A/N: Disclaimer: The character known as TeeKay is owned in part by my friend known on ff.net as Son of Sephiroth. It's my hope that he uses this character to do his own X-men Evo fanfic. Speaking of which, I don't own Evo either.
AnimeLuvr1: I can't wait to read it. Have you received the bio I sent you?
Son Of Sephiroth: Don't worry, I will.
Chapter 6
Balance
The X-men had moved Psylocke into the rec room to speak in comfort. She wasn't interested in comfort and decided to stand. The questions followed quickly.
"What's the deal between Shade and Joseph?"
"Why iz he here?"
"What's Shade's real name?" These were just a few questions Psylocke was being flooded with. With a few words, Xavier calmed them down and motioned for Psylocke to continue. She nodded in gratitude and continued to brief them.
"Two years ago after an argument with the Outfit's C.I.C., Joseph approached the House of Commons with a proposal to eradicate the need for the outfit. He claimed he was able to copy the X-gene and reproduce it in a normal human being. Keeping Captain America in mind Parliament threw him out and gave him a dishonourable discharge. The Government thought that was it. However, three weeks later the English embassy in North Africa was attacked. Video footage showed Joseph was at the scene, two days after that he was seen at an assault on one of our Italian bases. It seemed that Joseph had thrown in his lot with some terrorists and gave them information on our more…seedier dealings." Psylocke moved from the doorway and leaned against one of the chairs. "Three months later our embassy in Australia was attacked, killing one of the Outfit's original members. Mi5 and Mi6 put Outfit into a more…proactive role to its usual defensive one. We were charged with the investigation into Josephs treachery and if possible, to capture him. All of our attempts to bring him back failed, in the end we were forced to terminate him."
"You mean kill him," Scott interrupted.
"Kill, terminate. Same thing."
"What happened?"
"Mi5 sent orders for Shade to take the shot. Why, we don't know, TeeKay was always our best sniper. Still, Shade went to Russia where our Intel put Joseph, and he took the shot. All reports were good up until a year ago. Joseph killed Shade's mother in revenge, and it changed Shade. He became unstable and refused to take any other assignments. For all intents and purposes Shade was out for revenge, he was close to getting it in the Congo. I don't know what happened after that, we've been searching for him ever since." Psylocke reached into her coat and pulled out a brown Manila envelope and passed it to the nearest person to her, Kitty. "Inside is a photo of Joseph and photos of his closest associates." Kitty leafed through the photos until she found a face she recognised.
"Isn't this the guy off of that news footage?" She asked out loud. Kurt, who was sitting next her agreed
"Ja, hiz name was Stifan wasn't it?" Psylocke leant over them excitedly.
"You've seen Stifan? Where? Show me." Scott placed the DVD into the player, the familiar face of Stifan appeared and the group began to watch once more.
I ran at the nearest target and ducked his swinging fist, I forced my shoulder into his gut and lifted him off the ground in a tackle and hit him hard against the nearest vehicle. I heard his spine give way under the onslaught and I dropped him, whirling on to my next target. He cocked back his arm and let it fly at my face. I grabbed his wrist and twisted, dislocating it. I kicked him in the face and advanced onto the only one left, he was standing in front of the searchlight, so I couldn't see any thing but a silhouette. I grabbed him around the throat and began to squeeze hard.
You like throttling women don't you Gabe?
I couldn't tell where the voice came from, the light ahead of me clicked off and I could see my opponent, I screamed and dropped her.
It was Rogue.
I bolted upright, sweat coursing down my body. Weird dream, I thought as I clutched at the pendant around my neck, it calmed me down. Guess mother was right.
"Bad dream?" The voice was female, I couldn't see her in the darkness of the room but I could feel her presence within my domain. I concentrated my power and used it as a sort of sonar to locate her. She was by the door, leaning against it.
"Who are you?" I asked her. And how long has she been standing there? I asked myself. I got up off the bed and walked to the wall opposite her and leant against it, facing her.
"My name is Mystique. I am here to help you." My night vision had returned and I could just make her out, she had dark hair and dark skin, her yellow eye's seemed to glow. She seemed familiar, so I sifted through my fully restored memory to see if I had met her.
"You're here to help me? Bull, what's in it for you?" She moved so her back was to the window, the recent nightmare immediately sprung up, all I could see was a silhouette of her.
"You are very astute, for a boy." I think I was supposed to take it as a compliment, but something kept nagging at the back of my mind. "My employer is looking for young able bodied mutants such as you; we are training for a coming war." Something in my mind clicked, I did know her.
"Have we met?"
"No," she answered a little too quickly. That clinched it for me. I smirked.
"So we have met, haven't we? In Paris, about a year ago. You tried recruiting my friend Tobias and me. Wasn't your unexpected dip in the Seine a big enough hint?" I felt disgusted; I was talking to someone who stood for everything I'd sworn to stop. "You have ten seconds to get out of my sight."
"Think about my offer Gabriel. We will accept you for who you are, unlike Xavier's brats." I stared at her waiting for her to leave.
"Five seconds." She didn't move. I stepped closer with every second. "Four. Three-two-one." I snapped my foot up and kicked out, planting my boot in her chest and pushing her out of the window. Someone was bound to hear it, so I grabbed my things and opened the door. I stopped by Mystique's prone body and knelt beside her. "Tell Magneto that I give the same answer as I did in Paris. Should I ever see you again, I will show no mercy." I got up and walked away. Mystique began shouting to me.
"There is a war coming Gabriel, sooner or later you are going to have to choose sides! Don't make the same mistake as Xavier!" I ignored her ranting and carried on walking, leaving her to whoever came. I had bigger fish to fry. Just then my stomach grumbled. Speaking of fish . . .
"You were tricked! This is so sloppy! I can't believe you missed it!" The X-Men remained quiet through Psylocke's ranting. "Look at the soldier's size, if they were sixteen they wouldn't be a good two, three feet taller than the prisoners who are kneeling down. You see that man in the middle of the prisoners? That is Angus McKinner, father of Conner McKinner. He died four years ago." Scott stood up and faced the Intelligence agent.
"That doesn't mean that Shade wasn't involved." Psylocke looked at him as if he had just insulted everything that was good and holy; he almost took a step back.
"Angus McKinner is Shade's Grandfather! Shade is otherwise known as Gabriel McKinner, son of the British ambassador to America!" The X-men were silent. "You mean to tell me you don't know who Conner McKinner is?" A few shook their heads while the rest remained silent. "Conner is one of the men who petitioned for mutant rights in Britain. He's the reason that the Outfit is still running and the reason that the bill to mutants listed with the government of America is still having trouble going through." She turned to Xavier. "I thought you would have told them all this Charles." She turned and went to leave the room. "I've wasted enough time here, I have to find Gabe before Joseph does."
"Why?" asked Kitty. Psylocke turned to face her.
"Because Joseph doesn't let anything go that's still useful to him, we have to find Gabriel before he's sent back here to lay waste to this place, let's go." Only Rogue and Wolverine got up to follow. Rogue shot the rest back a dirty look before she was gone. The rest stared at the screen.
"Why should we know these people?" Asked Evan.
"Conner McKinner comes from a very prestigious highland family, many of them are or were mutants. When I built this institute I asked Conner to help here, his skills as a soldier would have been helpful. He declined, saying his family came first. His son had been sick for a while and he was worried about him. The last I knew was that his son had died of a strange disease. I attended his funeral."
I found an abandoned Deli in downtown Bayville to hide while I recuperated. Somehow the food was still palatable, so I made myself a BLT and watched for hobos. I'd already had to move two away from the area.
"Not exactly the Ritz, Gabe, but it does have a bit of charm," a southern voice spoke from behind me; I didn't turn because I already knew whom it was. I dropped the bread knife and started for the front door. "Don't go Gabe," Rogue said in a rush, "we need to talk." I stopped with my hand on the door handle.
"Keep away from me Rogue, I'm dangerous," I said as I stared at the doorknob. I couldn't look at her; the guilt I felt was stopping me from doing anything. "I almost killed you."
"That wasn't you Gabriel, that was the rage inside you. Ya had no control over it." Rogue said soothingly. I concentrated on the handle.
"What went on in my head was made of me. Therefore it was my anger. I just couldn't take it all at once." My voice lowered to a whisper.
"Ah know what you're going through Gabe—" she stopped abruptly when I wrenched the handle from its fixtures and threw it past her into the deli's glass counter.
"How can you possibly begin to imagine what I've been through?!" I shouted at her, releasing all the pent up hate and anger I had left. "How can you know what I've done? Who I've killed and what I felt?" I was looking her in the eye, daring her to take the challenge. She did, Rogue pulled down the collar of her uniform. Finger-shaped wheals adorned the sides of her neck.
"Ah know 'cause when yeh grabbed my neck yer memories as well as yer powers were transferred tah me. Ah remember what you remembered at that exact time and Ah know what you felt because . . . Ah felt it too." I was glaring at her wounds, wounds I inflicted. I had attacked an innocent; it was a heavily punishable offence in the British Military.
"Rogue I'm . . . I'm sorry." I sat down heavily on a nearby stool. "I still can't see why I did it."
"The important thang is that you were able to break free of it." I looked at her and saw comfort in her eyes.
"I didn't break free of it by myself Rogue. You helped me; it was you who broke me free. And to thank you I want to give you this." I pulled the Yin Yang chain from around my neck and split it in half, I threaded the silver chain into the white yin and gave it to Rogue.
"Ah couldn't really." I placed it in her hand.
"Please, it's a gift from a friend, to a friend. Take it." She did, slowly placing it around her neck. It suited her. I thread the black yang through some black tying cord I had picked up from the back. She gave me a rueful smile.
"Am Ah s'posed to read anything more into this?" I couldn't help myself.
"Well I was hoping that once I—" There was a sound from outside, rubber boot scraping against pavement. "Rogue, stay down. If I shout to you, then high-tail it out the back." I stood up and walked to the door. I had to grip it near the doorframe to open it. I moved out into the street. I was instantly blinded by the headlights of three vehicles. By their size they had to be Humvees; low, wide 4x4s used mainly by the military. Also known as a Hummer to civilians.
"Put your hands behind your head and lie down on the ground." The voice was loud and sounded like it was used to being obeyed, I knew that voice.
"Stifan? Come out and face me." I put more confidence in my voice than I actually felt, I was cut off from the shadows—my home and power source. Five silhouettes—each armed with batons—emerged from the other side of the beams. I steeled myself for attack. "Rogue, run now!" I sidestepped to my left, placing me square in front of the door. I assigned each of the combatants a number and began running attack patterns through my head. One and Five fanned out as two to Four advanced towards me. As they came into range I snap kicked Three down and twisted away from Two and Four's attack. Five swung for a blow to my head, I deflected it off my shoulder and grabbed his outstretched arm and his other shoulder. I slammed my knee into his stomach and spun him around to block One's swing with his head, I threw him onto One and ducked Two's attack, I grabbed his back leg and threw him to the ground. Pain exploded in my back as Four hit me. I went down and rolled before the inevitable follow-up attack. I staggered to my feet and grabbed him in a headlock and slowly choked him. "Wait a sec, aren't there usually seven of you?" A scream from the deli punctuated the remark. "Rogue!" I pushed him into Two and ran back into the building. There was no one in the restaurant so I pushed through the swing doors to the kitchen and saw two soldiers carrying a body bag, one tall with an assault rifle over his shoulder and the other was short with two pistols on his belt at the front. I yelled out to them. They both turned to me; the tall one lifted the bag onto his shoulder.
"I'll leave him to you Connelly." He walked through the fire doors behind him, which left Connelly between the door and me.
"Let me through Connelly." I stepped to my right, he stepped to his left and cut me off, I moved left and he cut me off again.
"I can't let you through mate," he said with an Australian accent. I began to move right again, as he moved to block me I traversed off my left foot and planted my right foot behind his left and pushed him to the floor, for good measure I punched him in the gut. He rolled onto his side and puked. I pushed through the fire doors and saw a van fishtail around the corner; I ran to the end of the alley and watched it screech around the right towards the deli. I ran back to the door and saw Connelly gone from the floor; I stepped over his dinner and headed to the front of the deli once more.
I walked outside to see just one Humvee parked in the street, with Two and Connelly huddled by the right side of the truck, Two saw me first and pulled his weapon on me.
"Freeze!" Connelly turned around and brought his own weapon up.
"Don't worry, I give up," I said and raised my arms half-heartedly. Connelly brought out a pair of handcuffs, the chain was about a foot long, lucky for me. He slapped one cuff on my right wrist and turned me around then slapped the other cuff on to my other wrist. The radio sputtered and Two picked up a headset and turned it on.
"This is Unit Alpha Three over." He listened, as he did so a look of shock came over his face. "She what?" Connelly spared a glance to Two. Now was my chance. I leapt at the truck and planted my right foot on the edge, I leapt off and brought up my left leg as close to my right as possible and hugged them to my stomach. I stretched my arms under my legs and landed softly. I brought my now free hands over Connelly's head and grabbed the two pistols at his waist and pulled the chain around his neck and crossed the chain so the pistols where on either side of his head. I fired at Two without hesitation, and he went down.
"Where have they taken her?" I whispered into Connelly's ear, all the while pulling the chain tighter.
"Navy arms," He croaked. I knew they had offices in New York City, I hadn't realized it came with it's own strike team.
"Where?" He didn't answer, only struggled. "Where?!" Connelly gurgled and gave up struggling. I felt the urge to start cussing my brains out. With a deep breath, I let him drop to the floor and searched his pockets for the cuff keys. After unlocking them I settled into the driver's side of the truck and began searching. Nothing but a handgun and a mobile phone. I picked up the phone and looked at it. There was no way around it; I was going to have to tell them. I dialled in the number from memory and held the phone to my ear. I heard the other end pick up. "Sir, I have news, and it isn't good. Rogue's been kidnapped and I'm gonna need your help."
A/N: Incase any of you were wonderin you're not supposed to know who the McKinners are, reasons will present themselves in the sequel.
