CHAPTER 2:
EXPLOSIVE
Hell heat.
The blasts surrounded her and it felt like hell fire. The heat singed her skin right off the bone like good rib meat from a barbeque.
She laid on rubble pulling her body back together. Faint screams scattered around her here and there but she wasn't too sure until her ears grew back and its function.
It gives her ample time to think about how, why, and who. How did this happen? Why did it happen? And who set up the bombs? Was there one bomb or multiple?
She thinks more than one but who knows.
How many minutes past? This shit sucks.
"Kid…" A voice, hazy grew close to her, "Ca—can—ya hear me?"
Ahh, sounds like her ears and their drums returned. Her sight, on the other hand, is a different story.
"Oh joy, out of everyone here, Ah get to hear yah voice first," Lyla's voice box hoarse. It takes a second to regrow vocal chords.
Logan took hold of her hand, peeling her from the rubble.
"She's safe," Logan preceded to tell her on their way out, "annoyed with ya though."
Look, reader, Stahr isn't a healer like her pops or her older brother Daken. She's incapable. Her powers allow her to distribute bio-mass to specific limbs and heal. No stitching self together. To protect her, Lyla may have pushed Stahr out of the way, violently out of the blast zone.
Stahr can be angry as much as she wants. At least she's breathing.
Outside, Lyla's eyes were sensitive to the harshness of the first responder lights and her ears bombarded with people freaking out, crying, shouting, and screaming.
Somehow, her she's able to focus on Stahr's heart beat and then her voice, "I'm going to kill you!"
Lyla winced, "Do yah have to shout?" this, headache she's experiencing is as close to a hangover as she'll ever get.
"You're lucky that's all it is!"
Together, she and Logan ushered Lyla to the ambulance to get looked over. Surely the Circle used the services of EMT's who knew how to treat mutants.
If not, this is hard to explain.
From the distance, a white blurry streak came closer. Lyla instantly recognizing it as Rogue.
"Yah good?"
"Obviously not," Stahr snorted.
Neither Rogue nor Lyla said anything.
And to make matters worse, the black queen of the circle made her way over. The three of them bowed their heads in respect.
"No, no, none of that Lyla." Selene said, her voice as smooth as milk and honey. A hint of Rome in her dialect.
"I came to check on my new Rook and see if you're ready to get in the fight."
Great news, if Rogue wasn't standing beside her.
"Excuse me what?!" Rogue snarled.
Coy, Selene turned her attention to Rogue with a sly grin, "Oh yes, it was unanimous, Lyla is now the Black Rook."
"What happened to Leland?" Rogue hated the idea of her joining the inner circle. Lyla wasn't sure if it was concern or jealousy.
Moving on from the answer, Lyla asked, "We know who did this?"
"No, why we are sending rogue and Wanda back to Bayville to figure it out." Selene broadened her smile, "I'm sure you will make us all proud," Selene gave Lyla a final smile and then went to talk to someone else. Where and Who, she's unsure, still healing.
Once the Queen was out of range, Rogue turned to Lyla. Logan and Stahr chose to dip being as this was a family issue, "Are yah out of yah mind? Don't yah start college soon?"
"Ah have a feelin' yah don't know, but Ah got into NYU." Lyla grumbled, "So stop bein' dramatic."
"Dramatic? Yah ain' seen dramatic yet, shuga!" Rogue got in her face, she thinks, and said, "Don't come to me when yah realize how much they are usin' yah."
"And yet, yah still workin' for them." Careless of Lyla's sass, Rogue sauntered toward Wanda.
Lyla couldn't wait to get started as the Black Rook so she can prove her jealous sister wrong.
"They're goin' to keep us in the dark as much as possible."
Storm saw it coming.
Logan would get spooked by her past, not because of her, but the people she once was. He'd tell Charles his concerns and then Charles would tell the rest of the X-Men and next thing she knows, the team will dive into her history and figure out whose friend and or foe.
They will fallow the Brotherhood everywhere, put them under a microscope make sure they keep on the deal they held.
After tonight, Logan isn't sure Rogue will keep on her promise of keeping the peace.
"But we mustn't jump to conclusions. We have to believe our treaty will hold and they won't hurt any civilians or come after us." Xavier whispered in their head.
"Come on Chuck! How long do you think that's gonna last with Mystique's daughter running the show?"
People show their true colors during a tragedy as the bombing. Rogue is strategic when it comes to leading. She could easily destroy New York under their noses searching for the bomber. Powerful friends in powerful places.
If she's dangerous and smart as Ororo knows her to be, she'll reach out to the Guilds to search for their suspect. And they'll handle it with out the X-Men ever knowing about the broken agreement.
Keep their hands clean and treaty unscathed.
"I understand Logan. I promise we will keep a close eye on them with out breaking our treaty. Get home safely."
The whiteness of the Astral-plane disappeared along with Xavier, bringing her and Logan back to reality. A commercial flight back to Bayville. Quicker than driving like they planned.
Logan settled in his seat, "Why do I feel like there's more you ain't tellin' me?"
"I just know that's a lot of unraveling and we are already going through plenty." Ororo nestled her head on Logan's shoulder, closing her eyes.
"You're part of their little society, why we were there."
"I'm an X-Man Logan. Loyal to you and Charles."
"And if you had to choose between us and them?" He whispered hating himself for it.
She kissed his strong shoulder, "Then I will choose you, my heart, every time."
He took a breath, "I hope we never have to figure out if you're right."
"Me too." She hummed.
First day of college out of the way, Lyla tossed her book bag on the mattress in the middle of her new room. It's interesting how quick her things ended up in New York far before she landed early in the morning.
Unopened boxes littered around her lonely mattress and a few pieces to her brand new desk. Ikea is cheap compared to the amount of money she held but she'd rather spend money on more important things, like cars.
"Good you're home." Emma leaned against her door, smiling.
The Hellfire Club mansion is different than the one people see in the news and on party invitations.
Here, people actually live, Emma and Donald, the White King, are their den parents. Make sure they stay in line plus it's close to their place of business, wherever that may be.
"Id like you to meet—"
No. Fucking. Way.
The assassin, Malakai Winters, stepped from behind Emma, her light melanin skin glistened under the suns Ray's peaking through the jalousie windows.
Her bouncy curls hid her eyes but not the ghost of a smile spreading on her lips.
"We're acquainted."
Emma quirked a brow.
Malakai stepped further inside the room, leaning against a stack of boxes. "We met a few summers ago when the Guild in New Orleans hosted a seminar."
"Ah attended," Lyla quipped.
Careless of the information, Emma's face fell, "Wonderful, you can show her around."
"Ah'd rather not."
"I wasn't asking."
"Why is she even here?" Lyla didn't want her to stay. One, having a mansion to oneself is the idea of amazing and to have someone squander it, no thank you. Plus, Malakai is annoying and incorrigible.
Malakai clapped, giddy, "Please Ms. Frost, let me tell her."
Emma nodded.
"I'm the White Queen's new princess and you are to train me on everything Hellfire Club and Inner Circle. Isn't that great?"
Lyla's face paled, "As the Court commands."
Emma stepped out shutting the door behind her.
Lyla peeled her gaze from Malakai, searching through her boxes for towels and extra clothes.
In disgust Malakai said, "You're going to decorate, aren't you?"
"Ah'll find yah when Ah'm done."
Malakai didn't move a muscle, "I can wait."
Oh. Joy.
An alliance.
The only reason Xavier would stoop so low to call her. The X-Men wish to know what she knows, which is nothing as of right now. She, Rogue, could ask all the workers hired for the even in Miami, where they were doing the explosions, but Emma and Selene, the Queens of the Circle already vetted them.
Who does Rogue think she is telling the most powerful Queens they're wrong?! No-one has the balls, not even their respective Kings, and everyone thinks the King holds all the power.
Ha, yeah right.
Queens have a mindset of easily tearing down empires.
Like right now, as she sips on her tea in Xavier's office, she holds all the power. She could easily decline his proposal of an alliance or she can say yes. Either way it benefits her. The X-men do not matter in the search of the bomber. The Circle, assassins, and the Guilds could get her the head of the terrorist.
Glancing over the rim of her tea, she mentally snorted at the self portrait of the great Professor Charles Xavier. Mother did mention he is a narcissist.
"I asked for you to come because--"
"Yah want me to tell yah what Ah know about the bombin'?" Rogue asked with a coy smile.
Setting down her cup on the glass table, she tilted her head.
"If Ah share my secrets with yah Professor, we gonna have a sleep over?"
Xavier gave a taut smile as he threaded his fingers together.
Such an annoyingly distinguished man. Not a thread of his clothes out of place, his eyebrows plucked to perfection, his head newly shaven, and his shoes shined to the point her reflection can see it's reflection.
She came to the conclusion he is a perfectionist. The only thing she and he have in common.
"We can offer Cerebro in help of your search." He offered.
She offered and offense scoff, "Ah ain' my mother. Ah don't care about yah dumb machine."
And now, time to switch it as if it was her idea all along, "the bombin ain' gonna end in Miami. They will happen everywhere else. People will rise and think we are all a menace to society in reality, they are. Yah gonna need the Brotherhood's help to fight these demons."
He opened his mouth to speak when she rose her hand to stop him, "yah may have the man power Professor but yah don't have the trained man power like Ah do."
Xavier took in a deep breath, afraid to ask for help, "When do we begin?"
She smiled kindly, "Ah'll have someone get in contact with yah. The tea was lovely."
It wasn't.
The tea needed honey and lots of sugar.
While the X-Men keep their eyes on her. She can keep her eye on them and one foot out of place, she can correct their stubborn mistake.