Deadly Song
Chapter 2: The Clinic
Author's Notes: This chapter is more like a bunch of little mini-chapters about my characters' experiences at the clinic. It takes place over a few years. Oh, and I don't own the X-Men.
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Raptor slumped against the alley wall, hiding himself behind a crate of rotting wood. The high overhanging roof of the building would gave him some meager protection from the rain. He looked carefully around and saw nothing. He had lost the mob.
As his adrenaline rush faded, a fresh burst of pain shot through his right arm. He grabbed the spot below his shoulder where a "peaceful protestor," as the news would no doubt call him, had shot him in "self defense." A dark pool of blood was spreading out from the wound, soaking his sleeve. He put a hand over it to keep the rain off. Raptor tore a strip of cloth from his shirt and inexpertly bandaged the wound. But the bullet was still inside and he knew he had to get help fast. But where could a half-man, half-reptile mutant go for help?
Raptor cringed as he heard footsteps splashing in the shallow puddles of the sidewalk. He crunched up, trying to conceal as much of himself as he could behind the crate. The footsteps turned into the alley and splashed lightly towards him.
Raptor's mind was racing. Even with his injury, his claws and fangs were enough to tear any human to pieces. And if this guy tried to run, then a hot spray of acid would melt the skin right off his back. But Raptor was afraid of killing. What if this man was harmless? What if he was just trying to toss a trash bag into a dumpster? What if he was innocent?
But another, even stronger thought kept the acid in Raptor's belly. Mutant haters, including the one who'd shot him, expected him to be a killer. They were just waiting for him to cut someone up so they could point and say how mutants were dangerous, unnatural, evil, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Typical right-wing stuff. At that moment Raptor vowed to never use his abilities to kill, even in self defense. He would do what so many humans could not.
"I know you're here," the man called out. Judging from his voice, he was in his mid teens, around Raptor's age.
Raptor tensed, ready to run for it.
"Come out," he said. "I won't hurt you."
Raptor summoned the courage to speak. "Bullshit!"
"If it helps, I'm a mutant. Just like you," he said without lowering his voice.
Raptor cautiously peeked around the corner of his crate. He saw a teenage boy with short blond hair standing underneath an umbrella.
"Not so loudly!" Raptor whispered.
"What?"
"Don't say you're a mutant so loudly."
The boy smiled. "Don't worry. Nobody will hear us unless I want them to."
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm audiokinetic. I can control sound waves. But we have more important things to talk about. You've been shot."
Raptor struggled to his feet. "How do you know that?"
"I've been tailing anti-mutant mobs like those. They tend to get violent. It's not hard when they think their enemies are demons instead of human beings. Come on," he said. He put Raptor's left arm over his neck and helped him up. "I know a place where you can go to get that patched up. By the way, what's your name?"
"Max," said Raptor. "Max Elliot."
"You should get yourself a mutant name," said the boy as they trudged down the alley.
"A what?"
"A nickname based on your mutation. It's practically a tradition with all mutants."
"Then I already have one. It's Raptor."
"Raptor. Now that's a cool name."
"What's yours?"
"Crescendo."
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It had been two days since Crescendo brought Raptor to the clinic. The building was nondescript, without any signs on the outside indicating its true nature. It was in a poor, out-of-the-way part of the city, where few people ever came.
Crescendo had told Raptor about this place. It was a clinic meant specifically for mutants who could not get help at a regular hospital. The doctors there regularly worked at other practices and hospitals. They worked at the clinic during their off hours, adding severely to their workload, being paid only by what their anonymous donors could pay them, which wasn't much, as most of the money had to go towards equipment.
Crescendo had first found this place one year ago, when a broken arm forced him to go to the hospital. But he had been young and could not fully control his powers. When the doctors realized he was a mutant, Hippocrates was pushed out of their minds and they kicked him out, saying he was too dangerous. However, one of the doctors also worked at the mutant clinic and guided him there. Ever since then, Crescendo had helped them by following anti-mutant mobs, guiding injured mutants to the clinic.
Raptor sat in a chair with his arm in a sling. Despite the clinic's inadequate equipment, his arm was healing nicely. Raptor stood up suddenly and began pacing around the room restlessly. In the time he had been at the clinic, he had not left his room.
There was a knock on the door. Crescendo entered the door, holding a pizza box in one hand. "You should be in bed," he said.
"Why? I'm bored out of my mind," Raptor said, taking a slice of pizza. It disappeared into his giant mouth. "I wanna walk around this place, take a look around."
"You shouldn't."
"Why the hell not? It's my arm that's injured, not my legs." Without waiting for Crescendo's approval, Raptor stepped out the door.
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It was a scene that had become too familiar to Crescendo, having worked at the clinic for about two years now. One of the doctors carried the poor blonde girl into the clinic. Someone had beat her with a heavy stick.
As the girl who would someday be known as Swarm was carted away for treatment, Crescendo watched with a feeling of hopelessness. The outlook for mutants was becoming more and more bleak. It seemed that the only good humans were here in this clinic. He sighed and went back to his filing.
"Crescendo!" Dr. Marlow, a portly man with gray hair and mustache, hurried over to him. "Crescendo, one of the patients is out of control! We need your help!"
"What's going on?"
"It's the one who calls himself Nightmare," said Marlow. "No time to explain. Just come on!"
Nightmare? Crescendo had seen that mutant. He had come in for some medicine. He was perhaps in his twenties, apparently of Indian descent, but Crescendo had not had the chance to speak with him, nor did he know what powers Nightmare possessed.
Several doctors were already gathered outside Nightmare's room, though they looked less like doctors and more like policemen surrounding a building. "Let us through, let us through," Dr. Marlow said. The small crowd parted to allow Crescendo into the room.
Nightmare was sitting on his bed, one hand propping him up and another holding a book open. Standing beside him was one of the nurses, Anne, carrying a small bowl of soup. Her back was straight and stiff and her hands grasped the bowl as if her life depended on it. Her eyes were wide, staring blankly ahead. Her lips were parted and her breath was coming in short, frightened gasps. She looked as if she were standing on a ledge over a ten story drop.
Nightmare looked at Crescendo through the corner of his eye and nodded in greeting. "These humans," he said with a smug chuckle. "I guess you're wondering why you're here. I couldn't deal with these humans any more so I specifically asked for one of my own kind. You are a mutant, aren't you?" Nightmare squinted at Crescendo and, seeing something invisible, nodded his approval.
"What did you do to her?" Crescendo asked.
"Huh? Oh, the nurse. Well, first I'd have to explain how my power works. I manipulate a person's sense of fear. I can make them afraid of anything I choose, no matter how ridiculous. For this lovely lady, I made dropping that bowl into her greatest fear. That fear outweighs even her fear of death!" He placed his hand on the bowl. Anne's grip tightened and frightened tears came to her eyes. "I'm sure that if I knocked this bowl out of her hands, she would go insane." As he said this, Anne let out a sob.
"Why are you doing this? These people are trying to help you!"
"Because I can!" Nightmare said, a wide grin spreading across his face. "Let me share an…understanding I've had ever since my power appeared. I've found that the ability to control fear is the ultimate power. It's given me power over all other people. Fear is the great motivator. With fear you can make a person do anything you want. Think! Almost every bad thing a person has ever done has its origin in fear. A few years from now I'll be the most powerful mutant in the world!"
Nurse Anne's posture suddenly relaxed as Nightmare released her from his spell. She looked around the room blankly before she remembered exactly what had happened. She threw the bowl of soup onto the floor and ran blindly out of the room. Crescendo knew that she would never work there again. He glared at Nightmare. "What right did you have to do that, you psychopath?" he yelled at him.
"Don't talk to me like that, pal," said Nightmare. "You're no better than me. You see, I have another power. I can see any memories that involve fear, whether they're yours or someone else's. And I know what you've done. You love causing fear as much as I do!"
"You're right!" Crescendo raised his hand and fired a burst of loud, high-pitched sound towards Nightmare so intense that he grabbed the sides of his head. Crescendo directed the sound waves straight into Nightmare's ears, so that the onlooking doctors couldn't hear a thing.
"GET OUT!" Crescendo commanded. "OUT!" Crescendo did not actually speak. He directed the sounds of the words into the sound waves he was firing at Nightmare, making the command boom like the Voice of God. Covering his ears and screaming in pain, Nightmare pushed through the crowd of doctors and, following Anne's path, ran out the clinic.
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Midas slumped in his chair in the clinic lounge with a cold bottle of water after several long hours of work. It had been perhaps three months since he had taken refuge in the clinic after escaping years of forced servitude to his family.
If anyone ever learned about Midas, they would fight viciously to take control of him. Midas had the ability to transmute any metal into any other form of metal. His family had gotten rich at his expense, forcing him to turn base metals into gold, silver, and platinum. When he had first come to the clinic, he had not had any medical problems. Nothing that a little food and water couldn't fix. What he had needed was a place of refuge, where he could feel like a human being instead of a commodity.
Right now, Midas didn't just feel loved. He felt needed. He felt important. His powers had been instrumental in healing the clinic's latest patient, a most unusual case. A few hours ago, while he had been at the front desk, a black sedan had pulled up in front of a clinic. Its passengers were an older gentleman and a comatose Japanese woman. She was not carried by the man. Rather, she floated in the air beside him, as if by some kind of telekinesis. The man was dressed in a black cloak and wore a thick metal helmet.
When the man first saw Midas, he said, "I was hoping I would find you here, Mr. Carew."
"Who are you? How do you know who I am?" Midas could not quite hide his fear. Had his parents sent this man to find him? Midas wondered how he could fight this man when his only ability was nearly useless as a weapon.
"Settle down, Daniel. I've come here seeking your services. My name is Erik Lehnsherr, though in mutant circles I'm known as Magneto."
Midas felt as if something very cold and heavy had dropped into the pit of his stomach. Magneto, the mutant terrorist from Liberty Island, who had tried to massacre the world's most important leaders, was standing right in front of him. "What do you want?" he managed to squeak out.
"To do what this facility was always meant to do. Heal mutants. This young woman, Lady Deathstrike according to her dog tags, has had a high volume of molten adamantium injected into her body. She is alive only because of her high regenerative capabilities. If it had been any other type of metal, I could remove it myself. But in its solidified form, adamantium is indestructible. I need you to transmute the adamantium into something I can work with."
"I should tell Dr. Marlow."
"Do what you want, but it won't do any good. The only ones needed for this operation are you and me."
"Dr. Marlow is our head surgeon…"
"And what good will ordinary surgery do if every incision closes up a moment after it is made? We are the only ones who can help her."
Midas looked down at the pale, drenched body of Lady Deathstrike. "You say she's still alive?"
"Perhaps 'alive' is not the best way to put it. She has the potential to return to a living state due to her healing factor."
"All right, let's get to work."
"Good," said Magneto as Midas led him to the operating room. "Here is what we will do." He took out a glass vial filled with a thick silver liquid. "This is mercury. It is one of the few metals that is liquid at room temperature. You must turn the excess adamantium into mercury so that I can remove it. We must work quickly, because the incisions will close up quickly. Understand?"
"Yes."
"Good, then," Magneto said in a strangely friendly tone. "Let's get to work, Daniel."
"Everyone calls me Midas."
Magneto gave the young mutant an approving smile. "Midas it is, then."
After hours of frustrating labor, Magneto and Midas removed the excess metal from Lady Deathstrike's system. It had been bloody work because Midas had to touch the metal with his bare skin to transmute it.
Midas chugged the ice-cold water gratefully, knowing that he had earned his keep. Lady Deathstrike was resting in one of the clinic's rooms. Magneto had left, saying that he would return to check on her in a few days. Hours of tension flowed away as he reclined on his chair, falling into a comfortable stupor. He barely heard when the door opened.
Crescendo walked into the room and greeted the younger mutant. Midas raised his water bottle in greeting. He had first seen Crescendo on the first day he had come to the clinic. He had seen Crescendo fight and expel a mutant patient called Nightmare, who had been tormenting the staff.
Midas couldn't help but be in awe of Crescendo. He had seen a sort of nobility in him, the potential for heroism. But Midas was good at judging the feelings of others and he could tell that there was a growing darkness in Crescendo, corrupting that heroism. Crescendo could do great things someday, but he would do them in the name of anger. Midas had sensed the same thing in Magneto.
"Midas, I just wanted to tell you that Lady Deathstrike's recovering. The doctors say that her speed of recovery is amazing. That healing factor does some pretty impressive stuff."
"You've seen her?"
"Yeah. She's already strong enough to get up and walk around. I've spoken to her. She's very interesting. Her real name is Yuriko."
"What did she talk about? How did all that metal get into her body?"
Crescendo told Midas all he had heard from Yuriko. About her years under the chemically-induced control of a Nazi-esque government scientist. She had still been aware of her surroundings. She had been capable of thought. She had been perfectly conscious yet unable to do anything under her own power. She had lost her free will. Her last memory was in a section of a military base, battling a mutant with healing abilities similar to her own. He could not kill her, so he injected her with the molten adamantium that had originally given her strength.
"Isn't that a scary thought?" Crescendo finished.
Midas lazily flipped open the switchblade he always carried with him. He pressed a finger against the steel blade. He turned the blade into adamantium and then, unconsciously, to gold. As he did so, he thought back to his time of servitude. He empathized with Yuriko. He knew what it was like to be a tool, a thing exploited for the profit of others. Would that be the fate of all mutants if humanity had its way? He turned the blade back into adamantium and closed the knife.
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"Welcome back, sir," said Crescendo as Magneto, this time dressed more inconspicuously, returned to the clinic to see Lady Deathstrike.
"Hello, Crescendo. How is the Lady doing?"
"Miss Oyama recovered quickly. She'll be glad to finally meet you." He gave Magneto directions to Deathstrike's room.
Crescendo was fascinated by Magneto. Dr. Marlow hated him. "The only reason I haven't turned him in," Marlow had said, "is because it would mean exposing this clinic."
"He's fighting for mutant prosperity," said Crescendo. "He's not all that bad."
"Well, he's doing it the wrong way," said Marlow. "Trying to blow up the Statue of Liberty doesn't help humans or mutants. It just turns everyone against each other." Crescendo could see the truth in that. Realistically, the only way for peace was for human-mutant cooperation. But still, there was something in Magneto's philosophy that appealed to him. He wasn't sure what it exactly was but somehow, it seemed to fit him.
Crescendo was startled when he heard something in the hallway shatter. Perhaps someone had dropped a plate.
"Oh damn," he said as he saw a heavy brick lying amongst the shards of a broken window. He looked outside and saw that a mob of angry humans had formed outside the clinic. Among the crowd he saw glass bottles with flaming rags tied around the necks. Molotov cocktails. Thinking fast, Crescendo pulled the nearest fire alarm.
Patients and doctors flooded into the hallways, wondering what was going on. The situation worsened as more bricks flew through the window, injuring patients and doctors. They tried to get the patients back into their rooms, but then the first Molotov cocktails were thrown through the broken windows, spilling fiery gasoline over innocent people.
Everyone panicked. They ran, trying to find some way out of the clinic. Doctors tried in vain to evacuate their patients as more fire rained upon them. As Crescendo tried to weave his way through the chaos, he ran into Midas and Raptor, who seemed on the border of tears. A Molotov cocktail exploded on either side of them, surrounding them and several others in fire. Crescendo realized that they were right next to a broken window. One more ill-placed Molotov cocktail would certainly kill them. And if that didn't, then the spreading fire certainly would.
Then, miraculously, the flames began to shrink. They saw a young man in black clothes with his hand raised in the air, parting the flames like the Red Sea. "Follow me!" he shouted. "Up the fire escape to the roof!" As the fire-wielding mutant led the small group of survivors through the hall, someone in the mob fired a sub-machine gun into one of the broken windows. The bullets cut the group's number in half. By now, only Midas, Raptor, Crescendo, and the fire-wielder were left.
A look of rage on his face, the fire-wielder boldly approached the window. "Give 'em a taste of their own medicine," he murmured. A great stream of fire shot out from his hand, flowing over the mob, incinerating several of them.
"Don't just stand there!" he shouted at the others. "Can't you help?"
Crescendo stepped up to the window and extended his hands. He heard them, cheering at the suffering of these innocent people, laughing at their helplessness and their futile attempts to escape. Nothing would please him more than to turn the tables, to smile at their suffering. Once again, he saw the subtle vibrations in the bones of his enemies. He fired a burst of sound at that frequency. Several of the humans felt their bones beginning to vibrate. They shook and collapsed before the sound waves caused their skeletons to shatter. Shards of bone tore through their skin and into their internal organs. Gallons of blood flowed. Crescendo couldn't help but smile.
The humans were panicking now. The mob fell into chaos as the remaining humans tried to run, falling over each other in their desire to escape. Crescendo watched as many were trampled by their friends. Good.
Several cars floated into the air and were dropped on the crowd. "What's that?" asked Crescendo.
"That's Magneto's work," the fire-wielder said with a grin. "Let's go."
Suddenly, the clinic was shaken by the explosion of a bomb. Not a Molotov cocktail but an actual bomb. "We're almost out," said the fire-wielder. "Hurry!"
They climbed out onto the fire escape. Crescendo could hear the sound of an incoming helicopter as it hovered over the roof. They reached the roof and scrambled into the helicopter, which was piloted by a blue-skinned woman. "Pyro," she said, "Where's Magneto?"
"I don't know. I got out everyone I could."
The helicopter rose, giving Crescendo a better view of the mob. He watched as Marlow and several of the clinic's doctors were dragged out of the clinic by men in fireproof suits. They were beaten, stabbed, and shot. But what struck Crescendo the most was how small they looked. Marlow and the others looked so small. That was when Crescendo realized that there were so few humans who were willing to accept mutants. They were small and futile, helpless against this giant legion of hatred. It was at that moment Crescendo lost hope in humanity. Maybe there were some good humans out there, but there were too few to matter. As far as he was concerned, the only good humans had died at the clinic.
"Raptor, look!" Crescendo grabbed Raptor's arm and pointed out the helicopter window.
"What is it?"
"At the front of the mob!" Crescendo said frantically. "Look!"
Raptor saw a familiar face at the head of the mob. "Anne," he murmured in disbelief.
Pyro reached over and opened the helicopter door. They saw Magneto floating up towards them, Lady Deathstrike floating beside him. In his arms was Swarm, a volunteer Crescendo had never gotten to know.
Magneto set Swarm down in a seat before settling in himself. He nodded to the blue-skinned woman, who flew the helicopter away.
"What the hell was that?" Swarm shouted, still frightened.
"They're called Purifiers," said Magneto. "A very violent, very extreme anti-mutant militia run by the Reverend Mathias Bell. They aim not only to exterminate mutants but to exterminate their families and anyone who might carry the mutant gene. What you saw back there was their mob tactic. Not everyone in that mob was a Purifier. Their assassins were dispersed within the mob so that they don't leave any evidence about their identities. Not that the police would care to investigate." He turned to Raptor. "You say you recognized someone in that mob."
"Yeah," said Raptor. "Her name is Anne. She was a nurse at the clinic."
"She was?" Swarm asked, surprised. "Why would that bitch help those people?"
"It happened before you joined us," said Raptor. "She was tormented by one of the patients here. Don't blame her, Swarm. Blame Nightmare. He's a psycho who played games with her mind."
"Well, Nightmare didn't expose the clinic," Magneto cut in. "Nightmare didn't lead the Purifiers there. It doesn't matter why she hates mutants. When a Klansmen ties a rope around a black man's neck, does the black man wonder why the Klansman hates him? When the Nazis were throwing my people into the gas chambers, did we wonder why the Nazis hated us? No. All that mattered was escape and survival. The justifications of our enemies do not matter."
"Enemies?" asked Swarm. "Is this supposed to be some kind of war?"
"Fire, bombs, guns, and fanatics thirsting for our blood," said Crescendo. "It looks a lot like war to me."
"But if we know what they're thinking," said Raptor, "then we can find some way to reconcile with them." Magneto chuckled at this.
"My apologies, my boy," Magneto said when Raptor glared at him, "but when you said that, you reminded me of an old friend."
"You mean there's other mutants who think like me?"
"Yes. His name is Charles Xavier. But don't get your hopes up, Raptor. There's a good chance he's dead."
"You killed him?"
"No!" said Magneto. "But being caught in a bursting dam tends to be quite deadly. But, anyway, I would like to make you all an offer to join my Brotherhood."
"What's this Brotherhood all about?" asked Crescendo.
"We fight to prevent incidents like the one you just witnessed. If we do not fight back against the humans, then you will experience things far worse. If we do not conquer them, then they will conquer us."
"Sounds like more terrorism," said Raptor. "For a Jew, you're a lot like a Nazi."
"Say what you will, but it does not change facts. The humans are not willing to share the world with us." He turned to the other mutants. "Well?"
"I'll do it," Lady Deathstrike spoke up.
"You're pretty impulsive," said Crescendo.
"No," said Deathstrike. Her long silver claws slid out from her fingertips. "Humans gave me these claws, trying to turn me into a weapon. I think it's appropriate that I use them to get my revenge."
"I'm not as certain as Yuriko is," said Crescendo. He looked at the others. Raptor seemed set against it while Midas and Swarm had looks of uncertainty. "Give us some time to think about it." In truth, Crescendo had already made his decision. He would join the Brotherhood and fight for mutants all over the world. What he wanted was some time to convince Raptor to do the same.
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Whew! That chapter was longer than usual.
Oh, and the Purifiers aren't my original creation. They're taken from the comic books. The only difference is that in the comics, their leader is Rev. William Stryker.
Thanks to all my readers. Don't forget to leave a review.