Prequel to An Uprising
"Lorna how could you attack them like that?" Karen asked. "It was too dangerous!"
"I'm not going to sit back and hide while my father's death remains unavenged!" Lorna shouted.
"Well if no one else will applaud your efforts," A Scottish voice said smoothly followed by a clapping.
"Who are you?" Lorna snapped. "Show yourself!"
"They call me Lucas," A tall man with blond hair and a goatee dressed in black swaggered out. "But you can call me…Legion. And I'd like to have a word with ye if you don't mind."
"She does!" Mastermind started to work his illusions but he was sent flying back by a mental blast. "Uhhgh!"
"Don't bother," Lucas told him. "If my old man the great Charles Xavier couldn't handle me, there's no way a second rate trickster like yourself can."
"Wait Xavier is your father?" Lorna asked.
"Hard to believe I know," Lucas grinned devilishly. "I mean the man is such a boring stick in the mud. Of course I only found out recently, so I know how you feel about finding unexpected relatives."
"What are you babbling about?" She asked.
"I saw the whole thing," Lucas said. "Very impressive. Your father would have been proud of ye. Of course you were obviously the favorite of all his children."
"All his children? That's impossible," Lorna gasped.
"It's true," Lucas told her. "If you don't believe me ask them!" He pointed to Mastermind and Karen.
Lorna looked at them quizzically. Karen spoke. "It's…complicated honey."
"Oh I'll bet it is," Lucas grinned. "Let me simplify this for you. You have 2 half sisters and a half brother. One's an experiment and the other two are twins from a human tart who tricked him into marriage. I guess your father didn't want to chance having all of his eggs in one basket if you know what I mean."
"No I don't," Lorna growled. "What do you mean married?"
"Is there an echo in here? Just what it's supposed to mean, married, wedlock!"
"But my mother…"
"He never married her, am I right Mender?" Lucas grinned.
"Bastard…" She hissed.
"True," Lucas said. "But since technically I'm one too I'll take it as a compliment."
"And I suppose you're saying this out of the goodness of your heart?" Lorna shouted.
"I'm just saying that you and I have a lot in common," Lucas grinned. "You and I both had fathers who lied to us. Abandoned us for other children…"
"My father did not abandon me!" Lorna hissed.
"All right…" Lucas held up his hands. "The point is we both want revenge on Xavier. We want to trash the X-Men and put humanity in its place. We could do a much better job together than separate. Look at what happened at the studio. You did a great job trashing a small number of them, but when they start ganging up on you…Well that's not exactly fair now is it? So why not even the odds a bit?"
"So you're proposing a partnership," Lorna stated.
"Why not?" Lucas asked.
"What makes you think I can trust you?" Lorna growled.
"Well for starters I'm the only one in this room who hasn't lied to you," Lucas said pointing at Karen and Mindbender.
"There is that," Lorna glared at them. "Both of you, leave me."
"But Lorna…" Karen started to say.
"NOW!" Lorna ordered. They both left. "Suppose I did create an alliance with you, what makes you think I can trust you?"
"You probably can't," Lucas said. "Although between that helmet you're wearing and Mastermind's mind blocks he placed in you just before you went off to fight my poppa the chances of me taking over your mind are pretty much nil anyway."
"True," Lorna said. "And it seems like we both have something to prove anyway."
"They giving you a hard time?" Lucas pointed in the direction the other two mutants left.
"Just because I'm inexperienced doesn't mean I'm stupid!" Lorna said. "Mender is on my side but I suspect some of them like Mastermind want to run everything behind my back. Like I'm some kind of puppet!"
"You're probably right."
"Damn right I am!" Lorna fumed. "The first thing I did when I seized control was send that toady Cortez off to one of our remote bases in Greenland where he would be out of the way! God! Could he be any more obvious?"
"Speaking of obvious," Lucas motioned towards some monitors that showed the situation in China. "What are you going to do about Apocalypse?"
"Nothing," Lorna spat. "At least until I can figure out how to beat him. If he was strong enough to take my father out brute force will not be enough to stop him."
"But a telepath might," Lucas said. He looked at Lorna. "I'm good dearie, but even I can't take on all the X-Men and their allies on my own. Only a fool would do that. So what do you say, partner?"
"We have a deal," Lorna nodded. "Now tell me more about my family."
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Down in the sewers Evan slowly opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling of his room. Actually it was more like a closed off section of a tunnel converted into a small space. Most Morlocks inhabited tents in an open area in the Alley. Private spaces were rare and reserved for the very young or Morlocks with particular status. Because of his powers and his fighting skills, Evan soon gained the privilege of a 'room' as well as the respect of the Morlocks. He even had a torn mattress covered with some straw, which he personally swiped from a rumored meeting place of the FOH.
He was now considered second in command to Callisto, the leader of the Morlocks. A position that gained him more respect than he had ever had with the X-Men. There, he was just another student. But in the Alley, he was their best fighter and protector. He was even teaching the less powerful Morlocks several defense techniques. His fire spikes gave them warmth at night and helped keep the tunnels lit. And when he spoke of his adventures with the X-Men, every Morlock listened with interest, no matter how jaded. Since television was non-existent and very little reading material could be found, Evan's stories did pass the time on dark cold lonely nights.
Of course it wasn't long before Evan had learned that there were other ways to spend a night. "Did I fall asleep?"
His companion, a pale mutant with rainbow colored hair snickered from under the blankets. "Well you did have a good workout," She smiled.
"Only because you ran me ragged," Evan grinned back. "Damn Tommy you could give Logan a run for his money. Although I have to admit I never enjoyed any of his training sessions as much as I like yours."
Tommy smirked and made her arm two dimensional, snaking it between his spikes. Like most of the Morlocks her family had abandoned her when her powers emerged. The sixteen year old's power was to flatten her body into a two dimensional form, which was very handy for slipping in through cracks, hiding in shadows, or other forms of recreation. Considering Evan's spikes this was very useful for not getting skewered during intimate moments.
"You can always count on Spyke for a boner," A cat like mutant with a long tail opened the curtain.
"Being catty as usual Feral?" Evan replied back. He didn't try to hide himself. Living in the tunnels for a long period of time cured one of modesty. Sex was rarely a big deal down in the tunnels. Sometimes it was just a way to gain warmth and pass the time.
"Sorry to interrupt," Feral grinned. "But I thought somebody should tell you that Lucid's already gone topside to hunt for food."
"What? I told him to wait for me!" Evan grumbled as he sat up.
"Well he didn't want to disturb you," Feral grinned.
"I gotcha," Evan nodded. "It's time I was on patrol anyway." She left him. He picked up his pants from a battered old chair and started to get dressed.
"Do you have to go?" Tommy asked. She stood up, pulling the blanket close to her body.
"Somebody has to watch out for Lucid," Evan finished putting his pants on. "Or any other mutants that are out there."
"Well aren't you Mr. Punctual?" Tommy grinned.
"I think it's all that training the X-Men drummed into me," Evan grinned.
"I always love to hear you talk about it," Tommy said. "Is it true that you used to live in a real mansion with hot water and marble tiles and fancy paintings on the walls and everything? What was it like?"
"The more I think about it the words 'gilded cage' come to mind," Evan said. "Obviously the food was a lot better but…I just didn't feel like myself half the time. Like I was being molded into someone who wasn't me."
"Do you wish you were back there?" She asked softly.
"It was like a strange beautiful dream," Evan put his hands on her face. "But this is reality. What we have now may not be perfect, but it's better than a hundred mansions because it's the truth. You know that. I gotta go."
"Be careful," Tommy said.
"I always am," Evan grinned to his lover. "Go back to sleep. Everything will be fine as long as I'm on patrol."
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At the same time in a small apartment in Bayville a small boy with pale green skin winced in pain. "Something's going to happen…" Dorian Leech whispered. "Something bad is coming…"
Next: What's happened behind the scenes, what you didn't see in 'Uprising'!
