A/N: All disclaimers are in the first chapter.
"You two sucked royally." Reese said, checking his watch. "I barely broke a sweat. But we're outta time- give me five laps, and you'll be done for today."
"Easy for Robocop to say." Alex said as Jeffery pelted past him. Phys Ed under Reese was pure murder. "He -whouf- just needs to plug in for a while."
"I heard that." Reese said, checking his watch. "Good pace, Garrett- let's see if you can keep it up." He chuckled as Jeffrey staggered. "Watch those twinkies, kids."
"I swear-" Jeffrey panted as he passed Alex again "I'm- going- to- get- him." At the end of the last lap, he stopped and collapsed against one of the pillars of an unoccupied building. Alex finished up and collapsed.
"'Get him,' huh?"
"Not like ... Ryland... or the Talents... or anything..." his voice was interrupted by his breathing. Alex clambered to his feet.
"C'mon. We're already late for Selene."
Selene was standing in the empty classroom when the two of them charged in. She glanced up. "Late again, I see- I really have to talk to Reese about this. Remind him that you're two skinny, underweight teenagers, not one of his own."
"What're we doing today?" Jeffery said, pulling out his homework.
"We don't have a lesson today. I'm going to have you two fitted for uniforms."
"Uniforms?"
"Getups. Ever since Sub-Mariner showed up in his underwear, it's been something of a tradition among the empowered." She smiled. "I can see what you two are thinking. No, you're not 'superheroes' or anything like, but you - we- will be facing combat situations as a nesscessary part of being who we are. We won't go looking for trouble, but we have to be prepared if it comes looking for us. Besides, Shaw Industries has spent quite a bit on new polymers- a field test will be invaluable." She stood up, smoothing her skirt. "Come along."
They fell into line behind her. "And stop ogling me." She added without looking.
"Miss Selene?" Jeffrey began.
"Just 'Selene.' What are my powers? Telepathy, in case you hadn't guessed, and an assortment of other abilities. I'm a witch."
"Wiccan?"
"Witch. A real witch, one who has seen the rise and fall of empires. New Age psedo-magic is nothing to me." She smiled. "Not the answer you were expecting, was it?"
Their footsteps clanged on the metal steps of the basement. The Classical architecture cut off at the first basement, giving way to the high-tech sublevels. Selene motioned for them to stand in a square that had been painted on the floor, then walked over to one of the machines. After tooling with it for a minute, she got it working- something that looked like alike a giant attachable camera flash lowered from the ceiling. "You two had better close your eyes."
"What is that?" Jeffrey asked in a small voice.
"It's an ultra-high-frequency light projector. It's here to map your bodies."
"I passed my physical-"
Selene cursed under her breath. "For your uniforms. Think of it as a quick fitting without pins, or tape measures, or any of those inconveniences."
"You mean like in-"
"CLOSE YOUR EYES." The both complied. There was a bright flash of purple they could see through their eyelids. "There. Perfect. You can open them again." She checked another of the machines. "The uniforms should be out in a minute. In the meantime, Jeffrey, you need a codename."
"How come?"
"When we do get into a fight, it's best if we have them. Advertising our real names is a recipe for disaster."
"What's yours?"
She smiled. "Selene. It sounds like a codename, and I'm a very untouchable person. You two, on the other hand... I was thinking Segway for you."
"Freezer?"
"Not funny, Mr. Woolcot. Besides, it would make people think of that cartoon." She shut her eyes. "Let's see- what have you done that's special... aside from septuple homicide, that is. Ah- here we go. Transit."
"That's pretty weak."
"You're one to talk, Ashcan." Jeffrey shot back. "It's OK."
"Alright. Ashcan, Transit. When your uniforms come out, we'll test them out. If they're good, we'll go for our first training session." The machine pinged. "Speak of the devil." Demurely pressing a button, the machine popped open. With out a word, she handed each the new uniform. "I'll be back in five minutes. I want you in them when I get back."
***
"How are they doing, Reese?"
"Better than I thought, but they got a long way to go before they're battleworthy." He fiddled with some of the wiring on his left shoulder. "I got to get this looked at- two shorts today."
"I'm going to test them in a few minutes. We're leaving Saturday morning."
"Where?"
"To pick up our next prospect."
"Ergh. Are you sure you wanna do that? I'd give them another month, minimum, before I'd risk taking them there."
"We don't have much more time. According to the navy, the situation there is escalating. Unlikely as it seems, I don't want to risk our recruit getting killed. He's superhuman, but not immortal."
"Unlike some of us." Reese replied quitely.
"Exactly."
***
"Why do all uniforms have to be spandex?" Alex asked.
"Not spandex- unstable molecules. It's more than an eighth of an inch thick, you'll notice." She said as she donned her gloves. "It's the newest thing in polymers, based off sythetic spider webbing. The fabric is cool in the summer, warm in the winter, bulletproof- though I wouldn't suggest getting in the way of any- flame and acid retardant, stronger than steel of equal diameter, all the while preserving mobility."
"So why do you wear the corset and cape?"
"Corset?" Alex's head snapped up from where he had been fiddling with one of the gloves.
"Those are honorary dress. I won a title- the Black Queen- and that is the uniform for her. It's the counterpart of the White Queen, Jeffrey. Besides, I have more experience than either of you."
"Cool." Alex looked down at himself. "It's OK. The pitchfork logo is cool. What's it for?"
"The Hellions." Selene said, "That's what this team is called. We're going to have to be a team if we want to further our goals- we can't just mix it up and hope for the best."
"It still looks kinda... silly."
"Please, Mr. Garrett, it's not that bad." She looked at it critically. White boots and gloves, everything else black, but no mask. There was also a heavy belt with the Hellfire Club pitchfork on the buckle, and another pitchfork over the heart. "No, it's not bad at all. It gives you full body coverage, unlike most of Xavier's earlier designs." She motioned as she started up the stairs. "Follow me."
She led them out to one of the empty city squares. "You're not up to high- tech threats, yet. I'm going to use my geomancy to animate the ground against you. You have to overcome the obstacles I throw at you." She walked about twenty yards away. "Catch." She raised her hands. Jeffrey stared at her for a second, dumbstruck as she was illuminated by her magic.
It was a fateful distraction. Faster than he could think, he was engulfed in living earth, which was rapidly marblizing. Panicking, his eyes blazed. Selene's earth vice closed on empty air as Jeffrey materialized on one of the roofs.
Ashcan was faring a little better. He had blasted the first two groundslides into dust, but the earth was getting meaner- five fingers had pinched at him at once, forcing him to blast and run. As the dirt reared up under him, he jumped, landed badly, and rolled aside to avoid the next wave of earth, and lept to his feet. Jeffrey yelled and vanished again as the cornice he was standing on detached from the main body of the temple and went crashing down, even as Ashcan dodged a spike that burst out of the ground.
Selene smiled and raised a stone bubble around herself. For twenty minutes she attacked, never letting up the pressure as her two students began to tire. Finally, disgusted, she spoke up. "Think about this, dolts! It can't be that hard."
"Jeffrey- urk-" Ashcan gagged as earth enveloped him like water. There was a blast of orange light, and Ashcan appeared about a foot off the ground. "Get me at her!" As the stone roof liquified under his feet, Jeffrey's eyes blazed again. They both appeared in the bubble, behind Selene. Ashcan poked his index finger into the back of her neck. "STOP!"
The bubble slid back into the ground as the surroundings reverted to normal. Selene turned to them, looking satisfied. "Good work, you two. You forgot the first rule-" Both of them yelled as they were caught around the head from behind by what felt like a giant hand "-you let up on the pressure before I was beaten." With a smile, she bent them backwards with the hands. "I could've crushed your skulls right then, but that would've been counterproductive. Take this as a lesson. What's the vernacular? 'It ain't over 'till it's over.'" She jerked her head at them. "Better than I hoped, not as bad as I feared. Go shower, I'll have the uniforms cleaned."
***
The construct lumbered towards them, immune to Ashcan's incineration beams. It was created and controlled by the forcefield projector in it's center. It was about ten feet tall, made of solid light. Ashcan cursed as he shot a rock it had thrown at them. This was another 'teamwork' exercise, the fourth in as many days. The monster soundlessly lumbered towards him.
A stone bounced off it's head as it followed Ashcan around a corner. Having an entire disused city was handy for training- it made for good ambushes. Jeffrey Garrett, AKA Transit, was tossing rocks at it. Selene had been giving penalties for using their real names during their training.
"ROCKS? Is that the best you can do?"
"I don't have my powers! What do you want me to do?" He tugged at the inhibitor collar that Selene had put on him as part of the exercise. "If I could get this damn thing off-"
"I know, I know, but we need a plan with what you can do!"
"I can't do anything!"
"C'mon, there has to be a way to beat this."
"Can you burn off the collar?"
"No-" Ashcan ducked as the creature's fist pulverized the wall above him. He ducked and ran, getting to Transit in record time. "- whoof. Jesus, that thing's strong."
"Not too fast, though." They both turned and sprinted to where the street ended in a big, offical-looking Roman building with huge, shallow steps. "Why can't you?"
"I'll take your head off."
"Can you just lean in it with your beam?"
"It's immune."
"Here it comes- get the collar off, now!"
"I'll decapitate you, idiot!"
"You can disintegrate stuff with a touch, right?"
"I can't control it." Ashcan leaned on his beam, the ray of yellow light spattering against the forcefield. The thing didn't even slow down.
"Dammit!" Jeffrey sprinted past, ducking under it's swinging arm. He paused, turned- and yelled. "Ashcan! Get in front of the pillars and blast 'em!"
"ARE YOU NUTS?"
"Do it!" Transit was dodging around the thing, trying to keep it in more or less one place. "Try and tip the roof onto it!"
"Better idea! Get over here."
"Com- Agh!" Transit shouted in pain as it clipped his shoulder. "Crap! Al- er- Ashcan, get it!"
Ashcan jumped forward, spraying the bottom of the columns with his incineration ray. The effected areas were quickly reduced to superheated dust, sending the ceremonial arch toppling towards the machine. And towards Transit. Distracted by the pain in his shoulder, he had lost his footing.
It was like it was happening in slow-motion. Ashcan saw the arch toppling, gravity tearing it into a slew of broken rock as it fell. He saw Transit slip and fall, then look up as the shadow of the avalanche for him. He saw comprehension dawn on his teammate's face as a boulder falls towards him. Extending his hands, he lanced out with his beam, squeezing his eyes shut in horror. For what felt like an eternity, he fired- although it was only about ten seconds in reality. He was trying to muster the courage to open his eyes when he heard a strange sound: clapping.
"Bravo, Ashcan. Making the best of a bungle." It was Selene. The rubble rippled under her touch, and the smashed forcefield projector was brought to the surface. "Bringing down the house is an admirable tactic- better it than you, after all." Glancing over at Jeffrey, Ashcan exhaled. He was lying among the rubble, covered with dust, but otherwise unscathed. "But you cut it a bit too fine for an 'excellent.'" Jeffrey fingered his hair- his bangs had been cut down even shorter by the incineration ray. She glanced at the sun. "Look at the time. Yout two had better get cleaned up. But there's a change of uniform for each of you in your dorm room- put those on and report back here." She held out her hand, and the inhibitor collar peeled itself of Transit's neck. "And all powers will be necessary."
Five minutes later, they were back at the place where they had beaten the robot. Ashcan glanced up and felt his jaw drop- the arch he had toppled to destroy it was back, restored as if it had never fallen. He jerked aside as Jeffrey materialized next to him.
"Transit here- whoa, is it back?"
"Yes. A minor demonstration of my powers." Selene smiled. She was in her Black Queen garb. "Come. This way."
"What're we doing?" Jeffrey asked, materializing next to her.
"Stop showing off your teleportation powers. You're not that good, yet- suppose you materialize inside a wall?" He quailed under her glare.
"I'm sorry, Selene, I didn't mean to-"
"Enough. We're going on our first mission."
"Where?" Ashcan asked. She had been dropping hints about it, but she had never told them anything concrete.
"The Savage Land."
***
The Shaw Industries helicopter cut through the crisp Antarctic air. Selene jostled Jeffrey.
"Hurm?"
"Wake up. Look out the window."
"Are those mountains-"
"Yes, the border." Selene cut him off. "But I want you to look below us. Note the glacier, as well as you can. You may have to repeat what you did in Alaska."
His eyes bugged. "NO! I'm not going to murder anyone- anyone... else." He slumped miserably. "I didn't mean to..." he added weakly. Selene smiled.
"You can't lie to a telepath, Jeffrey. You went to that house with the intention of slaughtering everyone inside, and you did a good job of it too. Didn't lose your head, either- you remembered to dunk each of them before sending them to join the others on the glacier. You can deceive yourself all you like, but you're an excellent murderer." She patted him on the back as tears trickled from his eyes.
"You can't make me- if you try- I'll do to you- what I did- what I did to them." His eyes were blazing; he was a hairsbredth from invoking his teleportation power. Selene was taken aback, but only for a seond. Reaching into his mind, she began to calm his emotions.
"Transit- don't fly off the handle. I was making an observation, that's-"
"Don't." He was proving harder to manipulate than she first thought.
"I wouldn't ask you to do that to a person. I don't train hitmen, after all." He visibly relaxed. "But we may face giant prehistoric monsters. If I ask you to kill a tyrannosaur to prevent it killing us, will you do so?"
"I don't want to-"
"But if it's our life or its, what will you do?" She put her hands on his shoulders and spoke sympathetically. "I know this is hard, but we have to make choices."
"If it's not a person-"
"Wonderful." Selene sat back and smiled, shaking Alex as they flew over the last peak. In all its green, the Savage Land erupted before them. "We're there."
"Selene-"
"Yes, Macon?"
"- I can't see a site. You said you knew-"
"I do. Put it in hover- it's at the base of the mountian."
"Where?"
"Nowhere, yet." She shut her eyes as light blazed from her. Far below him, Jeffrey could see a small patch of stone bending and rippling. After a minute, she opened her eyes. "Done. Take us down, Macon."
As the helicopter descended, Jeffrey looked down at Selene's instant landing pad. It was more than a hundred feet across, level as a plate. The skids of the helicopter crunched on the gravel as it landed. Selene got up, followed closely by her two students. "Don't bother keeping the engine warm, Macon, but don't fall asleep at the wheel."
"What odds?"
"Of leaving under fire? Small- but not nonexistant. Stay sharp." The three of them clambered out.
"How do we get down?" Alex asked, glancing over the edge of the pad. "It's a big drop- two hundred feet, easy."
"Jeffrey... see that clearing down there?"
He grinned, apparently over his guilt attack. "Let's go." They disappeared in a blaze of light.
They reappered in the steaming clearing. Selene wrinkled her nose- something large was rotting nearby. Flipping back the face of her watch, she checked her compass. "North by northwest should take us where we're going."
"I can't teleport far through this."
"Nobody's asking you to, Transit. Follow me." Selene took the lead, using her geomancy to rip obstacles out of her path. Alex jumped as she toppled a two-hundred-foot tree. "It's not far from here- we're looking for the villiage of the Tiger People, as they call themselves. Their symbol should be immediatly recognizable."
"Are there tigers here?"
"Yes- sabre-toothed." She disintegrated a boulder. "Really, is this a habitat or an obstacle course?"
An hour later, Jeffrey glanced behind them. "We're kind of making a path..."
"No, Transit, we're not there yet, but we should be within spitting distance of the village. I can sense people not far from here..." she shut her eyes. "There." They opened again. With a wave of her hand, she tore a massive tree up by the roots and tossed it aside. "Greenpeace wouldn't be happy, but they never come here. Something about facing death in the form of nature clashes with them."
In front of them was a dilapidated-looking village. The gate was without a lintel, and the thin trunks that made up the wall were sagging. Most of them were encrusted with green plant life. Even without his incendiary powers, Ashcan felt he could've taken the wall down in twenty minutes.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Alex asked.
"Yes. Disgusting, isn't it- fate has not been kind to the Tiger People. Half of their council was wiped out by a renegade tyrannosaur, and the pterodactyls have been merciless- especally one by the name of Sauron. He and the Savage Land mutates settled by chance near this village. They're always stealing people for experiments. Not to mention that the Obsidian People are getting more agressive. If we had waited much longer, all we would've found here is a smouldering wreck. Oh, the Obsidian People are their traditional rivals, they live near a volcano and use obsidian weapons. High-tech, in this barbaric place." She beckoned. "Come."
It was even worse inside. There were a few fires going, but not much food, and eveyone looked half-dead. The huts were delapidated, mouldering, and vermin were scuttling around the edges of them. But worst of all, a pall seemed to be hanging over the village, almost tangible in it's strength: the death of hope. Nobody here saw anything bright in the future. As if in reply to an unspoken question, Selene spoke up.
"'Despair is for those who have seen the end beyond any doubt.'" She smiled at her students. "Tolkien. In a world where the strong survive, they don't have any future. Chance has picked on them too much." She closed her eyes, picking through the minds of those around here. "He's not here... farther... let's... ahh." Her alert gaze was back. "By the treeline. Despite his power, he is as despairing as the rest- obviously. He has no idea of his own strength. And of this lowly village, he is the lowest, bar none."
"Unpopular?"
"You could say that." She led them out through a gap in the wall, opposite to the gate. "You'll see why for yourselves. He should be coming into sight... now."
As if on cue, their target stepped into view. Six foot nine and a wall of solid muscle, he would've easily ranked "most powerful" in that dismal village even if not for his obvious mutation. He had four arms.
"Koh-i-noor!" Selene called . He stopped and turned towards her.
"What do you want?"
"Speaks good English." Alex noted.
*Most of them do.* Selene suppled mentally. Out loud, she said: "Do you wish to leave?"
"Why?"
"To see the..." she gestured "...greater world. To see what lies beyond the mountains. You are both a danger and in danger, Koh- you know of what I speak."
"Why would you... offer me this?"
"Because I help people like you- and I have heard that the end is rapidly approaching your people. It would be a shame to have your talents perish with them."
"Why should I trust you? How do I know you're not an... impostor?"
She turned to Alex and Jeffrey. "Am I lying- no, I can see you're not convinced. Let me show you one of my talents." With the skill born of millennia of practice, she forged a mindlink between. Into his head flooded her memories, her training sessions with the other two, and above all, her pitch for her school. After a few seconds of the intese mental experience, he fell back, gasping from brain fatigue. "You've seen my mind. Now do you believe me?"
"I believe you." He said at last. "I must speak with... the others. My people need me."
Selene cursed in Latin and set her face as she and her students followed him back to the village.
Inside, things had gotten even worse. As long as they stuck by Koh, the aura of dispair was mingled with one of disgust. To someone as mentally sensitive as Selene, the combination of emotions induced fairly strong nausea. However impressive the giant, it was pretty obvious that his own tribe didn't like him.
"Selene? You're looking sorta- green." Alex said as they approached the village center.
"I'm fine, Ashcan. The air of distain- it's almost tangible. This is what I get for being psychic."
"What's wrong?"
"I'm searching their minds now- hang on... ah! I have it. Does he look familiar to you?"
"Noooo...." Alex and Jeffrey chorused.
"I forgot, we havn't had a class on the savage land mutates. Short version- one of them is called Barbarus, he has four arms, and is superstrong and super-tough. Famously vicous.This barbarian is evidently his son."
"And the problem is..."
"Apparently Barbarus dispoiled his mother. Rather violently. Primitive peoples are given to that, and Barbarus is strong enough to exert his will- as it were- on anyone he choses. As a result, he is virtually a walking manifestation of this tribe's collapse. It's not his fault who his father was, of course, but to a proud people, it's very hard not to hold against him. That situation is made worse by the knowledge that if any of them survive, it will be him. They are loathe to have him among them, but from what I can glean from their minds, they're not keen on letting him go, either."
Koh was speaking to three old people (evidently the leaders) rapidly in a local dialect. Selene, plucking the throughts from their brains as fast as they formed, was giving color commentary to her students in English. "They're saying they need him... he's saying they don't... they're disagreeing.... ohh, he's sticking it to them. Appropriate, given the shoddy treatment he's gotten from them his whole life."
One of the three, an old man, got up and walked over to them and began to chatter at them in his language.
"He's proposing a trade. He says that if we give the tribe a gift of sufficent worth, we can have him, with their blessing." She turned to Alex and Jeffrey. "Now, what's to stop us from just taking him? He doesn't like this place-no sane person does- and he doesn't feel any loyalty towards them, given how little respect he gets."
"Still, it wouldn't be right to just leave them hanging..." Jeffrey began.
"Hanging? They're already hanging, Transit- all they have is a few proverbial seconds before they die. But still, formalities must be observed." She smiled and raised her hands, illuminating herself as her power activated. For a second, nothing happened.
There was a grinding crunch. The rotting fence slid apart and fell as the ground reared up under it. Higher and higher the dirt climbed, finally stopping off at ten feet high and sharpening off. As a final move, Selene marblized it, forming a wall four feet thick, ten feet high, and smooth as glass. She smiled and tuned to the old man. "Is that a sufficent gift?" Her smile grew broader. "I take you slack-jawed amazement to mean 'yes.' It's been a pleasure doing business with you." She turned to Koh. "Do you still wish to come?"
He was staring at her. "Did... you...?"
"Yes, that was me. Do you wish to be part of my organization or not?"
"Yes..."
"Transit, can you picture the helicopter?" Jeffrey nodded. "Then let's go home."
***
Selene and her three students stepped out of the helicopter into the Brazilian night. Selene and Koh were looking rather fried- she had been giving him a telepathic crash course on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. She wasn't sure he had it all yet, but she had fried enough brain cells for one day. As Macon walked away, Selene called the students together.
"I... uhhhh... my apologies. I'm tired." She shook her head to clear it. "We need to settle some thing here. First, we need a 'normal' name for Koh. Second, we need a codename. He will be given a uniform and suchlike tomorrow. It's Sunday, so I there's no training."
"Good."
"Jeffrey! Don't you like training?"
"Sure. It's a blast."
"Normal name?"
"Ned?" Jeffrey suggested.
"'And Harry Potter and all his little friends...'" Alex began in his best Ned Flanders voice. A look from Selene shut him up. "Sorry. Ummm... Nate? Ian?""
"No and no."
"He comes from the Savage Land- Stephen?"
"Good. Stephen Noor- sounds nondescript-ethnic enough to fly. Codename."
"Ummm... Forearm's been used."
"Yes, and he died rather nastily. A lady from the Serpant Society snapped his neck, as I recall." She pursed her lips. "It needs to sound vicious- I have it. Bastard."
"How do you like it, Koh?"
"Must I have false names?"
"Yes." Selene said sharply. "It's a tradition, and you wished to be part of this, correct? Besides, you'll have to blend in- at least to a degree- with the outside world. They'll call you Stephen- which will probably degenerate into 'Steve'- when you're out of costume, and Bastard when you're in it."
"I must have three false names now?"
"No." She put her face in her hand in exasperation. "'Steve' is a contraction of 'Stephen', one of your two false names. It's just the shorter version, like Koh is for your real name."
"Oh."
She glanced at her watch. "Two-thirty already. Your teammates are Jeffrey- the shorter one- when he's out of costume, Transit when he's in. The other one is Alex when he's out, Ashcan when he's in. You'll be sharing a dorm with them- the rooms are gauged for three each- so they can show you where you'll be sleeping tonight. Tomorrow we'll arrange for some regular clothes for you." She visibly stifled a yawn. "That's all. Class dismissed."
"You two sucked royally." Reese said, checking his watch. "I barely broke a sweat. But we're outta time- give me five laps, and you'll be done for today."
"Easy for Robocop to say." Alex said as Jeffery pelted past him. Phys Ed under Reese was pure murder. "He -whouf- just needs to plug in for a while."
"I heard that." Reese said, checking his watch. "Good pace, Garrett- let's see if you can keep it up." He chuckled as Jeffrey staggered. "Watch those twinkies, kids."
"I swear-" Jeffrey panted as he passed Alex again "I'm- going- to- get- him." At the end of the last lap, he stopped and collapsed against one of the pillars of an unoccupied building. Alex finished up and collapsed.
"'Get him,' huh?"
"Not like ... Ryland... or the Talents... or anything..." his voice was interrupted by his breathing. Alex clambered to his feet.
"C'mon. We're already late for Selene."
Selene was standing in the empty classroom when the two of them charged in. She glanced up. "Late again, I see- I really have to talk to Reese about this. Remind him that you're two skinny, underweight teenagers, not one of his own."
"What're we doing today?" Jeffery said, pulling out his homework.
"We don't have a lesson today. I'm going to have you two fitted for uniforms."
"Uniforms?"
"Getups. Ever since Sub-Mariner showed up in his underwear, it's been something of a tradition among the empowered." She smiled. "I can see what you two are thinking. No, you're not 'superheroes' or anything like, but you - we- will be facing combat situations as a nesscessary part of being who we are. We won't go looking for trouble, but we have to be prepared if it comes looking for us. Besides, Shaw Industries has spent quite a bit on new polymers- a field test will be invaluable." She stood up, smoothing her skirt. "Come along."
They fell into line behind her. "And stop ogling me." She added without looking.
"Miss Selene?" Jeffrey began.
"Just 'Selene.' What are my powers? Telepathy, in case you hadn't guessed, and an assortment of other abilities. I'm a witch."
"Wiccan?"
"Witch. A real witch, one who has seen the rise and fall of empires. New Age psedo-magic is nothing to me." She smiled. "Not the answer you were expecting, was it?"
Their footsteps clanged on the metal steps of the basement. The Classical architecture cut off at the first basement, giving way to the high-tech sublevels. Selene motioned for them to stand in a square that had been painted on the floor, then walked over to one of the machines. After tooling with it for a minute, she got it working- something that looked like alike a giant attachable camera flash lowered from the ceiling. "You two had better close your eyes."
"What is that?" Jeffrey asked in a small voice.
"It's an ultra-high-frequency light projector. It's here to map your bodies."
"I passed my physical-"
Selene cursed under her breath. "For your uniforms. Think of it as a quick fitting without pins, or tape measures, or any of those inconveniences."
"You mean like in-"
"CLOSE YOUR EYES." The both complied. There was a bright flash of purple they could see through their eyelids. "There. Perfect. You can open them again." She checked another of the machines. "The uniforms should be out in a minute. In the meantime, Jeffrey, you need a codename."
"How come?"
"When we do get into a fight, it's best if we have them. Advertising our real names is a recipe for disaster."
"What's yours?"
She smiled. "Selene. It sounds like a codename, and I'm a very untouchable person. You two, on the other hand... I was thinking Segway for you."
"Freezer?"
"Not funny, Mr. Woolcot. Besides, it would make people think of that cartoon." She shut her eyes. "Let's see- what have you done that's special... aside from septuple homicide, that is. Ah- here we go. Transit."
"That's pretty weak."
"You're one to talk, Ashcan." Jeffrey shot back. "It's OK."
"Alright. Ashcan, Transit. When your uniforms come out, we'll test them out. If they're good, we'll go for our first training session." The machine pinged. "Speak of the devil." Demurely pressing a button, the machine popped open. With out a word, she handed each the new uniform. "I'll be back in five minutes. I want you in them when I get back."
***
"How are they doing, Reese?"
"Better than I thought, but they got a long way to go before they're battleworthy." He fiddled with some of the wiring on his left shoulder. "I got to get this looked at- two shorts today."
"I'm going to test them in a few minutes. We're leaving Saturday morning."
"Where?"
"To pick up our next prospect."
"Ergh. Are you sure you wanna do that? I'd give them another month, minimum, before I'd risk taking them there."
"We don't have much more time. According to the navy, the situation there is escalating. Unlikely as it seems, I don't want to risk our recruit getting killed. He's superhuman, but not immortal."
"Unlike some of us." Reese replied quitely.
"Exactly."
***
"Why do all uniforms have to be spandex?" Alex asked.
"Not spandex- unstable molecules. It's more than an eighth of an inch thick, you'll notice." She said as she donned her gloves. "It's the newest thing in polymers, based off sythetic spider webbing. The fabric is cool in the summer, warm in the winter, bulletproof- though I wouldn't suggest getting in the way of any- flame and acid retardant, stronger than steel of equal diameter, all the while preserving mobility."
"So why do you wear the corset and cape?"
"Corset?" Alex's head snapped up from where he had been fiddling with one of the gloves.
"Those are honorary dress. I won a title- the Black Queen- and that is the uniform for her. It's the counterpart of the White Queen, Jeffrey. Besides, I have more experience than either of you."
"Cool." Alex looked down at himself. "It's OK. The pitchfork logo is cool. What's it for?"
"The Hellions." Selene said, "That's what this team is called. We're going to have to be a team if we want to further our goals- we can't just mix it up and hope for the best."
"It still looks kinda... silly."
"Please, Mr. Garrett, it's not that bad." She looked at it critically. White boots and gloves, everything else black, but no mask. There was also a heavy belt with the Hellfire Club pitchfork on the buckle, and another pitchfork over the heart. "No, it's not bad at all. It gives you full body coverage, unlike most of Xavier's earlier designs." She motioned as she started up the stairs. "Follow me."
She led them out to one of the empty city squares. "You're not up to high- tech threats, yet. I'm going to use my geomancy to animate the ground against you. You have to overcome the obstacles I throw at you." She walked about twenty yards away. "Catch." She raised her hands. Jeffrey stared at her for a second, dumbstruck as she was illuminated by her magic.
It was a fateful distraction. Faster than he could think, he was engulfed in living earth, which was rapidly marblizing. Panicking, his eyes blazed. Selene's earth vice closed on empty air as Jeffrey materialized on one of the roofs.
Ashcan was faring a little better. He had blasted the first two groundslides into dust, but the earth was getting meaner- five fingers had pinched at him at once, forcing him to blast and run. As the dirt reared up under him, he jumped, landed badly, and rolled aside to avoid the next wave of earth, and lept to his feet. Jeffrey yelled and vanished again as the cornice he was standing on detached from the main body of the temple and went crashing down, even as Ashcan dodged a spike that burst out of the ground.
Selene smiled and raised a stone bubble around herself. For twenty minutes she attacked, never letting up the pressure as her two students began to tire. Finally, disgusted, she spoke up. "Think about this, dolts! It can't be that hard."
"Jeffrey- urk-" Ashcan gagged as earth enveloped him like water. There was a blast of orange light, and Ashcan appeared about a foot off the ground. "Get me at her!" As the stone roof liquified under his feet, Jeffrey's eyes blazed again. They both appeared in the bubble, behind Selene. Ashcan poked his index finger into the back of her neck. "STOP!"
The bubble slid back into the ground as the surroundings reverted to normal. Selene turned to them, looking satisfied. "Good work, you two. You forgot the first rule-" Both of them yelled as they were caught around the head from behind by what felt like a giant hand "-you let up on the pressure before I was beaten." With a smile, she bent them backwards with the hands. "I could've crushed your skulls right then, but that would've been counterproductive. Take this as a lesson. What's the vernacular? 'It ain't over 'till it's over.'" She jerked her head at them. "Better than I hoped, not as bad as I feared. Go shower, I'll have the uniforms cleaned."
***
The construct lumbered towards them, immune to Ashcan's incineration beams. It was created and controlled by the forcefield projector in it's center. It was about ten feet tall, made of solid light. Ashcan cursed as he shot a rock it had thrown at them. This was another 'teamwork' exercise, the fourth in as many days. The monster soundlessly lumbered towards him.
A stone bounced off it's head as it followed Ashcan around a corner. Having an entire disused city was handy for training- it made for good ambushes. Jeffrey Garrett, AKA Transit, was tossing rocks at it. Selene had been giving penalties for using their real names during their training.
"ROCKS? Is that the best you can do?"
"I don't have my powers! What do you want me to do?" He tugged at the inhibitor collar that Selene had put on him as part of the exercise. "If I could get this damn thing off-"
"I know, I know, but we need a plan with what you can do!"
"I can't do anything!"
"C'mon, there has to be a way to beat this."
"Can you burn off the collar?"
"No-" Ashcan ducked as the creature's fist pulverized the wall above him. He ducked and ran, getting to Transit in record time. "- whoof. Jesus, that thing's strong."
"Not too fast, though." They both turned and sprinted to where the street ended in a big, offical-looking Roman building with huge, shallow steps. "Why can't you?"
"I'll take your head off."
"Can you just lean in it with your beam?"
"It's immune."
"Here it comes- get the collar off, now!"
"I'll decapitate you, idiot!"
"You can disintegrate stuff with a touch, right?"
"I can't control it." Ashcan leaned on his beam, the ray of yellow light spattering against the forcefield. The thing didn't even slow down.
"Dammit!" Jeffrey sprinted past, ducking under it's swinging arm. He paused, turned- and yelled. "Ashcan! Get in front of the pillars and blast 'em!"
"ARE YOU NUTS?"
"Do it!" Transit was dodging around the thing, trying to keep it in more or less one place. "Try and tip the roof onto it!"
"Better idea! Get over here."
"Com- Agh!" Transit shouted in pain as it clipped his shoulder. "Crap! Al- er- Ashcan, get it!"
Ashcan jumped forward, spraying the bottom of the columns with his incineration ray. The effected areas were quickly reduced to superheated dust, sending the ceremonial arch toppling towards the machine. And towards Transit. Distracted by the pain in his shoulder, he had lost his footing.
It was like it was happening in slow-motion. Ashcan saw the arch toppling, gravity tearing it into a slew of broken rock as it fell. He saw Transit slip and fall, then look up as the shadow of the avalanche for him. He saw comprehension dawn on his teammate's face as a boulder falls towards him. Extending his hands, he lanced out with his beam, squeezing his eyes shut in horror. For what felt like an eternity, he fired- although it was only about ten seconds in reality. He was trying to muster the courage to open his eyes when he heard a strange sound: clapping.
"Bravo, Ashcan. Making the best of a bungle." It was Selene. The rubble rippled under her touch, and the smashed forcefield projector was brought to the surface. "Bringing down the house is an admirable tactic- better it than you, after all." Glancing over at Jeffrey, Ashcan exhaled. He was lying among the rubble, covered with dust, but otherwise unscathed. "But you cut it a bit too fine for an 'excellent.'" Jeffrey fingered his hair- his bangs had been cut down even shorter by the incineration ray. She glanced at the sun. "Look at the time. Yout two had better get cleaned up. But there's a change of uniform for each of you in your dorm room- put those on and report back here." She held out her hand, and the inhibitor collar peeled itself of Transit's neck. "And all powers will be necessary."
Five minutes later, they were back at the place where they had beaten the robot. Ashcan glanced up and felt his jaw drop- the arch he had toppled to destroy it was back, restored as if it had never fallen. He jerked aside as Jeffrey materialized next to him.
"Transit here- whoa, is it back?"
"Yes. A minor demonstration of my powers." Selene smiled. She was in her Black Queen garb. "Come. This way."
"What're we doing?" Jeffrey asked, materializing next to her.
"Stop showing off your teleportation powers. You're not that good, yet- suppose you materialize inside a wall?" He quailed under her glare.
"I'm sorry, Selene, I didn't mean to-"
"Enough. We're going on our first mission."
"Where?" Ashcan asked. She had been dropping hints about it, but she had never told them anything concrete.
"The Savage Land."
***
The Shaw Industries helicopter cut through the crisp Antarctic air. Selene jostled Jeffrey.
"Hurm?"
"Wake up. Look out the window."
"Are those mountains-"
"Yes, the border." Selene cut him off. "But I want you to look below us. Note the glacier, as well as you can. You may have to repeat what you did in Alaska."
His eyes bugged. "NO! I'm not going to murder anyone- anyone... else." He slumped miserably. "I didn't mean to..." he added weakly. Selene smiled.
"You can't lie to a telepath, Jeffrey. You went to that house with the intention of slaughtering everyone inside, and you did a good job of it too. Didn't lose your head, either- you remembered to dunk each of them before sending them to join the others on the glacier. You can deceive yourself all you like, but you're an excellent murderer." She patted him on the back as tears trickled from his eyes.
"You can't make me- if you try- I'll do to you- what I did- what I did to them." His eyes were blazing; he was a hairsbredth from invoking his teleportation power. Selene was taken aback, but only for a seond. Reaching into his mind, she began to calm his emotions.
"Transit- don't fly off the handle. I was making an observation, that's-"
"Don't." He was proving harder to manipulate than she first thought.
"I wouldn't ask you to do that to a person. I don't train hitmen, after all." He visibly relaxed. "But we may face giant prehistoric monsters. If I ask you to kill a tyrannosaur to prevent it killing us, will you do so?"
"I don't want to-"
"But if it's our life or its, what will you do?" She put her hands on his shoulders and spoke sympathetically. "I know this is hard, but we have to make choices."
"If it's not a person-"
"Wonderful." Selene sat back and smiled, shaking Alex as they flew over the last peak. In all its green, the Savage Land erupted before them. "We're there."
"Selene-"
"Yes, Macon?"
"- I can't see a site. You said you knew-"
"I do. Put it in hover- it's at the base of the mountian."
"Where?"
"Nowhere, yet." She shut her eyes as light blazed from her. Far below him, Jeffrey could see a small patch of stone bending and rippling. After a minute, she opened her eyes. "Done. Take us down, Macon."
As the helicopter descended, Jeffrey looked down at Selene's instant landing pad. It was more than a hundred feet across, level as a plate. The skids of the helicopter crunched on the gravel as it landed. Selene got up, followed closely by her two students. "Don't bother keeping the engine warm, Macon, but don't fall asleep at the wheel."
"What odds?"
"Of leaving under fire? Small- but not nonexistant. Stay sharp." The three of them clambered out.
"How do we get down?" Alex asked, glancing over the edge of the pad. "It's a big drop- two hundred feet, easy."
"Jeffrey... see that clearing down there?"
He grinned, apparently over his guilt attack. "Let's go." They disappeared in a blaze of light.
They reappered in the steaming clearing. Selene wrinkled her nose- something large was rotting nearby. Flipping back the face of her watch, she checked her compass. "North by northwest should take us where we're going."
"I can't teleport far through this."
"Nobody's asking you to, Transit. Follow me." Selene took the lead, using her geomancy to rip obstacles out of her path. Alex jumped as she toppled a two-hundred-foot tree. "It's not far from here- we're looking for the villiage of the Tiger People, as they call themselves. Their symbol should be immediatly recognizable."
"Are there tigers here?"
"Yes- sabre-toothed." She disintegrated a boulder. "Really, is this a habitat or an obstacle course?"
An hour later, Jeffrey glanced behind them. "We're kind of making a path..."
"No, Transit, we're not there yet, but we should be within spitting distance of the village. I can sense people not far from here..." she shut her eyes. "There." They opened again. With a wave of her hand, she tore a massive tree up by the roots and tossed it aside. "Greenpeace wouldn't be happy, but they never come here. Something about facing death in the form of nature clashes with them."
In front of them was a dilapidated-looking village. The gate was without a lintel, and the thin trunks that made up the wall were sagging. Most of them were encrusted with green plant life. Even without his incendiary powers, Ashcan felt he could've taken the wall down in twenty minutes.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Alex asked.
"Yes. Disgusting, isn't it- fate has not been kind to the Tiger People. Half of their council was wiped out by a renegade tyrannosaur, and the pterodactyls have been merciless- especally one by the name of Sauron. He and the Savage Land mutates settled by chance near this village. They're always stealing people for experiments. Not to mention that the Obsidian People are getting more agressive. If we had waited much longer, all we would've found here is a smouldering wreck. Oh, the Obsidian People are their traditional rivals, they live near a volcano and use obsidian weapons. High-tech, in this barbaric place." She beckoned. "Come."
It was even worse inside. There were a few fires going, but not much food, and eveyone looked half-dead. The huts were delapidated, mouldering, and vermin were scuttling around the edges of them. But worst of all, a pall seemed to be hanging over the village, almost tangible in it's strength: the death of hope. Nobody here saw anything bright in the future. As if in reply to an unspoken question, Selene spoke up.
"'Despair is for those who have seen the end beyond any doubt.'" She smiled at her students. "Tolkien. In a world where the strong survive, they don't have any future. Chance has picked on them too much." She closed her eyes, picking through the minds of those around here. "He's not here... farther... let's... ahh." Her alert gaze was back. "By the treeline. Despite his power, he is as despairing as the rest- obviously. He has no idea of his own strength. And of this lowly village, he is the lowest, bar none."
"Unpopular?"
"You could say that." She led them out through a gap in the wall, opposite to the gate. "You'll see why for yourselves. He should be coming into sight... now."
As if on cue, their target stepped into view. Six foot nine and a wall of solid muscle, he would've easily ranked "most powerful" in that dismal village even if not for his obvious mutation. He had four arms.
"Koh-i-noor!" Selene called . He stopped and turned towards her.
"What do you want?"
"Speaks good English." Alex noted.
*Most of them do.* Selene suppled mentally. Out loud, she said: "Do you wish to leave?"
"Why?"
"To see the..." she gestured "...greater world. To see what lies beyond the mountains. You are both a danger and in danger, Koh- you know of what I speak."
"Why would you... offer me this?"
"Because I help people like you- and I have heard that the end is rapidly approaching your people. It would be a shame to have your talents perish with them."
"Why should I trust you? How do I know you're not an... impostor?"
She turned to Alex and Jeffrey. "Am I lying- no, I can see you're not convinced. Let me show you one of my talents." With the skill born of millennia of practice, she forged a mindlink between. Into his head flooded her memories, her training sessions with the other two, and above all, her pitch for her school. After a few seconds of the intese mental experience, he fell back, gasping from brain fatigue. "You've seen my mind. Now do you believe me?"
"I believe you." He said at last. "I must speak with... the others. My people need me."
Selene cursed in Latin and set her face as she and her students followed him back to the village.
Inside, things had gotten even worse. As long as they stuck by Koh, the aura of dispair was mingled with one of disgust. To someone as mentally sensitive as Selene, the combination of emotions induced fairly strong nausea. However impressive the giant, it was pretty obvious that his own tribe didn't like him.
"Selene? You're looking sorta- green." Alex said as they approached the village center.
"I'm fine, Ashcan. The air of distain- it's almost tangible. This is what I get for being psychic."
"What's wrong?"
"I'm searching their minds now- hang on... ah! I have it. Does he look familiar to you?"
"Noooo...." Alex and Jeffrey chorused.
"I forgot, we havn't had a class on the savage land mutates. Short version- one of them is called Barbarus, he has four arms, and is superstrong and super-tough. Famously vicous.This barbarian is evidently his son."
"And the problem is..."
"Apparently Barbarus dispoiled his mother. Rather violently. Primitive peoples are given to that, and Barbarus is strong enough to exert his will- as it were- on anyone he choses. As a result, he is virtually a walking manifestation of this tribe's collapse. It's not his fault who his father was, of course, but to a proud people, it's very hard not to hold against him. That situation is made worse by the knowledge that if any of them survive, it will be him. They are loathe to have him among them, but from what I can glean from their minds, they're not keen on letting him go, either."
Koh was speaking to three old people (evidently the leaders) rapidly in a local dialect. Selene, plucking the throughts from their brains as fast as they formed, was giving color commentary to her students in English. "They're saying they need him... he's saying they don't... they're disagreeing.... ohh, he's sticking it to them. Appropriate, given the shoddy treatment he's gotten from them his whole life."
One of the three, an old man, got up and walked over to them and began to chatter at them in his language.
"He's proposing a trade. He says that if we give the tribe a gift of sufficent worth, we can have him, with their blessing." She turned to Alex and Jeffrey. "Now, what's to stop us from just taking him? He doesn't like this place-no sane person does- and he doesn't feel any loyalty towards them, given how little respect he gets."
"Still, it wouldn't be right to just leave them hanging..." Jeffrey began.
"Hanging? They're already hanging, Transit- all they have is a few proverbial seconds before they die. But still, formalities must be observed." She smiled and raised her hands, illuminating herself as her power activated. For a second, nothing happened.
There was a grinding crunch. The rotting fence slid apart and fell as the ground reared up under it. Higher and higher the dirt climbed, finally stopping off at ten feet high and sharpening off. As a final move, Selene marblized it, forming a wall four feet thick, ten feet high, and smooth as glass. She smiled and tuned to the old man. "Is that a sufficent gift?" Her smile grew broader. "I take you slack-jawed amazement to mean 'yes.' It's been a pleasure doing business with you." She turned to Koh. "Do you still wish to come?"
He was staring at her. "Did... you...?"
"Yes, that was me. Do you wish to be part of my organization or not?"
"Yes..."
"Transit, can you picture the helicopter?" Jeffrey nodded. "Then let's go home."
***
Selene and her three students stepped out of the helicopter into the Brazilian night. Selene and Koh were looking rather fried- she had been giving him a telepathic crash course on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. She wasn't sure he had it all yet, but she had fried enough brain cells for one day. As Macon walked away, Selene called the students together.
"I... uhhhh... my apologies. I'm tired." She shook her head to clear it. "We need to settle some thing here. First, we need a 'normal' name for Koh. Second, we need a codename. He will be given a uniform and suchlike tomorrow. It's Sunday, so I there's no training."
"Good."
"Jeffrey! Don't you like training?"
"Sure. It's a blast."
"Normal name?"
"Ned?" Jeffrey suggested.
"'And Harry Potter and all his little friends...'" Alex began in his best Ned Flanders voice. A look from Selene shut him up. "Sorry. Ummm... Nate? Ian?""
"No and no."
"He comes from the Savage Land- Stephen?"
"Good. Stephen Noor- sounds nondescript-ethnic enough to fly. Codename."
"Ummm... Forearm's been used."
"Yes, and he died rather nastily. A lady from the Serpant Society snapped his neck, as I recall." She pursed her lips. "It needs to sound vicious- I have it. Bastard."
"How do you like it, Koh?"
"Must I have false names?"
"Yes." Selene said sharply. "It's a tradition, and you wished to be part of this, correct? Besides, you'll have to blend in- at least to a degree- with the outside world. They'll call you Stephen- which will probably degenerate into 'Steve'- when you're out of costume, and Bastard when you're in it."
"I must have three false names now?"
"No." She put her face in her hand in exasperation. "'Steve' is a contraction of 'Stephen', one of your two false names. It's just the shorter version, like Koh is for your real name."
"Oh."
She glanced at her watch. "Two-thirty already. Your teammates are Jeffrey- the shorter one- when he's out of costume, Transit when he's in. The other one is Alex when he's out, Ashcan when he's in. You'll be sharing a dorm with them- the rooms are gauged for three each- so they can show you where you'll be sleeping tonight. Tomorrow we'll arrange for some regular clothes for you." She visibly stifled a yawn. "That's all. Class dismissed."