Government Intervention

Disclaimer: Characters and Premise are borrowed from the Marvel, I'm not making any money.

Continuity Notes: This story takes place during "Ultimate War". Magneto's back from the dead (from the public's perspective, actually he's just escaped Xavier's brainwashing and is back to his old human hating, terrorist self), the Ultimates, SHEILD and the US government are mad because Xavier didn't kill Magneto when he had the chance, and because he told them he had, the X-Men are in hiding.

Also I need to go back to "Guild Life" and change things so Scott and Logan rescue Remy on their way to the Savage Land rather than on their way home, because Scott didn't come home with Logan and Kitty, and was believed dead during the "Ultimate War".

Part 1/6

Remy stood in the empty hall trying to comprehend how his friends could just be gone. Only three days ago he'd called the school to let them know he didn't need to be picked up at the airport and now they were gone. Not just out on the mission but packed up, moved out, took everything but the kitchen sink, never to return gone.

One hope remaining Remy headed toward the elevator. Given Xavier's handicap no one would ever think twice about it's presence, but if a person held the basement level button down while simultaneously pressing a floor number the mansion's various sublevels could be accessed through it. In rapid succession Remy entered the combinations for the hanger, danger room and finally the med-lab; stubbornly the elevator remained still. Remy hit the buttons again, more forcefully. Finally he out and out punched the panel.

After an interval of feeling hopeless Remy said, " 'Kay, it be locked. De lock implies dere's somet'ing of value left down dere to be protected. No reason to lock a bunch of empty rooms, neh? So dey will come back, dey only want people to t'ink de place be deserted. Yo' jus' need to wait for dem."

As he talked, Remy wandered through the mansion, opening doors. Checking cupboards and closets. "Dey knew I was comin', dey could of left me a clue," he complained.

"Face it Remy, dey forgot 'bout yo'," he sighed. "Mebbe it wasn't safe, yo' should pro'ably head back down to N'leans, Scott or Logan'll call yo' when t'ings be straightened out. What if t'ings don' get fixed? Be nice to know what happened, mebbe somet'ing I could do to help. Wouldn't hurt rien if I stuck 'round for a bit an' looked for dem."

Later that day Remy made his way back into town to lift the various things he'd need to say at the mansion.

Seeing a payphone he stopped "Moment of truth," he sighed. "Yo' goin' home to N'leans or yo' stayin' hear an' lookin' for de X-Men?"

Remy dialed the number and waited for his Oncle to answer.

"Lebeau here," a tense voice answered.

"Comment cava Oncle," Remy replied cheerily.

"Remy," Jean-Luc sighed. "Yo' wid your friends petite?"

"Oui," Remy said. He was surprised to learn that lying to his oncle made him feel guilty, but he had a feeling that Jean-Luc would want him home if he knew how wrong things were here.

"Bien. It be bettah if yo' were here," Jean-Luc said. "Mais at least yo' ain't 'lone... Wish dat madman done blow up his bridge a bit sooner. Mon Dieu, I send yo' right into de heart of de mess.

Remy waited, wishing he'd actually paid attention to the news in the last few days, afraid if he said anything his oncle would pick up on his lie.

"Remy be careful," Jean-Luc said. "De mood people be in, dey kill yo' for bein' a mutant, won' mattah dat yo' an' de X-Men been stylin' yourself as heroes, or dat yo've rien to do wid Magneto. Mobs ain't likely to give yo' time to 'xplain dat."

"Know all 'bout mobs Oncle Luc, yo' don' have to worry 'bout dat," Remy said.

"Course yo' do," Jean-Luc said unhappily. "Mais let me be a pa'ent. Merde, I wish yo' were here. 'M shor yo' know yo're safest goin' to ground. Wid your X-Men yo' got more dan 'nough firepower to deal wid most anyt'ing if yo' do get found. Don' forget yo' got family Remy, if yo' have to run let me help. If all else fails I'll get yo' out of de country 'til t'ings settle."

"Oui Oncle."

"Bien, take care of yourself petite. Call me 'gain when yo' can."

Remy hung-up slowly, his hand lingering on the phone, wondering if he should call back, tell Jean-Luc everything, let him figure out how to fix things. Do like Jean-Luc said and let him be the parent.

"Yo' getting' soft boy," he told himself. First the X-Men then the Thieves Guild, he was getting use to depending on someone else being there if he wanted them.

Getting in trouble and being the rebellious teenager was fun, he thought, when you had someone to rebel against and someone to bail you out if anything went wrong.

"Don' need no one to take care of me," Remy reminded himself. "I know how to take care of m'self… Mais I don' know how to find no one, leas' not quiet like."

****** ****** ******

"Welcome to time wasting 101," Tony Stark said with a negligent wave of his hand.

Thor clasped Tony on the shoulder. "I too have reservations about involving the child, however he is a know associate of the X-Men and as strong a lead as we've been able to find."

"That kid know less about where the X-Men are than we do," Tony said shaking his head. "If he leads us to the X-Men I'll forego alcohol for a week."

"Perhaps not a lead," Thor admitted. "But they may yet return for him. I sense that we are not the only ones watching him."

"Well Thor-buddy, I'll leave you to it, cause honestly, this kid isn't interesting enough to entertain one viewer let alone a couple," Tony replied getting up to leave.

****** ****** ******

Remy paused, snatching a quick glance at the sky. He'd felt like he had a bull's eye painted on his back since arriving at the Mansion but the air crackling with barely restrained hate was a new development, one that brought Warren to mind.

Remy settled into Scott's empty room, sitting cross-legged on the floor in the spot where the couch was supposed to be. He cleared his mind of memories of time spent here while Scott tried to share his love of video games and Remy tried to figure out how an X-Box could hold the older teen's interest when they had the danger room just downstairs. Of course Scott always did have an impregnable wall in his mind separating fun and training.

Once his mind was clear Remy tentatively reached out with his powers. Keeping his shields at maximum while trying to use his empathy offensively was like trying to speak while simultaneously holding his breath, but having felt the virulent hatred that filled Warren's mind when he had confronted the winged mutant the night before, Remy did his best to do just that.

Projecting fear at the vengeful angel hadn't worked, so Remy tried something more subtle. Broadcasting his own hatred and fear of Sinister; he tried to shift Warren's focus away from himself.

"It wasn't m' fault," Remy told himself. "Scott said so, Logan an' Oncle Luc don' blame me for trustin' Sinister either. 'M not gonna hurt anyone. Sinister, he's still out dere. He needs to be stopped. Why don' yo' pester him Wings?"

Remy continued his efforts until the source of the hatred he felt faded with distance. Then he got up and wandered down the hall, his hand trailing along the wood paneling.

With so much interest being displayed in him he couldn't go looking for the X-Men, they wouldn't come back for him. He didn't even dare try breaking into the mansion's lower levels because it might clue his observers in to their existence. Not that he was certain that he could get in, Charles Xavier's idea of security was a far sight from that of museum and government buildings he and his friends broke into for their amusement, even the fortress-like homes of the criminals he'd robbed with Jean-Luc had nothing on the security measures in place at the mansion.

New Orleans was looking more and more appealing as Remy was forced to acknowledge how little he could accomplish in Westchester and as loneliness set in.

Remy wandered around the empty house until he couldn't stand the hollow, deserted feel of it anymore. He considered heading into Salem Center but the town was too small and the chances of running into someone who would remember what his sun glasses hid or having seen him with the X-Men was too large.

Eventually he climbed up onto the roof. Lying back on the sun- warmed tiles, Remy pretended nothing was wrong and that someone would turn up in a few hours yelling for him to come in for dinner.

Remy was drifting between wakefulness and sleep when a tendril of dark, angry confusion jolted him back to full awareness. He rolled to his feet dodging Warren's attack.

"Not yo' 'gain!" Remy exclaimed, filling his hands with cards. "T'ought yo' found somet'ing bettah to do."

"I have to understand," Warren said. "You protected that other boy."

"Tol' yo' he's mon ami, my friend," Remy replied, his stance defensive. "I tol' yo' I didn't know what Sinister be up to."

"How can I believe you?" Warren asked. "Your lies sound better than any truth."

"I nevah lied!" Remy cried. "I believe him."

"Look what trusting you did to me!" Warren exclaimed, spreading his metal wings wide.

"Mais why yo' ask if yo' won' listen?" Remy asked. "I tol' yo' what happened. Now leave me be or get dis over wid, I don' care anymore!"

Warren held up a syringe, "I have an alternative."

"Quoi? What's dat?" Remy asked suspiciously.

"Truth serum," Warren said. "Take it then we talk or we fight."

"Hell no!" Remy yelled. "Yo' attacked me! 'M not putting anyt'ing yo' give me in m' veins."

"Have it your way," Warren said slipping the hypodermic back in his pocket and flinging a battery of fletchlets at the younger mutant.

Gambit evaded the first attack, used a shield of charged dust particles to deflect the second then threw a card at Warren to force the angel back.

Warren climbed higher into the sky and continued his attack, letting gravity and the nature of Gambit's projectiles work against him while Warren's blades retained their full effectiveness.

A combination of agility and explosions kept Gambit one step ahead of Warren's deadly hail of knives but he knew time and the odds were against him.

"Don' yo' evah run out of dose t'ings?" Gambit yelled.

"No," Warren said.

"Now dat ain't fair," Gambit complained, allowing himself to be driven toward the far edge of the roof.

"I didn't choose to be like this," Warren replied as Remy turned and sprinted back across the roof taking several cuts from Warren's fletchlets rather than sacrificing the momentum he was building. About a yard short of Warren's position he telescoped out his bo staff and used it to vault into the sky.

The suicidal insanity of Gambit's plan was enough to keep Warren from reacting to it and they collided in mid-air.

Gambit felt warm blood trickling down his side as Warren's bladed wings flailed at the air. Together they crashed to the roof. Remy took the brunt of the fall, leaving him stunned and pinned beneath Warren's mass.

Warren's hands locked around Remy's throat but their earlier confrontation and Remy's words had awakened old doubts and questions. The image of a half starved twelve-year-old rose in Warren's mind and he found himself hesitating. Before Remy could recover his breath or the initiative Warren dug the hypodermic out and plunged it into the side of his neck.

Warren moved back from the teen, giving the drugs a chance to take effect.

Remy staggered to his feet and threw the syringe away from him. "What'd yo' do to me?" he asked feeling his mental shields beginning to slip despite his best efforts to hold them in place.

"I told you, it's truth serum," Warren said harshly. "Now tell me; why did you help Sinister do this to me?"

The full force of Warren's rage and feelings of betrayal, loss and confusion slammed into Remy's unprotected mind. "Arret! Stop dis!" Remy pled stumbling toward Warren. "It hurts."

"Tell me," Warren demanded, catching Remy's wrists.

"Yo' hurt so bad," Remy whispered, his strange eyes locking on Warren's for a moment then sliding past him as his shields opened even further.

Then it wasn't just Warren's emotions battering at his mind, there were the people in the neighboring estates, the city of Salem Center, New York, more and more people, their fears and passions all pouring into his mind.

At first it was the strong feelings that were the worst: hate, love, terror, joy overwhelming that which was Remy. After a few moments even the less extreme emotions were torture due to the shear multitude of them, flooding through his abused mind.

"Stop it!" Remy screamed trying to push all the alien feelings away from him, but it was like trying to bail out the ocean with a teaspoon.

A nearly palatable wave of emotion struck Warren driving him away from Remy. As he released the boy Remy's knees buckled.

Warren hovered several yards above the roof, his mouth sagging open in shock, unable to approach. Remy lay crumpled where he'd fallen, totally insensitive to the world around him.

****** ****** ******

Down below, across the street from the mansion Thor frowned. "I will not stand by while a child is harmed, regardless of the company he keeps," he said. "Steve can find another lead."

He strode across the mansion's grounds and began his ascent to the roof when a wave of emotion broke over him with the force of a tsunami.

Thor's grasp slipped and he fell to the ground. Standing he found himself reluctant to approach, almost physically driven back by the psychic mire.

"The son of Odin does not fear the pain of the world," he told himself sternly and began climbing again.

On the roof he found the russet haired boy collapsed limp and still. The blue-skinned angel hovered above, his expression uncertain. Thor dismissed him as irrelevant then went to check on the boy. He pressed his fingers to Remy's throat and was alarmed to feel his pulse alternately racing and faltering.

"Send a medical unit to Xavier's," Thor said into his head set as he scooped Remy into his arms and began looking for the easiest path down.

Several fletchlets embedded themselves into the roof at Thor's feet. "You can't take him," Warren said. "I haven't judged him yet."

"Your trial would win acclaim from the Inquisition," Thor said angrily shifting Remy to grasp his hammer.

Warren retreated a little. "I didn't mean to hurt him. I couldn't let him lie anymore."

"And now he's dying," Thor said coldly.

This time when Thor moved toward the edge of the roof Warren made no attempt to stop him.

After a moment's consideration Thor leapt from the roof, landing in a crouch to absorb the impact. Warren settled to the earth several yards away, his wings twitching in agitation.

In the distance they heard sirens approaching.

"Thor, what's going on out there?" Captain America demanded over the radio. "The ambulance team says they won't come any closer."

"Have them leave the ambulance," Thor replied. "I will take care of things."

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