Chapter Four: Divided we Fall
"They're still no nearer," said Annie, as she kept watch through the trees. "They've separated and they're searching the forest, looking for us. There are nine of them now."
"I only met seven," I said, leaning against a tree.
It had started raining a few minutes ago. The four of us were underneath the partial shelter of an overhanging willow tree. Marina sat on the ground in front of me, wet, scared and miserable, hugging her legs close to her, staring at the earthen ground. Her eyes were wide and she was trembling, looking as if she wished this was a nightmare she was going to wake up from any second, clearly terrified at the knowledge that it was all too real. Dominic was pacing back and forth restlessly, his fingers unconsciously twitching the cuffs of his gloves. I could tell he was desperate to do something to help the predicament, but couldn't think of any ideas. Annie looked calm and composed, as ever, as she stood in thought, trying to assess the situation.
"So what's this other plan you mentioned?" Dominic asked eventually.
"I was going to suggest I use Cerebro," said Annie.
"Use what?" I asked in confusion.
She explained, "It's a machine inside the school. Dad showed it to me. It amplifies telepathic power, and it should enable me to make contact with Dad – if I can use it. It requires a level of power and control…a level I might not have reached yet. If I'm not powerful enough to use it, it could be extremely dangerous for me."
"What would happen to you?"
"In the worst case, it would either kill me, or I'd suffer irreparable brain damage. It's a risk, but one I'm willing to take."
I shook my head, "No way. I won't let you put yourself in that kind of danger."
Annie frowned, then said, "Dominic, what do you think?"
"I'm with you," he told her. "We have to get back to the school anyway, to find out what's happened to the X-Men. If they're still alive, but injured, we have to help them."
"That's true," I said. "But why don't we just fight the Brotherhood ourselves?"
"We can't," Annie said. "That's even more dangerous than using Cerebro. First, there are nine of them and four of us. Second, we don't know what powers they have."
"We know some of their powers. Pyro can control fire; Gemini can duplicate herself."
"What about the other seven?"
"I dunno. Look, you said they've split up, right? We sneak up on them and take them out one by one."
Dominic began nodding, "Yeah…he might have something there."
Annie sighed, went silent for a moment, then asked, "Marina, what do you think?"
The younger girl looked up, a little apprehensively. She tensed as the three of us turned to look at her, as if she thought we were going to start hurting her. She shook her head quickly, then buried her face in her arms, hiding herself from us.
"You don't want to talk?" Annie asked.
Still keeping her head down, Marina nodded. What was wrong with her, I wondered? Why wouldn't she speak to anyone? Why did she hide herself away so much? Had she always been like this? Was she mentally ill? Had she been – well, normal – once?
"OK, guys, listen," said Annie. "I do respect your opinions, I really do. But fighting the Brotherhood is not a good idea. The X-Men couldn't do it. I think we should take heed of that."
"So we go back to the school and find out what happened to the X-Men," said Dominic. "Find out how they were defeated so easily. That'll give us some idea of how to fight these guys."
Annie closed her eyes for a moment, then she nodded, "All right, we're agreed that our first step is to go back to the school? Depending on what we find there, we'll decide on our next move. OK?"
Dominic and I nodded. Marina didn't seem to care, but Annie obviously didn't want her to feel left out. She knelt down and spoke quietly to the traumatised girl, "Marina, we're going back to the school, OK? The Brotherhood are still hunting for us. You don't have to come with us if you don't want to. The Brotherhood won't hurt you if they find you. It's only Gary and me they're after. You can stay here and be safe, if you want."
Marina looked up, started shaking her head, and opened her mouth hesitantly to speak. In a voice so soft and quiet it was almost a whisper, she said, "I want to stay with you."
They were the first words I'd ever heard her utter. I couldn't place her accent – Canadian, perhaps? Those few words seemed to have taken away whatever confidence she had mustered, as she hid her face in her arms again. Annie put a gentle hand on her shoulder, then put her other hand in Marina's, and helped her stand.
"Um – how's your ankle?" I asked her awkwardly.
She glanced at me, then looked away nervously. Annie squeezed her shoulder gently to reassure her, and Marina whispered softly, "It's fine……thanks."
"Let's go," said Dominic impatiently.
Annie said, "All right. Keep quiet. Follow me."
We walked in single file: Annie leading, Marina close behind her, Dominic next, with me bringing up the rear. I was constantly on the look-out for any of the Brotherhood who might be close. It was a needless exercise, since Annie's telepathy would warn us if any of them came near, but I did it nonetheless, just to be sure. It felt strange, to be making our way back to the place we had been so desperate to escape from a few minutes ago, but seemingly it was where our only hope of salvation lay. It was certainly something our enemies wouldn't be expecting us to do.
I wasn't sure what to make of the Brotherhood. I definitely wasn't afraid of them. I had never run away from a fight in my life, and I couldn't remember ever losing one. I had beaten Vertigo, got the better of Gemini, and I'd have destroyed Recyclo too if Pyro hadn't got in the way. I wasn't foolish enough to think that I could take all nine of them on single-handedly – though I considered myself to have done pretty well earlier – but I felt confident I could defeat any of those four. As for the others…I didn't know enough about them. Who else had there been? There was Scarab, the small guy with the hunchback…and those two who had arrived right at the end, Overlord and Cassandra. I knew nothing about them. Pyro had mentioned someone else too…someone called Mole. That made eight. Which meant there was a ninth, who we had yet to encounter.
Although Annie was determined to avoid fighting them, I was half-hoping we would run into the Brotherhood. My mutations – which had been artificially created and implanted into my father – were designed for fighting, not for sneaking around or being nice to people. I had been given gifts to defend myself and those I cared for, and that was what I would do. Stealth, diplomacy, healing, politics…those were for people who were skilled in those areas. I was a fighter. Nothing more, nothing less. I had been born to fight for what I believed was right, and that was my intention. I cracked my knuckles and muttered to myself, "Come on then, Brotherhood. Let's see what you're really made of."
Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on which way I looked at it, Annie was leading us on a route that kept us as far away from our enemies as possible. Once or twice Annie told us to stop and wait – presumably we were in danger of going to close to one of them – then we proceeded. We got to the school without meeting anybody, and paused in the entrance, standing in the shadows.
"I've never seen this machine," I said. "Where is it?"
"It's downstairs," said Annie. "In the X-Men's base."
I frowned, "Dad never showed me down there."
She merely shrugged, and pushed open the doors. We went inside, closing the doors behind us, and walked down the corridor, making our way to where I knew the elevator was. I had yet to go down into the base. I'd been curious to find out what was in there, but I'd never been invited to be shown around, and had never asked. I wasn't sure if I was allowed just to go down there myself, so I hadn't risked it. I respected people's privacy, and I didn't go where there might be things they wanted kept secret.
We were going down there now. Annie pushed the button to open the elevator doors, and we stepped inside. As the lift began its smooth descent to the underground levels, I said, "If this doesn't work…what do we do?"
"I don't know," Annie admitted. "We – I really don't know. I'm trying not to think about it. I'm hoping this will work. It's got to work."
"Our only options would be to run or fight," I said. "Running's no good; we've got nowhere to run to. So I guess we'd have to fight."
Annie sighed and shook her head, but didn't say anything.
"Dominic?" I said.
"I'm with Gary," he agreed. "We'd have to plan it carefully, and make sure the Brotherhood couldn't outnumber us, but I think we could take them."
Annie was struggling to keep her patience. She said slowly, "Gary, don't you realise there are some fights you can't win? The Brotherhood want to find us. If we confront them, we're playing right into their hands."
"So what are you saying?" I demanded angrily. "We run away? We give up the fight before it's even begun? I'm sorry, but those are two things I've never done, and I never will!"
"Why don't you try thinking with your head instead of your testosterone?" she shouted. "You can't meet every problem with your fists!"
"It's worked so far!" I snapped back. "Your problem is that you're just not willing to fight! You're always looking for the nice, peaceful, diplomatic solution! You don't get it, do you? Some people you can't bargain with!"
"And there are some people you can't fight against!" she yelled. "Can't you get that into your head? The Brotherhood are dangerous! It's not one of your stupid playground brawls! Why do you think Mum and Dad were so determined to bring us here, to keep us safe from them?!"
The elevator reached the underground floor with a slight jolt, forestalling any retorts I might have made. Annie and I were glaring daggers at each other, but we both stopped and looked away when the lift doors opened. Annie was first out of the lift, striding angrily down the corridor beyond. I watched her with contempt. At that moment I would happily have punched my sister in the face. Marina was following her like some pathetic little dog. Dominic put his hand on my arm, and I jerked round to fix him with a furious stare.
"Hey, cool it, mate," he said, raising his hands. "That's quite a temper you've got there."
I was still breathing hard, my anger still coursing through my veins, threatening to push me out of control, to send me into another wild, berserk frenzy. I turned away from him and walked after the girls. I turned the corner, expecting to see them up ahead of me, but they were standing still, facing the wall. I looked to see what had caught their attention.
"What the hell…" gasped Dominic, right behind me.
A hole, about the size of a person, had been torn through the thick metal wall, leading into a dark tunnel beyond.
"This must be how the Brotherhood got into the school," said Annie.
"But this is impossible!" Dominic exclaimed. "These walls are made of adamantium! It's impossible to break through adamantium! It's indestructible!"
"Well, clearly it isn't," I said acidly.
Dominic pulled off his left glove, and held up his hand to the hole. The sunlight he had absorbed during the day, shone forth from his palm, illuminating the inside of the tunnel like a torch. The tunnel was narrow, and just tall enough for a person to walk erect; it turned off to the right about a hundred feet ahead.
"I wonder where it leads."
"Outside the school, of course."
"Maybe we can use it to escape."
I shrugged. Annie said, "We don't know what we're going to do next. Let me use Cerebro."
Earlier I had protested. I didn't want Annie to risk killing herself. Now I said nothing. I was still so angry that I didn't care what happened to her. I watched as she and her pathetic shadow walked further up the corridor, to where a huge, circular door blocked further passage. After a moment Dominic, overcome by curiosity, went after them. There was no point standing there alone, so I sighed impatiently and followed.
"How are you going to get the door open?" Dominic asked. "It won't open without a retinal scan from one of the senior X-Men."
"Don't worry, my Dad taught me how to do this," Annie replied.
She stood still for a moment, then moved her hand in front of the door. There came a slight hissing of released gas, and the door began to slide open. Annie walked inside.
"How did you do that?" he demanded.
"By combining two of my powers," she said. "There's a switch that can open this door from inside the Cerebro room, in case you get trapped inside by mistake. I looked through the door with my X-ray vision, and used my telekinesis to move the switch."
"Oh. Neat."
"My Dad's idea."
We had reached the end of the platform, and Annie knelt in front of the machine, taking the helmet device in both hands. Marina started, as if she were about to say something, then stopped, too nervous to speak.
"Good luck," said Dominic.
"Thanks."
I stood a little back from the rest of them, and tried to be unimpressed. It wasn't easy. The sheer size of the huge, spherical room had fairly taken my breath away. I was tempted to yell something to see how loud the echoes were, but that wouldn't be a good idea. It might alert the Brotherhood to our presence if they were close enough.
"All right," Annie said. "Here goes."
She closed her eyes in concentration, and placed the helmet on her head. For a few moments it appeared that nothing had happened, and I thought the machine didn't work, or was broken. Then lines of pain and exertion began to appear on Annie's brow. She gave a gasp, and her breathing began to quicken. Marina looked at Dominic nervously. He had his attention centred on my sister. Annie began to shake a little, whispering under her breath, clearly struggling to deal with the power of the machine. Marina panicked, and made as if to pull the helmet from Annie's head, but Dominic gently restrained her. Annie began to emit little agonised gasps, and her face was screwed up in pain.
Then she screamed. It was a long, terrible sound, and I ran forward, pushing Dominic aside, to grab the helmet. All the anger and contempt I had felt for my sister vanished, as she slumped over in front of the machine, and lay still. The echoes of the scream were still reverberating around the room, and I knelt by Annie's side, cradling her head, frantically checking her neck for a pulse. I breathed a sigh of relief. It was there. She was alive.
"Is she all right?" asked Marina urgently.
I shook her, "Annie? Can you hear me?"
She made no response, and clearly wasn't conscious.
Oh, God, please let her be all right. I'm sorry about what I was thinking earlier. I don't want any harm to come to her!
"Annie? Annie!"
Nothing. Dominic and Marina were kneeling beside me.
"Is she all right?!" Marina repeated, beginning to sound hysterical.
"I don't know," I said.
Annie's eyes flickered open, and she gazed up at us weakly. Marina almost burst into tears with relief, and I gently stroked my sister's hair, "Hey. Welcome back. Are you OK?"
"I'm…fine…" she breathed, almost inaudible. "No…brain…damage. But…weak. Get me…away…from…here…"
Her eyes shut again as she lost consciousness.
Thank you, God.
She was all right. The machine had weakened her terribly, but she was all right. I took charge of the situation, "All right, here's what we'll do. I'll carry Annie. Dominic, you know the layout of the estate. Go and work out where that tunnel leads."
He didn't respond.
"Dominic?"
"Sshh!" he hissed. "I'm trying to listen!"
"Listen to what?" I whispered.
"The elevator! It's coming down!"
Marina gasped in horror. I swore, "The Brotherhood must have heard Annie's scream."
For a moment I panicked, and couldn't think of what to do. We could flee up their tunnel, but they'd guess instantly that was where we had gone, and would run around to block the other side. There was only one thing to do.
"Take Annie," I said, thrusting her into Dominic's arms. "Get down that tunnel. Marina, go with him."
"What about you?" he asked.
"I'm going to hold them off."
"What? You can't! Gary – "
"I'll be OK. Just go!"
They hesitated, and I said impatiently, "Go! Get down that bloody tunnel! Or do I have to push you in there?"
Finally they went, Marina looking back at me adoringly, and I walked to face whoever was in the elevator. Clenching my fists, I stood and waited. It had just reached the underground floor, and the doors slid open to reveal a solitary figure inside.
Cassandra.
"I believe this is your floor," I snarled angrily, as I moved forward to deal with her.
She opened her mouth as if she was about to speak, then closed it again and took up a defensive posture. Normally I would never have dreamed of a hitting a girl, since they were generally smaller and weaker than I was, but there were exceptions. Cassandra was one. Gemini was another. I would definitely have enjoyed smacking Gemini in the mouth. Maybe I would get an opportunity later. For now, I had Cassandra to deal with.
I started strongly, trying to end the fight as quickly as I could, before she might use whatever unknown powers she had. I threw a devastating punch aimed at her head, but she was already moving to avoid it, and she kicked me in the side. It didn't hurt. I aimed another punch, which she ducked underneath, taking hold of my arm and trying to use my momentum to throw me into the wall. I was too strong, and she grunted with the exertion as I fought against her grip. I kicked at her with my left foot, but she twisted out of the way, dropped my arm, and launched a spinning kick at my face. I tried to dodge, and caught it on the shoulder. I felt nothing.
I feinted with my left, and aimed a right-fisted punch at her jaw. Cassandra dodged, keeping her balance superbly, and kicked me in the chest. I double over, gasping for breath, and she moved in, trying to press home her advantage. She kicked me in the groin, and lifted a knee to catch me in the face. I just about managed to avoid her, and lost my balance, falling on the floor, rolling over to get back to my feet.
It was a stand-off. She was so fast I couldn't hit her, and she wasn't strong enough to hurt me in any way. The longer I kept her occupied, the further away Annie and the others could get. I just hoped Cassandra didn't try to call in reinforcements. Hopefully her pride would force her to continue to deal with me alone. Whatever her mutant power was, she'd have to use it soon. I tried to work out what it might be. Cassandra…I had heard the name before…but where? Wasn't it from Greek mythology?
We exchanged another series of blows. She ducked, twisted and dodged out of the way of mine, but couldn't hurt me in any way. She was beginning to get frustrated. I was trying to remember…where had I heard the name Cassandra before? I feinted a punch, just to see what her response would be. Nothing. She hadn't even moved. Almost as if she had known in advance it would be a feint. Almost as if she had known in advance…then it hit me. It was from Greek mythology: Cassandra was the woman given the power to see the future. I looked at my opponent. Did she have a similar power? Was that why she could dodge my attacks so easily? Could she predict exactly what I was going to do? It certainly made sense.
With this knowledge, or this assumption at least, I realised this wasn't going to be an ordinary straight-forward fist fight. I had to use a bit of cleverness if I was going to get the better of her. I could have used my flame-thrower attack, but if I was right, she would predict it and simply get out of the way. I had to do something unusual, something unexpected…something that she could do nothing about even if she did predict it.
The answer I came up with was actually quite simple. I circled around her for a while, manoeuvring her until she was in a corner, then I threw caution to the wind, and bodily launched myself at her. She was ready but, as I had planned, there was no way for her to avoid me. She tensed herself, as I landed on top of her, crushing her to the ground. She struggled to get away, but I pinned her down and held her there, breathing hard after the exertion of the fight. Cassandra continued to squirm around, trying to break out of my grip, but she soon realised I was far too strong, and gave up, relaxing her muscles. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do next, but my thoughts were interrupted by a buzzing sound. Looking around in confusion, I realised it was coming from Cassandra; there was a communicator clipped to her belt. I grabbed it. There was a single button, marked Transmit/Receive. I punched it.
"Cassandra, this is Pyro," came his voice. "Report. Over."
Cassandra looked at me, and I looked back at her. I knew that if she reported she'd found us, they'd be all over the secret tunnel within seconds. If she didn't report back, Pyro would get suspicious. I switched off the communicator, handing it to her, and tried to sound as threatening as I could, "Tell him you've found nothing…or I'll kill you."
Her eyes widened slightly, and I knew she believed me. She switched the device to transmit, and spoke into it, "This is Cassandra. I've found nothing. False alarm. Over."
"Acknowledged. Keep searching. Over."
She dropped the communicator to the ground and continued to look up at me. I got my first good look at her. She looked younger than she was. I guessed her age was about fifteen or sixteen, but she looked about the same age as me. She was on her back on the ground, and I was holding her down tightly. I had never been in this position with a girl before. It made me feel odd in a way I had never felt before. The erotic connotations weren't lost on me, and I tried not to think about that. Cassandra was attractive, but she was also one of my enemies.
"Are you going to kill me?" she asked finally, breaking the silence between us.
I raised an eyebrow, "I thought you could see the future. Surely you already know."
Obviously I'd guessed right about her power, as she didn't try to contradict me. She lowered her eyes and said, "I can't see very far into the future. And I can't read your mind. Are you going to kill me?"
"I haven't decided yet," I said. "Suppose you answer some questions. I might be more inclined to let you live."
"What questions?"
"First of all, where are the X-Men? What have you done to them?"
She hesitated, clearly trying to evade the question. Eventually she said, "They're alive."
I breathed a sigh of relief, but didn't let it show on my face, "So what did you do to them?"
"It was Overlord. He used his power. It wasn't me."
"What does his power do?" I asked impatiently.
"Why don't you find him and ask him?"
She was more defiant now, a complete change from the scared, submissive girl who'd been afraid I was going to kill her. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. What had brought about this change? Had she foreseen something? Something in the near future, that was going to work to her advantage? Was somebody coming to her aid?
The elevator was coming back down. I hadn't even heard it go up. Cassandra was smirking at me now, confident that somebody was coming to her rescue. I wrenched myself to my feet, pulling her up with me, and I put an arm around her throat, holding her tight, but not so tight she couldn't breathe.
"Let me…go…" she choked, struggling uselessly against my arm.
The lift doors slid silently open. Two people were inside the elevator. One of them I recognised – Gemini – the other I didn't. He was small, even smaller than Scarab, and his eyes blinked in the sudden light. There was something else – it took me a moment or two to pin it down exactly – there was a definite smell coming from him. It wasn't a pleasant one.
"Aw, you're giving Cassandra a cuddle, isn't that nice?" said Gemini.
I made no response. Cassandra, with her throat restricted, couldn't. Gemini gave me a sneering look, then closed her eyes, clenched her muscles tight, gave a gasp of pain, and her twin appeared beside her.
"I bet you're wondering which of us is the evil twin," said the original Gemini.
"It's both of us," said the second, with a smirk.
I backed away, trying to think of a plan of action. As I went, I stumbled slightly, and lost my balance. Cassandra had obviously foreseen it, as she twisted out my grasp, and ran to stand with her friends.
"Do him, Mole," said one of the Gemini twins.
The tiny man blinked myopically, but seemed to have no trouble detecting where I was. He moved forward, his fists clenched. I raised my eyebrows. If this pint-sized guy wanted a fist fight, that was fine by me. I held my fists in front of me, and moved forward to face him.
I wished I hadn't. Mole pulled back one arm, and smacked his fist straight into my jaw. It was like nothing I had ever felt before, like a thousand tons of weight slamming into me, throwing me clean down the corridor, to collide painfully with the wall. Blackness crept in at the side of my vision, and I struggled to stay conscious. Both of Gemini were laughing, the sound only serving to rile me, and increase my anger. Mole was advancing towards me. I looked around for some way of escape.
"Aw, does the big tough guy not want to fight any more?" Gemini mocked. "Good luck against Mole. He's got adamantium fists."
That explained a couple of things. Like why he could punch so hard. Also…the hole in the adamantium wall…the name Mole…was he responsible for the tunnel that had been dug into the X-Men's base? I decided to worry about that later. Mole was getting closer. I inhaled deeply, felt the tingling in my lungs, and breathed a red-hot stream of fire towards the tiny man. He crouched, raised his fists in front him, and his adamantium knuckles protected him from the flames. This was not going well. Both of Gemini were on the move, on either side of me, running to block off the passages that I might have used for escape.
Mole threw another punch. I managed to dodge this one, and twisted around to the other side of him. Cassandra was behind me now; I glanced round to see if she was near enough to constitute a threat. I shouldn't have done so. As I turned back, all I could see was Mole's fist flying towards me once more. It crashed into my cheekbone, and I lost consciousness immediately.