Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 13

Chapter 4: Rude Awakening

          Rogue and Kitty had barely slept on the uncomfortable steel bunks.  Without mattresses they may as well have been sleeping on the floor for all the difference it would have made.  They had lost concept of time completely, and they were starving, they had not seen food in twenty four hours, and they were already feeling weakened.

          They had barely fallen asleep when they were awakened by a clone coming into the cell, "You two, up, NOW."

          Rogue sat up slowly, still in pain, "what…?" she looked at the clone confusedly, for one moment having forgotten where she was, and the image of Remy LeBeau in front of her for one moment made her heart jump, but then to remember all of a sudden she was in the Mutant Containment Facility, and her heart felt as if it turned to stone and sank into her stomach.

          Kitty sat up, "what's going on."

          "You two are being sent to work…move…" the clone pointed towards the doorway.

          Rogue stood slowly, the prospect of getting out of the cell at least giving her a glimmer of hope that there may yet be a way out of this.  She approached the doorway slowly, and Kitty followed, smoothing her short brown hair away from her face, it was slightly tinged with blood, and Kitty's face was still lightly stained with it despite the effort she'd made to wash it away in the small sink in the cell.

          "Don't think about trying to run," the clone stated as he walked behind them, "I got a remote here that'll send pain like you wouldn't believe surging through you…"

          Kitty glanced over her shoulder at the clone, "Who's running this operation anyway…and what ARE these things on our necks?"

          The clone shoved her forward hard, "shut up and keep walking," he stated.

          Rogue and Kitty walked down a large hall.  There were several floors, six – Kitty counted – and metal stairways led to thin balconies against walls lined with metal doors.  All those doors were obviously cells.

          There were several mutants around, three were mopping the floor that Kitty and Rogue were walking across, two more were being led in the opposite direction.  Rogue felt shivers as she noticed how thin and drawn they all looked, their hair stringy, their eyes sunken and tired, skin ashen.  Those sunken eyes watched as Kitty and Rogue went past.    One girl with long dark brown hair and dark skin gazed upon them with sad eyes, she looked tortured and confused.

          "I recognise that girl…" Kitty whispered, she was walking beside Rogue now, she leaned in a little to whisper, "that's X23!"

          Rogue gasped, "holy shit…"

          They kept walking, the clone pushing them on.

          Rogue happened to glance up to the third floor balcony, clones were leading Ororo Munro and Jean Grey along it, they caught each others eyes and looked helplessly and said nothing.

          Rogue felt terribly lost and vulnerable.  They were taken outside.  The location was on a large barren field, dead grass and sand blanketed the ground, high brick walls with electrified barbed wire laced the large domain.  The outside of the building was only half constructed, further along there was a construction site going on, a second building was being worked on, several unfamiliar mutants were using their powers to add to the structure, a few were working on scaffolding while others were laying bricks.

          "We get to use our powers?" Kitty asked hopefully.

          "Under surveillance," The clone replied, "we have six drones positioned, three are in positions hidden so you won't know where they are," he explained, "try to use your powers against us, and we'll make you feel pain so bad you'll feel as if you're being fried from the inside out…you do as you're told.  You don't move from the spot you're assigned to, you don't slack off, you"

          Kitty nodded understanding, she glanced towards Rogue and threw her a look that told Rogue to agree.

          "Fine," Rogue sighed.

          "You," the clone pointed to Rogue, "you're going to be taking piles of bricks up to that tower there, if you fly any higher than it or past there, your powers will be immediately deactivated and you'll be electrocuted."

          Rogue sighed, she glanced to Kitty.

          "You'll be sent to the laundry," he pointed at Kitty, "since your powers are basically useless," he nudged her.

"Asshole," Kitty muttered under her breath.

The clone pushed a button on a remote control he'd been holding, "Your powers are activated, Rogue, do as we say and you won't get hurt," he muttered, then he pushed Kitty, "this way."

          Rogue watched the clone and Kitty leaving, and she felt abandoned, she glanced towards the half built tower, she grabbed a pile of bricks from the larger pile nearby, and she took to the sky, her powers had returned, although they were incredibly weakened.  The bricks seemed several times heavier than they should have.  She landed upon a wooden platform upon a scaffolding in the centre of the half built tower.

          "Oooh, fresh blood," a large handsome mutant of Native American descent glanced towards her, "What'd you do to get put here?" he raised an eyebrow as he laid some raw cement upon the wall and slapped a brick on and pressed it down hard, "attack a human?"

          Rogue glanced towards him, "hacked the server," she headed down towards the ground, and retrieved more bricks and took them up to the tower.

          "I'm John," the large man stated, between his teeth he had a piece of long dead grass, "John Proudstar…but you can call me Thunderbird if you want," he reached out a friendly hand to shake hers.

          Rogue reached out her bare hand to his, then thought the better of it, she had no gloves, and she wasn't sure if her weakened state would still activate her powers to absorb his or not.  "I'm Rogue," she gave a slight wave.

          The piece of dead grass dropped from his mouth and he stared at her, "wow."

          Rogue raised her eyebrow, "something wrong?"

          "I've heard of you, you're one of the X-Men…" he suddenly looked quite crestfallen, "does this mean all the X-Men have been incarcerated also?" he asked sadly.

          Rogue heard the yell of a clone in protest who had noticed the lack of work, she glanced towards John Proudstar and quickly said, "I'm afraid so."

          Kitty stepped into the laundry, a large room filled with washing machines, drying machines, presses, steam irons and more.  Several women were busying themselves washing the grotesque orange coveralls that every prisoner here seemed to be donning.

          "Hi…" she said as she approached the nearest person.

          "You must be the new ones brought in yesterday…" the woman stated, had long green hair, and bright green eyes, her skin was ashen just as everyone else here.  "I'm Lorna…" she stated, "grab that cart there," she gestured.

          Kitty grabbed the handle of the cart and began pushing, following Lorna who was also pushing a cart towards a very large full washing machine.  "I'm Kitty."

          "What brings you here?" Lorna asked absently as she opened the washing machine and began to hall wet clothes into the cart.

          "I did the stupidest thing," Kitty sighed, "I hacked the GMCF internet information server…and got caught, and got my whole team in here."

          "Who's your team?" Lorna asked, glancing towards Kitty.

          "The X-Men…" Kitty responded, she helped in pulling the wet clothes from the washing machine.

          "The X-Men are here?!" Lorna gasped, "Oh my god, EVERYONE here has heard of you, you are like…heros…"

          Kitty smiled nervously, "Well…right now we're prisoners, same as you…" she sighed, "wish we were more though."

          Lorna nodded, understanding, "but still…you're The X-Men, you're bound to get us all out of here."

          "LORNA!" One of the mutants hissed, "you know they're listening!"  she gestured to a security camera up in the corner, then shook her head.

          Kitty glanced towards the Camera, "round the clock surveillance, huh?"

          "Except in the cells," Lorna admitted, "they used to, but the numbers in here have grown through the years, and funding is still limited…so no more cameras in cells."

          "Who runs all this?" Kitty asked quietly, she pulled some of the damp clothes into her own cart.

          "We're not sure, really," Lorna stated, "At first, we just had armed guards telling us where to go and what to do…" she explained, "then about a year ago, all these…clone things…started appearing…it's weird.  And at first, they were pretty useless, but now all of a sudden, within the last week, they've been showing powers…we're getting pretty scared, some of them have such volatile tempers."
          Kitty nodded, "I know, how'd you think I got this?" she gestured to her head which was bandaged up with a piece of her nightgown.  "Hey…do you happen to know where the REAL Remy LeBeau is?"

          "Who?" Lorna asked, raising an eyebrow.

          "Remy LeBeau…" Kitty stated, "He's the mutant that the clones are based on…"

          "Oh…" Lorna shrugged, "Haven't seen anyone here like that, at least not a prisoner…"

          Kitty sighed, but tried to perk up a little, "What can you tell me about this place?"

          "Been running for about five years," Lorna stated, "I've only been here for two.  I was in a small Mutant vigilante group and we got busted and shoved in here.  Place wasn't so full then.  Now it seems they're busting mutants and throwing them in here for just about ANY reason.  And they're coming up with all this new crude technology…" Lorna stated.  "Before, it used to be these ugly yellow inhibitor collars, now it's these MX2Beetles," she gestured to her own neck, she had the same strange contraption attached to her neck that Kitty and Rogue had.

          "What is it exactly?" Kitty asked.

          "It's like an inhibitor collar," Lorna stated, "there's this little tiny pump in there that pushes MX2 into your bloodstream very slowly."

          "MX2?" Kitty asked, she helped load the damp clothes into a dryer now, still intently listening to Lorna.

          Lorna looked straight at her, "do you remember about…maybe seven or eight years ago there was all this rage about some drug on the street called MutantX?"

          "Yeah…I know about it," Kitty nodded, deliberately leaving out her knowledge of who had been supplying it.

          "Well, this is like an advanced version," Lorna explained, she pushed wet clothes in the dryer too, "you see, the original stuff, you would take and depending on the dosage it would last so many hours…but this stuff, oh, this stuff is far superior…it starts working the second it hits your bloodstream, and finishes working the second the supply stops.  Those little remotes those clones and guards are carrying, those stop the tiny pump that pushes out the MX2 into the blood," Lorna explained, "eight of us – including me – were test subjects for it, that's why we know."

          "Who invented it?"

          "I'm not sure…the clones were just basically instructed on how to control it as far as we know, change the vial and slip the needles into the right places.

          Kitty shivered, "this is so creepy."

          "So why did you hack the server?" Lorna asked, "what did you expect to find out?"

          "My friend Remy…" Kitty began, "he…I don't know what's going on exactly right at this moment, but he's involved in all this somehow, we don't know right now if he's a prisoner or if he's working for them or what, we're trying to find out.  We found a clone and THOUGHT it was him, until the clone committed suicide, and Rogue…that's my best friend, she noticed the clone wasn't him…and then we did some research and found out about the GMCF…it's…all very confusing."

          Lorna made a face, "sounds it."

          "Anyway, we hacked the server to try and find out more…and…we ended up here…" Kitty stated, then quietly stated, "Now the only problem is getting out again."