Concerns

Disclaimer: Characters are the property of Marvel, I'm just playing with them, I promise to put them back later.

Thanks for the feedback: Eboni, Risty, Jenny10, raniatlw, DemonRogue13, IceBlueRose, Goofn1

A/N: RE: The Shadow King – He has the same powers and general MO as in 616 but that's it. I'm trying to introduce an Evo-version of the SK rather than just doing a cross-over with 616. The SK's background is significantly different, he's just met Xavier for the first time and doesn't know Storm (I doubt Storm grew up on the streets of Cairo in Evo since she babysat for Evan and Pietro and she's probably not much more than a decade older than they are). In this story the SK has a past with Magneto and where Magneto's past intersects Lance's, so does the SK's.

More generally I'm adopting and adapting pieces of 616 history into Evo, but I'm not doing a true cross-over. I'm trying to play by the same general rules as the show: 616 characters with the same powers but their back-stories aren't necessarily the same. I won't reference 616 cannon without explaining it. Conversely if I don't mention something that happened in 616, for example the Shadow King's past with Storm, it's not safe to assume that it still happened.

"They're still here," Rondell complained as he walked into Jensen's office several days after Lance's collapse. "Four of them."

Jensen sighed. "And we're still playing blind. As Mr. Murdock pointed out it's difficult for a prosecutor when the defendant is insane. If you want a second opinion just ask the prosecutor for the Greg Samual case, the kid hasn't managed a coherent sentence since the quake. I want Alvers to make it to trial. If that means letting his friends stay here, then they stay."

"The way I heard it, he was headed for catatonia. That would solve everyone's problems. Well as far as that Mutie's concerned anyway."

"Sounds like you agree with Trask," Jensen said with a frown. "Watch yourself or you might end up sharing his cell."

"You're just trying to build a career on dealing with mutant problems," Rondell replied.

Jensen stood up and glared. "I got this job dumped on me," he snapped. "I get sent out as the lead officer on the initial interviews, suddenly I'm the department expert on mutants. Make my career? I haven't even made detective, although I've been doing the work. No one wants to deal with them. They're kids. They're walking weapons. I'm doing my damnedest to balance those concerns. I don't need your prejudices making an already impossible situation worse."

Rondell snorted.

"That kid will leave our custody in condition to stand trial. Is that understood?"

"Four eights," Todd declared.

"BS!" Pietro exclaimed. Kitty chimed in a few moments later.

Todd collected up the pile of cards. "Why do you guys always have to call me?" he whined.

"Because you don't lie very well," Pietro replied matter-of-a-factly. "And you lie a lot. We all know your tells."

"I thought you had them that time," Fred remarked.

"Lance quit that," Kitty exclaimed as she pulled her boyfriend's hand away from his face. "You're going to make it bleed if you keep picking at it. The game was supposed to distract you."

"Sorry," Lance said as he let her take charge of his free hand. "Who's turn is it?"

"Mine," Pietro said. "I called him, it's my turn."

"I called him too," Kitty objected.

"Yeah, but I did it faster."

"Did not."

"Of course I did. I'm me."

"Draw for it," Kitty suggested. "High card wins."

"Fine… You cheat."

Kitty rolled her eyes. "Three twos. Lance?"

"Huh?"

"Your turn, twos."

"Right, four twos."

"Something's wrong with that." Fred complained. "I've got two twos."

"We're playing with three decks," Pietro reminded him. "Plus Lance almost always lies the first time it goes around… Lance stop scratching that thing!"

Lance colored slightly and picked up his cards again.

"Does it hurt?" Fred asked.

Lance turned toward him with a questioning look. Moira had told him he wouldn't recover his hearing in his left ear. The build up of pressure from the over use of his powers had damaged one eardrum. He figured it was a lot less than he deserved.

"Does it hurt?" Fred repeated as he sketched a jagged line across his cheek with a fingernail.

Lance grimaced. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Oh, umm sure," Fred said. "Three twos."

"BS!" Pietro declared. "Fred, you told us you only had two twos."

As Fred turned over the cards and revealed three twos Pietro's voice trailed off. "I lied," Fred said. He shoved the pile of cards over to Pietro. "One six."

"Humph," Pietro said as he gathered up the cards with ill grace. "Six sixes."

"Pass. You're all just going to call me anyway," Todd said sulking.

"Three sixes," Kitty said. "Pietro, stop cheating."

"If you don't get caught it's not cheating."

"You did get caught."

"I move faster than you see. You wouldn't know if I cheated. Not that I'm admitting anything."

"Do you think I straighten up the cards because I'm compulsive? They're a mess, I didn't see how they got that way, ergo you cheated. Take the cards."

"I don't like you anymore."

"I never liked you. Lance… Lance, it's your turn."

"The Shadow King said he could mark me because I was evil," Lance's quiet comment instantly silenced the room. "Matt told me I killed someone."

"It wasn't your fault," Kitty said quickly. "Mastermind screwed with your head."

"And it was just Dom anyway," Todd said. "He's one of Matthew's cronies, who cares."

"I wasn't trying to kill him."

"So it was just an accident. Forget about it, yo."

"Todd, are you really that stupid? I was trying to kill everyone in this fucking town. That it was Dom doesn't mean anything. It could have been anyone. It could have been you."

"Shut up!" Kitty yelled. She jumped to her feet, overturning the card table in the process. "You didn't kill anyone! Mastermind and Magneto and that Shadow King thing, they killed that guy! You aren't evil! You didn't kill anyone! So just shut up about it!"

The four boys stared up at Kitty in shock. She was shaking, her fists were clenched and her eyes were shining with tears. Kitty sat down beside Lance again and buried her face against his shoulder. Uncertainly Lance patted her on the back.

Fred sat the table back up. Pietro collected the cards and re-dealt. "Okay. Two jacks," he said.

"All clear below?" Cannonball yelled as he circled the building the X-Men were currently working on clearing.

"Ready!" Cyclops called back.

Sam smashed through a heavily listing wall. As it fell Cyclops used his optic blast to further pulverize the debris. Once it was on the ground Ray, Rahne and several Jamies collected up the bits.

"Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work we go," The Jamies sang, they cheerfully harmonized with each other. "How goes the brick-making business?" One of them asked Amara.

"It's coming out granite," Amara said pointing to the cooling stack of blocks she'd already reformed from the rubble. Jamie dumped his most recent load and Amara used her powers to heat the stone to the melting point and shaped it into neat rectangles.

"They look pretty," Rahne said. "Maybe people will like them."

"I doubt it," Ray said. "I wouldn't be surprised if people refused to use anything we make just because we made it."

"At least we're getting the mess cleaned up," Amara said. "And one of the grocery stores sent orange juice and cookies, some people don't totally hate us."

"I'm surprised the mob didn't hang them as race traitors," Ray said disparagingly with a gesture toward the police lines.

"We'll never make back any ground with these people if we just stay in the mansion," Amara said.

Several blocks away Bobby surveyed his task. "What a way to spend a Saturday," he complained. He carefully froze a broken water main. A frown of concentration formed on his brow as he forced the ice to expand along the length of the pipe and out the end rather than expanding any which way and adding to the damage. "Okay the last one's capped off!" he yelled.

Tabby nodded, she tucked one of her cherry bombs into a blocked up storm drain then covered her ears. They stood back and watched the water drain out of the flooded street.

"So that's you're major malfunction?" Tabby asked when she noted the sour look on Bobby's face.

"We didn't do anything wrong. Why do we have to do the clean up? It's not like anyone's going to be grateful or anything."

"Come on, if Xavier hadn't of talked the mayor into letting us help out we'd all be holed up at the mansion doing totally boring training stuff with Badger."

"Someday Logan's going to gut you for calling him that," Bobby commented.

"Oh pfft," Tabby said airily. "Out here we're doing something real and if they're too dumb to appreciate it… Well I won't feel at all guilty about the next twenty or thirty vending machines I rip off."

"You never feel guilty anyway," Bobby said.

Tabby shrugged. "It's a nice day. I'm spending time with my friends. I get to do a little badda-bing, badda-boom for a good cause… Maybe we win a few friends back and they don't string us all up starting with Lance."

Lance sat on one end of his bunk. Absently he adjusted the shoulder strap on his guitar. A boom box was sitting on the floor beside him. He had the CD player set on repeat and was listening intently to the music. Sometimes he rested one hand lightly on the speaker sometimes he played along on his guitar. His foot tapped out the drum line.

Kitty was curled up on the other end of the bunk with her laptop. She stole superstitious glances at Lance as she typed. His nails had left welts across his cheek. The contrast between the red of the scratches and the black of the Shadow King's brand only made it stand out more. He held his head at a cant to compensate for his loss of hearing. It was already becoming habitual. Lance barely ate. He hadn't lost much weight yet, but it was affecting his moods and thinking. Kitty knew it would take an effort to force his attention way from the guitar. She knew he had a hard time following conversations, especially when someone asked him to change topics quickly. She knew he'd rather stay lost in his own world rather than deal with what was happening around him.

An explosion of smoke and brimstone announced Kurt and Pietro's arrival. "Hello Kitty. Hello Lance," Kurt said.

Pietro winced, "Come on Lance, you've been listening to that song for two days now." When Lance didn't respond Pietro tucked one crutch under his arm then reached down and turned off the radio. Pietro waited impatiently for Lance to respond. After a few moments he got an angry glare. " 'Paint it Black' isn't helping anything," Pietro said.

"I'm trying to learn the fucking song," Lance snarled. "I don't read music. I listen to the damn thing until I figure out the how to make it sound the same."

"Pick another song. You're depressing me and you're depressing yourself with this one," Pietro snapped.

Lance leaned down and very deliberately turned the radio back on.

Kitty glanced between Pietro and Lance. "Um… maybe I'll stay a while longer," she said. "Tell Scott I'm sorry I missed practice would you Kurt?"

"No. It's fine," Pietro said quickly. "I'll let him be miserable if that makes him happy."

Kitty gave Lance a reluctant look. He had already lost himself back in his music. "Pietro brought books," Kurt said hefting a bulging backpack.

Kitty hesitated a moment longer then gave Lance a quick kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you in a few hours," she said.

"Jean's waiting outside," Kurt said. Kitty nodded and walked through the wall.

Moira dropped into a chair across from Xavier. "The curious thing about that poison they're dosing Lance with is that it's a match for the residual chemical traces found in his blood right after he was arrested. Somehow Erik had access to the same drug Shen is experimenting with."

"It looks like Dr. Shen's been a busy girl since we sent her packing," Nick Fury said as Logan escorted him into the room. "She came to SHIELD five years ago looking for funding to develop her drug. We had our scientists look into her proposal. They said she'd have to tailor the formula to individual mutants, that at best a stock formula might prove effective on a handful of individuals with similar abilities. I'm guessing the Feds didn't have as much experience with you guys and she was able to convince them she had something valuable cooking. If I were you, what I'd be asking is how much of a coincidence is it that her formula matches Alvers' mutation?"

"Lance's parents had a DNA work up done on him when his sister's mutation turned harmful, along with just about every other test know to man," Moira said. "I imagine all the information Shen could possibly need is in Lance's medical files."

"Why'd anyone think to pull Rocky's files?" Logan asked. "He wasn't outed on national TV with the majority of the team. He wasn't picked up by Trask's goons. He's been out of commission more often than not since everyone's know to look here for mutants."

"Shen could have started tailoring the formula to him as soon as the arrest warrant came out," Moira said. "With all the necessary information already gathered it couldn't have taken too long to modifications her drug."

"Or she could have known ahead of time," Xavier said tiredly. "The Shadow King implied his interference in Lance's life has been going on for some time, possibly predating the initial manifestation of his mutation. Between Lance's sister and the genetic work done on him someone might have discovered that he was a mutant over a decade ago. This Dr. Shen might have been one of the people who treated Missy Alvers for all we know."

"However she did it, we have to stop them from using that stuff on him," Moira said. "Lance reacts to the drug like he does to flying. Mattie and I can relieve some of the symptoms but we both believe that they're only warning signs. We donna believe it's healthy of Lance to loose his connection with the earth for an extended period of time."

The converted hotel room was darkened, quiet except for the sounds of somnolent breathing, his friends' breathing. Lance focused on that sound, tried to use it to quiet his heart, the twisting in his stomach. He couldn't remember the nightmare. It didn't matter he could feel it and he couldn't stop reacting to it.

This was hell. This was everything he hated. He was helpless, everyone's pawn. He couldn't forget that for a moment. The Shadow King's brand stared him in the face every time he looked in the mirror and he swore he could feel it burning. His wrists were still raw from Magneto's restraints. The absence of vibrations was a constant reminder of the drugs the cops made him take. He was weak, screwed up, pitiful. He couldn't even handle being alone anymore. He started thinking everyone was dead and he needed his friends there to know it was a lie. He killed someone. He'd hurt so many people. Sometimes when the lies were all he could remember it made sense, but they were just lies, it didn't really happen.

He was sick all the time. He'd just start gagging and it was so fucking hard to stop. Like now, he could feel it coming on. He was trying to not let it happen. Trying to will himself not throw up.

Lance gave up and lunged for the garbage can with a sound that was almost a sob. He'd barely eaten, there wasn't much of anything in his stomach. His body didn't care, he just kept gagging. Someone's hands were supporting him. He hated being helpless. Lance felt tears welling up in his eyes, he couldn't control them anymore than he could stop gagging. He felt a sharp pain in his throat as something torn then he was choking up blood. He couldn't breathe, Lance realized with a flare of panic. It wasn't stopping, he couldn't breathe. He couldn't breathe!

Todd sat on the edge of the tub in the bathroom attached of the hotel room the police had converted into a temporary cell and tried to stay out of everyone's way. It wasn't like he could do anything to help. Kurt had been staying the night so that someone could get help quickly if things went bad. Todd was there to provide emotional support.

Kurt had gotten Moria when Lance started choking on his own blood. After a few minutes she'd send him back to the Mansion to get Mattie. Todd hadn't been able to do anything to help. He didn't think Lance was even aware that he was there. He just felt so useless.

"Lance, sweetie, I know it's hard, but you've got to swallow this," Moira was pleading. "It'll help. You've just got to take it." Moira was holding Lance upright trying to get him to take one of the pills to control his nausea. There were tears running down Lance's cheek as he fought for every gasp of air.

Moira looked like she was on the verge of tears herself.

There was a bamf and the smell of sulfur filled the room. "I got back as soon as I could," Kurt exclaimed.

Mattie immediately went to help Moira. As she touched Lance a faint glow flared around her hands. Gradually his gagging began to ease and be replaced with gasping breaths. Moira dampened a cloth and washed the tears, sweat and blood off of Lance's face.

"Y'll take your medicine now?" Mattie encouraged. Lance nodded weakly and took the pill. He swallowed with difficulty, it nearly started another round of gagging. "Easy cher, easy. Y' gotta keep dis down," Mattie said as the glow of her powers intensified then flickered unsteadily.

"I should've known this could happen. I should've told Kurt to get Mattie immediately. We should've had something inject-able, an inhalant, anything is faster than ingestion," Moira muttered as she paced. "And a pill! I should've realized he might no be able to swallow. I should've had other options. I should've told that judge where to stuff it!"

"I wish I were dead," Lance's voice was an almost inaudible rasp.

"Petite, y' don' mean dat," Mattie comforted. "It's gonna be all right, cher. Y'll see, it's gonna be all right."

"Forge, I've been meaning to talk with you," Scott said as he grabbed a seat on the corner of the kitchen counter.

"If its about the danger room, that wasn't my fault. I told Jamie I wasn't ready to test the modifications yet," Forge said.

Scott waved it off. "I hadn't even heard about that yet. I was wondering how you'd feel about getting your hands on some really unusual, truly different technology."

"How'd I feel? Man-o-man, you trying to seduce me?"

"That's one way of putting it," Scott said. "If you're interested be ready to go when I give the word."

"Someone's being mysterious," Tabby commented as she stood outside the door.

"Very mysterious," Jean agreed with a frown.

Lance wasn't really paying much attention to the proceedings. He knew he should, but he felt lousy, drained of anything vaguely resembling life, except he was pretty sure being dead was less miserable.

"We're not even asking for bail," Matt said. "We're just asking that the police be ordered to quit forcing Lance to take a drug which is having a deleterious effect on his health."

"Without that drug in your client's system bail is something of a moot point isn't it?" the judge said. "I drive through what used to be downtown Bayville on my way to work. And I'm reluctant to trust the honor system with a defendant who has already fled the police."

"The drug is making him ill…" Matt objected.

"This situation is unprecedented. It goes against all principle to force Mr. Alvers to take a substance that is all but untested and which is already proving harmful, but how else can we expect to hold him? I've spoken at length with both Dr. Shen and Dr. MacTaggart the side effects they've seen are comparable to those of chemotherapy. Lance, I sympathize with you, but trust me: No matter how nauseous you feel, you can manage to eat something."

When the judge addressed him directly Lance pulled his attention away from how rotten he felt long enough to glare at her. " 'Cause barfing is such fun," he said.

"I survived two rounds of chemo, you'll survive this. No matter how the trial turns out, I am going to insist upon a more humane long term solution to the difficulties your powers create for the rest of us."

"Like what?" Lance muttered. "Turning off our powers is so easy… just ask Rogue."

Afterwards Foggy and Matt found their way to a quiet conference room.

"That went well," Matt complained sarcastically.

"Are you surprised?" Foggy replied. "You've read the list of damages and injuries. Half of Bayville is in ruins. Hell, I'm scare of him."

"In spite of his mutation Lance is just a kid. He and his friends have been repeatedly used or attacked. It's not hard to see why Lance would believe his friends had all been murdered. Of course he lashed out."

"Matt, I understand why he reacted the way he did. I know this case was made for a temporary insanity defense. I'm the one who looked up his background I know he's got every excuse for hating the world. That's not a comfort. From what I know about that kid, I don't think he's ever going to be completely stable and look what happens when he looses it," Foggy said.

"It's not Lance's fault he has those powers. I was Lance's age when my father was murdered. If I'd had that sort of ability to extract retribution don't you think I would have used it? Maybe gone too far? Maybe forgotten about the innocent until it was too late…"

"But you didn't," Foggy insisted. "It's fine and well to say anyone put in Lance's place would react the same, but it's not reassuring. He's a teenager with a rotten history who can create earthquakes by thinking about it. If the world was sane this sort of power would only go to someone who can handle the responsibility, but Lance is just a hurt, angry kid. Matt, I can sympathize with Lance's situation and still be scare to death of him. I wanted to see what we were up against. I spent most of a day walking around Bayville. One person shouldn't have that sort of power, especially not a teenager. Particularly not that teenager."

"For the first time in his life Lance is in a place where he has a chance. Xavier is trying to teach those kids to deal responsibly with what they are. And it works. Look at Ororo, she has the same sort of innate potential to cause disaster as Lance does. From what I understand her powers are tied to her moods and she still manages to keep control over them. Xavier's is the best possible place for Lance. For once he's in a place where the odds aren't stacked against him and I'm not letting anyone screw that up without a fight."

Author's Note: The story of Daredevil's origins has been through a few more retcons than most superheroes'. In the movie and at least one place in 616 continuity Matt was still a kid when his father was murdered. But for this story I'm basing the character off of Frank Miller's "Man without Fear" graphic novel.

In that version Matt was in his last year of high school and fairly confident in his abilities when his father was killed. There were six people directly involved in the murder and in Matt's first effort as a vigilante he hospitalized four of the men responsible and a fifth had a heart attack and died of fear when Matt went after him. Where things turned ugly was when Matt went after the final murderer, the man led him into a brothel. The people there got involved in the fight, Matt had never been in the middle of a mob before and he freaked out, he knocked a girl out of a window and she fell to her death. Stick, the individual who'd been acting as Matt's mentor up until that point abandoned Matt because of the girl's death, basically he decided Matt was a failure because of what happened.

I like using that version, because it gives Matt a lot of reason to identify with Lance right now and is emotionally involved in the case while Foggy is more of a true neutral party, who can look at the situation objectively.