Leigh's Fanfiction Archive Stormkeeper's Fanfiction Freedom Chapter 13
Freedom
By Stormkeeper
Chapter 13
When I came to, I looked around and had an eerie sense of déjà vu. And then the panic set in. NO! It couldn't be. I felt the terrifying coolness of metal around my neck. A collar.
I forced myself to sit up. I sensed that not much time had passed. Hank was at my side, trying to help me. We were in a small room….behind a forcefield. I then heard footsteps and craned my head around, trying to see what was happening.
Commander Blaine was having a remarkable day. He'd done it. His men had captured the X-men. As soon as the evil mutants had collars around their necks and were placed in a cell, he had contacted his superior.
Smith was the name of FOH's supreme leader. He functioned as their President, CEO, and General. All of the Containment Center Commanders reported to him. Blaine was forced to use subspace to reach Smith as the leader was vacationing on Risa, a small and beautiful planet FOH had discovered and who's inhabitants allowed them to use as a resort….in exchange for a few of earth's natural resources.
"Excellent, Blaine," Smith said, talking with Blaine over sub-space and smiling at the image of his subordinate. "Excellent," he repeated. "The X-men captured at last. Is that all of them?"
"No, Sir," Blaine replied, glad he had just done a check against his files. "We're missing the ones called Cyclops, Jean Grey, Jubilee, Psylocke, and Banshee. It appears, though, that all the remaining X-men that we know of are here. Shall I begin the executions now, Sir?"
"No! I want to be there myself to do it." Smith's pulse sped up. He loved torturing mutants. And now, the worst mutants of all were finally in his grasp! He could hardly wait. His head swam at the thought of the screams he would hear, the pain he would inflict, the blood that would ooze from their wounds, the sounds of bones cracking and limbs being torn. He ran down a mental list of torture methods and thought about which ones he would implement first. He thought perhaps he would kill a few of them quickly and then the rest slowly. Smith resolved to check out his book on pain-inflicting equipment and mark the pages with the ideas he liked best. It would be an exhilarating way to finish his vacation.
Disappointment surged through Blaine. "Sir, is that wise? We know the X-men are very deadly and very crafty. Last time we had three of them in our custody, they were freed."
Upon seeing the look on his boss' face, Blaine winced, knowing he should not have made reference to the disaster on Ceti III. The leader in charge of that operation had been…"dismissed."
"We won't make any such similar mistakes again," Smith said curtly. "I will leave Risa tomorrow as planned. I can't get a transport here sooner anyway and it would take longer for one of our ships to get here." Smith's words rang true, Blaine understood. His commander could not reach earth any sooner. "I'll be back on earth in three days," Smith continued. "Keep the X-men in the cell and do not take them out for any reason. That will minimize any chance of escape." He paused. Leaving the mutants in the cell was the best way to ensure they would not escape, but Smith felt that Blaine deserved a reward for his work. He silently debated for a second or two. "Except that you may take one of the females out and do what you want with her. You've earned it and it will help get those mutant scum ready for their executions. Just be cautious. I'll be there in three days. Smith out."
Minutes after the conclusion of his conversation with his leader, Blaine walked to the cell in which the mutants were kept. He surveyed them. There were a few that he didn't know. A pink-skinned woman sat hunched over the dead body of the one called Colossus, crying hysterically. Smears of the giant's blood covered her hands and torso. A woman who resembled a large panda bear tried frantically to comfort the pink-skinned one. A young boy of about 8 restlessly paced around, looking bored.
The others he knew of through FOH intelligence. The crippled old bald man was the supreme mutant ringleader, one of the most wicked and depraved men ever to walk the face of the earth----Charles Xavier. The black woman with the white hair was called Storm. That bitch was supposedly one of their leaders. Blaine started getting an idea.
The other X-men in the cell were known as Wolverine, Gambit, Beast, Iceman, Rogue, Angel, and Nightcrawler. There were three others there too, members of Alpha Flight. Blaine dimly recalled that Alpha Flight had all been killed. But he then remembered that was not so----the X-men had rescued a few of them and they had been spotted at the attack on the camp in Beijing.
A few of Blaine's lieutenants were with him, running scans on the imprisoned mutants.
"Welcome, mutant filth," Blaine began. "I am pleased to tell you how completely you failed. We've re-gained our ship that you stole, and the hundreds of muties you abducted from our camp are now back, exactly where you took them from. That will teach you fools to ever mess with us again."
As Wolverine, Rogue, and others began cussing him out, Blaine ignored them in favor of his lieutenant. "Sir," the subordinate began, "that boy is not a mutant," he said, pointing at Stephan. "My readings show he does that carry that sinful gene."
Stephan perked up at being mentioned. Blaine gestured towards him. "You," he said. "What is your name?"
"Stephan Millot," the boy replied. His mother was shocked at the calmness she felt from him. He didn't seem phased at all; just eager to get out of the small cell.
"What are you doing with these muties?"
"These two freaks," Stephan answered, gesturing at Aurora and Northstar, "kidnapped me. I wanna go home!"
"Come here, Stephan. We'll take you home."
Blaine directed Stephan to the airlock, and the boy eagerly stepped towards it.
"I love you, Stephan!" Jeanne-Marie cried out in anguish. She'd known this moment was coming but hadn't expected it to be quite like this.
Stephan ignored her and, without looking back, stepped through. He was escorted away by two FOH soldiers. Northstar put his arms around his sister. Her body was shaking slightly but she shed no tears.
"Now then," Blaine began, "we have nothing but pure 100% mutie crap in this cell. We----"
Storm cut him off. "What do you plan to do with us?" She and the others had been whispering quietly before Blaine stood before them. Storm had thought for sure that FOH would kill them on the spot this time. And yet they hadn't.
"You're the one called Storm, aren't you?" Blaine asked. He didn't wait for a nod or an answer. "One of the leaders of the high and mighty X-men. A **female** leading a group of men. A dark-skinned one at that, leading whites. How ridiculous." He then paused. A chill went up and down Storm's spine as she saw Blaine look her over, his eyes traveling the length of her body. She knew what was coming next. "As they say, 'To the victor go the spoils.' Step through the airlock," he ordered.
The others in the cell exchanged looks with each other. Would it start happening all over again? They were back at the place of their worst nightmare. Gambit had his arms around his wife, and Hank had placed himself in front of where Panda knelt next to Elena, as if he could block the two women from the sight of FOH.
Storm heard the order and knew not what to do. In a couple seconds' time, she silently asked herself. `Should I refuse and display bravado? But he will only use the collar on my family until I accede to his wishes. But it also seems wrong to mutely follow his command.' She made her decision.
Storm looked him squarely in the eyes. "Fuck you," she said.
Bobby heard her and gasped. His sharp memory always had the ability to recall certain details, some obscure. He remembered well the last time the group was held prisoner of FOH, two and a half years ago now. The FOH leader had made the same demand of Jean, and she had responded in the same manner. Which in a way was shocking, as neither Jean nor Storm normally used profanity.
Blaine simply laughed and raised a collar control device. He used it to begin sending waves of pain through the bodies of the Professor and Gambit. Gambit slowly sank to the floor, and the Professor—who had been sitting on the floor---grasped his head in his hands, slumping forward.
Although experiencing excruciating pain, Gambit managed to cry out, "Don't….don't do what he says. Let-----" he broke off, gasping for air, unable to speak any more. The pain was so intense, the Cajun felt as if he'd soon pass out, something he welcomed. His body had experienced the mind-numbing collar torture before, but somehow he had forgotten how extreme the pain was. Rogue tried to comfort him, sinking to her knees with him and holding onto him.
Storm looked at Remy and Charles, and made another decision. FOH would only continue this until she went along with them. They'd have no qualms about doing this to everyone in the cell. Look at how willing they were to kill Colossus. Maybe if taken from the group, she would be able to find a means of escape. `Goddess help me,' she prayed soundlessly. `Give me strength to endure.' Taking a deep breath, she found her courage. `I survived this once and shall survive it again.'
Storm walked through the airlock into the waiting arms of three soldiers. Her hands were bound and body restrained using rope.
Wolverine watched her go. He knew he was going to break, fall down in a fit of mindless rage. "YOU BASTARDS TOUCH HER AND I'LL RIP YOUR SKIN OFF YOUR BODIES!" he yelled, his voice thunderous. A few of the FOH soldiers standing nearby felt shivers. They had surmised that the crew of the original ship which captured the X-men had not met peaceful deaths. "I DID IT BEFORE TO THE OTHERS, AND I'LL KILL YOU THE SAME WAY!" he continued to yell. "I'LL TEAR YOUR FUCKING BONES OUT ONE BY ONE! YOU'LL-----"
"Logan, be quiet," Storm said evenly, turning and facing him from the other side of the forcefield. "That's an order," she said, slowly and clearly. "Your rage isn't doing anyone any good."
Blaine stepped back and kicked Storm in the stomach. She doubled over in pain as Blaine told her, "Women don't order men around. Even if the men are only wimpy muties."
With that, the Commander snapped his fingers. A cot was brought in and placed directly in front of the forcefield. Blaine already felt himself harden. He was going to show that mutie whore her place. He was going to show all those scum who their superiors were. A new recruit brought him a pill and a glass of water. He usually needed the pill as he was unable to get an erection on his own---but not today. The very though of that bitch screaming underneath him had his blood surging with power. Blaine's subordinates used knives to tear Storm's clothing.
Blaine's second-in-command at the Containment Center was a man named Lieutenant-Commander Klinsky. He had been assigned to dole out appropriate punishment to FOH's telepath.
"You failed, Emma," he said, facing Emma Frost in her quarters. "You didn't detect the X-men until their ship was attacking this Center! Last time, you were able to fight them back when they were still in space. You failed," he repeated.
"I did not fail, Lieutenant-Commander," Emma replied evenly. "If it weren't for me, you would not have the X-men in your custody now. I fought back Xavier during the battle. Truth be told, I am still exhausted from it." Emma didn't like making such an admission, but her head throbbed and entire body ached with fatigue. Battling Xavier had been one of the most grueling tests of her strength. Her reserves were now depleted and she knew it would be a while before she fully recovered. The only reason she had been able to defeat Xavier was because he himself had been so exhausted. Were he ten years younger and as spry as he once was, she would not have had such success.
"And why didn't you tell us when they were in space?!"
"Because, my dear Gregory, I could not sense them," Emma lied. "For one thing, you and your cohorts force me to wear my collar most hours of the day. And for the few times it was off so I could perform my scans, Xavier must've found a way to block me from space. I don't know how. You know how powerful that man is. Or was," she corrected herself, thinking that by now the X-men surely have all been killed. But she then thought about it for a second, and realized perhaps they still lived. The FOH's leader, Smith was a man who loved to inflict torture on other human beings, and he was on Risa now. She guessed he wouldn't want to miss the torment of the X-men.
"Well, I guess the important thing is that we have the X-men now."
"So they are alive still? We're waiting for Smith to return before executing them?"
"Don't worry your pretty little head about that. Worry instead about pleasing me. I was sent to punish you….And I know just the type of punishment I want to inflict," he grinned, glancing at the whips and restraints on the wall of Emma's room.
Inwardly, Emma groaned. She was so tired now, but she had no choice. In exchange for her relative freedom, she was to make herself available to any of the higher-ranking soldiers who wanted her. She was always expected to **perform.** Although that day she had no desire to fake it again, she smiled as if enticed by the prospect of bedding Klinsky once more.
Here we are again, I thought, my stomach churning. I felt dizzy. Jean-Paul continued to have his arms around his sister. I caught a glance at Jeanne-Marie's face and her eyes looked dead.
Then another realization sank in as the guards dragged over a cot. They placed the cot just a few feet away from the forcefield, directly in front of the cell. No. Oh no. They were going to do it right then and there. They were going to force us to watch.
We all turned around so we'd face away from the forcefield, away from the entrance to the cell. Hank lifted up the Professor and turned him around, since he looked too wiped out from the torture to use his arms to do it himself. As the assault on Storm began, we silently started searching our surroundings for an escape. But there was nothing. The cell itself was maybe 12 by 10 feet. A tiny annex to the cell contained a bathroom, big enough for one person at a time to stand in it. No obvious exits and all the walls were smooth and made of a strong metal.
Wolverine was quiet during our strange examination of the cell, which surprised me. Apparently he was obeying Storm's order to be quiet. He pounded a few of the walls though, perhaps testing their strength and relieving his anger at the same simultaneously.
In fact, almost everyone was quiet. I wished I could shut my ears and block out the sounds of what was being done to Storm. She didn't make a noise but of course you could tell what was going on. My stomach churned and all those hideous feelings from our first imprisonment returned. The queasy feeling in my stomach, the fear, the caged-animal feeling. I forced myself to take several deep breaths, as I felt faint.
I did hear Nightcrawler praying quietly for Storm.
The other sound we could hear was Elena's soft sobbing. By that point, her body seemed weary, almost all out of tears to shed. But she did continue to cry and moan sporadically, hugging Peter's body to her. It hadn't sunk in at that point that I'd never see Colossus again. I wasn't thinking much about the future, since I knew it was possible that none of us **had** one any longer.
A furry hand lightly grasped mine. "Do not worry," I heard Hank say softly. I turned my head and saw that he held Panda's hand in his other. "We will escape." Hank somehow always knew what I felt and when I needed some comfort.
Nightcrawler stood not far from us (of course, in that cell, you couldn't really stand far from anyone.) He whispered, "God will take care of us. He always does."
"We'll find a way out of this," the Professor added.
Jean-Paul reached for my other hand and squeezed it. Since we'd awoken in this cell, he hadn't taken his arms off his sister. But just then he made his way over to me and gave me a look of solace.
It was very weird. I was really starting to feel reassured. And yet, mere feet away, one of our leaders was being raped before us. It was a perverse contrast. My head started swimming, either from the terror I still felt or the absurdity of the whole situation.
By then, we had ascertained that there was no immediate way to break out of the cell. The guards yelled at us to stop looking and began using the collar torture device to force us to cease. At that point, many of us just sat down, all of us still facing away from the atrocity that was being committed against Storm. Nightcrawler quietly prayed, and many joined him. I glanced at Wolverine and he looked….smoldering. By some magic, he'd found enough self-control to continue to follow the order Storm had given him. He paced around and I could practically see smoke billowing from him.
When Blaine was done with Storm, he allowed his two best officers to each have a turn with her. He saw one of the men inwardly groan; Blaine knew that this one didn't care for this part of being an FOH soldier. Too bad. Once they were done, he followed Smith's orders and returned Storm to the X-men by grabbing her hair and flinging her back through the airlock.
The rest of the X-men scrambled. Gambit offered her his duster to replace her shredded clothing. Though terrified at what might await her, Rogue immediately went up to her dear friend and offered comfort. Wolverine did the same.
Storm brushed them all aside and walked into the tiny bathroom. She had to get away from them. The bathroom consisted of a sink and a toilet, but it would have to do. She washed herself best she could, using toilet paper and cold water. When her body was as cleansed as she knew it could be given the amenities available to her, Storm donned Gambit's duster and strode out of the bathroom.
Her friends turned to her, holding hands and arms out to her, their words, expressions and body language offering whatever consolation they could provide. The Wind Rider held them at bay with a swift gesture, found a scrap of empty floor, and sat down. She closed her eyes, sat cross-legged, and began her prayers to the Goddess.
The others knew she wanted to be left alone. It was hard to comply with that request, given the number of people in the cramped cell. But they followed her wishes by not speaking to her and giving her the area of floor.
Conversation within the cell was limited. Occasionally Gambit could be heard murmuring reassuring words to Rogue. They sat together, Rogue in his lap. They didn't need to talk about what they both feared.
Northstar sat with an arm around his sister. She stared blankly at the ground, mentally trying to prepare herself. Occasionally they whispered together in French, reminiscing about some of their escapades, growing up in the circus. Bobby sat quietly on Northstar's other side, only understanding pieces of what the two French-Canadians were talking about. His thoughts were elsewhere. He wished Northstar would devote more of his attention to him.
And Elena's tears and moaning continued intermittently.
Several hours passed. The X-men were brought a jug of water and a bucket which contained cold, watery oatmeal. Without utensils, those who wanted to eat scooped some of the substance out of the bucket and ate.
FOH soldiers periodically stopped by the cell to taunt them and let them know that the day of their execution was drawing near. However, none of the soldiers would take the bait and reveal any specifics to the X-men, no matter what questions they asked or how they tried to pry the information out.
"Time for you to do another scan, Emma. With all these X-men in custody, we gotta be sure there aren't any more muties on the way to free them."
"Who do you expect could be coming to rescue them?" Emma asked, her tone flat. "Sounds like you have all the X-men."
"Not all of them. You can never be sure enough. Now then. Let's get to it"
As nearly every day, Emma sat while dozens of FOH soldiers placed guns on her as her collar was removed. They went to such lengths to ensure she would not use her powers against them. Several men were in the room with her. Others had remote guns trained on her, and the men operating those guns were in various locations, which were unknown to Emma.
Emma didn't understand why they made all the fuss. In the many months she'd been their prisoner, she had not tried to escape. Why would she? FOH gave her wealth and luxury; she lived a better life than virtually every other mutant on earth. If it meant submitting to sex with the higher ranking FOH officers, what did it matter? Emma liked sex and some of the men weren't half-bad (though she was truly tired of Klinsky.) She knew the men preferred her to the pseudo-comatose things in the camps. But the bottom line was wealth and posh surroundings. Emma loved those things more than anything else on the planet, and that's what FOH gave her.
Emma shut her eyes and began her scans. No….no chance of escaping, even if she wanted to. How far could she get before someone overtook her? There were limits even on her powers and FOH could overwhelm her. There was no safe harbor to flee to anyway. She continued scanning, searching for any un-collared mutants.
The telepath almost always kept her facial expression and tone neutral. That particular day, that practice served her well. Emma nearly gasped when her mind tapped against that of another telepath. Psylocke. The two women had met a few times, though they did not know each other well. But one telepath rarely forgets the mental signature of another. How close Psylocke was to earth---or whether she'd already reached earth---Emma did not know. But in telepathic terms, she knew Psylocke was near.
Emma quickly made a decision. She flashed a brief message into Psylocke's mind. Just enough to let her know what had happened.
Emma had no love for Xavier or for any of the X-men. They had been sworn enemies back when Emma was with the Hellfire Club, before so many of her colleagues had been killed. But a nagging voice in the back of her mind told her it would not be a good thing if Xavier were to be killed. Her life was not going to get any better if Xavier were killed and it might, in fact, get far worse. That was why she had not revealed his presence from space to FOH.
`Well, I've told Betsy Braddock the situation,' Emma thought. `She can do what she wants from here.'
After not long, Emma informed the soldiers that her scan had revealed nothing. Her collar was promptly replaced. `It'll be interesting to see what happens,' Emma thought to herself.
FOH were basically leaving us alone, for some reason. They didn't remove any one else from our cell. It was eerily like last time I had been a prisoner along with Wolverine and Gambit. They hadn't even taken us out of the cell until we were about to reach our destination. This time, we kinda got the idea that we weren't on a starship----none of our surroundings indicated one, especially not from what we could see beyond the forcefield. And we didn't think any of us had been out long enough for them to get us in a starship. The guards didn't give us any information but we thought maybe they were waiting for someone to arrive. Not knowing was really hard.
But actually not as hard as it should have been, maybe. I astounded myself at how calm I was. I wasn't freaking out. In fact, I kept thinking that we'd find a way out. The last two times I had been a prisoner of FOH, we'd escaped or been rescued. I kept thinking it would have to happen again. We are the X-men.
Okay, sorry if that sounded corny. But that was what went through my mind.
I couldn't tell how Storm was doing. She sat down, saying very little but otherwise behaving as normally as possible. By that point, I'd known Storm for over two and a half years. We had spent quite a bit of time together. My gut tells me that when she's upset, she chokes it all down. Forces it down like a medicine you don't want to take but have to. And she has a way to flush it all out of her, I thought and I wasn't sure how exactly she did it, though I guessed that praying and meditating and working and helping others all had something to do with it. I'd never broken Storm's confidence by revealing that one night on the Paradise Planet where she'd had a nightmare. I knew she battled her inner demons, like we all did, but I felt that she preferred to battle alone.
Nevertheless, sitting in that cell, we all gently approached her at one time or another but she shrugged us off. I wasn't surprised and we had to respect her wishes.
The solders came up to us once and told us to place Colossus's body through the airlock. "We don't want it to start to stink and we're going to throw it in the dumpster. Where all mutant trash belong," a soldier said.
Once again, like caged animals, we had no choice. FOH started using the collar on Elena and Jeanne-Marie to force us to obey their orders Watching Hank and Logan hoist the corpse through the airlock, I felt numb. Peter's death hadn't registered yet. I did not believe that I'd never see him again; I did not then understand he was dead. I knew it at one level but I wasn't absorbing it.
I also knew that it would hit me like a ton of bricks when the time was right. When (and I believed it would be `when' and not 'if') we got out of there, I knew I would start to feel the loss of Peter.
After the torture from the collar device, Elena sat shaking and looking numb.
Jean-Paul and I didn't talk much. A lot of times we sat discreetly holding hands though. There wasn't much conversation in that cell. We all seemed to be bracing ourselves for more, but we didn't know what they would dish out at us or when.
Mark drove the FOH vehicle back towards the camp. With the aid of the Sentinels, he had acquired what he came for. This new make of Sentinels were equally ruthless towards mutants but far better controlled by their masters. Mark had encountered some resistance at the household of John and Elaine Grey. The Sentinels had quashed it.
The members of the Grey household now sat in the back of the vehicle. All were bound with chains and all had collars on their necks, though John, Elaine, and their daughter Sara were not mutants. The others in the household had been.
There were Sara's mutant children---Gail, who was 13 and Joey, age 11. They were young for their mutations to have manifested themselves----however as he drove the vehicle, Mark speculated that perhaps it was due to the fact that they had a mutant Aunt. As far as Mark could tell during the investigation, Gail's only mutation consisted of her unusual appearance. She did not seem to have any remarkable powers. As for Joey, he had some problem with his eyes. Mark was about as well trained as any FOH soldier in diagnosing mutant powers, which meant he knew next to nothing. He was relieved when the collar was placed around the boy's neck, lest lasers start to shoot from his eyes or something along those lines.
The Greys had been harboring two other mutants. One was a 24 year old man by the name of Sam Guthrie, though he was also known by the alias Cannonball. He had the ability to fly. The other was an 18 year old named Hector Rendoza, AKA Wraith. Rendoza's mutation was horrifying. His skin was transparent, allowing everyone to view his internal organs. Even someone like Mark, who knew deep down he was a mutie-sympathizing traitor, had to turn away in disgust when looking upon the young man's face. The site of him was truly revolting. Mark did not know that Hector had narrowly escaped being lynched by his former neighbors and had fled to the house of ones who were rumored to be supportive of mutants.
The seven people who Mark (and a few Sentinels) had arrested sat quietly in the back of the van. The Sentinels were no longer needed once the mutants had collars around their necks, so they had flown back to base. Suddenly, Mark felt the vehicle lurch. It sounded like a flat tire. He cursed, stopped the van, and opened the door to get out.
**Thwack!**
Mark was attacked out of nowhere. He was hit square on in the face by a heavy, blunt object. He was hit again in the stomach, and his gun was removed from the holster before he could reach for it. As he doubled over in pain, his hands were placed behind his back and bound with rope. Mark tasted his own blood; his assailant must have dislodged a tooth or two.
Mark was soon dragged into the back of his van. He felt the vehicle being driven off towards the side of the road, away from any traffic----though there had been little or none on the street they'd been on. The prisoners in the back of the vehicle were as befuddled as he was. After not long, his captors opened the door to the back of the van and stood before him.
The FOH soldier blinked a few times. Before him stood two women. Both looked fierce, though one was especially so. Although not tall, her compact body was muscular. She had shorn hair, a scar on her face and a bloodlust in her eyes. She also had some substances protruding from various areas of her body-----her chin, back, sides, arms, and legs. The other woman appeared Asian and had exquisitely beautiful features, unlike the first woman. However, she looked equally livid and deadly.
"Give me a reason I shouldn't bludgeon you to death right now," the women with the things sticking out of her skin demanded.
Mark swallowed. "Don't kill me!" he said. "I'm on your side!"
"Really?" the other woman asked. "Is that why you're wearing that rapists' uniform and transporting these innocent people to one of your torture-and-death camps?" She looked around. "What did this elderly couple ever do?" she asked.
Marrow took a menacing step towards Mark. "Wait!" he said. "Maybe I can help you! Did you know that the X-men have been captured?"
"In fact we did know," Psylocke said. She paused. "You are going to help us." She then took another look around the van and took a good look at some of the other people. "Do I know you?" she asked the Greys. She had been at Jean and Scott's wedding years ago.
"Yes!" Sara said, recognizing Psylocke from the same event. "I'm Jean Grey's sister! Sara. And these are our parents and my children," she said, gesturing with her handcuffed hands. "You're an X-man, aren't you?"
"I was," Psylocke answered. Simultaneously, Elaine asked, "Is Jean alive?"
"Yes. She's alive and well," Psylocke answered. "She and Scott are living on An----on a distant moon where the X-men set up their base. They have two children now." She said the words without spite even though years ago she had wanted Scott for herself and had resented Jean. To Psylocke, that was a lifetime ago and she had been another person. She no longer wanted anything that Jean had.
"So are they not with the X-men that have been captured?" John asked, alarmed at having heard that the X-men were in FOH custody.
"No. They stayed back on our….base."
"Can you take us to them? I'd give anything to see Jean again, as long as we can all stay together too!"
Marrow and Psylocke looked at each other. Marrow spoke. "If it fits in with our plans."
FOH's leader Smith had boarded the transport vessel and was on his way to earth. He looked at his timepiece. Just under 22 hours now till earth. This trip was passing agonizingly slowly, keeping him away from his merriment.
He had gone through his book of torture methods and had it all planned out. He was going to start with the bald man, the devil who had formed the X-men. Part of the fun would be watching the other X-men's reactions as he suffered. Smith could barely sleep with the excitement. 22 to hours to go!
Being the supreme leader of the Friends of Humanity had such perks!
"I still don't know why I let you talk me into this, Psylocke. This is bullcrap. We didn't go on this mission to form a damn rescue squad. We could've stayed in space, hijacking Fuckers on Heroin ships."
"I told you, Marrow. We might not be X-men anymore but what good is it gonna do if Chuck and the others all die? Life for mutants will get even worse than before."
"Ain't possible."
"It **is** possible for things to get worse and you know it. We'll just help with this jailbreak and then get back to what we were doing."
"If we don't get caught in the process." A sigh. "I think you still have some ties to the X-men. You care about them. Maybe you still care about your blue-skinned, winged former boyfriend."
A voice as cold as ice. "I don't care about anything besides paying back as many FOH slime as possible." A pause. "Though think of everything the X-men did for us. They rescued you from that FOH camp. Think of everything Storm did for you."
"Yeah, yeah. Storm is cool. It's worth it to try and save her. But I still think we're runnin' a big risk of getting caught."
"We won't! We didn't get caught during the raids on those two ships." A pause. "Besides. Now we have an ugly guy with see-through skin to help us."
The two women chuckled.
The FOH commander named Blaine turned over the idea again and again in his mind. Smith was not due to arrive yet for another 19 hours. He had such a desire to do something but it ran counter to Smith's orders. Should he do it and risk punishment?
But Smith would be so happy once he got his hands on the X-men, he wouldn't care about Blaine's one act of insubordination, right? `Besides, he said that I could take one of the females out and do what I want with her,' Blaine thought. `He didn't say how many **times** I could remove a prisoner from the cell. He just said to be cautious when doing so. So many of my men have asked for this and they deserve such a reward.'
Blaine continue to rationalize. The prisoner he wanted to torture wasn't
female….but by FOH standards he was, practically. Yes. It could be justified
that way since they certainly didn't regard him as a man.
With a resolute nod of his head, Blaine left his spacious office and found those
of his troops who wanted to go in on this. They were all such good men and they
really had earned it.
I had been dozing. I can't say I **slept**. You didn't really sleep when you were a prisoner of the Friends of Humanity. Sometimes though you would lose consciousness and fall into that very light, dreamless sleep. It was never a restful one though and even while unconscious you knew where you were.
Suddenly, I heard or sensed something and I regained consciousness. I rubbed my bleary eyes and reached a hand behind me to rub my sore neck and shoulders. I wished for some mouthwash since my mouth tasted as if a bug had died inside it. At least we had a bathroom this time. I then focussed on looking at the forcefield and saw that there were about five soldiers standing outside our cell.
They had a look on their faces that I had seen before.
My blood froze. I looked from Storm to Jeanne-Marie to Rogue. Then I glimpsed at Panda and then Elena.
"Hey, where's our pretty boy?" one of the soldiers started it by asking.
"There he is. The one with the black-white hair," another said, pointing. "He used to be some big shot. A **gay** sports hero. Out and proud. Right, faggot?" he taunted, looking at Jean-Paul.
A few images flashed in front of my eyes for a few seconds. I remembered the years I'd lived in San Francisco and wished that Jean-Paul and I lived there now. Housing and everything else was exorbitantly expensive but we'd have found something we could afford. Something where we could at least have a window sill garden, or perhaps a patch at a community garden. Weekends would have been spent lounging around the beach together, eating sweetrolls and watching the seagulls. We'd walk around the city, holding hands and deciding which play to see next, which fine restaurant to dine at, which expensive clothing store to try next. Why the hell did I live as an X-man?
They started ridiculing him in earnest now as I sat back and trembled. The homophobic insults spewed forth with occasional anti-mutant remarks as well. I tuned out their words and stole occasional glances at Jean-Paul. He sat stoically and quietly, not looking at them. I guess he knew it was pointless to fight back. I didn't look at the soldiers either; I looked down at my shoes.
The soldiers then said one thing in particular that really scared me. They said something like, "We oughtta just turn you over to the Centers for Disease Control. They're locking up all the faggots, quarantining them to stop you queers from spreading AIDS around anymore. The President passed an Executive Order on that." I wondered if what they said was right. Most of us hadn't been watching the news from earth during our trip to earth this time; we'd been so busy training. My dream about living in San Francisco with Jean-Paul was even more farfetched now.
And then the most chilling words. "Come here."
Jean-Paul hesitated for a second. The soldier then lifted the collar control device and unleashed it at Jeanne-Marie. She howled in pain, grasping at the collar as if that would somehow lessen the suffering. After a few short seconds, she could no longer grasp it, was screaming in mindless agony. Her brother rose to his feet and walked over the airlock. The soldiers restrained him and took him away.
I watched him go. I then folded my head in my hands and shook with dread and misery.
Why him and not me? Maybe they didn't know I was gay. From what I recalled, that fact was in my files somewhere but buried a bit. Jean-Paul, however, was not at all closeted. Years ago, when Alpha Flight had been at its peak, he'd called a press conference to announce that he was gay. He had been a well-known gay superhero.
Should I have done something dramatic and heroic? Leapt to my feet and yelled, "Take me instead!" But that just would have gotten us both killed. Jean-Paul wouldn't want that.
Jeanne-Marie looked at me for a second. I shivered. For the instant that our eyes met, I **knew** what she was thinking. I saw the window to her soul. She was thinking that she has now lost everyone who has meant anything to her, and she was thinking that if she gets the chance, she is going to kill herself.
I felt an arm anchoring itself around my shoulders. I grasped onto Hank for support and shivered in his arms. In the distance, I heard Nightcrawler softly praying, "Dear God, I pray that you let Northstar be safe and sound, protect him from the soldiers, give him strength and courage…."
Mark drove the van towards the entrance of the camp. "Remember what I told you," he whispered. "Security has been stepped up since all the X-men are here."
"Just keep driving," Marrow muttered. She had one of her discarded bones trained on his back, a bone which had been honed to reach a point as sharp as any knife.
From the back of the van, Psylocke randomly scanned several minds. "There's a lot of commotion and nervousness here."
"I'm sure it's due to the X-men being here. Everyone remembers that they managed to escape from one of our ships. People are afraid of them."
"They should be."
Mark did not know that the hustle also had to do with the impending arrival of their leader, Smith. He now reached the guard post. As Marrow pressed the tip of her bone a bit more firmly against his back, he exchanged the proper entry code with the guards and was allowed in.
Marrow's bone was an extra precaution only, more for Marrow's enjoyment than anything else. Psylocke could easily take command of Mark's mind if she needed to, and she scanned it every other second. She had been surprised. Mark had been telling the truth when he said he was on their side. He **wanted** them to succeed in rescuing their former teammates. Mark hated FOH, hated what they did to mutants. Psylocke probed a bit deeper. Hated himself too.
And in Psylocke's mind, he had reason enough to.
Mark drove the van to the receiving area for prisoners. "You gotta do your work here, now," he whispered to Psylocke.
"I know, little man. And I'm going to," Psylocke replied.
The powerful telepath easily seized the minds of the guards by the receiving area. Numbed them so they would think nothing of one FOH soldier with a handful of unrestrained mutants and a few non-mutant humans. Psylocke compelled those who were near the computer to walk away and busy themselves with something else. She, Marrow, and Mark approached the computer as the Greys and the two mutants they had been harboring exited the van and stood at a distance.
The Greys had been uncertain what to do but John kept whispering that he trusted Psylocke and that she would take them to Jean. Elaine shook with nervousness. What if they were discovered? But it was hard to imagine things getting any worse – they had been abducted, tied up and put into a van heading for a concentration camp --- and she held on to a fervent hope that she could see Jean again. With these two strange mutant women, it now might be possible. Elaine glanced at her two grandchildren and noticed that they were not afraid. They actually seemed in better spirits than when they had been cooped up inside that house. Sara was breathing deeply but not looking as freaked out as most would be.
Sam Guthrie/Cannonball and Hector Rendoza/Wraith stood by, ready for action. They had made an offer of assistance to Psylocke and Marrow, and the former X-men knew they might have to take the guys up on that.
"Well, this is easy," Marrow said, craning her head around Mark's neck and reading the computer screen.
"Yes," Mark said. "The X-men are here," he pointed a spot on the screen. "Their ship is over here, in this hanger. It's gonna be pretty heavily guarded but…."
"All we need to do is get to their cell and get the collars off the X-men," Marrow said, looking at Psylocke.
"Yes," Psylocke answered. "We'll return Jean's family to them and then be on our way. The X-men can take it from there."
"And we'll have repaid any favors we owe them and can get back to **our** mission," Marrow said. She found herself grinning. She was actually liking the thought of what they were doing but, even more, anticipating returning to their pirating fun.
Hector listened, his pulse pounding. The X-men! He had heard of them, heard of these legends. And of course he knew that all the FOH propaganda calling them evil was a pack of lies. He had dreamed of the X-men….a place where a freak like himself might be free, might find some acceptance. During their van ride, Cannonball had whispered a bit about the X-men to Wraith. Hector was in awe that Sam had actually met them. He also found himself questioning Cannonball's sanity at having turned down their offer to join. Of course, that had been years ago and Sam said he regretted it.
`And if we don't killed just now, I might meet them too,' Wraith thought.
Chapter 12
Chapter 14