A/N: Chaos Mode: I had a feeling it wouldn't quite gel but I was trying to show his reliance on himself and not his powers, I could have done it better.
Animeluvr1: Thanks for the reviews; I'm blushing right to my ears (Seriously). I'd love for you to use him though you might want to wait till the 'Whole' truth comes out. Another thing . . . who's Pete Wisdom? [umm…I think that's the guy who's fingers can turn into tentacles . . . I'm not really sure . . . ] And trust me, I'll definitely read the next chapter of Bittersweet.
Chapter 5
The Consequences Of Rage
I stopped off at the showers and cleaned the sweat off my body, I got out, dried myself off and turned on the projector. I stared at the reflection in the mirror; it felt like staring at a costume. It wasn't me, it just couldn't be.
"I am not Joseph Greerson. I am . . ." I couldn't answer, I only knew that everyone had got it wrong, there were pieces missing or just overlooked. I picked up the records and opened them, inside was a detailed account of Joseph's military career. "Excellent team leader, excels in team exercises, bright future ahead of him." I read the documents and found certain . . . irregularities:
Medical History:
Age: 12 – Chicken Pox
Age 17 – Damage to left hand (Rifle accident {Rifle casing exploded} resulting to extensive tissue and ligament damage) Permanent 20% lose of motor function.
I looked at my left hand. It worked just as well as my right.
I got dressed and walked back to my room slowly to give me time to think. The story I'd been told so far pasted me as a team player, the gun licence photo was militaristic but the licence itself was civilian. My lack of "team spirit" in the exercise showed me to be more of a loner, I liked being by myself as it was. The bogus file meant that evidence and records were being falsified. Some one had intentionally messed with my memory, my life. I had to find out whom, and do a little messing of my own.
"Joe." But who was Joseph? Why was it important that I be made to look like him and why the crappy frame up? "Joseph, wait up." I stopped and turned around to see Rogue, Kitty, Kurt and Evan running down the corridor to catch up. I noticed they were still in uniform.
"What?" I asked hotly, I had a headache coming on and I just wanted to sleep, dream or no dream.
"Whoa man, chill. We were just coming to see if you're ok," Evan said quickly.
"Sorry, I'm just a little tired and my head feels like it's being split in two (with my brains gushing out.)." I saw Kitty make a face when I said that. I sat down on the stairs and rested my head in my hands, yawning. Kitty and Rogue sat down beside me.
"We were wondering if you wanted to go into the city with us? We're like, going back to school in a week or so, so we're like, getting anything we need now."
"Why?" I asked, "Scott want you to keep an eye on me?" I couldn't keep the annoyance out of my voice; Rogue and Kitty shook their heads.
"Puh-lease. If Scott had his way you, like, wouldn't even be allowed out of the institute. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed, namely us." Kitty seemed pleased with herself. I stood up and began to walk up the stairs. I heard four sets of footsteps following me.
"Logan told us you had listened in on our conversation in zee med-bay, vhy haven't you asked any questions about vhat we vere talking about?" Kurt asked me, I knew then why they had followed and I didn't blame them.
"Because I had no reason to. From the way I sound to you people I don't think I want to remember who I am." I moved back down the stairs again and leaned against the banister. "If I asked any questions, who's to say I'd like the answer?" I felt a slight pain begin in my head. I placed my hand on my head, putting pressure on it to relieve the pain. Suddenly it spread throughout my brain. I don't know how to explain it. All I know is that it hurt. I fell to the floor holding my head, screaming. "Tell Jean to get the hell out of my head!" I shouted, the pain was becoming too much to bear. I could hear voices in the distance, the others screaming for the professor. Waves of emotion ran through me, I felt . . . angry.
*
*
"Have you fixed the transceiver yet?" First asked Second, who was still underneath the processor and had been since First had left earlier that morning.
"Some," came the muffled reply. "The audio is repaired and I'm now working on visual." First was surprised, the transceiver had been fitted with visual connection, it was decided by the board not to use them unless the host was considered useless and data was needed quickly.
"I'm not sure that's wise, we could harm the host." Second closed the hatch under the processor and got out from under it.
"A message came over the net when you left, straight from the board. Frankly they don't like the idea of using one of Outfit's agents to do our spying with, someone might notice." He reinitialised the Processor. "They want the whole system on-line."
"Even the 'Tripper?"
"Especially the 'Tripper, The board are certain his memory will return and he will find them. In his present state he won't leave much intact."
"Where is he now?" Second brought up the transceivers tracking G.P.S.
"Still at the mansion, he's…oh crap!" Second stared dumbly at the screen.
"What?" asked First.
"The board has activated the kill-code, the host has gone on a rampage!" Second explained.
"Damn those idiots! Call the team. Tell them their needed for a cleanup."
*
*
I stood up and bashed my head against the nearest wall to clear it. I was angry, at anything and everything. I saw Kitty first and advanced, she saw me and backed away. I managed to grab her around the throat, and I squeezed. I felt my grip release as she phased through my hands.
"How dare you do that to me?" I screamed in her face. "My life was perfect! My family were my life and you had to take them away! Joseph, I'll kill you for that!" I saw Kitty's face melt away and my most hated enemy replaced her. I swung my fist but missed.
"Okay kid, calm down what's wrong?" I heard Logan's gruff voice but could only see every person I'd ever hated. The kids who'd bullied me in school, the leaders of the various groups I'd been ordered to eradicate for the good of the commonwealth. They all hated me and I hated them. Now I had the power to kill them. I advanced on the nearest person and side kicked him to the floor. I leapt onto him and raised my fist to punch, only to be knocked back by a blast from Scott. I got up and looked for him, he wasn't in the room. I spied Joseph near the wall opposite me and charged, but he phased through the wall and narrowly escaped my fist. I heard a movement behind me and turned grabbing a women's hand before she could hit me, she looked like Greerson's second-in-command, Tyesson. I backed her up against a mirror and gripped her throat, the energy left my body and I began to weaken. I saw Tyesson's face transform. I gasped. I could see I was now throttling Rogue, I released my grip and she fell to the floor gagging for air. I leaned on the wall for support as I gasped in air, but I backed away as Logan and the Professor moved to help her. My instincts told me to help but I did the opposite. I ran.
*
*
"Well?" First re-entered the room to see Second staring dumbly at the screen. "What's wrong?"
"You won't believe this sir, but the Transceiver has been fried. Its battery was completely depleted within seconds." First moved closer and saw warning signs on every screen. "The Kill-Code didn't do it; it was an external force, possibly a mutant."
"What about his memories?" First sat down on a chair opposite second. "Are they returning?"
"Well yes and no." Second ripped a sheet from the printer and handed it to First. "Here's the final report from the bug. It shows what part of the brain it opened up on the K.C. activation. M17 through to M42 are repressed memories, usually bad ones from childhood. Deaths, fights, etcetera." First looked up from the report.
"What about A1 through to A115?"
"They're all about you. I'd say that if he survives, he's going to come after you. And I don't think it'll be pretty."
*
*
"What are we going to do about Joseph?" Xavier and the X-men were once again in the med bay for a briefing.
"I think we should take him down before he hurts anyone," Scott said, the others immediately agreed.
"He's already hurt some one: Kitty and Rogue." Kurt added. "Scott's right, he's dangerous."
Logan chimed in, "We need to find out what happened, why he would fly off the handle."
"Because he's a killer, that's why," Scott responded, "Joseph is nothing but a cold blooded murderer."
"His name isn't Joseph," Rogue whispered. She was finding it hard to speak. "Someone wiped his mind and framed him." Kitty was sceptical.
"You can say that after he tried to kill you?" Rogue shook her head.
"His mind was filled with blind rage. It was forced upon him. Every bad memory and feeling was called up and shown to him all at once. There are memories in his head of horrible events that would destroy normal people."
"Like what?" Scott asked.
"They are his memories, I'm not gonna tell you them, they're private," She answered. "All that has resurfaced are bad memories."
"Then this situation is more serious than thought to be," The professor leaned forward and pressed his hands together in concentration. "Without any good memories to balance out the bad, Joseph finds himself in a very bad situation."
"His name isn't Joseph." Rogue said again.
"Then what is it?" Asked Evan. She looked at Evan.
"I'm not at liberty to say."
"Then we will find him and ask him in person," Xavier said as he wheeled to the door. When they reached the lobby they found a woman waiting for them. Xavier stopped just beside her. "May I help you, Miss…?" The women turned to him, letting everyone take in her figure. She was tall and slim with purple hair, and was of Asian origin. She looked like nobility by the way she was standing.
"Charles Xavier I presume? Yes, you can help me." She didn't wait for the professor to answer her initial question, "You have someone under my care here, five-ten and a very dark complexion?"
"Joseph ran off, after hurting two of our people. We don't know where he is."
"His name isn't Joseph" Rogue and the woman said together. Rogue looked at the woman with surprise. The woman, however, kept her attention on Xavier.
"For now you can refer to him as the Shade."
"Shade? What kind of name is that?" Scott asked, almost smiling.
"It's no worse than yours, Cyclops." They all stared at her with open mouths.
"I think you better tell us who you are." Logan growled, his arms tensing up. The woman turned to him and looked imperiously down her nose at his knuckles, then to him.
"My name is Elizabeth Braddock, but you may call me Psylocke."
*
*
I had nowhere to go. How could I have done that? I attacked the people who were protecting me, didnt I? I had to start finding answers, but where to start? I fished my memory for anything that would help. My head was filled with death, pain, and misery, with the only upside being that I now knew who I was and who Joseph was.
Gabe, I want to give you something.
What mum?
This is a family heirloom, it represent balance.
That was it. I had to get back to the motel I'd woke up in yesterday. I hiked west and began to follow the trail back.
*
*
"British Intelligence? What kind of crap is this?" Scott said, Psylocke gave him a look and continued regardless.
"Shade and I were in a unit known as the Outfit, a unit filled with mutants. We were charged with the investigation of mutant related crimes."
"You hunt mutants for a living don't you?" Kurt asked. Psylocke's face seemed to soften.
"Only those who broke the law. We seem to spend most of our time protecting mutants from maniacs like Colonel Joseph Greerson," she answered. "He was in charge of an experiment three years ago, which included the mapping and correction of the X-gene."
"What do you mean correction?" Jean asked. Psylocke gave her a piercing stare.
"You will find it difficult to get into my mind Miss Grey, don't try it again," she said with an ice-cold tone. Jean gulped, and Psylocke turned back to Xavier. "Four years ago there was a report on a new illness, one in a thousand Teenagers seemed to have it. It turned out all these children had the X-gene, and for different reasons it didn't activate at puberty. Shade is one of these, along with his teammates. Three years ago Joseph proposed creating a unit filled with mutants who would be able to tackle any mutant related problem. He got government backing and a section of the military budget to work with."
"And Shade?" asked Kitty, "Where does he fit in?"
"Shade was the first subject, at the request of his father. He had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and was given five years to live. His father and mother were mutants and figured that his X-gene was part of the problem. They went to Joseph to handle it."
"Why Joseph? And what do you have to do with it?" Scott asked her.
"Joseph was a friend of the family, Shade's father and he had been in the same unit before Joseph moved to R and D and Shade's father joined the Diplomat's Corp." Psylocke handed Xavier a photo. It showed ten people crouched in front of a chopper, one was Psylocke and one looked like an older version of Joseph. Psylocke tapped the photo. "That is what Shade usually looks like, next to him is his partner Teekay." Shade was short but lithe with long black hair and pale skin; Teekay was his opposite. Tall, blonde and a deep tan "They were partnered up because they had grown up together. Teekay and the rest are currently back at our safe house, I figured that having all of us here wouldn't help matters." Xavier looked up from the picture, surprise over his face.
"Logan, have a look." Logan received the photo and looked at it.
"Is that . . ?" He shifted his eyes to Psylocke. She nodded. "And that means his father is . . ." She nodded again.
"You two are the only people authorised to see this, our commander's orders," She accepted the photo back and addressed Xavier again. "Three weeks ago Shade, Teekay and myself were on a mission in the Congo. Shade was captured and brought to America, we don't know why Joseph brought him here but I think it has something to do with you."
*
*
Found it! I'd hidden the heirloom in a hollowed out bible in the drawer. I took it out and looked at it by the light of the table lamp. It was a small yin-yang medallion on a thin silver chain. By the look of the recessed split between the yin and yang, it could become two halves. I put it on and closed my eyes. Memories trickled into focus, I smiled to myself, they were good memories.
"Gabe?" My eyes snapped open at the sound of the singsong voice, I moved to the curtains and moved it across to look outside. There was an . . . army outside.
Oh crap. I moved away and headed for the bathroom. I couldn't get out because the window was too small. I had to meet them head on; it was the only way out . . . or was it? I turned off the light and opened a shadow door. I began to step through when a high-powered beam of light hit me, burning away my shadowed skin. I fell to the floor and checked myself. Where the shadow skin had once been, there was only skin, pink and healthy. I looked around for an escape route, all the shadows were too small to fit through, thanks to the beam hitting a mirror and reflecting around the room.
"Gabe, give yourself up, you have no where to go." The voice was harder now. There was only one escape route left, the front door. My powers were gone but I still had my training to fall back on. I moved to the door and gripped the handle, I was going to get out of here, even if it meant killing every one out there. I opened the door and charged
