Logically, Remy always knew getting struck by lightening must hurt. But he never appreciated the full scope of pain until he experienced it first hand. Beside the pain, it felt like he had been out for quite a while, he did know that, but not for how long exactly. Now he was listening intently to room around him as he pretended to still be unconscious. Unfortunately, his gracious hosts had been in and out of the room and hadn't been doing much talking. They were probably logically suspicious around him.
From what he could tell without opening his eyes, he was in a room, not too
big, judging by the echos. Since the students most likely weren't accustomed
to seeing prisoners, he was guessing he was in the lower levels. The ones he
had been so intent on exploring tonight, or was it already past "tonight?"
How long had he been out? Long enough to be strapped down to a table with five
point restraints. He could feel, or not feel, rather, that the area directly
under his hands was cut away and his forearms had some sort of blocks underneath
them angling his hands up. So he couldn't touch anything. From the fight, they
must have thought he could only use his powers if his hands and fingers were
touching something. A smile mental smile, that assumption would work very well
in his favor. A few snatches of voices could be heard now. Xavier's goons were
in the room, but not near him. Straining his ears as much as he could without
moving, he listened.
"I'm not saying I don't believe you," voice one sounded frustrated.
"I just want to be sure that he couldn't smell like that from sitting next
to her on a long, cramped subway ride."
Speaker number two sounded angry as well. "I know what I smelled Summers,"
Summers, he was the one in charge after the headmaster Xavier. Working name
Cyclops. "He smelled like her the smell way you smell like Jean in the
morning." Speaker two's voice piqued oddly when he said that. Was that
one Logan? "It was extremely close, prolonged contact. I don't know how
the miserable SOB managed to get around her powers...But when I get my hands
on him again-,"
Number one, "Summers" interrupted and "Logan," who had been
getting louder, quieted a bit. Probably warned him about potential eavesdroppers
strapped to tables in the room. "...the Professor will be back soon, maybe
he'll have more luck." Some more noise that couldn't quite be sorted into
words...
"One way to find out," Logan's voice had picked up again. "Stop pretending to be asleep!" he growled unmistakably in Remy's direction. He almost flinched at the sound, being closer than expected and wondered if any more good could come of playing opossum. His eyes opened slowly, his best poker face firmly in place.
Logan was glaring and towering over the table Remy was confined to. He had managed to find a new non-burnt shirt. "I asked you nicely, once," that was nice? and now I'm asking again, where is she?" The shorter man yanked him up by his shirtfront, as far as he could through the restraints.
"I don't know who you're talking about," the words came out devoid of emotion. Trying to tell a convincing lie was useless, knowing that there was at least one telepath listening in. Xavier wasn't back yet, but Jean Grey was still there. Her form he didn't see in the room immediately, but his field of vision was limited.
"Listen you sick freak, if you've hurt one hair on her head..." With that threat, two of Logan's claws sprung out on either side of Remy's neck. The third inched out just slightly past the knuckle.
"Wolverine has enhanced senses, but I'm sure you know that already, James? Is it? That's cute." The sounds of paper shuffling, Cyclops must have his personnel file. Probably the first thing they checked after the lightning took him down. The hairy guy with the claws paid no attention to what Cyclops said. Either he didn't know or just didn't care the Summers had figured out "James Gordon" was the name of a Batman character. The forger Remy got the ID from was the best on the East Coast, but a bit eccentric. It took him a good while to figure it out himself.
He was glad he had the fake ID, though, with the fake address. They'd probably already been to his apartment,' the one that was across town from his real one. The one with Marie in it waiting for him to come home. Of course, if these guys busted down the door, she'd know he could use a hand. But then she might be here strapped down next to him, or restrained however they thought best to negate her powers. She was tough, but there were a lot of them. Or maybe it wouldn't that bad. Supposedly they knew her, but whatever drove her away from this place was pretty traumatic. And with the way hairy, crazy guy was growling, the X-crew could be the source of that trauma.
Cyclops continued talking. "You like to play games with people do you?" he didn't wait for a response knowing none was coming. "Don't bother playing your games here, Wolverine knows you were with Rogue recently, so don't bother trying to lie to us. We can settle this all easily if you just tell us where she is." Summers walked slowly toward the table, his arms crossed, looking almost as dangerous as Wolverine only in a much more subdued way. Idly, Remy thought to himself that if Summers was trying to play good cop, he wasn't doing it very well. Outwardly he said none of this and just continued to glare at the both of them and wondering about the name Rogue.' Rogue was the name of the girl who disappeared. Again, he could only assume they were talking about Marie. Rogue' was barely out of high school, though. Marie wasn't that young...
"Yeah, I'm sure she'd love it here. Such nice people, why did she ever leave?" His face stayed emotionless except for half of a grim, sardonic smile.
"She left on her own? You didn't have to kidnap her? " Summers sounding like he believed that as much as he did the name James.'
Remy leveled a look, as best he could from his current position, "I don't know what happened, but I didn't kidnap anybody." His voice was getting hoarse and he wondered what his hosts' would do if he asked for a glass of water.
"I'm sick of your crap, bub. You've got til three, 1..,2..,"as Logan counted the middle claw inched its way forward.
"Since you asked so nice..."a grim laugh croaked out. His throat had gone completely dry and absurdly, he momentarily wondered if it was a side effect of the lightning strike. The middle claw inched out further until it was now touching his dry throat.
Whatever it was about his brain that blocked out telepaths must still be working if they were bothering to ask questions. The third claw kept going. Or maybe not. A small, sharp pain shot through his neck. Warm, slow trickle of blood oozed down over his collarbone.
"Logan, stop." a third voice broke in admonishing and hand lightly but firmly pushed Wolverine back.
Wolverine barely glanced over at the other person, that Monroe women, also called Storm. Instead of looking at her, he kept his desperate gaze riveted on Remy, "Tell me where she is."
"He can't tell us anything if he's dead." Looking at the blood on Remy's neck, but Cyclops didn't sound terribly concerned.
Monroe spared Summers a glance and turned her attention towards Remy. "Please, Marie is our friend. We just want to know if she's safe. We don't know what happened. I don't care what happened, why you know her, how...All I care about is if she's alright." Storm was the first of Xavier's hit squad to call her Marie. "If this is all a misunderstanding, if she is your friend, she'll can tell us that."
A very reasoned and impassioned plea. The cut in his throat wasn't deep enough to prevent him from speaking, but his voice was still raspy. He hd a very dark smile, "So, you're good cop.'"
She looked disappointed, but Logan growled and surged back in Remy's line of sight. I'll make him talk." All the claws were out now, but inexplicably he stopped mid-charge and cocked his head to one side.
Summers picked up on that immediately, "What is it?" but then turned as if he had already figured out the source. Summers marched, yes, actually marched over to the other side of the room. Craning his throbbing neck up, he saw Cyclops pick up something small, and black...his cell phone. It was ringing on silent mode. Within two seconds, Remy realized he must have been unconscious at least long enough for Xavier's people to break to locking code on his phone. "Yeah?" Cyclops said, lowering his voice a bit. At least he didn't try a bad accent. "What?" his voice slipping back up in surprise.
Of Shoes and Ships and Ceiling Wax...
Marie slept late, she had the dinner shift again and didn't have to be atwork
til four. It was hard to extricate herself from the warm, inviting blankets.
Before she had even opened her eyes she knew that Remy hadn't come home last
night. Knew because she was wrapped in the warm, inviting blankets and not his
arms.
He said he might not be back tonight, don't start worrying...What he found would determine how long he would be gone. If he was there most of the night, he would just stay and pretend he was early into work the next morning. He's just at work now...That meant he had found something in that super-secret basement at the institute. And he was probably finding a way to do something about it. He could have called me for help...subtly not your strong suit, which was very true even if she'd never admit it. Right now, he's subtly trying too...where is he? He's just at work, he said he wouldn't try anything without me. Maybe he got tired of listening to you whine every two seconds...shut up Carol.
Whenever she was upset Carol or one of the other ones, mostly Carol, had to pipe up. He'll be back before my shift starts, I can kiss him goodbye, her heart involuntarily sped up at the thought of being able to touch him now....he'll probably wait up for me to get home...
Reluctantly, she dragged herself out of bed and headed for the door. About three in the morning and still not sleeping, she had moved to Remy's room and slept there the rest of the night. Slept there, that was, after she had rummaged around looking for ... she wasn't sure...plans for what he doing...even though he'd already told her that. Maybe a blueprint of exactly where he was at the moment. If she wasn't sure flying over there would blow his cover immediately...
Involuntarily pacing on her way to her room, she fidgeted with the ring on her finger. The one thing she did find while rummaging, in his top drawer next to Genny's necklace. It was a black opal in an antique setting with pour toujours- forever' engraved in the band. She should put it back now and act surprised on their anniversary. It fit perfectly, he liked to tell her that her eyes were like opals, it had to be her gift. Or a trophy from another dead girlfriend...shut up... she said unenthusiastically. It had been a long night and she didn't have the energy to argue with Carol. Therefore, she was trying the if you-ignore-her-she'll-go-away approach. Should put the ring back....but didn't want to. Being a horrible procastinator, she hadn't decided what to get him yet, she had better make it good now. Tiny flecks of color shimmered in and out of exisitence in the black stone. Hey, he kept her up half the night worrying, she was going to wear her ring.
He didn't get home before Marie left for work. Still nothing to worry about. He'd call me if there were trouble. If he had stayed at work, he wouldn't get home until after she left. He told me he might be gone this long... He might be gone for longer, say twenty years of so wouldn't break my heart. Studiously ignoring Carol, she made her way through the employee entrance into the kitchen.
There was the usual noise and bustle in the kitchen. Carol had still been pestering her, not getting tired and shutting up like she usually did. She tried stay focused, but Marie's mind wandered, despite her resolve to ignore Carol. Her voice kept coming through the hazy fog of whispers that settled into her head. "Hey, Marie!" called Casey from behind a rack of wine glasses. When her friend didn't respond, "Marie! Over here. You OK?"
Vaguely she heard a voice through the fog that was spreading to the whole room now. "Huh? Yeah, I'm fine. Didn't sleep well last night."
Marie continued to walk, looking dazed and fidgeting with a ring she was wearing. Must be taking advantage of being glove-free. "Is it that new medicine? I was on this cold medicine last winter that was supposed to make you tired, but it kept me awake for like, five days straight."
The fog was getting louder, "Huh?"
Half a laugh. "You really are out of it. The new medicine, for your eczema?" Right, the made up skin condition to explain her gloves and the miracle cure to explain why she no longer wore them.
"I'm just tired, that's all, " not wanting to discuss it, not being able to discuss it. Concentrate. Make the fog go away...Yes make all voices go away, don't think about the people you've destroyed, as long as you can carry appetizers around everything's just peachy... "Who manager on tonight?" This wasn't going well, she should probably fake sick and go home.
"Gary," the name was always accompanied by a look.' He was everyone's least favorite manager. My luck is boundless, so much for going home, she thought as she grabbed an apron to help with the set up before she went into the dinning room to wait tables.
Picking up a tray of glasses from one of the stainless steel tables, there was a shimmer, and then the table was a long, formal dining table, made of dark, polished wood...now..a small, white table underneath a window with breezy gingham curtain...then oak with six chairs and a little boy playing with his mashed potatoes...Stop it Carol! ... Why is everything my fault? It's not my fault your no good criminal boyfriend left you and now you're freaking out...He didn't leave! He's coming back, he loves me!...Whatever, tell that to Genny...
Marie had been standing in the same place for nearly five minutes. Added to that, her face was rapidly losing color and she looked dangerously close to falling over. "Marie?" Was that Casey? A tinkling melodic noise like breaking glass...all of the windows in the train were shattering, their metal frames being peeled back by a giant invisible hand...screaming...everyone was screaming... a man floating in the middle of the aisle, arms out stretched, hurting...he was hurting, What do you what with me?" he growled...a voice broke through again. "Are you sure you're alright?" The melodic sound again, more glass...no...Casey leaned over again, her dangling earrings chiming melodically together... It's just Casey's earrings... Policy was only studs were allowed...
"Gary's never going to let you wear those." she pointed out irrelevantly. As if she wasn't having a break down in the middle of the kitchen before the dinner rush.
"What?" A cautionary hand touched Marie's shoulder to steady her. "I'm telling Gary you're sick."
An undignified scoff was the other girl's reaction, "That'll go over real well. I'm fine, Casey. I'm just tired." she said unconvincingly.
"You don't look good." Marie ignored her as she picked up the tray of glasses again and resumed her original course. Screw subtly, I'm going to find him. Screw Gary, I'm leaving. I'll call Mamma first, see if she knows about these Xavier people and then I'm busting the doors down........... "America was supposed to be the land of peace, the land of tolerance," the wooden panels of the boat creaked as the waves past under them. She kept staring at the dead eyes of the guard lying on the floor of the boat. Tugging uselessly at the shackles on her wrists, trapping her there, while the gray-haired man droned on. Magneto was his ridiculous name. "Are you going to kill me?" The guards eyes stared blankly through her. "Yes." the man answered matter-of-factly in a emotionless voice. She tugged again, I need to get out of here. A blue figure glided behind the man to the front of the boat, barely glancing at her..... Momma? Is that you?
The sound of breaking glass again, as a tray in Marie's hand crashed to the floor. This time she barely heard it, sinking to the floor with the glasses, kneeling on the shards. Why would you do that, Momma?...Because she's such a kind and loving person...shut up...Maybe she finally got sick of ol' Remy, that's what happened to him...Shut up... "SHUT UP!"
"Marie?" was that Casey again. What was she doing here? "What's wrong?" Casey was talking quietly now, as everyone else in the kitchen were just staring in shock.
Not looking up at her friend, not looking at anything in particular, "She's lying. It's not true. She's LYING!"
Casey nodded frantically in what she hoped was agreement, "OK, ok. She's lying, that's right, I don't believe her."
Bang! The slamming door made everyone in the room jump. "What in the -," Gary couldn't yell like he wanted. The noise back here was already disturbing the customers, the yelling would have to wait until after closing. But his tirade stopped suddenly when he saw the looks on all of the faces in the room. Following their gazes to see one of the waitresses, Marie, the one with the funny hair, on the ground sitting on broken glasses. She didn't look...right.
The slam of the door had made Marie jump about seven feet off the floor. "It's okay, it's just Gary." Casey was desperately trying to reassure the increasingly erratic girl. She didn't seem to understand what Casey was saying. Her head kept swinging around erratically, searching for the source of the sound as she backed away from the growing, staring throng of people, hiting a counter in the process.. Instead of finding anything, she clutched her head and began muttering, "stopitstopitstopit.....Shut Up!"
And Cabbages and Kings...
"What?" It was hard to read Summer's expression with that visor on. Whoever was on the other end of the phone was talking loud, but not loud enough to hear individual words. One of his biggest problems as of late. Summers was answering in monosyllables, trying not to say much, still keeping his voice lowe. Marie wouldn't call him, she knew it would be too risky. The voice sounded kinda like Casey, she always talked too loud on the phone. But the voiced sounded panicky, rather than just loud, and why would she call?
Logan had a very intent expression. His sensitive ears could hear what was being said and his feral gaze found Remy again. "So are you still saying you don't know Rogue? Why is it that the paramedics think you'd know what new medication she's taking?"
Medication? Paramedics? "What's wrong with her? What paramedics?" He strained against the restraints.
"Is there any medication? Or is that just another game?"
"It was how she explained the gloves at work and why she stopped wearing them. What. Happened. To. Marie?"
A click as the phone shut and Cyclop spoke again, in his normal voice. "A psychotic episode. That's the paramedics theory right now. It could be a severe reaction to a new medication, but we know that's not the case, don't we?"
She must have had an episode' at work. But those had stopped, almost completely. The occasional nightmare was the only real problem she had. Definetitely not bad enough to call an abulance about. "Let me go!" Cyclops and company traded glances, appearing to ignore him, probably carrying on a psychic conversation amongst themselves. He badly wanted to blast his way out of here this second, but he was still outnumbered. "If she'd such a good friend of yours, you'd let me help her."
A very measured look from Summers, "This happens often? You think you can help her?"
Pulling uselessly against his bonds again, "Not often. Every once and a while the voices get too loud. Don't her friends' know about that?" he glared at the room in general again from his awkward position. "It's probably Carol making trouble." He just had to calm her down long for Carol to get tired out, but he wasn't sure how much of that he should tell them. They all exchanged looks when he said Carol.' and withdrew from the room.
"Jean, can he hear' us out here?" Scott thought it might be too risky to keep up the mental conversation too close the possibly psychic prisoner.
Frustration visibly leaked through her words, "I have no idea. I still can't tell if he's a psi or not. His brain is like pure static, impossible to read. Between Rogue absorbing Carol's shields and her being around invisible boy, it's no wonder the Professor couldn't find her."
Again, Wolverine was getting impatient with telepaths talking too much, even if it was Jean. "She was kidnaped by invisible boy." Jeannie sounded too much like she might believe that bastard.
Ignoring Wolverine being counterproductive, Cyclops handing Jean the cell phone, "This is the number of Rogue's work. Trace it and go find her."
"I'm going too." Logan cut in.
Cyclops didn't even argue just nodded. Logan was closest to Rogue, that was a good idea. "Storm and I will keep an eye on our new friend and wait for the Professor. He should be able to make some progress with this guy's shields or static, or whatever he has."
"Rogue was only in New York and didn't try to get home. That guy's got her under some kind of mental control. That's probably why she's freaking out now. "
Nodding, "That's why Jean's going. She should be able to get through to her."
Storm listened to everything Scott and Logan were saying, but too much of this didn't make sense to her. Thoughtful she said, "I don't think this man is with the government, so how is Major Danvers involved? And I still don't see why he would take her to begin with. What would be the point?"
"Take a guess," Wolverine growled and he spun on his heels down the hallway.
Echos bounced off the smooth metal walls. Both Storm and Cyclops watched Logan stalk away. Cyclops chose not to dwell on Wolverine's parting words and instead started back to the med lab and their 'charming' guest.
The door effortlessly slid open, revealing the lab. The examination table sat in the center with the restraints dangling empty off the sides, bearing what looked like scorch marks.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another cliffhanger, but not really. We all know where Remy's going. :) Hopefully,
this chapter is coming along better. I feel like I've kind of 'lost' the story
somewhere. It doesn't have the same feel as before. Anybody notice anything,
have any suggestions? I'm still going to finish it, I think I know how it's
going to end, but I'm not sure how to get there. I'll stop rambling about bizarre
forms of writer's block now...
Isandahalf- A little getting beat up couldn't kill Remy's romantic streak.
He is a master thief and he is using his master thief skills. He's just
undercover while he's doing it. He doesn't just want to swipe painting from
the hallway, he wants to find out everything about Xavier's, so he needs to
do more than case the place. Yes, groundskeeper isn't the most glamorous job,
that's part of his undercovery-ness. There might have been another way to do
that, but the thought of Remy mowing lawns was just too fun. :)
I was going to mention it in the last chapter, but the 'disappearing' girl in
the story was called Rogue,' but then I forgot, but it is in this chapter.
I don't think Institute people would want to talk about such a personal tragedy
with a relative stranger, so info was hard to get. And he was kind of dismissing
that story as a serious possiblity, both because of her 'age' and probably because
he doesn't what to really consider it. Marie does just seem older,
so she thinks she's older and consequentially, so does Remy. Both because of
Carol and because life experiences. She was seventeen in the first movie, so
she's eighteen by now, so Remy might feel a little funny, but not pedophiley.
:)
Alwaysright1- Interesting rule. I like it, but its different when you actually have to write. This update was faster than the last. Don't worry, Remy's pretty face is fine. (Thank goodness.)
Samm16-Lots of people do cliffhangers, I can't be that evil. Was this fast enough, or am I too late?
angstwolf()- Ack, another person who thinks I'm evil. Writing cliffhangers is dangerous.
evanescence kicks ass()- She's getting really close to remembering the X-Men. I know I've been dragging it out. I'm trying to emphasize how something can be right in front of you and you can still not see it. I live in Utah and the Elizabeth Smart kidnaping was all over the news for months, poster and even billboards of the girl's face everywhere. And when the police finally found her, it turned out she had been in Utah for almost the whole time with the crazy cult guy who made wear a veil. Literally, thousands of people saw her, but no one knew it was her.
I have been messing with Rogue's age. Mentally though, not physically. Rogue is still a teenager, I figure eighteen going on nineteen, but she's been acting older. She thinks of herself as older, (because she's been through a lot for a teenager) so Remy does too.
Mangamak()-Do they have a twelve step program for fan fics? :) I'm sure there's lots of things the X-men would like to do to Remy, but for now he escaped and has a reprieve, at least temporarily. Poor Remy, keeps getting beat up.