Author's Note: Man this has taken me forever to write but hopefully you will all enjoy reading it. And hey did anyone read X-Treme X-Men #32? If you did please let me know what you thought of it.
Disclaimer: Well as we all know, X-Men is owned primarily by a teenage girl typing out new plots on her computer….wait you mean its not? Oh darn.
Interesting fact: The term hunk (as in "He's a hunk") is actually a derogatory term for an old, cranky man.
The Damned, Episode 1
Chapter 5: Family v. Business
Three months later
Erik stared into his half filled shot cup. He'd had several drinks in the dingy Mississippi bar. What number was this? It didn't matter, he decided as he continued to stare miserably into the cup. His palms lay face down on the sticky table, his blood shot eyes painted a perfect picture of misery. His mind was clouded by images he had sworn to forget, images brought to the surface by the excess of alcohol.
"My poor Wanda," he murmured to himself in his drunken stupor.
There he is. Erik didn't notice the figure walk up to him, didn't notice the beautiful woman lean in close. Had the woman chosen not to speak, Erik might not have noticed her at all. "Hello Erik."
Surprised, he looked up. "Raven?"
"Shh," she said, running her finger along his jaw, "Its Hillary, remember?"
He nodded stupidly, "Why are you here?"
"For you," she answered simply before pressing her lips to his. "I love you."
* * *
"Marie!" Mica called.
Marie looked around her, trying to locate the voice. All she could see was the playground and the scattered children.
"Marie!" Mica panted when she finally caught up to her friend.
"What's wrong Mica?"
"I..just…heard," Mica said between gasps, "…that those girls…were…talking..about..you."
"Why?" Marie questioned.
"They were talking about your family and stuff." Mica's eyes brightened, "We should go give them a talk."
"Ah don't know, that sound lahk askin' foh trouble." Before she finished her sentence, Mica had her by the arm, dragging her in the opposite direction of the playground.
"They were over here somewhere," Mica told Marie when they found themselves near some trees on the edge of the school's massive field.
Marie looked around, "Ah don't see anyone."
Mica crossed her arms over her chest and began to pout, "but they were here!" She felt something hit her shoulder; it was an empty Sunny Delight bottle.
"Hey! Looks like we found those losers."
Mica turned around to see Stacy and her clones.
"Why are you in our area anyway, freaks aren't allowed around here."
Unfazed, Mica began her questioning, "Why were you talking about Marie?"
Marie looked at Mica and tried to copy her hard expression.
"Oh look," taunted Stacy, "The losers think they cahn talk to us like they matter." Her friends snickered.
"What were ya'll sayin' 'bout me?" Marie demanded.
"Not that it's any of your business," Stacy told her, "but we were talkin' 'bout your family."
Marie's eyes narrowed dangerously, "What about my family?"
Stacy rolled her eyes, "Girls."
As if they had rehearsed it, her clones began to list items, "Ya'll are shut ins, ya'll got a big house but never invite people in, strange people come and go from that house all the time, the house is obviously haunted, and you have two moms."
Marie was taken aback, two mothers, she had never really thought about it. To her Raven and Irene were both great mothers, end of story.
"And you don't even got real parents, everyone knows they just took ya sorry butt in." Stacy put in. "And what's with all the clothes you wear. It's hot out here, try wearing shorts or sleeveless shirts. You're such a freak, no wonder your parents didn't want ya."
Mica looked at the tears starting to brim in Marie's eyes. "Shut up White Trash. You don't have any right to pick on Marie, she's better than all of you put together."
"Whatever freak, don't make me get started on your family and you know your family's screwed up." Stacy motioned for her clique to retreat.
Mica turned to Marie, "Marie it's okay, don't cry, they're just spoiled brats."
Marie wiped the tears away with the end of her long sleeves.
"Come on," Mica told her, "I'll get you a lollipop."
* * *
Erik sat upright, his head felt as though it might explode at any second. Looking around he felt that something was askew. This was not his room in Raven's mansion. It was a motel room, a cheap one at that. Looking at the bed he was lying in he could see that someone had been sleeping in it with him. He recognized the scent of a specific perfume and the memories came flooding back. He grinned; Irene was going to be furious.
* * *
"Irene I love you."
Irene looked up from her newspaper. "Oh no Raven, what did you do?"
Raven looked at her sheepishly, "You know your gorgeous lilies out front?"
"Yes," Irene replied warily.
"Well they aren't really gorgeous anymore, they don't even resemble lilies."
"Raven," Irene groaned.
"Sorry," Raven plopped down onto the couch, next to Irene. "I'll buy you more seeds."
As Irene opened her mouth to tell her that it wasn't the money but the principle of the matter, the phone rang.
Raven ran to answer it, "Hello?"
"I need you to run another errand," the extremely familiar voice told her.
"Anything you need Nathaniel."
At the mention of the name, Irene's ears perked up. She did not like the man in any way. The man had an evil aura about him. When Raven came back into the room Irene questioned her, "So what does he need this time?"
"Well you remember the files I got for him?" Irene nodded, "Well apparently Xavier has a copy of them." Irene bristled at the name. "Essex needs me to get them from Xavier to ensure that the man doesn't have any kind of advantage over us."
* * *
"But why do ya gotta go?" Marie asked, tugging at the bottom of Raven's sweater.
Raven looked down into Marie's sad eyes, it was enough to make her cry. "Oh sweetie," she said, picking Marie up into her arms, "I'll be back soon, I just have to take care of something in New York." Raven kissed Marie on the forehead, "I'll be back tomorrow evening, I promise." Marie nodded and Raven put her down.
"Don't worry," Irene told Marie, "I'm still here to take care of you." Looking at Raven she added, "Let me see you to your car."
Marie watched as the adults left the house, withholding tears.
Outside Irene was chastising Raven, "It is incredibly irresponsible of you to just leave Marie like that."
Raven leaned up against the driver's side of her Lincoln, "Irene I am not leaving her, I am simply taking care of business."
"But the child has issues with abandonment and you know it!" Irene said crossly.
Raven opened the car door, "Look Irene, I don't have the time for this. When I get home tomorrow we can talk about this."
"Its just like you to always put business before family."
Raven looked into Irene's burning eyes, "How the Hell else are you supposed to reach our goal? Should I just sit at home all day waiting for one of your visions?" The rising levels of sarcasm was evident in Irene's ears, "There's an idea. You can't even handle your visions, they still cause you pain so don't tell me what to do when you yourself are incapable of doing anything."
Irene said nothing; instead she walked up the driveway, into the house, slamming the door behind her.
* * *
"What?" Irene asked.
She had been silently eating dinner with Erik and Marie when she looked up to see Erik smugly smiling at her.
He shrugged, "nothing," but continued to smile smugly.
Probably heard Raven and I arguing.
Marie watched the adults with great interest.
"Marie, have you finished your homework?" Irene asked.
"Yeah, Erik helped me," she innocently took a bite of her lasagna.
"Oh really?" Irene asked slowly, looking back at Erik who looked back with a false look of innocence.
"Irene can ah go ta mah room? Ah finished mah dinner."
"Sure," Irene said, "But make sure you're ready for bed in an hour."
Marie nodded and scurried off.
As soon as the girl left, Irene began to converse with Erik, "Why are you all of a sudden taking an interest in the girl?"
"What's wrong?" Erik asked, "Can't handle the thought of me being an active member of this family?"
Irene smiled tightly, "Hardly. I can't picture you a part of any family, you can't even take care of your own kids."
Erik's smug smile died, "My children are my business."
"As is my child."
"Oh come now," Erik scoffed, "Marie is Raven's child, not yours."
"What does that mean?"
"Anytime she needs something who does she turn to? Raven. When she's sad who does she go to? Who reads her bedtime stories and comforts her when she's had a nightmare?"
Irene ground her teeth together, "Perhaps," she began evenly, "she pictures Raven as a more motherly figure."
"Would that make you the father?" Erik asked.
"We were ready for this," Irene told Erik. "In a household with same sex parents it is perfectly natural for the child to establish different roles for the parents. It establishes a sense of normalcy."
"Whatever you need to tell yourself." Erik told her, turning his attention back to his dinner.
"Lets get to the point," Irene rolled her eyes, "You want Raven." When Erik didn't say anything, Irene went on, "She's mine Erik, get used to it. She loves me." With that she got up and left.
Erik smiled.
* * *
Raven took in the sight of Xavier's mansion from her position atop a tree. The cameras did not worry her, they would only pick up images of her in all her feathery glory. Disguised as a pigeon, Raven flew onto the roof of the mansion. Here she looked around, trying to find a way in. Below her she could see Xavier out watering plants. Quickly she flew down to ground level, morphing herself into a mouse she scurried onto Xavier's wheelchair, hiding under the folds of his blanket.
Waiting patiently for Xavier to finish watering his plants, Irene made note of a scent, perfume. There has to be someone living with him.
As her unknowing host brought her indoors, Raven thanked God Charles had decided against using his powers, refusing to play God. Had he been using his powers he would have picked up Raven's thought patterns.
Raven crawled out of the confines of the blanket quickly. She ran down a narrow hall, dodging chair legs. She found what she needed in just five minutes, an elevator door. Morphing into Xavier she placed a finger against the identification pad. The elevator doors opened and she shamelessly entered. Automatically, the elevator took her to a sub-level. When the doors opened, Raven's yellow cat eyes glowed with pride.
In front of her was the most elaborate system of computers she had ever seen. There were several, new and old. Had she needed a computer-stored file she would have been there all day searching for the correct one. Fortunately she had only come for a disc. She searched the room, top to bottom, until she found a floppy disc hidden behind all the others. Bingo. Won't Essex be proud.
* * *
Nathaniel Essex looked at the disc Raven had had delivered to him. He put the disc in his lab's computer. Immediately a cross-section of human DNA appeared. Next to the DNA was a face of a nameless person. Essex began to type furiously; frustrated at the time he had lost by allowing Charles Xavier to get his human-loving hands on the disc.
It was only a matter of time now. Essex knew Xavier had not yet been able to look at the contents of the disc as the security codes on the disc were impossibly to break. Essex knew that Raven would believe anything he told her of the disc, the woman was blinded by her own foolish goals.
Nathaniel laughed as he viewed the finished product on the screen. "I have done it. I've created my own weapon, the Legacy Virus!"
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Panther Nesmith-Woo to you too! ::Thumbs up::
Ishandahalf-I know, she is really cute isn't she? And I prefer hare's on crack thank you very much.
Rogue151-I'm glad I made your day better and caught you off guard…he he he. As for the question…I might be kind and let you know soon enough. ::laughs maniacally::
LiLRoguE-More? More? Well I'll give you more! ::more maniacal laughter::
Thanks to all who read this chapter. Now you know the drill, read and review, read and review, read and review, read and review, read and review!