Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men. Ilehana Xavier belongs to Corrinth. All
other characters belong to me.
A/N: Thank you to all my reviewers out there; you really are all stars.
Scene 11
Day 04, Thursday.........
Mercury awoke dripping in sweat, tangled in her sheets in the darkness of the early hours. They were coming! Her hands grasped out blindly, metal in the room flying through the air to form knives in her hands, sharp ones that glinted in the low light. She sat, blades poised, upright in bed, breath gasping and fear creasing her brow. What's that noise! Her nerves were on fire, but nothing happened. Eyes wide and dilated, Mercury waited out the night with only her knives for company or comfort. By morning they had formed themselves so completely into her hands it took another hour to wrangle herself free before she collapsed, exhausted, but too wired to sleep.
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"Its Hawaii on the line for you, Director."
"Put them through." Seymour demanded.
"Sir?" A new, rather nervous voice on the other end of the line. "The President's daughter's two friends are dead."
"Very well." He'd been expecting it would be so since yesterday evening's report.
"There's something else." The man in Hawaii cut in. "Before the second one died, something very strange happened."
"Well?" Seymour asked, "What?"
"She... She shot bony spikes, from all over her body, nearly brought down the building. The doctors can't explain it."
"A mutant." Seymour concluded, scowling as he slammed down the phone. He'd barely moved his hand away before it rang again. "What!"
"I a told we have been successful in easing some of your headaches, Director." The familiar voice of the ominous stranger came over the line. "Imagine the scandal, the President's daughter friends with mutants? And now it is not something you have to fret over."
"What is it?" Seymour asked, glancing about himself nervously for no apparent reason.
"A virus, an orally transmitted disease that must travel in liquid and is completely harmless to humans. But, as you see, if in the first few hours of its release it is introduced to a mutant... Well, the effects speak for themselves."
"How? Where did it come from? What exactly are you offering me?"
"One question at a time, Director." Was the man on the line actually amused? "How it kills I will leave for your government experts to decipher. Where did it come from? From nature of course, a naturally mutated virus for a naturally mutated problem. Discovered quite by accident when a small African mutant child, the only mutant in her village, was bitten by one of a population of infected mosquitoes. Saliva, it seems, is quite the agent of dispersal; mosquito saliva into the girl. But I digress. What am I offering you? Nothing but the chance to wipe out all the mutants, not in a single village, town, city, not even the United States, but in the whole world..."
"What!" Seymour exclaimed, "You want me to buy this stuff off you so I can commit the biggest genocide in the history of mankind?"
"Genocide? Why no. It is as I said; this is no laboratory creation with signatures of human interference. There can be no way to trace this back to you or your seniors, Director. Just as there will be no mutants left to kick up a fuss."
"Its not my decision." Seymour replied, his voice catching in his throat. This man made it all sound so simple.
"Of course not." The man chimed pleasantly. "Tell the President the price is ten billion dollars up front, and another ten when the task is completed."
"You'll cripple the country!" Seymour exclaimed over the amount.
"No," The shadow man replied. "I will free the world."
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"Sam!"
The stylishly spiky-haired teenager cut her conversation off suddenly, turning with her bunch of classmates to see who'd called out her name. Sam Hawley went through hair cuts like the rest of the world went through loaves of bread, but her green eyes always had that same slightly despairing look about them. Matthew winced as his boss' daughter put her hands on he hips and pouted.
"What Matt? We're late for our blood tests already."
"Matthew, not Matt." He pointed out, not that it would make any difference. "Look, you used to know pretty much everybody under the age of twenty-one in Washington..."
"You mean before they found out I was a mutant and likewise pretty much ostracised me? Yeah, I knew everyone, literally."
"Even the President's kids? His daughter especially?"
"Kara? Yeah, I mean, she wasn't in my crowd especially, but I knew her alright."
"Great!" Matthew exclaimed, wheeling the teenager away from her friends. "Tell Ilehana I'll drop in with Sam later, I just need to borrow her."
"What's going on?" Sam moaned dramatically.
"There's a possible connection between Colossus being ill and something that's happened to Kara's friends on Hawaii."
"They've gone to Hawaii without me! This sucks! I was supposed to be on that trip!" Sam groaned.
"Focus, Sam." Matthew ordered. "I've been trying all morning to find out what's going on, but nobody's talking. So I need you to ring Kara for me, okay? I presume you've got her number?"
"Alright, alright." Sam replied, "But if I'm phoning Hawaii for you, you're picking up my mobile bill this month."
"I don't even want to know what the catch is, Shockwave." Matthew answered. "I'll pay, but just get on with it, will you?"
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"Come in!" Lance called, routing through a filing cabinet with his back to the door. He couldn't even remember what it was he'd been looking for; this place was such a state.
"Thank you." A vaguely familiar, feminine voice touched with a dangerous undercurrent of steel replied. "Lets see if I can remember how an interrogation is supposed to go. I say, you have some answers I want, and then you say..."
"Mercury?" Lance gasped, shutting the filing cabinet draw with a clang.
"It's a start I suppose," Mercury continued as if talking to herself, eyes glazed over and not entirely focused. "Though I suppose you're not used to being on the wrong side of an interrogation, are you mister policeman? It's an enlightening experience, I can tell you. So, lets try again. Why are they after me?"
"What? Who?"
"Blaze, Gambit, Electra, you... Why can't you just leave me be? Have I not done enough, being locked up for eight years?" Her voice rising as she spoke, Eloise propped her knuckles on the desk and leaned in towards Lance. The human's eyes widened as the assorted metal paperclips, staples, pen and bit and bobs started to liquidise, running across the desk's surface to be nearer Mercury. "Why wont all this just go away!"
"Nobody is after you, Eloise." Lance tried to remain calm, aware that the metal of his wedding ring was trickling away down his finger. His wife was going to kill him. "It has all gone away..."
"No!" Mercury screamed; pushing off the desk as the metal suddenly turned on its former owner, ribbons of metal going for his throat. "You'll tell me where they are! You'll tell me everything!"
A/N: Thank you to all my reviewers out there; you really are all stars.
Scene 11
Day 04, Thursday.........
Mercury awoke dripping in sweat, tangled in her sheets in the darkness of the early hours. They were coming! Her hands grasped out blindly, metal in the room flying through the air to form knives in her hands, sharp ones that glinted in the low light. She sat, blades poised, upright in bed, breath gasping and fear creasing her brow. What's that noise! Her nerves were on fire, but nothing happened. Eyes wide and dilated, Mercury waited out the night with only her knives for company or comfort. By morning they had formed themselves so completely into her hands it took another hour to wrangle herself free before she collapsed, exhausted, but too wired to sleep.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Its Hawaii on the line for you, Director."
"Put them through." Seymour demanded.
"Sir?" A new, rather nervous voice on the other end of the line. "The President's daughter's two friends are dead."
"Very well." He'd been expecting it would be so since yesterday evening's report.
"There's something else." The man in Hawaii cut in. "Before the second one died, something very strange happened."
"Well?" Seymour asked, "What?"
"She... She shot bony spikes, from all over her body, nearly brought down the building. The doctors can't explain it."
"A mutant." Seymour concluded, scowling as he slammed down the phone. He'd barely moved his hand away before it rang again. "What!"
"I a told we have been successful in easing some of your headaches, Director." The familiar voice of the ominous stranger came over the line. "Imagine the scandal, the President's daughter friends with mutants? And now it is not something you have to fret over."
"What is it?" Seymour asked, glancing about himself nervously for no apparent reason.
"A virus, an orally transmitted disease that must travel in liquid and is completely harmless to humans. But, as you see, if in the first few hours of its release it is introduced to a mutant... Well, the effects speak for themselves."
"How? Where did it come from? What exactly are you offering me?"
"One question at a time, Director." Was the man on the line actually amused? "How it kills I will leave for your government experts to decipher. Where did it come from? From nature of course, a naturally mutated virus for a naturally mutated problem. Discovered quite by accident when a small African mutant child, the only mutant in her village, was bitten by one of a population of infected mosquitoes. Saliva, it seems, is quite the agent of dispersal; mosquito saliva into the girl. But I digress. What am I offering you? Nothing but the chance to wipe out all the mutants, not in a single village, town, city, not even the United States, but in the whole world..."
"What!" Seymour exclaimed, "You want me to buy this stuff off you so I can commit the biggest genocide in the history of mankind?"
"Genocide? Why no. It is as I said; this is no laboratory creation with signatures of human interference. There can be no way to trace this back to you or your seniors, Director. Just as there will be no mutants left to kick up a fuss."
"Its not my decision." Seymour replied, his voice catching in his throat. This man made it all sound so simple.
"Of course not." The man chimed pleasantly. "Tell the President the price is ten billion dollars up front, and another ten when the task is completed."
"You'll cripple the country!" Seymour exclaimed over the amount.
"No," The shadow man replied. "I will free the world."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Sam!"
The stylishly spiky-haired teenager cut her conversation off suddenly, turning with her bunch of classmates to see who'd called out her name. Sam Hawley went through hair cuts like the rest of the world went through loaves of bread, but her green eyes always had that same slightly despairing look about them. Matthew winced as his boss' daughter put her hands on he hips and pouted.
"What Matt? We're late for our blood tests already."
"Matthew, not Matt." He pointed out, not that it would make any difference. "Look, you used to know pretty much everybody under the age of twenty-one in Washington..."
"You mean before they found out I was a mutant and likewise pretty much ostracised me? Yeah, I knew everyone, literally."
"Even the President's kids? His daughter especially?"
"Kara? Yeah, I mean, she wasn't in my crowd especially, but I knew her alright."
"Great!" Matthew exclaimed, wheeling the teenager away from her friends. "Tell Ilehana I'll drop in with Sam later, I just need to borrow her."
"What's going on?" Sam moaned dramatically.
"There's a possible connection between Colossus being ill and something that's happened to Kara's friends on Hawaii."
"They've gone to Hawaii without me! This sucks! I was supposed to be on that trip!" Sam groaned.
"Focus, Sam." Matthew ordered. "I've been trying all morning to find out what's going on, but nobody's talking. So I need you to ring Kara for me, okay? I presume you've got her number?"
"Alright, alright." Sam replied, "But if I'm phoning Hawaii for you, you're picking up my mobile bill this month."
"I don't even want to know what the catch is, Shockwave." Matthew answered. "I'll pay, but just get on with it, will you?"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Come in!" Lance called, routing through a filing cabinet with his back to the door. He couldn't even remember what it was he'd been looking for; this place was such a state.
"Thank you." A vaguely familiar, feminine voice touched with a dangerous undercurrent of steel replied. "Lets see if I can remember how an interrogation is supposed to go. I say, you have some answers I want, and then you say..."
"Mercury?" Lance gasped, shutting the filing cabinet draw with a clang.
"It's a start I suppose," Mercury continued as if talking to herself, eyes glazed over and not entirely focused. "Though I suppose you're not used to being on the wrong side of an interrogation, are you mister policeman? It's an enlightening experience, I can tell you. So, lets try again. Why are they after me?"
"What? Who?"
"Blaze, Gambit, Electra, you... Why can't you just leave me be? Have I not done enough, being locked up for eight years?" Her voice rising as she spoke, Eloise propped her knuckles on the desk and leaned in towards Lance. The human's eyes widened as the assorted metal paperclips, staples, pen and bit and bobs started to liquidise, running across the desk's surface to be nearer Mercury. "Why wont all this just go away!"
"Nobody is after you, Eloise." Lance tried to remain calm, aware that the metal of his wedding ring was trickling away down his finger. His wife was going to kill him. "It has all gone away..."
"No!" Mercury screamed; pushing off the desk as the metal suddenly turned on its former owner, ribbons of metal going for his throat. "You'll tell me where they are! You'll tell me everything!"