The redhead walked alone on the upper level of the mall, well away from the crowds of panicky civilians that watched Kitty and the Brotherhood try and break through the suffocating barrier. Long curls like tendrils of smoke drifted about her as she turned to address every tiny sound, every movement of air. She could feel them watching her and it made her uncomfortable. Fire oozed in her belly and her palms itched with wanting to use her powers.
"L'assassin…" The word was breathed as an insult. Blaze spun to try and catch a glimpse of the speaker but couldn't see anyone.
"So you're French," she called out to the unseen pursuer. "You'll have to give me a better clue than that if I'm to figure out why you don't like me."
"Murderer…" The voice was slightly different this time but the French accent still thick on the words.
"You have me where you want me," Blaze answered. "Why not let everyone else out?"
In answer Blaze suddenly felt a shockwave pass harshly through her body as she walked into a new blockade. Down below in the foyer there was a huge crash as Blob pelted the force-field with his bench only to find the barrier dissipated and himself falling forward with the momentum of his swing. There was cheers and applause from the crowd, making Blob blush as he sat in a mess of shattered bench outside. Toad bowed as he let the crowd pass him to leave, glowing in the praise of a little old lady and her friend who thought he was so brave! Quicksilver was already leaving with Wanda and Lance by his side as they stormed off grumpily. Immediately as the barrier fell, Kitty started searching the crowd for any sign of Blaze.
"You comin' Kitty?" Lance was the only Brotherhood member to look back at all.
"I have to find Blaze," she told him, shaking her head. He shrugged and left. Neither teenage mutant looked back at the other again. Kitty pushed her way swiftly through the crowd still unable to spot her X-Man teammate.
"That's better," Blaze muttered as she fought to shake off the effects of being confined in a small bubble of the electrified barrier. "Who are you? Why do you call me a murderer?" Blaze wasn't sure she was going to like the answer. She was even more unnerved when finally her attackers came into view. They were just kids, twin sisters about Kitty's age. As alike as two peas in a pod, they both had Gaelic complexions with pale eyes and mousy-brown, wavy hair that they wore loose down their backs. How could they hate her so much? What had she done to them? Filled with dread and self-loathing, Blaze struggled to keep her firepower contained as she waited for the girls to explain.
"L'assassin," the first girl spat in French, walking right up to the barrier that contained Blaze. "Dis-moi pourquoi vous assassine mon frere?"
"Tell you why I killed your brother?" Blaze translated automatically, somewhat shocked. "Je ne comprendre pas." She didn't know these kids, didn't know what on earth they were talking about. Her answer wasn't good enough for the second sister, who came up and placed her hands on the force-field her sister had created. As Blaze watched the girl's palms started to glow, then Blaze lost all ability to see or even cry out as she was swamped with pain. Only when the attack abated did Blaze meet the sisters' eyes, confounded by the pain and hatred she saw there.
"Please," she pleaded in English, "please tell me what I did?"
"You burnt him alive," the field-making sister retorted, tears in her eyes. "You killed him and two of his friends, in Paris two years ago. My sister, you would call her in English Jolt, and I, Barricade, we have trained our powers ever since to come get you, to have our revenge. Today you die too."
Suddenly Blaze understood. She'd not been in Paris very long at that time and it was well before she'd met Ilehana Xavier. Three French boys had approached her and threatened her one night in an isolated alleyway on the East Bank, in the shadow of Notre Dame. Terrified, not long a mutant, she'd lost control of her firepower for the second time in her life. All three boys had died. Blaze herself had been knocked out for hours, as the power flowing through her was too much for her limited training to handle. She'd been very fortunate to avoid the authorities but now it seemed there was really no running from what she had done.
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"This is gettin' ridiculous," Rogue moaned after yet again chasing some of the younger X-Men away from the food table. "Ah know Blaze likes to be fashionably late but really."
"I guess it's time I gave her a telepathic buzz," Ilehana groaned, disappointed in her friend. She'd thought Blaze had more respect for the X-Men than to be so late. Concentrating with her telepathy Vixen reached out to where the temperamental redhead should have been. Nothing. "I can't reach her," Ilehana announced, visibly worried.
"Maybe she's too far away for your powers," Jean advised in a know-it-all fashion. "If you give me a minute I'll go down to Cerebro and…"
"She's not too far away for me," Vixen snapped, putting her emphasis on the word me. Jean scowled and put her hand on her hips, not liking that Vixen was implying she was a better telepath than Jean was. It might be true, but she didn't have to point it out every chance she got. "I can reach Kitty fine," as if to prove it Ilehana concentrated again and spoke quickly to Shadowcat.
"There's been some kind of trouble," The Professor announced, a second ahead of his daughter. "Kitty doesn't know where Blaze is; only that she was with Magneto's man Gambit a short while ago and that the Brotherhood was involved too. Ilehana, Logan, Storm, go see what you can do." Ororo, Vixen and Wolverine nodded, heading immediately out of the door and to the lower levels.
"What about the rest of us?" Scott asked, hating to be left out of the action. "If the Brotherhood is involved we should go."
"No Scott they've already departed," Xavier put his fingertips together in front of his face frowning. "And I think the X-Men have done enough to aggravate the Brotherhood for one day. Let Storm and the others handle it, whatever it is."
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Jolt and Barricade swapped glances, flicking back hair from their faces in exactly the same motion as before them in the electrified bubble Blaze fell to her knees and cried. It was hardly the reaction they had expected from the fiend who had killed their brother. She wasn't even pleading for her life. She didn't make a single sound, just sat there with her shoulders shaking as hot tears ran lazily down her face.
"Stop that!" Jolt finally snapped, French accent thick with her own grief. "We will not change our minds because you pretend to be weak!"
"Who's pretending?" Blaze answered hoarsely, "I am weak and that's why your brother died. I couldn't control my powers. It had happened before and it's happened since."
"I do not accept that!" Jolt screamed, going forward again to push her power through her sister's barrier and into Blaze. This time the redhead did scream, eyes rolling back in her head as her whole body shook with pain. Barricade came to stand by her sister's side, using her power to shrink the force-field, trying to crush Blaze to death. Out of nowhere a single playing card drifted through the air, glinting charismatically in the electric lights of the mall. Both French girls looked at it as it fell between them and the captured Blaze, not quite understanding. The six of clubs exploded.
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#…And then it just… Wait! You have to get here now Vixen! Something just exploded!# Kitty cut off her own report as an explosion wracked the upper levels of the mall. Ilehana winced as panic flooded Shadowcat's mind-voice.
#We're nearly with you. Don't do anything Shadowcat, I mean that! Blaze can look after herself, okay?#
#Alright,# Kitty replied, shifting her weight from foot to foot as she watched the smoke rise. #But please hurry!#
"And?" Logan asked Vixen as he turned the X-Van into the mall parking lot. It was pleasantly quiet as most of the shoppers had headed home as soon as the barrier covering the exits had disappeared, their desire to shop suddenly quashed by the evening's strange events. Logan parked up not far from the trade entrance whilst Storm listened from the rear of the vehicle.
"No idea," Vixen shook her head and started to unbuckle her seatbelt, "but we have explosions."
"Sounds like my kinda birthday party," Wolverine growled, his claws sliding through his knuckles with a snickt.
