As midnight approached, I filled the vest's pockets with various
weaponry. I'd been attacked by random human gangs in New York on multiple
occasions and found that it paid to carry something sharp. I didn't really
need the knives; the Brotherhood had trained me in martial arts, and I was
a black belt. I just liked it. It was probably the sadist in me that
liked the thrill of pulling a knife on some human punk who'd thought he
might have a little 'fun' kicking the crap out of a mutant. I stared at
the gun for a long time before deciding to load it and take it with me.
Something deep inside was telling me that it would be needed. It was one
of those gut feelings, one of those things you never question but listen to
because it was always right.
I started to get the feeling that something was wrong - really wrong - when I stepped out into the hall and found the only other person in the building besides myself was the new member, the pyromaniac. He was sitting in the kitchen, drinking coffee and playing with a lighter.
"Where is everyone?" I asked.
"Mystique went out to get Jenny," he said, getting up and going over to the coffeemaker, "you want some?" he asked, picking up the coffee pot.
"Sure."
He started to pour the thin black liquid into a mug. "Magneto's at a Brotherhood meeting with Sabe," he continued.
"Why aren't you there?"
He shrugged. "You want cream or sugar?"
"No thanks."
He handed me the mug and sat back down. I looked up at the clock, seeing that it hadn't moved much, and put the mug to my lips. I knew the instant my tongue hit the liquid that it had been tampered with - it tasted bitter and acidic, kind of like Valium or Aspirin when you chew it up instead of swallowing it - and spat it out onto the kitchen floor. The kid jumped.
"What's in the coffee?" I asked, rising and approaching him, kicking my chair aside. What was the little brat trying to do, and why was he trying to do it?
"Nothin." But his eyes were wide with fear, and if he'd been telling the truth, he would've had nothing to fear. I grabbed him, jerking him out of his chair and holding him by the collar of his shirt. I moved quickly, causing him to drop his lighter. I kicked the thing aside; the kid was powerless now. He could control fire, control it pretty damn well, but he couldn't create it.
"Answer my question. What's in the coffee?"
"Valium!"
"Why?"
"Look, I don't know what it's about! Mystique said to knock you out - "
"Where the hell is she?" I somehow wasn't surprised that that tramp was behind this. Her schemes were always unnecessarily elaborate and slightly sadistic. She was up to something that somehow involved me and Jenny. The kid shook his head, and, in turn, I shook him. "Answer me, you bastard."
"In some room down the hall, with Sabe and Magneto and some girl."
"Some girl?" Jenny? "You see this girl?"
"Only a picture."
"What'd she look like?"
"Kinda like a cat . . . I don't know."
"What room are they in?"
"Magento's office, I think."
I put him down. "Do yourself a favor, kid. Drink my coffee." And I saw him do it out of the corner of my eye as I left the room, heading down the hall to the cold metal office that was the base of all of Magneto's operations. I knew that the door would be locked before I even got there - these people were trying to keep me away from Jenny, though they weren't doing a very good job. I was beginning to doubt that it was part of Mystique's plan; she was meticulous, and would have had the kid slip me roofies or date-rape drugs instead of Valium. Those other drugs didn't have a taste to them; if they'd been in my coffee, I would've been out cold. I couldn't help but wonder why they'd even called me back to the States. I hadn't done or been asked to do anything useful (except maybe test the kid's drug-slipping skills, and he failed horribly).
I paused outside the door, preparing to kick it open. It was pretty thick and heavy; I was unable to hear anything that was happening on the other side, aside from what sounded like a muffled roar (Sabertooth). I closed my eyes, bracing myself, and leapt at the door, hitting it dead-on. The door swung open, which surprised me. That didn't surprise me nearly as much as what was on the other side, though.
Jenny was the first one I saw. She was kneeling on the floor about four feet from Magneto's desk. Her head was down, and her hands were tied behind her back. Her hair was different; it was cut boyishly short and, in addition to being dyed black, was spiked. She turned her head towards me, responding to the sound of the door being kicked in, and squinted. Her glasses were lying on the ground beside her, intact and goggle-like. There were three small, line-like scars on her left cheek, below her eye, and it looked like they'd been there for a while. They certainly hadn't been there the last time I'd seen her, but they weren't my main concern. My main concern was the bleeding gash in her forehead and the two black eyes.
Sabertooth was standing over her, holding a long metal bar. There was blood dripping off of the bar, splashing quietly onto the floor. Magneto was seated at his desk, leaning back and watching the proceedings as calmly as one would watch a movie. Mystique was perched seductively on the edge of his desk, her eyes hooked on Jenny. She was grinning.
"Mortimer?" Jenny's voice was soft and kind of frightened. It was as though she wasn't sure that she was seeing me, or maybe she thought that she was hallucinating, because she looked back at Magneto for confirmation of my presence.
"What the hell is going on?" I demanded.
"Jenny here is thinking of joining the X-Men," said Mystique.
"And she's failing her mission," added Sabertooth. Jenny was staring at me again. To her, everything was blurry without her glasses, and she probably couldn't tell who I was.
"I can do it," said Jenny. Her voice sounded thick, as though she was having trouble moving her mouth. I saw a thin line of blood trickle down her chin as she spoke. "I just need more time . . . "
"That's bull and you know it - "
"Ram it, Mystique." I pulled out my gun, forgetting in my anger that Magneto could just take it away from me with a flick of his wrist. I wanted to fire a thousand bullets into them, all three of them, for what they'd done to Jenny. First they'd deceived her to get her to go on a suicide mission, and now they were beating her.
"Put the gun down, Mortimer," said Magneto calmly, and I put it away, but not before I got between Sabertooth and Jenny. "This is merely a form of discipline."
"You're a bunch of sick fucks," I shouted, "why the hell did you even drag me back here?"
"Well, it was in the original plan," said Mystique, "but once I found out that your bitch was going to join the X-Men, the plan changed."
"I'm not gonna!" cried Jenny, her eyes brimming with tears.
"Bullshit."
I turned away from Mystique and Magneto and picked up Jenny's glasses, sliding them onto her face. She blinked, her eyes widening. She stared at me open-mouthed, and tears began to spill down her cheeks.
"Mortimer? Is that really you?"
"Yeah, Jenny. It's me."
"But . . . oh my God, you're . . . Mystique said . . . " her voice trailed off, and she leaned forward. "But I saw it happen."
"I survived," I said, kneeling in front of her and pulling a switchblade out of my vest. I was cutting her bonds, when I heard the explosion. I looked up in time to see a large red beam shoot through the air and hit Sabertooth in the chest. He fell back, growling in pain, and I heard Mystique and Magneto rising, preparing to fight off the intruding X- Men.
Cyclops was blocking the doorway, trying to hit Mystique with his eye- lasers and failing. I could just barely see Storm behind him; the light bounced off of her silvery hair eerily. I put the knife away and scooped Jenny up into my arms. I'd nearly died fighting the X-Men, and wasn't willing to lay down my life for the Brotherhood, so I darted toward the window.
My mutation enables me to stick to walls and other surfaces, thanks to a slime that my hands secrete, so the fact that there was no fire escape did not stop me from fleeing with Jenny. I was able to stop long enough to fully release her from her bonds, but I had no real idea of where we could run to. I looked around, trying to get my bearings; I'd only been gone a year.
"The Red District," said Jenny suddenly. "We can go there."
"The Red District?"
"It's run by the Hellfire Club," she said, taking my hand. "And Emma Frost owes me." She smiled briefly, then began to run, pulling me along with her.
I was hoping that we were out of the woods; surely the X-Men had a bone to pick with Magneto and not us, but I was wrong. The X-Men were chasing us, hollering at Jenny to stop running, that they would help her, that they didn't want to hurt her, and the rest of the bull.
"Down here!" cried Jenny, leaping into an open manhole and beckoning for me to follow. I had no real choice; it was either join my girlfriend in the sewer or get myself killed for real by the X-Men. I dove in after her, making sure to close the opening. We stood there in the darkness, panting and waiting for our eyes to adjust. "So," said Jenny after a while, "Mystique lied to me about you."
"Yeah." I made my way to her, groping in the darkness until I felt my fingertips brush against the soft gray fabric of the shirt she was wearing. For a moment, we stood like that, barely touching, then she turned to me and fell into my arms. She pressed herself against me, and I found myself on the verge of tears.
"Oh God," she whispered, "I don't know what to say. I . . . I'm just so glad you're alive."
"I missed you so much, Jenny. You have no idea - "
It was truly a perfect moment, despite the fact that we were in a sewer, and it was ruined very suddenly.
"Dammit, she should be right here!" Cyclops' voice came from above us, and I could feel Jenny's head turn upward.
"You sure you're reading that thing right?" Wolverine was with him. Fuck.
"Yeah, we're right where she should be."
"Maybe something's wrong with the equipment." And Storm was there too. Bloody fuck.
"Shit," whispered Jenny, trembling slightly. "They've got a tracking device on me. Shit."
"Vhat if she's under us?" This was a new voice: a grown man with a strong German accent. And he was right on the money in regards to our location. Jenny and I didn't stick around long enough to find out if they were planning to check it out; Jenny must've gotten familiar with the sewer system after my "death," because she led us right to the center of the Red District.
"Up here - " she was pointing to a ladder " - this should put us in the Red District, near Emma's apartment." I climbed the ladder first, shoving the heavy metal disk aside and emerging from the stinking hellhole that is New York's sewer system. I helped Jenny out. She paused, looking around to get her bearings and make sure the X-Men weren't on our tails. We seemed pretty well-hidden, being smack dab in the middle of a sea of New York's lowest members of society; hookers, hustlers, pushers, the homeless, pickpockets - mutant and human alike. Some people say that Greenwich Village is the only place in New York where mutants and humans coexist peacefully, but those are only people who've never been to the Red District. Jenny pointed up at a nearby fire escape, and began to climb it.
"Emma's apartment is the third window up," she called down. I followed her wordlessly, wondering how the hell she knew this.
Jenny reached Emma's window, rapping on it with her knuckles and looking around. She was checking the sky for Storm, and I knew that she was terrified. It would be easier to see her up here where she couldn't hide behind a crowd. Finally, the window opened and Emma Frost stuck her head out.
"What do you want?" she asked, wrinkling her nose. Needless to say Jenny and I did not smell like a bouquet of roses; that's what happens when you run through the sewers. "And aren't you supposed to be dead?" Emma was colder than Mystique, more sarcastic, and harder to surprise.
"Emma, you gotta help me." Jenny shoved her aside, climbing into the apartment, pulling me in after her. She moved away from the window. "The X-Men are after me. They've got a tracking device of some kind on me - "
"You have a bug on you and you came here?" screamed Emma. "Holy shit!" She immediately closed the window, drawing the shade. She turned back to us, brushing her long blonde hair out of her eyes. "Quick, strip."
"What?"
"Take your clothes off and do it fast. If the X-Men find out where I live - "
"Relax, Emma," said Jenny, peeling her shirt off and tossing it to the floor. "Cain'll take care of them for you."
I was about to ask who Cain was when he entered the room. He was tall, maybe six feet (minimum), and had blonde hair. In addition to being insanely tall, this gent was also very muscular, the kind you see in ads for various body-building equipment. It was a clean sort of muscularness, though; his bare arms held no needle marks and his veins didn't stand out. He wouldn't have seemed like such a bad guy if he hadn't been practically drooling over Jenny.
"Hey there, Wildcat," he said, winking at her. Jenny ignored him; Emma was in the process of shaking out her clothes. "Who's this?" he asked, nodding towards me.
"That's Toad," said Emma, shaking one of Jenny's boots. "He's with the Brotherhood."
He took his eyes off of Jenny long enough to formally introduce himself to me. "I'm Cain Marko, the Unstoppable Juggernaut."
"Mortimer Toynbee, the Toad."
"So you're Wildcat's boyfriend!" he turned back to Jenny, "damn, I thought you said he was dead."
"That's what Mystique told me," said Jenny, bitterness in her voice. "That lying bitch."
Emma picked up Jenny's clothes, handing them to her. "There's nothing on them," she said quickly. "Gimme your jewelry." Jenny complied and began the laborious-looking task of getting all her jewelry out; I hadn't noticed before, but she was wearing a hell of a lot. A spiked collar, two matching spiked wrist cuffs, three rings, and four earrings (three in her ears and one in her left nostril) later there was still no sign of any sort of tracking device.
"Fucking shit! Strip again, maybe I missed it."
"Cain, will you get lost?" asked Jenny.
"No way, babe - "
"If you don't get lost, I'll tear your eyes out and ram them so far down your throat you'll need a proctologist to get them out," I snapped. Cain Marko stared at me, then turned and left the room. That bastard had some nerve, eyeing my girlfriend like a sex-toy. Jenny smiled at me, then started to undress again, but stopped.
"Wait, Emma," she said, "where's the bathroom?"
"For Christ's sake, Jenny, we don't have time - "
"Well it isn't on my clothes or jewelry - "
"We don't know that! Maybe I missed it."
"What if it's in my tampon?" All Emma and I could do was stare at her. You could put a tracking device in lots of strange places, but I'd never heard of putting it in a tampon. That was just disgusting.
"Bathroom's down the hall," said Emma, pointing. Jenny turned on her heel and scampered away. She returned about five minutes later.
"Those sick fucks."
"You flushed it?" Jenny nodded. "Good," said Emma, "now get out."
"Thanks."
Emma made no reply as Jenny and I left via the front door instead of the fire escape. That turned out to be a mistake; the device had been on (in, rather) Jenny long enough for the X-Men to find Emma's apartment. We were in the process of racing down the stairs when I was informally introduced to the newest X-Man - a blue demon-like German named Nightcrawler. He had one hand pressed against the side of his head, holding a communicating device in place, and was apparently trying to accurately follow orders when we collided. He fell, toppling backwards, and Jenny took a flying leap over him as if he wasn't there at all.
"Vildcat," he called, struggling to regain his balance, "come back. Ve're trying to help you."
"I don't need your help!" shouted Jenny, rounding a corner and disappearing.
Nightcrawler was about to spring after her, which, in retrospect, was not the best move he could've made. The first and only official rule of hand- to-hand combat is never to turn your back on your opponent, which is exactly what he did. I was halfway down a flight of stairs - an awkward position to do a flying kick from - and the leverage is probably what gave me the advantage. I'd aimed for the middle of his back, hoping to maybe dislocate the spine, but at the last minute he moved and I hit him in the side. As he fell, I could hear the faint crack of a rib or two breaking. He looked up at me, muttering in German. I stepped over him and tore off before he could retaliate, though with a few broken ribs I assumed that he was out of the picture.
I heard a shrill zapping sound, followed by an explosion and a scream, and knew that Cyclops had just busted into Emma Frost's apartment. I found Jenny in the lobby, hiding behind a garbage can. Her eyes looked larger and owl-like behind her glasses, and they were darting around frantically.
"There's four of them," she said, pulling me close. I crouched down, squeezing into the shadows beside her. "Nightcrawler, Storm, Cyclops, and Wolverine. We've taken care of Nightcrawler . . . "
"And Cyclops just broke into Emma's apartment."
"I know, Storm's with him. That means Wolverine's out there." Jenny jerked her head sideways, indicating the door.
"Why are they after you?"
Jenny shook her head. "I convinced the Professor that I wanted to join the X-Men, but Mystique . . . " she groaned. "Mystique fucked everything up. The X-Men know I'm with the Brotherhood now, and they're . . . oh God, I don't know what they're gonna do to me." She looked at me, her head tilted to the side. She'd been wearing black eye makeup, and her tears had caused it to run, leaving little grimy trails on her cheeks. I couldn't get over how different she looked. The spikes, the leather, the piercing - she looked tough. She smiled weakly and took my hand. "And you're back," she whispered. "God, Mortimer, I feel so mixed-up inside. I'm so glad you're, you know, not dead. But I just . . . the X-Men were - " she paused, grappling at the right words " - helping me cope. They were . . . they . . . they were almost like a family or something. They were good to me, but - but they kept saying that you'd never cared about me. They kept telling me that you used me and treated me bad and that you weren't worth it." She shook her head. "I never bought it. I just . . . I knew that you'd cared about me and that I mattered to you. Jesus, Mortimer, I'm sorry. I was supposed to avenge you. I failed. I failed you." She looked down, wringing her hands. "You can hit me if you want," she said, her voice a dead whisper. "I deserve it."
There were millions of things that I wanted to say - you didn't fail, I'm not mad at you, you didn't fail me, I love you, Jesus Christ I fucking love you and I'll never hurt you again - but I didn't have time to say them. I'd be able to say them later on, in a more appropriate setting, though. The front door flew open, and Sabertooth entered. Jenny gave a cry of surprise and fear (I think it was mostly surprise, though; we'd been expecting Wolverine), and that gave us away, but the trashcan was between us and Sabertooth, and we were able to use that to our advantage. With Sabertooth tripping over the overturned barrel, Jenny and I were able to dart around him and out the front door.
The Brotherhood was there, as was the Hellfire Club (after all, it was their territory), and they were currently doing battle with the X-Men invaders. I hadn't joined in the fray; I had no one to side with - the X- Men would try to kill me, I hated the Brotherhood, and I was pretty sure that the Hellfire Club would only back me up if I was a member. They were a picky bunch, headed by Emma Frost (or, as she's known to them, the White Queen), the Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver.
I didn't want to get involved anyway - everything was happening so quickly. The Brotherhood had betrayed me, Jenny was in quasi-shock over seeing me, the X-Men were after me, I was still trying to adjust to the time difference (I was still operating on England-time, and it was driving me insane). I wanted to curl up in a corner and scream, and I'm pretty sure that Jenny wanted to do the same. She was looking around, her head snapping back and forth, her wide eyes taking in all the surrounding violence and carnage.
Amid the flying debris, optic blasts, and projectiles, I saw Storm. She flashed briefly across the sky, her brilliant blue eyes searching the ground for Jenny. Storm was flying too fast, though, and she wasn't looking hard enough. Jenny and I went unnoticed. Jenny turned to me.
"I have a plan," she whispered, "I have a plan to stop this."
"We can just sneak away," I said, "they won't notice - "
"But they'd keep looking for me," she said. She turned away, walking towards a nearby apartment building that was still pretty much intact. She began to climb the fire escape; she did this slowly, as if wanting me to catch up with her, to follow her - which I did. "I'm gonna fake my death," she continued.
"How?"
"I'm gonna jump."
I looked up. The building was fifteen or so stories - there was no way she could jump and live. "It's too high! You won't make it."
She stopped, looking down at me. "Yes, I will," she said quietly, and continued to climb. "Listen," she said, pausing and allowing me to catch up with her, "you see these?" she pointed to the three line-like scars under her left eye. "They're my death scars."
I shook my head. What the bloody hell's a death scar? What did those claw marks have to do with death? I was suddenly aware that I was shaking, and I grabbed her arm. She was scaring me.
"Mortimer," she whispered, touching my hand, "I can't die."
"What?"
"I've died three times. I don't stay dead." She wasn't making sense. She sounded so serious about it, so eerily spookily serious - like a character in a horror film. I gripped her tighter, as though she'd tear her heart out with her own hands if I let go. "I know it doesn't make sense," she said, "but I'm like a cat - I have nine lives or something. Look at this - " and she rolled up one of her sleeves, revealing a series of scars on her inner wrist. They were the kind of scars that only a suicidal razor could create. My breath caught in my throat - their darkness, their permanence . . . oh God, I thought, those were deep enough to kill her. I looked up at her as if seeing her for the first time.
She was a stranger, a stranger I was in love with. I'd never seen such determination and solemn confidence in her. It hit me that maybe she'd hit a turning point in my absence, become a woman or gained a new outlook on life or something. Something inside of her had changed; her usual uncertainty and timidity was gone, completely and totally gone.
She placed her hands on my face, her fingers curling around the back of my head, holding it. She closed her eyes, leaning in close, and kissed me. I wanted that moment to live on forever. There was a serious intensity in her lips, a harsh yet loving feeling that they seemed to embody. It was a mature kiss, a kiss of experience, far different from a blushing sloppy hormone-driven teenage kiss. I found myself unable to move; I just stood there with my hands at my sides, responding to that beautiful kiss. The kiss was over before I wanted it to be over, and Jenny pulled away from me. She was still holding my head, which felt a little awkward, like she was ordering me to step down and let her do her thing, even though I didn't want her to do it. Something inside of me felt compelled to obey her, though, so I kept my mouth shut.
"Wait for me down there," she said, taking my handgun and slipping it into her back pocket.
I started to get the feeling that something was wrong - really wrong - when I stepped out into the hall and found the only other person in the building besides myself was the new member, the pyromaniac. He was sitting in the kitchen, drinking coffee and playing with a lighter.
"Where is everyone?" I asked.
"Mystique went out to get Jenny," he said, getting up and going over to the coffeemaker, "you want some?" he asked, picking up the coffee pot.
"Sure."
He started to pour the thin black liquid into a mug. "Magneto's at a Brotherhood meeting with Sabe," he continued.
"Why aren't you there?"
He shrugged. "You want cream or sugar?"
"No thanks."
He handed me the mug and sat back down. I looked up at the clock, seeing that it hadn't moved much, and put the mug to my lips. I knew the instant my tongue hit the liquid that it had been tampered with - it tasted bitter and acidic, kind of like Valium or Aspirin when you chew it up instead of swallowing it - and spat it out onto the kitchen floor. The kid jumped.
"What's in the coffee?" I asked, rising and approaching him, kicking my chair aside. What was the little brat trying to do, and why was he trying to do it?
"Nothin." But his eyes were wide with fear, and if he'd been telling the truth, he would've had nothing to fear. I grabbed him, jerking him out of his chair and holding him by the collar of his shirt. I moved quickly, causing him to drop his lighter. I kicked the thing aside; the kid was powerless now. He could control fire, control it pretty damn well, but he couldn't create it.
"Answer my question. What's in the coffee?"
"Valium!"
"Why?"
"Look, I don't know what it's about! Mystique said to knock you out - "
"Where the hell is she?" I somehow wasn't surprised that that tramp was behind this. Her schemes were always unnecessarily elaborate and slightly sadistic. She was up to something that somehow involved me and Jenny. The kid shook his head, and, in turn, I shook him. "Answer me, you bastard."
"In some room down the hall, with Sabe and Magneto and some girl."
"Some girl?" Jenny? "You see this girl?"
"Only a picture."
"What'd she look like?"
"Kinda like a cat . . . I don't know."
"What room are they in?"
"Magento's office, I think."
I put him down. "Do yourself a favor, kid. Drink my coffee." And I saw him do it out of the corner of my eye as I left the room, heading down the hall to the cold metal office that was the base of all of Magneto's operations. I knew that the door would be locked before I even got there - these people were trying to keep me away from Jenny, though they weren't doing a very good job. I was beginning to doubt that it was part of Mystique's plan; she was meticulous, and would have had the kid slip me roofies or date-rape drugs instead of Valium. Those other drugs didn't have a taste to them; if they'd been in my coffee, I would've been out cold. I couldn't help but wonder why they'd even called me back to the States. I hadn't done or been asked to do anything useful (except maybe test the kid's drug-slipping skills, and he failed horribly).
I paused outside the door, preparing to kick it open. It was pretty thick and heavy; I was unable to hear anything that was happening on the other side, aside from what sounded like a muffled roar (Sabertooth). I closed my eyes, bracing myself, and leapt at the door, hitting it dead-on. The door swung open, which surprised me. That didn't surprise me nearly as much as what was on the other side, though.
Jenny was the first one I saw. She was kneeling on the floor about four feet from Magneto's desk. Her head was down, and her hands were tied behind her back. Her hair was different; it was cut boyishly short and, in addition to being dyed black, was spiked. She turned her head towards me, responding to the sound of the door being kicked in, and squinted. Her glasses were lying on the ground beside her, intact and goggle-like. There were three small, line-like scars on her left cheek, below her eye, and it looked like they'd been there for a while. They certainly hadn't been there the last time I'd seen her, but they weren't my main concern. My main concern was the bleeding gash in her forehead and the two black eyes.
Sabertooth was standing over her, holding a long metal bar. There was blood dripping off of the bar, splashing quietly onto the floor. Magneto was seated at his desk, leaning back and watching the proceedings as calmly as one would watch a movie. Mystique was perched seductively on the edge of his desk, her eyes hooked on Jenny. She was grinning.
"Mortimer?" Jenny's voice was soft and kind of frightened. It was as though she wasn't sure that she was seeing me, or maybe she thought that she was hallucinating, because she looked back at Magneto for confirmation of my presence.
"What the hell is going on?" I demanded.
"Jenny here is thinking of joining the X-Men," said Mystique.
"And she's failing her mission," added Sabertooth. Jenny was staring at me again. To her, everything was blurry without her glasses, and she probably couldn't tell who I was.
"I can do it," said Jenny. Her voice sounded thick, as though she was having trouble moving her mouth. I saw a thin line of blood trickle down her chin as she spoke. "I just need more time . . . "
"That's bull and you know it - "
"Ram it, Mystique." I pulled out my gun, forgetting in my anger that Magneto could just take it away from me with a flick of his wrist. I wanted to fire a thousand bullets into them, all three of them, for what they'd done to Jenny. First they'd deceived her to get her to go on a suicide mission, and now they were beating her.
"Put the gun down, Mortimer," said Magneto calmly, and I put it away, but not before I got between Sabertooth and Jenny. "This is merely a form of discipline."
"You're a bunch of sick fucks," I shouted, "why the hell did you even drag me back here?"
"Well, it was in the original plan," said Mystique, "but once I found out that your bitch was going to join the X-Men, the plan changed."
"I'm not gonna!" cried Jenny, her eyes brimming with tears.
"Bullshit."
I turned away from Mystique and Magneto and picked up Jenny's glasses, sliding them onto her face. She blinked, her eyes widening. She stared at me open-mouthed, and tears began to spill down her cheeks.
"Mortimer? Is that really you?"
"Yeah, Jenny. It's me."
"But . . . oh my God, you're . . . Mystique said . . . " her voice trailed off, and she leaned forward. "But I saw it happen."
"I survived," I said, kneeling in front of her and pulling a switchblade out of my vest. I was cutting her bonds, when I heard the explosion. I looked up in time to see a large red beam shoot through the air and hit Sabertooth in the chest. He fell back, growling in pain, and I heard Mystique and Magneto rising, preparing to fight off the intruding X- Men.
Cyclops was blocking the doorway, trying to hit Mystique with his eye- lasers and failing. I could just barely see Storm behind him; the light bounced off of her silvery hair eerily. I put the knife away and scooped Jenny up into my arms. I'd nearly died fighting the X-Men, and wasn't willing to lay down my life for the Brotherhood, so I darted toward the window.
My mutation enables me to stick to walls and other surfaces, thanks to a slime that my hands secrete, so the fact that there was no fire escape did not stop me from fleeing with Jenny. I was able to stop long enough to fully release her from her bonds, but I had no real idea of where we could run to. I looked around, trying to get my bearings; I'd only been gone a year.
"The Red District," said Jenny suddenly. "We can go there."
"The Red District?"
"It's run by the Hellfire Club," she said, taking my hand. "And Emma Frost owes me." She smiled briefly, then began to run, pulling me along with her.
I was hoping that we were out of the woods; surely the X-Men had a bone to pick with Magneto and not us, but I was wrong. The X-Men were chasing us, hollering at Jenny to stop running, that they would help her, that they didn't want to hurt her, and the rest of the bull.
"Down here!" cried Jenny, leaping into an open manhole and beckoning for me to follow. I had no real choice; it was either join my girlfriend in the sewer or get myself killed for real by the X-Men. I dove in after her, making sure to close the opening. We stood there in the darkness, panting and waiting for our eyes to adjust. "So," said Jenny after a while, "Mystique lied to me about you."
"Yeah." I made my way to her, groping in the darkness until I felt my fingertips brush against the soft gray fabric of the shirt she was wearing. For a moment, we stood like that, barely touching, then she turned to me and fell into my arms. She pressed herself against me, and I found myself on the verge of tears.
"Oh God," she whispered, "I don't know what to say. I . . . I'm just so glad you're alive."
"I missed you so much, Jenny. You have no idea - "
It was truly a perfect moment, despite the fact that we were in a sewer, and it was ruined very suddenly.
"Dammit, she should be right here!" Cyclops' voice came from above us, and I could feel Jenny's head turn upward.
"You sure you're reading that thing right?" Wolverine was with him. Fuck.
"Yeah, we're right where she should be."
"Maybe something's wrong with the equipment." And Storm was there too. Bloody fuck.
"Shit," whispered Jenny, trembling slightly. "They've got a tracking device on me. Shit."
"Vhat if she's under us?" This was a new voice: a grown man with a strong German accent. And he was right on the money in regards to our location. Jenny and I didn't stick around long enough to find out if they were planning to check it out; Jenny must've gotten familiar with the sewer system after my "death," because she led us right to the center of the Red District.
"Up here - " she was pointing to a ladder " - this should put us in the Red District, near Emma's apartment." I climbed the ladder first, shoving the heavy metal disk aside and emerging from the stinking hellhole that is New York's sewer system. I helped Jenny out. She paused, looking around to get her bearings and make sure the X-Men weren't on our tails. We seemed pretty well-hidden, being smack dab in the middle of a sea of New York's lowest members of society; hookers, hustlers, pushers, the homeless, pickpockets - mutant and human alike. Some people say that Greenwich Village is the only place in New York where mutants and humans coexist peacefully, but those are only people who've never been to the Red District. Jenny pointed up at a nearby fire escape, and began to climb it.
"Emma's apartment is the third window up," she called down. I followed her wordlessly, wondering how the hell she knew this.
Jenny reached Emma's window, rapping on it with her knuckles and looking around. She was checking the sky for Storm, and I knew that she was terrified. It would be easier to see her up here where she couldn't hide behind a crowd. Finally, the window opened and Emma Frost stuck her head out.
"What do you want?" she asked, wrinkling her nose. Needless to say Jenny and I did not smell like a bouquet of roses; that's what happens when you run through the sewers. "And aren't you supposed to be dead?" Emma was colder than Mystique, more sarcastic, and harder to surprise.
"Emma, you gotta help me." Jenny shoved her aside, climbing into the apartment, pulling me in after her. She moved away from the window. "The X-Men are after me. They've got a tracking device of some kind on me - "
"You have a bug on you and you came here?" screamed Emma. "Holy shit!" She immediately closed the window, drawing the shade. She turned back to us, brushing her long blonde hair out of her eyes. "Quick, strip."
"What?"
"Take your clothes off and do it fast. If the X-Men find out where I live - "
"Relax, Emma," said Jenny, peeling her shirt off and tossing it to the floor. "Cain'll take care of them for you."
I was about to ask who Cain was when he entered the room. He was tall, maybe six feet (minimum), and had blonde hair. In addition to being insanely tall, this gent was also very muscular, the kind you see in ads for various body-building equipment. It was a clean sort of muscularness, though; his bare arms held no needle marks and his veins didn't stand out. He wouldn't have seemed like such a bad guy if he hadn't been practically drooling over Jenny.
"Hey there, Wildcat," he said, winking at her. Jenny ignored him; Emma was in the process of shaking out her clothes. "Who's this?" he asked, nodding towards me.
"That's Toad," said Emma, shaking one of Jenny's boots. "He's with the Brotherhood."
He took his eyes off of Jenny long enough to formally introduce himself to me. "I'm Cain Marko, the Unstoppable Juggernaut."
"Mortimer Toynbee, the Toad."
"So you're Wildcat's boyfriend!" he turned back to Jenny, "damn, I thought you said he was dead."
"That's what Mystique told me," said Jenny, bitterness in her voice. "That lying bitch."
Emma picked up Jenny's clothes, handing them to her. "There's nothing on them," she said quickly. "Gimme your jewelry." Jenny complied and began the laborious-looking task of getting all her jewelry out; I hadn't noticed before, but she was wearing a hell of a lot. A spiked collar, two matching spiked wrist cuffs, three rings, and four earrings (three in her ears and one in her left nostril) later there was still no sign of any sort of tracking device.
"Fucking shit! Strip again, maybe I missed it."
"Cain, will you get lost?" asked Jenny.
"No way, babe - "
"If you don't get lost, I'll tear your eyes out and ram them so far down your throat you'll need a proctologist to get them out," I snapped. Cain Marko stared at me, then turned and left the room. That bastard had some nerve, eyeing my girlfriend like a sex-toy. Jenny smiled at me, then started to undress again, but stopped.
"Wait, Emma," she said, "where's the bathroom?"
"For Christ's sake, Jenny, we don't have time - "
"Well it isn't on my clothes or jewelry - "
"We don't know that! Maybe I missed it."
"What if it's in my tampon?" All Emma and I could do was stare at her. You could put a tracking device in lots of strange places, but I'd never heard of putting it in a tampon. That was just disgusting.
"Bathroom's down the hall," said Emma, pointing. Jenny turned on her heel and scampered away. She returned about five minutes later.
"Those sick fucks."
"You flushed it?" Jenny nodded. "Good," said Emma, "now get out."
"Thanks."
Emma made no reply as Jenny and I left via the front door instead of the fire escape. That turned out to be a mistake; the device had been on (in, rather) Jenny long enough for the X-Men to find Emma's apartment. We were in the process of racing down the stairs when I was informally introduced to the newest X-Man - a blue demon-like German named Nightcrawler. He had one hand pressed against the side of his head, holding a communicating device in place, and was apparently trying to accurately follow orders when we collided. He fell, toppling backwards, and Jenny took a flying leap over him as if he wasn't there at all.
"Vildcat," he called, struggling to regain his balance, "come back. Ve're trying to help you."
"I don't need your help!" shouted Jenny, rounding a corner and disappearing.
Nightcrawler was about to spring after her, which, in retrospect, was not the best move he could've made. The first and only official rule of hand- to-hand combat is never to turn your back on your opponent, which is exactly what he did. I was halfway down a flight of stairs - an awkward position to do a flying kick from - and the leverage is probably what gave me the advantage. I'd aimed for the middle of his back, hoping to maybe dislocate the spine, but at the last minute he moved and I hit him in the side. As he fell, I could hear the faint crack of a rib or two breaking. He looked up at me, muttering in German. I stepped over him and tore off before he could retaliate, though with a few broken ribs I assumed that he was out of the picture.
I heard a shrill zapping sound, followed by an explosion and a scream, and knew that Cyclops had just busted into Emma Frost's apartment. I found Jenny in the lobby, hiding behind a garbage can. Her eyes looked larger and owl-like behind her glasses, and they were darting around frantically.
"There's four of them," she said, pulling me close. I crouched down, squeezing into the shadows beside her. "Nightcrawler, Storm, Cyclops, and Wolverine. We've taken care of Nightcrawler . . . "
"And Cyclops just broke into Emma's apartment."
"I know, Storm's with him. That means Wolverine's out there." Jenny jerked her head sideways, indicating the door.
"Why are they after you?"
Jenny shook her head. "I convinced the Professor that I wanted to join the X-Men, but Mystique . . . " she groaned. "Mystique fucked everything up. The X-Men know I'm with the Brotherhood now, and they're . . . oh God, I don't know what they're gonna do to me." She looked at me, her head tilted to the side. She'd been wearing black eye makeup, and her tears had caused it to run, leaving little grimy trails on her cheeks. I couldn't get over how different she looked. The spikes, the leather, the piercing - she looked tough. She smiled weakly and took my hand. "And you're back," she whispered. "God, Mortimer, I feel so mixed-up inside. I'm so glad you're, you know, not dead. But I just . . . the X-Men were - " she paused, grappling at the right words " - helping me cope. They were . . . they . . . they were almost like a family or something. They were good to me, but - but they kept saying that you'd never cared about me. They kept telling me that you used me and treated me bad and that you weren't worth it." She shook her head. "I never bought it. I just . . . I knew that you'd cared about me and that I mattered to you. Jesus, Mortimer, I'm sorry. I was supposed to avenge you. I failed. I failed you." She looked down, wringing her hands. "You can hit me if you want," she said, her voice a dead whisper. "I deserve it."
There were millions of things that I wanted to say - you didn't fail, I'm not mad at you, you didn't fail me, I love you, Jesus Christ I fucking love you and I'll never hurt you again - but I didn't have time to say them. I'd be able to say them later on, in a more appropriate setting, though. The front door flew open, and Sabertooth entered. Jenny gave a cry of surprise and fear (I think it was mostly surprise, though; we'd been expecting Wolverine), and that gave us away, but the trashcan was between us and Sabertooth, and we were able to use that to our advantage. With Sabertooth tripping over the overturned barrel, Jenny and I were able to dart around him and out the front door.
The Brotherhood was there, as was the Hellfire Club (after all, it was their territory), and they were currently doing battle with the X-Men invaders. I hadn't joined in the fray; I had no one to side with - the X- Men would try to kill me, I hated the Brotherhood, and I was pretty sure that the Hellfire Club would only back me up if I was a member. They were a picky bunch, headed by Emma Frost (or, as she's known to them, the White Queen), the Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver.
I didn't want to get involved anyway - everything was happening so quickly. The Brotherhood had betrayed me, Jenny was in quasi-shock over seeing me, the X-Men were after me, I was still trying to adjust to the time difference (I was still operating on England-time, and it was driving me insane). I wanted to curl up in a corner and scream, and I'm pretty sure that Jenny wanted to do the same. She was looking around, her head snapping back and forth, her wide eyes taking in all the surrounding violence and carnage.
Amid the flying debris, optic blasts, and projectiles, I saw Storm. She flashed briefly across the sky, her brilliant blue eyes searching the ground for Jenny. Storm was flying too fast, though, and she wasn't looking hard enough. Jenny and I went unnoticed. Jenny turned to me.
"I have a plan," she whispered, "I have a plan to stop this."
"We can just sneak away," I said, "they won't notice - "
"But they'd keep looking for me," she said. She turned away, walking towards a nearby apartment building that was still pretty much intact. She began to climb the fire escape; she did this slowly, as if wanting me to catch up with her, to follow her - which I did. "I'm gonna fake my death," she continued.
"How?"
"I'm gonna jump."
I looked up. The building was fifteen or so stories - there was no way she could jump and live. "It's too high! You won't make it."
She stopped, looking down at me. "Yes, I will," she said quietly, and continued to climb. "Listen," she said, pausing and allowing me to catch up with her, "you see these?" she pointed to the three line-like scars under her left eye. "They're my death scars."
I shook my head. What the bloody hell's a death scar? What did those claw marks have to do with death? I was suddenly aware that I was shaking, and I grabbed her arm. She was scaring me.
"Mortimer," she whispered, touching my hand, "I can't die."
"What?"
"I've died three times. I don't stay dead." She wasn't making sense. She sounded so serious about it, so eerily spookily serious - like a character in a horror film. I gripped her tighter, as though she'd tear her heart out with her own hands if I let go. "I know it doesn't make sense," she said, "but I'm like a cat - I have nine lives or something. Look at this - " and she rolled up one of her sleeves, revealing a series of scars on her inner wrist. They were the kind of scars that only a suicidal razor could create. My breath caught in my throat - their darkness, their permanence . . . oh God, I thought, those were deep enough to kill her. I looked up at her as if seeing her for the first time.
She was a stranger, a stranger I was in love with. I'd never seen such determination and solemn confidence in her. It hit me that maybe she'd hit a turning point in my absence, become a woman or gained a new outlook on life or something. Something inside of her had changed; her usual uncertainty and timidity was gone, completely and totally gone.
She placed her hands on my face, her fingers curling around the back of my head, holding it. She closed her eyes, leaning in close, and kissed me. I wanted that moment to live on forever. There was a serious intensity in her lips, a harsh yet loving feeling that they seemed to embody. It was a mature kiss, a kiss of experience, far different from a blushing sloppy hormone-driven teenage kiss. I found myself unable to move; I just stood there with my hands at my sides, responding to that beautiful kiss. The kiss was over before I wanted it to be over, and Jenny pulled away from me. She was still holding my head, which felt a little awkward, like she was ordering me to step down and let her do her thing, even though I didn't want her to do it. Something inside of me felt compelled to obey her, though, so I kept my mouth shut.
"Wait for me down there," she said, taking my handgun and slipping it into her back pocket.
