Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from, the X-Men movie-
verse. Duncan and Hana belong to Corrinth, as does Ilehana Xavier should
she be mentioned. Star owns Golan, should he be mentioned too. All other
OCs belong to me, especially Blaze and Jessie.
A/N: Post X2 spoilers, and spoilers for Corrinth's Guardians of Destiny, which incidentally is excellent so go read it! Reviews always appreciated.
Scene 20
Logan and company reappeared shortly afterwards, taking in the tableaux of pale and worried faces that surrounded the bodies of the Prices. Jessica was sobbing heartfelt tears now, curled up to Lila's side. The three X-Men were motionless, each reliving their own painful losses through Jessica's raw despair. It was left to the Wolverine to remind them that this wasn't the time for this.
"We lost him." Logan admitted, bringing all four mutants out of their thoughts to look at him. "This place is like some creepy maze."
"A labyrinth," Storm the history teacher mused, "Complete with monster..."
"A minotaur?" A new voice replied, "You know that's a very good analogy for him..." Jessica visibly recoiled as Dr McMahon entered the large room. "Venu has about the intelligence of your average bovine..." The doctor smiled, veins on his head bulging. "But as you see he's much more deadly."
"You got some explainin' to do." Remy snapped sharply, taking a step towards the older man. "T'ink I might enjoy forcin' it outta you."
"Oh there's no need for that." Dr McMahon spoke quickly, backing away from Gambit and waving his stubby hands in an appeasing gesture. "You must be Jessica's real father then, such interesting eyes. And perhaps the lovely redhead is her mother then too, truly an honour to meet you both..."
He did it deliberately of course, using the distraction as a way to get to the door. With Venu loose and uncontrollable now was not the time to be making polite conversation. For a moment Jessica stopped breathing, eyes drifting to Gambit in a fit of denial. It couldn't be, he couldn't be...
"Oh no you don't." Logan snapped; unsheathing his claws and running with a roar to block Dr McMahon's escape route. The doctor froze, eying Wolverine's claws warily. "Get talkin' Bub, what horror film you got goin' on here? Frankenstein's Monster?"
"I..." The man began as Logan raised his claws threateningly to parry with the doctor's chest. It didn't take a medical degree to know they'd do some serious damage if they entered his heart. "Its simple really, simple science..." He began with the fast words of a guilty criminal, trying to convince the jury that he had good reasons for everything. "Venu is, well, immortal. To a degree. My work... Tests have shown that he could be well over two hundred. He uses those vines on his neck and sides to implant pods, seeds in the bodies of his victims, paralyses them with venom stored inside them, then sucks their energy dry like milkshake through a straw. Or, if the connection is severed, the seedpods keep sucking, slowly, sending roots out through the veins and nerves of the victim. Later, if he comes back for them, he reabsorbs the pods and the energy that way. Its ingenious." Nobody in the room seemed to quite agree with Dr McMahon on this, and Logan did not relax his claws for a moment as Storm asked the next question.
"But why the children? And the money from criminals? Why do you keep such a dangerous mutant in your home?"
"Immortality." Dr McMahon stated again, amazed that these people hadn't already grasped the concept. "If the pods Venu produces can suck energy out of one person and pass it back to him, should it not be possible to modify them to pass that stolen life-force onto someone else? Initially of course I thought only of myself, but the money from the gang criminals' funds my labs upstairs, in return for immortality of their own. I'm so near to a breakthrough..."
"An' the children?" Rogue asked, chilled to the bone as she tried to keep her cool. "Why pick on mutant kids?"
"For Venu of course." Again the doctor's voice was incredulous. "It keeps him placid, he prefers the energy of freshly-developed mutant children to that of anyone else." He spoke now as if talking about the preferred food of a fussy pet. "Oh I've tried him on everything over the years, the homeless, the sick. But he's much more pliable for fresh pods if given one laden with the rich juices of a newly mutated child."
"You're sick!" Jessie screamed at the doctor, shifting in hesitant darkness as she stood and threw off Blaze's hand on her shoulder. "You put one of those things in me already? How many more kids have you tried to kill?"
"No, no." Dr McMahon spoke as if to a very simple child which Jessie was most certainly not. "I had no proof when I last saw you that you actually were a mutant. Of course, if I had known your real parents then... There is no early warning system for mutation, little Jessica."
Visibly writhing from his patronising tone, hating this man with all of her being, she shifted into total blackness, raising her hands palm first in slow motion. Only when her palms were facing him, and as Logan with his animalistic sixth sense moved aside, did she answer the doctor in a tone as cold as ice.
"My name is Raven." She stated as her unseen eyes stared angrily into his. The blast from her palms crossed the room in seconds, black lightning that for a brief moment connected the two of them, making him writhe like a marionette at her command. The force of the attack knocked him backwards through the very doorway he had been trying to escape through. His head hit something and he knew nothing more.
Suddenly Jessica was very much a visible human again, a small girl exhausted and afraid. Blaze caught her as she slumped to the floor, tears in Laura's brown eyes as she met her daughter's gaze.
"Raven hey?" The Englishwoman crooned, lowering the child to the floor and supporting her with her warm body. "That's pretty."
"Is it true?" Raven asked, red-on-black eyes searching. Blaze didn't have to ask what.
"Yes." She whispered as Remy came to kneel besides them, fingers brushing a strand of hair back tenderly from Jessica's cheek.
"Maybe this could wait?" Bobby asked, well aware that whilst Dr McMahon was now unconscious, Venu was still loose and probably watching them.
"You guys use some help?" A familiar voice that openly begged for their forgiveness cut across before Gambit could offer a reply. In the wreckage from the broken glass doors Cyclops stood uneasily, his wife Jean to his right and the four-armed Golan to his left. Gambit stood to face the deposed team leader, met Cyclops' eyes for a few seconds before Scott dropped his gaze. Had he given up so easily?
"Yeah." Was Gambit's eventual answer, calling a truce for the time being at least. "This t'ing need the X-Men, need the Guardians..."
A/N: Post X2 spoilers, and spoilers for Corrinth's Guardians of Destiny, which incidentally is excellent so go read it! Reviews always appreciated.
Scene 20
Logan and company reappeared shortly afterwards, taking in the tableaux of pale and worried faces that surrounded the bodies of the Prices. Jessica was sobbing heartfelt tears now, curled up to Lila's side. The three X-Men were motionless, each reliving their own painful losses through Jessica's raw despair. It was left to the Wolverine to remind them that this wasn't the time for this.
"We lost him." Logan admitted, bringing all four mutants out of their thoughts to look at him. "This place is like some creepy maze."
"A labyrinth," Storm the history teacher mused, "Complete with monster..."
"A minotaur?" A new voice replied, "You know that's a very good analogy for him..." Jessica visibly recoiled as Dr McMahon entered the large room. "Venu has about the intelligence of your average bovine..." The doctor smiled, veins on his head bulging. "But as you see he's much more deadly."
"You got some explainin' to do." Remy snapped sharply, taking a step towards the older man. "T'ink I might enjoy forcin' it outta you."
"Oh there's no need for that." Dr McMahon spoke quickly, backing away from Gambit and waving his stubby hands in an appeasing gesture. "You must be Jessica's real father then, such interesting eyes. And perhaps the lovely redhead is her mother then too, truly an honour to meet you both..."
He did it deliberately of course, using the distraction as a way to get to the door. With Venu loose and uncontrollable now was not the time to be making polite conversation. For a moment Jessica stopped breathing, eyes drifting to Gambit in a fit of denial. It couldn't be, he couldn't be...
"Oh no you don't." Logan snapped; unsheathing his claws and running with a roar to block Dr McMahon's escape route. The doctor froze, eying Wolverine's claws warily. "Get talkin' Bub, what horror film you got goin' on here? Frankenstein's Monster?"
"I..." The man began as Logan raised his claws threateningly to parry with the doctor's chest. It didn't take a medical degree to know they'd do some serious damage if they entered his heart. "Its simple really, simple science..." He began with the fast words of a guilty criminal, trying to convince the jury that he had good reasons for everything. "Venu is, well, immortal. To a degree. My work... Tests have shown that he could be well over two hundred. He uses those vines on his neck and sides to implant pods, seeds in the bodies of his victims, paralyses them with venom stored inside them, then sucks their energy dry like milkshake through a straw. Or, if the connection is severed, the seedpods keep sucking, slowly, sending roots out through the veins and nerves of the victim. Later, if he comes back for them, he reabsorbs the pods and the energy that way. Its ingenious." Nobody in the room seemed to quite agree with Dr McMahon on this, and Logan did not relax his claws for a moment as Storm asked the next question.
"But why the children? And the money from criminals? Why do you keep such a dangerous mutant in your home?"
"Immortality." Dr McMahon stated again, amazed that these people hadn't already grasped the concept. "If the pods Venu produces can suck energy out of one person and pass it back to him, should it not be possible to modify them to pass that stolen life-force onto someone else? Initially of course I thought only of myself, but the money from the gang criminals' funds my labs upstairs, in return for immortality of their own. I'm so near to a breakthrough..."
"An' the children?" Rogue asked, chilled to the bone as she tried to keep her cool. "Why pick on mutant kids?"
"For Venu of course." Again the doctor's voice was incredulous. "It keeps him placid, he prefers the energy of freshly-developed mutant children to that of anyone else." He spoke now as if talking about the preferred food of a fussy pet. "Oh I've tried him on everything over the years, the homeless, the sick. But he's much more pliable for fresh pods if given one laden with the rich juices of a newly mutated child."
"You're sick!" Jessie screamed at the doctor, shifting in hesitant darkness as she stood and threw off Blaze's hand on her shoulder. "You put one of those things in me already? How many more kids have you tried to kill?"
"No, no." Dr McMahon spoke as if to a very simple child which Jessie was most certainly not. "I had no proof when I last saw you that you actually were a mutant. Of course, if I had known your real parents then... There is no early warning system for mutation, little Jessica."
Visibly writhing from his patronising tone, hating this man with all of her being, she shifted into total blackness, raising her hands palm first in slow motion. Only when her palms were facing him, and as Logan with his animalistic sixth sense moved aside, did she answer the doctor in a tone as cold as ice.
"My name is Raven." She stated as her unseen eyes stared angrily into his. The blast from her palms crossed the room in seconds, black lightning that for a brief moment connected the two of them, making him writhe like a marionette at her command. The force of the attack knocked him backwards through the very doorway he had been trying to escape through. His head hit something and he knew nothing more.
Suddenly Jessica was very much a visible human again, a small girl exhausted and afraid. Blaze caught her as she slumped to the floor, tears in Laura's brown eyes as she met her daughter's gaze.
"Raven hey?" The Englishwoman crooned, lowering the child to the floor and supporting her with her warm body. "That's pretty."
"Is it true?" Raven asked, red-on-black eyes searching. Blaze didn't have to ask what.
"Yes." She whispered as Remy came to kneel besides them, fingers brushing a strand of hair back tenderly from Jessica's cheek.
"Maybe this could wait?" Bobby asked, well aware that whilst Dr McMahon was now unconscious, Venu was still loose and probably watching them.
"You guys use some help?" A familiar voice that openly begged for their forgiveness cut across before Gambit could offer a reply. In the wreckage from the broken glass doors Cyclops stood uneasily, his wife Jean to his right and the four-armed Golan to his left. Gambit stood to face the deposed team leader, met Cyclops' eyes for a few seconds before Scott dropped his gaze. Had he given up so easily?
"Yeah." Was Gambit's eventual answer, calling a truce for the time being at least. "This t'ing need the X-Men, need the Guardians..."