The Point
Get to It
Chapter Two
Theseus materialized in front of a two-floor white suburban home with pink shutters and doorframes. It looked like something bought out of a Martha Stuart Homes magazine, if there was such a thing. The green lawn was carefully manicured and bursting from under and around the wraparound porch were huge rhododendron bushes and azaleas, mixed with rose bushes and carnations, hyacinths and daisies, and other flowers Theseus knew only vaguely. In the gray stone-paneled driveway, parked before the garage that was half the size of the house, was a sleek black SUV. The garage was the same color as the house and outlined in pink. Both the roofs of the garage and the house were tan-shingled. Leading from the driveway to the porch was a walk made of flat and round stones big enough for Ronald McDonald to step on.
Here it wasn't raining. But, Theseus mused, I can change that.
He strode forward purposefully, studying the shuttered windows for any sign of a little girl's malicious face. Just as he reached the front porch the glass-screened front door opened. Theseus stopped and stared for there she was.
How unexpected.
Her mousy brown hair pulled into pigtails, her round face watching him jadedly. She had brown eyes, largely round but lowered to half-mast in her boredom. But something was wrong with this picture compared to the one built up in Theseus's head. It took him a second to realize that it was the clothes: this little girl wore a dress. A smock, really, faded pink cotton with ruffles in the skirt that hardly fell to her thin knees. On her feet were pink socks with frilly hems pulled up to mid-calve.
"You're here for my sister, aren't you?" the girl asked Theseus, peering at him obliquely.
Theseus smiled his most gentle smile. "S'pose I am," he drawled with an accent that wasn't his. "Is she the one controlling the bugs?"
The girl smiled at him as she nodded. "Yes," she said. "She can do that. I knew you'd be coming for her."
"Did you?" Theseus hid his surprise. "Does that mean…?"
"I see things before they happen," replied the girl. "Would you like to come in? I already know you're not gonna hurt us. I'll introduce you to Jan and Mark, then to Ruby." Already the girl was turning and heading inside, fully expecting Theseus to follow. Theseus didn't disappoint her. Before one could blink he had materialized directly behind the young mutant.
"Ruby must be your sister then. I don't believe I caught your name, though?"
"Gem Riley."
They walked in silence through the first floor, down a corridor and into what appeared to be a kitchen. All the while Theseus was conscious of the time passing, the people in the city being hurt. It had only been two minutes since he left, at most, but two minutes worried him as had ten then twenty then thirty seconds, and so on. A blond woman and brown-haired man sat at a serving counter in the kitchen, which was like an island drifting in the middle of the hardwood floors. Dark circles made their eyes seem sunken into their skulls. Their hair was greasy and their business-style clothes wrinkled. When they looked at Theseus following the small girl into the area, he immediately comprehended how exhausted and afraid these people were. A stench wafted off of these adults that Theseus was sure only he could sense; they smelt like death.
"Jan, Mark," began the little girl, "this is Theseus. He's come to collect Ruby."
Theseus's gaze flickered. He hadn't actually planned that far. "Good to meet you," he told the parents. They nodded to him listlessly. This decided Theseus—they weren't alive enough any longer to be worth a second glance. "Gem, I don't mean to be rude, but could you show me to Ruby? I'm kinda in a hurry."
Gem glanced over her shoulder at Theseus. Her dark eyes danced with cruelty. "Aren't you going to explain yourself to my mother and father? Why you're going to take their dear Ruby away forever?"
"Gem," whispered a woman's voice. Theseus looked over at Jan to see her looking pleadingly at her daughter. "Please, just show your guest—"
"Quiet," snapped Gem. Without looking at the adults, she turned on her heel and swept past Theseus. He nodded again to the parents, mainly to the woman that tried to smile but grimaced instead. Quickly he turned and left them, half-running to get away from the fatalistic stench and their haunting eyes. Down the hall again, up some carpeted stairs, and then he was behind Gem as she stood before a bedroom door labeled in Crayola-colored signs: STAY OUT! RUBY'S ROOM. KEEP YOUR DISTANCE! Rubber insects covered any space not plastered over in construction-paper signs. Ignoring the sign with practiced ease, Gem knocked. "Ruby?"
"Go away! I'm busy!" screeched a voice.
"Ruby, be polite. Somebody's here to see you. Remember the boy I told you about?"
A moment of silence, and then the bedroom door opened. Theseus was nearly knocked over by the foul smell that he somehow failed to notice emitting from the place before. It was not just the parents; it was Ruby as well. She was Gem's mirrored image, dressed in the jeans and pink tee shirt Theseus's had seen in the picture of his mind. Her hair was loose, unlike the pigtails Gem's mousy hair was pulled into. The room behind her was pitch-black, but for a sliver of sunlight drawn on the white carpet within; Ruby had drawn the curtains, or perhaps the shutters. Theseus didn't know exactly where the smell was coming from, except that it must originate in there.
She studied Theseus's with appraising eyes, as if he was furniture she was considering was worth his labeled price. "You must be Theseus," she said after a moment.
Crouching to be eye-level with her, Theseus glowered. His fake accent evaporated. "You know my name," he spoke to her very softly. His expression was menacing and once Ruby comprehended it she stepped back, glancing suspiciously at her twin sister. If Theseus noticed he pretended not to. "But do you know what I am?" he snarled. "What I'm capable of?"
Confidence fading, Ruby shook her head. Her feet hesitated on the carpet as if contemplating backing away and slamming the door.
Like lightning, Theseus's arm shot out and he caught the collar of her pink tee shirt. He brought the girl's face very close to his own. Their eyes met and Ruby's were afraid. "I don't like threatening you," he said in that softly menacing way. "I don't want to hurt you. But you're controlling those insects in the city that are hurting people, adults and children alike. And that's enough to make me hurt you very badly if you don't cut it out this instant."
Without warning, Ruby let out a scream that seemed to shake the neighborhood. An instant later something attacked Theseus from all sides: bugs. Termites, moths, flies, mosquitoes, wasps and yellow-jackets, even bumblebees and butterflies. Those that could sting Theseus did so, and those that could only bite did so, while the butterflies and bumblebees could do no more than get tangled in his dreadlocks. Theseus ignored them. At the same time, he noticed Gem standing against the wall beside the bedroom and watching with a twist to her pink lips. The insects left her alone entirely. He returned his attention to the struggling child in his grasp. The insects didn't touch Ruby either. For the first time, he wondered if he had the right girl. Was Gem actually the one manipulating the bugs? Was she manipulating Theseus as well? Manipulating, perhaps, even her own twin sister? This could be a very thought-out framing. Perhaps one of them could see the future and had warned the controller—
Theseus shoved his doubts away, stood, still holding a screaming Ruby, and made a grab for Gem. Her expression ever so cheeky, she dodged his hand easily. She began dancing around him as he made grab after grab.
As a last resort, Theseus grabbed her by the hair and dragged her back. It killed him to do it. They're only children, he thought miserably. Yet his expression stayed cold as stone. Only then did Gem's screams join her sister's, as though she really hadn't planned on Theseus managing to get a good hold.
Jan and Mark came running. Closing his eyes, Theseus pictured the city with its shrieking and buzzing inhabitants. He imagined Osiris and Isis. Then he pinpointed the location and cloaked himself, the two girls, in his own personal wind.
Jan and Mark ran into the empty, eerily silent hall, and stopped dead. They exchanged looks, their eyes coming alive for the moment to express their surprise.
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A/N: I really don't know what's wrong with me. My chapters are usually longer. I seem to be working through a writer's block though, had to force myself to write this chapter. It probably shows. Anyway, how am I doing? When will the Xavier institute appear, you ask? (evaporates while callously laughing). (PS--to TheFuzzyOne1989: Thanks so much for reviewing and taking the time to PM too. I really appreciate it. And that site helped a lot, thank you!)
Disclaimer: I own all Original Characters and this plot. My words are my own. Marvel Comics owns the rest.