique recoiled despite herself, shutting her eyes, and when she opened them again she saw that all the occupants of the little room had been slain.
Toynbee approached her, panting, skidding on the slick blood and gore that smeared the tile floor. From the spikes of his right glove hung a single, thick ribbon of flesh, which swayed as he moved like some obscene piece of jewelry. He stared at her, the bloodwrath fading from his eyes, and shook his dripping hands deftly, not once breaking his gaze. Blood spattered as Sabretooth materialized behind them, grinning joyfully with bloodstained fangs, his desire to hunt and kill and devour living flesh now more then adequately sated.
Mystique recovered herself and regarded them both coolly again. She nodded her head once, and they followed her to the car and sped away. The attack had only lasted three minutes- so swift a killing that no one had caught wind of it yet.
Magneto would be most pleased.
* * *
Eric knew that the hunt was now on.
His first order of business was to set about creating small, sleek devices that would block out Charles's telepathy should he use Cerebro and actually be able to locate the island fortress, not to mention possible discovery during the midst of a mission. This was short and easy work: a flat chip the size of a dime was formulated, and provided the same protection as his helmet. Every member of the Brotherhood was to have this implanted in the skin directly above the right temple to assure safety. A deep, half-inch long incision was made and the device slipped into it to rest snugly against the skull.
Eric did this quickly and retired back to his quarters for rest and to watch for the reports on the news to come rolling in, and they were not long in coming. His Brotherhood sulked in their respective places outside, tired from their attack and annoyed by the pain of the implant. It had sent Sabretooth into a high bad temper, even though his healing powers were quick in regenerating the wound, but he and Toad had clashed on three separate occasions. It had only been six hours since they had arrived back.
Mystique was tired, and sick of it all. She wanted to sleep, but the dull ache in her head made such a luxury impossible. Toad's eyes still burned into her, unsettling her still so that she couldn't even close her eyes to try and assuage the throbbing in her head. Eric was so busy that he hadn't even wanted to speak to her, which stung her slightly despite herself. Her thoughts were like the sea during a storm: turgid, dark, and dangerous.
Toad himself was exhausted; annoyed too by the pain in his head as well as by a few deep cuts he had suffered at the claws of Sabretooth during one of their scuffles. Something within him was upset at the deeds he had carried out earlier, but the feelings could not rise to the surface- they were just beyond the reach of being felt. Was it regret, or sadness, like he had felt when Jacob died? There was no telling just now.
In the very back of Toad's psyche, he was frightened of what had been transpiring. He could no longer feel regret for his actions, as though his conscience had decayed as Jacob's mortal flesh had. When he thought of the boy now he could not summon up the same feeling he had experienced before. The sadness seemed to have gone, as had the caring, the guilt, and the muted anger towards Magneto…everything.
Sitting alone on his ledge, a dull ache in his head, the doves cooing softly in tribute to the dawn, Toad pondered what he had become.