Chapter 6: Bruce
Hank?
Hank rolled over in bed, opening his eyes slowly. Yes, Jean?
The morning paper just got delivered. There was an odd undertone to Jean's mental voice. There's something in it I think you should see. Can you come down?
I shall be there momentarily. He propped himself up on one elbow, looking down at the peacefully sleeping woman beside him. Should he wake her? He decided not to, as they had been up rather late the previous night…
He smiled at the memory, and leaned over to plant a gentle kiss on the white shoulder. Amanda moaned a bit and rolled over on her stomach, but she didn't wake. He eased his numb arm out from under her head, stroked the soft, cottony white hair for a moment, then slid out of bed and got dressed.
Jean looked up as he appeared in the kitchen, rubbing his eyes. Her face was serious. "I'm sorry I woke you up," she said, "but I really thought you would want to see this before Amanda did."
Hank took the sheet of newspaper Jean handed him, adjusted his glasses, and read:
The long-dreaded war between mutants and humans is coming, went the paper. Just recently respected scientist Dr. Bruce Garrett uncovered evidence of a massive conspiracy by the mutant population of the world to convert the rest of us into mutants. Dr. Garrett introduced a small coalition of world-respected scientists to his discovery in Massachusetts a week ago, when he injected a mouse with a terrible virus apparently created by mutant scientist Dr. Henry McCoy that caused the mouse to develop a hideous mutant extra limb. Dr. Garrett, who graduated Columbia University with an advanced degree in physics and Johns Hopkins with a PH.D in biogenetics, postulated that Dr. Henry McCoy plans to introduce this virus into the general population, showing his stunned audience as proof a photograph of his former fiancé, the well-known and much beloved Amanda Greene, who has mutated into a hideous half-human half-insect hybrid as a result of Dr. McCoy's unethical use of her as a test subject.
The authorities are currently searching for Dr. Amanda Greene, who Dr. Garrett believes is being held against her will somewhere by this mutant doctor. He urges anyone who may have seen her to report her presence to the police, as she is no doubt being tormented by this deranged doctor.
Hank stared for some time in silence at the paper. "How could he tell others such lies?" he asked Jean finally, raising his eyes. "Bruce knows perfectly well that the virus was a naturally-occurring life form, and that Amanda was working on it. He has not only claimed credit for her work, but he has neatly managed to destroy both our reputations as scientists and has made Amanda the subject of a manhunt! What do we do now?"
"I expect that the police are going to be here soon to question you, and perhaps take you into custody," Xavier said, rolling his wheelchair…his regular wheelchair, and not the hoverchair, a sure sign that he was expecting visitors. "I also expect that they may already have obtained a search warrant for the house. I believe it will be necessary to wake her, and get her installed in the labs downstairs until the authorities have gone."
"I have to do what?" came Amanda's voice from the doorway, and they turned, to see her standing in the kitchen doorway. "Hank, what's going on?"
Hank looked at Jean. Jean looked at him, then back at Xavier. Xavier gave a tiny, negative shake of his head. Hank looked back at Amanda.
She stood there with her arms crossed, waiting for an explanation, when the doorbell suddenly rang. The sound of its soft chimes had barely died out through the house when there came a pounding at the door. "Police! Open up! We have a search warrant!"
Jean grabbed Amanda's arm. "There's no time to explain. Can you go downstairs to the labs and wait for Hank? Don't come back up until one of us comes down for you. Please, Amanda. It's important."
Amanda looked about to protest, but then blinked and said, "Okay."
Jean rushed Amanda down the stairs to the basement, hustled her through the cement door that separated the lower, secret levels of the mansion from its public façade upstairs, and then dragged the dusty boxes telekinetically across that section of wall so that no fingerprints would be left on the surface of the cardboard. Then she raced back up the stairs, closed the door to the basement, and started to do dishes as though nothing were wrong, even though her heart was hammering a mile a minute. She eavesdropped telepathically on the conversation going on in Charles'study.
* * *
Scott was the one opening the door, but the police officers brushed past him wordlessly. The man who had knocked, a tall, heavyset lieutenant, said "I am sorry to disturb you, Mr. Xavier, but we have a few questions we need to ask your associate and resident, Dr. Henry McCoy."
"Please come into my office," Xavier said, turning his wheelchair. In his role as butler, Scott took the handles and started to push Xavier down the hall to his study.
"Found him, lieutenant!" came a voice a few short minutes later, and one of the other officers escorted Hank into Xavier's study. Hank walked in, straightened his shirt, and said stiffly, "I protest this manhandling of my person, officers. Might you perhaps be so kind as to inform me of what I am being accused of?"
"This," the lieutenant said, holding up a copy of the paper. Hank took it from him and pretended to read it.
"I must commend Dr. Garrett on his imagination, if nothing else," he said amiably. "And his powers of deception. The virus he is speaking of was not developed by me; it was discovered by Dr. Amanda Greene. She has been conducting research on the virus for some time, now. I was assisting her with her research. I assure you, I was not conducting any experiments upon her; to do so would violate every moral and ethical code in place for members of the medical profession."
"Do you know where she is?"
"I have not seen her for some time," Hank said. "I have no idea where she is at just this moment." Which was marginally true; he didn't know exactly where Amanda was hiding in the mansion.
The lieutenant said, "What about this allegation that she's been changed?"
"As to that, I can tell you that it was an accident. Amanda was working with the virus when she was exposed to it, and it triggered the morphological changes of which Dr. Garrett is speaking of. It was an accident."
The lieutenant said bluntly, "I don't believe you."
"Believe it or not, as you like; but I promise you it is only the truth."
"Well, I still have a warrant for your arrest. Place your hands behind your back, please."
"Lieutenant, I assure this is not necessary; I will go without making the use of restraints--"
The man ignored Hank's protest. "Dr. Henry McCoy, you are under arrest for conspiracy to subvert humanity, the kidnapping of Dr. Amanda Greene, the forcible transformation of the aforementioned person, and the unlawful imprisonment of Dr. Greene." He went on to read the rest of Hanks rights to him as the assortment of officers and police reassembled in Xavier's foyer.
"She's not here, Lieutenant," came the voice of a younger officer as he led the last group of police officers up to them. "We looked everywhere. We asked everyone where she is, or if they'd seen her; they all replied negatively." Thanks in no small part to Jean's telepathic forewarning of the rest of the X-Men, Hank thought.
"Where is she?" the lieutenant snapped angrily, jerking on Hank's handcuffs. "Where is she!" he shoved a photograph at Hank.
Hank blinked. The photograph was of Amanda, obviously taken at the airport a week ago. There was the little old lady; the man holding the glass beverage bottle high, preparatory to throwing it at Amanda; himself; and Amanda herself; but something was wrong with the picture. Amanda's form had been digitally manipulated, distorted so that she didn't look like her mutated self. In the photograph her head was misshapen, with round protruding bugged-out eyes and a strangely misshapen mouth. The delicate, lovely rainbow wings now were a sickly greenish-yellow color; and the shape of her legs were manipulated to look like spidery insect legs. He wanted to tell them that that wasn't what his lover looked like at all…but he refrained. If they were looking for some Frankenstein-like monster they would be less likely to recognize Amanda when they finally did find her. He was positive that they would eventually; but not until Xavier and Jean had been able to explain what had happened. He allowed the thin plastic cable ties to be wrapped around his wrists, even though they were much too small and dug painfully into his wrists. He followed the officers outside, to the van, and got into the back docilely. Xavier followed them out to the van. Hank, I shall be down at the police station with a lawyer shortly. Say nothing until I arrive." Hank nodded, and took a last look out the back window at the mansion as the cavalcade of police vehicles made their way back down the long drive to the road.
* * *
Amanda waited for what seemed like ages, then busied herself with some of the test tubes and compounds she had been experimenting with. She gave up when she found herself mechanically repeating steps she'd already done. She gave up trying to concentrate on anything else but what might be happening in the mansion above her, and sat on Hank's lab stool, biting her nails. It was a bad habit, one she tried to break herself of, but it still came out in moments of stress.
Quite a long time later, she heard the sound of the cement door being opened and footsteps coming down the hall. "Hank?" she got up, eagerly, going out to the hall, but to her disappointment it was only Jean. "Where's Hank?"
Jean didn't answer for a minute. Amanda repeated her question. Jean sighed. "Come upstairs, Amanda," she said. "Charles and I need to talk to you."
Amanda stared in shock at the newspaper article. Her legs suddenly seemed to fold up under her, and Jean just barely managed to get the kitchen chair under her before she collapsed. "My God,' she whispered. "I never thought Bruce would stoop so low…how could he do this? How? It was my research! And I'm not some hideous insect! And he's implying that Hank forcibly transformed me…how could he do this?" she looked up. "Where's Hank?"
Jean laid a hand on Amanda's shoulder. "The police who were here arrested him," she said. "For kidnapping you, for forcibly transforming you, for holding you against your will, and for allegedly trying to do the same thing to every human on earth."
Amanda's mouth dropped open. "And you just let them take him?" she sprang out of the chair. "I shouldn't have hidden downstairs. I should have told them I was there of my own free will. Why did you make me hide!?" her eyes filled with tears. "Oh, Hank," she sighed.
Xavier put a hand on her arm. "Think, Amanda," he said. "Do you honestly think they would have taken your word for it? They would have arrested you as well. As long as Hank can still make it seem as though he doesn't know where you are, we have time to try to figure out how to convince Bruce to retract what he said."
Amanda shook her head. "I'll do it. I'll make him."
Jean pinned her back down into the chair telekinetically. "You're not going anywhere, Amanda. You're going to stay here. I'm going to send Jubilee to his apartment with Logan and see if they can't talk some sense into him. Charles and I will head out to the jail with a lawyer and see if we can spring Hank." She sensed Amanda about to protest and said firmly, "No. Amanda, you must stay here. You must. You can't be caught. Promise us you'll stay here." Amanda crossed her arms stubbornly. Jean persisted. "Amanda, promise!"
Amanda started at the floor for a while, then nodded, reluctantly. Xavier turned away from the phone and said, 'I've called a lawyer. He'll meet us at the jail."
Amanda stayed sitting there despondently as Xavier and Jean rushed out. She couldn't stand the thought of Hank, stuck in a tiny jail cell. She sat there, tears falling from her eyes into a silvery pool at her feet on the floor, as she heard Logan and Jubilee slam out of the house on their way to Bruce's apartment.
A thought occurred to her. It was summer. Bruce wouldn't be in his apartment now; he'd be at his parents' summer home outside the city on the river. Logan and Jubilee wouldn't find him. She'd have to go talk to him.
She ran up the stairs to her room, grabbed the keys to her car, and ran out to the garage.
* * *
Bruce sat back in his easy chair, talking to the man sitting in front of him. "Oh, yes, I agree completely," he nodded to Jason Frank, head of the New York branch of the Friends of Humanity. "The mutant problem needs to be nipped in the bud. And this virus…it's ability to change people into mutants is a terrible blow to humankind."
The doorbell rang at just that moment, and he turned toward the door. "I wonder who that could be?" he said wonderingly. He went to the door.
Amanda pushed her way into the house, past Bruce, and slammed the door. "You've done some horrible things before, Bruce, but this time you've definitely gone too far." She turned to face him. "I love Hank. How dare you accuse him of such a terrible thing?"
Bruce found his voice. "Amanda?" he stared incredulously at her. "Is that you?"
"Who did you think I was, the tooth fairy?" she snapped. "I came to tell you to retract what you said. The virus is mine. The research is mine. And you know perfectly well that I'm trying to reverse engineer the virus so anyone who doesn't want to become a mutant doesn't have to be. There was no need for you to go and tell everyone the research was yours! And for your information, my transformation was an accident, not because Hank forced me! He's not you!"
Frank got up from his chair, walking over to Bruce's side. "So this is what your former fiancée really looks like," he commented. Pretty if you're looking at her from a mutant point of view. But from the human point of view, it's obscene." He looked her over. "It could be remedied easily," he said. "Removal of the wings, an then a tattooing over every inch of her skin with colored pigments to make her look like a normal human…we could return her to at least the appearance of how she looked before."
Amanda stared with wide eyes. "You mean…you did this…just to get me?"
'Of course." Bruce shoved his hands into his pockets and stepped forward. "I want you back. Amanda. You're mine. Isn't it natural to want something of yours back?"
"Yes." Amanda didn't step away. "So tell everyone it was all a mistake so the police will let Hank go."
Too late, she felt the sharp pain of a needle in her arm. The last thing she saw as she fell to the floor was Bruce's smile. "I never let my possessions go. Don't you remember that, Amanda?"