Confrontation
Author's Note: Hi, fans! L1701E here! This is a little one-shot idea that I had that was inspired by "Gifts and Curses" by my friend todd fan. It's set after Chapter 24, so I recommend you read it before this one-shot. Basically, the one-shot is a confrontation…well, an attempted confrontation between Multiple of the X-Men and Thunderbolt of Freedom Force. Enjoy! BTW, if you think Kyle's speech is OOC, just remember, he's 18 in this story, whereas in "Black Ice", he's 13. He's grown up a bit.
A Barnes and Noble in Bayville Mall
In front of the Graphic Novels aisle stood a young teenage boy, around 18. His long brown hair was in a ponytail. He was dressed in a blue Rockers t-shirt, blue jeans, and a black leather jacket with blue sleeves that had yellow lightning bolt zig-zag racing stripes. His name was Kyle Wildfire, but he was called the Thunderbolt because he was a mutant, with the power to generate, control, and shape electrical power. He was leafing through a copy of Watchmen, indulging his love of comic books.
"Man, the Thunderbolt really should buy this." Kyle smirked to himself, his thick accent indicating his Boston heritage. He then sighed. "When is Gina coming back from that frou-frou store? The Thunderbolt has plans tonight!"
"Ahem." A voice coughed. Kyle turned and saw a boy his age standing at the end of the aisle. He had short brown hair, and was dressed in a black t-shirt and black cargo pants with a couple chins hanging off his belt. He did not look very happy. He was Jamie Madrox, an X-Man codenamed Multiple for his ability to create clones of himself. Kyle blinked.
"Jamie Madrox, right? We just met a little while back." Kyle remembered.
"Yeah. I'm…I was…your girlfriend's boyfriend." Jamie growled.
"Hey look, the Thunderbolt didn't mean anything, alright?" Kyle sighed. "Hey, I'm sorry, huh? What do you want?"
"I want you to answer me a question." Jamie scowled, walking up to Kyle. "What right did you have?"
"What right did I what?" Kyle rolled his eyes. He knew where this was going.
"What did you have to swoop in like some bird of prey and take Gina away from me?" Jamie growled. "I loved her, you know."
"Hey, I'm sorry." Kyle groaned. "The Thunderbolt didn't know there was a sign around Gina's neck that said 'Property of Jamie Madrox'."
"You think this is funny?" Jamie snapped angrily.
"No, I don't." Kyle grunted. "And keep it down, this place is like a library. The Thunderbolt should know, he's been here a lot."
"Yeah, I heard you like these kind of places." Jamie grumbled.
"Mm-hmm." Kyle nodded.
"Anyway, I'm not here to talk books with you. I want to tell you something." Jamie growled.
"What?" Kyle asked with a sigh.
"Do you know what I've been through in the past five years?" Jamie growled. "I lost the one girl I ever loved, and then after that, I lost my home and my family to a tornado!"
"My condolences."
"I don't need your pity!" Jamie snapped. "What right did you have to take away the only thing I had left in my life that was important to me?"
"I didn't know you lost your parents, okay?" Kyle told the multiplier. "I'm sorry you did. I'm sure they were good people. I never intended to steal Gina away. It just happened. We just got close."
"Couldn't get your own woman, huh?" Jamie growled angrily.
"Hey, I had no idea she was taken." Kyle sighed. "I barely even know you. Gina's told me about you, but today is the first time I've talked to you or even seen you since Sapphire Twilight. And you were unconscious on that day! If you loved her so much, why didn't you go after her?"
"She told me not to." Jamie remembered. "She didn't want me to get hurt!"
"And you didn't seem to worry that she might get hurt? Or worse? Didn't you consider the possibility that she wasn't in the right state of mind?" Kyle groaned. "She had just been through something horrible at that time! The possibility that she wasn't quite thinking straight didn't even remotely cross your jabroni mind?"
"I was thirteen!" Jamie argued.
"So was I, but still, if you loved her, didn't you even consider that something wasn't quite right in her head after all that?" Kyle argued back.
"She wanted to get revenge on the Hellfire Club. To go all Kill Bill on them." Jamie remembered.
"And didn't think that was wrong? What kind of jabroni are you?" Kyle exclaimed in a loud whisper. "The Hellfire Club are scumbag jabronis, but it would still be wrong to murder them. You knew what she was planning was wrong."
"Yeah, but what was I supposed to do?" Jamie snapped.
"Try to stop her, that's what!"
"I did! She went anyway!" Jamie growled.
"Well, you should've tried harder!" Kyle grunted. "And if she still went out for revenge, you should've gone after her! She would've been angry for a while, but she would see why in the end. I've never heard or seen hide nor hair of you in five years!"
"I was hoping she'd come back…" Jamie drooped his head.
"Sometimes in life, you can't wait for things. You have to go out and get them yourself, jabroni." Kyle shook his head. "Look, the Thunderbolt don't hate you. You been through a lot. But being a miserable jerk doesn't help you out in the least. There's an upside."
"What upside? I lost everything!"
"No you haven't, you miser." Kyle grumbled. "You still got your friends in the X-Men. Gina still wants to be on good terms with you, and that blonde looker…" Kyle's face formed a smirk. "The Thunderbolt thinks that she wants to rock your casbah."
"Don't you dare try to play psycho-therapist with me." Jamie snarled. Kyle chuckled.
"You remind the Thunderbolt a lot of Bobby "Anakin" Drake when he first joined up, jabroni." Kyle chuckled. "All bitter, angry, and jerky."
"Does Bobby know about this?" Jamie crossed his arms. Kyle shot him a 'You-are-a-dope' look.
"What do you think?" Kyle rolled his eyes. "He and I worked together for years! He's one of the Thunderbolt's best friends!" Jamie looked horrified.
"That…that…" He shook his head. "That…lying…that lying jackass!" Jamie angrily punched the rack, making a few books fall off the shelf.
"You break 'em, you buy 'em." Kyle quipped.
"He couldn't resist, could he?" Jamie growled, ignoring Kyle's remark. "That cold-hearted jerk! I forgave him for Sapphire Twilight, but he couldn't resist sticking it to an X-Man one last time, could he? He just could not resist…"
"What're you yakking about, you big crybaby?" Kyle sneered.
"Bobby." Jamie muttered.
"What's he got to do with it?"
"He didn't tell me that Gina was in Freedom Force, and that she dumped me!" Jamie snapped.
"She didn't dump anyone! She just moved on!" Kyle grumbled. "She probably knew Bobby was coming to visit, so she probably told him not to say anything."
"WHY?" Jamie exclaimed. "I have a right to know!"
"Based on your reaction, it's obvious why." Kyle cracked smarmily.
"You think this is funny, don't you? You're enjoying this!" Jamie snapped.
"Do I look like I'm laughing?" Kyle rolled his eyes. "Look man, things could be worse."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah." Kyle elaborated. "You never went after Gina. You dropped the ball. Gina could've held that against you, but she didn't. She understood why you didn't go after her, but you should've anyway. She's not mad at you. She don't hate ya. Hell, she wants to maintain some kind of good terms with you!"
"And that would've made everything better." Jamie snorted sarcastically.
"It would've been a start." Kyle shrugged. "Look, I've loved Gina since the day the Thunderbolt saw her walk into Freedom Force HQ several years ago."
"Oh yeah sure, you expect me to believe that?" Jamie snapped. "You took away the one good thing I had left!"
"If you stopped being such a miserable jerk and started looking around, you'd see that you still have your friends, man." Kyle scowled. "You still have your health as well. You're alive, man. You still got your whole life ahead of you. No point wasting it whining about the past like you're 18 months old instead of 18 years old. Just cut your losses and move on with life, man. No point wasting it pining over a girl you gave up."
"I didn't give her up!" Jamie snapped.
"Yeah, you did." Kyle argued. "You dropped the ball, and you expected it to jump right back into your hand. You waited five years for it to do so. You're just mad at me, because I picked up the ball, and started rolling with it, and the ball didn't jump back into your hand like you wanted. If you truly love Gina as much as you say, you'll love her enough to let her go and move on. She's happy now. Freedom Force got her back on track. Sapphire Twilight scared her straight, man. She spent a lot of time in Japan."
"Japan?" Jamie blinked. "Why?"
"You've heard of Sunfire, right?" Kyle asked. Jamie snorted. "The Thunderbolt will take that as a yes. Anyway, he took Gina under her wing, and he took her to Japan to help her find a new path. She's now a samurai, you know?" Kyle smiled. "The prettiest samurai of them all. She's worked with Freedom Force a lot in the past, and she and I got to know each other, and that's how it happened. She's healed up well, man."
"I suppose that included her just plain forgetting about me, huh?" Jamie scowled. "No surprise."
"She talked about you all the time, you twit." Kyle groaned. "She missed you." Jamie's face showed shock. "She was too afraid to come back. She was afraid you became like Bobby: Bitter, angry, miserable. That wasn't the Jamie Madrox she loved."
"So you convinced her to try you out."
"No…She just fell out of love with ya. It happens." Kyle shrugged. "Just let her go, man. Find your own way. She did. And look how happy she is. She still does care, man. Find something. Take that blonde chick out! She seems to like ya! Learn a skill, find a way to better yourself, take up knitting, the Thunderbolt don't care. We all have problems, okay?" Kyle continued on. "But we cannot waste our lives moaning and being miserable about them. At some point Madrox, you have to realize that you can't live in misery anymore, that you have to move on. Bobby Drake tried to live in misery forever, and look what happened. We all have to let go and move on." Kyle picked out a couple books, then looked at a fuming Jamie. "Life's gonna go on. It's not gonna stop and wait for Jamie Madrox to get better. Trust me, if you let all that pain go and move on, you'll feel a lot less stressed and become a lot wiser in the process. Nice meeting ya." Kyle walked away to the checkout, leaving a fuming Jamie standing at the shelf. "Oh, and if it's any consolation…" Kyle turned his head. "Gina never spilled Hellfire blood. She didn't get to kill anyone." Kyle turned his head back and continued back on his way. Jamie's eyes were starting to tear up, his fists were clenching so tight the knuckles were white, and his body was shaking with rage. His breaths came short and quick through his gritted teeth. With a scream of rage, Jamie attacked the shelf, summoning inhuman strength to topple it over, scaring some of the patrons. Jamie started intensely at the Thunderbolt, seemingly burning a hole in his walking back. He stared at the Bostonian with eyes that oozed rage and hatred...and deep down...a little bit of envy.