Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 13
Chapter 2: Monet's Arrival
Monet was sitting on the tail of a large jet she'd spotted while on her travels, it seemed as if it had only been three hours when her powers of flight had already begun to weaken from exhaustion, and seeing the jet making its way over the ocean had been a blessing, although trying to stay attached to it without being blown off was a challenge in itself.
The journey had been long, and the noise from the jet had been almost deafening, but Monet had remained there nonetheless. She couldn't block out the sound of the jet, nor the thoughts of the people inside it, and they both felt as if they were rattling inside her head insanely.
She'd lost concept of time already, it had been 8am when she'd left Scotland, but without a watch it had been impossible to determine how long she'd been up in the air, and now she was somewhere over the states in a completely different timezone, she had no clue how long it had been since the X-Men had been ambushed in their own home.
It wasn't too much longer until Monet looked down and saw the familiar town of Bayville below, and smiling to herself thankfully, she leapt off the jet and soared down towards the town to get a better look. The town was bustling with thoughts just as Muir Island had been, and they all seeped into Monet's mind, no matter how hard she tried to push them out. Monet tried to concentrate on blocking them out of her mind while she headed towards the suburbs and then the small body of fields which led to the road to the Xavier Estate.
The nearer she got to the mansion, the more the thoughts of the townsfolk faded away. However, a strange sense of danger was approaching, it made the hairs on her arms beneath her black shirt stand on end. Something was not right.
Monet kept her distance from the mansion, although remained above it, looking down, she frowned, concentrating on its interiors.
"Concentrate," she whispered to herself, "focus…how hard can it BE? Jean Grey does it, surely anyone can…" Monet hovered, hands pressed to her head. Her powers began to pick up on others in the mansion, two others. Monet smiled in her succession, "see it isn't that difficult," she told herself. The X-Men were gone. She couldn't sense their presences anywhere in the mansion, but the other two seemed almost familiar, but she couldn't pinpoint them yet.
She circled the mansion grounds for a few moments, and after seeing no threat she began to slowly descend.
Monet could still sense danger, and it her senses were warning her more and more the closer she got to the ground. "Something's not right…" she whispered to herself, her own voice reassuring. She'd never been on any kind of mission before and this was the closest thing she could think to one. However, none of the students were meant to be on missions alone, and now she began to feel familiar cold feet.
"Don't be silly…you're invulnerable, they can't hurt you…"
Monet spotted an open window, the problem was getting to it. Her senses told her all the estates alarms would be set and if she went any further she'd trigger several of them. Already, she felt defeated.
She soared to a tree just off of the estate and sat upon a large branch, overlooking the estate.
How am I going to do this without setting off all the alarms? She asked herself, she pursed her lips together frowning as she glanced around, and then something caught her eye.
A stray cat.
It was dark when Rogue and Kitty both raised their heads as the adamantium door slid open. Kitty braced herself to attack, but Rogue grabbed her arm and stopped her. The room was almost totally dark save slithers of light coming from small light fixing on the ceiling which hardly provided anything to see by.
"It would be wise to not attack," came a cold voice from doorway, two red eyes, stood out against the inky blackness, the figure entered the room, and the door slid open, "unless you want solitary…and believe me…you don't want to be in there alone."
"Remy?" Rogue stood up, recognising the voice at once.
"You could call me that, you could call me many things…" he replied, he stepped into a slither of light coming from the small box window, the face of Remy stared back at them both, but they realised quickly he was not who he appeared to be, "but I'm not him…a blessing in itself really."
Rogue frowned, "you're a clone! You were the one who tricked me!" she stood up, fists clenched.
"Oh, no I think you're mistaken," the clone replied, and smirked in that same way Remy always did, "y'see, there are many of us…master likes to call us drones. Keeps it niiiiiiice and simple. We're all numbered."
"Why did you bring us here?" Kitty asked, she grabbed a hold of Rogue's arm and pulled her back from wanting to attack the clone.
"You broke the law, you hacked the database with your clever little applications. And that's punishable by instant imprisonment. And in your case, the Mutant Containment Facility is your prison."
"Sentence?" Kitty asked.
"Life," the clone smirked, "put these on," he tossed them each an item of clothing.
"Or?" Kitty demanded, she glanced down at the all in one coverall, it was a crude orange colour, with black numbers printed on the chest and the thigh.
"Or…" the clone pushed a button on a small communicator he had, the admantium door slid open again, and two more identical clones stepped in. They folded their arms, and they loomed menacing.
"We can take you!" Rogue snorted.
"Really? Letsee then?" The first clone steadied himself.
Rogue threw herself towards the first clone, and tried to swiftly punch, he caught her hand, and held it with a crushing strength, then twisted her arm behind her back until it felt as if he might rip it off. She twisted her way out of his grasp and tried to throw out a kick, he blocked her kick masterfully, slammed the side of his hand against her shoulder, then hit her in the jaw with his knee, and she went down.
Rogue let out a wail of pain and crumpled to the floor, she hadn't felt such pain in a very long time, she'd forgotten what it was like to feel physical pain like this, to be hurt by someone else. She tried to get up, aching now. A clone caught her cheek with a fist and she fell again, she saw blood spatter over the cement and felt horror.
Kitty shot towards the clone on the right side of the first, he flipped himself out of the way, catching her chin with one foot as he did so which caused her sailing back, she slammed into the wall and felt her shoulder crack against the wall. Pain shot through her and every nerve seemed to jolt, but she didn't give up. She tried again, leaping towards him again, but he swerved, and bounced himself from the wall to the ceiling, grabbed onto the light fixing, and swung a leg out, catching her in the chest hard with his foot.
Kitty fell to the ground with a thud, she rolled over, she saw the foot of one of the clones coming down towards her face, she rolled again then felt a knee against her back.
"Ow!" Kitty yelped, "let me go you stupid carbon copy!" she said breathlessly, trying to recover quickly from the pain but failing miserably.
"We know your every move…god knows, LeBeau worked with you two long enough," the first clone said, he kicked Rogue in the side, and left her where she was, "you're not as powerful as you used to be...and we could do a lot…worse…to prove that…"
Rogue felt tears of pain blur her eyes, she heard the door open and footsteps, she had hoped to get up but the pain in her side was too great. "No…" she groaned.
Kitty felt the hand of a clone grab at her hair, and then her forehead slammed off of the floor as the clone forced her head forwards to do so. She literally saw stars and light and was dazed for several moments, she heard more footsteps and the sliding of the door, and she looked around. They were gone.
Rogue was clutching her side, her face pressed against the rough concrete floor, she couldn't get up, the pain was so bad.
Kitty sat up, blood dribbled down her face from a cut on her head that had been caused by her forehead colliding with the cement. She wiped it away, wincing in pain, still dazed, "are you okay?" she asked Rogue.
Rogue was on the floor, "it hurts so bad…" she groaned, "I can't move."
"Bastard probably broke a rib or two," Kitty crawled over weakly, still in agony, "even the real Remy never fought like that…did you see what he did?" she asked.
Rogue shook her head.
"He…he did something…that I've never seen Remy do…he bounded…like …like…" Kitty shook her head, she couldn't remember what she'd been intending to say, the pain in her head clouding her thoughts incredibly. "It doesn't matter," she noted Rogue's pain was more important than making assumptions about the clones right now.
"You're bleeding…" Rogue whimpered, looking up at Kitty through teary eyes.
Kitty shrugged, "it's nothing…one of them banged my head off the floor…" she held the wound, blood still dripping persistently from the wound.
Kitty moved away, pulled off her nightgown and slipped the orange coverall on, "guess we better do what they say," she zipped the coverall up quickly and then picked up her nightgown, she tore it up to make a makeshift bandage to stop the bleeding on her head with.
Rogue somehow pulled herself up wearily, "why would they do this to us? We did nothing wrong…they can't DO this to us…"
"We hacked their server, they said that's punishable…and since the government are involved it's probably legal…" Kitty bandaged up her head with the strip of cotton. "Right now, I think we should play along and do as they say. We need to find out more…" Kitty stated, "then once we know enough, we can plan some sort of escape…"