Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 14

Chapter 2: Get Over It

"I'm going to make it," Kitty mumbled to herself as she stared at the food on the plate in front of her, "I'm going to be fine."

The canteen of the prison was large, and noise filled it, the sounds of plates and spoons

Rogue rolled her eyes, "It's fish, get over it."

"I don't eat fish!  I'm a vegetarian," Kitty despaired, she felt tearful, she'd been starving for some time and for the first time in two days, food was in front of her, only it was something she really didn't agree with eating.

"You should be thankful you're even getting fed," Lorna Dane admitted softly, she shoved her spoon into her fish, "people come in here and don't get fed for four or five days – the guards and clones just love to starve us prisoners."

Kitty ran her spoon over the fish lightly, making a face of absolute disgust, "I can't eat this," she sighed, pushing the plate away from her.  "Why fish?  Why not vegetables or something."

"Only thing I can imagine is this Island isn't ideal for growing things upon, and fish is probably the only thing that's obtainable around these parts," Lorna sighed quietly.  "It does get to the stage where after a while you see fish and you immediately feel like throwing up you've eaten so much of it…"

"Why spoons?" Kitty dropped her spoon discontentedly.

"Because forks have points and that makes it a weapon," Lorna replied, she glanced around the busy canteen.

"I don't see the others anywhere…" Rogue admitted softly.

"Yeah, you probably won't.  Most of the prisoners here are all on different time tables.  There's too many of us to all fit in here at once, so we come in shifts to eat."

"I wonder if they're alright…I'm worried about the Professor…and Piotr…and everyone…god I hate this fucking place," Kitty put her hands in her head, feeling like crying right at that moment.  The hope she'd had of escaping had been quickly relinquishing by each second with every new thing she learned about the GMCF.

Rogue touched Kitty's arm comfortingly, "hey, don't worry," she said quietly leaning nearer to murmur, "we'll be out of this place soon, right?"

Kitty shrugged, "I just don't know anymore," she uttered, she gestured to Lorna, "Lorna has been in here for two years!"

"Wow…what'd you do?" Rogue raised an eyebrow.

Lorna gave a strange smirk, "I was in a small group of mutants, we were somewhat like the X-Men, only not as educated or trained.  This massive trainwreck  happened and we were nearby so we helped get the victims out – having to use our powers of course – only a few of them were totally anti-mutant and when the cops arrived the victims accused us of attacking them with our powers and stuff…it got ugly.  We ended up in here."

Rogue groaned, "I can relate.  You try to be the hero and end up the victim yourself."

"Totally," Lorna took a small bite of her food.

"My neck itches," Kitty complained scratching the skin around the edges of the MX2Beetle lightly, "Kind of stings."

"You get used to it," Lorna replied.

Rogue was about to speak, but noticing a clone-guard stepping by she decided to hold her tongue, she took a few bites and waited until the clone was several feet away, and the noise of the prisoners chatting and eating would drown her voice out.  She leaned across the small square table to speak to Lorna.

"So we know—"

Lorna reached over and placed her hand upon Rogue's arm and grasped it hard to make her quieten down, she watched as the clone disappeared off between the tables further away.

Rogue raised an eyebrow.

"Just making sure he was gone," Lorna frowned a little, "you were saying?"

Rogue nodded, "yeah, so we know there are clones…with powers…there's obviously some kind of scientific experimentation shit going on here or something, don't you know anything else?"

"It's like I told Kitty," Lorna leaned a little closer to, her wide green eyes right on Rogue's, "it seemed to happen almost overnight really.  At first, we had just the general guards, you see them around.  They're the ones in black.  Then, about a year ago, the clones started appearing…but suddenly last week, they started showing these…powers…powers that they never had before…it's so freaky."

"What kind of powers?" Rogue asked, she wanted to confirm what she feared, that Remy's powers might have been passed onto the clones as well as his good looks and memories.

"They touch things…make them explode.  But that's not all…" Lorna stated carefully, "They…seem to have a heightened sense…they hear better now, their movement…it's all changed so fast…their strength is staggering, I mean more so than it was before, I've seen them just pick up people and just toss them like they didn't weigh anything, and I'm talking people as heavy as John Proudstar...and he must weigh at least two-twenty-five.  The speed, the agility, it's just…incredible…" Lorna said, "I've been watching – I mean I would think this could be a natural mutant manifestation, just like with us…but…they seem to have accomplished the talents of their powers so quickly it doesn't seem so natural to me as it should."

Kitty frowned, listening, remembering what she'd thought upon her encounter with the clone during the small fight – which she'd lost.

"Something wrong?" Rogue asked, noticing the look on Kitty's face.  Kitty's expression was anxious, her face pale, tired, her hair wiry, still tinged with blood no matter how hard Kitty had tried to wash it out.  Her sapphire eyes were dull, as if the life had been drained right out of them.  "You look like you've just had a thought."

Kitty nodded, "Yeah…when we were fighting with those two clones, I kind of noticed the strange way the one I was fighting was kind of moving.  You know that they have Remy's memory so they would know how to move right, and, well, Remy's movement is very graceful and quick and all, but…the clone was moving almost catlike…fast, quick, and stronger than I think Remy could be…it makes me wonder."

"Wonder what?" Rogue chewed her lip.

"That maybe Remy might not be the only one who's DNA was used in the clones.  I think these are probably a whole new breed of clone.  I mean, didn't Hank say that with his research that he couldn't just apply the X-Gene to a fully grown specimen and that it would have to be applied during the cloning process for it to work?"

Rogue nodded, "something along those lines."

"And we know that whoever is doing this has the ability to create an accelerated growth in a clone, I mean for all we know there could be a brand new clone in a matter of hours – fully charged with mutant powers…and god knows, this Scary Scientist Man has hundreds of us to chose from to take DNA from us to create a new breed of supermutant clone armies…oh my GOD, that's a scary thought."

Rogue drew her breath, the thought of the world being overtaken with thousands of clones like Remy was somewhat funny, and yet, frightening at the same time.  "It's bad enough there being one Remy in the world, imagine hundreds…thousands…even millions roaming around the world with those kinds of powers…terrorising the innocent…"

Kitty smirked a little at Rogue's comment, "Bad enough there being one Remy?" she asked, "I thought you still loved him."

"I do, I just think it's so many versions of him creeping around us every two minutes it's kind of making me hate him..."

"So…seriously, this…Remy guy…is the actual guy these Clones were made out of?  Copied??" Lorna asked, her eyes wider.

"Yeah," Kitty nodded.

"When you said it I didn't quite believe it," Lorna admitted, "that's kind of fucked up…I mean…you're in LOVE with the original and there's copies of him sauntering left right and centre every day and night, that has GOT to fuck with your head," she glanced at Rogue.

Rogue gave a tiny nervous smile, "Well…my head is so fucked up already that I doubt having anything else fuck with it is really going to make much difference anymore," she admitted, "how messed up can one head be?"

Kitty gazed over at Lorna, "she has an extra person in her head, and every time she's touched anyone and her powers have absorbed from them, a piece of that person has stayed with her.  If she's stayed sane through out all that, I think there's a definite chance not much else can phase her."

Rogue tucked her hair behind her ear, "its kind of funny you mention that," she stated, "I noticed today that since my powers have been negated, I haven't felt anyone's presence in my head anymore – usually I feel the odd persona kind of trying to blend into my own – but it feels like even Carol Danvers is gone…even when the collar reactivated my powers temporarily her thoughts didn't seem to return and blend in with mines once…it's so weird…"

"Maybe she's gone for good," Kitty shrugged.

"I wish," Rogue admitted, she took a bite of fish, "gotta admit, even though I can hear myself think nowwithout her yabbering on in my head in the background like a TV someone left on in the next room and that is SUCH a relief, let me tell you.  I kind of feel like I'm missing something…"

"Ooooh that's not good," Kitty bit her lip, "Hey…your feelings for Remy are a little so-so right now, and you don't have Carol in your head, what if it's her controlling your emotion over Remy?  Did you ever think about that?"
          Rogue's eyes widened, "no…I didn't…"

Lorna remained quiet, eating, and listening, quite confused as to what they were talking about, really.

"What if Carol Danvers was trying to sabotage your life by forcing you to have feelings for him knowing that he'd hurt you the same way he hurt her – however unintentionally it might be…do you think it's vengeance?"

"No…" Rogue refused to believe it, "Even if that were the case…" Rogue leaned back, folding her arms, "Carol can only influence my thoughts…but she can't control my body…"

"So?" Kitty asked.

Rogue smiled a little, "I have too much physical reaction when I think about him or when he's close about me for it to be Carol's influence…how else would my heart skip a beat?"

Kitty smirked a little, "I hope I have that one day…"

Rogue nodded, "You will."