Authors Note : To Unanaon, the most faithful reviewer a girl could hope to have, luv ya hun. And Star, welcome to the insanity! Here is the more, after the nice warm fuzzies I got reading you guys reviews I had to post ASAP
DISCLAIMER: Everything you recognise belongs to Marvel, lucky them, Anyone you don't know which includes Sarah are mine, I made them up in my mad little head, any reference to people real or fictional is a terrible mistake or new psychic powers.
THANKS: Vicchic
FEEDBACK: *deep breath* feedback will be worshiped adored looked over and poured with melted chocolate covered in whipped cream eaten and cherished nourished and thanked for later, everyone who feeds the feedback machine gets the X Man/Woman of choice covered in the feedback chocolate combo and hand delivered via my mail @ the following address.
Silk and Steel
Part Seven
Baby I Don't Care
The fact that the man in front of her was angry she supposed shouldn't have been amusing, but it was, she was hard put to keep up the steely mask she'd adopted. The Professor had known instantly what she wanted, and how she intended to go about it, the fact that he trusted her with his pupils was a great honour that she would one day, in strictest confidence thank him for, abjectly.
The man in spandex, now identified as Scott had stopped once at the intercom to tell the others what was going on and where the meeting was going to be, in such a terse tone of voice that she had thought that perhaps those yellow underpants were a tad too tight. Now however they had appeared at the briefing room door, she watched him go in and listened to the tide of noise before turning to Sarah. Who to her surprise nodded and winked "You'll knock em dead kiddo, now go in there and find us a decent team"
She returned the wink before walking in, the first thing that locked in her eyes was a bright head of red hair centred with a white streak and under it assessing green eyes. The world shook, Vic had been beyond careful to keep her out of contact with anyone that could cause flashbacks from her past, and now she'd almost walked into one. She covered over her shock in an instant, thanking providence again for her white inscrutable gaze. But tonight there would be nightmares.
Drawing a breath she walked around the circular table before taking a chair, which probably drew attention from the people sitting around it, there she gathered her thoughts before looking up. The girl and Logan had stolen in to the back of the room and it was now deadly silent, she made a quick circuit of the room with her eyes, noticing with irony that Sarah had taken up a place behind her and to her right, which was her place behind Vic Sarah had stood to the left she recalled the explanation ' "He won't gut you if you make him angry, he will gut me"' Then she spoke her voice perfectly clear in the now silent room "I'm sure you're all quite aware of why you're here?"
A few nod's answered her, and she took a deep breath, it was fighting all of her natural inclinations to talk like this, but she had to and that was that. Then she saw Sarah's hand tighten of the back of her chair. "What Blinks trying to say, without much help from you staring lot is that Xavier asked her to lead this mission and to choose her team" Drill sergeant 101 a perfect voice, she didn't smile her thanks, she'd tell her later; she simply nodded and waited for the uproar to die down.
She'd seen the door crack open and the reflection of light from a bald dome, which meant the Professor was listening; then the man sitting across the table from her spoke "You mean th' Professor wans' us to follow the p'tite femme?" she looked at him a little more closely, he had the look of, she glanced up at Sarah who nodded and she shook her head slowly "What did I do to deserve falling into a place with a Le Beau in it?" that brought him up short and as she looked up and saw the girls amused face she almost smiled herself, especially when the thumbs up appeared.
"Since you're not Jean Luc I presume you're his son and leave it there, the accent is almost as recognisable as the face" she continued to look around the table, not anyone else she recognised from this universe so she turned to Rogue "You are highly recommended by the Professor Rogue" the woman blushed and then put her head down, definitely a change in attitude "Well sugah, I can surely come, but" no change in accent, she made a gesture with one hand "But?" "Y'all's so young" she let half a smile creep onto her face, she should have expected it.
Drawing in a breath she prepared herself "A little history then, before I join the ranks of children and animals in the hoard's of those not to be worked with" That brought a snigger from the girl but Sarah was tense behind her, she could almost see those midnight eyes flashing. "I have been living with Victor Creed as his ward since I was thirteen years old and have been an equal partner in the 'family business' since I was sixteen" she had lifted her hands to make the inverted commas of family business and now was looking into faces some stunned, some set, and one pair of understanding eyes, which belonged to the girl. She was getting more and more interesting as the day went by.
"You mean to tell us that you have been in the business of assassination since you were sixteen?" she looked at the blue furred man with the awesomely correct vocabulary and shook her head "Of course not" she ignored the sighs of relief "I've been a mercenary since I was sixteen, assassination is messy" it had been a slight lie but she didn't think any one would have picked it up, except that there happened to be a feral in the room, and he didn't think she should hide such things. "You were lyin' 'bout somethin' in that lot kiddo, now what was it?" she sighed ignoring the looks of renewed scepticism "Fine, I've been a mercenary since I was fifteen, well fourteen and eleven months and I have on occasion been an assassin"
The little man nodded before looking away and she concentrated on the table at large, before turning her undivided attention to Rogue "Any better" the southern woman looked deep in thought and then she nodded "I can do it sugah, anyone who can shut up Remy there has ma respect" She smiled with half of her mouth "My thanks" then she looked over their heads to the girl "Well?" The little Asian looked surprised at being consulted and then nodded vigorously "We're in, both of us" she indicated the little man, he was under the thumb it seemed; now if only Vic was capable of being managed that way.
She flicked her fingers by her hair as if she was fiddling ~three?~ four taps followed on the top of her back, then five, four if possible five was better. The blue man was watching them "I shall join your gathering, in case there is a need for medical attention" she nodded, a grudging fourth, he wanted to keep an eye on the girl if she was any judge. The fifth was a surprise "This Cajun's goin' too" She turned to look at him, hard not to banter as she had with Jean Luc, this was his son "Do I really want you along, are you capable of keeping out of trouble?"
He was obviously not used to being asked if he was trustworthy, but a pair of giggles from the other side of the table put him back onto his feet "but of course p'tite" she sighed "First rule, my name is Blink, not kid, not p'tite nothing else, second rule I'm in charge, if something kills me then Shadow Tiger" she waved behind her "Is my second she'll see you back here alive" then she lifted her voice slightly more "Does that meet with your agreement Professor?" The door swung open to reveal Xavier in silhouette smiling slightly "But of course Blink, now I believe you promised me a practical demonstration"
A quick side-step there as to why he had been listening outside the door she tilted her head to show her amusement "But of course, and for my team, they should know that I won't lead from the rear" He nodded, and she half smiled before heading out of the door, lead again by the silently fuming Scott.
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She had stayed with the new team in the briefing room, dissent was a bad thing in a team but to her surprise all that went on was a little gentle teasing. Then the Professor nodded to her and she crossed to his side "they are ready for them in the observation room" she nodded again before pulling out her best drill sergeants voice, best she got used to being the hard shouter, it was taking it out of Clarice to try for even this long. "Time to move boys and girls" that brought a few heads up, but Logan was the one who nodded, but then he'd been with the Merc's himself, and probably knew how to fit into more teams than any of the others.
The girl would follow him, the blue one would follow the girl. She looked at the other two Rogue and Le Beau, Blink had been right there was a resemblance to Jean Luc but not much of one. He made a slightly mocking bow and she nodded, what a collection, she just hoped that Clarice impressed enough for them to follow her. The walk down to the observation room was short, the high tech equipment was appreciated. The place was quite obviously capable of producing some kiss ass training simulations. And there was Clarice, standing in the middle of an expanse of metal, completely alone and unarmed except for the glints of metal at her boot tops.
She looked at Xavier who was sitting at the control panel "Blink has asked me to choose a program that would test her, but I feel she overestimates my understanding of her limits" Looking down at Clarice she smiled "Run whatever you'd run to test Vic, she'll manage" she mentally crossed her fingers, she'd seen Blink manage to take Creed down but it had been in a friendly match not a battle situation, and she'd been at the top of her physical peak not as she was now, tired and malnourished.
The Professor didn't ask her twice he programmed the sequence in and the room outside changed. A jungle scene, uncannily like the one she had painted sprang into life, on the speakers she could hear the coughing saw of the Jaguars hunting call and felt a shudder move through her. "Her heart rate's gone right up, adrenaline's pumping, the girls ready" That was Jubilee reading off the figures from another monitor but her eyes were fixed on the girl in purple and black.
There was a man in the undergrowth, she could see him but Clarice was acting as if he didn't exist, bending slightly to look at her reflection in the water the man sprang and Blink turned faster than lighting and put one of her knives into his throat. Then she paused, waiting. "What is she doing?" a late comer, this white haired woman but she answered anyway "She's waiting. Conserving energy, the enemy will always come to you if they really want you"
Whatever intelligence was running the Professors machine seemed to hear her because out of the brush came six men. One of them at least was mutant judging from the scorched earth where Blink had been standing a moment before. She had blinked herself onto a tree branch and had thrown her giant knife, it was standing out of one of the men's backs like an obscene decoration, he crumpled but Clarice's attention had already moved.
The last of the three tiny knives had taken out two of the men, the third had supposedly missed its mark and landed in a tree some forty feet above the ground. But she doubted it was an accident, the verbal beating Blink would have gotten from Creed for such a mistake had drilled them out of her long ago. That left her with two men, the lightning strike that caused her to blink again showed that one of them was the mutant. She saw the look that crossed Clarice's face as she blinked once more finishing behind the other man, she caught his head in a lock and twisted once savagely with all the strength of her arm. The crack reverberated around the silent observation room.
She watched in silent horror as Blink tipped her head back and looked up, moving in time to catch her own knife in the shoulder as the other came down. This man was talking and whatever he was telling her was making her more and more angry. "What's he saying to her?" The professor didn't look away from the tableau that was unfolding below "I don't know, he'll be taunting her about her nearest and dearest I believe, the program adapts so that only the person in the room can hear it."
Her head shook almost of its own violation, she wouldn't say the words but she mouthed them, the words whispers of breath on the air 'ah no. don't taunt her about Creed, she'll flip' Feral behaviour was mostly genetically hardwired but Clarice had been brought up by two different incarnations of the same feral man, the temper had rubbed off, and when she lost control she lost it spectacularly. She watched Clarice's glowsticks appearing in her hands, and from there on in it moved in slow motion, six of those sticks flying out and moving like homing missiles to impact into the mans shoulders and kneecaps, taking him down the final two, narrow pointed and slim taking him through his eyes.
Then Clarice knelt beside him and her harsh breathed words were audible to the entire control room, a husky growled soprano "Oh Baby, I don't think you understand, I don't care" then a blink hole appeared in the mans chest, his whimpers had been audible and so was his scream. For a moment the simulated forest sounds were silent with it and then Blink looked upwards and the forest faded. She stood, pulling the knife from the shoulder of her armour showing a neat hole which was mending itself, the blood running off of her hand showed she was injured.
"Satisfied?" For a moment she thought that Xavier was going to say something trite instead he merely answered "Truly, your team will meet you in the Blackbirds hanger in fifteen minutes." She watched Clarice nod and move out of the danger room before she realised all eyes were on her "She's extremely competent Ms Shadow Tiger, a credit to you" that was the furry blue man, she inclined her head "She is a credit to her teacher, Mr?" The man looked slightly flustered for all of three seconds "Gracious, how rude of me, McCoy, Hank McCoy at your service" She nodded back before the Cajun caught her attention "Her 'teacher' who dat be den?"
She let her eyebrows slide up "Ya werent listnin' in the brief? Victor Creed is her teacher" he looked at her, questions obviously trembling on his lips, but her retreat into the harsh accent of her youth seemed to have stopped him short and he turned for the door "I wouldn't bother going too far, get whatever you need, not spandex please, it makes too much noise, and then we're due in the hanger in fifteen minutes" He tilted his head up at her before catching Rogues gloved hand and leaving.
Walking towards the door the girl Jubilee caught up to her "I can do some of what she did, but that bit at the end" a shudder moved over refined Asian features "how could she bear it" She looked over at Logan who nodded "She lost her temper, I'm sure you've seen some temper tantrums worse than that" the girl nodded "Well then, that was all it was, Blink has learnt to kill without thinking about it at the time, it's a harsh lesson that I'd rather no one had to learn" The girl continued to watch her before nodding and walking out of the door "But she thinks about it later" the sentence was uttered in a low growl from beside her, she looked up into the dark blue of Logan's eyes "We all do" she nodded and they left the room together leaving behind the Professor and Hank McCoy.
"You think it will work Charles?" The professor wrinkled his brow "I believe so Hank, I believe so" Hank McCoy turned his furry head to look out over the danger rooms empty titanium surfaces "She is dangerous, riding the edge of control" This time the Professor smiled "Aren't we all Hank, when those we care for are in danger?" The blue scientist was silent "She's running on a fine line Charles" The smile was gone, Xaviers face was again inscrutable "And again Hank, aren't we all" The silence that followed that sentence was almost a speech unto itself until Hank McCoy shook himself "Ah well, I must gather my things" Charles Xavier smiled "Yes, you have ten minutes"
When the doctor was gone Charles Xavier allowed his worry to gather on his brow "I just hope she doesn't step over the edge in pursuit of her goals and forget in the process what they are"