Remember, I don't own any of the X-Men, Spiderman, Emma Frost, The Fantastic Four, sliced bread, or any of that other stuff everyone reading this is probably familiar with. However, the people you don't recognize (Izzy, Ms. Stills, and Andrew, his kids, and the individual FoH members that appear in this chapter) are figments of MY imagination, not Marvels. So, if by some slim chance anyone wants to use them, please ask.
And now, on with the show.
Empathy
Chapter 3
Jean held tightly to Gambit's waist as they sped down the streets of New York City. Even in the middle of the night, a steady stream of traffic still clogged the street. However, Gambit weaved around the vehicles like they were standing still. Spiderman sailed several stories above them, webslinging from building to building. The spidertracer he had attached to the back of Izzy's shirt earlier was still broadcasting. Jean had the three of them linked telepathically.
#How close are we?# she asked Spiderman.
#Izzy's still a ways away from here,# Spiderman answered back. #Anything from your search?# he asked.
#Not yet,# she answered regretfully. #But I'm going to attempt to contact them again. I'll keep us linked so all three of us can hear any contact I make.#
#Jes as long as de White Queen don' fry m' brain,# Gambit answered.
Phoenix ignored his statement and reached out onto the Astral Plane, searching for any sign of Emma Frost, Wolverine, or any of the others she knew to be missing. She also kept a psychic eye out for Bobby, even though she hadn't felt him since his initial contact. The lack of contact from him was beginning to worry her. Suddenly Jean caught a thought fragment and with a sigh of relief, followed #It is about time you found me, Phoenix.# Emma answered coldly. #I've been sending out feelers for hours.#
#De chere's been a little busy,# Gambit retorted. #Wit de shout Iceman t'rew out tonight an' all.#
Emma paused for a moment. #You heard it too?# Jean could sense her anxiety and her fear for the young X-Man. #I had made brief contact with him earlier. . . but he pushed me out of his head before I could find where he was being held.# A sense of pride entered her voice and Jean could almost see a ghost of a smile come to her face. #It seems he's been working on more than his ice powers. He's becoming as close-minded as the Cajun.#
#T'ank you, chere,# Gambit chimed in.
#Where are you?# Spiderman asked, speaking for the first time. #Is Izzy with you?#
#How many people are listening in on this conversation?# Emma asked incredulously. She was beginning to feel like she was talking over an intercom.
#Just Gambit, Spiderman, and myself, Emma. Now, what's your situation?# #Beast, Jubilee, Wolverine, Henry Peter Gyrich, and myself, are being detained against our will in a storage room. I'm not sure of the location, although I am fairly certain we are still in Manhattan. Wolverine has been contained in a sort of elastic holding field. Beast is working on a way to deactivate it. Jubilee and Beast were fitted with inhibitor collars shortly after our capture. However, they neglected to realize that I also possess 'extra' abilities. Over the past hour, I have gleaned a complete schematic of the building, as well as a timetable of the security's rounds. After we remove our restraints, we should be able to escape with minimal setbacks.#
#Y' find anyt'ing on location of keys, security checkpoints, or their tripwire and infrared setups?# Gambit chimed in.
#I have a sketchy picture compiled from several of the guards minds, and from hitchhiking while one guard made his rounds.#
#Do they patrol outside routinely?# Spiderman inquired.
#I have yet to encounter a guard who patrols outside the building.# Frost answered.
#Does Gyrich still have his glasses on?#
#. . .# Gambit's question left the White Queen bewildered, but she answered nonetheless. #Yes he does. Why?#
#Can Jub'lee get to them?# he continued.
#Yes, she can,# Emma answered, still confused.
#Tell her I said 'stop being de victim and start being the t'ief I know she be.#
The conversation lagged for a second while the headmistress relayed the message. When she again spoke, all three of them felt the small satisfied smile on her face. #Miss Lee says, Thanks for the kick in the head, dude.
How exactly did you know of Jubilee's lock picking ability?# he inquired.
#Who do you t'ink taught 'er, headmistress?# he asked. #Taught her an' Iceman bot' when dey was prankin' each ot'er a while back. She already knew de basics, but I gave her finesse #
#Mr. LeBeau?#
#Yeh, chere?#
#When all this is over, you are guest lecturing at the Academy.# Emma informed him.
#Cyclops will have a fit over that one,# Jean interjected. The three chuckled at the thought of Cyclops' likely objections to teaching children how to break into locked areas. They all also knew that after the initial shock wore off, he'd see the reasoning behind it. He wasn't ignorant, he just wanted the kids at the Massachusetts Academy to lead a semblance of a normal childhood.
#Whoa!# Spiderman exclaimed breaking into what had been, for the most part, a three way conversation. #Izzy's location just moved seven miles in less than a second!#
#Find Iceman and the kids, as fast as you possibly can,# Jean could sense her urgency. #They need you much more than we do right now. We can rendezvous somewhere safe.#
#I've got just the place to regroup,# Jean said and started relaying information to Emma.
#Don't worry about us,# Emma said with a small mental wave. #Our ticket out of here just started down the hallway.#
She brought the link with a predatory smirk. Jean sighed. That poor guard.
* * * * *
Andrew McGavin skulked down the abandoned corridor of the basement cursing the day he started working for Allison Stills. The thud of his boots echoed down the hallways as he passed the seemingly endless row of doors that lined the dimly lit hallway. He hated the graveyard shift. He especially loathed it when he had to come to work on his night off.
Right now, I should be reading bedtime stories to my kids, he thought. Not here looking after a bunch of boxes. He was so absorbed in his fuming that he didn't notice the shadow lurking just inside one of the many doorways. He didn't even know someone was watching him until a heavy weight knocked him to the ground. The man looked up. A gargantuan of blue fur perched on his ribcage. The giant, noticing the guard's gaze, smiled down at him, exposing pointed canines to go along with his savage appearance. Andrew's mouth dropped open in surprise. This was the last thing he had expected to find in the basement. Rats, maybe, but this, no way. Beast, having seen this reaction several times, prepared for the inevitable scream he would have to silence since his initial attack had failed to knock the man unconscious. The guard looked up at him, his mouth frantically trying to emit any sound. Beast reached a furry hand toward the guard's mouth, but the guard found his voice the instant the doctor started moving.
"Hey, aren't you an Avenger?" Andrew asked. Definitely not what Henry McCoy was expecting. Beast cocked his head to one side and looked at the man curiously.
"From time to time, yes."
Andrew scowled, completely oblivious to the X-Man still perched on his torso. I knew Ms. Stills was up to something rotten! The late hours, the mysterious cargo deliveries, all the extra security personnel, it all makes sense now.
"While I find your deductions fascinating, your continued state of consciousness impedes our emancipation. Beast raised his arm to deliver a knock out blow."
"Wait!" Andrew shouted, finally realizing he was about to be bludgeoned. "You don't have to do this. I'm not working for a woman who just goes around kidnapping people, Avengers no less. I'm a security guard, not an evil minion."
Beast lowered his hand slightly. This was a first. "You have no loyalty to, what was it you called her, Ms. Stills?"
Andrew snorted. "Loyalty? I hate her guts. She's the worst boss I've ever had. I should have known something fishy was going on, what with all the late night shifts, but I've got to find some way to put food on the table."
"What's the holdup, Blue?" Another voice chimed from the open doorway just to Andrew's left. "How long's it take to crack a Rent-a-Cop's skull?"
"Well, Jubilee, it appears that this guard is somewhat singular. He has no wish to fight with us."
"He's just tryin' to distract ya until the other guards get here, Beast!" Jubilee argued. "Stop talkin' and start knockin'!"
"The young lady has a point, my friend," Beast conceded. He once again raised his arm to strike.
"I'm the only one that comes down here," Andrew assured his attacker. He addressed the mysterious speaker in the shadow of the doorway. "I stopped working for my boss the moment I found out she was breaking the law. But I also have friends working here tonight, guys who have no idea what Ms. Stills has been up to. I don't want them getting hurt. I can make it where you don't have to confront any of them."
"How do we know you're telling the truth?" Beast asked.
"Yeah, for all we know, you're just some smooth talkin' mutie-hater trying to play us for fools and waitin' for the Friends of Humanity to rescue ya. Why would you just up and quit because you found out some little secret about your boss?"
"Because I want to be able to look my kids in the eye in the morning," Andrew replied softly. The mysterious young woman stepped out of the shadows. He was surprised at how young and small she was. She couldn't be more than a few years older than his own children. Her eyes still looked wary, but there was a certain curiosity in her features, so he continued. "I have two kids, twins, a boy and a girl. They're eleven, and I love them with all my heart. They've been getting into trouble at school lately though. My son got beat up by some of the other boys in his class during recess. He refused to play 'Chase the Mutie.' The principal told me he said 'Only dumbness play stupid games like that.' That's when the other boy hit him.
The girl, Jubilee, giggled. "I like the kid already. He's a real piece of work."
Andrew smiled at that statement. "Yeah, he is. I punished him for the bad language, but not for his refusal to play the game. He had a good reason. The 'mutie' in the game was my son's best friend Kyle. He's a nice kid, smart, a little on the quiet side, and he has purple hair. Not just a weird shade of brownish purple either. Bright purple, like the shirt you have on," he said, pointing at Jubilee. "It's been that way his whole life. None of his classmates paid any attention to it until this year. I think my two kids are the only friends he has left. They are also the ones who keep him from the bullies. My daughter locked the Friends of Humanity representatives in the bathroom when they came to hand out flyers last week. They weren't very happy."
"What happened to her?" Jubilee asked in shock.
"The principal turned over punishment to my daughter's teacher. So, she got off pretty light."
"Why?"
"Her teacher held the door while my daughter locked it. She decided my daughter had the right idea."
"That's not what convinced you the Friends of Humanity was bad news though, was it?" Another prisoner stepped forward, carrying someone. The man was almost as wide as he was tall, but by no means was he out of shape. He radiated a kind of power and wildness that slightly unsettled the security guard. But neither the girl nor the Beast seemed fazed in the least, so he answered the strange man's question as the man eased his cargo to the ground.
"I am pleased to see you got out of that membranous shielding, Wolverine," Beast greeted the man cordially. The man, Wolverine, only grunted in reply.
"No, I still thought the Friends of Humanity might have a point. I mean, Kyle was harmless, but what about mutants who have no respect for the law? The ones who can sink ships with a thought, or alter people's memories? What about them?" Andrew looked at the man that Wolverine had carried into the hallway. He didn't look so good. Blood oozed from his busted lips and he didn't seem very aware of his surroundings. In fact, it seemed that the occasional tap and hushed words from the wild man were the only thing keeping him conscious at all. However, Andrew noticed the man look over at him as he continued to speak.
"I decided to attend a Friends of Humanity meeting being held a few blocks away one night, so I left my kids at the neighbors' and went to check it out. I went into the auditorium and sat in the back. All of the men and women wearing matching shirts were kind of intimidating, you know."
It was like any other meeting I'd been to at first. The announced the old business, talked about the budget, arranged for volunteers to go to the local schools, or around the neighborhoods knocking on doors. Then, all of a sudden, a man burst through the door. At first everyone startles and jerks around. But then, they stand up and clap as they all realize who has entered their humble neighborhood meeting. It was the district vice president, followed very closely by the most fidgety secretary I had ever seen in my entire life. He stormed onto the stage, bypassing the steps altogether, and just jumping onto the raised platform. He had a paper in his hand and was not happy at all."
"The secretary fumbled with the latch of the briefcase she held for a few moments before it finally sprang open, then gave piles of fliers to the rest of the men on the stage. The men quickly began passing the fliers around. The vice president only got redder with angrier every passing second. I took a sheet, and began reading the photocopied article as they went around to the rest of the group."
"It started with a story. The story told about a little boy who loved to read and play baseball. He made good grades in school so that his mother would let him play his favorite sport during the spring and summer. One day, the boy started to get headaches, really bad ones that made him see spots and pass out."
"His parents worried and fussed over their only child, and took him to a specialist. The specialist told them that he carried the X-factor. His father slammed his hand against the wall; his mother started crying. The boy, being only eleven at the time, asked what was wrong. Was he dying? The doctor, seeing his parents were upsetting the boy, tried to explain. "You're a mutant," he'd told him.
"What's a mutant?" the little boy had asked. The doctor had explained it to him that a mutant was someone who was different than normal people like his mother and father.
The boy had frowned then, clearly confused. "But Mom and Dad told me I came from them," he'd argued. He remembered his parents explaining this to him not too long ago. "How can I be so different from them?" he asked. The article went on to talk about the senselessness of bigotry toward people who in the end weren't that different. The article was simply written, but went right to the root of the problem instead of dancing around the issue.
It spoke to something deep within me. I started to pay attention when I noticed the vice president was reading the end of the article. "In the end," he began. "every mutant you shamelessly shun is someone's son or daughter, someone's neighbor, someone's friend. They are frightened children who have to deal with tremendous changes. They are your children, your friends, your coworkers and neighbors. Mutants eat, sleep, and go to the park just like everyone else. Do you know why? It is because they are everyone else."
The man promptly took the newspaper and tore it to tiny bits on the platform. When he looked back at the crowd of FoH members, I shivered. The vice president looked feral as he eyed each and every one of us. "I can't believe
that J. Jonah Jamesson is allowing this filth to be published in his newspaper. These sugarcoated lies are going to make humans go astray. They're going to lose sight of the issue." I watched in surprise as several people around me agreed with him. How could they condemn this article? It only stated facts. It didn't ask us to simply forget that some mutants were dangerous, it just asked us to believe that every one was human. What was so wrong?
The man continued, oblivious to my thoughts. "What nonsense! Mutants are not everyone else. They are an abomination, a plague contaminating this earth. My children are pure! No child of mine would ever be a mutant. A mutant child is no child of mine! An abomination like that is a mistake that should be put out of its misery."
I fled the room as everyone was standing up and cheering for that monster. I barely made it to the bathroom before my stomach rebelled. I vomited up everything I had eaten that day. He was talking about killing children. He was advocating the slaughter of innocents who had no control over what was happening to them. He was going to end someone's life over a fluke of Nature!
What if one of his children was a mutant? I chilled at the thought. How could anyone be so cruel? The assembled mutants didn't have an answer for him. They had never figured out the rationale of such radical members of the Friends of Humanity. They all turned as one when someone cleared their throat.
"Fear is a strong modivator, Andrew. Fear and misunderstanding," Gyrich answered weakly from the floor.
Andrew nodded. "I went home and gathered up everything the Friends of Humanity had ever given me. I burned it in my backyard. The smoke attracted the attention of my neighbors. I explained to them what I had heard at the meeting that night. They gathered up their things and added them to the bonfire. At three in the morning, my entire block watched as every piece of propaganda in our neighborhood was reduced to ash. We started our own group. We bring the articles Isaac writes from the Daily Bugle and articles we find about any activities involving mutants. Some of us still aren't the most tolerant people in the world, but we don't talk about killing our children. We discuss what going on without coloring the issues with hate. Most of us still believe there's a problem, but we're not sure who's the problem anymore.
Hank put a companionable hand on the security guard's shoulder. "You and your neighbors are doing something truly noble. Hopefully others will soon follow in your footsteps."
"You shouldn't be thanking us; you should thank Isaac. He's the one who started writing all the editorials for the Daily Bugle," Andrew contradicted. "His opinions have gotten people to talking. Not all of the talk is good, in fact some of it is downright militant. But now some people are coming to realize exactly how extreme anti-mutant group philosophies are. These articles are making people think."
"And sometimes free thought can be the most powerful weapon of all," Emma said as she came out of the room. "We need to leave. Iceman needs us."
"What are we going to do with Gyrich?" Wolverine asked. "We can't drag him around New York like this. He needs a doctor, or at least someone to keep an eye on 'em until all this is over."
"I concur," Beast answered. "We must deposit our injured colleague at the closest possible medical facility as expediently as possible. His presumably fractured cranium begs tending to."
"Uh, Hankster," Jubilee piped in. "Just one thing, 'Wanted Mutant Terrorists', remember. We get within two miles of a hospital and every bit of security they have will make a grab for us. Not that we couldn't handle 'em, but it ain't really our style, ya know?"
Andrew smiled slightly. "Actually, I'm not feeling that well myself. I must be coming down with whatever my son has. I think I'm going to get the others to cover for me the rest of the night." The gathered mutants looked at him in confusion, except Emma Frost, whose tiny smile mirrored his own. "Yeah, you know, go talk to the rest of the guards in the surveillance room, tell them I feel guilty for leaving them shorthanded and all, but I'm not any good to anybody if I'm stuck in the bathroom, puking my guts up all night. They're my friends. They'll be concerned, ask me how I'll get home in my condition. They don't need to worry though. I mean, how hard is it to get into a car and drive home. I don't even lock the doors since it's in a fenced-in private lot. I don't think any car thief is going to want a dark blue '85 Tempo anyway, not with all the other more expensive cars around it. The action figures in the back window do little to add to its attractiveness, unless you really like The Fantastic Four."
"Yeah, the one of Thing looks nothin' like him," Wolverine commented in a low voice.
"I'll just be on my way now. The guy's are going to wonder where I've been. It should take me about ten minutes to get off for the rest of the night, and go get my kids from the sitter's. Of course, if I find someone in trouble, then I'll have to get them medical attention. I'm a good Samaritan, after all."
Without another word, Andrew turned and made his way down the hallway, toward the stairs that led to the surveillance room, whistling off key as he went. The entire gang watched him silently until the stairwell door closed behind him.
Beast sighed, bemused. "That you are, my friend. That, you most definitely are."