It was seventeen o'clock military time as Alexis Moore entered the base. It
was small, concrete, with barbed wire around for at least one hundred yards
in every direction. She walked past the sign on the fence labeled "Do Not
Trespass" and the one on the gate stating "Danger! Military Testing!".
It was out in the middle of Nevada, surrounded by a yellow dust for miles. What remained of the dry lake was a dust bowl, with a harsh fringe of mountains out to the West. No one came, no one left, there was no road for leagues. Lexi, as she was called, snapped the door's rusted lock in her bare hands and pushed it open.
"Ms. Joplen, the area appears vacated. It seems ideal for our situation." Lexi talked into her watch. Her cold eyes roved the cement base as she moved room to room. She had the eyes of a mercenary.
"Any equipment?" The voice from the watch was filled with static.
"Old computers, some desks. Nothing worthwhile. We can move our equipment in tomorrow."
"Thank you, Assassin. We shall follow the procedure. Over and out."
The voice ended. Lexi, Assassin, turned back and walked out to her hummer, parked out by the barbed wire. A rattlesnake had gone under her cooling tank for shade. Ignoring it, she stepped in, revved the motor and set out to off-roading.
Katy-Jo Joplen was a gorgeous woman about 20. She was a typical blond- and-blue beauty, tall, elegant. Currently she was leafing through a scrapbook of photos from Xavier's Institute of Higher Learning. There were pictures of her, of her best friend SheCat, of her two other friends Paige and Julie, of her teachers and her room-mates. Those had been the days when she had been Strobe.
Her electrical bursts had come into being when she was ten years old during a Sentinel War. Mutants were hunted and prosecuted by huge, warlike machines, and anyone who stood in the way brutally murdered. After blowing a hole through her barn wall, she decided it was for her parents' safety, from Sentinels and from her, that she should leave, and took to the road. At her tender age, she was susceptible, and quickly was left money-less and hungry. Two years older, SheCat had found her, tended to her, fed her, became her confidant for the year before Kurt found them.
Strobe had given up the name Katy-Jo Joplen, if only to protect her family. Recently she had hired a private investigator to find them. They had died two years ago, leaving their name and legacy to their only heir.
Katy-Jo stretched out on the couch, letting the scrapbook fall from her hands onto the carpet. Lexi had called in. All was according to plan.
Aqua walked in. He, too, had been treated favorably by time. He still could make any girl swoon. As he crossed the room he gave Strobe a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Are we according to plan?" He checked the list of e-mails on the computer.
"All according to plan, everything is just perfect. We're going to round up Team K again."
The mirror had fingerprints across its entire surface. It was obvious that children had been there. From the lip gloss left by the tap and the array of "Seventeen" magazines in the toilet reading rack, it was probably teenage girls.
SheCat, having finished showering, was tying her hair up in its trademark ponytail. She wore a white towel, which contrasted incredibly with her dark torrent of glossy waves. She had become an expert at ponytails, able to do them one-handed without looking. She had even taught some of the students in her dorm to do this. She was the guardian in the teenage girl dorm nowadays.
Strange, how much she looked like Yuriko. The face was the same, the only exception being coloration and the three scars. Had she blue contacts and had she dyed her hair black, she would have looked almost identical to her. She figured that she probably would have fit into any of Yuriko's old clothes.
She had known Yuriko was her mother ever since she had first revealed her face. It accounted for many things in her life. The abandonment, the nightmares. It seemed, when a child was born, part of the parent's persona came too.
She wasn't Yuriko. She wasn't a blood-thirsty killer. She was a survivor, yes, but did not relish in death or in pain. She was SheCat, not Yuriko.
A voice and the sound of crashing woke her from her reminiscing. Pressing her ear to the wall, she listened.
Remy was not fully awake until the china vase crashed against the wall an inch from his head. He had been half-asleep, crashed out on the bed when Rogue came in. He had stumbled up as she had advanced, menacingly, and cornered him against a wall.
"You kissed her, didn't you!?!?" Another crash as Rogue threw a plate. "You think just 'cause you can't kiss me you have every right to kiss her!" Remy ducked as the alarm clock dented the wall above his head.
"I was just-" He was cut off as the picture frame slammed into the wall next to his neck.
"You think Ah'm not good enough for you, don't you! You need two gals, don't you!?!?" She flung another picture frame. It made a crack as the glass split.
"Quite a few don't you's in dere-" He dodged a shoe that cut off his "chere". Rogue grabbed her other shoes, tried to yank it off, failed and started to untie it. He used this as a moment to speak.
"What was so wrong dat I did? She's just a girl!"
The shoe came free and struck his shoulder.
"Ah'll tell you what's wrong! You think that everyone's just a girl! She may have been a girl when you met, and Ah agree she was, but she's a woman now and you know it!" A few students had gathered near the shut door to listen.
"She don't know what it means-!" Another crash, another picture frame.
"Ah bet you think Ah'm just a gal too! Just 'cause you got a few years over me, it don't mean you are that much smarter!"
"But you're older den she-"
"Ah don't care! You're the cheater here, LeBeau, so Ah'd hold mah tongue if Ah were you!"
"It's not like I haven't already broken her heart!" There was a silence that perplexed the students outside for a few minutes. Then a familiar Southern accent broke the silence.
"She don't have a heart. It was replaced with a machine five years ago." With that final cold remark, the room was silent.
The students twittered among themselves, but only a few knew about the machine Rogue referred to. Only those who had been there five years, and these were younger students, most not even teens. One taller girl called the others to her. They all started talking at once.
"What's the machine?"
"What was she talking about?"
"Who was she talking about?"
The tall girl shushed them, then began to tell the story in an eager, yet confidential, tone.
"You know that lady SheCat? The one in Genevieve's dorm?"
"You mean the one who used to be an X-Man?"
"X-Woman."
"Whatever. The one who just trains all day?"
"Yeah, her. Well, anyway, five years ago she went on a mission and got stabbed through the heart. She lived, obviously, but they had to replace her heart with a little machine Forge made. Supposedly, when she heard about it she got really mad, said they should have let her die rather than take out her heart. She got over it, but Rogue held it over her for a while. She and Rogue never really got along."
"That's it?"
"Wow. Stabbed through the heart."
"Si! Rogue no le gusta SheCat!"
"No duh, but why?"
"Porque Gambit!"
"Oh."
The tall girl shushed them yet again.
"I heard some girl in the tenth grade talking about it. She said that SheCat really likes Gambit and that Rogue's really jealous." A few of the kids snickered. Could adults really have little immature crushes? The whole idea of SheCat leaving Gambit little love notes and writing about him in her diary was hilarity in itself.
The kids giggled about it a few minutes, then a little redhead cried out.
"Dinnertime! It's spaghetti and meatballs!" The redhead tore down the hallway. The other kids followed, trusting her keen senses to tell them precisely what Piotr had cooked up for them.
SheCat slid to the floor. She was numb. Her nerveless hand slid down to the ground to steady her.
She knew he saw her as a child, why did they have to hammer it into her head at every opportunity? Why did Rogue take that cheap shot? SheCat had had no say; they gave her the surgery while she was still unconscious. It was not in any part her fault. Plus, the heart was metaphorical. The heart was a pump. It was the soul that counted, residing within the deepest fibers of the brain which no one could live without.
So why did she feel like that wasn't so true as she made it out to be?
"Oh mah God, did ah really say that? Did Ah really say that?" Rogue ceased all movement. She had given a sucker blow, she had acted of vengeance. It didn't help the fact that it was cruel.
Remy cowered in the corner another few seconds, then rose. Rogue stood there, feeling guilty and ashamed. The words were out, she heard the little children outside. She couldn't turn back time. She couldn't take back her words.
"Did Ah really say that?"
Remy walked over to her, took her gloved hand, led her to the bed. Both took a seat.
"Ah really said that. Ah was just so mad. Ah just was so jealous. Am Ah still your only lover?" He held her as close as he could without skin contact.
"Always, chere. Always my only lover."
"And what 'bout your only loved one?"
"Dat too."
Strobe and Aqua also sat together on their bed, over two hundred miles away. On the bedside table, Aqua popped the cork from a bottle of Merlot and poured it into two glasses. Strobe sprawled lazily on the bed in her black nightdress.
"Did Assassin get hold of all of them?" Strobe was anxious to make sure her plan got underway.
"Almost. She has to get to Kurt, Remy and Rogue. She'll try tomorrow." Aqua passed Katy-Jo one of the glasses, still cool beneath his fingers. "Why didn't you want to bring SheCat?"
"I don't want to put her in danger. I don't want her putting herself in danger." Strobe sipped delicately.
"You're putting me in danger." Aqua drank from his.
"You volunteered."
"Wouldn't she?"
"She wouldn't do it because she believes in the dream like we do. She'd do it to stay close to Remy."
They sat in silence for a few seconds. Aqua finished his wine and poured himself more.
"She's my soul sister. She protected me for a year on the roads. I think I should protect her now." Strobe finished her wine.
"From what?"
"From herself. She doesn't treasure her own life. She'd die in a heartbeat if she thought it would benefit us." There was a pause. Aqua and Katy-Jo stared into each other's eyes. She had the overwhelming desire to grab his pants and rip them off his body.
"I don't think I'd want her to die. I really wouldn't. I'll only use her if it's the only way." Strobe placed her empty glass on the table.
"How will you know it's the only way?"
"I just will." The candlelight played stars across her deep blue eyes. They leaned a little closer.
"I wouldn't want you to die either, Mark."
"Stop talking like we're all gonna die." His eyes of blue met her own.
"Sometimes I just get so worried. We rarely get time alone like this. We're always shunted, here or there, putting our lives on the line. What if you died and I never told you I loved you?" She broke their gaze and looked away.
"You could always tell me now." Their gaze met again. She paused a second, bit her lip. If she admitted to herself she loved him, then it would hurt even more if he did die. Their eyes met yet again.
"I love you."
"I love you too."
He grabbed her face and they kissed. And that was only the beginning of a very pleasurable night for both of them.
It was out in the middle of Nevada, surrounded by a yellow dust for miles. What remained of the dry lake was a dust bowl, with a harsh fringe of mountains out to the West. No one came, no one left, there was no road for leagues. Lexi, as she was called, snapped the door's rusted lock in her bare hands and pushed it open.
"Ms. Joplen, the area appears vacated. It seems ideal for our situation." Lexi talked into her watch. Her cold eyes roved the cement base as she moved room to room. She had the eyes of a mercenary.
"Any equipment?" The voice from the watch was filled with static.
"Old computers, some desks. Nothing worthwhile. We can move our equipment in tomorrow."
"Thank you, Assassin. We shall follow the procedure. Over and out."
The voice ended. Lexi, Assassin, turned back and walked out to her hummer, parked out by the barbed wire. A rattlesnake had gone under her cooling tank for shade. Ignoring it, she stepped in, revved the motor and set out to off-roading.
Katy-Jo Joplen was a gorgeous woman about 20. She was a typical blond- and-blue beauty, tall, elegant. Currently she was leafing through a scrapbook of photos from Xavier's Institute of Higher Learning. There were pictures of her, of her best friend SheCat, of her two other friends Paige and Julie, of her teachers and her room-mates. Those had been the days when she had been Strobe.
Her electrical bursts had come into being when she was ten years old during a Sentinel War. Mutants were hunted and prosecuted by huge, warlike machines, and anyone who stood in the way brutally murdered. After blowing a hole through her barn wall, she decided it was for her parents' safety, from Sentinels and from her, that she should leave, and took to the road. At her tender age, she was susceptible, and quickly was left money-less and hungry. Two years older, SheCat had found her, tended to her, fed her, became her confidant for the year before Kurt found them.
Strobe had given up the name Katy-Jo Joplen, if only to protect her family. Recently she had hired a private investigator to find them. They had died two years ago, leaving their name and legacy to their only heir.
Katy-Jo stretched out on the couch, letting the scrapbook fall from her hands onto the carpet. Lexi had called in. All was according to plan.
Aqua walked in. He, too, had been treated favorably by time. He still could make any girl swoon. As he crossed the room he gave Strobe a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Are we according to plan?" He checked the list of e-mails on the computer.
"All according to plan, everything is just perfect. We're going to round up Team K again."
The mirror had fingerprints across its entire surface. It was obvious that children had been there. From the lip gloss left by the tap and the array of "Seventeen" magazines in the toilet reading rack, it was probably teenage girls.
SheCat, having finished showering, was tying her hair up in its trademark ponytail. She wore a white towel, which contrasted incredibly with her dark torrent of glossy waves. She had become an expert at ponytails, able to do them one-handed without looking. She had even taught some of the students in her dorm to do this. She was the guardian in the teenage girl dorm nowadays.
Strange, how much she looked like Yuriko. The face was the same, the only exception being coloration and the three scars. Had she blue contacts and had she dyed her hair black, she would have looked almost identical to her. She figured that she probably would have fit into any of Yuriko's old clothes.
She had known Yuriko was her mother ever since she had first revealed her face. It accounted for many things in her life. The abandonment, the nightmares. It seemed, when a child was born, part of the parent's persona came too.
She wasn't Yuriko. She wasn't a blood-thirsty killer. She was a survivor, yes, but did not relish in death or in pain. She was SheCat, not Yuriko.
A voice and the sound of crashing woke her from her reminiscing. Pressing her ear to the wall, she listened.
Remy was not fully awake until the china vase crashed against the wall an inch from his head. He had been half-asleep, crashed out on the bed when Rogue came in. He had stumbled up as she had advanced, menacingly, and cornered him against a wall.
"You kissed her, didn't you!?!?" Another crash as Rogue threw a plate. "You think just 'cause you can't kiss me you have every right to kiss her!" Remy ducked as the alarm clock dented the wall above his head.
"I was just-" He was cut off as the picture frame slammed into the wall next to his neck.
"You think Ah'm not good enough for you, don't you! You need two gals, don't you!?!?" She flung another picture frame. It made a crack as the glass split.
"Quite a few don't you's in dere-" He dodged a shoe that cut off his "chere". Rogue grabbed her other shoes, tried to yank it off, failed and started to untie it. He used this as a moment to speak.
"What was so wrong dat I did? She's just a girl!"
The shoe came free and struck his shoulder.
"Ah'll tell you what's wrong! You think that everyone's just a girl! She may have been a girl when you met, and Ah agree she was, but she's a woman now and you know it!" A few students had gathered near the shut door to listen.
"She don't know what it means-!" Another crash, another picture frame.
"Ah bet you think Ah'm just a gal too! Just 'cause you got a few years over me, it don't mean you are that much smarter!"
"But you're older den she-"
"Ah don't care! You're the cheater here, LeBeau, so Ah'd hold mah tongue if Ah were you!"
"It's not like I haven't already broken her heart!" There was a silence that perplexed the students outside for a few minutes. Then a familiar Southern accent broke the silence.
"She don't have a heart. It was replaced with a machine five years ago." With that final cold remark, the room was silent.
The students twittered among themselves, but only a few knew about the machine Rogue referred to. Only those who had been there five years, and these were younger students, most not even teens. One taller girl called the others to her. They all started talking at once.
"What's the machine?"
"What was she talking about?"
"Who was she talking about?"
The tall girl shushed them, then began to tell the story in an eager, yet confidential, tone.
"You know that lady SheCat? The one in Genevieve's dorm?"
"You mean the one who used to be an X-Man?"
"X-Woman."
"Whatever. The one who just trains all day?"
"Yeah, her. Well, anyway, five years ago she went on a mission and got stabbed through the heart. She lived, obviously, but they had to replace her heart with a little machine Forge made. Supposedly, when she heard about it she got really mad, said they should have let her die rather than take out her heart. She got over it, but Rogue held it over her for a while. She and Rogue never really got along."
"That's it?"
"Wow. Stabbed through the heart."
"Si! Rogue no le gusta SheCat!"
"No duh, but why?"
"Porque Gambit!"
"Oh."
The tall girl shushed them yet again.
"I heard some girl in the tenth grade talking about it. She said that SheCat really likes Gambit and that Rogue's really jealous." A few of the kids snickered. Could adults really have little immature crushes? The whole idea of SheCat leaving Gambit little love notes and writing about him in her diary was hilarity in itself.
The kids giggled about it a few minutes, then a little redhead cried out.
"Dinnertime! It's spaghetti and meatballs!" The redhead tore down the hallway. The other kids followed, trusting her keen senses to tell them precisely what Piotr had cooked up for them.
SheCat slid to the floor. She was numb. Her nerveless hand slid down to the ground to steady her.
She knew he saw her as a child, why did they have to hammer it into her head at every opportunity? Why did Rogue take that cheap shot? SheCat had had no say; they gave her the surgery while she was still unconscious. It was not in any part her fault. Plus, the heart was metaphorical. The heart was a pump. It was the soul that counted, residing within the deepest fibers of the brain which no one could live without.
So why did she feel like that wasn't so true as she made it out to be?
"Oh mah God, did ah really say that? Did Ah really say that?" Rogue ceased all movement. She had given a sucker blow, she had acted of vengeance. It didn't help the fact that it was cruel.
Remy cowered in the corner another few seconds, then rose. Rogue stood there, feeling guilty and ashamed. The words were out, she heard the little children outside. She couldn't turn back time. She couldn't take back her words.
"Did Ah really say that?"
Remy walked over to her, took her gloved hand, led her to the bed. Both took a seat.
"Ah really said that. Ah was just so mad. Ah just was so jealous. Am Ah still your only lover?" He held her as close as he could without skin contact.
"Always, chere. Always my only lover."
"And what 'bout your only loved one?"
"Dat too."
Strobe and Aqua also sat together on their bed, over two hundred miles away. On the bedside table, Aqua popped the cork from a bottle of Merlot and poured it into two glasses. Strobe sprawled lazily on the bed in her black nightdress.
"Did Assassin get hold of all of them?" Strobe was anxious to make sure her plan got underway.
"Almost. She has to get to Kurt, Remy and Rogue. She'll try tomorrow." Aqua passed Katy-Jo one of the glasses, still cool beneath his fingers. "Why didn't you want to bring SheCat?"
"I don't want to put her in danger. I don't want her putting herself in danger." Strobe sipped delicately.
"You're putting me in danger." Aqua drank from his.
"You volunteered."
"Wouldn't she?"
"She wouldn't do it because she believes in the dream like we do. She'd do it to stay close to Remy."
They sat in silence for a few seconds. Aqua finished his wine and poured himself more.
"She's my soul sister. She protected me for a year on the roads. I think I should protect her now." Strobe finished her wine.
"From what?"
"From herself. She doesn't treasure her own life. She'd die in a heartbeat if she thought it would benefit us." There was a pause. Aqua and Katy-Jo stared into each other's eyes. She had the overwhelming desire to grab his pants and rip them off his body.
"I don't think I'd want her to die. I really wouldn't. I'll only use her if it's the only way." Strobe placed her empty glass on the table.
"How will you know it's the only way?"
"I just will." The candlelight played stars across her deep blue eyes. They leaned a little closer.
"I wouldn't want you to die either, Mark."
"Stop talking like we're all gonna die." His eyes of blue met her own.
"Sometimes I just get so worried. We rarely get time alone like this. We're always shunted, here or there, putting our lives on the line. What if you died and I never told you I loved you?" She broke their gaze and looked away.
"You could always tell me now." Their gaze met again. She paused a second, bit her lip. If she admitted to herself she loved him, then it would hurt even more if he did die. Their eyes met yet again.
"I love you."
"I love you too."
He grabbed her face and they kissed. And that was only the beginning of a very pleasurable night for both of them.